Y'all Sound the Same

So I was talking to a girl who recently added me on Facebook.
Her last name was Serbian, so I had started the conversation with Serbian hello, how are you, I'm fine, thanks, etc

Then she tells me...

Sanja says:
Super... Znaes makedonski??

Super... You know Macedonian??

I swear the Balkan Slavic languages are one and the same... even Svetlana agrees.
Sort of.

Светлана says:
no no
Светлана says:
but macedonian sounds like serbian dialect
Светлана says:
we call it South Serbia anyways

2008's Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Peacemaker or Puppet?

Throughout the Western world, the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari has been widely hailed, where there has been an outpouring of praise for the man and his efforts.

But there is another side to this man that has not yet received attention:

"It really doesn't matter if Paraguay hasn't recognised," Ahtisaari said. "Well over 65% of the wealth of the world has recognised. That matters."

Ahtisaari said Serbia would have to recognize Kosovo if it wanted to join the European Union.

"You can't be poking the EU in the eye [while] saying you want to join EU," he said.

Although he was supposed to be an impartial mediator, Ahtisaari admitted he had sent private messages to all parties soon after taking his role as mediator, that Kosovo's secession was inevitable.

- Kosovo Compromise, Monday, October 20, 2008

Svetlana wryly remarked, "Well, then what about Russia? And India, or China?"

As if this blatant statement does not indicate whose interests Ahtisaari has served in the fiasco leading up to the Kosovar Albanian declaration of independence early this year, the man's "negotiating" techniques are anything but peaceful (emphasis mine):

Ristic reports that as Milosevic listened to the reading of the text, he realized that the "Russians and the Europeans had put us in the hands of the British and the Americans." Milosevic took the papers and asked, "What will happen if I do not sign?"

In answer, "Ahtisaari made a gesture on the table," and then moved aside the flower centerpiece. Then Ahtisaari said, "Belgrade will be like this table. We will immediately begin carpet-bombing Belgrade."

Repeating the gesture of sweeping the table, Ahtisaari threatened, "This is what we will do to Belgrade." A moment of silence passed, and then he added, "There will be half a million dead within a week." Chernomyrdin’s silence confirmed that the Russian government would do nothing to discourage carpet-bombing.

- CounterPunch, October 14, 2008

Many in the West say the continued Chinese presence in Tibet leads to the "mindless destruction" of monasteries, as well as "cultural genocide".

But they remain strangely silent when the very same occurs in Kosovo and Metohija. Hundreds of mediaeval Serbian churches and monasteries, the few remaining strongholds of Kosovo's Christian history, are being emptied and destroyed by Kosovar Albanians as NATO "peacekeepers" nonchalantly watch on. Truly, the Eastern European bias remains alive and well even after the Red Scare has been deposited in history's rubbish bin.

KFOR soldiers helplessly watch as Serbian homes burn near Priština

Gregory Elich concludes:

The selection of Martti Ahtisaari for the Nobel Peace Price was a reward for services rendered. This was a purely political statement, meant to underline an important principle in international affairs. The same Western nations that forcibly carved Kosovo from Serbia are vociferously complaining that independence for South Ossetia and Abkhazia violates international law and the territorial integrity of Georgia. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize affirms the lofty principle that it is only the West that will draw and redraw borders in the manner of 19th-century imperial powers.

It was these imperialist powers who drew the present-day boundaries in the Balkans - sometimes in ink, often in blood. And now they reward this "peacemaker" who has forcibly wrenched Kosovo and Metohija away from Serbia to give Albanian terrorists a country. No Orthodox Christian can ever accept this peace that leaves us with nothing but pain.

"You don’t win a Nobel Peace Prize without having blood on your hands"

Russia was outraged at the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Martti Ahtisaari last week. The former Finnish president was the UN envoy to Kosovo until 2007, when he quit amid vehement Russian opposition to Kosovan independence from Russian ally Serbia. Deputy leader of the Russian parliamentary foreign affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, likened Ahtisaari's peace plan for Kosovo to the opening of a “Pandora's box”. Kosova declared independence on February this year.

- The Budapest Times, Monday, 13 October 2008

As if the committee wasn't discredited enough - Ahtisaari wins Nobel Peace Prize. First Kissinger, then Gore, now Ahtisaari?

