Portraits of Terrorist Fifth Columnists in US Government: Richard Holbrooke

PHOENIX - Richard Holbrooke, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and evidently America's permanent ambassador to Mira Markovic, met on Wednesday (June 24) with Albanian terrorists in Kosovo while snubbing a Serb Bishop. That's as if the American envoy to the Middle East, Dennis Ross, were to meet with the Hezbollah or Hamas terrorists right after conferring with Benyamin Netanyahu. In other words, it was a clear and unmitigated poke in the eyes of the Serbs, just as the latter analogy would have been an unforgivable insult to Israel.

But then, the Clinton administration has already elevated some "former" terrorists, such as Yasser Arafat, to the status of respected statesmen. And the State Department has been making friendly overtures toward Iran, the world's center of terrorism and anti-Americanism; while Bill Clinton is currently kow-towing to the communist dictators in China. So, I guess, why should we be surprised the man whom some approving New York media referred to as the "Kissinger of the Balkans" was posing Wednesday for photographs with Albanian KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) terrorists. Maybe the new New World Order slogan should read - "thugs of the world unite!", along the lines of the Communist Internationale's erstwhile mantra - "workers of the world unite."

But wait a minute, what "country" is Mira Markovic? (to which Holbrooke is the permanent ambassador). Well, Ms. Markovic is the person who runs Slobodan Milosevic, who is in charge of Serbia, which is a part of the country called Yugoslavia, of which Milosevic is president. Kind of like the way things work in Washington, where Holbrooke was the "NGO" (Non-Government Organization) pulling Madeleine Albright's, Clinton's and Congress' strings on U.S. Balkan policy, even when he was ostensibly working for a Wall Street bank, let alone now, that the Wall Street-Washington revolving door has spun him again back into government service.

But not all New Yorkers speak approvingly of Holbrooke. Benjamin Works, executive director of The Strategic Issues Research Institute and a political/military consultant to CBS News and to Fox News Cable who has already contributed to TiM a piece on Kosovo (see "Kosovo Is Heating Up" - TiM GW Bulletin 98/6-4, 6/15/98), had this to say in his June 25 newsletter about Holbrooke's latest mission:

"Richard Holbrooke, our UN Ambassador-designate, swaggered into Belgrade to lay down the law with Slobodan Milosevic, then made a high-profile trip into Kosovo to visit the KLA in the Decani area, comparing what he saw --burned out houses-- to his experience in Vietnam as a junior diplomat in the 1960s. 'I felt like I was going back into the rice paddies of the Mekong Delta and seeing the same tragic scenario playing itself out,' he declaimed melodramatically at the KLA-held village of Junik, as if he had been a young rifleman under fire and not a junior Saigon diplomat. 'All I can say is we will give it our best shot.' Meanwhile, the KLA took a few shots at Holbrooke's entourage, held back at a Serb police checkpoint a few kilometers away.
The KLA rejected Holbrooke's call for a truce out of hand. 'Events on the ground,' he admitted to Kurt Schork of Reuters, Chris Hedges of The New York Times and others, 'have been moving faster than the diplomatic process. We are not waiting for intricately coordinated positions in order to stop this, even though we keep the Contact Group informed.' Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana reiterated to (Ibrahim) Rugova's party that there is no hope for an independent Kosovo.
It doesn't get much more contradictory. Set aside the fact Holbrooke is an egotist of considerable magnitude who fancies he is John Wayne-tough and who feeds fat off the Wall Street trough through his new connections when not on government service. The fact is that in such a diplomatic intercession, he, as the US and NATO's lead diplomat, is supposed to be acting as an honest broker, with some moderation to his public rhetoric. In fact, he continues to openly take sides, while misrepresenting facts, events and circumstances. He is too partisan to retain credibility, yet as the US representative, his position is virtually unassailable."

