Don’t Forget Yugoslavia By John Pilger

[Joanne98]

John Pilger digs beneath the received wisdom for the break-up of Yugoslavia and points to a largely ignored memoir by the former chief prosecutor in The Hague - and an echo from current events in the Caucasus.

Even as Blair the war leader was on a triumphant tour of “liberated” Kosovo, the KLA was ethnically cleansing more than 200,000 Serbs and Roma from the province

The secrets of the crushing of Yugoslavia are emerging, telling us more about how the modern world is policed. The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia in The Hague, Carla Del Ponte, this year published her memoir The Hunt: Me and War Criminals. Largely ignored in Britain, the book reveals unpalatable truths about the west’s intervention in Kosovo, which has echoes in the Caucasus.

The tribunal was set up and bankrolled principally by the United States. Del Ponte’s role was to investigate the crimes committed as Yugoslavia was dismembered in the 1990s. She insisted that this include Nato’s 78-day bombing of Serbia and Kosovo in 1999, which killed hundreds of people in hospitals, schools, churches, parks and tele vision studios, and destroyed economic infrastructure. “If I am not willing to ,” said Del Ponte, “I must give up my mission.” It was a sham. Under pressure from Washington and London, an investigation into Nato war crimes was scrapped.

Readers will recall that the justification for the Nato bombing was that the Serbs were committing “genocide” in the secessionist province of Kosovo against ethnic Albanians. David Scheffer, US ambassador-at-large for war crimes, announced that as many as “225,000 ethnic Albanian men aged between 14 and 59″ may have been murdered. Tony Blair invoked the Holocaust and “the spirit of the Second World War”. The west’s heroic allies were the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), whose murderous record was set aside. The British foreign secretary, Robin Cook, told them to call him any time on his mobile phone.

With the Nato bombing over, international teams descended upon Kosovo to exhume the “holocaust”. The FBI failed to find a single mass grave and went home. The Spanish forensic team did the same, its leader angrily denouncing “a semantic pirouette by the war propaganda machines”. A year later, Del Ponte’s tribunal announced the final count of the dead in Kosovo: 2,788. This included combatants on both sides and Serbs and Roma murdered by the KLA. There was no genocide in Kosovo. The “holocaust” was a lie. The Nato attack had been fraudulent.

That was not all, says Del Ponte in her book: the KLA kidnapped hundreds of Serbs and transported them to Albania, where their kidneys and other body parts were removed; these were then sold for transplant in other countries. She also says there was sufficient evidence to prosecute the Kosovar Albanians for war crimes, but the investigation “was nipped in the bud” so that the tribunal’s focus would be on “crimes committed by Serbia”. She says the Hague judges were terrified of the Kosovar Albanians - the very people in whose name Nato had attacked Serbia.

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/08/17/dont-forget-yugoslavia-by-john-pilger/

[Glorfindel]

1. Thank you for posting this - I'm happy to recommend it

We gave Russia all the excuses it needs to break up other countries by eviscerating Serbia.

[Igel]

2. Dangerous thing to post here.

There are those convinced that the Serbs are Ultimate Evil. To even mention anything that may provide justification for a Serb snit-fit is to incite rage. Dare mention Kosovar help to the Nazis, and they have a meltdown; it's like pointing out the Bosnian Muslim brigade that helped round up Jews and intimidate Serbs.

Nasty business.

But Kosovo was a complex issue. As with Georgia, the important thing is being fact-gatekeeper: When do you start keeping track, when did the "cycle of violence" start?

For Serbs, it started before it did for most Westerners. There, ethnic tensions--ever roiling the surface of the waters in the West--were less important than history, old and new, and de jure reasoning. (Precisely the opposite of the attitudes over Georgia, making both sides look like raving hypocrites.)

It's the same kind of unnerving complexity of narrative in Bosnia. Before the large Muslim massacre at Srebrenica, there was a small massacre of Serbs by Muslims not all that far from Srebrenica. The Serbs had heard of Izetbegovic's drivel on Islam in Bosnia--whether accurately or not is a moot point. They heard rumors, denied in the West at the time and largely accepted these days, of AQ and AQ fellow-travellers among the Bosnians. Etc., etc. Most of it was in Serbian, which I happened to be studying at the time, and didn't make it into the Western media.

You set the starting point, you score an immediate victory in the PR game. Getting the details out is hard.

Then, once the details are out, you still usually have to take a side. Given that most people seem to expect moral perfection from everybody other than themselves and their allies, it makes rendering a reasonable--not a perfect--judgment as to who to support all the harder.

Then, once you're done with that, you have to deal with perceptions. Russia heard a version of Kosovo/Serbia, and a set of motivations espoused by the West, that the West probably wouldn't recognize. It's their narrative, it's what they base their attitudes on. It's "why they hate us", and without knowing what they believe they know the question's unapproachable. Then there's a narrative about Georgia, one largely inaccessible to most Americans. It makes it easy to assume that they have a simple motivation--one that just happens to agree with one's personal assumptions about the US or Russia.

