In respect to the main heroin problem in Europe, it was depicted that, almost all European heroin originates in Afghanistan, mostly smuggled in through Turkey and the Balkans or via Central Asia and Russia. According to the report, the four top national markets in Europe account for 60% of all European heroin consumption. They are: The UK (21%), Italy (20%), France (11%) and Germany (8%).

The issue is certainly of a long-term nature and what is interesting is the inability of any concrete action by either the national governments or the supranational bodies to deal with it.

The 2007 World Drug Report issued by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes is pointed an alarming new drug alliance between the notorious South American drug lords and the Albanian drug mafia in the Balkans that already controls much of the wholesale network in Europe.

Under section Concerns about cocaine along the Balkan route (p 83):“While most cocaine shipments from South America continue to be directed towards Western Europe… some shipments to East Europe and the Balkan countries have been noticed by enforcement agencies.”

Further back in recent times, while the 2005 UN Drug report identifies Kosovo Albanian organized crime groups responsible for controlling heroin market, the 2007report, additionally, identified them as developers of the new traffic routs through which they augment their heroin trade with South American cocaine:

“This raises concerns about the development of new trafficking routes and/or the incorporation of cocaine into the range of products offered by traditional heroin trafficking groups operating along the Balkan route,” says the report then added that Albanian drug gangs control ports in Romania, in addition to ones in Montenegro (Bar) and Albania (Durres).

“Some cases of cocaine shipments via the Black Sea to Romania and via the Adriatic Sea to Montenegro often organized by Albanian criminal groups have already been observed,” says the report.

Thus the traditional narcotics market structure has evolved further over the previous years and now the smugglers are able to exploit both the main road corridors of the region from East to West and South to North, but also got a hold of the main sea trade import bases and revealed themselves into a greater and global role.

The US State Department International Strategy for Narcotics Control report, released on March 2010, says that the Balkan countries remain major transit points for Afghan heroin, while the war against traffickers is hampered by corruption and weak state institutions. According to the report, Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are used by narcotics traffickers to move Afghan heroin from Central Asia to destinations around Western Europe. To a lesser extent Romania and Montenegro are also considered as staging posts for traffickers. Apart from being an important transit country for heroin and cocaine, Bulgaria is also a producer of illicit narcotics, the report says. With its geographic position on Balkan transit routes, Bulgaria is vulnerable to illegal flows of drugs, people, contraband, and money.

The Interpol is quite specific in identifying the real importance of the Balkans in the present day European narcotics market. According to the research of that organization, two primary routes are used to smuggle heroin: the Balkan Route, which runs through southeastern Europe, and the Silk Route, which runs through Central Asia. The anchor point for the Balkan Route is Turkey, which remains a major staging area and transportation route for heroin destined for European markets. The Balkan Route is divided into three sub-routes: the southern route runs through Turkey, Greece, Albania and Italy; the central route runs through Turkey, Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, and into either Italy or Austria; and the northern route runs from Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania to Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland or Germany. Large quantities of heroin are destined for either the Netherlands or the United Kingdom.

The magnitude of the organized crime groups in the region can be well illustrated by the recent case of the “Saric network” in Serbia. The organization of Darko Saric, now a fugitive from Serbian justice, has funnelled 1.3 billion euros to Serbia, but may have amassed up to 5 billion, according to the investigators. Saric and his companions laundered the narcotics money through companies in Serbia, Montenegro and “some Western European countries”. Moreover, the powerful crime clan, said to be one of the major cocaine suppliers in Europe, was involved in the attempt to smuggle 2.7 tons of cocaine to Europe in the autumn of 2009 from Latin America. Since the sheer amount of this trafficking attempt is quite substantial, it can be estimated that the nexus between the South American cartels and those in the Balkans are truly becoming stronger and of importance for the world police authorities.

Furthermore, reportages by Bulgarian media have revealed that Bulgarian criminal gangs are among the major cocaine traffickers in South-Eastern Europe. More specifically, a Darik News investigation noted that “Over the past months local drug dealers have abandoned the heroin trade, because of the drug’s high price and the low demand and they switched to cocaine”.

The Bulgarian journalist Nikolay Hristov reported, that in total of five major organizations in the Balkan country have their hands on the cocaine market. Similar findings were said to be found for Greece also, where in Athens 5 well-organized criminal gangs control the local cocaine market with Greeks, Albanians, Bulgarians and Georgians to act as kingpins of such illegal trade.

The perils associated with organized crime activities in the Balkans have long been associated with wider ramifications in other countries due to the penetration of the European crime scene by Balkan groups. For instance about 80% of the Hungarian heroin market is controlled by the so-called Albanian mafia, which then invests its profits from that country by procuring weapons from Italian crime groups. 

Therefore the criminal syndicates not only exploit local markets and facilitate the spread of illegal substances, but also assist into funnelling further criminal action on other countries and finally create a wide network of illegal activities that involves a large number of individuals and serious problems for the Authorities in different states that find it hard to either control or even identify the complexity of the situation.

Since the Balkans are one of the main import points and staging grounds for the expansion of organized criminal activities in the EU, a pan-European anti-crime policy is expected to be centred in that region. Moreover the security authorities should be aware of the flexibility and the adaptability of the criminal groups that seek to maximize their returns at any given moment and in many instances they tend to create an illegal market as soon as they realize that a need has to be met by non-legal means.

For example, it is quite likely to expect a shift from the traditional trafficking operations that transfer immigrants from Asia and Africa to Europe, towards an inter-European trafficking movement of illegal immigrants that have been stuck into countries with low or even negative economic growth. The case of Greece is significant, since the country will have a -5% drop in GDP in 2010 and possibly another -4% in 2011. Already there is an exodus of immigrants from the country; nevertheless, the illegal ones from Asia and Africa find it quite hard to move elsewhere due to lack of documents.

It is estimated that approximately 400,000 individuals are in such situation in Greece, who are risking of no employment within the coming months, due to the dramatic drop in the construction business and the recession in the commercial and industrial sectors. If one adds the numbers of illegal immigrants in Spain, Portugal and Italy that face similar concerns; a new illegal market seems to be opening that is almost certain that would be taken advantage of by the same networks that presently deal with trafficking in weapons, narcotics and persons.

The divergence in economic growth in the EU and the rise in unemployment in at least half of the EU member states will inevitably provide to be yet another “golden opportunity” for the Balkan mafia, as the wars of the 90’s were for contraband trade, and the ease in travel in the 00’s for their money-laundering operations and their spectacular global criminal expansion.

Main sources
http://arirusila.blogactiv.eu/2010/07/10/balkan-route-%E2%80%93-business-as-usual/
http://www.cedro-uva.org/lib/boekhout.drug.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL0479894020080305
http://www.flarenetwork.org/learn/europe/article/serbian_cocaine_kings_earned_and_laundered_billions.htm
http://www.interpol.int/public/Drugs/heroin/default.asp
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=69741
http://www.nspm.rs/nspm-in-english/albanian-narco-terrorism-the-columbian-syndrome-in-the-balkans-and-around.html

The report was entitled “Albanians and Afghans Fight for the Heirs to Bosnia’s SS Past” and was reported from Fojnica in central Bosnia. This was one of the most remarkable stories to emerge during the Bosnian civil war. The Bosnian Muslim Government and Army had reformed a Nazi SS Division right under the eyes of the U.S. and Western media. And only Robert Fox caught it. That is a remarkable example of media censorship and collusion to cover-up the facts. And this was accomplished the U.S. and Western media.

This story started when Robert Fox went to investigate the horrific murder of two Roman Catholic priests in Fojnica. Bosnian Muslim Army troops had executed two priests, Nikola Milicevic, 39, a parish priest, and Mato Migic, 56 , a vicar, were Franciscan priests who had been murdered by Bosnian Muslim soldiers at the Holy Spirit monastery, execution-style. While investigating this war crime, Fox soon discovered that the Bosnian Muslim Army had reformed a Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division from World War II, the 13th Waffen SS Division Handzar or Handschar, “dagger”, which is derived from the Arabic word khanjar, the term for a curved, double-sided Ottoman knife prevalent in Arabic and Muslim countries.

Bosnian Muslims in Sarajevo threatened to reform and to revive the Bosnian Muslim Nazii SS Division Handzar and to cut off the heads of Serbian leaders. The cover of Novi Vox magazine, October, 1991 with the headline: "The Handzar Division is ready!"

“’DOCUMENTS!’ shouted a man in a beret with an insignia in green Arabic script outside the UN house in the Bosnian mountain town of Fojnica. He was hostile and demanded our presence at the police station.

Later the police chief apologised, but made clear that authority had passed to the men with the Koranic texts hanging from their fatigues. …

These are the men of the Handzar division. ‘We do everything with the knife, and we always fight on the frontline,’ a Handzar told one UN officer.

Up to 6000-strong, the Handzar division glories in a fascist culture. They see themselves as the heirs of the SS Handzar division, formed by Bosnian Muslims in 1943 to fight for the Nazis. Their spiritual model was Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who sided with Hitler.”

Fox personally observed that Albanian Muslims were part of the recreated Handzar Division, which was also made up of veterans, mujahedeen, from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Fox reagraded the presence of Albanian Muslims in the division as evidence that the conflict would spread to Kosovo, which Albanian Muslim separatists sought to detach from Serbia and to create a Greater Albania.

