What Is NATO/KFOR Really Doing In Kosovo? – OpEd
By VOR
By John Robles
What exactly is NATO doing in Kosovo? Who or what are they protecting and what are they stationed there for? When we look at what they have been doing since June of 1999, in reality it does not look good.
We must not forget that NATO is a military organization and military organizations are designed for one thing, the legalized killing of the opponents of a state. No matter how noble NATO tries to paint itself it is an organization that should have been disbanded at the end of the cold war and it has in itself become one of the most destabilizing factors and causes of death and destruction in modern times.
We must also not forget that NATO operates as a proxy for the US in promoting US interests in areas of the world where the US can not rightfully interfere, although this in reality does little to stop them.
Putting aside for the moment the destruction of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and other countries obliterated by Western “intervention” let’s take a look for a moment at Kosovo.
What exactly is the US, I mean NATO, I mean KFOR, doing in Kosovo? What is their objective in the country? Who or what are they protecting and what are they stationed there for?
When we look at what they have been doing since June of 1999, in reality it does not look good.
Wanting to be fair and impartial when gathering material for this piece one of the first places I went to was their own site. Not surprisingly it is filled with the usual western catch phrases and pseudo reasoning that many in the West gobble up to justify the killing and destruction they wreak on the world. Words and phrases like multi-ethnic force, assistance to civil authorities, civil protection, and my favorite sentence, “KFOR is cooperating with and assisting the UN, the EU and other international actors, as appropriate, to support the development of a stable, democratic, multi-ethnic and peaceful Kosovo.” Sounds good, but it is poppycock.
First of all who are these “other international actors”? The drug dealers and traffickers in human organs? The Mafia killers? The US imperial paymasters? The US sponsored war criminals? As for a stable blah-blah multi-ethnic Kosovo, well, obviously that means one free of Serbs, and this my dear reader is what it is all about.
Let’s go back in time a bit to February 2008, this was the month when after protestors attacked the US Embassy in Belgrade, the former Bush Administration finally admitted after; starting two wars of aggression and the subsequent occupations of sovereign nations, the extensive use of torture, extraordinary renditions, the illegal prison at Guantanamo and extensive black sites worldwide, there was such a thing as international law.
The destruction, dismantling and dividing up of Yugoslavia into ethnically pure sections was the crowning achievement of Hillary’s husband, former president Bill Clinton, so the finally seal on the destruction of the former Yugoslavia, namely the “independence” of Kosovo, was something she wholeheartedly embraced. Like Hillary’s famous quote on the occasion of the death of Muammar Gaddafi, “…we came, we saw, he died” her statement on the occasion of Kosovo’s separation from Serbia also showed monumental callousness and complete disregard for human life and dignity.
Pretending to be so wise as to the local language, as her state department did with the “Overload” button disgrace, she used the Albanian word for Kosovo, “Kosova”, she referred to Kosovo by the Albanian “Kosova” and stated; “…it will allow the people of Kosova to finally live in their own democratic state. It will allow Kosova and Serbia to finally put a difficult chapter in their history behind them and to move forward.” The only problem, it was ripping the heart out of the Serbian people.
According to Nebojsa Malic at Global Research.ca there can be no doubt that the March 1999 attack on Yugoslavia was illegal, in an article the following articles, treaties and citations were listed.
Violated articles: Article 2, section 4 of the UN Charter clearly says: “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state…”
Article 53 (Chapter VIII ) of the UN Charter clearly says that: “…no enforcement action shall be taken under regional arrangements or by regional agencies without the authorization of the Security Council”.
From NATO’s own charter, the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949, Article 1:”The Parties undertake… to settle any international dispute… by peaceful means…”
Article 7: “This Treaty… shall not be interpreted as affecting… the rights and obligations under the Charter of the Parties which are members of the United Nations, or the primary responsibility of the Security Council for the maintenance of international peace and security.”
Other laws and treaties: the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 for violating the territorial integrity of a signatory state.
The 1980 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties for using coercion to compel a state to sign a treaty i.e., the Rambouillet ultimatum.
Finally Yugoslavia did not attack any NATO member nor was it a security threat to any country in the region. What NATO did on March 24, 1999 was a war of aggression and a crime against humanity.
So if the invasion was illegal, then obviously the ensuing occupation was as well and everything KFOR/NATO/US is doing there is also illegal.
So what does KFOR do in Kosovo? With an almost total and complete media blackout, and I have seen this with my own eyes, there is little news we receive from the area. However the reports we get are of the constant and methodical limitation to the freedom of movement and supplies to the Serbian population, in particular in Northern Kosovo, and reports of the continued practice of limiting Serbs to certain areas or ghettos making them refugees in their own country. This serves to ethnically cleanse and divide the country along ethnic and racial lines, like most American cities, a comparison that I can not help but make.
KFOR also protects, enables and provides support for the belligerent side they have chosen to support in this conflict. What are the reasons, they are many but one of the main ones is money, huge money, which has been filling KFOR coffers for years on end and according to countless media reports going back for years, from countless illicit sources. (That is a topic for a later discussion.)
