Informazione
Rugova - the Clown
=== === ===
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/decani/message/78361
[si veda alla URL qui sopra riportata per le fotografie e l'originale in
lingua italiana della intervista di Rugova al Corriere della Sera, gia'
diffusa da JUGOINFO]
From: "decani3"
Date: Mon Dec 1, 2003 4:16 am
Subject: ERP KIM Ibrahim Rugova - Deceiving the world community (a commentary),
Dec. 01, 2003
December 01, 2003
ERP KIM 01-12-03
Commentary on the interview of Mr. Ibrahim Rugova to Corriere della Sera
Deceiving the world community - Ibrahim Rugova for Corriere della Sera
Despite his four months of specialization at the Sorbonne and the photograph
of the Pope in his salon, Mr. Ibrahim Rugova has very little understanding
of the authentic values of Christianity in the region where he has been
elected as president. Moreover, he does not even mention the existence of
the Serbian Orthodox Christian monuments that comprise more than 90 percent
of the entire cultural and historical wealth of Kosovo and Metohija. He
does not even mention the more than 100 Serbian churches and monasteries
destroyed by Albanian extremists after the end of the armed conflict in
1999 (not in the time of war), which, by the way, he has never publicly
condemned. More sensitive questions of the Corriere journalist Mr. Rugova
gently evaded, hiding behind Pope JP II.
pdf version of this text (with imbedded photos) may be downloaded at:
http://www.kosovo.com/erpkiminfo_dec03/erpkiminfo01dec03.pdf%c2%a0 (1.9 Mb)
html version is available at:
http://www.kosovo.com/erpkiminfo_dec03/erpkiminfo01dec03.htmlhtml (70 Kb)
[PHOTO:] Ibrahim, Abraham, "Balkan Gandhi" or Kosovo version of Mother Theresa: a
man with many faces but one clear nationalist goal. Ibrahim Rugova - Albanian
nationalism in pacifist wrapping (photo: Paris, March 1999)
ERP KIM Info Service
Gracanica, December 01, 2003
In his most recent interview with the respected Italian daily Corriere della
Sera published on November 27, 2003 President of Kosovo Province Mr. Ibrahim
Rugova once again attempted to deceive the world community by misrepresenting
himself as a great peacemaker and protector of Christianity in Kosovo and
Metohija.
"The Balkan Gandhi", as the Italian daily calls Mr. Rugova, speaks with
warmth about Christianity, the Albanians as a people of Western orientation
(sic), and mentions with pride the Albanian Roman Catholics who fought against
the Ottomans (although the ethnic Albanians, generally speaking, were the
strongest Ottoman allies in the Balkans), announcing the consecration of
the foundation of a large Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to Mother Theresa
that is expected to be consecrated by none other than Pope John Paul II.
The first impression readers of the article could get is that of a man and
a society that affirms Christian values, tolerance, and Western and European
culture - music to the ears.
However, reality is completely different. Despite his four months of specialization
at the Sorbonne (he studied and later earned his Ph.D in Pristina, not in
Paris) and the photograph of the Pope in his salon, Mr. Ibrahim Rugova has
very little understanding of the authentic values of Christianity in the
region where he has been elected as president. Moreover, he does not even
mention the existence of the Serbian Orthodox Christian monuments that comprise
more than 90 percent of the entire cultural and historical wealth of Kosovo
and Metohija. Although one cannot call him a typical Moslem believer, Mr.
Rugova is far from being "defensor christianitatis".
In his interview he does not even mention the more than 100 Serbian churches
and monasteries destroyed by Albanian extremists after the end of the armed
conflict in 1999, which he has never publicly condemned. Moreover, during
the visit of U.S. president Bill Clinton in November 1999 to Pristina and
in the presence of Bishop Artemije of Raska-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija
and representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Ibrahim Rugova publicly
rationalized the destruction of Serbian holy shrines as alleged "political
churches". That was quite a shock for the president and others, especially
after Bishop Artemije showed photos of 14th century churches destroyed after
the end of the conflict. The theory of so-called "Serbian political churches"
is not an invention of the "Balkan Gandhi" nor of the Kosovo Albanian Roman
Catholic Bishop Marko Sopi, who is also fond of it. As early as August 1995,
Mr. Rugova publicly stated "that the monasteries and churches in Kosovo
were Albanian and that the Serbs occupied them, destroying in the process
a large number of Albanian churches" http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/kosova/95-08-25.ksv.html
- a theory not based on a single piece of historical proof, which he could
not have learned during his sojourn at the Sorbonne. In fact, this quasi-historical
theory has been launched and repeated in parrot-like fashion by a number
of Albanian revisionist historians whose goal is equivocate the existence
of Christianity in the region exclusively with Albanian Roman Catholicism
in order to prove that Serbs actually never lived in Kosovo as the indigenous
population. This is also a way to find at least some "plausible" excuse
as to how, in an "ethnic Albanian Kosovo", the most important cultural monuments
belong to the Serbian Orthodox people and their history.
[PHOTO:] Is this "a liking for Christianity" in Kosovo, Mr. Rugova? UNESCO
delegation (Feb, 2003) visiting the ruins of the 14th century church of
the Holy Virgin Odigitria, near Suva Reka. Only a 20th century bell tower
survived the attack of Albanian extremists (even the surrounding trees were
cut)
(more about the church: http://www.kosovo.com/odigitria.html )
Rugova's paramilitary organization - FARK
Mr. Rugova, considered to be "a great peacemaker", directly blessed and
supported the paramilitary organization known as FARK (Armed Forces of the
Republic of Kosovo), funded from abroad by his émigré premier Bujar Bukoshi
and commanded by former Yugoslav People's Army officer Tahir Zemaj, who
was murdered earlier this year by members of the rival paramilitary (KLA)
group close to KLA clans. Together with the KLA, FARK participated in operations
against the Serbian military, police and civilian population; the only difference
between the two organizations, as is now the case among Rugova's LDK, Thaci's
PDK and Haradinaj's AAK, is that each of them was fighting to get the biggest
piece of the pie from illegal trafficking and political power behind the
smoke screen of building "democratic and a multiethnic Kosovo". The treatment
of the Serbs by these political parties and paramilitary organizations was
more or less the same, although it is true that the KLA managed to take
the lead in its crimes and aggression against Serbs and some FARK "officers"
appeared as witnesses on trials against Mustafa Remi and Daut Haradinaj.
When the first operations conducted by the KLA against Serbian authorities
and the civil population began in 1996, Rugova consciously deceived the
world community by saying that these were secret operations by the "Serbian
intelligence service" - the same justification that some of today's K/Albanian
politicians use to try to explain when Serbs are attacked or killed.
[PHOTO:] Mr. Rugova's version of KLA - FARK (Armed Forces of "Kosovo Republic")
The first photo shows the FARK commander Tahir Zemaj with Rugova's émigré
premier Bukoshi displaying a new anti-aircraft "stinger". On the other photo,
Zemaj poses with a few of his comrades. Bukoshi was in charge of funding,
which came mostly from diaspora and drug smuggling. While Mr. Rugova was
publicly acting the role of the "Gandhi of the Balkans", at the same time
he was supporting his paramilitary organization also responsible for crimes
against civilians. His sudden "interest" in Christianity is just another
way to improve the declining image of Albanian nationalism, the goal of
which remains the territorial unification of all Albanians... of course,
under the Kosovo political and military elite (photo source: http://www.trepca.net/2001/zemaj/libri.htm
)
Later, when he himself was threatened by the KLA, Rugova and his family
managed to flee to Italy with the help of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic,
who "generously" arranged his transport to Belgrade and his escape to Rome.
KLA leaders had many reasons to suspect that some of Rugova's leading men
were in fact working secretly for Milosevic's intelligence. Immediately
after arriving in Italy, where he was welcomed as a great martyr, Rugova
resumed his role, satanizing all Serbs and claiming that more or less the
entire province of Kosovo had been transformed into a wasteland. His entire
political activity was and remains a façade of supposed pacifism hiding
a lack of a clear vision of modern democratic society and respect for the
basic rights of all citizens, regardless of their ethnicity. Ibrahim Rugova
was and remains more or less a politically impotent symbol created by the
Western media as a counter to Slobodan Milosevic. However, more cautious
analysts will quickly conclude that Ibrahim Rugova practically exists and
acts today only as a figurehead without any real political initiative and
power. Perhaps the entire secret of his political success lies in the inability
of his rivals from the former KLA to whitewash their wartime biographies
and affirm themselves as true democratic leaders.
(More about relations between UCK/KLA, FARK, Western Intelligence Services
and NATO on http://www.kosovo.net/who.html )
[PHOTO: ]A photo which may cost Rugova his life. Rugova claims that he was
forced to make this photo in spring 1999. However, no one can deny that
it was thanks to Milosevic and the Italian Foreign Ministry that Rugova
and his family safely left Kosovo. The true danger for him in Pristina apparently
was never from Serb police who, according to Milosevic, were even guarding
his villa from Thaci's gunmen, but from the KLA, which saw Rugova as a
Milosevic's political puppet. Even today in his "free Kosovo", Mr. Rugova
is heavily guarded by UNMIK police
Political impotence and a lack of responsibility
For Mr. Rugova the Serbs and other non-Albanians represent a single amorphous
mass of "national minorities" that are supposed to serve as a decoration
to the supposed multiethnicity of Kosovo. Attacks in which Serbian children
and elderly are murdered represent incidents that merely "spoil Kosovo's
image". When Bishop Artemije requested a minute of silence for the slain
Serb children in Gorazdevac, neither the Kosovo Parliament nor Mr. Rugova
supported his idea. He has never visited an Orthodox church or a Serb-inhabited
enclave, unlike his colleagues from the PDK and AAK who, considering their
KLA past, can even allow themselves a display of sympathy toward the Serbs.
Of course, in the interview for the Italian daily, Mr. Rugova mentions security
considerations but it is a well-known fact that the major threat to Rugova
is not the Serbs but rival Albanian organizations with whose leaders he
will agree to meet only in the presence of internationals and in the presence
of strong police security of UNMIK special forces. However, Thaci and Haradinaj
apparently would hardly wish to remove Rugova from the scene because his
image, created during the 1990s, presently represents one of their aces
for gaining independence. The real confrontation between adherents of rival
political parties would ensue only after the proclamation of an independent
state, if and when this ever occurs, and expulsion of the remaining Serbs.
Ultimately, we can conclude that this interview is yet another in a series
of Rugova's collection of lies whose goal at any price is to cover up the
tragedy of Kosovo reality and hide the existence of open ethnic discrimination
and violence against non-Albanians and Orthodox Christian monuments. If
the Vatican shows readiness to give its blessing to the new Kosovo Albanian
regime trying to whitewash its biography by using the noble name of Mother
Theresa without insisting on the rebuilding of destroyed Serb churches and
better treatment of Orthodox Christians in Kosovo and Metohija today, this
would seriously damage improving Orthodox-Roman Catholic relations.
To what extent tolerating the destruction of churches, the desecration of
Serbian Christian cemeteries and silent acquiescence to the expulsion of
the Serb population from Kosovo and Metohija has even the remotest connection
with the ideals of Mother Theresa every reader can judge for himself. Again,
in addition to his photos of the Pope and Mother Theresa and his rhetoric
Mr. Rugova must show concrete political action and responsibility for the
population he is supposed to represent.
Commentary
Father Sava Janjic
ERP KIM Info Service, Gracanica
---
Attached is a complete translation of the interview appearing in Corriere
della Sera. For our readers who understand Italian we are enclosing at the
bottom the original transcript from the newspapers
CORRIERE DELLA SERA
Thursday, 27 November 2003
RELIGION, Page 015
"The Gandhi of the Balkans" emphasizes his priority is true tolerance between
the different confessions in the Serbian province with an Albanian majority
population
Kosovo: Rugova "converts" - "A liking for Christianity''
''The first faith practiced by the Albanian people. The mosques came later''
PRISTINA (Kosovo) - President Rugova, is it true that you have converted
to Christianity?
A smile, a long silence. Ibrahim Rugova is, after all, the head of a "multiethnic"
state, with 90 percent Muslims, supported by monies also coming from many
Islamic countries. The one-time student of Roland Barthes knows to weigh
his words: "Let's say this. Today I have a liking for Christian and Western
education."
Can you call what you are now doing a spiritual growth?
"Our education is of Western orientation. And even historically, the first
faith practiced by the Albanian people has been Christianity. The mosques
and the rest came later. As early as the Illyrians, the Romans in this region
there were already the buds of Christianity. Under the Osmanlis [Ottoman
Turks], a part of this population was forcibly converted to Islam. This
occurred after Skanderbeg and his resistance to the invasion of the Turks."
A return to the roots...
"There was a very deep penetration by Islam and it can be discerned to this
day in the names and the customs of our people. Christians and Muslims have
been integrated into one harmonious whole. The only one premise of our existence
is mutual tolerance. Without it, we would vanish: we Kosovars, but also
the Albanians and the Macedonians. Therefore, today, in this climate, everyone
can choose the religion, the tradition that better represents him."
But you are the president of the Kosovo...
"My cultural and spiritual interests are completely personal. Do you see
this picture? (he points to an oil painting, a portrait on a green background,
the work of a Kosovo painter) It's a portrait of Peter Bogdani. He was a
great bishop in Kosovo in the 16th century who fought against the Islamic
conquest of this region. An extraordinary figure, very relevant for anyone
who wants to understand this age of confrontation between civilizations."
When will you be christened?
Another smile: "We'll see... Now my goal is first and foremost political:
I want to achieve true tolerance between Christians and Muslims."
Rugova stopped on the streets of Pristina. For a year already there have
been rumors regarding the conversion of the "Gandhi of the Balkans", the
disputed historical head of the Kosovar leadership, but he still remains
strong with a political majority. An Italian priest has followed this spiritual
journey since 1999, the time of Rugova's Roman exile, when the country was
"Serbicized" by Milosevic's troops and bombed by NATO. 'Did he convert?'
The priest tried to evade the question we asked of his a few months ago.
'I don't know if it is expedient to say. In any case, you should ask him.'
And that is what we did: On a November morning, the president of the Kosovo,
instead of evading the question, rose from his luxurious seat on the first
floor of a building in the hills of Pristina and accompanied us to the nearby
room to the model of a cathedral the color of alabaster. "This is my dream:
a mausoleum for Mother Theresa of Calcutta, a great Christian and a great
Albanian. It was designed by two Italian architects, Bruno Valente and Giuseppe
Durastanti. I have been to the Vatican. I have also shown the plan to your
minister Buttiglione."
But couldn't the money be used for more urgent things?
"The project will be financed by individual donations. In any case, we need
these symbols. And the sum of money earmarked for the church will not make
such a difference in the economy of the country."
What country? You are talking of independence, the Americans have fixed
a date (2005) but Kosovo still depends on Belgrade, at least formally...
"We will be independent before 2005. It is a realistic hypothesis."
But the war in 1999 was waged, it is said, for an multiethnic Kosovo: Muslim
Albanians next to Christian Serbs. And instead everything here is Albanized.
Do you think that Europe can accept a Kosovo without Serbs?
"This will become a multiethnic society, like Europe. It is true that the
first impression is that the signs, the monuments, the language are Albanian
but that is only because the majority of the population is already Albanian.
After the war, the size of the Serbian, Turkish, Bosnian and Roman minorities
have been reduced. That does not mean that there will be no room for them."
A minimum of room: The Serbs are being shot at. And how many times have
you personally visited the minorities?
"I have done so a number of times. But I am limited in my official trips
by security considerations."
"But you favor the return of Serbs to areas such as Pec, controlled by Italian
soldiers, where cohabitation appears to be impossible?
"Yes. They are already seven thousand returnees. But it depends on individual
choice, not on the propaganda of Belgrade that only creates destabilization."
You were the only one who attended the first talks between the Albanians
and Serbs in Vienna in 1999. The leaders of the former KLA refused.
"I was there as the president of Kosovo. I ascertained that the others were
hesitant. But this is part of the normal dialectics in a democracy."
It is true that Belgrade is ready to surrender Kosovo in exchange for two
billion dollars and rapid ascension to the EU?
"Speculation. I don't know anything about it. For us, the price we paid
was the war. If the Serbs want to join the European Union, that's their
problem."
The Hague tribunal is investigating not only crimes committed by Milosevic
but also by current Kosovo leader, starting with Thaci and Cheku. Will you
hand them over?
"The mandate of Carla del Ponte includes all of the Balkans, and also the
West. Like all countries, we intend to cooperate.However, if there are arrests
to be made, that's not our job; it fall under the jurisdiction of the UN,
which is presently administering this region.
This part of the Balkans (Kosovo, Albania, Macedonian, Montenegro) is a
quadrilateral of the crime. Europe is concerned about trafficking of drugs,
weapons, human beings. How do you plan to reassure it?
"The problem is the freedom of movement in the area. Now it is limited if
you are a normal person; if you are a criminal it is unlimited. Something
does not work in the controls. The UN and European organizations must understand
that borders must be protected in a different way, without blocking those
who want to acquire wealth legally. For example, I would like to see a big
highway from Pristina to Drac so that goods can get to the Adriatic without
having to go through the mountains, which are ruled by criminals. But it
is a difficult project to push through."
How long should the international presence in Kosovo last?
"The UN mission is already transferring many powers to our institutions.
As far as NATO is concerned, the bases will stay. The future of independent
Kosovo is connected to its joining NATO."
(photo: Rugova smiling with his version of "Kosovo's new flag")
But what will this independent Kosovo be like? Which flag will have? And
will its borders be the same as today? The Albanians from southern Serbia
would want to annex themselves to you, in the public square of Pristina
there was a demand to annex Kosovo to Albania...
"The flag is already ready (Rugova shows one in the room, next to the Albanian
one). The Albanian eagle in a red circle on a blue background, the color
of our sky, of European tolerance. There is also an inscription of "Dardania",
the ancient name of the Kosovo, and a six-pointed star, that of Skanderbeg.
The borders? Not, they are inviolable. If we touched them, conflicts throughout
the Balkans would be resumed."
And the flag will wave on the cathedral of Mother Teresa?
"It is too early to say. The land is ready, the cornerstone has already
been laid. In 2004 the work should begin. We are hurrying to complete it."
Why?
"I have asked the Pope to come to inaugurate it".
