OTIMAČI IZGUBLJENOG KOSOVA

[Scordisk]

Morate elaborirati

[scallop]

Ako bolje razmisliš - ne moram. Ni ti nisi ništa "elaborirao", ali natruniš svašta.

[Scordisk]

Samo sam istakao svoju frustraciju, jer ja u ovoj situaciji sa Kosovom, sa Uneskom pre svega, ali i sa svim ostalim političkim potezima glede naše bivše teritorije, ne vidim da je u pitanju bilo kakva odbrana istorijskih spomenika, kulturnog nasleđa ili, čak, zaštite nacionalnih manjina, ili bilo čega što se inače glasno ističe. Kao i uvek, to je borba političara jedne, druge i treće strane koje za navedene ciljeve oko kojih se navodno brinu, ne daju ni pišljivog boba. Ali Srbi slave što Kosovo nije u Unesku (ne kažem da je to dobro ili loše, samo mislim da su motivi poremećeni).

[scallop]

Odmah sam ti napomenuo da ti to ne razumeš i da ne treba da se jediš. Ali, ti bi, po svaku cenu. Počni od toga da ako ti nešto uzmu, a ti nisi dao, onda ništa nisi izgubio. Individualni motivi nemaju značaja ni ko za Maricu krivi. Jebote, pa Franja Tuđman nije dao ni "pedi", a ti se misliš koj će ti Unesco.

[Dybuk]

U stvari, i ja sam frustrirana situacijom oko Kosova, totalno iracionalno - ko i nasi politicari. Ne znamo sta ce nam, nemamo mehanizme zastite kulturnog i ostalog nasledja, a i da imamo nije nas brige, al ipak - ne damo.
Sta je moja frustracija, ja ne umem da objasnim. Nikad tamo bila, niko moj odatle, nisam ni religiozna pa da zbog toga brinem za manastire - ja ih posmatram kao kulturno nasledje, jedan znak da su Srbi tamo nekad ziveli. A ipak me iritira situacija. Tudje necemo svoje ne damo.
Mislim da Skordisk ima poentu, jer se nista konkretno ne resava, samo prolongira i ubiraju politicki poeni.

[Scordisk]

Jebote, pa Franja Tuđman nije dao ni "pedi", a ti se misliš koj će ti Unesco.

Je, ali je Franjo uspešno sproveo, ugovorio i ozvaničio jedno etničko čišćenje, i to sa takvom političkom veštinom da je to danas nacionalni praznik. Ipak je imao kakvu - takvu strategiju na umu.

Ovi naši, koji se već trideset godina ne mrdaju iz vlasti ili opozicije, propustili su svaku šansu da spasu šta se spasiti može - mogli su to po engleskom receptu (udaviš separatističke teroriste u živom kreču a narod pacifizuješ bombonama), ili, kao što su to Bugari, Turci, Grci i Hrvati svojevremeno izveli, lepo etnički očiste prostor. Nije da sam ja za proterivanje bilo koga od bilo gde, daleko bilo, moje iskustvo sa kosovskim Albancima je uvek bilo prijatno, ali to su ipak afirmisani politički potezi koji, osim ako nisu izvedeni u dogovoru sa Zapadom, smatraju se zločinima. Samo treba lepa nagodba. Opet, ponavljam, to nije dobro rešenje bilo, ali jeste bilo rešenje. A ovi naši danas mažu oči narodu takvim pobedicama za koje ni sami nisu zaslužni - da je geostrateški interes da se Kosovo uključi u bilo šta, osim da bude okupaciona zona za transfer robe, oružija i ljudi, bili bi oni odavno u Unescu.

[Scordisk]

Moram poći na posao, kucaćemo se, nadam se, uskoro:D

[scallop]

Ni meni niko nije sa Kosova ili iz Metohije, al' mi nije zgodno kad se groblja zatiru i crkve ruše. Bilo čija.
Eto, ja tvrdim da oko KiM nema političkih poena koji bi se mogli ubrati. Taj koji bi oni nama dali je gori od žeravice. Bolje je ponekad osvrnuti se i pronaći podatke da su Ivo Andrić i Meša Selimović okupaciju u Drugom svetskom ratu proveli u Beogradu, a na onim mestima gde su im nudili. I nisu pitali ko je za kralja, a ko ne, ko kojoj partijskoj opciji pripada i tako to. Samo su znali gde im je mesto.

[Dybuk]

scallop - da, svakako. U medjuvremenu sam razvila dva jaka antagonizma - prema albancima sa kosova zbog varvarskog rusenja, skrnavljenja i ostalog, i onima koji ih podrzavaju - zbog ocigledne nepravde, cak sokantne, koja se sprovodi. Sto bi moji za mene rekli 'vri'! (krv) a povodom reakcije na kosovske tablice i zastave po Ulcinju pre par leta.

[scallop]

Muka je što opet ulećemo u generalizaciju. Šiptari nisu nikada kolektivno rušili spomenike. Ima tamo neka linija, blago finansirana i podsticana, da održava dostignutu tenziju. I ima jedna druga koja bi najradije utekla odande zajedno sa Srbima iz Srbije.

[Dybuk]

Verovatno, to vec ne znam.

[Ghoul]

[Meho Krljic]

 Kosovo top court backs key EU-sponsored deal with Serbia

Pristina (AFP) - Kosovo's constitutional court on Wednesday backed a key EU-sponsored agreement with Serbia that has prompted harsh opposition criticsm and months of violent protests.
Under the deal, Kosovo and Serbia agreed to set up an association of Serb minority-run municipalities that opponents say will deepen Kosovo's ethnic divide and increase Serbian influence.
Serbia does not recognise its former province's independence and the dialogue brokered by the European Union is designed to improve relations between the two sides which fought a war in 1998 and 1999.
The association of the Serb municipalities "is to be established" as provided by the 2013 Kosovo-Serbia agreement, the court said in the ruling released to media.
However, the court stated that the principles of the agreement for the establishment of the association "are not entirely in compliance with the spirit of the constitution" and said it "shall meet the constitutional standards," giving no further details.
The court also suspended its decision from last month to halt implementation of the agreement.
Opposition lawmakers have paralysed the functioning of parliament in Pristina since mid-September, disrupting sessions by releasing tear gas, in a bid to get agreements with Serbia overturned.
Following failed attempts by the governing coalition and opposition to reach a compromise on the issue, Kosovo president Atifete Jahjaga referred the matter to the constitutional court.
A rally in the streets of Pristina against the deal degenerated into riots in November, which were denounced by the government and foreign observers.

[Meho Krljic]

Turkey's Islamist Agenda in Kosovo

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed an audience in Prizren during an official visit to Kosovo in October 2013: "We all belong to a common history, common culture, common civilization. We are the people who are brethren of that structure. Do not forget, Turkey is Kosovo, Kosovo is Turkey!"
Turkey's foreign policy in the Balkans promotes a neo-Ottoman agenda, aimed at expanding its influence in former territories of the Ottoman Empire. Turkey exports Islamism under the guise of cultural cooperation. It also seeks economic advantage, using business as leverage to consolidate its national interests.
The Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) is a vehicle through which Turkey advances its ideological agenda. TIKA is the vanguard of Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP), which supports Muslim Brotherhood chapters around the world. TIKA runs a parallel and complementary foreign policy to official state institutions, coordinating with Turkey's Ministry of Culture and the Presidency of Religious Affairs to promote the AKP's Islamist agenda.
TIKA operates like a social welfare agency. In Kosovo, it supports more than 400 projects in the fields of agriculture, health and education. Affordable health care is offered in Kosovo at Turkish-run hospitals and clinics, sponsored by TIKA.
Despite its extensive activities, Zeri reports that the Central Bank of Kosovo has logged only 2.7 million Euros transferred by TIKA to its Kosovo account between 2009 and 2014. TIKA transfers most funds in cash with no official record. It does not want to draw attention to its activities.
Most TIKA funds are used to restore Ottoman monuments and build mosques. For example, TIKA supported restoration of the Sultan Murat Tomb in Kosovo. It rebuilt Ottoman religious sites like the Fatih Mosque and the Sinan Pasha Mosque, which cost 1.2 million Euros. Since 2011, TIKA has restored approximately 30 religious structures from the Ottoman period and 20 new mosques across Kosovo. Erdogan personally pledged funds to build the country's biggest mosque in Pristina.
In addition, TIKA supports regional Islamic unions and institutions. It subsidizes community based social mobilization projects, which promote Islam. TIKA's network of Muslim community leaders and imams, which includes imams from Turkey, actively promotes Islam. Its benevolence includes food for the Iftar meal during Ramadan, delivered to impressionable Kosovars in poor rural areas.

TIKA also sponsors schools in Pristina, Prizren, Gjakova, and Peja. Some schools provide Qur'anic instruction, as well as Turkish language instruction. As many as 20,000 Turks reside in Kosovo, where Turkish is an official language. The Turkish Embassy in Pristina awards 100 scholarships for Kosovars to study in Turkey each year.
But not all schools supported by TIKA are part of the formal education sector. Some function like madrassas, offering Islamic education, thereby contributing to the radicalization of Kosovar youth. The Government of Kosovo acknowledges that more than 300 Kosovars have joined the Islamic State in Syria. The figure dates back a couple of years. Today's number may be much higher.

Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Centers are also vehicles for Turkish influence. According to its charter, Yunus Emre Centers "provide services abroad to people who want to have education in the fields of Turkish language, culture and art, to improve the friendship between Turkey and other countries."

Support for educational institutions is a propaganda tool to foster a positive impression of Turkey among Kosovars. Turkey's Minister of Education visited Kosovo and publicly asked Kosovo institutions to change history texts in order to portray Ottomans as liberators, rather than as occupants and aggressors.
Erdogan asked the Government of Kosovo to close schools established by Fetullah Gulen, with whom he had a falling out. Kosovo officials acquiesced, though Gulen schools offered quality education to Kosovars.
Turkish businessmen also benefit from Turkey's aggressive religious and cultural promotion. A well-respected Turkish scholar asks of the AKP, "Are they Islamists or just thieves with a religious rhetoric?"
Turkey is Kosovo's largest trading partner, after Serbia. The trade volume between Turkey and Kosovo was 206.5 million Euros in 2012. (Export to Kosovo was 199.5 million Euros; import from Kosovo only 7 million Euro). Trade volume slightly decreased in 2013-14 due to an economic slowdown in the region.

