Serb militiamen regroup over Kosovo

[Lucas Corso]

By JOVANA GEC, Associated Press Writer Sat May 5, 12:01 PM ET

BELGRADE, Serbia - Hundreds of burly former militiamen from the Balkan wars regrouped outside a church in central Serbia on Saturday, promising to fight together as a paramilitary unit once more if
Kosovo breaks away from the government in Belgrade.
Twenty-seven people were detained, all wearing T-shirts with symbols of the disbanded Unit for Special Operations, whose former commander and several members are on trial for the 2003 assassination of Serbia's reformist Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.
"We will never give up Kosovo, we are ready to fight," said one of the organizers, Andrej Milic.

Milic added their unit will be available to the government if Serbia goes to war, and called for a "new Serb uprising and a new battle for Kosovo."

The event illustrated the mounting nationalism here over the Western-backed plan to allow Kosovo to split from Serbia as demanded by its ethnic Albanian majority.

Many of those in Krusevac on Saturday wore military uniforms with nationalist symbols typical of the notorious units accused of atrocities during the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s. Some wore T-shirts with images of the U.N. war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic.

Kosovo is formally part of Serbia, but is dominated by ethnic Albanians who are seeking independence. The region has been run by the
United Nations since a 1998-99 Serb-Albanian war.

Talks on the formation of a new pro-Western government in Serbia, meanwhile, remain deadlocked, triggering a political crisis that could pave the way for the return to power of the nationalists loyal to ex-leader
Slobodan Milosevic.

The United States and its allies favor internationally supervised independence for the province, as proposed in the U.N. plan, but Russia opposes it, signaling a possible showdown at the
U.N. Security Council, which will have the final say on the matter.

Most Serbs consider Kosovo the heartland of their history and culture. The government in Belgrade has rejected the plan.

There was no immediate reaction from the Serbian government to the veterans' gathering in Krusevac, although creation of paramilitary units in Serbia is illegal.

The volunteer units were first founded in the early 1990s, during the rule of the late Milosevic, who took Serbia to four wars during his decade-long rule.

Dragoljub Vasiljevic, one of the volunteers who came to Krusevac on Saturday denied the brutality allegations, telling the Beta news agency that they were "honorable and brave" fighters.

The organizers said that their unit will be named after a medieval Serb leader, Czar Lazar, who reportedly led the Serb army in a crucial battle against the Ottoman Turks in Kosovo in 1389. The Serbs lost the battle but cherish the event as one of the most important in their history.

Source: Serb militiamen regroup over Kosovo - Yahoo! News

[Crvena zvezda]

This is an article I found in a FYROM newspapers website. Apparently several FYROMians in the Tsar Lazar Guards.

„Лајм“: Имало и Македонци во „Гардата на Цар Лазар“
Макфакс
10.05.2007

Освен Срби од Македонија, кои се пријавени како доброволци на српската милитантна организација „Светата гарда на Цар Лазар“, биле регрутирани и граѓани од македонска националност.

Ова во денешниот број го пишува скопското издание на дневниот весник на албански јазик „Лајм“, кој се повикува на добро информирани полициски извори.

Според истите извори, во српската гарда која најави дека ќе се бори против независноста на Косово, се регрутирани Македонци кои учествувале на фронтовите на Вуковар, Книн, Босна и Херцеговина, Косово, како и во конфликтот од 2001 година во Македонија.

Македонските поддржувачи на милитантната српска организација, според истиот извор, доаѓаат од разни градови на Македонија, а дел од нив учествувале и на промоцијата на организацијата која изминатиов викенд се одржа во Крушевац, Србија.

Веста за регрутирање на македонски граѓани од страна на „Светата гарда на Цар Лазар“, за „Лајм“ ја потврдил и претставникот на Српската радикална партија на Македонија, Драгиша Милетиќ.

Тој, сепак, не прифатил да зборува за македонските регрути во оваа гарда, со образложение дека „и кога би знаел не би кажал“.

„Сум слушнал за тоа дека гардата регрутира доброволци и во Македонија. Јас не поседувам конкретна информација, туку сум слушнал. Што се однесува до македонските регрути, тешко е да се потврди, но уште потешко да се демантира. Верувам дека нема да ми се налутите што, и да знам, не би одговорил“, изјави Милетиќ за „Лајм“.

Милетиќ најавува дека неговата СРП ќе реагира многу остро, доколку Македонија ја признае независноста на Косово.

„Какви ќе бидат реакциите доколку Македонија ја признае независноста на Косово, зависи од многу фактори. Во тој случај може да очекуваме дестабилизација и тоа може трагично да се рефлектира кон Македонија“, вели Милетиќ.

Од друга страна, од Министерството за внатрешни работи за „Лајм“ соопштиле дека немаат информации за регрутирање на српската гарда.

