"Kosovo and the myth of liberal intervention"

"The Council [of Europe] claims that civilians – Serbian and non-KLA-supporting Kosovan Albanians detained by the KLA in the 1999 hostilities – were shot in northern Albania and their kidneys extracted and sold on the black market. It names Hashim Thaçi, the former leader of the KLA and Kosovo's prime minister, as the boss of a "mafia-like" group engaged in criminal activity – including heroin trading – since before the 1999 war. The report is a damning indictment not only of the KLA but also of western policy. And it also gives lie to the fiction that Nato's war with Yugoslavia was, in Tony Blair's words, "a battle between good and evil; between civilisation and barbarity; between democracy and dictatorship".

It was a fiction many on the liberal left bought into. In 1999 Blair was seen not as a duplicitous warmonger in hock to the US but as an ethical leader taking a stand against ethnic cleansing. But if the west had wanted to act morally in the Balkans and to protect the people in Kosovo there were solutions other than war with the Serbs, and options other than backing the KLA – the most violent group in Kosovan politics. They could have backed genuine multi-party negotiations, or offered to lift sanctions on Belgrade if a peaceful solution to the problem of Kosovo could be found.

Instead, a virulently anti-Serb stance led the west into taking ever more extreme positions, and siding with an organisation which even Robert Gelbard, President Clinton's special envoy to Kosovo, described as "without any question, a terrorist group". In 2000 the Sunday Times revealed that, prior to the Nato bombing, US agents had been training the KLA. Shaban Shala, a KLA commander, claimed he had met British and US agents in north Albania in 1996.

It was the KLA's campaign of violence against Yugoslav state officials, Serbian and Kosovan civilians in 1998, which led to an escalation of the conflict with the government in Belgrade, with atrocities committed on both sides. We were told the outbreak of war in March 1999 with Nato was the Serbian government's fault, yet Lord Gilbert, the UK defence minister, admitted "the terms put to Miloševic at Rambouillet [the international conference preceding the war] were absolutely intolerable … it was quite deliberate".

The subsequent 78-day "humanitarian" bombardment of federal Yugoslavia massively intensified the ethnic cleansing of Kosovan Albanians by Yugoslav forces. Between 2,000 and 10,000 Kosovan Albanians were killed by these forces, with between 500 and 1,500 people killed by the Nato bombing.

But even after Russian pressure forced a Yugoslav withdrawal from Kosovo, ethnic cleansing and rights abuses in the region continued. Under the Nato occupation an estimated 200,000 ethnic Serbs, Roma and other minorities from south Kosovo, and almost the whole Serb population of Pristina, have been forced from their homes.

A report on Kosovo by Minority Rights Group International claimed: "Nowhere [in Europe] is there such a level of fear for so many minorities that they will be harassed or attacked, simply for who they are." And in October 2010, a report by Human Rights Watch stated that "Roma and related minority groups deported from western Europe to Kosovo face discrimination and severe deprivation amounting to human rights abuse". As for democratic advances, Sunday's elections in Kosovo, boycotted by the Serbian minority, have seen widespread allegations of fraud, with a turnout of 149% reported in one area.

Far from being Tony Blair's "good war", Nato's assault on Yugoslavia was in its own way as immoral as the assault on Iraq. But as the Iraq war has become discredited, so it is even more important for the supporters of "liberal interventionism" to promote the line that Kosovo was in some way a success. The Council of Europe's report on the KLA's crimes makes that position much harder to maintain. And if it plays its part in making people more sceptical about any future western "liberal interventions", it is to be warmly welcomed."

"Kosovo and the myth of liberal intervention". Neil Clark. The Guardian. December 15, 2010.

William Walker and the Kosovo Verification Mission

"European diplomats then working for the OSCE claim it was betrayed by an American policy that made airstrikes inevitable. Some have questioned the motives and loyalties of William Walker, the American OSCE head of mission.

"The American agenda consisted of their diplomatic observers, aka the CIA, operating on completely different terms to the rest of Europe and the OSCE," said a European envoy.

(...)

