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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Bombing of Albanian refugees near Đakovica occurred on April 14, 1999 during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, when NATO planes repeatedly bombed refugee movements over a twelve-mile stretch of road between Đakovica and Dečani in western Kosovo, killing 73 civilians. Human Rights Watch found no basis to support the claims by NATO that the convoys themselves were composed of military vehicles. The attack began at 1:30 p.m. and persisted for about two hours, causing civilian deaths in numerous locations on the convoy route near the villages of Bistrazin, Gradis, Madanaj, and Meja. NATO and U.S. spokespersons initially claimed the target was an exclusively military convoy and that Serb forces may have been responsible for the attacks on civilians. Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said that NATO commander Wesley Clark had received reports that "after the convoy was hit, military people got out and attacked civilians. ... Read more

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The Albanian Journal of Politics (AJP) is a peer reviewed academic publication of the Albanian Political Science Association (ALPSA).The purpose of the Journal is to provide a publication venue and an academic forum for the study of Albanian politics and society.This volume includes contributions from: Antonia Young, Aleksandra Djajic-Horváth, Nicola Nixon, and Arbnora Dushi on intertwining of gender, history, politics and migration in Albanian society; Adrian Brisku on European identity of Albanians; Raim Beluli on Southeastern Europe as a historical region, as well as review essays by Besnik Pula, Gëzim Alpion, Blendi Kajsiu and Renis Prifti. ... Read more

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The Albanian Journal of Politics (AJP) is a peer reviewed academic publication of the Albanian Political Science Association (ALPSA). The purpose of the Journal is to provide a publication venue and an academic forum for the study of Albanian politics and society. AJP seeks to provide political insight on important problems as it emerges from rigorous, broad-based research and integrative thought. AJP is published by Globic Press on behalf of ALPSA.Volume III (2007) includes contributions from: Levis Zerpa, Stefan Weishaar, Jonida Milaj, Ridvan Peshkopia, Ermal Hasimja, Arben Xhaferi, Dionysia Tamvaki, Matilda Dahl and Elda Papa on subjects such as Albanian elections and political parties, institutional reforms, European Union enlargement process, religion, and rational choice applications in political science research. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from East European Quarterly, published by East European Quarterly on September 22, 1999. The length of the article is 8484 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Researchers return to the highlands of Albania to study of the effects of modernization on the tribal communities found there. The author discusses the initial fifteen century systems of tribal laws, blood-feuds, and patriarchal family and community structures, and then discusses the effects of Stalinism on the modernization of the Albania.

Citation Details
Title: ALBANIAN HIGHLAND TRIBAL SOCIETY AND FAMILY STRUCTURE IN THE PROCESS OF TWENTIETH CENTURY TRANSFORMATION.
Author: Bernd J. Fischer
Publication: East European Quarterly (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 1999
Publisher: East European Quarterly
Volume: 33Issue: 3Page: 281

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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Analysing the dynamics of the post-1990 Albanian migration to Italy, this book is the first major study of one of Europe s newest, most dramatic yet least understood migrations. It takes a close look at migrants employment, housing and social exclusion in the country, as well as the process of return migration to Albania. The research described in the book challenges the pervasive stereotype of the bad Albanian, and through in-depth fieldwork on Albanian communities in Italy and back in Albania, provides rich insights into the Albanian experience of migration, settlement and return in both their positive and negative aspects. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, published by U.S. Government Printing Office on November 3, 2008. The length of the article is 880 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Remarks at a signing ceremony for North Atlantic Treaty Organization accession protocols for Albania and Croatia.(Week Ending Friday, October 31, 2008)(Speech)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (Newsletter)
Date: November 3, 2008
Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office
Volume: 44Issue: 43Page: 1383(2)

