6.10.2007 by Lupo.

INSIGHT: Greek protectors of ‘miracle’ monastery
09:00 Mon 01 Oct 2007 - Jason Smith, in Sokolica/Sokollice, Kosovo

MIRACULOUS POWERS: The famous Virgin Mary with
Christ statue that is said to have miraculous powers when
used to pray to Mary is pictured at Sokolica Monastery, Kosovo.
Mother Abbess Makaria, head nun at Sokolica Monastery,
said praying to Mary through the statue can give children
to parents who have been told they cannot have children.
Photos: JASON SMITH

No matter the weather, time of day or level of danger, Greek soldiers can be found standing guard over one of Kosovo’s most famous Orthodox monasteries.

Members of the 647th Mechanised Infantry Battalion have been protecting Sokolica Monastery since 2002.

One squad, including one officer and 10 non-commissioned officers, is always on duty on monastery grounds watching for possible threats and preparing to take action in case of any emergency. Should a crisis present itself, additional forces are always on standby to quickly respond.

“My main mission here is to keep the monastery in a safe and secure environment,” said Sergeant Tzivis, 647th MIB. “We protect it from the three Albanian villages nearby.”

Mother Abbess Makaria, head nun, said Danish forces were the first Kosovo Force members to guard the monastery in 1999. She said with them, as with the Greek forces now, she looks at the soldiers as protectors rather than occupiers.

“After the arrival of Nato (in Kosovo), 168 churches were destroyed,” said Mother Makaria. “If it wasn’t for Nato, they would have all been destroyed.”

Mother Makaria said the Greek soldiers have the common bond of the Orthodox religion with her and the other sisters of Sokolica/Sokollice. This shared faith has allowed the two groups to live like a family.

“I am happy we have the Greek soldiers here,” said Mother Makaria. “Last year for Holy Week we made services together. On Good Friday we had a special service with two groups of singers, one Greek and one Serbian. I sang with the Greek group, and we sounded better.” She laughs.

Mother Makaria’s agenda is one of peace. She feels her Kosovo-Albanian neighbours would respect the monastery even if the Greek soldiers weren’t present, but she enjoys the protection.

“I’m not expecting something bad in the future, but it isn’t all roses here,” said Mother Makaria. “God will decide what happens with Kosovo, and everyone will have to accept His will.”

Mother Makaria was clear that anyone in need was always welcome at the monastery. She has numerous stories of providing help to Serbian and Kosovo-Albanian people. She also has many stories of miracles occurring when people pray to the Virgin Mary for help.

According to the Kosovo.net, this famous Orthodox monastery was built between the 14th and 15th centuries, probably by a landlord from the nearby town of Zvecan. The area probably earned its status as a monastery because legend has it that a sculpture of the Virgin Mary with Christ was brought there from the Banjska Monastery in order to hide the statue from the Turks.

Mother Makaria offers two additional stories of how the statue was brought to the monastery. It’s easy to trust in Mother Makaria’s historic accounts of the monastery because she is an educated and well-spoken woman. In addition to having a doctorate’s degree in chemistry and a master’s in theology, the 66-year-old nun is fluent in multiple languages.

Regardless of what story is historically accurate, Mother Makaria is sure of the power of prayer to the Virgin Mary through this statue.

“The statue gives children to husbands and wives who are told by doctors that they can’t have children,” said Mother Makaria. “One Muslim woman came here to pray. She was married for 11 years with no children. Her husband was a good man and stayed with her even though he could have left her after five years without children.

“She said the doctor told her she could not have children,” Mother Makaria continued. “She prayed to Mary. She asked Mary for one son, and she received one son shortly after.”

Mother Makaria laughed as she told the story of the woman’s return to the statue to pray many years after she gave birth to her son………………..

Sofia Echo

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6.10.2007 by admin.

The great Eurovision logo debate

05/10/2007

Serbia held a contest to choose its logo for the upcoming Eurovision song contest, but not everyone is happy with the result.

By Zeljana Grubisic for Southeast European Times - 05/10/07

Serbia, which won the Eurovision song contest last year, is hosting it in 2008. A contest was recently held to choose a logo for the event. The winning entry, which features a plum, trumpet, lips and a musical note, has received mixed reviews from bloggers.

Some dislike the use of traditional Serbian symbols, saying this is a step away from the international image the country should build. Others argue that the choice is appropriate, since Eurovision is about national expression.

“It’s nice that we have tradition,” writes Goran Miletic, “but don’t we have anything else besides a plum and a trumpet? Couldn’t we use other symbols to remind those from Norway, Iceland, Portugal or Russia of Serbia?”

