STINA (AP)--Serbia's government representative for Kosovo visited the disputed province Wednesday in her first trip here since her appointment last month.
Sanda Raskovic-Ivic met with U.N. officials, but the venue of the meeting between the two delegations had to be changed due to a protest by an ethnic Albanian youth group.
Raskovic-Ivic said she was pleased with the constructive meeting she had with U.N. officials and urged them to pass on to ethnic Albanian leadership that reform of local government in the province is crucial for the Serbs.
Ethnic Albanian youths assembled at the main U.N. building in Pristina protesting her visit. The U.N. moved the venue to their administration building on the city's outskirts. After a several hours-long wait, members of Kosovo Action Network hurled eggs at the U.N. building.
Serbia's government has recently appointed Raskovic-Ivic to be their envoy to this disputed province, which has been administered by the U.N. since mid-1999 when a NATO air war halted Serb forces' crackdown on ethnic Albanians seeking independence.
An estimated 10,000 ethnic Albanians were killed during the conflict. After the end of the war, tens of thousands of Serbs fled the province in the face of attacks and threats from ethnic Albanian extremists.
Those Serbs remaining live mainly in isolated enclaves scattered around the province, and the two communities remain divided.
Talks to resolve Kosovo's status are expected later this year if Kosovo - legally a province of the Serbia-Montenegro union that replaced Yugoslavia - meets U.N.-set standards on democracy, human rights and rights of minorities.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority demands independence, while Serbs want the province to remain within their borders.
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Man shot to death in Albanian church while his children watched
Anton Kçira, the priest at St. Paul Albanian Catholic church in Rochester Hills, Michigan, was just about to distribute communion when 38-year-old Gjon Pepaj allegedly stood up from the congregation and said, "Yes, I am here!" and shot into the ceiling with a 9mm handgun. As the congregants scattered, according to reports, Pepaj then shot 38-year-old Gjek Isufaj in the back of the head, killing him. Then, according to witnesses, he shot into the air again, said, "I've done what I'm supposed to do," and shot Isufaj once more.
I believe this is the civility of the Albanians you were comparing to the Serbs.
You trying to say we are less civil?
Serb murderous "art work" and rape all over Croatia, Bosnia and Kosova speak for themselves.
Yet you base your premise that Albanians are uncivilized because of some madman.
What this man did in the Church is a crime. What Serbs did in the last 15 years are genocide, rape, murder of civilians, implementation of supremacists ideas, none of which were done by Albanians.
that is your opinion, what I supplied was fact.
Fact: NATO bombs Serbia because they cause genocide.
2000-3000 dead on both sides doesn't constitute genocide.
12 000-20 000 Albanians dead. 3 000 dissapeared.
as for the Serbs they always come with numbers they think it'll be good for propaganda. Never heard any G8 member talk about genocide against Serbs. The numbers provided by the Serbs are always fictitious. The Serbs started 3 wars and they claim genocide against the Serbs. That's like the NAZIS claiming genocide against the Germans.
"that is your opinion, what I supplied was fact."
It's hardly an oppinion when you experience it yourself.
You supplied a fact about a crime that happened in the Michigan. What was the crime rate that day in Michigan? How many arrests? How many murders?
This proves that you have nothing to point towards Albanians when you have to go all the way to Michigan to pick on a single murder for you to claim Albanians are "uncivilized"...
As for my "oppinion", you either lived on Pluto or Sedna cause if you lived on Jupiter or Saturn (which are just a couple of milion kilometers away from our planet) you would have heard and seen all the crimes Serb paramilitaries, army, police and volunteers (as well as civilians) commited in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosova.
Mass graves, mass Serb war criminals, mass rapes are not an oppinion, they are the arrogance and blood thirst of Serbian nationalism to achieve their ideal of supremacy upon other nations. They are a fact.
Take a look on all the topics and see who starts the provocations. Its always a Serb.
wow! at last someone telling it like it is, i.e. Xeberus. I absolutely agree with this fellow. Shame is not reserved for any one group over another in the Balkans. There's plenty of shame to go around in Serbia-Mont., Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia. Especially for those who still fail to recognize the killers in their own midsts - many are even called war heroes. And..Reconciliation is not even part of the lexicon in the post war Yugoslav states. Hell, internationals dictating policy in the Balkans these days never bring it up (reconciliation) - and the various conflicting ethnicities/nationalists never bring it up either! It's like people in the Balkans fail to realize that prolonging conflict, ethnic or otherwise, only helps the morally corrupt elements of society. As well, eternal conflict helps the international scoundrels that seek to make profit from the suffering in the former Yugoslav states. And, without some semblance of stability, Serbs, Albanians, Croats, Bosniaks, etc. will fail to gain the respect they so desperately want, and they will certainly not get the investment that will assure a lasting future for their children. All of this is predicated by the idea that there are victims and victimizers in every former Yugoslav state (province in the case of Kosovo), and very rarely have these two groups met face to face to work their shit out! Until this happens - good luck with any real progress. I wish you people luck! you'll need it!
as a long-time friend of kosova and scholar of the balkans, i would have to agree with the previous two posters. i read the comments on this blog almost every day and i am often dissapointed at the constant "your country is more evil than ours" mentality. obviously terrible things have happened. in many of the most recent (i.e. within the last 10 years) and wide-scale (this is an important factor) cases, these incidents were instigated by serb paramilitaries, but that's not to forget that the albanian mafia has also been profiting from instability. reconciliation obviously will not be easy now because the final status has STILL not been settled (which is the fault of the international community), but there must also be some inward criticism and acception of wrong-doings from members of both ethnic groups. when i crossed the hungarian/serb boarder last year (LEAVING serbia going INTO hungary) in an albanian bus, a serb boarderguard took my passport back to his booth with about 10 other random passports. the albanian bus driver then supported the boarderguard's claim that i (as an american citizen) had to pay a €10 fee to get my passport back. after i refused to pay and demanded my passport, i got it without having to pay. i later found out that the albanian bus driver and the serbian boardguard were splitting the profit of this scandalous passport scam.
i would love to see a posting from one albanian and one serb here acknowledging that they each have corrupt elements amongst them who profit from instability and that essentially, 99% of albanians, serbs and all humans would prefer to just go about their lives earning an honest living (i.e. employed) and taking care of their families.
will anyone admit this?
Everyone knows that every society has corrupt members. U have to be an idiot not to accept it. Reconciliation however starts from the Serbs apologizing for all the crimes they've commited in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosova all because of the fascist idea of Great Serbia. Once they do that I'm sure every Croatian, Bosnian, and Albanian will slowly change their attitude towards the Serbs. However the recognition of those crimes has to come from the Serb popullation. They have to be the ones to say that horrible crimes have been commited in their name. The situation at the moment suggests that that day will be very far as the majority of the Serbs sympathize Milosevic's and Sesejl's men, according to the latest polls.
The Serbs are instilled this feeling of superirity since childhood. Do you know how government officials call Serbia today. The Tigers of the Balkans which is very reminiscent to the para-millitary group called Arkan tigers( which I'm sure there's Serbs here that consider him a hero for killing children and women in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosova). Now imagine German official calling their country after the war the Gestapos of Europe.
Even without the paramillitary relation imagine the USA officials calling USA the tigers of the world. I'm sure everyone here would grant it that that would be not only stupid but wouls show that these people are superior over everyone else. Nobody is superior to anyone.
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