BUNGLING IN BALKANS REVEALED
In a conflict, good guys and bad guys aren't always
clearly defined
By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Sun Media
http://www.canoe.ca/CalgaryNews/908n1.html
For those interested in knowing how the Balkans got that
way -- Bosnia and Kosovo -- a rare, three-part TV documentary
concludes tomorrow evening on the History Channel.
Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War is a product of New York's
Frontier Theatre and Film Inc., co-produced by George Bogdanich and
German TV producer Martin Lettmayer.
Four years in the making, the documentary has been amended
as events unfolded, including the Kosovo war and its effects,
and was judged the Best Social Documentary at the New York
International Independent Film and Video Festival.
There is a minimum of editorializing or unsubstantiated
comment in the documentary -- unusual for a topic as volatile,
controversial and emotional as the Balkans.
The segment on Kosovo is of special interest to Canadians,
since we joined the war because the U.S. wanted a united front,
not because we had a clue what was going on, or why.
Canada's former ambassador to Yugoslavia, James Bissett,
argued against the war, and history is proving him right. Truth
in Kosovo -- the Balkans -- is cloaked in half-truths and propaganda.
The documentary shows Madeleine Albright, first as UN
ambassador and later as U.S. Secretary of State, not only opposing
Serbs, but mindlessly endorsing Bosnia and eager for war in
Kosovo. She hand-picked Canada's Louise Arbour to be war crimes
prosecutor, who had no experience with the Balkans and
tended to believe every atrocity claimed by the Muslims.
Video footage shows Albright rejecting evidence that
Bosnians bombed or mortared their own people, then blaming the
Serbs in order to persuade NATO to attack the Serbs -- a ploy as
ancient as warfare itself, and repeatedly proven both in Bosnia
and Kosovo.
The supposed massacre at Racak, in Kosovo, which lit the
fuse for the 78-day air war, has been shown to be a hoax -- dead
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighters (since given military
funerals) were arranged in a gully to appear as if massacred,
complete with mutilations and torture -- proclaimed by both Albright and
Clinton.
President George Bush (Dubya's dad) was also captive of
anti-Serb mania, perhaps because the Bosnian and Kosovo sides hired
New York public relations firm Ruder-Fenn. Serbs were too dumb
to do likewise.
Retired U.S. generals were actively involved in advising
and guiding both Bosnians and Croats against Serbs of Krajina,
massacring and "ethnically cleansing" some 300,000 of them
in Operation Storm -- mindful of Desert Storm (the same
planners).
To his credit, Canada's General Alain Forand defied orders
in efforts to save Serb refugees in Knin from massacre.
In conflicts, we -- the allies -- like good guys and bad
guys to be clearly defined.
Who is right, who is wrong; who are victims, who villains.
White hats versus black hats.
The Balkans don't work that way. The tragedy of the Serbs
(apart from having Milosevic as president) is that their public
relations was so inept that they were effectively demonized.
From the start, Croatia got clandestine help and weaponry
from the U.S. and Germany, despite reviving Nazi symbols (checkerboard
flag) of the Ustashe.
The West conveniently forgot -- and wasn't reminded --
that Serbs were first to fight the Nazis in Yugoslavia and at
enormous risk saved downed Allied airmen in the Second World War.
In Kosovo, after the Second World War, 80% of the Serb
population was pushed out by Albanians. Post-war Albania was the
world's most paranoid country -- too recalcitrant for even the Red
Chinese.
KLA atrocities to incite reprisals by Yugoslav security
forces in turn incited anti-Serb reaction from the U.S. --
overriding European reluctance to get involved. The U.S. pushed NATO
from being a defensive alliance into an aggressive one.
Interviewed in the documentary are the likes of Lord
Carrington, Lord Owen, the New York Times' wise David Binder (with
laser-like insight about the Balkans), Generals Lew MacKenzie and
Britain's General Sir Michael Rose (whose proof that Muslim
atrocities against Muslims in order to blame Serbs was ignored).
In a perfect world, what the U.S. and NATO did in the
Balkans might constitute a war crime.
But the international tribunal in the Hague is winners
against losers; a conspiracy of silence among 19 NATO belligerents
guarantees protection.
What's done is done, but have lessons been learned?
Doubtful.
So far, some 2,100 bodies have been recovered in Kosovo
(no mass graves), while the Red Cross lists 3,368 missing among all
ethnic groups -- a far cry from the 100,000 dead initially
announced by U.S./NATO. Canada's former ambassador Bissett put it
succinctly and sadly:
"There's no question that Kosovo was an unnecessary war
... an attempt to bomb Yugoslavia into submission that should be
of concern to all people ... We have the United States as a
very powerful military force that no longer sees diplomacy and
negotiation as worth their while."
In retrospect, if Yugoslavia had been left alone, Balkan
people would have worked things out with fewer casualties, less
misery and more hope for the future.
The U.S. blew it -- as it often does when it dabbles in
areas it knows nothing about.
