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Post by Balkaneros on Jun 20, 2013 11:22:13 GMT -5
Some interesting players during the Ustasa movement;
-General Milan Miesler (the Croatian Gendarmerie (Hrvatsko Oruznistvo) was formed on April 30th 1941, as a rural police, commanded first by Major-General Milan Miesler);
- General Oskar Kirchbaum
Hinko Hinkovic, was amongst the ideological and political leaders of Croatian nationalism and Singer, worked for Pavelic's election to parliament in 1927.
-General Josip Šulc
-General Ferdinand Halke
-Josip (Joseph) Frank; Lawyer Bradina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josip_Frank ) radical ant-Serb and supposed role-model for Ante Pavlevic
Why is it interesting.... not because they are Croats but rather jews.
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Post by Balkaneros on Jun 15, 2013 17:00:35 GMT -5
This documentary got me in to Greek history a long time back. What would you say caused or is the reason for the demise we see now in Greece?
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Post by Balkaneros on Jun 9, 2013 17:48:54 GMT -5
Serbian Military Cemetary in Thessaloniki. Bust of Eleftherios Venizelos in Belgrade. Rigas Feraios Belgrade Serbian Mausoleum at Vido island near Corfu. Serbs Corfu1916-1918. Several distinguished Serbs had been accepted as members (“brothers”) in the Filiki Eteria ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filiki_Eteria ), the secret organization that prepared the Greek Revolution, although it was officially enlisting only ethnic Greeks. Symbolic of the Greek-Serbian brotherhood was the traditional ritual brotherhood between Giorgakis Olympios and the Serb revolutionary leader Hajduk Velko Petrovic in the ranks of the Eteria. Olympios had fought with Velko in Serbia and was married to the widow of hajduk Veljko Petrović (Trikoupis, p. 24).On the other hand, many eminent Greeks in Wallachia and Russia, politicians, merchants etc. assisted the Serbian Revolution in many ways. For example, Constantine Ypsilantis, father of the Eteria leader Alexandros Ypsilantis, had, as voivode of Wallachia, helped the revolutionaries of Karađorđe, while Ioannis Kapodistrias as Russian Minister of External Affairs offered diplomatic support to the Serbian cause in international meetings like the Congress of Vienna.The first Serbian presence in the Greek Revolution occurred during the revolt's outbreak in Wallachia (1821). The political and military leader of the revolution, Alexandros Ypsilantis, apart from Greeks and other ethnicities, had a number of Serbian fighters under his command, known collectively as “Arvanites”.[3] Some of the notable “Arvanites” were: Captains Milenko Stoikovic, Petar Dobrniak, Chatzi Prontan Gregorievic, Mlanten Milovanovic and Archimandrite Servos,[4] head of 300 Greeks and Serbians, who was killed in the battle. All the above were the leaders of mixed units of Greeks and Serbians Other Serbian leaders who participated in the Revolution of 1821 were:Chatzi Christos Dagobic (Χατζή Χρήστος Ντάγκοβιτς). In 1821 he defected from the Ottoman army and joined the forces of Theodoros Kolokotronis during the siege of Tripolitsa. He ascended up to the rank of General in the Greek revolutionary army. He was taken as prisoner by the Egyptians and was liberated in 1828. He was hellenized and is also known with the surname “Voulgaris” (“Bulgarian”).George Papazoglou (Γεώργιος Παπάζογλου). Cavalry officer under Chatzi Christos, killed in the battle. Constantin Nemania. He was signing as “Prince of Serbia” and was using a seal with the double-headed eagle. Having fallen in great poverty he was granted a small financial assistance and “five breads per day” by the Greek Revolutionary Government for some time. He left from Greece to Russia in 1823.
Other Serbs encountered in the history of the revolution are Thomas Servos, Lambros Servos, Lambros Christou Servos and Thanassis Servos in Messolongi, Giovanis Servos (cavalry sergeant under Chatzi Christos), Kotsos (Constantine) Servos et al.Some fighters from Montenegro were known as “Mavrovouniotis” (Greek for “Montenegrin”), such as Joannos Slavanos Mavrovouniotis, Joannos Montenegrinos (participated in the siege of Tripolitsa), Gregory Jurovic Mavrovouniotis and Vasos Mavrovouniotis from Belopavlic. The latter came from Smyrna to Greece in 1820 and became the leader of*group of Montenegrins, many of them being his brothers and relatives.[6] A notable Montenegrin philhellene was General De Wintz, who had also fought under Napoleon. He attempted to assemble a unit of 2,000 European volunteers or mercenaries to fight in Greece and Cyprus but he did not manage to get any financial assistance. Another group of 25 Serbs under the leadership of the Greek George Kontopoulos is known for their participation in the sieges of Messolonghi.At the beginning of the revolution the Serbian units were ethnically homogeneous, but gradually, a mutual trust and a sense of brotherhood with the Greeks was developed. Thus, after 1823 Greeks enlisted in Serbian units and vice versa. Most of these troops were irregulars, with the exception of a corps of 250 Greeks and Serbs led by the Serbian Stefanos or Stefos Nivitsa, part of a tactical army under the commandment of the French philhellene Charles Nicolas Fabvier (Loukatos, pp 105–107).After 1824 many Serbs ascended the hierarchy of the Greek army, such as the generals Chatzi Christos Dagovic and Vasos Mavrovouniotis, the battalion commanders (chiliarchs) Stefos and Anastasi Dmitrevic, vice-chiliarch Jovo Mavrovouniotis, Captains Ioannis and Nikolaos Radovic from Montenegro and the Serbians Nikolzo, Kotzo, Helias, Spyros, Sterios Pitolites (from Bitola) and Karagiorgos.Many changed their original name for the safety of their relatives or for other reasons. Thus, in the archives are mentioned with their Christian name and the epithet “Servos” or “Serbes” (Serb), “Mavrovouniotis” (Montenegrin), “Bosnakos” (Bosnian) or the name of their home-town (e.g. Katzos “Monastirlis” i.e. from Monasterion/Bitola). Greeks confused some of them with Bulgarians and eventually named them “Voulgari” in various documents. Most were under the age of 25 at the beginning of the Revolution. The Montenegrins originated mostly from the city of Belopavlic and the Serbs from Monasterion (Bitola), Belgrade, Nivitsa, Niš and Skopje.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbs,_Montenegrins_and_Bosnians_in_the_Greek_War_of_Independence Last of all, I swear by Thee, my sacred and suffering Country,— I swear by thy long-endured tortures,— I swear by the bitter tears which for so many centuries have been shed by thy unhappy children, by my own tears which I am pouring forth at this very moment,— I swear by the future liberty of my countrymen, that I consecrate myself wholly to thee; that hence forward thou shall be the cause and object of my thoughts, thy name the guide of my actions, and thy happiness the recompense of my labours. ” —Conclusion of the Great Oath of the Filiki
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Post by Balkaneros on Jun 5, 2013 17:25:01 GMT -5
can someone provide a translation for this song, I can't find one anywhere.
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Post by Balkaneros on Jun 5, 2013 14:34:50 GMT -5
So question; it is said the Illyrian language was extinct by the 5th century, how is this possible?
This is about right when or just before the Slavs even got into Balkan, and before we got into Albania. Can you explain this?
since no one has ever heard of the Illyrian language since the 5th century, how come it took till the 12th Century to have Albanian recognized as a language? ...
Also, how come it wasn't until the 19th Century when the FIRST talk of the supposed connection of the Illryrians and albanians was made? by an Austrian.
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Post by Balkaneros on Jun 2, 2013 12:21:37 GMT -5
aaah Skoric you've been missed I've come to beleive now that no matter how hard reality hits people in the head- "man" will still choose to be submissive. The mere thought of "Freedom" terrifies most people no matter how hard they try to deny this to themselves - man "needs" to be tagged along somewhere, man needs to be guided towards a cause which in the end is no-cause at all because mans' only cause can only be for himself, by himself and this is what people fear - to be alone. Nikos Kazantzakis said it best in my opinion; “A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.”
This is realy what's it about, to be free is to be different from the rest but not in the egoist narcistic way, but ultimately in the way in which the individual is the master on himself/life/destiny. To discount the trivial world around us such as; economics, politics, celebrity gossip, mainstream-trends etc... is to be-mad (crazy). If you're not like the rest, you're crazy. If you don't like what everyone else likes, you're crazy. If you're dreams, desires and ideas are not like the rest, you're crazy. If you refuse to live your life like the rest under the guise of "being like" the rest, you're crazy. Therefore it comes down to this; If one wants to be free, one must first become crazy enough to actually do it.
