Jugoinfo
LA ALBRIGHT SCAMBIATA PER UN ESSERE UMANO !
Il "Guardian" del 28 gennaio scorso riportava un trafiletto su di un
episodio avvenuto durante i colloqui-truffa di Rambouillet, presso
Parigi, nel febbraio 1999. Aggirandosi per i corridoi del castello che
ospitava tutte le delegazioni, Madeleine Albright si affaccio'
improvvisamente all'uscio di una stanza dove era riunita la delegazione
albanese. "Un membro della delegazione, che non si era reso conto di chi
si trattasse, e pensando probabilmente che fosse qualche donna delle
pulizie visto che la mezzanotte era gia' passata, le disse
semplicemente: 'Ci lasci cinque minuti e se ne vada'...", ricorda
Dugagjin Gorani, editore del giornale in lingua inglese "KD Times", che
era presente. Secondo Veton Surroi "la Albright sbotto' con una sequela
di espressioni che i traduttori non avrebbero mai potuto tradurre in
albanese".
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Il "Guardian" del 28 gennaio scorso riportava un trafiletto su di un
episodio avvenuto durante i colloqui-truffa di Rambouillet, presso
Parigi, nel febbraio 1999. Aggirandosi per i corridoi del castello che
ospitava tutte le delegazioni, Madeleine Albright si affaccio'
improvvisamente all'uscio di una stanza dove era riunita la delegazione
albanese. "Un membro della delegazione, che non si era reso conto di chi
si trattasse, e pensando probabilmente che fosse qualche donna delle
pulizie visto che la mezzanotte era gia' passata, le disse
semplicemente: 'Ci lasci cinque minuti e se ne vada'...", ricorda
Dugagjin Gorani, editore del giornale in lingua inglese "KD Times", che
era presente. Secondo Veton Surroi "la Albright sbotto' con una sequela
di espressioni che i traduttori non avrebbero mai potuto tradurre in
albanese".
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
George Thompson: "LE RADICI DEL FASCISMO IN KOSOVO"
(dal sito "Emperors Clothes" - http://www.tenc.net)
IERI... "La popolazione serba in Kosovo dovrebbe essere cacciata il prima
possibile. I coloni serbi vanno ammazzati" (Il leader fascista albanese
Mustafa Kruja, giugno 1942).
...OGGI "Come molti ufficiali UCK, anch'egli dice apertamente che sogna un
Kosovo libero dai serbi" (Descrizione de "Il Maestro" Comandante di uno
squadrone della morte UCK, "Agence France Presse", 19 agosto 1999).
"Quando la Germania invase la Jugoslavia nel 1941, il popolo kosovaro fu
liberato dai tedeschi. Tutti i territori albanesi di questo stato, come il
Kosova, la Macedonia occidentale e le regioni di confine del Montenegro
furono riunificate con l'Albania propriamente detta. Furono ristabilite le
scuole in lingua albanese, l'amministrazione del governo, la stampa e la
radio" (Da: www.klpm.org, sito web affiliato all'UCK).
L'Italia di Mussolini occupo' l'Albania nell'aprile 1939 e insedio' un regime
collaborazionista con l'evidente entusiasmo di molti albanesi (1). Dopo che
Hitler ebbe invaso ed occupato la Jugoslavia nella primavera 1941, il grosso
dell'attuale Kosovo-Metohija fu posto sotto il controllo del governo
collaborazionista italo-albanese ed annesso all'Albania (2). Quando le forze
italiane entrarono in Kosovo, erano accompagnate da albanesi d'Albania. Gli
albanesi che vivevano in Kosovo si unirono alle forze di invasione che
aprivano loro la strada verso nord ed ovest, e tendevano agguati alle unita'
dell'esercito jugoslavo che affrontavano gli invasori. Questi albanesi,
nativi sia dell'Albania che del Kosovo, scatenarono una campagna di assassini
e deportazioni nei confronti dei serbi. Inizialmente, la mattanza era portata
avanti in modo disorganizzato da unita' di "Kachaki" irregolari. Si trattava
di briganti albanesi di entrambi i lati del confine che avevano combattutto
la Jugoslavia durante gli anni '20 e '30 (3). Nondimeno, venne presto
costituita una milizia kosovara locale. Tale milizia, detta "Vulnetari",
insieme ad altre unita' di polizia, inizio' persecuzioni piu' sistematiche (4).
I FASCISTI ITALIANI COLTI ALLA SPROVVISTA
Le autorita' italiane in Kosovo parvero alquanto spiazzate dal terrore contro
i serbi, e occasionalmente intervennero per prevenire attacchi albanesi, per
lo meno nelle aree urbane. Cosi' scrive uno storico serbo: "Le truppe italiane
furono dislocate nelle citta' del Kosovo e agivano come forza contenitrice..."
(5). Carlo Umilta', un ausiliario civile del Comando delle forze di
occupazione italiane, descrisse diversi episodi in cui le truppe italiane
aprirono il fuoco sugli albanesi per evitare massacri di serbi (6).
A causa della scarsita' di forze e dell'alleanza de facto fra albanesi e
forze dell'Asse, questi tentativi di contenimento costituirono ben poca cosa.
Tuttavia, gli occupanti italiani riferirono il loro disgusto per le azioni
degli albanesi alle autorita' di Roma. L'esercito italiano riferi' che gli
albanesi "stavano dando la caccia ai serbi", e che "la minoranza serba viveva
in condizioni veramente miserevoli, continuamente perseguitata dalla
brutalita' degli albanesi che alimenta l'odio razziale" (7). Carlo Umilta'
descrive alcune delle atrocita' nelle sue memorie e osserva che "gli albanesi
stanno sterminando gli slavi" (8). Alle sue parole fanno eco quelle di Hermann
Neubacher, il rappresentante del Terzo Reich per l'Europa sud-orientale: "Gli
schipetari avevano fretta di espellere il maggior numero possibile di Serbi
dal paese" (9).
Le atrocita' furono commesse deliberatamente, come parte di
un piano volto a creare una "grande Albania" libera dai serbi. Nel giugno
1942, il presidente fantoccio fascista dell'Albania Mustafa Kruja dichiaro'
candidamente i suoi principi davanti ai suoi seguaci kosovari: "La popolazione
serba in Kosovo dovrebbe essere cacciata il prima possibile. Tutti i serbi
indigeni dovrebbero essere qualificati come colonizzatori, e in quanto tali,
attraverso i governi albanese e italiano, mandati in campi di concentramento
in Albania. I coloni serbi vanno ammazzati" (10). Sentimenti simili furono
espressi da un capo albanese-kosovaro, Ferat-Bej Draga: "E' arrivato il
momento di sterminare i serbi. Non rimarra' alcun serbo sotto il sole del
Kosovo" (11). I pogrom anti-serbi si intensificarono dopo il collasso
italiano nel settembre '43. I nazisti tedeschi assunsero il controllo
dell'Albania, incluso il Kosovo. Le unita' militari italiane furono cacciate
e rimpiazzate da tre divisioni del XXI corpo alpino tedesco. La presenza
militare tedesca lascio' agli albanesi piena liberta' d'azione.
Le milizie nazionaliste kosovaro-albanesi, chiamate "Balli Kombaetar" (o
"Balisti") portarono avanti una campagna di deportazione e sterminio di serbi
nel '43-'44. Poi, su ordine esplicito di Hitler, i tedeschi formarono la
21¡ "Waffen-Gebirgsdivision SS" - la Divisione Skanderbeg. Con capi
tedeschi e ufficiali e truppa kosovaro-albanesi, gli hitleriani speravano che
usando gli Skanderbeg, la Germania avrebbe potuto "raggiungere il suo ben
noto obiettivo politico": creare una "grande Albania" vitale (cioe' pura) che
includesse il Kosovo (12).
In generale, la politica tedesca era quella di organizzare unita' militari
volontarie fra i simpatizzanti nazisti dei paesi occupati. Fra tutte le
nazioni occupate, solo i serbi, i greci e i polacchi rifiutarono
di formare unita' volontarie naziste. Piuttosto che unirsi ai nazisti, come
avevano fatto gli albanesi in Kosovo, i serbi organizzarono la piu' grande
resistenza antinazista in Europa. Sia i partigiani comunisti che i monarchici
cetnici erano principalmente serbi, e entrambi i gruppi combatterono i
tedeschi e i loro alleati locali in tutta la jugoslavia. I tedeschi
reclutarono i 9000 uomini della divisione Skanderbeg per combattere questi
gruppi di resistenza, ma gli albanesi della Skanderbeg non avevano interesse
ad affrontare soldati; essi volevano principalmente terrorizzare i civili
serbi, zingari ed ebrei locali. Molti di questi albanesi kosovari avevano
prestato servizio in precedenza nelle divisioni SS bosniaco-musulmane e
croate, note per i loro massacri di civili.
Come si spiega l'odio furioso per i non-albanesi? Un fattore importante era
la militanza islamica. La fondamentalista "Seconda Lega di Prizren" fu creata
nel settembre '43 da Xhafer Deva, un albanese kosovaro, per collaborare con
le autorita' germaniche. La lega proclamo' una jijad (guerra santa) contro
gli slavi. Essi erano supportati dal Gran Mufti di Gerusalemme El Haj Emin
Huseini, filonazista, che aspirava a liberarsi di tutti gli ebrei in quella
che al tempo era la Palestina occupata dai Britannici. L'intolleranza
religiosa albanese si manifesto' con evidenza negli attacchi a chiese e
monasteri ortodossi (13).
Non ci sono dati certi sulle perdite umane subite durante
l'olocausto fascista albanese. Le stime vanno da 10.000 a 30.000 serbi uccisi;
per lo meno 100.000 furono cacciati e rimpiazzati da persone "immigrate"
dall'Albania propriamente detta (14).
Nel giustificare l'attuale aspirazione kosovaro-albanese a secedere dalla
Serbia, i media hanno ripetuto come un mantra: il 90 per cento della
popolazione e' albanese. Anche se queste proporzioni sono molto esagerate
(nessuno lo sa con certezza, perche' i kosovaro-albanesi hanno boicottato
i censimenti per anni!) - la provincia e' certo in massima parte albanese.
Ma una causa determinante dell'attuale sproporzione demografica fu il
successo degli albanesi nel ruolo di volonterosi esecutori di Hitler durante
la II Guerra mondiale (15).
Oltre tutto, le loro attenzioni non si limitarono
ai serbi. Non si sa quanti zingari furono eliminati. E gli albanesi kosovari,
sia da soli che sotto la direzione tedesca, eliminarono molti degli ebrei del
Kosovo. L'opera principale sulla "soluzione finale" di Hitler in Jugoslavia
(16) stima che 550 ebrei vivessero in Kosovo al momento dell'invasione
nazista. 210 di essi, ossia il 38 per cento, furono uccisi in Kosovo, per
lo piu' da albanesi. Infatti, la prima operazione della divisione Skanderbeg
come "Einsatztruppen" fu un'incursione contro gli ebrei, e la seconda fu lo
sterminio del villaggio serbo di Velika, dove piu' di 400 serbi furono uccisi
(17).
Ceda Prlincevic, capo della Comunita' ebraica di Pristina e dirigente
degli archivi provinciali, ha spiegato alla Emperors-Clothes che gli ebrei
che non furono uccisi subito furono inviate dalla Skanderbeg nei campi di
sterminio tedeschi di Treblinka e Bergen-Belsen. Un treno diretto a
quest'ultimo prese la tratta sbagliata e fu intercettato dalle truppe russe
che avanzavano. Secondo Prlincevic, senza questo fortunato errore, l'intera
popolazione ebraica del Kosovo sarebbe stata eliminata.
Sebbene i sostenitori
dell'UCK oggi proclamino che non siano stati uccisi ebrei in Kosovo e che gli
ebrei siano stati difesi dagli albanesi-kosovari, tali affermazioni sono false
e dovrebbero essere trattate allo stesso modo in cui tratteremmo le altre
smentite sull'olocausto.
I FASCISTI ALBANESI CONTINUANO A COMBATTERE
I tedeschi si arresero nel 1945, ma i resti dei gruppi nazisti e fascisti
kosovaro-albanesi continuarono a combattere il governo jugoslavo per sei
anni, con una grande ribellione durata dal 1945 al 1948 (Drenica e' stata
il focolaio del reclutamento UCK nel '98-'99) sotto il comando di Shabhan
Paluzha. Violenze sporadiche continuarono fino al '51. E' vero alla lettera
dire che gli ultimi spari della II Guerra mondiale furono sparati in Kosovo.
IN CONCLUSIONE...
La scorsa estate, quando i Tedeschi sono entrati a Prizren per la prima volta
dopo la II Guerra mondiale, un corrispondente della NBC ha riportato:
"L'altra sera ero a cena con una gentile famiglia di kosovari musulmani,
quando il discorso e' caduto sulle truppe NATO tedesche che entravano in
citta' per farne il quartier generale del loro distretto di peacekeeping.
Il capofamiglia, un uomo abbastanza anziano da ricordare l'ultima volta che
le truppe germaniche erano entrate a Prizren, disse che si sentivano tutti al
sicuro ora. 'I soldati tedeschi sono eccellenti', egli disse. Poi aggiunse:
'Lo so ben io, ero uno di loro'. Allora ha sollevato il braccio in un saluto
nazista, ha detto 'heil' e si e' messo a ridere tutto contento"
(NBC, 18 giugno 1999).
---
INTRODUCTION
Why do some ethnic Albanians support KLA terror against Serbs, Roma
("Gypsies") and other Kosovo residents? The mass media says it's revenge,
revenge for Serbian misdeeds; this despite ever-growing evidence that the
tales of misdeeds are fiction. (See "Spinning the Kill" at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/spin.htm
Nevertheless the revenge argument appears in some form in most Western
reports of KLA terror. (See "Mr. Kenigs has 2nd thoughts" at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/egyptians.htm.)
But if revenge is not the reason some ethnic Albanians hate Serbs, Roma and
others, what is? During the U.S. Civil Rights movement, 'States Rights' was a
polite code for anti-Black racism. In Kosovo "secession" is the code for "Get
rid of all sub-humans." If this sounds like Nazism, good guess; the racist
movement came to power in Kosovo under Mussolini and Hitler, during W.W.II.
The article posted below, Mr. Thompson's "Roots of Kosovo fascism", is an
eye-opener.
ROOTS OF KOSOVO FACSIM
by George Thompson (2-19-00)
www.tenc.net [emperors-clothes]
THAT WAS THEN...
"The Serbian population in Kosovo should be removed as soon as possible.
Serbian settlers should be killed." (Albanian fascist leader Mustafa Kroja,
June 1942.)
