Riots in Kosovo. Albanians attack Greek peacekeepers

[Dinner]

BTW If you call that town Urocevac instead of Ferishi you would get likely get lynched by the locals. The Turks called the town something like Ferishia and the Serbs renamed it after one of their kings in 1912 (if memory serves) when they captured the town. The Albanians called it Ferishi and pulled down all of the signs calling it Urocervac after the 1999 war.

[Bereta_Eder]

Well there were extensive riots throughout Kosovo.

18 people were killed, 200 wounded, Serbian houses were put to flames, invaluable Orthodox churches and monasteries from the middle ages were burned by the Albanians.

Apart from the Greek Lt. another 12 French and also Danish peacekeepers were wounded 3 of whom seriously.

[East Street Trader]

The obsession the people of the Balkans have for indulging racial hatreds is naff.

I support using troops from a close neighbour to police the area because they must have a better chance of understanding the background than would people from further away. Although the Greeks will certainly have to keep their over-sensitivity about Macedonia in check.

Depressing to think how long it seems likely to take before we no longer have to ask soldiers to put themselves at risk facing down angry mobs there. These 15 seem to have done an outstanding job.

Props to them.

[VetLegion]

Bad news. I hope EU peacekeeping force manages to keep it under control. Especially since I doubt this was the last outbreak of violence.

About the whole Kosovo issue. I can't fathom a flowery solution. Much of the region of inner Balkans is extreme in its tribal mentality, which also shows at the edges, such as say Athens and Zagreb, but is much weaker there. Mountains of Balkans have what we see in periphery as endemic nepotism and corruption - times ten.

We're talking about an entrenched eye for an eye mentality here. The priorities are: family, tribe ... even nation is much after and way after ... come democracy, rule of law, individualism, liberalism and tolerance.

The concept of compromise is unheard of. It is a sign of weakness. The winner is expected not only to take all, but also to make bloody sure the seed for the next generation of revenge is planted.

We're talking about the area that in some places had the custom of, should there be only females in the family, raising one daughter as a son. This means she got a male name she was addresed by, pissed upright, dressed as a man, carried weapons and took part in vendetta. Other women treated her as a man and so she behaved.

Ha, I bet they don't have that in Afghanistan!

I have the same understanding for these exotic cultural differences as I have for the *******s in Turkey who kill their sisters if they were raped or otherwise disgraced. Wherever you see high mountains with scarce resources you will find this type of mentality. (Varying from place to place depending on proximity to big cultural centers etc.)

But I say give me a decadent lowlands farmer over that anyday! And that says I, the first generation of my family actually born in the lowlands

Seriousely. No understanding and no discounts for the savages. Deal with force. They kill a boy - deal with force. They burn a church - deal with force.

Ofcourse, I am not advocating Israeli type of indiscriminate action here. I am saying that a strong court based legal system is needed if we want to see the circular volence end. The only way for the region to go forward is to break the strong clan connections (source of clan justice) and replace them with more individualism. I have yet to hear of an advanced tribal society. It may function ... but it can't go forward.

You can admit the whole thing into EU now and ten years from now things will still likely be the same. The only thing that can potentially end it is a combination of these factors: higher living standars, nuclear families, fewer children, less tribal mentality and the playstation. In my humble opinion.

That won't guarantee the end of conflicts, but will make the perpetrators more like us . Say like northern Ireland or Basque? Anyway, that's my two cents.

[Whaleboy]

Damn I hope the perpetrators get punished. The last thing the region needs is more conflict.

[East Street Trader]

I hitch-hiked through Yugoslavia several times when I was 18 and the people were friendly and extremely hospitable, often putting me up in their homes. Youngsters of my own age were fascinated by English/US pop music although they were mostly into big ballad singers (Ton Jones, Engelbert Humperdink etc) rather than bands.

Anyway at that time I saw no sign at all of the underlying hatreds. It came as a great shock when they all started massacring each other.

They say that it was Tito who kept Yugoslavia together. I know nothing of that, or how he did it if it is true. But the fact that the various people managed to co-operate peacefully together within one state for thirty or forty years must mean that they could perfectly well now decide to abandon all the traditional rivalry.

Whether they will or not I don't know.

I am certainly up for keeping the peacekeepers there. And for as long as it takes.

According to The Times the French took the brunt of the latest riots with ten men hurt. They seem to have contained the rioting. Let's hope their injuries are not too serious.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by paiktis22


My sources tell me that the mines were profitable and a major work for renovation of the mines had begun.
I'm glad you acknowledge it isn't resource poor BTW.

If there are any mines worth a damn then I didn't see or hear of them during the eight months I was in the country. The only mines I can remember were gravel mines.

[BeBMan]

Serious situation there now, NATO is sending more troops to contain the riots, first it was talk about ca. 350 men, now it is more than 1000.

I wished the people there, Serbs and Albanians, would understand that they are harming themselves if the situation gets worse....

[Datajack Franit]

Thanks so much to Mr Clinton and Miss Lewinsky for this

[Dinner]

The problem existed long, long before Clinton and in 100 year it will still be there.

You don't know much about the Balkans do you DF?

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by BeBro
I wished the people there, Serbs and Albanians, would understand that they are harming themselves if the situation gets worse....

To that effect, you'd need less sectarian hatred, or a strong government to contain it. Unfortunately, I don't see either coming up soon.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by paiktis22
(although I dounb one can still describe people who threw a grenade as mere protestors)

sig material, i think.

[DinoDoc]

That only counts if they aren't attacking Angloamerican bandits (TM).

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


Could be cuz, try as they might, they still haven't found evidence that the Serbs massacred any Albanians.

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/kosovo/

[lord of the mark]

where the bodies went

http://www.americanradioworks.org/fe...erup_text.html