Informazione
Kosmet (italiano / english)
1. Presa di posizione ufficiale Belgrado contro la secessione
2. Nominato il nuovo governatore straniero della colonia-protettorato
=== 1 ===
KOSOVO: BELGRADO, PARLIAMO DI TUTTO MA NON DELL'INDIPENDENZA
(ANSA-AFP)- BELGRADO, 24 LUG - Belgrado si e' detto pronta a discutere
del futuro del Kosovo, ma esclude l'indipendenza che rivendica la
popolazione albanese maggioritaria nella provincia del sud della
Serbia. Lo scrive in un documento Nebojsa Covic, vice-premier serbo
incaricato del Kosovo.
Secondo il documento, ''la Serbia non puo', ad alcun prezzo,
disfarsi del Kosovo e nessun uomo politico in Serbia ha il diritto di
adottare questo approccio''.
''Una violazione delli'integrita' territoriale della Serbia non
puo' essere tollerata...e la nuova Costituzione serba deve contenere
una clausola d'interdizione sulla rinuncia al Kosovo, un atto che sara'
approvato da tutte le istituzioni internazionali'', afferma Covic.
''Il nostro progetto di statuto finale del Kosovo- si legge ancora-
e' fondato sulla sovranita' della Serbia sul Kosovo e questo non e' in
discussione, mentre tutti gli altri aspetti legati allo statuto possono
essere discussi''.
Secondo il documento, intitolato ''Principi fondamentali per la
risoluzione della crisi in Kosovo'', Belgrado deve insistere fermamente
e chiaramente per una rigorosa applicazione della risoluzione 1244 del
Consiglio di Sicurezza dell'Onu'' (adottata nel 1999) che definisce il
Kosovo come una provincia dello Stato di Serbia e Montenegro. (ANSA)
24/07/2003 19:53
http://www.ansa.it/balcani/kosovo/kosovo.shtml
---
Per il testo integrale del documento di Covic, e per il testo integrale
della Risoluzione ONU 1244 - entrambi in lingua inglese - si veda il
nostro precedente messaggio su:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2658
=== 2 ===
KOSOVO: ONU; EX PREMIER FINLANDIA NOMINATO AMMINISTRATORE
(ANSA) - NEW YORK, 25 LUG - L'ex primo ministro finlandese Harri
Holkeri e' stato nominato nuovo amministratore dell' Onu per il
Kosovo. Lo ha reso noto a New York Fred Eckhard, il portavoce del
segretario generale Kofi Annan.
Holkeri, che e' stato anche presidente dell'assemblea generale
dell'Onu, avra' il compito di gestire in Kosovo il delicato avvio dei
negoziati tra Pristina e Belgrado sullo status definitivo della
provincia.
Holkeri andra' a prendere il posto del tedesco Michael Steiner, che ha
lasciato Pristina nei giorni scorsi dopo un anno e mezzo di lavoro nel
corso del quale ha dovuto far fronte ad accuse e contestazioni
soprattutto da parte dei serbi.
L'ex premier finlandese, secondo un comunicato dell'Onu, ''portera' a
questo incarico una ricchezza di esperienza politica, cosi' come una
reputazione di mediatore capace e costruttore di consenso''. Annan lo
ha scelto dopo aver valutato una decina di candidati. L'Unione Europea
aveva indicato vari nomi, ponendo in cima alla lista l'ambasciatore
svedese all'Onu, Pierre Schori e l'ambasciatore italiano Antonio
Armellini.
Holkeri, 56 anni, ha guidato il governo finlandese tra il 1987 e il
1991 e sul piano internazionale, oltre a presiedere l'Assemblea
dell'Onu e la sua sessione del Millennio, ha partecipato al processo
di pace per l'Irlanda del Nord, come membro della delegazione che con
l'americano George Mitchell e il canadese John de Chastelain pose le
basi per il cammino verso la pacificazione. (ANSA). BM
25/07/2003 18:08
http://www.ansa.it/balcani/kosovo/kosovo.shtml
KOSOVO: STEINER LASCIA GOVERNO ONU FRA POLEMICHE
(ANSA) - PRISTINA, 8 LUG - Dopo 18 mesi alla guida
dell'amministrazione delle Nazioni Unite in Kosovo, il tedesco
Michail Steiner ha lasciato oggi il suo incarico senza che ancora sia
stato nominato un successore. A poche ore dalla sua partenza, Steiner
e' stato investito dall'ennesima polemica aperta dal governo di
Belgrado, che ha criticato aspramente l'accordo per il libero
commercio firmato proprio ieri fra il Kosovo e l'Albania. Accordo del
quale invece il governatore Onu si era detto ''orgoglioso''. In
tutto il suo mandato Steiner ha dovuto fronteggiare varie volte
accuse e contestazioni, non solo da parte serba. Con gli albanesi, ad
esempio, poche settimane fa c'e' stato un duro scontro diplomatico
dopo che l'amministratore tedesco aveva bocciato una delibera del
parlamento con la quale i deputati definivano ''lotta di
liberazione'' la guerriglia armata condotta fino al 1999
dall'Esercito di liberazione del Kosovo(Uck): come sanzione per quel
gesto politico, inviso a Belgrado, Steiner estromise i rappresentanti
albanesi da tre vertici internazionali. ''Se qualcuno qui e'
criticato sia dai serbi che dagli albanesi vuol dire che ha fatto
bene il proprio lavoro'', commenta senza ironia una fonte diplomatica
occidentale a Pristina. Resta un dato, che nessuno tuttavia se la
sente di imputare a Steiner: il livello di popolarita' della missione
Onu in Kosovo e' ai minimi storici. Secondo un sondaggio realizzato
dall'agenzia di stampa online Kosovapress, gli albanesi
preferirebbero restare uniti alla federazione serbo-montenegrina
insieme agli odiati governanti di Belgrado, piuttosto che rimanere
ancora a lungo sotto l'amministrazione delle Nazioni Unite. Fra le
cause di tanto risentimento, innanzitutto il pachidermico apparato
burocratico dell'Onu che mal si concilia con lo sbrigativo
pragmatismo balcanico che vorrebbero invece applicare i leader
albanesi. Lasciando il Kosovo Steiner, apparso per un anno e mezzo
freddo e rigoroso, ha comunque voluto lasciare di se' anche
un'immagine piu' fragile. E nel confessare che il Kosovo ''me lo
portero' nell'anima'', ha presentato in pubblico la sua bellissima
fidanzata albanese, Bukurje Gjonbalaj, 23 anni piu' giovane di lui,
finora apparsa al suo fianco sempre e soltanto come interprete
ufficiale. Bukurje, che in albanese significa ''bellezza'', seguira'
Steiner nel suo nuovo incarico di rappresentante tedesco presso le
Nazioni Unite a Ginevra. (ANSA). BLL 08/07/2003 20:33
http://www.ansa.it/balcani/bosnia/20030708203332624056.html
---
Riportiamo di seguito i dispacci in lingua inglese pervenuti sullo
stesso argomento. Ulteriore documentazione sul tira-e-molla diplomatico
che ha preceduto la nomina di Holkeri a governatore del protettorato si
trova alla URL:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2645
---
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3162067
Finland's Holkeri Named UN Governor in Kosovo
Fri July 25, 2003 02:38 PM ET
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Former Finnish Prime Minister Harri Holkeri,
a one-time president of the U.N. General Assembly, was named on Friday
as the new U.N. administrator for Kosovo, a compromise candidate.
The decision to appoint Holkeri, who has no experience in the Balkans,
was made by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan after interviewing about
a dozen candidates amid squabbles between the United States and the
European Union, which finances most of the operation.
Holkeri was acceptable to all sides, diplomats said.
He would replace German Michael Steiner as the head of UNMIK, the U.N.
Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. Steiner resigned on July 8
after 18 months in the job and is now his country's ambassador to the
United Nations in Geneva.
Annan, after writing a letter to the U.N. Security Council about his
choice, said he expected Holkeri to be in Kosovo within a month. He
said he was "very pleased" Holkeri decided "to take on this challenge
and assignment."
"The operations and our activities there have reached a critical stage
and to have a man of this experience, his caliber and his judgment in
Kosovo is going to be a great asset to this organization," Annan told
Reuters.
As the new governor of Kosovo, Holkeri faces the sensitive task of
supervising the start of negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade on
the final status of the province.
The European Union had put forth several names, beginning with Sweden's
U.N. ambassador, Pierre Schori, and Italy's roving ambassador, Antonio
Armellini. The United States campaigned against Schori because he
criticized the invasion of Iraq and the United Nations rejected
Armellini as lacking political weight.
NATO waged an air war against former Yugoslavia in 1999 to force the
Serbian army out of Kosovo and halt ethnic cleansing by then-President
Slobodan Milosevic's security forces.
The province has since been in diplomatic limbo, with limited
self-government under a U.N. mandate and NATO-led troops serving as
peacekeepers.
Holkeri, who participated in the Northern Ireland peace process, was
president of the 191-nation General Assembly in 2000-2001, presiding
over its Millennium session.
He and retired Canadian Gen. John de Chastelain joined former U.S. Sen.
George Mitchell to help resolve problems in the Northern Ireland peace
process from 1995 to 1998.
Holkeri served from 1978 to 1997 on the board of the Bank of Finland
and has been a board member of a number of other companies and
organizations, including Finland's national airline Finnair .
He is president of the Finnish National Commission for the U.N.
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO. Holkeri is
married and the father of a son and a daughter and the grandfather of
six.
HARRI HOLKERI - SKILLED MEDIATOR AND CONSENSUS BUILDER
Mr. Harri Holkeri, the former President of the fifty-fifth session of
the United Nations General Assembly - the Millennium Assembly 2000-2001
- brings to the post of Special Representative of the UN Secretary
General a wealth of political experience, as well as a reputation as a
skilled mediator and consensus builder. He was Finland's Prime Minister
from 1987 to 1991, and for over four decades has served his country and
the international community in several political and economic posts.
The most renowned and prestigious conservative political figure in
Finland over the last few decades, he served as Secretary of the
National Coalition Party from 1965 to 1971 and as Party Leader from
1971 to 1979. From 1970 to 1978, he was a Member of the Parliament. He
also served as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Bank of
Finland (central bank) from 1978 to 1997. As Prime Minister, he headed
a coalition formed by his party and the Social Democrats.
Mr. Holkeri played a key role in developing the social consensus that
led to the creation of the coalition government in power from 1987 to
1991, and of which he was Prime Minister. That government was based on
cooperation between the Conservative and the Social Democratic parties
- a cooperation that extended to international affairs as well. His
political philosophy - "You cannot make easy decisions unless you first
commit yourself to hard solutions" - has guided his political life.
His skills as a mediator and coalition builder have played an important
role in Finland's foreign relations. After the Second World War,
Finland, situated on the border between the East and the West, needed a
workable and trustful relationship with both the West and its eastern
neighbours and the former Soviet Union. The country's decision to
pursue a policy of military non-alignment and cooperation needed
internal popular support, as well as international acceptance. But the
difficulties faced in normalizing relations with the East were
compounded by distrust of the Finnish Right, both inside and outside
the country. During Mr. Holkeri's term as the Party Leader in the
1970s, Finnish Conservatives explicitly pledged to support the national
consensus foreign policy. This contributed to the restoration of
national harmony, helped to form broadly based governmental coalitions
and led to expanding international cooperation.
Mr. Holkeri has been a friend of three Presidents of Finland - Mr. Urho
Kekkonen, Mr. Mauno Koivisto and Mr. Martti Ahtisaari - all of whom
used him as their contact person in their relations with the political
right. He was a presidential candidate twice, in 1982 and 1988. Both
times he ran against Dr. Koivisto, with whom he had worked at the Bank
of Finland and with whom he had a close and personal relationship. In
1987, President Koivisto appointed Mr. Holkeri Prime Minister.
Mr. Holkeri has also been active at the international level. He was a
member of the Finnish delegation to the United Nations General Assembly
from 1963 to 1965. During his career as a Member of Parliament he held
various international positions, including as a member of the Nordic
Council from 1975 to 1978, Vice-President of the European Free Trade
Association (EFTA) Parliamentarians from 1974 to 1975, and their
President in 1976.
From 1995 to 1998, Mr. Holkeri was a member of The International Body_a
group set up by the Governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland_on
the issue of the decommissioning of illegal weapons in Northern
Ireland. He was one of the three independent chairmen of the
multi-party peace negotiations, where his skills as a consensus builder
contributed greatly to furthering the peace process.
In 1999, Mr. Holkeri received an honorary British knighthood, Honorary
Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for his
achievements in the Northern Ireland peace process. A year earlier,
President Ahtisaari had accorded him a Finnish honorary title,
valtioneuvos, for his national and international merits.
Mr. Holkeri was Chair of the Helsinki City Council from 1981 to 1987.
He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Finnair, Finland's
national airline, and sits on the boards of various Finnish industries
and organizations.
Mr. Holkeri was born on 6 January 1937. His upbringing in the small
rural city of Toijala, where his father was a police officer, formed
the basis of his personal values, which are centred on the family, love
of one's neighbour and love for and loyalty to one's own country. He
has a Master of Political Science degree from the University of
Helsinki. His military rank is major in the reserve.
He is very interested in sports, particularly long-distance
cross-country skiing and running. He has taken part in several
marathons, including the New York City Marathon. Golf has lately become
one of his favourite sports.
Mr. Holkeri is married, and has two children and six grandchildren.
---
EU INFORMED ABOUT HOLKERI'S CANDIDACY FOR UNMIK CHIEF
BRUSSELS, July 21 (Beta) - On July 21, EU foreign
ministers "took note" of the fact that UN General
Secretary Kofi Anan was considering the former Finnish
prime minister, Harri Holkeri, as "the most likely"
candidate for the post of the new UNMIK chief in
Kosovo, the sources in Brussels said.
EU ministers supported the "swift reestablishment of
direct negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina on
practical issues of common interest" and "invited both
sides to act in line with the obligations undertaken
at the EU summit in Thessaloniki."
The ministers concluded that "the EU will continue to
support this process" and expressed "pleasure at the
Kosovo leaders' appeal for the return of the
displaced."
"Reiterating the fact that the creation of conditions
for sustainable return was the key step towards
bringing a multiethnic and democratic Kosovo closer to
Europe, within the process of stabilization and
accession and in line with Resolution 1244 SBUN, the
EU council of ministers invites all Kosovo leaders to
turn their words into deeds."
---
Beta News Agency, Belgrade
July 22, 2003
Annan proposes former Finnish PM for Kosovo job
11:35 -> 13:05 | Beta
BRUSSELS -- Tuesday -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has proposed to
EU Foreign Ministers former Finnish Prime Minister Harri Halkeri as
candidate for the vacant UNMIK governor's position.
According to sources in Brussels, European ministers are repeating
their call for the hasty launching of talks between Belgrade and
Pristina on practical issues of mutual interest.
An EU ministerial meeting saw representatives urge both Serbia and
Kosovo to act in accordance with obligations defined at the EU Summit
in Thessalonica. Participants of the meeting concluded that the
European Union will continue to assist in this process.
---
http://ww2.yle.fi/pls/show/page?id=227224
YLE NEWS (FINLAND)
Holkeri Tipped for UN Kosovo Role19.07.2003, 20.36
Former Finnish Prime Minister Harri Holkeri has reportedly been named
as the new head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK).
The Swedish News Agency TT reported the appointment on Saturday, citing
reliable sources.
The agency says that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked Holkeri
to take over the post, and that Holkeri has accepted. On Saturday
Holkeri declined to comment on the report.
A senior Foreign Ministry official confirmed to YLE television
news that the UN had been in contact with Holkeri regarding the post.
However he said no final decision has been made.
Annan's last Special Representative in Kosovo, Michael Steiner of
Germany, left the post on July 8 after a year and a half in the job.
UNMIK was established in 1999.
Since stepping down as prime minister in 1991, the 66-year-old Holkeri
has served in a range of international duties.
He was president of the UN General Assembly's Millenium Session, and
has served as a mediator in the Northern Ireland conflict.
YLE24, TT, Finnish News Agency
---
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/international.cfm?id=778952003
The Scotsman
July 18, 2003
Cook linked to top UN role in Kosovo
The selection of the head of the UN mission has been lengthy after the
departure of the previous incumbent because of opposition to the
candidates. Robin Cook's name has been thrown into the ring at a late
stage, although he denies the rumours.
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN AND TIM CORNWELL
Nearly 60 per cent of Kosovans are out of work, the
average monthly income is just £137 and its status in
relation to its neighbours in the Balkans is still
uncertain.
-[P]ierre Schori, the Swedish ambassador to the UN,
was vetoed by the United States because of his
opposition to the Iraq war. Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary,
was at the
centre of a deepening mystery last night, over claims
that he was being lined up for a new job as the United
Nations’ top man in Kosovo. UN sources in New York said Mr Cook had a
"good
chance" of being offered the post of the UN secretary
general’s special representative for Kosovo, a job
which comes with a six-figure salary. Sources within the Kosovan civil
administration also
told The Scotsman that Mr Cook, who was foreign
secretary during the successful operation to drive
Serbian forces from Kosovo, had been mentioned as a
leading contender for the job. Kofi Annan, the UN
secretary general, is believed to want a
higher-profile political figure to take on the
difficult task of running the country. Mr Cook, who took part in the
post-war peace
conference at Rambouillet in France, would fit that
description and has clearly ruled out any prospect of
returning to high political office in the UK. Yesterday, a UN spokesman
in New York said he had a
"good chance" of being offered the job, adding: "As
for Robin Cook, I think his chances may be good, but
it has been an unusually long process". But, in an extraordinary move
last night, Mr Cook and
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, issued a joint
statement flatly denying the reports. "Neither of us
has any idea where this has come from. There is no
truth in it," the statement said. The post of head of the UN mission in
Kosovo has been
vacant since Michael Steiner, of Germany, completed
his 18-month term of office last week. The position
has also been held by Bernard Kouchner, from France,
and Hans Haekkerup, from Denmark. But internal wrangling among UN
members has hampered
attempts to fill the post. Silvio Berlusconi, the
Italian prime minister, blocked the appointment of one
of the other front-runners, Stefano Sannino, because
he works for Mr Berlusconi’s political adversary,
Romano Prodi, the European Commission president. Another candidate,
Pierre Schori, the Swedish
ambassador to the UN, was vetoed by the United States
because of his opposition to the Iraq war. Mr Cook, a fierce opponent
of the Iraq conflict [sic],
has been a thorn in the side of the government since
he resigned his Cabinet post as leader of the Commons
on the eve of the war. His appointment in a role away
from Westminster would be seen as a welcome move in
some government circles. An ambitious politician, he was hurt when he
lost the
job of foreign secretary after the last election. In
an interview last month, he said he had achieved what
he set out to do in British politics and had "been up
there at the top". Earlier yesterday, Mr Cook refused to speculate on
the
Kosovo job, but the task facing any new man is
daunting. Nearly 60 per cent of Kosovans are out of work, the
average monthly income is just £137 and its status in
relation to its neighbours in the Balkans is still
uncertain.
