AMANPOUR'S
"FREEDOM-FIGHTERS"
I
cannot forget a CNN special documentary on the KLA, narrated
by Christiane Amanpour, commander-in-chief of the journalistic
division of the War Party, and wife of State Department spokesman
James Rubin. Amanpour's interviews with KLA cadre uniformly
depicted them as victims fighting in a righteous cause, and
her voice seemed to swell with pride as she continually described
them as "freedom fighters." KLA recruits, questioned
about their political beliefs and the goals of their movement,
typically claimed to be fighting for "democracy"
and "a normal life, just like in America." CNN rounded
up an "expert" from the pro-KLA "Human Rights
Watch" who rationalized KLA excesses and reiterated the
U.S. government line that the KLA were admirable and worthy
of American support.
GOOSE-STEPPING
THROUGH PRISTINA
But
even here, in the midst of what was nothing more than a propaganda
piece, viewers got a glimpse of the truth: footage of a KLA
parade, with smart young soldiers dressed in red and black
practically goose-stepping down the street, red banners flying.
During the war, KLA commanders were told by their American
handlers to quit using the old straight-arm KLA salute: it
was just a coincidence, of course, that this open-palmed
salute was identical to the Hitlerian version.
"HUMAN
RIGHTS WATCH" ISN'T WATCHING
Now
that Human Rights Watch is no longer watching, and Madeleine
Albright's ardor for Kosovar strongman Hacim Thaci seems to
have cooled considerably, the KLA is openly moving to establish
an "ethnically pure" fascist state – and it
is not only Serbs who are the victims.
FREE
TO DIE
The
news
that the Kosovapress, the official organ of the KLA high command,
has denounced Veton Surroi, publisher of Koha Ditore,
Kosovo's leading newspaper, as a traitor – and strongly
implied that his death may be imminent – hit the NATO-crats
like a thunderclap. Surroi is a traitor, according to an article
by Marxhan Avdyli, and has all along been a Serbian agent:
not only that, but he is now a spy in the pay of nameless
Western interests. The editors of Koha Ditore are a
"bastard ragtag" band of "ordinary mobsters";
they are also, we are informed, "the garbage of history."
Ominously, Avdyli warns that Surroi is at risk of "eventual
and very understandable revenge" and further avers that
"such criminals and enslaved minds should not have a
place in the free Kosovo." This is what the KLA means
by a "free" Kosovo – a nation free of all political
dissent.
BLOOD
AND IRONY
So,
what's the KLA's beef with Surroi? If you haven't already,
take
a look at "Today's Spotlight," on the main page,
a commentary by Surroi originally published in Koha Ditore
that takes aim at the KLA's evolving fascist regime. He condemns
the reverse ethnic cleansing of Kosovo, and denounces "the
organized and systematic intimidation of all Serbs simply
because they are Serbs and therefore are being held collectively
responsible for what happened in Kosovo. Such attitudes are
fascist." The irony of the West's "anti-fascist"
crusade against Milosevic and Serbian "racism" is
that it has created the makings of a racist fascist state
in Kosovo. As Surroi puts it,
"From
having been victims of Europe's worst end-of-century persecution,
we are ourselves becoming persecutors and have allowed the
specter of fascism to reappear. Anybody who thinks that the
violence will end once the last Serb has been driven out is
living an illusion. The violence will simply be directed against
other Albanians. Is this really what we fought for?"
GOEBBELS
– THE SEQUEL
Well,
yes, as a matter of fact, that is indeed what the KLA
was fighting for. They have always been authoritarians, as
well as racists and fascists. Why should anyone be surprised
and even shocked – shocked! – that today
they are denouncing Surroi in explicitly ethnic terms? The
Kosovapress commentary excoriates both the editor and the
publisher of Koha Ditore in explicitly racialist language,
making reference to them as "gospodin" (the Serbian
honorific for "Mr."), claiming they have "Slav
stink" in spite of the fact that they "unfortunately
were made of Albanian blood, or at least were declared as
such, because you never know the origin of the pro-Serbs."
William Houwen, coordinator of media development for the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe, aptly remarked that
"Goebbels couldn't have done it better."
SIEG
THACI!
As to whether or not the KLA
intends to reinstate the open-palmed straight arm salute of
old remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: the US,
the Europeans, and those few politically active Albanian intellectuals
with any scruples all knew who and what they were supporting
– and describing as "freedom fighters," in
the immortal words of Christiane Amanpour. Now, let them squirm
out of this one!
AGIM
CEKU, WAR CRIMINAL
Of
course they knew: just like they knew all about Agim
Ceku, the 38-year-old former Croatian army brigadier, who
commanded forces that slaughtered hundreds of Serb civilians
in the Krajina region and turned the rest – some 300,000-plus
– into refugees. With US military assistance, including
help from a "private" group of "retired"
US generals and intelligence operatives – and with former
state department official Richard Galbraith reportedly riding
atop a Croatian tank – the Croatians, under Ceku's command,
decisively defeated the Serbs, four years ago. The Krajina
campaign broke the back of the Serbian military resistance
and turned the tide in the Balkan war, putting Milosevic on
the defensive. The epic carnage was such that not even the
War Crimes Tribunal, which has never taken note of crimes
against Serbs, could avoid noticing. Therefore, no one was
really surprised when the Tribunal announced yesterday that
it was investigating Ceku for possible war crimes.
