| BALKANIA.NET | Premier Balkan Source for Investigative Journalism Resources |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dr Rajko Dolecek
I ACCUSE!
PRAGUE, March 1999
Published in QUESTIONS AND OPINIONS Library, Volume 3
CONTENTS
Introduction
Critical Comments on the Myths about the European Union, NATO and the USA
The European Community Fomented The War In Bosnia
Serbia Must Be Brought To Its Knees (Klaus Kinkel. May 24th, 1992)
How Was The Destruction Of Yugoslavia Financed - A Contribution To The Problem
A Crime Against Humanity
The Anti-Serb Attitudes Of President Vaclav Havel
The Child As A Victim Of Pharisaism
Hypocrisy And Refugees
Nato Destroys The Infrastructure Of The Republika Srpska
Three Explosions In Sarajevo - An Orgy Of Disinformation
Western Secret Services And Markale II
PR Agencies As Factories For Disinformation In The Usa
"Death Camps" As An American And European Media Hit
"Rape Camps" - Where The Incredible Number Of Rape Victims Came From
Propaganda And Death Tolls
The Lies And Disinformations Are Being Repeated
The Vance-Owen Plan - Ignorance And Deceptions At That Time
Fundamental Disinformation
Safe Areas In Bosnia-Herzegovina And Their Misuse
The Tuzla And Bihac Safe Areas, USA And EU Hypocrisy, Nato Misuse
The American Political War Crimes Tribunal In The Hague
Selective Justice In The Hague - The German Involvement In The Malpractices Of The Hague Tribunal
About Hypocrisy And Double Standards
Who Is Spreading Disinformation, Who Is Telling All The Lies
Disinformations And France
The European Union And The Serb Pensioners
The Bankruptcy of the Western Democracy in Bosnia-Herzegovina - SFOR Becomes an Army of Occupation
Inventory Of Hypocrisy
General Michael Rose Was Bugged By Americans In Bosnia
Kosovo And Two Dirty Doctrines - The Brezhnev And The Albright Doctrines
Kosovo: Too Many Cooks, Too Many Disinformations, Too Much Arrogance, Ignorance, And Even Stupidity
The End Of August 1998 In Kosovo
The Arrogance And Disinformation Fair In Kosovo
Autumn 1998 In Kosovo
New Horrible Crimes Against The Civilian Population
A Few Examples Of Double Standards In Kosovo
The Official Germany As The Enemy Number One
The Czech President Mr. Vaclav Havel Did Not Disappoint His Mentors
What Is Chucpe
How Many Albanian Police Forces Will Exist In Kosovo?
The World Can't Afford The Existence Of Another Albania
Is There A Way Out - Who Is Prolonging The Tragedy Of Kosovo?
Will The New World Order Corrupt The Competent Western Judiciary?
The Kingdom Of Disinformations In Kosovo: The Racak Affair
Here Speaks Mr. Jenkins - He Is Not A Partisan Journalist
Finale Of The Yugoslav (Serb) Tragedy
The Conference At Rambouillet (February 6-16,1999)
Henry Kissinger's Misgivings About The American Policy In Kosovo
Final Words
Introduction
One hundred years ago, at the beginning of 1898, the classical text by Emil Zola I ACCUSE appeared in France, in connection with the unfair trial and sentence by the corrupt French judiciary of captain Alfred Dreyfus who was later rehabilitated.
I ACCUSE appears now in 1998 to demonstrate the dirty role of the West played in Yugoslavia, against the Serbian nation, during the civil-ethnic-religious war, where nobody was innocent, during the present tragic events in Kosovo and Metohia. They were provoked by an unprecedented and criminal interference and meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign state Yugoslavia by the West, where disinformations, ignorance, venality and arrogance were temporarily victorious over justice, historical experiences and old, trusted friendships.
Rajko DOLECEK, M.D., DSc,
University Professor of Medicine
Critical Comments on the Myths about the European Union, NATO and the USA
For several years now domestic statesmen, politicians and commentators and the media in general have, apart from isolated exceptions, been falling over themselves to outline the merits of the European Union, (the EU, formerly known as the European Community, the EC) and NATO, stressing the advantages and necessity of our entry into these Euro-Atlantic structures. Hardly anyone, however, has mentioned their gross errors, the criminal conduct and acts of selfishness which they have committed over recent years. A shining example of this is their intervention and interference in events in the former Yugoslavia. The media, too, played an important role in the negative conduct of these structures, particularly its too frequent lack of professionalism and its complete one-sidedness; this was the result of a fundamental ignorance of history and the facts, sometimes to a degree that was almost embarrassing, of a reliance on the prevailing rumours, of financial interest, of a frequently intentional effort to spread disinformation and to disseminate downright lies and of an unconditional support for the trends of their own governments even to the point of forcing their ideas on governments and the public. Here it is appropriate to mention the substantial Arab interests in the media of the West (e.g. CNN, a number of British magazines). Our acceptance of propaganda and disinformation as the truth was partly caused by the fact that the disinformation was brought to us by sources of information which we had believed for decades: BBC, Voice of America, Free Europe, Deutsche Welle, RFI etc. Far too often the Czech media refused to publish reports and ideas which did not conform to the established clichés about events in former Yugoslavia. In the middle of April 1993 the French Ministry for Foreign Affairs reported bloody man-to-man battles in the streets of Srebrenica. Influenced by this the headlines of the London-based Sunday Times on 18th April exclaimed "Hand-to-hand street fighting in Srebrenica as UN rescue blocked". Yet this was not the case, as no Bosnian Serb units had even entered Srebrenica at that time. The American State Department was keen on big numbers and regarded itself as all-powerful. At the end of 1992 and again in January 1993 it was declaring that up to 70,000 people were being held in various Serb camps (often described as "extermination" and "concentration" camps). At that time the International Red Cross placed the total number of prisoners in Croatian, Muslim and Serb camps at around 10,000. As the American commentator P. Block stated in the prestigious American magazine "Foreign Policy" (Dateline Yugoslavia: The partisan Press. Winter 1993-94, number 93, pp. 153-173), at the end of January State Department staff quietly admitted that this was a technical error, that one naught had been added "by mistake": it should have been 7,000 and not 70,000. And in January 1993 those 70,000 garnished the descriptions of the wrongs committed by the Serbs in the eminent New York Times, Associated Press etc. Who to believe then?!
The fundamental criminal act of the West and its media in relation to events in former Yugoslavia was the utter one-sidedness, the double standard and the heaping of guilt on the Serb side alone, when nobody was guiltless in that civil-ethnic-religious war. The official West and its press, which formally fights all forms of racism, did not hesitate to use even vulgar forms of anti-Serb racist propaganda to demonise the Serb nation - this included unintelligent, insulting caricatures in such renowned magazines as Le Monde, Independent, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor etc, etc. If these respected magazines and their reporters, CNN and many statesmen had said Jew or Black instead of Serb, the entire world would have certainly accused them of racism. The wise precept that it is necessary to hear both sides (audiatur et altera pars) was entirely ignored by the West's attitude to events in Yugoslavia. When the author visited Dr. Radovan Karadzic (1996) and discussed with him this shameful approach of the West, he told him laconically:
"It is unbelievable how the western media described us in their absolutely one-sided, tendentious reports: out of ignorance and for money."
THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY FOMENTED THE WAR IN BOSNIA
Many examples can be found of immoral and selfish conduct by the EU, NATO and the United States in the Yugoslav tragedy. We have chosen a few. To start with we shall take as a motto the words of A. M. Rosenthal, one of the few American journalists who were not afraid to tell the truth (A Solution for Bosnia. New York Times, 26th September 1997):
"By sending its troops into Bosnia, America accepted and became the only prop of a Western European policy that ignited the Bosnian war and helped keep it going for six hideous years."
For many, many years now there have existed fundamental criteria for recognising the government of a (new) state, e.g. control over its entire territory. Rights of minorities guaranteed by the constitution etc. Treaties on non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states and on the inviolability and unchangeability (by violence) of their borders were signed in Helsinki and Paris. Even earlier this was guaranteed by the UN Charter. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) also guaranteed this. And in Yugoslavia the European Community (EC) rode roughshod over all of this, under unprecedented pressure from its richest member, Germany, which accounted for roughly 30% of its budget. Not only did Germany support by every possible means and over many years secessionist circles in Croatia and Slovenia, to a considerable degree it even enabled them illegally to aim themselves, along with Austria, Italy, Hungary, and with the financial and moral support of the Vatican. The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) worked closely with the Ustasha emigration. A major part in this was played by the now foreign minister Klaus Kinkel, as director of BND during the four critical years around Tito's death (1979-1982). The activity of BND during those years is described by former Bundeswehr officer E. Schmidt Eenboom in his book "Warrior in the Shadows: Klaus Kinkel and BND" (ECON, Dusseldorf, 1995, pp. 211-237). That is why Klaus Kinkel's present day speeches on preserving peace and the unity of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BH) have an extremely hypocritical ring to them.
The European Union's unforgivable transgression was to agree to give premature recognition to Croatia and Slovenia in Maastricht (17th December 1991), under pressure from Germany and the Vatican. Although a large majority of EC was originally against it, German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher's tough line and threat of the consequences of disunity and limitation of financial resources compelled the other members of EC to agree to premature recognition on 15th January 1992. This resulted in the later premature recognition, contrary to all previously acknowledged criteria, of BH on 6th April 1992. Europe and the USA thereby gave an unprecedented boost to the spread of war in the former Yugoslavia and thus indirectly caused the suffering of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of BH, Croats, Muslims and Serbs. Europe bought its "unity" dishonestly, selfishly, at the cost of the suffering of thousands of others. Hans-Dietrich Genscher should therefore be awarded the title of enemy of peace number 1 - or criminal against peace number 1. Few people were then (1991-92) aware of the impact of this artfully forced premature recognition. As soon as they were recognised as independent states by the EC, Croatia, Slovenia and BH were speedily recognised. under pressure from the USA, by the United Nations, whereby they gained the right to international aid that is to say, not only to the "covert" aid from their original sponsors, Germany, Austria etc. And those who, though entirely legitimately, spoke out against this in order to prevent a repetition of the genocide of their nation after the bad experiences of the Second World War were branded as criminals, aggressors, fascists. This all took place with substantial assistance from the western media. The subsequent admission of this criminal error and apportioning of the blame for this by eminent statesmen (P. Carrington, B. B. Ghali, P. de Cuellar, C. Vance, R Dumas, H. Kissinger, W. Christopher etc.) came too late to help. Yugoslavia had been made the victim of a crime equal to that of the Munich Agreement and the break-up of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Only fools and hypocrites can claim that the world committed a new Munich against BH, which was created out of the unlawful break-up of multiethnic Yugoslavia. It is ironic that Yugoslavia was broken up in 1991-92 by the same states which disrupted it in 1941, i.e. Nazi Germany + Austria, fascist Italy and Hungary, but now operating as formally democratic states, however.
Mr. Warren Zimmermann, the last American ambassador in Belgrade before Yugoslavia was dismembered, did not like the Serbs and, with his activities, he helped a lot to disintegrate that county - and thus contributed very much to the tragedy of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially when in spring 1992, surely on the orders from Washington, he persuaded president Izetbegovic to cancel his signature on the agreement about the peaceful settlement of crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH) (in Brussels and Lisbon). In spite of his firm support to Slovenia, he nevertheless wrote about the Slovenes in his article "Origins of a Catastrophe" (Foreign Affairs, March/April 1995): "Their virtue was democracy and their vice was selfishness. In their drive to separate from Yugoslavia, they simply ignored the 22 million of Yugoslavs who were not Slovenes... Contrary to the general view, it was the Slovenes who started the war. (The data about the losses during "the war in Slovenia" in June 91). They do not bear the generally held assumption that the Yugoslav army waged an extermination campaign in Slovenia..."
And what to say now about all those incredible lies and disinformations at the end of June '91, spread so "successfully" by the Slovenes and the western media? Otherwise, the Zimmermann's article is full of inaccuracies and fabrications, good for those whose knowledge about Yugoslavia is utterly superficial.
SERBIA MUST BE BROUGHT TO ITS KNEES (Klaus Kinkel. 24th May, 1992)
It was this sentence that Klaus Kinkel let slip on 24th May 92 in the presence of journalists. Later, a German journalist Mr. M. Thumann wrote about this sentence in the German newspaper die ZEIT: The War Reporters' War (2nd September 94):
"It was probably not until later that he (Klaus Kinkel) realized how fatally he had recalled the notorious comments by emperor Wilhelm II (of Germany) on the report of the German ambassador to Vienna in 1914: "The Serbs must be dealt with as soon as possible!" At the beginning of Mr. Thumann's article, the following is to be remembered: -"In the Balkan conflict there are many truths, and it is hard to find the right one. Not all Western media take this effort, some of them reporting according to the motto: -'To hell with facts, as long as the myth of the enemy works." (from the book: Serbia must die, page 196 97- see later).
Maybe that Mr. Kinkel, Mr. Genscher, Mr. Reissmuller, et consortes are still obsessed with an inferiority complex as the Germans, because the Serbian army, regardless of its huge losses, helped substantially its allies to defeat Germany twice in the recent history, during the two big wars. That army was repeatedly praised, glorified for its courage, self-sacrifice and endurance. The American foreign secretary Robert Lansing expressed it with the following words (1918):
"When the history of this war will be written, its most glorious chapter will be called Serbia. The Serbian army with its courage made miracles, and the Serbian nation suffered incredible hardships. Such self-sacrifice and endurance cannot pass unnoticed - they must be rewarded."
And the Serbian nation was "rewarded" by its allies with whom Serbia fought in two World Wars against their enemies. This "reward" meant a lot of lies and a lot of suffering for the whole nation.
HOW WAS THE DESTRUCTION OF YUGOSLAVIA FINANCED - A CONTRIBUTION TO THE PROBLEM
During a symposium on the Balkan war (Yugoslavia:Past and present) in Chicago (31st August - 1st September 95), Mr. T. W. (Bill) Carr, associate publisher, Defence & Foreign Affairs publications, gave some very interesting details about the financing of the Croatian armed secession in 1991: "German and US involvement in the Balkans: A careful coincidence of national policies?"
Even before the armed secession of Croatia, still during the existence of the former Yugoslavia, Croatia received on 4th October 1990 a huge clandestine and interest-free loan of 2 billion US dollars, repayable in 10 years and one day. The loan was provided by the Ancient Order of Roman Catholic Knights of Saint John of Malta whose HQ is presently in Rome. From there those modern catholic knights influence the world financial system. There is a close connection between their HQ in Rome and Germany - it is gossiped that the above organization is directed by the Germans. The condition of the loan was that the money could not be used for military purposes. On the other side that huge loan enabled Croatia to transfer its own funds from various domestic projects to buy arms and all kinds of military equipment... Mr. "Bill" Carr told the audience the names of the signatories, the high ranking officials of the Croatian Republic. When the Croatian embassy in Washington in 1994 informed Mr. Carr that it had no knowledge of such a loan, he informed them that he was able to show them a complete copy of the agreement about the loan ("Object du Financement").
The Croatian bishops sent on 1st February 91 an open letter to the bishops of the world, and to the whole catholic church. They stated that the orthodox church was trying to preserve socialism of the communist type in Yugoslavia, that the Serb controlled Yugoslav army is centralist, that they were opposing the western cultural and political traditions, that the Croats were anti-communist democrats aligned with western values, culture and free-market economy, etc. The above outrageous calumnies became the driving force behind the US and European Community policy in Yugoslavia... At the end of 1997 a shocking scandal appeared about the funds of the ustasha (about 150 million Swiss franks) concealed by Vatican at the end of war (1945). A part of it was allegedly later gradually distributed to various ustasha centres around the world. The "rat channels" must be remembered here with the help of which a part of the catholic clergy helped to bring into safety the most notorious ustasha and nazi criminals to the Latin America, Australia, Spain...
Pope John Paul II met the Croatian president Mr. F. Tudjman in an official audience on 25th May 91, just one month before the Croatian armed secession. In the same way, just 50 years ago, Pope Pius XII met the fascist ustasha leader Ante Pavelic (on 18th May 1941), after occupation of Yugoslavia by Germany and Italy, when the ustasha of Pavelic, with the help of a part of catholic clergy, were slaughtering thousands of Serbs in the so called "Independent State of Croatia."
A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
The major crime against humanity and against the people of the Yugoslav Federal Republic (Serbia + Montenegro, FRY), against the Serbs from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Krajina was the suspension, i.e. expulsion, of the Yugoslav Republic from the World Health Organisation at the start of May 1993. This move was initiated by Denmark who then chaired the European Council. The WHO thus became an instrument of extortion and punishment. As a result of this thousands of babies, children, old people, chronically ill people, diabetics died in the Yugoslav Republic and in the Serb Republic (the Serb part of BH). Denmark, which always presented itself and presents itself as a defender of human rights and the rights of the child thus formally became, on the instruction of the masters of the New World Order, the initiator of the death of thousands of human beings, of genocide almost. The thoughtlessness of expelling the Yugoslav Republic from the WHO was aggravated further by the draconian sanctions against the Yugoslav Republic imposed by the Security Council on 30th May 1992 (resolution 757) as a result of the provocation of the Muslim authorities in Sarajevo on 27th May 1992 (the stage-managed explosion in the bread queue in Vase Miskina street). All supplies of raw materials to the well-developed pharmaceutical industry of the Yugoslav Republic for production of medicines were immediately suspended.
THE ANTI-SERB ATTITUDES OF PRESIDENT VACLAV HAVEL
The traditional friendship between the Czechs and the Serbs was seriously damaged during the recent (1991-96) tragic events in Yugoslavia. The official Czech authorities, a substantial part of them, and a big part of the Czech media, must be blamed for it. Both the politicians and the media parroted the informations and comments from the West: Most of the Czech press is, oddly enough, owned by the Germans, even the well sold Mlada fronta DNES. Practically all the regional papers are in the German hands as well. In many newspapers exist "instant experts on the Yugoslav affairs" whose comments are full of disinformations about the Serbs. Their vocabulary suggests a similarity with the Newspeak in "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by G. Orwell, quite often.
A part of the responsibility for the deterioration of the Serb-Czech relations is undoubtedly connected with the name of Mr. Václav Havel, president of the Czech Republic. His anti-Serb statements were often corrected by the Czech former Prime minister Mr. Václav Klaus.
Czechs were astonished by the words of their President in Washington at the end of April 93, when the Memorial of holocaust was opened there. He said that it would be necessary to bomb (the Serbian positions, added the AP) in Bosnia-Herzegovina, to end the war there. Why did he tell it? Whom wished he to please? Mr. Klaus, the Prime minister tried to correct him already the next day: "It is a too simplified evaluation of the events in Yugoslavia, because the situation is much more complicated there and it is not so easy to determine the culprit." Since that time on, Mr. Havel referred repeatedly to the army of Serbs from Bosnia-Herzegovina as "the wild army of Karadzic", he called them "the thugs", "the bandits", "the criminals". During the fighting in Srebrenica his words about the Serbs and their army were very rude. But he insulted the Serbs very much during the anti-Serb spectacle in September-October 95 called "The month of Bosnia and Herzegovina" in Prague. There were no Serbs from Republika Srpska there, and the very few Serbs who were present did not represent anybody. The old arch-enemy of the Serbs, Mr. Otto von Habsburg made caustic remarks about them. Mr. Izetbegovic was received by Mr. Havel with an utter pomp and ceremony, who spoke again about the thugs, bandits, criminals of Karadzic and Mladic. At that time Mr. Klaus, the Prime minister, refused to meet Mr. Izetbegovic and left Prague. He declared then: "My attitude is the attitude of an analyst who likes to know all the facts including those not chosen, because of an one-sided way... It seems to me terribly simplified to proclaim that the Serbs are post-communists, while the others were democrats..."
When the Croatian army attacked in spite of all the agreements and regardless of the presence of the UNPROFOR, the territory of the Republic Srpska Krajina, killing many civilians (e.g., 22nd of January 93 its southern part, on 9th September 93 the villages Divoselo, Medak, Citluk near Gospic - where the French troops of UNPROFOR behaved in an utterly cowardly way), our president had nothing to say. When the Croatian troops invaded the western Slavonia killing hundreds of civilians, burning and looting their property, during the operation Storm which ended in expulsion of 200.000 Serbs and in massacres of those who stayed at home, our president had no words of compassion. He just said that he is not happy with those events, but that Croatia just managed to reintegrate its lost territory and that it was not "the wild army of Karadzic". Our president never spoke about the atrocities made by the Croats and Muslims, he strictly adhered to the view of the West. But, nevertheless he used to say that he had nothing against the Serbs as a nation. He even said (12th January 97) that he had appreciated a lot the help of the Serbs when he had been a dissident - in 1966 a Serbian theatre (Studio 212) performed in Belgrade his play "The Garden Party", among the first in the world. But, regardless of this, he had nothing to say about the punishment of the whole Serb nation by the draconic sanctions from 1992, during which and because of which thousands died, he did not comment the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the WHO in 1993, he never tried to help the Czech trusted friends, the Serbs, by e.g., a peace initiative of his own, by words of compassion. A humane man who feels so much about injusticies, who invites Dalai Lama, who cares for the dissidents in Burma and China, who speaks so often about the ethics and the suffering of the innocent, whose slogan used to be in those revolutionary days of 1989 "With justice and love against lies and hatred", such a man had to say something about unjusticies against the Serbian people. Such a man had to look for the truth, because nobody was innocent in the civil-ethnic-religious war in the former Yugoslavia. But Mr. Havel did not speak, did not help. He missed his big opportunity to prove that he was really a humane man for all those who need it.
THE CHILD AS A VICTIM OF PHARISAISM
The unbelievable hypocrisy of the European Union, the USA and their media was evident in news reports about casualties and in their presentation of the fates of those most innocent victims of war, wounded children. This was marked by the absurd phenomenon of the western media (and the Czech media too for the most part) only showing the forlorn, wounded children of Muslims and Croats, mainly from Sarajevo, without turning to look for a moment at the forlorn, wounded Serb children, also from Sarajevo, but from its Serb parts, from Doboj, Brcko etc. It is sad and awful how the tragedies of children were one-sidedly exploited for propaganda purposes. In 1992 the western part of the Republika Srpska (the Serbian part of Bosnia and Herzegovina) was cut off from its eastern part, from the source of medicines, medical supplies and food from the FRY. The hospital ran out of oxygen. The local authorities' urgent request for permission to supply essential oxygen cylinders by air from Serbia was turned down by western functionaries (EC, USA). As a result 12 prematurely born babies died within a short period of time. Oxygen did not arrive in Banja Luka until several weeks later, when a corps of Krajina soldiers managed, during bloody battles and with the help of a Drina corps from the east, to break through the encirclement of the Serb part of western Bosnia and to form a corridor at Brcko.
At the end of 1993 a four member private group of British MPs (Conservatives, one Labourite, one Liberal Democrat) visited FRY and the Republika Srpska (RS) in connection with the medical problems of the local inhabitants. In addition to the terrible situation with supplies of drugs, diabetics dying without insulin, the lack of surgical dressings, anaesthetics etc. (particularly bad in the Republika Srpska) the group members' report in September 1993 included the case of two Serb boys from Doboj, seriously wounded by a Muslim grenade. Sinisa G. (9 years old) had suffered serious abdominal wounds (stomach and intestines), serious burns and injuries to his limbs, Dejan (10 years old) had had both legs blown off and gangrene had set in. The local hospital was not able to save them. Doctors requested to the western authorities that the boys be air-lifted to expert care in Italy, France, England or such like, as happened in the case of seriously injured Muslim or Croat children, for example the seriously injured Muslim girl called Irma. Permission was not given for Sinisa and Dejan to be air-lifted, however, and both soon died. They received neither treatment, nor television limelight, nor mentions on CNN or the BBC or in the newspapers.
HYPOCRISY AND REFUGEES
Anyone receiving information about refugees during the civil-ethnic-religious war in the former Yugoslavia from the majority of western politicians or media would have thought that up to 1995 almost all the refugees were Muslims or Croats, but certainly not Serbs. One of the first to draw attention to the ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Croatia was the famous Nazi war criminal "hunter" S. Wiesenthal, who talked about the expulsion of 40,000 Serbs from Croatia in as early as 1991. At the time of the cruellest sanctions against FRY in 1993 there were almost 600,000 refugees registered in - and provided for by Serbia; they had been driven out of Croatia and from the Muslim and Croat controlled parts of BH. The refugees also included thousands of Muslims and Croats who preferred to flee to FRY than to Croatia or somewhere else in Europe. According to information from the Serbian Red Cross, over 90% of the refugees found refuge in families, for the most part not their own, but in families which took them in "out of compassion". After the Croatian aggression, planned and in all manner of ways supported by NATO, the USA and Germany, against the Serb Krajina Republic, i.e. against Western Slavonia and then against Knin Krajina, over 200,000 Serbs were driven out or fled from their homes, bombed as they escaped by Croatian and Muslim artillery and planes - all supplied from Germany, the USA, Argentina and Islamic states during the embargo on weapons supplies to the warring parties in BH. When NATO, instigated by the USA, Germany and others, started to bomb Serb military and mainly civilian targets in the Republika Srpska after an act of Muslim provocation which left many dead (Markale II, 28th August 1995), a joint Croatian and Muslim offensive also started in western Bosnia after prior agreement with NATO. This offensive forced a further 100,000 Serbs from their homes, mainly in September 1995. The culmination of the ethnic cleansing of Serbs was the consequence of the Dayton diktat, which awarded all of Sarajevo to the Muslims, or formally to the Muslim-Croat federation. The number of Serb refugees rose by another 70,000-100,000. Until 1991 Sarajevo had been the second largest Serbian city in Yugoslavia. A total of one million Serbs were expelled or forced to flee from their homes between 1991 and 1996. This fact was largely ignored by the western media and western politicians (EU, USA, NATO)
International aid for the flood of Serb refugees was minimal in comparison with the aid given to Muslims and Croats who fled or were driven from their homes. Although Mrs. Sadako Ogata from UNHCR and the International Red Cross tried to help, it was nowhere near sufficient. Here it is necessary to recall FRY's expulsion from the World Health Organisation, the cruel sanctions against FRY, the more than 50% unemployment and 300,000,000% inflation at the end of 1993. The situation for refugees who were in the impoverished Serb part of BH was even worse, utterly desperate. No one received wages or pensions The author visited FRY in 1992, 1993 (twice), 1994 and 1995 with humanitarian aid under the Czech Foundation of Friends of Serbs and Montenegrins, mostly for the Republika Srpska, and saw it all with his own eyes. At that cruel time Czech official aid for the Serb Republic and its wretched refugees was practically non-existent. Various Czech organisations or foundations (e.g. SOS Sarajevo, SOS Children, People in Stress etc.) gave aid almost exclusively to Muslims or Croats A large part of this aid, particularly in 1993 during the very bloody Muslim-Croat war, ended up in the hands of the Muslim army and on the black market, which was linked to the army. At that time even the BBC reported that the civilian population was directly receiving around just 30% of the consignments.
NATO DESTROYS THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA
The extensive destruction of the Serb Republic's infrastructure by NATO airforce, instigated chiefly by the USA and Germany, under a very dubious UN mandate, was not compensated for by a cent of aid after the end of the war. In Srbinje alone (formerly Foca) the author saw three destroyed bridges (over the Drina and Bistrica); luckily, a fourth had not been hit. Of the hundreds of millions of US dollars which Bosnia-Herzegovina received after Dayton, the Serb Republic received only 1.7% - this information was given to the author in June 1997 by the deputy premier of the Republika Srpska government Velibor Ostojic.
THREE EXPLOSIONS IN SARAJEVO - AN ORGY OF DISINFORMATION
Three tragic incidents during the civil-ethnic-religious war in BH had a significant impact on the course of events and clearly highlighted the hypocritical, embarrassingly maladroit position of the governments of the European Community (Union), USA, UN and NATO, as well as the incredible readiness of the western media to spread disinformation. These incidents were three explosions in Sarajevo which left many dead and a spate of wounded, allegedly caused by Serb mortars; the massacre in the bread queue in Vase Miskina street (27th May 1992), the massacre in the Markale marketplace (5th February 1994) and the Markale II massacre (28th August 1995). All these incidents had some common features:
1. all were immediately attributed to the Serbs (here too CNN played an important role) - no one bothered about the Serb protests and requests for a joint investigative commission to be set up;
2. all were used against Bosnian Serbs, and at the start against FRY as well;
3. all evoked a downright orgy of anti-Serb rhetoric from the majority of western politicians and an unprecedented wave of disinformation from the western media;
4. all had the same aim: to spur on western intervention against the Serbs in BH (they finally succeeded in 1995);
5. all were, as was demonstrated soon afterwards, earned out by the Muslims themselves and were probably executed by well-trained terrorists from the ranks of the several thousand Mujahedeen from Afghanistan, Iran etc., who had been involved in the conflict in BH from the start;
6. no one was indicted for the cynical murder of his fellow citizens in The Hague Tribunal (A. Izetbegovic, E. Ganic etc.);
7. western politicians and media mostly hushed up the facts about the real cause of the massacres of the three Sarajevo explosions and exploited them entirely for their own ends (USA, NATO, Germany).
The American government, the European Community, the Islamic states and the UN Security Council which they controlled immediately exploited the hasty conclusion, the disinformation about Serbian guilt for the massacre in the bread queue (27th May 1992), and declared draconian sanctions (30th May, Security Council resolution 757) against FRY, allegedly for the Yugoslav People's Army's (YPA) aggression against the territory of the "sovereign state" of BH, even though at this time there were only a few YPA units in BH and these definitively left BH on 6th June 1992. How transparent this makes the endeavour for speedy recognition of BH's sovereignty (6th April), contrary to all accepted international practice. While the Soviet Army had over a year in which to vacate its bases in the former German Democratic Republic, where they were merely stationed under the Warsaw Pact, the YPA, i.e. the federal army, had to vacate BH, where it belonged, in a few short weeks. The arrogance of the United States reached a peak on 16th April 1992 (i.e. 10 days after the "recognition" of BH), when the State Department condemned YPA for military interference in the internal affairs of BH as an "independent state with internationally recognised boundaries". Just before resolution 757 B. B. Ghali sent the Security Council his report on the presence of large formations of the Croatian army and their activity in BH. This report was somehow delayed by several days, so that YPA could be condemned as the sole aggressor. Croatia's sponsors, USA and Germany, defended their client on all sides to ward off the threat of sanctions.
Western governments and media were soon after shocked by an article by L. Doyle in the London based Independent newspaper (22nd August 1992): "Muslims 'slaughter their own people' - subheaded - "Bosnia bread queue massacre was propaganda ploy, UN Told". The facts were obtained from confidential information from UNPROFOR and UN officials. They stated that it was not the Serbs but Muslims who had prepared the explosion, maybe even from a mine planted in a trashcan. Doyle's article revealed the Muslims as the evident perpetrators of the murder of an American TV producer D. Kaplan (13th August) and of the explosion at the funeral of two Serb orphans (4th August) who had earlier been shot by snipers. Originally the Serbs had been blamed for everything, as they also were for the shooting down of an Italian aircraft carrying humanitarian aid (2nd September 1992). That evoked an immediate anti-Serb reaction: it soon became clear, however, that it was either Muslims or Croats - yet no one apologised to the Serbs. The tendency for disinformation and denigrating the Serbs was preserved in the USA, however. The first part of the popular American TV serial "JAG" starts with a vile-looking Serb soldier shooting down a humanitarian aid plane carrying 50 people on board with a Stinger missile. This is reminiscent of the times of Nazi and Stalinist propaganda. It is also worth noting that the explosion took place shortly before a meeting of European Community ambassadors, who were to discuss possible sanctions against FRY. Some statements by Canadian general L. Mackenzie, commander of UNPROFOR in Bosnia at the time also provide indirect evidence that the Muslims were responsible for the explosion of 27th May 1992 (see his book: "Peacekeeper: The Road to Sarajevo", Douglas McIntyre, Vancouver/Toronto. 1993).
The Markale I explosion (5th February 1994) left 68 dead and 200 wounded. There were many "strange" aspects to this incident (so many wounded by one mortar bomb, the behaviour of the local authorities they did not want to allow immediately after the explosion anyone from UNPROFOR onto the site of the carnage etc.), but CNN immediately reported that the Serbs had done it and the entire world saw the smashed human bodies and the sea of blood "caused by a Serb mortar bomb". President Clinton said that it is "highly likely" that the Serbs were responsible for it, and this was echoed by W. Christopher's "inner conviction". No one took any notice of the vehement Serbian denials. Mrs. M. Albright (US ambassador to the UN) and Anthony Lake (presidential security advisor) immediately called for air strikes against the Serbs. Yet it soon became clear that it was evidently not a Serb mortar bomb. It was strictly forbidden to publish this information, but nevertheless it was disclosed by the French TV journalist B. Volker (TV TF1): "The mortar bomb which killed 68 people in the Sarajevo marketplace and evoked a NATO ultimatum against the Bosnian Serbs was fired from Muslim positions, according to a UN report." The ban on releasing this information is also mentioned by D. Owen in his book (Balkan Odyssey, Victor Gollanz, London, 1995): "People around General Rose never tried to hide the fact that at his meeting with Bosnian Muslim leaders (Izetbegovic, General Delic) he said that he had just received some information which shows that the mortar bomb did not come from the area under Serb control but from the Muslim part of the city (8th February 94)..." The ultimate proof that the Serbs were falsely accused and rebuff to the host of liars and spreaders of disinformation in the West was the declaration by Yasushi Akashi, UN special envoy for Bosnia, on 6th June 1996 to the German DPA corespondent in New York that there was a secret UN report accusing the Bosnian Muslims of the massacre of the civilians in the Markale market in February 1994. The aforementioned B. Volker explains that the report on the Muslim origin of the missile was passed on to B. B. Ghali, UN Secretary General, who did not publish it in the interest of "higher politics". B. Volker also cites the words of President Mitterrand: "A few days ago Mr. Butros Ghali informed me that the projectile which hit the Markale marketplace in Sarajevo was an act of Muslim provocation".
On 28th August 1995 there was a further massacre: Markale II left 37 dead and 90 wounded. Even though British and French experts did not find any proof that it was done by the Serbs, but stated that it was probably carried out by the Muslims, their statement was lost by a senior American officer and the UN issued a declaration blaming the Serbs, signed by General R. Smith, who had evidently ignored the report of the British and French experts as well as the assessment of the UN's artillery expert for the Sarajevo sector, the Russian colonel A. Demurenko. And less than 40 hours later extensive NATO air strikes against Serbian military and civilian targets started; these had been prepared long before and were coordinated with an extensive joint Croat and Muslim offensive against the forces of the Republika Srpska, mainly in western Bosnia. Another orgy of anti-Serb speeches by a number of western statesmen and the western media began. Yet not all spread disinformation. The Sunday Times (1st October 1995) published an article by Hugh McManners "Serbs 'not guilty' of massacre - Experts warned US that mortar was Bosnian." The renowned journalist D. Binder reached similar conclusions in the American magazine The Nation (2nd October 1995) and so did lieutenant-colonel of US military intelligence J. R. Sray ("Selling the Bosnian Myth to America: Buyer Beware!" in the Foreign Military Studies Office, October 1995). So this was another act of provocation, but this time it brought due consequences for the Republika Srpska, as the military equilibrium was completely overturned because the mighty NATO entirely took sides with the Muslim and Croat army and NATO aircraft mercilessly destroyed both military and civilian targets.
