At least 10,000 people were slaughtered by Serbian forces during their three-month campaign to drive the Albanians from Kosovo, according to war crimes investigators, NATO peacekeeping troops and aid agencies struggling to keep up with fresh reports each day of newly discovered bodies and graves.
That death toll would be more than twice the number of about 4,600 dead estimated by the State Department in late May, shortly before the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague indicted the Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, and four of his top aides on charges of crimes against humanity. They were accused of ordering the Serbs' push to purge Kosovo of its Albanians, who made up 90 percent of the province's prewar population of 2.2 million.
''We're getting newly reported mass graves every day in all of Kosovo,'' said J. Clint Williamson, a legal officer and leading investigator for the tribunal. ''The list keeps growing.''
This afternoon, for example, tribunal investigators and British troops rushed off to a grassy roadside near the village of Lukare, a few miles northeast of here, where three grave sites were reported by local Albanians to contain possibly 100 or more bodies.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The Scary Truth Behind the Milosevic Trial
http://www.thetrumpet.com/print.php?q=976.0.66.0
The greatest intelligence failure of the past five years was not about Iraq. It was intelligence about Slobodan Milosevic and events leading up to the Balkans war. But strangely, we hear very little about this subject.
The media and our educational institutions are becoming more and more like Hollywood—they too often live in a fantasy world.
We have said from the beginning of the Balkans war that Germany, aided by the Vatican, led nato into that war. And it did it with blatantly deceptive intelligence.
Germany and the Vatican are the heart of the rising Holy Roman Empire. This is the seventh resurrection of that bloody empire. (Write for our free booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire to fully understand this subject.) This empire received its fame by wading through rivers of blood and conquering other nations. And it is going to start World War iii. In a sense, the Balkans are the first victim of World War iii. There will be many more victims.
Germany and the Vatican recognized Catholic Croatia (a Nazi puppet state under Hitler) as a breakaway republic from Yugoslavia. Most nations disagreed with that decision. But Germany prevailed, and it led to a civil war in the Balkans.
German leaders started and sustained the intelligence reports about genocide being committed by Slobodan Milosevic in the Balkans. We have proven that in our booklet The Rising Beast. (All of our books and booklets are free.)
Here is what Neil Clark, a Balkans specialist, wrote in the Guardian newspaper of London, February 12: “It is two years today that the trial of Slobodan Milosevic opened at The Hague. The chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, was triumphant as she announced the 66 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity and genocide that the former Yugoslavian president was charged with. cnn was among those who called it ‘the most important trial since Nuremburg’ as the prosecution outlined the ‘crimes of medieval savagery’ allegedly committed by the ‘butcher of Belgrade.’
“But since those heady days, things have gone horribly wrong for Ms. Del Ponte. The charges relating to the war in Kosovo were expected to be the strongest part of her case. But not only has the prosecution signally failed to prove Milosevic’s personal responsibility for atrocities committed on the ground, the nature and extent of the atrocities themselves has also been called into question.
“Numerous prosecution witnesses have been exposed as liars—such as Bilall Avdiu, who claimed to have seen ‘around half a dozen mutilated bodies’ at Racak, scene of the disputed killings that triggered the U.S.-led Kosovo war. Forensic evidence later confirmed that none of the bodies had been mutilated. Insiders who we were told would finally spill the beans on Milosevic turned out to be nothing of the kind. Rade Markovic, the former head of the Yugoslavian secret service, ended up testifying in favor of his old boss, saying that he had been subjected to a year and a half of ‘pressure and torture’ to sign a statement prepared by the court. Ratomir Tanic, another ‘insider,’ was shown to have been in the pay of British intelligence.
“When it came to the indictments involving the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, the prosecution fared little better. In the case of the worst massacre with which Milosevic has been accused of complicity—of between 2,000 and 4,000 men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995—Del Ponte’s team have produced nothing to challenge the verdict of the five-year inquiry commissioned by the Dutch government—that there was ‘no proof that orders for the slaughter came from Serb political leaders in Belgrade.’”
These are shocking facts about trumped-up intelligence against Milosevic. Germany virtually pulled the whole world into this massive crime!
But what does it mean? It is the strongest sign in recent years that Germany has not repented of its Nazi past. It is the best indicator of where Germany and the European Union are headed.
And now Germany has shown in the Iraqi war that it is not the friend of America and Britain. This bitter ingratitude came after Britain and America, at first strongly against Germany’s recognizing Croatia, caved in to Germany’s war—causing belligerence. And America provided 80 percent of the power to beat Milosevic into submission.
It was also America that rebuilt Germany after World War ii. Still, German ingratitude is overwhelming. Something has gone seriously wrong in Germany—again! How long will it take America and Britain to awaken?
America and Britain had no reason to fear Milosevic. But we have every reason to fear a militant Germany, leading the EU—a coming superpower soon to rival America.
Have we forgotten that Germany started World War i and World War ii? Now it is bullying Europe. And its aggressive tactics will spread around the world. The German Reich (or empire) is back. And the Germans will be expanding their empire, as they have done throughout history.
The media won’t stop screaming about faulty intelligence on Iraq. I’m still not convinced there were no weapons of mass destruction (wmd). Can anyone imagine Saddam Hussein destroying his wmd? Also, there is no evidence he did so. Still the media cling to the Iraqi intelligence failure (and there were obviously some mistakes). At the same time, they avoid the painful truth about the Milosevic trial. And he was a mild dictator compared to Saddam Hussein.
Superpowers have been destroyed in history for refusing to face the hard truths. America and Britain are going to pay a heavy price for deceiving themselves about Germany and the Balkans war. But for the time being, they refuse to face their hideous crime.
John Laughland is European director of the European Foundation, the leading London-based Eurorealist think tank. He is also the author of The Tainted Source—The Undemocratic Origins of the European Idea—a very ominous title! It is a subject very consistent with what we have been writing about the eu for over 50 years.
Here is what he wrote in the Spectator magazine of Britain, July 10: “For a few hours on Monday, the world’s human rights establishment was seized by terror. Slobodan Milosevic had been due to begin his defense at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (icty) in The Hague, but instead discussion focused on the former president’s fragile health, which has been made worse by the rigors of the trial. When the presiding judge, Patrick Robinson, said that a ‘radical review’ of the proceedings would now be necessary, many do-gooders feared that their worst nightmare was about to be realized—that the international community’s main trophy in its crusade for morality might, if only on medical grounds, be allowed to walk free.”
“Do-gooders” are some of the most dangerous people on this planet! They often have strong views based on little understanding. And this is a dangerous age to have strong influence combined with distorted reasoning.
Mr. Laughland also wrote that “the two-year prosecution case has been a nearly unmitigated disaster. Since the trial started in February 2002, the prosecution has wheeled out more than 100 witnesses, and it has produced 600,000 pages of evidence. Not a single person has testified that Milosevic ordered war crimes. Whole swaths of the indictment on Kosovo have been left unsubstantiated, even though Milosevic’s command responsibility here is clearest. And when the prosecution did try to substantiate its charges, the result was often farce” (ibid.; emphasis mine throughout).
Can that be true? “Not a single person has testified that Milosevic ordered war crimes.” He is a saint compared to Saddam Hussein!
But today the do-gooders are out defending Saddam and prosecuting Milosevic! It’s a very dangerous way to reason in the age of wmd.
Here is another statement by Mr. Laughland: “Serious doubt has also been cast on some of the most famous atrocity stories. Remember the refrigerator truck whose discovery in the Danube in 1999, full of bodies, was gleefully reported as Milosevic was transferred to The Hague in June 2001? The truck had allegedly been retrieved from the river and then driven to the outskirts of Belgrade, where its contents were interred in a mass grave. But cross-examination showed that there is no proof that the bodies exhumed were the ones in the truck, nor that any of them came from Kosovo. Instead, it is quite possible that the Batajnica mass grave dated from the Second World War, while the refrigerator truck may have contained Kurds being smuggled to Western Europe, the victims of a grisly traffic accident. The realization is now dawning that lies were peddled to justify the Kosovo war ….
“In February, the chief prosecutor herself, Carla del Ponte, admitted that she did not have enough evidence to convict Milosevic on the most serious charges” (ibid.).
That is quite an admission from the chief prosecutor. But where are the “truth seeking” media? Most of them are silent on this issue.
All kinds of lies were told to justify the Balkans war! That has now been abundantly proven. Slobodan’s sin is simply that he was an enemy of Germany and the Vatican—the Holy Roman Empire.
Now many critics are saying that lies were told to justify the Iraqi war. But that charge has never been backed by evidence. Iraq, under Saddam, was a terrorist-sponsoring nation. And the only way to win the war against terrorism is to stop terrorist-sponsoring nations. That is the big picture that escapes most of our people.
Such is the world in which we live. But there is more.
“The supposedly impartial judges have been deeply complicit in this prosecution bungling,” Laughland continued. “The icty has long been characterized by an unhealthy community of interests between the judges and the prosecutors; I have myself heard the first president of the icty, Judge Antonio Cassese, boast that he encouraged the prosecutor to issue indictments against the Bosnian Serb leaders, a statement which should disqualify him from serving as a judge ever again. In the Milosevic trial, the judges have admitted a tawdry parade of ‘expert witnesses’ who are not, in fact, witnesses to anything. In Britain, the role of experts is rightly under the spotlight after the convictions of some 250 parents found guilty of killing their babies have been thrown into doubt precisely because they relied on this kind of testimony; but in the icty you can be a ‘witness’ without ever having set foot in Yugoslavia.
“Numerous other judicial abuses have been legitimized by the icty. The use of hearsay evidence is now so out of control that people are often allowed to testify that they heard someone say something about someone else. It is common for the icty to offer reduced sentences (five years in one case) to men convicted of hideous crimes, mass murder for instance, if they agree to testify against Milosevic” (ibid.).
So much for justice coming out of the International Criminal Court in The Hague!
There is a vital lesson here. This gives us a good insight into the justice system of the coming eu superpower. Let the world beware!
But don’t despair. Worldwide justice is coming in this generation, and that is not a fantasy. Request our booklet The Wonderful World Tomorrow—What It Will Be Like.
This whole Balkans affair is a classic example of how human nature rarely seeks the truth. It is very human to seek only the truth that fits into one’s distorted view of the world. Such reasoning is why our number-one problem today is that of human survival! So don’t expect the media and politicians to change their perspective on the Balkans.
The Milosevic history gets even more twisted. Who is really being cleansed ethnically?
“As nato’s first intervention in a sovereign nation, the war in Kosovo required considerable justification. Throughout the year, nato officials built their case, first calling the situation in Kosovo ‘ethnic cleansing,’ and then ‘genocide.’ In March, State Department spokesman James Rubin told reporters that nato did not need to prove that the Serbs were carrying out a policy of genocide because it was clear that crimes against humanity were being committed. But just after the war in June, President Bill Clinton again invoked the term, saying, ‘nato stopped deliberate, systematic efforts at ethnic cleansing and genocide.’”
But did that ethnic cleansing and genocide really happen? There is no proof. But there is proof that the Serbs are suffering from ethnic cleansing!
Here is what George Jonas wrote in Canada’s National Post, March 22: “The Western powers that went into Kosovo to prevent ethnic cleansing have ended up presiding over it. Last week, nearly 1,000 Serbs fled their homes after Albanian Muslims attacked Serb Christians in their churches and villages. They were the latest of about 200,000 Serbs driven from the province since nato bombed Serbia into submission in 1999. Last Friday, news agencies quoted Admiral Gregory Johnson, U.S. commander of nato forces for southern Europe, as saying that ‘this kind of activity almost amounts to ethnic cleansing.’
“Admiral Johnson added a wistful comment: ‘That’s why we came here in the first place.’ The remark indicates that after 200,000 refugees, the coin may be dropping even for nato’s brass. …
“As justification for nato’s intervention, Mr. Clinton often invoked comparisons with the Holocaust. In a May 1999 speech, for instance, the U.S. president declared the allies were bombing Yugoslavia to put an end to regimes that persecute people on the basis of ‘how they worship or who their parents were.’ It was a good sound bite—except Yugoslavia’s ethnic Albanians weren’t being expelled because of their ancestry or their choice of worship. If the thuggish regime of Slobodan Milosevic was trying to drive them out of Kosovo, it was because they’d been fighting the Serbs for the mastery of the region. Comparisons with the Holocaust were bogus.”
Most of this conquering was accomplished with U.S. military power. But it is Germany and the European Union that are taking control of the former Yugoslavia. And Germany is giving the U.S. no credit, though it does often blame America for many of the problems that have developed.
Former Yugoslavia is a part of the Balkans, or Balkan Peninsula, along with Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece and European Turkey. The Balkan Peninsula is an extremely important strategic area.
The Adriatic Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea. The German-led EU is also working hard to get control of the Mediterranean Sea—of even greater strategic importance.
Look at any map and you can see the strategic value. However, it seems only Germany fully realizes the significance of these areas. The Germans are willing to challenge the whole world to gain control of them. It seems nobody has asked WHY these areas are so important to Germany!
Where is this leading?
The same spirit that caused Germany to start two world wars still prevails in that land! Soon the whole world will understand. Shocking as it may be, your Bible prophesies that people by the multiple millions will once again suffer from Germany’s violent attacks, as the Germans lead Europe.
This major turnaround in the Balkans has caused Europe to look to Germany once again. The Balkans war was a watershed event in the new direction of Europe. Germany is about to shock the world as it has never done before! And it has a rich history of shocking the world.