Francesco Battistini
=== === ===
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/dec2003-daily/01-12-2003/world/w4.htm
The News International, Pakistan
Monday December 01,
2003-- Shawwal 06, 1424 A.H.
Al-Qaeda attack in Kosovo ruled out
ATHENS: The president of Kosovo, an Albanian province of Serbia, has
ruled out that alleged al-Qaeda militants could prepare attacks in the
UN-administered region, in an interview published on Sunday.
"The Kosovo Albanians and I condemn al-Qaeda?s actions but I do not believe
that this organisation could be active in Kosovo in any way," Ibrahim
Rugova told the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.
He insisted there were no people linked to extremists in Kosovo, adding
that he was aware of reports that such a threat could exist in the volatile
region. "But this is unfounded," he added. "It could be that some people
spread such allegations to destabilize Kosovo," he said.
Rugova said that Kosovo was standing by the United States and European
countries in the fight against extremist violence. The United Nations
mission in Kosovo and NATO-led peacekeepers have increased security in
the province after receiving a warning about an unspecified threat on
Friday.
Peacekeepers with the NATO-led force known as KFOR set-up extra checkpoints
and stationed armoured vehicles on roads leading to most diplomatic offices,
including those of the United States and Britain.
Some 20,000 KFOR troops are stationed in Kosovo and are in charge of
security in the province. Another 3,500 UN police and 6,000 local officers
are responsible for law and order. "We now know that a specific threat
has been made towards international organisations in Kosovo," KFOR spokesman
Chris Thompson said.
__________________________________________________________________
Tiscali ADSL SENZA CANONE, paghi solo quando navighi!
E in più il modem e' GRATIS! Abbonati subito.
http://point.tiscali.it/adsl/index.shtml
=== === ===
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/decani/message/78361
[si veda alla URL qui sopra riportata per le fotografie e l'originale in
lingua italiana della intervista di Rugova al Corriere della Sera, gia'
diffusa da JUGOINFO]
From: "decani3"
Date: Mon Dec 1, 2003 4:16 am
Subject: ERP KIM Ibrahim Rugova - Deceiving the world community (a commentary),
Dec. 01, 2003
December 01, 2003
ERP KIM 01-12-03
Commentary on the interview of Mr. Ibrahim Rugova to Corriere della Sera
Deceiving the world community - Ibrahim Rugova for Corriere della Sera
Despite his four months of specialization at the Sorbonne and the photograph
of the Pope in his salon, Mr. Ibrahim Rugova has very little understanding
of the authentic values of Christianity in the region where he has been
elected as president. Moreover, he does not even mention the existence of
the Serbian Orthodox Christian monuments that comprise more than 90 percent
of the entire cultural and historical wealth of Kosovo and Metohija. He
does not even mention the more than 100 Serbian churches and monasteries
destroyed by Albanian extremists after the end of the armed conflict in
1999 (not in the time of war), which, by the way, he has never publicly
condemned. More sensitive questions of the Corriere journalist Mr. Rugova
gently evaded, hiding behind Pope JP II.
pdf version of this text (with imbedded photos) may be downloaded at:
http://www.kosovo.com/erpkiminfo_dec03/erpkiminfo01dec03.pdf%c2%a0 (1.9 Mb)
html version is available at:
http://www.kosovo.com/erpkiminfo_dec03/erpkiminfo01dec03.htmlhtml (70 Kb)
[PHOTO:] Ibrahim, Abraham, "Balkan Gandhi" or Kosovo version of Mother Theresa: a
man with many faces but one clear nationalist goal. Ibrahim Rugova - Albanian
nationalism in pacifist wrapping (photo: Paris, March 1999)
ERP KIM Info Service
Gracanica, December 01, 2003
In his most recent interview with the respected Italian daily Corriere della
Sera published on November 27, 2003 President of Kosovo Province Mr. Ibrahim
Rugova once again attempted to deceive the world community by misrepresenting
himself as a great peacemaker and protector of Christianity in Kosovo and
Metohija.
"The Balkan Gandhi", as the Italian daily calls Mr. Rugova, speaks with
warmth about Christianity, the Albanians as a people of Western orientation
(sic), and mentions with pride the Albanian Roman Catholics who fought against
the Ottomans (although the ethnic Albanians, generally speaking, were the
strongest Ottoman allies in the Balkans), announcing the consecration of
the foundation of a large Roman Catholic cathedral dedicated to Mother Theresa
that is expected to be consecrated by none other than Pope John Paul II.
The first impression readers of the article could get is that of a man and
a society that affirms Christian values, tolerance, and Western and European
culture - music to the ears.
However, reality is completely different. Despite his four months of specialization
at the Sorbonne (he studied and later earned his Ph.D in Pristina, not in
Paris) and the photograph of the Pope in his salon, Mr. Ibrahim Rugova has
very little understanding of the authentic values of Christianity in the
region where he has been elected as president. Moreover, he does not even
mention the existence of the Serbian Orthodox Christian monuments that comprise
more than 90 percent of the entire cultural and historical wealth of Kosovo
and Metohija. Although one cannot call him a typical Moslem believer, Mr.
Rugova is far from being "defensor christianitatis".
In his interview he does not even mention the more than 100 Serbian churches
and monasteries destroyed by Albanian extremists after the end of the armed
conflict in 1999, which he has never publicly condemned. Moreover, during
the visit of U.S. president Bill Clinton in November 1999 to Pristina and
in the presence of Bishop Artemije of Raska-Prizren and Kosovo-Metohija
and representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Ibrahim Rugova publicly
rationalized the destruction of Serbian holy shrines as alleged "political
churches". That was quite a shock for the president and others, especially
after Bishop Artemije showed photos of 14th century churches destroyed after
the end of the conflict. The theory of so-called "Serbian political churches"
is not an invention of the "Balkan Gandhi" nor of the Kosovo Albanian Roman
Catholic Bishop Marko Sopi, who is also fond of it. As early as August 1995,
Mr. Rugova publicly stated "that the monasteries and churches in Kosovo
were Albanian and that the Serbs occupied them, destroying in the process
a large number of Albanian churches" http://www.hri.org/news/balkans/kosova/95-08-25.ksv.html
- a theory not based on a single piece of historical proof, which he could
not have learned during his sojourn at the Sorbonne. In fact, this quasi-historical
theory has been launched and repeated in parrot-like fashion by a number
of Albanian revisionist historians whose goal is equivocate the existence
of Christianity in the region exclusively with Albanian Roman Catholicism
in order to prove that Serbs actually never lived in Kosovo as the indigenous
population. This is also a way to find at least some "plausible" excuse
as to how, in an "ethnic Albanian Kosovo", the most important cultural monuments
belong to the Serbian Orthodox people and their history.
[PHOTO:] Is this "a liking for Christianity" in Kosovo, Mr. Rugova? UNESCO
delegation (Feb, 2003) visiting the ruins of the 14th century church of
the Holy Virgin Odigitria, near Suva Reka. Only a 20th century bell tower
survived the attack of Albanian extremists (even the surrounding trees were
cut)
(more about the church: http://www.kosovo.com/odigitria.html )
Rugova's paramilitary organization - FARK
Mr. Rugova, considered to be "a great peacemaker", directly blessed and
supported the paramilitary organization known as FARK (Armed Forces of the
Republic of Kosovo), funded from abroad by his émigré premier Bujar Bukoshi
and commanded by former Yugoslav People's Army officer Tahir Zemaj, who
was murdered earlier this year by members of the rival paramilitary (KLA)
group close to KLA clans. Together with the KLA, FARK participated in operations
against the Serbian military, police and civilian population; the only difference
between the two organizations, as is now the case among Rugova's LDK, Thaci's
PDK and Haradinaj's AAK, is that each of them was fighting to get the biggest
piece of the pie from illegal trafficking and political power behind the
smoke screen of building "democratic and a multiethnic Kosovo". The treatment
of the Serbs by these political parties and paramilitary organizations was
more or less the same, although it is true that the KLA managed to take
the lead in its crimes and aggression against Serbs and some FARK "officers"
appeared as witnesses on trials against Mustafa Remi and Daut Haradinaj.
When the first operations conducted by the KLA against Serbian authorities
and the civil population began in 1996, Rugova consciously deceived the
world community by saying that these were secret operations by the "Serbian
intelligence service" - the same justification that some of today's K/Albanian
politicians use to try to explain when Serbs are attacked or killed.
[PHOTO:] Mr. Rugova's version of KLA - FARK (Armed Forces of "Kosovo Republic")
The first photo shows the FARK commander Tahir Zemaj with Rugova's émigré
premier Bukoshi displaying a new anti-aircraft "stinger". On the other photo,
Zemaj poses with a few of his comrades. Bukoshi was in charge of funding,
which came mostly from diaspora and drug smuggling. While Mr. Rugova was
publicly acting the role of the "Gandhi of the Balkans", at the same time
he was supporting his paramilitary organization also responsible for crimes
against civilians. His sudden "interest" in Christianity is just another
way to improve the declining image of Albanian nationalism, the goal of
which remains the territorial unification of all Albanians... of course,
under the Kosovo political and military elite (photo source: http://www.trepca.net/2001/zemaj/libri.htm
)
Later, when he himself was threatened by the KLA, Rugova and his family
managed to flee to Italy with the help of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic,
who "generously" arranged his transport to Belgrade and his escape to Rome.
KLA leaders had many reasons to suspect that some of Rugova's leading men
were in fact working secretly for Milosevic's intelligence. Immediately
after arriving in Italy, where he was welcomed as a great martyr, Rugova
resumed his role, satanizing all Serbs and claiming that more or less the
entire province of Kosovo had been transformed into a wasteland. His entire
political activity was and remains a façade of supposed pacifism hiding
a lack of a clear vision of modern democratic society and respect for the
basic rights of all citizens, regardless of their ethnicity. Ibrahim Rugova
was and remains more or less a politically impotent symbol created by the
Western media as a counter to Slobodan Milosevic. However, more cautious
analysts will quickly conclude that Ibrahim Rugova practically exists and
acts today only as a figurehead without any real political initiative and
power. Perhaps the entire secret of his political success lies in the inability
of his rivals from the former KLA to whitewash their wartime biographies
and affirm themselves as true democratic leaders.
(More about relations between UCK/KLA, FARK, Western Intelligence Services
and NATO on http://www.kosovo.net/who.html )
[PHOTO: ]A photo which may cost Rugova his life. Rugova claims that he was
forced to make this photo in spring 1999. However, no one can deny that
it was thanks to Milosevic and the Italian Foreign Ministry that Rugova
and his family safely left Kosovo. The true danger for him in Pristina apparently
was never from Serb police who, according to Milosevic, were even guarding
his villa from Thaci's gunmen, but from the KLA, which saw Rugova as a
Milosevic's political puppet. Even today in his "free Kosovo", Mr. Rugova
is heavily guarded by UNMIK police
Political impotence and a lack of responsibility
For Mr. Rugova the Serbs and other non-Albanians represent a single amorphous
mass of "national minorities" that are supposed to serve as a decoration
to the supposed multiethnicity of Kosovo. Attacks in which Serbian children
and elderly are murdered represent incidents that merely "spoil Kosovo's
image". When Bishop Artemije requested a minute of silence for the slain
Serb children in Gorazdevac, neither the Kosovo Parliament nor Mr. Rugova
supported his idea. He has never visited an Orthodox church or a Serb-inhabited
enclave, unlike his colleagues from the PDK and AAK who, considering their
KLA past, can even allow themselves a display of sympathy toward the Serbs.
Of course, in the interview for the Italian daily, Mr. Rugova mentions security
considerations but it is a well-known fact that the major threat to Rugova
is not the Serbs but rival Albanian organizations with whose leaders he
will agree to meet only in the presence of internationals and in the presence
of strong police security of UNMIK special forces. However, Thaci and Haradinaj
apparently would hardly wish to remove Rugova from the scene because his
image, created during the 1990s, presently represents one of their aces
for gaining independence. The real confrontation between adherents of rival
political parties would ensue only after the proclamation of an independent
state, if and when this ever occurs, and expulsion of the remaining Serbs.
Ultimately, we can conclude that this interview is yet another in a series
of Rugova's collection of lies whose goal at any price is to cover up the
tragedy of Kosovo reality and hide the existence of open ethnic discrimination
and violence against non-Albanians and Orthodox Christian monuments. If
the Vatican shows readiness to give its blessing to the new Kosovo Albanian
regime trying to whitewash its biography by using the noble name of Mother
Theresa without insisting on the rebuilding of destroyed Serb churches and
better treatment of Orthodox Christians in Kosovo and Metohija today, this
would seriously damage improving Orthodox-Roman Catholic relations.
To what extent tolerating the destruction of churches, the desecration of
Serbian Christian cemeteries and silent acquiescence to the expulsion of
the Serb population from Kosovo and Metohija has even the remotest connection
with the ideals of Mother Theresa every reader can judge for himself. Again,
in addition to his photos of the Pope and Mother Theresa and his rhetoric
Mr. Rugova must show concrete political action and responsibility for the
population he is supposed to represent.
Commentary
Father Sava Janjic
ERP KIM Info Service, Gracanica
---
Attached is a complete translation of the interview appearing in Corriere
della Sera. For our readers who understand Italian we are enclosing at the
bottom the original transcript from the newspapers
CORRIERE DELLA SERA
Thursday, 27 November 2003
RELIGION, Page 015
"The Gandhi of the Balkans" emphasizes his priority is true tolerance between
the different confessions in the Serbian province with an Albanian majority
population
Kosovo: Rugova "converts" - "A liking for Christianity''
''The first faith practiced by the Albanian people. The mosques came later''
PRISTINA (Kosovo) - President Rugova, is it true that you have converted
to Christianity?
A smile, a long silence. Ibrahim Rugova is, after all, the head of a "multiethnic"
state, with 90 percent Muslims, supported by monies also coming from many
Islamic countries. The one-time student of Roland Barthes knows to weigh
his words: "Let's say this. Today I have a liking for Christian and Western
education."
Can you call what you are now doing a spiritual growth?
"Our education is of Western orientation. And even historically, the first
faith practiced by the Albanian people has been Christianity. The mosques
and the rest came later. As early as the Illyrians, the Romans in this region
there were already the buds of Christianity. Under the Osmanlis [Ottoman
Turks], a part of this population was forcibly converted to Islam. This
occurred after Skanderbeg and his resistance to the invasion of the Turks."
A return to the roots...
"There was a very deep penetration by Islam and it can be discerned to this
day in the names and the customs of our people. Christians and Muslims have
been integrated into one harmonious whole. The only one premise of our existence
is mutual tolerance. Without it, we would vanish: we Kosovars, but also
the Albanians and the Macedonians. Therefore, today, in this climate, everyone
can choose the religion, the tradition that better represents him."
But you are the president of the Kosovo...
"My cultural and spiritual interests are completely personal. Do you see
this picture? (he points to an oil painting, a portrait on a green background,
the work of a Kosovo painter) It's a portrait of Peter Bogdani. He was a
great bishop in Kosovo in the 16th century who fought against the Islamic
conquest of this region. An extraordinary figure, very relevant for anyone
who wants to understand this age of confrontation between civilizations."
When will you be christened?
Another smile: "We'll see... Now my goal is first and foremost political:
I want to achieve true tolerance between Christians and Muslims."
Rugova stopped on the streets of Pristina. For a year already there have
been rumors regarding the conversion of the "Gandhi of the Balkans", the
disputed historical head of the Kosovar leadership, but he still remains
strong with a political majority. An Italian priest has followed this spiritual
journey since 1999, the time of Rugova's Roman exile, when the country was
"Serbicized" by Milosevic's troops and bombed by NATO. 'Did he convert?'
The priest tried to evade the question we asked of his a few months ago.
'I don't know if it is expedient to say. In any case, you should ask him.'
And that is what we did: On a November morning, the president of the Kosovo,
instead of evading the question, rose from his luxurious seat on the first
floor of a building in the hills of Pristina and accompanied us to the nearby
room to the model of a cathedral the color of alabaster. "This is my dream:
a mausoleum for Mother Theresa of Calcutta, a great Christian and a great
Albanian. It was designed by two Italian architects, Bruno Valente and Giuseppe
Durastanti. I have been to the Vatican. I have also shown the plan to your
minister Buttiglione."
But couldn't the money be used for more urgent things?
"The project will be financed by individual donations. In any case, we need
these symbols. And the sum of money earmarked for the church will not make
such a difference in the economy of the country."
What country? You are talking of independence, the Americans have fixed
a date (2005) but Kosovo still depends on Belgrade, at least formally...
"We will be independent before 2005. It is a realistic hypothesis."
But the war in 1999 was waged, it is said, for an multiethnic Kosovo: Muslim
Albanians next to Christian Serbs. And instead everything here is Albanized.
Do you think that Europe can accept a Kosovo without Serbs?
"This will become a multiethnic society, like Europe. It is true that the
first impression is that the signs, the monuments, the language are Albanian
but that is only because the majority of the population is already Albanian.
After the war, the size of the Serbian, Turkish, Bosnian and Roman minorities
have been reduced. That does not mean that there will be no room for them."
A minimum of room: The Serbs are being shot at. And how many times have
you personally visited the minorities?
"I have done so a number of times. But I am limited in my official trips
by security considerations."
"But you favor the return of Serbs to areas such as Pec, controlled by Italian
soldiers, where cohabitation appears to be impossible?
"Yes. They are already seven thousand returnees. But it depends on individual
choice, not on the propaganda of Belgrade that only creates destabilization."
You were the only one who attended the first talks between the Albanians
and Serbs in Vienna in 1999. The leaders of the former KLA refused.
"I was there as the president of Kosovo. I ascertained that the others were
hesitant. But this is part of the normal dialectics in a democracy."
It is true that Belgrade is ready to surrender Kosovo in exchange for two
billion dollars and rapid ascension to the EU?
"Speculation. I don't know anything about it. For us, the price we paid
was the war. If the Serbs want to join the European Union, that's their
problem."
The Hague tribunal is investigating not only crimes committed by Milosevic
but also by current Kosovo leader, starting with Thaci and Cheku. Will you
hand them over?
"The mandate of Carla del Ponte includes all of the Balkans, and also the
West. Like all countries, we intend to cooperate.However, if there are arrests
to be made, that's not our job; it fall under the jurisdiction of the UN,
which is presently administering this region.
