The Return: A Book for Frances about Life and Death
             Preface
            Back Cover
      You're in Charge: A Guide to Becoming Your Own Therapist
            Introduction: The Art of Self Observation
             On Dreaming
            Foreign Editions
   Since the New Deal: An Annotated Chronology of the Events That Have Changed the United States
             The C.I.A. (excerpt)
             Origins of the Cold War (excerpt)
             Some Quotations that Demonstrate the Underlying Philosophy Since the New Deal

 
      Afghanistan, "Terrorism," and Blowback   About Anthrax
     Some Thoughts on 9-11-2001

Spanish experts see no Serbian genocide in Kosovo by Pablo Ordaz
Commentary by Jared Israel (9-27-99)

1 2 4 5 6               p.3

Let me dwell on this point for a moment. NATO of course knew that the U.S. Air Force had bombed the prison at Istok; it was publicly reported at the time and anyway, the U.S. Air Force leads NATO, so, as a teenage American would say, 'like, du-uh.' It was also no mystery that these bombs killed people, prisoners and guards - that's what bombs do. Obviously if the term 'war crime' has any meaning, bombing a prison is a war crime.

Then why, may I ask, were the Spanish forensic scientists told to look for evidence of Serbian war crimes at Istok? Given that a massive war crime (the bombing of a prison) was publicly known to have been committed by the U.S. Air Force, why weren't the forensic scientists instructed to look for a U.S. war crime? Why is it necessary for them now to give a press conference to reveal the STARTLING news that when the U.S. Air Force bombs a prison to smithereens - it is not an act of Serbian genocide??

The Spanish scientists and policemen are correctly perceived as heroic for standing up and saying: the bombing of a prison by the U.S. Air Force is not a Serbian war crime. Doesn't the fact that this is indeed an act of heroism tell us something about the present international climate?

Down to 5%

The Spanish forensic scientists speculate that the remaining cadavers were Albanian civilians killed by Serbian troops or police. If these speculations are correct, these people could be victims of Serbian war crimes. That's about 100 people, 5% of the promised 2000.

In considering this 5%, I suggest we adopt a cautious approach.

"Impressions"

Every official in a NATO country is under pressure to parrot the NATO line. Nevertheless these Spanish experts aired their reservations publicly. Note that when they discussed the individuals with bullet wounds they made clear they were speculating:

"It gives the IMPRESSION that the Serbs gave a choice to the families to leave their homes. If some member of the clan, for whatever reason, decided to remain, upon returning they were found dead."

Of course, one can only get the "impression" that these people were shot by "the Serbs" for refusing to leave their homes if one accepts that they were members of families whom "the Serbs" had ordered to leave. But how could the scientists know this? They could only 'know it' from witnesses.

The El Pais story says nothing about witnesses, so now we must speculate; fortunately we do know a few things.

First, Kosovo is under a reign of terror by the Kosovo Liberation Army, with NATO's blessing. At the end of this commentary we list a few articles documenting that reign of terror, including first hand accounts. (See note 1 at end)

Second, both NATO and the KLA have a strong interest in proving that the Serbian government had a policy of genocide against Albanians. NATO needs to prove this because the existence of Serbian genocide was NATO's justification for bombing Yugoslavia for 78 days. The KLA needs to prove it because Serbian genocide is the KLA's justification for driving Serbs and "Gypsies" out of Kosovo. As Clinton adviser Sandy Berger put it, speaking for NATO and the KLA:

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© Janette Rainwater 1997-2004

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