Posted on 09/21/2003 8:34:13 AM PDT by joan
Yeah, tell that to the folks currently occupying the Serbian Krajina!
And thanks for admitting your hypocrisy as to the Yugoslavia/Bosnia questions! Funny how you have a different set of rules to apply when Serbs are involved.
No matter! They will outlive you and your KLA buddies!
Having checked your posted link, I suspect that is your real name. What clap-trap. It might be illuminating to know that the author of your cited evidence also has written that the U.S. government was involved in 9-11, stood down the air force so that the terrorist planes would not be intercepted, and invaded Afghanistan as part of a neo-colonialist plot to establish corporate rule over the world.
But, I guess if you can deny the facts at Srbrenica, its pretty easy to believe all that other stuff, too.
I hope you're right. I'd rather have a sister in a whorehouse than a brother that's a Cubs fan.
As for Racak, Although I have very little respect for HRW, the lack of a blood feud amongst the Albanians would definetly be a sure sign that it wasn't Albanian on Albanian violence. However, I believe Wraith has spoken to Albanian witnesses from Racak that do blame the KLA. Hopefully he'll chime in soon.
Well, at least the first three words of your post make sense.
Titled "The Jasharis, the Story of a Resistance," the pamphlet traces Adem Jashari's eight-year armed struggle and declares that family members were "loyal co-fighters" who were "ready for sublime sacrifice."
Jashari's wife, Adile, was the first person killed in the 1998 siege, "while taking ammunition to Adem," the brochure says. The last to die was their son Kushtrim, 13, who fell "holding the automatic gun in his hands," it says.
Unfortunately, the 12 year old at Racak was murdered, not killed incident to a fight.
Dear Mr.Lawn, thanks for the directed post on Racak and must apologize for my tardy reply, as it were my information related job has had me on the move like you would not believe. Still in the field and getting cranky but found the time to chime in.
As for Racak I would ask mark502inf to research my posts in order to get my big picture on the Racak setup. To understand Kosovo in 1999 is to understand that the KLA as far as the local Kosovar Albanian population were concerned, were under the control of the KLA PU, i.e. KLA military police, a fine collection of misfits and uneducated sadistic criminals ever to band together. Dealing with them was like being introduced to the Devil's children. Even during the Serb occupation the locals were under the heavy hand of the KLA PU. You made mention that their was no blood feud in Racak after the fact. In Kosovo no one challenges the KLA for what ever reason. Few have and are never seen again. The Racak villagers were LDK supporters which in the eyes of Hashim Thaci were the political opposition. These people were forced to defend their village. Serbs on one side villagers in the middle and the KLA taking up the high ground into the hills, in firm control of the only way to escape from the on coming Serbs. Walker an American in charge of the OSCE mission, Europe’s version of the UN? The KLA needed a massacre in order to get international support which as you know resulted in the invasion of NATO. The thing that has always bothered me is that people had to die for an excuse that the KLA conveniently supplied. The reason I know this is because the KLA tried to set up the same scenario in a village called Petrova not far from Racak. In that case the villagers were promised by the KLA that they would defend the village if the Serbs attacked. The Serbs came and the KLA failed to show. With the few guns they did have the Petrova villagers managed to get away. The villagers of Petrova were also LDK supporters, therefore fodder for the cause. With Racak the KLA learned from the Petrova attempt and made sure the Racak villagers stayed. Guns at your front and guns at your back, what a thankless situation. The villagers lost 45 men and the KLA lost 11 men who were removed just before allowing the Military observers into the village the next day to see the so called massacre. These 11 KLA fighters were buried in a village called Monaplace. Why didn’t the KLA allow the Racakvillagers to return and collect their dead while they were collecting theirs? Its because the props needed to stay for Walker’s show.
It’s the old saying, better them than us. Perception is everything and it is perception that gains public support. That’s how politicians get elected.
Again Mr. Lawn thanks for the heads up and its time you know to grab one that’s a touch above freezing…….
Regards Wraith
First, I must differ with you on the blood feud--there have been many KLA members killed due to feuds over the last few years. And as you said yourself in one of your previous posts: "good old fashioned revenge bloodshed based on family honor casts aside political views very quickly" plus "Things never really change in Kosovo as Albanians continue to kill Albanians." So, again, I believe the absence of blood feuds or killings by the Racak family members mitigates against the Alb on Alb theory.
Further, the villagers are still very bitter about the Serbs--when the court trying one of the Racak suspects came out to do a reconstruction of the crime a couple years back, the local Albanians became enraged when they saw the Serb lawyer and the entire party had to bug out.
You advanced a competing theory of what happened, but I saw nothing in your posts that refuted the known evidence; i.e. the various eyewitness reports from the villagers & the report of the team under Dr. Ranta. I had the opportunity to engage in a disucssion with Dr Ranta personally on this issue--there is no doubt in her mind as to what happened--the Albanians were murdered--not killed in a fight or executed elsewhere & then dragged in.
Finally, there was combat between Yugo & KLA forces vicinity Racak shortly before with some KLA casualties. As you said, the KLA removed those casualties. If it was a set-up, they would have left those bodies in Racak to drive up the massacre count even higher.
Wraith, thanks for a post free of histrionics.
G.O.M. Lawn. As a lifelong Detroit Lions fan, I know what bad football looks like. And I sure could recognize it watching the Bears on Monday night. Time for Ditka & Butkus to put the pads back on!
Because this would have been evidence of armed/uniformed combatants at the scene, some of whom would have been known to the Serbs.
But if the idea is that the KLA removed the bodies of their combatants, that nukes the theory held by many that the murdered farmers and villagers were really fighters.
Which reminds me, the normal KLA procedure was to evacuate & bury their own dead--not to leave them for the Serbs--I'm sure Wraith is familiar with that. Which again, further supports the non-combatant status of the dead villagers.
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