Relying on a KLA P.O. for information is remarkable. Questioning villagers about the loyalities in the prescence of KLA, is simply 'not good detective work'.
Wraith may have a much more subtle understanding of what is likely to have happened.
...........I have seen the dirty side of the KLA and its not very pretty. This was going on even while you were conducting your KDOM patrols. Yes the Stemlje, Racak villagers supported the KLA but feared them as well. Considering the majority of the population were pro LDK i.e. Rugova. When you said that Buja was looking for volunteers It amused me because Shukri Buja does not ask he insists. There were 45 dead villagers found at Racak and by Buja's own admission an equal number of his KLA fighters of which 11 were killed. The real strange thing was that the 11 dead KLA were removed and buried in a village not far from Racak. No KLA bodies to suggest the villagers had posed resistance to the VJ and MUP. The Racak villger's knew the VJ and MUP were coming. The sound of heavy military equipment could be heard for miles. The Albanian grape vine is a very efficient thing especialy when bad news was on the horizon. The 45 villagers remained in Racak because Buja's KLA made them. It made no sence to hang around while the majority of the village took off for the safety of Stimlje unless you had approx. 45 armed KLA keeping you there. I find it very interesting that the majority of the deaths were the villagers and not the KLA. This is because these 45 LDK supporters were simply fodder for the KLA cause and would not be missed..................
THE HAGUE -- Tuesday November 23 2004 – Russian General Leonid Ivashov has taken the stand for the defence in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic before the Hague Tribunal.
The former commander of Russia’s international forces, told the court that the head of the 1998-99 Kosovo Verification Mission, William Walker, had said as early as February 12, 1999, that Serbs had no business in the province.
“Walker had already said on February 12, 1999, in answer to my question of what the chances looked for a peaceful resolution to the Kosovo crisis, that there would be an inevitable military intervention in the spring and that Serbs had no business in Kosovo,” said Ivashov.
The witness also told the court that former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had personally promised Kosovo Liberation Army leader Hashim Thaci that there would be a referendum on independence for Kosovo if the guerrilla organisation agreed to foreign troops being deployed in the province.
“The Russian General Staff Headquarters had information about 11 camps in Kosovo and northern Albanian were terrorists were being trained. We passed this information to General Wesley Clark with the intention of together putting an end to the Kosovo Liberation Army’s terrorist activities.
“Unfortunately General Clark said that NATO had no good intelligence reports to confirm this, which was simply not true,” said Ivashov.
The witness also told the court that Russian military leaders had spoken to the ambassadors of fifteen Islam countries about the training of terrorists and that the Iranian ambassador had confirmed the participation of Taliban and Al-Qaida members in Kosovo
So much of honest brokers.