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The Independent (UK) / www.independent.co.uk
The bloody truth of how Nato changed
the rules to win a 'moral war' in Yugoslavia
By Robert Fisk
7 February 2000
For me, the proof came near the end of the Yugoslav war, when Nato bombed a hospital at Surdulice on 31 May last year. Serb soldiers were hiding in the basement, civilian refugees sleeping above them. The soldiers survived, the civilians were slaughtered in the raid and James Shea, Nato's king of excuses, announced that it was "a military target".
Did he know -- did Nato know -- that this building was a hospital, that there were civilians as well as Yugoslav military hiding there? Sure, the Yugoslav army were using their own Serb people as human shields. And shame upon them. But if Nato knew this, then it broke international law. Article 50, paragraph 3, of the 1949 Geneva Conventions' Protocol 1 specifically demands the safeguarding of civilian lives even in the presence of "individuals who do not come within the definition of civilians".
The bodies of the dead refugees were laid out in the afternoon sun on the day of their death. One teenage girl lay on the grass a few metres from a book of love poems; her tragic love and death was researched and reported in The Independent in November. She was killed by Nato. So was a young and brilliant Serb mathematics student, cut down as she tried to rescue the wounded at Varvarin bridge. An American jet had bombed the narrow old river bridge, killing the civilians walking across it. It was a saint's day in Varvarin and a market day -- the attack happened at about 1pm -- and the bridge was too narrow to take a tank.
Just because there wasn't a tank on the bridge at the time, Mr Shea told us, didn't mean a tank didn't cross it. But the bridge was too narrow for any Yugoslav tank. And about 20 minutes after the first bloody assault, another American jet attacked, just in time to kill the rescuers. The girl, who had just been awarded top prize at her Belgrade college, was killed by this US pilot as she tried to pull a wounded man from the road. The same bomb beheaded the local priest as he emerged from his church.
In the countryside around lay what appeared to be parts of Nato's favourite weapon, cluster-bombs. They were dropped across all of Yugoslavia, and most of their civilian victims were in the south of Serbia. Cluster-bombs tore many of the Albanian refugees to pieces on the mistargeted convoys of refugees in the early part of the war. And cluster-bombs -- possibly dropped by British aircraft -- killed civilians in the Serbian city of Nis when a plane mistargeted a local military barracks. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, was so outraged at the Nis attack that she pleaded with alliance officials to take greater care in their bombardment, as well as condemning Serbia's "ethnic cleansing" of Kosovo.
At some point in the second half of the Yugoslav war, Nato decided to stop apologising for civilian deaths.
And you can see why. From its initial attacks on real military barracks and facilities -- almost all of them empty -- Nato's air bombardment moved to dual-use factories and then "targets of opportunity" (which doomed many a Kosovo refugee travelling in convoys in which police vehicles were present) and then slid promiscuously to transportation routes and hospitals which hid soldiers and the Serb television station.
Today's Human Rights Watch report is the nearest we have seen so far to the unvarnished, bloody truth about Nato's campaign in Yugoslavia. If it depends too heavily on Yugoslav references, including the carefully produced and detailed -- though sometimes selective -- Belgrade government's "White Book" on Nato "crimes", its analysis of alliance tactics, claims and barefaced lies (a word not used by Human Rights Watch, of course) provides a new balance to the history of last year's "moral" war.
It condemns Nato for the attack on Serb television headquarters -- as opposed to transmitters -- on the basis that it could not be regarded as a military target, only a propaganda target. And that's exactly how the cabinet minister Clare Short justified the killing of 16 studio technicians and a young make-up artist. Needless to say, Nato never bombed Croatian television headquarters when it was pumping out propaganda of a similar kind in 1992.
After walking through the rubble of the Serb studios at the time, I reflected that when you kill people for what they say -- however much you hate their words -- then you have changed the rules of war. And that is what Nato did from April through to June of 1999. They changed the rules of war. A military barracks was a legitimate target. Then a tobacco factory, a road bridge, the railway line at Gurdulice -- just when a train was crossing the bridge.
Interestingly enough, Human Rights Watch quotes General Wesley Clark, Nato's commander, saying of the pilot's video footage of the passenger train racing over the Gurdulice bridge that "you can see if you were focusing right on your job as a pilot, how suddenly that train appeared -- it was really unfortunate". But the human rights organisation appears ignorant of recent revelations that Nato deliberately speeded up the video film for its press audience to three times the train's actual speed.
