Jacky Rowland (BBC) reported no ethnic cleansing in May 1999

BBC ^ | May 18th, 1999 | Jacky Rowland, dateline Pristina

[vooch]

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Tuesday, May 18, 1999 Published at 21:23 GMT 22:23 UK

World: Europe

The refugees who remained

An ethnic Albanian walks past Yugoslav soldiers in Kosovo

By Jacky Rowland in Pristina, Kosovo

Many displaced Kosovo Albanian refugees have settled in other parts of Kosovo, reportedly without harassment from the Serbian security forces.

These examples stand in stark contrast to persistent reports from refugees arriving in Macedonia and Albania of serious human rights abuses committed in Kosovo.

In the village of Svetlje in northern Kosovo, hundreds of young Albanian men can be seen wandering around or sitting on the grass.

They belong to a group of about 2,000 refugees who have settled in Svetlje after weeks on the road in northern Kosovo.

Degrees of freedom

At the beginning of the Nato bombing campaign, the refugees fled their homes in the Podujevo region.

Some of them were told to leave by the police; others left because they were afraid.

They worked their way south towards Pristina where some of them were allowed to stay.

Then, according to the refugees, the police opened up a corridor for them, allowing them to move northward again. Some of them came to rest in Svetlje.

The refugees say the security forces leave them alone, even though there are clearly supporters of the Kosovo Liberation Army in their midst.

"The police come here only to sell us cigarettes," they said.

No evidence of Nato allegations

Meanwhile, in the south we were unable to find any evidence of the tens of thousands of refugees who Nato alleges are being kept here by the security forces near the town of Urosevac.

One Kosovo Albanian man told us he drove his horse and cart from his village to the town every day, and has not seen large numbers of refugees in the area.

He and his family continue to live in their village, while Serbs live in the village next door.

These stories stand in sharp contrast to the testimonies of massacres heard from many refugees arriving in Albania and Macedonia, and they suggest a far more complex picture of refugee movements in Kosovo and the behaviour of the security forces.

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[vooch]

another "oops" for the HumWarrior Prosecution who has billed Jacky Rowland as a star witness for their side once the Tribunal starts up again.

[Great Dane]

Should prove interesting......... any word on when the trial starts again. ?

[vooch]

don't know..........but here is more reporting from Jacky, this time a KLA shooting of a OSCE observer via NPR January 15th, 1999..........

Jacky Rowland reports from Pristina that two members of the international team monitoring the shaky ceasefire in Kosovo province were shot and wounded today. The men, a Briton and his Serb interpreter, were the first ceasefire "verifiers" to be shot in Kosovo. It was not immediately known who fired the shots. Meantime, heavy fighting was reported today south of the provincial capital. (2:00)

[vooch]

Jacky visits Kortia

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Sunday, May 23, 1999 Published at 12:52 GMT 13:52 UK


Propaganda battle over Kosovo

Smouldering wreckage in the aftermath of the Nato raid on Korisa

By Jacky Rowland, BBC Belgrade Correspondent

As the weather over the Balkans has improved, and the Nato bombing campaign has intensifed, the Serbian authorities have allowed a number of foreign journalists to return to Kosovo.

They clearly want more information and more images from the province to reach the outside world.

Recently, they took us to the village of Korisa, in south-western Kosovo - the scene of some of the worst carnage caused by Nato bombing.

A number of missiles had hit an encampment of refugees on the outskirts of the village. More than 80 Kosovo Albanians were killed, some of them blown apart, others burnt alive.

When Nato spokesman Jamie Shea heard about the visit, he reacted by saying: "I hope they will impose their will and shake off their minders."

Nato says the site was a legitimate military target. Now apparently it was our job to discover the truth.

Searching for evidence

We were anxious to get to Korisa while the evidence was still relatively fresh. Our army escorts clearly had other ideas. They had a carefully planned timetable for the day and weren't about to be thrown off course by the fact that Nato had just killed the largest number of civilians so far in a single attack.

Jamie Shea: "Shake off the minders"

The first stop on our tour was an army unit which, we were told, was leaving Kosovo as part of a limited troop pullout. It was an obvious media event. The soldiers were waiting for our arrival before dismantling their rocket launchers for the cameras.

