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Behind the Headlines
by Justin Raimondo
October 11, 1999
KOSOVO GOES FASCIST
Months after NATO's assault on the former Yugoslavia, the fruits of that
alleged "victory" have begun to appear in all their misshapen ugliness: what is
clearly evolving in Yugoslavia's conquered province, is a full-fledged fascist
state. And I don't mean that rhetorically, in the sense that I think the KLA
are not very nice: I mean that literally, as in self-conscious fascists have
seized de facto power in Kosovo. During the war I warned, in this column, that
the ideological pedigree of the Kosovo Liberation Army can be traced back to
some very dubious sources, including the pro-Nazi Skanderberg Division of the
SS that fought for Germany during World War II, as well as supporters of the
late Enver Hoxha, Albania's Stalinist strongman. Now the fascist KLA is coming
out of the closet, baring its fangs, and showing its true face for all the
world to see: yet, somehow, the world is no longer looking. The Western media,
which clamored for – and, indeed, created – this war, would much rather avert
its face than confront, head on, the consequences of their enthusiasms.
AMANPOUR'S "FREEDOM-FIGHTERS"
I cannot forget a CNN special documentary on the KLA, narrated by Christiane
Amanpour, commander-in-chief of the journalistic division of the War Party, and
wife of State Department spokesman James Rubin. Amanpour's interviews with KLA
cadre uniformly depicted them as victims fighting in a righteous cause, and her
voice seemed to swell with pride as she continually described them as "freedom
fighters." KLA recruits, questioned about their political beliefs and the goals
of their movement, typically claimed to be fighting for "democracy" and "a
normal life, just like in America." CNN rounded up an "expert" from the pro-KLA
"Human Rights Watch" who rationalized KLA excesses and reiterated the U.S.
government line that the KLA were admirable and worthy of American support.
GOOSE-STEPPING THROUGH PRISTINA
But even here, in the midst of what was nothing more than a propaganda piece,
viewers got a glimpse of the truth: footage of a KLA parade, with smart young
soldiers dressed in red and black practically goose-stepping down the street,
red banners flying. During the war, KLA commanders were told by their American
handlers to quit using the old straight-arm KLA salute: it was just a
coincidence, of course, that this open-palmed salute was identical to the
Hitlerian version.
"HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH" ISN'T WATCHING
Now that Human Rights Watch is no longer watching, and Madeleine Albright's
ardor for Kosovar strongman Hacim thaci seems to have cooled considerably, the
KLA is openly moving to establish an "ethnically pure" fascist state – and it
is not only Serbs who are the victims.
FREE TO DIE
The news that the Kosovapress, the official organ of the KLA high command, has
denounced Veton Surroi, publisher of Koha Ditore, Kosovo's leading newspaper,
as a traitor – and strongly implied that his death may be imminent – hit the
NATO-crats like a thunderclap. Surroi is a traitor, according to an article by
Marxhan Avdyli, and has all along been a Serbian agent: not only that, but he
is now a spy in the pay of nameless Western interests. The editors of Koha
Ditore are a "bastard ragtag" band of "ordinary mobsters"; they are also, we
are informed, "the garbage of history." Ominously, Avdyli warns that Surroi is
at risk of "eventual and very understandable revenge" and further avers that
"such criminals and enslaved minds should not have a place in the free Kosovo."
This is what the KLA means by a "free" Kosovo – a nation free of all political
dissent.
BLOOD AND IRONY
So, what's the KLA's beef with Surroi? If you haven't already, take a look at
"Today's Spotlight," on the main page, a commentary by Surroi originally
published in Koha Ditore that takes aim at the KLA's evolving fascist regime.
He condemns the reverse ethnic cleansing of Kosovo, and denounces "the
organized and systematic intimidation of all Serbs simply because they are
Serbs and therefore are being held collectively responsible for what happened
in Kosovo. Such attitudes are fascist." The irony of the West's "anti-fascist"
crusade against Milosevic and Serbian "racism" is that it has created the
makings of a racist fascist state in Kosovo. As Surroi puts it,
"From having been victims of Europe's worst end-of-century persecution, we are
ourselves becoming persecutors and have allowed the specter of fascism to
reappear. Anybody who thinks that the violence will end once the last Serb has
been driven out is living an illusion. The violence will simply be directed
against other Albanians. Is this really what we fought for?"