--- In This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Rick Rozoff wrote:
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/
FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1054966647072&p=1012571727166
Financial Times
July 3, 2003
Frustration as choice of envoy blocked
By Judy Dempsey in Brussels
Silvio Berlusconi, Italian prime minister, has stepped
into more controversy by pushing his own candidate to
take over as the European Union's special envoy to
Kosovo and blocking another with wide support from
other member states.
The moves have frustrated many diplomats as they have
left Kosovo without a special envoy at a critical
time, with German Michael Steiner's term ending this
week.
Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, wants to
start political negotiations with the Serbs and ethnic
Albanians in Kosovo.
The hope is that such negotiations would lead to final
status talks, ending one of the most difficult
disputes that have dogged a permanent peace in the
Balkans.
"We need an envoy to mediate between both sides and
one who is more trusted than Steiner," said a senior
EU diplomat. "Berlusconi has not made life easy for us."
The Italian leader prevented one of the favoured
candidates, Stefano Sannino, from getting the job for
political reasons. He works for his old foe, Romano
Prodi, European Commission president.
Mr Sannino, an Italian career diplomat who has served
twice in Belgrade, is foreign policy adviser, with
responsibility for the Balkans, to Mr Prodi.
"Berlusconi believed Sannino was in the other
political camp. He stopped his appointment," a
diplomat said.
Another candidate for the post, Pierre Schori, Swedish
ambassador to the United Nations, was rejected by the
US because he opposed the American-led war against
Iraq.
Mr Berlusconi then proposed Antonio Armellini, Rome's
envoy in Baghdad. "Armellini is a professional
diplomat but with no experience of the Balkans. He is
now a Berlusconi man through and through," said a
Balkan expert. So determined was Italy to have Mr
Armellini appointed that Rome lobbied the Bush
administration, confident of some payoff after Italy's
support of the US-led war in Iraq.
But Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, who has the
final say, diplomatically avoided choosing between Mr
Sannino and Mr Armellini on the grounds that a
candidate with a higher political profile was needed.
Mr Berlusconi has also lobbied to have Laura
Mirachian, his ambassador to Damascus, succeed Miguel
Moratinos, outgoing EU Middle East envoy.
"This is a brute of a job. You have to win the
confidence of all sides. With Berlusconi pushing to
bring Israel into the EU, we wonder if she could win
the trust of the Palestinians," said a senior western
diplomat. By Thursday night, senior foreign ministry
officials from the 15 member states meeting in Rome
were trying to find a compromise candidates.
Even if they manage to do so, another foreign policy
controversy is looming. Desperate to stop illegal
immigration from Libya, Italy wants to supply night
vision technology, gun-boats and other equipment to
Libya. Several EU countries claim these items, which
Italy insists are for civilian use, could contravene
the embargo on arms exports. "If you think the envoys
are a headache, wait for Libya," added a diplomat.
--- End forwarded message ---
1. Presa di posizione ufficiale Belgrado contro la secessione
2. Nominato il nuovo governatore straniero della colonia-protettorato
=== 1 ===
KOSOVO: BELGRADO, PARLIAMO DI TUTTO MA NON DELL'INDIPENDENZA
(ANSA-AFP)- BELGRADO, 24 LUG - Belgrado si e' detto pronta a discutere
del futuro del Kosovo, ma esclude l'indipendenza che rivendica la
popolazione albanese maggioritaria nella provincia del sud della
Serbia. Lo scrive in un documento Nebojsa Covic, vice-premier serbo
incaricato del Kosovo.
Secondo il documento, ''la Serbia non puo', ad alcun prezzo,
disfarsi del Kosovo e nessun uomo politico in Serbia ha il diritto di
adottare questo approccio''.
''Una violazione delli'integrita' territoriale della Serbia non
puo' essere tollerata...e la nuova Costituzione serba deve contenere
una clausola d'interdizione sulla rinuncia al Kosovo, un atto che sara'
approvato da tutte le istituzioni internazionali'', afferma Covic.
''Il nostro progetto di statuto finale del Kosovo- si legge ancora-
e' fondato sulla sovranita' della Serbia sul Kosovo e questo non e' in
discussione, mentre tutti gli altri aspetti legati allo statuto possono
essere discussi''.
Secondo il documento, intitolato ''Principi fondamentali per la
risoluzione della crisi in Kosovo'', Belgrado deve insistere fermamente
e chiaramente per una rigorosa applicazione della risoluzione 1244 del
Consiglio di Sicurezza dell'Onu'' (adottata nel 1999) che definisce il
Kosovo come una provincia dello Stato di Serbia e Montenegro. (ANSA)
24/07/2003 19:53
http://www.ansa.it/balcani/kosovo/kosovo.shtml
---
Per il testo integrale del documento di Covic, e per il testo integrale
della Risoluzione ONU 1244 - entrambi in lingua inglese - si veda il
nostro precedente messaggio su:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2658
=== 2 ===
KOSOVO: ONU; EX PREMIER FINLANDIA NOMINATO AMMINISTRATORE
(ANSA) - NEW YORK, 25 LUG - L'ex primo ministro finlandese Harri
Holkeri e' stato nominato nuovo amministratore dell' Onu per il
Kosovo. Lo ha reso noto a New York Fred Eckhard, il portavoce del
segretario generale Kofi Annan.
Holkeri, che e' stato anche presidente dell'assemblea generale
dell'Onu, avra' il compito di gestire in Kosovo il delicato avvio dei
negoziati tra Pristina e Belgrado sullo status definitivo della
provincia.
Holkeri andra' a prendere il posto del tedesco Michael Steiner, che ha
lasciato Pristina nei giorni scorsi dopo un anno e mezzo di lavoro nel
corso del quale ha dovuto far fronte ad accuse e contestazioni
soprattutto da parte dei serbi.
L'ex premier finlandese, secondo un comunicato dell'Onu, ''portera' a
questo incarico una ricchezza di esperienza politica, cosi' come una
reputazione di mediatore capace e costruttore di consenso''. Annan lo
ha scelto dopo aver valutato una decina di candidati. L'Unione Europea
aveva indicato vari nomi, ponendo in cima alla lista l'ambasciatore
svedese all'Onu, Pierre Schori e l'ambasciatore italiano Antonio
Armellini.
Holkeri, 56 anni, ha guidato il governo finlandese tra il 1987 e il
1991 e sul piano internazionale, oltre a presiedere l'Assemblea
dell'Onu e la sua sessione del Millennio, ha partecipato al processo
di pace per l'Irlanda del Nord, come membro della delegazione che con
l'americano George Mitchell e il canadese John de Chastelain pose le
basi per il cammino verso la pacificazione. (ANSA). BM
25/07/2003 18:08
http://www.ansa.it/balcani/kosovo/kosovo.shtml
KOSOVO: STEINER LASCIA GOVERNO ONU FRA POLEMICHE
(ANSA) - PRISTINA, 8 LUG - Dopo 18 mesi alla guida
dell'amministrazione delle Nazioni Unite in Kosovo, il tedesco
Michail Steiner ha lasciato oggi il suo incarico senza che ancora sia
stato nominato un successore. A poche ore dalla sua partenza, Steiner
e' stato investito dall'ennesima polemica aperta dal governo di
Belgrado, che ha criticato aspramente l'accordo per il libero
commercio firmato proprio ieri fra il Kosovo e l'Albania. Accordo del
quale invece il governatore Onu si era detto ''orgoglioso''. In
tutto il suo mandato Steiner ha dovuto fronteggiare varie volte
accuse e contestazioni, non solo da parte serba. Con gli albanesi, ad
esempio, poche settimane fa c'e' stato un duro scontro diplomatico
dopo che l'amministratore tedesco aveva bocciato una delibera del
parlamento con la quale i deputati definivano ''lotta di
liberazione'' la guerriglia armata condotta fino al 1999
dall'Esercito di liberazione del Kosovo(Uck): come sanzione per quel
gesto politico, inviso a Belgrado, Steiner estromise i rappresentanti
albanesi da tre vertici internazionali. ''Se qualcuno qui e'
criticato sia dai serbi che dagli albanesi vuol dire che ha fatto
bene il proprio lavoro'', commenta senza ironia una fonte diplomatica
occidentale a Pristina. Resta un dato, che nessuno tuttavia se la
sente di imputare a Steiner: il livello di popolarita' della missione
Onu in Kosovo e' ai minimi storici. Secondo un sondaggio realizzato
dall'agenzia di stampa online Kosovapress, gli albanesi
preferirebbero restare uniti alla federazione serbo-montenegrina
insieme agli odiati governanti di Belgrado, piuttosto che rimanere
ancora a lungo sotto l'amministrazione delle Nazioni Unite. Fra le
cause di tanto risentimento, innanzitutto il pachidermico apparato
burocratico dell'Onu che mal si concilia con lo sbrigativo
pragmatismo balcanico che vorrebbero invece applicare i leader
albanesi. Lasciando il Kosovo Steiner, apparso per un anno e mezzo
freddo e rigoroso, ha comunque voluto lasciare di se' anche
un'immagine piu' fragile. E nel confessare che il Kosovo ''me lo
portero' nell'anima'', ha presentato in pubblico la sua bellissima
fidanzata albanese, Bukurje Gjonbalaj, 23 anni piu' giovane di lui,
finora apparsa al suo fianco sempre e soltanto come interprete
ufficiale. Bukurje, che in albanese significa ''bellezza'', seguira'
Steiner nel suo nuovo incarico di rappresentante tedesco presso le
Nazioni Unite a Ginevra. (ANSA). BLL 08/07/2003 20:33
http://www.ansa.it/balcani/bosnia/20030708203332624056.html
---
Riportiamo di seguito i dispacci in lingua inglese pervenuti sullo
stesso argomento. Ulteriore documentazione sul tira-e-molla diplomatico
che ha preceduto la nomina di Holkeri a governatore del protettorato si
trova alla URL:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2645
---
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3162067
Finland's Holkeri Named UN Governor in Kosovo
Fri July 25, 2003 02:38 PM ET
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Former Finnish Prime Minister Harri Holkeri,
a one-time president of the U.N. General Assembly, was named on Friday
as the new U.N. administrator for Kosovo, a compromise candidate.
The decision to appoint Holkeri, who has no experience in the Balkans,
was made by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan after interviewing about
a dozen candidates amid squabbles between the United States and the
European Union, which finances most of the operation.
Holkeri was acceptable to all sides, diplomats said.
He would replace German Michael Steiner as the head of UNMIK, the U.N.
Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. Steiner resigned on July 8
after 18 months in the job and is now his country's ambassador to the
United Nations in Geneva.
Annan, after writing a letter to the U.N. Security Council about his
choice, said he expected Holkeri to be in Kosovo within a month. He
said he was "very pleased" Holkeri decided "to take on this challenge
and assignment."
"The operations and our activities there have reached a critical stage
and to have a man of this experience, his caliber and his judgment in
Kosovo is going to be a great asset to this organization," Annan told
Reuters.
As the new governor of Kosovo, Holkeri faces the sensitive task of
supervising the start of negotiations between Pristina and Belgrade on
the final status of the province.
The European Union had put forth several names, beginning with Sweden's
U.N. ambassador, Pierre Schori, and Italy's roving ambassador, Antonio
Armellini. The United States campaigned against Schori because he
criticized the invasion of Iraq and the United Nations rejected
Armellini as lacking political weight.
NATO waged an air war against former Yugoslavia in 1999 to force the
Serbian army out of Kosovo and halt ethnic cleansing by then-President
Slobodan Milosevic's security forces.
The province has since been in diplomatic limbo, with limited
self-government under a U.N. mandate and NATO-led troops serving as
peacekeepers.
Holkeri, who participated in the Northern Ireland peace process, was
president of the 191-nation General Assembly in 2000-2001, presiding
over its Millennium session.
He and retired Canadian Gen. John de Chastelain joined former U.S. Sen.
George Mitchell to help resolve problems in the Northern Ireland peace
process from 1995 to 1998.
Holkeri served from 1978 to 1997 on the board of the Bank of Finland
and has been a board member of a number of other companies and
organizations, including Finland's national airline Finnair .
He is president of the Finnish National Commission for the U.N.
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO. Holkeri is
married and the father of a son and a daughter and the grandfather of
six.
HARRI HOLKERI - SKILLED MEDIATOR AND CONSENSUS BUILDER
Mr. Harri Holkeri, the former President of the fifty-fifth session of
the United Nations General Assembly - the Millennium Assembly 2000-2001
- brings to the post of Special Representative of the UN Secretary
General a wealth of political experience, as well as a reputation as a
skilled mediator and consensus builder. He was Finland's Prime Minister
from 1987 to 1991, and for over four decades has served his country and
the international community in several political and economic posts.
The most renowned and prestigious conservative political figure in
Finland over the last few decades, he served as Secretary of the
National Coalition Party from 1965 to 1971 and as Party Leader from
1971 to 1979. From 1970 to 1978, he was a Member of the Parliament. He
also served as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Bank of
Finland (central bank) from 1978 to 1997. As Prime Minister, he headed
a coalition formed by his party and the Social Democrats.
Mr. Holkeri played a key role in developing the social consensus that
led to the creation of the coalition government in power from 1987 to
1991, and of which he was Prime Minister. That government was based on
cooperation between the Conservative and the Social Democratic parties
- a cooperation that extended to international affairs as well. His
political philosophy - "You cannot make easy decisions unless you first
commit yourself to hard solutions" - has guided his political life.
His skills as a mediator and coalition builder have played an important
role in Finland's foreign relations. After the Second World War,
Finland, situated on the border between the East and the West, needed a
workable and trustful relationship with both the West and its eastern
neighbours and the former Soviet Union. The country's decision to
pursue a policy of military non-alignment and cooperation needed
internal popular support, as well as international acceptance. But the
difficulties faced in normalizing relations with the East were
compounded by distrust of the Finnish Right, both inside and outside
the country. During Mr. Holkeri's term as the Party Leader in the
1970s, Finnish Conservatives explicitly pledged to support the national
consensus foreign policy. This contributed to the restoration of
national harmony, helped to form broadly based governmental coalitions
and led to expanding international cooperation.
Mr. Holkeri has been a friend of three Presidents of Finland - Mr. Urho
Kekkonen, Mr. Mauno Koivisto and Mr. Martti Ahtisaari - all of whom
used him as their contact person in their relations with the political
right. He was a presidential candidate twice, in 1982 and 1988. Both
times he ran against Dr. Koivisto, with whom he had worked at the Bank
of Finland and with whom he had a close and personal relationship. In
1987, President Koivisto appointed Mr. Holkeri Prime Minister.
Mr. Holkeri has also been active at the international level. He was a
member of the Finnish delegation to the United Nations General Assembly
from 1963 to 1965. During his career as a Member of Parliament he held
various international positions, including as a member of the Nordic
Council from 1975 to 1978, Vice-President of the European Free Trade
Association (EFTA) Parliamentarians from 1974 to 1975, and their
President in 1976.
From 1995 to 1998, Mr. Holkeri was a member of The International Body_a
group set up by the Governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland_on
the issue of the decommissioning of illegal weapons in Northern
Ireland. He was one of the three independent chairmen of the
multi-party peace negotiations, where his skills as a consensus builder
contributed greatly to furthering the peace process.
In 1999, Mr. Holkeri received an honorary British knighthood, Honorary
Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, for his
achievements in the Northern Ireland peace process. A year earlier,
President Ahtisaari had accorded him a Finnish honorary title,
valtioneuvos, for his national and international merits.
Mr. Holkeri was Chair of the Helsinki City Council from 1981 to 1987.
He is currently the Chairman of the Board of Finnair, Finland's
national airline, and sits on the boards of various Finnish industries
and organizations.
Mr. Holkeri was born on 6 January 1937. His upbringing in the small
rural city of Toijala, where his father was a police officer, formed
the basis of his personal values, which are centred on the family, love
of one's neighbour and love for and loyalty to one's own country. He
has a Master of Political Science degree from the University of
Helsinki. His military rank is major in the reserve.
He is very interested in sports, particularly long-distance
cross-country skiing and running. He has taken part in several
marathons, including the New York City Marathon. Golf has lately become
one of his favourite sports.
Mr. Holkeri is married, and has two children and six grandchildren.
---
EU INFORMED ABOUT HOLKERI'S CANDIDACY FOR UNMIK CHIEF
BRUSSELS, July 21 (Beta) - On July 21, EU foreign
ministers "took note" of the fact that UN General
Secretary Kofi Anan was considering the former Finnish
prime minister, Harri Holkeri, as "the most likely"
candidate for the post of the new UNMIK chief in
Kosovo, the sources in Brussels said.
EU ministers supported the "swift reestablishment of
direct negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina on
practical issues of common interest" and "invited both
sides to act in line with the obligations undertaken
at the EU summit in Thessaloniki."
