KK-Forum,
Merk at NUPI-forsker Espen Barth Eide (som daglig opptrådte på NRK under
Jugoslavia-krigen) nå er blitt statssekretær i UD. Vi får nok høre mer fra
ham (Thorbjørn Jagland vil antakelig rote til disse sakene uten 'faglig'
hjelp). I dag nektet han å uttale seg om NATO nye strategiske konsept: 'Det
ville unaturlig for meg å uttale meg om dette'. Forskeren forsvant i en blå
røk.
I tillegg ble ett-årsdagen feires med en annen NUPI-forsker som orienterte
Mamarazzi-lyttere (P3 - formiddag) om hva skjedde i fjor.
De tre N'er: NUPI-NATO-NRK.
Et knippe sitater (fra BBC2 'Moral Combat, NATO at War' - kilde har jeg
angitt tidligere) om saker som jeg ikke har hørt nevnt i NRK (Alan Little
er programlederen).
*************Sitat 1***************
LITTLE
They began to ambush Serb patrols, killing policemen, then disappearing as
rapidly as they
had struck, an invisible Commando force. Serb casualties mounted. Would
the West see them
as victims of terrorism, or of legitimate peoples' uprising?
JAMIE RUBIN
US ASST SECRETARY OF STATE
Killing postmen or killing Serb civilians in cold blood - those are
terrorist acts that we do
believe were wrong and unfortunately that was what the KLA was pursuing at
the time.
LITTLE
It was a calculated but dangerous gamble. The KLA's political leader Hashim
Thaqi now
admits that he knew the Serbs would retaliate against innocent civilians.
HASIM THACI
KLA LEADER
Any armed action we undertook would bring retaliation against civilians.
We knew we were
endangering a great number of civilian lives.
LITTLE
Their desperate calculation was to draw the world into Kosovo's feud.
DUGI GORANI
KOSOVO ALBANIAN NEGOTIATOR
The more civilians were killed, the chances of international intervention
became bigger, and
the KLA of course realised that. There was this foreign diplomat who once
told me 'Look
unless you pass the quota of five thousand deaths you'll never have anybody
permanently
present in Kosovo from the foreign diplomacy.
**********Sitat 1 slutt*************
Det var dette Diana Johnstone i sin tid kalte 'Nato's Humanitarian Trigger'.
*************Sitat 2************
RICHARD HOLBROOKE
We got into this Albanian village, we met with the village leader and as we
were meeting with
him seated in his living room upstairs, on the floor , Albanian style a guy
sat down, wedged
himself in between him and me cradling his Kalishnikov. This guy was very
good at photo ops
and he got photographed with me. He understood how to handle the world
media beautifully
and this photograph became the first official photograph of an American
official with a
member of the KLA. Snap!
VETON SURROI
Holbrooke was not very much impressed by that meeting - it didn't leave
much breathing
space, physical breathing space to Holbrooke either, because they were so
compressed with
each other.
RICHARD HOLBROOKE
I was not happy, because you don't like to be surprised in a situation like
that. This sent all
sorts of confusing signals to people round the world. Milosevic was
furious. I was meeting
with these rebel terrorists as he put it.
GENERAL NEBOJSA PAVKOVIC
COMMANDER, YUGOSLAV ARMY IN KOSOVO
When the official ambassador of another country arrives here, ignores state
officials, but holds
a meeting with the Albanian terrorists, then it's quite clear they are
getting support.
RICHARD HOLBROOKE
Albanians were very encouraged.
LITTLE
KLA Albanians in particular understood its importance to them.
LIRAK CELAJ
KLA FIGHTER
I knew that since then, that USA, NATO, will put us in their hands. They
were looking for the
head of the KLA and when they found it they will have in their hand and
then they will
control the KLA.
LITTLE
With renewed confidence that the world was now at last taking heed, the KLA
made
astonishing advances
******Sitat 2 slutt************
********Sitat 3**************
WILLIAM WALKER
HEAD, KOSOVO VERIFICATION MISSION
I remember thinking to myself he can't be serious sending me to Kosovo. I'm
a very senior
career officer. How could Kosovo be important enough to require my services?
LITTLE
The cease-fire agreement made it important enough. In October Walker was
received by
Milosevic. His job was to make sure that Milosevic's forces complied with
the cease-fire. He
set up the headquarters of the Kosovo Verification Mission in the capital
Pristina. It was
conceived as an independent, international body. But Walker had spent a
life time loyally
serving the US State Department. He saw the world from Washington's
perspective.
RICHARD HOLBROOKE
The selection of Bill Walker was made by the Secretary of State, Madeleine
Albright. She
knew him.. and made the choice herself.