This part of the Balkans (Kosovo, Albania, Macedonian, Montenegro) is a
quadrilateral of the crime. Europe is concerned about trafficking of drugs,
weapons, human beings. How do you plan to reassure it?
"The problem is the freedom of movement in the area. Now it is limited if
you are a normal person; if you are a criminal it is unlimited. Something
does not work in the controls. The UN and European organizations must understand
that borders must be protected in a different way, without blocking those
who want to acquire wealth legally. For example, I would like to see a big
highway from Pristina to Drac so that goods can get to the Adriatic without
having to go through the mountains, which are ruled by criminals. But it
is a difficult project to push through."
How long should the international presence in Kosovo last?
"The UN mission is already transferring many powers to our institutions.
As far as NATO is concerned, the bases will stay. The future of independent
Kosovo is connected to its joining NATO."
(photo: Rugova smiling with his version of "Kosovo's new flag")
But what will this independent Kosovo be like? Which flag will have? And
will its borders be the same as today? The Albanians from southern Serbia
would want to annex themselves to you, in the public square of Pristina
there was a demand to annex Kosovo to Albania...
"The flag is already ready (Rugova shows one in the room, next to the Albanian
one). The Albanian eagle in a red circle on a blue background, the color
of our sky, of European tolerance. There is also an inscription of "Dardania",
the ancient name of the Kosovo, and a six-pointed star, that of Skanderbeg.
The borders? Not, they are inviolable. If we touched them, conflicts throughout
the Balkans would be resumed."
And the flag will wave on the cathedral of Mother Teresa?
"It is too early to say. The land is ready, the cornerstone has already
been laid. In 2004 the work should begin. We are hurrying to complete it."
Why?
"I have asked the Pope to come to inaugurate it".
Francesco Battistini
=== === ===
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/dec2003-daily/01-12-2003/world/w4.htm
The News International, Pakistan
Monday December 01,
2003-- Shawwal 06, 1424 A.H.
Al-Qaeda attack in Kosovo ruled out
ATHENS: The president of Kosovo, an Albanian province of Serbia, has
ruled out that alleged al-Qaeda militants could prepare attacks in the
UN-administered region, in an interview published on Sunday.
"The Kosovo Albanians and I condemn al-Qaeda?s actions but I do not believe
that this organisation could be active in Kosovo in any way," Ibrahim
Rugova told the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.
He insisted there were no people linked to extremists in Kosovo, adding
that he was aware of reports that such a threat could exist in the volatile
region. "But this is unfounded," he added. "It could be that some people
spread such allegations to destabilize Kosovo," he said.
Rugova said that Kosovo was standing by the United States and European
countries in the fight against extremist violence. The United Nations
mission in Kosovo and NATO-led peacekeepers have increased security in
the province after receiving a warning about an unspecified threat on
Friday.
Peacekeepers with the NATO-led force known as KFOR set-up extra checkpoints
and stationed armoured vehicles on roads leading to most diplomatic offices,
including those of the United States and Britain.
Some 20,000 KFOR troops are stationed in Kosovo and are in charge of
security in the province. Another 3,500 UN police and 6,000 local officers
are responsible for law and order. "We now know that a specific threat
has been made towards international organisations in Kosovo," KFOR spokesman
Chris Thompson said.
__________________________________________________________________
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OGNI MEZZO CHILOMETRO
UN MONUMENTO A MASSIMO D'ALEMA
Corriere della Sera
venerdì, 28 novembre, 2003
Pag. 15
Kosovo, la strage rimasta senza prove
Cinque anni dopo ancora introvabili le fosse comuni denunciate all' epoca.
Dal ' 99 a oggi l' Unione Europea ha speso qui due miliardi e 877 milioni
di euro, il più grande investimento mai fatto all' estero, senza contare
il costo dei 18 mila soldati inquadrati nella missione Kfor-Nato cui partecipano
38 Paesi. Questa regione per il momento non è nulla
Il mondo non ha deciso che farne
IL REPORTAGE: VIAGGIO NEI BALCANI. La provincia non più serba e non ancora
indipendente è in realtà governata dalle mafie locali e internazionali
Battistini Francesco
DAL NOSTRO INVIATO KACANIK (Kosovo) - Ci ha piantato la colza: «Cresce prima
e si vende meglio». Le gelate venture non spaventano Qamil Berani, 42 anni,
mani usurate d' un emigrato a Zurigo prima di tornare a questi campi di
Kacanik. A impensierirlo non è che tempo fa: è il tempo che lo separa
dal ritorno dei cercatori di fosse. Lui pianta solo roba che si raccolga
in fretta. Perché da quattro anni gli ripetono che sotto la sua colza ci
sono altri cadaveri, sepolti nel ' 99. Tutti sanno: «Però nessuno viene
mai a scavare». Ne trovarono alla pompa di benzina, nel pozzo della moschea,
sulle montagne. Erano poche decine di corpi, però, non le centinaia che
si
pensava. Da allora tutti giurano che è impossibile, a Kacanik ce n' è altri.
Basta cercare. Per esempio, sotto la colza di Qamil: «Io non ho mai trovato
neanche un osso. Che vengano a controllare, purché dicano quando: ho famiglia,
senza raccolto faccio la fame». Le grandi fosse comuni del Kosovo sono un
po' come le armi chimiche di Saddam: introvabili. Non che
servano prove, della pulizia etnica: in pochi mesi, Milosevic massacrò duemila
albanesi e ne provocò un esodo. Però gli stermini bosniaci tipo Srebrenica,
denunciati da Clinton e dall' Europa, non sono mai stati dimostrati. E nessuno
oggi ha troppa voglia d' indagare se è vero, come sosteneva l' Uck, che
all' appello mancano almeno 9mila persone. «Sono state scoperte solo le
piccole fosse, non quelle di massa - ammette Laurie Weisberg, commissario
Onu per i profughi -. Il problema principale è la mancanza d' informazioni
che ci mettano in grado d' identificare dove sono». Do you remember Kosovo?
Sono passati cinque anni da Racak, il massacro d' albanesi che finì per
scatenare i bombardamenti Nato su Belgrado; ne sono passati tre, dalla cacciata
del feroce Slobo. Eppure questa regione non è ancora nulla: non è più Serbia,
non è ancora uno stato. Governa (male) l' Onu, una folla strapagata di ghanesi
che organizzano i municipi o di pakistani che regolano il traffico. Un'
amministrazione così chiacchierata da obbligare a istituire perfino una
task-force d' investigatori sulla corruzione: è comandata da un finanziere
italiano, ha già scoperto una dirigente delle poste (kosovara) che intascava
decine di milioni di euro. Ci costa molto, stare in Kosovo: l' Ue
ha speso 2 miliardi e 877 milioni di euro, il più grande investimento all'
estero, senza contare i 18mila soldati Nato di 38 Paesi. I 2.800 militari
italiani, sistemati nel campo superlusso di Peja, sono il contingente più
grosso dopo quello americano. La nostra ambasciata a Belgrado ha aperto
una legazione diplomatica nuova di zecca, guidata da Pasquale Salzano, mille
metri quadri di palazzina e un enorme lavoro sui visti Schengen che altri
(i tedeschi) rilasciano con fin troppa disinvoltura. In Kosovo è l' Europa
a pagare, ma è New York a comandare. S' è visto in giugno, quand' era pronta
la nomina a governatore d' un italiano, Antonio Armellini, e invece è giunto
il veto di Kofi Annan che ha imposto un ex premier finlandese, Henry Holkeri,
entrato subito in collisione con Hashim Thaci, il
guerriero-liberatore del ' 99 che nei giorni scorsi ha ricominciato ad agitare
le piazze e lo spettro della Grande Albania, cortei per chiedere la cacciata
dell' Onu. Lo riconosce anche Rugova: c' è già una piccola Albania, qui.
Il progetto multietnico è fallito. I serbi non tornano e se lo fanno, li
ammazzano. Una trentina di morti negli ultimi sei mesi, bambini compresi.
«Il nostro è un piccolo martirio che si consuma nell' indifferenza del mondo»,
enfatizza padre Sava, storica voce della comunità ortodossa. L' albanesizzazione
è fatta di mille segni e l' unica cosa in cirillico che puoi ancora trovare,
a Pristina, è l' edizione russa di Playboy. Le strade si chiamano via Madre
Teresa, le statue sono dedicate all' eroe albanese Skanderbeg, le macellerie
non vendono maiale, il logo della lotteria nazionale è l' aquila su fondo
rosso, l' aula del Parlamento viene ristrutturata da Pacolli, l' ex marito
di Anna Oxa. I partigiani dell' Uck hanno finto di disarmarsi, ma intanto
è comparsa anche qui l' Ana, la falange albanese che mette bombe nella Serbia
meridionale. Quando la polizia slovena ha arrestato un capo storico dell'
Uck, Agim Ceku, braccio destro di Thaci ricercato per crimini vari, i commercianti
di Pristina hanno rovesciato in strada tutti i prodotti importati da Lubiana.
Chi risolverà il cubo di Rubik kosovaro? L' 11 settembre ha accelerato tutto.
Impazienti di sterzare sull' Iraq, gli americani hanno fissato una data:
indipendenza nel 2005. Gli interessi dell' America non sono quelli dell'
Europa, però. Il Kosovo è uno stato-canaglia di droga, armi, nuovi schiavi.
La strada Skopje-Pristina è una mappa del potere mafioso, ogni mezzo chilometro
c' è un motel di ragazze moldave o una pompa di benzina: «Sono i soldi riciclati
dal partito di Thaci - spiega un funzionario Onu -. Ma c' è anche gente
di Rugova che s' arricchisce con questi affari. Qui non esiste un' economia
e i soldi arrivano solo da due canali: quello che spendiamo noi delle missioni
internazionali, quello che vendono loro alla mafia russa, italiana, turca».
Gli affari interessano più delle fosse, in Kosovo. E la visita di Bloomberg,
sindaco di New York, sui giornali ha più spazio di quella del segretario
Nato. «Il nostro sogno è diventare un paradiso fiscale nel cuore d' Europa»,
ha le idee chiare Edi Limani, 36 anni, che fa soldi con le Mercedes taroccate
in Albania. Mica per niente, lui come tutti, usa un cellulare col prefisso
00377: quello del Principato di Monaco.
__________________________________________________________________
Tiscali ADSL SENZA CANONE, paghi solo quando navighi!
E in più il modem e' GRATIS! Abbonati subito.
http://point.tiscali.it/adsl/index.shtml
UN MONUMENTO A MASSIMO D'ALEMA
Corriere della Sera
venerdì, 28 novembre, 2003
Pag. 15
Kosovo, la strage rimasta senza prove
Cinque anni dopo ancora introvabili le fosse comuni denunciate all' epoca.
Dal ' 99 a oggi l' Unione Europea ha speso qui due miliardi e 877 milioni
di euro, il più grande investimento mai fatto all' estero, senza contare
il costo dei 18 mila soldati inquadrati nella missione Kfor-Nato cui partecipano
38 Paesi. Questa regione per il momento non è nulla
Il mondo non ha deciso che farne
IL REPORTAGE: VIAGGIO NEI BALCANI. La provincia non più serba e non ancora
indipendente è in realtà governata dalle mafie locali e internazionali
Battistini Francesco
DAL NOSTRO INVIATO KACANIK (Kosovo) - Ci ha piantato la colza: «Cresce prima
e si vende meglio». Le gelate venture non spaventano Qamil Berani, 42 anni,
mani usurate d' un emigrato a Zurigo prima di tornare a questi campi di
Kacanik. A impensierirlo non è che tempo fa: è il tempo che lo separa
dal ritorno dei cercatori di fosse. Lui pianta solo roba che si raccolga
in fretta. Perché da quattro anni gli ripetono che sotto la sua colza ci
sono altri cadaveri, sepolti nel ' 99. Tutti sanno: «Però nessuno viene
mai a scavare». Ne trovarono alla pompa di benzina, nel pozzo della moschea,
sulle montagne. Erano poche decine di corpi, però, non le centinaia che
si
pensava. Da allora tutti giurano che è impossibile, a Kacanik ce n' è altri.
Basta cercare. Per esempio, sotto la colza di Qamil: «Io non ho mai trovato
neanche un osso. Che vengano a controllare, purché dicano quando: ho famiglia,
senza raccolto faccio la fame». Le grandi fosse comuni del Kosovo sono un
po' come le armi chimiche di Saddam: introvabili. Non che
servano prove, della pulizia etnica: in pochi mesi, Milosevic massacrò duemila
albanesi e ne provocò un esodo. Però gli stermini bosniaci tipo Srebrenica,
denunciati da Clinton e dall' Europa, non sono mai stati dimostrati. E nessuno
oggi ha troppa voglia d' indagare se è vero, come sosteneva l' Uck, che
all' appello mancano almeno 9mila persone. «Sono state scoperte solo le
piccole fosse, non quelle di massa - ammette Laurie Weisberg, commissario
Onu per i profughi -. Il problema principale è la mancanza d' informazioni
che ci mettano in grado d' identificare dove sono». Do you remember Kosovo?
Sono passati cinque anni da Racak, il massacro d' albanesi che finì per
scatenare i bombardamenti Nato su Belgrado; ne sono passati tre, dalla cacciata
del feroce Slobo. Eppure questa regione non è ancora nulla: non è più Serbia,
non è ancora uno stato. Governa (male) l' Onu, una folla strapagata di ghanesi
che organizzano i municipi o di pakistani che regolano il traffico. Un'
amministrazione così chiacchierata da obbligare a istituire perfino una
task-force d' investigatori sulla corruzione: è comandata da un finanziere
italiano, ha già scoperto una dirigente delle poste (kosovara) che intascava
decine di milioni di euro. Ci costa molto, stare in Kosovo: l' Ue
ha speso 2 miliardi e 877 milioni di euro, il più grande investimento all'
estero, senza contare i 18mila soldati Nato di 38 Paesi. I 2.800 militari
italiani, sistemati nel campo superlusso di Peja, sono il contingente più
grosso dopo quello americano. La nostra ambasciata a Belgrado ha aperto
una legazione diplomatica nuova di zecca, guidata da Pasquale Salzano, mille
metri quadri di palazzina e un enorme lavoro sui visti Schengen che altri
(i tedeschi) rilasciano con fin troppa disinvoltura. In Kosovo è l' Europa
a pagare, ma è New York a comandare. S' è visto in giugno, quand' era pronta
la nomina a governatore d' un italiano, Antonio Armellini, e invece è giunto
il veto di Kofi Annan che ha imposto un ex premier finlandese, Henry Holkeri,
entrato subito in collisione con Hashim Thaci, il
guerriero-liberatore del ' 99 che nei giorni scorsi ha ricominciato ad agitare
le piazze e lo spettro della Grande Albania, cortei per chiedere la cacciata
dell' Onu. Lo riconosce anche Rugova: c' è già una piccola Albania, qui.
Il progetto multietnico è fallito. I serbi non tornano e se lo fanno, li
ammazzano. Una trentina di morti negli ultimi sei mesi, bambini compresi.
«Il nostro è un piccolo martirio che si consuma nell' indifferenza del mondo»,
enfatizza padre Sava, storica voce della comunità ortodossa. L' albanesizzazione
è fatta di mille segni e l' unica cosa in cirillico che puoi ancora trovare,
a Pristina, è l' edizione russa di Playboy. Le strade si chiamano via Madre
Teresa, le statue sono dedicate all' eroe albanese Skanderbeg, le macellerie
non vendono maiale, il logo della lotteria nazionale è l' aquila su fondo
rosso, l' aula del Parlamento viene ristrutturata da Pacolli, l' ex marito
di Anna Oxa. I partigiani dell' Uck hanno finto di disarmarsi, ma intanto
è comparsa anche qui l' Ana, la falange albanese che mette bombe nella Serbia
meridionale. Quando la polizia slovena ha arrestato un capo storico dell'
Uck, Agim Ceku, braccio destro di Thaci ricercato per crimini vari, i commercianti
di Pristina hanno rovesciato in strada tutti i prodotti importati da Lubiana.
Chi risolverà il cubo di Rubik kosovaro? L' 11 settembre ha accelerato tutto.
Impazienti di sterzare sull' Iraq, gli americani hanno fissato una data:
indipendenza nel 2005. Gli interessi dell' America non sono quelli dell'
Europa, però. Il Kosovo è uno stato-canaglia di droga, armi, nuovi schiavi.
La strada Skopje-Pristina è una mappa del potere mafioso, ogni mezzo chilometro
c' è un motel di ragazze moldave o una pompa di benzina: «Sono i soldi riciclati
dal partito di Thaci - spiega un funzionario Onu -. Ma c' è anche gente
di Rugova che s' arricchisce con questi affari. Qui non esiste un' economia
e i soldi arrivano solo da due canali: quello che spendiamo noi delle missioni
internazionali, quello che vendono loro alla mafia russa, italiana, turca».
Gli affari interessano più delle fosse, in Kosovo. E la visita di Bloomberg,
sindaco di New York, sui giornali ha più spazio di quella del segretario
Nato. «Il nostro sogno è diventare un paradiso fiscale nel cuore d' Europa»,
ha le idee chiare Edi Limani, 36 anni, che fa soldi con le Mercedes taroccate
in Albania. Mica per niente, lui come tutti, usa un cellulare col prefisso
00377: quello del Principato di Monaco.
__________________________________________________________________
Tiscali ADSL SENZA CANONE, paghi solo quando navighi!
E in più il modem e' GRATIS! Abbonati subito.
http://point.tiscali.it/adsl/index.shtml
After Yugoslavia, Iraq:
A US proposal for a new ethnic bloodbath
---
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/nov2003/gelb-n26_prn.shtml
World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org
WSWS : News & Analysis : Middle East : Iraq
The New York Times: a proposal for ethnic cleansing in Iraq
By Bill Vann
26 November 2003
With popular resistance mounting to its military occupation of Iraq, the
Bush administration is casting about in increasing desperation for a new
strategy to salvage the principal aims of its war?the seizure of oil resources
and the establishment of a US client regime in a strategically vital region.
While plans have been announced for Washington to erect a ?sovereign? Iraqi
regime by the middle of next year, this hollow exercise holds little prospect
for ending a bitter conflict that is claiming the lives of American soldiers
daily and creating growing political unrest in the US itself.
