Informazione
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Kosovo Serbs Caught in Crossfire from Three Points 75% reject the institutions of the so-called Republic of Kosovo By Pyotr Iskenderov | |
Global Research, February 25, 2012 | |
The debates over Serbia's bid for the status of a EU candidate, which are due to open in Brussels in March, will likely provoke a new round of destabilization in the Serbian districts of the province. The February 14-15 referendum in four Serbian communities in northern Kosovo confirmed the obvious: their populations continue to overwhelmingly reject the Albanian ethnic rule. A total of 99.74% of those who attended the poll in which the turnout reached 75% replied “No” to the question whether they accepted the institutions of the so-called Republic of Kosovo headquartered in Pristina. The official Belgrade was clearly allergic to the initiative spinning off in northern Kosovo as president B. Tadic charged that the referendum organized by the leaders of the Serbian municipalities of Kosovo was harming both Serbia and the Serbian communities in the province. No doubt, Belgrade's already permanent pressure on the Kosovo Serbs will peak if the EU Council which is so far divided over Serbia's aspirations manages to hammer out a compromise and Belgrade is allowed to buy the official EU candidate status at the cost of new concessions on Kosovo. According to Kosovo Serbian leader Marko Jaksic, the unprecedented turnout at the northern Kosovo referendum meant that the Serbs defied Belgrade's call to refrain from getting involved. ”The people felt that not showing up would have been a form of betrayal”, explained Jaksic who also stressed that for Tadic the vote came as a political slap in the face for acknowledging an ever-widening array of Kosovo statehood attributes like passports, driver licenses, college transcripts, etc. and that the Kosovo Serbs who cast the ballots made it clear how they felt about Tadic's increasingly connecting to Pristina. Kosovska Mitrovica mayor Krstimir Pantic expressed the same view when he said that, given the outcome of the referendum, those at the helm in Belgrade along with the Kosovo Albanians and the international community have to realize with utmost clarity the extent of the determination across the Serbian community of northern Kosovo not to bow to Pristina. “We are defending Serbia in Kosovo”, said Pantic. The geopolitical implications of the referendum in northern Kosovo may prove far-reaching. One gets a distinct impression that the Kosovo Serbs are in the process of switching to a completely independent role in the Balkan politics, challenging Pristina, Brussels or, if necessary, Belgrade. The recent referendum was not the first Serbian attempt to place their resistance to Albanian separatism into a legislative framework. In May, 2008, three months since the unilateral proclamation of Kosovo independence, north Kosovo Serbs voted in favor of establishing the Assembly of the Community of Municipalities of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija based on the constitution of Serbia. Until some time ago, the Assembly had been politically supported by Belgrade. The parameters of the situation began to drift in the fall of 2011 when the Kosovo Serbs resorted to force to prevent the agreements, which Belgrade and Pristina sealed without taking their position into account, from being put into practice, while the European Commission dished out the first ever more or less positive assessment of Serbia's application for the EU membership. When the December EU summit shifted its further review to March, 2012,Belgrade was left to face the dilemma of choosing between some sort of an urgent accord with Pristina or a collapse of its plan to sneak into the EU. Moreover, Germany, which, as a relatively healthy economy, emerged as an informal leader of the crisis-ridden Europe, demanded that Serbia not only drop its objections to Kosovo's participation in international forums under its own flag but also assist the Albanian administration of the province in erasing all forms of Serbian self-government in the northern part of Kosovo. Judging by the scarce information displayed, at the moment Belgrade remains undecided over the de fact ultimatum issued by Brussels and Berlin, and there are indications that cracks appeared in Serbia's ruling coalition over handling the problem. In the run-up to the referendum KFOR commander Gen. Erhard Drews bluntly warned in an interview to Focus that Albanian nationalists would possibly be led to target the Serbian minorities in isolated enclaves outside of northern Kosovo in response but, seriously speaking, no radicals in the province would dare to commit outrageous acts unless blessed by the EU and NATO. The latter may be the reason why Kosovo Albanian top commentator Adrian Collaku slammed the Pristina administration as “impotent”, saying that "this referendum reconfirms for the umpteenth time that Kosovo cannot establish control over all its territory". The paradox, therefore, is that the biggest threat to the Serbian statehood in Kosovo currently emanates from Belgrade and the Kosovo Serbs locked in the Belgrade-Pristina-Brussels geopolitical triangle can only rely on themselves. A somewhat predictable twist in Serbian politics was observed just days ago when, in a clear attempt to blackmail the EU, the first deputy premier and internal affairs minister of Serbia Ivica Dacic took to citing Russia in the context of the republic's Eurointegration hopes. The point made by the Serbian official was that Europe would make a huge mistake if it turns down the Serbian bid for a candidate status next March since under the scenario “it would be normal to expect that a political faction directed more toward Russia would come into power”. The statement unequivocally signals a sense of crisis within the ruling coalition. It should be borne in mind considering Tadic's standing that in 2008 the West lent him a hand to derail the formation of a patriotic coalition in Serbia, but these days much more pressing problems can push Serbian affairs to a fairly low line on the EU and NATO agendas. Symptomatically, a fresh statement released by Lithuanian foreign ministry spokeswoman Margarita Butkiene contained a biting remark that Belgrade failed to comply in full with any of the preconditions set forth by the December EU summit, though up to date Lithuania, in contrast to Germany, Austria, or Finland, was not seen in the camp opposing the admission of Serbia to the EU. Overall, Belgrade with its current geopolitical course increasingly steers Serbia into dire straits, and chances are that in the next elections Serbian voters would deliver to the poling booths immensely soberer views on how to shape the future of their own statehood. | |
Coper: Belgrado e Pristina sono responsabili
30. 03. 2012. - Reagendo agli arresti in Kosovo, il mediatore europeo nelle trattative tra Belgrado e Pristina Robert Coper ha invitato entrambe le parti a dimostrare responsabilità, ed ha avvertito che i probemi politici non possono essere risolti con gli arresti. L’Unione europea si augura che entrambe le parti adempieranno agli obblighi assunti nel corso delle trattative. L’Unione europea ritiene che i problemi politici devono essere risolti con dialogo e negozi e non con le azioni che hanno leggi come pretesto, ha valutato Coper. Il suo comunicato è stato diffuso dopo il recente arresto di un gruppo di serbi in Kosovo. Le autorità kosovare li hanno acusati di aver messo a repentaglio la sicurezza nella regione. In seguito al valico amministrativo Konculj sono stati arrestati due albanesi kosovari. Il Ministro dell’Interno della Serbia Ivica Dacic ha detto che loro sono accusati di traffico di stupefacienti e di spionaggio.
Dacic: I serbi arrestati in Kosovo devono essere liberati
30. 03. 2012. - Il vice premier e il Ministro dell’Interno della Serbia Ivica Dacic ha dichiarato che saranno continuate le pressioni sulla comunità internazionale, affinché siano liberati due serbi che sono stati arrestati in Kosovo. Dacic ha ripetuto che ognuno che non rispetterà l’ordine guridico della Serbia sarà arrestato. I serbi che sono stati arrestati in Kosovo non hanno commesso nessun reato. Il loro arresto ha aperto una brutta pagina della storia, nella quale ognuno ha la paura di poter essere arrestato, ha detto Dacic. Egli ha criticato la comunità internazionale, perché nessuno dei suoi rappresentante ha reagito quando ai serbi arrestati è stato imposto il fermo. Dall’altra parte, quando sono stati arrestati due albanesi contro i quali sono stati spiccati mandati di cattura, l’intera comunità internazionale e le organizzazioni non governative hanno reagito subito, ha dichiarato Ivica Dacic.
05. 04. 2012. - Le parole offensive e la scritta UCK sono state scritte sulla chiesa dei Santi apostoli Pietro e Paolo nel villaggio Brod nel comune di Strpce, nel Kosovo meridionale, ha riportato la radio serba KIM di Caglavica. Non si sa quando queste parole sono state scritte, perché la popolazione serba ha abbandonato il villaggio molto tempo fa. I serbi visitano la chiesa soltanto in occasione delle importanti festività religiose. Nell’anno passato, alla vigilia dela festa della chiesa il 12 luglio, è stata ricostruita la fontana che si trovava nel cortile. Alcuni giorni dopo gli albanesi l’hanno distrutta, ha riportato la radio serba KIM di Caglavica.
Cvetkovic chiede che subito siano avviate le indagini
05. 04. 2012. - Il premier serbo Mirko Cvetkovic ha inviato una nota di protesta all’alto rappresentante dell’Unione europea per la politica estera e la sicurezza Catherine Asthon e i capi dell’Unmik e l’Eulex Farid Zarif e Xavier de Marnack, perché la delegazione dell’esecutivo serbo è stata aggredita in pieno centro a Pristina. Cvetkovic ha chiesto ai capi delle missioni internazionali in Kosovo di avviare subito le indagini che scopriranno i colpevoli e accerteranno i motivi dell’aggressione. Il premier serbo ha sottolineato che quell’attacco è un altro tentativo degli estremisti albanei di incutere timore nella popolazione serba, bloccare il dialogo tra Belgrado e Pristina e impedire l’implementazione degli accordi che sono stati raggiunti finora. Nel comunicato dell’esecutivo serbo è stato precisato che un gruppo di estremisti albanesi ieri pomeriggio in pieno centro a Pristina ha gettato sassi contro due automobili nei quali si trovavano membri della delegazione serba, uno dei quali è stato ferito. La delegazione serba è arrivata in Kosovo per discutere la realizzazione degli accordi che sono stati ottenuti durante le trattative che si conducono a Bruxelles.
Gracanica: un gruppo di albanesi ha aggredito i serbi
05. 04. 2012. - Il comandante della stazione della polizia serba a Gracanica in Kosovo Bratislav Trajkovic ha confermato che nel centro di Gracanica ieri si sono scontrati due gruppi di tifosi serbi e albanesi. Le camere a circuito chiuso che si trovano in tutta Gracanica hanno registrato che un gruppo di albanesi è sceso dal pullman che si è fermato a causa dell’incidente, dopo di che ha aggredito un gruppo di serbi, ha precisato Trajkovic. La polizia ha fermato il pullman nel vicino villaggio di Ajvalija. Tutti i tifosi albanesi sono però scappati. Due tifosi che sono stati fermati dalla polizia sono stati rilasciati presto in libertà. Le fonti serbe hanno comunicato che nello scontro due serbi sono stati feriti e che oggi pomeriggio sono stati rilasciati dall’ospedale di Gracanica nel quale sono stati ricoverati.
