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edited by alexander cockburn and jeffrey st. clair

Who NATO Killed

Since the Nato airstrikes began on March 24 Serb officials
say more than 2,000 civilians have been killed and more than
7,500 wounded. Nato has owned up to bombing raids and
missile attacks that have killed 460 civilians, according to a
tally by Agence France-Presse. By all accounts, the bombing
was indiscriminate, killing farmers, suburbanites, city
dwellers, factory workers, reporters, diplomats, people in
cars, busses and trains, hospital patients, the elderly and
children. Indeed, by our count, Nato bombing raids have
killed more than 200 children. Hundreds more will almost
certainly perish in the coming months, through environmental
factors, such as poisoned water supplies and lack of electrical
power to run vital hospital equipment. The following list of
civilian casualties is far from comprehensive. We compiled it
from daily reports by the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry and wire
services, including Agence France Presse, Reuters and AP.

Aleksinac
Five Nato missiles hit Aleksinac, a small mining community,
on April 6. Seventeen civilians, taking shelter in a basement
of a house, were all killed. Although there is no military
presence in the residential area that was bombed, more than
400 homes were destroyed.

Ariljaca
Nato missiles hit Ariljaca, a small town outside Pristina, on
April 28, killing two and injuring a dozen civilians.

Belgrade
Near midnight on June 1, 14 missiles destroyed a block of
houses in a suburb of Belgrade killing 5 and injuring 20.

Around 1 a.m. on May 20, Nato cluster bombs hit "Dragisa
Misovic" hospital in downtown Belgrade. The neurological
ward, the maternity ward, the gynecological ward and the
children's ward for lung diseases were destroyed. Nato later
admitted that one of the laser guided bombs overshot its
target by about 1,500 feet (460 meters).

During the attack 4 women were in active labor. A woman
who, at the time of the attack, was having a Caesarean
section, was also injured. She was transferred to the
basement where her baby was finally delivered! In the attack
4 patients were killed, and several women in labor were
wounded.
On May 8, Nato airstrikes hit the Chinese Embassy,
destroying half of the building. According to the Chinese
Government there were about 30 people in the building at the
moment of the attack. Four Chinese citizens were killed and
at least 20 injured.

On Friday, April 23, around 2 a.m., the building of the
Serbian National Broadcasting Network was destroyed by
Nato air strikes. The building is in the very center of
Belgrade, a few hundred feet from a children's theater, St.
Marko's Church, the City Childrens Center and the local
market. More than 20 civilian employees of the TV station
were killed.

On April 16, Milica Rakic, a three-year-old girl, was killed in
the Nato attack on Batajnica, a residential suburb of
Belgrade.

The administrative center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
was hit several times. The building is in the very center of
Belgrade, near the city hospital, which has the largest delivery
ward in Belgrade. Several civilians, who were passing by the
building at the time of the attack, were killed.

On April 13, a cluster bomb hit the Veterans Army Hospital
in downtown Belgrade, injuring sixteen patients.

Bor
Six persons were wounded when Nato hit the electricity relay
station at a mine site in Basin Bor on May 15.

Cacak
On May 5, Nato forces destroyed the Sloboda plant, the
largest factory in Cacak. This factory produced domestic
appliances and employed 5,000 workers. A residential area
near the factory was also destroyed. Two persons were
killed, one of them was a 74-year-old woman. Seven were
injured.

Cuprija
On June 1, 2 civilians were killed and 9 wounded when Nato
bombs destroyed more than 100 houses in the center of this
small town.

Djakovica
On April 21 70 civilians died and 20 were injured in a refugee
camp near Djakovica, home for more than 500 people
evicted from Krajina (Croatia). The houses were completely
destroyed. Just four years ago, more than 400,000 civilian
Serbs were ethnically cleansed from the Krajina region by the
Croatian government of Franjo Tudjman. There were 53
bomb craters at the site.

On April 19, seven missiles hit the same site, killing five and
wounding 16.

Gnjilane
Nato attacked Gnjilane a number of times in May. There
were dozens of civilian casualties. The City Hospital was hit
and badly damaged.

Grdelica
Nato hit an international train, on regular service from
Belgrade to Thessaloniki (Greece), in the vicinity of Leskovac
on Monday, April 12. Sixty passengers were killed, including
a 10 year-old child. More than 30 passengers were wounded.
All casualties were civilians.

Gucevo
On April 23, Nato planes attacked this mountain ski resort,
seriously injuring the manager of the complex.

Istok
On May 21, a prison in Istok was hit with two missiles, killing
one man and seriously injuring one woman. The attack was
repeated at 9:20 a.m. with ten missiles. The econd attack left
nine people dead, including the deputy governor. At least 10
people were injured. Since then, Nato has bombed this prison
several times. By June 1, the death toll had risen to 100..

Jagodina
On May 25, Nato attacked this agricultural village with five
missiles. One struck a greenhouse killing a farmer and
wounding two workers.