CAPTAIN ROLAND KEITH
KOSOVO VERIFICATION MISSION
Ambassador Walker was not just working for the OSCE. He was part of the
American
diplomatic policy that was occurring which had vilified Slobodan Milosevic,
demonised the
Serbian Administration and generally was providing diplomatic support to
the UCK or the
KLA leadership.
LITTLE
Walker's cease-fire monitors drove round Kosovo in brightly- coloured
orange vehicles.
Their job was to watch as Milosevic withdrew his police and returned his
troops to barracks.
In the beginning, he complied. The German General Klaus Naumann had helped
broker the
cease-fire deal
GENERAL KLAUS NAUMANN
CHAIRMAN, NATO MILITARY COMMITTEE
He really did what we asked him to do, he withdrew within 48 hrs some 6,000
police officers
and the military back into the barracks. This was also confirmed by the
OSCE Verification
Mission.
LITTLE
This was much harder to monitor. Where the Serbs withdrew, the KLA moved
forward,
filling the vacuum. For the cease-fire agreement had a fatal flaw. It was
one sided. It had
required nothing verifiable from the KLA.
GENERAL AGIM CEKU
KLA MILITARY LEADER
The cease-fire was very useful for us, it helped us to get organised, to
consolidate and grow.
WOLFGANG PETRITSCH
EU SPECIAL ENVOY TO KOSOVO
They were really growing ever stronger from day to day, and there was
nobody to really stop
them.
GENERAL AGIM CEKU
KLA MILITARY LEADER
We aimed to spread our units over as much territory as possible, we wanted
KLA units and
cells across the whole of Kosovo.
LITTLE
At Podujevo, in the north of Kosovo, the KLA now filled the very positions
the Serbs had
vacated. The pattern was repeated across the province. William Walker's
Deputy was a
British General. He and his colleagues could see what the KLA was doing,
but had no means
of stopping or even discouraging it.
MAJ GEN JOHN DREWIENKIEWICZ
KOSOVO VERIFICATION MISSION
The Kosovo Liberation Army infiltrated forward.
WOLFGANG PETRITSCH
EU SPECIAL ENVOY TO KOSOVO
The KLA basically came back into its old positions that they held before
the summer
offensive.
MAJ GEN JOHN DREWIENKIEWICZ
KOSOVO VERIFICATION MISSION
And this started to be a factor in dealing with the Serbs. Because the
Serbs said to us, well
hang on, the deal was that we withdrew from these things, and you were
going to police the
agreement. So can you just get these Kosovo Liberation Army out of the
trenches that we were
in a month ago?
LITTLE
But they couldn't. At NATO headquarters there was growing disquiet. We've
obtained
confidential minutes of the North Atlantic Council or NAC, NATO's governing
body. They
talk of the KLA as "the main initiator of the violence and state…" It has
launched what
appears to be a deliberate campaign of provocation". This is how William
walker himself
reported the situation then, in private
GENERAL KLAUS NAUMANN
CHAIRMAN, NATO MILITARY COMMITTEE
Ambassador Walker stated in the NAC that the majority of violations was
caused by the
KLA..
LITTLE
Walker didn't admit that in public at the time. He still doesn't.
WILLIAM WALKER, HEAD KOSOVO VERIFICATION MISSION
Q: You told the North Atlantic Council that it was the KLA side who were
largely
responsible.
A: I Would have to go back and re-read my notes. I don't remember. most of
the briefings I
gave to the North Atlantic Council was that both sides were in
non-compliance. Both sides
were doing things that were wrong. Obviously it was easier to point at the
government.
**************Sitat 3 slutt**************
*************'Sitat 4*****************'''
JAMIE RUBIN
US ASST SECRETARY OF STATE
Q: How far did the KLA have to go to jeopardise international backing?
A: Well again there would have been a point. I don't know where that point
came they
obviously never reached it..
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
Q: There was no clear mechanism to punish them if they failed to behave in
what you call a
reasonable way?
A: Well I think the punishment was that they would lose completely the
backing of er the
United States and the Contact Group.
LITTLE
With US backing for the KLA now barely concealed, Milosevic sent the army
back into action
to clear the KLA out of Podujevo. The doomed procession to war with NATO
had begun.
**************Sitat 4 slutt*************
Vi hører liknende toner i dag: NATO advarer KLA at de vil miste støtte osv.
Mat for de godtroende.
***********Sitat 5************
LITTLE
....
The KLA continued to smuggle arms over mountain passes from Albania.
Albanian civilians
were press ganged into service. Before dawn on the fifteenth of December,
they walked into
a well prepared Serbian ambush. Most of those taken by surprise fled back
into Albania. But
31 Albanian men were killed. Later on the same day in an apparent act of
revenge, what
remained of ethnic co-existence in the city of Pec nearby, was to be torn
apart. A group of
hooded, masked men drove up to this bar which was popular with young Serbs.