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/crimes-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=04&dd=05&nav_id=79627
Tanjug News Agency - April 5, 2012
Remains of Serbs murdered in Kosovo handed over
MERDARE: The remains of four Serbs, kidnapped and murdered in 1999 by ethnic Albanian terrorists, have been handed over to their families on Thursday.
The handover took place at Merdare, on the administrative line between Kosovo and central Serbia.
The identities of the victims were determined through DNA analyses.
The families said that their loved ones would be laid to rest tomorrow in towns in central Serbia.
According to current data of the Serbian government, more than 2,000 Serbs, Montenegrins and other non-Albanians have either been kidnapped or are listed as otherwise missing in Kosovo and Metohija.
Kosovo : nouvelles tensions à Mitrovica
Les policiers de la KPS ont réussi à ériger un seul poste avant que des habitants arrivent et fassent voler les vitres en éclats. Les deux autres postes ont été ramenés au sud de la ville.
Alors que des Serbes se rassemblaient au nord de la ville, les Albanais faisaient de même au sud dans la direction du village de Suvi Do où un Serbe avait été attaqué et blessé la nuit précédente.
Selon l’agence de presse Beta, la situation était tendue mais aucun incident grave n’était à déplorer. Vers 14 heures, heure locale, les habitants rassemblés des deux côtés de la ville ont commencé à se disperser sans incident.
La veille, un Albanais avait été tué et deux de ses enfants blessés par l’explosion d’une bombe placée devant les fenêtres de leur appartement par des inconnus. En représailles, semble-t-il, une Serbe de 66 ans a été attaqué quelques heures plus tard par trois individus non identifiés.
Samuel Zogbar, le représentant de l’Union européenne (UE) au Kosovo, a lancé un appel au calme alors qu’Eulex, la Kfor, et la KPS examinaient les lieux de l’attentat.
Bruciano i boschi in Metochia
12. 05. 2012. - Da due giorni ormai un grande incendio sta devastando i boschi serbi nei pressi del borgo Osojane, nel comune Istok. Finora sono andati distrutti, secondo la valutazione degli abitanti, 150 ettari di bosco, e la fiamma ha raggiunto anche alcuni frutteti e case nei dintorni, recando gravi danni. Servizio di Vukomir Petric.
Gli abitanti del borgo sono convinti che l’incendio sia doloso, perché, evidenziano, hanno visto un gruppo di albanesi passare di lì poco prima dell’incendio. Mihailo Smigic, che ha perso 20 ettari di bosco, la casa e il frutteto, fa sapere di aver riconosciuto e anche parlato con alcuni dei piromani. “Non c’è dubbio che sia un opera degli albanesi, li ho visti. Vivo a Osojane come rimpatriato, avevo intenzione di tornare nella mia casa, ma mi hanno distrutto tutto. Ho chiamato subito la polizia e i vigili del fuco, però sono arrivati in ritardo e non è rimasto più niente. Sono convinto che questo sia un messaggio che non devo tornare sulla mia tenuta, distante solo un paio di chilometri dal centro di Osojane, ma io non voglio lasciare il Kosovo e Metochia”, è deciso Smigic. Solo un paio di anni fa il grande complesso di boschi di Osojane è bruciato completamente nell’incendio.
Il comandante della Polizia kosovara per la regione Istok, Hasan Ceku, ha confermato che il caso è stato denunciato e che la polizia ha le informazioni sugli autori. Lui ha fatto sapere che l’inchiesta è in corso.
La rapina di bestiame, macchinari e altro, la distruzione della semina e dei boschi, negli ultimi anno sono i problemi più gravi dei serbi in Metochia. L’agricoltura, grazie all’aiuto del governo serbo, si è sviluppata molto ed è diventata il pilastro principale della sopravvivenza dei serbi nella provincia meridionale, ma qualcuno sta provando a riportare le cose com’erano prima, quando i serbi dipendevano esclusivamente dalle donazioni e si poneva la questione della loro sopravvivenza. Anche oggi, soprattutto dopo gli incendi dolosi e le rapine, molti si domandano se i serbi avranno mai una vita tranquilla e pacifica nella provincia, ma evidenziano, allo stesso tempo, che rimarranno nei loro focolari.
Tanjug News Agency - May 23, 2012
Kosovo: Homes of Serb returnees set on fire
PEČ: Two houses belonging to Serb returnees were burnt down in the village of Drenovac in Kosovo and Metohija, late on Tuesday.
The village is located south of the Ibar River, where Serbs live in isolated enclaves.
Nenad Stašić, who lives in the village, told Tanjug news agency that around midnight fire damaged the houses of Milovan Radosavljević and Arso Stepić, but that no one was inside at that time.
Firefighters arrived around 01:00, but the fire had already destroyed Radosavljević's house, whereas the second home was damaged to a lesser degree, he said.
Stašić also said that Serb returnees from the village believe that the houses were set on fire "in order to send a clear message to Serbs that they do not belong in Metohija".
"Last week it was agreed that another 12 houses for Kosovo Serb returnees will be built. This is the message for those people as well that they are not welcome here," the villager said.
Last year, first seven Serb families returned to Drenovac, five of which live in the village permanently.
Kosovo police (KPS) was expected to send "special units to the scene", according to Tanjug. Their role would be to conduct an investigation and determine the cause of the fire.
Ministry for Kosovo condemns attacks on Serbs
The Ministry for Kosovo condemned on Wednesday the burning of the homes of Serb returnees in the village of Drenovac in Kosovo and called on EULEX to find the perpetrators.
"We call on all relevant international factors in the province to use their authority to compel the so-called Priština institutions and Kosovo Albanian officials to truly ensure the safety of Kosovo Serbs south of the Ibar, instead of pompously announcing their plan for northern Kosovo, and suppress Albanian extremism instead of encouraging it," says the release.
The ministry notes it has warned representatives of the international community on several occasions about the constant attacks and the difficult position of Serb returnees in Kosovo, and about the deteriorating situation in Klina in particular.
"The ministry is calling on KFOR to strengthen its presence in returnee villages near Klina and protect Serb lives and property from Albanian extremists. The burning of houses in the village of Drenovac, and other unresolved attacks on returnees reflect Pristina's position and treatment of Serb returnees and IDPs," says the release.
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=05&dd=24&nav_id=80412
Beta News Agency - May 24, 2012
New provocation from Priština, state secretary says
PRIŠTINA: Forming of the Kosovo government's Administrative Office for the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica is a provocation, Oliver Ivanović has stated.
“There will not be some special reaction from the Serbian government, especially not in this situation, besides condemnation and qualification of the act as a flagrant provocation that is not aimed at calming down the situation but at upsetting the Serbian population and creating a situation in which incidents will be possible,” he said.
The Serbian Ministry for Kosovo state secretary stressed that the Serbs would not accept such offices and that their founding was an attempt to change the situation in the field ahead of the dialogue which is “more than certain”.
“Such offices will not be accepted by Serbs because they have their local self-government which is functioning solidly. The self-government has its flaws, this could of course be better, but some local self-government imposed by Priština or some international circles certainly will not improve the situation,” Ivanović explained.
According to him, the forming of the office cannot change the position of northern Kosovo Serbs or the position of the future Serbian government in the negotiations with Priština.
The Kosovo government decided on Wednesday to form the Administrative Office for northern Kosovska Mitrovica that will provide service to citizens and coordinate investments in this part of Kosovo.
The Office will include seven directorates and have 55 employees.
Serbs are the majority population in the north and reject both the authority of the government in Priština, and the unilateral declaration of independence made by ethnic Albanians in early 2008.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20120601/173790147.html
Russian Information Agency Novosti - June 1, 2012
Four Injured as Kosovo Serbs Clash with NATO Troops
Moscow: Three Serbs and one KFOR soldier were injured in clashes in northern Kosovo on Friday.
According to Serbia’s RTS TV channel, the three Serbs were injured when KFOR troops fired rubber bullets. One Serb has been hospitalized in serious condition. Local authorities said there was reason to believe KFOR troops had fired live bullets.
Hundreds of Serbs clashed with KFOR troops in armoured vehicles near a barricade outside the town of Zvecan in a Serb-dominated northern area of Kosovo, pelting them with stones.
Kosovo’s ethnic Serb enclave in the north of Kosovo barricaded the main roads after the authorities in Pristina installed customs officers at the Jarinje and Brnjak border crossings with Serbia. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as a sovereign country.
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=06&dd=01&nav_id=80536
B92/Beta News Agency/Tanjug News Agency - June 1, 2012
Serbs clash with KFOR in northern Kosovo
ZVEČAN: KFOR troops removed all barricades near Zvečan, including the concrete barricade in the village of Dudin Krš on Friday.
At least three persons were injured when northern Kosovo Serbs clashed with KFOR at the barricade in the village of Rudare.
KFOR troops threw teargas at Serbs who were trying to get to the barricade in the village of Dudin Krš.
KFOR helicopters are flying over the area and a KFOR transporter is parked at a bridge in Malo Rudare.
Kosovska Mitrovica and Zvečan local self-government representatives Krstmir Pantić and Dragiša Milović were among the large number of citizens who gathered at the scene.
Pantić told B92 that he was worried about the fact that KFOR troops were using live ammunition and that there was a large number of injured Serbs.
“We have managed to transport three young men to the Kosovska Mitrovica Health Center in an ambulance, however, another three young men who are injured are left behind KFOR lines and they do not allow the ambulance to get to the scene and help the injured,” he said.
Other injured people were treated at the scene.
According to him, KFOR started shooting at Serbs without any reason or warning.
He said that there were around 1,000 people near the barricade and that KFOR would start shooting as soon as they saw someone approaching the barricade.
“They even ignored UNMIK representatives’ warning to allow ambulance to go through,” Pantić explained.
Beta news agency has learnt that three injured men were admitted to the Kosovska Mitrovica hospital. One of them was discharged after he had received the medical help.
KFOR Spokesman Uwe Nowitzki told Tanjug that one of their soldiers was wounded during today's operation of removing the barricade near Rudare.
“The soldier was evacuated and his condition is stable,” Nowitzki said.
...
“We will not let the situation to further escalate and we will use adequate force if needed,” the KFOR spokesman concluded.
The citizens announced earlier on Friday that they would prevent KFOR from removing the barricades.
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http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=06&dd=01&nav_id=80542
B92/Beta News Agency - June 1, 2012
President, PM hold emergency meeting on Kosovo
BELGRADE: Serbia’s President Tomislav Nikolić, outgoing Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković and several ministers held an emergency meeting on incidents in Kosovo on Friday.
