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Thursday, april 5, 2001
1. KLA Attacks Everyone; Media Attacks...Miloshevich?
2. Bloodied rebels plot to open up second front in Macedonia
3. Links Strengthen Between Albanian Rebel Groups
***********************************************************
KLA ATTACKS EVERYONE; MEDIA ATTACKS...MILOSHEVICH?
by Jared Israel (3-3-2001)
The Western media is preparing us for yet another terrorist war which NATO
will be helpless to prevent although it is training the terrorists.
"Western special forces were still training the guerrillas, as a
result of decisions taken before the change of government in
Yugoslavia." (BBC, Jan. 29, 2001) (1)
The 'guerrillas' in question are members of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation
Army, or KLA. You remember the KLA, don't you? They're the people NATO
installed in power in Kosovo in June 1999 after which they dutifully drove
out almost all Serbs, 'Gypsies', Jews and Slavic Muslims, or killed them.
Bill Clinton and George W. are quite fond of the KLA and Sen. Joseph
Lieberman has said:
"[The] United States of America and the Kosovo Liberation
Army stand for the same human values and principles. . . .
Fighting for the KLA is fighting for human rights and
American values." ('Washington Post' April 28, 1999)
The KLA, which goes under various names these days, has been dissolved more
than once despite which it continues to start new terrorist wars.
Aside from an invasion of southern Serbia, which it started a year ago, the
KLA is also attacking the country known as the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia (or, for simplicity, 'FYR Macedonia'.)
The KLA, or whomever, has been fully disarmed but employs heavy weapons
plus there are NATO combat helicopters providing air cover. (2)
MASS MEDIA PREPARES US FOR WAR
The way the mass media gets us ready for new terrorist wars is by
marinating our heads in dreck.
Consider an article that appeared in the February 24th London 'Telegraph'.
The body of the article concerns the KLA's latest terrorist attacks. But
the headline reads:
"NATO FORCES FACE NEW THREAT IN BALKANS"
Huh? Is somebody threatening NATO? No, nobody is threatening NATO, although
it richly deserves it.
The point of the title is to give readers the proper attitude prior to
breaking the news that NATO's prize pet, the KLA, is again attacking Serbia
and FYR Macedonia.
Readers must be directed away from unacceptable if perfectly logical
speculations such as that maybe the UN group in Kosovo, which made the KLA
the official 'Kosovo Protection Corp', and NATO, which has been training
the terrorists attacking Serbia and FYR Macedonia, are behind these
attacks. Oh no no no, says the title, these attacks threaten NATO, and
gently nudges us away from treacherous waters.
Now for your consideration, here is the article's first sentence:
"The Kosovo war was fought to defeat Slobodan Milosevic and his
dream of a 'Greater Serbia'".
Amazing. This article is supposedly about recent terrorist attacks. News
reports are supposed to start by telling us who did it, what happened,
where it happened, when and why.
Did Miloshevich go out last night and launch terrorist attacks on the
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia plus southern Serbia?
By leading with this sentence the 'Telegraph' dredges up all our memories
of anti-Serb media stories past. It gives us the impression that whatever
happens now stems from Miloshevich. This is important for two reasons.
First, Miloshevich could not have done bad things, e.g., conducted a fight
for a 'Greater Serbia', without mass support. Thus this sentence is
actually attacking the entire Serbian resistance to NATO. Second, NATO and
the pro-NATO leaders in Belgrade are trying to build public support for
arresting Miloshevich. They want to stage a show trial to convince the
world that NATO is innocent and the Serbs are guilty for the breakup of
Yugoslavia.
At the same time, this opening sentence tells readers that NATO is innocent
of wrongdoing. If it had not bombed Yugoslavia and occupied Kosovo it would
have failed to:
"defeat Slobodan Milosevic and his dream of a 'Greater
Serbia'"
Thus, like the headline, the first sentence puts us in the proper mental
state for a constructive news experience: pro-NATO and on the lookout for
Serbian dreams of expansion.
But wait a minute. Is the 'Telegraph' seriously saying NATO bombed
Yugoslavia to stop a Miloshevich dream?
Or did this dream take some earthly form? Was Miloshevich trying to expand
Serbia into Kosovo?
