BELGRADE, Oct 27, 2005 (DJCS via Comtex) --
Serbia is counting on China's veto in the U.N. Security Council to prevent Kosovo's independence, Serbia-Montenegro's foreign minister said Thursday.
Vuk Draskovic said that after talks with senior Chinese officials in Beijing earlier this week, "I got assurances that Serbia's territorial integrity" will be respected in any negotiated solution for independence-seeking Kosovo.
Monday, the U.N. Security Council decided to launch talks between Serbian and ethnic Albanian officials on Kosovo's future, clearing the way for tough negotiations on the status of the ethnically divided province.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders are demanding full independence, while its Serb minority and Belgrade officials want it to remain within Serbia-Montenegro.
Draskovic said that he told senior Chinese officials that Kosovo is Serbia's Taiwan. Although Taiwan is self-governing, Beijing insists the island that broke away amid civil war in 1949 still is part of China.
"I expressed hope that the U.N. Security Council, and China as its permanent member, won't allow that force defeats law," Draskovic said.
"The senior Chinese officials stressed their firm and principal stand that international borders cannot change and that any other solution would violate the U.N. Charter and international law," Draskovic said.
A negotiated solution on Kosovo's final status is expected to go through a vote in the U.N. Security Council. China is one of the Council's five permanent members with veto power over all resolutions considered by the body.
Meanwhile, Sandra Raskovic-Ivic, a Serbian government official charged with Kosovo, said no Serbian official would agree to "any form" of independence for Kosovo during the U.N.-mediated negotiations.
Although Kosovo formally remains part of Serbia, the U.N. has administered the tense province since NATO's 1999 air war against the former Yugoslavia that forced ex-President Slobodan Milosevic to end a violent crackdown on rebel Kosovo Albanians.
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27 comments:
Fine. We don't care if UN or China recognzed us. If US and EU do, then Serbia wants to join EU in the next 20 years, they will have to accept all EU policies, including EU's recognition of Kosova.
Taiwan isn't a bad place after all.
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
Associated Press Writer
October 26, 2005, 8:58 AM EDT
SKORENOVAC, Serbia-Montenegro -- Col. Zoltan Dani was behind one of the most spectacular losses ever suffered by the U.S. Air Force: the 1999 shooting down of an F-117A stealth fighter.
Now, for the first time since that night six years ago, the former Serbian commander of an anti-aircraft missile battery has consented to speak publicly to Western media about the circumstances surrounding the unprecedented downing of a U.S. stealth plane
The hit on the radar-evading plane on March 27, 1999, during the 78-day NATO campaign over Serbia, triggered doubts not only about the F-117s, but also about the entire concept of stealth technology on which the U.S. Air Force has based its newest generation of warplanes.
Military analysts debated how the planes would fare in a war against a militarily sophisticated opponent if an obsolescent air defense such as Serbia's could manage to track and destroy them.
In an interview this week with The Associated Press, Dani said the F-117 was detected and shot down during a moonless night -- just three days into the war -- by a Soviet-made SA-3 Goa surface-to-air missile.
"We used a little innovation to update our 1960s-vintage SAMs to detect the Nighthawk," Dani said. He declined to discuss specifics, saying the exact nature of the modification to the warhead's guidance system remains a military secret.
It involved "electromagnetic waves," was all that Dani -- who now owns a small bakery in this sleepy village just north of Belgrade -- would divulge.
The F-117 was developed in great secrecy in the 1970s. It entered service in 1983 but was not revealed officially until 1988. It saw its first combat in the 1989 invasion of Panama and was a star of the 1991 Gulf War.
"Long before the 1999 war, I took keen interest in the stealth fighter and on how it could be detected," said Dani, who has been hailed in Serbia as a war hero. "And I concluded that there are no invisible aircraft, but only less visible."
The F-117 was one of only two allied aircraft shot down in the war. The other was an F-16 fighter, which the U.S. Air Force said was also hit by an SA-3. Both pilots bailed out and were rescued by NATO helicopters.
Dani said his anti-aircraft missile regiment, tasked with the anti-aircraft defense of the Serbian capital, Belgrade, downed the F-16.
Several other NATO warplanes were damaged by missile hits but managed to struggle back to bases in neighboring Bosnia, Macedonia or Croatia. At least one is said to have ditched into the Adriatic Sea as it attempted to regain its base in Italy.
Despite NATO's near-total air supremacy, the alliance never succeeded in knocking out Dani's batteries.
The Serb SAMs remained a potent threat throughout the conflict, forcing attacking warplanes to altitudes above 15,000 feet, where they were safe from surface-to-air missiles but far less effective in a ground attack role.