...AND THIS IS NOW
"He, like many KLA officers, says openly that he dreams of a Kosovo without
Serbs." (Description of KLA death squad commander "the Teacher", Agence
France Presse, August 19, 1999)
"As Germany overtook Yugoslavia in 1941, the Kosovar people were liberated by
the Germans. All Albanian territories of this state, such as Kosova, western
Macedonia and border regions under Montenegro, were re-united into Albania
proper. Albanian schools, governmental administration, press and radio were
re-established." (From www.klpm.org , a Kosovo Liberation Army-affiliated
affiliated website)
Mussolini's Italy occupied Albania proper in April, 1939, and established a
collaborationist regime with the apparent enthusiasm of most Albanians.(1)
After Hitler invaded and occupied Yugoslavia in spring 1941, the bulk of
current Kosovo-Metohija was placed under Italian-Albanian collaborationist
control and annexed to Albania.(2)
When Italian forces moved into Kosovo they were accompanied by Albanians from
Albania. Albanians living in Kosovo joined the invasion force as it made its
way North and West, and also ambushed Yugoslav Army units moving to meet the
invaders. These Albanians, natives of both Albania and Kosovo, instituted a
campaign of murder and expulsion of Serbs. Initially, the mayhem was carried
out by disorganized "kachak" (irregular) units. These were Albanian brigands
from both sides of the border who had fought Yugoslavia throughout the 1920s
and 1930s.(3) However, soon a native Kosovo militia was formed. This militia,
called the Vulnetari, and various gendarme units, began more systematic
persecution.(4)
ITALIAN FASCISTS TAKEN ABACK
Italian authorities in Kosovo seemed a bit distressed by the terror against
Serbs and occasionally intervened to prevent Albanian attacks, at least in
urban areas. Thus a Serbian historian wrote: "Italian troops were stationed
in the towns of Kosovo and acted as a restraining force ..."(5) And Carlo
Umilta, a civilian aide to the Commander of the Italian occupation forces,
described several instances where Italian forces fired on Albanians to halt
massacres of Serbs.6)
Because of manpower limitations and the de facto alliance between Albanians
and the Axis powers, these efforts at restraint were limited. Nevertheless,
the Italian occupiers reported their disgust at Albanians’ actions to the
authorities in Rome. The Italian army reported that Albanians were "hunting
down Serbs", and that the "Serbian minority are living in conditions that are
truly disgraceful, constantly harassed by the brutality of the Albanians, who
are whipping up racial hatred."(7) Carlo Umilta described some of the
atrocities in his memoirs and observed that "the Albanians are out to
exterminate the Slavs."(8) His words were echoed by those of German diplomat
Hermann Neubacher, the Third Reich’s representative for southeastern Europe:
"Shiptars (i.e., Kosovo Albanians) were in a hurry to expel as many Serbs as
possible from the country."(9)
The atrocities were deliberate, part of a plan to create a Serb-free "Greater
Albania". In June 1942 the fascist puppet president of Albania, Mustafa
Kroja, declared his goals candidly before his followers in Kosovo:
"The Serbian population of Kosovo should be removed as soon as possible . . .
All indigenous Serbs should be qualified as colonists and as such, via the
Albanian and Italian governments, be sent to concentration camps in Albania.
Serbian settlers should be killed." (10)
Similar sentiments were expressed by a Kosovo Albanian leader, Ferat-bey
Draga:
"time has come to exterminate the Serbs . . . there will be no Serbs under
the Kosovo sun."(11)
The anti-Serb pogroms intensified after Italy's collapse in September 1943.
The German Nazi's assumed control of Albania, including Kosovo. Italian
military units pulled out and were replaced by three divisions of the German
XXI Mountain Corps. The German presence freed the Albanians of restraint.
Kosovo Albanian nationalist militias called the "Balli Kombëtar" (or
"Ballistas") carried out a campaign of deportation and murder of Serbs in
1943 and 1944. Then, on Hitler’s express order, the Germans formed the 21st
"Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS" - the Skanderbeg Division. With German
leaders and Kosovo Albanian officers and troops, Hitler’s hoped that using
the Skanderbergs Germany could "achieve its well-known political objective"
of creating a viable (i.e., pure) "Greater Albania" including Kosovo.(12)
In general, German policy was to organize volunteer military units among Nazi
sympathizers in occupied countries. Of all the occupied nations only the
Serbs, Greeks and Poles refused to form Nazi volunteer units. Rather than
joining the Nazis, as the Albanians in Kosovo did, the Serbs organized the
largest anti-Nazi resistance in Europe. Both the Communist Partisans and thee
Royalist Chetniks were mainly Serbs and both groups fought the Germans and
their local allies throughout Yugoslavia.
The Germans recruited the 9,000 man Skanderbeg division to fight these
resistance groups But the Skanderberg's Albanians had little interest in
going up against soldiers; they mainly wanted to terrorize local Serbs,
"Gypsies" and Jews. Many of these Kosovo Albanians had seen prior service in
the Bosnian Muslim and Croatian SS divisions which were notorious for
slaughtering civilians.
What explained this passionate hatred for non-Albanians? A big factor was
militant Islam. The Fundamentalist "Second League of Prizren" was created in
September 1943 by Xhafer Deva, a Kosovo Albanian, to work with the German
authorities. The League proclaimed a jihad (holy war) against Slavs. They
were backed by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, El Haj Emin Huseini, who was
pro-Nazi and had called for getting rid of all Jews in what was at that time
British-occupied Palestine. Albanian religious intolerance was shown by their
targeting Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries for destruction.(13)
No one is certain of human destruction suffered in this Fascist Albanian
Holocaust. Estimates range from 10,000 to 30,000 Serbs murdered. At least
100,000 were driven from Kosovo and replaced with "immigrants" from Albania
proper.(14)
In justifying current Kosovo Albanian demands to secede from Serbia, the
media has repeated, like a mantra: 90% of the population is Albanian. While
this figure is most likely exaggerated (nobody knows for sure because Kosovo
Albanians boycotted the census for years!) - the province has been largely
Albanian. But a major cause of the current demographic imbalance: was the
Albanians' success as Hitler's willing executioners during World War II.(15)
And their attention was not limited to Serbs. Unknown numbers of Roma
("Gypsies") were liquidated. And Kosovo Albanians, acting alone as well as
under German direction, eliminated many of Kosovo's Jews.
The definitive work on Hitler's "Final Solution" in Yugoslavia (16) estimates
that 550 Jews lived in Kosovo Hitler took over Yugoslavia. 210 of them, or 38
percent, were murdered in Kosovo, mainly by Albanians. In fact, the
Skanderbeg division's first operation was to act as an "einsatzgruppen"
against the Jews, and its second was a similar extermination foray against
the Serb village of Velika where more than 400 Serbians were murdered.(17)
Ceda Prlincevic, head of the Jewish community in Pristina and an executive of
the provincial archives, has explained to Emperors-Clothes that the Jews who
were not murdered outright were sent by the Skanderbeg division to the German
death camps Treblinka and Bergen-Belsen. One train, on its way to the latter
camp, took the wrong track and was intercepted by advancing Russian soldiers.
According to Mr. Prlincevic, were it not for that fortunate detour, the
entire Jewish population of Kosovo would have been eliminated.
Although KLA supporters now claim that no Jews were killed in Kosovo and that
Jews were sheltered by the Kosovo Albanians, such claims are false and should
be treated the same way we would treat other Holocaust denials.
ALBANIAN FASCISTS GO ON FIGHTING
The Germans surrendered in 1945, but the remnants of the Kosovo Albanian Nazi
and fascist groups continued fighting the Yugoslav government for six years,
with a major rebellion from 1945 to 1948 in the Drenica region. (Drenica was
the hotbed for KLA recruiting in 1998-99). That rebellion was under the
command of Shabhan Paluzha; it is called the Shabhan Paluzha rebellion.
Sporadic violence continued until 1951. It is literally true to say that the
last shots of World War II were fired in Kosovo
PARTING THOUGHT
This past summer, as Germans entered Prizren in Kosovo for the first time
since World War II, an NBC correspondent reported:
"I was at dinner with a kind Kosovo Muslim family the other night when talk
turned to the German NATO troops that rolled into town to make the city the
headquarters of its peacekeeping district. The patriarch of the family, a man
old enough to remember the last time German troops rolled into Prizren, said
they all felt safe now. 'The German soldiers are excellent,' he said. Then he
added, 'I should know, I used to be one.' Then he raised his arm in a Nazi
salute and said, 'Heil,' and laughed merrily. (NBC, June 18, 1999)
FOOTNOTES
(1) Professor Nikalaos A. Stavrou, KFOR: Repeating History, The Washington
Times (August 11, 1999).
(2) Hugo Wolf, Kosovo Origins (1996) chapter 10. Portions of northern Kosovo,
from Mitrovica to the provincial border with Serbia, were administered by
Germany from the outset, primarily to exploit the mines in the area. An
eastern sliver of Kosovo was ceded to Bulgaria.
(3) Dr. Smilja Avramov, Genocide in Yugoslavia, Part 2, Chapter 5, "Genocide
in Kosovo and Metohija" (1995): "The crimes were begun by the ‘kachak’
guerrilla detachments which had been sent into Kosovo from Albania, but
members of the Shqiptar minority quickly joined in. Judging from Italian
reports, at first the situation resembled more the marauding of bandits than
a deliberate policy."
(4) Dr. Dusan Batakovic, The Kosovo Chronicles (1992); Avramov, supra.
(5) Dr. Smilja Avramov, supra.
(6) Carlo Umilta, Jugoslavia e Albania, Memoire di un diplomatico (1947), in
Avramov, supra, note 141.
(7) Dr. Smilja Avramov, supra, note 117.
(8) Carlo Umilta, Jugoslavia e Albania, Memoire di un diplomatico (1947), in
Avramov, supra, note 137.
(9) Hermann Neubacher, Sonderauftrag Sudost (1953), quoted in Dr. Slavenko
Terzic, Old Serbia and Albanians.
(10) Dr. Slavenko Terzic, Kosovo, Serbian Issue and the Greater Albania
Project.
(11) Batakovic, supra, citing H. Bajrami, Izvestaj Konstantina Plavsica Tasi
Dinicu, ministru unutrasnjih poslova u Nedicevoj vladi oktobra 1943, o
kosovsko-mitrovackanm srezu, Godisnjak arhiva Kosova XIV-XV (1978-1979) at
313.
(12) Avramov, supra, note 151.
(13) Avramov, supra, note 148, citing Bishop Atanisije Jevtic, From Kosovo to
Jadovno.
(14) Batakovic gives a conservative estimate of 10,000 dead while Dr.
Slavenko Terzic cites a contemporary American intelligence report that 10,000
died in the first year of occupation alone. Terzic, supra, citing Serge
Krizman, Maps of Yugoslavia at War (1943). Carl Kosta Savitch, in Genocide in
Kosovo: Skanderbeg Division, quotes a wartime account that 30,000 to 40,000
Serbs were killed by Albanians. In addition, an unknown number of Serbs dies
in the German-operated work camps of Pristina and Mitrovica, or were killed
by the Germans as reprisals against resistance activity.
The reported number of expelled Serbs also varies depending on the source.
Dragnich and Todorovich cited the figure of 70,000-100,000, based on a review
of wartime refugee records. Dmitri Bogdanovich estimates 100,000, but
acknowledges that the exact number has never been determined. Dmitri
Bogdanovich, The Kosovo Question: Past and Present (1985). Dr. Avramov notes
that wartime records showing 70,000 refugees from Kosovo counted only those
persons in need of government assistance who registered with the Commissariat
for Refugees in Belgrade. Records of those who did not register, or who fled
to Montenegro, apparently do not exist. Avramov, supra.
(15) Before world war 2 Serbs constituted a slight majority of the Kosovo
population. Avramov, supra. In addition to the murder and expulsion of Serbs,
the relative ethnic population balance was further skewed by the entrance of
hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians from Albania proper during the war.
Relying on Italian records from the time, Dr. Avramov estimates that 150,000
to 200,000 Albanians moved into Kosovo between 1941 and 1943.
(16) The Crimes of Fascist Occupants and Their Collaborators Against the Jews
of Yugoslavia (1952, revised 1957) (published by The Federation of Jewish
Communities of Yugoslavia).
(17) Avramov, supra.
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(dal sito "Emperors Clothes" - http://www.tenc.net)
IERI... "La popolazione serba in Kosovo dovrebbe essere cacciata il prima
possibile. I coloni serbi vanno ammazzati" (Il leader fascista albanese
Mustafa Kruja, giugno 1942).
...OGGI "Come molti ufficiali UCK, anch'egli dice apertamente che sogna un
Kosovo libero dai serbi" (Descrizione de "Il Maestro" Comandante di uno
squadrone della morte UCK, "Agence France Presse", 19 agosto 1999).
"Quando la Germania invase la Jugoslavia nel 1941, il popolo kosovaro fu
liberato dai tedeschi. Tutti i territori albanesi di questo stato, come il
Kosova, la Macedonia occidentale e le regioni di confine del Montenegro
furono riunificate con l'Albania propriamente detta. Furono ristabilite le
scuole in lingua albanese, l'amministrazione del governo, la stampa e la
radio" (Da: www.klpm.org, sito web affiliato all'UCK).
L'Italia di Mussolini occupo' l'Albania nell'aprile 1939 e insedio' un regime
collaborazionista con l'evidente entusiasmo di molti albanesi (1). Dopo che
Hitler ebbe invaso ed occupato la Jugoslavia nella primavera 1941, il grosso
dell'attuale Kosovo-Metohija fu posto sotto il controllo del governo
collaborazionista italo-albanese ed annesso all'Albania (2). Quando le forze
italiane entrarono in Kosovo, erano accompagnate da albanesi d'Albania. Gli
albanesi che vivevano in Kosovo si unirono alle forze di invasione che
aprivano loro la strada verso nord ed ovest, e tendevano agguati alle unita'
dell'esercito jugoslavo che affrontavano gli invasori. Questi albanesi,
nativi sia dell'Albania che del Kosovo, scatenarono una campagna di assassini
e deportazioni nei confronti dei serbi. Inizialmente, la mattanza era portata
avanti in modo disorganizzato da unita' di "Kachaki" irregolari. Si trattava
di briganti albanesi di entrambi i lati del confine che avevano combattutto
la Jugoslavia durante gli anni '20 e '30 (3). Nondimeno, venne presto
costituita una milizia kosovara locale. Tale milizia, detta "Vulnetari",
insieme ad altre unita' di polizia, inizio' persecuzioni piu' sistematiche (4).
I FASCISTI ITALIANI COLTI ALLA SPROVVISTA
Le autorita' italiane in Kosovo parvero alquanto spiazzate dal terrore contro
i serbi, e occasionalmente intervennero per prevenire attacchi albanesi, per
lo meno nelle aree urbane. Cosi' scrive uno storico serbo: "Le truppe italiane
furono dislocate nelle citta' del Kosovo e agivano come forza contenitrice..."
(5). Carlo Umilta', un ausiliario civile del Comando delle forze di
occupazione italiane, descrisse diversi episodi in cui le truppe italiane
aprirono il fuoco sugli albanesi per evitare massacri di serbi (6).
A causa della scarsita' di forze e dell'alleanza de facto fra albanesi e
forze dell'Asse, questi tentativi di contenimento costituirono ben poca cosa.
Tuttavia, gli occupanti italiani riferirono il loro disgusto per le azioni
degli albanesi alle autorita' di Roma. L'esercito italiano riferi' che gli
albanesi "stavano dando la caccia ai serbi", e che "la minoranza serba viveva
in condizioni veramente miserevoli, continuamente perseguitata dalla
brutalita' degli albanesi che alimenta l'odio razziale" (7). Carlo Umilta'
descrive alcune delle atrocita' nelle sue memorie e osserva che "gli albanesi
stanno sterminando gli slavi" (8). Alle sue parole fanno eco quelle di Hermann
Neubacher, il rappresentante del Terzo Reich per l'Europa sud-orientale: "Gli
schipetari avevano fretta di espellere il maggior numero possibile di Serbi
dal paese" (9).
Le atrocita' furono commesse deliberatamente, come parte di
un piano volto a creare una "grande Albania" libera dai serbi. Nel giugno
1942, il presidente fantoccio fascista dell'Albania Mustafa Kruja dichiaro'
candidamente i suoi principi davanti ai suoi seguaci kosovari: "La popolazione
serba in Kosovo dovrebbe essere cacciata il prima possibile. Tutti i serbi
indigeni dovrebbero essere qualificati come colonizzatori, e in quanto tali,
attraverso i governi albanese e italiano, mandati in campi di concentramento
in Albania. I coloni serbi vanno ammazzati" (10). Sentimenti simili furono
espressi da un capo albanese-kosovaro, Ferat-Bej Draga: "E' arrivato il
momento di sterminare i serbi. Non rimarra' alcun serbo sotto il sole del
Kosovo" (11). I pogrom anti-serbi si intensificarono dopo il collasso
italiano nel settembre '43. I nazisti tedeschi assunsero il controllo
dell'Albania, incluso il Kosovo. Le unita' militari italiane furono cacciate
e rimpiazzate da tre divisioni del XXI corpo alpino tedesco. La presenza
militare tedesca lascio' agli albanesi piena liberta' d'azione.
