EQUIPO NIZKOR |
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10Jun00
The United Nations Appoints an Alleged War Criminal in Kosovo.
The United Nations in a recent [2000] report submitted to Secretary General Kofi Annan now concedes that the Kosovo Protection Force (KPC) (inaugurated under UN auspices in September 1999) has been involved in "criminal activities-killings, ill-treatment/torture, illegal policing, abuse of authority, intimidation, breaches of political neutrality and hate speech". |1|
And in a cruel irony, "the United Nations is paying the salaries of many of the gangsters." |2| The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) --known for its connections to organized crime and the Balkans narcotics traffic was officially dissolved and transformed into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) modelled on the US National Guard. Funded by US military aid, the KPC is trained by Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI), a mercenary outfit based in Alexandria, Virginia.
The KPC was slated by the United Nations to become --in the words of UNMIK Special Representative Bernard Kouchner [now France's Minister of Foreign Affairs] "a civilian, disciplined, uniformed and multi-ethnic emergency response... with a mandate to "providing humanitarian assistance... and contributing to rebuilding infrastructure and communities...." |3|
Shift in military labels. KLA Commander Agim Ceku was appointed Chief of Staff of Kosovo's newly created Armed Forces. In the words of Bernard Kouchner during the inauguration ceremony: I look to him [Agim Ceku] to lead the new members of the Corps in the footsteps of Cincinnatus, the model citizen-soldier of ancient Rome -- who left his plow standing in the field to answer the call to arms & and at the end of the war refused all honors in order to return to his civic duties. |4|
Barely a few weeks later, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced it was "investigating Ceku for alleged war crimes committed against ethnic Serbs in Croatia between 1993 and 1995." |5| The information, however, was known to military and intelligence analysts well in advance of Ceku's appointment. It had been withheld from public opinion by the ICTY during the mandate of Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour. Jane Defence Weekly (10 May 1999) had confirmed that Ceku had "masterminded the successful HV [Croatian] offensive at Medak [in 1993] and in 1995 was one of the key planners of the successful Operation 'Storm ". United Nations Special Representative Dr. Bernard Kouchner (who is a 1999 Nobel Peace Laureate for his role as co-founder of Doctors without Borders) must have known.
The UN and NATO had access to the files of the ICTY. The Tribunal's Chief Prosecutor knew and had the responsibility under the statutes of the ICTY of reporting the matter to the UN Secretary General. In a cruel irony, the United Nations had casually proceeded with the appointment of an individual who according to the files of a United Nations body (namely the ICTY) was an alleged war criminal. Surely some questions should have been asked.
When the information was released barely a few weeks after Ceku's appointment: "a diplomat close to Bernard Kouchner the UN special representative [declared] "If we lose him {Agim Ceku] it will be a disaster," ... "When you get to the second level of the TMK [Kosovo Protection Corps], you're down to a bunch of local thugs."... |6| "American diplomats... have suggested any indictment of Ceku would most likely be "sealed" and thereby kept out of the public domain... "[T]he NATO-led peacekeeping force, could not contemplate a public relations disaster with the Albanians by arresting Ceku".|7| According to the Sunday Times (London), "[t]he possibility that Ceku, a respected figure in Kosovo, could be accused of war crimes, [had] sent shivers through the international community... ". |8|
Meanwhile, the ICTY had reassured public opinion that the "[T]he court's inquiries ... relate[d] to atrocities committed in Krajina, ... between 1993 and 1995"... Ceku's record in Kosovo itself is not thought to be in question, although the office of Carla del Ponte, the new chief prosecutor, said an investigation into his activities with the KLA could not be ruled out..." |9|
War Criminals call the Shots
Visibly what was shaping up in the wake of the bombings in Kosovo was the continuity of NATO's operation in the Balkans as well as its reliance on war criminals in its "peace-keeping" undertakings. Military personnel and UN bureaucrats previously stationed in Croatia and Bosnia had been routinely reassigned to Kosovo.
