Solana - Wesle Clark and the KLA Organ Harvesting Atrocity

2.7.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

June 30, 2008

KLA Organ Harvesting Atrocity

Kosovo Albanian Organ Harvesting Atrocities Investigated by the Council of Europe

On Wednesday, June 25, the Council of Europe appointed Swiss senator Dick Marty to investigate charges that Kosovo Albanian terrorist KLA (UCK) were using kidnapped Kosovo-Metohija Serbs to harvest their organs for sale during and after the civil war in southern Serbian province.

The charges that Kosovo Albanians, led by the war criminals currently governing Kosovo and Metohija province — Hashim Thaci, Agim Ceku and Ramush Haradinaj — had profited from selling human organs of abducted Serbs were first brought forth in the book “The Hunt: Me and the War Criminals” by Carla Del Ponte, former chief prosecutor of the war crimes tribunal in the Hague.

Del Ponte’s book describes the plight of one group of some 300 Kosovo province Serbs, who were transported to neighboring Albania in 1999, while NATO troops were already present in the province, where they were held in camps and subjected to forced organ extractions. United States-based non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch said it has corroborated Del Ponte’s allegations.

Responding to requests by the Russian Federation, the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly decided that the charges merit a full investigation. Dick Marty, a Swiss lawyer who became famous for investigating CIA secret torture chambers and rendition flights through Europe, was asked by the 47-nation pan-European organization to investigate the most morbid chain of war crimes after the WWII.

Both Del Ponte and a number of Serbs have pointed to the involvement of UNMIK officials who prevented earlier investigations and averted each attempt to reach the kidnapped Serbs while they were still alive and held imprisoned by the Albanian KLA butchers in improvised camps throughout Kosovo-Metohija province, suggesting that the logistics and the scope of these atrocities went far beyond the KLA terrorists and that some of the top Western politicians and senior UNMIK leaders were involved in the harrowing series of war crimes.

In an article published yesterday, Belgrade daily offers transcript of the secretly taped conversation between Javier Solana and Wesley Clark, contents of which indicates that NATO leaders were not only aware of the ongoing monstrosity, but also involved in it.

…One Summer Evening in Swiss Alps: Wesley Clark and Javier Solana

Translation of the article and transcript of conversation published by Belgrade daily Kurir

NATO leaders Wesley Clark and Javier Solana knew that the international forces in Kosovo are dealing in trafficking of the human organs and drugs, and were most probably involved in these deals. Former NATO chief commander, American General Wesley Clark and then-NATO Secretary General Javier Solana have met on August 15, 2001, in a villa rented in Swiss Alps.

Kurir has obtained the transcript of the conversation between the two NATO leaders, which confirms many suspicions regarding the trade in human organs, as well as the drug trafficking. The trade of human organs is a subject of both Hague tribunal investigation and the investigation by the Council of Europe, recently initiated by the Russian Federation.

Kurir will publish the complete Solana-Clark conversation. That evening, two young women were also with them, to help improve the mood of the two officials. They chatted in a relaxed atmosphere, sipping cocktails.

Clark: I’ll visit Kosovo in few days…

Solana: Be careful. The narco-dealer gangs are roaming through Kosovo. There is no law, no control there… Hm, we made a big mistake when we allowed these [Albanians] to rule.

Clark: Yeah… maybe.

Solana: This is all the fault of CIA operatives… All they care about is drugs and their business…

Clark: Yes, I know how things are down there… I often go to Kosovo, mostly incognito, it’s safer that way. But, now I have to finish one business. We have to transfer a load to Fort Bragg.

Solana: Hopefully, it’s not that urgent… Are you talking about the organs?

Clark: Yes, yes…

Solana: Bondsteel is doing a good job. Schlaphcock (spelling unknown) [man in charge for the U.S. military camp security] and Kouchner [Bernard, first UNMIK head, now Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, suspected of also being involved in the organ harvesting and trade] are doing their jobs excellently…

Clark: Right. It seems it’s urgent now. There are constant meetings with General Anderson. Once I finish this, I’d drop by Serbia. What do you think, how will they receive me?

Solana: Don’t worry, they’ll be good. These ones in Belgrade are much more obedient even than those in Podgorica [Montenegro]. In Montenegro the presidents can be changed, but Milo [Djukanovic, former and current Montengro premier] is pulling all the strings, because he uses money to buy everything. Once you get to Belgrade, avoid contacts with Kostunica and his people… Relations between him and Djindjic have gone rather cold… Although, I think Djindjic is right, Kostunica is not easy for cooperation. You know, when you talk to him, he always listens very carefully, but in the end of the conversation he always sharpens things up. We could never reach the full agreement with him on anything.

Clark: How do you think they’ll react to this about the TV station [Belgrade RTS TV station that was razed during NATO aggression, in violation of the Geneva Convention, killing 16 staff members]? You know that I wrote in my book that I have personally picked the targets…

Solana: Yes, I know, I’ve seen that.

Clark: But you also know how much Clinton and his were pressing for bombardment of the Serbian television…

Solana: What we know stays between us! You mustn’t talk about that with anyone!

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COURT INVALIDATES DETAINEE’S “ENEMY COMBATANT” STATUS

2.7.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

COURT INVALIDATES DETAINEE’S “ENEMY COMBATANT” STATUS

A federal appeals panel found that the designation of a Chinese
detainee held in U.S. custody as an “enemy combatant” was “not valid”
because the classified evidence offered by the government was not
sufficient to sustain the charge.

In the first legal challenge to enemy combatant status, Huzaifa Parhat,
an ethnic Uighur, admitted to being an enemy of the People’s Republic of
China but denied any connection with al Qaida or the Taleban and
specifically denied that he was an enemy of the United States.

