Although Security Council Resolution 1244 recognises Kosovo as an integral part of Yugoslavia, multinational companies are being offered ten- and 15-year leases of the province’s local industries and resources, including the vast Trepca mines, some of the richest mineral deposits in the world. Overseeing this plundered, now almost ethnically pure ‘future democracy’ (Blair), are 4,000 American troops at Camp Bondsteel, a 775-acre permanent-base imperial presence.
Meanwhile, the show trial of Slobodan Milosevic proceeds as farce. Milosevic was a brute; he was also a banker once regarded as the west’s man who was prepared to implement ‘economic reforms’ in keeping with IMF, World Bank and European Union demands; to his cost, he refused to surrender sovereignty. The empire expects nothing less. John Pilger, article December 2004, ‘Reminders of Kosovo’
In Europe the 20th century ended as it began: with war in the Balkans. The last of these wars started in early 1999: Serbian troops entered the province of Kosovo. Secrets of War s9e4: The Balkans Tinderbox, History 1998
The conflict in Kosovo was just another in a long series of wars in the region formally known as Yugoslavia. ibid.
He [Milosevic] asked the Yugoslav state council to grant him emergency powers in Kosovo. The Death of Yugoslavia I: Enter Nationalism, BBC 1996
Kosovo represents the sum of Serbian tragedies which unfolded throughout its centuries-long history. The world is turning a blind eye to a 21st century pogrom in Europe. Kosovo: Can You Imagine? 2009
In the south-eastern part of Europe lies Serbia, and its southern province of Kosovo is the source of a centuries-long dispute between Serbs and Albanians who both claim it as their land. ibid.
Is Kosovo really as the West describes it a peaceful democracy? ibid.