Informazione

Gli Intoccabili / The Untouchables

Dopo Hasim Thaci (*) anche Agim Ceku - responsabile delle stragi in
Slavonia come ufficiale croato prima ancora che in Kosovo-Metohija come
terrorista dell'UCK - e' stato arrestato e liberato a velocita' record.
Ceku e' stato immediatamente rilasciato in seguito all'intervento
diretto dell'UNMIK, organizzazione evidentemente dedita alla protezione
dei criminali di guerra alleati della NATO oltreche' alla copertura del
genocidio delle nazionalita' non albanesi, in atto in Kosovo-Metohija.
(a cura di I. Slavo)

(*) vedi:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2622
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2642


=== ITALIANO ===


http://www.ansa.it/balcani/kosovo/kosovo.shtml

KOSOVO: FERMATO IN SLOVENIA EX CAPO MILITARE UCK

(ANSA) - PRISTINA, 22 OTT - L'ex capo militare dell'Esercito di
liberazione del Kosovo (Uck) Agim Ceku e' stato fermato oggi
all'aeroporto della citta' di Lubiana: lo riferisce l'agenzia di
stampa kosova online Kosovapress. Secondo la fonte Ceku, che e'
attualmente comandante generale del corpo di protezione del Kosovo
(Tmk), e' colpito da un vecchio ordine di arresto delle autorita' di
Belgrado.(ANSA). BLL
22/10/2003 15:27

KOSOVO: FERMO CEKU, BELGRADO CHIEDE ESTRADIZIONE

(ANSA) - BELGRADO, 22 OTT - Il ministro della giustizia serbo Vladan
Batic ha chiesto al collega incaricato dei diritti umani e delle
minoranze Rasim Ljajic - competente per l'estradizione di criminali di
guerra - di contattare urgentemente le autorita' slovene perche' venga
estradato in Serbia Agim Ceku, comandante del Corpo di protezione del
Kosovo ed ex alto esponente del disciolto Esercito di liberazione
kosovaro (Uck). Batic ha accusato Ceku di ''genocidio nei confronti
del popolo serbo in Kosovo''. Contro l'esponente kosovaro albanese,
un tribunale di Nis (Serbia del sud) aveva emesso l'anno scorso un
mandato di cattura internazionale. ''Il caso Ceku e' molto chiaro
dal punto di vista giuridico - ha detto Batic all'agenzia Tanjug - se
non ci saranno pressioni da parte di potentati, dovra' essere
estradato''. Il ministro ha espresso ''la speranza che non si ripeta
quanto e' accaduto a Budapest'', quando venne fermato per un controllo
il leader kosovaro albanese Hasim Taqi, contro il quale Belgrado aveva
emesso un ordine di cattura. Taqi venne liberato dopo alcune ore,
nonostante le richieste di estradizione di Belgrado. (ANSA).
OT 22/10/2003 17:27

KOSOVO: ARRESTO CEKU, UNMIK IMPEGNATA PER LIBERAZIONE

(ANSA) - PRISTINA, 22 OTT - La missione delle Nazioni Unite in Kosovo
(Unmik) e' ''fortemente impegnata'' per ottenere la liberazione 'il
piu' presto possibile'' di Agim Ceku, il comandante generale del
Corpo di protezione del Kosovo (Tmk) fermato oggi all'aeroporto di
Lubiana perche' colpito da ordine di cattura internazionale emesso
dalle autorita' serbe. Una portavoce dell'Umnik ha detto all'Ansa che
lo sforzo diplomatico per giungere ad una rapida scarcerazione del
generale Ceku ''e' massimo''. La portavoce sottolinea che il Tmk
e' un organismo costituito dalla missione delle Nazioni Unite ed e'
percio' naturale che oggi l'Unmik si adoperi per la liberazione del
suo comandante. La portavoce ha aggiunto di non essere in grado di
precisare a quando risalga l'ordine di cattura che ha colpito Ceku
ne' quali possano essere i tempi del suo ritorno in liberta': ''Per
noi la parola d'ordine - ha concluso - e' il piu' presto possibile''.
BLL/IMP 22/10/2003 18:14

KOSOVO: SLOVENIA; RILASCIATO AGIM CEKU, EX CAPO MILITARE UCK

(ANSA) - PRISTINA, 23 OTT - Agim Ceku, l'ex capo militare
dell'Esercito di liberazione del Kosovo (Uck) fermato ieri dalla
polizia slovena, e' stato rilasciato in nottata a Lubiana. Lo ha
annunciato un portavoce del Corpo di protezione del Kosovo (Tmk), la
forza civile succeduta all'Uck.
''Il generale Ceku e' stato rilasciato intorno alle 1:15. Abbiamo
parlato con lui per telefono, sta molto bene'', ha detto all'agenzia
Reuters il portavoce, Muharrem Mahmutaj.
L'arresto di Ceku, attuale comandante del Tmk, ha scatenato
manifestazioni di protesta a Pristina, capoluogo del Kosovo. Contro
Ceku pende un ordine d'arresto delle autorita' di Belgrado, che ne
hanno chiesto l'estradizione.
Centinaia di albanesi del Kosovo si sono riuniti ieri nella piazza
principale di Pristina per chiedere la liberazione dell'ex comandante
militare dell'Uck, arrestato all'aeroporto di Lubiana.
''L'arresto di Ceku e' un attacco al cuore del nostro nuovo Paese e
alle istituzioni democratiche'', ha detto alla Reuters Dardan Islami,
uno degli organizzatori della manifestazione.
Ieri a Belgrado, avuta notizia dell'arresto, il ministro della
giustizia serbo Vladan Batic aveva chiesto al collega incaricato dei
diritti umani e delle minoranze Rasim Ljajic - competente per
l'estradizione di criminali di guerra - di contattare urgentemente le
autorita' slovene per richiedere il trasferimento di Ceku.
Batic ha accusato l'ex capo dell'Uck di ''genocidio nei confronti del
popolo serbo in Kosovo''. Contro di lui un tribunale di Nis (Serbia
del sud) aveva emesso l'anno scorso un mandato di cattura
internazionale.
''Il caso Ceku e' molto chiaro dal punto di vista giuridico - ha detto
Batic all'agenzia Tanjug - se non ci saranno pressioni da parte di
potentati, dovra' essere estradato''.
Il rilascio di Ceku era stato invece subito chiesto dalla Missione
delle Nazioni Unite in Kosovo (Unmik). Una sua portavoce aveva detto
che l'Unmik era ''fortemente impegnata'' per ottenerlo ''il piu'
presto possibile'', e che lo sforzo diplomatico a tal fine era
''massimo''.
La portavoce ha sottolineato che il Tmk e' un organismo costituito
dall'Unmik ed e' percio' naturale l'imegno dell' Unmik per ottenere la
liberazione del suo comandante. (ANSA). COR-DIG 23-OTT-03 02:42
NNNN 23/10/2003 12:35


