Different Perspectives: Kosovo "Convert or Die"

Written by William Dorich

Sunday, 30 September 2007

This article expresses the personal opinion of the author and is an open answer to Franck Biancheri's article "Splitting Kososvo... The 'Balkanic Road to the EU' starts by splitting Kosovo in two regions of Serbia & Albania".

For over 400 years the Serbs lived under Turkish occupation of the Balkans. The Muslim concept of "Convert or Die" did not end with the First World War—it is alive and well today in Kosovo. In a recent editorial entitled, Splitting Kosovo (9-11-07) by Franck Biancheri, he encourages one more demonic step—the decapitation of Kosovo from the body of Serbia.
Kosovo was over 85% Serbian for a thousand years where Serbs built over 1,500 churches and monasteries—the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate was in Kosovo for ten centuries until 1940 when it was moved to Belgrade in fear of the impending Nazi invasion. In my lifetime, beginning with the Holocaust, Nazi Albanians reduced the Serbs to 49% of the population. After the war, Marshall Tito forbade the 150,000 "cleansed Serbs" from returning and gave their land to Nazis Albanians. When Tito granted "Autonomy" to Kosovo in 1974, the purge of Serbs began again by the rape of Serbian girls and nuns, and by barn burnings that encouraged 120,000 Serbs to flee, thereby reducing the Serbs to 28% of the population. In 1999 when NATO was dropping cluster bombs on the Serbs they represented 21% of Kosovo—today they are 8% and are compelled to live in ghettos surrounded by barbed-wire and protected by KFOR troops. In the past 5 years, 153 ancient Serbian churches and 500 Serbian homes have been destroyed by Albanian thugs, none of whom have been brought to justice. Those churches, many named by UNICEF as "world treasures," survived 400 years of Ottoman oppression, two World Wars and 78 days of NATO bombing, but were not able to survive the last 5 years of Albanian rule.

Franck Blancheri's editorial repeats the lie that "The assassination of Archduke Ferdnand in Sarajevo sparked WWI." The majority of historians, including myself, find this concept absurd. Omitted from this ugly rewrite of history is any mention of the assassination of the Serbian King in France three years earlier. It appears Blancheri's history lesson would have us believe it acceptable to kill a Serbian King with no world reaction—but to kill an Austrian Archduke sets off a World War? Serbia was internationally recognized as a nation in 1878 at The Congress of Berlin with one stipulation: Bosnia would be an Austrian protectorate for 44 years—much like NATO is a protectorate today in Kosovo. But when the time came to relinquish Bosnia back to Serbia, Austria refused and the Archduke went to Sarajevo and thumbed his nose at the Serbs.  That war was in its advance stages well before the assassination in Sarajevo and if I were alive then, I would have shot the bastard myself. It appears that NATO is poised to repeat Austria's behavior in violation of U.N. Resolution #1244 that ended this war and which states that "Kosovo is a part of Serbia."

The person charged with killing the Serbian King was Ante Pavelic who fled the Balkans. Hitler brought him back to Croatia in 1941 to head the First Independent State of Croatia, a Nazi puppet state that liquidated 800,000 Serbs, 40,000 Jews and 70,000 Roma gypsies. At the end of the war in 1945, Pavelic fled again, this time with the help of the "Vatican Ratline" which also helped war criminals like Clause Barbe escape Europe for Argentina. Pavelic became the Security Advisor for Juan Peron who issued 34,000 visas to Croatian war criminals, including 740 Roman Catholic priests who participated in the Ustashe and personally murdered thousands of Serbs with their own hands—making today's pedophile cases pale in comparison. I am currently the original Plaintiff in a 100 million dollar class action law suit against the Vatican Bank—see www.vaticanbankclaims.com. Seventeen of my relatives were burned to death in a Serbian church in Vojnic, Croatia by these criminal priests in 1942. They, too, escaped justice!

