In the shadow of the executioners

Deportees' ordeal Kosovo men tell of murder threats and beatings during three
weeks in Serb captivity

By Jonathan Steele
in Kukes
Monday May 24, 1999
The Guardian

T he 15-year-old boy sits on the green plastic ground sheet, recounting his
terror as one Serb policeman after another had slapped him across the face. Too
young to have been educated in Serb-language
schools since Kosovo's Albanians set up their own system eight years ago, he
mercifully could not understand the threats the armed men were shouting.

"I told the Serbs I was only 15. My mother was crying, but they separated me all
the same. Only my 10-year-old brother and sister were left behind with her,"
Mentor Jetullah recalled yesterday. He was the
youngest of a group of 1,200 men who walked out of detention and into Albania
over the weekend.

Most could hardly believe they were alive, let alone free. After three weeks in
Serb captivity, they were suddenly put on buses and driven to Zhur, a village 2
miles from the Albanian border. Even as they
trudged the final stretch which winds along the River Drini, many said they
still thought they were about to be shot and dumped in the water.

Exhausted and weak from hunger, they sat limply yesterday in a huge hangar-like
tent put up by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in
Kukes. Aid workers said they had never seen
men in such wretched condition.

"I sat in a room with 66 other people. It was 12ft by 12ft square. The windows
were high and you could not see out properly. We were only allowed out to go to
the toilet," Mentor said. "There was not enough
to eat and no showers. I've been in these clothes for three weeks. We slept on
the cement floor without blankets."

His brother, Adnan, 18, wept as his younger brother talked, but he managed to
smile as Mentor showed the back of his silver anorak, emblazoned with the words
Bear Technology, USA. "I had to wear it inside
out. They beat several people who had American symbols on their clothes."

Sitting beside the two brothers, Sadat, 20, declined to give his full name
because his own brother is with an estimated 4,000 men still being held by the
Serbs.

"The Serbs came into our village of Kciqi three weeks ago. They separated the
men from the women, and made us squat on the floor. I had to leave my wife and
one-year-old daughter. There were police and
paramilitaries and I heard one man say to a paramilitary: "Who is going to kill
them?" Then they beat us with rifle butts, shouting, 'Go off to Nato'. We were
taken out to our tractors and again one man
threatened to throw a grenade at us if anyone moved. He had it in his hand. They
demanded all our money and took us to Smrekonice prison."

For the first three days they had very little to eat and 10 bottles of water for
300 people, he said. "Then we got small pieces of bread, thrown to us like
animals. They would ask fathers and sons to start
fighting, just to amuse them, or brother against brother. Some people were
threatened with having their testicles cut off."

On Saturday morning the men were unexpectedly ordered into buses. "I thought
they were taking us to be executed. We didn't know where the bus was going.
There were two policemen on the bus who
travelled with us all the time. They told us not to raise our heads. Some men
had to sit on the floor," Sadat said. "At Zhur we were told to get out of the
bus and form a long queue. We were told not to talk and
to go in single file straight down the road. I thought they were going to put us
in the river." At the border came the final humiliation: his wedding ring and
watch were stripped off.

At the start of their captivity, the Serbs interrogated them on suspicion they
were supporters of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). "We lied to save ourselves.
Our village gave the KLA food and fuel, but we
were never fighters. We want peace, but only the KLA can give it to us," he
said.

Although there is no way to confirm their stories independently, several other
men gave similar accounts of seizure, threats, interrogation, detention in
Smrekonice with little food and water, and the theft of
watches and rings. Some had already been on convoys to Albania when they were
taken from their families.

Murat Ademaj, 48, from the village of Skrom, near Vushtria, said the Serbs made
his group of prisoners shout "Long live Milosevic", and - in a reference to the
former monarch - "Long live King Peter". He said
the police told him at one point: "This is Serbia. Your country is Albania."

A few men in yesterday's group claimed to have heard shots after men were
dragged away, but they said it happened after dark and could not be sure how
many died.

Several women refugees wandered through in the hope of finding their husbands.
Few couples were reunited; but for yesterday's group of exhausted deportees, it
was good enough just to be alive.