How was this event missed by the mainstream media? Why was Robert Fox the only Western journalist to report on the reformed Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division? What does this cover-up and media censorship reveal about the U.S. and Western media?

The Bosnian Muslim faction had threatened to reform and to recreate the Handzar Nazi SS Division. In October, 1991, the Bosnian Muslim magazine Novi Vox in Sarajevo, in issue no. 3, well over half a year before the civil war broke out in 1992, published a front-cover illustration showing a Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS officer in the Handzar Division stepping on the decapitated and bloody heads of Serbian leaders, including Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. The caption read: “The Handzar Division is ready!” Another headline announced: “The Fourth Reich is coming—Welcome!” This revival of Bosnia’s Nazi and SS genocidal past was censored, suppressed, and covered-up in the U.S. and the Western media. But the Bosnian Serb population got the message very clearly.

The original Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Handzar Division, shown above in 1943, cosisted of up to 18,000 Bosnian Muslims and 300 Albanian Muslims

The original news account by Robert Fox in the Daily Telegraph was dismissed and rejected by the mainstream media. The news account was de-emphasized, not totally censored. Everyone missed the story. Marko Attila Hoare even argued that there was no evidence for the recreation of the “Balkan Islamofascist Division” in “Monty Python and the Balkan Islamofascist Division.” Hoare claimed that evidence for the reformed Nazi SS Division was “based entirely on Fox’s article” and dismissed the story about the “alleged reincarnation” of the Handzar Division. Hoare heaped scorn and ridicule on Fox and anyone who gave credence to the news report and maintained that “Monty Python is a much better source for accurate historical information.” Hoare used terms like “it is conceivable” and “alleged” and “supposedly recreated Handzar division.”

In short, the alleged recreation of the Handzar Division is merely “a popular myth of the anti-Muslim lobby.” Hoare then stated that “no other journalist or anyone else seems to have noticed the existence” of the reformed Handzar division, implying that it was untrue and that the recreated Nazi SS formation did not exist. Fox was merely retelling hearsay, second-hand rumors and nonsense. Hoare implied that no evidence or corroboration existed for the reformation of the Handzar SS division. The only evidence was “a single newspaper article written by Robert Fox” according to Hoare.

On the right, Kosovar Albanian Muslim Nazir Hodic, a member of the Nazi SS Division Handzar in Bosnia. On the left is Rudi Sommerer, the commander of the Nazi SS Albanian Battalion, 6/28 in Handzar. Hodic is shown wearing the Albanian skull cap issued by the SS with a Nazi swastika on his collar.

But is this really the case? Is there no factual evidence or corroboration to substantiate the existence of a reformed and recreated Nazi SS Division by the Bosnian Muslim Government of Alija Izetbegovic? Is Monty Python’s Flying Circus and a comedy sketch from 1970 about “Mr. Hilter” and “Heimlich Bimmler” and “Ron Vibbentrop” a much better source for accurate historical information and scholarship and factual analysis?

In 2005, Bosnian Muslim military commander Sefer Halilovic was tried for war crimes by the ICTY, particularly for the massacres committed by Bosnian Muslim soldiers against Croatian civilians and POWs in central Bosnia in 1993. In central Bosnia, in September, 1993, Bosnian Muslim soldiers massacred 32 Bosnian Croat civilians and POWs in Grabovica and 41in Uzdol. Those murdered by Bosnian Muslim soldiers were mainly elderly and unarmed Croat civilians, men, women, and children. These acts of mass murder and genocide were part of the Bosnian Muslim military action known as Operation Neretva 93.
 
The Bosnian Muslim commander of the 6th Corps of the Bosnian Muslim Army, Lt. Salko Gusic, stated under oath in a court of law that there indeed was a unit in the Bosnian Muslim Army known as the “Handzar Divizija”, i.e., the Handzar Division. The prosecution showed him an army order to the Handzar Division which he read at the trial. In Gusic’s testimony, he acknowledged nonchalantly that there was a unit or formation of the Bosnian Muslim Army called the Handzar Division, transcript #050203ED, page 84:

“16 Q. Thank you, Mr. Gusic.
17 Can I now refer you to the next document. Could you please tell
18 us the second one.
19 MS. CHANA: That’s 65 ter 39, Your Honour.
20 A. This is an order whereby the following units, the Handzar
21 Divizija, the Silver Fox Unit, become part of the special purposes
22 detachment Zulfikar. This order was written in connection with the
23 decision of the Main Staff of the 21st of August in Zenica with a view to
24 making larger units out of smaller ones. And this is an organisational
25 order in form; although, personally I think that this kind of order should

Page 85

1 have been signed by the commander since it relates to organisation.
2 We can also see it as an order on resubordination, although it
3 doesn’t state so explicitly. Rather, this unit is ordered to enter the
4 organic composition. So it is an organisational order after all. It
5 should contain certain elements about manpower levels, replenishment, and
6 so on. Although it can be carried out in its current form, when it
7 relates to the transfer of a unit from one composition to another. The
8 other elements can be ordered later on.”

A Bosnian Muslim police officer, Emin Zebic, testified that he heard about an Albanian Muslim who was the commander of the Handzar Division of the Bosnian Muslim Army. The name of the Albanian Muslim commander of the Handzar Division was given as “Dzeki”. Zebic gave the following testimony on Thursday, March 17, 2005, in transcript #050317ED, page 22
 
“2 Q. Very well. You knew that a unit called the Handzar Division, a
3 small unit called the Handzar Division, came to be located in the village
4 of Grabovica; is that correct?
5 A. I don’t know that.
6 Q. Okay. Did you ever meet a man — an Albanian man, the commander
7 of a unit called Handzar, who went by the name of Dzeki, D-z-e-k-i?

8 A. I heard about him. For a while, they were in the town of
9 Jablanica.”

On Monday, February 21, 2005, a Bosnian Muslim soldier from Sarajevo, Witness D, who had been in the 1st Sandzak Brigade, in transcript #050221ED, page 15, in the war crimes trial of Sefer Halilovic, testified about the existence of the Handzar Division:
 
“9 Q. Were there any other troops present when you arrived in
10 Grabovica?
11 A. There were Solakovic’s 2nd Independent Battalion men. There were
12 Cedo’s Wolves, Zuka’s troops, and a bit further on there were those from
13 the Handzar Division.”

The name of the Albanian Muslim commander of the reformed “Handzar divizija” of the Bosnian Muslim Army was Islam Peci-Dzeki. In the judgment in the ICTY war crimes trial of Sefer Halilovic of November 16, 2005, the court listed the formations of Bosnian Muslim Army:
 
“(v) Handžar Division

153. The Handžar Division was commanded by an Albanian called “Dzeki”.484 It was made up of Albanian soldiers.485 The Trial Chamber has not been furnished with evidence regarding the composition of this unit.”

On February 10, 2005, Witness C, confirmed the existence of the Handzar Division, on page 41, transcript #050210ED:
 
 “14 Q. Now, on the 5th of September, did another group of soldiers
15 called the Handzar Division arrive in the area?
16 A. Yes.
17 Q. And did they have a leader called Dziki?
18 A. There were so many nicknames. But as this was on the west bank
19 and I was on the east bank of the river, I couldn’t tell you what their
20 names were. They all had nicknames, Riki, Briki [phoen]. I can’t even
21 recall them all.
22 Q. Yes.
23 A. Nobody had a real name.”

Finally, the ICTY had a copy of the Order of September 2, 1993 issued by Bosnian Muslim military commander Sefer Halilovic to the 6th Corps on the reorganization of the Hanzar Division. This order was Trial Exhibit 123.

This evidence confirms conclusively that the Bosnian Muslim Government of Alija Izetbegovic and the Bosnian Muslim Army recreated and reformed the Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division from World War II. They did not wear the fezzes and uniforms of the original Handzar Division from 1943 to 1945 and “Heimlich Bimmler” was no longer their commander. But as Robert Fox noted, they reveled in a revival of Nazi and fascist culture, a glorification and continuation and resurgence of Bosnia’s Nazi and SS past.

It appears as though the existence of the reformed Handzar Division was not much of a secret. It was only a secret to the befuddled, lost, and delusional Hoare. This is what occurs when Monty Python’s Flying Circus is the source of your historical research. Hoare should spend more time on analyzing the war crimes trials at the Hague and less time on watching dated TV reruns. Moreover, for history to have any value or merit, objectivity and neutrality must be the goals. Delusional fantasy and ideological propaganda constructs have no place in serious scholarship and history. Monty Python should not be the source for historical information on the civil wars in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

Carl Savich has an M.A. in History and a J.D. in Law and has received an LCP BW American Jurisprudence Award and a Handy and Harmon Academic Scholarship. This text is origianlly published on October 15, 2008.

“In Serbia, there are 55 intelligence or security agencies from 40 countries worldwide that officially operate,” was the shocking revelation made at the official report by Serbia’s intelligence chief Sasa Vukadinovic.

Indeed, Serbia cooperates with the majority of these agents but that is no guarantee that these spies are covertly not working against the interests of official Belgrade.

Predrag Zeljkovic, Milutin Radanovic and Igor Jocanac were arrested on the road Pristina-Caglavica charging them of a BIA conspiracy to “spread lies” about Kosovo Albanian organ trafficking. After threats of long jail sentences and fines of up to 250,000 Euroes, EULEX released the Serbs.