Korisa
On the night of May 13, six Nato missiles struck a farm in the
rural village of Korisa in Kosovo. In this attack, 87 Kosovo
Albanians died. Kosovo Albanian Fehmi Ahmeta told Reuters
that seven members of his family were killed. Journalists who
visited the site described it as full of bodies, some of them still
burning at the time of their visit. One journalist said said there
was no trace of Nato's claim of a Serb military presence.

Kosare
On May 22, Nato was forced to admit that it had mistakenly
bombed a KLA base in the border town of Kosare. KLA
spokesmen said that 7 were killed and 15 wounded in the
attack.

Kragujevac
Workers employed at the Zastava factory in Kragujevac used
their bodies to "protect" the factory, a fact that was well
known to Nato war planners. 120 workers were injured in an
April 10 Nato assault on the factory. The Zastava automobile
factory supported more than 50 percent of the citizens living
in the Kragujevac area.

Kraljevo
On June 1, seven people were injured, three of them children,
when four missiles hit the residential area of Sovljak.

Throughout May, Nato repeatedly targeted the town of
Kraljevo, destroying its school and a hospital clinic. More
than 20 civilians have been injured. A message on one of the
bomb casings found at Kraljevo read, "Do You Still Want to
Be a Serb Now?"

On April 29, one person was killed and 8 injured when a
missile struck a public bus on the Goadcica Road.

Krusevac
Nato forces destroyed the "14th October" factory of
construction machinery on April 11. A dozen workers were
injured. The plant, which employed 6,000 workers, was
demolished.

Kursumlija
On May 29, cluster bombs hit the Markovici housing
complex, killing one and wounding two.

In two Nato attacks on Kursumlija in early May, 13 citizens
were killed and more than 20 were injured.

On April 12, two missiles struck a residential area killing 6
and injuring 23. Among the dead: 11 month-old Bjonana
Tosovic and her father Boris.

Labane
On June 1, two people were killed and one critically injured
when Nato planes attacked the Cenovacki Bridge over the
Jablanica River.

Lipljan
On April 26, Arla Lujic, a six year-old girl, was killed and her
brother and sister seriously injured by a Nato cluster bomb.
Her father, Sacir Lujic, said, "We were at home in the center
of the village and the children were playing in the yard when
we heard a powerful blast. We didn't know if it was a Nato
plane that fell down or a bomb. Children are not guilty at all."

Luzane
May 1, Nato planes attacked a bridge in Luzane (12 miles
from Pristina), hitting the "Nis Express" bus on its regular
service linking Nis and Pristina. There were about 70
passengers on the bus. A missile hit the bus directly and split
it in two. One half remained on the bridge burning for an
hour, while the other half plunged into the valley. Bodies
were scattered over a wide area. Forty-seven people were
killed.

They attacked again 25 minutes later, when an ambulance
vehicle was damaged and one medical doctor was seriously
wounded in the head. One of the Luzane inhabitants, who
eyewitnessed the attack, said the bus was filled with civilians,
mostly old people and children and that he could hear them
crying for help from the bus wreckage after the attack.

Merdare
Nato planes dropped cluster bombs on the home of the Tosic
family, in the small village of Merdare, located between
Kursumlija and Podujevo. An eleven-month-old baby girl was
among the Merdare victims. Her mother, in the ninth month
of pregnancy, was injured. The father was killed.

Murino
On May 1, the small Montenegrin village of Murino was
bombed with 10 missiles. Orhan Redzepagic, the mayor of
the remote mountain commune of Plav, said that four
civilians were killed including two young girls, refugees from
Pristina, who were hit directly and blown into pieces. The
other two dead were a man and a woman. Eight people
suffered injuries.

Nis
On June 1, Dusan Mancic and his wife Vukosava were killed
and their three grandchildren were injured when their house
was destroyed by Nato missiles.

On May 7, 1999, 15 people were killed and 70 injured when
cluster bombs fell on the town market.

On April 19 one civilian was killed and 11 wounded went
Nato missiles destroyed 10 homes in the Bujuriska housing
complex.

Novi Sad
Nato attacked an oil refinery in Novi Sad more than 10 times.
A thick cloud of benzene-laden smoke hangs over the city
and water from the public water supply is no longer
drinkable.

Several residential areas in the suburbs of Novi Sad were
demolished. As of June 1 there are more than 100 seriously
wounded civilians in Novi Sad.

Novi Pazar
On May 31, six Nato cluster bombs hit a four-storey
apartment complex in the center of town killing 23 and
injuring 20.

On April 23, four people were injured when a Nato missile
struck a Red Cross soup kitchen. Later that same day, one
person was killed and two injured when missiles hit the Novi
Pazar medical center, which housed one of Europe's largest
treatment facilities for muscular dystrophy.

Novi Varos
Four workers were seriously wounded on April 18 when two
Nato bombs struck a hydroelectric plant on the Bistrica River.

Pancevo
One May 1, Nato missiles destroyed a chemical plant which
produces fertilizers. Seven workers were injured. The entire
residential quarter near the factory was evacuated because of
the danger of intoxication by poisonous gases released due to
the damage inflicted to the building and the fire that
consequently broke out.

