Retired U.S. General Wesley Clark said that, based on what he witnessed during the trial of the former leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), even George Washington, the founding figure of the United States, could have been convicted by such a court.
“I think it has to be judged in the context of Serbian repression, but it also has to be considered in terms of the emotions of the people and what they experienced at the time. The Albanian population was fighting for its life,” Clark said in an interview with Andrea Danglli on A2 CNN’s “Off the Record.”
“Ethnic cleansing was something that was planned; it was against international law. And it resulted precisely in convictions. And during my testimony, I said that we could have sent George Washington to a court like this. The Declaration of Independence [of the United States] says that people have the right to live where they want and to organize themselves, and it makes no sense to punish these people.”
Wesley K. Clark is a retired four-star general of the United States Army who served as Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) from 1997 to 2000. He is particularly known for commanding NATO forces during Operation Allied Force in the 1999 Kosovo War, an intervention that halted the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians by the Serbian regime.
After a highly decorated 34-year military career, Clark moved into the private sector and later became a candidate for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in the 2004 U.S. presidential election.
