Hello, im a know a chan. You are tuned into modus operandi. If you havent already heard, ukraine isnt the only hot spot in europe these days. Serbia is back in the news, but this time not from being home to the worlds best tennis player. But the serbs are serving up some hot language at coast about the volume violence over the past year. Has some concerns that this could be a throwback to 1999 will explain. All right, lets get into the m o. The a little less than half the world recognizes its independence. The world literally split on what to call it. Some Global Key Players like russia and china dont recognize its sovereignty, but the United States and most of the european union, se, kosovo is independent as of 2008. The wes favorite line of rules based order, condemn the tit for tat sparring between serbia and their smaller neighbor, kosovo, even when the smaller neighbour seems to agitate the former take. For example, the issue of license place when comfortable was carved out of the former yugoslavia. After the turn of the millennium, many ethnic serbs still lived in the newly divided territory and the comfortable government said, serbian registered cars must also register in color to flow. And then swap out plates any time they enter the territory that could get frustrating, right . To think of it like this. While most people who work here in washington dc actually live in virginia, and you would have to pull over each time you were about to enter the district and screw your license plate on your car and put on the dc one before you can drive into work each morning, thats a nuisance, right . What to make it worse. What if the district said this is only 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. Now boys, your mileage, he is a serbian american writer. Historian an analyst. He wrote a regular column for anti war dot com for nearly 20 years. You look 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 we have the 1st, can you give us an update as to the latest happenings between serbia and kosovo after you know, several violets spates and clashes between the 2 sites since last fall of 2022. So their 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 serve you and province. Ive been quoted, you decided then um, those licensed lease had to go. And hes involved in 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 quote, these government has an 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 the pendants 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 them. Because after do us specifically and most of you 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, with the pressure towards the interest backing down. And then he went ahead and started doing other things. And if its not one thing, its the other at least getting to the point where the serbs who were actually just participating. And of course, we will, government institutions decided to step away and we caught them as a legitimate as a sign of protests. At which point they were properly replaced in trim 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 you basically coastal those western protectors condemning all sides into urging everybody to exercise restraint, but not actually doing anything to get cookie to stop friend. He, on the other hand, kept saying, well, were a southern country, we do whatever we want. 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 highly a heavily Armed Special police to drag people off the street and you know, but he has, hes making lists from it and serves the sort of decapitate the local community and accused him of sharing more crimes. Hey, nicole increased 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 there are sanctions amount to a hill of beans. There are literally not enforcing their, their own rules and their own. So all the things better and i got on the record for years and years and years before that phrase was even put together condemning kosovo as an example of how western whos 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 and things like where its like programs ethnic cleansing. You know, these are trigger words usually in the west. But what evidence has he provided to back such claims . I mean, or 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 license plate business. Uh the uh, 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 pour the wine into and destroyed and basically decided to move ahead with that, even though people offer to pay whatever fine was what they were supposed to pay just dont destroy our wind raise. No, 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 like right. Were talking like a swat team. Wow. 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 work crime of insurrection, against republic of coast of or whatever, whatever the hell he came up, the, the arrest people for and t shirts. They arrested theyve for the 1st time in, in years the Serbian Church had to move the sight of their annual commemoration of this 1389 battle against the autumn and turks from the actual site to a monastery nearby. Because theres their security couldnt be guaranteed. These are tiny little moves that add up to death of a 1000 cards. Theyre not yet rampaging across the province, like they did the 1000 before. But they got away with that in the lesson 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, just prominent people in the Community Getting disappeared, or arrested on bogus charges or, you know, they, they drum 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. They dont 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. Me as opposed to being the resistance, but they are definitely not showing signs of pursuit, no 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 and 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 mass ethnic cleansing of 1999. When nato occupied it and turn it over to the, the convenience of the largest 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 paralyzed 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 so let her know when she, you know, wed be with carpet bag people in and then they would get votes of local Ethnic Albanians 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 their own, you know, its of office, you know, being in, theyre taking down serbian flags and putting up albany and ones and so on and so on. And when the local service 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 piece because thats, i mean, 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 peacekeepers. Any beating if hes deeper 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 young person. Yeah. Itd be basically just, people resisted and then of course, put these order went out to find everybody responsible and arrest them 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 um, 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 the, 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 left 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 a code of proposal in the account of proposals. I do whatever i want. And im going to organize a, a new election. But only if these people petition me on the official letterhead of my government and recognize and bend 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 with the serve name. The point is to have a municipal official that has not been the need to do to put these government. I say because every think hes been doing is been in the function of not necessarily making anything function but to break the local serbs and make them bend to need his government, make them read, make them my way or the highway the clear. Now its that she is the legitimate ruler and, and youll get recognition from serbia treasurer. What can you because he doesnt have that. And, and he wants it because everything he does, you know, the whole thing is in the, to introduce thousands after to nato occupation. 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. Everything was going to lack of independence, independence will fix it, independence will fix it, their dependents to fix everything. Well, they declare independence in 2008 and it doesnt fix anything. Things keep getting worse and keep getting where we are and now. Well, heres the thing. They just shifted. Well, its not a lack of independence. Its like a sort of recognition. So now theyre pushing this as a universal excuse. You know, 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 mind 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 voice and mileage. So tight to m. O will be right back the the the the the west of deep involvement in the brain complex suggest sending the ghost ations are off the table. In fact, only escalation is on the horizon. Is nato spoiling for that, like conflict with russian . It certainly seems so the the welcome back to the m. O. Im a know a chan. 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 boot judge says hes ready to work with the you to de escalate. He also said this, take a listen. Serbia is not preparing for war, but is ready to protect the lives of our people, to serve you as 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 now. So we didnt play the lead up to that, but boot church made it a point to say. Then belgrade has fulfilled all of the requests from the you. But luther to imply that his close 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 impose sanctions on russia. Its trying to stay neutral, right . He cannot align politically with nato and stain 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. D u. S. And need a really want 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 shes actually been ousted once before by the americans. A couple of years ago when she tried to do things that they didnt necessarily prove off, right. Essentially a good ruler of kosovo is the one who does whatever the american baset her says. It is what independence were talking about, right . Its actually a pretty humiliating position for Ethnic Albanians as well. And i think corte 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 de facto and even to your a union with helping you . And i think he was hardest hit when the all being and 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 if, if youre going to of anger might need a masters. But they didnt stop him from organizing this nato love fest the other day of you know, trying out all of these kids named bill clinton, nor hillary or whatever to on or bill clinton is visit. Yeah. And, and basically, you know, a to 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, be propagated, those narratives. Happily nato jumped in, bombed, what was then yugoslavia even striking the chinese consul at their killing chinese nationals. You live to through those events. How is that shape the situation that were seeing now . Well, thats fine. Large determine where were at now.