NATO won the war in June 1999, after President Slobodan Milosevic decided to withdraw his largely intact army from Kosovo, following the destruction of numerous government buildings, bridges and other infrastructure targets throughout Serbia.
"The Americans entered the war a bit overconfident," Dani said. "They thought they could crush us without real resistance."
"At times, they acted like amateurs," Dani said, listing some ways the Serbs managed to breach NATO communications security, including eavesdropping on pilots' conversations with AWACS surveillance planes.
"I personally listened to their pilots' conversations, learning about their routes and bombing plans," Dani said.
Dani said that his unit has had annual reunions on every March 27 since 1999 when a cake in the shape of the F-117 is served.
www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-serbia-stealth,0,849057.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines
what a laugh........man who in the fuck needs china to recognise Kosova.............or even the U.N........man once the U.S and EU countries recognise us, China and the U.N will be licking our balls....
what a laugh and man do i love this blog!!
i only have on piece of advice for our beloved cetnik neighbors. once we have our independence (in a few months) there is only one place you imbeciles can hide it's called URANUS hehehe faggots
oh i'm sorry i just realized most of you serbian imbeciles are slow by uranus i mean your anus
i will laugh at that one. hahahaha
CHina?? who cares?? maybe UNMIK should take a vist there asap after finishing in Republic of Kosova.. Have u ever seen that place?? it's corrupted, very poor, child labor laws (none), and all kinds of trafficking..this would be like if the whole world decided to make Podujeva a country and Bosnia or Georgia or better yet George (american state) went up public dissing it...who cares?? china=communist serbia=radical russia="gaining democratic" aka radical..in conclusion they are all corrupt...its the Opinion of America, and Europe that really matter
correction, georgia (the us state) sorry for the mispelling
"The hit on the radar-evading plane on March 27, 1999, during the 78-day NATO campaign over Serbia, triggered doubts not only about the F-117s, but also about the entire concept of stealth technology on which the U.S. Air Force has based its newest generation of warplanes.
"
False. The F-117 was shot because the French NATO Commander gave out the Serbs the waypoints of the aircraft, by knowing the waypoints the Serbs showered the sky with AAA (Anti Aircraft Artilery), not a single SAM was fired as the plane was undetectable.
----
China will not veto Kosovar independence, Kosova is not Taiwan. Taiwanese are Chinese, the difference between them and the PRC being the "ideology".
Kosova is Albanian, not Serb, the difference being mass rapes, murders, and injustice commited upon the Albanians (a different Nation from the Serbs).
what rapes? what murders? where are the 500,000 dead u calimed? LIARS!!!! u did more damage to the serb community and you know it that is hwy u bark like DOGS!!! over 2000 serbs killed in teh last 8 years and 250,000 kicked out for good and now u tell me who has totally compleated teh genocide in kosovo!!! 200 years ago there wasnt even 3 albos in kosovo!
Serbia expects $2 billion in 2005 foreign investment
Associated Press
October 8, 2005 -- Foreign investors have pumped $725 million into Serbian economy in the first six months of 2005 and if the trend persists, say experts, Serbia will easily top $1.5 billion in foreign investment for the year.
A rosier picture, however, is presented by the Serbian Minister of Finance Mladjan Dinkic.
According to Dinkic, foreign investment should reach $2 billion by the end of the year. Robust foreign investment funds inflow has offset Serbia's growing imports that drain foreign reserves, says the Minister. As a result of the increase of net inflows of foreign currency, Serbian central bank, NBS, says that the banking system has $5.2 billion versus $360 million held before.
Serbian Finance Minister Mladjan Dinkic
Dinkic: "Serbia is a hit among investors in Washington"
Banking dominated the investment transfers into Serbia marked by entrance of big European banks into Serbian banking market.
Some economists see the investment trend that favors financial sector at the expense of investments into industry as an unsustainable, and perhaps a threatening one.
"Closed market, weak competition and persistence of monopoly are the reasons that bring foreign investors to Serbia," says Miroslav Prokopijevic, president of the Free Markets Center.
To be competitive, Prokopijevic says that Serbia has to slash taxes and number of taxable items and then reduce tariffs that are twice the size the average in the EU. Making the national currency, the dinar, competitive versus the Euro, says Prokopijevic, would prevent the Serbian central Bank from printing money. He did not specify whether dinar should be floated or remain pegged as is right now.
Serbian inflation is expected to reach 14% in 2005. In an attempt to stem the inflationary tides, Serbian NBS Governor last week raised the required reserves on banks from 7 to 18% with an announcement that by the end of the year the reserve requirement will be raised to 29%.