Le milizie nazionaliste kosovaro-albanesi, chiamate "Balli Kombaetar" (o
"Balisti") portarono avanti una campagna di deportazione e sterminio di serbi
nel '43-'44. Poi, su ordine esplicito di Hitler, i tedeschi formarono la
21¡ "Waffen-Gebirgsdivision SS" - la Divisione Skanderbeg. Con capi
tedeschi e ufficiali e truppa kosovaro-albanesi, gli hitleriani speravano che
usando gli Skanderbeg, la Germania avrebbe potuto "raggiungere il suo ben
noto obiettivo politico": creare una "grande Albania" vitale (cioe' pura) che
includesse il Kosovo (12).
In generale, la politica tedesca era quella di organizzare unita' militari
volontarie fra i simpatizzanti nazisti dei paesi occupati. Fra tutte le
nazioni occupate, solo i serbi, i greci e i polacchi rifiutarono
di formare unita' volontarie naziste. Piuttosto che unirsi ai nazisti, come
avevano fatto gli albanesi in Kosovo, i serbi organizzarono la piu' grande
resistenza antinazista in Europa. Sia i partigiani comunisti che i monarchici
cetnici erano principalmente serbi, e entrambi i gruppi combatterono i
tedeschi e i loro alleati locali in tutta la jugoslavia. I tedeschi
reclutarono i 9000 uomini della divisione Skanderbeg per combattere questi
gruppi di resistenza, ma gli albanesi della Skanderbeg non avevano interesse
ad affrontare soldati; essi volevano principalmente terrorizzare i civili
serbi, zingari ed ebrei locali. Molti di questi albanesi kosovari avevano
prestato servizio in precedenza nelle divisioni SS bosniaco-musulmane e
croate, note per i loro massacri di civili.
Come si spiega l'odio furioso per i non-albanesi? Un fattore importante era
la militanza islamica. La fondamentalista "Seconda Lega di Prizren" fu creata
nel settembre '43 da Xhafer Deva, un albanese kosovaro, per collaborare con
le autorita' germaniche. La lega proclamo' una jijad (guerra santa) contro
gli slavi. Essi erano supportati dal Gran Mufti di Gerusalemme El Haj Emin
Huseini, filonazista, che aspirava a liberarsi di tutti gli ebrei in quella
che al tempo era la Palestina occupata dai Britannici. L'intolleranza
religiosa albanese si manifesto' con evidenza negli attacchi a chiese e
monasteri ortodossi (13).
Non ci sono dati certi sulle perdite umane subite durante
l'olocausto fascista albanese. Le stime vanno da 10.000 a 30.000 serbi uccisi;
per lo meno 100.000 furono cacciati e rimpiazzati da persone "immigrate"
dall'Albania propriamente detta (14).
Nel giustificare l'attuale aspirazione kosovaro-albanese a secedere dalla
Serbia, i media hanno ripetuto come un mantra: il 90 per cento della
popolazione e' albanese. Anche se queste proporzioni sono molto esagerate
(nessuno lo sa con certezza, perche' i kosovaro-albanesi hanno boicottato
i censimenti per anni!) - la provincia e' certo in massima parte albanese.
Ma una causa determinante dell'attuale sproporzione demografica fu il
successo degli albanesi nel ruolo di volonterosi esecutori di Hitler durante
la II Guerra mondiale (15).
Oltre tutto, le loro attenzioni non si limitarono
ai serbi. Non si sa quanti zingari furono eliminati. E gli albanesi kosovari,
sia da soli che sotto la direzione tedesca, eliminarono molti degli ebrei del
Kosovo. L'opera principale sulla "soluzione finale" di Hitler in Jugoslavia
(16) stima che 550 ebrei vivessero in Kosovo al momento dell'invasione
nazista. 210 di essi, ossia il 38 per cento, furono uccisi in Kosovo, per
lo piu' da albanesi. Infatti, la prima operazione della divisione Skanderbeg
come "Einsatztruppen" fu un'incursione contro gli ebrei, e la seconda fu lo
sterminio del villaggio serbo di Velika, dove piu' di 400 serbi furono uccisi
(17).
Ceda Prlincevic, capo della Comunita' ebraica di Pristina e dirigente
degli archivi provinciali, ha spiegato alla Emperors-Clothes che gli ebrei
che non furono uccisi subito furono inviate dalla Skanderbeg nei campi di
sterminio tedeschi di Treblinka e Bergen-Belsen. Un treno diretto a
quest'ultimo prese la tratta sbagliata e fu intercettato dalle truppe russe
che avanzavano. Secondo Prlincevic, senza questo fortunato errore, l'intera
popolazione ebraica del Kosovo sarebbe stata eliminata.
Sebbene i sostenitori
dell'UCK oggi proclamino che non siano stati uccisi ebrei in Kosovo e che gli
ebrei siano stati difesi dagli albanesi-kosovari, tali affermazioni sono false
e dovrebbero essere trattate allo stesso modo in cui tratteremmo le altre
smentite sull'olocausto.
I FASCISTI ALBANESI CONTINUANO A COMBATTERE
I tedeschi si arresero nel 1945, ma i resti dei gruppi nazisti e fascisti
kosovaro-albanesi continuarono a combattere il governo jugoslavo per sei
anni, con una grande ribellione durata dal 1945 al 1948 (Drenica e' stata
il focolaio del reclutamento UCK nel '98-'99) sotto il comando di Shabhan
Paluzha. Violenze sporadiche continuarono fino al '51. E' vero alla lettera
dire che gli ultimi spari della II Guerra mondiale furono sparati in Kosovo.
IN CONCLUSIONE...
La scorsa estate, quando i Tedeschi sono entrati a Prizren per la prima volta
dopo la II Guerra mondiale, un corrispondente della NBC ha riportato:
"L'altra sera ero a cena con una gentile famiglia di kosovari musulmani,
quando il discorso e' caduto sulle truppe NATO tedesche che entravano in
citta' per farne il quartier generale del loro distretto di peacekeeping.
Il capofamiglia, un uomo abbastanza anziano da ricordare l'ultima volta che
le truppe germaniche erano entrate a Prizren, disse che si sentivano tutti al
sicuro ora. 'I soldati tedeschi sono eccellenti', egli disse. Poi aggiunse:
'Lo so ben io, ero uno di loro'. Allora ha sollevato il braccio in un saluto
nazista, ha detto 'heil' e si e' messo a ridere tutto contento"
(NBC, 18 giugno 1999).
---
INTRODUCTION
Why do some ethnic Albanians support KLA terror against Serbs, Roma
("Gypsies") and other Kosovo residents? The mass media says it's revenge,
revenge for Serbian misdeeds; this despite ever-growing evidence that the
tales of misdeeds are fiction. (See "Spinning the Kill" at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/spin.htm
Nevertheless the revenge argument appears in some form in most Western
reports of KLA terror. (See "Mr. Kenigs has 2nd thoughts" at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/egyptians.htm.)
But if revenge is not the reason some ethnic Albanians hate Serbs, Roma and
others, what is? During the U.S. Civil Rights movement, 'States Rights' was a
polite code for anti-Black racism. In Kosovo "secession" is the code for "Get
rid of all sub-humans." If this sounds like Nazism, good guess; the racist
movement came to power in Kosovo under Mussolini and Hitler, during W.W.II.
The article posted below, Mr. Thompson's "Roots of Kosovo fascism", is an
eye-opener.
ROOTS OF KOSOVO FACSIM
by George Thompson (2-19-00)
www.tenc.net [emperors-clothes]
THAT WAS THEN...
"The Serbian population in Kosovo should be removed as soon as possible.
Serbian settlers should be killed." (Albanian fascist leader Mustafa Kroja,
June 1942.)
...AND THIS IS NOW
"He, like many KLA officers, says openly that he dreams of a Kosovo without
Serbs." (Description of KLA death squad commander "the Teacher", Agence
France Presse, August 19, 1999)
"As Germany overtook Yugoslavia in 1941, the Kosovar people were liberated by
the Germans. All Albanian territories of this state, such as Kosova, western
Macedonia and border regions under Montenegro, were re-united into Albania
proper. Albanian schools, governmental administration, press and radio were
re-established." (From www.klpm.org , a Kosovo Liberation Army-affiliated
affiliated website)
Mussolini's Italy occupied Albania proper in April, 1939, and established a
collaborationist regime with the apparent enthusiasm of most Albanians.(1)
After Hitler invaded and occupied Yugoslavia in spring 1941, the bulk of
current Kosovo-Metohija was placed under Italian-Albanian collaborationist
control and annexed to Albania.(2)
When Italian forces moved into Kosovo they were accompanied by Albanians from
Albania. Albanians living in Kosovo joined the invasion force as it made its
way North and West, and also ambushed Yugoslav Army units moving to meet the
invaders. These Albanians, natives of both Albania and Kosovo, instituted a
campaign of murder and expulsion of Serbs. Initially, the mayhem was carried
out by disorganized "kachak" (irregular) units. These were Albanian brigands
from both sides of the border who had fought Yugoslavia throughout the 1920s
and 1930s.(3) However, soon a native Kosovo militia was formed. This militia,
called the Vulnetari, and various gendarme units, began more systematic
persecution.(4)
ITALIAN FASCISTS TAKEN ABACK
Italian authorities in Kosovo seemed a bit distressed by the terror against
Serbs and occasionally intervened to prevent Albanian attacks, at least in
urban areas. Thus a Serbian historian wrote: "Italian troops were stationed
in the towns of Kosovo and acted as a restraining force ..."(5) And Carlo
Umilta, a civilian aide to the Commander of the Italian occupation forces,
described several instances where Italian forces fired on Albanians to halt
massacres of Serbs.6)
Because of manpower limitations and the de facto alliance between Albanians
and the Axis powers, these efforts at restraint were limited. Nevertheless,
the Italian occupiers reported their disgust at Albanians’ actions to the
authorities in Rome. The Italian army reported that Albanians were "hunting
down Serbs", and that the "Serbian minority are living in conditions that are
truly disgraceful, constantly harassed by the brutality of the Albanians, who
are whipping up racial hatred."(7) Carlo Umilta described some of the
atrocities in his memoirs and observed that "the Albanians are out to
exterminate the Slavs."(8) His words were echoed by those of German diplomat
Hermann Neubacher, the Third Reich’s representative for southeastern Europe:
"Shiptars (i.e., Kosovo Albanians) were in a hurry to expel as many Serbs as
possible from the country."(9)
The atrocities were deliberate, part of a plan to create a Serb-free "Greater
Albania". In June 1942 the fascist puppet president of Albania, Mustafa
Kroja, declared his goals candidly before his followers in Kosovo:
"The Serbian population of Kosovo should be removed as soon as possible . . .
All indigenous Serbs should be qualified as colonists and as such, via the
Albanian and Italian governments, be sent to concentration camps in Albania.
Serbian settlers should be killed." (10)
Similar sentiments were expressed by a Kosovo Albanian leader, Ferat-bey
Draga:
"time has come to exterminate the Serbs . . . there will be no Serbs under
the Kosovo sun."(11)
The anti-Serb pogroms intensified after Italy's collapse in September 1943.
The German Nazi's assumed control of Albania, including Kosovo. Italian
military units pulled out and were replaced by three divisions of the German
XXI Mountain Corps. The German presence freed the Albanians of restraint.
Kosovo Albanian nationalist militias called the "Balli Kombëtar" (or
"Ballistas") carried out a campaign of deportation and murder of Serbs in
1943 and 1944. Then, on Hitler’s express order, the Germans formed the 21st
"Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS" - the Skanderbeg Division. With German
leaders and Kosovo Albanian officers and troops, Hitler’s hoped that using
the Skanderbergs Germany could "achieve its well-known political objective"
of creating a viable (i.e., pure) "Greater Albania" including Kosovo.(12)
In general, German policy was to organize volunteer military units among Nazi
sympathizers in occupied countries. Of all the occupied nations only the
Serbs, Greeks and Poles refused to form Nazi volunteer units. Rather than
joining the Nazis, as the Albanians in Kosovo did, the Serbs organized the
largest anti-Nazi resistance in Europe. Both the Communist Partisans and thee
Royalist Chetniks were mainly Serbs and both groups fought the Germans and
their local allies throughout Yugoslavia.
The Germans recruited the 9,000 man Skanderbeg division to fight these
resistance groups But the Skanderberg's Albanians had little interest in
going up against soldiers; they mainly wanted to terrorize local Serbs,
"Gypsies" and Jews. Many of these Kosovo Albanians had seen prior service in
the Bosnian Muslim and Croatian SS divisions which were notorious for
slaughtering civilians.
What explained this passionate hatred for non-Albanians? A big factor was
militant Islam. The Fundamentalist "Second League of Prizren" was created in
September 1943 by Xhafer Deva, a Kosovo Albanian, to work with the German
authorities. The League proclaimed a jihad (holy war) against Slavs. They
were backed by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, El Haj Emin Huseini, who was
pro-Nazi and had called for getting rid of all Jews in what was at that time
British-occupied Palestine. Albanian religious intolerance was shown by their
targeting Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries for destruction.(13)
No one is certain of human destruction suffered in this Fascist Albanian
Holocaust. Estimates range from 10,000 to 30,000 Serbs murdered. At least
100,000 were driven from Kosovo and replaced with "immigrants" from Albania
proper.(14)
In justifying current Kosovo Albanian demands to secede from Serbia, the
media has repeated, like a mantra: 90% of the population is Albanian. While
this figure is most likely exaggerated (nobody knows for sure because Kosovo
Albanians boycotted the census for years!) - the province has been largely
Albanian. But a major cause of the current demographic imbalance: was the
Albanians' success as Hitler's willing executioners during World War II.(15)
And their attention was not limited to Serbs. Unknown numbers of Roma
("Gypsies") were liquidated. And Kosovo Albanians, acting alone as well as
under German direction, eliminated many of Kosovo's Jews.
The definitive work on Hitler's "Final Solution" in Yugoslavia (16) estimates
that 550 Jews lived in Kosovo Hitler took over Yugoslavia. 210 of them, or 38
percent, were murdered in Kosovo, mainly by Albanians. In fact, the
Skanderbeg division's first operation was to act as an "einsatzgruppen"
against the Jews, and its second was a similar extermination foray against
the Serb village of Velika where more than 400 Serbians were murdered.(17)
Ceda Prlincevic, head of the Jewish community in Pristina and an executive of
the provincial archives, has explained to Emperors-Clothes that the Jews who
were not murdered outright were sent by the Skanderbeg division to the German
death camps Treblinka and Bergen-Belsen. One train, on its way to the latter
camp, took the wrong track and was intercepted by advancing Russian soldiers.
According to Mr. Prlincevic, were it not for that fortunate detour, the
entire Jewish population of Kosovo would have been eliminated.
Although KLA supporters now claim that no Jews were killed in Kosovo and that
Jews were sheltered by the Kosovo Albanians, such claims are false and should
be treated the same way we would treat other Holocaust denials.
ALBANIAN FASCISTS GO ON FIGHTING
The Germans surrendered in 1945, but the remnants of the Kosovo Albanian Nazi
and fascist groups continued fighting the Yugoslav government for six years,
with a major rebellion from 1945 to 1948 in the Drenica region. (Drenica was
the hotbed for KLA recruiting in 1998-99). That rebellion was under the
command of Shabhan Paluzha; it is called the Shabhan Paluzha rebellion.
Sporadic violence continued until 1951. It is literally true to say that the
last shots of World War II were fired in Kosovo
PARTING THOUGHT
This past summer, as Germans entered Prizren in Kosovo for the first time
since World War II, an NBC correspondent reported:
"I was at dinner with a kind Kosovo Muslim family the other night when talk
turned to the German NATO troops that rolled into town to make the city the
headquarters of its peacekeeping district. The patriarch of the family, a man
old enough to remember the last time German troops rolled into Prizren, said
they all felt safe now. 'The German soldiers are excellent,' he said. Then he
added, 'I should know, I used to be one.' Then he raised his arm in a Nazi
salute and said, 'Heil,' and laughed merrily. (NBC, June 18, 1999)
FOOTNOTES
(1) Professor Nikalaos A. Stavrou, KFOR: Repeating History, The Washington
Times (August 11, 1999).
(2) Hugo Wolf, Kosovo Origins (1996) chapter 10. Portions of northern Kosovo,
from Mitrovica to the provincial border with Serbia, were administered by
Germany from the outset, primarily to exploit the mines in the area. An
eastern sliver of Kosovo was ceded to Bulgaria.
