Another one
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The underlying problem in KOSOVO is simply that a lot of Albanians don't
want to have to live in Albania. In 1991, a few years after the death of
Enver Hoxha, the dedicated Stalinist dictator who broke with Moscow in 1960
when the USSR began its de-Stalinization program and had its financial
support by China, it's primary Marxist financial benefactor, cut in 1974
after it criticized the policies of China's new rulers following the death
of Mao Tse-tung. After Hoxha's death in 1985, unrest in Albania grew. In a
brief window of opportunity, 40,000 Albanians fled to Italy in 1991.
The American people need to understand that only Albanians are allowed to
live in Albania. Unlike all other countries on the Balkan peninsula, Albania
is composed of Albanians. The 1993 World Almanac showed an 8% Greek and a
90% Albanian population. A program of ethnic cleansing of Greeks succeeded
in riding Albania of 166,000 Greeks. The 1997 World Book showed only 3%
Greek population with a 95% Albanian population in Albania.
One of my friends, Panicos Kountouris, said yesterday in an e-mail to me: "I
am an often reader of your articles, and I want to thank you and express my
support for offering an alternative opinion. Unfortunately the main stream
media they offer propaganda news and nothing else.
"I was born on the island of Cyprus and I perfectly understand the Balkans
problem. Unfortunately most people that support Bill's policies until a
couple of weeks ago could not find Kosovo on the map....and know nothing
about the "Greater Albania" idea who is responsible of the ethnic cleansing
of the Greeks in Albania. Keep up the good work!!!"
Mind you, all this ethnic cleansing of Albania took place during the Clinton
Administration. How come it's OK for the Albanians to oust 166,000 Greeks
but the notion that the 1.2 MILLION Albanians who have taken up residence in
Kosovo in the last 40 years have the right to use the U.S. Air Force to
enforce their determination to take over part of another nation? If they do
succeed, thanks to US missiles and Christiane Amanpour's one-sided reports
over CNN, how long do you suppose the 10% Serbs of Kosovo will last in the
new "Greater Albania?"
As I write, Amanpour, in Albania, gave a live report in which she used the
phrase "they are being driven from their homes" at least seven times in less
than 2 minutes. "Their homes" are in Yugoslavia. Because they have risen up
in rebellion, killing numerous members of the police and farmers in Kosovo,
their host in Belgrade, took action.
Thanks to the 7 days of bombing, now the host is sending a whole lot of
Albanians back to their country, just like the Albanians sent the Greeks
back to THEIR homeland. Where was all this international concern when the
refugees were Greek? We are not talking about the year 1389.
President Clinton just said condescendingly about the American people, "Most
of them couldn't find Kosovo on a map." Well, thanks to the incredibly
biased and inept reporting of America's network TV, most of them also didn't
realize that hundreds of thousands of Albanians fled Albania when the
communists were routed in elections of March 1992 and Sali Berisha was
elected as the first non-communist president in 50 years. Over 300,000
illegal aliens ended up in Greece and an uncounted number of them are in
Kosovo. All the indicators are that many of the people being driven out are
the people who left Albania and took up residence in Kosovo in the last 4-5
years. CNN reports that the "refugees leaving their homes" are finding
refuge with "relatives and friends in Albania." We cannot reasonably expect
Christiane Amanpour to actually ASK any of the Albanian refugees how long
they have lived in "their homes."
Only two days ago that "CNN gave several figures for the number of Albanians
involved in the exodus from Kosovo. In one day I heard every figure from a
"trickle" of refugees coming across the borders to James Rubin's "60,000 in
four hours arriving in Albania." The UNHCR said more than 12,000 refugees
had "reached Montenegro from Pec in the past 48 hours." One commentator
claimed that 500,000 had "lost their homes" and were refugees.
"Slobadan Milosevic had been quiet on the Yugoslav military's insistence on
taking out the whole KLA network for months and was losing their confidence,
" according to on Serb source. "In the context of looming airstrikes and
needing to fufill three objectives: support of the people, support of the
military, and insurance against the KLA, Milosevic gave the Yugoslav Army
free reign to make good on their claim that they could take out the KLA in
4-5 days."
It appears that the Yugoslav Army was not too far off in its estimate of
taking out the KLA in 4-5 days. Today's news reports indicate the KLA is
largely "taken out" of the conflict. The suggestion by some in congress to
"arm" the KLA with even more sophisticated weapons is too little and too
late at this point and, if tried, will give the Russians all the reason they
want to arm the Serbs - possibly with tactical nuclear weapons.
I said two days ago: "It should be obvious to everyone by now that the
Clinton spin machine is trying to convince the American people, and
hopefully the world, that he is a great humanitarian world leader who
ordered the bombing of the Serbs to save the down-trodden Albanians from
disaster."
Now, even on CNN, we are watching TWO humanitarian disasters: One involves
the Albanians who are being forced to return to Albania and are moving in
with their families and friends. The other involves pictures from
Yugoslavian TV showing women and children huddled in bomb shelters as
American airplanes drop bombs on their water supply system, bridges and
places of employment. Those pictures are interspersed with pictures of 3
tired, somber captured American soldiers and a smiling Milosevic at a photo
op with a smiling Ibrahim Rugova, the elected president of the Kosovo
Albanians. In early March, less than a month ago, Hashim Thaqi, the 29 year
old a senior commander of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, elbowed his way
to the top of the squabbling Kosovo Albanian dissidents to head a
"provisional government, " eclipsing the role played by Ibrahim Rugova, who
was elected in 1992. Thaqi was brought to Washington by an admiring Madeline
Albright after signing the "peace" document that he said he wouldn't sign.
Which pictures will grab the attention and the hearts of ordinary Americans?
Those in CNN's Talk Back Live audience Thursday seem to have been prompted
to ask some hard questions of Pentagon and Administration spokesmen, like:
"Why were we not concerned when 300,000 Serbs were driven out of Croatia a
couple of years ago? And, when did the Administration begin to consider the
KLA a "Liberators" rather than "terrorists?"
And, what, do you suppose, Rugova and Milosevic were smiling about in
Belgrade? Time will tell - and at the rate this story is moving - it may not
take very long.
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