WESTERN SECRET SERVICES AND MARKALE II
Yet it turned out that this provocation had evidently been prepared in advance over many months by certain western secret services and that people under the commander of the Muslim army General R. Delic had been charged with carrying it out.
It was meant to discredit the Bosnian Serbs, which would then justify heavy air strikes on them to destroy their military potential. It is worth noting that J. Solana, who was not yet General Secretary of NATO, was among those who argued the case for extensive bombing. The Russian intelligence service had known about the preparation of the plan since February 1995, the detailed plan (allegedly called Cyclone 2) was related to a secret memorandum, signed on 10th August 1995 at the Pleso airport in Zagreb. The memorandum was signed for the UN by the commander of UNPROFOR in former Yugoslavia General B. Janvier and by Admiral L. Smith for NATO. This secret memorandum was only passed on, as "secret", on 13th September 1995 to the UN Security Council, when the main destruction of Serb targets had already taken place. According to article 7 of the memorandum UNPROFOR agreed to provide all information necessary for the NATO strikes against Serb targets to achieve the maximum success. The Russian media found out about the content of the secret memorandum. B. B. Ghali's spokesman Joe Sills confirmed the existence of the secret memorandum on 12th September, declaring that the "memorandum is an internal document which the secretariat is not obliged to inform the Security Council about" (!!). So the New World Order could do whatever it wanted, NATO planes could destroy and kill as they wished. German pilots in Tornadoes also took part in the bombing of the Republika Srpska - once again they were successfully killing in the same region where they had done it half a century ago. On Wednesday 6th September B. Yeltsin declared that NATO, under the guise of a peace mission, had assumed the role of judge and executioner, far beyond the boundary of the mandate defined for it by the Security Council resolution. According to the Russian intelligence service the mortar was fired from the roof of a building near the market. This was evidently not a standard mortar bomb. In connection with the Markale I explosion an Israeli expert stated that it was probably a "indirect smart device" of special construction, which had earlier been used by the HizbAllah organisation and the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan. In this regard it is worth reading the key work of Y. Bodansky, director of the Republican parliamentary task force studying terrorism and unconventional warfare (Target America, Terrorism in the US Today, S.P.I. Books, Shapolsky Publishers, New York, 1993), as well as his more recent publications relating to the explosions in Sarajevo. The author of this book believed that the Serb intelligence service knew that "something was being planned" in Sarajevo. On 26th August 1995 (two days before the Markale II massacre) he had the opportunity of talking by telephone to a senior official of the Republika Srpska in Belgrade, who told him anxiously that once again "something terrible is being planned against the Serbs" in Sarajevo. The words of the White House spokesman Mike McCurry (18th September 1995) can be regarded as the ultimate hypocrisy: President Clinton warns the Muslims and Croats to put an immediate stop to their military activity in Bosnia, which had been planned together with them so carefully beforehand.
The three explosions in Sarajevo, their preparation, exploitation and the cover-up surrounding them demonstrate the moral bankruptcy of the European Union, the United States government and the NATO command and the grave damage done to the values which they hypocritically ascribe to themselves. Mrs. M. Albright tried to calm the situation by saying "that no government would kill its own people". But one only has to look at the conduct of Islamic fundamentalists in Algeria, who brutally murder thousands of their entirely innocent fellow citizens, all to achieve the introduction of an Islamic state.
PR AGENCIES AS FACTORIES FOR DISINFORMATION IN THE USA
The role of widely popular PR agencies in the USA is to promote someone or something, to shape public opinion, to enhance - or damage - someone's image; naturally all for money. A lot of money. Just before the start of the Gulf War the PR agency Hill & Knowlton put on, in return for Kuwaiti money, a show for tens of millions of American TV viewers, which dramatically helped turn American public opinion against Iraq as the aggressor. A fifteen-year-old Kuwaiti girl, with tears in her eyes, testified before the US congress that she had witnessed Iraqi soldiers disconnecting the oxygen from incubators, thus killing dozens of new from Kuwaiti babies. It later turned out that she was the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the UN and that she had not been in Kuwait at that time at all.
This was fantastical disinformation which successfully achieved its goal. But it was the PR agency Ruder & Finn Global Public Affairs from Washington which played the most important part in the Yugoslav drama, getting very rich in the process. It was hired in good time by the Croats and Muslims, and partly by Kosovo Albanians. It is said to have made 20 million US dollars, some say as much as 50 million, from the Croatian diaspora, Arab states and the rich Albanian mafia. The Serbs committed a grave error in believing that it was enough to be in the right, and so they did not hire a PR agency.
Here I will give a few facts from an interview by the French TV journalist J. Merlino (taken from his book "It Is Not Good To Tell the Truth About Yugoslavia", A. Michel, Paris, 1993) with the director of Ruder & Finn Mr. J. Harff. According to him it is enough to have a fax, telephone and address book containing several hundred journalists, politicians, humanitarian organisation representatives, university staff etc. As soon as any report arrives which can be used in the client's favour - and to the detriment of his enemies - it is sent out to all of them, interviews on radio and TV are organised and articles by prominent figures in leading newspapers are arranged. The truth of the reports is not verified, that is not the agency's job; the reports must be put into circulation quickly, they must be the first so that they sway public opinion. Later denials have no value. It is necessary to concentrate on reports "about good guys and bad guys", to use expressions with a strong emotional charge, to exploit anything and to prepare suitable situations. When J. Merlino mentioned that this is a colossal (ir)responsibility, J Haiti replied: "We are professionals. We had a job to do and we did it. We are not paid to preach". Finally J. Merlino remarks that PR agencies are interested in politics in the same way as others sell washing powder. The proverbial American naivete becomes a cliché which can be dangerously manipulated. J. Harff sees his greatest achievement in bluffing the American Jewish lobby into taking sides against the Serbs: the Serbs were equated with the Nazis. He was helped in this by the disinformation article by R. Gutman in Newsday about "death camps". Perhaps some American Jews believed the analogy with the holocaust from unsupported articles full of hearsay, backed up by estimates and full of bias, or perhaps the Jewish lobby itself wanted to believe it: after all, they need to do business with the protectors of Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina and with rich Arab states. Similarly, the Croats' main sponsor. Germany, is the most important trading partner in Europe. The work of the Ruder & Finn PR agency can be described by the words of the American journalist J. Newmann: "The fax and dollars - the weapons of war of public relations agencies".
"DEATH CAMPS" AS AN AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN MEDIA HIT
Roy Gutman, a member of the editorial board of the not so well-known New York tabloid magazine NEWSDAY, visited Banja Luka in July 1992, whilst the majority of western journalists were huddled behind Muslim lines in Sarajevo. As an American reporter he was cordially welcomed by the Serb authorities and he was immediately given permission to visit, along with the International Red Cross delegation, the nearby Manjaca "interrogation" prison camp for Muslims and Croats. On 19th July 1992 Gutman wrote an article about it: "Manjaca is one of a chain of detention facilities which one American embassy official in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, commonly calls 'concentration camps'. This is a further example of the abuse of human rights which is currently growing to a scale unseen in Europe since the times of the Nazi Third Reich." In the same article Gutman wrote about the Omarska prison camp (also not far from Banja Luka), where he had not been but which had been visited by the International Red Cross delegation. Nevertheless, Gutman wrote here that he was convinced (!) that this was a "death camp". His reports of mass executions and torture had come from a Muslim named Meho, who had been released from the camp, allegedly because of his age (63 years old) (!). The truthfulness of Meho's words was later allegedly confirmed by the Muslim charity Merhamet (= mercy). Hujca, his second source of information about mass murders, had not witnessed the killing, however, he had just heard about them. Gutman admits, quietly and at the end of the text, that it was not possible to verity his reports from an independent source. Without even having visited Omarska at the time Gutman published another article in Newsday on 2nd August 1992 on the horrors of Omarska, of the nearby Trnopolje refugee camp and the Brcko camp. The Red Cross did not describe Omarska as a "death camp", although it certainly cannot have been a pleasant place. Omarska was shut down at the end of August. Gutman's source Alija Lujinovic, a Muslim, was from Brcko and according to Gutman his testimony was supported by the Muslim Commission for War Crimes. Lujinovic mentioned mass executions, gang rapes, the annihilation of 90% of the 1500 prisoners. The remaining prisoners were allegedly burnt and processed into cattle feed. Again, there were no facts from independent sources. The overwhelming majority of Gutman's reports were based on hearsay from first or second hand, but they were confirmed by the surely not impartial Muslim authorities of course.
R. Gutman's second article on Serbian "death camps" had exploded like a bomb and over 300 journalists joined search for a sensation, the search for those camps. Even President Bush ordered the CIA to immediately ascertain the details about their existence. In spite of all their efforts the CIA failed, because such camps did not exist. Ingrid Badurina, for example, wrote about this in La Stampa (Turin, 24th August 1992). It is extremely interesting that practically no one at that time was writing about or took any interest in a number of camps where Muslims and Croats were imprisoning the Serb population (e.g., Bradina. Bugojno, Celebici, Dretelj, Livno, Ljubuski, Odzak etc.) Joining the hunt for scoops and "extermination camps" an ITN television news crew, led by Penny Marshall, came to Bosnia at the start of August 1992 and filmed in the Trnopolje refugee camp near Prijedor. Trnopolje was lot a prison camp, the people in it could move around more or less freely and here was no high barbed wire around it. Under pressure from her editors Penny Marshall succeeded in acquiring a world sensation: the famous picture of the emaciated Muslim Fikret Alic behind barbed wire (not everyone there was as emaciated as he was), which raced around the world. It came out in the American Time Weekly Magazine on 17th August 1992, for example. And so a huge propaganda hit about concentration camps run by the Serbs was born, which helped Mr. R. Gutman win the eminent Pulitzer Prize for Journalism. And he made fascists and mass murderers out of the Serbs. Penny Marshall later exonerated herself on television, saying that Trnopolje was not a concentration camp. The British Guardian newspaper quoted her as follows (9th August 1992): "I used the word "concentration camp" just once, when I stated that the Serbs said that it was not one. In point of fact I think that it was technically a concentration camp in the sense of a space in which a lot of people were concentrated, as opposed to a death camp. I used the words of one woman who described it as a detention centre."
From the peace and quiet of their hotels and offices in Zagreb, Vienna and Washington editors describe terrible things, almost as if they were eye-witnesses. They quote Muslim reports of at least 105 camps run by the Serbs (including the Yugoslav Republic) which 260,000 people (!) were meant to have gone through in 4 months, with 17,000 deaths. At least 130,000 are said to remain imprisoned. Understandably nobody wanted to publish the fact that international investigations in the localities of the vast majority of the alleged camps came up with nothing or that nobody wanted to publish the realistic figures issued by the International Red Cross, which gave the total number of captives in the various camps of all warring parties at 10,000-11,000.
And these utterly unreal hundreds of thousands were swallowed by the "naive" and freedom loving American readers and readers in European Community countries, supported in that to a large degree by their governments (e. g. the American State Department). Even Margaret Thatcher spoke out strongly against the Serbs - after all, her son used to do such good business with Arab states.
No one can deny that these various "camps" of all the warring parties were bad. Human rights were trampled underfoot in them. But it was equally bad to associate them all with one side. The British journalist Joan Phillips gave a realistic description of the situation (20 Things You Know About The Serbs and Which Are Not True, The Campaign Against Militarism, London, February 1994, number 4).
"The fact is that Serb detention camps are like those which journalists could find in any war zone on earth. Usually they are not particularly nice places, where prisoners go hungry, where they are beaten and even killed. But they cannot be compared to the Nazi-style death camps where literally millions were killed during the Second World War. All three sides in Bosnia have detention camps today. At the start of 1993 the Croats and Muslims held more prisoners than the Serbs."
But almost nothing was written about Serb prisoners.
At a conference in London (6th March 1997) it came to light what a deception the world-famous picture of the emaciated Muslim behind the barbed wire of the refugee camp in Trnopolje was. The German journalist T. Deichmann (NOVO magazine in Frankfurt), the American G. Kenney and the British journalist M. Hume clearly showed that it was not the "prisoners" who were behind the high barbed wire, but P. Marshall's TV crew, who were filming from inside a small area around a warehouse which was closed off behind barbed wire. Penny Marshall thus stage-managed the "prisoners" (who had come from a free area) so that it looked as drastic as possible. In Belgrade the author met a TV worker from Prijedor, R. Mutic, who has detailed him footage (1992) of Penny Marshall arranging the positions of in which inhabitants of the Trnopolje camp are standing.
In 1994 the Czech translation appeared of a book by the English journalist E. Vulliamy called "Time of Hell", subtitled "Understanding The Bosnian War" (Nase vojsko, Prague, 1994). In his review of the book the Czech historian Dr. Jan Pelikan called it "Not Understanding the Bosnian War". The book is astonishingly one-sided: the Muslims, with whom Vulliamy spent more than one year, are always good and suffering, as are some Croats, provided they are fighting on the Muslims' side. The Serbs are always bad. But what is "remarkable" about this book, which has often been cited around the world and has even won prizes, is the astounding ignorance of history the author writes unbelievable rubbish with sovereign authority. One has to wonder about the ignorance of those who accepted all the (dis)information given in the book seriously and uncritically. Was it Ed Vulliamy's intention intentionally to spread disinformation or did he indeed write down everything which his, usually Muslim, informers told him without bothering to check the facts? With his description of real horrors of war and the suffering of the Muslim population it therefore has to be asked, what was truth and what was invention, quoted disinformation. No one's hands are free from blood in the tragic civil ethnic religious war in former Yugoslavia, so successfully spurred on from abroad. In September, October and November 1997 there were three men in Croatia and Serbia who told terrible things about the murder of their kith and kin, Serbs, Croats, Muslims. Were they troubled by their conscience or did they want publicity? Were they some of the psychopathic 5-6% of every nation whose "time" came during the destruction of Yugoslavia, during the breaking of fraternal bonds between the peoples living there? Or did this confession have some "higher purpose"? Will Hans-Dietrich Genscher ever confess his crime against peace? What will Klaus Kinkel one day say about his role in the destruction of Yugoslavia?
"RAPE CAMPS" - WHERE THE INCREDIBLE NUMBER OF RAPE VICTIMS CAME FROM
When the journalistic sensation of the alleged "death camps" started to lose its "appeal", when it was finally realised that the unbelievable figures quoted by Muslims and Croats and by sensation-hungry journalists for the numbers of Muslims and Croats imprisoned by Serbs did not correspond to the truth, when even the CIA were unable to find any extermination camps, a new news sensation turned up. The Serbs were accused of systematically raping Muslim women as part of their war strategy. Politicians from the European Community (later European Union) and the USA used the fantastical disinformation spread by Muslims and Croats and the western media which supported them, some knowingly, others out of ignorance, about planned mass rapes. Several times the commissioner of the European Community Hans van den Broek spoke out almost hysterically about the Bosnian Serbs. The raping of women is one of the horrendous crimes of war, but it is sad when it becomes a significant and exploited element of propaganda and disinformation.
The hysteria broke out in full after the war in BH had been going on for halt a year, in November 1992, although reports of rapes had appeared earlier (the BBC was citing Muslim sources in September 1992). At peace talks in Geneva in autumn 1992 the foreign minister of the Sarajevo government Hans Silajdzic caused a shock when he stated that 30,000 Muslim women had been raped. Then the world media, and mainly the western media, raised the numbers of rape victims to fantastical dimensions. In the first few months of the war in BH "nothing happened" in this sense and then Muslim and Croat government sources and various organisations started to spew out ever increasing numbers of rape victims and the western media started to write about "rape camps". In the Czech Republic the record for the number of rape victims was achieved by the Czech reporter from BH Jitka Obzinova, who as early as on 5th December 1992 told us in the TV programme "Don't Divide Up Bosnia" that 100,000 Muslim women had been raped; and to cap it all she said that the Serbs had admitted to raping 30,000 Muslim women, which was absolutely untrue. And so the tragedy of the rape victim started to become a propaganda hit.
The terrible numbers of raped Muslims cited also reached the European Community summit in Edinburgh in December 1992. Without verifying the truth behind the flood of horrendous media reports the European Parliament declared on 17th December 1992 that "In the Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina itself there are several thousand women and girls being detained who are systematically raped and many of them are already pregnant. These camps are outright rape camps and death camps, where rape is used as a tactic of war." The Dutch professor of state law at the University of Leiden, Fric Kalshoven, declared: "Look what happened in Edinburgh. First they vehemently condemn the atrocities committed and only then do they send their people to investigate whether the things have even happened. People tell horrible stories because someone has told them to tell it for propaganda objectives - or because everyone else is telling horrible stories". Professor Kalshoven wanted proof, not propaganda.
And so the European Community sent off the former English ambassador to Denmark Ann Warburton to former Yugoslavia with a commission to investigate the matter. During two visits she spent several days in Zagreb and Sarajevo, had countless interviews with the local authorities there and interviewed four victims. Somehow, using a method that is completely unknown and was never published, the commission made a calculation and on 8th January 1993 stated that 20,000 (Muslim) women had been raped. A few weeks later Ann Warburton admitted that it would have been better to give a figure of 10,000-20,000 women, or maybe not to put a figure on it at all. A member of her commission, Mrs. Simone Veil, a former minister of the French government and former president of the European Parliament, left the commission because she disagreed with its conclusions - she was shocked by the paltry number of victims who had been heard (4) and that the main information was simply obtained from the Muslim and Croat authorities. The commission later said that Serb and Croat women were also being raped. At that time the European Community prevented a delegation of Serb women from going to Brussels, where they intended to talk about being raped.
In January 1993 Tadeusz Mazowiecki investigated the rape phenomenon for a UN commission. He spoke to 30 rape victims and 19 women who were pregnant as a result of alleged rape. Through some calculation his report gave a figure of 12,000 rape victims. Nevertheless, Newsweek was happy to give a figure of up to 50,000 raped Muslims on 4th January 1993. Tom Post, who was involved in giving these figures, based this 50,000 on information from 28 (!) interviewed women. Newsweek's "advisor" was a German journalist Alexandra Stiglmayer, who wrote, for example, about the north Bosnian town of Doboj as a "town of rape", without checking this information from anything other than hearsay. There, in a camp in the Djuro Pucar school, a Muslim women called Besina was allegedly being held, who spoke about her horrible experiences from the rape camp in the school during interviews with A. Stiglmayer in the magazines Stem, Weltwoche and others. But journalist Martin Lettmayer did not believe it and went to look at the other side of the story - and he found nothing resembling a camp in the school (Weltwoche, number 10 - 17. 3. 1994). His article also discloses other pieces of disinformation about Doboj and its non-existent brothels, as they were publicised by E. Rathfelder in Tageszeitung (Berlin) on 2nd December 1992. Mrs. Stiglmayer was almost a "bible" for the rape question in BH; she even received some journalistic prize for this. It is clear that her articles influenced German politicians (it was evidently what they wanted?) and EC politicians.
As two Danish journalists, N. Krause and M. Hartz, stated (Jyllands Posten, 28th February 1993), 117 various groups interviewed a total of just 20 rape victims, the same ones every time.
In October 1993 the UN commission for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia gave a total figure of 330 (!) documented cases of rape by all three warring sides. In a discussion of the results of A. Warburton's commission on 17th and 18th February 1993 Professor F. Kalshoven said that her proofs to date would not stand up in court as evidence. The aforementioned bandying about of figures, invented, from hearsay, without conclusive materials, sometimes for money, was well illustrated by the French TV journalist Jerome Bony in the programme "Special Envoy" (4th February 1993): "When I was 50 km from Tuzla I was told: Go to the grammar school in Tuzla, where you will find 4000 rape victims. 20 km away the figure shrank to 400. 10 km away it was only 40. When I was there, I found only four women who wanted to give an account".
If the reports of mass rapes were true, a mass occurrence of pregnancies and births could have been expected. Anglo-Saxons call the children of raped mothers "diabolic children". In various countries in Europe, including the Czech Republic, preparations were made for this inundation of these wretched children - but nothing happened, there was no inundation of "diabolic children". What nonsense made its way into prestigious western newspapers is shown by the case of Judy Darnell, allegedly a nurse from New Jersey, who presented herself as an "instant expert on Bosnia" On 13th January 1993 she told the American Today magazine the convincing story of a five-month-old baby, the fruit of the systematic rape of Muslim women by Serb soldiers (chetniks).
Immediately afterwards the prestigious New York Times (15th January 1993) published a photograph of a two-month-old girl called Emma who was born to a very young Muslim girl, raped in one Serb detention camp. The editors-in-chief failed to realise that pregnancy lasts 9 months and that the war in Bosnia started in April 1992, so the first baby would have been born in the fourth month of pregnancy and the second in the seventh month. Everything is possible for the western media. (Are they badly informed? Stupid? Do they do it for money? Or out of hatred?) And the media informed the public, politicians, in America and in Europe. Almost nobody tried to put the unbelievable disinformation onto the right scale. What can less deeply thinking people think when they read the German Stern, or the British Mail on Sunday or French Elle and see there a poor baby whose father is "...one of the countless drunk, coarse Serb chetniks" and his mother was "...a virgin when the chetniks took her captive on 20th April 1992" and so on. Except that the baby, not born prematurely, was born in November 1992 and was conceived in February or at the end of January .
The tireless Judy Darnell continued with her invented stories in February 1993, when on CBS (5th February 1993) she responsibly stated that 47 Serb rape camps are known of in BH. Nevertheless, the Red Cross declared at this time that it had no information about the existence of this kind of camp in BH, neither in the present (1993) nor in the past. No one from UNPROFOR found one, not even the CIA itself. But, somehow, around this time someone discovered some even more ridiculous disinformation. It was a member of the German Bundestag, Mr. Stephen Schwarz, who brought a report from Croatia that mad Serb doctors were implanting dog embryos in Muslim women. The "intelligent" Schwarz obtained this report from Croatian doctors in Bosanski Brod, or at least that is what he said. The unbelievable thing about this, as a demonstration of anti-Serb hysteria, was that this report came out in serious newspapers (e.g. in the English Daily Mirror on 4th January 1993). The Dutch journalist Gert van Wijland visited Croatia and Slavonski Brod and spoke to doctors who were all astounded by this nonsense. Van Wijland then published this in De Gelderlander (16th January 1993). Where did this propaganda for the mentally inferior came from - from a PR agency? Schwarz's story was not recognised, even by a society numbed by disinformation, and it disappeared soon after. One has to hope that the Bundestag does not contain more of these Schwarzes. But what to think of the newspapers which printed this terrible canard (Daily Mirror, Bild am Sonntag etc.)? Here it is worth quoting one Italian journalist, Remo Urbini (Epoca, Milan, 30th March 1993), who was in turn quoting one BBC journalist: "The editors-in-chief of some newspapers should be condemned as war criminals."
PROPAGANDA AND DEATH TOLLS
The fantastical nature of the disinformation about events in the former Yugoslavia and in particular about the civil-ethnic-religious war in BH is graphically shown by the information about the numbers of the dead. It is horrible to deal with human beings in this way - even one death is too much - but this is the only way to show how many lies were born out of the human tragedy. The Muslim and Croat propaganda, supported in all manner of ways by various PR agencies, by the western media and politicians, created a horrific image of the "Bosnian holocaust". Every war is terrible, but it is not right simply to bandy the word holocaust about.
In December 1992 Izetbegovic's government in Sarajevo reported over 128,000 losses; then it was explained that there were over 17,000 deaths and the rest were missing. But a US senate commission stated in a report (18th August 1992) that 35,000 Muslims had demonstrably been killed in eastern Bosnia. The commission also gave the number of detainees, mainly Muslims, in Serb camps at 170,000 (Ed Vulliamy: Time of Hell, 1994 - see above). In June 1993 Senada Krezo, spokeswoman for the Muslim Ministry of Information in Sarajevo, claimed that 200,000 people had died so far (G. Kenney - see below), and this figure was adopted by the western media and a number of politicians without anyone taking any interest in how Senada arrived at this figure. Ed Vulliamy wrote that she said 300,000. Czech reporter Jitka Obzinova held the record again: on a TV programme at 19:30 on 11th July 1993 she placed the number of dead at 500,000 (the author heard it himself!). Up to 1995 the figure of 250,000 dead given by the Sarajevo government was commonly cited throughout the entire world. Yet at the start of 1995 Sarajevo modified this figure to 145,000 (C. Boyd, 1995 - see below). Former State Department employee in the Yugoslavia Section, G. Kenney surprised everyone, however, when, after detailed analysis, he placed the total number of all victims in BH (1992 - spring 1995) at 25,000-60,000 (New York Times Magazine, 23rd April 1995). Kenney declared: "Bosnia is not a holocaust or a Rwanda, Bosnia is a Lebanon". The International Red Cross was extremely austere, giving a figure for the categorically proven number of dead at around 20,000. Not all stories of mass murders or estimates of the death toll according to aerial photographs can be relied on (aerial photos were the source of M. Albright's disinformation in summer 1995 concerning 5,000-10,000 alleged missing and evidently murdered around Srebrenica).
Other cases were evident disinformation and lies: the premier of the government in Sarajevo H. Silajdzic said on Czech television (25th September 1995) at 19.30 that at Kljuc, in western Bosnia, a mass grave of 540 (!!) Muslims had been discovered, murdered by the Serbs. But the UN commission sent there straight away found only one dead body, of unclear nationality, as the UN spokesman Chris Gunness announced 3 days later.
The British intelligence service (1994) assessed that a total of 50,000-60,000 people were killed, and CIA analyses also placed the number of dead on the level of tens of thousands (S. Trifkovic, Chronicles, August 1996). If you add to this the Serb civilians killed during NATO bombardments (1995) and during the Croat and then Muslim-Croat offensive (August to September 1995), the total losses suffered by all cannot exceed 100,000. The deputy commander of the US Army in Europe (1992 - June 1995) General C. Boyd estimates total losses at 70,000-100,000 (Making Peace with the guilty. Foreign Affairs, September/October 1995) and asks whether this death toll after 38 months of war can make the accusation of genocide a useful contribution to political debate. Nevertheless, on 27th November 1995 President Clinton, speaking to the Americans, told his audience about the 250,000 dead. American Defence Secretary W. Perry, at a hearing before the senate military committee (7th June 1995) reported that in 1992 "according to our best estimates" losses were around 130,000, in 1993 12,000 and in 1994 around 2,500. On 18th October 1995 W. Perry declared before the House International Relations committee that over 200,000 people died during 3 years of war. So who should we believe? Lies and deception, sometimes from ignorance, mostly from malicious intent, became the basic means of achieving the goals of those whom we had until recently trusted so much. The good that they bring us is no longer so clean when there are so many tawdry lies and deceptions around.
THE LIES AND DISINFORMATIONS ARE BEING REPEATED
Just before the downfall of N. Ceausescu in Romania, there were major riots in Temisoara. Media reported about horrible massacres, putting the number of dead at tens of thousands. Finally, it was just about one hundred. Horrible, how the lies can be spread.
After the World War II most of the German inhabitants of the Sudetenland had to leave Czechoslovakia, they were moved to Germany, because of their collaboration with the Nazi. Not all of them, but most of them. They enabled Hitler to incorporate Sudetenland into Germany and later to occupy the remnants of Czechoslovakia. The Big Four agreed with the removal of the Germans from the Sudetenland. During this operation (1945-46) some atrocities by some Czechs against the Germans were done. It is said that about 15-20.000 Germans died. It surely was a very shameful event. But some German politicians who had to leave their homes (1945-46) put now the number of dead at 250.000. This number is an absolute nonsense.
Aren't the incredibly inflated figures of the rape victims (1992-93) the same lie? Especially it they are attributed to a single "guilty" who denies them categorically and it the accusations are absolutely illogical.
THE VANCE-OWEN PLAN - IGNORANCE AND DECEPTIONS AT THAT TIME
BH, as part of the Otoman (Turkish) Empire, had been occupied by Turkish armies until 1878, when the Berlin Congress handed it to the Austro-Hungarian Empire "so that it might impose order there". For centuries (Bosnia had been occupied in 1463, Herzegovina in 1482) it was ruled by its original Slav inhabitants who accepted Islam. In view of the more comfortable life in the towns Muslims represented the majority of their inhabitants. The Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats were mostly COUNTRY dwellers. The majority of BH belonged in the Serb sphere. That is why in the land registers before World War II Serbs had over 64% of all land in BH - and a considerable part of this was mountain land, pastures, partly forests. According to the Vance-Owen plan (start of 1993) Serbs were meant to have, in three cantons and two enclaves, just under 43% of the territory of BH. At the time the American foreign minister W. Christopher declared, how was it possible that Serbs, who represent one-third of the population of BH, are to obtain 43% of the land. If he meant it seriously it was an ugly blot on the minister's knowledge and sense of fair play, if he was not aware of the distribution of land determined by history and if he did not differentiate between one kind of land and another. By an American comparison, land in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona does not have the same value as the land in Manhattan. As if he did not know that the Vance-Owen plan was leaving 450,000 Serbs under the Muslims and 160,000 under the Croats; that from a total of 31.4 billion US dollars of definable property in BH the Muslims would have received 18, the Croats 7.3 and the Serbs just 6.1 billion, that from a total output of 3,900 megawatts of electricity the Muslims would have got 1,765, the Croats 1,220 and the Serbs just 915; that for railways the total 920 km would have been divided up 500 - 260 - 160 km. The overwhelming majority of industry would have stayed in Muslim and Croat hands (P. Block. 1994 - see above). The original Vance-Owen plan overlooked all interconnection between Serb cantons and enclaves, whilst the Croat cantons lay on the border with Croatia and the Muslims were linked with the exception of the distant Bihac canton. Due to considerable protests by the Serbs D. Owen promised that Serb cantons would be interconnected by some kind of narrow corridors. Somehow the foreign minister of the USA took little regard of this.
Even though the government of FRY in Belgrade was putting enormous pressure on the Bosnian Serbs to accept the plan, they rejected it by a huge majority in the May referendum. Even earlier on 18th April 1993, under strong pressure from the USA, the UN Security Council passed resolution 820 on even more inordinate sanctions against FRY, which turned it "literally into a concentration camp" The sanctions were to be implemented if the Bosnian Serbs did not accept the Vance-Owen plan within 8 days. The sanctions were intended to bring FRY speedily to its knees. In spite of all the malicious expectations this did not happen, but the people suffered greatly.
A further provocation which enabled the United States and its underling NATO to make unrestricted control flights to BH, as part of the preservation of the no-fly zone, took place on 13th March 1993, when according to UN staff three propeller planes flew from Serbia across the Drina and dropped several bombs 8 km south-east of Srebrenica. The first reports of this came out in the Times and then in the Daily Telegraph, but not until 16th March surprisingly. Soon afterwards, however, secret reports from UN aerial observers at Serbian airport seeped out, saying that no airplane crossed the border from Serbia over the Drina. In other words, the UN senior officials must have known that it was a lie. It is startling that the information about this being untrue did not manage to reach the UN Security Council before resolution 816 was passed, which permitted the use of NATO ah craft to enforce the no-fly zone above BH, so that 14 days later (31st March 1993) NATO aircraft were patrolling above BH, which enabled them to monitor all Bosnian Serb troop movements. In 1994-95 NATO passed this information on to both the Croat forces and the Muslims. The media did not publish the UN airport monitors' confidential report that no aircraft had crossed the Drina on 13th March. Two British Members of Parliament (the Conservative H. Elleston and the Labourite) demanded an investigation into whole affair, but without success. Washington had already made use of the provocation and NATO aircraft were legally flying over Bosnia. Warren Christopher and the leading politicians from the European Union must have known all about it. And once again the deception became the means for achieving the goals of the EU, NATO and USA.
FUNDAMENTAL DISINFORMATION
Descriptions of the events of World War II in Yugoslavia often throw up the claim, either from ignorance or evil intention, that everyone was killing each other (Croats, Muslims and Serbs) and that in this sense they can all be equated. To a certain degree this was true during the course of the war, but no one should forget that the murdering was not started by the Serbs, but by the Croat Ustasha and their allies, part of the Bosnian Muslims. Neither should it be forgotten that it was the Serbs who suffered the greatest losses: 700,000-800,000, were murdered in Ustasha-run Croatia, if not more, so that the ethnic balance was altered in a number of regions. Nevertheless it must be said that numerous anti-Ustasha Croats died at the hands of the Ustasha and that a number of Muslims protected their Serb neighbours and friends. The tragedy of the recent civil-ethnic-religious war in former Yugoslavia is that such people unwillingly found themselves on the other side of the barricades.
SAFE AREAS IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA AND THEIR MISUSE
On 6th May 1993 the Security Council of the United Nations declared Bihac, Gorazde, Sarajevo, Srebrenica, Tuzla and Zepa as safe areas under its control. Srebrenica had already been a safe area since 16th April. Security Council resolution 836 (4th June) allowed the use of military force to protect safe areas. Mostar was not chosen as a safe area, in spite of all the murdering and destruction, worse than in Sarajevo, in fighting between Croats and Muslims, when local Croat HVO (Croatian Defence Council) units and the regular Croat army used heavy bombardment and besieged the Muslim eastern part of the town. A few months later on 8th November 1993 a Croatian tank destroyed the famous Old Bridge across the river Neretva, which was built in the 16th century. Mostar was not made into a safe area because the protectors of the Croats and Muslims - the Germans and Americans - would have to have intervened against their proteges, and that was something they did not want to do.
The safe zones were created after a year of bloodshed in BH. They had to be demilitarised without any offensive actions from them. The exception was Sarajevo. On 28th February 1993 American, and later French and German aircraft started to parachute-drop supplies in order to provide food and medicines for the surrounded Muslim enclaves of Srebrenica, Gorazde, Zepa and Bihac. This was because lorry deliveries had been interrupted, detained and checked by the army and police of The Republika Srpska (the Serb part of Bosnia), because a large quantity of guns and ammunition was being smuggled into the enclaves with the humanitarian aid. The Muslim charitable organisation Merhamet, the Catholic Caritas, UNHCR vehicles, a number of UNPROFOR units, e.g. from Bangladesh, France, Malaysia, Turkey etc., were all involved in the smuggling. Arms continued to be smuggled successfully as part of the parachute drops
The basic agreement on demilitarising the enclaves was not upheld, however. Muslim units carried out numerous destructive forays into the surrounding Serb areas, violated agreed ceasefires and tried to provoke the Serb army to retaliate so that the West and NATO would intervene militarily. Thousands of refugees were crammed into the enclaves in difficult conditions. There was fighting all around and on several occasions mortar bombs fell into the besieged area. We shall give a few examples of events around Srebrenica and Gorazde demonstrating how the human tragedy was exploited for the sake of propaganda and how the western media and certain governments hypocritically spread unbelievable disinformation. Before World War II half the population of Srebrenica was Serb; before 1991 the town and the surrounding district was 28% Serb, mainly in consequence of the Ustasha killings (1941-45). In 1993 practically none of the 12,000 Serbs in Srebrenica remained. Until 1991 around 10,000 Serbs lived in Gorazde (25% of the population), who disappeared (died, driven out).
