A clickable to certain races of people . Nobody would stand for that, i imagine. But thats precisely whats happening at the serbian coast of our border. And thats just the trivial parts. It gets a lot heavier than that. To explain all the heavier stuff were going to bring in our in studio guest of the boys, omalladge. He is a serbian American Writer historian an analyst. He wrote a regular column for anti ward. Com for nearly 20 years. He looks so young. Hes dealt with Senior Writer for r t dot com. Net still good to see you again live and in person. Think its good to be here. So the 1st can you give us an update as to the latest happenings between serbia and kosovo after you know, several violent spates and clashes between the 2 sites since last fall of 2022. So the latest round of the unpleasant, this really began last august at the end of july, when the think ill be in, in Prime Minister of, of kosovo, which i refer to as a break away serbian province. Ive been quoted, the decided den um, those licensed lease have to go. And hes invoking a 2013 agreement with serbia regulating traffic across the boundary line, which was signed by now present to serve you marks on the voltage. The problem is that he quoted, these government hasnt implemented any of the provisions from that agreement themselves. And so theyre insisting on selective enforcement of things that are in their interpretation bolstered their state who doesnt independence. And theyre going after things that are, you know, validating rule of law as they see it. Meanwhile, theyre refusing to carry out any of the obligations they took on themselves, such as guarantee political autonomy to the actual ethnic serbs lived there. And think shes got worse from there, because after the us specifically and most of the e u because theyre still 5 members that dont recognize great, wasnt an independent se, ironically including spain, which is where the current, the us for policy commissioners from i will. They pressured cookie and just backing down. And then he went ahead and started doing other things. And if its not one thing, its the other of late getting to the point where the serbs who were actually to participating in the course of all government institutions decided to step away. And we caught them as a legitimate as a sign of protest, at which point they will properly replaced in train of elections that had like a single digit turn out the floor i left the companions. And things just kept getting worse and worse and worse. And you had the rhetoric from the u. S. And, and you basically coast of those western protectors condemning all sides into urging everybody to exercise restraint. But not actually doing anything to get caught you to stop friend, he, on the other hand, kept saying, well, were a southern country, we do whatever we want. And we, we just want to apply the law on every inch from our territory. And you know, fast forward almost a year things have gotten so bad that you know is that youve, youve got to serve your military on high alert. Youve got cruelty sending high a heavily Armed Special police to drag people off the street. And, you know, but he has, hes making lists of prominence, serves to sort of decapitate the local community and accused them of china, more crimes in a, in a conscious efforts to basically destroy this community and get them removed and nobodys doing anything the, the us and the you are threatening sanctions and im using air quotes because theyre sanctions amount to a hill of beans. There are literally not enforcing their own rules in their own. So all the things better. And ive been on the record for years and years and years before that phrase was even put together condemning co, civil as an example of how western who is dont work. Right. Right. So the serbian president alexandra roach, which he has used some very Strong Language about what the cost of our government is doing to the minority serbs. There are things like words like po grown um ethnic cleansing. You know, these are trigger words usually in the west, but what evidence has he provided to back such claims . I mean are, are those choice of words really a fair characterization of whats actually happening on the ground can stream that last summer when im at the height of the a license plate business of the coastal authorities literally went to a family winery, a certain family winery its been a family in the family for generations. And they insisted on confiscating all of their wine for alleged non payment of tax and brought in several tanker trucks to port a wine into and destroyed. And basically decided to move ahead with that, even though people offer to pay whatever fine was what they were suppose to pay, just dont destroy our wine race. Know they moved ahead and destroyed the wind to make a point. So thats just one example of whats been going on there. Youve had people kidnapped from the workplace is just kind of was working at a car wash deal, half a dozen cops full battle dress long, barrel rifles check. Right. Uh, were talking like swat team wiles a, converge on him from 7 directions to arrest him at one more wash. One guy shirtless work in the car wash for he didnt do anything, but they, they used to spin all day. They