Shocking article on nato

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday July 29, 2002 19:27 by A Serbian dissident Hiding in fear somewhere in Serbia from the new Serbian dictatorship, which is nearly as bad as Milosevic's

Stop militarism

This is absolutely shocking stuff and whatever we might think of Milosevic, and also of the authors of this article (the Emperor's Clothes), who have often been accused, perhaps quite rightly of being too pro-Serbian and therefore too biased in that regard, what is going on in Kosovo is cold-blooded and calculated murder on the part of the occupying NATO force in Kosovo. Its time for the western world, especially Ireland, with your once proud history of neutrality that alas is being eroded by allowing USAF planes to refuel at Shannon, and to overfly Irish airspace to open up your eyes and realise what NATO, and militarism and imperialism generally are doing to our world. That's why I appeal to you to again show your courage and to give the EU militarist, imperialist agent of capitalism the EU Rapid reaction Force the 2 fingers by again voting NO to Nice 2.

PART 1 - Interviews with Three Women from Orahovac
HOW NATO BROUGHT HELL TO A TOWN IN KOSOVO - AND WHAT
IT MEANS!
by Jared Israel
[Originally posted November 1999 - Reposted with new
introduction, 23 July 2002]
=======================================

Below are interviews with three women from Orahovac, a
town in Kosovo. Dutch and
German NATO troops occupied the town in June 1999,
shortly after NATO marched
into Kosovo.

The three Serbian women describe how their initial
faith in NATO's promises
turned to horror as they realized they had been sold a
nightmare.

Many people are now grappling with the question: what
is the US/European
strategy in Central Asia?

When trying to decide what motivates some person, it's
best to consider their
*actions*. We might say, "Don't trust him. He cheats,"
meaning his dishonesty is
an observable fact irrelevant of how he describes
himself.

And so with Empires. To help us understand what the US
and West European leaders
plan for the former Soviet Republics and the rest of
Central and Southern Asia
it is useful to see what they have *actually done* in
and to Kosovo. Kosovo is
perfect because NATO - run by the US and its West
European allies - has had
unchallenged control.

Concerning the interviews below, one might ask, "How
do we know they are
accurate?"

That's a fair question. The main answer is that since
Emperor's Clothes posted
these interviews in the fall of 1999, we and some
others have published a great
deal of supporting evidence. For example, we posted an
analysis of NATO military
operations in Kosovo, with evidence drawn from
official and media sources. See
'How NATO and the UN Sponsor Terrorists in Kosovo,'
which can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/nocrime.htm

Along with the interviews with the three women from
Orahovac, I've included some
excerpts from a report by a Serbian gentleman who
traveled to Orahovac in the
summer of 1999, in the employ of a European diplomatic
service. He uses the
pseudonym, 'Zoran.'

For more interviews with the women of Orahovac
(pronounced Or-AH-oh-vatz)
including one that appeared in the Dutch newspaper,
TROUW, see Footnotes at the
very end. (If you are reading this in email, you may
find Footnotes at the end
of Part 2.)

There is also a link to a most-interesting interview
with Cedomir Prlincevic,
leader of the (late) Jewish community in Pristina,
capital of Kosovo.

When reading these heart-rending reports, I think it's
important to remember
that these women experienced a *military operation,*
not some random actions.
Military operations are planned. They operate via a
rigorous chain of command.

Therefore what happened to the Serbs in Orahovac was
based on guidelines set
down by the US/European military command. This gives
us insight into the
character of the new, US/West European Empire because,
"By their fruits you will
know them."

The question is, what strategic goals could explain
NATO's horrible/bizarre
behavior in Kosovo? We attempted to answer that in the
article, 'NATO Buildup in
the Balkans: Part of a Deadly Game,' which can be read
at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/farish.htm

-- Jared Israel
24 July 2002

***

THE WOMEN OF ORAHOVAC

Interviewer: Jared Israel
Translator: Peter Makara

INTERVIEW #1 - NATASHA GRKOVIC

The first woman we interviewed was Natasha Grkovic,
age 27. An Orahovac native,
she studied in Belgrade until December, 1998, then
returned home. She was there
in June 1999 when the Yugoslav Army retreated and KFOR
occupation forces
arrived. (KFOR is the initials of NATO in Kosovo.) She
told us that most Serbian
residents - about 3000 - stayed, believing that NATO's
propaganda couldn't be
entirely false and hoping for the best...

* NATASHA *

"Maybe a thousand or more Serbs left. Orahovac is
unique in that so many did
stay. That’s because we believed KFOR guarantees that
we’d be safe. When it
became clear things weren’t going to be that way,
people wanted to leave, but
they were not allowed. In addition to the Serbs, 500
to 1000 Roma, or 'Gypsies',
also stayed."