The Independent, 5-24-99

War in The Balkans - Protests flare in
town of deserters

By Julian Manyon in Belgrade

Anti-war protests have again flared in
the town of Krusevac, 200 kilometres
south-east of Belgrade, where about a
thousand deserters from Kosovo returned
last week. According to reports from
previously reliable sources reaching
the capital, trouble was apparently
sparked by an announcement broadcast on
local radio and television yesterday
morning that the conscripts and
reservists who left Kosovo without
orders last Tuesday would have to
return.

Soldiers and their families assembled
at several points around the town and
then marched to the main square
chanting, "We want peace not war," and,
"Kosovo is no use to the dead."

Latest reports indicate that more than
a thousand protesters gathered in the
city centre where large numbers of
armed police were brought in by the
authorities. Ambulances were standing
by but there were no reports of
violence or arrests, though it was said
that police had placed roadblocks on
approach roads to prevent people from
outlying areas reinforcing the
demonstrators.

Police are said to have prevented a
number of conscripts from the nearby
town of Alexandrovac, also the scene of
anti-war protests and desertions, from
driving into Krusevac to join the
protests.

Meanwhile my earlier account in The
Independent of the mass desertion from
Kosovo last week has been confirmed by
a French journalist who reached
Krusevac from the south on Friday. His
report, published in Le Monde, quotes
one of the soldiers who deserted as
saying that the men left without orders
in a convoy of 70 vehicles that was
observed but not attacked by Nato war
planes.

The men had been in Kosovo for two
months where they were dispersed among
village houses and became increasingly
anxious about Nato air attacks. When
the deserters' convoy approached
Krusevac last Wednesday it was met by
General Nebosja Pavkovic, commander of
the Third Army Corps based in Nis.
General Pavkovic is said to have told
the men that no action would be taken
against them and they could return home
if they surrendered their weapons.

Later, the general reportedly promised
the parents of other servicemen in
Kosovo that their sons would soon be
coming home.

Since then, the authorities have
apparently been considering how best to
respond to this serious act of
indiscipline which could lead to
widespread disaffection in other
sections of the armed forces. Some
military officers are said to have
advised that the deserters should not
be sent back to Kosovo for fear of
contaminating the morale of other units
that have remained at their posts. But
if yesterday's reports of a new
announcement instructing the men to
return are confirmed, it would seem
that the Belgrade authorities believe
that turning a blind eye to desertion
would be even more dangerous.

Zpka, still aroud for some more
lies ?
How is referring to my supposed age going to make
me inapt for the posting on this board is beyond me (and probably everyone else).
Being older means you can insult, patronise,
threaten and have a right to lie ?


If it's massacred civilians you want, try a cluster bomb.

Warfare's well-kept secret weapon

By Norman Solomon
Hi! My name is CBU-87/B, but let's not be formal. A lot of my friends call me Cluster Bomb.

I've been busy lately, doing what I'm supposed to. And I sure appreciate the careful treatment I receive from
the American news media.

My pals at the Pentagon put me in the category of a "Combined Effects Munition." My maker describes me
as an "all-purpose, air-delivered cluster weapons system." Not to brag or anything, but such labels don't do
me justice. When I explode, the results can really be quite awesome.

I have gotten to do my stuff in Yugoslavia this month. One of my memorable performances came at around
noon on a Friday. Some people in the city of Nis were shopping at a vegetable market when boom! I
arrived. It was dramatic as hell.

A news article in the May 8 San Francisco Chronicle reported that "the bombs struck next to the hospital
complex and near the market, bringing death and destruction, peppering the streets of Serbia's third-largest
city with shrapnel and littering the courtyards with yellow bomb casings."

This was one of my few moments in the U.S. media limelight, so forgive me while I quote some more: "In a
street leading from the market, dismembered bodies were strewn among carrots and other vegetables in
pools of blood. A dead woman, her body covered with a sheet, was still clutching a shopping bag filled with
carrots."

I know, it's immodest to flaunt my press notices. But people don't get to see those sorts of news accounts
very much in America. If the stories are reported at all, they're usually buried (ha ha) on back pages of
newspapers and rarely even mentioned on the networks.

Once in a while, some Western journalist decides to put me down. The moralizing can be unpleasant. For
instance, BBC correspondent John Simpson, reporting from Belgrade, did a rather brusque commentary for
the Sunday Telegraph in London.