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Post by Balkaneros on Jun 1, 2013 17:02:29 GMT -5
Here's another good thread; "NATO bombed Serbia because of liesillyria.proboards.com/thread/35294/nato-bombed-serbia-lies-todays#British parliamentary committee admits NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was illegalLast week the British parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee (FSC), a body with representatives from the major parties in Parliament, issued a 315-paragraph report on the lessons of NATO's war against Yugoslavia. The report makes the admission that the NATO bombardment was illegal under international law. It nevertheless argues that the war was justified on “humanitarian” grounds. NATO's Operation Allied Force " was contrary to the specific terms of what might be termed the basic law of the international community—the UN charter", the report states. As to NATO's claim that its precedent-setting action had been made necessary by humanitarian considerations—namely, to protect Kosovo's Albanian population—the report acknowledges that such justifications have "a tenuous basis in current international customary law, and that this renders the NATO action legally questionable”. The FSC document further admits that many of the pretexts which NATO used to justify its military action were false. It finds that the Western powers, at US insistence, sought to prevent a diplomatic solution to the Kosovo crisis by setting conditions at the Rambouillet talks that amounted to a renunciation of Serbian sovereignty, something which the Milosovic regime could not possibly accept. The report further acknowledges that NATO's bombing campaign dramatically worsened the situation facing Kosovar Albanians, turning what had been until then an "anti-insurgency campaign" by the Milosevic regime against the KLA into a "mass, organised campaign to kill Kosovo Albanians or drive them from the country”. Such extraordinary admissions by a top-level British parliamentary body were made necessary by the fact that virtually all of the claims the Western powers used to justify their intervention against Serbia have since been exposed as lies. NATO's humanitarian pretensions, already discredited by its bombardment of Yugoslav cities and targeting of civilian infrastructure, have been further undermined by events in Kosovo since NATO's military occupation of the Yugoslav province began one year ago. ... www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/06/kos1-j14.htmlWhat the British Foreign Affairs Select Committee on Kosovo reported14 June 2000 The following article summarises some of the main findings contained in the report on NATO's war against Yugoslavia issued last week by the British parliamentary Foreign Affairs Select Committee.www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/06/kos2-j14.html
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Post by Balkaneros on Jun 1, 2013 16:51:41 GMT -5
II. INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS: THE UNITED NATIONS CHARTER AND THE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION. All of the NATO member states are also members of the United Nations (U.N.). As members of the U.N., these five states are required to abide by the provisions set forth in the Charter of United Nations (U.N. Charter). The U.N. Charter permits states to use armed force against other states only in two situations: when required or permitted by a resolution of the Security Council,8 or when the state is acting in selfdefense. 9 Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter provides that: All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.10 The NATO bombing is a "use of force against the territorial integrity" of Yugoslavia, if not against its "political independence," and therefore a violation of the U.N. Charter. Pursuant to Chapter Seven of the U.N. Charter, the Security Council is given the authority to act in order to preserve peace and safety of the international community. The Security Council, although it has repeatedly addressed the Kosovo issue, did not specifically authorize the use of force against Yugoslavia.The United States and NATO have maintained that the resolution is implicitly authorized by Security Council resolutions 1160,11 1199,12 and 1203,13 and that only the certainty of a Russian and/or Chinese veto stood in the way of a Security Council resolution explicitly authorizing action against Yugoslavia. Security Council Resolution 1199, in particular, determined that the situation in Kosovo is "a threat to peace and security in the region." 14 Prior to the bombings, NATO Secretary- General Solana referred to and repeated this phrase in a statement concluding "that the Allies believe that in ... respect to the present crisis in Kosovo as described in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1199, there are legitimate grounds for the Alliance to threaten, and if necessary, to use force." 15 Despite the assertions of the NATO members, however, the likelihood of a veto of any explicit authorization by not one but two of the permanent members makes it clear that NATO's action is not authorized by the Security Council. 16 The Security Council was never intended to decide matters upon a "one country, one vote" principle, and the veto powe rgiven to the five permanent members exists for good reason.In order for NATO's action to be legal, it must either be self-defense under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter or be permitted by some rule of customary international law not in conflict with the NATO states' obligations under Article 2(4).digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1240&context=pilr&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.ca%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3Dnato%2520violations%2520serbia%25201999%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D12%26ved%3D0CDAQFjABOAo%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fdigitalcommons.pace.edu%252Fcgi%252Fviewcontent.cgi%253Farticle%253D1240%2526context%253Dpilr%26ei%3D1WuqUeOzIunW0gGeoYDIAg%26usg%3DAFQjCNFOUhE0w8VtzClPS4S2HrU4U0C9iA#search=%22nato%20violations%20serbia%201999%22Keep in mind the "real" event which paved the way for NATO/USA to intervene was the so-called "Racak massacre", which (a little too late) was proven a hoax.
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Post by Balkaneros on Jun 1, 2013 16:45:57 GMT -5
Humanitarian Hypocrisy Professor Robert Hayden Director, Center for Russian & East European Studies University of Pittsburgh In October 1998 NATO faced a dilemma:(1) while its member states were threatening air attacks(2) against Yugoslavia in response to Yugoslav attacks on Kosovo Albanians, they also recognized that Kosovo is clearly within the sovereign territory of Yugoslavia. On March 24, 1999, NATO resolved this dilemma by committing the first unprovoked, opposed military aggression in Europe since Soviet troops invaded Hungary in 1956. The attacks were clearly contrary to international law and to the UN charter.(3) The aggression took the form of intensive bombing of the Yugoslav "infrastructure," the first such massive use of air attacks in Europe since World War II. As of May 23, after 60 days of bombing, NATO had mounted 7,000 air attacks on more than 500 targets, with munitions alone costing about $20 million per day. While Yugoslav military casualty figures in the first 60 days of the attacks were estimated at being "in the hundreds," NATO had in that time killed as many as 1500 civilians.(4) Further, in the third week of May NATO began to commit textbook war crimes, aimed at depriving the civilian population of Serbia of water and electrical power, and explicitly not aimed at military forces in Kosovo.(5) Czech President Vaclav Havel has characterized NATO's war as one in which the alliance has "acted out of respect for human rights" and said that it is probably the first war that has been waged "in the name of principles and values." He also said that even though NATO acted with no authority from the UN Security Council, this violation of the UN Charter does not constitute an act of aggression or disrespect for international law, but "happened, on the contrary, out of respect for the law, for a law that ranks higher than the law which protects the sovereignty of states": human rights.(6) Yet the war supposedly in defense of human rights has produced war crimes by NATO, and a civilian casualty rate that is at least three time higher than the casualty rate of the "intolerable" violations of human rights that NATO was supposedly acting to correct. This article argues that this perversion of humanitarianism is the logical result of NATO's action, and that humanitarian catastrophes are likely to be inevitable when the excuse of "humanitarian intervention" is used to justify aggression. The Asserted Justifications for the NATO Attacks
"To Prevent a Humanitarian Disaster"When he announced the NATO air attacks, on March 24, President Clinton said that he was doing so because Serbian forces were "moving from village to village, shelling civilians and torching their houses."(7) Thus, NATO supposedly was attacking to "protect thousands of people in Kosovo from a mounting military offensive."(8) It is clear, however, that the wide Serbian offensive against Kosovo Albanians began after NATO's attacks began. As the U.S. State Department itself admits, "In late March 1999, Serbian forces dramatically increased the scope and pace of their efforts, moving away from selective targeting of towns and regions suspected of KLA sympathies."(9) In other words, Yugoslav forces, until NATO attacks on them commenced, were fighting a guerrilla force, in much the same way that American forces had fought in Vietnam.(10) If NATO had indeed begun its attacks to "prevent a greater catastrophe"(11) than what the State Department acknowledges to have been "selective targeting" of places suspected of KLA activities, it clearly failed: the attacks provoked the wider Serbian offensive against ethnic Albanians. This result was hardly unpredictable, and was in fact predicted by military and CIA analysts, but these predictions were ignored. In addition, I had heard from administration sources, five days before NATO attacked, that while Clinton was committed to bombing Yugoslavia there was literally no plan for what to do next, except to predict that Miloševi would surrender. After the NATO attacks began and Serb forces began the massive expulsion of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, the goal of the NATO action supposedly switched to returning the refugees. However, the few reporters from Western media who were on the ground in Kosovo in April and May reported that Albanians were by then leaving mainly because of the NATO bombing.(12) With each passing day, as NATO has increased the destruction of Kosovo, more Albanians have left, and there has been less for them to return to: while Serbs have burned Albanian houses, it is NATO that has destroyed the infrastructure of the place. It is thus clear that NATO's actions have provoked a humanitarian disaster. The destruction of Serbia's infrastructure can only increase that disaster. " We Exhausted Every Diplomatic Effort for a Settlement"In a New York Times article on May 23,(13) President Clinton announced that NATO had "exhausted every diplomatic effort for a settlement." He had said in his March 24 speech that ""Serbian leaders ... refused even to discuss key elements of the peace agreement" that the US and other countries had presented to them in Rambouillet, France. It is certainly hypocritical for those who propose a "take it or leave it" deal to complain that the other side refused to negotiate, especially when the supposedly obstinate party actually offered a counterproposal.(14) The Rambouillet documents, however, could not be acceptable to any state. The political and constitutional sections followed the logic laid out in my December 1998 article in this journal, and would have rendered Yugoslav and Serbian sovereignty in Kosovo fictive. The military implementation annex (Appendix B) was even more interesting. Under its provisions, NATO would have had "free and unrestricted access throughout the FRY" (para. 8); NATO personnel would be immune from all Yugoslav and Serbian legal processes and from "arrest, investigation or detention" (paras. 6, 7), but would be able to "detain" individuals and turn them over to unspecified "appropriate authorities" (para. 21). While it has been suggested by some NATO sources that this military implementation plan was patterned after that included in the Dayton agreement, the assertion is false: the agreement between NATO and the FRY in Annex 1A of the Dayton agreement only granted NATO "free transit ... through the territory of the FRY" and did not authorize NATO to "detain" anyone. Rambouillet, therefore, required that the Yugoslavs renounce sovereignty over a large part of their territory and submit to occupation of the entire country by NATO, which they were hardly likely to accept. The Legality of the NATO AttacksThere is literally no question but that NATO's attack on Yugoslavia violates the United Nations charter: the NATO attacks were never authorized by the Security Council and could not by any stretch of the imagination be considered to have been in self-defense.(15) Interestingly, some commentators who acknowledge this uncomfortable fact then argue that an exception to international law should perhaps be created for what Antonio Cassese calls "humanitarian countermeasures," when, according to Bruno Simma, "imperative political and moral considerations may appear to leave no choice but to act outside the law," or, as Vaclav Havel put it, to find a "higher law" to justify what international law defines, clearly, as aggression. This acknowledgement of NATO illegality even by those supporting NATO's actions is noteworthy. A War Against CiviliansEvery time NATO bombs a hospital, bus, market, town center, apartment building or refugee convoy, NATO spokesmen assert that NATO "never targets civilians" but that, while NATO's bombs are the most accurate in history, "collateral damage" is inevitable. However, NATO's attacks have been aimed against civilian targets since literally the first night of the bombing, when a tractor factory in the Belgrade suburb of Rakovica was destroyed by cruise missiles.(16) Since then NATO targets have included roads, railroad tracks and bridges hundreds of miles from Kosovo, power plants, factories of many kinds, food processing and sugar processing plants, water pumping stations, cigarette factories, central heating plants for civilian apartment blocks, television studios, post offices, non-military government administrative buildings, ski resorts, government official residences, oil refineries, civilian airports, gas stations, and chemical plants. NATO's strategy is not to attack Yugoslavia's army directly, but rather to destroy Yugoslavia itself, in order to weaken the army. With this strategy it is military losses that are "collateral damage," because most of the attacks are aimed at civilian targets.