American Albanian Media

11/30/2025

Why Albanians Are Concerned — Historical Allegations and New
Contamination Fears Raise Serious Questions?

Recent reports that Albanian authorities have blocked several shipments of Serbian corn due to suspected aflatoxin contamination have reignited deep public concern across the region. While laboratory results are still being finalized, the presence of a known toxin in imports from Serbia has caused many to ask whether this incident is simply an accident — or part of a troubling pattern that Albanians have experienced before.
Although there is no confirmed evidence that Serbia is intentionally trying to harm Albanians today, the memories of past allegations, especially the 1990 Kosovo school poisoning cases, have made many people wary and alert.
This article lays out the facts, the history, and the reasons why these new reports are viewed with fear — and why Albanians believe the possibility of deliberate harm should not be dismissed outright.

A Painful Memory: The 1990 Kosovo Student Poisonings

In the spring of 1990, thousands of ethnic Albanian schoolchildren in Kosovo suddenly fell ill with symptoms including fainting, vomiting, respiratory distress, and neurological problems. Many families, survivors, and Kosovo Albanians have long believed that this was the result of intentional poisoning, possibly involving toxic chemicals, aimed at frightening or weakening the Albanian population during a period of high political tension.
Although some officials at the time dismissed the event as “mass hysteria,” many doctors, nurses, and witnesses insisted that the symptoms resembled exposure to toxic substances, not psychological reactions. Blood samples were reportedly taken, and some foreign observers believed toxic agents were involved — but no official, transparent, internationally accepted investigation was ever completed.
To this day, the incident remains painful, controversial, and unresolved.
For Albanians, this is not ancient history — it is a reminder that their safety has been threatened before, and that the truth was never fully uncovered.

2025: Suspected Aflatoxin in Serbian Corn Arriving in Albania

Fast-forward to today. In November 2025, Albania’s National Food Authority (AKU) reportedly blocked multiple trucks carrying Serbian corn after inspections suggested dangerously high levels of aflatoxin, a toxic mould compound that can cause serious illness in humans and animals.
Over the course of several days:
25 tons were blocked first
then another 75 tons
then reports of up to 420 tons being held at the border
Aflatoxin can contaminate livestock feed and eventually enter milk, meat, and other food products consumed by the public. Even unintentional contamination represents a real public-health threat.
But for many Albanians, this is not viewed as an isolated case — it is seen through the lens of history, mistrust, and previous traumatic incidents.
Why People Fear There Could Be More Behind This
Albanians are not claiming certainty — but they are expressing legitimate fear. Three major reasons explain these concerns:

1. Past Allegations Create Present Suspicion

The unresolved student-poisoning cases of 1990 are a deep wound. When contaminated products arrive from the same state that Albanians associate with those events, people naturally fear that history could repeat itself — intentionally or through negligence.

2. The Scale of the Contamination Raises Questions

When hundreds of tons of corn test suspicious for aflatoxin, people wonder:
Is this simple negligence?
Is Albania receiving lower-quality or poorly regulated goods?
Is someone taking advantage of weak oversight?
These are not accusations — they are questions driven by experience.

3. A Region Where Trust Is Already Fragile

Political tension between Serbia and Albania has never fully disappeared. Issues relating to Kosovo, human rights, and past violence continue to cast a shadow over every interaction — including trade.
In such a climate, even accidents appear suspicious.

A Warning, Not an Accusation

This article does not claim that Serbia is intentionally poisoning Albanians today.
But it does make a clear point:
Given the history and recent events, Albanians have every right to be cautious and to consider the possibility — and to demand full transparency, strict inspections, and international oversight.
Ignoring possibilities is dangerous. Being alert is responsible.
The public should be aware, informed, and vigilant until:
full laboratory results are made public
transparent reporting is completed
independent verification confirms the safety of imports
A population that has lived through trauma cannot simply assume that everything is an accident.
Whether the recent contaminated corn shipments are the result of:
poor regulation,
dangerous negligence, or
something more deliberate,
the Albanian public deserves protection through strict border checks, transparent information, and internationally verified safety standards.
Staying cautious is not paranoia — it is survival.

11/29/2025

https://prishtinainsight.com/sanctions-fail-to-stop-kremlin-disinformation-spreading-in-kosovo-and-albania-mag/

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was followed by sanction packages targeting state-controlled Russian media platforms. Several Balkan countries—including Kosovo and Albania—decided to block access to Kremlin-controlled outlets, however Kremlin’s information tactics have continued to pe*****te th...

