Informazione
6 JUIN 44: CE QU'ON NE VOUS DIRA... JAMAIS
Pourquoi Ford, GM et Esso ont-elles armé Hitler ?
MICHEL COLLON
"Oui, mais quand même les Américains nous ont ont libérés en 45!"
Combien de fois, l'ai-je entendue celle-là! Sur les bancs de l'école.
Mais aussi lors de débats sur les guerres actuelles des USA.
40-45, la seule 'bonne' guerre US ? Peut-être à nuancer. Quelques faits
troublants sont documentés dans un excellent livre de l'historien
Jacques Pauwels (1).
Ses documents irréfutables prouvent qu'une grande artie des sociétés US
ont carrément collaboré avec Hitler, et pas seulement au début de la
guerre : Du Pont, Union Carbide, Westinghouse, General Electric,
Goodrich, Singer, Kodak, ITT, JP Morgan...
Pire. La grande nouveauté stratégique d'Hitler, ce fut la "Blitzkrieg",
la guerre-éclair : porter très vite ses troupes au coeur de
l'adversaire. Pour cela, deux conditions indispensables : des camions
et de l'essence. L'Allemagne n'ayant aucun des deux, c'est Esso qui a
fourni l'essence, tandis que les camions provenaient des usines
allemandes de Ford et General Motors.
"Que cette guerre dure le plus longtemps possible!"
Pauwels montre que :
1. Une grande partie du patronat US était pro-Hitler dans les années 30
et 40.
2. Cela n'a changé qu'au moment où les ventes des firmes US furent
mises en danger par l'agressivité commerciale allemande en Amérique
latine et ailleurs. Et par les occupations japonaises qui confiquaient
tout le commerce en Asie.
En fait, les Etats-Unis jouaient double jeu. Ils souhaitaient que la
guerre dure longtemps. Pourquoi ?
D'un côté, les énormes profits que leurs sociétés réalisaient en
Allemagne étaient en croissance. De l'autre côté, ils s'enrichissaient
en prêtant à la Grande-Bretagne qui supportait tout le poids financier
de la guerre. Washington posait d'ailleurs comme condition que Londres
abandonne ses colonies après la guerre. Ce qui fut fait. Les Etats-Unis
ont réussi à profiter de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale pour affaiblir
leurs rivaux et devenir la seule superpuissance capitaliste.
Henry Ford : "Ni les Alliés, ni l'Axe ne devraient gagner la guerre.
Les USA devraient fournir aux deux camps les moyens de continuer à se
battre jusqu'à ce que tous deux s'effondrent."
Le futur président Harry Truman, 1941 : "Si l'Allemagne gagne, nous
devons aider la Russie et si la Russie gagne, nous devons aider
l'Allemagne, afin qu'il en meure le maximum de chaque côté."
Ce jeu cynique ne cessa que lorsque l'URSS vainquit Hitler. Alors
seulement, les Etats-Unis se précipitèrent pour sauver leurs intérêts
en Europe.
Demain 6 juin, on fera comme si la guerre avait été gagnée en Normandie
et non à Stalingrad. On ne dira pas qu'Hitler perdit 90% de ses soldats
à l'Est. Que pour un soldat US tué, il y en eut 53 soviétiques. Les
manuels scolaires sont parfois bizarres, non ?
Voilà, désolé de vous avoir ôté une de vos dernières illusions. Demain,
6 juin, vous pourrez penser à tout ça lorsque sur une plage normande,
on fêtera George Bush alors que son grand-père a financé Hitler. Dans
quel monde vivons-nous ?
MICHEL COLLON
PS. Si vous êtes historien, si vous traquez les mythes, les tabous, les
secrets de l'Histoire officielle, ou si vous connaissez de tels
historiens, écrivez-nous. Notre site en construction fera bientôt
connaître "l'Autre Histoire"...
(1). Paru en néerlandais sous le titre Le mythe de la bonne guerre
(l'Amérique et la Deuxième Guerre mondiale), EPO 2000. La version
française sort bientôt. A recommander, c'est aussi plein de révélations
sur Roosevelt, Truman, la menace d'envahir l'URSS, la récupération des
espions et criminels nazis, Churchill, De Gaulle, Yalta...
Pourquoi Ford, GM et Esso ont-elles armé Hitler ?
MICHEL COLLON
"Oui, mais quand même les Américains nous ont ont libérés en 45!"
Combien de fois, l'ai-je entendue celle-là! Sur les bancs de l'école.
Mais aussi lors de débats sur les guerres actuelles des USA.
40-45, la seule 'bonne' guerre US ? Peut-être à nuancer. Quelques faits
troublants sont documentés dans un excellent livre de l'historien
Jacques Pauwels (1).
Ses documents irréfutables prouvent qu'une grande artie des sociétés US
ont carrément collaboré avec Hitler, et pas seulement au début de la
guerre : Du Pont, Union Carbide, Westinghouse, General Electric,
Goodrich, Singer, Kodak, ITT, JP Morgan...
Pire. La grande nouveauté stratégique d'Hitler, ce fut la "Blitzkrieg",
la guerre-éclair : porter très vite ses troupes au coeur de
l'adversaire. Pour cela, deux conditions indispensables : des camions
et de l'essence. L'Allemagne n'ayant aucun des deux, c'est Esso qui a
fourni l'essence, tandis que les camions provenaient des usines
allemandes de Ford et General Motors.
"Que cette guerre dure le plus longtemps possible!"
Pauwels montre que :
1. Une grande partie du patronat US était pro-Hitler dans les années 30
et 40.
2. Cela n'a changé qu'au moment où les ventes des firmes US furent
mises en danger par l'agressivité commerciale allemande en Amérique
latine et ailleurs. Et par les occupations japonaises qui confiquaient
tout le commerce en Asie.
En fait, les Etats-Unis jouaient double jeu. Ils souhaitaient que la
guerre dure longtemps. Pourquoi ?
D'un côté, les énormes profits que leurs sociétés réalisaient en
Allemagne étaient en croissance. De l'autre côté, ils s'enrichissaient
en prêtant à la Grande-Bretagne qui supportait tout le poids financier
de la guerre. Washington posait d'ailleurs comme condition que Londres
abandonne ses colonies après la guerre. Ce qui fut fait. Les Etats-Unis
ont réussi à profiter de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale pour affaiblir
leurs rivaux et devenir la seule superpuissance capitaliste.
Henry Ford : "Ni les Alliés, ni l'Axe ne devraient gagner la guerre.
Les USA devraient fournir aux deux camps les moyens de continuer à se
battre jusqu'à ce que tous deux s'effondrent."
Le futur président Harry Truman, 1941 : "Si l'Allemagne gagne, nous
devons aider la Russie et si la Russie gagne, nous devons aider
l'Allemagne, afin qu'il en meure le maximum de chaque côté."
Ce jeu cynique ne cessa que lorsque l'URSS vainquit Hitler. Alors
seulement, les Etats-Unis se précipitèrent pour sauver leurs intérêts
en Europe.
Demain 6 juin, on fera comme si la guerre avait été gagnée en Normandie
et non à Stalingrad. On ne dira pas qu'Hitler perdit 90% de ses soldats
à l'Est. Que pour un soldat US tué, il y en eut 53 soviétiques. Les
manuels scolaires sont parfois bizarres, non ?
Voilà, désolé de vous avoir ôté une de vos dernières illusions. Demain,
6 juin, vous pourrez penser à tout ça lorsque sur une plage normande,
on fêtera George Bush alors que son grand-père a financé Hitler. Dans
quel monde vivons-nous ?
MICHEL COLLON
PS. Si vous êtes historien, si vous traquez les mythes, les tabous, les
secrets de l'Histoire officielle, ou si vous connaissez de tels
historiens, écrivez-nous. Notre site en construction fera bientôt
connaître "l'Autre Histoire"...
(1). Paru en néerlandais sous le titre Le mythe de la bonne guerre
(l'Amérique et la Deuxième Guerre mondiale), EPO 2000. La version
française sort bientôt. A recommander, c'est aussi plein de révélations
sur Roosevelt, Truman, la menace d'envahir l'URSS, la récupération des
espions et criminels nazis, Churchill, De Gaulle, Yalta...
Post-scriptum su Pancevo
Con riferimento ad una recente intervista alla sindaca di Pancevo [vedi:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/3556 ],
Alberto Tarozzi aggiunge quanto riportiamo di seguito.
Su Pancevo, ovvero sulla guerra chimica della NATO contro la
popolazione civile nel cuore dell'Europa, vedi anche, ad esempio:
- Da un intervento di Lino Anelli
https://www.cnj.it/TRIESTE161102/anelli.htm
- Dissesto ecologico in Serbia
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/3454
- Decontaminazione col contagocce e nuovi crimini ecologici
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2821
- LE DISTRUZIONI DELLA NATO SUL TERRITORIO
DELLA REPUBBLICA FEDERALE DI JUGOSLAVIA
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2332
- PANCEVO: NEMMENO I NAZISTI AVEVANO OSATO TANTO
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2261
- Pancevo's petrochemical plant: UN war clean-up lacks UK cash
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2236
- Long-term environmental damage due to NATO bombing in Yugoslavia
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2162
- Pancevo: Tre anni dopo le bombe della NATO inizia la "morte lenta"
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2112
- La guerra chimica e nucleare (umanitaria) della NATO contro la RF di
Jugoslavia
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2071
- Medical Health Care Crisis in Yugoslavia
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1789
- Aumento dei casi di cancro in Serbia
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1740
- Pancevo: Seminario a Roma
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1070
- La strage perfetta: 'No one will be able to prove what killed us'
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/988
- Effects of NATO bombings
http://www.sramota.com/nato/
---
... a proposito della situazione di pancevo citta della vojvodina,
vicinissima a belgrado massacrata ecologicamente e sanitariamente dalla
guerra della nato nei balcani (che tanti si ostinano a chiamare
''guerra del kossovo'') ho qualcosa di personale da aggiungere
all'importante intervista fatta dall'osservatorio sui balcani alla
sindaca di pancevo dott. kruska, che cmq accludo per chi non la
conoscesse.
ero anch'io al convegno di civitas a padova, il giorno del dibattito
sul danubio e su pancevo e ho chiesto pubblicamente alla sindaca di
segnalarmi se c'erano novita nel merito della ricerca condotta da una
veterinaria di pancevo sulla salute dei piccoli animali domestici.
una ricerca importante perche tra quegli animali i tempi di latenza dei
tumori e di altri disturbi, che possono seguire l'inalazione di
sostanze tossiche, è un settimo del tempo di latenza di tali malattie
tra gli esseri umani. vale a dire che i fenomeni registrati tra gli
animali nell'arco di 2 o 3 anni
dovrebbero corrispondere a quelli registrabili tra gli umani nell'arco
di 10-20 anni.
ufficialmente la sindaca mi ha risposto abbastanza brevemente, facendo
riferimento alle prime ricerche, che gia conoscevo e che gia
registravano l'insorgenza anomala di alcuni tumori. oltre a questo
pero, membri del suo staff, mi hanno gentilmente segnalato altre
informazioni molto interessanti relative allo stato di avanzamento
delle ricerche della veterinaria.
ve le allego riprendendole dall'archivio di documentazione di zivkica
nedanovska in cui sono confluite tali informazioni.
alberto tarozzi.
lettera da Pancevo
''Vorrei riassumere brevemente quello che mi hanno detto gli esperti
veterinari. Dunque, la veterinaria , dopo i bombardamenti, ha
registrato i seguenti fenomeni tra gli animali di piccole dimensioni:
- diminuita capacità di concepimento da parte degli animali
- minor numero di animali nati
- maggior numero di animali nati con deformità
- maggiore mortalità degli animali appena nati
- il numero dei tumori alle ghiandole mammarie è drasticamente aumentato
- mutamenti dell’apparato osseo-articolare
- mutamenti nelle funzioni respiratorie, pure in assenza di segni
visibili ai polmoni
- il peggio è senz’altro, il fenomeno dell’osteorsarcoma, una forma di
cancro tra le peggiori.
