Deliberate bombing of Chinese Embassy

Chris Burford cburford at gn.apc.org
Sun Oct 17 15:46:46 PDT 1999


At 12:47 17/10/99 +0100, you wrote:
>Nato bombed Chinese deliberately
>
>Nato hit embassy on purpose
>Kosovo: special report
>
>John Sweeney and Jens Holsoe in Copenhagen and Ed Vulliamy in Washington
>Sunday October 17, 1999

Quite a story. I would have forwarded it myself, if I had not had problems with access to the Guardian/Observer site.

I have to say that Ed Vulliamy is one of the best investigative reporters of the independent Guardian newspaper group. I see from the archives of LBO that on Sunday May 9th Doug forwarded an article also by Ed Vulliamy, predicting the possible break up of the NATO alliance as a result of this attack.

However it reported a particularly strong statement from the Pentagon, which is interesting in retrospect.


>>
But following overnight consultations, Nato gritted its teeth in the face of the outcry, and refused to call off the bombing campaign.

Giving the Pentagon's first official reaction, spokesman Kenneth Bacon said: 'I do not anticipate a pause, indeed, I anticipate an intensification.'

Bacon added that the night of ferocious bombardments, of which the Chinese embassy mistake was a part, gave a 'pretty good idea' of what the Serbs could expect from now on. But the attacks would run in tandem with the drive towards a diplomatic solution. <<

It also reported the Chinese saying the bombing was deliberate. This would be consistent with the wave of national protests in China that followed the bombing and their refusal to accept it was an accident.

Today's report said that each night the Chinese Embassy was emptied of personnel. That presumably could be speculation by western sources who provided the other evidence, and the claim that two of the dead Chinese were intelligence officers. A Yugoslav spokesperson on the night of the attack said 26 Chinese people were taken to hospital. We have clearly still not heard the full picture. If the story is true, both the US and Chinese governments subsequently concealed the key detail that the Chinese Embassy was rebroadcasting Yugoslav signals traffic.

Today Robin Cook on television said he knew of no evidence in support of the Observer report. It would be interesting if Alistair Campbell knew of any evidence. Also if he did *not* know of any evidence in view of the reports I posted a bit earlier from the BBC2 programme, "How the war was spun."

The Observer article alleges that the attack on the embassy was done by the US alone, outside the NATO structure.

It is good that serious investigative reporting is taking place so soon after the war. It may limit the scope for other wars.

Chris Burford

London



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