Albania allows EU to investigate organ snatch charges

TIRANA (Reuters) – Albania on Thursday voted to allow the European Union to investigate accusations that ethnic Albanian fighters sold organs from captured Serbs during the 1999 Kosovo conflict.

The allegations surfaced in 2010 when Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty said Kosovo Liberation Army fighters transported Serb prisoners to northern Albania where some had their organs removed and traded.
The alleged crimes happened during the Kosovo conflict when Kosovo Albanian guerrillas attacked Serb troops, including from their safe havens in Albania.

In 1999 NATO launched a bombing campaign to stop atrocities by Serb security forces against ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo. A United Nations administration took over Kosovo and it formally declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

In a show of support for their ethnic brethren in Kosovo last year, all Albanian political parties criticized Marty’s charges saying they were fabricated by Serbia.

But on Thursday Albania’s parliament agreed to allow the independent EU investigation, with 127 votes in favor in the 140-seat chamber by lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party and the opposition Socialist Party.

Albania has not allowed Serb prosecutors to investigate, saying an earlier United Nations team could not find evidence to support the allegations.

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thaci has denied the charges. Marty said fighters loyal to Thaci, one of the main KLA leaders, had abducted and killed prisoners and harvested their organs.

The European Union’s Special Investigative Task Force (SITF) said the vote would “allow the SITF to autonomously conduct investigative activities on Albanian territory, where Council of Europe Rapporteur Dick Marty believes most of the alleged crimes took place.”

“The broad-based political support for this initiative is a strong statement of Albania’s commitment to accountability and the rule of law,” said the EU’s lead prosecutor Clint Williamson.

 
(Reporting By Benet Koleka; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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Milosevic Party Emerges as Kingmaker

New York Times By DAN BILEFSKY

Published: May 7, 2012
BELGRADE, SERBIA — The Socialist Party of the late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic emerged on Monday as the kingmaker in Serbian parliamentary elections in which deep disillusionment over economic hardship dented the Democratic Party of President Boris Tadic.
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Mirroring the trend in elections in France and Greece, voters here expressed their anger on Sunday against the governing party by turning to nationalist and populist leaders once allied with Mr. Milosevic, who as president plunged Yugoslavia into war and more than two decades of international isolation, and died in 2006 while on trial for war crimes .

The Serbian electoral commission is not expected to release the final results until Thursday, but partial tallies give the Serbian Progressive Party of Tomislav Nikolic, a former pro-Russian hard-liner, 23.53 percent, compared with 22.09 percent for the Democratic Party, led by Mr. Tadic, a former psychology professor supported by Brussels and Washington.

Mr. Nikolic, despite his slight lead in the vote count, declared victory on Sunday night, expressing optimism that his party would come to power. But with his party and Mr. Tadic’s Democrats appearing far from a majority, analysts predicted that the Democrats were better placed to remain in power by forming a pro-European coalition government with smaller parties. The two leaders were neck and neck in the presidential race, but experts expect the pro-Western Mr. Tadic to win a runoff vote on May 20.

Voters faced a stark choice in the elections between pro-Western parties promising to continue Serbia’s path toward the European Union and nationalist parties calling for closer ties with Russia. Mr. Nikolic, a former cemetery chief, had been an ardent supporter of Russia but now says he supports Serbia’s membership in the European Union. Analysts are skeptical, saying his about-face was calculated to win votes and attain power. Mr. Nikolic broke in 2008 from the far-right Radical Party whose leader is now in the Hague on charges of war crimes.

While Mr. Tadic has had successes on the international stage, attaining E.U. candidacy status for Serbia in March, his government has been undermined by 24 percent unemployment, a weak dinar, accusations of endemic corruption, and weak economic growth. In a country of 7.3 million people, about 700,000 are unemployed.

Among the biggest beneficiaries of the resentment over the country’s economic doldrums was the Socialist Party, once presided over by Mr. Milosevic, which won 16 percent of the vote. Its leader, Ivica Dacic, interior minister in the current coalition government of Mr. Tadic, has sought to rebrand the Socialists into a mainstream social democratic party.

