 |
|||
|
Pre-1989 Albanian
Rule in Kosovo Discriminated Against ALL non-Albanian Minorities
Why is there Civil War in Kosovo, Why Did Clinton Get Involved and
What has Been Accomplished? Italian fishermen in the Adriatic were killed pulling up cluster bombs in their nets, and many ceased fishing out of fear. NATO first claimed they were World War II bombs, then stated that it was routine practice for NATO planes returning from raids over Yugoslavia to drop their remaining bombs into the Adriatic. A damaged aircraft would likely jettison its ordnance before landing. However, the presence of bombs in the Adriatic would also corroborate reports that some NATO pilots were dropping their bombs and missiles over the Adriatic rather than on Yugoslavia. There are uncorroborated reports that one NATO country pulled its pilots out of the war. NATO pilots, when interviewed, admitted that the Yugoslav antiaircraft defenses were resourceful and highly professional. Another said that this was a "credible" enemy. The NATO bombing of petroleum and chemical installations in the Belgrade area is threatening a large scale ecological disaster as dangerous chemicals such as phosgene, chlorine, hydrochloric acid, naphtha, ethylene dichloride and transformer oil are released into the atmosphere or into the Danube and seep into underground water supplies. In some areas, water has become undrinkable. It was nearly miraculous that a NATO bomb did not explode a liquid ammonia tank that would have poisoned many in Belgrade. The result of such bombing is a kind of low intensity chemical warfare. It was admitted that American aircraft were using munitions tipped with depleted uranium (DU), whose use in Iraq has precipitated a seven-fold increase in leukemia, caused thousands of children to be born with various deformities, and is a suspect in Gulf War Syndrome. The U.S. was also using cluster bombs in clearly civilian areas such as Nish. This is strictly an antipersonnel weapon akin to a type of land mine whose use has been outlawed because of its continuing destructiveness long after fighting has ceased. In the attack on the village of Korisa, where many Albanians died in homes they had just returned to, the U.S. planes were using a type of thermal bomb that generates up to 2000 degrees Celsius and burns people beyond all recognition. Besides the attack on Korisa, NATO aircraft on at least three other occasions targeted refugees who were returning to their homes in Kosovo. NATO aircraft targeted a Greek and a Rumanian humanitarian relief convoy going into Yugoslavia whose movements had been announced in advance. They attacked a convoy of Western journalists in Kosovo, which included the French philosopher Daniel Schiffer. The three low yield missiles that struck the Chinese Embassy each hit the apartment of a Chinese journalist who had been writing against the war. The extensive bombing of bridges and the pollution of portions of the Danube River have had economic repercussions for Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Rumania, and Bulgaria, since all traffic and trade on the waterway have been halted. Tourism has also been affected. The Aftermath The adversaries finally agreed to a settlement each for their own reasons. On the Yugoslav side, the NATO attacks on the power grid in Yugoslavia in the last few weeks were threatening massive civilian suffering and death that the Yugoslav government had to be sensitive to. Also, NATO had used various indirect means to build up and arm a larger KLA military force to use as a ground army in attacks on Kosovo, changing the military complexion in the province. |
|||
|
© Janette Rainwater 1997-2004 All rights reserved.
|
|||
 |
|||