U.N.-APPROVED TERRORIST TO RUN KOSOVO

Chronicles Magazine ^ | 2004-12-06 | Dr. Serge Trifkovich

[DTA]

December 6, 2004

U.N.-APPROVED TERRORIST TO RUN KOSOVO
by Srdja Trifkovic

Imagine a "multi-ethnic" Palestine, administered by the United Nations, in which a Hamas leader notorious for terrorist attacks on Jewish civilians is certified as the Authority's "democratically" elected chief executive. Imagine Abu Musab al-Zarqawi being approved by a future UN governor as Iraq's prime minister. Imagine that in Kosovo a KLA murderer . . . but then in Kosovo you don't have to imagine anything. On December 3 the provincial parliament in Pristina voted to elect Ramush Haradinaj as prime minister. This 36-year-old former commander of the "Kosovo Liberation Army" has been indicted in Serbia on 108 detailed counts of murder, rape, and other crimes. He is also under investigation by The Hague War Crimes Tribunal, which is usually reluctant to take an interest in non-Serbs unless the case is particularly egregious. The chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, has implied that an indictment could be issued for him by the end of the year. The nation-building farce reached surreal proportions as Soren Jessen-Petersen, the UN/EU governor of Kosovo, described Haradinaj's election as an example of "democracy at work . . . in full conformity with democratic and constitutional principles."

The appointment followed a coalition agreement between Ibrahim Rugova, whose party won most votes at the province's general elections, and the much smaller Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, led by Haradinaj, which came in third. Petersen's posture reflects the desire of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to keep an illusion of order at any price. Two years ago UNMIK arrested Haradinaj and his KLA colleague 'Remi' Mustafa, but the event sparked violent protests demanding "freedom for the freedom fighters."

Haradinaj returned from Switzerland—where he worked as a night club bouncer—to Kosovo in early 1998, joined the KLA, and soon acquired reputation for brutality. In April the KLA commander Hashim Thaci appointed Haradinaj commander of the Metohija region. His HQ was located in the village of Glodjane, where he was born. At that time the KLA was still on the State Department list of terrorist organizations and Haradinaj's behavior amply justified such designation. Haradinaj established a special unit called the Black Eagles, which under Haradinaj's command kidnapped and brutally murdered dozens of civilians, mostly but not exclusively Serbs. In the vicinity of Glodjane 39 bodies of civilians were discovered in three mass graves in September 1998. Later that month 13 unidentified bodies of civilians of both sexes and various ages were discovered in the canal supplying a nearby lake, and 21 bodies were recovered elsewhere in the district. According to the forensic experts' report,

"Due to various stages of decomposition, it was not possible to establish the cause of death solely on the basis of the autopsy. In 19 cases bone fractures indicated wounds made by bullets fired from small caliber weapons. In 24 cases signs of heavy objects were found; in two cases there were traces of sharp mechanical weapons, while in three instances the victims were exposed to high temperatures (bodies found in Dasinovac). Several objects on and near the bodies (metal wire and adhesive tape) suggest that some of the victims were first tied up and tortured."

Over 70 pounds of documents and testimonies submitted to The Hague indicate that during the 1998-99 KLA insurgency Haradinaj was responsible for those and other atrocities not only against local Serbs, but also against Romanies, Slav Muslims, and Albanians who were not supporting the KLA. Some of the documents include specific instances of crimes committed under Haradinaj's direct orders.

In 2001 Haradinaj extended his "zone of operations" to Macedonia, this time under the label of the ANA (Albanian National Army). According to the Macedonian Defense Ministry, its goal was to fight for new territories and to keep the dream of creating the greater Albania alive.