(17) Evidence that the attacks have targeted mainly civilians can be seen in casualty figures. As mentioned above, after 60 days of bombing and more than 7,000 attacks, Serb military losses were "in the hundreds," while civilian casualties were as high as 1500 killed and 6000 wounded. NATO claims that less than one percent of its bombs miss their targets, so if Serb civilian casualties outnumber military losses, the reason must be that NATO is targeting civilians more than it is the military. This strategy is hardly secret. The Wall Street Journal reported on April 27 that NATO had decided to attack "political, rather than just military, targets in Serbia." On April 25, the Washington Times reported that NATO planned to hit "power generation plants and water systems, taking the war directly to civilians." NATO generals told the Philadelphia Inquirer on May 21 that "Just focussing on fielded forces is not enough ... . The people have to get to the point that their lights are turned off, their bridges are blocked so they can't get to work." Note that the purpose of destroying these bridges is not military; but this was clear when NATO destroyed the bridges in Novi Sad, 500 km. from Kosovo, installations which clearly did not make the "effective contribution to military action" in Kosovo that would have rendered them legitimate targets under Article 52 of Protocol I additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. That NATO planned from the start to hit civilian targets was made clear to me a few days before the attacks began by an employee of a U.S. intelligence organization who said that the CIA had been charged with preparing lists of Yugoslav economic assets and that, "basically, everything in the country is a target unless it's taken off the list." This was nothing new: as Michael Walzer notes, in the Gulf War in 1990, "the coalition decided (or the U. S. commanders decided) that the economic infrastructure of Iraqi society -- all of it -- was a legitimate military target," and that while similar strategic targeting had been common in World War II, what was new was the attempt to deprive the Iraqi population of clean water. However, Walzer notes drily, perhaps that "wasn't technically feasible in the 1940s."(18) But it is technically feasible in the 1990s. On May 23, "fifteen NATO bombs hit water pumps ... in the northwestern town of Sremska Mitrovica for the second night in a row."(19) Attacks on May 24 "slashed water reserves by damaging pumps and cutting electricity to the few pumps that were still operative."(20) Only 30 percent of Belgrade's 2 million people had running water, and the city was down to 10 percent of its water reserves.(21) That these attacks were not aimed at military operations in Kosovo is clear from the remarks attributed by the Washington Post to a Pentagon official, who stated that the attacks had been limited to Serbia proper but that "NATO commanders are understood to be planning to extend the attacks to Kosovo."(22) A more clear example of NATO's targeting civilians in Serbia rather than soldiers in Kosovo would be hard to find. NATO War Crimes Depriving a civilian population of water is a textbook example of a violation of international humanitarian law, specifically of Article 54 of Protocol I of the 1949 Geneva Conventions. As Aryeh Neier has noted, the U.N. War Crimes Commission that investigated the Bosnian war concluded that attacking the civilian population was prima facie a war crime, and recommended that the commander of the Bosnian Serbs be indicted for attacking the civilian population.(23) There would seem to be no doubt that NATO commanders and, presumably, at least some NATO political leaders are guilty of war crimes on this count alone. But this count is not alone. The level of damage done to clearly non-military infrastructural targets in Serbia would seem to render NATO military commanders and at least some NATO political leaders liable to the same charge that was made against Ratko Mladi and Radovan Karadi by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), "extensive destruction of property:" that they individually and in concert with others planned, instigated, ordered or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution of the extensive, wanton and unlawful destruction of ... property, not justified by military necessity or knew or had reason to know that subordinates were about to destroy or permit others to destroy ... property or had done so and failed to take necessary and reasonable measures to prevent this destruction or to punish the perpetrators thereof."(24) It is also likely that General Clark and NATO political leaders are liable for the charge of murder that was made against Yugoslav President Miloševi on May 27, 1999, for, at the least, the bombing of the studios of Radio Television Serbia (RTS) on April 22, 1999. There is no question but that the RTS studios were civilian targets: NATO spokesman Jamie Shea had stated as much in an April 12 1999 letter to the general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, noting that "television and radio towers are only struck if they are integrated into military facilities."(25) No one has suggested that RTS studios played any military role. Indeed, NATO spokesman David Willoughby had stated at NATO's news briefing on April 8 1999 that RTS would not be bombed if it broadcast Western news broadcasts for six hours per day, which indicates clearly that there was no concern that the studios were integrated into the military. Bombing RTS was an intentional effort to widen the war to civilian targets,(26) which resulted in the deaths of at least sixteen civilians. The culpability of NATO military and political leaders in the ICTY would seem particularly clear since the Prosecutor of the Tribunal had in fact warned NATO that it, too, is bound by the Geneva Conventions,(27) while Human Rights Watch had sent a letter to NATO's secretary general expressing concern about specific violations by NATO of international humanitarian law.(28) NATO, however, seems unlikely to be overly concerned. When questioned on May 16 about the possibility of NATO liability for war crimes before the ICTY, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said that "NATO is the friend of the Tribunal ... NATO countries are those that have provided the finances to set up the Tribunal, we are among the majority financiers." He repeated the same message on May 17: NATO Countries "have established these tribunals... fund these tribunals and ... support on a daily basis their activities." No, he did not anticipate indictments against NATO leaders or military personnel.(29) The independence and impartiality of the ICTY was in any event utterly compromised by the indictment on May 27 of Yugoslav President Miloševi and four of his political associates. While there is little question that Miloševi is guilty of war crimes, "justice" that is not impartial cannot be seen as just. The failure of the Prosecutor to indict NATO or its clients would seem to confirm Jamie Shea's message that he who pays the prosecutor determines who is charged. It is particularly noteworthy that while the Prosecutor has been reported unable to indict Croatian generals for the 1995 ethnic cleansing of the Krajina because the U.S. government has refused to provide requested information,(30) she made well publicized visits to American and British officials to gather information with which to indict Miloševi. When a Prosecutor who is a citizen of one NATO country seeks assistance from the governments of other NATO countries in order to indict the President of the country that NATO is attacking, not even the pretence of prosecutorial independence remains. Humanitarian Hypocrisy The "humanitarian intervention" in Kosovo has produced flagrant violations of international law and the UN Charter by NATO countries, turned what had been a brutal repression of a brutal armed uprising into a humanitarian catastrophe, and produced the first massive bombings of a European country since World War II, bombings which have been targeted mainly at civilian targets and many of which are prima facie war crimes committed by NATO, the supposedly humanitarian interveners. At the same time, NATO's transformation of itself from a defensive alliance into the first proud aggressor in Europe(31) since the Soviet Union's invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia has threatened to restart a cold war, this time between "the West" and pretty much the rest of the world. As I write, former Russian Prime Minister Chernomyrdin, acting as Russia's intermediary in the diplomacy surrounding the Kosovo crisis, found it necessary to directly contradict President Clinton's published views on relations with Russia and to predict a new cold war in which Russia would be backed by other great powers, such as China and India.(32) The humanitarian catastrophe caused by actions like those of NATO in Yugoslavia seems inevitable, for several reasons. First, at the level of international law, every nation has the right to defend itself against aggression. At the level of practical politics, a nation that is attacked will try to resist the attacker. Winning the war thus requires defeating not only the army, but the nation: the civilian population. Thus the decision to attack a sovereign state is, logically, a decision to attack the civilian population of that state, not just the military. NATO's targeting of the civilian infrastructure of Serbia (and earlier, of Iraq), is thus logical, and the constant repetition that "NATO never targets civilians" is hypocritical, presumably meant to obscure the uncomfortable fact that humanitarian intervention requires the committing of war crimes. Of course, one may argue that the civilian population is a legitimate target because the nation as a body is guilty. Indeed, Clinton's eager executioners in the New York Times(33) and The New Republic(34) have made such arguments, saying that, in Daniel Goldhagen's words, the Serbian nation "clearly consists of individuals with damaged faculties of moral judgment and has sunk into a moral abyss from which it is unlikely to emerge ... unaided."(35) This assertion ignores the inconvenient fact that Serbia's President Miloševi was never elected in a free and fair election; that there were massive anti-Miloševi demonstrations in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1996-97, while Richard Holbrooke continued to negotiate with Miloševi while telling the oppostion not to boycot rigged elections; or that many of the main targets of NATO bombing (the cities of Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, aak and Niš) were centers of the democratic opposition to Miloševi, which had sought help from the West with no success through March 24 1999 although now, apparently, NATO's bombs will raise them from their moral abyss. Of course, when one advocates killing civilians it is surely comforting to suppose that they are not innocent. The moral sleight-of-hand involved in humanitarian intervention is revealed by Havel, who finds the values of human rights to be powerful because people are willing to die for them.(36) He thus seems to echo Gandhi, who is reputed to have said that while there were many causes that he would willingly die for, there are none that he would kill for. NATO, however, is not willing to die for human rights, but rather to kill for them, which is, after all, what humanitarian intervention is all about -- and what Havel applauds. Finally, the most dangerous hypocrisy may be the rejection of international law for the arrogance of asserting that one respects higher laws. Presumably, those who disagree are simply less enlightened, or less moral. In regard to Kosovo, NATO asserted that it could not ask for Security Council approval because the Russians and the Chinese would not have given it -- thus implicitly saying that NATO is superior in morality to the Russians and the Chinese. And yet, imagine what would have happened had NATO ignored the seductions of its superb morality, and gone to the Security Council. Perhaps the Russians or the Chinese would have vetoed NATO's moral crusade, in which case, the Serbs would probably still be engaged in their selective targeting of towns and regions suspected of KLA sympathies. And hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians who are now refugees would still be in their homes. And thousands of now-dead Kosovo Albanians would still be alive. And thousands of Serb civilians would not be dead or wounded. And the stability of the Balkans would be much less threatened. And NATO relations with Russia would not be degraded, or those with China. What a humanitarian catastrophe all of that would have been. jurist.law.pitt.edu/hayden.htm
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Post by Balkaneros on May 31, 2013 19:27:53 GMT -5
Europe: Mosque Building Shifts into High Gear"In Spain there are signs that Islam will dominate once again." — Hizrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Spiritual Leader, Ahmadiyya Community, Spain From Belgium to Greece and Spain to Germany, 2013 is shaping up to be another banner year for the construction of mosques in Europe. In Belgium, work is about to begin on the construction of a mega-mosque in Liège, the third-largest city in the country. The largest mosque in Wallonia (the French-speaking region of Belgium) will be built on an 11,000 m² (118,000 ft²) plot and will consist of a main building with a capacity for 1,000 worshippers, a library, a cafeteria and several shops. Plans to build two 30 m (98 ft) minarets were scrapped after opposition from local residents. The new plan involves one 18 m (60 ft) minaret which will be automatically illuminated during calls to prayer. The mayor of Liège, Willy Demeyer (PS), banned a protest march against the mosque that was to have been held on March 30. "My role is to avoid excesses and problems of public order," he said. In Germany, Muslims in the northern city of Hamburg are converting the former Kapernaumkirche (Capernaum Church), a cultural heritage site, into a mosque.[/b]
In the southern German city of Munich, local politicians are debating where to build a massive mosque complex known as the Center for Islam in Europe-Munich (ZIE-M). The 6,000 m² (65,000 ft²) mega-project, which will cost an estimated €40 million ($51 million), is designed to be a key strategic platform for spreading Islam throughout Europe.
