> One aspect that absolutely infuriated me was when the words "international community" and "NATO" were interchanged at will.
Tell that to the Spanish pilots!
Spanish Pilots Admit
NATO Attacked Civilian
Targets
by Jose Luis Morales
Translated from Articulo 20 (Spanish Weekly)
June 14, 1999
The pilots of Spanish planes who
participated in bombing raids against
Yugoslavia do not feel like “supermen” nor
as masters of air space.
Quite on the contrary, they say that our
forces play to the tune of music played by the
North Americans, and accuse NATO of
having honoured with medals the bombing
of civilian targets, what they otherwise name
“collateral damages.”
Captain Adolfo Luis Martin de la Hoz, who
returned to Spain end of May after having
participated in the bombings since the
beginning, an “authentic expert for the
dreadful F-18,” the war plane most often
used in the war strategy of “scorched land”
in the Balkans, is very categoric: “First of
all,
I want to make it clear that the majority, I
say the majority, of my colleagues, even if
not all, are against the war in general and
against this war of barbarity in particular.”
Martin de la Hoz says that he and his
colleagues “are burnt out. Since a few days
ago there appeared in the papers certain
statements of the commander Maches
Michavilla, who is now in the air base at
Aviano with the pilots who replaced us, in
which he said that that our main helper in
the air was the mental and physical health.
But I tell you that our worst enemies are our
own authorities, the Defence Minister and
all his team, the members of the
Government, who know nothing about war
and go along with it without informing
themselves about anything and, what is
gravest, are guilty of lying to the Spanish
people through the papers, radio and
television, foreign correspondents and press
agencies.”
The suspicions that NATO's repeated
bombings of civilian victims and
non-military targets are not the result of war
“errors,” are confirmed by Captain Martin de
la Hoz: “Several times our Colonel protested
by NATO chiefs why they select targets
which are not military targets. They threw
him out with curses saying that we should
know that the North Americans will lodge a
complaint by the Spanish Army, once
through Brussel and again by the Defence
Minister. But there is more, and I want to
tell it to the whole world: once there was a
coded order of the North American military
that we should drop anti-personnel bombs
over the localities of Prishtine and Nish. The
colonel refused it altogether and, a couple of
days later, the transfer order came. But what
I say now is nothing compared to what I
shall have to say when the time comes.”
The Spanish military denounces that “the
Spanish Government not only does not try to
inform themselves but they also accept the
false reports that are edited for them in
Aviano, where there is a sort of military
press cabinet in the hands of North
American generals and functionaries. Ever
since we arrived in Italy – the Captain goes
on – there is no end to humiliations and
insults. The order givers are only the North
American generals, and no one else. We are
zeroes, just as our replacements are going to
be. But there is still more to that. Here they
say that several operations were directed by
Spanish commanders and pilots. Lies over
lies. All the missions that we flew, all and
each one, were planned by US high military
authorities. Even more, they were all
planned in detail, including attacking
planes, targets and type of ammunition that
we have to throw. We never directed
anything, and our missions were limited to
flying over the borders of Macedonia, Albani,
Bosnia and Slovakia.”
Government's lies
None of the pilots presently stationed at
Aviano, who replaced those who went to the
Italian base a little before the start of war,
last March 23, were there with clean
conscience, says the Spanish military. “It is
being written to saturation that the
disciplined and patriotic Spanish pilots
according to Minister Eduardo Serra – are
concentrating on the complexity of their war
missions.” But we read so many
discrepancies, so many lies that we agreed to
not read a single newspaper until we return.
Our anger is enormous. The President of the
Government, the Minister of Foreign Affaires
and the Defence Minister are lying brazenly
each time they talk about the war. Some of
us are of another opinion and believe they
do not inform themselves, because the North
Americans - the White House, the Pentagon,
the CIA, the Embassy or military
information service, whoever, do not inform
them about anything. How should they
inform themselves if our own Javier Solana
has not informed himself since the war
broke out? Solana is a puppet who has been
put there by the Yankees to do what they tell
him he has to do. And so he does, standing
straight before General Clark when he talks
to him, or better said, when he issues him
the orders that he has to implement without
delay.”
On the subject of manipulation of
information about the war, Captain de la
Hoz says that “no one has said anything
about the incidents that took place in
Aviano, about the disastrous maintenance of
Spanish machines, about all, and about the
constant humiliations to which we were
subjected from the beginning. Not that we
are cannon fodder. No. We are nothing.
About the fatal accidents, the losses suffered
without connection to combats, the
contempt and sanctions, not a word. From
no one!”
For the wrong selection of targets and
humiliations the Spanish militaries are ever
more certain that there is no alibi. “We know
perfectly well that we are intervening in a
conflict – says Martin de la Hoz – which is
rejected by the majority of the Spanish
people and this is most important for us. But
what they do not say in any information,
commentary or speech, is that the Spanish,
Dutch, Portuguese ... that we are there to
cover up the North American generals who
are dealing and wheeling in the war. There
is no journalist who has any slightest idea
what is happening in Yugoslavia.
They are destroying the country, bombing it
with novel weapons, toxic nervous gases,
surface mines dropped with parachute,
bombs containing uranium, black napalm,
sterilization chemicals, sprayings to poison
the crops and weapons of which even we still
do not know anything. The North Americans
are committing there one of the biggest
barbarities that can be committed against
the humanity. Much and very bad things
will be told in the future about what was
happening there, because, by the way,
judging by what we talked about with the
British and German officers, it was designed
in order to divide the Europeans and keep us
subjected for many decades.
Therefore, Captain Martin de la Hoz is
enraged when there are talks about the costs
of the war. There should be no doubts, he
confirms that the militaries detached in
Aviano are receiving bonuses which
“multiply by five our salary, without
considering the daily expenses and other
perquisites.
We could say that we should be satisfied
with what this war means economically for
each one of us, but it is not true, what they
give us is the chocolate for the parrots. This
war is going to cost the Spaniards more than
all the money allocated for the culture in the
last five years. And how, even if now no one
says anything because of the elections, but it
will come in a few months and will be felt in
our pockets. Because this brutal solely
Yankees' war, no one's but Yankees', is going
to be paid by all of us. Be sure that what I
say is not to exculpate myself and to intone
‘mea culpa' for having participated in it,
because I will never be able to forget that
what was being committed there was one
the biggest savageries of history.” |
