September 27, 2011: Today, NATO forces in Kosovo opened fire on Serbian demonstrators protesting efforts by KFOR (NATO’s “Kosovo Force”) and the ironically designated European Union “rule of law” mission (“EULEX”) to force Serbs to submit to the illegal Albanian Muslim “authority” posing as an independent government in Priština. As summarized by retired U.S. diplomat Gerard Gallucci, who formerly served in Kosovo:
On September 27, the NATO force in Kosovo (KFOR) lost completely its guise as UN peacekeepers and became a repressive, lawless military occupation force. After seeking to use force to remove peacefully maintained barricades and to close a alternate road used by northern Kosovo Serbs, some locals apparently threw stones at the KFOR soldiers who then responded – in “self defense” – by firing at the otherwise defenseless Serbs, wounding at least six. The NATO action ought to be thoroughly investigated by an independent body to verify whether or not war crimes were committed. KFOR and EULEX ought to stand down and stop trying to change the political reality on the ground through such bullying and repressive measures before they provoke real violence.
At this time, writes Gallucci, “Details about the day’s events remain somewhat unclear. Various reports have suggested that the NATO shots fired were either rubber bullets or live ammo. It is also unclear whether the soldiers involved were German or perhaps American or Polish.” But make no mistake: if not for a political green light from Washington, NATO would not have taken the initiative of authorizing violence to remove Serbian barricades.
This latest escalation follows weeks of rising tensions since late July, when Hashim “Snake” Thaci – so-called “prime minister” of Kosovo, mafia kingpin, war criminal, and organ-trafficker – placed illegal checkpoints on the administrative line between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia, in a bid to force Serbs in northern Kosovo to submit his illegal administration. Incredibly, KFOR and EULEX, in violation of their “status neutral” mandate under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244, which is the only legal authority for their presence in the province, have backed up Thaci and his criminal cronies. The question now is, does this latest resort to violence mean NATO has decided on use of force – in the pattern of the genocidal 1995 “Operation Storm” in the Serbian Krajinas with the help of U.S. mercenaries – to impose a final solution on Serb resistors to the Albanian Muslim administration? Or will public attention force them to back off?
No less dismal than the spectacle of American and other NATO soldiers acting as enforcers for Thaci & Co. is that of Serbia’s supine “pro-western” government, under President Boris Tadić. Aptly dubbed “Vichy Serbs” by writer and analyst Vojin Joksimovic, Tadić and his government, seeing their own citizens under fire on their own national territory, can think only of stepping up “technical negotiations” with the Priština-based terrorists.