Mr. Works depicted Holbrooke perfectly. He is a bully and a racist to boot as the following excerpt from this writer's Aug. 18, 1997 WASHINGTON TIMES column, "Will American forces ever leave Bosnia?", shows:

"The sympathetic New York media have nick-named him 'Kissinger of the Balkans' - a sure omen of an ignominious end to an illustrious diplomatic career. Just as the Henry Kissinger diplomacy ultimately produced the most humiliating defeat in America's 221-year history - loss of Vietnam war - Richard Holbrooke's current Bosnia 'peace mission'" is doomed to failure no matter how many wrists Bill Clinton's 'Balkan Bully' twists in this troubled region.
The reason is quite simple. There are two MIA's in U.S. Bosnia policy. One is balance. The other is fairness. Without the two, no deal can work in the long run. A Wall Street deal-maker (which is what Holbrooke is when not pinch-hitting for the State Dept.) ought to know that, even if the goons and the Foggy Bottom diplomats don't seem to grasp such a simple concept... Continued engagement of foreign troops on Balkan soil would give NATO yet another raison d'être, while projecting its neo-colonial power closer to Russia's borders....
In short, balance and fairness was evidently not what Holbrooke's mission is about. He earned the epithet the 'Balkan Bully' by his unceasing oppression of the Serbs. Revealing his deep-seated hatred of the Orthodox Christians, this former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Canadian Affairs, called the Serbs 'murderous [expletive deleted]' in a discussion with ABC's Ted Koppel, according to a flattering Nov. 6, 1995 'NEW YORKER' article. Holbrooke's racist remark seemed to shock even this veteran newscaster...

'Murderous [expletive deleted]' is hardly the language graduates of this country's finest diplomatic schools are taught to use. Nor are the anchors of popular TV news programs expected to repeat them, so as to reinforce the negative impact. Such gutter language belongs in the gutter, of course. Which is why it became quite typical when the Nazi or the Soviet leaders chose to demonize certain groups of people. Still, this is neither the Nazi Germany, nor the Soviet Union (at least not yet). This is America - 'the home of the free'." [etc.]

Ten days after this was published, Holbrooke made a rare appearance on NPR (National Public Radio) to virtually apologize for his racist remark about the Serbs. Here's an excerpt from what he said (see TiM GW Bulletin 97/8-10, 8/28/97):

HOLBROOKE: "...It is a fact that the Serbs are not evil people. They are not murderers. It is the Serb leaders who led their people into this terrible, terrible tragedy. The Serbian people don't have any 'bad genes' (i.e., 'genetic defects' which would predispose them to crimes)."

Holbrooke's clumsy apology seemed downright comical in the face of his obvious Serbophobia. The U.S. envoy's Wednesday meeting with the KLA, an organization which even the State Department has labeled as terrorist, clearly demonstrated what his aim was - to provoke and outrage the Serbs. This was a good example of how perfidiously Balkan ethnic fires can be stoked by foreigners who pretend to carry an olive branch and work for peace. Kosovo is evidently "Bosnia II" all over again. New names, new places, same old warmongering scenario.

One of such outraged Serbs was Bishop Artemije, whose Raska and Prizren diocese includes Kosovo, and whom Holbrooke had snubbed during his whirlwind visit to the region. By the way, Bishop Artemije is well known for his opposition to the Milosevic regime, and has been an outspoken critic of any side which was using violence as a means of solving the Kosovo crisis. Constant appeals by His Grace for an urgent dialogue have been muffled by gun fire from both sides in the Kosovo conflict. Here is Bishop Artemije's open letter to Holbrooke:

