LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
April 22/08

Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 14,21-26. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him."
Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, "Master, (then) what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?"
Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name--he will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you.

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
Pope Benedict offers an impressive example of courage and humility-The Daily Star 21/04/08
Christian Politics in Lebanon. By: Ghassan Rubeiz.Global Politician 21/04/08
Butchering of Serbs condoned by the West-By Vojin Joksimovich 21/04/08

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for April 21/08
Officials in Zahle meet to put pressure on Skaff's bloc-Daily Star  
Abdo joins chorus of US officials condemning Hizbullah-Daily Star
MPs shift focus from presidency to upcoming parliamentary vote-AFP
Geagea describes battle between two projects-Daily Star
French, Syrian FMs to discuss Lebanon crisis-Daily Star
Berri sets stage for dialogue in Parliament building-AFP
Breaking the cycle of Lebanon's tortured past and present-Daily Star  
Beirut Stock Exchange mirrors political roller coaster-Daily Star
NGO helps children of Ain al-Hilweh enjoy their 'Right to Play-Daily Star
Hotel occupancy in Beirut nosedives in 2007, remains lowest in region-Daily Star
Rice visits Baghdad, insists Iraqis more united-Daily Star
Arab American groups to honor Lebanese member of US Congress-Daily Star
Palestinian refugees protest to demand end to siege of Gaza Strip-AFP
Campaign aims to teach children to value diversity-Daily Star  
Archbishop says politicians failing to defend citizens-Daily Star
Carter holds talks with Jordan's king on Mideast peace process-Daily Star
Three Filipinos face blasphemy probe in UAE-AFP
HRW urges end to male 'guardianship' over Saudi women-AFP
Christians brawl at revered church in Occupied Jerusalem-AFP
Outgoing Iranian minister raps Ahmadinejad policies-AFP
Two Phalangists Killed, 2 Wounded in Shooting Attack-Naharnet
Pope Benedict blesses ground zero, prays for 9/11 victims-AP
Mixed messages are emanating from Israel-Syria front-International Herald Tribune
Hezbollah describes new US accusations 'as baseless'-Earthtimes
18th Attempt to Elect a President is Likely to Fail Again-Naharnet
Gemayel Condemns Berri's Dialogue Move-Naharnet
Abul Gheit Rules Out Speedy End to Lebanon Crisis-Naharnet
Rice Seeks Counterweight to Iran in Pushing Arab Support for Iraq-Naharnet
Berri Sets Stage for Dialogue-Naharnet
Reports: Spain's Pregnant Defense Minister to Visit Spanish Troops in South LebanonNaharnet
Dozens Protest Olmert's Failure to Bring Captured Soldiers Home-Naharnet
Suleiman For the Rule of Law and Justice-Naharnet
Salloukh Wants Palestinians Back to Israel-Naharnet
Johnny Abdo: Hizbullah Controlling Public Institutions-Naharnet
Qaida in Iraq to Offer 'Head of American' as Gift to Bush-Naharnet

Abul Gheit Rules Out Speedy End to Lebanon Crisis
Naharnet/Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit ruled out a quick end to the Lebanese crisis, describing the situation as "extremely difficult.
"The crisis in Lebanon will extend," Abul Gheit said in an interview with the pan-Arab daily al Hayat on Sunday. He said, however, that dialogue among the feuding Lebanese political parties could defuse tension. "I'm not saying that we support the idea of dialogue, but we should give it a chance since it could calm tensions once all parties sit together," he said. "It's clear that no agreement has yet been achieved on how to get to choose (a President) regardless of the deal planned by the Lebanese opposition," Abul Gheit added. "On the other hand, if we wait until a President is elected without dialogue among the parties, this also has its faults.
"This is an idea that has to be well examined and assessed until we are certain that it is going to be fruitful and achieve the goal – which is to prevent any confrontation and escalation in stances," Abul Gheit explained. On the ruling March 14 alliance's rejection of dialogue before electing a President, he said: "There is no need for dialogue if a President is elected because he will work on getting the parties together." "But if the idea of electing a President cannot be met at the moment, we have to look into the proposal for dialogue since it could open the way for defusing some tension." He denied any mediation efforts between Syria and Saudi Arabia, but said contacts between Riyadh and Cairo continue "in evaluating the regional situation starting from the Gulf all the way to Gaza and Lebanon."
