Wesley Clark: Hero or Villain? : Melbourne Indymedia

General Wesley Clark has attempted recently to portray himself as a liberal, deserving of support by progressives in his campaign for president. On the Bill Maher show, he was asked if he would run away from the word "liberal" and he said no and that America was founded as a "liberal democracy." The fact that he was NATO commander during the bombing of Yugoslavia is pointed out with pride by the corporate media as indicating he is a patriotic American willing to defend his country and end human rights abuses in other countries. This is all propaganda and derives from a basic misunderstanding about how and why the breakup of Yugoslavia occurred.

Yugoslavia did not disintegrate because of old ethnic hatreds as the corporate media would like the whole world to believe. It was deliberately broken up by the United States and Germany using methods designed to instigate and foster ethnic hatreds. This is conclusively proven by a law passed by the US Congress a year prior to the start of Yugoslavia's breakup. This law is called Foreign Operations Appropriations Law 101-513. The law cut off all aid, credits and loans from the United States to Yugoslavia. Also, it cut off loans from international institutions heavily influenced by the US like the IMF and the World Bank. This law was very hard on Yugoslavia because it had borrowed heavily from foreign banks to finance the growth of its economy and was deeply in debt. The law further stipulated that for aid and loans to be resumed, separate elections had to be held in each of the six Yugoslavian republics, and the US State Department had to approve the election procedures and results in each republic. Only so-called democratic parties were allowed to participate in these elections. In actuality, this meant that the US financed fascist and nationalist parties in each republic, which would collaborate in the breakup of Yugoslavia. Fascist exiles from the old Ustasha party, which ruled the former Nazi puppet state of Croatia, flowed back into that republic from the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria and other countries. The old fascist symbols and flag returned to prominence. Croatian president Tudjman was a fascist and a Holocaust denier. Thousands of communists, Jews, Roma and Serbs had been killed at the Jasenovac concentration camp run by the Ustashi in Croatia during World War 2. Now, these fascists were returning to power. Muslim fascists returned to Bosnia and seized power. Bosnian president Izetbegovic was a Nazi collaborator in the Second World War.

There are many other indications of the careful planning of Yugoslavia's disintegration. The CIA trained both the Croatian and Bosnian Muslim militaries. There were numerous reports in European newspapers about this fact, but, naturally, the US corporate media kept silent about it. The US provided air support when the Croatian military drove over 200,000 Serbs from their homes in Krajina- a gigantic ethnic cleansing that dwarfed any atrocities the Serbs were alleged to have committed, including Srebrenica and Sarajevo. In fact, the explosion at the market place in Sarajevo, attributed to a Serb mortar or artillery shell, was later found to be a bomb planted by Bosnian Muslims to draw sympathy to their cause and demonize the Serbs. The Croatian and Bosnian governments hired the US public relations firm Ruder Finn to help demonize the Serbs. Ruder Finn was actually proud of its success in demonizing the Serbs, saying that they had overcome the natural sympathy Jews had with Serbs because both had been targeted by the Nazis and turned Jewish public opinion against the Serbs. Finally, the so-called Rambouillet agreement, the rejection of which by Yugoslavia was used as a pretext for the massive and continuous bombing of Serbia and Kosovo for nearly three months, was not an agreement, but an ultimatum. It gave NATO forces the right to occupy Serbia-an effective loss of sovereignty and Serbia had every right to reject it.

Why would the United States deliberately cause the disintegration of Yugoslavia? The Soviet Union and all of Eastern Europe, except for Yugoslavia, had been pressured to adopt a capitalist system (shock therapy), and these countries sold many state-owned industries at fire sale prices to foreign investors. Yugoslavia held out against the privatization and deregulation demands of the IMF and World Bank, and therefore, its people had to pay the price of having cluster bombs and depleted uranium dropped on them. Actually, if state-owned industries can't be privatized, the other option is to bomb them out of existence, move in American corporations and utilize very cheap Slavic labor, all the cheaper because of the chaos and destruction of war. Bombing and the spread of American corporate power go hand in hand.

The bombing of Yugoslavia was not a humanitarian intervention to end ethnic cleansing because at the very same time the US was supporting militarily a far greater ethnic cleansing by Turkey against the Kurds. General Wesley Clark is not a war hero. He is a war criminal, who time after time on CNN defended the bombing of Yugoslavia and choice of targets in an immoral, imperialist war designed to further enrich the ruling elites in the United States. He told lie after lie as all apologists for imperialist wars do and was very truculent in justifying the bombing. No leftist who truly understands the meaning of imperialism could possibly vote for this candidate for president. He is a wolf in sheep's clothing. I have the greatest admiration for the work of Michael Moore, but he needs to investigate the recent history of Yugoslavia more closely before endorsing Wesley Clark. I recommend NATO in the Balkans from the International Action Center and To Kill a Nation-The Attack on Yugoslavia by Michael Parenti. Michel Chossudovsky, a professor of economics at the University of Ottawa, also writes many excellent articles about Yugoslavia.

Here are some excellent web sites for information on the breakup of Yugoslavia:
http://www.michaelparenti.org/yugoslavia.html
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/62/022.html
http://www.iacenter.org

"...Yugoslavia did not disintegrate because of old ethnic hatreds as the corporate media would like the whole world to believe. It was deliberately broken up by the United States and Germany using methods designed to instigate and foster ethnic hatreds...."

Certainly this is the line taken by former Communist strongman, Slobodan Milosovic, in his defence against war crimes and genocide charges at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

That he was the innocent victim of western capitalist imperialist intrigues. And - in ironic contradiction - that in any case, the UN have no jurisdiction over what was an "internal" matter.

Unfortunately for Slobo, there are thousands and thousands of pages of evidentiary transcript which amply demonstrate the Yugoslavian government's deliberate, planned and long premeditated campaigns of "ethnic cleansing".

Also, to implement a genocide on the scale of that which occured in Yugoslavia takes a great deal of logistics and materiele.

Camps have to be built, police and paramilitary have to be coordinated, mass graves have to be dug, earth moving equipment has to be acquired in large scale, prisoners have to be sorted and trans-shipped in large numbers, cattle-trucks, busses and lorries have to be obtained, barracks have to be built for the execution squads and so on and so on and so on.

Genocide requires the coordinated, planned cooperation of complex state apparatus.

Only someone as gullible as Garry could imagine it could be tricked from afar.

In the case of Yugoslavia, the programme of ethnic cleansing is demonstrated by the evidence as the deliberate work of the Milosovic regime.

This is awafuly embarrasing to the left which - for decades - promoted Yugoslavia as an ideal example of socialist harmony and multiculturalism. Despite what was being said by countless ordinary citizens of the communist state.

So, when it went bad really Garry and other pseudo-intellectual leftists had little choice but to snap to in knee-jerk, goose-step fashion and parrot the Party line in Milosovic's defense.

Either that or face up to the utterly unthinkable - and admit they were wrong.

Again.

So, what - by contrast - do INFORMED observers have to say?

Here is Pulitzer Prize winning author and historian of 20th century genocides, Samantha Power;

"As high as the death toll (in the former Yugoslavia) turned out, it was far lower than if NATO had not acted at all. After years of avoiding confrontation, the United States and it allies likely saved hundreds of thousands of lives. In addition, although prospective and retrospective critics of US intervention have long cited the negative effects likely to result, the NATO campaign ushered in some very positive unintended consequences. Indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal for Serbia's atrocities in Operation Horseshoe (the code name for the Yugoslav Government's ethnic cleansing of Kosovo) and defeated in battle, President Milosovic became became even more vulnerable at home.
The Serbian people realised that the Milosovic regime meant coruption, oppression, death, and a future of international isolation and economic desolations."

("A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide", Flamingo Press, 2002)

Okay. That's the view of a renowned, internationally acknowledged expert on the matter.

As opposed to Garry's view.

Garry could be speaking simply from the basis of ignorance and bias - and his post certainly seems like fairly predictable re-hash of standard Communist and ratbag left apologia for what is, after all, just one more embarrassing, failed Socialist disctatorship.

On the other hand, Garry may be an obedient, knowing psuedo-Marxist stooge spreading the usual lies, half lies and distrortions.

A bit like his far-right friend 'brian' who also ardently defends Slobodan Milosovic and his thugs at IndyMedia Melbourne and on other sites.

Doesn't really matter which.

To this day, walls in the towns and villages of Bosnia, Kosovo, and other parts of the former Yugoslavia carry graffiti praising NATO, Wesley Clarke, Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Madelaine Albright as liberators for their belated but welcome intervention.

If any criticsim could be made of the west in regard to the former Yugoslavia, it is that it did not intervene much, much earlier.

Part of the delay was to do with issues of national sovreignty, and much was to do with what Wesley Clarke derisively termed the West's obsession with the policy of "combat immunity" - that is, it's fear of taking casualties in foreign engagements.

(No longer meaningful post-September 11, 2001)

One of the things which inspired the Yugoslavian government in its genocidal programme was the quick withdrawl of US forces from Somalia after taking a mere 16 casualties and its subsequent unwillingness to become involved in rescuing the victims of the Rwandan genocides of 1994.

Along with the rest of the left, the Communist government of Yugoslavia gloated over these examples of Western "cowardice", and in Milosovic's case was emboldened to embark on his ethnic cleansing campaign.

It was to the very great credit of Wesley Clarke that he and others badgered the Clinton administration into finally acting against Milovic. Tony Blair was openly interventionist, too.

Amongst those calling for intervention were World Vision, Human rights Watch and the Quakers.

(Doubtless typical "imperialist" stooges in poor Garry's eyes)

The left virtually never raised a word in protest against Milosovic - and even now, as you can see, try to mitigate his crimes and the failed regime he led.

Wll done Garry. Hit the nail right on the head.

Not the sort of thing I'd put my name to though

Garry is not arguing that Slobodan Milosovic didn't commit an act of genocide, spinifex.

He's arguing that the genocide was jsutified because the west deliberately made the former communist's state's economy fail.

Just how so wonderful a thing as a socialist economy could be made to "fail", is a mystery of course.