Vorrei dire che la veterinaria, nella sua prassi quindici anni prima
dei bombardamenti, non aveva registrato nessun caso di osteorsarcoma.
Però, solo dieci mesi dopo i bombardamenti, ha registrato sei casi tra
gli animali piccoli e molto giovani (verso uno e due anni). A livello
di ricerca scientifica, finora nessuno si è impegnato visto che una
cosa del genere richederebbe molti soldi e tempo.
Un’altra cosa interessante è che tutti i fenomeni registrati tra gli
animali di piccole dimensioni a Pancevo, non si sono notati tra gli
animali a Belgrado.
Il docente della Facoltà di Veterinaria a Belgrado, esperto in
chirurgia veterinaria, il dott. Jugoslav Vasic, è stato presente a
Pancevo negli ultimi quindici anni prima e dopo i bombardamenti e ha
seguito l’andamento di questi fenomeni.
Pancevo, 04.05.2004
Con riferimento ad una recente intervista alla sindaca di Pancevo [vedi:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/3556 ],
Alberto Tarozzi aggiunge quanto riportiamo di seguito.
Su Pancevo, ovvero sulla guerra chimica della NATO contro la
popolazione civile nel cuore dell'Europa, vedi anche, ad esempio:
- Da un intervento di Lino Anelli
https://www.cnj.it/TRIESTE161102/anelli.htm
- Dissesto ecologico in Serbia
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/3454
- Decontaminazione col contagocce e nuovi crimini ecologici
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2821
- LE DISTRUZIONI DELLA NATO SUL TERRITORIO
DELLA REPUBBLICA FEDERALE DI JUGOSLAVIA
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2332
- PANCEVO: NEMMENO I NAZISTI AVEVANO OSATO TANTO
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2261
- Pancevo's petrochemical plant: UN war clean-up lacks UK cash
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2236
- Long-term environmental damage due to NATO bombing in Yugoslavia
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2162
- Pancevo: Tre anni dopo le bombe della NATO inizia la "morte lenta"
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2112
- La guerra chimica e nucleare (umanitaria) della NATO contro la RF di
Jugoslavia
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2071
- Medical Health Care Crisis in Yugoslavia
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1789
- Aumento dei casi di cancro in Serbia
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1740
- Pancevo: Seminario a Roma
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1070
- La strage perfetta: 'No one will be able to prove what killed us'
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/988
- Effects of NATO bombings
http://www.sramota.com/nato/
---
... a proposito della situazione di pancevo citta della vojvodina,
vicinissima a belgrado massacrata ecologicamente e sanitariamente dalla
guerra della nato nei balcani (che tanti si ostinano a chiamare
''guerra del kossovo'') ho qualcosa di personale da aggiungere
all'importante intervista fatta dall'osservatorio sui balcani alla
sindaca di pancevo dott. kruska, che cmq accludo per chi non la
conoscesse.
ero anch'io al convegno di civitas a padova, il giorno del dibattito
sul danubio e su pancevo e ho chiesto pubblicamente alla sindaca di
segnalarmi se c'erano novita nel merito della ricerca condotta da una
veterinaria di pancevo sulla salute dei piccoli animali domestici.
una ricerca importante perche tra quegli animali i tempi di latenza dei
tumori e di altri disturbi, che possono seguire l'inalazione di
sostanze tossiche, è un settimo del tempo di latenza di tali malattie
tra gli esseri umani. vale a dire che i fenomeni registrati tra gli
animali nell'arco di 2 o 3 anni
dovrebbero corrispondere a quelli registrabili tra gli umani nell'arco
di 10-20 anni.
ufficialmente la sindaca mi ha risposto abbastanza brevemente, facendo
riferimento alle prime ricerche, che gia conoscevo e che gia
registravano l'insorgenza anomala di alcuni tumori. oltre a questo
pero, membri del suo staff, mi hanno gentilmente segnalato altre
informazioni molto interessanti relative allo stato di avanzamento
delle ricerche della veterinaria.
ve le allego riprendendole dall'archivio di documentazione di zivkica
nedanovska in cui sono confluite tali informazioni.
alberto tarozzi.
lettera da Pancevo
''Vorrei riassumere brevemente quello che mi hanno detto gli esperti
veterinari. Dunque, la veterinaria , dopo i bombardamenti, ha
registrato i seguenti fenomeni tra gli animali di piccole dimensioni:
- diminuita capacità di concepimento da parte degli animali
- minor numero di animali nati
- maggior numero di animali nati con deformità
- maggiore mortalità degli animali appena nati
- il numero dei tumori alle ghiandole mammarie è drasticamente aumentato
- mutamenti dell’apparato osseo-articolare
- mutamenti nelle funzioni respiratorie, pure in assenza di segni
visibili ai polmoni
- il peggio è senz’altro, il fenomeno dell’osteorsarcoma, una forma di
cancro tra le peggiori.
Vorrei dire che la veterinaria, nella sua prassi quindici anni prima
dei bombardamenti, non aveva registrato nessun caso di osteorsarcoma.
Però, solo dieci mesi dopo i bombardamenti, ha registrato sei casi tra
gli animali piccoli e molto giovani (verso uno e due anni). A livello
di ricerca scientifica, finora nessuno si è impegnato visto che una
cosa del genere richederebbe molti soldi e tempo.
Un’altra cosa interessante è che tutti i fenomeni registrati tra gli
animali di piccole dimensioni a Pancevo, non si sono notati tra gli
animali a Belgrado.
Il docente della Facoltà di Veterinaria a Belgrado, esperto in
chirurgia veterinaria, il dott. Jugoslav Vasic, è stato presente a
Pancevo negli ultimi quindici anni prima e dopo i bombardamenti e ha
seguito l’andamento di questi fenomeni.
Pancevo, 04.05.2004
http://www.counterpunch.org/schutz06052004.html
COUNTERPUNCH
Weekend Edition
June 5 / 6, 2004
On the Ruins of Yugoslavia
The Militarism of German Foreign Policy and the Dismantling of a
State
By CATHRIN SCHÜTZ
In the shadow of new wars, the memory of the aggression against
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is more and more fading into
oblivion. Those who hoped for an inquiry about this first war in
which the Federal Republic of Germany militarily participated are
faced with silence. In Germany as in other countries, the
US-American filmmaker and author Michael Moore, who takes a stand
against Bush's belligerent policy in Iraq and who supported
General Wesley Clark in his Presidential pre-election campaign,
is highly celebrated. Clark, who in his function as NATO's
Supreme Commander in Europe led the bombing of Yugoslavia, was
the "anti-War Candidate", as Moore told his leftist audience.
"Collateral damage," including the bombing of civilians in
Varvarin, bodies mutilated by cluster bombs in Nis, employees
killed in the bombing of the RTS television station and the
Chinese embassy, as well as the "humanitarian" military
intervention as such, faced little opposition in the NATO
countries -- with the exception of Greece. Even the "left" walked
into the human-rights trap and supported -- although not
unanimously -- the attack on the "Belgrade regime".
This first direct participation of Germany in an illegal war of
aggression after World War II fundamentally changed German
foreign policy: since then (and not since 9/11), wars are seen as
a legitimate means of politics. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
himself admitted to being surprised by "how little it has been
recognized that the decision for war meant a fundamental change
in Germany's foreign and security policy."
The German Army, the Bundeswehr, has been transformed into a
global intervention force in order to defend Germany even at the
Hindukush, as Minister of Defence Peter Struck outlined in his
Defence Policy Rules. "This is not about unduly giving room to
military logic, but not to put this aspect of foreign politics
under a taboo, as it was done for so long", Schröder said in late
2001.
The first steps in this direction were already undertaken by the
then-governing Christian Democrats, CDU/CSU, in their 1992
Defense Rules. In the period prior to the "humanitarian" war
against Yugoslavia they had yet to acquaint the public with what
those really meant.
"I just think it is wrong to connect the moral too quickly with
questions of war and peace without taking the aspect of national
interest into considertaion. () For the future I predict a
considerable danger that the government, the ruling parties and
the Joint Chiefs of Staff will search for or create causes to
eliminate the barriers which are still in the way of a reunified
German foreign policy. Humanitarian issues serve as a
vehicle."(1) "(German) military operations must not take place
where German troops carried out their devastating actions in
World War II. I would be glad, if those who advocate it would not
always hide behind human rights to enforce this position", stated
Joseph Fischer -- in 1994.(2)
Since the NATO war of 1999 for him these principles belong to the
past. He clarified that he is not carrying out "Green" foreign
policy but "German".(3) The war against Yugoslavia opened the
door for following and future wars. The bombs were still falling
on Yugoslavia when NATO passed its new strategic concept, which
proclaimed its right to engage in offensive "out-of-area"
operations. While breaches of international law were part of a
public debate during the aggression on Yugoslavia and had to be
hidden under a humanitarian carpet, legal aspects seem to count
less and less in the continuing "War on Terror".
Germany didn't "slip into" the war
To understand developments in German foreign policy, one should
not confine the view to the military peak of the aggression
against Yugoslavia in 1999, in which Germany - according to
General ret. Heinz Loquai - by no means "slipped into" the role
of an allied power, but appeared to be the first country focusing
on a military solution as early as spring of 1998.(4)
Yugoslavia was essential for the emancipation of German foreign
policy and that change dates back to 1991.
The recognition of Slovenia and Croatia in December 1991 was the
first massive appearance of the Federal Republic of Germany on
the international stage. Despite all warnings the government of
Kohl/Genscher stood forth and thwarted any negotiated solutions
that could have prevented the bloody civil wars in which
Yugoslavia fell apart. "Regardless of all celebrated declarations
to stand for peace and to refrain from striving for power", given
by Germany just one year before in the so-called
"Two-Plus-Four"-treaty, "the Federal Republic of Germany
interfered massively in the internal affairs of one of the states
of the Anti-Hitler-Coalition. Germany, reunified and strong,
stepped on the international stage and for the first time since
World War II openly pursued great power politics -- in the
Balkans, where it had already wreaked great mischief twice in
this century.(5)
There was an "Independent State of Croatia" once before, in 1941
as a creation of Hitler and Mussolini, supported by the Roman
Catholic Church and led by the fascist Ustasha. Half a century
later, an independent Croatia was again established through the
influence of Germany and the Vatican. Croatia was governed by
Franjo Tudjman's party, which openly revived the politics of the
Ustasha who had committed some of the most horrible acts of
genocide in the 20th Century under their fascist leader Ante
Pavelic, murdering hundreds of thousands of Serbs.(6) To this
day, the crimes of the Ustasha are among the least recognized
crimes of World War II. Were Serbian survivors and their
descendants not the only ones to remember this part of history,
the German policy of recognition as well as the presentation of
the Croatian conflict in the media could not have happened nor
gone unchallenged as it did.