June 25, 1998
TO: Richard Holbrooke
Your Excellency,
Yesterday, on June 24, you spent all day on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. We believe that you came with the noble intention to make your contribution to the calming down of the conflict as well as to the victory of peace and justice in this region.
However, your visit has brought me in a dilemma. I ask myself whether your visit to Kosovo in Metohija was really a peace-making and well-intentioned. Here is the reason of my concern:
It is very difficult to understand (and even more to accept) that the peace may be achieved by contacting one side in the conflict only. On this occasion you have had only the contact with the Albanian side. Is it possible to have a full impact on the truth here if another side is not heard (in this case the Serbian one)?
Is it possible that you have overlooked the fact that there are also Serbs who live in Kosovo and Metohija and not only Albanians?
How can we understand and explain the fact that you passed through Prizren yesterday and did not have a wish to meet there the Bishop of Raska and Prizren in order to hear from him at least a part of the truth on what is going on in Kosovo and Metohija. And the Bishop would have had a lot of things to tell you.
How can we understand and explain the fact that you were in Decani and did not visit Decani Monastery which is only two kilometers from the town. There you could have seen and learned more about the deep historic roots of the Serbs in this region. In the contact with the Serbian refugees there you could have heard their tragic story and learn how they became refugees in their own homeland.
We are therefore in dilemma whether you wanted at all to learn the factual truth or it was your kind hosts from your escort (Mr. Fehmi Agani, Mr. Veton Surroi and others) who did not allow you that and mislead you so that you could have an impression of only one side of the Kosovo and Metohija situation.
No matter what the real reason were, we think that such a relationship towards the Kosovo and Metohija reality cannot and will not contribute the achievement of the mutual confidence, peace and the common life in this region. It is painful to learn that your mission and mighty America have missed this point.
With my wish that the next time you show more understanding for the pain and cries of the Kosovo and Metohija Serbs, I am greeting you cordially.
Sincerely Yours,
Bishop of Raska and Prizren
ARTEMIJE

Indeed, the Bishop has good reasons to question whether Holbrooke's visit to Kosovo was really peace-making and well-intentioned. For example, Holbrooke used the devastation of Decani, a small town near the Albanian border, to launch another tirade against the Serbs in the presence of western reporters. He asked the Serbs to leave the town and allow the Albanians to return, as if the Serbs had occupied a foreign territory.

Well, Decani has been one of Serbia's cultural pearls for centuries. That's where an ancient Serb monastery is located, a beautiful Romanesque structure built by the Serbian King Stefan in the 1320s. Its walls are one of the world's richest medieval galleries, displaying some 1,000 priceless frescos (see "Murder on Wall Street," TiM GW Bulletin 98/5-6, 5/09/98).

Near the Decani monastery was also a refugee camp for the "ethnically cleansed" Serbs, the orphans of the New World Order that one rarely hears about in the establishment media. They were reportedly under siege by the Albanian rebels at the end of May. For a few days, TiM had also lost all contact with the monastery as its power had been cut. Even a Serbian Democratic opposition leader called on Milosevic to send the troops to Decani and to free the Serbs trapped on their own land by the Albanian insurgents (see "Kosovo: Ancient Monastery, Serb Refugees, Under Siege?", TiM GW Bulletin 98/5-9, 5/29/98, at our Web site).

Of course, few average Americans would have known all this about Decani. Which is how Holbrooke's twisted remarks, widely reported by the western media, can become truisms in the minds of the uninformed. And which is why, if there were truth in media, there would be no reason for the Truth in Media.

Nor was this the only distortion which emanated from Holbrooke's visit to Kosovo. As in Bosnia in 1992-1993, the State Department and the establishment media are trying to advance the theory that the Serbs, the victims of decades of "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo, are now doing it to the Albanians, systematically forcing them to flee to Albania. Yet at the same time, the same U.S. government and media have been complaining that the Yugoslav Army has now sealed the border with Albania (so as to prevent the illicit arms traffic and supplies for the KLA rebels), thus preventing the Albanian refugees from fleeing to Albania.

Anybody noticing a contradiction in terms here? The Serbs are supposed to be forcing the Albanians out of Kosovo by preventing them to leave? Sounds like some "Wag the Dog" screenwriter blew the script here. Or is it that the NWO producers of the Kosovo show think that all of us are brain dead and would gulp down their propaganda medicine without a second thought?

