From: comvox at flash.net To: owner-lbo-talk-digest at lists.panix.com (lbo-talk-digest) Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 15:39:10 -0500
With respect to the recent HRW report "Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo", it seems to be being misrepresented:
--It specifically says that it is restricting its investigation of Serbian and Yugoslav government crimes to the period of NATO's air compaign, not that it is investigating earlier government activitiy. It does mention, however, that "Serious violations of international humanitarian law had accompanied all previous government offensives,."
--it talks about a specific campaign of expulsion of Kosovars, so I don't know how one can conclude from this that the NATO bombing was the main reason for the refugee crisis.
Some excerpts from the report's "executive summary" is included below:
"This report documents torture, killings, rapes, forced expulsions, and other war crimes committed by Serbian
and Yugoslav government forces against Kosovar Albanians between March 24 and June 12, 1999, the
period of NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia. The report reveals a coordinated and systematic
campaign to terrorize, kill, and expel the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo that was organized by the highest levels
of the Serbian and Yugoslav governments in power at that time. "
And, with respect to the refugee crisis, it talks of expulsions and says that:
"No one predicted the speed and scale of the expulsions. Within three weeks of the start of NATO bombing,
525,787 refugees from Kosovo had flooded the neighboring countries, according to the United Nation High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). All told, government forces expelled 862,979 ethnic Albanians from
Kosovo, and several hundred thousand more were internally displaced, in addition to those displaced prior
to March 1999. More than 80 percent of the entire population of Kosovo-90 percent of Kosovar
Albanians-were displaced from their homes."
And it adds that: "The forced expulsion was well organized, which suggests that it had been planned in advance. "
--Joseph Green comvox at flash.net
On 29 Oct 01, at 11:03, lbo-talk-digest wrote:
> Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 09:10:02 -0500
> From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Subject: Milo
>
> [A lurking listmember sent me this after reading the HRW report
> rather than posting it because of fear of being labeled a "genocide
> denier."]
>
> It appears to me that this report shows:
>
> -- Milo's crimes, at least the ones reported here, occurred after the
> start of the bombing
>
................................................................
>
> - -- and (we already know) that the Kosovar refugee crisis was largely a
> response to the bombing and/or crimes escalated against that population as
> a result of the bombing.
>