……..

http://setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/blogreview/2007/10/05/blog-03 

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6.10.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

Oligarchen-Streit vor US-Gericht

22.08.2007 | 12:28 |   (DiePresse.com)

Der Oligarch Oleg Deripaska und der litauisch-russische Geschäftsmann Romanov kämpfen verbissen um die Aluminium-Vorherrschaft auf dem Balkan.

Das Tauziehen um den Kauf des zur Privatisierung ausgeschriebenen Aluminiumkombinats im bosnischen Mostar ist nun Gegenstand eines US-Gerichtsverfahrens. Nach Angaben der litauischen Tageszeitung “Kauno Diena” hat der russische “Oligarch” Oleg Deripaska seinen Hauptkonkurrenten, den russisch-litauischen Geschäftsmann Vladimir Romanov (Wladimir Romanow), dessen Sohn Roman und deren Ukio-Bank-Investmentgruppe (UBIG) in den USA geklagt.

Prozess auf Jungferninseln

Formell findet der Prozess laut “Kauno Diena” zwischen der auf den britischen Jungferninseln registrierten Deripaska-Firma Rual Trade Ltd. und der Romanov-Firma Viva Trade L.L.C. statt.

Aluminiumindustrie auf dem Balkan

Letztere ist im US-Bundesstaat Wisconsin registriert. Dem Zeitungsbericht zufolge wollen beide Unternehmer die Aluminiumindustrie auf dem Balkan unter ihre Kontrolle bekommen und alle Alu-Betriebe in der Region aufkaufen.

Aluminij Mostar bestreitet allein rund 10 Prozent der bosnischen Gesamtexporte. Der künftige Besitzer wird daher eine äußerst wichtige Rolle in Bosnien spielen. Angeblich hat UBIG für die 88 Prozent bisheriger Staatsanteile an Aluminij Mostar mit 141 Mio. Euro das Höchstangebot gelegt, eine Firma Deripaskas namens UK EN & Group jedoch um 100 Mio. Euro zuletzt den Zuschlag erhalten.

Deripaskas Aluminium-Konzern Rusal hat Berichten zufolge auch zwei Kupferwerke im serbischen Bor und Majdanpek im Auge. Nicht zuletzt dank der Unterstützung in der Causa Kosovo, die Belgrad von Russland erhalten hat, hat der russische Geschäftsmann auch gute Aussichten, den Zuschlag zu bekommen.

Keinen Euro gesehen

In der montenegrinischen Hauptstadt Podgorica besitzt Deripaska bereits einen Aluminiumbetrieb. Dort gab es zuletzt Beschwerden der Beschäftigten. “Unsere Erfahrungen mit Rusal sind sehr schlecht, um nicht zu sagen katastrophal. Rusal hat sich verpflichtet, 55 Mio. Euro in die Modernisierung des Betriebes zu investieren, bisher haben wir keinen Euro gesehen”, hieß es seitens der Gewerkschaftsleitung. Auf den Aluminiumbetrieb in Podgorica entfallen 70 Prozent der montenegrinischen Exporte.

Romanovs UBIG besitzt in Bosnien mehrere Firmen, darunter die Balkan Investment Bank in Banja Luka, eine Brauerei ebendort, die Bauxit(Aluminium-Erz, Anm.)-Mine in Milici sowie eine Tonerdefabrik in Birac. Sämtliche Betriebe befinden sich in der serbischen Teilrepublik Republika Srpska.

Die Presse

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6.10.2007 by CrniLabudovi.

Scientology advance in the Balkans

Bonn aid for the sect

The notorious Scientology sect has its eyes on Albania. Of help to the infiltration of developing countries are the federal commerce ministry, agencies and politicians.

Bonn, Germany
December 24, 1993
IG-Metall, Nr.23, 1993, p. 10

Dr. Michael Scheele, an attorney with a plush address on Munich’s Prinzregentenplatz, is interested of all places in the most impoverished country of Europe: Albania. On December 7, 1992, he verified for the “Cooperation Office of German Commerce” in Berlin that he was participating in the “Commerce meeting on Albania.” Included on the guest list were the Albanian ambassador, staff of the federal commerce ministry and representatives from banks and industry. Also his client, Gerhard Haag, would be coming, wrote Scheele; specifically, Haag would be preparing a “major investment project in Tirana,” the Albanian capitol sic city.

Official Aid

Apparently taking part in the commerce meeting paid off for Haag and Scheele. That same month, Scheele was summoned into the Albanian constitutional commission and, since then, has had close contact to the Albanian government.