Speculation is rife that the Persian Gulf Emirate of Qatar will pay for the project, although the Qatari Ambassador to Germany recently told the newspaper Münchner Merkur that no final decision has been made.
The citizen's movement Die Freiheit Bayern (Freedom Bavaria) organized a demonstration against the project in downtown Munich on March 24, but only 120 people bothered to show up.
In Greece, which is effectively bankrupt, the government has pledged to spend €1.1 million ($1.4 million) to build an official mosque in Athens for the city's expanding Muslim population.
The mosque, which will be built on the former naval base in Votanikos, will be able to hold around 500 worshippers as well as hundreds more in an outdoor area.
The Greek government agreed in September 2011 to pay for the mosque after an offer from the Turkish government to pay for it was rejected by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, and opposed by the Muslim community in Greece, which insisted that the Greek state pay for it.
Samaras says he wants to establish a mosque in Athens -- the only capital in European Union that lacks a state-backed place for Muslim worship -- in a bid to boost Greece's diplomatic hand vis-à-vis Turkey.
An estimated 120 sites are illegally operating as mosques in Athens. These makeshift spaces serve an estimated 200,000 Muslims living in the city, many of whom are illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria and Pakistan.
In Thessaloniki, the 111-year-old New Mosque (which was once a museum and is now used as an exhibition hall) welcomed Muslim worshippers for the first time in 90 years on March 30. On the initiative of the city's mayor, Yiannis Boutaris, the mosque opened its doors to 50 Muslims from Komotini, a city in Thrace, a region of northeastern Greece.
Komotini is home to a sizeable Muslim minority, which constitutes 45% of the city's population. Turkey's ambassador to Greece, Kerim Uras, said he expects Islam to have a higher profile in Greece in the future. He said the move to open the mosque was "a positive step in the right direction. We're expecting the rest to come. I hope Athens will also be a place where Muslims can pray."
In Ireland, city planners in Dublin have given the go-ahead for the construction of a sprawling mega-mosque complex that will cater to Ireland's growing Muslim population. The massive €40 million ($50 million) "Islamic Cultural Center" will be built on a six-acre site in Clongriffin, a new and as yet unfinished suburb at the northern edge of Dublin. It will compete with another mosque complex in the southern suburb of Clonskeagh that also goes by the name "Islamic Cultural Center," a sprawling four-acre campus, financed by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the deputy ruler of Dubai.
Rumors have it that the new mega-mosque at Clongriffin will be financed by Qatar, which recently donated €800,000 ($1 million) to build a mega-mosque in Cork, the second-most populous city in Ireland.
In Luxembourg, a Muslim group called Le Juste Milieu (LJM) is engaged in a fund-raising drive to collect €1.8 million ($2.3 million) to purchase the ground floor of a building that currently houses a makeshift mosque in downtown Luxembourg City. The building is mostly residential; local residents are opposed to the mosque.
The purchase is generating controversy because of concerns over how LJM will raise the cash it needs. In August 2012, the German-language newspaper Tageblatt reported that the Qatar was paying €2.2 million ($2.8 million) to establish a mosque and madrassah [Islamic religious school] that would cater to the 10,000 Muslims who have settled in Luxembourg.
In Scotland, St. John's Episcopal Church in Aberdeen has become the first church in the United Kingdom to share its premises with Muslim worshippers. The church now welcomes hundreds of Muslims praying five times a day in their building because the nearby mosque was so small that worshippers were forced to pray outside.
According to the rector of St. John's, Isaac Poobalan, "Praying is never wrong. My job is to encourage people to pray. The mosque was so full at times, there would be people outside in the wind and rain praying. I knew I couldn't just let this happen, because I would be abandoning what the Bible teaches us about how we should treat our neighbors."
The bishop of Aberdeen, Robert Gillies, says that by handing over sections of the church to the mosque, the church has accomplished "something of global significance on a local scale."
In Spain, Muslims inaugurated a new mosque on March 21 in the northern Basque town of Portugalete. The mosque has been resoundingly opposed by local residents, but city officials approved the building permit in order to "promote the integration of Muslims into the local community."
A recent study commissioned by the Basque government found that one in four Basques reject the idea of having a mosque in their neighborhood, and one in five do not want a Muslim as a neighbor.
The Basque Country is home to more than 50,000 Muslims, 70 Muslim groups, two dozen officially licensed mosques and hundreds of unofficial Islamic prayer rooms and cultural centers. Muslims in the Basque region, who hail mostly from Algeria, Morocco, Pakistan and sub-Saharan Africa, have become increasingly assertive in recent years.
Residents of the Basque city of Bilbao are finding their mailboxes stuffed with flyers in Spanish and Arabic from the Islamic Community of Bilbao asking for money to build a 650 m² (7,000 ft²) mosque costing €550,000 ($735,000).
Until recently, the Islamic Community of Bilbao had the following statement posted on its website: "We were expelled [from Spain] in 1609, really not that long ago. … The echo of Al-Andalus still resonates in all the valley of the Ebro [Spain]. We are back to stay, Insha'Allah [if Allah wills it]." (Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of Spain ruled by Muslim conquerors from 711 until 1492.)
In Valencia, the third-largest city in Spain, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community inaugurated a new mosque on March 29 -- which also happened to be Good Friday, the day when Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary.
The 1,500 m² (16,000 ft²) Baitur-Rahman Mosque, with a capacity for 600 worshippers, adds to the 172 mosques already located in the Valencia region.
The mosque was inaugurated by Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, whose sermon was broadcast in several languages to tens of millions of viewers with the help of eight satellites.
Ahmad told his followers that Valencia had been chosen to host the mosque because that is where the expulsion of the Moriscos (descendants of the Muslim population that converted to Christianity under threat of exile from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1502) began in 1609.
Ahmad added: "In Spain there are a million Muslims and we believe that in twenty years this number will double. In Spain there are signs that Islam will dominate once again." He also said the mission of the new mosque would be to "spread the teachings of Islam to every single citizen of Spain."
In the Catalan municipality of Salt, a town near Barcelona where Muslim immigrants now make up 40% of the population, work has begun on the construction of a two-story Salafi mega-mosque -- built by two Spain-based Salafist groups, Al Hilal Islamic Cultural Association and Magrebins per la Pau Association, with funding from Saudi Arabia -- with a capacity for 750 worshippers.
Salafism, a branch of radical Islam based in Saudi Arabia, seeks to establish an Islamic empire (Caliphate) across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, and eventually the world. The Caliphate would be governed exclusively by Islamic Sharia law, to be applied both to Muslims and non-Muslims.
Salt approved a one-year ban on the construction of new mosques in August 2011 to provide "some time for reflection" after it emerged that the previous Socialist government in the town secretly gave permission to the Salafi Muslims to build the mega-mosque.
The deal to build the mega-mosque was discovered only after the Socialists were ejected from power in May 2011. Public outrage prompted the new town council -- now ruled by the center-right Convergència i Unió (CiU) party -- to prevent the mosque from being built.
Construction of the Salafi mosque is proceeding, nonetheless: apparently the construction permit was issued before the non-retroactive moratorium took effect.
