KOSOVO 'FREEDOM FIGHTERS' FINANCED BY ORGANISED CRIME
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By Michel Chossudovsky
Department of Economics, University of Ottawa
Ottawa, K1N6N5
Voice box: 1-613-562-5800, ext. 1415
Fax: 1-514-425-6224
E-Mail: chossudovsky@sprint.ca
- Wednesday, 7 April 1999 -
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Heralded by the global media as a humanitarian peace-keeping
mission, NATO's ruthless bombing of Belgrade and Pristina goes
far beyond the breach of international law. While Slobodan
Milosevic is demonised, portrayed as a remorseless dictator, the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) is upheld as a self-respecting
nationalist movement struggling for the rights of ethnic
Albanians. The truth of the matter is that the KLA is sustained
by organised crime with the tacit approval of the United States
and its allies.
Following a pattern set during the War in Bosnia, public
opinion has been carefully misled. The multibillion dollar
Balkans narcotics trade has played a crucial role in "financing
the conflict" in Kosovo in accordance with Western economic,
strategic and military objectives. Amply documented by European
police files, acknowledged by numerous studies, the links of the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to criminal syndicates in Albania,
Turkey and the European Union have been known to Western
governments and intelligence agencies since the mid-1990s.
...The financing of the Kosovo guerilla war poses critical
questions and it sorely test claims of an "ethical" foreign
policy. Should the West back a guerrilla army that appears
to partly financed by organised crime.1
While KLA leaders were shaking hands with US Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright at Rambouillet, Europol (the European
Police Organization based in the Hague) was "preparing a report
for European interior and justice ministers on a connection
between the KLA and Albanian drug gangs."2 In the meantime, the
rebel army has been skilfully heralded by the global media (in
the months preceding the NATO bombings) as broadly representative
of the interests of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
With KLA leader Hashim Thaci (a 29 year "freedom fighter")
appointed as chief negotiator at Rambouillet, the KLA has 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 Administration.
Ironically Robert Gelbard, America's special envoy to
Bosnia, had described the KLA last year as "terrorists".
Christopher Hill, America's chief negotiator and architect of the
Rambouillet agreement "has also been a strong critic of the KLA
for its alleged dealings in drugs."3 Moreover, barely a few two
months before Rambouillet, the US State Department had
acknowledged (based on reports from the US Observer Mission) the
role of the KLA in terrorising and uprooting ethnic Albanians:
...the KLA harass or kidnap anyone who comes to the police,
... KLA representatives had threatened to kill villagers and
burn their homes if they did not join the KLA [a process
which has continued since the NATO bombings]... [T]he KLA
harassment has reached such intensity that residents of six
villages in the Stimlje region are "ready to flee.4
While backing a "freedom movement" with links to the drug
trade, the West seems also intent in bypassing the civilian
Kosovo Democratic League and its leader Ibrahim Rugova who has
called for an end to the bombings and expressed his desire to
negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Yugoslav authorities.5
It is worth recalling that a few days before his March 31st Press
Conference, Rugova had been reported by the KLA (alongside three
other leaders including Fehmi Agani) to have been killed by the
Serbs.
COVERT FINANCING OF 'FREEDOM FIGHTERS'
Remember Oliver North and the Contras? The pattern in Kosovo
is similar to other CIA covert operations in Central America,
Haiti and Afghanistan where "freedom fighters" were financed
through the laundering of drug money. Since the onslaught of the
Cold War, Western intelligence agencies have developed a complex
relationship to the illegal narcotics trade. In case after case,
drug money laundered in the international banking system has
financed covert operations.
According to author Alfred McCoy, the pattern of covert
financing was established in the Indochina war. In the 1960s, the
Meo army in Laos was funded by the narcotics trade as part of
Washington's military strategy against the combined forces of the
neutralist government of Prince Souvanna Phouma and the Pathet
Lao.6
The pattern of drug politics set in Indochina has since been
replicated in Central America and the Caribbean. "The rising
curve of cocaine imports to the US", wrote journalist John Dinges
"followed almost exactly the flow of US arms and military
advisers to Central America."7
The military in Guatemala and Haiti, to which the CIA
provided covert support, were known to be involved in the trade
of narcotics into Southern Florida. And as revealed in the
Iran-Contra and Bank of Commerce and Credit International (BCCI)
scandals, there was strong evidence that covert operations were
funded through the laundering of drug money. "Dirty money"
recycled through the banking system -- often through an anonymous
shell company -- became "covert money," used to finance various
rebel groups and guerilla movements including the Nicaraguan
Contras and the Afghan Mujahadeen. According to a 1991 Time
Magazine report:
Because the US wanted to supply the mujehadeen rebels in
Afghanistan with stinger missiles and other military
hardware it needed the full cooperation of Pakistan. By the
mid-1980s, the CIA operation in Islamabad was one of the
largest US intelligence stations in the World. 'If BCCI is
such an embarrassment to the US that forthright
investigations are not being pursued it has a lot to do with
the blind eye the US turned to the heroin trafficking in
Pakistan', said a US intelligence officer.8
AMERICA AND GERMANY JOIN HANDS
Since the early 1990s, Bonn and Washington have joined hands
in establishing their respective spheres of influence in the
Balkans. Their intelligence agencies have also collaborated.