Given that Socialism liberates the full productive potential of the working classes, diverting surplus labour away from capital and directing it entirely to the benefit of the proletariat, there's very little room for hiccups

How could so marvellous, and productive a thing as a socialist economy get into international debt for example?

Anyway, there must be a reason.

That's right. It's saboutage by perfidious foreigners.

Puts me in mind of the GreenLeft editorial line that "explains" the failed Cuban economy.

It is the US trade embargo.

The one country on earth that Cuba insists it wants absolutely nothing to do with somehow "causes" Cuba's inability to produce goods and services - though Cuba can of course trade with every other of the 180 countries on earth, including ALL of America's main trading partners.

China, Canada and the whole EU.

Not to mention Japan, all of latin America and the Middle East, the UK, Australia, all of south east Asia, etc.

The US emargo itself explains why Fidel has to sell his people as slave labour to multinationals - but somehow cannot turn his talented, vibrant, clever people's many very real talents into a profitable, going concern.

It is because Cuba cannot trade with the evil, exploitative, imperialist Great Satan in particular

Hence, the Cuban economy is "strangled".

See?

It's basically the same with Yugoslavia.

Milosovic had to kill the Kosovar Albanians, shove hundreds of thousands of Mulsims into concentration camps, make war on his neighbours and rape thousands of Bosnian women.

How else could he increase productivity at his rusting, Soviet built steel mills and outdated tractor factories?

See?

KLA leader Hashim Taqi, Viceroy Bernard Kouchner, General Sir Michael Jackson, KLA commander Agim Ceku, and General Wesley Clark celebrate the victory of their joint enterprise; Pristina, 1999, credit unknown

spinifex is correct when he says:
Camps have to be built, police and paramilitary have to be coordinated, mass graves have to be dug, earth moving equipment has to be acquired in large scale, prisoners have to be sorted and trans- shipped in large numbers, cattle-trucks, busses and lorries have to be obtained, barracks have to be built for the execution squads and so on and so on and so on.

Genocide requires the coordinated, planned cooperation of complex state apparatus.

It does indeed. I feel confident that spinifex can explain how then, has Milosevic managed to discredit virtually all (if not all) of the prosecution's witnesses. No doubt, he can skillfully explain how - over 4 years after the genocide which "we all know" happened - Hague Tribunal Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte was telling the media that "she will begin focusing on the genocide charges against Slobodan Milosevic," presenting "crucial evidence"...no later than October.
http://melbimc.nomasters.org/news/2003/09/54655_comment.php#54703

Taking their time, aren't they?

Maybe also, spinifex can offer an explanation for why it was necessary for NATO - using the Finnish "pathologist" Helena Ranta - to pull of the "Racak massacre" hoax, and why this liar was chosen by the UN to "investigate" the "massacre" at Jenin.
http://melbimc.nomasters.org/news/2003/09/54725_comment.php#54919

Will spinifex rise to this simple challenge?
Or will he cop out by spinning about "Milosevic supporters".
If he chooses the latter, will he beat the "anti-Zionists" who will doubtless accuse me of being an "Israel apologist" to it?

And how entertaining will all this be for the readers? :)

.....why do you feel the need to adopt stationary manufacturers and suppliers ("Marbig" and "Boise") to promote yourself? Reminds me a little of Karl "Pentel" - the Muslim hater who's posted here on occassion.

All these reactionaries - they're so stationary, aren't they?

I just noticed the link provided to http://www.iacenter.org/ - I found nothing there on the breakup of Yugoslavia. While I know little about this organisation, the integrity of its founder, Ramsey Clark should be looked at.

The EC crew have written a number of investigative reports:
How Ramsey Clark falsely posed as Milosevic's lawyer: http://emperors-clothes.com/milo/ramsey1.htm

Some more on this: http://emperors-clothes.com/milo/ramsey2.htm

Ramsey Clark's IAC responds: http://emperors-clothes.com/ramsey/ramsey3.htm

This one's particularly serious. How Ramsey Clark's defense of Nazis gives an indication of his priorities: http://emperors-clothes.com/ramsey/ramsey4.htm

The following article needs no introduction. Suffice to say that the anti-war movement really needs to clean up its so-called leaders.

=========================================
On April 20, a Day Sacred to Neo- Nazis, Ramsey Clark's Group Attacked 'The Jews'!

[Posted 11 September 2003]

========================================================

[ http://www.tenc.net ]

Today Francisco Gil-White sent this note to me and also for
publication.

--Jared Israel
Editor, Emperor's Clothes

***

Dear Jared,

I was just re-reading your article, "Yea Is Yea And Nay Is Nay;
Anything Else Smacketh Of Evil," in which you accuse Ramsey Clark's groups, IAC and ANSWER, of having allied themselves with Islamic fundamentalists, Fascists and anti-Semites. [1]

And then of course you and Nico Varkevisser exposed Ramsey Clark's passionate defense - his celebration - of Baltic Nazis. Mind boggling. [2]

I think your analysis is sound. But I only just now noticed something you missed. You criticized the demonstration held April 20th 2002 by ANSWER, a sub-group of Clark's IAC.

Speakers and signs at that rally singled out Israel as the controlling force, or at least an equal partner, with the US in its Imperialist actions and took a totally anti-Israel line on the Arab-Israeli conflict. In the past only the racist and anti-Semitic part of the Right - such as David Duke of KKK fame and of course Pat Buchanan - suggested that Israel or pro-Israel forces control the US. But now we see the same thing being hinted or stated outright by a large part of what is, for some reason, still called the Left.

One of the main slogans in leaflets announcing the ANSWER rally was: "Stop the Bush/Sharon war on Palestine - April 20th." ANSWER mobilized thousands of Arab-Americans behind that.

What just hit me is their linking of 'Stop Israel' and 'April 20th'. Do you know what day April 20th is? It's definitely not obscure. I'm amazed we missed it. Neo-Nazis celebrate it everywhere, often by vandalizing synagogues and denouncing Israel.

It's the birthday of Adolph Hitler.

-- Francisco
==========================================

Some serious reflection and rethinking of many of our assumptions is clearly in order.......

Changeling,

Let me get this right. Are you saying that Slobo's ethnic cleansing campaign is merely a western fabrication?

I don't any confusion or equivocation later.

Is that what you are saying?

spinifex: Let me get this right. Are you saying that Slobo's ethnic cleansing campaign is merely a western fabrication?

Well I don't see it as specifically *Western*, and if it isn't a fabrication then why the hell has Milosevic - an authoritarian to be sure - torn the prosecution to shreds?
If you or anyone else can show that the information in the links I've provided are fraudulent, then PLEASE let me know! If it makes you feel any better, I bought the "Serbs are ethnic cleansing" line hook line and sinker as well.

Tell me spinifex, why do you think MOSSAD helped the Serbs?
Curious that the "pathologist" who lied about Jenin, also lied about the Racak "massacre", don't you think?
If the Serbs really were ethnic cleansing etc, then why was it "necessary" to make up lies about them?

That's really weird Changeling.

Pity you weren't in Srebrenica yesterday.

They had a special ceremony to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of that particular slaughter. Thousands attended the gravesites.

Think how proud you would have been explaining to the vitcim's surviving families and friends that it never happened at all.

Actually, Slobo was not the only one......

"....On August 2, 2001, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia delivered its first ever genocide conviction, for crimes committed in the wake of the 1995 capture of Srebrenica by the Bosnian Serb Army. Finding that through his leadership role in the Srebrenica operation Drina Corps General Radislav Krstic "agreed to evil," the Tribunal sentenced Krstic to 46 years' imprisonment...."

More than 7,500 Bosniak men were killed during the Srebrenica operation, the biggest single atrocity committed during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In addition to genocide, General Krstic was also found guilty of persecution-for murders, cruel and inhumane treatment, terrorizing the civilian population, forcible transfer and destruction of personal property of Bosnian Muslim civilians.

http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/bosnia/

And it's not as if this internationally respected organisation is soft on the USA or its NATO allies.

"....(New York, June 10, 2003) The Bush administration's pressure on Croatia and Slovenia in pursuit of a special exemption from the International Criminal Court (ICC) while rightly insisting on cooperation with the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal is blatant hypocrisy, Human Rights Watch said today....."

http://hrw.org/press/2003/06/icc061003.htm

It doesn't really matter how disgusting, brutal or evil a dictator becomes, the Left will always support them over a western democracy, hey?

I really think it is a mental disorder. Something akin to psychopathy.

Nothing personal. But you should have it checked out.

At least have a read of the UN Genocide Convention.

If a ethnic or religious sepretist group is formed in Australia that then does violent tactics such as kidnapping, the burning of homes and businesses and murder do think the Australian government would not also respond with force.
The KLA started shooting first whatever you think about milosevic this is a fact. The violence in what was yugoslavia can not be blamed on one side,and in kosovo there was KLA attacks on serbian families LONG before the serbian military responded. Milosevic is a mass murderer but so are the KLA.
I think if Australia had a seperatist muslim group that was armed they would send in the army. There are australians being held in jail for two years and longer because they just went to afganistan - what wouyld they do with a large armed group who openly admit they want to break away and will use violence to get it.

it is easy to take sides but there are many to blame - it wasnt good to bosnian in serbia is true but serbians in kosovo had to run from shooting and have children kidnapped. Serbian people have good and bad like everyone

>>>At least have a read of the UN Genocide Convention<<<

Why not send a copy to Ariel Sharon? Wait a minute... isn't Likud a product of your so-called western democracy?

Balic, hi.

Yes, of course you are correct. The KLA started shooting first. And nor were the governments of Croatia and Bosnia particularly nice, either.

But several things bear mentioning.

Genocide is defined under international law and is judged quite differently from supressing a rebellion or other acts of war.

Not that ruthless supression of rebellions or making aggressive war cannot be adjudged as criminal, too.

But the adjudication and jurisdiction is different.

If the KLA were guilty of crimes under either Yugoslavian or international law, that in itself does not justify Genocide as it is defined under the UN Convention nor Crimes Against Huamnity.

In fact, you hit upon a very important point when you said "no matter what you think of Milosovic", the KLA shot first.

Because, in doing so you were indicating individuals and particular organisations which may or may not be judged as criminal. That's what the courts do.