In nearby Lérida, where 30,000 Muslims make up more than 20% of the city's population, mosque builders are facing a problem of a different kind: on March 4, 2013, the Catalan Supreme Court ruled that a local Muslim group would not be allowed to build a mega-mosque in an industrial park, called El Segre, because a municipal ordinance states that the area may only be used for industrial purposes; as such, the premises were deemed unfit for public assembly.
Two days after that ruling, another judge at a different court ordered city officials in Lérida to approve the construction of an 800 m² (8,600 ft²) brothel in the same industrial park, two streets away from where Muslims had wanted to build their mosque.
City officials said they had originally denied the license to build the brothel because of a lack of parking space, but the judge disagreed, saying the denial "has more to do with the subject of the proposed business (a brothel) than with a concern over parking."
An article in the Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia entitled, "Brothel Yes, Mosque No" reports that the Lérida City Council "does not hide its surprise at these two opposing points of view from the judiciary on the use that can be given to the plots in the same industrial park." City officials say they will appeal the ruling.
In Switzerland, a Muslim group called Club Paradise is converting a bowling alley into a mosque. The future imam of the new mosque, Fehim Dragusha, originally from Kosovo, made local headlines in late 2011 when he called on Muslim parents to beat their children if they refuse to pray. Dragusha says he was misunderstood because of his poor German language skills. He now says he favors a "modern Islam."
In other mosque-related news, the Danish toymaker Lego has tried to defend its controversial decision to remove its Jabba's Palace toy set -- based on a scene from Star Wars Episode VI -- from store shelves.
In January 2013, the Turkish Cultural Community of Austria (TCA) complained that "Jabba's Palace" resembled the Hagia Sophia mosque, originally a Christian church, in Istanbul, formerly the Christian city of Constantinople; and that the accompanying figures depicted "racial prejudice and vulgar insinuations" against Muslims as people with "deceitful and criminal personalities."
Initially, Lego refused to back down, insisting that the product was merely a faithful reproduction of the images in the Star Wars movie. But after a meeting in Munich on March 29 between Turkish community leaders and Lego executives, Lego agreed to end its production of the toy from 2014 onwards.
Lego says its decision had nothing to do with pressure from Muslims and everything to do with the natural lifecycle of the product. But the Turks do not see it that way. The jubilant president of the TCA, Birol Killic, said in a statement: "We are very grateful and congratulate Lego on the decision to take Jabba's Palace out of production." He added: "Lego managers have also promised that the chief toy maker will be sensitized on this [multicultural] issue."
www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3657/europe-mosques
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Post by Balkaneros on May 31, 2013 19:27:30 GMT -5
Europe: Mosque Building Shifts into High Gear"In Spain there are signs that Islam will dominate once again." — Hizrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Spiritual Leader, Ahmadiyya Community, Spain From Belgium to Greece and Spain to Germany, 2013 is shaping up to be another banner year for the construction of mosques in Europe. In Belgium, work is about to begin on the construction of a mega-mosque in Liège, the third-largest city in the country. The largest mosque in Wallonia (the French-speaking region of Belgium) will be built on an 11,000 m² (118,000 ft²) plot and will consist of a main building with a capacity for 1,000 worshippers, a library, a cafeteria and several shops. Plans to build two 30 m (98 ft) minarets were scrapped after opposition from local residents. The new plan involves one 18 m (60 ft) minaret which will be automatically illuminated during calls to prayer. The mayor of Liège, Willy Demeyer (PS), banned a protest march against the mosque that was to have been held on March 30. "My role is to avoid excesses and problems of public order," he said. In Germany, Muslims in the northern city of Hamburg are converting the former Kapernaumkirche (Capernaum Church), a cultural heritage site, into a mosque.[/b]
In the southern German city of Munich, local politicians are debating where to build a massive mosque complex known as the Center for Islam in Europe-Munich (ZIE-M). The 6,000 m² (65,000 ft²) mega-project, which will cost an estimated €40 million ($51 million), is designed to be a key strategic platform for spreading Islam throughout Europe.
Speculation is rife that the Persian Gulf Emirate of Qatar will pay for the project, although the Qatari Ambassador to Germany recently told the newspaper Münchner Merkur that no final decision has been made.
The citizen's movement Die Freiheit Bayern (Freedom Bavaria) organized a demonstration against the project in downtown Munich on March 24, but only 120 people bothered to show up.
In Greece, which is effectively bankrupt, the government has pledged to spend €1.1 million ($1.4 million) to build an official mosque in Athens for the city's expanding Muslim population.
The mosque, which will be built on the former naval base in Votanikos, will be able to hold around 500 worshippers as well as hundreds more in an outdoor area.
The Greek government agreed in September 2011 to pay for the mosque after an offer from the Turkish government to pay for it was rejected by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, and opposed by the Muslim community in Greece, which insisted that the Greek state pay for it.
Samaras says he wants to establish a mosque in Athens -- the only capital in European Union that lacks a state-backed place for Muslim worship -- in a bid to boost Greece's diplomatic hand vis-à-vis Turkey.
An estimated 120 sites are illegally operating as mosques in Athens. These makeshift spaces serve an estimated 200,000 Muslims living in the city, many of whom are illegal immigrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria and Pakistan.
In Thessaloniki, the 111-year-old New Mosque (which was once a museum and is now used as an exhibition hall) welcomed Muslim worshippers for the first time in 90 years on March 30. On the initiative of the city's mayor, Yiannis Boutaris, the mosque opened its doors to 50 Muslims from Komotini, a city in Thrace, a region of northeastern Greece.
Komotini is home to a sizeable Muslim minority, which constitutes 45% of the city's population. Turkey's ambassador to Greece, Kerim Uras, said he expects Islam to have a higher profile in Greece in the future. He said the move to open the mosque was "a positive step in the right direction. We're expecting the rest to come. I hope Athens will also be a place where Muslims can pray."
In Ireland, city planners in Dublin have given the go-ahead for the construction of a sprawling mega-mosque complex that will cater to Ireland's growing Muslim population. The massive €40 million ($50 million) "Islamic Cultural Center" will be built on a six-acre site in Clongriffin, a new and as yet unfinished suburb at the northern edge of Dublin. It will compete with another mosque complex in the southern suburb of Clonskeagh that also goes by the name "Islamic Cultural Center," a sprawling four-acre campus, financed by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the deputy ruler of Dubai.
Rumors have it that the new mega-mosque at Clongriffin will be financed by Qatar, which recently donated €800,000 ($1 million) to build a mega-mosque in Cork, the second-most populous city in Ireland.
In Luxembourg, a Muslim group called Le Juste Milieu (LJM) is engaged in a fund-raising drive to collect €1.8 million ($2.3 million) to purchase the ground floor of a building that currently houses a makeshift mosque in downtown Luxembourg City. The building is mostly residential; local residents are opposed to the mosque.
The purchase is generating controversy because of concerns over how LJM will raise the cash it needs. In August 2012, the German-language newspaper Tageblatt reported that the Qatar was paying €2.2 million ($2.8 million) to establish a mosque and madrassah [Islamic religious school] that would cater to the 10,000 Muslims who have settled in Luxembourg.
In Scotland, St. John's Episcopal Church in Aberdeen has become the first church in the United Kingdom to share its premises with Muslim worshippers. The church now welcomes hundreds of Muslims praying five times a day in their building because the nearby mosque was so small that worshippers were forced to pray outside.
According to the rector of St. John's, Isaac Poobalan, "Praying is never wrong. My job is to encourage people to pray. The mosque was so full at times, there would be people outside in the wind and rain praying. I knew I couldn't just let this happen, because I would be abandoning what the Bible teaches us about how we should treat our neighbors."
The bishop of Aberdeen, Robert Gillies, says that by handing over sections of the church to the mosque, the church has accomplished "something of global significance on a local scale."
In Spain, Muslims inaugurated a new mosque on March 21 in the northern Basque town of Portugalete. The mosque has been resoundingly opposed by local residents, but city officials approved the building permit in order to "promote the integration of Muslims into the local community."
A recent study commissioned by the Basque government found that one in four Basques reject the idea of having a mosque in their neighborhood, and one in five do not want a Muslim as a neighbor.
The Basque Country is home to more than 50,000 Muslims, 70 Muslim groups, two dozen officially licensed mosques and hundreds of unofficial Islamic prayer rooms and cultural centers. Muslims in the Basque region, who hail mostly from Algeria, Morocco, Pakistan and sub-Saharan Africa, have become increasingly assertive in recent years.
Residents of the Basque city of Bilbao are finding their mailboxes stuffed with flyers in Spanish and Arabic from the Islamic Community of Bilbao asking for money to build a 650 m² (7,000 ft²) mosque costing €550,000 ($735,000).
Until recently, the Islamic Community of Bilbao had the following statement posted on its website: "We were expelled [from Spain] in 1609, really not that long ago. … The echo of Al-Andalus still resonates in all the valley of the Ebro [Spain]. We are back to stay, Insha'Allah [if Allah wills it]." (Al-Andalus was the Arabic name given to the parts of Spain ruled by Muslim conquerors from 711 until 1492.)
In Valencia, the third-largest city in Spain, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community inaugurated a new mosque on March 29 -- which also happened to be Good Friday, the day when Christians commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary.
The 1,500 m² (16,000 ft²) Baitur-Rahman Mosque, with a capacity for 600 worshippers, adds to the 172 mosques already located in the Valencia region.
The mosque was inaugurated by Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, whose sermon was broadcast in several languages to tens of millions of viewers with the help of eight satellites.
Ahmad told his followers that Valencia had been chosen to host the mosque because that is where the expulsion of the Moriscos (descendants of the Muslim population that converted to Christianity under threat of exile from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1502) began in 1609.
Ahmad added: "In Spain there are a million Muslims and we believe that in twenty years this number will double. In Spain there are signs that Islam will dominate once again." He also said the mission of the new mosque would be to "spread the teachings of Islam to every single citizen of Spain."
