Discredited foreign policy doctrines

• The Guardian, Friday 25 February 2011
• Article history

Someone needs to sit down Labour's shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy, and teach him about the failure of the disastrous Nato attack on Serbia over Kosovo, and the elementary flaws in Tony Blair's attempt to justify it with his discredited doctrine of "humanitarian intervention" (Labour urged not to rule out military intervention, 22 February). Otherwise some future Labour government may be tempted to repeat past blunders instead of learning from them.

Contrary to the received wisdom, Mr Blair's cheerleading of the Nato bombing failed to stop ethnic cleansing in Kosovo (the exodus of refugees began only after the launch of the Nato attack); or to replace Serbian control of Kosovo by an international administration (which was achieved by flexible US-Russian-Finnish diplomacy when the bombing was going nowhere); or to topple Milosevic (the Serbian electorate did that months later). The Nato intervention was illegal (never authorised by the UN), based on a false prospectus (the Rambouillet conference concocted a pretext for attacking Serbia), unnecessary (the possibilities of a peaceful solution had not been exhausted) and incompetently executed (thousands of innocent civilians killed, non-military targets destroyed). The delusion that the Kosovo aggression was both a success and a personal triumph for Mr Blair clearly encouraged a repetition of all the Kosovo blunders in Iraq, four years later. Never again, thanks, Mr Murphy.

Brian Barder

Report identifies Hashim Thaci as 'big fish' in organised crime

Kosovo's prime minister accused of criminal connections in secret Nato documents leaked to the Guardian

• • 
    

• Paul Lewis
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 January 2011 18.34 GMT
• Article history

Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci identified in secret Nato reports as having involvement in criminal underworld. Photograph: Valdrin Xhemaj/EPA

Kosovo's prime minister, Hashim Thaçi, has been identified as one of the "biggest fish" in organised crime in his country, according to western military intelligence reports leaked to the Guardian.

The Nato documents, which are marked "Secret", indicate that the US and other western powers backing Kosovo's government have had extensive knowledge of its criminal connections for several years.

They also identify another senior ruling politician in Kosovo as having links to the Albanian mafia, stating that he exerts considerable control over Thaçi, a former guerrilla leader.

Marked "USA KFOR", they provide detailed information about organised criminal networks in Kosovo based on reports by western intelligence agencies and informants. The geographical spread of Kosovo's criminal gangs is set out, alongside details of alleged familial and business links.

The Council of Europe is tomorrow expected to formally demand an investigation into claims that Thaçi was the head of a "mafia-like" network responsible for smuggling weapons, drugs and human organs during and after the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

The organ trafficking allegations were contained in an official inquiry published last month by the human rights rapporteur Dick Marty.

His report accused Thaçi and several other senior figures who operated in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) of links to organised crime, prompting a major diplomatic crisis when it was leaked to the Guardian last month.

The report also named Thaçi as having exerted "violent control" over the heroin trade, and appeared to confirm concerns that after the conflict with Serbia ended, his inner circle oversaw a gang that murdered Serb captives to sell their kidneys on the black market.

The Council's of Europe's parliamentary assembly in Strasbourg will debate Marty's findings and vote on a resolution calling for criminal investigations. The vote is widely expected to be passed.

Kosovo functioned as a UN protectorate from the end of the Kosovo war until 2008, when it formally declared independence from Serbia.

Thaçi, who was re-elected prime minister last month, has been strongly backed by Nato powers. His government has dismissed the Marty report as part of a Serbian and Russian conspiracy to destabilise the fledgling state.

However, the latest leaked documents were produced by KFOR, the Nato-led peacekeeping force responsible for security in Kosovo. It was KFOR military forces that intervened in the Kosovo war in 1999, helping to put an end to a campaign of ethnic cleansing by Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian forces.

Nato said in a statement tonight that it had instigated an "internal investigation" into the leaked documents, which are intelligence assessments produced around 2004, shortly before tensions with ethnic Serbs fuelled riots in Kosovo.