The train did not appear "suddenly" as General Clark mendaciously claimed. It was travelling much more slowly. And despite Human Rights Watch's claims to have interviewed so many Yugoslav survivors of air attacks -- their work is indeed impressive -- the group seems unaware that several survivors of the train attack say they saw the aircraft return for a second strike. Indeed, the evidence at the scene showed how the first bomb smashed a road bridge above the track, cutting the electrical wires and stopping the train. A second missile then hit the carriages.
It was not a war crime, Human Rights Watch says. In fact, Nato committed no war crimes, according to Kenneth Roth and his investigators. But it committed "violations of international humanitarian law" -- which amounts to about the same thing. And still we don't know who bombed what. Survivors believe the train was attacked by a British Harrier. The report says it was an American jet. The Yugoslavs say the plane that bombed the centre of Aleksinac in April was British -- based on intercepted pilot radio messages -- yet still we don't know.
In the New Year Honours List, Britain's Kosovo pilots got their gongs. All their names were printed in The Independent although we have no idea who was rewarded for their role in Nato's sloppy bombing campaign -- Nato failed to hit more than a handful of Serb tanks throughout the war and the Yugoslav Third Army retired unscratched from Kosovo -- or who was bemedalled for watching the radar tracks.
Last September, an unnoticed article in The Officer, a magazine widely read by Ministry of Defence officials and senior army NCOs, quoted a British Harrier pilot who had been bombing Serbia the previous April.
"After a while you've got to ignore the collateral damage [civilian
casualties] and start smashing those targets," he said at the time.
"But the politicians aren't ready for that yet."
Blood is on their hands, and dishonor is their lot, as it will be now and forever for Blair, Shea, Albright, Clinton, Cohen, and all the good Germans on this side of the Pond.
They knew they were murdering innocent people and loved it. The globalists like Clinton are evil to the core!
If there is anyone that I would like to see tried for this mess its former Congressman Joe Dioguardi. Now what he did was treasonist to every American......
For more defendants, take a look at the politicians to whom DioGuardi's PAC contributed. Funny how they were among the most vociferous supporters of humanitarian bombing.
We do have a way to "try" corrupt politicians: elections. Let's target one or two of the most egregious KLA supporters for defeat this November. My candidates: Tweedledems Traficant (Representative, OH) and Feinstein (Senator, CA). Traficant has legal problems for his mob connections, and also faces strong primary and general election challenges; Feinstein will have a tight race if Tom Campbell gets the Tweedlepub party nod. Look, I don't know how to channel our disgust into an effective electoral movement, and I would welcome guidance from others who are more politically adept than I am. Hey, we gotta start somewhere.
If there is anyone that I would like to see tried for this mess its former Congressman Joe Dioguardi. Now what he did was treasonist to every American......
Ditto for Bob Dole.
The names of Albright, Clinton, Cohen, Berger, Clark, Shea, Blair and Cook, will take their places among such infamous modern-day butchers such as: Beria, Stalin, Hitler, Eichman, Himmler, Gobbels, and Idi Amin. All these butchers share one thing in common, the lust for killing the innocent. I will never forget the arrogance on Jamie Shea's face when he mockingly discussed "collateral damage" - as if the people Nato Killed were clay pigeons at a shooting range. The "victory lap" Madelein Albright took in a refuge camp was absolutely nauseating. She did that stupid trans-like dance with both hands in the air, screaming, "we won", we won". The truth will soon prevail and shame on all those who participated in the destruction of an innocent small country. The Serbs' only crime was to defend their lands from the KLA terrorists. Russia is laying waste to all of Chechnia and what does Mad Maddie do? She flies to Moscow so that she can hug Putin.
Where does McCain stand on the current mess in Kosovo? When does he plan to appear on the Sunday morning talk shows (as he did last year) to demand that we send in even more American ground troops to end the ethnic cleansing of Serbs under the eyes of current American troops? Why is McCain avoiding this issue? Please tell us. The lives of our sons, daughers, and relatives are at stake.
For me, the proof came near the end of the Yugoslav war, when Nato bombed a hospital at Surdulice on 31 May last year. Serb soldiers were hiding in the basement, civilian refugees sleeping above them. The soldiers survived, the civilians were slaughtered in the raid and James Shea, Nato's king of excuses, announced that it was "a military target".
how does he know there were soldiers in that hospital at the time?