Notice what Sir Winston Churchill said, May 31, 1935: “Everywhere these countries are being made to look to Germany in a special way.”
And today all of Europe is looking to Germany in a special way. The outcome will be frighteningly similar to World War ii—except it will be about 10,000 times more destructive!
It seems we have learned nothing from Germany’s history. Even terrifying events like World War ii taught us nothing—just as Winston Churchill warned the world in the 1930s that it had learned nothing from Germany’s history and World War i.
Here is what Churchill said Feb. 7, 1934: “Not one of the lessons of the past has been learned, not one of them has been applied, and the situation is incomparably more dangerous.”
And the situation today “is incomparably more dangerous,” with our weapons of mass destruction, than it was in World War ii!
When Germany starts World War iii, we will finally learn some lessons—but only after America, Britain and the little nation called Israel today have become victims.
The booklets we offer you will explain how our nations could be saved from this coming catastrophe. If the nations refuse to respond, you can still avoid this calamity. But there isn’t much time, so we hope you act before it is too late! •
The media and our educational institutions are becoming more and more like Hollywood—they too often live in a fantasy world.
We have said from the beginning of the Balkans war that Germany, aided by the Vatican, led nato into that war. And it did it with blatantly deceptive intelligence.
Germany and the Vatican are the heart of the rising Holy Roman Empire. This is the seventh resurrection of that bloody empire. (Write for our free booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire to fully understand this subject.) This empire received its fame by wading through rivers of blood and conquering other nations. And it is going to start World War iii. In a sense, the Balkans are the first victim of World War iii. There will be many more victims.
Germany and the Vatican recognized Catholic Croatia (a Nazi puppet state under Hitler) as a breakaway republic from Yugoslavia. Most nations disagreed with that decision. But Germany prevailed, and it led to a civil war in the Balkans.
German leaders started and sustained the intelligence reports about genocide being committed by Slobodan Milosevic in the Balkans. We have proven that in our booklet The Rising Beast. (All of our books and booklets are free.)
Where Is the Proof?
“But since those heady days, things have gone horribly wrong for Ms. Del Ponte. The charges relating to the war in Kosovo were expected to be the strongest part of her case. But not only has the prosecution signally failed to prove Milosevic’s personal responsibility for atrocities committed on the ground, the nature and extent of the atrocities themselves has also been called into question.
“Numerous prosecution witnesses have been exposed as liars—such as Bilall Avdiu, who claimed to have seen ‘around half a dozen mutilated bodies’ at Racak, scene of the disputed killings that triggered the U.S.-led Kosovo war. Forensic evidence later confirmed that none of the bodies had been mutilated. Insiders who we were told would finally spill the beans on Milosevic turned out to be nothing of the kind. Rade Markovic, the former head of the Yugoslavian secret service, ended up testifying in favor of his old boss, saying that he had been subjected to a year and a half of ‘pressure and torture’ to sign a statement prepared by the court. Ratomir Tanic, another ‘insider,’ was shown to have been in the pay of British intelligence.
“When it came to the indictments involving the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, the prosecution fared little better. In the case of the worst massacre with which Milosevic has been accused of complicity—of between 2,000 and 4,000 men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995—Del Ponte’s team have produced nothing to challenge the verdict of the five-year inquiry commissioned by the Dutch government—that there was ‘no proof that orders for the slaughter came from Serb political leaders in Belgrade.’”
These are shocking facts about trumped-up intelligence against Milosevic. Germany virtually pulled the whole world into this massive crime!
But what does it mean? It is the strongest sign in recent years that Germany has not repented of its Nazi past. It is the best indicator of where Germany and the European Union are headed.
And now Germany has shown in the Iraqi war that it is not the friend of America and Britain. This bitter ingratitude came after Britain and America, at first strongly against Germany’s recognizing Croatia, caved in to Germany’s war—causing belligerence. And America provided 80 percent of the power to beat Milosevic into submission.
It was also America that rebuilt Germany after World War ii. Still, German ingratitude is overwhelming. Something has gone seriously wrong in Germany—again! How long will it take America and Britain to awaken?
America and Britain had no reason to fear Milosevic. But we have every reason to fear a militant Germany, leading the EU—a coming superpower soon to rival America.
Have we forgotten that Germany started World War i and World War ii? Now it is bullying Europe. And its aggressive tactics will spread around the world. The German Reich (or empire) is back. And the Germans will be expanding their empire, as they have done throughout history.
The media won’t stop screaming about faulty intelligence on Iraq. I’m still not convinced there were no weapons of mass destruction (wmd). Can anyone imagine Saddam Hussein destroying his wmd? Also, there is no evidence he did so. Still the media cling to the Iraqi intelligence failure (and there were obviously some mistakes). At the same time, they avoid the painful truth about the Milosevic trial. And he was a mild dictator compared to Saddam Hussein.
Superpowers have been destroyed in history for refusing to face the hard truths. America and Britain are going to pay a heavy price for deceiving themselves about Germany and the Balkans war. But for the time being, they refuse to face their hideous crime.
Lies to Justify the War
John Laughland is European director of the European Foundation, the leading London-based Eurorealist think tank. He is also the author of The Tainted Source—The Undemocratic Origins of the European Idea—a very ominous title! It is a subject very consistent with what we have been writing about the eu for over 50 years.
Here is what he wrote in the Spectator magazine of Britain, July 10: “For a few hours on Monday, the world’s human rights establishment was seized by terror. Slobodan Milosevic had been due to begin his defense at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (icty) in The Hague, but instead discussion focused on the former president’s fragile health, which has been made worse by the rigors of the trial. When the presiding judge, Patrick Robinson, said that a ‘radical review’ of the proceedings would now be necessary, many do-gooders feared that their worst nightmare was about to be realized—that the international community’s main trophy in its crusade for morality might, if only on medical grounds, be allowed to walk free.”
“Do-gooders” are some of the most dangerous people on this planet! They often have strong views based on little understanding. And this is a dangerous age to have strong influence combined with distorted reasoning.
Mr. Laughland also wrote that “the two-year prosecution case has been a nearly unmitigated disaster. Since the trial started in February 2002, the prosecution has wheeled out more than 100 witnesses, and it has produced 600,000 pages of evidence. Not a single person has testified that Milosevic ordered war crimes. Whole swaths of the indictment on Kosovo have been left unsubstantiated, even though Milosevic’s command responsibility here is clearest. And when the prosecution did try to substantiate its charges, the result was often farce” (ibid.; emphasis mine throughout).
Can that be true? “Not a single person has testified that Milosevic ordered war crimes.” He is a saint compared to Saddam Hussein!
But today the do-gooders are out defending Saddam and prosecuting Milosevic! It’s a very dangerous way to reason in the age of wmd.
Here is another statement by Mr. Laughland: “Serious doubt has also been cast on some of the most famous atrocity stories. Remember the refrigerator truck whose discovery in the Danube in 1999, full of bodies, was gleefully reported as Milosevic was transferred to The Hague in June 2001? The truck had allegedly been retrieved from the river and then driven to the outskirts of Belgrade, where its contents were interred in a mass grave. But cross-examination showed that there is no proof that the bodies exhumed were the ones in the truck, nor that any of them came from Kosovo. Instead, it is quite possible that the Batajnica mass grave dated from the Second World War, while the refrigerator truck may have contained Kurds being smuggled to Western Europe, the victims of a grisly traffic accident. The realization is now dawning that lies were peddled to justify the Kosovo war ….
“In February, the chief prosecutor herself, Carla del Ponte, admitted that she did not have enough evidence to convict Milosevic on the most serious charges” (ibid.).
That is quite an admission from the chief prosecutor. But where are the “truth seeking” media? Most of them are silent on this issue.
All kinds of lies were told to justify the Balkans war! That has now been abundantly proven. Slobodan’s sin is simply that he was an enemy of Germany and the Vatican—the Holy Roman Empire.
Now many critics are saying that lies were told to justify the Iraqi war. But that charge has never been backed by evidence. Iraq, under Saddam, was a terrorist-sponsoring nation. And the only way to win the war against terrorism is to stop terrorist-sponsoring nations. That is the big picture that escapes most of our people.
Such is the world in which we live. But there is more.
“The supposedly impartial judges have been deeply complicit in this prosecution bungling,” Laughland continued. “The icty has long been characterized by an unhealthy community of interests between the judges and the prosecutors; I have myself heard the first president of the icty, Judge Antonio Cassese, boast that he encouraged the prosecutor to issue indictments against the Bosnian Serb leaders, a statement which should disqualify him from serving as a judge ever again. In the Milosevic trial, the judges have admitted a tawdry parade of ‘expert witnesses’ who are not, in fact, witnesses to anything. In Britain, the role of experts is rightly under the spotlight after the convictions of some 250 parents found guilty of killing their babies have been thrown into doubt precisely because they relied on this kind of testimony; but in the icty you can be a ‘witness’ without ever having set foot in Yugoslavia.
“Numerous other judicial abuses have been legitimized by the icty. The use of hearsay evidence is now so out of control that people are often allowed to testify that they heard someone say something about someone else. It is common for the icty to offer reduced sentences (five years in one case) to men convicted of hideous crimes, mass murder for instance, if they agree to testify against Milosevic” (ibid.).
So much for justice coming out of the International Criminal Court in The Hague!
There is a vital lesson here. This gives us a good insight into the justice system of the coming eu superpower. Let the world beware!
But don’t despair. Worldwide justice is coming in this generation, and that is not a fantasy. Request our booklet The Wonderful World Tomorrow—What It Will Be Like.
This whole Balkans affair is a classic example of how human nature rarely seeks the truth. It is very human to seek only the truth that fits into one’s distorted view of the world. Such reasoning is why our number-one problem today is that of human survival! So don’t expect the media and politicians to change their perspective on the Balkans.
The Milosevic history gets even more twisted. Who is really being cleansed ethnically?
Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide
Here is a statement from Stratfor Systems, Oct. 17, 1999: “On March 22 [1999], British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons, ‘We must act to save thousands of innocent men, women and children from humanitarian catastrophe, from death, barbarism and ethnic cleansing by a brutal dictatorship.’ The next day, as the air war began, President Clinton stated, ‘What we are trying to do is to limit his [Milosevic’s] ability to win a military victory and engage in ethnic cleansing and slaughter innocent people and to do everything we can to induce him to take this peace agreement.’ “As nato’s first intervention in a sovereign nation, the war in Kosovo required considerable justification. Throughout the year, nato officials built their case, first calling the situation in Kosovo ‘ethnic cleansing,’ and then ‘genocide.’ In March, State Department spokesman James Rubin told reporters that nato did not need to prove that the Serbs were carrying out a policy of genocide because it was clear that crimes against humanity were being committed. But just after the war in June, President Bill Clinton again invoked the term, saying, ‘nato stopped deliberate, systematic efforts at ethnic cleansing and genocide.’”
But did that ethnic cleansing and genocide really happen? There is no proof. But there is proof that the Serbs are suffering from ethnic cleansing!
Here is what George Jonas wrote in Canada’s National Post, March 22: “The Western powers that went into Kosovo to prevent ethnic cleansing have ended up presiding over it. Last week, nearly 1,000 Serbs fled their homes after Albanian Muslims attacked Serb Christians in their churches and villages. They were the latest of about 200,000 Serbs driven from the province since nato bombed Serbia into submission in 1999. Last Friday, news agencies quoted Admiral Gregory Johnson, U.S. commander of nato forces for southern Europe, as saying that ‘this kind of activity almost amounts to ethnic cleansing.’
“Admiral Johnson added a wistful comment: ‘That’s why we came here in the first place.’ The remark indicates that after 200,000 refugees, the coin may be dropping even for nato’s brass. …
“As justification for nato’s intervention, Mr. Clinton often invoked comparisons with the Holocaust. In a May 1999 speech, for instance, the U.S. president declared the allies were bombing Yugoslavia to put an end to regimes that persecute people on the basis of ‘how they worship or who their parents were.’ It was a good sound bite—except Yugoslavia’s ethnic Albanians weren’t being expelled because of their ancestry or their choice of worship. If the thuggish regime of Slobodan Milosevic was trying to drive them out of Kosovo, it was because they’d been fighting the Serbs for the mastery of the region. Comparisons with the Holocaust were bogus.”
Germany’s Strategy
State by state, the country of Yugoslavia has been conquered. Even the name Yugoslavia is being discarded. Most of this conquering was accomplished with U.S. military power. But it is Germany and the European Union that are taking control of the former Yugoslavia. And Germany is giving the U.S. no credit, though it does often blame America for many of the problems that have developed.
Former Yugoslavia is a part of the Balkans, or Balkan Peninsula, along with Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece and European Turkey. The Balkan Peninsula is an extremely important strategic area.
The Adriatic Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea. The German-led EU is also working hard to get control of the Mediterranean Sea—of even greater strategic importance.
Look at any map and you can see the strategic value. However, it seems only Germany fully realizes the significance of these areas. The Germans are willing to challenge the whole world to gain control of them. It seems nobody has asked WHY these areas are so important to Germany!
Where is this leading?
The same spirit that caused Germany to start two world wars still prevails in that land! Soon the whole world will understand. Shocking as it may be, your Bible prophesies that people by the multiple millions will once again suffer from Germany’s violent attacks, as the Germans lead Europe.
This major turnaround in the Balkans has caused Europe to look to Germany once again. The Balkans war was a watershed event in the new direction of Europe. Germany is about to shock the world as it has never done before! And it has a rich history of shocking the world.