"In Novi Sad and Nis," he wrote, "and several other places across Serbia and Kosovo where there are no
foreign journalists, heavier bombing has brought more accidents." He complained that cluster bombs
"explode in the air and hurl shards of shrapnel over a wide radius." And he went on to say: "Used against
human beings, cluster bombs are some of the most savage weapons of modern warfare."

Spare me the overheated pejoratives, thank you.

Fortunately, I hardly ever have to endure such indignities in the American press.

But don't forget the very real accomplishments that I can partially claim as my own. The next time you see a
headline or hear a newscaster referring to the "air campaign," remember that my achievements are
outrageously understated by such jargon!

I'm a 1,000-pound marvel, a cluster bomb with an ingenious design. When I go off, a couple of hundred
"bomblets" shoot out in all directions, aided by little parachutes that look like inverted umbrellas.

Those chutes slow down the descent of the bomblets and disperse them so they'll hit plenty of what my
maker calls "soft targets." Before that happens, though, each bomblet breaks into about 300 pieces of
jagged steel shrapnel.

Sometimes, as a cluster bomb, I get a little jealous of the exaggerated notoriety that the news media confer
on outfits like the National Rifle Association. They get credited with the proliferation of murder and mayhem.
Well, they're rank amateurs! Piddling sidearms pushers! Compared to me, they're small-time retailers. I'm
into wholesale.

I just laugh when I read the nasty things that so many pundits have been writing about the NRA. While they
rant and rail against assault rifles that take a few lives now and again in the United States, I've been busy
slicing up tender human bodies in Yugoslavia.

When those high school students died in Colorado, the news media kept saying what a horrendous tragedy
it was. But what about the work I've done on kids and grownups in Yugoslavia? Journalists merely echo the
statements coming out of the White House, mumbling that it's regrettable and can't be helped.

The pundits keep talking about gun control. Meanwhile, big bombs like me are more and more out of
control as we roam the skies above Yugoslavia.

Overall, this has been a great spring for me. And from the standpoint of public relations, I'm doing fine. Back
in the offices of top Washington officials, and in the upper echelons of American news media, I've got lots of
friends in very high places. They may pretend not to know me, but we understand each other very well.


Norman Solomon's latest book is "The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media."

Guido - kosovapress ? That is independent and
and anbiased source ? Or just a propaganda tool
for your reactionary ideas.


THE USE OF DEPLETED URANIUM (DU) BULLETS AND BOMBS BY NATO FORCES IN
YUGOSLAVIA

The public at large, both in UK and in Yugoslavia, is unaware that 30-mm bullets being fired by A-10
anti-tank aircraft and probably all Tomahawk Cruise missiles in this action contain depleted uranium
(DU).

The development of these radioactive weapons is based on the fact that uranium (atomic mass
238) is much denser than lead (atomic mass 207), and therefore its kinetic energy is sufficient to
penetrate tank armor or concrete buildings more effectively than lead, prior to detonation. The
design of the bullet is to incorporate a long thin cylinder of DU housed in a plastic sheath or "sabot".
This means in turn that the very small leading edge of the bullet pierces with maximum impact. The
same principle is used in Tomahawk Cruise missiles, with the aim of piercing concrete obstructions
rather than metal.

The bullets were used in the Gulf War, and some 1 million of them still lie in the deserts of that
region where subsequently the incidence of leukemia, cancer, and birth defects have risen sharply
as a consequence of the ensuing environmental radiation. The amount of DU scattered around the
Gulf war zone is given as 350 tons, but including the nose cones of Cruise missiles and helicopter
rotors, the figure is nearer 750 tons. This is 27 TBequerels of radioactivity, one fiftieth of the total
alpha releases from Sellafield over its entire operating history. The same is happening in Bosnia
where DU was also employed. Some 80,000 US Gulf War veterans now suffer from the so-called
Gulf War syndrome, whose symptoms are identical to radiation sickness. The US military are well
aware of this and are on record as confirming 2.5mGy/hr at the surface of a DU shell, a dose
equivalent to a chest X-ray per hour. Each A-10 Thunderbolt 30mm cannon anti tank shell contains
some 275g (10.1 Bq). A single 120mm Abrams tank DU shell contains 3kg of U-238 (111 MBq) of
activity.