I've wondered that myself. He described this incident in at least one earlier article (which wasn't placed on FR), and from the context it seemed that he had visited the hospital after it was hit and seen the victims. Whether soldiers actually were there, whether they were wounded and in for treatment, whether they were a guard unit, if such things even exist for hospitals, or a PVO unit -- he has never addressed these details. It's possible of course, but I wouldn't take his word standing alone for it.
...the group [Human Rights Watch] seems unaware that several survivors of the train attack say they saw the aircraft return for a second strike. Indeed,
the evidence at the scene showed how the first bomb smashed a road bridge above the track, cutting the electrical wires and stopping the train. A second missile then hit the carriages.
**********
This is a new set of details for me, regarding the deliberate bombing of the train. When someone posted the set of snapshots a couple of months ago, (when it first became known that the liars at NATO press briefins had lied about how fast events happened by speeding the film up 3x), I glanced at the photos and guessed the train was probably doing 30 mph (this can be calculated easily if one knows the length of a train car). But if the above is true, then --instead of going 20-30 mph and the NATO bomber getting a lucky hit -- the train was standing still after the power was cut, then we have the moral equivalent of a terroristic act.
Apparently the road bridge was hit; that was reported elsewhere. Also, I'm pretty certain that the aircraft reportedly took a second pass. However, that sequence doesn't seem to fit the film released by NATO, does it? If the power was off and the train was stopped, the film whether at 3x or regular speed wouldn't have shown the train moving, correct? Are the two versions consistent?
Well said! We should also remember the one's in congress who backed this attack.
...and that goes especially form their leader Colonel Jack Ripper...err I mean Senator John McCain. Perhaps McCain wanted to send in American ground troops to silence the Serb and Big Tobacco conspiracy to deplete of Our Precious bodily Essences.
You are correct! ......Clinton will be remembered both as a mass murderer and a serial Rapist! But even worse Clinton will be remembered as the greatest traitor in our nation's history!...............
......Clinton will be remembered both as a mass murderer and a serial Rapist! But even worse Clinton will be remembered as the greatest traitor in our nation's history!...............Well unless McCain is elected and commits even more treason than Clinton.......looking at the corruption in McCain's past that actually seems possible!.....
"After walking through the rubble of the Serb studios at the time, I reflected that when you kill people for what they say -- however much you hate their words -- then you have changed the rules of war.
And that is what Nato did from April through to June of 1999.
They changed the rules of war
. A military barracks was a legitimate target.
Then a tobacco factory, a road bridge, the railway line at Gurdulice -- just when a train was crossing the bridge."
In that case Sterling Hayden would make the best President.
Fisk is good.
Surprised he still has a job.
And those new rules are the ones that will apply in the future. Embassies are fair game because they have supposed military uses. Power plants and rail lines, political party headquarters, the presidential home and tobacco factories; these were all deliberate targets in NATO's moral war. Under the new rules, the destruction of the American embassy in Kenya was perfectly acceptable; the Marine barracks in Beirut and the Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia were clean military targets; CNN, ConEd and PG&E, the Burlington Northern, Democratic Party headquarters, and the White House are open to attack. Those are NATO's rules. Henceforth, they will apply across the board. But, one may protest, only governments have the authority to declare war; otherwise, the attackers are mere terrorists. Under NATO's new rules, our government has destroyed even that distinction.
bear in mind too recent revelations that the video of the train strike shown to the media for our consumption was sped up 3X actual speed. nato then used this viewing to suggest there was no time for the pilot to stop the bombs when the train "suddenly appeared" on the tracks. does not pass the smell test, by any stretch. why, however, would nato actually target a civilian train? kla "intel" may be one answer. btw, always enjoy both your commentaries.
We should never forget the men who let a virtual dictator usurp their Constitutional power and and go on an evil rampage of bombing and murdering a good Christian people!
Clinton proved he was a murderous monster with what he did in WACO and Yugoslavia.........Now let's pray this evil man steps down next January..........
No he meant he wasnt aware of the fact that there was a second bomb. But there muist have bean. Remembering the pictures Its quite clear. The first bomb hit the train just as it was passing over the center, knocking out the resturantcar and the power, but the train stayed on track sliding further. The plane turned around an hit it with a second bomb in cold blood. Bombing an civilan train what a psycopath.
"I don't know how to channel our disgust into an effective electoral movement, and I would welcome guidance from others who are more politically adept than I am. Hey, we gotta start somewhere."