Notice what Sir Winston Churchill said, May 31, 1935: “Everywhere these countries are being made to look to Germany in a special way.”
And today all of Europe is looking to Germany in a special way. The outcome will be frighteningly similar to World War ii—except it will be about 10,000 times more destructive!
It seems we have learned nothing from Germany’s history. Even terrifying events like World War ii taught us nothing—just as Winston Churchill warned the world in the 1930s that it had learned nothing from Germany’s history and World War i.
Here is what Churchill said Feb. 7, 1934: “Not one of the lessons of the past has been learned, not one of them has been applied, and the situation is incomparably more dangerous.”
And the situation today “is incomparably more dangerous,” with our weapons of mass destruction, than it was in World War ii!
When Germany starts World War iii, we will finally learn some lessons—but only after America, Britain and the little nation called Israel today have become victims.
The booklets we offer you will explain how our nations could be saved from this coming catastrophe. If the nations refuse to respond, you can still avoid this calamity. But there isn’t much time, so we hope you act before it is too late! •
NYT 1999: INQUIRY ESTIMATES SERB DRIVE KILLED 10,000 IN KOSOVO
INQUIRY ESTIMATES SERB DRIVE KILLED 10,000 IN KOSOVO
The Albanians said the valley had been along the route of a transit march when Serb forces drove them from the north. The villagers said their men were taken away from a column of about 500 refugees.
By late afternoon, four bodies, all extensively decomposed, had been exhumed and Lieut. Col. Robin Hodges, a British spokesman, said the work was likely to continue all day.
On Friday, villagers returning to Goden, a settlement near the western town of Djakovica, discovered 20 bodies, along with Yugoslav Army log books describing how soldiers had emptied the village and killed people.
War crimes investigators here say they have been overwhelmed by the constant flooding in of reports of new grave sites. They add that the true toll may never be known, because many villagers simply bury their relatives without telling Western officials.
Other deaths went unrecorded in the chaotic press of events when peacekeepers and United Nations relief workers first arrived here a month ago. Still other bodies may never be found, having been burned or carried off by Serbs in an effort to destroy evidence, or are still undiscovered, and maybe forever lost, in Kosovo's forests and mountains.
''Every time a villager comes back in, there are new body findings,'' said an international official familiar with the progress of the investigation. ''You're dealing with a crime base that just keeps growing. It's just overwhelming.''
The constant reports of new grave sites and a lack of coordination between various international agencies have meant that it is only in the last few days that investigators, peacekeeping troops and others have been able to compile reports giving a comprehensive view on the ground of the scale of the killing.
On Monday, the new system of attempting to pull together the information from all sources into an aggregate number for the tribunal at The Hague had produced a total of 201 grave sites with a reported 4,900 bodies, according to Lieut. Col. Robin Clifford, spokesman for Lieut. Gen. Sir Michael Jackson, commander of the Kosovo peacekeeping force.
By Thursday afternoon, Mr. Williamson, the tribunal official, said the numbers had grown to 280 grave sites with more than 6,100 reported bodies. Colonel Clifford, among others, warned that even those numbers underreported the actual number of deaths.
''It's very difficult to keep track of this,'' the military spokesman said. ''At first, no one was even keeping any of these figures. A number of these bodies are being dug up by villagers and reburied. You could have groups of three, four or five bodies that do not get reported. We have a group of 30 unclaimed bodies and that is not an unusual occurrence.''
Based on these kind of numbers, war crimes investigators and other international officials say there is no doubt the number of Kosovo Albanians estimated to have been killed during the Serbian purge will reach 10,000, and probably somewhat higher.
That estimate far exceeds, perhaps doubles, the total that could be estimated from refugee accounts available to reporters and others while the war was going on.
While it is impossible to say with real certainty exactly how many died, the estimate of 10,000 is lower than totals suggested privately by some American and NATO officials before the war ended.
But relatively few of the killings are likely to become part of war crimes indictments issued by the tribunal at The Hague. Its investigators are concentrating on establishing physical evidence that supports the testimony of witnesses in a more limited series of killings in which they hope to prove command responsibility on the part of Mr. Milosevic and other high-ranking officials.
Thus, many of the killings might go without full investigation or documentation.
Initially, the teams of forensic experts and criminal investigators sent to work for the tribunal by the United States, France, Britain, Canada and other countries concentrated on six specific sites of killings mentioned in the indictment brought against Mr. Milosevic and his associates on May 27, seeking physical evidence to corroborate the testimony given by refugees.
The indictment named the town of Djakovica and the smaller towns or villages of Velika Krusa, Mala Krusa, Bela Crkva, Izbica and Crkolez, and listed by name about 340 Albanians said to have been killed in those places.
Besieged by reports of more bodies, those investigators have moved on to new sites, which tribunal officials say privately may lead to new indictments of middle- or lower-ranking Serbian officials. Those officials might then testify against their superiors about how orders were passed.
An F.B.I team, for example, was assigned two sites in Djakovica, but investigated five more there and two in the nearby region of Pec. French investigators were frustrated at Izbica, when a widely publicized mass grave in which they expected to find about 150 bodies turned out to be empty -- dug up with a backhoe and the bodies spirited off, investigators said, between the indictment and the arrival of NATO troops. Only days later, though, they pulled the decomposed bodies of eight women from wells in the destroyed village of Cirez, acting on reports from local residents. ''It was not a pretty sight,'' said Yves Roy, a member of the French forensic team.
Indeed, throwing bodies into wells, which poisons the water supply, appears to have been a common Serbian tactic during the wave of killings, along with burning down houses with bodies inside.
Of 44 villages in the district around Decani, for example, 39 had dead bodies in their wells, one of this week's daily internal situation reports from the field to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said.
While the tribunal's investigators are trying to set priorities about which reports to investigate, they say they are becoming overtaken by the sheer number of new accounts.
''If you start the day with a list of 10 things to do, it all gets blown away,'' an investigator said. ''You get reports that villagers are going to dig up graves and rebury people on their own and you have to rush out so they don't destroy evidence. It's just so widespread. Every little village has been hit. You want to do the decent thing and respond immediately and at least record what happened.''
Every international agency working here has been deluged with similar reports, often simply to make some kind of record of who has been killed.
For many of the tribunal's investigators, mostly hardened detectives, the requests to identify victims have been touching. Many people simply approach investigators, aid workers or journalists in an attempt somehow to make the victims part of the historical, or personal, record.
''It was very emotional,'' said Chief Superintendent John T. Bunn of Scotland Yard, who said he identified at least 60 victims in the village of Bela Crkva. ''The villagers were coming out themselves to help us exhume the graves. There was a man who uncovered his father and he wanted to be photographed with him.''
By late afternoon, four bodies, all extensively decomposed, had been exhumed and Lieut. Col. Robin Hodges, a British spokesman, said the work was likely to continue all day.
On Friday, villagers returning to Goden, a settlement near the western town of Djakovica, discovered 20 bodies, along with Yugoslav Army log books describing how soldiers had emptied the village and killed people.
War crimes investigators here say they have been overwhelmed by the constant flooding in of reports of new grave sites. They add that the true toll may never be known, because many villagers simply bury their relatives without telling Western officials.
Other deaths went unrecorded in the chaotic press of events when peacekeepers and United Nations relief workers first arrived here a month ago. Still other bodies may never be found, having been burned or carried off by Serbs in an effort to destroy evidence, or are still undiscovered, and maybe forever lost, in Kosovo's forests and mountains.
''Every time a villager comes back in, there are new body findings,'' said an international official familiar with the progress of the investigation. ''You're dealing with a crime base that just keeps growing. It's just overwhelming.''
The constant reports of new grave sites and a lack of coordination between various international agencies have meant that it is only in the last few days that investigators, peacekeeping troops and others have been able to compile reports giving a comprehensive view on the ground of the scale of the killing.
On Monday, the new system of attempting to pull together the information from all sources into an aggregate number for the tribunal at The Hague had produced a total of 201 grave sites with a reported 4,900 bodies, according to Lieut. Col. Robin Clifford, spokesman for Lieut. Gen. Sir Michael Jackson, commander of the Kosovo peacekeeping force.
By Thursday afternoon, Mr. Williamson, the tribunal official, said the numbers had grown to 280 grave sites with more than 6,100 reported bodies. Colonel Clifford, among others, warned that even those numbers underreported the actual number of deaths.
''It's very difficult to keep track of this,'' the military spokesman said. ''At first, no one was even keeping any of these figures. A number of these bodies are being dug up by villagers and reburied. You could have groups of three, four or five bodies that do not get reported. We have a group of 30 unclaimed bodies and that is not an unusual occurrence.''
Based on these kind of numbers, war crimes investigators and other international officials say there is no doubt the number of Kosovo Albanians estimated to have been killed during the Serbian purge will reach 10,000, and probably somewhat higher.
That estimate far exceeds, perhaps doubles, the total that could be estimated from refugee accounts available to reporters and others while the war was going on.
While it is impossible to say with real certainty exactly how many died, the estimate of 10,000 is lower than totals suggested privately by some American and NATO officials before the war ended.
But relatively few of the killings are likely to become part of war crimes indictments issued by the tribunal at The Hague. Its investigators are concentrating on establishing physical evidence that supports the testimony of witnesses in a more limited series of killings in which they hope to prove command responsibility on the part of Mr. Milosevic and other high-ranking officials.
Thus, many of the killings might go without full investigation or documentation.
Initially, the teams of forensic experts and criminal investigators sent to work for the tribunal by the United States, France, Britain, Canada and other countries concentrated on six specific sites of killings mentioned in the indictment brought against Mr. Milosevic and his associates on May 27, seeking physical evidence to corroborate the testimony given by refugees.
The indictment named the town of Djakovica and the smaller towns or villages of Velika Krusa, Mala Krusa, Bela Crkva, Izbica and Crkolez, and listed by name about 340 Albanians said to have been killed in those places.
Besieged by reports of more bodies, those investigators have moved on to new sites, which tribunal officials say privately may lead to new indictments of middle- or lower-ranking Serbian officials. Those officials might then testify against their superiors about how orders were passed.
An F.B.I team, for example, was assigned two sites in Djakovica, but investigated five more there and two in the nearby region of Pec. French investigators were frustrated at Izbica, when a widely publicized mass grave in which they expected to find about 150 bodies turned out to be empty -- dug up with a backhoe and the bodies spirited off, investigators said, between the indictment and the arrival of NATO troops. Only days later, though, they pulled the decomposed bodies of eight women from wells in the destroyed village of Cirez, acting on reports from local residents. ''It was not a pretty sight,'' said Yves Roy, a member of the French forensic team.
Indeed, throwing bodies into wells, which poisons the water supply, appears to have been a common Serbian tactic during the wave of killings, along with burning down houses with bodies inside.
Of 44 villages in the district around Decani, for example, 39 had dead bodies in their wells, one of this week's daily internal situation reports from the field to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said.
While the tribunal's investigators are trying to set priorities about which reports to investigate, they say they are becoming overtaken by the sheer number of new accounts.
''If you start the day with a list of 10 things to do, it all gets blown away,'' an investigator said. ''You get reports that villagers are going to dig up graves and rebury people on their own and you have to rush out so they don't destroy evidence. It's just so widespread. Every little village has been hit. You want to do the decent thing and respond immediately and at least record what happened.''
Every international agency working here has been deluged with similar reports, often simply to make some kind of record of who has been killed.
For many of the tribunal's investigators, mostly hardened detectives, the requests to identify victims have been touching. Many people simply approach investigators, aid workers or journalists in an attempt somehow to make the victims part of the historical, or personal, record.
''It was very emotional,'' said Chief Superintendent John T. Bunn of Scotland Yard, who said he identified at least 60 victims in the village of Bela Crkva. ''The villagers were coming out themselves to help us exhume the graves. There was a man who uncovered his father and he wanted to be photographed with him.''
Milosevic Indictment
The indictment against Milosevic and others was the topic of the day when it was released. Although it was hard to find a news source that has not commented on the indictment, the factual aspect of the indictment have not been addressed.
The charges of the indictment are the deportation of 750 000 and the murder of 340 Kosovo Albanians. But, before I read the indictment, I was not aware that ALL the killings were committed during four days of the first week of the NATO bombing. The only exception is one count of the indictment related to so-called "Racak case", an event from 15 January 1999, controversial from the outset in the testimony of eyewitnesses and the forensic features of the crime scene (See "Le Monde" January 21,; "Figaro" January 20, "NY Times" January 19,1999). Prior to NATO air strikes that commenced on March 24, 1999 there were no reports of deportation. Given these facts it would be more accurate to say that the indictment is predominantly focused on the period when the NATO air attacks started. So, when Ms. Arbour said that the indictment includes the period from January 1 of 1999 until the day the indictment was issued, it was a bit of a stretch.
Probably the Prosecutor herself realized that the scope of the indictment is confined to a too narrow time frame, so it was indicated that the investigation on Milosevic's crimes in Bosnia and Croatia are still ongoing, and that the indictments for those crimes will be filed as soon as evidence is gathered. For many years Milosevic was described as a brutal and ruthless dictator, a war criminal, a Balkan butcher. But it appears that his most efficient criminal activity occurred as soon as 19 of the most powerful nations gathered their military efforts and started to "prevent a humanitarian catastrophy" (M. Albright on the day the NATO attack started). Has anything changed in the methods of Milosevic's governing since the bombing started? Was there any innovation in his "criminal activity" in the last two months that has not been reported over the last 8 years?