But perhaps the most bizarre aspect of Holbrooke's latest Kosovo jaunt was that he traveled with three ethnic Albanian officials in a 14-car armored convoy for which protection was provided by a truckload of Serbian security forces. That's as if the Israeli forces were to provide security for an American envoy so as to facilitate his meeting with Israel's enemies!? Only in the Balkans... No wonder people in Serbia are talking about Milosevic being America's stooge.

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HAVING WON KOSOVO FOR ALBANIAN TERRORISTS, HOLBROOKE SNUBS SERB BISHOP AT UN; PROTESTS ON BEHALF OF TERRORISTS, SHIRKS DUTIES AS AMBASSADOR BY LEAVING APPOINTMENT - JUNE 2000

INTERVIEW WITH BISHOP ARTEMIJE

NIN, Belgrade, Yugoslavia Issue 2582, June 22, 2000

The Serb delegation in New York was promised the creation of special security units, more Serbs in the Kosovo police and the foundations of Serb local self-government

By LIDIJA KUJUNDZIC The bishop of Raska and Prizren arrived from the United States on June 16 at the crack of dawn. On the same day he left for Gracanica to meet with Bernard Kouchner, the special envoy of the UN secretary general for Kosovo and Metohija, on the following day. Their meet was not cordial, and the reasons for Kouchner's reserve remained in New York. Namely, before the beginning of the meeting of the Security Council, which the delegation of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija attended as a guest on June 9, Bernard Kouchner, theatrically attempted to embrace the bishop in order to demonstrate to what extent he was intimate with the bishop to everyone present in the auditorium. However, the bishop of Raska and Prizren was unwilling to return Kouchner's geniality; he remained motionless and reserved.

"One year after the signing and adoption of Resolution 1244 and everything that has happened in Kosovo and Metohija it was essential that the representatives of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija appear in New York. We were in the right place at the right time," says Bishop Artemije.

The main diplomatic discussions took place prior to and following the session of the Security Council. Although it was prepared, the official statement of the Security Council was not published because the ambassador of the Russian Federation to the UN, Sergei Lavrov, vetoed it.

BISHOP ARTEMIJE: On the first day the delegation of the Serbs of Kosovo was received by the missions [to the UN] of Greece, Germany, Great Britain, Portugal, France and China. In the evening hours we were received by James Pardew of the State Department who was accompanied by Jonathan Levitzky, the advisor to the US ambassador to the UN, Richard Holbrooke. The delegation had two half-hour meetings with Richard Holbrooke and the ambassador of the Russian Federation to the UN, Mr. Lavrov.

NIN: How did those discussions go?

BISHOP ARTEMIJE: Everywhere we were carefully listened to because we presented the concrete problems of the Serb people in Kosovo. The seriousness with which our presentations were accepted is best attested to by the fact that thirteen of a total of fifteen ambassadors of member countries of the Security Council presented the criticisms of our delegation and sharply condemned the violence in Kosovo and expressed their willingness to stop it. As well, the fact that French ambassador [to the UN] Jean David Levitt, the president of the Security Council, spoke with our delegation for one hour and fifteen minutes and personally escorted us to the session of the Council speaks for itself.

NIN: However, there were some who were bothered by the presence of the delegation of the Serbs from Kosovo?

BISHOP ARTEMIJE: American ambassador [to the UN] Richard Holbrooke was negative in his stance toward our delegation. He was of the opinion that the other side, that is, the Albanians, were being discriminated against, and that the presence of only the Serb delegation created a precedent which cannot be consistent with the tradition of the Security Council. However, after the very unpleasant and arrogant speech of Richard Holbrooke, UN secretary general Kofi Annan rose from the table and came forward to greet us. He shook hands with all of us and welcomed us. There is no question that this was observed by Mr. Holbrooke who immediately left the session.