Enter the New York Times with a modest proposal for a bloodbath. It advances
what it terms a ?three-state solution,? based on the partition of Iraq along
ethnic and religious lines.
The proposal appeared in a November 25 column by Leslie Gelb, a former editor
and senior columnist for the Times. Gelb calls for dividing Iraq between
the ?Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the center and Shiites in the south.?
He continues: ?Almost immediately, this would allow America to put most
of its money and troops where they would do the most good quickly?with the
Kurds and Shiites. The United States could extricate most of its forces
from the so-called Sunni Triangle, north and west of Baghdad, largely freeing
American forces from fighting a costly war they might not win. American
officials could then wait for the troublesome and domineering Sunnis, without
oil or oil revenues, to moderate their ambitions or suffer the consequences.?
Gelb?s proposal is a clear manifestation of another triangle?a reactionary
nexus between the US State Department, Israeli intelligence and the editorial
board of the New York Times.
Until recently, Gelb headed the Council on Foreign Affairs, the influential
Washington think tank that provides a forum for corporate executives, CIA
and State Department officials, and a select group of establishment journalists
and academics with intimate ties to these camps. Gelb himself followed stints
at the Pentagon and the State Department with his position as columnist
and editor at the Times. There is no doubt that his piece on Iraq gives
voice to policies that are under active consideration within the top levels
of the US government.
The obvious attraction for Washington in the partition proposal advanced
by Gelb is that by dismembering Iraq it would allow the deployment of US
troops in the areas that are of the greatest strategic concern: the oilfields
in the predominantly Shiite south and the largely Kurdish north, while the
Sunni population, which has dominated Iraqi political life since the days
of Ottoman rule and has been the most hostile to the US occupation, would
be left stranded in an isolated mini-state stripped of its resources.
Just as Iraq?s boundaries were artificially drawn by the British after World
War I to further colonial ambitions and establish control over oil reserves,
so, according to Gelb?s thesis, they can be redrawn by the region?s new
US imperialist master to further similar aims.
It is not only in Washington, however, that this proposal finds support.
The partition of Iraq has long been a strategic objective of the Israeli
regime. An article that appeared in the World Zionist Organization?s publication
Kivunim in 1982, on the eve of Israel?s invasion of Lebanon and in the midst
of the Iran-Iraq war, spelled this out. Written by Oded Yinon, an official
in the Israeli foreign ministry, the article was entitled, ?A Strategy for
Israel in the 1980s.? It stated, in part:
?Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is
guaranteed as a candidate for Israel?s targets. Its dissolution is even
more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In
the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to
Israel. An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall
at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against
us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run
and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into
denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. In Iraq, a division into provinces
along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is possible.
So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra,
Baghdad and Mosul, and Shiite areas in the south will separate from the
Sunni and Kurdish north. It is possible that the present Iranian-Iraqi confrontation
will deepen this polarization.?
Israel actively sought to promote this agenda, offering covert support both
to the Khomeini regime in Iran and the Kurdish separatist movements in Iraq
itself.
Washington had previously opposed such a partition on the grounds that it
would destabilize the entire region and remove a strategic counterbalance
to Iran, which in the wake of the 1979 revolution was seen as the greater
threat to US interests. Clearly, however, if the US is planning to maintain
permanent military bases on Iraqi soil and preparing further wars in the
region, these calculations have changed.
What is most breathtaking about Gelb?s proposal is its utter indifference
to the welfare of the Iraqi population, not to mention international law.
He warns that the Sunni population in central Iraq ?might punish the substantial
minorities? left out of the ethnic states to be created in the north and
south. ?These minorities must have the time and the wherewithal to organize
and make their deals, or go either north or south,? he writes. ?This would
be a messy and dangerous enterprise, but the United States would and should
pay for the population movements and protect the process with force.?
What is proposed here is the uprooting of masses of people and the igniting
of an ethnic bloodbath the likes of which has not been seen since the British
partition of India 55 years ago, when a million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs
were slaughtered and some 14 million people were driven from their homes.
Baghdad?s largest neighborhood, Sadr City, a sprawling slum named after
a Shiite leader killed under the Saddam Hussein regime, is home to some
2 million residents, most of them Shiites. These impoverished masses, the
vast majority of whom have never lived anywhere else, are supposed to ?make
their deals? or move south. The same presumably holds true for the substantial
Assyrian and Turkoman populations in the north.
It should be recalled that in the mid-1990s Gelb, together with Times columnist
Anthony Lewis, was one of the principal media advocates for US intervention
in the Balkans, demanding that Washington punish the Serbs for ?ethnic cleansing.?
Now it is precisely such a bloody process that Gelb advocates for Iraq.
Indeed, Gelb cites the dismemberment of the Yugoslav federation along ethno-nationalist
lines beginning in 1991 as a ?hopeful precedent? for what his plan envisions
in Iraq. The column makes clear once again that?the human rights propaganda
used to justify the 1999 US/NATO attack on Serbia notwithstanding?the attitude
of US policy makers towards ethnic cleansing is quite flexible. It depends
upon who is doing it and whether it furthers Washington?s strategic interests.
?Overwhelming force was the best chance for keeping Yugoslavia whole and
even that failed in the end,? Gelb writes. ?Meantime, the costs of preventing
the natural states from emerging had been terrible.?
Here the former official of the Pentagon/State Department and Times editor
offers a false and self-serving explanation for Yugoslavia?s disintegration,
while providing a glimpse of the reactionary conceptions underlying what
Washington depicts as a crusade for democracy in Iraq. Yugoslavia?s breakup
was not the triumph of ?natural states? against ?overwhelming force.? It
was the byproduct of economic ?shock therapy? policies imposed by the International
Monetary Fund and other world financial institutions that led to the collapse
of the country?s national economy and the destruction of the jobs and living
standards of masses of working people.
In an attempt to divert the resulting social unrest, Stalinist bureaucrats
and communalist demagogues fomented nationalist sentiments while seeking
patrons among the major powers. The principal aim of Washington and the
other imperialist powers became the transformation of the splintered territories
of the former Yugoslavia into a collection of semi-colonies.
A carve-up of Iraq will similarly be a process imposed by US imperialism
against the interests of all Iraqi people, rather than any realization of
pent-up demands for ethnic ?self-determination.?
The idea that Iraq is no more than a collection of ?natural states? composed
of different ethnic groups yearning to live separately is not only backward
but also, from the standpoint of US policy in the region, wholly inconsistent.
If Washington were truly to embrace this conception of ?natural,? i.e.,
ethnic states, then it could not but welcome the unification of the Kurdish
people, presently divided by the borders separating Iraq, Turkey, Iran and
Syria. Likewise, it would have to support the unification of the Shiites
of southern Iraq with their coreligionists in neighboring Iran, not to mention
eastern Saudi Arabia, in one contiguous state. But, in fact, the Bush administration
has made it clear it is prepared to use overwhelming military force against
anyone daring to attempt such a ?natural? form of statecraft.
The proposal to dismember Iraq along ethnic lines is a stark expression
of the predatory character of the US intervention. Notwithstanding the Bush
administration?s rhetoric about ?liberating? Iraq and turning it into a
?beacon of democracy? for the Middle East, the conceptions advanced by Gelb
demonstrate that Washington has no answers to the complex historical and
political problems posed in Iraq. Its only aim is to exploit existing divisions
to further the profit interests of the oil conglomerates and other US-based
corporations and banks.
An ethnic carve-up of Iraq would have far-reaching implications throughout
the Middle East, where the boundaries of none of the existing states are
a ?natural? reflection of ethnic identity, but rather are the legacy of
the previous division of the region between British and French imperialism.
Any number of these states could also be dismembered, and proposals already
exist to do just that. Within the civilian leadership in the Pentagon, for
example, there has been discussion of the US fostering a breakaway Shiite
?Muslim republic of east Arabia,? as a means of prying loose the vast oil
reserves of Saudi Arabia from the crumbling monarchy.
Such policies have an attraction for the Israeli regime that goes well beyond
its security concerns and regional ambitions. The principle that borders
should be drawn according to ethnic and religious identity finds direct
expression in the demand by elements within Israel?s right-wing Likud government
for a policy of ?transfer,? i.e., the forced expulsion of the Palestinian
population from both the occupied territories and Israel?s pre-1967 borders
so as to realize the exclusively Jewish character of the Zionist state.
Should the US begin massive population transfers in Iraq, the Israelis could
well be emboldened to follow suit.
For its part, the New York Times? publication of its former editor?s recommendation
to the Bush administration for the carve-up of Iraq represents the continuation
of its promotion and justification of the illegal war, as well as its long-standing
defense of Israeli interests. With the Gelb column, however, the newspaper
has abandoned its pretense of liberal humanitarianism to openly promote
a war crime of world-historic proportions.
Copyright 1998-2003
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
__________________________________________________________________
Tiscali ADSL SENZA CANONE, paghi solo quando navighi!
E in più il modem e' GRATIS! Abbonati subito.
http://point.tiscali.it/adsl/index.shtml
A US proposal for a new ethnic bloodbath
---
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/nov2003/gelb-n26_prn.shtml
World Socialist Web Site www.wsws.org
WSWS : News & Analysis : Middle East : Iraq
The New York Times: a proposal for ethnic cleansing in Iraq
By Bill Vann
26 November 2003
With popular resistance mounting to its military occupation of Iraq, the
Bush administration is casting about in increasing desperation for a new
strategy to salvage the principal aims of its war?the seizure of oil resources
and the establishment of a US client regime in a strategically vital region.
While plans have been announced for Washington to erect a ?sovereign? Iraqi
regime by the middle of next year, this hollow exercise holds little prospect
for ending a bitter conflict that is claiming the lives of American soldiers
daily and creating growing political unrest in the US itself.
Enter the New York Times with a modest proposal for a bloodbath. It advances
what it terms a ?three-state solution,? based on the partition of Iraq along
ethnic and religious lines.
The proposal appeared in a November 25 column by Leslie Gelb, a former editor
and senior columnist for the Times. Gelb calls for dividing Iraq between
the ?Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the center and Shiites in the south.?
He continues: ?Almost immediately, this would allow America to put most
of its money and troops where they would do the most good quickly?with the
Kurds and Shiites. The United States could extricate most of its forces
from the so-called Sunni Triangle, north and west of Baghdad, largely freeing
American forces from fighting a costly war they might not win. American
officials could then wait for the troublesome and domineering Sunnis, without
oil or oil revenues, to moderate their ambitions or suffer the consequences.?
Gelb?s proposal is a clear manifestation of another triangle?a reactionary
nexus between the US State Department, Israeli intelligence and the editorial
board of the New York Times.
Until recently, Gelb headed the Council on Foreign Affairs, the influential
Washington think tank that provides a forum for corporate executives, CIA
and State Department officials, and a select group of establishment journalists
and academics with intimate ties to these camps. Gelb himself followed stints
at the Pentagon and the State Department with his position as columnist
and editor at the Times. There is no doubt that his piece on Iraq gives
voice to policies that are under active consideration within the top levels
of the US government.
The obvious attraction for Washington in the partition proposal advanced
by Gelb is that by dismembering Iraq it would allow the deployment of US
troops in the areas that are of the greatest strategic concern: the oilfields
in the predominantly Shiite south and the largely Kurdish north, while the
Sunni population, which has dominated Iraqi political life since the days
of Ottoman rule and has been the most hostile to the US occupation, would
be left stranded in an isolated mini-state stripped of its resources.
Just as Iraq?s boundaries were artificially drawn by the British after World
War I to further colonial ambitions and establish control over oil reserves,
so, according to Gelb?s thesis, they can be redrawn by the region?s new
US imperialist master to further similar aims.
It is not only in Washington, however, that this proposal finds support.
The partition of Iraq has long been a strategic objective of the Israeli
regime. An article that appeared in the World Zionist Organization?s publication
Kivunim in 1982, on the eve of Israel?s invasion of Lebanon and in the midst
of the Iran-Iraq war, spelled this out. Written by Oded Yinon, an official
in the Israeli foreign ministry, the article was entitled, ?A Strategy for
Israel in the 1980s.? It stated, in part:
?Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is
guaranteed as a candidate for Israel?s targets. Its dissolution is even
more important for us than that of Syria. Iraq is stronger than Syria. In
the short run it is Iraqi power which constitutes the greatest threat to
Israel. An Iraqi-Iranian war will tear Iraq apart and cause its downfall
at home even before it is able to organize a struggle on a wide front against
us. Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation will assist us in the short run
and will shorten the way to the more important aim of breaking up Iraq into
denominations as in Syria and in Lebanon. In Iraq, a division into provinces
along ethnic/religious lines as in Syria during Ottoman times is possible.
So, three (or more) states will exist around the three major cities: Basra,
Baghdad and Mosul, and Shiite areas in the south will separate from the
Sunni and Kurdish north. It is possible that the present Iranian-Iraqi confrontation
will deepen this polarization.?
Israel actively sought to promote this agenda, offering covert support both
to the Khomeini regime in Iran and the Kurdish separatist movements in Iraq
itself.
Washington had previously opposed such a partition on the grounds that it
would destabilize the entire region and remove a strategic counterbalance
to Iran, which in the wake of the 1979 revolution was seen as the greater
threat to US interests. Clearly, however, if the US is planning to maintain
permanent military bases on Iraqi soil and preparing further wars in the
region, these calculations have changed.
What is most breathtaking about Gelb?s proposal is its utter indifference
to the welfare of the Iraqi population, not to mention international law.
He warns that the Sunni population in central Iraq ?might punish the substantial
minorities? left out of the ethnic states to be created in the north and
south. ?These minorities must have the time and the wherewithal to organize
and make their deals, or go either north or south,? he writes. ?This would
be a messy and dangerous enterprise, but the United States would and should
pay for the population movements and protect the process with force.?
What is proposed here is the uprooting of masses of people and the igniting
of an ethnic bloodbath the likes of which has not been seen since the British
partition of India 55 years ago, when a million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs
were slaughtered and some 14 million people were driven from their homes.
Baghdad?s largest neighborhood, Sadr City, a sprawling slum named after
a Shiite leader killed under the Saddam Hussein regime, is home to some
2 million residents, most of them Shiites. These impoverished masses, the
vast majority of whom have never lived anywhere else, are supposed to ?make
their deals? or move south. The same presumably holds true for the substantial
Assyrian and Turkoman populations in the north.
It should be recalled that in the mid-1990s Gelb, together with Times columnist
Anthony Lewis, was one of the principal media advocates for US intervention
in the Balkans, demanding that Washington punish the Serbs for ?ethnic cleansing.?
Now it is precisely such a bloody process that Gelb advocates for Iraq.
Indeed, Gelb cites the dismemberment of the Yugoslav federation along ethno-nationalist
lines beginning in 1991 as a ?hopeful precedent? for what his plan envisions
in Iraq. The column makes clear once again that?the human rights propaganda
used to justify the 1999 US/NATO attack on Serbia notwithstanding?the attitude
of US policy makers towards ethnic cleansing is quite flexible. It depends
upon who is doing it and whether it furthers Washington?s strategic interests.
?Overwhelming force was the best chance for keeping Yugoslavia whole and
even that failed in the end,? Gelb writes. ?Meantime, the costs of preventing
the natural states from emerging had been terrible.?
Here the former official of the Pentagon/State Department and Times editor
offers a false and self-serving explanation for Yugoslavia?s disintegration,
while providing a glimpse of the reactionary conceptions underlying what
Washington depicts as a crusade for democracy in Iraq. Yugoslavia?s breakup
was not the triumph of ?natural states? against ?overwhelming force.? It
was the byproduct of economic ?shock therapy? policies imposed by the International
Monetary Fund and other world financial institutions that led to the collapse
of the country?s national economy and the destruction of the jobs and living
standards of masses of working people.
In an attempt to divert the resulting social unrest, Stalinist bureaucrats
and communalist demagogues fomented nationalist sentiments while seeking
patrons among the major powers. The principal aim of Washington and the
other imperialist powers became the transformation of the splintered territories
of the former Yugoslavia into a collection of semi-colonies.
A carve-up of Iraq will similarly be a process imposed by US imperialism
against the interests of all Iraqi people, rather than any realization of
pent-up demands for ethnic ?self-determination.?
The idea that Iraq is no more than a collection of ?natural states? composed
of different ethnic groups yearning to live separately is not only backward
but also, from the standpoint of US policy in the region, wholly inconsistent.
If Washington were truly to embrace this conception of ?natural,? i.e.,
ethnic states, then it could not but welcome the unification of the Kurdish
people, presently divided by the borders separating Iraq, Turkey, Iran and
Syria. Likewise, it would have to support the unification of the Shiites
of southern Iraq with their coreligionists in neighboring Iran, not to mention
eastern Saudi Arabia, in one contiguous state. But, in fact, the Bush administration
has made it clear it is prepared to use overwhelming military force against
anyone daring to attempt such a ?natural? form of statecraft.
The proposal to dismember Iraq along ethnic lines is a stark expression
of the predatory character of the US intervention. Notwithstanding the Bush
administration?s rhetoric about ?liberating? Iraq and turning it into a
?beacon of democracy? for the Middle East, the conceptions advanced by Gelb
demonstrate that Washington has no answers to the complex historical and
political problems posed in Iraq. Its only aim is to exploit existing divisions
to further the profit interests of the oil conglomerates and other US-based
corporations and banks.
An ethnic carve-up of Iraq would have far-reaching implications throughout
the Middle East, where the boundaries of none of the existing states are
a ?natural? reflection of ethnic identity, but rather are the legacy of
the previous division of the region between British and French imperialism.
Any number of these states could also be dismembered, and proposals already
exist to do just that. Within the civilian leadership in the Pentagon, for
example, there has been discussion of the US fostering a breakaway Shiite
?Muslim republic of east Arabia,? as a means of prying loose the vast oil
reserves of Saudi Arabia from the crumbling monarchy.
Such policies have an attraction for the Israeli regime that goes well beyond
its security concerns and regional ambitions. The principle that borders
should be drawn according to ethnic and religious identity finds direct
expression in the demand by elements within Israel?s right-wing Likud government
for a policy of ?transfer,? i.e., the forced expulsion of the Palestinian
population from both the occupied territories and Israel?s pre-1967 borders
so as to realize the exclusively Jewish character of the Zionist state.
