Kosovo declares independence

Source: CNN


Kosovo has formally declared its independence from Serbia and become the world's newest state in a move opposed by Serbia and Russia but backed by many western governments.

Lawmakers in the legislature of the former Serbian province approved the declaration of independence at an extraordinary session Sunday afternoon. It was read out in Albanian, Serbian and English by prime minister Hashim Thaci before the approval of state symbols including Kosovar's new national flag and anthem.

Thaci said that Kosovo was an "independent and democratic" state, adding: "From this day onwards, Kosovo is proud, independent and free."

CNN's Alessio Vinci, reporting from the Kosovar capital Pristina, said that thousands of Kosovo's Albanian population had braved the freezing wind and cold to sing, dance, wave flags in the streets and light firecrackers ahead of the much anticipated vote. "It's been like this for several hours now," he said.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/02/17/kosovo.independence/?iref=hpmostpop

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I don't think that Kosovo was expected to go "all the way" with their Independence Day celebration.

Pictures of people running around with flags of Albania, confirming the worst fears of the ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo. I hope Russia doesn't decide they want to get involved. It might be an opening for Putin to continue to play "poke the Chimp".

What's next? Corsica? Wales? Abkhazia? Well, I guess the Kosovars can start printing money and postage stamps, and then apply for membership in NATO and the EU.

"Serbia's PM denounced the US for helping create a "false state". Serbia's ally, Russia, called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting."

Full article at the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7249034.stm

kinda like the west bank and Gaza strip

Don't you get tired of that shit?

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=77a_1203211877

they do
;)
Why do you defend them and their customs so much ?

You hope they lay down their laws over here ? ( in the US that is )
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=955_1175362637

I hope not.

If so, take that bigoted crap to Free Republic where it belongs.

?
My posted articles were about witchcraft and how women are being treated today under Saudi rules. Mindless laws against certain freedoms.


How do you think that Criss Angel Levitation act would fly in the House of Saud???/

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=955_1175362637


... sorry if it went way over your head.....

LOL
go back to trolling your freeper board .... and take your one man witch hunt with you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gHKNwpny9o
burn burn BAN !
;)

As the EU grows stronger, and takes on more functions that are normally the province of an independent state, the forces that held multi-ethnic European states together are reduced. Belgium is seeing this happen as well.

Half of my classmates are Kosovar Albanians, this morning many were almost moved to tears. They were so grateful to America for Clinton's help and now (um) Bush recognizing their independence.

Tomorrow we will have a party to celebrate their freedom.

What do you have against democracy anyhow? Does one have to be BIG to be a nation? Not the last time I checked.

It will get to the point where the Gheg and the Tosk want independence from each other too. Will you celebrate that too? The eastern shore of the Adriatic is getting so divided up, soon you are going to need to clear customs on your way down the street to buy a liter of milk. Remember, they are NOT in the EU and on their own when it comes to setting up and running their economy. Unless they cooperate together, they will soon resemble a collection of medieval villages that subsist on their own, with a primitive barter economy.

Get your priorities straight. This plays right into the hands of the ruling classes, who like nothing better than conflict between workers so that they will keep fighting each other instead of demanding their fair share.

"Can't we all just get along?" -- Rodney King

Just don't ask for US troops to save their asses if things go bad.

Warsaw tanks rolled into the country. We did nothing to help them until the wall came down. History will repeat in Kosovo?

sure

snip
On the night of August 20 - August 21, 1968, Eastern Bloc armies from five Warsaw Pact countries, Soviet Union, Bulgaria,<5> Poland, Hungary, and East Germany, invaded the ČSSR. That night, 200,000 Warsaw Pact troops and 2,000 tanks entered the country.<6> Among them were 28,000 Polish troops. Hungarian troops were withdrawn by October 31. Romanian troops did not take part in the invasion, and neither did Albania, which withdrew from the pact over the matter.
snip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact_invasion_of_Czechoslovakia


btw,
where do those same ex Warsaw nations now stand on the current Kosovo issue?

The current leaders of those countries were alive and remember that springtime in Prague .........

We had no bone in that fight anymore then we have in Iraq or Afghanistan. It wouldn't have been worth it.

It was never their land to begin with. They stole it thanks to Bill Clinton.

I thought the world burned US flags out of pure hatred for all we stand for ?

go figger

Mostly because I no longer have any idea what the American flag stands for. Does it still mean freedom and cooperation, or does it mean genocide and unilateral action?

Maybe they want NATO to cover their asses when the Russian tanks roll over their day in "the spring"

It is now much more viable to make the EU pay the bill. The EU should acknowledge the fact that its interests do not always coincide with those of US.

snip
...Russia...has not ruled out using force to resolve the dispute over the territory if NATO forces breach the terms of their U.N. mandate.

snip
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3192940

Better read up and check the exact wording in that Dayton accord now.

Seems the Russians want big $ for that real estate transfer

Also, the NATO's intervention in 1999 helped make this possible,
even if it wasn't exactly the outcome we wanted.

Anyhow, the U.S. is Kosovo's #1 sponsor and #1 protector.

US is more or less supporting independence now. That is why the flags.

On NPR they said US flags were more common during celebrations than Kosovo flags.

Just about every town has a street named after Bill Clinton.

Madeline Albright is lovingly referred to as the "Mother of Kosovo".

Tomorrow's Neocon Today
Why Clinton II wouldn't offer much change from Bush II

Radley Balko | October 19, 2007

... In fact, the L.A. Times reported last week that Clinton has refused to commit even to pulling U.S. troops from Iraq by 2013, which, if elected, would be the end of her first term. TV journalist Ted Koppel recently told NPR that Clinton has admitted the U.S. would still have troops in Iraq at the end of her second term.