On Sunday, Mr. Dacic, a former spokesman for Mr. Milosevic, indicated that being made prime minister was the price of his political support.

“Whoever wants to talk to us will have to understand that we have risen from the ashes,” he told euphoric supporters as fireworks exploded and trumpets blared outside Socialist Party headquarters. “Maybe Serbia doesn’t know today who will be president, but it knows who will be prime minister.”

While Mr. Dacic has sought to distance himself from Mr. Milosevic’s war-mongering nationalism, he has not apologized for the Balkan wars of the 1990s in which at least 125,000 people died.

In an interview before the elections, Mr. Dacic emphasized that he was a pro-European modernizer and had no desire to return to the Milosevic years. But he also indicated that he could take a more hard-line stance than Mr. Tadic on major issues like Europe and Kosovo, making him potentially an intransigent interlocutor for Brussels and Washington if he becomes prime minister.

Mr. Dacic said that it would be unacceptable if the European Union demanded that Serbia recognize Kosovo as a precondition to E.U. membership and that such pressure would push Serbia closer to Russia. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, stoking fierce resentment among Serbs, who regard Kosovo as their medieval heartland.

In a suggestion that is sure to cause alarm in Brussels and Washington, Mr. Dacic said partitioning Kosovo, whose north is dominated by Serbs loyal to Belgrade who do not recognize Kosovo’s authority, could be a solution to tensions there. While Mr. Dacic says he wants Serbia to continue on its European course, he is generally antagonistic to the International Monetary Fund’s support for Serbia and has said he would expel the I.M.F. He also has expressed deep antipathy against the privatization of Serbian assets.

During the campaign, he said it was not Washington, Moscow or Brussels that would set his agenda but the Serbian people.

At a recent Socialist rally, where rousing wartime songs blared from loudspeakers, Nikola Pajkic, 75, a retired plumber, said he had voted for Mr. Dacic because he had lived better during the Milosevic era than he did today. “Back then, we had a better life, and I could go on vacation or even go to a restaurant with my wife,” he said. “Today we have nothing.”

Daniel Zdravkovic, a 21-year-old mechanic, was too young to remember the Milosevic era but said that he, too, was nostalgic for the socialist equality his parents and grandparents had known. He said he liked Mr. Dacic because he was honest, strong and decisive.

“I am too young to remember the Milosevic years, but they couldn’t have been worse than today when no one has a job,” “I would rather have closer ties with Russia, which is a better friend to Serbia than Europe.”

Analysts said while the deep economic crisis had pushed voters toward populist parties, idealizations of the Milosevic period — when inflation rose 40 percent per hour during some days of war in the 1990s — were not grounded in reality.

A version of this article appeared in print on May 8, 2012, in The International Herald Tribune.

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UN chief: Tensions serious threat to Kosovo stability

Source: Tanjug
NEW YORK — UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has warned that tensions and confrontations are a serious threat to the stability.

Vandalism, threats and attacks against facilities of the Serbian Orthodox Church are on the rise, which could narrow the room for the Belgrade-Priština dialogue in the months to come, he said.
In his latest report, which Tanjug has seen, Ban says the number of crimes against minority communities increased between February and May 2012 compared to the same period last year.

In the report which he will present to the UN Security Council on May 14, the Secretary-General warns that the points to the existing negative trend in the process of return of displaced persons to Kosovo, and that only 136 people have returned voluntarily in the last three months.

Among them are 33 Serbs, 10 Roma, 83 Ashkali, eight Bosniaks and two Albanians. This is a 48 percent decline compared to the same period in 2011, when 264 people came back.

The report warns there is still considerable resistance in Priština against guarding Serbian cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo.

There is a disconnect between that obligations the Kosovo authorities have taken on in this area and their implementation, says the report.

Ban adds the international community hopes the progress on the EU path and normalization of the relations between Belgrade and Priština will gradually suppress the sources of tensions.

Copies of the report were distributed to the ambassadors of the UN Security Council member countries ahead of the staging of Serbia’s elections in Kosovo, which Ban qualified as the initial trigger for a series of unresolved issues.

The room for talks could narrow, especially if peace is not maintained or due to ill-advised public reactions to incidents and provocations. Unwarranted arrests or warmongering statements lead to a rise in tension and violence, Ban said in the report.