Should the US begin massive population transfers in Iraq, the Israelis could
well be emboldened to follow suit.
For its part, the New York Times? publication of its former editor?s recommendation
to the Bush administration for the carve-up of Iraq represents the continuation
of its promotion and justification of the illegal war, as well as its long-standing
defense of Israeli interests. With the Gelb column, however, the newspaper
has abandoned its pretense of liberal humanitarianism to openly promote
a war crime of world-historic proportions.
Copyright 1998-2003
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
__________________________________________________________________
Tiscali ADSL SENZA CANONE, paghi solo quando navighi!
E in più il modem e' GRATIS! Abbonati subito.
http://point.tiscali.it/adsl/index.shtml
Milosevic "trial": Borislav Jovic speaks (Nov. 16--20, 2003)
1. MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: BORISLAV JOVIC COMES TO THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL
- November 18, 2003
2. MILOSEVIC ?TRIAL? SYNOPSIS: THE CROSS-EXAMINATION OF BORISLAV JOVIC
? PART I - Nov. 19, 2003
3. MILOSEVIC ?TRIAL? SYNOPSIS: THE CROSS-EXAMINATION OF BORISLAV JOVIC
- PART II ? Nov. 20, 2003
(NOTA: chi fosse in grado di tradurre questa importante documentazione e'
pregato di comunicarcelo con sollecitudine, grazie. CNJ)
=== 1 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg111803.htm
MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: BORISLAV JOVIC COMES TO THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - November 18, 2003
The secret witness B-1524 finished his testimony at the Hague Tribunal
today. He finished his examination-in-chief last week, and he was cross-examined
today. B-1524 was a resident of Zvornik, a reserve officer in the T.O.,
and a high official in the municipal government.
According to B-1524 everybody was armed. He said that black market arms
dealers came into Zvornik and sold weapons to the population there regardless
of their ethnicity. The the Muslims were not unarmed. They could buy weapons
from blackmarketeers as easily as the Serbs could.
B-1524 said that armed Muslims congregated around the mosques, and in the
city of Zvornik itself. He also said that at the same time as the Muslims
were arming that the Serbs were also arming and that they mainly occupied
the suburbs. B-1524 confirmed that the conflict in Zvornik was between
locals. He also said that the SDA and the SDS jointly toppled the League
of Communists, but that neither one was competent to govern.
B-1524 said that 10,000 residents of Zvornik, primarily Muslims, fled the
city as refugees and went to seek shelter in Serbia. This is an important
point. Muslims fled to Serbia in order to escape the civil war in Bosnia.
This fact alone demonstrates that Serbia wasn?t waging any sort of aggression
against Bosnian Muslims. If Serbia had been pursuing a policy of genocide
against Muslims then certainly they wouldn?t have sought shelter in Serbia.
B-1524 also said that the JNA did not attack Zvornik. He claimed that illegal
paramilitary formations attacked Zvornik.
The next witness was Borislav Jovic. As Serbia?s representative, Borislav
Jovic was the president of the SFRY presidency in 1989 and 1990. He was
the president of the SPS in 1991 and 1992 and was later the vice-president
of the SPS from 1992 until 1995 when he was asked to resign his position.
He has written 2 books, one entitled ?The Death of the SFRY? which was
compiled from his diary, and another book he wrote in 2000 about his opinion
of Slobodan Milosevic?s personality.
In its typical underhanded fashion the Prosecution didn?t provide Jovic?s
witness statement to President Milosevic until 6 o?clock the previous night.
Mr. Jovic first explained to Mr. Nice that his books only represent his
personal views and assessments, and that their contents could be challenged.
Jovic went on to explain to a disappointed Mr. Nice that Slobodan Milosevic
didn?t control the SFRY presidency, or the JNA.
Stepjan Mesic had testified earlier that Jovic would leave SFRY Presidency
meetings in order to call Milosevic and receive instructions from him.
Jovic flatly denied this.
Jovic also said that Serbian volunteers fighting in Croatia and Bosnia
were not under Milosevic?s control. According to Jovic volunteer units
and individual volunteers were suborned to the army and that when they did
not adhere to military discipline they were regarded as paramilitaries.
Jovic said that President Milosevic regarded Arkan as a criminal, and said
that he told him, at a time when they had good relations that Arkan was
not in any way associated with the Government of Serbia.
Jovic denied that the JNA had shelled the old city of Dubrovnik. According
to Jovic only 2 shells fell on the old city by accident. Mr. Nice tried
to counter Jovic?s assertion by playing a video that showed 1 damaged building
in the old city, where as the rest of the old city was unscathed.
After playing a video tape of news story from ITN, and that other rather
unimpressive video, Nice asked Jovic again if he still believed that only
2 shells fell on Dubrovnik, and Jovic said that he did.
Mr. Nice asked Jovic if the JNA had perpetrated a massacre at Vukovar and
Jovic denied it. Jovic said that the JNA was ordered to protect civilians.
Nice, becoming increasingly frustrated, then began to threaten Jovic reminding
him that he was the commander-in-chief of the JNA at the time of Dubrovnik
and Vukovar. This was clearly a veiled threat from Mr. Nice, a signal that
if Jovic didn?t ?play ball? that he would be indicted himself. Jovic none
the less stood his ground, and why shouldn?t he? Milan Babic testified
against Milosevic, he did exactly what the prosecution wanted him to do,
and they?ve indicted him anyway. In fact they just indicted him today.
Jovic also denied that the infamous Karadjorjevo meeting had ever taken
place. Jovic said that it had always been Serbia?s position that Bosnia
should not be divided. Jovic said that Mesic had invented the Karadjorjevo
meeting in order to inflict political damage on Franjo Tudjman in Croatia,
because the two of them were having a dispute at the time.
Mr. Jovic clearly does not like Slobodan Milosevic as a person, and so
Mr. Nice spent a lot of time dwelling on things that Jovic found objectionable
in Milosevic?s personality. However, none of this has anything to do with
whether or not Slobodan Milosevic is a war criminal. It was clear that
Mr. Nice was only getting Jovic to say negative things about Milosevic?s
personality so that the OTP?s cronies in the media and at CIJ would have
something bad they could say about President Milosevic.
On the key issue Jovic came through for President Milosevic. Jovic vehemently
denied that Slobodan Milosevic was a nationalist. Jovic said that it was
always President Milosevic?s position that all people had to be equal no
matter what their ethnicity was. Jovic said that President Milosevic would
never agree that anybody could be mistreated or denied rights because they
weren?t a Serb.
Mr. Nice will complete the examination-in-chief tomorrow, and then President
Milosevic will have the opportunity to cross-examine Jovic.
=== 2 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg111903.htm
MILOSEVIC ?TRIAL? SYNOPSIS: THE CROSS-EXAMINATION OF BORISLAV JOVIC ? PART
I
www.slobodan-milosevic.org ? November 19, 2003
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice finished the examination-in-chief of former SFRY
presidency member Borislav Jovic today.
Mr. Nice had some difficulty with his witness. Mr. Jovic accused Nice of
quoting excerpts from his book out of their proper context, and the examination-in-chief
was frequently confrontational. At one point Mr. Nice played a video where
some JNA personnel could be seen celebrating the liberation of the JNA
barracks at Vukovar.
Mr. Nice asked Jovic if he knew about the celebration and when Jovic said
that he didn?t, Nice asked him how, as president of the SFRY presidency,
he could not know about such a celebration. Jovic explained to Nice that
the JNA wasn?t micromanaged by the SFRY presidency to the point that members
of the army needed the special approval of the presidency to have a meeting
to congratulate one another after a successful operation.
Mr. Jovic explained to Nice that the SFRY presidency used the JNA in Croatia
to protect the Serbs who were living there from the marauding Croatian
paramilitaries. He explained that the SFRY presidency had no intention
of overthrowing the government in Zagreb. The JNA, and the SFRY presidency?s
only objective was to protect the civilian population until such time as
a political solution could be reached.
Mr. Jovic explained to Nice that Ante Markovic pursued an economic policy
that was contrary to Serbian interests. Markovic?s economic reforms put
price caps on electricity and food to such an extent that Serbia?s two
main exports, agriculture and electricity were operating at a financial
loss. At the same time as Markovic was putting the screws to the Serbian
economy he was freeing price controls on exports from other republics.
Jovic explained that it was Markovic?s objective to topple the Serbian
leadership by sabotaging the Serbian economy.
Nice asked if Jovic if he was able to disagree with Milosevic publicly.
Jovic explained that they tried not to have public disagreements, but that
one time they did trade public accusations over the management of the SPS.
It was apparent from Mr. Jovic?s testimony that he has a personal dislike
for Slobodan Milosevic. During the examination-in-chief Mr. Jovic was frequently
critical of Milosevic?s personality, he said that Milosevic chose associates
who were ?yes men,? and Jovic called Milosevic a clumsy leader. During
cross-examination Milosevic referred to Mr. Jovic by his nickname ?Bora?
while Mr. Jovic only referred to Milosevic in the 3rd person.
In spite of Jovic?s own obvious personal dislike for Milosevic, he testified
truthfully. Mr. Jovic?s testimony cleared-up a number of things.
The JNA?s chain of command was cleared up. The SFRY collective presidency
commanded the JNA. The SFRY presidency would appoint and dismiss JNA Generals,
and members of the General Staff. The SFRY presidency was the order issuing
authority to the JNA.
The 8 member SFRY presidency was composed of 1 member from each republic
and each autonomous province. The presidency decisions were made on the
basis of a majority vote. If 5 members, or in some cases 6 voted for a
decision to be adopted then the full force of the SFRY presidency was put
behind the decision.
The JNA was issued its orders by the SFRY presidency, and the General Staff
of the JNA was bound to carryout those orders and report back to the SFRY
presidency. The entire SFRY presidency formed the supreme commander of
the JNA, no one member, not even the president of the presidency had the
ability to issued orders individually. Jovic also confirmed that none of
the republic presidents had any ability to issue orders to the JNA.
It is quite clear that Slobodan Milosevic did not command the JNA. He simply
had no ability to command the JNA. In fact Jovic confirmed that Milosevic
was not even kept abreast of JNA activities outside of Serbia.
It has been suggested by the prosecution that Slobodan Milosevic somehow
controlled the SFRY presidency. This was cleared up as well. Slobodan Milosevic,
being the president of Serbia, could only influence Serbia?s member of
the Presidency. The other presidency members were appointed by their respective
republics and provinces. Each presidency member was bound to protect his
republic or province?s interests, and each republic and province had the
right to put forward anybody they wanted to for their presidency member,
or replace their member if they considered that he had acted against their
interest.
The presidency had 8 members and Slobodan Milosevic only had the ability
to influence one of them. What is more the presidency rotated. Each republic
and province took turns appointing the president of the presidency.
It is quite impossible that Slobodan Milosevic could control the SFRY presidency
in any way on that basis. He had no possible way to form any sort of Serbian
bloc in the SFRY presidency.
The prosecution has also put forward the thesis that the SFRY defense minister,
Veljko Kadijevic, was ?Milosevic?s man.? Maybe, theorizes the prosecution,
Milosevic controlled the JNA by controlling Kadijevic.
This theory was put to bed today. Mr. Jovic explained that Kadijevic was
appointed to his post, with the consent of all 6 republics and both provinces
by the SFRY assembly. Jovic also explained that the SFRY assembly had the
right to remove Kadijevic if it had wanted to.
What?s more Jovic described Milosevic and Kadijevic?s relationship as "tolerant."
According to Jovic the two didn?t particularly like each other or get on
very well with one another. Jovic said that Kadijevic wanted to overthrow
the secessionist governments in Zagreb and Ljubljana, where as Milosevic
only wanted to ensure the protection of those citizens who did not wish
to leave Yugoslavia.
The ?greater Serbia? question was dealt with again today, and the prosecution?s
case on this score was defeated again by its own witness.
Jovic said that no ?greater Serbia? plan had ever existed. Jovic explained
that Serbia?s position was that the SFRY should remain intact. He explained
that Serbs were living in all republics and so it was desirable from Serbia?s
point of view to preserve Yugoslavia. When it became apparent that the
SFRY could no longer exist, Jovic explained that Serbia?s position was that
equality should be ensured for the Serbian people living outside of Serbia.
Jovic confirmed that Serbia?s position was that of the SFRY presidency.
Serbia wanted to strengthen the federal institutions and build a strong
Yugoslav state.
The claim has frequently been made by Western media, and the ICTY prosecution
that Slobodan Milosevic revoked Kosovo?s autonomy. Their strategy seems
to be that if they repeat a lie long enough maybe it will become the truth.
Borislav Jovic was at the head of the commission that amended the Serbian
constitution in 1989 to limit Kosovo?s excessive level of autonomy. Kosovo?s
autonomy was not revoked by the amendments it was simply limited to a sensible
level.
Under the 1974 constitution, Serbia couldn?t enact laws or amend its constitution
unless the provinces approved it. Serbia was held hostage by its provinces.
The provinces, on the other hand, could do anything they wished and Serbia
couldn?t stop them.
The 1974 constitution conflicted with itself and with the Serbian constitution.
Article III of that constitution granted the republics (not the provinces)
the status of states within Yugoslavia. Because of the provinces? excessive
level of autonomy, the republic of Serbia was denied its rightful status
and was placed at a disadvantage to other republics within the SFRY.
Because of Kosovo?s excessive autonomy, citizens who were wronged by the
Kosovo judiciary couldn?t appeal their cases to the Serbian Supreme Court,
even though they were citizens of the Republic of Serbia. Authority began
and ended with Kosovo.
Kosovo abused its excessive autonomy. Between 1981 and 1987, more than
40,000 Serbs fled Kosovo under pressure from Albanian fascists who were
striving to create an ethnically pure Albanian Kosovo.
The situation was nonsense, and something had to be done to protect the
non-Albanian citizens in Kosovo. In 1988 Serbia appealed to the government
of the SFRY. The SFRY, with the consent of all 6 republics and both provinces
responded by amending the SFRY constitution, thereby allowing Serbia to
amend its constitution.
In 1989 Serbia amended its constitution and the amendments were adopted
with the consent of the Serbian assembly, the Vojovodina assembly, and
the Kosovo assembly. Some have said that military pressure was exerted on
the Kosovo assembly to force it to accept the amendments. Jovic denied
that this was the case. He said that the Army was only present around the
assembly to protect it from the Kosovo Albanian citizens who were demonstrating
against the acceptance of the amendments.
At this point it the 1980 and 1981 demonstrations that took place in Kosovo
were discussed. Jovic said that those demonstrations (at which people were
killed) were violent and verged on a full-blown revolt. From this history
one can clearly see that it was necessary for the army to protect the assembly
building.
Kosovo?s status was not diminished in the SFRY at all. Jovic confirmed
that in 1989 when the constitutional amendments were finalized the president
of the SFRY presidency was Sinan Hasani, a Kosovo Albanian. Hasani, along
with Ante Markovic was present at the Serbian assembly session when the
amendments were finalized and neither had any objections. Kosovo still
appointed its members to the SFRY presidency, and still had the same veto
powers in the federal assembly.
Much has also been made of the fact that the Serbian assembly dissolved
the Kosovo assembly in 1991. This was something that had to be done. Jovic
confirmed that the Kosovo assembly had voted for succession from Serbia,
which was a flagrant violation of the constitutions of both Serbia and
the SFRY. Serbia was obligated under the constitution to dissolve the Kosovo
assembly because it was acting illegally.
The bottom line is that Slobodan Milosevic did not and could not revoke
Kosovo?s autonomy. Kosovo retained its autonomous status, and Serbia?s
constitutional amendments were made in accordance with the laws of the
SFRY. None of the amendments gave Serbia any more power than any of the
other republics.
The question of the establishment of a ?Serb army? was discussed. The prosecution
has put forward the idea that Milosevic was endeavoring to create some
kind of Serb army. Jovic dismissed the idea as nonsense.
Jovic said that the idea of creating a ?Serb army? was being floated by
the opposition parties, namely the SPO and the SRS. Jovic considered that
they were floating this idea just so that they could themselves seize power.
Jovic pointed out that the SPO and the SRS both raised armed formations,
but that the SPS never raised any such formation.
Mr. Jovic also divulged some interesting information about Vuk Draskovic
today. Jovic explained that SFRY government intelligence sources had informed
him that Vuk Draskovic, Stjepan Mesic and the leadership of the Democratic
Party (DS) were all engaged in a conspiracy to topple the JNA and overthrow
the Serbian Government.
So here is Vuk Draskovic, raising an armed group, and advocating a Serbian
army, while at the same time plotting to overthrow the Serbian Government
and wreck the JNA.
Jovic stated quite clearly that Milosevic was against the formation of
any Serbian army and that Milosevic always favored a multiethnic Yugoslav
army.
It was also observed by Jovic that Draskovic cooperated with Warren Zimmerman
in order to try and find ways to overthrow Milosevic and come to power
himself.
Jovic clarified the basis of the SFRY presidency?s decision to place T.O.
weapons under JNA control. Jovic explained that Croatia and Slovenia were
illegally arming their paramilitary formations by stealing the weapons
from out of the T.O. warehouses. Therefore, it was necessary to place the
weapons under JNA control so that paramilitaries couldn?t lay their hands
on them.
Jovic and Milosevic recalled a meeting that was convened by the SFRY presidency
at which all members of the presidency, and all republican presidents were
present. The meeting was convened in order to establish the causes of the
inter-ethnic fighting in Croatia.
The meeting reached the conclusion that the problems arose because Croatia
had denied the Serbs their status as a constituent people in Croatia, even
the Croatian representatives agreed with the conclusions. Unfortunately,
according to Jovic they didn?t act on the conclusions and continued with
their violent policy of succession.
Jovic confirmed that Serbia, and Milosevic personally wanted succession
to be regulated by law in order to prevent conflicts, and the chaotic situation
which ultimately did emerge. Unfortunately, Croatia blocked the SFRY federal
assembly from passing any sort of law like that.
Jovic theorized that Croatia blocked the law because Zagreb wished to pursue
and anti-Serb policy and that a law on succession would force them to afford
equal rights to the Serbs in Croatia before they could separate from Yugoslavia.
Jovic explained the situation in Croatia. He said that already in 1990
Croatian paramilitary formations were intensively arming and threatening
the family members of JNA officers, and even killing them in some cases.
