[Il Kosovo e' completamente in mano alla criminalita' mafiosa ed
etno-razzista: questo, in sostanza, il bilancio che trae Thomas
Gambill, gia' responsabile dell'OSCE per la sicurezza nell'area di
Gnjilane tra il 1999 ed il 2004, ed oggi passato ad altri incarichi
dopo avere sperimentato con mano la gestione peggio che fallimentare
di OSCE, UNMIK e KFOR. Una voce onesta in un contesto di scandalose
ipocrisie. (segnalato da OJ)]
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/9/27/101219.shtml
NEWSMAX (USA)
Whistleblower: Kosovo 'Owned' By Albanian Mafia
Sherrie Gossett, CNSNews.com
Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2005
Following five years of United Nations control and billions of dollars
of international aid, Kosovo is a lawless region "owned" by the
Albanian mafia.
It is characterized by continuing ethnic cleansing and subject to
increasing infiltration by al-Qaida-linked Muslim jihadists, according
to a whistleblower interviewed by Cybercast News Service.
The U.N.'s repeated failure to act on received intelligence has
allowed illegal paramilitary groups to flourish and engage in
terrorist attacks aimed at destabilizing regional governments in the
Balkans, said Thomas Gambill, a former security chief with the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
self-described as the world's largest regional security agency.
Gambill was responsible for overseeing the eastern region of Gjilane
in Kosovo from 1999 until 2004 under the authority of the U.N. His
criticism comes as the United Nations prepares to launch final status
talks on the troubled province of Kosovo. It has been a U.N.
protectorate since North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces
bombed Yugoslavia between March and May of 1999 to compel the
Serb-dominated government of Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw its forces
from Kosovo.
The U.S. mission in Kosovo alone cost $5.2 billion between June 1999
and the end of 2001, according to a report from the U.S. Government
Accountability Office.
NATO Bombing Leads to Muslim Retaliation
The NATO bombings were also launched in response to reports of
large-scale ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians by the Serbs. But as
soon as the bombing campaign ended, ferocious retaliatory ethnic
cleansing allegedly took place with Albanians, who are predominantly
Muslim, targeting Christian Serbs. The violence was witnessed and
documented by the U.N. and OSCE.
Gambill shared hundreds of pages of U.N. and OSCE documents with
Cybercast News Service, showing how the Serbs and other minorities
were systematically and successfully targeted for removal from Kosovo.
Following the NATO bombing of Kosovo, American troops under NATO
command were stationed in neighboring Macedonia and Albania while
then-President Bill Clinton decided on the size of the U.S. contingent
to be deployed in Kosovo. When U.S. troops entered the province in
June 1999, the alleged retaliatory ethnic cleansing was already under way.
Incidents of sexual violence, torture, arson, murder, kidnapping, and
verbal threats were allegedly widespread as part of an organized and
successful campaign conducted "right under the U.N.'s nose," said Gambill.
Minorities targeted by Albanian extremists for expulsion or death
included Serbs, Roma, Muslim Slavs, Turks and Croats.
Reports filed by the OSCE indicate that the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA), which had been trained and supported by the Clinton
administration, was predominantly responsible for the ethnic
cleansing. In April 1999, congressional Republicans also promoted
legislation seeking U.S. military aid for the KLA, causing Michael
Radu of the Foreign Policy Institute to warn of the consequences of
such a move.
Other armed extremist groups also participated in the ethnic
cleansing, said Gambill.
The overall goal of the groups was the creation of an ethnically pure
state that included Albania, Kosovo and parts of Serbia, Montenegro
and Macedonia.
"They will push for more. That is the plan. It's called Greater
Albania," said Gambill.
OSCE documents reveal that elderly Serbs who were unable to flee were
threatened, and women were thrown down staircases. Others were
tortured, beaten and murdered. Some elderly Serbs fled to monasteries
for protection, but the monasteries were later attacked as well - as
recently as March of 2004, according to the OSCE documents
Entire villages emptied in the wake of large-scale arson and looting.
OSCE documents describe "massive population movements" by displaced
minorities. So many of their homes were set on fire that one region of
Kosovo resembled "a war zone."
An OSCE report notes that in one particular month of 1999,
ethnic-related crimes dipped; but the report adds that it is unclear
if that was due to the success of NATO's KFOR (Kosovo Force) or simply
because there were relatively few Serbs left.
After six months of NATO presence, the violence aimed at the Serbs
became less frequent, though grenade attacks, drive-by shootings and
abductions continued as weekly occurrences for the next five years,
according to Gambill. "Even as of a couple of weeks ago, it hasn't
stopped," he added.