That must be the idea, but there is a wee glitch. At the time NATO
attacked, Kosovo was a province of Serbia. In fact Kosovo has been an
internationally recognized province of Serbia since before World War I. The
border between Kosovo (that is, Serbia) and the country known as Albania is
one of the oldest borders in Europe. Moreover, Kosovo is the heart of
Serbia. Saying Serbia is expanding into Kosovo is similar to saying New
York City is expanding into Manhattan.
This 'Greater Serbia' stuff was invented by the Austro-Hungarian Empire as
war propaganda to justify its attack on little Serbia, an attack that
turned into World War I. It was black humor then - this elephant whining
that it was threatened by the expansionism of a mouse.
The expansionism claim has not gained intellectual stature with time - but
so what? It is not brains but money and might that count in the new,
American World Order; lucky thing. The "Greater Serbia" nonsense was
reissued in the early 1990s. Since then it has been foisted on us
continuously by Western journalists, politicians and professors. It is the
stock explanation for every conflict in Yugoslavia.
But despite all of Miloshevich's expansionist dreaming, Serbia has never
annexed any land. Not an acre. But over a million Serbs and other Yugoslav
loyalists have been driven from their lands and/or homes in other parts of
Yugoslavia (e.g., the farmers who owned most of Bosnia's land because they
farmed it). These refugees, mostly but not all ethnic Serbs, now live in
Serbia.
"TO DEFEND THE UNION"
Yugoslavia, led by Serbia, fought defensively throughout the 1990s,
resisting secessionists who launched armed attacks on Yugoslav forces and
who depopulated vast areas of Serbs and other undesirables. The two most
extreme examples are the Krajina section (over 250,00 Serbs driven out by
Croatian fascist troops under U.S. leadership in August, 1995; over time, a
total of nearly 500,00 driven out) and Kosovo (about 350,000 driven out
following NATO takeover in June, 1999).
The goal of the secessionist attacks was to rip off parts of Yugoslavia and
form mini-states under US and German domination. Serbs were the main target
because they are the cement of Yugoslavia. The German Establishment has
been fully aware of this fact for 100 years which is why Germany launched
two world wars with attacks on the Serbs.
Thus throughout the 1990s Yugoslavia, led by Serbia, has in effect resisted
Anglo-U.S. and German "dreams of expansion."
Serbia was in a position similar to that of the northern states during the
U.S. Civil War. (7) The North fought to prevent the southern states from
forming a slave nation under British domination and Serbia fought to
prevent parts of Yugoslavia from forming racially 'pure' statelets under
Western domination..
Western politicians and the mass media have accused Serbia of destabilizing
the Balkans. What breathtaking cynicism. As anyone who has read European
history knows, the existence of a state unifying the south Slavs
('Yugoslavia') is crucial to the stability of southern Europe and Russia.
Serbia's opposition to the splintering of Yugoslavia into weak
Anglo-American and German neocolonies has nothing to do with "dreaming of a
'Greater Serbia'".
THE MEDIA MILOSHEVICH
To make the 'Greater Serbia' charge believable it has been linked to the
accusation that Mr. Miloshevich was and is motivated by hatred of non-Serbs.
The Western media has come up with a new, improved Miloshevich to aid in
digesting this idea. I encountered this Media Miloshevich while watching a
Fox News program during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Fox was
interviewing a 'NY Times' reporter, an 'expert' on Yugoslavia. The reporter
said:
"The ethnic cleansing of Kosovo, as Milosevich would call
it, is a success."
So brief but so untrue.
If the reporter said, "Miloshevich has popularized the term 'ethnic
cleansing' and used it in Kosovo," it would have been a lie, but a straight
forward lie. One could have asked: "Where's the proof?"
But the reporter presented his accusation as if he were mentioning a fact
so well known it required no proof. Such casualness has great power for it
makes the uninformed viewer (virtually all Americans) think: "So,
Miloshevich invented the idea of ethnic cleansing. One more reason to get
that man behind bars."
The 'New York Times' has been replete with references to Miloshevich as the
author of 'ethnic cleansing.' For instance, on August 3, 1992, Anthony
Lewis, the prolific Serb-baiter, wrote, in a 'Times' column syndicated in
several other newspapers:
"President Bush compared Saddam Hussein to Hitler. I am
against such analogies, because they cheapen the Holocaust.