said, oh, well, he planned war crime of insurrection, against republic of coast of, or whatever, whatever to hell. He came up the, the arrest people for in t shirts. They arrested theyve for the 1st time in, in years the Serbian Church had to move the site of their annual commemoration of this 1389 battle against the autumn and turks from the actual site to a monastery nearby. Because theres, there security couldnt be guaranteed. So these are tiny little moves that add up to death of a 1000 cuts. Theyre not yet rampaging across the province, like they did the 1004. But they got away with that into less than of 2004 in the minds of Ethnic Albanians, specifically quote, the is that they can, if they can do this, they can get away with it. So are, are these people getting disappeared or whats, whats happening . Cuz youve got a prominent community, not Even Community leaders, prominent people in the Community Getting disappeared, or are arrested on bogus charges or, you know, they, they draw them up on war crimes charge from 20 years ago. And they find 3 witnesses who swear that you know, this person personally did something and theres nobody to corroborate it, but they dont care thats enough to throw them in jail, beat them up and hold them indefinitely. And they, they do, they do the systematically to basically decapitate the local community to the point where the locals are actually making the joke. Because which it said Something Like po, youll be hunted like rabbits and they started calling themselves the rabbits as opposed to the, you know, the resistance. But they are definitely not showing signs of pursuit, you know, stopping resistance. Theyre basically saying this is our, this is our home. Were staying here. We dont care how much theyre terrorizing us, but please do Pay Attention to the fact that were being terrorized right. So you know, some of the latest tensions stem from, as you alluded to earlier, those elections in kosovo where the serbian population effective we all are, every single one of them boy caught it. They didnt turn up to the poles in april. Tell us what happened there to prompt, you know, a whole population of people to boycott elections. So the, there is, there are pockets of serbian serbs living throughout the province who stayed there after to mess up the cleansing of 1999. When nato occupied it and turn it over to the, at the convenience of the largest a, contiguous population lives in the north, in several of the counties up there. And they had their own local municipal officials. And then these people resigned in protest over of course these abuses last fall with the license plate business and, and other other things like sending special police to pair eyes people. And then courtney decided to use this and call a new election in which he ran ethnic albanian officials who would you know, get like 5 volts or even one percent. And ill let her know when she, you know, wed be, wed carpet bag people in and then they would get votes of a little i think ill be in use because maybe a dozen serbs altogether participated in this trade. And you said all of these are legitimate, you know, municipal officials now and theyre taking, theyre all, or you know, its of office, you know, being in, theyre taking down serbian flags and putting up ill be in the in ones and so on and so on. And when the local serves protested at the end of may, there the cookie called in his special forces. And when those special forces got too scared, she called and made a peacekeepers. Right. And then those nato peacekeepers open fire on the ethnic serbs who will talk to tape case because thats how you yeah. And then to the shock and surprise of everybody, those local service walk back. And theres this iconic image of a local man who took the right baton from one of the pistol peacekeepers. Any beating the people with it as hes trying to trample one of his bodies on the ground. Yeah. Hes, hes, hes hurting the piece baton. Back on to the 1st. Yeah. Itd be basically, these people resisted and then of course, these order went out to find everybody responsible in rest and for terrorism. So its just in this endless spiral. So instead of setting up the association of serbian disability, which hes been supposed to do so right inside the 2013. So shes basically said, well, theres no serbian disability. So theres no problem, right . Shes literally trying to race these people that were real quickly now. But i mean, album, curtis seems to be now tacitly agreeing to you intervention or, or assistance. I mean, it is sort of like a, an election do over. Is that going to be enough . Know what, what shes, what hes trying to do is you gave him as much as that you can be straight about anything. V gave him, heres what youre supposed to do, instructions or else and the or else was less vague, you know or, or else well stop giving you as much money that that sort of thing. There sanctions are. Sure. We wont support you. 110 percent only 99 percent. Well, and she came up with the kind of proposal in the account of proposals. I do whatever i want. And im going to organize a new election. But only if these people petition me on the official letterhead of my government and recognize and then the need to my, well im