De la querella presentada por RAmsey Clark ex fiscal general de Estados Unidos contra los líderes OTAN por crímenes de guerra:

LA financiación por parte de la OTAN del grupo terrorista "Ejército de liberación de Kosovo"

Chapter 2. NATO’s sponsorship of the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)

By Keith Pavlik, San Francisco

We charge that the governments of the United States and other NATO powers did collude in the promotion of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a terrorist force with the intent of overthrowing the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) within the autonomous province of Kosovo.

We will show that the actions of these governments provided economic, military and political assistance to the KLA, which is not a bona fide opposition force. With the tacit approval of the U.S. and other countries, the KLA has participated in massive drug trafficking, brutal repression of all populations within Kosovo, and has carried out atrocities upon civilian populations which amount to the ethnic cleansing the U.S. and NATO supposedly oppose.

During NATO bombing, there was a reciprocal relationship between NATO and the KLA with one acting as an air force, and the other a ground force. Actions by KFOR (the NATO occupation force in Kosovo) have enabled the KLA to assume a defacto authority in the province since the withdrawal of FRY troops, in violation of the agreement reached with the FRY.

Given that the KLA has no publicized political program, doctrine, or philosophy, it is difficult to pinpoint its exact emergence and the circumstances surrounding it’s founding. The KLA was never an organization like the liberation armies that are well known around the world. It never had a recognized leadership. It never even had a spokesperson until last year. It never issued any documents or statements of purpose. It doesn’t even have a newspaper or magazine. (1)

But what is known, is that from the moment the KLA emerged, the U.S. was scheming with other NATO powers to use it as a weapon in it’s desire to further dismember the FRY. It is now currently poised to become the de facto government of Kosovo.

While an opposition movement promoting the independence of Kosovo has existed for years, it was specifically a non-violent movement, led by Ibrahim Rugova. Towards the end of 1992, it was announced that a mysterious "Kosovo Liberation Army" had been set up. (2)

It was not until the February 11, 1996 attacks on five refugee camps in Krajina that the KLA was known to exist, yet still secretly. (3)  This attack for which the KLA claimed credit, was only to be the first in a string of terror attacks on the civilian populations of all nationalities. (4)

In 1997, the KLA set up rapid action units, of several hundred men each. In one year it carried out 14 attacks in Kosovo and one in Macedonia. In November, 1997, the first public appearance of the KLA took place at Skendaraj Cemetery.

In February, 1998, the KLA launched its first major military offensive in Drenica. It was able to secure approximately 30% of the area, and banned all political parties in the "liberated" villages, and attacked Serb, Romani, and goran minorities. (5)

In response to the KLA attacks, FRY troops mounted a counter-offensive. A massive month-long offensive in August, 1998, severely weakened the KLA, and the UN called for a cease-fire. (6)  It was not until the military advances of the FRY on the KLA that an outcry for a cease-fire was begun by the U.S. amongst its imperialist allies.

The Yugoslav military counter-offensive continued, and on September 24, 1998, an Italian news service reported that "In recent weeks, Serb security forces have been successful in clearing areas formerly controlled by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). (7)

On this date, the UN Security Council approved a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire. It is worth noting that only China abstained from voting for the resolution. It is conceivable that the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was retribution for this act of resistance to the U.S.

By October, 1998, the U.S. had manipulated other European governments into providing a cover for direct U.S. and NATO intervention in Kosovo through the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). On October 16, the OSCE had secured agreement with the FRY to deploy the mission. The previous day, NATO under threat of war had pressured the FRY into agreeing to sign the OSCE accord.

On October 25, the OSCE established the Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM), and appointed as its director, William Walker of the U.S. The KVM under Walker would prove to be the protection needed by the KLA to regroup and flourish with the direct protection of NATO forces.

The KVM was to monitor the withdrawal of FRY forces from many of the areas previously controlled by the KLA. This would be monitored from the air as well as on the ground. A NATO press release described the Air Verification Agreement (AVA) as allowing NATO aircraft "free reign" over Kosovo, and according to Pentagon spokesperson Ken Bacon "essentially requires Serbia to give up control of it’s airspace." (8)  It is suspected that this air verification provided NATO with much of the reconnaissance necessary for its 78 day bombing war.

The KVM also allowed for the return of the Kosovo Diplomatic Mission (KDOM). Bacon declared that KDOM will grow to more than double, with "more eyes and ears on the ground telling us what is going on."   (9)  This information was sure to make its way to the KLA ground forces operating in Kosovo.