My advise, move to a different country, its going to take a earthquake to change things on the Hill. We have to keep up the good fight as long as we can. Become more active, let the republicans know what you think!
Whoops -- I left out the last line of Fisk's essay in my post:
"They soon were."
Thanks, and ditto back at ya.
This, above all, is Clinton's legacy. Turn NATO into an agressive force, bomb a country that is involved in a civil war rather than has attacked another country, do it without a declaration of war, without a yeah vote from the UN Security Council, and invent lies about genocide to justify it. All the world's leaders know this to be true, even if the dominant media in the United States has kept the American people benumbed with Ricki Martin and budget "surpluses".
The United States has lost the moral high ground, thanks to Clinton. Indonesia will do what it wishes in East Timor. The Russians will do what they wish in Chechnya, Dagestan and beyond. The Chinese will do what they wish to Tibetans, Christians and other "deviants". The Sudanese will continue to kill Christians and traffic in slaves. Syria will do what it wishes in Lebanon. So, too, will Israel. The killing in Africa will go on. And the United States will be in no position to condemn any of it.
This, because of Bill Clinton and his desperate, dysfunctional, psychotic desire for a legacy. Well, now he has one.
NATO is , for all intents and purposes, DEAD. All that's left is the death throes and the burial. The Europeans are already pulling back and forming their own mutinational defense force. After the war in Kosovo, they have no intention of getting involved in any more U.S. led geopolitical "adventures" , simply for the U.S. to try to impose their control over oil and pipeline routes, or trade routes, or siply to prove to themselves (like Bush in Kuwait) that they have the biggest cohones, and can be the biggest bullies on the block.
They dismiss so easily anything said by Serbs, but they believed every unbelivable lie, told by the Albanian refugees.
I heard a long time ago that the planes came back for a second go, but then no one mentioned it again, I thought maybe I had imagined it all, the hit on the train, was very deliberate.
Maybe NATO did more than alter the speed.
NATO is , for all intents and purposes, DEAD
It is indeed dead. And Kosovo and NATO's new "charter", rammed down its members throats by Clinton and Blair, killed it. Soon there will be nothing for Rumania and Bulgaria to join. And they will again be at the mercy of Russia. It didn't have to be that way.
Well, the Europeans are now stressing the possibility if joining the European Union when negotiating with the eastern European countries, not membership in NATO. They only got involved militarily in Kosovo because the U.S forced them to. Before Madwoman Dimbright came charging into Ramboullet with the infamous appendix B, the Europeans had already negotiated a deal with the Yugoslav government that was actually better than the one signed after the war, but the U.S. government didn't want that. they wanted war. Dimbright didn't even tell some of the NATO allies about App B until after she had demanded that the Yugos sign it , and declard war.
Have you heard Ellen Tauscher's (Dem. California) talking head on CNN during the bombing "campaign"? I checked out her web site, she even suggested that Gen. Wesley Clark get a medal for his genious in "battle" and for not losing one soldier! I wonder how much she was paid off!
Are there mechanisms in the US to prevent another Kosovo? I somehow doubt there is. Where are all the moralist liberals when the killing is done from their name? And republicans aren't much better. Look at McCain.
McBump.
Bravo!
May Xlinton, Blair and all of NATO reap their just rewards. Expect more pi** poor world crises management from a spooky 'feel gooder' pot head ALGORE or 'trigger happy' philanderer McXlinton...
Well, there is a tea party a brewin'....
...CNN, ConEd and PG&E, the Burlington Northern, Democratic Party headquarters, and the White House are open to attack. Those are NATO's rules. Henceforth, they will apply across the board. But, one may protest, only governments have the authority to declare war; otherwise, the attackers are mere terrorists. Under NATO's new rules, our government has destroyed even that distinction...
Very bold and well stated. Peaceful as a dove and shrewd as the serpent...
But even worse Clinton will be remembered as the greatest traitor in our nations history
Let's hope he doesn't end up getting us all killed first.
Clinton, Blair, Schroder, and Gen. Clark all ought to be put on trial for crimes against humanity.
Gen. Wesley Clark was the TX Natl Guard General who sent military machinery and equipment into Waco to assist in the slaughter of women and children in a church...obviously, with murder comes rewards...a promotion to NATO command, where you can really master your murderous ways...
And if he doesn't?
They knew they were murdering innocent people and loved it. The globalists like Clinton are evil to the core!