This man's "supervised independence" plan for Kosovo and Metohija was a complete failure, a plan which solution was tacitly predetermined from the start. Ignoring Serbian interests, imposing one side's interests over another, and providing Kosovo's criminal overlords with all the prerogatives of a state (constitution, border/air traffic control, army, secret service, etc), has resulted in Kosovo's declaration of secession early this year. In addition, Ahtisaari's plan legitimizes the post-war discrimination of minorities, and fails to guarantee restitution of state, social or church property, resulting in widespread acts of violence against the remaining Serbs in Kosovo, as well as the continued destruction of churches and monasteries.

Johan Galtung, Norwegian founder of peace studies, hit the spot when describing Ahtisaari as a man who does not hesitate to favour solutions that bypass the United Nations and international law. "Ahtisaari does not solve conflicts but drives through short-term solutions that please western countries", Galtung adds - and his words will prove to be prophetic.

Kosovar secession is not "the last step in the disintegration of Yugoslavia", as so many have happily mentioned, but rather, the first step in further destabilization in the Balkans.

I Stay Up Late and I Don't Do Anything Productive

...like learning the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet from Svetlana at four in the morning:


In other news, Memoirs announces a new category of posts!

The 2008 South Ossetia War: A Guide

A disabled Georgian tank lies in Tskhinvali after a failed assault

WHO STARTED IT?

There are two basic facts to keep in mind about the smokin' little war in Ossetia:

1. The Georgians started it.

2. They lost.

[...]

They were doing something they learned from Bush and Cheney: sticking to best-case scenarios, positive thinking. The Georgian plan was classic shock’n’awe with no hard, grown-up thinking about the long term. Their shiny new army would go in, zap the South Ossetians while they were on a peace hangover (the worst kind), and then…uh, they’d be welcomed as liberators? Sure, just like we were in Iraq. Man, you pay a price for believing in Bush.

The War Nerd
South Ossetia, The War of My Dreams, 11th August 2008

A CLASH OF PRINCIPLES

Up until now, this war was framed as a simple tale of Good Helpless Democratic Guy Georgia versus Bad Savage Fascist Guy Russia. In fact, it is far more complex than this, morally and historically.

[...]

At the root of this conflict is a clash of two twentieth-century guiding principles in international relations. Georgia, backed by the West, is claiming its right as a sovereign nation to control the territory within its borders, a guiding principle since World War II. The Ossetians are claiming their right to self-determination, a guiding principle since World War I.

These two guiding concepts for international relations–national sovereignty and the right to self-determination–are locked in a zero-sum battle in Georgia. Sometimes, the West takes the side of national sovereignty, as it is in the current war; other times, it sides with self-determination and redrawing of national borders, such as with Kosovo.

In that 1999 war, the United States led a nearly three-month bombing campaign of Serbia in order to rescue a beleaguered minority, the Albanians, and carve out a new nation. Self-determination trumped national sovereignty, over the objections of Russia, China and numerous other countries.

The NATO bombing of Serbia

Why, Russians and Ossetians (not to mention separatist Abkhazians in Georgia’s western region) ask, should the same principle not be applied to them?

The answer is clear: because we say so. That sort of logic, in an era of colossal American decline and simultaneous Russian resurgence, no longer works on the field.

Mark Ames, The eXile
South Ossetia: The War We Don’t Know, 15th August 2008

THE MEDIA

Georgian forces in Tbilisi

What is troubling is the U.S. media's willingness to similarly toe the party line, but in the absence of any of the coercive measures, such as the state censorship, that the Russian press endures. There have been no William Dunbars on CNN, despite the fact that every report I've seen on the channel yesterday had been framed as 'Russian invasion,' with endless clips of Saakashvili alleging Russian crimes, etc., in a loop of totally pro-Georgian coverage. Georgia is a key U.S. ally, the 3rd largest troop contingent in Iraq, and occupies a strategic, oil rich zone. The self-policing in the U.S. media, which has basically been uncritically promoting government talking points, is very disturbing.

[...]

To the uninformed viewer, it was Russia, not Georgia, which used the cover of the Olympic games to invade; in reality, they both did. In addition, there have been several mentions of Georgia as a fledgling democracy, but no mention of Saakashvili’s recent crackdown on the media and civil society. The US media has been guilty of a procrustean tendency to distill a messy conflict between two flawed states into a Manichean struggle between good and evil.