Lieutenant General Mike Jackson was posted to Kosovo as KFOR Commander following his earlier stint in Bosnia Herzegovina and Croatia. In the immediate wake of the 1995 ethnic massacres in Krajina (for which Agim Ceku is under investigation by the ICTY), General Michael Jackson was put in charge as IFOR commander, for organising the return of Serbs "to lands taken by Croatian HVO forces in the 1995 Krajina offensive". |10|
And in this capacity Jackson had "urged that the resettlement [of Krajina Serbs] not [be] rushed to avoid tension [with the Croatians]" while also warning returning Serbs "of the extent of the [land] mine threat." |11| In retrospect, recalling the events of early 1996, very few Krajina Serbs were allowed to return to their homes under the protection of the United Nations. According to "Veritas" (a Belgrade based organization of Serbian refugees from Croatia), some 10,000-15,000 Serbs were able to resettle in Croatia. Jackson's experience in "ethnic warfare," however predates the Balkans. From his earlier posting In Northern Ireland as a young captain, Jackson was second in command in the "Bloody Sunday" massacre of civilians in Derry in 1972.
Under the orders of Lieutenant Coronel Derek Wilford, Captain Jackson and thirteen other soldiers of the parachute regiment opened fire "on a peaceful protest by the Northern Ireland civil rights association opposing discrimination against Catholics. In just 30 minutes, 13 people were shot dead and a further 13 injured. Those who died were killed by a single bullet to the head or body, indicating that they had been deliberately targeted. No weapons were found on any of the deceased." |12| Jackson's role in "Bloody Sunday" "did not hinder his Military career." |13| From his early stint in Northern Ireland, he had been reassigned under United Nations auspices to the theatre of ethnic warfare first to Bosnia and Croatia and then to Kosovo...
In Kosovo, the conduct of senior military officers conforms to the Croatian and Bosnian patterns, the same key individuals were reassigned to "peace-keeping" roles in Kosovo. While General Jackson displayed token efforts to protect Serb and Roma civilians, those who fled Kosovo during his mandate were not encouraged to return under UN protection... In post-war Kosovo, the massacres of civilians was carried out by the KLA (and subsequently by the KPC) under the auspices of NATO and the UN. It was accepted by the "international community" as a "fait accompli".
The Installation of a Mafia State
While calling for the installation of democracy based on "transparency" and "good governance", the US and its allies have installed in Kosovo a self proclaimed civilian paramilitary government with links to organised crime. The outcome is the outright "criminalisation" of State institutions in Kosovo and the establishment of what is best described as a "Mafia State". The complicity of NATO and the Alliance governments (namely their relentless support to the KLA provisional government) points to the de facto "criminalisation" of KFOR and of the UN peace-keeping apparatus in Kosovo.
The donor agencies, the United Nations and Western governments in providing financial support to the KPC are, in this regard, also "accessories" to this criminalisation of State institutions. Through the intermediation of a paramilitary group (created and financed by Washington and Bonn), NATO and the UN bear the burden of responsibility for the massacres of civilians and the prevailing reign of terror in Kosovo.
Professor Michel Chossudovsky (Canada), an expert historian and economist who has taken part in many international forums on the Balkans, showed the criminal role of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army and its ties to U.S. and German intelligence services, ties to NATO and the United Nations Rep. Bernard Kouchner. Michel Chossudovsky, professor of economics, University of Ottawa, author of a forthcoming book entitled "War, Globalization and the New World Order"
[Source: Michel Chossudovsky, Centre for Research on Globalization, 10Jun00].
Notes:1. Quoted in John Sweeney and Jen Holsoe, Kosovo Disaster Response Service Stands Accused of Murder and Torture, the Observer, 12 March 2000. [Back]
3. Statement by Bernard Kouchner, 21 September 1999 on the occasion of the inauguration of the KPC, see http://www.un.org/peace/kosovo/pages/kosovo5.htm ) [Back]
5, AFP, 13 October 1999 [Back]
6. Tom Walker, "Kosovo Defence Chief Accused of War Crimes, Sunday Times, 10 October 1999. [Back]
10. Jane Defense Weekly, Vol 23, No. 7, 14 February 1996. [Back]
12. Julie Hyland, "Head of NATO Force in Kosovo was Second-in-command at "Bloody Sunday" Massacre in Ireland", World Socialist Website, 19 June 1999. [Back]
 | This document has been published on 20Jan11 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. |