Nato forces have repeadedly hit the power plant in the
Pancevo petroleum refinery complex, which supplied
electricity and gas. The refinery was attacked on several more
occasions. A huge amount of toxic material was spilled into
the Danube River, which flows all the way from Germany to
the Black Sea.

An April 3 strike on the plant killed two people and injured
17.

Paracin
On May 12, a dozen houses in Paracin were destroyed, one
person was killed and five injured.

Pristina
On May 30, one person was killed and six wounded when
missiles destroyed their cars at the entrance tunnel outside
Pristina.

Five Nato cluster bombs destroyed a largely residential area
of Pristina called Grinija, killing Branko Gudzic, the head of
technical services for the Provincial Executive Council of
Kosovo. Two of his colleagues were seriously wounded.

On April 12, a missile struck a Ford Escort on the
Pristina-Polje Road, killing two and seriously injuring one.

On April 9, Nato destroyed a residential area in downtown
Pristina, killing five members of the Gasi family as they hid in
the basement of their house. Nato admitted it may have hit
houses when its missiles overshot the Pristina telephone
exchange.

Prizren-Djakovica
In the early afternoon hours on April 14, 1999, a convoy of
Albanian refugees was bombed four times by Nato planes.
The refugees were moving down Prizren-Djakovica road,
mostly on foot, or in tractor trailers. At least 75 people were
killed, 100 wounded. All of the victims were Albanians,
mostly children, women and elderly people. Since the attack
was carried out in daylight, considering that the convoy
consisted mostly of agricultural vehicles and civilian cars, and
that the attack was repeated four times with long periods of
time between them, possibility of this attack being accidental
is very unlikely.

Sabac
On May 25 Nato planes struck this small town with five
cluster bombs, destroying a school and an apartment
complex. One person died and four were wounded in the
attack.

Savine Vode
On May 3, , during the Nato attack on Savine Vode a civilian
bus on the Djakovica-Podgorica Road was hit. At least 20
persons were killed, 43 were injured (23 suffered serious
injuries). There were large numbers of women and children
among the victims. Rescue teams and ambulance cars weren't
able to help the victims due to the prolonged attack.

Sremska Mitrovica
On June 1, 200 homes were obliterated by four cluster
bombs, killing five civilians and hurting more than a dozen.

On May 2 Nato bombs destroyed residential areas in the
town of Sremska Mitrovica killing four and injuring 10.

Subotica
On Friday, April 16, Nato planes attacked the city of Subotica
for the first time. Subotica lies on the border with Hungary,
over 350 miles from Kosovo. About 70 percent of Subotica's
population are Hungarian. A entire block in the residential
quarter of the city was demolished by Nato planes. All
destroyed buildings were civilian. Two died in the attack and
15 were wounded.

Surdulica
On May 30, 20 patients in a sanitarium and retirement home
complex where killed when the buildings were destroyed by
five Nato missiles.

Two Nato missiles hit civilian structures in the center of
Surdulica on April 27 between 12 and 12:30 p.m. A CNN
reporter counted 16 civilian bodies at the scene;11 of the
victims were children between 5 and 12 years of age. Three
days after the attack bodies were still being taken out of the
smoldering ruins.

Trstenik
On April 29, Nato missiles attacked a bridge in Trstenik,
killing a woman who was crossing the bridge on her bike and
wounding 17 others.

Urosevac
A residential suburb of Urosevac was demolished in a Nato
attack. Six people were killed.

Uzice
On May 30, missiles struck near the post office in downtown
Uzice for the fifth time, killing two civilians.

Vajevo
The June 1 airstrike on Vajevo marked the thirty-first time
Nato planes had attacked this manufacturing center. A dozen
fatalities have resulted from the more than 200 missiles that
have hit the city and the outlaying Krusik factory.

On May 6, several buildings in the densely populated
residential area of Valjevo were damaged in a Nato strike.
Among them are: the City Hospital, an agriculture secondary
school, a railway station and several apartment buildings. Ten
people were wounded in the strike.

Varvarin
Nato planes took out a bridge in this central Serbian city,
killing 11 people who were crossing in their cars when the
missiles hit.

Vranje
On June 1, ten civilians were seriouly wounded when four
bombs exploded in the historical district of this town.

On May 15, a residential suburb was badly damaged as a
result of Nato attacks. Two people were killed while working
in the field near the town. Irena, a 16-year-old girl, died from
a skull fracture caused by shrapnel from a Nato missile. Her
father was seriously injured. An older woman died in the
assault as well.

On April 13, two people were killed, including 14 year-old
Milica Stojanovic, and one person was critically wounded
when missiles hit a residential suburb of Vranje called
Pavjovac.


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http://www.counterpunch.org/dead.html

Excerpt of Michael Chossudovsky essay





NATO'S WAR OF AGGRESSION AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA:

AN OVERVIEW

NATO TO THE "RESCUE" OF ETHNIC ALBANIANS:

Ethnic Albanians have not been spared by NATO air raids. Killing
ethnic Albanians in Kosovo is said to be "inevitable" in carrying out a
"humanitarian operation on behalf of ethnic Albanians." Presented as a
humanitarian mission, the evidence amply confirms that NATO's brutal
air raids of towns and villages in Kosovo have triggered the exodus of
refugees. Those who have fled their homes to refugee camps in
Macedonia and Albania have nothing to return to, nothing to look
forward to... An entire country has been destroyed, its civilian industry
and public infrastructure transformed into rubble. Bridges, power plants,
schools and hospitals are displayed as "legitimate military targets"
selected by NATO's Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) in
Vicenza, Italy and carefully "validated prior to the pilot launching his
strike."

