Canadian Diplomat Claims NATO War Crimes

[Andrej Tisma]

FORWARDED
______________


B92 (Serbia-Montenegro)
May 20, 2004

Canadian diplomat claims NATO war crimes 

Diplomat James Bissett was Canadian ambassador to
Yugoslavia from 1990 to 1992. During his tenure, he
watched as Yugoslavia began to break up and war broke
out, first in Slovenia, then in Croatia, finally in
Bosnia. 

He gave the following interview to Canada's
Edmonton Journal on May 18, before making a speech at
the University of Alberta.
 
Canada participated in a series of NATO-sanctioned war
crimes against Yugoslavia, charges a former Canadian
ambassador to the Balkan country.  

To this day, Canada has failed to admit the pretences
behind the bombing campaign that led to the NATO
occupation of Kosovo had no substance, James Bissett
said Tuesday in an interview before making a speech at
the University of Alberta. 

NATO and the United States claimed that more than
100,000 ethnic Albanians had been killed as the result
of Serb genocide, Bissett said. 

To stop that alleged genocide and ethnic cleansing,
NATO engaged in a 78-day bombing campaign against
Yugoslavia, which destroyed military and government
facilities before targeting factories, bridges, TV
stations and power grids. Finally, the Yugoslav
government gave in and allowed NATO troops to enter
Kosovo. Forensic investigation teams followed. 

"The forensic experts found fewer than 2,000 graves
and many of the people in those graves were Serbs,"
Bissett said. "There were more civilians killed in
Serbia by the NATO bombing campaign." 

Bissett claims there wasn't even a concerted campaign
of ethnic cleansing on the part of the Yugoslav
government. What actually happened was that 200,000
ethnic Albanians fled their homes as a result of
fighting between the Yugoslav army and the Kosovo
Liberation Army, Bissett said. The KLA was a terrorist
guerrilla organization that provoked reprisals against
Muslim Albanian villages by murdering Serb officials
and police officers, so it could tell the world the
Serbs were engaged in a genocidal campaign. 

Today, the few remaining Serbs of Kosovo are paying
the price for that duplicity. Bissett said 2,000 Serbs
have been murdered in Kosovo and 1,300 Christian
churches and monasteries have been bombed, burned or
destroyed. 

On March 17, another lie sparked more violence aimed
at Serbs. Three ethnic Albanian boys went swimming in
a river, and when two drowned, the third boy told his
parents the boys had been driven into the water by a
Serb man and his vicious dogs. By the time the boy
admitted his story was a lie, it was too late. 

All this anti-Serb violence had taken place while an
army of 18,000 NATO troops stood by and did nothing to
protect the Serbs or their property, said Bissett, who
was an outspoken opponent of NATO action during the
run-up to the 1999 bombing campaign. 

"It's time to speak out about Kosovo but it seems to
be a forgotten place," he said. "Only Pakistan and a
few other nations have spoken out about it. Canada has
said nothing."