Tenders for some of the biggest public projects in Kosovo have been won by Turkish companies. The Limak Holding Company won the concession to manage the Pristina International Airport. The Çalık-Limak Consortium also acquired the Kosovo Energy Distribution Services. Limak pledged to invest 300 million Euros in the transmission system, but its investment still has not materialized.
The Merdare-Morina highway connecting Kosovo to Albania was built by the Turkish construction company, Enka, in consortium with Bechtel. Çalik-Limak has just started construction of the Pristina-Hani Elezit highway between Kosovo and Macedonia.
The award of tenders may be subject to political influence. Çalik Holding and Limak are politically well-connected. Erdogan's son-in-law is a major shareholder in Limak.
The Turkish banking system dominates the financial sector in Kosovo. A majority of Kosovo's major banks are Turkish, including the Turkish Economic Bank (TEB).
More than 900 Turkish companies operate in Kosovo. About 7,000 Kosovars are employed by Turkish companies in, for example, the food processing and textile sectors. It is hard to be accepted or keep a job in a business where the owner is Turkish if you don't speak Turkish.
Kadri Veseli, a prominent Kosovo politician, was a former critic of Turkish concerns acquiring Kosovo state enterprises. Veseli bemoaned Turkey's penetration as bad for both Kosovo's economy and its EU aspirations.
Since becoming Speaker of Kosovo's Parliament, however, Vaseli has not said a word about Turkey's economic dominance. He and other prominent Kosovo politicians, including Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci, have close ties to Erdogan, as well as Turkish business and political leaders.
Turkey has cemented its influence through security cooperation. Around 2,000 Turkish soldiers were deployed as part of the KFOR peacekeeping mission in 1999. There are still 350 Turkish soldiers in Pristina and Prizren. Turkey has indicated its willingness to assume control of Bondsteel, the US base in Kosovo, as US forces withdraw.
Turkey has also shown itself a reliable political partner. Ankara was reluctant to endorse Kosovo's independence, lest a parallel be drawn with its Kurdish minority. However, Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize Kosovo when it declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu's notion of "strategic depth" views Turkey as a regional power and an alternative to the EU for countries like Kosovo. Muslim solidarity is the centerpiece of Davutoğlu's strategy to expand Turkey's influence.
Davutoğlu explicitly linked Turkey's foreign policy to its Ottoman legacy during a trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2009. "The Ottoman centuries of the Balkans were a success story. Now we have to reinvent this." He announced, "Turkey is back."
Faster integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions is the best antidote to Turkey's influence in Kosovo and the Western Balkans. US interests would also be served through intensified engagement in the region.
Closer cooperation between the US and Kosovo would be a bulwark against Turkey's export of Islamism. It would also prevent the further radicalization of Kosovo society, staunching the flow of Kosovars to join ISIS.
Mr. Phillips is Director of the Program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights. He served as a Senior Adviser and Foreign Affairs Experts to the US Department of State during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. Phillips is author of "Liberating Kosovo: Coercive Diplomacy and US Intervention" (Kennedy School at Harvard University and NBC Publishing).

[Ghoul]

Badnjak "probio" kordon, jajima na povorku Srba

Đakovica -- Raseljeni Srbi su na Badnji dan posetili Hram uspenja presvete Bogorodice u Đakovici i u portu doneli badnjak.

IZVOR: TANJUG SREDA, 6.01.2016. | 13:23
   
Oni su to učinili, iako je zbog njihovog dolaska u grad protestovalo nekoliko desetina kosovskih Albanaca, ali većih incidenata nije bilo.

Autobus sa raseljenim Srbima u portu crkve ušao je nešto pre podneva, uz negodovanje oko tridesetak kosovskih Albanaca, koji su ih po nevremenu i kiši čekali oko tri sata na nekoliko desetina metara od crkve, ispred policijskog kordona, koji je tu bio postavljen. 

Raseljeni Srbi iz Đakovice poslednje dve godine nisu mogli da obiđu manastir, jer su se tome protivili pojedini lokalni Albanci, koji su i prošle i pretprošle godine kamenovali autobuse sa raseljenim Srbima.

Većih incidenata danas nije bilo, ako se izuzme bacanje jaja, grudvi snega i jabuka prema Srbima, koji su u tom trenutku bili u autobusu i van domašaja Albanaca, koji se protive njihovom povratku u grad, javio je Tanjugov dopisnik sa mesta zbivanja. 

U Đakovici je bilo pojačano prisustvo policije, koja se mogla videti na svakom ćošku i u svakoj ulici koja je vodila prema Hramu uspenja presvete Bogorodice, a policajci u opremi za razbijanje demonstracija bili su ispred okupljenih Albanaca koji su protestovali.

Policija je Albance sprečila da dođu do manastirske kapije i tako što je ispred njih postavila i metalne ograde, pa nijednog trenutka nije bilo opasnosti po autobus u kojem su se nalazili raseljeni Srbi.

Predsednik Udruženja Đakovčana Đokica Stanojević rekao je novinarima da su današnji praznik i Božić nekada u Đakovici poštovali svi i da su Albanci nekada dolazili da Srbima čestitaju praznik.

"Tužan sam, jer putujem 800 kilometara da bih došao u svoj grad, svoju ulicu i da bih prošao pored kuće koja je na 100 metara odavde", rekao je Stanojević novinarima u porti manastira.

On je naglasio da im današnja poseta Đakovici znači mnogo i da se mora prihvatiti "da smo i mi deo Đakovice" i da jedino ako se shvati realnost, možemo ići ka budućnosti.

Stanojević je kazao da svi koji su grešili u prošlosti treba da odgovaraju i da treba da se zna da su Srbi "deo ovog grada" i da su nadležnima predali zahteve za povaratak u Đakovicu.

Autobus sa raseljenim Srbima, u pratnji policije, do Đakovice je došao iz Dečana, gde su Srbi prisustvovali službi povodom Badnjeg dana, a sa raseljenima je bio i predsednik Srpske liste Slavko Simić, koji je u izjavi Tanjugu rekao da su u ovaj deo Kosova došli kako bi poslali poruku mira.

"Nismo došli da izazivamo bilo kakve incidente i da provociramo. Okupljanje Albanaca je bespotrebno, komšije Srbe treba da dočekaju srdačno i tako pokažu volju da Đakovica ne bude monoetnička", rekao je Simić.

On je naglasio da Đakovica treba da postane onakva kakva je bila ranije - multietnička, a ne monoetnička.

U Đakovici je nekada živelo oko 12.000 Srba, a danas su u ovom gradu preostale samo četiri srpske monahinje.

[Meho Krljic]

Oliver Ivanović naravno/ nažalost proglašen krivim.



Реаговања на пресуду Оливеру Ивановићу

Потпредседник Владе Србије Расим Љајић каже да је шокиран осуђујућом пресудом за лидера Грађанске иницијативе СДП Оливера Ивановића и оценио да она може имати утицај на "укупну атмосферу која се ствара" на Космету. Министар Александар Вулин поручио да је осуђујућа одлука суда "силовање правде".


Потпредседник Владе Србије Расим Љајић истакао је да је сигурно да ће се атмосфера на Космету погоршати.


"Логично размишљање свих људи који су остали на Косову је – ако је овако прошао Ивановић, борац за демократска права – шта да очекују други грађани. Сигурно да ће атмосфера бити погоршана. Ово је пресуда која је пре политички него правно мотивисана. Имамо права да верујемо у то", рекао је Љајић новинарима у Скупштини Србије.
Према Љајићевим речима, осудити Ивановића за ратне злочине је потпуно неспојиво са оним што је он радио на решавању косовског проблема. Додао је да Ивановићево деловање никада није било противно демократским начелима решавања косовског питања са легитимним представницима косовских Албанаца.
"Никако не могу да га повежем (Ивановића) нити са злочинима, нити са овако драконском казном", рекао је Љајић.
Подсетио је да је држава урадила све што је било у складу са њеним могућностима у датим околностима, али да су, нажалост, те могућности лимитиране.
Навео је и да Влада Србије жели да се цела ствар разјасни до краја и да се то питање интернационализује.
Министар за рад, запошљавање, борачка и социјална питања Александар Вулин изјавио је да је пресуда Ивановићу "силовање правде" и да је немогуће да ће она постати и правоснажна. Оценио је да је то наставак праксе по којој право увек устукне пред политиком.


Како је навео, немогуће је да неко кога ниједан једини сведок није увео у догађај нити потврдио да се налазио тамо где су се дешавала кривична дела буде осуђен.
"Хајде да будемо сасвим рационални, ако је убица, девет година је смешно мала казна. А ако није убица, као што није, како можете да га осудите на девет година", запитао је Вулин новинарима у Књажевцу.
Додао је да се боји да је то наставак праксе по коме право увек устукне пред политиком, али и праксе да кад год постоје сукоби унутар албанског политичког корпуса треба пронаћи неког Србина који треба својом главом, слободом да умири духове међу Албанцима.
"Јако ми је жао што српска судбина увек стоји негде иза политике и што Срби на Косову и Метохији не могу да верују правосуђу које може невиног човека да осуди на девет година", рекао је Вулин.
На судску пресуду Оливеру Ивановићу реаговао је и председник скупштинског Одбора за Косово и Метохију Милован Дрецун оценивши да ће се пресуда одразити на политичку стабилност и безбедносну ситуацију на северу Косова и Метохије.
"Многи Срби ће имати осећај да суд није био довољно објективан и да је то порука Србима да могу да буду процесуирани за оно што нису учинили", рекао је Дрецун Танјугу.
Истакао је да је процес од почетка био противречан, од поблематичне валидности сведока који су га теретили за наводна недела, њихових котрадикторних изјава, до тога да Ивановић није могао да се брани са слободе упркос гаранцијама владе.
"То је све упућивало на могућу политизацију тог процеса", рекао је Дрецун.
Лидер Грађанске иницијативе СДП Оливер Ивановић осуђен је  на девет година затвора у Основном суду у Северној Косовској Митровици због ратног злочина над Албанцима 1999. године.
Председница демократске странке Србије Санда Рашковић Ивић оценила је да пресуда Оливеру Ивановићу представља још један доказ краха садашње српске политике према Косову и да би зато требало прекинути преговоре са Европском унијом и дијалог са Приштином.
Пресуда Ивановићу представља наставак НАТО агресије и прогона Срба у миру злоупотребом Еулекса и политички корумпираних судских органа, оценила је Рашковић Ивић у писаној изјави.
Српска народна партија (СНП) оценила је као скандалозну пресуду лидеру Грађанске иницијативе СДП и од власти у Србији траже хитну реакцију код међународних институција, пре свега у Савету безбедности УН, како би осудиле понашање Еулекса и спречиле спровођење такве пресуде.

[Ghoul]

Kosovska policija negirala je da su četiri osobe uhapšene ispred manastira Visoki Dečani povezane sa terorizmom ili pokušajem napada na manastir.

Portparol policije Baki Keljani kaže da su ti ljudi uhapšeni zbog nelegalnog posedovanja oružja.

Iguman manastira Visoki Dečani Sava Janjić ovo saopštenje naziva "vređanjem zdravog razuma" .

itd.

[МртавОзбиљан]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y64XJk-63U

[Meho Krljic]

Al Džazira istražuje:

Who are the Kosovar fighters in Syria?

Valon and Musli Musliu were only one kilometre apart as they fought for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria. This is the only detail of his brother's death that Musli would share with his family.

Eighteen months later, an old Kosovar man points to a narrow concrete bridge over a stream. As we cross, the road grows rougher and muddier. At the other side stand two houses set apart from the rest of the village, as if they have been cast out.

A few chickens run around; a dog barks.

The homes look unfinished, as if somebody had simply given up on them. They have no windows.

Selman Musliu, the second oldest of the five Musliu brothers, steps out of one and slips a thin jacket on over his vest. It is  minus four degrees Celsius outside.

"I thought we could handle it," he says. "That we could discourage Valon from going and be able to bring him back home on our own."

Valon was the fourth of the Musliu brothers. He was only 17 when he left home to study Islam at the main religion school in Kosovo's capital, Pristina. From there, he travelled to Saudi Arabia for further Islamic studies.

"All through his primary [education] and until the ninth grade, Valon did poorly at school," Selman explains. "But he found that he did very well in the religion school in Pristina. He became much more interested in Islam there, but it was in Saudi where we felt the real effects of his extreme views."

After three months in Saudi, he spent seven months in Syria. Then he returned home. The Turkish authorities had imposed a five-year ban on him entering the country.

"I told him, 'This is a good thing, you can stay here with your family now,'" Selman recalls, rubbing his bloodshot eyes.

But a month later, Selman received a call from a foreign number. It was Valon.

"I was so shocked, all I kept saying was: 'I don't trust you. I don't believe you.' Then he confirmed my fear: He told me he was in Syria."

Valon had made his way from Kosovo into Macedonia, and from there he had crossed through Turkey and entered Syria.

The family decided to contact the authorities in Kosovo for help, but Selman says they did nothing.