In the documents, Thaçi is identified as one of a triumvirate of "biggest fish" in organised criminal circles. So too is Xhavit Haliti, a former head of logistics for the KLA who is now a close ally of the prime minister and a senior parliamentarian in his ruling PDK party. Haliti is expected to be among Kosovo's official delegation to Strasbourg tomorrow and has played a leading role in seeking to undermine the Marty report in public.

However, the Nato intelligence reports suggest that behind his role as a prominent politician, Haliti is also a senior organised criminal who carries a Czech 9mm pistol and holds considerable sway over the prime minister.

Describing him as "the power behind Hashim Thaçi", one report states that Haliti has strong ties with the Albanian mafia and Kosovo's secret service, known as KShiK. It suggests that Haliti "more or less ran" a fund for the Kosovo war in the late 1990s, profiting from the fund personally before the money dried up. "As a result, Haliti turned to organised crime on a grand scale," the reports state.

They state that he is "highly involved in prostitution, weapons and drugs smuggling" and used a hotel in the capital, Pristina, as an operational base. Haliti also serves as a political and financial adviser to the prime minister but, according to the documents, is arguably "the real boss" in the relationship. Haliti uses a fake passport to travel abroad because he is black-listed in several countries, including the US, one report states.

Haliti is linked to the alleged intimidation of political opponents in Kosovo and two suspected murders dating back to the late 1990s, when KLA infighting is said to have resulted in numerous killings.

One was a political adversary who was found "dead by the Kosovo border", apparently following a dispute with Haliti. A description of the other suspected murder – of a young journalist in Tirana, the Albanian capital – also contains a reference to the prime minister by name, but does not ascribe blame.

Citing US and Nato intelligence, the entry states Haliti is "linked" the grisly murder, going on to state: "Ali Uka, a reporter in Tirana, who supported the independence movement but criticised it in print. Uka was brutally disfigured with a bottle and screwdriver in 1997. His roommate at the time was Hashim Thaçi."

Haliti is also named in the report by Marty, which is understood to have drawn on Nato intelligence assessments along with reports from the FBI and MI5.

Marty's report includes Haliti among a list of close allies of Thaçi said to have ordered – and in some cases personally overseen – "assassinations, detentions, beatings and interrogations" during and immediately after the war.

Haliti was unavailable for comment. However, in an interview with the media outlet Balkan Insight last week he dismissed the Marty report as "political" and designed to "discredit the KLA". "I was not surprised by the report. I have followed this issue for years and the content of the report is political," he said.

But he accepted that the Council of Europe was likely to pass a resolution triggering investigations by the EU-backed justice mission in the country, known as EULEX.

"I think it's a competent investigating body," he said, "It's a European investigation body. I think that there is no possibility that EULEX investigation unit to be affected by Kosovo or Albanian politics."

Responding to the allegations in the NATO intelligence reports tonight, a Kosovo government spokesman said: "These are allegations that have circulated for over a decade, most recently recycled in the Dick Marty report. They are based on hearsay and intentional false Serbian intelligence.

"Nevertheless, the prime minister has called for an investigation by EULEX and has repeatedly pledged his full cooperation to law enforcement authorities on these scandalous and slanderous allegations.

"The government of Kosovo continues to support the strengthening of the rule of law in Kosovo, and we look forward to the cooperation of our international partners in ensuring that criminality has no place in Kosovo's development."

Road to Strasbourg

It has taken more than two years for an inquiry into organ trafficking in Kosovo to reach the Palace of Europe, a grand building in Strasbourg that serves as the headquarters of the Council of Europe.

The formal inquiry into organ trafficking in Kosovo was prompted by revelations by the former chief war crimes prosecutor at The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, who said she had been prevented from properly investigating alleged atrocities committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Her most shocking disclosure – unconfirmed reports the KLA killed captives for their organs – prompted the formal inquiry by human rights rapporteur Dick Marty.