The perpetrators of ethnic violence were emboldened by a lack of
functioning local police or a judiciary system, Gambill said. Even
now, the "good cops" are threatened by former KLA members who are also
on the police force. "One female cop, she was a real Serpico," recalls
Gambill. "She wouldn't give up an investigation after being
threatened. She was killed soon after being warned."
Minorities are still denied health care by Albanian medical
professionals, who quickly dominated the health care profession
following the NATO bombing, Gambill said. He recounted an incident in
which a Serb doctor was taken behind a building and shot in the back
of the head. "Sometimes they had to take wounded Kosovar Serbs all the
way to Serbia for medical aid," said Gambill.
'Don't Rock the Boat'
Gambill told Cybercast News Service that he was most frustrated by
what he saw as apathy on the part of the U.N. Mission in Kosovo and
OSCE, despite what he described as lower-level officials who "worked
really hard and cared about the mission.
"There was a 'don't-rock-the-boat' atmosphere," Gambill explained.
"Many people deployed to the region simply wanted to make their hefty
pay and have a good time vacationing in Greece. They didn't want any
'problems' on their watch."
Aggressive patrols were discouraged, Gambill said, for fear that any
ensuing firefights would give the appearance that OSCE forces did not
have control of the area.
"It was all P.C. (politically correct). People were afraid to say
anything," said Gambill, adding that those who spoke out on serious
issues were subject to transfers or other reprisals. "No one seems to
want to listen or make waves. They said, 'I can't do anything to
change the system, so why speak out?'"
The result of such an attitude, Gambill said, is that "every time
there is an attack against a Serb, it's always described as an
'isolated case' - an event swept under the rug, so to speak."
Gambill said his warnings and reports on grave security threats were
often met with a condescending attitude and even laughter.
During a briefing given at the end of 2000 to OSCE delegates from
Vienna, Austria, Gambill identified illegal paramilitary groups
operating in the Balkans in violation of U.N. Security Council
resolution 1244.
Albanian Mafia Flourishes
At the same briefing, Gambill said he tried to explain the regional
mafia structure; however, U.S. and Russian delegates in the audience
complained about the content of Gambill's speech. As a result, he
said, OSCE headquarters in Pristina sent a message to Gambill's
regional superiors with the message, "Shut Tom up."
"You couldn't get up in front of meetings and say, 'We've lost control
of [Kosovo], the mafia controls it,'" said Gambill. "But they do. They
run the damn place."
Gambill cited OSCE data that showed 42 mafia leaders had moved into
Kosovo in the wake of the NATO bombing in order to set up criminal
organizations. They continued to thrive despite efforts to establish
mature law enforcement operations in the province, he said.
"Drug smuggling, counterfeiting, weapons and human trafficking were
all booming when I was there," said Gambill. He also alleged that
high-level mafia leaders are in senior political positions.
"Good cops," who want to target the corruption are "under threat,"
said Gambill, adding that the Albanian mafia maintains ties with
Russian, Serbian, Croatian and Italian mafia organizations to further
their common agendas.
Gambill also warned his U.N. superiors that the newly formed
paramilitary group, the Albanian National Army, was "highly dangerous
and skilled" and operating in Kosovo as well as northwestern
Macedonia. But those warnings, he said, were also met with disbelief.
Within months, the Albanian National Army was taking credit for
terrorist attacks, prompting the U.N. to acknowledge the group's
existence.
Now Kosovo has entered what Gambill calls "The Fifth Phase,"
characterized by attacks against the United Nations mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK) itself. A September warning from UNMIK to staff members warns,
"Before you turn on your vehicle, inspect it all around, to see if
anything is unusual or suspicious." The warning followed the blowing
up of an UNMIK vehicle.
"UNMIK Out!" reads the graffiti seen on many buildings in Kosovo.
A field officer currently working with the U.N. Mission in the Kosovo
area spoke with Cybercast News Service on condition of anonymity.
After noting that the explosives used by al-Qaida terrorists in the
March 2004 Madrid bombing attacks had come from the Balkans, he
stated: "I sit here watching special patrol groups surveying and doing
nothing. How many more people will die whilst terrorists rest and
recuperate here in the not-so moderate-Muslim regions of the Balkans
theatre?"
"The cat and mouse game is coming to an end," the field officer noted.
"Kosovo is saturated with extremists so NATO [may] pull out before it
all blows up in their faces. War on Terror! [It's] more like support
[of] terror!"
"My biggest concern has always been the incursion of radical Islam
into the area," said Gambill. "They're making preparations in
Macedonia for terrorist attacks against internationals if Kosovo is
not granted independence."
If the United Nations recommends against independence, Gambill said,
it will spur the Saudis to increase their involvement in the region.