He had not contacted them earlier, he says, because "I didn't even dream that he would return to Syria ... I thought that's it, Valon would never able to cross through Turkey because he was banned."

In desperation, Selman turned to Valon's closest brother, Musli. Together, they came up with a plan to bring Valon home: "We agreed that Musli would go to Syria and persuade him to return. But Musli failed and he ended up staying there to look after him."

This is when things grew difficult for the family of farmers. Every brother is crucial for the upkeep of the farm, Selman explains. But the Muslius had now lost two. It had a crippling effect on the family's finances and welfare.

For Selman, it was also a personal blow; of all his brothers, he was closest to Musli.

"Missing your brothers is difficult. You feel it constantly," he says. "I spent so much time with Musli. We worked on the farm together. We worked hard to build our family home together. And every chance we got, we would play football together, too. Barcelona was my favourite team and Real Madrid was his."

He remembers a brother whose kindness was known throughout the village.

As for Valon, he says, his interest in Islam developed on its own. "He was the one who taught us all how to pray. I told him, 'You know the Quran, so you know you shouldn't go and you don't need to. But here we need you. You could do a better job by teaching us and others about the Quran.'"

When they were in Syria, the brothers stayed in touch with their family, calling at least once a week, emailing and video chatting.

Then, one Monday morning, just before 6am, Selman was woken by his older brother, Mohammed.

"He told me Valon is a shahid [martyr]. I froze. I was confused and shocked."

Shortly after, Musli called.

"I told him: 'Musli, that's it. You have to come back home now,'" Selman recalls.

But Musli had other ideas.

"He said, 'My brother has been killed. This is where his blood last dropped. I will never come back now.'"

According to various reports, Valon was killed in April 2014. The location of his death, however, is disputed, and Selman says that he is not sure where in Syria his brothers were fighting.

It has been eight months since Selman last heard from Musli. He speaks of him as though he, too, is dead.

"With Musli, there was nothing I could have done," he says. "It was never part of our plan. He was meant to bring Valon back home, not to end up there."The local hero and war veteran
Naman Demolli had a reputation as a fighter in Kosovo. In fact, in the eyes of his neighbours, friends and family, Demolli was a local hero.

During the 1998-1999 Kosovo war, he was the commander of a special unit of the Kosovo Liberation Army. But even before the war, he had taken on the responsibility of fighting for his family's wellbeing.

At the age of 17, Demolli headed to Italy and from there had gone on to Germany, working odd jobs along the way so that he might send some money home. His ultimate goal was to save enough to build his family a house.

But the war at home brought Demolli back. He worked his way through the ranks and, not long before the war's end, he was found injured in the mountains.

When his country gained its independence, Demolli left for Spain. He had a family of eight to provide for, and even this historical moment in Kosovo's history could not stand in the way of that.

"That was the kind of man he was: a generous man who made it his sole priority to take care of us," says his sister, Hamide.

"He fulfilled our dream; he built us this house in Pristina," she says, pointing to a three-storey structure in a hilly area north of the capital.

Demolli spent at least seven years in Spain. His brother, who asked not to be named, says that he lived with a group of religiously conservative Moroccans. It was upon his return that he noticed his group of friends had changed.

"Some of his friends would come over to our family home, and I overheard them telling Naman off, saying he should stop working and focus all his time on praying and serving Islam. This was strange for us," the brother says.

Videos on the internet show Demolli being arrested after he advocated that a mosque be built in Pristina.

In 2012, Demolli left for Syria. In November of that year, he was reportedly killed in Aleppo by the forces of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, becoming the first Kosovar fighter officially recorded as being killed in the country's war.

Hamide wipes away her tears with the hem of her sleeve. "When he died, it was horrible," she says. "For some time, no one knew if he was really killed or not. It was painful. For so long we kept praying he would come back."

Local reports said Demolli had carried out a suicide mission. Headlines in Kosovo read: "Survived the bullets of the Serbian regime, but not those of the regime of Bashar al Assad."

He was 38 when he died, leaving behind a daughter aged five and a three-year-old son. They are children, Demolli's brother points out, that he has never even met. Neither has he met Demolli's wife or her family.

Unlike the Muslius, the main dispute for this family is not where or when their brother died, but for whom he died fighting.

Demolli's family insists that he left to join the rebel forces in Syria because he wanted to defend the Syrian people. His 12-year-old niece defends him. "He went to Syria to fight with the rebel forces against Assad. Our uncle wanted to save people. He went to Syria to help them. He didn't know how complicated it was before he got there. He was a good fighter. He helped us win the war here [in Kosovo]."

And this is where the dispute begins. When Demolli arrived in Syria it seems few knew which group he had joined. Did he first fight for the Free Syrian Army and later defect to the al Qaeda affiliate, al-Nusra Front? Or did he join them from the beginning? Nobody seems to be sure, not even Kosovo's intelligence.

This lack of clarity seems to point to just how complicated the country and its numerous fighting factions can be to some of those recruited as fighters. That is what has motivated Demolli's three nieces to learn more about the war in Syria. A thin, dark-haired 14-year-old, with large glasses on her small face, says sternly: "We watch the news on Syria all the time. The media always lies about Syria. After our uncle left, we wanted to know why - why did he go to this country? Everyone forgot the Syrians and focused on terrorists. My uncle is not a terrorist."
'Not my brother'
Laila (not her real name) looks down as she taps her fingers on the wooden school desk. She is an English teacher but it took all the courage she had to return to her school after the news broke of her brother's suicide attack in Baghdad. It left 52 security officers dead.

"I was furious. At the same time, I was grieving. It was such a mixture of feelings," she says.

"I would ask myself over and over again: 'What have we done so wrong that would make him go there?' I was mad at him - how could he do this? He was not just a brother; he was everything to me."

Laila's brother was born in Germany, but the family returned to Kosovo when he was 10. He grew up listening to rock music and watching comedy films. It was from American music and movies that the brother and sister learned English.

He would obsess about things, she remembers, but then drop them as suddenly as he had picked them up.

"He would fall in love with something like astronomy or that movie Inception, and he wanted to understand everything to do with dreams. He would suddenly want to learn everything about it and drop everything else," Laila says.

After finishing school, he worked for a year and a half at Camp Bondsteel, the main United States army base in Kosovo.

She cannot reconcile the brother she knew with the popular image of a fighter. "He would not even dare to cross a red traffic light. He never threw rubbish on the streets. He would get terrified if he saw someone doing something wrong."

"We were the same people, him and I," she reflects. "The difference is that I have a much stronger personality. He was kind, polite and trusted people easily, but he did not have a strong personality. I always protected him."
She recalls how he started to change in the months before he left for Syria, adapting his behaviour to become more like the members of a new group he was spending time with. She says she knows the man who encouraged her brother to go to Syria and that he still lives in their village.

"Those people that he was getting to know, at the start, never spoke to him about religion. Instead, they would first act all friendly, tell him that he was one of them. My brother liked the way they would behave with him. Then, slowly they started to introduce the idea of hell, telling him the only way to repent and save yourself is to turn to religion. So, in order to go to paradise, where all good things happen, you have to sacrifice life. They spoke so much about how so many Muslim women and children were being killed."

In August 2013, her brother left for Syria. He told his family that he was going there to learn more about Islam. "Only later did we find out why he really went to Syria through a text message," she says. "He told us he went there to help people, that an Islamic State had been created and that the people lived according to Islamic traditions there."

He did, however, confess to his sister that there had been a moment when he doubted what he was doing there. "He asked his friend in Syria: 'Is this wrong what we are doing?'" she says. But the friend replied: "No, brother, you are the one chosen by God because you have a pure spirit and a good heart. And not many people will have this luck."

Less than a year later, on March 24, 2014, there was a suicide attack in Baghdad targeting security officers.

The next day, Laila's husband woke her up with the news: Her brother had been responsible for the attack. She does not know how he ended up in Iraq.

Today, she is still trying to make sense of all of it. "My brother and I shared different religious views. I am an atheist. One of the reasons I felt I was not able to change his view was that I never gave him the chance to really speak to me. I would get so irritated that I would refuse to listen. I did not give him the time to explain himself," she says.

"Maybe if I did, I could have understood what his plans were."

She stops tapping the desk and reflects: "He slipped on this path slowly. He was cheated. I am not justifying what he did. I feel terrible about the people who lost their lives. But that was not my brother, the brother I knew, who did that."'No haven' in Kosovo
These cases seemed to shock Kosovo almost as much as they shocked the families of the fighters themselves.

It may be a tiny minority, but according to the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS), the Balkan nation leads Europe with the highest number of fighters per capita in Syria and Iraq. KCSS says it has confirmed at least 232 cases of fighters from Kosovo in the conflict areas, but estimates that the true number is more than 300.

Those looking for a common thread in these stories may find it difficult to locate; the men seemingly have little in common.

Florian Qehaja, the executive director of KCSS, says that the one commonality appears to be a desire to forge an identity.

"In the past, nationalism was part of the core identity [in Kosovo]. People were fighting for a cause - to be liberated," he reflects.

"Now, young people have no cause to fight for. As part of the international project to give Kosovo statehood, some did not accept this new identity because it was externally driven. During this void, some of the people were recruited on the grounds of creating a new identity - an Islamic one."

Although, according to a 2012 government census, almost 96 percent of Kosovo's population is Muslim, the nation is secular.

There is also a strong pro-American sentiment here, almost 17 years after NATO and US intervention helped bring the Kosovo war to an end. Many people speak with fondness of the US, and boulevards, bars and stores are named after the Clinton family and former US president George W Bush.

So, how has this happened?

Resul Rexhepi, the secretary of BIK, the main Islamic organisation in Kosovo, explains: "It's difficult to spot radicalisation as a lot of it happens through the internet and social media. We have even had a few imams who have been radicalised this way who have now been detained. But during and after the war, many foreign NGOs arrived here, bringing with them a Salafist ideology that never existed in Kosovo before."

Atifete Jahjaga, the Kosovar president, says it is an issue that the government does not take lightly.

"No country is immune to this global threat of extremism," Jahjaga says. "But, despite that, Kosovo has been the leading country in the wider region in fighting extremism. Since last year, we have carried out numerous operations and co-ordinated with intelligence to arrest over 60 Kosovar citizens who were planning to go to Syria and Iraq.
"We have also passed a law that will see 15 years of imprisonment to whoever joins this kind of organisation. Kosovo has never been and will never be a safe haven for this group or for these individuals."

Still, many Kosovars express frustration with what they perceive to be a failure to address some of the root causes, including a weak education system and rising unemployment rates. But Jahjaga believes such questions fail to appreciate the country's unique challenges.

"We should not analyse it from that perspective," she says. "We are a young country. We have overcome enormous challenges and only gained independence 16 years ago."

[Dybuk]

Kosovska spirala nasilja

Pre osam godina Kosovo se proglasilo nezavisnim od Srbije. Danas ono ima mnogo nerešenih problema, a rad parlamenta već dugo je u zastoju.
Na godišnjicu proglašenja nezavisnosti očekuju se velike demonstracije, a predstavnici međunarodne zajednice šokirani su zbog nasilja na Kosovu.

"Nasilje ne sme biti prihvaćeno kao legitimno sredstvo za promenu vlade. Još gore je što se kosovska opozicija nije distancirala od nasilja. Debata u parlamentu se mora voditi argumentima, a ne suzavcem i Molotovljevim koktelima", rekao je Ernst Rajhel, opunomoćenik nemačkog Ministarstva spoljnih poslova za Jugoistočnu Evropu.

Od avgusta prošle godine, opozicija ometa sednice parlamenta bacanjem suzavca i jaja, kao i koncertima zvižduka. U početku je pokušavala da prinudi vladu da povuče sporazum o formiranju Zajednice srpskih opština.

