SPANISH PILOT ADMITS NATO ATTACKED CIVILIANS

From the Spanish weekly "Articulo 20"
No. 30, June 14, 1999
(NB: 'Article 20' is the Spanish constitutional provision on the freedom of speech)

Jose Luis Morales

The pilots of Spanish planes who participated in bombing raids against Yugoslavia do not feel like "supermen" nor as masters of air space. 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 since the beginning, is an "authentic expert on the dreadful F-18", the war plane commonly used in the strategy of "scortched land" in the Balkans. He is quite categoric: "The majority, even if not all, of my colleagues 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 by Commander Maches Michavilla, who is now in the air base at Aviano with the pilots who had replaced us, in which he said that that our main helper in the air was our mental and physical health.

"But let me tell you that our worst enemies are our own authorities, the Defence Minister and his team, and our Government, who know nothing about the war, and go along with it without informing themselves about anything. What is gravest, they 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 "errors", are confirmed by Captain Martin de la Hoz: "Several times our Colonel protested to NATO chiefs that they selected targets which are NOT military targets. They threw him out, with curses, threatening that the North Americans would lodge a complaint with the Spanish Army, once through Brussels and then 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 Prishtina and Nish. The colonel refused it altogether and, a couple of days later, the transfer order came, removing him from our unit. 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 do not try to inform themselves; 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 was no end to humiliations and insults. "The order-givers are the North American generals, and no one else. We were zeroes, just as our replacements were 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, all and each one, were planned by US high military authorities. Even more, they were all planned in detail, including attacking planes, targets and type of ammunition that we have to throw. We never directed anything, and our missions were limited to flying over the borders of Macedonia, Albania and Bosnia."

None of the pilots presently stationed at Aviano, who replaced those who went to the Italian base a little before the start of war on March 23, were there with clean 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 Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Defence Minister are lying brazenly each time they talk about the war.

"The North Americans - the White House, the Pentagon, the CIA, the U.S. Embassy, the military intelligence, whoever - do not inform them about anything. How should they inform themselves if our own Javier Solana remains ignorant? Solana is a puppet who has been put there by the Yankees to do what they tell him he has to do. And so he does, standing 'attention' before General Clark when he talks to him, or, more precisely, when he issues him the orders that Solana has to implement without delay."

On the subject of manipulation of information about the war, 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, and about the constant humiliations to which we were subjected from the beginning. Not that we were even 'cannon fodder' - no! We were nothing! About the fatal accidents, the losses suffered without connection to combats, the contempt and 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 acutely 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 up for the North American generals who are dealing and wheeling in the war.

There is no journalist who has any slightest idea what is happening in Yugoslavia. "They are destroying the country, bombing it with novel weapons, toxic nervous gases, surface mines dropped with parachute, bombs containing uranium, black 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 the humanity. Much and 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."