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\pagenumpos{\pnno}\headtext{\allpages}{}{Kosovo `Freedom Fighters' Financed by Organised Crime by Michel Chossudovsky\\
}{}
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{\bf {\Large KOSOVO `FREEDOM FIGHTERS' FINANCED BY
ORGANISED CRIME}\\
by Michel Chossudovsky}\\
Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and author of {\it The Globalization of
Poverty: Impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms\/}, Third World Network, Penang and Zed
Books, London, 1997.\\
\copyright  Copyright by Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa, 1999\\
All rights reserved\\
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Department of Economics\\
University of Ottawa\\
Ottawa, K1N6N5, CANADA\\
Voice box: 1-613-562-5800, ext. 1415\\
Fax: 1-514-425-6224\\
E-Mail: $<$chossudovsky@sprint.ca$>$\footnote[1]{Recent article by Chossudovsky: on Yugoslavia: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/62/022.html.}\\
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Permission is granted to post this text on non-commercial internet sites, provided the essay
remains intact and the copyright note is displayed.\\
To publish this text in printed and/or other forms contact the author at
$<$chossudovsky@sprint.ca$>$\\
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\nwln
\hspace*{1.28cm}Heralded by the global media as a humanitarian peace-keeping mission,
NATO's ruthless bombing of Belgrade and Pristina goes far beyond the breach of
international law. While Slobodan Milosevic is demonised, portrayed as a remorseless
dictator, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) is upheld as a self-respecting nationalist
movement struggling for the rights of ethnic Albanians. The truth of the matter is
that the KLA is sustained by organised crime with the tacit approval of the United
States and its allies.\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}Following a pattern set during the War in Bosnia, public opinion has been
carefully misled. The multibillion dollar Balkans narcotics trade has played a crucial
role in $\ll$financing the conflict$\gg$ in Kosovo in accordance with Western economic,
strategic and military objectives. Amply documented by European police files,
acknowledged by numerous studies, the links of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)
to criminal syndicates in Albania, Turkey and the European Union have been known
to Western governments and intelligence agencies since the mid-1990s.

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{\small $\ldots$The financing of the Kosovo guerilla war poses critical questions and it sorely test claims
of an $\ll$ethical$\gg$ foreign policy. Should the West back a guerilla army that appears to partly
financed by organised crime.}\footnote[2]{Roger Boyes and Eske Wright, $\ll$Drugs Money Linked to the Kosovo Rebels$\gg$ The Times, London, Monday, March 24, 1999.}
\end{indenting}
\hspace*{1.28cm}While KLA leaders were shaking hands with US Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright at Rambouillet, Europol (the European Police Organization based in the
Hague) was $\ll$preparing a report for European interior and justice ministers on a
connection between the KLA and Albanian drug gangs.$\gg$\footnote[3]{Ibid.} In the meantime, the
rebel army has been skilfully heralded by the global media (in the months preceding
the NATO bombings) as broadly representative of the interests of ethnic Albanians
in Kosovo.\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}With KLA leader Hashim Thaci (a 29 year $\ll$freedom fighter$\gg$) appointed as
chief negotiator at Rambouillet, the KLA has become the de facto helmsman of the
peace process on behalf of the ethnic Albanian majority and this despite its links to
the drug trade. The West was relying on its KLA puppets to rubber-stamp an
agreement which would have transformed Kosovo into an occupied territory under
Western Administration.\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}Ironically Robert Gelbard, America's special envoy to Bosnia, had described
the KLA last year as $\ll$terrorists$\gg$. Christopher Hill, America's chief negotiator and
architect of the Rambouillet agreement $\ll$has also been a strong critic of the KLA for
its alleged dealings in drugs.$\gg$\footnote[4]{Philip Smucker and Tim Butcher, $\ll$Shifting stance over KLA has betrayed' Albanians$\gg$, Daily Telegraph, London, 6 April 1999} Moreover, barely a few two months before Rambouillet, the US State Department had acknowledged (based on reports from the US
Observer Mission) the role of the KLA in terrorising and uprooting ethnic Albanians:

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\begin{indenting}{1.48cm}
{\small $\ldots$the KLA harass or kidnap anyone who comes to the police, $\ldots$ KLA representatives had
threatened to kill villagers and burn their homes if they did not join the KLA [a process
which has continued since the NATO bombings]$\ldots$ [T]he KLA harassment has reached
such intensity that residents of six villages in the Stimlje region are $\ll$ready to flee.}\footnote[5]{KDOM Daily Report, released by the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs, Office of South Central European Affairs, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC, December 21, 1998; Compiled by EUR/SCE (202-647-4850) from daily reports of the U.S. element of the Kosovo Diplomatic Observer Mission, December 21, 1998.}
\end{indenting}
\hspace*{1.28cm}While backing a $\ll$freedom movement$\gg$ with links to the drug trade, the West
seems also intent in bypassing the civilian Kosovo Democratic League and its leader
Ibrahim Rugova who has called for an end to the bombings and expressed his desire
to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Yugoslav authorities.\footnote[6]{$\ll$Rugova, sous protection serbe appelle a l'arret des raides$\gg$, Le Devoir, Montreal, 1 April 1999.} It is worth recalling
that a few days before his March 31st Press Conference, Rugova had been reported
by the KLA (alongside three other leaders including Fehmi Agani) to have been
killed by the Serbs.