Perhaps the most accurate comment of the indictment and the answer to the above questions was given by Zbiegnew Brzezinsky. Speaking to a CBC journalist on May 27, he said that the indictment strengthens moral and legal aspect of NATO action. Humanitarian catastrophy has spiraled as soon as NATO started preventing it by massive air strikes. Milosevic's line of communication to carry out the crimes he is now charged with, seem to work better than ever as soon as NATO bombing of Kosovo commenced.
Apart from almost perfect coincidence between the NATO air strikes and the time the crimes were committed, other features of the indictment are also worthy of attention. Almost half of the text of the indictment is a chapter titled "Background". A great deal of "Background" is an attempt to summarize the Serbian constitutional amendments over the period 1974-1989, and the underlying social, economic, political and ethnic tensions. Squeezing a 25-year chronology of the complex multifaceted changes is much of a task for anyone. Inevitably, the result was a distorted and oversimplified account that fails to grasp the causal links. The political evaluations and qualifications of events that have no factual relevance to the criminal charges are thrown into a language more appropriate for a casual political discussion rather than for a serious criminal indictment.
In this 100-praragraph indictment the allegations of verbal abuse, insults and racial [sic] slurs are stated even twice. Placing stress on verbal harassment sound pathetic and detached given the magnitude of the tragedy. On the other hand, NATO air attacks in the entire indictment are barely mentioned. The background relevance of NATO attacks, during which the alleged crimes took place, is addressed ONLY in one single sentence in the entire indictment. The words chosen to describe the bombing that devastates the country around the clock for 2 months speak best for themselves: "On 24 March 1999, NATO began launching air strikes against targets in the FRY." It carefully avoids to mention Kosovo as a target. This is the only sentence in the entire indictment that mentions the NATO air strikes.
Paragraphs 97 and 98 of the indictment suggest that the planing and the execution of the crimes, both deportation and murder, occured over the period between January 1, 1999 and the day the indictment was issued. However, the deportation of 750 000 has not been noted before the NATO bombing started. In his review of the indictment ("A Brief Review of the Indictment Against Milosevic and Others") Professor Anthony D'Amato points out an important distinction related to the charges of deportation: ".customary international law certainly does not regard mere deportation as a crime. For example, civilians might be deported from a town that is under attack to a safe area several miles away. They might even be forcibly deported (some people tend to stay in their homes or basements no matter what happens.) If the motive for deportation is to protect the people, it can hardly be a crime".
In the view of this distinction the NATO bombing and the KLA commitment to fight for the complete independence of Kosovo need to be addressed with more precision. Leaving these two highly relevant factors barely mentioned, describing them with the words of a neutral backdrop, undermines the indictment.
In many situations described in Paragraph 97, Yugoslav Army shelling was a part of the incrimination of the forced deportation. The NATO shelling was happening simultaneously. Should it be presumed that the Tribunal's investigators and the prosecutor had made the proper inquiries in determining the contributing role of the NATO shelling in the exodus of the Kosovo Albanians? Are their conclusions, sustainable under the scrutiny of common sense and plain reasoning, considering ALL the facts of the situation? When NATO shelling kills civilians a hospital, a train on a bridge a marketplace, it is a "regrettable error" a "terrible mistake" a "collateral damage". In spite of all the graphic evidence and public confession NATO and his commanders are not charged yet. What after all is a war crime today and what exculpates one from killing people? Is it a legal or a political question?
The prosecutor is strikingly silent to evaluate the methods proclaimed and employed by the KLA. In Paragraph 23 of the indictment this is all that was said about the KLA: "This group [KLA] advocated a campaign of armed insurgency and violent resistance to the Serbian authorities. In mid-1996, the KLA began launching attacks primarily targeting FRY and Serbian police forces. Thereafter, and throughout 1997, FRY and Serbian police forces responded with forceful operations against suspected KLA bases and supporters in Kosovo." Numerous drive-by shooting on the police officers in Kosovo, killings of civilians, attacks on the camps of Serbian refugees from Croatia, for many of which the KLA claimed responsibility, right after they occurred, are omitted as a background. The record of such occurrences is far from marginal. In the period between January and October of 1998 KLA was involved in 2350 terrorist actions. 260 people were killed 509 wounded. The scale and intensity of those incidents are documented not by Milosevic propaganda. These reports were filed by human rights activists or groups. The allegations made by those human rights observers have always been taken with great credibility whenever they talked of atrocities committed by Serbs.
The harshest attack on the credibility of the indictment is yet to come, and it comes from the indictment itself. It is very unfortunate, but the indictment discloses a clear bias against Serbs. Paragraph 35 of the indictment makes reference to the previous situations of forceful expulsion of civilians in the wars in Bosnia and Croatia naming ONLY Serbs as the perpetrators but does not mention the expulsion of the entire Serbian population in Krajina in August of 1995.As one journalist put it "the most unreported "ethnic cleansing" in the Balkans, presumably because the Serbs had the cleansing done to them rather than the other way round ("Independent" June 2, 1999). The prosecutor does not mention it either. Paragraph 35 reads:
"Actions similar in nature took place during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1991 and 1995. During those wars, Serbian military, paramilitary and police forces forcibly expelled and deported non-Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina from areas under Serbian control utilising the same method of operations as have been used in Kosovo in 1999: heavy shelling and armed attacks on villages; widespread killings; destruction of non-Serbian residential areas and cultural and religious sites; and forced transfer and deportation of non-Serbian populations."
During the Croatian army operation from 4-7 August 1995, and the days following the offensive 410 civilians [Serbs] were killed and the number might be as high as 600 since many are still listed as missing. 22 000 vacant houses were systematically destroyed and the number of those forcefully expelled ranges in hundreads of thousands. To ingnore these numbers and the magnitude of the tragic exodus of Krajina Serbs, undermines the credibility of this indictment a great deal.
One might say that the prosecutor does not have to be fair, and that it is a role of the defense to produce the evidence to the contrary. But, the Tribunal is not an ordinary court. And its prosecutor, bears the duty to be more truth-finding oriented than it might be acceptable in an ordinary adversary litigation. Recognition of the relevant facts and evenhandedness for the perpetrators and for the victims without regard to their ethnicity is a precondition for the credibility of the Tribunal and its prosecutor alike.
Many media reports of May 27, 1999, the day the indictment was released, speak of the indictment as a "tick indictment", the result of an extraordinary 5 month investigation ("Chicago Tribune"); based on "voluminous abundant evidence"("Washington Post"); a document "based on volumes of evidence" ("The Times"). However, the indictment itself does not disclose a single piece of evidence. On the fervor of media hysteria, rape and arson are arbitrarily thrown in ("LA Times"). There is not a single charge of rape. Not a single case of massacre. All the allegations of murder describe firearm weapons. The question of evidence is interesting given the fact that the investigators did not have access to the crime scenes. And the crime scene in the "Racak case" was already subject of a great controversy.
The indictment does not even offer a type of evidence on which the Prosecutor must build its case. Not even in the broadest outlines. In one of media reports ("Washington Post") it is however indicated that the prosecutor will disclose the evidence to defense in the case of a trial.
The ink of Arbour's signature on the indictment barely dried, and controversy is already on the horizon: "The Times" of May 30, 1999 reveals the story of a Kosovo Albanian considered to be killed in a massacre more than a month ago. He was mourned by his wife. All of a sudden he emerged, well and alive, in the refugee camp where his wife was!
The "LA Times" of June 1, 1999, has a report of the Kosovo Albanians who chose to stay in Kosovo receiving firearms from the Yugoslav police to defend themselves against the KLA. The scenario of the Kosovo conflict if far from being black and white simple.
Ten years ago I was defense lawyer for a Kosovo Albanian political leader whose arrest and prosecution was spectacularly announced by Milosevic himself. When I was heading to Kosovo tiny court in the town of Kosovska Mitrovica I was eager to read the charges and give a prognosis to my client. When I read the act of indictment as a lawyer I was glad that I could say to my client that, in spite of the tragic situation, the charges were just a bunch of political bubbles. As a Serbian I was sad. Such charges, brought by the political motivations, could not bring any good, they had created only further deterioration and unrest. Those who recall this event will recognize the similarity in spectacular announcement of the two criminal cases. Filing charges in the heat of the moment makes no sense. Today, when I read the indictment against Milosevic the feeling is strikingly similar.
Vesna Vojvodic
Lawyer
Belgrade
[currently law student in Canada]
The charges of the indictment are the deportation of 750 000 and the murder of 340 Kosovo Albanians. But, before I read the indictment, I was not aware that ALL the killings were committed during four days of the first week of the NATO bombing. The only exception is one count of the indictment related to so-called "Racak case", an event from 15 January 1999, controversial from the outset in the testimony of eyewitnesses and the forensic features of the crime scene (See "Le Monde" January 21,; "Figaro" January 20, "NY Times" January 19,1999). Prior to NATO air strikes that commenced on March 24, 1999 there were no reports of deportation. Given these facts it would be more accurate to say that the indictment is predominantly focused on the period when the NATO air attacks started. So, when Ms. Arbour said that the indictment includes the period from January 1 of 1999 until the day the indictment was issued, it was a bit of a stretch.
Probably the Prosecutor herself realized that the scope of the indictment is confined to a too narrow time frame, so it was indicated that the investigation on Milosevic's crimes in Bosnia and Croatia are still ongoing, and that the indictments for those crimes will be filed as soon as evidence is gathered. For many years Milosevic was described as a brutal and ruthless dictator, a war criminal, a Balkan butcher. But it appears that his most efficient criminal activity occurred as soon as 19 of the most powerful nations gathered their military efforts and started to "prevent a humanitarian catastrophy" (M. Albright on the day the NATO attack started). Has anything changed in the methods of Milosevic's governing since the bombing started? Was there any innovation in his "criminal activity" in the last two months that has not been reported over the last 8 years?
Perhaps the most accurate comment of the indictment and the answer to the above questions was given by Zbiegnew Brzezinsky. Speaking to a CBC journalist on May 27, he said that the indictment strengthens moral and legal aspect of NATO action. Humanitarian catastrophy has spiraled as soon as NATO started preventing it by massive air strikes. Milosevic's line of communication to carry out the crimes he is now charged with, seem to work better than ever as soon as NATO bombing of Kosovo commenced.
Apart from almost perfect coincidence between the NATO air strikes and the time the crimes were committed, other features of the indictment are also worthy of attention. Almost half of the text of the indictment is a chapter titled "Background". A great deal of "Background" is an attempt to summarize the Serbian constitutional amendments over the period 1974-1989, and the underlying social, economic, political and ethnic tensions. Squeezing a 25-year chronology of the complex multifaceted changes is much of a task for anyone. Inevitably, the result was a distorted and oversimplified account that fails to grasp the causal links. The political evaluations and qualifications of events that have no factual relevance to the criminal charges are thrown into a language more appropriate for a casual political discussion rather than for a serious criminal indictment.
In this 100-praragraph indictment the allegations of verbal abuse, insults and racial [sic] slurs are stated even twice. Placing stress on verbal harassment sound pathetic and detached given the magnitude of the tragedy. On the other hand, NATO air attacks in the entire indictment are barely mentioned. The background relevance of NATO attacks, during which the alleged crimes took place, is addressed ONLY in one single sentence in the entire indictment. The words chosen to describe the bombing that devastates the country around the clock for 2 months speak best for themselves: "On 24 March 1999, NATO began launching air strikes against targets in the FRY." It carefully avoids to mention Kosovo as a target. This is the only sentence in the entire indictment that mentions the NATO air strikes.
Paragraphs 97 and 98 of the indictment suggest that the planing and the execution of the crimes, both deportation and murder, occured over the period between January 1, 1999 and the day the indictment was issued. However, the deportation of 750 000 has not been noted before the NATO bombing started. In his review of the indictment ("A Brief Review of the Indictment Against Milosevic and Others") Professor Anthony D'Amato points out an important distinction related to the charges of deportation: ".customary international law certainly does not regard mere deportation as a crime. For example, civilians might be deported from a town that is under attack to a safe area several miles away. They might even be forcibly deported (some people tend to stay in their homes or basements no matter what happens.) If the motive for deportation is to protect the people, it can hardly be a crime".
In the view of this distinction the NATO bombing and the KLA commitment to fight for the complete independence of Kosovo need to be addressed with more precision. Leaving these two highly relevant factors barely mentioned, describing them with the words of a neutral backdrop, undermines the indictment.
In many situations described in Paragraph 97, Yugoslav Army shelling was a part of the incrimination of the forced deportation. The NATO shelling was happening simultaneously. Should it be presumed that the Tribunal's investigators and the prosecutor had made the proper inquiries in determining the contributing role of the NATO shelling in the exodus of the Kosovo Albanians? Are their conclusions, sustainable under the scrutiny of common sense and plain reasoning, considering ALL the facts of the situation? When NATO shelling kills civilians a hospital, a train on a bridge a marketplace, it is a "regrettable error" a "terrible mistake" a "collateral damage". In spite of all the graphic evidence and public confession NATO and his commanders are not charged yet. What after all is a war crime today and what exculpates one from killing people? Is it a legal or a political question?