Serbia gave up her statehood to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918 when Serbia was forced by the major powers to join forces with her former enemies, who, like rats fleeing a sinking ship, gladly joined this shot-gun marriage to escape Austrian rule. Now people like Blancheri want to again dictate how Serbs should live and how much of her nation he and others wish to steal. Blancheri mocks the 350,000 Serbs who have been "ethnically cleansed," and the thousands who have been killed, then insultingly compares this inhuman behavior to "How easy it is to make population moves when constructing dams."

After WWII the major powers repeated their heavy handedness again, by forcing their Serbian allies to live in a communist state. Fitzroy McClean, an aid to Sir Winston Churchill, wrote in his book about a conversation in which he told Churchill, "If the British did not support General Mihailovic's forces Tito will create a communist regime." Churchill replied, "Are you planning to live in the Balkans after the war?" The British did not give a damn how the Serbs would live. Where was Blancheri as the Serbs went from 21% of the population in Kosovo in 2000 to the current 8% today? Why is there no mention that 40% of the Albanians in Kosovo are undocumented aliens who cross the border into Kosovo as easily as Mexicans cross our border each night in San Diego, California? Such arrogance proves Blancheri and his ilk are capable of staring Genocide in the face and looking the other way.

In 1991, the U. S. refused to no longer recognize the Dinar when its exchange rate was 90 to one American dollar—the currency collapsed to 8 Dinar in 7 days. The EU supported this hideous financial manipulation over a sovereign country in Europe when Yugoslavia was $36 billion in debt. The result was a loaf of bread in Belgrade costing 5,000 Dinar. The EU supported this macabre punishment of her Serbian neighbors. Meanwhile, France and Britain and other European nations willingly conspired in withholding food and medicine from the Serbs as a weapon of war. Elizabeth Dole, head of the American Red Cross, refused to supply blood or medicine to Serbian victims. During the decade of the 1990's you could not find a Aspirin in Belgrade. Serbian babies by the hundreds died from a simple lack of antibiotics and dead bodies were dug up to retrieve pace-makers.

Serbian human rights and justice are being mocked as the EU and the West pander to Muslim terrorists and gangsters who now run Kosovo. Agim Ceku, the Hague convicted war criminal, is the Prime Minister who slaughtered dozens of Serbs. He was sentenced to "time served while standing trial" the lightest sentence handed down by this Kangaroo court. This clearly reveals the depth to which U.S. politicians and the Bush administration will stoop when their pockets are being lined by Albanian criminals.

Your editorial was insulting to the Serbs who were American and European allies in two World Wars. In WWI, it was the Serbs that created the first victory marching from Salonika to the Austrian border, liberating the Balkans. The tombstones on the beach at Salonika tell the real story of honor, bravery and sacrifice. There are 11,000 French, 4,000 Italian, 3,000 Russian and 40,000 Serbian grave markers. After the Serbian victory, Great Britain honored the Serbs by ringing their church bells for 24 hours and by playing the Serbian National Anthem at local movie theaters. Churchill claimed "Serbia has found her soul" and praised their "Magnificent Valor." The French donated a statue to Serbia to be used in a park in Belgrade. Today the French and the British betray the Serbian people. Serbs lost 52% of their adult male population in the First World War and 30% of their ethnic race in the Second World War. Why would Serbs even want to be in NATO when military commanders from these countries did $40 billion in infrastructure damage to Serbia and destroyed dozens of bridges over the Danube River—a river that accounted for 64% of the trade flowing into Europe at the time? If these countries were willing to shoot themselves in the foot to destroy Serbia in this manner why would any Serb in their right mind want to join NATO or the EU who have given little reparation money to repair this damage in the past 8 years?

Since the bombing, NATO has refused to give Serbia the maps to show where cluster bombs were dropped on her territory. Hundreds of Serbian children have been crippled or killed by these illegal weapons used on civilian populations, a war crime by every measure of human decency. Birth defects in Serbia have risen 3,000% over the last decade from the poisons these countries dropped on Serbia with great pleasure as they demonized Serbs with collective guilt—a process that continues today throughout the world. The Danube River has been poisoned for hundreds of miles through three countries and for decades to come and the water table in Belgrade and surrounding regions have been permanently destroyed. Such NATO madness was excessive, criminal and unconscionable.  A pox on all of NATO's houses!