WHY SERBS STAYED IN ORAHOVAC

* NATASHA *

"From April on our telephone connections as well as
Serbian radio and TV were
cut off thanks to NATO bombing. We had little
information about what was
happening in the rest of the country. We heard that
after the June Peace
Agreement was signed there was a massive exodus of
Serbs from [the Kosovo city
of] Prizen and elsewhere but we couldn’t verify it so
we wondered if it was
true. Meanwhile, we were constantly being told by
Western media that our
security would be guaranteed - for instance, by Voice
of America, which we heard
via satellite connections. They used phrases about
multiethnic, multicultural
society and their Democracy and promised first to
disarm then KLA [Kosovo
Liberation Army], then to establish their laws.

"The morning before KFOR arrived there was a meeting
of their representatives
with the Mayor, a Serb, plus other Serbs including the
head of the winery. KFOR
said that in two days or so life would return to
normal. The next day our homes
were burning."

KFOR ARRIVES, BRINGS KLA & TERROR

* NATASHA *

"With KFOR, the KLA came. The same day. Some of our
Albanian neighbors appeared
in KLA uniforms. We were horrified. Suddenly we didn’t
feel safe in the mixed
section of Orahovac so we moved to the Serbian part.

"As we were leaving we saw, already, Serbian houses
being burned. KFOR did
nothing. We complained. They said they didn’t have
enough people. Soon more NATO
troops arrived but the situation stayed the same for a
month. Over a hundred
houses were burned. And they robbed whatever they
could. A few 'Gypsy' [Roma]
houses were burned too. Twenty-five people who stayed
in the mixed section were
kidnapped, plus their houses were burned too.

"Slowly we realized the extent of the mistake we’d
made in not leaving. Every
day KFOR offered new excuses for not protecting us.
They said: 'We can’t put
guards in front of every house. We can’t give every
Serb an armed guard.'

"The KFOR checkpoint is close to the ghetto. KFOR
guards the entrance and exit
to the Serbian area. Plus there are barricades, which
the Albanians put up.
First you hit KFOR and second you hit the Albanian
barricades. KFOR supplied
tents for the Albanians who are sitting on those
barricades. And they ran
electric wiring into those tents to provide current."

* FROM THE REPORT OF THE DIPLOMAT, ZORAN *

"Albanian roadblocks outside Orahovac are [set up in]
former German/Dutch
fortified checkpoints. I can not imagine that
Albanians could have taken control
of those without [KFOR's] tacit approval – or
instigation. The organizing
committee at the roadblocks is armed. Heavier weapons
are kept in hundreds of
tents erected around the barricades – supposedly for
women and children.
Muscular men in sport suits patrolling the site carry
small firearms under their
jackets."

CONDITIONS IN THE GHETTO

* NATASHA *

"We were kept in this Serb enclave. My parents can
come out on the streets but
that’s dangerous; two people were wounded just being
outside the house. Those
who have tried to escape simply disappeared.

"There is no phone service to Belgrade. The only food
is from humanitarian
sources. One 'Gypsy' tried to ship food from the
Albanian to the Serbian
section; some extreme Albanian group told him, 'No
food for the Serbs!' Near the
beginning we would send some Albanian kid to buy stuff
for us. But the kid would
be beaten up and they would tell him 'Don't do that
again!'

"The ghetto is 500 square yards. Water is erratic:
once in three days for two or
three hours.

"During the first days there were lots of reporters.
Later there were fewer; I
spoke to a Reuters' journalist twice. The second time
he said the first
interview had been all censored and crossed out."

* ZORAN *

"In the first days after KFOR's arrival, 5 Orahovac
Serbs were killed and 10
abducted under the watchful eyes of German troops.
Serbs aren't even allowed to
go to the market or grocery store 50 meters away. The
considerable Gypsy
population, together with the Serbs, suffers equally."

* NATASHA *

"The only thing that KFOR did was organize a shipment
of bread to the Serbian
part; they were very proud of it. We only see KFOR in
the street; there are no
meetings. The Albanians are in charge. They took
everything. You occasionally
have small KFOR patrols but Headquarters is in the
Albanian section."

* ZORAN *

"In Orahovac itself the former police station has been
turned into a KLA HQ. The
local KLA commander, the man who runs this town, is a
mass murderer named Ismet
Hara, responsible for last year’s abductions and
brutal killings of over 60
Serbian civilians from Orahovac (the bodies of most
are still missing), some of
whom – it is reasonably believed – he personally
executed.

"Serbs say they recognize many local Albanians in the
ranks of the German KFOR.
Probably KLA members recruited in Albania…KFOR denies
this…I’ve personally seen
KLA Commanders with their escort – all [illegally]
armed – entering KFOR bases
with KFOR ID cards and never a delay."