The prosecutor is strikingly silent to evaluate the methods proclaimed and employed by the KLA. In Paragraph 23 of the indictment this is all that was said about the KLA: "This group [KLA] advocated a campaign of armed insurgency and violent resistance to the Serbian authorities. In mid-1996, the KLA began launching attacks primarily targeting FRY and Serbian police forces. Thereafter, and throughout 1997, FRY and Serbian police forces responded with forceful operations against suspected KLA bases and supporters in Kosovo." Numerous drive-by shooting on the police officers in Kosovo, killings of civilians, attacks on the camps of Serbian refugees from Croatia, for many of which the KLA claimed responsibility, right after they occurred, are omitted as a background. The record of such occurrences is far from marginal. In the period between January and October of 1998 KLA was involved in 2350 terrorist actions. 260 people were killed 509 wounded. The scale and intensity of those incidents are documented not by Milosevic propaganda. These reports were filed by human rights activists or groups. The allegations made by those human rights observers have always been taken with great credibility whenever they talked of atrocities committed by Serbs.
The harshest attack on the credibility of the indictment is yet to come, and it comes from the indictment itself. It is very unfortunate, but the indictment discloses a clear bias against Serbs. Paragraph 35 of the indictment makes reference to the previous situations of forceful expulsion of civilians in the wars in Bosnia and Croatia naming ONLY Serbs as the perpetrators but does not mention the expulsion of the entire Serbian population in Krajina in August of 1995.As one journalist put it "the most unreported "ethnic cleansing" in the Balkans, presumably because the Serbs had the cleansing done to them rather than the other way round ("Independent" June 2, 1999). The prosecutor does not mention it either. Paragraph 35 reads:
"Actions similar in nature took place during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1991 and 1995. During those wars, Serbian military, paramilitary and police forces forcibly expelled and deported non-Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina from areas under Serbian control utilising the same method of operations as have been used in Kosovo in 1999: heavy shelling and armed attacks on villages; widespread killings; destruction of non-Serbian residential areas and cultural and religious sites; and forced transfer and deportation of non-Serbian populations."
During the Croatian army operation from 4-7 August 1995, and the days following the offensive 410 civilians [Serbs] were killed and the number might be as high as 600 since many are still listed as missing. 22 000 vacant houses were systematically destroyed and the number of those forcefully expelled ranges in hundreads of thousands. To ingnore these numbers and the magnitude of the tragic exodus of Krajina Serbs, undermines the credibility of this indictment a great deal.
One might say that the prosecutor does not have to be fair, and that it is a role of the defense to produce the evidence to the contrary. But, the Tribunal is not an ordinary court. And its prosecutor, bears the duty to be more truth-finding oriented than it might be acceptable in an ordinary adversary litigation. Recognition of the relevant facts and evenhandedness for the perpetrators and for the victims without regard to their ethnicity is a precondition for the credibility of the Tribunal and its prosecutor alike.
Many media reports of May 27, 1999, the day the indictment was released, speak of the indictment as a "tick indictment", the result of an extraordinary 5 month investigation ("Chicago Tribune"); based on "voluminous abundant evidence"("Washington Post"); a document "based on volumes of evidence" ("The Times"). However, the indictment itself does not disclose a single piece of evidence. On the fervor of media hysteria, rape and arson are arbitrarily thrown in ("LA Times"). There is not a single charge of rape. Not a single case of massacre. All the allegations of murder describe firearm weapons. The question of evidence is interesting given the fact that the investigators did not have access to the crime scenes. And the crime scene in the "Racak case" was already subject of a great controversy.
The indictment does not even offer a type of evidence on which the Prosecutor must build its case. Not even in the broadest outlines. In one of media reports ("Washington Post") it is however indicated that the prosecutor will disclose the evidence to defense in the case of a trial.
The ink of Arbour's signature on the indictment barely dried, and controversy is already on the horizon: "The Times" of May 30, 1999 reveals the story of a Kosovo Albanian considered to be killed in a massacre more than a month ago. He was mourned by his wife. All of a sudden he emerged, well and alive, in the refugee camp where his wife was!
The "LA Times" of June 1, 1999, has a report of the Kosovo Albanians who chose to stay in Kosovo receiving firearms from the Yugoslav police to defend themselves against the KLA. The scenario of the Kosovo conflict if far from being black and white simple.
Ten years ago I was defense lawyer for a Kosovo Albanian political leader whose arrest and prosecution was spectacularly announced by Milosevic himself. When I was heading to Kosovo tiny court in the town of Kosovska Mitrovica I was eager to read the charges and give a prognosis to my client. When I read the act of indictment as a lawyer I was glad that I could say to my client that, in spite of the tragic situation, the charges were just a bunch of political bubbles. As a Serbian I was sad. Such charges, brought by the political motivations, could not bring any good, they had created only further deterioration and unrest. Those who recall this event will recognize the similarity in spectacular announcement of the two criminal cases. Filing charges in the heat of the moment makes no sense. Today, when I read the indictment against Milosevic the feeling is strikingly similar.
Vesna Vojvodic
Lawyer
Belgrade
[currently law student in Canada]
Butchering of Serbs condoned by the West
http://eurabia.blogse.nl/log/balkan/butchering-of-serbs-condoned-by-the-west.html
By Vojin Joksimovich April 17, 2008
The Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), since its inception in 1993 has been assailed by many as a NATO political instrument to justify dismemberment of Yugoslavia and NATO aggressions. It has been essentially a rogue court with rigged rules and scandalous protocol to achieve political objective to convict. Some judges did not hear about the Balkans until they arrived in The Hague. John Laughland wrote: “It is not victor’s justice; it is no justice at all.” The Tribunal’s verdict for the Serbs was predetermined –all would be found guilty. Over its 15 years of existence, the Tribunal has indicted publicly 161 persons, 92 Serbs. Fifty have been sentenced thus far to over 700 years. Serbia has handed over 42 out of 46 indicted individuals. Six Serbs died in the Hague jail, including President Milosevic, without being convicted. Not only was Milosevic indicted but also his top civilian and military leaders. The same is true for the Bosnian Serb civilian and military leaders.
How ironic that Carla del Ponte, for nine years until this January the chief prosecutor of the ICTY who never concealed her dislike of Serbia and Russia for that matter, in her autobiography The Hunt: Me and War Criminals presumably easing her conscience, based on credible reports and witnesses belatedly revealed existence of Nazi style crimes committed by the current Kosovo Prime Minister (PM) Hashim Thaci and his followers. The Third Reich style crimes included harvesting of organs from abducted Serbs to sell for transplants. Moreover, del Ponte’s book provides insights into the ICTY operations which prove beyond doubt that John Laughland and others have been right on the mark. This is in particular true when it comes to ghastly crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) thugs, who instead of serving long-term sentences in various European jails have become not only leading politicians but the PMs: Hashim Thaci, Ramush Haradinaj and Agim Ceku. Of course these Nazi style crimes have been condoned by KLA supporters in Washington, London, Berlin, Paris, The Hague, Brussels, Bern and some other European capitals. Needless to say, the Albanians and their supporters dismiss these claims, while Russia and Serbia are demanding a war crimes investigation. Russia has officially addressed the ICTY asking whether the ICTY has any information about the crimes reported in the book. Despite knowing that the KLA ruled Kosovo is a lawless society, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Kosovo authorities to investigate the claims!
A room in a “yellow house” outside small town of Burrel (55 miles north of Tirana) in the remote mountainous region was used as the impromptu clinic for butchering some 300 young Serbs. Organs from young Serbs were extracted there and taken to Tirana Mother Theresa airport according to a witness driver. Other sources claim that the body parts were flown to Istanbul where they were transplanted into wealthy Arab patients. A team of unnamed journalists reported these Mengele type atrocities to the ICTY and UNMIK. The victims left with one kidney were kept locked and later killed for other organs when a buyer was found. They were then secretly buried. Two of the sources said they helped to bury the corpses of the dead around the “yellow house” and in a neighboring cemetery 12 miles away.
Del Ponte details her meeting with Hashim Thaci, who admitted that Kosovo Albanians committed atrocities. “I looked into his eyes and told him that I have launched the investigation over crimes that the Albanians had committed in Kosovo. I have not said a word implying indictment against him, but Thaci certainly concluded that I had done so since his face turned into stone.” Incidentally, Thaci has admitted in another confession that infamous Racak “massacre,” used by the Clinton administration as casus belli to bomb Serbia for 78 days, was orchestrated by the KLA dressing their KLA dead in civilian clothes, machine gunning them and dumping them in a ditch and claiming it was a Serbian slaughter of civilians. Furthermore, Del Ponte points out that Hashim Thaci and Agim Ceku are considered by UNMIK and KFOR as “more than dangerous in the peaceful efforts in the Baalkans...Thaci and Ceku, in theory can stir up the minority Albanian rebels, to start violence in Macedonia, South Serbia and other regions.”
By Vojin Joksimovich April 17, 2008
The Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), since its inception in 1993 has been assailed by many as a NATO political instrument to justify dismemberment of Yugoslavia and NATO aggressions. It has been essentially a rogue court with rigged rules and scandalous protocol to achieve political objective to convict. Some judges did not hear about the Balkans until they arrived in The Hague. John Laughland wrote: “It is not victor’s justice; it is no justice at all.” The Tribunal’s verdict for the Serbs was predetermined –all would be found guilty. Over its 15 years of existence, the Tribunal has indicted publicly 161 persons, 92 Serbs. Fifty have been sentenced thus far to over 700 years. Serbia has handed over 42 out of 46 indicted individuals. Six Serbs died in the Hague jail, including President Milosevic, without being convicted. Not only was Milosevic indicted but also his top civilian and military leaders. The same is true for the Bosnian Serb civilian and military leaders.
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How ironic that Carla del Ponte, for nine years until this January the chief prosecutor of the ICTY who never concealed her dislike of Serbia and Russia for that matter, in her autobiography The Hunt: Me and War Criminals presumably easing her conscience, based on credible reports and witnesses belatedly revealed existence of Nazi style crimes committed by the current Kosovo Prime Minister (PM) Hashim Thaci and his followers. The Third Reich style crimes included harvesting of organs from abducted Serbs to sell for transplants. Moreover, del Ponte’s book provides insights into the ICTY operations which prove beyond doubt that John Laughland and others have been right on the mark. This is in particular true when it comes to ghastly crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) thugs, who instead of serving long-term sentences in various European jails have become not only leading politicians but the PMs: Hashim Thaci, Ramush Haradinaj and Agim Ceku. Of course these Nazi style crimes have been condoned by KLA supporters in Washington, London, Berlin, Paris, The Hague, Brussels, Bern and some other European capitals. Needless to say, the Albanians and their supporters dismiss these claims, while Russia and Serbia are demanding a war crimes investigation. Russia has officially addressed the ICTY asking whether the ICTY has any information about the crimes reported in the book. Despite knowing that the KLA ruled Kosovo is a lawless society, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Kosovo authorities to investigate the claims!
UDI Timing
Washington had a big hand in manipulating operations of the ICTY. Hence, it is fair to assume that it must have known about the publication date of Del Ponte’s book. Orchestration of unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) from Serbia had to be squeezed before revelation of atrocities and the presidential elections in Serbia since Washington and Brussels wanted badly president Tadic to be reelected. If these crimes had been revealed before February 17, would Washington/Brussels have proceeded with the KLA/NATO ruled Kosovo independence? After all Washington/Brussels played a major part in the propaganda, which described Kosovo Albanians as martyrs and even legitimized independence on that basis. Washington needed time to coerce two thirds of the EU membership and a handful of other countries to recognize the KLA/NATO ruled Kosovo (abbreviated to KLA/NATO Kosovo). At this writing only 37 countries (out of 192 UN members) have recognized KLA/NATO Kosovo. The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated: “The plan was to persuade or force about 100 countries to recognize Kosovo’s independence, and just 37 recognized it, while more than 50 said without any doubt that they would not recognize it. This is not the picture which those who encouraged Kosovo to declare independence wanted to see.” Second, it would have been embarrassing if acquittal of another war criminal, former PM Ramush Haradinaj, would have taken place before the UDI. Yet another KLA PM and Thaci’s predecessor, Agim Ceku, escaped indictment despite well documented war crimes by the Canadian peacekeepers.
Responsibility for the Eight-Plus Year Cover-up
These ghastly atrocities have been covered up for over eight years. Who were the cover-up masters? The UNMIK chief then and current French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner would be a good candidate. According to Danica Marinkovic, the investigating judge of Pristina District Court, Kouchner prevented the investigation. She tried to give evidence to the ICTY during the trial of Slobodan Milosevic. Del Ponte’s spokeswoman, Florence Artman, in one of her interviews stated that UNMIK men didn’t let “iron Carla” to initiate a case against the Albanians regarding the disappearance of people and the trade of donor organs. Carla; dubbed “New Gestapo” “La Puttana” by Italian Cosa Nostra, and “Unguided Missile” by the Swiss bankers, admitted there was sufficient evidence for prosecution, but it “was nipped in the bud” focusing on the Serbs.
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A room in a “yellow house” outside small town of Burrel (55 miles north of Tirana) in the remote mountainous region was used as the impromptu clinic for butchering some 300 young Serbs. Organs from young Serbs were extracted there and taken to Tirana Mother Theresa airport according to a witness driver. Other sources claim that the body parts were flown to Istanbul where they were transplanted into wealthy Arab patients. A team of unnamed journalists reported these Mengele type atrocities to the ICTY and UNMIK. The victims left with one kidney were kept locked and later killed for other organs when a buyer was found. They were then secretly buried. Two of the sources said they helped to bury the corpses of the dead around the “yellow house” and in a neighboring cemetery 12 miles away.
