Gracko survivors blame NATO

The letter below, written by residents of Gracko, the Kosovo town where KLA terrorists recently slaughtered 14 Serbian farmers, is quietly horrifying. And it quietly points the finger of blame at KFOR. KFOR is of course the latest alias for NATO. NATO is in turn very much under the control of the US government. So as the late Mr. Truman said, the buck stops here.

WE'D LOVE TO HELP BUT...

The letter notes that Gracko residents repeatedly begged the local British KFOR (that is NATO) forces for protection. KFOR repeatedly declined. Must beg off; previously engaged. Take a rain check?

In his interview posted at http://www.emperors-clothes.com Greg Elich reports that refugees from Kosovo said NATO troops watched while the KLA drove them from their homes. We were told the same thing by a spokesman for Jewish residents forced out of Pristina, capital of Kosovo.

It would appear that no matter who appeals to KFOR for help these preservers of ethnic peace are always too busy to combat terrorism. Too busy doing what?

BORDERING ON CHAOS

Wasn't it NATO that used the threat of continued bombing to force Yugoslav border guards to abandon their posts on the Albanian border? NATO cannot claim this was intended to protect ethnic Albanians in Kosovo; border guards guard borders. Northern Albania, which abuts Kosovo, is ruled by bands of gangsters and by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) which draws recruits from criminal elements. The Yugoslav border guards played a crucial role in protecting Albanians and everyone else in Kosovo from criminal and terrorist attacks.

Having disposed of the Yugoslavs, NATO installed no guards of its own. The border is therefore open. Not porous, open. Is NATO too stupid to know that unguarded borders allow criminals to pass? Perhaps, but stupidity doesn't wash as an excuse. The Albanian border has been a bone of contention between NATO and the Yugoslav government for almost a year. Indeed, when the threat of NATO bombing forced the Yugoslavs to withdraw some forces in October of 1998, they were permitted to maintain troops in Kosovo precisely in order to protect the border.

NATO had to know that opening the border would guarantee an influx of KLA/criminal thugs. Since NATO insisted on getting rid of the guards we can only conclude that NATO desired the result of getting rid of the guards.

Now that the terrorist/criminals are in, NATO offers "helplessness in the face of overwhelming chaos" as its rationale for not stopping secessionist terror. Is it so unreasonable for NATO's critics to view this as a bit of public relations spin, intended to hide a practical division of labor? To conclude that NATO's presence is intended to prevent Yugoslav intervention and to lull some people into thinking they will be protected, in order to guarantee that they take no measures for self-defense? So that, much to NATO's surprise, the terrorists/criminals can attack with impunity? With the end result that the survivors flee Kosovo?

Just as the survivors of Gracko are reportedly fleeing.

ALL VERY PUZZLING...

NATO, the KLA and the media try to blame massacres like this on "mysterious forces" in Kosovo. These forces are never described very clearly, hence "mysterious," and NATO troops seem unable to get a handle on the problem; a stubborn mystery, and all the more so because the forces seem to be everywhere. Sometimes the mysterious forces are described as gangsters, though as the entire European press has reported, the KLA is itself comprised of gangsters. Sometimes the mysterious beings are "renegade elements in the KLA," though from what we have read, KLA leaders do not treat renegades gently. And sometimes we are told the terror is carried out by "middle ranking" leadership, as if the KLA were some corporation, like Coca Cola or IBM, suffering a management crisis. In any case, these "mysterious elements" are invariably called "extremists" apparently by way of contrast to the KLA leadership. You may recall that the KLA made a name for itself by carrying out drive-by shootings and lobbing bombs into children's restaurants in Pristina, but time and our media moderate all sins.

FARMERS SAY: NOT A FEW EXTREMISTS

As the letter below notes, the killing of the 14 farmers is "not the [work of a few] extremists." Instead, the "planned ethnic cleansing of Kosovo...stands in the background of these and the similar crimes." Planned. That is the key word here. Planned. These Gracko farmers are no fools. The ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Kosovo residents has required planning and organization. In other words, it requires a Kosovo-wide military/terrorist organization: the KLA. But is the KLA an independent force? Hardly. It has been trained by the MPRI, a US company whose field personnel are retired (?) CIA agents and military officers. The KLA's military chief is a Croatian officer, one of the main planners (along with the Pentagon) of the 1995 expulsion of 250,000 Serbian residents from the Krajina section of Yugoslavia. The KLA has been endorsed by Madeline Albright. (Since Albright is U.S. Secretary of State, her endorsement is official policy.) Congress just voted millions in military aid - for the KLA.

The KLA never won a single battle against Yugoslav troops; it is running most of Kosovo because NATO bombed Yugoslav civilian facilities for 78 days until Yugoslav forces agreed to withdraw. So in the real world the KLA is dependent on NATO. It is inconceivable that the KLA would be allowed to launch a campaign to drive hundreds of thousands of people from Kosovo without NATO's explicit (if private) approval.