Of the 35 different spies that have recently been identified to operate in Serbia, 6 of them worked for the Croatian secret service SOA.

Serbia’s former secret agent Branko Veljkovic was suspended in October of 2008 for passing on secret documents.

“Secret services of foreign countries are active in Serbia for at least a decade now, first of all out of their own interests which is to destabilize Serbia, second to distance official Belgrade from Russia and thirdly, to get Serbia close to EU and NATO,” says Milan Petkovic, former top spy inside Serbia.

Petkovic believes that 12 foreign secret services are very aggressive inside Serbia.

Petkovic says that, since WWII, foreign secret service agencies have already built certain specialty centers inside Serbia.

“Germans inside Vojvodina and Kosovo, Americans, English and Russians in Belgrade, Italians in Kosovo and Sandzak, and Bulgarians and Albanians across the entire south of Serbia,” says Petkovic.

He notes that Islamic agents are also very active inside Serbia which brings in Bosnian Muslim, Croatian and Israeli spies in the region. Their method of operation has become very aggressive ever since Serbia became an ally with the western states.

The next wave of aggressive spying in Serbia comes from Albania, Montenegro and Macedonia whose spies are assessing the possibility of carving out more land in the Balkans for creation of an expanded Albanian state.

“In the territory of Kosovo and Metohia, for the last 10 years, function three large secret services – the American CIA, German BND and Austrian HNA – all in support of the Albanian secessionists,” says Jürgen Elsässer, journalist and author on Balkan wars.

Elsässer says that the main conduits between these secret services and the Albanian armed gangs on the ground have been Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha and Albanian emigrant Bujar Bukoshi.

“That movie is repeating again,” says Elsässer.

Currently, sources say, an assessment is being made for a formation of a so-called Ethnic Albania (Shqipëria e Madhe) or Natural Albania (Shqipërisë natyrale) which is just a renamed Albanian nationalist idea of land confiscation in the Balkans.

The Ethnic Albania platform that was officially penned by the Albanian extremist Koco Danaj outlines phases in its formation with the first one, independence of Kosovo as nearly achieved.

“Second phase is formation of the confederation of Albania-Kosovo and a right to a referendum, while demanding federalization of Macedonia and demanding that Greece recognizes its genocide of Albanians in the Cham,” says the Ethnic Albania platform.

Albania’s parliamentary member, Dashamir Tahiri, from the Party for Justice and Integration whose objective is to lobby for the separation of the Cham region from Greece, has already met with the US Vice-President Joe Biden and the officials at the State Department in order “to find a just and dignified solution for this part of the Albanians”.

According to Europol, Tahiri was one of the first Albanian organized mafia bosses to set up human trafficking boats from Vlora to Italy. Since 1991, Tahiri is known in Vlora area as “dashi i Havas” and before becoming the parliamentary member, Tahiri was on a black-list of criminals compiled by the former Albanian President Alfred Moisiu.

Still, members of the Senate and Congress met Tahiri and told him that they support reaching a solution for Cham which has been, US officials say, “suffering” for the 65 years under Greek oppression.

Along with former NATO General Wesley Clark who bombed Serbia over Kosovo and has been fundraising money from various other shady Albanian activists, Congressmen Stanley Hoyer and Alcee Hastings both “promised [to Tahiri] Cham influence of his colleagues in Congress to undertake the drafting of a resolution for Camerine”.

Congressmen Stanley Hoyer, left, and Dashamir Tahiri.

While US is being lobbied to put its full weight behind the idea of the so-called Natural Albania, CIA has converted the non-Albanian secret services of Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Bulgaria as “sister services”. Bulgarian media itself admits that their intelligence office, the BSS, is the “FBI from Sofia”.

Petkovic says that BSS is the most aggressive spying network for the CIA inside Serbia and that uses its Orthodox Christian and Slavic affinity in order to recruit ethnic Serbs to spy on their own country and to collect top secret information and pass it on to the CIA office in Sofia.

During the NATO war on Serbia in 1999, Bulgarian spies have infiltrated, both the Yugoslav Army and the Albanian gunmen, while other Bulgarian spies were used to point lasers at buildings inside Serbia in order to make them visible targets for NATO air raids.

Serbian President Boris Tadic (L) shakes hands with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov after their news conference in the city of Varna, some 450km (280 miles) northeast of Sofia August 6, 2010.

“The objective of the CIA agents in Serbia is to establish total control of people from the Serbian political establishment, to influence the decisions of the government and the Parliament and support the work of certain political parties and their leaders,” says Petkovic.

Sources say that US overtly expresses its gratitude for these Serbian recruits by inviting them to various political functions in the US like political conventions or prayer breakfasts with the President. Serbian politicians like Ivica Dacic, Rasim Ljajic and Vuk Draskovic were invited to take part in this year’s Prayer Breakfast. Draskovic has recently called on Serbs to recognize Kosovo.

“CIA wants to have their own people in BIA, VBA and Army of Serbia and to be able to cause chaos in Belgrade in case Serbia turns against interests of the US,” says Petkovic.

Proliferation of so-called NGOs inside Serbia is a more overt sign of the CIAs spying networks and certain TV programs in Serbia are ran like a “tribunal” that denounces any leader as “enemy” if not conformist to the ideas of these NGOs.

In Montenegro, the Prime Minister was warned by these networks that Islamic extremists would be unleashed on that small little state if he refused to recognize Kosovo. Similar message was sent to Macedonia which itself is target for dismemberment by the Albanian separatists.

Following the removal of Slobodan Milosevic, one of the first orders of business that the US Embassy in Belgrade did is to plan a new building for itself in the exclusive Belgrade suburb of Dedinje.

However, the old building located inside the urban center of the city will be converted into a CIA center for the southeastern Europe. The existing office will be moved from Sofia, Bulgaria, to Belgrade. The building, which already expanded into property of Hemofarm, is also planned as a Command Center for the southeastern wing of the NATO forces.

The building will host electronic monitors capable of spying on any satellite, internet or voice transmission in Serbia and the region.

BIA agents have also recently visited Washington where they shared discs with intelligence information that has until recently been deemed as Serbia’s top security.

Irrespective of the outcome of Kosovo, US intelligence service has taken an initiative, and their Serbian counterparts have reciprocated, in taking an intelligence lead in the Balkans by leveraging Serbia’s destabilized situation.

Marko Lopušina is a journalist for the Serbian daily Vecernje Novisti and an author of several dozen books. He is a regular contributor for serbianna.com.

If we focus on events in 1979 it becomes clear that this year witnessed a major upheaval because the march of radical Islam would get a welcome boost from the bedfellows of America, the United Kingdom, France, and other democratic nations which had hidden agendas.  This period would also enable America to flood Bosnia with radical Islamists at a later date in the 1990s after developing strong connections in this period of history.

The Saudi Arabian regime in 1979 faced a major crisis because the siege of Mecca could have led to severe pressure on the House of Saud, therefore, the regime turned to America in order to crush the uprising.  CIA operatives were sent to help and Ziauddin Sardar states in his article called The battle at Islam’s heart (1 November 2007 – The New Statesman) that ”A horde of CIA operatives was quickly converted to Islam so that they could enter the Holy City to assess the battlefield for themselves. They recommended chemical warfare.”

Juhayman's Officers : Juhayman and 67 members of his group were subsequently beheaded by the Saudi Government.

Therefore, America allowed non-Muslim operatives to convert to Islam in order to crush the uprising in Mecca and this is the same America which protected Saudi Arabia from Iraq and which glossed over the fact that it was mainly Saudi Arabian nationals which did September 11th.  Also, this pro-Saudi Arabian policy would be replicated in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Pakistan, and in other parts of the world.

The British connection with the House of Saud is clear and again it would be the British government which would help the forces of Islam in Bosnia and Kosovo.  At the same time, it is clear that Saudi Arabia desires to spread radical Islam in Europe and other parts of the world, therefore, British objectives and Saudi Arabian objectives were very similar in the Balkans and ironically this also applies to the objectives of Iran in Bosnia. 

It should also be noted that America and the British government support Turkey when it applies to joining the European Union and both nations are very favorable to the Islamic cause throughout Europe.  After all, this is the same America which supported the forces of Islam against Orthodox Christianity in Bosnia, Cyprus, and Kosovo respectively. 

Therefore, shared national interests run deep and this is why America allowed CIA operatives to convert to Islam in 1979 in order to help Saudi Arabia and the same applies to the British being instrumental in supporting the Islamization of Bosnia and Kosovo.

Ziauddin Sardar states in the same article that “Thus began, on the morning of 20 November 1979, the siege of the Sacred Mosque. What happened during the next two weeks has had a profound impact on most of the Muslim world.”

Juhayman ibn Muhammad ibn Sayf al-Otaibi

He continues by stating that “The insurgents were led by a Bedouin preacher, Juhayman bin Seif al-Uteybi, and his brother- in-law Mohammed Abdullah al-Qahtani, the alleged Mahdi. The rebels included Egyptians, Pakistanis and American converts, but most were Saudis from the Oteiba tribe, which had actually helped King Abdul Aziz, founder of Saudi Arabia, to seize control of the Arabian Peninsula in 1902. They believed that the royal family had become corrupt, that the state was promoting heresy, that religious scholars were collaborating with the royal family in spreading immoral practices and that Saudi Arabia had become obsessed with money and consumerism. I knew their kind rather well.”