Military prosecutors argued that he qualified as an enemy combatant
because he was “affiliated” with military forces that were “associated”
with al Qaida and the Taleban.

In a straightforward but nevertheless thrilling exercise of judicial
authority, judges said that the classified evidentiary basis for that
argument could not be independently validated and was therefore
inadequate.

“We must be able to assess the reliability of that evidence ourselves,”
the judges wrote.

“The government suggests that several of the assertions in the
intelligence documents are reliable because they are made in at least
three different documents. We are not persuaded,” the court said.

Adding a literary flourish, the judges wrote that “the fact that the
government has ’said it thrice’ does not make an allegation true. See
LEWIS CARROLL, THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK 3 (1876) (’I have said it
thrice: What I tell you three times is true.’).”

Likewise, they wrote, “the government insists that the statements made
in the [classified evidentiary] documents are reliable because the
State and Defense Departments would not have put them in intelligence
documents were that not the case. This comes perilously close to
suggesting that whatever the government says must be treated as true,
thus rendering superfluous both the role of the Tribunal and the role
that Congress assigned to this court.”

In a court of law, the prosecution must prove its case and not simply
assert it, the judges explained.

“We […] reject the government’s contention that it can prevail by
submitting documents that read as if they were indictments or civil
complaints, and that simply assert as facts the elements required to
prove that a detainee falls within the definition of enemy combatant.
To do otherwise would require the courts to rubber-stamp the
government’s charges,” the ruling stated.

The court also denied a government request to block public disclosure
of certain unclassified information in the trial record, including
material marked “Law Enforcement Sensitive.”  (The new ruling is
apparently the first to cite President Bush’s memorandum on “controlled
unclassified information” that was published on May 9, 2008.)

Significantly, the court rejected the government’s attempt
“unilaterally to determine whether information is ‘protected’.”
Sealing the judicial record, the judges said, is a decision for the
court to make.

“Without an explanation tailored to the specific information at issue,
we are left with no way to determine whether it warrants protection –
other than to accept the government’s own designation. This we cannot
do.”

Instead, the government was directed to file a new motion “accompanied
by pleadings specifically explaining why protected status is required
for the information that has been marked. Opposing counsel may file a
response, and the government may file a reply, pursuant to our usual
rules.”

The classified June 20, 2008 ruling in Huzaifa Parhat v. Robert M.
Gates was redacted and approved for publication on June 30.  A copy is
available here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/parhat.pdf

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Croats Systematically Destroyed Serbian Population

26.6.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

June 25, 2008

Croats Systematically Destroyed Serbian Population

Franjo Tudjman, notorious Holocaust denier who famously declared he is “lucky his wife is neither Jewish, nor Serbian”, had flared the new wave of rabid Ustasa fervor at the start of 1990s and, together with Croatia’s current Premier Stipe Mesic, reintroduced the murderous policies from 1940s, when Croatia was allied with Hitler’s Germany.

He was never indicted by the Hague for the second genocide against Serbian population in Croatia, the one he planned and executed at the helm of the Croat state.

Galbraith: Ethnic Cleansing of Serbs was Croatia’s State Policy

Former US Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith who testified before the Hague tribunal on Monday, confirmed that ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Serbian Krajina region was a deliberate systematic operation and the state policy of Croat leadership, headed by Franjo Tudjman, which led to the mass scale ethnic cleansing in two blitzkrieg operations in 1995, codenamed Storm and Flash.

As a prosecution witness in the case against Tudjman’s generals Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markaca and Ivan Cermak — accused of conducting military operations aimed at forced and permanent removal of Serbian population from the Krajina region, including killing Serbian civilians and prisoners, expulsion, deportation, plunder of Serbian property, merciless destruction of Serbian-populated towns and villages and inhumane and cruel treatment — Galbraith stressed that this was Croatia’s state policy that continued to be enforced afterwards, preventing the expelled Serbs from returning to their homes and land in Croatia.

According to Galbraith, the systematic destruction and plunder of the Serbian property during the Storm, as well as prevention of their return, through the legal and other means undertaken after the operation, took place “because Croat state leadership — Tudjman and the gang around him — wanted it to happen, and they were happy when it did happen”.

Systematic Pogrom

“Once the Serbs were gone, Tudjman didn’t want them to return”, American diplomat said, adding that Croat state enacted legal measures to prevent the return of the expelled and refugees.

“The systematic destruction of Krajina was either ordered or permitted, but in any case, this was intended by the Croat leadership. I believe this was a deliberate policy of Zagreb government,” Galbraith stressed.

He said that Croat war-time president Tudjman, during their numerous meetings before the Operation Storm, was not hiding the fact he considers Serbian population in Krajina region “a strategic threat” to Croatia. His adviser Hrvoje Sarinic called Serbian population in Croatia a “cancer on Croatia’s belly”, US diplomat noted.

Galbraith confirmed that Tudjman was saying that only “up to 10 percent of Serbs can remain in Croatia”, and that Serbian Krajina region ought to be cleansed of Serbs and populated by the diaspora Croats. Emphasizing that his goal was a nationally “homogeneous”, i.e. an ethnically clean state, Tudjman was also openly advocating “moving the population” and dividing Bosnia and Herzegovina, Galbraith revealed.

He testified that right after the military offensive on Serbian Krajina began, on August 4, 1995, the mass “torching and pillaging” of the Serbian towns and villages also started. He had personally witnessed these crimes and knows these were not merely “isolated incidents”, as Croats refer to them, but organized, massive action, planned at the very top of Croat political and military leadership.