According to intelligence analyst John Whitley, covert support to
the Kosovo rebel army was established as a joint endeavour
between the CIA and Germany's Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND)
(which previously played a key role in installing a right wing
nationalist government under Franjo Tudjman in Croatia).9 The
task to create and finance the KLA was initially given to
Germany: "They used German uniforms, East German weapons and were
financed, in part, with drug money."10 According to Whitley, the
CIA was, subsequently instrumental in training and equipping the
KLA in Albania.11
The covert activities of Germany's BND were consistent with
Bonn's intent to expand its "Lebensraum" into the Balkans. Prior
to the onset of the civil war in Bosnia, Germany and its Foreign
Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher had actively supported secession;
it had "forced the pace of international diplomacy" and pressured
its Western allies to recognize Slovenia and Croatia. According
to the Geopolitical Drug Watch, both Germany and the US favoured
(although not officially) the formation of a "Greater Albania"
encompassing Albania, Kosovo and parts of Macedonia.12 According
to Sean Gervasi, Germany was seeking a free hand among its allies
"to pursue economic dominance in the whole of Mitteleuropa."13
ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM IN SUPPORT OF THE KLA
Bonn and Washington's "hidden agenda" consisted in
triggering nationalist liberation movements in Bosnia and Kosovo
with the ultimate purpose of destabilising Yugoslavia. The latter
objective was also carried out "by turning a blind eye" to the
influx of mercenaries and financial support from Islamic
fundamentalist organisations.14
Mercenaries financed by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had been
fighting in Bosnia.15 And the Bosnian pattern was replicated in
Kosovo: Mujahadeen 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 guerilla and diversion tactics.16
According to a Deutsche Press-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.17 "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."18
The supply route for arming KLA "freedom fighters" are the
rugged mountainous borders of Albania with Kosovo and Macedonia.
Albania is also a key point of transit of the Balkans drug route
which supplies Western Europe with grade four heroin. 75% of the
heroin entering Western Europe is from Turkey. And a large part
of drug shipments originating in Turkey transits through the
Balkans. According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA), "it is estimated that 4-6 metric tons of heroin leave each
month from Turkey having [through the Balkans] as destination
Western Europe."19 A recent intelligence report by Germany's
Federal Criminal Agency suggests that: "Ethnic Albanians are now
the most prominent group in the distribution of heroin in Western
consumer countries."20
THE LAUNDERING OF DIRTY MONEY
In order to thrive, the criminal syndicates involved in the
Balkans narcotics trade need friends in high places. Smuggling
rings with alleged links to the Turkish State are said to control
the trafficking of heroin through the Balkans "cooperating
closely with other groups with which they have political or
religious ties" including criminal groups in Albanian and
Kosovo.21 In this new global financial environment, powerful
undercover political lobbies connected to organized crime
cultivate links to prominent political figures and officials of
the military and intelligence establishment.
The narcotics trade nonetheless uses respectable banks to
launder large amounts of dirty money. While comfortably removed
from the smuggling operations per se, powerful banking interests
in Turkey but mainly those in financial centres in Western Europe
discretely collect fat commissions in a multibillion dollar money
laundering operation. These interests have high stakes in
ensuring a safe passage of drug shipments into Western European
markets.
THE ALBANIAN CONNECTION
Arms smuggling from Albania into Kosovo and Macedonia
started at the beginning of 1992, when the Democratic Party came
to power, headed by President Sali Berisha. An expansive
underground economy and cross border trade had unfolded. A
triangular trade in oil, arms and narcotics had developed largely
as a result of the embargo imposed by the international community
on Serbia and Montenegro and the blockade enforced by Greece
against Macedonia.
Industry and agriculture in Kosovo were spearheaded into
bankruptcy following the IMF's lethal "economic medicine" imposed
on Belgrade in 1990. The embargo was imposed on Yugoslavia.
Ethnic Albanians and Serbs were driven into abysmal poverty.
Economic collapse created an environment which fostered the
progress of illicit trade. In Kosovo, the rate of unemployment
increased to a staggering 70 percent (according to Western
sources).
Poverty and economic collapse served to exacerbate simmering
ethnic tensions. Thousands of unemployed youths "barely out of
their Teens" from an impoverished population, were drafted into
the ranks of the KLA.22
In neighbouring Albania, the free market reforms adopted
since 1992 had created conditions which favoured the
criminalisation of State institutions. Drug money was also
laundered in the Albanian pyramids (ponzi schemes) which
mushroomed during the government of former President Sali Berisha
(1992-1997).23 These shady investment funds were an integral part
of the economic reforms inflicted by Western creditors on
Albania.