In the Catalan municipality of Salt, a town near Barcelona where Muslim immigrants now make up 40% of the population, work has begun on the construction of a two-story Salafi mega-mosque -- built by two Spain-based Salafist groups, Al Hilal Islamic Cultural Association and Magrebins per la Pau Association, with funding from Saudi Arabia -- with a capacity for 750 worshippers.
Salafism, a branch of radical Islam based in Saudi Arabia, seeks to establish an Islamic empire (Caliphate) across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe, and eventually the world. The Caliphate would be governed exclusively by Islamic Sharia law, to be applied both to Muslims and non-Muslims.
Salt approved a one-year ban on the construction of new mosques in August 2011 to provide "some time for reflection" after it emerged that the previous Socialist government in the town secretly gave permission to the Salafi Muslims to build the mega-mosque.
The deal to build the mega-mosque was discovered only after the Socialists were ejected from power in May 2011. Public outrage prompted the new town council -- now ruled by the center-right Convergència i Unió (CiU) party -- to prevent the mosque from being built.
Construction of the Salafi mosque is proceeding, nonetheless: apparently the construction permit was issued before the non-retroactive moratorium took effect.
In nearby Lérida, where 30,000 Muslims make up more than 20% of the city's population, mosque builders are facing a problem of a different kind: on March 4, 2013, the Catalan Supreme Court ruled that a local Muslim group would not be allowed to build a mega-mosque in an industrial park, called El Segre, because a municipal ordinance states that the area may only be used for industrial purposes; as such, the premises were deemed unfit for public assembly.
Two days after that ruling, another judge at a different court ordered city officials in Lérida to approve the construction of an 800 m² (8,600 ft²) brothel in the same industrial park, two streets away from where Muslims had wanted to build their mosque.
City officials said they had originally denied the license to build the brothel because of a lack of parking space, but the judge disagreed, saying the denial "has more to do with the subject of the proposed business (a brothel) than with a concern over parking."
An article in the Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia entitled, "Brothel Yes, Mosque No" reports that the Lérida City Council "does not hide its surprise at these two opposing points of view from the judiciary on the use that can be given to the plots in the same industrial park." City officials say they will appeal the ruling.
In Switzerland, a Muslim group called Club Paradise is converting a bowling alley into a mosque. The future imam of the new mosque, Fehim Dragusha, originally from Kosovo, made local headlines in late 2011 when he called on Muslim parents to beat their children if they refuse to pray. Dragusha says he was misunderstood because of his poor German language skills. He now says he favors a "modern Islam."
In other mosque-related news, the Danish toymaker Lego has tried to defend its controversial decision to remove its Jabba's Palace toy set -- based on a scene from Star Wars Episode VI -- from store shelves.
In January 2013, the Turkish Cultural Community of Austria (TCA) complained that "Jabba's Palace" resembled the Hagia Sophia mosque, originally a Christian church, in Istanbul, formerly the Christian city of Constantinople; and that the accompanying figures depicted "racial prejudice and vulgar insinuations" against Muslims as people with "deceitful and criminal personalities."
Initially, Lego refused to back down, insisting that the product was merely a faithful reproduction of the images in the Star Wars movie. But after a meeting in Munich on March 29 between Turkish community leaders and Lego executives, Lego agreed to end its production of the toy from 2014 onwards.
Lego says its decision had nothing to do with pressure from Muslims and everything to do with the natural lifecycle of the product. But the Turks do not see it that way. The jubilant president of the TCA, Birol Killic, said in a statement: "We are very grateful and congratulate Lego on the decision to take Jabba's Palace out of production." He added: "Lego managers have also promised that the chief toy maker will be sensitized on this [multicultural] issue."
www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3657/europe-mosques
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Post by Balkaneros on May 31, 2013 15:33:46 GMT -5
I am writing a persuasive essay on this topic and require outside sources, someone please provide me with some Read Michael Parenti's book : To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia, Verso, 2000, ISBN 1-85984-776-5 all you will ever need is there. btw, any ones where is this Pyrros gone Great book and author however he would not be the best source for a paper. He only focuses on Yugoslavia and has made that his dedication, therefore he is biased. He's seen, heard too much. Sorcelow, stick with news clippings, official reports and Law everything NATO did is documented no need to get sidetracked with theorists - stick with the facts. Also here's a good documentary for various reasons; illyria.proboards.com/thread/33883#1) There is footage shown that barely anyone has ever seen (many may or may not shock you) 2) it's unbiased (no matter what the shiptars here say - dont listen to them) 3) there's a lot of sourcing regarding all the wars, just skip through near the end to see what they show regarding the 99' bombing - from there you'll have enough material to take your search even wider.
I did a paper like this long time ago for my law program and convinced my prof of the illegalities, as he was certain NATO was justified, I ended up acing it and now he uses my format as examples in his International Law class.
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Post by Balkaneros on May 26, 2013 15:14:08 GMT -5
Built To Fail: Should The International Community Allow Bosnia To Dissolve? by Zachary Gallant “The authorities in Republika Srpska have taken concrete actions which represent the most serious violation of the Dayton-Paris peace agreement that we have seen since the agreement was signed. The conclusions and the decision on the referendum… are not only a clear breach of the peace agreement but also put into question all laws — I repeat — all laws enacted by the respective high representatives, claiming they are in violation of the peace agreement.” With that statement, Bosnia’s High Representative Valentin Inzko declares the newly-proposed independence referendum by the Serb Republic an act of aggression, of provocation. His proclamation carries with it the full power of a disinterested and over-extended international community, the last flails of a dying institution no longer respected by any party under its authority, praying that the Serbs will not call its bluff. Calling the 1995 Dayton Accords a “Peace Agreement” is a fallacy and a travesty. Dayton was built to fail, a hasty bandage applied to a situation that had nearly bled out. That it has taken 15 years to show these emerging signs of collapse is nothing short of miraculous. That the High Representative is only now seeing how shaky the foundation upon which his institution was built is testament only to his self-delusion. Few Bosnian citizens trust the institution of the Bosnian state. The Serbs feel, often rightly, that the legal system is biased against them. The Croats feel, with powerful evidence to back their claim, that they are second-class, marginalized citizens within the Bosnian Federation. The Bosniaks themselves have little desire to share governance with the same Croat-Serb partnership responsible for the atrocities of the 90s. This was all obvious when I served as an election monitor in Brcko, the dividing line between Republika Srpska and the Bosnian Federation, in October of this past year. Almost 30,000 ethnic-non-Bosniaks were turned away from the polls, and the international observers were not permitted to monitor the vote count in its entirety. But Representative Inzko and his international cohorts applauded the election as free and fair, ignoring and denying the obvious breaches of democracy innate in the Dayton Accords and the laws that have emerged since. We as observers were supposedly strengthening the democratic process, laying the groundwork for a free future for the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. But what good is an election if it only upholds the illusion of democracy? The civil war that could have precipitated from that election would have been at least partially on the “humanitarians” coming in for the festivities of the election. We strengthened the facade of freedom and gave continued legitimacy to the corrupt institutions of the Bosnian state and Dayton, allowing Mr. Inzko to feel entitled to his near-dictatorial position. His feeling of entitlement is obvious through his emphasis that the referendum’s most dangerous feature is that it will “put into question all laws — I repeat — all laws enacted by the respective high representatives, claiming they are in violation of the peace agreement”. But how could a people who claim to be in any way free not reject the authorities of an externally-appointed foreign High Representative? The Dayton Accords—the western-imposed treaty that ended the Bosnian war in an uneasy and unfair draw and left the country an ungovernable mess for fifteen years—are the crowning achievement of international bureaucracy. It’s such a Byzantine maze of backroom deals and bureaucracy that a friend of mine teaching International Law told his class “if you understand Dayton, leave now because you already know too much.” The legacy of Dayton and the High Representative is not peace but rather a long-term tentative stalemate, constantly on the verge of civil war and ethnic conflict. The political lines drawn by Dayton have left the nation (if you can call it that) divided on ethnic and religious lines and entirely reliant on foreign rule and foreign aid. Unlike most ethnically divided regions who make such choices themselves, Dayton has mandated ethnic division, with Bosniaks voting for the Bosnian representative, Serbs for the Serb, and Croats for the Croat, guaranteeing continued division.Before the war, the region was prosperous both agriculturally and industrially. Certainly, conflict has much to do with their fall from grace, but the division of Dayton has left a fragile, stagnating economy only supplemented by a bustling black market and with no hope of restoration or local redevelopment. The only aspect of the Bosnian economy that is thriving is the multi-billion-dollar district of high-priced hotels and restaurants in Sarajevo serving the UN, EU, NATO and OSCE “humanitarians,” with all the public rebuilding that comes with such war tourism. Yes, significant blame falls on the sectarian politicians profiting from the division and strife. But Bosnia’s systemic corruption relies on the Dayton framework, and responsibility can easily be shirked with blame placed on foreign occupiers, such as an all-powerful High Representative, an indefinite position created by Dayton. As the cracks show more and more visibly in the framework upon which the union of Bosnia-Herzegovina was built, the international community must come to terms with the reality that Dayton was built to fail. There are dangers in dissolution and disengagement. Most children in both Republika Srpska and the Bosnian Federation know from a young age how to clean, assemble and fire a rifle, and most families have at least one in the house. Paramilitary civil war is not out of the question, but it never has been, even under Dayton. But the militaries of both entities are declawed, leaving neutered states, incapable of the kind of violence witnessed in the 90s (of which no side is innocent). Dissolution is decried as a guaranteed path to war, but it is more likely that the violent nationalist rhetoric that plagues this failed union can only be mitigated by disengagement. As the dysfunctional, paralyzed non-state created at Dayton, there is only poverty, strife and ethnic tension. There is no future for a united Bosnia. conflictandcollaboration.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/built-to-fail-should-the-international-community-allow-bosnia-to-dissolve-by-zachary-gallant/Bosnia was created to fail, for eventual re-conquering by the EU - under the guise that "the Serbs are responsible". Which is ironic, because it is ONLY the Serbs who are actually going by the LAW/Agreement the West pushed on them in the FIRST PLACE. The hypocracy seen here is deafening. Why can't RS be seperate from Bosnia? Clearely the Muslims and Croats don't like us anyway so what's the issue? ... Since it's RS that is holding the whole "country" on their back economically, RS with Serbia would probably mean "too much" goodness and prosperity for the Serbs - and we all know the West don't like that. So ya, put an imaginary line and continue to lie to yourselves...