(3) Dr. Smilja Avramov, Genocide in Yugoslavia, Part 2, Chapter 5, "Genocide
in Kosovo and Metohija" (1995): "The crimes were begun by the ‘kachak’
guerrilla detachments which had been sent into Kosovo from Albania, but
members of the Shqiptar minority quickly joined in. Judging from Italian
reports, at first the situation resembled more the marauding of bandits than
a deliberate policy."
(4) Dr. Dusan Batakovic, The Kosovo Chronicles (1992); Avramov, supra.
(5) Dr. Smilja Avramov, supra.
(6) Carlo Umilta, Jugoslavia e Albania, Memoire di un diplomatico (1947), in
Avramov, supra, note 141.
(7) Dr. Smilja Avramov, supra, note 117.
(8) Carlo Umilta, Jugoslavia e Albania, Memoire di un diplomatico (1947), in
Avramov, supra, note 137.
(9) Hermann Neubacher, Sonderauftrag Sudost (1953), quoted in Dr. Slavenko
Terzic, Old Serbia and Albanians.
(10) Dr. Slavenko Terzic, Kosovo, Serbian Issue and the Greater Albania
Project.
(11) Batakovic, supra, citing H. Bajrami, Izvestaj Konstantina Plavsica Tasi
Dinicu, ministru unutrasnjih poslova u Nedicevoj vladi oktobra 1943, o
kosovsko-mitrovackanm srezu, Godisnjak arhiva Kosova XIV-XV (1978-1979) at
313.
(12) Avramov, supra, note 151.
(13) Avramov, supra, note 148, citing Bishop Atanisije Jevtic, From Kosovo to
Jadovno.
(14) Batakovic gives a conservative estimate of 10,000 dead while Dr.
Slavenko Terzic cites a contemporary American intelligence report that 10,000
died in the first year of occupation alone. Terzic, supra, citing Serge
Krizman, Maps of Yugoslavia at War (1943). Carl Kosta Savitch, in Genocide in
Kosovo: Skanderbeg Division, quotes a wartime account that 30,000 to 40,000
Serbs were killed by Albanians. In addition, an unknown number of Serbs dies
in the German-operated work camps of Pristina and Mitrovica, or were killed
by the Germans as reprisals against resistance activity.
The reported number of expelled Serbs also varies depending on the source.
Dragnich and Todorovich cited the figure of 70,000-100,000, based on a review
of wartime refugee records. Dmitri Bogdanovich estimates 100,000, but
acknowledges that the exact number has never been determined. Dmitri
Bogdanovich, The Kosovo Question: Past and Present (1985). Dr. Avramov notes
that wartime records showing 70,000 refugees from Kosovo counted only those
persons in need of government assistance who registered with the Commissariat
for Refugees in Belgrade. Records of those who did not register, or who fled
to Montenegro, apparently do not exist. Avramov, supra.
(15) Before world war 2 Serbs constituted a slight majority of the Kosovo
population. Avramov, supra. In addition to the murder and expulsion of Serbs,
the relative ethnic population balance was further skewed by the entrance of
hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians from Albania proper during the war.
Relying on Italian records from the time, Dr. Avramov estimates that 150,000
to 200,000 Albanians moved into Kosovo between 1941 and 1943.
(16) The Crimes of Fascist Occupants and Their Collaborators Against the Jews
of Yugoslavia (1952, revised 1957) (published by The Federation of Jewish
Communities of Yugoslavia).
(17) Avramov, supra.
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UN PAESE AFFIDABILE
"It was Italy's leadership that allowed NATO's strategic theory to be
transformed into strategic practice"
"E' stata la classe dirigente italiana a permettere la trasformazione
della teoria strategica della NATO in pratica strategica"
(Generale Wesley Clark, Roma, 7 ott. 1999)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
"It was Italy's leadership that allowed NATO's strategic theory to be
transformed into strategic practice"
"E' stata la classe dirigente italiana a permettere la trasformazione
della teoria strategica della NATO in pratica strategica"
(Generale Wesley Clark, Roma, 7 ott. 1999)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
MILITARI E SPIE DELLA NATO E DELL'OSCE
NELL'ORGANIZZAZIONE "UMANITARIA" CARE
Nelle scorse settimane sono emersi approcci tra la sezione australiana
della ONG transnazionale "CARE" ed i servizi segreti militari canadesi
(il Canada e' membro della NATO), questi ultimi interessati ad inserirsi
nelle operazioni di CARE nella RF di Jugoslavia.
Queste rivelazioni fanno seguito ad altre vicende squallide che hanno
coinvolto CARE in passato: citiamo ad esempio i legami tra la missione
CARE in Somalia ed i marines USA presenti nella citta' di Baidoa alla
fine del 1992; l'arresto al confine jugoslavo di alcuni membri di CARE
Australia (uno dei quali reo confesso) accusati di lavorare per la NATO
durante i bombardamenti del 1999; nonche' gli strani rapporti tra CARE e
la OSCE-na missione dell'OSCE nella provincia jugoslava del Kosmet, con
la quale venne preparato il terreno ai suddetti bombardamenti...
(Le altre ONG ed organizzazioni "Umanitarie" da noi analizzate in
passato: Medici senza Frontiere; Human Rights Watch)
---
HUMANITARIAN SPIES
by Jared Israel
WWW.TENC.NET (or WWW.EMPERORS-CLOTHES.COM)
It appears there are two types of Humanitarian Aid organizations in the
New
World Order: Them That Steals and Them That Spies. For the thieves, see
Soiled Rainbow at www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/martinez/soiled.htm
. If
you are interested in spies and the liars who cover up their work, stay
here.
I have been doing research on the CARE spy scandal for several days. It
is a
Labor of Sisyphus. No sooner does one think one has dug up all there is
to
dig then one encounters (if you will pardon the mixed metaphor) more
dirt
rolling down the hill. CARE has been compromised by this mess, but not
only
CARE. Also the Australian government, the US government, the OSCE
(Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and the Western
mass
media. Perhaps the Western mass media worst of all.
On Nov 2, SBS TV in Australia revealed that CARE Canada had been
recruiting
what amounted to spies for NATO in Yugoslavia.
I've posted the hyperlink to the SBS CARE story below. It's worth
reading.
But before you look at the transcript, I suggest you read the background
material because in some ways it's more revealing than the TV show, more
damning. As happens often, when Western journalists uncovered this
cover-up,
they didn't uncover it all.
Spies or Victimized Aid Workers?
On March 31, 1999, three employees of CARE Australia, Steve Pratt, an
Australian who headed the Yugoslav operation, Peter Wallace, another
Australian, and Branko Jelen, a Yugoslav, were arrested at the
Serbian-Croatian border. Yugoslavia charged them with using CARE as a
cover
to spy for NATO.
CARE Australia officials ridiculed the charges, claiming CARE was
completely
neutral and that the confession of Steve Pratt, aired on Serbian TV,
could
only have resulted from coercion. Western mass media supported CARE,
presenting the men as Good Samaritans whose only crime was being in the
wrong
place at the wrong time and falling victim to Serbian paranoia and war
propaganda. CARE had clean hands...
Or did it?
Now comes a TV show, broadcast Nov. 2 by SBS in Australia. It reveals
that
CARE recruited and paid OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation
in
Europe) Verifiers in Kosovo from Oct. 1998 to March 1999. That much is
uncontested.
As you will see when you read the transcript, some CARE people justify
the
OSCE recruiting program on the grounds that the Verifiers were
legitimate
peacemakers. Alas, this simply does not wash.
Goals of the Kosovo Verification Mission
'Negotiated' (that is, 'coerced') under threat of NATO bombing last
October,
the Verification agreement let the OSCE send unarmed mediators into
Kosovo,
supposedly to help defuse tensions. However everything about the
Verification
mission suggests military intelligence, not mediation.
It was run by William Walker. Walker had no background as a mediator. He
wasn't even an expert in Balkans history or current politics. What he
did
know about was counter-insurgency and black ops. His role in Iran-Contra
and
his achievements in apologizing for the murderous El Salvador death
squads
all but prove he is a high-placed intelligence operative. (A factual
account
of Mr. Walker's work in Central America will be posted on
Emperors-Clothes as
soon as possible. In the absence of that account, which we have not had
time
yet to lay out, let me say these facts are uncontested. Period.)
The U.S. verification team was composed of employees of Dyncorp, a
Virginia
company that has grown rich off Government work. At the 1992 Senate
hearings
on R. James Woolsey's appointment as head of the CIA, Woolsey commented:
"I
own less than one-quarter of one percent of the -- diluted shares of a
company named Dyncorp here in the Washington, D.C. area. And the
corporation
has, from time to time, had a handful of very small contracts with the
Central Intelligence Agency." Ahh, sweet understatement. Dyncorp's "very
small contracts" have included covert work in Columbia and Peru. (Facts
on
this will be posted shortly on Emperors-clothes. Again, it is all
documented). In the case of Dyncorp's work in Columbia, the Clinton
administration was accused of using Dyncorp to circumvent human rights
restrictions on US aid to the death-squad-ridden Colombian military.
So what do we have? We have the head of the Verification mission and his
American team linked to covert operations and death squad activities in
Latin
America. Other than that, they have no qualifications for their work in
Kosovo.
Given this command structure, doesn't it stand to reason that the
Western
(i.e., U.S.) goal was a) to gather military intelligence and b) to
establish
command-relations with the Kosovo Liberation Army, an outfit whose
activities
- killing ethnic Serbian civilians and ethnic Albanian "collaborators"
as
well as employees of the Serbian state such as policemen, power line
repairmen, school officials, Yugoslav troops and even state-employed
wood
gatherers - whose activities are very much like those of Latin American
death
squads?
Indeed, isn't it reasonable to guess that the tactical similarity
between the
KLA and the Latin American death squads may result from their having had
the
same (US) advisors?
In any case this was the Verification Mission for which CARE Canada was
recruiting. Not only recruiting, but also apparently paying the
recruits'
salaries.
Even the Western press has virtually admitted that Walker & Co. were
spies.
Consider the following from the LA Times:
His [i.e., William Walker's] postings include a stint in Honduras from
1980
to 1982, when the Central American country was Washington's secret
conduit
for weapons and other support to right-wing Contras fighting to
overthrow the
Sandinistas in neighboring Nicaragua.
He also served as chief of the U.S. Embassy's political section in El
Salvador, another Central American hot spot, from 1974 to 1977, and
later as
the country's U.S. ambassador from 1988 to 1992. As a diplomat in
countries
so high on Washington's national security agenda, Walker couldn't help
knowing something about spying, said John Pike, a defense analyst at
Washington's Federation of American Scientists. "Those are front-line
postings where he would have unavoidably developed an acquaintance with
the
capabilities and limitations of intelligence sources and methods," Pike
said
from Washington. And it would be surprising if Walker's team of
ex-military
and other experts came to verify Kosovo's cease-fire without equipment
to
listen in on radio communications, Pike said. "Put it this way: They
would be
idiots if they weren't doing that," he added. "What are they going to
do,
read about it in the paper the next day?"( LA Times, Jan. 20, 1999, our
emphasis)
The Amazing Story of Mr. Pratt, Mr. Wallace and Mr. Jelen
So we had a neutral, Humanitarian Aid organization (CARE) recruiting
Verifiers, that is spies, for a Kosovo Mission run by CIA types. Shortly
after the Mission ended and NATO began bombing Yugoslavia, three of the
Humanitarian CARE employees were arrested for spying.
That was on March 31. At first CARE officials claimed they were not sure
of
the three men's whereabouts. Then, on April 11, Steve Pratt appeared on
Serbian Television, RTS. Here's the actual text of the RTS broadcast, as
transcribed by the BBC:
[Announcer] Through coordinated action, the security bodies of the
Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia have smashed a network of agents headed by Major
Steve
Pratt. The named person had been gathering intelligence on the movement
of
our military and police forces under the cover of the Care International
humanitarian organization before the aggression on our country, and,
during
the aggression, on the effects of the bombing.
[Pratt, recording in English with passage by passage Serbo-Croatian
translation] My name is Steve Pratt. I was born in 1949. I was born in
Australia and I am the citizen of Australia. Before I came to
Yugoslavia, I
worked in northern Iraq, Yemen, Zaire, Rwanda, and Kenya for the
humanitarian
organization Care of Australia.
When I came to Yugoslavia, I performed some intelligence tasks in this
country by using the cover of Care Australia. My concentration was on
Kosovo
and some effects of the bombing. I misused my Yugoslavian citizen staff
for
the acquisition of information. I realize that damage was done this
country
by these actions, for which I am greatly sorry. I always did and still
do
condemn the bombing of this country.
[Television footage shows Pratt sitting in a chair and making the
statement;
TV also shows Pratt's passport; there are no visible signs of physical
mistreatment of Pratt] (BBC, April 13, 1999)
The Western media presented a negative view of the RTS broadcast. One AP
report April 12th was headlined, "TV pictures of aid worker's spy
confession
fuzzy: Tapp". In the story Australian CARE chief Charles Tapp dismissed
the
RTS broadcast because Pratt was shown in profile, because it was
impossible
to see his eyes and because his confession was not very specific. (He
said
"confession" should be put in "immense inverted commas".) An Agence
France
Presse story on the 12th was headlined "Yugoslavs forced our man to
confess
to spying."
Amidst this reporting, which amounted to anti-Yugoslav propaganda, the
real
story was simply ignored by most of the media; where it was covered it
was
scornfully dismissed.
That story, which broke April 11th in the Australian Sunday Telegraph,
quoted
Steve Pratt's mother, Mrs. Mavis Pratt, concerning Pratt's past
activities. I
have not been able to see a copy of the Sunday Telegraph story.
Fortunately a
few sentences are quoted in a few places. One is an AP dispatch issued
hours
after the Sunday Telegraph report. According to the AP, Mrs. Pratt told
the
Telegraph that her son had worked for CARE in Iraq:
''He was letting the U.N. know what Iraq was doing, he was observing, so
Iraq
put a price on his head and they had to get him out of there quickly.''
In other words, he had been a spy.
Dishonor Thy Mother
How might one expect CARE executives to have responded to Pratt's
confession
and Mrs. Pratt's statement?
CARE presents itself as a politically neutral, humanitarian
organization.
Doesn't that suggest CARE leaders should have adopted a cautious,
neutral
approach? Perhaps said they have nothing but respect for the arrested
men and
established a fund legal expenses? Wouldn't any other approach
compromise
their neutrality and raise questions about their motives?
And what about the mass media? Since governments do employ spies, since
to be
effective, spies have to have some kind of cover, wouldn't it make sense
to
present the story in a factual manner and not use journalistic
techniques to
sway public opinion?
CARE and the media lash out at Yugoslavia
Let's look at the April 11 AP story, starting with the headline. The
headline
may be the only thing one reads and even if one reads further, the
headline
colors one's view of the rest.
What sort of headline would logically go with this story? Maybe
something
like:
Mom Says Arrested CARE worker Spied Before
Instead, AP chose:
CARE says Serbian spying 'confession' obtained under duress
This is a very strong statement. By making it the headline, AP lent it
credibility. Did it deserve such credibility?
The RTS broadcast with Pratt's confession had just been aired. What
could
Charles Tapp or anyone else at CARE actually have known about this case?
If Pratt had told them he was a spy, they would know. But if Pratt was a
spy
and told nobody, how could they have known?
Therefore Tapp's denial is either a) a lie (because he knew Pratt was a
spy
and therefore denied it) or b) pure speculation (because he had no way
of
knowing whether Pratt was innocent or guilty.)
So what's the point of the headline? By using the phrase "obtained under
duress" the headline creates a picture in the reader's mind - of threats
and
torture. Though the body of the article offers no factual basis for this
charge, the headline has a powerful impact.
Note that 'CARE' is not a person but an organization; how can CARE 'say'
anything? By quoting 'CARE' instead of a CARE executive, the AP story
capitalizes on Westerners' impression of CARE, the organization:
neutral,
selfless, honorable. A CARE spokesman might lie - but 'CARE' itself?