Initially some "diplomatic observers" arrived, followed in October by a much larger group that was eventually swallowed up into the OSCE's "Kosovo Verification Mission".

Walker said: "Overnight we went from having a handful of people to 130 or more. Could the agency have put them in at that point? Sure they could. It's their job. But nobody told me."

Walker, who was nominated by Madeleine Albright, the American secretary of state, was intensely disliked by Belgrade . He had worked briefly for the United Nations in Croatia . Ten years earlier he was the American ambassador to El Salvador when Washington was helping the government there to suppress leftist rebels while supporting the contra guerrillas against the Sandinista government in Nicaragua .

Some European diplomats in Pristina, Kosovo's capital, concluded from Walker 's background that he was inextricably linked with the CIA. The picture was muddied by the continued separation of American "diplomatic observers" from the mission. The CIA sources who have now broken their silence say the diplomatic observers were more closely connected to the agency.

"It was a CIA front, gathering intelligence on the KLA's arms and leadership," said one."

"CIA aided Kosovo guerrilla army", by Tom Walker and Aidan Laverty. The Sunday Times. March 12, 2000.

USA and the KLA

Senator Joseph Lieberman

Now that nobody can deny the links between the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and drug dealing and organ trafficking it is good to remember some things:

"[The] United States of America and the Kosovo Liberation Army stand for the same human values and principles ... Fighting for the KLA is fighting for human rights and American values."

Senator Jo. Lieberman, quoted in the 'Washington Post', 28 April 1999

"American intelligence agents have admitted they helped to train the Kosovo Liberation Army before NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia (...) Central Intelligence Agency officers were ceasefire monitors in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, developing ties with the KLA and giving American military training manuals and field advice on fighting the Yugoslav army and Serbian police."

Tom Walker and Aiden Laverty, ‘CIA Aided Kosovo Guerrilla Army’, Sunday Times, 12 March 2000.

Searching for Kosovo's Missing

Searching for Kosovo's Missing. Center for Investigative Reporting.

Consejo de Europa: La oscura verdad sobre Kosovo

"Los actores internacionales decidieron hacer la vista gorda
ante los crímenes de guerra del UCK"
Consejo de Europa

En este blog siempre hemos defendido que la guerra de Kosovo no fue tan simple como nos quisieron hacer creer; que no se trataba de una guerra entre buenos y malos; que, en contra de lo que no paraban de repetirnos, no habíamos detenido el "mayor genocidio sucedido en Europa desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial"; que el UCK (KLA) no eran unos defensores de la libertad, sinó más bien todo lo contrario.

Hoy se ha hecho publico el informe del Consejo de Europa acerca del tráfico de organos en Kosovo tras la guerra. La noticia ha saltado a la primera página de muchos periódicos europeos al mencionarse repetidamente la implicación del actual primer ministro de Kosovo, Hashim Thaci, en la red mafiosa que asesinaba a serbios para vender sus organos en el mercado negro. Titulares como "El primer ministro de Kosovo, acusado de tráfico de órganos" o "El primer ministro de Kosovo, acusado de tráfico de órganos humanos" son bastante ilustrativos.

La noticia puede parecer sorprendente pero ya hace más de un año la BBC trataba este tema, y nos hacíamos eco en este blog. Lo más interesante de este informe es que, por primera vez, una organización internacional oficial, el Consejo de Europa, se hace eco de las escandalosas irregularidades que han tenido lugar en Kosovo tras la finalización de la guerra (lástima que no hayan estudiado el periodo anterior a la guerra); y de los crímenes contra la humanidad cometidos contra la población serbia; y de la colaboración innegable entre la OTAN y una organización mafiosa.

Los medios de comunicación occidentales se han hecho eco de la implicacion del Primer Ministro de Kosovo pero no de algunas revelacions realizadas en el informe del Consejo de Europa de igual o mayor gravedad. Algunos pasajes producen escalofríos, por sus implicaciones. Estos pasajes, curiosamente, han sido ignorados por los medios oficiales, pasajes que hasta hoy parecían reservador a "simpatizantes de los serbios", anti-americanos, etc.; en general, radicales. Ahora una organización tan poco radical como el Consejo de Europa nos da la razón.