Increasing the reserve requirement forces banks to keep more of deposited money into vaults as oppose to lending it to the public and thus increasing inflation. Absence of capital markets in Serbia makes the reserve requirement the only credible instrument of monetary control.
Privatization has been the dominant driver behing the inflow of foreign funds into Serbia.
Privatization has thus far brought about 20 technological and industrial multinationals into Serbia. US Steel and Microsoft are one of the most noticeable ones. Foreign capital is present in 103 of the formerly state owned firms in Serbia.
Critics point that more reform is necessary in order to make foreign investment inflow sustainable because once state owned properties are sold off they question whether current legal and institutional framework is optimal to sustain investment growth.
To make the robust upward trend in the foreign investment sustainable in Serbia, argue critics, business friendly reforms must be instituted fast. Reform of the pension, insurance and investment fund laws is often cited as one such urgent reform matter. New rules for investment funds would stimulate capital formation by making the capital markets more efficient and secure to pool the investment capital domestically.
"It is important to assure passage of all the laws and that, within the judicial system of Serbia, institutions function properly," says Daniel Sukovic, director of the Center for Economic Research.
"Reducing corruption is paramount because those who have the capital despise corruption and don't invest," says Sukovic.
Like many of the formerly communist states of the Balkans, Serbia is also plagued by corruption.
In Albania, where corruption has reached acute levels, recent elections show that a mere promise to tackle corruption can be politically victorious and sufficient enough to attract Brussels to sign an EU association agreement.
In Serbia, however, fight against corruption has a grass roots component. Recently, for example, Verica Barac, president of the Council for fight against corruption, has been vocal in exposing the potentially massive fraud surrounding the savings bank, Nacionalna Stedionica.
"Foundation of 'Nacionalna Stedionica' was a deceit because it was foundation of a private bank that got from the State of Serbia free of charge premises and salaries for 750 employees during a period of one year. The State also gave to this private bank an exclusive right of payment of the old hard currency savings." charges Barac.
Nacionalna Stedionica was formed during the rule of Slobodan Milosevic and it is alleged that the bank was one among the privileged ones in the Milosevic regime through which the regime controlled the Serbian currency black market in order to raise hard currency and enrich themselves by dumping freshly printed Dinar on the streets where thugs bought off hard currency with it triggering massive hyperinflation in the country. Nacionalna Stedionica was sold off to a Greek bank, but other unresolved allegations may drag this deal into courts.
Serbian Justice Minister Zoran Stojkovic says that he is ready to confront corruption and cited recent arrests of a Serbian Supreme Court judge and the deputy of the Special Prosecutor as examples of that readiness. Minister Stojkovic argues that these arrests will increase confidence in Serbian legal institutions.
World Bank also says that Serbia is on course to fulfill majority of Millennium goals of development but none of those goals are corruption. World Bank says that by 2015 Serbia will decrease poverty, death rate at deliveries and improve education and AIDS prevention.
Serbia is indeed on the road to reduction of poverty. Five years ago, when the Milosevic regime was finally toppled, GDP per capita was $829 and inflation was 120%. Now, per capita GDP is $3,000.
To many Serbs, however, these improvements are not enough and many view the decade of 1990s as the wasted one.
"People do no compare these [recent] achievements with where they were 5 years ago but where they were 15 years ago," recently acknowledged Serbian Deputy Premier Miroljub Labus, whose political party also controls the Ministry of Finance and is responsible for many of the economic reforms in Serbia.
Sustaining the success in economic reforms in Serbia also depends on the outcome of the status talks on the Serbian Province of Kosovo that is currently administered by the UN. Kosovo Albanians that comprise a majority in that province demand independence and have said that if they don't get it they will use violence against the UN and the remaining Serbs that they have not expelled yet.
The ultimate decision on the status of that province, however, rests with the Contact Group comprised of US, Russia, France, Italy and UK.
Kosovo is still largely a lawless land and granting independence to that province may unravel 5 years of reforms in Serbia. Decision on Kosovo is expected in 2006.
October 8, 2005 12:56 PM (04:56 GMT)
"what rapes? what murders? where are the 500,000 dead u calimed? LIARS!!!! u did more damage to the serb community and you know it that is hwy u bark like DOGS!!! over 2000 serbs killed in teh last 8 years and 250,000 kicked out for good and now u tell me who has totally compleated teh genocide in kosovo!!! 200 years ago there wasnt even 3 albos in kosovo!"
I really hope you remain inside Serbia since it's obvious you're in such denial you could cause damage (kill some country's PM like one of you did in Sweden).
What murderers? Rapes? Where were you between 1997 - 99? Maybe you were in Kosova doing all that? Or maybe someone in your family?
