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Roadside ambush in Kosovo claims 1

by Jonn Lilyea••16

Stars & Stripes reports that a Lithuanian policeman was killed and two others were injured in Kosovo yesterday in a roadside ambush;

Troops with NATO’s Kosovo Force came under attack several times in 2011 and 2012 as they tried to remove barriers erected by ethnic Serbs to isolate the north from the rest of the country. An agreement between leaders of the two nations earlier this year suggested relations were smoothing, although extremists are still active on both sides.

From the New York Times;

The shooting came as Kosovo and Serbia have been trying to put in place a power-sharing accord that the two countries signed in April. The agreement, under which Serbia agreed to recognize Pristina’s authority over the police and the courts in the north in return for greater autonomy for Kosovo’s northern Serbs, has been greeted with deep ambivalence and in some cases outright hostility by some of the north’s 50,000 Serbs.

While the agreement stops short of Serbs recognizing Kosovo’s independence, which Belgrade vehemently opposes, it has been lauded by the European Union, which brokered it, as a breakthrough that could help overcome ethnic divisions and cement peace in the region. Some Serbs, however, have vowed to resist the accord, boycott municipal elections planned for early November and leave Kosovo.

Yeah, well, obviously, someone isn’t happy. The NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the ambush was “unacceptable”, so that should stop them in their tracks.

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16 thoughts on “Roadside ambush in Kosovo claims 1”

  1. “The NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the ambush was “unacceptable””. Wow, that’ll show them. What’s next, a strongly-worded letter?

  2. Serbia? Kosovo? I thought that was all settled a long time ago. (Longer ago that Jay Carney’s memory banks can recall.)

    Is this starting up again? Why is there no end to this stuff?

  3. JOINT GUARDIAN, TF FALCON, TF HAWK, Camp Bondsteel, Camp Monteith, Gnjilane…Boy, those names seems like from a lifetime ago, but it was only 1999; time sure flies….

  6. The certainly is brief, but Rasmussen is one of the good guys when it comes to modern era European politicians.

    He had our back going into Iraq (when it was not the most politically expedient view for him to have) and he’s stood up to the muslim PC/multiculturalism insanity when most other European politicians are on their knees asking for ‘seconds’.

    I have no doubts he will do what he can to facilitate the dropping of hammers on whomever is behind the attack.

  7. The statement certainly is brief, but Rasmussen is one of the good guys when it comes to modern era European politicians.

    He had our back going into Iraq (when it was not the most politically expedient view for him to have) and he’s stood up to the muslim PC/multiculturalism insanity when most other European politicians are on their knees asking for ‘seconds’.

    I have no doubts he will do what he can to facilitate the dropping of hammers on whomever is behind the attack.

  8. So what is Obama’s red line for this theater of operations?? How long before Putin is eating his lunch over Kosovo??

  10. So, things that were thought to have been settled are now heating up all over again? I just want to understand.

    FrostyCWO, stay safe. Keep your eyes and ears open.

  11. @Ex-PH2,
    It’s complex (which really caveats everything in the Balkans), but this is the first incident of outright violence in two years. This place is way safer than Fayetteville. These guys are EU police that have a mission in Kosovo to improve the local justice system. They are not part of KFOR. There are all kinds of reasons why people don’t like police officers. This may or may not have been related to ethnic tensions.
    I am working staff at the US contingent headquarters, so it’s pretty relaxed.
    Check us out:
    https://www.facebook.com/KFOR.MNBG.East

  12. I spent five years there during 2000-2007 Got hurt and sent back to the U.S. Jan 2007.

    You should start with the break up of Yugoslavia as the modern start point.

    The Locals will tell you that to understand Kosovo you have to understand the battle of the field of the black birds.
    That was June 15, 1389.

    A simplified version. I can talk about this for hours.
    Bosnia was over for the most part when the Kosovo “war” started.
    Bosnia was a blood bath. There are mass graves in Bosnia with 800 bodies in them.

    Let’s talk about Kosovo.
    Kosovo has 1 (one) confirmed mass grave. The official count is 47. The locals told me it was 17, but OK, we will go with 47.
    There were NO prison camps, work camps, rape camps in Kosovo.

    The Kosovo situation was started by a terrorist organization called the KLA. They started ambushing police patrols, attacking outlying villages. Milosevic taking a lot of well deserved heat for the goings on in Bosnia down like a hammer. He thought for sure the world would back him on this, as it was attacks on Serb territory and people.
    Milosevic never understood international politics.

    Some how the International Community that had done next to nothing for all of the Bosnia Slaughter Jumped in on Kosovo.
    The Bosnian Albanians are still pissed about this as they wanted the KLA to attack WHILE the Bosnia war was running, splitting the Serb forces. The Albanians are however far better at propaganda to the international audience. Worked for them during the war. Milosevic kept repeating the same nationalist local election crap that sells so well in the Balkans never understanding he was by then addressing the world.
    In five years in Kosovo I met four or five Albanians that actually fought in the war. Albanians aint fighters as a rule. The first president, Rogava who died in office was hiding in a camp in Italy during the war.
    The Second President was one of the “generals” from the war. He is the leader of the LDK party.
    They are more of the Mafia party, with a lot of disgruntled former fighters and wannabes as well. They are on the fourth president now.