Understanding can be hard. Complex. And leave you adrift in a sea of facts and struggling for a moral sand bar.

[Diclotican]

3. igil

igil

Many in the West is stupid when it come to Eastern European history, specially the areas who once was part of Russia, or in their affair of influence.. But to say that EVERYONE is arrogant about the history is wrong. Many in Europe understand when Russia do as they do, even that they seldom understand why they are doing it somethimes... Russia are one country you can try to understand in a lifetime, and you would be surprised even if you have been there many years..

I have to say, that americans are the least country to understand Russian attitude sometimes. Specially when it comes to the former soviet and client states in the former eastern europe.. After both WW1 and Two the russian, who was capable of been paranoid by far, was maybe even more paranoid than ever. The whole european area of the country was destroyed, and then the cold war was coming, and the USSR was fighting for their survival in the war, suddenly experienced that they have to face another enemy too.. When the cold war ended, the Russian Federation was turning into a turmoil that no other country would have survived. First the "outer empire" was goon, then the "inner empire" was goon, and back was Russia, who was broke, and have no power at all. And the "shock economic policy" who damaged or ruined most russians for their savings was almost killing their will to survive to. The 1990s was from the russian point of view a decade long nightmare with no end in sight.. The year 2000 when Yeltsin was finally getting down from his place in Kremlin, and the former KGB man Putin was in charge something happened to Russia.. They get their spine back, and Russia was not was it once was. On their back, and dead. Today we se a country who are coming back in force. And are telling their former parts of influence that their are back and don't want to be messed with anymore. They would be treated as the great nation they are, not as a dirt poor country who can't handle their own affairs..

Russia have always been fasined by Europe, and the West, but also scared by Europe. And specially after Tsar Peter I The Great, where Russia was influenced by Western Europe for the first time on a grand scale. They want to be part of Europe, but still want to be Russian. And they have some distrust for some of our ideas.. When the French Revolution was going, the russians was scared to death about it, and for many year the sole name was forbidden to talk about, if you was an ordinary russian..Of course on the Cort and in the inner circles by the Tsar, they was much talk about it, but the russian peasantry was not aware about the revolution.. And it should go more than 100 year more, before the Russians get enough, and the Russian revolution of 1905 and 1917 was coming to an end.. In 1905 the Russian power structure get their moral death wound, but somehow survived the whole way to 1917 when the bigger revolution was coming.. 4 year with an starving population, an war the russian army had no means to win, and an regime who just a year prior to 1917 could claim to have every thing under control, was losing everything. And I mean EVERYTHING, even their own life.. And for more than 80 year it was closed to european influence.. Between 1990 and now the Russian have again could get influence from the West, and had learned a lot, even that it have been painfully proses for most of the russian population.. What russians want is food on the table, a safe work and roof over their head.. If you cant eat because you can't find food. You don't have a job to get food. Or you don't have a roof over you head, You don't bother much with democracy and freedom of speech.. But when you have this tree things, then maybe Russia can go forward to freedom, democracy and freedom of speech.. But as many russians have Say it, when telling about the decade of nightmare when Yeltsin was in power. If THIS is democracy, then they don't want it..

I have also read about the Al-Qauda connection, or at least this "holy warrior" thing that the media was talking about. But it was very fast buried by everyone because it was a touchy case.. And by the way, for most of the Bosnians the whole thing was not specially nice.. And it was much in fight inside the government, and by the populace at a whole about this holy warriors who want to treat their civilians as mere inconvenience and even tried to inflict Sharia in Bosnia. This holy warriors failed miserably because the bosnians fight them, as they fight the serbs.. Yes they was good fighters this "holy warriors" but they overstayed their welcome, and in the end the regular bosnian police an army had to fight them by force to get out of the country... The same group who later was finding home in Taliban controlled AFGHANISTAN.. And financed by ISI the pakistani intelligence agency, and Saudi-Arabia.. Billions of dollar was given from Saudi-Arabia to extreme groups, include Taliban who was getting THEIR FAIR share of money from their "brother en" in Saudi-Arabia. And it was not just from the populace, but also from circles inside the government.. For all I know they still are giving money by other means to Taliban to fight the "holy war" against the infidels, aka NATO and the US.. Good friends you have in Saudi-Arabia I have to say!..

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english not my native language

[groovedaddy]

9. Your point is well taken - getting at the truth is not nearly as easy or simplistic

as many Americans would prefer or rather, are inclined by inferior educations in the realm of history. We like a clear picture of who the "bad guys" and "good guys" are.
Problems that have roots that go back centuries are, indeed, complicated, to say the least.
In an ideal world, in order to achieve some sort of justice, we would have people digging for the facts and weighing them out. Most of the relevant parties would prefer to live in peace, but then there are the "hardliners." And then the hidden agendas.
American foreign policy is (and has been) driven primarily by the economic agenda. That agenda allows our policy makers to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses when it serves other purposes i.e. Are they with us or agin us? Read: "Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA." Yes, I know, how can you trust anything said or written about the CIA? Still, read it with that in mind.

