UN creates Mafia-State in Kosovo

2008-03-08

Richard Moore

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8183

The United Nations Contributed to the Establishment of a Mafia-State in Kosovo

By Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, March 1, 2008

International Tribunal for U.S./NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia - 2000-06-10

The EU, the US, NATO and the UN Mission in Kosovo bear responsibility in the 
criminalization of Kosovo State institutions.

The following article, written in March 2000, focusses on the formation of a 
Kosovar Mafia State integrated by former members of the KLA.

With the February 2008 declaration of Independence, this process has reached its
completion. Kosovo is not a mafia state in its own right, it is a US/EU 
protectorate under NATO military rule. The government of Kosovo, which has 
extensive links to organized crime, serves the interests of the US-NATO 
occupation.

Michel Chossudovsky, 1 March 2008

June 10, 2000 International Tribunal for U.S./NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia

THE UNITED NATIONS APPOINTS AN ALLEGED WAR CRIMINAL IN KOSOVO
By Professor Michel Chossudovsky

Professor Michel Chossudovsky (Canada), an expert historian and economist who 
has taken part in many international forums on the Balkans, showed the criminal 
role of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army and its ties to U.S. and German 
intelligence services, ties to NATO and the United Nations Rep. Bernard 
Kouchner. Michel Chossudovsky, professor of economics, University of Ottawa, 
author of a forthcoming book entitled "War, Globalization and the New World 
Order"

The United Nations in a recent [2000] report submitted to Secretary General Kofi
Annan now concedes that the Kosovo Protection Force (KPC) (inaugurated under UN 
auspices in September 1999) has been involved in "criminal activities-killings, 
ill-treatment/torture, illegal policing, abuse of authority, intimidation, 
breaches of political neutrality and hate speech"1.

And in a cruel irony, "the United Nations is paying the salaries of many of the 
gangsters."2 The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) --known for its connections to 
organized crime and the Balkans narcotics traffic was officially dissolved and 
transformed into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) modelled on the US National 
Guard. Funded by US military aid, the KPC is trained by Military Professional 
Resources Inc (MPRI), a mercenary outfit based in Alexandria, Virginia.

The KPC was slated by the United Nations to become --in the words of UNMIK 
Special Representative Bernard Kouchner [now France's Minister of Foreign 
Affairs] "a civilian, disciplined, uniformed and multi-ethnic emergency 
response... with a mandate to "providing humanitarian assistance... and 
contributing to rebuilding infrastructure and communities...."3

Shift in military labels. KLA Commander Agim Ceku was appointed Chief of Staff 
of Kosovo¹s newly created Armed Forces. In the words of Bernard Kouchner during 
the inauguration ceremony: I look to him [Agim Ceku] to lead the new members of 
the Corps in the footsteps of Cincinnatus, the model citizen-soldier of ancient 
Rome -- who left his plow standing in the field to answer the call to arms & and
at the end of the war refused all honors in order to return to his civic 
duties.4

Barely a few weeks later, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former 
Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced it was "investigating Ceku for alleged war crimes 
committed against ethnic Serbs in Croatia between 1993 and 1995." 5 The 
information, however, was known to military and intelligence analysts well in 
advance of Ceku¹s appointment. It had been withheld from public opinion by the 
ICTY during the mandate of Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour. Jane Defence Weekly 
(10 May 1999) had confirmed that Ceku had "masterminded the successful HV 
[Croatian] offensive at Medak [in 1993] and in 1995 was one of the key planners 
of the successful Operation 'Storm ". United Nations Special Representative Dr. 
Bernard Kouchner (who is a 1999 Nobel Peace Laureate for his role as co-founder 
of Doctors without Borders) must have known.

The UN and NATO had access to the files of the ICTY. The Tribunal¹s Chief 
Prosecutor knew and had the responsibility under the statutes of the ICTY of 
reporting the matter to the UN Secretary General. In a cruel irony, the United 
Nations had casually proceeded with the appointment of an individual who 
according to the files of a United Nations body (namely the ICTY) was an alleged
war criminal. Surely some questions should have been asked.

When the information was released barely a few weeks after Ceku¹s appointment: 
"a diplomat close to Bernard Kouchner the UN special representative [declared] 
"If we lose him {Agim Ceku] it will be a disaster," ... "When you get to the 
second level of the TMK [Kosovo Protection Corps], you're down to a bunch of 
local thugs."... 6 "American diplomats... have suggested any indictment of Ceku 
would most likely be "sealed" and thereby kept out of the public domain... 
"[T]he NATO-led peacekeeping force, could not contemplate a public relations 
disaster with the Albanians by arresting Ceku".7 According to the Sunday Times 
(London), "[t]he possibility that Ceku, a respected figure in Kosovo, could be 
accused of war crimes, [had] sent shivers through the international community...
"8.

