Kosovo and Metochia – Kosovo and Metohija
Travel to Kosovo and Metohija is surely an outstanding experience…
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In early periods of settlement, assimilation of the native population and adoption of Christianity during the Fourth Crusaders’ invasion, processes of ethno genesis, civilizational transformation and organization of society and the state of the Serbian people were taking place in the Raska-and-Zeta and Kosovo and Metohija-Kosovo nuclei, i.e. in regions away from large valleys and main routes ruled by Byzantine Empire.
‘The Kosovo Serbs everywhere in the world had created the ethnic communities in forms of frontiers, provinces and states. This happened in numerous migrations during the history. In 2500 BC the part of the Phrygian and the Brygian people for whom we can believe they originated from the Danube area migrated into Thrace and later crossed the Dardanelles and settled in and around Troy and soon after spread over the west-southern Anatolia /in present Turkey/ where they established Lycia. The part of the population which remained in the Balkans had created Dardania. The most interesting fact is that the Serbs from the present Kosovo and Metohija continue to migrate into the other parts of Serbia and create graves of their ancestors that determine the areas of their origin, as is the case with the graveyard in Rajacke Pimnice – the Rajac Wineries‘. Source: Naša Metohija
Kosovo became a constituent part of Serbia at the end of the 12th century during the rule of its founder Stefan Nemanja. The First Serbian Archbishop Saint Sava had established Bishoprics in ancient Ulpiana and Prizren. Sheltered by the high and seemingly impassable mountainous enclosure of the Prokletije Mountains /Accursed Mountains, 2.656 m/, Shara Mountain /Sar-planina 2.651 m/ and Kopaonik Mountain-NP /2.017 meters/, the area of Kosovo and Metohija is at the time easy to approach via a number of natural corridors which have throughout history been open to the incoming influences of different civilizations. The Kosovo Basin is circled with slopes of the three Balkan mountain massifs – the Rhodope Mountains in the East, the Dinaric Mountains in the south-west and the Sharr-Pindus Mountains in the south-west. The mountainous area of Gora spreads on the surface of 400 sq km between the highest peaks of the Shar, and Korab and Koritnik mountains, at the elevation over 1500 meters that since the oldest times provided intense nomadic cattle breeding. The largest portion of the Gora area has some twenty villages in Serbia, with nine villages in Albania and two villages in North Macedonia. The Gora area is recorded as the Serb zhupa region in the Chrysobull of tsar Dusan. Large migrations of the Serb population from Kosovo and Metohija during the 17th and the 18th centuries did not significantly include the Gorani people who had always settled the remote mountainous areas that excluded them from pressures of invaders and peoples’ movements. Despite the centuries old attempts of the Gorani people to preserve their national identity and origins, this homogenous ethnic group that was created by islamization of the Serb-Slavic population, renowned for honesty, diligence, peacefullness and tolerance, had during time converted into religon of their neighbors in order to sustain, especially after the First Serbian Migration in 1690.
Srpski Pravoslavni pojci – Suza Kosova /Serbian Orthodox chanters – the Tear of Kosovo/
Kosovo and Metohija area is the crossroads of more than eight directions, some of which used to be major lines of communications in the middle ages between Europe and the Adriatic Sea, and Near and/or Middle and Far East. Complex Geo-historical conditions, pronounced Geo-morphological plasticity with numerous gorges and canyons, and high mountains, its specific position at the contact point of coastal and continental parts of the Balkans, and being the hydro graphic center of the Balkan peninsula – all these elements contribute to fascinating natural richness and the diversity of wildlife in Kosovo and Metohija, thus defining the region as one of the major centers of European biodiversity.
