Direct Action <<>> Albanians deliberately provoked

[Ivo Skoric]

The fact that KLA operated as a terrorist organization does 
alleviate, but does not remove, the liability of Serbian forces in
Kosovo for war crimes against civilian Albanian population. And it
certainly does nothing to provide justification for the years of
martial law enforced by Belgrade, which much predated appearance of
KLA. As it is typical for the sanctimonious US foreign policy
doublespeak, Washington had supported KLA *AND* at the same time had
listed it as a terrorist organization. But to offer that argument in 
Milosevic defense is like trying to justify Bush's destruction of 
Iraq as a legitimate response to the September 11 terrorists attack. 
ivo

On 17 Oct 2004 at 13:02, Miroslav Visic wrote:

German journalist puts more light on the activities of KLA, a
terrorist organization supported by Washington.


  Albanians deliberately provoked attacks on civilians
  /12:59 PM EDT Oct 17/


        /ARTHUR MAX
        /


THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Testifying for the defence in Slobodan
Milosevic's war crimes trial, a German journalist told the court
Tuesday that ethnic-Albanian separatists in the former Yugoslavia
deliberately attempted to provoke an attack on civilians by Serb
troops.

The journalist, Franz Josef Hutsch, a former German army major who
spent months with the Kosovo Liberation Army in 1998 and 1999, also
said the KLA ran drugs and prostitutes into other parts of Europe to
finance weapons purchases.

Hutsch described the KLA as a well-organized force, assisted by
officers from Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Morocco who had 
trained
somewhere in Turkey.

KLA tactics during the ceasefire in late 1998 included staging 
hit-and-run attacks on Serb patrols designed to "force them into a
trap and try to provoke an excessive reaction" in order to hasten
foreign intervention, he said.

They also tried to lure the Serbs into attacking civilians in early
1999 so the images would be shown during peace negotiations taking
place in Rambouillet, France, he added.

The testimony came after a month-long recess in which the case 
resumed
much as it had left off - with Milosevic demanding that he be allowed
to fire his court-appointed lawyers and represent himself.

The former Yugoslav president accused his trial judges of offering 
him
only "scraps of rights."

But presiding Judge Patrick Robinson cut him short, saying, "I don't
want a speech" and told

Steven Kay, the appointed defence lawyer, to continue his questioning
of Hutsch.

Both Kay and the prosecution filed briefs to an appellate court on
whether Milosevic should be allowed to again lead his own defence.

Kay contended that Milosevic had a "fundamental right" to defend
himself, while the prosecution argued that the repeated delays caused
by Milosevic's ill health defied the need for a speedy trial.

Medical reports have said Milosevic's chronic high blood pressure
could become life threatening under the stress of defending himself,
something he did during the trial's first two years.

It was not clear when the appeals court would hand down its decision,
but in the meantime Kay was continuing the defence case but hampered
by Milosevic's refusal to co-operate.

The prosecution wrapped up its presentation in February.

Dozens of witnesses Milosevic had planned to call have refused to
testify unless the former Serb leader is allowed to question them
himself.

Milosevic is accused of unleashing Serb troops who committed
atrocities while quashing a rebellion in Kosovo, a southern province
of Serbia dominated by ethnic Albanians. Eventually NATO launched a
78-day bombing campaign to force the Serbs to end the crackdown.

Milosevic has described the Kosovo war as a defensive action against
terrorists.

In a separate case, a former Bosnian Serb army officer who had been 
on
the run for more than two years made a surprising appeal to fugitives
from the UN war crimes tribunal to turn themselves in.

Ljubisa Beara, who like Milosevic is accused of genocide for the 1995
massacre of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica, was taken into custody in
Belgrade on Saturday and immediately flown to The Hague.

At a brief hearing Tuesday, he asked for more time to plea to six
counts of war crimes. A new hearing was set for Nov. 9.

Beara then unexpectedly requested to make a statement. He appealed to
his "brothers in arms" facing war crimes indictments to "voluntarily
surrender to remove the stone that is around the neck of our country
and those around us."

Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte disputed Beara's claim that he 
turned
himself in voluntarily. She said he had been spotted a week before by
one of her investigators in Belgrade and knew that his arrest was
imminent.

"For me, he did not surrender voluntarily," she said at a European
foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg. "He was indicted in 2002 and
he knew he was indicted, but he never voluntarily surrendered."

Serbia-Montenegro, the union that replaced the former Yugoslavia, has
been under pressure to step up its co-operation with the tribunal as
it seeks continued western aid and ultimately membership in the
European Union.

But Belgrade also faces pressure from powerful Serbian nationalists
who, like Milosevic, reject the tribunal's legitimacy.

*=A9 The Canadian Press, 2004*


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____________________________________________________________________
"There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what
you're talking about." John von Neumann       


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