Helicopters flew over the wail of an air raid siren, and hundreds of citizens, troops and military vehicles filled the streets below as violence broke out in the divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica Monday. Unrest has been fomenting there in recent days and culminated in a violent clash Monday morning that left over 80 civilians and 60 UN police injured.

Angry because of Kosovo’s secession from Serbia, the latest in two decades of revolts from Belgrade, Serbian protesters barricaded themselves inside a Mitrovica court building late last week, demanding it be returned to Serbian control. United Nations police mounted a pre-dawn raid Monday that broke the stand-off and put approximately 50 Serbs in custody, some claim with unnecessary force. Hundreds of Serbs took to the streets, attacking the convoy with rocks, Molotov cocktails, and even some small arms, freeing some of the prisoners.

Mitrovica is just one town where Serbs still look to Belgrade rather than the breakaway government of Albanians, some of whom were involved in the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army. Serbian President Boris Tadic pointed out the violence in Mitrovica coincides with the fourth anniversary of anti-Serb violence that swept Kosovo for weeks, in which ethnic Albanians destroyed Serbian homes and churches.

UN police officers, one of whom has now died from his injuries, withdrew from the Serbian-populated northern part of the town, leaving control of UN interests there to natok-for troops. Doctors treating wounded civilians said two were in serious condition, one in a coma after suffering a head wound.

NATO, EU Threaten Additional Force

nato and the EU look ready to punish the Serbs once again after years of using political and military force in the former Yugoslavia. nato threatened it would “respond firmly” to any further conflict in Kosovo, condemning the day’s violence “in the strongest terms.” Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica answered by condemning use of force against Serbs who oppose the “false state,” and also accused nato of “implementing a policy of force against Serbia.” Looking at recent history, it’s hard to argue with him.

Europe, which is looking to increase control of nato itself, also committed a direct response of its own to the violence, promising it would expedite deployment of the 2,000-strong eulex contingent to Kosovo, containing 1,400 police.

In the big picture, quelling Serbs in Kosovo at the hands and gun barrels of EU police would be the final, fitting injury and insult to a people who has seen its nation shredded by its World War ii enemy—and its World War ii allies.

Ugly History

Belgrade, an ally of the United States, Britain, France and Russia during World War i and World War ii, and a victim of Germany, is in the advanced stages of suffering a tragic betrayal.

In 1990, Germany became unified for the first time since the end of World War ii. Just over a year later, its government, along with the Vatican, unilaterally recognized Slovenia and Croatia’s secession from greater Yugoslavia (both Slovenia and Croatia are Catholic-dominated), ignoring the U.S. State Department and the rest of the Western world, which was staunchly against secession. Not willing to confront Germany, Washington and the rest of the world capitulated. The result was a destabilized Balkan region, causing a set of bloody Balkan wars that drove the first divisive spike into Germany’s World War prey, Serbia.

Yugoslavia subsequently disintegrated into nothing more than a union between Serbia and Montenegro.

In the late 1990s, the Albanian population in one of Serbia’s own provinces, Kosovo, which many Serbs consider the cradle of their culture, began to revolt. Belgrade came under international scrutiny for its tough measures against Kosovo Liberation Army militants and its ethnic Albanian supporters. Media-driven accusations of genocide against Albanians began to turn world opinion against the Serbs until finally the Blair and Clinton administrations used accusations of “ethnic cleansing” as rationale to bomb their historic ally, Serbia, into relinquishing its own sovereign territory to UN/nato control nine years ago this month. March 1999 began American-led nato’s illegal war against the Serbs and also marked the first time the Luftwaffe has gone into war since the days when Hitler bombed Serbia and hung and shot Serbs en masse 60 years previous.

Those all-important accusations of genocide against Serbia have since been proven false.

In the meantime, the nation that destabilized the Balkans in the first place, Germany, is on its way to entrenching itself in the peninsula.

The West, opposed only by Russia and a handful of small countries, has set a dangerous precedent. In light of the fact that genocidal accusations have proven false, the only other rationale for prying Kosovo out of Serbia’s side is the claim that Kosovo Albanians have a right to self-determination. Acceptance of this fallacy has put the U.S., the EU and the UN on a slippery slope. If Serbia’s Albanian Kosovars can declare independence on the basis of an inherent right to self-determination, cannot Kosovo’s Serbs also declare independence? Like a stacking Russian doll situation, where does it end?

Belgrade and Moscow are arguing just that: that Belgrade should rule the Kosovo municipalities of Leposavic, Zvecan and Zubin Potok, since they are predominantly Serb, border Serbia, and are separated from the rest of Kosovo by the Iber River.

Russian President-elect Dmitry Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov literally stood by Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica when he declared Belgrade would still rule all “loyal citizens” in Kosovo. In the wake of Monday’s violence, Moscow has called for a return to international talks over Kosovo’s status.

Germany’s Coup

But Germany has already, in essence, conquered the Balkans under the European Union umbrella. In a single foreign-policy coup, just one year after reunification, Germany backed down the rest of the world, instigated the disruptive Balkan wars, allowed its old American enemy to foot the bill in manpower and expenses, got the world used to German planes making combat bombing runs once again, completely bludgeoned its prey of most of its territories, and wrapped up control of the region under the EU banner while Moscow and Washington slug it out over the future of Yugoslavia’s last remains: Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro.

Germany was split in two following world War ii to prevent it from disrupting peace ever again. But if the Balkans is any indication of what a reunified Germany can and will do, this will not be its last conquest.

For a comprehensive early warning on Berlin’s intentions for Europe, read The Rising Beast—Germany’s Conquest of the Balkans by editor in chief Gerald Flurry.