When DU bombs detonate, uranium oxide is formed in particulates of between 0.5 and 5 microns.
These can be wind-borne several hundred miles or suspended electrostatically in the atmosphere.
The half-life of Uranium is 109 (ten to the ninth) years, so they do not decay. One "hot particle" of
this DU material in the lungs is equivalent to a chest X-ray per hour for life. It is impossible to
remove, so the donated lung gradually irradiates the victim until death ensues. In the use of DU both
ground-based combatants and their targets are almost certain to suffer long term radiation sickness
and premature death. The Pentagon view is that the short term effectiveness outweighs the long
term situation, but this is in error.

The public at large are unaware that these weapons are weapons of mass destruction and have
been requested to be placed, like cluster bombs, on the Geneva Convention banned list.

It is said that the unprecedented use of Cruise missiles with DU inserts in Yugoslavia will have the
same effect as the Chernobyl and Mile Island disaster. Again these calculations by eminent
radiation physicists are not being released to the media. In other words the action of NATO not only
In this respect but also, since they have no UN mandate, are illegal, and likely to have a long term
pernicious effect not only on that part of Europe, but on their own ground troops if deployed, and
almost certainly on the refugees from the Kosovo region. This may be partly why NATO is reluctant
to engage ground troops: You will see they are beginning already to wear submicron gas masks on
the CNN and other news program pictures.

The Yugoslav population however, together with aid workers and ethnic Albanians are largely
unprotected.

COGHILL RESEARCH LABORATORIES

e-mail: @aol.com">cogreslab@aol.com Website

U.S. House of Representatives
Congressman Ron Paul (Texas)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Issued: Tuesday, May 25, 1999
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
FOR RELEASE:
May 26, 1999


Clinton in violation of law
Had 60 days to pull-out of Kosovo or get approval -- neither has happened


WASHINGTON, DC -- As of 12:01 am Wednesday, May 26, President Clinton
will be in clear violation of the 1973 War Powers Resolution. This is
the first time a president has violated the resolution since its
enactment.

"President Clinton has nothing left to claim: he is in complete
violation of the Wars Powers Resolution, there is simply no other
interpretation," said US Rep. Ron Paul (R, TX).

Rep. Paul is one of 26 Members of Congress who have filed a lawsuit in
federal court against President Clinton in regards to his violation of
the War Powers Resolution and the US Constitution.

"No one can argue that a president must, when there is a direct, clear
and present danger to American lives, take defensive actions to protect
our national interest. However, 60 days ago this president decided to
take aggressive action against a sovereign nation; and has since had
congressional authorization rejected by a vote of 427 to 2," said Rep.
Paul.

Under the War Powers Resolution, a president may engage in hostilities
for 60 days without congressional approval. At the end of the 60-day
period, however, the president must have either received a Declaration
of War, received authorization to continue the action for another set
period of time, or begin withdrawing the troops. Since the bombing of
Yugoslavia began, the president has been denied a declaration of war
and authorization.

"Once again, though, President Clinton is demonstrating his utter
disregard for the Constitution and laws of this nation. He apparently
views himself as a king, rather than the president of a constitutional
republic; he must believe that his will is the law, rather than the
Constitution and acts of Congress," said Rep. Paul. "To say this
president is anything but dangerous and reckless would be a gross
understatement."

Rep. Paul said that while many presidents have violated, with the
unspoken consent of Congress, the constitutional responsibility for the
initiation of war, President Clinton has done so more frequently and
brazenly than any other this century.

"While I am hopeful this president will change his course, recent
history has shown this president holds no more respect for court orders
than he does for the Constitution or the War Powers Resolution. If he
shows the same contempt as in the past, our nation faces serious trouble."


http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press99/pr052699.htm

"EUTELSAT unilateraly canceled
the satellite transmition of Radio Television of Serbia TV program under
the pressure by NATO countries. It is impossible to watch RTS program abroad."

What are they (Nato) afraid of ?

Jamie Shea yesterday said: If Yugoslavian people want water and electricity they can tell that to Slobodan Milosevic and they will get it when he complies to our demand. Until then they should prepare to life without electricity and water.

A true humanitarian and democrat speaking!!!

: Stopping a Draft Before It Starts


Strange Disposed Times
http://www.rightmagazine.com/strange_disposed_times.htm
May 25, 1999

Stopping a Draft Before It Starts
by Michael R. Allen

What is left for the War Party to do? They have already bombed two
different sovereign nations in the last six months, are keeping the
bombings up on one of those (Serbia) and have a air presence in the
other (Iraq). They have taken a defensive organization, NATO, and used
it to initiate war. They have occupied major media outlets and
government organizations that report on the wars they wage. They have
mobilized two nations for war, Britain and the US, entirely.