translating, obviously, but this is what it means and effect. And so far, thats where things stand. Because obviously the point is not to have a municipal official, but the serb name the point is to have a municipal official that has not been the need to do to put these government. I say because everything hes been doing is been in a function of not necessarily making anything function but to break the local serbs and make them bend in need of his government, make them read, make them my way or the highway the clear. Now its that shes the legitimate ruler and, and you know, get recognition from serbia ethridge or what can be because he doesnt have that. And, and he wants it to because everything he does, you know, the whole thing is in the end of 2 thousands after data walk, you patients the whole, well, all of these problems that we have in society, you know, from, from the following birth rates for economic collapse to be moving with everything was going to lack of independence, independence will fix it. Independence will fix it, do dependents to fix everything while they declare independence in 2008 and it doesnt fix anything, right . Things keep getting worse and keep getting where we are and now. Well heres the thing they need just shifted. Well its not a lack of independence, just lack of ser recognition. So now theyre pushing this as an universal excuse. And now the problem is that this is the cradle of serbian statehood. Its not just a piece of territory. If it was just a piece of territory, that would be bad enough. But its, its, its got multiple levels of meaning for the serbian people as a whole. Never mind the government never minded the republic of serbia to say that it is at home that thought because i wanna, i wanna dig into that this piece of real estate on the other side of this break or coming up next is serbia gearing up for war. With its neighbor, well discuss it when we return more with no boy shall mileage so tight to m. O will be right back. The. The the. With the discovery of the new world, at the end of the 15 centers, they are a beard, atlantics, laved ray. The slave traders from European Countries started building fords on the western coast of the african continent to transport the african inhabitants to america to be forced into hard labor. Until the middle of the 17th century, portugal had played the main role. India said processed business in great britain, france and the netherlands took the leadership for this fan of 400 years of legal and illegal slave trade. About 17000000 people were forcefully shipped across the atlantic. Not including those who died on the way due to unbearable living conditions. Modern historians estimate that for each slave ship to america, there were 5 who died while captured during transportation and cruel obliteration of rebellion. This roof was the whole tre. Practiced by the leading European Countries, took away tens of millions of african lives. The organization of United Nations class advised the trans atlantics to laved rate as one of the greatest human rights abuses in the history of humanity. This is the biggest act of deep orientation of people ever seen by mankind. Oh, what else seemed wrong . Just dont you have to shape out the application. An engagement trail. When so many find themselves worlds of parts, we choose to look for common ground, the the the welcome back to the m. O. Im in the one chance. Serbian president , alexander voltage, seems to be at his wits end on how to handle what hes described as a belligerent neighbor and is calling on the Un Security Council now to weigh it. So back with us to discuss is serbian american journalist negotiate mileage. So now while president blue church says hes ready to work with the you to de escalate, he also said this, take a listen. Service is not preparing for war. It is ready to protect the lives of our people. It certainly is ready to protect its country from all those who would potentially want to jeopardize its integrity sovereignty and the lives of our people and our citizens. Right . Yep. So we didnt play the lead up to that, but boot church made it a point to say that in belgrade has fulfilled all of the requests from the e u, but booter to implied that his coast of our counter parts have not. But now troops are on high alert given what happened to serbia with noodle bombings in the late ninetys. Is that kind of fair to argue that the serbian government is, you know, worried it could happen again. Partly i think voltage is keenly aware of the present situation in europe being sort of in the wider context, i think with what hes saying. And i think hes correct about this. That the cost of the situation is being exploited both by quarter and the west. Each to the for their own ends of as a way to pressure serbia to fall in line of over all of the ukraine in question. Because serbia hasnt imposed sanctions on russia. Its trying to stay neutral, right . A he cannot align politically with nato and steam power. No, president of serbia, canada, theres mean 80 percent. 