The following is intended to protest the June 11 anti-Eastern Orthodox propagandistic editorial on Kosovo. The fact remains that ethnic violence in Kosovo preceded the rise of Slobodon Milosovic, and has since continued unabated despite Mr. Milosovic's removal.
The Journal, like most of the US media never gave any consideration to the Orthodox Christian Serbs who were victims of violence in Kosovo during the 1960's and 1970's. Nor has there any mention of the pro-Nazi past of the Kosovo Albanians in contrast to the anti-Nazi resistance of the Serbian Chetniks under General Draza Mihailovic. Since 1999, there have been over 300,000 Orthodox Serbs that have been ethnically cleansed in Kosovo.
Apparently, the lives of Serbian men, women, and children have no value for the western media and governments. Among the dead were Serbian Orthodox Monk Charitan Lukic who was beheaded, and other Serbian clerics who in fact were opposed to the brutality of Slobodon Milosovic. During the 1980's then Bishop of Kosovo (now Patriarch) Pavle was beaten by Muslim thugs when he was caught up in the anti-Serbian violence that was prevalent during the period. Milosovic and his thugs were condemned by the Serbian Orthodox Church during the 1990's, and Orthodox Monasteries in Kosovo gave refuge to Albanian Muslim refugees.
It is a disgrace that the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets do not likewise condemn thugsand extremists on the Muslim Albanian side. A documentary film entitled "Days Made of Fear"documents in great detail the hardship and the violence which ordinary Serbs in Kosovo have been enduring under the farce of the so called peacekeepers since 1999. The Journal however prefers to keep the anti-Serb hysteria of the 1990's alive by referring to "Serb paramilitaries" when Albanian gangsters who dominate Kosovo today have been presiding over the trafficking of narcotics and human beings who are being sold into prostitution. In addition, Kosovo and Muslim Bosnia are now hosts to Al Quada and other Islamic extremist groups who threaten the United States .
Independence for Kosovo is immoral, illegal and a victory for terrorists. The Russians are quite right to oppose independence for Kosovo.
Theodore G. Karakostas
Boston