Pero permítanme que les transcriba algunas de estas frases que me han resultado especialmente significativas (disculpen la traducción de Google Translate):

"Durante la fase decisiva del conflicto armado, la OTAN intervino en forma de ataques aéreos, mientras que las operaciones terrestres fueron realizadas por el UCK, aliados de hecho de las fuerzas internacionales. Tras la marcha de las autoridades serbias, los organismos internacionales responsables en Kosovo confiaron la seguridad en las fuerzas políticas en el poder en Kosovo, la mayoría de ellos ex dirigentes del UCK. "

"Los crímenes atroces cometidos por las fuerzas serbias, que remuevieron sentimientos muy fuertes en todo el mundo, dio lugar a un estado de ánimo se refleja también en la actitud de algunos organismos internacionales, según la cual era siempre un lado que eran considerados como los autores de los delitos y el otro lado de las víctimas, necesariamente inocentes. La realidad es más matizada y más compleja. "

"Considerando que en última instancia, Serbia ha cooperado, ha demostrado ser mucho más complicado para llevar a cabo excavaciones en el territorio de Kosovo, y ha sido imposible, al menos hasta ahora, en el territorio de Albania. La cooperación de las autoridades de Kosovo es especialmente necesaria en el respeto de la búsqueda de las casi 500 personas que oficialmente desapareció después del final del conflicto. "

"La intervención de la OTAN tomó esencialmente la forma de una campaña aérea, con los bombardeos en Kosovo y en Serbia - Las operaciones, según algunos, han infringido el derecho internacional, ya que no fueron autorizados por el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU -, mientras que en el terreno la OTAN era de facto aliada del UCK. Así, durante el período crítico que es el foco de nuestra investigación, el UCK tenía un control efectivo sobre un ámbito territorial amplio, que abarca Kosovo, así como algunas de las regiones fronterizas en el norte de Albania de control. UCK no debe debe entenderse como un ejercicio estructurado de poder, y fue sin duda lejos de asumir los contornos de un Estado. Fue en el transcurso de este período crítico que numerosos crímenes fueron cometidos tanto contra los serbios que se habían quedado en la región y contra los albaneses kosovares sospechosos de haber sido "traidores" o "colaboradores", o que fue víctima de las rivalidades internas dentro del UCK. Estos crímenes han quedado impunes en gran medida y sólo años después de que un comienzo más bien tímido se ha hecho en el trato con ellos. "

"Fue como resultado de esta situación que ciertos delitos cometidos por miembros de la UCK, entre ellos algunos altos dirigentes del UCK, se oculta con eficacia y han quedado impunes."

"Los crímenes cometidos por las fuerzas serbias se han documentado, denunciado y, en la medida de lo posible, juzgado en los tribunales de justicia. La naturaleza de estos terribles crímenes apenas necesita ser ilustrado. (...) Sin embargo, lo que surgió en paralelo Fue un clima y una tendencia según la cual llevó a todos estos eventos y actos se han visitado a través de una lente que se muestra todo como algo demasiado claras: por un lado, los serbios, que eran vistos como los opresores del mal, y en el otro lado los albaneses de Kosovo, que fueron vistos como las víctimas inocentes. En el horror y la comisión de delitos no puede haber un principio de compensación. La esencia básica de la justicia exige que todos sean tratados de la misma manera. Por otra parte, el deber de encontrar la verdad y administrar la justicia debe ser dado de alta para que la paz verdadera para ser restaurada, y para las diferentes comunidades a reconciliarse y comenzar a vivir y trabajar juntos. "