And please stop giving us numbers of non-existent Serb refugees. 220,000 is the number and it includes Romas and Ashkali.
Those that do not want to return have good reasons (i.e. responsibilities and justice to face), while some that are scared will eventualy return, just like those that never left.
But, unfortunately, people like you, who call us "muslim scum" (im catholic btw, so please comment on this and show us how civilized you are), "multiply like insects", "sheep fu**ers", are not welcomed in Kosova just like the KKK will never set foot.
Keep your racism within Serbia's borders, or if you love your country so much learn to love your neighbour.
that is all u got u liars! THATS ALL!! AGAIN WHERE ARE THE 500,000 dead u claimed? how come noone here wants to address this? how is ok for u to lie to teh entire world that 500,000 siptars were killed when there is evience of a few thousand (in which u include serb victims as ur own)????? HOW IS THIS NOT EVEN A BIGGER LIE THAN TEH ONE ABOUT IRAQ HAVING WMD?????? u and ur allies killed just 1000 serbs in serbia with the bombs u initiated, u killed thousands in kosovo with ur KLA murders and bombs all over the place, DID U EXPECT THE SERB POLICE TO NOT SHOT BACK?
Who the f*ck is claiming 500,000 dead anyway? I never saw that claim anywhere!
By the way, when Albanians were in Kosovo and all along the Balkan Peninsula, your ass was freezing up in Russia!
Please...
U WERE NEVER IN KOSOVO BEFORE THE START OF THE 18th CEN! U WERE NEVER A MAJORITY TILL THE 20th NEVER!!!! NOW U ARE AND I CANT WIAT FOR IT TO BECOME INDEPENDENT SO SERBIA CAN ONCE AND FOR ALL WIN ITS BATTLE WITH CANCER!
Demographic history of Kosovo
15th century
1455: Turkish cadastral tax census (defter)[1] of the Brankovic dynasty lands (covering 80% of present-day Kosovo) recorded 480 villages, 13,693 adult males, 12,985 dwellings, 14,087 household heads (480 widows and 13,607 adult males). By ethnicity:
* 12,985 Serbian dwellings present in all 480 villages and towns
* 75 Vlach dwellings in 34 villages
* 46 Albanian dwellings in 23 villages
* 17 Bulgarian dwellings in 10 villages
* 5 Greek dwellings in Lauša, Vučitrn
* 1 Jewish dwelling in Vučitrn
* 1 Croat dwelling
[edit]
17th-18th century
The Great Turkish War of 1683-1699 between the Ottomans and the Habsburgs led to the flight of a substantial part of Kosovo's Serbian population to Austrian held Vojvodina and the Military Frontier. Following this an influx of Muslim Albanian[2] from the highlands (Malesi) occurred, mostly into Metohija. The process continued in 18th century[3].
[edit]
19th century
19th century data about the population of Kosovo tend to be rather conflicting, giving sometimes numerical superiority to the Serbs and sometimes to the Albanians. Many historians regard Ottoman statistics as being unreliable, as the empire counted its citizens by religion rather than nationality, using birth records rather than surveys of individuals.
A study in 1838 by an Austrian physician, dr. Joseph Müller found Metohija to be mostly Slavic (Serbian) in character.[4] Müller gives data for the three counties (Bezirke) of Prizren, Pec and Djakovica which roughly covered Metohija, the portion adjacent to Albania and most affected by Albanian settlers. Out of 195,000 inhabitants in Metohija, Müller found:
* 73,572 Orthodox Serbs 38%
* 5,120 Catholic Albanians 3%
* 2,308 other non-Muslims (Vlachs etc.)
* 114,000 Muslims (58%), of which:
o c. 38,000 are Serbs (19%)
o c. 76,000 are Albanians (39%)
Müller's observations on towns:
* Peć: 11.050 Serbs, 500 Albanians
* Prizren: 16,800 Serbs, 6150 Albanians
* Đakovica: majority of Albanians, surrounding villages Serbian
Map published by French ethnographer G. Lejean[5] in 1861 shows that Albanians lived on around 57% of the territory of today's province while a similar map, published by British travellers G. M. Mackenzie and A. P. Irby[6] in 1867 shows slightly less; these maps don't show which population was larger overall.
A study done in 1871 by Austrian colonel Peter Kukulj[7] for the internal use of the Austro-Hungarian army showed that the mutesarifluk of Prizren (corresponding largely to present-day Kosovo) had some 500,000 inhabitants, of which:
* 318.000 Serbs (64%),
* 161.000 Albanians (32%),
* 10.000 Roma (Gypsies) and Circassians,
* 2.000 Turks
Miloš S. Milojević travelled the region in 1871-1877 and left accounts which testify that Serbs were majority population, and were predominant in all cities, while Albanians were minority and lived mostly in villages[8]. According to his data, Albanians were majority population in southern Drenica (Muslim Albanians), and in region around Djakovica (Catholic Albanians), while the city was majorly Serbian. He also recorded several settlements of Turks, Roma and Circassians.