The ministers concluded that "the EU will continue to
support this process" and expressed "pleasure at the
Kosovo leaders' appeal for the return of the
displaced."
"Reiterating the fact that the creation of conditions
for sustainable return was the key step towards
bringing a multiethnic and democratic Kosovo closer to
Europe, within the process of stabilization and
accession and in line with Resolution 1244 SBUN, the
EU council of ministers invites all Kosovo leaders to
turn their words into deeds."
---
Beta News Agency, Belgrade
July 22, 2003
Annan proposes former Finnish PM for Kosovo job
11:35 -> 13:05 | Beta
BRUSSELS -- Tuesday -- UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has proposed to
EU Foreign Ministers former Finnish Prime Minister Harri Halkeri as
candidate for the vacant UNMIK governor's position.
According to sources in Brussels, European ministers are repeating
their call for the hasty launching of talks between Belgrade and
Pristina on practical issues of mutual interest.
An EU ministerial meeting saw representatives urge both Serbia and
Kosovo to act in accordance with obligations defined at the EU Summit
in Thessalonica. Participants of the meeting concluded that the
European Union will continue to assist in this process.
---
http://ww2.yle.fi/pls/show/page?id=227224
YLE NEWS (FINLAND)
Holkeri Tipped for UN Kosovo Role19.07.2003, 20.36
Former Finnish Prime Minister Harri Holkeri has reportedly been named
as the new head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK).
The Swedish News Agency TT reported the appointment on Saturday, citing
reliable sources.
The agency says that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked Holkeri
to take over the post, and that Holkeri has accepted. On Saturday
Holkeri declined to comment on the report.
A senior Foreign Ministry official confirmed to YLE television
news that the UN had been in contact with Holkeri regarding the post.
However he said no final decision has been made.
Annan's last Special Representative in Kosovo, Michael Steiner of
Germany, left the post on July 8 after a year and a half in the job.
UNMIK was established in 1999.
Since stepping down as prime minister in 1991, the 66-year-old Holkeri
has served in a range of international duties.
He was president of the UN General Assembly's Millenium Session, and
has served as a mediator in the Northern Ireland conflict.
YLE24, TT, Finnish News Agency
---
http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/international.cfm?id=778952003
The Scotsman
July 18, 2003
Cook linked to top UN role in Kosovo
The selection of the head of the UN mission has been lengthy after the
departure of the previous incumbent because of opposition to the
candidates. Robin Cook's name has been thrown into the ring at a late
stage, although he denies the rumours.
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN AND TIM CORNWELL
Nearly 60 per cent of Kosovans are out of work, the
average monthly income is just £137 and its status in
relation to its neighbours in the Balkans is still
uncertain.
-[P]ierre Schori, the Swedish ambassador to the UN,
was vetoed by the United States because of his
opposition to the Iraq war. Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary,
was at the
centre of a deepening mystery last night, over claims
that he was being lined up for a new job as the United
Nations’ top man in Kosovo. UN sources in New York said Mr Cook had a
"good
chance" of being offered the post of the UN secretary
general’s special representative for Kosovo, a job
which comes with a six-figure salary. Sources within the Kosovan civil
administration also
told The Scotsman that Mr Cook, who was foreign
secretary during the successful operation to drive
Serbian forces from Kosovo, had been mentioned as a
leading contender for the job. Kofi Annan, the UN
secretary general, is believed to want a
higher-profile political figure to take on the
difficult task of running the country. Mr Cook, who took part in the
post-war peace
conference at Rambouillet in France, would fit that
description and has clearly ruled out any prospect of
returning to high political office in the UK. Yesterday, a UN spokesman
in New York said he had a
"good chance" of being offered the job, adding: "As
for Robin Cook, I think his chances may be good, but
it has been an unusually long process". But, in an extraordinary move
last night, Mr Cook and
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, issued a joint
statement flatly denying the reports. "Neither of us
has any idea where this has come from. There is no
truth in it," the statement said. The post of head of the UN mission in
Kosovo has been
vacant since Michael Steiner, of Germany, completed
his 18-month term of office last week. The position
has also been held by Bernard Kouchner, from France,
and Hans Haekkerup, from Denmark. But internal wrangling among UN
members has hampered
attempts to fill the post. Silvio Berlusconi, the
Italian prime minister, blocked the appointment of one
of the other front-runners, Stefano Sannino, because
he works for Mr Berlusconi’s political adversary,
Romano Prodi, the European Commission president. Another candidate,
Pierre Schori, the Swedish
ambassador to the UN, was vetoed by the United States
because of his opposition to the Iraq war. Mr Cook, a fierce opponent
of the Iraq conflict [sic],
has been a thorn in the side of the government since
he resigned his Cabinet post as leader of the Commons
on the eve of the war. His appointment in a role away
from Westminster would be seen as a welcome move in
some government circles. An ambitious politician, he was hurt when he
lost the
job of foreign secretary after the last election. In
an interview last month, he said he had achieved what
he set out to do in British politics and had "been up
there at the top". Earlier yesterday, Mr Cook refused to speculate on
the
Kosovo job, but the task facing any new man is
daunting. Nearly 60 per cent of Kosovans are out of work, the
average monthly income is just £137 and its status in
relation to its neighbours in the Balkans is still
uncertain.
--- In This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Rick Rozoff wrote:
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/
FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1054966647072&p=1012571727166
Financial Times
July 3, 2003
Frustration as choice of envoy blocked
By Judy Dempsey in Brussels
Silvio Berlusconi, Italian prime minister, has stepped
into more controversy by pushing his own candidate to
take over as the European Union's special envoy to
Kosovo and blocking another with wide support from
other member states.
The moves have frustrated many diplomats as they have
left Kosovo without a special envoy at a critical
time, with German Michael Steiner's term ending this
week.
Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, wants to
start political negotiations with the Serbs and ethnic
Albanians in Kosovo.
The hope is that such negotiations would lead to final
status talks, ending one of the most difficult
disputes that have dogged a permanent peace in the
Balkans.
"We need an envoy to mediate between both sides and
one who is more trusted than Steiner," said a senior
EU diplomat. "Berlusconi has not made life easy for us."
The Italian leader prevented one of the favoured
candidates, Stefano Sannino, from getting the job for
political reasons. He works for his old foe, Romano
Prodi, European Commission president.
Mr Sannino, an Italian career diplomat who has served
twice in Belgrade, is foreign policy adviser, with
responsibility for the Balkans, to Mr Prodi.
"Berlusconi believed Sannino was in the other
political camp. He stopped his appointment," a
diplomat said.
Another candidate for the post, Pierre Schori, Swedish
ambassador to the United Nations, was rejected by the
US because he opposed the American-led war against
Iraq.
Mr Berlusconi then proposed Antonio Armellini, Rome's
envoy in Baghdad. "Armellini is a professional
diplomat but with no experience of the Balkans. He is
now a Berlusconi man through and through," said a
Balkan expert. So determined was Italy to have Mr
Armellini appointed that Rome lobbied the Bush
administration, confident of some payoff after Italy's
support of the US-led war in Iraq.
But Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, who has the
final say, diplomatically avoided choosing between Mr
Sannino and Mr Armellini on the grounds that a
candidate with a higher political profile was needed.
Mr Berlusconi has also lobbied to have Laura
Mirachian, his ambassador to Damascus, succeed Miguel
Moratinos, outgoing EU Middle East envoy.
"This is a brute of a job. You have to win the
confidence of all sides. With Berlusconi pushing to
bring Israel into the EU, we wonder if she could win
the trust of the Palestinians," said a senior western
diplomat. By Thursday night, senior foreign ministry
officials from the 15 member states meeting in Rome
were trying to find a compromise candidates.
Even if they manage to do so, another foreign policy
controversy is looming. Desperate to stop illegal
immigration from Libya, Italy wants to supply night
vision technology, gun-boats and other equipment to
Libya. Several EU countries claim these items, which
Italy insists are for civilian use, could contravene
the embargo on arms exports. "If you think the envoys
are a headache, wait for Libya," added a diplomat.
--- End forwarded message ---
S. Taylor e J. Israel sul Kosmet
Quella che segue e' la traduzione del commento originariamente apparso
su:
http://www.icdsm.com/more/taylor1.htm (oppure
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/taylor1.htm ).
Essa ci e' pervenuta da A. Lattanzio, che ringraziamo.
L'articolo di Scott Taylor "Extremist on UN's payroll" ("Estremisti sul
libro paga dell'ONU"), al quale qui ci si riferisce, e' leggibile
integralmente in inglese alla URL:
http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2003/06/02/fOpinion173.raw.html
Scott Taylor e' tra l'altro autore di "Diary of an Uncivil War", libro
del quale diffondiamo qui di seguito un nuovo estratto, dopo quello
gia' fatto circolare:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1621
Dello stesso Taylor consigliamo anche la lettura del recente
THE BLOODSHED CONTINUES
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2589
e dei numerosi altri articoli, dedicati anche alla aggressione NATO/UCK
contro la FYROM, da noi archiviati in:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
---
Commenti sull'articolo di Scott Taylor...
Come la NATO e L'ONU sono colpevoli per il terrore in
Kosovo?
di Jared Israel [3 Giugno 2003]
Molta della copertura sull'assalto terroristico al
Kosovo e alla Macedonia è stata pura disinformazione.
Perfino il miglior articolo è generalmente pieno di
affermazioni gratuite. Per esempio l'ultimo pezzo di
Scott Taylor sull'Halifax Herald. Taylor è un reporter
coraggioso. Ha intervistato un comandante terrorista
secessionista albanese che conduceva gli attacchi alla
Macedonia provando il supporto dato loro dall'US Army.
Ha rischiatola propria vita per dirci la verità. Ma
mentre Taylor tenta di superare le menzogne ufficiali,
egli spesso soccombe alla pressione di tutte queste
menzogne, anche quando i fatti che riporta
contraddicono le bugie! Possiamo, così, avere molte
notizie dagli articoli di Taylor, ma da maneggiare con
cura. Vediamo il caso dell'articolo del 2 giugno 2003
comparso sul The Halifax Herald, intitolato:
"Estremisti sul libro paga dell'ONU". Io avevo postato
la prima parte dell'articolo, nella sezione con alcuni
commenti
Pristina, Kosovo - In nel loro piccolo ufficio nel
quartier generale della polizia dell'ONU, l'ex
poliziotto di Ottawa Derek Chappell e il suo collega
Barry Fletcher, un ex poliziotto di New Orleans, mi
disse della loro frustrazione nel tentativo di
controllare l'andamento delle violenze etniche in
questa provincia balcanica devastata dalla guerra. Fin
dall'arrivo delle forze NATO in Kosovo e dalla
ritirata delle forze serbe nel giugno 1999, la
maggioranza degli attacchi terroristici erano compiuti
da estremisti albanesi contro serbi e altre minoranze
etniche. Il risultato è stato l'espulsione di circa
240.000 non-Albanesi dal Kosovo, con quei pochi
rimasti, rinchiusi in enclaves isolate. Tale pulizia
etnica del Kosovo ha avuto luogo negli anni appena
passati, nonostante la presenza di 27.000 soldati
della NATO e 4.400 poliziotti internazionali.
COMMENTO: è un bene che Taylor riporti il fatto che
usualmente i media ufficiali "scordano", quella del
quarto di milione di serbi e altri che sono stati
cacciati dal Kosovo. Adesso il dato è maggiore, ma va
bene, almeno parla dell'espulsione di massa. Tuttavia,
l'affermazione che "la maggioranza degli attacchi
terroristici erano compiuti da estremisti albanesi ...
ha avuto luogo negli anni appena passati" è assai
fuorviante. Suggerisce l'idea di una lotta tra gruppi
etnici opposti, che modella la percezione dominante:
il problema del Kosovo è la mostruosa prassi da "ogni
parte" e che questo comportamento cattivo nasca
spontaneamente nelle guerre di odio. Ma non è così. Il
terrore non proviene da tutti i lati, e non è
spontaneo. Gli attacchi sono assai organizzati, solo
da un lato, e sono sanzionati dalle potenze NATO.
Molti dei "Serbi e altre minoranze" sono stati
attaccati e cacciati dal Kosovo poco dopo l'arrivo
delle truppe NATO. Le forze terroriste "marciano a
fianco delle truppe NATO in Kosovo." Erano negli scopi
e negli intenti, parte della Nato. Una descrizione
grafica dell'unità del KFOR e i terroristi può essere
trovata nell'articolo: "come la NATO ha portato
l'inferno a Orahovac."
Tale articolo consiste di interviste con tre donne
della città del Kosovo di Orahovac, occupata dalla
NATO nel Giugno 1999. Le interviste furono fatte alla
fine dell'estate del 1999. Orahovac era una eccezione,
poiché all'arrivo dei terroristi, i serbi ivi
residenti, perlopiù "non" se ne andarono. Ho sentito
da queste tre donne, difficile da scrivere, anticipare
la cacciata dei serbi. In questa intervista, ho
chiesto a un a donna, Natasha Grkovic, perché i 3000
Serbi che erano rinchiusi a Orahovac, divenuta un
campo di concentramento, non se ne fossero andati
"prima" dell'arrivo della NATO. Non sapevano
dell'incubo che stava cadendo su di loro? Grkovic
spiegò che il bombardamento della NATO distrusse le
linee di comunicazione con Belgrado. Quindi, prima
dell'occupazione NATO, le notizie provenienti a
Orahovac erano della radio della NATO, inclusi le
costanti promesse che la NATO portava pace e
sicurezza. Il giorno prima dell'arrivo della NATO,
spedirono dei rappresentanti a incontrare delle
personalità importanti serbe, che ripetevano tali
promesse.
Grkovic: "la mattina prima dell'arrivo della KFOR vi
fu un meeting dei loro rappresentanti con il sindaco,
un serbo, più altri serbi inclusi il capo della
polizia. La KFOR disse che in due giorni la vita
sarebbe tornata normale. Il giorno dopo le nostre case
bruciavano." "Con la KFOR, giunse l'UCK. Lo stesso
giorno. Alcuni dei nostri vicini albanesi apparvero
con l'uniforme dell'UCK. Eravamo terrorizzati. Non ci
sentivamo al sicuro nel settore misto di Orahovac,
così partimmo per la parte serba. "quando ce ne
andammo, vedemmo, ancora, le case di serbi bruciare
ancora. La KFOR non fece nulla. Ci lamentammo,
risposero che non avevano abbastanza uomini. Presto
altre truppe NATO arrivarono ma la situazione non mutò
per un mese. Centinaia di case bruciarono. Rubavano
tutto il possibile. Alcune case di nomadi [Roma]
furono bruciate. 25 persone residenti nella zona mista
furono rapite, e le loro case bruciate. "Lentamente
capimmo la misura dell'errore che facemmo non
andandocene. Ogni giorno la KFOR offriva nuove scuse.
Dissero: 'non possiamo mettere guardie davanti ogni
casa. Non possiamo dare a ogni serbo una guardia
armata.' "Il checkpoint KFOR era vicino al ghetto. La
guardia KFOR era posta all'entrata e all'uscita
dell'area serba. Vi erano delle barricate, messe dagli
albanesi. Prima metti la KFOR e poi le barricate
albanesi. La KFOR dava tende agli albanesi che misero
su le barricate. E vi portarono la luce elettrica."
Da, "Intervista con tre donne serbe del Kosovo...Come
la NATO ha portato l'inferno a Orahovac," su
<http://www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/savethe.htm>
'Nonostante o a causa'?
Nel suo articolo, Taylor dice che il terrore etnico
contro i serbi si svolse " nonostante la presenza di
27.000 soldati della NATO troops e 4.400 poliziotti
internazionali." Ciò suggerisce che la NATO fallì nel
prevenire il terribile crimine dovuta alla
interferenza politica o incompetenza. Ma Grkovic
descrive cose diverse: un "sistema" di terrore. In
questo sistema, l'UCK operava come braccio
terroristico della NATO, permettendo alla NATO il
lusso della negazione plausibile. Il lavoro sporco era
fatto e la NATO è criticata da Taylor, per
*omissione*. Ma l'evidenza punta sulla *commistione.*
L'inganno sul ruolo dell'ONU
Taylor certo non può essere incolpato per i commenti
dei due poliziotti che ha intervistato. Tuttavia,
forse una maggior accuratezza nella informazione
avrebbe potuto ottenere se avesse fatto domande più
pertinenti. Per esempio, uno dei poliziotti affermò
che il crimine organizzato in Kosovo:
"Uno dei maggiori ostacoli dell'ONU nell'affrontare la
mafia albanese che usa la bandiera del nazionalismo
kossovaro quando persegue i suoi scopi." dice
Fletcher. "ogni volta che arrestiamo un capobanda, si
avvolge nella bandiera albanese e le strade si
riempiono di protestanti questa non è una società
affetta dal crimine organizzato, ma è una società
basata sul crimine organizzato."
Mr. Fletcher ha detto, "Uno dei maggiori ostacoli
dell'ONU nell'affrontare la mafia albanese...". Ciò
suggerisce che la ben organizzata Mafia è, invece, un
ostacolo dell'ONU. Il problema è che la Mafia non era
ben piantata prima che NATO e ONU entrassero nel
Kosovo e ONU e NATO, che sia chiaro fin da subito,
hanno appoggiato ufficialmente le azioni dei
gangster-terroristi. Considerato il seguente brano da
una intervista con Cedomir Prlincevic, leader della
defunta comunità ebraica di Pristina, capitale della
provincia del Kosovo. Ho detto "defunta" poiché gli
ebrei sono fuggiti da Pristina pochi giorni dopo
l'arrivo della NATO. Qui è Prlincevic a descrivere la
risposta della KFOR inglese (nome della NATO in
Kosovo) all'attacco di un enorme gruppo di terroristi
albanesi a un complesso residenziale cui vivevano
migliaia di persone. Ciò pochi giorni dopo l'arrivo
della NATO a Pristina, accompagnata, secondo
Prlincevic, dagli assassini dell'UCK:
Cedda: quando gli albanesi iniziarono la distruzione
degli appartamenti, un persona chiamò la KFOR e i
soldati della KFOR entrarono nelle case, vi era una
squadra. E c'era un gruppo [di albanesi
gangster-terroristi] che saliva le scale, 24 ore di
persone che salivano e scendevano le scale, che
bussavano, entravano e demolivano... abbattevano le
porte, gettavano gas lacrimogeno, e rubavano.