But Genocide is not retribution for individual guilt.

It punishes whole peoples simply for who they are - and not what they do.

The men and women of Srebrenica were not punished for being in the KLA nor commiting particular acts.

Thousands of them were systematically rounded up and murdered simply because they were Kosovars.

As were the Bosnian Muslims.

And they were killed, looted and displaced in a deliberate campaign calculated to ensure the disappearance of them as a community.

That is genocide.

Milosovic's cronies were signatories to the UN Convention on genocide and the UN accords on Human rights.

It is that particular crime for which they were tried.

This is why his defenders harp on his regime's "sovreign rights" - trying to circumscribe the jurisdiction of the UN courts in the Hague.

They are hoping to divert attention from those particular rights which nations - inclding Yugoslavia - surrender once they sign the conventions, and those particular breaches of the conventions which Milosovic and his buddies committed.

It IS Milosivic who is on trial - and not the Serbian people.

If the KLA soldiers commited crimes, that's a separate matter.

Latest contender for president comes from long line of rabbis

http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=13221&intcategoryid=3

[The Holy Trinity Cathedral in Djakovica (Kosovo) was destroyed by Albanian secessionist terrorists after World War II and rebuilt in 1998 using precious mosaics. After NATO's arrival in June, 1999, the church was vandalized and set on fire by secessionist terrorists, now known as the KLA, who marched into Kosovo alongside NATO forces. The mosaics were smashed to bits. Soon thereafter (on July 24-25, 1999) the Cathedral was blown up. Afterwards the Albanian secessionist authorities in Djakovica organized a celebration. The festivities lasted all night. NATO, which controls Kosovo under the title KFOR, did nothing at all.]

By deliberately perpetrating the "Serb genocide" myth, spinifex is diminishing the value of the word and insulting the memory of all those souls who have died in real genocides.
Clearly, spinifex has copped out and is manifestly incapable of explaining the anomolies I've exposed. This is not surprising as spinifex has clearly demonstrated his pathological inability or unwillingness to discuss issues with any level of maturity. Fortunately, most people can see through his facade.
He has brought up Srebrenica - which I hadn't - but first I guess I should address his childish (no offense intended to children) "concerns".

spinifex: It doesn't really matter how disgusting, brutal or evil a dictator becomes, the Left will always support them over a western democracy, hey?

Yes. yes. spinifex is obsessing about the "left" again, though I doubt he can actually define what "left" and "right" actually mean. spinifex of course prefers to spin away about "defending dictators" etc. spinifex fails to realise that attempting to seek out the truth about a situation doesn't really defend or attack anyone. spinifex has - predictably - not been able to show that the info I've provided is fraudulent or inaccurate in any way. Therefore Milosevic - regardless of what he is - is clearly not a genocidal ethnic cleanser.

spinifex: I really think it is a mental disorder. Something akin to psychopathy.

LoL! As opposed to talking with himself using stationary suppliers as psuedonyms? LoL!

spinifex: Nothing personal. But you should have it checked out.

Oh isn't he delightful? So sincere.

spinifex: That's really weird Changeling.

Global politricks is. Get used to it - the world's getting weirder. Truth is so often stranger than fiction.

spinifex: Think how proud you would have been explaining to the vitcim's surviving families and friends that it never happened at all.

This is of course, a red herring. It is also a lie. I haven't discussed Srebrenica, and I've never said "it didn't happen at all". So what did happen? Again, I'll post some links and extracts. Most of the facts speak for themselves.

Something horrible did indeed happen at Srebrenica. An extract from http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/falsely.htm follow:

Srebrenica is NATO's remedy; it compensates all sins. Did the Croatian Army drive 200,000 Serbs from the Krajina section of Yugoslavia? Were they trained, led and given air cover by US forces? Perhaps, but what about Srebrenica?

Didn't the Serbs deserve it?

By telling and retelling the story of Srebrenica over the past four and a half years the media has been able to portray the Bosnian Islamist fighters as victims and therefore humane.

Naser Oric was the Islamist Commander at Srebrenica. This gentleman met with journalists, showed them videos of the bodies of Serbian civilians decapitated by his troops during raids on nearby villages. Oric's boasts had a purpose: to instill terror. During World War II, pro-Nazi Islamist and Croatian Ustashe forces slaughtered Serbian peasants. Every Serbian family lost people. Every Serbian family remembers. By carrying out such terror in the '90s, and boasting of it, the Islamist forces were waging a psychological war. The message to Serbs was: 'We're back. Flee or die.'

But what about the Serbs? Did they respond in kind?

The following article, though very definitely not 'pro-Serb' (as you shall see, the writers assume there must be some truth to the charges) nevertheless presents strong evidence that:

1) The Islamist forces in Srebrenica employed vicious terror against Serbian civilians;

2) The supposed eyewitness reports of Serbian revenge killings at Srebrenica which have been much trumpeted by the mass media, are thoroughly contradictory. Not only do different witnesses give contradictory accounts but witnesses tell contradictory stories to different reporters;

3) There is no hard evidence that a massacre actually took place;

4) The western media has reported inconsistent and contradictory anti-Serb rumors as if they are all the Gospel truth;

5) Serbian observers have been falsely quoted as admitting the massacre took place;

6) And perhaps most important, Dutch military officers - that is, the UN officers who were on the scene when the Serbs took Srebrenica in 1995 - report there was no massacre.
==========================================

This helps explain the lead up to the Serb attack on Srebrenica. An extract from http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/standefer/hoax.htm follows:

There was little ethnic mixing, which became a problem as tension mounted. One reason for Serb suspicion was a growing Muslim movement to establish a Muslim state within the Bosnian boundaries. To accomplish this, Serbs and Serb villages were attacked. A Serb weekly reported in 1995 that in an area around Srebrenica and including 100 villages, hamlets and towns - since 1992 - 2800 Serbs had been killed and 6000 injured in more than 100 villages, towns and hamlets.

These crimes still haven't been officially investigated, although they have been confirmed by Dutch UN military personnel present at the time. The man most responsible for this scorched earth policy was the infamous Naser Oric (1)

These systematic attacks by Muslim fighters against Bosnian Serb enclaves were the reason the Serbs attacked Srebrenica in July 1995.
Mladic, the Serb commander, informed the UN commander that the attack was to eliminate terrorists and not civilians or UN troops. The decision to capture Srebrenica was made when it was realized that Muslim fighters had fled in large numbers the night before the attack. Most probably they left because it wasn't strategically worth it to them to fight for it. (2)

The public was never informed of these events and circumstances. Instead we were inundated with the stories that 8000 Muslim men were missing and presumed massacred. The number is a falsification and misuses the UN and International Red Cross reports which said 3,000-4,000 had made it to Tuzla Some of them rejoined the Bosnian Muslim forces and some emigrated to NATO countries. Another 3000 men had been arrested in Srebrenica and taken to Serb prisons where the Red Cross visited them.
==========================================

Some Islamist perspectives on the Srebrinica war: http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/kilibarda/islamist.htm

How many were killed? And how did over 3000 "massacre victims" end up voting? http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/pumphrey/Srebrenica.html

Getting back to Kosovo, an interview with the leader of Pristina's Jewish community from September, 1999: http://www.icdsm.com/more/ceda.htm

I would be astounded if Serbian forces DIDN'T commit some atrocities - such is the nature of military conflicts. But what should be obvious is that if the Serbs had a massive program of ethnic cleansing and genocide, there would be plenty of evidence to support it (we wouldn't need to wait until October!), NATO and the other Balkan forces (all of whom have committed atrocities) would have no need to spread lie after lie to "prove" it, and Slobodan Milosevic would not have been able to show up the ICT prosecution for the complete and utter frauds that they are.

Two points;

"....Latest contender for president comes from long line of rabbis..."

That remark is self evidently racist and need no further comment other than to remind the reader how often such remarks are made at this site - especially by it's leading philosopher and intellectual 'brian', who is also this site's most prolific contributor.

Secondly, Changeling, with respect.

Whatever crimes Albanian or other combatants did or did not commit has no bearing on the charges against Milosovic (although his counsel may argue they were extenuating or mitigating circumstances).

The charges against him specifically relate to Genocide as defined under the Convention.

Unlike his many victims, Slobo is getting his day in court.

Attempts to belittle the suffering of his victims - while most revealing about you as a person - don't alter the extent of the crimes under consideration.

I should point out that by November 1999 over 4000 buried bodies were found in Kosovo alone.

The bodies of more than a 1000 Albanians were recovered in 2001.

The UN convention on genocide specifically prohibits the forced evacuation of communities and ethnic cleansing - a point the so-called "anti-Zioniosts" at this site ephasise all the time in respect of illegal Jewish settlements in Israel.

If anything remotely like a mass grave with 4000 Palestinians was found, say, in Gaza or Ramalla, the ranting idiots of the pseudo-intellectual left - brian included- would be shrieking their lungs out.

But since the architect of this actual genocide is a failed Socialist dictator, your psychological compulsion is - instead - to deny the overwhelming evidence of his crimes and conspire with him in covering his tracks.

That's because you do not care about people at all - whether Palestibians or Kosovars or Albanians or Serbs.

You are just ranting fanatics. And know it.

""....Latest contender for president comes from long line of rabbis..."

That remark is self evidently racist and need no further comment other than to remind the reader how often such remarks are made at this site - especially by it's leading philosopher and intellectual 'brian', who is also this site's most prolific contributor. "

Not only are you a liar spinifex, your work is incredibly sloppy.

Did you bother to look at the link?

http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=13221&intcategoryid=3

Clark is the one exploiting his racial heritage...
++++++++++++++++++++

"You are just ranting fanatics. And know it."

Classic! You idiot!!!

I will no longer be wasting any more time on spinifex - except on occassion to counter his disinformation.

Most of the readers are intelligent enough to see that he is simply twisting my words - and the words of people who have actually researched and investigated the issues.

Notice how spinifex has failed to counter ANY of the facts I've provided? Notice how he is incapable of addressing the contradiction between his pro-Israel stance, and MOSSAD/Serb collaboration? Notice how he simply regurgitates lies - an old and unimaginative spindoctor tactic.

