July 16, 2006

Prof. Raymond K. Kent: THE KOSOVO TRIAL



 

                                                                Politicized Mythology

                                                               The Kosovo Dimension

 

                                                                                                  R.K.Kent, Historian

 

In its llth July 2006 edition, the New York Times published a report from Paris  by  Marlise Simons, entitled “War Crimes Trial Begins for 6 Milosevic Aides,” (p. A3)

While  the  text  seems  to  be  a “matter-of-fact report,” it is marred by a priori judge-ments, skewed optics and   tell-tale perceptions. Together, they suggest what the verdict is likely to  be even if it  will  not be easy to prove the alleged centerpiece of collective sin  a “secret plan” to expel all Albanians from Kosovo Her text also shows that there is hardly any depth to presumed  knowledge of the subject.. 

 The first inaccuracy   is that “7,000 to 9,000 people were killed” at Kosovo while leaving no doubt that it was a one-way killing of Albanians by the Serbs. Numerous examinations, starting with the Helsinki Watch and terminating after NATO troops took over in Kosovo,  came  up with what should be considered as a  defining  verdict. There were about 3,000 casualties with a ratio of two Albanians to one Serb.

 The second one consists of the assertion that “Serb terror” “drove out” of Kosovo an estimated 800,000 … Albanians..”  Two facts remain unbreakable. The mass exodus of Albanians  from  Kosovo  took place only after NATO began its bombing missions and not before. Moreover, a variety of sources, including  Jewish spiritual leaders in Kosovo’s urban centers, reported that the so-called “Kosovo Liberation Army” agents actively urged the  more sophisticated town dwellers  to join the ranks of mainly rural refugees so as to swell the  numbers. The purpose  was  to  pave the ground for an eventual independence of a Kosovo under total Albanian control. The Serb Third Army and Police units   jumped on the opportunity to “assist” the exodus by providing all sorts of transportation out. It was not “Serb terror”  but  rather  a spontaneous  accord between

legitimate Serb military and police  and Albanian extremists, with different aims in mind..There, equally, can be no way to overturn the fact that no mass exodus of Albanians  took place before NATO bombs and missiles began to drop from the sky over Kosovo itself. It does not really matter what Milosevic said in his defense. The facts stand out with Milosevic dead or alive and  no   “tribunal “ can change them.

 The skewed optics derive  from the fact any reader can verify. The  “Kosovo Liberation Army” is mentioned nowhere in the article. Defined once as a terrorist organization by the State Department, the KLA  became ”freedom fighters” overnight. As a surrogate of U.S. power “NATO” did not wish to put American soldiers on the ground and switched to the KLA  for  potential substitutes. The most ardent supporters  of this switch were Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and General Wesley Clark, Commander of NATO.

 

                                                                                                                               (2)

 

Although numerous recent statements by members of the U.S. Government have made it clear that self-defense is inalienable as a right that belongs to all human groupings, the so-called “Hague Tribunal” has denied it to the Serb authorities at Kosovo. The KLA ambushed and killed about 300 Serb policemen before NATO entered into the matter.

But, the most glaring omission in the article, probably not deliberate, is the testimony of a German head  of European Observers at Kosovo who sent daily, weekly, monthly and very detailed reports to the European Union. As he testified at the “Hague Tribunal” at lenth and in mufti, Herr Hartwig placed the entire blame for turmoil at Kosovo on the KLA and completely exhonorated the Serb  authorities in respect to any criminal or “genocidal” charges. Hartwig stressed in his testimony that he was astonished after leaving Kosvo to find out what the  media  were “reporting” while his massive and  meticulous reports compiled from  hundreds of subordinate European observers never had  any publicity at all.

 The tell-tale sign comes from the so-called “secret plan” for total “ethnic cleansing” of

all  Kosovo Albanians. It proved to be a forgery of Bulgarian Secret Services working for its German analogue (BDN) and “floated” by a German General. The Germans have had

a long association with Albanian extremists going back to WWII and the Albanian SS Skender Beg Division which initiated massive killings and expulsions of Serbs from Kosovo.  It  began to alter the Serb demographic advantage at Kosovo by the mid-Fortiies. There is not much doubt that our own policies in the break-up of Yugoslavia,  while siding with former enemies of the US  owe  a great deal to influence of the Forth Reich on the CIA and the Pentagon as well as the State Department responding to our own Solons who had much support from Albanian PACs in the U.S..

 It is amazing to those of  us  who have followed the details of the fratricidal drama in ex-Yugoslavia that  self-admitted and externally documented men who butchered the Serbs

get  away from jails in the Hague or   return home after light sentences. Meanwhile  any Serb in uniform at Kosovo and elsewhere gets a great deal of attention as a “criminal” with almost pre-determined sentences at the Hague. What is entirely lacking in this  structured “set-up” is a sense of history as it does not pay in the long run to punish one’s certified and long-time friends while favoring their and our enemies, for whatever momentary and /or strategic reasons .stay hidden and away from home publics.

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