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[Emperor's
Clothes]
WASHINGTON FINANCES ETHNIC
WARFARE
IN THE BALKANS
by
Michel Chossudovsky [3 April
2001]
Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa,
author of The Globalization of
Poverty, second edition, Common Courage Press,
2001.
Synopsis
While Washington supports the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, it is at the same time --behind the scenes-- funneling money
and military hardware to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) now engaged in a
border war with the Macedonian Security Forces. In a cruel irony,
Washington is arming and advising both the KLA attackers and the
Macedonian defenders under military and intelligence authorization acts
approved by the US Congress. Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI),
a mercenary outfit on contract to the Pentagon, is helping Macedonia --as
part of a US military aid package-- "to deter armed aggression and defend
Macedonian territory." But MPRI is also advising and equipping the KLA,
which is responsible for the terrorist assaults. In this war, the American
military-intelligence apparatus is pulling strings "on both sides of the
fence". What is the hidden agenda?
"[The] United States of America and the Kosovo Liberation
Army stand for the same human values and principles ... Fighting for the
KLA is fighting for human rights and American values."(Senator Jo.
Lieberman, quoted in the 'Washington Post', 28 April
1999)
-- M.C.
WASHINGTON FINANCES ETHNIC
WARFARE
IN THE BALKANS
by Michel
Chossudovsky [3 April 2001]
The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) --transformed in September
1999 into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) under UN auspices-- is behind
the terrorist attacks in the Tetovo region of Macedonia as well as in
Southern Serbia. In Macedonia, these assaults are waged by the KLA's
proxy: the Ushtira Clirimtare Komtare (UCK) or National Liberation Army
(NLA). The terrorists operate from KLA bases inside Kosovo under KFOR
protection.
Supported by the US, the KLA and its various proxies are well
equipped. According to Carl Bildt (special UN coordinator for the
Balkans), the Macedonian Security Forces "are no match" for the rebels:
'the guerrillas are a competent military organization… They have a core of
very experienced fighters. They are well fortified, evidently well
prepared, and in all probability they control substantial parts of the
hinterland.'"
But where did they get the money? The Western media conveys the
impression that the National Liberation Army (NLA) developed into a modern
rebel force overnight, spontaneously "out of thin air" and that NATO
leaders have no contacts with the KLA.
UN PEACE-KEEPING FINANCES
TERRORISM
According to the (London) 'Sunday Times',
"American intelligence agents have admitted they helped to
train the Kosovo Liberation Army before NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia".1
A review of US Congressional documents would suggest that CIA
support was not discontinued after the war.2 Moreover, while the KLA
maintains its links both to the CIA and criminal syndicates involved in
the Balkans narcotics trade, the paramilitary organisation -renamed the
Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) has been elevated to UN status, implying the
granting of legitimate sources of funding through UN as well as through
bilateral channels.
Procurement of military supplies, training of the KLA and
military advisers has been entrusted to Military Professional Resources
Inc. (MPRI), a US based mercenary outfit linked to the Pentagon. The
pattern is similar to that followed in Croatia and in the Bosnian
Muslim-Croatian Federation where so-called "equip and
train" programmes were put together by the Pentagon.
MPRI's training concepts --which had already been tested in
Croatia and Bosnia– are based on imparting "offensive
tactics... as the best form of defence".3 In the
Kosovar context, this so-called "defensive
doctrine" applied in terrorist assaults in Southern
Serbia and Macedonia is intent upon transforming the KLA paramilitary into
a modern military force which serves the Alliance's strategic objectives.
MPRI listed in 1999 "ninety-one highly experienced,
former military professionals working in Bosnia &
Herzegovina".4 The number of military officers
working on contract with the KLA has not been disclosed.
There is, however, a consistent thread: KLA Chief of Staff Agim
Ceku (previously with the Croatian Armed Forces) has been involved in a
long-term relationship with the MPRI. Ceku started working with MPRI in
1995 in the planning of "Operation
Storm" in Croatia, which led to ethnic massacres and
the expulsion of more than 200.000 Serbs from the Krajina region of
Croatia. The fact that Ceku is "an alleged war criminal" -- according to
the files of the Hague Tribunal (a body reporting to the UN Secretary
General)-- does not, however, seem to bother anybody in the "international
community".5
Ceku holds a UN passport (Laissez-Passer) which provides him
with diplomatic immunity within Kosovo. According to ICTY prosecutor Carla
del Ponte, Ceku's reputation and integrity, however, are unstained because
the Hague tribunal's "inquiries ... relate to atrocities committed [by
Ceku] in Krajina ... between 1993 and 1995... Ceku's record in Kosovo
itself is not thought to be in question…".6
Behind to polite façade of international diplomacy, UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan has --on Washington's instructions--
knowingly and willfully approved the appointment of "an alleged war
criminal" to participate in a UN peacekeeping operation. In other words,
the UN system is "financing terrorism," creating an ugly precedent in the
history of a respected international body: "The United Nations is paying
the salaries of many of the gangsters," who are now involved in the
terrorist assaults into Macedonia.7
RECYCLING NARCO-DOLLARS
US support to the KLA is only one among several sources of KLA
financing. Various Islamic organisations have channeled money and military
equipment to the KLA. Prior to the 1999 war,
"German, Turkish and Afghan instructors were reported to be
training the KLA in guerilla and diversion tactics."8
Mujehadeen mercenaries recruited in a number of countries
fought against Serb Security forces alongside the KLA in Kosovo. According
to the 'Sunday Times,' the recent assaults by the KLA's proxy in the
Tetovo region of Macedonia have been "encouraged by mercenaries from
Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia."9
Amply documented, the Balkans drug trade is used to finance
ethnic warfare with the complicity of the US and NATO. The pattern of
covert support --through the recycling of narco-dollars-- has been an
integral part of CIA covert operations since the Soviet-Afghan war.
