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The approach that Philip Hammond takes throughout his analysis can be
the main argument for military actions of the U.S. and/or its NATO allies throughout the
world. Thus, I agree with his formulation that certain propaganda indeed exists
regarding the war on terrorism, as I also agree that – not just – Washington spends
while aiming to “humanize the war” in Afghanistan and Iraq, as he puts it. Likewise,
Hammond is also right when describing the difficulties that, for instance, Afghan
children had, and still have in distinguishing “the aid packages from cluster bombs...
dropped by US planes.”
the reasons that led to such actions of the US and NATO in Iraq and Afghanistan, as he –
deliberately – fails to explain in details the main causes that have triggered their
reaction, as well as the results that might have occurred if the US and NATO would
remain inactive. He should, at least, provide some backup information regarding the
2
would be reasonable to analyze a bit more what may have happen afterwards if US failed
to respond. Furthermore, since Hammond insists that it’s too excessive to emphasize the
reasons that led to such actions, according to him it’s also useless to invest in “some
higher moral purpose in the form of humanitarian and upholding human rights.” And
analysis. Hence I will intend to counterargument exactly this section and Hammond’s
one-sided discourse by providing the other side of his story, while simultaneously
arguing that humanitarian intervention is sometimes inevitable and that there’s no other
other side of the argumentation he provides, and to prove that his approach, although
(EU, NATO, OSCE and UN) were ignored and violated by the Yugoslav authorities, it
1
Adam Roberts, ‘NATO's 'Humanitarian War' Over Kosovo,’ Survival, Vol. 41, no. 3 (1 October 1999), Web
Souce: <http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/vp01.cfm?outfit=pmt&requesttimeout=500&folder=4&paper=816>
3
became clear that no other alternative left but the use of force. It also became clear that
the decision for an NATO joint air-strike was far from being “an unambiguous violation
of international law,” as at least two “main legal arguments were used in support, the
law.”2
that Yugoslavia inter alia 'cease all action by the security forces
argument can be made that, even if the Security Council was not
to use force, they provided some legal basis for military action.3
mentions, Roberts argues that the note of October 1998 of the “UK Foreign and
Commonwealth Office, which circulated to NATO allies, suggests elements of both these
now widely accepted (Bosnia and Somalia provided firm legal precedents). A UNSCR
would give a clear legal base for NATO action, as well as being politically desirable. But
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid.
4
without a UNSCR.”
media’s coverage of the war and its aftermath, especially the detention of
Miroslav Filipovic for his interviews with FRY soldiers who took part in
It remains unclear for me why Hammond continuously digs for something that
claims that even the Rambouillet Conference was intentionally designed to fail in order
to enable NATO strikes, while failing to provide any credible evidences except few
4
Independent International Commission on Kosovo, ‘Kosovo Report: Conflict, International Response,
Lessons Learned’, Oxford University Press (New York, 2000)
5
5
time to prepare for the next round of Serb military attacks in Kosovo. He
did not send a high-level delegation to Rambouillet, and those he did send
Further, even the total number of victims in Hammond’s essay differs from other
reliable sources. Although he mentions the UNHCR report emphasizing that the
situation in Kosovo before NATO intervention was “normal”, according to the statement
of regional Special Envoy of the UNHCR, Nicholas Morris, situation on the ground was
displacements occurred much earlier than NATO campaign. As a result, when UNHCR
suspended its operations, on 23 March 1999, there were possibly “over 260,000
internally displaced persons (IDPs) within Kosovo, over 100,000 IDPs or refugees in the
region, and over 100,000 refugees and asylum seekers outside the region.”8
Moreover, the UNHCR published an additional report after the war9 which for
the first time brings total number of victims. According to the report: “13,321 individuals
were killed, wounded, or went missing in the period from January 1998, when rebel
groups fought Yugoslav forces, during the NATO bombing of 1999, and until the arrival
individuals is still unknown.”10 Report also states that around 8,000-10,000 of those on
6
Ibid
7
Roberts citing Morris: from 'Coping with the Kosovo Crisis', Informal presentation at UNHCR
Headquarters (Geneva, 7 May 1999).