With the "diplomatic shuttle" still ongoing, the Alliance is intent on
inflicting as much damage on the Yugoslav economy (including Kosovo)
as possible prior to reaching a G8 brokered "peace initiative" which will
empower them to send in ground troops. "Allied commanders have
steadily widened their list of economic targets... Increasingly, the impact
of NATO air strikes has put people out of work... causing water
shortages in Belgrade, Novi Sad and other Serbian cities. ... [T]he
effect was to shut down businesses, strain hospitals' ability to function
and cut off water..." Some 115 medical institutions have been damaged
of which several have been totally demolished. And hospital patients --
including children and the elderly -- are dying due to the lack of water
and electricity...

General Wesley Clark, NATO's Supreme commander in Europe,
confirmed in late May that "NATO'S air campaign has not reached its
peak yet and the alliance should be prepared for more civilian
casualties." General Clark also confirmed that "he would be seeking to
increase the number of air strikes in Kosovo and expand the range of
targets. As the bombings entered their third month, there was also a
noticeable change in "NATO rhetoric." The Alliance had become
increasingly unrepentant, NATO officials were no longer apologising for
civilian casualties, claiming that the latter were contributing to "helping
Milosevic's propaganda machine."

EXTENDING THE CONFLICT BEYOND THE BALKANS:

Drowned in the barrage of media images and self-serving analyses, the
broader strategic interests and economic causes of the War go
unmentioned. The late Sean Gervasi writing in 1995 had anticipated an
impending War. According to Gervasi, Washington's strategic goals
stretched well beyond the Balkans. They largely consisted in "installing a
Western-style regime in Yugoslavia and reducing the geographic area,
power and influence of Serbia to a minimum...." In this context, the
installation of American power in Southern Europe and the
Mediterranean also constitutes a step towards the extension of
Washington's geopolitical sphere of influence beyond the Balkans into
the area of the Caspian Sea, Central Asia and West Asia.

In this regard, NATO's military intervention in Yugoslavia (in violation
of international law) also sets a dangerous precedent. It provides
"legitimacy" to future military interventions. To achieve its strategic
objectives, national economies are destabilised, regional conflicts are
financed through the provision of covert support to armed
insurgencies... In other words, the conflict in Yugoslavia creates
conditions which provide legitmacy to future interventions of the
Alliance into the "internal affairs of sovereign nations."

The consolidation of American strategic interests in Eastern Europe, the
Balkans (and beyond) was not only marked by the enlargement of
NATO (with the accession of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic
as NATO members) barely two weeks before the beginning of the
bombings, the War in Yugoslavia also coincided with a critical split in
geopolitical alignments within the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS). In late April, Georgia, the Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and
Moldava signed a pact in Washington, creating GUUAM, a regional
alliance which lies strategically at the hub of the Caspian oil and gas
wealth, "with Moldava and the Ukraine offering [pipeline] export routes
to the West." This geopolitical split bears a direct relationship to the
crisis in Yugoslavia. The region is already unstable marked by nationalist
conflicts and separatist movements.

The members of this new pro-NATO political grouping not only tacitly
support the bombings in Yugoslavia, they have also agreed to "low level
military cooperation" with NATO while insisting that "the group is not a
military alliance directed against any third party, namely Moscow."
Dominated by Western oil interests, the formation of GUUAM is not
only intent on excluding Russia from the oil and gas deposits in the
Caspian area but also in isolating Moscow politically thereby potentially
re-igniting Cold War divisions...

THE WAR HAS STALLED NUCLEAR ARMS CONTROLS:

In turn, the War in Yugoslavia has significantly stalled nuclear
arms-control initiatives leading to the cancellation of an exchange
program "that would have had U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons
officers in constant contact at year's end to prevent any launches as a
result of Year 2000 computer troubles." Moreover, Russia's military has
also voiced its concern "that the bombing of Yugoslavia could turn out
in the very near future to be just a rehearsal for similar strikes on
Russia." According to Dr. Mary-Wynne Ashford, co-president of the
Nobel Peace Prize winning International Physicians for the Prevention
of Nuclear War (IPPNW), the impact of NATO bombings of
Yugoslavia "on nuclear weapons policy is an extremely serious
development... Russians feel a sense of betrayal by the West...because
NATO took this action outside the UN."

Aleksander Arbatov, deputy chairman of the Defence Committee of the
Russian State Duma U.S.-Russian relations describes the War in
Yugoslavia as the "worst most acute, most dangerous juncture since the
U.S.-Soviet Berlin and Cuban missile crises." According to Arbatov:
"START II is dead, co-operation with NATO is frozen, co-operation
on missile defence is out of the question, and Moscow's willingness to
co-operate on non-proliferation issues is at an all-time low. Moreover,
anti-U.S. sentiment in Russia is real, deep and more widespread than
ever, and the slogan describing NATO action - "today Serbia,
tomorrow Russia," is "deeply planted in Russian's minds."...

