Documento della Commissione UE sullo stato di avanzamento al 2007 della Risoluzione 1244 (UNSCR 1244) del Consiglio di Sicurezza dell’ONU sul Kosovo

Comme Sarajevo en 1914 ?

par Jürgen Elsässer*

Le député au Bundestag Willy Wimmer (CDU) écrivait récemment : « Lorsqu’en 1918, le monde d’hier était réduit en cendres et que l’on préparait avec beaucoup de perfidie les fondements du prochain grand conflit, on n’a pas voulu passer beaucoup de temps à chercher les causes de la guerre. On a déclaré que c’étaient les coups de pistolet de Sarajevo qui coûtèrent la vie au couple d’héritiers du trône d’Autriche. Chacun se souvenait de l’événement et l’on n’avait pas besoin de se poser de questions sur ses tenants et aboutissants qui étaient beaucoup plus déterminants que l’attentat de Sarajevo. Jusqu’ici, il n’y a pas eu d’échanges de tirs pendant les négociations sur l’avenir du Kosovo, mais des signa­tures sur certains documents pourraient avoir le même effet que les coups de pistolet. Les ­mèches sont là et elles vont d’Irlande du Nord au Tibet et à Taiwan en passant par le pays basque, Gibraltar et le Caucase. »

La situation actuelle dans les Balkans rappelle de manière inquiétante celle qui a conduit à la Première Guerre mondiale. L’Allemagne et les autres grandes puissances avaient, après des années de troubles, trouvé en 1878, à la Conférence de Berlin, un compromis sur le nouvel ordre de l’Europe du Sud-Est : La province ottomane de Bosnie devait rester turque de jure mais être administrée de facto par l’Autriche. En 1908, Vienne a rompu le traité et a annexé la province également de jure. Là-dessus, en 1914, l’archiduc François-Ferdinand a été tué à Sarajevo.

Quelque 100 ans après, les puissances de l’OTAN ont tenté un compromis semblable : après leur guerre d’agression contre la Yougoslavie en 1999, elles ont imposé au Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU la Résolution 1244 qui maintenait de jure le Kosovo dans la Serbie, mais le plaçait de facto sous l’administration des Nations Unies. Par la suite, les puissances occidentales se sont montrées favorables à la sécession totale de la province et à sa remise, contrôlée par l’UE, à la majorité albanaise : tel est le projet du négociateur de l’ONU Martti Ahtisaari. Du point de vue du droit international, ce serait possible si Belgrade était d’accord ou si, du moins, le Conseil de sécurité approuvait cette solution. En l’absence de ces conditions, le Kosovo ne peut déclarer son indépendance qu’unilatéralement, par un acte arbitraire illégal. Et c’est précisément ce qui va se passer ces pro­chaines semaines.

Comme il y a un siècle, les intérêts des États d’Europe centrale, de la Russie et du monde musulman se heurtent toujours dans les Balkans. Tout changement violent dans cet équilibre fragile peut avoir des conséquences pour tout le continent.

On a frôlé la guerre mondiale

Dans les jours qui ont suivi le 10 juin 1999, on a pu voir combien l’Europe du Sud-Est pouvait être à l’origine d’un important conflit international. Après 78 jours de bombardements de l’OTAN, l’armée yougoslave était déjà prête à se retirer du Kosovo ; l’accord militaire à ce sujet entre Belgrade et l’Alliance atlantique était signé et la Résolution 1244 adoptée. Cependant, tandis que les troupes du président Milosevic se retiraient, des unités russes stationnées en Bosnie, s’avancèrent vers Pristina de manière tout à fait inattendue. Sur leurs chars, les soldats avaient transformé l’inscription SFOR —qui indiquait leur appartenance à la troupe de stabilisation dans l’État voisin, sous mandat de l’ONU— en KFOR, sigle de la force d’occupation du Kosovo qui venait d’être décidée. Le président russe Boris Eltsine avait donné son accord pour qu’elle soit constituée sous le haut commandement de l’OTAN mais ses généraux voulaient que la Russie obtienne au moins une tête de pont stratégique.

Le ministre allemand des Affaires étrangères de l’époque Joschka Fischer rappelle dans ses mémoires combien la situation était dramatique : « Les quelques parachutistes russes ne pouvaient pas vraiment défier l’OTAN après son entrée au Kosovo car ils étaient trop peu nombreux et leur armement trop léger. L’occupation de l’aéroport ne pouvait signifier qu’une chose : ils attendaient les renforts aériens. Cela pouvait très vite conduire à une dangereuse confrontation directe avec les États-Unis et l’OTAN. [...] La situation devint encore plus dangereuse lorsque fut confirmée la nouvelle selon laquelle le gouvernement russe avait demandé aux gouvernements hongrois, roumain et bulgare une autorisation de survol pour leurs avions de transport de troupes Antonov. Ils avaient l’intention de transporter 10 000 soldats en partie par la voie aérienne vers le Kosovo et en partie vers la Bosnie pour les acheminer ensuite vers le Kosovo par la voie terrestre. L’Ukraine avait déjà accordé la permission mais les autres pays maintinrent inébranlablement leur veto. Mais qu’arriverait-il si les avions russes passaient outre à cette interdiction ? Les USA et l’OTAN les empêcheraient-ils d’atterrir ou de débarquer leur chargement une fois à terre ou iraient-ils jusqu’à les abattre en vol ? L’éventualité d’une tragédie aux conséquences imprévisibles s’esquissait ici. » Parallèlement à la guerre des nerfs à propos des avions russes, la crise s’envenima à l’aéroport de Pristina. Les troupes du contingent britannique de la KFOR étaient arrivées rapidement et avaient pointé leurs canons sur les occupants insoumis de l’aéroport. Le haut commandant de l’OTAN, Wesley Clark, ordonna de donner l’assaut mais Michael Jackson, haut commandant britannique de la KFOR, garda son sang-froid et refusa de s’exécuter. Il appela Wesley Clark au téléphone et hurla : « Je ne vais pas risquer de déclencher la Troisième Guerre mondiale pour vous ! »

