predictions on Greater Albania/Kosovo

Chavd chavd at mail.orbitel.bg
Mon Mar 26 12:39:39 PST 2001


The RFE/RL "Balkan Report" quote is an example of primitive American external propaganda, payed for by the US Congress. All sorts of Albanian leaders, especially Kosovars, have been declaring the Greater Albania project 1000's of times. Now a "research unit" has suddenly discovered there is no such thing! Maybe a Greater Kosovo idea is their new whim now, as a Daily Telegraph story indicates (see below). It doesn't matter. They have been taught that killing is a good enough method of deciding constitutional questions. We know who the teacher is. Just look at the unblushing mention of money rasing in Germany and N. America, NATO members, and in the meantime they are standing "resolutely opposed to redrawing of borders in the Balkans". Imagine the US reaction if Osama bin Laden was publicly raising money in some foregn counrty for a terrorist attack against the US, while verbally condemning terrorism! Would not this be considered an aggressive act? Wake up! You are simply aiding terrorists. Ordinary people are dying because of your antics.

Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 13:17:07 -0500 From: Seth Ackerman <SAckerman at FAIR.org> Subject: predictions


>From RFE/RL "Balkan Report," December 22 2000:

"...one should not pay too much attention to Belgrade's red herring that independence for Kosova will lead to a breakup of Macedonia, the establishment of a greater Albania, and other horrors. The Albanians of Albania, Kosova, and Macedonia are fully aware of the profound cultural and political differences that divide them. Ibrahim Rugova recently told the Montenegrin daily "Pobjeda" specifically that he does not want all Albanians in one state. No major ethnic Albanian party in any Balkan country advocates a greater Albania as a serious political objective (in contrast to some greater Serbian parties). And one need not worry about the breakup of Macedonia so long as it truly becomes a state of all its people and based on rule of law."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003100565149417&rtmo=aC5duBuJ&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/3/25/wkos125.html

Rebels fight for creation of a Greater Kosovo state

By Askold Krushelnycky in Selce and Philip Sherwell in Tetovo

British troops join Macedonia patrols

ETHNIC Albanian rebels who have brought Macedonia to the brink of

another savage Balkan war aim to achieve independence for neighbouring

Kosovo, eventually carving off Albanian-populated areas of Macedonia to

form a de facto Greater Kosovo, The Telegraph has learned.

The guerrillas of the National Liberation Army, who are battling Macedonian

forces around the city of Tetovo, have publicly insisted that they are fighting to

secure equal rights for the country's Muslim Albanian minority. A Telegraph

investigation has discovered intricate links between powerful Albanian clans in

Macedonia and Kosovo.

The clans that launched the rebellion in Kosovo are now behind the

insurgency in Macedonia. Last week a guerrilla commander disclosed that

Emrush Xhemali, the former security chief of the Kosovo Liberation Army

leader Hashim Thaci, is masterminding the rebel campaign around Tetovo.

The Albanian ultra-nationalists will eventually offer peace in Macedonia as the

price for international recognition of an independent Kosovo, according to a

Western intelligence agency that has been tracing clan links between the

Balkans and central Europe.

Although the West is resolutely opposed to redrawing of borders in the

Balkans, Albanian radicals are hoping to force through independence for

Kosovo as the only alternative to another war. While the strategy has little

hope of success, it is fuelling the conflict.

..............

There seemed little hope of an immediate end to the crisis as NLA leaders

vowed to continue their rebellion, despite widespread condemnation of their

"terrorist" activities. The EU gave strong backing to Macedonia at the

Stockholm summit, while President Bush later assailed the Albanian

extremists.

Albanian emigres committed to Kosovan independence have been raising

money, recruits and guns for years for the rebels in Switzerland, Germany and

North America. The ultra-nationalists' Swiss-based leader, Fazli Veliu, has

close family ties to Ali Ahmeti, the political representative of the Macedonian

insurgents and a KLA founder.

The two men, both from the Macedonian village of Zajas, also have close

links with Mr Thaci and the powerful Jashari clan who spearheaded the

KLA's early operations before most were wiped out in a Serbian offensive in

spring 1998.

NLA commanders based in Tetovo's mountainous hinterland dismissed claims

by Western officials that their movement was a young one of only a few

hundred ill-prepared fighters. Instead, they described the insurgency as an

operation carefully planned over several years.

Most of the rebels are ethnic Albanians from northern and western

Macedonia whose commanders learned their battlefield tactics fighting for the

KLA two years ago. Official boundaries, however, mean little in a part of the

world dominated by clan loyalties and blood ties.

In the long run, the rebels hope to create a Greater Kosovo with the de facto

secession of the predominantly Albanian northern and western regions. Fellow

Albanian rebels in southern Serbia's Presevo Valley harbour similar dreams.

Talk of Greater Albania, by contrast, has dwindled among the Albanians of

Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. Many spent time in Albania proper for the

first time as refugees in 1999 and were shocked to discover how backward

and impoverished the "mother country" had been left by its xenophobic

communist rulers.



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