Studded with more churches and monasteries than any other Serbian land /the identified presence of 1500 monuments of the Serbia culture, Kosovo and Metohija became the spiritual nucleus of Serbs and was always treated as the birthplace of Serbia. For a time Serbia rivaled the Byzantine Empire in Europe, and at its greatest extent in the mid-14th century stretched from the Danube River to the Corinthian Gulf, and from Thrace to the Adriatic coast. Located at the crossroads of the main Balkan routes connecting the surrounding Serbian lands of Raska, Bosnia, Zeta and the Scutari littoral with the Macedonia and the Morava region, Kosovo and Metohija was, geographically speaking, the ideal place for a state and cultural center. Girdled by mountain gorges and comparatively safe from outside attacks, Kosovo and Metohija were not chosen by chance as the site for building religious centers, church mausoleums and palaces. Serbian rulers were in constant touch with big cities, especially Thessaloniki, and were able to invite the best artists and craftsmen. The rise of mural painting corresponded with the last decade of King Milutin’s rule /+1321/: almost all aristocratic houses and memorials were ornamented by either two famous painters from Thessaloniki, Michael Astrapa and Evtichios, or someone from their circle. The rich holdings of the Visoki Decani Monastery provided and economic underpinning for the wealth of spiritual activities in the area. The art heritage from the early 14th century found in the monuments to Stefan Decanski and Tzar Dusan formed a basis for local craftsmen to learn, and this can be seen in the example of the gorgeous large Church of Christ Pantocrator in Visoki Decani, where local craftsmen and artists produced the richest examples of Byzantine art. Educated monks and religious dignitaries assembled in large monastic communities /which were well provided for by the rich feudal holdings/, strongly influenced the spiritual shaping of the nation, especially in strengthening local cults and fostering the Orthodox doctrine.
The former name of this historically Christian territory was Hvosno or Hvostno, which means small forest – sitnogorica, and was the seat of the Doclea of Hvosno and the birth-place of Saint Peter of Korisha, the area between the Pec Bistrica River and the upper course of the Beli Drim River and south of Decanska Bistrica River, up to the Trnava and Erenik Rivers.
The Raska Diocese is first mentioned in the 2nd chrysobull /founding charter/ from 1020 issued by the Byzantine Emperor Basil II /976-1025/. It was at the time, part of the Ohrid Archdiocese and it encompassed the Serbian territory around the rivers of Raska, Ibar and Lim. The Prizren Diocese is mentioned in 1019, in the chrysobull /founding charter/ of the Byzantine Emperor Basil II. The Diocese included the town of Prizren with the surroundings, Hvosno /the part around Decani and Pec/ and the area around the rivers of Beli and Crni Drim. In 1219 it became part of the independent Serbian Archdiocese. The Hvosno region came under jurisdiction of the special Hvosno Diocese with the seat in the Monastery of Mala Studenica – Studenica of Hvosno, north-east of Pec. In 1219, under the Serbian Archbishop Sava, it became part of the autocephalous Archdiocese of Zica. With the establishment of the Patriarchate of Pec, 1346, it was raised to the status of the Metropolitanate. With the Serb Orthodox Church being elevated to the level of the Patriarchate, the Prizren Diocese acquired the status of a Metropolitanate. The old Hvosno and Lipljan Dioceses, i. e. that of Gracanica /Novo brdo/, were added to the Prizren Diocese after 1766. The Patriarchate of Pec was established at the end of the 13th century when the seat of the Serbian Church was moved from the Zica Monastery to the Pec Patriarchate. It was abolished in 1766 and joined with the Prizren and Skenderia Dioceses, and later with the Raska Diocese. Please see Edith Durham’s Around Kosovo
The Pec Diocese was re-established when in 1912 the Old Serbia was liberated from the Turks. In 1808 the Prizren Diocese joined with the Diocese of Raska, thus forming the Raska and Prizren Diocese which has been in existence as such ever since. Its seat is located in Prizren. The shrines from the Raska and Prizren Diocese have always been a prey to various invaders and enemies of the Serbian people. Desecration and destruction began with the Turks and continued with Albanians /Shqiptars/ to sharp the differences and historical enmities. A number of churches were converted into mosques. The old Christian sites served as the base for Muslim places of worship. Material from the original Serbian shrines was used for building mosques. At the beginning of the 17th century Sinan-pasha of Prizren built a huge mosque in this town using the material from the destroyed Monastery of the Holy Archangels, the foundation of Tsar Dusan. The League of Prizren in 1878 sought to create a Greater Albania autonomous from the Ottoman Empire throughout Albania, Kosovo, parts of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Greece. This was promoted at the Congress of Berlin, and the Second League of Prizren in 1943. Ethnic and religious differences, sharpened over centuries by real and perceived aggression, have repeatedly provided bases for radical political action and mortal conflict.