William Dorich
Los Angeles, CA (USA)

This article expresses the personal opinion of the author, and not of Newropeans Magazine. It is an open answer to Franck Biancheri's article "Splitting Kososvo... The 'Balkanic Road to the EU' starts by splitting Kosovo in two regions of Serbia & Albania".

COMMENTS

01/10/07 - Bashkim Berani California, USA
Comment to William Dorich "Different Perspectives: Kosovo "Convert or Die"

I was shock to read this article full of lies in a Europe magazine. I believe Mr. Dorich is writing blindly about Albanians and Serbians.
Let me give you 2 real and truth facts for right now Mr. Dorich.
1) Albanian people are in large part descendants of the ancient Illyrians, who, like other Balkan peoples, were subdivided into tribes and clans. The name Albania is derived from the name of an Illyrian tribe called the Arber, or Arbereshë, and later Albanoi, that lived near Durrës. The Illyrians were Indo-European tribesmen who appeared in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula about 1000 B.C., a period coinciding with the end of the Bronze Age and beginning of the Iron Age. They inhabited much of the area for at least the next millennium.
2) Few if any know that Albania is the only European country to boast a larger Jewish population after World War II than before, or that along with Denmark, Bulgaria, and Finland, it resisted Nazi demands to compile "lists" and hand over its Jews.
In a country that is 70 percent Moslem, Albania's absolute heroism vis-a-vis its Jews becomes that much more extraordinary. For not only did the country protect its own -- not a single Jew was deported or killed in free Albania -- it served as a haven for Austrian, Serb, and Greek Jews during the war as well. Neighboring Greece, by contrast, did comply with its Nazi occupiers and hand over lists -- 90 percent of its Jews met their fates in concentration camps and the thriving Sephardic community of Salonika was decimated.
Mr. Dorich I advise you to go to a library and read some books about European History and you will see that you don’t know anything about it.
Best Regards,
"Show forgiveness, speak for justice and avoid the ignorant"

In response to Bashkim Berani

Claims that Albanians are “direct descendants of ancient Illyrians” is pretentious, without basis in historic fact, and is pure propaganda. Illyrians were made extinct by the Ancient Roman Empire. What part of the word ‘extinct’ do you not understand? For centuries Albanians were nomads and shepherds and did not represent a large number in the region. When the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed in 1918 the Albanians represented less than 5% of the population. But let us take a closer look at Albanian Illyrian propaganda in the 20th century.
In the mid 1970s Albanologists spread rumors that they were on the verge of finding archeological evidence that the Kosovo Albanians were “direct” descendants of Illyrians. Millions of dollars came in from Tirana, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, but no such evidence was to be found.
During the construction of the dam on the Fierza River project which flooded parts of Metohija, in the archeological remnants were discovered remains of flooded Vrbnica. The Albanian “experts” were ready to believe it a godsend that they had finally found their traces of an Illyrian settlement.
The money came pouring in for additional research. Meanwhile the discovery turned out to be the remnants of Slav culture and suddenly all financial assistance was discontinued and the project was abandoned. Albanians of influence like Professor Ismalji, at Pristina University, who did not think the Serbs deserved enlightenment of these discoveries, encouraged authorities to sink the site in the newly formed lake.
As for all of those Jews you claim were in Albania after the Holocaust, the world’s Jews would find your thesis absurd, especially since Albanians were Jew haters and willingly followed Mussolini who liquidated thousands of Jews in Kosovo and Bosnia during the Holocaust. Saving a few dozen Jewish lives in Albania means very little when compared to 44,000 Jews killed in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo by Albanian hands. The Albanian culture cannot therefore be savior and killer at the same time.
I would gladly go to the library and read some books about European history as you suggest but during the “Albanian autonomy” your authorities removed all of the books on Serbian history, religion, and politics from schools and libraries in Kosovo and burned over 2 million volumes. This crime against humanity was repeated in Kosovo after the end of bombing in 1999 when Albanian terrorist also destroyed 153 ancient Serbian churches, destroying some of the world’s finest frescoes from medieval times. I know a great deal about Kosovo history as my grandparents were “ethnically cleansed” from Kosovo in 1898, after the war in Crete between Turkey and Greece when tens of thousands of Serbs were the victims of Albanian reprisals in Kosovo.
In my book, Kosovo p.158 (1992), I tell about an interview with Mother Superior Paraskeva at the Devic Monastery. Standing in the monastery courtyard and pointing her finger to the surrounding mountains, she spilled out ethnic cleansing data with the precision of a computer. “Let me start with the village of Poljana, 48 or 49 [Serbian] families, all gone; Kraljica, 68 families, all gone; Ljubovac and Dugovac, around 60 houses, all gone; Gornje and Donje Prilaze, 30 home, all gone; Klina, some 28 families all gone; Novo Selo, 28 families, all gone. Cikatovo, at one time 60 Serbian homes, and Glogovats with 70, no one around anymore.”
Mother Superior then related how she and 30 of her sister nuns lived since 1947 in a state of siege, …”battling the Albanian who harassed us day and night, throwing stones, raiding the monastery forest, vegetable gardens, animal sheds…I was beaten, had broken ribs, my head was bloodied 10 times…We must say the [Albanian] militia came often…” Don’t you dare preach to me how Jews survived in Albanian after WWII when you have killed, or cleansed 90% of the Serbian population in Kosovo in just the past 5 years. This makes you and all Albanians appear as racists, hypocrites and criminals.
“Writing blindly,” you say? No one is so blind than those who refuse to see. Your quote, “Show forgiveness, speak for justice and avoid the ignorant”is insulting when Albanians seem only capable of hatred and revenge.

