From Diana Johnstone in Paris
13 March 1999

Faced with mounting evidence that the January 15 "Racak massacre" was a set-up perpetrated by ethnic Albanian rebels to win NATO support, a number of European governments want to replace the American head of the Kosovo Verification Mission who hastily endorsed the "massacre" story, a Berlin newspaper reported today. The Kosovo Verification Mission is officially under the authority of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), but its chief, former U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador, has tended to make it a one-man American show.

On January 16, Ambassador William Walker, accompanied by a large media contingent, was led by members of the "Kosovo Liberation Army" (UCK) to a ditch in the village of Racak where some forty bodies were lying. In an instant on-the-spot press conference, Walker spoke of his "personal revulsion" at "an unspeakable atrocity", "a massacre, a crime against humanity". He did "not hesitate to accuse the government security forces of responsibility" for killings "at close range in execution fashion".

The "Berliner Zeitung" reported today from OSCE headquarters in Vienna that several leading OSCE members, including Germany, Italy and Austria, are anxious to fire Walker. "High-ranking OSCE European representatives are in possession of information according to which the 45 Albanians found in the Kosovo village of Racak in mid-January were not -- as Walker declared -- victims of a Serbian massacre of civilians", the newspaper said.

Within the OSCE, it has been assumed for some time that the Racak massacre was "staged by the Albanian side", the newspaper noted. This conclusion was reached on the basis of data gathered in the Kosovo Mission's headquarters, independently of the Finnish forensic report on Racak whose publication has been inexplicably delayed (see earlier report).

According to the evidence which the OSCE is so far keeping to itself, most of the dead bodies were carried from outlying areas around Racak and placed together on the spot where they were subsequently shown to Walker and Western media. In reality, according to the newspaper's OSCE sources, most of the Albanians died in battle with Serbian artillery, and many of the dead were "posthumously dressed in civilian clothing" before being shown to Walker and the media.

This is a technique which recalls the famous December 1989 "Timisoara massacre", in which cadavers from the local morgue were presented to television viewers as victims of a massacre perpetrated by Rumanian security forces.

The Europeans are considering the former OSCE general secretary, Wilhelm Hoeynck from Germany, and Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, as possible replacements, the Berliner Zeitung reported.

According to latest reports, the forensic report on the Racak bodies, after being delayed for a fortnight, is now to be delivered to the German government, as current presidency of the European Union, on March 17.

The "spin doctors" of all the NATO government leaders who have choed William Walker must be preparing their spins.