His report, published last month, suggested there was evidence that KLA commanders smuggled captives across the border into Kosovo and harvested the organs of a "handful" of Serbs.

His findings, which will be subject to a parliamentary assembly vote tomorrow, went further, accusing Kosovo's prime minister and several other senior figures of involvement in organised crime over the last decade.

Srebrenica general's attackers get life for revenge stabbing in prison

Three Muslim inmates attacked former Bosnian Serb general Radislav Krstic, 62, at Wakefield prison

• Martin Wainwright
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 February 2011 17.09 GMT
• Article history

Radislav Krstic is serving a 35-year sentence for his part in the killing of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica. Photograph: Fred Ernst/AP

Three convicted killers have been given concurrent life sentences for a revenge attack on a former Bosnian Serb general in a British high-security jail.

Led by an Albanian Muslim, the trio stabbed and slashed 62-year-old Radislav Krstic in his cell at Wakefield prison in West Yorkshire, where he was serving a 35-year sentence for his part in genocide at Srebrenica.

Krstic, who has an artificial leg, survived the attack in May but was left with serious injuries including a deep wound to his neck. He was transferred to Wakefield from the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague in 2004 under the UK's treaty obligations to the United Nations.

Indrit Krasniqi, 23, Iliyas Khalid, formerly known as Christopher Braithwaite, 24, and Quam Ogumbiyi, were cleared of attempting to murder Krstic by a jury after a two-week trial at Leeds crown court. But they were convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and returned for sentencing.

Each is already serving life for murder. Krasniqi, who was born and grew up in Albania, was given a minimum of 23 years for the kidnap and killing of 16-year-old Mary-Ann Leneghan in 2005 in Reading, and the attempted murder of one of the teenager's friends.

Khalid was sentenced to a minimum of 28 years and six months for the sexual assault and murder of 23-year-old Stacey Westbury in Fulham in 2007. Ogumbiyi was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years before parole for stabbing a man to death in Hackney in 2003.

The trial heard that the three men planned the attack after learning of Krstic's arrival and his part in the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995. The murders, the worst massacre in Europe since the second world war, followed the capture of the town by a Bosnian Serb force which disarmed Dutch soldiers serving under UN command.

Mr Justice Henriques, passing sentence, told the men, who stood expressionless in the dock: "You had full knowledge of the crimes of Krstic and although that makes it possible to understand your motivation, it does not mitigate it.

"All three of you are practising Muslims. I have no doubt what you intended was an act of revenge, and crimes for the purpose of advancing a religious or racial cause or crimes which are religiously or racially motivated attract significantly higher sentences of imprisonment.

"This was also a crime of exceptional gravity. Each of you are convicted murderers serving a life sentence of imprisonment. You planned an attack upon a defenceless man with an artificial leg, aged 62."

The judge said he would have liked to extend the minimum terms of the men's existing life sentences, but the law did not give him that option. However, their time in prison would be extended because the parole board would automatically turn down their first requests.

"Each of you must expect, having committed such a grave offence in custody, that your first application to the parole board will fail. You and the public must appreciate that you will be adversely affected by the jury's finding of guilt in this case."

The judge sentenced Krasniqi to life with a specified term of 12 years, Khalid to life with a 10-year term and Ogumbiyi, who played a smaller part in the attack than the other two, to life with a six-year term.

The sentences will all run concurrently with the men's existing terms.

Krstic, a general-major in the Bosnian Serb army in the 1990s, was sentenced initially to 46 years in jail at The Hague. His conviction was reduced on appeal to aiding and abetting genocide and his prison term cut to 35 years.

A professional soldier in the former Yugoslav army, he played a prominent part in the series of wars which marked the break-up of the state. He lost his leg in 1994 after stepping on a landmine. Radio intercepts during a series of prisoner executions after Srebrenica recorded him telling a subordinate: "Kill them all Goddamit. Not a single one must be left alive."