Article Type: Speech

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

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On a warm spring morning in 1999, in the midst of NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia, Serbian security and paramilitary forces descended on the small village of Cuska, near the western Kosovo city of Pec. Soldiers with painted faces and masks rounded up the population and forced them to assemble in the center of the village. The women, children, and elderly were separated from any men who had not managed to flee. The villagers were threatened and robbed of their money, jewelry, and identification papers. Twenty-nine men were divided into three groups and taken into three separate houses, where they were sprayed repeatedly with automatic weapons. Each house was then set on fire and left to burn. This gripping investigative account of the massacre establishes the truth of what happened in Cuska, deepens our understanding of war crimes, and sheds light on the world of paramilitaries who carry out mass killings of civilians in the name of the state.
The events in Cuska are emblematic of the destruction of hundreds of other villages throughout Kosovo. But in this case there was a difference: in each of the three groups of men there was one survivor who managed to crawl from each of the burning houses. They, and many others present that day, told their stories to Human Rights Watch, a research and advocacy organization that monitors abuses in more than seventy countries around the world. Fred Abrahams scanned into his laptop photographs of Serbian security forces apparently left behind when they withdrew from Kosovo, and showed them to victims, who identified the perpetrators.
With an essay by Eric Stover and a collection of arresting photographs by Gilles Peress of the exile and return of Kosovar Albanians to their homes and villages, this book presents a riveting, multifaceted story of unmatched depth and complexity. A final section of "self-portraits" taken by Serbian troops and paramilitaries holds the key to understanding how Serb forces were able to overrun so much territory in so little time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Organized Madness
This book is about one single village in Kosovo and the case against those who destroyed it.The book is broken down into sections about The Victims, The Perpetrators, The Plan, etc.From a roll of undeveloped film found in a field we see pictures and self-portraits of the Serb paramilitary men who wreaked havoc on this small pocket of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo in 1999.

This event occured well into that war, making one wonder.The majority of the real 'ethnic cleansing' in Kosovo occured after NATO decided to bomb the place to smithereens in a 'humanitarian' intervention that still doesn't make much sense.Milosevic's indictment for Kosovo mostly contains charges of war crimes after the bombing started, making one really wonder about the 'Clinton Doctrine'--literally provoke bad guys into doing worse, and then squash them (and the whole country).Noam Chomsky had a good simile for the 'humanitarian' intervention as practiced in Kosovo: it's like watching someone getting mugged in the street, and instead of stopping it, you pick up a rifle and kill everyone--criminal, victim, and bystander.

What's also striking of course, is the suggestion (and common knowledge) that there are many men like the ones being accused here.One of the uglier lessons here is that if you want to be effective at terrorizing a people, you go out and hire professional criminals.There is fascinating testimony from men who were recruited for the 'Lightning' (Munja) paramilitary brigade, or Arkan's 'Tigers'.In a Dirty Dozen-type way of doing things, criminals were recruited from jails to become professional ethnic cleansers, since you just don't get the same results from a conscript army.

Lots of brutal images, a reverent book.Should be read with some knowledge of the war to form a better opinion.

War Crimes in Kosovo
May 19, 1999, A Village Destroyed, hundreds of Kosovars are captured in JUST ONE, OF THE KOSOVA villages, by the serbian thieves,criminals,put out of prison "people" wearing police and army uniforms - they get all their valuables then they kill all men just to burn their bodies afterwards. Luckily, two men survive the "Lightning" gang policemans" bullets as they were meant to find themselves under somebody elses body...

Shocking true stories from Kosovar victims...

Even more shocking confessions by "Lightning" gangs...showing in details what they have done in this village...Their confessions will make you play a detective and search for them in any way possible because after all their crimes against humanity they are still roaming some country's streets and of course they are considered dangerous...anti humans.

After all, the book is so informative and honest. This book is on the TRUTH's side - the so many photographs and HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH proves it. You'll finish it in one breath. ... Read more

Product Description
British photojournalist Melanie Friend has covered the Balkans since1989. Her visits have been brief and always subject to filmconfiscation and surveillance. In 1999, as NATO bombs fell on Serbia,and ethnic Albanians fled Kosovo, Friend took portraits in the refugeecamps of Macedonia. The 75 photographs and extraordinary interviewspresent one of the most profound, complex, and human documents of therecent history of the Balkans. As the centuries-old cycle of abuseenters a new phase, No Place Like Home explores life in the Balkanswith fresh, unconventional insight. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A study of the quiet -- often overlooked -- pain of war ...
It's a crying shame that the world hosts chronic bouts of uncivil wars all over the planet, and then their atrocities vie for our attention. It's a pity that the current, most florid acts of inhumanity (via the media) hold us in thrall and divert us from the grinding pain of recovery from similar acts elsewhere. The focus on the Miedle East has distracted us from other hostilities that changed the map and twisted lives. One such conflict is the tangle of unrest among Albanians/Serbians/Bosniaks and others who share, or shared, Kosovo.

Melanie Friend has created a book of portraits (visual and verbal) that attends to the pain and confusion between 1994 and 2000 in Kosovo. Her wonderfully quiet, understated photographs do not feed the sensationalistic. They speak to the almost mundane horrors of daily living in burned out homes; hiding in sewers; trying to stay clean after escaping with only the clothes on one's back; eating only bread for an entire month; eating cherries for an entire month; occupying one's time trying to keep a refugee camp tent clean, mostly to stay busy; clinging to a shred of photograph as a talisman of hope for a loved one's survival; and surviving chronic fatiuge when one is never safe enough to sleep through an entire night.