I will part by pointing out that spinifex's insults and lies are almost certainly a reflection of his own self-image - which he draws with a Marbig pen from Boise stationary suppliers :)

"That's because you do not care about people at all - whether Palestibians or Kosovars or Albanians or Serbs.

You are just ranting fanatics. And know it.
"

Yes you are a ranting fanatic spinifex and you don't care about people at all.

And you know it.

It's not often you're right spinifex and you're wrong again. I'm not brian. Although I agree that some comments that appear from time to time on Indymedia are antisemitic disguised as anti-racism, there's also a helluva lot of zionazi racism that goes on here disguised as anti-semitism, like alot of the stuff you post.

Sorry if you find Clark's cynicism so offensive, but considering that's what this thread is all about, it's actually quite pertinant.

ta ta for now.

"NATO, in its war against the Serbs, committed a number of acts which I think are very close to war crimes, and General Clark was the commander." - Robert Fisk

Please don't read my bad english and think I am stupid. I do not need you to tell me the recent history of my country, have you ever been there, do you now anyone that lived there during the killings. Do you now anything about life there after milosevic

First of all....

Balic: ......have you ever been there, do you now anyone that lived there during the killings.

I realise you're addressing spinifex, but I have to admit that part of me feels uneasy about discussing controversial and horrible events in a place I've never been. I want to make it clear to you that I am NOT a Milosevic supporter, nor do I pretend to know exactly what living through the horror which was the Balkan wars was like or exactly what the solutions are to the numerous issues in Yugoslavia. I was just discussing this with a Serbian friend of mine tonight (I hadn't spoken to him since this thread began) - like me, he's an anti-authoritarian who has no time for Milosevic. He lived in Bosnia until the mid 1980s and still has relatives there and in Belgrade. He has described how cosmopolitan Sarajevo was before it was destroyed. Yugoslavia sounds like a beautiful country - I do hope to get there some day. He explained to me how Milosevic took advantage of ethnic tensions in Kosovo (which may have been able to be resolved peacefully) in the late 1980s for his own political benefit. He also told me about the ethnic cleansing of 100,000 Serbians from Krajina by Croation forces - as far as I know, those responsible haven't been hauled before the Hague. The reason I expose what I have above is not to apologise for anything Milosevic has done, but to expose the propaganda and agenda behind NATO's murderous campaign. Milosevic is an authoritarian and a political manipulator and probably numerous other things, but I have seen no real evidence that he or the Serbs engaged in a campaign of "genocidal ethnic cleansing".
I hope you understand where I'm coming from.

spinifex (from http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2003/09/55132_comment.php): Those peddling the official line of the Yugoslavian communist party which denies conducting ethnic cleansing operations under the regime of Slobodan Milosovic have a new challenge.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/26/1064083152751.html

See my comments to Balic above - see if you can try and avoid spinning them, eh?
As for your "challenge" - it's more a distraction, but anyway....

smh: "So far we have found the remains of 565 people," said Ismet Music, a member of the Bosnian Muslim commission for missing people.

A representative of Alija Izetbegovic's (who gave Osama Bin Laden a passport - see my next post) government? You'll have to do better than that!

smh: Music said clothing and personal documents found with the dead showed they were Muslim civilians believed to have been killed by Bosnian Serb forces during the war.

So - allegedly - the genocidal Serbs left personal documents on their victims. Sounds a bit too convenient, and what's this "BELIEVED to have been killed by Bosnian Serb forces...." - I'm sure you do beLIEve it.

spinifex, all I will say is send this "evidence" to the Hague - perhaps this is the evidence that Del Ponte said we would see by October? Let's see what Milosevic does with it.
Seeing you're ostensibly so concerned with bringing war criminals to justice, I'm sure you will also insist that NATO bring the ethnic cleansers of Krajina to the Hague, along with the numerous other butchers who you don't seem to say much about.

=======================================
Bin Laden in the Balkans
[Re-Posted with additional materials, 3 October 2001]
=======================================

From the 'The Washington Times' June 22, 2001

"The rebels would have their big brothers in America - the same heroes who led the NATO mission against their enemies, the Serbs - believe that the violence they are now perpetrating in Macedonia is merely about protecting minority rights. But the National Liberation Army (NLA), a splinter of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), also has another motive: It is fighting to keep control over the region's drug trafficking, which has grown into a large, lucrative enterprise since the Kosovo war. In addition to drug money, the NLA also has another prominent venture capitalist: Osama bin Laden. The Muslim terrorist leader, according to a document obtained by The Washington Times and written by the chief commander of the Macedonian Security Forces, puts out the front money for the rebel group through a representative in Macedonia: 'This person is representative of Osama Ben laden sic , who is the main financial supporter of the National Liberation Army, where up to date he has paid $6 million to $7 million for the needs of the National Liberation Army.'"

********************************************

From 'The Canberra Times' (Australia ) April 28, 2000 - Page 8

"BIN LADEN IN KOSOVO ACTS

"BELGRADE: Islamic Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden, wanted for terrorism by the United States, is in Kosovo. The official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug said bin Laden, whom it described as a " terrorist and Islamic fanatic" , arrived from Albania after having formed a group of 500 Islamic fighters in the eastern region around Korce and Pogradec to carry out " terrorist acts" in Kosovo.

"He planned similar acts in the southern region of Serbia bordering on Kosovo, including Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac, the agency said."

*******************************

'The Charleston Gazette.' November 30, 1998 - Page 2A

"BIN LADEN RUNS TERRORIST NETWORK, REPORT SAYS

"LONDON - The man accused of orchestrating the U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa operates a terrorist network out of Albania, The Sunday Times reported.

"The newspaper quoted Fatos Klosi, the head of the Albanian intelligence service, as saying a network run by Saudi exile Osama Bin Laden sent units to fight in the Serbian province of Kosovo.

"Bin Laden is believed to have established an Albanian operation in 1994 after telling the government he headed a wealthy Saudi humanitarian agency wanting to help Albania, the newspaper reported.

"Klosi said he believed terrorists had already infiltrated other parts of Europe from bases in Albania. Apparent confirmation of Bin Laden's activities came earlier this month during the murder trial of Claude Kader, 27, a French national who said he was a member of Bin Laden's Albanian network, the newspaper said.

"Kader claimed during the trial he had visited Albania to recruit and arm fighters for Kosovo.

*****************************

FROM 'THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN,' May 28, 1999

"...As U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe long has predicted, American troops go into Kosovo against the Serbs, they'll be fighting alongside a terrorist organization known to finance its operations with drug sales - including some to the United States.

"By joining hands with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which intelligence sources say bankrolls itself by selling heroin and cocaine, the United States also would become partners of a sort with Osama bin Laden, the international terrorist behind last year's bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the Washington Times reports. According to the newspaper's sources, the KLA is linked to an extensive organized crime network headquartered in Albania. In 1998 the State Department listed the KLA as an international terrorist organization that supported itself with drug profits and through loans from known terrorists like bin Laden.

"Such an ally is the result of Bill Clinton choosing sides in a centuries-old civil war. "They were terrorists in 1998 and now, because of politics, they're freedom fighters," a top drug official told the Times.

"In Bill Clinton's war, where bombing has been turned into a humanitarian application, such a paradox fits right in.

*****************************

In 1999, the newspaper, 'Dani,' announced that bin Laden had been issued a Special Passport from the Washington-Backed Bosnian Government in 1993. Two weeks ago, the Bosnian government issued a denial. Given that this denial took two years and came immediately after September 11th, we suggest it be taken with a grain of salt.

"BIN LADEN WAS GRANTED BOSNIAN PASSPORT

"Agence France Presse September 24, 1999

"SARAJEVO

"Osama bin Laden, the Saudi billionaire wanted by the United States for organising bloody terrorist attacks, was granted a Bosnian passport in 1993 by the country's [i.e., Bosnia]embassy in Vienna, an independent weekly reported Friday.

"'The Bosnian embassy in Vienna granted a passport to bin Laden in 1993,' Dani magazine said, quoting anonymous sources, emphasizing that files and traces linked to his case have recently been destroyed by the [Bosnian] government.

"However, Bin Laden 'did not personally collect his Bosnian passport,' Dani said, without elaborating or explicitly stating that his passport was ever collected.

"'High Muslim officials of the Bosnian foreign ministry agreed that it [the destruction of files linked to bin Laden] was the top priority. It was even more important than investigating a person responsible for granting a passport to the most wanted terrorist in the world,' Dani reported.

"According to the article, Muslim political circles claim that six years ago officials at the Bosnian embassy in Vienna could not have known who bin Laden was.

"During the 1992-1995 Bosnia's war, the Vienna embassy has been 'making contacts with many Arab-world people seeking aid' for the mainly Muslim Bosnian army, the article said.

"The foreign ministry issued no comments on the article. Bin Laden, believed to be in Afghanistan, is accused by the United States of masterminding bloody bomb attacks against its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August of last year. Over 200 people were killed in these attacks. Washington has offered a reward of five million dollars for information leading to his arrest.

"Earlier this week the Bosnian government confirmed it had granted citizenship and passport to a Tunisian-born senior aide of bin-Laden in 1997. The government said citizenship was given to Mahrez Amduni, known in Sarajevo as Mehrez Amdouni, on the basis of his Bosnian army membership, stressing that there was no Interpol arrest warrant against him at that time.

"Amduni was arrested by Turkish police at Istanbul airport on September 13, in an operation in which Interpol also took part.

"During the Bosnia 1992-95 war some Islamic fighters battled alongside Muslim soldiers in central Bosnia against Bosnian Serbs and Croats. Most of them left the country after a US-brokered peace deal was signed in 1995. Some of them gained Bosnian citizenship as members of the Bosnian army or by marrying Bosnian women.

"The government has never revealed how many foreign fighters were granted Bosnian citizenship."

Copyright 1999 Agence France Presse

*****************************

The following article, while not specifically about bin Laden, talks about how the Mujahideen functioned in Bosnia:

"Polish Press Reports On Training Of Mujahideen In Bosnia

"From Tanjug, 12/16/97

"Intelligence services of the Nordic-Polish SFOR Brigade suspect that a center for training terrorists from Islamic countries is located in the Bocina Donja village near Maglaj in Bosnia, Warsaw daily Rzecspospolita writes on Tuesday.