Jared: scusami?
Cedda: rubavano, rubavano.
Jared: ora, dici che i soldati della KFOR erano lì?
Erano testimoni?
Cedda: Sì
Jared: che dicevano?
Cedda: Nulla. Non hanno aiutato nessuno.
Jared: per Dio, che dicevano?
Cedda: dicevano che le autorità civili avrebbero
sistemato la cosa. Si preoccupavano solo degli
omicidi.
Jared: Chi erano le autorità civili?
Cedda: Non c'erano.
Jared: credevi che ti avreb0bero ucciso se qualcuno
avesse abbattuto la porta? Suppongo che tu saresti
stato ucciso, vero?
Cedda: Sì. Avevano dei documenti nel caso fossi stato
ucciso.
Quindi nelle città del Kosovo, Orahovac o Pristina, o
altrove, procedeva la gangsterizzazione della
provincia in *mano della NATO*. È semplicemente
assurdo argomentare che tale processo avveniva senza
la guida della NATO. Così il tipo di scena descritta
da Fletcher, dove un criminale albanese veniva
arrestato, seguiva una dimostrazione albanese che ne
chiedeva il rilascio, ciò è solo un gioco.
Il gioco
a) permette all'ONU/KFOR di mantenere la pretesa che
"cerchino" di affrontare tale ondata di gangsters che
costituisce un terribile "ostacolo" mentre
b) infatti rafforza la banda dei gangsters.
Fletcher dice che i gangsters ", si avvolgono nella
bandiera albanese." Ma infatti, gli ultra nazionalisti
dell'UCK è sempre una organizzazione di gangsters. Per
garantire un adeguato aiuto ai gangsters dell'UCK, una
delle prime cose che la KFOR fece nell'entrare in
Kosovo fu di aprire i confini con l' Albania, come ben
spiega il seguente brano dell'articolo che ho scritto
nell'Agosto 1999, due mesi dopo la presa NATO del
Kosovo.
"Non è stata la NATO che ha usato la minaccia di
bombardamenti continui delle forze jugoslave ai
confini per costringerle a abbandonare i propri posti
sul confine albanese? La NATO non può dichiarare che
intendeva proteggere l'etnia albanese nel Kosovo; le
guardie di confine controllano il confine. L'Albania
del Nord, che confina con il Kosovo, è controllato da
bande di gangsters e dall'UCK che arruolano criminali.
I guardiani del confine della Yugoslavia avevano un
ruolo cruciale nel proteggere albanesi a chiunque
altro nel Kosovo dagli attacchi criminali e
terroristici. Allontanati gli jugoslavi, la NATO non
installò guardie proprie. Il confine si aprì, non
poroso, aperto. La NATO è così stupida da sapere che i
confini non custoditi permettono ai criminali di
passare? Forse, ma la stupidità non è una scusa. Il
confine albanese è stato l'oggetto del contendere tra
NATO e governo jugoslavo per un anno. Invece, quando
la minaccia dei bombardamenti della NATO spinse gli
jugoslavi a ritirarsi in parte nell'Ottobre 1998, gli
fu permesso di mantenere dei soldati nel Kosovo
precisamente allo scopo di proteggere il confine. La
NATO ha saputo che aprire il confine avrebbe garantito
un flusso di assassini dell'UCK e di criminali. Fin
quando la NATO insiste nel mantenere aperti i confini,
possiamo solo concludere che la NATO desidera il
risultato di tale apertura. Adesso che i
terroristi/criminali sono dentro, la NATO offre "aiuto
nei confronti del caos" come soluzione per non fermare
il terrore secessionista. Non è ragionevole per i
critici della NATO vedere che ciò è un colpo
propagandistico, teso a nascondere una reale divisione
del lavoro? Insomma la presenza della NATO è tesa a
impedire agli jugoslavi di intervenire e di illudere
la gente di credere di essere protetta, ciò per
garantire che essi non prendano misure di autodifesa?
Così che, con molta sorpresa della NATO, i
terroristi/criminali possono attaccare con impunità?
Con il risultato che i sopravvissuti lasciano il
Kosovo? Solo un superstite di Gracko ha lasciato,
ufficialmente."
Io accuso la NATO di organizzare la presa del Kosovo
da parte dei secessionisti/gangsters albanesi, per due
ragioni. Primo, poiché i gangsters-terroristi albanesi
hanno i loro scopi nel distruggere le organizzazioni
politiche di *ogni* gruppo etnico che vuole tenere il
Kosovo nella Serbia, libero dal dominio straniero.
Secondo, poiché questi secessionisti sono consumati
dall'odio verso serbi, zingari (Roma), Gorani e altri
gruppi etnici favorevoli all'unità della Yugoslavia,
la distruzione di essi è il maggior obiettivo della
NATO nei Balcani.
Si può leggere l'ultimo articolo di Taylor in forma integrale su
http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2003/06/02/fOpinion173.raw.html
Tempo permettendo, metterò altri commenti sullo
scritto di Taylor, fin quando fornirà informazioni
utili e motivi di riflessione.
Jared Israel
Traduzione di Alessandro Lattanzio
e-mail: alexlattanzio@...
sito: http://members.xoom.it/sitoaurora
=== FLASHBACK ===
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/taylor2.html
This is the first chapter of Scott Taylor's upcoming book, Diary of an
Uncivil War, detailing the author's war reporting in Macedonia.
PRISTINA, KOSOVO - 15 JUNE 1999 (Tuesday)
Queuing up at 6:00 a.m., I was lucky to get a ticket on the last
Belgrade-bound bus. It was standing room only as I boarded with 67 Serb
refugees carrying all their worldly possessions. The 78-day bombing
campaign had reduced the Pristina bus station to little more than a
pile of rubble.
(The first NATO ground troops had arrived in the capital of Kosovo two
days earlier, and it was now serving as a major logistics point for the
British 5th Brigade.) As our overloaded bus backed away from the
platform, British soldiers came out of their tents to laugh at the
spectacle.
Since Sunday, the streets of Pristina had been clogged with dusty
columns of retreating Yugoslav Army units. British tanks and armoured
vehicles were overseeing their progress at every major intersection.
Under the terms of the Technical Agreement, signed June 9 in Kumanovo,
Macedonia, the Yugoslav security forces still had 48 hours to withdraw
from Kosovo. The presence of 4800 NATO peacekeepers had done little to
reassure Serbian civilians of their continued safety. Televised
statements by U.S. State Department officials fuelled their fears by
warning, "Kosovo will not be a very healthy place for Serbs in the
coming days."
The Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army wasted little time in making that
prophecy a reality. As the first NATO vehicles rolled into the
embattled province, several off-duty Serbian soldiers waiting for
withdrawal orders were gunned down in Pristina while dozens of farmers
were brutally murdered
outside Prizren. The outbreak of violence sparked the exodus of
hundreds of thousands of terrified Serbian civilians.
Although I had been offered safe passage back to Belgrade with a
NATO-escorted convoy of foreign journalists, I felt the major news
story was the reverse ethnic-cleansing. What better way to cover it
than as a participant.
Just before noon our bus reached the northern city limits of Pristina.
There to greet us were 600 or so rock-throwing Albanians. British
soldiers were on hand, but they made no attempt to disperse the crowd.
As our driver accelerated, the bus was pelted with rocks. It was a
terrifying experience,
particularly for the young children and elderly.
The gauntlet had been established coincidentally with the arrival of
the NATO vanguard on Sunday. For two days and nights groups of
Albanians manned this checkpoint to "see off" their Serbian neighbours.
Several vehicles had been disabled and their Serbian occupants hauled
out and beaten.
Pristina, June 1999. Despite the presence of NATO troops, not all
Serbian refugees passed through the Albanian gauntlets unharmed. When
vehicles were disabled by the stone-throwing mobs, the occupants would
often be dragged into the streets and beaten. (Photo by Scott Taylor)
Here too, British troops stood by, laughed and did nothing. Except for
me, no reporter was there to record the incident, despite the fact that
2700 foreign journalists had been accredited by NATO to report from
Kosovo.
Apparently, this gauntlet was not considered newsworthy enough.
Journalists were distracted by the victory celebrations following
NATO's "liberation" of Kosovo, and images of terrified Serbs being
taunted and stoned by Kosovars might have also altered the cultivated
image of Albanians as "innocent victims of an oppressive regime."
Of course, it was largely these same journalists, through their
one-sided reporting on the war, who had created this simplified picture
of a complex situation. When the NATO campaign began, only a handful of
Western journalists had been allowed to remain inside Serbia and
Kosovo. The Serbs had great difficulty in presenting their side of the
story as television
studios and transmitters were bombed. As a result, most of the daily
news coverage came from either the NATO press center in Brussels or
from unconfirmed witness statements collected from refugee camps in
neighbouring Macedonia. Although the exodus of Albanians from Kosovo
started two days after the air strikes began, this humanitarian crisis
and allegations of
genocide were accepted as justification for the Alliance's military
intervention.
As the bombing campaign dragged on and the Serbs showed no sign of
surrender, the prospect of NATO launching a ground assault loomed
larger.
In order to strengthen support for such a risky escalation of the
conflict, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea simply upped his numbers.
Overnight, the figure of Albanians presumed murdered by the Serbs was
multiplied tenfold to 100,000.
Similarly, NATO's tactical successes were wildly exaggerated by Shea,
and dutifully reported by the Western media.
When the horde of journalists finally descended upon Kosovo, reporters
weren't interested in Albanian revenge killings of Serbs - they were on
a collective race to uncover the first "mass graves," discover the
"rape camps," and the shattered remains of the Serbian army.
What they found was evidence of a very different war from the one they
had just spent the past three months reporting. The mass grave sites
proved to be elusive. Despite much-repeated eyewitness accounts of the
execution of 700 Albanians at the Trepca mines for example, not a
single body was found.
The biggest find was seven corpses exhumed at Ljubenic - a site which
had purportedly been the burial ground of over 350 Kosovars. After five
months of searching, UN forensic teams had uncovered only 670 bodies:
Keeping in mind that this tally included Albanian, Serbian and Gypsy
civilians plus suspected combatants, the numbers did not justify the
careless use of the
word genocide, and was a far cry from Jamie Shea's wildly exaggerated
claims.
As the last of the Yugoslav Army and police columns withdrew,
journalists were equally hard-pressed to locate the burnt-out hulks of
vehicles promised them by Jamie Shea. In his daily press briefings,
Shea had kept a running tally of destroyed Serbian weapon systems,
boasting that NATO air power had
effectively created "a ring of death around Kosovo."
The truth was sobering. Despite dropping over $15 billion (U.S.) worth
of ordnance, only 13 Serbian tanks were destroyed in 78 days of
bombing, and five of these were credited to UCK land mines.
Claims of mass rape also failed to stand up to scrutiny.
At the height of the fighting, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
produced a short documentary profiling a female fighter in the Kosovo
Liberation Army. Her heart-rending story was that she had taken up arms
after being forced to watch as Serbian police raped, then killed, her
sister. When a television news crew tracked her down for a follow-up
homecoming piece, they found her sister very much alive - and
unmolested.
When the CBC aired what amounted to a retraction of the original story,
she was unrepentant. "We did what we had to do," she said. "We could
not beat the Serbs ourselves."
As journalists are loathe to admit they've been duped, retractions or
corrections rarely receive the same prominence as the original stories
- and once public opinion has been shaped, it is difficult to shift.
Since news reports are considered the first rough draft of history,
books based on this one-sided coverage of the conflict exacerbate the
original distortions.
As Serbian refugees fled their homes, their departure from Kosovo was
hastened by angry mobs of Albanian civilians. The Western media largely
ignored this reversal in ethnic cleansing. (Photo by Scott Taylor)
In Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond, Canadian author and Balkan analyst
Michael Ignatieff perpetuated many of the falsehoods generated to
justify NATO's intervention. Although it can be gleaned from the
anecdotes he uses that only one side of the conflict is being
presented, Ignatieff gives the impression that he is telling the whole
story. His interviews with U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke, The Hague War
Crimes chief prosecutor Louise Arbour, and General Wesley Clark are not
offset with the views of the Serbian leadership. Much of Virtual War
was written during the air campaign and was based only on information
available at the time.
Consequently, Ignatieff's supporting arguments for the campaign are
based on the same two "galvanizing incidents" used by NATO spokesmen to
justify their actions: the January 1999 massacre of Albanian civilians
by Serbian police at Racak, and Operation Horseshoe, the plan for
Yugoslavia to
ethnically-cleanse Kosovo. By the time Virtual War was published in
2000, German intelligence confessed to having fabricated the Operation
Horseshoe documents, and a UN forensic team had concluded that "no
massacre" had taken place at Racak. Despite the importance of these
findings, Ignatieff chose to ignore them rather than rethink his basic
premise.
Likewise, veteran CBC journalist Carol Off failed to note that Racak
was a hoax in The Lion, The Fox and The Eagle: A story of generals and
justice in Rwanda and Yugoslavia. Although Off devoted one-third of her
book to Hague prosecutor Louise Arbour (the Eagle), no mention was made
of this new evidence.
Arbour's indictment of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic as a war
criminal on the basis of the Racak massacre during the NATO air
campaign had served the U.S. State Department's propaganda interests.
However, by proceeding with this indictment without corroborating
forensic evidence,
Arbour undermined not only the credibility of The Hague Tribunal, but
also her professional reputation as an impartial prosecutor.
In her book, and her subsequent defence of it, Carol Off displays a
marked anti-Serbian bias, which is echoed by many of the Western
journalists who ventured into the Balkans from time to time over the
past decade to size up the situation. Their stories were often
misleading. Conditions in the "besieged" Muslim enclave of Sarajevo,
for example, were deemed
representative of the overall situation in Bosnia.
A dumbed-down version of 'Serbs as aggressors' became the
media-accepted template for coverage, even when it completely ignored
the complexity behind the multi-factional violence taking place in the
former Yugoslavia.
In reporting the civil wars in Croatia and Bosnia, journalists often
described the Serbs as invaders and whatever territory they occupied
was referred to as captured.
Such simplistic interpretations ignore history. Most of the ethnic
Serbian inhabitants of disputed areas have been living there for over
250 years. Forced from Kosovo, their religious heartland, by the Turks
in 1737 during the Great Migration, thousands of displaced Serbs
resettled in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and formed a buffer zone
against further Turkish expansion.
In addition to ignoring past population shifts, the Western media also
chose to rewrite modern history. Inspired by Croatian- and
Muslim-funded U.S. public relations firms, the Serbs were often
compared to Nazi stormtroopers. For the Serbian people to be depicted
in this fashion is particularly
puzzling. In World War II, when the Germans invaded Yugoslavia, Hitler
had exploited underlying ethnic hatreds to divide and conquer. Croatia
was recognized as an independent state and its Ustasha pledged
allegiance to the
Nazis. Albanians in Kosovo were recruited in great numbers into an SS
Division, Skenderberg, while the Bosnian Muslims joined another SS
Division, Handschar, noted for its brutality. As they had in World War
I, the Serbs supported the Allied cause and fiercely resisted German
occupation. As Communist partisans, or Royalist Chetniks, the Serbs
were dogged fighters, much admired in the West. But they paid a hefty
price for their defiance. As part of the Nazi policy of retribution,
the death of every German soldier was avenged with the execution of 100
Serbian civilians. At concentration camps in Croatia, the Ustasha
exterminated Serbs, Jews and Gypsys with such savagery that even the
German SS commanders were compelled to protest.
The media continued to refer to the Serbian military as a Nazi-like
juggernaut throughout the various Balkan wars of the past decade. Some
juggernaut. By the time the Dayton Peace Accord was signed in December
1995, it had been defeated on all fronts and over 750,000 Serb
civilians had been expelled from lost territory in western Slovonia,
the Krajina, eastern
Croatia and Bosnia.
Despite military setbacks and widespread suffering in Yugoslavia after
a decade of economic sanctions, the media stereotype remained
unchanged. In March 1999, on the eve of the Kosovo conflict, U.S.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright likened Slobodan Milosevic to
"Adolf Hitler in 1938."
Milosevic was the very man who, in 1996, Albright had praised as a "man
of peace," in recognition of the part he played in securing the Dayton
agreement. When hundreds of thousands of Serbs took to the streets of
Belgrade later that same year to protest his manipulation of municipal
elections, the U.S. refused to intervene. With a U.S.-led NATO
stabilization force maintaining a shaky cease-fire in Bosnia, the
Americans needed Milosevic.
On June 16, 1999, British troops watched as hundreds of cheering
Albanians formed a gauntlet on the streets of Pristina. (Photo by Scott
Taylor)
While the American media chose to ignore Albright's flip-flop, the
Serbs did not forget. As NATO bombs rained down on Belgrade, so did
U.S. propaganda leaflets urging Yugoslavs to rise up and overthrow
Milosevic. Despite their hatred for the president, they were not about
to do America's bidding while
in the cross-hairs of a bombsight.
In the end, NATO had been forced to back down and negotiate the Kosovo
peace deal with indicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic. In return for
allowing NATO ground troops to enter the province (under a United
Nations mandate), Kosovo was to remain the sovereign territory of
Yugoslavia, the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army was to be disbanded,
and Serbian security forces were to remain in control of the border
crossings.
The neighbouring Republic of Macedonia expected its own reward for
having provided emergency assistance to the flood of Albanian refugees
and for allowing NATO troops to use its territory as a staging ground
for the Kosovo operation. Bankrupt and militarily unprepared, the
Macedonians believed that they would be accepted as partners in NATO
and the European Union, and that they would not be caught up in the
escalating regional violence.