11/29/2025

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp85yd5j3e0o

The Serbian project, led by Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, has run into opposition and scandal.

11/29/2025

The pop star has Albanian-Kosovan parents, and previously was granted Albanian citizenship.

11/29/2025

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y488q4dlwo

Hasan's father, Emin, died in 2019, just four weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

11/09/2025

The Country Still Waiting at the Door”

In 1999, the skies above Kosovo were filled with the roar of NATO jets. Bombs fell to stop a human catastrophe — to end killings, to save lives. Out of that destruction, a small nation was born — wounded, but hopeful.
Yet the war left more than ruins behind.
Many still talk about the depleted uranium used in the bombings — a metal meant to pierce tanks, but said by some to have pierced people’s health instead. Scientists argue, politicians deny, and the truth gets lost somewhere between reports and memories. What remains are the stories — of sickness, of loss, and of questions that never find answers.
More than twenty years later, Kosovo still carries those scars — in its land, its people, and its heart. It rebuilt, it healed, and it chose peace. But the doors of NATO and the European Union remain closed.
Kosovo stands outside, waiting — not with bitterness, but with quiet hope.
Because the dream is simple: to belong to the same family that once came to save it.
Maybe one day, the same sky that brought destruction will open again — not for war, but for welcome.

In 1999, NATO used uranium ammunition during the Kosovo War. Numerous soldiers subsequently developed cancer, and some were awarded compensation. In Kosovo, the soil remains poisonous to this day.

10/13/2025

Chronology as a Short Story: From Occupation to the Freedom of Kosovo

From Darkness to Light: Kosovo’s Journey to Freedom (1991–1999)
A journey through pain, resistance, and the unbreakable will of a people — from oppression to liberation.

The winter of 1991 in Kosovo was more than just a cold season. It marked the beginning of a dark era for the Albanian people, where the chill came not only from the skies but from the repressive policies imposed after Serbia formally revoked Kosovo’s autonomy. With deliberate political orders and systemic strategies, more than one hundred thousand Albanians were expelled from their workplaces. Schools became foreign to Albanian children — the Albanian language was banned, and thousands of teachers were dismissed under a regime that no longer masked its oppressive intent. Institutions were turned into instruments of exclusion, and Serbian police took on the role of occupying forces in towns across Kosovo. Remittances from the diaspora were seized at the borders, and young Albanian men were forcibly drafted into the Yugoslav army — not to serve their country, but as a tactic of intimidation to force them into exile. Violence was no longer only structural; it became personal and brutal. German diplomat Th. Schmitt, after an official visit to Pristina in December that year, described the situation as catastrophic. His report cited examples that went beyond classical political repression — including inhumane torture such as forcing a young man to swallow a knife, or violently humiliating a father by stealing his wedding ring, even reports of forced castration — acts that clearly constituted crimes against humanity, even in the absence of a declared war.
Faced with such a reality, the Albanian people did not give in. A whole parallel system of life was built inside private homes — schools, clinics, a government-in-exile — structures that kept the spirit of a silenced population alive. In 1991, a referendum for independence was held, supported by over 99% of Albanian voters. Though not internationally recognized at the time, it laid the foundation for self-determination. In makeshift elections under harsh conditions, Ibrahim Rugova was elected President, and Kosovo began functioning as a republic in the shadows, distanced from violence but close to its people. While the world focused on the wars in Croatia and Bosnia, Kosovo remained in the background, forcing its people to seek new ways to fight for freedom. While the peaceful movement dominated the public space, secret armed resistance cells began forming — later to become the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
In 1996, the KLA made its first public appearance, claiming responsibility for attacks against Serbian forces. Initially met with skepticism, even among Albanians, the events that followed proved the necessity of this new form of resistance. In 1997, after the collapse of Albania’s state during the pyramid scheme crisis, weapons flowed into Kosovo, boosting the KLA’s military capability. The time for endurance had passed — open confrontation was now inevitable.
In 1998, armed conflict erupted. On February 28, massacres occurred in Likoshan and Çirez. Days later, on March 5, the legendary Battle of Prekaz took place, where KLA commander Adem Jashari and 58 members of his family were killed. This act became the very definition of sacrifice and turned Prekaz into a symbol of national resistance. The determination for freedom grew stronger, both among Albanians and in the eyes of the world. Violence escalated rapidly — villages were burned, hundreds of civilians killed, and tens of thousands displaced. International attention finally began to focus. In January 1999, the Račak Massacre — where 45 Albanian civilians were murdered — sparked global outrage and was deemed a crime against humanity. The Rambouillet Conference followed in an attempt to negotiate peace, but Serbia refused to sign the agreement, which proposed the return of autonomy to Kosovo and the deployment of international peacekeepers.
On March 24, 1999, NATO launched an aerial campaign against Serbian forces — an intervention without UN Security Council approval, but with broad international support as a necessary response to ongoing ethnic cleansing. More than 800,000 Albanians were forcibly expelled, hundreds of massacres were committed against unarmed civilians, and r**e was used systematically as a weapon of war. After 78 days of bombings, Serbia agreed to withdraw. On June 10, 1999, NATO forces entered Kosovo, marking the end of the war and the beginning of a new chapter — the long process of building freedom.
Yet one question remains: What does Serbia still seek in Kosovo, when it has already lost it — not only politically, but morally, historically, and in the hearts of its people? Serbia lost Kosovo not because of international pressure alone, but because of the crimes it committed — through decades of exclusion, discrimination, and finally, genocide. It lost it by murdering children, ra**ng women, burning the elderly in their homes, and burying civilians in mass graves. These are wounds that no negotiation can erase. Serbia lost Kosovo because no state can hold on to a land where its people no longer wish to belong to it. And the people of Kosovo have never wished to belong to a state that treated them as foreigners in their own land, as second-class citizens, as beings to be dominated.
Still, to this day, Serbia refuses to accept reality. It continues to interfere, to deny, to block progress. It has yet to offer a sincere apology — instead, it seeks control. But it forgets a fundamental truth: a land belongs to those who live in it, who build it, who protect it with their lives — not to a state that brought only war, pain, and ashes to its soil. Kosovo is free because its people paid the ultimate price for freedom. It does not belong to those who ruled it with terror. It belongs to those who resisted, who endured, and who rose again — not to return to the past, but to build a future that will never again be dictated by fear