"The author of the article, Marek Popowsky, who used to be in both SFOR and its predecessor IFOR in Bosnia, writes that mujahideen had first come to Bosnia in 1992, and numbered over 3,000 in the summer of 1995.

"Besides mujahideen from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan, there were several hundred Muslim extremists who had come from Italy, France, Germany and Britain, he notes.

"Deserters from the Turkish, Malaysian and French UNPROFOR battalions also volunteered as mujahideen, Popowsky writes. In addition to dangerous military actions, the mujahideen also carried out a religious and ideological mission, enforcing abidance by the Koran and recruiting young soldiers to die for Allah, Popowsky writes.

"Noting that Bosniac (Muslim) troops respected their allies but feared them at the same time as Allahs' warriors used to carry out high-risk actions and were cruel fighters, Popowsky quotes Serb officers as saying that the mujahideen never took prisoners. Wounded enemy soldiers were usually decapitated or slaughtered by mujahideen, Popowsky writes.

"The Dayton Agreement committed (Bosnian Muslim leader) Alija Izetbegovic to remove all foreign fighters from Bosnia, but about one thousand mujahideen who obtained Bosnian citizenship in the meantime remain in Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zenica and about ten villages, the daily writes.

"The largest group of mujahideen is now in Bocina Donja, a formerly Serb village near Maglaj, the daily writes, adding that the Nordic-Polish intelligence service G-5 is following the activities of such unusual "settlers", as it suspects that a camp for training terrorists is located in the village following reports from Serb and Croat forces' commanders.

"Noting that Islamic states had allocated to the Muslim part of Bosnia military and humanitarian aid to the value of over one billion dollars and that decisions to this effect had been taken not only by governments but also by various extremist Muslim groups and informal institutions, the daily writes that the activities of mujahideen in Bocina Donja would continue to be monitored by international special services to prevent the village from being transformed into a base for launching terrorist operations." (Tanjug, Warsaw, December 16)

=======================================
Death on a Very Small Planet
Arrangement and layout work by Illarion Bykov

[expanded 2 October 2001]
=======================================

*To The Innocent*

Belgrade 1999
New York 2001

[I suggest spinifex click on the link provided - he can see just some of the consequences of the warmongering he supports.]

* ''I think no power to your refrigerator, no gas to your stove, you can't get to work because the bridge is down - the bridge on which you held your rock concerts and you all stood with targets on your heads. That needs to disappear at three o'clock in the morning." (U.S. Air Force General Michael Short quoted in 'International Herald Tribune' 14 May 1999.

[Gen. Short was explaining the philosophy behind bombing civilian facilities including hospitals, homes and chemical factories, killing thousands of people in Yugoslavia. Short was in charge of NATO's three month air war. Many of NATO's bombs were encased in uranium.]

* * *

* ter·ror
ter·ror (ter?er) noun
4. Violence committed or threatened by a group to intimidate or coerce a population, as for military or political purposes.
- ['American Heritage Dictionary,' 3rd Edition, from Microsoft Bookshelf '98 CD]

* * *

* "Nasir Oric's war trophies don't line the wall of his comfortable apartment. They're on videocassette tape: burned Serb houses and headless Serb men, bodies crumpled in a pathetic heap

'"We had to use cold weapons that night,' Oric explains as scenes of dead men sliced by knives roll over his 21-inch Sony...Reclining on an overstuffed couch, clothed head to toe in camouflage fatigues, a U.S. Army patch proudly displayed over his heart…the Muslim commander is the toughest guy in this town [of Srebrenica], which the U.N. Security Council has declared a protected 'safe area.'" ('Washington Post,' 16 February 1994)

[Nasir Oric was Commander of the Islamist forces in Srebrenica. His forces used terror raids to empty surrounding villages of Serbs and Yugoslav-loyalist Muslims. His Commander in Chief was Bosnian President Alijah Izetbegovic. Izetbegovic was strongly supported by the U.S. government and glorified in the Western media as tolerant and democratic. Oric has never been arrested for his crimes. He runs a discotheque in Tuzla in Bosnia.]

* * *

* Quote from Bosnian President Alijah Izetbegovic's book, "Islamic Declaration:"

"...There can be no peace or coexistence between the "Islamic faith" and non-Islamic societies and political institutions. Islam clearly excludes the right and possibility of activity of any strange ideology on its own turf…and the state should be an expression …of the religion. ..." ('Islamska Deklaracija,' p. 22)

* * *

* U.S. Ambassador to Yugoslavia Zimmerman, interviewed in January, 1992: "As for Mr. Izetbegovic, we heard that some call him a Muslim fundamentalist. We know what fundamentalism really does, as we were its victims in Iran. That is why we do not believe that Izetbegovic is some sort of fundamentalist. Actually, it seems like he is a moderate politician who is trying to do the best in a difficult situation. "
[Interview was published in Croatian newspaper, 'Danas.' Click here for translation of interview with comments.]

* * *

* "No man is an Iland, intire of itselfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Manor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee." (MEDITATION XVII., Devotions upon Emergent Occasions by John Donne)

***

Kosovo Liberation Army and Albanian Sponsors
Have Well Documented Roots in The Heroin Trade

By Michael C. Ruppert

The Drug Trade Is Entrenched in NATO Politics

An exceptional record of respected media sources from the U.S. and Europe have documented that the Kosovo Liberation Army and their Albanian sponsors are heroin financed organized crime groups struggling to dominate the flow of middle eastern heroin into Europe and even the Eastern United States.

The Christian Science Monitor reported on Oct. 20, 1994: "Disrupted by the Yugoslav conflict, drug trafficking across the Balkans is making a comeback as Albanian mafia barons carve out a new smuggling route to Western Europe, bypassing the peninsula's war zones, according to United Nations and other narcotics experts." To document the increase in traffic through the Albanian Kosovar region The Monitor continued, "For example, just 14 pounds of hard drugs were seized by Hungarian police in 1990, but by August this year [1994] the figure had risen to 1,304 pounds."

In describing the then evolving trade, which was coming to be dominated by Kosovar Albanians The Monitor added, "But European police chiefs fear the conduit will strengthen Kosovo Albanian drug syndicates - some of the most powerful on the continent - whose tentacles have stretched as far as the East coast of the United StatesÉ

"From their base in Velki Trnovac in southern Serbia, dubbed the 'Medellin of the Balkans,' Albanian mafia chiefs oversee their European drug operation and are suspected of masterminding the new Balkan route."

Colombia in the Balkans

The highly respected Jane's Intelligence Review from Great Britain went much deeper in predicting the coming crisis

in a February 1, 1995 article entitled The Balkan Medellin. Three paragraphs from that article are so compelling we reprint them here in their entirety.

"The Albanian-dominated region of western Macedonia accounts for a disproportionate share of Macedonia's (FYROM) shrinking GDP. This situation has strengthened Albanophobic sentiments among the ethnic Macedonian majority, especially as a great deal of revenue is thought to derive from Albanian narco-terrorism as well as associated gun- running and cross-border smuggling to and from Albania, Bulgaria and the Kosovo province of Serbia. Although its extent and forms remain in dispute, this rising Albanian economic power is helping to turn the Balkans into a hub of criminality.

"Previously transported to Western Europe through former Yugoslavia, heroin from Turkey, the Transcaucus and points further east is now being increasingly routed to Italy via the Black Sea, Albania, Bulgaria and Macedonia. This is a development that has strengthened the Albanian mafia which is now thought to control 70% of the illegal heroin market in Germany and Switzerland. Closely allied to the powerful Sicilian mafia, the Albanian associates have also greatly benefited from the presence of large numbers of mainly Kosovar Albanians in a number of western European countries; Switzerland alone now has over 100,000 ethnic Albanian residents. As well as providing a perfect cover for Albanian criminals, this diaspora is also a useful source of income for racketeersÉ

"If left unchecked, this growing Albanian narco-terrorism could lead to a Colombian syndrome in the Southern Balkans, or the emergence of a situation in which the Albanian mafia becomes powerful enough to control one or more states in the region. In practical terms, this will involve either Albania or Macedonia, or both. Politically, this is now being done by channeling growing foreign exchange (forex) profits from narco-terrorism into local governments and political parties. In Albania, the ruling Democratic Party (DP) led by President Sali Berisha is now widely suspected of tacitly tolerating and even directly profiting from drug-trafficking for wider politico-economic reasons, namely the financing of secessionist political parties and other groupings in Kosovo and Macedonia."

These four-year-old evaluations, along with an abundance of other evidence of Albanian- Kosovar mafia expansion paint a whole new picture of what is really happening in Kosovo. Clearly Serbia is legitimately defending itself from an organized crime syndicate taking control of one of its provinces.

How powerful is the Albanian mafia? Well, as far back as 1985 it was powerful enough to frighten New York U.S. attorney Rudy Giulliani who, according to a Wall Street Journal story dated September 9, was receiving special personal protection after prosecuting a heroin case in New York City connected to a ring of powerful Albanian traffickers.

The Journal wrote, "But it is drug trafficking that has gained Albanian organized crime the most notoriety. Some Albanians, according to federal Drug Enforcement Agency officials, are key traders in the 'Balkan connection' the Istanbul-to-Belgrade heroin route. While less well known than the so-called Sicilian and French connections, the Balkan route in some years may move 24% to 40% of the U.S. heroin supply, officials say."

If the Albanians were moving 24 to 40% fourteen years ago then, given their growing control over the traffic through the region, their access to Western Europe and mobility throughout

the world, they may well control more than half of the heroin now entering the United States and law enforcement sources indicate that they control 75% of the heroin entering Western Europe.

A Brilliant Voice From Canada

Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa has written an absolutely brilliant article on the Kosovo war which decimates, in its entirety, the U.S. government's stated version of events and lays bare a plan to re-colonize the region on behalf of Germany and the United States. The meticulously footnoted article sums up the entire Kosovo nightmare in one sentence by saying, "The west was relying on its KLA puppets to rubber-stamp an agreement which would have transformed Kosovo into an occupied territory under Western administration."

