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.
