Dear Friends, I am sending for your information, the following letter and accompanying Vancouver Sun article from Rose-Marie Larsson, BC organizer for David Orchard.
Sincerely, Grant Orchard tel: 416-778-7027 fax: 416-778-6348 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ================================== DAVID ORCHARD CAMPAIGN FOR CANADA National office: P.O. Box 1983, Saskatoon, S7K 3S5 tel: (306) 664-8443 fax: (306) 244-3790 1-877-WE STAND (937-8263) Toronto: (416) 778-7027 fax: (416) 778-6348 [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR [EMAIL PROTECTED] website: www.davidorchard.com ==================================== April 23, 2005 Dear friends -- Those of you in B.C. have probably heard and read today's news ? scroll down for the Vancouver Sun story -- that Rollie Keith, several times a B.C. provincial NDP candidate, has been forced to resign from running as the NDP's candidate in Abbotsford in this election "after details surfaced concerning embarrassing comments he made about alleged Yugoslav war criminal Slobodan Milosevic" and for speaking "in defence of Milosevic at Milosevic's trial." Rollie Keith, you'll remember, is a retired Canadian career military officer who in 1999 served as Director of the Kosovo Polje Field Office of the European Verification Mission in Kosovo. That is, he was on the ground in Kosovo, part of a team of UN Security Council mandated monitors to observe, investigate and report on the conflict developing there between the armed separatist Kosovo-Albanian groups and the Yugoslavian police force. When the U.S.-NATO started bombing Yugoslavia, Rollie Keith spoke out against it and critiqued, from his own experience and observations in Kosovo, the U.S.-NATO contention that the Serbs were committing "genocide" against Albanians and hence the war was justified. His May, 1999 article "Failure of diplomacy" can be read at http://www.transnational.org/features/diplomacyfailure.html Many of you will remember hearing Rollie Keith as a key participant in the "Ad-Hoc Committee to Stop Canada's Participation in the War on Yugoslavia" convened by David Orchard, which organized press conferences, public meetings and rallies across Canada with David, Marjaleena Repo, former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia and Albania James Bissett, economist and author Michel Chossudovsky, nuclear radiation and depleted uranium researcher Rosalie Bertell, Professors of International Law Michael Mandel and David Jacobs, and other prominent Canadians to bring forward the facts about the war. Keith later testified at Milosevic's trial in The Hague, where he reiterated what he had said in 1999, i.e. that during his tenure in Kosovo he saw no signs of an Albanian "genocide" or "ethnic cleansing" -- only skirmishes between the Yugoslavian police and armed Albanian separatists. Now this conscientious Canadian is being portrayed as being in favour of genocide! Rollie Keith is being punished for speaking the truth! By the NDP of all parties! The Vancouver Sun needs to get letters about this and so does Carole James, Leader of the B.C. NDP, her campaign manager Gerry Scott and Federal NDP Leader, Jack Layton. CAROL JAMES is at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (her campaign e-mail) and <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> GERRY SCOTT is at [EMAIL PROTECTED] and JACK LAYTON can be reached at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> VANCOUVER SUN, letters to the editor e-mail is <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Rose-Marie Larsson, Vancouver, BC [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------- Vancouver Sun, Saturday, April 23, 2005 MILOSEVIC COMMENTS SINK NDP CANDIDATE by Gordon Hamilton Provincial NDP candidate Rollie Keith resigned Friday after details surfaced concerning embarrassing comments he made about alleged Yugoslav war criminal Slobodan Milosevic. Keith, the candidate in Chilliwack-Kent, spoke in defence of Milosevic at Milosevic's trial at The Hague and later defended the one-time Yugoslav president in an interview in the Chilliwack Progress last November. In announcing his resignation, Keith said he was not changing his views, but he was prepared to step aside for the good of the party. "My decision to step down should not be read as meaning that I am recanting any comments that I have made in the public domain or the testimony I gave at The Hague as to my observations while in Kosovo," Keith said in a brief statement. In 1999, Keith, a long-time NDP member, volunteered to join a monitoring team in war-torn Kosovo. In the Progress article he stated that he saw no signs of genocide or ethnic cleansing and believed the Yugoslav dictator was a victim of western bias in the news media. The story was picked up by The Province, which reported on Keith's views Friday. When first informed of the controversy Friday morning, NDP leader Carole James said she disagreed with his position and expressed concern, but expected he would remain a candidate. After she read what he allegedly said, her level of concern increased. Keith stepped down Friday afternoon. "I have been informed that Rollie Keith resigned and he made the right decision," James said after Keith stepped down. James said she was not aware of Keith's position on the former Yugoslav dictator when he became a candidate but once she learned the details Friday, she contacted her campaign manager, NDP provincial secretary Gerry Scott. Scott contacted Keith and relayed the party leader's concerns. "I went back and took a look at his comments. I reviewed the comments. I had seen the article this morning. I expressed my concern to my campaign manager and Rollie made the decision to step down. It was the right decision." Premier Gordon Campbell said Keith did the right thing by resigning as a candidate. "That's what he should do," said Campbell, adding that the NDP should do a better job of screening its election candidates. The Keith issue is not likely to seriously slow down the NDP campaign said University of B.C. political scientist Philip Resnick and University of Ottawa vice-president David Mitchell. Resnick said it involves beliefs about events that are remote from the B.C. election and which are not likely to resonate here. "He is very much on the minority end on that particular issue and even more so a minority position in the NDP, I suspect. So from that point of view it creates waves. To prevent it from being a side-issue he decided to step down." He said James appears to have handled the issue decisively and that because it is such an odd issue, it will not stick. Mitchell, a political historian, said the Keith affair suggests the NDP needs to tighten up its screening process. "It is an embarrassment but it is a minor one. And happening at the outset of a campaign is less significant than happening at the end of a campaign when it is close," Mitchell said. Keith is the second NDP candidate to get in trouble over his views. Last November, Yale-Lillooet candidate Harry Lali was forced to apologize to Liberal Patty Sahota after he accused her of betraying her race for her support of Gordon Campbell. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Serbian News Network - SNN [email protected] http://www.antic.org/