Tim sporazumom se srpskoj manjini garantuju dalekosežna autonomna prava. Opozicija je istovremeno zatražila i da vlada povuče potpis sa Sporazuma o državnoj granici između Kosova i Crne Gore.

Paralelno sa blokadom parlamenta, opozicija je organizovala i više demonstracija – na kojima je bilo nasilja – pred zgradama parlamenta i vlade u Prištini.

Nasilje u parlamentu i na ulicama

Opozicija sada traži ostavku vlade i nove izbore.

"Vlada je stavila na kocku suverenost Kosova", rekao je jedan od vođa opozicije, Ramuš Haradinaj, za kosovsku televiziju. Devetog januara održane su najveće demonstracije otkako se Kosovo proglasilo nezavisnim.

Više hiljada građana demonstriralo je u Prištini tražeći odlazak vlade. Bacali su kamenice i Molotovljeve koktele, na šta je policija odgovorila suzavcem. Demonstranti su tražili i nove izbore jer ,,vlada radi protiv interesa države". Desetine policajaca su povređene, na zgradama vlade je pričinjena velika šteta. Više važnih poslanika je uhapšeno i kasnije smešteno u kućni pritvor.

Stranke velike vladajuće koalicije, Demokratska liga Kosova (LDK) premijera Ise Mustafe, i Demokratska partija (PDK) ministra spoljnih poslova Hašima Tačija, striktno odbijaju zahteve opozicije.

"Vlada neće podneti ostavku niti će biti novih izbora. Novi izbori na Koovu će biti održani tek 2018, kao što je predviđeno izbornim zakonom", naglasio je premijer Mustafa na svom Fejsbuk-nalogu.

Eksplozivna situacija

Ipak, situacija ostaje eksplozivna, smatraju posmatrači na Kosovu.

"Situacija na Kosovu je zabrinjavajuća. Slike nasilja su nanele veliku štetu imidžu Kosova", kaže za DW Safet Gerdžaliju, predsednik Privredne komore Kosova: "Vlada veliki strah od socijalnih nemira i demonstracija, jer Kosovo ima velike ekonomske probleme".

Najmlađa evropska zemlja ima stopu nezaposlenosti od gotovo 40 odsto. Etničke napetosti između kosovskih Albanaca i Srba su i dalje velike. Sprovođenje dogovora sa Srbijom napreduje sporo. Kosovo je do sada priznalo 112 zemalja, ali još nisu pet članica EU, Srbija, Rusija, Kina i Indija.

Nedavno mu nije odobreno članstvo u Unesku. Građanima Kosova je potrebna viza za EU. Oni više ne veruju da će im se situacija brzo popraviti. Zbog toga je u poslednje dve godine gotovo svaki deseti građanin napustio zemlju i potražio bolju perspektivu u Nemačkoj i drugim evropskim zemljama.

Predsednički izbori

Veoma sporna tema je i izbor novog kosovskog predsednika. Prema koalicionom ugovoru između PDK i LDK, na tu funkciju bi trebalo da bude izabran Hašim Tači. Doduše, za to bi mu u prva dva izborna kruga bila potrebna dvotrećinska većina od ukupno 12 poslanika kosovskog parlamenta. U trećem krugu bi mogao da prođe samo sa apsolutnom većinom. Tači je sporan, ne samo u očima nacionalističke opozicije, već i za neke poslanik vladajuće koalicije. Novi predsednik bi trebalo da bude izabran do početka marta.

I pored toga, Gerdžaliju smatra da svi problemi mogu da budu rešeni za kratko vreme. ,,Na putu ka evropskoj porodici nema alternative za dijalog, komunikaciju i partnerstvo. Kosovo mora da sprovede preporuke međunarodnih prijatelja iz Berlina, Brisela, Vašingtona, Londona, Pariza i Vatikana. I američki ambasador na Kosovu, Greg Delavi, smatra da ,,svi problemi treba da budu rešeni u parlamentu". Predsednica Kosova Atifete Jahjaga je prošle nedelje organizovala ,,okrugli sto" predstavnika vlade i opozicije. Ali, dijalog je ostao bez uspeha.

"Vidimo se 17. Februara", rekao je Ramuš Haradinaj.

A toga se svi u Prištini plaše. U sredu, na osmu godišnjicu proglašenja kosovske nezavisnosti, očekuju se najveće demonstracije posle rata na Kosovu 1999. Posmatrači smatraju da je realno očekivati da će tom prilikom doći do nasilja.

[Meho Krljic]

Ending the Shame of Kosovo's Rape Victims

Women sexually assaulted during Kosovo's war have been battling for recognition for nearly two decades. Now they're on the brink of getting it – but to do so, they'll have to overcome years of stigma.



DRENAS, Kosovo — For nearly 17 years, K.T. has been living with a secret. In 1999, during the conflict in Kosovo, she was gang raped by Serbian forces.

When her son found out, she says, he had a question for her: "Why didn't you ask them to kill you instead?"

If that was the reaction of her own family, what would the neighbors say? Fearing the humiliation, she suffered in silence. She says she tried to commit suicide. When she talks about that day, she still sometimes says it would have been better if she had been killed.


Thousands of survivors of the wartime sexual violence in Kosovo that took place when Serbia fought against an independence movement here in the late 1990s still suffer from stigma like K.T.. So it was a significant step when the country's parliament moved in 2014 to recognize them as war victims, entitling them to a state pension, after years of refusing to acknowledge them. Nearly two years later, the government is expected to soon form the commission that will begin accepting applications.

The country is trying to avoid many of the stumbles that hindered similar laws in nearby Bosnia and Herzegovina, where poor design and implementation meant only a fraction of the victims were recognized and compensated. Kosovo officials spent more than a year designing an application and verification process that is — on paper — confidential, sensitive, and accessible. They consulted survivors, local organizations that work with victims, international experts, and representatives from Bosnia. The result has been roundly praised by local advocates who work with survivors.

But it still might not be enough. The shame Kosovar society heaps on victims means many are afraid to apply for benefits, lest they expose their secret. Members of Kosovo's ethnic Serbian minority say they have been excluded from the process. And advocates say there are signs the government may set the benefit amount much lower — potentially less than half — of what they had hoped. A low pension not only trivializes the suffering of survivors, they say, but increases the chances that few women will even apply because the risk will outweigh the reward.

K.T., who asked to be identified only by her initials, said she plans to apply, encouraged by the Center for Promotion of Women's Rights in the town of Drenas, where she meets with other survivors and receives therapy. In a pink headscarf that's knotted under her chin and a pleated navy skirt, she looks the part of kindly rural grandmother, which she is. The support that she receives here helped her overcome depression, and now she tries to encourage other survivors to reject society's blame. But she says many of them are not ready even to come to the center, much less apply for the pension.

"I'm trying to convince other women who were raped to register, but very few will do it," she said. "They're afraid it will cause problems with their families — many are afraid their husbands would divorce and leave them. They say it's been 17 years and we've gotten nothing, so why register now? The risk is too big."

* * *

In 1998 and 1999, Serbian forces fought an ethnic Albanian insurgency in the then-Serbian province of Kosovo. Serbian police, soldiers and paramilitaries deliberately and systematically used rape as a weapon of war, to terrorize the population and aid in ethnic cleansing, according to a report in 2000 by Human Rights Watch (HRW). After a 78-day NATO bombing campaign drove Serbian forces to withdraw, Kosovo's guerilla forces and Albanian civilians were also accused of raping civilians. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but is not recognized by Serbia.

No one knows how many women were raped during the conflict. The HRW report documented 96 cases of rape by Serbian forces, but said the real number of victims was likely far higher. Therapists who treat survivors say that while there are likely thousands, only hundreds have come forward for confidential treatment. Men were also raped, according to counselors working with survivors, but that fact is almost never acknowledged publicly.

It took years for Kosovo to include victims of sexual violence on the list of those given government benefits for their wartime service or suffering. The stigma against sexual assault stemming from traditional beliefs that link a man's honor to the sexual purity and physical safety of his female family members, still runs deep here. In 2013, when an opposition politician advocated such legislation, she was attacked outside her home. In parliament, lawmakers argued the government couldn't afford to make payments to victims of sexual violence, or that there was no way to prove their claims.

When the law finally passed in 2014, the government was tasked with writing the regulations that would govern the application and verification process. And they had a nearby example: At least 20,000 women are thought to have been raped during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia. Both of Bosnia's political entities, the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, passed laws allowing survivors to be recognized as war victims and receive government benefits. But the application of these well-intentioned laws was full of missteps.

One key problem is that the process differed significantly by entity. In Republika Srpska (RS), it was extremely difficult for applicants to gain recognition, and the monthly pension was far lower than in the Federation — most recipients in RS receive 100 marks ($57), though they could receive up to 350 marks ($200), while those in the Federation receive 563 marks ($321). Applicants were required to produce medical documents to prove that they had suffered physical injuries, and had to prove they had lost 60 percent of their physical ability to qualify to be recognized as war victims and received the pension. "If you think about the kinds of consequences that women faced, it's difficult — how do you quantify, in terms of percentage," the damage suffered by survivors, said Stephanie Barbour, a war crimes expert who worked on sexual violence issues in Bosnia. "This was something that, anecdotally, kept women from even applying. It was a great hurdle." Some women didn't even have medical documents, because at the time they were victimized the stigma or the ongoing conflict kept them from visiting a doctor or police.

While it was easier to be recognized in the Federation, the process there was also not without serious problems. Survivors were required to have their cases certified by a victims' association, which interviewed applicants about their assaults. According to a 2009 report by Amnesty International, those interviews — in which survivors had to recount the details of their assaults to a group of strangers without a therapist present — left many women traumatized.

And many women were deterred from applying, because they felt the association's office was not discreet, and because it raised the possibility of offering survivors' testimony to a state court for use as evidence in criminal proceedings. Because of the poor state of witness protection in Bosnia and a lack of trust in the justice system, many women did not wish to pursue criminal cases against their rapists.

Todor Gardas, a campaigner on Amnesty's Balkans team, said only around 800 women were recognized as war victims in the Federation. Part of the problem, he said, was "there were no incentives to come forward. The Federation ... did not proactively try to approach communities and find victims. So really [victims] were only able to access this through a couple of intermediaries, a couple of NGOs who've been there in the field providing psychological support and trauma therapy. But that was very, very limited, so the reach was very limited."

And even those whose applications were accepted, he says, were "marked." When they approached institutions in the country for medical or other services promised under the law, their status as rape victims was apparent.

* * *

In Kosovo, officials set out to design a process with as few barriers as possible, and sought input from civil society, international experts, and survivors. Avoiding the re-traumatization of survivors was first priority, said Jeta Krasniqi, a political advisor to president Atifete Jahjaga who coordinates the National Council on Survivors of Sexual Violence During the War, which helped shape the regulations. "We wanted to make sure that we were drafting a document that would be in line with civil society's requirements, and would heed the 'do no harm' principle," she said. "We needed a mechanism that would be responsible but easy. .... that gains the trust of survivors."

The regulations they drafted create a commission with members from both government and civil society. All members are obliged to have been trained in interacting with victims of sexual violence; survivors can submit written applications that don't automatically require an in-person interview, and while they may attach supporting medical or police documents, such evidence is not required.

If the commission decides an interview is necessary, it can ask the survivor to appear before a three-person panel (rather than the entire commission), and the applicant can bring someone for emotional support. The commission won't send applicant testimonies to police or prosecutors, and all of the application materials will be classified.

It's too early to know whether regulations that look good on paper will be well-implemented — such failures are a common problem in Kosovo. But organizations working with survivors were emphatic in their praise for the government's consultative process and the result. "For the first time, the voice of civil society and the victims was heard," said Feride Rushiti, head of the Kosova Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims. "To a certain extent, I think we need to see the implementation. But we as civil society had full access to interact and intervene."

