April 27, 1999

"We are told there the West knew already last autumn that President Milosevic had a plan to ethnically cleanse all Albanians from the Kosovo province. However, while it is true that Yugoslav forces have exploited NATO's bombing campaign to drive out Albanians in a way and to an extent that must be morally condemned, the unproved allegation that there existed a plan tells more about NATO than about President Milosevic - and what it tells is not to the advantage of the former," says TFF director Jan Oberg.

"The disgusting expulsion of Albanians from Kosovo can't be defended. The Yugoslav authorities who carries it out or lets individuals do it, can not defend such human rights violations with reference to NATO' bombing. Sure, Serbs will see NATO's destruction of Yugoslavia as work commissioned by Kosovo-Albanians/UCK, but it is anyhow up to Yugoslavia to fight NATO, not to take revenge against those who are innocent civilians.

Having said that, NATO and the West can not be trusted when it seeks to legitimise its Balkan bombing blunder by insisting that it knows of an ethnic cleansing plan but has still not provided the slightest evidence. Here are some reasons why this is utterly irresponsible and, thus, undermines NATO credibility - and the credibility of a free press that does not ask more critical questions:

First of all, we never heard anybody talk about such a plan before NATO's bombs started falling. Second, the argument for bombing was related to whether or not Yugoslavia would sign the Rambouillet Dictate. We never heard anybody saying that NATO would bomb Yugoslavia should they carry out an ethnic cleansing plan.

Third, if such a plan was known already during autumn, how could the West invite representatives of a killer regime to Paris? How could the US send ambassador Richard Holbrooke to Belgrade to try to make a last-minute deal with such 'a serial cleanser' President?

Fourth - and worst, perhaps of all - if the West knew of such a plan why did it do absolutely NOTHING to plan for the humanitarian emergency it would cause? Why did Belgrade not actively threaten to prevent it OR initiate bombings much earlier? Isn't it simply too immoral to know about such a plan and do nothing?

Fifth, if Milosevic, Serbia or Yugoslavia wanted to get rid of all Albanians, why did they choose this particularly awkward moment - when OSCE verifiers were roaming around every corner of Kosovo, being the ears and eyes in the region. (Yugoslavia had discontinued an OSCE mandate already in 1992 in response to OSCE's suspension of its membership of OSCE). Why did it let the Kosovo-Albanian leader Dr. Rugova and his followers hold elections, set up a government, travel unrestrictedly in and out of the country, and build parallel institutions and why did it let the KLA develop since 1993 to the extent that it could occupy and control about 30% of territory of Yugoslavia last autumn? It could have prevented all of this. Sixth, how come that neither the OSCE mission nor any of the numerous humanitarian organizations in Kosovo warned the world that such an incredibly big and inhuman plan was about to be implemented?

Seventh, if NATO and the intelligence services of leading NATO countries which have been in the region all the time knew about such a plan from about October last year - when US super-negotiator Richard Holbrooke struck the deal with Milosevic - why did NATO not make a better planning of the present air campaign? Diplomatically speaking, it looks a bit confused and unplanned.

I think NATO's leaders owe us some good answers to these 7 questions. In contrast," says Dr. Oberg, "there is evidence that the US and NATO did know that the bombing could create havoc. On record we have facts like these: