Kosovo based on organized crime

[Andrej Tisma]

Please forward this to the Nettime list, those of you who have approach to
it. I was removed without warning in 1998 for naming those KLA thugs the
right name. I guess such an article would soon be removed from
Broeckmann-Lovink controled archive! Can we try?
Andrej

__________________________________________________
"Whenever we arrest a gangster leader, he wraps
himself in the Albanian flag, and the streets become filled with protesters.
This is not a society affected by organized crime, it is a society based on
organized crime."
-----------------

The Halifax Herald
Monday, June 2, 2003

                  Extremist on UN's payroll

                  By Scott Taylor ON TARGET

                  Pristina, Kosovo - IN THEIR SMALL OFFICE at the UN
police headquarters in Kosovo, former Ottawa policeman Derek Chappell and
his partner, Barry Fletcher, an ex-New Orleans cop, told me about their
frustration in trying to control the ongoing inter-ethnic violence in
this war-ravaged Balkan province.

                  Since NATO forces first entered Kosovo and Serbian
security forces withdrew in June 1999, the majority of the terror
attacks have been committed by Albanian extremists against Serbs and other
ethnic minorities. The result has been the expulsion of nearly 240,000
non-Albanians from Kosovo, with those few remaining minorities polarized
into isolated enclaves. This ethnic cleansing of Kosovo has taken place
over the past few years, despite the presence of some 27,000 NATO troops and
4,400 international police.

                  "One of the UN's biggest obstacles to overcome has
been the well-entrenched Albanian mafia who use the banner of Kosovar
nationalism when it suits their purpose," said Fletcher.

                  "Whenever we arrest a gangster leader, he wraps
himself in the Albanian flag, and the streets become filled with protesters.
This is not a society affected by organized crime, it is a society based on
organized crime."

                  Since mid-November 2000, various Albanian extremist
groups - based on the original Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA, UCK in
Albanian) - have begun expanding their area of operations into neighbouring
south Serbia and northern Macedonia. In these areas, which are populated by
a large percentage of ethnic Albanians, the extremists have ignited
separatist
movements by launching attacks against the Serbian and Macedonian
security forces.

                  Although it is widely known the Albanians use Kosovo
as a safe haven from which to conduct these destabilizing operations, the
political interference of the UN and NATO has prevented international
police from cracking down on the culprits.

                  In accordance with the 1999 peace agreement, the KLA
was to be demilitarized and converted into a humanitarian assistance
organization known as the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC). The wartime
leader of the KLA, General Agim Ceku, remains employed under UN direction as
the head of the "new" KPC. Of course, the KLA never did turn in its arsenal
of heavy weapons and, under the guidance of Ceku, has remained a military
formation numbering 2,000 regular forces and 3,000 reservists.

                  Although he and his soldiers are paid by the UN, Ceku
remains openly defiant of Kosovo's interim civil administration.
"Whether (the UN) wants to admit it or not, the KPC are the army of Kosovo
and I'm their commander," Ceku told the local Albanian media.

                  Despite public denials, the UN police are also aware
of the fact that Ceku's KPC are directly involved with the acts of
terrorism being conducted throughout the region.

                  "At any one time, there are at least 15 per cent of
the KPC soldiers that cannot be accounted for by their commanders," said
Fletcher. "The NATO troops responsible for the KPC know this is because
these absent soldiers are somewhere in the Presevo valley (in south
Serbia), or in Tetovo (Macedonia)."

                  In recent weeks, NATO has applied direct pressure by
ordering Ceku to voluntarily turn over all of the extremists who
nominally serve in the ranks of his KPC.

                  "(NATO) has a list of suspects, but they did not
supply these names to Ceku," said Fletcher. "He is to come up with his own
list and it is hoped that these individuals will match."

                  Unfortunately, even this latest demand on Ceku to cut
his ties with the terrorists is seen as another hollow gesture. "There is no
'or else' attached to the ultimatum and no definitive timeline," said
Fletcher.

                  When asked why the UN, to date, has not removed Ceku
from his post and sent him to The Hague for his previous war crimes, the
American police officer just shrugs and says "politics." This double
standard no doubt will not sit well with Canadian soldiers who witnessed the
atrocities committed by Ceku.

                  The first occasion our peacekeepers encountered his
bloody handiwork was during the September 1993 Medak Pocket operation. Then
serving in the Croatian army, Ceku led a short offensive and captured four
Serbian villages. When the soldiers of the Second Battalion, Princess
Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry reoccupied the contested area, they
discovered that the Croat forces had perpetrated a violent orgy of rape and
murder. Despite the careful cataloguing of the atrocities and the lodging of
formal complaints against his conduct, Ceku was promoted to general and put
in charge of the Croatian artillery.

                  It was in this capacity in 1995 that, during a major
offensive in southern Croatia, Ceku's gunners deliberately engaged
fleeing refugees in the city of Knin. Once more, Canadian officers and
soldiers observed this deliberate terror attack and demands were again made
for Ceku's indictment at The Hague tribunal. Last year, the Canadian
government bestowed upon the soldiers of 2PPCLI a special unit commendation
for their bravery in the Medak Pocket. While this honour was long overdue,
such recognition seems somewhat meaningless given that the criminal
responsible for this massacre not only remains at large, but still wages a
terror campaign in the Balkans while collecting a UN paycheque.


            Copyright C 2003 The Halifax Herald Limited