Page 973 - Kosovo Metohija Heritage

stration in Belgrade against Milošević in defiance of elec- tions widely known to have been fixed. Under Milošević’s regime, atrocities were committed by Yugoslav police against the ethnic albanians in Kosovo: atrocities which stood in stark contrast to the time—still remembered by many of the older albanians and Serbs from the region—when the two peoples lived together peacefully. Throughout the con- flict, Patriarch Pavle called for justice against crimes on both sides.
To pious Orthodox Serbs, the violence against inno- cent albanian civilians was deplorable. They considered the instigator of this violence, President Milošević, as “the greatest traitor against the Serbian people,” not a true (i.e. Orthodox) Serb at all but a political opportunist and a hold- over from the brutal Communist Yoke. it is true that Milo- šević’s military action in Kosovo was initially provoked by terrorist attacks of albanian extremists against Yugoslav authorities and Serb civilians in Kosovo, but by including innocent albanian civilians as targets of his retaliatory war on terrorism, he added sin to sin. One cannot fight evil with evil means to expect good to come out.
The Bishop of Kosovo, artemije, made several trips to the United States and Western europe prior to the war with a proposal for a future multi-ethnic and democratic Koso- vo. Unfortunately his plea was not received by those who had the authority to effect change.
Recently the american public has begun to become aware that for several years there has been a connection between the Bosnian Muslim forces that fought in the Bos- nian Civil War against the Serbs (1992–1995), the Kosovo Liberation army (KLa) of albanian extremists, and the now-infamous Osama bin Laden. in 1992 bin Laden and his “al Qaeda” terrorist network began to send afghan- trained mujahideen (“holy warriors”) into the Balkans to fight for an islamic stronghold in europe. The following year bin Laden was issued a special Bosnian passport, which helped him to set up a base of operations in europe. ac- cording to the Wall Street journal europe (Nov. 1, 2001), “Bin Laden directed al Qaeda ’senior commanders’ to in- corporate the Balkans into a complete southeastern ap- proach to europe, an area stretching from the Caucasus to italy” al Qaeda terrorist training camps were set up in Bos- nia and albania, from which bin Laden’s mujahideen were sent to fight, first in Bosnia and then in Kosovo. in 1994 bin Laden visited a terrorist camp in Zenica, Bosnia, and in 1996 and 1997 he visited albania, where he recruited alba- nian Muslims to fight with the KLa in Kosovo. in the mean- time, the KLa was being funded by bin Laden, al Qaeda terrorist cells were being set up in Kosovo, and Kosovo was being used as the Balkan route for the heroin trafficking that funded (and continues to fund) both the KLa and the al Qaeda network.4
4 Marcia Christoff Kurop. “al Qaeda’s Balkan Links,” Wall street Journal Europe, Nov. 1, 2001.
a Disaster of U.S. Foreign Policy
By 1998 the KLa was officially described as “islamic ter- rorists” by Robert Gelbard, america’s special envoy to Bos- nia. “Nonetheless, “states the Wall Street journal, “the 25,000 strong KLA continued to receive official NATO/ U.S. arms and training support and, at the talks in Ram- bouillet, France, then Secretary of State Madeleine albright shook hands with ’freedom fighter’ Hashim Thaci, a KLa leader.”5 On March 12, 2000, The Sunday Times, London reported that “american intelligence agents have admitted they helped to train the KLa before NaTO’s bombing of Yugoslavia... Cia officers were cease-fire monitors in Ko- sovo in 1998 and 1999, developing ties with the KLa and giving american military training manuals and field advice on fighting the Yugoslav army and Serbian police... Many satellite telephones and global positioning systems were secretly handed over to the KLa, ensuring that the guerrilla commanders could stay in touch with NaTO and Wash- ington. Several KLa leaders had the mobile phone num- ber of General Wesley Clark, the NaTO commander.”
During the NATO/U.S. bombing of Kosovo and Serbia in 1999, KLa forces inside Kosovo included U.S. military Special Forces, as well as British Special Forces.6 at the same time, as reported by the head of the albanian intelli- gence service Fatos Klosi, Osama bin Laden was sending more units to join the KLa forces in Kosovo.7 according to a report recently issued from interpol, one of bin Lad- en’s senior lieutenants was the commander of an elite KLa unit operating in Kosovo during the war.8
in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, which has been linked to Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda network, the relationship between the U.S. (specifically the Clinton ad- ministration) and the KLa points to a disaster of U.S. for- eign policy. as early as january 26, 1999, The Washington Times printed the following: “U.S. policy in the Balkans is worse than a crime-it is a blunder. Not only is america working against her own best interests by fostering a Mus- lim terrorist base in europe, it is defeating the purpose of its Balkan intervention. Ostensibly designed to promote stability in the region, american foreign policy is doing precisely the opposite by its support of Muslim revolu- tion.” On May 28, 1999, a few weeks after the bombing of Serbia ceased, the Daily Oklahoman made an observation that is now particularly painful in hindsight: “By joining hands with the KLa, which intelligence sources say bank-
5 Ibid.
6 Vojin joksimović, Kosovo Crisis (Los angeles, Graphics Man-
agement Press, 1999), pp. 75–76.
7 “Bin Laden Runs Terrorist Network, Report Says,” Charleston
Gazette, Nov. 30, 1998, p. 2a.
8 Preliminary Report from interpol, Oct. 23, 2001. Quoted in Scott
Taylor, “Signs Point to a Bin Laden-Balkan Link”, The Halifax Herald Limited, Oct. 29, 2001.
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