\begin{center}
{\bf Covert Financing of $\ll$Freedom Fighters$\gg$}
\end{center}
\hspace*{1.28cm}Remember Oliver North and the Contras? The pattern in Kosovo is similar to
other CIA covert operations in Central America, Haiti and Afghanistan where
$\ll$freedom fighters$\gg$ were financed through the laundering of drug money. Since the
onslaught of the Cold War, Western intelligence agencies have developed a complex
relationship to the illegal narcotics trade. In case after case, drug money laundered
in the international banking system has financed covert operations.\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}According to author Alfred McCoy, the pattern of covert financing was
established in the Indochina war. In the 1960s, the Meo army in Laos was funded
by the narcotics trade as part of Washington's military strategy against the combined
forces of the neutralist government of Prince Souvanna Phouma and the Pathet
Lao.\footnote[7]{See Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, Harper and Row, New York, 1972.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}The pattern of drug politics set in Indochina has since been replicated in
Central America and the Caribbean. $\ll$The rising curve of cocaine imports to the
US$\gg$, wrote journalist John Dinges $\ll$followed almost exactly the flow of US arms and
military advisers to Central America$\gg$.\footnote[8]{See John Dinges, $\ll$Our Man in Panama, The Shrewd Rise and Brutal Fall of Manuel Noriega$\gg$, Times Books, New York, 1991.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}The military in Guatemala and Haiti, to which the CIA provided covert
support, were known to be involved in the trade of narcotics into Southern Florida.
And as revealed in the Iran-Contra and Bank of Commerce and Credit International
(BCCI) scandals, there was strong evidence that covert operations were funded
through the laundering of drug money. $\ll$Dirty money$\gg$ recycled through the banking
system  -?-  often through an anonymous shell company  -?-  became $\ll$covert money,$\gg$
used to finance various rebel groups and guerilla movements including the
Nicaraguan Contras and the Afghan Mujahadeen. According to a 1991 Time
Magazine report:\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}$\ll$Because the US wanted to supply the mujehadeen rebels in Afghanistan with
stinger missiles and other military hardware it needed the full cooperation of
Pakistan. By the mid-1980s, the CIA operation in Islamabad was one of the largest
US intelligence stations in the World. `If BCCI is such an embarrassment to the US
that forthright investigations are not being pursued it has a lot to do with the blind
eye the US turned to the heroin trafficking in Pakistan', said a US intelligence officer.\footnote[9]{$\ll$The Dirtiest Bank of All,$\gg$ Time, July 29, 1991, p. 22.}
\begin{center}
{\bf America and Germany join Hands}
\end{center}
\hspace*{1.28cm}Since the early 1990s, Bonn and Washington have joined hands in establishing
their respective spheres of influence in the Balkans. Their intelligence agencies have
also collaborated. According to intelligence analyst John Whitley, covert support to
the Kosovo rebel army was established as a joint endeavour between the CIA and
Germany's Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND) (which previously played a key role
in installing a right wing nationalist government under Franjo Tudjman in Croatia).\footnote[10]{$\ll$Truth in Media$\gg$, Phoenix, 2 April, 1999; see also Michel Collon, Poker Menteur, editions EPO, Brussels, 1997.} The task to create and finance the KLA was initially given to Germany:
$\ll$They used German uniforms, East German weapons and were financed, in part,
with drug money$\gg$.\footnote[11]{Quoted in $\ll$Truth in Media$\gg$, Phoenix, 2 April, 1999.} According to Whitley, the CIA was, subsequently instrumental
in training and equipping the KLA in Albania.\footnote[12]{Ibid.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}The covert activities of Germany's BND were consistent with Bonn's intent to
expand its $\ll$Lebensraum$\gg$ into the Balkans. Prior to the onset of the civil war in
Bosnia, Germany and its Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher had actively
supported secession; it had $\ll$forced the pace of international diplomacy$\gg$ and
