A Report from a UN Website
by Konstantin Kilibarda (3-7-00)

www.tenc.net [emperors-clothes]

Check out the following amazing example of obfuscation and white-wash posted by the UN News Service:

"Shooting of UN staffer in Kosovo border incident called a mistake

"March 1 -- A group of armed and uniformed men who wounded a UN member of staff yesterday in southeastern Serbia, near the Kosovo border, have said that the shooting was 'a mistake.'"

Now hold right there. Southeastern Serbia? What is the UN doing in Southeastern Serbia? Of course, in fact Kosovo is itself Southern Serbia, but since the UN speaks of that province as if it were a separate country, Southeastern Serbia obviously means inner Serbia, that is, Serbia across the provincial border from Kosovo. So first, what is the UN staff member doing in inner Serbia, where he has absolutely no legal right to be?

Now on to the shooting.

• "The men were apologetic after recognizing that they had attacked a UN vehicle, saying it was a case of mistaken identity, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said today in New York."

Apologetic? Why are they describing this attempted murder as if it were a breach of etiquette? They shot the man. Doesn't it concern the UN that the act itself (i.e., a murderous ambush by a paramilitary group) is a crime? Shouldn't this action be condemned by the UN website, even if it was a case of "mistaken identity" (they meant to kill someone else) seeing as such action violates all civilized law not to mention the UN resolution under which Kosovo is supposedly governed? But then again, what was this "humanitarian" UN worker doing in inner Serbia?

• "After the incident, the attackers directed the UN staff to a KFOR checkpoint west of the site of the ambush from where Mr. Marcel Grogan, an Irish national working for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, was evacuated to Bondsteel military base in Kosovo. He is in stable condition after treatment for gunshot wounds to a leg."

How is it that the attackers knew the location of the nearest KFOR checkpoint? Was it because these KLA operatives work with KFOR controllers stationed at that checkpoint?

• "[UN spokesman] Mr. Eckhard said the area of Serbia in which the ambush took place has remained lawless since the end of the conflict last year and has seen increasing insecurity in recent months."

What a charming euphemism! The KLA lurks in Southeastern Serbia shooting up vehicles with such abandon they even mistakenly fire on a UN employee (spy?) and the situation is described as "increasing insecurity."

• "The perpetrators identified themselves as a splinter group from the Kosovo conflict, indigenous to the predominantly Albanian villages in that part of Serbia, he said."

Can't the UN or Mr. Eckhard or whoever wrote this amazing piece name the "perpetrators" i.e. the KLA? Note that the language suggests justification: the attackers' self-identification as "indigenous" is subtly reinforced by reference to "predominately Albanian villages" - though of course, the attackers' knowledge of the nearest KFOR checkpoint (which would have to be in Kosovo, not inner Serbia) suggests they are a part of the much-trumpeted "new" Eastern KLA, not some locals defending their land by shooting up anything on wheels.

The UN text was originally posted at: http://www.un.org/News/dh/latest/page2.html#7 [Note: This article no longer appears anywhere on the UN website in its original form]

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Further reading...

• The "new" KLA push into inner Serbia comes at the same time as KLA attacks on French KFOR troops. Why is the KLA Shooting at KFOR? at http://emperor.vwh.net/analysis/whyisthe.htm

• Is the KLA a group of freedom fighters or are they terrorist thugs? See Prof. Michel Chossudovsky's The KLA: gangsters, terrorists and the CIA at http://emperor.vwh.net/articles/chuss/kla.html

• Is it fair to say the KLA works hand in glove with NATO? See The Women of Orahovac Answer the Colonel at http://emperor.vwh.net/interviews/trouw.htm