Foreign Policy Association
The CNN Effect: A Tale of Two Wars, 13th August 2008

To sum it all up, the War Nerd concludes:

The bottom line will be simple: the Georgians overplayed their hand and got slapped, and we caught a little of the follow-through, which is what happens when you waste your best troops - and Georgia’s, for that matter - on a dumb war in the wrong place. We detatched Kosovo from a Russian ally; they detached South Ossetia from an American ally. It’s a pawn exchange, if that. If it signals anything bigger, it’s the fact that the US is weaker than it was ten years ago and Russia is much, much stronger than it was in Yeltsin’s time. But anybody with sense knew all that already.

War of the Babies

Many friends look upon my little fixation with the Kosovo issue the same way they see my other obsessions: with utter bewilderment. Unless one is of Slavic extraction or of the Orthodox faith, one would be apprehensive about confronting the tangled knot of ancient history and warring ethnicities that is the Balkans. And of course, this blogger doesn't make it any easier for the average person when he tries to explain. What, with all the esoteric terms I use and the unheard-of events I reference.

Recently, I was asked how the supposedly weaker Albanians "conquered" the ancient heartland of a people who spent centuries holding off the Turkish incursion into Europe. I know the answer, but I won't say it - you know what happens if I do.

Instead, I will allow Gary Brecher - the War Nerd - to do so. If you are an "average" reader of Memoirs or one of many friends unable to understand me, I implore you now to read on. The War Nerd is nowhere as incomprehensible as many make me out to be.

In this piece, aptly named War of the Babies, he details the Albanian "conquest":

To succeed in the post-1918 world, the world Woodrow Wilson dreamed up where "small nations" have rights even if they can't defend them, you need to use slower, less obviously military methods, like birthrate and immigration. The classic example of this kind of slow conquest is Kosovo. The Serbs could always defeat the Albanians on the battlefield, even when outnumbered, but the Albanians had a huge advantage in the most important military production of all -- babies. According to the BBC, the birthrate of Kosovo Albanians 50 years ago was an amazing 8.5 children per woman.

The Serb/Albanian conflict offers damn near perfect lab conditions to prove my case that birth rate trumps military prowess these days, because the Serbs always beat the Albanians in battle, yet they’ve lost their homeland, Kosovo. Here again, we can blame Woodrow Wilson and his talk about "rights". In places where tribes hate each other, a tribe that outbreeds its rival will become the majority, even if it can’t fight. So, after generations of skulking at home making babies, letting the Serbs do the fighting, the Albanians finally became the majority in Kosovo and therefore the official "good guys", being oppressed by the official "bad guys", the Serbs. At least that’s the way the nave American Wilsonian types like Clinton saw it. So when the Serbs fought back against an Albanian rebellion in Kosovo, and dared to beat the Albanians, Clinton decided to bomb the Serbs into letting go of Kosovo, the ancient heartland of a Christian nation that had spent its blood holding off the Turks for hundreds of years.

The Kosovo Albanians proved that military skill doesn’t matter, because they tried and failed to conquer Kosovo the old-fashioned way: armed rebellion by the Kosovo Liberation Army. It was a wipeout: local Serb militias, a bunch of tired middle-aged part-timers and cops, crushed the KLA. What happened next is a beautiful illustration of the way losers win these days: the Albanians took the bodies of KLA men who’d been killed in battle, stripped all weapons and ammo from them, and showed them to gullible Western reporters as victims of a Serb "massacre". It was a massacre, all right, but only because the KLA couldn’t fight worth a damn. Alive and armed, they were a joke; dead and disarmed, they helped win Kosovo by making their side the "victims", which led directly to U.S. military intervention.

To win the way the Albanians won in Kosovo, you need to make a lot of babies. It’s that simple. And to see how it works, you have to drop the namby-pamby liberal idea that people only have babies out of "love". In lots of places on this planet, baby-making is a form of weapons production.

Peter G. Peterson wrote in his book, Will America Grow Up Before It Grows Old?, "demographics is destiny". No matter what others say to convince you otherwise, one doesn't have to look very far to see that war being fought and lost. With many first world governments seemingly consulting Planned Parenthood on sustaining society, and birth control easily available, many nations face a demographic débâcle unprecedented in world history. Who continues to heed God's first command to our first parents, "Be fruitful and multiply"?

The answer, I'm afraid, is frighteningly obvious.

Lord Have Mercy

Serb anger has finally boiled over.

