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according to the OSCE spokesperson. This same story did note in During the bombings, an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 Serbian passing that the UN War Crimes Tribunal sentenced a Bosnian residents of Kosovo took flight (mostly north, but some to the Croat military commander to 10 years in prison for failing to stop south), as did thousands of Romany and others.’ Were the Serbs his troops from raping Muslim women in 1993—an atrocity we ethnically cleansing themselves? Or were these people not flee- heard little about when it was happening. ing the bombing and the ground war? Yet, the refugee tide A few dozen rapes is a few dozen too many. But can this serve caused by the bombing was repeatedly used by US warmakers as as one of the justifications for a massive war? If Mr Clinton justification for the bombing, a pressure put on Milosevic to allow wanted to stop rapes, he could have begun a little closer to home "the safe return of ethnic Albanian refugees".’ in Washington, DC, where dozens of rapes occur every month. While Kosovar Albanians were leaving in great numbers—usu- Indeed, he might be able to alert us to how women are sexually ally well-clothed and in good health, some riding their tractors or mistreated on Capitol Hill and in the White House itself. driving trucks or cars, many of them young men of recruitment The Serbs were blamed for the infamous Sarajevo market mas- age—they were described as being "slaughtered". It was repeat- sacre. But according to the report leaked out on French TV, edly reported that "Serb atrocities"—not the extensive ground war Western intelligence knew that it was Muslim operatives who had __ with the KLA and certainly not the massive NATO bombing— bombed Bosnian civilians in the marketplace in order to induce "drove more than one million Albanians from their homes". '° NATO involvement. Even international negotiator Lord (David) More recently, there have been hints that Kosovar Albanian Owen, who worked with Cyrus Vance, admitted in his memoirs refugees numbered nowhere near that number. that NATO powers knew all along that it was a Muslim bomb.* Serbian attacks on KLA strongholds or the forced expulsion of On one occasion, notes Barry Lituchy, the New York Times ran a Albanian villagers were described as "genocide". But experts in photo purporting to be of Croats grieving over Serbian atrocities, surveillance photography and wartime propaganda charged when in fact the murders had been NATO with running a "propaganda committed by Bosnian Muslims. campaign" on Kosovo that lacked The Times printed an obscure any supporting evidence. US State retraction the following week.’ Department reports of mass graves The propaganda campaign O Q O and of 100,000 to 500,000 missin, against "Belarade has been “0 To reject the demonised Image Albanian men "are just ludicrous", relentless that even prominent per- of Milosevic and the Serbs is not according to these independent sonages on the Left—who oppose . . . critics.'' Their findings were the NATO policy against to idealise them or claim that ignored by the major networks and Yugoslavia—have felt compelled Serbian forces are faultless other national media. to genuflect before this demonisa- . Early in the war, Newsday report- tion orthodoxy, referring to or free of crimes. ed that Britain and France were unspecified and unverified Serbian "brutality" and "the monstrous seriously considering "commando assaults into Kosovo to break the Milosevic".® Thus they reveal pattern of Serbian massacres of eth- themselves as having been influ- nic Albanians".’? What discernible enced by the very media propagan- pattern of massacres? Of course, a machine they criticise on so many other issues. no commando assaults were put into operation, but the story To reject the demonised image of Milosevic and the Serbs is served its purpose of hyping an image of mass killings. not to idealise them or claim that Serbian forces are faultless or An ABC Nightline show made dramatic and repeated refer- free of crimes. It is merely to challenge the one-sided propaganda ences to the "Serbian atrocities in Kosovo", while offering no that laid the grounds for NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia. specifics. Ted Koppel asked a group of angry Albanian refugees, what specifically had they witnessed. They pointed to an old man THE ETHNIC CLEANSING HYPE in their group who wore a woollen hat. One of them re-enacted Up until the NATO bombings began in March 1999, the con- what the Serbs had done to him, throwing the man's hat to the flict in Kosovo had taken 2,000 lives altogether from both sides, ground and stepping on it—"because the Serbs knew that his hat according to Kosovar Albanian sources. Yugoslavian sources put was the most important thing to him". Koppel was appropriately the figure at eight hundred. Such casualties reveal a civil war, not —_ horrified about this "war crime"—the only example offered in an genocide. Belgrade is condemned for the policy of forced expul- hour-long program. sion of Albanians from Kosovo. But such expulsions began in A widely circulated story in the New York Times, headlined substantial numbers only after the NATO bombings, with thou- "US Report Outlines Serb Attacks in Kosovo", tells us that the sands being uprooted by Serbian forces especially from areas State Department issued "the most comprehensive documentary where KLA mercenaries were operating. record to date on atrocities". The report concluded that there had We should keep in mind that tens of thousands also fled been organised rapes and systematic executions. But as one reads Kosovo because it was being mercilessly bombed by NATO, or further and more closely into the article, one finds that State because it was the scene of sustained ground fighting between Department reports of such crimes "...depend almost entirely on Yugoslavian forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), or information from refugee accounts. There was no suggestion that because they were just afraid and hungry. An Albanian woman American intelligence agencies had been able to verify most, or crossing into Macedonia was eagerly asked by a news crew if she even many, of the accounts...and the words 'reportedly' and had been forced out by Serbian police. She responded: "There ‘allegedly’ appear throughout the document.""* were no Serbs. We were frightened of the [NATO] bombs."’ I British journalist Audrey Gillan interviewed Kosovar refugees had to read this in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, an alternative about atrocities and found an impressive lack of evidence or cred- weekly—not in the New York Times or Washington Post. ible specifics. One woman caught Gillan glancing at the watch on To reject the demonised image of Milosevic and the Serbs is not THE ETHNIC CLEANSING HYPE Up until the NATO bombings began in March 1999, the con- flict in Kosovo had taken 2,000 lives altogether from both sides, according to Kosovar Albanian sources. Yugoslavian sources put the figure at eight hundred. Such casualties reveal a civil war, not genocide. Belgrade is condemned for the policy of forced expul- sion of Albanians from Kosovo. But such expulsions began in substantial numbers only after the NATO bombings, with thou- sands being uprooted by Serbian forces especially from areas where KLA mercenaries were operating. We should keep in mind that tens of thousands also fled Kosovo because it was being mercilessly bombed by NATO, or because it was the scene of sustained ground fighting between Yugoslavian forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), or because they were just afraid and hungry. An Albanian woman crossing into Macedonia was eagerly asked by a news crew if she had been forced out by Serbian police. She responded: "There were no Serbs. We were frightened of the [NATO] bombs."’ I had to read this in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, an alternative weekly—not in the New York Times or Washington Post. 22 - NEXUS to idealise them or claim that Serbian forces are faultless or free of crimes. AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2000