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Commentary 10 Classified Ads 11 Letters 12 People Search 13 Health 14 Weather 15 TV Guide 16 MusicNetDaily 17 Movies 18 Stocks WND Exclusive TROUBLE IN THE HOLY LAND Jenin inquiry a witch hunt? Helena Ranta was named as an adviser to the three-man panel appointed by Secretary General Kofi Annan last week. The commission was named in response to Palestinian claims of civilian slaughter and mass graves in the wake of Israel's successful search-and-destroy mission targeting terrorists and their infrastructure in several West Bank towns. Following the forensic investigation by her team, at a March 17, 1999, news conference, Ranta referred to the Racak deaths as a "crime against humanity," charging that the "victims" were "unarmed civilians," according to BBC reports. Despite contradictory results gathered by two other forensic teams - as well as doubts concerning the events in Racak raised by European media, including the Paris Le Monde and the London Times - one week later, NATO began its 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. In the midst of the campaign, on May 22, 1999, the "International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia," or ICTY, issued indictments for "Crimes against Humanity and Violations of the Laws or Customs of War" against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and four of his associates for their part in the alleged Racak massacre. Yugoslavian forces the Serb police entered the village later in the morning and began conducting house-to-house searches. Villagers who attempted to flee from the Serb police were shot throughout Racak . A group of approximately 25 men attempted to hide in a building, but were discovered by the Serb police. Furthermore, as pointed out by Chris Soda of Yugoslaviainfo, Ranta used the Scanning Electron Microscope with an Energy Dispersive X-Ray analyzer (SEM/EDX) method, for which samples must be obtained from the skin surfaces of a victim at the scene. Any delay in obtaining residues, movement of bodies or washing can diminish or destroy gunshot residues. Furthermore, according to her own admission, the bodies had been both moved and turned over during that time. For on that day, Yugoslav forces were closing in on Albanian Muslim KLA terrorists who had waged numerous murder attacks against police and civilians in the previous months, and whose stronghold Racak actually was. The OSCE observers that entered the village after the battle found no evidence of any "massacre," nor of any civilians killed, just as they received no such testimony from any of the villagers. It was not until the next day that journalists were directed by a KLA member to a gully just outside the village in which the bodies lay. Yet Ranta never addressed them, and in fact ignored the evidence that would have set the context for the deaths that occurred at Racak. President Bill Clinton addressed his nation in order to prepare it for the air strikes against Yugoslavia: "As we prepare to act, we need to remember the lessons we have learned in the Balkans. Ranta has also concluded that there is no indication of post-mortem tampering with bodies or fabrication of evidence. Furthermore, testing for gunshot residues on the victims has been negative. Ranta's conclusion that there was no indication of the victims being other than unarmed civilians. On this basis the Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE reiterates his statement of 16 January which is 5 days before Dr.
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