Police are using tear gas to disperse crowds of rioting people who have been attacking embassies in Belgrade. The closed US embassy building has been set on fire. The Turkish, Croatian and Bosnian legations have also come under attack. More than 30 people have been injured.

Why America Supports Kosovar Independence

TO CONTROL CASPIAN OIL

Is this another Guantanamo in the pristine mountains of Kosovo? What's the 21st Century term for "gunboat diplomacy?"

In June 1999, in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of Yugoslavia, US forces seized 1,000 acres of farmland in southeast Kosovo at Uresevic, near the Macedonian border, and began the construction of a camp.

Camp Bondsteel is known as the "grand dame" in a network of US bases running both sides of the border between Kosovo and Macedonia. In less than three years it has been transformed from an encampment of tents to a self sufficient, high tech base-camp housing nearly 7,000 troops - three quarters of all the US troops stationed in Kosovo.

Exposing the War on Terror™

ARUSHA, Tanzania - President Bush on Monday hailed Kosovo's bold and historic bid for statehood, saying "The Kosovars are now independent."

[...]

"It's something that I've advocated along with my government," Bush said in an interview on NBC's "Today."

- Yahoo! News, Mon Feb 18, 11:06 AM ET

We've long known US President George W. Bush's War on Terror™ to be nothing more than a sham, serving only to justify unilateral preemptive war, perpetual war, human rights abuses, and other violations of international law, but this takes the cake.

In an interview two years ago, Gore Vidal rightly pointed out, "It’s like a war against dandruff. There’s no such thing as a war against terrorism. It’s idiotic. These are slogans. These are lies. It’s advertising, which is the only art form we ever invented and developed."

American recognition of Kosovar "statehood" is proof yet again that America is not the least concerned with curbing violent extremism, but with furthering its quest for global hegemony.

As with American foreign policy since the Second World War, Washington continues to arm and support known terrorists today for no explicable reason other than to "contain" Russia, now but a shadow of its former self. As it trained and armed Osama bin Laden in the 80s, so it recognises Kosovar statehood today.

The politicians of America have learned nothing from the past. They have funded terror in the past, and they continue to do so today.

It is a state governed by the political arm of the terrorist UÇK (the deceptively named Kosovo Liberation Army), and ruled by Hashim Thaçi, a convicted criminal and known organiser of the Drenica Group, which has been involved in the smuggling arms, stealing cars, oil and cigarettes as well as with prostitution, the establishment and maintenance of connections with the Albanian, Czech and Macedonian mafia.

This very UÇK, which NATO supported against the legitimate Serb authorities in Kosovo during the 90s with four months of continuous bombing, is, according to Human Rights Watch, "responsible for post-conflict attacks on Serbs, Roma, and other non-Albanians, as well as ethnic Albanian political rivals... widespread and systematic burning and looting of homes belonging to Serbs, Roma, and other minorities and the destruction of Orthodox churches and monasteries... combined with harassment and intimidation designed to force people from their homes and communities... elements of the UÇK are clearly responsible for many of these crimes."

These are the people the West hands Kosovo and Metohija to on a platter today.

So much for being the guardians of freedom and democracy.

Seven years ago, President Bush said in an address to Congress, "Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."

So much for "every terrorist group".

So much for the "War on Terror".

But we have hope.

Edward writes:
Remember, my friends - Kosovo 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 notwithstanding. It will be tangibly Serbian again when the current experiment collapses and when the very names of Bush, McCain and Clinton are rightfully consigned to the rubbish bin of history. Serbia has suffered worse, and she will emerge from this triumphant again - I have faith in the Serbian people, and in God, who sees and judges justly.

The Serbian Orthodox Church Speaks

During its extraordinary session held at the Patriarchy on the 17th of February 2008, the following statement on the latest developments in Kosovo and Metohija was issued by the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, aimed at the national and international public:

Just like uncountable times before, the Church is announcing once more today, that Kosovo and Metohija was and must remain an integral part of Serbia, in accordance to the Charter of the United Nations, Security Council Resolution 1244, as well as according to all relevant international conventions on human rights, the rights of peoples and on the inviolability of internationally recognized borders.

[...]

In this particular case, this means granting new legitimacy to centuries of Ottoman violence with its impact on the entire region, as well as re-applying the fascist solution (that of Mussolini and Hitler) to the Kosovo issue dating back to the times of WWII, when Kosovo and Metohija were annexed to so-called Great Albania, when thousands of Orthodox Christian Serbs were expelled from their secular homes, just like in 1999, with the objective of not having them return, ever.