Galbraith Regrets Lying During Milosevic’s Trial

Mass ethnic cleansing of Serbian population from Krajina in Croatia — Operation Storm — remains the biggest single act of ethnic cleansing committed on the territory of former Yugoslavia, with over 300,000 Serbs being forced to flee, while more than 14,000 Serbian civilians were killed. It was, therefore, quite convenient that US State Department’s Madeleine Albright had miraculously discovered, at the very moment Croats were “purifying” their state, that Serbs have committed a “genocide” in Srebrenica a whole month earlier, so that the focus of the world public could be successfully and instantly taken off the genocidal Croat state.

During his Hague testimony on June 23, Galbraith expressed regret he had lied in the trial against former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, claiming that there was no ethnic cleansing during Operation Storm. He said that this was a “technical explanation”, because many Serbs left the town of Knin before the savage Croat troops entered (compared to hyenas by a senior British officer who, after his peacekeeping service in Bosnia, said he “would rather find Serbs under his command, as they could be counted on to fight to the last man [while] Croats were no more dependable or courageous than hyenas”).

Elsewhere, it was noted that the US State Department representative was present the entire time during Galbraith’s testimony, sitting behind the prosecutor, with the task to oversee American diplomat’s testimony and prevent him from touching upon the subjects which involve the US role in purging Croatia of Serbs.

Recommended: Tudjman & the Croatian Ustashe Nazi genocide of Krajina Serbs in 1991 (Part 1, Part 2), by Nathan Pearlstein, Joshua Rosenberg, Max Rosenthal and Shlomo Baum (4International)

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Kosovo the most worst country in balcan

26.6.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

World Bank: fight against corruption slackens in majority of SEE countries

26/06/2008

The fight against corruption has weakened in most of the Southeast European countries, according to a new World Bank report on governance published on Tuesday.

(Dnevnik, Europe.bg, Hotnews.ro - 25/06/08; DPA, IPS, World Bank - 24/06/0

According to the report, Bulgaria ranks as the most corrupt of the EU member states. [File]

Only five of the Southeast European (SEE) countries made progress in fighting corruption in 2007, the World Bank said in a new study released on Tuesday (June 24th). Kosovo and Bulgaria are among the other seven nations that deteriorated on this front, according to the Bank’s annual World Governance Indicators (WGI) report.

The study covers 212 countries and territories, drawing on 35 different data sources. The Bank measures governance in the surveyed countries on the basis of six criteria: voice and accountability, political stability, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law and control of corruption. For each of these indicators, countries earn scores of 0 to 100 or percentile ranks.

With a rank of 25.6 for 2007, Kosovo appears to be the worst performer among the SEE nations in fighting corruption and the country with the most significant deterioration since 2006, when it received a score of 34. Bulgaria’s performance in this category also worsened. Its 53.1 rank for last year was 3.7 points lower than the one it got in 2006, making it the worst performer in the fight against corruption among EU members.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Greece’s scores of 44.9 and 65.7, respectively, were both 3.2 points lower than those the previous year. Cyprus got 74.9 for 2007, down from 77.7 in 2006. Croatia (58.9) and Serbia (46.4) slipped 0.8 and 0.2 points, respectively.

Meanwhile, Albania (36.7) improved by 7.6 points. Romania (55.6) also made significant progress, gaining 7.1 points in a year. Macedonia (50.7), Montenegro (44.4) and Turkey (59.4) earned higher scores for 2007.

On the voice and accountability indicator, all SEE countries, except for BiH, Kosovo, Romania and Turkey, improved their scores.

Political stability deteriorated most in Turkey, Serbia and BiH. Cyprus (64.4), Greece (63.0) and Bulgaria (61.1) fared best on this indicator. ….

Setimes

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Gerdec blast and the US - Albanian bribery system

25.6.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

Consequences still resonate three months after Gerdec blast

23/06/2008

Although the people in Gerdec, Albania, have begun to rebuild their homes and move on, the March 15th blast in the town is still fresh in everyone’s minds. The explosion is still causing turmoil in Albanian politics.

By Manjola Hala for Southeast European Times in Tirana — 23/06/08

The blast killed 26 people, and caused 16.6m euros worth of damage. [Getty Images]

Efforts to dismantle Albania’s stockpiles of obsolete munitions took a catastrophic turn on March 15th, when a series of explosions occurred as crews were clearing out a storage depot in Gerdec, near Tirana. The explosions lasted nearly 14 hours, resulted in 26 deaths, over 300 injuries, thousands of homeless and 16.6m euros worth of damage.

Investigations into the tragedy have focused on what caused the explosion and who is responsible.

The final report of US experts, who assisted the Albanian team to investigate the causes of the accident, says that the demolition process was carried out in unsafe working conditions — the factory was very small and inappropriate for demilitarization of ammunition.

“According to estimates, the explosion was so strong that it could be compared to a nuclear explosion,” said President Bamir Topi.

Gerdec looks now like a construction site with houses being re-built and a number of tents for shelter. The exploded hill has started to show its first signs of life with sparse grass and plant regrowth.

Alongside the few newly reconstructed houses there are many others being rebuilt with funds from the government or by Gerdec inhabitants themselves.

Former Defence Minister Fatmir Mediu resigned days after the blast. [Getty Images]

“Some of the families managed to rebuild their houses very soon after the tragedy,” said Gerdec resident Agim, who is working on his house with his family and friends. “Relatives or children working abroad helped them financially. I personally borrowed the money needed for the reconstruction; I could not live anymore in a tent. As soon as I receive the financial compensation, I will repay it.”

However, officials in the Vora municipality, the entity responsible for distributing compensation and other economic assistance to the damaged families, say that the funds for reconstruction have all be distributed.

As of June 10th, the finance ministry had delivered 90% of the 13m euros allocated by the government, according to the ministry’s press office. On June 12th, the Council of Ministers issued a final decision on compensation funds, adding an additional 7.5m euros for rebuilding the business sector and for the inhabitants of Manze and Marikaj, which were also damaged in the blasts.

