>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Status: > >Cooking the books - >NATO'S CLAIM OF ETHNIC CLEANSING CHALLENGED >by Michel Chossudovsky (2-9-00) > >Reprinted from EMPERORS-CLOTHES www.tenc.net > >Copyright Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa, February 2000 > >NATO's two main justifications for bombing Yugoslavia on humanitarian grounds >have been refuted by the Western alliance's own official figures and >documentary evidence. These justifications rest on two central premises: > >1) the alleged indiscriminate mass killings of Albanian civilians (premise >number one); > >2) the implementation of a deliberate policy of mass deportations or "ethnic >cleansing" (premise number two). > >"Premise number one" has been invalidated by the FBI and European forensic >teams working under the auspices of the Hague Tribunal (ICTY). The forensic >and police investigators have uncovered several hundred bodies in grave sites >in Kosovo as opposed to the 10,000 to 100,000 civilian massacres claimed by >NATO and Western governments as a pretext for waging the War. British Prime >Minister Tony Blair had announced that President Milosevic was "set on a >Hitler style genocide equivalent to the extermination of the Jews during >World war II".1 "We've now seen about 100,000 military aged men missing... >They may have been murdered", echoed US Defense Secretary William Cohen. 2 >"Genocide is starting," stated German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping.3... > >The Hague Tribunal (ICTY) (while upholding the war crimes indictment against >members of the Yugoslav government), has acknowledged the exhumation of 2,108 >bodies in Kosovo from grave sites in Kosovo.4 This figure includes the deaths >of ethnic Albanians, Serbs, Romani and other ethnic groups who died during >the war (23 March 9 June 1999) from all known causes (including politically >motivated executions and massacres of civilians, NATO air strikes, the >groundwar between the KLA and the Yugoslav Armed Forces and natural causes). > >NO REMAINING LEG TO STAND ON > >"The allegations of indiscriminate mass murder, rape camps, crematoriums have >not been borne out" by the police investigations and forensic evidence. 5 In >the absence of "premise number one", the policy of mass deportations directed >against ethnic Albanians (premise number two) is being upheld by NATO and the >Western media as "a sufficient justification" for launching the war. In the >words of Madeleine Albright "opposing ethnic cleansing is central to our >values... We are reaffirming NATO's core purpose as a defender of democracy, >stability and human decency on European soil."6 > >Yet the recently released Report entitled "As Seen, As Told: Analysis of the >Human Rights Findings of the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission" suggests that >the allegation of mass deportations is also a fabrication. 7 Although heavily >slanted in its main conclusions, OSCE figures suggest that there were >proportionately more Serbs (as a percentage of population) fleeing Kosovo >than ethnic Albanians which puts an obvious question mark on NATO's assertion >that organized mass expulsions of ethnic Albanians were taking place. > >According to OSCE numbers and Kosovar Albanian sources on population size and >distribution, an estimated 45.7 percent of the Albanian population and 59.5 >percent of the Serb population had fled Kosovo during the bombings (i.e. from >23 March to 9 June 1999).8 > >The OSCE report summarises the balancesheet of ethnic Albanian refugees as >numbering 862,979. In a secluded footnote at the bottom of the main table, >the report nonetheless acknowledges that: "In addition [to the 862,979 ethnic >Albanian refugees], more than 100,000 Serb IDPs [Internally displaced >persons] are estimated to have left Kosovo and to have been registered in >Serbia and Montenegro". 