Slobodan Milosevic and How the US Used Al Qaeda in the Balkans

In this commentary Michael Barratt Brown challenges the widely held view that the break-up of Former Yugoslavia was the result of the late Slobodan Milosevic's aim to create a Greater Serbia by “ethnic cleansing” of the other peoples especially in Bosnia and Kosovo. The author's authority derives from a long personal involvement in Former Yugoslavia and a complete reading of the transcripts of the trial of Milosevic before the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia. Evidence is drawn from statements of the British and American peace negotiators in Bosnia, Lord Owen and Cyrus Vance as well as from US, UK and other journalists. In relation to the so-called “massacre” at Srebrenica the UNPROFOR General Morillon who was present is cited as believing that the numbers killed were grossly exaggerated and that the incident was set up by the Bosnians. The author provides evidence to show that it was the US who supported the large scale expulsion of Serbs from Croatia and that the deaths at Racak in Kosovo, which were the excuse for the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, were in fact the result of a fight-out between Yugoslav and Albanian forces reported by US General Walker of Nicaraguan “Contras” fame as a Serb “massacre”. The break-up of Former Yugoslavia is attributed by the author to the intervention of Germany on behalf of the Croats and the US on behalf of the Bosnians, in which he offers strong evidence that the US deployed Al Qaeda mercenaries as the US had done against the Soviets in Afghanistan.