However, despite the compensation, most of those affected by the tragedy are upset with the government’s dealing with the situation. At the beginning of June, people sheltered at the interior ministry employees’ resort in Durres started protesting against the ministry’s decision to relocate them to rental homes.

Many families in the area have refused to relocate, despite the contamination. The UN group that visited Gerdec in late March estimated that the level of contamination near the exploded hill is high due to two missile radioactive elements. Still, many residents have set up tents near the hill, and refuse relocation.

Accommodation is not the only problem that caused dissatisfaction among people damaged by Gerdec blast. In mid May, claims regarding unfair assessment of damaged buildings caused an investigation for possible bribery cases. After questioning the 15 working groups established for assessing public and private buildings, the state prosecution decided to start investigations of four individuals and their methods of assessing the damages.

The former workers at the Gerdec army depot have gone on hunger strike. They accuse the government of not properly handling the situation, and are asking for financial compensation for the wounded and the families that suffered as a result of the blast.

Residents leave their destroyed houses in Memlisht after the weapons depot exploded. [Getty Images]

Five people have been arrested in connection with the blasts, and on Monday (June 16th), parliament lifted the immunity of former Defence Minister Fatmir Mediu based on the general prosecutor’s allegation of abuse of power. Mediu resigned days after the explosion.

The prosecution says that an investigation into the matter shows that Mediu’s “actions and inactions” broke a series of laws and procedures on security standards. They say there were illegal orders appointing Gerdec as the place for the site of the munitions demolition, and other orders to the army to transport the munitions to Gerdec that could have been the result of bribery.

Mediu denies any wrongdoing and did not comment on the parliament’s decision. “As a defense minister I respected the law [and] considered disposing of excess ammunition a national priority,” he told the parliamentary session.

Topi has also relieved Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Luan Hoxha from duty. Presidential spokeswoman Mimoza Kociu said that the decision followed a recommendation from Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

Seven other defense ministry officials and managers of the private company disposing of the ammunition have been arrested on charges of negligence. About 100,000 tons of excess ammunition, mostly Russian and Chinese artillery shells made in the 1960s or earlier, are stored in former army depots across Albania. The country has pledged to dispose of the ammunition by 2010, and is receiving assistance from the US, Canada and other NATO countries.

Southeast European Times correspondent Jonilda Koci contributed to this report.

This content was commissioned for SETimes.com

 

 

June 24, 2008

American Envoy Is Linked to Arms Deal Cover-Up

By ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON — An American ambassador helped cover up the illegal Chinese origins of ammunition that a Pentagon contractor bought to supply Afghan security forces, according to testimony gathered by Congressional investigators.

Before testifying, from left: Mitchell Howell of the Defense Contract Management Agency; Brig. Gen. William N. Phillips; and Jeffrey P. Parsons of the Army Contracting Command.

A military attaché has told the investigators that the United States ambassador to Albania endorsed a plan by the Albanian defense minister to hide several boxes of Chinese ammunition from a visiting reporter. The ammunition was being repackaged to disguise its origins and shipped from Albania to Afghanistan by a Miami Beach arms-dealing company.

The ambassador, John L. Withers II, met with the defense minister, Fatmir Mediu, hours before a reporter for The New York Times was to visit the American contractor’s operations in Tirana, the Albanian capital, according to the testimony. The company, under an Army contract, bought the ammunition to supply Afghan security forces although American law prohibits trading in Chinese arms.

The attaché, Maj. Larry D. Harrison II of the Army, was one of the aides attending the late-night meeting, on Nov. 19, 2007. He told House investigators that Mr. Mediu asked Ambassador Withers for help, saying he was concerned that the reporter would reveal that he had been accused of profiting from selling arms. The minister said that because he had gone out of his way to help the United States, a close ally, “the U.S. owed him something,” according to Major Harrison.

Mr. Mediu ordered the commanding general of Albania’s armed forces to remove all boxes of Chinese ammunition from a site the reporter was to visit, and “the ambassador agreed that this would alleviate the suspicion of wrongdoing,” Major Harrison said, according to his testimony.

Investigators interviewed Major Harrison by telephone on June 9, and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee made excerpts of the transcript public on Monday.

At the time of the meeting, the company, AEY Inc., was under investigation for illegal arms trafficking involving Chinese ammunition.

On Friday, the president of the company, Efraim E. Diveroli, 22, and three others were charged with selling prohibited Chinese ammunition to the Pentagon that they said was made in Albania.

On March 27, The New York Times published an article that said Albanian documents showed that the Miami company had bought more than 100 million Chinese cartridges that were stored for decades in former cold war stockpiles.

Mr. Diveroli arranged to have them repacked in cardboard boxes, many of which split or decomposed after shipment to the war zones, according to the article. Different lots or types of ammunition were mixed. In some cases the ammunition was dirty, corroded or covered with a film.

The repackaging operation, carried out by an AEY subcontractor at the Rinas Airport in Tirana, has become the focus of the Congressional investigation.

According to the transcript excerpts released by the committee, Major Harrison told investigators that he did not agree with the decision to hide the boxes from the reporter, and said that he felt “very uncomfortable” during the meeting.

Major Harrison, who as the chief of the embassy’s office of defense cooperation was responsible for helping American efforts to train, equip and modernize Albania’s military, said that his suggestion to bar the reporter from visiting the Albania base was rejected.

In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the committee’s chairman, Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, said Monday that there were signs that embassy officials in Tirana tried to cover up the November meeting once Mr. Waxman’s staff began an investigation into the arms company. The letter said the committee would seek to interview Mr. Withers and other embassy personnel.

Attempts to reach Mr. Withers through the United States Embassy in Tirana were met with a request to refer all questions to Washington.