Jovic explained that after the infamous Spegelj film Tudjman had agreed
with the federal presidency decision that paramilitaries should be disarmed.
Unfortunately, Tudjman didn?t disarm the Croatian paramilitaries. On the
contrary, Jovic testified that the Croatian authorities were arming paramilitary
formations, and that they primarily gave weapons to HDZ members.
The Serbs on the other hand believed that the JNA would protect them and
they did disarm. Unfortunately, this left them open to being attacked by
the Croat paramilitaries, and they were attacked.
Unfortunately, these attacks did not result in the imposition of martial
law in Croatia, and so the Serbs reacted by spontaneously arming themselves.
Jovic explained that Croatian paramilitaries blockaded the JNA in its barracks
in violation of the Geneva agreement that had been reached with the Croatian
authorities to allow the JNA to freely leave.
Jovic used the example of Vukovar to explain how those barracks were blockaded,
how the water and electricity was cut off, how there was no food, how siege
was laid on the barracks and how JNA soldiers were being killed in the
barracks. Eventually, Jovic explained, the JNA was forced to attack the
Croat forces in order to liberate its barracks.
Jovic added an interesting detail to the tragedy of operations Storm and
Flash. Jovic said that the Z4 peace plan, which he considered to be a good
plan, was in the offing when Croatia launched its bloody offensive against
the Krajina Serbs. He said that Croatia launched its offensive before the
plan even had a chance to be discussed.
Jovic also addressed the question of Serbian aggression against Bosnia.
Jovic vehemently denied that Serbia had perpetrated any aggression against
Bosnia. Jovic confirmed Milosevic?s claim that the wars in Bosnia and Croatia
were a civil wars, and not some sort of external aggression coming from
Serbia. Jovic confirmed that the republic of Serbia did NOT send any forces
outside of Serbia?s borders.
It is also clear that the JNA waged no aggression on Bosnia. Jovic said
that the JNA was ordered to withdraw on the very day that the international
community recognized Bosnia as an independent state. Therefore, the JNA
was on its own territory and could not possibly be accused of any aggression,
since it is quite impossible to wage aggression against yourself.
Jovic explained that when the JNA withdrew from Bosnia it only withdrew
the members who were not from Bosnia. He said that the remaining soldiers,
who were in their own republic, formed their own command and were no longer
under the command of the JNA.
Jovic said that the Bosnian war was imposed upon the Serbian people, and
Jovic expressed his firm conviction that if the principle of equality that
had existed in Bosnia for the previous 50 years had been respected then
there wouldn?t have been any war in Bosnia in the first place.
Jovic confirmed again that Bosnia was a civil war and that neither Serbia
nor Yugoslavia had anything to do with it. To demonstrate this he confirmed
that at the promulgation of the 1992 FRY constitution a statement was issued
saying that the FRY had no territorial pretensions towards any of the former
Yugoslav republics.
Jovic confirmed that the war in Bosnia was started with the illegal referendum
on succession. He also added an interesting fact. Jovic said that the idea
to have this sort of referendum had come from the E.C.
Jovic confirmed that before the war, on 18 March 1992 all three sides accepted
and signed the Cutileiro peace plan. He also explained how on 25 March
1992 Alija Izetbegovic, under the influence of Warren Zimmerman, reneged
and withdrew his signature from the peace plan.
Jovic agreed with Milosevic?s observation that the Serbs acceptance of
the Cutileiro plan showed that not even the Serbs in Bosnia had any ideas
about creating any greater Serbia. The Cutileiro plan called for an independent
Bosnia divided into cantons, and the original demand of the Bosnian Serbs
had been to remain in Yugoslavia. So quite clearly we can see from their
acceptance of the plan that they had no ideas about forming any greater
Serbia. In fact the Serbs were willing to make compromises to achieve peace,
unlike Izetbegovic who said "I would sacrifice peace in order to win sovereignty
for Bosnia, but for that peace in Bosnia I would not sacrifice sovereignty."
To drive this point home President Milosevic showed Jovic a transcript
from an SFRY presidency meeting where Radovan Karadzic had been present
and had accepted that Bosnia would be an independent state, but that he
insisted on the equality for the Serb people living there.
Jovic confirmed that Serbia had 2 main goals vis-à-vis the war in Bosnia.
The primary goal was to find a way to put a stop to the war, and the secondary
goal was to get the sanctions lifted. To prove that Serbia was trying to
achieve peace it was noted by Milosevic and Jovic that Serbia supported
the Cutileiro plan in March of 1992, the Vance-Owen plan in May of 1993,
the Owen-Stoltenberg plan (a.k.a. the ?invincible plan?) in September of
1993, the European Union Action plan in December of 1993, the Contact Group
plan in July of 1994, and ultimately the Dayton peace plan in 1995.
Jovic explained how the SFRY presidency was marginalized by the international
community. When Croatia and Slovenia left Yugoslavia their members left
the collective presidency, leaving a 6 member rump presidency behind.
The presidency could still legally function with 6 members, since the full
presidency consisted of 8 members and only a majority was required to reach
decisions.
Unfortunately, the international community, according to Jovic, did not
recognize the presidency?s authority. Instead, the international community
decided to ignore the Helsinki Final Act and recognized the secessionists
as the legitimate governments, as opposed to adhering to the act which
clearly states that a state?s frontiers are inviolable.
In fact, according to Jovic all republics, except for Croatia and Slovenia,
wished to maintain the SFRY until the international community changed its
stance and advocated succession from Yugoslavia.
Jovic explained that Yugoslavia and Serbia became disillusioned when Europe
lent its support to violent succession. He said that it became obvious
that international law was being manipulated and twisted in order to serve
the interests of the great powers.
On that sad note the hearing ended. Mr. Jovic will continue his with his
cross-examination tomorrow.
=== 3 ===
MILOSEVIC ?TRIAL? SYNOPSIS: THE CROSS-EXAMINATION OF BORISLAV JOVIC - PART
II
www.slobodan-milosevic.org ? November 20, 2003
Written by Andy Wilcoxson
The testimony of former SFRY presidency member Borislav Jovic was concluded
today. The majority of the first session was spent discussing various peace
initiatives, and everything basically boiled down to this. Serbia and Slobodan
Milosevic personally supported practically every peace plan to come down
the pike. Serbia and Yugoslavia?s efforts were directed towards stopping
the war and finding a just political solution to the conflicts in Croatia
and Bosnia that respected the equality of all of the parties.
To highlight Serbia?s position President Milosevic read out a statement
that the Government of Serbia issued on August 30, 1991 that said that
the Yugoslav crisis should be settled peacefully and democratically. Jovic
then confirmed that this was Serbia?s position.
Jovic said that Serbia and Milosevic?s position at the beginning of the
crisis was that all nations who wished to leave Yugoslavia should be allowed
to do so, while the nations who wished to remain in Yugoslavia should be
permitted to stay.
Simply put the right of people to remain in Yugoslavia had to be equal
to the right of people to leave Yugoslavia. To accomplish this Serbia and
the SFRY presidency endeavored to have a law on succession passed so that
succession could be regulated by the law, and conflicts could be avoided.
Unfortunately, Croatia blocked such a law from being passed in the Federal
Assembly.
Once the fighting started in Bosnia and Croatia Jovic confirmed that Milosevic?s
position was that the hostilities should immediately cease and peace negotiations
should take place on the principle of equality.
Serbia?s only goal from the outset was to find a solution that was fair
to both the Serbs and the Croats in Croatia. Jovic confirmed that everything
Serbia did in regard to Croatia was geared towards finding a solution that
was fair to both parties.
Jovic testified that neither Serbia nor Yugoslavia had any desire to conquer
any Croatian territory. Serbia and Yugoslavia?s acceptance and support
for the Vance plan proves this fact. Under the Vance plan the JNA withdrew
from Croatia, and the UN soldiers came in. If the aim of Yugoslavia had
been to conquer Croatia then certainly it wouldn?t have withdrawn its army.
Jovic considered that the primary cause of the war in Croatia was Croatia?s
decision to throw the Serbs out of the constitution, and deny them their
status as a constituent people. Croatia banned the Cyrillic alphabet, and
Tudjman had plans to ban the Serbian Orthodox Church in Croatia.
Jovic had published in his book (that has been introduced into evidence)
minutes of a meeting where Tudjman spoke in Cleveland. The meeting took
place before Tudjman came to power. At the meeting Tudjman was laying out
the HDZ?s plans for Croatia, and these plans included a ban on the Serbian
Orthodox Church and a ban on the term ?Serb?. According to Tudjman?s plans
Serbs would be called ?Orthodox Croats.?
Outlawing being a Serb in Croatia was only one part of Tudjman?s plans.
The primary aim of the HDZ, according to the minutes of the meeting was
to break Croatia away from Yugoslavia.
Jovic recounted one occasion when Franjo Tudjman accused him of instigating
a Serb rebellion in the Krajina. Jovic pointed out that the rebellion only
began after Tudjman threw the Serbs out of the constitution and banned
the Cyrillic alphabet. Therefore, it was Tudjman?s actions and not Jovic?s
that provoked the rebellion.
In response to this Milosevic asked if anybody in the Government of Serbia
had ever attempted to incite an armed rebellion by the Krajina Serbs, and
Jovic replied that such an attempt had never been made.
When the discussion turned to the Bosnian war, the Cutileiro peace plan
was discussed. Milosevic read out a quote from Cutliero where he said in
regard to the Muslim decision to withdraw from the plan that ?they have
obviously opted for war and they must bear a great responsibility.? Jovic
then confirmed that this was the reaction that was expressed at the time.
The fact that Izetbegovic renounced the peace plan, and withdrew his signature
from it before the war ever started proves that the war in Bosnia can be
attributed exclusively to him, and Cutliero?s statement bears that out.
The Cutliero plan could have stopped the war before it started, but Izetbegovic
opted for war instead of peace.
Jovic confirmed that Serbia and Milosevic personally supported the Cutliero
plan. The fact that Serbia led by Milosevic supported a peace plan that
called for an independent Bosnia proves that Serbia had no territorial
aspirations towards Bosnia whatsoever.
Jovic confirmed that Milosevic and the whole Serbian and Yugoslav leadership
condemned ethnic cleansing regardless of who was committing it, and demanded
that people engaged in such a crime be punished. Jovic also said that Milosevic
emphatically, repeatedly, and publicly condemned the shelling of Sarajevo.
Jovic confirmed that tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslim refugees sought
shelter, and were given accommodation in Serbia. From this fact alone it
is quite obvious that Serbia wasn?t engaged in any sort of genocide against
the Muslims.
President Milosevic asked if either he or the Government ever put forward
any plan or enacted any plan that sought to deny any ethnic group or minority
their equal rights, and President Milosevic specifically mentioned the
Kosovo Albanians.
Jovic responded that the policy of the Serbian Government and Slobodan
Milosevic in particular was that every citizen had to be equal regardless
of their ethnicity.
Ante Markovic was a topic of discussion. According to Jovic, Ante Markovic
was the extended arm of the U.S. Government in Yugoslavia. Jovic said that
Markovic?s goal was to topple socialism in Yugoslavia, particularly the
government of Serbia.
It turns out that Jovic wrote another book that the OTP didn?t know about.
The book ?The Dismemberment of Yugoslavia? outlined how Ante Markovic almost
single-handedly destroyed Yugoslavia?s economy. According to Jovic, no
one man did more damage to Yugoslavia than Ante Markovic.
When Ante Markovic testified he represented himself as some sort of economic
savior, but Jovic had a different story. Jovic said that Markovic conducted
his economic policy on behalf of foreign interests, with an aim to sabotage
the Serbian economy in order to topple the Serbian government.
Jovic explained how Markovic introduced a program whereby the Yugoslav
dinar was convertible at a ratio of 7 dinars for 1 deutschemark. Jovic
explained that on the basis of Markovic?s program citizens went out and
converted their savings into deutschemarks.
What happened according to Jovic was that Markovic raided the foreign exchange
reserves of the SFRY, and the citizens who had converted their money into
deutschemarks were unable to get their money back out of the banks, and
had to be issued what amounted to IOU?s by the state.
Jovic explained that Markovic used the money from the SFRY?s foreign exchange
reserves to pay Croatia?s debt. Markovic?s so-called ?economic reforms?
were a scam that increased the SFRY?s debt many fold.
The Amicus Curiae, Mr. Tapuskovic also brought up Ante Markovic. Tapuskovic
had acquired the stenogram of the 12 July 1991 presidency meeting at which
Markovic (who was the federal prime minister) was present.
From the stenogram it could be seen quite clearly that Ante Markovic, in
violation of the constitution, had in fact ordered the JNA to take over
border and customs posts on Slovenia?s external borders. It could also be
seen from the stenogram that the SFRY presidency was against this unlawful
deployment of the JNA by Markovic.
Markovic had simply taken it upon himself to issue the orders when the
SFRY presidency was on a break, and the army had executed his orders in
spite of the fact that he didn?t have the authority to issue them. This
is an important point because when Markovic testified he denied ever doing
this, but it was proven today that he did.
Earlier in the cross-examination Jovic told Milosevic about how Slovenia
had irrationally linked itself to Croatia.
Slovenia is a fairly mono-ethnic republic. All of the Slovenes pretty much
live in Slovenia, and its population is over 90% Slovene. Slovenia?s succession
from Yugoslavia should have been pretty easy. Where as Croatia?s succession
was more difficult because two ethnic groups lived there, the Serbs who
wanted to stay in Yugoslavia, and the Croats who wanted to leave Yugoslavia.
For some reason, instead of just leaving the Yugoslav federation, as it
could have easily done, Slovenia linked itself to Croatia and demanded
the disassociation of the SFRY. The question arises why was it any of Slovenia?s
business what the rest of Yugoslavia did? Slovenia wanted to leave.
Jovic theorized that Slovenia acted the way it did because it was endeavoring
to break-up Yugoslavia on behalf of foreign interests, predominantly German
and American interests.
Jovic said that Slovenia launched an unprovoked attack against the JNA.
The JNA only had 6,000 troops in Slovenia, and the Slovene paramilitary
numbered 55,000. According to Jovic Slovenia wanted to prove to the other
Yugoslav republics that it won its independence by violent armed rebellion,
and Ante Markovic?s illegal orders to the engage the JNA in Slovenia only
helped the Slovenes to more effectively create this scenario.
After Slovenia left, Croatia announced its succession. Croatia pursued
a fait accompli policy. Croatian paramilitaries attacked the JNA and blocked
it in its barracks. The Croatian idea was to achieve international recognition
first, and then deal with the Serbs later. Unfortunately, Croatia got its
wish.
At the same time as Slovenia and Croatia were engaged in violent succession
Germany was putting pressure on the EC to grant recognition to the secessionist
republics. Initially Germany was the only country in the EC that wanted
to recognize Croatia and Slovenia, but the Germans threatened to withdraw
from the EC if Slovenia and Croatia were not recognized and so the EC acquiesced
to German demands and granted recognition to Croatia and Slovenia.
According to Jovic?s book there is evidence that the Germans were endeavoring
to break-up and provoke civil-war in Yugoslavia. According to Jovic?s testimony
a video tape exists where the former Slovene assembly speaker France Bucar
can be seen discussing various ways to start a civil war in Yugoslavia
with a German spy.
Jovic said that there was also intelligence data that suggested Croatian
paramilitaries were receiving training in Germany.
According to Jovic the United States originally opposed the break-up of
Yugoslavia. However, Jovic believed that the United States was so Hell-bent
on getting rid of communism that the Americans elected to get rid of communism
in Yugoslavia by breaking-up the country, and then dealing with the individual
pieces.
Simply put, in Jovic?s estimation, the USA?s objective was to get rid of
the communists in Yugoslavia, and the method that America ultimately used
to achieve its goal was the destruction of Yugoslavia itself.
Then the cross-examination turned to personal issues regarding Milosevic,
and issues internal to the SPS, although one other important point was
raised. Jovic and Milosevic both agreed there were hundreds of newspapers,
TV stations, and radio stations operating in Serbia that were not controlled
by the government. Only the state-owned media was influenced by the state.
After President Milosevic concluded his cross-examination; the Amicus Curiae
Mr. Tapuskovic cross-examined Jovic.
As I mentioned earlier Tapuskovic had acquired the stenogram of the 12
July 1991 SFRY presidency session, when Ante Markovic is caught issuing
illegal orders to the JNA.
There were some other interesting things taking place at that same presidency
session. For example the Yugoslav Defense Minister, Veljko Kadijevic was
reporting that paramilitary formations on SFRY territory numbered approximately
200,000 men, whereas the JNA only numbered 140,000 men.
In view of this shocking information Kadijevic is asking for the JNA to
disarm these paramilitaries before what had happened in Slovenia repeats
itself elsewhere in the country.
In this stenogram it can be seen quite clearly that Stjepan Mesic opposed
the disarming of paramilitary formations. Mesic considered that the JNA
should go to its barracks, but by that time Croatian paramilitaries were
already blocking and laying siege on JNA barracks in Croatia. Mesic essentially
wanted the JNA to be prisoners.
Jovic opposed the election of Mesic to the presidency in the first place.
However, he explained that the EC prevailed upon the presidency and insisted
that they accept Mesic, even though Mesic had already stated quite clearly
that he wanted to destroy Yugoslavia.
After Mr. Tapuskovic?s cross-examination was cut off, Mr. Robinson brought
up the fact that the prosecution was seeking tender the BBC documentary
?The Death of Yugoslavia? as an exhibit. Robinson observed that Jovic had
appeared in the documentary and asked if it was an accurate documentary,
and if it accurately represented him.
Mr. Jovic gave a critique of the BBC documentary that the BBC probably
won?t use in any of its advertising. Jovic denounced the BBC program as
being ?contrived and incorrect,? and he said that the BBC took his interview
out of its proper context.
Mr. Jovic was then re-examined by Mr. Nice. Nice was obviously on a fishing
expedition. He was trying to get Jovic to say something in order to incriminate
himself. Nice was trying to lay the foundation for an indictment against
Jovic. Nice didn?t succeed, although I don?t think that will stop The Hague
?tribunal? from issuing an indictment anyway. Since when has The Hague
?tribunal? been afraid to issue unfounded indictments against Serbs?
On the bright side Nice?s failed fishing expedition did give Jovic the
chance to bring up one other additional point; Croatia and Slovenia did
not separate from Yugoslavia in accordance with the laws of Yugoslavia.