It was reported that you had a bin Laden connection because  “In the 1960s Osama bin Laden’s half-brother Mahrous bin Laden joined a rebel group opposed to the Saudi government. With his assistance, in 1979 the rebels smuggled weapons into Mecca, Saudi Arabia, using trucks belonging to the bin Laden family company. 500 rebels then seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca (sic), Islam’s holiest mosque in its holiest city. They try, but fail, to overthrow the Saudi royal family. All the men who took part are later beheaded except Mahrous. Eventually he is released from prison because of the close ties between the bin Ladens and the Saudi royal family. Mahrous apparently abandons the rebel cause and joins the family business. He is eventually made a head of the Medina branch and a member of the board. He will still hold these positions on 9/11. But a newspaper reports that “his past [is] not forgiven and most important decisions in the　[bin Laden family business] are made without Mahrous’ input.”  (Collection of sources – Sunday Herald (Glasgow), 10/7/21; Ha’aretz ,12/18/2002; and New Yorker, 11/5/2001)

Hundreds of Islamists were killed over a two week period and many Saudi Arabian troops were killed during the siege of Mecca. Accounts vary, for some people highlight the role of French forces and others highlight the role of Pakistan, or even collective support, alongside the CIA. 

However, this event forced the regime to clamp down on all minor forces of moderation which had entered Saudi Arabia.  Therefore, after this event the House of Saud would install a stricter version of Islam throughout the kingdom and at the same time the shocking events of Mecca meant that Saudi Arabia needed a fresh counterbalance.  After all, the Saudi leadership wanted to maintain its credibility within the Muslim world.

Shortly afterwards, Afghanistan would become a rallying call in spreading radical Sunni Islam and America had a shared objective with the House of Saud.  Therefore, “several birds could be killed with one stone.” This applies to a much needed distraction for Saudi Arabia; the need to retake the mantle of being the guardians of　Sunni Islam; to undermine the role of Iran within the Muslim world; and to defeat communism and unleash a brutal war for the Soviet Union.

Therefore, from the siege of Mecca to the war in Afghanistan you had a shared geopolitical interest for both America and Saudi Arabia, alongside the CIA and other security operatives, who would covertly support Islamic terrorism via Pakistan.  Firm objectives and ties were being made and Pakistan would also witness Islamization under General Zia- ul-Haq and once more it is clear that America favored General Zia-ul-Haq over democratic forces in India.

Therefore, from 1981 to 1987 the USA provided over US$3.2 billion dollars in order to support radical Sunni Islam and this was followed by a further $4.2 billion dollars. More important, the CIA, MI6, the SAS, and other covert agencies, were involved in training radical Islamists. The outcome being a multi-ethnic jihadist movement which would be armed and trained by America, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and other nations, but with America and Saudi Arabia being the cornerstone, and with Pakistan being the unifying factor because of geopolitical factors.

The siege of Mecca was quickly on a back burner because the media attention was now focused on Afghanistan and instead of Saudi Arabia ordering Mecca to be stormed and with many dead bodies lying all over the place; now, it was Saudi Arabia the protector and sponsor or radical Sunni Islamic forces in Afghanistan.

America and other nations like the United Kingdom would also manipulate the media in the Balkans in the 1990s.  Therefore, the Sunni Islamic network which had been funded and supported in Afghanistan would once more come into play in Bosnia. This time, however, it would be Orthodox Christians who would be the target of America and Islamic forces in Saudi Arabia and Iran.

In my article called Bosnia and Clinton’s Radical Islamists I state that “I am going to write about the “hidden hand” of democratic forces that sponsored or gave tacit approval for radical Islamists to slaughter Christians at random. Also, not content with this, the same Bosnian Muslim leadership then gave passports to many radical Islamists after the war.

Sky News has obtained clear and proper evidence of a major cover-up and footages of massacres against Serbian Christians have been seen. According to the investigation and footages which were shown, it is abundantly clear that thousands of radical Islamists from all over the world were given a free-reign in Bosnia.

This free-reign meant that innocent Serbian Christians were to meet terrible and disturbing deaths at the hands of radical Islamists who celebrate openly while cutting the heads off innocent civilians. The same Islamic forces which unleashed September 11th and which stone people to death in order to create “year zero,” were welcomed openly by ex-President Clinton and by people within his administration.”

Therefore, America which had allowed CIA operatives to convert to Islam in order to help Saudi Arabia in 1979 was now using the same methodology with regards to supporting Sunni Islam in the Balkans. Therefore, just like in Afghanistan, America and outside Islamic powers created proxy military forces very quickly. This applies to the military backed Bosnian Muslim army and the KLA in Kosovo.

It must be remembered that the KLA had been deemed to be a terrorist organization at one point but then suddenly became a proxy of America.  Also, it is clear that America gave the green light to Iran, Saudi Arabia, and radical Islamists from all over the world, to enter the Bosnian conflict.

The Republican Policy Committee on January 16, 1997, can be viewed by clicking onto http://rpc.senate.gov/releases/1997/iran.htm and the findings are shocking and it clearly points the finger at Clinton’s administration.

The House Subcommittee report concludes on page 2 that “The Administration’s Iranian green light policy gave Iran an unprecedented foothold in Europe and has recklessly endangered American lives and US strategic interests.”

” . . . The Iranian presence and influence [in Bosnia] jumped radically in the months following the green light. Iranian elements infiltrated the Bosnian government and established close ties with the current leadership in Bosnia and the next generation of leaders. Iranian Revolutionary Guards accompanied Iranian weapons into Bosnia and soon were integrated in the Bosnian military structure from top to bottom as well as operating in independent units throughout Bosnia. The Iranian intelligence service [VEVAK] ran wild through the area developing intelligence networks, setting up terrorist support systems, recruiting terrorist ’sleeper’ agents and agents of influence, and insinuating itself with the Bosnian political leadership to a remarkable degree. The Iranians effectively annexed large portions of the Bosnian security apparatus [known as the Agency for Information and Documentation (AID)] to act as their intelligence and terrorist surrogates. This extended to the point of jointly planning terrorist activities. The Iranian embassy became the largest in Bosnia and its officers were given unparalleled privileges and access at every level of the Bosnian government.” (Page 201)

The report does not just focus on the role of Iran because you had various interested parties who desired to spread radical Islam in Europe. Of course, the Western mass media went along with the compliant information that they were given and many liberals wouldn’t want to focus on the plight of the Serbian population.

Therefore, it is important to read the report because it highlights the mass injustices of the Bosnian war and how people view what really happened.

“To understand how the Clinton green light would lead to this degree of Iranian influence, it is necessary to remember that the policy was adopted in the context of extensive and growing radical Islamic activity in Bosnia. That is, the Iranians and other Muslim militants had long been active in Bosnia; the American green light was an important political signal to both Sarajevo and the militants that the United States was unable or unwilling to present an obstacle to those activities — and, to a certain extent, was willing to cooperate with them. In short, the Clinton Administration’s policy of facilitating the delivery of arms to the Bosnian Muslims made it the de facto partner of an ongoing international network of governments and organizations pursuing their own agenda in Bosnia: the promotion of Islamic revolution in Europe. That network involves not only Iran but Brunei, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan (a key ally of Iran), and Turkey, together with front groups supposedly pursuing humanitarian and cultural activities.”

It is also worth mentioning that Clinton’s Islamic policies were very far reaching because in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, past American leaders had only been supporting radical Sunni Islam via Muslim despots and terrorists.  However, in Bosnia the policy of Clinton would be in uniting radical Sunni Islam alongside radical Shia Islam because Clinton would give the green light to Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the  entire Islamic terror network.

Vojin Joksimovich who is the author of “The Revenge of The Prophet” states (page 249) that “By virtue of making Iran-led Islamists and Al Qaeda allies of convenience in the Balkans, the Clinton Administration had provided an invaluable service to terrorism.  Iran and Al Qaeda established a beachhead in the centre of Europe. Al Qaeda formed a terrorist brigade called Al Mujahid, which played the pivotal part in 9/11 and the Madrid train bombings.”

Alija Izetbegovic, the Bosnian Muslim leader had stated “… In one of the thesis for an Islamic order today we have stated that it is a natural function of the Islamic order to gather all Muslims and Muslim communities throughout the world into one. Under present conditions, this desire means a struggle for creating a great Islamic federation from Morocco to Indonesia, from the tropical Africa to the Central Asia. …”

Clinton may not have shared the same idea, however, he did manage to unite Islamic forces in Iran, Saudi Arabia and the entire Islamic terrorist network.  Therefore, links between the siege in Mecca, supporting radical Islam in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia can be linked to Bosnia and Kosovo.