<<<NOTE: The article by Surroi was forwarded to CTRL on 9th October, 1999, at
the bottom of post entitled "Cleansing Up Their Act". A<>E<>R >>>
GOEBBELS – THE SEQUEL
Well, yes, as a matter of fact, that is indeed what the KLA was fighting for.
They have always been authoritarians, as well as racists and fascists. Why
should anyone be surprised and even shocked – shocked! – that today they are
denouncing Surroi in explicitly ethnic terms? The Kosovapress commentary
excoriates both the editor and the publisher of Koha Ditore in explicitly
racialist language, making reference to them as "gospodin" (the Serbian
honorific for "Mr."), claiming they have "Slav stink" in spite of the fact that
they "unfortunately were made of Albanian blood, or at least were declared as
such, because you never know the origin of the pro-Serbs." William Houwen,
coordinator of media development for the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, aptly remarked that "Goebbels couldn't have done it
better."
SIEG THACI!
As to whether or not the KLA intends to reinstate the open-palmed straight arm
salute of old remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: the US, the
Europeans, and those few politically active Albanian intellectuals with any
scruples all knew who and what they were supporting – and describing as
"freedom fighters," in the immortal words of Christiane Amanpour. Now, let them
squirm out of this one!
AGIM CEKU, WAR CRIMINAL
Of course they knew: just like they knew all about Agim Ceku, the 38-year-old
former Croatian army brigadier, who commanded forces that slaughtered hundreds
of Serb civilians in the Krajina region and turned the rest – some 300,000-plus
– into refugees. With US military assistance, including help from a "private"
group of "retired" US generals and intelligence operatives – and with former
state department official Richard Galbraith reportedly riding atop a Croatian
tank – the Croatians, under Ceku's command, decisively defeated the Serbs, four
years ago. The Krajina campaign broke the back of the Serbian military
resistance and turned the tide in the Balkan war, putting Milosevic on the
defensive. The epic carnage was such that not even the War Crimes Tribunal,
which has never taken note of crimes against Serbs, could avoid noticing.
Therefore, no one was really surprised when the Tribunal announced yesterday
that it was investigating Ceku for possible war crimes.
REWARD AND PUNISHMENT
Now surely no one believes that the NATO-crats were unaware of what Ceku had
been up to in the Krajina when they appointed him supreme commander of the
"Kosovo Protection Corps" (TMK), a force of some 5,000 recruits described as
"lightly armed." Indeed, his present position was awarded to him on the basis
of the Krajina campaign, which in a military sense was a success – even if it
was not exactly an act of "liberation" but an act of conquest – aided and
abetted (and no doubt financed) by the US.
DON'T "LOSE" THAT THUG!
To get some concept of the moral complicity of the NATO-crats in the elevation
of a mass murderer – a man who executed hundreds and wantonly destroyed entire
communities – to a position of real authority in postwar Kosovo, get a load of
what a diplomat described by the London Times as "close to Bernard Kouchner,
the head of the UN mission," has to say about the accusations against Ceku: "If
we lose him it will be a disaster. When you get to the second level of the TMK,
you're down to a bunch of local thugs." In the spectrum of brutality
represented by the KLA, Ceku is a moderate – relatively speaking. The NATO-
crats are scared to death that they will "lose" a Class-A thug to the War
Crimes Tribunal – so this is what the tale of Kosovo's "freedom fighters" comes
down to, eh Christiane?
DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH
Naturally, the indictment of Ceku, if and when it comes, will be sealed and not
available to the public. After all, could the Western powers really be expected
to document their own crimes? At any rate, don't hold your breath waiting for
the Tribunal to act, even in the deepest darkest secrecy. According to David
Slinn, the senior British diplomat in Kosovo: "There's speculation as to
whether he's going to stick around or not." Although an ethnic Albanian,
Commander Ceku has a house and a family in Croatia, a nation which has
repeatedly refused to hand over to The Hague Croatian citizens accused of war
crimes. In view of his services to the Croatian state, Tudjman's regime is
likely to treat Ceku as an honorary Croatian. The Times cites another diplomat
who is of the opinion that the NATO-crats could not risk a confrontation with
the KLA by arresting Ceku.
