TiM GW Bulletin 98/5-9 May 29, 1998

Kosovo Albanian Insurgents Shoot at Serb Abbess and Nun Decani: An Ancient Serbian Monastery Under Siege? Democratic Opposition Leader Demands Immediate Action by Yugoslav Government

PHOENIX - Kosovo Albanian insurgents opened fire from automatic rifles on May 26 at a car driven by Anastasia, the abbess of the Devic monastery, according to a report which we received this morning from Father Sava Janjic, a monk at Decani, an ancient Serbian monastery in Kosovo. You may recall that Fr. Sava and the Decani monastery also figured prominently in our recent report, "Murder on Wall Street," a story of suppression of objective news reports about the situation in Kosovo by the Wall Street Journal editors (TiM GW Bulletin 98/5-6, 5/09/98).

The shooting incident took place around 10 a.m. in the Lausa village, near Srbica in the Drenica region of Kosovo. Another nun was also riding with the abbess. Neither the nun, nor the abbess were injured. Abbess Anastasia was on her way to Srbica to arrange for the workers of Electro-Distribution to repair the damage on the electrical ducts, since the monastery had been without the electricity for two days. This was the first time the abbess was attacked. On previous occasions the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) patrols had let her go freely.

Since the May 26 nuns-shooting incident, the Albanian insurgents seem to have surrounded, and are laying siege, to the Decani monastery and the nearby Serbian refugee camp. Since all telephone lines to that part of Kosovo had been cut, according to this evening's (May 29) report by our Belgrade sources, it is difficult to obtain an independent confirmation of the real status of the possible siege of Decani. All we can verify at the moment is that our today's e-mail message to Fr. Sava had bounced back as "undeliverable."

We also note that these Albanian terrorist acts against the Serbian clergy and civilians in Kosovo had gone unreported by the American media. So it appears that the Wall Street Journal is not the only establishment media organization manipulating the Kosovo news, just as it and other western media did six years ago at the outset of the war in Bosnia, which was also fueled by the foreign manipulation (see "Kosovo: 'Bosnia II' and Serbia's Aztlan, Chechnya" - TiM GW Bulletin 98/3-1, 3/06/98, as well as this writer's WASHINGTON TIMES' column, "Ginning Up Another Crisis, 3/15/98).

Instead, again just as in Bosnia, we got to read today in the establishment about another round of the NATO saber-rattling. "Fearing that the crisis in Kosovo may ignite a wider Balkan war, NATO foreign ministers agreed yesterday (May 28) to expand military exercises with Albania and Macedonia to help them secure their borders with the troubled Serbian province," the Washington Post reported today. "The ministers also ordered alliance military experts to prepare options for possible NATO troop deployments to Albania and Macedonia if violence in Kosovo between Serbia's police and army forces and ethnic Albanian rebels spirals out of control."

So, here we go again... Another foreign war; another (needless) foreign troop deployment, funded by the U.S. taxpayers.

Meanwhile, a dose of reality in Kosovo. In the early morning hours of Friday, May 29, a Serbian police convoy carrying supplies to the Decani refugees and clergy was attacked by the Albanian insurgents in the vicinity of the monastery, according to the Tanjug news agency. Assailants opened fire from the houses which lined the road using automatic weapons, snipers and hand-held bazookas. After a brief delay, the convoy continued its journey toward the refugee safe haven at the Decani monastery.

As it turns out, today (May 29) is the fifth day of the siege of Decani. And it is the fifth day that the western media have remained mum about this travesty. Why? Even the pro-western liberals in Belgrade are getting restless.

Last night (May 28), president of the Serbian Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic, one of the leaders of the 1996-1997 four-month long Serbian pro-democracy demonstrations, sent a letter to the President of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, demanding immediate action by the Yugoslav government to relieve the Decani siege, our Belgrade sources reported. "The refugee safe haven near the Decani monastery, as well as the monastery itself, have been under siege for four days by the Albanian rebels... Food and supplies are dwindling," Djindjic warned in his letter to Milosevic.

A year and a half ago, Djindjic - a liberal by the New World Order standards - was a darling of the western media. Yet now that he has spoken up against the repression of the Serbian population of Kosovo, suddenly even his plea is being met with a deafening silence in the West.

All of which is sending a very shrill message to the Serbs: That they can only rely on themselves and their own resources ("u se i u svoje kljuse") to fend off another (NATO) assault from the West. Even the deaf and blind among the Serbs should have learned their lesson from the Bosnian Serbs' defeat in Bosnia. And even more importantly, the American taxpayers will have learned their lesson about how our money and our children's lives are being (ab)used to back the New World Order's oppressive neo-colonial agendas.

One down (Bosnia), several more Balkan wars to go, starting with Kosovo? And followed (or preceded?) by a Greek-Turkish war over Cyprus? Like the western media buzzards, the NATO death merchants never rest, do they?

Also, check out... "Biting the Hand That Feeds You", "A Balkan Affairs Potpourri", "Put the U.N. Justice on Trial", "International Justice 'Progresses' from Kidnapping to Murder", "Milosevic: 'A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery'...", "Kosovo Lie Allowed to Stand", "New World Order's Inquisition in Bosnia", "Kosovo Heating Up", "Decani Monastery Under Siege?", "Murder on Wall Street",  "Kosovo: 'Bosnia II'",  "What If the Shoe Were on the Other Foot?", "Green Interstate - Not Worth American Lives", and/or "Clinton arme secrètement les musulmans bosniaques"

Or Djurdjevic's WASHINGTON TIMES columns: "An Ugly Double Standard in Kosovo Conflict?", "NATO's Bullyboys", "Kosovo: Why Are We Involved?", and "Ginning Up Another Crisis"