The unknown conflict zone
The legacy of both the 1999 Kosovo conflict & that of Macedonia still echo today.
Trafficking of illegal migrants is having a profound impact on several EU countries, notably Hungry. In response, Hungarian authorities have stated they will construct an anti-migrant barrier, such to the disgust of Brussels. It has been an increasing headache since the beginning of 2015. To add to the woes, thousands of Kosovar & Macedonian Albanians have left in droves for EU countries. Just in February 2015, it was reported that “Some 10,000 Kosovars filed for asylum in Hungary in just one month this year, compared to 6,000 for the whole of 2013.” (http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/kosovo-thousands-illegal-migrants-try-enter-eu-via-serbia-hungary-1486929). Austria received 1,901 asylum applications from Kosovo in 2014, but registered 1,029 in January 2015 alone. In Germany, applications from Kosovars since January have rocketed up to 18,000. According to some media estimates, around 100,000 have left since August 2014, with a noticeable spike starting in January 2015.
The western press gives some vague reasons such poverty & political instability for departures but fails to cite that this suddenly didn’t start spontaneously. Some articles also mention the high levels of corruption in Kosovo. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/04/us-kosovo-eu-migrants-idUSKBN0L811120150204
Kosovo's Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci blamed human traffickers for spreading rumours that people could get asylum in EU countries. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/03/us-kosovo-europe-idUSKBN0LZ1FW20150303 Yes, this is the same Thaci that according to a 2010 Council of Europe report, “Hashim Thaci and other Kosovo guerrillas, ran a criminal ring in 1999 that targeted Serbs, Romas and also ethnic Albanians.” Even German intelligence sounded the alarm on Thaci, in a report that accuses Thaci of leading a "criminal network operating throughout Kosovo by the end of the 1990s”. Maybe another tiny clue is in what the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, stated in April 2015, where he hinted at his displeasure at the slow process of EU talks for Albania & Kosovo. Moreover, he said that “the two countries will be forced to unite in a classical way”, if the EU path is blocked. Did someone take this opportunity to play the migration card & open the floodgates & then realized too late the impact that it has on Kosovo? Funny way of getting Brussel’s attention?
Maybe impatience with the EU at the political level is somehow linked to Kosovo citizens’ impatience with their broken political system, leaving on mass northwards. Remember it is a political system planned & created by the US & EU; it is the ‘cherished’ example of the "Euro-Atlantic family".
“Aspects of security and lack thereof in Kosovo can easily leech through the porous borders of neighbouring countries and Europe certainly is not impervious.” Written on March 23 2015, this became a reality in May, with events in Kumanovo, Macedonia. Albanian terrorists - some from Kosovo tried to take over a village, but were eventually killed or arrested by armed police & military squads. Incidentally, the attack took place while the Macedonian President, Gjorge Ivanov, was in Moscow, for the parade celebrating the 70th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazis. http://www.atlantic-community.org/-/kosovo-migrants-and-the-road-to-european-accession
“Diplomats fear political instability may harm Macedonia's fragile interethnic peace, barely 15 years after it narrowly avoided civil war during fighting between government forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas.” VOA article dated April 2015 http://www.voanews.com/content/united-states-macedonia-alleged-abuses-power/2722813.html . Someone heeded this message & took steps to make sure that this became reality in May.
The armed group belonged to the disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), with its deep roots in Kosovo. Macedonia blamed Kosovo for the violence, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32680904 Radial Kosovar Albanian forces that have been dormant for 14 years, suddenly decided to re-active themselves but the reasons why & by who is not at all clear, apparently. The whole 28 hours was totally downplayed by the US & EU authorities, since the KLA, the original 90s version was the one that NATO supported by bombing Yugoslavia. Even today, there is a deep reluctance in Kosovo to look at past events in a different light, http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/06/26/kosovo-fails-to-pave-way-for-tribunal-to-try-wartime-leaders-for-alleged-war/ .
“The next happenings in those territories will reveal us what will be the purposes and outcomes of this kind of action.” http://www.ofcs.eu/2015/06/16/macedonia-is-burning-ucks-new-rising/ .