Beirut, 20 Apr 08, 07:52

Berri Sets Stage for Dialogue
Naharnet/Speaker Nabih Berri on Saturday moved a table with 14 seats around it into the parliament building to try to bring rival political leaders to start talking and end a prolonged deadlock, his spokesman said. "This step is a reaffirmation that Berri is more steadfast today than at any time before. . . that there is no alternative to dialogue as a way out of this political impasse," Ali Hamdan, the speaker's adviser told Agence France Presse. Lebanon has been in a political deadlock which has left the country without a president for more than four months. Although the wooden round table has been set up on the second floor of the parliament building, Hamdan said that none of the feuding political leaders has been invited yet as he is awaiting "receptiveness" from the ruling coalition to his proposal.
Lebanon's parliament has been paralyzed for over 16 months and sessions planned to elect a president have been postponed 17 times. The next session is scheduled for Tuesday, but is unlikely to take place.(AFP) Beirut, 19 Apr 08, 16:13

Reports: Spain's Pregnant Defense Minister to Visit Spanish Troops in South Lebanon
Naharnet/Spain's first female defense minister Carme Chacon is due to visit Spanish peacekeeping troops in Lebanon in the next few days, news reports said, citing unnamed government officials. Chacon, 37, who is seven months pregnant, arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday to visit peacekeepers, a ministry spokesman said.
She was accompanied by a medical team including a gynecologist, the spokesman added. Chacon is the most visible symbol of gender equality in a government that has brought in sweeping social legislation designed to rid traditionally male-dominated Spain of discrimination.(AP-Naharnet) Beirut, 20 Apr 08, 04:04

Salloukh Wants Palestinians Back to Israel
Naharnet/Resigned Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh on Saturday criticized a U.S. call for the return of Palestinian refugees to a Palestinian state, rather than to Israel. Salloukh, in a statement distributed by the state-run National News Agency (NNA), said Palestinian refugees should return to the areas that they deserted in 1948, when the state of Israel was created. Salloukh said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch "wants the Palestinians to return to a promised state in areas occupied in 1967."Such a pledge by Welch "torpedoes the legal-political-humanitarian right of Palestinian refugees to return to their basic lands … the majority of Palestinian refugees belong to 1948 areas," Salloukh said. Beirut, 19 Apr 08, 11:58

Gemayel Condemns Berri's Dialogue Move
Naharnet/Former President Amin Gemayel condemned Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri's move to resume all-party dialogue before electing a new President for Lebanon. He told Future News channel that he is against linking presidential elections with the formation of a new government and an electoral law.
"In what logic can we suspend presidential elections until political conditions are met?" Gemayel questioned.
He was responding to Berri who on Saturday moved a table with 14 seats around it into the parliament building to try to bring rival political leaders to start talking and end a prolonged deadlock. Gemayel saw that MP Michel Murr's withdrawal from Gen. Michel Aoun's Change and Reform parliamentary bloc was only "natural and positive." Prime Minister Fouad Saniora's circles, however, declined to respond to Berri's move, while sources in the majority March 14 alliance said that such a proposal was "a retreat tactic" after Berri failed to gain support from Hizbullah and Aoun to go ahead with presidential elections in exchange for approval of the 1960 election law and to abandon a demand for the shape up of the future cabinet. Beirut, 20 Apr 08, 09:09

Suleiman For the Rule of Law and Justice
Naharnet/Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman said Saturday the Lebanese people want the constitutional institutions to resume their "effective national role."
Such a return to constitutional authorities opens the door to achieving economic growth and development, he added.
Such a trend, Suleiman added, "leads to building the state of law, justice and equality." The general, addressing a conference on military medicine, said accomplishments by the military are "a ray of hope in darkness."The army, he said, is "determined on proceeding with its national missions … and would allow no one to target the nation's unity and its civic peace." Beirut, 19 Apr 08, 12:25

Dozens Protest Olmert's Failure to Bring Captured Soldiers Home
Naharnet/Israelis began celebrating Passover at sundown Saturday with a ritual meal, or Seder, including dozens who set up their table outside the prime minister's residence protesting his failure to bring home three missing soldiers. Passover, a widely celebrated Jewish festival, commemorates the ancient Israelites' liberation from Egyptian slavery, when they fled so quickly they didn't have time to let their bread rise. During Passover, the eating of leaven bread is forbidden and the story of the exodus is retold during the Seder. This year, Passover arrived at the end of the Jewish Sabbath, complicating preparations. Work is forbidden during the Sabbath, meaning most arrangements had to be completed a day before. One Seder was held outside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's official residence. About 50 friends of three Israeli soldiers missing in Gaza and Lebanon set up a long table for their communal meal, part of a protest against the government's failure to bring the soldiers home. Two of the soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, were captured by Hizbullah in July 2006 in a deadly cross-border raid that sparked Israel's military offensive on Lebanon. The third, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, was captured by Hamas-allied militants also in the summer of 2006 and is being held in Gaza.