Kurt Köpruner, a businessman who travelled to Yugoslavia many
times in the 1990's and was thus an eye-witness to that tragedy,
concluded from heated debates on the impending disintegration of
the country end-1990 in Croatia: "If it really comes to the
dissolution of Yugoslavia, this cannot possibly happen without
horrible bloodshed and hundreds of thousands of deaths".(7) He
began to realise why this was the common view when he read about
the course of World War II in the Balkans. For the first time, he
learned about mass slaughters by the Ustasha, Muslim and Albanian
SS divisions.
Tudjman, who became President in the first Croatian
multi-party-election in 1990 and who led the country into
independence with the help of Germany in 1991, had in 1989
already played down the Holocaust in general and the Ustasha
crimes against Serbs at the death camp of Jasenovac in
particular. Under Tudjman's rule a revival of Ustasha symbols and
ideals took place. A new constitution did not contain a single
word regarding the rights of Serbs living in Croatia. Terror
against Serbs started, "systematically and controlled from the
top". In masses, they were dismissed from work, and "messages
urging them to leave the country were stuck on the doors of Serb
houses."(8) In a referendum -- declared as illegal by Tudjman --
the Croatian Serbs voted to remain in Yugoslavia.
Months before German recognition and the outbreak of the war, on
May 2nd, 1991, the "Dalmatian Kristallnacht" took place.(9)
Supported by the local police, 2,000 Croats destroyed 116 Serbian
shops and houses in Zadar in an action lasting several hours. On
October 16th, 1991 the "Night of the Long Knifes" followed, with
more than hundred Serb civilians tortured and executed.(10) The
Western media remained silent. Only the New York Times reported
in December 1993: "The government of Croatia has forced
thousands of its opponents from their homes and from the country,
according to the new Zagreb office of Human Rigths. The actions
have been directed mostly against Serbs, but also against Croats
opposing the politics of President Tudjman. Since 1991, the Croatian
authorities have blown up or razed tens of thousands of mostly
Serb houses, but also houses of Croats. ... Whole families were
killed. All in all, about 280,000 Croatian Serbs have fled the
country." According to Susan Woodward, the Croatian government
had already expelled all Serbs that were under their control by
1993.(11) One should wonder whether this was the "democracy, that
the Serbs, as indigenous people, living in one-third of communist
Tito-created Croatia, had to accept", asked the New York Times
and added in April 1997: "Did the West become so sick as to allow
Croatian fascism to live its afterlife?"
How much the Croatian people really supported Tudjman's policy,
forseeing the bloodshed, remains unclear. At least the referendum
on independence should not be used to measure the support since
it was quite the opposite of the "clear and overwhelming will of
the Croatian people", as Westerners celebrated it. The voters
were considerably pressed to make the right choice in the
ballot.(12)
The distorted image of Serb expansion
Germany's recognition of Croatia should be questioned not only in
the light of the political powers it brought to the fore, but
also from a legal point of view. While the majority of
international law experts agree that Slovenia's secession was an
execution of the peoples' right to self-determination, it is
considered illegal in Croatia and Bosnia, where a main part of
the Serbs outside Serbia have been living for centuries in
coherent areas.(13)
Slobodan Milosevic repeatedly pointed out this problem. He did
not oppose the right to self-determination, but he demanded this
right for all peoples. "He pointed out that there are more than
six hundred thousand Serbs living in Croatia, who represent the
clear majority of the population in some areas of Krajina and
Slavonia. The right to self-determination would have to be
acknowledged to them as well. The existing borders between the
Yugoslav republics were mere administrative borders."(14)
Serbia showed a willingness to negotiate new borders and warned
all parties not to confront others with a fait accompli -- as
happened short thereafter due to German recognition -- which
would lead to an out of control escalation. To give up their
historical ground was an impossible demand for the Serbs. They
"said good-bye to Slovenia. They would also have let Croatia go
without the Krajina. Since it was the will of the Krajina Serbs,
Belgrade intended to tie the Krajina to the motherland. But
Croatia and later Bosnia wanted to take historical Serbian areas
into independence."(15)
Charles Boyd, former Deputy Commander in Chief of the US European
Command, in 1995 opposed "the popular image of this war (as) one
of unrelenting Serb expansion" in Foreign Affairs: "Much of what
Zagreb calls the occupied territories is in fact land held by
Serbs for more than three centuries The same is true of most
Serb land in Bosnia, what the Western media frequently refers to
as the 70 percent of was Bosnia seized by rebel Serbs In short,
the Serbs are not trying to conquer new territory, but merely to
hold on to what was already theirs."
The Milosevic administration demanded the right of
self-determination for the Serbs as well and warned of a
repetition of the crimes of World War II. "When the Croats
declared independence, they did not give the Serbs in their own
country -- and there are 600,000 of them -- any guarantees
whatsoever. It was therefore understandable that for this reason
the Serbs were very worried. First of all, if we bear in mind the
villainy of the Ustashas during World War II", Lord Carrington
stated. But when a settlement for the Krajina and Slavonia
question was just about to be achieved, "the European Community
decided end-1991 to recognize Slovenia and Croatia. Croatia
received what it wanted, Slovenia as well, and they had no longer
a desire to go on with the peace conference. Hans Dietrich
Genscher wanted international recognition for Slovenia and
Croatia. Practically all the others opposed it."(16)
But the fears that arose in the minds of the Serbs were ignored
and depicted as an aggressive plan for "Greater Serbia".(17)
Soon, foreign states started to interfere in the conflict. German
military instructors were serving in Croatia, and the Bundeswehr
participated in air control missions and the Rapid Reaction Force
in Bosnia. Illegal arms deliveries to Slovenia and Croatia
followed, partly carried out through the German secret
service.(18) The US opposed the Serbs and supported the Croats
and Bosnian Muslims. "Finally, the NATO powers supported Croatian
nationalism, and in 1995 Tudjman's army, trained by US commanders
and illegally equipped by the 'International Community', was in a
position to complete the ethnic cleansing of the Krajina Serbs
which had begun with the help of the Nazis in 1941."(19)
According to the distinguished military journal "Jane's Defence
Weekly", the so-called "Operation Storm", the most brutal
campaign of ethnic cleansing in the time of Yugoslavia's
destruction, had been planned and executed not only by the Croat
Ante Gotovina but also by the Kosovo Albanian Agim Ceku who later
became head of the KLA.
In the case of Bosnia, it was the US that pressed for diplomatic
recognition. Again, the conflict was depicted as the result of
Serb aggression. But former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
defined the conflict as a three-sided civil war and not an
invasion being waged against a souvereign state. "Croatia and
Serbia support their compatriots in Bosnia. The most
irresponsible mistake in the current Bosnian tragedy was the
international recognition of the Bosnian state under the
authority of the Muslims. Blindly following the precedent of
Germany's premature recognition of Slovenia and Croatia, the
international community created all the former Yugoslav republics
as independent states."(20)
The NATO operation in Macedonia, where Albanian rebels operating
out of Kosovo intensified their fighting in 2001, was highly
disputed in Germany. A "decision against the deployment of the
Bundeswehr would have been an important and valuable step towards
a change in German politics and would not have lacked its meaning
for future European politics and even the position of the US",
Knut Mertens of the Green Party said.(21) But on August 30th,
2001 the German Parliament approved the operation called
"Essential Harvest", which was not a peaceful arms collecting
mission, but clearly meant as military intervention by NATO and
the Bundeswehr respectively.(22)
Although the Social Democrat Gernot Erler promoted the deployment
of German soldiers by affirming that it would only be temporary,
the paraliament eventually approved the following operation
"Amber Fox" on September 27th, 2001. Almost invisible to the
German public, Germany took over the lead of the NATO mandate in
Macedonia in the shadow of 9/11.
Who is responsible for the Kosovo violence?
Following the NATO aggression of 1999 German troops were deployed
in Kosovo under the auspice of KFOR. As NATO and the UN stand by,
it is not only organized crime that is flourishing. In a
continuous and planned campaign and its massive recent
escalation, Kosovo is being ethnically cleansed of all
non-Albanians.
Despite official anouncements to disarm the KLA and restore a
multi-ethnic society in Kosovo, it is mainly the US and Germany
that have financed the ongoing terror in Kosovo after the NATO
aggression by supporting the Kosovo Protection Corps. All other
countries had withdrawn their support for the Corps which is
manned by former KLA fighters after evidence had emerged that
they were responsible for murders and violent attacks.(23)
Following a 1999 Executive Order by the US President, the KLA was
trained in terrorist tactics, obviously inspired by the idea to
instigate a new crisis in case President Milosevic would win the
elections.(24)
Whether foreign powers directly backed the recent coordinated
acts of violence and expulsion or just stood by, in any case they
share responsibility. In the same way already predominant in 1998
both sides are held accountable for the terrorist violence of the
Albanian fighters who have always stood for an "ethnically pure
Kosova". In an absurd distortion of the facts, the UN Security
Council "called on all communities in Kosovo to stop all acts of
violence" as seen in 1998.
Anyway the restoration of a multi-ethnic Kosovo ever since has
been one of the fairy-tales only believed by those who thought
that NATO had intervened for "humanitarian reasons" in 1999.
Cathrin Schütz, born 1971, studied political science at
J.W.-Goethe Universtity in Frankfurt/Main. She is a contributing
writer for the German daily junge Welt. She is author of the book
"Die NATO-Intervention in Jugoslawien. Hintergründe,
Nebenwirkungen und Folgen", published in 2003 with a preface of
Member of German Parliament Willy Wimmer by Wilhelm Braumüller
Verlag, Vienna.
The article was published in a slightly shortened version on
March 26th 2004 in the German daily Neues Deutschland
Footnotes
1. "Die Woche", 12-30-1994
2. Fischer as quoted in: Horst-Eberhard Richter, "IPPNW
zum Jugoslawienkrieg", www.nato-tribunal.de
3. Cf. "Stern", 03-24-1999
4. Cf. Heinz Loquai, "Weichenstellungen für einen Krieg",
Nomos, Baden-Baden 2003, pp44-45
5. Ralph Hartmann, "Die ehrlichen Makler", Dietz, Berlin
1999, p13
6. After World War II Pavelic fled to Argentinia via Rome and
died in a German hospital in Madrid in 1954, having been personally
blessed by Pope Pius XII. Until today the genocide of the Serbs
commited by Croats has been neither condemned adequately nor
seriously studied. At the opening celebration of the Holocaust
Museum in Washington, history was perverted: not the Serbs, but
the Croats were invited. That and further information are following
the work of Diana Johnstone, "Fool's Crusade, Yugoslavia, NATO
and Western Delusions", Monthly Review Press, New York 2002
7. Kurt Köpruner, "Reisen in das Land der Kriege",
Espresso, Berlin 2001, p27
8. Malte Olschewski, "Von den Karawanken bis zum Kosovo.
Die geheime Geschichte der Kriege in Jugoslawien", Braumüller,
Vienna 2000, p34
9. Köpruner, pp44, Olschewski, p34
10. Cf. Olschewski, p38
11. The other part, living in Krajina and other parts of Croatia
that were not controlled by Tudjman, was expelled in Operation
Storm in 1995 with the support of the US government.
12. Cf. Köpruner, pp51-53
13. Cf. Olschewski, p14
14. Köpruner, p31
15. Olschewski, p14
16. "Profil", 12-01-1993
17. To this day there has been no proof for the allegation that
Slobodan Milosevic planned to create a Greater Serbia. Ralph
Hartmann shows that Milosevic's Kosovo Polje Speech could only be
used as evidence for his "aggressive" and "nationalistic" line by
quoting out of context to change the meaning
18. Cf. Olschewski, p78,80
19. The US involvement in Operation Storm was openly mentioned
in a hearing of the US Congress on 02-28-2002. Cf. "The U. N.