The three surrounded enclaves of Gorazde, Srebrenica and Zepa were created gradually during 1992-1993, when Republika Srpska troops took the initiative in eastern Bosnia and pressed the Muslim units (militias; so-called green berets; groups which called themselves HANDZAR divisions, after the SS division of the same name in the Second World War) back into the enclaves. Before that these units had carried out extensive massacres of the Serb civilian population, which is demonstrated by a number of mass graves at the settlements of Kamenica, Kravica, Bratunac, Milici, Skelany, Cerska and so on. The burial of victims from a mass grave in Kravica on 22nd March 1993 was attended by General P. Morillon, commander of UNPROFOR for Bosnia. The Srebrenica garrison (commanded by Naser Oric, later a general of the Muslim army) destroyed around 30 Serb villages in the nearby countryside and further afield. The number of Serb villages destroyed in the eastern Bosnia as a whole is estimated at 100. Thousands of Muslim civilians also fled with the Muslim units, in fear of revenge and Serb paramilitary units who treated the Muslim population harshly. Nevertheless these units prevented the liquidation of the Serb population of Bijeljina by a large concentration of mujahedeen (from Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia etc.) in their vicinity (see, for example, C. G. Jacobsen, Mediterranean Quarterly, August 1994). The mujahedeen were smashed.
In order to arouse the sympathy of the West, the Sarajevo government's ambassador to the UN Muhamed Sacirbey declared in February 1993 that starvation had caused cannibalism in Muslim enclaves (e.g. in Zepa). This was immediately denied by the UNHCR and UNPROFOR. At the end of winter 1993 the commander of the Muslim forces Sefer Halilovic broke the n-th ceasefire and launched a large-scale offensive on several fronts (Tuzla, Srebrenica etc.). After initial successes the offensive was broken and the forces of the Republika Srpska entirely surrounded Srebrenica; before that it occupied the small settlements of Cerska and Konjevica Polje, which were full of refugees. On 3rd March 1993 large headlines in the prestigious Financial Times newspaper announced "Hundreds die as Serbs overrun Muslim Enclave". From the warmth of her Belgrade hotel Laura Silber reported hundreds of dead in the streets (that was how Muslim amateur radio enthusiasts were reporting it). Immediately afterwards General P. Morillon visited both settlements and did not find anything of the sort there, which antagonised both Muslim authorities and western journalists - it put a stop to further horrific stories. At around the same time the Muslim-Croat war was raging in central Bosnia, where Croatian HVO units killed around 100 Muslims in Ahmici. Bloody battles also broke out in Mostar. The Croatian HVO and authorities filled the Dretelj concentration camp with Muslim men and women. This was even reported by the western media, but that Serbs had been there before was not reported.
In the middle of May fighting broke out again around Srebrenica. Serb artillery bombarded the town where thousands of refugees were concentrated, and 50 people died. "Serbs Break Ceasefire Again" reported western sources and officials. Nevertheless the Swedish general Lars-Eric Wahlgren, commander of UNPROFOR for the former Yugoslavia, reported to UN headquarters that Muslim firing had broken the ceasefire and that this had provoked retaliatory fire by the Serbs. This made the general unpopular with both the Muslims and certain circles in the West, because he did not want to say things which were untrue and which they wanted to hear. He soon resigned and left the UN. In June 1997 the author discussed Srebrenica with General Ratko Mladic. The blue-eyed general highly respected General Wahlgren for his honesty, as well as General F. Briquemont, who quickly resigned as UNPROFOR commander in BH - he, too, was sickened by the media disinformation and by CNN's sensationalism. He, too, fell out with the powers when he "took the liberty" of criticising Muslim conduct. One friend of General Mladic was the first UNPROFOR commander for Yugoslavia, the Indian general Satish Nambiar, who also resigned before the end of his term due to his opposition to interference in UNPROFOR's work. Another general who left early was the Canadian L. MacKenzie, who badly antagonised the Muslim government in Sarajevo by repeatedly disclosing their acts of provocation (e.g. placing artillery in the grounds of the Kosevo hospital, near schools and public buildings, suspicion of involvement in the bread queue massacre etc.). The Muslim authorities avenged themselves by issuing a story that he was involved in the rape of Muslim girls.
Regardless of the numerous ceasefires, Naser Oric's units repeatedly carried out marauding forays into Serb villages, which left many dead. The last such act took place in June 1995. Whilst the Croats were preparing a huge offensive in the Krajina region, prepared by "hired" retired American mercenary-generals, well armed despite the embargo (Germany, USA, Argentina, Islamic states etc.), RS forces launched an attack on Srebrenica and Zepa at the start of July 1995. After several days' fighting both enclaves fell. The western media and Muslim sources immediately reported massacres of thousands of the local population and captured soldiers. M. Albright, as part of a disinformation strategy to divert attention from the crimes of the Croat army just after the conquest of the Serb Krajina Republic at the start of August 1995, showed aerial photographs to the UN, allegedly of mass graves of Muslims around Srebrenica. She gave the number of missing, and thus evidently dead, at 5,000-10,000. She totally failed to mention the expulsion of 200,000 Serbs from Krajina. This disinformation was elegantly refuted by the International Red Cross on 11th August 1995, which announced that no proof of mass graves had been found (see J. Sray, lieutenant-colonel of US military intelligence, 1995), but this information was ignored by the western media and governments. The teams which looked for these graves found the remains of less than 500 bodies. As General Mladic told the author, during the fighting around Srebrenica something like 1.200 Serbs and 2,000 Muslims were killed. And these casualties had to be buried somewhere. "Our forces had strict orders to treat prisoners according to international law. There were no mass executions, as the media reported. We used buses (even though we did not have much petrol) to move a lot more than 20,000 civilians towards the Muslim lines in the direction of Kladanj and Tuzla. At our two check points the civilians and refugees could choose, possibly even to stay in Srebrenica. The soldiers who did not surrender and were not transported with the civilians tried to break though our encirclement, suffering heavy losses in the mine fields. Hundreds, maybe even a lot more than a thousand civilians and soldiers escaped across the Drina into Yugoslavia. The distorted reports of the numbers missing originate from the fact that many men were pressed into the Muslim army on other fronts immediately after they had fled, and also from the fact that during the siege several thousand non-existent people had been entered onto the lists for UNHCR and Red Cross supplies, so that aid supplies were bigger. It was a civil-ethnic-religious war, which was forced on us - we didn't want to destroy Yugoslavia. We were not the aggressors, it had always been our country where we had lived for many centuries together with Croats and Muslims. I am proud that forces under my command prevented a repetition of the massacres of Serbs by the Ustasha Croatia. Our people suffered a great deal, unfortunately at the hands of its former friends, who we fought with against the enemy in two world wars, but almost nobody understood the suffering of our people and its legitimate struggle."
In connection with the events around Srebrenica the American general Charles Boyd wrote (see above): "Croat operations (i e. aggression against Krajina) seem to differ from Serb activities around the UN safe areas of Srebrenica and Zepa only in the degree of wringing of hands in the West and the amount of footage from CNN which caused it. Ethnic cleansing only evokes condemnation if it is done by the Serbs, but not if they are at the receiving end."
The Berlin-based magazine Junge Welt (27th/28th July 1996) published a translation of an interview with Ibran Mustafic (Slobodna Bosna, Sarajevo, 14th July 1996), co-founder and member of the Bosnian parliament for Izetbegovic's SDA. Mustafic describes the mafia in Srebrenica, which between 1992 and 1995 had complete control over the political and economic life of the town and spread terror in the town and the surrounding Serb areas.
He criticises the incursions ordered into the surrounding Serb areas before the occupation of Srebrenica ("if they had not happened many lives would have been saved") and accuses the president's office and army headquarters for this misuse of Srebrenica. Two assassination attempts were made on Mustafic and he was badly wounded. He talks about how many people unexpectedly turn up when it was thought that they had disappeared forever. He himself was a prisoner of the Serbs and nothing happened to him. He describes the large-scale pilfering of humanitarian aid, the black-marketeering during the war and the timely escape of the ruling mafia. Anything could be bought on the market. Mustafic debated strongly on all these points in parliament.
The Dutchbat (the Dutch battalion) of UNPROFOR, which ensured the security of Srebrenica, suffered one casualty, private R. Renssen, who was shot by Muslims in a tank. An unnamed Dutch general said on a TV programme at the time of the fall of Srebrenica that from what he knew of General Mladic he did not believe that any intentional terrorising of the civilian population would have taken place there (report from Utrecht, Rude Právo, 15th July 1995). Dutch UNPROFOR soldiers came to an agreement with Serb forces whereby they escorted buses taking away Muslims as protection for them.
To end these remarks about Srebrenica it is worth quoting a letter from a British interpreter in Bosnia, G. R. Thornton, to Time magazine (23rd June 1993): "We have forgotten to ask and find out what happened to the Serbs, who represented 30% of the Srebrenica population. At the time when war broke out (i.e. spring 1992) they were driven out of their homes with hand baggage and, as they fled, Muslim barbarically fired at the men, women and children running away."
Gorazde, a UN safe area on the Drina river, is around 60 km south-west of Srebrenica and is situated on the only route from the Republika Srpska to the eastern, Serbian Herzegovina. At the end of summer and the start of autumn 1992, after Gorazde had been occupied by local Muslims with substantial assistance from the mujahedeen (mainly Afghans), the large majority of the Serb population (25% of the 40,000 inhabitants) were driven out; some died. The town was badly damaged during this fighting. Since 1993 the large Pobjeda explosives and munitions factory beneath the town had been working again, thanks to smuggled tools, spare parts, raw materials and experts. The Sarajevo government could rely on active help from the UN (influenced by the USA and the European Union) in its military operations against the Serbs. The strong Muslim garrison in Gorazde had between 8,000 and 12,000 men (some say as many as 15,000), who were well armed (parachute-drops, lorries with "humanitarian" aid, munitions from Pobjeda) and organised into three brigades (Y. Bodansky, Defence & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, 31st May 1994). Only liars can claim that the town and surrounding area was demilitarised.
At the end of March 1994 the Muslim garrison launched a large-scale offensive, accompanied by massive mortar and light artillery bombardment, towards Cajnice and Foca (now Srbinje) in an attempt to break into Sandzak (the region between Serbia and Montenegro with 52% Muslim population) and to rouse up a rebellion there, and later in neighbouring Kosovo. The western media and governments made no protest against the large-scale offensive from what was officially a demilitarised zone. The advancing troops made a 10 km breakthrough, occupying 6 Serb villages and killing most of villagers who did not flee. Before they could bring up reinforcements the Serb command started artillery bombardments against the attacking troops; mortar bombs also fell on some parts of the town from where the Serb positions were being fired at. In the course of a few days the attackers were forced back into Gorazde, suffering heavy losses. After the offensive had failed, the world media, the UN, the Sarajevo government, the USA and the EU suddenly woke up and started to churn out reports about the horrors in Gorazde. Amateur radio enthusiasts and the world media reported 2.000 dead and an inundation of wounded and the destruction of the hospital A famous and well-paid CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour reprehended the British General M. Rose, commander of UNPROFOR in Bosnia, for not preventing the Serbs from "attacking Gorazde". The world was indignant and several NATO planes attacked Serb positions (the Security Council was against the American proposal for large-scale bombing), with one British Sea Harrier being shot down. Then a ceasefire was called and the Serbs had to pull back their units (Gorazde was about to fall). No one apologised to the Serbs for the 6 destroyed villages.
General Rose visited Gorazde: "The situation was a lot better than I had been convinced. The town was clearly damaged, but you can't have fighting around a city without it being damaged." The huge bubble burst. Although every human life lost is a waste, it is immoral to trade on human tragedy for propaganda purposes. The number of people killed in the fighting (not including the murdered Serbs in the 6 villages) was 200 and not 2,000 (70% of them were soldiers) and there were 200 seriously wounded. The hospital was not destroyed at all: only one mortar bomb fell on its roof but operation continued. As the journalist Lars-Erik Nelson said "Truth was the victim in the Gorazde hospital". In Sarajevo the expected inundation of seriously wounded did not materialize. A number of helicopters came back half empty and many of them carried lots of slightly wounded Muslim soldiers (only transportation of the seriously wounded had been agreed with the Serbs); the government in Sarajevo needed to relocate them elsewhere . As one visitor remarked, the so-called "destroyed hospital" just needed tidying up. The Dutch general G. J. M. Bastiaans, commander of the UN observers in the former Yugoslavia declared at the time, "It was the Muslims who provoked the Serb attack. It was ultimately the Muslims who forced the Bosnian Serb army into the bloodshed in Gorazde by constant acts of provocation."
The operations of Muslim units were carried out by trained men, not counting the mujahedeen who had already been highly trained for terrorist activities. During 1991 (!) several thousand young men in BH were sent to special Interior Ministry training centres in Croatia as part of their preparation for armed secession. The vast majority were Muslims, with some Croats. There were 914 of them between 4th June to 31st July.
THE TUZLA AND BIHAC SAFE AREAS, USA AND EUROPEAN UNION HYPOCRISY, NATO MISUSE
In 1993 Tuzla and Bihac were declared safe areas by the UN, which implied that they were demilitarised and that there were no offensive operations from them. In December 1994 former US president J. Carter secured the signing of a ceasefire of the warring parties for 4 months, starting on 1st January 1995. At the time Carter declared that the American public was insufficiently aware of the problems faced by the Bosnian Serbs. The agreed ceasefire did nothing to stop a large number of big transport planes with American crews, full of guns and ammunition, landing secretly, at night, at the airport in Tuzla. Early in the morning of the 20th March 1995 the Muslim army, massively armed and informed about Serb positions from the NATO planes, launched a huge offensive from the Tuzla safe area towards the east (Majevica) and the west (Vlasic). The ceasefire was violated. After several Serb settlements had been destroyed the Muslim army was forced back This flagrant violation of the ceasefire was not criticised by any UN resolutions or by any official declarations by the European Union or the USA (indeed, it was organised by the USA).
In September 1994 several active American generals performed an inspection of the Muslim army (e.g. General Mike Hayden, head of the US military intelligence service in Europe), whilst "hired" retired American mercenary-generals started preparing the Croat army (e.g. E. Vulliamy, Observer, 20th November 1994). Guns flowed into the newly established Muslim-Croat federation. There was fierce fighting around Doboj, bombarded by the Croats (HVO) and Muslims. In August 1994 the 5th army corps from the safe (and therefore formally demilitarised) Bihac region attacked and annihilated the autonomous Muslim region of Fikret Abdic, taking Velika Kladusa. 60,000 inhabitants, almost entirely Muslim, fled from the Muslim army into the Serb Krajina Republic. Based on information from patrolling NATO aircraft about the small Serb troop presence, the 5th corps invaded Serbian western Bosnia from Bihac in October 1994. There they occupied several hundred square kilometres of territory, destroyed many Serb settlements and drove out around 20,000 Serbs from their homes. Once again no one in the West made an official protest, since after all the entire operation was prepared with the West's lavish support. At this time NATO aircraft repeatedly attacked Serb positions, especially when the Serb army's counterattack drove the 5th corps back. Fikret Abdic returned with refugees to Velika Kladusa. The destroyed Serb villages received no aid, however. The Serb army released several American special unit members captured along with the Muslim troops.
THE AMERICAN POLITICAL WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL IN THE HAGUE
According to Webster's Dictionary the English expression "kangaroo court" means a court characterised by irresponsible and unjustified procedures, which has no legal status; it is a mockery of a court, where the foundations of the law and justice are abused. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTFY) in The Hague somewhat resembles such a court, as more and more its activity reveals its political objective, its double standards and a priori determination of guilt. When defining what is meant by CEKA, A. Solzhenitsyn said, "It is the one criminal organ in human history which placed all the functions of investigation, arrest, interrogation, criminal proceedings, court and carrying out sentence in the same hands." These fundamental principles of Solzhenitsyn's CEKA are to a certain degree shared by The Hague tribunal - but without the executions. The model for this tribunal is not Nurnberg 1946, but Moscow 1938: trials arranged for political purposes. The professor of political science Raju Thomas (Marquette University, USA) wrote of the court being prepared: "The investigators who are investigating war crimes are basically working for the prosecution, for the court indictment, they are simply looking for evidence how to convict and not how to acquit. So the prosecutors are also the judges."
It is certainly necessary to have a tribunal for war crimes, for the sake of the law itself and to deter future atrocities and crimes. It is strange that the tribunal was set up by those who might also come before a similar tribunal. In his extensive book "Blood of Petroleum - Bosnia" (L'Age d'Homme, Lausanne, 1996) the French general Pierre M, Gallois quotes General Mladic, with whom he has maintained friendly relations: "I will come to The Hague as soon as the American generals from Vietnam and the English generals from the Falklands appear there." Laws which do not apply to everyone means a farce, not justice. In the civil-ethnic-religious war in the former Yugoslavia Serb facts should have been verified with the same resources (including financial) as were provided for the Muslims' and Croatians'. C. G. Jacobsen, the eminent Canadian professor of political science from Carleton University in Ottawa, wrote (Mediterranean Quarterly, August 1994): "Crimes must be judged generically (i.e. applied to an entire group of the similar things) and not be defined by nationality or religion. To allow claims of guilt a priori and thus dictate and limit the investigation, as Albright and Fenrik (a Canadian colonel, UN war crimes supervision) are striving to do; this in fact creates a kangaroo court, which is nothing better than the court in Salem, which is nothing better than the courts that presided over Stalin's monster trials". Someone compared R. Goldstone to Stalin's prosecutor Wyshinsky. An example of the a priori procedure is the declaration by American foreign secretary L. Eagleburger (end of 1992) that S. Milosevic, R. Karadzic, General Mladic etc. are war criminals - without a court, without an official charge, just like that.
1. The Hague tribunal for war crimes was set up in 1993 by UN Security Council resolution 827, based on chapter VII of the UN Charter, and was intended for crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia after 1st January 1991. The tribunal was created AD HOC (only for this occasion). What went on in Croatia and in Bosnia-Herzegovina between 1991 and 1995 is certainly terrible: violence, murder, destruction of property, break-ups of friendships between the nations of Yugoslavia, the crime of raping women. Sober estimates put the number of deaths on all sides at 100,000 (see the section Propaganda and Death Tolls) and all the participants in the war suffered losses. Many hundreds of thousands of people were driven out of their homes (around one million Serbs). These are terrible figures, but what is this compared to the alleged 3,000,000 dead in Vietnam (this year's official Vietnamese figures), including bombing, napalm and defoliants; 1,000,000 dead during the war in Algeria; 3,000,000 in the war of Bangladeshi secession (1971); 500,000 in the massacres in Indonesia (1965-66); not to mention the maybe 2,000,000 dead Cambodians under Pol Pot's reign of terror; the 1,000,000 dead in Biafra, hundreds of thousands of dead in the Iran-Iraq war, and in Angola; the 150,000 murdered in East Timor; the estimated 150,000 dead in Central America, mostly wiped out by special units trained at American bases; further hundreds of thousands in Mozambique, which was economically destroyed (Klaus Kinkel, as head of the German intelligence service BND between 1979-1982 was involved in supporting the formally anti-communist terrorist organisation RENAMO, which wiped out entire regions) etc. Who supplied the weapons for those people killing each other, the enormous quantity of weapons? At least a tribunal was established for the real genocide in Rwanda (1,000,000 dead). We can remind ourselves of the words of G. Kenney (1995): "Bosnia is not a holocaust or a Rwanda, Bosnia is a Lebanon" According to the available reports the people of the current president of Democratic Congo L. Kabila have the death of around 150,000 Hutu refugees on his hands - but Kabila has signed fat contracts with businesses in the USA and received arms from there. It is strange to hear the words of Mrs. Albright in the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington (12th April 1994), that "there is no more suitable place for discussing the tribunal for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia". Mrs. Albright was somewhat exaggerating when she suggested a similarity with Auschwitz, Jasenovac, Majdanek and Belsen.
2. The very assignment of the war crimes tribunal in its current form is from the legal point of view dubious. Chapter VII of the UN Charter deals with situations where peace is threatened, where peace is broken, where there are acts of aggression. It is highly debatable whether this definition can allow people to be investigated, charged, tried, found guilty and imprisoned. Who will determine who the aggressor is in debatable cases - will it be the voting machinery of the UN, financially so dependent on the superpowers? The Security Council's conduct was in its way illegal when it gave itself a new mandate to set up the tribunal. According to Article 29 the Security Council has the right to establish auxiliary, subsidiary, dependent organs if it ascertains that they are necessary for the exercise of its function. In this way the tribunal actually stops being an independent court, but the auxiliary, subsidiary organ of its political masters. Whilst the tribunal remains in essence dependent on the Security Council, its status nevertheless places it above national courts. This is a clear violation of the UN Charter, which insists that the UN may not usurp the sovereign rights of states (S. Trifkovic, Chronicles - A Magazine of American Culture, August 1996).
3. The already established tribunal required the establishment of a corresponding database, which would record the crimes which took place in the former Yugoslavia and mainly in Bosnia-Herzegovina (murders, torture, rape etc.) for which punishment was to be meted out not only to their perpetrators, but to those who were responsible for it. And this is where The Hague Tribunal started closely to resemble a kangaroo court. The original chairman of the UN committee of experts for crimes in BH, Professor F. Kalshoven, who had a realistic and honest attitude to his work (see the section Rape Camps), soon resigned from this post when he saw the whole dirty political background to the prepared tribunal. Its next chairman was an Egyptian Muslim, devoted to Islam and pious, a professor of law at DePaul University in Chicago, Sharif Bassiouni. Since then there has been an utterly selective approach to evidence gathering. A large number of details were simply sidelined. In spring 1994 the author met professor M. Bulajic in Belgrade, who had personally visited professor Bassiouni in Chicago to investigate the fate of reports of crimes against the Serbs which had been sent to professor Bassiouni three times (once by diplomatic post even) - apparently he had not received anything. Bassiouni prepared, practically ignoring Serb complaints about crimes committed against them, a huge Final Report, whose ANNEX contained 3,000 pages of facts which categorically accused Serbs of ethnic cleansing, aggression, mass rapes etc. The annex simply contained thousands of anti-Serb data, without any attempt to evaluate their credibility or truthfulness. Every normal court would have laughed at such material, regardless of its horrific nature.
Another supplier of information for the tribunal was the former premier of the Polish government, Catholic intellectual and friend of the Pope, Tadeusz Mazowiecki. Unfortunately his reports, too, were selective. The author has himself checked the incorrectness of two of his statements. In 1993 it was reported that almost 70,000 Muslims were ethnically cleansed from Sandzak and that a number of Muslim homes and mosques in the town of Priboj were destroyed. The author repeatedly visited Sandzak and once Priboj as well and he did not see or hear anything of the sort.
The Hague Tribunal has always had a lot of judges from Muslim countries, from Pakistan. Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria etc., where justice does not always correspond to the ideas of the democratic defenders of the law. Islamic states, along with the USA, have given considerable support to the Hague Tribunal.
In an interview with General Mladic the general complained that it was never officially reported that the army of the Republika Srpska rescued thousands of fleeing Croats: "My soldiers saved around 40,000-50,000 Croats, who were fleeing from the Muslim forces during 1993, at Travnik, Konjice, Zavidovic, Kupres etc. We fed them and treated them in our hospitals. I am not a war criminal, as a soldier I have fought many battles and in many places I have saved my people from annihilation."
4. It is widely known today that the three murderous explosions in Sarajevo were the work of the Sarajevo government, the last of them evidently with the collaboration of certain western intelligence services (see the section on the three explosions). Articles have been written about it in a number of magazines in Europe and Canada and also several times in the USA. Nevertheless, these terrible incidents, when the government in Sarajevo allowed its own people to be murdered so as to force the West to join the war on its side (which ultimately the West even wanted, at least some of its members did), were not publicly commented on by important functionaries in the West who at the time did not spare the insults against the accused Serbs. As far as it is known CNN did not slam the government in Sarajevo for this killing, nor did the numerous journalists who painted the "Sarajevo slaughterhouse" in such horrific colours. Even the Czech cohort of anti-Serb journalists, with a very few exceptions, was silent. No one has proposed charging the actual government in Sarajevo, president Izetbegovic. vice-president E. Ganic or the senior commander of Muslim forces General Delic, for this crime of the minder of its own people at the Hague Tribunal. Nobody has charged F. Tudjman and his generals for the massacres of Serbs in Serb Krajina. Official Zagreb was indignant when Carl Bildt named president Tudjman as responsible for the crimes against the Krajina Serbs during Operation Storm (August 1995). The ultimate absurdity was the tribunal's indictment of M. Martic, leader of the Krajina Serbs, for ordering the firing of a few rockets at Zagreb (there were 5 dead), whilst dozens of Serb villages in western Slavonia burnt and the dead were counted in their hundreds, if not thousands, during the Croat forces' incursion in May 1995. And nobody has accused NATO command for the murder of several hundred Serb civilians during air-raids in August-September 1995 on the Republika Srpska; president Clinton should also account for his permission for the firing of 13 Tomahawk missiles at Banja Luka. And so on. It is not enough if the biased demands of just one side are complied with - that would be a mockery of the law, a mockery of justice. And that is the mockery of the law in The Hague.
5. The unlawful procedures of The Hague Tribunal are sometimes surprising. At the start of 1996 two senior Serb officers, General Djukic and Colonel Krsmanovic, were arrested by the Muslim authorities in Sarajevo. On the instigation of the prosecutor R. Goldstone they were almost immediately sent off to the Hague, to prison. Without any charge, with no warrant having ever been issued for their arrest. After several weeks' imprisonment and interrogations both officers were allowed to go home. Whilst in prison General Djukic, who had advanced cancer of the pancreas, did not receive a suitable diet or the treatment that was essential for his serious condition. He died a few short days after returning home. According to the Dutch professor of international law Theo van Boven, this abduction lacked any kind of legal foundation and is in conflict with the UN statute and treaties on civil rights. The tribunal's prosecutor (R. Goldstone) cannot lake the liberty of proceeding in this way. There has always been a danger that the tribunal would become an extension of American interests (Rude Právo, from Utrecht, 1st March 1996) . On 10th July 1997 near Prijedor in Bosnia whilst making an arrest, a special unit of the British elite SAS, operating under NATO (SFOR), shot a local Serb leader Sima Drljaca. No official warrant had been issued for his arrest, he had not been officially charged, nobody told him that he has been accused of anything. During the shoot-out, when he was surrounded, he was severely wounded. He was finished off by a member of the SAS with a shot to the head, in the presence of his 17-year-old son, who was also arrested, apparently in swimming trunks (he had been out fishing with his father). They flew him off to the Hague but soon let him go home. The director of a local hospital Dr M. Kovacevic was also arrested in a similar manner. The SAS men making the arrest approached him as if they were bringing humanitarian aid from the Red Cross. Here it is not even that important whether they were guilty or innocent of the crimes which were named later, after the murder and the arrest. What is important is the unlawful manner of their arrest. We believed that there was some kind of lawful procedure in the West, that certain norms were observed: accusation, indictment, court permission, arrest warrant etc., so that the arrested party might know about it and be able to prepare a defence. The new prosecutor Louise Arbour crassly attempted to defend this fundamental unlawful procedure of The Hague Tribunal. According to her there are so-called Sealed Indictments related evidently to secret arrest warrants, and apparently this course of action was permitted by an unnamed judge...
6. The war crimes tribunal at The Hague, presided by the French judge Claude Jorda, indicted on 11th July 96 for war crimes Dr. Radovan Karadzic and general Ratko Mladic, and issued an international warrant accordingly. During eight days the tribunal heard many quotations from their speeches and publications, selected according to the prosecutor's wishes. Terrible data were given about the destruction of 1.000 mosques and catholic churches, about the mass rapes, executions, ethnic cleansing, etc. All the above in accordance with the biased, one-sided reports by the Croat, Muslim and western media, by official, very often biased sources - whose truthfulness is far from perfect. All that is very sad, depressing. It shows the ugly face of the civil-ethnic-religious war, started by the armed secession of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Quite naturally, many orders of president Karadzic were not published: to the HQ of the Army of Republika Srpska, to the Ministry of Interior, to the Security Services, to the SDS (Serbian Democratic Party of Dr. Karadzic) officials - to adhere to the principles of human rights, to prevent the forced evictions (on ethnic ground), to disband all the paramilitary units, to investigate the murder of 5 Muslims in the village Bastesi, close to Celinac, and to punish the perpetrators, etc. All the above was issued by the President's office of Republika Srpska in summer 92, as official documents Nos 01-530/92, 01-32/92, 01-533/92, etc., as well as a fax to Mr. B. B. Ghali, under the fax number 99-12-12-963-4879... No information was given at The Hague tribunal about the destruction or damage to 300 orthodox churches, about the demolished orthodox monasteries, bishoprics, graveyards, chapels, church museums and libraries, with invaluable manuscripts - how they were robbed, buried, destroyed (see S. Mileusnic: The Spiritual Genocide 1991-93. Museum of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Belgrade, 1994).
Mr. C. Jorda and other judges seem not to know the history and do not know what is actually a civil-ethnic-religious war. Because of their ignorance or, maybe, even malicious intentions, they do not realize or do not wish to realize, that neither the Serbs nor their leaders started the war, that they did not want to destroy the multiethnic Yugoslavia (so aptly prepared by Germany, supported by Vatican). The Hague tribunal got a huge quantity of informations about the mass killing and ethnic cleansing of the Serbs from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, without doing almost anything to discuss it at the tribunal. Did the tribunal charge Mr. Izetbegovic or Mr. Tudjman? The tribunal in The Hague even rejected any cooperation with the Independent Committee on War Crimes in the Balkans (ICWCB) from Ottawa in Canada, headed by professor C. G. Jacobsen. It was unacceptable to those who had been instructed to indict and sentence only one side. -"The laws that do not apply to all are a mockery of justice"-. (C. G. Jacobsen, see elsewhere).
7. Will the judges à la Jorda and the prosecutors à la Madam L. Arbour charge the Croatian authorities for a CULTURAL GENOCIDE, because they had destroyed during the last few years about 300.000 books - they were printed in the Cyrillic alphabet and with the "Serbian orthography". Out of them about 100.000 were destroyed during the Croat aggression against the Serbian Republic of Krajina in 1995. In the Croat bookstores there are now probably more books by the ustasha leaders Pavelic, Budak, Kvaternik, than by the "normal", "not criminal" Croatian authors, very popular in the former Yugoslavia, e.g., Nazor, Krleza, Kovacic, and others (Novosti, 24th December, 97).
8. When during the autumn 97 Madam Louise Arbour, the prosecutor general of The Hague tribunal visited Sarajevo, the data about the mass killing of the Serbs in Sarajevo during 1992-93 by the local Muslims started to spread. They were later published by the local independent magazine Dani (7th November 97), in connection with the mountain pit KAZANI, on the mountain Trebevic. where the Serb victims, still alive or already dead (shot, with their throats slit, beaten to death, tortured to death) were thrown into the abyss. All the above was disclosed in a Muslim military court in Sarajevo. Surprisingly enough, the western media did not report about it (1992-93), in spite of the fact that they had been repeatedly informed about it by the Serbs from Sarajevo and Pale Even an extensive list of "executioners" was made public, most of them had been from the Muslim 10th mountain brigade under command of Musan Topalovic alias Caco. He was initially praised by the Izetbegovic men as their "hero", into whose bottomless pockets arrived a big part of the humanitarian aid. But, finally, he was arrested and shot (allegedly when he tried to escape). Nevertheless, this "hero" was recently celebrated again, at his graveside. An other group, led by Ismet Bajramovic alias Celo became "famous'' for cruel murder, robberies as well. Even the International Herald Tribune (8-9th November 97) wrote about all that, calling it the Muslim slaughter house in Sarajevo. The article informs about the cruel murders by the Muslim paramilitary units - they brutally assassinated about 1.000 - 2.000 Serbs, but notwithstanding all the above "the Serbs are guilty of massacres of tens of thousands (Muslim) civilians". The article quotes unrealistic figures - quite incompatible with the realistic figures of casualties (see earlier). Will Madam L. Arbour indict any of the above 51 "executioners", some of whom are already dead, including the cruel psychopath Musan Topalovic-Caco, who again won a place in the Pantheon of Izetbegovic "heroes".
9. When a former Croatian militiaman Mr. Miro Bajramovic confessed at the beginning of September 97 in an interview with the courageous The Feral Tribune, that he had killed himself 72 Serb civilians at Gospic, at a detention centre at Pakracka Poljana, and elsewhere, he implicated senior Croatian officials in at least 400 executions of ethnic Serbs by special death squads in 1991. -"I am responsible for the death of 86 people, I killed 72 people with my own hands. Among them were 9 women... They were Chetniks and our enemies (they were told)..." He even gave names of his three accomplices who were later arrested. He mentioned the commander of the death squad. Mr. Tomislav Mercep, who started his bloody career in 1991 in Eastern Slavonia, at Vukovar - "His unit, called "Autumn Rains", arrived in Gospic in September 91. The order was to perform ethnic cleansing, so we killed directors of post offices and hospitals, restaurant owners and many other Serbs. Executions were performed by shooting at point-blank range. Some unsympathetic Croats were killed as well..." Mr. Mercep became rich. As M. Bajramovic said: "The unit also amassed tens of thousands of dollars from looting Serbian homes... The money made many of the members of the group, including Mr. Mercep, wealthy... He has two houses in Zagreb, two apartments and a house on Brac - and he came from Vukovar without a kuna (the Croatian currency whose name was taken from the time of Pavelic Croatia) in his pocket..."
Mr. Mercep was one of the leading members of president Tudjman's ruling HDZ party (Croatian Democratic Union), now he heads a small political party of his own. Madam L. Arbour requested some informations on Mr. Bajramovic and his three accomplices, but still nothing happened to Mr. Mercep. He is a too high official, with too many high ranking friends. The New York Times published the data about Mr. Miro Bajramovic confession (5th September 97).
10. The selection of those who will be charged and prosecuted by The Hague tribunal is so far one of the criteria that make it similar to a Kangaroo court. The hope that the new prosecutor General Mrs. Louise Arbour would be better than the absolutely one-sided Mr. R. Goldstone (the Tribunal's Vyshinsky) was not fulfilled. Instead of hunting with her sealed indictments for suspected war criminals, many of whom were charged mainly from the hearsay evidence, she should have prosecuted some extremely well documented cases of mass killing and ethnic cleansing of the Serbs. Mr. Cedric Thornberry (UNO) wrote about such a case (Foreign Policy, Fall 1996). The Croatian forces made an incursion in September 1993 into the United Nations Protected Area (the Pink Zone) of Medak in Krajina -"The Croatian army assault was well planned. The advancing soldiers killed and destroyed everyone and everything on their path - the few Serb defenders, the mostly aged inhabitants, and all their livestock. Using dynamite and engineering precision, the invaders leveled every single building... (remark by the author: in this mass killing and destruction the Dutch mercenaries were very active)- Our Canadian military experts concluded that the goals of the incursion had been to carry out a program of 100 % scorched earth and slaughter, that it had been systematically planned and that such a planning could only have been endorsed at the highest level of the Croatian army... The UN dossiers, with their voluminous evidence, have been given to the crimes investigators on October 6, 1993. and to the Croatian minister of defence, Gojko Susak. Since then, there has been nothing but silence". How can the Hague tribunal be perceived as fair when such a well-documented instance has brought no follow-up?... Will Mrs. Arbour charge Mr. Tudjman and the top brass of the Croatian army (or Mr. Susak posthumously)? Will she issue her well known sealed indictments as she did in the case of the alleged Serb war criminals? Will she do, belatedly, anything in connection with the ethnic cleansing of 200.000 Krajina Serbs, with the destruction and looting of their property, with murders of very many of them? The evidence here is overwhelming. All that happened during the operation "Storm" (August 1995), well planned by the retired US army mercenary-generals and well supplied, notwithstanding the arms embargo, by the protectors of the Croatian army, the Americans, Germans and many others, including the Slovenes who earned so much from smuggling of arms and ammunition during the civil-ethnic-religious war in the former Yugoslavia, from operating some training centres for various terrorist groups.
