KOSOVO "FREEDOM FIGHTERS" FINANCED BY ORGANIZED CRIME

With KLA leader Hashim Thaci (a 29-year-old "freedom fighter") appointed as chief negotiator at Rambouillet, the KLA had become the de facto helmsman of the peace process on behalf of the ethnic Albanian majority and this despite its links to the drug trade. The West was relying on its KLA...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Peace research 1999-05, Vol.31 (2), p.29-42
Main Author: Chossudovsky, Michel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bombings
Geopolitics
Heroin
International trade
Mercenaries
Military alliances
Narcotics
Organized crime
Police
Police & crime
Weapons
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Summary:With KLA leader Hashim Thaci (a 29-year-old "freedom fighter") appointed as chief negotiator at Rambouillet, the KLA had become the de facto helmsman of the peace process on behalf of the ethnic Albanian majority and this despite its links to the drug trade. The West was relying on its KLA puppets to rubber-stamp an agreement which would have transformed Kosovo into an occupied territory under Western military rule. With Thaci as Prime Minister designate, the KLA had already been promised a central role in the formation of government under the Rambouillet treaty. Mercenaries financed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had been fighting in Bosnia. And the Bosnian pattern was replicated in Kosovo: Mujahedeen mercenaries from various Islamic countries are reported to be fighting alongside the KLA in Kosovo. German, Turkish and Afghan instructors were reported to be training the KLA in guerrilla and diversion tactics.(f.19) According to a Deutsche Presse-Agentur report, financial support from Islamic countries to the KLA had been channelled through the former Albanian chief of the National Information Service (NIS), Bashkim Gazidede.(f.20) "Gazidede, reportedly a devout Moslem who fled Albania in March of last year [1997], is presently [1998] being investigated for his contacts with Islamic terrorist organizations."(f.21) The fate of Kosovo had already been carefully laid out prior to the signing of the 1995 Dayton agreement. Deliveries of weapons to the Kosovo rebel army since the mid-1990s were consistent with Western geopolitical objectives. Not surprisingly, there has been a "deafening silence" of the international media regarding the Kosovo arms-drugs trade. In the words of a 1994 report of the Geopolitical Drug Watch: "the trafficking [of drugs and arms] is basically being judged on its geostrategic implications ... In Kosovo, drugs and weapons trafficking is fuelling geopolitical hopes and fears ..."(f.40)
ISSN:0008-4697