We are deeply appalled by the fact that, according to the words of an American Ambassador, it was because of the presently announced illegitimate and illegal recognition on behalf of the governments of the United States of America, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and others, of the self-declared Kosovo independence - Serbia and Montenegro were bombarded in the first place. Thus, the presumed protection of human and minority rights by using bomb attacks with the code name "Merciful Angel", represented only a preparation for this final trampling on justice and tearing the heart out of Serbia's breast.

More HERE.

The Noose Tightens

Kosovo's parliament has overwhelmingly endorsed a declaration of independence from Serbia in an historic session.

The declaration, read by Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, said Kosovo would be a democratic country that respected the rights of all ethnic communities.

The US and a number of EU countries are expected to recognise Kosovo on Monday.

- BBC News, Sunday, 17 February 2008, 14:50 GMT

Now a great cloud hangs over all the land; and it is deepening.

Kosovo and Metohija is the historical heartland of Orthodox Serbia. The mediæval Serbian state was centered around Kosovo, and today remains the heart of Serbian Orthodoxy; home to more than 1,300 churches and monasteries.

Yes, that is the full name of that province: Kosovo AND Metohija. The latter was used to denote a territory of the Church in the Middle Ages; Albanians and the Western media tend to simply use "Kosovo", ignoring the word that would imply that Kosovo belongs to the Orthodox Church.

During the last decade, the Christian Serbian population have been driven from their homeland by Albanian terrorism, openly supported by bombers of the defunct Cold War relic, NATO. Today, the criminal overlords of Kosovo declare independence. Today, yet another piece of Christendom is lost to Islam.

For the last five years, Albanian terrorists, the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK), who have strong ties to al-Qaeda and are now the de facto rulers of Kosovo, have systemically been destroying ancient churches, libraries and monasteries, with the open consent of the occupying NATO forces.

When Saddam Hussein annexed Kuwait, the Western powers insisted that sovereignty, borders determined by international law and the United Nations and must be protected. Now, those same guardians of international law seem to have forgotten their own arguments and are doing everything to ensure that Kosovo becomes independent from Serbia.

The Americans and British are hypocritically supporting this farcical independence because they still believe in "containing" Russia, and this move would supposedly balance Russian influence in the region. Serbia, demonised by the media since the Yugoslav wars of the 90s, is powerless to do anything.

We're going to have yet another Muslim terrorist state.



Say a prayer for Kosovo.

One takes comfort in the words of Elder Barnabas of Gethsemane Skete from more than a century ago:

"Persecutions against the faith will constantly increase. There will be unheard-of grief and darkness, and almost all the churches will be closed; but when it will seem to people that it is impossible to endure any longer, then deliverance will come. There will be a flowering. Churches will even begin to be built. But this will be a flowering before the end."

UN Plans for Kosovo Independence

The United Nations envoy for Kosovo says independence is the "only viable option" for the territory, in a report to the Security Council.

The envoy, Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari, says Kosovo should have internationally-supervised independence for an initial period.

Serbia has rejected a previous outline of the proposals, which have been broadly accepted by Kosovo Albanians.

- BBC News, Tuesday, 27 March 2007, 01:01 GMT

Now, I've written a great deal on Kosovo independence to the point where readers have grown weary of the subject. It is not my desire to pontificate, nor do I wish to carp on this topic any further. I write because Kosovo draws nearer and nearer to independence every day.

I've stated this before: there is no such thing as an independent Kosovo. It cannot be independent simply because there is no such ethnic group as the 'Kosovars'. An independent Kosovo will become Albanian sooner or later.

Kosovo belongs to Serbia both historically and culturally - the UN has no right to take it away on any grounds. The Finn they have appointed as envoy has to be completely deaf and blind to the plight of Serbs in Kosovo. They say Kosovo must be "freed" of Serbia because Serbs are now a minority - but what made them the minority in the first place? It is none other than Albanian terrorists.

An Albanian Kosovo will see to the destruction of Serbian culture and history. Christianity will be forced to depart this land forever.

Let us pray that this day does not come. Keep Kosovo Serbian!

UN Chief "Reassures" Kosovo Serbs

Serbs should not be afraid to live in Kosovo after the United Nations hands over power, the head of the UN mission (Unmik), Joachim Ruecker, has said.

