Exploiting Tragedy

The public learned for the first time about the atrocity in the Kosovo village of Klecka on Friday, August 28, thanks to Studio B Television, and there begins the story of the extremely tasteless media and political handling of an incident which, out of respect for the victims, demanded utmost seriousness and moderation in its treatment.
On the Friday in question, Studio B reported in its evening news, without any reservations, that “more than one hundred murdered Serbs” have been discovered in Klecka.  Twenty four hours later, in the same program, they reduced the number of victims by more than 80.  MUP Colonel Bozidar Filic stated before cameras that “up to now 20 bodies have been discovered, but a precise number will be difficult to ascertain because the victims have been burnt.”

This program and the one that followed it continuously carried footage of burnt bones, of a decapitated corps, of scattered clothing of the victims (women’s clothing included: white slippers and black high heel shoes), and the limekiln where the bodes were burnt.  Investigating Judge, Danica Markinkovic, also before Studio B cameras, heard the testimony of the accused Bekim Mazreku at the scene of the crime (“Were they Serbs or Albanians?”  “I think they were Serbs.”  “What age were the children?”  “From seven or eight to 11 years old.”  “And the women?”  “From 28 to 32.”).  Ljuam Mazreku, another of the accused, was heard in closed quarters.  He told how one of the commanders, Gani Krasnici, raped three girls from ages 12 to 15, and that he also raped a girl.  He thinks that her name was Jovana.  “When we were finished, there wasn’t a single woman that was not raped.”  He cut one eight-year-old boy’s ear off.  After the torture, all victims were burnt, stated the accused.

SATISFACTION: The airing of the testimony of the accused on television, while the investigation is still pending, is highly unusual, but not against the law, if there is court permission.  From a legal perspective, the only arguable thing is that the hearings of the accused were not attended — at least from what could be seen — by their lawyers.
Even though this is also highly unusual in this country, journalists were permitted to interview the accused.  This permission was exclusively granted in this instance to a Radio Television Serbia (RTS) reporter.  In the program “Aktuelnosti” (“Current Affairs”), his interview with Ljuam Mazreku was aired (“Did you participate in the execution of Serb civilians?”  “I did.”  “Did you participate in rapes?”  “I did.”)

All together, the horrific incident in Klecka was taken up by these two television stations with a certain satisfaction that was brimming with the sense that now we can finally see “what kind of beasts are part of UCK”, with respect for the victims, demands for a complete investigation or an analysis of a state policy which results in cruel torture and murder of citizens in their own country, being altogether forgotten.

Vuk Draskovic, the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, on this occasion surpassed even Slobodan Milosevic in tastelessness, for the latter never took the opportunity to congratulate RTS on quality reporting.  However, Draskovic congratulated the Director and Chief Editor of Studio B, Dragan Kojadinovic, on “objective, dedicated and timely reporting of the Nazi-like aggression of pan-Albanian culprits in Serbia.”  He asked Kojadinovic to “do everything which is in his power for Studio B to acquaint viewers throughout the world with this monstrous atrocity.”

Of course, television stations were not the only ones to exploit this terrible atrocity as a source of cheap propaganda.  The state press joined in the race for the harshest judgments: for Politika ekspres, Bekim Mazreku is “bestially cold-blooded” — one of their headlines read “Will the lives of civilians continue to be snuffed out in Kosovo’s backwoods?”; while Politika wrote about a “private cremation chamber” in the possession of Albanian terrorists.

However, the media was far outstripped by political parties and politicians in this regard.  All those who contributed through their action or inaction to the creation of cremation chambers for Serbs in Kosovo are now competing in just anger, and this is how it looks: “By murdering and killing kidnapped Serbs and Montenegrins in the village of Klecka, the terrorist bands of Albanians separatists have shown their genocidal face” (Socialist Party of Serbia press release); “By murdering kidnapped Serb civilians, the pan-Albanian terrorists have unveiled their true face in front of Serbia and the World” (SPO press release); this crime “goes beyond atrocities in Jasenovac, Banjica and Mathausen” (SPS Pristina Branch); this is “the heaviest and bloodiest atrocity which has been discovered to have been done by the terrorists according to Nazi recipes,” who do not “hold back from the sickening burning of the bodies of victims in their deranged Nazi obsession” (Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release); “Even though we hoped that not even terrorist could cross the boundary which separates humans from beasts, we realized that they would not hold back from the cruelest methods in achieving their objectives” (Bratislava Buba Morian, Commissar for Refugees in the Republic of Serbia).  “The Serbian Radical Party thinks that the only fitting name for the Liberation Army of Kosovo is — a band of terrorists who execute horrific mass crimes” (SRS press release).