Jovic pointed out that the Constitutional Court of Yugoslavia had made
its ruling and found their succession to be in violation of the SFRY constitution.
After Nice finished the so-called ?tribunal? adjourned. It will reconvene
again on Monday.
__________________________________________________________________
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1. MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: BORISLAV JOVIC COMES TO THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL
- November 18, 2003
2. MILOSEVIC ?TRIAL? SYNOPSIS: THE CROSS-EXAMINATION OF BORISLAV JOVIC
? PART I - Nov. 19, 2003
3. MILOSEVIC ?TRIAL? SYNOPSIS: THE CROSS-EXAMINATION OF BORISLAV JOVIC
- PART II ? Nov. 20, 2003
(NOTA: chi fosse in grado di tradurre questa importante documentazione e'
pregato di comunicarcelo con sollecitudine, grazie. CNJ)
=== 1 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg111803.htm
MILOSEVIC "TRIAL" SYNOPSIS: BORISLAV JOVIC COMES TO THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL
www.slobodan-milosevic.org - November 18, 2003
The secret witness B-1524 finished his testimony at the Hague Tribunal
today. He finished his examination-in-chief last week, and he was cross-examined
today. B-1524 was a resident of Zvornik, a reserve officer in the T.O.,
and a high official in the municipal government.
According to B-1524 everybody was armed. He said that black market arms
dealers came into Zvornik and sold weapons to the population there regardless
of their ethnicity. The the Muslims were not unarmed. They could buy weapons
from blackmarketeers as easily as the Serbs could.
B-1524 said that armed Muslims congregated around the mosques, and in the
city of Zvornik itself. He also said that at the same time as the Muslims
were arming that the Serbs were also arming and that they mainly occupied
the suburbs. B-1524 confirmed that the conflict in Zvornik was between
locals. He also said that the SDA and the SDS jointly toppled the League
of Communists, but that neither one was competent to govern.
B-1524 said that 10,000 residents of Zvornik, primarily Muslims, fled the
city as refugees and went to seek shelter in Serbia. This is an important
point. Muslims fled to Serbia in order to escape the civil war in Bosnia.
This fact alone demonstrates that Serbia wasn?t waging any sort of aggression
against Bosnian Muslims. If Serbia had been pursuing a policy of genocide
against Muslims then certainly they wouldn?t have sought shelter in Serbia.
B-1524 also said that the JNA did not attack Zvornik. He claimed that illegal
paramilitary formations attacked Zvornik.
The next witness was Borislav Jovic. As Serbia?s representative, Borislav
Jovic was the president of the SFRY presidency in 1989 and 1990. He was
the president of the SPS in 1991 and 1992 and was later the vice-president
of the SPS from 1992 until 1995 when he was asked to resign his position.
He has written 2 books, one entitled ?The Death of the SFRY? which was
compiled from his diary, and another book he wrote in 2000 about his opinion
of Slobodan Milosevic?s personality.
In its typical underhanded fashion the Prosecution didn?t provide Jovic?s
witness statement to President Milosevic until 6 o?clock the previous night.
Mr. Jovic first explained to Mr. Nice that his books only represent his
personal views and assessments, and that their contents could be challenged.
Jovic went on to explain to a disappointed Mr. Nice that Slobodan Milosevic
didn?t control the SFRY presidency, or the JNA.
Stepjan Mesic had testified earlier that Jovic would leave SFRY Presidency
meetings in order to call Milosevic and receive instructions from him.
Jovic flatly denied this.
Jovic also said that Serbian volunteers fighting in Croatia and Bosnia
were not under Milosevic?s control. According to Jovic volunteer units
and individual volunteers were suborned to the army and that when they did
not adhere to military discipline they were regarded as paramilitaries.
Jovic said that President Milosevic regarded Arkan as a criminal, and said
that he told him, at a time when they had good relations that Arkan was
not in any way associated with the Government of Serbia.
Jovic denied that the JNA had shelled the old city of Dubrovnik. According
to Jovic only 2 shells fell on the old city by accident. Mr. Nice tried
to counter Jovic?s assertion by playing a video that showed 1 damaged building
in the old city, where as the rest of the old city was unscathed.
After playing a video tape of news story from ITN, and that other rather
unimpressive video, Nice asked Jovic again if he still believed that only
2 shells fell on Dubrovnik, and Jovic said that he did.
Mr. Nice asked Jovic if the JNA had perpetrated a massacre at Vukovar and
Jovic denied it. Jovic said that the JNA was ordered to protect civilians.
Nice, becoming increasingly frustrated, then began to threaten Jovic reminding
him that he was the commander-in-chief of the JNA at the time of Dubrovnik
and Vukovar. This was clearly a veiled threat from Mr. Nice, a signal that
if Jovic didn?t ?play ball? that he would be indicted himself. Jovic none
the less stood his ground, and why shouldn?t he? Milan Babic testified
against Milosevic, he did exactly what the prosecution wanted him to do,
and they?ve indicted him anyway. In fact they just indicted him today.
Jovic also denied that the infamous Karadjorjevo meeting had ever taken
place. Jovic said that it had always been Serbia?s position that Bosnia
should not be divided. Jovic said that Mesic had invented the Karadjorjevo
meeting in order to inflict political damage on Franjo Tudjman in Croatia,
because the two of them were having a dispute at the time.
Mr. Jovic clearly does not like Slobodan Milosevic as a person, and so
Mr. Nice spent a lot of time dwelling on things that Jovic found objectionable
in Milosevic?s personality. However, none of this has anything to do with
whether or not Slobodan Milosevic is a war criminal. It was clear that
Mr. Nice was only getting Jovic to say negative things about Milosevic?s
personality so that the OTP?s cronies in the media and at CIJ would have
something bad they could say about President Milosevic.
On the key issue Jovic came through for President Milosevic. Jovic vehemently
denied that Slobodan Milosevic was a nationalist. Jovic said that it was
always President Milosevic?s position that all people had to be equal no
matter what their ethnicity was. Jovic said that President Milosevic would
never agree that anybody could be mistreated or denied rights because they
weren?t a Serb.
Mr. Nice will complete the examination-in-chief tomorrow, and then President
Milosevic will have the opportunity to cross-examine Jovic.
=== 2 ===
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg111903.htm
MILOSEVIC ?TRIAL? SYNOPSIS: THE CROSS-EXAMINATION OF BORISLAV JOVIC ? PART
I
www.slobodan-milosevic.org ? November 19, 2003
Written by: Andy Wilcoxson
Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice finished the examination-in-chief of former SFRY
presidency member Borislav Jovic today.
Mr. Nice had some difficulty with his witness. Mr. Jovic accused Nice of
quoting excerpts from his book out of their proper context, and the examination-in-chief
was frequently confrontational. At one point Mr. Nice played a video where
some JNA personnel could be seen celebrating the liberation of the JNA
barracks at Vukovar.
Mr. Nice asked Jovic if he knew about the celebration and when Jovic said
that he didn?t, Nice asked him how, as president of the SFRY presidency,
he could not know about such a celebration. Jovic explained to Nice that
the JNA wasn?t micromanaged by the SFRY presidency to the point that members
of the army needed the special approval of the presidency to have a meeting
to congratulate one another after a successful operation.
Mr. Jovic explained to Nice that the SFRY presidency used the JNA in Croatia
to protect the Serbs who were living there from the marauding Croatian
paramilitaries. He explained that the SFRY presidency had no intention
of overthrowing the government in Zagreb. The JNA, and the SFRY presidency?s
only objective was to protect the civilian population until such time as
a political solution could be reached.
Mr. Jovic explained to Nice that Ante Markovic pursued an economic policy
that was contrary to Serbian interests. Markovic?s economic reforms put
price caps on electricity and food to such an extent that Serbia?s two
main exports, agriculture and electricity were operating at a financial
loss. At the same time as Markovic was putting the screws to the Serbian
economy he was freeing price controls on exports from other republics.
Jovic explained that it was Markovic?s objective to topple the Serbian
leadership by sabotaging the Serbian economy.
Nice asked if Jovic if he was able to disagree with Milosevic publicly.
Jovic explained that they tried not to have public disagreements, but that
one time they did trade public accusations over the management of the SPS.
It was apparent from Mr. Jovic?s testimony that he has a personal dislike
for Slobodan Milosevic. During the examination-in-chief Mr. Jovic was frequently
critical of Milosevic?s personality, he said that Milosevic chose associates
who were ?yes men,? and Jovic called Milosevic a clumsy leader. During
cross-examination Milosevic referred to Mr. Jovic by his nickname ?Bora?
while Mr. Jovic only referred to Milosevic in the 3rd person.
In spite of Jovic?s own obvious personal dislike for Milosevic, he testified
truthfully. Mr. Jovic?s testimony cleared-up a number of things.
The JNA?s chain of command was cleared up. The SFRY collective presidency
commanded the JNA. The SFRY presidency would appoint and dismiss JNA Generals,
and members of the General Staff. The SFRY presidency was the order issuing
authority to the JNA.
The 8 member SFRY presidency was composed of 1 member from each republic
and each autonomous province. The presidency decisions were made on the
basis of a majority vote. If 5 members, or in some cases 6 voted for a
decision to be adopted then the full force of the SFRY presidency was put
behind the decision.
The JNA was issued its orders by the SFRY presidency, and the General Staff
of the JNA was bound to carryout those orders and report back to the SFRY
presidency. The entire SFRY presidency formed the supreme commander of
the JNA, no one member, not even the president of the presidency had the
ability to issued orders individually. Jovic also confirmed that none of
the republic presidents had any ability to issue orders to the JNA.
It is quite clear that Slobodan Milosevic did not command the JNA. He simply
had no ability to command the JNA. In fact Jovic confirmed that Milosevic
was not even kept abreast of JNA activities outside of Serbia.
It has been suggested by the prosecution that Slobodan Milosevic somehow
controlled the SFRY presidency. This was cleared up as well. Slobodan Milosevic,
being the president of Serbia, could only influence Serbia?s member of
the Presidency. The other presidency members were appointed by their respective
republics and provinces. Each presidency member was bound to protect his
republic or province?s interests, and each republic and province had the
right to put forward anybody they wanted to for their presidency member,
or replace their member if they considered that he had acted against their
interest.
The presidency had 8 members and Slobodan Milosevic only had the ability
to influence one of them. What is more the presidency rotated. Each republic
and province took turns appointing the president of the presidency.
It is quite impossible that Slobodan Milosevic could control the SFRY presidency
in any way on that basis. He had no possible way to form any sort of Serbian
bloc in the SFRY presidency.
The prosecution has also put forward the thesis that the SFRY defense minister,
Veljko Kadijevic, was ?Milosevic?s man.? Maybe, theorizes the prosecution,
Milosevic controlled the JNA by controlling Kadijevic.
This theory was put to bed today. Mr. Jovic explained that Kadijevic was
appointed to his post, with the consent of all 6 republics and both provinces
by the SFRY assembly. Jovic also explained that the SFRY assembly had the
right to remove Kadijevic if it had wanted to.
What?s more Jovic described Milosevic and Kadijevic?s relationship as "tolerant."
According to Jovic the two didn?t particularly like each other or get on
very well with one another. Jovic said that Kadijevic wanted to overthrow
the secessionist governments in Zagreb and Ljubljana, where as Milosevic
only wanted to ensure the protection of those citizens who did not wish
to leave Yugoslavia.
The ?greater Serbia? question was dealt with again today, and the prosecution?s
case on this score was defeated again by its own witness.
Jovic said that no ?greater Serbia? plan had ever existed. Jovic explained
that Serbia?s position was that the SFRY should remain intact. He explained
that Serbs were living in all republics and so it was desirable from Serbia?s
point of view to preserve Yugoslavia. When it became apparent that the
SFRY could no longer exist, Jovic explained that Serbia?s position was that
equality should be ensured for the Serbian people living outside of Serbia.
Jovic confirmed that Serbia?s position was that of the SFRY presidency.
Serbia wanted to strengthen the federal institutions and build a strong
Yugoslav state.
The claim has frequently been made by Western media, and the ICTY prosecution
that Slobodan Milosevic revoked Kosovo?s autonomy. Their strategy seems
to be that if they repeat a lie long enough maybe it will become the truth.
Borislav Jovic was at the head of the commission that amended the Serbian
constitution in 1989 to limit Kosovo?s excessive level of autonomy. Kosovo?s
autonomy was not revoked by the amendments it was simply limited to a sensible
level.
Under the 1974 constitution, Serbia couldn?t enact laws or amend its constitution
unless the provinces approved it. Serbia was held hostage by its provinces.
The provinces, on the other hand, could do anything they wished and Serbia
couldn?t stop them.
The 1974 constitution conflicted with itself and with the Serbian constitution.
Article III of that constitution granted the republics (not the provinces)
the status of states within Yugoslavia. Because of the provinces? excessive
level of autonomy, the republic of Serbia was denied its rightful status
and was placed at a disadvantage to other republics within the SFRY.
Because of Kosovo?s excessive autonomy, citizens who were wronged by the
Kosovo judiciary couldn?t appeal their cases to the Serbian Supreme Court,
even though they were citizens of the Republic of Serbia. Authority began
and ended with Kosovo.
Kosovo abused its excessive autonomy. Between 1981 and 1987, more than
40,000 Serbs fled Kosovo under pressure from Albanian fascists who were
striving to create an ethnically pure Albanian Kosovo.
The situation was nonsense, and something had to be done to protect the
non-Albanian citizens in Kosovo. In 1988 Serbia appealed to the government
of the SFRY. The SFRY, with the consent of all 6 republics and both provinces
responded by amending the SFRY constitution, thereby allowing Serbia to
amend its constitution.
In 1989 Serbia amended its constitution and the amendments were adopted
with the consent of the Serbian assembly, the Vojovodina assembly, and
the Kosovo assembly. Some have said that military pressure was exerted on
the Kosovo assembly to force it to accept the amendments. Jovic denied
that this was the case. He said that the Army was only present around the
assembly to protect it from the Kosovo Albanian citizens who were demonstrating
against the acceptance of the amendments.
At this point it the 1980 and 1981 demonstrations that took place in Kosovo
were discussed. Jovic said that those demonstrations (at which people were
killed) were violent and verged on a full-blown revolt. From this history
one can clearly see that it was necessary for the army to protect the assembly
building.
Kosovo?s status was not diminished in the SFRY at all. Jovic confirmed
that in 1989 when the constitutional amendments were finalized the president
of the SFRY presidency was Sinan Hasani, a Kosovo Albanian. Hasani, along
with Ante Markovic was present at the Serbian assembly session when the
amendments were finalized and neither had any objections. Kosovo still
appointed its members to the SFRY presidency, and still had the same veto
powers in the federal assembly.
Much has also been made of the fact that the Serbian assembly dissolved
the Kosovo assembly in 1991. This was something that had to be done. Jovic
confirmed that the Kosovo assembly had voted for succession from Serbia,
which was a flagrant violation of the constitutions of both Serbia and
the SFRY. Serbia was obligated under the constitution to dissolve the Kosovo
assembly because it was acting illegally.
The bottom line is that Slobodan Milosevic did not and could not revoke
Kosovo?s autonomy. Kosovo retained its autonomous status, and Serbia?s
constitutional amendments were made in accordance with the laws of the
SFRY. None of the amendments gave Serbia any more power than any of the
other republics.
The question of the establishment of a ?Serb army? was discussed. The prosecution
has put forward the idea that Milosevic was endeavoring to create some
kind of Serb army. Jovic dismissed the idea as nonsense.
Jovic said that the idea of creating a ?Serb army? was being floated by
the opposition parties, namely the SPO and the SRS. Jovic considered that
they were floating this idea just so that they could themselves seize power.
Jovic pointed out that the SPO and the SRS both raised armed formations,
but that the SPS never raised any such formation.
Mr. Jovic also divulged some interesting information about Vuk Draskovic
today. Jovic explained that SFRY government intelligence sources had informed
him that Vuk Draskovic, Stjepan Mesic and the leadership of the Democratic
Party (DS) were all engaged in a conspiracy to topple the JNA and overthrow
the Serbian Government.
So here is Vuk Draskovic, raising an armed group, and advocating a Serbian
army, while at the same time plotting to overthrow the Serbian Government
and wreck the JNA.
Jovic stated quite clearly that Milosevic was against the formation of
any Serbian army and that Milosevic always favored a multiethnic Yugoslav
army.
It was also observed by Jovic that Draskovic cooperated with Warren Zimmerman
in order to try and find ways to overthrow Milosevic and come to power
himself.
Jovic clarified the basis of the SFRY presidency?s decision to place T.O.
weapons under JNA control. Jovic explained that Croatia and Slovenia were
illegally arming their paramilitary formations by stealing the weapons
from out of the T.O. warehouses. Therefore, it was necessary to place the
weapons under JNA control so that paramilitaries couldn?t lay their hands
on them.
Jovic and Milosevic recalled a meeting that was convened by the SFRY presidency
at which all members of the presidency, and all republican presidents were
present. The meeting was convened in order to establish the causes of the
inter-ethnic fighting in Croatia.
The meeting reached the conclusion that the problems arose because Croatia
had denied the Serbs their status as a constituent people in Croatia, even
the Croatian representatives agreed with the conclusions. Unfortunately,
according to Jovic they didn?t act on the conclusions and continued with
their violent policy of succession.
Jovic confirmed that Serbia, and Milosevic personally wanted succession
to be regulated by law in order to prevent conflicts, and the chaotic situation
which ultimately did emerge. Unfortunately, Croatia blocked the SFRY federal
assembly from passing any sort of law like that.
Jovic theorized that Croatia blocked the law because Zagreb wished to pursue
and anti-Serb policy and that a law on succession would force them to afford
equal rights to the Serbs in Croatia before they could separate from Yugoslavia.
Jovic explained the situation in Croatia. He said that already in 1990
Croatian paramilitary formations were intensively arming and threatening
the family members of JNA officers, and even killing them in some cases.
Jovic explained that after the infamous Spegelj film Tudjman had agreed
with the federal presidency decision that paramilitaries should be disarmed.
Unfortunately, Tudjman didn?t disarm the Croatian paramilitaries. On the
contrary, Jovic testified that the Croatian authorities were arming paramilitary
formations, and that they primarily gave weapons to HDZ members.