Vojin Joksimovich states that “The Saudi Wahhabists, as a part of Wahhabi proselytism, lavishly funded penetration of Islamism into the Balkans.  As an example, Saudi scholar Ahmed ibn-Nafi of Mecca circulated a summon to all centers of the Pan-Islamic Salvation Committee at the outset of the conflict in Bosnia.”  (Page 144)

Ahmed ibn-Nafi of Mecca stated “We entrust you to see to the imminent establishment of the Caliphate in the Balkans, because the Balkans are the path to the conquest of Europe.  Every individual imam in our states, and especially Turkey, is ready to help.  Know, therefore brothers, that the time is working for us.  Let us help our brothers who are fighting for the holy cause in Bosnia.  Let us help them for the sake of Allah, by sending them money and weapons as we can, by sending them new mujahideen……The Caliphate is at hand.”  (Page 144 – Israeli, 2002

If you look at a world map and go from Bosnia to Turkey and link the landmass to the Middle East and Egypt in North Africa, and then go all the way to India, you have one continuous factor apart from Israel.  Throughout this entire land mass America favors the Muslim community in all major disputes when it applies to the mainly non-Muslim world. This even applies to supporting Turkey’s membership of the European Union despite this being a non-American issue.

Therefore, in Bosnia, Cyprus, and Kosovo, America supports the Muslim position at the expense of Orthodox Christians; in the Middle East America supports despotic Islamic nations but rebukes other world leaders in other parts of the world, for example Cuba, Myanmar, and Venezuela; in southeast Asia it is clear that America favors Pakistan over democratic India which is mainly Hindu; and in Egypt and Iraq various Christian communities, for example the Coptic Christians and Assyrian Christians, have been abandoned by America and other Western nations.

The relatively unknown event which happened in Mecca in 1979 certainly can be linked to events in Afghanistan and the Balkans.  This applies to the push for supporting radical Islam after this event in order to crush an internal Islamic threat. Therefore, Afghanistan became a convenient unifying factor.  In turn, the Islamic network system and the use of Islamic charities in this conflict would be used in order to spread and support the Muslim cause in Bosnia and Kosovo.

America and the green flag of Islam which is being led by Saudi Arabia may have different long-term objectives despite sharing similar goals since (and before) 1979 to the current period.  However, Islamists are now embarking on a stealth jihad within the democratic world and America, Germany, India, the United Kingdom, and others, need to understand that while certain nations may have long term goals it is clear that Islamists have long term objectives and this applies to Islamization.

Even September 11th was manipulated by America because we all know that the majority of the Islamists came from Saudi Arabia and Bosnia was also an Islamic stepping stone in enabling this to happen.  Therefore, former allies who supported terrorist networks in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Pakistan, in order to boost the foreign policy objectives of America and Saudi Arabia now became enemies after September 11th.

However, while the terrorist war may have changed after this tragic event it is clear that this doesn’t apply to nation states.  After all, America and other Western nations are still allies of Saudi Arabia and America still supports Pakistan.

Lee Jay Walker is a journalist for The Modern Tokyo Times

Focus on housing in Belgrade could illustrate the enormity of the current and future financial concerns of Serbia. For simplification all figures have been converted to US dollars relying on the exchange rate as of July 30, 2010 and all metric units have been converted to the US system of measures.

According to the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (SORS) the average monthly gross salary as of April, 2010 is $593 and the average net income is $427, with corresponding annual wages of $7,122 and $5,130, respectively.

To provide some perspective, average US annual gross wages are $50,233 (US Census Bureau, 2007).

The average Serbian thus makes roughly 1/7 of the gross annual wages of the typical US citizen and, as it will be elucidated shortly, is forced to bear expenses for basic necessities at the same or higher rate.

Currently, the typical two bedroom flat in and around the greater Belgrade area is estimated to be between 430 and 650 sq ft and the price per sq ft ranges between $121 and $297, with an average price of $170/sq ft.

At the height of the US market for housing  the average price for a home was around $250,000 and considering an average of 1,500 sq ft, this equates to a per sq ft price of $167.

Not only were prices of flats in Belgrade about the same or higher during the housing boom in the US, but even during the depths of the recession these same prices in Belgrade prevailed, whereas in the US housing prices experienced and continue to experience significant declines, despite massive government support.

What can account for this seeming anomaly?

Serbia, and Belgrade in particular, experienced a significant increase in population due to the influx of refugees, displaced persons, and those wishing to live in and around the Belgrade area. Investment poured into new construction to eliminate the excess demand, but there is strong reason to believe that too many housing units were developed.

As demand for housing abated one would expect that prices of existing units would drop and provide a natural, market oriented signal to curb further construction.

However, to stimulate demand and maintain unit prices at their current levels, the government introduced a subsidy towards the purchase of a newly constructed unit. The loans are to be provided by private banks that needed to affirm their participation in the program through a formal agreement with requisite government agencies.

The basics of this program are as follows:

1.) The loan amount is not to exceed 50% of the net income of one wage earner or 50% of the aggregate income of two wage earners.

2.) It must be new construction and the funds paid directly to the investor.

 3.) The government is to provide a 20% down payment (the original loan term is 360 months with the 20% down payment applied towards the last five years effectively amortizing the original loan amount over 300 months).

 4.) Loan amounts vary, but can be as high as $130,000.

 5.) The borrower is required to provide a 5% down payment and pay a one-time fee of 0.5% of the loan amount for the portion provided by the bank.

 6.) $39 fee to the benefit of the Serbian National Mortgage Insurance Company, which ultimately insures 75% of the net loss to the banks.

 7.) The interest rate is tied to the 6-month EURIBOR rate (currently slightly above 1%) plus 4.9% and can be adjusted quarterly. The total rate can be further increased by 0.25% for those with no life insurance.

8.) Until October 2012 the borrower is required to make payment on principal only, while the Republic of Serbia Ministry of Finance is the provide payment on the interest at a fixed 5.25%. (This simply implies that the borrower’s payment will be drastically lower for several years and following October 2012 the borrower would incur a significant increase in the monthly payment by paying both principal and interest).

To provide a practical perspective for the above points let us assume a four person household with two working adults and two adolescent children with a total monthly net income of $854.

The monthly payment for the flat would be calculated as follows:

- Average two bedroom flat at 538 sq ft for $170/sq ft equates to a total purchase price of around $91,500.

- The borrower’s 5% down payment is $4,575, the government’s 20% contribution is $18,300, and finally the bank’s portion at $68,625.

- The monthly payment on the bank’s portion, after October 2012 and assuming a rate of 6.125%, amortized over 300 months, would be $445/month.

If we conservatively estimate the monthly utilities, including gas, electric, water, phone, TV, internet, etc. at $175/month, the borrowers’ total payment for housing is $620.

Setting this total against the household’s monthly net income of $854 suggests that nearly 73% must be allocated towards housing.

In the absence of any growth in income, this huge income outlay for housing suggests that the current housing prices in Serbia appear to be unsustainable and will likely experience a severe correction without government subsidies. This is likely the case considering an even 50% increase in real incomes over the next several years.

Huge drops in home values usually precipitate banking crisis and a severe economic malaise.

The government subsidy, by attempting to stimulate the demand for housing and other loans for purchases of cars, home improvement, vacations, is diverting resources away from where they are truly needed, investment in new and existing  productive capacities leading to long-term job creation and stable employment.

Moreover, it is doubtful that borrowers understand the intricacies of this mortgage lending program and how they will be affected by the change in their monthly payment, especially after October 2012. One cannot say how many, but a significant number of homeowners may not be able to afford their payment and the market may be flooded with vacant homes leading to a general and substantive decline in the overall price of homes.

Serbian National Mortgage Insurance Company, obliged to reimburse lenders for 75% of the net loss, may have severe and substantial funding concerns in an environment of significantly decreasing home values.

Unless the government provides a clear signal of when (if at all) the subsidy is to be eliminated and provides for its gradual extinction many unassuming investors in new construction may be negatively impacted by the subsequent decline in home values. It would be prudent for all prospective investors to monitor and understand the current program and how it might impact their future investment decisions.

Borrowers need to be aware that every 1% increase in the interest rate will on average increase the monthly house payment by about 10%.

It works this way: The interest rate is tied to the 6-month EURIBOR rate plus 4.9%.  Currently that rate is slightly above 1% and since 1999 has fluctuated between 2% and 5.5%, not considering the current low points.  The rate used in our example was 6.125% and assumed the current low point of around 1%.  As the world economy improves interest rates are likely to rise as individual governments consider stricter monetary policies and investors diversify into riskier equities while reducing their bond portfolios causing bond prices to decrease and yields/interest rates to increase.

All current and prospective home buyers/owners should be aware that current prices appear to be artificially inflated and should strongly reconsider any financial initiatives related to an expectation of higher home values in the future.

The above example suggests not only a total lack of savings but a prevalent dissaving in the form of pools of consumers enslaved to living off credit.

Lack of private savings will not only intensify the need for credit but an ever expanding reliance on government programs and a growing bureaucracy intent on its survival. This might lead to a further class division consisting of a minority of the privileged and everyone else.

The real estate sector problems may signal the beginning of a deeper and a more protracted economic problem ahead for Serbia.

Mr. Radulovic holds a postgraduate degree in economics and his credentials include teaching as well as work in the private sector.

On July 22 the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that the general international law, UN Security Council Resolution #1244 or the Constitutional Framework did not prohibit declarations of independence in reference to the unilateral declaration of 17 February 2008 by the Kosovo Albanians. The advisory ruling was requested by the UN General Assembly at the request of Serbia. The ruling surprised many legal experts who didn’t expect such a straightforward language. It was expected that the ruling would allow all sides to save their faces. Invariably Serbia has been and continues to be the loser. An explanation is that the judges didn’t rule on the subject of right of secession from the Republic of Serbia. They have also sidestepped the key issue whether there is legal basis in international law for secession. At the same time the judges acted irresponsibly by ignoring possible consequences. The ruling did not say if Kosovo was a state. It didn’t say whether it was compatible with the international law if sovereign states recognize Kosovo’s independence. Outside the legal profession, the nuance between the declaration of independence and the secession will in all likelihood be ignored.