Krstic was the first person to be convicted of genocide after the Bosnian tragedy, following his arrest by SAS troops who ambushed his car. He denied involvement and put the blame on the Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, who is still on the run.

• This article was amended on 25 February 2011. The original said that Radislav Krstic was transferred to Wakefield from the international criminal court at the Hague in 2004. This has been corrected.

February 2011 Monthly Archive

February 2011

Monthly Archive

http://www.juliagorin.com/wordpress/?m=201102&paged=1

When the Shoe is on the Other Foot, and if the Shoe Finally Fits, Call it Something Else Posted by Julia Gorin

When the Shoe is on the Other Foot, and if the Shoe Finally Fits, Call it Something Else

Posted by Julia Gorin
 

Note that the common strand in all arguments in favor of Thaci, the KLA and their “independent state” is the call for “evidence” to back up Marty’s report. This is very important. These very people telling you today that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, and that we shouldn’t judge an entire nation based on allegations without evidence? They are the ones who have, for the past two decades, done precisely that: leveled outlandish allegations against an entire nation, without a shred of evidence - worse yet, with actual evidence running counter to their claims! But you see, the nation we should not judge are the Albanians (specifically, the made-up “Kosovars”) and the nation we’ve become used to instinctively condemning against all the evidence to the contrary are the Serbs - so that’s perfectly all right, then.

As if on cue, an example appears…Here’s Newsweek’s description: “This genocidaire brought horror to ’90s Europe and died while on trial for war crimes. After the fall of the ‘Butcher of the Balkans,’ Serbia remains a hotbed of organized crime, and Kosovo’s independence sparked violent protests. But at least the mass ethnic slayings are gone.”

…It was the British tabloids that labeled Milosevic the “Butcher of the Balkans.” With the details of KLA’s butchery of captives to sell their body parts to rich Westerners beginning to emerge, it is becoming clear that Hashim Thaci is far more deserving of the moniker.
…
“At least the mass ethnic slayings are gone”? Tell that to the Serbs remaining in today’s independent Croatia, or the Bosnian Muslim-Croat Federation, or “independent” Kosovo (where you can also check on the Roma, Jews and Gorani). If you can find any.

Newsweek’s treatment of Milosevic actually fits Thaci more. But we can’t have that, oh no. That would besmearing, and might just offend Dennis McShane[former Labour MP and member of Thaci’s cheering section]. Every single claim made in the one-paragraph, drive-by character assassination is either completely false, or true in a sense Newsweek’s reporter absolutely did not intend it to be.

It is amazing that in this world, where “progressives” of all stripes have declared tolerance, diversity and inoffensiveness to be the highest virtues, it is not only allowed to be hateful, and offensive towards the Serbs, it is expected as proof of one’s political correctness. TheNewsweeks and McShanes of this world see nothing wrong with demanding evidence when their ox is being gored, but inventing or ignoring it when they wish to smear someone else.

That’s actually a bigger problem for them, and their countries and societies, than it is for the Serbs, who are used to such treatment by now and don’t give a damn…

US-supported Middle Eastern Autocracy Less Terrifying than US-supported Kosovo Democracy

US-supported Middle Eastern Autocracy Less Terrifying than US-supported Kosovo Democracy

Posted by Julia Gorin
 

An article last week in Foreign Policy magazine makes some key points. I’m excerpting them below:

Thug Life

Think Mubarak was bad? Kosovo’s leaders are accused of being organ-smuggling, drug-dealing goons — and the United States is looking the other way.

BY WHIT MASON AND BRONWYN HEALY-AARONS | FEBRUARY 17, 2011

…While the United States grappled with its inability (whether for lack of a fulcrum or fear of meddling) to use leverage to remove the regimes in Tunis and Cairo, it actually does have the power to affect change and promote transparent and accountable governance in Pristina — where a coterie of thuggish leaders, holdovers from a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) unit accused of war crimes and weapons dealing, now run the country. But, thus far, Washington has been unwilling to exert the necessary pressure on Kosovo’s leaders — and in its impotence pours billions of dollars down the drain and risks condemning the state to thugocracy.