"They've got the money, they've got the power. They'll remind Kosovars
that they are their true friends. And they'll help the extremists
fight and prepare terrorist attacks against internationals and even
NATO troops stationed there," Gambill told Cybercast News Service.
etno-razzista: questo, in sostanza, il bilancio che trae Thomas
Gambill, gia' responsabile dell'OSCE per la sicurezza nell'area di
Gnjilane tra il 1999 ed il 2004, ed oggi passato ad altri incarichi
dopo avere sperimentato con mano la gestione peggio che fallimentare
di OSCE, UNMIK e KFOR. Una voce onesta in un contesto di scandalose
ipocrisie. (segnalato da OJ)]
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/9/27/101219.shtml
NEWSMAX (USA)
Whistleblower: Kosovo 'Owned' By Albanian Mafia
Sherrie Gossett, CNSNews.com
Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2005
Following five years of United Nations control and billions of dollars
of international aid, Kosovo is a lawless region "owned" by the
Albanian mafia.
It is characterized by continuing ethnic cleansing and subject to
increasing infiltration by al-Qaida-linked Muslim jihadists, according
to a whistleblower interviewed by Cybercast News Service.
The U.N.'s repeated failure to act on received intelligence has
allowed illegal paramilitary groups to flourish and engage in
terrorist attacks aimed at destabilizing regional governments in the
Balkans, said Thomas Gambill, a former security chief with the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),
self-described as the world's largest regional security agency.
Gambill was responsible for overseeing the eastern region of Gjilane
in Kosovo from 1999 until 2004 under the authority of the U.N. His
criticism comes as the United Nations prepares to launch final status
talks on the troubled province of Kosovo. It has been a U.N.
protectorate since North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces
bombed Yugoslavia between March and May of 1999 to compel the
Serb-dominated government of Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw its forces
from Kosovo.
The U.S. mission in Kosovo alone cost $5.2 billion between June 1999
and the end of 2001, according to a report from the U.S. Government
Accountability Office.
NATO Bombing Leads to Muslim Retaliation
The NATO bombings were also launched in response to reports of
large-scale ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians by the Serbs. But as
soon as the bombing campaign ended, ferocious retaliatory ethnic
cleansing allegedly took place with Albanians, who are predominantly
Muslim, targeting Christian Serbs. The violence was witnessed and
documented by the U.N. and OSCE.
Gambill shared hundreds of pages of U.N. and OSCE documents with
Cybercast News Service, showing how the Serbs and other minorities
were systematically and successfully targeted for removal from Kosovo.
Following the NATO bombing of Kosovo, American troops under NATO
command were stationed in neighboring Macedonia and Albania while
then-President Bill Clinton decided on the size of the U.S. contingent
to be deployed in Kosovo. When U.S. troops entered the province in
June 1999, the alleged retaliatory ethnic cleansing was already under way.
Incidents of sexual violence, torture, arson, murder, kidnapping, and
verbal threats were allegedly widespread as part of an organized and
successful campaign conducted "right under the U.N.'s nose," said Gambill.
Minorities targeted by Albanian extremists for expulsion or death
included Serbs, Roma, Muslim Slavs, Turks and Croats.
Reports filed by the OSCE indicate that the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA), which had been trained and supported by the Clinton
administration, was predominantly responsible for the ethnic
cleansing. In April 1999, congressional Republicans also promoted
legislation seeking U.S. military aid for the KLA, causing Michael
Radu of the Foreign Policy Institute to warn of the consequences of
such a move.
Other armed extremist groups also participated in the ethnic
cleansing, said Gambill.
The overall goal of the groups was the creation of an ethnically pure
state that included Albania, Kosovo and parts of Serbia, Montenegro
and Macedonia.
"They will push for more. That is the plan. It's called Greater
Albania," said Gambill.
OSCE documents reveal that elderly Serbs who were unable to flee were
threatened, and women were thrown down staircases. Others were
tortured, beaten and murdered. Some elderly Serbs fled to monasteries
for protection, but the monasteries were later attacked as well - as
recently as March of 2004, according to the OSCE documents
Entire villages emptied in the wake of large-scale arson and looting.
OSCE documents describe "massive population movements" by displaced
minorities. So many of their homes were set on fire that one region of
Kosovo resembled "a war zone."
An OSCE report notes that in one particular month of 1999,
ethnic-related crimes dipped; but the report adds that it is unclear
if that was due to the success of NATO's KFOR (Kosovo Force) or simply
because there were relatively few Serbs left.
After six months of NATO presence, the violence aimed at the Serbs
became less frequent, though grenade attacks, drive-by shootings and
abductions continued as weekly occurrences for the next five years,
according to Gambill. "Even as of a couple of weeks ago, it hasn't
stopped," he added.
The perpetrators of ethnic violence were emboldened by a lack of
functioning local police or a judiciary system, Gambill said. Even
now, the "good cops" are threatened by former KLA members who are also
on the police force. "One female cop, she was a real Serpico," recalls
Gambill. "She wouldn't give up an investigation after being
threatened. She was killed soon after being warned."