But if that one is to be used, it better fits the Serbian leader,
Slobodan Milosevic, the inventor of 'ethnic cleansing.'"
(Anthony Lewis, 'N.Y. Times,' August 3, 1992)
Emperor's Clothes uses a research tool called Lexis. With it we can scan
the world press going back 20 years in a few seconds. If a statement has
been published in the media, we'll find it.
I did an exhaustive search of 'N.Y. Times' articles. The 'N.Y. Times' has
never quoted Miloshevich saying one word in favor of 'ethnic cleansing'.
Never.
How could Miloshevich call for 'ethnic cleansing' without using the words?
The reporter interviewed by Fox (and Mr. Lewis, and a host of others) was
simply lying - or to be more accurate, he was not only lying, he was
presenting his lie in a manner calculated to make the viewer feel that
everyone but himself or herself of course knew it was true.
The term 'ethnic cleansing' has an interesting history. It was first used
in Kosovo in the early 1980s. Albanian secessionists were waging a
terrorist campaign, driving tens of thousands of Serbs from Kosovo. (4) The
'N.Y. Times' covered this nightmare in a news story in 1982. The 'Times'
reporter interviewed a Yugoslav official in Kosovo, a man of Albanian
ancestry, who said:
"'The [Albanian] nationalists have a two-point platform...first
to establish what they call an ethnically clean Albanian
republic and then the merger with Albania to form a greater
Albania." ("N.Y. Times', July 12, 1982)
For a bit more on the history of the use of 'ethnic cleansing' to smear the
victims of 'ethnic cleansing' see footnote (6) at the end.
EVERYBODY'S DOING IT
The accusations against Mr. Miloshevich (i.e., against Bad Serbs) have come
from all sides. Liberal and even leftist writers have taken part in - and
even led - these attacks. For example, there is the Spanish author, Juan
Goytisolo, who views himself an icon of broad-mindedness. During the
bombing of Yugoslavia, Mr. Goytisolo wrote a piece for the London
'Independent' attacking a phenomenon which in his title he broadmindedly
called "THE VIRUS THAT HAS INVADED THE LEFT." (His emphasis) This virus
consisted of writers who opposed NATO's bombing of the Serbs.
Establishing his credentials in the first line, Mr. Goytisolo assures us
that: "NO ONE detests aerial bombardments more than I do". (His emphasis.)
This is encouraging, and once said, Mr. Goytisolo gets down to business,
which is to explain why he does not detest the aerial bombing of Serbia:
"Since 1992, it has been apparent to anyone familiar with the
Serbian ultra-nationalist ideology embraced by Milosevic that
the Kosovo ethnocide was inevitable...Full of hatred and
scorn for the Bosnian Muslim and the Kosovar Albanian,
[Milosevich's views] did not differ greatly from the
anti-Semitic diatribes of the Nazis." (4-21-1999, London
'Independent')
Please note that Mr. Goytisolo does not provide evidence for his charge
that anti-Albanian ethnocide has taken place in Kosovo. Rather he acts as
if the existence of this supposed ethnocide is an established fact and
concerns himself only with the question why it has happened. The answer, he
says, is Mr. Miloshevich and his supposed ideology of hate.
The problem is, at the time Mr. Goytisolo wrote these words many people
said the ethnocide charge was a lie. And clearly, were the ethnocide charge
a lie, the hunt for Serbian motivations for carrying it out would carry
less weight.
Since NATO took over Kosovo in June, 1999, it has employed an army of
forensic experts in Kosovo. These folks have dug up half the province,
accompanied by frequent press conferences in which various NATO and War
Crimes Tribunal types promised to find mass graves with tens of thousands
of victims of Serbian brutality. In fact, they have produced none - no mass
graves, no Serbian atrocities. Digging up individual graves all over
Kosovo, they found fewer than 3000 bodies. NATO has said 2000 people died
before the bombing of Yugoslavia, that is, before the supposed 'ethnocide'
took place. That leaves 1000. We know that hundreds of people died in NATO
bombing and hundreds more in fighting on the ground between the KLA and
Yugoslav troops.