UNESCO Heritage sights – Medieval Monasteries in Kosovo and Metochia
Kosovo and Metohija is part of the heartland of Medieval Serbia, which for a time rivaled the Byzantine Empire in Europe, and at its greatest extent in the mid-14th century stretched from the Danube River to the Corinthian Gulf, and from Thrace to the Adriatic coast. Beginning with Stefan Nemanya, founder of the Nemanyic Dynasty, which ruled Serbia from the third quarter of the 12th century to the late 14th century, the Christian /Serbian Orthodox/ church grew in authority and prosperity along with the evolving Serbian state, as rulers and other nobles built scores of monasteries, royal courts and churches in that owns, valleys, and mountains of southern Serbia and Kosovo. The four Medieval edifices in Kosovo and Metohija reflect the high points of the Byzantine-Romanesque ecclesiastical culture, with its distinct style of wall painting, which developed in the Balkans between the 13th and 17th centuries and nowadays belong to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. The Dečani Monastery was built in the mid-14th century for the Serbian king Stefan Dečanski and is also his mausoleum. The Patriarchate of Peć Monastery is a group of four domed churches featuring series of wall paintings. The 13th-century frescoes of the Church of Holy Apostles of the Pec Patriarchate are painted in a unique, monumental style. Early 14th-century frescoes in the Holy Virgin of Ljevisa church in Prizren represent the appearance of the new so-called Palaiologian Renaissance style, combining the influences of the eastern Orthodox Byzantine and the Western Romanesque traditions. The style played a decisive role in subsequent Balkan art and culture. Gračanica Monastery frescoes present cultural tradition of the Palaiologian Renaissance of Byzantium in the Balkans showing the height of the development of the Balkan art from the first half of the 14th century. The Ottoman administration of Kosovo and Metohija was fully established by the middle of the 15th century. The Ottomans built only two fortifications in Kosovo and Metohija: the one in Kačanik and another one atop the ruins of the medieval Banjska Monastery. Both forts were built to provide support to the local road guards (derbencis) in their struggle against ‘Albanian highwaymen’. In addition to the Kačanik Gorge and Mount Rogozna, armed derbenci units recruited among the local population patrolled the Rugova Gorge and the areas of Novo Brdo, Priština, Prizren etc.
There are 25 monasteries within the Diocese of Ras-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija of the Serbian Orthodox Church, among them 17 living Monasteries, 3 in reconstruction /revitalization/ and 5 devastated, but the explosion of spirituality and monastic behavior in those regions in the last thirty years enhanced the spiritual enlightenment of the Serbian people, supporting their strength and faith to overcome the temptations and unbearable suffering, featuring invincible spiritual power of devotion to truth and justice.
Grey Carter: Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija have no cultural and historical monuments of their own since the local historical monuments have been erected either by Serbia or Turkey (Ottoman Empire). They have neither capacity nor will to protect the Serbian heritage. Albanians, in fact, have never erected a single fountain in Kosovo and Metohija. That’s why they could, in cold blood, burn down, destroy and blow up over 200 Serbian Orthodox Christian monasteries, churches and holy relics in their barbarian orgies from June 1999 until present. All the monuments of Islamic culture in so-called Kosovo have been raised by the Turkish dignitaries. Some of them might have been Albanians, but in fact, Ottoman Turkey has raised all non-Serbian monuments.
