NO GENOCIDE, NO JUSTIFICATION FOR WAR ON KOSOVO<\/strong><\/p>\nRichard Gwyn<\/p>\n
IN THE GENOCIDE of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by the forces of Serb
\nleader Slobodan Milosevic, the worst incident occurred at the Trepca
\nmine.<\/p>\n
As reported by American and NATO officials, large numbers of bodies
\nwere brought in by trucks under the cover of darkness. The bodies were then
\nthrown down the shafts, or were disposed of entirely in the mine’s vats
\nof hydrochloric acid. Estimates of the number of dead began at 1,000.<\/p>\n
That was six months ago, in the middle of the war undertaken to halt
\nwhat both U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony
\nBlair called “a human catastrophe.” Estimates of the number of ethnic
\nAlbanians slaughtered went upward from 10,000. U.S. Defence Secretary
\nWilliam Cohen put the count at 100,000.<\/p>\n
Three weeks ago, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
\nYugoslavia released the findings of Western forensic teams
\ninvestigating the horror at Trepca. There were not 1,000 bodies down the mine shafts at Trepca, reported the tribunal. There were not 100 bodies there.
\nThere was not one body there, nor was there any evidence the vats had ever
\nbeen used to dispose of human remains.<\/p>\n
Shortly afterward, the tribunal reported on its work at the most
\ninfamous of all the mass graves of ethnic Albanians, at Ljubenic near
\nthe town of Pec. Earlier, NATO officials had said 350 victims had been
\nhastily buried there by the retreating Serb forces. There were not 350
\nbodies at Ljubenic, though. There were five.<\/p>\n
So far, not one mass grave has been found in Kosovo, despite four
\nmonths’ work by forensic teams, including experts from the FBI and the
\nRCMP.<\/p>\n
This discovery – more accurately, this non-discovery – first was made
\npublic three weeks ago by the Texas-based intelligence think tank,
\nStratfor. Stratfor estimated the number of ethnic Albanian dead in
\nKosovo at 500.<\/p>\n
Last weekend, the story was broadcast for the first time by the TV
\nOntario program Diplomatic Immunity. (Last Sunday’s New York Times was
\nstill using the “10,000 deaths” figure.)<\/p>\n
The story has begun to appear in European newspapers. Spain’s El Pais
\nhas quoted the head of the Spanish forensic team, Emilo Pujol, as
\nsaying he had resigned because, after being told to expect to have to carry
\nout 2,000 autopsies, he’d only had 97 bodies to examine, none of which
\n“showed any signs of mutilation or torture.”<\/p>\n
Because 250 of 400 suspected mass graves in Kosovo remain to be
\nexamined, it’s possible that evidence of mass killings will yet be
\nfound. This is highly unlikely though, because the worst sites were dug
\nup first.<\/p>\n
No genocide of ethnic Albanians by Serbs, therefore. No “human
\ncatastrophe.” No “modern-day Holocaust.”<\/p>\n
All of those claims may have been an honest mistake. Equally, they may
\nhave been a grotesque lie concocted to justify a war that NATO
\noriginally assumed would be over in a day or two, with Milosevic using
\nthe excuse of some minimal damage as a cover for a surrender, but then
\nhad to fight (at great expense) for months.<\/p>\n
There’s no question that atrocities were committed in Kosovo,
\noverwhelmingly by the Serb forces, although the ethnic Albanian
\nguerrillas were not innocent. Quite obviously, these forces, acting on
\nMilosevic’s explicit orders, carried out mass expulsions of people,
\nterrorizing them and destroying their homes and property.<\/p>\n
Acts like these are inexcusable. That they occur often in civil wars
\n(far worse are being committed by the Russians in Chechnya), is
\nirrelevant to their horror. But they have nothing to do with genocide.<\/p>\n
No genocide means no justification for a war inflicted by NATO on a
\nsovereign nation. Only a certainty of imminent genocide could have
\nlegally justified a war that was not even discussed by the U.N.
\nSecurity Council.<\/p>\n
No genocide means that the tribunal’s indictment of Milosevic becomes
\nhighly questionable. Even more questionable is the West’s continued
\npunishment of the Serbs – the Danube bridges and the power stations
\nremain in ruins – when their offence may well have been stupidity
\nrather than criminality.<\/p>\n
The absence of genocide may mean something else, something deeply
\nshaming. To halt the supposed genocide, NATO bombed targets in Serbia
\nproper. Because of “collateral” or accidental damage, such as the
\nbombing of a train, some 500 civilians were killed (Belgrade claims
\nalmost 1,000 deaths). NATO very likely killed as many people as were
\nkilled in Kosovo.<\/p>\n
The number of these dead isn’t large enough to justify NATO’s actions
\nbeing called a “human catastrophe.” But, unless proof of genocide can
\nbe produced, NATO’s actions were clearly a moral catastrophe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Toronto Star November 3, 1999 NO GENOCIDE, NO JUSTIFICATION FOR WAR ON KOSOVO Richard Gwyn IN THE GENOCIDE of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by the forces of Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic, the worst incident occurred at the Trepca mine. As reported by American and NATO officials, large numbers of bodies were brought in by trucks … <\/p>\n
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