Mary-Wynne Ashford also warns that whereas Russia was moving
towards integration with Europe, they [the Russians] now: ".... perceive
their primary threat from the West. Officials in [Russia's] Foreign Affairs
(Arms Control and Disarmament) told us that Russia has no option but
to rely on nuclear weapons for its defence because its conventional
forces are inadequate.... Even if the bombings stop now, the changes in
Russia's attitude toward the West, its renewed reliance on nuclear
weapons with thousands on high alert, and its loss of confidence in
international law leave us vulnerable to catastrophe.... This crisis makes
de-alerting nuclear weapons more urgent than ever. To those who say
the Russian threat is all rhetoric, I reply that rhetoric is what starts
wars."
************************************************

THE MEDIA WAR: "SILENCING THE SILENT
MAJORITY":

This war is also "a War against the Truth." With protest movements
developing around the World, NATO has reinforced its clutch over the
mass media. In a stylised ("wag the dog") media mascarade, the
Alliance is relentlessly portrayed as "the saviour of ethnic Albanian
Kosovars". A full-fledged "cover-up operation" has been set in motion
with a view to thwarting public debate on the War. The hidden agenda
is to "silence the silent majority." The Western media heeding to the
Alliance's demands has blatantly misled public opinion. Casually
portrayed on TV screens, civilian deaths are justified as inevitable
"collateral damage." According to the Pentagon, "there is no such thing
as clean combat."

Meanwhile, anti-war commentators (including former ambassadors and
OSCE officials) have been carefully removed from mainstream public
affairs programmes, TV content is closely scrutinised, the images of
civilian deaths and destruction relayed from Belgrade are seldomly and
selectively displayed, journalists are under tight supervision. While the
media do not hesitate to criticize NATO for having committed "errors"
and "tragic mistakes," the legitimacy of the military operation and its
"humanitarian mandate" are not questioned: "Public opinion is
confronted with a loaded question which allows only one answer. In the
present war, that question is, "Doesn't ethnic cleansing have to be
stopped?" This simplification allows the media to portray Yugoslavia
rather than NATO as the aggressor. The alliance, in a complete
inversion of reality, is presented as conducting an essentially defensive
war on behalf of the Kosovar Albanians..." when in fact ethnic
Albanians are the principle victims of NATO's "humanitarian bombings."
According to NATO's propaganda machine, "ethnic Albanians do not
flee the bombings" and the ground war between the KLA and the
Yugoslav Army. According to Diana Johnstone this makes them "nearly
unique [because] throughout history, civilians have fled from war
zones.... No, as we have heard repeatedly from NATO spokesmen and
apologists, Kosovo Albanians run away from only one thing: brutal
ethnic cleansing carried out by Serbs."

The refugee crisis we are told by NATO is limited to Kosovo. Yet the
evidence (withheld by the Western media) confirms that people
throughout Serbia are fleeing major cities: Reliable estimates put the
number of refugees who have left Belgrade to escape the bombing at
400,000. Most are women and children, as with the Kosovo Albanians.
At least another 500,000 have left Serbia's other cities, notably Novi
Sad and Nish, where NATO bombing has caused air pollution, cut the
water supply, and struck purely civilian targets such as market squares.
Altogether, according to the Italian daily Il Manifesto, the NATO
bombing has produced at least a million refugees in Serbia. Predrag
Simic, foreign policy adviser to Serbian opposition leader Vuk
Draskovic, told a Paris conference [in late May] that Kosovo was being
so thoroughly devastated by NATO bombing that nobody, neither
Albanians nor Serbs, would be able to go back and live there."

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR WAR CRIMES?

Public "disapproval" of NATO bombings is immediately dismissed as
"Serb propaganda." Those who speak out against NATO are branded
as "apologists of Milosevic." While most anti-War critics in NATO
countries are not defenders of the Milosevic regime, they are
nonetheless expected to be "balanced" in their arguments. "Looking at
both sides of the picture is the rule": anti-war commentators are invited
to echo NATO's fabricated media consensus, to unequivocally "join the
bandwagon" against Milosevic. Under these circumstances, an objective
understanding and analysis of the role of the Milosovic government
since the civil War in Bosnia and in the context of the present crisis in
Kosovo has been rendered virtually impossible.

Media double standards? Whereas President Milosevic and four
members of his government were indicted by the Hague International
Criminal Tribunal (ICTY) (late May) for organising a policy of "ethnic
cleansing" in Kosovo, the news media failed to mention that several
parallel law suits were launched at The Hague Tribunal (ICTY),
accusing NATO leaders of "crimes against humanity." It is also worth
mentioning that the UK government (whose Prime Minister Tony Blair
is among the list of accused in one of the parallel law suits) has provided
The Hague Tribunal with "intelligence on the situation within Kosovo"
since the beginning of the bombings. Part of this intelligence material
was relayed by the KLA with which British Foreign Secretary Robin
Cook has been in frequent contact as well as through British Special
Forces (SAS) directly collaborating with the KLA.