William Dorich

01/10/07 - Samir Potera

In a word what William Dorich has written here is a pure lie. This is the first time I have come accross such figures. Serbs were always in minority. Serbia came in Kosovo by force in 1912, tried to remain by force, and left by force in 1999. As for the Muslim aspect, this is something that everyone who came here in Kosovo know it is not TRUE. Albanians have three religions... Nowdays there is no people in the Balkans who has more European values than Albanians. This is something that all respectful ubiassed intellectualls dealing wih cultures in the region recognize.Samir Potera

a Kosovo resident
Samir Potera a Kosovo resident

In response to Samir Potera, a Kosovo resident:

Your remark that “Serbia came in Kosovo by force in 1912, tried to remain by force, and left by force in 1999” only reveals the racism of your character. History proves quite clearly that Serbs were a majority in Kosovo for a thousand years, built 1,500 churches and monasteries that mock your hateful diatribe. The first Muslim mosque was not built in Kosovo for a hundred years after the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Your claim that “Albanians have three religions” is also a ruse, as you cleanse and kill Roman Catholic Christians as freely as you have killed Serbian Orthodox Christians. You also killed any Albanians that supported the Serbian government. “Albanian intellectual?” That is an oxymoron!
During the bombing of Kosovo 90,000 Albanians fled to Belgrade, 300,000 fled to Montenegro and over 200,000 fled to Macedonia, all into the arms of their so-called Serbian enemies? The media claim that 800,000 Albanians were cleansed by the Serbs is pure propaganda. A British journalist died this week. She reported from Kosovo during the bombing that “Albanians were not being ethnically cleansed, they were fleeing NATO bombs.” Shrapnel from a bomb hit her car and killed her Albanian driver. If you believe in “European values” as you claim, then why have Albanians destroyed over 153 ancient Serbian churches? Europeans don’t behave in this hideous manner.
In 1989 a gang of violent Albanian teenagers nearly beat to death the Serbian Bishop of Kosovo—he was 79 years-old at the time. He spent 3 months in intensive care, nearly dying from his wounds. That bishop is now the Serbian Patriarch. Those Albanian thugs defecated on the altar of his church and urinated on the walls. During the 600th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of Kosovo, Congresswoman Helen Bentley and Congressman Jim Moody reported that Albanians dropped their pants and “mooned” visitors from around the world. They also reported that “Albanians spit on the Serbian clergy and urinated at passing busses.” You Albanians are sooo civilized. You’re not ready for Europe and Europe is certainly not ready for two Albanian countries

