Trouble in Kosovo? Must be the Serbs' Fault

Something strange is going on in the "Independent state of Kosovia" these days - but only if you're a mainstream Western media reporter.

Voice of America is stumped by the fact that some ten thousand "Kosovianians" have fled for the EU since the beginning of the year. Their explanation? It's Serbia's fault (of course, always) for making it easy for the "Kosovistanis" to travel freely, which "coincided" with "political turmoil and street unrest in Kosovo fueled by poverty, high unemployment and economically debilitating corruption."

Now wait just a bloody, bombed-out minute. Aren't "poverty" and "high unemployment" trotted out every time to explain every riot in "Kosovia"? Remember the 2004 pogrom resulting in the expulsion of some 40,000 Serbs? Within days, the Albanians' Western apologists were spinning it as a natural consequence of unemployment, poverty, etc. Their proposed solution? Independence, independence, independence!

NATO soldiers inspect a destroyed Serbian church in Prizren, following the March 2004 pogrom; the graffiti (in gutter Albanian) reads "Death to Serbs" (photo: SrbijaDanas)

You see, at the time Kosovo was legally considered a province of Serbia, albeit under NATO and UN occupation since NATO's illegal war of 1999. After almost four years of pro-independence propaganda, in February 2008 the provisional government proclaimed the "Republic of Kosovo." Two years later, the International Court of Justice tortured logic into declaring that this wasn't necessarily illegal.

Fast-forward to 2015. "Kosovia" has been recognized by some 100 states, mostly vassals of the Atlantic Empire. Moreover, the quisling government in Serbia has de facto recognized the province's independence - government, flag, borders, customs, documents, etc. - and sold the remaining Serbs down the river, basically forcing them to participate in "Kosovarian" elections. Never mind that only a handful of Serbs vote, and that even fewer agree to be token symbols of "Kosovian" tolerance and multicultural democracy or whatnot. And there is still a problem?

Indeed. The "Kosovians" routinely attack, harass and abuse both local Serbs and those expelled over the past two decades, who try to at least visit their burned-out homes for religious holidays. When one such attack happened on a busload of visiting Serbs a month ago, at Christmas, one token Serb official dared call the attackers "savages" - which is what they were.

Boom! The "Kosovistanis" were offended - and had an excuse to riot. So riot they did, with the "Self-Determination" party (Vetevendosje) leading the way. What goes goes unmentioned in every report is that Vetevendosje advocates the Greater Albania project. At this point, having to make up variations is getting tiresome, so I'll stop referring to "Kosovars" and whatnot - even though the Western media persist in doing so. Namely, the current population of the ethnically-cleansed, occupied and illegally severed province are Albanians. And for all the supposed easy access to Serbia, the border between Albania and the occupied-then-"independent" Kosovo has been practically nonexistent since July 1999.

Anyway, through the magic hand-waving of the Western media, the riots organized by Greater Albanian fanatics became the fault of the Serbs! So says Foreign Policy's Valerie Hopkins, for example, according to whom Belgrade's treasonous de facto recognition of "Kosovian" state and its institutions was really "effectively giving Serbia a voice in Kosovo's administration." The rest of her article displays similar tormented logic.

Naturally, Hopkins and Foreign Policy parrot the Vetevendosje line, down to the headline: "Set the Trojan Horse on Fire". The Trojan horse, just so it's clear, is supposed to be that one Serb minister in the "Kosovian" government, maybe even the Serbs in general. Hopkins even finds one token Serb to back her tortured narrative; Nenad Rasic, "a Serb who recognizes Kosovo as his country and served in the last government" is quoted as saying “For the first time, I am not optimistic for the maintenance of the Serb community in Kosovo.” Does that mean he was optimistic in 1999, and 2004, and 2008? Amazing.

Even after the offending Serb minister was dismissed by the regime, the riots did not end. Now the Greater-Albanians are demanding Serbia give up the claim to the Trepča mines; Hopkins quotes all the usual Albanian tropes in support of the claim, except for the conclusively debunked "Serbs burned Albanian victims in furnaces" story. Thank God for small mercies, eh?

Though the Albanians and their NATO mentors have had zero trouble seizing everything else in the occupied province, international investors are justifiably wary of dumping the already scarce capital into a hole in the ground whose ownership is hotly disputed.

But even if Serbia were to somehow hand over Trepča tomorrow, Vetevendosje would find something else to riot about. The crushing poverty, corruption, crime and chaos in "Kosovia" can't ever be the Albanians' fault. Only by blaming the Serbs, the "international community" or anyone else, can one even dare point out that seven years after "independence" was supposed to magically transform "Kosovia" into an earthly Garden of Eden overflowing with freedom, democracy and market economy, the unemployment rate "sits at 45 percent" and half a million Albanians "live on less than $2 a day" (per FP's Hopkins).

There is no mention how for decades the "oppressive" Yugoslavia basically subsidized Albanians' conquistador birth rates (up to a dozen children per family, in some cases) or allowed mass illegal immigration from Albania. When Yugoslavia was declared nonexistent and Kosovo seized from Serbia, all these people had to find a way to fend for themselves.

When the Serbs pointed out the "Kosovo Liberation Army" was a combination of terrorists, conquistadors and organized criminals, that was dismissed as propaganda. Even when a former Inquisitor of the Empire's "war crimes tribunal" made similar accusations, they were suppressed. An Imperial investigation finally found overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing - but absolved the KLA in advance.

Exactly none of this is brought up as the possible explanation why some ten thousand Albanians have left the "Kosovian paradise" just this year. Or why, despite massive political, military and economic backing from the West, the stolen province remains a miserable hellhole. There is precisely zero examination of Albanian bigotry, masquerading as self-righteous victimhood.

Nope. Must be the Serbs' fault. Somehow.