On the surface, the KVM agreement was supposed to draw lines between where FRY and KLA forces would operate. However, a State Department briefing on Ocotber 28, 1998 showed the true character of the KVM. Spokesperson Jamie Rubin referred to Walker as having the job of "holding President Milosevic’s feet to the fire" and continued in a reference to State Department senior advisor Jim O’Brien as "trying to pull the necessary teeth" from President Milosevic to get progress on Kosovo. (10)

Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy said in the briefing "What has been agreed to by Belgrade represents enormous concessions, (11) possibly referring to the opening made for the KLA to regroup and rearm. To insure such a scenario, Holbrooke went on to say "Secondly, the police will be – local Albanian police – will be trained and advised by OSCE."   (12)   So begins the transition of power to the KLA from the FRY.

Holbrooke confirms this later in the briefing in response to a question that "Shaun Byrnes (State Dept.) has been in constant contact at the checkpoints and in the field with KLA commanders," (13) thereby establishing the KLA as a party to the KVM.

However, the KVM imposed no restrictions on the KLA, only on the FRY. The KLA was never required to agree to be responsible for the safety of the KVM monitors. That task was solely the responsibility of the FRY, even in areas run by the KLA where the FRY was forbidden by the agreement to operate. This situation was designed to allow for the amassing of NATO troops in neighboring Macedonia.

Richard Holbrooke admitted as much to the press when he said "And I wish to stress, we did not ask any Albanians to sign anything or agree to anything,"   (14)   thereby absolving the KLA of any responsibilities. This created a situation where any provocation the KLA committed could be manipulated in a way as to hold the FRY responsible, and serve as the pretext for an invasion of "extraction" troops.

It is clear that this situation was consciously designed. Western diplomats were quoted in an Associated Press report as saying "There are bound to be infractions of the cease-fire…. What cannot be tolerated are violations that interfere with the political process of resolving the ethnic Albanians grievances.  (15)

It would appear that William Walker appeared on the scene, ready to undertake a thankless task as a lowly ambassador, piloting a team of unarmed observers. But who is Walker, and who are the 2,000 KVM verifiers?

William Walker is "a U.S. State Department veteran who directed the dirty war against El Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1980’s and lied about every aspect of it."  (16)

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), indicating the willingness of the U.S. to support the KLA said "I don’t think we have to do a background check any more than we did on the contras."   (17)  It was no accident that McConnell drew the comparison between the Nicaraguan contras and the KLA. Now Walker was in place to use the KLA to wreak terror on the population of Kosovo as he used the contras to terrorize Nicaraguans and their Sandinista government.

As to the composition of the KVM team, Walker declared at a State Department conference "Sizable numbers have military backgrounds,    (18)  a lesser number, but also a sizable number, have police backgrounds." Now NATO not only had its representatives on the ground with the KLA, but had the resources to protect and promote it.

Over the next several months, the KLA operated with veritable freedom, while the FRY troops were limited and monitored. It is during this period, under the protection of the KVM that the KLA flourished.

A July, 1998 news program showed former members of the U.S. military training the KLA in Albania. Britain’s SAS ran KLA training camps, as cited by the London Times. (19)

Canadian MP David Price said "KLA has been provided with a long-term training deal with the Military and Professional Resources International (MPRI), a mercenary training company run by American officers."  (20)

MPRI was contracted by the Pentagon to organize and train the army of the break-away Croatian Republic, which is acknowledged to have carried out the most vicious campaign in the Balkans since the Nazi invasion in the 1940’s – the August 1995 offensive against Serbian farmers in the Krajina region.  (21) 

The Croatian Army has confirmed that several of its generals have taken leave to work with the KLA. In fact, the top military commander of the KLA is Gen. Agim Ceku, a Croatian general who had abandoned his post with the Yugoslav Army to allow Croatia to breakaway from the FRY. Ceku was then trained by the U.S.  (23)

So who makes up the KLA, (22) and how are they funded? As with most bands likely funded by the CIA, this topic is obfuscated by the establishment media.

Accusations range from their being former communists to having links to the Albanian fascists which reigned with the Axis during World War II. It is worth noting that the KLA has adopted the uniform of the fascist occupiers of the region during WWII, and has backing from the U.S., Germany and Israel.  (24)

Reports Foreign Affairs Magazine, the KLA in Kosovo is "led by the sons and grandsons of rightist Albanian fighters." He continues by saying that the KLA leaders in exile don’t say they are Marxist. He quotes Jakup Krasniqi, identified as a KLA commander, as declaring "I do not think we have an ideology."   (25)  This perspective is indicative of most mercenary forces.

But where does the KLA get their shock troops for NATO? It is widely reported that many are Albanian (not Kosovar) expatriates, or the children and grandchildren of immigrants. They come from the capitals of Europe, to fight for a greater Albanian nation-state, not for the "independence" of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

In Yonkers, NY, a group of more than 300 Albanian-Americans, most born in the U.S., assembled to be transported to the Balkans to join the KLA. (26)  It should be noted that it is against U.S. law for a U.S. national to enlist in a foreign army. Despite the prominence of this information in the New York Times, there was no mention of the illegality, nor comment by the U.S. State or Treasury Departments which enforce these laws.