85 percent public opposition to this. You cannot govern in the face of those numbers. If you try to run this policy problem is that the u. N. B, u. S. And need a really wants him to and theyre trying to pressure him using kosovo as, as a way to break is will there a bridge . All great britain. Yes. Track. There was what theyve been using. Close them as a cultural for years and the voltage has formulated this way, he says, basically says, why are you depict demanding of us to recognize, to give up our territorial integrity and sovereignty in the name of protecting ukraines. It makes no sense. This is not just a popular, see, this is just nonsense. You know, we support ukraine sovereignty and territory integrity. But the very least, we demand that you, you respect our site and that hasnt happened. And so hes been sort of bouncing this ball back into their faces. Now, course hes not making it easier. I think shes sort of off the reservation. And im very deliberately using this during the phrase, because hes actually been ousted once before by the americans. A couple of years ago when he tried to do things that they didnt necessarily prove off, right . Essentially a good rule or of course of always the one who does whatever the american baset are, says it is what independence were talking about, right . Its actually a pretty humiliating position for Ethnic Albanians as well. And i think court the actually what he wants to do and what hes pledge to do and would you be what hes been trying to do was get some sort of the factual and even to your a union with helping you. And i think he was hardest hit when do yall being the president and Prime Minister rama said, well, you know, as long as youre doing this an incognito behavior, im not going to hold the joint meeting of our government. So im going to back away. I cant, i cant, you know, collaborate with you with, if youre going to of anger might need to masters. But they didnt stop him from organizing this nato love fest the other day of you know, trying out all of these kids need bill clinton or hillary or whatever to on or bill clinton was visit. Yeah. And, and basically, you know, do some pretty pathetic things, an independent country wouldnt really stupid down to doing in north carolina. No naturally, well, hang onto that thought of bill clinton because id like for you to take us back to serbia. In the late 19 ninetys bill clinton was president of the united states. Back then, he told the media here that you know, the serbs are caring out ethnic, cleansing of albanians, the media here, 8 that up, and be propagated, those narratives. Happily, nato jumped in, bombed, what was then yugoslavia even striking, the chinese consulate, their killing chinese nationals. You live to through those events. How is that shape the situation that were seeing now as well . Thats fine. Large determine where were at now. The fact that the intervened in coastal, based on the lie of genocide that was never substantiated, the leader emerged that all of these tall tales were essentially fabrications by intelligence officials. They could never be substantiated. Total number of depths was Something Like 2000. They keep talking about 10000, thats a, thats a ballpark estimate that they never substantiated. The nato literally started the completely illegal war of aggression on, based on a lie. And that we were, we saw that repeated a few years later, and iraq, we should, we saw, sure, perpetuated later enough to understand. And now were having situation ukraine in. As matter of fact, the ukraine situations i would argue as a direct consequence of what happened to 1999. Because nato went from what was supposed to be a defensive alliance to an unmistakable, the aggressive one that was, that sent a very clear message for russia that the west can be trusted. You actually had boys hiltons government for he resigned at the end of that year and putting became president up multiple people have said that this is not just me making this up, that the cost of a war has a lot to do with that. And so this is sort of the root of this is where if youre into altering history, this is the branch off. This is the, this is the inflection point. This is where things fall in the road before can row. This is the worst things go in a certain direction and you know, the Chinese Embassy bombing that was of the chinese have never forgiven and never forgot. Sure. It was officially the only mission that the c i itself plant, they send some blood money to the chinese, but the Chinese Government just recently memorialize that in a, in a very um, unmistakably, were still mad about this way. Sure. So that sort of, you know, defined relationships with china a for years. And you, you essentially, you know, some years ago i was trying to tongue in cheek make a suggestion to the trump administration. That the way to disarm rush on this whole ukraine issue was the one recognized kosovo. And get rid of that precedent because you know, it was trump, he could do crazy things and get away with that because hes just failed. So on usual, and just unrecognized kosovo sort of press the reset button. Sure. Everybodys going to treat, but theyre gonna shriek any way and they did. Right. But youre, youre essentially removing the biggest argument from the table, right . Youre, youre taking that off the board, right. And of course, you would almost be all of it, right. And nobody took my advice because, you know, when youre in nurses, a