On ignore comment l’Occident a amené le président russe à stopper les Antonov. En tout cas, le combat de l’aéroport de Pristina n’a été empêché que parce que Jackson est resté ferme. Clark a accepté cet acte de désobéissance. À vrai dire, il aurait dû faire arrêter Jackson par la police militaire. Un général allemand a, par la suite, critiqué cette attitude. « La reculade des Britanniques et des Américains était une mauvaise réponse dans une situation qui n’aurait jamais conduit à un conflit sérieux entre l’OTAN et la Russie », a écrit Klaus Naumann, à l’époque président du Comité militaire de l’OTAN et par conséquent l’officier le plus haut gradé de l’Alliance.

Des missiles sur Bondsteel

Une situation aussi dangereuse peut-elle se reproduire ces prochaines semaines ? En 2006 déjà, la Fondation Science et Politique (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, SWP), un des plus importants think tanks allemands, s’inquiétait à propos d’une solution à la question du Kosovo qui serait imposée de l’extérieur : « Ces missions demanderont un engagement diplomatique durable et mettront à contribution les ressources politiques, militaires et financières de l’UE. » Par « ressources militaires », les auteurs entendent la KFOR, qui comprend actuellement 17 000 soldats dont environ 2500 Allemands.

Une intervention pourrait viser non seulement le Kosovo mais également la Serbie proprement dite. La Fondation prévoyait une situation « rappelant la crise de 1999 », c’est-à-dire les bombardements. Des troubles au Kosovo pourraient s’étendre aux provinces serbes de Vojvodine et de Sandzak ainsi qu’à la vallée de Presevo. On peut lire plus loin : « Des manifestations de masse impliquant des heurts entre les forces modérées et les forces radicales ou avec la police pourraient conduire à la dissolution des structures étatiques ». Si les structures étatiques de la Serbie éclatent, l’UE, conformément à sa conception politique, pourrait endosser le rôle de stabilisateur et apporter une « assistance fraternelle ». Les « battle groups » ne servent pas à autre chose.

Examinons les événements prévisibles du printemps 2008. Aussi bien l’OTAN que les Albanais du Kosovo ont exclu catégoriquement de nouvelles négociations, comme le demandaient Belgrade et Moscou. Le 24 janvier, Hashim Thaci, ancien chef de l’organisation terroriste UÇK et depuis peu Premier ministre de la province du Kosovo, a annoncé que la déclaration formelle d’indépendance aurait lieu « d’ici quatre à cinq semaines ». Le lendemain, on pouvait lire dans l’International Herald Tribune —qui s’appuyait sur des sources diplomatiques— que « l’Allemagne et les USA [étaient] tombés d’accord pour reconnaître l’indépendance du Kosovo » et cela « après le second tour des élections présidentielles serbes du 3 février ». C’est ce dont Angela Merkel et George W. Bush étaient convenus. On peut supposer que la Chancelière CDU aura demandé conseil à son camarade de parti Willy Wimmer qui fut pendant de longues années Secrétaire d’État au ministère de la Défense sous Helmut Kohl.

Après la proclamation officielle de la « Republika kosova », les communes serbes situées au nord de l’Ibar vont sans doute affirmer leur fidélité à l’égard de la Serbie, donc leur non appartenance au nouvel État. On peut imaginer qu’alors des troupes armées des Albanais du Kosovo pénètrent dans les enclaves de la minorité, en particulier dans son bastion Nordmitrovica et répriment brutalement la résistance. Lors d’un semblable début de nettoyage ethnique à la mi-mars 2004, les terroristes skipetaris ont réussi à mobiliser une foule de 50 000 personnes. La violence de cette attaque n’a pu être freinée que parce que les soldats de la KFOR se sont opposés, au moins partiellement, aux extrémistes. Ils en ont tué huit. Dans la situation actuelle, il faut plutôt s’attendre à ce que la KFOR se comporte dans son ensemble comme naguère le contingent allemand au sein de la KFOR : on ferme les yeux et on laisse faire les terro­ristes. En 2004, dans le secteur d’occupation allemand autour de Prizren, toutes les églises et tous les couvents serbes ont été incendiés. Certes, depuis lors, les Serbes du Kosovo ont constitué des formations d’autodéfense dont la plus tapageuse est la Garde Zar-Lazar qui doit son nom à un héros de la bataille historique d’Amselfeld en 1389. Ces paramilitaires ont annoncé qu’ils lanceraient des mis­siles sur la base militaireétats-uniennee de Camp Bondsteel en cas de déclaration d’indépendance du Kosovo. Il est difficile de savoir s’il s’agit là d’une fanfaronnade ou d’un projet sérieux. Selon des connaisseurs de la région, il est possible que derrière l’étiquette de Zar Lazar se cache une bande de provocateurs de services secrets occidentaux.

