Ranta: Walker used pressure
Finnish forensics examiner Helena Ranta has confirmed that former OSCE KosovoVerification Mission head William Walker had persistently claimed that Serb forces massacred unarmed ethnic Albanian civilians in the Kosovo village of Racak in 1999, and insisted on this being entered into the pathologist's report
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Friday, October 24, 2008
Ranta says that Walker insisted on this being entered into the pathologist's report.
"We all know what William Walker said. He says to this day that it was a massacre and that the Serbs were to blame. But I never said that. I never made any reference to the perpetrators," says the pathologist.
"I never said a single word about who stood behind what went on in Racak. That's for the judges to decide, while we forensic scientists just carry out the investigation," she told a Belgrade daily.
Ranta claims that Walker was "putting words into my mouth, which was not allowed. I didn't agree with him. He was angry with me,?" she says.
"What angered him most was that I refused to use the word massacre and say who stood behind what happened in Racak. He was terribly angry about that. He threw a pencil at me,?" Ranta recalls.
Racak was the trigger for the NATO decision to bomb Serbia in 1999. Walker has received numerous awards by the Kosovo Albanian leadership for his contribution to their cause.