pulse of powerful drug power, more powerful than cocaine, apparently. And you know, they went ahead and kept doing what they were doing. And then now they ended up with some sort of tree deal that nobody ended up caring for. And the only beneficiary and that being israel. But, and i stand by that date. He could have actually diffuse that situation by on recognizing cultural because that would have essentially domino effect it all the way to your brain and maybe maybe maybe, maybe made the mistake agreements work. But its one of those. What could have been because well never know. Right, cool. So from those ashes, we know, obviously kosovo was officially carved out. You know, this tiny nation created just instantly, just like that. Now for all the new surrounding that area, you and i were talking about this before the break. Um you would think that this is some vitally important piece of real estate to the west that it had oil or it had cobalt or Something Like that. And that the entire world recognized its sovereignty, but thats just simply not the case. There is mineral welfare, but thats not why its important. Its important because for the west, for the us, for nato. And its a set the precedent that they can create countries that they can bomb, whoever they want whenever they want, wherever they want and make yeah. Exceptions to the rule, suffering to see who decides exceptions kind of just like i look what i can do, right to the i think ill be news. Its important because it of it forms the nexus of this greater ill be any of that theyve been trying to set up since the 18 seventys even though they have a nation state as of a 1913 for the serbs. It is not the real estate. It is, i mean obviously it is a real estate because its part of the constitution and you dont give up a part of the territory. But this is the territory. Its at the, the recession, the re establish their state to regain it. Oh i say its me when they say that, im sorry i missed, right . This is arduous one, this is the, this is, you know, when service say this is our jerusalem being mean, this is the holiest of holies. This is the place where would that we need to retake as a resurrection of our statehood. Without it, we dont exist, no matter what territory we hold with it. No matter if we have no territory, we can, we can continue to exist. Its just, its a spiritual issue and youve completely, its that it is not just a territorial dispute, even though i dont want to minimize the territorial this be a great question. But so it, its multiple things to multiple people. And unfortunately with the western involvement, its one of those will look at your book, what we can do is creating the rules and the rules based ordered doesnt actually follow the last thing. Now, were running out of time, but looking at u. S. Foreign policy, taiwan, for example, the us says its a biased by the one china policy, while at the same time, you know, selling missile arms to taiwan convoluted mixed messages from bite. And then direct contradiction from blinking is kosovo. Comparable to the taiwan situation, while in so far as you can use the way the us is behaving with regard to kosovo. To understand that none of these words matter. None of these treaties matter, nothing you you hear from the state department of the white house actually matters. At the end of the day, you have to look what the, what theyre doing and not what theyre saying. Right . Right, absolutely. I gotta leave it right there. Unfortunately, the boys and the boys are malice. Geo political analyst Senior Writer at r t dot com. Thank you so much for sharing your insights and some of your personal story with us. That is going to do it for todays episode of modus operandi. The show that things deep into Foreign Policy and current affairs. Im your host manila. Chad. Thank you for tuning in. Well see you again next time to figure out the ammo the of the mortgage. Right, so see whats printing, what was the route that was correct . There so some of this, so basically of course we need the last name was needed, read it was can, will be used for the election we have some more more or someone who is this we, which i knew people to the the the question of the nuclear envelope, she was the most schools. If you look on the initial do while of course, significantly post on zillow, while it easy, almost getting used to put value. What do you do origin buddy authors to was done the newest frame on the buildings systems to build a new do what i see these the buses. The little gear limitation says this to, to do them both the ukraine to mon slipped west adult legislation guaranteeing a money and weapons for low interest to you have under any circumstances. Prima all corresponded. Witnesses, yes, and not the use of those homes against civilians just behind the upon the problem is a childrens playground now especially to be scouring the area for unexploded cassette on sunday morning. They often like undetected for use south africa opens an investigation to us pharmacy expo, john johnson and johnson. Excuse me, of sky high prices pro slight to drug put treats about, you know, says the, the e u chase. Visit c, a talking items struggling under major migrant influx following years of western policies