1998: LIKE A STALINIST COMMISSAR, HOLBROOKE ORCHESTRATES "POLITICAL REHABILITATION" OF ALBANIAN TERRORISTS - A VOLATILE MIX OF ALBANIAN COMMUNISTS & FULL TIME DRUG SMUGGLERS

SIT 7-2; Thursday July 2, 1998

By Benjamin C. Works

http://adsl10.cjnetworks.com/backissues/1998/SIT7-2.html

The Kosovo Crisis - On the Ground

The situation on the ground in Kosovo is intensifying. After some two weeks of Serb Police mostly sitting on their haunches in order not to provoke an ill-reasoned air attack upon themselves while Western diplomacy ran its course, they have begun local attacks designed at relieving beleaguered Serb populations trapped in villages besieged by KLA gunmen, who in turn are ringed in by Serb checkpoints.

The Yugoslav police and armed forces are moving now because, 1. Their patience while Richard Holbrooke conducted his diplomacy was rewarded by more KLA aggression --seeking to trigger "Serb atrocities" (which did not happen) and 2. NATO and the "Contact Group" for Kosovo (US, Russia, Britain, Italy, Germany and France) have bogged down on whether NATO can resort to military force to punish Yugoslavia for its alleged "ethnic cleansing," which is really a campaign of restoration of law and order against what a guerrilla war by was until last week an internationally condemned terrorist group --the KLA.

Further, a large open-pit coal mine just outside of Pristina, which provides fuel for the province and national electrical supply was taken over by the KLA a week ago and the Yugoslav police are attempting to liberate that critical operation as well. That appears to have been accomplished on Tuesday.

The Serb populated village of Kijevo, which lies on the main road from the provincial capital of Pristina to the Serb Orthodox See of Pec, has been surrounded by the KLA as part of its efforts to cut that highway and we understand that the Yugoslav police and army are trying to relieve that beleaguered village.

The Manchester Guardian on July 1^st, wrote the clearest report of what is now a concerted effort by the KLA guerrillas to build up an inventory of kidnapped Serb civilian males --men and boys-- as hostages to swap for KLA captives.

Gross US Strategic Mistakes

The United States, in the persons of envoys Richard Holbrooke and Robert Gelbard, has committed serious diplomatic errors predicated on its persistent misreading and misrepresentation of Yugoslav actions to contain the KLA. But last week, both Holbrooke and Gelbard gave de facto diplomatic recognition to the KLA by meeting directly with local leaders on the ground, in what they explained was an effort to find the real political leadership of the guerilla movement. It is noteworthy that officially the Kosovo Liberation Army is not aligned with Ibrahim Rugova's non-violent political movement, the League for a Democratic Kosovo (LDK).

Holbrooke and Gelbard have placed the United States in the impossible position of diplomatically recognizing a guerilla movement it has recognized as an international terrorist group before even determining if that group has any political, diplomatic or legal cohesion and coherence. In terms of legalisms, the KLA clearly sets as its objective the total ethnic cleansing of Serbs from their own homeland and does not seem to be respecting any of the laws of land warfare. Further, they are associated with drug smuggling, assassination, terror and sexual harassment of nuns, among a longer list of criminal activities and enterprises.

Contrast this with George Mitchell's "Good Friday" agreement with Sinn Fein and the United Kingdom. The guerrilla-terrorists of the Provisional Wing of the IRA were not granted diplomatic stature; rather, Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein --the political arm-- negotiated for the politicians and the guerillas. Holbrooke, with this current example of how to do it, went about extemporaneously recognizing the independence of the KLA from the LDK, thus further complicating his own diplomatic arrangements and negotiations. This is not genius or experience borne of reason, it is either stupid bungling or deliberate sabotage. In either case, it is clearly counter-productive.

Mr. Holbrooke, indeed, all of the interested parties, continue to deny they wish to encourage fighting, yet all US-UK threats (other European parties have increasingly moved away from these threats) have been directed against "the Serbs." If we wish to discourage the KLA's unrestrained "military" campaign --which is more terror against Albanians and Serb civilians than military operations against the police and military-- then, as I have observed repeatedly, NATO's mission would be to seal off the flow of supplies and fighters from the Albanian side of the border, rather than to threaten bombing attacks against the "Serb" forces, which are seeking to restore law and order.