According to documents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA),
"members of the notorious Albanian mafia have links to a drug smuggling
cartel'' based in Kosovo's capital, Pristina. This cartel is allegedly
manned by ethnic Albanians who are members of the Kosovo National Front
(KNF) whose armed wing is the KLA. The DEA documents apparently show it is
one of the "most powerful heroin smuggling organisations in the world''
with its profits being diverted to the KLA to buy weapons.10
In the words of former DEA agent and author Michael
Levine:
"Ten years ago we were arming and equipping the worst
elements of the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan - drug traffickers, arms
smugglers, anti-American terrorists…Now we're doing the same thing with
the KLA, which is tied in with every known middle and far eastern drug
cartel. Interpol, Europol, and nearly every European intelligence and
counter-narcotics agency has files open on drug syndicates that lead
right to the KLA, and right to Albanian gangs in this country."11
While US aid --combined with drug money-- is channeled to the
KLA, Washington and Brussels perfunctorily condemn the NLA-Tetovo
instigated terrorist assaults while casually denying the links of the
attackers to the KLA. In the words of former NATO Secretary General Javier
Solana: "'it would be a mistake to negotiate,… the terrorists have to be
isolated. All of us have to condemn and isolate them. Nothing can be
achieved through violence'' …
NATO has pledged to ''starve'' the rebels by cutting supply
lines from neighboring Kosovo".12 While condemning the terrorists, NATO
--through the UN-- has also been "raising the urgent need for restraint by
the Macedonian forces".13
This double talk is of course a form of political camouflage:
you say that you are against the terrorists and then support them via the
KLA with guns, ammo and military advisers paid by the US public purse.
FINANCING BOTH SIDES
But there is something else even more terrifying which has not
been revealed to public opinion. The guerilla war in the Tetovo region of
Macedonia is being financed and therefore controlled by Washington "on
both sides" of the border. While Washington pumps money into the KLA, the
FYR of Macedonia --which has been an obedient client state-- is also the
recipient of US military aid and training. Macedonia is a member of NATO's
Partnership for Peace (PfP) and aspires to acquire full NATO membership.
The same group of US military advisers on contract with the KLA
is also "helping" the Macedonian Armed Forces. The MPRI --while assisting
the KLA in its terrorist assaults-- is also present behind enemy lines in
Macedonia under a so-called "Stability and Deterrence Program". The later
is intent upon "assisting the Macedonian Armed Forces … to deter armed
aggression and, should deterrence fail, defend Macedonian territory…".14
What is happening is that the US mercenary company with a mandate "to
defend the border" is also advising the KLA on how best "to attack the
border".
Is this not crystal clear: The military-intelligence ploy is to
finance both sides of the conflict, provide military aid to one side and
finance the other side. And then "make them fight". It’s a sinister
military-intelligence game, an "insider operation" with US military
advisers on both sides from the same mercenary outfit (the MPRI).
Macedonia's "Stability and Deterrence Program" is in fact largely
supported by US foreign military sales (FMS), namely MPRI is in charge of
delivering (i.e. dumping) to the Macedonian Armed Forces obsolete weapons
and hardware which the US Department of Defense wants to get rid of.
Moreover, with its various sources of financing (drugs, Islamic
organisations, US military aid, contributions from the US-Albanian
community), the KLA and its Macedonian proxy the Ushtira Clirimtare
Komtare have the upper edge. The money channeled from various sources
including the drug trade far exceeds the meager FMS allocations granted in
the form of surplus military equipment to the Macedonian Ministry of
Defence. 15
The friendly and cordial meetings held in Skopje (July 2000)
between General Henry H. Shelton, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff
and his Macedonian counterpart, General Jovan Andrevski, constitute an
obvious smoke screen. While America's top brass pays lip service to its
PfP partner and ally, the KLA --with the support of the Albanian American
community-- is actively recruiting US citizens to fight as volunteers
against the Macedonian Security Forces.16 Bear in mind that this pattern
of "financing both sides" is not limited to the Balkans: since the end of
the Cold War, Washington has been involved in channeling covert financing
and triggering civil conflicts in different parts of the World including
Central Africa, the Caucasus and Central Asia. By financing both sides of
the conflict, the US controls the outcome of the war.