The author's photographs are reproduced with such pristine fidelity that they are by themselves graceful studies of form, color and light. Alongside the photographs, Ms. Friend's interviewees tell their stories, narratives in the stark flatness of truth as they experience it. They don't philosophize particularly, nor do they bang their political drums particularly, although I'm sure all cherish their personal philosophies and have political perspectives. They describe what happened to them, their families, and their homes. All were victimized. The speakers survived, but none have recovered.

You will not see a single severed limb, starving child, or mangled body in the book. The book will not burden you with the type of content that increases your anxiety or "compassion fatigue" to the degree that you must turn away. Instead, in quietude, the author gives you a current history of Kosovo's war and its aftermath with respect and sadness.

"No Place Like Home" is an elegant book that informs by taking one in and quietly personalizing the experience of war in one's homeland rather than beating the reader into insensibility with atrocities so graphic that one must tune out. It is a thoughtful, painful, gentle response to victims of war.

Photographs and text: Wonderful!

Praise forNo Place Like Home: Echoes from Kosovo
This is a fantastic book!It completely transports the reader into the lives and experiences of the people of Kosovo. They are elegantly and honestly portrayed through Friend's unique choice of medium. She juxtaposes stunning photographs and gripping testimonies of her subjects, inspiring compassion and awe from her audience.Having a degree in International Relations, I found this book offered an insightful and fresh perspective on the situation in the Balkans, while remaining accessible to a wide audience. Beautiful!

Documentary Photography at its best!
This is a book about war unlike any other. You are drawn in by the photographs and, somehow, the voices of the ordinary civilians telling you about their lives under the years of repression, the war, the flight from their homes and their return to the devastated towns and villages hit you with remarkable poignancy. The juxtaposition of these extraordinary photographs and the testimonies is truly remarkable. This is not onlygreat documentary photography, it is also one of the most articulate and profound book about war I've ever read. Kudos to Melanie Friend! Very highly recommended! ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from DISAM Journal, published by Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management on March 1, 2009. The length of the article is 1250 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization accession protocols for Albania and Croatia.(PERSPECTIVES)(Excerpt)
Author: Unavailable
Publication: DISAM Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2009
Publisher: Defense Institute of Security Assistance Management
Volume: 31Issue: 1Page: 89(2)

Article Type: Excerpt

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Kosovo Liberation Army
A consise review of the Kosovo liberation Army, based primarily on information abouth one of the leaders, without going into history of the developemnt on the Army. Missing part in the analysis is the role KLA played during the NATO attack on Serbia, including Kosovo ... Read more

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The science of medicine was the first to discover that ‘anounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,'Henryk Sokalskireminds us as he begins this study of a unique United Nationsmission. In the political realm, however, its full potential hasyet to be realized. Sokalski, former head of the United NationsPreventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) in the former Yugoslav republicof Macedonia, provides the ultimate insider's look at the UN's attemptto establish a mission in this former Yugoslav republic before theimminent eruption of mass violence spilling over from neighboringBalkan states--Serbia and its overwhelmingly ethnic Albanianprovince of Kosovo in particular.

An Ounce of Prevention--and the UNPREDEP mission itself--begins inearly 1995 with a telephone call to Sokalski at his Warsaw home fromUN Secretary General Boutros-Ghali, and it ends several years later ina disappointing Security Council veto of the mission's renewal. Inbetween, Sokalski's study of this novel experiment in UNpeacekeeping describes the mission's three pillars as wellas contending theories on preventive diplomacy and early preventiveaction, contemporary Balkan history, and the daily bureaucratic andhuman challenges of reinventing civil society. All the while, Sokalskiattempts to answer the question of whether the mission's renewedmandate could have prevented the country's recent destructiveinsurgency--and whether UNPREDEP's truncated success could serve asa model for future UN preventive deployments. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A closely researched and candidly told narrative
Ably and knowledgeably written by Henryk J. Sokalski (the special representative of the UN secretary-general who led the UN Preventive Deployment Force in Macedonia), An Ounce Of Prevention: Macedonia And The UN Experience In Preventive Diplomacy is a firsthand account of the complex task of peacekeeping during the course of the only peaceful succession from the former Yugoslavia. A closely researched and candidly told narrative of complex ethnic group interplays, An Ounce Of Prevention is thought provoking, and a strongly recommended addition to academic International Studies and supplemental reading lists. ... Read more