=== ENGLISH ===


UN COMMENTO DI NEBOJSA MALIC

http://www.antiwar.com/malic/m103003.html

Balkan Express
Antiwar.com
October 30, 2003

The Untouchables

Terrorists Under Imperial Protection

by Nebojsa Malic

Last Wednesday, former KLA commander Agim Ceku was arrested
[http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=5&u=/nm/
20031023/wl_nm/serbiamontenegro_kosovo_dc] in Slovenia on an Interpol
warrant forwarded by Serbia. The following morning, after the
intervention of Kosovo's UN viceroy Harri Holkeri, fierce protests in
Pristina, and even (reportedly) threats of terrorism against Slovenia,
he was released.

According to agency reports cited by Reality Macedonia
[http://www.realitymacedonia.org.mk/web/news_page.asp?nid=2807],
Holkeri told the Slovenians, and then the Albanian-run Kosovo TV, that
"Serbia-Montenegro no longer had jurisdiction over the citizens [sic]
of Kosovo." The Albanian-dominated "Kosovo Parliament" proclaimed on
the same day that "all arrest warrants and court rulings issued by
Serbian institutions" were null and void. Though this far exceeded
their authority, they faced no censure from the UN.

The beaming Ceku was greeted by a jubilant crowd at the Pristina
airport, where he declared that the "whole world should see that Serbia
has no authority in Kosovo."

Not only have Holkeri and Ceku thus declared their utter contempt for
international law, but this affair exposed as hypocritical and
licentious the renewed baying of the Hague Inquisition for more Serb
heads, and proved that despite recent propaganda, Imperial policies in
the Balkans have not changed one bit.

Yanking DOS's Leash

Ceku's arrest and triumphant release were all the more aggravating
coming at the heels of a shocking announcement on the 21st that the
Hague Inquisition has indicted four
[http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2003/10/21/
belgrade_angry_as_hague_indicts_key_serb_figures/] top Serbian military
and police officials – two former, two current –
for partaking in the fictitious "joint criminal
enterprise" in Kosovo. The indictments
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3208878.stm%5d of General Pavkovic and
former police chief Vlastimir Djordjevic did not irritate the Dossie
camarilla that much, since both were close to the deposed president
Milosevic; Pavkovic was arrested
[http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200304_421_1_eng.txt]
this spring on spurious charges, and Djordjevic has disappeared. What
really stuck in their craw was the inclusion of current top cop Sreten
Lukic and General Lazarevic, who had successfully resisted NATO and KLA
attacks and enjoys great respect in the military.

While the Dossies have no problem delivering as many heads as the
Inquisitors may require, they did object to the announcement's timing,
even before the Ceku affair. The Dossie government is currently in the
midst of a messy collapse, with parliamentary filibusters, rampant
electoral fraud and even calls for a coup d'etat
[http://www.serbianna.com/news/story/051.htm%5d; the last thing they
needed was the ICTY yanking their leash.

Also Prime Minister Zivkovic thought he had made a deal
[http://www.tol.cz/look/BRR/
article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=9&NrIssue=1&NrSection=1&NrArticle
=10865] with the Inquisition to deliver Bosnian Serb general Ratko
Mladic, in exchange for no further indictments. This was vehemently
denied by Hague mouthpieces. Meanwhile, futile Mladic hunt
[http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/bq/Qwarcrimes-serbia-
mladic.RvQl_DON.html] was merely seized upon as "proof" he had been in
Serbia all along.

Dossie incompetence, stupidity and servility are a topic for some other
time. Suffice to say that the recent joke finally explained the
quisling coalition's name. Originally the "Democratic Opposition of
Serbia," it remained unchanged for the past three years of their rule.
Critics point out that they need not change the
acronym, or even the name, only the preposition: they ought to be known
as the Democratic Opposition to Serbia.

Protecting the KLA

The real issue here is that the Inquisition continues to insist on
collective guilt of the entire Serbian government for an alleged
conspiracy they have consistently and spectacularly failed to prove –
yet the KLA leaders like Ceku are bailed out by Imperial authorities in
violation of perfectly valid international warrants.

This is not the first time something like this happened. In July,
KLA leader Hashim Taqi was arrested
[http://www.balkanpeace.org/hed/archive/jul03/hed5873.shtml%5d by the
Hungarian authorities, also on a Serbian arrest warrant dating back
from 1999. Kosovo's viceroy at the time, Michael Steiner, secured
Taqi's release then by calling up not only Budapest, but also Belgrade.
And the very same Dossies who fume
[http://www.serbia.sr.gov.yu/news/2003-10/27/331644.html%5d at
"catch-and-release" in Ceku's case had agreed to trample their arrest
warrant for Taqi just four months ago, as a way of cozying up to UNMIK
and NATO (and the real edifice behind both, the Empire).