Miki Leibowicz, 32, one of the Seder guests, said Olmert must do more to bring the three home. "Passover is a symbol of freedom, and our friends suffer from a lack of freedom," said Leibowicz.(AP-Naharnet) Beirut, 20 Apr 08, 03:58

Butchering of Serbs condoned by the West
By Vojin Joksimovich
April 17, 2008
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/joksimovich/014.shtml
The Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), since its inception in 1993 has been assailed by many as a NATO political instrument to justify dismemberment of Yugoslavia and NATO aggressions. It has been essentially a rogue court with rigged rules and scandalous protocol to achieve political objective to convict. Some judges did not hear about the Balkans until they arrived in The Hague. John Laughland wrote: “It is not victor’s justice; it is no justice at all.” The Tribunal’s verdict for the Serbs was predetermined –all would be found guilty. Over its 15 years of existence, the Tribunal has indicted publicly 161 persons, 92 Serbs. Fifty have been sentenced thus far to over 700 years. Serbia has handed over 42 out of 46 indicted individuals. Six Serbs died in the Hague jail, including President Milosevic, without being convicted. Not only was Milosevic indicted but also his top civilian and military leaders. The same is true for the Bosnian Serb civilian and military leaders.
How ironic that Carla del Ponte, for nine years until this January the chief prosecutor of the ICTY who never concealed her dislike of Serbia and Russia for that matter, in her autobiography The Hunt: Me and War Criminals presumably easing her conscience, based on credible reports and witnesses belatedly revealed existence of Nazi style crimes committed by the current Kosovo Prime Minister (PM) Hashim Thaci and his followers. The Third Reich style crimes included harvesting of organs from abducted Serbs to sell for transplants. Moreover, del Ponte’s book provides insights into the ICTY operations which prove beyond doubt that John Laughland and others have been right on the mark. This is in particular true when it comes to ghastly crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) thugs, who instead of serving long-term sentences in various European jails have become not only leading politicians but the PMs: Hashim Thaci, Ramush Haradinaj and Agim Ceku. Of course these Nazi style crimes have been condoned by KLA supporters in Washington, London, Berlin, Paris, The Hague, Brussels, Bern and some other European capitals. Needless to say, the Albanians and their supporters dismiss these claims, while Russia and Serbia are demanding a war crimes investigation. Russia has officially addressed the ICTY asking whether the ICTY has any information about the crimes reported in the book. Despite knowing that the KLA ruled Kosovo is a lawless society, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged Kosovo authorities to investigate the claims!
UDI Timing
Washington had a big hand in manipulating operations of the ICTY. Hence, it is fair to assume that it must have known about the publication date of Del Ponte’s book. Orchestration of unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) from Serbia had to be squeezed before revelation of atrocities and the presidential elections in Serbia since Washington and Brussels wanted badly president Tadic to be reelected. If these crimes had been revealed before February 17, would Washington/Brussels have proceeded with the KLA/NATO ruled Kosovo independence? After all Washington/Brussels played a major part in the propaganda, which described Kosovo Albanians as martyrs and even legitimized independence on that basis. Washington needed time to coerce two thirds of the EU membership and a handful of other countries to recognize the KLA/NATO ruled Kosovo (abbreviated to KLA/NATO Kosovo). At this writing only 37 countries (out of 192 UN members) have recognized KLA/NATO Kosovo. The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated: “The plan was to persuade or force about 100 countries to recognize Kosovo’s independence, and just 37 recognized it, while more than 50 said without any doubt that they would not recognize it. This is not the picture which those who encouraged Kosovo to declare independence wanted to see.” Second, it would have been embarrassing if acquittal of another war criminal, former PM Ramush Haradinaj, would have taken place before the UDI. Yet another KLA PM and Thaci’s predecessor, Agim Ceku, escaped indictment despite well documented war crimes by the Canadian peacekeepers.