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This book makes the case for the independence of Kosova - the former province of `old-Yugoslavia', temporarily a United Nations-led International protectorate - at a time in which international diplomacy is deeply involved in solving the contested issue of its final status. Negotiations began in January 2006 under the auspices of a United Nations Special Envoy, and have been given renewed impulse by the international community's determination to arrive at a solution. "The Case for Kosova" aims to contribute to these negotiations, by providing informed arguments for a different approach to the issue of Kosova's status beyond the limitations of current debates. It's aim is to counteract the anti-Albanian propaganda waged by some parties, but never to propose a counter-propaganda hostile to others or to the goals of democratic Kosova. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great book from well established author
It's really a book form somebody who understands the circumstances in Kosovo... who has lived there for years and then writes about it a very serious fashion using some of the sources that have not been used before. This is very important as I tend to appreciate the authors that know the place they are speaking about and are not limited just to quotation of the sources. Its really good and valuable book to read... I highly recommend...

this book is very one sided and her next book is even more terrible
this book is worth not even the paper its written on she does not know the reality of kosovo she has no idea about history are anything for that matter i am a historian scholar in university she actually rights in all of her books like a little kids fairytale even her knew book that's coming out about kosovo and the battle of 1389 is totally false she even tried to change the real mans name of Milo's obilic to a Albanian name which is totally ridiculous so i would pay maybe a dollar for this book and maybe 50 cents for any other book this none historian makes.this person has no idea about anything in history and she just wanted to make these fairytale books to make one side happy from the war but its fake history and very amusing i recommend that nobody buys what this person publishes unless your looking for just a escape to read but not history facts.

Daring and to the point
The Case for Kosova is an excellent collection of cases addressed by names that have become authorities on the Kosovo issue. Ann Di Lellio has put together Janusz Bugajski, Bernd Fisher, Noel Malcolm, Julie Mertus, Owen Pearson and many other social scientist, journalists and historians who give their views on range of issues facing Kosovo's independence. I highly recommend this book to anyone with interest in the Balkans especially Kosovo and to anyone studying nation-building and development. ... Read more

Product Description
“Pekar has proven that comics can address the ambiguities of daily living, that like the finest fiction, they can hold a mirror up to life.”
–The New York Times

For years Heather Roberson, a passionate peace activist, has argued that war can always be avoided. But she has repeatedly faced counterarguments that fighting is an inescapable consequence of world conflicts. Indeed, Heather finds proving her point to be a little tricky without examples to bolster her case. So she does something a little crazy: She sets out for far-off Macedonia, a landlocked country north of Greece and west of Bulgaria, to explore a region that has edged–repeatedly–close to the brink of violence, only to refrain.

In the process–and as vividly portrayed by the talented duo of Harvey Pekar and Ed Piskor–Heather is tangled in red tape, ripped off by cabdrivers and hotel clerks, hit on by creepy guys, secretly photographed, and mistaken for a spy. She also creates unlikely friendships, learns that getting lost means seeing something new, and makes some startling discoveries. War is hell and peace is difficult–but conflict is always necessary.

“Harvey Pekar wrestles the kind of things most comic book heroes wouldn’t touch with a laser blaster.”
–Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A visit with Harvey Pekar . . . will cause you to reexamine your own life . . . just as the greatest literature will.”
–The Austin Chronicle

“Pekar lets all of life flood into his panels: the humdrum and the heroic, the gritty and the grand.”
–The New York Times Book Review ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Disappointing in most regards...
One of the biggest problems with this book is that it is poorly structured as a comic--the narrator, Heather, spends the bulk of the comic lecturing either her boyfriend or the reader. There's space for background, sure, but if so much of the comic is going to be devoted to drawings of the narrator's face alone, why make the book a comic? This is not to say that panels in which we see other people, or actual movement, are much better; the drawings are poor, and the wacky facial expressions and contortions characters go through (surely people do not have joints in the all the places Ed Piskor provides them) are distracting.

I had some doubts, too, about the depth of this book. Although I didn't expect this to be a definitive exploration of Macedonian history, a number of details--that Heather Roberson travels to Macedonia for an undergraduate research project that seems conceived on something of a whim, that she doesn't speak either Macedonian or Albanian, that she is only in the country for a month--made me wonder how this book made it to publication. Surely someone with more experience in the region could have worked on such a book? Instead of an authoritative exploration of Macedonian politics &history, the reader is given a narrator who is often learning things at the same pace as the reader. This could work, but doesn't. The comic's structure, drawings & story all leave a lot to be desired.