Criminal Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda: International
Justice of Show of Justice?", Hearing before the Committee on
International Relations, House of Representatives, 107th Congress
20. Washington Post, 05-17-1993
21. Knut Mertens, "Neues NATO-Protektorat oder ehrliche
Friedenspolitik?", "Zeit-Fragen", 08-20-2001, p1
22. Cf. Tobias Pflüger, "Krieg, und zwar richtig", "junge
Welt", 08-23-2001
23. Cf. Interview with Member of Congress Dennis Kucinich by
Cathrin Schütz, "Wird Sanktionspolitik bald beendet? ", "junge
Welt", 10-07-2000.
24. Cf. Dennis Kucinich, "What I learnt from the War", The
Progressive, August 1999
The article was translated from German by Sebastian Bahlo and
Gregory Elich. Quotations originally appearing in English were
re-translated from German.
The author would like to thank Diana Johnstone for providing
urgently needed material and Sebastian Bahlo and Gregory Elich
for translation.
COUNTERPUNCH
Weekend Edition
June 5 / 6, 2004
On the Ruins of Yugoslavia
The Militarism of German Foreign Policy and the Dismantling of a
State
By CATHRIN SCHÜTZ
In the shadow of new wars, the memory of the aggression against
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is more and more fading into
oblivion. Those who hoped for an inquiry about this first war in
which the Federal Republic of Germany militarily participated are
faced with silence. In Germany as in other countries, the
US-American filmmaker and author Michael Moore, who takes a stand
against Bush's belligerent policy in Iraq and who supported
General Wesley Clark in his Presidential pre-election campaign,
is highly celebrated. Clark, who in his function as NATO's
Supreme Commander in Europe led the bombing of Yugoslavia, was
the "anti-War Candidate", as Moore told his leftist audience.
"Collateral damage," including the bombing of civilians in
Varvarin, bodies mutilated by cluster bombs in Nis, employees
killed in the bombing of the RTS television station and the
Chinese embassy, as well as the "humanitarian" military
intervention as such, faced little opposition in the NATO
countries -- with the exception of Greece. Even the "left" walked
into the human-rights trap and supported -- although not
unanimously -- the attack on the "Belgrade regime".
This first direct participation of Germany in an illegal war of
aggression after World War II fundamentally changed German
foreign policy: since then (and not since 9/11), wars are seen as
a legitimate means of politics. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
himself admitted to being surprised by "how little it has been
recognized that the decision for war meant a fundamental change
in Germany's foreign and security policy."
The German Army, the Bundeswehr, has been transformed into a
global intervention force in order to defend Germany even at the
Hindukush, as Minister of Defence Peter Struck outlined in his
Defence Policy Rules. "This is not about unduly giving room to
military logic, but not to put this aspect of foreign politics
under a taboo, as it was done for so long", Schröder said in late
2001.
The first steps in this direction were already undertaken by the
then-governing Christian Democrats, CDU/CSU, in their 1992
Defense Rules. In the period prior to the "humanitarian" war
against Yugoslavia they had yet to acquaint the public with what
those really meant.
"I just think it is wrong to connect the moral too quickly with
questions of war and peace without taking the aspect of national
interest into considertaion. () For the future I predict a
considerable danger that the government, the ruling parties and
the Joint Chiefs of Staff will search for or create causes to
eliminate the barriers which are still in the way of a reunified
German foreign policy. Humanitarian issues serve as a
vehicle."(1) "(German) military operations must not take place
where German troops carried out their devastating actions in
World War II. I would be glad, if those who advocate it would not
always hide behind human rights to enforce this position", stated
Joseph Fischer -- in 1994.(2)
Since the NATO war of 1999 for him these principles belong to the
past. He clarified that he is not carrying out "Green" foreign
policy but "German".(3) The war against Yugoslavia opened the
door for following and future wars. The bombs were still falling
on Yugoslavia when NATO passed its new strategic concept, which
proclaimed its right to engage in offensive "out-of-area"
operations. While breaches of international law were part of a
public debate during the aggression on Yugoslavia and had to be
hidden under a humanitarian carpet, legal aspects seem to count
less and less in the continuing "War on Terror".
Germany didn't "slip into" the war
To understand developments in German foreign policy, one should
not confine the view to the military peak of the aggression
against Yugoslavia in 1999, in which Germany - according to
General ret. Heinz Loquai - by no means "slipped into" the role
of an allied power, but appeared to be the first country focusing
on a military solution as early as spring of 1998.(4)
Yugoslavia was essential for the emancipation of German foreign
policy and that change dates back to 1991.
The recognition of Slovenia and Croatia in December 1991 was the
first massive appearance of the Federal Republic of Germany on
the international stage. Despite all warnings the government of
Kohl/Genscher stood forth and thwarted any negotiated solutions
that could have prevented the bloody civil wars in which
Yugoslavia fell apart. "Regardless of all celebrated declarations
to stand for peace and to refrain from striving for power", given
by Germany just one year before in the so-called
"Two-Plus-Four"-treaty, "the Federal Republic of Germany
interfered massively in the internal affairs of one of the states
of the Anti-Hitler-Coalition. Germany, reunified and strong,
stepped on the international stage and for the first time since
World War II openly pursued great power politics -- in the
Balkans, where it had already wreaked great mischief twice in
this century.(5)
There was an "Independent State of Croatia" once before, in 1941
as a creation of Hitler and Mussolini, supported by the Roman
Catholic Church and led by the fascist Ustasha. Half a century
later, an independent Croatia was again established through the
influence of Germany and the Vatican. Croatia was governed by
Franjo Tudjman's party, which openly revived the politics of the
Ustasha who had committed some of the most horrible acts of
genocide in the 20th Century under their fascist leader Ante
Pavelic, murdering hundreds of thousands of Serbs.(6) To this
day, the crimes of the Ustasha are among the least recognized
crimes of World War II. Were Serbian survivors and their
descendants not the only ones to remember this part of history,
the German policy of recognition as well as the presentation of
the Croatian conflict in the media could not have happened nor
gone unchallenged as it did.
Kurt Köpruner, a businessman who travelled to Yugoslavia many
times in the 1990's and was thus an eye-witness to that tragedy,
concluded from heated debates on the impending disintegration of
the country end-1990 in Croatia: "If it really comes to the
dissolution of Yugoslavia, this cannot possibly happen without
horrible bloodshed and hundreds of thousands of deaths".(7) He
began to realise why this was the common view when he read about
the course of World War II in the Balkans. For the first time, he
learned about mass slaughters by the Ustasha, Muslim and Albanian
SS divisions.
Tudjman, who became President in the first Croatian
multi-party-election in 1990 and who led the country into
independence with the help of Germany in 1991, had in 1989
already played down the Holocaust in general and the Ustasha
crimes against Serbs at the death camp of Jasenovac in
particular. Under Tudjman's rule a revival of Ustasha symbols and
ideals took place. A new constitution did not contain a single
word regarding the rights of Serbs living in Croatia. Terror
against Serbs started, "systematically and controlled from the
top". In masses, they were dismissed from work, and "messages
urging them to leave the country were stuck on the doors of Serb
houses."(8) In a referendum -- declared as illegal by Tudjman --
the Croatian Serbs voted to remain in Yugoslavia.
Months before German recognition and the outbreak of the war, on
May 2nd, 1991, the "Dalmatian Kristallnacht" took place.(9)
Supported by the local police, 2,000 Croats destroyed 116 Serbian
shops and houses in Zadar in an action lasting several hours. On
October 16th, 1991 the "Night of the Long Knifes" followed, with
more than hundred Serb civilians tortured and executed.(10) The
Western media remained silent. Only the New York Times reported
in December 1993: "The government of Croatia has forced
thousands of its opponents from their homes and from the country,
according to the new Zagreb office of Human Rigths. The actions
have been directed mostly against Serbs, but also against Croats
opposing the politics of President Tudjman. Since 1991, the Croatian
authorities have blown up or razed tens of thousands of mostly
Serb houses, but also houses of Croats. ... Whole families were
killed. All in all, about 280,000 Croatian Serbs have fled the
country." According to Susan Woodward, the Croatian government
had already expelled all Serbs that were under their control by
1993.(11) One should wonder whether this was the "democracy, that
the Serbs, as indigenous people, living in one-third of communist
Tito-created Croatia, had to accept", asked the New York Times
and added in April 1997: "Did the West become so sick as to allow
Croatian fascism to live its afterlife?"
How much the Croatian people really supported Tudjman's policy,
forseeing the bloodshed, remains unclear. At least the referendum
on independence should not be used to measure the support since
it was quite the opposite of the "clear and overwhelming will of
the Croatian people", as Westerners celebrated it. The voters
were considerably pressed to make the right choice in the
ballot.(12)
The distorted image of Serb expansion
Germany's recognition of Croatia should be questioned not only in
the light of the political powers it brought to the fore, but
also from a legal point of view. While the majority of
international law experts agree that Slovenia's secession was an
execution of the peoples' right to self-determination, it is
considered illegal in Croatia and Bosnia, where a main part of
the Serbs outside Serbia have been living for centuries in
coherent areas.(13)
Slobodan Milosevic repeatedly pointed out this problem. He did
not oppose the right to self-determination, but he demanded this
right for all peoples. "He pointed out that there are more than
six hundred thousand Serbs living in Croatia, who represent the
clear majority of the population in some areas of Krajina and
Slavonia. The right to self-determination would have to be
acknowledged to them as well. The existing borders between the
Yugoslav republics were mere administrative borders."(14)
Serbia showed a willingness to negotiate new borders and warned
all parties not to confront others with a fait accompli -- as
happened short thereafter due to German recognition -- which
would lead to an out of control escalation. To give up their
historical ground was an impossible demand for the Serbs. They
"said good-bye to Slovenia. They would also have let Croatia go
without the Krajina. Since it was the will of the Krajina Serbs,
Belgrade intended to tie the Krajina to the motherland. But
Croatia and later Bosnia wanted to take historical Serbian areas
into independence."(15)
Charles Boyd, former Deputy Commander in Chief of the US European
Command, in 1995 opposed "the popular image of this war (as) one
of unrelenting Serb expansion" in Foreign Affairs: "Much of what
Zagreb calls the occupied territories is in fact land held by
Serbs for more than three centuries The same is true of most
Serb land in Bosnia, what the Western media frequently refers to
as the 70 percent of was Bosnia seized by rebel Serbs In short,
the Serbs are not trying to conquer new territory, but merely to
hold on to what was already theirs."
