cj#961> NATO pilot: “…one the biggest savageries of history”

1999-06-18

Richard Moore

Dear cj,

There are some important revelations in this piece.

rkm


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From: •••@••.••• (William Blum)
Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 18:42:21 EDT
Subject: another yugo email, but a post-war one
To: •••@••.•••, [long list omitted]

Spanish Fighter Pilots Admit NATO Purposely Attacks Civilian Targets

June 14, 1999
Articulo 20 (Spain-weekly)
By Jose Luis Morales (?)


               The pilots of Spanish planes who participated in bombing
raids against Yugoslavia do not feel like "supermen" nor masters of
aerospace. Quite the contrary, they say that our forces play to the tune
of music played by the North Americans, and accuse NATO of having
honoured with medals the bombing of civilian targets, what they
otherwise name "collateral damages".

                Captain Adolfo Luis Martin de la Hoz, who returned to
Spain at the end of May after having participated in the bombings from
the beginning, an "authentic expert for the dreadful F-18", the war
plane most often used in the war strategy of "scorched land" in the
Balkans, is very categoric: "First of all, I want to make it clear that
the majority, I say the majority, of my colleagues, even if not all, are
against the war in general and against this war of barbarity in
particular."

                Martin de la Hoz says that he and his colleagues "are
burnt out".

                "A  few days ago, there appeared in the papers certain
statements of Commander Maches Michavilla, who is now in the air base at
Aviano with the pilots who replaced us, in which he said that our main
helper in the air was mental and physical health. But I tell you that
our worst enemies are our own authorities, the Defence Minister and all
his team, the members of the Government, who know nothing about war and
go along with it without informing themselves about anything and, what
is gravest, who are guilty of lying to the Spanish people through the
papers, radio and television, foreign correspondents and press
agencies."


                   The suspicions that NATO's repeated bombings of
civilian victims and non-military targets are not the result of war
"errors", are confirmed by Captain Martin de la Hoz:

                  "Several times our colonel protested to NATO chiefs as
to why they select targets which are not military targets. They threw
him out with curses, saying that we should know that the North Americans
would lodge a complaint to the Spanish Army, once through Brussels and
again to the Defence Minister. But there is more, and I want to tell it
to the whole world: once there was a coded order from the North American
military that we should drop anti-personnel bombs over the localities of
Prishtine (Pristina) and Nish (Nis). The colonel refused it altogether
and, a couple of days later, the transfer order came. But what I say now
is nothing compared to what I shall have to say when the time comes."


                   The Spanish military denounces that "the Spanish
Government not only does not try to inform themselves, but that they
also accept the false reports that are edited for them in Aviano, where
there is a sort of military press cabinet in the hands of North American
generals and functionaries. Ever since we arrived in Italy - the captain
goes on - there is no end to humiliations and insults. The only
order-givers are the North American generals, and no one else. We are
zeroes, just as our replacements are going to be.


                But there is still more to that. Here, they say that
several operations were directed by Spanish commanders and pilots. Lies
over lies. All the missions that we flew, every single one, were planned
by high U.S. military authorities. Even more, they were all planned in
detail, including attacking planes, targets and type of ammunition that
we have to drop. We never directed anything, and our missions were
limited to flying over the borders of Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia and
Slovakia (Slovenia?)."


Government's lies

                  None of the pilots presently stationed at Aviano, who
replaced those who went to the Italian base shortly before the start of
war, last March 23, were there with a clear conscience, says the Spanish
military.

                   "It is being written to saturation that the
disciplined and patriotic Spanish pilots - according to Minister Eduardo
Serra - are concentrating on the complexity of their war missions".

                    But we read so many discrepancies, so many lies,
that we agreed to not read a single newspaper until we return. Our anger
is enormous. The President of the government, the Minister of Foreign
Affairs and the Defence Minister are lying brazenly each time they talk
about the war. Some of us are of another opinion and believe that they
do not inform themselves, because the North Americans - the White House,
the Pentagon, the CIA, the Embassy or military information service,
whoever, do not inform them about anything. How should they inform
themselves if our own Javier Solana has not informed himself since the
war broke out?

                   Solana is a puppet who has been put there by the
Yanquis to do what they tell him he must do. And so he does, standing
straight before General Clark when he talks to him, or better said, when
he issues him the orders that he has to implement without delay."

                    On the subject of manipulation of war information,
Captain de la Hoz says that "no one has said anything about the
incidents that took place in Aviano, about the disastrous maintenance of
Spanish machines, about everything, and about the constant humiliations
to which we were subjected from the beginning.

                      Not that we are cannon fodder. No. We are nothing.
About the fatal accidents, the losses suffered without connection to
combat, the contempt and the sanctions, not a word. From no one!"

                       For the wrong selection of targets and
humiliations, the Spanish military are ever more certain that there is
no alibi.


                       "We know perfectly well that we are intervening
in a conflict - says Martin de la Hoz - which is rejected by the
majority of the Spanish people and this is most important for us. But
what they do not say in any information, commentary or speech, is that
the Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese ... that we are there to cover for the
North American generals who are wheeling and dealing in the war.

                         There is no journalist who has the slightest
idea what is happening in Yugoslavia. They are destroying the country,
bombing it with new weapons, toxic nerve gases, surface mines dropped by
parachute, bombs containing uranium, napalm, sterilization chemicals,
sprayings to poison the crops and weapons of which even we still do not
know anything.

                            The North Americans are committing there one
of the biggest barbarities that can be committed against humanity. Many
very bad things will be told in the future about what was happening
there because, by the way, judging by what we talked about with the
British and German officers, it was designed in order to divide the
Europeans and keep us subjected for many decades.

                             Therefore, Captain Martin de la Hoz is
enraged when there is talk about the costs of the war. There should be
no doubts, he confirms, that the military detached in Aviano are
receiving bonuses which "multiply by five our salary, but not
considering the daily expenses and other perquisites. We could say that
we should be satisfied with what this war means economically for each
one of us, but it is not true, what they give us is chocolate for the
parrots.


                               This war is going to cost the Spaniards
more than all the money allocated for culture in the last five years.
And, even if now no one says anything because of the elections, it will
come in a few months and will be felt in our pockets. Because this
brutal Yanqui-only war, no one's but the Yanquis, is going to be paid by
all of us.
                               Be certain that what I say is not to
exculpate myself and to intone 'mea culpa' for having participated in
it, because I will never be able to forget that what was being committed
there was one the biggest savageries of history."

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