The KLA issued orders for all Kosovo Albanian men age 18 to 50 to join its ranks. Coercion is widespread, alluded to in a Washington Post story reprinted in the San Francisco Chronicle, quoting a 21-year-old refugee "They are stopping young guys. What can I do? But it’s all on fire there (Rogova), and we’ll get killed."   (27) 

An Associate Press report says, "It also was unclear how much coercion had been used to persuade men and boys to leave their families and report to make shift camps." It also said "If the men refuse to join the KLA, the general staff warned that the military police will act even outside of Kosovo." (28)

Like most mercenary forces, their numbers are relatively small, being unable to command loyalty from the majority of the population. Throughout the bombing war when more than a million refugees were purported to be driven out, the KLA never boasted more than 20,000 troops. The San Francisco Examiner estimates "that the KLA has only 10,000 to 15,000 fighters." (29)

Despite the onslaught of scenes on television from the refugee camps, this explains why so many able-bodied, young men and women were shown to be there. Most refugee camps during wars of liberation are devoid of young men, but not so in Kosovo.

Unable to command significant support from the population, it has been widely reported that the KLA is financed through a combination of drug trafficking, money from the Albanian diaspora, and links to foreign (NATO) governments. On the issue of drug trafficking for profit and an in-depth analysis of KLA financing, please see the Appendix attached by Michael Chossudovsky.

Foreign funding and materiel was the backbone of the KLA though in recent months. It was reported in the Washington Post that all the funds for the mercenary army come from abroad, mostly the U.S. The money is funneled through Albanian immigrant groups, the sort long-promoted by the CIA. (30)

Since March, the Post reported, the U.S. group has sent $4 million to the KLA. These are the openly reported funds. There is more "cash carried in suitcases" that hasn’t been disclosed. (31)

The article said the U.S. State Department has encouraged the transfer of funds to the KLA It is all legal, according to State Department spokesperson John Russell, because the KLA is not classified by the U.S. government as "terrorist."   (32)

After months of KVM operations protecting the KLA for a resurgence and gathering intelligence on the ground in preparation for war, a "massacre" was staged, setting off the hysteria for war.

On January 15, 1999, 24 KLA terrorists were killed in a battle in Racak. (33)  But William Walker quickly declared this to be a massacre, and brought the cries for war to a new pitch. Later, Finnish and other international forensic scientists confirmed the victims died in a battle.

Just weeks later, NATO using the pretext of this "massacre" started the bombing war. During this 78-day atrocity, there was a carefully planned coordination of efforts between NATO and the KLA. While much of the media indicated a tenuous relationship between the two, information buried in articles gave a clearer picture of the true association.

Both U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen and U.S. General Henry Shelton said that the goal of the U.S. military operation against Yugoslavia is a victory for the KLA.   (34)

Just days into the bombing, the New York Times reported on April 1 that the KLA was aiding NATO forces in bombing their own province. "The separatist insurgents are cooperating with NATO air-raid operations in targeting." (35)

Other news reports have appeared citing the use of expensive satellite phones in use by KLA members on the ground in Kosovo. The KLA became the de facto ground troops for NATO.

In a briefing aired May 11 on the MSNBC television network, a NATO general showed a map said to be the area of KLA military operations in Kosovo. Then he showed a map of where NATO’s bombings had been concentrated. The two maps matched almost exactly.   (36)

"The KLA Played Key Role" in the bombing proclaimed a sidebar article in the San Francisco Chronicle. "The Kosovo Liberation Army emerged as an important element of NATO’s strategy." It describes the KLA infiltrations as designed to bring FRY troops into the open to become targets for NATO bombs. (37)

An Op Ed article appearing in the New York Times urging that NATO formally arm the KLA in contradiction to international law proclaimed "NATO would certainly be justified in acting as the air force of the Kosovo rebels. The rebels would provide the ground forces that NATO’s helicopters and aircraft need to be effective."  (38)

Reciprocally, the KLA played the role of the underdog in the war. The repeated pleas for arms and assistance belied what was really going on. "(The) KLA will help NATO to have as few casualties as possible," said KLA spokesperson Gani Sulaj. (39)

Perhaps the most treacherous role the KLA has played, is that of a terrorist squad to be used against its own people, the civilian populations of all nationalities, including ethnic Albanians. Reports of kidnappings, murders, and intimidation have been rampant throughout its history. Since the NATO occupation of Kosovo, the KLA has been allowed to run rampant in killing and terrorizing, especially the Serb and Roma minorities.