DOUBLE STANDARD
A few years ago, American intellectuals and their European cousins were
screeching that the Allies were letting alleged Serbian "war criminals" slip
through their fingers: they demanded that the Bosnian Serb leadership, up to
and including Slobodan Milosevic, must be arrested and put on trial. The cry
went up: Don't let them get away! The NATO-crats obligingly swooped down on
half a dozen or so suspects, all Serbs, and the War Party was temporarily
mollified. Now we hear the same crowd, the Susan Sontags and the New York
Review of Books crowd, along with the rabid "collective guilt" school of
retribution centered around The New Republic, calling for reeducation camps for
Serbs and the expunging of all traces of nationalism and "racism" from the
Serbian soul. But these same people are strangely silent about Ceku: not a
word, not a whisper, not even the feeblest of protests.
OSCE – THE ORGANIZATION FOR SOCIALISM AND COERCION IN EUROPE
What kind of a society are the Allies creating in Kosovo? Certainly by any
standard familiar to the West, we are not talking about a democracy in the
sense that the concept of democratic rights is protected by the government:
indeed, under the rubric of UN rule, the Kosovar media is to be strictly
controlled. In the view of the NATO-crats, this latest outburst from the
Kosovapress – which, after the war, was converted into the mouthpiece of the
self-proclaimed "interim government" of Kosovo, headed up by Hacim Thaci – is
an argument to start implementing the Orwellian media plan envisioned by the
postwar planners under the auspices of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Familiarity with this plan should disabuse anyone
naïve enough to believe that we went to war in order to bring the benefits of
"democracy" and "freedom" to the benighted peoples of Kosovo.
THE CENSORS
Under the terms of the plan, all media would be licensed and any accused of
fomenting "hate speech" would soon find their permission to publish or
broadcast curtailed if not eliminated. Control of the media is to be handed
over to a "Media Board," comprised of five people described by Daan Everts,
head of the OSCE mission, as "well respected intellectuals." They are: Mahmut
Bakali, a former leader of the Communist Party of Kosovo, Pajazit Nushi, former
head of the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms in Kosovo,
Liri Osmani, a lawyer, Shkelzen Maliqi, of George Soros's Open Society
Foundation, and a token Serb, Aca Rakocevic, for purely decorative purposes.
Looking over their shoulders will be Everts, and his assistant, Mirjana Robin,
but OSCE officials insist that this will be a truly homegrown board of censors.
Says Everts: "We don't want to bring foreign dictators or rules here. We would
like these things to originate from here and that's why we gave so much
importance to the creation and the functioning of a Kosovar Board." Why impose
"foreign dictators" – when native dictators are so readily available?
ORWELL'S GHOST
The Orwellian possibilities of a "Council for the Defense of Human Rights and
Freedoms" engaged in abrogating freedom of the press are virtually endless. The
participation of the "Open Society Institute" in closing off free and open
debate is likewise emblematic of what is happening in Kosovo today. Under the
banner of building a democratic society, basic democratic rights are denied; in
the name of a war against "fascism," the NATO-crats are setting up a fascist
mini-state in the heart of Europe.
THINGS TO COME
The real danger is that they will use this bastion of thuggery as a battering
ram against what is left of the Yugoslav federation. In comparing defeated
Serbia to Nazi Germany, justifying media curbs as the price to pay for
"reconstruction," and gleefully contemplating war crimes trials and
"reeducation camps" for Serbs, one gets the ominous feeling that the NATO-crats
will not stop with Kosovo.
Check out Justin Raimondo's article, “China and the New Cold War”
“Behind the Headlines” appears Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with special
editions as events warrant.
Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com. He is also the author
of Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement
(with an Introduction by Patrick J. Buchanan), (1993), and Into the Bosnian
Quagmire: The Case Against US Intervention in the Balkans (1996). He is an
Adjunct Scholar with the Ludwig von Mises Institute, in Auburn, Alabama, a
Senior Fellow at the Center for Libertarian Studies, and writes frequently for
Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture. He is the author of An Enemy of the
State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (forthcoming from Prometheus Books).
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