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was a powerful moral force. It acted as a symbol of hope
for the civilized world. A symbol of hope not only for
those of us in the west but also for the millions caught
behind the iron curtain and for many others around the
globe.
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bombing of Yugoslavia destroyed that symbol. Now we have lost
the moral high ground. Our new set of political leaders, the
Clintons, the Blairs, the Schroeders, the Chretiens, have
proven themselves to have about as much respect for the rule
of law and the truth as the former communist party bosses of
the old soviet empire. This is the real tragedy of Kosovo.
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political leaders lied to us about Kosovo. We were told that
mass murders were taking place there. Your Secretary of
Defence, Mr. Cohen told us that 100,000 Albanian Kosovars had
perished. Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, spoke of
genocide. We were led to believe that Milosevic was planning
to ethnically cleanse all of the Albanians from Kosovo through
a devilish plan code-named “Operation Horseshoe.”
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were told that a massacre of 45 Albanian civilians had
occurred in the village of Racak. Indeed it was this incident
that sparked the subsequent bombing campaign. We were also
told that the bombing campaign had inflicted a crippling
defeat on the Serb war machine. NATO spokes people and much of
the media continue to hail the bombing of Yugoslavia as a
triumphant victory. |
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are lies. We now know that the total casualties in Kosovo
before the bombing (both Albanian and Serb) amounted to
approximately 2000. This is hardly mass murder or genocide and
not a surprising figure given that an armed rebellion had been
taking place in Kosovo for several years.
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so-called, “Operation Horseshoe,” has been revealed as a
complete falsehood fabricated by the German defence minister
Rudolph Scharping to swing faltering German public opinion
behind the bombing campaign. There is not a shred of evidence
to suggest that Milosevic planned before the bombing to
cleanse Kosovo of its Albanian population.
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Furthermore,
it now seems that the Racak massacre may never have happened.
From the outset there has been strong suspicion that this
incident had been engineered by the KLA to appear as an
execution of innocent civilians. French journalists on the
ground challenged general Walkers declaration that a massacre
had taken place.
More recently on March 24 of this year, German investigative
reporters from the Berlin Zeitung have written that autopsy reports to which they have
gained access reveal no evidence of the victims having been
executed at close range. |
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As
for NATO’s air war victory over the Serb army we know from a
suppressed US Airforce report publicized in the May 15 issue
of Newsweek magazine that the number of military targets
destroyed by NATO air strikes, “was a tiny fraction of those
claimed.” The report declared there were only 58 confirmed
strikes by NATO pilots not the previously 744 as claimed by
NATO. |
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I
am sorry to say I fully expect we will find as time goes by
that more lies and falsehoods will be revealed about the
Kosovo war.
The realization
that our political leaders cannot be trusted to tell the truth
may not come as a complete surprise to those of you familiar
with the political process. Nevertheless it is not a
comforting thought. |
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is especially distressing when the lies involve foreign policy
issues. These are issues frequently dealing with matters of
life and death, of war and peace, of the destruction of cities
and the displacement of people and of the wellbeing of our own
sons and daughters who serve in the military forces. |
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the Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia from 1990 to1992 I
witnessed at first hand how western diplomatic ineptitude and
clumsiness hastened the breakup of Yugoslavia and contributed
to the dreadful violence and bloodshed that followed the
disintegration of the country. |
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Here
are a few examples:
The financial and military support given to the separatist
republics by some western governments which encouraged them to
break away by forceful means without any serious attempt at
negotiating the terms of secession in a non-violent manner.
The premature recognition of Slovenia and Croatia before any
guarantees of civil and human rights were given to the Serbian
population of Croatia, which, because of the horrendous events
that occurred there during the Second World War, made civil
war inevitable.
The encouragement of Alija Izetbegovic to withdraw his
signature from the so-called Lisbon agreement and to proceed
with a referendum on independence in Bosnia which everyone
knew would lead to the death and displacement of thousands.
The
early identification of the Serbs as the only bad guys in the
Balkans and the portrayal of them by the western media as
barbaric savages compromised attempts by the western powers to
deal with these issues objectively.
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examples demonstrate how western diplomatic ineptitude ensured
that the breakup of Yugoslavia would be accompanied by large
scale killing and the displacement of ethnic populations.
Yugoslavia was an avoidable war. It was made unavoidable by
the cynical nature of western diplomatic intervention. |
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Kosovo,
however, presents an entirely different scenario.
Kosovo was not the result of diplomatic failure.
Serious diplomatic efforts were not tried. NATO under
the leadership of the United States chose to discard
any serious attempt at finding a diplomatic solution
in favor of using force and violence. Bombing was the
instrument of choice.
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