MOTIVE:  It can be supposed that, apart from contests in verbal patriotism, there is a reasoned political motive behind such publicity which is being given to the tragedy in Klecka.  Namely, places of execution of Serbs discovered during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia — to mention but a few, the field in Pakracka, Gospic, the pocket of Medak, Mrkonjic-grad where hundreds of Serb civilians were executed, etc.— did now warrant even a fraction of the sort of reaction by the mentioned political players and their loyal media factors in Serbia.  Regardless of how harsh it may sound, it is likely that the mass suffering of Serbs at that time, according to our government, could not be exploited for some tangible political objective.  This time, they appear to believe that they can profit from the public exploitation of cruelly executed to fellow Serbs.  What is it the government and its satellites hope to achieve with the insulting use of tortured, executed and burnt people?

According to press statements, their main objective —  given that they were unable to prevent Klecka — is not to organize the state so that nothing similar will ever happen anywhere in it.  Thus, FRY President Slobodan Milosevic issued an order on September 1 in which he congratulates the army and the police on their patriotism and defense of the state border.  The headline in Borba reads: “international community produced a monster”.  The SPS formulation reads that “all countries which helped, supported, took photos with and refused to treat Albanian separatists as a dangerous international terrorist organization can consider themselves complicit in the resurrection of the crematorium, the biggest civil menace at the end of the 20th century.”  And according to Bratislava Morina, “the logistical support for the bands of Ballists was organized by the international community through its exponents, the peacemakers.”

EXPECTATIONS: Expectations have been expressed that the international community will now include the UCK among other terrorist organizations, that it will stop supporting and financing it, and there are occasional hints that a session of the UN Security Council might be called.  Also, there are demands that the world support Serbia in its struggle against terrorism.

Along with this, important world media are being asked to significantly change their stand on Kosovo, with expressions of profound dissatisfaction with their reporting up to now.  “Just as they thundered in unison about false mass graves of Albanians in Orahovac, Western media were virtually unanimous yesterday in their ignoring of the genocidal atrocity of Serb civilians,” Politika ekspres observes in one of its commentaries.  The Director and Editor in Chief of Tanjug, Dusan Djordjevic, directed an appeal to world media, “in the name of those employed in his agency,” to “condemn and brand in the sharpest terms” the atrocity committed by Albanian terrorists.  Even though it is known that Western reporters can only get visas to Yugoslavia with difficulty, the Minister for Information in the Government of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, suggested to world media that they should send their best reporters to Serbia so that they can realize the actual state of affairs.  The Serbian Association of Journalists (UNS) called on reporters of CNN, The Washington Post, The Independent, Die Spiegel, Deutsche Welle, as well as journalists of other significant world media to come to Kosovo as guests of UNS in order to acquaint their citizens with the consequences of the atrocity in Klecka.

MESSAGES: There is little doubt the big powers and the western public accorded far greater sympathy to the illegal UCK, than the nature of this organization, and especially its methods, warrant.  A voice of reason was only heard from Colonel Zoran Stankovic, the famous pathologists from the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade, whose team — without much state aid or support — carried out examinations of 5,000 Serb corpses in Croatia and Bosnia, while he himself looked at around 3,500.
As soon as the first reports of the atrocity in Klecka were released, Dr. Stankovic stated for Studio B that it is necessary to “contain the euphoria” so that investigators can do their job, that the first task is to establish how many victims there were, “so that we do not find ourselves in a situation where we have to backtrack, as was the case in the past.”

As a guest in the Radio B-92 daily program “Interview”, Stankovic gave instructions for reasonable action in such cases.  He demanded a quick and professional investigation which would yield evidence that would support or refute the statements given by the accused.  “So far what we have is that two individuals have admitted mass murder, that a certain number of bones have been discovered in that location, and that now investigations are being released by experts from the Institute for Forensic Medicine in Pristina and Nis,” stated Stankovic, adding that he is in favor of “evidence being the basis for sentencing any individual,” and that “there is no place for emotions in our job” (even though Stankovic’s grandfather was killed by the Ballists in Kosovo during the Second World War).  He cautioned about the dangers of premature judgments and statements, because “bodily remains must get a first and last name in order for manipulation to be avoided.”  He explained that it is possible to identify a corpse on the basis of a skull with 90 percent certainty, and that in the case of corpses where skulls were burnt, advanced foreign laboratories could be called to in take genetic prints using the DNA method.  He stated that what is at issue is genocide, but that the investigation is still not complete and that the lawyers have still not had their say.  “I insist — and others should do the same — on the presence of experts from abroad.  I have worked with experts from the Hague Tribunal and from Medecines sans Frontiers.  They do not come to control you, they merely come to see what you are doing.  Their presence is essential.  It would be important to invite Germany — here you go gentlemen, here’s what we found.  Not Kinkel, but a forensic doctor who will say what is what, and who will participate in the investigation.  Call the Americans.  We are fooling ourselves if we think that this is how we will show sovereignty.  That is nonsense,” stated Dr. Stankovic, a man who in this instance has the greatest moral right and expertise to speak about the victims.