SHAKY EVIDENCE OF A "HUMANITARIAN
CATASTROPHE" PRIOR TO THE BOMBINGS:

In the course of "covering-up" the real motivations of NATO in
launching the War, the international media have also failed to mention
that an official intelligence report of the German Foreign Ministry (used
to establish the eligibility of political refugees from Kosovo) confirmed
that there was no evidence of "ethnic cleansing" in Kosovo in the
months immediately preceding the bombings. Who is lying? German
Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer had justified NATO's intervention
pointing to a "humanitarian catastrophe," yet the internal documents of
his own ministry say exactly the opposite: "Even in Kosovo an explicit
political persecution linked to Albanian ethnicity is not verifiable. The
East of Kosovo is still not involved in armed conflict.

Public life in cities like Pristina, Urosevac, Gnjilan, etc. has, in the entire
conflict period, continued on a relatively normal basis. The actions of
the security forces [were] not directed against the Kosovo-Albanians as
an ethnically defined group, but against the military opponent [KLA]
and its actual or alleged supporters." The above assessments are
broadly consistent with several independent evaluations of the
humanitarian situation in Kosovo prior to the onslaught of the bombing
campaign. Roland Keith, a former field office director of the OSCE
Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM), who left Kosovo on March 20th
reported that most of the violence in Kosovo was instigated by the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

"Upon my arrival the war increasingly evolved into a mid intensity
conflict as ambushes, the encroachment of critical lines of
communication and the [KLA] kidnapping of security forces
resulted in a significant increase in government casualties which in
turn led to major Yugoslavian reprisal security operations... By
the beginning of March these terror and counter-terror
operations led to the inhabitants of numerous villages fleeing, or
being dispersed to either other villages, cities or the hills to seek
refuge... The situation was clearly that KLA provocations, as
personally witnessed in ambushes of security patrols which
inflicted fatal and other casualties, were clear violations of the
previous October's agreement [and United Nations Security
Council Resolution 1199]. The security forces responded and the
consequent security harassment and counter-operations led to an
intensified insurrectionary war, but as I have stated elsewhere, I
did not witness, nor did I have knowledge of any incidents of
so-called "ethnic cleansing" and there certainly were no
occurrences of "genocidal policies" while I was with the KVM in
Kosovo. What has transpired since the OSCE monitors were
evacuated on March 20, in order to deliver the penultimate
warning to force Yugoslavian compliance with the Rambouillet
and subsequent Paris documents and the commencement of the
NATO air bombardment of March 24, obviously has resulted in
human rights abuses and a very significant humanitarian disaster
as some 600,000 Albanian Kosovars have fled or been expelled
from the province. This did not occur, though, before March 20,
so I would attribute the humanitarian disaster directly or indirectly
to the NATO air bombardment and resulting anti-terrorist
campaign."

Published in Washington, D.C. 5am -- June 10, 1999 www.washtimes.com


EDITORIAL
Bill Clinton's finest
hour


President Clinton has been obsessed with achieving a
legacy that will not require that his obituary begin with the
fact that he was America's first elected president to be
impeached. Given that such impeachment derived from his
inability to keep his pants zipped -- and his propensity to lie
about it under oath -- his obsession is understandable.


Who,
under those conditions, wouldn't be obsessed?
In an attempt to polish Mr. Clinton's legacy, however, the
White House's efforts to spin the conduct of the war with
Yugoslavia have begun to border on the delusional. In a
front-page article Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that
"some presidential aides and friends" -- no doubt with some
encouragement from the Oval Office -- "are describing
Kosovo in Churchillian tones, as Clinton's 'finest hour.' "
Churchillian tones indeed. After engaging in bloody
hand-to-hand combat fighting for the British empire in
northwest India against Pushtun warriors in 1897, Churchill
memorably wrote, "Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be
shot at without result."


Militarily speaking, Mr. Clinton's most
exhilarating moment undoubtedly was in January 1996, when,
according to Monica Lewinsky, Mr. Clinton invited her to
perform oral sex while he was discussing U.S. troop
deployment in Bosnia during a phone conversation with Rep.
Sonny Callahan. Maybe that's what the "presidential friends"
have in mind when they talk about his "finest hour."


It gets even better. The Post quotes a friend who has
spoken with the president several times since the Kosovo crisis
began. The friend told Post White House reporter John Harris
that Mr. Clinton on several occasions has lamented that the
generation before him was able serve in a war with a plainly
noble purpose. The president, his friend said, feels "almost
cheated" that "when it was his turn he didn't have the chance to
be part of a moral cause." The Kosovo war, the friend said,
helped to soothe regrets harbored in Mr. Clinton's own
conscience.