This time Steiner's successor didn't even bother calling Belgrade,
either knowing the pathetic excuse for a government there will submit
if threatened, or trying to show their opinion was irrelevant; given
his TV statement, probably the latter.

Carla DelPonte can thus tell Serbia
[http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/be/Qwarcrimes-bosnia-serbia.R-
ZJ_DOO.html] it should "abandon hopes" it would be "allowed" to try
high-ranking government officials; only her Inquisition is properly
equipped to handle the exquisite pressures of putting on show trials.
Or perhaps also the UNMIK "judiciary" in Kosovo, which can on rare
occasions dare to brave Albanian rage and indict
some KLA
[http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/ai/Qwarcrimes-kosovo-un.RmcR_DOS.html%5d
for crimes against other Albanians
[http://www.kosovo.com/erpkim29oct03.html#1%5d, and try to reach a
verdict before all the witnesses
[http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/dm/Qwarcrimes-kosovo-un.RNHh_DON.html%5d
are brutally murdered or intimidated into silence.

The ICTY's occasional mumbling about indicting senior KLA figures have
been no more than a cover for its dedicated persecution of Serbs. When
it does accuse non-Serbs, it does so only for the sake of feigning
impartiality. For years, the ICTY denied there was an investigation of
Alija Izetbegovic, based on mountains of evidence gullible Serb
governments had sent to The Hague, only to announce
[http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=518&ncid=732&e=10&u=/
ap/20031023/ap_on_re_eu/war_crimes_izetbegovic] – on the day of
Izetbegovic's funeral – that there had been an investigation, but it
obviously had to be stopped now. How very convenient.

There is no point in arguing that the ICTY is "biased." It is an
illegal [http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/cavoski/c-3.htm%5d,
illegitimate, arbitrary and tyrannical pseudo-institution,
not a court at all.

But while such a monstrosity besieges Serbia by demands
[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21859-2003Oct26.html%5d
to trash its judiciary – admittedly, DOS has done it already for its
own purposes – and deliver more sacrifices at the altar of Imperial
Justice, it treats the KLA to the ultimate "Get out of jail free" pass,
with UNMIK's help.

Support for Destruction

Needless to say, this sort of support only emboldens the KLA-led
efforts to ethnically cleanse Kosovo and eradicate all non-Albanian
presence in the province. For example, a War Street Journal
[http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110004180] editor recently
upbraided the Serbian Orthodox Church for objecting to the wholesale
destruction of its heritage, urging the Serbs to
"arrive at a modern way of living with reality."
That such complete drivel
[http://www.realitymacedonia.org.mk/web/news_page.asp?nid=2796] is
printed in the leading neo-Jacobin
[http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts11.html%5d paper goes a long
way to smash the argument that Bushites are in some way different from
their predecessors when it comes to Balkans policies.

Some Albanian Catholic clergy go even further, claiming
[http://www.kosovo.com/erpkim23oct03.html%5d that Serb Orthodox shrines
are really Albanian Catholic churches, converted in the late 19th
century at the start of "Serbian occupation"! Such claims have no
relationship to the truth whatsoever, but did UNMIK condemn them? Or
the Vatican? No.

Empire Held Hostage?

Feeling immune from criticism, the KLA act with impunity not only
against the Serbs – attacks on whom no one in the West regards as a
particular outrage any more – but against the KFOR troops as well. Just
this Saturday, a patrol was mobbed
[http://www.kosovo.com/erpkim28oct03.html#3%5d in a village near Srbica,
when they parked close to the home of the Jashari
clan, the reputed founders of the KLA.

The Jasharis [http://www.kosovo.com/erpkim29oct03.html#3%5d claimed the
soldiers were drunk and disorderly, so they had to attack them with
axes. KFOR disagreed. Since the house from which the attackers came was
the home of the regional "Kosovo Protection Corps" commander, Bashkim
Jashari, the KFOR brigade commander in the area requested a meeting
with the KPC's leader, the aforementioned Agim Ceku. Yet Ceku never
came to the meeting, showing the KFOR general he thought as much of him
as he did of international law. Needless to say, Ceku was in no way
censured by his nominal employer, the UNMIK.

The incident near Srbica shows an ominous undertone to the KLA's
relationship with the NATO occupiers, whom they had thanked profusely
over the past four years for enabling them to seize and claim Kosovo as
their own. Ever since UNMIK insisted they meet Belgrade representatives
in Vienna earlier this month, the Albanians have not hidden their
displeasure [http://www.antiwar.com/orig/deliso92.html%5d with the
"liberators" they no longer feel they need.

Do KFOR and UNMIK live in fear the KLA would go all Fallujah
[http://www.abc.net.au/news/justin/weekly/newsnat-28oct2003-69.htm%5d on
them, and turn their "protectors" into mincemeat? That question has
been hanging in the air ever since some troops got in the way
[http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/whyisthe.htm%5d of KLA-sponsored
mobs charging Serb-inhabited Kosovska Mitrovica in 2000. It has never
been answered directly, but given UNMIK and KFOR's extreme sensitivity
to any perceived Albanian discontent, the conclusion is obvious: the
"liberators" are in large measure hostages of the terrorist cabal on
whose behalf they "liberated" a piece of someone else's territory in
flagrant breach of international law and the Nuremberg principles
[http://www.brasscheck.com/yugoslavia/directory/52199a.html%5d. They are
also hostages to their commitment to the inexcusable and morally
corrupt venture this occupation represents.

