As NATO forces look other way
Violence agaisnt Kosovo Serbs worsens
By Pat
Chin
Kosovo has been engulfed in yet another NATO-condoned
atrocity as Serbs and others continue to face attacks by the
terrorist "Kosovo Liberation Army" and its supporters.
Even Western news sources have admitted the atrocities by
their allies as NATO--the self-appointed "defender of human
rights"--enters its fourth month occupying this southern
Yugoslav province under United Nations cover.
On Oct. 29 a mob of reactionary KLA supporters stopped a
refugee convoy of 155 Serbs who had fled the southwestern city
of Orahovac. This latest group of refugees was reportedly
heading for Montenegro when they were violently attacked by
around 1,500 reactionaries.
The mob hurled Molotov cocktails at the convoy, which
included mostly women, children and the sick, reported Radio
Yugoslavia. People were beaten with clubs, bricks and other
objects. Seventeen cars were swiftly engulfed in flames. More
than 10 people were badly burned, including two children. Many
others were seriously injured.
Italian soldiers of the United Nations KFOR forces who were
escorting the refugees were slow to respond, and the attackers
easily escaped after doing tremendous damage.
According to press accounts, four of the Serbs are still
unaccounted for.
The Yugoslav Army was replaced in Kosovo by KFOR troops
after the vicious 78-day NATO bombing campaign led by
Washington. Since then, killings and abductions have surged. So
too have fire bombings, assaults, rapes and the illegal
takeover of homes and vehicles by ethnic Albanian extremists.
This fascist violence has led to a flood of refugees from
Kosovo--which doesn't seem to concern the Clinton White House.
Nor does the Western imperialist media cover it, except in the
most perfunctory manner. This contrasts starkly with the
massive reporting on Albanian refugees right after the start of
the war, when they were being used as an excuse to bomb
Yugoslavia.
One of NATO's stated goals is to preserve Kosovo as a
multi-ethnic society. But the province is in fact being
"ethnically cleansed" of Serbs, Roma and others in the presence
of some 40,000 armed KFOR troops, there as part of the
NATO-controlled "international peace mission."
Serbs have been the main targets. But other people fighting
for a multi-ethnic society within Yugoslavia are also at great
risk, regardless of their nationality. This includes
progressives like Dzafer Djuka, an Albanian and a top leader of
the Yugoslav Left, who was murdered by the right wing.
Since NATO allowed the KLA to enter Kosovo, Serbs in
Orahovac, low on food and medicines, have been under siege. The
reactionary forces have prevented the deployment of Russian
KFOR troops, who are seen as more sympathetic to the Serbian
population, by blocking their access to the town for months.
NATO now feigns impotence in the face of the violent purging of
Serbs and others from the province.
According to Yugoslav government estimates, about 250,000
Serbs have been forced from Kosovo since KFOR forces took over.
Over 400 have been killed and 600 abducted.
Some 70,000 Romas, Gorancis, Turks and others have also
fled. The latest victims were Croats who had to escape to
Croatia after being terrorized from their ancestral homes in
the Kosovo village of Kosovka Vitina.
Three thousand Roma refugees recently went on a hunger
strike in Macedonia to protest their expulsion and conditions
in the Macedonian refugee camp.
The day after the displaced Serbs were attacked, the New
York Times--which championed the U.S./NATO war on
Yugoslavia--ran an article headlined, "Peacekeepers Cannot
Explain Failure to Protect Serb Convoy."
"Officials of NATO and the United Nations struggled Thursday
to explain how they failed to protect a convoy of Serbian
civilians from a sudden and ferocious Albanian attack on
Wednesday," said the Times. It didn't explain why NATO is
suddenly so weak after having conducted the most unequal war in
history.
Symposium in Novi Sad
Two weeks earlier, in the northern city of Novi Sad, an
international symposium, which this reporter attended, heard
evidence of war crimes committed against Yugoslavia by U.S.-led
NATO countries.
Numerous topics were covered including media manipulation
and damage to the environment and economy.
Dr. Margit Savovic of the Committee for the Rights of
Children highlighted the effects of the war on young
people.
"For 78 days 3 million children suffered the fear that they
would become `collateral damage,'" she said.
Savovic estimated that many children were now crippled for
life from cluster bombs. Her report said 10,000 children need
medical care and treatment. Three hundred thousand were forced
out of school. Many were killed during the aggression,
including in Kosovo.
"The so-called humanitarian war against our country made
over 3 million children victims," she added. "Classical war
crimes were justified as collateral damage."
"You can't imagine the terror we lived through," recalled
Jelena, a Novi Sad resident and mother of two. "For months we
all had to live in a shelter." During a NATO attack, one of her
sons narrowly missed being hit by flying glass.
Jelena said that when she heard what the Yugoslav government
was saying about the U.S., she didn't believe it and dismissed
it as propaganda. But after hearing reports at the symposium by
people from the U.S. she changed her mind.
A delegation from the U.S.-based International Action Center
exposed Washington's hypocrisy as the world champion of human
rights by citing the racism and class discrimination, violence
and genocidal practices endemic to the imperialist nation.
Novi Sad, home to 26 different nationalities, was repeatedly
struck by NATO warplanes. Every bridge in this beautiful city
was destroyed during the air campaign. So were businesses,
energy installations, schools, churches, museums and the
television station, as witnessed by this reporter.
"The bombing started and ended in Novi Sad," explained one
conferee, who detailed the colossal damage done to the
town.
All across the world and within the U.S., hearings are being
held to investigate U.S.-NATO war crimes against the people of
Yugoslavia. The struggle may be a long hard one. But justice is
certain.
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