After the most exhaustive hunt in history, NATO has produced exactly no
evidence that Serbian troops massacred ethnic Albanians.
The accusation of ethnocide was a fabrication. (5)
Why were Goytisolo and others able to get away with writing articles that
assumed the truth of this lie? Because the mass media barraged us with
sound bites, voiceovers, gruesome film footage, interviews with 'victims.'
Constantly repeated, these established the ethnocide lie as an emotional
truth; then people like Goytisolo could embellish without fear of
repercussions. The Serbs were fair game.
Mr. Goytisolo says he knew the (nonexistent) ethnocide would happen because
he was familiar with Miloshevich's "ultra-nationalist ideology" involving
"hatred and scorn for the Bosnian Muslim and the Kosovar Albanian" not
unlike the "anti-Semitic diatribes of the Nazis."
Was this ideology, like the nonexistent drive for 'Greater Serbia', also
limited to Mr. Miloshevich's dreams? Or was Miloshevich's ideology written
down somewhere?
If it was not written down, then how did Goytisolo become familiar with it?
If it was written down: where? In a book? In the text of a speech? Is
Miloshevich at least quoted in a single news report saying hateful things
about Muslims and Kosovars?
Goytisolo is silent. That is really too bad because in all the interviews
and speeches I have read Mr. Miloshevich attacks Nazi-type ideologies and
calls for national brotherhood.
Could it be that Mr. Goytisolo is reading stuff written by that Media
Miloshevich mentioned above? The one who doesn't exist?
To be fair, in the 'Independent' article Mr. Goytisolo does offer some
monstrous quotes to support his charge. The first is from Generalissimo
Francisco Franco, the Fascist dictator of Spain. Another is from Adolph
Hitler. Then we get more Franco, and finally...another from Hitler. And
then Mr. Goytisolo lays down his trump card: Miloshevich, he declares, is
just like them!
Alas, it doesn't sit right. If only Goytisolo could provide some word, some
deed, some sort of indication of "hatred and scorn" for the Muslim or the
Kosovar.
Goytisolo provides: nothing. Could it be he was really thinking about
Franco and Hitler all that time, and it just came out 'Miloshevich'?
THE INFAMOUS SPEECH
For years we have been told Miloshevich launched the drive for 'Greater
Serbia'" at a speech he gave in Kosovo in 1989.
The only thing that nobody who attacks the speech ever does is quote it. We
have posted the speech on Emperor's Clothes. (3) Below are two excerpts.
First, here is what Miloshevich said about non-Serbian citizens of Serbia,
including of course ethnic Albanians and Muslims of varying ethnicity:
"Serbia has never had only Serbs living in it. Today, more
than in the past, members of other peoples and nationalities
also live in it. This is not a disadvantage for Serbia. I am truly
convinced that it is its advantage...Socialism in particular,
being a progressive and just democratic society, should not
allow people to be divided in the national and religious
respect. The only differences one can and should allow in
socialism are between hard working people and idlers and
between honest people and dishonest people. Therefore, all
people in Serbia who live from their own work, honestly,
respecting other people and other nations, are in their own
republic."
It has been estimated that the audience for Miloshevich's 1989 speech was
as high as one million people. If Miloshevich was going to whip the throngs
into a frenzy over his ''dream of a 'Greater Serbia''', this was the time
to do it.
"For as long as multinational communities have existed, their
weak point has always been the relations between different
nations. The threat is that the question of one nation being
endangered by the others can be posed one day -- and this
can then start a wave of suspicions, accusations, and
intolerance, a wave that invariably grows and is difficult to
stop. This threat has been hanging like a sword over our
heads all the time. Internal and external enemies of
multi-national communities are aware of this and
therefore they organize their activity against
multinational societies mostly by fomenting national
conflicts. At this moment, we in Yugoslavia are behaving as if
we have never had such an experience and as if in our recent
and distant past we have never experienced the worst tragedy
of national conflicts that a society can experience and still
survive."
Smear campaigns are often successful because most people are reasonably
honest and make the understandable if mistaken assumption that everyone is
like them. Thus when a well-known and supposedly broad-minded writer (like
Goytisolo) says Milosevich has an ideology similar to the Nazis, people are
inclined to think, "Where there's smoke, there's fire," i.e., there must be
some truth to the charge. But the truth is it is a bare-faced lie.
