Blue buttocks

On one of the private Russian TV channels, in yesterday's report from Yugoslavia, the passionate and expressive journalist was talking about the Kosovo refugees once again; now living in camps and exiled from their familiar surroundings, by no means, according to her, because of more than two months of NATO bombing but exclusively because of oppression by the Serbian side. As proof of her passionate words, the journalist asked a well groomed and dressed young boy, according to her also a refugee, to show the consequences of the Serbian attack.

The young man enthusiastically, right in front of the camera, pulled down his trousers and, turning slightly, displayed neither a scar nor a wound but an unexplained blue spot on his buttocks...

... Western media correspondents have long since frankly poked fun at reports similar to those which are continuing to appear on Russian screens.

In many Western media there is a particular opinion with regard to such documentary makers. There, the contents of one remarkable video tape made by French journalists have already been known for a while. This tape was very clearly shot in a Kosovo refugee camp and reports on the work of representatives of the international organizations in Kosovo. But clearly the principle aim of the producers was not confined to this. On the whole, they tried to show the basis, the sources of information, upon which the international bureaucrats, whose conclusions are brought to the attention of the world community, write their accounts.

So, going back to the tape, how was the picture put together?

At the beginning it follows a natural course. We are told that, on arriving in the Balkans and attempting to work on the problems of the refugees, workers from the Red Cross and other international organizations and even international observers, as rule, rarely have any ability to use the Albanian language they are forced to rely on help from local translators, people who speak a little English or French.

What arises from this, is clearly demonstrated by deciphering the video recording of such a discussion, conducted, let us remember by French journalists.

A shot of the refugee camp. The Red Cross worker, speaking in French, is talking with a middle aged Albanian women surrounded by several children, he asks how it happened that this woman abandoned her home and now finds herself here in the camp.

The Albanian woman answers (in Albanian):

They woke us up at night and told us that we had to get out of the house and go to Kumanovo in Macedonia.

Translator - translates her answer accurately into French.

Red Cross Worker:

Who ordered you to do this?

Albanian Woman:

They were our people. The said that they were with the KLA. They treated us well.

Translator (translates her answer in the following way):

The Serbs burst in on us. They threatened to kill unless we left the house.

Red Cross Worker:

How did they treat you, what language were they speaking?

Translator (asks the woman in Albanian):

Did you know them from before?

Albanian Woman:

I knew one of them, he was from a neighbouring village. But I believed them all.

Translator translates:

I was very afraid for my children, but they raped me.

Red Cross Worker:

Where is your husband?

Albanian Woman:

He left us long ago, to join the KLA and fight against the Serbs.

Translator (in French):

The Serbs grabbed him. We all cried and pleaded for them to let him stay with us, but they all beat us. We are afraid that he is already dead.

At another point in the video, an Italian, a member of the observer commission, in English, asks an Albanian translator to ask Kosovar refugees if someone forced them to leave their homes.

Albanian Boy:

We left the house ourselves with mum.

Translator renders his words into English in the following form:

The Serbs began shelling our house, that's why we fled.

Italian:

How did you know that they were Serbs?

Translator to Boy

Did the Serbs threaten you?

Albanian Boy:

It was night, you couldn't see anything. We heard the terrible sounds of aircraft. From somewhere, the noise of explosions could be heard.

Translator to Italian (in English):

We had already seen them the previous night. We saw them arrive in tanks.

Italian (turning to the old man):

Where are your young men?

Old Man:

They have all gone to join the army and fight for our independence.

Translator to Italian (in English):

It's a dirty business. Those who didn't flee, the Serbs themselves took.

Italian (turning to a young pregnant Albanian):

Are you alone here?

The woman acts guiltily, and shifting her voice says that she is here with here mother and husband's brother.

Translator:

And where is your husband? Why isn't he with you, when you might need his help?

Pregnant Woman to Translator

What shall I answer? Can I say that he's serving with our army.

Translator to Pregnant Woman:

Now, start to cry!

Translator to Italian (in English):

Nobody has seen my husband. The Serbs killed him when he was trying to run from them. My husband wasn't a soldier he was a simple teacher.

The Italian observer expresses his sincere sympathy to the young woman and the belief that the killers will be punished.

So, the observers and other representatives of international organizations, who have arrived to work in Serbian Kosovo or to visit it for a short time, in order to communicate with the local population were obliged to seek out those who could help them talk to people to collect material.

The local population, not speaking major European languages, sent them to local translators, each of whom was tied to the KLA. Naturally, such assistants translated just as it suited them, independent of what the local residents had actually said.

With a significant passage of time, the workers of the international mission, took such translations as statements of actual facts and on this foundation wrote their accounts and reports for the media. After the release of the videotape, a part of whose contents we have acquainted you with above, the flow of tear-jerking material from Kosovo to the West was noticeably reduced.

And only Russian viewers continue to be offered reporting, the principle arguments consist of flashing eyes, angry words and ... blue buttocks.

From French Press Materials.