Halid Berani (KLA propagandist) arrested

International forces arrested HALID BERANI (Kosovo Albanian), the president of the so called "Council for protection of human rights and freedoms in Kosovo", confirmed KFOR sources to B92 Radio reporter Tanja Matic, it is said on the Web site of B92 Radio (14:02 CET). Berani supplied Kosovo Albanian media at the beginning of this week the news that three Albanian boys were drowned in the Ibar river "because they were chased by Serb youths". This misinformation triggered public unrest and was used as an excuse by so far unidentified Albanian extremist groups and individuals to activate a pre-planned operation of ethnic persecution of all Serbs from Kosovo.

KFOR sources informed B92 that in Berani's house documentation was found which was taken by KFOR. During the armed conflict in Kosovo in 1998-1999 Berani was an active member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK). It is believed that Berani might be involved in the plan of ethnic cleansing of Kosovo which had to be presented to the world media as a "justified anger of Albanian population after the alleged killing of three Albanian boys".

Serbian Orthodox Church is shocked that this false information and manipulation with the tragic death of Albanian children, which was denied by the UNMIK police spokesman Derek Chapel the next day, was so easily picked up not only by media in Albanian language but also by some professional and trustworthy international agencies without previous confirmation of the information. This regrettable example of media manipulation encouraged the extremists and contributed to the suffering of many civilians and deaths of dozens of innocent people.

However, no matter how much this manipulation contributed to the deterioration of the security situation international sources in the Province say that there are many reliable indicators that the plan of expulsion of all Serbs and destruction of all Serbian Orthodox churches in Kosovo was a strategy planed beforehand, which was even admitted by some of the Kosovo Albanian political analysts like Veton Surroi.

The Church remains confident that the International peacekeeping forces and UNMIK police will trace down the organizers of this unrest and crimes which have been committed and bring them to justice. http://news.serbianunity.net/bydate/2004/March_21/10.html

March 1, 2002

HAGUE TRIBUNAL AND CHICAGO TRIBUNE TAKEN IN BY HOAXTERS
by Thomas Fleming

"Victim by victim, the prosecution in Slobodan Milosevic's war crimes trial is demonstrating that within hours of the start of NATO's bombing campaign the Yugoslav government began executing a comprehensive and systematic plan to expel hundreds of thousands of Albanians from Kosovo."

After this breathless introduction, the Chicago Tribune's Tom Hundley (February 28, 2002) goes on to describe the testimony of Halit Barani, who provided "one of the most chilling pieces of evidence introduced Wednesday," namely, a "list of 'Shiptars' in Kosovska Mitrovica who must be summarily liquidated." Hundley goes on to explain that "Shiptar" is "the derogatory word Serbs use for Albanians." In America a racial slur aggravates a charge of murder. Too bad that "Shiptar" is also the word Albanians use for Albanians.

Milosevic cross-examined Halit Barani, the Kosovo Albanian politician who claims to have discovered the hit-list, asking him if he knew that two of his cousins were the main drug dealers in Mitrovica and that another relative had fled to Turkey after raping a medical student. Barani admitted the second charge but he denied that his cousins were dealers. Since law enforcement agencies throughout Europe have identified Kosovo Albanians and the KLA as the major players in the European heroin market, such an allegation is not so easy to dismiss.

Milosevic turned the tables on his accuser and charged him with compiling lists of Serbs to be liquidated and posting the names in the library and the Adriatic Hotel. Barani explained his hit-list as an exhibition "with photographs of massacred Albanians and next to the photos I put the names of the perpetrators." When pro-life groups post names and pictures of abortionists on wanted posters, they are accused of being accessories to murder. By this standard Barani did draw up something like a hit-list, but did the Yugoslav government? The list offered in evidence by Barani, according to Milosevic, is riddled with the kind of grammatical and spelling errors that Albanians (but not Serbs) typically make. The judge-prosecution team (it is pointless to maintain a distinction) are calling for expert witness to testify because in their zeal to get at the truth, prosecutors apparently did not locate anyone competent in the Serbian language.