Responsibility for the Eight-Plus Year Cover-up
These ghastly atrocities have been covered up for over eight years. Who were the cover-up masters? The UNMIK chief then and current French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner would be a good candidate. According to Danica Marinkovic, the investigating judge of Pristina District Court, Kouchner prevented the investigation. She tried to give evidence to the ICTY during the trial of Slobodan Milosevic. Del Ponte’s spokeswoman, Florence Artman, in one of her interviews stated that UNMIK men didn’t let “iron Carla” to initiate a case against the Albanians regarding the disappearance of people and the trade of donor organs. Carla; dubbed “New Gestapo” “La Puttana” by Italian Cosa Nostra, and “Unguided Missile” by the Swiss bankers, admitted there was sufficient evidence for prosecution, but it “was nipped in the bud” focusing on the Serbs.
A room in a “yellow house” outside small town of Burrel (55 miles north of Tirana) in the remote mountainous region was used as the impromptu clinic for butchering some 300 young Serbs. Organs from young Serbs were extracted there and taken to Tirana Mother Theresa airport according to a witness driver. Other sources claim that the body parts were flown to Istanbul where they were transplanted into wealthy Arab patients. A team of unnamed journalists reported these Mengele type atrocities to the ICTY and UNMIK. The victims left with one kidney were kept locked and later killed for other organs when a buyer was found. They were then secretly buried. Two of the sources said they helped to bury the corpses of the dead around the “yellow house” and in a neighboring cemetery 12 miles away.
Del Ponte says that in 2003 her team of ICTY investigators plus UNMIK officials found the “yellow house” with traces of blood. An Albanian prosecutor who accompanied the team said: “There are no graves of Serbs here. But if they took the Serbs from the Kosovo border and killed them, they did the right thing.” “The team was shocked by what they saw, said Chuck Sudetic, a former ICTY official and the book co-author. They found gauze and vials of medicines, including a muscle relaxer used during surgery. The victims also included Albanians and trafficked women from Eastern Europe forced to work as prostitutes.
Del Ponte goes on to say that UN personnel feared for their lives in Kosovo while some of the judges presiding over the ICTY were in fear from Kosovo Albanians that have committed atrocities against the Serbs and that is why very few cases of Kosovo Albanian war criminals have been prosecuted. “I am sure that some of the top UNMIK and even KFOR officials feared for their lives and the lives of their mission members. I think that some of the judges of the Tribunal were afraid that the Albanians might come and get them.” She then characterized the KLA/NATO rule as a land of with no laws and institutions, a land of blood feuds, ruled by the thugs who present themselves as heroes of “the suffering Albanian people.” She goes on to say that those few and far between investigations of the terrorist KLA were the hardest during her era. The researchers were confronted by the clans, vendettas and political pressures, and that “policemen from Bern and Brussels and all the way to Bronx” are well aware about the insurmountable difficulties when it comes to the attempts to investigate Albanian organized crime.
Del Ponte details her meeting with Hashim Thaci, who admitted that Kosovo Albanians committed atrocities. “I looked into his eyes and told him that I have launched the investigation over crimes that the Albanians had committed in Kosovo. I have not said a word implying indictment against him, but Thaci certainly concluded that I had done so since his face turned into stone.” Incidentally, Thaci has admitted in another confession that infamous Racak “massacre,” used by the Clinton administration as casus belli to bomb Serbia for 78 days, was orchestrated by the KLA dressing their KLA dead in civilian clothes, machine gunning them and dumping them in a ditch and claiming it was a Serbian slaughter of civilians. Furthermore, Del Ponte points out that Hashim Thaci and Agim Ceku are considered by UNMIK and KFOR as “more than dangerous in the peaceful efforts in the Baalkans...Thaci and Ceku, in theory can stir up the minority Albanian rebels, to start violence in Macedonia, South Serbia and other regions.”
Was Kouchner guilty of obstruction of justice in addition to his several successors? Is it possible that the former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari didn’t know anything about it before recommending supervised independence? Is it possible that nobody in the Clinton or even Bush-43 administration knew about it? A question also needs to be asked if someone in the Serbian government took part in the cover-up?
Switzerland Embarrassed: Neutrality at Risk?