pressured its Western allies to recognize Slovenia and Croatia. According to the
Geopolitical Drug Watch, both Germany and the US favoured (although not
officially) the formation of a $\ll$Greater Albania$\gg$ encompassing Albania, Kosovo and
parts of Macedonia.\footnote[13]{Geopolitical Drug Watch, No 32, June 1994, p. 4} According to Sean Gervasi, Germany was seeking a free
hand among its allies $\ll$to pursue economic dominance in the whole of Mitteleuropa.$\gg$\footnote[14]{Sean Gervasi, $\ll$Germany, US and the Yugoslav Crisis$\gg$, Covert Action Quarterly, No. 43, Winter 199293.}
\begin{center}
{\bf Islamic Fundamentalism in Support of the KLA}
\end{center}
\hspace*{1.28cm}Bonn and Washington's $\ll$hidden agenda$\gg$ consisted in triggering nationalist
liberation movements in Bosnia and Kosovo with the ultimate purpose of destabilising
Yugoslavia. The latter objective was also carried out $\ll$by turning a blind eye$\gg$ to the
influx of mercenaries and financial support from Islamic fundamentalist organisations.\footnote[15]{See Daily Telegraph, 29 December 1993.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}Mercenaries financed by Saudi Arabia and Koweit had been fighting in
Bosnia.\footnote[16]{For further details see Michel Collon, Poker Menteur, editions EPO, Brussels, 1997, p. 288.} And the Bosnian pattern was replicated in Kosovo: Mujahadeen mercenaries from various Islamic countries are reported to be fighting alongside the KLA in
Kosovo. German, Turkish and Afghan instructors were reported to be training the
KLA in guerilla and diversion tactics.\footnote[17]{$\ll$Truth in Media, Kosovo in Crisis$\gg$, Phoenix, 2 April 1999.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}According to a Deutsche Press-Agentur report, financial support from Islamic
countries to the KLA had been channelled through the former Albanian chief of the
National Information Service (NIS), Bashkim Gazidede.\footnote[18]{Deutsche Presse-Agentur, March 13, 1998.} $\ll$Gazidede, reportedly
a devout Moslem who fled Albania in March of last year [1997], is presently
[1998] being investigated for his contacts with Islamic terrorist organizations.$\gg$\footnote[19]{Ibid.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}The supply route for arming KLA $\ll$freedom fighters$\gg$ are the rugged
mountainous borders of Albania with Kosovo and Macedonia. Albania is also a key
point of transit of the Balkans drug route which supplies Western Europe with grade
four heroin. 75\% of the heroin entering Western Europe is from Turkey. And a
large part of drug shipments originating in Turkey transits through the Balkans.
According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), $\ll$it is estimated that
4-6 metric tons of heroin leave each month from Turkey having [through the
Balkans] as destination Western Europe.$\gg$\footnote[20]{Daily News, Ankara, 5 March 1997.} A recent intelligence report by
Germany's Federal Criminal Agency suggests that: $\ll$Ethnic Albanians are now the
most prominent group in the distribution of heroin in Western consumer countries.$\gg$\footnote[21]{Quoted in Boyes and Wright, op cit.}
\begin{center}
{\bf The Laundering of Dirty Money}
\end{center}
\hspace*{1.28cm}In order to thrive, the criminal syndicates involved in the Balkans narcotics
trade need friends in high places. Smuggling rings with alleged links to the Turkish
State are said to control the trafficking of heroin through the Balkans $\ll$cooperating
closely with other groups with which they have political or religious ties$\gg$ including
criminal groups in Albanian and Kosovo.\footnote[22]{ANA, Athens, 28 January 1997, see also Turkish Daily News, 29, January 1997.} In this new global financial environment,
powerful undercover political lobbies connected to organized crime cultivate links to
prominent political figures and officials of the military and intelligence establishment.\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}The narcotics trade nonetheless uses respectable banks to launder large
amounts of dirty money. While comfortably removed from the smuggling operations
per se, powerful banking interests in Turkey but mainly those in financial centres in
Western Europe discretely collect fat commissions in a multibillion dollar money
laundering operation. These interests have high stakes in ensuring a safe passage of
drug shipments into Western European markets.