It is estimated that some 400,000[9] Serbs were cleansed out of the Vilayet of Kosovo between 1876 and 1912, especially during the Greek-Turkish war of 1897.
Maps published by German historian Kiepert[10] in 1876, J. Hahn[11] and Austrian consul K. Sax[12], show that Albanians live on most of the territory of today's province, however they don't show which population is larger. According to these, the regions of Kosovska Mitrovica and Kosovo Polje were settled mostly by Serbs, whereas most of the terrirory of western and eastern parts of today's province was settled by Muslim Albanians.
An Austrian statistics[13] published in 1899 estimated:
* 182,650 Albanians (47.88%)
* 166,700 Serbs (43.70%)
* Remaining 8.42% Tsintsars, Turks, Circassians, Roma and Jews
[edit]
20th century
British journalist H. Brailsford estimated[14] that two-thirds of the population of Kosovo was Albanian and one-third Serbian. The most populous western districts of Djakovica and Pec were said to have between 20,000 and 25,000 Albanian households, as against some 5,000 Serbian ones. Map of Alfred Stead[15], published in 1909, shows that similar numbers of Serbs and Albanians were living in the territory.
German scholar Gustav Weigand gave the following statistical data about the population of Kosovo in Ethnography of Macedonia (1924, written 1919), based on the pre-war situation in Kosovo in 1912:
* Pristina District: 67% Albanians, 30% Serbs
* Prizren District: 63% Albanians, 36% Serbs
* Vucitrn District: 90% Albanians, 10% Serbs
* Ferizovic (Urosevac) District: 70% Albanians, 30% Serbs
* Gilani (Gnjilane) District: 75% Albanians, 23% Serbs
* Mitrovica District: 40% Albanians, 60% Serbs
Metohija with the town of Djakovica is furthermore defined as almost exclusively Albanian by Weigand.
[edit]
Serbia and Yugoslavia
[edit]
Balkan Wars and World War I-World War II
Retaking of Kosovo by Serbia in 1912 resulting in suppression of the local Albanian population and ethnic cleansning of some regions[16].
* 1921 a total of 439,010 inhabitants[17] whereof 280,440 (64.1%) [18] Albanians
A map of the Serbian census of 1921[19] shows that most of the terrirory was settled by Albanians, with Serbian enclaves around Prizren, Sredska Zupa and Pristina. Religion on the largest part of the territory was Islam with Eastern Orthodox enclaves around Kosovska Mitrovica, Pristina and Gnjilane[20].
* 1931 552,064 total inhabitants[21] whereof 347,213 (62.8%) [22] Albanians
Extensive colonisation programmes were implemented by the Serbian authorities in the periods between 1922 and 1929, and 1933 and 1938 leading to the settlement of some 10,000 Serbian and Montenegrin families, mostly in northern Kosovo, Kosovo Polje and along the Lab. Nearly all of these families were driven out of Kosovo during the Albanian occupation of the region (1941-1944) and were never allowed to return. [23]
An agreement on the emigration of some 200,000 Albanians and Turks was signed with the Republic of Turkey in 1938. As Turkey pulled out of the agreement at an early stage for fear of not being able to accommodate the immigrants, only 4,000 Muslims left the province. [24]
[edit]
World War II-1968
Most of the teritorry of today's province is occupied by Italian-occupied Greater Albania, massacres of some 10,000[25] Serbs, ethnic cleansing of about 80[26]-100,000[27][28] and settling of 100,000[29] of Albanians from Albania.
* 1948: 727,820 total inhabitants[30]; 498,242 Albanians or 68.46%[31]
* 1953: 524,559 Albanians or 65%[32]
* 1961: 646,604 Albanians or 67.1%[33]
[edit]
1968-1989: Autonomy
After the province gained autonomy, local provincial Statistical office given authority over census whereas the rest of the country's census was under the tutelage of the Federal Statistical Commission. Allegations of census rigging (for the 1971 and 1981) by Turk, Muslim and Roma minorities who claim forceful Albanization. Serb claims Albanians drastically overincreased their own numbers. Nothing could be substantiated though because the Kosovo Statistical offices were under exclusive Albanian control which was against the national norm at the time which dicated that census takers had to be of different nationalities (i.e. one Albanian and one Serb not both Albanian as was the case in the two following censa).