Force, Law and Justice

Holkeri's declaration about Serbian sovereignty – or lack thereof – in
occupied Kosovo was a flagrant violation of his mandate and the UN
Security Council Resolution 1244. But it is worth recalling that UNSCR
1244 was but a fig leaf for NATO's undisputedly illegal invasion and
occupation. Serbia's right to Kosovo is merely reaffirmed in 1244, it
does not derive from it. Under the 1913 Treaty of London
[http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/boshtml/bos145.htm%5d,
the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, the post-1945 boundary
agreements, and even the outrageous 1991 ruling by the self-appointed
Badinter Commission declaring artificial Yugoslav republics to be
sovereign states, Kosovo is a part of Serbia. KLA's terror, NATO's
bombs and UN viceroys' pompous proclamations cannot alter the letter of
international law, only ignore it. Force only solves the issue of
power, not right
[http://www.mises.org/freemarket_detail.asp?control=232]. And that only
until one power is replaced by another.

That's something the champions of force and destroyers of law ought to
keep in mind.

Nebojsa Malic

---

LA SLOVENIA ARRESTA CEKU

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3204695.stm
BBC News, October 22, 2003

Slovenia arrests Kosovo rebel leader

Police in Slovenia have detained the former commander
of Albanian rebels in Kosovo on the basis of a Serbian
arrest warrant.
Agim Ceku commanded the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)
when it was fighting for independence from Serbia and
now leads a civil emergency force there, the Kosovo
Protection Corps (KPC).
He was detained at Ljubljana airport while travelling
between Kosovo and Croatia.
A spokeswoman for the international war crimes
tribunal in The Hague told the BBC that Mr Ceku had
not been indicted by the court.
However, the Slovene authorities said he was being
held on the basis of a Serbian arrest warrant
delivered via Interpol.
Details of the charges contained in the warrant have
not been released.
Another former rebel leader in Kosovo, Hashim Thaci,
who is now a politician, was briefly detained in
Hungary nearly four months ago on the basis of another
warrant issued by Serbia.
The KLA has been blamed for war crimes by the Serbian
authorities.

'Old warrant'

Mr Ceku told news agencies by telephone that he was
being kept in a small room and guarded by two police
officers.
"I was told I am wanted by the Serb government, which
has issued an arrest warrant," he told The Associated
Press.
"They told me they can't release me without consulting
the [Slovene] authorities."
A source at the UN mission in Kosovo (Unmik), which
has been governing the mainly Albanian province since
Serbia withdrew in 1999 after a Nato bombing campaign,
said it seemed that Mr Ceku had been arrested on the
basis of an "old" warrant.
"Unmik is working to resolve this problem with the
Slovenian authorities," the source told Reuters news
agency.
The 3,000-strong KPC which Mr Ceku now leads is
closely supervised by both Unmik and the Nato-led
peacekeeping force, K-for.

---

IL GOVERNATORE COLONIALE HOLKERI INTERVIENE
E FA LIBERARE IL CRIMINALE

http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?nav_id=25184&style=headlines
Beta/B92, October 23, 2003

Holkeri pulls rank on Interpol

LJUBLJANA, PRISTINA -- Thursday – UN diplomat Harri
Holkeri has interceded with Slovenian police to secure
the release of a former Kosovo Liberation Army
commander arrested yesterday.
Agim Ceku now commands the Kosovo Protection Corps,
the civil defence organisation seen by many as little
more than a renamed Kosovo Liberation Army.
He was arrested on an Interpol warrant issued this
year on suspicion of genocide.
In a conversation with the Slovenian interior
minister, Holkeri, who heads the UN mission in Kosovo,
claimed that his mission has sole jurisdiction over
such cases and that the warrant issued by the Serbian
authorities is invalid.
Thousands of Kosovo Albanians gathered in central
Pristina last night to greet the news of Ceku’s
release.
He told TV Kosovo that the release demonstrated that
Serbia-Montenegro no longer had jurisdiction over the
citizens of Kosovo.
“The Kosovo institutions and the United Nations
mission are responsible for us now and thanks to them
I have been released and will return to Pristina at
3.00 p.m.,” he added.

---

"TUTTO IL MONDO PUO' VEDERE CHE LA SERBIA
NON HA PIU' NESSUNA GIURISDIZIONE SUL KOSOVO"

http://www.b92.net/english/news/
index.php?&nav_category=&nav_id=25194&order=priority&style=headlines
Beta, October 23, 2003

Kosovo rejects all Serbian arrest warrants

PRISTINA -- Thursday – Parliament in Kosovo has
adopted a decree declaring null and void all arrest
warrants and court rulings issued by Serbian
institutions against the province’s citizens.
The move comes after the arrest and later release of
former rebel leader Agim Ceku, who was detained in
Slovenia on an arrest warrant issued in Belgrade.
The decree, which was opposed by the parliament’s Serb
deputies, demanded that all international institutions
in Kosovo, including Interpol and Europol “refuse to
recognise” warrants issued by the Serbian authorities
against Kosovo citizens. Kosovo, it says, “comes under
the jurisdiction of the United Nations and has its own
democratic institutions”.

http://www.tanjug.co.yu/
Elect.htm#Whole%20world%20should%20see%20that%20Serbia%20has%20no%20auth
ority%20in%20Kosovo,%20Ceku
Tanjug, October 23, 2003

Whole world should see that Serbia has no authority in
Kosovo, Ceku

17:19 PRISTINA , Oct 23 (Tanjug) - Several thousand
people welcomed Kosovo Protection Corps Commander Agim
Ceku at Pristina Airport at about 3 p.m. (1300 GMT) on
Thursday.
Ceku was released from detention in Kranj late on
Wednesday, following his arrest in Ljubljana and
interventions aimed at securing his release earlier in
the day.