"El resultado ha sido una forma de justicia que sólo se puede definir como selectiva, con la impunidad que rodea a muchos de los crímenes que aparecen, sobre la base de indicios creíbles, que han sido directa o indirectamente, el trabajo de los líderes del UCK. Los países occidentales que se comprometieron en Kosovo se había abstenido de una intervención directa sobre el terreno, prefiriendo recurrir a ataques aéreos, y ha adoptado por tanto, en el UCK como su aliado indispensable para las operaciones en tierra. Los actores internacionales decidieron hacer la vista gorda ante los crímenes de guerra de la UCK, colocando en primer lugar de lograr un cierto grado de estabilidad a corto plazo. En efecto, el nuevo Kosovo se ha basado en las estructuras existentes del movimiento patria albanesa de Kosovo. De ello se deduce que las sucesivas administraciones internacionales establecidos, así como la Gobierno de EE.UU., que es generalmente considerado como jugando un papel importante en los asuntos del nuevo Kosovo, han tenido que mantener buenas relaciones con sus aliados de facto sobre el terreno, ya que éste se han convertido en los nuevos amos de la política local escena."

"La misión EULEX, en funcionamiento desde finales de 2008, con lo que heredó una situación extremadamente difícil. Numerosos archivos sobre crímenes de guerra, en particular aquellos en los que los combatientes del UCK fueron catalogados como sospechosos, fueron entregados por la UNMIK en un estado deplorable (ocasionar la pérdida de pruebas y testigos declaraciones, lapsos de tiempo largo en el seguimiento de medidas de investigación incompleta), en la medida en que los funcionarios de la misión EULEX manifestaron su temor de forma muy explícita en nuestras visitas de investigación que muchos archivos, simplemente tendría que ser abandonado."

DOCUMENTO ORIGINAL.

Documento completo traducido con Google Translate.

Council of Europe: The "Secret" Truth About Kosovo

"During the decisive phase of the armed conflict, NATO took action in the form of air strikes, while land operations were conducted by the KLA, de facto allies of the international forces. Following the departure of the Serbian authorities, the international bodies responsible for security in Kosovo very much relied on the political forces in power in Kosovo, most of them former KLA leaders."

"The appalling crimes committed by Serbian forces, which stirred up very strong feelings worldwide, gave rise to a mood reflected as well in the attitude of certain international agencies, according to which it was invariably one side that were regarded as the perpetrators of crimes and the other side as the victims, thus necessarily innocent. The reality is less clear-cut and more complex."

"Whereas Serbia ultimately co-operated, it has proved far more complicated to carry out excavations on the territory of Kosovo, and has been impossible, at least so far, on Albanian territory. Co-operation by the Kosovar authorities is particularly lacking in respect of the search for the almost 500 persons who officially disappeared after the end of the conflict."

"The NATO intervention had essentially taken the form of an aerial campaign, with bombing in Kosovo and in Serbia – operations thought by some to have infringed international law, as they were not authorised by the UN Security Council – while on the ground NATO’s de facto ally was the KLA. Thus, during the critical period that is the focus of our inquiry, the KLA had effective control over an expansive territorial area, encompassing Kosovo as well as some of the border regions in the north of Albania. KLA control should not be understood as a structured exercise of power, and it was certainly far from assuming the contours of a state. It was in the course of this critical period that numerous crimes were committed both against Serbs who had stayed in the region and against Kosovar Albanians suspected of having been “traitors” or “collaborators”, or who fell victim to internal rivalries within the KLA. These crimes have largely gone unpunished and it is only years later that a rather diffident start has been made in dealing with them."

"It was as a result of this situation that certain crimes committed by members of the KLA, including some top KLA leaders, were effectively concealed and have remained unpunished."

"The crimes committed by the Serb forces have been documented, denounced and, to the extent possible, tried in courts of law. The frightful nature of these crimes hardly needs to be further illustrated. (...) However, what emerged in parallel was a climate and a tendency according to which led to all these events and acts were viewed through a lens that depicted everything as rather too clear-cut: on one side the Serbs, who were seen as the evil oppressors, and on the other side the Kosovar Albanians, who were seen as the innocent victims. In the horror and perpetration of crimes there can be no principle of compensation. The basic essence of justice demands that everyone be treated in the same way. Moreover, the duty to find the truth and administer justice must be discharged in order for genuine peace to be restored, and for the different communities to be reconciled and begin living and working together."