Beta news agency has learned that Defense Minister Dragan Šutanovac, Justice Minister Snežana Malović and Minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanović attended the meeting with the president and the PM.
They left the Serbian Presidency headquarters a little after 12:30 CET but did not give any statements to the media.
KFOR started removing barricades near Zvečan on Friday morning. At least three Serbs and one KFOR soldier were injured in the incident that broke out.
The NATO troops removed the barricades in the villages of Rudare and Dudin Krš and blocked all roads leading to the barricades.
The roadblocks were put up by the citizens after last year's attempt by the Kosovo Albanian government in Priština to take over two administrative checkpoints in the north.
Serbs are the majority population north of the Ibar River and reject the authority of the government in Priština, as well as the unilateral declaration of independence made over four years ago by Kosovo's ethnic Albanians.
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http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=06&dd=01&nav_id=80541
Tanjug News Agency - June 1, 2012
Minister urges KFOR to refrain from violence
BELGRADE: Serbia's Minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanović called on KFOR on Friday to refrain from using force.
He also urged KFOR to adhere strictly to its mandate and on the Serbs to stay calm and ignore provocations.
Commenting on an incident near Rudare, northern Kosovo, where there was gunfire and four people were injured, Bogdanović appealed to all sides to refrain from violence.
"It is very important to reduce tension as soon as possible, normalize the situation and solve all problems through dialogue, and not force," he told Tanjug.
“Right now, everyone has to understand that the situation is very volatile,” Bogdanović stressed.
"That is why I call on KFOR, but also on the Serbs in the north, to keep in mind that fact and for each side to show maximum restraint when it comes to taking risky actions. Any escalation of conflict can lead us into a spiral of violence with unimaginable consequences," the minister concluded.
http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_06_01/76719706/
Voice of Russia - June 1, 2012
KFOR opens fire on Serbs in Northern Kosovo
There are reports in the Serbian press and other press that US KFOR troops have opened fire on unarmed Serbs in Northern Kosovo and there are wounded.
The reports are as follows and are being sent to me by my Serbian sources, apparently US KFOR attempted to remove a barricade on a bridge and opened fire on Serb protestors. According to reports by the local Serbian KIM Radio inured civilians are being taken to Kosovska Mitrovica Hospital
According to Reuters at least five Kosovo Serbs and one NATO soldier were wounded in the armed clashes which occurred after NATO (KFOR) forces tried to remove road barricades.
NATO forces fired tear gas and opened fire on Serbian protesters, however, it is not clear if these were just warning shots. There are hundreds of Serbs gathered at the barricades in near Zvecan where the Serbs are the majority.
According to a report in Serbian media a NATO spokesperson in Kosovo, Uwe Nowitzki stated that "If needed KFOR will respond defensively."
A more detailed report transmitted by the Serbian daily Kurir states that all of the roadblocks that lead to Zvecan including the large concrete barricade in Dudino are in rubble and were removed by KFOR this morning. According to the people gathered in Dudino Karst, KFOR used heavy machinery to remove the barricades. Kosovo Serbs have also set up a concrete barricade on the road to the southern Kosovo Mitrovica to prevent the passage of special units of the Kosovo police, The infamous "Rosa" SWAT units.
The Serbian Daily Kurir reports that the Zvecan situation remains extremely tense and that there are a large number of citizens on the bridge that leads to the barricades in Rudare. KFOR is on the other side of the bridge and has set up barbed wire and heavy equipment is not allowing citizens across the bridge. The whole village of Rudare is under a lockdown and citizens are afraid to leave their homes and helicopters constantly fly over the area and drop "infrared bait" to block possible missile attacks from the ground.
12:40 - Negotiations are currently underway between American KFOR officers and the mayors of Zvecan and Zubin Potok reports KiM radio.
12:12 - The commander of the police station in Gracanica, Bratislav Trajkovic told KIM Radio that the situation in his part of Kosovo is currently calm.
12:08 - The Government of Kosovo has promised to release a statement sometime today regarding the developments in Northern Kosovo but has so far not done so.
12:03 - Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi does not want to comment on developments in the north. KIM Radio said briefly that the information should be sought from KFOR.
11:57 - KFOR broke through the barricade in Malom Rudaru and continued advancing toward the barricade in Velikom Rudaru reports Beta.
11:56 – The Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Goran Bogdanovic called on KFOR to refrain from the use of force and strictly adheres to and operate within its mandate, and asked the Serbs to remain calm and not to fall for provocations.
11:38 - KFOR spokesperson Uwe Nowicki confirmed to Tanjug that during the action of removing the barricades around Rudaru (Miners) one KFOR soldier was injured.
10:49 - An American KFOR officer talked to the mayor of Zvecan, Dragisa Milovic and of Zubin Potok, Slavisa Ristic, and the hospital director Milena Cvetkovic after which the mayors appealed to citizens not to throw stones, because otherwise KFOR would open fire. State Secretary for Kosovo and Metohija Oliver Ivanovic said he did not understand what started the current KFOR action reports (B92).
10:27 - KFOR used tear gas on Serbs gathered around the barricades in place Dudin Kres, KIM Radio has learned.
10:25 - Three injured Serbs from Zvecan were taken to Kosovska Mitrovica Hospital with one of them in serious condition. One has a bullet wound in the thigh and is undergoing surgery KIM Radioreports citing the Head of the Hospital, Milan Jakovljevic.
10:17 - KFOR announced that this morning began an operation to remove the roadblocks in the vicinity of Malo and Veliki Rudaru with the aim of improving freedom of movement. "From 8:40 pm KFOR conducted an operation to remove the roadblocks in the vicinity of the Rudarus. This activity aims to encourage free movement, not only for KFOR, but also international organizations and all citizens of Kosovo", said a statement submitted to KIM Radio by KFOR.
10:14 - KFOR helicopters are constantly flying over the area above the conflict, and at the end of the bridge to the village of Rudaru a transporter is blocking the road. On the Zvecan side of the bridge a large number of citizens have were gathered along with representatives of the local government in Kosovska Mitrovica and Zvecan, Krstimir Pantic and Dragisa Milovic.
Members of American KFOR did not allow injured to be taken to the emergency room of Kosovska Mitrovica according to reports. Witnesses, the media and Mayor Milović said KFOR Lieutenant Joseph Lynch did not allow the passage of injured to the emergency room or the passing of local government representatives.
09:56 – A KIM Radio reporter said he saw injured being taken away from the scene by car. Other sources say that at least three people were admitted to the hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica.
09:41 – KFOR has placed a roadblock on the bridge between Zvecan and Rudaru.
09:25 - Armoured machinery of KFOR removes a concrete barricade on the bridge in Rudaru. Prior to removing the roadblocks tear gas was fired at about 500 citizens gathered around the bridge reports a KiM radio reporter from the scene who also said they used rubber bullets and live ammunition.
09:10 - The incident began when the KFOR soldiers attempted to remove the barricade near Rudaru and Zvecan.
Reports from independent (VOR) sources, local media, Serbian KIM Radio, and Reuters were used in this report.
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http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=06&dd=01&nav_id=80545
Beta News Agency - June 1, 2012
KFOR operation “aimed at pressuring Nikolić”
BELGRADE: Faculty of Political Sciences professor Predrag Simić says KFOR’s operation in northern Kosovo is aimed at exerting pressure on President Tomislav Nikolić.
He said that the Friday operation was “absolutely connected” with Nikolić’s oath-taking.
According to him, the KFOR operation “represents some sort of pressure that should determine Nikolić and the future Serbian government’s bad starting position”.
“I think this is a baptism of fire of the new president but also a message from Belgrade that things have gone too far and that the new president and the government, once it has been formed, will have to start dealing with Kosovo where the situation will be significantly different than the one which was left by the previous government and the previous president,” Simić told Beta news agency.
He assessed that tensions had been rising since the election campaign started in Serbia, adding that the situation culminated today.
“It depends on Belgrade how the situation will develop. KFOR and Priština have made their moves and let us hope that the new president and the future government are ready for the challenges, like they claimed in their campaigns,“ Simić concluded.
Four northern Kosovo Serbs were wounded in clashes with KFOR on Friday, after KFOR troops started removing barricades near Zvečan.
Nikolić, Prime Minister Mirko Cvetković and several ministers held an emergency meeting over the latest incidents in Kosovo on Friday.
=== 10 ===
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=06&dd=01&nav_id=80549
Beta News Agency/Tanjug News Agency - June 1, 2012
Russian envoy warns about "Greater Albania" project
BELGRADE: Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Konuzin says his country is concerned about the existence of a project to establish a so-called Greater Albania.
"It's a very dangerous project for the entire Southeastern Europe region, and it would represent a precedent," the top Russian diplomat in Serbia said late on Thursday, adding that his country will "strongly oppose attempts to form a Greater Albania."
Taking part in a panel discussion in Belgrade dedicated to Russo-Serbian relations, Konuzin noted that Russia supported all reconciliation efforts of the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, noting that Serbia has been conducting a balanced policy in that respect.
The ambassador stressed that Russia was also a firm supporter of the positions held by Serbs in the Serb Republic (RS), in Bosnia, and noted that Russia was one of the signatories of the Dayton Peace Accords "which it was not satisfied with, but which must be respected".
"The goal of the so-called Butmir Process is to form a centralized state out of Bosnia-Herzegovina. We have nothing against that, but only if all peoples in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbs included, agree to it," Konuzin said, underlining that "international law must be respected".
Speaking about the relations between Serbia and Russia, the diplomat noted that they reached a high level, and that regardless of the composition of a future government in Belgrade, that cannot change.
He ruled out the possibility that a government could take over in Serbia that would have a negative influence on the ties between the two countries.
Konuzin also revealed that Russia supported Serbia as a militarily neutral country, "and statements from Belgrade on that subject".
As for Kosovo, Russia will support any Serbian policy toward the province, he stated.
Commenting on the February referendum in northern Kosovo - when local Serbs near unanimously rejected the ethnic Albanian authorities in Priština - the ambassador quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's statement that "the position of the Serbs who live in Kosovo must not be ignored".
Focusing on economic issues, Konuzin noted that trade between Serbia and Russia reached USD 3.5bn last year, and that effort should be made to make that trade "even more intensive - until it returns to the pre-economic crisis level of over USD 4bn".
"I expect that works on the Serbian part of the South Stream pipeline will begin late next year, and we're also considering building a new heating plant in Pančevo, and possibly in Belgrade and Niš and well," he noted.