---

BELGRADO CHIEDE ALL'ONU UNA INDAGINE SU CEKU

http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?nav_id=25221&style=headlines
SRNA, October 25, 2003

Belgrade asks UN to investigate Ceku

BELGRADE -- Friday – Belgrade’s Coordination Centre
for Kosovo has asked the province’s United Nations
mission to launch an urgent investigation against
Kosovo Protection Corps commander Agim Ceku after
mission chief Harri Holkeri secured his release
yesterday from police custody in Slovenia.
The Centre said it was acting on Holkeri’s claim that
crimes committed in Kosovo fall solely within the
jurisdiction of the UN mission’s judicial bodies.
Ceku, a former rebel leader, was arrested in Slovenia
on Wednesday on a warrant issued in Belgrade. He was
later released after Holkeri intervened.
A statement from the Coordination Centre, which is led
by Deputy Serbian Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic, asked
the Serbian Justice Ministry to send all material on
Ceku to Holkeri.

---

INTIMIDAZIONI ALLA SLOVENIA DALLA LOBBY COMMERCIALE ALBANO-KOSOVARA

http://www.b92.net/english/news/
index.php?&nav_category=&nav_id=25216&order=priority&style=headlines
Beta, October 25, 2003

Kosovars threaten Slovenia over arrest

PRISTINA -- Friday – A group of Kosovo businessmen
today warned that trade with Slovenia will suffer
because of last week’s arrest in Ljubljana of Kosovo
Protection Corps commander Agim Ceku.
A letter signed by the representatives of fourteen
Kosovo companies which trade with Slovenia warned that
the arrest had imperilled the trade relationship,
particularly as Kosovo imported Slovenian goods in an
attempt to avoid Serbian products.
The companies warned that trade would be imperilled
“...now that we know that Slovenia is a place where
Serbia’s orders to arrest prominent Kosovo officials
is implemented”.
Kosovo media write today that Slovenian imports were
worth seventy million euros last year.

---

"UN MANDATO INTERPOL VALE PER SOLO ALCUNI,
PER ALTRI NON VALE"

http://www.b92.net/english/news/
index.php?&nav_category=&nav_id=25205&order=priority&style=headlines
B92, October 23, 2003

Covic: “Should we be punished for the next 100 years?”

BELGRADE -- Thursday – The head of Belgrade’s
Coordination Centre for Kosovo has complained of
double standards after the release of former rebel
leader Agim Ceku.
Ceku was arrested yesterday in Slovenia on an
indictment issued in Belgrade. He was released today
after the United Nations governor in Kosovo
intervened, insisting the mission had sole
jurisdiction over such matters.
“An Interpol indictment applies to some, but not
others”, Nebojsa Covic claimed today. “Are we a state
or are we not a state?” the deputy prime minister
asked. “Are we relevant as people or should we be
punished for the next 100 years?”

---

LETTERA APERTA AL GOVERNATORE COLONIALE

http://www.serbia.sr.gov.yu/cgi-bin/printpage.cgi?filename=/news/2003-
10/27/331644.html

Batic addresses an open letter to Holkeri

Belgrade, Oct 27, 2003 - Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic
addressed an open letter to UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri, suggesting that
Agim Ceku be immediately dismissed from the position of the head of the
Kosovo Protection Corpus (KPC), that Ceku, Hashim Thaci and Ramush
Haradinai be forbidden to leave Kosovo until documentation submitted by
Serbian judiciary organs has been examined, and that the
above-mentioned individuals be handed over to Serbia or tried before
the judicial organs of Kosovo.
Challenging the statements Holkeri made in a letter to Slovene
authorities on the occasion of the recent arrest of Agim Ceku in
Ljubljana, Batic said that the ignoring of the Serbian legal system
must not be a position of the UN civil administrator, reminding Mr.
Holkeri that the Serbian Justice Ministry has so far addressed former
UNMIK head Michael Steiner and head of UNMIK's justice department Clint
Williamson three times, requesting that Ceku, Thaci and Haradinai be
handed over to Serbia's authorities.
Batic stressed that the Serbian Ministry of Justice also forwarded to
the UNMIK the decisions of the Pristina District Court on the launching
of investigation against Ceku and Thaci for the criminal act of
genocide. The Ministry also sent a valid verdict of the same court
dating from July 1997, sentencing Thaci to ten years of prison for
terrorism, together with a decision of the Pec District Court against
Ramush Haradinai for a criminal act of terrorism.
Batic said that the Ministry submitted these documents to the UNMIK at
its own will, together with a notification that local and Interpol
arrest warrants were issued against the above-mentioned individuals.
However, after Thaci's arrest by Hungarian authorities and Ceku's
arrest in Slovenia, Steiner and Holkeri exerted pressure on the
authorities of these countries to release them, instead of handing them
over to Serbian judiciary organs.
Batic reminded Holkeri in the letter that Ceku took part in the killing
of several dozens of Serbian civilians in Madacki dzep in Croatia while
he was an officer in the Croatian Defence Council (HVO). Before he was
appointed head of the KPC, Ceku was the commander of the terrorist
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
The Serbian Minister highlighted that Ceku, Thaci and Haradinai are
leaders of terrorists who, following the establishment of the KPC, have
carried out more than 7,000 terrorist attacks, killing more than 1,200
people, wounding 1,350, kidnapping 1,500, expelling 340,000, burning
and taking away 107,000 houses and pulling down hundreds of churches
and monasteries.
Minister Batic reminded Holkeri that these, and many other pieces of
evidence have been submitted to the Hague tribunal which is
investigating crimes of ethnic Albanians against Serbs in Kosovo, and
stressed that the Ministry is willing to offer UNMIK additional proof
against Ceku, Thaci and Haradinai.