Dans l’intérêt des pays membres de l’OTAN, la sécession de la province doit en tout cas faire le moins de vagues possibles et s’effectuer sans conflits militaires. On s’accommode des protestations diplomatiques de la Russie et même de petits pays de l’UE comme la Slovaquie, la Roumanie et ­Chypre. La Fondation Bertelsmann, proche du gouvernement, a, dans une étude de décembre 2007, mentionné l’exemple de Taiwan : On sait que cette république insulaire n’a été reconnue que par un petit nombre d’États et qu’elle n’a pas de siège aux Nations Unies mais qu’elle jouit depuis 60 ans d’une certaine stabilité et même d’une certaine prospérité. Le souhait des États membres de l’OTAN serait probablement que les Albanais du Kosovo, après la proclamation d’indépendance, renoncent à la violence à l’encontre de la minorité serbe et ne touchent pas, dans un premier temps, à leurs structures d’autoadministration dans le Nord. Si l’OTAN bloquait simultanément tous les liens avec la Serbie, les Serbes de Mitrovica n’auraient, à la longue, plus d’autre choix que de s’accommoder des nouveaux potentats autour de Hashim Thaci.

Cette stratégie de victoire soft des sécessionnistes pourrait cependant être contrecarrée assez facilement. La Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) exprimait ses craintes fin 2007 : « Les Serbes pourraient fermer le lac de barrage de Gazivodsko Jezero, situé dans la partie du Kosovo contrôlée par les Serbes et priver ainsi d’eau de nombreuses régions du Kosovo. Cela aurait des conséquences pour l’approvisionnement en électricité, déjà insuffisant, du Kosovo car l’eau de ce lac sert à refroidir les installations de la centrale à charbon, non loin de Pristina. » L’OTAN réagirait rapidement par la force contre cette opération relativement facile à mener : une troupe de paramilitaires suffirait à occuper le barrage. « On songe déjà, précise la FAZ, à faire intervenir la KFOR pour empêcher cela, mais alors le niveau de confrontation militaire que l’Occident voudrait justement éviter serait atteint ».

La Serbie peut riposter

Comment le gouvernement de Belgrade réagirait-il si les Albanais et des soldats de l’OTAN tiraient sur des Serbes ? Poursuivrait-il sa politique actuelle consistant à ne pas intervenir militairement ? C’est la tendance avant tout du parti gouvernemental le plus fort, celui des Démocrates (DS) autour du président Boris Tadic et du ministre de la Défense Dragan Sutanovac. Le petit parti de la coalition, le Parti démocrate de Serbie (DSS) du Premier ministre Vojislav Kostunica est un peu plus audacieux. Son conseiller Aleksandar Simic a déclaré expressément que ­chaque État avait le droit de recourir à la force des armes pour protéger son intégrité territoriale. Mais en cas de crise, c’est le Conseil de la Défense et le Président qui ont la haute main sur l’Armée, c’est-à-dire, en fait, Tadic. En conséquence, l’Occident n’aurait pas dû s’inquiéter... s’il n’y avait eu d’élection présidentielle. Le candidat du Parti radical (RS) ­Tomislav Nikolic avait de sérieuses chances d’être élu. En 2004 déjà, il avait mis Tadic en ballottage et avait été battu de peu. Indignée de l’imminente dissidence du Kosovo, une majorité de citoyens aurait pu l’élire cette fois. L’Armée serbe aurait alors été placée sous le haut commandement d’un homme politique qui plaide en faveur de l’établissement d’une base militaire russe dans le pays et dont le parti possédait sa propre milice au moment des guerres des années 1990.

Cette perspective a bouleversé le calendrier des sécessionnistes. Le Conseil européen voulait en fait décider le 28 janvier de l’envoi au Kosovo d’une troupe de quelque 2000 policiers —contre la volonté de Belgrade et donc contre le droit international, mais nécessaire pour sécuriser la sécession—. Mais comme le 28 janvier précèdait de peu le deuxième tour de l’élection présidentielle décisive du 3 février, cela aurait constitué une provocation favorable à Nikolic. La question a donc été différée. Bruxelles a, le même jour, offert un accord d’association à l’ancien État voyou et a renoncé avec bienveillance à la condition posée jusqu’ici, c’est-à-dire l’extradition des « criminels de guerre » Radovan Karadzic et Ratko Mladic. L’UE espèrait ainsi apporter à Tadic les voix dont il avait besoin. Il a finalement été élu de justesse.

Belgrade a actuellement le soutien de Madrid. Selon le quotidien serbe Express du 11 janvier, le Premier ministre José Zapatero aurait obtenu l’assurance d’autres gouvernements de l’UE que le Kosovo ne proclamerait pas son indépendance avant le 10 mars —donc quatre semaines après la date annoncée par Thaci— car le nouveau Parlement espagnol doit être élu à cette date. Le gouvernement socialiste veut ainsi empêcher les mouvements séparatistes espagnols d’utiliser le précédent balkanique comme argument dans la campagne, les Basques ayant déjà commencé à le faire. En réaction, la majorité des Espagnols pourrait alors être tentée de sanctionner les socialistes que l’opposition conservatrice accuse d’être trop indulgente à l’égard des régions désireuses de faire sécession. Ces retards de calendrier mettent toutefois à rude épreuve la patience des Albanais du Kosovo. On peut craindre qu’ils essaient de donner un coup de pouce à la décision diplomatique en se livrant à quelques actions violentes spectaculaires. On se demande comment les puissances membres de l’OTAN ... et les Russes réagiraient dans ce cas. Ces derniers élisent également ce printemps un nouveau président et tout candidat qui abandonnerait le frère slave devrait s’attendre à perdre des voix.

