Dientsbier says terrorism is with international blessing, Makfax, October 30th 2002
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (Makfax) - Terrorism, including the latest
terrorist act in Moscow, did not break out last September when the United
States was under attack, it started much earlier in Bosnia, Albania and
Kosovo, said the former Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Jiri
Dientsbier, who was also the U.N. human rights special envoy.
In Friday's interview with the Prague newspaper Pravo, Dientsbier said
not only the media but also the politicians, who divided the terrorists
into 'good ones' and 'bad ones', were doing service to terrorism.
This is the case with the Chechens and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)
as well.
"When Osama bin Laden founded his own humanitarian organizations in
Bosnia and Hercegovina and Albania, and later on he entered into
arrangements with Algerian terrorists in Albania (1994), nobody could
assume the eventual link to terrorism. During the NATO-led bombardment on
Yugoslavia, the Kosovo Liberation Army was used as a ground force. The
KLA engagement during the NATO-led air strikes on Yugoslavia enabled this
organization to rule in Kosovo and mastermind and carry out attacks in
Macedonia, southern Serbia and Montenegro", Dientsbier said.
Dientsbier underlines that U.S. President George Bush had added a number
of KLA members under the Executive Order on Extremism in the Western
Balkans, including the leader of the National Liberation Army (NLA) Ali
Ahmeti, who won some 70 percent of the Albanian vote in Macedonia's
parliamentary elections.
Dientsbier says the Albanian extremists had also killed thousands of
Albanians, adding that ongoing efforts to arrest those responsible turned
inconsequent.
"The international representatives in Kosovo fear that the former KLA
members could resort to violence against the U.N. representatives and
KFOR soldiers", Dientsbier said in an interview with the Prague
newspaper Pravo.
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