Saint George Order – Dragon of Saint George Order – Societas Draconistrarum
Serbian Medieval culture was very advanced. Many traditions of the Western world are based on the Serbian and Slavic in general cultural achievements. One of those achievements, based on Slavic heritage is Sacred Order of the Dragon of Saint George- mighty protector of Christianity, Slavs and whole White race. Milos Obilic, a Serbian knight, had created the secret order of the Dragon of Saint George. His shield represented the sun with twelve rays. There were 12 knights, Milos Obilic included, belonging to this secret order. As a distinctive sign, they wore a dragon on their helmet. The aim of the Saint George order was the death of the Ottoman sultan Murad I. This Earth have not seen Sacred Order which was glorious as this one. There was not a Sacred Order with members so famous and controversial as members of this Order, as all were willing to die for honor and given word. Many of them die. Our Lord Jesus Christ and Saint Vitus were witnesses. Saint George Order effectively existed about 300 years, and was revived later. Born as Serbian, Saint George Order evolved into the Slavic Order after appeal for brotherly support which was sent from the Serbian nobility because of Ottomans. Soon after, the Saint George Order becomes European. Order was always open for Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants. It seams that divisions inside of Christian world did not affect this Order.
“Hardly is there a nation which has met with a sadder fate than the Serbians. From the height of its splendor, when the Empire embraced almost the entire northern part of the Balkan peninsula, and a large portion of what is now Austria, the Serbian nation was plunged into abject slavery, after the fateful battle of 1389 at the Kosovo Polje, against the overwhelming Asian hordes. Europe can never repay the great debt it owes to the Serbians for checking, by the sacrifice of their liberty, that barbarous influx.” NIKOLA TESLA
……To Serbs, Kosovo is an integral part of Serbia, legitimized by the London Treaty of 1915 and also by UN Security Council Resolution 1244 of 1999-2001. Kosovo is also the historical, religious and emotional heartland of Serbia. The change from a Serb to an Albanian majority does not change its historical, legal and political status. Serbia’s claim to Kosovo is no different from Russia’s claim to Chechnya, China’s to Xinjiang, India’s to Kashmir, Thailand’s to Panni Marathiwad and Philippines to Mindanao – all Muslim majority provinces in non-Muslim majority states where violence for independence has taken place for decades. The Serb majority of the Krajina region in Croatia broke away and declared independence. They were not recognized. The Krajina Serbs have all been driven out of Croatia in the largest ethnic cleansing of the Yugoslav wars. Republika Srpska has been denied independence from Bosnia. As long as the independence of these provinces are denied, Kosovo has no special right to independence either. Serbia must not be treated differently. /Professor George Thomas/.
In the 13th, 14th and the 15th century the Serbs had a many developed medieval society with results in cultural and economic field equal to the achievements of the developed European environs countries. Serbian aristocrats possessed numerous medieval palaces, castles and fortresses, most of which were built on the territory of today’s Raska, Kosovo, and Metohija (Svrcin, Pauni, Nerodimlja, Stimlje, Petric, Novo Brdo, Zvecan, Ribnik). Serbian Medieval aristocracy had close family relations with many European imperial and royal dynasties, as Byzantine, Bulgarian, French, Italian, German, Russian, Hungarian, Turkish and others. Only in Kosovo and Metohija as a center of Serbian medieval state and society there are over 1.500 Serbian monasteries, churches and other cultural monuments. At that time the Serbs have a developed literature, and their economy is also prosperous /Novo Brdo was the main mining center of the Balkans in the 15th century/. Painting was particularly fostered in monasteries, from the 12th to the 14th century. It is in the monasteries of Studenica, Zica, Sopocani, Mileseva, Gracanica, Decani, Pec Patriarchate, and many others that we have outstanding examples of wall paintings called frescoes. Most of the above mentioned Kosovo and Metohija monasteries are under UNESCO’s protection as a part of the world cultural heritage.