While the European Union and the US, have acknowledged that they would be "opposed" to a " unilateral" declaration of independence of Kosovo, the secession of Kosovo from Serbia is already de facto. It is part of  a US-NATO military agenda. It is the culmination of the 1999 NATO led invasion. It responds to US-NATO strategic objectives. 

Moreover, the "compromise" Ahtisaari Proposal under the helm of the former Finnish Prime Minister to establish a "multi-ethnic" Kosovar State has little to do with "national sovereignty" or "independence". It is a copy and paste replicate of the structures imposed on Bosnia-Herzegovina under the 1995 Dayton agreements. It essentially sustains the authority of the military occupation. Under proposed blueprint, all the major decisions pertaining to public spending, social programs, monetary and trading arrangements would remain in the hands of the NATO-UN occupation administration. 

The re-election of a "pro-Western" president Boris Tadic in the Serbian elections is likely to "legitimize" Kosovo's de facto secession. Boris Tadic's Democratic Party takes its orders from Washington. In 2000, it actively participated in the ousting of Slobodan Milosevic from the Serbian presidency. Moreover, Boris Tadic as Serbian president, is also the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. He is unlikely to act without consulting Washington and Brussels in the event of a unilateral declaration of independence. 

Since the 1999 NATO invasion, Kosovo has become a territory under foreign military rule. Kosovo remains under UN administration, In practice, however, it is under NATO military jurisdiction. Secession from Serbia would reinforce the control of the NATO-UN occupation authority.  

The civilian government of the province is headed by Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) (Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK in Albanian). Known for its extensive links to Albanian and European crime syndicates, the KLA was supported from the outset in the mid-1990s by the CIA and Germany's intelligence agency, the Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND). In the course of the 1999 war, the KLA was supported directly by NATO.  

Prime Minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaci, who now heads the Democratic Party of Kosovo  was known in the 1990s to be part of a crime syndicate, involved in drug trafficking and prostitution. During the Clinton administration, he was a protégé of Madeleine Albright. In the 1990s, Thaci founded the so-called "Drenica-Group", a criminal syndicate based in Kosovo, with links to the Albanian, Macedonian and Italian mafias. These links to criminal syndicates have been acknowledged both by Interpol and the US Congress. 

In 1997, the KLA was recognized by the U.S. as a terrorist organization linked to the drug trade. President Clinton's special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, described the KLA as, "without any questions, a terrorist group".

The Democratic Party of Kosovo is integrated by former members of a terrorist organization. It has maintained its links to organized crime. In fact, a large part of the political spectrum in Kosovo is dominated by former KLA members. Kosovo's previous prime minister Ramush Haradinaj and head of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, elected in 2004, is also a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army. In addition  to his links to organized crime, Hadadinaj was also indicted in 2005 for war crimes by the The Hague ICTY Tribunal. 

The NATO occupation of Kosovo responds to US foreign policy objectives. It secures a heavily militarized US zone of influence in Southern Europe. It ensures the militarization of strategic pipeline routes and transport corridors which link Western Europe to the Black Sea. It also protects the multibillion dollar heroin trade, which uses Kosovo and Albania as transit locations for the transshipment of Afghan produced heroin into Western Europe. 

Camp Bondsteel

Kosovo is home to one of America's largest military bases, Camp Bondsteel.  

Bondsteel was built on contract to the Pentagon by Halliburton, through its engineering subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR). Camp Bondsteel is considered to be "the largest and most expensive army base since Vietnam." with more than 6000 US troops.  

"Camp Bondsteel, the biggest “from scratch” foreign US military base since the Vietnam War  (...) It is located close to vital oil pipelines and energy corridors presently under construction, such as the US sponsored Trans-Balkan oil pipeline. As a result defence contractors—in particular Halliburton Oil subsidiary Brown & Root Services—are making a fortune.

In June 1999, in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of Yugoslavia, US forces seized 1,000 acres of farmland in southeast Kosovo at Uresevic, near the Macedonian border, and began the construction of a camp.

Camp Bondsteel is known as the “grand dame” in a network of US bases running both sides of the border between Kosovo and Macedonia. In less than three years it has been transformed from an encampment of tents to a self sufficient, high tech base-camp housing nearly 7,000 troops—three quarters of all the US troops stationed in Kosovo.

There are 25 kilometres of roads and over 300 buildings at Camp Bondsteel, surrounded by 14 kilometres of earth and concrete barriers, 84 kilometres of concertina wire and 11 watch towers. It is so big that it has downtown, midtown and uptown districts, retail outlets, 24-hour sports halls, a chapel, library and the best-equipped hospital anywhere in Europe. At present there are 55 Black Hawk and Apache helicopters based at Bondsteel and although it has no aircraft landing strip the location was chosen for its capacity to expand. There are suggestions that it could replace the US airforce base at Aviano in Italy. 