The Milosevic administration demanded the right of
self-determination for the Serbs as well and warned of a
repetition of the crimes of World War II. "When the Croats
declared independence, they did not give the Serbs in their own
country -- and there are 600,000 of them -- any guarantees
whatsoever. It was therefore understandable that for this reason
the Serbs were very worried. First of all, if we bear in mind the
villainy of the Ustashas during World War II", Lord Carrington
stated. But when a settlement for the Krajina and Slavonia
question was just about to be achieved, "the European Community
decided end-1991 to recognize Slovenia and Croatia. Croatia
received what it wanted, Slovenia as well, and they had no longer
a desire to go on with the peace conference. Hans Dietrich
Genscher wanted international recognition for Slovenia and
Croatia. Practically all the others opposed it."(16)
But the fears that arose in the minds of the Serbs were ignored
and depicted as an aggressive plan for "Greater Serbia".(17)
Soon, foreign states started to interfere in the conflict. German
military instructors were serving in Croatia, and the Bundeswehr
participated in air control missions and the Rapid Reaction Force
in Bosnia. Illegal arms deliveries to Slovenia and Croatia
followed, partly carried out through the German secret
service.(18) The US opposed the Serbs and supported the Croats
and Bosnian Muslims. "Finally, the NATO powers supported Croatian
nationalism, and in 1995 Tudjman's army, trained by US commanders
and illegally equipped by the 'International Community', was in a
position to complete the ethnic cleansing of the Krajina Serbs
which had begun with the help of the Nazis in 1941."(19)
According to the distinguished military journal "Jane's Defence
Weekly", the so-called "Operation Storm", the most brutal
campaign of ethnic cleansing in the time of Yugoslavia's
destruction, had been planned and executed not only by the Croat
Ante Gotovina but also by the Kosovo Albanian Agim Ceku who later
became head of the KLA.
In the case of Bosnia, it was the US that pressed for diplomatic
recognition. Again, the conflict was depicted as the result of
Serb aggression. But former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
defined the conflict as a three-sided civil war and not an
invasion being waged against a souvereign state. "Croatia and
Serbia support their compatriots in Bosnia. The most
irresponsible mistake in the current Bosnian tragedy was the
international recognition of the Bosnian state under the
authority of the Muslims. Blindly following the precedent of
Germany's premature recognition of Slovenia and Croatia, the
international community created all the former Yugoslav republics
as independent states."(20)
The NATO operation in Macedonia, where Albanian rebels operating
out of Kosovo intensified their fighting in 2001, was highly
disputed in Germany. A "decision against the deployment of the
Bundeswehr would have been an important and valuable step towards
a change in German politics and would not have lacked its meaning
for future European politics and even the position of the US",
Knut Mertens of the Green Party said.(21) But on August 30th,
2001 the German Parliament approved the operation called
"Essential Harvest", which was not a peaceful arms collecting
mission, but clearly meant as military intervention by NATO and
the Bundeswehr respectively.(22)
Although the Social Democrat Gernot Erler promoted the deployment
of German soldiers by affirming that it would only be temporary,
the paraliament eventually approved the following operation
"Amber Fox" on September 27th, 2001. Almost invisible to the
German public, Germany took over the lead of the NATO mandate in
Macedonia in the shadow of 9/11.
Who is responsible for the Kosovo violence?
Following the NATO aggression of 1999 German troops were deployed
in Kosovo under the auspice of KFOR. As NATO and the UN stand by,
it is not only organized crime that is flourishing. In a
continuous and planned campaign and its massive recent
escalation, Kosovo is being ethnically cleansed of all
non-Albanians.
Despite official anouncements to disarm the KLA and restore a
multi-ethnic society in Kosovo, it is mainly the US and Germany
that have financed the ongoing terror in Kosovo after the NATO
aggression by supporting the Kosovo Protection Corps. All other
countries had withdrawn their support for the Corps which is
manned by former KLA fighters after evidence had emerged that
they were responsible for murders and violent attacks.(23)
Following a 1999 Executive Order by the US President, the KLA was
trained in terrorist tactics, obviously inspired by the idea to
instigate a new crisis in case President Milosevic would win the
elections.(24)
Whether foreign powers directly backed the recent coordinated
acts of violence and expulsion or just stood by, in any case they
share responsibility. In the same way already predominant in 1998
both sides are held accountable for the terrorist violence of the
Albanian fighters who have always stood for an "ethnically pure
Kosova". In an absurd distortion of the facts, the UN Security
Council "called on all communities in Kosovo to stop all acts of
violence" as seen in 1998.
Anyway the restoration of a multi-ethnic Kosovo ever since has
been one of the fairy-tales only believed by those who thought
that NATO had intervened for "humanitarian reasons" in 1999.
Cathrin Schütz, born 1971, studied political science at
J.W.-Goethe Universtity in Frankfurt/Main. She is a contributing
writer for the German daily junge Welt. She is author of the book
"Die NATO-Intervention in Jugoslawien. Hintergründe,
Nebenwirkungen und Folgen", published in 2003 with a preface of
Member of German Parliament Willy Wimmer by Wilhelm Braumüller
Verlag, Vienna.
The article was published in a slightly shortened version on
March 26th 2004 in the German daily Neues Deutschland
Footnotes
1. "Die Woche", 12-30-1994
2. Fischer as quoted in: Horst-Eberhard Richter, "IPPNW
zum Jugoslawienkrieg", www.nato-tribunal.de
3. Cf. "Stern", 03-24-1999
4. Cf. Heinz Loquai, "Weichenstellungen für einen Krieg",
Nomos, Baden-Baden 2003, pp44-45
5. Ralph Hartmann, "Die ehrlichen Makler", Dietz, Berlin
1999, p13
6. After World War II Pavelic fled to Argentinia via Rome and
died in a German hospital in Madrid in 1954, having been personally
blessed by Pope Pius XII. Until today the genocide of the Serbs
commited by Croats has been neither condemned adequately nor
seriously studied. At the opening celebration of the Holocaust
Museum in Washington, history was perverted: not the Serbs, but
the Croats were invited. That and further information are following
the work of Diana Johnstone, "Fool's Crusade, Yugoslavia, NATO
and Western Delusions", Monthly Review Press, New York 2002
7. Kurt Köpruner, "Reisen in das Land der Kriege",
Espresso, Berlin 2001, p27
8. Malte Olschewski, "Von den Karawanken bis zum Kosovo.
Die geheime Geschichte der Kriege in Jugoslawien", Braumüller,
Vienna 2000, p34
9. Köpruner, pp44, Olschewski, p34
10. Cf. Olschewski, p38
11. The other part, living in Krajina and other parts of Croatia
that were not controlled by Tudjman, was expelled in Operation
Storm in 1995 with the support of the US government.
12. Cf. Köpruner, pp51-53
13. Cf. Olschewski, p14
14. Köpruner, p31
15. Olschewski, p14
16. "Profil", 12-01-1993
17. To this day there has been no proof for the allegation that
Slobodan Milosevic planned to create a Greater Serbia. Ralph
Hartmann shows that Milosevic's Kosovo Polje Speech could only be
used as evidence for his "aggressive" and "nationalistic" line by
quoting out of context to change the meaning
18. Cf. Olschewski, p78,80
19. The US involvement in Operation Storm was openly mentioned
in a hearing of the US Congress on 02-28-2002. Cf. "The U. N.
Criminal Tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda: International
Justice of Show of Justice?", Hearing before the Committee on
International Relations, House of Representatives, 107th Congress
20. Washington Post, 05-17-1993
21. Knut Mertens, "Neues NATO-Protektorat oder ehrliche
Friedenspolitik?", "Zeit-Fragen", 08-20-2001, p1
22. Cf. Tobias Pflüger, "Krieg, und zwar richtig", "junge
Welt", 08-23-2001
23. Cf. Interview with Member of Congress Dennis Kucinich by
Cathrin Schütz, "Wird Sanktionspolitik bald beendet? ", "junge
Welt", 10-07-2000.
24. Cf. Dennis Kucinich, "What I learnt from the War", The
Progressive, August 1999
The article was translated from German by Sebastian Bahlo and
Gregory Elich. Quotations originally appearing in English were
re-translated from German.
The author would like to thank Diana Johnstone for providing
urgently needed material and Sebastian Bahlo and Gregory Elich
for translation.
Povera Bosnia : anche il petrolio...
1. Il y a bien du pétrole en Bosnie ! (Réseau Voltaire)
2. Oil Discovered in Bosnia (C. Deliso)
3. Dispacci ANSA sui progetti di "corridoi" per le materie prime nei
Balcani
=== 1 ===
Il y a bien du pétrole en Bosnie !
2 juin 2004
Réseau Voltaire
Confirmant les recherches de Michel Chossudovsky (
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO202G.html ) sur la guerre de
Bosnie, la télévision macédonienne a annoncé que deux gisements
pétroliers avaient été découverts au Nord de la Bosnie, l'un à Tuzla et
le second à Samac.
Les autorités bosniaques estiment que ces gisements, de taille
conséquente et renfermant un pétrole de très bonne qualité, sont à même
de couvrir la consommation du pays pendant 10 ans. Le seul gisement de
Samac, situé en zone anciennement serbe et conquise par l'armée
bosniaque en 1995 avec l'appui états-unien, est en mesure de procurer
300 millions de dollars de profit par an.
Les deux gisements se situent précisément sur le tracé du corridor
n°10, élément d'un vaste projet de transport de marchandises et de
ressources lancé par la Maison-Blanche, en 1999.
Le coût prévisionnel élevé du projet d'exploitation a conduit l'État
bosniaque à annoncer qu'il cèderait probablement des concessions à la
compagnie pétrolière BP-Amoco, présente dans la région depuis une
dizaine d'années.
Un retraité de l'industrie pétrolière bosniaque a confirmé que ces
découvertes étaient antérieures à 1991.
http://www.reseauvoltaire.net/flagrant-delit.html
=== 2 ===
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=353
Oil Discovered in Bosnia
Find Hushed Up for Years, Official Says
Posted on Tuesday, June 01 @ 10:55:00 EDT
by Chris Deliso
Four years ago, the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences described Azerbaijan as
“…the focal point of the next round in the Great Game of Nations, a
dangerous, hot-headed place with a Klondike of wealth beneath it. It is
Bosnia with oil.”
What then, we might ask, would actually constitute a "Bosnia with oil?"
We will soon find out.
Macedonia’s A-1 TV reported yesterday that two major oil deposits have
been discovered in Bosnia. While oil exploration there dates back over
one hundred years, little results have emerged until now. The Balkan
wars of the 1990’s put a temporary halt to modern efforts, many say.
However, a veteran Bosnian oilman has told Bosnian daily ‘Nezavisne
Novine’ that officials first knew they had a significant find before
Bosnia’s independence war, but were told to keep quiet about it.
“…The foreign consultants back in 1991 advised us to not say anything
in public yet and that we should wait for a better time,” said Brod
Refinery’s Mika Sukurma. “But for that ‘better time’ we had to wait
almost 13 years.”
According to ‘Nezavisne Novine,’ the oil discovered is of a “very good
quality.” Officials believe that it amounts to 50 million tons near
Tuzla and 500 million tons near Samac. According to A-1, this total
would serve to supply the country for the next 10 years. Bosnian
officials believe that from the Samac hoard alone $300 million of
profit can be made annually. But they have yet to equate how much
excavation and infrastructure costs will cut into profits.
Interestingly enough, the US oil giant Amoco (now part of BP) has been
on the job for the past 12 years. Since then, it has been cooperating
with the one of the biggest Bosnian corporations, Energoinvest.
Tuzla was also conveniently located in the SFOR American sector, and
served as a key logistics area for the covert importation of Iranian
and Saudi mujahedin by the US during the 1990’s. The area was home for
the Bosnian Army’s “9th Muslim Brigade,” composed of local and foreign
religious warriors used against the Serbs (as well as for a time a
rival Muslim militia). Tuzla is also located in the east of Bosnia,
near where the RS border dips down alongside Serbia proper. This border
area was one of the most strategic locations on the whole Balkan war
chessboard.