1971: 1,243,693 total inhabitants[34]
* 916,168 Albanians or 73.7%[35]
* 259,816 Serbs/Montengrins or 20.9%[36]
* 26,000 Muslims or 2.1%
* 14,593 Roma or 1.2%
* 12,244 Turks or 1.0%
* 8,000 Croats or 0.7%
Albanians take ever-increasing control of Autonomous province with the introduction of the 1974 Constitution of SFRY.
* 1981:
1,584,440 total inhabitants
* 1,226,736 Albanians 77.42%
* 236,525 Serbs/Montenegrins 14.93%[37][38]
[edit]
1989-1999: Centralized Yugoslav Control
Ethnic map of Kosovo
Enlarge
Ethnic map of Kosovo
Yugoslav Central Government reasserts control over Kosovo in 1989.
Official Yugoslav statistical results, almost all Albanians and some Roma, Muslims boyott the census following a call by Ibrahim Rugova to boycott Serbian institutions. 1991 359,346 Total population
* 214,555 Orthodox Serbs (194,190 Serbians and 20,365 Montenegrins)
* 9,091 Albanians (most boycotted)
* 57,758 (Slavic) Muslims
* 44,307 Roma
* 10,445 Turks
* 8,062 Croats (Janjevci, Letnicani)
* 3,457 Yugoslavs
Official Yugoslav statistical corrections and projections, with the help of previous census results (1948-1981):
1,956,196 Total population[39] (corrected from 359,346)
* 214,555 Orthodox Serbs (194,190 Serbians and 20,365 Montenegrins)
* 1,596,072 or 81,6 % Albanians (corrected from 9,091)
* 66,189 (Slavic) Muslims (corrected from 57,758)
* 45,745 Roma (corrected from 44,307)
* 10,445 Turks
* 8,062 Croats (Janjevci, Letnicani)
* 3,457 Yugoslavs
The corrections should not taken to be fully accurate. The number of Albanians is sometimes regarded as being an underestimate. On the other hand, it is sometimes regarded as an overestimate, being derived from earlier censa which are believed to be overestimates. The Statistical Office of Kosovo states that the quality of the 1991 census is "questionable." [40].
[edit]
1999-present: UN administration
During the Kosovo War in 1999, over 700,000 ethnic Albanians[41] and around 100,000 ethnic Serbs were forced out of the province to neighbouring Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Serbia. After the United Nations took over administration of Kosovo following the war, the vast majority of the Albanian refugees returned.
Many non-Albanians - chiefly Serbs and Roma - fled or were expelled, mostly to the rest of Serbia at the end of the war, with further refugee outflows occurring as the result of sporadic ethnic violence. The number of registered refugees is around 250,000[42][43][44]. The non-Albanian population in Kosovo is now about half of its pre-war total. The largest concentration of Serbs in the province is in the north, but many remain in Kosovo Serb enclaves surrounded by Albanian-populated areas.
Various, mostly Serbian, sources claim that a large number of Albanians (usually stated as being around 200,000) have moved into Kosovo since 1999, due to the complete liberalization of the Kosovo-Albania border. The veracity of this claim is unclear; the Statistical Office of Kosovo states that "there are at present no reliable statistics on migration in Kosovo."
2000 Living Standard Measurement Survey by Statistical Office of Kosovo (rejected by Belgrade[45]). Total population estimated at 1 900 000 est.[46]
* 88% Albanians (1,733,600)
* 7% Serbs (137,900)
* 3% Muslim Slavs (59,100)
* 2% Roma (39,400)
* 1% Turks (19,700)
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates the population at 2.0 to 2.2 million people, extrapolating from voter registration data recorded by the UNMIK Department of Local Administration in 2000. [47]
Some estimates by Albanian demographers estimate a population of 2.4 million Albanians living in Kosovo today. This is regarded by most independent observers as an overestimate as it would imply a total population of some 2.5-2.6 million people in Kosovo, much higher than other estimates.
[edit]
References
1. ^ The original Turkish-language copy of the census is stored in Istanbul's archives. However, in 1972 the Sarajevo Institute of Middle Eastern Studies translated the census and published an analysis of it Kovačević Mr. Ešref, Handžić A., Hadžibegović H. Oblast Brankovića - Opširni katastarski popis iz 1455., Orijentalni institut, Sarajevo 1972. Subsequently others have covered the subject as well such as Vukanović Tatomir, Srbi na Kosovu, Vranje, 1986.
