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of the Belgrade Coup
Editor & Webmaster
Leon Chame - 12/04/99
Yugoslav Associates:
- Zoran Radojicic
- Dejan Vukelic
- George Orwell
Contributing Websites:
- Original Sorces
- Transnational (TFF)
- Fair sources
- WSWS
March 03, 2003
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KFOR and UN legalization of anarchy in Kosovo and
Metohija?
On Honest Abe Lincoln's birthday, February 12, 1999, half of the U.S. Senate voted
"not guilty" to Bill Clinton's impeachment, even though it was conceded by
almost the entire Senate that Bill Clinton had lied.
The majority of Americans polled believed that that a lying president was the kind of
person they want in office. Why? Maybe it's because they too are liars and don't believe
lying is all that bad. So, America concluded, immorality and lying does not matter in
choosing a person as President of The United States of America and leader of the once Free
World because he represents their own lack of standards?
"The Clinton Administration rejected arguments of Euopean allies who wanted a
longer postponement. Clinton was determined to start
the bombing before China begins chairing the UN Security Council.
European Allies have growing doubts about the wisdom of waging a bombing campaign based on
Clinton's questionable leadership. Even Britain, Clinton's staunchest defender, questions
the wisdom of such unilateral bombing if the Albanians continue demanding that the UN in
effect hand over to them the real estate around Kosovo. ...'Any way you look at it, if NATO attacks a sovereign country it will create a
historical precedent that will have unforeseen consequences for the alliance and all of
its members,' the German minister said. 'And I'm not sure NATO will be able to explain
away those policy contradictions.'
At the Rambouillet talks, Serbia's president, Milan Milutinovic, who was Milosevic's
representative there, agreed to immediate local self-government for Kosovo, but not
independence from Serbia. The Albanians had refused to sign unless they were promised
total independence and the right to annex Kosovo to Albania. Albright lamented after
spending three hours trying to convince the Albanians: "If this fails because both
parties say 'No,' there will no be bombing of Serbia!'
Finally, out of the blue, the Albanians signed, making me wonder what exactly they were
secretly promised by Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright. Of course, the bombing did not
immediately cause the collapse of the Milosevic government. It strengthened it. And then the bomb-happy Western powers were confronted with a
situation no one had mentioned before: An influx of hundreds of thousands of Albanian
refugees fleeing either the NATO bombs or the Serbian forces orders for them to vacate
their homes as Belgrade began an all-out effort to rid Kosovo of the KLA terrorists who
had shot 300 Serbian police and soldiers in 1998.
After 78 days of bombing, and the formal signing of the G8 agreement, was approved by
Bill Clinton, NATO and Milosevic which provided:
``1:
Imminent and verifiable end to violence and repression of Kosovo.
``2. Verifiable withdrawal
from Kosovo of military, police and paramilitary forces according to a quick timetable.
``3. Deployment in Kosovo,
under U.N. auspicies, of efficient international civilian and security presences which
would act as can be decided according to Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter and be capable of
guaranteeing fulfillment of joint goals.
``4. International security
presence, with an essential NATO participation, must be deployed under a unified control
and command and authorized to secure safe environment for all the residents in Kosovo and
enable the safe return of the displaced persons and refugees to their homes.
``5. Establishment of an
interim administration for Kosovo ... which the U.N. Security Council will decide and
under which the people of Kosovo will enjoy substantial autonomy within the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia. The interim administration [will] secure transitional authority
during the time [for the] interim democratic and self-governing institutions, [establish]
conditions for peaceful and normal life of all citizens of Kosovo.
``6. After the withdrawal, an
agreed number of Serb personnel will be allowed to return to perform the following duties:
liaison with the international civilian mission and international security presence,
marking mine fields, maintaining a presence at places of Serb heritage, maintaining a
presence at key border crossings.
``7. Safe and free return of
all refugees and the displaced under the supervision of UNHCR and undisturbed access for
humanitarian organizations to Kosovo.
``8. Political process
directed at reaching interim political agreement which would secure essential autonomy for
Kosovo, with full taking into consideration of the Rambouillet agreement, the principles
of sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and other
states in the region as well as demilitarization of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The talks
between the sides about the solution should not delay or disrupt establishment of the
democratic self-governning institutions.