---

DUE PESI E DUE MISURE:
E' LA REGOLA, NON PIU' L'ECCEZIONE

http://www.tanjug.co.yu/
Tanjug, October 28, 2003

International community continues practicing double
standards

17:03 BELGRADE , Oct 28 (Tanjug) - Kosovo-Metohija
Coordinating Center judiciary department head, lawyer
Vladimir Bozovic said on Tuesday that the
international community was continuing its practice of
double standards in connection with crimes against
Serbs.
"I have sent a letter to UNMIK Judiciary Department
Director Paul Coffey and UNMIK chief Harri Holkeri's
deputy Jean-Christen Caddie, in charge of the
judiciary and police, demanding the immediate opening
of investigation proceedings against Kosovo Protection
Corps (KZK) commander Agim Ceku, on the grounds of
documents presented by the justice minister to UNMIK
on several occasions," Bozovic told a press conference
at the Federation Palace.

---

IPOCRISIA ASSOLUTA: "NON C'ERANO RICHIESTE DI ESTRADIZIONE"

http://www.tanjug.co.yu/
Tanjug, October 28, 2003

UNMIK spokesperson says there were no extradition
demands

10:17 PRAGUE , Oct 29 (Tanjug) - The UNMIK judiciary
department on Tuesday rejected reports that the
Serbian authorities had sent a document to UNMIK,
demanding the extraditions of Democratic Party of
Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, Alliance for the Future
of Kosovo President Ramush Haradinai, and Kosovo
Protection Corps commander Agim Ceku, to face trials
in Serbia proper.
A spokesperson for this department said UNMIK last
received a letter from the Serbian authorities in
February, Radio Free Europe has reported.

---

LINKS

Agim Ceku Arrested On Interpol Warrant
http://www.tanjug.co.yu/
Elect.htm#Ceku%20arrested%20under%20Interpol%20warrant,%20Slovenian%20po
lice%20spokesman

War Criminal Agim Ceku Arrested In Slovenia On Serbian
Warrant
-http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?nav_id=25173&style=headlines

Kosovo Warlord Wanted In Serbia, Freed In Slovenia
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L23627572.htm

Perish The Thought: Hague Inquisition Denies It Issued
Warrant For Ceku
http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/ah/Qwarcrimes-kosovo.RpuG_DOM.html

Mother Who? How Rome's Newest Saint is a True "Daughter of Macedonia"
(by Christopher Deliso)

http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=169


Mother Who?

How Rome’s Newest Saint is a True Daughter of Macedonia

Date: Sunday, October 26 @ 02:00:00 EST
Topic: Macedonia Articles


It was too good to be true, but you just had to watch anyway. Months
before the sanctification of that Skopje-born champion of the poor,
Mother Teresa, a war of words was already raging between the
Macedonian and Albanian states, and between individuals on both sides
of the ethnic divide. Everyone, it seems, wanted to claim that toothy
appeaser of the sick and downtrodden for their own, and the world
media was there
[http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters07-11-
115552.asp?reg=EUROPE] to take notes throughout.

When Macedonia planned to offer the Romans a statue of her, with the
name "Daughter of Macedonia" plastered on it, the Albanians protested.
They reminded that Mother Teresa was at least half-Albanian (though we
still don’t know for sure if her father was), and this is the half
she’s known for. Let’s hope it was her better half. For years, anyway,
she has been firmly seated between Skenderbeg
[http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-
8&q=Skenderbeg] and John Belushi [http://www.albanian.ca/belushi.htm%5d
on the long list of Albanian national heroes. Until now, no one had
tried to dislodge her. The Albanians indeed seem justified in their
protest.

Of course, in the Balkans (where historical personages become cheap
cultural commodities) such squabbles are not infrequent. Yet the
passage of time is duty-bound to diminish, or at least debase, the
symbolic value that the ownership of the personage might have for
either group. And so Mother Teresa, the perhaps Daughter of Macedonia
(DOM).

Why diminished, why debased? If we believe the wicked denunciation of
Vanity Fair’s Christopher Hitchens [http://slate.msn.com/id/2090083/%5d,
Mother Teresa was nothing more than a "fanatic, a fundamentalist and a
fraud."

Wait a minute! Do we have a real DOM on our hands, or what?

In his latest savaging, Teresa expert Hitchens
[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/185984054X/balkanalysisc-20%5d
begins with the most recent event- the sanctification itself. Hitchens
discloses that the strong-willed John Paul II defied centuries of
canonical custom and began the sanctification process one year after
Teresa’s death in 1997- though the rule says he should have waited
five years. And the throngs of credulous pilgrims massed in Rome on
Sunday were perhaps unaware that the requisite miracle in Teresa’s
case was fraudulent:

"…as for the "miracle" that had to be attested, what can one say?
Surely any respectable Catholic cringes with shame at the obviousness
of the fakery. A Bengali woman named Monica Besra claims that a beam
of light emerged from a picture of MT, which she happened to have in
her home, and relieved her of a cancerous tumor. Her physician, Dr.
Ranjan Mustafi, says that she didn't have a cancerous tumor in the
first place and that the tubercular cyst she did have was cured by a
course of prescription medicine. Was he interviewed by the Vatican's
investigators? No. (As it happens, I myself was interviewed by them
but only in the most perfunctory way. The procedure still does demand a
show of consultation with doubters, and a show of consultation was
what, in this case, it got.)"

