[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} NEWS: Poem found in the back cover of UNDP Report on Albania's development / Excuse me, Kosova is at the brink...can we focus please (by Isa Blumi, NYC-L digest, Vol 1 #80, 31 Jan 2001)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

Betreff: NYC-L digest, Vol 1 #80 - 2 msgs
Datum: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 23:47:03 +0100
Von: <nyc-l at alb-net.com>

Today's Topics:

1. Re: Poem found in the back cover of UNDP Report on Albania's
development (Isa Blumi)
2. Excuse me, Kosova is at the brink...can we focus please (Isa Blumi)

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 14:22:28 -0800 (PST)
From: Isa Blumi <ngapeja at rocketmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NYC-L] Poem found in the back cover of UNDP Report on
Albania's development
--__--__--

Message: 2
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2001 14:40:28 -0800 (PST)
From: Isa Blumi <ngapeja at rocketmail.com>
To: nyc-l at alb-net.com
Subject: [NYC-L] Excuse me, Kosova is at the brink...can we focus please


 I request that everyone reading this, take the time to actually
understand what I am writing and read the entire message.  Following my
brief tirade, I will provide you with two articles, the first from AP
reporting on the NPR (National Public Radio) story aired last week and
the second, reporting the OSCE's response. (Organization on Security and
Cooperation in Europe one of the two pillars of the administrative body
governing Kosova today).  I wish to give you some background so when you
do decide to take action, which any human being (Muslim, Catholic,
Leftist, Serb, Albanian or Palestinian) will feel compelled to take, you
can adequately address the pertinent issues at play.   When I was
working for Kosovapress during the war, we were trying to push the story
of Serb attempts to destroy evidence of massive human rights abuses by
shipping the bodies of its victims in Kosova to Serbia-proper for
disposal.  We had a witness report to us, from his hideout in Italy, how
he drove a refrigerated truck on several occasions from a Serb military
base outside Prishtina to a smelter inside Serbia.  Despite the
top-secret atmosphere he was compelled to investigate just what he was
transporting and arranged for his friends to help him open the back of
his truck and then flee Serbia (knowing full well his life was in
danger).  Inside he found the refrigerated truck packed with bodies, he
surmised that he was taking these bodies to a smelter where the to
bodies would be burned. That is before NATO bombing!  Throughout the war
I was pestering NATO, US military officials and journalists to watch for
such activities, clearly the Serbs learned from Bosnia and recogn ized
they needed to destroy evidence that could lead to their indictment. 
Sure enough, throughout the war, we were receiving reports of the
burning of whole families inside homes, the detailed effort to avoid
mass graves whenever possible, burying people (using Roma gravediggers)
in individual graves (the international war crimes tribunal in the Hague
does not count individual graves, that is why apologists for Serbia
constantly site the Hague statistics which only counts bodies identified
in mass graves.)  There were also frequent "leaks" to the media thanks
to the brave work of Kosovars and sympathetic elements inside NATO of
mass graves discovered by satellite.  That these graves were eventually
emptied suggests the bodies were disposed of in some way.  That was
during the war.  Again, during the Kumonova meetings to end hostilities
I was screaming mad as I was receiving reports from inside Kosova that
while Serb negotiators stalled at Kumanova (remember the talks would  be
delayed for many days) Serb teams worked night and day to empty as many
mass graves as possible.  We supposedly have video tape of one dump
truck carrying bodies away from a site, I know people watched from
neighboring hills and forests, witnesses are around who could testify,
clearly there are some Serbs who want to talk. When we returned to
Kosova, I immediately pressed journalists coming in to go to Trepca
because we knew they were burning bodies there.  The few journalists who
attempted were turned back by first Serb paramilitaries who guarded the
roads well after they were supposed to have left, and then by French
troops.  Eventually, with enough pressure, but about two to three weeks
after the French (and Serbs) secured the area, a few journalists were
allowed to visit some parts of the site.  Of course they reported
nothing conclusive.  I asked the former head prosecutor of the tribunal,
when she came to Pristhina after the war ended about what I had been
trying to  get journalists to report, she could not reveal what evidence
the court was going to use against those indicated but added (and this
was a clear sign to all of us that the court knew about these
activities) that "destroying evidence is an admission of guilt."  