MEANWHILE, BACK IN SOUTHERN SERBIA
France, one of the lesser "external enemies of multi-national communities,"
has squealed on two of the greater enemies, the U.S. and Britain, informing
newsmen that:
"NATO countries were discussing whether to send troops
into a tense southern Serbia buffer zone, but the alliance flatly
denied such a move was being considered.
"'The question of whether it is necessary to deploy an
international military force in this region is now being
discussed among the allies,' French Ministry spokesman
Bernard Valero said...
"French diplomatic sources said discussion of a force was
prompted by concern over the safety of EU [European
Union] monitors." ('Reuters', 3-1-2001)
You remember Southern Serbia, don't you? That's one of the places which the
KLA, under one of its names, is invading. It is the violence resulting from
this KLA invasion which, if the French happen to be telling the truth, is
to serve as NATO's excuse to invade southern Serbia as well.
Do you remember the KLA? That's that terrorist group which the BBC said
"Western special forces were still training." But don't worry, it's OK for
the West to be training these terrorists because Senator Lieberman says
they're fighting for ''American values'' and anyway it's being done "as a
result of decisions taken before the change of government in Yugoslavia",
in other words, while Miloshevich was still running things and I'm sure you
remember Miloshevich.
Don't you?
Come on how many times do I have to explain he's the guy who hates everyone
and is always dreaming about attacking other people's countries remember?
No no not Bill Clinton. Not Tony Blair for Pete's sake. Not Junior Bush ---
Miloshevich. He's behind that violence in southern Serbia which is
threatening our boys. We need to send more troops in there and kick some
serious butt and then put that guy somewhere he can't do any more harm
against our Way of Life and - and - and - and...
So many lies. So little time.
Further reading
1) The BBC tells all. Anyway, it tells a lot. See: 'Diplomats Admit NATO
Backs KLA Invasion of Inner Serbia' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/admi.htm.
2) On NATO helicopters providing air cover for the KLA invasion of southern
Serbia, see 'Pentagon Dogs'; at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/tika/dogs.htm
3) Miloshevich's 1989 Kosovo speech can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/milosaid.html
4) In the interview "Kosovo: Nightmare with the Best Intentions" two
Serbian-Americans tell what it was like in Kosovo during the 1970s and
1980s. Most informative. http://www.emperors-clothes.com/interviews/tika.htm
5) The following are useful articles on the myth of Albanian genocide in
Kosovo:
* Gen. Mac Kenzie commanded the UN forces in Bosnia. He examines the Kosovo
mass graves baloney in 'Where have all the bodies gone?' by General
(retired) Lewis MacKenzie at http://emperors-clothes.com/news/mack.htm
* This is the report of the press conference held by Spanish Forensic
experts who walked off the job in Kosovo and criticized NATO. 'Spanish
experts see no Serbian genocide in Kosovo' by Pablo Ordaz
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/spanish.htm
* On the significance of the Spanish forensic experts: 'Spanish Forensic
Experts' Report - A Commentary' by Jared Israel at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/sp-comment.htm
6) Much could be written about the macabre history of 'ethnic cleansing'.
The term derives from the racism of those ethnic Albanian secessionists,
schooled by Hitler during World War II, who looked (and still look) upon
Serbs, 'Gypsies' and Jews as filth - hence the desire to create that curiously
phrased entity, the "ethnically clean Albanian republic." (N.Y. Times, July
12, 1982; for entire article go to
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/benworks/1980news.html#BM9)
The term was picked up by psychological warfare experts advising
neo-Fascist Croatian secessionists in 1991-1992. In a truly Orwellian
touch, spokesmen for the Fascist Croatians claimed 'ethnic cleansing' was
the program of the very Serbs they were at that time driving from ancestral
lands in and near Croatia.
But the term was little known in the West until Bush, Sr. used it in a
press conference, August 6, 1992. There he declared a major escalation in
the U.S. anti-Serbian policy, supposedly in reaction to a TV program which
had been shown some 20 minutes before the Conference. The TV program
broadcast what were supposed to be pictures of a (nonexistent) Serb death
camp.