LAZAR OBRADOVIC
The doors opened and then we heard the machine gun fire …"
LITTLE
Lazar's teenage son, Ivan, was in the bar. He was a bright and promising
school boy, who'd
come top of his class..
LAZAR OBRADOVIC
It was a horrifying sight. We tried to help those that were still moving.
There was blood
everywhere. Ivan didn't stand a chance. He was sitting right by the door.
So he was the first
one to be hit.
FATHER MIRJLKO KORICANIN
PARISH PRIEST, PEC
The situation in Pec became unbearable. The Serbs couldn't stand the
Albanians because they
had killed 6 children. And the Albanians couldn't stand the Serbs. Nobody
knew what would
happen next.
LITTLE
Walker condemned both the ambush on the border and the killings in the bar
in equal
measure.
WILLIAM WALKER
HEAD, KOSOVO VERIFICATION MISSION
It really looked like this was a tit for tat again. KLA hearing about
their people being killed
up on the border had done this in Pec.
WILLIAM WALKER
Q: There is a huge difference, isn't there, between people killed in a
legitimate military
exchange and a bunch of hooded unknowns walking into a bar and killing some
teenagers..?
A: I think the point is, we really didn't know what had happened in Pec.
Yes the government
was saying it was KLA gangsters who had come in and sprayed this bar. When
you don't
know what has happened, it's a lot more difficult to sort of pronounce
yourself.
LITTLE
One month later Walker was to break this rule to spectacular effect. He
pronounced himself
with absolute certainty about a massacre that occurred here, in the village
of Racak. Even
now, more than a year on, important questions about what happened here
remain unanswered.
This is the story of that massacre, of the political uses to which it was
put, of how it
galvanised the west to go to war, and of the pivotal role played by
William Walker. There is
nothing remarkable about Racak. Except that by January 1999, the KLA had
moved in, most
of the villagers had fled, and trenches had been dug on the edge of the
village.
PAULA GHEDINI
UN REFUGEE AGENCY
We encountered many villages where the villagers themselves told us in very
clear terms that
they would prefer to be left completely alone. Often times they felt that
if a KLA group were
to come into their village, that would put them under greater threat.
LITTLE
From camouflaged positions near Racak the KLA launched well prepared hit
and run strikes
against Serb patrols. In early January, they killed four Serb policemen.
ZYMER LUBOVCI
KLA FIGHTER
We saw them coming, so we prepared and opened fire. But it was guaranteed
that every time
we took action they would take revenge on civilians.
LITTLE
Racak did not have to wait long for the retaliation. The attack began on
the morning of
January 15th.
HASIM THACI
KLA LEADER
A ferocious struggle took place. We suffered heavy losses, but so did the
Serbs. They set out
to commit atrocities, because a key KLA unit was based in this area.
LITTLE
International observers watched from safe high ground as Serb forces took
control of the
village. They moved from house to house. Most were empty. The KLA had gone.
When the
Serb forces pulled out in the afternoon, they announced they'd killed 15
KLA men in action.
The international monitors entered the village and reported nothing
unusual. Only next
morning did the full force of Serb retaliation become apparent. William
Walker went to see
for himself.
WILLIAM WALKER
We progressed up the hill and about every 15 or 20 yards there was another
body as we kept
going up the hill, and I don't know how many bodies we passed before we got
to a pile of
bodies.
LITTLE
By the time Walker arrived the KLA had retaken control of Racak
WALKER [archive]
I think its going to take me a few minutes to determine what I really
should say, and I'd like to
hold a press conference in Pristina later this afternoon.
Walker [archive]
The facts as verified by KVM include evidence of arbitrary detentions,
extra-judicial killings,
and the mutilation of unarmed civilians of Albanian ethnic origin in the
village of Racak by
the MUP and VJ.
LITTLE
In other words, he blamed the Serbian police and the Yugoslav army. Walker
was supposed
to be an independent international official. But did he seek direct
instruction now from the
Americans?
WILLIAM WALKER
Without calling any of my capitals I told what I thought I had seen, which
was the end result
of a massacre.
RICHARD HOLBROOKE
William Walker, the head of the Kosovo Verification Mission, called me on a
cell phone from
Racak.
WILLIAM WALKER
Q. But you don't remember calling Washington at all?
GENERAL WESLEY CLARK
SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER EUROPE
I got a call from Bill Walker. He said there's a massacre. I'm standing
here. I can see the
bodies.
WILLIAM WALKER
(No reply to question)
Q: And you didn't speak to Gen Clark or anybody like that?
LITTLE
Walker's comments gave America the green light to enter Kosovo's war. The
KLA had
pulled in it's mighty ally.
**************'Sitat 5 slutt****************
Knut Rognes
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Mar 24 2000 - 21:58:06 MET