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Post by Balkaneros on May 26, 2013 13:32:21 GMT -5
U.S. sided with organ-harvesters in Kosovo-Serb war: PennLive lettersA small but significant item on page A11 April 30 caught my eye: "Five convicted in Kosovo’s organ-trafficking ring." As someone who has followed and written about the events in Kosovo since the war’s inception, there is more to this story which must also be told if the truth is to be known. Carla del Ponte, former chief prosecutor at The Hague tribunal and author of, “The Hunt: Me and War Criminals,” states that Kosovo Albanians harvested organs of kidnapped ethnic Serbs after the armed conflict ended in 1999. These allegations were made by several sources, one of whom “personally made an organ delivery” to an Albanian airport for transport abroad,” and “confirmed information directly gathered by the tribunal.” Del Monte also writes that senior figures in the Kosovo Liberation Army were aware of the harvesting of the organ scheme in which hundreds of young Serbs were allegedly stripped of their organs. In The Telegraph (UK) article of 2008 entitled, “Serbs prisoners ‘were stripped of their organs in Kosovo war’,” del Ponte writes, “The victims, deprived of a kidney, were then locked up again, inside the barracks, until the moment they were killed for other vital organs. In this way, the other prisoners were aware of the fate that awaited them, and according to the source, pleaded, terrified, to be killed immediately.” America was taken to war against the Serbian people in support of the Kosovo Albanians and the Kosovo Liberation Army, an army about which the U.S. Special Envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, said, “I know a terrorist when I see one, and these men are terrorists.” www.pennlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/05/serbia_kosovo_atrocities_organ_harvesting.html
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Post by Balkaneros on May 26, 2013 13:15:43 GMT -5
OPLENAC - The Serbian people must not allow divisions and injustice anymore, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said at the funeral of members of the royal family Karadjordjevic, at Oplenac, adding that this was another step towards unity so Serbia could follow the path of great nations, and that it must not fall behind those nations.The return of the bodies of members of the royal family to their homeland corrects a great injustice and represents a step towards national unity, he said after the bodies were laid inside the family crypt.He wished for the dead members of the Karadjordjevic family to have eternal peace and be a symbol of new life and hope for everyone in a united Serbia, where justice held the country and cities. "Divisions and feuds are common among us, even among brothers and sisters, sometimes about nothing. One of the conflicts arose during World War II and had a tragic epilogue, the aftermath of which is felt even today. Hatred between two Serbian movements, the Chetniks and the Partisans, that have proclaimed the same or very similar goals, led to fratricidal animosities and heavy loss of life," he said." At the beginning of the war they had a common goal that united them: struggle against fascism and occupation. However, in time the differences grew wider and the conflict escalated having tragic consequences for the Serbian people. More Serbs were killed by the Serbian than by the hand of the occupier and this fact remains a lesson to our generations to come," he noted. "The Allies determined who the winners were to be and the winners continued with political persecution even after the end of World War II and many of our people met a tragic fate even at the time of peace. Some were executed without trial and some others were tried only to be pronounced the already prepared judgments. Guilty or not, the epilogue was known: death, prison, dispossession, civil rights deprivation," Nikolic pointed out. "The suffering was, one way or another, to a lesser or greater extent, experienced by each of our families and even by the family of freedom fighter and father of modern Serbia, the grand leader Karadjordje Petrovic. The destiny of Karadjordje himself, his descendants and family, is a sublimation of all our divisions, injustice and misfortune," the president stressed. "Other peoples were rightfully asking the questions: " What kind of country is your Serbia where descendants of the one who fought for it, rebuilt it, improved it, do not have rights at least equal to those of your other citizens? How come that they are deprived of nationality, property, honour and even the ancient right that the Serbian land offers them protection after their demise as well," he wondered. "We cannot, we must not allow divisions and injustice anymore. That binds us by our ancestors who selflessly sacrified for the fatherland," Nikolic underscored."That is why here, today, at the grave of grand leader Karadjordje, in this wonderful church, mausoleum, we correct a grave injustice. By removing the aftermath of the terrible sin committed by someone before us, we make one more step towards unity aimed at following the path of great nations that we must not fall behind in anything," he stated. "When the nation is united it cannot be called a small one, said a wise man. With the last of Karadjordjevic family member brought in a coffin from a foreign land, reconciliation returns to Serbia," Nikolic said. "My duty as the President of all citizens, regardless of any division, including the political one, is to do everything to contribute to the final reconciliation and unity of our people. I gave my own example," he added. "Are you also ready to do everything to stop conflicts and divisions in Serbia," Nikolic asked. www.tanjug.rs/news/88179/nikolic-calls-for-unity-and-development.htm
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Post by Balkaneros on May 26, 2013 12:35:12 GMT -5
Was going to make a new thread but figured it may related to this one; Terror returns to Britain after man butchered in London streetTerrorism returned to the streets of London today as two suspected Muslim fanatics butchered a man in broad daylight in the name of “Allah”.
One of the attackers behind the barbaric killing, near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, was filmed wielding a bloodied meat cleaver, saying: “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you.”www.edp24.co.uk/news/terror_returns_to_britain_after_man_butchered_in_london_street_1_2206516French soldier stabbed on Paris streetA French soldier was stabbed in the throat in a busy commercial district outside Paris on Saturday, and the government said it was trying to determine if there were any links to the brutal killing of a British soldier by suspected Islamic extremists.
French President Francois Hollande said the identity of the attacker, who escaped, was unknown and cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the assault on the uniformed soldier in the La Defense shopping area. The life of the 23-year-old soldier was not in danger, the Interior Ministry said in a statement. www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2013/05/25/french-soldier-stabbed.htmlKnife attack on soldier in Paris treated as terrorismFrench anti-terrorist investigators are handling the case of a soldier stabbed while on duty near Paris on Saturday evening, prosecutors have confirmed. Defence Minister Jean Yves Le Drian told reporters that he had been targeted because of his profession.
His attacker, said to be a bearded man of North African origin, escaped and a police hunt is under way.www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22670697Suicide car bombing in Russia's Dagestan injures 11(Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew herself up in car near a police building in Russia's Dagestan region on Saturday, injuring 11 policemen and passers-by, Russian media reported.Dagestan, an ethnically mixed, mostly Muslim region between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea, has become the most violent province in the North Caucasus, where insurgents say they are fighting to carve out an Islamic state out of southern Russia.www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/25/us-russia-bomb-dagestan-idUSBRE94O05520130525'Black Widow' Suicide Bomber Wounds 18 in Russia A woman suicide bomber blew herself up in southern Russia's Dagestan Saturday, wounding at least 18 people, including children and several police officers.
Police say the bomber detonated her explosives in the central square in Makhachkala, Dagestan's capital. At least two of the wounded are in critical condition.www.voanews.com/content/black-widow-suicide-bomber-wounds-18-in-russia/1668279.htmlon top of everything...... Woolwich murder probe: 'Thousands' at risk of radicalisation, says Theresa MayThousands of people are potentially at risk of being radicalised in the UK, Home Secretary Theresa May has said.She also told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show that those at risk were at "different points on what could be a path to violent extremism".Mrs May said a new taskforce would look at whether new powers were needed to tackle radicalisation.www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22671619What's hilarious is when UK and France were being flooded with Middle-Eastern and African immigrants the ONLY ones raising these specific concerns (regarding radicalisation) were labelled "extremists/nationalists", now it seems a few more "sorts of people" got smacked with reality. so... what is going on? Seriously, looks like we need to screw Balkan politics and broaden our horizons.