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenbergs urged “everyone to exercise restraint and avoid any further escalation, in the interest of the country and the whole region.” Notice the language, “exercise restraint”? This is just the latest in a long-running pattern, starting when the Albanians in Kosovo with help of NATO, US & EU broke off from Serbia. Similarly, the Albanians in Macedonia tried to repeat this ‘trick’ & fought in 2001 to secede from Macedonia. Essentially, the Albanians in the region are playing the waiting game to see if Kosovo gets a seat at the UN & EU. An estimated 30 percent of Macedonia's population is Albanian.
http://www.euractiv.com/sections/enlargement/greater-albania-statement-awakens-old-ghosts-balkans-313685
More disturbingly, anti-government protests were taking place in the capital, Skopje, largely ignored this tragic event, in which 14 civilians & 8 police officers were also killed. The Western mainstream media didn’t even batter any eyelid. http://www.telegraf.rs/english/1563955-why-is-western-media-silent-about-the-attacks-in-macedonia-nobody-mentions-that-the-war-was-initiated-by-shqiptar-terrorists Instead they played around with woolly words such as “guerrilla warriors” or “gunmen”, but not “terrorist”. Even the likes of HRW focused on the protests: http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/06/22/macedonia-police-violence-protest ; I wish that HRW could be so pedantic in their outlook, when looking at police response to protests in the US (Fergsuon), France (Paris) or Turkey, (Gezi Park). For more details -http://rt.com/news/257661-macedonia-conflict-political-unrest/
The US has been quite vocal about the current Macedonian government, in fact on a visit to Macedonia in April, Hoyt Yee, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, stated that “there are also questions raised about the possibility of abuse of government power, which also need to be addressed.'' Furthermore, he said "possible official corruption, possible inappropriate government influence over the media, over the judiciary, possible electoral abuse and other abuses of power.'' Pity he couldn’t say the same thing about the current government in Kosovo. Could this be a green light for those planning & developing the May protests, since oddly, the issues cited by the US envoy weren’t new but had been rumbling on in the background for several months. Of course, Kosovo is part of the "Euro-Atlantic family", with the largest US / NATO base in Europe, camp Bondsteel, whereas Macedonia isn’t yet deemed to be considered as part of the family.
http://www.voanews.com/content/united-states-macedonia-alleged-abuses-power/2722813.html
There’s a whole lucrative US -backed business to be had, creating ‘revolutions’, favorable to the US way of thinking. Parts of which turned up in Macedonia, notably the NED. [For an idea of the NED in Macedonia - http://www.ned.org/where-we-work/central-and-eastern-europe/macedonia. ] So what was cooked up for Serbia in 2000, in the form of the ‘Bulldozer’ revolution, dropped by 15 years later into Macedonia.
The timing of these events is remarkable, as it just happens to coincidence with the proposed plans for gas pipeline to go through the region. The proposed extension is to connect up the “Turkish stream” gas pipeline, originating in Russia. The EU had successfully stopped South Stream and it is trying hard, along with the US, to create a cordon sanitaire, free of Russia influence in the region. To this end; the EU is trying its power to prevent the construction of the pipeline through Greece, Macedonia & Serbia to reduce energy dependence on Russia gas. Even the US has been vocal on this with a political warning shot to these countries. Take for example the case of Greece. “the State Department envoy, Amos J. Hochstein, said Greece would increase its appeal to Western investors — and would help reduce the European Union’s dependence on Russian gas supplies — if it declined to play host to a pipeline proposed by the Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom.” http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/09/business/international/greece-us-russia-energy-pipeline.html?_r=3
Side note: Victoria Nuland, Asst. Sec. of State/Europe is going to Macedonia in July 2015. Interesting times ahead since she was a fundamental part of the script to the Ukraine Maidan «color revolution».
The situation in Serbia
Evidently the Serbian authorities are twitchy about what happened in Kumanovo, close to its border, due to potential resurgence of Albanian terrorism in the Preševo region in southern Serbia. Consequently police officers in the south of the country carry assault rifles: http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2015&mm=06&dd=24&nav_category=12&nav_id=1007845
More seriously, once more the timing & scale of these events are not random. Serbia has been ‘ticked off’ by the EU for not supporting the EU sanctions against Russia. Serbia is equally keen to participate in the gas pipeline project. No doubt, that there is an oblique swipe at the Serbian authorities to heed the warnings. The Turkish Stream connection in more detail - http://europeanpost.co/macedonia-between-europe-and-russia-the-turkish-stream-issue/
Intriguing events linked to the Balkans
Recently, Ramush Haradinaj was arrested at the airport in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Similarly, Naser Oric was arrested two weeks ago in Switzerland & will be extradited to Bosnia. The timings of both these arrests are intriguing & could in certain instances increase potential strife in the region.
