NATO COOKED THE BOOKS ON "ETHNIC CLEANSING"

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Cooking the books -
NATO'S CLAIM OF ETHNIC CLEANSING CHALLENGED
by Michel Chossudovsky (2-9-00)

Reprinted from EMPERORS-CLOTHES   www.tenc.net

Copyright Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa, February 2000

NATO's two main justifications for bombing Yugoslavia on humanitarian grounds
have been refuted by the Western alliance's own official figures and
documentary evidence. These justifications rest on two central premises:

1) the alleged indiscriminate mass killings of Albanian civilians (premise
number one);

2) the implementation of a deliberate policy of mass deportations or "ethnic
cleansing" (premise number two).

"Premise number one" has been invalidated by the FBI and European forensic
teams working under the auspices of the Hague Tribunal (ICTY). The forensic
and police investigators have uncovered several hundred bodies in grave sites
in Kosovo as opposed to the 10,000 to 100,000 civilian massacres claimed by
NATO and Western governments as a pretext for waging the War. British Prime
Minister Tony Blair had announced that President Milosevic was "set on a
Hitler style genocide equivalent to the extermination of the Jews during
World war II".1 "We've now seen about 100,000 military aged men missing...
They may have been murdered", echoed US Defense Secretary William Cohen. 2
"Genocide is starting," stated German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping.3...

The Hague Tribunal (ICTY) (while upholding the war crimes indictment against
members of the Yugoslav government), has acknowledged the exhumation of 2,108
bodies in Kosovo from grave sites in Kosovo.4 This figure includes the deaths
of ethnic Albanians, Serbs, Romani and other ethnic groups who died during
the war (23 March 9 June 1999) from all known causes (including politically
motivated executions and massacres of civilians, NATO air strikes, the
groundwar between the KLA and the Yugoslav Armed Forces and natural causes).

NO REMAINING LEG TO STAND ON

"The allegations of indiscriminate mass murder, rape camps, crematoriums have
not been borne out" by the police investigations and forensic evidence. 5 In
the absence of "premise number one", the policy of mass deportations directed
against ethnic Albanians (premise number two) is being upheld by NATO and the
Western media as "a sufficient justification" for launching the war. In the
words of Madeleine Albright "opposing ethnic cleansing is central to our
values... We are reaffirming NATO's core purpose as a defender of democracy,
stability and human decency on European soil."6

Yet the recently released Report entitled "As Seen, As Told: Analysis of the
Human Rights Findings of the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission" suggests that
the allegation of mass deportations is also a fabrication. 7 Although heavily
slanted in its main conclusions, OSCE figures suggest that there were
proportionately more Serbs (as a percentage of population) fleeing Kosovo
than ethnic Albanians which puts an obvious question mark on NATO's assertion
that organized mass expulsions of ethnic Albanians were taking place.

According to OSCE numbers and Kosovar Albanian sources on population size and
distribution, an estimated 45.7 percent of the Albanian population and 59.5
percent of the Serb population had fled Kosovo during the bombings (i.e. from
23 March to 9 June 1999).8

The OSCE report summarises the balancesheet of ethnic Albanian refugees as
numbering 862,979. In a secluded footnote at the bottom of the main table,
the report nonetheless acknowledges that: "In addition [to the 862,979 ethnic
Albanian refugees], more than 100,000 Serb IDPs [Internally displaced
persons] are estimated to have left Kosovo and to have been registered in
Serbia and Montenegro". 9 Whereas ethnic Albanians (including those who fled
to Montenegro) are categorized as "refugees", Serbs who fled Kosovo during
the same period are casually identified as "Internally Displaced Persons".
The figures for ethnic Albanians are very precise in contrast to those
indicated for the Serbs in the footnote. The number of refugees belonging to
other ethnic groups who fled the province during the bombings is not even
acknowledged.

According to Kosovo Albanian sources, the Province had a total population of
2.1 million of which 90 percent are ethnic Albanians, 8 percent Serbs and 2
percent are other ethnic groups.10 Based on these figures (which are accepted
both by NATO and the postconflict KLA provisional government) there were an
estimated 1.89 million ethnic Albanians and 168,000 Serbs in Kosovo.10

In accordance with the above population breakdown, the exodus of Serbs (as a
percentage of population) was larger than that of the ethnic Albanian
population. According to OSCE numbers (from UNHCR sources), it is estimated
that 45.7 percent of the Albanian population and more than 59.5 percent of
the Serb population fled Kosovo during the bombings (i.e. from 23 March to 9
June 1999).

In other words, Serbs who ostensibly were not the target of "ethnic cleansing
perpetrated by the Serbs" had also fled the theatre of the war in Kosovo. If
there had been a deliberate and cohesive policy of ethnic cleansing and
massacres directed against ethnic Albanians, the percentages would have been
markedly different and this is something which NATO was cautious not to
reveal to public opinion while the bombings were ongoing.