Events would prove them wrong.
Scott Taylor is editor of Esprit de Corps magazine and writes for the
Canadian press."
Thanks to Benjamin Works of the Strategic Issues Research Institute of
the US (SIRIUS).
ANOTHER EXTRACT FROM THE SAME BOOK AT:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1621
Quella che segue e' la traduzione del commento originariamente apparso
su:
http://www.icdsm.com/more/taylor1.htm (oppure
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/taylor1.htm ).
Essa ci e' pervenuta da A. Lattanzio, che ringraziamo.
L'articolo di Scott Taylor "Extremist on UN's payroll" ("Estremisti sul
libro paga dell'ONU"), al quale qui ci si riferisce, e' leggibile
integralmente in inglese alla URL:
http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2003/06/02/fOpinion173.raw.html
Scott Taylor e' tra l'altro autore di "Diary of an Uncivil War", libro
del quale diffondiamo qui di seguito un nuovo estratto, dopo quello
gia' fatto circolare:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1621
Dello stesso Taylor consigliamo anche la lettura del recente
THE BLOODSHED CONTINUES
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2589
e dei numerosi altri articoli, dedicati anche alla aggressione NATO/UCK
contro la FYROM, da noi archiviati in:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
---
Commenti sull'articolo di Scott Taylor...
Come la NATO e L'ONU sono colpevoli per il terrore in
Kosovo?
di Jared Israel [3 Giugno 2003]
Molta della copertura sull'assalto terroristico al
Kosovo e alla Macedonia è stata pura disinformazione.
Perfino il miglior articolo è generalmente pieno di
affermazioni gratuite. Per esempio l'ultimo pezzo di
Scott Taylor sull'Halifax Herald. Taylor è un reporter
coraggioso. Ha intervistato un comandante terrorista
secessionista albanese che conduceva gli attacchi alla
Macedonia provando il supporto dato loro dall'US Army.
Ha rischiatola propria vita per dirci la verità. Ma
mentre Taylor tenta di superare le menzogne ufficiali,
egli spesso soccombe alla pressione di tutte queste
menzogne, anche quando i fatti che riporta
contraddicono le bugie! Possiamo, così, avere molte
notizie dagli articoli di Taylor, ma da maneggiare con
cura. Vediamo il caso dell'articolo del 2 giugno 2003
comparso sul The Halifax Herald, intitolato:
"Estremisti sul libro paga dell'ONU". Io avevo postato
la prima parte dell'articolo, nella sezione con alcuni
commenti
Pristina, Kosovo - In nel loro piccolo ufficio nel
quartier generale della polizia dell'ONU, l'ex
poliziotto di Ottawa Derek Chappell e il suo collega
Barry Fletcher, un ex poliziotto di New Orleans, mi
disse della loro frustrazione nel tentativo di
controllare l'andamento delle violenze etniche in
questa provincia balcanica devastata dalla guerra. Fin
dall'arrivo delle forze NATO in Kosovo e dalla
ritirata delle forze serbe nel giugno 1999, la
maggioranza degli attacchi terroristici erano compiuti
da estremisti albanesi contro serbi e altre minoranze
etniche. Il risultato è stato l'espulsione di circa
240.000 non-Albanesi dal Kosovo, con quei pochi
rimasti, rinchiusi in enclaves isolate. Tale pulizia
etnica del Kosovo ha avuto luogo negli anni appena
passati, nonostante la presenza di 27.000 soldati
della NATO e 4.400 poliziotti internazionali.
COMMENTO: è un bene che Taylor riporti il fatto che
usualmente i media ufficiali "scordano", quella del
quarto di milione di serbi e altri che sono stati
cacciati dal Kosovo. Adesso il dato è maggiore, ma va
bene, almeno parla dell'espulsione di massa. Tuttavia,
l'affermazione che "la maggioranza degli attacchi
terroristici erano compiuti da estremisti albanesi ...
ha avuto luogo negli anni appena passati" è assai
fuorviante. Suggerisce l'idea di una lotta tra gruppi
etnici opposti, che modella la percezione dominante:
il problema del Kosovo è la mostruosa prassi da "ogni
parte" e che questo comportamento cattivo nasca
spontaneamente nelle guerre di odio. Ma non è così. Il
terrore non proviene da tutti i lati, e non è
spontaneo. Gli attacchi sono assai organizzati, solo
da un lato, e sono sanzionati dalle potenze NATO.
Molti dei "Serbi e altre minoranze" sono stati
attaccati e cacciati dal Kosovo poco dopo l'arrivo
delle truppe NATO. Le forze terroriste "marciano a
fianco delle truppe NATO in Kosovo." Erano negli scopi
e negli intenti, parte della Nato. Una descrizione
grafica dell'unità del KFOR e i terroristi può essere
trovata nell'articolo: "come la NATO ha portato
l'inferno a Orahovac."
Tale articolo consiste di interviste con tre donne
della città del Kosovo di Orahovac, occupata dalla
NATO nel Giugno 1999. Le interviste furono fatte alla
fine dell'estate del 1999. Orahovac era una eccezione,
poiché all'arrivo dei terroristi, i serbi ivi
residenti, perlopiù "non" se ne andarono. Ho sentito
da queste tre donne, difficile da scrivere, anticipare
la cacciata dei serbi. In questa intervista, ho
chiesto a un a donna, Natasha Grkovic, perché i 3000
Serbi che erano rinchiusi a Orahovac, divenuta un
campo di concentramento, non se ne fossero andati
"prima" dell'arrivo della NATO. Non sapevano
dell'incubo che stava cadendo su di loro? Grkovic
spiegò che il bombardamento della NATO distrusse le
linee di comunicazione con Belgrado. Quindi, prima
dell'occupazione NATO, le notizie provenienti a
Orahovac erano della radio della NATO, inclusi le
costanti promesse che la NATO portava pace e
sicurezza. Il giorno prima dell'arrivo della NATO,
spedirono dei rappresentanti a incontrare delle
personalità importanti serbe, che ripetevano tali
promesse.
Grkovic: "la mattina prima dell'arrivo della KFOR vi
fu un meeting dei loro rappresentanti con il sindaco,
un serbo, più altri serbi inclusi il capo della
polizia. La KFOR disse che in due giorni la vita
sarebbe tornata normale. Il giorno dopo le nostre case
bruciavano." "Con la KFOR, giunse l'UCK. Lo stesso
giorno. Alcuni dei nostri vicini albanesi apparvero
con l'uniforme dell'UCK. Eravamo terrorizzati. Non ci
sentivamo al sicuro nel settore misto di Orahovac,
così partimmo per la parte serba. "quando ce ne
andammo, vedemmo, ancora, le case di serbi bruciare
ancora. La KFOR non fece nulla. Ci lamentammo,
risposero che non avevano abbastanza uomini. Presto
altre truppe NATO arrivarono ma la situazione non mutò
per un mese. Centinaia di case bruciarono. Rubavano
tutto il possibile. Alcune case di nomadi [Roma]
furono bruciate. 25 persone residenti nella zona mista
furono rapite, e le loro case bruciate. "Lentamente
capimmo la misura dell'errore che facemmo non
andandocene. Ogni giorno la KFOR offriva nuove scuse.
Dissero: 'non possiamo mettere guardie davanti ogni
casa. Non possiamo dare a ogni serbo una guardia
armata.' "Il checkpoint KFOR era vicino al ghetto. La
guardia KFOR era posta all'entrata e all'uscita
dell'area serba. Vi erano delle barricate, messe dagli
albanesi. Prima metti la KFOR e poi le barricate
albanesi. La KFOR dava tende agli albanesi che misero
su le barricate. E vi portarono la luce elettrica."
Da, "Intervista con tre donne serbe del Kosovo...Come
la NATO ha portato l'inferno a Orahovac," su
<http://www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/savethe.htm>
'Nonostante o a causa'?
Nel suo articolo, Taylor dice che il terrore etnico
contro i serbi si svolse " nonostante la presenza di
27.000 soldati della NATO troops e 4.400 poliziotti
internazionali." Ciò suggerisce che la NATO fallì nel
prevenire il terribile crimine dovuta alla
interferenza politica o incompetenza. Ma Grkovic
descrive cose diverse: un "sistema" di terrore. In
questo sistema, l'UCK operava come braccio
terroristico della NATO, permettendo alla NATO il
lusso della negazione plausibile. Il lavoro sporco era
fatto e la NATO è criticata da Taylor, per
*omissione*. Ma l'evidenza punta sulla *commistione.*
L'inganno sul ruolo dell'ONU
Taylor certo non può essere incolpato per i commenti
dei due poliziotti che ha intervistato. Tuttavia,
forse una maggior accuratezza nella informazione
avrebbe potuto ottenere se avesse fatto domande più
pertinenti. Per esempio, uno dei poliziotti affermò
che il crimine organizzato in Kosovo:
"Uno dei maggiori ostacoli dell'ONU nell'affrontare la
mafia albanese che usa la bandiera del nazionalismo
kossovaro quando persegue i suoi scopi." dice
Fletcher. "ogni volta che arrestiamo un capobanda, si
avvolge nella bandiera albanese e le strade si
riempiono di protestanti questa non è una società
affetta dal crimine organizzato, ma è una società
basata sul crimine organizzato."
Mr. Fletcher ha detto, "Uno dei maggiori ostacoli
dell'ONU nell'affrontare la mafia albanese...". Ciò
suggerisce che la ben organizzata Mafia è, invece, un
ostacolo dell'ONU. Il problema è che la Mafia non era
ben piantata prima che NATO e ONU entrassero nel
Kosovo e ONU e NATO, che sia chiaro fin da subito,
hanno appoggiato ufficialmente le azioni dei
gangster-terroristi. Considerato il seguente brano da
una intervista con Cedomir Prlincevic, leader della
defunta comunità ebraica di Pristina, capitale della
provincia del Kosovo. Ho detto "defunta" poiché gli
ebrei sono fuggiti da Pristina pochi giorni dopo
l'arrivo della NATO. Qui è Prlincevic a descrivere la
risposta della KFOR inglese (nome della NATO in
Kosovo) all'attacco di un enorme gruppo di terroristi
albanesi a un complesso residenziale cui vivevano
migliaia di persone. Ciò pochi giorni dopo l'arrivo
della NATO a Pristina, accompagnata, secondo
Prlincevic, dagli assassini dell'UCK:
Cedda: quando gli albanesi iniziarono la distruzione
degli appartamenti, un persona chiamò la KFOR e i
soldati della KFOR entrarono nelle case, vi era una
squadra. E c'era un gruppo [di albanesi
gangster-terroristi] che saliva le scale, 24 ore di
persone che salivano e scendevano le scale, che
bussavano, entravano e demolivano... abbattevano le
porte, gettavano gas lacrimogeno, e rubavano.
Jared: scusami?
Cedda: rubavano, rubavano.
Jared: ora, dici che i soldati della KFOR erano lì?
Erano testimoni?
Cedda: Sì
Jared: che dicevano?
Cedda: Nulla. Non hanno aiutato nessuno.
Jared: per Dio, che dicevano?
Cedda: dicevano che le autorità civili avrebbero
sistemato la cosa. Si preoccupavano solo degli
omicidi.
Jared: Chi erano le autorità civili?
Cedda: Non c'erano.
Jared: credevi che ti avreb0bero ucciso se qualcuno
avesse abbattuto la porta? Suppongo che tu saresti
stato ucciso, vero?
Cedda: Sì. Avevano dei documenti nel caso fossi stato
ucciso.
Quindi nelle città del Kosovo, Orahovac o Pristina, o
altrove, procedeva la gangsterizzazione della
provincia in *mano della NATO*. È semplicemente
assurdo argomentare che tale processo avveniva senza
la guida della NATO. Così il tipo di scena descritta
da Fletcher, dove un criminale albanese veniva
arrestato, seguiva una dimostrazione albanese che ne
chiedeva il rilascio, ciò è solo un gioco.
Il gioco
a) permette all'ONU/KFOR di mantenere la pretesa che
"cerchino" di affrontare tale ondata di gangsters che
costituisce un terribile "ostacolo" mentre
b) infatti rafforza la banda dei gangsters.
Fletcher dice che i gangsters ", si avvolgono nella
bandiera albanese." Ma infatti, gli ultra nazionalisti
dell'UCK è sempre una organizzazione di gangsters. Per
garantire un adeguato aiuto ai gangsters dell'UCK, una
delle prime cose che la KFOR fece nell'entrare in
Kosovo fu di aprire i confini con l' Albania, come ben
spiega il seguente brano dell'articolo che ho scritto
nell'Agosto 1999, due mesi dopo la presa NATO del
Kosovo.
"Non è stata la NATO che ha usato la minaccia di
bombardamenti continui delle forze jugoslave ai
confini per costringerle a abbandonare i propri posti
sul confine albanese? La NATO non può dichiarare che
intendeva proteggere l'etnia albanese nel Kosovo; le
guardie di confine controllano il confine. L'Albania
del Nord, che confina con il Kosovo, è controllato da
bande di gangsters e dall'UCK che arruolano criminali.
I guardiani del confine della Yugoslavia avevano un
ruolo cruciale nel proteggere albanesi a chiunque
altro nel Kosovo dagli attacchi criminali e
terroristici. Allontanati gli jugoslavi, la NATO non
installò guardie proprie. Il confine si aprì, non
poroso, aperto. La NATO è così stupida da sapere che i
confini non custoditi permettono ai criminali di
passare? Forse, ma la stupidità non è una scusa. Il
confine albanese è stato l'oggetto del contendere tra
NATO e governo jugoslavo per un anno. Invece, quando
la minaccia dei bombardamenti della NATO spinse gli
jugoslavi a ritirarsi in parte nell'Ottobre 1998, gli
fu permesso di mantenere dei soldati nel Kosovo
precisamente allo scopo di proteggere il confine. La
NATO ha saputo che aprire il confine avrebbe garantito
un flusso di assassini dell'UCK e di criminali. Fin
quando la NATO insiste nel mantenere aperti i confini,
possiamo solo concludere che la NATO desidera il
risultato di tale apertura. Adesso che i
terroristi/criminali sono dentro, la NATO offre "aiuto
nei confronti del caos" come soluzione per non fermare
il terrore secessionista. Non è ragionevole per i
critici della NATO vedere che ciò è un colpo
propagandistico, teso a nascondere una reale divisione
del lavoro? Insomma la presenza della NATO è tesa a
impedire agli jugoslavi di intervenire e di illudere
la gente di credere di essere protetta, ciò per
garantire che essi non prendano misure di autodifesa?
Così che, con molta sorpresa della NATO, i
terroristi/criminali possono attaccare con impunità?
Con il risultato che i sopravvissuti lasciano il
Kosovo? Solo un superstite di Gracko ha lasciato,
ufficialmente."
Io accuso la NATO di organizzare la presa del Kosovo
da parte dei secessionisti/gangsters albanesi, per due
ragioni. Primo, poiché i gangsters-terroristi albanesi
hanno i loro scopi nel distruggere le organizzazioni
politiche di *ogni* gruppo etnico che vuole tenere il
Kosovo nella Serbia, libero dal dominio straniero.
Secondo, poiché questi secessionisti sono consumati
dall'odio verso serbi, zingari (Roma), Gorani e altri
gruppi etnici favorevoli all'unità della Yugoslavia,
la distruzione di essi è il maggior obiettivo della
NATO nei Balcani.
Si può leggere l'ultimo articolo di Taylor in forma integrale su
http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2003/06/02/fOpinion173.raw.html
Tempo permettendo, metterò altri commenti sullo
scritto di Taylor, fin quando fornirà informazioni
utili e motivi di riflessione.
Jared Israel
Traduzione di Alessandro Lattanzio
e-mail: alexlattanzio@...
sito: http://members.xoom.it/sitoaurora
=== FLASHBACK ===
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/taylor2.html
This is the first chapter of Scott Taylor's upcoming book, Diary of an
Uncivil War, detailing the author's war reporting in Macedonia.
PRISTINA, KOSOVO - 15 JUNE 1999 (Tuesday)
Queuing up at 6:00 a.m., I was lucky to get a ticket on the last
Belgrade-bound bus. It was standing room only as I boarded with 67 Serb
refugees carrying all their worldly possessions. The 78-day bombing
campaign had reduced the Pristina bus station to little more than a
pile of rubble.
(The first NATO ground troops had arrived in the capital of Kosovo two
days earlier, and it was now serving as a major logistics point for the
British 5th Brigade.) As our overloaded bus backed away from the
platform, British soldiers came out of their tents to laugh at the
spectacle.
Since Sunday, the streets of Pristina had been clogged with dusty
columns of retreating Yugoslav Army units. British tanks and armoured
vehicles were overseeing their progress at every major intersection.
Under the terms of the Technical Agreement, signed June 9 in Kumanovo,
Macedonia, the Yugoslav security forces still had 48 hours to withdraw
from Kosovo. The presence of 4800 NATO peacekeepers had done little to
reassure Serbian civilians of their continued safety. Televised
statements by U.S. State Department officials fuelled their fears by
warning, "Kosovo will not be a very healthy place for Serbs in the
coming days."
The Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army wasted little time in making that
prophecy a reality. As the first NATO vehicles rolled into the
embattled province, several off-duty Serbian soldiers waiting for
withdrawal orders were gunned down in Pristina while dozens of farmers
were brutally murdered
outside Prizren. The outbreak of violence sparked the exodus of
hundreds of thousands of terrified Serbian civilians.
Although I had been offered safe passage back to Belgrade with a
NATO-escorted convoy of foreign journalists, I felt the major news
story was the reverse ethnic-cleansing. What better way to cover it
than as a participant.
Just before noon our bus reached the northern city limits of Pristina.
There to greet us were 600 or so rock-throwing Albanians. British
soldiers were on hand, but they made no attempt to disperse the crowd.