As with Dubya’s obsession with waging war on Iraq, the Pope’s policy of
saint-creation seems to be driven fundamentally by his desire to write
his own place in history. The present pope has, after all, created
more saints than all of his predecessors combined for the past 400
years- many with equally sketchy claims to sanctity as Teresa:

"According to an uncontradicted report in the Italian paper L'Eco di
Bergamo, the Vatican's secretary of state sent a letter to senior
cardinals in June, asking on behalf of the pope whether they favored
making MT a saint right away. The pope's clear intention has been to
speed the process up in order to perform the ceremony in his own
lifetime. The response was in the negative, according to Father
Brian Kolodiejchuk, the Canadian priest who has acted as postulator
or advocate for the "canonization." But the damage, to such
integrity as the process possesses, has already been done."

But Vatican skullduggery alone cannot account for the nun’s true
DOM-ness. After all, she had no part in the posthumous whitewash. What
is salient, however, is Mother Teresa’s fundamentalism; upon winning
the Nobel Peace Prize [http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1979%5d, she
called abortion the greatest threats to world peace
[http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1979/teresa-lecture.html%5d. And by
founding convent after convent, she used other people’s money to
propel this fundamentalism- rather than improve clinical standards
where she herself was, says Hitchens. Like a preacher raining down
hellfire and brimstone, he charges:

"…MT was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She
said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing
the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women
and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory
reproduction. And she was a friend to the worst of the rich, taking
misappropriated money from the atrocious Duvalier family in Haiti
(whose rule she praised in return) and from Charles Keating of the
Lincoln Savings and Loan. Where did that money, and all the other
donations, go? The primitive hospice in Calcutta was as run down when
she died as it always had been—she preferred California clinics when
she got sick herself—and her order always refused to publish any
audit. But we have her own claim that she opened 500 convents in
more than a hundred countries, all bearing the name of her own
order. Excuse me, but this is modesty and humility?"

Okay, fundamentalism does not reign in today’s Macedonia. Yet could it
be said that in the last respect, at least, we have a clear forerunner
to the current reality, to the world of unaccountable NGO’s and
mysteriously disappearing millions? As Hitchens asks, "where did that
money, and all the other donations, go?" We are asking the same thing
today in Skopje, hometown of the crafty nun. Could Mother Teresa
somehow have guided, through some gentle and ineffable grace, the
purposeful requisitioning of funds so characteristic of Macedonia ever
since- her very death? Now that would be something truly supernatural.

Through the whole sorry affair, the main point has been obscured. And
it’s not Mother Teresa herself, whoever that may be, that the divided
denizens of Skopje are concerned with. No, we have two ethnic groups
that want her for their own symbolic purposes, a pontiff concerned
with his place in history, and a media that would like to have its own
whimsical way with her too.

We may never know her "complete" ethnicity, or who what kind of
offspring "Mother" Teresa- herself a "Daughter" of Macedonia- begat.
(For Hitchens, her singular contribution is that "…many more people
are poor and sick because of the life of MT (and) even more will be
poor and sick if her example is followed.)"

The moral of this story may simply be that, when commodifying
historical characters, the bidders had better do their market research
first, so that they can be better prepared in the eventuality that
they end up buying the whole package.


Compare and contrast! Read the nun’s side of the story:

Mother Teresa: In My Own Words
[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517201690/balkanalysisc-20%5d

Then read her get roasted by the above-cited author:

Christopher Hitchens: The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory
and Practice"
[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/185984054X/balkanalysisc-20%5d


This article comes from Analyses and articles from the Balkans and
beyond
http://www.balkanalysis.com

The URL for this story is:

http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=169

( italiano / deutsch / english )

Varvarin 30/5/1999

1. Serbia/Germania: Un paesino fa causa alla Nato

2. Nur Kollateralschäden (J. Elsässer)

3. Bedauern oder mehr? Gericht läßt Klage wegen deutscher Beteiligung
am NATO-Krieg gegen Jugoslawien zu
(J. Elsässer, Junge Welt, 16/10/2003)

4. Germany on Trial for NATO


Vedi anche su
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2867 :
NATO: Primo processo per i raid del 1999 (Il Manifesto)
KOSOVO: PROCESSO A STATO TEDESCO PER STRAGE SERBI IN 1999 (ANSA)
GERMANIA: KOSOVO, STATO CHIAMATO IN CAUSA PER ATTACCHI NATO (ANSA)
Serbian families seek payout from Germany over 1999
NATO bombing (AFP)
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/2867


=== 1 ===

il manifesto - 19 Ottobre 2003
MADE IN GERMANY

Un paesino fa causa alla Nato

GUIDO AMBROSINO

Il 15 ottobre si è aperto di fronte al Landgericht di Bonn un processo
che potrebbe riscrivere il diritto internazionale. Trentacinque
abitanti di Varvarin, una piccola cittadina della Serbia, hanno
intentato causa alla Repubblica federale tedesca e le chiedono un
risarcimento. Diciassette di loro vennero feriti dagli aerei della Nato
che il 30 maggio del 1999 distrussero un ponte senza alcuna importanza
militare. Gli altri sono parenti delle dieci persone uccise da quel
bombardamento, avvenuto di giorno, in perfette condizioni di
visibilità. A essere citato in giudizio è il ministero della difesa,
che ha mantenuto a Bonn la sua sede principale. Per questo la causa
sarà discussa nella città renana. Il presidente della corte, Heinz
Sonnenberger, ha preannunciato una sentenza per il 10 dicembre.

I giuristi del ministero scrollarono le spalle quando, nel giugno del
2001, l'avvocato berlinese Ulrich Dost avanzò una prima richiesta di
risarcimento per conto delle vittime di Varvarin. Gli risposero che,
secondo una consolidata tradizione, i danni di guerra sono una materia
che gli stati regolano tra loro, senza curarsi di pretese individuali.
E che a lanciare missili contro quel ponte non furono aerei tedeschi, e
quindi la Rft non c'entrava nulla.