1998: FROM APRIL-OCTOBER 1998, THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION & NATO ASSISTS THE KLA BY THREATENING YUGOSLAVIA WITH WAR. MEANWHILE, US ARMY & BRITISH SAS OPERATIVES UNDERTAKE TASK OF ARMING AND TRAINING K.L.A. TERRORISTS. K.L.A CONTINUES WITH ITS PROGRAM OF TERRORISM, MASSACRES & ETHNIC CLEANSING.

HOLBROOKE, NEGOTIATING ON BEHALF OF ALBANIAN TERRORISTS, THREATENS YUGOSLAVIA WITH BOMBING IF IT DOES NOT AGREE TO THE ENTRY OF 2,000 SPIES. THE SPIES, HEADED BY CIA STATION CHIEF WILLIAM WALKER, SET TO WORK STAGING A "MASSACRE" TO EXCUSE NATO BOMBING - ON BEHALF OF THE K.L.A - A TERRORIST GROUP

http://www.antiwar.com/szamuely/sz031701.html

Replaying NATO's Greatest Hits

.........1998. It was then that the United States began training and arming the KLA even as officials were condemning it in public as a "terrorist" organization. It was then that the United States was forcing Serbia, under threat of bombs, to sign one "ceasefire" agreement after another, each one of which would then be exploited by the KLA to strengthen its position in Kosovo. US support for the KLA, incidentally, was in flagrant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1160, passed on March 31, 1998, which had condemned "all acts of terrorism by the Kosovo Liberation Army or any other group or individual and all external support for terrorist activity in Kosovo, including finance, arms and training."

In October 1998, facing imminent US air strikes, President Slobodan Milosevic signed an agreement with US envoy Richard Holbrooke, promising to withdraw Yugoslav security forces from Kosovo. This deal imposed obligations exclusively on Yugoslavia. The Albanians had not had to sign anything, and were therefore free to continue to provoke the Serbs, confident that any act of Serb retaliation would be reported in the US media as typical Serb barbarity. It was a fatal surrender of sovereignty. Yugoslavia had been forced to agree not to suppress an armed insurrection within its own borders. It would be a matter of time before the Serbs would be confronted by even more humiliating demands.

As soon as Yugoslavia began withdrawing its forces from Kosovo, the KLA moved swiftly to take over positions previously held by the Serbs. The most sinister feature of the Holbrooke-Milosevic agreement was the establishment of the Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The ostensible purpose of the KVM was to monitor Yugoslavia?s compliance with the agreement. Its real purpose was to lay the groundwork for the subsequent NATO attack.

The KVM was largely a CIA operation. Its chief was former US Ambassador to El Salvador, William G. Walker, a specialist in covert warfare and propaganda. Walker maintained close links to the KLA. He elicited from them critical information about Yugoslav defenses. As for the KLA, here is how Roland Keith, a former field office director of KVM, described their methods: "Upon my arrival the war increasingly evolved into a mid-intensity conflict as ambushes, the encroachment of critical lines of communication and the [KLA] kidnapping of security forces resulted in a significant increase in government casualties which in turn led to major Yugoslavian reprisal security operations?. The situation was clearly that KLA provocations?were clear violations of the previous October?s agreement."

KLA provocations, on the one hand, and CIA manipulation of US public opinion, on the other hand, culminated in the notorious deceit of Racak in January 1999. Walker had declared to the media of the world, on the basis of no evidence whatsoever, that KLA fighters killed in a firefight with Yugoslav police had been Albanian civilians murdered in cold blood. Subsequent forensic investigations confirmed the Yugoslav version of events: No one had been shot at close range. The dead had lost their lives in battle. Yet this alleged "massacre" served to fuel the media hysteria leading up to NATO?s March 1999 murderous onslaught.

