Kosovo in the media

This time nine years ago we were firing cruise missiles into their capital, Belgrade, hundreds of miles from the so-called war theatre in Kosovo.
Nato bombed Serbia for 11 weeks to smash the nation into submission. Some 2,500 Serbs died and Û100billion worth of damage was caused. Blair regards this is as a success story.
But the war was based on a complete con-trick, devised by the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army and swallowed by the Yanks. Kosovo is now about to have "independence" at the point of Nato guns, enabling the Kosovar Albanians to carry on their vile businesses of drug-running and people-smuggling.
Their latest wheeze is to give the Americans a base for Star Wars missiles, right on Russia's doorstep.

The above quote, taken from an article by a Paul Routledge, was published in the Daily Mirror of all papers. Too little too late. During the war, the gutter papers such as the Mirror and the Sun were shameless cheerleaders for the war. I remember reading the Sun on the way to school on one particular morning in 1999 (and no I didn't pay good money, someone had left it on the train). There was some ludicrous story about how primary school children in Belgrade had 'sniper studies' as one of their obligatory subjects! I might also add that its naive to believe that the rag tag KLA duped a super power. The US was arming and training the KLA well before the bombing, while it was pretending to be a mediator striving to resolve the conflict. Evidence of this can be found in the second half of another blog entry of mine.
As opposed to the media furore over make believe events, there is a silence on the real events that occur daily in Kosovo. For example, a few days ago a Serbian girl was raped in Vucitrn, Kosovo. Now its not clear yet who the perpetrator was. It is within the realms of possibility that it was a Serb. However given the deafening media silence I'm guessing that in all likelihood the perpetrator was an Albanian. The Serbian PM, who thought it appropriate to issue grandiose proclamations regarding the 'victory' at the Eurovision song contest, as if it was of immense importance, has remained strangely quiet in pushing for an investigation. B92, which prides itself on its broad coverage, has not one article or report on the matter. Now such crimes take place in every nation and country. My argument is not that Albanians are rapists, and Serbs are angels. That would be to hijack NATO's argument and apply it in reverse. And frankly its quite counter-productive and desperate to use such individual crimes, horrific as they are, to further a political agenda. It would be quite inconsistent and immoral to rant about a depraved Albanian one day, and then remain silent the next when say a Serb rapes a Serb.
The issue here is that during the bombing lies were broadcast the world over about Serb rape camps, about Albanian suffering, about the noble KLA freedom fighters. But now that the noble freedom fighters are in power, now that Serb troops have left, noone reports about the destruction of the ancient Serb churches, monasteries and monuments. Noone reports on the pogroms against Serbs, the cleansing of more than half of Kosovo's Serb population, the shootings, the beatings...
And the second issue is that of leaving the investigation of this rape to the Albanian police force. Apart from the fact that they couldn't run a piss-up in a brewery and that they are as corruptible as it gets, the most obvious problem is that they simply do not have the will to protect Serbs, especially if Albanians are implicated. I am reminded of the Serb priest that was arrested bleeding and covered in shrapnel after an Albanian mob threw a grenade at him, under the charge that he threw the bomb at himself! An interview (starting at 10min 50), with the priest in question describing the incident, is available here.
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serbia kosovo vucitrn rape bombing belgrade