Why is this murder of Serbs a revenge killing for Serb atrocities, but the Serb atrocities against Albanians were not revenge killings for the bombing and the KLA? Why was the rise of the KLA a response to Serbian persecution, but Serbian persecution was not a response to Albanian oppression under autonomy?
For a critic of "ethnic hatreds" you sure know how to take sides.
Seth
Nathan Newman wrote:
> Now, in a depopulated zone where most returning refugees
> have had their home looted and burned (often with dead family members
> among
> the ashes) and no stable authority, we are supposed to be alarmed that a
> few
> dozen people have been killed in revenge murders.
>
> Not to say NATO should not be doing all it can to prevent such revenge
> killings, but this seems like more continuations of denigrating the deaths
> and oppression of Kosovar Albanians while hyping every outrage suffered by
> their oppressors.
>
> Write the same story about the assumption of power by any group after the
> withdrawal of its former authority - from the colonial rebels in the
> not-yet-US tarring and feathering Tories to Lenin assuming power from
> Kerensy's government to Mandela taking power from Apartheid rulers - and
> you
> get the same pattern of opportunistic murders and assaults.
>
> And if the complaint is that the KLA is daring to act independently of
> NATO's wishes in assuming power, then three cheers for them not being pure
> NATO pawns. Their assumption of "taxing" powers may not be as smooth and
> gentle as the IRS operations, but the burden of expectations on them seems
> quite ridiculous coming from quarters that thought their cultural
> liquidation was none of our business.
>
> That said, the KFOR and UN presence will hopefully assure open elections
> that will prevent any particular set of groups assuming permanent
> dictatorial powers.
>
> But that would seem to be a concern only of those of us who cared when
> they
> were under the previous Serbian dictatorship over their affairs.
>
> --Nathan Newman
>
>