He further stressed that Russia was very interested in the development of infrastructure in Serbia, especially in the energy sector, but also in building a modern railroad system, adding that this also applied to all other former Yugoslav republics.
"The money is there, we have the funds - help yourselves! But, projects are needed for that," said Konuzin, and added that he was puzzled that it took "so much time" for Serbia to come up with its projects.
The ambassador explained that the money to fund most Serbian projects would be transferred in the fall, and that he on Monday handed over a harmonized draft agreement on this subject to the Serbian government.
"If Serbia has an interest in building nuclear power plants here, we will help you with that as well," the diplomat said, adding that the same applied to new hydro power plants in Serbia.
Finally, Konuzin touched on the nature of the relations between the two nations, saying that Russia was close to many other countries with which it shared its culture, religion and script - but that it nurtured "closest, even intimate ties" only with Serbia.
Annullata la parata del 2 giugno
Questa è la lettera di risposta che Lelio Basso scrisse all’allora ministro della Difesa Arnaldo Forlani che decise di sospendere la parata militare del 2 giugno 1976 dopo il terremoto che sconvolse il Friuli.
Sono personalmente grato al ministro Forlani per avere deciso la sospensione della parata militare del 2 giugno, e naturalmente mi auguro che la sospensione diventi una soppressione.
Non avevo mai capito, infatti, perché si dovesse celebrare la festa nazionale del 2 giugno con una parata militare. Che lo si facesse per la festa nazionale del 4 novembre aveva ancora un senso: il 4 novembre era la data di una battaglia che aveva chiuso vittoriosamente la prima guerra mondiale. Ma il 2 giugno fu una vittoria politica, la vittoria della coscienza civile e democratica del popolo sulle forze monarchiche e sui loro alleati: il clericalismo, il fascismo, la classe privilegiata. Perché avrebbe dovuto il popolo riconoscersi in quella sfilata di uomini armati e di mezzi militari che non avevano nulla di popolare e costituivano anzi un corpo separato, in netta contrapposizione con lo spirito della democrazia?
C’era in quella parata una sopravvivenza del passato, il segno di una classe dirigente che aveva accettato a malincuore il responso popolare del 2 giugno e cercava di nasconderne il significato di rottura con il passato, cercava anzi di ristabilire a tutti i costi la continuità con questo passato. Certo, non si era potuto dopo il 2 giugno riprendere la marcia reale come inno nazionale, ma si era comunque cercato nel passato l’inno nazionale di una repubblica che avrebbe dovuto essere tutta tesa verso l’avvenire, avrebbe dovuto essere l’annuncio di un nuovo giorno, di una nuova era della storia nazionale. Io non ho naturalmente nulla contro l’inno di Mameli, che esalta i sentimenti patriottici del Risorgimento, ma mi si riconoscerà che, essendo nato un secolo prima, in circostanze del tutto diverse, non aveva e non poteva avere nulla che esprimesse lo spirito di profondo rinnovamento democratico che animava il popolo italiano e che aveva dato vita alla Repubblica.
La Costituzione repubblicana, figlia precisamente del 2 giugno, aveva scritto nell’articolo primo che l’Italia è una repubblica democratica fondata sul lavoro.
Una repubblica in primo luogo. E invece quel tentativo di rinverdire glorie militari che sarebbe difficile trovare nel passato, quel risuonare di armi sulle strade di Roma che avevano appena cessato di essere imperiali, quell’omaggio reso dalle autorità civili della repubblica alle forze armate, ci ripiombava in pieno nel clima della monarchia, quando il re era il comandante supremo delle forze armate, “primo maresciallo dell’impero”. Le monarchie, e anche quella italiana, eran nate da un cenno feudale e la loro storia era sempre stata commista alla storia degli eserciti: non a caso i re d’Italia si eran sempre riservati il diritto di scegliere personalmente i ministri militari, anziché lasciarli scegliere, come gli altri, dal presidente del consiglio. Ma che aveva da fare tutto questo con una repubblica che, all’art. 11 della sua costituzione, dichiarava di ripudiare la guerra come mezzo di risoluzione delle controversie internazionali? Tradizionalmente le forze armate avevano avuto due compiti: uno di conquista verso l’esterno e uno di repressione all’interno, e ambedue sembravano incompatibili con la nuova costituzione repubblicana.
Repubblica democratica in secondo luogo. In una democrazia sono le forze armate che devono prestare ossequio alle autorità civili, e, prima ancora, devono, come dice l’art. 52 della costituzione, uniformarsi allo spirito democratico della costituzione. Ma in questa direzione non si è fatto nulla e le forze armate hanno mantenuto lo spirito caratteristico del passato, il carattere autoritario e antidemocratico dei corpi separati, sono rimaste nettamente al di fuori della costituzione. I nostri governanti hanno favorito questa situazione spingendo ai vertici della carriera elementi fascisti, come il gen. De Lorenzo, ex-comandante dei carabinieri, ex-capo dei servizi segreti ed ex-capo di stato maggiore, e, infine, deputato fascista; come l’ammiraglio Birindelli, già assurto a un comando Nato e poi diventato anche lui deputato fascista; come il generale Miceli, ex-capo dei servizi segreti e ora candidato fascista alla Camera. Tutti, evidentemente, traditori del giuramento di fedeltà alla costituzione che bandisce il fascismo, eppure erano costoro, come supreme gerarchie delle forze armate, che avrebbero dovuto incarnare la repubblica agli occhi del popolo, sfilando alla testa delle loro truppe, nel giorno che avrebbe dovuto celebrare la vittoria della repubblica sulla monarchia e sul fascismo. E già che ho nominato De Lorenzo e Miceli, entrambi incriminati per reati gravi, e uno anche finito in prigione, che dire della ormai lunga lista di generali che sono stati o sono ospiti delle nostre carceri per reati infamanti? Quale prestigio può avere un esercito che ha questi comandanti? E quale lustro ne deriva a una nazione che li sceglie a proprio simbolo?
Infine, non dimentichiamolo, questa repubblica democratica è fondata sul lavoro. Va bene che, nella realtà delle cose, anche quest’articolo della costituzione non ha trovato una vera applicazione. Ma forse proprio per questo non sarebbe più opportuno che lo si esaltasse almeno simbolicamente, che a celebrare la vittoria civile del 2 giugno si chiamassero le forze disarmate del lavoro che sono per definizione forze di pace, forze di progresso, le forze su cui dovrà inevitabilmente fondarsi la ricostruzione di una società e di uno stato che la classe di governo, anche con la complicità di molti comandanti delle forze armate, ha gettato nel precipizio?
Vorrei che questo mio invito fosse raccolto da tutte le forze politiche democratiche, proprio come un segno distintivo dell’attaccamento alla democrazia. E vorrei terminare ancora una volta, anche se non sono Catone, con un deinde censeo: censeo che il reato di vilipendio delle forze armate (come tutti i reati di vilipendio) è inammissibile in una repubblica democratica.
Lelio Basso
The Belgrade Forum welcomes initiative of the Head office of the World Peace Council (WPC), in Athens and the Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation to hold this meeting, which we consider very important. The dramatic events in several countries over the recent years, planned and implemented by direct involvement of the USA, NATO and the EU, also threatening to propagate to some other countries, are a huge threat to peace and security, especially in the region of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor and Middle East. We are faced with new and dangerous challenges, with new threats and with the introducing of new unrests and turmoil in various parts of the world, targeted by conquering and domination intent of the masterminds of the new world order. The leading Western countries with imperialist ambitions, primarily the USA, are increasingly assuming the right to decide on who can and who cannot lead any given country in the world. The new arms race imposed by the USA, NATO and the EU, establishment of new military bases and new zones of influence, ever more frequent use of force and blatant violation of the fundamental principles of the international law are the ultimate threat to peace, stability and security.
After the failure of bipolar world from the early 1990s, the world revealed true colors of NATO and true intentions of its masters, first of all, the USA. Ever since, the USA and its Western allies, with the use of their NATO arm, have been trying to introduce new rules of international conduct, such as concepts of “humanitarian intervention”, “human rights above sovereignty”, “exceptionalism” and “responsibility to protect” in a bid to secure the excuse for the use of force to instigate civil wars, change of regimes, dissolution of sovereign states.
The first victim of this new USA/NATO doctrine was former Yugoslavia, or Serbia, exactly 13 years ago. Under the pretext of “humanitarian intervention”, led by the USA and without any UN Security Council mandate, NATO committed aggression against Serbia (Yugoslavia) on 24 March 1999 and went on with it for 78 days and nights. For the first time since its establishment, the USA-led NATO applied deadly force against a sovereign country, thus grossly breaching not only its Founding Act but also the UN Charter and the fundamental principles of the international law. In the build-up for this aggression, the USA was strongly supported by its Western allies, primarily by Germany, France and the UK. That-time President Clinton, Prime Minister Tony Blair and NATO leadership told their citizens that bombing of Serbia was a “humanitarian intervention”, cynically named “Merciful Angel”, aiming at preventing the alleged genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Albanian minority in Kosovo. These manufactured lies were all too ready accepted by the so-called free western media in supporting and justifying the aggression. This was the twilight of the Western ethics, twilight of media freedoms.
The focus of such policy was neither democracy nor human rights, but solely the U.S. interests; they employed NATO to harness the entire Balkans under its control, with a view further its imperialist goals in the Asia Minor and the Middle East, the Caspian basin and, ultimately, Russia. Pursuing their hegemonic goals, they embarked on dismembering the territory of Serbia and forcible separating of Kosovo in spite of this Province being a part of Serbia and the cradle of Serbian statehood. The aggressors turned it into a NATO-made pseudo-state called Kosovo, and erected one of the largest American military bases, the Bondsteel Camp, which facilitates control of all strategic routes between Europe and the Middle East. This project was accompanied with systematic destruction of the national, cultural and spiritual heritage of Serbian nation in this part of Serbia.
13 years since NATO aggression, the Balkans remains unstable. Under the UN and EU mandates, Kosovo turned into a training ground for terrorists, a transit base for heroin and human trafficking, and a precedent for dismantling free sovereign states. Albanian separatism is rising once again in the South of the Central Serbia, and Tirana hosts conferences dedicated to creation of Greater Albania. These are the results of spreading “democracy” by Tomahawk/Patriot missiles, unmanned aircrafts, depleted uranium, cluster bombs and graphite bombs.