Winston Churchill
once said, "Enter upon your inheritance, accept your
responsibilities." When it came time for Bill Clinton to accept
his responsibilities, his only concern was to avoid the draft and,
in his words, to still "maintain my political viability." After using
the good offices of an ROTC recruiter to avoid being drafted,
young Bill Clinton, after receiving a high number in the draft
lottery, wrote to the recruiter, telling him how he and his friends
"loath[ed] the military." On the very bomb-soaked ground
where Churchill's Britain experienced its "finest hour" during
Germany's air blitz, young Bill Clinton proudly admitted to the
recruiter that he had "written and spoken and marched against
the war," having gone "to England to organize the Americans
here for demonstrations." How "Churchillian."
"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat,"
Churchill told the House of Commons when he became prime
minister during the dark days in May 1940. Bill Clinton, as if it
weren't known already, has little to offer but a completely
overblown concern about his own legacy.

By Daniela on Thursday, June 10, 1999 - 07:12 am:
THE MEDIA WAR: "SILENCING THE SILENT
MAJORITY":

This war is also "a War against the Truth." With protest movements
developing around the World
*** YES INDEED LIKE STATE TV DOES NOT SHOW SERBIAN PEOPLE ANYTHING EITHER.EXCEPT THE ONCE WHO ARE FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE INTERNET ACCESS AND NO TOO WELL WHAT KIND OF PERSON MILOSEVIC IS> THEY ARE PROTESTING TOO ONLY NOONE HEARS THEM.YOU DON'T EITHER DANIELA> SAME GOES FOR KOSOVARS>JUST ORDANAIRY KOSOVARS MEANING BOTH SIDES.

Emina

6.06.1999. Aviano, Italy

BIG PROTEST HELD AGAINST AVIANO AIR BASE STOPPED
NATO FLIGHTS FOR 3 HOURS
Aviano, 6 June - Coming from whole Italy, around 20,000 protesters
rallied around all the perimeter of the NATO Air Base in Aviano,
guarded by thousands of policemen in addition to the reinforced
military surveillance.

Original "Il Corriere Della Sera" article URL

The protest, organized by around 200
organizations (including, just to name
some, political parties, trade unions,
ecologists, pacifists and "Women in
Black"), took place from 2:00pm to
5:00pm and was the biggest one out of
many organized almost on daily base so
far around the base since March 24.

No flights were authorized from the Base during the rally in order to
avoid violent reaction from the protesters. The suspension of the
flights was based on an express request by the Italian government to
NATO command in order to comply to the terms of an accord
arranged in Rome, on June 2 (just after the sensational pacifist blitz
in Rome on Republic's Day), between the Italian Interior Minister,
Rosa Russo Jervolino, and the protest organizers.

Therefore, there were almost no incidents, apart some minor
episodes, such as the launch of stones inside the base perimeter
and some minor damage inflicted to the base fence, all occurred
without police intervention. Most popular slogans and banners were
"Clinton, D'Alema… Murders! Murders!" [D'Alema is the Italian Prime
Minister], "Americans Go Home" and, by far, the most common,
"Stop The Bombs".

"If there were no incidents it is not because of the huge police
presence, but thanks to the fact that the Italian Government
respected the pacts, demanding and obtaining from NATO the
suspension of the attacks during the manifestation" said Luca
Casarini, spokesperson of the North-East Italian leftist movement of
"Autonomi". In previous pacifist blitz, Casarini, with local civilian
officials and a priest, invaded the NATO Air Base of Istrana (also in
North East Italy) and successfully unfolded a huge pacifist banner on
the runway, after illegally invading the base by cutting the fence
which surrounds it and before the military surveillance was able to
remove the protesters.
*********************************
Despite the objective importance
and the success of the Aviano
protest, and while the European
parliaments vote approaches,
quite predictably, the government
controlled Italian State TV
devoted to the manifestation a
"report" of less than 10 seconds in the most followed evening news.
********************************************
*****************************
HUGS, Pietro

FAIR Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting 130 W. 25th Street New York, NY 10001 ACTION ALERT:
Media Ignores Major Anti-War March

June 7, 1999

On June 5, 1999, thousands of anti-war activists protested the bombing of Yugoslavia by rallying in Washington, D.C. and marching from
the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial to the Pentagon. A June 7 Nexis search of the major American news outlets (including newspapers such
as the New York Times and the Washington Post, along with ABC, NBC, CBS and PBS's NewsHour) revealed that none of them so
much as mentioned the protest (CNN aired brief mentions of the protest, none of which appear in the transcripts of their broadcasts).

The protesters represented a wide swath of the political spectrum, but they all condemned NATO's aggression and called for an immediate
end to the bombing. Many raised concerns that NATO may be preparing for a long-term occupation of the Balkans. Sounds like not
everyone bought the mainstream media's declarations of a NATO victory.

ACTION:

Please contact national media outlets and ask why they did not cover the June 5 march on the Pentagon, and why they have sidelined
anti-war activists since the start of the bombing.