* * *

Yet while organizations working mostly with ethnic Albanian victims say the process was inclusive, members of Kosovo's ethnic Serbian minority say the opposite. In drafting the guidelines for the application and verification process, the president's council didn't invite input from the Serbian community, said Dusan Radakovic, head of the Advocacy Center for Democratic Culture (ACDC). Deep divisions remain between Kosovo's majority population and its Serbian minority. ACDC is located in North Mitrovica, a majority Serb municipality in north Kosovo where ethnic Serbs still rely on the Serbian government, not Kosovo, for many services.

Radakovic said the law to recognize survivors of wartime sexual violence discriminates against minorities because of its time frame — only those raped between February 27, 1998, and June 20, 1999 are eligible to apply. Serbian forces withdrew from Kosovo in June 1999, and Radakovic said that many rapes of ethnic Serbs and other minorities by members of Kosovo's guerilla force, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and Albanian civilians, took place afterward, meaning the victims are ineligible to apply for recognition. Sexual violence against minorities after the withdrawal of Serbian forces was documented in a 2001 HRW report.

"If they're not included, it's breaking their rights," said Radakovic. "These women cannot apply for reparation." He said he sent a request to the president for the time frame to be extended, but received no response. "We would have really appreciated if we had a chance to participate in the council and give our point of view."

Blagica Radovanovic is director of Santa Marija, which works with victims of domestic violence in the majority Serb municipality of Zvecan. She said the organization works with survivors of wartime sexual violence, but that the government in Prishtina hadn't reached out to include them. "There was a conflict on both sides, not just theirs," she said, referring to Albanians. "They didn't take into consideration the Serbian women."

Veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army are widely venerated among the majority population, and accusations against them are highly unpopular. When four former KLA members were charged in 2013 with the rape of two ethnic Albanian women in 1998 and 1999, their trial was met with angry public protests. They were acquitted the following year.

Krasniqi, the coordinator of the president's council, disputes the Serb community's objections. She said the application process will be open to members of all ethnic groups and outreach will take place in all communities. "When the president formed the council she made it very clear that this is for everyone, women and men and all ethnic groups, not leaving anyone behind," she said. The president's council includes an ethnic Serb member, she said, adding that she had personally invited Radakovic to join the council or suggest another member. She points out that the application is available in Serbian as well as Albanian, as required by law for official documents in Kosovo, and that the regulation requires language assistance to be provided for any applicant who needs it, though Kosovo Serbs complain that the Serbian translations of laws are often so poor that they can be difficult to comprehend.

Kosovo's other ethnic communities have not voiced complaints. Medica Gjakova, a group that supports survivors in western Kosovo, including those who belong to Kosovo's Roma and Egyptian minority communities, has been involved in the deliberations of the president's council. Fehmije Luzha, head of the psychosocial department at Medica Gjakova described leading group therapy sessions including members of those minority groups and Albanian women without problems, and said she doesn't anticipate problems for them if they choose to apply for recognition from the Kosovar government.

But there are other challenges. As in Bosnia, it will be difficult for the government to reach a large number of victims. It will have to rely on groups like KRCT or Medica Gjakova to act as intermediaries, but most women who were raped have never even approached such organizations. Rushiti says she doesn't anticipate more than 1,000 applications at the outset.

The president's council plans to hold events throughout the country to raise awareness and encourage survivors to apply, and NGOs are already discussing it with their clients. "We're working with our clients a lot to try to convince them, telling them that confidentiality is a priority, " said Luzha. "Confidentiality is their biggest issue." Many were fearful at first, but have begun to accept the idea. Still, Luzha, a soft-spoken counselor who conducts group sessions as well as individual therapy, said each time she meets with survivors, they come up with new questions about the application process. If they do apply, those who haven't told their families about the trauma have to come up with an explanation for the sudden extra income. One client told Luzha she'll tell her husband that her brother, who lives abroad, began sending her money.

At the group's office in Gjakova, a meeting room is warmly decorated with sofas, hand-drawn pictures, and group photos. One of Luzha's clients is a mother of two who asked to remain anonymous. Her husband was killed during the war, and she raised her children on the pension she receives for war widows.

She asked Luzha if the benefit she already received would preclude her from receiving the pension for survivors of sexual violence. Luzha assured her it would not, but she's still hesitant about applying. One of the fears many women have, she said, is that in opening the bank account and withdrawing the pension every month, they'll be outed as rape survivors. "They will point at us and say 'look, she came for her money.' So the fear about stigmatization is stopping women," she said. Mirlinda Sada, director of Medica Gjakova, said it's imperative that the amount of the pension for survivors of sexual violence is identical to another category of victims so they aren't inadvertently identified.

* * *

Atifete Jahjaga, Kosovo's president, has made a small dent in the stigma faced by rape victims through a national campaign to raise awareness of wartime sexual violence. She has visited survivors across the country, speaking out on their behalf, and participated in an art installation in the capital last summer that brought attention to the stigma. Organizers collected thousands of dresses and skirts across the country, then hung them on clotheslines in Pristina's soccer stadium to symbolize the thousands of survivors. Sada and Rushiti say more women have come forward to seek treatment since the president began raising the issue. Jahjaga's actions don't just make survivors feel acknowledged, said Rushiti, but also show they are not to blame. By honoring those who are usually shamed, she elevates their status in society. "She went to Drenas and all the ladies wanted to make a photo with her because they wanted to show it to their families, their husbands, to say 'look, she cares for us, and you don't," said Rushiti.

But now Rushiti is worried that progress will be undermined. The government has yet to decide on the size of the pension. But last year it put the monthly benefit for KLA veterans at €130 to €170, and Rushiti says it's highly unlikely they would give sexual violence survivors more, and may actually give them less. She had been hoping for €300.

"I was very optimistic until recently. Now I have little hope," she said. "For some of them, their lives were broken in that moment. There is no chance for them to rebuild their lives with this amount. With this amount we're afraid some of these victims won't even want to apply. ... Knowing what victims are facing in daily life, what they fight to go through, this amount is a denigration."

The pension is not just symbolic. Many survivors are living in poverty and dealing with long-term health problems from the violence they endured. K.T., a widow with no income, lives with her sons and is entirely dependent on them for money. Because they disapprove of her visiting the women's center in Drenas, a 15-minute bus ride from her village, she only visits once a month. With a monthly pension, she could afford the bus fare on her own and decide to visit whenever she likes.

Now survivors are left wondering whether the amount will be enough to justify the risk of applying. One of them is M.H., a tall woman with short blond hair who is also from the Drenas area. She was four months pregnant when Serbian paramilitaries raped her, and the assault caused her to have a miscarriage. She was never again able to become pregnant.

Her husband knows what happened, and she's lucky — he's supportive. But his family doesn't know. A pension would help M.H. pay for the medical care she requires for problems stemming from her assault. But she says a monthly benefit of €100 or €170 is too little, compared to what survivors went through and what they risk in applying for it. "Every time I do an interview or come to the center, it means [my husband's family] might find out. And I'm worried about what they would do if they did," she said "Right now my husband supports me, but no one else. If [his family] finds out, there will be no place for me there."

Yet even if the benefit falls short, she will cherish the recognition. "It's like healing for us," she said. "Because it shows we are war victims. Every day we think about it. When we get support, we heal little by little. Maybe the shame will touch us forever, but we know we are not guilty."

[Meho Krljic]

Recognize Kosovo or Pay the Price

Eight years after Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia, five European Union states still refuse to recognize it. They need to relent. They are contributing to an economic and security sinkhole in the heart of the Balkans -- and if history is any guide, that's a bad idea.
During a chat with Kosovo's Prime Minister Isa Mustafa as he passed through the U.K. last week, it came up almost in passing that his country cannot join the EU's police information-sharing network, Europol, and is struggling to join Interpol. This is self-harm on the part of the countries doing the blocking.
I'm not saying Kosovo's secession from Serbia was a good thing. On the contrary, U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to endorse Kosovo's independence in 2008 was one of the worst he made -- a high bar. It made nonsense of the entire rationale based on which the international community intervened militarily in the former Yugoslavia: To prevent the change of borders by force. Russia took the Kosovo precedent and ran with it, starting in Georgia just months later.   But that is now history. Kosovo will not return to Serbia. More than half of all nations have recognized the former province as a state. In Europe, 80 percent have done so, and with good reason: Failure to integrate Kosovo will put their own security at risk.
Kosovo, a nation of 1.8 million, has Europe's highest proportion of citizens fighting with jihadists in Syria and Iraq; 232 as of a year ago and no doubt more today. Cross-border organized crime is entrenched, aided by corruption and in some cases complicity at high levels. So it makes no sense to leave this link in Europe's intelligence and information chain dark. Here's how Mustafa put it:

People went to Syria and Iraq and we have to prepare to deal with the consequences when they come back. For that we need regional cooperation, and we need access to international organizations such as Interpol. But for us the entry process has been prolonged.

For Europol the holdup is the five EU members that haven't recognized Kosovo as a country: Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Spain. For Interpol, the problem is wider:

At the international level, Russia and China make problems for us through the Security Council, and then other countries side with them. The same is true for Unesco membership.

Russia is hardly about to change its mind on this -- at least not until the rest of the world recognizes Crimea as Russian and the Russian-occupied Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent. So probably never. What matters most, though, is something Russia can't block: integrating Kosovo into EU programs and structures.
There may not be unlimited time to get this right. Nationalists are growing stronger in the Balkans as elsewhere in Europe. In Kosovo, they have gelled in the Self-Determination party, which is demanding that Mustafa's government resign over its acceptance of an EU-brokered agreement that gives limited autonomy to Kosovo's ethnic Serbs in an area close to the Serbian border. They are furious, too, over the government's agreement to settle the border between Kosovo and Montenegro. Opposition legislators have repeatedly released tear gas in parliament:

When we regional prime ministers speak with each other, we all talk about the rise of nationalist tendencies that we see. We have to be very careful not to let that take over.

Populist appeals are striking a nerve. Unemployment in Kosovo is 35 percent, and a staggering 61 percent among people under 25. Kosovo has become the poorest corner of the Balkans, in part because it has become so isolated in terms of trade, investment and travel. This in turn has driven hundreds of thousands of Kosovars to look for work abroad -- in the EU.
Mustafa was in London to meet with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which is helping with construction of a highway to Serbia and with upgrading the railway that links Serbia, Kosovo and Macedonia. He also wants to apply for membership in the World Trade Organization, but that may prove impossible because it is subject to a vote by current WTO member states.
Recently, Kosovo sought to join Unesco, the United Nations heritage protection organization. Russia helped Serbia block the bid and Kosovo fell three votes short of the two-thirds majority it needed. Kosovo's population may be more than 90 percent ethnic Albanian, but many of the ancient sites in need of upkeep and protection are Serbian Orthodox Churches.
It is hard to imagine Spain, which has so mishandled its own separatist movement in Catalonia, giving way to a unilateral secession by Kosovo, even now. At a minimum, though, Spain and Serbia's other EU friends can stop blocking Kosovo's membership in vital organizations. There is more to lose than symbolism.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
To contact the author of this story:
                Marc Champion      at mchampion7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
                Jonathan Landman     at jlandman4@bloomberg.net
 

[Ghoul]

ivica galami, ali - koga će na kraju da biju?
nas ili šiptare?
(u komentarima lepo ljudi ovo prepoznaju kao predizborni nastup za srbiju a ne za svet, koji će i dalje da diktira 'normalizaciju' sa nenormalnima)


"Srbija ne može da služi kao vreća za udaranje"

Njujork -- Srbija ne može da služi kao "vreća za udaranje" predstavnicima kosovskih institucija u prilikama kao što je sednica Saveta bezbednosti UN.