Del Ponte, now Swiss ambassador to Argentina has been ordered to shut up by the Swiss government. Senior Swiss officials are calling for her resignation. What about the freedom of expression? Switzerland had officially recognized the independence of KLA/NATO Kosovo and was one of the first to open the embassy in Pristina. In order to mitigate the embarrassment, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs has even banned the presentation of Del Ponte’s book in Milan. “Any public presentation of this work is incompatible with the author’s status of Swiss ambassador.” It should also be noted that Hashim Thaci spent time in Switzerland in mid 1990s acquiring funds for the KLA. The Swiss government deserves to be embarrassed for tarnishing their celebrated multi-century neutrality in order to recognize the KLA/NATO Kosovo. Presumably the government wanted to please the bankers who have been only too willing to launder the Albanian drug money.
Belgrade Media
According to Belgrade media, Thaci made millions (some suggested 4 million euros) selling kidneys, hearts and livers of young abducted Serbs. In summer of 1999, some 300 Serbs were abducted in Kosovo and transported to several camps in Northern and Central Albania. They were given medical tests. Those who passed were treated well until they were brought under the surgeon’s knife. Their body parts were flown to European clinics while they were left to die. The ICTY protected witness K-144 took part in these atrocities who said that at least 300 kidneys and 100 other organs were sold. The kidneys were sold at the price between 10,000 and 50,000 German marks.
General Stajanovic, head of the intelligence service of the Serbian army during the war has no doubt that Del Ponte’s claims will sooner or later be proven. He stated: “In these hospitals they decided amongst themselves what each commander of the KLA would have. They decided who would make this money from drug dealing, who from weapons, and who from selling body parts. Thaci, the prime minister, was among them.” Sima Spasic, head of the Alliance of Families of 1,300 Serbs Disappeared in Kosovo showed the pictures of body parts he filmed in 2003. “Right after the war, when we understood that too many people have disappeared, I went to the KFOR commanders and asked them where the people were, and they just shrugged shoulders. Only after they saw Serbian people demonstrating and were afraid of their anger, they took me to some place. I cannot explain what I saw there. It was a small mountain of pieces of bodies and the first thing I saw was a baby who’d been taken from his mother’s stomach, lying there. It was impossible to look. It was a massive grave they’d dug before. Today I know in this massive grave there were 26 Serb bodies—also there was my brother Milosh.” Families of the victims now plan to sue Del Ponte for withholding the evidence and concealing the crimes. Spasic met with Del Ponte in 2001. In 2004, he received a call from Carla’s office with information that “all people you are looking for are dead.” Del Ponte hid the truth although she received the list of names of those kidnapped and those who kidnapped them in 2001. Serbia’s War Crimes Prosecution Office has formally opened the investigation.
Hashim Thaci Biosketch
Hashim Thaci, alias “Snake,” founder and president of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK), was in July 1997 sentenced in absentia to 10 years imprisonment for the criminal acts of terrorism, and in February 1998 an international arrest warrant was issued. He was apprehended at the Budapest airport on an Interpol warrant but released soon afterward when then UNMIK chief Michael Steiner intervened. Steiner’s accomplishments included implementation of discriminatory measures against the Serbs, using double standards, making promises he never kept, and marrying a young local Albanian staff member that he dated for much of the time he was in power. The New York Times columnist Chris Hedges researched Thaci’s bloody consolidation of power through the assassination of rivals and linked him to the murder of moderate Albanian politicians who failed to support the KLA’s goal of ethnically pure Kosovo. This reputation did not disqualify him from receiving weapons and support from the CIA or from public embrace from senior members of the Clinton administration such as Madeleine Albright and Richard Holbrooke (Photo from my book).
In post-war Kosovo, Thaci organized a number of terrorist groups composed of former KLA members who were responsible for numerous crimes, murders, kidnappings and threats. He also has been in contact with Albanian terrorists in Macedonia and Southern Serbia. He controls the greater part of organized crime in the Drenica region. His clan is involved in the weaponsmarket, the cigarette market, oil smuggling and human trafficking as well as stolen cars. Thaci led the KLA delegation at Rambouillet and was the principal State Department contact during the war. He is a regular visitor to Washington. In November 2007 his party won the election and he was appointed the PM.