While much has been made of America’s financial support of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s regime and other autocratic dictatorships in recent weeks, Kosovo’s democracy has received far more direct American aid in recent years — in 2010, Kosovo received more than twice the American bilateral foreign assistance per capita than Egypt. Yet, after more than a decade of immense international investment and the best-resourced humanitarian mission the world has ever seen, Kosovo enters its fourth year of independence amid its own internal turmoil.

…As it turns out, U.S. support for the world’s youngest democracy has been almost as bad for economic security, political stability and democratic principles as backing the globe’s oldest autocracies…But support for Kosovo has been premised on developing a politically stable, democratic country.

In actuality, it has entrenched deep political divisions in an already fragmented government and ensconced an elite that now operates above the law. Having failed to improve Kosovo’s moribund economy and human development indicators, the former-KLA power brokers of the central government have somehow managed to accruepersonal wealth vastly out of proportion with their declared activities. Their development and state-building policy has largely consisted of maintaining its own power over institutions of state, security, and law and order.

Until last year, keeping Kosovo stable — or at least appearing so — had been prioritized by the international community over pursuing clear evidence of increasing corruption among senior government officials. But, as the international money poured in throughout 2010, the veneer cracked. A wave of organized crime, war crime, and corruption allegations swept the senior membership of the Kosovo government and the leaderships of its major political parties.

On April 28, 2010, international police raided the offices and home of Transport and Telecommunications Minister Fatmir Limaj in connection with a corruption probe into a €700 million infrastructure project. Suspected of soliciting bribes and laundering up to €2 million from the public purse, the raid on Limaj was the result of a two-year investigation that started shortly after he took office in January 2008. At that point, he had only just returned in September 2007 from his second trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ICTY — indicted but never convicted of illegal imprisonment, cruel treatment, and inhumane acts during the war with Serbian forces in 1998-1999.

At the time of Limaj’s arrest, the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) announced he was only one of seven ministers being investigated for links to organized crime and corruption in office.

Two months after the raid on Limaj, on July 21, 2010 popular former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj was indicted for a second time by the ICTY to stand trial for war crimes including torture, rape, and crimes against humanity. His application for provisional release was denied and he currently awaits trial in remand at the United Nations Detention Unit in The Hague. On Jan. 31, it was announced that the opposition party he leads from his cell, the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, placed fourth in the general election — taking a substantial 11 percent of the vote.

Two days after Haradinaj’s arrest, Kosovo police arrested central bank governor Hashim Rexhepi on charges of corruption, tax evasion, and money laundering.

…Marty’s report identified the leader of Drenica Group as a man called “The Snake” — a.k.a. Hashim Thaqi, who two days earlier had been named prime minister re-elect of the Republic of Kosovo. He has officially taken office in time for Kosovo’s third Independence Day celebrations.

All of the condemned leadership have been quick to accuse the international community of “political lynching,” interfering with domestic affairs of state, and inappropriate investigations into an independent government. Hardly.

In fact, the most disturbing aspect of these events were the revelations that Kosovo’s thugocrats owe their rise and continued impunity to the toleration or outright support of the international community — particularly the United States.

…It was [American officials’] lobbying and support that gave the KLA the legitimacy they needed to transition from armed gang to political powerbrokers.

In 1999, the U.S. endorsement of Thaqi as hero was sealed with a kiss planted on his cheek by then Secretary of State Madeline Albright on her post-intervention visit to Kosovo. In 2004, every American staffer at the U.S. Embassy was invited to attend Haradinaj’s wedding — and, despite his links to organized crime and impending indictment on war crimes, they went. Most recently, the night after the raid on Limaj’s home and offices, U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo Christopher Dell was seen laughing and chatting with the minister at a well-attended party in Pristina.