Gerhard Haag also obtained official aid from Bonn. The federal commerce ministry verified on March 26, 1993, that he and his company “Albanien Bau und Handel” (”Albanian Building and Trade”) “sic would be provided construction work “in the interest of broadening the cooperation and commercial relations between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Albania in the infrastructure and in the building of that country.” In actuality, Haag, the big Scientology investor, went to Albania the end of last year and there, in the service of the sect, started its “Project A.” In Tirana he wants to raise a multi-storied trade center which would “harbor … and bring into this country” Scientology’s technology, as the sect center in Clearwater, Florida revealed. Thanks to aid from many sides, Haag was able to climb up to “preferred German investor,” according to an inside source. Suspicions abound that Haag’s attorney, Scheele, will be providing valuable service with his government contacts. Surely the fact that CSU federal representative Dr. Juergen Warnke (CSU), former development aid minister, was, up until recently, Scheele’s partner in his law office on Prinzregentenplatz, will be of use.

According to a binding contract from August, 1992, Scheele and his partners Andreas Zielke and Juergen Warnke carried out the sale of Haag’s former company, the “Stahlbautechnik Neckar” (STN), which helped him prepare his move to Albania. For doing that the attorneys took in over 300,000 marks. According to the contract, signed by Scheele, Warnke, who until recently was the CSU chairman, was supposed to help with the sale or the restoration of STN.

Warnke disputes having been aware of this deal with Haag. He said neither had he given his agreement to taking on a client. At the end of October, Warnke suddenly left the law offices on Prinzregentenplatz. Just in the nick of time. Several days later the state attorney’s office went there and confiscated numerous files because of the connection to Haag.

(Michael Linkersdoerfer, from IG-Metall, Nr.23, 1993, p. 10)

CSU refuses to clean up an internal Scientology affair

Albanian Shadows over the Hanns-Seidel Foundation

Staff warned of sect attack.
Stuttgart superior court confirms developments in Tirana

Munich, Germany
March 7, 1998
Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ)

by Conny Neuman

Munich (SZ) — In early 1993, top Scientologist Gerhard Haag was making his way from Lichtenwald, Swabia to start Project A. Behind that move he plan[ned] to penetrate the new construction market taking place in Albania with the teachings of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and to install an SC (Scientology Church) center in Albania. To get his foot in the door, Haag, who at the time was being sought on an international arrest warrant because of suspicious movements of money and other peculiarities in his Swabian steel company, got a letter of recommendation from the federal commerce ministry. The government agency wrote the businessman a confirmation that his Albania Building and Trade company would be performing valuable construction work.

Shortly prior to that, the CSU aligned Munich Hanns-Seidel Foundation (HSF) had decided to try its luck in Albania. The young project leader, Michael Kosmala from Amber in Oberpfalz, was send sic by the HSF to Tirana in order to get acceptance from Albania’s management and institution offices. Not a small part of Kosmala’s activity consisted of making Albania’s minister or minister president aware of the presence of CSU greats in Tirana. CSU guests to Albania in 1993 included Munich’s federal representative Erich Riedl as well as former traffic minister Juergen Warnke.

Warnke and his law office partner, the Munich attorney and known Scientology defender Michael Scheele, petitioned the Albanian government chiefs, who, in turn, took the lawyers’ client, Gerhard Haag, under their wing and put things in motion at the government offices for the businessman from Swabia. Today Kosmala claims that Warnke also must have been aware of the open arrest warrant for Haag at the time. Haag was already investing in Albania, and a part of the delegation could view the project at the invitation of the German Embassy.

Both Scheele and Haag intended on making good money in Albania through the CSU aligned Hanns-Seidel Foundation. While Warnke’s partner offered the Albanian justice minister a legal study from his Albanian Business-Consult [sic] for approximately 200,000 marks, which the HSF was supposed to co-finance, Scheele, Warnke and Haag looked for offices in the HSF building in Tirana. Michael Kosmala sounded the counter-attack. In numerous memoranda and letters the project leader instructed the HSF foreign director Rainer Gepperth and HSF business manager Manfred Baumgaertel to keep the foundation’s money and offices out of the clutches of Scheele, Warnke and Haag. Kosmala also wrote that Warnke had tried to extort money from him. The CSU representative was said to have advised him about a share in a Haag company. Obviously the matter was highly uncomfortable for Gepperth. He wrote to his law office partners that he could do without offices for at most two months. A little later Gepperth learned that Scheele had planned a big dedication ceremony in the the HSF building in Tirana. Unfortunately, as the foreign director wrote, he could not participate: “You are nevertheless at liberty to undertake the opening of your office.”

Kosmala, who was getting desperate and who saw his foundation being infiltrated by the Scientologists, ran to the Albanian justice minister, Kudret Cela, and warned him about Scheele. Haag’s attorney did not receive the lucrative contract that he had already been promised for the study. An ARD TV team also learned about the contact between the Hans-Seidel Foundation and Scientology. Kosmala wanted to tell the complete story to the ARD journalists, but Baumgaertel delineated exactly which lines he could say. The wording was neutral.

