War Criminal, Ally, or Both?
The KLA's new leader, Agim Ceku, may have helped
mastermind the most brutal ethnic-cleansing campaign in
post-communist Yugoslavia's history. Now he's on NATO's
side in the war over Kosovo.
by Jeffrey Benner
May 21, 1999
The Kosova Liberation
Army (KLA)'s new chief of
staff, Agim Ceku, has been
linked to two of the grisliest
episodes of brutality in the
ongoing war in the former
Yugoslavia, perhaps even
worse than the current Serb
campaign against ethnic Albanians. Now he's on NATO's
side in the war for Kosovo. Who is this man, and why is
NATO making excuses on his behalf?
Ceku joined the newly formed Croatian military (HV) in
1991 during that region's effort to secede from
Yugoslavia. He quickly rose to the rank of brigadier
general, and retired last February. Though it sounds lifted
from a résumé, a short description of Ceku in Jane's
Defense Weekly credits him with helping to orchestrate
Operation Storm and the Medak offensive, which
involved the cleansing of ethnic Serbs from the Krajina
region of Croatia, the deliberate shelling of civilians, rape,
and systematic arson.
According to Jane's, “in 1993 Ceku masterminded the
successful HV offensive at Medak, and in 1995 was one
of the key planners of the successful 'Operation Storm,'
in which the HV quickly defeated [its] Serb opponents.”
Ceku also has some well-placed references to go along
with that résumé: An unnamed retired U.S. military
official told Jane's, “We were impressed by [Ceku's]
overview of the battleground and the ability to always
predict his enemy's next move.”
In Operation Storm, a four-day offensive in August of
1995, the Croatian army regained control of the Krajina
region, which was primarily inhabited by ethnic Serbs.
Many analysts say Operation Storm was undertaken with
the tacit approval of the West, and perhaps even with the
assistance of U.S. military advisers (much the same way
it is reportedly advising the KLA in Kosovo).
According to an Amnesty
International report, “Croatia:
Impunity for killings after
'Storm,'” nearly the entire ethnic
Serbian population of the region,
estimated to be at least 180,000
people, fled in face of the attack.
Hundreds of civilians were
murdered, most of the victims
being elderly and disabled persons
who were unable to flee. The
report estimates that 5,000
structures were torched by the
advancing Croatian army.
According to The New York
Times, the International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia has determined that
war crimes were indeed
committed during Operation
Storm. In a March 21, 1999
article, the Times revealed an
unpublished report produced by the Tribunal. Among the
report's assertions: “During the course of the military
offensive, the Croatian armed forces and special police
committed numerous violations of international
humanitarian law.”
The Medak offensive in 1993, which Jane's credits Ceku
with "masterminding," is also known as the “Medak
massacre.” While the name may not ring a bell for most
readers in the U.S., it is remembered in Canada as that
nation's largest military action since the Korean War.
According to the book, Tested Mettle, Canadian
peacekeepers in the “Medak Pocket” engaged Croatian
soldiers in a firefight to stop them from terrorizing
Serbian civilians. Four Canadians were wounded in the
battle, which left nearly 30 Croatian soldiers dead.
Excerpts of the book's account of the fighting at Medak
were published in newspapers across Canada last
November. Atrocities witnessed by Canadian soldiers are
described in detail. “A drunken Croat soldier emerged
from a building and staggered toward [a Canadian
soldier],” begins one section. “A girl could be heard
screaming inside the house. Draped on the drunken
soldier's head was a pair of blood-soaked panties.”
While details about his role in such horrors remain
unconfirmed, the mere mention of Ceku's possible
connection to war crimes is enough to put NATO on the
defensive, especially since the U.S. has been linked with
him in the past. During the May 14 NATO press briefing,
a reporter asked Jamie Shea to comment on reports of
Ceku's involvement in ethnic cleansing while he was
serving in the Croatian military.
“Well, I have always made it clear ... that NATO has no
direct contacts with the KLA,” answered Shea. “Who
they appoint as their leaders, that is entirely their own
affair. I don't have any comment on that whatever.”
However, unable to restrain himself, Shea did comment.
Using a laughable chain of reasoning, he lay the blame for
NATO's association with the KLA at the feet of their
mutual arch enemy, Milosevic. “If Milosevic had not
started a policy of brutality in Kosovo some years ago,
the KLA would never have existed.” Shea said. “It is a
very recent creation, and it is a creation of Belgrade, first
and foremost.”
Chillingly, Shea went on to imply that the Krajina
atrocities during Operation Storm were a case of the
Serbs getting what they deserved. “When you spoke
about the Serbs who were driven from the Krajina, this is
absolutely true,” he admitted. “But as somebody who
remembers these events particularly well, do not forget
that there were many, many Croats who were persecuted
and also driven from their homes in that part of the
world, when the Yugoslav national army moved there in
1991.”
In fact, this sort of response from a Western official
regarding atrocities committed by the Croatian army is
hardly new. The West has long seen Croatia as a valuable
ally against Milosevic, so misdeeds by the Croatian
military have been downplayed by Western European and
U.S. officials. According to the Times, American lawyers
hired by the Pentagon argued at the International Criminal
Tribunal against indicting the Croatian generals who led
Operation Storm. The lawyers argued that only legitimate
military targets were shelled during the attack.
The following assessment, printed in the August 22, 1995
edition of The Washington Post, still rings true:
“In the battle for international public opinion, Croatia has
so far escaped serious criticism for Operation Storm
despite increasing evidence of shootings of civilians and
officially sanctioned arson of many Serb houses in the
Krajina [region]. International attention has focused on
rebel Serbs, who are being charged with digging mass
graves near Srebrenica -- a U.N. 'safe area' in Bosnia that
fell to a combined Yugoslav-Bosnian Serb assault in
July.”
While the Krajina battle is often cited as the turning point
which brought opposing parties to the negotiating table in
1995, for Ceku it served as inspiration to make war.
According to a BBC translation of a May 14 Croatian
news report, Ceku issued a statement saying: “There is
only one way out. And we have advocated it from the
very beginning: a final defeat of the Serbian army and its
expulsion from Kosovo; a defeat similar to the one they
[the Yugoslav army] suffered in Croatia.” |