8
Ibid
9
UNHCR, ‘New Kosovo War Victims Report’, (Published on: 7 October 2009), Web-source:
<http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4adf20931a.html>
10
Ibid
6
the list of war victims were Albanians, while some 2,000-2,500 were Serbs, Roma,
Bosnians and ethnic Albanians who were loyal to Serbia. Compared to Hammond’s
interest in providing just a total of 50,000 Serbs fled to Serbia or to Montenegro, as for
him it seems that Albanian victims were irrelevant, the official UNHCR report obviously
For Hammond’s disappointment, even the Serbian sources are later contradicting
the reasons he mentions as being crucial for the displacement of Albanian population, as
well as the total number of victims and missing persons and the way they were killed.
While Hammond insists that Albanians were afraid from NATO bombs and therefore
fled from Kosovo, the story of the Serbian news agency Beta, published in daily Politika 11
reports that Hague Tribunal has convicted the former vice-prime minister of FRY, Nikola
Sainovic, the former commander of the 3rd Army of Yugoslav Army (VJ), Nebojsa
Pavkovic and the former chief of VJ Headquarters, Sreten Lukic, with 2o years of
imprisonment, each. Two other high state officials, generals Dragoljub Ojdanic and
“Sainovic, Pavkovic and Lukic were found guilty of being the key players in the
“joint criminal venture” of violent expulsion of Albanian civil population from Kosovo,
from March till June 1999, whose aim was “the alternation of ethnical equilibration
aiming to maintain Serbian control” on Kosovo.”12 Politika also emphasizes that they
were found guilty for violent displacement, deportation, killings and expulsion of
Albanian population in Kosovo, as the Tribunal has documented that Serbian forces
campaign, including mass killings. “The Tribunal concluded that massive expulsion of
Kosovo Albanians was not caused by NATO bombardment nor by the conflict between
11
Beta, ‘Hag: postojao plan proterivanja Albanaca,’ Politika (Belgrade: 27 February, 2009), Web-source:
<http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/tema-dana/Hag-postojao-plan-proterivanja-Albanaca.lt.html>
12
Ibid
7
VJ and Serbian police forces with the KLA, as claimed by the defense of the accused.” 13
Beta, concludes that the Tribunal accepted that Serbian military forces at the beginning
killed and maltreated them, while ordering to leave for Albania or Montenegro and in
parallel burned their houses and destroyed their property. “The bodies of some executed
persons were later found in the massive grave in Batajnica,” Politika cites the words of
Batajnica, Petrovo Selo and Perucac mass graves, since their existence was divulged by
the Government of Zoran Djindjic14 in 2001, way before he wrote this essay.
“The Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs has formed secret mass graves in Serbia
to hide traces of war crimes committed in Kosovo,” points out the Report of Belgrade
based NGO Fond za Humanitarno Pravo,15 while explaining that eight such graves
located in Batajnica military camp were exhumed during summer 2001, and during
summer and fall 2002. Furthermore, the Report reiterates that few serious indications
points out that during Milosevic’s era lots of Albanian victims were burned in some
factories which used high temperature furnaces. As such example Report mentions
Mackatica factory where, as a group of NGO’s pointed out to the Speaker of the Serbian
Parliament in 2004, dozens of Albanian bodies were burned. Speaker of the Parliament
didn’t respond back or initiated any investigations, which is not surprising as he was a
13
Ibid
14
The existence of secret mass graves in Serbia was accepted by the first democratically elected government in Serbia,
after the extradition of former president of RFY Slobodan Milosevic. According to the Government of late Prime
Minister Zoran Djindjic, Serbian forces have transported around 1,000 bodies of Kosovo Albanians, from secret mass
graves in Kosovo, and buried them in secret mass graves in Serbia. Such graves existed inside the military polygon of
the special antiterrorist units of Serbian police (SAJ) in Batajnica, near the other training camp of the unit for special
operations of the Serbian police (JSO) in Petrovo Selo, and near the lake of Perucac.
15
Fond za Humanitarno Pravo, ‘Sudbina nestalih Albanaca na Kosovu,’ Report for 2005 (Belgrade: 23
November 2005), Web-source:
<http://www.hlc-rdc.org/uploads/editor/file/Izvestaji/Kosovo-izvestaj/Sudbina%20nestalih%20Albanaca-
izvestaj-SRP-23.11.05-ff.pdf>
8
member of the Serb Radical Party, whose chief is being prosecuted by the Hague
Tribunal.