It is difficult to see how democracy or respect [for] the rule of law could develop and flourish amid such overt displays of American support for a corrupt and criminal leadership. As in Egypt and across the Middle East, this policy of impunity comes at significant cost to the objectives and perceptions of the United States and its Western allies. This backing for Kosovo government officials has undercut efforts to pursue indictments for war crimes and investigate high-level corruption. The war crimes taking place throughout the 1998-1999 conflict and in the immediate aftermath have never been fully investigated — in fact, in some cases they have been covered up.

International judicial experts…allege international political interference stopped some cases from going before a court because “the political ramifications would have been too great.” And only days before the independence celebrations, their accusations were given considerable weight with theleaking of classified U.N. documents that show UNMIK ran an incomplete investigation into the organ trafficking case brought to light by Marty in late 2010. The documents date from 2003 — when UNMIK was in full control of the internal war crimes investigations and prosecutions.

So, that Kosovo holds elections should be small consolation to those in U.S. foreign policy who advocate championing principles over personalities. Democracy has not stopped the West from supporting and installing its preferred leaders in countries of geopolitical strategic importance — local strongmen who hold the tumultuous societies of war-torn countries together with an iron fist rather than a rule of law.

…The first principle in aiding the construction of new democracies must be to support conditions that prevent anyone from operating above the law. Even in a place like Kosovo, where Western influence might seem overwhelming, allowing space for impunity vitiates virtually everything else accomplished by even the most extravagant intervention.

Whit Mason worked for the United Nations in Kosovo and Afghanistan. He is the co-author of Peace at Any Price: How the World Failed Kosovo and editor of The Rule of Law in Afghanistan: Missing in Inaction, to be published in February. Bronwyn Healy-Aarons recently spent six months in Kosovo and is completing a PhD in post-conflict peace-building at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.

(On the point of the disproportionate aid that tiny Kosovo gets, while remaining Europe’s poorest ‘country,’ Freedom House makes the comparison that “since 1999 Kosovo has received 25 times more international aid per capita than Afghanistan. At a donor conference in Brussels in 2008 alone 1.2 billion Euros were raised from 37 countries and 16 international organizations.”)

****UPDATE****

A blogged response on The Conservative American website by Daniel Larison had a few additional good points:

It’s not exactly shocking news for some of us that supporting an independent Kosovo run by terrorists turns out to be a waste of U.S. resources. The article is valuable for reporting on the extent of the criminality and misrule of Kosovo’s new rulers, including war crimes…but going back to before the 1999 war there was good reason to suspect the KLA of most or all of the crimes that their leaders have been committing. Back then, the enthusiasm to support self-determination and to oppose Milosevic was too great, so naturally the solution was to start a war and set up an impoverished statelet run by hoodlums.

The authors note: “As it turns out, U.S. support for the world’s youngest democracy has been almost as bad for economic security, political stability and democratic principles [bold mine-DL] as backing the globe’s oldest autocracies.”

Who would have guessed that? It’s almost as if mindlessly endorsing separatist movements and following abstract Wilsonian principles lead to bad outcomes…The better time to think through all of this was in 1999 and the years immediately following. At the very least, not recognizing Kosovo’s independence would have been wise. Kosovo might still be run by thugs, but they wouldn’t have the seal of approval that comes with being recognized as the elected government of a supposedly sovereign state. The article details at some length the extent to which the U.S. was responsible for empowering and legitimizing the KLA. That is the real legacy of “humanitarian” intervention.

Obviously, it’s too late for undoing critical mistakes, so what can be done now that the U.S. has saddled itself with a criminal gang-dominated dependency? The article makes no recommendations, but I’ll propose one or two to start. The easiest option would be to suspend all aid to the current government. Even if U.S. aid isn’t directly fueling the leadership’s corruption, it is subsidizing a government that is rife with it. Another would be to target the leadership’s financial assets to be frozen, or at least make it more difficult for them to benefit from their illicit profits. The U.S. should also be willing to assist in arresting and transporting indicted leaders to stand trial. Washington is quite directly responsible for the current situation, so there is some obligation for the U.S. to attempt some remedy.