    Try to get a DVD or catch a rerun of the BBC’s Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation it is a five part documentary that is about as balanced as could be made at that time.
    There is a companion book as well, but Stick with the DVD. This is the visual age.

    If you like your history dry, Read the works of Noel Malcolm. He covers it from pre history to modern times.

    That part of Europe is as hard for an American to understand as America is for them. It may say ‘Europe” on the map, but that aint Europe out the window.
    People there will hear your name and know where you are from, What province, what village, what religion. Once you speak a word or two they know if you are Bosnian, Albanian, Macedonian or what.
    If you live in this village you are that background. This is not a mobile society of the kind we have here. Your name, your words tell all.

    Religion had little or nothing to do with the war. It helped define the sides, but was not a catalyst. The Serbs are Serbian Orthodox the Albanians Muslim. Some Mountain Albanians are Roman Catholic.

    Here is the starting point of serious intervention.

    Jan. 7, 1999 – The Senate trial of President Clinton opens.

    Jan. 19, 1999 – State of the Union Address. No mention of the impeachment trial.

    Jan. 20, 1999 – NATO bombing campaign against Serbia begin.

    Jan. 21, 1999 – On the final day of arguments, President Clinton’s defense team pleads for “political sanity,” stating that the prosecution’s case rests on circumstantial evidence and unrelated facts.

    Knowing what was going to happen in the Sennett, and needing to get his troubles off the front page, or perhaps derail the impeachment altogether, Clinton acted.
    Clinton got involved in the Balkans with 20,000 total killed.
    And did nothing in Rwanda that was a slaughter of 1 million.
    One Million People….
    and Clinton the Humanitarian did nothing.

    On March 17-18-19 2004 well-coordinated and organized riots struck all of Kosovo.

    The “reason, or excuse” for the riots was a widely reported (on Albanian TV ) incident that 3 young Albanian boys were killed when they jumped into a river to escape a pack of dogs that the Serbs had set on them.
    This story had several versions. Usually all the boys drowned, but then some one realized that one of the boys had to live long enough to identify the Serbs as being responsible. So he did.
    The Albanian TV (Chanel 21 for those who remember) and radio ran with this story it was on everywhere.

    It also turned out not to be factual, but that really didn’t matter.

    The Serb areas, what few remained were attacked by the Albanians. Hundreds of houses and businesses were burned, the hospitals, the schools. The churches.
    Several Serbs were killed. I don’t recall the figure now but 30 to 40.

    I have a lot of friends on both sides of the conflict, and can spend hours telling you where both are wrong, and why it will start again.
    When the Albanians realize that the world could care less, they will start trouble with the Serbs. Trying to get retaliation by the Serbs, and a new NATO attack on the Serbia.

    If you have not been keeping up Serbia has given the store to Russia to keep them happy and helpful on the Kosovo Independence deal. Serbia and Russia consider themselves from a common Slav people. At least the Serbs do, the Russians do when it suits them.

    Kosovo “Independence” would be laughable if the problems it will cause weren’t so real. Kosovo has no ability to feed itself, an infrastructure that looks like a mad max movie, and extremely limited amount of resources to bargain with.

    They have no Army. The National guard they do have has few weapons.
    Kosovo has done nothing to earn its Independence. It is a gift bestowed on them by the great powers of the world. And since they have not had to earn it they feel no value in having it. They think of Independence as something you keep in a box.
    They are independent but cant run the country, defend the country, pay for the workings of a country, feed the country.

    I had educated people there tell me that Kosovo would be the 51st state of the United States. This was not a joke. They expected the US to adopt and care for them.
    Macedonia and Montenegro are already having problems with Albanian separatist groups in their countries trying to partition off parts.
    In 02 Macedonia was on the edge of civil war when some of the Albanian groups openly attacked. Whole areas were cut off. This came to a halt when the U.S. sent in Army representatives to explain to the Albanians The US would not help them break away from Macedonia And in fact the US would help the Macedonian government. The Albanians stopped the overt attacks and went to ground shocked. Had not the US just helped the Albanians in Kosovo?

  14. Stars & Stripes doesn’t say who did the ambush. Kosovo Muslims are good at initiating bad stuff and getting the world to blame Serbs. There are no innocents. Except maybe kids not yet big enough to pull a trigger.

  16. @12-Uacivpol, thanks for the inside look. I’ve known for a while that the peacekeeper troops were there, because occasionally I will see something about joint war games and exercises in the news.

    I’m just concerned that what appeared to have been ‘problem solved’ was simply sitting on the back burner for more than a decade.

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