The USA/NATO aggression against Serbia (Yugoslavia) was a historic turning point and a fatal step leading into destruction of the previously valid limits and rules governing international peace and security introduced since WWII. This illegal act set a dangerous precedent that NATO and the USA keep applying in other parts of the world ever since, threatening the entire structure of international relations, peace and stability. This is how creators of the new world order willfully and by argument of weapons imposed a new reality on the ashes of the international legitimacy, in the form of a parallel “international law”, authored and implemented by the USA through NATO as its implementing tool. This process, unfortunately for us, was followed with marginalization of roles of the United Nations and its Security Council, as the ultimate global body for preserving the peace and stability in the world.
Pursuing its imperial arrogance and misusing the tragic and heinous terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and backed by its most loyal NATO allies, the USA continued with aggression in Afghanistan in 2001, and then in Iraq in 2003, blatantly violating the international law. They forcibly changed the regimes in both countries. The continued decade-long use of brute force and most advanced weaponry against the peoples in these states caused vast human casualties, tremendous anguish of people and huge material destructions. Just like the aggression against Serbia was based on lies, the aggression against Iraq was also based on defrauding national and global public with lies of alleged production of weapons of mass destruction in that country, which was never found.
The most recent example of illegal and violent behavior of the USA and NATO is aggression against Libya in 2011. The Western leaders praised this NATO campaign as the first example of “responsibility to protect”. In fact, NATO action in Libya is the latest example of USA/NATO violent practice and brute misuse of UN Security Council resolution adopted at the beginning of the conflict in Libya in early 2011. This seven-month long NATO-allies aggression was concluded with forcible change of regime in that country and apprehension, torture and execution of years-long Head of State, President Qaddafi, supported by direct involvement of NATO special forces. The key roles there were played by France, the UK and the U.S., whereas some Arab countries, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, provided ample financial support, especially to those media which supported the aggression and campaigned in demonizing of President Qaddafi and his regime, for the sake of justifying the aggression.
What can be said about the result of such US/NATO “humanitarian interventions”? A full analysis would take too much time, but we could recall its basics:
- During aggression against Serbia (Yugoslavia) was killed more than 3,500 persons out of whom two-thirds were civilians including 79 children under the age of ten; more than 10,000 people were heavily wounded and suffered lasting effects; during and after the aggression, the policy of terror and pre-planned ethnic cleansing resulted in expulsion of more than 230,000 Serbs and non-Albanian people, with only few thousand of them managing to return to their homes in all these years; Serbs who remained in Kosovo have no freedom of movement, have to live in closed enclaves sometimes surrounded by barbed wire, and under constant exposure to harassment and arbitrariness of local Albanian authorities; the whole country suffered material damage of the order of 100 billion dollar; the effects of mass-scale use of weapons with depleted uranium and consequential radiation have lasting adverse consequences on health of the current and the future generations;
- During the years of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq, hundreds of thousand of civilians were killed, hundreds of thousands of homes were destroyed, and heavy material devastation inflicted, resulting in poverty, chaos and instability; both countries became breeding grounds for conflicts and terrorist groups with tragic outcome for the inhabitants, because the hand-picked governments do not enjoy trust of people; the world will remember brutal and ruthless behavior of the aggressor against local people such as tragic exercise of humiliating prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, or incessant night killings of civilians in Afghanistan by the so-called guided missiles, or recent killing of 17 members of several Afghan families including 9 children in a rampage of a US soldier; in its arrogance, the aggressor put tag value on these lives with as little as 50,000 dollars, in damages to families; 11-year long American war and its atrocities strengthened the resolute and the will of the Afghan people to fight for their country and expel foreign arrogant and inhuman enemy;
- No less tragic is the outcome of seven-month aggression against Libya - thousands of killed civilians, destroyed cities and infrastructure, tens of thousands of jailed proponents of former regime under grave humiliation and torture; the report of UN Human Rights Council and recent reports of some other humanitarian organizations claim that in Libya, including the period of NATO aggression, were committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Some of these reports include conclusive proof of involvement of NATO forces in crimes committed in Libya; once decades-long stable and prosperous country, Libya of today is devastated and facing conflicts along the regional and tribal lines, under a realistic threat of disintegration that will inflict far-reaching consequences not only for Libya but also for the entire region; Libyan oil reserves, Africa’s richest, were taken over mainly by the Western companies, and Libya was finally integrated in NATO’s so-called Mediterranean Dialogue, a military partnership with NATO, which was the very goal of the aggression.
Recently, the world’s attention has been focused on events in Syria and increasingly direct threats against Iran vocalized by Israel and the USA. Concerning conflict in Syria, one can notice a great similarity with pre-NATO Libya’s developments. Both were caused by direct involvement of foreign factor. As previously in Libya, the dominant roles in Syria belong to foreign mercenaries and paramilitary forces close to radical Islamic groups, which are directly supported by NATO and certain countries from the region. As in Libya, the financial support to insurgents comes from Saudi Arabia and some other countries from the region. The West/NATO repeat in Syria the same method as used in Libya: support to terrorist actions, infiltration of mercenaries to execute military actions, and instigation of conflicts against the regime, smuggling arms to insurgents, training insurgents in training compounds located in some adjacent countries, especially in Turkey; as in Libya, the basic USA/NATO goal is creating instability and chaos, instigating and inciting armed conflict with maximum civilian deaths, as precursor for foreign intervention and overthrowing the regime in Syria.
I wish to use this opportunity and express, on behalf of the Belgrade Forum, our sincere solidarity with nations of Syria and Iran who are exposed to dangerous activities in destabilizing and threatening their respective sovereignty, peace and freedom. I also offer full support to the fight of people of Palestine for freedom and creation of independent state of Palestine within its historic borders from 1967, and Jerusalem as its capital.
We wish to believe that countries and forces defending the peace, sovereignty and observance of the UN Charter and fundamental principles of the international law, combined and in joint exercise, will muster strength to prevent new aggressive “humanitarian interventions” by the USA and NATO. There lies the importance of this meeting, its conclusions and messages, and our joint future activities. The Belgrade Forum gives its full support to the World Peace Council in its tireless efforts to mobilize broadest peace-loving forces in fight against imperialism and in defense of peace, freedom and democracy. The basis for international relations should be the international law with the overarching role of the United Nations in resolving international problems and safeguarding the peace, rather than desires of mighty ones to forcibly change borders and regimes in any country.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Dragomir Vučićević,
Member of the Steering Board of the
Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/balkans-to-caspian-u-s-and-nato-continue-cold-war/
Stop NATO - April 30, 2012
Balkans To Caspian: U.S. And NATO Continue Cold War
Though infrequently acknowledged if even given consideration, the current historical period remains what it has been for a quarter century, the post-Cold War era.
Beginning in earnest in 1991 with the near simultaneous disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – instantaneous in the first case, comparatively slower in the second, only complete with the independence of Montenegro in 2006 – the bipolar world ended with the demise of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact and the nonaligned one with the fragmentation of Yugoslavia, a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement.
The dissolution of the two nations, the only both multi-ethnic and multi-confessional countries in Europe, was accompanied by violent ethnic conflicts often reinforced by religious differences. In Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, the South Caucasus, the Russian North Caucasus and on the east bank of the Dniester River.
In many instances, in Serbian-majority areas of Croatia and Bosnia and in Transdniester, memories of World War II gave rise to legitimate fears of revanchism among populations that recalled the death camps and pogroms of Adolf Hitler’s allies in the early 1940s and witnessed the recrudescence of the ideologies, the irredentism and the political trappings that gave rise to them.
Transdniester refused to become part of post-Soviet Moldova as it foresaw both states being reabsorbed into Romania. Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Adjara, parts of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, didn’t desire to be included in the Republic of Georgia and majority-Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh adopted a similar approach to post-Soviet Azerbaijan. The above are collectively known in certain circles as the frozen conflicts in former Soviet space.
The centrifugal dynamic reached more dangerous proportions when armed secessionist movements went beyond federal republics – the Leninist constitutions of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia formally allowed for their independence under the proper conditions – and arose in autonomous republics, former autonomous republics and other regions: Chechnya and Dagestan in Russia and Kosovo and the Presevo Valley in Serbia. Northwestern Macedonia was the site of the same destabilization in 2001, the direct – and inevitable – result of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s air war against Yugoslavia two years earlier on behalf of Kosovo separatists.
The area collectively assailed by the above violence and national vivisection stretches from the Adriatic Sea to the Caspian Sea, north of the Broader (or Greater or New) Middle East which in turn begins in Mauritania and ends in Kazakhstan, from Africa’s Atlantic coast to China’s western border.
The ever more extensive breakup of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and the former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia, correlated with – and more than correlated with – the development of NATO as an expansionist, aggressive and bellicose regional and global military force.
Twenty-one nations and five smaller breakaway states (including Kosovo) where earlier there had been only two created that many more opportunities for the West to expand southward and eastward from Cold War-era NATO territory. Every one of the 21 former Soviet and Yugoslav federal republics is now either a full member of NATO or engaged in a partnership program. Thirteen of them have troops serving under NATO command in Afghanistan.
Two recent announcements demonstrate the constantly increasing penetration and domination of the area that begins in Slovenia and ends in Azerbaijan, a swathe of land that on its eastern extreme borders Russia to its north and Iran to its south.
Recently NATO’s Allied Command Operations website announced the resumption of what had been annual military exercises employed to integrate partners in the Balkans, the former Soviet Union, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf.
The dual exercise, Cooperative Longbow and Cooperative Lancer, respectively a command and a field exercise, will occur this year in Macedonia from May 21-29 with the participation of several NATO members – if the preceding versions are an indication, the U.S. Britain, Canada, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Turkey and others – and perhaps twice as many partnership adjuncts from the Partnership for Peace, Mediterranean Dialogue and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative programs. The exercise, like its predecessors, is based on a “crisis response” scenario and a United Nations mandate. Like Libya last year, for instance.
In the last Cooperative Longbow/Cooperative Lancer exercises, in Georgia in 2009, NATO members the U.S., Britain, Canada, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Albania participated. Longbow/Lancer 2009 was held less than nine months after the five-day war between Georgia and Russia in August 2008 and was also to have included NATO members Estonia and Latvia and twelve partnership nations.
This year’s version is slated to involve the largest number of Partnership for Peace states in any Longbow/Lancer exercises, thirteen: Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Switzerland and Ukraine. NATO hasn’t yet disclosed which Mediterranean Dialogue and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative partners will participate this year.