11. The standards of the medical care for the imprisoned Serbs by The Hague tribunal are evidently poor - about the Croat and Muslim prisoners nothing was reported so far. The mortally ill general Djukic (cancer of pancreas, in its final stages) was arrested, together with colonel Krsmanovic (both from the Republika Srpska army) at the beginning of 1996 by Muslims in Sarajevo and according to the instructions of the prosecutor general from The Hague tribunal Mr. Goldstone, they both were immediately sent to The Hague and imprisoned there, without any indictment, without any proper warrant or charge. The dying general was imprisoned for many weeks without a proper medical care for his critical condition, without a proper diet. Finally, when he was discharged, together with colonel Krsmanovic, he died after a few days at home. Why was he imprisoned at all, when he was discharged from prison without any trial, only after a few cross-examinations? How is it possible that nobody noticed the terminal stages of general's cancer? It was an utterly inhumane behaviour of the tribunal in The Hague. Another Serbian prisoner of the tribunal, Mr. Slavko Dokmanovic, died there during the night of 28-29th June 98. He was the former burgomaster of Vukovar in the Republic Srpska Krajina, not yet sentenced for alleged war crimes. He suffered from severe depressions and insomnia, he was deeply worried about the prospects of his family - the officials of the tribunal knew about it. And so he committed suicide, he hanged himself, after a few previous unsuccessful attempts. The medical care for such a patient was utterly insufficient.
On July 31st 98, another Serb died suddenly in the tribunal's prison. It was Mr. Milan Kovacevic, M.D., the former director of the Prijedor hospital in Bosnia, allegedly of a severe heart attack. He was arrested illegally (1997) by the British SAS men, without any official indictment and warrant, on the basis of a sealed indictment. Imprisoned for more than one year, so far without any trial - arrested at the same time when the SAS men murdered during the arrest another local Serbian leader Mr. Sima Drljaca, on the basis of a sealed indictment again. The lawyer of the late Dr. Kovacevic (Mr. D. Vucicevic) will sue The Hague tribunal for neglect, because Dr. Kovacevic, before his death, was left in severe pain for 6 hours without any proper medical treatment. As for the procedure, it is not so essential here what were those men charged (indicted) with, whether secretly or openly, but the fact that they had not the essential medical care, that must be available to any imprisoned man, that they died without the corresponding court procedure, during the detention. The Hague tribunal exposes more and more the bankruptcy of the western judiciary which it was supposed to represent. If this did happen in a "normal" prison in the West, it would cause a scandal and a lot of interrogation. The death during the detention on remand is always an indicator that something foul may be present there. During the Stalin and Hitler era it was just a common event.
12. In mid-July of 1998, an International conference in Rome took place. About 1.500 delegates from 156 countries tried to organize an International Criminal Tribunal, under whose jurisdiction the crimes of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity would come. The staunch protector and propagator of the War crimes tribunal in The Hague, the USA, blocked to some extent the work of the conference, because it wanted to push through their idea that nobody could stand trial in that court (tribunal) unless the authorities of his country approve it. It is again a double standard - when the citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), of the Republika Srpska were under discussion, the USA and the majority of the international community opposed any possibility for them to stand trial in their own country. The USA supported wholeheartedly The Hague tribunal, because no Americans were involved. Generally speaking, France, the USA, China wanted a less powerful tribunal. One may recall the Orwell's Animal Farm: "All animals are equal - but some animals are more equal than others." If they would accept the eventual charter of the above International Criminal Tribunal, the USA, France, the UK and others could have a lot of troubles because they committed very many war crimes, crimes against humanity, even genocide, during various wars and suppressions of various rebellions, in the last 50 years. They must be reluctant therefore. "When requested to go before the International court in The Hague to explain alleged crimes against Nicaragua, the US refused to accept the jurisdiction of a court we had helped set up" (Gore Vidal, Sunday Telegraph, Aug. 11,96). Really, some animals are more equal than others.
13. The level of the "democratic behaviour" of SFOR and its role as an occupying force in the Republika Srpska in Bosnia was illustrated by the men of a special SFOR unit at Prijedor on Thursday 23rd July 98. They apprehended, in the middle of the day, two absolutely innocent men, as alleged war criminals, and dispatched them immediately to The Hague tribunal. They were urged to confess that they were the Banovic brothers who had perpetrated various war crimes. Regardless of the exerted pressure on them, they finally managed to prove that they were not the Banovic brothers and so they were set free and sent home. No official documents were shown to them... In various movies people in this country were accustomed to that type of arrests by the CHEKA or NKVD in the Stalin's era, or by Hitler's GESTAPO - without any "normal" judicial procedures. Whoever from the West now tries to talk about the democratic, civilized judicial procedures in The Hague tribunal, with all the benefits of adhering to the human rights of the defendant, must look like a funny and hypocritical person, if confronted with all the above. What an example for those who are bragging about the human rights, fair judicial procedures, without any sealed indictments in the West!
SELECTIVE JUSTICE IN THE HAGUE - THE GERMAN INVOLVEMENT IN THE MALPRACTICES OF THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL
Diana Johnstone wrote in The Nation (22nd September 97) about the deep German involvement in the malpractices of The Hague tribunal: - "Selective justice in The Hague - The war crimes tribunal on former Yugoslavia is a mockery of evidenciary rule". The German motto that the Serbs are to be blamed for anything cruel, unjust and criminal in the former Yugoslavia is well expressed and explained in her article:
"Back in August 1992, German foreign minister Klaus Kinkel, whose government led the drive to fragment Yugoslavia at the expense of its Serbs and Yugoslav citizens, called for creation of an international court to prosecute leading Serbs for genocide. And German courts have recently been prosecuting Serbs for alleged crimes against humanity with a zeal they never demonstrated in pursuing crimes committed by their own countrymen during the World War II Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia" The absolutely one-sided and biased policy of the U.S. administration which makes almost a kangaroo court out of The Hague tribunal is included just in one sentence of the above article:
"...The very facts that the US government simultaneously supporting the tribunal and arming the Muslims suggests a combination of judicial and military means on behalf of one party to the conflict". And finally there is a "slogan" about the judicial malpractice there:... "the more grave the accusation, the less need there is for solid proof (at The Hague tribunal)." Because it was a priori decided that the Serbs must be guilty - and will be made guilty. While the Croats and especially the Muslims are blamed incomparably less, their crimes during the civil-ethnic religious war received much less publicity, they did not represent headlines loaded with emotions.There was a sudden change of heart in the West and in a part of the official Czech policy (including the president Mr. Havel) in their attitude to the Serbs. Until the late eighties, they were regarded as heroic and honest people who fought courageously for their freedom and ideals for almost 500 years, against the Turks, Austro-Hungarian and German empires, against Hitler and Mussolini, against their collaborators in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with incredible suffering and losses. And now they are treated as criminals, villains, dirty killers. Was it out of ignorance, for money or because somebody ordered it for his benefit? Even an arrogant American Clint Williamson from The Hague tribunal called Yugoslavia (Serbia + Montenegro) a "rogue state".
ABOUT HYPOCRISY AND DOUBLE STANDARDS
Just 30 years ago, on 16th March 1968, an American unit overrun a Vietnamese hamlet called My Lai and massacred there many civilians - there were no Viet Cong forces there. The numbers of dead women, children and old people were put at 450, most of them brutally assassinated. Practically nothing happened to the perpetrators of that crime, even the commander of the Charlie Company lieutenant W. Calley, found guilty of murder, somehow escaped from the life sentence. The three US soldiers (one of them, Mr. Glenn Andreotta, posthumously) were recently decorated (1998), because they saved many innocent civilians in My Lai from their own comrades, risking their lives.
"About 450 civilians - women, children and old men were killed in a frenzy of slaughter and sexual assaults, including at least one gang rape, as American troops swept in and around the hamlet of My Lai on March 16, 1968. No Viet Cong forces were encountered." (Ian Brodie - "Heroes of My Lai honoured at last", the Times, 9th March, 1998).
An interesting - and depressing - article appeared again in the Times (23rd September 1996), by Ian Brodie: "Pentagon admits it taught Latin Americans to torture". Aren't those who organized it entitled for The Hague tribunal? They caused a lot of suffering and very many brutal deaths of thousands of human beings throughout the Latin and Central America. The question is not so much who those tortured had been, but the principle of the torture. Add to the above approximately 150.000 dead in the Central America during the civil wars there. Most of them were killed (and sometimes tortured) by special, US trained battalions, with many atrocities whereever they appeared. Will the US presidents be charged by an international authority?
At the end of April 98, the French criticized the Americans for their role in the Rwanda holocaust, and the Americans criticized the French for the same purpose. Somebody must have supplied, not only the Belgians, with a lot of arms and ammunition both the Hutus and the Tutsis.
How many Kurds were killed, and are being killed with the weapons from Germany, USA, Britain, France, etc. in Turkey? How many people (about 150.000) were killed, mostly by American weapons in the East Timor? Why does not almost anybody care for the victims of the civil and religious war in Sudan (about 1 000.000 or even more dead). Is it because this area (the southern Sudan) is not interesting for the big powers?
The Germans and the British, and the French, etc. sold so many facilities to produce weapons to Iraq, Iran, Libya, even under embargo. Why did e.g., the Dutch bomb, as the NATO pilots, the Serbian civilian targets in Bosnia and Herzegovina, killing many innocent people and destroying their very poor resources (August and September 95)? Was it Mr. Hans van den Broek who spoke so often with displeasure and even with some traits of hysteric hatred about the Serbs? Why did bomb the Serb civilians in BH the American, British, French, German and Spanish pilots, under a very dubious mandate, after the Muslim provocation at Markale II on 28th August 95?
How is it possible that all the above condemn other people (very often for political reasons) at The Hague tribunal, pretending that they are honest, good, humane, truthful, etc. themselves.
WHO IS SPREADING DISINFORMATION, WHO IS TELLING ALL THE LIES
According to the BBC dictionary (1993) disinformation is untruth, or misleading information, especially the kind of information which was published by a government or political organisation in order to arouse suspicion about another party and in order to diminish the credibility of someone or something. And a LIE is what someone says in the knowledge that it is not true. So when someone is called a liar according to this definition, it is not in fact an insult but a statement of the truth. If someone tried to write a book about disinformation and lies against the Serbs during the recent civil-ethnic-religious war and now, the number of volumes would exceed the Encyclopaedia Britannica. How many pages would be devoted only to the myths of "Croatian Vukovar", to the inventions of Slovenian and foreign media about a few days of the war in summer 1991. Rape, murder, explosions in Sarajevo, Srebrenica etc. - these are all terrible things, where no one is free from guilt, but a lie cannot erase human suffering. The image of Mr. Genscher and all those who brought on the destruction of Yugoslavia and the new hatred in its nations should always be seen behind the destruction and the dead.
Part of the BBC's disinformation was somewhat more subtle. At the start of the BH tragedy head reporter Kate Addie successfully used the concept of "good guys and bad guys": the Serbs were a priori the bad guys. The BBC reports the bombing of Sarajevo, the dead and the wounded. It is the sad truth. But it does not report (at least only rarely) that bombs did not only fall on the Muslim areas of the city but also on the Serb districts, where they also took lives. This was not a lie, but it was dishonest and biased. But not even the BBC was without "gross" disinformation, when, for example, in summer 1992 it reported completely unverified stories that Serb snipers received 300 pounds sterling for every Muslim child killed. A naive humanitarian aid worker Steve Watts heard it from Croats and Muslims in a convoy to Sarajevo, and Croat newspapers had been writing about it. Watts told BBC reporters and the BBC immediately reported it, without verifying it, on programmes with large audiences. Why verify, when the Serbs are the "bad guys".
A "beautiful" lie is linked to the attractive CNN reporter of Iranian origin, Christiane Amanpour. On 22nd December 1992 she reported from Kiseljak, not far from Sarajevo. With a Croat and Muslim population, undamaged, in Croat hands, well supplied with everything. "While people in Sarajevo are dying from starvation, the Serbs are living here in plenty." That is how she put it. It was a massive lie, with malicious intent, because some American from Nebraska obviously did not know that there were no Serbs in Kiseljak. By and large, Christiane Amanpour was a true apostle of disinformation which she was evidently not ashamed of; uninformed people must have trusted the sad look on her face. It was not for nothing that she was one of the best paid reporters. She received an ironical mention from the American four-star general "Chuck" Boyd (see above) and lieutenant colonel of American military intelligence John E. Sray (see above), who wrote about how she had launched a fierce assault on General Rose for not stopping the "Serb aggression on Gorazde".
Lieutenant-colonel John E. Sray is almost horrified by the lack of professionalism of another American reporter (ABC TV) Peter Jennings, whose report of 24th April 1995 is full of unreliable accusations and witnesses relating to Gorazde, "the town where the Serbs are murdering". Whilst viewers can ultimately capture a little of the truth in spite of C. Amanpour's bias, on screen Jennings acts self-important, as if he had discovered God knows what truths. Naturally he, too, harangues General Rose from UNPROFOR. Jennings also reminded viewers how the Serbs had massacred the Muslim settlement of Ahmici, as an example which is mentioned in the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, in an attempt to name the Serb culprits as suspects. It is true that ABC corrected this invention the next day and announced that the Ahmic massacre was earned out by Croats, but for the millions of viewers who did not hear this correction the Serbs remained the guilty party. SKYNEWS reported something similar in autumn 1992 (the author saw it himself). On the screen a commentator showed "the funeral of Muslims murdered by the Serbs". The "mistake" was that the ceremony was conducted by a bearded Orthodox priest, surrounded by Orthodox crosses. Apparently SKYNEWS corrected this "mistake" the next day, but how many hundreds of thousands did not hear it and failed to see through the lie.
Some forms of disinformation (lies) take one's breath away, because it is not clear whether they are born from stupidity, ignorance or an extreme impudence to have the lie believed because it is relying on the ignorance of readers, viewers and listeners. It is widely known, it was even admitted by the Croat authorities, that on 8th November 1993 a Croat tank's missile destroyed the charming Old Bridge across the Neretva liver in Mostar during the fighting between Croats and Muslims. But the French monthly magazine ACTUEL published an article in its double issue (December 1993 - January 1994) called "People, Monuments, All is Transient", which describes the bridge's sad fate. "Torn apart, destroyed, smashed by Serb artillery in Vukovar (!!), it no longer exists. A strategic place which the Serbs did away with, the bridge in Vukovar was an architectural wonder of the 17th century. It was part of the architectural and historical legacy of the Croat town blah blah blah." So Actuel, either out of ignorance or intentionally, confused Mostar with Vukovar, the 17th century with the 16th century and turned Mostar into a Croat town. I wonder how many French readers realised that this was rubbish? But even the American NEWSWEEK at the start of 1994 had the Old Mostar Bridge destroyed by the Serbs (3rd January 1994). This was obviously a case of a lie with malicious intent. The Czech station TV PRIMA also included this kind of disinformation in its reports about the Mostar bridge (29th September 1997, 19:00): "In November 1993 the bridge, which Serbs and Croats had bombed in 1992, finally collapsed into the water." According to TV PRIMA the bridge somehow collapsed on its own, without that Croat grenade.
There were many centres of the anti-Serb propaganda in Germany. One of them was the well known newspaper die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, with its editor Mr. Johann-Georg Reissmuller, an arch-enemy of the Serbs who spread a lot of hatred and disinformations about them. He did not find in them any feeling for true values, their orthodox church was, according to him, just spreading their imperialist ideas. He wrote extensively (e.g., on 8th December 92) about then alleged prison-camp brothels, Serbian sex-mania and the desire to humiliate. His articles are filled with bombastic, anti-Serbian tirades, with almost racist phrases in them. But not all Germans are like him. A group of Austrian, French, German, American, Swiss and Yugoslav intellectuals and journalists published a book in Berlin, edited by Mr. Klaus Bittermann "Serbia must die" (Klaus Bittermann Publ., Thiamat, Berlin, 1994).
The book was originally published in the German, to be later translated into English, Greek and Serbian. All those who trusted the flood of disinformations and inaccuracies published, mostly by the western media, about the events in Yugoslavia, should read it. The book will open their eyes, they will be informed about the other side of the events there. They surely will feel insulted by those who spread so many lies and fabrications, by a big part of the western media and of the western politicians.
Not only Mr. Vulliamy wrote a lot of historical nonsense in his "Seasons in Hell" (see earlier). Professor C. G. Jacobsen (see earlier) quotes another "expert" on Bosnia's history: "The New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning Bosnia correspondent talked of Bosnia's 1.000 years of inter-ethnic and religious peace, betraying a historical ignorance so profound as to make flat earth believers look omniscient." (Mr. John Burns was a New York Times correspondent in Bosnia, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize). And millions of men and women all over the world trusted him. How was it possible to give such people such a prestigious prize? Was it just ignorance of those who had awarded it, or was their intention to discredit even more the Serbs and their leaders? Was the award given for political reasons?
Cruel things happened during the civil-ethnic-religious war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, nobody was completely innocent. But some reporters, when trying to make their reports as authentic as possible, could make them somewhat ridiculous. Mr. Robert Fisk published many articles in The Independent, some of them about the horrible experiences of the raped Muslim women - from hearsay and double hearsay, naturally, most of them. In his article "The rapes went on day and night" (Independent, 8th February 93) he described an "interesting" detail: -"When the Serbs doubted the claim of two women that they were pregnant, they took them to a hospital for a pregnancy test. Only after the test proved positive, were they spared..." (because the "Chetniks" wanted to make them pregnant and for this reason, according to Mr. Fisk, did not rape them - if they were already pregnant). Mr. Fisk was too credulous. Because at that time when there were no antibiotics, no anaesthetics, no analgesics, etc in the Bosnian hospitals, including Kalinovik, the idea about the availability of pregnancy tests sounds really ridiculous. Even if a part of his report from hearsay or double hearsay was true, the inclusion of the pregnancy tests into the story made it much less "digestible" for the non-naive.
On 15th December 93 a Prague newspaper Lidove Noviny (owned now by the Germans) published a pamphlet, headed Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was full of informations and much more of disinformations, with introductory remarks by the international financial shark G. Soros (his machinations robbed the British taxpayer of more than one billion pounds in the early nineties). His anti-Serbian attitudes were matched quite well by the words of Otto von Habsburg, the grandson of Francis-Joseph I, the emperor of Austria-Hungary, whose army brutally massacred thousands of Serb civilian in 1914-16, whose armies occupied in 1878, after the Berlin Congress, Bosnia and Herzegovina, against the will of their Serb and Muslim inhabitants. The Swiss university professor of criminology R. A. Reiss published a book about the horrible atrocities of the Austro-Hungarian army in Serbia (How Austria-Hungary waged war in Serbia. Personal investigations of a neutral. A. Colin, Paris, 1915), with a lot of photos. The "instant expert" on Yugoslavia Mr. Marjanovic was in the pamphlet present naturally too, attributing his various fabrications to the catholic archbishop of Belgrade Th. Dr. F. Perko. Especially full of disinformations was the Chronology of Events by Mr. I. Blazevic, T. Marjanovic, S. Panek, F. Tesar. The most undemocratic and disgusting was the fact that there was no way to publish a critique, to disclose the fabrications, to tell the other side of the story. It was like in the old "bolshevik" times, or during the rule of Hitler. The official line, proclaimed by the West, had not to be changed.
The ignorance or the "received wisdom" may account for very bizzare statements, conclusions. A shining example of it is an interview in a Czech periodical Stredni Evropa in may 1992, with the Slovene journalist Viktor Blazic. He was interviewed by Mr. Z. Hejda, L. Bednar, J. Mlejnek, with a simultaneous translation by Mr. T. Marjanovic, the "instant expert on Yugoslavia, especially on Bosnia". One of the questions was: "What was the background of the execution of cardinal Stepinac in Zagreb after the World War II?" Oddly enough, the cardinal was not executed at all, he died in 1960 of leukaemia in his native Krasic, where he had been confined after his trial. He was sentenced for his collaboration with the ustasha regime of Ante Pavelic. The crimes of the catholic church in the fascist Croatian state (1941-45) against the Serbs who lived there for centuries, are described by a Croatian academic Viktor Novak in his MAGNUM CRIMEN (The Big Crime), an extensive publication of 1.119 pages (Zagreb, 1948, reprint Nova knjiga, Beograd, 1986). It was just announced (October 98) that Pope John Paul II really beatified the very controversial cardinal during his visit to Croatia in 1998. During 1941-45 more than 600 catholic priests and monks took part in expelling the Serbs from their homes, compelling the orthodox Serbs to switch to the Catholicism, even in killing them. On 18th may 1943 the archbishop of Zagreb (not yet cardinal) A. Stepinac informed pope Plus XII that 240.000 orthodox Serbs were converted to Catholicism - they were forced to do it under the threat of death.
And such examples would fill many books.
It would be fair and just to prepare a sort of "black list" of all those who spread lies and disinformations, who helped to create hatred, who wrote literary rubbish full of inaccuracies, in connection with tragic events in the former Yugoslavia both from ignorance and for money. Thousands would be included, very many of them from the most famous newspapers. As Reno Urbini (whom we already quoted) wrote in the Italian Epoca (in 1993), quoting a BBC journalist: -"The Editors-in-Chief of some newspapers should be condemned as war criminals." Very many reporters should be added to them.
But, luckily, there are many books that try to be fair and honest, and truthful - and they really are. Why not to read them and wash away all the disinformations that piled up during the years 1991-98?
G. BAUDSON: L' Europe des Fous ou La destruction dc la Yugoslavie. (Europe of the Fools or the Destruction of Yugoslavia.) Club prive des Communautes Europeennes. Paris, 1993, In French
J. MERLINO: Les Vérités yougoslaves no sont pas toutes bonnes à dire. (It is not Good to Tell the Truth About Yugoslavia) A. Michele, Paris, 1993, In French
L. HLADKY: Bosnia and Herzegovina - History of the Unfortunate Country, Doplnek. Brno, 1996, In Czech
K. BITERMANN: Serbia must die (see in the text), 1994
R. DOLECEK: I Accuse, Rivel Co., Belgrade, 1998 in Serbian
P.M. GALLOIS: Le sang du Pétrole (The blood of petroleum). L' Age d' Homme, Lausanne, 1996
LORD BYRON FOUNDATION: America's Intervention in the Balkan, Aiken (S.C ), LONDON, 1998
DISINFORMATIONS AND FRANCE
Hundreds of pages could be filled with disinformations and fabrications about the events in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Croatia and now in Kosovo made public in France by its media, by various public figures (e.g., some "modern" and funny looking "philosophers"), by politicians. Le Monde, Le Figaro, etc., various TV and radio stations, seemed to compete how to denigrate as much as possible the Serbs and their leaders. They have exploited the ignorance of many citizens and the "tune-tested" methods of the American media and their PR (Public Relations) agencies, as well as the newly-created "instant experts" on Yugoslavia who after reading a few articles (e.g., in TIME or NEWSWEEK) or some books of questionable contents (e.g., the "historical" parts of "Seasons in Hell" by E. Vulliamy) started to think that they had a quite clear picture about the events in Yugoslavia - especially if financially motivated or it then bosses instructed them to do so. But, nevertheless it could be very embarrassing if in such circumstances even the leading politicians started to misbehave... The president of the French parliament Mr. Laurent Fabius, in connection with the news from Bosnia and Herzegovina declared as a vulgar person (6 January, 1993) ..."It was said that an international martial law would be declared to try that DUNG that perpetrated crimes against humanity, whether it is called Milosevic - or many others..." All the above was said by Mr. Fabius during the evening news so that everybody in France could hear it (J. Merlino, 1993 see in text). As Mr. Merlino, a French TV editor, remarked, all the people in the editor's office had been shocked... It would be interesting to know what Mr. Fabius did say about the horrible crimes committed by the French during the war in Algeria where both sides seemed to compete in various atrocities. Fortunately, there are many Frenchmen who are informing fairly, without bias and hypocrisy about the events in Yugoslavia, like Mr. Volker, Merlino, Baudson, Gallois, etc. But. there are many ignoramuses who are heard much more - and who are well paid.
The German editor, Mr. Klaus Bittermann, in the book "Serbia must die" (1994 - see in text) had some witty remarks about the well known "Serb-hater" the so called philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, about his work in Sarajevo which was to some extent a pure war propaganda and how "the words spoken by Izetbegovic at virtually every press-conference are sycophantically passed on by Levy as "confidential informations " and how Mr. Levy "fawns on general Divjak" - but he has quite "different things to say about the cowardly Serbs" - he called them even fascists (sic). Another "Serb-hater" Mr. Alain Finkielkraut sided with Croats and "doubts the credibility of Levy's circle and criticizes his exclusive confidence in Bosnian president Izetbegovic, 'yesterday's man', who today is throwing up every possible obstacle to prevent the Muslim-Croatian unification"... (Klaus Bittermann). Together with the "modern French philosophers" who became supporters of sharp nationalistic tones (it was earlier the privilege of ultra-radical right-wingers) there appeared many "Serb-haters" in Germany, e.g., Eva Quistorp, Herta Müller, Daniel Cohn-Bendit (remember Paris 1968). etc., who "tirelessly rework Roy Gutman's article on the death camps, embellishing it with more and more details" (K. Bittermann). They tried to damage as much as they could the image of the Serbs, of their history. Was it out of ignorance, for money, out of a totally antagonistic philosophy of life? As an example of one-sidedness, the International French Radio, Radio France International (RFI) may be mentioned, its transmissions for Yugoslavia (a part in Serbian, a part in Croatian - earlier it was Serbo-Croatian language). In addition to the news from abroad, from around the world of a good quality, RFI has special correspondents covering the news from different parts of the former Yugoslavia. And it is here that starts the bias, the one-sidedness. During the civil-ethnic-religious war, all the news from Bosnia and Herzegovina, from Sarajevo and Mostar, were in the hands of two intelligent Muslims (E. Habul and L. Sahovic) who were, regarding the Serbs, definitely not impartial. During the war no Serbs appeared there as a special correspondent. From Kosovo all the special reports were prepared by an Albanian (Fehim Rexhepi) whose impartiality was questionable too, especially during the tragic events in Kosovo (1998) when it became quite clear whom he sided with. No Serb reported any time from Pristina. From Zagreb, there are two special correspondents, Mr. Marinko Culic and Mrs. Jelena Lovric - they must be praised for their more or less unpartial reporting. As for the reporting from Belgrade, the RFI "entrusted" with it only those who supported the opposition (S. Cerovic, L. Stojanovic) During the last months it was mostly that part of it that went bankrupt. The two special correspondents are telling almost exclusively things that are unpleasant to Serbia (Yugoslavia), including sometimes even the selection of news coming from Kosovo during 1998. It would be fine to have such a "free" reporting but to be really "free", the other side ought to be heard as well (audiatur et altera pars) The new special reporters from Banja Luka seem to be objective, to discuss various opinions just freely.
Finally, one interesting detail about the disinformations not dealing with France. CNN reported (7 June 98) how the US army in Laos (1970) used the nerve gas sarin against its own deserters. But on July the 2nd an apology to the viewers was offered and the contents of the above report were revoked - probably because too many viewers had objections to its contents. Did the CNN any time apologize to the Serbian nation for all its disinformations or even lies? A perfect example how to manipulate the American people was the recent movie "Wag the Dog" with Dustin Hoffman - it described how the US authorities could fabricate even a war, heroes, battles with terrorists...
THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE SERB PENSIONERS
At the time of Tito's regime many hundreds of thousands of Yugoslav citizens worked as so-called Gastarbeiters abroad, in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, France etc. Many of them were from BH. For many years before the Yugoslav Munich (1991-1992) many of them had been receiving their pensions from the countries where they worked. They generally saw themselves as the best off in Yugoslavia, as their income was in a foreign currency, and so practically unaffected by inflation. Yugoslavia had visa-free contact with a large number of states. That is why it was SFRY (Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia) passports which were most commonly stolen in the Seventies and Eighties. Then, under the USA and European Union diktat, two utterly unjust and harsh resolutions were passed by the UN Security Council, nos. 757 (30th May 1992) and 820 (18th April 1993) and FRY was exposed to unbelievable sanctions. The large majority of countries obediently annulled visa-free contact. And similarly the pensioners immediately stopped receiving their pensions - the sanctions meant a suspension of all contact with foreign banks. Financially secure pensioners thus, practically over night, became poor, without anything to live on. They lost any access to then hard currency accounts abroad and their domestic hard currency accounts in banks were lost forever. This did not just apply to FRY, but to an even worse degree to the Republika Srpska in BH and for the Serb Krajina Republic.
Theoretically the pensioners could still collect their pensions or savings in person in the countries where they worked, but this was practically impossible as it was extremely hard to obtain a visa and it was very expensive. Planes were not allowed to fly in or out of FRY, trains were impossibly expensive, it was hard to find petrol and a permit had to be bought to leave the country. And so the European Union and other states (e.g. Sweden and Switzerland), which speak out so loud about human rights, economically ruined those who had worked hard there and for many years. The pensions problem started to be very slowly resolved during 1996. The USA, too, naturally played a large part in blocking the pensions and it continues to this date (i.e. the start of 1998) with its economic embargo on FRY and does not allow it to receive economic aid via institutions which the USA controls (e.g. the International Monetary Fund). This might not be so bad, as FRY does not set much store by these institutions, so it does not have to "obey" and do everything that it is ordered to do via them. FRY's assets are still frozen in the USA. After the Dayton diktat it seemed that everything would be sorted out favourably. But the masters of the New World Older want more and more. Now they link their consent for economic relief and possible aid, as part of its arrogant interference in FRY's internal affairs, to the matter of resolving the situation in Kosovo as it sees lit. Kosovo represents another subject for blackmail in their dirty intentions - all under the guise of protection of human rights.
THE BANKRUPTCY OF THE WESTERN DEMOCRACY IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA - SFOR BECOMES AN ARMY OF OCCUPATION
Recently the American journalist David Binder, one of those who is not afraid to write the truth, published an extraordinary article in the Washington Times (25th November 1997), titled OCCUPYING SRPSKA. By this he meant the Republika Srpska in BH. Let us give some quotes.
"Over the past four months, the NATO army for Bosnia and Herzegovina called the Stabilization Force (SFOR) has been transformed by the Clinton administration into an occupation authority in the Serbian portion of the land. It acts mostly on orders of American political officials, including those of the nominally independent Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)... This occupation role, reminiscent of the governance of the victorious Allies in Germany after World War II, has begun to pervade sectors of public life well beyond NATO's original pacification mission of separating hostile forces... To further these aims, the occupation authorities have created a puppet government in Banja Luka under the otherwise powerless Republika Srpska president, Biljana Plavsic"...
An example of the occupation-like conduct of SFOR in the Serb part of BH is the violent taking over of four radio and TV relay stations of the government of the Republika Srpska in Pale - allegedly because they spoke out against NATO, that they criticised the main prosecutor of The Hague Tribunal L. Arbour during her stay in Sarajevo, that they were a threat to peace in BH and that they are spreading hatred according to J. Solana, general secretary of NATO, the stations will remain in the hands of president B. Plavsic. We must not forget that the Spanish politician J. Solana recommended bombarding the Republika Srpska in 1995, even before he had become General secretary of NATO. The order to occupy the transmission stations was issued in person by the Spaniard Carlos Westendorp, a senior civilian functionary for BH. Poor is the nation where foreigners rule by violence. In the Czech experience, when the Germans occupied Bohemia and Moravia on 15th March 1939, the Czech nation became their protectorate, headed by the German Reichsprotektor. to a certain degree Mr. Westendorp now has the same role, together with considerable powers, which includes manipulating the results of elections, as was recently demonstrated. It is true that this protectorate is better than the German protectorate during the Second World War in Bohemia and Moravia, but it is a protectorate all the same. It is not without interest that the deputy of the "NATO Reichsprotektor" is a German, Hans Schumacher. Perhaps his grandfather or father were also in Bosnia during the last war. The author is not denying SFOR's positive role here, but what the bosses of SFOR allow themselves to do outside its mandate.
The author of this text spent a whole year in the USA (1968), where he made many friends and experienced the good America. It happened to be election year and the author knows full well how the various candidates attacked one another, how they blackened each other, accusing each other of anything and everything. "This is true democracy, you can say what you want!" they taught me. The same kind of thing takes place in England, France, Germany - the mutual mud-slinging and attacks are very fierce, sometimes distasteful even. But this democracy does not apply for Serbs in BH. Their democracy has to be composed of obedience, they may not criticise anything that is linked to the New World Order, of which criticism is not permitted. The mockery and bankruptcy of western democracy lies in the fact that the pre-election campaign in BH was permitted in its full extent for one side alone which suited the leaders of the protectorate. People from the Pale government were casually called criminals, cut-throats, thugs, three of its leaders were deprived of the right to take part in the elections, Radovan Karadzic was branded a war criminal, every other word of the masters in BH was a threat of tough measures against Pale (military, economic, administrative etc.). But how are people meant to argue their case and express their opinion to show what is wrong when they are prevented from using television and radio? How are they supposed to conduct an election campaign with a gag in their mouths? Are they really not allowed to criticise the work of The Hague Tribunal, when they are fully aware of its complete partiality, its political (anti-Serb) orientation, the selective choice of culprits, their a priori establishment, when this court allows secret indictments so the accused does not even know about it? When they are fully aware that in a western country this kind of court would be discarded as a mockery of justice, as a farce. If something similar happened in America or in the countries of the European Union it would bring about the fall of the government, stormy protests and demonstrations. But in the protectorate called the Republika Srpska all is permitted. According to the commander of NATO forces in Europe General Wesley Clark (he is, of course, an American) the aim of the occupation of radio and TV transmitters was to change the content of the existing broadcasting of the Serb leadership in Pale, which was allegedly anti-NATO. Is this not a perfect example of censorship? In his article David Binder ironically asks whether General Clark is going to award himself and his units the Combat Television Badge, for bravery in front of the screen?
The fundamental principles of this flagrant American interference in the affairs of the Republika Srpska were stated by S. Berger, president Clinton's national security adviser, on 23rd September 1997: eliminating ethnic division by enabling Muslim refugees to return home (he did not give much of a mention to the hundreds of thousands of Serb refugees, even though they had to leave districts with 80-90% Serb populations), controlling the media, driving out obstinate politicians and capturing as many war crimes suspects as possible. This might come into consideration if it applied to all. An absolute ignorance of the situation, or malicious intent, is reflected in Berger's dreams of establishing "one nation", i.e. "Bosnians". So why did these gentlemen break up the former Yugoslavia, some of whose creators also dreamed of South Slavs as one nation? Anyone who knows a bit of the history of Bosnia-Herzegovina knows that the Austro-Hungarian occupiers also made similar attempts to liquidate the Serb and Croat nationalities.