As for Bozanski Samac, this important inland port of the River Sava is
located in the north of Bosnia, within the Republika Srpska and just
south of the Croatian border. In 2002, the EU financed a 17.5 million
euro bridge reconstruction near the town, to connect with Croatia’s
Slavonski Samac on the other side. The area is located on the important
“…road/rail axis E-73 (M17)” which connects Sarajevo and Budapest.
All things considered, it should come as no surprise to learn that the
Bosnian state “…for now can’t finance the project and so they may give
concessions” to Amoco for developing the country’s energy riches.
Oil exploration in Bosnia is said to date back to 1890 by ‘Nezavisne
Novine.’ Disrupted by WWII, it continued under Tito but without
success. From 1964-73, leading Yugoslav energy company INA tried its
hand at unearthing Bosnia’s oil riches, thereafter passing over the
task to the Brod Refinery, which continued until 1984. That year marked
the beginning of the first “serious investigations,” with the creation
of a special company within Brod Refinery tasked with searching in two
areas of the republic, north Bosnia (now Republika Srpska) and
Dinaridi. Bosanski Brod is located not far to the west of Bosanski
Sabac, also along the river and again with a Croatian counterpart
having the same name. (‘Brod’ in Serbo-Croatian means ‘boat’).
Back in 1995, when the Balkan wars were nearing conclusion, keen
observers noted one of the reasons for America’s pro-Croatian strategy.
At the time, Michel Chossudovsky wrote that “…Chicago-based Amoco was
among several foreign firms that subsequently initiated exploratory
surveys in Bosnia. The West is anxious to develop these regions.”
Further, he reported that there were “substantial petroleum fields” in
the then-Serb held territories “…just across the Sava River from the
Tuzla region.” The area would be incorporated into Croatia
subsequently. Croatia’s state-owned oil and gas corporation, INA, was
finally privatized in August 2003, though not to an American company.
While Croatia has been pacified and is well on the way to fully
embracing Western consumerism, economically sluggish Bosnia’s future is
still an open question. Whether or not this multi-ethnic experiment- a
miniature Yugoslavia created paradoxically out of a denial that the
same values could ever have held together the former state- can survive
is an open question. Thanks to Clinton’s organized mujahedin summer
camps, it remains a potential breeding ground for terrorists even today.
It’s hard to imagine that the “new” oil discoveries will lessen the
country’s factional discord, though. Now we do have yet another reason,
however, for the Americans’ never-ending bullying of the Bosnian Serbs
over compliance with the kangaroo court at the Hague.
=== 3 ===
http://www.ansa.it/balcani
CORRIDOIO 8:POLI BORTONE,IMPORTANTE PER INTEGRAZIONE BALCANI
(ANSA) - BARI, 11 MAR - Il parlamento europeo ha votato per
reinserire il Corridoio 8 (tra due coste dell'Adriatico) nella lista
delle Reti Transeuropee di Trasporto. Ne da' notizia il parlamentare
europeo di Alleanza nazionale Adriana Poli Bortone, sindaco di Lecce,
sottolineando che si tratta di ''un intervento molto importante per
la integrazione dei Balcani nella Rete Trans-europea''. ''Il
reinserimento dell'asse Bari-Varna nel progetto 29 dell'allegato III
(commissione Van Miert) - sottolinea Poli Bortone - ripristina di
fatto quel Corridoio VIII che puo' dare senso compiuto all'asse
ferroviario intermodale ionico-adriatico. L'assemblea europea -
aggiunge - ''col suo voto positivo ha riconosciuto al Corridoio 8 la
valenza di progetto di interesse europeo perche' apporta un notevole
valore aggiunto per agevolare la mobilita' di merci e persone e
contribuisce alla coesione territoriale della Ue''. Per Poli
Bortone, ''solo una visione miope e disattenta all'area del
Mediterraneo avrebbe potuto consentire l'esclusione del Corridoio 8:
una strada non solo 'fisica' ma di progresso economico e sociale che
contribuira' alla reale integrazione dei territori dell'Europa del
Sud-Est ed arginera', di fatto, il fenomeno dell'immigrazione
clandestina e dell'abbandono dei territori''. Dichiarandosi molto
soddisfatta della decisione del parlamento europeo, Poli Bortone
conclude sottolineando che il risultato ''premia l'impegno di quanti,
a vari livelli, hanno creduto e credono nell'ampliamento dell'Europa
e nello sviluppo del Mezzogiorno''.(ANSA). ZG 11/03/2004
14:19
BALCANI: NABUCCO, NASCE SOCIETA' PER GASDOTTO CASPIO-EUROPA
(ANSA) - VIENNA, 12 MAR - Rappresentanti di compagnie energetiche di
Bulgaria, Romania, Ungheria, Turchia e Austria hanno firmato a Vienna
un accordo che da' vita ad una societa' comune, primo passo del
progetto per un gasdotto dal mar Caspio con l'Europa centrale a
partire dal 2009, ha reso noto oggi la societa' petrolifera austriaca
Omv. Il nuovo gasdotto si chiamera' Nabucco, sara' lungo oltre
3.000 chilometri ed avra' una capacita' di trasporto annuale tra i 20
e i 30 miliardi di metri cubi di gas. Andra' dalla Turchia
(confinante a est con i paesi dell'Asia centrale che si affacciano
sul mar Caspio) all'Austria, via Bulgaria, Romania e Ungheria.
Secondo le prime stime i costi per Nabucco potrebbero aggirarsi
attorno ai 4,4 miliardi di euro. Il primo obiettivo della
'Nabucco Company Pipeline Study' - e' questo il nome della societa'
con sede a Vienna - e' un modello di finanziamento del progetto,
nonche' creare incentivi per potenziali investitori. Da Vienna
verranno anche coordinate tutte le attivita' di marketing e le
trattative con potenziali fornitori di gas. I partner del
consorzio sono Omv Erdgas, Botas, Boru Hatlari ile Petrol Tasima As,
Bulgargaz Ead, S.N.T.G.N., Transgaz S.A., e Mol. La decisione
definitiva se avviare o meno il progetto Nabucco e' prevista per la
fine di quest'anno, in base ad uno studio di fattibilita' attualmente
in corso. (ANSA). RED-STE
12/03/2004 17:10
INFRASTRUTTURE:GEMELLI(PPE),CORRIDOIO BALCANI INDISPENSABILE
(ANSA) - CATANZARO, 25 MAR - 'Il corridoio Berlino-Palermo, garantito
in primo luogo dalla realizzazione del ponte sullo stretto di
Messina, e il cosiddetto corridoio dei Balcani, che dalla Puglia
penetra in Macedonia e Albania, ma soprattutto in Grecia, sono
indispensabili per assicurare infrastrutture coerenti con gli
obiettivi del 2010, anno in cui sara' avviata l'area di libero
scambio nel Mediterraneo''. Lo ha detto Nino Gemelli, unico
europarlamentare italiano del gruppo PPE a partecipare, ad Atene,
alla costituzione dell'Assemblea Parlamentare Euromediterranea,
organismo del quale fanno parte attualmente dodici Paesi, (Algeria,
Cipro, Egitto, Israele, Giordania, Libano, Malta, Marocco, Palestina,
Tunisia e Turchia), mentre Libia e Mauritania sono invitate speciali.
Secondo Gemelli, che si e' dichiarato 'soddisfatto' per
l'avvenuta trasformazione del Forum Mediterraneo in Assemblea
Parlamentare, ''i Paesi dell'area mediterranea, entro il 2010,
dovranno essere economicamente competitivi; per raggiungere
l'obiettivo occorrera' rafforzare i programmi di cooperazione
mediterranea, accelerare dunque la costituzione della Fondazione per
gli scambi tra le culture e le civilta' del Mediterraneo e rendere
operativa la Banca Euromediterranea''. Tale processo, ricorda
Gemelli, ''impone alla Calabria la necessita' di trovare maggiore
dinamicita' sullo svolgimento del proprio ruolo di Regione d'Europa,
promuovendo iniziative che la vedano al centro di incontri, in
rappresentanza dell'Italia, con altri Paesi mediterranei''. ''Il
porto di Gioia Tauro - ha sosttolienato - il sistema dei trasporti
complessivamente inteso, a cominciare dal Ponte, l'Universita', la
soggettivita' agricola con produzioni di alta specializzazione, il
terziario e i servizi di nuova generazione costituiscono
potenzialita' che possono risolvere il problema dell'arretratezza
della regione nel volgere di pochi anni, sempre che le istituzioni
utilizzino proficuamente le risorse ed assicurino ai cittadini il
compito istituzionale necessario''. (ANSA). VF 25/03/2004
18:06
BALCANI: CORRIDOIO 8, LUNARDI E FITTO A VERTICE DI TIRANA
(ANSA) - TIRANA, 31 MAR - Il ministro per le infrastrutture Pietro
Lunardi e il presidente della Regione Puglia, Raffaele Fitto, sono
intervenuti oggi a Tirana al vertice ministeriale dei paesi
interessati alla realizzazione del ''Corridoio 8''.
''Il Corridoio 8 e' una realta' -ha detto Lunardi all'Ansa- ed
e' importante che anche l'Unione europea l'abbia ormai riconosciuto
come un'opera strategica''. Il ministro ha spiegato che ''la sola
differenza rispetto agli altri corridoi paneuropei, e' che quello
numero 8 non potra' godere dei finanziamenti europei a fondo perduto
che tuttavia coprono solo fino ad un massimo del 20 per cento dei
costi''.
''La ragione di tale diversita' di trattamento -ha proseguito
Lunardi- e' che gran parte del corridoio 8 (che colleghera' le citta'
di Bari e di Brindisi al mar Nero) attraversa paesi che non fanno
ancora parte dell'Unione europea. Anche per questa ragione non e'
stato inserito nella lista delle 30 grandi opere 'ad alta priorita'''.
''La banca europea per gli investimenti - ha pero' aggiunto il
ministro- sembra disposta a finanziare il 75 per cento delle opere
con un credito di 35 anni''. ''Come tempi per la sua realizzazione
ci diamo l'orizzonte del 2020'', ha affermato il ministro, che ha
sottolineato l'importanza del segretariato per il Corridoio in
funzione a Bari: ''E' in quella sede -ha spiegato- che verra'
valutato l'aspetto progettuale e poi studiato un piano finanziario''.