MPRI OVERSEES THE SHOW
While recruiting a wide range of military and intelligence
expertise from its data bank of former military personnel, MPRI is
controlled by a handful of former generals and ex-CIA officers. MPRI
General (retired) Rich Griffitts --responsible for MPRI's program in
Macedonia-- is talking to the Macedonian Chief of Staff. He also talks to
KLA Commander Agim Ceku --with whom he has established a longstanding
relationship since Operation Storm in Croatia in 1995. Ceku is part of the
MPRI's "old boys network"; in collaboration with MPRI, he was one of the
main architects of "Operation Storm". In this capacity, he also acted as
Commander of the Artillery division, which ruthlessly shelled Krajina Serb
civilians.!7
Whether MPRI personnel stationed in Kosovo is in direct contact
or communication with their colleagues in Macedonia is not the issue: all
MPRI military staff in the field report back to Rich Griffitt, Crosbie
Saint and Carl Vuono (President of MPRI) at the company's headquarters in
Alexandria, Virginia. Crosbie Saint --in charge of the company's
"International Group"-- coordinates MPRI's various operations in Kosovo
and Macedonia as well as in Croatia and Bosnia. In turn, Saint --who is a
former director of military intelligence-- is in permanent contact with
the Pentagon, KFOR and the CIA.18
HIDDEN AGENDA
So what kind of war is this? Both sides in the Macedonia border
war are controlled by the US. American military personnel from the same
private mercenary company are stationed on "both sides of the fence"
assisting their local counterparts to fight a war on Washington's behest.
If this war is allowed to continue, it will inevitably lead to
the escalation of ethnic hatred, civilian casualties and refugees. This in
turn will result in political destabilization and social unrest in both
Macedonia and Yugoslavia, thereby providing a pretext to Washington and
NATO to directly intervene under the disguise of "peace-keeping" and
"confidence building." The hidden agenda
also consists in the mobilization of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia to
support or become part of the KLA'S structure.
In other words, Washington is "financing ethnic warfare" as a
means to achieving broad geopolitical, strategic and economic objectives
using the KLA as proxy force. Meanwhile, the 'international community"
--warning of an impending "humanitarian disaster"-- has sent in an army of
observers and human rights experts, with a mandate to protect the
political and social rights of ethnic Albanians. This brokered
"reconciliation" --imposed by NATO under UN auspices-- is based on the
premise that ethnic Albanians in Macedonia are an oppressed social
minority. It not only fosters socio-ethnic divisions within Macedonia; it
also provides legitimacy to the KLA sponsored "freedom fighters" as well
as international media sympathy. It tends to discredit the Macedonian
Security Forces, thereby weakening their ability to fight the KLA.
While Washington continues to support the terrorists behind
the scenes, the military alliance presents itself as an impartial
mediator. In turn, NATO's informal mouthpiece, the Organisation for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), is placing the blame on the
Skopje government, calling upon:
"the legal authorities in the FYR of Macedonia, Presevo and
Kosovo to act to restore peace and security, … all sectors of the
Macedonian society [should] co-operate peacefully and … build
inter-ethnic confidence."19
The dispatching of Bulgarian troops into Macedonia (under
NATO's "Partnership for Peace" Program) to fight the rebels could (if
implemented) contribute to triggering a much broader conflagration in the
region. Similarly, ethnic clashes --also engineered by Washington-- have
been triggered in Montenegro, which has a sizeable Albanian ethnic
minority. And in Montenegro, the MUP, Montenegro's highly partisan police
force is being assisted by the Croatian Armed Forces, which in turn are
being trained by the MPRI under the so-called Croatian Armed Forces
Readiness and Training System (CARTS).