(Emperor's Clothes has produced JUDGMENT, a movie which proves that these
infamous pictures of what appeared to be emaciated victims of a death camp
were actually doctored from staged footage of a humanitarian refugee
center. If you have not seen this movie and you want to know the truth, I
urge you to buy a copy. If the standard price of $20 plus shipping is too
much please tell us. You may pay whatever you can afford. See
http://emperors-clothes.com/Film/judge.htm )
At the August 6th, 1992, Press Conference President Bush declared:
"The [Serb] aggressors and extremists pursue a policy - a vile
policy - of ethnic cleansing".
Thus President Bush planted in the public mind the notion that Serb leaders
had invented a concept actually rooted in 'vile' hatred of the Serbian
people, the 'black people of the Balkans.' During the following year, this
blaming-the-victim refrain was promoted in literally thousands of newspaper
articles and television programs until it became nearly impossible for
ordinary people to recall when they first 'learned' that ethnic cleansing
was a concept enthusiastically endorsed by the Serbs, its primary victims.
7) See 'Abe Lincoln and Slobodan Milosevic' by economist Jude Wanniski
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/abe.htm
URL for this article is http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/expan.htm
www.tenc.net [Emperor's Clothes]
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BLOODIED REBELS PLOT TO OPEN UP SECOND FRONT IN MACEDONIA
SKOPJE, April 4 (AFP) - After receiving a bloody nose in their battle to
take control of villages near Macedonia's border with Kosovo, ethnic
Albanian rebels are trying to recruit fighters to open up a second front
near Albania, Macedonian officials said Wednesday.
The sighting of rebels near the Albanian border is the first sign that the
guerrillas are looking for a new way to bring pressure on the Macedonian
government, which has refused to include their representatives in talks on
rights for Macedonia's large ethnic Albanian minority.
Police sources told AFP that a "large group of armed and uniformed" people
had been spotted on Monday near the western Macedonian town of Debar, five
kilometres (three miles) from the Albanian border.
Ljuben Boskovski, a minister of state at the interior ministry, visited
Debar Tuesday and later told state television that the guerrillas had been
making "contacts for organising and acting in the Debar area".
A tough military offensive launched last week against rebel-held villages
near Kosovo, backed by an intensified attempt by NATO-led peacekeepers to
prevent insurgents crossing the frontier from the UN-run Serbian province,
appears to have been successful.
But two rebel commanders, including a renegade member or parliament who
resigned his seat to take up arms, told AFP that their fighters were still
deployed in the northern zone and intended to fight on if "provoked".
"We want to resolve the problems politically," rebel commander Ali Daja --
"Uncle Ali" -- told an AFP reporter who was taken to a secret location in
hills north of Skopje late Tuesday.
"Negotiations cannot take place without us," he said, insisting that the
government should hold direct talks with political representatives of his
National Liberation Army (NLA).
Hisni Shaqiri, a 52-year-old former history teacher, resigned as a member
of parliament to join the guerrillas. Now wearing camouflage fatigues and
carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle, he said: "Our war is a just one. All
we are asking for are equal rights with Macedonians."
President Boris Trajkovski has explicitly ruled out the idea of sitting
down with the NLA -- which he has branded a "terrorist" organisation -- but
vowed to pursue dialogue with moderate ethnic Albanian leaders.
His stance was endorsed Tuesday by NATO Secretary General George Robertson,
who also ruled out direct talks with "armed extremists", urging democratic
leaders to isolate those who "choose the bullet over the ballot box".
The guerrillas spotted at Debar were wearing the NLA emblem and were armed
with automatic weapons, police said.
Official Macedonian sources told AFP the rebels could be planning a second
offensive from Albania itself and that training camps used in Albania by
members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought Yugoslav forces in
Kosovo in 1998 and 1999, had been reopened.
Around half of Debar's 15,000 people are ethnic Albanians and the rest
mainly Macedonian Muslims.
Residents reached by telephone told AFP that local people were afraid that
the guerrillas might start forcibly recruiting.
Kenan, 23, said: "These days we are afraid of groups who are coming and
trying to make pressure to recruit at least one child per family to go and
'fight with the NLA for liberation'."
