I ACCUSE!, Dr Rajko Dolecek, 10 - THE END OF AUGUST 1998 IN KOSOVO
info publica
I ACCUSE!
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Published by Dauphin, Printed in CR, Second expanded edition
February 15, 1999.
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Dr Rajko DOLECEK
Well-known Czech university profesor, scientist and publicist. Born in
Prague, 1 june 1925. He has published many specialist and scientific works
and has participated in a number of international scientific congresses and
symposiums. He works for numerous world newspapers and magazines and
corresponds with a number of distinguished international figures -
discussing various political and specialist issuen. He is a critic conserned
with the new world order and NATO, and the tasks facing them after the
break-up of Yugoslavia.
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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 Metohija
(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 Pritina - 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
Malievo. Because of constant attacks by various UCK bands, the offensive
continued in august as well. Finally, about the middle od 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 Pea. 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, Malievo, 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 instalations, 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 peoples 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. Maliçi, 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 streetfighting 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
Peç, 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 Demaçi, the ardent supporter of the UCK, publishes there
his Greater Albania views.
The West leaves, almost without notice, the plight of the Serb, Montenegrin,
Gipsy 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). many of whom are feared dead. The
later gruesome findings at Kleaka 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 Demaçi. In spring 98,
the Belgrade government sent to Pritina 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. Rugovas 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 dont 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 dont 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. Steeles 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. Their 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 Americas ability to read the cultural currents outside her
borders. But the US representatives Mr.R.Holbrooke and R.Gelbard met some
UCK commanders near Deaani 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. Rugovas party,
but without Rugova. Even this group finally did not want to meet the Serb
representatives in Pritina, 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 behavior 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,
Denmark, 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 Metohija, 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 Metohija. 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 Titos 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 Metohija. 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 (Mladá 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 colorfully 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, at 18,40 in
Czech. Mr. Jan Bedná_, 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,
Gipsies, 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 capturted
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, Malievo, 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? Lets not forget that the Radio Free Europe
is being paid by the USA authorities!
And then, on august the 3rd, 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 Münchhausen, Mr.
Rathfelder, even do not agree with the data given by the Albanian committee
for human rights in Pritina (RFI, 16 august) 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 Edenberg said it later in Pritina 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) od
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 reaching 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 others texts - and overt lies and disinformations. He wrote about the
disinformations by an other German journalist, Ms 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 KLAs 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 Miloeviç 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 Ms. M.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. If 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
Demaçi, the self-proclaimed speaker of the UCK who walks quite freely in
Pritina. 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 Pritina, 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
appeared 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 Kleaka, 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 Kleaka, 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) - had been thrown in a canal from the
Radonjiako 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 Kleaka large stocks of items distributed by the international
humanitarian organisations 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 stern letter to the UN Security Coucil using sharp words against
Belgrade and president Miloeviç, because they had not complied with the
tribunals 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 Ms. L.Arbour (the prosecutor general)
urged the Security council to compel Belgrade to comply with the Tribunals
decisions or to face unspecified sanctions... Ms 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 necessity 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 Ms. 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 5-10 000.
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 Metohija, that most of the refugees were not suffering in the open, that
most of 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