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Post by Balkaneros on May 25, 2013 17:32:23 GMT -5
Parent’s outcry after killer’s appeal The parents of a former Linton pub landlord, who was beheaded by a schizophrenic allowed into Britain despite his violent past have slammed the system which let the killer appeal his sentence - with public money.Albanian Jonathan Limani, 36, was allowed into Britain to take a job as a waiter at a hotel and golf club despite serving time and being sectioned at least twice. In August 2010 he decapitated his manager Christopher Varian, 32, with a cheese knife at The Oxfordshire Golf Club, in Thame, in a row over cigarette breaks.He then sawed off the former public school boy’s head in what was described as “the ultimate act of violence”.Mr Varian ran the Dog and Duck pub in Linton’s High Street from 2007 until 2009. Limani was found guilty of manslaughter with diminished responsibility at Oxford Crown Court in March 2012 and sentenced to 19 years behind bars. But he chose to appeal the sentence with his solicitor barrister, Richard Benson QC, describing the tariff as “manifestly excessive”. Mr Benson argued that one psychiatric report had said the mental illness was an “overwhelming” factor in Limani’s actions. The Court of Appeal last week threw the bid out, stating Limani could have served 30 years or more, if convicted of murder. But Mr Varian’s parents have attacked the legal aid system which they claim has allowed Limani to waste British taxpayers’ money. The victim’s father, Nigel Varian, 66, who now lives in France, said: “We feel real outrage the defence decided to take this on. “This appeal should never have come to court. It was all based on a technicality that the original minimum sentence was wrong. “It is a disgrace we have been put through this. We have to live with the horror every day of the image of our son being decapitated.“They even brought Limani to the court and we had to face him again. This was all on legal aid. It just seems that he is milking the system and what for? A day out of jail.” His distraught wife, the victim’s mother Sue, 63, added: “This has just put us back in the hole we were just starting to come out of. “I am just furious that we have been put through this. This has been awful for the whole family.” Limani is serving his sentence at Broadmoor Hospital. After serving his minimum term he could be freed if the Parole Board decides he is no longer a danger.Oxford Crown Court heard staff found him standing over Chris covered in blood and told them to “go away” - adding he had killed him because he had “picked a fight”. He was detained indefinitely in Broadmoor high security hospital after the judge said he was likely to be a danger to “the public for the rest of his life”. After the case it emerged Limani, an Albania, born in Serbia, but who also holds a Swedish passport, had a five-year history of psychotic violent behaviour.He was also known to have committed crimes in Switzerland and Sweden, the latest being just 30 days before he came to this country.Following his sentence Mr Varian’s brother Roger, a racehorse trainer, said: “This man was a bomb about to go off. “Yet the Swedish authorities let him go on his way and then he was allowed in this country. He should not have been walking the streets.”The Home Office said it was up to Sweden and Switzerland to put any dangerous person on the International Warning Index. At the appeal of his sentence, Lady Justice Rafferty told the court: “This was not simply a knife carried from two floors further up on the same day, it was a cheese knife used with brutality and determination completely to decapitate. “What he did was quite exceptionally grave in terms of seriousness. “There was, in our judgment, no identified error in the judge’s conclusion that 19 years was the appropriate minimum term, followed properly by reduction of that to 17-and-a-half years to reflect time spent in custody. “This was an attack, mercifully unusual, with the gravest of features.” www.haverhillecho.co.uk/news/crime-and-courts/parent-s-outcry-after-killer-s-appeal-1-5112253Says he was born in Serbia... so my guess is naturally Kosovo... no surprise here, the Brits can thank Tony Blair for opening the gates of Britain for these psychos.
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Post by Balkaneros on May 25, 2013 17:23:37 GMT -5
It disgusts me that the burglar who killed my father was here illegally The daughter of a retired businessman killed by a masked burglar in his home today said she hopes the intruder will be haunted by his crime for the rest of his life. In what was described as “every householder’s worst nightmare”, Ted Syrad was attacked when he left the back door to his bungalow open so he could have a cigarette while his wife watched TV at about 10pm.Mr Syrad, 64, who had a heart condition, was savagely beaten by Gezim Delijah as the illegal immigrant forced him to reveal where he kept keys to his safe, which contained the week’s rent money from his property business. After Delijah and his accomplice escaped with more than £7,000, Mr Syrad’s wife, Anne, 62, who had been tied up by the raiders, found him lying on the kitchen floor at their Bexleyheath home in January last year. She called 999 but paramedics could not revive the grandfather of eight. Delijah, 41, an Albanian national of Walthamstow, was found guilty at the Old Bailey this week of manslaughter and robbery, and was jailed for 20 years. He will be deported to Albania at the end of his sentence. His accomplice has not been traced.Mr Syrad’s daughter, Julie Cutts, 45, said: “It absolutely disgusts me that he was here illegally... but who am I to say what the Government should do?”Mother-of-three Mrs Cutts, from Lee, added: “I want him to suffer like my dad suffered. I hope he remembers my dad lying there dead and I hope that haunts him for the rest of his life.” Sentencing, Judge Richard Hone QC said he was surprised the killer had not been charged with murder which would have attracted a 30-year sentence. “Your reign of terror lasted the best part of half an hour but must have seemed an eternity,” the judge told Delijah. “You have devastated a close-knit family and totally innocent people. You made the widow give evidence and relive the fatal events to her evident distress over two days in the witness box.” Mrs Syrad has moved to Wales after suffering flashbacks. Mrs Cutts said: “I miss my dad really badly every single day. We all idolised him.” www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/it-disgusts-me-that-the-burglar-who-killed-my-father-was-here-illegally-8628567.htmlProbably another "Kosovo refugee" pulling off regular antics.
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Post by Balkaneros on May 24, 2013 17:17:58 GMT -5
BANJA LUKA -- Some 300 persons from the Balkans, described as "mujahideen", are taking part in the fighting in Syria, the Srna news agency is reporting. The news agency of the Serb entity in Bosnia (RS) said that the men came from Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, and also from Serbia's southwestern, predominantly Muslim region of Sandžak.The article cites "intelligence services" to claim that the number of Bosnians fighting in the ranks of Al-Nusra - which has been marked as a terrorist organization by the U.S. authorities - is far greater than the media have previously reported. When it comes to Bosnia-Herzegovina, about half of its mujahideens fighting in Syria come from Sarajevo and its surroundings. They gather in a house in the town's Butmir neighborhood, which Wahhabi Nusret Imamović bought from Montenegrin citizen Sead Redžematović, who has been deported back to Montenegro, the media in Banja Luka are reporting. As a member of the Salafi movement, Redžmatović became close with Imamović, and later built a big house close to Sarajevo's airport. Upon Imamović's insistence, the house was later turned into an Islamic center "for the Wahhabi brothers." Besides this, their presence was noted during large gatherings organized by the Bosnian Cultural Center in Sarajevo. A second group of Wahhabis has been gathering in the house owned by Bajra Ikanović in the Hadžići neighborhood, according to reports. Ikanović has been accused of terrorism and illegal possession of weapons. A third place is Semir Čelebić's house in Konjic, who, according to this, has been using an online moniker of "Semi(r) El Konjici." Once they cross into Syria, the mujahideen train to acquire various skills - and once they go back to Bosnia, i.e., the Balkans, " they are treated as war veterans, trained for various types of terrorism in case of conflicts." The source quoted by the news agency said that the United States has a "tolerant stance" toward the mujahedeen, "just as they did in 1992, when the mujahideen were arriving in Bosnia, and where this subject has not been talked about for years." However, "once the death notices started appearing, this had to be talked about publicly," the report said and added that while in 1992 Bosnia-Herzegovina was "importing" radical Islamists the country is today among the top "exporters", right behind Tunisia, Libya, and Afghanistan. The Bosnian media have been reporting during the past few days that two citizens of Serbia from Sandžak also died in Syria, as did a Montenegrin from the town of Rožaje, Adis Salihović. Eldar Kundaković from Novi Pazar was also killed in the fighting, according to this. Previously, the media in the Muslim-Croat entity, the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, said that 52 Bosnian members of the Salafi movement had joined an Al-Qaeda associated terrorist group and were fighting in Syria. The Agency for Investigations and Protection (SIPA) said earlier they questioned eight persons believed to have been involved in organizing the departure of Bosnian citizens to join the war in the Middle Eastern country. Overall, security services say that some 1,000 mujahideens left Europe to fight in Syria, most of them from Germany, Belgium, Denmark, and Luxembourg. These countries are now "worried because the mujahideen are coming back trained for all types of terrorist activities." The case of Nihad Cosic, a German-born Bosnian Muslim, is given as an example. He was previously fighting on the Pakistani-Afghan border. According to the Srna report, "the German government views this as proof that serious terrorist attacks are being planned across the country." www.b92.net/eng/news/region-article.php?yyyy=2013&mm=05&dd=24&nav_id=86342Saudis buying Balkan arms for Syrian rebels
www.yourmiddleeast.com/news/saudis-buying-balkan-arms-for-syrian-rebels_13242
This is playing out like a typical dark comedy meanwhile in Lybia.... Five Serb “mercenaries” fly home Five Serbs, arrested on suspicion that they were mercenaries fighting for Qaddafi, were flown back to Serbia today after being released from 21 months’ imprisonment.It was not clear this evening why or how the freedom of these five men, described by Serbian diplomats as construction engineers, came to be negotiated. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said in Belgrade that the release came about after months of negotiations. The deal seems to have been so delicate, that the families of the five were not made aware of the men’s release until they had actually stepped onto Serbian soil.Local media named them as Zoran Nikolic from Lazarevac, Milorad Djunic from Loznica, Milic Martinovic from Arandjelovac, Vojislav Niciforovic from Belgrade and Nedeljko Milanovic from Lazarevac. Vucic told a local broadcaster “We were all hoping the whole thing would be over sooner, but it was hard.” This April the Supreme Military Court opened and adjourned an appeal brought by 24 foreign engineers convicted as a result of similar allegations. The 19 Ukrainians, three Belorussians and two Russians all maintain that they are oil field engineers who had nothing to do with the fighting, www.libyaherald.com/2013/05/21/five-serb-mercenaries-fly-home/
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Post by Balkaneros on May 24, 2013 16:29:18 GMT -5
I am writing a persuasive essay on this topic and require outside sources, someone please provide me with some Sources aren't hard to find when narrowing it down to specifics, what position are you arguing for? there's a thread here I did awhile back filled with links, sources, pdf's, books, interviews, videos/audios etc... go through it and let me know what else you need. illyria.proboards.com/thread/34257#NATO CRIMES AGAINST CIVILIANS AND CIVILIAN INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA (April 29, 1999) The NATO criminal aggression represents the most flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations since the inception of the world Organization, a violation of the Helsinki Final Act and the undermining of the very foundations of the international legal order. At the same time, this aggression is a crime against peace, stability and humanity. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has warned on time the United Nations Security Council of a possible aggression, and during the aggression itself it requested that it be immediately halted and most strongly condemned. Had this legitimate request of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia been met, enormous human sufferings and destruction would have been avoided. The most illustrative examples are given below. jurist.law.pitt.edu/icty.htm
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