There has to be a way to support, defend and promote a just approach to conflict resolution, even though the "dark side" of human nature is always lingering in the shadows, where hidden agendas operate best.

[gula]

4. Thank you

Finally an article that isn't all about Serb bashing

[The Bakery Wagon]

5. Was the 78 day bombing of Kosovo a PNAC plan?

Looks like it doesn't it. Especially if you read the links.
The site doesn't exist anymore but the wayback machine has it:
http://web.archive.org/web /*/http://newamericancentury.org (cutnpaste, cant overwrite formatting)





Christiane Amanpour was a major reporter of this "war". But it wasn't mentioned often that she
was (and still apparently is) married to James Rubin.
Who happened to be a spokesman for the U.S. State Department.

No appearance of impropriety there, no sir.

I'll never forget the ridicule heaped upon the Serbian people for standing on one of their bridges
across the Danube to hopefully prevent it's bombing.

Richard Holbrooke thought the bombing of Radio Television Serbia, in downtown Belgrade, was
funny. So did the people he was speaking to, a gathering of media in New York. Funny isn't it, how
old man Holbrooke is popping up again re: Georgia. Funny indeed.

Few reports were made regarding Appendix B to the Rambouillet accords. But if you search for
Appendix B of the Rambouillet accords, you will see that this "appendix", which was added at the
last minute, basically stripped Yugoslavia of its sovereignty. No leader in his/her right mind would
have signed this "accord". Thus the bombing began. Without UN approval (not enough time, because
as stated above, Clintons rethuglican "defense" secretary cohen said there might be 250,000 Albanians
being gassed or cooked in German style extermination camps--how many were found?)

Oh, there's Camp Bondsteel. Google an image for a good time. Does anyone think "we're" leaving
Camp Bondsteel anytime soon?

When did building this:
"...Camp Bondsteel was constructed by the 94th Engineer Construction Battalion together
with the private Kellogg, Brown and Root Corporation (KBR) under the direction of the Army Corps
of Engineers. KBR is also the prime contractor for the operation of the camp...
The camp occupies 955 acres..." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Bondsteel)

become necessary? If the US "stopped genocide" and Milosovic is dead (curious, isn't it, how he died just before
he was going to call US officials to testify in his trial) why is a 955 acre military base needed in Kosovo?

I'll bet "Dick" Holbrooke knows!

t seems to me at least, and I'm a newbie here but have lurked for years and have followed politics
fairly closely since the days of Reagan, that the elites of both parties, and more importantly the elites
behind the scenes that don't clear out their desks every 2,4 or 6 years, have decided that the US
is Rome all over again, only this time the barbarians aren't getting near the gates.

When the "cold war" (ridiculous) was over we didn't even get a day off. Instead what we got was
Imperial America.

[frankieT]

6. thank you -nt-

[bemildred]

7. Kick. nt

[InkAddict]

8. A "fair warning" buried in psycho-babble, tin foil, and real news or not?

http://www.spectrezine.org/war/Macedonia.htm

America at War in Macedonia

Washington's covert war in Macedonia purports to consolidate America's sphere of influence in southeastern Europe. At stake is the strategic Bulgaria-Macedonia-Albania transport, communications and oil pipeline "corridor" which links the Black Sea to the Adriatic coast. Macedonia stands at the strategic crossroads of the oil pipeline corridor.


http://samvak.tripod.com/indexqa.html
http://samvak.tripod.com/cv.html#business

1996 to 1999

Financial consultant to leading businesses in Macedonia, Russia and the Czech Republic.

Economic commentator in "Nova Makedonija", "Dnevnik", "Makedonija Denes", "Izvestia", "Argumenti i Fakti", "The Middle East Times", "The New Presence", "Central Europe Review", and other periodicals, and in the economic programs on various channels of Macedonian Television.

Chief Lecturer in courses in Macedonia organised by the Agency of Privatization, by the Stock Exchange, and by the Ministry of Trade.

1999 to 2002

Economic Advisor to the Government of the Republic of Macedonia and to the Ministry of Finance.

2001 to 2003

Senior Business Correspondent for United Press International (UPI).


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Thomas

Resignation from United Press International
On May 17, 2000, after fifty-seven years working with the organization, Thomas resigned from UPI the day after the announcement of its acquisition by News World Communications Inc., a company founded and controlled by Unification Church leader Reverend Sun Myung Moon. She later described the change in ownership as "a bridge too far"



HMMMM...the different paths along the Yellow Brick Road?????

[L0oniX]

10. K & R