What could be next? How about old-fashioned ground combat with a
draft?

It may happen - the bizarre becomes reality quite often. A year ago, I
could not foresee the air strikes on Serbia. This spring, I couldn't
predict that the Republicans in Congress would agree to not only fund
US
involvement in the war, but also to advance funds to maintain military
actions in the Balkans for the rest of the year.

Given the frequency that "unexpected" events occur, the draft seems
imminent. Fortunately, there already is an effort to stop the draft
before it starts. Erstwhile Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) has drafted a bill to
keep conscription from being used in undeclared wars. In the past,
Paul
has worked with liberals like Ron Dellums to end the draft entirely,
but
- sensing the hopelessness of ending it altogether in this Congress -
has now made a compromise which is more popular with the meek of both
parties.

The bill (designated H.R. 1812) reads as follows:

"To amend the Military Selective Service Act to suspend the
registration
requirement and the activities of civilian local boards, civilian
appeal
boards, and similar local agencies of the Selective Service System,
except during national emergencies, and to require the Director of
Selective Service to prepare a report regarding the development of a
viable standby registration program for use only during national
emergencies."

This falls far short of the sort of bill that needs to be passed
eventually. But if this can gather more bipartisan support to at least
put the draft on hold, that's all the better. Seven members of the
House of Representatives. have signed onto the bill, including former
"west Coast libertarian troubadour" Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), air strike
opponent Pete Stark (D-CA), and Bill Clay (D-MO).

The legislative proposal offered by Paul ought to be enjoying the
support of conservative critics of the Clinton foreign policy as well
as
self-proclaimed "civil libertarians" of the left. Yet neither group
has
come to support it in great numbers. One can imagine the Democrats
being admonished not to make Clinton look weak and the Republicans
being
told that this bill would weaken support for the military. Mothballing
or ending the draft may hurt both Clinton and the Pentagon politically,
but it would be welcomed by millions of young American males, including
this writer.

Conscription has never included women, so it clearly has violated the
Fourteenth Amendment. It also is usually conducted as a lottery, so
only some young men will serve while others will stay home. Most of
all, anyone that must be conscripted does not want to fight, or he
would
have volunteered to serve. All the unfairness of the draft is so
evident that one wonders why any society would tolerate it.

The war-making senators and bureaucrats that promote conscription can
easily tolerate it, since their sons can find the right loopholes. But
what about "kids with names like McAllister, Murphy, Gonzales, and
Leroy
Brown," as Pat Buchanan so famously put it. The poor and the middle
class, as usual, will have to be subjected to the plans handed
down from Washington - or be jailed. And given the media's support for
the war on Serbia, one shouldn't anticipate any repeat of the
Vietnam-era draft-resistor pardon.

The best thing for America to do is to forgo the draft in the first
place. It is unconstitutional and unfair. Its continued possibility
sits in the back of every registered young male's mind. Some of these
young men may not have even questioned registration, which was a
requirement for their college financial aid. Some may not even
know about Serbia or Kosovo. If chosen, all will have to pay the price
in blood or mental anguish.

If the people support a military action, the army will attract many new
soldiers. If the war is unpopular, as the Serbian war is among
Americans, the people will withhold support for the war by refusing to
serve in the military. However, with conscription the people cannot
choose. Their opinions do not count when the lawmakers control them
instead of their controlling the lawmakers.

Rep. Paul's bill should be the first step in ending the military's
stealing of human lives. But one shouldn't count on the unexpected to
happen if the unexpected event enhances personal liberty.

(c) 1999 Michael R. Allen

---

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The American Sheople are starting to awaken. Protest everywhere springing up to stop this idiotic bombing. Only the hate mongers and war toy profiteers are still advocating this waste. Klintoon's back in the hotseat, for backing the corps selling Nuclear secrets. Friedo and Whitefang your NATZO is waning. The truth will free Kosovo, the Serbs and America!
Peace not WoD
FFFF
DdC

Cannabis and the Christ: Jesus used Marijuana

Phoebic NATZO bombing the Serbs in the name of Jesus. Only Jesus never bombed anyone. He was a stoner! LOL!
Peace not WoD
FFFF
DdC

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