The wider connection - The EU, immigration & the Balkans corridor
There is no will in Brussels to neither address the issues of migration nor seriously tackle the security issues in the region. Europeans have been being taught over decades, to renounce their origin, to renounce their national identity, in exchange for what? Don’t be left in doubt that these huge upheavals in populations not any way planned, as even this UN video talks about how to prepare the world for important population changes. Wonder why this is so? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwk3bWHoFC0 )
The EU is deeply involved in changing its indigenous population, to accommodate more & more migrants from the rest of the world; hence we have “Pan-European Corridor X” being exploited as an illegal migration route. The desire to change the people of Europe through large-scale immigrant sits hand in hand with the need to dismantle nations. Is this a far-fetched statement? Well, no, look up the “Coudenhove-Kalergi Prize” http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_PRES-12-476_en.htm . Herman von Rompuy accepted the prize in 2012 – on the theme "Peace and the European idea", where he mentioned the EU enlargement plans for the Western Balkans. It was indeed interesting to discover who Coudenhove-Kalergi stood for, as he is widely cited as a as a pioneer of European integration. He published a manifesto entitled “Pan-Europa” but more controversial is his publication “Praktischer Idealismus”. What has this got to do with the Macedonia situation? The EU & the US are keen advocates for Kosovo, as a new European mini state. The creation of Kosovo effectively broke the political back of Serbia but triggered ethnic violence in neighboring Macedonia. The EU, US & NATO legacy in the region has left a bloody trail, which has been conveniently whitewashing for the sake of “EU integration”.
In fact, Brussels, despite a number of well-meaning speeches, has no serious intention to tackle the core security issues, especially in Kosovo. http://www.euronews.com/2015/05/27/eu-failed-to-lay-foundations-to-fight-corruption-in-kosovo/ Kosovo is deemed to be part of the EU fabric but there is no will to tackle the nasty criminal elements that latched on the highest levels of political power. Any attempts to lift the carpet and reveal the murky nature of Kosovo, is quickly shut down. An example of this is the case of the British EULEX whistleblower, Maria Bamieh, over allegations of corruption. EULEX was created in 2009 to help Kosovo with access to EU integration.
The Guardian article cites “During Eulex’s six-year tenure, analysts in Pristina say, corruption and organized crime in the political system since independence in 2008 has worsened.” To think that this is does not have an impact on the ordinary people in Kosovo. It seems that years & years of total frustration has vented itself into a mass exodus over out of Kosovo. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/05/eu-facing-questions-dismissal-prosecutor-alleged-corruption
The significant problem with all of this is that illegal migration is heavily assisted by criminal groups, nearly all of which are Albanian / Albanian Kosovar. This is the case in the Balkans where illegals have to pay a ‘fee’ or a ransom to be able to continue with their journey northwards. Take this quote from a Channel 4 documentary: “High powered ethnic Albanian mafia – the sort of men who can take on the Macedonian state in open combat and could be relied on to violently protect their share in the profits from human traffic.” This UK programme dared to look into this - “lifted a lid on an operation that generates millions of euros a year for criminal networks” http://www.channel4.com/news/tracking-down-macedonias-migrant-kidnap-gang
Recent events has once more made Kosovo a key element & base in the US global struggle for control; to crush pro-Russian sentiment. The US is no stranger to using brutal & very heavy handed methods to ensure compliance. What could be better than to undermine & overwhelm the political order in countries such as Macedonia & Serbia with illegal migrants & "gunmen" threatening energy projects?
Kosovo reads the script well, judging by Thaci's comments back in April:"The EU should not delay the accession and
enlargement processes and integration of Kosovo and the region into the
European Union, but also in NATO," He then added
"Any delay in this process is a dangerous one. It
opens the way for penetration and the increase of influence of Russia
in political terms, economic term and military terms," http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/03/us-kosovo-europe-idUSKBN0LZ1FW20150303
Other links
A look at Macedonia
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/us-russia-round-three-macedonia/ri6932
Kalergis' legacy:
http://www.eurocanadian.ca/2015/02/ideological-and-geopolitical-origins-of-eu-richard-von-coudenhove-kalergis-pan-europa.html
Illegal human trafficking in Macedonia
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-busts-migrant-trafficking-ring-1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxuvUyH7AF0&feature=youtu.be
Deaths in Macedonia on the trafficking route: https://twitter.com/maledictus/status/613983837966725120
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