Never.
Compounding the Question
Note that by jumping to the question of how the confession was obtained
(supposedly 'under duress') the AP story gives the (false) impression
that
Pratt's innocence is an established fact.
The sleight of hand technique used here is similar to the compound
question.
A familiar example: "Do you still beat your wife?" The use of the very
aggressive "do you still" obscures the fact that the main charge is
unproven:
we have not been shown that you ever beat your wife. Similarly here, by
stressing the manner in which the (allegedly) false confession was
obtained
(that is, "under duress") the headline obscures the fact that we have
been
shown no evidence the confession was false.
Let's move onto the first paragraph in the article:
The aid agency CARE Australia on Monday said its field worker Steve
Pratt's
alleged spying confession broadcast by Serbian television was made under
duress.
This is just a repeat of the headline. Bad journalism, unless they want
us to
learn this statement by rote. Will there be a quiz?
Here's paragraph two:
CARE and the Australian government demanded immediate access to Pratt
and his
colleague, Peter Wallace, who were detained by Yugoslav authorities
March 31
after they left Belgrade for Montenegro to help refugees.
Still not quoting actual people, the AP adds a second institution, the
Australian government, by way of additional confirmation. The Yugoslav
offense is so great, all institutions are speaking out.
Moreover, by telling us these institutions have "demanded immediate
access to
Pratt" and Wallace, the article suggests Yugoslavia is denying such
access.
This in turn suggests the Yugoslavs must have something to hide - such
as
evidence that Pratt has been beaten. Note that there is no effort, here
or
elsewhere in the article, to discuss the normal procedure for allowing
access
to men accused of spying for a group of nations who are, in grave
violation
of international law, bombing your country.
The paragraph also includes the statement that the arrested man had been
arrested after they:
left Belgrade for Montenegro to help refugees. (My emphasis)
How could the AP possibly know why Pratt, Wallace and Jelen had left
Belgrade? Couldn't they have left to spy elsewhere? Or to escape
detection?
By asserting their humanitarian motives without evidence, the article
strengthens the reader's impression that the men are innocent.
A little further down, a CARE official is cited by name for the first
time:
CARE Australia's emergency coordinator, Brian Doolan, said threats may
have
been made against local staff or against Wallace to extract the
confession.
(My emphasis)
'May have been made.' Two thoughts on this: a) Doesn't the use of 'may'
completely contradict the headline and first paragraph, which have
'CARE'
(speaking as if it were a person) saying the confession WAS obtained
under
duress and b) isn't it true that it is always possible that a confession
'may' have been extracted based on threats?
Since by this point we've been told several times that Pratt was forced
to
confess, I would bet many readers wouldn't notice the use of "may".
The article continues as follows:
Doolan said the claims made against Pratt were ''absolute lunacy.''
If Pratt "may" (which suggests 'may not') have confessed under duress,
why is
Doolan sure the charges are lunacy? The AP ignores this obvious
contradiction. Nor does it try to bring some balance to the story by
talking
to someone from the Yugoslav side, for example a Yugoslav security
official.
Such a person might ask: "Since it's obvious that Mr. Pratt could be a
spy
without Mr. Doolan knowing, how can Mr. Doolan be so sure the charges
are
lunacy?"
And so the article continues for eight (8) more paragraphs,
strengthening the
impression that Pratt must be innocent until we get to the end, where
Mrs.
Pratt is quoted. But readers are not permitted to judge Mrs. Pratt's
words
for themselves; they are given a good deal of help by CARE Australia
chief
executive Charles Tapp who is quoted before and after Mrs. Pratt who
attacks
the charge that Pratt had previously spied against Iraq, attacks the
newspaper that covered it, and even tries to discredit Mrs. Pratt (her
sin is
being old). Here's how it reads:
...[CARE chief executive Tapp] rejected the suggestion that they [i.e.
the
arrested CARE workers] were acting for any other organization in any
capacity.
Speaking from the Yugoslavia-Croatia border, Tapp also slammed a
newspaper
report in which Pratt's mother, Mavis Pratt, was quoted as saying her
son had
supplied information about Iraqi forces to the United Nations during the
Gulf
War.
''He was letting the U.N. know what Iraq was doing, he was observing, so
Iraq
put a price on his head and they had to get him out of there quickly,''
she
[Mrs. Pratt] was quoted as saying.
Tapp said Mrs. Pratt was elderly and added, ''Frankly, I consider this
to be
extremely poor journalism.'' (AP Worldstream April 11, 1999; Sunday
22:06
Eastern Time )
When you think of it, the quote from Mrs. Pratt is the only news in this
entire news story. The rest is intended to give us a proper news
orientation.
The AP is evidently anxious to guarantee that readers approach the
arrests
with the preconception that Pratt and the others are innocent. Why?
As for CARE officials - their statements are suggestive. Consider: Pratt
confessed on April 11th. The Sunday Telegraph printed Mrs. Pratt's
statement
the next day and within hours AP broadcast furious denials from CARE
officials. How could these officials be so sure so fast? Why would they
react
without taking time to investigate and discuss the matter, including
privately with Yugoslav officials? Doesn't such a hasty and violent
response
suggest that:
Pratt et al were indeed spies;
Tapp and Doolan were fully aware that Pratt, Wallace and Jelen were
spies
because they were themselves involved in organizing such spying;
CARE officials were therefore worried that Yugoslav officials or, worse
yet,
Pratt or Wallace, might go public with more revelations, might expose
high-level CARE (and Australian government?) involvement, might talk
about
CARE spying in other countries, and so on. Thus it was crucial
immediately
(on Sunday!) to discredit the arrests and especially the public
confession.
By planting the thought that the confession was made 'under duress' and
'was
lunacy' and that Mrs. Pratt's own statement was unbelievable - the hope
was
to prejudice Western readers against any further revelations from
Belgrade or
Steve and Mavis Pratt.
Honor thy Satellite Phone
Four months later, Yugoslavia released Pratt and Wallace. In a dispatch
at
the time, the Australian news agency, AAP, explained that Yugoslav
border
guards had found:
...detailed maps, a satellite telephone and a laptop computer in their
car
when Pratt and Wallace tried to cross into Croatia.
Shouldn't this information have been presented as top news in April? It
was
not. Instead the media engaged in more preventive damage control.
Consider
this from the AAP on April 15th:
CARE Australia worker Steve Pratt, who is being held as a spy in
Yugoslavia,
would have collected some military information, his former boss said
today.
But it would only have been to help CARE's planning and would not have
been
given to any outside body, Tony McGee said...
Mind boggling, isn't this? Why on earth would CARE routinely gather
military
information? The article goes on:
Mr. McGee, like Mr. Pratt a former Australian army officer, said he
never
took any interest in military installations or troop movements except to
the
extent that they might affect CARE's safety and operations.
Are all these guys ex-Army officers? Doesn't CARE recruit any regular
folks?
And what about McGee's suggestion that by recruiting (supposedly) former
Army
officers CARE insures its employees will take no "interest in military
installations or troop movements except to the extent that they might
affect
CARE's safety and operations."
In case people are not convinced that military men would never take an
interest in military matters, Mr. McGee adds:
In any event, satellites could provide much better information than
anything
aid workers on the ground could gather.
So Pratt was certainly no spy because former military officers just
don't
have the military curiosity needed for spying and even if he was a spy
the
information he would gather would be of minor use. Doesn't this sound
more
and more like a) Pratt was a spy and b) all these guys knew it?
What is the point of McGee's statement? The only explanation I can
suggest
is: CARE officials knew Pratt was carrying incriminating equipment and
descriptions of troop movements when he was arrested; there was a danger
the
Yugoslavs would make this incriminating evidence public; McGee was
trying to
immunize the public beforehand. And once again, the media provided a
willing
PR forum.
Pratt, Critic of NATO (?)
Here's an AAP headline from April 12th:
Ex Army Major no spy say CARE colleagues
This article tells Pratt's life story, official version. We are told he
spent
years in the army where he worked in supply until at the request of
former
Australian Prime Minister and CARE Chairman Malcolm Fraser, he joined
CARE.
He what?
How comes an ordinary Army major to be recruited by a Prime Minister?
Isn't
this in itself a bit suspicious?
The AAP asks no embarrassing questions.
The article goes on to claim that Pratt:
also criticized the NATO bombing, and publicly attacked the destruction
of a
CARE-run refugee camp which killed nine people.
This is intended to prove Pratt's even-handedness. See? He criticizes
NATO.
(More evidence of his innocence.)
But consider Pratt's actual comments, recorded on March 29 in an AAP
Internet
Bulletin. He's talking about the NATO bombing of refugees who were
living in
abandoned Army barracks:
"I suspect the centers had been located very close to military targets.
The
report that I am getting that they have probably been caught up in some
sort
of collateral thing," Mr. Pratt said. The refugees killed were believed
to
include women and children who were ethnic Serb refugees who fled Bosnia
during the 1995 conflict.
"They were not directly hit, they don't seem to have been deliberately
targeted."...He said the center where eight refugees were confirmed
killed
had been located 60km southwest of the city of Nis in an old army
barracks
consisting of barracks of wooden huts. But two of the nine buildings had
been
damaged, including one which was burned down, when NATO hit a warehouse
about
100 meters away. "I believe (the damage) was accidental..."
Another refugee had been confirmed killed in Kosovo's capital of
Pristina in
a refugee center close to police headquarters. "Again this was a refugee
center too close to a NATO target. I suppose this is the way things are
in
war but it is extremely sad," he said.
Is Pratt "publicly attacking" NATO for the "destruction of a CARE-run
refugee
camp?" Or is he in fact excusing NATO of any criminal responsibility?
Why do you say 'Preposterous' Mr. Downer?
Two days after Pratt confessed on Yugoslav TV, The Guardian (London)
reported
that:
The Serbian government's claim that two Australian aid workers missing
for 14
days were gathering intelligence has been dismissed as 'preposterous' by
the
Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer. (The Guardian(London)
April
13, 1999)
Imagine you told your neighbor your wooden house was on fire and he
replied:
"Preposterous!"
Of course, you could be wrong - but preposterous?
How could Downer possibly be sure?
Australian Foreign Minister Downer's statement demonstrates his desire,
in
the absence of supporting evidence, to prove Pratt was innocent. This
puts
Downer in good company: Tapp, McGee, Doolan the AP, the AAP and the mass
media in general were all trying to convince the public that Pratt was
innocent. The Guardian could have contributed to news gathering by
questioning Downer: "How can you be sure? Why is everyone so anxious to
prove
the Yugoslavs are lying? Could this be a pre-emptive strike aimed at
preventing people from believing future Yugoslav revelations about
CARE's
involvement in spying?"
But the Guardian asked no such questions. Apparently they wanted to
prove
Pratt was innocent too.
Dishonor Thy Mother Some More
While most of the world had no idea Major Pratt's mother had nailed him
in
the Sunday Telegraph, the word got around in Australia. Hence the
following
bit of damage control published by the AAP on April 12th:
CARE Australia emergency coordinator Brian Doolan personally guaranteed
Mr.
Pratt was not spying when they worked together in Iraq from 1993 to
1995. Mr.
Doolan criticized Sydney's Sunday Telegraph reporters for speaking to
Mr.
Pratt's mother, Mavis Pratt, who told the newspaper: "He was letting the
UN
know what Iraq was doing, he was observing, so Iraq put a price on his
head
and they had to get him out of there quickly."
The newspaper's story was groundless, Mr. Doolan said. The elderly Mrs.
Pratt
was confronted through the fly-screen door by two young women saying
they
wanted to help her son, he said.
"They (the reporters) seemed to have spun a bit of line and she's given
them
bits of information, potted information, that she knows about Steve's
experience overseas," he said.
Huh? Has Downer actually proven anything here?
Forget Thy Mother and Ditto Thy Satellite Phone!
Apparently this was sufficient to eliminate mom because by April 26, in
a
story on the Pratt/Wallace affair (the news stories generally left out
Mr.
Jelen since he was only a Yugoslav) Time actually printed the following
sentence:
How the two aid workers came to be accused of spying has mystified their
families and friends.
Isn't this amazing?
Yes, one might argue, but perhaps 'Time' didn't know about the Mrs.
Pratt's
statement...
I find that hard to believe. Since they were writing a story about
Australians accused of spying, wouldn't the 'Time" reporters read what
the
Australian press (not the mention the AP) had published concerning the
arrests? How could they not know about Mavis Pratt's statement?
But let us concede, for the sake of argument, that Time didn't know.
The AAP certainly did know. After Pratt and Wallace were released in
September, the AAP published a story that tried to explain the
supposedly
irrational Yugoslav conviction that the men were spies. In it, the AAP
admitted that:
Serb authorities had intercepted Pratt's reports on troop movements,
but added that these reports:
were designed to help Aid agencies, not NATO's air strikes.
How could anyone think otherwise? the Yugoslav authorities must be
paranoid.
AAP adds:
There were other allegations that Pratt spied on Iraq for the United
Nations
while he was working there for CARE Australia.
These "other allegations" were the ones raised by Mrs. Pratt. Does the
AAP
see fit to mention her name? It does not. Instead it goes on to answer
the
anonymous allegations:
...the Army said Pratt had never undertaken intelligence work during his
military career...
Do you find this convincing? If Pratt was a spy would you expect the
Australian Army to admit it?
Arguments like this have no merit as arguments. If you isolate them from
the
larger text, they look ridiculous. But within the context of a barrage
of
propaganda, they do have an effect. Here's how it works:
The AAP and other Western media take meaningless statements that sound
like
arguments. They put this empty babble in the appropriate place for real
arguments. They string several such arguments together and they do this
over
and over again and in this way, by heaping one pro-establishment
pseudo-argument on top of another (though never offering real evidence)
the
reader is trained into a sort of glaze, thought dissipates, the proper
impression is planted and lingers.
Filing for ethical bankruptcy
The AAP story closes with an amazing statement. Referring to Peter
Wallace,
who had just been released along with Steve Pratt, the article states
that:
His family, like Pratt's, were shocked when he was accused of being a
spy.
(Our emphasis. AAP General News, Sept. 2, 1999)
Is it unreasonable to suggest that CARE, the mass media and the
Australian
government had fashioned a convenient cover story and Mrs. Pratt
statement
did not fit, so it was edited out?
Here is the hyperlink to the SBS TV show:
http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/transcript.html
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---
> STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
>
> World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org
> The CARE-OSCE connection in Kosovo
> New information on the case of two jailed Australian aid workers
> By Mike Head
> 9 February 2000
> A current affairs program on the Australian government's Special
> Broadcasting Services television network last week shed some further
> light on Yugoslavia's detention of two CARE aid workers last year. Steve
> Pratt and Peter Wallace were arrested with two carloads of computer
> files, a satellite telephone and other communications equipment when
> they tried to cross into Croatia from Serbia last March 31—just seven
> days after the US-NATO bombing of the country began.
> The SBS Dateline program belatedly disclosed two pieces of new
> information. The first was that CARE had a contract with the government
> of Canada, a NATO member, to recruit a team of monitors in Kosovo before
> the bombing. Under the arrangement, CARE Canada received $A32.2 million
> from CIDA, Canada's official aid agency, to select and put in place 60
> members of an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
> monitoring force. CARE paid the observers and provided them with
> orientation briefings, medical services and administrative backup.
> Strictly speaking, the contract was with CARE Canada, but CARE
> Australia, as CARE's lead agency in Yugoslavia, approved it. In fact,
> Pratt, who was CARE International's country director in the former
> Yugoslavia, personally helped set up the operation. He accompanied CARE
> Canada's chief John Watson on a week-long tour when Watson arrived to
> establish the operation.
> Dateline cited an unnamed OSCE source stating that the data collected by
> the monitors was supplied to NATO, but not, as was supposed to happen,
> to Yugoslavia. The program also interviewed CARE Canada's chief John
> Watson and Stephen Wallace from CIDA who admitted that ex-military
> people and others "with experience in combat zones" were recruited for
> the operation. In other words, Pratt was directly linked to a network
> full of ex-military personnel sending reports to NATO.