As our driver accelerated, the bus was pelted with rocks. It was a
terrifying experience,
particularly for the young children and elderly.
The gauntlet had been established coincidentally with the arrival of
the NATO vanguard on Sunday. For two days and nights groups of
Albanians manned this checkpoint to "see off" their Serbian neighbours.
Several vehicles had been disabled and their Serbian occupants hauled
out and beaten.
Pristina, June 1999. Despite the presence of NATO troops, not all
Serbian refugees passed through the Albanian gauntlets unharmed. When
vehicles were disabled by the stone-throwing mobs, the occupants would
often be dragged into the streets and beaten. (Photo by Scott Taylor)
Here too, British troops stood by, laughed and did nothing. Except for
me, no reporter was there to record the incident, despite the fact that
2700 foreign journalists had been accredited by NATO to report from
Kosovo.
Apparently, this gauntlet was not considered newsworthy enough.
Journalists were distracted by the victory celebrations following
NATO's "liberation" of Kosovo, and images of terrified Serbs being
taunted and stoned by Kosovars might have also altered the cultivated
image of Albanians as "innocent victims of an oppressive regime."
Of course, it was largely these same journalists, through their
one-sided reporting on the war, who had created this simplified picture
of a complex situation. When the NATO campaign began, only a handful of
Western journalists had been allowed to remain inside Serbia and
Kosovo. The Serbs had great difficulty in presenting their side of the
story as television
studios and transmitters were bombed. As a result, most of the daily
news coverage came from either the NATO press center in Brussels or
from unconfirmed witness statements collected from refugee camps in
neighbouring Macedonia. Although the exodus of Albanians from Kosovo
started two days after the air strikes began, this humanitarian crisis
and allegations of
genocide were accepted as justification for the Alliance's military
intervention.
As the bombing campaign dragged on and the Serbs showed no sign of
surrender, the prospect of NATO launching a ground assault loomed
larger.
In order to strengthen support for such a risky escalation of the
conflict, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea simply upped his numbers.
Overnight, the figure of Albanians presumed murdered by the Serbs was
multiplied tenfold to 100,000.
Similarly, NATO's tactical successes were wildly exaggerated by Shea,
and dutifully reported by the Western media.
When the horde of journalists finally descended upon Kosovo, reporters
weren't interested in Albanian revenge killings of Serbs - they were on
a collective race to uncover the first "mass graves," discover the
"rape camps," and the shattered remains of the Serbian army.
What they found was evidence of a very different war from the one they
had just spent the past three months reporting. The mass grave sites
proved to be elusive. Despite much-repeated eyewitness accounts of the
execution of 700 Albanians at the Trepca mines for example, not a
single body was found.
The biggest find was seven corpses exhumed at Ljubenic - a site which
had purportedly been the burial ground of over 350 Kosovars. After five
months of searching, UN forensic teams had uncovered only 670 bodies:
Keeping in mind that this tally included Albanian, Serbian and Gypsy
civilians plus suspected combatants, the numbers did not justify the
careless use of the
word genocide, and was a far cry from Jamie Shea's wildly exaggerated
claims.
As the last of the Yugoslav Army and police columns withdrew,
journalists were equally hard-pressed to locate the burnt-out hulks of
vehicles promised them by Jamie Shea. In his daily press briefings,
Shea had kept a running tally of destroyed Serbian weapon systems,
boasting that NATO air power had
effectively created "a ring of death around Kosovo."
The truth was sobering. Despite dropping over $15 billion (U.S.) worth
of ordnance, only 13 Serbian tanks were destroyed in 78 days of
bombing, and five of these were credited to UCK land mines.
Claims of mass rape also failed to stand up to scrutiny.
At the height of the fighting, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
produced a short documentary profiling a female fighter in the Kosovo
Liberation Army. Her heart-rending story was that she had taken up arms
after being forced to watch as Serbian police raped, then killed, her
sister. When a television news crew tracked her down for a follow-up
homecoming piece, they found her sister very much alive - and
unmolested.
When the CBC aired what amounted to a retraction of the original story,
she was unrepentant. "We did what we had to do," she said. "We could
not beat the Serbs ourselves."
As journalists are loathe to admit they've been duped, retractions or
corrections rarely receive the same prominence as the original stories
- and once public opinion has been shaped, it is difficult to shift.
Since news reports are considered the first rough draft of history,
books based on this one-sided coverage of the conflict exacerbate the
original distortions.
As Serbian refugees fled their homes, their departure from Kosovo was
hastened by angry mobs of Albanian civilians. The Western media largely
ignored this reversal in ethnic cleansing. (Photo by Scott Taylor)
In Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond, Canadian author and Balkan analyst
Michael Ignatieff perpetuated many of the falsehoods generated to
justify NATO's intervention. Although it can be gleaned from the
anecdotes he uses that only one side of the conflict is being
presented, Ignatieff gives the impression that he is telling the whole
story. His interviews with U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke, The Hague War
Crimes chief prosecutor Louise Arbour, and General Wesley Clark are not
offset with the views of the Serbian leadership. Much of Virtual War
was written during the air campaign and was based only on information
available at the time.
Consequently, Ignatieff's supporting arguments for the campaign are
based on the same two "galvanizing incidents" used by NATO spokesmen to
justify their actions: the January 1999 massacre of Albanian civilians
by Serbian police at Racak, and Operation Horseshoe, the plan for
Yugoslavia to
ethnically-cleanse Kosovo. By the time Virtual War was published in
2000, German intelligence confessed to having fabricated the Operation
Horseshoe documents, and a UN forensic team had concluded that "no
massacre" had taken place at Racak. Despite the importance of these
findings, Ignatieff chose to ignore them rather than rethink his basic
premise.
Likewise, veteran CBC journalist Carol Off failed to note that Racak
was a hoax in The Lion, The Fox and The Eagle: A story of generals and
justice in Rwanda and Yugoslavia. Although Off devoted one-third of her
book to Hague prosecutor Louise Arbour (the Eagle), no mention was made
of this new evidence.
Arbour's indictment of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic as a war
criminal on the basis of the Racak massacre during the NATO air
campaign had served the U.S. State Department's propaganda interests.
However, by proceeding with this indictment without corroborating
forensic evidence,
Arbour undermined not only the credibility of The Hague Tribunal, but
also her professional reputation as an impartial prosecutor.
In her book, and her subsequent defence of it, Carol Off displays a
marked anti-Serbian bias, which is echoed by many of the Western
journalists who ventured into the Balkans from time to time over the
past decade to size up the situation. Their stories were often
misleading. Conditions in the "besieged" Muslim enclave of Sarajevo,
for example, were deemed
representative of the overall situation in Bosnia.
A dumbed-down version of 'Serbs as aggressors' became the
media-accepted template for coverage, even when it completely ignored
the complexity behind the multi-factional violence taking place in the
former Yugoslavia.
In reporting the civil wars in Croatia and Bosnia, journalists often
described the Serbs as invaders and whatever territory they occupied
was referred to as captured.
Such simplistic interpretations ignore history. Most of the ethnic
Serbian inhabitants of disputed areas have been living there for over
250 years. Forced from Kosovo, their religious heartland, by the Turks
in 1737 during the Great Migration, thousands of displaced Serbs
resettled in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and formed a buffer zone
against further Turkish expansion.
In addition to ignoring past population shifts, the Western media also
chose to rewrite modern history. Inspired by Croatian- and
Muslim-funded U.S. public relations firms, the Serbs were often
compared to Nazi stormtroopers. For the Serbian people to be depicted
in this fashion is particularly
puzzling. In World War II, when the Germans invaded Yugoslavia, Hitler
had exploited underlying ethnic hatreds to divide and conquer. Croatia
was recognized as an independent state and its Ustasha pledged
allegiance to the
Nazis. Albanians in Kosovo were recruited in great numbers into an SS
Division, Skenderberg, while the Bosnian Muslims joined another SS
Division, Handschar, noted for its brutality. As they had in World War
I, the Serbs supported the Allied cause and fiercely resisted German
occupation. As Communist partisans, or Royalist Chetniks, the Serbs
were dogged fighters, much admired in the West. But they paid a hefty
price for their defiance. As part of the Nazi policy of retribution,
the death of every German soldier was avenged with the execution of 100
Serbian civilians. At concentration camps in Croatia, the Ustasha
exterminated Serbs, Jews and Gypsys with such savagery that even the
German SS commanders were compelled to protest.
The media continued to refer to the Serbian military as a Nazi-like
juggernaut throughout the various Balkan wars of the past decade. Some
juggernaut. By the time the Dayton Peace Accord was signed in December
1995, it had been defeated on all fronts and over 750,000 Serb
civilians had been expelled from lost territory in western Slovonia,
the Krajina, eastern
Croatia and Bosnia.
Despite military setbacks and widespread suffering in Yugoslavia after
a decade of economic sanctions, the media stereotype remained
unchanged. In March 1999, on the eve of the Kosovo conflict, U.S.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright likened Slobodan Milosevic to
"Adolf Hitler in 1938."
Milosevic was the very man who, in 1996, Albright had praised as a "man
of peace," in recognition of the part he played in securing the Dayton
agreement. When hundreds of thousands of Serbs took to the streets of
Belgrade later that same year to protest his manipulation of municipal
elections, the U.S. refused to intervene. With a U.S.-led NATO
stabilization force maintaining a shaky cease-fire in Bosnia, the
Americans needed Milosevic.
On June 16, 1999, British troops watched as hundreds of cheering
Albanians formed a gauntlet on the streets of Pristina. (Photo by Scott
Taylor)
While the American media chose to ignore Albright's flip-flop, the
Serbs did not forget. As NATO bombs rained down on Belgrade, so did
U.S. propaganda leaflets urging Yugoslavs to rise up and overthrow
Milosevic. Despite their hatred for the president, they were not about
to do America's bidding while
in the cross-hairs of a bombsight.
In the end, NATO had been forced to back down and negotiate the Kosovo
peace deal with indicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic. In return for
allowing NATO ground troops to enter the province (under a United
Nations mandate), Kosovo was to remain the sovereign territory of
Yugoslavia, the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army was to be disbanded,
and Serbian security forces were to remain in control of the border
crossings.
The neighbouring Republic of Macedonia expected its own reward for
having provided emergency assistance to the flood of Albanian refugees
and for allowing NATO troops to use its territory as a staging ground
for the Kosovo operation. Bankrupt and militarily unprepared, the
Macedonians believed that they would be accepted as partners in NATO
and the European Union, and that they would not be caught up in the
escalating regional violence.
Events would prove them wrong.
Scott Taylor is editor of Esprit de Corps magazine and writes for the
Canadian press."
Thanks to Benjamin Works of the Strategic Issues Research Institute of
the US (SIRIUS).
ANOTHER EXTRACT FROM THE SAME BOOK AT:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1621
From: jugoistrijan
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 19:21:43 +0200
ZIVIO 27. VII., DAN USTANKA U HRVATSKOJ I BOSNI I HERCEGOVINI!
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/files/IMMAGINI/
jugoslavijo.jpg
Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 19:21:43 +0200
ZIVIO 27. VII., DAN USTANKA U HRVATSKOJ I BOSNI I HERCEGOVINI!
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/files/IMMAGINI/
jugoslavijo.jpg
1. U.S. CONGRESSMAN SAYS FORMER PRESIDENT HAD LIED TO JUSTIFY BOMBING
OF YUGOSLAVIA
2. REMEMBER KOSOVO?
=== 1 ===
http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Pressframe.htm
U.S. CONGRESSMAN SAYS FORMER PRESIDENT HAD LIED TO JUSTIFY BOMBING OF
YUGOSLAVIA
WASHINGTON, Jul 18 (Tanjug) - US Congressman Kurt
Weldon wondered Thursday why the Democratic Party had
not protested when former president Bill Clinton had
lied and twisted facts on alleged mass murders in the
Balkans in order to justify the NATO invasion on the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999.
Reacting in the Congress to the strong criticism by
the democrats regarding the truthfulness of the
reasons President George Bush had given for the recent
intervention in Iraq, Weldon said he wished to remind
fellow democrats of the claims made by Clinton to
justify the bombing of Yugoslavia.
The Clinton administration had claimed at the time
that hundreds of thousands of people had been killed
in ethnic cleansing and buried in mass graves, in an
attempt to justify the NATO intervention and war
against (former Yugoslav president) Slobodan
Milosevic, in which both US soldiers and innocent
Serbs were being killed, Weldon said, underlining that
the justification for the US involvement in the war in
Yugoslavia was a load of false information.
---
http://www.house.gov/curtweldon/july16speech.htm
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Wednesday, July 16, 2003
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH -- (House of Representatives - July 16, 2003)
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gingrey). The gentleman from Pennsylvania
(Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 40 minutes.
Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, enough is enough. I sat in my
office last night and listened to Member after Member on the other side
rail about President Bush and whether or not we could trust him in the
Iraqi situation. I have listened to my colleagues tonight. Enough is
enough. Mr. Speaker, this is just outrageous.
So what I have done is I have got a whole file here, and I am going to
remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle about their
President for the previous 8 years, and I am going to cite articles and
claims and I am going to cite the justification for the invasion of
Yugoslavia as outlined by President Clinton.
Where were these voices, where were these petitions, where were these
outcries when President Clinton told us about the Balkans mass deaths
to justify NATO's invasion into the Balkans? The Clinton administration
claimed that ethnic cleansing had killed hundreds of thousands of
people, and I will include the articles from the papers in the
Congressional Record.
The Clinton administration was later criticized, and I have newspaper
articles here to back it up by the press for grossly exaggerating the
number of victims of ethnic cleansing, the mass graves. President
Clinton told us we would find 100,000 people that were murdered and
that was his justification for using NATO for the only time ever to
invade a non-NATO
country in order to justify a war against Slobodan Milosevic where U.S.
citizens, where U.S. troops, and where innocent Serbs were killed. That
is the first example.
(...)
Mr. Speaker, in one night, in one day, I have listed five times of
major significance that the leader of the party of the other side,
these righteous, indignant people who have railed and whined and cried
on the floor of this body said nothing about lies to the American
people.
Mr. Speaker, some would say, well, these did not involve death of
American citizens or war, and I would remind my colleagues, the
justification that President Clinton used to take this country into war
in Yugoslavia was basically a bunch of false information. In fact, it
was the USA Today in July of 1999, an article that said, ``As the
allied forces take control in Kosovo, many of the figures used by the
Clinton administration and NATO were greatly exaggerated. Six hundred
thousand ethnic Albanian men were not trapped within Kosovo or buried
in mass graves, as President Clinton told a veterans group. Instead of
100,000 ethnic Albanian men feared murdered, officials now estimate
about 10,000; and we think the confirmed number was 3,000.''
Mr. Speaker, that was from USA Today in 1999.
Let us go to the Little Rock newspapers. They did an investigative
story on January 16, 2000, after the Clinton administration had made
these outrageous claims of ethnic cleansing. Why did they say these
things, Mr. Speaker? Because they wanted the Congress and they wanted
the American people to support his war to get Milosevic out of power.
Let us read some of the quotes from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette,
January 16, 2000:
``Of 500 potential grave sites, 150 have been opened and, no, we have
not found the 100,000 missing declared by President Clinton, or the
lower but probably equally preposterous figure of 10,000 advanced by
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and repeated by the BBC.''
This was not the Republican Party. This was the Arkansas Democrat
Gazette on January 16, 2000, saying that all the justification that
Clinton used to go to war in Yugoslavia was false, it was erroneous.
Where was the outcry by these liberal groups in this country? Where was
the outcry by the Democrats we have seen running down to the well
complaining that this President needs to be investigated? Where was the
consistency of the principled position of my colleagues on the other
side?
Let us go on, Mr. Speaker, with the Arkansas Democrat Gazette article
of January 16, 2000: ``We have more than 10,000 photographs of graves,
sites and bodies, and more than 300 hours of video, and we share all
our evidence with the war crimes tribunal. From survivors who are
giving us testimonies,
we calculate there were 6,000 Kosovo Albanians killed in the 3 months
of the war,'' not before the war, in the 3 months of the war which
President Clinton led, ``and perhaps 2,000 still in Serbian prisons.''
Listen to this, Mr. Speaker. In the previous 12 months before the war,
there were 1,000 killed. So 1,000 were killed in the previous months,
6,000 were killed in the immediate 3 months of the war itself by the
bombs of the U.S., France and Germany and the other NATO countries.
``But then the figures become a little vague. The total of dead and
missing becomes 7,000 rather than 8,000; the figure of prewar killings
rises from 1,000 to 2,000.'' Mr. Speaker, the information leading up to
President Clinton's decision to go to war in Yugoslavia is filled with
gross, not just information distorted, gross distortions of fact, lies.
Where are my colleagues? What were they saying?
Let us go on, Mr. Speaker, to some other examples.
Here is an article from the Washington Post, March 26, 2000. The
headline, Was It a Mistake? We Were Suckers for the KLA was the
headline of this article written by Christopher Layne and Benjamin
Schwartz. Let us go through some of the claims.
``Clinton's assertion,'' and I am quoting here, Mr. Speaker, ``at a
June 25, 1999, postwar news conference that the bombing was a way to
stop, quote, deliberate, systematic efforts at genocide,'' he called it
genocide in Kosovo. It goes on to say, ``was either disingenuous or
ignorant. Before the start of NATO's bombing on March 24, 1999, almost
2,000 civilians,
overwhelmingly ethnic Albanians but also Serbs, had been killed in 15
months of bitter warfare. Up to that point, there had been no genocide
or ethnic cleansing.'' The genocide and ethnic cleansing started when
Bill Clinton and Jacques Chirac started the war against Milosevic.