A much worse problem for the future of BH is the fact that the USA has been very generously supplying the Muslim forces, and partly the Croat forces too, with guns and instructors. At least 300 million US dollars have thus made their way into BH in the form of armaments (tanks, artillery, vehicles) and electronics. Additionally around 200 American mercenaries were "hired out" (mostly retired officers and non-commissioned officers) to train these forces according to the "equip and train" plan. According to various reports the Muslim forces also include a significant number of mujahedeen and Iranian agents. The American government and president Clinton (not counting the rather worry-laden European Union) have probably finally grasped what an unbelievable military and economic imbalance they have created in BH - aid for the Republika Srpska, in particular for the regions under Pale influence, is indeed negligible, incomparably smaller than for the Muslim-Croat federation. That means that under today's circumstances, if SFOR was to leave, there would very probably be more terrible bloodshed, like that which the USA, European Community and the Vatican caused so successfully a few years ago. And as if this was not enough for the masters of the New World Order (and War), they are starting to show their designs on Kosovo and Metohia.
INVENTORY OF HYPOCRISY
President Bill Clinton visited Sarajevo and the American units in Tuzla on 22nd December 1997 with his wife and daughter. The next day Chancellor Helmut Kohl also showed up in BH (we do not know if he was greeted by German soldiers with extended right arms shouting heil, as recently occurred with one German unit in Split where soldiers saluted like that). Both spoke of peace, both spoke against those who would want to break it and partly against those who waged war against each other. The media praised them, saying how nice it was of them to come and that they are truly peacemakers. They also promised aid. But in reality it was a sad mockery of history, because that was the meeting place for two of the major culprits (not the only ones) of the terrible tragedy of a country and people met, as it at a horrific inventory of their work. It is not just a matter of the destruction of lives and property, but of a recreation of hatred between peoples who they are now trying to force to love each other and immediately to forget everything bad. Of these two visitors to BH maybe one is guilty because he is not aware of the facts and consequences, under strong pressure from advisors with malicious intentions, whilst the other has had malicious intentions tight from the start, because his minister Genscher in Maastricht and even long before then helped to break up Yugoslavia, using partly dormant antagonisms to do so. And another of his ministers, Klaus Kinkel, was actively involved in that.
If he did not have English, American, French, German etc. friends, the author would almost doubt the goodness of these people. Yet after all good people outnumber the bad; but they should be more vociferous, so that they make themselves heard and so that they can defend themselves better.
GENERAL MICHAEL ROSE WAS BUGGED BY AMERICANS IN BOSNIA
New data about the anti-Serb hysteria of some American officials appeared recently in the article "US bugged me in Bosnia, says General Rose" (The Times, November 10, 1998). It gives a clear evidence of the unfair and dirty role of some American officials in Bosnia, they were even convinced that General Rose (commander of UNPROFOR in Bosnia) supported the Bosnian Serbs. - "Washington, which made no secret of its backing for the Muslims wanted the UN peacekeeping force to adopt an aggressive approach towards the Serbs... False facts about the war in Bosnia were being fed to Congress... He (General Rose) realized that all his communications were being electronically intercepted."
General Rose, during his meetings with the retired US General John Galvin (former Supreme Allied Commander Europe), who had to advise on a new structure for the Bosnian Army, was escorted by a woman from the US embassy. -"She was, in my view, the most hostile American I met during all my time in Bosnia." When flying by helicopter over destroyed villages in the Zvijezda mountains, she exclaimed excitedly to general Galvin: -"Look at what the criminal Serbs have done!" But those villages were the Croat villages, ethnically cleansed by the Muslim forces, said general Rose... When they visited Mostar where the Croats had virtually destroyed the Muslim sector, she cried: -"Well, at least this was done by the criminal Serbs!" General Rose said that she burst into tears when it was pointed out that the Croats had been to blame. -"The fact was not lost on Galvin", said general Rose... On another occasion, general Rose had to throw out a suspected CIA agent, "a strange shadowy figure, straight out of a Graham Green novel, an ex-US Marine Corps officer" when he started to threaten the general, unless he could demonstrate his resolve by action on the ground (against the Serbs).
KOSOVO AND TWO DIRTY DOCTRINES - THE BREZHNEV AND THE ALBRIGHT DOCTRINES
The well known American publicist David Binder wrote recently in the Washington Post (31 March, 1998) about the events in Kosovo:
"The United States which played a crucial role in creating Yugoslavia 80 years ago and repeatedly supported its sovereignty until 1991, now contends that the remaining Yugoslavia is no longer sovereign within its own state frontiers... This change was made public by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in a statement in London (9 March 98). Referring to the Kosovo issue between the Albanian minority and the Slav majority in Serbia she declared: "We must first acknowledge that this crisis is not an internal affair of the FRY (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), comprising Serbia and Montenegro. The violence is an affront to universal standards of human rights we are pledged to uphold." Then, out of ignorance (it would be better for her moral image) or arrogance she accused Belgrade of "ethnic cleansing" of Albanians in Kosovo - "where they already constitute 90% of the population - and she threatened severest consequences."
"Lets call it the Albright Doctrine, parallel to the Brezhnev Doctrine of 'limited sovereignty"' (David Binder).
"As for the Kosovo, no great power should ever put itself into a position to be manipulated by a minority of extremists - but that is exactly what the US has dome" (Charley Reese. The Orlando Sentinel, 17 march 98). Isn't it time for Mrs. Albright to go?
To paraphrase Mr. Simon Jenkins (he will be mentioned later in the text) from his article in The Times (10 June, 98), the British are not expected to fight alongside the secessionists in Kosovo. The NATO would become a real menace if it could be so easily hired by any terrorist group (here the self-styled Kosovo Liberation Army, the UCK)
The Albanian Colonization of Kosovo and Metohia - the Numbers of Serbian Families in 1918-41 and 1991 in some Municipalities (districts) and Settlements, the Current percent of the Serb Families Municipality, Settlements, Districts Numbers of Serbian Families Their Current % 1918-1941 1991 Vitina 400 75 15,8% Vucitrn 700 83 11,9% Glogovac 407 00 0,0% Gnjilane 304 30 9,9% Decani 938 59 6,3% Djakovica 2079 94 4,5% Istok 1000 112 11,9% Kacanik 86 4 4,7% Klina 652 86 13,2% Kosovo Polje 384 36 9,4% Kosovska Kamenica 212 29 18,4% Lipljan 555 121 21,8% Malisevo 380 10 0,3% Obilic 319 70 21,9% Orahovac 310 12 3,9% Podujevo 1566 163 10,4% Pec 1141 159 11,0% Pristina 336 82 24,4% Srbica 531 00 0,0% Suva Reka 173 00 0,0% Kosovska Mitrovica 171 26 15,2% Urosevac 633 104 16,4% Stimlje 69 30 4,3% Prizren 266 15 5,6% Total 14055 1371 9,75% From the book "The Book on Kosovo" (academician Dimitrije Bogdanovic), as published in the periodical POGLEDI (No. 213, 1 may 1998)
KOSOVO: TOO MANY COOKS, TOO MANY DISINFORMATIONS, TOO MUCH ARROGANCE, IGNORANCE, AND EVEN STUPIDITY
The inspiring article by Simon Jenkins "KOSOVO: Too Many Cooks" (The Times, 11th March 98) gives an excellent overview of the hypocrisy and meddling by the West in the Serbian (Yugoslav) affairs in connection with the events in Kosovo and Metohia or KOSMET. Kosovo is the eastern and Metohia the western part of the province in question. Mrs. Albright, filled with her superpower hubris, and Mr. Cook with his smaller power hubris, are trying to dictate their own conditions to the Serbs, how to settle the conflict in Kosmet, with the help of the third member of this arrogant trio, Mr. Klaus Kinkel, with the support of the more or less obedient European Union. To show who actually calls the tune from the very beginning, Mrs. Albright "indicated on Monday (9th March 98) that the United Nations charter respecting the Internal sovereignty of states is no longer recognized by America". The events in Kosovo and Metohia are a concert of one-sidedness, bias and double standards by the West.
The violence that escalated there from the very beginning of 1998 had been expected, as a continuation of the big power policy of the USA, Germany, and of a part of the European Union, so successfully applied to fragment the former Yugoslavia, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The same arrogant ignorance and malicious intentions, the same articles with emotion charged headlines to sell the papers better, are here again. The principles of the PR Ruder and Finn Global Public Affairs from Washington had been really adhered to. The Albanians from Kosovo and Metohia, the Croats, the Muslims from Bosnia and Herzegovina, did not pay in vain. It is really pity to use the human tragedy and to distort the truth just for propaganda purposes. "Serbs turn Kosovo into killing field" is a shining example from 8th March 98 (Daily Telegraph) of a basic disinformation. Who started the troubles? Wasn't it the self proclaimed Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) that started the killing: six Serbian policemen were killed at the beginning (from ambush), many Albanians who worked in various state enterprises are dead, among them 8 foresters, brutally murdered. Anybody must wonder what would do the USA, Great Britain, France, or Germany in such circumstances. What would Mr. H. van den Broek do? Several years ago during the riots in Los Angeles, about 70 people were killed, very many died at Waco. What would the US administration say it the United Nations or the European Union expressed their intentions to send there their observers, missions, or even troops just "to mediate"? Wasn't Los Angeles a "killing field" with a strongly racist motivation?
The first reports about "the killing fields" appeared when the Serbian police overrun the Jashari clan stronghold at Donji Prekaz in the Drenica region, because from there Mr. Adem Jashari commanded a part of the UCK. In the fortified houses and bunkers of his clan, there was a lot of arms and ammunition, from those houses his father Shaban Jashari with his grandsons had been shooting at the police already in January 98. Their houses had been one of the strongholds of the 1941 uprising of the "balista" (Balli Kombtare) - the Albanian followers of the fascist and later nazi created Greater Albania, the remnants of the Albanian 21 SS division Skenderbeg. The old Shaban took part in it, in the units of his namesake Shaban Poluzha. Drenica is well known for other uprisings as well, e.g., in 1919-24 the Italian sponsored rebellion led by Azem Bejta and his handsome wife Cerima took place there, with the kachaks (rebel - bandits) who were spreading terror not only among the Serbs, but among the Albanians as well, looting and killing many people. Even before the World War II, it was very dangerous to drive a car at night through many parts of Kosovo and Metohia, because of kachak ambushes (the author witnessed it as a boy in 1939).
What would the US, British, French, German, Spanish, etc. authorities do, if large bands of terrorists, trained in a neighbour state, heavily armed, ready to kill, would try to cross their frontiers, to smuggle many deadly weapons, to attack their police stations, refugee camps, houses of their citizens, destroy various facilities? Unluckily, on many places, there is a situation either to kill or to be killed. But there are very many Albanians who do not like this killing, who know that their living standard is incomparably better in Serbia (Yugoslavia) than it would be in Albania. But the UCK members are ready to kill them and, they already killed scores of them. The more or less nonchalant attitude of the West to the flagrant support to the terrorists by the Albanian authorities and the lukewarm objections of the West to the continuing violence by the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) will definitely not discourage the militant part of the Kosmet Albanians from their acts of violence, will not compel them to make a deal with Belgrade.
The world media and politicians, as a "received wisdom" are quoting during the last 3-4 years, as a dogma, the Albanian estimate that there are in Kosmet 90% Albanians, about 6.9% of Serbs and Montenegrins and 4.4 % of the others (Turks, Gypsies, Gorans - Muslims of relatively recent Serb origin, Egyptians /!/, Croats /!/). But these figures are probably not true, because the Albanians boycotted the last census (1991) which included 11% of Serbs and Montenegrins, and 7.4% of the others (see above). The rest were Albanians. They probably did not want to participate in the census because it would show not only the exact figures, but the reality that hundreds of thousands of Albanians are illegally in Kosmet: they seized the properties of the Serbs and Montenegrins expelled or killed (about 110-115 000) during the last war (1941-45), they forcibly "bought out" the property of about 200.000-250.000 Serbs and Montenegrins (1970-87) compelling them to leave Kosovo and Metohia. The Turks, Gypsies, Gorans from Kosmet wish to stay in Serbia (Yugoslavia), because it offers them a good protection from the assimilation by the militant part of the Albanians who often included them more or less in their statistics.
It is appropriate to mention a few facts that are usually not mentioned when informing about the problems of Kosovo and Metohia.
1) The Albanians were under pressure by their leaders to leave their schools, because they did not want to use the official teaching programmes (curricula) of Belgrade, they requested the curricula from Tirana, especially in some subjects (history, geography, literature, etc.). They were not expelled from their schools, from the university of Pristina, the Albanian language was used in schools. It would be very interesting to see how the US authorities would behave if the Spanish speaking Mexicans in California or Cubans in Florida would refuse to learn English and work according to the official curricula and if they would try to secede from the USA. The same question could be asked about the Spain and Basques, France and Corsicans, not to mention the beleaguered and often massacred Kurds in Turkey. The Albanians in Kosmet started to boycott the official, state schools, the university of their own free will. It must be said here that the government in Belgrade lost some time during the last 8 years - it could have tried to settle a part of grievances of the inhabitants of Kosovo and Metohia.
2) Too many Albanians did not pay taxes at all (they gave their money to the parallel authorities of their own), they did not serve in the Yugoslav army, most of them left their jobs (in mines, in power plants, etc ), regardless of a rather significant unemployment in Kosmet. But, nevertheless, they use many benefits from the Yugoslav federal republic (pensions, some social benefits, medical treatment - there are many Albanians treated in Belgrade hospitals - they use the Yugoslav passports, etc.). They have their own, but limited, health service. They repeatedly boycotted the polls.
3) When Yugoslavia was overrun by the nazi Germany and the fascist Italy (1941-45), almost all the Albanians from Kosovo and Metohia collaborated with them, they organized their police, army units, fascist organisations. Both the Italians and then the Germans (after Italy's capitulation in 1943) sponsored the Greater Albania (Kosmet, western Macedonia, parts of Serbia and Montenegro, Albania). The men from Kosovo and Metohia took a prominent part in the government of the Greater Albania (e.g. the former Abwehr agent Xhafer Deva was the interior minister, and others). The 21 SS division Skenderbeg was recruited from the Albanians from Kosmet, with German officers. At that time about 100.000 Serbs and Montenegrins were ethnically cleansed and 10-15.000 of them killed.
4) The money to buy the Serbian and Montenegrin property (under duress) during 1970-87 came from the work of the Albanians as "Gastarbeiters" abroad, from the drug trafficking and arms smuggling, from Iran and Saudi Arabia, from the rich Albanian diaspora (e.g., in Turkey), from the Albanian secret police of Enver Hoxha.
5) The Albanians have powerful lobbies abroad. In the USA the former senator Robert Dole was a well known "protector" and lobbyist. They bought the services of the PR agency Ruder and Finn Global Public Affairs. During the mass demonstrations in Pristina they organized filming of scenes of schoolchildren fleeing over fields near Pristina. The children arrived in buses, the waiting cameras and their crews (from Germany) showed them what to do, then they started to "run for safety", to return soon to the waiting buses. The above scene was observed by a Czech engineer working in a mine near Pristina.
6) The Albanians claim to be the descendants of the Illyrians who inhabited a part of the Balkan peninsula more than 2.000 years ago. It is possible, but they were ethnically very much influenced by the Greeks, Romans, Celts and then by the south Slavs who arrived there during the 6th and 7th centuries, even somewhat earlier. The indigenous inhabitants withdrew to the more mountainous areas - they were more lucky than the American Indians. The Slavs (Serbs) created there their states, the Serbs being the most influential nation of the Balkans in most of the 14th century. After their defeat by the Turks, they lost their independence in 1459. The Slav origin of the places in Kosovo and Metohia is clearly seen from toponyms there. The ethnic situation of that region started to change after the arrival of the Turks, when the Islamized Albanians started to settle in Kosovo and Metohia, especially after 1690, when about 200.000 Serbs left that region to escape from the advancing Turkish armies, when the Austrian armies started to withdraw (The Serbs helped them in an uprising, after the Turks were defeated in Vienna in 1683, to liberate even Skopje in Macedonia). After that time the Christian (orthodox) inhabitants had to flee many times from the oppression of the local Muslim inhabitants, Albanians and Turks, from their beys (aristocrats), especially during the rebellions in Serbia (1804, 1815), during the wars of Serbia and Montenegro against the Turks (1875-78). Hundreds of thousands were expelled at that time. Two courageos English ladies travelled through that region in the middle of the XIX. century, describing the suffering of the local Christian (orthodox) inhabitants. G. Muir MacKenzie and A. Paulina Irby published in 1867, 1877, 1887 their "Travels in the Slavonic Provinces of Turkey-in-Europe" in London, as bestsellers. There were other travellers through that region at the same time (Russians, Austrians, Germans) describing the same suffering, not only of the oppressed Serbs and Montenegrins, but of the Albanians themselves, by their beys and the Turkish authorities. The Albanians made even some rebellions against the Turks, but otherwise they were their trusted allies (they were ministers of the sultans, they were the core of their personal gards). The Serbian and Montenegrin armies liberated Kosovo and Metohia in 1912-13, during the liberation wars against the Turks (the so-called Balkan war, with their allies the Greeks and Bulgarians). Many Serbian and Montenegrin families returned then to Kosovo and Metohia, where their fathers and grandfathers used to live before being expelled During 1913-14, just before the World War I, Austria and the defeated Turkey tried as much as they could to foment unrest there: they supplied weapons and money to the Albanian beys, who organized many raids from Albania (it just gained its independence) into Kosovo and Metohia, before being driven out by the Serb army. Their leaders committed many atrocities against the Serbs and Montenegrins, when the Germans, Bulgarians and Austro-Hungarians occupied that region in 1915-18 After the World War I, they organized special separatist movement, cooperating with the fascist ustasha leader Ante Pavelic (their HQ was for same time in Vienna).
7) It is very stupid to speak about "the ethnic cleansing of the Albanians" from Kosovo and Metohia. It is sufficient to look at the figures of the census. In 1961 there were 964.000 Albanians (A) there, 227.000 Serbs (S) and 38.000 Montenegrins (M). In 1981 there were 1 584.000 A, 210.000 S, 27.000 M, while in 1991 (it is an estimate of the number of Albanians, because they boycotted the census) there were 1 956.000 A, 197.000 S, and 20.000 M. It is clear from the above who is cleansed.
8) The constitution of 1974 of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia made out of the province of Kosovo and Metohia (Kosmet) almost an autonomous state, with many prerogatives of a state (it had even the foreign affairs minister, defence minister, it could even arrange foreign trade, cultural relations with foreign countries). The autonomous province Kosovo was even able to block the decision of the Serbian Parliament. After that constitution, practically all the power was in the Albanian hands, from that time on started the exodus, under duress, of the Serbs and Montenegrins.
9) Metohia, the western part of the troubled area of Kosovo, is an other prove of the Christian past of it. Metoh comes from a Greek word, meaning the property of a monastery. While most of the monuments of the Albanian presence there date from the 18-19th centuries, with only two from the 16th, the monuments of the Serbian and Montenegrin presence are, most of them from 12-14th centuries (monasteries, churches, castles, etc.) Kosovo and Metohia were the centre of the Serbian state, the kingdom from the 13th century. Old maps and old documents show it.
10) The Albanians and the Serbs and Montenegrins were able to live as neighbours in the Yugoslav kingdom, in Tito's Yugoslavia - and now the foreign influences started to disrupt this life. The powerful do not hesitate to do anything if their interests are in question. It is really a pity that the fascinating parts of Yugoslavia are being plunged into an uncertain future, because a few VIPs decided thousands of miles away that their interests, aims must be obeyed under the false pretext of the protection of human rights The meddling in the affairs of a sovereign state does not mean anything to them. About 100.000 Albanians live in Belgrade whithout any problems
11) One of the words very much abused for propaganda purposes in the tragic events in Kosovo and Metohia is the word GENOCIDE, already so much abused earlier in the civil-ethnic-religious war in the former Yugoslavia, in Slovenia, in Croatia, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is strange that so many reporters, editors, politicians do not know its meaning, that there are so many ignoramuses among the VIPs in the West. The basic definition of that word is. "Genocide is the murder of a whole community or race." (BBC English Dictionary, HarperCollins Publishers, London, 1993). Unluckily, many journalists and even politicians use this word for propaganda purposes, to use this emotion charged word to denigrate the Serbs, to damage their reputation - they did it during the tragic events in Croatia, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Even a skirmish with a few fatalities is being called by them a genocide . It is sad if any life is lost, but the word genocide has a strict meaning.
During the recent Cardiff summit (June 98), Mr. Jose-Maria Gil-Robles, a key figure of the European Parliament, recommended a military action (bombardment by the NATO planes) against the Serbian positions in Kosovo, because "a genuine genocide is taking place there." It is just terrible that such a VIP does not know the definition of the word GENOCIDE. Poor old good Europe it one of its leading representatives is such an ignoramus and abuses the word genocide, because of ignorance or just for propaganda purposes.
On July 6th, 1998 Mr. Klaus Kinkel invited Mr. Radovan Karadzic, appealed to him, to surrender to The Hague tribunal, because he had been allegedly guilty of many crimes (including the genocide, naturally) during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Oddly enough, Mr. Kinkel did not appeal to Mr. Tudjman and Izetbegovic to go there. The hypocrisy of this gentleman is flagrant. If there is any justice he should be charged as one of the main culprits for the tragedy and deaths of thousands Yugoslavs, because he was very much responsible for fomenting the tragedy of Yugoslavia, for preparing the secession of Croatia and Slovenia, especially when he was the boss of the German Federal Intelligence Service, BND (BundesNachrichtenDienst) during 1979-82.
A real genocide happened four years ago (1994) in Rwanda, thanks to the "generous" supply of deadly weapons from the "noble", "magnanimous" West.
12) Not too much is known about Tito's intentions after the war to create a Balkan Federation (Albania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia) To win over the Albanians, he did not allow very many Serbs and Montenegrins, expelled by the Albanians during the war (1941 45) from Kosovo, to return to their homes. He even did not allow to expell the Albanians from Albania who had seized Serbian property. Tacitly, after the war, Tito permitted the Albanians from their homeland to settle in Kosmet. All the above meant hundreds of thousands of "new" Albanians there, it meant an unprecedented change of the ethnic composition in that part of Serbia, and especially after the new Constitution (1974), when 200.000-250.000 Serbs and Montenegrins had to leave Kosovo and Metohia, under duress and constant harassment by the local Albanians, by a part of them (until 1987-88). Only a smaller part of them left just for "economic reasons" - the corruption of the new "elite" among the Albanians after 1974 was one of the reasons.
As a matter of fact, it is an irrefutable reality that during 20 years the number of absolutely "pure" Albanian settlements in Kosovo and Metohia increased from 648 to 898 (!!). Isn't it a demonstration of an ethnic cleansing par excellence ?!
Very few people know that the idea of an ethnically pure, clean Greater Albania was proclaimed in Prizren (a town in Kosovo) in 1878 by the Prizren Kongra (League). It was against the Greeks, Montenegrins, Serbs. Soon after that Kongra, many noted Serbs were assassinated. The Second Kongra (1943) took place in the nazi sponsored Greater Albania, with the same aims.
Kosovo and Metohia, or Kosmet, was the most backward region of Yugoslavia, mainly due to the 500 years of the Turkish rule, due to the fundamentalistic outlook of a major part of their Albanian Muslims. For many years Serbia pumped daily about one million US Dollars into Kosmet, to create and support its industry, agriculture, infrastructure, schools, health service. The federal government of the former Yugoslavia spent a lot of money there as well. The life expectancy increased there tremendously. One reason for the poor economic status of very many Albanians is definitely their incredible birth rate - families with 7-8 children is just nothing special. For this reason to double the number of Kosovo Albanians, 29 years would be needed, for the Serbs of Serbia proper, about 250! This fantastic birth rate is very much politically motivated, the Albanian women promised to give birth to as many children as possible to flood literally a part of the Balkans with the Albanian population.
13) When the Kingdom of Serbia struggled for survival in the critical days of 1915-16, when thousands died, both the civilians and the military during their retreat over the sky high Albanian mountains, because they refused to surrender to the Austro-Hungarian, imperial German, and Bulgarian armies, the Serbian army and civilians had friends in Albania, among them "the Lord of Albania", a former able Turkish officer an Albanian, Esad pasha Toptani who befriended the prince-regent Alexander of Serbia and some high ranking Serbian officers. He helped the Serbs, together with his militia. Serbia helped him earlier in his fight against rebels. But at the same time other Albanians killed and robbed many retreating Serbian military and civilians. It is tragic that ambitious and selfish foreign powers instead of helping to create a more friendly atmosphere in Kosovo and Metohia, menaged to instigate there the present bloody events, the steadily increasing hatred. They did not even try to prevent them. Their philosophy for those who do not obey were here the NATO bombers, sanctions that killed thousands.
During the upheaval in spring 1997 in Albania, when hundreds of thousands of guns and other weapons were stolen, when the government collapsed, a lot of people were astonished to hear, that there were there over 2.000 Americans "working" in Albania. What were they doing there? What did mean the frequent visits of many high ranking western politicians and diplomats to Tirana, including Mr. Kinkel? The American bases in Albania are well known, as well as the joint military exercises with them, the weapons from the West are pouring into Albania. The western democracies like Danmark, Germany, Switzerland etc., became the staging posts to collect money for the UCK ("KLA") terrorists, to recruit there their fighters, to organize from there the shipments of arms and ammunition, uniforms, etc. Nobody did try to stop this activity from there. Imagine what would the UK government do if the IRA terrorists would have such support from Switzerland, Germany, Danmark, to kill and destroy in the Ulster. The same could be asked about the ETA terrorists and Spain. There is something wrong about those democracies. The anti-Serb activities by the official Germany are already known, but why did the Swiss and the Danes allow the abuse of their territory for the above purposes? Their image suffered. A few years ago about 70% of the drug trafficking in Switzerland was in Albanian hands and now the Swiss authorities did not prevent the abuse of huge sums of the money from that drug trafficking, did not prevent the meddling in internal affairs of a sovereign state with that money. The image of Switzerland was recently some what tarnished during the scandal about the money of the Jewish nazi victims that "remained" in Swiss banks because its owners perished during the holocaust.
The organization, planned probably with good intentions, to be useful for Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), was until now mostly just an appendage of the Lords of the New World Order, that quite often acted in a very servile and biased way, without any real usefulness. The civil-ethnic-religious war in the former Yugoslavia proved it many times. Now this OSCE acted again: its parliamentary assembly suggested on 9th July, 98 even more drastic sanctions against Serbia as long as the government in Belgrade "uses its repressive actions in Kosovo". What a fantastic hypocrisy! The OSCE seems to be quite blind not to see the reality that Serbia (Yugoslavia) is defending itself against the aggression of those who started the killings and destructions, against the bands of the UCK terrorists from Albania, trained in Albania and in some western countries, supported in reality by negligence and anti-Serb propaganda of the West. Serbia must defend itself against the local well armed militant Albanians as well whose arms had been bought mostly with the money of their drug barons abroad (e.g., in Switzerland)... And the OSCE does not allow Serbia to defend it-sell, its citizens. According to the OSCE, European Union (EU) many one-sided, ignorant and very often arrogant western politicians, if a village in Kosovo or Metohia is used as a stronghold of the UCK for their attacks, to defend the arms smuggling routes from Albania, etc., the Serbs are not allowed to seize it, to expell from there the terrorists, to defend themselves, to stop their activities. But if the UCK attacks or seizes a Serbian or Montenegrin village, NO CONDEMNATION BY OSCE, EU, UN follows. If a representative of the UCK threatens Macedonia with spreading of war there, no rebuff from the official West comes. The Czechs remember very well the anti-Czech tirades of a part of the western media (mainly in Britain and in France) and the appeasement policy towards Hitler by the USA during the Munich treason.
The prosecutor general of The Hague tribunal Mrs. Louise Arbour, to keep the image of that modern version of the Holy Inquisition declared on 8th July 1998 the necessity to follow the events in Kosmet, to look for any atrocities, any abuses of human rights, any war crimes. The real war crimes ought to be punished, but not in an absolutely one-sided way as was the case up to now in The Hague tribunal, with its ficticious justice and arbitrary collection of facts, without giving a sympathetic ear to all sides, with an a priori condemnation of the Serbs.
In the cacophony of overt lies and disinformations, unreasonable decisions and absolutely unfair attitudes and actions, words of reason were heard to show that there are still people who think reasonably, who are not completely venal, as too many actors are in the drama of Kosovo and Metohia. The president of Macedonia, Mr. Kiro Gligorov told on 11th July 1998, that he would not allow the NATO organisation to use the Macedonian bases against the Yugoslav (Serbian) territory. One or two weeks ago he declared it unofficially about the use of the large military base at Krivolak (it existed there from the days of the former Yugoslavia) - he informed the Americans who use now that base that they are not authorized to use it militarily against Yugoslavia (Serbia).
During the second week in July 1998, the troubles in Ulster deteriorated again, with arson and even murdered children. To prevent any further unrest and stop the sectarian killing and terrorist activity, Tony Blair's government sent in more troops - their number reached there 18.000. If security forces are added to it, there are over 30.000 men there. Nobody had nothing to say from the international community... But on the other side, many ignorant, politically motivated and even vicious members of that same international community, mostly from the West, condemned Yugoslavia (Serbia), especially its president Slobodan Milosevic, because the special police units were sent to Kosovo and Metohia, because of the deepening terror and violence there, because of many murders and destruction both by the UCK and some other militant Albanians - they killed both the Serbs and Montenegrins and the "loyalist" Albanians.
On one side nobody rebuffed the UK government for its right decision to bring peace to the Ulster. On the other side this same right decision by Yugoslavia (Serbia) was considered to be almost a crime, in much more dangerous circumstances, with a possibility to spark off an eruption of a very wide spread violence, if not prevented. Always a double standard, if Yugoslavia (Serbia) is in question!
There are gossips now in Serbia that a band of American mercenaries, hired killers, fight against the Serbian (Yugoslav) special police and frontier guards in Kosmet. For money, naturally. It looks like the time, when many centuries ago, the gangs of hired mercenaries roamed over the hills and plains to attack and kill anybody if paid for. Is it compatible (if true) with the ideals of UN, OSCE, EU and the USA? Even the retired American generals were hired as mercenaries recently during the civil-ethnic-religious war in Yugoslavia!
14) When the fighting in Kosovo and Metohia flared up with more and more intensity in June and July 98, thanks to the increasing numbers of the well armed UCK terrorists, attacking many Serbian and Montenegrin villages, even the western diplomats (e.g. the American) found it difficult to put all the blame on the Serbs only, and so even Mr. Holbrooke declared in the very beginning of July 98, that the UCK represents now a major obstacle for a peaceful settlement, because its organization has so far no political wing to talk to, and because the UCK is not under a political command, it seems to consist from more groups... The Americans, the official West stopped talking about the UCK as terrorists.
There are a few hundreds of American soldiers in Macedonia, to "protect" it. The initial official version was, that they were there to prevent any Serbian (Yugoslav) intervention there, they were just peacekeepers. The US administration must have been shocked when a self-styled UCK command near Decani issued a statement (29th June 98) that a group of volunteers had just arrived there from the ENSLAVED TERRITORIES in Macedonia, from the towns Tetovo and Gostivar. What would the Lords of the New World Order say, if and when the Albanians from Macedonia would start there the bloodshed as they had done in Kosmet, to destroy and kill indiscriminately? Would they call their self-styled "liberation army" terrorists or just "freedom fighters". Those Lords must remember that the western part of Macedonia was already a part of the Greater Albania, created by Hitler in 1943 (and even earlier Mussolini) and that a big part of the north-western Greece may be the next target of the militant Albanians. See earlier the goals of the First and Second Albanian Kongra. Does anybody from the above unfair, partly unreasonable western politicians ponder over the possible consequences of their murky deals in Kosovo and Metohia?
15) During the whole June 98, the UCK forces kept under siege the Serbian village Kijevo, about 25 miles to the west from Prishtina; almost all children, women and the elderly left Kijevo, where about 200 Serbs and Montenegrins, including 20-30 policemen were repulsing the daily attacks of the UCK. Its forces demanded that all the Kijevo inhabitants must immediately lay down their arms and surrender and leave immediately their village and their property there. Wasn't it an ethnic cleansing? After a month of siege, when a Serbian police force arrived, after a short fight, the UCK fighters left the siege and immediately disappeared.
16) A strange and specific phenomenon appeared as soon as the troubles had started in Kosovo and Metohia It had happen even earlier during the civil-ethnic religious war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Croatia. It is the sudden appearance of a huge quantity of the "INSTANT EXPERTS" on Kosovo. Their common denominators, in most cases, were a miserable knowledge of history, about the causes of troubles, an "admirable" arrogance to compensate for their ignorance, a readiness to publish unconfirmed gossips or hearsay stories, to obey the prevailing views, to report not on what was really seen, but on what was ordered to be seen. to make the headings and the text as much charged with strong emotions as possible (horrible reports sell the paper much more). All this explains quite well the disinformations so often present in a big part of the western media when reporting on events in the former Yugoslavia.
One-sidedness, hypocrisy and double standards spread like an infection among the western politicians, diplomats, in their media. It is now well known who started the killing in Kosovo, that it was the UCK. The Albanian representatives did not come to meet the Serbian negotiating party just 14 times, the UCK is becoming more and more militant - it refuses any negotiations with the Serbs, its only goal is the complete independence of Kosovo. The self-proclaimed speaker of UCK Mr. Jakub Krasniqi declared during the second week in July 98 in the German weekly Der Spiegel that any roads to peace were now blocked, that Mr. Rugova had not to decide about the future of Kosovo... The UCK does not want the independence of Kosovo only, its goal is the unification of all Albanians in the Balkans. He added that the UCK is already active in Macedonia. What would the western and especially the American "intelligent" diplomats and politicians do with this challenge? According to the unconfirmed reports, the Contact group decided for Kosovo and Metohia (July the 8, 98) to remain as a part of Yugoslavia, but its autonomy must be more or less the same as it was before 1989 - it means according to the Constitution of 1974, whose consequences was a merciless ethnic cleansing of Serbs and Montenegrins of whom about 200.000-250.000 left under duress and constant stress. A new Munich is under way by the West with the same trescherous procedures as in those days of 1938 when the Czechoslovak republic was so easily sold to Hitler. Now it is the Serbian nation.
The West even started to recognize the terrorist UCK organization, as a negotiating party. Mr. Wolfgang Schüssel , the Austrian foreign minister, even declared in Vienna (beginning of July 98), that more pressure must be used against Belgrade to compel president Milosevic to yield to the terrorists and their supporters from the West. Some time ago even the Austrian chancellor Mr. Victor Klima even recommended the use of force against Serbia - Austria would, according to him, offer its troops, if needed, for Kosovo. No less aggressive and anti-Serb was Mr. Hans van den Broek (July the 2, 98). He suggested, if the situation deteriorates, to use the NATO forces (naturally, against the Serbs) without approval from the United Nations. It would be a repetition of the criminal behaviour of NATO in August-September 95 when all its might was used to destroy the Serbian military and civilian targets in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to help the offensive of both the Muslims and Croats. It was done without a proper mandate of the Security council. Doesn't Mr. Broek want the same to happen now? The arrogant German minister of defence Mr. Volker Rühe sees as the only solution to the Kosovo problem the bombing of Serbia. He repeats it constantly.
The West (the European union, the USA) behaved like utterly unfair members of the world community. Instead of helping Yugoslavia (Serbia) to solve its problems, to help it against terrorists, to find a new and fair modus vivendi, the West made its situation much more difficult, the West blocked all its resources abroad, stopped all investments. The arrogant stupidity of some of its politicians reached maximum when even the UN (who was behind it, who voted for it?) and members of the German Bundestag (how many?) suggested that Yugoslavia must be excluded from the World football Championship. But FIFA remained fair, it did not behave in a rogue way - FIFA refused the above suggestion.