We all understand that Washington probably won’t do any of these things, because propping up Kosovo as an independent state never had much to do with the quality of governance in Kosovo or the well-being of its population. That much was obvious from the beginning of the 1999 war. Bombing and then partitioning Serbia were statements of U.S. power and influence, and Washington isn’t going to be eager to draw attention to how badly all of this turned out.

Brawl in London’s Trafalgar Square; Do We Need to Guess Which Balkan Faction?

Brawl in London’s Trafalgar Square; Do We Need to Guess Which Balkan Faction?

Posted by Julia Gorin
 

Just another in my unofficial series about Brits getting better and betteracquainted with Kosovars/Kosovans/Kosovarians/Kosovaristanians…a.k.a. Albanians. This is how they celebrate Kosovo independence — and what a fitting tribute it is. Maybe next year London police will show a little respect for the holy day by not interrupting the festivities and letting Kosovars be Kosovars.

Trafalgar Square brawl leads to stabbings and arrests (Feb. 18)

British detectives question 19 teenagers after running battles in tourist center.

A day after gangs of youths armed with knives, hockey sticks and other weapons fought running battles across Trafalgar Square, British detectives were questioning 19 teenagers over the stabbing of three people.

Eyewitnesses said young men clashed violently during “90 minutes of mayhem” on Thursday on the pedestrianised area around Nelson’s Column and on nearby roads.

Dozens of police raced to the square and arrested 19 people, the youngest of whom was 14. “Officers were called to the scene at around [4 p.m.] to reports of a large fight and a man being stabbed,” a Metropolitan Police statement said.

Three teenagers — one 18-year-old and two aged 19 — were in stable condition in central London hospitals suffering from stab wounds, according to Sky News.

The fighting is believed to have involved rival gangs ofAlbanian Kosovars from several parts of the capital, according to the Daily Mail. The fighting took place on the third anniversary of Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia.

Investigators have seized footage from several CCTV and traffic cameras that cover the area around the square.

Superintendent Simon Ovens told the Daily Echo: “This appears to have been a spontaneous incident and our officers were on scene extremely quickly, resulting in 19 people currently being held in custody.

“However, it is going to take some time for us to speak to them all and establish a clear picture of exactly what happened. Trafalgar Square is an incredibly busy place and I would urge anyone who was in the vicinity yesterday evening and may have seen something to come forward and talk to us.

“This sort of violence will not be tolerated in any part of central London and will always result in the robust police response we saw yesterday.”

Commemorating the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, the central London square is one of the most famous in the world and is often used as a focal point for political demonstrations and community gatherings.

It was most recently used by groups protesting in solidarity with those in Cairo’s Tahrir Square calling for the resignation of Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak.

Another report: Battle of Trafalgar Square: Police question 19 over daylight stabbings (Feb. 18)

Groups of youths armed with knives and hockey sticks fought pitched battles around Nelson’s Column in broad daylight yesterday afternoon. Onlookers described gangs of young men running into the square, wielding their weapons, during 90 minutes of clashes.

Dozens of police were scrambled to the square as the fighting broke out. Those arrested over the violence are understood to include a 13-year-old boy and other youths aged 16.

The three injured teenagers - one 18-year-old and two aged 19 - were taken to hospital. One of the 19-year-olds had four stab wounds to the head, arm and back. The other suffered wounds to his neck, back and leg. The 18-year-old had been stabbed twice in the chest. One of the 19-year-olds was released after treatment and the other two victims were today said to be in a stable condition.

The trouble is believed to have involved rival gangs of Albanian Kosovans from areas across London, including Bromley and Wood Green. The fighting took place on Kosovo National Day, marking the third anniversary of the country’s independence from Serbia.