            This leads us to today and what I think is a very brave
gesture by a man with no real interest in helping Kosovars.  A
journalist for NPR, Montgomery is his name, has risked his life to
travel in Serbia and interview those who actually participated in
burning human bodies in Trepca.  I know a bit about Montgomery and I
know he does not love Kosovar Albanians, he did this because there is a
story, a disgusting travesty which could potentially shake the
foundations of the last two years.  Of course, the OSCE and the UN are
actively engaged in shutting this news out.  Why?  They have spent the
last year and a half demonizing Kosovar Albanians, accusing them of
conducting "ethnic cleansing in reverse" when they fully know that the
overwhelming majority of the Serbs who were administrating Kosova for
Belgrade, left with the Serb military.  The international community,
(remember China, France and Russia are actively against Kosova's
independence for their own reasons)  has worked towards delegitimizing
Kosova's claims to independence, and the news of Serbs committing mass
murder and then burning the bodies would be such a compelling argument
for Kosovars to live independently from the Serb state that such
information had to be repressed.

            I am bringing this issue to you today for one simple
reason.  This is a second chance for Kosova. Montgomery has risked his
life to get the story out and now the OSCE is pulling out the stops to
suppress it by saying French teams "looked at the mines."  French
forensic teams have an interest in not finding evidence people, it is
scandalous that this international body would resort to such a level of
cover up to deflect a potential earth-shaker.  It is like the allies
suppressing news of concentration camps during World War II.  If the
world got wind and were properly stimulated, this could get Kosova back
on the agenda.  Montgomery has given Kosova that second chance, a chance
that neither Rugova, Thaci nor any other Kosovar has been able to give. 
We Kosovars lost the game because, as I warned almost two years ago, we
are not fighting the PR war.  Very few influential people wanted to
listen to me back then, they were too important and had their own
ambitions.   Now most of them are finished, but Kosova is also a dead
issue. Kosova's independence is not going to happen unless we take to
the streets.  This is our last chance.  

Those reading on the various lists did not get my point in the last
message about the need to protest Serb nationalist gestures by two
players in the NBA.  Instead of getting together and writing letters of
protest, contacting the media, etc., most elected to fight petty little
battles about whether or not it was acceptable to be associated with
Muslims or if we should be communicating in one language or another. 
That last task was easy compared to this one.  You clearly did not catch
on.  Let me make this as clear as possible.  IT IS UP TO ALL OF YOU IN
THE WEST, IN YOUR COMFORTABLE DIGITALIZED WORLDS TO GET OFF YOUR ASSES
AND MOBILIZE!  DON'T LET A CNN-ARTICULATE MORALITY/WORLD VIEW KEEP YOU
FROM FIGHTING FOR YOUR COUNTRY'S FREEDOM!!   If you do not take
advantage of this opportunity, this will be the last chance to lose.  I
purpose that all of us  abandon the petty ego-trips, rally around the
idea of Kosova being free, and get to the streets, set up daily protests
in fro nt of the UN and Serb consulates in the US, Australia and
Europe.  How can there be people marching against the Turkish state
after 85 years (The Armenian issue), kids throwing stones and dying in
Palestine, people still fighting in Chechneya and tens of thousands
protesting against Abortion rights and Kosovars cannot organize to
demand their independence  There should be a person standing in protest
for every hostage still in Serb prisons, that makes more than a
thousand, every day until they are free.  How can Kostunica be allowed
to travel with these people still in prisons, being auctioned off to the
family with 50,000 DM!!???.  Do not feel powerless.  Look what several
hundred anti-globalization protesters can do, look at the press they get
when they get within fifty miles of Davos. And here are the Kosovars,
content with being vilified as drug dealers and terrorists. This is your
chance to do justice to the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of our
ancestors who die d for their dignity over the centuries.  If not for
them, then for your own self interests. It is in your own self interest
because what we have now is the utter lack of dignity, the world does
not recognize our right to self-determination, to justice, to freedom
and security.  All that silly debate about one's faith and
Albanian/Kosovar identity means nothing if you cannot stand up and
defend honor and demand to have your fellow Kosovars' life treated
equally as a Europeans.  Are you content with the idea that Serbs or
Russians can burn our bodies to hide the fact that they tortured and
murdered us?  Are you happy with being polluted to death, to be ignored
and not permitted to travel?  If we cannot mobilize public opinion about
the fact that the great powers are trying to cover up the incineration
of human bodies, after "WORLD GENOCIDE DAY" was just observed in Europe,
then I swear, I will never take up the cause of Kosova again.  I have
spent too many days of my life fig hting this battle, often alone.  I no
longer want to go to conferences throughout Europe and be the only one
fighting, arguing and ultimately screaming for Kosova.  I have tarnished
too much of my academic career with associations of being a "terrorist"
and "radical" to continue this alone.  People are already tired of me
because to them, Kosova is finished, a done deal.  I want to see this
issue brought to the surface so I can go to Berlin, Florence and London
and point to the newspapers, to the streets outside.  ACT RESPONSIBLY
FOR ONCE DAMNIT!!.  DO THIS RIGHT!!!  There are Jewish organizations
that will have to support our fight just because of the nature of the
crimes and the people who are covering it up, there are members in the
US Senate and Congress who have supported our cause and will publicize
this if you articulate the arguments for them, most of all, you have to
get the press involved who will always want a good story.  You get their
attention by taking to the  streets, and I do not mean some pathetic
dozen kids carrying misspelled banners that lasts two hours, but
thousands, every day.

