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Spanish experts
see no Serbian genocide in Kosovo
by Pablo Ordaz Investigation? or Inquisition? Some people ask: are you saying Serbs are incapable of committing atrocities? No, as with all populations, some Serbian people are probably capable of committing atrocities. But to go from this general possibility to the charge that the Serbian armed forces systematically killed Albanian civilians (while publicly arguing for multi-ethnic unity and indeed arming many Albanians against the KLA) is to go quite a distance. Traversing it requires something: proof. American legal theory says a person is innocent until proven guilty. Implicit in this approach is the notion that criminal investigation should be conducted by disinterested parties with a goal of finding out if there has been a crime and discovering the truth, not in proving a case to destroy some enemy. Aside from whether this standard is actually applied in the U.S. legal system (a highly debatable point) shouldn't we insist it be applied when dealing with alleged mass crimes possibly implicating a government and an entire people? Or should such investigations be launched only as needed to justify NATO policy? Should guilt then be decided by a hostile US press with government officials making prejudicial statements before the fact? Should the evidence be the testimony of 'witnesses' supplied by the US side in a vicious war, 'witnesses' who testify in secret, 'witnesses' who are never cross-examined by the accused? The use of these Inquisitorial methods of proof rebounds, proving that NATO (that is, the US government) and the media are trying to railroad the Serbian people. Every time an accusation is made, two parties go on trial: the accused and the accuser. For if an accusation can be shown to be false, then the question must be asked: was it made with malicious intent? Was it perhaps cooked up to divert attention from and/or justify some other crime, some greater crime? Some crime, perhaps, committed by the accuser? (see note 4 at end) The Spanish forensic scientists and policemen quoted in El Pais have done us all a service. By denying NATO's charges they have indicted NATO. In doing so they have risked NATO's wrath - and their careers - to tell the truth. Their decency gives one hope. (See note 3 for analyses of questionable NATO/US government 'mass graves' claims) *** NOTES Note 1: First hand reports of KLA terror * For an interview with the leader of the Jewish community in Pristina, Kosovo, click here: Driven from Kosovo: Jewish Leader Sees NATO Complicity or go to: http://www.emperors-clothes.com/interviews/ceda.htm * For an interview with Kosovo Albanians who led opposition to the KLA and have been forced out of Kosovo by threat of death, click here:Kosovo Albanians - The Other Side or go to: http://www.emperors-clothes.com/interviews/alban.htm |
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© Janette Rainwater 1997-2004 All rights reserved.
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