To put some of this Serb-targeting into perspective, one must consider that much of the robberies and burglaries, rather than being ethnically motivated, are done more out of opportunism. Albanians are practical people, so why would an Albanian violate another Albanian when he’d risk being killed? Violating Serbs, on the other hand, is a no-risk proposition. They’ve been disarmed, aren’t trigger-happy to begin with, and committing a crime against a fellow Albanian could bring a blood feud upon your family for the next two centuries.
(Note: Albanian-on-Albanian crime is more ubiquitous than Albanian-on-Serb crime, just by virtue of there being a larger population pool for it. But if a Serb is near by, you’d be a fool not to try there first.)
(Note: emphasis above is mine.)
Now as per normal, she makes the usual snarky innuendos, inferences, and "left-handed compliments" which, when summed up, say that Albanians are all (among other things) a bunch of violent criminals, corrupt, etc. And beyond that, there's the utter bull-plop contained in statements like that Serb civilians in Kosova have all been disarmed (to say nothing of the even more ridiculous statement that infers that they are by nature "not trigger-happy to begin with"), or that an Albanian attacking or robbing another Albanian risks "hakmarrje". (Like much of what La Julia says, it's half-true: It is possible, but the odds of it happening are probably a million to one if not higher against it, since, as she-surprise! surprise!-neglects to point out only a very small percentage of the Albanian people, either in the Balkans or elsewhere, still engage in such behavior. And that's not to mention the fact that she goes on to contradict herself about Albanian-on-Albanian violence and crime in that parenthetical comment at the end of the post.)
But notice something different? She actually, finally admits this time what I, most Albanians, and UNMIK/KFOR themselves basically have been saying all along: That what crimes there are in Kosova that are committed against Serbs are for the most part NOT likely to be "hate crimes", i.e. ethnically, racially, or religion motivated crimes. They are rather, like most crimes, born of opportunity. If you'll notice, many of such crimes as she cites in her blog take place in tiny villages or out of the way farmsteads. In other words, they are perfect easy pickings for anyone wanting to rip-off money and/or goods. And while I'm no mind reader, I've studied enough about crime and criminals on my own (as well as I have a pretty decent sense of "common sense") to know that most likely when these folks go off to do a "job", probably the last thing that enters into their mind is "Hey, let's go hit that place over there-a bunch of Serbs live there, so it should be easy to knock over!" So sincere kudos go out to Julia for finally getting it right for a change about something having to do with Kosova. Well, more like "kinda-sorta getting it right", actually. But hey, it's a start! ;)
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