But a senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing criminal inquiry into AEY, said he had spoken Monday to Mr. Withers, who adamantly denied Major Harrison’s statement.

The senior official said the committee had never interviewed Mr. Withers or other top embassy personnel, and released the information on Monday to fan interest in a committee hearing on the company’s business dealings scheduled for Tuesday.

A State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, told reporters on Monday that the department was reviewing Mr. Waxman’s letter, which included Major Harrison’s statements.

“We have no information that would support the idea that U.S. officials were involved in some kind of illicit activity,” Mr. Casey said. “But obviously, again, any allegations made, certainly any questions raised, by the chairman of a major committee in Congress, is something that we will be happy to look into.”

Mr. Withers, a Foreign Service officer for 24 years, has been ambassador to Albania since July 2007. He has also served in Latvia, Nigeria, Russia and The Hague. His father, John L. Withers Sr., is a former director of the Agency for International Development.

…………………………..

nytimes

Army Awarded Contract, Unaware of Dealer’s Past

 

 

By ERIC SCHMITT

Published: June 25, 2008

WASHINGTON — When the Army last year awarded a contract worth up to nearly $300 million to a tiny Miami Beach munitions dealer to supply ammunition to Afghanistan’s security forces, it overlooked a very checkered past.

nytimes

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NATO says: Kosovo will not have a army

25.6.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

Kosovo will not have army, says de Hoop Scheffer

24/06/2008

“KFOR is here; it’s here to stay,” said NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer during a visit to Pristina on Monday.

By Blerta Foniqi-Kabashi for Southeast European Times in Pristina — 24/06/08

NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (centre) and KFOR Commander General Xavier Bout de Marnhac (right) in Pristina on Monday (June 23rd). [Laura Hasani]

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer announced on Monday (June 23rd) in Pristina that the new Kosovo Security Force, rather than being an army, will have “specific duties”.

“NATO will lead the transformation of the current Kosovo Protection Corps and the creation of the Kosovo Security Force, which will have 2,500 members and some 800 reserve members with specific duties,” said de Hoop Scheffer at a press conference in Pristina after meeting with President Fatmir Sejdiu, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and Parliament Speaker Jakup Krasniqi.

De Hoop Scheffer explained that the personnel decision came from NATO. “I believe that we will have a multiethnic force under the mandate of KFOR,” he predicted.

He noted that if the situation became fragile, NATO would reinforce its mission in Kosovo. He described the task of the 16,000-strong KFOR as ensuring peace and security for both the majority and minority communities……

 http://setimes.com/

Der Kosovo wird keine Armee haben, sagt der NATO General Sekretaer

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Kosovo Serbs’ view of new constitution

21.6.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

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“The founding of a Serb assembly is a sign that the Serb community has no intention of entering conflicts,” Serbian Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Slobodan Samardzic said.

Kosovo Serbs’ view of new constitution depends on their location

20/06/2008

The new Kosovo constitution’s coming into effect on June 15th has sparked different reactions among the Kosovo Serbs, and their opinion largely depends on the location of their settlements in Kosovo.

By Igor Jovanovic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade — 20/06/08

Serbs from northern Kosovo, who have close economic and geographic ties with Serbia, have announced they will not abide by the new constitution or the laws stemming from it. Nebojsa Jovic, one of the Serb leaders from northern Kosovo, which has the biggest Serb municipalities, said that recognising the Kosovo constitution would mean recognising the new state’s independence, which Belgrade adamantly opposes.

Jovic also announced that on June 28th, Kosovo Serbs will proclaim their assembly in Kosovo, which will be a response to the constitution adopted by Pristina.

However, Serbs living in central and southern Kosovo surrounded by Albanian municipalities say it will be impossible to ignore certain provisions of the Kosovo constitution and the laws derived from it. ………..

Setimes

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German Political and Military Experts: Padlock on Bondsteel!

19.6.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

June 17, 2008

Padlock on Bondsteel!

German Political and Military Experts: Padlock on Bondsteel!

All the US military bases in Europe must be closed down as soon as possible, and installment of the anti-missile shields in Czech Republic and Poland is also unacceptable. It is necessary to prevent the further militarization of the EU — these are the warnings by Admiral Elmar Schmeling, former head of NATO Counter-Intelligence Service and by the Berlin-based Politics Professor Wolfgang Richter, President of the European Peace Forum (EPF).

“The US military presence in the Balkans, in a longer term, is a threat to the European Union’s peace, and Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo-Metohija province has to be closed down at once. The US apparatus is pressuring NATO members to invest huge amounts of money into the military equipment and weapons, militarizing the EU not in order for the EU to protect itself, being that the Western world cannot become a victim of anyone’s aggression, but in order to get their hands on natural resources and subsidize the US economy through the military interventions throughout the world,” EPF President Richter and the Forum’s Executive Director Schmeling told Glas Javnosti during their recent visit to Belgrade.

The EPF delegation was received by the Kosovo-Metohija Ministry officials, during the preparations by Belgrade Forum for the World of Equals for the next year’s commemoration of the decade since NATO aggression on Serbia. Admiral Elmar Schmeling who, up to 1999 was at the helm of NATO Counter-Intelligence Service, when he was discharged due to his opposition to the aggression against Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, noted that Serbia’s Kosovo-Metohija Ministry is “well informed about the background” of the events related to southern Kosovo province.

Four Actual Doctrines of American Imperialism

“An event that triggered forming of the European Peace Forum, gathering members from 17 countries, was NATO aggression against FR Yugoslavia. We have first formed the Tribunal based on the Russel’s Court model, for prosecuting NATO for the crimes it committed in Yugoslavia, but the final goal was to establish a permanent international platform for intellectuals which will serve to inform the public about the things USA and NATO are doing in the world, and to draw the public attention to the threats of war”, the EPF leaders said.