A small article in the New York Times reports the murder by the KLA of a leader of the its own eethnic Albanian community. "Fehmi Agani, a prominent politician and member of the Kosovo Albanian delegation at… (Rambouillet) was found dead today…. The aagency attributed the killing to rebels of the Kosovo Liberation Army. ‘Agani was held in isolaation by the so-called KLA in order to be prevented from participating in talks between (ethnic Albanian leader) Ibrahim Rugova and the Serbian Government.’"  (40)

But even more terrible than the repression and murderous retribution the KLA is reported to have carried out against opponents in the ethnic Albanian community before the bombing, is the role they have undertaken since. While NATO supposedly acted against the FRY to halt "ethnic cleansing," that is exactly what is taking place now.

"It is ethnic cleansing under cover of NATO" said a church leader in Pec of the "armed Albanian men in uniform." (41  "This is an ethnically clean town" sys Avni Lika, a KLA soldier of Kacanic.  (42)

This ethnic cleansing has been carried out through systematic murder, torture and rape committed by the KLA.

In Belo Polje, an 85 year-old woman "stood amid flames and destruction – apparently the last Serb remaining in what until a week ago was an all-Serbian village. She described the rape and slaying of her 30-year-old, mentally ill daughter.

"She said two armed ethnic Albanians in unifor --- she described the green uniform and red patch of the Kosovo Liberation Army – came to her house Saturday afternoon and tied up the daughter by the arms and legs.

"’I tried to defend her,’ Miric said, blood crusted on her mouth and a bruise swelling beneath her eye where she said they clubbed her away. They raped the daughter then stabbed her to death, she said." ( 43) Italian soldiers discovered the body in the house.

Looting of Serbian homes takes place while "Men in KLA uniforms drove up and down the dirt roads of the village, watching the looting. NATO soldiers at the village did not stop the mayhem."  (44)

An Associated Press article as recently as July y15 reported "Since the NATO-led peacekeeping force KFOR arrived June 12, there have been scores of ethnic Albanian attacks on minority Serbs as well as Gypsies, or Roma, whom the Albanians say supported the Serbs. Many people have been forced from their homes, which often have been burned in their wake.

"KFOR found bodies of Serbs and Roma who had allegedly been detained by the KLA at one site" according to a UN spokesman. (45)

A New York Times article flagged "The Peacekeepers," reports three Roma had led German soldiers to where they had been tortured by the KLA, 130 of whom lived in the building. A German general confirms finding instruments of torture.  (46)

While these incidents are directly aimed at civilians in Kosovo, it is the bigger picture that NATO has in mind while tacitly allowing them to take place. It is the goal of NATO to allow the KLA to consolidate its control, for the purposes of further dismembering Yugoslavia. In this way, NATO countries can then freely exploit the labor and resources of Kosovo, previously organized under a socialist economy.

At the end of the bombing, NATO supposedly entered into an agreement with the KLA to disarm. But this was dismissed even before it was agreed to. NATO spokesperson Jamie Shea announced in June 18 that is will not be possible in the short term to convince KLA members and other Kosovars to relinquish the millions of small arms in their possession. (47)

These arms are intended not only to be used against the population, but to allow the KLA to be established as the authority of "civilian" control, and extending to a formal army. The New York Times reported on June 17 "In town after town, including the capital Pristina, the guerrillas’ presence has grown each day, with their red and black flags adorning ‘official’ buildings and their armed soldiers openly patrolling buildings."  (48)

A San Francisco Chronicle article from just July 29 was headlines "Guerrillas Take Charge in Kosovo, Without UN Police Force, KLA is Calling the Shots."    (49)  The article continues to describe how "The Kosovo Liberation Army has taken sweeping political control in Kosovo, establishing a network of self-appointed ministries and local councils, seizing businesses and apartments" in the absence of NATO opposition.

This is despite a mandate by NATO that the UN would appoint a civilian authority. The article describes how government buildings are being patrolled by armed KLA members, who equip the offices through fascist raids on businesses and civilians.

After the NATO imposed deadline an KLA "disarmament" had passed the New York Times reported "The KLA is holding back a lot of stuff…" NATO Officers said the weapons turned in were clearly a fraction of what the KLA had, but declared they "do not yet have the will to go hunt them down."   (50)  As long as the KLA carries out NATO’s goals, they will be allowed to remain armed.

With the support of NATO, KLA Gen. Ceku seeks to form a "defensive army" with an "intervention unit" patterned after the U.S. National Guard.   (51)   It is just this sort of force than can leave NATO with ultimate power, but with a local cover for their aims.

A relatively hidden motive by NATO is the desire to gain control of Kosovo’s rich natural resources for profit. This can be done only through a compliant governing force, which the Milosevic government was not.

The spoils of war NATO is interested in include privatizing mines, power plants, factories, and the rest of Kosovo’ seconomic infrastructure. And the KLA is doing that for them.

One of the first acts of the KLA after the bombing was to sieze a mine at Dobre Selo. The mine is a critical link in Kosovo’s electrical grid. (52)  A British government web page boldly adverti