(See Paul Stuart, Camp Bondsteel and America’s plans to control Caspian oil, WSWS.org, April 2002, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/apr2002/oil-a29.shtml) 

Camp Bondsteel was not the outgrowth of a humanitarian or "Just War" on behalf of Kosovar Albanians. The construction of Camp Bondsteel had been envisaged well in advance of the bombings and invasion of Kosovo in 1999. 

The plans to build Camp Bondsteel under a lucrative multibillion dollar DoD contract with Halliburton's Texas based subsidiary KBR  were formulated while Dick Cheney was Halliburton's CEO. 

Construction of Camp Bondsteel was initiated shortly after the 1999 invasion under the Clinton administration. Construction was completed during the Bush administration, after Dick Cheney had resigned his position as Halliburton's CEO: 

 The US and NATO had advanced plans to bomb Yugoslavia before 1999, and many European political leaders now believe that the US deliberately used the bombing of Yugoslavia to establish camp Bondsteel in Kosovo.. According to Colonel Robert L. McCure, “Engineering planning for operations in Kosovo began months before the first bomb was dropped.” (See Lenora Foerstel, Global Research, January 2008)

One of the objectives underlying Camp Bondsteel was to protect the Albanian-Macedonian-Bulgarian Oil pipeline project (AMBO), which was to channel Caspian sea oil from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas to the Adriatic. 

Coincidentally, two years prior to the invasion, in 1997, a senior executive of `Brown & Root Energy, a subsidiary of Halliburton,  Edward L. (Ted) Ferguson had been appointed to head AMBO. The feasibility plans for the AMBO pipeline were also undertaken by Halliburton's engineering company, Kellog, Brown & Root Ltd.

The AMBO agreement for the 917-km long oil pipeline from Burgas to Valona, Albania, was signed in 2004. 

Criminalization of the State

The KLA was set up as a paramilitary group in the mid 1990s. It was a US-NATO sponsored insurgency. The objective was to destabilize and ultimately break up Yugoslavia. The KLA had extensive links to Al Qaeda, which was also involved in military training. Mujahideen mercenaries from a number of countries integrated the ranks of the KLA, which was involved in terrorist activities as well as political assassinations. 

In this context, what are the implications of the "Ahtisaari Plan." which envisages the formation of a separate multi-ethnic Kosovar State? 

The proposed Kosovar political setup is integrated by criminal elements. Western politicians are fully aware of the nature of the Kosovar political project, of which they are the architects. . 

We are not, however, dealing with the usual links of individual Western politicians to criminal syndicates. The relationship is far more sophisticated. Both the EU and the US are using criminal organizations and criminalized political parties in Kosovo to reach their military and foreign policy goals. The latter in turn support the interests of the oil companies and defense contractors, not to mention the multibillion dollar heroin trade out of Afghanistan.

At the institutional level, the US administration, the EU, NATO  and the UN are actually promoting the criminalization of the Kosovar State, which they control. In broad terms we are also dealing with the criminalization of US foreign policy. These criminal organizations and parties are created to ultimately serve US interests in Southern Europe.

Kosovo independence would formally transform Kosovo into an independent  mafia state, controlled by the Western military alliance. The territory of Kosovo would remain under US-NATO military jurisdiction. 

The 1999 NATO led Invasion of Kosovo

In 1999, many sectors of the Left both in North America and Western Europe were tacitly supportive of the NATO led invasion.  Many progressive organizations upheld what they perceived as "a humanitarian war" on behalf Kosovar Albanians. 

Media propaganda and disinformation contributed to distorting the real causes and consequences of the wars directed against the Yugoslav federation. 

The anti-war movement was in disarray. At the height of the NATO bombings, several "progressive" writers described the KLA as a bona fide nationalist  liberation army, committed to supporting the civil rights of Kosovar Albanians. 

The KLA, as confirmed by the OSCE observer mission to Kosovo in late 1998, had been involved in countless terrorist acts and atrocities directed against Serbian and Albanian civilians as well as minority groups in Kosovo.  

Without evidence, the Yugoslav government headed by president Slobodan Milosevic was presented as being responsible for triggering a humanitarian crisis in Kosovo. The alleged violation of human rights of ethnic Albanians was used as a pretext for the extensive bombing of Yugoslavia. In a cruel irony, the most intense bombing raids were carried out in Kosovo. A majority of the victims of these raids were Kosovar Albanians. 

The invasion and subsequent military occupation was upheld as a humanitarian endeavor, geared towards preventing ethnic cleansing in Kosovo directed against the Kosovar Albanians. The war on Yugoslavia was presented as a "Just War". by Professor Falk, a leading "progressive" intellectual endorsed  the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia on moral and ethical grounds: 

The Kosovo War was a just war because it was undertaken to avoid a likely instance of "ethnic cleansing" undertaken by the Serb leadership of former Yugoslavia, and it succeeded in giving the people of Kosovo an opportunity for a peaceful and democratic future. It was a just war despite being illegally undertaken without authorization by the United Nations, and despite being waged in a manner that unduly caused Kosovar and Serbian civilian casualties, while minimizing the risk of death or injury on the NATO side."

( http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2003/08/01_falk_interview.htm  )

Several progressive media condemned the "Milosevic regime", while expressing mitigated support for the KLA: 

Michel Chossudovsky, a professor of economics at the University of Ottawa, has set out the most meticulous frame-up in a piece entitled “Freedom Fighters Financed by Organised Crime”, which has been doing the internet circuit. Full of half-truths, assumptions and innuendoes about the KLA's alleged use of drug money, Chossudovsky's article seeks to discredit the KLA as a genuine liberation movement representing the aspirations of the oppressed Albanian majority.