``9. General approach to the
economic development of the crisis region. That would include carrying out a pact of
stability for southeastern Europe, wide international participation in order to advance
democracy and economic prosperity, and stability and regional cooperation.
``10. The end of military
activities will depend on acceptance of the listed principles and simultaneous agreement
with other previously identified elements which are identified in the footnote below. Then
a military-technical agreement will be agreed which will among other things specify
additional modalities, including the role and function of the Yugoslav, i.e. Serb,
personnel in Kosovo.
``11. The process of
withdrawal includes a phased, detailed timetable and the marking of a buffer zone in
Serbia behind which the troops will withdraw.
``12. The returning personnel:
The equipment of the returning personnel, the range of their functional responsibilities,
the timetable for their return, determination of the geographic zones of their activity,
the rules guiding their relations with the international security presence and the
international civilian mission.
`` Footnote. Other required
elements: Fast and precise timetable for the withdrawal which means for instance: seven
days to end the withdrawal; pulling out of weapons of air defense from the zone of the
mutual security of 25 kilometers within 48 hours; return of the personnel to fullfill the
four duties will be carried out under the supervision of the international security
presence and will be limited to a small agreed number - hundreds, not thousands.
`` Suspension of military actions will happen after the beginning of the withdrawal which can be verified.
Discussion about the military-technical agreement and its reaching will not prolong the
agreed period for the withdrawal.''
What part of this signed agreement has been accomplished? Well,
#2, #11, and #12, items the Serbs promised, the part about the Serbs withdrawing their
military and paramilitary forces, have all been done and done exactly on schedule. The part about a "safe environment for all the residents in
Kosovo and enable the safe return of the displaced persons and refugees to their
homes" not only has not occurred but KFOR forces are saying it's "not our
job" to provide a safe environment for all residents in Kosovo.
"KFOR and UN legalization of anarchy in Kosovo and Metohija." The Serbian
Orthodox CHURCH, which is about the only organized Serb presence left in Kosovo, reported
"More than 200 Serbs were killed by ethnic-Albanian extremists since KFOR entered
Kosovo. UN forces are directly responsible for these
crimes and the anarchy they legalized in the Serbian southern province. If someone is
responsible for security in Kosovo and Metohija and every day meet and show off with the
terrorist leaders, it is sure that his intention is not to stop the genocide and prevent
ethnical cleansing."
Well, for heavens sake, if there are "non-Kosovan Albanians" in huge numbers
that have come across the border, whose fault is that?
That's NATO's fault, that's whose. If they are committed a rising number of crimes, whose fault is that? That's NATO's fault, that's whose. NATO's part of the G-8 Agreement was
"a "safe environment for all the residents in Kosovo and enable the safe return
of the displaced persons and refugees to their homes." Not all the people who fled
the NATO bombing were Albanians. Many Serbs sent the women and children out for safety. Where's THEIR safe return that NATO
promised?
The Washington Post seems to be totally ignoring the "problems" of Serbs
being killed in Kosovo, or merely dismiss any anti-Serb atrocities as
understandable "retaliation" attacks for past Serb mis-deeds. The Sunday Post's lead stories had to do with sex in
the city and "The High Price of Cheap Poultry." Conditions in Kosovo, which were
so important to the Washington Post a scant month ago, were not mentioned anywhere in the
paper.
In Hedges July 29 article, headlined "As U.N. Organizes, Rebels Are Taking Charge
of Kosovo" he reported from Pristina that "The Kosovo Liberation Army has taken
sweeping political control in the province, establishing a network of ministries and
appointing local councils, seizing businesses and apartments, and collecting taxes and
customs payments in the absence of a strong international police presence.