Then began the professional decline of the project leader. Kosmala had to sign a draft letter to Minister Cela in which he apologized for his statements about Scheele and in which he took back everything. The text was conveyed to Kosmala through HSF southeast Europe director Klaus Fiesinger. Gepperth said to me, “Kosmala, you have done great damage, see to it that it is repaired,” reported the man from Amberg. A little later Kosmala received a written warning from Gepperth. The foreign chief let his staff member know that he would, in the future, be more reserved with his statements. In early 1996, Kosmala was then let go. Due to cut-backs, the HSF could no longer use him, it was said.

Now the 39-year-old man from Amberg has made a last attempt at reinstatement and he hit paydirt in the CSU, which is still his party at heart. The Stuttgart superior court, in a decision concerning a “Suedkurier” newspaper, which reported on the Albania affair, sided with the former project leader. Kosmala’s statements that Scheele, along with Warnke, were involved with the Scientologist Haag, were plausible,according to the judge. The presentation by Scheele, who had sued the “Suedkurier,” appeared to be less likely. Warnke’s sworn statement, in which he emphasized that he had never given Haag a recommendation, could not convince the judge.

With a pile of evidence, Kosmala then approached Bavarian Culture State Secretary Monika Hohlmeier and Joachim Herrman, the CSU General Secretary. The matter has to be cleared up within the CSU, Kosmala demanded. He was rejected by both. “I have to ask myself what else Mr. Kosmala would really like,” Monika Hohlmeier told the SZ. The old procedures have been cleaned up, Herrman believes. He said he did not want to interfere with the affairs of the Hanns-Seidel foundation. Nevertheless, Kosmala’s opposition to the SC endeavors has earned him respect. Warnke communicated through his office in Bonn that he had never had anything to do with Scientology. He had nothing else to say about it. But the man from Amburg will not settle for that.

http://www.solitarytrees.net/racism/projecta.htm 

Sz vom 7./8.3.1998

1992/93 sollte die Europa Zentrale der Scientogy in Tirana Albanien gegründet werden.

Und zwar in den Geschäftsräumen der Hans Seidel Stiftung CSU.

Akteure waren der frühere CSU Minister Warnke, der Scientology Anwalt Scheele etc.

Die arbeiteten bestens mit dem per Haft Befehl gesuchten Herrn Haag zusammen um auch eine Stahl Baufirma dort zu gründen.

Die kamen mit Empfehlungs Schreiben des Bundes Verkehrs Minsteriums.

Die Sachen wurde dann entgültig über einen Arbeits Gerichts Prozess ind Stuttgart publik.

Geh mal ins google: Albanien Scientology oder Warnke

http://forum.politik.de/forum/archive/index.php/t-54195.html

Göttingen/Bonn. Die Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker (GfbV) warnte vor der Scientology-Tarnorganisation “Aktionsbüro Bosnien-Herzegowina - Friedensbewegung Europa” mit Sitz in Hamburg. Dieses “Aktionsbüro” gebe zwar vor, sich für den Frieden in Bosnien einzusetzen, tatsächlich habe es aber Bosnier dazu gebracht, an teuren Scientology-Ausbildungskursen teilzunehmen. Laut GfbV stelle die Sekte eine moralisch und sozial “ernste Bedrohung” für die Gesellschaft dar, weil sie das Mitleid mit der bosnischen Bevölkerung als neue Einnahmequelle ausnutze. (KNA, 17.8.93)

Gleichzeitig unterstützten Referenten von Wirtschaftsminister Rexrodt die Bemühungen des Stahlbauunternehmers und Scientology-Mitglieds Gerhard Haag, in Südosteuropa Fuß zu fassen. Juristisch wurde Haag von dem Münchner Anwalt Michael Scheele vertreten, früher auch von dessen Ex-Sozius Jürgen Warnke (langjähriger CDU-Entwicklungshilfeminister). Wie gut die Verbindungen der Kanzlei nach Bonn noch immer funktionieren, erfuhr auch die Scientology-Kritikerin Renate Hartwig, die sich mit detaillierten Hinweisen zum Fall Haag schriftlich an Rexrodt gewandt hatte. Statt einer Antwort aus Bonn erhielt sie wenige Tage später eine Unterlassungsaufforderung von der Kanzlei Scheele, in der auch auf ihren Brief an den Wirtschaftsminister verwiesen wurde. (SPIEGEL, 7.3.94)

http://www.ibka.org/ir/1916f.html

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