While the ruling is advisory and it is up to the UN General Assembly to act on it, it is an immeasurable blow to Serbia and the international law. This ruling essentially completes dismantling of the international law, which started on March 24, 1999 when the NATO bombs and cruise missiles started raining over Serbian targets, marking the first time in NATO’s 50-yr history that the alliance directed its military might—second to none in the world—at a sovereign nation, which posed no threat or even ill intentions to the U.S. or Europe, breaking the international law seven ways without approval of the U.S. Congress in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The same court hinted that the NATO aggression was illegal while denying Yugoslavia’s plea for a halt in bombing.

Former Nuremberg War Crimes prosecutor, Walter Rockler, wrote: “The attack on Yugoslavia constitutes the most brazen international aggression since the Nazis attacked Poland to prevent ‘Polish atrocities’ against Germans.” The UN-1244 terminated this illegal war and was a product of a compromise between the western powers (the U.S., UK, France) on one hand and Russia and China on the other. Kosovo independence consideration was completely out of the question and therefore there was no need to introduce any specific prohibition. The ICJ judges chose to ignore this most essential part of the illegal NATO war and hence their ruling is deeply flawed.

This blog addresses three subjects: Anatomy of the ICJ ruling, Impact on Serbia, and the impact of the international law.

ANATOMY OF ICJ RULING

Fifteen judges constitute the ICJ. The Chinese judge retired so 14 judges voted. The court unanimously found that it has jurisdiction to give the advisory opinion requested by the UN General Assembly and by 9:5 decided to comply with that request. Then by 10:4 arrived at the opinion that the unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) did not violate the international law. President of the court, the Japanese judge Owada who is the father of the Japanese crown princess, voted in favor together with judges representing the U.S, Germany, France, UK, Mexico, Brazil, Jordan, New Zealand and Somalia. The Slovak judge Tomka, the court vice-president, together with the judges from the Russian Federation, Morocco and Sierra Leone voted against.

A look at the court composition suggests domination by large countries with only six small countries represented. Does this adequately represent the UN membership? Four NATO countries are represented which are almost invariably supported by Japan, Jordan and New Zealand in international affairs. All these countries have recognized the Kosovo independence. Somalia, which is a lawless country, is represented!!

The decision appears to be the biggest common denominator the judges were able to arrive at. Belgrade’s Novosti reported earlier that the first vote was 8:7 in favor of Serbia while the Chinese judge was still there. Presumably, the Japanese president instituted some changes which enabled three judges to switch sides. How this was done will remain a secret inside the Peace Palace in The Hague. The court has dodged the contentious issues. The question about the origin of a new state is a political issue. There are explanations which refer to the international law but de facto the judges based their decision on UN-1244 and concluded that it had not “specifically” prohibited the UDI and therefore it was not illegal. There is a statement that UN-1244 is “at best ambiguous whether the resolution creates such a prohibition.” What a leap forward!! How about the fact that the resolution terminated the U.S./NATO illegal war and that it contains the explicit clause that the UN mission was to promote the establishment of “substantial autonomy and self-government within Yugoslavia” taking full account of the principles of sovereignty and the territorial integrity of then Yugoslavia and now Serbia. What is “ambiguous” about this clause?

RAPE OF SERBIA

The ICJ ruling represented yet another chapter in the rape of Serbia which commenced with the dismemberment of Yugoslavia first by Germany, with recognitions of Slovenia and Croatia, and then by the U.S. with recognition of Bosnia. Anti-Serbian policies have been pursued since 1992 and will continue presumably until Serbia is reduced to the territory it occupied prior to the Balkan wars. The U.S. selected the same Balkan proxies as Nazi Germany did in WWII, i.e. Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Kosovo Albanians against the Serbs despite the fact that Serbia was the U.S. WWII ally. 

The Belgrade government seems to finally realize that hard times lie ahead judging by statements made by Vuk Jeremic, the foreign minister. After making the point that the court has dodged the key issue of the Albanian right of secession, Jeremic promises continuation of the fight even if the relations with the EU are at risk. The UN General Assembly is the only avenue left for Serbia to pursue. Serbia apparently plans to introduce a new UN resolution after getting the endorsement of the parliament scheduled to meet on the 26th. Jeremic reiterated that Serbia will never recognize Kosovo emphasizing constitutional, political, historical and moral obligations. In that respect, President Tadic intends to send representatives to 55 countries with a message that a shift in their position would result in a dangerous precedent as it would encourage many secessionist movements in the world.

Srdja Trifkovic in his excellent piece, ICJ Ruling: Blow to Serbia, Boon to Tadic, doubts in the sincerity of the Tadic’s administration and argues that “Tadic and his cohorts have been looking for a way to capitulate on Kosovo, while pretending not to. The formula was simple: place all diplomatic eggs in one basket—that of the International Court of Justice—and refrain from using any other political or economic (let alone military) tools at Serbia’s disposal.” Trifkovic makes the same point as I did in my book Kosovo is Serbia that the decisive fruit of Tadic’s policy was a disastrous decision to accept the EU’s Eulex Mission in Kosovo in December of 2008. “This was the moment of Belgrade’s true capitulation.” Russia was ready to cast a veto in the UN Security Council but didn’t do so because of Tadic’s acceptance of EULEX.

Vojislav Kostunica, Former PM of Serbia and a legal scholar, stated that the Tadic’s government is responsible for this ICJ defeat and attributes this calamity to the administration’s propaganda that joining the EU has no alternative. In my blog Is President Tadic Serious about the future of Serbia, I have stated that “no alternative” approach is not only actually flawed but even philosophically nonsensical as only death has no alternative. I have argued that there are viable alternatives for Serbia probably more promising that joining the EU, i.e. an association with the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China), which have much more economic potential then the moribund EU. Besides, the BRIC countries have been supporting Serbia’s Kosovo position.

Kostunica, while the PM, advocated that Serbia should file a law suit against a county, which has recognized Kosovo rather than pursuing the ICJ path. Furthermore he has stated that the Tadic’s administration didn’t genuinely defend the Serbian national interests and “our Kosovo.” For that reason he is demanding Tadic’s resignation. If Tadic were an honorable man he would have offered his resignation.

DISMANTLING THE INTERNATIONAL LAW

International law is the term used for referring to laws that govern the conduct of independent nations with one another. The UN, created in 1945 in the aftermath of the WWII, is responsible for much of the framework of existing international law. The UN Charter has been adhered to by virtually all states. The ICJ was established by the UN Charter as its principal judicial organ.

The conclusion of the Cold War should have resulted in dismantling of massive U.S. military arsenal after the justification for its existence has disappeared. Instead, the U.S. has established the policy of world domination, Pax Americana. In 1992, Paul Wolfowitz authored the document called Defense Planning Guidance, which amounted to the first articulation of a post-Cold War military strategy. Diplomacy and the need for cooperative internationalism were replaced with so called “forward presence.” It was a vision that assumed not only preservation of existing military bases but the expansion of them. This 21st century Pax Americana amounted to the permanence of war. Thucydides, a Greek historian and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, is often called the father of the school of political realism, which views the relations between nations as based on might rather than right. In conjunction with Hobbes and Machiavelli, Thucydides continues to be the father of political realism according to which state policy must primarily or solely focus on the need to maintain military and economic power rather than on ideals or ethics.

In contrast to Pax America, President Kennedy in his famous 1963 American University speech, advocated the world peace vision. “What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. I am talking about genuine peace –not merely peace in our time, but peace for all time.” The Treaty of Westphalia of 1648 represents another contrast. It terminated the Thirty Years’ War, which killed 30% of the population of Central Europe. The treaty’s foundation was the doctrine of sovereignty, which declared a state’s domestic conduct and institutions beyond the reach of other states. For over 200 yrs—until the outbreak of WWI—the state system achieved its objectives with exception of the Napoleonic era.

Might rather than right doctrine led to the policy of amputation of sovereign Serbia, analogous to amputation of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Establishment of the Camp Bondsteel military base in Kosovo, the largest military base to be built since the Vietnam War, was a key objective. The same doctrine was essentially applied for justification of the war in Iraq. Wolfowitz dreamed about invading Iraq in the 1970s.

The U.S./NATO 1999 war against Serbia broke seven international laws: Vienna Convention, Article 1 of the NATO Treaty, Article 5 of the UN Charter, Helsinki Accords, Geneva Conventions, Illegal Sanctions, and Outlawed Weapons use. Hence, it marks a historic turning point amounting to the dismantlement of the international law. Force and coercion have replaced the international law and returned the world to dark ages. It enabled delivery of victory to a bunch of Albanian narco-terrorists to trample the territorial integrity of a sovereign nation. Somewhat of an analogy would be for the U.S. being asked to admit foreign troops to return Alamo to Mexico because the ethnic balance in Texas has shifted.