The 1990s, remember, weren't exactly a decade of peace.
Bill Clinton ordered more U.S. military interventions than any other post-WWII administration,
and there's no reason to think any of them were over Hillary's protestations.
She supported the U.S. military campaigns in Haiti, Kosovo, and Bosnia.

She once boasted that as the tension in Kosovo mounted,
she called her husband from her trip to Africa and, "I urged him to bomb."

Seemed to work out pretty well. Slobo was forced to retreat, the killing stopped. Maybe the Sudanese backed militias in the south could use some of the same medicine...

On the other hand, Palestinians, Basques, Scots and Welsh do not have their own states. Washington, of course, is opposed to independence for those nations. This is because those nations are not willing to host giant US military bases in their territory (unlike the US flag waving Albanians in Kosovo).

So true!

They are Arabs, and there are already several Arab dominated countries.

Albania is populated and governed by Albanians, where as the West Bank is populated by Palestinians but subjugated by Israel.

If anything the Kosovo example will allow some shrewd Palestinian Authority politician to declare autonomy during some upcoming opportune moment and show to the world how truly hypocritical Israel is.

because Spain/Britain = Serbia. Same types of countries. Same genocide. Makes sense to me! Duuuuuh....

And as far as I know, the United States supports the idea of a Palestinian state. They just don't support the destruction of Israel, which many Palestinians (including the established government in Gaza) have as one of their goals. We are soooooooooo insensitive to their needs!

I mean, the Serbs should really stop and ask themselves why pretty much everyone wants to get away from them.

populated by Serbs, there wouldn't be so much strife.

It opens up a whole new can of worms.
There are over 200 so-called "frozen conflicts" in the world and if they are to follow this scenario, all kind of hell breaks loose.
Basque country anyone? Independent Scotland? How about Northern Ireland?
Say good-bye to UN, it just flew out of the window just like the League of Nations. It stopped guaranteeing the sovereign borders of the country and therefore no longer has a say on the matter.
A New World Order is coming where a group of "powerful and well placed" countries will be deciding which country is getting bombed, which gets pieces sliced from it and which is to be the "rogue nation" or whatever they call it.
Such arrogance from US diplomacy may lead to only one thing - WW3. Cover up, folks.

its pretty damn sad that the Peoples Republic of China gets to veto Taiwan from being represented.

The UN is hardly a bastion of freedom.

If we screw the UN, then it is free-for-all shooting war from all sides since there is no justice and regulations, and only "might makes right". Back to 1939.
The humanity never learns from its mistakes.

Chechnya isnt independent only because Russsia finally subdued them again militarilly.

Taiwan doesnt declare independence not because of the UN, but because they dont want to start a shooting war with China.

that is, Taiwan isn't recknogized by anyone but they too busy making themselves rich and staying democratic to care.
China is happy feeling like the big bully with empty anti-Taiwan rhetoric, making people reckongize them, and owning half the US.

How about Abkhazia and South Ossetia - de-facto independent states?
How about Transdnistria?

:eyes:

I believe in the right of self-determination.

It's time for many of the states to break away from the oppressive federal system.

I'd have no problem with it being put to a vote.

Canada alteast gave Quebec a vote over a similar issue.

democracy, and the lack of U.S. forces slaughtering the people of California, Washington State, and Texas.

Just proves that the average American knows NOTHING about what goes on overseas. Must be the trolls on DU.

I live in Europe and have many Kosovar friends.

Look it up yourself. Most of you just come here to flamebait and fight.

There is no such naionality as Kosovar. Define a nation please and tell me how the so called Kosovars differ from the albanians.

A demonym or gentilic is a word that denotes the members of a people or the inhabitants of a place. In English, the demonym is often the same as the name of the people's native language: e.g., the "French" (people from France). The term, which comes from the Greek word demos ('populace'), is not standard and is not listed in most dictionaries.

Courtesy of Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo

I am not doing your research for you, look it up yourself.

Before you ask me "what do I know about Kosovo?", I know enough to see a terrible political and diplomatic US blunder. And I fought in two similar hot spots to see where this is going to.
Do you "kosovar friends" run drug-trafficking? Because there is not much economy in Kosovo to talk about?

:dunce:

I remember Bill Clinton launching attacks and bombing the area, what was that all about?

The only sane answer to the unending violence in Iraq is it's division into Kurdish, Shia, and Sunni states (accompanied by the immediate withdrawal of United States' occupying forces).

The same thing that happened in Yugoslavia after Tito's death is happening in post-Saddam Iraq.

The monumental ego of George Bush and his hope for a redeeming legacy stand in the way of the only practical solution to end the horrors being endured by the Iraqi people.

Religions are dividing the world in many pieces

Background material about Kosovo, especially the material disseminated by mainstream channels, is deficient in many aspects, but perhaps the most startling feature of many such articles is the singular way of examining the history of the region. We are told that Kosovo is the cradle of Serbian nation and we learn about the battle of 1389 and then, in most articles, with a gigantic leap that would make envious any athlete, the article strides 600 years later, in 1989, when the Kosovo autonomy was rescinded by Milosevic. What happened during these 600 years, pray tell? Or, at least, what happened during the last few years before 1989?


http://members.tripod.com/sarant_2/ksm.html

Wouldn't many pieces be more diverse than one piece?

:yoiks:

Fucking Thieves!!!