You forgot the other Globalists Bush and McCain
Go Pat Go
Sorry, but they DIDN'T change the rules ! As Liebermann said at the time, - "we're doing it to break the will of the population !". I'm not very impressed with the "inDEPENDENT" as it's enthusiastically supported every aggression against Yugoslavia. I take it this is a sign of a guilty consciense! These scum knew exactly what they were ordering. It's called Strategic Bombing and the idea is to bomb civilians, women, children, civilian targets etc. to break the will to resist of the population. It's been policy for many years ... The second attack, 20 minutes later, at the bridge was deliberate as well, - that's so you can kill some of the rescuers. it happened elsewhere.
Agreed, but at least Fisk was willing to point out the bloody-mindedness of the perpetrators and debunk their "moral war" cant. Even six months after this article, with the Albanian death toll a fraction of what was advertised, the war is either ignored or gets touted as some sort of NATO victory, at least in the US. Are things beginning to change there, or is all the news still about Liam and Patsy etc.?
ping on the topic of Nato killing civilians.
And Dubya's only complaint was that we didn't fight it ferociously enough.
Only Pat Buchanan raised his voice against this butchery.
Only he is worthy of our votes.
I found a book on this subject that might prove to be very interesting reading: "Kosovo: Contending Voices on Balkan Interventions" by William Joseph Buckley (ed.). The book includes chapters by Kofi Annan and Slobodan Milosevic. As the publicity flier for the book states, individuals that have contributed to this book are "international figures who have refused to be in the same room with one another are featured within the covers of this single volume."
Thanks, I'll look it up.
My normal MO is to order books through interlibrary loan, since the holdings in our library are somewhat limited. I may have to wait until October or November to order the book since our library will not request recently published books. However, I am going to be busy for the next five to six weeks finishing up a chapter I am writing on the Indian/Pakistani nuclear tests in May 1998.
I gotta find a decent library here, but I might just go to Barnes and Noble - I've put a fair amount of effort into this Kosovo mess, so I'm always interested in additional material. It's an extremely complex matter, and it's tough to get clear answers - but I think there is definitely a clear picture emerging of Western Europe extending economic hegemony into the region, preceeded by efforts to destablize the Yugoslavian regime - not that it took much to destabilize it, but I would have hoped the West's goal was to improve matters in the region, not make them worse.
I think there is definitely a clear picture emerging of Western Europe extending economic hegemony into the region, preceeded by efforts to destablize the Yugoslavian regime - not that it took much to destabilize it, but I would have hoped the West's goal was to improve matters in the region, not make them worse.
The economic security of the United States is one of the three “pillars” of the Clinton administration foreign policy. In fact, the economic security of the United States is the most important pillars for the Clinton administration.
Clinton: “Our first foreign priority and first domestic priority are one in the same: reviving our economy. America must regain its economy strength to play our proper role as leader of the world."
I believe that Clinton administration has been very receptive to the interests of MNCs because of this goal. Of course, economic prosperity can be very helpful for politicians seeking reelection.
Oh, I agree that America's economic strength is important - however, using agencies such as the IMF to destablize a region, and then using the resultant ethnic conflicts as justification for intervention and foreign control is NOT the best way to promote American interests and security, as we are frightening countries who are historically enemies to consider forming alliances against unchecked American power. The entire transparent affair with the Trepca facility should clue you into what this matter is really about - along with the AMBO pipeline and the proposed highway through the Balkans. American taxpayers and American soldiers are underwriting MNC efforts to pry open the Balkan oyster, and that IMO is both dangerous and wrong.
A very interesting argument...
A very interesting argument...
And an old one ... follow the money. Lots of the wise old men who were writing scathing Op-Eds in the NY Times, condeming the Serbs and demanding action in Kosovo, are paid consultants for corporate players in the region. But was there any mention at the end of the columns by the NY Times? Yeah, right.
I initially thought the pipeline issue was absurd - until I dug deeper and followed the money. Keep digging, Chris, and keep an open mind - nothing in that part of the world is ever as it seems. And now we have the takeover of the Trepca mine, which seems to have been orchestrated by Soros and his think tanks - and there are plans to build a highway through the region by outside interests.
You might think that Westernizing the Balkan economy is a good thing, and I might be inclined to agree - but let them join the Western economic world voluntarily, and don't let the MNCs manipulate the American taxpayer into underwriting dubious projects with money and the lives of American soldiers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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