One insider said: “Whenever there are high-profile events such as this these gangs meet to show their muscle, to fight to see who is the most powerful. Next day they will boast on Facebook about what they did.”

Another source in the Albanian community claimed the clash was part of a long feud between a gang called the OTR from south London and a group called the Hell Albanians, composed mostly of young teenagers trying to ape more serious gangsters.

Didi Mae, 21, a student at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, took pictures as some of the youths were arrested or treated by paramedics.

She said: “I was walking through Trafalgar Square and a load of guys came running towards me. It looked like they had taken whatever weapons they could.

“I thought it was a flashmob but it became apparent that it was not as innocent as it looked. They all looked young and seemed to be wearing a lot of black. It took me a few seconds to realise what was going on.” […]

Albanian Muslims again stone Serbs in Kosovo

Albanian Muslims again stone Serbs in Kosovo

February 26, 2011 – 12:24 pm

Stoning, cherished Islamic ceremony, spontaneously erupted once again in the Albanian dominated Kosovo as 3 male Muslim Albanians and one female picked up rocks and hurled them at a bus which they noticed carried a load of Serbs who were on a visit to a church in Djakovica to mark a Christian holy day.

A reporter, Valentina Rakocevic, was inside the bus and said that the rocks broke the bus window. Rakocevic identified 3 Albanian Muslim men and one female as rock throwers.

She said that the police arrested these 4 and the Albanian policeman, Zeqir Kelemendi, verified the arrest.

The Serbs in the bus have already been ethnically cleansed by the Muslim Albanians and were driven in the buss so they can mark a ceremony for their loved ones buried in Djakovica’s cemetery of Donji Petrovac.

The cemetery, which was destroyed by Muslim Albanians, was recently fixed up a little but the cemetery itself, say witnesses, is completely surrounded by weeds as people, in this Albanian Muslim dominated area, are afraid to attend to a cemetery that is Christian Serb.

The Serbs in the bus also visited cemetery of Piskote that was also recently restored a little.

Stoning of Serbs in Kosovo is a routine Albanian Muslim behavior and arrest of perpetrators does nothing to dissuade this cherished Islamic ritual.

“UN, France knew about KLA crimes”

“UN, France knew about KLA crimes”

February 27, 2011 – 9:48 am

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2011&mm=02&dd=26&nav_id=72931
FRANKFURT: The UN and France knew about KLA leaders’ link with the organized crime and protected and sheltered them, Frankfurt-based Serbian language daily Vesti writes.

The daily cited statements from a testimony of a well-known French criminologist, Xavier Raufer, relating to one of the Albanian mafia bosses Xhavit Haliti, who is now deputy parliament speaker.

Haliti has been linked to the worst kind of mafia activities in reports by several Western intelligence services, as well as in a recent report by NATO and in a report Dick Marty submitted to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Raufer, a Paris-based professor of criminology, warned members of one of the committees of the French Senate already in 2003 that, after the establishment of the UN administration in Kosovo, Haliti had been arrested possessing drugs and a large amount of money but had nevertheless been immediately protected and released.

According to the record from a hearing in the French Senate held on March 12, 2003, dedicated to the national fight against drugs, in which Raufer answered questions by Senator Paul Giraud, a large number of criminals arrived in Western Europe at the time of the admission of refugees from Kosovo.

The French criminologist said that a number of security officials and university professors had warned the French government not to grant Haliti a visa when he had come to attend the talks on Kosovo’s future in Rambouillet in 1999, stressing that Haliti was much more a mafia godfather than a small bandit-patriot, that he was a “mafioso of the first order”, one of the financiers and without any doubt the godfather of the young Hashim Thaci at the time.

Ramush Haradinaj, Thaci and Haliti all began their careers in Switzerland, which was the center of KLA activities and the place where, prior to 1999, enormous money intended for the KLA financing had been collected.