William Dorich

02/10/07 - Samir Potera
In response to William Dorich

I am wondering which history proves that. Where have you read it Mr. Derrick? Just tell me! I am wondering whether you have ever been to Kosovo to see it by your eyes. You are just talking in the air. This is a pure Belgrade propaganda. This is something, which even Serbia’s ordinary citizens do not believe anymore.
Kosovo has a liberal society. Kosovars have a secular system of education. They are just converted by force into Muslims during the Ottoman occupation. Their culture has deep roots of Christianity.
- First - there is no classroom Kosovo Albanian children doing their classes without the picture of the Georg Kastrioti-Scanderbeg - Albanian national hero- who defended our homeland and Europe from Eastern culture. This Scanderbeg – if you don’t know - was called the Athlete of the Christ by the then Pope - Pius II.
- Second, there is no Albanian child who has not learnt that the first written sentence in Albanian language known so far dates back in 1418 - and it is the Formula of Baptism - written by an Albanian catholic priest - Pal Engjulli.
- Third, do you know Mother Theresa - the woman of the century we just left behind – is of Kosovar origin?
- Fourth, a Kosovo Albanian catholic priest in Kosovo - Father Lush Gjergji - is by far the most respectful clergyman in Kosovo.
Your remark that “Kosovo is a place where Serbs built over 1,500 churches and monasteries for thousands of years” is a pure lie. First, you have exaggerated their number. Second, the Serbs started to build churches and monasteries in Kosovo after they occupied Kosovo in 1912. The year of their construction is written in the walls of all Slavic orthodox churches and you can come and check it for yourself. You will find the numbers: 1918, 1922, 1928, etc. So the Serbs did the same as the Turk invaders did in the past, when they have started to build mosques all over Albanian territories.
Only three-four monasteries in Kosovo make an exception, including Decani Monastery, Patriarchate of Peja/Pec. But they did not belong to the Serbs. They belonged to the local population – to the orthodox Albanians. The Serbs have just appropriated them.
Serb Army came in Kosovo by committing many massacres, and the 1999 ones look like nothing if compared to those of 1912. Of course you do not know it. But we do. My grandfather - the only one who survived Serb genocide that time - does.
Dorich in his remarks says that Albanians have become vast majority during the communist rule, which again is a pure lie. How it is possible for Albanians - the only non-Slavic people in Yugoslavia (the country of the Slavic people) - to become majority?! It does not make sense. It is explained by the pure fact that Albanians were always majority. They were tied to their land and their home, which is not the case with the Serbian colonizers.
Samir Potera
a Kosovo citizen
p.s. It seems foolish to me to react on your comments. I did not it for you. I did it for the sake of the readers and for the Magazine.

02/10/07 - Peggy

I am so fed up with the Albanians protesting how anything that is said against them is a lie. Are we to believe that they are so pure? They try to make it that they represent everything wholesome while the Serbs are evil put on this earth just to exterminate them.

They attack every Journalist and every academic who tries to tell the truth. There is an article written by John Pilger about the issue of Bosnian Muslims and Kosovo Albanians. In this article he quotes General Lewis McKenzie as saying that the Muslims have played the UN like a fiddle. Noam Chomsky also tells a completely different story. The bombing of Serbia had nothing to do with the Kosovo Albanians. It was an excuse to bomb Serbia because it refused to subordinate themselves to the mighty US. John Pilger also has a new documentary film out now titled “The War on Democracy” where he exposes how American administrations past and present overthrow legitimate governments around the world if they don’t tow the line and submit to their big business.

Kosovo is just another place to America to exploit and Serbia stands in their way. The American propaganda machine is in overdrive now. In order to commit crimes with the blessing of their own people America puts all their faith in their propaganda machine.