"Despite a peace agreement that calls for a United Nations-appointed
administration, and the fact that the Albanian militants have no legal standing, they have
created a fait accompli, and these days they talk not of ceding power to the United
Nations but of cooperating as if they were equals. " 'We will work with the United
Nations," said Muje Gjonbalaj, the new deputy minister for reconstruction and
development, "but this is our country and our government. We are in charge until the
elections, when a permanent government will be installed.' Note that NO ONE has elected the KLA to take control of Kosovo. They just did it, like they have done everything else in their approximate six
years of existence. They got their first weapons by simply taking them from the Albanian
army when the communist government and economy collapsed. Hedges reported: "In the
absence of a United Nations police force, NATO peacekeepers have tried to provide some
order. But they are not intended to serve as the police or as civil administrators."
According to the G8 signed agreement, NATO was SUPPOSED to provide order, not merely
make a stab at it. "Bernard Kouchner, the United Nations chief administrator in
Kosovo, said he was aware of the abuses being committed by the rebel army, and insisted
that the world organization was working to curb them. The United Nations is planning to
deploy a 3,100-strong police force, although it has only 156 officers in Kosovo at the
moment."
A 3,100 strong police force is going to halt KLA's anarchy, when 35,000 NATO soldiers
merely stand-by and watch it? Has someone been lied to here? I rather think so.
"Despite the presence of the 35,000 NATO peacekeepers," Hedges wrote,
"violence has been rising steadily, especially against the remaining Serbian
civilians. The looting and burning of Serbs' homes, as well as dozens of assassinations
and kidnappings of Serbs and a few Albanians, including the massacre of 14 Serbian
farmers, speak of a province slipping into the kind of gunslinging lawlessness that has
characterized Albania in the last few years.
" 'The only political group that has any structure is the K.L.A.,' said Baton
Haxhiu, the editor of Koha Ditore, an Albanian-language daily. Each day it is becoming
more dangerous to think and speak independently.'
Remember that the KLA, under the G-8 agreement, were supposed to turn in their weapons
to KFOR. According to reports they are only turning in old weapons
that don't work. Hedges reports, "In Prizren, German soldiers on Friday stumbled onto
a cache of 10 tons of ammunition squirreled away by the rebels. There is an average of one
murder a day, most often of a Serb, and three or four lootings and house burnings in
Prizren, which is in many ways a typical city in postwar Kosovo. In Prizren the city hall
and municipal buildings have been commandeered by the Kosovo Liberation Army. Former
fighters sit in the offices and run the city.
"In Pristina several large buildings have been taken over by the group and turned
into ministries. Small cafes, shops, apartments and the huge shopping center in Pristina
are in the hands of a rebel cadre. Most of these new entrepreneurs come from rural areas
and have nothing but disdain for the Kosovo Albanian urban elite, who, they say, failed
under Ibrahim Rugova to drive away the Serbs. Rugova,
the nonviolent political leader of a faction of Kosovo Albanians, remains in exile in
Italy after a brief visit to Kosovo, saying he has delayed his return because of concerns
about his security in rebel territory.
"Hetem Hetemi, who said he led a unit of 20 fighters in the war, most from his
immediate family, was seated outside his new business, the Mozart Bar, which was seized
from its Serbian owner. " 'My sons and I showed up in Pristina
with our weapons and decided to take this bar." It was a point of pride to Hetemi
that one of the enemy, a Serbian paramilitary leader known as Arkan who has been indicted
on war crimes charges, used to drink at the bar.'"
Hashim Thaci, the KLA commander who was wined and dined by an adoring Madeleine
Albright following the Rambouillet meetings in February, has "appointed himself Prime
Minister and his friends and relatives to head various departments,
including his uncle Azem Syla to the post of Defense Minister." Hedges reports.
"Thaci's orders are usually delivered by bands of sunburned young men, many carrying
concealed pistols. The orders are handed over with warnings that failure to comply will
lead to beatings or death. "Thaci says he will govern Kosovo until parliamentary
elections, which are expected to be scheduled sometime during the next nine months. But he
does not speak of disbanding the structures that have been set up to allow the United
Nations to assume responsibility. "There is no deadline for elections -- local
elections may precede parliamentary or regional votes -- meaning that Thaci could be in
power for well over a year before any vote is organized by the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe. "Under Thaci, the large ministries here hum with activity.