The Serbs on the other hand believed that the JNA would protect them and
they did disarm. Unfortunately, this left them open to being attacked by
the Croat paramilitaries, and they were attacked.
Unfortunately, these attacks did not result in the imposition of martial
law in Croatia, and so the Serbs reacted by spontaneously arming themselves.
Jovic explained that Croatian paramilitaries blockaded the JNA in its barracks
in violation of the Geneva agreement that had been reached with the Croatian
authorities to allow the JNA to freely leave.
Jovic used the example of Vukovar to explain how those barracks were blockaded,
how the water and electricity was cut off, how there was no food, how siege
was laid on the barracks and how JNA soldiers were being killed in the
barracks. Eventually, Jovic explained, the JNA was forced to attack the
Croat forces in order to liberate its barracks.
Jovic added an interesting detail to the tragedy of operations Storm and
Flash. Jovic said that the Z4 peace plan, which he considered to be a good
plan, was in the offing when Croatia launched its bloody offensive against
the Krajina Serbs. He said that Croatia launched its offensive before the
plan even had a chance to be discussed.
Jovic also addressed the question of Serbian aggression against Bosnia.
Jovic vehemently denied that Serbia had perpetrated any aggression against
Bosnia. Jovic confirmed Milosevic?s claim that the wars in Bosnia and Croatia
were a civil wars, and not some sort of external aggression coming from
Serbia. Jovic confirmed that the republic of Serbia did NOT send any forces
outside of Serbia?s borders.
It is also clear that the JNA waged no aggression on Bosnia. Jovic said
that the JNA was ordered to withdraw on the very day that the international
community recognized Bosnia as an independent state. Therefore, the JNA
was on its own territory and could not possibly be accused of any aggression,
since it is quite impossible to wage aggression against yourself.
Jovic explained that when the JNA withdrew from Bosnia it only withdrew
the members who were not from Bosnia. He said that the remaining soldiers,
who were in their own republic, formed their own command and were no longer
under the command of the JNA.
Jovic said that the Bosnian war was imposed upon the Serbian people, and
Jovic expressed his firm conviction that if the principle of equality that
had existed in Bosnia for the previous 50 years had been respected then
there wouldn?t have been any war in Bosnia in the first place.
Jovic confirmed again that Bosnia was a civil war and that neither Serbia
nor Yugoslavia had anything to do with it. To demonstrate this he confirmed
that at the promulgation of the 1992 FRY constitution a statement was issued
saying that the FRY had no territorial pretensions towards any of the former
Yugoslav republics.
Jovic confirmed that the war in Bosnia was started with the illegal referendum
on succession. He also added an interesting fact. Jovic said that the idea
to have this sort of referendum had come from the E.C.
Jovic confirmed that before the war, on 18 March 1992 all three sides accepted
and signed the Cutileiro peace plan. He also explained how on 25 March
1992 Alija Izetbegovic, under the influence of Warren Zimmerman, reneged
and withdrew his signature from the peace plan.
Jovic agreed with Milosevic?s observation that the Serbs acceptance of
the Cutileiro plan showed that not even the Serbs in Bosnia had any ideas
about creating any greater Serbia. The Cutileiro plan called for an independent
Bosnia divided into cantons, and the original demand of the Bosnian Serbs
had been to remain in Yugoslavia. So quite clearly we can see from their
acceptance of the plan that they had no ideas about forming any greater
Serbia. In fact the Serbs were willing to make compromises to achieve peace,
unlike Izetbegovic who said "I would sacrifice peace in order to win sovereignty
for Bosnia, but for that peace in Bosnia I would not sacrifice sovereignty."
To drive this point home President Milosevic showed Jovic a transcript
from an SFRY presidency meeting where Radovan Karadzic had been present
and had accepted that Bosnia would be an independent state, but that he
insisted on the equality for the Serb people living there.
Jovic confirmed that Serbia had 2 main goals vis-à-vis the war in Bosnia.
The primary goal was to find a way to put a stop to the war, and the secondary
goal was to get the sanctions lifted. To prove that Serbia was trying to
achieve peace it was noted by Milosevic and Jovic that Serbia supported
the Cutileiro plan in March of 1992, the Vance-Owen plan in May of 1993,
the Owen-Stoltenberg plan (a.k.a. the ?invincible plan?) in September of
1993, the European Union Action plan in December of 1993, the Contact Group
plan in July of 1994, and ultimately the Dayton peace plan in 1995.
Jovic explained how the SFRY presidency was marginalized by the international
community. When Croatia and Slovenia left Yugoslavia their members left
the collective presidency, leaving a 6 member rump presidency behind.
The presidency could still legally function with 6 members, since the full
presidency consisted of 8 members and only a majority was required to reach
decisions.
Unfortunately, the international community, according to Jovic, did not
recognize the presidency?s authority. Instead, the international community
decided to ignore the Helsinki Final Act and recognized the secessionists
as the legitimate governments, as opposed to adhering to the act which
clearly states that a state?s frontiers are inviolable.
In fact, according to Jovic all republics, except for Croatia and Slovenia,
wished to maintain the SFRY until the international community changed its
stance and advocated succession from Yugoslavia.
Jovic explained that Yugoslavia and Serbia became disillusioned when Europe
lent its support to violent succession. He said that it became obvious
that international law was being manipulated and twisted in order to serve
the interests of the great powers.
On that sad note the hearing ended. Mr. Jovic will continue his with his
cross-examination tomorrow.
=== 3 ===
MILOSEVIC ?TRIAL? SYNOPSIS: THE CROSS-EXAMINATION OF BORISLAV JOVIC - PART
II
www.slobodan-milosevic.org ? November 20, 2003
Written by Andy Wilcoxson
The testimony of former SFRY presidency member Borislav Jovic was concluded
today. The majority of the first session was spent discussing various peace
initiatives, and everything basically boiled down to this. Serbia and Slobodan
Milosevic personally supported practically every peace plan to come down
the pike. Serbia and Yugoslavia?s efforts were directed towards stopping
the war and finding a just political solution to the conflicts in Croatia
and Bosnia that respected the equality of all of the parties.
To highlight Serbia?s position President Milosevic read out a statement
that the Government of Serbia issued on August 30, 1991 that said that
the Yugoslav crisis should be settled peacefully and democratically. Jovic
then confirmed that this was Serbia?s position.
Jovic said that Serbia and Milosevic?s position at the beginning of the
crisis was that all nations who wished to leave Yugoslavia should be allowed
to do so, while the nations who wished to remain in Yugoslavia should be
permitted to stay.
Simply put the right of people to remain in Yugoslavia had to be equal
to the right of people to leave Yugoslavia. To accomplish this Serbia and
the SFRY presidency endeavored to have a law on succession passed so that
succession could be regulated by the law, and conflicts could be avoided.
Unfortunately, Croatia blocked such a law from being passed in the Federal
Assembly.
Once the fighting started in Bosnia and Croatia Jovic confirmed that Milosevic?s
position was that the hostilities should immediately cease and peace negotiations
should take place on the principle of equality.
Serbia?s only goal from the outset was to find a solution that was fair
to both the Serbs and the Croats in Croatia. Jovic confirmed that everything
Serbia did in regard to Croatia was geared towards finding a solution that
was fair to both parties.
Jovic testified that neither Serbia nor Yugoslavia had any desire to conquer
any Croatian territory. Serbia and Yugoslavia?s acceptance and support
for the Vance plan proves this fact. Under the Vance plan the JNA withdrew
from Croatia, and the UN soldiers came in. If the aim of Yugoslavia had
been to conquer Croatia then certainly it wouldn?t have withdrawn its army.
Jovic considered that the primary cause of the war in Croatia was Croatia?s
decision to throw the Serbs out of the constitution, and deny them their
status as a constituent people. Croatia banned the Cyrillic alphabet, and
Tudjman had plans to ban the Serbian Orthodox Church in Croatia.
Jovic had published in his book (that has been introduced into evidence)
minutes of a meeting where Tudjman spoke in Cleveland. The meeting took
place before Tudjman came to power. At the meeting Tudjman was laying out
the HDZ?s plans for Croatia, and these plans included a ban on the Serbian
Orthodox Church and a ban on the term ?Serb?. According to Tudjman?s plans
Serbs would be called ?Orthodox Croats.?
Outlawing being a Serb in Croatia was only one part of Tudjman?s plans.
The primary aim of the HDZ, according to the minutes of the meeting was
to break Croatia away from Yugoslavia.
Jovic recounted one occasion when Franjo Tudjman accused him of instigating
a Serb rebellion in the Krajina. Jovic pointed out that the rebellion only
began after Tudjman threw the Serbs out of the constitution and banned
the Cyrillic alphabet. Therefore, it was Tudjman?s actions and not Jovic?s
that provoked the rebellion.
In response to this Milosevic asked if anybody in the Government of Serbia
had ever attempted to incite an armed rebellion by the Krajina Serbs, and
Jovic replied that such an attempt had never been made.
When the discussion turned to the Bosnian war, the Cutileiro peace plan
was discussed. Milosevic read out a quote from Cutliero where he said in
regard to the Muslim decision to withdraw from the plan that ?they have
obviously opted for war and they must bear a great responsibility.? Jovic
then confirmed that this was the reaction that was expressed at the time.
The fact that Izetbegovic renounced the peace plan, and withdrew his signature
from it before the war ever started proves that the war in Bosnia can be
attributed exclusively to him, and Cutliero?s statement bears that out.
The Cutliero plan could have stopped the war before it started, but Izetbegovic
opted for war instead of peace.
Jovic confirmed that Serbia and Milosevic personally supported the Cutliero
plan. The fact that Serbia led by Milosevic supported a peace plan that
called for an independent Bosnia proves that Serbia had no territorial
aspirations towards Bosnia whatsoever.
Jovic confirmed that Milosevic and the whole Serbian and Yugoslav leadership
condemned ethnic cleansing regardless of who was committing it, and demanded
that people engaged in such a crime be punished. Jovic also said that Milosevic
emphatically, repeatedly, and publicly condemned the shelling of Sarajevo.
Jovic confirmed that tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslim refugees sought
shelter, and were given accommodation in Serbia. From this fact alone it
is quite obvious that Serbia wasn?t engaged in any sort of genocide against
the Muslims.
President Milosevic asked if either he or the Government ever put forward
any plan or enacted any plan that sought to deny any ethnic group or minority
their equal rights, and President Milosevic specifically mentioned the
Kosovo Albanians.
Jovic responded that the policy of the Serbian Government and Slobodan
Milosevic in particular was that every citizen had to be equal regardless
of their ethnicity.
Ante Markovic was a topic of discussion. According to Jovic, Ante Markovic
was the extended arm of the U.S. Government in Yugoslavia. Jovic said that
Markovic?s goal was to topple socialism in Yugoslavia, particularly the
government of Serbia.
It turns out that Jovic wrote another book that the OTP didn?t know about.
The book ?The Dismemberment of Yugoslavia? outlined how Ante Markovic almost
single-handedly destroyed Yugoslavia?s economy. According to Jovic, no
one man did more damage to Yugoslavia than Ante Markovic.
When Ante Markovic testified he represented himself as some sort of economic
savior, but Jovic had a different story. Jovic said that Markovic conducted
his economic policy on behalf of foreign interests, with an aim to sabotage
the Serbian economy in order to topple the Serbian government.
Jovic explained how Markovic introduced a program whereby the Yugoslav
dinar was convertible at a ratio of 7 dinars for 1 deutschemark. Jovic
explained that on the basis of Markovic?s program citizens went out and
converted their savings into deutschemarks.
What happened according to Jovic was that Markovic raided the foreign exchange
reserves of the SFRY, and the citizens who had converted their money into
deutschemarks were unable to get their money back out of the banks, and
had to be issued what amounted to IOU?s by the state.
Jovic explained that Markovic used the money from the SFRY?s foreign exchange
reserves to pay Croatia?s debt. Markovic?s so-called ?economic reforms?
were a scam that increased the SFRY?s debt many fold.
The Amicus Curiae, Mr. Tapuskovic also brought up Ante Markovic. Tapuskovic
had acquired the stenogram of the 12 July 1991 presidency meeting at which
Markovic (who was the federal prime minister) was present.
From the stenogram it could be seen quite clearly that Ante Markovic, in
violation of the constitution, had in fact ordered the JNA to take over
border and customs posts on Slovenia?s external borders. It could also be
seen from the stenogram that the SFRY presidency was against this unlawful
deployment of the JNA by Markovic.
Markovic had simply taken it upon himself to issue the orders when the
SFRY presidency was on a break, and the army had executed his orders in
spite of the fact that he didn?t have the authority to issue them. This
is an important point because when Markovic testified he denied ever doing
this, but it was proven today that he did.
Earlier in the cross-examination Jovic told Milosevic about how Slovenia
had irrationally linked itself to Croatia.
Slovenia is a fairly mono-ethnic republic. All of the Slovenes pretty much
live in Slovenia, and its population is over 90% Slovene. Slovenia?s succession
from Yugoslavia should have been pretty easy. Where as Croatia?s succession
was more difficult because two ethnic groups lived there, the Serbs who
wanted to stay in Yugoslavia, and the Croats who wanted to leave Yugoslavia.
For some reason, instead of just leaving the Yugoslav federation, as it
could have easily done, Slovenia linked itself to Croatia and demanded
the disassociation of the SFRY. The question arises why was it any of Slovenia?s
business what the rest of Yugoslavia did? Slovenia wanted to leave.
Jovic theorized that Slovenia acted the way it did because it was endeavoring
to break-up Yugoslavia on behalf of foreign interests, predominantly German
and American interests.
Jovic said that Slovenia launched an unprovoked attack against the JNA.
The JNA only had 6,000 troops in Slovenia, and the Slovene paramilitary
numbered 55,000. According to Jovic Slovenia wanted to prove to the other
Yugoslav republics that it won its independence by violent armed rebellion,
and Ante Markovic?s illegal orders to the engage the JNA in Slovenia only
helped the Slovenes to more effectively create this scenario.
After Slovenia left, Croatia announced its succession. Croatia pursued
a fait accompli policy. Croatian paramilitaries attacked the JNA and blocked
it in its barracks. The Croatian idea was to achieve international recognition
first, and then deal with the Serbs later. Unfortunately, Croatia got its
wish.
At the same time as Slovenia and Croatia were engaged in violent succession
Germany was putting pressure on the EC to grant recognition to the secessionist
republics. Initially Germany was the only country in the EC that wanted
to recognize Croatia and Slovenia, but the Germans threatened to withdraw
from the EC if Slovenia and Croatia were not recognized and so the EC acquiesced
to German demands and granted recognition to Croatia and Slovenia.
According to Jovic?s book there is evidence that the Germans were endeavoring
to break-up and provoke civil-war in Yugoslavia. According to Jovic?s testimony
a video tape exists where the former Slovene assembly speaker France Bucar
can be seen discussing various ways to start a civil war in Yugoslavia
with a German spy.
Jovic said that there was also intelligence data that suggested Croatian
paramilitaries were receiving training in Germany.
According to Jovic the United States originally opposed the break-up of
Yugoslavia. However, Jovic believed that the United States was so Hell-bent
on getting rid of communism that the Americans elected to get rid of communism
in Yugoslavia by breaking-up the country, and then dealing with the individual
pieces.
Simply put, in Jovic?s estimation, the USA?s objective was to get rid of
the communists in Yugoslavia, and the method that America ultimately used
to achieve its goal was the destruction of Yugoslavia itself.
Then the cross-examination turned to personal issues regarding Milosevic,
and issues internal to the SPS, although one other important point was
raised. Jovic and Milosevic both agreed there were hundreds of newspapers,
TV stations, and radio stations operating in Serbia that were not controlled
by the government. Only the state-owned media was influenced by the state.
After President Milosevic concluded his cross-examination; the Amicus Curiae
Mr. Tapuskovic cross-examined Jovic.
As I mentioned earlier Tapuskovic had acquired the stenogram of the 12
July 1991 SFRY presidency session, when Ante Markovic is caught issuing
illegal orders to the JNA.
There were some other interesting things taking place at that same presidency
session. For example the Yugoslav Defense Minister, Veljko Kadijevic was
reporting that paramilitary formations on SFRY territory numbered approximately
200,000 men, whereas the JNA only numbered 140,000 men.
In view of this shocking information Kadijevic is asking for the JNA to
disarm these paramilitaries before what had happened in Slovenia repeats
itself elsewhere in the country.
In this stenogram it can be seen quite clearly that Stjepan Mesic opposed
the disarming of paramilitary formations. Mesic considered that the JNA
should go to its barracks, but by that time Croatian paramilitaries were
already blocking and laying siege on JNA barracks in Croatia. Mesic essentially
wanted the JNA to be prisoners.
Jovic opposed the election of Mesic to the presidency in the first place.
However, he explained that the EC prevailed upon the presidency and insisted
that they accept Mesic, even though Mesic had already stated quite clearly
that he wanted to destroy Yugoslavia.
After Mr. Tapuskovic?s cross-examination was cut off, Mr. Robinson brought
up the fact that the prosecution was seeking tender the BBC documentary
?The Death of Yugoslavia? as an exhibit. Robinson observed that Jovic had
appeared in the documentary and asked if it was an accurate documentary,
and if it accurately represented him.
Mr. Jovic gave a critique of the BBC documentary that the BBC probably
won?t use in any of its advertising. Jovic denounced the BBC program as
being ?contrived and incorrect,? and he said that the BBC took his interview
out of its proper context.
Mr. Jovic was then re-examined by Mr. Nice. Nice was obviously on a fishing
expedition. He was trying to get Jovic to say something in order to incriminate
himself. Nice was trying to lay the foundation for an indictment against
Jovic. Nice didn?t succeed, although I don?t think that will stop The Hague
?tribunal? from issuing an indictment anyway. Since when has The Hague
?tribunal? been afraid to issue unfounded indictments against Serbs?
On the bright side Nice?s failed fishing expedition did give Jovic the
chance to bring up one other additional point; Croatia and Slovenia did
not separate from Yugoslavia in accordance with the laws of Yugoslavia.
Jovic pointed out that the Constitutional Court of Yugoslavia had made
its ruling and found their succession to be in violation of the SFRY constitution.
After Nice finished the so-called ?tribunal? adjourned. It will reconvene
again on Monday.
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