The Trepča Company and other natural sites in Kosovo and Metohija possess extraordinary natural wealth : huge quantities of Chrome (20% of total deposits of Chrome in the world), Nickel, Zinc, Magnesium, Vopper, Mercury, Silver, Gold, Bismuth and other rare metals. It is estimated that the deposits of coal, natural gas and metals are worth in total 500 billion USD. The Trepča Company is ethnically divided into the Trepča sever – Trepca North and the Trepča jug – Trepca South. The Trepca North consists of mines and flotation of Leposavić, mines of Crnac and Belo brdo, Koporiš open-pit mining, Lead Metallurgy of Zvečan (Lead furnace and Lead Rafinery, procession of aku waste, transport of goods…..). At the Trepca jug – „Trepča South“ with Albanian management and workers, there are mines of Stari trg, Ajvalija, Kišnica, Novo brdo, flotation of Prvi tunel and Kišnica, and the Zinc Metallurgy and the Chemist Industry and the Battery Factory in Kosovska Mitrovica.
Carl Kosta Savich: “The historical and political precedents for the creation of a greater Sqiperia or Greater Albania was set during World War II when the Kosovo and Metohija regions along with territory Southwest of lake Skutari from Montenegro and the western region of Southern Serbia, or Juzhna Srbija (now part of Macedonija), were annexed to Albania by the Axis powers led by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, under a plan devised by Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler to dismember and to destroy the Serbian Nation and people, which the Germans and Italians perceived as the main threat to the axis powers and to the Third Reich in the Balkan”.
Although legally part of Serbia, Kosovo and Metohija Province inhabited by an ethnic-Albanian majority, especially after the Second World Ware and NAZI German plans for the Great Albania. Kosovo and Metohija has been run by the UN since 1999 upon the Rambouillet talks. Kosovo and Metohija is de jure part of Serbia – de facto under UN control and administration. That policy was implemented lacking UN Security Council authorisation after the 78 days illegal, vicious, criminal, questionable and controversial NATO campaign called Operation Allied Force – Operation Noble Anvil against the sovereign country of Yugoslavia, lurking behind claims of ‘humanitarian intervention’ and serving the interests of power. During 78 days of NATO attacks on Yugoslavia numerous military objects, but also civilian targets: schools, hospitals, media houses, culture monuments, churches and monasteries experienced heavy damage or were destroyed to the ground, not to mention the physical and psychological wounds. NATO countries that took part in bombarding of Serbia: USA, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Canada, Turkey, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Portugal. The permission to use their air space was given by: Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Albania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania. “NATO destroyed an independent country on the basis of false attrocity propaganda and fraud, in which all the West’s journalists, rights groups, and politicians were intimately complicit, simply can not be countenanced”. Kit Klarenberg.com
Estimated casualties were between 1200 and 2500 deaths and around 6000 wounded people, and damage was around 30-100 billion US dollars. NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia was crime against humanity and illegal act of aggression against military and civilian targets by depleted uranium and cluster bombs dropped by NATO air forces in entire Serbia and especially in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija that left Serbia with $30bln dollars damage, in order to “stop the humanitarian catastrophe”, while land operations were conducted by the Kosovo Liberation Army /civilian-targeting CIA and MI6-backed jihadist militia/, de facto allies of the international forces.