9 Whereas ethnic Albanians (including those who fled >to Montenegro) are categorized as "refugees", Serbs who fled Kosovo during >the same period are casually identified as "Internally Displaced Persons". >The figures for ethnic Albanians are very precise in contrast to those >indicated for the Serbs in the footnote. The number of refugees belonging to >other ethnic groups who fled the province during the bombings is not even >acknowledged. > >According to Kosovo Albanian sources, the Province had a total population of >2.1 million of which 90 percent are ethnic Albanians, 8 percent Serbs and 2 >percent are other ethnic groups.10 Based on these figures (which are accepted >both by NATO and the postconflict KLA provisional government) there were an >estimated 1.89 million ethnic Albanians and 168,000 Serbs in Kosovo.10 > >In accordance with the above population breakdown, the exodus of Serbs (as a >percentage of population) was larger than that of the ethnic Albanian >population. According to OSCE numbers (from UNHCR sources), it is estimated >that 45.7 percent of the Albanian population and more than 59.5 percent of >the Serb population fled Kosovo during the bombings (i.e. from 23 March to 9 >June 1999). > >In other words, Serbs who ostensibly were not the target of "ethnic cleansing >perpetrated by the Serbs" had also fled the theatre of the war in Kosovo. If >there had been a deliberate and cohesive policy of ethnic cleansing and >massacres directed against ethnic Albanians, the percentages would have been >markedly different and this is something which NATO was cautious not to >reveal to public opinion while the bombings were ongoing. > >The above estimates depend on the veracity of the OSCEUNHCR refugee figures >as well as on the reliability of the data on population size and >distribution. In estimating these percentages, we have accepted official OSCE >UNHCR refugee numbers at face value, namely that the OSCE Report had not >artificially "inflated" the number of ethnic Albanian refugees nor had it >"deflated" the number of Serbs who fled Kosovo during the bombings with a >view to vindicating NATO's claim of ethnic cleansing. We have also taken >Kosovar Albanian assumptions pertaining to population size and distribution. >In other words, the percentages are derived from their numbers! Moreover, it >should be emphasised that the percentage of Serbs who left Kosovo estimated >at 59.5 percent is based on the 100,000 figure given by the OSCE. Yet the >OSCE report states that the number of Serbs who fled Kosovo during the same >period is "more than 100,000". > >Accounting for biases in the OSCE UNHCR figures and margins of error in the >data on population, the estimates do not support NATO's allegation of a >policy of mass deportation directed against ethnic Albanians. > >Ironically, the OSCE (also in a discrete footnote) acknowledges the >assumptions of Belgrade's 1991 Census data which indicates the ethnic >Albanian population at 82 percent of total population. Yet the Census was >boycotted by ethnic Albanians and the figures were never recognised by the >parallel provisional government of Kosovo. Why does the OSCE acknowledge >Belgrade's 1991 Census when NATO and KLA statements repeatedly indicate that >the ethnic Albanian population is at 90 percent? Based on the 1991 Census >figures, the estimated percentage of each population group which fled Kosovo >would be 53.7 percent for the ethnic Albanians and more than 51.5 percent for >the Serbs.11 Yet even when applying the assumptions of the 1991 Census, >NATO's claim of mass deportations is not borne out. > >The refugee crisis, we were told repeatedly during the War was limited to >ethnic Albanians. According to the Western media, Serb civilians had been >protected by the Serb police and Armed forces. The large scale exodus of >Serbs from Kosovo prior to June 9, 1999 (acknowledged by the figures >contained in the OSCE Report) was simply not mentioned. To reveal the numbers >would have discredited NATO's main justification for launching its >"humanitarian war". > >FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH > >Other documentary evidence including an official report of the German foreign >ministry published prior to the War, confirms that there was no evidence of >"ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo in the months immediately preceding the >bombings. Who is lying? German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer had justified >NATO's intervention pointing to a "humanitarian catastrophe", yet the >internal documents of his own ministry stated exactly the opposite: > >"Even in Kosovo an explicit political persecution linked to Albanian >ethnicity is not verifiable. The East of Kosovo is still not involved in >armed conflict. Public life in cities like Pristina, Urosevac, Gnjilan, etc. >has, in the entire conflict period, continued on a relatively normal basis. >The actions of the security forces [were] not directed against the >KosovoAlbanians as an ethnically defined group, but against the military >opponent [KLA] and its actual or alleged supporters."