>From: Predrag Tosic <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Kosovo prior to 03/24/1999 (Junge Welt) >STOP NATO: °NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG > > > [My Canadian friend Chris Soda is currently interviewing a Canadian OSCE >monitor in Kosovo R. Keith who served there in the winter of 1999; as soon >as that interview is done, Javier or myself will forward it from yugo.info >to this list, as well. PT ] > > > > > >INTERNAL DOCUMENTS FROM GERMANY'S FOREIGN OFFICE REGARDING PRE-BOMBARDMENT >GENOCIDE IN KOSOVO > > Foreign Affairs News Keywords: KOSOVO > Source: The Progressive Review > Published: June 1999 Author: Sam Smith > Posted on 06/23/1999 13:56:06 PDT by dirtboy > >>From official documents by the International Association of Lawyers >Against >Nuclear Arms as published by the German daily junge welt on April 24. >Translated by Eric Canepa of the Brecht Forum, New York. > >JUNGE WELT > >[The following internal documents from Fischer's ministry and from various >regional Administrative Courts in Germany spanning the year before the >start of NATO's air attacks, attest that criteria of ethnic >cleansing and genocide were not met. The Foreign Office documents were >responses to the courts' needs in deciding the status of Kosovo-Albanian >refugees in Germany. Although one might in these cases suppose a >bias in favor of downplaying a humanitarian catastrophe in order to limit >refugees, it nevertheless remains highly significant that the Foreign >Office, in contrast to its public assertion of ethnic cleansing and >genocide >in justifying NATO intervention, privately continued to deny their >existence as Yugoslav policy in this crucial period. And this continued to >be their assessment even in March of this year. Thus these documents tend >to >show that stopping genocide was not the reason the German government, and >by implication NATO, intervened in Kosovo, and that genocide (as >understood >in German and international law) in Kosovo did not >precede NATO bombardment, at least not from early 1998 through March, >1999, >but is a product of it.] > >I: Intelligence report from the Foreign Office January 6, 1999 to the >Bavarian Administrative Court, Ansbach: > >"At this time, an increasing tendency is observable inside the Federal >Republic of Yugoslavia of refugees returning to their dwellings. ... >Regardless of the desolate economic situation in the Federal Republic of >Yugoslavia >(according to official information of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia >700,000 refugees from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzogovina have found lodging >since 1991), no cases of chronic malnutrition or insufficient medical >treatment among the refugees are known and significant homelessness has >not >been observed. ... According to the Foreign Office's assessment, >individual >Kosovo-Albanians (and their immediate families) still have >limited possibilities of settling in those parts of Yugoslavia in which >their countrymen or friends already live and who are ready to take them in >and support them." > >II. Intelligence report from the Foreign Office, January 12, 1999 to the >Administrative Court of Trier (Az: 514-516.80/32 426): > >"Even in Kosovo an explicit political persecution linked to Albanian >ethnicity is not verifiable. The East of Kosovo is still not involved in >armed conflict. Public life in cities like Pristina, Urosevac, Gnjilan, >etc. has, in the >entire conflict period, continued on a relatively normal basis." The >"actions of the security forces (were) not directed against the >Kosovo-Albanians as an ethnically defined group, but against the military >opponent and its >actual or alleged supporters." > > >III. Report of the Foreign Office March 15, 1999 (Az: 514-516,80/33841) to >the Administrative Court, Mainz: > >"As laid out in the status report of November 18, 1998, the KLA has >resumed >its positions after the partial withdrawal of the (Serbian) security >forces >in October 1998, so it once again controls broad areas in the zone of >conflict. Before the beginning of spring 1999 there were still clashes >between the KLA and security forces, although these have not until now >reached the intensity of the battles of spring and summer 1998." > >IV: Opinion of the Bavarian Administrative Court, October 29, 1998 (Az: 22 >BA 94.34252): > >"The Foreign Office's status reports of May 6, June 8 and July 13, 1998, >given to the plaintiffs in the summons to a verbal deliberation, do not >allow the conclusion that there is group persecution of ethnic Albanians >from >Kosovo. Not even regional group persecution, applied to all ethnic >Albanians from a specific part of Kosovo, can be observed with sufficient >certainty. The violent actions of the Yugoslav military and police since >February 1998 were aimed at separatist activities and are no proof of a >persecution of the whole Albanian ethnic group in Kosovo or in a part of >it. What was involved in the Yugoslav violent actions and excesses since >February 1998 was a selective forcible action against the military >underground movement (especially the KLA) and people in immediate contact >with it in its areas of operation. ...A state program or persecution aimed >at >the whole ethnic group of Albanians exists neither now nor earlier." > >V. Opinion of the Administrative Court of Baden-Wrttemberg, February 4, >1999 (Az: A 14 S 22276/98): > >"The various reports presented to the senate all agree that the often >feared humanitarian catastrophe threatening the Albanian civil population >has been averted. ... This appears to be the case since the winding down >of >combat in connection with an agreement made with the Serbian leadership at >the end of 1998 (Status Report of the Foreign Office, November 18, 1998). > >Since that time both the security situation and the conditions of life >of the Albanian-derived population have noticeably improved. ... >Specifically in the larger cities public life has since returned to >relative normality (cf on this Foreign Office, January 12, 1999 to the >Administrative Court of >Trier; December 28, 1998 to the Upper Administrative Court of Lneberg and >December 23, 1998 to the Administrative Court at Kassel), even though >tensions between the population groups have meanwhile increased >due to individual acts of violence... Single instances of excessive acts >of >violence against the civil population, e.g. in Racak, have, in world >opinion, been laid at the feet of the Serbian side and have aroused great >indignation. But the number and frequency of such excesses do not warrant >the conclusion that every Albanian living in Kosovo is exposed to extreme >danger to life and limb nor is everyone who returns there threatened >with death and severe injury." > > >VI: Opinion of the Upper Administrative Court at Mnster, February 24, 1999 >(Az: 14 A 3840/94,A): > >"There is no sufficient actual proof of a secret program, or an unspoken >consensus on the Serbian side, to liquidate the Albanian people, to drive >it out or otherwise to persecute it in the extreme manner presently >described. ... If Serbian state power carries out its laws and in so doing >necessarily puts pressure on an Albanian ethnic group which turns its back >on the state and is for supporting a boycott, then the objective direction >of these measures is not that of a programmatic persecution of this >population group ...Even if the Serbian state were benevolently to accept >or even to intend that a part of the citizenry which sees itself in a >hopeless >situation or opposes compulsory measures, should emigrate, this still does >not represent a program of persecution aimed at the whole of the Albanian >majority (in Kosovo)." > >"If moreover the (Yugoslav) state reacts to separatist strivings with >consistent and harsh execution of its laws and with anti-separatist >measures, and if some of those involved decide to go abroad as a result, >this is still not >a deliberate policy of the (Yugoslav) state aiming at ostracizing and >expelling the minority; on the contrary it is directed toward keeping this >people within the state federation." > >"Events since February and March 1998 do not evidence a persecution >program >based on Albanian ethnicity. The measures taken by the armed Serbian >forces >are in the first instance directed toward combatting the KLA >and its supposed adherents and supporters." > >VII: Opinion of the Upper Administrative Court at Mnster, March 11, 1999 >(Az: 13A 3894/94.A): > >"Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo have neither been nor are now exposed to >regional or countrywide group persecution in the Federal Republic of >Yugoslavia." > > >______________________________________________________________________ >To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