\begin{center}
{\bf The Albanian Connection}
\end{center}
\hspace*{1.28cm}Arms smuggling from Albania into Kosovo and Macedonia started at the
beginning of 1992, when the Democratic Party came to power, headed by President
Sali Berisha. An expansive underground economy and cross border trade had
unfolded. A triangular trade in oil, arms and narcotics had developed largely as a
result of the embargo imposed by the international community on Serbia and
Montenegro and the blockade enforced by Greece against Macedonia.\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}Industry and agriculture in Kosovo were spearheaded into bankruptcy
following the IMF's lethal $\ll$economic medicine$\gg$ imposed on Belgrade in 1990. The
embargo was imposed on Yugoslavia. Ethnic Albanians and Serbs were driven into
abysmal poverty. Economic collapse created an environment which fostered the
progress of illicit trade. In Kosovo, the rate of unemployment increased to a
staggering 70 percent (according to Western sources).\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}Poverty and economic collapse served to exacerbate simmering ethnic tensions.
Thousands of unemployed youths $\ll$barely out of their Teens$\gg$ from an impoverished
population, were drafted into the ranks of the KLA$\ldots$\footnote[23]{ Brian Murphy, KLA Volunteers Lack Experience, The Associated Press, \#5 April 1999.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}In neighbouring Albania, the free market reforms adopted since 1992 had
created conditions which favoured the criminalisation of State institutions. Drug
money was also laundered in the Albanian pyramids (ponzi schemes) which
mushroomed during the government of former President Sali Berisha (19921997).\footnote[24]{See Geopolitical Drug Watch, No. 35, 1994, p. 3, see also Barry James, $\ll$In Balkans, Arms for Drugs$\gg$, The International Herald Tribune, Paris, June 6, 1994.} These shady investment funds were an integral part of the economic
reforms inflicted by Western creditors on Albania.\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}Drug barons in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia (with links to the Italian
mafia) had become the new economic elites, often associated with Western business
interests. In turn the financial proceeds of the trade in drugs and arms were recycled
towards other illicit activities (and vice versa) including a vast prostitution racket
between Albania and Italy. Albanian criminal groups operating in Milan, $\ll$have
become so powerful running prostitution rackets that they have even taken over the
Calabrians in strength and influence.$\gg$\footnote[25]{The Guardian, 25 March 1997.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}The application of $\ll$strong economic medicine$\gg$ under the guidance of the
Washington based Bretton Woods institutions had contributed to wrecking Albania's
banking system and precipitating the collapse of the Albanian economy. The resulting
chaos enabled American and European transnationals to carefully position
themselves. Several Western oil companies including Occidental, Shell and British
Petroleum had their eyes rivetted on Albania's abundant and unexplored oil-deposits.
Western investors were also gawking Albania's extensive reserves of chrome, copper,
gold, nickel and platinum$\ldots$ The Adenauer Foundation had been lobbying in the
background on behalf of German mining interests.\footnote[26]{For further details see Michel Chossudovsky, La crisi albanese, Edizioni Gruppo Abele, Torino, 1998.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}Berisha's Minister of Defence Safet Zoulali (alleged to have been involved in
the illegal oil and narcotics trade) was the architect of the agreement with Germany's
Preussag (handing over control over Albania's chrome mines) against the competing
bid of the US led consortium of Macalloy Inc. in association with Rio Tinto
Zimbabwe (RTZ).\footnote[27]{Ibid.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}Large amounts of narco-dollars had also been recycled into the privatisation
programmes leading to the acquisition of State assets by the mafias. In Albania, the
privatisation programme had led virtually overnight to the development of a property
owning class firmly committed to the $\ll$free market$\gg$. In Northern Albania, this class
was associated with the Guegue $\ll$families$\gg$ linked to the Democratic Party.\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}Controlled by the Democratic Party under the presidency of Sali Berisha
(1992-97), Albania's largest financial $\ll$pyramid$\gg$ VEFA Holdings had been set up
by the Guegue $\ll$families$\gg$ of Northern Albania with the support of Western banking
interests. VEFA was under investigation in Italy in 1997 for its ties to the Mafia
which allegedly used VEFA to launder large amounts of dirty money.\footnote[28]{Andrew Gumbel, $\ll$The Gangster Regime We Fund$\gg$, The Independent, February 14, 1997, p. 15.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}According to one press report (based on intelligence sources), senior members
of the Albanian government during the Presidency of Sali Berisha including cabinet
members and members of the secret police SHIK were alleged to be involved in
drugs trafficking and illegal arms trading into Kosovo:

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\begin{indenting}{1.48cm}
{\small ($\ldots$) The allegations are very serious. Drugs, arms, contraband cigarettes all are believed
to have been handled by a company run openly by Albania's ruling Democratic Party,
Shqiponja ($\ldots$). In the course of 1996 Defence Minister, Safet Zhulali [was alleged] to
had used his office to facilitate the transport of arms, oil and contraband cigarettes. ($\ldots$)
Drugs barons from Kosovo ($\ldots$) operate in Albania with impunity, and much of the
transportation of heroin and other drugs across Albania, from Macedonia and Greece en
route to Italy, is believed to be organised by Shik, the state security police ($\ldots$).