In Kosovo itself, Haradinaj has masterminded a highly developed network that threatens and intimidates those UNMIK police and administrative officers who are reluctant to accept his "lobbying contributions" (bribery). It is common knowledge that Albanian leaders in the Kosovo Police Service obey Haradinaj, and not their nominal UN masters. His men have been appointed municipal mayors and, paradoxically, are also members of negotiating groups for displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija, which gives them, and him, access to confidential Serbian and UNMIK plans. As an astute commentator has noted, it was not enough for the UN to whitewash NATO's illegal invasion and occupation of Kosovo, to sit idly by and even justify the ethnic cleansing and barbaric destruction of Serbs and their cultural treasures, or even to stage sham elections designed to give a veneer of legitimacy to the abomination they have created—no, they had to go all the way and allow the appointment of a gangster, murderer, and terrorist as "prime minister" of the occupied province:

"It's not that the UN and NATO and EU and the U.S. don't know who Ramush Haradinaj is. After all, they made him: sponsored his terrorist army, promoted him from a local thug into a politician, covered up his murderous activities, and even patched him up when his victims shot back. So, his appointment is deliberate, and the limp protestations of EU's foreign policy commissar are likely just a smokescreen."

With such a man at the helm it is to be feared that Kosovo will continue to be the worst-administered corner of Europe by far, a terminally dysfunctional polity plagued by crime, violence, and degrading inhumanity. Haradinaj's promise that his government "will be engaged in the realization of the demands of the international community for the implementation of democratic standards in Kosovo" has chilling connotations, especially in view of Petersen's earlier explanation why he could not reject Haradinaj's candidacy for Prime Ministership: "If I say no to this candidate, I would be saying no to democracy."

If the new PM and his UN mentor follow the model of "democratic standards" Haradinaj first perfected in his fiefdom at Glodjane back in 1998, before too long we'll witness yet another outbreak of mob violence like the one last March 17. That episode was described by a senior UN official as the "Kristallnacht": thousands of armed Albanian extremists torched Serb houses and medieval churches, clashed with UN police and NATO-led peacekeepers, and forced thousands of Serbs and other minorities to flee.

More seriously for American interests, Haradinaj's external links are not limited to the network of pimps and dope traffickers in Brooklyn, Milan, or Zurich. Interpol now believes that Osama bin Laden is linked to Kosovo-Albanian gangs who have taken over a growing web of crime across Europe. According to The Independent, "The investigations into organized crime links with his terrorist network also show that bin Laden supplied one of his top military commanders for an elite KLA unit during the Kosovo conflict." The Black Eagles, perhaps? It is a fair bet that the recipient of bin Laden's assistance is now the prime minister of a self-designated republic in the heart of Europe. With friends like the UN/EU administrators in Kosovo and the illustrious Mr. Haradinaj himself, the United States needs no enemies.

[DTA]

>>>>>Tough to make the SW USA to Kosovo analogy until we start sending our police, our Army, and our ex-cons in little private paramilitary bands on rampages of robbing, raping, killing and burning down the houses of Hispanic-Americans.<<<<

Just to make one thing clear.

Do you want to say that Serbian government sent "police, Serbian Army, and Serbian ex-cons in little private paramilitary bands on rampages of robbing, raping, killing and burning down the houses of Kosovo Albanians" and Haradinaj &Co. acted in self-defense?

If your answer is "YES" regardless of the established facts, think again.

Think of WACO,Tx and RUBY RIDGE when Clinton and Rhino sent what you described to kill American citizens who WERE NOT TERRORISTS like HAradinaj and Co..

Americans were killed for not obeying U.S. law., not because they committed the acts of terrorism.

[mark502inf]

DTA, the issue was never about legitimate Serb actions against Haradinaj and the KLA. As documented in the December 1999 U.S. Government Report: Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo-An Accounting, the problems were Forcible Displacement of Ethnic Albanian Civilians, Summary Executions, Looting of Homes and Businesses, Widespread Burning of Homes, Use of Human Shields, Arbitrary Detentions, Rape, Violations of Medical Neutrality, and Identity Cleansing; to borrow the sub-headings for the report. Go to the link and you can get the details about the million plus Albanians forced from their homes by the Serbs, the 500 burned villages and so on.