In the lobby of the old social security building in Pristina, now the rebel movement's
Defense Ministry, groups of wiry young men sat huddled at their desks over coffee cups and
dented tin ashtrays filled with cigarette butts.
Rebel commanders, many with pistols tucked in shoulder holsters, moved in conversation
up and down the central spiral staircase. New bureaucrats, with fancy titles and late
model sedans and jeeps, all parked outside and curiously lacking license plates, barked
orders and passed out documents stamped with "The Defense Ministry of Kosovo."
The reach of these newly formed institutions is increasingly felt in the streets and
neighborhoods, where most people say they are afraid to run afoul of the self-appointed
authorities.
Business owners interviewed in recent days were reluctant to give their names, but many
said they were being pressed for money by the rebels or have had their vehicles
confiscated. Tahir Canolli, 49, a heavy-set man with a deep baritone
voice and the soothing, obsequious mannerisms of a salesman, ran a furniture store in
Pristina for nearly three decades. He bought his couches, chairs, dressers and tables from
a furniture factory near Nis, and doggedly fended off Serbian tax inspectors, who visited
frequently with demands for money. He, like many businessmen, hoped that when he returned
to Pristina from the refugee camps in Macedonia, such harassment would end. Instead, a group of fighters arrived at his shop two weeks ago
with a paper issued by "The Ministry of Public Order" demanding the keys to his
1990 Audi 80 and his store. "They were arrogant, brutal and
rude," he said, unfolding the stamped order that he now carries in his pocket. "They told me that if I did not comply immediately they
knew a cellar I might like to visit." Within hours, $50,000
worth of furniture was loaded onto trucks brought by the officials who had demanded his
keys. The looters not only stripped the store of its
contents but also ripped out the heaters, lamps and mirrors. They carted away 24 large
flower boxes that had been outside the building. The next day several flower boxes of the
same design and with the same kinds of plants were placed outside the building where Thaci
works.
Thaci's appointees said that such confiscations, especially of state-owned buildings,
were part of their effort to determine property ownership. They also defended the decision
to begin collecting money from businesses, a practice many shop owners have labeled
"extortion." "If mistakes are being made they will be corrected," said
Gjonbalaj, the deputy minister. "There were many irregular contracts. We need to
regulate things in Kosovo and this means collecting taxes, or contributions, rather, to
rebuild. We are the legitimate government and we must assume all governmental
responsibilities." Canolli has spent hours
outside Thaci's ministries in recent days in the hope that he can reclaim some of his
property or be compensated for it. But each attempt has been rebuffed. "I saw the K.L.A. police inspector who gave me the confiscation order
driving my car, although it had no license plates," he said. "I went to his
office but was told at the door that I should never come back or attempt to speak with
him. I am afraid. I survived to be destroyed by my own people."
So, what do we have in the world today?
The American people chose a president they know is a liar. He allowed or encouraged his Secretary of State to side with an
unelected group of drug lord terrorists in Kosovo who were determined to take over the
property which has belonged to Serbs for over 1000 years.
When the Serbs resisted the terrorism, the American people were told, by a pro-Clinton
press, that they were committing war crimes.
So, we bombed them for 78 days, using the American Air Force planes, pilots, missiles
and bombs to support KLA terrorists ground forces who were fighting with the Yugoslav Army
and police force. The bombing was finally halted by the signing of the G-8 agreement
(printed above).
While much was said in the media about "doubting" Milosevic would abide by
the agreement, so far the ONLY
one abiding by the agreement is Milosevic.
Meanwhile, in the Senate of the United States of America, on June 30th, 97 senators
voted for S1234, which contains a provision that declares Yugoslavia a "terrorist
state" and strengthens already existing sanctions, which will make it impossible for
Yugoslavia to borrow money, or to buy steel to rebuild its bridges and its heating plants
- heating plants that provide heat to Yugoslav homes, schools, hospitals, churches and
industries, while voting $50 million appropriations to send to the KLA terrorists.
Bill Clinton has lied to you about the Serbs, folks, among other things he has lied
about. And, when the Serbs in Kosovo are all driven out or dead, who do you think the KLA
terrorists will turn their weapons on next? THEN will it matter to you that you have a
president who lies to you?
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