Eventually NATO bombs drove out from Kosovo Serb forces “accused of atrocities during the two-year war” as well as people of all nationalities-ethnic origins including ethnic Albanians, Serbs and other ethnic groups, regardless their ethnicity. NATO violated international law in the Kosovo crisis by bombing targets where it knew civilians would be killed, when used about 25000 of the world’s most devastating non-nuclear bombs and missiles, by committing indeed a mass exodus of Kosovo Albanians during the bombing…. It is widely known that depleted uranium is serious health threat as whipped up by sandstorms and carried by winds it can cause cancer, leukemia, brain damage, kidney failure and extreme birth defects for 4,500.000 years. The Kosovo war was the last European war of the 20th century, and NATO’s first war during which American pilots were sliding nervously into their planes at an Italian airfield to fly the first bombing missions dropping high-tech guided missiles…. The NATO air war ravaged Yugoslavia’s lifelines and devastated its entire infrastructure and ecology – its roads, bridges, railways, factories, airports, TV towers, fuel depots and power plants – shutting down the economy. NATO was guilty of the serious crime of violating the UN Charter requirement that it not use force without UN Security Council sanction, NATO personnel immune from arrest or prosecution if they committed any crime…. It was also guilty of criminal aggression in attacking a sovereign state that was not going beyond its borders. NATO attack on Yugoslavia was a time of heartache, loss for the Serbs all over the world, we pray for all those lives of innocent people lost and never forget. As someone cleverly stated – in 1999 western civilization had gone beyond shame.
“Channeling his inner John McCain, Biden continually called for the US to bomb, bomb, bomb the Serbs, while /in a foreshadowing of the Obama-Biden administration’s support for Jihad terrorists in Libya and Syria, which ultimately resulted in the appearance of ISIS/ pushed successfully for sending weapons to the Islamic regime in Bosnia and then the US to arm the Islamo-narco-terrorist group known as the ‘Kosovo Liberation Army’ /KLA/. ‘Berofe the Bidens “Did” Ukraine, there was Iraq and Serbia’ Ronpaulinstitute.org
❝ The ICTY Tribunal in Hague serves 3 purposes as a propaganda tool firstly, to demonize and discredit the Yugoslav government and its leaders, secondly to justify the Nato aggression against Yugoslavia and thirdly to cover up the war crimes committed by Nato leaders and military officers. Russia must use the residual mechanism to replace the Nato supported prosecutor, appoint a truly independent prosecutor, review all the cases “tried” under Nato agents Arbour, Del Ponte and Brammertz, and lay charges against Nato for the war crimes it committed in the wars to break up Yugoslavia. The ICTY and ICTR are fascist tribunals because they serve western corporate-military interests and they operate outside all civilized norms of law. No one can get a fair trial at these kangaroo courts. Defense lawyers can only try to use them to show the truth of the wars and disrupt the attempt by Nato to stage these show trials. Russia and China must use their influence to stop the abuses that take place on a daily basis at these tribunals and try to establish a real international justice serving the interests of the people of all the world not just the USA and its puppets. ❞ Christopher Black, International Criminal Lawyer
NATO killed 1000 Serbian soldiers and policemen, and 2500 civil and 89 kids have been brutally and lethally punished, and after its aggression there were more than 10000 people wounded, and left unprecedented level of material destruction. More than 250000 Serbs and 100000 non-Serbs were expelled from the Holy Serbian Land of Kosovo and Metohija. International law is broken because Victor’s Justice prevails.
USA and NATO should pay war reparations to Serbia for creating a fraud to justify the war on Serbia as USA specifically targeted infrastructure and civilians of Serbia.
More than 300.000 Serbs and non-Albanians were driven out and forcibly left Kosovo and Metohija and 5000 are executed or declared missing. Since NATO seized the Serbian province of Kosovo in June 1999, completely opening the border to Albania, the gangster-terrorists of the KLA have been installed as government leaders with the official approval of NATO and the UN in Kosovo. This ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Serbs has taken place over the past years after 1999, along with revealed organ trafficking claims, despite the presence of some 27.000 NATO troops and 4.400 international police. KLA guerrilla terrorists have forced around 300,000 people to leave Kosovo – Serbs, ‘Gypsies’, Slavic Muslims, ethnic Turks, Croatians, Jews and ethnic Albanians loyal to Yugoslavia. Those Serbs who have remained live in enclaves under nightmare conditions coping with extreme circumstances. The KLA /”Kosovo Liberation Army” romantic euphemism for guerrilla groups/ has systematically attacked Serbian Orthodox churches, monasteries and graveyards. More than 110 Serbian Orthodox churches have been badly vandalized, looted and seriously damaged by explosives or reduced to rubble. These religious structures were not only treasures of Christianity, masterpieces of an ancient Church; they were also works of art. They belong to the world.