> The second revelation came in an interview with CARE Australia chairman
> Malcolm Fraser, a former prime minister. Fraser admitted that the
> material that the two CARE workers tried to take across the border
> contained information on troop movements, tank positions and minefields.
> Fraser confirmed that the documents included "situation reports" written
> by Pratt in "military language".
> When the CARE workers were detained, on suspicion of spying or passing
> on information that aided the NATO bombing, the Australian government,
> opposition politicians and the media denounced the arrests as an
> "outrage" and condemned the Yugoslav regime of Slobodan Milosevic. For
> weeks on end, headlines and editorials accused the Belgrade
> administration of using innocent humanitarian workers as political
> pawns.
> As CARE's chief spokesman, Fraser was at the centre of the campaign. He
> loudly protested the complete innocence of the CARE staff, enlisting the
> support of dignitaries from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to South
> African President Nelson Mandela. Fraser was appointed a Special Envoy
> of the Howard government and eventually travelled to Belgrade to seek
> the prisoners' release.
> The propaganda campaign only intensified when it was revealed that Pratt
> had been a Major in the Australian army, as well as a one-time election
> candidate for the conservative Liberal Party. It also emerged that he
> had previously worked for CARE in such sensitive locations as Rwanda and
> had apparently been forced to flee Kurdistan, in northern Iraq, as a
> suspected spy. The media barrage continued unabated even when the
> Yugoslav court decided not to rely upon Pratt's televised confession,
> broadcast on Yugoslav TV, that he had "performed some intelligence tasks
> in this country, using the cover of CARE Australia". The court
> ultimately dismissed the spying charges but convicted the pair of lesser
> offences of passing information to a foreign organisation.
> Now Fraser has admitted that he and other CARE officials knew all along
> of highly incriminating evidence. Fraser claimed that he was not told
> about the Canadian contract until after Pratt and Wallace were detained.
> Nevertheless, as soon as he found out he insisted that the media
> suppress all mention of it. Dateline itself acknowledged that it had
> known of the Canadian contract since last June but did not report the
> information for seven months at Fraser's request.
> The significance of the Canadian contract can only be understood by
> examining the true role of the OSCE monitoring operation. The Dateline
> program depicted it as a "peace-monitoring" effort that had been agreed
> to by the Yugoslav authorities. In fact, the Milosevic regime was forced
> to allow the OSCE to send 2,000 civilian monitors under the direct
> threat of NATO bombing, as well as crippling economic sanctions. Under
> an agreement imposed by US diplomat Richard Holbrooke on October 20,
> 1998, Milosevic pledged to withdraw Yugoslav security forces from
> Kosovo, where they had been sent earlier in 1998 to combat units of the
> Albanian separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
> The monitors had nothing to do with peace. They were to be deployed to
> police Yugoslavia's compliance with the agreement, backed by NATO
> surveillance flights. A NATO rapid reaction force was to be assembled to
> intervene in the event of a breach by Serbia.
> Given the circumstances, it is inconceivable that the monitors did not
> include intelligence officers and agents. To the Serbian authorities
> this was obvious. Interviewed by Dateline, Deputy Information Minister
> Miodrag Popovic stated: "We knew all along about their intelligence
> activities. We knew all along about the real purpose of the OSCE mission
> and that was to justify later NATO aggression."
> Appointed to head the OSCE force was William Walker, a US diplomat who
> was previously implicated in the Nicaraguan Contra affair in the 1980s.
> As a deputy to the Reagan administration's Assistant Secretary of State
> Elliott Abrams, Walker was involved in illegally supplying weapons to
> the Contras who were seeking to overthrow the Sandinista government.
> The Milosevic-Holbrooke agreement provided the conditions for similar
> "dirty tricks" activity in Kosovo. The KLA, which had been suffering
> heavy losses at the hands of the Yugoslav army, was given the
> opportunity it needed to regroup, obtain fresh military equipment and
> step up its campaign to drive all Serbs from Kosovo.
> As fighting flared between Serbian and KLA units, the OSCE monitors
> claimed to have evidence of widespread Serbian atrocities. Walker was at
> the centre of the main incident used to trigger the NATO bombing—the
> alleged killings of 45 Kosovar peasants by Serbian forces in the village
> of Racak on January 15, 1999. When the bodies were discovered, Walker
> was the first observer on the scene and immediately declared that there
> had been a Serbian massacre. On-the-spot reports in the French press,
> however, suggested that the 45 could have been KLA fighters killed in
> violent clashes with Serb units near the village the day before.
> Racak, and the subsequent withdrawal of OSCE observers, provided the
> pretext for the Paris and Rambouillet conferences of February and March
> 1999 where the "Contact Group" of six nations demanded that Milosevic
> sign an Accord granting autonomy to Kosovo. Appendix B of the Accord
> required a full NATO occupation of Yugoslavia, also in the name of
> ensuring compliance. Milosevic refused to sign, objecting to the blanket
> infringement of Yugoslav's sovereignty, and the NATO bombing commenced
> just six days later.
> In his interview, Fraser defended the OSCE operation but said that "with
> hindsight" it was a mistake for CARE to have participated in it,
> blurring CARE's humanitarian mission. In another part of the interview,
> which has received no comment in the media, he said the Rambouillet
> conference was used to prepare for war. "It was the West's decision to
> go to war, not Yugoslavia's and when I say the West's decision, there is
> a great deal of evidence to say that Rambouillet was organised to
> provide an excuse to go to war and I say that quite clearly and
> deliberately," he said.
> Fraser's remarks provoked something of a storm within CARE. At one
> point, CARE's publicity manager Antony Funnell interrupted Fraser's
> interview, insisting that the CARE contract was with CIDA, not the
> Canadian government. Fraser responded furiously with a string of
> rebukes. "Do not interrupt when I am being interviewed and do not ever
> interrupt again," he thundered at one point. "Do you understand?"
> Canadian CARE's John Watson told Dateline that Fraser's objections
> flowed from a "traditional" view of aid activity, whereas CARE Canada
> had "a more progressive view of humanitarian work". When Fraser
> criticised CARE Australia's national director Charles Tapp for not
> objecting to the Canadian contract, Tapp responded by saying there were
> similar Australian government contracts with many aid organisations in
> Bougainville, East Timor and Indonesia.
> Aid agencies are used for such intelligence-gathering activities because
> they can place personnel on the ground in volatile areas where other
> observers would be under suspicion and scrutiny. As Pratt's record
> shows, their staffs often feature seasoned military operatives. Direct
> state funding of aid agencies to undertake such activities is a growing
> trend, as is overall dependence on government coffers. The Australian
> Council for Overseas Aid estimates that in 1998 government sources
> provided one-third of the $218 million raised by its affiliates.
> As limited as the SBS material was, it pointed to a number of unanswered
> questions about the CARE affair. Why was CARE asked to set up part of
> the OSCE monitoring force? What data did the OSCE compile and how was it
> used in the lead-up to the NATO bombing? What information did Pratt and
> his colleagues collate and to whom was it sent? Did their reports
> continue during the first week of the NATO onslaught?
> This week, Four Corners, a flagship current affairs program on the other
> government-funded TV network, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation,
> attempted to divert public attention away from the SBS revelations.
> Instead of a serious investigative examination of the new evidence, it
> devoted its weekly timeslot to lengthy, uncritical and sympathetic
> interviews with Pratt and Wallace. Every effort was made to pull on
> viewers' heartstrings. With a tender and commiserating expression,
> interviewer Liz Jackson dwelt on their traumatic experiences in
> detention, and their personal feelings. The SBS material was barely
> mentioned, and only at the end of the 45-minute program.
> Jackson did not ask either Pratt or Wallace any of the obvious
> questions. Exactly what part did Pratt play in setting up and running
> the Canadian contingent of the OSCE operation? Why did Pratt keep
> detailed records of military movements? Why did he and Wallace stay in
> Yugoslavia after the bombing commenced and then seek to leave Serbia
> with two carloads of extremely sensitive material, including reports
> associated with the OSCE operation?
> One new piece of information emerged showing that Pratt was no ordinary
> ex-army officer. Among the documents found in his possession was his
> military record of service between 1969 and 1992, revealing that before
> he left the army he had been appointed second-in-command of the United
> Nations Military Observer Team, on standby to deploy to the former
> Yugoslavia.
> Rather than report and examine the documents carried by Pratt and
> Wallace, which have never been released to the public, Four Corners
> quoted just three snippets. In one, Pratt reported that "fighting
> continues in the strategically important area of Podujevo". In a
> situation report, he wrote: "Significant government forces, backed by
> about 12 VJ (army) heavy tanks and armoured cars, launched operations
> against known KLA strong points recently established in Podujevo." Both
> clearly relate to military operations, not aid work.
> The third report, dated March 27, 1999, indicates that Pratt continued
> to send information to NATO-linked sources throughout the first week of
> bombing. "People are regularly moving into and out of air-raid shelters
> in the late afternoons and nights" in Belgrade, he reported, describing
> the tension in the city as "very high".
> In his interview, Wallace claimed not to have known that Pratt had these
> reports with him when they tried to leave the country. "What we should
> have done before we'd gone out was sanitise the files, that is, to take
> out anything that might be provocative," he suggested. The information,
> he admitted, "wasn't strictly relevant to a humanitarian operation and
> our need to know where the security risks were".
> Asked why he thought the material was there, Wallace paused awkwardly
> before saying: "Er, oh well, it's, um, just Steve's mistake". Suddenly
> the interview switched back to Pratt, who blithely declared that he was
> "comfortable" with the reports he had compiled.
> Much remains hidden about the Pratt-Wallace affair, and not just in
> Australia. Nothing has appeared in the Canadian press about the
> CARE-OSCE connection. In both countries, and elsewhere around the world,
> aid agencies such as CARE continue to attract donations and support,
> mounting considerable advertising campaigns to portray themselves as
> purely humanitarian organisations.
> Having had unwelcome attention drawn to the links between aid agencies
> and the intelligence services, considerable official and media effort is
> being made to prevent serious questions being asked. But what has
> emerged already is a high-level coverup, led by Fraser and the
> Australian government, assisted by the media, to suppress the facts
> about the use of CARE for intelligence gathering in the Balkans.
>
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
NELL'ORGANIZZAZIONE "UMANITARIA" CARE
Nelle scorse settimane sono emersi approcci tra la sezione australiana
della ONG transnazionale "CARE" ed i servizi segreti militari canadesi
(il Canada e' membro della NATO), questi ultimi interessati ad inserirsi
nelle operazioni di CARE nella RF di Jugoslavia.
Queste rivelazioni fanno seguito ad altre vicende squallide che hanno
coinvolto CARE in passato: citiamo ad esempio i legami tra la missione
CARE in Somalia ed i marines USA presenti nella citta' di Baidoa alla
fine del 1992; l'arresto al confine jugoslavo di alcuni membri di CARE
Australia (uno dei quali reo confesso) accusati di lavorare per la NATO
durante i bombardamenti del 1999; nonche' gli strani rapporti tra CARE e
la OSCE-na missione dell'OSCE nella provincia jugoslava del Kosmet, con
la quale venne preparato il terreno ai suddetti bombardamenti...
(Le altre ONG ed organizzazioni "Umanitarie" da noi analizzate in
passato: Medici senza Frontiere; Human Rights Watch)
---
HUMANITARIAN SPIES
by Jared Israel
WWW.TENC.NET (or WWW.EMPERORS-CLOTHES.COM)
It appears there are two types of Humanitarian Aid organizations in the
New
World Order: Them That Steals and Them That Spies. For the thieves, see
Soiled Rainbow at www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/martinez/soiled.htm
. If
you are interested in spies and the liars who cover up their work, stay
here.
I have been doing research on the CARE spy scandal for several days. It
is a
Labor of Sisyphus. No sooner does one think one has dug up all there is
to
dig then one encounters (if you will pardon the mixed metaphor) more
dirt
rolling down the hill. CARE has been compromised by this mess, but not
only
CARE. Also the Australian government, the US government, the OSCE
(Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and the Western
mass
media. Perhaps the Western mass media worst of all.
On Nov 2, SBS TV in Australia revealed that CARE Canada had been
recruiting
what amounted to spies for NATO in Yugoslavia.
I've posted the hyperlink to the SBS CARE story below. It's worth
reading.
But before you look at the transcript, I suggest you read the background
material because in some ways it's more revealing than the TV show, more
damning. As happens often, when Western journalists uncovered this
cover-up,
they didn't uncover it all.
Spies or Victimized Aid Workers?
On March 31, 1999, three employees of CARE Australia, Steve Pratt, an
Australian who headed the Yugoslav operation, Peter Wallace, another
Australian, and Branko Jelen, a Yugoslav, were arrested at the
Serbian-Croatian border. Yugoslavia charged them with using CARE as a
cover
to spy for NATO.
CARE Australia officials ridiculed the charges, claiming CARE was
completely
neutral and that the confession of Steve Pratt, aired on Serbian TV,
could
only have resulted from coercion. Western mass media supported CARE,
presenting the men as Good Samaritans whose only crime was being in the
wrong
place at the wrong time and falling victim to Serbian paranoia and war
propaganda. CARE had clean hands...
Or did it?
Now comes a TV show, broadcast Nov. 2 by SBS in Australia. It reveals
that
CARE recruited and paid OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation
in
Europe) Verifiers in Kosovo from Oct. 1998 to March 1999. That much is
uncontested.
As you will see when you read the transcript, some CARE people justify
the
OSCE recruiting program on the grounds that the Verifiers were
legitimate
peacemakers. Alas, this simply does not wash.
Goals of the Kosovo Verification Mission
'Negotiated' (that is, 'coerced') under threat of NATO bombing last
October,
the Verification agreement let the OSCE send unarmed mediators into
Kosovo,
supposedly to help defuse tensions. However everything about the
Verification
mission suggests military intelligence, not mediation.
It was run by William Walker. Walker had no background as a mediator. He
wasn't even an expert in Balkans history or current politics. What he
did
know about was counter-insurgency and black ops. His role in Iran-Contra
and
his achievements in apologizing for the murderous El Salvador death
squads
all but prove he is a high-placed intelligence operative. (A factual
account
of Mr. Walker's work in Central America will be posted on
Emperors-Clothes as
soon as possible. In the absence of that account, which we have not had
time
yet to lay out, let me say these facts are uncontested. Period.)
The U.S. verification team was composed of employees of Dyncorp, a
Virginia
company that has grown rich off Government work. At the 1992 Senate
hearings
on R. James Woolsey's appointment as head of the CIA, Woolsey commented:
"I
own less than one-quarter of one percent of the -- diluted shares of a
company named Dyncorp here in the Washington, D.C. area. And the
corporation
has, from time to time, had a handful of very small contracts with the
Central Intelligence Agency." Ahh, sweet understatement. Dyncorp's "very
small contracts" have included covert work in Columbia and Peru. (Facts
on
this will be posted shortly on Emperors-clothes. Again, it is all
documented). In the case of Dyncorp's work in Columbia, the Clinton
administration was accused of using Dyncorp to circumvent human rights
restrictions on US aid to the death-squad-ridden Colombian military.
So what do we have? We have the head of the Verification mission and his
American team linked to covert operations and death squad activities in
Latin
America. Other than that, they have no qualifications for their work in
Kosovo.
Given this command structure, doesn't it stand to reason that the
Western
(i.e., U.S.) goal was a) to gather military intelligence and b) to
establish
command-relations with the Kosovo Liberation Army, an outfit whose
activities
- killing ethnic Serbian civilians and ethnic Albanian "collaborators"
as
well as employees of the Serbian state such as policemen, power line
repairmen, school officials, Yugoslav troops and even state-employed
wood
gatherers - whose activities are very much like those of Latin American
death
squads?
Indeed, isn't it reasonable to guess that the tactical similarity
between the
KLA and the Latin American death squads may result from their having had
the
same (US) advisors?
In any case this was the Verification Mission for which CARE Canada was
recruiting. Not only recruiting, but also apparently paying the
recruits'
salaries.
Even the Western press has virtually admitted that Walker & Co. were
spies.