Del Ponte says that in 2003 her team of ICTY investigators plus UNMIK officials found the “yellow house” with traces of blood. An Albanian prosecutor who accompanied the team said: “There are no graves of Serbs here. But if they took the Serbs from the Kosovo border and killed them, they did the right thing.” “The team was shocked by what they saw, said Chuck Sudetic, a former ICTY official and the book co-author. They found gauze and vials of medicines, including a muscle relaxer used during surgery. The victims also included Albanians and trafficked women from Eastern Europe forced to work as prostitutes.
Del Ponte goes on to say that UN personnel feared for their lives in Kosovo while some of the judges presiding over the ICTY were in fear from Kosovo Albanians that have committed atrocities against the Serbs and that is why very few cases of Kosovo Albanian war criminals have been prosecuted. “I am sure that some of the top UNMIK and even KFOR officials feared for their lives and the lives of their mission members. I think that some of the judges of the Tribunal were afraid that the Albanians might come and get them.” She then characterized the KLA/NATO rule as a land of with no laws and institutions, a land of blood feuds, ruled by the thugs who present themselves as heroes of “the suffering Albanian people.” She goes on to say that those few and far between investigations of the terrorist KLA were the hardest during her era. The researchers were confronted by the clans, vendettas and political pressures, and that “policemen from Bern and Brussels and all the way to Bronx” are well aware about the insurmountable difficulties when it comes to the attempts to investigate Albanian organized crime.
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Del Ponte details her meeting with Hashim Thaci, who admitted that Kosovo Albanians committed atrocities. “I looked into his eyes and told him that I have launched the investigation over crimes that the Albanians had committed in Kosovo. I have not said a word implying indictment against him, but Thaci certainly concluded that I had done so since his face turned into stone.” Incidentally, Thaci has admitted in another confession that infamous Racak “massacre,” used by the Clinton administration as casus belli to bomb Serbia for 78 days, was orchestrated by the KLA dressing their KLA dead in civilian clothes, machine gunning them and dumping them in a ditch and claiming it was a Serbian slaughter of civilians. Furthermore, Del Ponte points out that Hashim Thaci and Agim Ceku are considered by UNMIK and KFOR as “more than dangerous in the peaceful efforts in the Baalkans...Thaci and Ceku, in theory can stir up the minority Albanian rebels, to start violence in Macedonia, South Serbia and other regions.”
Was Kouchner guilty of obstruction of justice in addition to his several successors? Is it possible that the former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari didn’t know anything about it before recommending supervised independence? Is it possible that nobody in the Clinton or even Bush-43 administration knew about it? A question also needs to be asked if someone in the Serbian government took part in the cover-up?
Switzerland Embarrassed: Neutrality at Risk?
Del Ponte, now Swiss ambassador to Argentina has been ordered to shut up by the Swiss government. Senior Swiss officials are calling for her resignation. What about the freedom of expression? Switzerland had officially recognized the independence of KLA/NATO Kosovo and was one of the first to open the embassy in Pristina. In order to mitigate the embarrassment, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs has even banned the presentation of Del Ponte’s book in Milan. “Any public presentation of this work is incompatible with the author’s status of Swiss ambassador.” It should also be noted that Hashim Thaci spent time in Switzerland in mid 1990s acquiring funds for the KLA. The Swiss government deserves to be embarrassed for tarnishing their celebrated multi-century neutrality in order to recognize the KLA/NATO Kosovo. Presumably the government wanted to please the bankers who have been only too willing to launder the Albanian drug money.
Belgrade Media
According to Belgrade media, Thaci made millions (some suggested 4 million euros) selling kidneys, hearts and livers of young abducted Serbs. In summer of 1999, some 300 Serbs were abducted in Kosovo and transported to several camps in Northern and Central Albania. They were given medical tests. Those who passed were treated well until they were brought under the surgeon’s knife. Their body parts were flown to European clinics while they were left to die. The ICTY protected witness K-144 took part in these atrocities who said that at least 300 kidneys and 100 other organs were sold. The kidneys were sold at the price between 10,000 and 50,000 German marks.
General Stajanovic, head of the intelligence service of the Serbian army during the war has no doubt that Del Ponte’s claims will sooner or later be proven. He stated: “In these hospitals they decided amongst themselves what each commander of the KLA would have. They decided who would make this money from drug dealing, who from weapons, and who from selling body parts. Thaci, the prime minister, was among them.” Sima Spasic, head of the Alliance of Families of 1,300 Serbs Disappeared in Kosovo showed the pictures of body parts he filmed in 2003. “Right after the war, when we understood that too many people have disappeared, I went to the KFOR commanders and asked them where the people were, and they just shrugged shoulders. Only after they saw Serbian people demonstrating and were afraid of their anger, they took me to some place. I cannot explain what I saw there. It was a small mountain of pieces of bodies and the first thing I saw was a baby who’d been taken from his mother’s stomach, lying there. It was impossible to look. It was a massive grave they’d dug before. Today I know in this massive grave there were 26 Serb bodies—also there was my brother Milosh.” Families of the victims now plan to sue Del Ponte for withholding the evidence and concealing the crimes. Spasic met with Del Ponte in 2001. In 2004, he received a call from Carla’s office with information that “all people you are looking for are dead.” Del Ponte hid the truth although she received the list of names of those kidnapped and those who kidnapped them in 2001. Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecution Office has formally opened the investigation.
Hashim Thaci Biosketch
Hashim Thaci, alias “Snake,” founder and president of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK), was in July 1997 sentenced in absentia to 10 years imprisonment for the criminal acts of terrorism, and in February 1998 an international arrest warrant was issued. He was apprehended at the Budapest airport on an Interpol warrant but released soon afterward when then UNMIK chief Michael Steiner intervened. Steiner’s accomplishments included implementation of discriminatory measures against the Serbs, using double standards, making promises he never kept, and marrying a young local Albanian staff member that he dated for much of the time he was in power. The New York Times columnist Chris Hedges researched Thaci’s bloody consolidation of power through the assassination of rivals and linked him to the murder of moderate Albanian politicians who failed to support the KLA’s goal of ethnically pure Kosovo. This reputation did not disqualify him from receiving weapons and support from the CIA or from public embrace from senior members of the Clinton administration such as Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrooke (Photo from my book).
In post-war Kosovo, Thaci organized a number of terrorist groups composed of former KLA members who were responsible for numerous crimes, murders, kidnappings and threats. He also has been in contact with Albanian terrorists in Macedonia and Southern Serbia. He controls the greater part of organized crime in the Drenica region. His clan is involved in the weaponsmarket, the cigarette market, oil smuggling and human trafficking as well as stolen cars. Thaci led the KLA delegation at Rambouillet and was the principal State Department contact during the war. He is a regular visitor to Washington. In November 2007 his party won the election and he was appointed the PM.
Acquittal of Haradinaj
The ICTY found Ramush Haradinaj “not guilty” of all counts on April 3. Haradinaj was the most senior KLA official and a former PM, accused of mounting a “widespread’ and systematic campaign” to abuse, kill and expel Serbs ant other minorities in 1998. Presiding judge said there was evidence that KLA guerrillas committed many of the crimes listed in the indictment but that the acts were “not on a scale or frequency” to establish a wider campaign against the civilian population. The 37-count indictment also accused Haradinaj and his “Black Eagles” KLA unit of killing and intimidating Albanians who refused to cooperate. Nine witnesses linked to the Haradinaj case have been killed in the 2003-2007 period while the prosecution’s main witness was shot during the investigation. 20% of the subpoenaed witnesses refused to testify out of fear. Haradinaj’s lawyers were so confident that they did not present a defense. The decision was met with joy and cheers in Pristina but with fury in Serbia. Haradinaj said “This is a decision to strengthen Kosovo.”
The Serbian PM, Vojislav Kosunica, described the acquittal as a testimony that the court “does not exist to mete justice....It is clear that that in question is a court which has been set up to officially declare innocent those who committed war crimes, like Haradinaj... The decision of the Hague Tribunal represents a mockery of justice and a mockery of the innocent victims who suffered at the hands of Haradinaj.” Serbian president Tadic said: “Such a verdict would not see justice done and it would not encourage Serbs and other non-Albanians to expect a safe and peaceful life in Kosovo. He reminded that Del Ponte told him that prosecution witnesses were intimidated and even murdered, in order to keep silent about Haradinaj’s crimes. The Serbian deputy PM Bozidar Djelic called the verdict “scandalous,” saying it was a “black day for international justice.” Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic, suggested that it is high time that the ICTY closed down. The Kosovo Serb political representatives felt that the “the verdict sends to Kosovo Serbs a message from the international community that there is no justice...”Criminals are rewarded with a state to which they are returning to heroes, while on the other hand the truth about missing and abducted Kosovo Serbs remains hidden, as does the trade of their organs.” Serbian National Council for Cooperation with the ICTY claimed that it provided “several thousand confidential documents” to back the Haradinaj indictment and urged the ICTY prosecutors to appeal the verdict.
Del Ponte in her book claims that Haradinaj was involved in sale of the organs but he was not charged with this Mendele type of crime. Del Ponte accused UNMIK officials of deliberately obstructing the investigation. Haradinaj, while indicted on 37 charges, was released three months later and was allowed to remain in Kosovo until the trial started two years later. He reported to The Hague with a letter of recommendation from the top UNMIK official Soren Jessen-Petersen, who expressed his deepest friendship for Haradinaj. This in contrast to the case of the Serbian president Milosevic who was not allowed to receive even a medical treatment in Moscow for his ailing heart despite guarantees from the Russian government. His basic human rights have been violated.
Ramish Haradinaj Biosketch
Ramush Haradinaj, founder and president of the Alliance for the future of Kosovo (AAK), is probably the most influential criminal in Metohija. He left Yugoslavia for Switzerland in 1990 and worked there as a security guard in night clubs and at soccer matches. He returned to Pristina in 1991 to participate in demonstrations. He got arrested but escaped and returned to Switzerland. He then applied for the Foreign Legion in France. In 1996 he completed diversionary terrorist training in Albania and then established logistics bases in Kukes and Tropoja in Northern Albania for transporting weapons into Kosovo. He crossed into Kosovo in 1997 and, together with his brothers, organized a series of terrorist attacks against several police departments. He formed a terrorist group in 1998 and established the KLA general staff for Metohija. He formed a special KLA unit, “Black Eagles,” which kidnapped and brutally murdered dozens of Serb civilians as well as disloyal Albanians.
In the Glodjane prison, under his direct control, a large number of Serbs were murdered. The Serbian authorities brought 108 criminal charges against him, claiming that he personally murdered 67 civilians, kidnapped 400 civilians, and ordered the killing of 267 more. According to a document from the Serbian War Crimes Committee, supported by photographs and testimonies of witnesses, on June 12, 1999, Haradinaj ordered the torture, rape and execution of an 11-member Roma wedding party. He personally murdered several of the civilians and raped the bride.
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Haradinaj became deputy KPC commander under Agim Ceku but left the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) after placing his brother Daut as commander of the KPC, which carried out assassinations of political rivals. He created a criminal organization which controls organized smuggling of drugs, cigarettes, oil, oil derivatives, weapons, vehicles and other goods. He controls the area bordering Albania. Part of the profits was ploughed back into financing Albanian terrorists in Macedonia and Southern Serbia. Criminal charges were filed against him for a series of murders in an inter-mafia conflict and the organized assassination of Tahir Zemaj, who was supposed to be a major witness against him and his brother.
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Haradinaj became deputy KPC commander under Agim Ceku but left the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) after placing his brother Daut as commander of the KPC, which carried out assassinations of political rivals. He created a criminal organization which controls organized smuggling of drugs, cigarettes, oil, oil derivatives, weapons, vehicles and other goods. He controls the area bordering Albania. Part of the profits was ploughed back into financing Albanian terrorists in Macedonia and Southern Serbia. Criminal charges were filed against him for a series of murders in an inter-mafia conflict and the organized assassination of Tahir Zemaj, who was supposed to be a major witness against him and his brother.
In early December 2004 Haradinaj became the Prime Minister of Kosovo. His party ranked third in the elections but formed a coalition with Rugova’s Democratic Alliance of Kosovo. This had caused a controversy in Belgrade and resulted in a request to the UN administrator Soren Jessen Petersen to annul the appointment. Petersen refused, using the argument that Haradinaj was democratically elected. Haradinaj was interviewed twice by the ICTY for the war crimes and subsequently indicted. He resigned the premiership, turned himself in, and pleaded not guilty before the Tribunal. In his book “Stories of War and Freedom,” he says: “Each and every day we killed Serb policemen.” Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright praised Haradinaj and said that he could serve as a model for the legal system in Serbia.
Agim Ceku Biosketch
Agim Ceku, a former Yugoslav Army officer, first the KLA chief of staff then the commander-in-chief of the KPC, subsequently advanced to become the PM. He has been linked to three of the grisliest episodes of brutality in the Serb-Croat 1991-1995 civil war. During the armed conflicts in Croatia, as a colonel in the Assembly of National Guard, he commanded a unit which in 1991 carried out kidnappings, assassinations and massacres of 156 of the most renowned Serbs from Gospic. In 1993 he masterminded the attack by the Croatian army on the Medak pocket where 81-200 Serbs were massacred, some of them burned alive. Scott Taylor wrote: “Many Canadian peacekeepers had witnessed the atrocities committed by Ceku’s troops in Croatia in 1993 and 1994, and it was largely on the strength of their testimony that the Hague tribunal issued a sealed indictment.” This was Canada’s largest military action since the Korean War. Taylor says that traumatized Canadian peacekeepers “buried the grisly remains and were encouraged to collect all possible evidence in order to bring the perpetrators to justice” yet Canada’s Louise Arbour, then the chief ICTY prosecutor, “chose to pursue more politically prominent suspects, and nothing was done to bring Ceku to justice.”