Those Serbs who remained in their homes in Kosovo and Metohija, literally fight for their bare lives, live in exceptional difficult and dramatic, unbearable conditions, isolated in ghettos, under constant deterioration of human rights, freedom of religion and belief. Although directly administrated by the UN, the Serbs experience intentional directed attacks against a civilian population, extermination, persecution of persons belonging to minorities, without basic human rights: life security, constant intimidation, lacking possibility to move from ghettos, right to work, electricity and pharmacy supplies….. We fully stand against genocide, ethnic cleansing, threat to life and deprivation of basic human rights to which the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija are exposed every day. Today, only 100,000 Serbs remain in Kosovo and Metohija, living among 1.5 million Albanians. Cases of human rights violations such as enforced disappearances, torture and killings in Kosovo and Metohija must be thoroughly investigated. CRUCIFIED KOSOVO
According to Eulex, 2,244 bodies have been identified in Kosovo since 2001. Of these 301 were “non-Albanian”, meaning Serb, Roma and others. Some 228 were the bodies of Serbs who went missing after 10 June 1999 – the end of the war, at a time of revenge killings by Kosovan Albanians. In total, around 13,500 are now believed to have been killed during the Kosovo conflict, or immediately after it. See the report of Dick Marty who claims that he had direct causal evidence between the Medicus clinic and the allegations of the human organ trafficking during the Kosovo conflict, which world would be very interested to learn and dismantle policy of double standards that is at the root of the “politics of genocide” and reveal the largely hypocritical nature of today’s establishment discourse on global justice.
President Clinton and other NATO leaders were not investigated by the United Nations on charges that they have committed genocide and other war crimes during the 1999 bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. Kosovo PM accused of human right abuses.
The Albanian majority forced out most of the Christians – hardly anyone in the world cared – and self-declared independence from Serbia. Encouraged by a promise by former President Bush that US recognition would be forthcoming, supported by the United States and most EU member countries, Kosovo made an unilateral self-proclaimed declaration of independence in February 2008, on the basis of the Ahtisaari plan – something that Serbia considers a violation of its territorial integrity and Constitution. Kosovo’s status is governed by UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which remains the last internationally consensual agreement on Kosovo and envisages only self-government for Kosovo, and acknowledges the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.” Kosovo’s status can’t be changed without a new resolution and borders can be redrawn only with the consent of the involved states.
James Bissett – Legal and Political Consequences of Kosovo Independence
By Boba Borojevic http://www.serbianna.com/
After a 78-day bombing campaign, which started on March 24 1999, the UN and NATO had negotiated a ceasefire agreement with the Serbian government. Under the terms of UN Resolution 1244, the Albanian guerrillas – known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) – were to be disarmed and demobilized by UN troops, who would also ensure the safety of Kosovo’s 200,000 ethnic Serb civilians. Resolution 1244 also made it very clear that under the UN Charter, Kosovo would remain the sovereign territory of Serbia. For the last years the US administration has used its influence to sever the province of Kosovo from Serbia and to establish its protectorate of Kosovo ruled by the same Kosovo Albanian thugs named as terrorists by the US State Department in 1988. Although under heavy pressure from the US, some countries, including Canada and most members of the European Union and NATO, have recognized Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence proclaimed in February 2008. Over two-thirds of the UN member states have not done so, however, including Russia, China, India, Brazil, Spain, Israel, South Africa. Kosovo is currently recognized by 97 of 193 UN member states, 50%, but with 6 countries withdrawing recognition of Kosovo since the start of 2019, the next withdrawal puts Kosovo into MINORITY recognition.