Peace experts assessed that the US apparatus is guided by the 4 key doctrines:

1. There can be no greater power than the USA;

2. United States can’t support themselves on their own, so they will depend on the resources of other states;

3. United States are the biggest anti-fascist power, so all of its opponents are — fascists;

4. United States have the monopoly over democracy and its establishing in other countries.

“This machinery is forcing other NATO member states to invest into the military industry”, Richter said.

“[In Belgrade] We talked with Kosovo-Metohija Minister Assistant Slobodan Kljakic and we can clearly see that Kosovo and Metohija province is a very important geopolitical spot, rich in energy resources and on the crossroads for the liquid energy fuel transportation. We conveyed that the Forum regards the secession of Kosovo province unacceptable, and agreed it represents a precedent in the international relations, a model which the US has established as a training experiment for the future. Various countries can now cite the Kosovo-Metohija example and request for the world to intervene wherever they think a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ should be prevented. They will now move to embed this precedent into the UN Charter, which does not allow interfering in the internal affairs of the UN members states,” Admiral Schmeling said.

NATO Adopted Hitler’s Concept of “Humanitarian Intervention” Trampling the International Law

EPF representatives unanimously assessed NATO aggression against FR Yugoslavia as an illegal operation, partly due to the fact that in the parliaments of the alliance member states the Article 5 of the constitutive act has never been changed, and this article defines the purpose of NATO pact as defense of its members.

“With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Alliance was left without the enemies, so they had to change their strategy. On a 50-year NATO anniversary, they have inaugurated the concept of a ‘humanitarian intervention’ — the very same one which Hitler in his Mein Kampf has placed above the international law — i.e. the concept of ‘preventing the crisis’. In this way, they have also invented a new concept of an enemy,” Professor Richter explained.

Asked why has Germany accepted to take part in an illegal operation and how has the German nation agreed to wage war once again on a foreign soil, Richter said that the Germany was “left without an enemy” too.

“After a number of debates, the [German] Government decided to cross over the psychological barrier and intervene outside its borders. The people were manipulated by the doctored images and by the slogans that Kosovo is a ‘new Auschwitz’, and that we have to help prevent the ethnic cleansing of Albanians. The actual objective was to liberate the German Army from the self-isolation, so we are now hearing that the German democracy is being defended in Afghanistan. And no-one says — Let’s change our Constitution which prohibits the military intervention on the foreign soil”, said Richter.

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Den Hague is a Very Lucrative Blackmailing Business

19.6.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

June 18, 2008

Den Hague Mafia

Why the Real Criminals Keep Getting Released by Den Hague?

The Hague Kangaroo Court officials are reportedly using the confidential intermediaries to offer a “deal” to the Hague indictees: million dollars for every year shaved off the imprisonment term.

High officials of the Hague tribunal are blackmailing those indicted for war crimes on the territory of former Yugoslavia, offering them to pay huge amounts of money for release, or to have the sentence reduced. According to Kurir, the families of the few Serbs are being requested to pay a million dollars for each year of the reduced sentence.

The Kurir source from the Hague tribunal said that the families of the accused are trying to scrape together at least a portion of the money, hoping to manage to reduce the prison terms for their family members as much as possible, but being that the price tags are so high, Serbs are not able to buy even the portion of their freedom in the Hague.

Not Merely a Farce — Den Hague is a Very Lucrative Blackmailing Business

“Of course, this is all being done in complete secrecy. The men close to the heads of Tribunal first contact the Hague prisoner’s lawyers who, after consulting with the family, decide whether they want and can get involved in this. Since most of the Serbs accused by the Hague are as poor as the church mice, for the greatest majority of them the ‘generous’ offer by the Tribunal is out of the question. On the other hand, this type of corruption is a common thing when it comes to the Albanian, Bosnian Muslim and Croat indictees. Ramush Haradinaj [notorious KLA cutthroat commander] is the best example — the Shiptars have collected millions of dollars for his release”, the Kurir Hague source, wishing to remain anonymous, revealed.

Another source of the Belgrade daily, considered thoroughly familiar with the situation in the Hague tribunal, also claims this type of “trade” is indeed an ongoing operation.

“They are mostly trying to get the money from the ones for whom they know they have it, and that is not many of the accused. Those are the ones who have been at the top of the hierarchy during the wars and who have profited from the wars, those who have the gas pumps, the firms, the foreign currency accounts abroad… One Serbian indictee, for one part of his complaint, has hired the most expensive American lawyer Alan Dershowitz, while Haradinaj paid only to the Cherry Blair Office 9 mill. euros for his defense, which says plenty about their financial means,” the Hague insider said.

He pointed out that the Hague investigators are in position to easily find the money trails of the wealthy indictees, whose accounts they freeze, “and from that point on the trade with the prison terms are fully enabled and even pragmatic: the money is blocked, and those who are facing the drastic sentences can’t spend their money anyway. So, it is better for them to accept to give money for the freedom.”

“The only question that remains is whether the judges are so malleable to accept to render a bought verdict. I can guarantee that they are. Majority of the Hague judges have never been judges before, but mostly came from the diplomatic functions. They are all very well inter-connected and they easily come to terms among themselves,” the Hague source explained.

Lawyer Toma Fila of the famous Serbian Law Office said he hadn’t heard about freedom-buying practice in the Hague, but the fact that there is no longer an automatic release after the two thirds of the prison term served is an important indicator that this is quite possibly true.

“This was the practice up to the arrival of the US Judge Meron, but then it was decided it is something that has to be determined from case to case”, Fila said.