Jane’s Intelligence Review described Ceku as a planner of massacres against Serb civilians living in UN-protected zones in 1993 and 1995. Ceku was a key planner in the Croatian offensive Oluja (Storm) in August of 1995, tacitly approved by the Clinton Administration, which resulted in the killings of anywhere up to 2,500 Serbs and the ethnic cleansing of some 200,000, nearly the entire ethnic Serbian population in the region. He worked closely with the U.S. government hired Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI), who advised the Croatian government in Operation Storm. When the ICTY announced that Ceku was under investigation, there was strong U.S. pressure to suppress the indictment. A Western diplomat told the London Sunday Times: “If we lose him it will be a disaster. When you get to the second level of the KPC, you are down to a bunch of thugs.”
After appointment as the supreme KLA commander in January 1999, he took part in the planning and execution of many terrorist acts. At the conclusion of the war, his troops were supposed to be disarmed. Under his control as the KPC chief, KPC members channeled support for terrorist activities in Southern Serbia and Macedonia. Taylor wrote: “As this indicted war criminal continues to enjoy his freedom, bask in public acclaim, and collect a UN paycheck, Canadian soldiers are risking their lives to disarm UCK forces in Macedonia. All in the name of peace and justice” Through his brother Ethem, Ceku controls criminal activities connected with trafficking in arms and drugs and with illicit trade in excise goods. He owns Pristina hotels and more than 60 clubs around Kosovo that are considered nests of illegal business. He was arrested at the Ljubljana airport on an Interpol warrant but released rapidly after then the UNMIK Chief Holkeri intervened.
KLA Decapitated Abducted Serbs
The American public was shocked and outraged at the despicable and barbaric beheadings of Americans Nicholas Berg and Paul Johnson by jihadists in Iraq and Saudi Arabia respectively. Most Americans were completely unaware that such barbaric practices are not uncommon in the Islamic world. In Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, there is “Chop-Chop” Square where public beheadings in the presence of a large number of spectators take place. Political dissidents are subjected to these barbaric punishments. But Western media have concealed from the public the pictures of the Serbs beheaded by jihadists in Bosnia and Kosovo.
On November 2, 2003, the Belgrade daily newspaper Vecernje Novosti published a text with photos showing KLA criminals with bloody trophies of decapitated heads of Serbs. A large photograph shows three members of the KLA in uniform. The oldest man is holding a severed human head in his right hand and carrying a larger head in his left arm. Serbian Prime Minister then Zoran Zivkovic called on the international community to react to the photos: “We kept being told by the Hague (ICTY) that there’s no evidence of war crimes committed in Kosovo by the Albanian side.”
The UN police found the photos after the search of an Albanian house in the village of Prilep. The trophy photos resemble the style similar to mujahideen trophy photos from Bosnia, Chechnya and elsewhere. The photos were taken during the NATO 78 day campaign against Serbia, April or May 1999. The KLA gunmen in the photos, who subsequently occupied positions in the KPC, were Sadik Chuflaj, KLA member from Decani, and his son Valon, who had an UNMIK identity card and then became a KPC member with the rank of lieutenant. The units in that part of Kosovo were commanded by Ramush Haradinaj, leader of the AAK party whose brother Daut was sentenced to imprisonment for crimes committed against dissenting Kosovo Albanians.
Bojan Cvetkovic, a sales clerk from Nis who volunteered for the Yugoslav Army, was identified as a victim. On April 11 he was abducted by the KLA together with four other soldiers. Traces of all of them disappeared. The second photo shows a horrific spectacle: Sadik Chuflaj is placing one of the severed heads into a large bag that might be presumed to be full of the heads of young Serb soldiers.
KLA Terrorism Exported into Southern Serbia and Macedonia
In late 1999 Albanian terrorism was exported, using Kosovo as a sanctuary, into Southern Serbia and Western Macedonia by virtue of the founding of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (LAPMB) and the National Liberation Army (NLA), respectively. The command was taken over by local Albanians who had received KLA military training with logistics support from some members of the KPC command. Shefqet Musliu, a local criminal, became the LAPMB commander. Daut Haradinaj, a KPC commander, organized NLA activities in Western Macedonia.
U.S. troops had turned a blind eye to men and weapons smuggled from the U.S. sector in Kosovo into Southern Serbia and Macedonia. De facto, the U.S. sector with its enormous military base Camp Bondsteel, built on illegally expropriated and strategically located farmland, became the staging ground for the Albanian terrorism. Scott Taylor, for his book Diary of an Uncivil War, conducted interviews with Albanian villagers in Macedonia. One of them spoke freely about the KLA (UCK). Didn’t he mean NLA or ANA, Taylor asked. The Albanian laughed and said: “The only people who use those terms are NATO and you, the media. Have you ever seen ANA or NLA spray painted on walls or on our soldiers’ crests?” The answer, of course, was “No.”
In 2001 armed clashes with the security forces in Southern Serbia intensified in the three-mile-wide buffer zone between the KFOR and the Serbian troops created by the military agreement which terminated the war. In order to counter this new wave of terrorism, the Serbian government in the post-Milosevic era had sought and obtained NATO cooperation. The Serbian troops were allowed to re-enter the buffer zone and clean up the terrorists. The Albanian terrorists, upon laying down their weapons, were given blanket amnesty by NATO and were allowed to return to Kosovo.
Terrorism against Serbia No Crime
On May 24, 2001, KFOR arrested and released more than 450 LAPMB terrorists: “KFOR screened and released all LAPMB members who are not suspected of having committed serious crimes.” What constitutes serious crime was not defined. The contrast between the language of UN Resolution 1244 and UNMIK/KFOR practice is striking. The message they delivered to the Kosovo Albanian terrorists is that secessionist terrorism is legitimate. The Albanian terrorists were treated as a regular army engaged in a legitimate military action. Killing policemen and sniping at civilians obviously did not constitute “serious crimes.” In the mass media, these terrorists were portrayed as rebels.
Corollary
On February 17, Washington illegally orchestrated Kosovo UDI in violation of the UN Charter, Helsinki Accords and the controlling UN Security Council Resolution #1244 which ended the war and affirmed the Serbian sovereignty over the province. Violation of Serbia’s territorial integrity and international law has established a precedent worldwide in favor of separatist movements with unpredictable consequences. The European Union (EU) established mission (EULEX), as a part of the Ahtisaari’s supervised independence deception, despite any legal basis including authorization from the UN Security Council.
Condoning of ghastly war crimes committed by the U.S./EU ally in Kosovo, summarized briefly herein, constitute an inherent part of deeply flawed foreign policies which amount to bankruptcy of western values. If Americans really want to know why their country is no longer regarded as “the home of the brave and the land of the free” they should forcefully object to the way the foreign policies are conducted in their name. The Europeans should do pretty much the same.
Newsweek: Exclusive: Clinton Has Approved Top-Secret Plan to Destabilize Milosevic with Cyberwar and Sabotage.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Newsweek%3A+Exclusive%3A+Clinton+Has+Approved+Top-Secret+Plan+to...-a054698236
According to sources who have read the finding, in addition to training the rebels, the CIA has been instructed to conduct a cyberwar against Milosevic, using government hackers to tap into foreign banks, and, in the words of one U.S. official, "diddle 1. diddle - To work with or modify in a not particularly serious manner. "I diddled a copy of ADVENT so it didn't double-space all the time." "Let's diddle this piece of code and see if the problem goes away."
See tweak and twiddle.
2. with Milosevic's bank accounts," Washington Correspondent Gregory Vistica reports in the May 31 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, May 24).
The White House declined to comment on the finding, and Newsweek does not have access to the entire document. But, Vistica reports, some intelligence officials with knowledge of its contents worry that the finding was put together too hastily, and that the potential consequences haven't been fully thought out. "If they pull it off, it will be great," says one government cyberwar expert. "If they screw it up, they are going to be in a world of trouble."
(Article follows)
Exclusive
Cyberwar and Sabotage
President Clinton Has OK'd a Top-Secret Plan to Destabilize de·sta·bi·lize
tr.v. de·sta·bi·lized, de·sta·bi·liz·ing, de·sta·bi·liz·es
1. To upset the stability or smooth functioning of: Milosevic - and Go
After His Money
By Gregory L. Vistica
Covert action Covert action may refer to:
Covert Action is seductive to policymakers in a bind. When diplomacy fails and force falls short, presidents often turn to the CIA for secret solutions to vexing problems. Unable to make the air war against Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic effective, and unwilling to invade with ground troops, President Clinton has decided to try a clandestine third way. Earlier this month national-security adviser Sandy Berger presented Clinton with a covert plan to squeeze Milosevic.
The president liked the idea. Senior intelligence officials tell NEWSWEEK that last week Clinton issued a "finding," a highly classified document authorizing the spy agency to begin secret efforts "to find other ways to get at Milosevic," in the words of one official. Two weeks ago Berger secretly briefed members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees about the details of the two-part plan. According to sources who have read the finding, the CIA will train Kosovar rebels in sabotage -- age-old tricks like cutting telephone lines, blowing up buildings, fouling gasoline reserves and pilfering food supplies -- in an effort to undermine public support for the Serbian leader and damage Yugoslav targets that can't be reached from the air. That much is unsurprising. But the CIA has also been instructed to conduct a cyberwar against Milosevic, using government hackers to tap into foreign banks and, in the words of one U.S. official, "diddle with Milosevic's bank accounts."
The finding was immediately criticized by some lawmakers who questioned the wisdom - and legality - of launching a risky covert action that, if discovered, could prolong the war, alienate other NATO NATO: see North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
NATO
in full North Atlantic Treaty Organization
International military alliance created to defend western Europe against a possible Soviet invasion. countries -- and possibly blow back on the United States. Under the finding, the allies were to be kept in the dark about the plan. Other members of Congress privy to the finding wondered about its timing. Why did Clinton authorize the operation just as diplomats had begun making progress on a peace agreement? The White House declined to comment on the finding, and NEWSWEEK does not have access to the entire document. But some intelligence officials with knowledge of its contents worry that the finding was put together too hastily, and that the potential consequences haven't been fully thought out. "If they pull it off, it will be great," says one government cyberwar expert. "If they screw it up, they are going to be in a world of trouble."
By far the most controversial -- and probably most difficult -- part of the operation would be the effort to hack into Milosevic's foreign bank accounts. Intelligence sources believe they have identified banks in several countries, including Russia, Greece and Cyprus, where the Serb leader has hidden millions of dollars. But the Hollywood vision of a brainy brain·y
adj. brain·i·er, brain·i·est Informal
Intelligent; smart.
brain
i·ly adv. nerd draining bank accounts from his computer at CIA headquarters is a fantasy. According to government intelligence experts, agents would have to visit each of the banks, set up new accounts, then carefully watch how the institution operates and look for weak links in its security. The National Security Agency's hackers would use that information to try to overcome today's sophisticated encryption software and fire walls. If they gained access, the hackers could do almost anything they liked with Milosevic's cash -- steal it, move it to a dummy account or slowly drain it away a few thousand dollars at a time.
But should they? The idea of a U.S.-sponsored plan to break into foreign banks unnerves some intelligence officials, who point out that the operation would be a breach of national sovereignty in friendly countries and open the door to computer attacks on U.S. banks. What's more, the United States would be the main loser if confidence in the world banking system were undermined.
The sabotage plan also entails some serious problems. The CIA would somehow have to find and train guerrillas without helping the Kosovo Liberation Army The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA (Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK) was an ethnic Albanian paramilitary extremist group which sought independence for the province of Kosovo from Yugoslavia and Serbia in the late 1990s. , which the administration itself labeled a terrorist organization just a year ago and which is believed to fund its operations with profits from international drug smuggling. In the chaos now prevailing in Kosovar refugee camps it will not be easy for the CIA to make sure the anti- Milosevic rebels it signs up have no KLA KLA Kosovo Liberation Army
Intelligence officials also worry it would be difficult to control the U.S.-trained rebels once boot camp is over and they are set loose on Milosevic. "I'm afraid they could use their training to carry out atrocities," says John Rothrock, the Air Force's former chief of intelligence planning. "If they think they can rein them in, it's tremendous naivet."
Congress can complain all it likes, but it has no legal authority to stop the finding. Lawmakers can try to block the plan by refusing to provide money for the covert action, but the president can tap into his emergency funds to finance it. At this point, it is not at all certain that the finding will ultimately be carried out. If the grumblings from the Hill and the intelligence community grow too loud, or if the risk-averse CIA chooses to drag its feet, the president may opt to quietly kill the finding -- and pretend it never existed.
According to sources who have read the finding, in addition to training the rebels, the CIA has been instructed to conduct a cyberwar against Milosevic, using government hackers to tap into foreign banks, and, in the words of one U.S. official, "diddle 1. diddle - To work with or modify in a not particularly serious manner. "I diddled a copy of ADVENT so it didn't double-space all the time." "Let's diddle this piece of code and see if the problem goes away."
See tweak and twiddle.
2. with Milosevic's bank accounts," Washington Correspondent Gregory Vistica reports in the May 31 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, May 24).
The White House declined to comment on the finding, and Newsweek does not have access to the entire document. But, Vistica reports, some intelligence officials with knowledge of its contents worry that the finding was put together too hastily, and that the potential consequences haven't been fully thought out. "If they pull it off, it will be great," says one government cyberwar expert. "If they screw it up, they are going to be in a world of trouble."