2. ^ Gustav Weigand, Ethnographie von Makedonien, Leipzig, 1924; Густав Вайганд, Етнография на Македония (Bulgarian translation)
3. ^ Ibid
4. ^ Dr. Joseph Müller, Albanien, Rumelien und die Österreichisch-montenegrinische Gränze, Prag, 1844
5. ^ H.R. Wilkinson, Maps and Politics; a review of the ethnographic cartography of Macedonia, Liverpool University Press, 1951
6. ^ Ibid
7. ^ Das Fürstenthum Serbien und Türkisch-Serbien, eine militärisch-geographische Skizze von Peter Kukolj, Major im k.k.Generalstabe, Wien 1871
8. ^ ISBN 86-80029-29-7: Mirčeta Vemić: Ethnic Map of a Part of Ancient Serbia: According to the travel-record of Miloš S. Milojević 1871-1877, Belgrade, 2005
9. ^ ISBN 86-17-09287-4: Коста Николић, Никола Жутић, Момчило Павловић, Зорица Шпадијер: Историја за трећи разред гимназије природно-математичког смера и четврти разред гимназије општег и друштвено-језичког смера, Belgrade, 2002, pg. 63
10. ^ Wilkinson, Op. cit.
11. ^ Ibid
12. ^ Ibid
13. ^ Detailbeschreibung des Sandzaks Plevlje und des Vilajets Kosovo (Mit 8 Beilagen und 10 Taffeln), Als Manuskript gedruckt, Vien 1899, 80-81.
14. ^ H. N. Brailsford, Macedonia, Its Races and Their Future, London, 1906
15. ^ Servia by the Servians, Compiled and Edited by Alfred Stead, With a Map, London (William Heinemann), 1909. (Etnographical Map of Servia, Scale 1:2.750.000).
16. ^ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. (1914). Report of the International Commission To Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars. Washington: The Carnegie Endowment.
17. ^ Center for Contemporary Journalism
18. ^ Zec, Stevan, "Maps of our dividings political atlas of Yugoslav countries in XX century", Beograd : Beogradsko mašinsko-grafičko preduzeće, 1991.
19. ^ Center for Contemporary Journalism, Op. cit.
20. ^ Ibid
21. ^ Serge Krizman, Maps of Yugoslavia at War, Washington 1943.
22. ^ Ibid
23. ^ Ibid
24. ^ Annexe I, by the Serbian Information Centre-London to a report of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
25. ^ Krizman, Op. cit.
26. ^ Official Yugoslav censa results 1948-1981
27. ^ Ibid
28. ^ Serbian Information Centre-London, Op. cit.
29. ^ Center for Contemporary Journalism, Op. cit.
30. ^ Ibid
31. ^ Official Yugoslav censa results 1948-1981
32. ^ Serbian Information Centre-London, Op. cit.
33. ^ Center for Contemporary Journalism, Op. cit.
34. ^ Official Yugoslav censa results 1948-1981
35. ^ BBC: [48]
36. ^ OSCE: "Kosovo/Kosova As Seen As Told"
37. ^ Coordination Centre of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Republic of Serbia for Kosovo and Metohija
38. ^ UNHCR: 2002 Annual Statistical Report: Serbia and Montenegro, pg. 9
39. ^ USCR: Country report: Yugoslavia
40. ^ People's Daily: Belgrade to Reject Results of U.N.-Conducted Census in Kosovo
41. ^ Living Standard Measurement Survey 2000, Statistical Office of Kosovo - see also Kosovo and its Population
42. ^ Vickers, Miranda. Between Serb and Albanian - A History of Kosovo. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998 (quoting the official publications of the results of the 1921 and 1931 censuses in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes / the Kingdom of Yugoslavia)
as for your "oh boo-hoo who claimed 500,000" bla bla crying bullhsit here u go sheep lover (read it all for once):
Criticism of the Case for War
Some critics have accused President Clinton of leading the United States to war in Kosovo under the false pretense of genocide [6]. Others have accused him, and his administration, of inflating the number of Kosovar Albanians killed by Serbians[7]. Clinton's Secretary of Defense William Cohen, giving a speech, said, "The appalling accounts of mass killing in Kosovo and the pictures of refugees fleeing Serb oppression for their lives makes it clear that this is a fight for justice over genocide [8]." On CBS' Face the Nation Cohen claimed, "We've now seen about 100,000 military-aged men missing...They may have been murdered[9]." Clinton, citing the same figure, spoke of "at least 100,000 (Kosovar Albanians) missing[10]". Later, talking about Serbian elections, Clinton said, "they're going to have to come to grips with what Mr. Milošević ordered in Kosovo...They're going to have to decide whether they support his leadership or not; whether they think it's OK that all those tens of thousands of people were killed...[11]". Clinton also claimed, in the same press conference, that "NATO stopped deliberate, systematic efforts at ethnic cleansing and genocide[12]." Clinton even compared the events of Kosovo to the Holocaust. CNN reported, "Accusing Serbia of 'ethnic cleansing' in Kosovo similar to the genocide of Jews in World War II, an impassioned President Clinton sought Tuesday to rally public support for his decision to send U.S. forces into combat against Yugoslavia, a prospect that seemed increasingly likely with the breakdown of a diplomatic peace effort[13]." Clinton's State Department also claimed Serbian troops had committed genocide. The New York Times reported, "the Administration said evidence of 'genocide' by Serbian forces was growing to include 'abhorrent and criminal action' on a vast scale. The language was the State Department's strongest yet in denouncing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević[14]." The State Department also gave the highest estimate of dead Albanians. The New York Times reported, "On April 19, the State Department said that up to 500,000 Kosovar Albanians were missing and feared dead[15]."