Croat Secret Services Use Hague’s Confidential Documentation to Train their Witnesses

Nerma Jelacic, a Croat woman rumored to have had a sexual affair with the Bosnian Muslim war criminal Naser Oric while he was in the Hague prison, who happens to be a spokesperson for the Hague tribunal, told Kurir this is a “nebulous nonsense that doesn’t deserve a comment”. Asked to whom could the Hague accused report such blackmails and is there an international body authorized to investigate and prosecute the Hague tribunal employees for corruption and abuse of power, Ms. Jelacic could not give a precise response and said this question should be posed to the UN Headquarters in New York.

“The Croat lobby before the Hague tribunal consists of the Croat state and its secret services. I have personally seen a confidential document in one trial, which shows that Croat agents broke into tribunal’s confidential documentation, based on which they have prepared their prosecution witnesses for Vukovar indictments, as well as the defense of Croat indictees. Croatia is even renting houses in Hague, to which it brings its legal and other experts, who are preparing the defense of indicted Croats. On the other hand, Serbian state does nothing, and accused Serbs and their lawyers are left to themselves,” renown Serbian lawyer Borivoje Borovic told Kurir.

Professor Vlajki: The Unprecedented Hague Farce

In the article published yesterday by Glas javnosti, Professor Emil Vlajki assessed that the “shabby ‘new world masters’ have shown the greatest level of cynicism towards the Serbian nation, which is, without exaggeration, unseen in the history of the world, through the behavior of the fake court of justice: the Hague Tribunal”.

“So, during the trial of V. Seselj, a following ‘evidence’ was presented against him. On the courtroom screen, the video footage from the early nineties of Bishop Filaret was played, as he showed the scull of a Serbian boy who was cruelly killed at the start of the war. Being that no one, including the judge, was able to immediately grasp how could a Serb be tried for a murder of another Serb committed by the Serbian enemies, the prosecutor gave a brief explanation: ‘This is the proof of Serbian propaganda!’ He didn’t offer any evidence for his claim, no expertise! The council of judges talked half a minute and accepted this sort of ‘proof’ against the accused as valid. Therefore, even when the Serbs are being killed they are still guilty, because they are deceiving the public with their allegedly fake deaths. In this way, a Serb is being tried in the Hague both for his own people killed by the enemy and for the victims on the enemy side. But that is not the end of the story.

“During the Seselj trial, a video clip was shown from the 1996 demonstrations, where he stated that one should have no dealings with this kind of Europe which constantly blackmails the Serbs. And nothing else was seen or heard. This ‘proof’ of Seselj’s ‘guilt’ obviously falls into the category of expressing a political view a whole score of international charters is unable to sanction. But the ‘genocidal’ Serbs, evidently, cannot be afforded a benefit of any human rights.

Preventive Genocide of a “Genocidal Nation”

“Instead of determining the individual responsibilities based on solid evidence, this prostituted court went as far as issuing a verdict to the Serbian history too, by mentioning, in one of the verdicts unparalleled in the judicial practice, that ‘the genocidal Serbian nationalism’ is rooted in ‘Nacertanije’ [an 1844 Memorandum to Serbian King Aleksandar Karadjordjevic, by Ilija Garasanin]! A ’scientific basis’ for this type of views was given through the pen of the two British academicians (!) who in the 1990s wrote that even though it is true that [Bosnian Muslim Naser] Oric committed numerous crimes against the Serbs, that was justified, because the Serbs are a genocidal nation and, therefore, it was useful to kill them preventively in the greatest possible number, so they wouldn’t destroy the Muslim nation.

“It is entirely clear that the West could not find Oric and Haradinaj guilty in the Hague for the crimes committed against the Serbs, because in that way it would bring its entire politics into question — starting with the [West’s] leading role in destruction of Yugoslavia, over demonizing the Serbs, favoring Croats and Muslims in the recent conflicts, the criminal NATO aggression in 1999, all the way down to promoting the ‘independent’ Kosovo. But this is all understandable, because the Serbs are the enemy.”

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United States and EU agree to support The Gangsters’ Paradise Kosovo

13.6.2008 by CrniLabudovi.

United States and EU agree to support Kosovo development

12/06/2008

In a declaration at the US-EU summit in Slovenia, the two parties promised to co-operate in ensuring a smooth transfer of powers between the UN and EU missions in Kosovo.

By Blerta Foniq-Kabashi for Southeast European Times in Pristina — 12/06/08

US President George W. Bush (left) and Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa speak to the press in Brdo.
US and EU representatives signed a common declaration to support Kosovo’s regional integration and its institutional and economic development on Tuesday (June 10th), during a summit held in Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia. The agenda covered regional and political issues, global security, present-day global challenges and bilateral trade.

Regarding Kosovo, the EU said it “welcomes US participation in” the bloc’s EULEX mission, which is expected eventually to replace UNMIK. …………
http://setimes.com/

The Gangsters’ Paradise

The motherland is a nest of drug traffickers, weapons dealers and people smugglers. No wonder nobody talks any more about a Greater Albania

By Joshua Hammer
NEWSWEEK

Nestled on Albania’s southern coast just 45 miles across the Adriatic from Italy, the crumbling port of Vlore is a smuggler’s paradise. Countless sandy coves hidden along the rugged shoreline provide ideal loading bases for high-powered speedboats laden with heroin, hashish, guns or human cargo. An underequipped, underpaid police force is nearly powerless to catch them. ‘We seized three boats last month,’ boasts Police Chief Gjovalin Lohja, guiding his van along a decrepit road cut into the cliffs. Minutes later he pulls up to the police department’s only patrol boat, which cruises at 25 miles an hour’about half the speed of the smugglers’ craft. The crew tries to start the waterlogged engine. After half an hour Lohja finally shrugs, ‘Maybe we’ll try again tomorrow.’