Lunardi ha ribadito la grande importanza che l'Italia attribuisce
alla realizzazione del Corridoio 8, definito addirittura dal ministro
albanese dei Trasporti Spartak Poci (che aveva organizzato il
vertice), ''la salvezza dei Balcani''. Fitto, prendendo la parola
per un breve saluto, ha confermato la piena collaborazione della
Regione Puglia alla costruzione del Corridoio, sollecitando il varo
di ''programmi di intervento e l'avvio della fase operativa con
interventi progettuali''.(ANSA) BLL 31/03/2004 15:30
ALBANIA: CORRIDOIO 8; OPPOSIZIONE GRECIA SU DOCUMENTO FINALE
(ANSA) - TIRANA, 31 MAR - Si e' concluso oggi a Tirana il vertice
ministeriale fra i cinque paesi (Italia, Albania, Grecia, Macedonia e
Bulgaria) coinvolti nel progetto del corridoio paneuropeo numero 8,
che dovra' collegare i porti di Bari e Brindisi con la citta' di
Varna, sul mar Nero. Per l'Italia era presente il ministro per le
infrastrutture Pietro Lunardi. Nel corso del dibattito sulla
stesura del documento finale, la Grecia si e' opposta ad un paragrafo
con il quale i ministri invitavano l'Unione europea ad inserire il
''corridoio 8'' fra i progetti ad ''alta priorita''', definizione che
basterebbe ad assicurare un finanziamento europeo a fondo perduto che
puo' arrivare fino al 20 per cento dei costi. ''La posizione greca
ostile al Corridoio 8 e' apparsa oggi in tutta la sua evidenza'' ha
detto all'Ansa un diplomatico presente al vertice. I greci hanno
anche tentato di introdurre un paragrafo che di fatto ritardava la
convocazione di un vertice a livello di primi ministri annunciato
dalla Bulgaria: ''Questo incontro dovrebbe tenersi solo dopo una
sufficiente consultazione a livello di tecnici'', ha affermato
l'ambasciatore greco Pantelis Carcabassis, che al vertice
rappresentava il ministro dei trasporti e delle telecomunicazioni. Un
inciso interpretato come espediente per ritardare la realizzazione
dell'incontro che potrebbe rivelarsi un ulteriore passo in avanti per
il futuro del corridoio. Nella stesura finale del rapporto la
richiesta greca e' stata solo indicata come postilla in coda al
documento. Altro piccolo ''giallo'' diplomatico e' stato il
tentativo, da parte albanese, di introdurre nello stesso documento
una manifestazione di sostegno alla realizzazione dell'oleodotto
americano che dovrebbe correre lungo lo stesso tracciato del
corridoio 8. ''La proposta era fuori luogo'', ha commentato il
ministro Lunardi che insieme all'ambasciatore dell'Unione europea a
Tirana, Lutz Salzmann, ha ottenuto che quel paragrafo venisse
cancellato. Nel corso dei lavori il ministro dei Trasporti
albanese Spartak Poci, organizzatore del vertice, ha espresso
gratitudine per il sostegno offerto al progetto del corridoio dal
governo italiano in occasione del semestre di presidenza europea.
Poci ha anche ringraziato l'Italia per gli aiuti alla costruzione di
strade, porti e aeroporti in Albania, infrastrutture che di fatto
costituiscono un importante contributo su base bilaterale per il
completamento del progetto.(ANSA) BLL
31/03/2004 20:20
TRASPORTI: CORRIDOIO 5, ALLA FIRMA MEMORANDUM QUADRILATERALE
(ANSA) - TRIESTE, 11 MAG - Un memorandum quadrilaterale volto a
dotare il Corridoio 5 di infrastrutture digitali all' avanguardia
sara' siglato martedi' prossimo, 18 maggio, dal ministro italiano per
l' Innovazione e le Tecnologie, Lucio Stanca, e dai suoi omologhi di
Ungheria, Slovenia e Croazia. La cerimonia avverra' in Ungheria,
mentre l' idea di unire le forze dei quattro Paesi alleati nell'
intento di dotare la principale arteria europea di collegamento tra
est e ovest a sud delle Alpi di moderne attrezzature tecnologiche era
stata promossa dal ministro italiano nel corso della prima riunione
dei Ministri della Societa' dell' Informazione, svolta a Cernobbio
(Como) nel luglio del 2003. L' accordo prevede una prima fase di
studio da concludere entro la fine dell' anno, condotta dall' Italia;
poi, i quattro Paesi individueranno progetti comuni da realizzare
insieme, seguendo una 'scaletta' di temi gia' concordata: architettura
dei sistemi intelligenti di trasporto, servizi alle imprese lungo
il ''Corridoio 5'', interoperabilita' dei servizi doganali, servizi
pubblici multilingue accessibili lungo la dorsale del ''Corridoio
5'', reti di collaborazione tra Universita', ricercatori e imprese.
Il Ministro Stanca sara' accompagnato da una delegazione di
imprenditori, ricercatori ed esponenti di enti locali. E' comunque
intenzione del dicastero creare un tavolo di lavoro tra tutte le
realta' italiane interessate. (ANSA). CNT
11/05/2004 16:30
1. Il y a bien du pétrole en Bosnie ! (Réseau Voltaire)
2. Oil Discovered in Bosnia (C. Deliso)
3. Dispacci ANSA sui progetti di "corridoi" per le materie prime nei
Balcani
=== 1 ===
Il y a bien du pétrole en Bosnie !
2 juin 2004
Réseau Voltaire
Confirmant les recherches de Michel Chossudovsky (
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO202G.html ) sur la guerre de
Bosnie, la télévision macédonienne a annoncé que deux gisements
pétroliers avaient été découverts au Nord de la Bosnie, l'un à Tuzla et
le second à Samac.
Les autorités bosniaques estiment que ces gisements, de taille
conséquente et renfermant un pétrole de très bonne qualité, sont à même
de couvrir la consommation du pays pendant 10 ans. Le seul gisement de
Samac, situé en zone anciennement serbe et conquise par l'armée
bosniaque en 1995 avec l'appui états-unien, est en mesure de procurer
300 millions de dollars de profit par an.
Les deux gisements se situent précisément sur le tracé du corridor
n°10, élément d'un vaste projet de transport de marchandises et de
ressources lancé par la Maison-Blanche, en 1999.
Le coût prévisionnel élevé du projet d'exploitation a conduit l'État
bosniaque à annoncer qu'il cèderait probablement des concessions à la
compagnie pétrolière BP-Amoco, présente dans la région depuis une
dizaine d'années.
Un retraité de l'industrie pétrolière bosniaque a confirmé que ces
découvertes étaient antérieures à 1991.
http://www.reseauvoltaire.net/flagrant-delit.html
=== 2 ===
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=353
Oil Discovered in Bosnia
Find Hushed Up for Years, Official Says
Posted on Tuesday, June 01 @ 10:55:00 EDT
by Chris Deliso
Four years ago, the Bulletin of Atomic Sciences described Azerbaijan as
“…the focal point of the next round in the Great Game of Nations, a
dangerous, hot-headed place with a Klondike of wealth beneath it. It is
Bosnia with oil.”
What then, we might ask, would actually constitute a "Bosnia with oil?"
We will soon find out.
Macedonia’s A-1 TV reported yesterday that two major oil deposits have
been discovered in Bosnia. While oil exploration there dates back over
one hundred years, little results have emerged until now. The Balkan
wars of the 1990’s put a temporary halt to modern efforts, many say.
However, a veteran Bosnian oilman has told Bosnian daily ‘Nezavisne
Novine’ that officials first knew they had a significant find before
Bosnia’s independence war, but were told to keep quiet about it.
“…The foreign consultants back in 1991 advised us to not say anything
in public yet and that we should wait for a better time,” said Brod
Refinery’s Mika Sukurma. “But for that ‘better time’ we had to wait
almost 13 years.”
According to ‘Nezavisne Novine,’ the oil discovered is of a “very good
quality.” Officials believe that it amounts to 50 million tons near
Tuzla and 500 million tons near Samac. According to A-1, this total
would serve to supply the country for the next 10 years. Bosnian
officials believe that from the Samac hoard alone $300 million of
profit can be made annually. But they have yet to equate how much
excavation and infrastructure costs will cut into profits.
Interestingly enough, the US oil giant Amoco (now part of BP) has been
on the job for the past 12 years. Since then, it has been cooperating
with the one of the biggest Bosnian corporations, Energoinvest.
Tuzla was also conveniently located in the SFOR American sector, and
served as a key logistics area for the covert importation of Iranian
and Saudi mujahedin by the US during the 1990’s. The area was home for
the Bosnian Army’s “9th Muslim Brigade,” composed of local and foreign
religious warriors used against the Serbs (as well as for a time a
rival Muslim militia). Tuzla is also located in the east of Bosnia,
near where the RS border dips down alongside Serbia proper. This border
area was one of the most strategic locations on the whole Balkan war
chessboard.
As for Bozanski Samac, this important inland port of the River Sava is
located in the north of Bosnia, within the Republika Srpska and just
south of the Croatian border. In 2002, the EU financed a 17.5 million
euro bridge reconstruction near the town, to connect with Croatia’s
Slavonski Samac on the other side. The area is located on the important
“…road/rail axis E-73 (M17)” which connects Sarajevo and Budapest.
All things considered, it should come as no surprise to learn that the
Bosnian state “…for now can’t finance the project and so they may give
concessions” to Amoco for developing the country’s energy riches.
Oil exploration in Bosnia is said to date back to 1890 by ‘Nezavisne
Novine.’ Disrupted by WWII, it continued under Tito but without
success. From 1964-73, leading Yugoslav energy company INA tried its
hand at unearthing Bosnia’s oil riches, thereafter passing over the
task to the Brod Refinery, which continued until 1984. That year marked
the beginning of the first “serious investigations,” with the creation
of a special company within Brod Refinery tasked with searching in two
areas of the republic, north Bosnia (now Republika Srpska) and
Dinaridi. Bosanski Brod is located not far to the west of Bosanski
Sabac, also along the river and again with a Croatian counterpart
having the same name. (‘Brod’ in Serbo-Croatian means ‘boat’).
Back in 1995, when the Balkan wars were nearing conclusion, keen
observers noted one of the reasons for America’s pro-Croatian strategy.
At the time, Michel Chossudovsky wrote that “…Chicago-based Amoco was
among several foreign firms that subsequently initiated exploratory
surveys in Bosnia. The West is anxious to develop these regions.”
Further, he reported that there were “substantial petroleum fields” in
the then-Serb held territories “…just across the Sava River from the
Tuzla region.” The area would be incorporated into Croatia
subsequently. Croatia’s state-owned oil and gas corporation, INA, was
finally privatized in August 2003, though not to an American company.
While Croatia has been pacified and is well on the way to fully
embracing Western consumerism, economically sluggish Bosnia’s future is
still an open question. Whether or not this multi-ethnic experiment- a
miniature Yugoslavia created paradoxically out of a denial that the
same values could ever have held together the former state- can survive
is an open question. Thanks to Clinton’s organized mujahedin summer
camps, it remains a potential breeding ground for terrorists even today.
It’s hard to imagine that the “new” oil discoveries will lessen the
country’s factional discord, though. Now we do have yet another reason,
however, for the Americans’ never-ending bullying of the Bosnian Serbs
over compliance with the kangaroo court at the Hague.
=== 3 ===
http://www.ansa.it/balcani
CORRIDOIO 8:POLI BORTONE,IMPORTANTE PER INTEGRAZIONE BALCANI
(ANSA) - BARI, 11 MAR - Il parlamento europeo ha votato per
reinserire il Corridoio 8 (tra due coste dell'Adriatico) nella lista
delle Reti Transeuropee di Trasporto. Ne da' notizia il parlamentare
europeo di Alleanza nazionale Adriana Poli Bortone, sindaco di Lecce,
sottolineando che si tratta di ''un intervento molto importante per
la integrazione dei Balcani nella Rete Trans-europea''. ''Il
reinserimento dell'asse Bari-Varna nel progetto 29 dell'allegato III
(commissione Van Miert) - sottolinea Poli Bortone - ripristina di
fatto quel Corridoio VIII che puo' dare senso compiuto all'asse
ferroviario intermodale ionico-adriatico. L'assemblea europea -
aggiunge - ''col suo voto positivo ha riconosciuto al Corridoio 8 la
valenza di progetto di interesse europeo perche' apporta un notevole
valore aggiunto per agevolare la mobilita' di merci e persone e
contribuisce alla coesione territoriale della Ue''. Per Poli
Bortone, ''solo una visione miope e disattenta all'area del
Mediterraneo avrebbe potuto consentire l'esclusione del Corridoio 8:
una strada non solo 'fisica' ma di progresso economico e sociale che
contribuira' alla reale integrazione dei territori dell'Europa del
Sud-Est ed arginera', di fatto, il fenomeno dell'immigrazione
clandestina e dell'abbandono dei territori''. Dichiarandosi molto
soddisfatta della decisione del parlamento europeo, Poli Bortone
conclude sottolineando che il risultato ''premia l'impegno di quanti,
a vari livelli, hanno creduto e credono nell'ampliamento dell'Europa
e nello sviluppo del Mezzogiorno''.(ANSA). ZG 11/03/2004
14:19
BALCANI: NABUCCO, NASCE SOCIETA' PER GASDOTTO CASPIO-EUROPA
(ANSA) - VIENNA, 12 MAR - Rappresentanti di compagnie energetiche di
Bulgaria, Romania, Ungheria, Turchia e Austria hanno firmato a Vienna
un accordo che da' vita ad una societa' comune, primo passo del
progetto per un gasdotto dal mar Caspio con l'Europa centrale a
partire dal 2009, ha reso noto oggi la societa' petrolifera austriaca
Omv. Il nuovo gasdotto si chiamera' Nabucco, sara' lungo oltre
3.000 chilometri ed avra' una capacita' di trasporto annuale tra i 20
e i 30 miliardi di metri cubi di gas. Andra' dalla Turchia
(confinante a est con i paesi dell'Asia centrale che si affacciano
sul mar Caspio) all'Austria, via Bulgaria, Romania e Ungheria.
