rn: more on Mass Graves!

1999-06-29

Jan Slakov

Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 09:47:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: MichaelP <•••@••.•••>
To: yJan Slakov <•••@••.•••>
Subject: info !! Mass Graves ...

Greetings ---We're covering the same material- I posted this to the
Mai-not list a few hours ago together with the Jared Israel item !!! 

Cheers
MichaelP
[Note from Jan: Love those MAI-nots with their multiple exclamation marks!!!]
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   Date: 27 Jun 1999 19:59:05 -0400

/* Written 1:56 PM  Jun 25, 1999 by •••@••.••• in labr.global


Disinformation  and Serbia: U.S. Media Bias

By Peter Phillips (Director of Project Censored)


A major  news story about Serbia, not covered in the American press, was
published in Covert Action Quarterly (CAQ) last Fall. The story detailed
how a famous photo from 1992  in Omarska, Bosnia showing an alleged
Serbian death camp was in fact a phony. The original photo, taken by
Independent Television (ITN) from Great Britain, showed an emaciated
Muslim man with his shirt off behind barbwire with his imprisoned comrades
behind him. This photo ran worldwide and was just used again June 14th by
Time magazine. It was the first significant emotional presentation of the
Serbian military as nazi-like thugs. Presidential candidate, Bill Clinton,
making reference to the photo promised military action against the Serbs
if elected. According to CAQ this photo was a gross misrepresentation of
the situation. The men in the picture were not behind barbwire, but rather
were standing outside of a small fenced enclosure next to a farm house in
an open field that had been serving as a refugee transit site. The
photographers shot the photo from within the fenced enclosure looking out
on a open field. The Hague Tribunal confirmed in 1994 that there was no
barbwire surrounding the camp at Omarska in 1992.

So how has a phony photo of alleged Serbian death camp continued to be
used to portray the Serbian government as an holocaust perpetrator  in
Kosovo? One part of the answer is that the American public relations firm
Ruder Finn was originally hired by the Croatian sessionists, Bosnian
Muslins and the Kosovo Liberation Army( KLA) to foster  negative images of
the Serbs as nazi demons. Ruder Finn targeted American women and Jews with
the promotion of often unconfirmed news stories of Serbian rape/death
camps, and various human atrocities. News stories showing attacks and
ethnic cleansing of Serbs were often repressed or undercovered. The result
was that the American public has been lead to believe that the Serbs are
the vicious aggressors in the Balkans and the other parties innocent
victims. Nothing could be further from the truth. The KLA alone was listed
by the U.S. State department as a terrorist organization  until just last
year. They had been conducting bombings, assassinations, ambushes,
(financed by heroin sales) on both Albanians moderates and Serbs in Kosovo
for several years, increasing their attacks 1000% in 1998. Serbian police
responses were often brutal especially in the villages from which the KLA
was known to operate. Yet, last year only 2,000 deaths occurred on both
sides in all of Kosovo. 2,000 deaths was not an ethnic cleansing campaign
by Serbs to kill Albanians but rather part of a measured response to
ongoing  terrorist activities by a legitimate government.

American media has been so accepting of demonized-the-Serb stories that
there was no questioning of the news story last January of the alleged
Serbian massacre at Racak where some 40 Kosovo Albanians were said to have
be gunned down by Serb police.  Found by the  "neutral"  former  Oliver
North aide, William Walker, the bodies were a perfect photo opportunity to
justify increased NATO demands for direct intervention and the bombings.
Yet, there was a complete failure of the American press to cover the
European Union's forensic team's report in March 17th stating that they
were unable to confirm that a massacre had occurred, and that it was
possible that the bodies had been moved to that location after  death.

The American press has been filled with daily reports of mass graves and
torture sites in Kosovo. Yet, a recent story of a KLA torture chamber
found by German NATO troops received scant attention in the press. Perhaps
if the Serbs buried the 2,000 plus civilian victims of NATO's bombing
campaign in a single mass grave the U.S. press might pay more attention to
both sides of the story instead of serving as a NATO disinformation
distribution service.

Peter Phillips Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Somona
State University and Director of Project Censored

Peter Phillips Ph.D.
Sociology Department/Project Censored
Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave.
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
707-664-2588