I will go on, Mr. Speaker, this same article, Washington Post, March
26, 2000:
``Not only did the forced removal of civilians result from the NATO
bombing, but administration claims of mass killings, made to rally
popular support for the war, turn out to have been exaggerated. Clinton
defended the intervention on the grounds that the Yugoslavs had
slaughtered tens of thousands.'' President Clinton said tens of
thousands, Mr. Speaker. It never
turned out to be true. All lies. Secretary of Defense William Cohen
termed it a, quote, horrific slaughter. The numbers we now have,
according to this article in the Post, disprove those claims. U.N.
numbers and U.S. numbers and Allied numbers say the information
provided to Congress was wrong.
Let us go on to a story in the Contra Costa Times, March 4, 2000. ``We
became involved in Kosovo after being bombarded with exorbitant claims
of ethnic cleansing, subsequently proven exaggerated and largely
committed after NATO started bombing.''
Another newspaper, Mr. Speaker. I do not remember my colleagues quoting
from these papers. I do not remember my colleagues coming to the floor
and demanding an investigation of Bill Clinton for distorting things.
Not only were these distortions, they were outright, outright lies.
We will go on with that Contra Costa story of March 4, 2000:
``As a result of false and misleading news reports, Americans were led
to believe tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of ethnic
Albanians were killed by the Serbs and buried in mass graves. Many are
still under that impression.
``According to U.N. investigators who have been scouring the area since
the bombing stopped, the total number of ethnic Albanians killed by the
Serbs is closer to 2,000, far fewer than the number of civilians killed
by NATO bombers.''
Let me repeat that statement again, Mr. Speaker. Listen to this,
please, quoted from the Contra Costa Times, March 4, 2000: ``According
to U.N. investigators who scoured the area since the bombing stopped,
the total number of ethnic Albanians killed by the Serbs is closer to
2,000, far fewer than the total number of civilians killed by NATO
bombers.''
Let us go on to some additional articles, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the
distortions of the other side are outrageous. I did not want to get up
and do this. But I, Mr. Speaker, was sick and tired of sitting in my
office listening to Members parade down here, 1-hour special orders,
talking about how they were misled. What a crock, Mr. Speaker.
First of all, if any Member of Congress was misled by President Bush's
State of the Union speech, then there has got to be something wrong
with them, because the vote to give the President the use of force was
in October of last year. What did they do, read the speech 3 months
before it occurred?
The vote did not come after the President's speech. These Members on
the other side who voted to give the President the use of force to
remove Saddam Hussein voted in the fall of last year, 3 months before
President Bush made the State of the Union speech here.
Mr. Speaker, it is all partisan rhetoric, and I am sick of it.
(...)
Mr. Speaker, I could go on and on. I did the research in 1 day. I could
have gone on and probably spent weeks and weeks getting tons of
additional information about the misstatements, about the denial of the
missiles that were sent to Pakistan, about the misleading information
leading up to the war in Kosovo. Yet we never heard one peep out of the
other body. I raise all of these facts, Mr. Speaker, only as a
defensive response to my colleagues on the other side. They have made
such outrageous claims, and I heard it in 5-minute speeches tonight. I
heard it in 1-hour Special Orders last night. I heard it right before I
spoke here tonight like somehow this is not going to go refuted and,
Mr. Speaker, I cannot do that. George Bush
had the decency and honesty to say that when he made the State of the
Union speech from that podium, perhaps that information given him, even
though today he maintains it is still factually correct, should not
have been included in the State of the Union speech. He was honest.
Where was the honesty of the previous President? Where was the other
party that was down here railing about Bush and demanding a retraction?
Where were these interest groups on the Internet demanding that we have
accountability through petition drives? Where were they? They did not
exist because they are a part of the Democrat machine that did not care
what Bill Clinton said, did not care about distortions, did not care
about out-and-out lies.
(...)
Why would my colleagues on the other side think it was okay to support
President Clinton in using military force to remove Milosevic from
power, and, by the way, they did not go to the U.N. for that vote
because France knew Russia would veto a U.N. resolution? How could they
support that military action, but then question President Bush when he
uses military action to remove the worst human rights violator since
Adolph Hitler from power just this year? And that claim of Saddam
Hussein's being the worst human rights violator since Adolph Hitler
does not come from me. It comes from the U.N. Special Rappateur for
human rights when he was comparing the human rights record of Saddam
Hussein.
(...)
Mr. Speaker, I will make this commitment to my colleagues. If this
partisan rhetoric continues on the floor, I will be back here every
night and I will refute it, and I will bring out more of the gross
Clinton lies and distortions which that side remained silent on year
after year after year. I challenge them to end this garbage. Enough is
enough, Mr. Speaker.
END
=== 2 ===
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/m-col.html
ANTIWAR, Thursday, June 12, 2003
Balkan Express
by Nebojsa Malic
Antiwar.com
Remember Kosovo?
Balkans And the Big Picture A Year Later
There has been lately a great deal of commotion in the press as to
whether Emperor Bush the Lesser and his satellites have lied to their
people about the supposed "weapons of mass destruction," which have not
been found even after six weeks of occupation and unfettered access to
all parts of Iraq. As if the notion of the Emperor deceiving his
subjects was something new!
Does anyone remember Racak, the "massacre" used to justify the
Rambouillet ultimatum and the subsequent bombing of Serbia in 1999? Or,
for that matter, the "genocide" that took place in Kosovo during the
bombing only, it didn't? Apparently not. Nor is it remembered that
even after these lies were
decisively debunked, their peddlers never suffered any adverse
consequences.
In the specific case of Kosovo, the train of lies and abuses is so long
a thick book would hardly do it justice.
What is happening in Iraq now is merely a re-run of what happened in
Kosovo. Because the Empire got away with murder, literally, launching a
clear war of aggression and occupation while spinning all sorts of
preposterous lies about it, Kosovo made Iraq possible. Never forget
that.
Even as Tony Blair was trying to lie its way out of Iraq lies, the
Guardian featured a series of articles seemingly critical of British
support for Imperial interventions, titled "Did we make it better?" In
the segment on Kosovo, writer Jon Henley creates an impression that
even as poverty, crime and violence are rampant, NATO's bombing and
invasion in 1999 and the
subsequent occupation is one hundred percent justified. Four years
after the Operation Allied Force ended, the lies behind it persist.
Reign of Terror
On June 9, 1999, representatives of the Yugoslav government and NATO
signed an armistice in a tent outside Kumanovo, Macedonia, ending
NATO's 78-day air assault. Within a week, NATO troops occupied the
Serbian province of Kosovo, and their KLA allies began a reign of
terror that has continued ever
since.
In June 1999 alone, over 250,000 Serbs, Roma, Turks, Muslims, and Jews
were forced to leave Kosovo, often with little or no property. In
addition to targeting Serbs, Albanians launched special pogroms against
the Roma ("Gypsies"), in the best tradition of their WW2 ancestors.
In July 1999, 14 Serb farmers were murdered while harvesting their
fields outside the hamlet of Staro Gracko. (An IWPR hack aptly named
Fron Nazi claimed they were victims of "Serb subterfuge," even as KFOR
statistics showed one Serb was being murdered every 24 hours.)
In October 1999, an Albanian mob murdered Bulgarian UN worker Valentin
Krumov for speaking what sounded like Serbian.
In February 2001, a bus full of Serbs who were coming to visit their
cemeteries was blown up by a remote-controlled mine. Three Albanians
arrested in connection with the bombing were released by December 2001,
and one "escaped" from the US fortified base Camp Bondsteel.
Throughout Kosovo, Serbs have retreated into towns and villages that
have become virtual concentration camps. If they venture outside those
areas, which are guarded by NATO troops and not infrequently cordoned
off with barbed wire, they risk death. The most notorious ghetto has
been Orahovac.
Other enclaves, like Gracanica and Decani monastery, are frequently
under attack.
In the north of Kosovo, local Serbs have managed to stop the Albanian
takeover on the southern side of the Ibar River, in Mitrovica. Together
with several towns in the north, this is the only remaining territory
in Kosovo not dominated by the Albanian separatists, which has made it
a target for constant attacks by Albanians, occupation authorities, and
their
cheerleaders.
Even Albanians have been targets of organized violence, as the
terrorist KLA targeted "collaborators," political rivals and witnesses
to its murderous deeds.
Albanian militants have demolished or desecrated over 110 churches,
chapels and monasteries. They have destroyed hundreds of monuments and
even libraries, renamed towns, streets, and the entire province
("Kosova") in an effort to completely eradicate any non-Albanian
presence in Kosovo.
Reign of Lies
Reports often say all of this has happened despite the presence of
30,000 NATO troops, but the truth is, it happened because of their
presence.
The vast majority of attacks were never solved. Yet it is a public
secret that most perpetrators are "former" KLA now employees of the
UN-funded "Kosovo Protection Corps," commanded by the notorious KLA
leader and former Croatian officer Agim Ceku.
In April 2002, two men were killed while trying to plant a bomb under a
railroad track used by Serbs. They belonged to the "Albanian National
Army," the newest incarnation of the KLA, declared shortly thereafter a
"terrorist organization." They were also members of the KPC!
On June 3, 1999, NATO was still attacking Yugoslavia and the Alliance
mouthpiece Jamie Shea gave his usual afternoon briefing. When a
reporter asked if there were any indications that the KLA was prepared
to be disarmed by NATO "peacekeepers," Shea responded coyly: "Well, we
will have to
wait and see, won't we?"
We didn't have to wait for long. The KLA entered Kosovo perched upon
NATO tanks, rampaged through the province unchallenged, made a big show
of handing over a handful of obsolete weapons, changed uniforms and
went legit, with a UN paycheck as an added bonus.
A Deadly Message
Four years after NATO's "humanitarian war" ended, it still claims
lives. UN police found the butchered bodies of Slobodan, Ljubinko and
Radmila Stolic [Stolich] inside their burnt-out home early on June 4
this year. It was an ax murder sloppily contrived to look like an
accident.
UN police spokesman Derek Chapelle is quoted in a June 4 Reuters report,
"The people were attacked as they were lying in bed in the middle of
the night. These people died as a result of a brutal beating, not a
fire."
At the very bottom of the article, tucked into near-oblivion, is a note
that local Serbs told the reporters the Stolic family was under
Albanian pressure to sell their house and leave Kosovo. That their
murder was meant as a message to other Serbs is abundantly clear. But
is this mentioned? No.
In fact, reporting that some 400 Serbs decided to pack up and leave
town after the murders, Agence France-Presse never once mentioned
possible perpetrators of the attack, let alone the motive. Official
American propaganda carried the same story, but focused on dismissing
Serb concerns about their security, and again, never even hinted at the
obvious identity
of the murderers. These are but the latest examples of an ongoing
pattern of denial and obfuscation, pervasive throughout the Imperial
media when it comes to reporting on Kosovo.
Murders of Serbs by Albanians were initially excused as "revenge
attacks," implying some sort of "payback" for Serb atrocities. But as
the attacks continued and atrocities accusations became increasingly
impossible to substantiate, a new euphemism was created: "ethnic
violence." This implies
that Serbs and Albanians are attacking each other. Yet no one can cite
a single case of Serbs wantonly attacking and murdering Albanians in
these past four years. Not one! When Albanians suffer violent deaths in
Kosovo these days, it is at the hands of other Albanians members of
crime syndicates or "former" KLA (often one and the same).
Spin the Murder
The Stolic family was murdered again this time metaphorically when
the politicians took the stage. UN Viceroy Michael Steiner claimed the
Obilic murders were "clearly aimed at stopping reconciliation a
perfidious crime which was directed against multi-ethnicity in Kosovo."
What reconciliation?
What multi-ethnicity? What planet does Steiner live on?
Kosovo Albanian "prime minister" Bayram Rexhepi issued a statement
expressing condolences to the Stolic family (!) and termed the murders
a "criminal act directed against the stability, peace, and prosperity
of Kosovo and its future."
But of course! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? All these
brutal murders, abductions and massacres are really a sinister plot to
make the innocent, victimized Kosovo Albanians look bad and ruin their
future of peace, prosperity, multi-ethnic democracy and independence!
Why, the dastardly Serbs must have massacred themselves!
Official Serbian news agency cites an interview UNMIK spokesman Simon
Haselock gave BBC radio, where he is quoted as saying that "no police
force in the world is capable of protecting every family and every
individual" and that the security situation in Kosovo has lately
"improved dramatically."
Like the rest of NATO apologists to be fair, this is actually his job
Haselock uses the diminishing frequency of attacks to claim
improvement. But that attacks on Serbs now happen once a month instead
of once a day has largely been a function of the diminishing number of
Serbs, not the diminishing desire of Albanian segregationists to attack
them.
The platitudes of Steiner and Rexhepi and Haselock's tautological
nonsense are trying to divert attention from the realities of the
occupation. Kosovo Serbs and other ethnic groups are targets of an
organized, systematic Albanian campaign of ethnic cleansing, aimed at
creating an ethnically
pure, independent Albanian Kosovo. Sounds familiar? That's because this
was an accusation leveled at the victims, the Serbs, by the Albanians
and the Empire in an effort to preclude their defense.
Good Riddance
On the eve of the murders in Obilic, Viceroy Steiner announced he would
be quitting the job at the end of June. Kosovo Serbs should bid him
good riddance. From his first act in office forging a unified
Albanian political front to his most recent prevarications, Steiner
has pushed the occupied province on the road to ethnically cleansed
independence.
However welcome his departure may be, one must remember that Steiner
was never the real problem.
Conceived, established and perpetuated by violence, the occupation of
Kosovo is itself the greatest enemy of peace, liberty and prosperity in
the southern Balkans.
Bloody Hands
Many opponents of the Kosovo war supported George W. Bush in 2000,
fooled by the neocons' loud opposition to the bombing, which was
nothing more than opportunistic posturing, into believing Kosovo was
"Clinton's war." But
Bush the Lesser has made no changes to Clinton's policy in Kosovo or
anywhere in the Balkans, for that matter. And why would he? It was
Kosovo that made Iraq possible: both illegal, illegitimate wars
resulting in equally illegal and illegitimate occupations, not to
mention the toll in destroyed human lives and property, or the
destruction of social and cultural heritage.
Senator Joseph Lieberman, who would like to be Emperor after Bush, said
in 1999 that the blatantly fascist KLA was "fighting for American
values."
Lieberman came close to being elected vice-president in 2000, and this
statement was never held against him. There have been several proposed
resolutions in the Congress supporting the independence of Albanized
Kosovo, but not one not one! demanding an end to the occupation.
Today, Kosovo is an issue almost forgotten in the American political
discourse, even
though the United States is chiefly responsible for the current state
of affairs in that Serbian province. Empire's hands are drenched with
blood of the massacred and tears of the dispossessed.
It is not surprising that those who should be ashamed of their actions
have forgotten Kosovo. But those who care about honor, justice and
liberty have every reason to remember.
OF YUGOSLAVIA
2. REMEMBER KOSOVO?
=== 1 ===
http://www.mfa.gov.yu/Pressframe.htm
U.S. CONGRESSMAN SAYS FORMER PRESIDENT HAD LIED TO JUSTIFY BOMBING OF
YUGOSLAVIA
WASHINGTON, Jul 18 (Tanjug) - US Congressman Kurt
Weldon wondered Thursday why the Democratic Party had
not protested when former president Bill Clinton had
lied and twisted facts on alleged mass murders in the
Balkans in order to justify the NATO invasion on the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999.
Reacting in the Congress to the strong criticism by
the democrats regarding the truthfulness of the
reasons President George Bush had given for the recent
intervention in Iraq, Weldon said he wished to remind
fellow democrats of the claims made by Clinton to
justify the bombing of Yugoslavia.
The Clinton administration had claimed at the time
that hundreds of thousands of people had been killed
in ethnic cleansing and buried in mass graves, in an
attempt to justify the NATO intervention and war
against (former Yugoslav president) Slobodan
Milosevic, in which both US soldiers and innocent
Serbs were being killed, Weldon said, underlining that
the justification for the US involvement in the war in
Yugoslavia was a load of false information.
---
http://www.house.gov/curtweldon/july16speech.htm
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Wednesday, July 16, 2003
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH -- (House of Representatives - July 16, 2003)
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gingrey). The gentleman from Pennsylvania
(Mr. Weldon) is recognized for 40 minutes.
Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, enough is enough. I sat in my
office last night and listened to Member after Member on the other side
rail about President Bush and whether or not we could trust him in the
Iraqi situation. I have listened to my colleagues tonight. Enough is
enough. Mr. Speaker, this is just outrageous.
So what I have done is I have got a whole file here, and I am going to
remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle about their
President for the previous 8 years, and I am going to cite articles and
claims and I am going to cite the justification for the invasion of
Yugoslavia as outlined by President Clinton.
Where were these voices, where were these petitions, where were these
outcries when President Clinton told us about the Balkans mass deaths
to justify NATO's invasion into the Balkans? The Clinton administration
claimed that ethnic cleansing had killed hundreds of thousands of
people, and I will include the articles from the papers in the
Congressional Record.
The Clinton administration was later criticized, and I have newspaper
articles here to back it up by the press for grossly exaggerating the
number of victims of ethnic cleansing, the mass graves. President
Clinton told us we would find 100,000 people that were murdered and
that was his justification for using NATO for the only time ever to
invade a non-NATO
country in order to justify a war against Slobodan Milosevic where U.S.
citizens, where U.S. troops, and where innocent Serbs were killed. That
is the first example.
(...)
Mr. Speaker, in one night, in one day, I have listed five times of
major significance that the leader of the party of the other side,
these righteous, indignant people who have railed and whined and cried
on the floor of this body said nothing about lies to the American
people.
Mr. Speaker, some would say, well, these did not involve death of
American citizens or war, and I would remind my colleagues, the
justification that President Clinton used to take this country into war
in Yugoslavia was basically a bunch of false information. In fact, it
was the USA Today in July of 1999, an article that said, ``As the
allied forces take control in Kosovo, many of the figures used by the
Clinton administration and NATO were greatly exaggerated. Six hundred
thousand ethnic Albanian men were not trapped within Kosovo or buried
in mass graves, as President Clinton told a veterans group. Instead of
100,000 ethnic Albanian men feared murdered, officials now estimate
about 10,000; and we think the confirmed number was 3,000.''