"The result has been a form of justice that can only be defined as selective, with impunity attaching to many of the crimes that appear, based on credible indications, to have been directly or indirectly the work of top KLA leaders. The Western countries that engaged themselves in Kosovo had refrained from a direct intervention on the ground, preferring recourse to air strikes, and had thus taken on the KLA as their indispensable ally for ground operations. The international actors chose to turn a blind eye to the war crimes of the KLA, placing a premium instead on achieving some degree of short-term stability. In effect the new Kosovo has been built on the existing structures of the Kosovar Albanian homeland movement. It follows that the successive international administrations put in place, as well as the US Government, which is generally regarded as playing an important role in the affairs of the new Kosovo[1], have had to maintain good relations with their de facto allies on the ground, as the latter have become the new masters of the local political scene."

"The EULEX mission, operational since the end of 2008, thus inherited an extremely difficult situation. Numerous files on war crimes, notably those in which KLA combatants were listed as suspects, were turned over by UNMIK in a deplorable condition (mislaid evidence and witness statements, long time lapses in following up on incomplete investigative steps), to the extent that EULEX officials stated their fears in quite explicit terms during our fact-finding visits that many files would simply have to be abandoned."

COUNCIL OF EUROPE

Hashim Thaçi, Kosovo PM, linked to organ trafficking

There has been a deep silence about what happened in Kosovo after the war. We were told that "we" have helped to defend human rights in Kosovo, that we have been in the "right side" against evil.

But little news, that arise, time to time, show us that the truth has a total different color. We have already spoken about the Organ trafficking that took place after the war. Some albanian kosovar leaders thought something like "why kill serbs and bury them, when we can sell their kidneys?".

In december of the last year we spoke about the BBC's documentary "Did the atrocities continue?". Now the Council of Europe report about organ traffic has directly accused the KLA and even names Hashim Thaci -prime minister and wartime political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)- a total of 27 times. [BBC]

This news force me to put again this photo:

From left to right: Hasim Thaçi, financed the KLA by trafficking with heroine and cocaine, present Prime Minister of Kosovo; Bernard Kouchner, former French Foreign Affairs Minister, was the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head, United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), between 1999 and 2001; General Mike Jackson, who took part in the in the repression against the catholic community in the Bloody Sunday; Agim Çeku, responsible for war crimes against the serbs of Krajina, including the massacre of Medak; and Wesley Clark. [The Truth about Kosovo]

"Thaçi has extensive criminal links. During the period of time when Thaçi was head of the Kosovo Liberation Army, it was reported by the Washington Times to be financing its activities by trafficking heroin and cocaine into western Europe. KLA supporters, however, insist that in reality KLA received its financing from the Albanian diaspora in USA, Albanian, UK and USA governments.

Thaçi in particular is seen as being central to the criminal activities of the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC), who reportedly extorted money from businessmen under the guise of "taxes" for Thaçi's self appointed government. While the KLA was officially disbanded at the end of armed conflict in Kosovo in 1999, the new Kosovo Protection Corps was composed primarily of former KLA fighters and the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) was formed largely from the political leadership of the KLA. A near monopoly on the means of force, based on the absorption of the KLA into the KPC allowed the Democratic Party of Kosovo to seize control of the machinery of government at the municipal level. The Democratic Party of Kosovo has regularly employed violence and intimidation of political rivals to maintain local political control and protect criminal enterprises which depend upon cooperation from friendly local authorities.

A recent analysis of organized crime in Kosovo prepared by German intelligence service BND and a confidential report contracted by the German military, the Bundeswehr accuse Thaçi, as well as Ramush Haradinaj and the majority Kosovo parliament faction Xhavit Haliti of far-reaching involvement in organized crime. The BND writes: “The key players (including Haliti, Haradinaj, and Thaçi) are intimately involved in inter-linkages between politics, business, and organized crime structures in Kosovo.” The report accuses Thaçi of leading a “criminal network operating throughout Kosovo.” in the end of the 1990s. The BND report also accuses Thaçi of contacts with the Czech and Albanian mafias. In addition, it accuses him, together with Haliti, of ordering killings by an professional hit man ‘Afrimi’, who is allegedly responsible for at least 11 contract murders." [Wikipedia]

These are the rulers of Kosovo now

This is maybe the worst image that I have ever published in this blog. In these photos, several proud albanian kosovars KLA members hold the heads of two dead serbian soldiers. We saw photos os serbs paramilitars standing in front of burning houses, but we never saw these far more horryfing images.