Similarly, demanding "autonomy" for ethnic Hungarians
in the North of Vojvodina is part of NATO's ploy with large numbers of
NATO troops stationed on the Hungarian side of the border. More generally,
the various military aid packages provided to Croatia, Bosnia and the KLA
are ultimately directed against Serbia.20
Despite the compliance of the Belgrade and Skopje governments
to Washington's demands, US foreign policy purports to eventually
dismantle political institutions and get rid of political parties which
resist US-NATO domination. Their objective is to eventually break up what
remains of Yugoslavia into what UN Balkans envoy Carl Bildt has called a
"patchwork of protectorates" on the "Kosovo-Bosnia model under UN
"peace-keeping", namely under military occupation. 21
A Dayton-style agreement is the chosen framework for
displacing and destroying existing State institutions including a fragile
yet functioning parliamentary system. With regard to Macedonia, the OSCE
has appointed Ambassador Robert Frowick to work with the Skopje
government. His terms of reference are clear. In 1996, Frowick was put in
charge of implementing "democracy" in Bosnia-Hercegovina under the Dayton
agreement: the Bosnian "Constitution" -- previously drafted by American
lawyers at the US Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio-- was appended to the
1995 US brokered "General Framework Agreement."22
DISARMING THE NEW WORLD ORDER
The terrorist assaults in Macedonia and Southern Serbia are
serving Washington's strategic goals in blatant violation of international
law. NATO is increasingly discredited in the eyes of World public opinion.
The lies and falsehoods are surfacing and the people of Yugoslavia are
determined to preserve their sovereignty in the face of American
aggression.
US foreign policy directed against so-called "rogue states"
lacks credibility both in the US and internationally. Around the World,
citizens are looking to Yugoslavia and the courage of its people who have
resisted the imposition of the New World Order. The lies concerning the
war against Yugoslavia have been uncovered and revealed to millions of
people.
ENDNOTES
1. Tom Walker and Aiden Laverty, ‘CIA Aided Kosovo Guerrilla
Army’, Sunday Times, 12 March 2000) .
2. See "Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000."
HR 1555, Section 308 entitled "Report on Kosova Liberation Army" available
at http://www.senate.gov/search/index.html).
3. See Tammy Arbucki, "Building a Bosnian Army",
Jane International Defence
Review, August 1997.
4. See Military Professional Resources, Inc, "Personnel Needs",
MPRI web page at http://www.mpri.com/.
5. See Michel Chossudovsky, "United Nations
Appoints Alleged War Criminal", Emperors Clothes, March 2000,
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/unandthe.htm).
6. See Tom Walker, "Kosovo Defense Chief
Accused of War Crimes", Sunday
Times, London, 10 October 1999.
7. Quoted in John Sweeney and Jen Holsoe,
"Kosovo Disaster Response Service Stands Accused of Murder and Torture,"
The Observer, London, 12 March
2000.
8. Michel Chossudovsky, "Kosovo Freedom
Fighter Financed by Organized Crime", Covert Action
Quarterly, Fall 1999, also published by Emperors
Clothes, http://emperors-clothes.com/indexe.htm
9. Tom Walker, "NATO Troops caught in a Balkan
Ulster", Sunday Times, London, 18
March 2001.
10. According to DEA documents reviewed and
quoted in R. Chandran, "US-backed KLA linked to Heroin Network"
http://www.voz-rebelde.de/ipan51.htm. See also Michel Chossudovsky, Kosovo Freedom Fighters
Financed by Organized Crime".
11. Quoted in the New
American Magazine, May 24, 1999)
12. Quoted in the New York
Times, 20 March 2001)
13. United Nations Interim Administration
Mission In Kosovo (UNMIK), Press Release, 29 March
2001.
14. See MPRI at http://www.mpri.com/subchannels/int_europe.html.
15. US military aid under the FMS program for
Macedonia was $4 million in FY 2000, 7.9 million was appropriated for
2001. More recently, the US announced a $13.5 million military aid
package, See Government of Macedonia, Ministry of Defence, Communique, 21
March 2001; Congressional Budget Justification for Foreign Operations,
Fiscal Year 2001, Released by the Office of the Secretary of State,
Resources, Plans and Policy, U.S. Department of State, March 15, 2000.
16. New York
Times, 19 March 2001.
!7. See Michel Chossudovsky, NATO has
Installed a Reign of Terror in Kosovo, July 1999,
http://emperors-clothes.com/indexe.htm.
18. See MPRI web page, op
cit
19. Statement by OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
President Severin on former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo, 23
March 2001, http://www.osce.org/news/generate.php3?news_id=1563.
20. See Michel Chossudovsky, "The War Against
Yugoslavia Is Not Over", June 2000, at www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/warnot.htm.
21. See Carl Bildt's statement at
http://www.usip.org/oc/cibriefing/bildt_cib.html, Bildt was formerly the High Representative in Bosnia
following the adoption of the Dayton Agreement in
1995).
22. For a discussion see Michel Chossudovsky,
Dismantling Yugoslavia, Recolonizing Bosnia, Covert
Action Quarterly, Spring 1996, also published by
Emperors Clothes at http://emperors-clothes.com/indexe.htm. The text of the Bosnian Constitution is available at
http://www.bosnia.co.uk/dayton.html
C Copyright by Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa,
March 2001. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to post this text
on non-commercial community internet sites, provided the essay remains
intact and the copyright note is displayed. To publish this text in
printed and/or other form, contact the author at
chossudovsky@videotron.ca, fax: 1-514-4256224.
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