[DTA]

War is hell and that is the reason why it is condemned in International treaties. That was the rationale behind Nuremberg. Nazis were prosecuted because they STARTED WAR, A CRIME AGAINST PEACE. Allies were not prosecuted for Dresden and murder and rape of German civilians.

Crime against peace, as well as support of terrorism is forbidden by international treaties.

All you have described allegedly happened after NATO agression on Yugoslavia March 24 1999.

All guilty for crimes should be trialed. Serbs for commiting crimes against Albanian civilians, Germans and Americans for crime against peace and being part of criminal enterprise.

[ehoxha]

final status talks

are you kidding ?

Final status was determined by UNSCR 1244 and the MTA which We wrote and voted for in 1999.

The KLA still pines after its terrorist statlet - but no other responsible party supports it.

[mark502inf]

final status talks are you kidding ? Final status was determined by UNSCR 1244

Wrong yet again. UNSCR 1244 establishes a civil administration in Kosovo variously referred to as "transitional" or "interim" and that such an administrations will operate "pending a political settlement" while "Facilitating a political process designed to determine Kosovo's future status" and then "In a final stage, overseeing the transfer of authority from Kosovo's provisional institutions to institutions established under a political settlement."

ehoxha, the facts are available. Do a little research and quit embarrassing yourself.

[ehoxha]

indeed, and under US Rules of Land Warfare.......USFM 27-10 Chapter 6 - Laws made in Belgrade are the writ of the landin Kosovo and Metohija; meaning that any poltical settlement has to be made within the laws of Belgrade.

So, please don't too carried away.

[ehoxha]

read it and weep; you are being shamlessly used.........

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1367965,00.html

The price of People Power

The Ukraine street protests have followed a pattern of western orchestration set in the 80s. I know - I was a cold war bagman

Mark Almond
Tuesday December 7, 2004
The Guardian

People Power is on track to score another triumph for western values in Ukraine. Over the last 15 years, the old Soviet bloc has witnessed recurrent fairy tale political upheavals. These modern morality tales always begin with a happy ending. But what happens to the people once People Power has won?

The upheaval in Ukraine is presented as a battle between the people and Soviet-era power structures. The role of western cold war-era agencies is taboo. Poke your nose into the funding of the lavish carnival in Kiev, and the shrieks of rage show that you have touched a neuralgic point of the New World Order.

All politics costs money, and the crowd scenes broadcast daily from Kiev cost big bucks. Market economics may have triumphed, but if Milton Friedman were to remind the recipients of free food and drink in Independence Square that "there is no such thing as a free lunch", he would doubtless be branded a Stalinist. Few seem to ask what the people paying for People Power want in return for sponsoring all those rock concerts.

As an old cold war swagman, who carried tens of thousands of dollars to Soviet-bloc dissidents alongside much better respected academics, perhaps I can cast some light on what a Romanian friend called "our clandestine period". Too many higher up the food chain of People Power seem reticent about making full disclosure.

Nowadays, we can google the names of foundations such as America's National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and a myriad surrogates funding Ukraine's Pora movement or "independent" media. But unless you know the NED's James Woolsey was also head of the CIA 10 years ago, are you any wiser?

Throughout the 1980s, in the build-up to 1989's velvet revolutions, a small army of volunteers - and, let's be frank, spies - co-operated to promote what became People Power. A network of interlocking foundations and charities mushroomed to organise the logistics of transferring millions of dollars to dissidents. The money came overwhelmingly from Nato states and covert allies such as "neutral" Sweden.

It is true that not every penny received by dissidents came from taxpayers. The US billionaire, George Soros, set up the Open Society Foundation. How much it gave is difficult to verify, because Mr Soros promotes openness for others, not himself.