New York Times
229 W. 43rd St., New York, NY 10036
Phone: 212-556-1234
Fax: 212-556-3690
letters@nytimes.com

Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW, Washington, DC 20071
Phone: 202-334-6000
Fax: 202-334-7502
ombudsman@washpost.com

ABC
47 W. 66 St., New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212-456-7777
Fax: 212-456-4297 @abc.com">netaudr@abc.com

NBC
30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112
Phone: 212-664-4444
Fax: 212-664-5705 nightly@nbc.com

CBS
524 W. 57 St., New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-975-4321
Fax: 212-975-1893

The NewsHour
3620 South 27th St., Arlington, VA 22206
Phone: 703-998-2150 newshour@pbs.org

FAIR Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting 130 W. 25th Street New York, NY 10001

Media Advisory:
WHAT REPORTERS KNEW ABOUT KOSOVO TALKS -- BUT DIDN'T TELL
Was Rambouillet Another Tonkin Gulf?

June 2, 1999

New evidence has emerged confirming that the U.S. deliberately set out to thwart the Rambouillet peace talks in France in order to provide
a "trigger" for NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia.

Furthermore, correspondents from major American news organizations reportedly knew about this plan to stymie the Kosovo peace talks,
but did not inform their readers or viewers.

FAIR's May 14 media advisory, "Forgotten Coverage of Rambouillet Negotiations," asked whether the media had given the full story on
Rambouillet. News reports almost universally blamed the failure of negotiations on Serbian intransigence. The headline over a New York
Times dispatch from Belgrade on March 24--the first day of the bombing--read "U.S. Negotiators Depart, Frustrated By Milosevic's
Hard Line."

But the evidence presented in "Forgotten Coverage" suggested that it was U.S. negotiators, not the Serbs, who blocked an agreement.

Now, in the June 14 issue of the Nation, George Kenney, a former State Department Yugoslavia desk officer, reports:

An unimpeachable press source who regularly travels with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told this [writer] that,
swearing reporters to deep-background confidentiality at the Rambouillet talks, a senior State Department official had
bragged that the United States "deliberately set the bar higher than the Serbs could accept." The Serbs needed,
according to the official, a little bombing to see reason.

In other words, the plan for Kosovo autonomy drafted by State Department officials was intentionally crafted to provoke a rejection from
Serb negotiators. In his Nation article, Kenney compares this plan to the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Providing further confirmation of Kenney's account, Jim Jatras, a foreign policy aide to Senate Republicans, reported in a May 18 speech at
the Cato Institute in Washington that he had it "on good authority" that a "senior Administration official told media at Rambouillet, under
embargo" the following:

"We intentionally set the bar too high for the Serbs to comply. They need some bombing, and that's what they are going
to get."

In interviews with FAIR, both Kenney and Jatras asserted that these are actual quotes transcribed by reporters who spoke with a U.S.
official. They declined to give the names or affiliations of the reporters.

The revelation that American reporters knew about a U.S. strategy to create a pretext for NATO's war on Yugoslavia--but did not report
on it--raises serious questions about the independence of mainstream news organizations.

More reporting is needed on the origins of this war, as well as the opportunities for peace that may have been overlooked.

This release will be updated as new information becomes available.


This media advisory was written by FAIR media analyst Seth Ackerman.

BBC boss was secret member of Labour party

by Nicholas Hellen
Media Correspondent

SIR John Birt, director-general of the BBC, failed to declare to
governors of the corporation that he was a paid-up member of the
Labour party at the time of his appointment.

The disclosure of Birt's political links coincides with controversy over
Greg Dyke, another Labour supporter and a candidate to replace Birt
when he leaves in April next year. Final interviews are to be held early
next week and a verdict on the successful candidate is expected shortly.

Dyke, the millionaire chairman of Pearson Television, has given
approximately £50,000 to Labour over five years, including
£10,000-£12,000 to Tony Blair's leadership campaign. Last week
William Hague, the Conservative leader, said it was "unacceptable" for
anyone who had funded a political party to become director-general.

Senior broadcasters have expressed dismay at the apparent breakdown
in the BBC's vetting procedures. Sir Paul Fox, the former managing
director of BBC Television, said: "I find it surprising that this was not
discovered by the governors or declared by Sir John Birt at the time of
his appointment." Lord Bragg, a Labour peer, added: "He should have
declared it."

Birt was a paying member of the Labour party until March 4, 1992, eight
months after he was designated director-general by the BBC board of
governors. He served as deputy director-general, with responsibility for
news and current affairs, from 1987 until January 1993, when he took
over the top job.

Governors who appointed Birt said this weekend that they had not been
informed of his support for Labour. Baroness James, the novelist P D
James, said: "I was not aware that he was a member of the Labour
party."

The BBC came under fierce attack from the Conservatives for its alleged
pro-Labour bias during Birt's term as deputy director-general. Lord
Tebbit, who as Conservative chairman led the attack, said this weekend
that the disclosure justified his criticism. "It confirms my long-held view
that the staff of the BBC are left-wing in view.

"If John Birt was a member of the Labour party at the time he was
appointed, he should have informed all the governors of that fact and,
indeed, they should have made it public had they been so informed."

Birt was unavailable for comment, but the BBC released a statement
which said: "John Birt gave up his membership at least a year before
becoming director-general and there is no suggestion that, prior to that,
he played any active role in the party."

A Labour spokesman said: "John Birt has not been a member of the party
since he became director-general of the BBC and he has never since then
contributed to party funds."