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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (9193)	3/21/2004 9:01:42 AM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

Chinu. I notice you are more and more bringing up religion as a topic on this thread and religion is becoming a world problem so you are IMO correct. At present it is islam that is the main problem but as other religions begin to take offence to the ongoing brutality of islam radicals they also will become more involved. You will recall that a democratic president came to the defense of muslim peoples in Kosovo...without UN approval....using NATO to defend muslims. Correct? Now it appears after ...how many years now?.... with American troops still there that Albainian muslims want more and have started rioting and murdering again. Why? It also appears from what I have heard the the Russian president wants to defend Serbians and IMO rightfully so. So was it a mistake for Clinton to go into Kosovo? I wonder what J Kerry will have to say on this topic. NATO bolsters troops to quell violence in Kosovo Associated Press ctv.ca PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro — NATO forces surrounded a key Kosovo town Saturday in efforts to separate Albanians and Serbs and prevent a resurgence of attacks that killed 28 people and wounded 600, the worst bloodshed in the province since the civil war in the Serbian province ended in 1999. Thousands of fresh NATO forces began taking up positions late Friday and throughout Saturday in the occupied province after every major city was hit by riots, arson and gunfights that started Wednesday. It took days for the extent of the violence to become clear, further demonstrating the breakdown of law and order. The situation appeared to have calmed by midday Saturday and no incidents were reported overnight, said Derek Chappell, a UN police spokesman. The commander of NATO forces in southern Europe, U.S. Admiral Gregory Johnson, declared the violence "essentially amounts to ethnic cleansing.'' He demanded an end to ``mob violence, thuggery and criminal activity." "I know in my heart of hearts that all Kosovars are better than this," he said. In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the violence, calling it ethnic cleansing and adding protection must be given to Kosovo's minority Serbs. Russia has strong cultural ties to the Serbian people, sharing the Orthodox religion and Slavic roots. "Russia can't watch indifferently what's happening there," Putin told top officials at a regular meeting shown on state-run TV on Saturday. "It's also acknowledged by our western colleagues as nothing but ethnic cleansing and there should be a suitable tough reaction in this situation to protect Serbs." Russia's legislature passed a resolution Friday condemning the failure of international organizations to stem the violence in Kosovo and said military forces from Serbia-Montenegro's government should be allowed to help defend the Serbs. Though riots abated, Albanians looted villages and apartments abandoned by Serbs on Saturday. Some 110 homes and at least 16 Serbian Orthodox churches were destroyed by arson. The continuing violence underscored the divisions that have polarized Kosovo's majority of mostly Muslim Albanians, who want independence from Serbia, and Orthodox Christian Serbs who consider the province their ancestral homeland. Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said a division of the province along ethnic lines is the only long-term solution for the region. Kosovo's prime minister, Bajram Rexhepi, rejected the proposal. Rexhepi and other Albanian leaders urged their people to end the protests but did not directly condemn attacks on Serbs. Unable to provide a secure environment, NATO gathered Serbs and sheltered them on bases across the province. The peacekeepers created makeshift camps for Serbian evacuees but the threatened minority insist the time had come to abandon hope of ever living together in Kosovo with the Albanians. Trying to get a grip on the situation, NATO bolstered its 18,500-member peacekeeping force with reinforcements from Austria, Britain, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy and the United States, urging restraint in Kosovo and elsewhere in the turbulent Balkans. Peacekeepers ringed the divided town Kosovska Mitrovica on Saturday and blocked a main north-south road that leads to the town. The violence started there Wednesday, when Albanians, blaming Serbs for the deaths of two children, began rampaging in revenge. The ensuing violence reignited long simmering tensions between Serbs and Albanians that have spilled beyond Kosovo's borders. The collapse of order triggered the worst violence since the Kosovo war that killed about 10,000 people, mostly Albanians. That conflict ended in 1999 after NATO air strikes halted Yugoslavia's crackdown on Albanian separatist rebels. The province is UN-administered but remains part of Serbia-Montenegro, the loose federation of the states remaining after the Balkan wars that broke apart Yugoslavia. Kosovo's final status is to be decided by the United Nations. Albanian separatists are frustrated international officials have failed to deliver independence.