Acquittal of Haradinaj
The ICTY found Ramush Haradinaj “not guilty” of all counts on April 3. Haradinaj was the most senior KLA official and a former PM, accused of mounting a “widespread’ and systematic campaign” to abuse, kill and expel Serbs ant other minorities in 1998. Presiding judge said there was evidence that KLA guerrillas committed many of the crimes listed in the indictment but that the acts were “not on a scale or frequency” to establish a wider campaign against the civilian population. The 37-count indictment also accused Haradinaj and his “Black Eagles” KLA unit of killing and intimidating Albanians who refused to cooperate. Nine witnesses linked to the Haradinaj case have been killed in the 2003-2007 period while the prosecution’s main witness was shot during the investigation. 20% of the subpoenaed witnesses refused to testify out of fear. Haradinaj’s lawyers were so confident that they did not present a defense. The decision was met with joy and cheers in Pristina but with fury in Serbia. Haradinaj said “This is a decision to strengthen Kosovo.”
The Serbian PM, Vojislav Kosunica, described the acquittal as a testimony that the court “does not exist to mete justice....It is clear that that in question is a court which has been set up to officially declare innocent those who committed war crimes, like Haradinaj... The decision of the Hague Tribunal represents a mockery of justice and a mockery of the innocent victims who suffered at the hands of Haradinaj.” Serbian president Tadic said: “Such a verdict would not see justice done and it would not encourage Serbs and other non-Albanians to expect a safe and peaceful life in Kosovo. He reminded that Del Ponte told him that prosecution witnesses were intimidated and even murdered, in order to keep silent about Haradinaj’s crimes. The Serbian deputy PM Bozidar Djelic called the verdict “scandalous,” saying it was a “black day for international justice.” Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic, suggested that it is high time that the ICTY closed down. The Kosovo Serb political representatives felt that the “the verdict sends to Kosovo Serbs a message from the international community that there is no justice...”Criminals are rewarded with a state to which they are returning to heroes, while on the other hand the truth about missing and abducted Kosovo Serbs remains hidden, as does the trade of their organs.” Serbian National Council for Cooperation with the ICTY claimed that it provided “several thousand confidential documents” to back the Haradinaj indictment and urged the ICTY prosecutors to appeal the verdict.
Del Ponte in her book claims that Haradinaj was involved in sale of the organs but he was not charged with this Mendele type of crime. Del Ponte accused UNMIK officials of deliberately obstructing the investigation. Haradinaj, while indicted on 37 charges, was released three months later and was allowed to remain in Kosovo until the trial started two years later. He reported to The Hague with a letter of recommendation from the top UNMIK official Soren Jessen-Petersen, who expressed his deepest friendship for Haradinaj. This in contrast to the case of the Serbian president Milosevic who was not allowed to receive even a medical treatment in Moscow for his ailing heart despite guarantees from the Russian government. His basic human rights have been violated.
Ramish Haradinaj Biosketch
Ramush Haradinaj, founder and president of the Alliance for the future of Kosovo (AAK), is probably the most influential criminal in Metohija. He left Yugoslavia for Switzerland in 1990 and worked there as a security guard in night clubs and at soccer matches. He returned to Pristina in 1991 to participate in demonstrations. He got arrested but escaped and returned to Switzerland. He then applied for the Foreign Legion in France. In 1996 he completed diversionary terrorist training in Albania and then established logistics bases in Kukes and Tropoja in Northern Albania for transporting weapons into Kosovo. He crossed into Kosovo in 1997 and, together with his brothers, organized a series of terrorist attacks against several police departments. He formed a terrorist group in 1998 and established the KLA general staff for Metohija. He formed a special KLA unit, “Black Eagles,” which kidnapped and brutally murdered dozens of Serb civilians as well as disloyal Albanians.
In the Glodjane prison, under his direct control, a large number of Serbs were murdered. The Serbian authorities brought 108 criminal charges against him, claiming that he personally murdered 67 civilians, kidnapped 400 civilians, and ordered the killing of 267 more. According to a document from the Serbian War Crimes Committee, supported by photographs and testimonies of witnesses, on June 12, 1999, Haradinaj ordered the torture, rape and execution of an 11-member Roma wedding party. He personally murdered several of the civilians and raped the bride.
Haradinaj became deputy KPC commander under Agim Ceku but left the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) after placing his brother Daut as commander of the KPC, which carried out assassinations of political rivals. He created a criminal organization which controls organized smuggling of drugs, cigarettes, oil, oil derivatives, weapons, vehicles and other goods. He controls the area bordering Albania. Part of the profits was ploughed back into financing Albanian terrorists in Macedonia and Southern Serbia. Criminal charges were filed against him for a series of murders in an inter-mafia conflict and the organized assassination of Tahir Zemaj, who was supposed to be a major witness against him and his brother.
