APPENDIX 33
Supplementary memorandum submitted by
The Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studies
1. Our previous letter of 20 December urged
the committee to investigate NATO's deliberate rejection of an
earlier, pre-emptive intervention which would have been consistent
with the UN Charter and less violent than bombing, namely sealing
northern Albania's lawless border region with Kosovo to stem the
flow of weapons to the KLA and to close down its training camps.
2. In this connection we wish to draw the
committee's attention to a Financial Times article of June 4,
1998 entitled "NATO plans to seal off Kosovo as violence
increases". The article went on to explain than any NATO
presence would be to deter Yugoslav forces from pursuing the KLA
into Albania. No mention here of stemming the flow of KLA weapons
and closing down its training camps. The irony is that if Yugoslav
forces had pursued the KLA into Albania, this would not have contravened
international law whereas the training camps and flow of weapons
definitely did. Upholding international law was obviously not
high on NATO's agenda.
3. Carl Bildt perceptively noted in his
pronouncements prior to NATO initiating hostilities that NATO
employed a whole array of sticks with which to beat Belgrade,
from sanctions to ultimately bombing, but none were ever contemplated
with regards to the KLA. No wonder NATO became the air arm of
the KLA. As suggested in our previous letter, Carl Bildt would
make an insightful expert witness.
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