KK-Forum,
I tilknytning til Jon-Ivar Skulleruds innlegg angående den britiske
komiteuttalelse, vil jeg gjerne
vise til følgende utdrag fra en høring i en underhuskomite 24. mars 1999,
dvs samme dagen som NATO bombingene startet.
Der sier den engelske forsvarsministeren at KLA var ansvarlig for flere
dødsfall i Kosovo enn de Jugoslaviske myndigheter fram til Racak. Robertson
har selvsagt ikke gjentatt dette.
Spørreren ønsker også at Storbritannia/NATO skal koordinere sine militære
aktiviteter med KLA.
Robertson tok offisielt avstand fra dette den gangen: "We are not siding
with the KLA whose longer-term objectives we may not subscribe to at all."
**********************
House of Commons
Select Committee on Defence
Minutes of Evidence
Examination of Witnesses (Questions 380 - 399)
WEDNESDAY 24 MARCH 1999
RT HON GEORGE ROBERTSON, MP, REAR ADMIRAL SIMON MOORE and MR CHRIS HOLTBY
...
[question by Mr Blunt]
391. What I would like to explore is the relationship with the KLA
who are an armed force on the ground. In your words, Secretary of
State, you said that the KLA had gone the distance by reducing their
aspirations from that of independence, but for a very long time the
Kosovars have sought by democratic means to pursue their right of
self-determination and any democratic opportunity for that was denied
to them by the Serbians. So I believe what they are fighting is a
justified liberation struggle. They have now gone the distance, in
your words, at an international conference. What is our relationship
now with the KLA? Surely, in a sense we are now on their side? I do
not understand what the NATO Secretary-General means when he says, "We
urge in particular Kosovar armed elements to refrain from provocative
military action", when it is their people who are being ethnically
cleansed and are the victims, in your words, of crimes beyond belief
and description. Is there now an opportunity to at least co-ordinate
our military actions with the KLA? What do you think is going to be
the future of our relationship with armed elements on the ground in
Kosovo?
(Mr Robertson) The provocation that the UN Secretary-General was
talking about was the offensive actions taken by the KLA who are a
part of the Kosovo Albanian population which collectively signed up to
the accord. It is right to say they should not be engaged in
provocation. Up until Racak earlier this year the KLA were responsible
for more deaths in Kosovo than the Yugoslav authorities had been. The
call all along has been for the end to violence on both sides and seek
the diplomatic channel. They signed up to their cause including the
disarmament aspects of the Rambouillet agreement and I think that is a
very significant move and I hope they hold to that and there are not
wilder elements that seek to break up the unity that appeared at
Rambouillet. We recognise the threat to the Kosovar Albanians. That is
why we are willing to take action. We are not siding with the KLA
whose longer-term objectives we may not subscribe to at all.
***************************
Det samme bildet av KLA provokasjoner, med voldsom serbisk gjengjeldelse
(ønskete sådanne - av KLA/Thaci), går fram av OSSEs egne rapporter.
I en annen Aftenposten-artikkel enn den Jon-Ivar Skullerud nevner - med
overskrift "Jeg sto imot presset så lenge som mulig" (Aftenposten 20. juli
2000, s. 20) - syntes OSSE-formann Vollebæk at tilbaketrekningen var
riktig, bl.a. fordi "store land ønsket" det, men han husker ikke om
Storbritannia var blant dem. Journalisten er høflig nok til ikke å spørre
om hvilket stort land som fremfor alt kom med slike ønsker. Påfallende er
det i hvilken grad Vollebæk lykkes i fremstille seg selv som en heroisk
diplomat som sto i mot et voldsomt press, mens han i virkeligheten verden
selvsagt bare var en utøver av USAs ordre.
Han sier også at "overgrepene fortsatte uten at observatørene kunne gripe
inn ... de var jo ikke bevæpnet... Da ville vi mistet all troverdighet,
omtrent som FN gjorde i Srebrenica..."
Sammenlikningen med Srebrenica er rent tøv, situasjonen i Kosovo var en
helt annen, overgrepene fant sted på begge sider, som det også går fram
bl.a. av OSSEs' egne rapporter.
Ikke rart Norge holder sine erfaringer om Kosovo hemmelige, noe Aftenposten
beklager i en tredje artikkel idagens avis. Avisen har ikke fått innsyn i
noen av dokumentene av hensyn til "rikets sikkerhet", hvilket vel snarere
betyr Vollebæk og andres gode navn og rykte.
Vollebæk var medskyldig i en kolossale flyktningkatastrofe. Eiendommelig
nok ønsker Norge denne mannen som FN's nye Høykommissær for flyktninger.
Knut Rognes
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Aug 03 2000 - 10:26:01 MET DST