Secondo le prime stime i costi per Nabucco potrebbero aggirarsi
attorno ai 4,4 miliardi di euro. Il primo obiettivo della
'Nabucco Company Pipeline Study' - e' questo il nome della societa'
con sede a Vienna - e' un modello di finanziamento del progetto,
nonche' creare incentivi per potenziali investitori. Da Vienna
verranno anche coordinate tutte le attivita' di marketing e le
trattative con potenziali fornitori di gas. I partner del
consorzio sono Omv Erdgas, Botas, Boru Hatlari ile Petrol Tasima As,
Bulgargaz Ead, S.N.T.G.N., Transgaz S.A., e Mol. La decisione
definitiva se avviare o meno il progetto Nabucco e' prevista per la
fine di quest'anno, in base ad uno studio di fattibilita' attualmente
in corso. (ANSA). RED-STE
12/03/2004 17:10
INFRASTRUTTURE:GEMELLI(PPE),CORRIDOIO BALCANI INDISPENSABILE
(ANSA) - CATANZARO, 25 MAR - 'Il corridoio Berlino-Palermo, garantito
in primo luogo dalla realizzazione del ponte sullo stretto di
Messina, e il cosiddetto corridoio dei Balcani, che dalla Puglia
penetra in Macedonia e Albania, ma soprattutto in Grecia, sono
indispensabili per assicurare infrastrutture coerenti con gli
obiettivi del 2010, anno in cui sara' avviata l'area di libero
scambio nel Mediterraneo''. Lo ha detto Nino Gemelli, unico
europarlamentare italiano del gruppo PPE a partecipare, ad Atene,
alla costituzione dell'Assemblea Parlamentare Euromediterranea,
organismo del quale fanno parte attualmente dodici Paesi, (Algeria,
Cipro, Egitto, Israele, Giordania, Libano, Malta, Marocco, Palestina,
Tunisia e Turchia), mentre Libia e Mauritania sono invitate speciali.
Secondo Gemelli, che si e' dichiarato 'soddisfatto' per
l'avvenuta trasformazione del Forum Mediterraneo in Assemblea
Parlamentare, ''i Paesi dell'area mediterranea, entro il 2010,
dovranno essere economicamente competitivi; per raggiungere
l'obiettivo occorrera' rafforzare i programmi di cooperazione
mediterranea, accelerare dunque la costituzione della Fondazione per
gli scambi tra le culture e le civilta' del Mediterraneo e rendere
operativa la Banca Euromediterranea''. Tale processo, ricorda
Gemelli, ''impone alla Calabria la necessita' di trovare maggiore
dinamicita' sullo svolgimento del proprio ruolo di Regione d'Europa,
promuovendo iniziative che la vedano al centro di incontri, in
rappresentanza dell'Italia, con altri Paesi mediterranei''. ''Il
porto di Gioia Tauro - ha sosttolienato - il sistema dei trasporti
complessivamente inteso, a cominciare dal Ponte, l'Universita', la
soggettivita' agricola con produzioni di alta specializzazione, il
terziario e i servizi di nuova generazione costituiscono
potenzialita' che possono risolvere il problema dell'arretratezza
della regione nel volgere di pochi anni, sempre che le istituzioni
utilizzino proficuamente le risorse ed assicurino ai cittadini il
compito istituzionale necessario''. (ANSA). VF 25/03/2004
18:06
BALCANI: CORRIDOIO 8, LUNARDI E FITTO A VERTICE DI TIRANA
(ANSA) - TIRANA, 31 MAR - Il ministro per le infrastrutture Pietro
Lunardi e il presidente della Regione Puglia, Raffaele Fitto, sono
intervenuti oggi a Tirana al vertice ministeriale dei paesi
interessati alla realizzazione del ''Corridoio 8''.
''Il Corridoio 8 e' una realta' -ha detto Lunardi all'Ansa- ed
e' importante che anche l'Unione europea l'abbia ormai riconosciuto
come un'opera strategica''. Il ministro ha spiegato che ''la sola
differenza rispetto agli altri corridoi paneuropei, e' che quello
numero 8 non potra' godere dei finanziamenti europei a fondo perduto
che tuttavia coprono solo fino ad un massimo del 20 per cento dei
costi''.
''La ragione di tale diversita' di trattamento -ha proseguito
Lunardi- e' che gran parte del corridoio 8 (che colleghera' le citta'
di Bari e di Brindisi al mar Nero) attraversa paesi che non fanno
ancora parte dell'Unione europea. Anche per questa ragione non e'
stato inserito nella lista delle 30 grandi opere 'ad alta priorita'''.
''La banca europea per gli investimenti - ha pero' aggiunto il
ministro- sembra disposta a finanziare il 75 per cento delle opere
con un credito di 35 anni''. ''Come tempi per la sua realizzazione
ci diamo l'orizzonte del 2020'', ha affermato il ministro, che ha
sottolineato l'importanza del segretariato per il Corridoio in
funzione a Bari: ''E' in quella sede -ha spiegato- che verra'
valutato l'aspetto progettuale e poi studiato un piano finanziario''.
Lunardi ha ribadito la grande importanza che l'Italia attribuisce
alla realizzazione del Corridoio 8, definito addirittura dal ministro
albanese dei Trasporti Spartak Poci (che aveva organizzato il
vertice), ''la salvezza dei Balcani''. Fitto, prendendo la parola
per un breve saluto, ha confermato la piena collaborazione della
Regione Puglia alla costruzione del Corridoio, sollecitando il varo
di ''programmi di intervento e l'avvio della fase operativa con
interventi progettuali''.(ANSA) BLL 31/03/2004 15:30
ALBANIA: CORRIDOIO 8; OPPOSIZIONE GRECIA SU DOCUMENTO FINALE
(ANSA) - TIRANA, 31 MAR - Si e' concluso oggi a Tirana il vertice
ministeriale fra i cinque paesi (Italia, Albania, Grecia, Macedonia e
Bulgaria) coinvolti nel progetto del corridoio paneuropeo numero 8,
che dovra' collegare i porti di Bari e Brindisi con la citta' di
Varna, sul mar Nero. Per l'Italia era presente il ministro per le
infrastrutture Pietro Lunardi. Nel corso del dibattito sulla
stesura del documento finale, la Grecia si e' opposta ad un paragrafo
con il quale i ministri invitavano l'Unione europea ad inserire il
''corridoio 8'' fra i progetti ad ''alta priorita''', definizione che
basterebbe ad assicurare un finanziamento europeo a fondo perduto che
puo' arrivare fino al 20 per cento dei costi. ''La posizione greca
ostile al Corridoio 8 e' apparsa oggi in tutta la sua evidenza'' ha
detto all'Ansa un diplomatico presente al vertice. I greci hanno
anche tentato di introdurre un paragrafo che di fatto ritardava la
convocazione di un vertice a livello di primi ministri annunciato
dalla Bulgaria: ''Questo incontro dovrebbe tenersi solo dopo una
sufficiente consultazione a livello di tecnici'', ha affermato
l'ambasciatore greco Pantelis Carcabassis, che al vertice
rappresentava il ministro dei trasporti e delle telecomunicazioni. Un
inciso interpretato come espediente per ritardare la realizzazione
dell'incontro che potrebbe rivelarsi un ulteriore passo in avanti per
il futuro del corridoio. Nella stesura finale del rapporto la
richiesta greca e' stata solo indicata come postilla in coda al
documento. Altro piccolo ''giallo'' diplomatico e' stato il
tentativo, da parte albanese, di introdurre nello stesso documento
una manifestazione di sostegno alla realizzazione dell'oleodotto
americano che dovrebbe correre lungo lo stesso tracciato del
corridoio 8. ''La proposta era fuori luogo'', ha commentato il
ministro Lunardi che insieme all'ambasciatore dell'Unione europea a
Tirana, Lutz Salzmann, ha ottenuto che quel paragrafo venisse
cancellato. Nel corso dei lavori il ministro dei Trasporti
albanese Spartak Poci, organizzatore del vertice, ha espresso
gratitudine per il sostegno offerto al progetto del corridoio dal
governo italiano in occasione del semestre di presidenza europea.
Poci ha anche ringraziato l'Italia per gli aiuti alla costruzione di
strade, porti e aeroporti in Albania, infrastrutture che di fatto
costituiscono un importante contributo su base bilaterale per il
completamento del progetto.(ANSA) BLL
31/03/2004 20:20
TRASPORTI: CORRIDOIO 5, ALLA FIRMA MEMORANDUM QUADRILATERALE
(ANSA) - TRIESTE, 11 MAG - Un memorandum quadrilaterale volto a
dotare il Corridoio 5 di infrastrutture digitali all' avanguardia
sara' siglato martedi' prossimo, 18 maggio, dal ministro italiano per
l' Innovazione e le Tecnologie, Lucio Stanca, e dai suoi omologhi di
Ungheria, Slovenia e Croazia. La cerimonia avverra' in Ungheria,
mentre l' idea di unire le forze dei quattro Paesi alleati nell'
intento di dotare la principale arteria europea di collegamento tra
est e ovest a sud delle Alpi di moderne attrezzature tecnologiche era
stata promossa dal ministro italiano nel corso della prima riunione
dei Ministri della Societa' dell' Informazione, svolta a Cernobbio
(Como) nel luglio del 2003. L' accordo prevede una prima fase di
studio da concludere entro la fine dell' anno, condotta dall' Italia;
poi, i quattro Paesi individueranno progetti comuni da realizzare
insieme, seguendo una 'scaletta' di temi gia' concordata: architettura
dei sistemi intelligenti di trasporto, servizi alle imprese lungo
il ''Corridoio 5'', interoperabilita' dei servizi doganali, servizi
pubblici multilingue accessibili lungo la dorsale del ''Corridoio
5'', reti di collaborazione tra Universita', ricercatori e imprese.
Il Ministro Stanca sara' accompagnato da una delegazione di
imprenditori, ricercatori ed esponenti di enti locali. E' comunque
intenzione del dicastero creare un tavolo di lavoro tra tutte le
realta' italiane interessate. (ANSA). CNT
11/05/2004 16:30