Drug barons in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia (with links to
the Italian mafia) had become the new economic elites, often
associated with Western business interests. In turn the financial
proceeds of the trade in drugs and arms were recycled towards
other illicit activities (and vice versa) including a vast
prostitution racket between Albania and Italy. Albanian criminal
groups operating in Milan, "have become so powerful running
prostitution rackets that they have even taken over the
Calabrians in strength and influence."24
The application of "strong economic medicine" under the
guidance of the Washington based Bretton Woods institutions had
contributed to wrecking Albania's banking system and
precipitating the collapse of the Albanian economy. The resulting
chaos enabled American and European transnationals to carefully
position themselves. Several Western oil companies including
Occidental, Shell and British Petroleum had their eyes rivetted
on Albania's abundant and unexplored oil-deposits. Western
investors were also gawking Albania's extensive reserves of
chrome, copper, gold, nickel and platinum... The Adenauer
Foundation had been lobbying in the background on behalf of
German mining interests.25
Berisha's Minister of Defence Safet Zoulali (alleged to have
been involved in the illegal oil and narcotics trade) was the
architect of the agreement with Germany's Preussag (handing over
control over Albania's chrome mines) against the competing bid of
the US led consortium of Macalloy Inc. in association with Rio
Tinto Zimbabwe (RTZ).26
Large amounts of narco-dollars had also been recycled into
the privatisation programmes leading to the acquisition of State
assets by the mafias. In Albania, the privatisation programme had
led virtually overnight to the development of a property owning
class firmly committed to the "free marke." In Northern Albania,
this class was associated with the Guegue "families" linked to
the Democratic Party.
Controlled by the Democratic Party under the presidency of
Sali Berisha (1992-97), Albania's largest financial "pyramid"
VEFA Holdings had been set up by the Guegue "families" of
Northern Albania with the support of Western banking interests.
VEFA was under investigation in Italy in 1997 for its ties to the
Mafia which allegedly used VEFA to launder large amounts of dirty
money.27
According to one press report (based on intelligence
sources), senior members of the Albanian government during the
Presidency of Sali Berisha including cabinet members and members
of the secret police SHIK were alleged to be involved in drugs
trafficking and illegal arms trading into Kosovo:
(...) The allegations are very serious. Drugs, arms,
contraband cigarettes all are believed to have been handled
by a company run openly by Albania's ruling Democratic
Party, Shqiponja (...). In the course of 1996 Defence
Minister, Safet Zhulali [was alleged] to had used his office
to facilitate the transport of arms, oil and contraband
cigarettes. (...) Drugs barons from Kosovo (...) operate in
Albania with impunity, and much of the transportation of
heroin and other drugs across Albania, from Macedonia and
Greece en route to Italy, is believed to be organised by
Shik, the state security police (...). Intelligence agents
are convinced the chain of command in the rackets goes all
the way to the top and have had no hesitation in naming
ministers in their reports.28
The trade in narcotics and weapons was allowed to prosper
despite the presence since 1993 of a large contingent of American
troops at the Albanian-Macedonian border with a mandate to
enforce the embargo. The West had turned a blind eye. The
revenues from oil and narcotics were used to finance the purchase
of arms (often in terms of direct barter): "Deliveries of oil to
Macedonia (skirting the Greek embargo [in 1993-4] can be used to
cover heroin, as do deliveries of kalachnikov rifles to Albanian
'brothers' in Kosovo".29
The Northern tribal clans or "fares" had also developed
links with Italy's crime syndicates.30 In turn, the latter played
a key role in smuggling arms across the Adriatic into the
Albanian ports of Dures and Valona. At the outset in 1992, the
weapons channelled into Kosovo were largely small arms including
Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles, RPK and PPK machine-guns, 12.7 calibre
heavy machine-guns, etc.
The proceeds of the narcotics trade has enabled the KLA to
rapidly develop a force of some 30,000 men. More recently, the
KLA has acquired more sophisticated weaponry including anti-
aircraft and anti-armor rockets. According to Belgrade, some of
the funds have come directly from the CIA "funnelled through a
so-called "Government of Kosovo" based in Geneva, Switzerland.
Its Washington office employs the public-relations firm of Ruder
Finn -- notorious for its slanders of the Belgrade government".31
The KLA has also acquired electronic surveillance equipment
which enables it to receive NATO satellite information concerning
the movement of the Yugoslav Army. The KLA training camp in
Albania is said to "concentrate on heavy weapons training -
rocket propelled grenades, medium caliber cannons, tanks and
transporter use, as well as on communications, and command and
control." (According to Yugoslav government sources).32
These extensive deliveries of weapons to the Kosovo rebel
army 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"...33
The fate of Kosovo had already been carefully laid out prior
to the signing of the 1995 Dayton agreement. NATO had entered an
unwholesome "marriage of convenience" with the mafia. "Freedom
fighters" were put in place, the narcotics trade enabled
Washington and Bonn to "finance the Kosovo conflict" with the
ultimate objective of destabilising the Belgrade government and
fully recolonising the Balkans. The destruction of an entire
country is the outcome. Western governments which participated in
the NATO operation bear a heavy burden of responsibility in the
deaths of civilians, the impoverishment of both the ethnic
Albanian and Serbian populations and the plight of those who were
brutally uprooted from towns and villages in Kosovo as a result
of the bombings. |
