[NYC-L] Excuse me, Kosova is at the brink...can we focus please

[Isa Blumi]

 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 recognized 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 front 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 died 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 fighting 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!!!!…

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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