            And for those of you in Kosova right now, there should be a
day-long strike organized immediately.  All those disgusted by what has
happened, no matter if you are American, German, Kosovar Albanian or
Serb, you should participate in protesting the burning of human bodies
and then its cover up by the international community.  The Kosovar
newspapers and radio programs should universally call on a one-day
strike, screw the OSCE sanctions, if you are intimidated by threats of
your radio show being closed down, if you do not want to lose your job,
then you just answered the question for the world, there is a price for
your freedom, and a pretty low one at that.  I am especially addressing
all employees of NGOs, the OSCE and UNMIK.  You should organize to not
show up for work, close Kosova down!!!!à

This is the opportunity, it has come from an unlikely source, the Serbs
themselves.  The men who burned human bodies for Serbia's political
leaders felt disgusted by what they did and risked their lives talking
to Montgomery, the least you could do is do this last, desperate act to
save Kosova from itself.  Do not wait for Thaci, Rugova or Haradinaj,
they will not be there, Kouchner, Albright and Clinton are gone, it is
up to everyone single one of you.  Please, look at what the world should
know about what happened and look at what the OSCE and UNMIK are trying
to do to silence it.

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, MOBILIZE!

 

Friday, January 26 6:03 AM SGT 

Report: Serbs Burned Victims' Bodies

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Special forces loyal to former Yugoslav leader
Slobodan Milosevic burned the bodies of hundreds of ethnic Albanians in
a blast furnace before pulling out of Kosovo ahead of NATO troops, says
a National Public Radio report airing Thursday. 
    Men involved in the clandestine operation, which was intended to
cover up atrocities that could lead to war crimes charges, said up to
1,500 bodies were burned at the Trepca lead refinery, the report says. 
    That accounts for about half the Kosovo Albanians still missing more
than a year and a half after Milosevic's forces pulled out of the
province. 
    The men, identified only by their first names, described how bodies
were unearthed from freshly dug graves later identified by NATO
satellites gathering evidence of possible Serb atrocities in Kosovo. 
    Because they were too big to fit in the furnace, the bodies were
first put in a grinder used for ore processing before being placed on
the furnace conveyor belt, said one man involved in the operation. 
    Milosevic is under indictment by the U.N. tribunal at The Hague,
Netherlands, for alleged involvement in the Kosovo atrocities. Carla Del
Ponte, the tribunal's senior prosecutor, failed in three days of talks
that ended Thursday to convince the new Yugoslav leadership to agree to
his extradition and trial. 
    Milosevic pulled his forces out of Kosovo in mid-1999 in exchange
for an end to months of NATO bombing, as part of a Kosovo peace treaty.
Although the ethnic Albanian majority province formally remains part of
Serbia, Yugoslavia's larger republic, it is run by the United Nations
and a NATO-led peacekeeping force. 
    A man identified only as Dusko, a member of Serbia's special forces,
told NPR the campaign was an attempt to hide evidence of atrocities -
whole villages destroyed and their inhabitants killed. 
    ``I think our people understood that, sooner or later ... The Hague
Tribunal might come into Kosovo,'' he was quoted as saying in the
script, made available to The Associated Press. 
    Others said the bodies - mostly men, but also including women and
children - were transported at night in refrigerated vehicles to
Trepca's Zvecan lead refinery just outside Kosovska Mitrovica, about 20
miles north of Pristina, Kosovo's capital. 
    The blast furnaces ``burned at extremely high heat,'' said one of
the drivers, identified as Branko. ``And that's where the bodies got
destroyed.'' 
    About 120 of the bodies disposed of this way came from Izbica, near
Mitrovica, said the documentary. After the bodies were dug up, NATO spy
satellites captured the rows of freshly opened graves and they became
part of the tribunal's evidence against Milosevic. 
    ``This was a horrible scene because there were so many - like a
factory assembly line - but with bodies,'' Branko was quoted as saying
of the mass burnings. 