IZVOR: TANJUG UTORAK, 1.03.2016.
   
To je poručio ministar spoljnih poslova Ivica Dačić, istakavši da se Beograd ne boji i da je to što pregovara sa Prištinom, naša snaga, a ne slabost.

"Koliko god Srbija pokušava da pruži ruku, nemamo kome da je pružimo", rekao je Dačić, u oštrom tonu reagujući na izlaganje kosovske ambasadorke u SAD Vljore Čitaku na sednici SB UN o Kosovu.

Navodeći da izjave kao što su Čitaku ne doprinose poverenju, već nas vraćaju unazad, šef srpske diplomatije je naglasio da nije čuo da je Čitaku rekla i jednu jedinu rečenicu o temi sednice, a to je stanje na Kosovu sada.

"Srbija nije prisutna na Kosovu od 1999. Pa kakve veze Srbija ima sa vašim unutrašnjim problemima? Vi delite lekcije Srbiji, a znate šta se desilo sa svedocima u slučaju Haradinaj pred Haškim tribunalom. Više nisu živi. Pa je li to saradnja sa Haškim tribunalom?", rekao je Dačić.

On je kritikovao Čitaku jer govori o zločinima, ali ne govori o zločinima protiv Srba.

"Govorite i o tome da Srbi maltene nisu ni živeli na Kosovu, da su to bili vojnici i policajci. Pa kako možete tako da govorite? Dobro znate da su Srbi pre nekoliko vekova bili većina na Kosovu, to su istorijske činjenice", naglasio je Dačić obraćajući se Vljori Čitaku.

On je podsetio da se na Kosovu nalazi veliki broj srpskih istorijskih, verskih i kulturnih spomenika što, kako je rekao, i Čitaku dobro zna.

"Šta hoćete da kažete - da 200.000 Srba ne treba da se vrate na Kosovo? Nemate pravo to da kažete. Kosovo nije ni vase ni moje, ni albansko ni srpsko, već onih koji tamo žive, tj. građana Kosova, a to su i Srbi", istakao je sef srpek diplomatije.

On je upitao Čitaku i da li, kada govori o nacionalnim manjinama u Srbiji, hoće da kaže da u Srbiji živi kosovska nacionalna manjina.

"A živi albanska. Ne može da bude albanska nacionalna manjina i vaša i ovih iz Tirane. Vi govorite o pravu naroda na samoopredeljenje, naroda koji je to pravo već iskoristio i ima svoju državu, Albaniju", kazao je Dačić.

On je upozorio članove SB UN da ono što se desilo Srbiji, može sutra da se desi i svakom od njih.

Šef srpske diplomatije je zahvalio svim zemljama koje nisu priznale jednostrano proglašenu nezavisnost Kosova, i to ne zato što su poštovale Srbiju, već zato što su poštovale principe međunarodnog prava.

Predstavnike EU, SAD i Britanije je zamolio da, kada govore sa predstavnicima Srbije uoči ovakvih sednica, imaju u vidu da Srbija ne može da služi kao "vreća za udaranje" predstavnicima prištinskih institucija.

"Ako mislite da se mi toga plašimo, varate se. I to što mi pregovaramo, nije naša slabost nego naša snaga", zaključio je šef srpske diplomatije.

Čitaku je odgovorila da se "Kosovo ne boji da priča svoju priču i da se hvata u koštac sa svojom prošloščhu".

"Imali smo grozan rat, ali niko ne bi trebalo da pokuša da stavlja znak jednakosti između zločina počinjenih pod pokroviteljstvom države i pojedinačnih akcija", smatra Čitaku.

Ona je rekla da će Priština sprovesti sve postignute sporazume, ali ne i one koji narušavaju funkcionisanje "države Kosova".

[Anomander Rejk]

Da li je moguće da je svima, ali baš svima jasno da se ni ta Zajednica srpskih opština nikada neće osnovati niti zaživeti, večito će biti nešto( suzavac u kosovskoj skupštini, izbori, demonstracije, itd)i da Zapad boli uvo što se to neće desiti, a da jedino našim vlastima to nije jasno?

[Ghoul]

ma jasno je svima, pa i našima, ali - ZAMAJAVANJE.

[džin tonik]

ne razumijem zasto polazite od "vecito ce biti nesto". nece, tek u iscekivanju konacnog rjesenja. natalitet, ljudi; srbi ce tamo sto izumrijeti, sto se udajom integrirati u drustvo. jos koje desetljece i gotovo. mozda ostane tek subjektivni pisani trag...

[Meho Krljic]

Da, al ovde je uvek strah da ako ne zaustaviš trend na Kosovu posle ti ode Preševska dolina, pa Vranje sa okolinom itd.

[mac]

Život je borba. I to borba sada, a ne kasnije.

[Dybuk]

Turskog glumca izvredjali jer je u Pristini rekao da mu je drago sto je u Srbiji

Glumac je juče sleteo na aerodrom u Prištini i izjavio da mu je drago i da je uzbuđen što je u Srbiji. Ubrzo nakon ove izjave pojavio se veliki broj negativnih komentara u kojima su vređali turskog glumca.

Naime, korisnici na društvenim mrežama izrazili su svoje nezadovoljstvo jer je rekao "da mu je drago što je u Srbiji".

U komentarima ljudi su pisali da je "došao na Kosovo, a ne u Srbiju". Uvrede su bile uglavom na nacionalnoj osnovi i veliki broj njih je istako da "pošto Burak ne poštuje Albance, da ni oni neće poštovati njega".

Najs! na vise nivoa.

[džin tonik]

ovi u komentarima grijese, nije dosao na kosova, vec su ga doveli. kao vola, jetija ili krapinskog covjeka, neko trece cudo, majmuna koji prica, tako nekako!

[Meho Krljic]

Kosovo's Hashim Thaci: From guerrilla leader to president

The last time Kosovo held a presidential inauguration, in 2011, many of its people found themselves scrambling for information about their new head of state.
A high-ranking but low-profile police official, Afitete Jahjaga was picked when a political crisis led to the need for a non-party, consensus candidate.
In contrast, the new president, Hashim Thaci, needs no introduction in Kosovo on the day of his inauguration. He has been one of the key figures in its recent history.
In the 1990s, he was a leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which fought a guerrilla war against Serbia from 1998-99.

Rise and rise of Hashim Thaci

   
• Leader of Kosovo's largest political party - the Democratic Party of Kosovo, which evolved from the Kosovo Liberation Army
• Prime minister when Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008
• Stayed in office until the end of 2014
• Became foreign minister, handling normalisation talks with Belgrade. "I've led negotiations with Serbia for the last 16 or 17 years," he told the BBC. "That's why I'm confident that the agreements we've signed are in Kosovo's interests"
• He has survived allegations of serious wrongdoing, from racketeering to, more seriously, involvement in organ trafficking dating back to his days in the KLA

Hashim Thaci told the BBC he welcomed the establishment of a tribunal in The Hague to investigate allegations against the KLA - and personally led the process to establish a special court.
"We have nothing to hide. It's an opportunity to deal with the past and move forward, and also a chance to explain that the war was a just struggle."
Ahead of his inauguration, Mr Thaci told the BBC that he was committed to tackling Kosovo's biggest problems.
"My focus will be on the rule of law, fighting organised crime and corruption." To that he added improving regional co-operation and "moving Kosovo towards EU and Nato membership".
But Mr Thaci's history counts against him, as far as his critics are concerned. And those dissenting voices have been particularly prominent in recent months - with opposition politicians repeatedly releasing teargas in parliament in protest at an agreement the new president negotiated with Serbia. That deal would allow majority ethnic-Serb areas of Kosovo a degree of autonomy.

The new president's inauguration will be far from universally acclaimed, according to Besa Shahini, a policy analyst based in the capital, Pristina, who argues that Mr Thaci

   
• Promised to deliver on foreign affairs and failed
• Ran a campaign on Kosovo joining Unesco - which "not only didn't happen, but countries which actually recognise Kosovo voted against us"
• Promised every year since 2010 to secure visa liberalisation to Europe's border-free Schengen zone

"Now he's president, which doesn't have too many executive functions, but it does have a representative function abroad," says Ms Shahini. "To have a man who's failed as a foreign minister, representing the country as president is very problematic."Tear gasKosovo's opposition has pledged to continue to make life in parliament uncomfortable for as long as there is no debate on the agreement with Serbia.
The National Assembly has installed powerful extractor fans to clear tear gas more quickly, but a gas mask is still an essential accessory in the debating chamber.

"Tear gas clarified things in Kosovo; now everyone can see better," says opposition MP Albin Kurti, former leader of the Vetevendosje party. He believes the new president is part of a political elite with authoritarian tendencies.
"The separation of powers is not there in Kosovo at all; the judiciary, executive and legislature are all mixed up. We need a new republic. The path we are on now is illogical."
Mr Thaci disagrees. Stressing that Kosovo is a "normal country", he has promised, to rise above party politics in his new role. Indeed, he hopes to position himself as a unifying figure.
"I will do my best to reach out to all and work in the interests of Kosovo," he says. 
For a man like Hashim Thaci that seems a formidable challenge. Kosovo is again in political crisis, but unlike his predecessor, he was not a consensus candidate.

[Ghoul]

OTETO KOSOVO ĆE DO KRAJA GODINE OPET BITI SRPSKO!

DOBIJAMO MOĆNE ZAŠTITNIKE
Vuk, Tramp i Putin vraćaju Kosovo!


Autor: V. Nestorović
| 14.04.2016.

Do kraja godine mnogo toga bi moglo da se promeni za Srbiju!


Samo zamislite svet, u kome je Donald Tramp predsednik SAD i Vuk Jeremić generalni sekretar UN, pa bi uz ruskog predsednika Vladimira Putina, naša zemlja mogla da se pohvali činjenicom da tri najmoćnije funkcije na planeti drže jedan Srbin, i dva državnika koji su više nego prijateljski nastrojeni ka Beogradu. Nije nezamislivo da bi u toj situaciji mogli da započnemo i borbu da Kosovo ponovo bude srpsko.

Vladislav Jovanović, nekadašnji šef srpske diplomatije, smatra da bi ovakav scenario bio idealan za našu zemlju, ali u razgovoru za ,,Alo!" poručuje da bi se tako nešto ostvarilo, potrebno je imati i malo političke sreće.

Dačić: Normalno je što podržavamo Vuka

- Normalno je da Srbija podrži svog čoveka koji ima šansu da dođe na to mestu. Ja u tome ne vidim ništa spektakularno - rekao je Ivica Dačić, aktuelni ministar spoljnih poslova Srbije.



- Zvuči suviše lepo da bi bilo moguće, ali ako postoji malo sreće u politici, možda bi i moglo da se ostvari. Najveći problem u formiranju ove ,,trojke" predstavljaće kandidatura Donalda Trampa. Njemu će se suprotstaviti cela konzervativna Amerika, ali bilo bi lepo kada bi za početak uspeo da dobije nominaciju republikanaca. U svakom slučaju bilo bi lepo da njega vidimo u fotelji u Beloj kući umesto gospođe Hilari Klinton. Što se tiče Putina, on i njegova zemlja su mnogo puta dokazali da su oslonac za naše državne interese na međunarodnoj sceni i bez njega bi se prepustili zapadnim silama koje nam nisu bile naklonjene prethodnih 25 godina - kaže Jovanović.

Kandidatura Jeremića za UN stigla je u poslednjem trenutku, ali kako smatra naš nekadašjni šef diplomatije, šanse da bude izabran na funkciju generalnog sekretara su više nego dobre.