If one looks at the western politicians, at their unfair attitude towards the Serbs, one must wonder how is it possible that such people are chosen to influence the events on the earth, that the world depends on their judgements and attitudes.
In the beginning of July 98, the Turkish military authorities reported that during the latest major offensive against the Kurdish PKK "terrorists" 760 of them were killed. It is more than twice the number of all the casualties during 6 months in Kosovo and Metohia and nobody blocks the Turkish assets abroad, nobody threatens Turkey with NATO bombers. Is any example of a double standard more transparent? Does anybody in the West bother about the 89 kidnapped Serbs and loyalist Albanians (13 found dead), in the hands of UCK, during the first 6 months of the UCK aggression?
THE END OF AUGUST 1998 IN KOSOVO
At the beginning of July 98 the so called Kosovo Liberation army (KLA), in Albanian the UCK, intensified its terrorist activity in Kosovo and Metohia (Kosovo, Kosmet): killing Serbs and Albanians who did not agree with it ("executions of traitors"), kidnapping (ending very often in the death of those kidnapped), expulsion from homes, setting of road blocks and interrupting communications, occupation and destruction of property, attacks on civilian and military targets, destruction of various facilities, etc. All the above reached very high levels, large bands of the UCK tried to cross the Yugoslav frontiers from Albania. On July 18, a band of 1.000 UCK men tried to overrun the Yugoslav frontier guards. The attackers were routed, with many casualties. The frontier guards seized large quantities of arms and ammunition (about 100.000 rounds), many UCK men were captured... An unnamed UCK representative boasted on July 24 (Radio France International, RFI) that the UCK was "ready to liberate the occupied Pristina" it allegedly waited only for instructions from the civil authorities of the Kosmet Albanians. At the same time the RFI reported about the Croatian instructors in the UCK training centres.
Under pressure from the escalating UCK violence, the Serbian security forces finally mounted a large-scale offensive and, during one week, at the end of July, dealt a severe blow to the UCK forces. They opened the blockaded communications, seized many UCK bases with bunkers and huge quantities of arms and ammunition, including two very important places Orahovac and Malisevo. Because of constant attacks by various UCK bands, the offensive continued in August as well. Finally, about the middle of August 98, all the important UCK bases were captured, including the village of Junik (16 August) close to the border with Albania. It was probably the most important UCK base, protecting the access to Tropoje, the main UCK base in Albania. The always troubled Drenica got rid, more or less, of the UCK bands, as well as the fortified bases near Pec. The UCK men scattered in the surrounding woods and hills. During the fighting, the civilians started to suffer more and more, they tried to escape from fighting to places more secure to them. It was no ethnic cleansing, it was just a run for safety. The International Red Cross and the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) reported at the end of July that about 100.000 civilians are displaced in Kosmet. In August this number increased to over 200.000. A smaller part of them escaped to Albania and Montenegro. But, at the end of August, when the UCK bands had been expelled, thousands of refugees came back to their towns and villages (e.g. Orahovac, Malisevo, villages in the Klina district, etc.). But, in many places, the situation was still very bad for the refugees: lack of food, medicines, water, no shelter, cold nights, sometimes even fighting between the security forces and the UCK, when the refugees could have been even caught in the crossfire. The Serbian authorities organized 11 supply centres to distribute the humanitarian aid for all the Kosmet inhabitants, regardless of their nationality. They distributed food, medicines, sanitary supplies (soaps, detergents, etc.), building materials, shoes, diapers, clothing, etc. to the places where the UCK bands were not more present. In Orahovac the authorities repaired the devastated power installations, the medical centre, the water supply, etc. Various international humanitarian organisations started to help too.
It is now quite evident that the UCK idea, the idea of their commanders and rich sponsors from abroad about a general people's uprising of all the Albanians in Kosovo (or Kosovans) did not materialize - it did not happen.
The UCK tried in vain to organize it. One of its methods was to distribute very many weapons to the Albanian civilians in almost all their villages, including rocket launchers, heavy machine-guns, even various anti-tank systems. But the people for the most part did not use them. During the second part of August, at the beginning of September, when the UCK was routed, the villagers of very many villages started to surrender huge quantities of weapons to the Serbian security forces... One of the Albanian leaders from Kosmet, Mr. Malici, spoke (RFI, 1 August 98) about the dissatisfied Albanian civilians with the UCK activities, because it absolutely ignored their problems, it had no plans for their evacuation. The UCK made tremendous mistakes when it temporarily occupied larger settlements without any possibility to defend them - and thus exposed the Albanian civilians to the horrors of street-fighting and even shelling. With other words, the UCK had no unconditional support of the Albanian civilian population in Kosovo. It is necessary to realize that the refugees were present only in places where the UCK struck and started its terrorist activities. It allegedly encouraged its own kinsmen to escape to the mountains or woods - to impress (by their suffering) much more the West, whose TV staffs many time abused the suffering of civilians to arrange with them even more drastic scenes. During the August, many UCK soldiers surrendered and declared that they had been mobilized by force. When the Serb units expelled the UCK from Junik and from some fortified villages near Pec, they found very many Yugoslav identification cards, taken away from the "mobilized" men whose entry into the UCK units meant for them a sum of money (US dollars, German marks) - this was a very important incentive for the unemployed Albanian youth - and the UCK leaders had a lot of money at their disposal.
In spite of the western claims that the Kosovans (Kosovo Albanians) are oppressed, more than 50 various Albanian papers, magazines, periodicals, are being published in Kosmet during the fighting there and all of them support the UCK, denigrating as much as possible the Belgrade government, publishing various proclamations to continue the fight and against any deal with Belgrade. Mr. Adem Demaci. the ardent supporter of the UCK, publishes there his Greater Albania views. The West leaves, almost without notice, the plight of the Serb, Montenegrin, Gypsy and other refugees in Kosmet. The BBC, Free Europe, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, RFI, etc., mention them only exceptionally or not at all, in spite of the fact that they were the first to suffer from the UCK attacks, unless they managed to defend their village successfully, as did, e.g., the inhabitants of Kijevo, surrounded and steadily attacked and shelled by the UCK men for almost one month, until they were relieved by a Serbian police unit. Nobody mentions the 5.000 Serbian refugees and their 178 kidnapped relatives (the figure from 16 August 1998), many of whom are feared dead. The later gruesome findings at Klecka and Glodjani proved it... A real martyrdom experienced the Serbian and Montenegrin refugees from Albania who had been expelled from there or escaped to Yugoslavia a few years ago - their camps near the western border of Kosmet were constantly attacked by the UCK. Nobody did write about it. It is not easy to understand the anxieties and fears of those "islands" in the ethnic sea 1:10 - especially because they can recall that this sad situation did not exist earlier, during the last 1-2 generations. This Tenth of the Kosmet inhabitants lives now under steady threats by a part of the Albanians and the UCK, and under disinformations (if not overt lies) and threats by the western media and politicians... But regardless of all the above, there are good news coming from a number of places in Kosmet where the Albanians and the Serbs are harvesting together, protected by the Serbian police against any attacks by the UCK.
The Albanians (their politicians) from Kosmet are plagued by disunity, the last illegal "elections" for their "parliament" were boycotted by many of them who neither recognize the parliament thus elected, nor the so called "president of the Kosovo republic" Mr. Ibrahim Rugova. He is considered by the West to be a moderate politician - but he did not condemn the terrorist activities of the UCK (it would be, probably, his political suicide). He is criticized very much by his fierce opponent Mr. Adem Demaci. In spring 98, the Belgrade government sent to Pristina 14 times a high level delegation for talks with the Albanians - but nobody met them. Finally, under pressure from the West, a delegation of Kosovans went to Belgrade, but the discussions stopped thereafter... The people of Mr. Rugova's party have problems how to treat the UCK.
Jonathan Steele (The Guardian, 20 June, 98) quotes professor Fehmi Agani: "Controlling the KLA (=UCK) is our biggest problem and we still don't have a solution... If it is not put under institutional control, the situation will become very dangerous and chaotic."
The self-styled UCK official spokesman Mr. Jakub Krasniqi snubbed the leading Kosovo politicians - the UCK did not recognize Mr. Rugova as their leader. - "We don't acknowledge him as our president," said Mr. Krasniqi in an interview with one of the many Albanian newspapers in Kosmet, Koha Ditore. But, this was said in a time when the UCK was not yet routed.
Mr. Steele's views and reports from Kosmet are similar to the views and reports of other western reporters, like e.g., Mr. Tom Walker. They are one-sided and partisan, even unfair, sometimes ignorant of basic historical circumstances, chains of events. In the western partisan press, only the crying Albanian women and the destroyed Albanian houses are presented, with corresponding captions. The crying Serb women and children and their destroyed houses are not present there. Almost nobody mentions that all that human misery for both the Albanians and the non-Albanians started with the emergence of the UCK and its terrorist activities. All this is utterly sad - the waste of lives, property, mutual understanding.
Some Americans qualified initially the UCK men as terrorists, but they had generally difficulties how to classify them. Then - puzzlement was quite well described by John Hillen, the member of the National security studies at the powerful Council on foreign relations. In his article "Know Nothings" (National Review, 3 August, 98) he criticized CIA: -"US intelligence failures stem from too much information, not enough understanding." The main problem of America being "a combination of arrogance and ignorance that cripples America's ability to read the cultural currents outside her borders." But the US representatives Mr. R. Holbrooke and R. Gelbard met some UCK commanders near Decani and tried to persuade them, without much success, into cooperation with Mr. Rugova. The same was trying Mr. Christopher Hill, the US ambassador to Skoplje, to create a unified group of Kosovans, to overcome their antagonisms, but again it was of no avail. The group that was about to start the talks with Belgrade consisted only of Mr. Rugova's party, but without Rugova. Even this group finally did not want to meet the Serb representatives in Pristina, unless the security forces were withdrawn from Kosmet.
The ignorance of the Kosovo problems was clearly shown by Mr. Wolfgang Schüssel , the Austrian minister for foreign affairs and the president of the European "troika", when he tried to compel Belgrade, in very strong terms at the beginning of July 98, to immediately resume talks with the Albanian representatives. He somehow did not realize (or did not want to realize) that at that time there was no Albanian group to talk to, there was no representative Albanian delegation available. He urged the Belgrade government to stop immediately the operations against the separatists who went on killing and destroying. The withdrawal of the security forces from Kosmet at that time would mean an immediate returns of chaos and terror - and this is the fact that the West did not wish to admit. During the June meeting of presidents Yeltsin and Milosevic in Moscow, an agreement was reached in their nine point declaration, about a gradual withdrawal of the security forces from Kosmet. -"Serb security forces will reduce their presence outside their normal bases according to the degree to which terrorist activity ceases." This conclusion of the Moscow agreement was quite logical.
The arrogance of the West was clearly seen from its efforts to internationalize the internal problems of Serbia (Yugoslavia) as much as possible. It helped both directly and indirectly the terrorist activities of the UCK, while Serbia (Yugoslavia) tried in vain to compel Mr. Rugova to organize a team for discussions, from the utterly disunited groups of Kosovans.
If the changes of attitude of the West to events in Kosmet are to be evaluated, the original support for the strictly anti-Serbian (anti-Yugoslav) part of the Albanians must be mentioned, as well as the absolutely anti-Serbian gestures of the West. But a significant change occurred, because of the impertinent and terrorist behaviour of the UCK which refused any future connection with Serbia (Yugoslavia) and even the creation of an independent Kosovo, because it loudly proclaimed, as its target, the creation of a Greater Albania, evidently in borders of the Greater Albania as created during the Mussolini and Hitler era (1941-45). The latter would mean many changes of frontiers in the whole Balkan peninsula and this is the reality the West is afraid of. In spite of the major successes of the Serbian security forces against the UCK, the official West (with the exception of some hardcore anti-Serb politicians, like e.g., the arrogant Mr. Volker Rühe and others), notwithstanding its somewhat vague threats, seemed to be somehow satisfied with the defeat of its unpleasant and unpredictable former "client", the UCK. The West would not, probably, shed tears over a further fragmentation of the present Yugoslavia, but it would not allow the downfall of Macedonia, and the eventual problems with the Albanians in Greece. What would be the reactions of Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey? Regardless of the initial principal "philosophy" of the West in connection with Kosovo which included a constant threat of a military intervention against Serbia, with air raids and even with a possibility to occupy Kosovo, Mr. Klaus Kinkel let it know (31 July) that the massive influx of arms from Albania into Kosovo must be stopped, that the collection of money to buy arms for the UCK must be prevented abroad (i.e., in Belgium, Danmark, Germany, Switzerland, the USA, etc.). Mr. Kinkel suddenly discovered something that Belgrade, from the very beginning, proclaimed to be the essential condition for a peace in Kosovo.
If NATO has a real interest to preserve peace in the Balkan peninsula, it could help it by its presence in Albania (where troubles may start so easily), on its frontiers with Yugoslavia and Macedonia, eventually Greece, to prevent the smuggling of arms and terrorist bands into Kosovo and Macedonia, eventually (in future) into Greece as well. To improve the economic conditions in Kosmet, a reasonable birth rate control would be absolutely indispensable for the local Albanians whose birth rate is the highest in Europe. The "illegal" presence of about 400.000 Albanians in Kosmet, without a Yugoslav citizenship (they went there illegally during the last 57 years), is a cause of frictions too - it ought to be settled between Yugoslavia and Albania. The autonomy for the Albanians as a nationality in Kosovo and Metohia, according to the highest international standards (the culture, language, religion) was never abolished. It was the prerogatives of a state (from the constitution of 1974) that had been abolished in 1989 for Kosovo and Metohia. That constitution meant many hardships for the Serbs, Montenegrins, even Gypsies and ethnic Turks. The present autonomy and civil rights must be adhered to by all sides. It means that the Albanians must use their rights and duties (to use the school system, to go to the polls, to take part at a census, to pay taxes), not to boycott them There are many things that could be improved in Kosmet to create there a more peaceful atmosphere. The return to the 1974 constitution of Tito's Yugoslavia is not possible in the present circumstances - it would mean quite clearly the expulsion of the remaining "handful" of the Serbs and Montenegrins, probably the assimilation of the local Gypsies, ethnic Turks, and Gorans - if the total "rule" and "authority" went again almost completely into the hands of Albanians. The possibility to live together peacefully for all the inhabitants of Kosmet would be quite good, but too many factors are meddling in the internal affairs of Kosmet, of Yugoslavia, with very many motives, some of them being very bad, criminal. Both sides have to show a really good will and a constructive approach, because nobody is innocent in the present troubles in Kosmet. The very sad history of many "arnautashi" (Arnaut - Albanian, in Turkish) must be remembered. They were the Serbs and Montenegrins who had to convert to Islam, to save their lives and who became in a few generations 100 per cent Albanians. All that happened mostly during persecutions of the orthodox Christians by their Albanian neighbours and aristocrats (begs), as well as by the Turkish authorities in Kosovo and Metohia. During the last war (1941-45), when about 10.000 - 15.000 Serbs and Montenegrins were assassinated there, many of their orphaned children were converted to Islam and in special schools they were indoctrinated to become Albanians.
In the present troubled Kosovo many "strange" people may be found. There were among them five Egyptian terrorists who worked there in various humanitarian organisations. Their extradition to Egypt was arranged by the CIA via Albania. Among them there was Ahmed es Sayyed an-Naggar sentenced to death in absentia, in Egypt. Two days before the bombing of the US embassies in East Africa, the London based Islamic Journal Al Hayat published the warning by the fundamentalists of Jihad (the Holy War) to Washington (5 August) in connection with the extradition of the above "humanitarian" workers (P. Gerner, Die Presse, 10 August, 98)
Many disinformations and overt lies are being spread in connection with the events in Kosmet, with emotion charged headlines, both by the western and by the local Czech media. Mr. Petr Pravda published an article (Mlada Fronta DNES, 23 April 98) - "Serbs must tighten their belts". The following sentences were just a fabrication - they did not correspond with the reality:
"During the last days people in panic took by storm the supermarkets, to supply themselves for worse times. They left behind just empty shelves." The author of this book was at that time twice in Serbia, presenting his papers at two medical conferences, he was even 200 kilometers out of Belgrade. He did not see any empty shelves, the shops were well stocked, as usually, including sufficient quantities of oil, sugar, flour, etc. There was no panic, so colourfully described by Mr. Pravda. Was he at that time in Serbia at all, or did he write it just from a hearsay?
A characteristic, almost inconspicuous model of disinformation was transmitted, as an example, by the Radio Free Europe on 31 July 1998, at 18,40 in Czech. Mr. Jan Bednar, the editor, spoke about the suffering of refugees in Kosovo, during the offensive of the Serbian police against the UCK and its bases. The situation of refugees is really bad, their lives are endangered, they suffer a lot. All that is true. But the editor did not say who had prepared for them that tragedy. He did not say that it was the irresponsible, foolish activity of the UCK men (too many of them had come from abroad) who threw their disunited nation, the innocent civilians - villagers into severe problems, hardships. The UCK activists, after months of ruthless rampage, provoked finally a hard response (occasionally very hard) of the legitimate government that was obliged to take action against them, after months of chaos, killing, kidnapping, destructions. At the same time the propaganda from the West continued to spread the hatred and increase tension. The editor did not mention with a single word that there were other refugees in Kosmet as well, i.e., the Serbs, Montenegrins, Gypsies, the ethnic Turks, expelled from their homes by the UCK bands. Their situation is not good, either. After mentioning major destructions in various settlements from which the UCK bands had been expelled, the other side of the story was not presented, as well as the reality that if somebody shoots at the police from a house with a machine-gun or a rocket launcher, he must expect that he will be shot at and that the house will very probably be damaged or destroyed. That was the thing that had to be taken into account by those who had occupied, allegedly liberated" a particular town or village, without any further program. Thereafter a "qualitative jump" happened in the direction of disinformation. The editor started to meditate about the fate of the Albanian refugees who allegedly had disappeared, nobody knew where they were now - and, all of a sudden, the sad events from 1995 around Srebrenica popped up, where thousands of refugees and captured Muslim soldiers allegedly disappeared, because they had been allegedly massacred by the Serbs (so far not proved), etc. And a listener whose knowledge about Kosovo is just very poor and who believes all what the Radio Free Europe is saying, who is still overwhelmed with disinformations (fabrications) about the events in Srebrenica - such a listener must say to himself that the same fate, the refugees from Srebrenica allegedly had, awaits now the Kosovans from Orahovac, Malisevo, Drenica or from elsewhere in Kosmet. Why are such disinformations, half-truths, unconfirmed reports being spread that only increase the hatred? Is it a part of a well orchestrated disinformation campaign again, against the Serbs, against Yugoslavia that was so "successful" during the recent civil-ethnic-religious war in Bosnia and Herzegovina? Let's not forget that the Radio Free Europe is being paid by the USA authorities!
And then. on August the 3rd, 1998, the disinformations of the Radio Free Europe were crowned, at 11,00 local time (in Czech) with a fantastic canard, lie. The other media were more critical, they examined the news more carefully. The lie was published in the Austrian Die Presse, the German Tageszeitung from Berlin, in some Scandinavian journals, well known for their disinformations regarding the events in Yugoslavia. The journalist (as a matter of fact the liar-journalist) Mr. Erich Rathfelder informed about a mass grave of the Albanians, assassinated by Serbs, less than one kilometer from Orahovac, where 567 corpses had been found, including 430 children, in a rubish dump. Other mass graves may be allegedly found not far from Orahovac. The speaker (Radio Free Europe) spoke about it as if it really had been found. But, to be frank, at the beginning, he said where it had been published. Oddly enough no mention was made of the fact that the US ambassador to Skoplje Mr. Christopher Hill had visited Orahovac one day earlier and did not see anything suspicious. The Radio Free Europe even did not mention the data about the losses in Orahovac by the Albanians themselves put at about 50. The data given by the new baron Munchhausen, Mr. Rathfelder, even do not agree with the data given by the Albanian committee for human rights in Pristina (RFI, 16 August 1998) that informed about the casualties in Kosmet up to that date - there were 583 dead Albanians so far, according to the source mainly civilians. . The Serbian authorities invited immediately foreign diplomats and journalists to Orahovac to convince them of the lie of Mr. Rathfelder. They did not find any mass graves, only a few "normal" graves (all the above is really sad). The representative of the European Union Mr. Walter Edinburg said it later in Pristina during a press-conference where the CNN was present as well. Mr. Rathfelder refused to go with the group to Orahovac... The earlier disinformations (fabrications) of Mr. Rathfelder are well known. He wrote in Tageszeitung (2 December 1992) when the hysteria about the alleged mass rapes by the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina (not yet objectively proved) was leaching its climax, about the informations obtained in the Muslim "Centre for the Investigation of War Crimes" at Zenica, namely about a brothel at Doboj where the Muslim women were abused. A German journalist Mr. Martin Lettmayer visited Doboj and found that the above was an absolute nonsense (Die Weltwoche, 10-17 march, 1994). He complained "about the irresponsible journalism, with unsystematic investigations, information from third hand, gossips, bold estimations, psychological speculations - just nothing reliable. Journalists were copying each other's texts" - and overt lies and disinformations. He wrote about the disinformations by an other German journalist, Mrs. A. Stiglmayer.
The world is flooded with disinformations about the events in Kosovo by many western journals and magazines. Disinformations may sound quite "gently", they may be quite palatable for ignorant readers, e.g., in the NEWSWEEK (20 July 98) in Mr. Mark Dennis' article "The KLA's Moment":
"What exactly is the KLA? A year ago it was almost unknown. The 1.8 million ethnic Albanians in Kosovo were represented by an elected leader, Ibrahim Rugova, who opposed violence. Then Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic sent Serbian forces into Kosovo, flattening villages and driving away thousands of Kosovars, as the ethnic Albanians are known..." The article was written with the help of three other authors Mr. J. Brown and D. Klaisman, and Mrs. in Liu. They were either ignorant of the background of the events in Kosovo, or just well trained and motivated disinformers. According to the above text, it was suddenly decided in Belgrade to send the Serbian forces to Kosovo, to flatten the villages there and expell their inhabitants. It was strange that the authors had absolutely forgotten who the troubles had started, they forgot the initially murdered policemen, Serbs and Albanians, destructions and blockades of communications, etc. The full and crushing response of the legal authorities came after the middle of July 98. According to the article the "nasty Serbs" started to attack the villages and murder without any reason, and, as a consequence, "a ragtag collection of several hundred armed peasants" began to defend them. But all those bunkers, well stocked with arms and ammunition, including the sophisticated anti-tank rocket systems, various fortifications and communication systems, large sums of foreign currencies, thousands of armed terrorists (separatists) crossing the frontier from Albania, trained there and in various European countries, all the above is for the gentlemen from the Newsweek just "a ragtag collection of armed peasants."
Like a vulture, circling and looking for pray, Mr. Roy Gutman who became famous in 1992 for his disinformations about the "Serb run death camps" in Bosnia, arrived to Montenegro and, naturally, published his report, with strong words "Kosovo rebels and civilians flee as Serbs renew ethnic cleansing" (Observer, 31 July, 98) describing there the alleged killing of a Muslim cleric by the Serbs in Orahovac. It one reads a report by Mr. Gutman. one must ask: is it true, or is it just a hearsay so abundantly used by him in 1992. He was lucky at that time, because nobody was able to send a non-partisan commission to the places he described from hearsay.
Approximately one month after the offensive of the security forces started, the UCK was routed and so it declared (21 August) that a guerrilla war would follow, affecting the whole Kosovo, and woe to the Serbs! exclaimed Mr. Adem Demaci, the self-proclaimed speaker of the UCK who walks quite freely in Pristina. This threat must be taken quite seriously, considering the terrain and the number of refugees. Because the scattered bands of UCK continued with their ambushes and terrorist actions, the security forces started a new offensive against them (end of August) south-west from Pristina, and new thousands of refugees started to flee from places so far without any major military activity. The BBC reported (22 August, at 08,00 local time, in English) that the UCK bands are preventing the UNHCR convoys from distributing the humanitarian aid among the refugees. Similar reports appealed repeatedly and some commentators even spoke about the abuse of suffering of the refugees by the UCK for propaganda purposes (helped by the western media and some official circles). The cliché from the civil-ethnic-religious war in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina is being repeated. The more the wretched people suffered, the more successes were achieved by disinformations, propaganda, one-sided informations.
The terror of the UCK culminated in a horrible crime, discovered by the Serbian security forces in the village Klecka, in the local lime-kiln (27 August). They found 22 half-burned corpses of Serbs and Montenegrins, some of them women and children. The captured UCK men described how the dead were tortured before their execution. The mass grave visited many foreigners, including 30 students from abroad. The US ambassador to Skoplje Mr. Christopher Hill was shocked. A few days later, after finding "the crematorium" at Klecka, another place of mass executions of the Serbs was discovered at Glodjani (Djakovica district) where the executed - so far 29 of them discovered (9 September 1998) - had been thrown in a canal from the Radonjicko lake. The place was visited by foreign diplomats and journalists. The above crimes of the UCK did not find much publicity in the West, some of the western media even expressed their doubts. It changed after the words of Mr. Hill and the president of the German journalists. In the Czech republic the media reported about those crimes only marginally, but only a few of them.
For many governments in the West, the terrorists are only those who kill their own citizens. But if terrorists (UCK) murder the citizens of Serbia (Yugoslavia), as e.g., in Kosmet, it is not considered to be an act of terrorism by many in the West, and they even get support, direct or indirect (propaganda, disinformations). It is interesting to note here that in the UCK base at Klecka large stocks of items distributed by the international humanitarian organizations were found.
The ideological support for the UCK organisation may be seen in the fact that the European Union, under a constant pressure mainly by the German government, decided to ban the flights of the Yugoslav JAT planes to the airports of the EU members, because of the "repression in Kosovo". The ban will start in September 98.
On September the 9th 98, the president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, or the war crime tribunal of The Hague (with a very questionable authority and even more questionable impartiality), her Honor G. Kirk MacDonald (an American judge, naturally) wrote a stein letter to the UN Security Council using sharp words against Belgrade and president Milosevic, because they had not complied with the tribunal's decisions to arrest and extradite the alleged war criminals. At the same time the letter mentioned the abuses of human rights during the fighting in Kosovo. Her Honor and Mrs. L. Arbour (the prosecutor general) urged the Security council to compel Belgrade to comply with the Tribunal's decisions or to lace unspecified sanctions... Mrs. L. Arbour, during a meeting of lawyers in Vancouver (13 September) again urged the Security council to be unyielding to Belgrade, to extradite the alleged criminals, otherwise the tribunal would lose its indispensability and prestige...
The timing of the above letter is quite obvious: Belgrade did not capitulate in Kosovo to the demands of the West, the UCK was routed in Kosovo, the atrocities of its men are being discovered and the lies of some western journalists were exposed. Is it possible that the letter and the statement were made public to avert the attention from the above unsuccessful meddling of the West in the internal affairs of Serbia (Yugoslavia) to the possibility to restart the campaign of smear against them, to damage them even more economically? One may remember how Mrs. Albright tried to avert the attention of the world community from the atrocities made by the Croatian army during the operation "Storm" in August 1995 against the Krajina Serbs, when over 200.000 of them had to leave their homes. She spread then disinformations about the alleged mass executions of Muslims by the Serbs at Srebrenica and in the western Bosnia (at Ljubija), putting the numbers of the allegedly assassinated at 5.000-10.000.
To end the book with a more positive information connected with the day of September the 14th, it was officially declared by the authorities in Kosovo and Metohia, that most of the refugees were not suffering in the open, that most of them were either at home (if their houses were not destroyed or seriously damaged) or in the houses of their relatives, in towns or villages. A major program of relief and rehabilitation is starting, to repair as much as possible the cruel consequences of the irresponsible activity of the UCK men. But, alas, the lost lives cannot be restored and the newly created hatred cannot be removed quickly.
THE ARROGANCE AND DISINFORMATION FAIR IN KOSOVO
The hopes of the West that the UCK (=KLA) aggression in Kosovo will destabilize Yugoslavia to make it more obedient to the New world order, were shattered by the reluctance of the majority of Albanians to start an all out uprizing and by the determined action of the Serbian security forces against the UCK terrorists whose activities caused a wave of refugees. But the West did not like that defeat and so it accepted a time-honored "weapon" already used by the Muslims in Bosnia (with a tacit support of the West) who had organized massacres of their own kith and kin (the Markale syndrome) and put the blame on the Serbs (see "The three explosions in Sarajevo") and the naive and ignorant western public accepted the NATO bombing and killing of the Serbs as a just punishment - NATO was for them not a "club" of executioners but a fair avenger in Bosnia. Much help to those dirty tricks came from the western media, from the CNN and other TV companies and then on the spot bloody reports with many disinformations.. And so, all of a sudden, massacred Albanian women and children were found (it is sad and horrible). The West immediately informed about it the UN Security council, blaming, naturally, the Serbs as perpetrators without waiting for any investigations. The question is - as it was in Bosnia - who actually did it, CUI BONO - who could gain something out of it. The response is unambiguous: the UCK, the West. The Markale syndrome is probably here again. Oddly enough, the hypocritical West did not inform the Security council when the mass graves of murdered Serbs were found...
And then a hysteria started, with unbelievably paranoid reactions and statements, especially by the British (T. Blair, R. Cook, G. Robertson, P. Ashdown, etc) who became the warmongers number one, urging the bombing of Yugoslavia and issuing (together with the others) unacceptable ultimata to Belgrade (1) to withdraw immediately its security forces and army from Kosovo, thus leaving it at the mercy of the UCK and local Albanian militants, (2) to stop immediately all the hostilities - it is quite OK, but what to do with the attacking small bands of UCK still at large, or with the intruders from Albania, shelling the Yugoslav army frontier posts. The mortar fire from Albania left six soldiers dead (1 October 98) at the Kosevo frontier post, but there was no Security council resolutions, nobody from the West criticized Albania or the UCK... The self-styled spokesman for the UCK Mr. Jakub Krasniqi declared that the fight would go on until Kosovo is completely liberated, until a total victory is achieved (RFI, 5 October 98). Some belligerent Albanians even declared that no Serbs will be allowed to stay in Kosovo. Isn't it an arrogant malice (or stupidity?) to urge Belgrade in such circumstances to withdraw its security forces and the army from Kosovo and to leave a vacuum there to be filled with the uncontrollable and ready-to-kill men of Mr. Krasniqi and other thugs? Who would protect then the national minorities in the Albanian sea? And, as it will be seen later, the routed UCK returned and continued with their terrorist activities, politically supported by the West.
The ultimata to Belgrade in 1914 and to Prague in 1938 (the Munich treason by the West) are being repeated - but not by the Germans or Austro-Hungarians now, but by the former allies.
Who is pulling the strings now - with a transparent pretext to protect the human rights? Is it the present US administration weakened by the troubles of its president, or Germany, or the war industry needing new contracts?
Let us pray for a just peace without hypocrisy, and for the Albanians, Gypsies, Gorans, Montenegrins, Serbs and the ethnic Turks from Kosovo and Metohia to live there as good neighbours, without hatred and without any interference in their affairs by the so-called "friends" who would not hesitate to plunge them into a bloodbath if it would be in their selfish interests - the present events have just proved it. Instead of telling them "God bless you" they would deserve the words "God punish you".
AUTUMN 1998 IN KOSOVO
The Security council resolution Nr. 1199 (September 23,1998) requested an immediate cessation of hostilities by both sides; Yugoslavia should stop immediately the repression of the ethnic Albanians; the UCK should stop its terrorist activities. But, unluckily, the resolution did not mention the significant negative role played in the troubled Kosovo and Metohia by Albania. Without its collaboration with the terrorists, the Kosovo conflict would not be possible, without Albania as a stronghold and training centre of the UCK terrorists. The above resolution mentioned chapter VII of the UN Charter (see the "American political war crimes tribunal in The Hague") as a warning to president Milosevic. The resolution mentioned the impending "humanitarian catastrophe" in connection with the numbers of refugees. But, at that particular time. the "humanitarian catastrophe" was not so overwhelming as described by the western media for propaganda purposes. The suffering of a part of the refuges in Kosovo was still considerable and their casualties during the UCK provoked bloodshed were higher that the casualties among the fighting men. According to the Albanian sources the Albanian casualties during 9 months of the Kosovo conflict were 1.558 dead. The western media left almost unnoticed the huge quantities of arms and ammunition that the Albanians in very many villages of Kosovo were surrendering to the Serbian police at the end of summer and at the beginning of fall. The UCK men distributed those weapons earlier in the hope that all the Albanians of Kosovo would support an all-out uprising. The resolution nr. 1199 did not mention any new sanctions or any use of force against Yugoslavia.
New horrible crimes against the civilian population
A new horrible crime was uncovered (September 26, 98) at Gornje Obrinje -18 murdered Albanian civilians were found, mainly women and children. A few more murdered Albanian civilians were discovered at that time in the villages Golubac and Vranik. Media immediately accused the Serbian forces as perpetrators of that crime. The authorities from Belgrade and from Pristina categorically denied those accusations and requested emphatically an investigation, they invited even forensic experts from Finland to help. At the same time they expressed their opinion and anxieties that all the above could be a provocation similar to that used by the Muslim authorities in Bosnia (see "Three explosions in Sarajevo") to compel NATO to enter as their ally into the war against the Serbs from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The repetition of that Markale syndrome was very probable here in Kosovo. The Security council condemned the massacre of Albanians without mentioning the Serbs as its perpetrators, it only requested from president Milosevic to find and punish the perpetrators... Very soon more "executed" Serbian civilians were found in the bauxite mine at Volujak and at Ratis. There was no resolution about them, about those murdered in villages Klecka, Glodjani, about the Albanians "executed" by their fellow Albanians there together with Serbs. Neither did Tom Walker write about the latter "killing fields", he wrote extensively only about Gornje Dobrinje ("Hidden horror betrays the butchers of Kosovo", The Times, September 30, 98). It is sad, and unfair, that not much was written about "those others" murdered... And such Tom Walkers and their one-sided, biased informations are quite abundant...
All the above was well orchestrated and prepared. It was accompanied by unheard-of extortions and threats by the West and NATO (Mr. J. Solana was very active here again) against Serbia, Yugoslavia. Hundreds of bombers and Tomahawk missiles were prepared, naturally including the German and Dutch bombers, the lion's share of it being the American killing machines. The "peacemakers" Richard Holbrooke and Christopher Hill achieved more or less their aims: the withdrawal of those Serbian units from Kosovo which routed the UCK terrorists, i.e., those units that were there in addition to the preexisting forces. On many places their abandoned positions occupied the UCK bands again - then HQ in Pristina reported about their "successes". Regardless of the UCK promises to refrain from any terrorist activities, the Serbian policemen were being killed again from ambush, some Albanians were "executed" again - because they had "collaborated" with the Serbs. All that started in October already and it gained momentum in November 98. The Serbian (Yugoslav) authorities threatened to deploy new security forces to defend the communications and inhabitants of Kosovo endangered by new acts of violence (e.g., in the Klina, Malisevo, Orahovac area).
The refugees, almost all of them, were not any more without a shelter, their desperate position in tents, in the approaching winter, ended - they were in homes of their friends or relatives, in their own houses if they had not been too much damaged or destroyed, or if they were repaired. And, naturally, if the UCK men did not continue with their terrorist activity nearby. The UCK representatives were against the return of some refugees to a more tolerable situation - because "it would help the Serbs", because it would not give an accurate picture of the events in Kosovo, because it would lose the value of the slogan THE WORSE - THE BETTER. A UCK representative told the European parliament (RFI, November 10, 98) that 26.000 Albanian houses had been destroyed, but nobody confirmed his statement.