- BBC News, Thursday, 1 March 2007, 14:18 GMT

Who is Mr Ruecker trying to bluff? It wasn't safe for Serbs to live in Kosovo even when the K-For (the 16,000-strong international military force deployed in Kosovo) were around. Serbs have been murdered, churches systematically destroyed and God knows what other atrocities have been committed by the Albanians under the watch of international troops.

What has NATO/K-For done to allow for the return of the 240,000 Serbian refugees expelled by the UÇK (the local Albanian terrorists) in 1999? Absolutely nothing.

Serbs live in heavily guarded areas, under constant protection by K-For troops. Living conditions are almost ghetto-like. There are no protections from violations of civil and human rights. There is no rule of law.

This is what NATO has achieved: the slow genocide of the Serbian Orthodox population of Kosovo. The UÇK has expelled over 240,000 Serbs, Roma and Jews. The UÇK has destroyed over 112 Serbian Orthodox churches supposedly under NATO/K-For/UNMIK protection. The UÇK has desecrated over 10 Serbian Orthodox cemetaries. This is what NATO has achieved. Imagine what the UÇK will do when Kosovo finally falls into their hands.

Lord have mercy.

The Islamification of Kosovo

UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari has presented plans for the future of Kosovo which would allow it to separate from Serbia.

- BBC News, 2 February 2007, 13:53 GMT

What Ahtisaari will propose is whatever America wants. If it’s independence we’re not going to stay – that would be a dictatorship.

Slavka, ethnic Serb

If Ahtisaari’s proposals are accepted we will lose our educational system, health system and a lot of people will lose their jobs.

It’s going to be hard for us, and I think 80% of us will leave.

Vladan, ethnic Serb

The natives have made it clear - if Kosovo, the cradle of Serbian Orthodoxy, secedes, the Serbs will leave, and with them the last vestiges of Christianity.

Let us pray for Kosovo!

Kosovo

A church in a Kosovo village of Gornja Brnjica near Pristina was robbed and looted by unidentified men who broke into the church on the eve of Christian Orthodox Christmas and stole church money, icons and then damaged the church.

[...]

This is the second time the church has been broken into in the past two months. Last time the looters stole a part of the church bell.

"Since the end of the war this is the fourth time the church was been desecrated," said Djordjevic.

The church of the St Peter and Paul is built on an ancient foundation near the tombstones of legendary Serbian defenders of Christendom, brothers Jugovic, who were murdered by the Muslim army set to invade Europe in the 14th century through Kosovo.

Serbs in Gornja Brnjica, who are Christian, are surrounded by hostile Muslim Albanians that are openly harassing and threatening Kosovo Christians with violence and organized pogroms.

[...]

Since 1999, over 200,000 Christians have been expelled by the dominant Albanian Muslims who seek to create an ethnically and religiously pure state out of the Kosovo province currently administered by the UN.

- Serbianna.com, Monday, January 15, 2007

In their rabid push to force a takeover of Kosovo, Moslem Albanians have once again resorted to violence and intimidation. Yet, the native Serbs have again weathered one more display of Mohammedan megalomania. I wonder for how much longer.

It is difficult to imagine that in a continent as civilised as Europe, such acts of barbarism are common, happening almost daily, and with even less media coverage than the plight of Darfur refugees. For in the eyes of the liberal media and most of the world, the Serbs are villains, and their suffering is justified.

It is difficult to imagine that the UN, currently administering the province, would stand by and watch as one Moslem atrocity after another happen. They have done nothing. The plundering, looting and vandalism go unpunished. Even if they care nothing of Orthodox Christianity and her people, the numerous monasteries and churches that have been targeted by Mohammedan rabbles are outstanding works of art and architecture, masterpieces of human creative genius. Yet, despite meeting the criterion for a World Heritage Site many times over, UNESCO has yet to deem any one of them as such. The UNMIK (United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo) has done nothing whatsoever to prevent these priceless buildings from being lost forever.

It is difficult to imagine that, for all his rhetoric on terror, President Bush forgot about Kosovo - a land which, under his predecessor, has suffered greatly. The Americans, in all their misguided zeal, have instead chosen to tackle Islamic terrorism in all the wrong places of the world.

There has been much talk on Kosovo seceding from Serbia - and I cannot help but wonder if the UN has made some secret pact with Moslem insurgents to turn Kosovo into a modern-day Turkey: an ethnically and religious pure "secular" state dominated by Moslems.

Lord have mercy.