- Bolje bi bilo da je dobio podršku Vlade ranije, ali šta da se radi. O toj poziciji pre svega odlučuju velike sile, Rusija, SAD i Kina, i one će biti te koje će presuditi, bez obzira na to kakvu prezentaciju naprave kandidati. Amerika bi sigurno volela da generalni sekretar bude neko iz zemalja članica NATO iz istočne Evrope, što sigurno ne odgovara Moskvi, kojoj Jeremić odgovara jer dolazi iz neutralne zemlje.

To je inače i bio običaj do sada, da se na pomenutu funkciju biraju ljudi iz malih i neutralnih zemalja, tako da smo za Rusiju sigurno prihvatljivi. S druge strane, Jeremić je uspeo da oživi kontakte Srbije sa nizom zemalja trećeg sveta, koje su bile zanemarene posle 5. oktobra, a neke smo i povredili, kao recimo Zimbabve. On je odigrao i pozitivnu ulogu kada je reč o Kosovu, i ako prođe filter Saveta bezbednosti, sigurno će imati dobre šanse u Generalnoj skupštini da bude izabran na mesto generalnog sekretara. Srbija bi onda u tom scenariju, najboljem po nas, zaista imala moćne saveznike, u Njujorku, Vašingtonu i Moskvi - smatra Jovanović.

Jeremić ,,preskočio" Bugarku

Bokovu Na najvećoj svetskoj kladionici Vilijam Hil, nakon objavljivanja zvanične kandidature Vuk Jeremić je sa trećeg mesta skočio na drugo, iznad Bugarke Irine Bokove. Po britanskim bukmejkerima, najveće šanse se trenutno daju Helen Klark sa Novog Zelanda.

http://www.alo.rs/vuk-tramp-i-putin-vracaju-kosovo/45275

[Ghoul]

OTETO KOSOVO = NEZAVISNA, PRAVNA DRŽAVA


Ubijen svedok specijalnog suda za zločine OVK?

Priština -- Nekadašnji pripadnik OVK Bedri Curi, čije je telo pronađeno kod Glogovca, bio je verovatni svedok suda za pripadnike OVK, piše prištinski dnevnik Bota sot.

IZVOR: RTS
PETAK, 22.04.2016.
   

Policija je bez komentara, javlja RTS.

Prištinski dnevnik, pozivajući se na neimenovane izvore, navodi da je Curi najverovatnije ubijen jer je bio svedok novog suda, pred kojim će se uskoro naći bivši lideri OVK kako bi odgovarali za ratne zločine.

Bedri Curi je ubijen kada je išao u posetu porodici koja živi nedaleko od Glogovca.

Policija nije želela da komentariše navode prištinskog dnevnika.

[Alexdelarge]

Rastanak s mitom

Razgovor Dejana Ilića sa Ivanom Čolovićem o njegovoj novoj knjizi ,,Smrt na Kosovu polju. Istorija kosovskog mita", Biblioteka XX vek, 2016.

Za vašu najnoviju knjigu ,,Smrt na Kosovu polju. Istorija kosovskog mita" mogao je, čini mi se, biti prikladan i naslov vaše prethodne knjige – ,,Rastanak s identitetom". Čak, umesto ,,rastanka", tu bi mogla dobro stajati i reč ,,obračun".

Kao što sam napisao u predgovoru, moja motivacija da se zainteresujem za kosovski mit i uopšte za političku mitologiju bila je lična, egzistencijalna. Reagovao sam na teror ratoborne, krvožedne verzije ovog mita koja se pojavila krajem osamdesetih godina prošlog veka. Slažem se da se taj teror može nazvati i terorom identiteta i – dodao bih – terorom kulture i da je ova knjiga o kosovskom mitu nastavak i dopuna mojih prethodnih knjiga o nacionalističkim mitovima o identitetu i kulturi. Slažem se takođe s vašim mišljenjem da se ovde zapravo radi o obračunu, pod uslovom da termin obračun shvatimo računovostveno, kao obračun troškova, a ne fajterski, kao uzvraćanje udarca. Jer ovde sam se trudio da popišem i napravim saldo razlilčitih političkih upotreba sećanja na Kosovsku bitku od 14. do 21. veka. Moj izveštaj pokazuje da je to sećanje, da je kosovski mit, na najgori, na najkrvaviji način upotrebljen u naše vreme, u ratu u Bosni, a zatim u ratu na Kosovu. Tada je u ime Kosova napravljena neprocenjiva šteta, bojim se, nenadoknadiv gubitak međunarodnog ugleda i samopoštovanja koje je Srbija stekla i uspela da sačuva od početka XIX veka do danas. Posle toga, vrednost kosovskog mita na političkom tržištu je opala, ali ipak nije istekla. Đinđić je pokušao da nas oslobodi ne samo Miloševića nego i takozvane "nebeske Srbije", ali, kao što znamo, u tome nije uspeo. Nebeska Srbija mu je, kako je tačno rekao Atanasije Jevtić, došla glave.

Pošto se knjiga pročita, utisak je da ste uložili veliki trud da ništa bitno ne izostavite. Kako ste prikupljali građu i po kom kriterijumu ste onda pravili selekciju i odvajali bitno od nebitnog?

Moje traganje za izvorima i literaturom o ovoj temi išlo je raznim putevima, bez nekog jasnog plana. Morao sam da se pomirim sa činjenicom da ne postoje kritička izdanja većine tekstova o Kosovskoj bici, počev od srednjovekovnih spisa pa do tekstova iz XIX i XX veka. Primetio sam da se poznati izvori danas uglavnom ne čitaju, nego se bez provere prenose mišljenja o njima nastala u XIX veku i u prvim decenijama XX veka. Dakle, tu je moj posao bio da pročitam tekst i da se svojim očima uverim šta tu zaista piše. S druge strane, nailazio sam na važne, ali zanemarene izvore priča o Kosovu, kao što su putopisi po Kosovu Miloša S. Milojevića, i u tom slučaju sam se trudio da na njih skrenem pažnju. Za pažljivo čitanje i upoređivanje dva izdanja drame Matije Bana "Car Lazar", od kojih je prvo objavljeno 1858. a drugo 1866. godine, nagrađen sam otkrićem da je ovaj autor u prvom izdanju dao Lazaru da hvali "snagu vlastele", a u drugom je to zamenio pohvalom "snage naroda". To je bio izvanredno rečit primer kako je naracija o Kosovu sredinom XIX veka bila nacionalizovana, kako je narod posto glavni junak kosovskog mita.

Knjiga se praktično deli na dva dela, iako ima celoviti oblik hronološkog izlaganja građe, to jest svojevrsne istorije ideja u vezi sa istorijskom bitkom na Kosovu polju i njenim docnijim mitskim preradama. U prvom delu objašnjavate kako se priča o sukobu granala i popunjavala fikcionalnim likovima i događajima, a u drugom prikazujete njenu političku (zlo)upotrebu od 19. veka do danas i tako dajete istoriju upotrebe mita.

U antropologij je rasprostaranjeno mišljenje – koje je, pored drugih, zastupao i Malinovski – da svaki mit ima političku funkciju, da je on neka vrsta političke povelje. Imajući to u vidu, ja sam odlučio da uspostavim distinkciju između kosovske tradicije, kao skupa folklornih, književnih, crkvenih i drugih dokumenata u kojima je sačuvano sećanje na Kosovsku bitku, i kosovoskog mita, kao mitopolitičke obrade te tradicije u XIX veku, kad je kosovska tradicija pretvorena u svetu priču o naciji, njenoj borbi, smrti i uskrsnuću. Ali kako je i pre toga, pre pojave nacionalizma, naracija o Kosovu imala političke i ideološke funkcije, ja sam tu naraciju svrstao u predistoriju kosovskog mita.

Oblike tog mita i njihove različite političke upotrebe pratite kroz smenu istorijskih epoha i pokazujete kako je simbolična vrednost koja je mitu pripisana bila razlog za njegove razne praktične prerade i upotrebe. Da li je samo ime mita dovoljno da i u posve protivrečnim njegovim oblicima i upotrebama tvrdimo da se radi o jednom istom – kosovskom mitu?

Da, kosovski mit – a reklo bi se i svaki drugi mit – ne određuje njegova sadržina. On može, kao što ste primetili, da prenosi vrlo različite, čak i međusobno suprotne poruke. Ta njegova prilagodljivost, ta široka upotrebljivost je glavni razlog što je kosovski mit opstao tako dugo, bar dva veka. Ono što ga određuje je njegov status u društvu, odnosno status neporecive, istinite, neupitne, u stvari svete priče. Pripovedači mita trude se da stave do znanja da je njihova priča od te svete vrste, koja ne traži razumno saglašavanje nego verničko priklanjanje i strahopoštovanje.

Kad je reč o terminu kosovski mit, interesantno je da se on, zajedno sa terminom nacionalni mit, u Srbiji najpre ustalio – ako ne i prvi put pojavio – među pristalicama fašizma i nacizma, u drugoj polovini 1930-ih. Oni su propovedali da je kosovski mit pandan germanskom mitu i da se od njega može načiniti srpski nacional-socijalistički mit pandan nacističkom mitu o kome je pisao Alfred Rozenberg.

Tri istorijska perioda koji su sledili jedan za drugim – međuratna kraljevina Jugoslavija; 2. svetski rat; posleratna, socijalistička Jugoslavija – pokazuju da su okviri kosovskog mita tako rastegljivi da u njih može gotovo sve da stane – od jugoslovenstva, izdaje i saradnje sa okupatorom, do slobodarskih i emancipatorskih klasnih narativa.

Opet ću se pozvati na antropologe i njima dodati druge istraživače mitova i simbola, koji nas uče da nema društva, da nema političkog sistema koji nisu manje ili više oslonjeni na imaginarno, na simbolično. Posao političara je da se između ostalog, a ponekad i pre svega bave onim što se zove politika simbola. I ja sam istražujući spsko društvo i politiku u vreme Miloševića primetio da tu važnu ulogu imaju simboli, pa se zato jedna moja knjiga o tom vremenu zove "Politika simbola". Dakle, po svemu sudeći, mitovi su sastavni deo, konstitutivni deo političkog života. Ali, u većini slučajeva promena režima ne donosi nove mitove, nego se stvaraju nove verzije postojećih, već uvedenih i rasprostranjenih mitskih priča. Takva mitska priča je i kosovski mit. Režimi koje pominjete – jugoslovenska kraljevina, Nedićeva kolaboracionistička "vlada spasa", komunistička Jugoslavija – trudili su se da izgrade svoju verziju publici poznatog mita o kosovskim junacima. Čak je i revolucionarna, komunistička vlast – iako je stvorila sopstvenu mitologiju, sopstvenu civilnu religiju, poznatu pod imenom Bratstvo jedinstvo – ponudila svoju politički korektnu verziju kosovskog mita. Već 1953. godine komunisti su podigli spomenik kosovskim junacima na Gazimestanu.

Kada na jednom mestu, u neobično velikoj fusnoti, citirate iz ,,Filozofije palanke" Radomira Konstantinovića, i pozivate se na njegovu ocenu ,,izdajničke" upotrebe kosovskog mita u 2. svetskom ratu, to se čita i kao reakcija na novi talas osporavanja Konstantinovića. Vi progovarate iz pozicije utemeljene u jednoj konkretnoj antinacionalističkoj i antiratnoj domaćoj tradiciji. Ali, vrednost te tradicije odlučili ste da pokažete na predmetu koji se obično vidi kao ekskluzivno nacionalistički – na kosovskom mitu.