ALL THINGS COME TO HIM WHO WAITS

As we noted earlier, NATO has a scheduling problem. It gets daily requests from Serbs, Romas ("Gypsies") and other ethnic minorities in Kosovo, as well as from pro-Yugoslav ethnic Albanians just begging the troops to drop by, and of course the troops would love to oblige, but where to find the time? There are simply not enough hours in the day. Ethnic cleansing, now 90% complete, may offer a solution: nobody left alive to protect.

A note on credibility: The letter below cannot be dismissed as biased due to source. Officials of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo have not generally taken a stance hostile to NATO (KFOR). Indeed some have advocated an approach of compromise and cooperation and have been criticized for doing so. NATO troops recently rescued an Orthodox Priest, Fr. Sava, from an angry crowd of Kosovo Serbians who wanted to "soundly thrash" the priest for meeting with US Secretary of State Madeline Albright. The Orthodox Church did not distribute this letter because it has an anti-NATO axe to grind. (If anything it has an anti-Milosevich axe.) Rather it has distributed this letter because it is true.

From the Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church PRAVOSLAVLJE PRESS/ Lipljan, July 24, 1999

REPORT FROM STARO GRACKO VILLAGE

The investigation carried out on the very spot, namely on the territory of Staro Gracko village (numbering 73 Serbian and 3 Albanian houses) in Lipljan municipality, has showed that the massacre of 14 Serbs who were threshing wheat, happened on July 23, 1999, between 20:30 and 21:30; the fields they were working in, border on districts of the Albanian villages - Bojance and Veliki Alas, and are near Bujanicka forest.

Ten days ago, Staro Gracko villagers requested KFOR captain in Lipljan, Mr. Alen, to provide them protection during the harvest, and requested the same that tragic morning, on July 23, 1999. The answer was always the same: "We do not have enough men, but we will visit the fields from time to time". In spite of that promise, the patrols never visited the fields. Sometimes KFOR patrols did not pass through Staro Gracko village for the whole day.

Fourteen Serbian peasants, among whom there was a boy aged 15, went to their fields to thresh wheat. Stevo Lalic heard shooting from the direction of the fields, and having been concerned for the harvesters and their not coming back, Lalic and Dragan Odalovic went to the fields to look for the men. At 200 meters distance from the place where reaping machine stood, they stopped and perceived that the reaping machine did not move, but worked in one place. On its platform, they saw a corpse of one of the killed villagers.

They returned to the village immediately (about 21:30) and quickly telephoned KFOR in Lipljan to inform it. They pointed out that they saw a man killed. KFOR translator, an Albanian woman, answered that no car was at disposal at that moment. The Serbs repeatedly telephoned for at least 10 times, but the answer of the Albanian translator was always the same. Having concluded that the phone calls were unsuccessful, Stevo Lalic immediately went to KFOR police station in Lipljan. Only than did KFOR send a transporter the scene of crime. They stopped 50 meters from the reaping machine that was working in the same place. KFOR soldiers ascertained that the man on the reaping machine was killed by 3 shots in the back. The searching of the territory being executed, 13 corpses were found lying everywhere, near the tractors and in wheat.

KFOR conducted an investigation, and the corpses of the killed were transported to the Clinical Centre in Pristina. Some of the relatives of the killed people went to the hospital in Pristina on Saturday, July 24, to identify the corpses. Some of them claim that certain bodies were mutilated, and one man's head was smashed. We believe that the autopsy will provide a more precise report on the event.

FURTHER ATTACKS ON NON-ALBANIAN POPULATION

In the last two weeks, houses in Staro Gracko village, namely on the farms of Nikola Lukic, Novica Spasic and Novica Savic were set on fire. Pero Ristic (aged 65) from Staro Gracko village was kidnapped on the road between Lipljan and Staro Gracko village. We, the undersigned people from Lipljan, as well as the other Serbs from the other villages of this municipality, have submitted written reports for many times to KFOR representatives, and talked to them as well, almost every day, about evidently preconceived Albanian attacks on the Serbian villages within Lipljan municipality. Rt. Rev. Artemije, the Bishop of Raska and Prizren, has also transferred information to KFOR and UNMIK. We have pointed out that not the extremists, but planned ethnic cleansing of Kosovo and Metohia from the Serbs, stand in the background of these and the similar crimes. Unless the people who committed this crime are found immediately and punished appropriately, and unless similar crimes are decisively prevented, we fear that the people will accuse directly KFOR as another guilty one for not executing its duties and not providing safe life and work to the Serbian population.

We have been informed that women and children from Staro Gracko village pack their things and prepare to leave their homes...

signed,

Father Milovan Kojic, parish priest of Lipljan and Staro Gracko village

Stevo Lalic, from Staro Gracko village

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