After the war the KLA was given law enforcement in Kosovo. Now they are the leaders of the independent Kosovo. Thanks to NATO and UN.

[Documentary] Newsnight. Kosovo: Did atrocities continue? [BBC]

"The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) abducted civilians in Kosovo who were then mistreated and in some cases killed, a BBC investigation has found.

The BBC News investigation also studies claims that some of those held in Albania were killed for their organs, and that physical evidence gathered by UN investigators in Albania was destroyed by the International War Crimes Tribunal." [BBC]

There is around 2000 missing people in Kosovo, after the war. Investigations suggest that they were taken to detention camps, ruled by the KLA, in Albania, in front of the eyes of the United Nations throught the border. In Albania, the abducted serbs, gypsies and others, were kept at Kükes or to Burrel, were they would be killed to take some of their organs.

Carla Del Ponte, war crimes ex-chief prosecutor, claims, based on what she describes as credible reports and witnesses, that Kosovan Albanian guerrillas transported hundreds of Serbian prisoners into northern Albania where they were killed, and their organs "harvested" and trafficked out of Tirana airport. [The Guardian]

Crossing Continents: Kosovo [BBC Radio]

Kosovo: Epíleg

Ahir van ser les eleccions de Sèrbia. En elles s’elegia entre dos candidats ben diferents: un pro-rus i contrari a la independència de Kosovo; l’altre pro-europeu i més disposat a aceptar la independència d’aquesta provincia serbia. Les darreres notícies donarien una lleugera victòria pel segon.

Sembla, doncs, que la independència de Kosovo no serà traumàtica. Però què ha passat per arribar fins aquí? Aparentment la història es pot resumir en tres fases: neteja ètnica, guerra humanitaria (sigui el que sigui això...) i protectorat de l’ONU. Però, com totes les guerres, no és tan simple com alguns s’esforcen en fer-nos creure…


Quan veiem aquestes fotos (i algunes de les que hi ha al final d'aquest article) ràpidament pensem en el exode albano-kosovar…però no, són serbis, fugint del Kosovo de la era OTAN.

Què va succeir abans de la guerra? Com vaig llegir un cop, sembla que la història de Kosovo salti de la derrota dels serbis davant l’imperi otomà al 1389 fins a l’aparició de Milosevic.


Quan Milosevic arriba al poder Kosovo compta amb una certa autonomia. Però, encara que sembli difícil de creure, la minoria serbia és perseguida i acosada per la majoria albanesa. Podem trobar nombrosos articles dels anys 80 que ho documenten:

“…but Serbs in some of the neighboring villages have reportedly been harassed by Albanians and have packed up and left the region.”
(…)
"The [Albanian] nationalists have a two-point platform," according to Becir Hoti, an executive secretary of the Communist Party of Kosovo, "first to establish what they call an ethnically clean Albanian republic and then the merger with Albania to form a greater Albania."

Això està extret d’un article del New York Times de 1982! (Marvine Howe, The New York Times; July 12, 1982 [*]). Però n’hi ha molt més, que podem llegir aquí.

És en aquest ambient, i després del polèmic informe SANU [*], que Milosevic anula l’autonomia de Kosovo. Comença un periode en el que la majoria albanesa passarà a ser la discriminada.

El 22 d’abril de 1996 va apareixer en escena un altre dels actors clau: l’UCK, o exèrcit d’alliberament de Kosovo [*], amb quatre atemptats simultanis. La seva estrategia era simple: atacar els interessos serbis per provocar la resposta serbia contra la població civil, i així aconseguir recolzament internacional per la seva causa. Aíxi ho confessen els seus liders al documental de la BBC: Moral combat. NATO at war [*]. Aquí teniu la transcripció completa del documental amb totes les declaracions.