The US media, needless to say, maintained their usual discreet silence when questions about the US Government?s deceitful conduct came up. A year ago, the Sunday Timesof London reported: "American intelligence agents have admitted they helped to train the Kosovo Liberation Army before NATO?s bombing of Yugoslavia?. Central Intelligence Agency officers were ceasefire monitors in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, developing ties with the KLA and giving American military training manuals and field advice on fighting the Yugoslav army and Serbian police. When the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which coordinated the monitoring, left Kosovo a week before airstrikes began?many of its satellite telephones and global positioning systems were secretly handed to the KLA, ensuring that guerrilla commanders could stay in touch with NATO and Washington. Several KLA leaders had the mobile phone number of General Wesley Clark, the NATO commander." Amazing stuff. Nothing about any of this found its way into the US media. That the United States was behind what is taking place currently in the Presevo Valley was obvious to the Sunday Timesreporters a year ago: "The KLA has admitted its long-standing links with American and European intelligence organizations. Shaban Shala, a KLA commander now involved in attempts to destabilize majority Albanian villages beyond Kosovo?s border in Serbia proper, claimed he had met British, American and Swiss agents in northern Albania in 1996."

DECEMBER 1998: WHILE PRO-TERRORIST MEDIA 5TH COLUMNISTS "ATTACK" HOLBROOKE FOR NOT DOING ENOUGH TO HELP THE K.L.A, NATO ORDERS MACEDONIA TO ALLOW NATO OCCUPATION AND TROOP BUILDUP ON YUGOSLAV BORDER IN ANOTHER OBVIOUS SHOW OF SUPPORT FOR THE K.L.A

FORCED TO MAKE A STATEMENT AFTER YET ANOTHER K.L.A MASSACRE AGAINST SERB CIVILIANS, HOLBROOKE DENOUNCES SOMEBODY'S "ACTIONS" (NOBODY KNOWS WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT AND THAT'S THE WAY HE WANTS IT)

http://www.balkanpeace.org/cib/kam/kam07.html

Six Serbs, five of them teenagers aged 15 to 17 killed in Panda Cafe

PEC, Yugoslavia, Dec 16 (AFP) - Some 5,000 people, under close police guard, gathered Wednesday for the funeral of six young Serbs shot dead on Monday in a cafe in this western Kosovo town.

The victims' coffins were put on public view in Pec's main square where Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Pavle held a requiem mass, prior to the funeral at the municipal cemetery. Quoting from the Koran and the Gospel, the patriarch said: "Those who commit a crime against the innocent, commit a crime against humanity." "These innocent victims were guilty only of being from a different nation (ethnic group) and using a different alphabet," he said. The six Serbs, five of them teenagers aged 15 to 17, were killed when two masked gunmen sprayed automatic gunfire inside the Panda cafe in Pec, according to initial investigations. Many suspect that Kosovo Albanians fighting for independence from the rump Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) were behind the massacre.

Earlier Monday 36 Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) rebels were shot dead by Yugoslav troops on the Kosovo-Albania border in the worst single incident since a ceasefire began two months ago. "Because of its cruelty and its cowardice, this crime stands above all crimes," said Mirko Simonovic, principal of the slain teenagers' school.

A letter from the victims' mothers to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was read aloud, demanding that he do everything to "protect" Kosovo's Serb minority from attacks. A father of one of the victims, Vladislav Raickovic, condemned Kosovar "criminals" and demanded that the government "fulfill its duty, despite pressures and blackmail by the world mafia." "We want to live in peace, but not at any price, because the price we are paying right now is too high," Raickovic said. No incidents were reported during the ceremony, during which numerous police officers were seen on rooftops.

Pec is a city of 80,000 people that is 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the border with Albania, where the KLA is known to have bases in mountain villages.

On Tuesday, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic accused KLA "terrorists" of carrying out the attack, and vowed that those responsible "will be found and punished."

US special envoy Richard Holbrooke, who met Milosevic on Tuesday, said: "There are no excuses for such actions, no justification."

In Kosovo's capital Pristina, several thousand Serbs protested peacefully, demanding "state protection" and urging the international community to treat the KLA as a terrorist organisation.

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