The first Longbow/Lancer exercises were held in Moldova in 2006 with seven NATO members, twelve Partnership for Peace nations (all of the above-mentioned except for Serbia, which joined the Partnership for Peace in that year) and Mediterranean Dialogue partner Israel. Mediterranean Dialogue member Morocco and Istanbul Cooperation Initiative members Qatar and the United Arab Emirates sent observers.
Cooperative Longbow/Lancer 2007 was conducted in Albania and the following year’s exercise in Armenia. All five nations – Moldova, Albania, Armenia, Georgia and Macedonia – are deeply involved, either on their own territory or in neighboring nations, in one or more of the conflicts discussed above. In 2009 Armenia, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Serbia withdrew beforehand because of the Georgia-Russian war of a few months earlier and Estonia and Latvia did also because of an anti-government mutiny staged the day before the almost month-long exercise began.
What role the NATO and partnership troops may have played had the military uprising progressed further than it did can be easily imagined.
The U.S. Marine Corps’ Black Sea Rotational Force posted on its Facebook account (and to date nowhere else) that its six-month rotation for this year will “build enduring partnerships with 19 nations throughout Eastern Europe.” More accurately, as the Marine program formed two years ago identifies as its mission, in “the Black Sea, Balkan and Caucasus regions.”
Two years ago twelve nations were involved, by last year there were thirteen – Albania, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Greece, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine – and this year nineteen. The six new participating nations were not named.
Black Sea Rotational Force 2012 began its half-year-long deployment in Georgia by joining Agile Spirit 2012 in March at the Vaziani Training Area where the last Cooperative Longbow/Lancer exercises took place. Serbia may host its first military exercises with the force as well.
The U.S. Marine Corps is not only building bilateral and multilateral ties with nineteen countries in the Balkans, the Black Sea region and the Caucasus and other parts of the former Soviet Union, it is also consolidating NATO’s expansion into those areas with the ultimate aim of full Alliance membership for those not already among the bloc’s 28 member states.
It can be argued that the Cold War didn’t end, that the U.S. and NATO continue to wage it with wars and preparations for wars.
Stop NATO - May 4, 2012
British Defence Chief: NATO Absolves Germany Of Nazi Past
Rick Rozoff
While British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond was in Berlin earlier this week touting global NATO ahead of the military alliance's summit in Chicago two weeks from now, he urged Germany to overcome its "historic reluctance" to waging military aggression in Europe and around the world. Regarding the West, a case of what oft was thought, but ne'er so - candidly - expressed.
After meeting with his German counterpart Thomas de Maiziere, Hammond told the British press that World War II "was quite a long while ago” and as such Germany must cast off whatever residual misgivings it may harbor about reassuming an international military role within NATO, as "it is self-evident that there is still huge potential in the German defence structure to deliver more useful firepower to the alliance.” Germany must "significantly increase its military capability,” Hammond advocated.
As Europe's major economic force, it must also be its main military contributor.
The deadliest war in history is yesterday's news, old hat. Time to get over it and move on. To new wars. Concerns about the 1945 Potsdam agreement on the demilitarization of Germany, the Nuremberg principles and the German constitutional ban on preparing wars of aggression are, to use contemporary colloquial language, like so 20th century.
Hammond's remark about Germany's hesitance to get back into the war business, though, is outdated, as the country did so thirteen years ago in support of NATO's air war against Yugoslavia in 1999.
The United Kingdom's defense chief also delivered an address at his country's embassy in Berlin on May 2, co-sponsored by the German Council on Foreign Relations, entitled "Shared Security: Transforming Defence to Face the Future," which reiterated the common Western position of internationalizing NATO for a broader range of missions outside of the Euro-Atlantic area.
His comments included these unequivocal assertions:
"The responsibility of European nations to defend their citizens can no longer be discharged by a strategy of homeland defence and a Fortress Europe.
"The threats we face are no longer territorial, so a passive defence of national territory is no longer adequate protection for our citizens.
"Our security requires that we do not sit back and let threats come to us - but that we project power to meet them - wherever in the world they are forming."
Global NATO, led by its major, its only significant, powers - the United States, Britain, France, Germany and sometimes Italy - will unilaterally and arbitrarily define threats that must be confronted; will practice alleged defense of its territory by going on the offensive half a world away if desired, as the reasons for war are "no longer territorial"; will not let largely chimerical dangers present their calling cards in Brussels, London, Washington, Berlin and Paris, but will anticipate them before they even exist, if they are even capable of existing, and "project power" to preempt them, whether the threats are real or fancied, imminent or remote, latent or without foundation either in the present or the future.
Hammond further stated, "we need to take that final step up from the defensive posture of the Cold War, to respond to a future in which threats can originate thousands of miles away..."
As such, "the NATO Alliance, and the European part of it in particular, must continue to develop together the capability and the political will to act when necessary - to project power, including, but not limited to, military power, and to deploy it rapidly when we must."
And where. And against whom. And under whatever contrived rubric it chooses. Hammond was disabusing Germans of any lingering, antiquated illusions that their armed forces are designed to protect their nation's borders and population.
Hammond applauded the six-month NATO bombing campaign against Libya last year as "a coalition success" within the context he discussed. For as "it is in Europe’s interest that the United States rises to the challenge that the emergence of China as a global power presents and we should support the decisions the US has made," then the inextricable correlate of that is Europe's "Shouldering the major burden in the Balkans and the Mediterranean, but also being prepared, if necessary to take a bigger role in relation to North Africa and the Middle East."
The major NATO powers divide up the world.
But even the alliance of 28 European and North American nations, consisting of three members with nuclear weapons in Europe (which include American tactical nuclear bombs in Germany) and most of the world's largest and most lethal armed forces, are not enough for Hammond and for NATO.
The bloc must expand its already existing partnerships around the world, to date with no less than 40 countries in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the South Caucasus, the South Pacific and Central, South and East Asia, to yet broader stretches of the planet.
In Hammond's words, "Both Libya and Afghanistan have shown how agile NATO can be in incorporating the contributions of outsiders." In the second instance with troops from 50 nations.
He also cited "The new Northern Group of nations, which includes Germany, the Baltic and Nordic countries (including Sweden), Poland and the Netherlands, as well as the UK," in reference to the initiative of Hammond's superior, Prime Minister David Cameron, last year to launch an Arctic-Baltic "mini-NATO" aimed against Russia.
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/britain-spearheads-mini-nato-in-arctic-ocean-baltic-sea/
German F-4F Phantom II fighter-bombers were deployed for NATO's Baltic air patrol in a four-month rotation ending on April 25, where they were within a three-minute flight from Russia's second largest city, St. Petersburg.
The British defence secretary praised the role of Germany in Afghanistan, where with 4,900 troops (and another 400 held in reserve), exceeding parliamentary limitations on the number of soldiers permitted to be deployed abroad, it is the third largest troop contributor for NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
He also hailed German military deployments to the Balkans, where the nation has the largest number of troops serving with NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR), almost twice as many as the next biggest contributor, the U.S. The last three KFOR commanders - Erhard Drews, Erhard Bühler and Marcus Bentler - are German generals.
NATO has sent reinforcements to Kosovo, 550 German and 150 Austrian troops, ahead of Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections because the few remaining ethnic Serbs there intend to vote in the elections of what they (and most of the world) still consider their country.
According to Kosovo Force spokesman German Major Marc Stümmler, KFOR is "preparing for...a higher level of tensions."
Germany reentered the world of war in 1999 when it provided Tornado warplanes for the 78-day air assault against Yugoslavia, marking the first time the nation's armed forces participated in a combat mission since World War Two. That the Luftwaffe was deployed over the skies of a country it had extensively bombed in 1941 confirmed with a vengeance, and no shadow of ambiguity, Germany's reemergence as an aggressive military power.
For Serbs and other Balkans peoples Germany's role in World War Two is not forgotten, if it is by Philip Hammond.
Immediately following the latter's visit to Berlin, on May 4th NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen arrived in the city to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel, to visit the NATO-Mission for Freedom permanent exhibition at the Mauer Museum at Checkpoint Charlie and to lavish praise on his host for, to quote the NATO website, "Germany's steadfast support for the Alliance and its missions, notably in Afghanistan, Kosovo and off the coast of Somalia."
When Germany was reunited in 1990, contrary to the George H.W. Bush administration's pledge to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, NATO immediately moved not only "one inch" but over 200 miles to the east, beginning the process of absorbing all the Soviet Union's former partners in the now defunct Warsaw Pact.
Germany has aided NATO's expansionist and expeditionary designs in the past thirteen years and NATO has rewarded it: Germany is now the world's third largest weapons exporter, its arms sales abroad increasing with each succeeding year.
Britain and NATO insist its leaders demonstrate, to quote Hammond, "the ability to generate the political will and public support for the deployment of military resources more widely in the future in support of Alliance operations beyond our borders."
Post-Cold War NATO has attempted to re-legitimize war as a method of advancing geopolitical objectives. Nations whose constitutions explicitly prohibit the practice - NATO members Germany and Italy, NATO partner Japan - have troops and other military personnel serving under the Atlantic Alliance in Afghanistan. So do NATO partners Finland, which had not engaged in combat operations since the Second World War, and Sweden, which had not done so in two centuries.
But according to Defence Secretary Hammond nations like Germany are not sufficiently involved in the wars of the 20th century and must play an even more pronounced role in them, present and to come.
There is no "quite a long while ago" when it comes to wars of aggression. There is only "never."
L’eterna giovinezza della Nato
di Manlio Dinucci
Durante la guerra fredda, scrive nell’autobiografia ufficiale, non condusse alcuna operazione bellica, ma si limitò ad «assicurare la difesa del proprio territorio contro la minaccia del Patto di Varsavia». Non dice però che questo si formò sei anni dopo la Nato. È con la fine della guerra fredda, in seguito al dissolvimento del Patto di Varsavia e dell’Urss nel 1991, che la Nato rinasce a nuova vita.
Mantenendo però il suo imprinting: il comando Usa. Nel luglio 1992 lancia la sua prima operazione di «risposta alle crisi», la Maritime Monitor, per imporre l’embargo alla Jugoslavia. Nei Balcani, tra l‘ottobre ’92 e il marzo ’99, conduce undici operazioni dai nomi evocativi (Deny Flight, Sharp Guard, Eagle Eye e altri). Il 28 febbraio 1994, durante la Deny Flight in Bosnia, la Nato effettua la prima azione di guerra nella sua storia. Viola così l’art. 5 della sua stessa carta costitutiva, poiché l’azione bellica non è motivata dall’attacco a un membro dell’Alleanza ed è effettuata fuori dalla sua area geografica. Si arriva in tal modo all’operazione Allied Force, lanciata il 24 marzo 1999: per 78 giorni, decollando soprattutto dalle basi italiane, 1.100 aerei, per il 75% Usa, effettuano 38mila sortite, sganciando 23mila bombe e missili sulla Jugoslavia.