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Serbia police arrest 8 in tense south

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MAY 4, 2012

BELGRADE, Serbia — Police on Friday arrested eight people in Serbia’s tense, ethnic-Albanian dominated south, five of them on suspicion of war crimes against Serb civilians during a 2001 conflict.

The group was arrested in a police sweep in towns and villages in the region bordering Kosovo, said Interior Minister Ivica Dacic.

He said five people were arrested for alleged war crimes, two accused of resisting a police search, and one man on suspicion of weapons possession.

No other details were immediately available. Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said the arrests were part of an ongoing investigation.

The official Tanjug news agency reported that the five men are suspected of abducting and killing two young Serbs, aged 18 and 19, in 2001. The agency said two main suspects in the killing still remain at large and are probably in Kosovo.

Ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia rebelled against Belgrade’s rule in 2000-2001. The clashes between rebel groups and Serbia’s security forces ended after several months in a Western-brokered peace plan.

Friday’s arrests could fuel tensions in the volatile area, but also in Kosovo, where there are already fears of trouble linked to Sunday’s Serbian general election, which is being held in some Serb-populated areas of Kosovo as well.

An ethnic Albanian politician from southern Serbia described the arrests as an act of “state terror” against ethnic Albanians. He suggested the action was designed to coincide with the elections, pitting the pro-EU government against a nationalist coalition.

“The idea is to gain cheap political points,” said Riza Halimi.

Nationalist voters in Serbia view the ruling pro-EU camp as too soft toward ethnic Albanians and Kosovo. Most Serbs refuse to accept the 2008 declaration of independence of the former province they regard as the cradle of their national identity.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/04/2782881/serbia-police-arrest-8-in-tense.html#storylink=cpy

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NATO chief urges ‘restraint’ in Kosovo vote

04 May 2012 | 15:19 | FOCUS News Agency

Brussels. The NATO chief Friday urged “restraint” this weekend when tens of thousands of Kosovo Serbs with dual citizenship vote in the Serbian parliamentary and presidential elections, AFP reported.

“I strongly urge all leaders and all communities to show restraint during the voting process,” Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said ahead of the Sunday ballot.

“In this critical period, it is important to avoid any unilateral actions or statements that can raise tensions,” he said, calling on both Pristina and Belgrade “to continue cooperating with the international community in order to ensure a calm and peaceful vote.”

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has been mandated by Belgrade and Pristina to enable Kosovo Serbs holding dual citizenship to vote, said this week that some 110,000 voters in Kosovo would be eligible to cast ballots in the Serbian elections.

NATO has deployed extra troops in Kosovo to prevent unrest in the ethnically tense north ahead of the vote. Its KFOR peacekeeping force currently has some 6,200 soldiers from 29 nations.

“KFOR and EULEX will continue to coordinate closely on the ground,” Rasmussen said, referring to EU police. “The future of the whole region is integration in the Euro-Atlantic region, so we must do all we can to avoid any possible setback in the region’s progress towards that goal.”

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and has been recognised by 90 countries, including the United States and all but five members of the European Union.

Serbia still considers the territory its southern province. The Serb majority in northern Kosovo has announced it would also organise local polls, but both Belgrade and Pristina rejected the plan as unacceptable.

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Kosovo Serbs to vote under OSCE deal

UPI May 3rd, 2012

BELGRADE, Serbia, May 3 (UPI) — Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo can vote in Serbia’s upcoming parliamentary and national elections under a deal brokered this week by regional peacekeepers.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the governments of Kosovo and Serbia announced Tuesday that OSCE workers and EU-sponsored police would be allowed to oversee Sunday’s elections and deter potential clashes with ethnic Albanians.

Serbia doesn’t recognize the independence of its one-time province and is insistent Serbs residing there be allowed the right to vote in its national elections but Kosovo sees them as a threat to its sovereignty.

Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic has accused the Albanian-dominated Kosovo government of planning to foment disruptions in a bid to prevent the ethnic Serbs from voting.

