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Senior Kosovo figures face prosecution for crimes against humanity
theguardian.com ^ | Tuesday 29 July 2014 09.42 BST | Julian Borger

Posted on 07/29/2014 5:07:15 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin

Leading political figures in Kosovo face indictment by a special EU court for crimes against humanity, including killings, abductions, sexual violence and other abuses of Serb and Roma minorities, according to the chief prosecutor leading a three-year special investigation.

The threat of indictments comes in a progress report published on Tuesday morning in Brussels by Clint Williamson, an American prosecutor appointed by the EU in 2011 to investigate ethnic cleansing committed in Kosovo since the 1999 Nato intervention ended the conflict there.

Williamson describes the suspects as "senior officials of the former Kosovo Liberation Army" (KLA), which fought against the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic. Many former KLA commanders became leaders after Kosovo declared independence in 2008. At least some of the indictments prepared by the EU special investigative task force (SITF) are against top figures actively involved in politics.

Williamson's investigation confirmed allegations that organs taken from executed prisoners were trafficked for profit. But 15 years after the crimes, the SITF has not been gathered enough concrete evidence to mount a viable prosecution.

The indictments for wholesale human rights violations will embarrass the US and western European governments, which provided enthusiastic backing for the KLA leadership during and after the war.

The indictments cannot be issued until a special court to try the cases is established. But its creation has been held up by bureaucratic delays over funding in the European commission and political turmoil in Kosovo. Williamson said he hoped the court would be set up by early next year, but he will step down after a three-year term next month.

"There have been press reports that I was leaving because the investigation is collapsing. That is completely untrue. I think we have had a very solid investigation with very good results," he told the Guardian.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 07/29/2014 5:07:15 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
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To: DeaconBenjamin
What about Bill Clinton's war crimes? [crickets]

During Bill Clinton’s 1999 NATO-led war in Kosovo – which according to some estimates cost as much as $75 billion – we bombed Belgrade for 78 days, killed almost 3,000 civilians, and shredded the civilian infrastructure (including every bridge across the Danube.)

We devastated the environment, bombed the Chinese embassy, came very close to engaging in armed combat against Russian forces, and in general, pursued a horrific and inhumane strategy to rain misery on the civilian population of Belgrade in order to pressure Milosevic into surrendering.

Why did we do all that? The US did not even have an arguable interest in the Balkans, and no one ever tried to claim that Serbia represented any kind of threat to our nation or our interests.

But for months the Clinton administration had told us that Milosevic was waging a vicious genocide against Albanian Muslims, and needed to be stopped. The New York Times called it a “humanitarian war.” In March 1999 – the same month that the bombing started – Clinton’s State Department publicly suggested that as many as 500,000 Albanian Kosovars had been murdered by Milosevic’s regime. In May of that year, as the bombing campaign was drawing to a close, Secretary of Defense William Cohen lowered that estimate 100,000.

Five years after the bombing, after all the forensic investigations had been completed, the prosecutors at Milosevic’s “War Crimes” trial in the Hague were barely been able to document a questionable figure of perhaps 5,000 “bodies and body parts.” During the war, the American people were told that Kosovo was full of mass graves filled with the bodies of murdered Albanian Muslims. But none were ever found.

2 posted on 07/29/2014 5:28:18 AM PDT by Maceman
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To: DeaconBenjamin

John McCain and Bob Dole were busy beating the drum for the KLA, and provided all the political cover that Slick needed for his Balkan war.


3 posted on 07/29/2014 5:30:19 AM PDT by Zuse (I am disrupted! I am offended! I am insulted! I am outraged!)
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To: DeaconBenjamin

In a surprise to nobody, the “M” word is not used once in this dhimmi article to describe Billy Jeff & Wesley’s partners in crime and genocide, the terrorist Muslim KLA.


4 posted on 07/29/2014 5:30:31 AM PDT by Dr.Deth
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To: Maceman
Bill Clinton -> Kosovo War
Barack Obama -> Ukrainian War

There's alot of similarities. Both are textbook Wag The Dog diversions.

5 posted on 07/29/2014 5:36:21 AM PDT by McGruff (Ukrainian rebels just want to be free to choose their own destiny. Do you support Freedom?)
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To: McGruff

The funny thing is, the move “Wag the Dog” came out not long before Clinton’s war crime in Kosovo.


6 posted on 07/29/2014 5:41:41 AM PDT by Maceman
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7 posted on 07/29/2014 6:08:34 AM PDT by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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