The future of Kosovo and Metohia (Kosmet, Kosovo) is uncertain. What would happen if the "just and fair" West decides in 3-4 years, that this fascinating part of Serbia (Yugoslavia) would be torn apart, or if Yugoslavia would be compelled to grant such an autonomy to Kosovo that it would surrender all the power there into the hands of local Albanians (mainly militants), neglecting all the other minorities (Egyptians, Gypsies, Gorans, Montenegrins, Serbs, ethnic Turks), including those Albanians who prefer to stay in Serbia, Yugoslavia, under their respective laws. The present West is ready for anything, its main "arguments" being the bombers, the Tomahawk cruise missiles, devastating sanctions, well orchestrated and too often disinforming media. Those media would from ignorance, for money and for other reasons voice almost anything to denigrate almost anybody, with the use of double standards and pretending that they were doing it just as a part of their alleged campaign against the violation of human rights. In summer 98 the UCK bands abducted two Serbian journalists from the TV in Pristina. Nothing is known about them since that time. Two other Serbian journalists from Belgrade have been kidnapped by UCK in October 98. They have been freed thanks to an international outcry over it, after two months of ordeal. What would happen it the Serbs did the same with British or American journalists? There would be definitely a Security council resolution, the world would be flooded with appalling anti-Serb stories, with horror evoking disinformations.
The western media did not report, with some exceptions, about the large-scale help coming from Serbia to the affected areas of Kosovo and about the new terrorist activities of UCK that wrecked the return of refugees in many places.
A FEW EXAMPLES OF DOUBLE STANDARDS IN KOSOVO
In the BBC TV evening program (November 6, 98) in English Ann Richardson reported from Angola that during the last 9 months more than one million people left their homes, some of them even four times, because a new civil war was about to start. The units of the "beloved" (by the West) Mr. Jonas Savimbi, the Unita leader during the cold war era, were evidently not satisfied with the present situation. People were dying there as a consequence of various infections, malnutrition, murderous attacks by looting and ready-to-kill terrorist gangs, by hostile army units. It is interesting that practically nobody pays much attention to their ordeal, to that really enormous humanitarian catastrophe, incomparably worse than the events in Kosovo. Does anybody in the West report daily with "fat" headlines about the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan where thousands (!) are dying of malnutrition, infections, as a consequence of fighting? The death toll of children in Iraq, because of sanctions and malnutrition, is about 5.000 a month. Did the western media report as much as they do now about Kosovo, about a real and sudden, "concentrated" humanitarian catastrophe, when over 200.000 Serbs, in August 1995, were "ethnically cleansed" from their homes in the Serbian republic Krajina, during the Croat offensive, prepared and well organized by the retired American mercenary-generals, by Germany, in defiance of the existing embargo? Thousands were murdered at that time. The alleged democrats and defenders of human rights in Britain should remember e.g., the relatively recent events in Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising (1952-56) and the massacres that took place there.
THE OFFICIAL GERMANY AS THE ENEMY NUMBER ONE
From the very beginning of the Yugoslav Munich in 1991 it was quite clear that the official Germany was the enemy number 1, responsible for the destruction of the sovereign state Yugoslavia, one of the founders of the United Nations Organisation that suffered so much when Germany and Italy overran it (1941-45). The collaboration of the secret services of Germany (the western, the democratic) with the Croatian and Slovenian secessionists and with the Croatian fascist ustasha organisation confirms it unambiguously. It was just Germany and its foreign affairs minister, the enemy of peace number 1, Mr. Hans-Dietrich Genscher who compelled the European Union at Maastricht (1991), with the help of Vatican, to recognize prematurely and illegally the independence of Croatia and Slovenia. This was followed soon by the US Tomahawk democracy. All the above culminated in the premature and unlawful recognition of independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, followed by tragedy of hundreds of thousands of Yugoslavs, by destruction of their prosperous country.
The official Germany took part in preparation of the events, and suffering, of the people from Kosovo and Metohia. It must be recalled that Mr. Genscher, at the end of his ministerial tenure, at the beginning of the destruction of Yugoslavia, spoke about Kosovo and Sandzak (the area between Serbia and Montenegro) as "neuralgic places" of the "rump Yugoslavia", that would cause troubles soon. Much earlier, in 1912-13, during the liberation war against Turkey, it was just the Wilhelm's Germany and the Austria-Hungary that prevented the victorious Serbia from gaining access to the Adriatic Sea, by creating Albania as a sovereign state, hitherto non-existing in history.
The Press release (October 5, 98) of "The Campaign for United Kingdom Conservatism" informed about the German involvement in the Kosovo conflict. Three main points are discussed there:
- German secret service (as in Nazi Germany) supported Kosovo attacks on Serbia,
- British hypocrisy: Attacks on Serbs when Lady Thatcher accepts an honour from a fanatical supporter of genocide (Croatia's Tudjman),
- How the historical logic of "German Europe" and its puppet states has been swallowed "Hook, Line Sinker" by British democrats.
Thanks to a highly respected German intelligence expert Mr. Schmidt Eenboom (see The European community fomented the war in Bosnia) we know that in order to provoke retaliation by the Serbs (which could then lead 10 NATO and UN attacks on Serbia), Germany undertook the following operations:
1) German civil and military intelligence trained and equipped the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA, UCK - in the Albanian), the European wrote about it at the end of September 98,
2) Germany harboured the so-called government of the "Kosovo Republic in Exile" in Germany - there lived in Germany over 200.000 Albanians, their number is put today at 400.000,
3) Germany set up one of its largest secret service stations in the Albanian capital Tirana,
4) German secret service (BND) selected recruits for the KLA (=UCK) command structure, (Klaus Kinkel was its president during 1979-82),
5) The German military defence service and special commandos provided the Kosovars (Albanians from Kosovo) with communications equipment and weapons. Many KLA fighters wore German army combat jackets - even in front of TV cameras,
6) Germany smuggled weapons from the former East Germany into Albania for use in Kosovo.
The embarrassing (or intentional ?) lack of criticism or ignorance of the West accepted the German endeaver to foment the conflict in the former (or "rump") Yugoslavia, to accept later the German "sincere" efforts to stop the conflict - see e g., Mr. Kinkel's declaration about his idea to block the shipment of arms from Albania to Kosovo, to block the work of centres abroad collecting money for UCK, primarily from Germany, where it actually started and where it is still continuing today. What a fantastic hypocrisy!
And so it happened that the members of the German Bundeswehr with their Tornado planes were killing Serb civilians in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995) where their fathers and grandfathers had been used to kill the Serb civilians during 1941-45. In October 1998 those Tornados were ready to kill again, as the NATO members, without a proper Security council resolution, i.e., as hired executioners, in Serbia, Yugoslavia. This time under the pretext of protecting the human rights there, in Kosovo - but otherwise protecting the terrorist activities of those who started the killing and destruction there. Isn't it strange to Americans and to British that they are on the side of those whom they used to call (including Mr. Churchill and president Roosevelt) the Huns, that they are doing all they can against those who fought on their side in two big wars?
Let us hope that the new German government will be much better that the old one.
THE CZECH PRESIDENT MR. VACLAV HAVEL DID NOT DISAPPOINT HIS MENTORS
The Czech president Mr. Václav Havel did not disappoint his mentors from the West in this conflict. During his visit in October 1998 to the Great Britain, and during his previous visit to the USA, our president completely agreed with them that tough measures had to be taken in Kosovo, i.e., the bombardment, according to the NATO ultimatum, of Serbian (Yugoslav) targets there. Neither he nor the West realized the unquestionable reality of that conflict that it had been provoked and initiated by the Albanian separatists and the UCK terrorists, that Yugoslavia had legal rights to protect its territory and citizens. Mr. Havel even said that he had been warning the West that its neglect to make a strong stand against Milosevic in Kosovo had meant actually an appeasement and that it risked a wide ranging explosion in the Balkans (The Daily Telegraph, 20 October, '98). This means that our president completely ignored the fact that the UCK had started the killing in Kosovo, that its terrorist activity was responsible for all the suffering there, for the spiral of killing, destruction, hatred. He thus repeated his attitude from April 1993 when he advocated the military solution in Bosnia i.e., the bombardment of the Serbian targets in Bosnia (see "The anti-Serb attitudes of president Václav Havel").
Before the arrival of president Havel to Britain, there were voices against any military actions against the Serbs. The warmongering was so much supported by the British government, including the one-sided BBC and media, various politicians, e.g., Mr. P. Ashdown whose ideas and words sounded like the main political problem of America in the Balkans: arrogance and ignorance. All the above was happening in almost a coordinated way with the more or less partisan, anti-Serb (anti-Yugoslav) British press, with its bombastic headlines about the Kosovo killing fields, about the "Grisly proof of massacre" (by Emma Daly - she had similar headlines when she had reported as a corespondent from Bosnia a few years ago), "Hidden horror betrays the butchers of Kosovo" (juggler with shudder producing headlines, Mr. Tom Walker), etc., etc. In the above article Mr. Walker did not mention the strange event that happened at Gornje Obrinje, when a voice called in Albanian the poor victims to the wood as reported by the BBC (September 30) at 13,00 hrs on its TV program to be immediately omitted in its next programs. The bombastic headlines appearing in the western press about Kosovo (and earlier about Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia) are almost a copy of the communist press during the Stalin era and after it. The western press is not completely free - some "internal" censorship seems to be behind it, in many cases.
But in some Letters to the Editor, some new ideas are starting to appear in Britain, against the use of bombs, against the use of force in an indiscriminate way against the former brave and fair allies, the Serbs. Mr. Derek Prag points out (The Daily Telegraph, October 12, 1998) that a NATO attack against Yugoslavia would be:
Manifestly illegal (no approval by the Security council, the legal governments responsible for Kosovo are those of Serbia, Yugoslavia),
Immoral and unfair - those punished would be ordinary Serbs,
Biased and dishonest - nothing has been done for the hundreds of thousand of Serbs "ethnically cleansed" from Croatia and Bosnia,
Foolhardy - many innocent Serbs would be killed or maimed,
Shameful - it would show gross ingratitude to a people who fought bravely on our side, against terrible odds, in two world wars."
Mr. Derek Prag understood quite well the lack of fairness and the double standards of the West, when he recalled the huge ethnic cleansing of 200.000 ethnic Serbs during the Croat offensive against the Serbian republic of Krajina (beginning of August 1995) and mass murders of the Serbs who did not escape in time. Nothing happened to the perpetrators, NATO did not threaten Zagreb with bombs and rockets, nobody was indicted for all those crimes by the Hague tribunal. It is easy to understand - the retired US mercenary - generals prepared all that so meticulously, the Germans arranged all the rest. It would be fine to discuss all the above human tragedy with people who travelled during the last three years through the completely devastated Krajina..
On the same day, in the same daily, Mr. E. T. Finn asks a somewhat "provocative" question for us, in the Czech republic: "-If unilateral action is taken, without a full Security council approval, what message will this send to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic which are being inveigled into joining NATO? What valid arguments could Britain and America offer if other countries decided to act similarly elsewhere" (e.g., China)? Isn't it a memento to us? If we join NATO we shall be obliged to do the executioner's job, if the Lords of NATO order it, even without any approval by the Security council, even against our former friends. Shall we bomb Belgrade it ordered to do it? Until now our present government behaved in a more or less honest way, Something just opposite can be said about Slovenia, To please the West as much as possible, Slovenia stood up against Yugoslavia in a very unfriendly way during a Security council debate (October 6, 98) where it together with the British and US ambassadors tried to introduce a tough resolution against Yugoslavia, Luckily, it was substantially modified by Brazil, China and Russia: it was against any excessive use of force, against terrorist activity, it confirmed the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia.
In the boring one-sidedness of a part of our media covering the events in Kosovo, many fair and impartial reports may be found, whose authors are not afraid to tell the truth, even if it is against the "received wisdom". If one leads the objective, perfect article "And what about the Albanian side in the Kosovo conflict" by Mr. J. Müller (Právo, October 7, 98) or "Rebellions cannot be tolerated" by Mr. J. Rychlík (Právo, October 12, 98), and others, one becomes aware of the intellectual poverty and sometimes even political cowardice of the partisan media at home and abroad and how they are trying to "rape" our conscience. During this October (1998), Mr. Martin Dorazin, the corespondent of the Czech TV 1 from Kosovo was not afraid to give the proper name of "terrorists" to the UCK, he was very outspoken when he reported about the kidnapping of two Serbian journalists. In Hospodarske noviny (19 October. '98), results of an opinion poll were published. Out of 1.061 persons, 948 were against any military intervention in Kosovo, only 113 approved it. Our president should take it into account, because even Mr. Henry Kissinger during the October Forum 2000 in Prague (1998) stated that it would be a nonsense to use bombs to solve the Kosovo problem. -"I would like to know after our attack what are we trying to achieve and how are we going to organize it . I must admit that I do not know what is the purpose to use the B-52 bombers, what they have to achieve in this ethnic conflict in the Balkans... I am alarmed by the attention given to a single man, to the Yugoslav president (Milosevic) as if it were his personal conflict." Mr. H. Kissinger concludes that he (Milosevic) was not the only man responsible for the present crisis. His general attitude about the Americans and their problems was expressed in the following way: "We have no problem to accumulate knowledge, but we have enormous difficulties to understand its meaning. If we cannot manage all that we shall not be able to manage the age of globalism... We are really a superpower, but we have no clear objective."
The Czech ex-prime minister Mr. Václav Klaus declared at the same time (not as a member of the Forum 2000) that he had the same misgivings as Mr. Kissinger had that the bombardment only could settle the complex and complicated situation in Kosovo - because until now the bombardment never succeeded in doing it. He welcomed Mr. Kissinger's opinion that the Kosovo problem was not created by president Milosevic, but by history. The Czech ex-foreign Minister Mr. Jiri Dienstbier said at this occasion:
"Kissinger is absolutely right. Kosovo is no ethnical problem as it was in Bosnia. There were here (in Kosovo) about 800 dead during half-a-year, while in Bosnia hundreds of thousands died under horrible circumstances".
The dilemma about the possibility to use force in Kosovo makes many Americans uneasy. Some of them are afraid that their trigger-happy leaders may react absolutely unreasonably. Mr. Bill Clinton, the present USA president, a man of not too high principles (see the Lewinsky affair), is quite surely such a trigger-happy person, to show that he is still in charge, that he is still the most powerful man in the world. He may be enticed to show his power in Kosovo, regardless of the number of casualties. The dead civilians are for such people just "a collateral damage". Mr. Clinton has shown his power quite recently in Sudan and in Iraq. In The Guardian (October 10, 98), Mr. Martin Kettle called him in a witty way "Clinton, the cruise missile president". In his article, he quotes Mr. George Will from The Washington Post that the USA leaders who are in charge, when they hear the word DUTY, they immediately reach for their cruise missiles.
What is CHUCPE
A very interesting book by Robert Littell appeared recently in Prague: "Five talks with Simon Peres" (Lidove Noviny, Prague, 1998). On page 86 one may find word chucpe. It means a sky-high arrogance. It comes from the Yiddish and it is used in many other languages as well.
The author of this book finds the word CHUCPE very intriguing - it characterizes many western statesmen, politicians and media, as well as a part of Czech statesmen, politicians and media, in connection with their attitudes and statements about the events in Yugoslavia. Those from the West are supported by their power, by their tomahawk democracy when they start to follow the chucpe policy, accompanied very often by an utter ignorance of basic historical facts. Many of them are the victims of their self-deception because they often start to believe in many times repeated informations that are absolutely not true. Some of them are markedly motivated by their financial interests.
Both the commander of NATO forces in Europe, the American general Wesley Clark, and the secretary general of NATO Mr. Javier Solana, absolutely obedient to his American masters, used to be quite often in the past the advocates of the chucpe policy, against the Serbs and against Yugoslavia.
Now, after the 20th December 98 they both accused the Serbs of breaking the Milosevic-Holbrooke agreement from October, because they "started an offensive against the Albanian rebels, with units that had to be evacuated, etc.". The above gentlemen somehow forgot the following facts: The UCK occupied the villages around Podujevo (hitherto a relatively peaceful part of Kosovo) after the Serbian antiterrorist forces left that area, they made a stronghold out of 4 villages there. On December 21 the UCK men killed from ambush a Serbian police inspector at Podujevo (Milic Jovic), on December 23 they killed an Albanian and wounded 2 Serb policemen in Kosovska Mitrovica, some 20-25 km to the west from Podujevo, on the same day they assassinated a 62 year old Serb man at the entrance of his house at Obranca (he was probably the last Serb inhabiting that Albanian village), on December 27 three masked Albanians killed three Gypsies in Kosovska Mitrovica from the Gusani family (including the father), because they were pro-Yugoslav, other Serbs were wounded during those few days... Isn't it a fantastic chucpe advocated by general Clark and Mr. Solana? Didn't those gentleman (and others) expect that the Serbian police had to apologize to the UCK killers of the Kosovo civilians? Any normal man will expect from his government to keep order and security within its borders. There must be a swift response if anybody starts to kill your people. The USA are losing credibility, because they prevented the Security council to condemn the terrorist activities of the UCK (the first part of December 98). Was there any Security council resolution when masked Albanians killed 5 children in a cafe at Pec on December 14th (14-17 yrs. old)?When 140 men in UCK uniforms, with a lot of weapons tried to penetrate into Kosovo (night 13-14. December) and attacked the Yugoslav frontier gards, when 33 of them were killed, the "excessive use of force" by the frontier gards was deplored. Isn't it chucpe? At the same time the Kosovo "verifiers" constantly visit the UCK men who keep killing the Serbs, Albanians, Gypsies.
It is depressing that the world is governed by those who are following so much the chucpe policy. New refugees are expected, because the UCK "opened a new front" by killing innocent civilians. Will the Serbs be accused again because of those refugees?
HOW MANY ALBANIAN POLICE FORCES WILL EXIST IN KOSOVO?
The RFI correspondent from Kosovo, Mr. Fehim Rexhepi (an Albanian) reported from there (November 12, 98) that UCK organized in some settlements, after withdrawal of the Serbian police, its own police force, even its judiciary (!). The prime minister of "The Kosovo republic in exile" Mr. Bujar Bukoshi (he "works" naturally in Germany - it already helped so much the UCK and damaged so much Yugoslavia) made a statement that he had organized his Ministry of Interior and that he would have, consequently, a police force of his own. The same idea was raised by Mr. Ibrahim Rugova, the "president of the Kosovo republic" who wanted his police as well (by the way, his relations with Mr. Bukoshi are not very good) But, finally, the ideologist and spokesman of UCK. Mr. Adem Demaci. voiced his disapproval - why to organize other police forces it the UCK has already one of its own And Mr. Demaci, the arch-enemy of both the Serbs and of Yugoslavia, walks quite freely in Pristina, organizes his own anti-Serb press-conferences and interviews. Is it not a little bit strange if the western politicians and media speak about the "repression" in Kosovo and Metohia? The RFI informed at the same lime that UCK had now new winter uniforms, and, what is more important, it was equipped with new American rifles - where from did the UCK get it? But, nevertheless, Mr. James Ruben, the spokesman of the US Department of State declared (October 20) that UCK could not consider the West as its prisoner. The Serbian authorities, in addition to their original police stations, organized in many Albanian villages (especially in the western part of Kosovo, in the Djakovica district) their local Albanian militias to keep order there. Radio Belgrade reported (October 7, 1998) about a conference (meeting) of hundreds of Albanians at Djakovica. They condemned the UCK terror that had brought the whole region to the verge of catastrophe. The Albanians expressed their absolute disapproval of the NATO plans to bomb Serbia (Yugoslavia) - it would not help anybody in Kosovo. They expressed their desire to remain in Serbia (Yugoslavia). And they were ready to organize a patriotic party of the Kosovo Albanians.
THE WORLD CAN'T AFFORD THE EXISTENCE OF ANOTHER ALBANIA
In October 1998, two articles on Kosovo and Albania were published in the Austrian magazine die Neue Kronen Zeitung (October 10 and 17). Their author, Mr. Paul Flieder, an "expert on Albanian affairs", in addition to his anti-Serb attitudes, brings many interesting observations about the UCK, Albania and Kosovo. He wrote in his first article: "In the meantime, the Albanians from Albania supply the world every day with many arguments against the existence of an Independent Kosovo, under a slogan that the world can't afford the existence of another Albania." About the UCK, Mr. Flieder noticed - "The UCK is more and more penetrated by criminal scum ("Verbrecherabschaum") consisting of "foreign" Albanians from many parts of Europe. They hope that the Independent Kosovo will give them all they wish and what the Albanian and Italian mafia already have in southern Albania - a safe haven without any interference by policemen and courts... The northern Albania is in hands of various criminal bands - they use even artillery in their local wars... As for the whole Albania, about 20 murders take place every day there without any official documents being written about it." (It means much more deaths occur there than during the whole Kosovo conflict, including the "humanitarian catastrophe", so much accentuated by the West.) - "The government's authority reaches barely half a kilometer and maximally to the north-eastern part of Tirana where the popular boss of bandits, Nehat Kulla, is the undisputed ruler. Last year, he even liberated from prison Mr. Fatos Nanu who became the prime minister of Albania... FBI and the Interpol have the same opinion: Albania is the best channel for drug traffickers for Europe, from the Orient to the West. The FBI agents are after various Muslim fundamentalists here. Ten Muslim organizations "for aid" are here in Tirana and they do not distribute only food and blankets... Even more corrupt than the Albanian police are the Albanian customs officers - it is enough to work just one year as a customs officer here and you will have enough for the rest of your life... Albania is disintegrating and Kosovo is in flames - and people do not speak about Macedonia and Greece yet. And one remark: there are about one million of Albanians in southern Italy (the Dolecek's remark: it is probably too much)... The Albanian Albanians find the Kosovo Albanians somewhat crazy, fanatical and criminal. The Kosovo Albanians belittle the Albanian Albanians for their poverty, chaotic conditions in their country and, naturally, for their criminality. The united Greater Albania is acceptable only as a phantasmagoria for some nationalistic politicians "
IS THERE A WAY OUT - WHO IS PROLONGING THE TRAGEDY OF KOSOVO?
During the summer 1992 an OSCE mission was sent to Kosovo, led by the ambassador David Peel from Canada. They had to control the military situation there. The cooperation with the Serb military was excellent, the commission could go whereever it wanted. It contacted Mr. Ibrahim Rugova as well - at that time his relations with the Serb (Yugoslav) authorities were good, his party had actually a monopol of power among the Albanians. He was at that time a moderate leader. But he expressed his fears about the troubles that could come from outside, not from Albania.
When the mission finished its work in Kosovo, its members wrote then preliminary report in Pristina. But they were shocked later, when they read a draft of their report - it was just a flagrant lie, an anti-Serb fabrication. This sudden change was allegedly caused by the Canadian authorities - as a NATO member they could not accept the original report - because at that time already the Serbs were defined as bad guys and a report about their good cooperation with the OSCE mission was unacceptable. The next activities of the mission, to promote peace, met with a lack of good will and understanding of the official German - and Prague authorities. No interest.
In the second part of December 1998 there was still not an appropriate and responsible Albanian multiparty delegation available for the talks with Belgrade, with its government. Most Albanian parties are afraid to speak about anything less that the absolute independence of Kosovo - otherwise they could be ostracized as traitors, even ruthlessly liquidated. But there are now two Albanian parties which want to remain in Serbia, Yugoslavia. Many Albanians who think like them have been murdered by the UCK men, even the Gypsies and the ethnic Turks died for this reason.
Some commentators say that the Americans and some of their allies use the separatists and terrorists in Kosovo to achieve their goals, to create small and obedient "banana republics" where a powerful administrator of the international community will be the almighty boss. The present US administration only prolongs the war and suffering in Kosovo by supporting the UCK terrorists, by steadily critisizing the Belgrade authorities whether guilty or not guilty, by steady threats. The US administration, the European Union never sincerely tried to restrain the UCK terrorists and other militant separatists, they never tried to support those really peace-loving Albanians (not those afraid of their own shadow) without any prejudice, whose constructive criticism would be needed so much. Instead of that the American and most of the European politicians were just spreading the hatred, maximally supported by media, by a big part of them. As in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina they managed, by their bombastic headlines, disinformations, even overt lies, to make monsters out of the Serbs, guilty of and responsible for all the violence, crimes, bloodshed. Thanks to all that Goebbels-like and Stalin-like propaganda, even the really moderate Albanians could change their tolerant, even friendly attitude to their Serbian or Montenegrin neighbours.
On November the 25th 1998, a Declaration of many nationalities in Kosovo was signed, with wide ranging privileges for all of them without being tutored by anybody, The declaration included two Albanian parties, Egyptians living in Kosovo, Gorans, Gypsies, Montenegrins, Serbs and ethnic Turks. Out of them only Serbs and Montenegrins are Christians. In some earlier censuses, the Muslim, non-Albanian inhabitants of Kosovo and Metohia were declared to be Albanians. According to the most recent estimates, the non-Albanians in Kosovo and Metohia represent about 600.000 people, while the Albanians, present in Kosovo today, represent about 800.000, because a lot of them live abroad. That is one of the reasons why the Declaration insisted on a new census where all the nationalities concerned would take part, to see the real figures and not just a propaganda. The numbers of Serbs and Montenegrins are put at 250.000, various non-Albanian Muslim groups at 150.000, the Gypsies at 150.000, the ethnic Turks (!) living in Kosovo about 50.000.
Two events in Kosovo during December 98 showed again the double standards used by the West, especially by the official America. But even they had to warn the UCK to stop its terrorist activities, not to jeopardize the fragile cease-fire brokered in the middle of October by the Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and Mr. Richard Holbrooke, after very lengthy talks and many threats. Mr. James Rubin, the spokesman of the State Department had to warn the UCK again, as reported by the RFI (November 18, 98). Soon thereafter, an unnamed international "verifier" in Kosovo declared that about 90 % of all the ceasefire violations in the area of Decani had been provoked by the UCK.
During the night (December 13-14) a band of 140 men (with a few women), in UCK uniforms, attacked a Yugoslav frontier post and tried to penetrate the Yugoslav frontier from Albania, to smuggle a lot of weapons with them. In the ensuing battle, more than 30 attackers were killed and 9 captured, large quantities of weapons were seized. The next day an armed and masked Albanian terrorist (some reports say that there were two) burst into a small cafe "Panda", frequented by students of the neighbouring high school "Sveti Sava" at Pec. He immediately opened fire from a sub-machine gun and killed 5 boys (14 to 17 years) and one 26 year old men, wounding 5 other students. In the beginning the western sources described both events almost as equal, but later on they expressed their shock about the killing of innocent children. Nevertheless, the chief of the OSCE verifiers (monitors) in Kosovo, Mr. W. Walker (an American) who is a prominent chucpe man, made almost no difference between the aggressors (UCK terrorists) and the children sipping their soft drinks in their cafe. The Serbian orthodox patriarch His Beatitude Lord Pavle (83) was present at their funeral at Pec. Mr. Holbrooke expressed his shock but he added that the frontier guards overreacted. But how could they respond in a restrained way it the attackers were about to kill them, to bring many new and deadly weapons to Kosovo, to kill and destroy there.
After the bloody events near Podujevo (see earlier) an uneasy truce was observed there. But this did not prevent the murder of four Albanians very probably by their fellow Albanians because they were pro-Yugoslav (at Prizren, near Kosovska Mitrovica).
In his letter at the end of December 98, Mr. Zivadin Jovanovic, the minister for Foreign affairs of Yugoslavia, wrote to Mr. Cofi Annan the secretary General, of the United Nations that 1.854 terrorist attacks had been carried out during 1998 by the terrorists in Kosovo, resulting in deaths of 144 people (566 had been wounded). Out of that 470 terrorist attacks were observed during the last two months since the ceasefire had been brokered in the middle of October. At the same time 22 violations of the Yugoslav frontier were reported. Probably the most important obstacle to peace in Kosovo is the fact that the West did not condemn openly the terrorism in Kosovo and its main perpetrators, the UCK men. When will the international community stop mining Serbia (Yugoslavia) and when will the western democracies return here to their democratic traditions? Will any western politician have courage to admit the responsibility of the West for the terrible tragedy that has occurred in the former Yugoslavia and who will try to get rid of all the disinformations and fabrications so abundantly used by the West against Yugoslavia, against the Serbs? Especially if one looks at the model peaceful coexistence of many nationalities in Vojvodina, in northern Serbia (Yugoslavia).
Almost 50 years elapsed since George Orwell published his "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (1949) and in a strange way the western democracies, a not negligible part of their official leaders and of their media, behave in the troubled Yugoslavia like the all-pervading Party, especially regarding the existence of something like the Ministry of Truth (or Minitrue in the Newspeak), the present information and propaganda system. One of the slogans is especially important lot them. Ignorance is Strength. They have even their Two Minute Hate, repeated constantly. Instead of Emmanuel Goldstein as the chief enemy of the beloved Big Brother, they have Milosevic, Karadzic, Mladic - and the Serbs in general. What a sad similarity. The Ministry of Love (Miniluv in the Newspeak) has a promising, still modest offspring in the West - the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, but no public executions are carried out there. Mr. Winston Smith wrote in the above book, in his diary:
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows." Is this axiom being observed in the West during the crisis in Yugoslavia?
The most depressing reality for the Serbs was the fact that the West had broken faith with them. It was horrible for them to realize that their traditional friends and allies, France, Great Britain, the USA on whose side they had fought and suffered a lot during two World wars, not only deserted them, but even insulted them, made monsters out of them, with the use of disinformations, fabrications, even lies - and thus caused unbelievable hardships to them. All that happened during the last few years, all of a sudden because of their selfish and incomprehensible interests. And they are continuing to destroy the results of the Serb historic struggles for freedom and against oppressors. This book is trying to present an objective interpretation of this newest all-Serb tragedy and to disclose how the noble ideas have been distorted and abused, to justify many unlawful, even criminal activities.
In addition to the suffering of the Serbs, the other inhabitants of former Yugoslavia suffered a lot too, very many of them as more or less innocent bystanders whom the irresponsible, selfish and criminal "actors", both foreign and local, in the Yugoslav drama, compelled to take sides and fight against those who had been until recently their friends or neighbours. The greatest crime of those who fomented the civil-ethnic-religious war in Yugoslavia was the hatred they did provoke again, for generations to come.
WILL THE NEW WORLD ORDER CORRUPT THE COMPETENT WESTERN JUDICIARY?
The Universal declaration on human rights was signed in Paris by 48 UNO members on December 11, 1948, its 50th anniversary was celebrated on December 11, 1998. One year ago, on December 27, 1997, the popular South African president Nelson Mandela declared (from his own sad experiences): "An imprisonment without a proper judicial procedure represents a fundamental violation of human rights." But, nevertheless, a democracy par excellence, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, has a murky secret in this respect (S. Trifkovic, Chronicles, July 1996). In the North Sea resort of Scheveningen there is a prison where you can be indefinitely incarcerated without trial, where you can be delivered on the orders of an ad hoc court (of dubious authority and still more dubious impartiality) that sometimes issues warrants only after politically motivated arrests have been made." This ad hoc court is the International criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTFY) in The Hague. During the last two years it became even more "famous" because it let people arrest on the basis of the sealed indictments. We mentioned it already earlier. They are similar to the secret indictments (arrest warrants) of the French kings, abolished more than 200 years ago, the so called "lettres de cachet". Neither the public, not the person arrested did know about them. The Hague tribunal is a court that does not recognize the presumption of innocence, but on the contrary, it almost works on the presumption of guilt, especially for the Serbs. All that was never codified for a civil-ethnic-religious war with the exception perhaps of a manifest violence, cruelty, deliberate killing, etc. Because of its partiality and one-sidedness, it is almost ridiculous to expect any form of justice from The Hague tribunal to decide fairly, e.g., who is an aggressor, which case will be dealt with, which informations will be included in the database, etc. (see "The American political war crimes tribunal in The Hague"). The question "Who is the aggressor in Bosnia" is answered by a small article by Mr. Michal Olbrich (Place, 20 September, 1995). - "You can hear sometimes that the Serbs are aggressors in Bosnia. Even for many politicians this motivated their intention to restrain, to suppress the Serbs. It is difficult to say whether it was their ignorance or just a bad intention. Because it is not possible to say that the Serbs are aggressors in Bosnia. Aggressor is an attacker or intruder from outside, from an other country. But the Serbs live in Bosnia for many hundreds of years. A referendum, in which the Serbs did not take part, decided that Bosnia would secede from the former Yugoslavia. The Serbs responded with an armed resistance. It was not their aggression, but their struggle for a sell determination... Bosnia did not experience an aggression, but a civil war."
The last victim of that ad hoc tribunal (court) was the Serbian general Radislav Krstic from the Army of Republika Srpska (from Bosnia and Herzegovina). He was arrested on December 2, 98, at Bijeljina by an American SFOR unit and immediately delivered to the above mentioned Dutch Bastille in Scheveningen. The official arrest warrant was issued the next (!) day. The general did not know absolutely anything about his indictment written in a sealed document. He did not learn about his indictment earlier than in jail. He was, naturally, charged with a variety of stereotyped offences, including the genocide and the ethnic cleansing - that meant killing, terrorizing, etc. During 1995, he took part in operations around Srebrenica as a commanding officer. Although it is not directly connected with the case of general Krstic, it is useful to quote here Mr. E. Cody (Washington Post, April 7, 1996) -"Did Harry Truman order the A-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 'in order to kill, injure, terrorize and demoralize the civilian population' of Japan? Of course he did, and for the most part history has treated him kindly for it. Winston Churchill ordered the firebombing of Dresden for the same awful reason." Did anybody indict and arrest the Croatian generals and the hired American retired mercenary-generals for the ethnical cleansing of 200.000 of Serbs from Krajina and for massacres of those who had not escaped? Or did anybody arrest Mr. Naser Oric, the Muslim commander of Srebrenica (he became later a general) who during the forays with his garrison into the Serbian villages in eastern Bosnia (1992-95) destroyed about 30 of them and killed there more than 1.200 of their inhabitants?
The Serbs did not provoke the civil-ethnic-religious war in Bosnia - it was done by those from abroad who ruined Yugoslavia by their interference, meddling in its internal affairs and by those who started their armed secession. THEY had to be charged for that. Very many people accept as a "received wisdom" the reports about the massacres of Muslims after the fall of Srebrenica, thousands and thousands of them were allegedly killed. But all that was not proved yet, even the aerial photographs as presented by Mrs. Al bright did not prove anything, although she tried hard to impose her informations on the world about the 5-10.000 allegedly murdered Muslims who had allegedly disappeared. During fighting around Srebrenica, approximately 2.500 soldiers died, more Muslims than Serbs, but many civilians died as well, again both Muslims and Serbs, the latter especially during 1992, when the Muslims took over Srebrenica - the 28 % of its inhabitants (the Serbs) just disappeared, they were either expelled or killed. Many Serbs died when the 28th Muslim division from the "demilitarised" Srebrenica attacked, plundered and devastated the neighboring Serbian villages. All the dead must have been buried somewhere. So far less than 500 bodies were found - all that is very, very sad.