(Michael Karadjis, Chossudovskys frame-up of the KLA, Green Left Review, http://mihalisk.blogspot.com/2005/08/chossudovskys-frame-up-of-kla-1999.html 

Nine years and two wars later, the Kosovo issue has re-emerged. It is an integral part of the broader military roadmap. It is intimately related to the post 9/11 US led wars in Central Asia and the Middle East. 

The Balkans constitute the gateway to Eurasia.  The 1999 invasion establishes a permanent US military presence in Southern Europe, which serves the broader US led war. Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq: these three theater wars were waged on humanitarian grounds. Without exception, in all three countries, US military bases were established. 

Below is my original April 1999 article on the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), published barely three weeks after the onslaught of the NATO bombings, almost nine years ago.  

Kosovo "Freedom Fighters" Financed by Organised Crime

Heralded by the global media as a humanitarian peace-keeping mission, NATO's ruthless bombing of Belgrade and Pristina goes far beyond the breach of international law. While Slobodan Milosevic is demonised, portrayed as a remorseless dictator, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) is upheld as a self-respecting nationalist movement struggling for the rights of ethnic Albanians. The truth of the matter is that the KLA is sustained by organised crime with the tacit approval of the United States and its allies.

Following a pattern set during the War in Bosnia, public opinion has been carefully misled. The multibillion dollar Balkans narcotics trade has played a crucial role in "financing the conflict" in Kosovo in accordance with Western economic, strategic and military objectives. Amply documented by European police files, acknowledged by numerous studies, the links of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to criminal syndicates in Albania, Turkey and the European Union have been known to Western governments and intelligence agencies since the mid-1990s.

" ... The financing of the Kosovo guerrilla war poses critical questions and it sorely tests claims of an "ethical" foreign policy. Should the West back a guerrilla army that appears to partly financed by organised crime."[1]

While KLA leaders were shaking hands with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at Rambouillet, Europol (the European Police Organization based in The Hague) was "preparing a report for European interior and justice ministers on a connection between the KLA and Albanian drug gangs."[2] In the meantime, the rebel army has been skillfully heralded by the global media (in the months preceding the NATO bombings) as broadly representative of the interests of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

With KLA leader Hashim Thaci (a 29 year "freedom fighter") appointed as chief negotiator at Rambouillet, the KLA has become the de facto helmsman of the peace process on behalf of the ethnic Albanian majority and this despite its links to the drug trade. The West was relying on its KLA puppets to rubber-stamp an agreement which would have transformed Kosovo into an occupied territory under Western Administration.

Ironically Robert Gelbard, America's special envoy to Bosnia, had described the KLA last year [1998] as "terrorists". Christopher Hill, America's chief negotiator and architect of the Rambouillet agreement, "has also been a strong critic of the KLA for its alleged dealings in drugs."[3] Moreover, barely a few two months before Rambouillet, the US State Department had acknowledged (based on reports from the US Observer Mission) the role of the KLA in terrorising and uprooting ethnic Albanians:

" ... the KLA harass or kidnap anyone who comes to the police, ... KLA representatives had threatened to kill villagers and burn their homes if they did not join the KLA [a process which has continued since the NATO bombings]... [T]he KLA harassment has reached such intensity that residents of six villages in the Stimlje region are "ready to flee."[4]

While backing a "freedom movement" with links to the drug trade, the West seems also intent in bypassing the civilian Kosovo Democratic League and its leader Ibrahim Rugova who has called for an end to the bombings and expressed his desire to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Yugoslav authorities.[5] It is worth recalling that a few days before his March 31 Press Conference, Rugova had been reported by the KLA (alongside three other leaders including Fehmi Agani) to have been killed by the Serbs.

Covert financing of "freedom fighters"

Remember Oliver North and the Contras? The pattern in Kosovo is similar to other CIA covert operations in Central America, Haiti and Afghanistan where "freedom fighters" were financed through the laundering of drug money. Since the onslaught of the Cold War, Western intelligence agencies have developed a complex relationship to the illegal narcotics trade. In case after case, drug money laundered in the international banking system has financed covert operations.

According to author Alfred McCoy, the pattern of covert financing was established in the Indochina war. In the 1960s, the Meo army in Laos was funded by the narcotics trade as part of Washington's military strategy against the combined forces of the neutralist government of Prince Souvanna Phouma and the Pathet Lao.[6]

The pattern of drug politics set in Indochina has since been replicated in Central America and the Caribbean. "The rising curve of cocaine imports to the US", wrote journalist John Dinges "followed almost exactly the flow of US arms and military advisers to Central America".[7]

The military in Guatemala and Haiti, to which the CIA provided covert support, were known to be involved in the trade of narcotics into Southern Florida. And as revealed in the Iran-Contra and Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI) scandals, there was strong evidence that covert operations were funded through the laundering of drug money. "Dirty money" recycled through the banking system--often through an anonymous shell company-- became "covert money," used to finance various rebel groups and guerrilla movements including the Nicaraguan Contras and the Afghan Mujahadeen. According to a 1991 Time magazine report:

