The rebels were executed
The leaders of the protests against Berisha have been killed
Page 7
The blow and the manipulation
BY FATOS LUBONJA
When the journalists of the New York Times at least somewhat attacked Western diplomats after the killing of demonstrators in Belgrade last March, with Slavija Square in revolt, taking chains, bullets and wooden sticks to the head, it seemed as if yet another Bosnia could really happen in Kosovo if the governments trapped in Belgrade did not do something in time.
It was deliberately recalled that, if such a thing were to happen, this would mean asserting something that, with the compressed drama and the connotations that Kosovo carried and brought, would present a kind of model of Kosovo side by side with what was happening in Serbia. On the other hand, it should not be said across the border how little it concerned the Kosovars. That was the model of Kosovo side by side in the eyes of Albanians on this side of the border. On the other hand, it was planting in the minds of the masses a possible burden as another aspect of interethnic discrimination, oppression and suffering. This was fueled by the pain of an event in concealed circumstances, with a grave, heavy massacre.
One of them, journalist Aleksandër Frangaj, directly labeled the description of the protests and uprisings in Kosovo as manipulation. Meanwhile, the anti-government opposition in Albania rejected such a thing. The Minister of the Interior declared it to be yet another slander of the usual kind with a national tinge. However, manipulation and fear also move along with these.
The Albanians killed along the border, the severe massacres around Podujevë, the burned women, the dismembered children, the continuing persecution, the bloodshed of demonstrators and the slippery ground of a general ethnic conflict made, and still make, the issue worthy of mention in international chronicles; based on real facts, they can keep it within the interest and limits that have been set for it.
The other side is that the general armed revolt in Kosovo may also have arisen from what is happening and brought on by a great Albanian inspiration. If these are used as an example for capturing and splitting political opponents here, then this says much more about those who do it than about the Kosovars themselves.
The main line of the Albanian press against Berisha, the base of the UÇK
New York Times writes: Ispi supported the insurgents
Berisha Tower, base of the UÇK
A part of Albanian politics today must understand who won, who was pushed aside after the star. The question was seen to arise about the Kosovo Liberation Army, the Albanian ethnic group that struck across part of the border with Serbia, why, despite Western insistence to the contrary, it is seen as a criminal organization and was labeled an aggressor and vandal. The response of the Albanian editorial staff of the New York Times yesterday was that the escalation of the war in Kosovo occurred as a result of the enemy’s massacres. The escalation came after the Berisha clan made it clear that the UÇK base existed in northern Albania.
In an editorial entitled “Is Berisha’s hand behind the UÇK?” the New York Times argues that it is hard not to see a clear relationship between the Kosovo crisis and the unrest in Albania. “The Berisha clan was the first to openly announce that the UÇK had its base in northern Albania. Sali Berisha was the first to advance this thesis about the UÇK as a force controlled by him in a certain game for internal political matters,” writes the paper.
The article notes that many weapons seized last year from the depots of the Albanian state were taken to Kosovo. “It may be true that the Albanian government itself had no hand in arming the UÇK, but it is not impossible that other right-wing groups close to Berisha did this,” continues the analysis. In the end, the paper links the further destabilization in Albania with Belgrade’s interest in presenting the Kosovo conflict as a civil war among Albanians rather than as the oppression of a people by the Serbian regime.