NATO Sees Specter of Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo

Mar 19, 2004

PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - NATO troops raided apartment blocks in a flashpoint Kosovo town on Friday after two days of mass violence the alliance said verged on "ethnic cleansing" of Serbs by majority Albanians.

Almost 1,000 Serbs have fled their homes and sought the protection of NATO-led peacekeepers stationed in the province after riots, gunfire and arson attacks on Serb churches and villages.

"This kind of activity actually almost amounts to ethnic cleansing and it cannot go on," U.S. commander of NATO forces for Southern Europe, Admiral Gregory Johnson, told reporters in Kosovo's capital Pristina.

"That's why we came here in the first place."

Seven NATO member states hurriedly sent 2,000 reinforcements between them to beef up the 18,000-strong NATO-led force in Kosovo, effectively a U.N. protectorate.

No fresh hostilities were reported on Friday afternoon but a Reuters correspondent saw one Serb village, whose inhabitants had been earlier evacuated by peacekeepers, burning.

"It is tense but I am not aware of new incidents or explosions," said a U.N. police spokesman in Pristina. "It is generally quieter."

So far 31 people, both Serbs and Albanians, have been killed in Kosovo's worst outbreak of violence since 1999, dealing a blow to hopes that the U.N. and NATO can foster lasting reconciliation between the Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Albanians.

Another U.N. police spokesman, Derek Chappell, said 112 Serb homes and 16 churches had been burned. He said 100 U.N. and local police had been injured.

"Over the past four and a half years, we have seen numerous protests and acts of violence in Kosovo," he said.

"What we have not seen is an outbreak of violence of this scale, of this speed, of this intensity... involving thousands of people attacking Serb people, Serb property and Serb symbols."

In the early 90s, the same rampages were happening. Serbs and Muslims attacking each other and their territories. The Clinton administration...including John Kerry and Wesley Clark [Former NATO commander], along with the 'world body' [including the Vatican] sided with the Albanian Muslims.

Many Serbs are bitter towards the U.S. ....who were fighting Islamic terrorists right in their own backyard.  The Clinton administration attacked them. Over 2000 Serbs were slaughtered.  [John Kerry defended this action on CNN in 1999]

[American soldiers were sent to defend Muslims....a war that was not 'imminent' for America...but one that John Kerry supported, who promised American parents that he would never ever send American troops into a war that was not 'imminent' for America]

The Serb government has accused the Albanians of a concerted campaign to evict remaining Serbs from Kosovo. Some 30,000 students marched in Belgrade to protest at "Albanian terror."

SNIPER KILLED

NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers said on Friday they had killed a [Muslim] sniper and raided apartment blocks in the divided town of Mitrovica where the violence broke out.

A loud blast shook a high-rise building in the town on Friday morning and NATO troops evacuated residents.

Smoke billowed from windows in the building, inhabited mainly by Albanians, but located in the Serb-dominated northern part of the divided town. Peacekeepers have imposed a curfew.

Germany said it would send 600 more troops to Kosovo, France an extra 400 and Denmark an additional 100. About 150 British troops arrived on Friday, the first of promised 750 soldiers.

About 150 U.S. troops and 80 Italian Carabinieri arrived on Thursday. NATO-led peacekeepers in neighboring Bosnia said they had sent an extra 160 Italian and British troops to Kosovo.

Western diplomats and analysts said the violence had made the effort to settle the final status of the province more difficult. Some said the scale and coordination of the Albanian attacks suggested they were part of the drive for independence.

"Albanians are trying to cleanse the Serbs and create a fait accompli before any talks," said a Western source on condition of anonymity. "Anyone with political experience can see that."

NATO bombed Serbia in 1999 to prevent Serbian ethnic cleansing of Albanians and forced Serb forces to abandon Kosovo.

In the immediate aftermath, Albanian revenge attacks, arson, killing and intimidation drove 200,000 Serbs out of Kosovo. Up to 100,000 stayed on, in north Mitrovica and in small enclaves.

For all of the criticism heard across the globe on a regular bases about 'US policies' there is no criticism for how the Koran violates the 'humanitarian laws' that so many preach about. Nor is there criticism for the Clinton administration sending U.S. soldiers to defend Albanian Muslims.  {How much did that one cost the U.S. Tax payers?]