Crossfire War – TEHRAN WATCH – Southeast Europe Theatre – Kosovo: Belgrade – Tehran/Pristina – Tehran; UN Security Council – Annan – Misinformed on Kosovo by UN Representative Petersen – 70 Albanian Attacks in Recent Months
Night Watch: PRISTINA – AKI reports the disturbing news that the Secretray – General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan and the Security Council, have been misinformed by their own representative in Kosovo, Danish diplomat Soren Jessen Petersen who has been strongly presenting a case for Kosovo independence and therefore has presented a false picture of the reality on the ground. His report was to have been made today and it appears that Petersen has been giving the false impression that there are no serious security problems in the province. [AKI]
A couple of days ago Kosovo police discovered a powerful explosive less than two miles outside the provincial capital Pristina, near buildings that house a number of international organizations and a Serb police station. Kosovo Serb leader, Milan Ivanovic, told a press conference in Belgrade that in the past few months there have been 70 attacks just in the northern district Kosovska Mitrovica, what he described as “Albanian terrorism” against Serbs. Two-thirds of the Serbian population have evacuated since 1999, after the NATO bombing against Serbia placing the UN in control of Kosovo. 100,000 Serbs remain and are forced to live in isolated enclaves with no real security or freedom of movement. He actually told Petersen the province is a “black hole” for Serbian human rights and that the Serbs risk annihilation.
The German daily Die Welt has also severely citicized Petersen in an article Monday by saying he has been aggressively promoting the Albanian cause of independence before his departure at the end of this month. Since talks on Kosovo began last October there have been 180 attacks against Serbs. Since 1999 3,000 Serbs and non-Albanians have been killed while 150 Orthodox churches have been damaged or destroyed.
With the ongoing conflict, monitored and perhaps encouraged by Tehran, overshadowing the negotiations, Serbia and Iran signed a security agreement in January. Tehran knew of the Albanian attacks knowing it would force the Serbs to eventually strike back but not at just the Albanians, but also the international organizations, UN-NATO, that support the Albanian community and its demand for Kosovo independence. It is not surprising the news has recently reported that the most popular political parties in Serbia are the radicals, the ones less cooperative with the international community.
Nothing would please Tehran more than to see Vienna become obsessed with renewed fighting on this front. It would attract Vienna’s attention away from Tehran’s nuclear program which is intended to annihilate Vienna. This is the old world chaos the “New World Order” unleashed when the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), headquarted in Vienna, led and recognized the division of Yugoslavia 15 years ago and assumed the orchestrated crisis could be solved diplomatically. They underestimated the impact of weapon dealers.
Tehran knew another front had been established which they can use as they have been using Iraq-Afghanistan. Keep the West busy elsewhere instead of attacking Iran. In the Balkans case, the region can also be used as Tehran’s avenue of invasion into Europe and the invasion will be assisted by all Balkan people who hate Vienna again perhaps even more than Tehran does.