After describing in detail the heroin-financed, organized crime, political power structure of the region, and noting carefully that there are other organized political entities not involved in the drug trade speaking on behalf of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, Chossudovsky documents the military and intelligence alliance between Bonn (now Berlin) and Washington to create the KLA.

"Since the early 1990s, Bonn and Washington have joined hands in establishing their respective spheres of influence in the Balkans. Their intelligence agencies have also collaborated. According to intelligence analyst John Whitley, covert support to the Kosovo rebel army was established between the CIA and Germany's [BND]ÉThe task to create and finance the KLA was initially given to Germany: "They used German uniforms, East German weapons and were financed, in part, with drug money. According to Whitley, the CIA was subsequently instrumental in training and equipping the KLA in Albania."

Giving the overall economic perspective, Chossudovsky notes the effect of often brutal economic sanctions imposed by the IMF and other banking institutions which so often presage a region's descent into apparent anarchy before its rescue by the "benevolent" industrial powers.

"The application of strong 'economic' medicine' under the guidance of the Washington based Bretton Woods institutions had contributed to wrecking Albania's banking system and precipitating the collapse of Albania's economy. The resulting chaos enabled American and European transnationals to carefully position themselves. Several western oil companies [some represented by Richard Armitage] including Occidental, Shell and British Petroleum had their eyes riveted on Albania's abundant and unexplored oil deposits. Western investors were also gawking Albania's extensive reserves of chrome, copper, gold nickel and platinumÉ"

Given these undeniable facts, and a well documented history which the Internet and publications like this will not forget, the current propaganda and very real war being fought in Kosovo takes on a new and unforgivable light. Ronald Reagan's comparison of the Contras in Central America to America's Founding Fathers is today as comical as it is offensive in light of what we know about the Contra war and how the Contras were financed. The Mujahedeen Freedom Fighters of Afghanistan and Pakistan who we financed with heroin from the same fields which now supply the KLA have

become terrorists who attack embassies and target American citizens. The forgotten Meo tribesman of Laos, who Ted Shackley created with heroin from the Golden Triangle are now basically forgotten - those who survived having been resettled in the U.S. and elsewhere. But the warlords remain in Washington, Berlin, London, the Golden Triangle, the Golden Crescent, Albania and Kosovo.

This writer has said many times and in many places that these wars, destabilizations and "economic cleansings" are planned and orchestrated years, even decades in advance. It was a bittersweet affirmation for me to read Chossudovsky's own analysis:

"The fate of Kosovo had already been carefully laid out prior to the signing of the 1995 Dayton agreement. NATO had entered an unwholesome 'marriage of convenience' with the mafia. "Freedom Fighters were put in place, the narcotics trade enabled Washington and Bonn to "finance the Kosovo conflict" with the ultimate objective of destabilizing the Belgrade government and fully recolonizing the Balkans."

What remains to be seen is whether or not a badly misled American public will be willing to sacrifice the blood of her sons in this utterly dishonest conflict. I read somewhere once that the historical memory of a nation lasts only about one generation. Funny, Vietnam doesn't seem that long ago.

Suggested Reading: KOSOVO FREEDOM FIGHTERS FINANCED BY ORGANIZED CRIME by Michel Chossudovsky, Department of Economics, University of Ottawa. Voice Box 1-613-562-5800 ext 1415, e-mail chossudovsky@sprint.ca

NATO HAS INSTALLED A REIGN OF TERROR IN KOSOVO

by Michel Chossudovsky

Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and author of The Globalization of Poverty, Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms, Third World Network, Penang and Zed Books, London, 1997.

This text was presented to the Independent Commission of Inquiry to Investigate U.S./NATO War Crimes Against The People of Yugoslavia, International Action Center, New York, July 31, 1999

(c) Copyright by Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa, July 1999. All rights reserved. (See note at end of article). The author can be contacted at chossudovsky@videotron.ca, fax 1-514-425- 6224.

MASSACRES OF CIVILIANS

While the World focusses on troop movements and war crimes, the massacres of civilians in the wake of the bombings have been casually dismissed as "justifiable acts of revenge". In occupied Kosovo, "double standards" prevail in assessing alleged war crimes. The massacres directed against Serbs, ethnic Albanians, Roma and other ethnic groups have been conducted on the instructions of the military command of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

Yet because NATO ostensibly denies KLA involvement, these so-called "unmotivated acts of violence and retaliation" are not categorised as "war crimes" and are therefore not included in the mandate of the numerous FBI and Interpol police investigators dispatched to Kosovo under the auspices of the Hague War Crime's Tribunal (ICTY). Moreover, whereas NATO has tacitly endorsed the self-proclaimed KLA provisional government, KFOR --the international security force in Kosovo-- has provided protection to the KLA military commanders responsible for the atrocities. In so doing both NATO and the UN Mission have acquiesced to the massacres of civilians.

In turn, public opinion has been blatantly misled. In portraying the massacres, the Western media has casually overlooked the role of the KLA, not to mention its pervasive links to organised crime. In the words of National Security Advisor Samuel Berger, "these people [ethnic Albanians] come back ... with broken hearts and with some of those hearts filled with anger" 1. While the massacres are seldom presented as the result of "deliberate decisions" by the KLA military command, the evidence (and history of the KLA) amply confirm that these atrocities are part of a policy of "ethnic cleansing" directed mainly against the Serb population but also against the Roma, Montenegrins, Goranis and Turks:

Serbian houses and business have been confiscated, looted, or burned, and Serbs have been beaten, raped, and killed. In one of the more dramatic of incidents, KLA troops ransacked a monastery, terrorized the priest and a group of nuns with gunfire, and raped at least one of the nuns. NATO's inability to control the situation and provide equal protection for all ethnic groups, and its apparent inability or unwillingness to fully disarm the KLA, has created a serious situation for NATO troops...2

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), confirms in this regard that:

"more than 164,000 Serbs have left Kosovo during the seven weeks since... the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) entered the province... A wave of arson and looting of Serb and Roma homes throughout Kosovo has ensued. Serbs and Roma remaining in Kosovo have been subject to repeated incidents of harassment and intimidation, including severe beatings. Most seriously, there has been a spate of murders and abductions of Serbs since mid-June, including the late July massacre of Serb farmers" 3.

POLITICAL ASSASSINATIONS

Under NATO's regency, the KLA has also ordered assassinations directed against political opponents including "loyalist" ethnic Albanians and supporters of the Kosovo Democratic League (KDL). These acts --ordered by the self-proclaimed Provisional Government of Kosovo (PGK)-- are being carried out in a totally permissive environment. The leaders of the KLA rather than being arrested for war crimes, have been granted KFOR protection.

According to a report of the Foreign Policy Institute (published during the bombings):

"...the KLA have [no] qualms about murdering Rugova's collaborators, whom it accused of the "crime" of moderation... [T]he KLA declared Rugova a "traitor" - yet another step toward eliminating any competitors for political power within Kosovo."

Already in May, Fehmi Agani, one of Rugova's closest collaborators in the Kosovo Democratic League (KDL) was killed. The Serbs were blamed by NATO spokesperson Jamie Shea for having assassinated Agani. According to Skopje's paper Makedonija Danas, Agani had been executed on the orders of the KLA's self-appointed Prime Minister Hashim Thaci.5 "If Thaci actually considered Rugova a threat, he would not hesitate to have Rugova removed from the Kosovo political landscape."6

In turn, the KLA has abducted and killed numerous professionals and intellectuals:

"Private and State properties are threatened, home-and apartment-owners are evicted en masse by force and threats, houses and entire villages are burned, cultural and religious monuments are destroyed... A particularly heavy blow... has been the violence against the hospital centre in Pristina, the maltreatment and expulsion of its professional management, doctors and medical staff."7

Both NATO and the UN prefer to turn a blind eye. UN Interim Administrator Bernard Kouchner (a former French Minister of Health) and KFOR Commander Sir Mike Jackson have established a routine working relationship with Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and KLA Chief of Staff Brigadier General Agim Ceku.

ATROCITIES COMMITTED AGAINST THE ROMA

Ethnic cleansing has also been directed against the Roma (which represented prior to the conflict a population group of 150,000 people). (According to figures provided by the Roma Community in New York). A large part of the Roma population has already escaped to Montenegro and Serbia. In turn, there are reports that Roma refugees --who had fled by boat to Southern Italy-- have been expelled by the Italian authorities.8 The KLA has also ordered the systematic looting and torching of Romani homes and settlements:

"All houses and settlements of Romani, like 2,500 homes in the residential area called 'Mahala" in the town of Kosovska Mitrovica, have been looted and burnt down".9

With regard to KLA atrocities committed against the Roma, the same media distortions prevail. According to the BBC: "Gypsies are accused by [Kosovar] Albanians of collaborating in Serb brutalities, which is why they've also become victims of revenge attacks. And the truth is, some probably did." 10

INSTALLING A PARAMILITARY GOVERNMENT

As Western leaders trumpet their support for democracy, State terrorism in Kosovo has
become an integral part of NATO's post-war design. The KLA's political role for the post- conflict period had been mapped out well in advance. Prior to the Rambouillet Conference, the KLA had been promised a central role in the formation of a post-conflict government. The "hidden agenda" consisted in converting the KLA paramilitary into a legitimate and accomplished civilian administration. According to US State Department spokesman James Foley (February 1999):

"We want to develop a good relationship with them [the KLA] as they transform themselves into a politically-oriented organization, ...[W]e believe that we have a lot of advice and a lot of help that we can provide to them if they become precisely the kind of political actor we would like to see them become.'"11

In other words, Washington had already slated the KLA "provisional government" (PGK) to run civilian State institutions. Under NATO's "Indirect Rule", the KLA has taken over municipal governments and public services including schools and hospitals. Rame Buja, the KLA "Minister for Local Administration" has appointed local prefects in 23 out of 25 municipalities.12

Under NATO's regency, the KLA has replaced the duly elected (by ethnic Albanians) provisional Kosovar government of President Ibrahim Rugova. The self-proclaimed KLA administration has branded Rugova as a traitor declaring the (parallel) Kosovar parliamentary elections held in March 1998 to be invalid. This position has largely been upheld by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) entrusted by UNMIK with the post-war task of "democracy _building" and "good governance". In turn, OSCE officials have already established a working rapport with KLA appointees.13

The KLA provisional government (PGK) is made up of the KLA's political wing together with the Democratic Union Movement (LBD), a coalition of five opposition parties opposed to Rugova's Democratic League (LDK). In addition to the position of prime minister, the KLA controls the ministries of finance, public order and defence. The KLA has a controlling voice on the UN sponsored Kosovo Transitional Council set up by Mr. Bernard Kouchner. The PGK has also established links with a number of Western governments.