Consider the following from the LA Times:
His [i.e., William Walker's] postings include a stint in Honduras from
1980
to 1982, when the Central American country was Washington's secret
conduit
for weapons and other support to right-wing Contras fighting to
overthrow the
Sandinistas in neighboring Nicaragua.
He also served as chief of the U.S. Embassy's political section in El
Salvador, another Central American hot spot, from 1974 to 1977, and
later as
the country's U.S. ambassador from 1988 to 1992. As a diplomat in
countries
so high on Washington's national security agenda, Walker couldn't help
knowing something about spying, said John Pike, a defense analyst at
Washington's Federation of American Scientists. "Those are front-line
postings where he would have unavoidably developed an acquaintance with
the
capabilities and limitations of intelligence sources and methods," Pike
said
from Washington. And it would be surprising if Walker's team of
ex-military
and other experts came to verify Kosovo's cease-fire without equipment
to
listen in on radio communications, Pike said. "Put it this way: They
would be
idiots if they weren't doing that," he added. "What are they going to
do,
read about it in the paper the next day?"( LA Times, Jan. 20, 1999, our
emphasis)
The Amazing Story of Mr. Pratt, Mr. Wallace and Mr. Jelen
So we had a neutral, Humanitarian Aid organization (CARE) recruiting
Verifiers, that is spies, for a Kosovo Mission run by CIA types. Shortly
after the Mission ended and NATO began bombing Yugoslavia, three of the
Humanitarian CARE employees were arrested for spying.
That was on March 31. At first CARE officials claimed they were not sure
of
the three men's whereabouts. Then, on April 11, Steve Pratt appeared on
Serbian Television, RTS. Here's the actual text of the RTS broadcast, as
transcribed by the BBC:
[Announcer] Through coordinated action, the security bodies of the
Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia have smashed a network of agents headed by Major
Steve
Pratt. The named person had been gathering intelligence on the movement
of
our military and police forces under the cover of the Care International
humanitarian organization before the aggression on our country, and,
during
the aggression, on the effects of the bombing.
[Pratt, recording in English with passage by passage Serbo-Croatian
translation] My name is Steve Pratt. I was born in 1949. I was born in
Australia and I am the citizen of Australia. Before I came to
Yugoslavia, I
worked in northern Iraq, Yemen, Zaire, Rwanda, and Kenya for the
humanitarian
organization Care of Australia.
When I came to Yugoslavia, I performed some intelligence tasks in this
country by using the cover of Care Australia. My concentration was on
Kosovo
and some effects of the bombing. I misused my Yugoslavian citizen staff
for
the acquisition of information. I realize that damage was done this
country
by these actions, for which I am greatly sorry. I always did and still
do
condemn the bombing of this country.
[Television footage shows Pratt sitting in a chair and making the
statement;
TV also shows Pratt's passport; there are no visible signs of physical
mistreatment of Pratt] (BBC, April 13, 1999)
The Western media presented a negative view of the RTS broadcast. One AP
report April 12th was headlined, "TV pictures of aid worker's spy
confession
fuzzy: Tapp". In the story Australian CARE chief Charles Tapp dismissed
the
RTS broadcast because Pratt was shown in profile, because it was
impossible
to see his eyes and because his confession was not very specific. (He
said
"confession" should be put in "immense inverted commas".) An Agence
France
Presse story on the 12th was headlined "Yugoslavs forced our man to
confess
to spying."
Amidst this reporting, which amounted to anti-Yugoslav propaganda, the
real
story was simply ignored by most of the media; where it was covered it
was
scornfully dismissed.
That story, which broke April 11th in the Australian Sunday Telegraph,
quoted
Steve Pratt's mother, Mrs. Mavis Pratt, concerning Pratt's past
activities. I
have not been able to see a copy of the Sunday Telegraph story.
Fortunately a
few sentences are quoted in a few places. One is an AP dispatch issued
hours
after the Sunday Telegraph report. According to the AP, Mrs. Pratt told
the
Telegraph that her son had worked for CARE in Iraq:
''He was letting the U.N. know what Iraq was doing, he was observing, so
Iraq
put a price on his head and they had to get him out of there quickly.''
In other words, he had been a spy.
Dishonor Thy Mother
How might one expect CARE executives to have responded to Pratt's
confession
and Mrs. Pratt's statement?
CARE presents itself as a politically neutral, humanitarian
organization.
Doesn't that suggest CARE leaders should have adopted a cautious,
neutral
approach? Perhaps said they have nothing but respect for the arrested
men and
established a fund legal expenses? Wouldn't any other approach
compromise
their neutrality and raise questions about their motives?
And what about the mass media? Since governments do employ spies, since
to be
effective, spies have to have some kind of cover, wouldn't it make sense
to
present the story in a factual manner and not use journalistic
techniques to
sway public opinion?
CARE and the media lash out at Yugoslavia
Let's look at the April 11 AP story, starting with the headline. The
headline
may be the only thing one reads and even if one reads further, the
headline
colors one's view of the rest.
What sort of headline would logically go with this story? Maybe
something
like:
Mom Says Arrested CARE worker Spied Before
Instead, AP chose:
CARE says Serbian spying 'confession' obtained under duress
This is a very strong statement. By making it the headline, AP lent it
credibility. Did it deserve such credibility?
The RTS broadcast with Pratt's confession had just been aired. What
could
Charles Tapp or anyone else at CARE actually have known about this case?
If Pratt had told them he was a spy, they would know. But if Pratt was a
spy
and told nobody, how could they have known?
Therefore Tapp's denial is either a) a lie (because he knew Pratt was a
spy
and therefore denied it) or b) pure speculation (because he had no way
of
knowing whether Pratt was innocent or guilty.)
So what's the point of the headline? By using the phrase "obtained under
duress" the headline creates a picture in the reader's mind - of threats
and
torture. Though the body of the article offers no factual basis for this
charge, the headline has a powerful impact.
Note that 'CARE' is not a person but an organization; how can CARE 'say'
anything? By quoting 'CARE' instead of a CARE executive, the AP story
capitalizes on Westerners' impression of CARE, the organization:
neutral,
selfless, honorable. A CARE spokesman might lie - but 'CARE' itself?
Never.
Compounding the Question
Note that by jumping to the question of how the confession was obtained
(supposedly 'under duress') the AP story gives the (false) impression
that
Pratt's innocence is an established fact.
The sleight of hand technique used here is similar to the compound
question.
A familiar example: "Do you still beat your wife?" The use of the very
aggressive "do you still" obscures the fact that the main charge is
unproven:
we have not been shown that you ever beat your wife. Similarly here, by
stressing the manner in which the (allegedly) false confession was
obtained
(that is, "under duress") the headline obscures the fact that we have
been
shown no evidence the confession was false.
Let's move onto the first paragraph in the article:
The aid agency CARE Australia on Monday said its field worker Steve
Pratt's
alleged spying confession broadcast by Serbian television was made under
duress.
This is just a repeat of the headline. Bad journalism, unless they want
us to
learn this statement by rote. Will there be a quiz?
Here's paragraph two:
CARE and the Australian government demanded immediate access to Pratt
and his
colleague, Peter Wallace, who were detained by Yugoslav authorities
March 31
after they left Belgrade for Montenegro to help refugees.
Still not quoting actual people, the AP adds a second institution, the
Australian government, by way of additional confirmation. The Yugoslav
offense is so great, all institutions are speaking out.
Moreover, by telling us these institutions have "demanded immediate
access to
Pratt" and Wallace, the article suggests Yugoslavia is denying such
access.
This in turn suggests the Yugoslavs must have something to hide - such
as
evidence that Pratt has been beaten. Note that there is no effort, here
or
elsewhere in the article, to discuss the normal procedure for allowing
access
to men accused of spying for a group of nations who are, in grave
violation
of international law, bombing your country.
The paragraph also includes the statement that the arrested man had been
arrested after they:
left Belgrade for Montenegro to help refugees. (My emphasis)
How could the AP possibly know why Pratt, Wallace and Jelen had left
Belgrade? Couldn't they have left to spy elsewhere? Or to escape
detection?
By asserting their humanitarian motives without evidence, the article
strengthens the reader's impression that the men are innocent.
A little further down, a CARE official is cited by name for the first
time:
CARE Australia's emergency coordinator, Brian Doolan, said threats may
have
been made against local staff or against Wallace to extract the
confession.
(My emphasis)
'May have been made.' Two thoughts on this: a) Doesn't the use of 'may'
completely contradict the headline and first paragraph, which have
'CARE'
(speaking as if it were a person) saying the confession WAS obtained
under
duress and b) isn't it true that it is always possible that a confession
'may' have been extracted based on threats?
Since by this point we've been told several times that Pratt was forced
to
confess, I would bet many readers wouldn't notice the use of "may".
The article continues as follows:
Doolan said the claims made against Pratt were ''absolute lunacy.''
If Pratt "may" (which suggests 'may not') have confessed under duress,
why is
Doolan sure the charges are lunacy? The AP ignores this obvious
contradiction. Nor does it try to bring some balance to the story by
talking
to someone from the Yugoslav side, for example a Yugoslav security
official.
Such a person might ask: "Since it's obvious that Mr. Pratt could be a
spy
without Mr. Doolan knowing, how can Mr. Doolan be so sure the charges
are
lunacy?"
And so the article continues for eight (8) more paragraphs,
strengthening the
impression that Pratt must be innocent until we get to the end, where
Mrs.
Pratt is quoted. But readers are not permitted to judge Mrs. Pratt's
words
for themselves; they are given a good deal of help by CARE Australia
chief
executive Charles Tapp who is quoted before and after Mrs. Pratt who
attacks
the charge that Pratt had previously spied against Iraq, attacks the
newspaper that covered it, and even tries to discredit Mrs. Pratt (her
sin is
being old). Here's how it reads:
...[CARE chief executive Tapp] rejected the suggestion that they [i.e.
the
arrested CARE workers] were acting for any other organization in any
capacity.
Speaking from the Yugoslavia-Croatia border, Tapp also slammed a
newspaper
report in which Pratt's mother, Mavis Pratt, was quoted as saying her
son had
supplied information about Iraqi forces to the United Nations during the
Gulf
War.
''He was letting the U.N. know what Iraq was doing, he was observing, so
Iraq
put a price on his head and they had to get him out of there quickly,''
she
[Mrs. Pratt] was quoted as saying.
Tapp said Mrs. Pratt was elderly and added, ''Frankly, I consider this
to be
extremely poor journalism.'' (AP Worldstream April 11, 1999; Sunday
22:06
Eastern Time )
When you think of it, the quote from Mrs. Pratt is the only news in this
entire news story. The rest is intended to give us a proper news
orientation.
The AP is evidently anxious to guarantee that readers approach the
arrests
with the preconception that Pratt and the others are innocent. Why?
As for CARE officials - their statements are suggestive. Consider: Pratt
confessed on April 11th. The Sunday Telegraph printed Mrs. Pratt's
statement
the next day and within hours AP broadcast furious denials from CARE
officials. How could these officials be so sure so fast? Why would they
react
without taking time to investigate and discuss the matter, including
privately with Yugoslav officials? Doesn't such a hasty and violent
response
suggest that:
Pratt et al were indeed spies;
Tapp and Doolan were fully aware that Pratt, Wallace and Jelen were
spies
because they were themselves involved in organizing such spying;
CARE officials were therefore worried that Yugoslav officials or, worse
yet,
Pratt or Wallace, might go public with more revelations, might expose
high-level CARE (and Australian government?) involvement, might talk
about
CARE spying in other countries, and so on. Thus it was crucial
immediately
(on Sunday!) to discredit the arrests and especially the public
confession.
By planting the thought that the confession was made 'under duress' and
'was
lunacy' and that Mrs. Pratt's own statement was unbelievable - the hope
was
to prejudice Western readers against any further revelations from
Belgrade or
Steve and Mavis Pratt.
Honor thy Satellite Phone
Four months later, Yugoslavia released Pratt and Wallace. In a dispatch
at
the time, the Australian news agency, AAP, explained that Yugoslav
border
guards had found:
...detailed maps, a satellite telephone and a laptop computer in their
car
when Pratt and Wallace tried to cross into Croatia.
Shouldn't this information have been presented as top news in April? It
was
not. Instead the media engaged in more preventive damage control.
Consider
this from the AAP on April 15th:
CARE Australia worker Steve Pratt, who is being held as a spy in
Yugoslavia,
would have collected some military information, his former boss said
today.
But it would only have been to help CARE's planning and would not have
been
given to any outside body, Tony McGee said...
Mind boggling, isn't this? Why on earth would CARE routinely gather
military
information? The article goes on:
Mr. McGee, like Mr. Pratt a former Australian army officer, said he
never
took any interest in military installations or troop movements except to
the
extent that they might affect CARE's safety and operations.
Are all these guys ex-Army officers? Doesn't CARE recruit any regular
folks?
And what about McGee's suggestion that by recruiting (supposedly) former
Army
officers CARE insures its employees will take no "interest in military
installations or troop movements except to the extent that they might
affect
CARE's safety and operations."
In case people are not convinced that military men would never take an
interest in military matters, Mr. McGee adds:
In any event, satellites could provide much better information than
anything
aid workers on the ground could gather.
So Pratt was certainly no spy because former military officers just
don't
have the military curiosity needed for spying and even if he was a spy
the
information he would gather would be of minor use. Doesn't this sound
more
and more like a) Pratt was a spy and b) all these guys knew it?
What is the point of McGee's statement? The only explanation I can
suggest
is: CARE officials knew Pratt was carrying incriminating equipment and
descriptions of troop movements when he was arrested; there was a danger
the
Yugoslavs would make this incriminating evidence public; McGee was
trying to
immunize the public beforehand. And once again, the media provided a
willing
PR forum.
Pratt, Critic of NATO (?)
Here's an AAP headline from April 12th:
Ex Army Major no spy say CARE colleagues
This article tells Pratt's life story, official version. We are told he
spent
years in the army where he worked in supply until at the request of
former
Australian Prime Minister and CARE Chairman Malcolm Fraser, he joined
CARE.
He what?
How comes an ordinary Army major to be recruited by a Prime Minister?
Isn't
this in itself a bit suspicious?
The AAP asks no embarrassing questions.
The article goes on to claim that Pratt:
also criticized the NATO bombing, and publicly attacked the destruction
of a
CARE-run refugee camp which killed nine people.
This is intended to prove Pratt's even-handedness. See? He criticizes
NATO.
(More evidence of his innocence.)
But consider Pratt's actual comments, recorded on March 29 in an AAP
Internet
Bulletin. He's talking about the NATO bombing of refugees who were
living in
abandoned Army barracks:
"I suspect the centers had been located very close to military targets.
The
report that I am getting that they have probably been caught up in some
sort
of collateral thing," Mr. Pratt said. The refugees killed were believed
to
include women and children who were ethnic Serb refugees who fled Bosnia
during the 1995 conflict.
"They were not directly hit, they don't seem to have been deliberately
targeted."...He said the center where eight refugees were confirmed
killed
had been located 60km southwest of the city of Nis in an old army
barracks
consisting of barracks of wooden huts. But two of the nine buildings had
been
damaged, including one which was burned down, when NATO hit a warehouse
about
100 meters away. "I believe (the damage) was accidental..."
Another refugee had been confirmed killed in Kosovo's capital of
Pristina in
a refugee center close to police headquarters. "Again this was a refugee
center too close to a NATO target. I suppose this is the way things are
in
war but it is extremely sad," he said.
Is Pratt "publicly attacking" NATO for the "destruction of a CARE-run
refugee
camp?" Or is he in fact excusing NATO of any criminal responsibility?
Why do you say 'Preposterous' Mr. Downer?
Two days after Pratt confessed on Yugoslav TV, The Guardian (London)
reported
that:
The Serbian government's claim that two Australian aid workers missing
for 14
days were gathering intelligence has been dismissed as 'preposterous' by
the
Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer. (The Guardian(London)
April
13, 1999)
Imagine you told your neighbor your wooden house was on fire and he
replied:
"Preposterous!"
Of course, you could be wrong - but preposterous?
How could Downer possibly be sure?