Engels remarked that he saw no contradiction between making a million on the stock market in the morning and spending it on the revolution in the afternoon. Our modern market revolutionaries are now inverting that process. People beholden to them come to office with the power to privatise.

The hangover from People Power is shock therapy. Each successive crowd is sold a multimedia vision of Euro-Atlantic prosperity by western-funded "independent" media to get them on the streets. No one dwells on the mass unemployment, rampant insider dealing, growth of organised crime, prostitution and soaring death rates in successful People Power states.

In 1989, our security services honed an ideal model as a mechanism for changing regimes, often using genuine volunteers.

Dislike of the way communist states constrained ordinary people's lives led me into undercover work, but witnessing mass pauperisation and cynical opportunism in the 1990s bred my disillusionment.

Of course, I should have recognised the symptoms of corruption earlier. Back in the 1980s, our media portrayed Prague dissidents as selfless academics who were reduced to poverty for their principles, when they were in fact receiving $600-monthly stipends. Now they sit in the front row of the new Euro-Atlantic ruling class. The dowdy do-gooder who seemed so devoted to making sure that every penny of her "charity" money got to a needy recipient is now a facilitator for investors in our old stamping grounds. The end of history was the birth of consultancy.

Grown cynical, the dissident types who embezzled the cash to fund, say, a hotel in the Buda hills did less harm than those that launched politico-media careers. In Poland, the ex-dissident Adam Michnik's Agora media empire - worth €400m today - grew out of the underground publishing world of Solidarity, funded by the CIA in the 1980s. His newspapers now back the war in Iraq, despite its huge unpopularity among Poles.

Meanwhile, from the shipyard workers who founded Solidarity in 1980 to the Kolubara miners of Serbia, who proclaimed their town "the Gdansk of Serbia" in October 2000, millions now have plenty of time on their hands to read about their role in history.

People Power is, it turns out, more about closing things than creating an open society. It shuts factories but, worse still, minds. Its advocates demand a free market in everything - except opinion. The current ideology of New World Order ideologues, many of whom are renegade communists, is Market-Leninism - that combination of a dogmatic economic model with Machiavellian methods to grasp the levers of power.

Today's only superpower uses its old cold war weapons, not against totalitarian regimes, but against governments that Washington has tired of. Tiresome allies such as Shevardnadze in Georgia did everything the US wanted, but forgot the Soviet satirist Ilf's wisdom: "It doesn't matter whether you love the Party. It matters whether the Party loves you."

Georgia is of course a link in the chain of pipelines bringing central Asian oil and gas to Nato territory via Ukraine, of all places. Such countries' rulers should beware. Fifty years ago, Zbigniew Brzezinski argued that the "politics of the permanent purge" typified Soviet communism. Yet now he is always on hand to demand People Power topple yesterday's favourite in favour of a new "reformer".

"People Power" was coined in 1986, when Washington decided Ferdinand Marcos had to go. But it was events in Iran in 1953 that set the template. Then, Anglo-American money stirred up anti-Mossadeq crowds to demand the restoration of the Shah. The New York Times's correspondent trumpeted the victory of the people over communism, even though he had given $50,000 and the CIA-drafted text of the anti-Mossadeq declaration to the coup leaders himself. Is today's official version of People Power similarly economical with the truth?

· Mark Almond is lecturer in modern history at Oriel College, Oxford

[DTA]

>>>>> But it was events in Iran in 1953 that set the template<<<<

No, the template was Mussolini's March on Rome 1922

"Either the government will be given to us or will shall seize it by marching on Rome."

The biggest tragedy is that in former Communist countries top Commies are the ones with capital Iron Yulia (net worth: over $2.5B) is a poster child of "transition".

Anti-communists ended empty handed, with ruined lives, stripped of their own property, without share in communist loot and without influence in new Soros-sponsored power arrangement. Or, in Marx parlance, they have nothing left to lose except their chains.

[ehoxha]

bmp