Whereas the KLA has been spearheaded into running civilian institutions (under the guidance of the OSCE), members of the duly elected Kosovar (provisional) government of the Democratic League (DKL) have been blatantly excluded from acquiring a meaningful political voice.

ESTABLISHING A KLA POLICE FORCE TO "PROTECT CIVILIANS"

Under NATO occupation, the rule of law has visibly been turned up side down. Criminals and terrorists are to become law-enforcement officers. KLA troops --which have already taken over police stations-- will eventually form a 4,000 strong "civilian" police force (to be trained by foreign police officers under the authority of the United Nations) with a mandate to "protect civilians". Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien has already pledged Canadian support to the formation of a civilian police force.14 The latter --which has been entrusted to the OSCE- will eventually operate under the jurisdiction of the KLA controlled "Ministry of Public Order".

US MILITARY AID

Despite NATO's commitment to disarming the KLA, the Kosovar paramilitary organisation is
slated to be transformed into a modern military force. So-called "security assistance" has already been granted to the KLA by the US Congress under the `Kosovar Independence and Justice Act of 1999'. Start-up funds of 20 million dollars will largely be " used for training and support for their [KLA] established self-defence forces."15 In the words of KLA Chief of Staff Agrim Ceku:

"The KLA wants to be transformed into something like the US National Guard, ... we accept the assistance of KFOR and the international community to rebuild an army according to NATO standards. ...These professionally trained soldiers of the next generation of the KLA would seek only to defend Kosova. At this decisive moment, we [the KLA] do not hide our ambitions; we want the participation of international military structures to assist in the pacific and humanitarian efforts we are attempting here" 16.

While the KLA maintains its links to the Balkans narcotics trade which served to finance many of its terrorist activities, the paramilitary organisation has now been granted an official seal of approval as well as "legitimate" sources of funding. The pattern is similar to that followed in Croatia and in the Bosnian Muslim-Croatian Federation where so-called "equip and train" programmes were put together by the Pentagon. In turn, Washington's military aid package to the KLA has been entrusted to Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI) of Alexandria, Virginia, a private mercenary outfit run by high ranking former US military officers.

MPRI's training concepts --which had already been tested in Croatia and Bosnia- are based on imparting "offensive tactics... as the best form of defence".17 In the Kosovar context, this so-called "defensive doctrine" transforms the KLA paramilitary into a modern army without however eliminating its terrorist makeup.18 The objective is to ultimately transform an insurgent army into a modern military and police force which serves the Alliance's future strategic objectives in the Balkans. MPRI has currently "ninety-one highly experienced, former military professionals working in Bosnia & Herzegovina".19 The number of military officers working on contract with the KLA has not been disclosed.

A FORMER CROATIAN GENERAL APPOINTED KLA CHIEF OF STAFF

The massacres of civilians in Kosovo are not disconnected acts of revenge by civilians or by so-called "rogue elements" within the KLA as claimed by NATO and the United Nations. They are part of a consistent and coherent pattern. The intent (and result) of the KLA sponsored atrocities have been to trigger the "ethnic cleansing" of Serbs, Roma and other minorities in Kosovo.

KLA Commander Agim Ceku referring to the killings of 14 villagers at Gracko on July 24,
claimed that: "We [the KLA] do not know who did it, but I sincerely believe these people have nothing to do with the KLA."20 In turn, KFOR Lieutenant General Sir Mike Jackson has commended his KLA counterpart, Commander Agim Ceku for "efforts undertaken" to disarm the KLA. In fact, very few KLA weapons have been handed in. Moreover, the deadline for turning in KLA weaponry has been extended. "I do not regard this as noncompliance" said Commander Jackson in a press conference, "but rather as an indication of the seriousness with which General Ceku is taking this important issue." 21

Yet what Sir Mike Jackson failed to mention is that KLA Chief of Staff Commander Agim Ceku (although never indicted as a war criminal) was (according to Jane Defence Weekly June 10 1999) "one of the key planners of the successful `Operation Storm'" led by the Croatian Armed Forces against Krajina Serbs in 1995.

General Jackson --who had served in former Yugoslavia under the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR)-- was fully cognizant of the activities of the Croatian High Command during that period including the responsibilities imparted to Brigadier General Agim Ceku. In February 1999, barely a month prior to the NATO bombings, Ceku left his position as Brigadier General with the Croatian Armed Forces to join the KLA as Commander in Chief.

FROM KRAJINA TO KOSOVO: THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME

According to the Croatian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, Operation Storm resulted in the massacre of at least 410 civilians in the course of a three day operation (4 to 7 August 1995). 22 An internal report of The Hague War Crimes Tribunal (leaked to the New York Times), confirmed that the Croatian Army had been responsible for carrying out

"summary executions, indiscriminate shelling of civilian populations and "ethnic cleansing" in the Krajina region of Croatia...."23

In a section of the report entitled "The Indictment. Operation Storm, A Prima Facie Case.", the ICTY report confirms that:

"During the course of the military offensive, the Croatian armed forces and special police committed numerous violations of international humanitarian law, including but not limited to, shelling of Knin and other cities... During, and in the 100 days following the military offensive, at least 150 Serb civilians were summarily executed, and many hundreds disappeared....In a widespread and systematic manner, Croatian troops committed murder and other inhumane acts upon and against Croatian Serbs" 24.

US "GENERALS FOR HIRE"

The internal 150 page report concluded that it has "sufficient material to establish that the
three [Croatian] generals who commanded the military operation" could be held accountable under international law. 25 The individuals named had been directly involved in the military operation "in theatre". Those involved in "the planning of Operation Storm" were not mentioned:

"The identity of the "American general" referred to by Fenrick [a Tribunal staff member] is not known. The tribunal would not allow Williamson or Fenrick to be interviewed. But Ms. Arbour, the tribunal's chief prosecutor, suggested in a telephone interview last week that Fenrick's comment had been Ôa joking observation'. Ms. Arbour had not been present during the meeting, and that is not how it was viewed by some who were there. Several people who were at the meeting assumed that Fenrick was referring to one of the retired U.S. generals who worked for Military Professional Resources Inc.... Questions remain about the full extent of U.S. involvement. In the course of the three-year investigation into the assault, the United States has failed to provide critical evidence requested by the tribunal, according to tribunal documents and officials, adding to suspicion among some there that Washington is uneasy about the investigation... The Pentagon, however, has argued through U.S. lawyers at the tribunal that the shelling was a legitimate military activity, according to tribunal documents and officials.26.

The Tribunal was attempting to hide what had already been revealed in several press reports published in the wake of Operation Storm. According to a US State Department spokesman, MPRI had been helping the Croatians "avoid excesses or atrocities in military operations."27 . Fifteen senior US military advisers headed by retired two star General Richard Griffitts had been dispatched to Croatia barely seven months before Operation Storm. 28 According to one report, MPRI executive director General Carl E. Vuono: "held a secret top-level meeting at Brioni Island, off the coast of Croatia, with Gen. Varimar Cervenko, the architect of the Krajina campaign. In the five days preceding the attack, at least ten meetings were held between General Vuono and officers involved in the campaign..."29

According to Ed Soyster a senior MPRI executive and former head of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) (interviewed by Time Magazine in early 1996):

"MPRI's role in Croatia is limited to classroom instruction on military-civil relations and doesn't involve training in tactics or weapons. Other U.S. military men say whatever MPRI did for the Croats--and many suspect more than classroom instruction was involved--it was worth every penny. "Carl Vuono and Butch [Crosbie] Saint are hired guns and in it for the money," says Charles Boyd, a recently retired four-star Air Force general who was the Pentagon's No. 2 man in Europe until July [1995]. "They did a very good job for the Croats, and I have no doubt they'll do a good job in Bosnia. " 30.

THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL'S COVER UP

The untimely leaking of the ICTY's internal report on the Krajina massacres barely a few
days before the onslaught of NATO's air raids on Yugoslavia was the source of some embarrassment to the Tribunal's Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour. The Tribunal (ICTY) attempted to cover up the matter and trivialise the report's findings (including the alleged role of the US military officers on contract with the Croatian Armed Forces). Several Tribunal officials including American Lawyer Clint Williamson sought to discredit the Canadian Peace-keeping officers' testimony who witnessed the Krajina massacres in 1995.31

Williamson, who described the shelling of Knin as a "minor incident," said that the Pentagon had told him that Knin was a legitimate military target... The [Tribunal's] review concluded by voting not to include the shelling of Knin in any indictment, a conclusion that stunned and angered many at the tribunal"...32

The findings of the Tribunal contained in the leaked ICTY documents were downplayed, their relevance was casually dismissed as "expressions of opinion, arguments and hypotheses from various staff members of the OTP during the investigative process".33 According to the Tribunal's spokesperson "the documents do not represent in any way the concluded decisions of the Prosecutor." 34

The internal 150 page report has not been released. The staff member who had leaked the documents is (according to a Croatian TV report) no longer working for the Tribunal. During the press Conference, the Tribunal's spokesman was asked: "about the consequences for the person who leaked the information", Blewitt [the ICTY spokesman] replied that he did not want to go into that. He said that the OTP would strengthen the existing procedures to prevent this from happening again, however he added that you could not stop people from talking". 35

THE USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN CROATIA

The massacres conducted under Operation Storm "set the stage" for the "ethnic cleansing" of at least 180,000 Krajina Serbs (according to estimates of the Croatian Helsinki Committee and Amnesty International). According to other sources, the number of victims of ethnic cleansing in Krajina was much larger.

