New Federalist

KLA hails NATO bombing 13th century monastery.

by Umberto Pascali Aug. 22 (EIRNS)--

For the Kosovo Liberation Army it was a day to savour. The Macedonians were routed. NATO was on its way. They had pulled it off. They had won!'' So the Guardian of London ``photographed'' the situation from Sipkovica in Northern Macedonia, occupied by the narcoterrorist gangs of the KLA, the day after the vanguard of the NATO mission arrived in the country. There, in the town of Sipkovica, triumphantly sits the KLA boss. Again we let the London paper speak: ``Ali Ahmeti, who masterminded a campaign which overwhelmed Macedonians in battle and in diplomacy, was relaxed; the blackboard behind him was draped in the flags of NATO, the European Union, the United States and Albania. `We guarantee the safety of NATO troops,'|'' he said..

            Already in this statement there is all the absurdity and the fakery of the situation. The Macedonian government had given up and, on Aug. 13, signed a deal that allow NATO to occupy the country, after the government had been forced to give up any serious defense in confronting an all-powerful KLA, armed and trained by NATO, and supported by the NATO apparatus in its logistics, intelligence, and communications. The Macedonian Army had been progressively undermined, immobilized, disarmed. ``It is like in the old mafia movie, when one of the goons immobilizes the victim and the other punches him mercilessly,'' said a Macedonian official.    

-          Illegal Arms Embargo –

   In fact, while the evidence was piling up, of U.S. and British NATO forces arming the KLA, U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice asked the Ukrainian government to apply an embargo on all weapons to Skopje, the Macedonian capital. U.S. ambassador and ``facilitator'' James Pardew did the same with the Bulgarian government. An illegal embargo was thus de facto established against a sovereign country which was being subjected to one of the most vicious aggressions in its history.

            Officially, Macedonia accepted the NATO invasion only so that the country could be defended against the narcoterrorist aggression of the KLA, but now it is the narcoterrorists' head, Ali Ahmeti, who reassures the NATO contingent supposedly sent to disarm his mafia army: ``We guarantee the safety of the NATO troops.''

            As soon as NATO stepped in, even before the formal announcement of the deployment of the whole mission, the Macedonian government had to officially agree to cede its sovereignty over the northern part of the country. ``Macedonian security forces are ready as of today, to change their position,'' the Defense Ministry stated, ``in order to create the necessary conditions to launch Operation Essential Harvest to disarm the Albanian terrorists.'' Furthermore, as a measure of ``confidence-building,'' the Ministry announced that the few Macedonian gunship helicopters and fighter planes would not fly over the NATO-held territory.

            It was one of the many NATO ``offers that could not be refused.'' In order to guarantee the anonymity of the KLA terrorists who were supposedly handing over their weapons to NATO, no Macedonian soldier or official could be anywhere close.

            Our readers already know that NATO had imposed on the Macedonians to block any real military air operation.

            On Aug. 20, Macedonia was visited by the NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR)--the American General Joseph Ralston--who stated that the situation was ripe and ready for a massive NATO deployment, and that the KLA could be trusted. In the meantime, Captain Gareth Hicks, one of the British Army's liaison officers from the 16th Air Assault Brigade, which leads the ``Essential Harvest,'' was meeting enthusiastic KLA gang leaders and rebel leaders in the village of Nikustak, outside Kumanovo. ``We're pretty upbeat about it,'' said the Operation's spokesman, Major Alex Dick.    

-          `NATO Air? Just Do It!' –

            At this point, not even NATO officials are trying to cover up the real game. North American reporters are welcomed by KLA commanders shouting, ``God Bless America and Canada, too, for what they have provided to us!'' And they proudly show their made-in-America weapons. ``Thanks to Uncle Sam, the Macedonians are no match for us,'' a KLA platoon commander said recently. The KLA camps have an atmosphere of unreality, many of the terrorists wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the Nike logo and the slogan, ``NATO Air? Just do it!''

            It was after a day of KLA celebrations over the arrival of NATO, that one of the oldest Macedonian treasures, the 13th-century monastery of St. Athanasius in Lesok, was razed to the ground in a village occupied by the KLA. The Macedonian Army couldn't do a thing--it happened in the NATO-KLA zone.