It is important to recall the past in order to better understand how current international disagreements with Russia and with their Slav surrogate in the Balkans, Serbia, are playing out today. On May 6, 1998, I testified before then-Senator Joe Biden and the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In that testimony, I highlighted the failings of the U.S. State Department in not seeing the impending breakup of Yugoslavia and the benefits to Russia of a stronger Serbia. I firmly believe that the recent events that have transpired in Ukraine are examples of the East-West divide that Europe and Albanians continue to face, and which is only intensified by Vladimir Putins dangerous mindset allowing him to act as if we are still fighting the Cold War. The US, NATO, and the European Union were completely unprepared to deal with Putins medieval ultra-nationalist tactics in Crimea (and now in the rest of Ukraine), just as the West was completely unprepared when Milosevic began his genocidal march into Kosova in 1989 across Slovenia (1990) and Croatia (1991) into Bosnia (1993-1995) and back to Kosova with brutal military and paramilitary force in 1998. It is critical that we not be fooled once again by a dictator who puts his national and political agenda above the peace and stability of Europe, which is in the vital interest of the United States. For this purpose, I continue my work as a human rights advocate for the politically repressed and economically disempowered people of the Balkans.
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 17:41:33 +0000
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