Moreover, there is evidence that chemical weapons had been used in the Yugoslav civil war (1991-95).36 Although there is no firm evidence of the use of chemical weapons against Croatian Serbs, an ongoing enquiry by the Canadian Minister of Defence (launched in July 1999) points to the possibility of toxic poisoning of Canadian Peace-keepers while on service in Croatia between 1993 and 1995:

"There was a smell of blood in the air during the past week as the media sensed they had a major scandal unfolding within the Department of National Defense over the medical files of those Canadians who served in Croatia in 1993. Allegations of destroyed documents, a coverup, and a defensive minister and senior officers..." 37.

The official release of the Department of National Defence (DND) refers to the possibility of toxic "soil contamination" in Medak Pocket in 1993 (see below). Was it "soil contamination" or something far more serious? The criminal investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) refers to the shredding of medical files of former Canadian peace-keepers by the DND. In other words, did the DND have something to hide? The issue remains as to what types of shells and ammunitions were used by the Croatian Armed Forces -- ie. were chemical weapons used against Serb civilians?

OPERATION STORM: THE ACCOUNT OF THE ROYAL CANADIAN REGIMENT

Prior to the onslaught, Croatian radio had previously broadcasted a message by president Franjo Tudjman, calling upon "Croatian citizens of Serbian ethnicity... to remain in their homes and not to fear the Croatian authorities, which will respect their minority rights". 38. Canadian peace-keepers of the Second Battalion of the Royal 22nd Regiment witnessed the atrocities committed by Croatian troops in the Krajina offensive in September 1995:

"Any Serb who had failed to evacuate their property were systematically "cleansed" by roving death squads. Every abandoned animal was slaughtered and any Serb household was ransacked and torched". 39.

Also confirmed by Canadian peace-keepers was the participation of German mercenaries in Operation Storm:

Immediately behind the front-line Croatian combat troops and German mercenaries, a large number of hard-line extremists had pushed into the Krajina.... Many of these atrocities were carried out within the Canadian Sector, but as the peacekeepers were soon informed by the Croat authorities, the UN no longer had any formal authority in the region.40.

How the Germans mercenaries were recruited was never officially revealed. An investigation by the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) confirmed that foreign mercenaries in Croatia had in some cases "been paid [and presumably recruited] outside Croatia and by third parties"41

THE 1993 MEDAK POCKET MASSACRE

According to Jane Defence Weekly (10 June 1999), Brigadier General Agim Ceku (now in charge of the KLA) also "masterminded the successful HV [Croatian Army] offensive at Medak" in September 1993. In Medak, the combat operation was entitled "Scorched Earth" resulting in the total destruction of the Serbian villages of Divoselo, Pocitelj and Citluk, and the massacre of over 100 civilians.42

These massacres were also witnessed by Canadian peace-keepers under UN mandate:

"As the sun rose over the horizon. It revealed a Medak Valley engulfed in smoke and flames. As the frustrated soldiers of 2PPCLI waited for the order to move forward into the pocket, shots and screams still rang out as the ethnic cleansing continued.... About 20 members of the international press had tagged along, anxious to see the Medak battleground. Calvin [a Canadian officer] called an informal press conference at the head of the column and loudly accused the Croats of trying to hide war crimes against the Serb inhabitants. The Croats started withdrawing back to their old lines, taking with them whatever loot they hadn't destroyed. All livestock had been killed and houses torched. French reconnaissance troops and the Canadian command element pushed up the valley and soon began to find bodies of Serb civilians, some already decomposing, others freshly slaughtered.... Finally, on the drizzly morning of Sept. 17, teams of UN civilian police arrived to probe the smouldering ruins for murder victims. Rotting corpses lying out in the open were catalogued, then turned over to the peacekeepers for burial. 43.

The massacres were reported to the Canadian Minister of Defence and to the United Nations:

Senior defence bureaucrats back in Ottawa had no way of predicting the outcome of the engagement in terms of political fallout. To them, there was no point in calling media attention to a situation that might easily backfire.... So Medak was relegated to the memory hole - no publicity, no recriminations, no official record. Except for those soldiers involved, Canada's most lively military action since the Korean War simply never happened. 44

NATO'S POST-CONFLICT AGENDA IN KOSOVO

Both the Medak Pocket massacre and Operation Storm bear a direct relationship to the ongoing security situation in Kosovo and the massacres and ethnic cleansing committed by KLA troops. While the circumstances are markedly different, several of today's actors in Kosovo were involved (under the auspices of the Croatian Armed Forces) in the planning of both these operations. Moreover, the US mercenary outfit MPRI which collaborated with the Croatian Armed Forces in 1995 is currently on contract with the KLA. NATO's casual response to the appointment of Brigadier General Agim Ceku as KLA Chief of Staff was communicated by Mr. Jamie Shea in a Press Briefing in May:

"I have always made it clear, and you have heard me say this, that NATO has no direct
contacts with the KLA. Who they appoint as their leaders, that is entirely their own affair. I don't have any comment on that whatever.45

While NATO says it "has no direct contacts with the KLA", the evidence confirms the opposite. Amply documented, KLA terrorism has been installed with NATO's tacit approval. The KLA had (according to several reports) been receiving "covert support" and training from the CIA and Germany's Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND) since the mid-nineties. Moreover, MPRI collaboration with the KLA predates the onslaught of the bombing campaign.46

The building up of KLA forces was part of NATO planning. Already by mid-1998, "covert support" had been replaced by official ("overt") support by the military Alliance in violation of UN Security Council Resolution UNSCR 1160 of 31 March 1998 which condemned: "...all acts of terrorism by the Kosovo Liberation Army or any other group or individual and all external support for terrorist activity in Kosovo, including finance, arms and training."

NATO officials, Western heads of State and heads of government, the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan not to mention ICTY chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour, were fully cognizant of General Brigadier Agim Ceku's involvement in the planning of Operation Storm and Operation Scorched Earth. Canadian Major General Lewis McKenzie who served under the United Nations confirmed that "the same officer who masterminded the 1993 Medak offensive in Croatia that saw Canadian soldiers using deadly force to stop horrendous atrocities against Serb civilians [had also] ordered the overrunning of lightly armed UN outposts, in blatant contravention of international law. His influence within the KLA does not augur well for its trustworthiness during Kosovo's political evolution". 47 Surely, some questions should have been asked....

Yet visibly what is shaping up in the wake of the bombings in Kosovo is the continuity of NATO's operation in the Balkans. Military personnel and UN bureaucrats previously stationed in Croatia and Bosnia have been routinely reassigned to Kosovo. KFOR Commander Mike Jackson had previously been responsible --as IFOR Commander for organising the return of Serbs "to lands taken by Croatian HVO forces in the Krajina offensive".48 And in this capacity General Mike Jackson had "urged that the resettlement [of Krajina Serbs] not [be] rushed to avoid tension [with the Croatians]" while also warning returning Serbs "of the extent of the [land] mine threat "49. In retrospect, recalling the events of early 1996, very few Krajina Serbs were allowed to return to their homes under the protection of the United Nations. According to "Veritas" (a Belgrade based organization of Serbian refugees from Croatia), some 10-15,000 Serbs were able to resettle in Croatia.

And a similar process is unfolding in Kosovo, --ie. the conduct of senior military officers
conforms to a consistent pattern, the same key individuals are now involved in Kosovo. While token efforts are displayed to protect Serb and Roma civilians, those who have fled Kosovo are not encouraged to return under UN protection... In post-war Kosovo, "ethnic cleansing" implemented by the KLA has been accepted by the "international community" as a "fait accompli"...

Moreover, while calling for democracy and "good governance" in the Balkans, the US and its allies have installed in Kosovo a paramilitary government with links to organised crime. The foreseeable outcome is the outright "criminalisation" of civilian State institutions and the establishment of what is best described as a "Mafia State". The complicity of NATO and the Alliance governments (namely their relentless support to the KLA) points to the de facto "criminalisation" of KFOR and of the UN peace-keeping apparatus in Kosovo. The donor agencies and governments (eg. the funds approved by the US Congress in violation of several UN Security Council resolutions) providing financial support to the KLA are, in this regard, also "accessories" to the de facto criminalisation of State institutions. Through the intermediation of a paramilitary group (created and financed by Washington and Bonn), NATO ultimately bears the burden of responsibility for the massacres and ethnic cleansing of civilians in Kosovo.

STATE TERROR AND THE "FREE MARKET"

State terror and the "free market" seem to go hand in hand. The concurrent "criminalisation" of State institutions in Kosovo is not incompatible with the West's economic and strategic objectives in the Balkans. Notwithstanding the massacres of civilians, the self-proclaimed KLA administration has committed itself to establishing a "secure and stable environment" for foreign investors and international financial institutions. The Minister of Finance Adem Grobozci and other representatives of the provisional government invited to the various donor conferences are all KLA appointees. In contrast, members of the KDL of Ibrahim Rugova (duly elected in parliamentary elections) were not even invited to attend the Stabilisation Summit in Sarajevo in late July.

"Free market reforms" are envisaged for Kosovo under the supervision of the Bretton Woods institutions largely replicating the structures of the Rambouillet agreement. Article I (Chapter 4a) of the Rambouillet Agreement stipulated that: "The economy of Kosovo shall function in accordance with free market principles". The KLA government will largely be responsible for implementing these reforms and ensuring that loan conditionalities are met.

In close liaison with NATO, the Bretton Woods institutions had already analysed the consequences of an eventual military intervention leading to the military occupation of Kosovo: almost a year prior to the beginning of the War, the World Bank conducted "simulations" which "anticipated the possibility of an emergency scenario arising out of the tensions in Kosovo". 50.

The eventual "reconstruction" of Kosovo financed by international debt largely purports to
transfer Kosovo's extensive wealth in mineral resources and coal to multinational capital. In this regard, the KLA has already occupied (pending their privatisation) the largest coal mine at Belacevac in Dobro Selo northwest of Pristina. In turn, foreign capital has its eyes rivetted on the massive Trepca mining complex which constitutes "the most valuable piece of