Intelligence agents are convinced the chain of command in the rackets goes all the way
to the top and have had no hesitation in naming ministers in their reports.}\footnote[29]{Ibid.}
\end{indenting}
\hspace*{1.28cm}The trade in narcotics and weapons was allowed to prosper despite the
presence since 1993 of a large contingent of American troops at the AlbanianMacedonian border with a mandate to enforce the embargo. The West had turned
a blind eye. The revenues from oil and narcotics were used to finance the purchase
of arms (often in terms of direct barter): $\ll$Deliveries of oil to Macedonia (skirting the
Greek embargo [in 1993-4] can be used to cover heroin, as do deliveries of
kalachnikov rifles to Albanian `brothers' in Kosovo$\gg$.\footnote[30]{Geopolitical Drug Watch, No. 35, 1994, p. 3.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}The Northern tribal clans or $\ll$fares$\gg$ had also developed links with Italy's crime
syndicates.\footnote[31]{Geopolitical Drug Watch, No 66, p. 4.} In turn, the latter played a key role in smuggling arms across the
Adriatic into the Albanian ports of Dures and Valona. At the outset in 1992, the
weapons channelled into Kosovo were largely small arms including Kalashnikov AK47 rifles, RPK and PPK machine-guns, 12.7 calibre heavy machine-guns, etc.\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}The proceeds of the narcotics trade has enabled the KLA to rapidly develop
a force of some 30,000 men. More recently, the KLA has acquired more
sophisticated weaponry including anti-aircraft and antiarmor rockets. According to
Belgrade, some of the funds have come directly from the CIA $\ll$funnelled through a
so-called $\ll$Government of Kosovo$\gg$ based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its Washington
office employs the public-relations firm of Ruder Finn  -?-  notorious for its slanders
of the Belgrade government$\gg$.\footnote[32]{Quoted in Workers' World, May 7, 1998.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}The KLA has also acquired electronic surveillance equipment which enables
it to receive NATO satellite information concerning the movement of the Yugoslav
Army. The KLA training camp in Albania is said to $\ll$concentrate on heavy weapons
training - rocket propelled grenades, medium caliber cannons, tanks and transporter
use, as well as on communications, and command and control$\gg$. (According to
Yugoslav government sources.)\footnote[33]{See Government of Yugoslavia at http://www.gov.yu/terrorism/terroristcamps.html.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}These extensive deliveries of weapons to the Kosovo rebel army were
consistent with Western geopolitical objectives. Not surprisingly, there has been a
$\ll$deafening silence$\gg$ of the international media regarding the Kosovo arms-drugs
trade. In the words of a 1994 Report of the Geopolitical Drug Watch: $\ll$the
trafficking [of drugs and arms] is basically being judged on its geostrategic
implications ($\ldots$) In Kosovo, drugs and weapons trafficking is fuelling geopolitical
hopes and fears$\gg$$\ldots$\footnote[34]{Geopolitical Drug Watch, No 32, June 1994, p. 4.}\\
\hspace*{1.28cm}The fate of Kosovo had already been carefully laid out prior to the signing of
the 1995 Dayton agreement. NATO had entered an unwholesome $\ll$marriage of
convenience$\gg$ with the mafia. $\ll$Freedom fighters$\gg$ were put in place, the narcotics
trade enabled Washington and Bonn to $\ll$finance the Kosovo conflict$\gg$ with the
ultimate objective of destabilising the Belgrade government and fully recolonising the
Balkans. The destruction of an entire country is the outcome. Western governments
which participated in the NATO operation bear a heavy burden of responsibility in
the deaths of civilians, the impoverishment of both the ethnic Albanian and Serbian
populations and the plight of those who were brutally uprooted from towns and
villages in Kosovo as a result of the bombings.ÿ
\end{document}
