austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil

254 THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL
about the "kind" intent of the USA (and NATO) to stop the alleged
atrocities of the Serb "bad guys" in the Kosovo province of Yugosla­
via, there had actually been very little evidence of Serb atrocities or
human rights violations committed against the Albanian ethnic popu­
lation there (Johnstone, 2000). In addition, although a terrorist civil
war was launched in Kosovo by the USA-backed Kosovo Liberation
Army (KLA), which was financed by the Albanian mafia, the CIA, and
German "intelligence" (Independent Commission of Inquiry, 1999),
allegations of mass murders in Kosovo by the Serbs have been dis­
proved (Dunkel, 1999). In fact, only 2108 bodies have been found in
"mass graves," which contain people of all nationalities who appear to
have died from many possible causes, including from the acts of ter­
rorism committed by the KLA (Catalinotto, 2000a). The KLA, many
of whose leaders "trace their roots to a fascist unit set up" by Axis
occupiers during World War II (Feinberg, 2000), had long engaged in
a strategy of threatening and assassinating Albanians participating in
Yugoslav elections and other democratic processes in order to create the
appearance of repression (Johnstone, 2000).
Regardless, any Serb atrocities in Kosovo that did exist should be
seen in the light of Hitler's forcing Serbs out ofKosovo in the 1940s in
order to create a Greater Albanian puppet state (at the time when the
Serbs were a majority there) and in light of the KLA's 1998 terrorist
attacks on Serbs, gypsies, and non-Albanian Muslims (Wilson, l999c).
It was within this context that NATO conducted its 1999 terrorist bombings,
which deliberately attacked civilian targets but almost ignored
the Serb military (Wilson, l999d), and which directly killed thousands
of civilians but only 571 Serb soldiers and police (Independent Com­
mission of Inquiry, 1999). Western investigators indicated that the
NATO bombers hit just 14 tanks and 18 artillery/mortar pieces, and that
"Bombing civilian targets worked best" (Catalinotto, 2000b ). Newsweek
(2000) reported that although "air power was effective in the Kosovo
war not against military targets but against civilian ones, military plan·
ners do not like to talk frankly about terror-bombing civilians ('stra·
tegic targeting' is the preferred euphemism)." Given NATO's deliber·
ate targeting of facilities vital to civilian life (Becker, 1999b ), including
attempts to eliminate healthy food and water supplies in Kosovo
via NATO bombing of the power and transportation networks, the mas·
CHAPTER 7 255
sive exodus of civilians out ofKosovo during NATO's terror bombings
(including 70,000 Serb civilians going to Serbia and hundreds of thousands
of Albanians going to Albania) may have saved many lives, as
evidenced by the frightful living conditions created there by the bombing
(Independent Commission of Inquiry, 1999). Even "the Western
media now admit that the vast majority of refugees who left Kosovo last
spring were fleeing the U.S. bombing" (Workers World, 2000a).
On the other hand, the forcing of 250,000 Serbs and other people
(including many gypsies and non-Albanian Muslims as well as some
Albanians who don't support the KLA) out of Kosovo later in 1999
under NATO occupation (via continued terrorist KLA attacks which
have killed over 500 people in the ethnic cleansing process that NATO
occupation forces have made no meaningful attempt to stop) can in
no way be seen as defensive (Chin, 1999) or justified (Pearl, 1999a).
Moreover, Kosovo Albanian terrorists have already begun making fre­
quent terrorist attacks on targets in Serbia itself with the apparent tacit
approval of the NATO occupation force in Kosovo (Block, 1999a).
In addition, the KLA, which represents "a Balkan criminal network
responsible for over 20 percent of Europe's heroin imports" (Goff,
2000), is no doubt benefiting from the opening of the sex-slave trade
in Kosovo under NATO occupation (Feinberg, 2000). However, the
mainstream Western press continues to largely ignore these facts � d
even has the audacity (without fear of losing credibility with a beam­
washed audience) to blame the destruction of the civilian infrastruc­
ture in Kosovo and Yugoslavia on "lack of maintenance" by the . Serbs
(Associated Press, 1999e ). In reality, despite NATO's "destructton of
Serbia's electrical network," it was NATO-occupied Kosovo, and not
Serbia, that had to endure electrical outages and water shortages nearly
a year after the NATO bombings (Citjakovic, 2000).
Although the mainstream media virtually ignored the existence of
s �bstantial mineral wealth in Kosovo (including the largest lead � nd
Zinc mines in Europe as well as sizable coal deposits, not to mentton
cadmiu m, gold, and silver), access to that wealth certainly represented
one motivation for the USA/NATO seizure of the territory (Fiound � �·
I�Sa). The USA/NATO's unstated purpose in the 1999 war to � tb­
�ly OCCupy and seize that wealthy area of Yugoslavia is espect � lly
evtdent from the fact that all offers by Yugoslavia before and dunng