Then, they jumped into three trucks and drove off in a cloud of dust. The whole performance had cost us half an hour. So much for imposing our will, one of my colleagues muttered.

We headed off again, but clearly not towards Korisa. Instead we drove west, past a number of military vehicles cunningly disguised as trees, and to a meeting, so we discovered, with the top army commander in the area.

The general was a professional soldier of the old school. Nonetheless, he seemed to have wised up to Nato's tactics in the propaganda war.

At the first press conference, he said, Nato will accuse the Serbs of carrying out the attack against Korisa. At the second, it will say it doesn't have enough information to determine who carried out the attack.

At the third press conference, Nato will admit it carried out the attack and at the fourth, Nato will say it is sorry.

Inspecting the aftermath

At last, we drove into Korisa and the next phase of the propaganda war. Was this a refugee camp, or was it a legitimate military target? The trail has gone cold. All that was left of the refugees were a few pitiful belongings. As for the military target, it either never existed or was long gone.

Serb troops pull out of Kosovo

And so to my satellite phone to file my reports. I was put through to a studio and an assertive presenter. "Now, I really must press you, Jacky", he said "Are you absolutely sure you saw no signs that equipment had been moved?"

I paused for what was only a fraction of a second, but felt much longer. I imagined Jamie Shea and quite a few other people hanging on my words. I was about to tell them the truth, but what truth?

I had seen burnt out tractors and refugee clothing. I had seen what looked like commercial buildings around the site. I had seen no weapons - but I had arrived 36 hours too late and was only allowed to spend 20 minutes at the scene.

Pawn in the game

For the first time in my career as a journalist, I felt that I was a pawn in a much bigger and more sinister game. Nato was passing the buck to us.

We had failed to impose our will on our Serb hosts. But what of the Serbs themselves? Had they really pulled the wool over our eyes?

The fact of the matter is that Kosovo is a complicated place. Things are not as black and white as the horror stories from the refugee camps in Albania and Macedonia would suggest.

Other refugees have been able to stay and are even receiving new identity documents from the Serb authorities. Some say they feel safe here, at least for the time being. Ironically, Nato and its seemingly arbitrary attacks could now present the bigger danger to the Kosovo Albanians.

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[crazykatz]

Great post, Vooch.

[Kate22]

"Ironically, Nato and its seemingly arbitrary attacks could now present the bigger danger to the Kosovo Albanians."

Good post! Looks like their star witness, as you said, is going to provide even more humiliation for the Del Ponte/ Nice gang (calling him 'Nice' reminds me of those old Westerns where tall skinny guys with straight hair would be called 'Curly').

I'm sure they're going to convict Milosevic anyway, regardless of all evidence being debunked in front of the whole world.

[Kate22]

Trial starts again next week on Aug 26th and Rowland is one of the first witnesses due to be called.

[vooch]

thks for the heads up on the TRIBUNAL restart

[vooch]

hey this countryman of yours says that Clinton's bombs caused the refugee crisis............wadda u tink ?

[smokegenerator]

No refugee columns ehh? Well, a friend of mine's brother is or was an Air Force Col (Serb Military) who was on the list to be targeted opportunity. Well, he had a decoy when he and another Serb Military Inteligence Officer and not sure hwo the 3d officer was, had to report north.

You recall the Serb Police-escorted Albanian Convoy strafed repeatedly? NATO had intel that they were within that convoy, so guess what? It was targeted and hit. Why the repeated runs? Ensure they were eliminated, poof! Nope, the decoys were there, unscathed.

[vooch]

could you elaborate ?

[vooch]

Hoplite

still waiting for your insight into all this

[smokegenerator]

sure, he was the Colonel (officer in charge of security) and NATO wanted him taken out, very simple. He had to play their game of hide and seek. He was an important figure in the airbase security for southern serbia. Very elemantary and simple elaboration.

Nothing more to be said on this, as I was on the speaker phone with him and his brother in his office. He was telling us how they hid the Migs, heavy weapons, etc... how they constructed makeshift runway, placed dummy targets to be rehit on numerous occasions. Done on cell phone, as the landline was out.

[wonders]

Thanks, Smokey. I get it.

Good post vooch, as usual!

[vooch]

bmp..........Jacky testified today at the Triubunal so this is timely