-Caveat Lector-
Date sent: Wed, 03 Nov 1999 13:41:49 +0000
From: Marjaleena Repo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: NO GENOCIDE IN KOSOVO: Richard Gwyn
To: ALL LISTS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
[note: Throughtout the War, the Toronto Star(supposedly left wing!)
demonized the
Serbs in any which way they could think of, while repeatedly
lauding NATO as the pillars of humanity. I had sent numerous
letters to the Star complaining of the fallacious portrayal of the
Serbs, while mentioning the econonic catastrophy unleashed on
behalf of the yours truly. Yet they continued on a slanted,
unobjective, and partisan path. This was by no means impartial
reporting!!!... When finally, I received a e-mail from the
ombudsman explaining that he "can't understand why NATO would
drop D.U weapons on Yugoslavia, if this would put Peace keepers
in harms way". He went on say that"I must first prove that NATO
had actually used this weaponry"--and that I did... I finally received
a call explaining that they were "comtemplating" whether or not to
print my letter. Unfortunately, or shall I say not surprinsingly, they
did not do so, considering this would only discredit all previous
"reports" on this issue...
Now finally, the BIG LIE is exposed.]
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
W IT CAN BE TOLD - that the "genocide" and "holocaust" charges against
the Yugoslavian government and the Serbs were deliberate
falsifications. This is the first (published) Canadian journalist, I
believe, who has actually put together the findings from various
independent sources which have travelled on the Internet for a couple of
months. Let us see if it affects any of the coverage in the Toronto Star
which was relentless in its viciousness toward the Serbs and didn't
hesitate to repeat every outlandish story that it came across, in order
to foster hatred against the Serbs! Let us see if other columnists will
follow with a "mea culpa." Gwyn, of course, does not do a real
self-criticism of himself, his newspaper and the overall Canadian and
international media, and throws in the usual gratuitous comments about
Milosevic and the"stupidity of Serbs", but nevertheless this is a
significant first step.
The column comes from a debate that took place on an TV Ontario
programme, "Diplomatic immunity" on Oct. 29, between three journalists:
Patrick Martin of the Globe and Mail, Richard Gwyn and Eric Margolies
(perhaps the most vicious of the falsifiers), and Major-General (Ret'd)
Lewis MacKenzie, with Gwyn, Martin and MacKenzie raising the issues of
falsification (Patrick Martin even brought out the role of the PR firms
in this war, reminding the viewers of the Hill and Knowlton created
"incubator babies" incident in the Gulf War in 1990!). (If anyone has
the transcript of this watershed programme in the Canadian media, please
send it to me so I can spread it around the world.)
This article needs to be circulated widely. If you can get your copy of
the Toronto Star of November 3, you will have a ready made leaflet to
give out to friends, relatives, fellow workers and neighbours, who have
been at the receiving end of the false propaganda tales. They will find
this an eye-opener.
On the web you can locate the article at Toronto Star's site:
http://www.thestar.com among the "Opinion" pieces
This is an EXCELLENT time to respond to the Gwyn article, by forwarding
it to your MP with your personal comment and request for a public
inquiry into Canada's involvement in an illegal and immoral war. Also,
do write letters to the Toronto Star. It is bound to publish some of
them. (Do send us a copy so that we can send out a whole stream of them,
whether they are published or not.) The e-mail address is at the end of
the article.
Marjaleena Repo
-------
Toronto Star November 3, 1999
NO GENOCIDE, NO JUSTIFICATION FOR WAR ON KOSOVO
Richard Gwyn
IN THE GENOCIDE of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by the forces of Serb
leader Slobodan Milosevic, the worst incident occurred at the Trepca
mine.
As reported by American and NATO officials, large numbers of bodies were
brought in by trucks under the cover of darkness. The bodies were then
thrown down the shafts, or were disposed of entirely in the mine's vats
of hydrochloric acid. Estimates of the number of dead began at 1,000.
That was six months ago, in the middle of the war undertaken to halt
what both U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony
Blair called ``a human catastrophe.'' Estimates of the number of ethnic
Albanians slaughtered went upward from 10,000. U.S. Defence Secretary
William Cohen put the count at 100,000.
Three weeks ago, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia released the findings of Western forensic teams investigating
the horror at Trepca. There were not 1,000 bodies down the mine shafts
at Trepca, reported the tribunal. There were not 100 bodies there. There
was not one body there, nor was there any evidence the vats had ever
been used to dispose of human remains.
Shortly afterward, the tribunal reported on its work at the most
infamous of all the mass graves of ethnic Albanians, at Ljubenic near
the town of Pec. Earlier, NATO officials had said 350 victims had been
hastily buried there by the retreating Serb forces. There were not 350
bodies at Ljubenic, though. There were five.
So far, not one mass grave has been found in Kosovo, despite four
months' work by forensic teams, including experts from the FBI and the
RCMP.
This discovery - more accurately, this non-discovery - first was made
public three weeks ago by the Texas-based intelligence think tank,
Stratfor. Stratfor estimated the number of ethnic Albanian dead in
Kosovo at 500.
Last weekend, the story was broadcast for the first time by the TV
Ontario program Diplomatic Immunity. (Last Sunday's New York Times was
still using the ``10,000 deaths'' figure.)
The story has begun to appear in European newspapers. Spain's El Pais
has quoted the head of the Spanish forensic team, Emilo Pujol, as saying
he had resigned because, after being told to expect to have to carry out
2,000 autopsies, he'd only had 97 bodies to examine ? none of which
"showed any signs of mutilation or torture.''
Because 250 of 400 suspected mass graves in Kosovo remain to be
examined, it's possible that evidence of mass killings will yet be
found. This is highly unlikely though, because the worst sites were dug
up first.
No genocide of ethnic Albanians by Serbs, therefore. No ``human
catastrophe.'' No ``modern-day Holocaust.''
All of those claims may have been an honest mistake. Equally, they may
have been a grotesque lie concocted to justify a war that NATO
originally assumed would be over in a day or two, with Milosevic using
the excuse of some minimal damage as a cover for a surrender, but then
had to fight (at great expense) for months.
There's no question that atrocities were committed in Kosovo,
overwhelmingly by the Serb forces, although the ethnic Albanian
guerrillas were not innocent. Quite obviously, these forces, acting on
Milosevic's explicit orders, carried out mass expulsions of people,
terrorizing them and destroying their homes and property.
Acts like these are inexcusable. That they occur often in civil wars
(far worse are being committed by the Russians in Chechnya), is
irrelevant to their horror. But they have nothing to do with genocide.
No genocide means no justification for a war inflicted by NATO on a
sovereign nation. Only a certainty of imminent genocide could have
legally justified a war that was not even discussed by the U.N. Security
Council.
No genocide means that the tribunal's indictment of Milosevic becomes
highly questionable. Even more questionable is the West's continued
punishment of the Serbs - the Danube bridges and the power stations
remain in ruins - when their offence may well have been stupidity rather
than criminality.
The absence of genocide may mean something else, something deeply
shaming. To halt the supposed genocide, NATO bombed targets in Serbia
proper. Because of ``collateral'' or accidental damage, such as the
bombing of a train, some 500 civilians were killed (Belgrade claims
almost 1,000 deaths). NATO very likely killed as many people as were
killed in Kosovo.
The number of these dead isn't large enough to justify NATO's actions
being called a ``human catastrophe.'' But, unless proof of genocide can
be produced, NATO's actions were clearly a moral catastrophe. THE END
--------------------
RICHARD GWYN'S column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday in The Star.
He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Letters to Editor: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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