However, the numbers given by Clinton and his administration have been proven false. The official NATO body count of the events in Kosovo was 2,788 (not all of them were war crimes victims)[16], with Slobodan Milošević charged with the "murders of about 600 individually identified ethnic Albanians[17]". Critics have noted that these numbers can not be considered genocide. The headline of The Wall Street Journal, which had launched an investigation into whether genocide had occurred in Kosovo, on December 31, 1999 was "War in Kosovo Was Cruel, Bitter, Savage; Genocide It Wasn't"[18]. The Wall Street Journal wrote, "the U.N.'s International War Criminal tribunal has checked the largest reported sites first, and found most to contain no more than five bodies, suggesting intimate acts of barbarity rather than mass murder... Kosovo would be easier to investigate if it had the huge killing fields some investigators were led to expect. Instead, the pattern is of scattered killings[19]."
In addition, a United Nations Court had previously ruled that Serbian troops did not commit genocide against Albanians. The court wrote "the exactions committed by Milošević's regime cannot be qualified as criminal acts of genocide, since their purpose was not the destruction of the Albanian ethnic group[20]". According to BBC, "the decision was based on the 1948 Geneva convention which defines genocide as the intent 'to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such'[21]". Milošević was not charged with genocide in Kosovo by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) but the more broader "crimes against humanity"[22]. Spanish forensic surgeon Emilio Pérez Pujol, who led the Spanish forensic team in Kosovo, gave an interview to the British paper The Sunday Times. The paper wrote, "In an outspoken interview, Pujol complained he had been sent to head a large investigation team attached to the ICTY, consisting of pathologists and police specialists, to work in the north of the country. But he found that what was publicised as a search for mass graves was 'a semantic pirouette by the war propaganda machines, because we did not find one—not one—mass grave.'[23]".
A chinese veto - no legal standing - a rogue state in europe, probably a failed rogue state except those rolling in the proceeds of traffiicking drugs, guns and girls.
And some day we can look forward to watching the JNA v KPC deathmatch live on CNN.
1:3 odds on that the JNA needs less than a week to capture the province.
I CANT WIAT FOR IT TO BECOME INDEPENDENT SO SERBIA CAN ONCE AND FOR ALL WIN ITS BATTLE WITH CANCER!
Thsn, what the fuck are you doing here and writting bull shit. You want this to happen (kosova independence) and we do too. So we want the same thing. Shut the fuck up then and mind your fucking business, if you have any.
JNA? correct me if i'm wrong but after kosovo becomes independent as well as the montenegro there is not going to be no fucking JNA its just going to be the primitive cetnik paramilitary lunatics. i thought the american people were isolated from the world and in denial, but damn you cetnik people are way more isolated... maybe its because you were to busy killing innocent people all over the balkans that you missed out on the things happening around you. oh well too bad we wont have to deal with you anymore say in a few months from now
srbi su vam jebali kevu govnari jedni...
If you can't wait for the cancer to go away, then please do write to your senator, your government, and your president.
Let me know if you need their addresses ;)
P.S. You know what, don't bother. We will get independence no matter what your government or you think.
P.S. 2 Get a life. You're sleeping on this blog.
ok Mr "srbi su vam jebali" since you wanna go there. well you're speaking of something that might have happened... but i am actually kind fucking your women in present idiot in the US too. man they are easy and they just love them some albanian. i dont know i hope they are not related to you though.
Albanians have no friends what the fuck are these morons talking about friends EU&US every european spits on the ground when albanians are mentioned,there just a cancer that fuck up everything just like albania the christians of europe will take out the trash sooner rather than later.Friends you have no friends in europe.
China will running the world in a few years you fucken backward shit for brains monkeys,what planet do you live on.
you can't even get the words right you FUCKIN IDIOT... go take some classes or something and then come back you illiterate caveman. maybe china will help you learn some because you love them long time. lol pricks.
Serbian noodles
hihihi
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