Monitor: French opinon on the massacre of Kosovans at Racak by the Serbian security forces

All the News of the World

WHAT REALLY happened last week at Racak, where 45 people were found dead? Albanian witnesses claim it was a cold-blooded massacre of unarmed civilians. The Serbs affirm that the victims were KLA militants. Only an international inquiry, above all suspicion, will resolve this puzzle. The problem, though, is that the Belgrade authorities have not even once showed themselves as being co-operative in this affair. But why not?Whatever the conclusions drawn by those leading investigations into this matter, the Racak massacre reveals that the hope of having reached a satisfactory arrangement regarding the Kosovar crisis was an illusory one.

Le Monde

THE INTERNATIONALISATION of the Kosovar problem was a chance for the Serbs. The observers deployed should have enabled the suspension of combat and a climate essential to the construction of a solution to the Kosovar problem. That chance has been compromised. Will we ever save the Serbian nation from its own demons? Le Figaro

THERE IS no doubt that a massacre took place at Racak and that the massacre was the work of the Serbian police. But what was its precise nature? Was it an act of war? The act of soldiers who lost control? Or perhaps simply the cold- blooded execution of civilians? Should we want to sway opinion in the direction of the last suggestion, was the Kosovar Liberation Army on the scene? Since the massacre the media has attempted in all honesty to reply to these questions. Was the massacre premeditated, or was it precipitated on the ground? The bizarre nature of its chronology and contradictory witness statements have fanned the flames of suspicion. But in this filthy war over Kosovo, either hypothesis would make sense. The Serbian forces have never distinguished themselves with a respect for the Geneva convention and have always been ready to organise a civilian massacre to terrorise the Albanians. But the KLA, organisation of steel, is also well able to "arrange" truth to sway international opinion.

Liberation