“Albanian, American media”
October 13, 2025

09/26/2025

Kosovo's acting prime minister has urged the international community not to treat Serbia as a normal state until it hands over those responsible for a deadly incursion by Serb gunmen in 2023.

09/26/2025

Former U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin has testified for the defense of Kosovo's former president, Hashim Thaçi, against war crimes charges.

09/15/2025

WHY THE WEST IS GETTING KOSOVO WRONG —AND REWORDING SERBIA

A dangerous paradox is playing out in Balkan politics:Kosovo,the most democratic and pro-Western country in the region, has long been placed under pressure by the West itself, while Serbia, a constant source of tension and an open ally of Russia, continues to be tolerated and even rewarded.
Does Europe truly understand that Serbia will never genuinely align with the West? Historically and politically, Serbia has always been,and will remain, a loyal ally of Russia.
So why is all this pressure placed on Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Albin Kurti?
He is often portrayed as “harsh,” “unwilling to compromise,” or someone who “doesn’t want peace.” But this is a deeply distorted picture. In reality, Kurti is doing what any responsible leader would do: defending a young and fragile state that faces daily threats, from Serbian-funded parallel structures, from extremist groups, and even from those who recently attacked northern Kosovo in the presence of international troops.
How could international actors not have been aware of the planned partition of northern Kosovo? And how can they then demand that Kurti simply “ease tensions” while he’s confronting a real destabilization effort?
In this context, Kurti’s caution and vigilance are not only understandable,they are necessary. He is defending not just sovereignty, but the democratic principles of a nation that has already suffered under Serbia. He is a leader who refuses to allow Kosovo to fall again into Serbian hands, and to relive the horrors of the 1990s, horrors he personally endured as a political prisoner in Serbia’s infamous jails.
Meanwhile, Serbia continues to push a revanchist agenda, still viewing Kosovo as “lost territory,” refusing to apologize for crimes in Kosovo and Bosnia, and maintaining a strong alliance with Putin’s Russia. The “Serb World” project continues unchallenged — and yet parts of the international community still treat Serbia as a “stability partner.” This is not just hypocrisy — it is a moral and strategic failure for the region’s future.
In this reality, Albanians are not the source of conflict — they are the strongest barrier against the return of a violent past. That is precisely why Kosovo is often punished, while Serbia is rewarded.
If the West truly wants peace in the Balkans, it must stop confusing aggressors with victims. It must take a firm stance: either stand with those who build states and democracy, or with those seeking to restore empires through hate and aggression.

Albanian,American media

09/14/2025

Diella, who is powered by artificial intelligence, will handle public procurement.

09/14/2025

A new minister in Albania charged to handle public procurement will be impervious to bribes, threats, or attempts to curry favour. That is because Diella, as she is called, is an AI-generated bot.