L’UCK és una organització terrorista financiada bàsicament mitjançant el tràfic de drogues i tot tipus de activitats mafioses [*].

Però la seva estrategia va tenir el resultat esperat i les Nacions Unides van enviar un respresentant, William Walker, qui es va caracteritzar per una discutible visió dels fets (condemnant d’igual manera l’assassinat d’un adolescent en un bar, com les morts d’uns membres de l’UCK en combat) [*].

Era aquest individu el més adequat per portar a terme aquesta missió? Examinant una mica el seu passat, potser no; se’l considera responsable de tapar l’assassinat de sis capellans jesuites i dues dones a El Salvador al 1989. Walker va insinuar que havia estat el FMLN, quan tothom sospitava (com després es va demostrar) que darrera hi havia l’exèrcit [*].

Però William Walker es va fer celebre després de l’incident de Račak [*], quan, sense cap tipus d’investigació, va afirmar taxativament que les forces serbies havien executat uns 45 albanesos [*].

La investigació de Walker, amb les mans a la butxaca.

Dos complices.

Encara ara no s’ha aclarit el que va succeir realment, però existiesen testimonis que declaren que els fets van tenir lloc de manera diferent a com ho va vendre Walker:

“When at 10 a.m. they entered the village in the wake of a police armored vehicle, the village was nearly deserted. They advanced through the streets under the fire of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) fighters lying in ambush in the woods above the village. The exchange of fire continued throughout the operation, with more or less intensity. The main fighting took place in the woods. The Albanians who had fled the village when the first Serb shells were fired at dawn tried to escape. There they ran into Serbian police who had surrounded the village. The UCK was trapped in between. The object of the violent police attack on Friday was a stronghold of UCK Albanian independence fighters. Virtually all the inhabitants had fled Racak during the frightful Serb offensive of the summer of 1998. With few exceptions, they had not come back. ‘Smoke came from only two chimneys,’ noted one of the two AP TV reporters". (Christophe Chatelot: "Were the Racak dead really coldly massacred?", Le Monde, 21st January 1999).

Aquí teniu més articles sobre el tema.

William Walker reconeix en privat, segons Klaus Naumann (director de l’OTAN) que la majoria d’incidents durant el cessament de foc van ser ocasionats per l’UCK. Tot i això, a conseqüència de l’incident de Račak , es celebra la conferència de Rambouillet. Però aquesta és una excusa. Segons reconeix la mateixa Madeleine Albright, ella va dir a la delegació albanesa que havien de signar doncs si ells signaven i els serbis també, tenien la autonomia de Kosovo; i si ells signaven i el serbis no, tenien la OTAN a Kosovo. La proposta era tan polenta pels serbis que fins i tot era pitjor que els acords que es van signar al final de la guerra: per exemple la proposta incloia la presència de l’OTAN a Kosovo quan després de la guerra se’n va encarregar l’ONU (com demanaven els serbis a Rambouillet).

El fracas de Rambouillet va justificar l’OTAN per iniciar els bombardejos. I aquest van desencadenar la neteja ètnica per part dels serbis.
El capitol més vergonyos de la campanya de bombardejos va ser la destrucció de la televisió pública. Tot i ser clarament un vehicle de la propaganda de Milosevic, va provocar la mort de 14 persones i va aturar les emissions només durant unes hores. Tony Blair s’excusava de la mort d’aquestes persones dient que ja els havien avisat (¿?). Finalment arriba la capitulació de Belgrad i la seva retirada de Kosovo.

Al fi de la guerra el seguiràn intents de l’UCK de portar la guerra a altres regions de Serbia i de Macedonia [*]. Al mateix temps es succeeixen els crims de l’UCK [*]. Al 2005, el Primer Ministre i exlider del UCK, Ramush Haradinaj, es acusat de crims de guerra.

Els abusos contra la minoria serbia després de la guerra (segons HRW) i, no només contra serbis, sinó també contra altres minories, provoquen un nou exode; i condueixen a un Kosovo etnicament pur, un Kosovo purament albanes.