...12 > >Moreover, a report of the United States Committee on Refugees (USCR) confirms >a significant reduction in the number of refugees and internally displaced >persons in the period following the signing of the October 13 agreement >between U.S. Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke and Federal Republic of >Yugoslavia (FRY) President Slobodan Milosevic. According to USCR, the overall >refugee situation had improved with the entry of the OSCE Kosovo Verification >Mission (KVM). The USCR report also confirms that "KLA ethnic cleansing of >ethnic Serb civilian population pockets intensified in December [1999]" >substantiating the results of the German Foreign Office intelligence report. >But we were told time and again that the Serbs rather than the KLA had been >responsible for ethnic cleansing in the months leading up to the War...13 > >The OSCE UNHCR figures on the number of refugees rather than supporting >NATO's main justification for waging the war, suggest that more than half the >Serb population had also fled Kosovo during the war. This tendency could be >explained by the fact that the KLA had been responsible for relaying >intelligence to NATO pertaining to potential targets in the bombing >operation. Moreover, a history of the war also suggests that the massacres >and atrocities directed against the Serbs by the KLA Military Command (amply >documented for the period after June 9) had already commenced prior to the >arrival of KFOR forces in Kosovo. > >NATO's two central postulates for waging the war respectively "indiscriminate >mass killings" and "ethnic cleansing" are not borne out by the relevant data. >What then was the justification for the humanitarian bombings? What was the >hidden agenda? Ultimately the truth must prevail, public opinion must be >informed and those who are responsible for waging this criminal war must be >brought to trial. > >NOTES > >1. Quoted in Peter Gowan, Kosovo; the war and its aftermath, Labour Focus on >Eastern Europe, no. 64, 1999, p. 26. > >2. CBS Face the Nation, 16 May 1999 quoted by Joyce Howard Price in The >Washington Times, May 17, 1999. > >3. Quoted in Peter Gowan, op. cit. > >4. Reuters, 10 November 1999. > >5. Wall Street Journal, 31 December 1999. > >6. Quoted in Time Magazine, May 17, 1999, p. 2526. > >7. OSCE, Kosovo/ Kosova, As Seen, As Told, An analysis of the human rights >findings of the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission, October 1998 to June 1999, >Warsaw, 1999. > >8. Ibid > >9. Ibid. > >10. Figures for 1993. See Albania Worldwide Web, >http://www.albanian.com/main/. See also Musa Limani, The Geographic Position, >Natural Riches, Demographic Characteristics, and the Economical Development >of Kosova, Pristina, The Association of Lawyers of Kosova, 1992. Kosovar >Albanian estimates place the population of Kosovo at 2.3 million for 2000. >11. The Government of Yugoslavia 1991 Census data for Kosovo identified a >total population of 1,956,196 of which 82.2 % are Albanians, 9.9 % Serbs and >7.9 % other ethnic groups. The Census was boycotted by the ethnic Albanian >population. During the 1990s, the evidence suggests that Kosovar Serbs left >the Province in large numbers. > >12. Intelligence Report from the German Foreign Office, January 12, 1999 to >the Administrative Court of Trier. > >13. See USCR Michel Chossudovsky > >Michel Chossudovsky is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and >author of The Globalization of Poverty, Impacts of IMF and World Bank >Reforms, Third World Network, Penang and Zed Books, London, 1997. > >Copyright, Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa, February 2000 > >* Recent articles by Michel Chossudovsky: > >"Seattle and Beyond: Disarming the New World Order" >http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/seattle.htm > >"NATO's Reign of Terror in Kosovo" >http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/chossnato.htm > >"The KLA: Grim Origins" >http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/kla.html > >* To browse articles at Emperors-clothes please click here or go to >http://www.emperors-clothes.com >Click here to send this article to a friend > >If you would like to help Emperors-Clothes... please click here or go to >http://www.emperors-clothes.com/howyour.htm to use our secure server. 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