REWARD
AND PUNISHMENT
Now
surely no one believes that the NATO-crats were unaware of
what Ceku had been up to in the Krajina when they appointed
him supreme commander of the "Kosovo Protection Corps"
(TMK), a force of some 5,000 recruits described as "lightly
armed." Indeed, his present position was awarded to him
on the basis of the Krajina campaign, which in a military
sense was a success – even if it was not exactly an act
of "liberation" but an act of conquest – aided
and abetted (and no doubt financed) by the US.
DON'T
"LOSE" THAT THUG!
To
get some concept of the moral complicity of the NATO-crats
in the elevation of a mass murderer – a man who executed
hundreds and wantonly destroyed entire communities –
to a position of real authority in postwar Kosovo, get a load
of what a diplomat described
by the London Times as "close to Bernard Kouchner,
the head of the UN mission," has to say about the accusations
against Ceku: "If we lose him it will be a disaster.
When you get to the second level of the TMK, you're down to
a bunch of local thugs." In the spectrum of brutality
represented by the KLA, Ceku is a moderate – relatively
speaking. The NATO-crats are scared to death that they will
"lose" a Class-A thug to the War Crimes Tribunal
– so this is what the tale of Kosovo's "freedom
fighters" comes down to, eh Christiane?
DON'T
HOLD YOUR BREATH
Naturally,
the indictment of Ceku, if and when it comes, will be sealed
and not available to the public. After all, could the Western
powers really be expected to document their own crimes? At
any rate, don't hold your breath waiting for the Tribunal
to act, even in the deepest darkest secrecy. According to
David Slinn, the senior British diplomat in Kosovo: "There's
speculation as to whether he's going to stick around or not."
Although an ethnic Albanian, Commander Ceku has a house and
a family in Croatia, a nation which has repeatedly refused
to hand over to The Hague Croatian citizens accused of war
crimes. In view of his services to the Croatian state, Tudjman's
regime is likely to treat Ceku as an honorary Croatian. The
Times cites another diplomat who is of the opinion
that the NATO-crats could not risk a confrontation with the
KLA by arresting Ceku.
DOUBLE
STANDARD
A
few years ago, American intellectuals and their European cousins
were screeching that the Allies were letting alleged Serbian
"war criminals" slip through their fingers: they
demanded that the Bosnian Serb leadership, up to and including
Slobodan Milosevic, must be arrested and put on trial. The
cry went up: Don't let them get away! The NATO-crats obligingly
swooped down on half a dozen or so suspects, all Serbs, and
the War Party was temporarily mollified. Now we hear the same
crowd, the Susan Sontags and the New York Review of Books
crowd, along with the rabid "collective guilt" school
of retribution centered around The New Republic, calling
for reeducation camps for Serbs and the expunging of all traces
of nationalism and "racism" from the Serbian soul.
But these same people are strangely silent about Ceku: not
a word, not a whisper, not even the feeblest of protests.
OSCE
– THE ORGANIZATION FOR SOCIALISM AND COERCION IN EUROPE
What
kind of a society are the Allies creating in Kosovo? Certainly
by any standard familiar to the West, we are not talking about
a democracy in the sense that the concept of democratic rights
is protected by the government: indeed, under the rubric of
UN rule, the Kosovar media is to be strictly controlled. In
the view of the NATO-crats, this latest outburst from the
Kosovapress – which, after the war, was converted into
the mouthpiece of the self-proclaimed "interim government"
of Kosovo, headed up by Hacim Thaci – is an argument
to start implementing the Orwellian media plan envisioned
by the postwar planners under the auspices of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Familiarity
with this plan should disabuse anyone naïve enough to
believe that we went to war in order to bring the benefits
of "democracy" and "freedom" to the benighted
peoples of Kosovo.
THE
CENSORS
Under
the terms of the plan, all media would be licensed and any
accused of fomenting "hate speech" would soon find
their permission to publish or broadcast curtailed if not
eliminated. Control of the media is to be handed over to a
"Media Board," comprised of five people described
by Daan Everts, head of the OSCE mission, as "well respected
intellectuals." They are: Mahmut Bakali, a former leader
of the Communist Party of Kosovo, Pajazit Nushi, former head
of the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms
in Kosovo, Liri Osmani, a lawyer, Shkelzen Maliqi, of George
Soros's Open Society Foundation, and a token Serb, Aca Rakocevic,
for purely decorative purposes. Looking over their shoulders
will be Everts, and his assistant, Mirjana Robin, but OSCE
officials insist that this will be a truly homegrown board
of censors. Says Everts: "We don't want to bring foreign
dictators or rules here. We would like these things to originate
from here and that's why we gave so much importance to the
creation and the functioning of a Kosovar Board." Why
impose "foreign dictators" – when native dictators
are so readily available?
ORWELL'S
GHOST
The
Orwellian possibilities of a "Council for the Defense
of Human Rights and Freedoms" engaged in abrogating freedom
of the press are virtually endless. The participation of the
"Open Society Institute" in closing off free and
open debate is likewise emblematic of what is happening in
Kosovo today. Under the banner of building a democratic society,
basic democratic rights are denied; in the name of a war against
"fascism," the NATO-crats are setting up a fascist
mini-state in the heart of Europe.
THINGS
TO COME
The
real danger is that they will use this bastion of thuggery
as a battering ram against what is left of the Yugoslav federation.
In comparing defeated Serbia to Nazi Germany, justifying media
curbs as the price to pay for "reconstruction,"
and gleefully contemplating war crimes trials and "reeducation
camps" for Serbs, one gets the ominous feeling that the
NATO-crats will not stop with Kosovo.
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