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At the independence celebration of their Flag Day tonight, local Albanians will be rallying around the presidential campaign of retired Gen. Wesley Clark, who as NATO commander led the 1999 bombing campaign to stop ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
"He saved a lot of lives" of ethnic Albanians, said Gani Ahmetaj, who was born in Kosovo and came to the United States 10 years ago as a refugee. "To Milosevic, he held out peace in one hand and bombs in the other. I like people like this. They can use force effectively as a last resort."
The war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslavian president, is in its second year at The Hague. Prosecutors are seeking to convict him of genocide.
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"I don't think that the Albanian community has particularly strong partisan leanings naturally," Lease said, but they are "strongly moved to Clark's candidacy on a real personal, gut level.
"There were a lot of Albanians who hadn't missed a day of work in six years who took a day off to meet General Clark when he campaigned in Milwaukee. They love him." Capital Times (WI)
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