Derek, great note. You obviously put some time into it and your note was well worth reading. It was a good evaluation.
Now that you have clutched your heart and are sitting down..... <g>
I only had a couple of problems with it, as follows:
You definition of "ethnic cleansing" was too clinical. When one race decides to "ethnically cleanse" another race, there is NO WAY that it is going to be kind and gentle. You will never have "ethnic cleansing" without large numbers of casualties and deaths. It just won't happen.
Try getting families to leave their homes peacefully. It won't work. It must be done thru violence, fear and intimidation. But, I agree that the basic definition implies fewer deaths than Genocide, where one race wants to kill all of another race.
Do you think that "ethnic cleansing" could lead to genocide if no one was there to stop the "ethnic cleansing"?
<< When certain radical elements amonst the Albanian Kosovars resisted (KLA) the magnitude of this brutality and arrests and expulsions increased. >>
Why radical? After many years of Serb brutality do you think it impossible that regular fathers and sons would join up to defend their families? Why do they have to be radicals? Were all American Revolutionaries radicals?
<< Some killings have occurred, no doubt and obviously. >>
This is what I dislike, the trivializing of the barbarity of the Serbs. There was a slaughter in Kosovo by the Serbs.
<< However, the KLA takes a burden of the blame as well, for inflaming the affair. >>
What would you have done? Unemployment was around 85%. Albanians schools had been closed. Albanians were being jailed and brutalized without cause.
For years the Albanians sought to find a peaceful solution with the Serbs. The door was always slammed in their faces!
What would you have done if you were an Albanian who's rights had been taken away, who's schools had been taken away, who's jobs had been taken away, who's ............ |
