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| Return to: Left History: a digital archive | Return to: Say no to imperialist wars! | Return to: NATO-Yugoslav War Internet Resources |
IN the weeks and months leading up to the war against Yugoslavia, Nato's propaganda campaign spared no effort in telling the world that the Yugoslav government was carrying out systematic "ethnic cleansing" of Kosovan Albanians and alleged that it was murdering civilians in cold blood.
This lie was the pretext for starting the war. It was repeated every day to justify the relentless bombing and to divert attention away from Nato's own murderous crimes.
There is no doubt that fighting between Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) separatists and Yugoslav forces caused casualties and deaths on both sides -- including civilians caught in the crossfire.
Pro-Nato media hacks then presented the corpses as victims of "Serb terror", and refugees, made homeless and fearful by the fighting and Nato bombing, were said to be fleeing from genocidal massacres.
But the truth will out. After four months of investigation and searching, the expected mass graves and the supposed ten thousand or more victims have not been found. Less than a quarter of that number of bodies have been discovered -- a number consistent with reports of the fighting between KLA and Yugoslav forces in what was effectively a civil war in the Kosovo province.
One of the rumours claimed the Trebca lead and zinc mine near Mitrovica contained 700 bodies. The War Crimes Tribunal, set up by the United Nations in 1993, sent in heavy earth moving equipment to look for the human remains -- nothing at all was found, not a single body!
Another site in Liubenic was claimed to be a mass grave for 350 people -- only seven bodies were found there.
So far, despite search visits to the area by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), UN War Crimes Tribunal teams, and the constant presence of the Kosovo Force (KFOR), no evidence of genocide or mass killings has emerged.
Nothing can bring back the dead victims of Nato's bombing. But since it is now apparent that the war was launched on the basis of lies and rumours, the demand should be raised in Washington, London and all the Nato capitals for the restoration of Kosovo to the Yugoslav authorities, for the lifting of all restrictions on that country's trade and economy and for reparations to be paid for the colossal damage done.