Nello stesso anno, il Summit Nato di Washington autorizza i paesi membri a «condurre operazioni di risposta alle crisi non previste dall’articolo 5, al di fuori del territorio dell’Alleanza». E la Nato inizia la sua espansione nell’Est, inglobando nel 1999-2009 nove paesi dell’ex Patto di Varsavia, di cui tre dell’ex Urss, e tre della ex Jugoslavia.
Senza più limiti, l’Alleanza nata come Patto del Nord Atlantico arriva sulle montagne afghane: nell’agosto 2003, con un colpo di mano, la Nato assume «il ruolo di leadership dell’Isaf, forza con mandato Onu». Inizia così «la prima missione al di fuori dell’area euro-atlantica nella storia della Nato».
Nel 2004 essa entra in Iraq, ufficialmente per una «missione di addestramento». Estende quindi le sue operazioni in Africa: nel 2005 in Sudan, nel 2007 in Somalia, nel 2009 nel Corno d’Africa e nell’Oceano Indiano. Nel 2011 è la volta della Libia: nell’operazione Unified Protector la Nato effettua (secondo quanto dichiara) 9.700 missioni di attacco aereo, in cui vengono sganciate 7.700 bombe di precisione allo scopo di «fare tutto il possibile per minimizzare i rischi ai civili».
Ora la Nato prende di mira Siria e Iran, ma sullo sfondo ci sono Russia e Cina. Nella sua «conquista dell’Est», essa è arrivata a ridosso della Cina, in Mongolia, con la quale ha avviato due mesi fa un «Programma individuale di partnership e cooperazione». Poiché dei 28 paesi dell’Alleanza solo cinque si affacciano sul Nord Atlantico, a Bruxelles si sta pensando a un cambio di nome: alcuni propongono «Alleanza Trans-Atlantica». Ma anche questo è restrittivo poiché, sulla scia degli Usa, essa si estende ormai alla regione Asia/Pacifico.
Così l’Alleanza si rinnova, abbeverandosi alla stessa fonte di giovinezza: la guerra.
Stop NATO - May 30, 2012
Pentagon Consolidates Control Over Balkans
Ahead of, during and after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 25th summit in Chicago on May 20-21, the Pentagon has continued expanding its permanent military presence in the former Yugoslavia and the rest of the Balkan region.
The military bloc's two-day conclave in Chicago formalized, among several other initiatives including the initial activation of its U.S.-dominated interceptor missile system and Global Hawk-equipped Alliance Ground Surveillance operations, a new category of what NATO calls aspirant countries next in line for full Alliance membership. Three of them are former Yugoslav federal republics - Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro - and the fourth is Georgia, conflicts involving which could be the most immediate cause of a confrontation between the world's two major nuclear powers.
This year new NATO partnership formats have sprung up like poisonous toadstools after a summer rain: Aspirants countries, the Partnership Cooperation Menu, the Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme, the Connected Forces Initiative and partners across the globe among them.
The military bloc's inauguration as an active, aggressive military force in Bosnia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s laid the groundwork for the U.S.'s already unmatched military to move troops, hardware and bases into Southeast Europe for actions there and to points east and south: The Middle East, the Caucasus, North Africa and Central and South Asia.
Since 2004 several nations in the east and west Balkans - Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia and Albania - have been incorporated into the alliance as full members and the remainder - Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and the generally unrecognized Republic of Kosovo - have in the first four instances joined NATO's Partnership for Peace program and in the last had its nascent armed forces, the Kosovo Security Force, built from scratch by the leading alliance powers.
Macedonia, which would have become a full member in 2009 except for the lingering name dispute with Greece, and Montenegro have been granted the Membership Action Plan, the final stage before full accession, and Bosnia will be accorded the same once the quasi-autonomous Republika Srpska is deemed properly stripped of the last vestige of self-governance.
NATO and the wars waged under its command, not only in the Balkans but in Afghanistan and all but officially in Iraq, have provided the Pentagon the mammoth Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo and three major air bases in Bulgaria and Romania as well as headquarters for new military task forces and jumping-off points for "downrange" operations outside Europe. The U.S. Department of Defense has also acquired subservient legionaries for wars in Asia and Africa and training grounds for American and multinational expeditionary units employed in 21st century neo-colonial wars far beyond the Euro-Atlantic area. Romania will host 24 U.S. Standard Missile-3 interceptors starting in three years.
NATO's Cooperative Longbow and Cooperative Lancer 2012 command and field exercises started in Macedonia on the second day of the Chicago NATO summit, May 21, and ended on May 29. The largest of four such exercises held within the framework of the Partnership for Peace program - "to train, exercise, and promote the interoperability of Partnership for Peace forces using NATO standards" - to date, this year's Longbow/Lancer drills included 2,200 troops from several NATO and a dozen Partnership for Peace nations, a total of 25 countries including the U.S.
On May 26 U.S. Army Europe and U.S. Air Forces in Europe launched the Immediate Response 2012 exercise in Croatia with military personnel from the host country, Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro and Slovenia. Macedonia and Serbia sent observers.
A report on the opening of the exercise posted on the website of U.S. European Command appended this paragraph:
"U.S. Army Europe is uniquely positioned to advance American strategic interests across Eurasia, building teams, assuring allies and deterring enemies. The relationships we build during more than 1,000 theater security cooperation events in more than 40 countries each year lead directly to support for U.S. actions such as in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya."
Balkan states Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania and Slovenia deployed troops to Iraq after 2003 and all those nations as well as Montenegro (which became independent in 2006) have troops under NATO command in Afghanistan currently.
NATO's Allied Joint Force Command Naples has military missions in Bosnia, Macedonia and Serbia.
On May 28 the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff began a two-week disaster management and crisis response exercise, Shared Resilience 2012, in Bosnia. In addition to the U.S. and Bosnia, participating nations include Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia and Slovenia.
Immediately before the NATO summit, the U.S. Marines Corps' Black Sea Rotational Force 2012 held multinational exercises near Constanta, Romania from May 7-18. The Black Sea Rotational Force was established in 2010 and last year doubled the duration of its training exercises in the Balkans, the Black Sea region and the South Caucasus from three to six months annually.
Now spending half the year in the geopolitically vital area, the Black Sea Rotational Force recently announced its mission of building "enduring partnerships with 19 nations throughout Eastern Europe.” The U.S. Marines are being hosted by Romania from April 2 to September 1. Prior to that Black Sea Rotational Force 2012 participated in the Agile Spirit 2012 exercise in Georgia in March.
U.S. Army Europe's Task Force East, employing Stryker combat vehicles, also operates out of Romania as well as Bulgaria: The Mihal Kogălniceanu Airfield and the Babadag Training Area in the first country and the Novo Selo Training Area in the second. In 2009 Task Force East spent three months training in Romania and Bulgaria, primarily preparing troops from the U.S. and the two host nations for operations in Afghanistan.
This year NATO officially identified Afghanistan and Iraq as military partners, in the category of partners across the globe. Since the end of NATO operations against Libya last October, the bloc's secretary general and its American ambassador, Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Ivo Daalder, have mentioned Libya joining NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue military partnership with the other nations of North Africa.
Each NATO military operation over the past 17 years, in Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya, has provided the alliance with bases, centers, troops and logistics for later and for future wars. Air bases in Bulgaria and Romania were employed for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and, as noted above, every Balkan nation but Serbia has supplied troops for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pentagon and NATO military personnel, aircraft, ships and radar in Southeast Europe can be used in attacks on Syria and Iran and in any new armed conflict in the South Caucasus, such as the five-day war between Georgia and Russia four years ago.
The U.S. and its NATO allies are expanding their military presence and infrastructure ever closer to new theaters of war.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato/messages
Website and articles:
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com
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Tanjug News Agency - May 7, 2012
13 years since NATO bombing of Chinese Embassy
Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Serbia Zhang Wanxue, Belgrade correspondents of the Chinese media and representatives of the Association of Serbian Journalists (UNS) paid on Monday respects to the Chinese journalists killed in the NATO bombing that took place 13 years ago.
Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Serbia Zhang Wanxue, Belgrade correspondents of the Chinese media and representatives of the Association of Serbian Journalists (UNS) on Monday paid respects to the Chinese journalists killed in the NATO bombing that took place 13 years ago.
They laid wreaths at the site of the former Chinese embassy in New Belgrade, which at 11:45 p.m. on May 7, 1999, suffered a blast that left three Chinese journalists dead.
In 2009, then Chinese Ambassador to Belgrade Wei Jinghua and Belgrade Mayor Dragan Djilas unveiled a plaque in memory of the Chinese journalists: Xu Xinghu and Zhu Ying, correspondents of the Guang Ming Daily, and Shao Yunhuan, a correspondent of the Xinhua news agency.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/oct/17/balkans
The Observer - October 16, 1999
Nato bombed Chinese deliberately
Nato hit embassy on purpose
John Sweeney and Jens Holsoe in Copenhagen and Ed Vulliamy in Washington
Nato deliberately bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the war in Kosovo after discovering it was being used to transmit Yugoslav army communications.
According to senior military and intelligence sources in Europe and the US the Chinese embassy was removed from a prohibited targets list after Nato electronic intelligence (Elint) detected it sending army signals to Milosevic's forces.
The story is confirmed in detail by three other Nato officers - a flight controller operating in Naples, an intelligence officer monitoring Yugoslav radio traffic from Macedonia and a senior headquarters officer in Brussels. They all confirm that they knew in April that the Chinese embassy was acting as a 'rebro' [rebroadcast] station for the Yugoslav army (VJ) after alliance jets had successfully silenced Milosevic's own transmitters.
The Chinese were also suspected of monitoring the cruise missile attacks on Belgrade, with a view to developing effective counter-measures against US missiles.
The intelligence officer, who was based in Macedonia during the bombing, said: 'Nato had been hunting the radio transmitters in Belgrade. When the President's [Milosevic's] residence was bombed on 23 April, the signals disappeared for 24 hours. When they came on the air again, we discovered they came from the embassy compound.' The success of previous strikes had forced the VJ to use Milosevic's residence as a rebroadcast station. After that was knocked out, it was moved to the Chinese embassy. The air controller said: 'The Chinese embassy had an electronic profile, which Nato located and pinpointed.'