On Friday there was another incident of KFOR opening fire, this time with rubber bullets, on peaceful Serbs as they blocked an important road and attempted to make Serbs accept Kosovo license plates for their cars, an obvious transparent attempt to make them recognize Kosovo as an independent entity.
A press release from the Raška-Prizren Eparchy stated that they are concerned about KFOR’s latest actions in northern Kosovo and stated “attempts to force the Serbs in the north to accept Kosovo license plates by using combat vehicles and blocking roads that are the main channel for supplies and medicines, are creating a serious humanitarian crisis that could have immense consequences”.
The Eparchy also strongly urged all sides to work constructively to find solutions that contribute to survival of the Serbian people in the entire territory of Kosovo and Metohija.
For the Serbian people, they are fighting for their very existence, for KFOR and the “West”, Kosovo is just another pawn in a filthy game of geopolitical influence and power. As soon as it is used up, or no longer needed, they will throw it away as well.
The opinions and views expressed here are the writer’s own.
Thank you for your article. I was surprised when US went against Serbia. I thought Serbia loved USA. This tells me that you never really know what anyone will do. Kosovo is the holy land of every Serb in the world.
Your total disregard of the Albanian majority in this situations is striking, in fact you did not mention them once! For any reader whith limited knowledge about the situation, I urge caution.
Although some of what you say is true, you gravly fail to give the readers an imparital view of the situation.
U.S did not break Yougoslavia, it broke under its own extreme nationalism which was supressed during Tito but was later manifested with great brutality in the actions of Milosovic (and others). In the begining of the 90s every Albanin became an illegal citizen, fired from their work, stripped of their human and civil rights, treated like second class citizens. The Albanians reacted like people react in those situation, the protested. I urge you to read som serious history.
Thats the background. When NATO bombed Serbia it did so not to help the Albanins, you are right, but to give a lesson to a state that did not listen to big brother. Quite siimply NATO does not care for human rights and life (if it did it would have bombed Turkey in 98 when they masacred thousands of kurds, insted U.S deliverd weapons to them). On the other hand the systematical massacre of Albanians which had started in the late 90s could eventually culiminate in Operation Horseshoe which still tickels the fantasies of extreme nationalists, maybe thats something to take under consideration in your critique?
I share John Robles views for being honest in his report.
Yes,you must know some Balkan history to be able to seperate the truth from myth.
As per my view,there are three Balkan countries who will never stop pretending their neighbors lands belong to them,they are Serbia,Bulgaria and Greece.
To make you understand my point of view,I will s
tart from the first Balkan war.
Greeces “Big Idea”was to invade Turkey and take Ankara with a claim of being Greek,as well as Belgrade and Sofia.This was the Greek docrin,and still is.
Serbia fought over Macedonian territory.
Bulgaria fought over Macedonia who after the division of Macedonia by the Big Powers France and Germany they re-started the Balkan war over the Macedonian language.Funny you might say?Well in 1925 Bulgaria threatend Greece of renewed war over the recognition of the Macedonian language by Greece.
Now about Kosovo,I have mixed feelings because of Serbias double standard.I feel Kosovo is Serbian territory and should not have been divided.From the other side of the coin,I say,thats good they lost some territory,made them find out how it feels to lose your own territory after years of domination of macedonian territory.
The two NATO and EU member countries Bulgaria and Greece are the woest countries in human rights.Neither one of them recognizes the indigenous Macedonian minority.Macedonians are not allowed to speak,worship and learn their mother language,as if they are non-existant.
Countless court actions in the Haque by the macedonian minority in Greece and Bulgaria,but does the NATO and EU honour courts decisions?
Recent ICJ Macedonia-Greece decision has not been honoured by either organization.
This is why I support John Robles on his article,he tells the truth and some people can’t come to term with the truth.
@peter
Get a life.
‘We are not related to the northern Greeks who produced leaders like Philip and Alexander the Great. We are a Slav people and our language is closely related to Bulgarian.’ – FYROM´s Ambassador to Canada Gyordan Veselinov, Ottawa Citizen Newspaper, February 24 1999
“We are Slavs who came to this area in the sixth century … We are not descendants of the ancient Macedonians” – Kiro Gligorov, FYROM’s first President, Foreign Information Service Daily Report, Eastern Europe, February 26, 1992
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBB8UjOHG_8
‘We do not claim to be descendants of Alexander the Great.’ – FYROM’S Ambassador Ljubica Acevshka, speech to US representatives in Washington on January 22 1999
“The creation of the Macedonian nation, for almost half of a century, was done in a condition of single-party dictatorship. In those times, there was no difference between science and ideology, so the “Macedonian” historiography, unopposed by anybody, comfortably performed a selection of the historic material from which the “Macedonian” identity was created. There is nothing atypical here for the process of the creation of any modern nation, except when falsification from the type of substitution of the word “Bulgarian” with the word “Macedonian” were made.” (Denko Maleski, former Minister of foreign affairs of FYROM from 1991 to 1993 in an interview to FYROM newspaper Utrinski Vesnik)