Minorities are still denied health care by Albanian medical
professionals, who quickly dominated the health care profession
following the NATO bombing, Gambill said. He recounted an incident in
which a Serb doctor was taken behind a building and shot in the back
of the head. "Sometimes they had to take wounded Kosovar Serbs all the
way to Serbia for medical aid," said Gambill.
'Don't Rock the Boat'
Gambill told Cybercast News Service that he was most frustrated by
what he saw as apathy on the part of the U.N. Mission in Kosovo and
OSCE, despite what he described as lower-level officials who "worked
really hard and cared about the mission.
"There was a 'don't-rock-the-boat' atmosphere," Gambill explained.
"Many people deployed to the region simply wanted to make their hefty
pay and have a good time vacationing in Greece. They didn't want any
'problems' on their watch."
Aggressive patrols were discouraged, Gambill said, for fear that any
ensuing firefights would give the appearance that OSCE forces did not
have control of the area.
"It was all P.C. (politically correct). People were afraid to say
anything," said Gambill, adding that those who spoke out on serious
issues were subject to transfers or other reprisals. "No one seems to
want to listen or make waves. They said, 'I can't do anything to
change the system, so why speak out?'"
The result of such an attitude, Gambill said, is that "every time
there is an attack against a Serb, it's always described as an
'isolated case' - an event swept under the rug, so to speak."
Gambill said his warnings and reports on grave security threats were
often met with a condescending attitude and even laughter.
During a briefing given at the end of 2000 to OSCE delegates from
Vienna, Austria, Gambill identified illegal paramilitary groups
operating in the Balkans in violation of U.N. Security Council
resolution 1244.
Albanian Mafia Flourishes
At the same briefing, Gambill said he tried to explain the regional
mafia structure; however, U.S. and Russian delegates in the audience
complained about the content of Gambill's speech. As a result, he
said, OSCE headquarters in Pristina sent a message to Gambill's
regional superiors with the message, "Shut Tom up."
"You couldn't get up in front of meetings and say, 'We've lost control
of [Kosovo], the mafia controls it,'" said Gambill. "But they do. They
run the damn place."
Gambill cited OSCE data that showed 42 mafia leaders had moved into
Kosovo in the wake of the NATO bombing in order to set up criminal
organizations. They continued to thrive despite efforts to establish
mature law enforcement operations in the province, he said.
"Drug smuggling, counterfeiting, weapons and human trafficking were
all booming when I was there," said Gambill. He also alleged that
high-level mafia leaders are in senior political positions.
"Good cops," who want to target the corruption are "under threat,"
said Gambill, adding that the Albanian mafia maintains ties with
Russian, Serbian, Croatian and Italian mafia organizations to further
their common agendas.
Gambill also warned his U.N. superiors that the newly formed
paramilitary group, the Albanian National Army, was "highly dangerous
and skilled" and operating in Kosovo as well as northwestern
Macedonia. But those warnings, he said, were also met with disbelief.
Within months, the Albanian National Army was taking credit for
terrorist attacks, prompting the U.N. to acknowledge the group's
existence.
Now Kosovo has entered what Gambill calls "The Fifth Phase,"
characterized by attacks against the United Nations mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK) itself. A September warning from UNMIK to staff members warns,
"Before you turn on your vehicle, inspect it all around, to see if
anything is unusual or suspicious." The warning followed the blowing
up of an UNMIK vehicle.
"UNMIK Out!" reads the graffiti seen on many buildings in Kosovo.
A field officer currently working with the U.N. Mission in the Kosovo
area spoke with Cybercast News Service on condition of anonymity.
After noting that the explosives used by al-Qaida terrorists in the
March 2004 Madrid bombing attacks had come from the Balkans, he
stated: "I sit here watching special patrol groups surveying and doing
nothing. How many more people will die whilst terrorists rest and
recuperate here in the not-so moderate-Muslim regions of the Balkans
theatre?"
"The cat and mouse game is coming to an end," the field officer noted.
"Kosovo is saturated with extremists so NATO [may] pull out before it
all blows up in their faces. War on Terror! [It's] more like support
[of] terror!"
"My biggest concern has always been the incursion of radical Islam
into the area," said Gambill. "They're making preparations in
Macedonia for terrorist attacks against internationals if Kosovo is
not granted independence."
If the United Nations recommends against independence, Gambill said,
it will spur the Saudis to increase their involvement in the region.
"They've got the money, they've got the power. They'll remind Kosovars
that they are their true friends. And they'll help the extremists
fight and prepare terrorist attacks against internationals and even
NATO troops stationed there," Gambill told Cybercast News Service.