| Whitebaby |
Ova ne e od domashen vesnik nitu pak od domashen novinar no vredi da se prochita.
Ahmeti's Hipocrisy
Why should anyone invest in a country where you can pick up weapons and fight against the democratically elected government, cause the deaths of scores, the injuries of hundreds, the displacement of thousands and damages in the millions, and then receive amnesty and form a political party to “fight” for the rights you claimed to be fighting for on the field in the first place?
This month Ali Ahmeti announced the formation of a new political party, the Alliance for Democratic Integration (integration of what, “Albanian lands?”), and so picked up the title of “politician” where he left the title of “freedom-fighter.” Either way, he’s still a terrorist. (Ali Ahmeti must have been a student of Al Capone, the famous Chicago gangster who literally got away with murder only to be brought before justice on the charge of tax evasion. Capone quipped that “You can get a lot more done with a kind word and a gun, than with a kind word alone.”)
Ahmeti is a farce, a phony and a fraud. But he is also dangerous. And the international community, which has pressured the Macedonian Government in allowing him to go free, is to blame for the grief he will cause this country in the future and the grief he has caused in the past whether by suckering in young, impressionable minds (who are now disappointed in him), or by creating factions who now fight each other. (Mr. Ahmeti, ideas and actions have consequences, some not always known or predicted by those who employ them at the time - get a clue.)
At Mr. Ahmeti’s coming out party, he patently refused to display the Macedonian flag or have the Macedonian national anthem sung. Instead, he showed contempt for this country and the majority of its people when he flew the flag of the Republic of Albania, sang the national anthem of the Republic of Albania and held a moment of silence for NLA members killed last year. If he is trying to achieve ethnic tolerance and mutual respect, he sure has a funny way of showing it.
I have friends in the US State Department that have described Ahmeti as a “reasonable guy.” Wow. So there’s the American foreign policy apparatus labeling Ahmeti as “just a regular Joe.” I don’t think so. And it misses the point entirely. But of course who could forget Neville Chamberlain, prime minister of Britain on his meeting with Adolph Hitler: - spite of the hardness and ruthlessness I thought I saw in [Adolph Hitler’s] face, I got the impression that here was a man who could be relied upon when he had given his word.” And if that beats a dead horse, try this quote from Mohandas K. Gandhi in May of 1940: - do not consider Hitler as bad as he is depicted. He is showing an ability that is amazing, and he seems to be gaining his victories without much bloodshed.” Let’s not forget that Lucifer himself is an angel of light.
And last year, in a New York Times article on July 21st, Hans-Jorg Eiff, the NATO representative in Skopje was quoted as saying “From what we have seen so far Ali Ahmeti is a reliable partner who honors his word. The NLA has been guilty of many things, but when he gets on the phone something happens.” That’s an odd thing to say. When Adolph Hitler picked up the phone, things happened too. The same could be said about Slobodan Milosevic.
And not to be outdone, a “senior western diplomat” in an Los Angeles Times article on August 20th last year called Ali Ahmeti a “man of vision.” Let’s just hope Mr. Ahmeti’s vision is not the same vision that Slobodan Milosevic had, hidden behind all the right talk.
Here’s the point. Ali Ahmeti and his ilk are evil and vile. Ali Ahmeti is an intellectual midget and a coward. He knew he could never win on the battlefield of thoughts and ideas, so he resorted to the law of the jungle. He knows very little of liberal democracy and free market economies and I doubt very much that he really cares to know much about them (on the contrary, he knows a good deal about Marxism). And you don’t sacrifice principle for pragmatism no matter what. Period.
To my friends in the foreign policy arena in Washington, DC and European capitals let me say this: Ali Ahmeti and his ilk are a problem you’re not willing to deal with forcefully so you make them out to be “good guys” calling them “reasonable” and - man of vision” and able to get things done. The truth is that they are going to cause a lot more trouble in this part of the world in the future and you won’t be around to have to deal with it. So it’s easier for you to just get along with them for now until you’re gone. Or is it the 40,000 troops in Kosovo you’re worried about because by upsetting Ali Ahmeti and his criminal gang, you would make them targets? If it is, please come clean with the truth - nothing more, nothing less. It’s a whole lot better to be honest.
I am continuously baffled at how the international community can continue to give aid and succor to a man whose war displaced 170,000 people, left more than 150 people dead (probably more) and did more to set back inter-ethnic relations between Macedonians and Albanians than anything else in the history of this country. If my ambassador, or anybody else for that matter, could please explain that to me - and the Macedonian public - I would greatly appreciate it.
This setback in inter-ethnic relations is manifestly evidenced by the US Government’s own research. A recent survey carried out by the Office of Research of the US State Department shows that inter-ethnic relations are at their lowest point - ever. 48% of the ethnic Albanians surveyed answered in the affirmative when asked “For your own personal future, would you prefer to live in an ethnically mixed Macedonia, or in a greater Albanian state?” And 30% of those said they would be prepared to fight for it. Another question on the Ohrid Agreement shows that 87% of ethnic Macedonians have “little or no confidenc” that the agreement will achieve long-lasting peace while 37% of ethnic Albanians agree with that view.
The fact that the US Government still believes that the Ohrid Agreement is “good” and the man who essentially brought it to Macedonia - Ali Ahmeti - is “reasonable,” shows either a profound lack of understanding of the situation on the ground, a lack of caring or, simple pride and refusal to admit that it was wrong. It is probably a combination of the three.
Witness a recent statement by US Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones: “The peace agreement is good and the political parties should adopt the laws envisaged by the ... agreement."
One more thing. I have been reading the local news accounts of Mr. Ahmeti and his new party and I’ve seen a lot of criticism. Of course the international community has been very, shall we say, diplomatic when addressing the issue. But one issue I have yet to see raised where did Mr. Ahmeti get all his money to fund his war and now presumably, his party? According to an MSNBC.com interview with him, while he was still holed up in Shipkovica, he admitted that he may be getting support from drugs and human trafficking. “But even Ahmeti admitted he counts rich Balkan smugglers among his supporters. “We’re not so fanatic to say that such money could not reach us,” Ahmeti told MSNBC.com.” It is well documented that the wars in Kosovo, South Serbia and Macedonia were financed by drugs and sex slavery, largely through the Albanian mafia. Now, presumably, his party will be too. If we are prosecuting a war on Radical Islam “I refuse to call it a war on terrorism anymore” then shouldn’t we be prosecuting those who finance the radical Muslims by shipping their drugs to Western Europe and the USA? Washington and Brussels, where is the outrage?
And though I am no great admirer of Senator Edward Kennedy, even the most Liberal of Democrats can sometimes speak words of truth: “Violence is an admission that one’s ideas and goals cannot prevail on their own merits.”
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