The Observer investigation, carried out jointly with Politiken newspaper in Denmark, will cause embarrassment for Nato and for the British government. On Tuesday, the Queen and the Prime Minister will host a state visit by the President of China, Jiang Zemin. He is to stay at Buckingham Palace.
Jiang Zemin is still said to be outraged at the 7 May attack, which came close to splitting the alliance. The official Nato line, as expressed by President Bill Clinton and CIA director George Tenet, was that the attack on the Chinese Embassy was a mistake. Defence Secretary William Cohen said: 'One of our planes attacked the wrong target because the bombing instructions were based on an outdated map.'
Later, a source in the US National Imagery and Mapping Agency said that the 'wrong map' story was 'a damned lie'.
Tenet apologised last July, saying: 'The President of the United States has expressed our sincere regret at the loss of life in this tragic incident and has offered our condolences to the Chinese people and especially to the families of those who lost their lives in this mistaken attack.
Nato's apology was predicated on the excuse that the three missiles which landed in one corner of the embassy block were meant to be targeted at the Yugoslav Federal Directorate for Supply and Procurement, the FDSP. But inquiries have revealed there never was a VJ directorate of supply and procurement at the site named by Tenet. The VJ office for supplies - which Tenet calls FDSP - is some 500 metres down the street from the address he gave. It was bombed later.
Moreover the CIA and other Nato intelligence agencies, such as Britain's MI6 and the code-breakers at GCHQ, would have listened in to communication traffic from the Chinese embassy as a matter of course since it moved to the site in 1996.
A Nato flight control officer in Naples also confirmed to us that a map of 'non-targets': churches, hospitals and embassies, including the Chinese, did exist. On this 'don't hit' map, the Chinese embassy was correctly located at its current site, and not where it had been until 1996 - as claimed by the US and NATO.
...
The Chinese military attache, Ven Bo Koy, who was seriously wounded in the attack and is now in hospital in China, told Dusan Janjic, the respected president of Forum for Ethnic Relations in Belgrade, only hours before the attack, that the embassy was monitoring incoming cruise missiles in order to develop counter-measures.
Nato spokesman Lee McClenny yesterday stood by the official version. 'It was a terrible mistake,' he said, 'and we have apologised.' A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London said yesterday: 'We do not believe that the embassy was bombed because of a mistake with an out-of-date map.'
8 mai 2012
Aujourd’hui encore, les projectiles de l’OTAN sèment la mort au Kosovo et en Métohie parmi les Albanais et les Serbes, mais aussi parmi les soldats de la KFOR et le personnel de l’UNMIK.
President-elect Tomislav Nikolic, who is looking for more intensive relations with Russia, has promised that Serbia will never become a member of NATO.
Nikolic, who met Putin in the Russian president’s first meeting with a foreign leader since being elected, stated that Serbia is “on the road” to the European Union, admitting that it will be “a long road, and we will base our relations on the rules of international law.”
He added that he wasn’t sure if Serbia would be admitted into the EU unless “we recognize the independence of Kosovo and Metohija.”
Many Serbs are ambivalent, if not outright hostile to the idea of restoring full relations with the European Union, not to mention the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 1999 Belgrade was on the receiving end of a massive 78-day bombing campaign by the alliance (March 24 – June 10) aimed at removing Yugoslav forces from Kosovo.
"Our constitution forbids us to abandon Kosovo and Metohija," Nikolic said. Meanwhile, Russia is ready to allocate the second loan tranche of $800 million to Serbia, Putin assured his Serbian guest.
The Russian leader said that for the loan to be granted there should be concrete technical proposals to rebuild Serbia’s aging infrastructure.
Earlier, Russia already provided a $200 million loan to Serbia in an effort to consolidate the country's budget.
Moscow's total investment in Serbia stands at $1.4 billion, Putin recalled.
As for the next tranche, the president-elect should lend impetus to government structures in order to ensure that they expedite the preparation of technical proposals, Putin said.
Putin also wished Nikolic success in implementing all his campaign promises.
"These tasks are plenty and difficult," he said.
The Russian leader mentioned that cooperation between the two countries will help deal with the various complicated problems. Putin also referred to Serbia as Russia’s “spiritual brother.”
“While Russia sees Serbia as a reliable partner in the Balkans, we are also spiritual brothers,” he said. "This is how it was, and this is how it will be."
At the end of the meeting Putin made "an unusual request" to Nikolic: "I would like to say that we have worked with your political opponent, previous president Boris Tadic, as partners for a number of years, and I am asking you to pass along our words of gratitude for the joint work," Putin said.
The Russian president invited the Serbian president-elect to visit Russia following his inauguration "at any time that is convenient for you."
13 ГОДИНА ОД БОМБАРДОВАЊА ВАРВАРИНА
Данас се навршава 13 година од убиства десеторо и рањавања више десетина грађана Варварина током бомбардовања моста, од авијације НАТО на Великој Морави у том шумадијском граду. Међу погинулима је била и Сања Миленковић, ученица Математичке гимназије у Београду, победница многих регионалних и европских такмичара младих математичара. По њеном имену 1999. Године, основан је Фонд за стипендирање талената из математике и техничких наука за који су средства обезбедили припадници српског расејања.
Поводом ове годишњице, синоћ је у Дому културе у Варварину одржана промоција књиге – зборника „СРБИЈА И НАТО“, у издању Београдског форума за свет равноправних. Присутне грађане и учеснике промоције поздравио је председник Општине Варварин, Професор Зоран Миленковић, отац покојне Сање Миленковић. О књизи су говорили предсеник Београдског форума Живадин Јовановић, генерал у пензији Радован Радиновић и бивши амбасадори Др Станислав Стојановић и Драгомир Вучићевић.
Основне поруке свих учесника промоције су да се злочини као што је бомбардовање Варварина и убиство његових грађана, не смеју заборавити и да за агресију НАТО на Србију (СРЈ) нема оправдања. Књига „СРБИЈА И НАТО“ , оцењено је, представља велики допринос разумевању правих узрока и циљева агресије који се виде у стварању преседана, одузимању Косова и Метохије од Србије и ширењу НАТО на Исток. Учесници промоције су подсетили на чињеницу да се око 70 одсто грађана Србије противи чланству у НАТО и истакли да Србији, као мирољубивој европској земљи, није место у НАТО – у као офанзивној, интервенциoнистичкој војној организацији.
У програму су учествовали књижевници, песници и ученици који су читали своје радове о злочинима НАТО – а.
Southeast European Times - April 23, 2014
BiH edging closer to NATO process
Sarajevo: The clock is running for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The country has roughly four weeks to determine ownership of dozens of military facilities - bases, barracks and warehouses - before NATO holds its annual spring summit, this year in Chicago.
The sorting process is a crucial step in BiH's path to potential membership in the Alliance.
On April 10th, NATO members meeting in Brussels made clear that BiH is on track to get the green light for a Membership Action Plan (MAP). Since then, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent a letter to BiH's Presidency, asking authorities "to register these assets as soon as possible so that BiH can enjoy all benefits that MAP has to offer."
Specifically, 69 pieces of property are on the table. Ownership is in question because they were all once in the hands of the former Yugoslav army. For example, in Republika Srpska, there are about 45 barracks. Just over half of them are to be registered to the state. The rest will be handed over to local authorities, who will convert them into a range of purposes.
...
NATO wants the list winnowed down so that BiH's military can use what is left to its full capacity. When finally registered to the state, the armed forces will have unlimited use of these properties.
Currently, the value of all this property is unclear, but by some estimates it could be worth hundreds of millions of euros.
So while a political agreement was struck last month regarding the process, the Council of Ministers must implement it by the May 22nd summit.
Denis Hadzovic, director of the Sarajevo-based NGO Centre for Security Studies, told SETimes, “I think that the technical part of the property registration is much easier than the political part. I am sure that BiH will succeed in doing this; that we will bring a document to the NATO summit in Chicago that proves that we earned the MAP."
Deputy Defence Minister Mirko Okolic seems optimistic.
"The Council of Ministers has already begun to work on this and I think that the job will be completed by the NATO summit," he told SETimes.
But larger issues loom. "After MAP, I think political debate will follow on whether BiH even needs to join NATO, because there are different views on this issue in Sarajevo and Banja Luka," Okolic added.
In mid-March, RS President Milorad Dodik reopened the issue of BiH’s membership, reiterating that the citizens of RS will decide in a referendum whether they wish to join NATO when the time comes.
Regardless, Ines Kuburovic, spokeperson for NATO Headquarters in Sarajevo, said the headquarters has continuously co-operated with state institutions to help them meet the requirements to activate the MAP.
...
After meeting with BiH Presidency member Bakir Izetbegovic earlier this month, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Alliance is committed to BiH receiving full membership.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Allied Command Transformation
May 14, 2012
NATO OPEN DAYS TO BE HELD IN TURKISH CULTURAL CENTER, SARAJEVO
NATO OPEN DAYS is a five day event to be held 15 - 19 May, with the goal to provide to wider public more information about NATO Alliance, NATO integrations processes in BiH, activities of NATO HQ SARAJEVO in 2011/2012 period, and to mark 60th anniversary of Turkish membership in NATO.
Specifically, Open Days will engage students and academic community in public discussions on various NATO related topics.
In the light of NATO Chicago Summit in May, the whole event, and the opening event in particular will be an opportunity to share with general public and media information about the Summit, BiH's participation in the event, including the current phase of NATO integrations processes in BIH.
During NATO Open Days, Turkish Cultural Center premises will offer:
1. Two separate exhibition floors, which will offer a photo exhibition of NATO HQ Sarajevo activities in 2011/2012 period, and a photo exhibition to present the NATO – Turkey relationship in past 60 years,
2. In the cinema hall (30 seat capacity) NATO movies will be screened daily, and the hall will be used for student lectures/round tables.
3. Event will be an opportunity to distribute various NATO promotion materials to the visitors and wider public.
PROGRAM:
EVENT TOPIC DATE AND TIME
Opening event
15 May 2012, 19:00 hrs – 21:00 hrs
Round Table/Lecture
"NATO and BiH”
"NATO's fight against organised crime and terrorist groups”
"NATO and Gender”
16 May 2012, 12:00 – 13:00 hrs
Round Table/Lecture
"NATO and BiH”
"Role of Strategic Communications in NATO”
17 May 2012, 12:00 – 13:00 hrs
Round Table/Lecture
NATO's New Strategic Concept
"Role of Strategic Communications in NATO”
18 May 2012, 13:00 – 14:30