Under the agreement, OSCE workers will staff mobile polling stations labeled with its symbol, while the ballots will be transported out of the country by EULEX international police to central Serbia to be counted, since there is no Serbian Embassy in Pristina, the Serbian news agency Tanjug reported.

“(Serbian election officials) and representatives of the OSCE have worked intensively on a whole series of technical details in order to help the OSCE realize election activities, especially security segments, and managed to make a protocol on mutual cooperation,” acting Serbian President Slavica Dukic Dejanovic said.

Oliver Ivanovic, the Serbian state secretary for Kosovo, said OSCE personnel alone would be allowed to handle the ballots under the deal.
Only voting for Serbian national races will be allowed — not local elections as sought by Belgrade.

“In keeping with U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244, there will be no local elections in Kosovo and Metohija,” Ivanovic told Tanjug. “This resolution also envisages that (U.N. peacekeepers) have the right to gradually transfer their competencies to Kosovo’s institutions, which it has been doing in the recent years.”

OSCE Secretary-General Lamberto Zannier said preventing ethnic violence will be his group’s foremost task during the polling.

“The OSCE has begun its preparations to organize polling stations to enable eligible voters in Kosovo to exercise their right to vote in these elections,” he said. “I call on all to refrain from provocation and to allow the voting to proceed in an orderly and peaceful manner.”

The United States also praised the deal.

“Given the short time until the elections, we expect both Serbia and Kosovo authorities to cooperate fully with the OSCE and the OSCE Mission in Kosovo to ensure that the agreement can be successfully implemented in a safe and secure environment for all,” U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

The elections have prompted NATO to beef up its contribution to the KFOR international peacekeeping presence in Kosovo as EULEX is seeing its resources stretched.

NATO said this week it has begun deploying more than 700 soldiers to Kosovo at the request of KFOR Commander Erhard Drews.

“We need to consider the legitimate rights of the Serbs in the north, but at the same time we need to respect the law which bans the holding of local elections, due to the fact Kosovo is a sovereign country,” KFOR German contingent commander Col. Bernd Holthusen told the Pristina daily Koha Ditore.

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Kosovo Counting on Strong Support From Turkey

The Journal of Turkish Weekly 3rd May 2012

When Kosovo declared its independence in February 2008, Turkey was among the first countries to recognise it. Moving quickly in the months that followed, Kosovo opened an embassy in Turkey by year’s end. Bekim Sejdiu was appointed charge d’affaires to oversee its establishment, and was later named ambassador to Turkey.

Since that time, “Relations [have been] conducted on a state-to-state basis. This was not the case during the nine years of international administration over Kosovo,” Sejdiu told SES Türkiye. “The establishment of diplomatic relations and the opening of resident embassies enhanced the communication and co-operation between the two countries. There are also other factors of geopolitical, economic and other natures, which impact positively relations.”

Muzaffer Kutlay, a prominent Balkan expert at USAK International Strategic Research Organisation, told SES Türkiye, “The importance of Kosovo for Turkey comes from the fact that it is the only problem remaining from the Yugoslavia conflict. For Turkey, which prioritises the promotion of regional peace for its Balkan policy, the improvement and development of its relations with Kosovo is of paramount importance.”

“Turkey, as a country which emphasises multilateral dialogue, has been trying to reinvent solutions for the region on the basis of intra-regional proposals. And for that reason, Turkey aims to bring all conflicting parties around a negotiation table to help them resolve their own problems by their own means. On the other hand, Turkey sees as a moral imperative to protect the rights and freedom of Turkish community living in Kosovo,” she added.

Just last month, Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga was in Istanbul meeting with Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gül. Jahjaga praised the help and support that Turkey has been providing and called for the expansion of mutual co-operation, especially in trade.

During the last two years, Turkish companies have won bids for some key strategic public projects in Kosovo.

The Turkish-American consortium Bechtel-Enka is building Kosovo’s first highway, which connects it to Albania in the south and to Serbia in the north. This project has created around 4,000 jobs.

The Turkish company Limak won the tender to manage Pristina International Airport, which is being renovated and expanded. Turkish companies are also contenders for other strategic projects, including Kosovo’s new power plant. Others are working in the health and education sectors. Sejdiu says that attracting foreign direct investments in Kosovo is one of the government’s main objectives.

