By Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources.com)
March 8, 2000
It appeared obvious, from the reports yesterday on the various news services, within a minute of the poll closings that the Candidates for president of the United States would be George W. Bush and Al Gore. And what do you suppose, from the websites and the debates of the Candidates, do the candidates and the media believe are the most pressing problems the next President will need to solve?
Well, one issue, based on the amount of newspaper space given it, is the dating policies of an obscure University in South Carolina. Another pressing issue, involving the same state, is what the President will do about the Confederate flag that flies over the South Carolina Capitol.
Then, of course, there was the discussion between Al Gore and Bill Bradley about what was the best vehicle the next President of the United States should use to add homosexuals to the protected groups listed in the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
A really major issue in the campaign was public education, which historically has been the province of parents and local school boards. As I said in an earlier analysis ( So, here we are, having concluded we know who we will choose for president in November - either Al Gore or George Bush and we haven't a clue what either of them are prepared to do about the incredible mess Bill Clinton has made in the Balkans. Throughout the debates among the various presidential candidates, the major issues the current President was faced with in 1999 - his impeachment and the bombing of Yugoslavia, have not even been mentioned most of the time.
However, simply because the American media has largely decided that Kosovo is a boring subject, doesn't mean it won't explode into another war which will involve American ground troops.
I am e-mailed press releases from KFOR in Kosovo on a regular basis. Most of the time they do not tell me much just that "people," without identifying them by either name or ethnicity, had some sort of problem. However, in the last few days the tone of the press releases has changed. This may be because it is beginning to dawn on someone that now that most of the non-Albanians of Kosovo, the Serbs, the Gypsies, the Montenegrins, the Egyptians, the Jews, the Croatians, even the Turks, have been driven out of Kosovo or killed doesn't mean the bombing, the shooting and the killing will stop. The KLA hasn't driven the KFOR troops out yet.
Yesterday I received the following from KFOR:
The incident grew between two small angry groups who were exchanging insults. Others joined the dispute on both sides and finally individuals began shooting and throwing hand grenades.
A number of injuries have been reported. They include 20 Serb men, 4 Albanian men and one woman. Sixteen KFOR French troops and Gendarmerie were also slightly injured. Ten have already been released.
The injured Serbs were taken to the hospital in the north part of the Mitrovica, while the Albanians were treated in the KFOR Moroccan field hospital.
KFOR soldiers have restored order and four men have been arrested in connection with the violence. Further updates will be provided when the information is confirmed. "Violence erupted"? Was there a cause? Who would you guess were the ones shooting the throwing hand grenades by reading KFOR's report? According to recent reports coming from the area, there now are far fewer Serbs in Kosovo than there are KFOR troops. Is it likely that the fewer than 50,000 Serbs are really going out and attacking the 2.3 million Albanians who have flooded into Kosovo from Albania?
Let's look at the Serb report of the same event:
Head of the town hospital's surgical and orthopedic department Marko Jaksic said that one of the Serb victims was in critical condition, while the condition of others was stable.
Unrest in the town's northern section continued on Tuesday afternoon, with spokesman for UN civilin mission (UNMIK) police Philippe Pacot saying that it was the task of the UN peacekeeping force KFOR to deal with it. Strong KFOR troops have sealed off the section blocking the bridge across the River Ibar separating the section from the town's southern, ethnic Albanian-populated section.
Today's conflicts are a part of already seen Albanian terrorists' scenario based on provoking unrest before each arrival of the international officials, in order to blame Serbs for the events in the province.
From Paris, a report in the International Herald described the melee this way:
MITROVICA, Kosovo - A fight between ethnic Albanians and Serbs escalated into a grenade-throwing battle Tuesday that wounded 16 French peacekeepers. Twenty Serb civilians and five Albanians, one a woman, were also injured.
It was one of the most serious outbreaks in the northern Kosovo city, which saw major clashes last month and where peacekeepers struggle daily to prevent fighting between Albanians and Serbs.
NATO's supreme commander, General Wesley Clark, was visiting another part of Mitrovica during the fighting. He canceled a news conference, but a Serbian representative said he met with the general to discuss security issues.
The violence Tuesday broke out on the northern, Serbian-controlled side of this ethnically divided town, forcing UN officials to halt attempts to register Serbs wanting to return to their homes on the southern, ethnic Albanian side of town.
Amid the chaos, peacekeepers escorted 13 ethnic Albanians to a high-rise apartment complex in the northern part of the city, where dozens of others were repatriated last week, French peacekeepers said. Recent reports from KFOR have emphasized the "weapons sweep" in Mitovica in which the Serbs accused the soldiers of ripping apart their apartments, even searching under sleeping babies looking for weapons. Evidently they were looking in the wrong places for the weapons.
Other Albanians threw hand grenades, some at a crowd of Serbs and two at French soldiers, Mr. Pacaud said.
The United Nations and the NATO-led peacekeeping force known as KFOR later arrested four Albanians and extended an overnight curfew to start at 8 P.M. instead of 10 P.M.
In Moscow, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov expressed concern about the growing tension in Kosovo and called for ''firm measures'' against separatists and extremists.
Mr. Ivanov appealed to other members of the UN Security Council to halt the spiral of violence. ''Unfortunately, over the last eight months, we have observed the process of forcing non-Albanians from the territory of Kosovo,'' he said after talks with the UN Balkans envoy, Carl Bildt. In the past week one KFOR soldier was killed by an Albanian terrorist. He was Russian. Now twenty French soldier have been wounded by Albanians directly targeting them. Only, KFOR downplayed the injuries by saying "Sixteen KFOR French troops and Gendarmerie were also slightly injured. Ten have already been released."
If the injuries were so minor, why weren't they all released? Why didn't KFOR tell us that the soldiers were injured because the Albanians threw hand grenades at them? Why are the presidential candidates, with the exception of Alan Keyes, totally ignoring a situation in which another war is looming and our soldiers are already in the middle of it?
We have war threatening in both Kosovo and in Taiwan, the stock market dropping like a rock as oil prices triple in price and interest rates rising, as our armed services continue operating with a shortage of personnel.
By November the issues facing the next president could be, as Mark Levin, a former Reagan administration official said on Hannity and Colmes last night, a very different situation.
To comment: mmostert@originalsources.com
Mitrovica, Kosovo -- Shortly after noon today, violence erupted between
Albanians and Serbs in the north part of the city of Mitrovica, near a district known as Little Bosnia.
Kosovska Mitrovica, March 7th - At least 14 Serbs and two French peacekeepers were wounded Tuesday in a series of bomb attacks launched by ethnic Albanian terrorists in the northern, Serb-populated section of Kosovska Mitrovica.
Philippe Pacaud, a spokesman for the United Nations in Kosovo, said an Albanian opened fire.
''One Albanian fired a hunting rifle at a young man and wounded him, and immediately after that Albanians from a courtyard threw two hand grenades,'' he said.
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