Mr. Haris Silajdzic, the Muslim prime minister, tried to spread a terrible canard on September 25, 1995. His lie was about a mass grave allegedly found near a small Bosnian town Kljuc. It allegedly contained 540 corpses of Muslims, murdered by Serbs. Luckily enough, a UNO commission from Zagreb went immediately there and found only one dead of unknown nationality (see earlier), not those 540 corpses as Mr. Silajdzic tried to disinform. If this did not happen, the Serbs would be charged for another horrible crime. Until proved otherwise, until more evidence is found (hearsay and double hearsay are not evidence), the alleged massacres of Muslims around Srebrenica are not substantiated so far - they cannot be taken for granted. They are so far just claims. And now a general, a commander of one side of the warring parties, will be tried by a partisan court while the other side will be considered as clean as the angels are. The Hague tribunal is really becoming because of its one-sidedness, double standards and other murky practices, more and more similar to a kangaroo court. After the arrest of general Krstic, the new president of the Republika Srpska, Mr. Nikola Poplasen, exclaimed: "It is a sheer banditry!" He surely gave that epithet to The Hague judiciary and its methods. Saint Augustine used to say that a country without laws was just a den of robbers. Mr. Carlos Westendorp, the "Reichsprotector" and the boss of the Bosnian protectorate was very angry, because in some places of the Republika Srpska demonstrations took place, a few SFOR vehicles were destroyed - especially when the news was spread that the popular general Krstic was tortured by his captors. He was arrested by Americans and one must unintentionally recall the Pentagon instructions how to torture, used in the Latin (and Central) America (Ian Brodie: "Pentagon admits it taught the Latin Americans to torture", The Times, September 23, 1996).
THE KINGDOM OF DISINFORMATIONS IN KOSOVO: THE RACAK AFFAIR
A very good description of the present U.S. administration's activities in the former Yugoslavia and in Kosovo and Metohia, is that by Mr. Harry G. Summers, Jr. in his article about the curse of Kosovo (Washington Times, 26. Jan. 99) - "U.S. policy in the Balkans is worse than a crime - it is a blunder. Not only is America working against her own best interests by fostering a Muslim terrorist base in Europe, it is defeating the purpose of its Balkan intervention. Ostensibly designed to promote stability in the region, American foreign policy is doing precisely the opposite by its support of Muslim revolution". But the number one America's blunder is the fact that Mr. Kohl's Germany managed to lure America to take such an active part in the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, of a friendly and sovereign state, with the support of a venal European community (union) and of a servile part of the UN. Because America is so powerful, her blunders could be so dangerous and ominous. It is bad for the world to be led by an arrogant and ignorant elite, abusing the fantastic clout of very often unfair, biased and venal media, to manipulate the public opinion in their own country and in the world as much as it likes. The developments of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair cast many doubts on the present U.S. moral ability and dignity to lead the world - to use force seems to be the main argument of the U.S. foreign policy today - the events in Yugoslavia show it quite clearly.
The Racak affair seems to represent a repetition of all those dirty tricks from Bosnia and Herzegovina, devised to make the Serbs as bad as possible. On 10 January '99, the terrorists from the local UCK (KLA) HQ at Racak (south-west from Pristina) killed a Serb policeman (Svetislav Przic) - they even threatened and killed their pro-Yugoslav fellow Albanians. On January 15, a police force, supported by a few armoured cars, went to arrest the killers. The police informed about its action the OSCE "verifiers" from Pristina and invited the Associated Press men to film the action. The police arrived at Racak at 10 am, under constant fire from the UCK positions in the surrounding hills which the police force attacked later. Radio Belgrade reported (Jan. 15) that during the battle at least 15 UCK terrorists had been killed. At 3:30 p.m. the police withdrew, after capturing in the terrorist HQ many weapons and ammunition, documents, as well as stockpiles of foodstuffs (much of it of American origin). Racak had been abandoned by its inhabitants much earlier during the Serb summer offensive (1998) against the UCK terrorists. On January 15, smoke was rising from only two chimneys there.
Two French correspondents watched the event. Mr. R. Girard (Kosovo: Obscurity about a massacre, Le Figaro, 20 Jan. '99) watched the video footage from the two AP men. ..The police appeared to have nothing to hide, because they invited at 8:30 am a TV crew (two journalists from the AP) to film the operation. The OSCE was invited as well - it sent there its cars with American diplomatic licence plates. Mr. C. Chatelot (Were the dead of Racak really massacred in cold blood? Le Monde, 21 Jan. '99) visited Racak at 4:30 p.m. and at 6 p.m. the same day, after the police had left. He saw then the international monitors ("verifiers") in their three orange OSCE cars taking two slightly wounded women and two men off for medical treatment at Stimlje. They talked there to three younger Albanians at leisure. Mr. Chatelot was told by the verifiers that they had not seen anything special.
The next morning (Jan. 16), the western and Albanian journalists but not the Serbs arrived at Racak, reoccupied by the UCK after the police had left a day before. The UCK brought immediately the visitors to a gully close to Racak and showed them the bodies of about 20 killed men in civilian clothes. Other dead men were found in the backyard of a house and in other places, some of them allegedly mutilated, with gunshots in the head. Very soon thereafter, the head of the OSCE verifiers, Mr. William Walker, an American (!) diplomat arrived too. He expressed his indignation at those atrocities "committed by the Serb police and by the Yugoslav army". Those irresponsible words could be good for a PR agency or for a second class scribbler after a scoop, but not for a leading diplomat who needed proofs, more evidence and investigations about the events that had led to the death of those men. Or did he tell it with a bad intention like many. U.S. and western diplomats had done during the last 7-8 years when speaking about Yugoslavia and especially about the Serbs? As Tom Walker put it (Serbian police chief dies in fight at village, The Times, 20 Jan. '99), Mr. W. Walker is dubbed by the Serb press the "ambassador of lies". He refused to accept Mrs. Danica Marinkovic, a Serb judge from Pristina, to go with him under a Serb police escort, to investigate what actually happened at Racak. She managed to get there after a two days delay, under a heavy police escort, steadily under fire by the UCK. During that action a deputy police chief (Miro Mekic) was killed and two policemen seriously wounded. The armoured car with Mrs. Marinkovic was hit by a shell but she was unharmed. Finally she managed to bung the dead bodies to Pristina for forensic autopsies. The Yugoslav authorities invited a group of Finnish experts to do it together with the Yugoslav and Byeloruss doctors. The Finns arrived a few days later.
The UCK (KLA) version, accepted evidently without any hesitation by Mr. W. Walker, was the following:
- The policemen in balaclavas entered on Jan. 15, by force, the houses of Racak, separated men from women, abducted the men in the direction of surrounding hills and summarily executed them. - But this version does not correspond to the facts, to the video footage of the AP and to the report of Mr. Chatelot (Le Monde), the international verifiers did not see it that afternoon either. The policemen had no balaclavas at all. The gunfire against the Serb police was directed from the surrounding hills where later on the battle intensified. The slightly wounded four (or three?) Albanians from Racak did not tell anything about the alleged executions to the verifiers. The Serbs alleged that the dead men were just the UCK killed during fighting, stripped by the UCK during the night of UCK uniforms and put into civilian clothes and dumped in a gully as though they had been shot together in that location (Jonathan Steele: Racak bodies were tampered with, The Guardian, Jan. 21). It was interesting that near the gully only very few spent cartridges were found and not much blood. There was a clear evidence that the dead bodies had been moved from different places and a part of them had been mutilated during that action. One dead was evidently killed by a farm implement. The Serb sources gave an intriguing detail: the bullet holes in the civilian clothes of the dead did not correspond with the location of wounds of the dead. Mr. Girard asks in his article: "Didn't the UCK try to transform a military defeat into a political victory?" Because of his irresponsible action, Mr. William Walker was declared "persona non grata" and he had to leave Yugoslavia during the next 48 hours. But, after protests by the West he was not expelled. Serbia (Yugoslavia) rescinded its expulsion order against the partisan OSCE ambassador Mr. W. Walker. It is interesting to note that he largely relies on Albanian staff for protection (T. Walker: Kosovo peace monitor beats Serb ban. The Times, Jan. 22, '99). It is probable that any country would declare a man like Mr. W. Walker a "persona non grata" if he had accused without any proper investigation and evidence the local police of a massacre. But regardless of the fact that the "observers deny Racak massacre was fabricated" (T. Walker, The Times Jan. 21, '99), some of them admit, on condition of strict anonymity, that some of the bodies may have been moved and that one may have been decapitated and another had an extra gunshot wound inflicted after death. Mr. J. Strauss wrote in his hair-raising article (really horrible tragedies are happening in Kosovo) in The Daily Telegraph ("Military 'death squads' behind Kosovo massacre", Jan. 27, 1999) that witnesses told him of the Serbian Interior Ministry's hooded killers: "The men in black appeared to be in control and wore balaclavas over their heads". But the video footage did not show anything like that and the two French journalists (Mr. Girard from Le Figaro, and Mr. Chatelot from Le Monde) did not see anything like that either (see earlier). In this case one must remember the words of the Dutch professor of state law from Leiden, Mr. F. Kalshoven (see chapter "Rape camps"): "People tell horrible stories because someone has told them to tell it for propaganda purposes - or because everyone else is telling horrible stones." Proofs are needed, not propaganda. After all the above one must despair at the presence of so many violent deaths, unjustices, torture, even of children.To give a "final verdict" on the Racak affair, the Americans let "leak" a secret information to The Washington Post about the taped telephone calls between Belgrade and the Serb police commander in Kosovo in which Mr. Nikola Sainovic (the federal deputy prime minister of Yugoslavia) and general Sreten Lukic (in charge of the Interior ministry special forces) spoke about the massacre, that the government forces were allegedly ordered to "go in heavy", how to make allegedly "the killings look as if they had happened in battle" (R. Whitaker: "Belgrade's link to massacre", The Independent, 29 Jan., 1999). This type of proof may be probably good in Mr. Clinton's affair with miss Lewinsky, for Mr. Starr, but nor for the troubled Kosovo. CIA is probably unrivalled in its ability to fabricate such informations and to let them "leak" to the public.
Three days after Racak another actor of the well orchestrated Kosovo drama appeared. Mrs. Louise Arbour, the prosecutor general of the American sponsored Hague tribunal, well known for its one-sidedness, bias and sealed indictments, popped up at the frontier of Macedonia and Yugoslavia, in the Kosovo area. She was without any valid entry visa and she clamored for an immediate entry into Kosovo, to go to Pristina, to examine with her team the "Racak massacre". It was quite clear that she wanted to organize a spectacle, to internationalize the whole affair as much as possible -without any jurisdiction of The Hague tribunal over the events in Kosovo. It was just an arrogant move of Mrs. Arbour trying to negate the sovereignty of Yugoslavia in Kosovo. Her entry was refused. All that was prepared by the irresponsible words of Mr. W. Walker at Racak (Jan. 16). That was a fraud that started a new phase of the psychological warfare against Yugoslavia, trying to justify the eventual use of force (bombing) against the Yugoslav (Serb) targets in Yugoslavia. It is interesting that Mrs. Arbour did not want to examine earlier the massacres of Serbs and pro-Yugoslav Albanians in Kosovo at Klecka, Glodjani, Volujak. Mr. W. Walker did not visit the place where the UCK terrorists killed five Serb children in a high school cafe at Pec. The president of the OSCE, the Norwegian foreign minister Mr. Knut Vollebaek declared on 22 Jan. '99. that Mr. W. Walker had been overhasty at Racak.
The first autopsy results (the experts from Byeloruss and Yugoslavia) showed that the dead men had not been killed at a short range, but from a distance (in fighting). When all the experts finished the autopsies, they signed a document that they agreed with the results of their findings. The Finns expressed their satisfaction at the progress of their work and at the level of cooperation with their Yugoslav counterparts. They declared that they had still to prepare their final report in Helsinki, after some more special examinations. Will they tell the truth if they find the same results as their Yugoslav and Byeloruss colleagues? The Finns are considered to be honest.
The incident at Rogovo (29 Jan. '99), a village close to Djakovica, proved again the perfidious approach of the OSCE verifiers. A group of 10 Serb policemen was attacked by a large group of Albanian terrorists. One policemen was killed. During the ensuing battle 23 separatists were killed. The "verifiers" declared initially that 23 civilians had been killed, but the TV footage showed quite clearly large quantities of weapons scattered around and seized, the UCK uniforms of the dead - and so a new Racak affair was not born. Even the Free Europe reported (29 Jan., at 4 p.m., in Czech) that 23 Albanians from the separatist army had been killed. The main Czech radio bulletin at 6 p.m. of the same day reported that 23 civilians had been killed, while the main CT1 news at 7:15 p.m. said that 23 Albanians had been killed, that many weapons had been seized, and that some Albanians had the UCK insignia. At this time the TV helped the Serbs, unwillingly... And just to compare - one day earlier, during an air raid by the U.S. planes, 23 civilians were killed in Basra, in Iraq. It was just a "collateral damage", a rocket erred somewhat. The international community accepted it without fuss.
Regarding the events in Kosovo, the secretary General of NATO, Mr. Javier Solana, is an example of utter arrogance and ignorance He declared on Jan. 28 (RFI) that Mr. Milosevic is the main culprit for the events in Kosovo "because he had abolished (1989) the autonomy of Kosovo Albanians" But this is an absolute nonsense, their autonomy was not abolished, only the prerogatives of a state, the status of a statehood for Kosovo were abrogated the status that no minority in Europe possesses. Mr. Solana and similar "experts" forgot how the Albanian majority oppressed the Kosovo minorities after the 1974 constitution that gave almost absolute power to the Albanians. And such ignoramuses and would-be experts like Mr. Solana, Mrs. Albright, Mr. Cook, etc., are deciding the destiny of whole nations. Especially dangerous are the above politicians and leaders if somebody delegated to them authority to make irreparable decisions. As a shining example of such an irresponsible act was the NATO decision to authorize Mr. Solana to order air strikes against the Serbs if he decides to. He was authorized to do it even without any approval by the Security council. Isn't it an end of the international laws, of the UN Charter - a return to the international banditry from the Hitler times?
At the Rambouillet conference on Kosovo, as its co-chairman, the British foreign secretary Mr. Robin Cook was chosen, well known for his very strong anti-Serb attitudes. He was among the top "warmongers", threatening Serbia (Yugoslavia) with airstrikes and Tomahawk missiles during the Belgrade Milosevic-Holbrooke talks in October 1998. He will be remembered for that blackmail and extortion. His impartiality is just a hypocrisy that anybody could laugh at.
The solution for Kosovo and Metohia, as suggested by the West is just a sell-out. With an incredible arrogance and impertinence, the West and the U.S. run "pacificator", the NATO is ready to attack Serbia (Yugoslavia) with bombs and rockets, if their ultimatum regarding Kosovo is not met. Even if an agreement is reached and no air strikes destroy the targets in Yugoslavia, a NATO force of about 30.000 troops is being prepared to occupy Kosovo - allegedly to guarantee the results of the Rambouillet conference. Where are the solemn words from the UN Charter about the guaranteed integrity and sovereignty of a UN member state? The words of the Helsinki and Paris declarations sound quite empty and meaningless, the OSCE looks quite ridiculous if the only superpower and its obedient servants are allowed to break the international laws of behaviour. Isn't it shameful to violate so flagrantly the sovereignty of a state under the auspices of the somewhat vague International community, when the latter is abused by the big powers like a cover-up for their murky deals?
The Serbs (Yugoslavs) will have to withdraw almost all their troops and police from Kosovo, leaving the non-Albanian minorities and the pro-Yugoslav Albanians at the mercy of the UCK terrorists. According to the plan they have to surrender their weapons during three months too, but who could trust them? Who will protect the frontiers with Albania to prevent thousands of Albanians with many weapons to penetrate into Kosovo to ethnically cleanse there all its non-Albanian inhabitants? Does anybody in the West think about the second stage of the Kosovo crisis - the uprizing of the Albanians, or a part of them, in Macedonia, Greece? There will be a powerful administrator of the Kosovo protectorate, a sort of a "Reichsprotektor", to govern in the occupied Kosovo, with an almost unlimited authority, e.g. to nominate or to sack officials, judges, etc. One of the names being discussed in this connection is Mr. William Walker who so aptly helped to foment the Kosovo crisis at Racak. To await impartiality from him sounds just like a joke.
There were things in Kosovo that had to be improved. One of the solutions was the Declaration on the political framework of the self-rule (autonomy) in Kosovo (November 25, 98) attended by all the nationalities in Kosovo (Egyptians, Gorans, Gypsies, Montenegrins, Serbs, ethnic Turks and two pro-Yugoslav Albanian parties). It planned a two chamber parliament and the provision that no nationality could dominate the others. But the first imperative was to have an internationally controlled census to see exactly how many people live in Kosovo and how many members have individual nationalities. It is strange that the great powers did not show any interest in the above Declaration. It provided probably the very best solution to Kosovo, the most democratic one. But neither the European union, nor the U.S. supported it, because it did not correspond with their selfish interests which absolutely disregard the interests of the others who live there. The history taught it repeatedly both the Czech and the Serb nations that the big powers are very seldom real friends ready to help if it is not in their own interests. The big powers rhetoric about the noble ideals, about the human rights and freedom cannot be taken always seriously - they use it mostly if they just need it.
HERE SPEAKS MR. JENKINS - HE IS NOT A PARTISAN JOURNALIST
Mr. Simon Jenkins is an experienced commentator on political affairs, it is a pleasure to read his commentaries. Two of them were extensively quoted in this book. His latest has as its target the UK Foreign Secretary Mr. Robin Cook ("Big Bang Theorist", The Times, )an 20, 1999 - with a sub-title "Cook's foreign policy towards Kosovo has been reduced to a four-letter word". It is a pleasure to read it, it deserves more quotations. -"...Hundreds more Kosovans are dead, tens of thousands homeless and NATO generals are again dancing attendance in Belgrade. The Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, is dancing too. Thumbing his battered lexicon he incants "deeply foolish... unacceptable... shocking .. murderous... horrific." Mr. Cook recites this all with sombre mien... We are back to our old friend the bomb. British foreign policy is now a four-letter word... Yet it emboldened the KLA to think that, as in Bosnia, a few more atrocities might jolt NATO taking sides against the Serbs. The October deal sent the worst possible message to everyone. Mr. Cook welcomed it... There is nothing in the United Nations Charter to give Britain and the United States the right to a unilateral attack on Yugoslavia for actions essentially within the domestic jurisdiction" of that state.. In defence of air strikes he might (Mr. Cook) plead Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, on protecting international security. But airstrikes are more likely to destabilize the region than calm it. It will encourage cross-border support for the KLA and inspire every separatist group in the Balkans. As in Iraq, bombing is meaningless without military follow-up... That is achieved only by sending in troops. Such invasion is what the KLA has been encouraged by Mr. Cook's policy to expect. ...Former Yugoslavia has seen every phase of "new world order" mission creep. First it welcomed humanitarian aid to civil war victims. Then it saw foreign governments draw into protecting that aid with troops. The protection became partisan. Heavy weapons arrived. The troops became militarily active, then players in local politics. The British people were categorically promised that Britain would not become embroiled in the war of Yugoslavian succession"...
..."The terrible happenings in Kosovo cry out for charity, as do atrocities in a dozen other global conflicts. That charity should go impartial and unarmed. We appear incapable of repairing politics of these places. Every attempt ends in failure. Every bombastic intervention makes things worse. But to make them worse only to make us feel better is the height of immorality".
FINALE OF THE YUGOSLAV (SERB) TRAGEDY
The reason for the American involvement in the tragedy of Yugoslavia (of Serbs), in the dismemberment of that prosperous country, in the smear campaign against the friendly Serb nation, is not quite clear. But its roots, as we have shown, are evidently the German policies and the naivety of the U.S.A., so adroitly and successfully misused by the German administration, both before and especially after the German reunification (1990). The end of the bipolar world helped here a lot.
In the very beginning of the Yugoslav crisis, the U.S. administration was against the partition of Yugoslavia, the U.S. foreign secretary Mr. James Baker said it explicitly in the middle of 1991. After the premature and "illegal" (the usual international criteria for recognition of a state were not honored) recognition of Croatia and Slovenia after their armed secession by the European community, under a mighty pressure by Germany (Mr. Genscher) and Vatican, on 15 January, 1992, the U.S. administration was still reluctant, but it did not hesitate to recognize Bosnia and Herzegovina as a sovereign state in April 1992. It did not fulfil again the criteria for a recognition. The U.S. administration did not know at that time what exactly to do, because there were more trouble spots in the world (e.g., Nagorny-Karabakh, Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina). The violent anti-Serb propaganda campaign in the USA was already unleashed in 1992, with disinformations, fabrications, even overt lies, CNN playing here a prominent role. The beginning anti-Yugoslav and anti-Serb attitudes of the U.S.A. were strengthened e.g., by the Czech president Mr. Václav Havel when he advocated bombardment of the Serb positions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, during his visit in Washington (end of April 1993). The present anti-Serb (almost racist) speeches by the British prime minister Mr. Tony Blair or by his foreign secretary Mr. Robin Cook are just difficult to explain - or do they feel now to be American satellites?
The violence in Kosovo flared up very soon after a part of the Serb police and army left their positions. The KLA (UCK) groups started to attack on various places until recently safe. The money continued to flow from the West unhindered, as well as the arms from Albania to the UCK terrorists NATO repeatedly called on Milosevic to keep the part of the Yugoslav army and special police forces off Kosovo in line with his commitments made in October '98 and thus to allow the UCK to occupy more territory. At the same time the Kosovans were told to cease hostilities immediately and to stop immediately their provocations e g , the hostage taking, ambushes and killing of police men, etc. The arms smuggling had to stop. Absolutely nobody did believe that this could be achieved. The October agreement helped a lot to increase the level of violence later on.
When Mr. Kofi Annan visited the NATO HQ in Brussels in January '99, he agreed with the threat of force to help to press both sides into a settlement. But at the same time he suggested that a new UN resolution of its Security Council would be needed if any military action had to be taken Mr. Javier Solana did not think that any new mandate was necessary to carry out air strikes, to start Operation Noble Anvil, as the NATO action was designated. It is depressing to realize that Mr. Solana who has only bad words for the Serbs and Yugoslavia, is authorized by NATO to press the button whenever he wants if NATO's 16 members agree. Mr. Solana's words actually suspended the international law, because he proclaimed that the use of force was the main argument for NATO, that this organisation could wilfully decide on the destruction of an independent country. One must shudder with disgust because the events show that the current US administration (not the people) behaves in a similar way with its ultimata as Adolph Hitler did in the 1930s - the concentration camps could follow for the "enemies of the New World Order". To paraphrase Saint Augustine once more "The International community without law and justice is like a den of bandits".
The hypocrisy of the current US administration, of NATO and of the European Union is mirrored by their reluctance to condemn the KLA (UCK) from the very beginning of its activity as a terrorist organisation (Mr Gelbard called the UCK men somewhat bashfully terrorists but it was at the beginning of their violent activities in Kosovo) before they got the role of important pawns in further dismemberment of Yugoslavia. The Albanians may think that the goody goodies from the USA, NATO and European Union try hard to help them achieve either an independence for them (until now they rule it out) or an autonomy that will finally end in something like independence. But they do not realize that the main aim of the Lords of the New world order is to have their troops in Kosovo. This would be a flagrant violation of the Yugoslav sovereignty, it would be an occupation, an invasion and control by a foreign army All under the pretext to safeguard peace in Kosovo, to enable the Albanians to take over the province, to become obedient servants of the New world order.
On February 2, 99, Mr. Vladislav Jovanovic, the Yugoslav ambassador to UN in New York, informed the president of the Security council (a Canadian diplomat) about the threats of NATO (Mr. J. Solana) against Yugoslavia. He asked him for a Security council meeting to prevent an aggression by NATO, to use the corresponding chapter of the UN Charter. But nothing happened for a whole month only vague excuses about the over burdened council and that the imminent conference at Rambouillet could bring new solutions. Isn't it a perfect example of a double standard if one considers the ease with which the Security council discussed almost immediately almost any event from Kosovo damaging the image of the Serbs?
Both Germany and the Austro-Hungarian empire lost the World War I and a strategic and security vacuum in the Middle Europe developed Hitler and his satellites (Hungary, Croatia, partially Slovakia) tried to fill it, but they were defeated again. After the World War II the Warsaw pact went there - its role ended when the USSR disintegrated in 1990. The USA created their "Partnership for peace" program while Germany insisted on enlarging NATO, possibly as an instrument of her policy. America was initially reluctant, because it meant a lot of money to spend. Under a constant propaganda pressure (Germany, Poland Lech Walesa, president Havel in the Czech Republic with his pro-German policy, supported by an overwhelming propaganda campaign of the German owned Czech press - almost 90 % of it are now in the German hands, etc), the USA finally agreed to accept the idea of a new and enlarged NATO. The OSCE was created with good intentions to fill the security gap too and to promote cooperation - but later on it became too dependent on Germany and the U.S.A., it became an instrument of their policy.
The German foreign minister Mr. Hans Dietrich Genscher tried to defend his role played in the disintegration of Yugoslavia which meant tens of thousands of dead and millions of refugees He explained it cynically that the consequences of the World War I had now been made right by history, had been corrected - because the Serbs had provoked that war. In other words it means that Germany finally managed to make good something that Hitler had tried to do in vain - the horrible losses of life seemed not to bother Mr. Genscher.
THE CONFERENCE AT RAMBOUILLET (FEBRUARY 6 -16,1999)
The conference at Rambouillet had from its very beginning an anti-Serb touch, warranted by (1) the presence of the Serb-hater Mr. Robin Cook as one of the two co-chairmen of conference, (2) of Mr. H. Vedrine, the French Foreign minister, who had usually only tough words for the Serbs as well. Then came (3) the repeated presence and haughty appearance of Mrs. M. Albright (the Lady War), another Serb-hater. (4) The coordinator number one Mr. Chris Hill - as an "official American negotiator", he could not be considered by the Serbs as impartial, they could not trust him. (5) The second co-ordinator Mr. Wolfgang Petritsch, an Austrian diplomat and representative of the European Union (EU) that had caused so much harm to the Serbs in the past, could not be considered as impartial either. The only friendly person at Rambouillet for the Serbs, was the Russian coordinator Mr. Boris Majorski.
At the beginning, the Albanian (Kosovan) delegation, led by the political KLA (=UCK) boss Mr. Hashem Thaqi (a sort of IRA boss), refused to talk and sign any agreement, if it did not include the referendum on Kosovo's in dependence. The Serb (Yugoslav) side agreed to sign the TEN PRINCIPLES as stipulated earlier by the Contact group. This was the so-called political part of the peace accord. But the co-chairmen of the conference and Mrs. Albright started to insist on the military side of it, not included in the Contact group proposals. It meant that 28-30.000 NATO troops would implement the peace accord in Kosovo. It would actually mean an occupation of a part of a sovereign state, of Yugoslavia, with all its dire consequences for the future of Kosovo as a part of Serbia (Yugoslavia). A precedent of it had been already set in Bosnia and Herzegovina where the SFOR had be come an army of occupation (or a player in local politics - as Mr. Jenkins put it - see there). Kosovo would be definitely lost for the Serbs, for Yugoslavia For this reason the Serbs delegation categorically refused the occupation of Kosovo by foreign troops.
Then the Lady War intervened. In a somewhat humiliating way for her, she started to persuade the Kosovan delegation into signing the political part of the peace accord, promising them God knows what. She talked directly to Mr. Thaqi. As for the NATO led occupation force, the Albanians were enthusiastic about it because they knew that it would consist mostly of their cronies who would protect and further their interests. And the interests of the New World order.
During the whole conference a Damocles sword of bombardment was hanging constantly over the heads of the Serb delegation - they were daily informed that the bombs would come if they did not sign. This "sword" did not mean any threat to the Albanians, because nobody would bomb them - there were only vague threats by Mrs. Albright that the flow of money for the KLA (UCK) from the West could be interrupted (what a hypocrisy - the West knew about it as about one of the main factors that kept the Kosovo conflict going, but it never stopped it at all). And then, to compel their Kosovan proteges to sign the political part of the peace accord about a very liberal autonomy for Kosovo and Metohia, very shameful words were said about the Serbs to the Albanians by Mrs. Albright and Mr. Cook. Their meaning was: "Look, you must sign it, or we would have no pretext to bomb the Serbs for not signing the peace accord!"
To calm the KLA led (Mr. Gelbard called them terrorists at the beginning of 1998) Albanian delegation, Mrs. Albright brought even the NATO commander in Europe general Wesley Clark to persuade them, to talk to Mr. Thaqi. And so, after the conference had been prolonged for additional 2,5 days, both sides agreed to meet again on March 15. The Albanians wanted to see their rank and file in Kosovo, to persuade their hardliners, especially Mr. Adem Demaci, that everything would be fine - because America, the UK, as well as a part of EU was with them. The Serbs accepted the original Contact group political plan, but adamantly refused the military part of the plan - not included previously in the Contact group draft. The Serbs complained that a frame-up was promulgated against them: a new document was presented to them just before the end of conference that was not the original document prepared by the Contact group. They felt deceived. They even suspected that the Albanians had received a somewhat different text.
The Serbs insisted on such an autonomy for Kosovo and Metohia that would include the rights of all the nationalities there, not only the Albanians (i.e., Egyptians, Gypsies, Gorans, Montenegrins, Serbs, ethnic Turks - all of whom opted for Yugoslavia), without any involvement of foreign troops, without the possibility that a nationality could tutor the others. The Kosovan delegation was helped by special American advisors. The presence of Mr. Ibrahim Rugova was barely mentioned - he completely had lost his prestige and importance at Rambouillet.
The 29-year-old Mr. Hashem Thaqi is a rising star in the ranks of the UCK. According to the RFI (2. march, '99) he has been the chief of the UCK political wing (administration). Born in Srbica, in the Drenica region, he studied at the Pristina university and later in Switzerland. He was a friend of Mr. Adem Jashari, one of the main organizers of the Kosovo liberation Army (KLA, UCK) and its terrorist activity. Jashari was killed in a battle when the Serb security forces overrun the Jashari stronghold at Donji Prekaz in Drenica. Mr. Hashem Thaqi has been selected (March 2) to be the prime minister of the temporary "Kosovo government". He will head the Kosovan delegation to the USA, invited there by Mrs. Albright - for instructions how to behave during the 15 march conference at Rambouillet. The delegation will meet Mr. Bob Dole, a big friend of Albanians (their powerful lobby in USA helped him financially during his presidential campaign), and a Serb-hater. Mr. Soros, the international financial shark, will be in touch with them, probably. Mr. Thaqi is considered to be strongly pro-American.
The leading Kosovan hardliner Mr. Adem Demaci resigned from all his duties in UCK on March 2. He absolutely disagreed with the proposed peace plan, calling it a sell out.
And now there is no peace in Kosovo, the forced disintegration of Yugoslavia, well planned and well financed, is going on. During the first week of the Rambouillet conference 9 pro-Yugoslav Albanians have been assassinated in Kosovo. It is a pity that Dante Alighieri does not live today. He would be able to populate the Inferno of his La Divina Commedia with so many politicians, statesmen, journalists, military, TV reporters, editors, various important secretaries, venal liars...
HENRY KISSINGER'S MISGIVINGS ABOUT THE AMERICAN POLICY IN KOSOVO
Six days after the Rambouillet conference the former US foreign secretary Mr. Henry Kissinger published a paper (Los Angeles Times, Feb. 22, '99) questioning the role of the USA military presence in Kosovo. It would be fine to see the reaction of Lady War (a nickname of Mrs. Albright) after reading this remarkable article.
If one paraphrases the whole article in a few words, it would be just eight words: "AMERICAN TROOPS HAVE NOTHING TO DO IN KOSOVO". President Clinton's informations that about 4.000 American soldiers would join the NATO 28.000 troops to control the implementation of the Kosovo agreement, caused doubts of all those who were responsible for the long-term American security policy. The American forces lack a definition of their strategic target... Congress has to tell the administration that it finds itself in an unpleasant situation because it is steadily confronted with ad hoc military missions... Before any future deployment (of our troops) we must be able to answer the following questions:
- what consequences would we like to prevent?
- what targets would we like to meet?
- how do they serve our national interests?...
President Clinton justified the deployment of American forces in Kosovo because the ethnic conflict in Yugoslavia jeopardized the "European stability and future". Other representatives of the administration compared that challenge with Hitler's threats to the European security. But not a single statement corresponds with the Balkan reality.
Will NATO become a home for a whole bunch of NATO protectorates in the Balkans?...
Kosovo is no more real threat to America that Haiti to Europe... Even if somebody points out that America has strategic interests in Kosovo (but I do not do it), we must take care not to get exhausted in the situation when we are faced with much less ambiguous threats in the Middle East and in the Northeast Asia...
Because neither the traditional concept of national interests nor the American security compel us to deploy American forces... I cannot compel myself to accept American land forces in Kosovo...
President's statements that 'we can make differences' and that 'America symbolizes the hope and determination' are more threats and less political steps. Do they mean that America is a military power at anybody's disposal to enable each ethnic or religious group to get the right of self-determination? Did NATO become the artillery of ethnic conflicts? If in Kosovo, why not in eastern Africa or in central Asia?...
In Kosovo, there is no line of ethnic separation (like in Bosnia) and both sides lay claim to the whole territory. The American position regarding the Serb attempts to insist on their requests is sufficiently clear: Serbia is threatened with bombardment. But how do we react to the Albanian offences and irredentism? Are we ready to fight against both sides - and for how long?...
FINAL WORDS
This book was written to show the other side of the Yugoslav (Serb) tragedy, so much distorted and misrepresented by the official West and by a big part of its media. Nobody was innocent during the civil-ethnic-religious war in the former Yugoslavia and during the conflict in Kosovo and Metohia. But to blame for anything bad, criminal, inhumane only one side, it is just very foul, dirty, dishonest. Especially if one realizes that those, who fomented all that human suffering, were among the most vociferous protagonists of disinformations, fabrications, even overt lies. For their selfish interests they were ready to sacrifice anybody, even a whole nation. This approach to the Yugoslav tragedy tarnished the image of the West, of its morals.
As a motto to this book, the Latin AUDIATUR ET ALTERA PARS - let us hear the other side too - would be the best introduction. The author knows that many of his friends (some of them are, alas, already dead) and many people in the USA, in the UK, in France, in Germany, etc., who are friendly, honest, impartial, are ashamed of the behavior of their official representatives and of their media. Or that they would be ashamed of them if they could hear about the events from the other side.
March 5, 1999.
Dr Rajko Dolecek
I ACCUSE!
Questions and Opinions Library volume 3
Published by Dauphin for Forma Studio • Printed in CR
Second expanded editionRajko DOLECEK, M.D., DSc., Professor of Medicine, born in Prague, is a well known Czech university professor, scientist and publicist. He published over 200 papers, covering various fields of medicine, in the Czech Republic (previously Czechoslovakia) and abroad, including 11 monographs - two of them in USA, where he spent one year as a senior research scholar. Dr. Dolecek took an active part at many congresses and symposia all over the world. In addition to that he wrote three books of fiction and was very active as a publicist (radio, TV, press). During the last seven years (1992-99) he published many articles, one brochure (The Yugoslav brothers Serbs, Croats and Muslims) and the book I Accuse! with ethical remarks on the unfair role of the European Union, NATO and the USA in Yugoslavia. This problem was discussed by him repeatedly both on television and on radio.
Back to Balkania.Net Homepage
©1999 Balkania.net (http://www.balkania.net) • contact: editor@balkania.net