“There are many Turkish companies that have invested in Kosovo in sectors such as banking and other services, mining, construction and so one. Our aim is to increase this. In pursuit of this objective, our embassy [sponsors] four to five business forums and similar activities in different cities of Turkey every year, which promote investments from Turkey to Kosovo.”

Turkey “gives high priority to the establishment of schools and strengthening of infrastructure in that country, [improving] the cultural bonds. On the other hand, Turkey, in line with its regional strategy, pays attention to improving its relations with Kosovo in parallel with strengthening its relationship with Serbia, as testified with the latest move to lift visas with the latter,” Kamer Kasim, Balkan expert and professor at Abant ?zzet Baysal University, told SES Türkiye.

As of now, Kosovo and Turkey have signed 16 different agreements, a testament to the dynamism in their relations. But ties with Turkey have been focused also on getting more recognition for Kosovo. The issue assumed central importance in terms of political co-operation. “During the last four years, the major foreign policy objective of Kosovo has been to increase the number of bilateral recognitions of independence … and membership in international organisations,” added Sejdiu.

He stresses that that every shred of support from Turkey that enhances capacities and the effectiveness of state institutions, or boosts economic development, or promotes Kosovo internationally, fosters the Euro-Atlantic integration of Kosovo.

Sejdiu describes Turkey as a crucial Euro-Atlantic ally, something confirmed repeatedly during Kosovo’s most difficult chapters: the 1990s war, reconstruction and the aftermath of the declaration of independence.

“In my view, these decisive moments show that Turkey’s stance on Kosovo is articulated along the lines of the Euro-Atlantic framework and hence is in full compliance with that of other key strategic allies. One just needs to see the list of the countries that recognised the independence of Kosovo in the week following the declaration … to confirm this”.

But the neo-Ottomanism of Turkish foreign policy is not universally regarded as positive among some academic circles in Kosovo. Sejdiu acknowledges as much, regarding the impact of the Ottoman Empire heritage on bilateral relations. He says that the interaction between the past and the present in the Balkans illustrates Winston Churchill’s famous observation: sometimes the Balkans produces more history than can be consumed.

“It is not realistic to neglect totally the historical perceptions, in shaping the foreign policy outlooks. It is not the most influential factor when it comes to formulation of foreign policy parameters of states, be it Kosovo, Turkey or others. I’m not implying that the historical heritage plays in the same way in every country or region of the world. What I want to underline is the fact that historical perceptions and feelings are always intertwined with other factors, when it comes to their impact on foreign policy paradigms,” Sejdiu explained.

Turkey has been an important partner in defence matters, but while other countries in the region have signed a Defence Co-operation Agreement with Turkey, Kosovo has not. Sejdiu says that nonetheless, the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) has strong co-operation with the Turkish Army and that relations between the KSF Ministry and the Turkish Defence Ministry are dynamic.

“Some agreements in this field have already been signed between Kosovo and Turkey. They correspond to the needs and realities in Kosovo… I can say that this [co-operation with KSF] is one of the most active forms of co-operation between the two countries, and the Kosovo Security Force has benefited a lot from this co-operation.”

He says that the Albanian community living in Turkey and Turkish community in Kosovo are a key factor in fostering bilateral relations.

“I am of the opinion that the underlying factor in relations between two countries is their vision for the future. Conceptually, this is where their paths might join or separate, or even collide. Kosovo and Turkey share the same vision for the Balkans. Namely, they both want to see a stable, democratic and prosperous region, integrated in the EU and NATO.”

SES Türkiye correspondent Menekse Tokyay in Istanbul contributed to this report.

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U.S. to Help Kosovo Join EU, NATO – Clinton

Russian Information Agency Novosti April 5, 2012

The United States will help Kosovo join the European Union and NATO, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said following talks with Kosovan Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in Washington.

“I believe strongly in Kosovo’s independence and territorial integrity and in its aspiration to become a full partner in the international community and a member of the European Union, and eventually, NATO,” Clinton said.

“The United States will continue to support Kosovo and work with the European Union to resolve the outstanding issues that exist between Kosovo and Serbia,” she added.