"Because the US wanted to supply the mujehadeen rebels in Afghanistan with stinger missiles and other military hardware it needed the full cooperation of Pakistan. By the mid-1980s, the CIA operation in Islamabad was one of the largest US intelligence stations in the World. 'If BCCI is such an embarrassment to the US that forthright investigations are not being pursued it has a lot to do with the blind eye the US turned to the heroin trafficking in Pakistan', said a US intelligence officer."[8]

America and Germany join hands

Since the early 1990s, Bonn and Washington have joined hands in establishing their respective spheres of influence in the Balkans. Their intelligence agencies have also collaborated. According to intelligence analyst John Whitley, covert support to the Kosovo rebel army was established as a joint endeavour between the CIA and Germany's Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND) (which previously played a key role in installing a right-wing nationalist government under Franjo Tudjman in Croatia).[9] The task to create and finance the KLA was initially given to Germany: "They used German uniforms, East German weapons and were financed, in part, with drug money".[10] According to Whitley, the CIA was subsequently instrumental in training and equipping the KLA in Albania.[11]

The covert activities of Germany's BND were consistent with Bonn's intent to expand its "Lebensraum" into the Balkans. Prior to the onset of the civil war in Bosnia, Germany and its Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher had actively supported secession; it had "forced the pace of international diplomacy" and pressured its Western allies to recognize Slovenia and Croatia. According to the Geopolitical Drug Watch, both Germany and the US favoured (although not officially) the formation of a "Greater Albania" encompassing Albania, Kosovo and parts of Macedonia.[12] According to Sean Gervasi, Germany was seeking a free hand among its allies "to pursue economic dominance in the whole of Mitteleuropa."[13]

Islamic fundamentalism in support of the KLA

Bonn and Washington's "hidden agenda" consisted in triggering nationalist liberation movements in Bosnia and Kosovo with the ultimate purpose of destabilising Yugoslavia. The latter objective was also carried out "by turning a blind eye" to the influx of mercenaries and financial support from Islamic fundamentalist organisations.[14]

Mercenaries financed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had been fighting in Bosnia.[15] And the Bosnian pattern was replicated in Kosovo: Mujahadeen mercenaries from various Islamic countries are reported to be fighting alongside the KLA in Kosovo. German, Turkish and Afghan instructors were reported to be training the KLA in guerrilla and diversion tactics.[16]

According to a Deutsche Press-Agentur report, financial support from Islamic countries to the KLA had been channelled through the former Albanian chief of the National Information Service (NIS), Bashkim Gazidede.[17] "Gazidede, reportedly a devout Moslem who fled Albania in March of last year [1997], is presently [1998] being investigated for his contacts with Islamic terrorist organizations."[18]

The supply route for arming KLA "freedom fighters" are the rugged mountainous borders of Albania with Kosovo and Macedonia. Albania is also a key point of transit of the Balkans drug route which supplies Western Europe with grade four heroin. Seventy-five percent of the heroin entering Western Europe is from Turkey. And a large part of drug shipments originating in Turkey transits through the Balkans. According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), "it is estimated that 4-6 metric tons of heroin leave each month from Turkey having [through the Balkans] as destination Western Europe."[19] A recent intelligence report by Germany's Federal Criminal Agency suggests that: "Ethnic Albanians are now the most prominent group in the distribution of heroin in Western consumer countries."[20]

The laundering of dirty money

In order to thrive, the criminal syndicates involved in the Balkans narcotics trade need friends in high places. Smuggling rings with alleged links to the Turkish State are said to control the trafficking of heroin through the Balkans "cooperating closely with other groups with which they have political or religious ties" including criminal groups in Albanian and Kosovo.[21] In this new global financial environment, powerful undercover political lobbies connected to organized crime cultivate links to prominent political figures and officials of the military and intelligence establishment.

The narcotics trade nonetheless uses respectable banks to launder large amounts of dirty money. While comfortably removed from the smuggling operations per se, powerful banking interests in Turkey but mainly those in financial centres in Western Europe discretely collect fat commissions in a multibillion dollar money laundering operation. These interests have high stakes in ensuring a safe passage of drug shipments into Western European markets.

The Albanian connection

Arms smuggling from Albania into Kosovo and Macedonia started at the beginning of 1992, when the Democratic Party came to power, headed by President Sali Berisha. An expansive underground economy and cross border trade had unfolded. A triangular trade in oil, arms and narcotics had developed largely as a result of the embargo imposed by the international community on Serbia and Montenegro and the blockade enforced by Greece against Macedonia.

Industry and agriculture in Kosovo were spearheaded into bankruptcy following the IMF's lethal "economic medicine" imposed on Belgrade in 1990. The embargo was imposed on Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanians and Serbs were driven into abysmal poverty. Economic collapse created an environment which fostered the progress of illicit trade. In Kosovo, the rate of unemployment increased to a staggering 70 percent (according to Western sources).

Poverty and economic collapse served to exacerbate simmering ethnic tensions. Thousands of unemployed youths "barely out of their teens" from an impoverished population, were drafted into the ranks of the KLA ...[22]

In neighbouring Albania, the free market reforms adopted since 1992 had created conditions which favoured the criminalisation of state institutions. Drug money was also laundered in the Albanian pyramids (ponzi schemes) which mushroomed during the government of former President Sali Berisha (1992-1997).[23] These shady investment funds were an integral part of the economic reforms inflicted by Western creditors on Albania.