Основачи на „Светата гарда на Цар Лазар“ се Обединетото народно движење и Сојузот на ветераните на Србите, а неа ја поддржува Социјалистичката партија на Србија.

На промовирањето беа присутни и лица со симболи на поранешната специјална единици на српската полиција „Црвени баретки“, чиј командант беше Милорад Улемек - Легија, обвинет дека го организирал атентатот врз поранешниот премиер Зоран Ѓинѓиќ.

http://a1.com.mk/vesti/default.asp?VestID=78860

[Crvena zvezda]

Apparently a similar guard has been formed in montenegro, this article is obtained from the extremely liberal -- Byzantine Iconographers blog.

Volunteer Squad for Kosovo-Metohija Defense Set Up in Montenegro
Montenegrin Patriotic Movement for Kosovo-Metohija said in a statement on Thursday that the first volunteer squad for Kosovo defense, which will be based in one of the coastal towns, had been set up at the patriotic assembly in the city of Ulcinj.

The Movement rallies the refugees from Kosovo province and all people in Montenegro who have some connections with Serbia’s southern province and want it to remain within Serbia, the organization said.

After its May 23 assembly in Ulcinj, the movement said it “did not set up a paramilitary unit or an armed group, but a patriotic squad of volunteers who would join Serbian patriots in case of a need to defend the southern province.”

St. Tsar Lazar Guard, Serbia’s Volunteers for Kosovo Province Defense
The gathering of volunteers in Montenegro follows the formation of the St. Tsar Lazar Guard in Serbia, at the beginning of the month.

Although the Serbian volunteer assembly hosted by the Serbian National Movement in the Lazarica church in the city of Krusevac on May 5 was interrupted by the police and subsequent public gathering of the Guard was prohibited by the Serbian authorities, the organizers claim that the swear-in ceremony went as planned and the Guard vowed to liberate Kosovo-Metohija province in case it is forcefully seized from Serbia.

A hundred veterans have attended the Serbian volunteer assembly and, according to the Serbian Veterans Movement president Veljko Vasiljević, the number of eager volunteers in Serbia has topped 5,000 mark at the beginning of May, before the Assembly was scheduled to take place.

Like the Montenegro volunteers, the St. Tsar Lazar Guard formed in Serbia emphasized they are not an armed squad of paramilitaries, but a patriotic assembly of men who would submit to the command of regular Serbian Army in the event Kosovo-Metohija is severed from Serbia.

[Menydh]

So they make a big issue about a number of former paramilitaries gathering (of course "regrouping" gives the news a stronger feeling) outside a church, when you have Albanian paramilitaries on Kosovo everywhere?

How nice of them.

Originally Posted by Lucas Corso

Kosovo is formally part of Serbia, but is dominated by ethnic Albanians who are seeking independence. The region has been run by the United Nations since a 1998-99 Serb-Albanian war.

Independence my foot! If they are Albanians and Albania is a bordering country, who is going to believe that they seek "independence"?

The United States and its allies favor internationally supervised independence for the province, as proposed in the U.N. plan

Yes, yes, we know. The US also favours Turkey's integration in Europe. And in time, they'll offer their favours to their next Muslim ally, the dictator-king of Morocco. Not at their expense, but at Europe's.

As if we didn't know already.

[Heretik]

The tzar lazar's guard is a joke as well as kosovo's independence. I actually like albanians more than serbs but I have a funny feeling that the kosovo albanians have other plans. Not the independence, but a greater albania.
after kosovo, there comes a part of macedonia (fyrom) and later who knows.

Well, you all saw (and some of us experienced) what happened when serbs wanted to create greater serbia. Greater albania could just be the same scenario.

International public should thing this through and then act.

[Crvena zvezda]

Originally Posted by Katera

The tzar lazar's guard is a joke as well as kosovo's independence. I actually like albanians more than serbs but I have a funny feeling that the kosovo albanians have other plans. Not the independence, but a greater albania.
after kosovo, there comes a part of macedonia (fyrom) and later who knows.

Well, you all saw (and some of us experienced) what happened when serbs wanted to create greater serbia. Greater albania could just be the same scenario.

International public should thing this through and then act.

Of course. Albanians were caught planning an insurgency in Montenegro. Every know and then appear armed Albanian paramilitaries in FYROM (about a year or two ago a village called kondovo near Skopje was taken over and albanians threatened to fire rockets on the capital if there demands weren't met -- several months later they were). then there's southern Serbia, in ther town of Prokuple in southern Serbia 3 months ago 50 Albanian families that were of 8 person+ size appeared all of a sudden and in southern serbia and along kosovo's border with Serbia every once in a while a hidden large arms cache is found.