Mr. Speaker, that was from USA Today in 1999.
Let us go to the Little Rock newspapers. They did an investigative
story on January 16, 2000, after the Clinton administration had made
these outrageous claims of ethnic cleansing. Why did they say these
things, Mr. Speaker? Because they wanted the Congress and they wanted
the American people to support his war to get Milosevic out of power.
Let us read some of the quotes from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette,
January 16, 2000:
``Of 500 potential grave sites, 150 have been opened and, no, we have
not found the 100,000 missing declared by President Clinton, or the
lower but probably equally preposterous figure of 10,000 advanced by
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and repeated by the BBC.''
This was not the Republican Party. This was the Arkansas Democrat
Gazette on January 16, 2000, saying that all the justification that
Clinton used to go to war in Yugoslavia was false, it was erroneous.
Where was the outcry by these liberal groups in this country? Where was
the outcry by the Democrats we have seen running down to the well
complaining that this President needs to be investigated? Where was the
consistency of the principled position of my colleagues on the other
side?
Let us go on, Mr. Speaker, with the Arkansas Democrat Gazette article
of January 16, 2000: ``We have more than 10,000 photographs of graves,
sites and bodies, and more than 300 hours of video, and we share all
our evidence with the war crimes tribunal. From survivors who are
giving us testimonies,
we calculate there were 6,000 Kosovo Albanians killed in the 3 months
of the war,'' not before the war, in the 3 months of the war which
President Clinton led, ``and perhaps 2,000 still in Serbian prisons.''
Listen to this, Mr. Speaker. In the previous 12 months before the war,
there were 1,000 killed. So 1,000 were killed in the previous months,
6,000 were killed in the immediate 3 months of the war itself by the
bombs of the U.S., France and Germany and the other NATO countries.
``But then the figures become a little vague. The total of dead and
missing becomes 7,000 rather than 8,000; the figure of prewar killings
rises from 1,000 to 2,000.'' Mr. Speaker, the information leading up to
President Clinton's decision to go to war in Yugoslavia is filled with
gross, not just information distorted, gross distortions of fact, lies.
Where are my colleagues? What were they saying?
Let us go on, Mr. Speaker, to some other examples.
Here is an article from the Washington Post, March 26, 2000. The
headline, Was It a Mistake? We Were Suckers for the KLA was the
headline of this article written by Christopher Layne and Benjamin
Schwartz. Let us go through some of the claims.
``Clinton's assertion,'' and I am quoting here, Mr. Speaker, ``at a
June 25, 1999, postwar news conference that the bombing was a way to
stop, quote, deliberate, systematic efforts at genocide,'' he called it
genocide in Kosovo. It goes on to say, ``was either disingenuous or
ignorant. Before the start of NATO's bombing on March 24, 1999, almost
2,000 civilians,
overwhelmingly ethnic Albanians but also Serbs, had been killed in 15
months of bitter warfare. Up to that point, there had been no genocide
or ethnic cleansing.'' The genocide and ethnic cleansing started when
Bill Clinton and Jacques Chirac started the war against Milosevic.
I will go on, Mr. Speaker, this same article, Washington Post, March
26, 2000:
``Not only did the forced removal of civilians result from the NATO
bombing, but administration claims of mass killings, made to rally
popular support for the war, turn out to have been exaggerated. Clinton
defended the intervention on the grounds that the Yugoslavs had
slaughtered tens of thousands.'' President Clinton said tens of
thousands, Mr. Speaker. It never
turned out to be true. All lies. Secretary of Defense William Cohen
termed it a, quote, horrific slaughter. The numbers we now have,
according to this article in the Post, disprove those claims. U.N.
numbers and U.S. numbers and Allied numbers say the information
provided to Congress was wrong.
Let us go on to a story in the Contra Costa Times, March 4, 2000. ``We
became involved in Kosovo after being bombarded with exorbitant claims
of ethnic cleansing, subsequently proven exaggerated and largely
committed after NATO started bombing.''
Another newspaper, Mr. Speaker. I do not remember my colleagues quoting
from these papers. I do not remember my colleagues coming to the floor
and demanding an investigation of Bill Clinton for distorting things.
Not only were these distortions, they were outright, outright lies.
We will go on with that Contra Costa story of March 4, 2000:
``As a result of false and misleading news reports, Americans were led
to believe tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of ethnic
Albanians were killed by the Serbs and buried in mass graves. Many are
still under that impression.
``According to U.N. investigators who have been scouring the area since
the bombing stopped, the total number of ethnic Albanians killed by the
Serbs is closer to 2,000, far fewer than the number of civilians killed
by NATO bombers.''
Let me repeat that statement again, Mr. Speaker. Listen to this,
please, quoted from the Contra Costa Times, March 4, 2000: ``According
to U.N. investigators who scoured the area since the bombing stopped,
the total number of ethnic Albanians killed by the Serbs is closer to
2,000, far fewer than the total number of civilians killed by NATO
bombers.''
Let us go on to some additional articles, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the
distortions of the other side are outrageous. I did not want to get up
and do this. But I, Mr. Speaker, was sick and tired of sitting in my
office listening to Members parade down here, 1-hour special orders,
talking about how they were misled. What a crock, Mr. Speaker.
First of all, if any Member of Congress was misled by President Bush's
State of the Union speech, then there has got to be something wrong
with them, because the vote to give the President the use of force was
in October of last year. What did they do, read the speech 3 months
before it occurred?
The vote did not come after the President's speech. These Members on
the other side who voted to give the President the use of force to
remove Saddam Hussein voted in the fall of last year, 3 months before
President Bush made the State of the Union speech here.
Mr. Speaker, it is all partisan rhetoric, and I am sick of it.
(...)
Mr. Speaker, I could go on and on. I did the research in 1 day. I could
have gone on and probably spent weeks and weeks getting tons of
additional information about the misstatements, about the denial of the
missiles that were sent to Pakistan, about the misleading information
leading up to the war in Kosovo. Yet we never heard one peep out of the
other body. I raise all of these facts, Mr. Speaker, only as a
defensive response to my colleagues on the other side. They have made
such outrageous claims, and I heard it in 5-minute speeches tonight. I
heard it in 1-hour Special Orders last night. I heard it right before I
spoke here tonight like somehow this is not going to go refuted and,
Mr. Speaker, I cannot do that. George Bush
had the decency and honesty to say that when he made the State of the
Union speech from that podium, perhaps that information given him, even
though today he maintains it is still factually correct, should not
have been included in the State of the Union speech. He was honest.
Where was the honesty of the previous President? Where was the other
party that was down here railing about Bush and demanding a retraction?
Where were these interest groups on the Internet demanding that we have
accountability through petition drives? Where were they? They did not
exist because they are a part of the Democrat machine that did not care
what Bill Clinton said, did not care about distortions, did not care
about out-and-out lies.
(...)
Why would my colleagues on the other side think it was okay to support
President Clinton in using military force to remove Milosevic from
power, and, by the way, they did not go to the U.N. for that vote
because France knew Russia would veto a U.N. resolution? How could they
support that military action, but then question President Bush when he
uses military action to remove the worst human rights violator since
Adolph Hitler from power just this year? And that claim of Saddam
Hussein's being the worst human rights violator since Adolph Hitler
does not come from me. It comes from the U.N. Special Rappateur for
human rights when he was comparing the human rights record of Saddam
Hussein.
(...)
Mr. Speaker, I will make this commitment to my colleagues. If this
partisan rhetoric continues on the floor, I will be back here every
night and I will refute it, and I will bring out more of the gross
Clinton lies and distortions which that side remained silent on year
after year after year. I challenge them to end this garbage. Enough is
enough, Mr. Speaker.
END
=== 2 ===
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/m-col.html
ANTIWAR, Thursday, June 12, 2003
Balkan Express
by Nebojsa Malic
Antiwar.com
Remember Kosovo?
Balkans And the Big Picture A Year Later
There has been lately a great deal of commotion in the press as to
whether Emperor Bush the Lesser and his satellites have lied to their
people about the supposed "weapons of mass destruction," which have not
been found even after six weeks of occupation and unfettered access to
all parts of Iraq. As if the notion of the Emperor deceiving his
subjects was something new!
Does anyone remember Racak, the "massacre" used to justify the
Rambouillet ultimatum and the subsequent bombing of Serbia in 1999? Or,
for that matter, the "genocide" that took place in Kosovo during the
bombing only, it didn't? Apparently not. Nor is it remembered that
even after these lies were
decisively debunked, their peddlers never suffered any adverse
consequences.
In the specific case of Kosovo, the train of lies and abuses is so long
a thick book would hardly do it justice.
What is happening in Iraq now is merely a re-run of what happened in
Kosovo. Because the Empire got away with murder, literally, launching a
clear war of aggression and occupation while spinning all sorts of
preposterous lies about it, Kosovo made Iraq possible. Never forget
that.
Even as Tony Blair was trying to lie its way out of Iraq lies, the
Guardian featured a series of articles seemingly critical of British
support for Imperial interventions, titled "Did we make it better?" In
the segment on Kosovo, writer Jon Henley creates an impression that
even as poverty, crime and violence are rampant, NATO's bombing and
invasion in 1999 and the
subsequent occupation is one hundred percent justified. Four years
after the Operation Allied Force ended, the lies behind it persist.
Reign of Terror
On June 9, 1999, representatives of the Yugoslav government and NATO
signed an armistice in a tent outside Kumanovo, Macedonia, ending
NATO's 78-day air assault. Within a week, NATO troops occupied the
Serbian province of Kosovo, and their KLA allies began a reign of
terror that has continued ever
since.
In June 1999 alone, over 250,000 Serbs, Roma, Turks, Muslims, and Jews
were forced to leave Kosovo, often with little or no property. In
addition to targeting Serbs, Albanians launched special pogroms against
the Roma ("Gypsies"), in the best tradition of their WW2 ancestors.
In July 1999, 14 Serb farmers were murdered while harvesting their
fields outside the hamlet of Staro Gracko. (An IWPR hack aptly named
Fron Nazi claimed they were victims of "Serb subterfuge," even as KFOR
statistics showed one Serb was being murdered every 24 hours.)
In October 1999, an Albanian mob murdered Bulgarian UN worker Valentin
Krumov for speaking what sounded like Serbian.
In February 2001, a bus full of Serbs who were coming to visit their
cemeteries was blown up by a remote-controlled mine. Three Albanians
arrested in connection with the bombing were released by December 2001,
and one "escaped" from the US fortified base Camp Bondsteel.
Throughout Kosovo, Serbs have retreated into towns and villages that
have become virtual concentration camps. If they venture outside those
areas, which are guarded by NATO troops and not infrequently cordoned
off with barbed wire, they risk death. The most notorious ghetto has
been Orahovac.
Other enclaves, like Gracanica and Decani monastery, are frequently
under attack.
In the north of Kosovo, local Serbs have managed to stop the Albanian
takeover on the southern side of the Ibar River, in Mitrovica. Together
with several towns in the north, this is the only remaining territory
in Kosovo not dominated by the Albanian separatists, which has made it
a target for constant attacks by Albanians, occupation authorities, and
their
cheerleaders.
Even Albanians have been targets of organized violence, as the
terrorist KLA targeted "collaborators," political rivals and witnesses
to its murderous deeds.
Albanian militants have demolished or desecrated over 110 churches,
chapels and monasteries. They have destroyed hundreds of monuments and
even libraries, renamed towns, streets, and the entire province
("Kosova") in an effort to completely eradicate any non-Albanian
presence in Kosovo.
Reign of Lies
Reports often say all of this has happened despite the presence of
30,000 NATO troops, but the truth is, it happened because of their
presence.
The vast majority of attacks were never solved. Yet it is a public
secret that most perpetrators are "former" KLA now employees of the
UN-funded "Kosovo Protection Corps," commanded by the notorious KLA
leader and former Croatian officer Agim Ceku.
In April 2002, two men were killed while trying to plant a bomb under a
railroad track used by Serbs. They belonged to the "Albanian National
Army," the newest incarnation of the KLA, declared shortly thereafter a
"terrorist organization." They were also members of the KPC!
On June 3, 1999, NATO was still attacking Yugoslavia and the Alliance
mouthpiece Jamie Shea gave his usual afternoon briefing. When a
reporter asked if there were any indications that the KLA was prepared
to be disarmed by NATO "peacekeepers," Shea responded coyly: "Well, we
will have to
wait and see, won't we?"
We didn't have to wait for long. The KLA entered Kosovo perched upon
NATO tanks, rampaged through the province unchallenged, made a big show
of handing over a handful of obsolete weapons, changed uniforms and
went legit, with a UN paycheck as an added bonus.
A Deadly Message
Four years after NATO's "humanitarian war" ended, it still claims
lives. UN police found the butchered bodies of Slobodan, Ljubinko and
Radmila Stolic [Stolich] inside their burnt-out home early on June 4
this year. It was an ax murder sloppily contrived to look like an
accident.
UN police spokesman Derek Chapelle is quoted in a June 4 Reuters report,
"The people were attacked as they were lying in bed in the middle of
the night. These people died as a result of a brutal beating, not a
fire."
At the very bottom of the article, tucked into near-oblivion, is a note
that local Serbs told the reporters the Stolic family was under
Albanian pressure to sell their house and leave Kosovo. That their
murder was meant as a message to other Serbs is abundantly clear. But
is this mentioned? No.
In fact, reporting that some 400 Serbs decided to pack up and leave
town after the murders, Agence France-Presse never once mentioned
possible perpetrators of the attack, let alone the motive. Official
American propaganda carried the same story, but focused on dismissing
Serb concerns about their security, and again, never even hinted at the
obvious identity
of the murderers. These are but the latest examples of an ongoing
pattern of denial and obfuscation, pervasive throughout the Imperial
media when it comes to reporting on Kosovo.
Murders of Serbs by Albanians were initially excused as "revenge
attacks," implying some sort of "payback" for Serb atrocities. But as
the attacks continued and atrocities accusations became increasingly
impossible to substantiate, a new euphemism was created: "ethnic
violence." This implies
that Serbs and Albanians are attacking each other. Yet no one can cite
a single case of Serbs wantonly attacking and murdering Albanians in
these past four years. Not one! When Albanians suffer violent deaths in
Kosovo these days, it is at the hands of other Albanians members of
crime syndicates or "former" KLA (often one and the same).
Spin the Murder
The Stolic family was murdered again this time metaphorically when
the politicians took the stage. UN Viceroy Michael Steiner claimed the
Obilic murders were "clearly aimed at stopping reconciliation a
perfidious crime which was directed against multi-ethnicity in Kosovo."
What reconciliation?
What multi-ethnicity? What planet does Steiner live on?
Kosovo Albanian "prime minister" Bayram Rexhepi issued a statement
expressing condolences to the Stolic family (!) and termed the murders
a "criminal act directed against the stability, peace, and prosperity
of Kosovo and its future."
But of course! Why hasn't anyone thought of this before? All these
brutal murders, abductions and massacres are really a sinister plot to
make the innocent, victimized Kosovo Albanians look bad and ruin their
future of peace, prosperity, multi-ethnic democracy and independence!
Why, the dastardly Serbs must have massacred themselves!
Official Serbian news agency cites an interview UNMIK spokesman Simon
Haselock gave BBC radio, where he is quoted as saying that "no police
force in the world is capable of protecting every family and every
individual" and that the security situation in Kosovo has lately
"improved dramatically."
Like the rest of NATO apologists to be fair, this is actually his job
Haselock uses the diminishing frequency of attacks to claim
improvement. But that attacks on Serbs now happen once a month instead
of once a day has largely been a function of the diminishing number of
Serbs, not the diminishing desire of Albanian segregationists to attack
them.
The platitudes of Steiner and Rexhepi and Haselock's tautological
nonsense are trying to divert attention from the realities of the
occupation. Kosovo Serbs and other ethnic groups are targets of an
organized, systematic Albanian campaign of ethnic cleansing, aimed at
creating an ethnically
pure, independent Albanian Kosovo. Sounds familiar? That's because this
was an accusation leveled at the victims, the Serbs, by the Albanians
and the Empire in an effort to preclude their defense.
Good Riddance
On the eve of the murders in Obilic, Viceroy Steiner announced he would
be quitting the job at the end of June. Kosovo Serbs should bid him
good riddance. From his first act in office forging a unified
Albanian political front to his most recent prevarications, Steiner
has pushed the occupied province on the road to ethnically cleansed
independence.
However welcome his departure may be, one must remember that Steiner
was never the real problem.
Conceived, established and perpetuated by violence, the occupation of
Kosovo is itself the greatest enemy of peace, liberty and prosperity in
the southern Balkans.
Bloody Hands
Many opponents of the Kosovo war supported George W. Bush in 2000,
fooled by the neocons' loud opposition to the bombing, which was
nothing more than opportunistic posturing, into believing Kosovo was
"Clinton's war." But
Bush the Lesser has made no changes to Clinton's policy in Kosovo or
anywhere in the Balkans, for that matter. And why would he? It was
Kosovo that made Iraq possible: both illegal, illegitimate wars
resulting in equally illegal and illegitimate occupations, not to
mention the toll in destroyed human lives and property, or the
destruction of social and cultural heritage.
Senator Joseph Lieberman, who would like to be Emperor after Bush, said
in 1999 that the blatantly fascist KLA was "fighting for American
values."
Lieberman came close to being elected vice-president in 2000, and this
statement was never held against him. There have been several proposed
resolutions in the Congress supporting the independence of Albanized
Kosovo, but not one not one! demanding an end to the occupation.
Today, Kosovo is an issue almost forgotten in the American political
discourse, even
though the United States is chiefly responsible for the current state
of affairs in that Serbian province. Empire's hands are drenched with
blood of the massacred and tears of the dispossessed.
It is not surprising that those who should be ashamed of their actions
have forgotten Kosovo. But those who care about honor, justice and
liberty have every reason to remember.