Drug barons in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia (with links to the Italian Mafia) had become the new economic elites, often associated with Western business interests. In turn the financial proceeds of the trade in drugs and arms were recycled towards other illicit activities (and vice versa) including a vast prostitution racket between Albania and Italy. Albanian criminal groups operating in Milan, "have become so powerful running prostitution rackets that they have even taken over the Calabrians in strength and influence."[24]

The application of "strong economic medicine" under the guidance of the Washington based Bretton Woods institutions had contributed to wrecking Albania's banking system and precipitating the collapse of the Albanian economy. The resulting chaos enabled American and European transnationals to carefully position themselves. Several Western oil companies including Occidental, Shell and British Petroleum had their eyes riveted on Albania's abundant and unexplored oil-deposits. Western investors were also gawking Albania's extensive reserves of chrome, copper, gold, nickel and platinum.... The Adenauer Foundation had been lobbying in the background on behalf of German mining interests.[25]

Berisha's Minister of Defence Safet Zoulali (alleged to have been involved in the illegal oil and narcotics trade) was the architect of the agreement with Germany's Preussag (handing over control over Albania's chrome mines) against the competing bid of the US led consortium of Macalloy Inc. in association with Rio Tinto Zimbabwe (RTZ).[26]

Large amounts of narco-dollars had also been recycled into the privatisation programmes leading to the acquisition of state assets by the mafias. In Albania, the privatisation programme had led virtually overnight to the development of a property owning class firmly committed to the "free market". In Northern Albania, this class was associated with the Guegue "families" linked to the Democratic Party.

Controlled by the Democratic Party under the presidency of Sali Berisha (1992-97), Albania's largest financial "pyramid" VEFA Holdings had been set up by the Guegue "families" of Northern Albania with the support of Western banking interests. VEFA was under investigation in Italy in 1997 for its ties to the Mafia which allegedly used VEFA to launder large amounts of dirty money.[27]

According to one press report (based on intelligence sources), senior members of the Albanian government during the presidency of Sali Berisha including cabinet members and members of the secret police SHIK were alleged to be involved in drugs trafficking and illegal arms trading into Kosovo:

"(...) The allegations are very serious. Drugs, arms, contraband cigarettes all are believed to have been handled by a company run openly by Albania's ruling Democratic Party, Shqiponja (...). In the course of 1996 Defence Minister, Safet Zhulali [was alleged] to had used his office to facilitate the transport of arms, oil and contraband cigarettes. (...) Drugs barons from Kosovo (...) operate in Albania with impunity, and much of the transportation of heroin and other drugs across Albania, from Macedonia and Greece en route to Italy, is believed to be organised by Shik, the state security police (...). Intelligence agents are convinced the chain of command in the rackets goes all the way to the top and have had no hesitation in naming ministers in their reports."[28]

The trade in narcotics and weapons was allowed to prosper despite the presence since 1993 of a large contingent of American troops at the Albanian-Macedonian border with a mandate to enforce the embargo. The West had turned a blind eye. The revenues from oil and narcotics were used to finance the purchase of arms (often in terms of direct barter): "Deliveries of oil to Macedonia (skirting the Greek embargo [in 1993-4] can be used to cover heroin, as do deliveries of kalachnikov rifles to Albanian 'brothers' in Kosovo".[29]

The Northern tribal clans or "fares" had also developed links with Italy's crime syndicates.[30] In turn, the latter played a key role in smuggling arms across the Adriatic into the Albanian ports of Dures and Valona. At the outset in 1992, the weapons channelled into Kosovo were largely small arms including Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles, RPK and PPK machine-guns, 12.7 calibre heavy machine-guns, etc.

The proceeds of the narcotics trade has enabled the KLA to rapidly develop a force of some 30,000 men. More recently, the KLA has acquired more sophisticated weaponry including anti-aircraft and anti-armor rockets. According to Belgrade, some of the funds have come directly from the CIA "funnelled through a so-called 'Government of Kosovo' based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its Washington office employs the public-relations firm of Ruder Finn--notorious for its slanders of the Belgrade government".[31]

The KLA has also acquired electronic surveillance equipment which enables it to receive NATO satellite information concerning the movement of the Yugoslav Army. The KLA training camp in Albania is said to "concentrate on heavy weapons training--rocket propelled grenades, medium caliber cannons, tanks and transporter use, as well as on communications, and command and control". (According to Yugoslav government sources).[32]

These extensive deliveries of weapons to the Kosovo rebel army were consistent with Western geopolitical objectives. Not surprisingly, there has been a "deafening silence" of the international media regarding the Kosovo arms-drugs trade. In the words of a 1994 Report of the Geopolitical Drug Watch: "the trafficking [of drugs and arms] is basically being judged on its geostrategic implications (...) In Kosovo, drugs and weapons trafficking is fuelling geopolitical hopes and fears"...[33]

The fate of Kosovo had already been carefully laid out prior to the signing of the 1995 Dayton agreement. NATO had entered an unwholesome "marriage of convenience" with the mafia. "Freedom fighters" were put in place, the narcotics trade enabled Washington and Bonn to "finance the Kosovo conflict" with the ultimate objective of destabilising the Belgrade government and fully recolonising the Balkans. The destruction of an entire country is the outcome. Western governments which participated in the NATO operation bear a heavy burden of responsibility in the deaths of civilians, the impoverishment of both the ethnic Albanian and Serbian populations and the plight of those who were brutally uprooted from towns and villages in Kosovo as a result of the bombings.

Notes:

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