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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (10913)	6/1/1999 8:23:00 PM
From: nuke44	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17770

No flames here, just some interesting facts. While a percentage of the ethnic Albanians in Kosova did come directly from Albania in the last twenty years, there has not been a significant migration since the resettlement of Albanian refugees following WWII. Refugees that were readily accepted by Tito as part of his multi-ethnic Yugoslavia. In 1978, Kosovo was over twice as large in area as it is today. In the last twenty years, the Serbs have repeatedly "redefined" the borders of Kosovo to isolate the Albanians as an ethnic group while "consolidating" land that was formerly part of Kosovo into Serbia. The end result was a much smaller Kosovo with a 90% Albanian majority. The Serbs didn't "flee ethnic agression by Albanians" in Kosovo as Milosevic has claimed, they simply stayed where they were and changed what was Kosovo into Serbia and pushed the Kosovars out. Since the revocation of Kosovo autonomy in 1989 by Slobodan Milosevic there has been a steady push to drive the remaining ethnic Albanians out of what remained of Kosovo. The NATO attacks in April were in response to Milosevic's version of a "final solution" to the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo that had started almost immediately following Tito's death. The Serbs claims on Kosovo as "Serbian holy ground" are only a propaganda front for their real motives. Kosovo, as it stands today, holds almost three quarters of Yugoslavia's mineral wealth. Gold, silver, lead, tin, iron and more are the Milosevic's real "Holy grail". The Serbs claim Kosovo as holy ground based on their shortlived but historic victory over the Ottoman Turks in the 14th century. Ironically, that victory was won with the help of the Albanians. That would seem to give the Albanians an even stake in the historical arena. But, truth be known, the Albanians were the original inhabitants of what is now Kosovo and in fact most of Yugoslavia, until the Slavic hordes descended from Russian in the 7th century. If we are to award rights to Kosovo based on who was there first, it would probably have to be the Albanians, unless we wanted to go all the way back the the Cro-Magnons, and I really don't think they care one way or another. It boils down to a pogrom and a war of aggression based on ethnic origins, by Milosevic in order to ensure access to mineral resources. Having said that, legitimate economic concerns are no excuse for ethnic cleansing and genocide. Who knows? After this is all over, their might be some job openings for American mining consultants in Kosovo. You know, a little American know-how to rejuvinate an underutilized resource.