##########################

Saturday, January 27 5:23 AM SGT 

Kosovo Mass Burnings Alleged

By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer 

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's forces
burned bodies of victims of Serbian atrocities in Kosovo in a campaign
to destroy the evidence of crimes, the State Department said Friday. 
    Information obtained by the U.S. government beginning in 1999
confirms there were massive killings ``and there were attempts to burn
bodies and otherwise cover up evidence at places throughout Kosovo,''
spokesman Richard Boucher said. 
    In a documentary aired Thursday that used interviews from men who
said they were involved, Minnesota Public Radio and National Public
Radio news reported up to 1,500 bodies were burned at a lead refinery in
Trepca. That would account for about half of the ethnic Albanians in
Kosovo still missing more than a year and a half after Milosevic pulled
out of the province under U.S. and NATO pressure. 
    ``The information that we had and continue to have corroborates the
broad outline of the campaign by Milosevic's forces to destroy evidence
of their crimes,'' Boucher said. 
    Asked specifically about Trepca, Boucher said, ``We knew that this
was one of the places that we were concentrating on, where there was
activity going on. But if we were actually able to say in our report,
`They burned bodies at this site,' I don't know.'' 
    Earlier, a spokeswoman for the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe said investigators had found no evidence that
would substantiate the report that elite forces loyal to Milosevic
burned the bodies in a blast furnace at Trepca. 
    ``Our people have had a report of this, but they found no evidence
to substantiate it,'' OSCE spokeswoman Claire Trevena said. 
    Along with the United Nations and NATO, the 55-nation Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe plays a key role in running the
Serbian province of Kosovo. 
    Trevena said a French forensic team with sophisticated equipment
that was called to search for remains of any bodies at Trepca found
nothing there. 
    Boucher said the United States, in May and June 1999, briefed the
international war crimes tribunal for Yugoslavia in The Hague, The
Netherlands, ``on the Serb campaign to destroy the evidence.'' 
    Boucher added: ``It's a fact that we know of and that we've reported
on in the past.'' 
    On Thursday, the Bush administration said through Boucher that it
was disappointed Yugoslavia did not work out an agreement with the chief
U.N. war crimes prosecutor to put Milosevic on trial for war crimes. 
    ``These things need to be worked out, and the obligation flows from
the government to the tribunal,'' he said. 
    Chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte rejected Yugoslavia's position.
Still, she said in Belgrade she remains ``cautiously optimistic'' that
Milosevic would be extradited to the Netherlands for trial on charges of
involvement in atrocities by Serbian troops against ethnic Albanians in
Kosovo. 
    He was indicted nearly two years ago, but like several other Serb
leaders accused of war crimes in the Balkans, he has not faced trial. 
    In 1999, senior French police officials in Kosovo said the furnace
at Trepca stopped operating shortly after the start of the crackdown on
Kosovo's ethnic Albanians in late March 1999 and remained unused after
Milosevic's forces pulled out. 
    Ashes at the site examined by the team also showed no traces that
would back up the report, they said. 
    In Thursday's radio report, the men, identified only by their first
names, said bodies were unearthed from freshly dug graves that were
identified by NATO satellites after the French study was done. 
    At The Hague, Graham Blewitt, the U.N. tribunal's deputy prosecutor,
said tribunal investigations at the Trepca mine ``couldn't confirm''
bodies had been disposed of by burning but suggested it was extremely
difficult to arrive at a definite conclusion.


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