In early December 2004 Haradinaj became the Prime Minister of Kosovo. His party ranked third in the elections but formed a coalition with Rugova’s Democratic Alliance of Kosovo. This had caused a controversy in Belgrade and resulted in a request to the UN administrator Soren Jessen Petersen to annul the appointment. Petersen refused, using the argument that Haradinaj was democratically elected. Haradinaj was interviewed twice by the ICTY for the war crimes and subsequently indicted. He resigned the premiership, turned himself in, and pleaded not guilty before the Tribunal. In his book “Stories of War and Freedom,” he says: “Each and every day we killed Serb policemen.” Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright praised Haradinaj and said that he could serve as a model for the legal system in Serbia.
Agim Ceku Biosketch
Agim Ceku, a former Yugoslav Army officer, first the KLA chief of staff then the commander-in-chief of the KPC, subsequently advanced to become the PM. He has been linked to three of the grisliest episodes of brutality in the Serb-Croat 1991-1995 civil war. During the armed conflicts in Croatia, as a colonel in the Assembly of National Guard, he commanded a unit which in 1991 carried out kidnappings, assassinations and massacres of 156 of the most renowned Serbs from Gospic. In 1993 he masterminded the attack by the Croatian army on the Medak pocket where 81-200 Serbs were massacred, some of them burned alive. Scott Taylor wrote: “Many Canadian peacekeepers had witnessed the atrocities committed by Ceku’s troops in Croatia in 1993 and 1994, and it was largely on the strength of their testimony that the Hague tribunal issued a sealed indictment.” This was Canada’s largest military action since the Korean War. Taylor says that traumatized Canadian peacekeepers “buried the grisly remains and were encouraged to collect all possible evidence in order to bring the perpetrators to justice” yet Canada’s Louise Arbour, then the chief ICTY prosecutor, “chose to pursue more politically prominent suspects, and nothing was done to bring Ceku to justice.”
Jane’s Intelligence Review described Ceku as a planner of massacres against Serb civilians living in UN-protected zones in 1993 and 1995. Ceku was a key planner in the Croatian offensive Oluja (Storm) in August of 1995, tacitly approved by the Clinton Administration, which resulted in the killings of anywhere up to 2,500 Serbs and the ethnic cleansing of some 200,000, nearly the entire ethnic Serbian population in the region. He worked closely with the U.S. government hired Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI), who advised the Croatian government in Operation Storm. When the ICTY announced that Ceku was under investigation, there was strong U.S. pressure to suppress the indictment. A Western diplomat told the London Sunday Times: “If we lose him it will be a disaster. When you get to the second level of the KPC, you are down to a bunch of thugs.”
After appointment as the supreme KLA commander in January 1999, he took part in the planning and execution of many terrorist acts. At the conclusion of the war, his troops were supposed to be disarmed. Under his control as the KPC chief, KPC members channeled support for terrorist activities in Southern Serbia and Macedonia. Taylor wrote: “As this indicted war criminal continues to enjoy his freedom, bask in public acclaim, and collect a UN paycheck, Canadian soldiers are risking their lives to disarm UCK forces in Macedonia. All in the name of peace and justice” Through his brother Ethem, Ceku controls criminal activities connected with trafficking in arms and drugs and with illicit trade in excise goods. He owns Pristina hotels and more than 60 clubs around Kosovo that are considered nests of illegal business. He was arrested at the Ljubljana airport on an Interpol warrant but released rapidly after then the UNMIK Chief Holkeri intervened.
KLA Decapitated Abducted Serbs
The American public was shocked and outraged at the despicable and barbaric beheadings of Americans Nicholas Berg and Paul Johnson by jihadists in Iraq and Saudi Arabia respectively. Most Americans were completely unaware that such barbaric practices are not uncommon in the Islamic world. In Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, there is “Chop-Chop” Square where public beheadings in the presence of a large number of spectators take place. Political dissidents are subjected to these barbaric punishments. But Western media have concealed from the public the pictures of the Serbs beheaded by jihadists in Bosnia and Kosovo.
On November 2, 2003, the Belgrade daily newspaper Vecernje Novosti published a text with photos showing KLA criminals with bloody trophies of decapitated heads of Serbs. A large photograph shows three members of the KLA in uniform. The oldest man is holding a severed human head in his right hand and carrying a larger head in his left arm. Serbian Prime Minister then Zoran Zivkovic called on the international community to react to the photos: “We kept being told by the Hague (ICTY) that there’s no evidence of war crimes committed in Kosovo by the Albanian side.”