It is well known fact that even with the “legality” of the declaration of independence and its support from major powers, The European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo /EULEX/ and the NATO-led Kosovo Force /KFOR/, have been actively aiding and abetting the Albanian authorities’ bid for full control over the Province. EULEX “rule of law” existence is not provided for by the UNSC Resolution 1244. The only reason it exists is that the EU wanted to invent a role for itself, to marginalize the UN. One of the problems in the Kosovo province is getting Serbs who fled as Yugoslav security forces withdrew in 1999 to return to their homes. The international authorities in Kosovo brought Albanian customs officers to the border crossings and thus separated the majority-Serb northern Kosovo from the rest of Serbia. Kosovo lacks full international recognition and remains with continued international supervision. However, it looks that only Kosovo’s citizens can improve their own future…. and it would be wise for the USA and Europe and in their own national interest to reconsider their current policy and find for Kosovo another solution instead of independence.
In riots known as the March pogrom in 2004 there were at least 19 people killed and wounded some 1000 people. 4000 Serbs were expelled from their hearths and 800 Serb houses destroyed and 35 Orthodox churches and monasteries set aflame, of which 18 monuments are of special cultural importance. The March pogrom in Kosovo was terrifying violence against the civilian population that led to the massive exodus of the Serbs, the largest since 1999. The fact that six towns and ten villages were completely ethnically cleansed after those horrible crimes best testifies on dimensions of irrational and forcible expulsion and killing, but also on intentions of the Albanian extremists.
Almost on the daily basis we keep hearing records and statements which increase concern and uncertainty among our people and do not contribute to the stability and peaceful future of Kosovo and Metohija. It is exactly because of such statements that more and more Serbs in fear decide to sell their property instead of being encouraged to stay in their homes. Although it is difficult today, with faith in God and his help we must preserve that which our ancestors left us as inheritance.
Open letter to help to put pressure on institutions and individuals who could contribute to stopping grave violence and ethnic cleansing of Serbs and other non-Albanians from Kosovo and Metohija – STOP IMPRISONMENTS AND ETHNICAL CLEANSING OF SERBS AND OTHER NON-ALBANIANS FROM KOSOVO AND METOHIJA!
‘We, the undersigned, plead for your immediate action to put pressure on KFOR, Kosovo and Serbian authorities, as well as other international actors, to ASAP stop violence against innocent Serb and other non-Albanian civilians, thus continuing forced ethnic cleansing of Serbian population from their ancient homes and properties, ever since communism rule after 1945, and again under international rule (UN Resolution 1244) since 1999 to 2024. Last 25 years NOTHING has been done to create conditions for safe return of 300.000 refugees who fled in 1999. On the contrary – today last stand of Serbs in the Northern Mitrovica and surrounding places have now been taken by rude force.
Kurti’s Apartheid rule target Serbs and their final exodus is on the way. Soldiers from Albania within KFOR are engaged in Northern Mitrovica to show even more hostility and force against non-Albanian population. Not all Albanian population living on Kosovo approve this tragedy because many of them know the truth about everything but cannot speak freely.
Attacks on Serbs and Serbian property is now getting scary often and level of respect for UN Resolution 1244 or other official agreements are null on the ground. Torture and arrests of innocent people are performed on daily bases and all human rights are being denied including freedom of movement and civic actions. This is leading to new Balkan war that can burst at any moment. Please help us stop Albanian violence and bring home 300.000 refugees still waiting to go home. Thank you. Sincerely,’
The barbaric and terrorist killing of the Kosovo Serb politician Oliver Ivanović, 17 January 2018 must be condemned at the highest levels and demonstrates that Kosovo is not ready for statehood. It also demonstrates that, despite over 10 years of trying, the chances for any true reconciliation between Kosovo’s Albanian and non-Albanian populations are next to nil as deep mistrust and enmity pervades the region. Dr Michael Pravica
Kosovo and Metohija is heart of Serbia. This has nothing to do with geopolitics, international law, Trump, Biden, … but is has everything with eternal God’s Justice.
Predicament of Serbian Orthodox Holy places in Kosovo and Metohija