The above estimates depend on the veracity of the OSCEUNHCR refugee figures
as well as on the reliability of the data on population size and
distribution. In estimating these percentages, we have accepted official OSCE
UNHCR refugee numbers at face value, namely that the OSCE Report had not
artificially "inflated" the number of ethnic Albanian refugees nor had it
"deflated" the number of Serbs who fled Kosovo during the bombings with a
view to vindicating NATO's claim of ethnic cleansing. We have also taken
Kosovar Albanian assumptions pertaining to population size and distribution.
In other words, the percentages are derived from their numbers! Moreover, it
should be emphasised that the percentage of Serbs who left Kosovo estimated
at 59.5 percent is based on the 100,000 figure given by the OSCE. Yet the
OSCE report states that the number of Serbs who fled Kosovo during the same
period is "more than 100,000".

Accounting for biases in the OSCE UNHCR figures and margins of error in the
data on population, the estimates do not support NATO's allegation of a
policy of mass deportation directed against ethnic Albanians.

Ironically, the OSCE (also in a discrete footnote) acknowledges the
assumptions of Belgrade's 1991 Census data which indicates the ethnic
Albanian population at 82 percent of total population. Yet the Census was
boycotted by ethnic Albanians and the figures were never recognised by the
parallel provisional government of Kosovo. Why does the OSCE acknowledge
Belgrade's 1991 Census when NATO and KLA statements repeatedly indicate that
the ethnic Albanian population is at 90 percent? Based on the 1991 Census
figures, the estimated percentage of each population group which fled Kosovo
would be 53.7 percent for the ethnic Albanians and more than 51.5 percent for
the Serbs.11 Yet even when applying the assumptions of the 1991 Census,
NATO's claim of mass deportations is not borne out.

The refugee crisis, we were told repeatedly during the War was limited to
ethnic Albanians. According to the Western media, Serb civilians had been
protected by the Serb police and Armed forces. The large scale exodus of
Serbs from Kosovo prior to June 9, 1999 (acknowledged by the figures
contained in the OSCE Report) was simply not mentioned. To reveal the numbers
would have discredited NATO's main justification for launching its
"humanitarian war".

FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH

Other documentary evidence including an official report of the German foreign
ministry published prior to the War, confirms 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 stated 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
KosovoAlbanians as an ethnically defined group, but against the military
opponent [KLA] and its actual or alleged supporters."...12

Moreover, a report of the United States Committee on Refugees (USCR) confirms
a significant reduction in the number of refugees and internally displaced
persons in the period following the signing of the October 13 agreement
between U.S. Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke and Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia (FRY) President Slobodan Milosevic. According to USCR, the overall
refugee situation had improved with the entry of the OSCE Kosovo Verification
Mission (KVM). The USCR report also confirms that "KLA ethnic cleansing of
ethnic Serb civilian population pockets intensified in December [1999]"
substantiating the results of the German Foreign Office intelligence report.
But we were told time and again that the Serbs rather than the KLA had been
responsible for ethnic cleansing in the months leading up to the War...13

The OSCE UNHCR figures on the number of refugees rather than supporting
NATO's main justification for waging the war, suggest that more than half the
Serb population had also fled Kosovo during the war. This tendency could be
explained by the fact that the KLA had been responsible for relaying
intelligence to NATO pertaining to potential targets in the bombing
operation. Moreover, a history of the war also suggests that the massacres
and atrocities directed against the Serbs by the KLA Military Command (amply
documented for the period after June 9) had already commenced prior to the
arrival of KFOR forces in Kosovo.

NATO's two central postulates for waging the war respectively "indiscriminate
mass killings" and "ethnic cleansing" are not borne out by the relevant data.
What then was the justification for the humanitarian bombings? What was the
hidden agenda? Ultimately the truth must prevail, public opinion must be
informed and those who are responsible for waging this criminal war must be
brought to trial.

NOTES

1. Quoted in Peter Gowan, Kosovo; the war and its aftermath, Labour Focus on
Eastern Europe, no. 64, 1999, p. 26.

2. CBS Face the Nation, 16 May 1999 quoted by Joyce Howard Price in The
Washington Times, May 17, 1999.

3. Quoted in Peter Gowan, op. cit.

4. Reuters, 10 November 1999.

5. Wall Street Journal, 31 December 1999.

6. Quoted in Time Magazine, May 17, 1999, p. 2526.

7. OSCE, Kosovo/ Kosova, As Seen, As Told, An analysis of the human rights
findings of the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission, October 1998 to June 1999,
Warsaw, 1999.

8. Ibid

9. Ibid.

10. Figures for 1993. See Albania Worldwide Web,
http://www.albanian.com/main/. See also Musa Limani, The Geographic Position,
Natural Riches, Demographic Characteristics, and the Economical Development
of Kosova, Pristina, The Association of Lawyers of Kosova, 1992. Kosovar
Albanian estimates place the population of Kosovo at 2.3 million for 2000.
11. The Government of Yugoslavia 1991 Census data for Kosovo identified a
total population of 1,956,196 of which 82.2 % are Albanians, 9.9 % Serbs and
7.9 % other ethnic groups. The Census was boycotted by the ethnic Albanian
population. During the 1990s, the evidence suggests that Kosovar Serbs left
the Province in large numbers.

12. Intelligence Report from the German Foreign Office, January 12, 1999 to
the Administrative Court of Trier.

13. See USCR Michel Chossudovsky

Michel Chossudovsky is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and
author of The Globalization of Poverty, Impacts of IMF and World Bank
Reforms, Third World Network, Penang and Zed Books, London, 1997.

Copyright, Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa, February 2000

* Recent articles by Michel Chossudovsky:

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