April 2, 2000

Ethnic cleansing report called fake

Berlin -- A report purporting to show that Belgrade planned the systematic ethnic cleansing of Kosovo's Albanians was faked, a German general says.

The report was revealed by Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, on April 6 last year [1999], almost two weeks after NATO started bombing Serbia.

Heinz Loquai, a retired brigadier general, states in a new book on the war that the plan was fabricated from a general analysis by a Bulgarian intelligence agency of Serbian behaviour in the war.

German public opinion about the Luftwaffe's participation in the air strikes was divided at the time.