It ain't Captain America
If you are looking for Spider-man or Captain America, then move on. Likewise, if your sole intention is to be entertained -- again, move on.

This graphic novel is a window into the quest of a Berkeley student to understand why the situation in Macedonia did not disintegrate into the same chaos that could be found throughout post-Tito Yugoslavia. It is an informative work, but as other reviews have noted, text-rich and not action-oriented.

This sort of work is engaging precisely because it shows the real world interactions of people trying to make sense of the world around them, as opposed to presenting idealized and simple caricatures.

This work fits into the same pantheon of work as Joe Sacco's "Palestine" and "Safe Area: Gorazde", but don't expect to be overly reminded of Sacco's artistic or narrative styles -- the art here is far more subdued, and the focus is on a country where peace has been more or less successful, so obviously the "action" is on a far different level.

This work serves as an excellent introduction to modern Macedonia for the reader with little background on the subject. The caveat is that this graphic novel was not written for the express purpose of entertaining you (although I was entertained), but rather to inform you. If you will resent a comic book that is informative instead of merely entertaining, then this probably is not the graphic novel for you.

Ambitious but, finally, disappointing
I'm a fan of serious comics -- Pekar's, Sacco's, Spiegelman's, Satrapi's -- and I had very high hopes for this Piskor/Pekar/Roberson collaboration. My hopes were disappointed. *Macedonia* is a case in which well-meaning people have tried to share an important story but, for lack of artistic vision or time commitment, have failed.

One has to imagine that Roberson, without any experience with the genre, wrote the entire script. Pekar tried to save it, but true salvation would have required a far greater investment of time, completely recasting the script as something far less "talky" and didactic. The book would have grown in length, too, in order to allow similar stories to be told through something other than shot-countershot frames of fillibuster.

To make a success of Macedonia would have required, at the very least, completely reconceptualizing the opening sequence. Page after page, the Heather character essentially lectures her non-responsive boyfriend about her interest in Macedonian politics.

In fairness to Pekar, Roberson's long narrative isn't exactly the "pithy vignettes on life" format for which Pekar is best known. Sure, Pekar wrote at greater length of Robert McNeil (*Unsung Hero*), but that's the exception proving the rule. Moreover, the McNeil project was likely initially conceived as a comic. Though Pekar did encourage Roberson early on to take notes for a possible comic book, she seems not to have approached the concept through the lens of comics.

The book does have its moments, however. Piskor ably presents Balkan history -- clearly the toughest assignment given -- and he moves admirably from those moments, to depicting Eastern European architecture, to Heather and friends dancing at a local disco. It is when Roberson's/Pekar's torrent of conversation finally slows, or when the words can be presented through voice-over, that Piskor finally finds a quite moment to do something more artistically organic.

Nice political comic
I bought this comic-book 'cos I wanted to see how my country Macedonia was pictured.I was suprised how well did the autor knew the situation in Macedonia and the Balkan.

Two books in one
(Disclaimer: This reviewer has been a consultant in Macedonia on an NGO educational activity associated with the Ohrid Agreement.)

Harvey Pekar's and Heather Roberson's "Macedonia: What does it take to stop a war" is two books in one.One book is about the country Macedonia.I have been there a few times, and since this is a graphic novel, I wanted to see how the country was pictured. The pictures don't misrepresent the nation, but don't capture it either.There are not many iconic images of the capital, Skopje, but the illustrator Ed Piskor has drawn one on the cover. However, if one were in this city square and faced in the opposite direction, one would see the older section of the city with minarets and ruins of a Turkish fort. Interiors--small, run-down apartments, internet cafes, bars--are convincing. But Macedonia is largely rural and mountainous, and those views are missing in this graphic novel which takes place in cities.

The other book in "Macedonia" is an attempt to show how a political arrangement called the Ohrid Agreement decentralized the national bureaucracies and transferred some power to minorities, primarily Albanians, and thereby avoided armed conflict. The main character, Heather, an American student, goes to Macedonia to research how peace, rather than war, can be intentionally implemented.She talks to a lot of people and records her reflections in a portable recorder. Unfortunately, this is where the graphic novel falters.There are a lot of rectangles of people talking.It seems as if one is reading a play without any clever or insightful lines performed under a strobe light. The text can be dense and the visuals unexciting. While the presentation may make some readers struggle, however, the dialog captures the simultaneous doubts and expectations of the Macedonians as they shift from belief in the future Ohrid holds to discomfort about the present adjustments which the Ohrid Agreement demands. ... Read more