The UN police found the photos after the search of an Albanian house in the village of Prilep. The trophy photos resemble the style similar to mujahideen trophy photos from Bosnia, Chechnya and elsewhere. The photos were taken during the NATO 78 day campaign against Serbia, April or May 1999. The KLA gunmen in the photos, who subsequently occupied positions in the KPC, were Sadik Chuflaj, KLA member from Decani, and his son Valon, who had an UNMIK identity card and then became a KPC member with the rank of lieutenant. The units in that part of Kosovo were commanded by Ramush Haradinaj, leader of the AAK party whose brother Daut was sentenced to imprisonment for crimes committed against dissenting Kosovo Albanians.
Bojan Cvetkovic, a sales clerk from Nis who volunteered for the Yugoslav Army, was identified as a victim. On April 11 he was abducted by the KLA together with four other soldiers. Traces of all of them disappeared. The second photo shows a horrific spectacle: Sadik Chuflaj is placing one of the severed heads into a large bag that might be presumed to be full of the heads of young Serb soldiers.
KLA Terrorism Exported into Southern Serbia and Macedonia
In late 1999 Albanian terrorism was exported, using Kosovo as a sanctuary, into Southern Serbia and Western Macedonia by virtue of the founding of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (LAPMB) and the National Liberation Army (NLA), respectively. The command was taken over by local Albanians who had received KLA military training with logistics support from some members of the KPC command. Shefqet Musliu, a local criminal, became the LAPMB commander. Daut Haradinaj, a KPC commander, organized NLA activities in Western Macedonia.
U.S. troops had turned a blind eye to men and weapons smuggled from the U.S. sector in Kosovo into Southern Serbia and Macedonia. De facto, the U.S. sector with its enormous military base Camp Bondsteel, built on illegally expropriated and strategically located farmland, became the staging ground for the Albanian terrorism. Scott Taylor, for his book Diary of an Uncivil War, conducted interviews with Albanian villagers in Macedonia. One of them spoke freely about the KLA (UCK). Didn’t he mean NLA or ANA, Taylor asked. The Albanian laughed and said: “The only people who use those terms are NATO and you, the media. Have you ever seen ANA or NLA spray painted on walls or on our soldiers’ crests?” The answer, of course, was “No.”
In 2001 armed clashes with the security forces in Southern Serbia intensified in the three-mile-wide buffer zone between the KFOR and the Serbian troops created by the military agreement which terminated the war. In order to counter this new wave of terrorism, the Serbian government in the post-Milosevic era had sought and obtained NATO cooperation. The Serbian troops were allowed to re-enter the buffer zone and clean up the terrorists. The Albanian terrorists, upon laying down their weapons, were given blanket amnesty by NATO and were allowed to return to Kosovo.
Terrorism against Serbia No Crime
On May 24, 2001, KFOR arrested and released more than 450 LAPMB terrorists: “KFOR screened and released all LAPMB members who are not suspected of having committed serious crimes.” What constitutes serious crime was not defined. The contrast between the language of UN Resolution 1244 and UNMIK/KFOR practice is striking. The message they delivered to the Kosovo Albanian terrorists is that secessionist terrorism is legitimate. The Albanian terrorists were treated as a regular army engaged in a legitimate military action. Killing policemen and sniping at civilians obviously did not constitute “serious crimes.” In the mass media, these terrorists were portrayed as rebels.
Corollary
On February 17, Washington illegally orchestrated Kosovo UDI in violation of the UN Charter, Helsinki Accords and the controlling UN Security Council Resolution #1244 which ended the war and affirmed the Serbian sovereignty over the province. Violation of Serbia’s territorial integrity and international law has established a precedent worldwide in favor of separatist movements with unpredictable consequences. The European Union (EU) established mission (EULEX), as a part of the Ahtisaari’s supervised independence deception, despite any legal basis including authorization from the UN Security Council.
Condoning of ghastly war crimes committed by the U.S./EU ally in Kosovo, summarized briefly herein, constitute an inherent part of deeply flawed foreign policies which amount to bankruptcy of western values. If Americans really want to know why their country is no longer regarded as “the home of the brave and the land of the free” they should forcefully object to the way the foreign policies are conducted in their name. The Europeans should do pretty much the same.