Hereto, it is exactly ‘The Programme of the Serb Radical party,’ adopted in May
1996, which proves that the organized genocide in Kosovo has been planned and well-
known for years, and was neither a surprise nor caused by NATO efforts to stop it.16 The
Programme suggest “- to expel without delay all 360 thousand Albanian emigrants and
their descendants," [along with a series of proposals, spelled out, to destroy all aspects of
Kosovar Albanian culture, economy, society, social benefits, and existence]. The claim
here is that 360,000 Albanians entered Kosovo illegally during WW2 and that they, and
their descendants, which would add up to almost every Albanian in Kosovo, should be
expelled.17
A self-styled anti-imperialist
As the humanitarian interventions are varying from one another, they need to be
studied separately and according to their initial cause, thus the alignment of these
kinds of analysts Kosovo war still remains controversial, ten years after it ended.
“Self-styled anti-imperialists, all too often apologists for the imperialism of any
regime that opposes the west, have constructed an alternative history in which Slobodan
Milosevic's crimes are minimized or excused and a rapacious west portrayed as the
Guardian.19
16
Helsinki Committee in Serbia, ‘The Radicalisation of the Serbian Society,’ (Belgrade, 1997), Web-source:
<http://web.archive.org/web/20070509101140/http:/www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/reports/srpclean2.htm
>
17
Ibid
18
David Clark served as Europe adviser at the Foreign Office, 1997-2001.
19
David Clark, ‘Kosovo was a just war, not an imperialist dress rehearsal,’ The Guardian (Thursday, 16 April
2009), Web source: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/16/clark-kosovo-war-crimes>
9
Conclusively, considering the fact that many undemocratic states were and are
still violating the very basic human rights of their citizens, it goes without saying that in
the era of globalization the US and other Western democracies have to, firstly, try to
convince them that they’re wrong, but if those attempts fail the only remaining tool is
military action. Not to mention the fact that journalism is, above all, a mission and not
strictly a profession, thus it is logical that journalists will cover only what they see and
how that is perceived by them. Having said this, one cannot argue that reporting is one-
sided just because it doesn’t fit his agenda. Let’s, hypothetically, assume what may
happen if journalists will not raise awareness about a certain issue that may, except
specific state, affect that specific region – as was the case with former Yugoslavia.
Journalism is supposed to inform and raise concerns to the public when something is
community and media, should remain inactive toward any possible consequence
regardless of its possible wider impact. Hence I absolutely share Mr. Clark’s opinion that
this kind of perceiving things is wrong. Philip Hammond would obviously disagree.
10
References:
- Adam Roberts, ‘NATO's 'Humanitarian War' Over Kosovo,’ Survival, Vol. 41, no. 3 (1 October
1999), Web Souce: <http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/papers/vp01.cfm?
outfit=pmt&requesttimeout=500&folder=4&paper=816> [accessed online on 2 February 2010]
- Beta, ‘Hag: postojao plan proterivanja Albanaca,’ Politika (Belgrade: 27 February, 2009), Web-
source: <http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/tema-dana/Hag-postojao-plan-proterivanja-
Albanaca.lt.html> [accessed online on 3 February 2010]
- David Clark, ‘Kosovo was a just war, not an imperialist dress rehearsal,’ The Guardian
(Thursday, 16 April 2009), Web source:
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/apr/16/clark-kosovo-war-crimes> [accessed
online on 5 February 2010]
- Fond za Humanitarno Pravo, ‘Sudbina nestalih Albanaca na Kosovu,’ Report for 2005
(Belgrade: 23 November 2005), Web-source:
<http://www.hlc-rdc.org/uploads/editor/file/Izvestaji/Kosovo-izvestaj/Sudbina%20nestalih
%20Albanaca-izvestaj-SRP-23.11.05-ff.pdf> [accessed online 8 February 2010]
- Helsinki Committee in Serbia, ‘The Radicalisation of the Serbian Society,’ (Belgrade, 1997),
Web-source:
<http://web.archive.org/web/20070509101140/http:/www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/reports/srp
clean2.htm> [accessed online on 11 February 2010]
- UNHCR, ‘New Kosovo War Victims Report’, (Published on: 7 October 2009), Web-source:
<http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/4adf20931a.html> [accessed online on 6 February 2010]