Meanwhile, the ICTY had reassured public opinion that the "[T]he court's 
inquiries ... relate[d] to atrocities committed in Krajina, ... between 1993 and
1995"... Ceku's record in Kosovo itself is not thought to be in question, 
although the office of Carla del Ponte, the new chief prosecutor, said an 
investigation into his activities with the KLA could not be ruled out..."9

War Criminals call the Shots

Visibly what was shaping up in the wake of the bombings in Kosovo was the 
continuity of NATO¹s operation in the Balkans as well as its reliance on war 
criminals in its "peace-keeping" undertakings. Military personnel and UN 
bureaucrats previously stationed in Croatia and Bosnia had been routinely 
reassigned to Kosovo.

Lieutenant General Mike Jackson was posted to Kosovo as KFOR Commander following
his earlier stint in Bosnia Herzegovina and Croatia. In the immediate wake of 
the 1995 ethnic massacres in Krajina (for which Agim Ceku is under investigation
by the ICTY), General Michael Jackson was put in charge as IFOR commander, for 
organising the return of Serbs "to lands taken by Croatian HVO forces in the 
1995 Krajina offensive".10

And in this capacity Jackson had "urged that the resettlement [of Krajina Serbs]
not [be] rushed to avoid tension [with the Croatians]" while also warning 
returning Serbs "of the extent of the [land] mine threat."11. In retrospect, 
recalling the events of early 1996, very few Krajina Serbs were allowed to 
return to their homes under the protection of the United Nations. According to 
"Veritas" (a Belgrade based organization of Serbian refugees from Croatia), some
10,000-15,000 Serbs were able to resettle in Croatia. Jackson¹s experience in 
"ethnic warfare," however predates the Balkans. From his earlier posting In 
Northern Ireland as a young captain, Jackson was second in command in the 
"Bloody Sunday" massacre of civilians in Derry in 1972.

Under the orders of Lieutenant Coronel Derek Wilford, Captain Jackson and 
thirteen other soldiers of the parachute regiment opened fire "on a peaceful 
protest by the Northern Ireland civil rights association opposing discrimination
against Catholics. In just 30 minutes, 13 people were shot dead and a further 13
injured. Those who died were killed by a single bullet to the head or body, 
indicating that they had been deliberately targeted. No weapons were found on 
any of the deceased."12 Jackson's role in "Bloody Sunday" "did not hinder his 
Military career." 13 From his early stint in Northern Ireland, he had been 
reassigned under United Nations auspices to the theatre of ethnic warfare first 
to Bosnia and Croatia and then to Kosovo...

In Kosovo, the conduct of senior military officers conforms to the Croatian and 
Bosnian patterns, the same key individuals were reassigned to "peace-keeping" 
roles in Kosovo. While General Jackson displayed token efforts to protect Serb 
and Roma civilians, those who fled Kosovo during his mandate were not encouraged
to return under UN protection... In post-war Kosovo, the massacres of civilians 
was carried out by the KLA (and subsequently by the KPC) under the auspices of 
NATO and the UN. It was accepted by the "international community" as a "fait 
accompli".

The Installation of a Mafia State

While calling for the installation of democracy based on "transparency" and 
"good governance", the US and its allies have installed in Kosovo a self 
proclaimed civilian paramilitary government with links to organised crime. The 
outcome is the outright "criminalisation" of State institutions in Kosovo and 
the establishment of what is best described as a "Mafia State". The complicity 
of NATO and the Alliance governments (namely their relentless support to the KLA
provisional government) points to the de facto "criminalisation" of KFOR and of 
the UN peace-keeping apparatus in Kosovo.

The donor agencies, the United Nations and Western governments in providing 
financial support to the KPC are, in this regard, also "accessories" to this 
criminalisation of State institutions. Through the intermediation of a 
paramilitary group (created and financed by Washington and Bonn), NATO and the 
UN bear the burden of responsibility for the massacres of civilians and the 
prevailing reign of terror in Kosovo.

NOTES

1. Quoted in John Sweeney and Jen Holsoe, Kosovo Disaster Response Service 
Stands Accused of Murder and Torture, the Observer, 12 March 2000.

2. Ibid.

3. Statement by Bernard Kouchner, 21 September 1999 on the occasion of the 
inauguration of the KPC, see http://www.un.org/peace/kosovo/pages/kosovo5.htm )

4. Ibid
5, AFP, 13 October 1999

6. Tom Walker, "Kosovo Defence Chief Accused of War Crimes, Sunday Times, 10 
October 1999.

7. Ibid
8. Ibid
9. Ibid
10. Jane Defense Weekly, Vol 23, No. 7, 14 February 1996.
11. Ibid

12. Julie Hyland, "Head of NATO Force in Kosovo was Second-in-command at "Bloody
Sunday" Massacre in Ireland", World Socialist Website, 19 June 1999.

13. Ibid.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of 
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© Copyright Michel Chossudovsky, International Tribunal for U.S./NATO War Crimes
in Yugoslavia, 2000

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