Thaci’s visit to the United States comes amid increased tensions between Pristina and Belagrade over Serbia’s intention to hold municipal elections in the breakaway region on May 6.

Clinton said she was “encouraged” with Kosovo’s progress in European integration and economic development.

“The prime minister told me Kosovo has grown five percent this year. That’s a very strong signal of the kind of progress that Kosovo is making, and we want to help fully integrate, particularly the young people of Kosovo, into Europe and the international community,” she said.

About 90 states, including the United States and most of the EU countries, have recognized Kosovo since it declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. Belgrade and Moscow have refused to recognize Kosovo’s sovereignty.

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Hungarian party “not advocating Vojvodina as republic”

Source: Tanjug 27-03-2012

 
NOVI SAD — The Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (SVM) leader stated on Monday that the party does not advocate the idea of Vojvodina as “a republic”, but a wide autonomy.

That implies economic stability of the province, as well as legislative, executive and judicial authority, Ištvan Pastor said.

Pastor’s statement came in the wake of an initiative from a group of minor parties and NGOs to form “a Federal Republic of Serbia”, which would be made up of Serbia, and its northern province.

“There is no federal state of Serbia within the party’s program, and there is no federal unit of Vojvodina within the state either, but rather a wide autonomy,” he told Tanjug.

Vojvodina provincial government head Bojan Pajti?, of the ruling DS, rejected on Monday the idea.

“The closer the elections, the more astonishing initiatives will be heard,” Pajti? noted.

He said that, during the constitution-making process in 2006, “all that was realistic was achieved”.

Minor Vojvodina-based parties and non-governmental organizations seeking revision of the northern province’s constitutional position on Monday announced that they believed a “Federal Republic of Serbia” should be formed.

They said it should be comprised of “the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Vojvodina”.

These groups also announced the 4th Vojvodina Convention.

This gathering has been scheduled for April 1.

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Serbia: Italian group probes depleted uranium use in NATO bombings

Belgrade, 18 Feb. (AKI) – An Italian non-governmental organisation is investigating consequences of NATO’s 1999 bombings of Serbia and the effects of the use of depleted uranium on the civilian population.

The ‘Un ponte per…’ NGO investigators Alessandro di Meo and Samantha Mengarelli arrived in Belgrade on Wednesday for talks with Serbian officials, eyewitnesses and victims of the NATO airstrikes.

They will tour several Serbian cities that were hardest hit during the bombings before submitting a report to the Rome-based NGO.

NATO has admitted the use of depleted uranium in the bombing campaign and Italian media has reported that 45 Italian soldiers who served in the international forces in Kosovo (KFOR) died after the bombing and 515 became ill with cancer.

Di Meo told Adnkronos International (AKI) that the international community was turning a deaf ear to the problem, because the use of depleted uranium is prohibited by international conventions.

“But ten years after the bombing, the world has the right to know what really happened and what the consequences are,” he said.

Menngarelli said the truth about military casualties was slowly sinking in in Italy after a surprising increase in deaths and cancers amongst soldiers who served in KFOR.

“But the civilian victims have been completely ignored and we want to shed light on this problem,“ she said.

A Serbian NGO, ironically called ‘Merciful angel’ the name of NATO’s 1999 airstrikes, recently reported that cancer ailments have jumped about 200 percent in some parts of Kosovo and areas of Serbia that were most heavily bombed.

Serbia had decontaminated five areas the most affected by depleted uranium, but there remained 113 such locations in Kosovo, former Serbian minister for ecology, Miodrag Nikcevic, told Di Meo and Mengarelli.

Kosovo majority ethnic Albanians declared independence last year and Serbian authorities have no access to the area.

Nikcevic said even the decontaminated areas weren’t absolutely safe, “because you can’t find every bomb and the bullet”.

NATO’s airstrikes in 1999 drove out Serbian troops from Kosovo amid ethnic fighting and gross human rights abuses during a two-year war with guerrillas. Kosovo was placed under United Nations control the same year and in 2008 declared independence with the support of western powers.

“Ethnic Albanians did get independence, but they may suffer the consequences of the bombing health-wise for years to come,” Di Meo said.

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