The ICJ ruling represents a crown jewel of this shameful chapter in the world history, in which might makes right doctrine preempts the peace driven set of international laws. What an irony that the UN court would preside over dismantlement of the international law and returning to the Thucydides world of the 5th century BC.

Ever since the U.S. intervened in Serbia’s domestic politics two years ago and helped the current coalition take power in Belgrade, Boris Tadić and his cohorts have been looking for a way to capitulate on Kosovo while pretending not to. The formula was simple: place all diplomatic eggs in one basket – that of the International Court of Justice – and refrain from using any other political or economic (let alone military) tools at Serbia’s disposal. On July 22 the ICJ performed on cue, declaring that Kosovo’s UDI was not illegal.

It should be noted that the ICJ has only assessed Kosovo’s declaration of independence; it has not considered more widely Kosovo’s right to unilateral secession from Serbia. Furthermore, the ICJ has not assessed either the consequences of the adoption of the UDI, namely whether Kosovo is a state, or the legitimacy of its recognition by a number of countries. The ICJ decision was unsurprising in view of the self-defeating which the UN General Assembly posed at Serbia’s request: “Is the unilateral declaration of independence by the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government of Kosovo in accordance with international law?” As a former British diplomat who knows the Balkans well has noted, international law takes no notice of declarations of independence, unilateral or otherwise; they are irrelevant:

[I]f the town council down the road here in the UK makes a solemn unilateral declaration of the town’s independence from the UK, the rest of us will make a wry smile and go back to blogging or working. The declaration is ‘in accordance’ with UK law – free speech and all that. [ ... ] If citizens of our town en masse support the declaration of independence, put up road-blocks, stop paying taxes to Westminster and proclaim Vladimir Putin their new king with his consent, things begin to get more interesting. Norms are being created and broken in all directions.  

The ICJ has done more than its share of norm-creation. Its advisory opinion is deeply flawed and non-binding, but the government in Belgrade now has a perfect alibi for doing what it had intended to do all along.

Following the appointment of Vuk Jeremić as Serbia’s foreign minister in 2007, this outcome could be predicted with near-certainty. As President Boris Tadić’s chief foreign policy advisor, Jeremić came to Washington on 18 May 2005 to testify in Congress on why Kosovo should stay within Serbia. In his subsequent off-the-record conversations, however, he assured his hosts that the task was really to sugar-coat the bitter Kosovo pill that Serbia would have to swallow anyway.

Two years later another advisor to Tadić, Dr. Leon Kojen, resigned in a blaze of publicity after Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer declared, on April 13, 2007, “We are working with Boris Tadić and his people to find a way to implement the essence of the Ahtisaari plan.” Tout Belgrade knew that “Tadić’s people” meant—Vuk Jeremić. Gusenbauer’s indiscretion amounted to the revelation that Serbia’s head of state and his closest advisor were engaged in secret negotiations aimed at facilitating the detachment of Kosovo from Serbia—which, of course, was “the essence of the Ahtisaari plan.” Jeremić’s quest for sugar-coating the bitter pill was evidently in full swing even before he came to the helm of Serbia’s diplomacy.

In the intervening three years Tadić and Jeremić have continued to pursue a dual-track policy on Kosovo. The decisive fruit of that policy was their disastrous decision to accept the European Union’s Eulex Mission in Kosovo in December 2008. Acting under an entirely self-created mandate, the EU thus managed to insert its mission, based explicitly on the provisions of the Ahtissari Plan, into Kosovo with Belgrade’s agreement. 

That was the moment of Belgrade’s true capitulation. Everything else — the ICJ ruling included — is just a choreographed farce…

The ICJ opinion crowns two decades of U.S. policy in the former Yugoslavia that has been mendacious and iniquitous in equal measure. By retroactively condoning the Albanian UDI, the Court has made a massive leap into the unknown. That leap is potentially on par with Austria’s July 1914 ultimatum to Serbia. The fruits will be equally bitter.

Aiding and abetting Muslim designs in the Balkans, in the hope that this will earn some credit for the United States in the Islamic world, has been a major motive of American policy in the region since at least 1992. It has never yielded any dividends, of course, but repeated failure only prompts the architects of the policy to redouble their efforts.

It is virtually certain that Washington will be equally supportive of an independent Sanjak that would connect Kosovo with Bosnia, or of any other putative Islamistan, from western Macedonia to southern Bulgaria (“Eastern Rumelia”) to the Caucasus. The late Tom Lantos must be smiling approvingly wherever he is now, having called, three years ago, on “Jihadists of all color and hue” to take note of “yet another example that the United States leads the way for the creation of a predominantly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe.”

In the region, the ICJ verdict will encourage two distinct but interconnected trends: greater-Albanian aspirations against Macedonia, Montenegro, Greece, and rump-Serbia (Preševo), and pan-Islamic agitation for the completion of the Green Corridor – an Islamic belt anchored in Asia Minor and extending north-westward across the Balkans into the heart of Central Europe.

Beyond the Balkans, it will breed instability in each and every potential or actual separatist hotspot, from Galilee to Kashmir, from the Caucasus to Sinkiang.

Kosovo is now an expensive albatross costing American and European taxpayers a few billion a year. It will continue developing, not as a functional economy but as a black hole of criminality and terrorism. The ever-rising and constantly unfulfilled expectations of its unemployable multitudes will eventually turn – Frankenstein’s monster-like – against the entity’s creator. There will be many Ft. Dixes to come, over there and here at home.

God acts in mysterious ways. Kosovo had remained Serbian during those five long centuries of Ottoman darkness, to be liberated in 1912. It is no less Serbian now, the ugly farce in Priština and at The Hague notwithstanding. It will be tangibly Serbian again when the current experiment in global hegemonism collapses, and when the very names of its potentates and servants – Boris Tadić and Vuk Jeremić included – are consigned to the Recycle Bin of history.

Srdja (Serge) Trifkovic, historian and foreign affairs analyst, is the author of seven books — including a best-seller, “The Sword of the Prophet” — and former foreign affairs editor of Chronicles (1998-2009). He is a regular contributor to print and broadcast media outlets in Europe and all over the English-speaking world.

Serbia never did this in its own province of Kosovo… and it is now paying for it because of some sixth rate bureaucrats in the State Department that probably can not tell their own house on the US map let alone Kosovo where Albanians are murdering Serbs.

Across the world, others, like Serbia, did not do what Sri Lanka wisely chose, and as a result they are standing on an international precedent, by judges no one elected, to swallow a break up of their own country as legitimate.

Unlike Sri Lanka, Milosevic is seen practicing "principled" diplomacy with the Albanian separatist Rugova.

Granted, break up of the US along ethnic lines is still in the future, but it is hard not to imagine that Mexicans are not rejoicing at the ICJ Kosovo ruling because Mexicans will, finally, get their land back… sometimes in the future and calling on this Kosovo precedent.

Of course, by then, Joe Biden who is vehemently supporting Kosovo independence will be dead, but the slogan, “Remember Alamo” will turn into “Yeah, we remember” as the Mexican crowd waves flags not just for the major soccer game inside the US soil but all across the south, west and elsewhere in the US. The Lone Star will revert to Green-White-Red after all.

The legacy of Alamo is, of course, the American problem, where I live, but towards that 3rd or 4th derivative of today’s UN ruling Financial Times says:

The other major implication is the message it may send to secessionist movements around the world. According to Edwin Bakker of the Clingendael Institute of International Relations in the Netherlands, Thursday’s ruling is significant because it blesses an act of secession of a kind not seen in almost 40 years.

“For the first time since the break-up of Pakistan in the mid-1970s, we are seeing a country becoming independent, despite the strong opposition of the state from which it is separating,” he says. “This ruling will strengthen separatists around the globe. Cases that have been confronted with very brutal repression may feel that their chances for an independent state have increased.”

Mr Bakker argued that separatist movements comparable to the Kosovo case are limited. He suggested that the ruling would boost radical separatist elements in the Basque country in Spain, and in Cyprus.

Cyprus, of course, immediately said that their issue is “different” from Kosovo – something US has been claiming all along – paving the way for the Greek recognition of Kosovo, given all the Albanians inside Greece that could riot because of Greek “economic crisis”.

Others blame today’s UN Court decision on Serbia’s President Tadic.

“Ever since the U.S. intervened in Serbia’s domestic politics two years ago and helped the current coalition take power in Belgrade, Boris Tadić and his cohorts have been looking for a way to capitulate on Kosovo while pretending not to,” writes incisive Srdja Trifkovic saying that the appointment of Serbia’s Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic signaled that “this outcome could be predicted with near certainty.”

Others, like John Bosnitch, formerly of Tokyo Times says that “They [the ICJ] have found a strictly grammatical way of getting an opinion out of the court that they can present as a ‘ruling’ to pressure more countries to recognize the U.S.-EU annexation and remote control of Kosovo through their selected Albanian agents on the ground in the Serbian province.”

Both are true because Tadic has learned the valuable Milosevic-maneuver how to turn every diplomatic loss into a political gain while pursuing a legal opinion at the UN about a “declaration” which, as every baby-mama in the ghetto would tell him while shouting “I can declare me any mother-f%#@$ing thin i wont, nah” – is legal.