The article by John Pilger where he exposes the link between Bosnian Muslims, Kosovo Albanians and Al-Qaeda is on this site.
www.lewrockwell.com/pilger/pilger20.html
In John Pilgers book “The New Rulers of the World” he devotes a few pages to the Bombing of Serbia and how the civilian targets were in place for most of the bombings.

He also claims that hundreds of thousands of Serbs and non Albanians were ethnically cleansed from Kosovo right under the noses of NATO.

The writer of this article “Convert of Die” is telling real history here. Anyone can check this out of they pick up a history book. Some facts will of course be omitted because as Noam Chomsky says “You don’t report your own crimes”, while talking about America’s organization of the bombing of Serbia and other crimes around the world.

Also as everyone knows, History is written by the winners and we know who the winners are.
Peggy
I am so fed up with the Albanians protesting how anything that is said against them is a lie. Are we to believe that they are so pure? They try to make it that they represent everything wholesome while the Serbs are evil put on this earth just to exterminate them.They attack every Journalist and every academic who tries to tell the truth. There is an article written by John Pilger about the issue of Bosnian Muslims and Kosovo Albanians. In this article he quotes General Lewis McKenzie as saying that the Muslims have played the UN like a fiddle. Noam Chomsky also tells a completely different story. The bombing of Serbia had nothing to do with the Kosovo Albanians. It was an excuse to bomb Serbia because it refused to subordinate themselves to the mighty US. John Pilger also has a new documentary film out now titled “The War on Democracy” where he exposes how American administrations past and present overthrow legitimate governments around the world if they don’t tow the line and submit to their big business.Kosovo is just another place to America to exploit and Serbia stands in their way. The American propaganda machine is in overdrive now. In order to commit crimes with the blessing of their own people America puts all their faith in their propaganda machine. The article by John Pilger where he exposes the link between Bosnian Muslims, Kosovo Albanians and Al-Qaeda is on this site.

02/10/07 - Petar Borojevic
Comment on the article: “Different Perspectives: Kosovo "Convert or Die" by William Dorich

Mr. Dorich, thank you for your presentation of the facts related to the article: “Balkanic Roadto the EU”. The current situation in Kosovo is such that not only the Serbs but all other non_Albanians are denied their human rights and rights to return to their property. The best example of what I am talking about is capital of province of Kosovo Pristina in which before the NATO bombing lived forty thousand Serbs. Now days, eight years after NATO bombing, hardly hundred Serbs live there in fear and extreme poverty. But it is not only that Serbian community was destroyed in Prisina and the rest of Kosovo, its Jewish community is destroyed too. It is too easy to invent seven points of so called Serbian propaganda and then attack them. Unfortunately NATO intervention has turned into ethnic cleansing of non_Albanians from Kosovo and pillaging and robbery of their property there. It is appalling that NATO countries have done nothing to establish rule of law in Kosovo, and protect the innocent regardless of their fait and nationality. They would tell you that I am lying. They would say that they established international police force in Kosovo and used international judges there. That is true, but this has not helped a bit in reducing abuses of non_Albanians in Kosovo. Simply, there are no results to show, so this effort has turned into a smoke screen, for Albanians and their helpers in the international community.
Petar Borojevic
Canada

02/10/07 - Liz Milanovich

Which history books is Bashkim Berani refering to that contradict what Mr. Dorich had to say, because Mr. Berani replies to Mr. Dorich, "... I advise you to go to a library and read some books about European History and you will see that you don’t know anything about it. " Mr. Berani, please supply the names of books.

What are Alban Myftiu's documented sources of information for his 'Six Pillars of Serbian Propaganda' reply?

And, here's something to ponder. Samir Potera says, "... Nowdays there is no people in the Balkans who has more European values than Albanians. This is something that all respectful ubiassed intellectualls dealing wih cultures in the region recognize. ..." As Mr. Potera believes the Albanians are the template for 'European values', could he please supply the names of those 'respectful unbiased intellectuals' .

Liz Milanovich

Canada

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