Another young man, Amil, said: "We are hearing a lot of stories these days,
people say that Macedonians are killing people and we have to go and fight
them. To be frank, there is a lot of confusion".
Boskovski said he thought there was no possibility of the citizens of Debar
giving the rebels "logistical support", but warned that an "existing
mafia-criminal group" was operating in the region.
Kenan told AFP that from 1997, when Albania's governing structures
collapsed, organised armed groups had regularly come over the border to rob
local people, both ethnic Albanians and Macedonians
******************************************
LINKS STRENGTHEN BETWEEN ALBANIAN REBEL GROUPS
LONDON, Apr 4, 2001 -- (Reuters) Fighting by ethnic Albanian rebels in
Macedonia has forged stronger links between them and guerrillas active in
and around neighboring Kosovo, a British commander in the Balkans said on
Tuesday.
"The reality on the ground was that the connection did not amount to much
earlier, but now that has changed," said Brigadier Hamish Rollo, head of
British troops serving in NATO's 35,000-strong KFOR force in Kosovo.
"The NLA (in Macedonia) has momentum. These links (with Kosovo Albanian
fighters) will be reflected by real support, by real people and by real
guns," he told Reuters in a telephone interview from the Kosovo capital
Pristina.
The National Liberation Army (NLA) emerged from obscurity in February to
launch an armed rebellion in Macedonia, saying they were fighting for
greater rights for the tiny country's ethnic Albanian
minority, a third of the population.
A Macedonian offensive has pushed the NLA out of the string of villages
they occupied along the northern border, with at least some of the
guerrillas fleeing into Kosovo, where they had rear bases and drew moral
and logistical support.
The NLA was modeled on the now disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) which
fought Serb rule in the mainly Albanian populated Yugoslav province in the
1990s.
A third Albanian rebel movement, the UCPMB, the National Liberation Army of
Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovic, has fought Serb forces just to the east of
Kosovo and north of Macedonia.
"I am convinced there is a connection between those fighting in Macedonia
and groups in Kosovo -- between the UCK (or KLA), the UCPMB and the NLA,"
Rollo added. NATO has been trying to prevent the UCPMB linking with and
supporting the NLA.
While playing down the risk of violent rebel groups sparking a major
popular movement in Kosovo, Rollo said that there was no shortage of
potential recruits to the cause in a province full of former KLA
guerrillas.
"Whether this could become a popular movement I am not sure, but it could
be more than just an extremist movement and that is very dangerous."
CHALLENGE ON SOUTH KOSOVO FRONTIER
Rollo warned that KFOR's bid to seal the mountainous frontier between
Kosovo and Macedonia to slow the traffic of weapons and fighters may only
have a limited impact.
But leaving the rebels in Kosovo and Macedonia to their own devices would
be even more risky, he added.
"There is a vocal minority (in Kosovo) who will use this for their own
ends. There are large numbers, old and young, seeking to reinforce actions
in Macedonia for ethnic Albanian causes."
While Macedonia says the guerrillas are terrorists bent on breaking up
their country and the rebels
themselves say they are fighting for rights, the brigadier said many of the
combatants were out for
personal gain.
"There are at least as many people in the NLA for self-aggrandizement and
for personal wealth and power as there are for the greater glory of the
Albanian cause," he said.
British intelligence points to rebels in and close to southern Kosovo and
northern Macedonia numbering in the high hundreds, and Rollo said they were
reasonably well armed.
British, German and U.S. troops had found significant arms stashes
belonging to the rebels in recent weeks, including rocket-propelled
grenades, anti-tank missiles, mortars and mines.
Rollo said the best hope for stability in the tense border region was a
political deal in Macedonia with
ethnic Albanians.
Talks between the sides got off to a shaky start this week with a boycott
from the main Albanian opposition party and Slav protests against concessions.
***************************************
Global Reflexion - Amsterdam - The Netherlands
Ph. ++ 31 20 615 1122 - Fax: ++ 31 20 615 1120
For more news on international affairs (dutch and englsih)
see TARGETS at: http://www.targets.org/
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see CUBAN REVIEW at: http://www.globalreflexion.org/cubanrev/
Critical webside to expose media lies and US-policy
see THE EEMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHS at: http://emperors-clothes.com/
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