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OK. A couple things. Lot of problems with Kosovo. As of now, I've read the Ramboulliet document, and found Appendix B read more like an ultimatum than anything Milosevic could possibly accept. In U.S. Relations with Sudan (video link at the top, no transcript available as of my last access), a roundtable discussion held by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I believe I heard mention of the Serbs having prepositioned earthmoving equipment intended for digging mass graves quickly. I hadn't known that before, but evidently this was used at his trial to indicate intention. I don't know if that's true.

As yet, I have no position on Kosovo, I simply don't know enough. I await the arrival of Just War or Just Peace?: Humanitarian Intervention and International Law, which has lots to say about Kosovo, and I'll need to get my hands on the Kosovo Report.

But wow, what a comment! 4 stars.

"It Can't Be Just About Us"
--Frank Schnittger, ETian Extraordinaire

by papicek (papi_cek_at_hotmail_dot_com) on Mon Mar 9th, 2009 at 05:50:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Just to be clear, Appendix B was put in there AFTER the Serbs had capitulated to all EU, US and NATO demands. The Serbs agreed to move all police, military, gov't officials out of Kosovo, to cede control of Kosovo. This was the opening negotiating point, and the Serbs agreed to the demand. Amazingly, Hashim Thaci rejected the proposal. Albright and Jamie Rubin turned beet red  at the meeting. Albright then walked out into the hallway with Thaci and Rubin, and Thaci still refused to agree.

When the meetings reconvened a day later, Appendix B was on the table. It demanded that NATO also have complete control of Serbia proper, not only Kosovo. That's the stuff that never makes it into the history books.

As for earth digging machines, I treat such reports with a dose of skepticism, which is a pity since I'm sure such machines were put into use. Obviously, people were killed. But, we have to remember, during the Kosovo War, William Cohen claimed 200,000 Albanian men were being held at a soccer stadium. Later he said that 100,000 men had been killed and dumped into the Trepca mines. NATO attacked passenger trains, and when video footage of the event was shown, NATO deliberately sped up the footage 4X to make the attack seem like an accident. Operation Horseshoe itself (supposedly a Serb plan to eliminate all Albanians in Kosovo, even though the word for Horseshoe revealed in the documents was a Croatian word, not a Serb one) was ultimately proven to be a plan hatched by German intelligence. The Racak massacre was uncovered to be a fraud by the UN forensic teams investigating it, which comes as no surprise since the massacre itself was discovered by the notorious CIA agent William Walker and his team. One wonders how an earth removal machine was found when NATO bombers and satellite imagery could not tell Serb military trucks apart from cardboard cutouts (a trick the Serbs learned from Saddam in their unholy alliance with him). 95% of Serb military vehicles rolled out of Kosovo much to the shock of Western military analysts who assumed that much damage had been inflicted. In short, you can't trust anyone in a propaganda war.

by Upstate NY on Mon Mar 9th, 2009 at 06:50:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I hadn't known that about Appendix B, thank you. I had come across one mention of the document and after accessing it online, tabled the whole issue of Kosovo to focus more on Sudan. Which, if you recall, is where I began this. (You guys are killing me with Kosovo. I should have resisted the temptation to blog in response to the Bashir warrants until I was ready.)

I had read about the German hand in Operation Horseshoe, even Wikikpedia mentions it.

I'm wondering now if I can get my hands on the Milosevic trial transcript.

Hmmmmm. . . .

"It Can't Be Just About Us"
--Frank Schnittger, ETian Extraordinaire

by papicek (papi_cek_at_hotmail_dot_com) on Mon Mar 9th, 2009 at 07:50:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Uhm, transcriptS...hundreds of them.

Indictments, trial decisions, trial orders, trial judgements...APPEALS CHAMBER DECISIONS, Appeals Chamber Orders, President's Orders, Prosecution Documents, Registry Decisions, and Reports. All publicly available, as it should be.

This is a whole cottage industry they've got going there.

"It Can't Be Just About Us"
--Frank Schnittger, ETian Extraordinaire

by papicek (papi_cek_at_hotmail_dot_com) on Mon Mar 9th, 2009 at 08:11:40 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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