DE-FANGING THE VICTIM

* ZORAN *

"Early in the KFOR/KLA occupation, Dutch/German
Baklava Units gave local Serbs
24 hours to hand in all their weapons. (Note that the
KLA has been given 3
months and still counting….) The naïve Serbs complied.
A few weeks later, the
Dutch/German troops entered the Serbian quarter in
broad daylight, fired some
warning shots over the heads of Serbs who were
gathered near a church and
dragged people from their houses. Serbian witnesses
say they grabbed people by
the hair and pulled them out while kicking them…

"The Dutch/German troops arrested the Serbian Mayor
and two other Serbs,
accusing them of ‘war crimes’. There is no credible
evidence to support these
charges, though the Albanian side has spread rumors
that documents discovered in
a cellar of one house implicated the Mayor."

[Editor’s note: I asked Natasha about Zoran's
remarks.]

* NATASHA *

"Yes, that arrest was spectacular, just like that. I
heard that KFOR had masks.
They arrested the doctor and the Mayor [and a
restaurant owner.] They accused
them of war crimes.

"Nine people were seized altogether. The second group,
of six [people], was just
ordinary people. They had been working with the
International Red Cross, which
wants to evacuate old and sick people. The six were
told they could leave. Then
KFOR arrested them at the checkpoint."

* ZORAN *

"From reliable international sources I learned the
arrests are an attempt to
turn these people into 'important witnesses' in a
made-up war crimes case
against Serbs, not because of real evidence.

"Here’s the strategy: first they isolate the Serbs,
then they wear them out,
then they kick them out – after extracting the people
Albanians accuse of being
‘war criminals’. To this end, they come up with all
kinds of justifications for
keeping the last remaining Serb civilians in this
monstrous new ghetto."

REVEALING INCIDENTS

* NATASHA *

"The people who left that mixed part of the town the
first day didn’t have time
to take any luggage or personal belongings. Not even
personal documents. A lower
level German officer who was friendly and kind did
provide us with an armed
escort [so we could get some basic necessities] and
even helped with luggage.
But soon after that he disappeared; we [Serbs] never
saw him again.

"In another case a common Dutch soldier saw an
Albanian coming from a burning
house. The Dutch soldier wanted to shoot at the
arsonist but his officer stopped
him, and they quarreled. We didn’t see that soldier
later either. Their practice
in general was that they would change the people who
patrol the Serbian area
with the intention obviously that these people not get
friendly with the Serbs.

ROUTINE BRUTALITY

* NATASHA *

"In another case a Serbian woman was about to deliver.
She wanted to go to the
maternity ward in the Orahovac hospital. Ever since
KFOR’s arrival, Albanians
comprise the entire staff at this hospital. She got a
KFOR escort and was taken
to this local hospital; they said it would be a
difficult delivery and to go to
the larger town, Prizen. KFOR provided escort to
Prizen. The delivery was
difficult and in front of KFOR the hospital staff said
that she should stay for
at least 24 hours but as soon as KFOR had left, they
kicked her out into the
corridor. So she spent the night on a bench with the
new baby."

[Editor’s note: Natasha then recounts that after KFOR
finally brought this woman
and her baby back to Orahovac, a relative protested
her treatment to a Dutch
commanding officer. The officer replied: "She's alive
isn’t she? Why complain?"]

NATASHA RETURNS IN A CONVOY TO ORAHOVAC

[Editor’s note: In August 1999, Natasha fled from
Orahovac to Belgrade. There
she and other women with relatives in Orahovac pressed
the Yugoslav government
to intervene. The government negotiated with KFOR for
two convoys of women to go
to Orahovac with KFOR escort.

Natasha was on the second trip. After a brief visit,
the woman met at the
Serbian Orthodox Church so KFOR could take them back
to the checkpoint.]

* NATASHA *

"I was there visiting my parents for three hours after
a whole night of
traveling and harassment: more time at KFOR’s
checkpoint then with my family.
After the visit a crowd gathered at the church. They
wanted their children to
leave Orahovac. KFOR didn’t want a scene so they let
us get on the truck with
the children. It was quite crowded.

"Back at the checkpoint, they divided us women from
the children. They made a
list of the people who came in with the convoy, and
they said those people could
leave but the children had to go back [to Orahovac]."

HELL

* NATASHA *

"The children started crying; they wanted to go with
us. We tried to convince
KFOR to let the children go; they said if one "extra"
person leaves they would
not provide an escort. And already Albanians were
gathering around, kind of
watching what was happening. And it was getting dark.

"The trick was that the KFOR would bring us back only
to our bus and from there
on it would be completely unsafe.

"The whole scene was one of horror, the children
crying, us women trying to
convince KFOR. The Dutch commander shouted: 'ENOUGH!
Just those who came should
go back on the truck and the children must go back
where they came.' So there
was more crying and the women were crying and
shouting, and he screamed:
'ENOUGH!' The children were forced to go back."

*** CONTINUED - PART 2 ***