Worthington is founding editor of the Toronto Sun
--------------------------------------------------
/for fair use only/
In a conflict, good guys and bad guys aren't always
clearly defined
By PETER WORTHINGTON -- Sun Media
http://www.canoe.ca/CalgaryNews/908n1.html
For those interested in knowing how the Balkans got that
way -- Bosnia and Kosovo -- a rare, three-part TV documentary
concludes tomorrow evening on the History Channel.
Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War is a product of New York's
Frontier Theatre and Film Inc., co-produced by George Bogdanich and
German TV producer Martin Lettmayer.
Four years in the making, the documentary has been amended
as events unfolded, including the Kosovo war and its effects,
and was judged the Best Social Documentary at the New York
International Independent Film and Video Festival.
There is a minimum of editorializing or unsubstantiated
comment in the documentary -- unusual for a topic as volatile,
controversial and emotional as the Balkans.
The segment on Kosovo is of special interest to Canadians,
since we joined the war because the U.S. wanted a united front,
not because we had a clue what was going on, or why.
Canada's former ambassador to Yugoslavia, James Bissett,
argued against the war, and history is proving him right. Truth
in Kosovo -- the Balkans -- is cloaked in half-truths and propaganda.
The documentary shows Madeleine Albright, first as UN
ambassador and later as U.S. Secretary of State, not only opposing
Serbs, but mindlessly endorsing Bosnia and eager for war in
Kosovo. She hand-picked Canada's Louise Arbour to be war crimes
prosecutor, who had no experience with the Balkans and
tended to believe every atrocity claimed by the Muslims.
Video footage shows Albright rejecting evidence that
Bosnians bombed or mortared their own people, then blaming the
Serbs in order to persuade NATO to attack the Serbs -- a ploy as
ancient as warfare itself, and repeatedly proven both in Bosnia
and Kosovo.
The supposed massacre at Racak, in Kosovo, which lit the
fuse for the 78-day air war, has been shown to be a hoax -- dead
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighters (since given military
funerals) were arranged in a gully to appear as if massacred,
complete with mutilations and torture -- proclaimed by both Albright and
Clinton.
President George Bush (Dubya's dad) was also captive of
anti-Serb mania, perhaps because the Bosnian and Kosovo sides hired
New York public relations firm Ruder-Fenn. Serbs were too dumb
to do likewise.
Retired U.S. generals were actively involved in advising
and guiding both Bosnians and Croats against Serbs of Krajina,
massacring and "ethnically cleansing" some 300,000 of them
in Operation Storm -- mindful of Desert Storm (the same
planners).
To his credit, Canada's General Alain Forand defied orders
in efforts to save Serb refugees in Knin from massacre.
In conflicts, we -- the allies -- like good guys and bad
guys to be clearly defined.
Who is right, who is wrong; who are victims, who villains.
White hats versus black hats.
The Balkans don't work that way. The tragedy of the Serbs
(apart from having Milosevic as president) is that their public
relations was so inept that they were effectively demonized.
From the start, Croatia got clandestine help and weaponry
from the U.S. and Germany, despite reviving Nazi symbols (checkerboard
flag) of the Ustashe.
The West conveniently forgot -- and wasn't reminded --
that Serbs were first to fight the Nazis in Yugoslavia and at
enormous risk saved downed Allied airmen in the Second World War.
In Kosovo, after the Second World War, 80% of the Serb
population was pushed out by Albanians. Post-war Albania was the
world's most paranoid country -- too recalcitrant for even the Red
Chinese.
KLA atrocities to incite reprisals by Yugoslav security
forces in turn incited anti-Serb reaction from the U.S. --
overriding European reluctance to get involved. The U.S. pushed NATO
from being a defensive alliance into an aggressive one.
Interviewed in the documentary are the likes of Lord
Carrington, Lord Owen, the New York Times' wise David Binder (with
laser-like insight about the Balkans), Generals Lew MacKenzie and
Britain's General Sir Michael Rose (whose proof that Muslim
atrocities against Muslims in order to blame Serbs was ignored).
In a perfect world, what the U.S. and NATO did in the
Balkans might constitute a war crime.
But the international tribunal in the Hague is winners
against losers; a conspiracy of silence among 19 NATO belligerents
guarantees protection.
What's done is done, but have lessons been learned?
Doubtful.
So far, some 2,100 bodies have been recovered in Kosovo
(no mass graves), while the Red Cross lists 3,368 missing among all
ethnic groups -- a far cry from the 100,000 dead initially
announced by U.S./NATO. Canada's former ambassador Bissett put it
succinctly and sadly:
"There's no question that Kosovo was an unnecessary war
... an attempt to bomb Yugoslavia into submission that should be
of concern to all people ... We have the United States as a
very powerful military force that no longer sees diplomacy and
negotiation as worth their while."
In retrospect, if Yugoslavia had been left alone, Balkan
people would have worked things out with fewer casualties, less
misery and more hope for the future.
The U.S. blew it -- as it often does when it dabbles in
areas it knows nothing about.
Worthington is founding editor of the Toronto Sun
--------------------------------------------------
/for fair use only/