Milosevic also cited evidence of Albanian crimes against Yugoslav policemen. Barani denied what everyone knows to be true, that the Kosovo Liberation Army was attacking and killing policemen in order to provoke the reprisals that would outrage international opinion. Those who support the Albanians regard such attacks as legitimate measures in a war of national liberation; others regard them as terrorism, but only members of the KLA would deny they took place. Barani also denied being a member of the KLA, and the Chicago Tribune's correspondent and editors are apparently willing to take him at this word and pronounce Milosevic guilty as charged.

If anyone at the Tribune had done a minimum of checking, he would have discovered that Halit Barani was the subject of a news story in December 31, 1999, when the Wall Street Journal ran a major piece debunking his credibility and linking him with the KLA, which gave him access to their precious satellite telephone network. The title is chillingly relevant to the current trial: "War in Kosovo Was Cruel, Bitter, Savage; Genocide it Wasn't." The subtitle is equally telling, especially in the case of Barani's testimony: "Tales of Mass Atrocity Arose And Were Passed Along, Often With Little Proof"

Barani had accused the Yugoslav government of murdering Albanian civilians and stuffing their bodies into the Trepca mine shaft. "Mr. Barani," commented the Journal's reporters dryly, "is a former actor with a Karl Marx beard who summarizes Serb war crimes by showing a photo of a baby with a smashed skull. [He] spent the war moving from village to village with his manual typewriter, calling in reports to foreign radio services and diplomats with his daily allotment of three minutes on a KLA satellite phone."

His "eye-witness accounts" of these atrocities were spread around the world, and the Kosovo authorities even quoted a "U.S. embassy official in Athens as saying there are witnesses and still photos of trucks carrying bodies. Western journalists phoned the embassy, but a spokeswoman said she couldn't find the supposed source." No better foundation could be found for other reports emanating ultimately from Barani's overworked manual typewriter. Nonetheless, concluded reporters Daniel Pearl and Robert Block, "some commentators stated the theory as fact."

After debunking the factual evidence of Barani's hoax, Pear and Block observed that even "Mr. Barani doesn't completely stand by his story. 'I told everybody it was supposition, it was not confirmed information,' he says. But he adds, 'For the Serbs, everything is possible.'" Mr. Barani's credulity is easily explained by his zeal to establish an Albanian state and an Albanian's natural desire to retaliate against his traditional enemy, the Serbs. What explains the credulity displayed by the Chicago Tribune and the AP wire, which ran a similar story? In reporting on the Hague Tribunal, "stating a theory as a fact" has become standard practice. A few days ago, these people were singing the praises of Daniel Pearl, a real reporter, who lost his life trying to get the facts of a story. The Tribune staff cannot even risk the paper cut they might receive if they looked up Shiptar in an Albanian dictionary. Instead of eulogizing Danny Pearl, they should be emulating him.

http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/HardRight/HardRight030102.htm

But a Voice of America article written by a STEFAN BOS reports the inflammatory univestigated propaganda as fact: Thousands Attend Funerals of Kosovo Albanian Boys Forced to Jump to Their Deaths

I've read that there were no Serbs living in that town, Cabra. Further, the Serbs were disarmed by NATO, while Albanians are all armed with heavy weaponry (they've fired mortars at monasteries where people gathered for safety), and they don't dare go into Albanian villages.

Further, no one ever released a description of the dangerous dog (markings, breed) or the men allegedly involved. And they've had the story claim them as "Serb men", then "Serb youths", then "Serb children" - so they can't get the story straight. The stories also first said it was Serb men, then it became a dog sent by the Serb men, then it was Serb men and the dog chasing them. Where also is a description of the men and police sketches? Instead of doing investigative work to find culprits, people are on TV riling up the Albanians to destroy all the Serbs and all their villages.

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