WELCOME TO GROUND ZERO of the great Balkan breakdown. A decade after the collapse of Communism opened Albania to the world, this small, destitute state continues to spread trouble far beyond its borders. Many observers trace the whirlwind now roaring through the region to the collapse of Albania’s weak central government in 1997, when a million weapons passed into the hands of the country’s angry and desperate population. Tens of thousands of those arms wound up in the hands of the Kosovo Liberation Army, ratcheting up the Kosovo conflict and drawing NATO into the fight. In the four years since then, Albania has continued to play a destabilizing role. Albanian criminal gangs in league with the Italian and Kosovo mafias have helped to fuel a lucrative trade in drugs and arms throughout the Balkans. Two years ago, many Kosovar refugees were so dismayed by glimpses of their southern neighbor that they put aside dreams of a Greater Albania and began focusing their efforts on their ethnic confreres in Macedonia and Serbia instead.

Ironically, as the flames of ethnic Albanian nationalism again threaten to engulf the Balkans, the poorest nation in Europe is struggling to reverse the meltdown that it set in motion. The Kosovo war woke its leaders up to the fact that they could be vital players in the region, and that by pushing Balkan stability Albania could reap massive doses of Western aid. Last week, in a clear signal of Albania’s new role on the regional stage, former KLA commanders Hashim Thaci and Agim Ceku traveled to Tirana, where Albanian leaders urged them to pressure the guerrillas to seek a political settlement. While trying to play peace broker, Albania is also acting to erase its reputation for lawlessness: the government has moved to crack down on contraband, root out corruption and collaborate with Western drug agents. ‘The government is gradually taking control,’ says a Western official in Tirana. ‘The space of the bad guys to operate is getting smaller.’ But Albania remains poor and weak - and its credibility as a regional force is consistently undermined by the huge number of criminals in its midst.

Nowhere is that more obvious than in Vlore, a sultry port of palm-lined boulevards, outdoor cafes and crumbling Italianate architecture three hours south of Tirana. The town’s descent into lawlessness began in 1992 when local gangs formed partnerships with Italian mafias to smuggle desperate Albanians by sea to Italy. After the 1997 implosion of a government-endorsed pyramid scheme (in which tens of thousands of investors lost their life savings), Vlore’s citizens rose in revolt. Police and soldiers fled their posts, throwing open the city’s armories. In the power vacuum, criminal gangs carved out a lucrative trade. The biggest business eople smuggling. Kurdish refugees from Turkey and Iraq pay as much as $1,000 to be brought by Albanian gangs across the Macedonian or Greek borders. The gang bosses have invested heavily in high-powered German and Italian-made boats that can skim across the Adriatic in 45 minutes, and hire local boatmen, known as skafisti , to pilot the craft’s.

Sokol Kociu Skaf: “SIA” 

A senior Albanian official has been implicated in a major drug trafficking operation.

A ‘COWBOY’ FOR POLIECE CHIEF

The Albanian government has tried, fitfully, to regain control of Vlore. In 1998 the Interior minister made what seemed an inspired move: he appointed Sokol Kociu, 41, police chief. A burly career cop from northern Albania, ‘Kociu was a cowboy,’ says one colleage. Three months after arriving in Vlore, Kociu’s team swept down on a beachfront garage and captured six mafia speedboats. In revenge, gangsters kidnapped the chief and held him at gunpoint on an island until he agreed to release the boats.

The kidnapping made Kociu a legend in a country starved for heroes. A few months later his longtime friend and colleague, Prosecutor General Arben Rakipi, hired him to be the country’s top judicial investigator, based in the capital, Tirana, where he would lead the government’s fight against corruption. His career flourished: Kociu broke up a scheme by airport officials to extort fees from Kurdish refugees to land in Albania. His family spent Sundays with Rakipi cavorting at a heavily guarded beach complex once used by top officials from the regime of Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha.

But like many Albanian officials, Kociu apparently succumbed to the same shadowy forces he had pledged to destroy. Early last year, say Italian investigators, he was enlisted in a scheme by two Albanian businessmen to ship Colombian cocaine to Albania?then smuggle it out to Western Europe and Russia. Kociu allegedly secured phony passports for the businessmen, met secretly with Colombian drug traffickers and made visits to Porto Palermo, an old naval base near Vlore, allegedly to secure a landing point for the cocaine. But Italian authorities discovered the plot and in late February Rakipi issued an arrest warrant for Kociu. The former hero fled his favorite Tirana coffee shop as the police moved in. For three weeks, he led his erstwhile colleagues on a cat-and-mouse game through Tirana, taunting them with mobile phone calls to the media from his hiding places. Last week police finally arrested him in a Tirana villa. Kociu has denied his guilt. ‘I feel betrayed,’ says Rakipi. - ‘I need to forget this whole episode.’

That won’t be easy. Albania is full of men like Sokol Kociu, and the pervasive criminality that runs through society makes rot difficult to contain. In Vlore, meanwhile, the new police chief struggles to escape from Kociu’s tainted legacy. In the last year his force has made slow progress against traffickers. Backed by a unit of the Italian Guardia di Finanza, they seized 11 speedboats in the first two months of the year, along with 1.5 tons of marijuana and hundreds of Kurdish boat people. But the battle is frustrating. ‘The skafisti have all the advantages’ cash, electronics and cell phones,’ says Lohja. ‘We don’t have anything.’ The cops say revelations about Kociu’s corruption have demoralized them, and prompted many to reassess the hero cop’s record in Vlore. ‘It wouldn’t surprise me if he staged his own kidnapping,’ says one longtime colleague. ‘He was always an adventurer.’ Exactly the kind of character whom Albania’s reformers will have to contend with as they try to bring their country some respect.

The Newsweek International, “World Affairs Albania: The Gangsters’ Paradise the Motherland Is a New of Drug Traffickers, Weapons Dealers and People Smugglers,” 26 March 2001

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