Australian Foreign Minister Downer's statement demonstrates his desire,
in
the absence of supporting evidence, to prove Pratt was innocent. This
puts
Downer in good company: Tapp, McGee, Doolan the AP, the AAP and the mass
media in general were all trying to convince the public that Pratt was
innocent. The Guardian could have contributed to news gathering by
questioning Downer: "How can you be sure? Why is everyone so anxious to
prove
the Yugoslavs are lying? Could this be a pre-emptive strike aimed at
preventing people from believing future Yugoslav revelations about
CARE's
involvement in spying?"
But the Guardian asked no such questions. Apparently they wanted to
prove
Pratt was innocent too.
Dishonor Thy Mother Some More
While most of the world had no idea Major Pratt's mother had nailed him
in
the Sunday Telegraph, the word got around in Australia. Hence the
following
bit of damage control published by the AAP on April 12th:
CARE Australia emergency coordinator Brian Doolan personally guaranteed
Mr.
Pratt was not spying when they worked together in Iraq from 1993 to
1995. Mr.
Doolan criticized Sydney's Sunday Telegraph reporters for speaking to
Mr.
Pratt's mother, Mavis Pratt, who told the newspaper: "He was letting the
UN
know what Iraq was doing, he was observing, so Iraq put a price on his
head
and they had to get him out of there quickly."
The newspaper's story was groundless, Mr. Doolan said. The elderly Mrs.
Pratt
was confronted through the fly-screen door by two young women saying
they
wanted to help her son, he said.
"They (the reporters) seemed to have spun a bit of line and she's given
them
bits of information, potted information, that she knows about Steve's
experience overseas," he said.
Huh? Has Downer actually proven anything here?
Forget Thy Mother and Ditto Thy Satellite Phone!
Apparently this was sufficient to eliminate mom because by April 26, in
a
story on the Pratt/Wallace affair (the news stories generally left out
Mr.
Jelen since he was only a Yugoslav) Time actually printed the following
sentence:
How the two aid workers came to be accused of spying has mystified their
families and friends.
Isn't this amazing?
Yes, one might argue, but perhaps 'Time' didn't know about the Mrs.
Pratt's
statement...
I find that hard to believe. Since they were writing a story about
Australians accused of spying, wouldn't the 'Time" reporters read what
the
Australian press (not the mention the AP) had published concerning the
arrests? How could they not know about Mavis Pratt's statement?
But let us concede, for the sake of argument, that Time didn't know.
The AAP certainly did know. After Pratt and Wallace were released in
September, the AAP published a story that tried to explain the
supposedly
irrational Yugoslav conviction that the men were spies. In it, the AAP
admitted that:
Serb authorities had intercepted Pratt's reports on troop movements,
but added that these reports:
were designed to help Aid agencies, not NATO's air strikes.
How could anyone think otherwise? the Yugoslav authorities must be
paranoid.
AAP adds:
There were other allegations that Pratt spied on Iraq for the United
Nations
while he was working there for CARE Australia.
These "other allegations" were the ones raised by Mrs. Pratt. Does the
AAP
see fit to mention her name? It does not. Instead it goes on to answer
the
anonymous allegations:
...the Army said Pratt had never undertaken intelligence work during his
military career...
Do you find this convincing? If Pratt was a spy would you expect the
Australian Army to admit it?
Arguments like this have no merit as arguments. If you isolate them from
the
larger text, they look ridiculous. But within the context of a barrage
of
propaganda, they do have an effect. Here's how it works:
The AAP and other Western media take meaningless statements that sound
like
arguments. They put this empty babble in the appropriate place for real
arguments. They string several such arguments together and they do this
over
and over again and in this way, by heaping one pro-establishment
pseudo-argument on top of another (though never offering real evidence)
the
reader is trained into a sort of glaze, thought dissipates, the proper
impression is planted and lingers.
Filing for ethical bankruptcy
The AAP story closes with an amazing statement. Referring to Peter
Wallace,
who had just been released along with Steve Pratt, the article states
that:
His family, like Pratt's, were shocked when he was accused of being a
spy.
(Our emphasis. AAP General News, Sept. 2, 1999)
Is it unreasonable to suggest that CARE, the mass media and the
Australian
government had fashioned a convenient cover story and Mrs. Pratt
statement
did not fit, so it was edited out?
Here is the hyperlink to the SBS TV show:
http://www.sbs.com.au/dateline/transcript.html
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---
> STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
>
> World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org
> The CARE-OSCE connection in Kosovo
> New information on the case of two jailed Australian aid workers
> By Mike Head
> 9 February 2000
> A current affairs program on the Australian government's Special
> Broadcasting Services television network last week shed some further
> light on Yugoslavia's detention of two CARE aid workers last year. Steve
> Pratt and Peter Wallace were arrested with two carloads of computer
> files, a satellite telephone and other communications equipment when
> they tried to cross into Croatia from Serbia last March 31—just seven
> days after the US-NATO bombing of the country began.
> The SBS Dateline program belatedly disclosed two pieces of new
> information. The first was that CARE had a contract with the government
> of Canada, a NATO member, to recruit a team of monitors in Kosovo before
> the bombing. Under the arrangement, CARE Canada received $A32.2 million
> from CIDA, Canada's official aid agency, to select and put in place 60
> members of an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)
> monitoring force. CARE paid the observers and provided them with
> orientation briefings, medical services and administrative backup.
> Strictly speaking, the contract was with CARE Canada, but CARE
> Australia, as CARE's lead agency in Yugoslavia, approved it. In fact,
> Pratt, who was CARE International's country director in the former
> Yugoslavia, personally helped set up the operation. He accompanied CARE
> Canada's chief John Watson on a week-long tour when Watson arrived to
> establish the operation.
> Dateline cited an unnamed OSCE source stating that the data collected by
> the monitors was supplied to NATO, but not, as was supposed to happen,
> to Yugoslavia. The program also interviewed CARE Canada's chief John
> Watson and Stephen Wallace from CIDA who admitted that ex-military
> people and others "with experience in combat zones" were recruited for
> the operation. In other words, Pratt was directly linked to a network
> full of ex-military personnel sending reports to NATO.
> The second revelation came in an interview with CARE Australia chairman
> Malcolm Fraser, a former prime minister. Fraser admitted that the
> material that the two CARE workers tried to take across the border
> contained information on troop movements, tank positions and minefields.
> Fraser confirmed that the documents included "situation reports" written
> by Pratt in "military language".
> When the CARE workers were detained, on suspicion of spying or passing
> on information that aided the NATO bombing, the Australian government,
> opposition politicians and the media denounced the arrests as an
> "outrage" and condemned the Yugoslav regime of Slobodan Milosevic. For
> weeks on end, headlines and editorials accused the Belgrade
> administration of using innocent humanitarian workers as political
> pawns.
> As CARE's chief spokesman, Fraser was at the centre of the campaign. He
> loudly protested the complete innocence of the CARE staff, enlisting the
> support of dignitaries from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to South
> African President Nelson Mandela. Fraser was appointed a Special Envoy
> of the Howard government and eventually travelled to Belgrade to seek
> the prisoners' release.
> The propaganda campaign only intensified when it was revealed that Pratt
> had been a Major in the Australian army, as well as a one-time election
> candidate for the conservative Liberal Party. It also emerged that he
> had previously worked for CARE in such sensitive locations as Rwanda and
> had apparently been forced to flee Kurdistan, in northern Iraq, as a
> suspected spy. The media barrage continued unabated even when the
> Yugoslav court decided not to rely upon Pratt's televised confession,
> broadcast on Yugoslav TV, that he had "performed some intelligence tasks
> in this country, using the cover of CARE Australia". The court
> ultimately dismissed the spying charges but convicted the pair of lesser
> offences of passing information to a foreign organisation.
> Now Fraser has admitted that he and other CARE officials knew all along
> of highly incriminating evidence. Fraser claimed that he was not told
> about the Canadian contract until after Pratt and Wallace were detained.
> Nevertheless, as soon as he found out he insisted that the media
> suppress all mention of it. Dateline itself acknowledged that it had
> known of the Canadian contract since last June but did not report the
> information for seven months at Fraser's request.
> The significance of the Canadian contract can only be understood by
> examining the true role of the OSCE monitoring operation. The Dateline
> program depicted it as a "peace-monitoring" effort that had been agreed
> to by the Yugoslav authorities. In fact, the Milosevic regime was forced
> to allow the OSCE to send 2,000 civilian monitors under the direct
> threat of NATO bombing, as well as crippling economic sanctions. Under
> an agreement imposed by US diplomat Richard Holbrooke on October 20,
> 1998, Milosevic pledged to withdraw Yugoslav security forces from
> Kosovo, where they had been sent earlier in 1998 to combat units of the
> Albanian separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
> The monitors had nothing to do with peace. They were to be deployed to
> police Yugoslavia's compliance with the agreement, backed by NATO
> surveillance flights. A NATO rapid reaction force was to be assembled to
> intervene in the event of a breach by Serbia.
> Given the circumstances, it is inconceivable that the monitors did not
> include intelligence officers and agents. To the Serbian authorities
> this was obvious. Interviewed by Dateline, Deputy Information Minister
> Miodrag Popovic stated: "We knew all along about their intelligence
> activities. We knew all along about the real purpose of the OSCE mission
> and that was to justify later NATO aggression."
> Appointed to head the OSCE force was William Walker, a US diplomat who
> was previously implicated in the Nicaraguan Contra affair in the 1980s.
> As a deputy to the Reagan administration's Assistant Secretary of State
> Elliott Abrams, Walker was involved in illegally supplying weapons to
> the Contras who were seeking to overthrow the Sandinista government.
> The Milosevic-Holbrooke agreement provided the conditions for similar
> "dirty tricks" activity in Kosovo. The KLA, which had been suffering
> heavy losses at the hands of the Yugoslav army, was given the
> opportunity it needed to regroup, obtain fresh military equipment and
> step up its campaign to drive all Serbs from Kosovo.
> As fighting flared between Serbian and KLA units, the OSCE monitors
> claimed to have evidence of widespread Serbian atrocities. Walker was at
> the centre of the main incident used to trigger the NATO bombing—the
> alleged killings of 45 Kosovar peasants by Serbian forces in the village
> of Racak on January 15, 1999. When the bodies were discovered, Walker
> was the first observer on the scene and immediately declared that there
> had been a Serbian massacre. On-the-spot reports in the French press,
> however, suggested that the 45 could have been KLA fighters killed in
> violent clashes with Serb units near the village the day before.
> Racak, and the subsequent withdrawal of OSCE observers, provided the
> pretext for the Paris and Rambouillet conferences of February and March
> 1999 where the "Contact Group" of six nations demanded that Milosevic
> sign an Accord granting autonomy to Kosovo. Appendix B of the Accord
> required a full NATO occupation of Yugoslavia, also in the name of
> ensuring compliance. Milosevic refused to sign, objecting to the blanket
> infringement of Yugoslav's sovereignty, and the NATO bombing commenced
> just six days later.
> In his interview, Fraser defended the OSCE operation but said that "with
> hindsight" it was a mistake for CARE to have participated in it,
> blurring CARE's humanitarian mission. In another part of the interview,
> which has received no comment in the media, he said the Rambouillet
> conference was used to prepare for war. "It was the West's decision to
> go to war, not Yugoslavia's and when I say the West's decision, there is
> a great deal of evidence to say that Rambouillet was organised to
> provide an excuse to go to war and I say that quite clearly and
> deliberately," he said.
> Fraser's remarks provoked something of a storm within CARE. At one
> point, CARE's publicity manager Antony Funnell interrupted Fraser's
> interview, insisting that the CARE contract was with CIDA, not the
> Canadian government. Fraser responded furiously with a string of
> rebukes. "Do not interrupt when I am being interviewed and do not ever
> interrupt again," he thundered at one point. "Do you understand?"
> Canadian CARE's John Watson told Dateline that Fraser's objections
> flowed from a "traditional" view of aid activity, whereas CARE Canada
> had "a more progressive view of humanitarian work". When Fraser
> criticised CARE Australia's national director Charles Tapp for not
> objecting to the Canadian contract, Tapp responded by saying there were
> similar Australian government contracts with many aid organisations in
> Bougainville, East Timor and Indonesia.
> Aid agencies are used for such intelligence-gathering activities because
> they can place personnel on the ground in volatile areas where other
> observers would be under suspicion and scrutiny. As Pratt's record
> shows, their staffs often feature seasoned military operatives. Direct
> state funding of aid agencies to undertake such activities is a growing
> trend, as is overall dependence on government coffers. The Australian
> Council for Overseas Aid estimates that in 1998 government sources
> provided one-third of the $218 million raised by its affiliates.
> As limited as the SBS material was, it pointed to a number of unanswered
> questions about the CARE affair. Why was CARE asked to set up part of
> the OSCE monitoring force? What data did the OSCE compile and how was it
> used in the lead-up to the NATO bombing? What information did Pratt and
> his colleagues collate and to whom was it sent? Did their reports
> continue during the first week of the NATO onslaught?
> This week, Four Corners, a flagship current affairs program on the other
> government-funded TV network, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation,
> attempted to divert public attention away from the SBS revelations.
> Instead of a serious investigative examination of the new evidence, it
> devoted its weekly timeslot to lengthy, uncritical and sympathetic
> interviews with Pratt and Wallace. Every effort was made to pull on
> viewers' heartstrings. With a tender and commiserating expression,
> interviewer Liz Jackson dwelt on their traumatic experiences in
> detention, and their personal feelings. The SBS material was barely
> mentioned, and only at the end of the 45-minute program.
> Jackson did not ask either Pratt or Wallace any of the obvious
> questions. Exactly what part did Pratt play in setting up and running
> the Canadian contingent of the OSCE operation? Why did Pratt keep
> detailed records of military movements? Why did he and Wallace stay in
> Yugoslavia after the bombing commenced and then seek to leave Serbia
> with two carloads of extremely sensitive material, including reports
> associated with the OSCE operation?
> One new piece of information emerged showing that Pratt was no ordinary
> ex-army officer. Among the documents found in his possession was his
> military record of service between 1969 and 1992, revealing that before
> he left the army he had been appointed second-in-command of the United
> Nations Military Observer Team, on standby to deploy to the former
> Yugoslavia.
> Rather than report and examine the documents carried by Pratt and
> Wallace, which have never been released to the public, Four Corners
> quoted just three snippets. In one, Pratt reported that "fighting
> continues in the strategically important area of Podujevo". In a
> situation report, he wrote: "Significant government forces, backed by
> about 12 VJ (army) heavy tanks and armoured cars, launched operations
> against known KLA strong points recently established in Podujevo." Both
> clearly relate to military operations, not aid work.
> The third report, dated March 27, 1999, indicates that Pratt continued
> to send information to NATO-linked sources throughout the first week of
> bombing. "People are regularly moving into and out of air-raid shelters
> in the late afternoons and nights" in Belgrade, he reported, describing
> the tension in the city as "very high".
> In his interview, Wallace claimed not to have known that Pratt had these
> reports with him when they tried to leave the country. "What we should
> have done before we'd gone out was sanitise the files, that is, to take
> out anything that might be provocative," he suggested. The information,
> he admitted, "wasn't strictly relevant to a humanitarian operation and
> our need to know where the security risks were".
> Asked why he thought the material was there, Wallace paused awkwardly
> before saying: "Er, oh well, it's, um, just Steve's mistake". Suddenly
> the interview switched back to Pratt, who blithely declared that he was
> "comfortable" with the reports he had compiled.
> Much remains hidden about the Pratt-Wallace affair, and not just in
> Australia. Nothing has appeared in the Canadian press about the
> CARE-OSCE connection. In both countries, and elsewhere around the world,
> aid agencies such as CARE continue to attract donations and support,
> mounting considerable advertising campaigns to portray themselves as
> purely humanitarian organisations.
> Having had unwelcome attention drawn to the links between aid agencies
> and the intelligence services, considerable official and media effort is
> being made to prevent serious questions being asked. But what has
> emerged already is a high-level coverup, led by Fraser and the
> Australian government, assisted by the media, to suppress the facts
> about the use of CARE for intelligence gathering in the Balkans.
>
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