(Article follows)
Exclusive
Cyberwar and Sabotage
President Clinton Has OK'd a Top-Secret Plan to Destabilize de·sta·bi·lize
tr.v. de·sta·bi·lized, de·sta·bi·liz·ing, de·sta·bi·liz·es
1. To upset the stability or smooth functioning of: Milosevic - and Go
After His Money
By Gregory L. Vistica
Covert action Covert action may refer to:
- Covert operation, several HUMINT techniques used by intelligence agencies.
- Covert Action, a game designed by Sid Meier.
Covert Action is seductive to policymakers in a bind. When diplomacy fails and force falls short, presidents often turn to the CIA for secret solutions to vexing problems. Unable to make the air war against Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic effective, and unwilling to invade with ground troops, President Clinton has decided to try a clandestine third way. Earlier this month national-security adviser Sandy Berger presented Clinton with a covert plan to squeeze Milosevic.
The president liked the idea. Senior intelligence officials tell NEWSWEEK that last week Clinton issued a "finding," a highly classified document authorizing the spy agency to begin secret efforts "to find other ways to get at Milosevic," in the words of one official. Two weeks ago Berger secretly briefed members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees about the details of the two-part plan. According to sources who have read the finding, the CIA will train Kosovar rebels in sabotage -- age-old tricks like cutting telephone lines, blowing up buildings, fouling gasoline reserves and pilfering food supplies -- in an effort to undermine public support for the Serbian leader and damage Yugoslav targets that can't be reached from the air. That much is unsurprising. But the CIA has also been instructed to conduct a cyberwar against Milosevic, using government hackers to tap into foreign banks and, in the words of one U.S. official, "diddle with Milosevic's bank accounts."
The finding was immediately criticized by some lawmakers who questioned the wisdom - and legality - of launching a risky covert action that, if discovered, could prolong the war, alienate other NATO NATO: see North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
NATO
in full North Atlantic Treaty Organization
International military alliance created to defend western Europe against a possible Soviet invasion. countries -- and possibly blow back on the United States. Under the finding, the allies were to be kept in the dark about the plan. Other members of Congress privy to the finding wondered about its timing. Why did Clinton authorize the operation just as diplomats had begun making progress on a peace agreement? The White House declined to comment on the finding, and NEWSWEEK does not have access to the entire document. But some intelligence officials with knowledge of its contents worry that the finding was put together too hastily, and that the potential consequences haven't been fully thought out. "If they pull it off, it will be great," says one government cyberwar expert. "If they screw it up, they are going to be in a world of trouble."
By far the most controversial -- and probably most difficult -- part of the operation would be the effort to hack into Milosevic's foreign bank accounts. Intelligence sources believe they have identified banks in several countries, including Russia, Greece and Cyprus, where the Serb leader has hidden millions of dollars. But the Hollywood vision of a brainy brain·y
adj. brain·i·er, brain·i·est Informal
Intelligent; smart.
brain
i·ly adv. nerd draining bank accounts from his computer at CIA headquarters is a fantasy. According to government intelligence experts, agents would have to visit each of the banks, set up new accounts, then carefully watch how the institution operates and look for weak links in its security. The National Security Agency's hackers would use that information to try to overcome today's sophisticated encryption software and fire walls. If they gained access, the hackers could do almost anything they liked with Milosevic's cash -- steal it, move it to a dummy account or slowly drain it away a few thousand dollars at a time. But should they? The idea of a U.S.-sponsored plan to break into foreign banks unnerves some intelligence officials, who point out that the operation would be a breach of national sovereignty in friendly countries and open the door to computer attacks on U.S. banks. What's more, the United States would be the main loser if confidence in the world banking system were undermined.
The sabotage plan also entails some serious problems. The CIA would somehow have to find and train guerrillas without helping the Kosovo Liberation Army The Kosovo Liberation Army or KLA (Albanian: Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK) was an ethnic Albanian paramilitary extremist group which sought independence for the province of Kosovo from Yugoslavia and Serbia in the late 1990s. , which the administration itself labeled a terrorist organization just a year ago and which is believed to fund its operations with profits from international drug smuggling. In the chaos now prevailing in Kosovar refugee camps it will not be easy for the CIA to make sure the anti- Milosevic rebels it signs up have no KLA KLA Kosovo Liberation Army
Intelligence officials also worry it would be difficult to control the U.S.-trained rebels once boot camp is over and they are set loose on Milosevic. "I'm afraid they could use their training to carry out atrocities," says John Rothrock, the Air Force's former chief of intelligence planning. "If they think they can rein them in, it's tremendous naivet."
Congress can complain all it likes, but it has no legal authority to stop the finding. Lawmakers can try to block the plan by refusing to provide money for the covert action, but the president can tap into his emergency funds to finance it. At this point, it is not at all certain that the finding will ultimately be carried out. If the grumblings from the Hill and the intelligence community grow too loud, or if the risk-averse CIA chooses to drag its feet, the president may opt to quietly kill the finding -- and pretend it never existed.
Gypsies Remain Outcasts in Kosovo
http://articles.latimes.com/1999/jul/16/news/mn-56686
Balkans: Many Roma face hatred from ethnic Albanians, who view them as collaborators of Serbs.
The war is over in Kosovo, but the problems are just beginning for one minority group at the fringes of the conflict.
Thousands of Roma, often referred to as Gypsies, have taken temporary refuge in a squalid makeshift camp here in the heart of Kosovo after being driven from their homes by returning ethnic Albanian refugees. Many Roma houses have been looted and burned, and some Roma have been assaulted, NATO forces occupying the province confirm.
In essence, the Roma are being driven from their land in a manner similar to the way Kosovo's ethnic Albanians were forced out by the Serbs during the spring. The reason: The Roma are viewed by the province's ethnic Albanian majority as collaborators who joined in on the Serbs' wartime looting.
Unlike about 100,000 ethnic Albanian refugees who found sanctuary in the United States, Europe and other lands during the war, the Roma have few options. They face discrimination in many countries, which hinders their ability to find legal refuge outside Kosovo.
They are appealing to the United Nations to send them abroad, but that is "not realistic," said Sergio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations' interim civil administrator for Kosovo, who this week visited the Roma camp here operated by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Instead, the U.N. and NATO-led peacekeepers want to ensure that the Roma can return to their homes in Kosovo "in security and dignity," De Mello said. "This is their country and their home."
But returning home is difficult because widespread hatred makes it impossible for Roma to live safely, camp administrators say.
"We know how people breathe here [in Kosovo]," said Nasir Adiqi, the facility's director. What they "breathe," contends the camp's deputy administrator, Ibrahim Hasani, is a desire for a state composed solely of ethnic Albanians.
"They are not just retaliating because their houses were looted or someone was killed--the problem is, the ethnic Albanians want to cleanse the area of Roma," said Hasani, a Roma.
Added another senior camp official, Bashkim Berisha, "We are very sad for the things that happened to the Albanians, but now we are the ones who are suffering. We didn't do the things they are talking about; they are taking their revenge out on innocent people."
Thousands of Roma, often referred to as Gypsies, have taken temporary refuge in a squalid makeshift camp here in the heart of Kosovo after being driven from their homes by returning ethnic Albanian refugees. Many Roma houses have been looted and burned, and some Roma have been assaulted, NATO forces occupying the province confirm.
In essence, the Roma are being driven from their land in a manner similar to the way Kosovo's ethnic Albanians were forced out by the Serbs during the spring. The reason: The Roma are viewed by the province's ethnic Albanian majority as collaborators who joined in on the Serbs' wartime looting.
Unlike about 100,000 ethnic Albanian refugees who found sanctuary in the United States, Europe and other lands during the war, the Roma have few options. They face discrimination in many countries, which hinders their ability to find legal refuge outside Kosovo.
They are appealing to the United Nations to send them abroad, but that is "not realistic," said Sergio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations' interim civil administrator for Kosovo, who this week visited the Roma camp here operated by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Instead, the U.N. and NATO-led peacekeepers want to ensure that the Roma can return to their homes in Kosovo "in security and dignity," De Mello said. "This is their country and their home."
But returning home is difficult because widespread hatred makes it impossible for Roma to live safely, camp administrators say.
"We know how people breathe here [in Kosovo]," said Nasir Adiqi, the facility's director. What they "breathe," contends the camp's deputy administrator, Ibrahim Hasani, is a desire for a state composed solely of ethnic Albanians.
"They are not just retaliating because their houses were looted or someone was killed--the problem is, the ethnic Albanians want to cleanse the area of Roma," said Hasani, a Roma.
Added another senior camp official, Bashkim Berisha, "We are very sad for the things that happened to the Albanians, but now we are the ones who are suffering. We didn't do the things they are talking about; they are taking their revenge out on innocent people."
How To Handle Milosevic
http://www.slate.com/id/91036/
Posted Monday, Oct. 9, 2000, at 9:30 PM ET
Would that I were right now writing the political obituary of Slobodan Milosevic. I know exactly what it ought to say: Here ends the reign of a man who, even by his own, Serbian-nationalist standards, was a political failure. Promising to consolidate the "Serb Lands" of former Yugoslavia, he instead oversaw the breakup of Yugoslavia into its constituent parts, behaving so arrogantly that even loyal Montenegro now wants out of the Serb federation. Swearing to protect his Serb brethren, wherever they might be, he instead brought tragedy and ruin to most of the Serbs outside Serbia. He alienated his country—under communism one of the best-integrated in the Soviet bloc—from the rest of the world. He thoroughly impoverished what had been, by Eastern European standards, a relatively wealthy and advanced society, criminalizing its economy, destroying its currency. That, of course, leaves out all of the death and destruction Milosevic wrought in Croatia and Bosnia, not to mention Kosovo, not to mention the disruption he caused further afield.
But by one standard, Milosevic can indeed be judged a success: He has consistently proved to be an absolute genius at preserving his own power. In fact, he is a Communist leader of the Jaruzelski/Honecker/Husák generation and should have fallen along with them, way back in 1989. Unlike them, however, he saw which way the wind was blowing, successfully concealed his Communist identity behind a new nationalist façade, and kept on ruling. Changing his colors to fit the occasion, he became, at one point, the West's most important negotiating partner in the Balkans (how quickly we forget), before becoming the West's sworn enemy. He has maintained control, despite internal and external opposition, with amazing tenacity. Until late last week, he was still issuing orders in Belgrade. As of the writing of this article, his political party's Web site was still calling its opponents "LIARS" in bold capital letters, despite having already conceded electoral victory to them.
For that reason, I would feel far more optimistic about the future of Serbia if Milosevic had decided to board that Yugoslav Airlines flight for Moscow last week with his son Marko and his grandson, also called Marko, the very one whom Milosevic said on Friday he was "hoping to spend more time with," now that he was so genteelly retiring from office. And I don't think I am alone: Richard Holbrooke, who has probably dealt with Milosevic more than any other American official, told the New York Times that the ex-president's stated decision to stay in Belgrade and to stay involved in Serbian politics was "vastly complicating."
This, alas, may turn out to be an understatement. As we now know from watching the transitions unfold in a dozen other countries across Europe, ex-Communists in general are remarkably adept at holding on to influence even after they have been evicted from office: Everyone always forgets that they and their cronies had controlled not only the parliaments and executive branches of their respective countries, but the industry, the financial sectors, the media, the army, and the police as well. Within a few months of losing office, they invariably manage to regroup, with far more money and wider economic influence than the generally weak and divided democrats who replace them. Note, for the record, that the Poles re-elected Alexander Kwasniewski, a former Communist, as their president, despite evidence of lying, drunkenness, and even tapes showing the man mocking the pope.
Milosevic is certainly poised to follow in Kwasniewski's footsteps, with (given his greater venality and criminality) far more damaging consequences for his country. There is already talk of the fate of hundreds of millions of dollars of gold he has allegedly smuggled abroad (perfect for financing later election campaigns, or even coups). Large chunks of the army leadership are probably still loyal to him; some appeared set to take over state TV Friday. He appears to be openly in control of at least one other TV station, however, via his influential wife, and who knows how much of the rest of the media, via more clandestine links. The democrats who have ousted him are, even by Balkan standards, extremely divided and quarrelsome. Newly inaugurated President Vojislav Kostunica's ruling coalition contains 18 parties, all with completely different programmes and goals. When the inevitable dissatisfaction with change sets in—and it always does, I'm afraid, particularly if there are lots of people around to encourage it—Milosevic will be well poised for a comeback.
Tragically, Kostunica doesn't seem to recognize the danger, or if he does, he doesn't feel able to deal with it yet. He has already begun to speak vaguely of a "government of national unity" or, using that other suspect euphemism, a "government of experts." If he thinks he can placate Milosevic and his allies by forming coalitions with them, however, he is making an enormous mistake, one made in various ways by victorious democrats across the old eastern bloc over the past decade.
No, the time for Kostunica to deal with Milosevic—and his friends, and his criminal associates, and his security service thugs—is right now, while the public is still supporting him, while the evidence is still fresh. He needn't hang him or shoot him, or even hand him over to the Hague: far better to put him on trial in Yugoslavia itself. Now is the time to make the arrests, to get out all the evidence, to make sure the Serbs understand precisely who is responsible for their poverty and isolation, precisely who caused the wars they've fought for the past decade. Now is the time to make sure history is written by the victors—before it gets written by someone else.