Some have suggested joining the Shanghai Group involving China and Russia, others saying NATO is the forum to protect Serbia’s interests, and others just simply criticize Tadic’s government in order to score points and win another irrelevant election while, all these are fully aware that it was Milosevic that decided on the language of the UN Resolution 1244 that sunk Serbia: a man with a lot of mouth that could not defend his own state – Tony Blair “invasion by land” diarrhea and Chernomyrdin nevertheless.

On this one, of course, we could all go back to Adam…

Is it time, for Serbia, to cut the losses?

Of course not, but the EU knows that as well.

EU is playing the “bleed to death” game where they hook you into their membership with thousand cuts so that when the blood pressure of the Serbian nation evaporates the dying population will suck up anything and declare it victory, just because alive. Serbia must start its own such game in the opposite direction.

Ever since the communists took over in 1945, Serbia’s governments always play a game of compromise, as though good, and never change their fantasy that compromise is for losers. Milosevic just perfected this fantasy, now blamed on Tadic who keeps that nasty domestic “principled” political legacy going while the Serbia’s electorate, enamored with losers, keeps voting for them.

Going in the opposite direction means realizing that the Islamic world is Serbia’s ally because, after joining the EU, all these Islamic malefactors that destroyed Serbia could enjoy themselves destroying the others… and elsewhere into Europe. Serbia needs to facilitate these malefactors through.

Bosnian Muslims, after all, could help liberate their oppressed brethren in Bulgaria where Turkey, now Serbia’s ally, stands idly by and is yet to do something about Bulgarian deportation of thousands of Muslims out of their land.

Serbia can do all this because Muslims have achieved what they sought on Serbia’s land, so it’s time to facilitate them to go elsewhere… like Bulgaria, Albania, London, Paris… Strike my European fancy my good lady and suck on a Cigar like Churchill!

It has to be noted that ITGI, along with South Stream, Nabucco and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, are for the time being the main competitive projects for transfering mass amounts of natural gas from the Caspian region and possibly Iran for the coming decades, and they are all scheduled to traverse regions of the Balkans.

This topic is very complex and it is abundantly clear that the mass media is still playing a propaganda war on the whole because the same story is being told.  Yet the reality of Srebrenica is much more complex because this name is still being openly manipulated. Therefore, will real issues be raised or will the Bosnian leadership, America, the United Kingdom, NATO, and others, just continue with this “whitewash?”

Now, before I try to focus on neglected issues I would firstly like to state that thousands of Muslims were killed in Srebrenica once this place fell to Bosnian Serbian forces.  It is also clear that innocent Muslims were killed during the mayhem of events.

Indeed, Srdja Trifkovic, historian, author, and foreign affairs analyst, states the following in his article called “The Genocide Myth: Uses and Abuses of Srebrenica.”

“During the Bosnian war between May 1992 and July 1995, several thousand Muslim men lost their lives in Srebrenica and its surroundings. Most of them died in July of 1995 when the enclave fell unexpectedly to the Bosnian Serb Army and the Muslim garrison attempted a breakthrough. Some escaped to the Muslim-held town of Tuzla, 38 miles to the north. Many were killed while fighting their way through; and many others were taken prisoner and executed by the Bosnian Serb army.”

Therefore, just like Srdja Trifkovic states, it is abundantly clear that many prisoners were executed by the Bosnian Serb army.  However, unlike Srdja Trifkovic who is trying to seek answers and to raise important issues; it is abundantly clear that many national governments want to hide the real reality of Srebrenica.

Srdja Trifkovic continues by stating that “It is often pointed out that Srebrenica was an UN “protected zone,” but it is seldom noted that the enclave was simultaneously an armed camp used for attacks against Serb villages in the surrounding areas. Muslim General Sefer Halilovic confirmed in his testimony at the Hague Tribunal that there were at least 5,500 Bosnian Army soldiers in Srebrenica after it had obtained the “safe haven” status, and that he had personally arranged numerous deliveries of sophisticated weapons by helicopter.

French General Philippe Morillon, the UNPROFOR commander who first called international attention to the Srebrenica enclave, is adamant that the crimes was quite extraordinary in the region.” committed by those Muslim soldiers made the Serbs’ desire for revenge inevitable. He testified at The Hague Tribunal on February 12, 2004, that the Muslim commander in Srebrenica, Naser Oric, “engaged in attacks during Orthodox (Christian) holidays and destroyed villages, massacring all the inhabitants. This created a degree of hatred that was quite extraordinary in the region.”
These paragraphs alone paint the real picture because Srebrenica had witnessed many massacres of Serbian Christians within the surrounding region and the Muslim Bosniak forces were clearly not innocent.

Indeed, it must be pointed out that Bosnian Serb forces allowed Muslim women and others, to flee Srebrenica.  Yet clearly the Muslim Bosniak forces cared little about this and many Serbian women, old people, and Serbs in general, were massacred in surrounding villages.

Major-General (Ret) Lewis Mackenzie who is a retired Canadian general also raises serious doubts about so-called “good” and “evil.” In his article called “The real story behind Srebrenica.  The massacre in the UN ’safe haven’ was not a black and white event,” which was published in The Globe and Mail (July 14, 2005), he clearly highlights neglected areas.
Lewis MacKenzie stated the following:

“As the Bosnian Muslim fighters became better equipped and trained, they started to venture outside Srebrenica, burning Serb villages and killing their occupants before quickly withdrawing to the security provided by the UN’s safe haven. These attacks reached a crescendo in 1994 and carried on into early 1995 after the Canadian infantry company that had been there for a year was replaced by a larger Dutch contingent.

The Bosnian Serbs might have had the heaviest weapons, but the Bosnian Muslims matched them in infantry skills that were much in demand in the rugged terrain around Srebrenica. As the snow cleared in the spring of 1995, it became obvious to Nasar Oric, the man who led the Bosnian Muslim fighters, that the Bosnian Serb army was going to attack Srebrenica to stop him from attacking Serb villages. So he and a large number of his fighters slipped out of town. Srebrenica was left undefended with the strategic thought that, if the Serbs attacked an undefended town, surely that would cause NATO and the UN to agree that NATO air strikes against the Serbs were justified. And so the Bosnian Serb army strolled into Srebrenica without opposition.”

After the Bosnian Serbian army entered Srebrenica it is clear that many things happened because events on the ground were changing quickly.  This applies to many Muslim forces fleeing Srebrenica and it is clear that elites within the Bosniak Muslim army had escaped to safety and left others to their fate.

General Morillon from France also makes it clear that the Bosniak Muslim army was brutal and this would vindicate what Lewis MacKenzie states. Therefore, it is clear that people should be made fully aware about “the real Srebrenica” and not just an anti-Serbian point of view.
General Morillon comments that “Naser Oric was a warlord who reigned by terror in his area and over the population itself. I think that he realized that these were the rules of this horrific war, that he could not allow himself to take prisoners. According to my recollection, he didn’t even look for an excuse. It was simply a statement: One can’t be bothered with prisoners.”

Morillon also recounts how “the Serbs took me to a village to show me the evacuation of the bodies of the inhabitants that had been thrown into a hole, a village close to Bratunac. And this made me understand the degree to which this infernal situation of blood and vengeance [...] led to a situation when I personally feared that the worst would happen if the Serbs of Bosnia managed to enter the enclaves and Srebrenica.”

“I feared that the Serbs, the local Serbs, the Serbs of Bratunac, these militiamen, they wanted to take their revenge for everything that they attributed to Naser Oric. It wasn’t just Naser Oric that they wanted to revenge, take their revenge on; they wanted to revenge their dead on Orthodox Christmas.”

Again, the comment by Morillon appears to be vindicated by Lord Owen because Lord Owen was clearly worried about the fall of Srebrenica.  Lord Owen highlights on page 143 of his book, Balkan Odyssey, that “On 16 April I spoke on the telephone to President Milosevic about my anxiety that, despite repeated assurances from Dr. Karadzic that he had no intention of taking Srebrenica, the Bosnian Serb army was now proceeding to do just that. The pocket was greatly reduced in size. I had rarely heard Milosevic so exasperated, but also so worried: he feared that if the Bosnian Serb troops entered Srebrenica there would be a bloodbath because of the tremendous bad blood that existed between the two armies. The Bosnian Serbs held the young Muslim commander in Srebrenica, Naser Oric, responsible for a massacre near Bratunac in December 1992 in which many Serb civilians had been killed. Milosevic believed it would be a great mistake for the Bosnian Serbs to take Srebrenica and promised to tell Karadzic so.”

I have given quotes from people who were on the ground and from people who know a lot about the real events of Bosnia and Srebrenica.  It would be difficult to claim that Lord Owen, General Morillon, and Lewis MacKenzie, are pro-Serbian or that they are holocaust deniers.
 
Therefore, it is clear that “the real Srebrenica” is not being told and the same applies to the “hidden Islamic jihad” which took place during the civil war and how ex-President Bill Clinton gave the green light to Islamists from all over the world to enter Bosnia.

Yes, Srebrenica must be remembered and this applies to the thousands of innocent Christians and Muslims who were killed by both sides in and around Srebrenica However, this Srebrenica must tell the world about the real facts and how this city had a major Bosniak Muslim army which had killed and slaughtered many innocent Christian Serbs.

Lewis MacKenzie comments that “two wrongs never made a right, but those moments in history that shame us all because of our indifference should not be viewed in isolation without the context that created them.”

Lee Jay Walker is a journalist for The Modern Tokyo Times