I recently spoke with the State Department correspondent for Agence France Presse. He told how on a plane trip with Madeleine Albright and selected journalists in March, just before the bombing, a reporter kept asking her to comment on what the Italians were saying. What, you might ask, were the Italians saying? They were screaming and pleading with the NATO leaders to consider the fact that bombing Serbia would create a massive refugee crisis and escalate the atrocities committed against the Kosovo Albanians.
What was Albright's response? According to the AFP guy, she just sort of waved her hand and dismissed the question. Now, that doesn't mean she and the other planners were dismissing these concerns behind closed doors. The day before the bombing started, Steven Erlanger of the Times asked a senior U.S. official whether he thought the bombing "could unleash worse attacks by the Serbs against the ethnic Albanians." The U.S. official replied: "That is our greatest concern by far -- by far."
After the peace agreement was reached in June, the Times ran a retrospective story on the war, including that quote -- this time naming the official who said it: he was Richard Holbrooke, the cheif rival of Madeleine Albright within the State Department.
So we can conclude that behind closed doors, the leaders of your humanitarian campaign were having heated discussions about the very high likelihood that their war would cause the very war crimes you are now rightly decrying. Their response: "So fucking what."
I think you should focus more on that.
Seth
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chris Burford [SMTP:cburford at gn.apc.org]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 1999 3:08 AM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Re: Operacija Potkovica claimed systematic
>
> I actually altered the thread title to include the word "claimed" to
> take
> into account the very point that Enrique Diaz-Alvarez makes. However
> the
> Observer is a shrewd investigative paper.
>
> Do any serious leftists now doubt that crimes against humanity were
> committed by Serbian troops with the systematic aid of fascists, in
> defence
> of the sovereignty of a Christian nation to expel up to a million
> muslim
> inhabitants?
>
> The Serbian Orthodox church itself is now almost explitly criticising
> the
> regime on this point.
>
> The conscientious self-censorship of some sections of the left on this
> question is similar to the processes that excused the crimes against
> humanity that so damaged the name of socialism in other countries.
>
> Chris Burford
>
> London
>
>
>
>
> At 09:07 28/06/99 -0400, you wrote:
> >Chris Burford wrote:
> >>
> >> Seized Serb documents link Milosevic to mass killings
> >>
> >> John Sweeney in Pristina
> >> Sunday June 27, 1999
> >> The Observer
> >>
> >> Hundreds of documents uncovered after the Yugoslav army retreated
> prove
> >> that the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo was meticulously planned and
> ordered
> >> from Belgrade.
> >>
> >
> >Mr. Sweeney reports as fact information for which the only source is
> >NATO and the ELK. Particularly since it seems that he hasn't actually
> >seen the documents, and is simply taking a NATO spy's word for it.
> >
> >"There is no single 'smoking gun', but it is understood that, taken
> >together, the documents will enable war crimes investigators to nail
> >dozens
> >of army officers and police commanders to massacre sites."
> >
> >Ho ho ho. "it is understood". I remember when you could buy a Spanish
> >edition of Pravda back in the 80s. Lot's of hilarious stuff like
> that.
> >
> >All in all, another appalling piece of propaganda disguised as
> >journalism. Western media has not bothered to even maintain an
> >appearance of propriety in this splendid little war.
> >
> >
> >--
> >Enrique Diaz-Alvarez Office # (607) 255 5034
> >Electrical Engineering Home # (607) 272 4808
> >112 Phillips Hall Fax # (607) 255 4565
> >Cornell University mailto:enrique at ee.cornell.edu
> >Ithaca, NY 14853 http://peta.ee.cornell.edu/~enrique
> >
> >