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Spanish experts
see no Serbian genocide in Kosovo
by Pablo Ordaz printer friendly version 2 3 4 5 6 p.1 The following article from El Pais (The Country), a mainstream Spanish magazine, is most important. For months we've been barraged with stories claiming Serbs killed thousands of ethnic Albanians and dumped them in mass graves in Kosovo. Recently I did an internet search for newspaper articles, appearing in the past 90 days, and including the words 'Kosovo' and 'mass grave.' The report came back: 'More than 1000 - too many to list.' I had to limit the search to articles in the NY Times and even then came up with 80, nearly one a day. It has been a giant air balloon of anti-Serbian publicity, but now comes the pin: Spanish forensic experts, just back from Northern Kosovo where, they were told, they would have to inspect the worst Serbian atrocities, found no mass graves and no evidence of torture. We received this article at 11 PM on 9/23 and had a translation the next morning thanks to Herb Foerstal in the U.S. The translation was then checked for accuracy, again on no notice and within a few hours, thanks to Julio Fernández Baraiba in Argentina. Below is the article from El Pais, followed by a commentary. El Pais by PABLO ORDAZ in Madrid Spanish police and forensic experts have not found proof of Genocide in the North of Kosovo. Prisoners [in the prison in] Istok were shot after the bombardment of NATO. Crimes of War - yes, Genocide - no. This was definitely shown yesterday by the group of Spanish experts formed by officials from the Scientific Police and Civilian Forensics that has just returned from Istok, the Zone in the North of Kosovo under the control of the Legion. {Spanish Legion? - EC} 187 cadavers found and analyzed in 9 villages were buried in individual graves, oriented for the most part toward Mecca out of respect for the religious beliefs of the Albanian Kosovars and without sign of torture. "There were no mass graves. For the most part the Serbs are not as bad as they have been painted," reflected the forensic official Emilio Pérez Pujo. That was not the only irony. Also questioned were the successive counts that are being offered by the "allies" on the tragedy of Kosovo. "I have been reading the data from UN said Pérez Pujol, Director of the Forensic Anatomical Institute of Cartagena. "And they began with 44,000 deaths. Then they lowered it to 22,000. And now they're going with 11,000. I look forward to seeing what the final count will really be." The Spanish Mission which should now submit a report to the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, left from Madrid in the beginning of the month of the August with the feeling that they were going on a road to hell. "They told us that we were going to the worst zone of Kosovo. That we should prepare ourselves to perform more than 2000 autopsies. That we would have to work until the end of November. The result is very different. We only found 187 cadavers and now we are going to return," explained the chief inspector, Juan López Palafox, responsible for the Office of Anthropology and Scientific Police. The forensic people, as well as the police, applied their experience in Rwanda in order to determine what occurred in Kosovo at least in that section assigned to the Spanish detachment and they were not able to find evidence of genocide. |
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© Janette Rainwater 1997-2004 All rights reserved.
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