Poslednjih decenija u Srbiji prednjače revitalizatori, uzgajivači, kultivatori kosovskog mita i relativno je malo onih koji nude njegovu kritičku analizu. Desilo se, eto, da ja koji sebe ubrajam među ove druge napišem prvu istoriju kosovskog mita, dok se njegovi uzgajivači nisu potrudili da ponude svoju verziju njegove istorije. Ali, to je razumljivo, jer sama ideja da se ovaj mit stavi u istorijsku perspektivu i da se tako ukažu njegova različita, protivrečna lica nije posao koji interesuje nacionaliste. Oni su zainteresovani, kako sami kažu, za kosovsku vertikalu, ali ne za istorijsku horizontalu, za večnost a ne za istoriju.

Ako vašu knjigu pročitamo kao istorijsku priču, onda je to priča koja nema srećan kraj. Pokazujete kako je zloupotreba mita o časti, junaštvu i slobodarskom duhu završila u razaranju i zločinu postjugoslovenskih ratova, konkretno u Srebrenici. Mit koji je u nekim vremenima imao i emancipatorske potencijale tu se pokazao kao puka krinka za kriminal. Da li je bilo nužno da se istorija zloupotrebe kosovskog mita završi sa gnusnim zločinima?

Da, kosovski mit je bio i u službi progresivnih, pravednih, legitimnih politika vođa srpskog i nekih drugih balkanskih naroda. Ali, kad je reč o emancipaciji, tu se javlja problem, jer mitovi, pa tako i kosovski mit, nisu sistemi komunikacije koji dozvoljavaju slobodu. Oni mogu da služe i za to da se ljudi mobilišu i za prihvatljive ili bar legitimne ciljeve, na primer za oslobodilački rat. Ali mitovi su iracionalan aspekt mobilizacije, u njima nema slobode izbora, u njima nema ličnog izbora.

To posebno važi za mitove o naciji, kakav je kosovski mit. U kultnim spisima o knezu Lazaru, govori se o njegovom ličnom opredeljenju za carstvo nebesko. Ali ono je u vreme nacionalizma preinačeno u kolektivno i nacionalno opredeljenje, u opredeljenje za smrt i večnost u ime celog srpskog naroda, kako je govorio Nikolaj Velimirović. Slično se desilo sa tradicijom o Milošu Obiliću. U starijim dokumentima o Milošu, njegovo junaštvo je njegov lični hibris, koji čak ima problematičnu vrednost za kolektiv, jer je time što je bez pitanja i Lazarevog odobrenja otišao da ubije Murata izazvao Turke da počnu bitku pre nego što su Lazar i njegovi borci bili za bitku spremni. Međutim, i MIloševo junaštvo je postalo kolektivno delo srpskog naroda, čemu je najviše doprineo Njegoš.

Kad je reč o korišćenju kosovskog mita za pravdanje najtežih zločina, kao što je zločin genocida u Srebrenici, mislim da takva uloga ovom mitu nije strana, ali da se on ne svodi na nju, da on može da posluži, kao što pokazuju primeri koje navodim u ovoj knjizi, za legitimisanje mnogo umerenije politike, politike koja pokazuje mišiće, ali se uzdržava od noža. Ja sam, međutim, jedan od onih koji misle da je mogućna i potrebna politika koja se manje zasniva na mišićima, a više na onome što imamo u glavi. Dobro, i na onome što imamo u srcu. Ali pri tom ne mislim na Kosovo, nego na ljudsku samilost i saosećanje sa žrtvama, sa žrtvama naših mitova, sa žrtvama kosovskog mita pre svega.

Peščanik.net, 13.07.2016.

[Aco Popara Zver]

''Kad je reč o terminu kosovski mit, interesantno je da se on, zajedno sa terminom nacionalni mit, u Srbiji najpre ustalio – ako ne i prvi put pojavio – među pristalicama fašizma i nacizma, u drugoj polovini 1930-ih. Oni su propovedali da je kosovski mit pandan germanskom mitu i da se od njega može načiniti srpski nacional-socijalistički mit pandan nacističkom mitu o kome je pisao Alfred Rozenberg.''


ovaj lik je kreten prvog ranga

dakle, jedna od ultimativnih razlika između Italije i Njemačke je što je Rimsko carstvo postojalo, a Alfred Rozenberg u knjizi Mit XX vijeka maltene tvrdi da ''nema veze što Arijevska pradomovina nikad nije postojala, važno je da narod vjeruje u nju''

tako razlika između italijanskog fašizma i njemačkog nacizma mora biti drastično povučena, pogotovo što je samo drugi bio antisemitski i genocidan, dok ovaj italijanski autoritaran, cezaristički i na momente komičan. Nikad toliko bolesno mitomanski da proizvede holokaust, na šta ovaj idiot aludira ovim pasusom... izjednačavati to može, rekoh, samo kreten prvog ranga.

[Meho Krljic]

Kosovo court jails ex-guerrilla fighter for war crimes  

  PRISTINA, Kosovo
   A Kosovo court with international judges has convicted a former ethnic Albanian guerrilla fighter of war crimes against civilians after the Kosovo war ended.
A statement Monday from the rule of law mission, known as EULEX, said Xhemshit Krasniqi was sentenced to eight years in prison for the "arrest, illegal detention, violation of bodily integrity, health and torture of several witnesses and unknown civilians." He was also handed a 1,500 euro ($1,660) fine.
EULEX said the crimes were carried out in Kosovo Liberation Army camps in Kukes and Cahan in Albania, as well as in Prizren in Kosovo in 1999. It did not mention specific cases or names of victims but added that "the accused carried out his actions in co-perpetration with other KLA members."
A Council of Europe report in 2010 claimed that leaders of the now disbanded KLA were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Serbs, Roma and ethnic Albanians suspected of collaborating with the Serbs. The report said this happened during the summer of 1999, after NATO's 78-day bombing forced Serb forces to withdraw from Kosovo.
The brief power vacuum that summer enabled the alleged organized persecution of non-Albanian minorities and political opponents.
Clint Williamson, a U.S. prosecutor who led the task force set up to investigate the allegations, has said there is collected compelling evidence that the KLA leadership sanctioned crimes that included "unlawful killings, abductions, enforced disappearances (and) illegal detentions in camps in Kosovo and Albania."
A special war crimes court for those matters was created last year following pressure from Kosovo's Western backers.
Some 10,000 people died and 1,700 went missing during the 1998-1999 war as Kosovo fought to break away from Serbia.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Serbia has vowed never to recognize the move.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/article94375572.html#storylink=cpy

[Boban]

Malopre probam da pošaljem knjigu na Kosovo i kažu mi u pošti da ne može, da su odnedavno zabranjeni svi štampani materijali, bilo kakav tekst na srpskom ne može proći zvaničnu carinu; da se sve otvara i oduzima.
Isto su Bugari radili posle Prvog svetskog rata u Egejskoj Makedoniji gde je ostalo nekoliko stotina hiljada Srba van granica Jugoslavije, a danas jedva da se iko od potomaka seća da je bio Srbin.

[mac]

Kako se to zakonski opravdava?

[tomat]

hmm, vidim da post express uredno nudi kurirske usluge danas za sutra na Kosovu...

[Boban]

Nije danas za sutra nego danas za 2 dana... u 26 sela oko Kosovske Mitrovice.
Ali ne mogu knjige da se šalju... niti bilo šta komercijalno. Možeš da pošalješ iznošene patike ili majicu otprilike.

[Meho Krljic]

Kosovsi Albanac Ardit Ferizi koji je pomagao Islamskoj Državi svojim 1337 haXX0r skillovima je osuđen na 20 godina robije u SAD:



Hacker Who Aided ISIS Gets 20 Years in Prison

Ardit Ferizi, aka Th3Dir3ctorY, 20, a citizen of Kosovo, will spend 20 years in a US prison for providing material support to ISIS hackers by handing over data for 1,351 US government employees.
Ferizi obtained the data by hacking into a US retail company on June 13, 2015. The hacker then filtered the stolen information, put aside records related to government officials, which he later handed over to Junaid Hussain, the then leader of the Islamic State Hacking Division (ISHD).
Ferizi provided data for one of the ISIS kill lists Hussain then uploaded this information online, asking fellow ISIS members to seek out these individuals and execute lone wolf attacks. Some of Hussain's statements included:
"  We are in your emails and computer systems, watching and recording your every move, we have your names and addresses, we are in your emails and social media accounts, we are extracting confidential data and passing on your personal information to the soldiers of the khilafah, who soon with the permission of Allah will strike at your necks in your own lands!  "
Because of this leak, the US Army targeted and killed Hussain in a drone strike in Syria in August 2015.
The US also tracked down Ferizi and issued an arrest warrant in his name. He was arrested on October 6, 2015, at the international airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, while trying to catch a flight back to Kosovo. Ferizi was in Kuala Lumpur studying computer science.
Ferizi was very well known in hacker circles Before helping ISIS, Ferizi had a prodigious hacking career as the leader of Kosova Hacker's Security (KHS) hacking crew.
As a member of KHS, Ferizi's previous targets included government websites belonging to the Presidency of Macedonia, the Greek Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace (DAMT), and the Greek Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religion. Besides defacements, KHS also stole data from IBM and Greek mobile telecoms firm OTE.
The hacker pleaded guilty to all charges on June 15, 2016. He faced a sentence of up to 35 years in prison, which was reduced to a maximum of 25 years after agreeing to plead guilty.
 

Read more: http://news.softpedia.com/news/hacker-who-aided-isis-gets-20-years-in-prison-508594.shtml#ixzz4LLsT9IcT

[Meho Krljic]

Serbia arrests senior Kosovo policeman 

     BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian police have arrested a senior Kosovo police official on suspicion of terrorism in a sign of ongoing tensions in the volatile Balkans.
Police said in a statement on Thursday they arrested a man from Kosovo, identified only by his initials N.T., "for the criminal act of terrorism." Police say he was detained while crossing from Kosovo into Serbia Wednesday evening.
In Kosovo, police spokesman Daut Hoxha told The Associated Press that Serbian police had detained Nehat Thaci, the head of Kosovo police for the northern town of Mitrovica.
Hoxha says Thaci was traveling privately when detained, and Kosovo police have demanded an explanation.
Kosovo, a predominantly ethnic-Albanian former Serbian province, declared independence in 2008 following a 1998-99 war. Belgrade has refused to recognize the split.

[Aco Popara Zver]

http://www.in4s.net/podjela-kosmeta-ili-junacko-cmizdrenje-kao-alternativa/

[Father Jape]

http://www.danas.rs/politika.56.html?news_id=356426&title=Vu%C4%8Di%C4%87%20%C4%87e%20raditi%20na%20tome%20da%20Kosovo%20bude%20priznato

[Meho Krljic]

To je jasno. A u međuvremenu, da se okrene neki dinar:

Za tvitove Marka Đurića milion dinara godišnje

Mislim, milion dinara sad kao zvuči impresivno a to je manje od 10.000 evra, pa još za Pašićevog naslednika. Pa nije to mnogo.

[mac]

Ekonomist aktivira priču o Kosovu. Što baš sad?

https://youtu.be/jo8k44_WgGg

[scallop]

Jel' vi to sad agitujete za priznanje nezavisnosti Kosova? Radoznao sam.

[mac]

Ne, otkud?

[Meho Krljic]

Welcome To The Country With The Biggest Crush On America

[akhnaton]

Welcome To The Country With The Biggest Crush On America

Pa kako i da ne budu zatelebasani u USA kada im je Bili "progresive" Klića bio jedan od pomagača da dobiju "neovisnost". Drugi pomagač je samo išo ko mladi bik među zgodne krave, a treći je samim svojim snom o izlasku na topla mora pomogo ohoho.

Isto ovako bi neki Rosiskiji glasnik mogao da napiše tekst pod naslovom: "Добро пожаловать в страну, которая полностью влюблена в Россию!!" , za ostatak srbije, da slika nekog kako se grli s vuci, loče rakiju, je prasetinu, i da stavi nekog popa pod obavezno.
I sve bi bilo isto...