Ulrich Dost e i suoi colleghi, l'avvocatessa Gül Pinar e l'avvocato
Hans-Jürgen Schneider, sanno che di regola, in passato, gli stati non
si sono abbassati a negoziare direttamente risarcimenti con le vittime
delle loro guerre. Ritengono però che gli sviluppi del diritto
internazionale dopo la seconda guerra mondiale impongano ormai di
rendere conto anche alle vittime per le offese da loro patite. Quanto
ai "danni collaterali" consumati nei 78 giorni di bombardamenti sulla
Serbia, la responsabilità - secondo i legali di Varvarin - ricade in
solido sugli stati membri dell'Alleanza atlantica.

Gli avvocati di Varvarin credano che giochi a loro favore anche una
sentenza con cui, nel giugno scorso, la corte di cassazione tedesca ha
respinto le richieste di risarcimento degli abitanti di Distomo, un
villaggio greco insaguinato nel 1944 da un massacro perpetrato dalle
Ss. «all'epoca», si legge nella motivazione, mancavano i presupposti
per diritti individuali. Ma i giudici del Bundesgerichtshof lasciano
espressamente aperta la questione se ciò valga anche oggi.

Il tribunale di Bonn si dovrà dunque avventurare su un terreno
giuridico inesplorato. E' la prima volta che, in materia di danni di
guerra, la Rft viene citata in giudizio non come erede del Reich
hitleriano, ma per un conflitto condotto da un suo governo.

Dopo la seconda guerra mondiale sono intervenute, a tutelare
ulteriormente i civili dalla guerra, la convenzione di Ginevra del 12
agosto 1949 e, soprattutto, il primo protocollo aggiuntivo dell'8
giugno 1977 sulla tutela delle vittime di conflitti armati
internazionali. Il protocollo aggiuntivo recita: «Per assicurare
l'incolumità e la tutela della popolazione civile e di oggetti
civili... (le parti in conflitto possono) indirizzare le loro azioni
belliche solo contro obiettivi militari». E ancora: «Né la popolazione
civile in quanto tale, né singole persone, possono essere obiettivo di
attacchi». Inoltre: «Luoghi indifesi non possono essere attaccati dalle
parti in conflitto».

A Varvarin, un centro agricolo di 4000 abitanti, che sorge 180
chilometri a sud-est di Belgrado e a circa 200 chilometri dal Kosovo,
non c'erano uomini in armi, a parte i tre poliziotti di servizio nella
stazione della milizia. La caserma più vicina dell'esercito jugoslavo
distava 22 chilometri. Durante le guerre balcaniche il paese non fu mai
attraversato da truppe o da trasporti militari. Il ponte sul fiume
Morava serviva solo come via di accesso a Varvarin, e non era collegato
a strade importanti. Con una portata massima di 12 tonnellate, avrebbe
sopportato solo il passaggio di automobili o camion leggeri. Sotto il
peso di un carro armato sarebbe crollato.

=== 2 ===

Nur Kollateralschäden

http://www.artel.co.yu/de/izbor/jugoslavija/2003-10-19.html
Jürgen Elsässer
Berlin, 15 Oktober 2003

Landgericht Bonn verhandelt über die Klage serbischer Opfer und
Hinterbliebener des NATO-Bombenkrieges

Am heutigen Mittwoch beginnt vor dem Landgericht Bonn ein Prozeß, der
Rechtsgeschichte machen könnte: Zum ersten Mal wird nicht über
Verbrechen des nationalsozialistischen Deutschland, sondern der
Bundesrepublik verhandelt. Serbische Bürger klagen gegenüber der
Bundesregierung auf Schadensersatz, weil bei einem NATO-Bombardement
ihres Heimatortes Varvarin am 30. Mai 1999 zehn Menschen getötet und 30
zum Teil schwer verletzt wurden, allesamt Zivilisten. Die
Schröder-Regierung hat die Opfer "aufrichtig bedauert", im übrigen aber
über ihre Anwälte mitteilen lassen, daß die 14 kriegsbeteiligten
Tornados der Bundesluftwaffe genau jenen Angriff nicht mitgeflogen
haben. Die Bundesregierung sei somit nicht haftbar zu machen, auch
nicht "gesamtschuldnerisch" als NATO-Mitglied für das Bündnis
insgesamt, wie die Kläger behaupten. Diese wiederum verweisen auf die
Verantwortung, die die deutsche Führung bei der Auswahl des Zieles
Varvarin trugen.

Der Ort hatte keinerlei militärische Bedeutung, das Bombardement fand
zum Zeitpunkt und in unmittelbarer Nähe eines großen Kirchenfestes
statt. Trotzdem sprach die NATO von einem "legitimen Angriff auf eine
Hauptnachschublinie der serbischen Armee". NATO-Pressesprecher Jamie
Shea nannte Varvarin "ein ausgewähltes und gerechtfertigtes Ziel".
Oberstleutnant Michael Kämmerer, in der Öffentlichkeitszentrale des
NATO-Oberkommandos Europa im südbelgischen Mons für die deutsche Presse
zuständig, räumte allerdings ein, daß Varvarin lediglich ein
"Sekundärziel" gewesen ist. Mit anderen Worten: Das eigentlich
ausgewählte Angriffsobjekt war schon zerstört gewesen, deshalb hat man
einen Ersatz gesucht.

Wer hat Varvarin als Bombenziel ausgewählt? Die NATO weigerte sich
gegenüber Reiner Luyken von der "Zeit", die Namen der Piloten zu
nennen, selbst ihre Nationalität wurde verschwiegen. Wer gab den
Piloten die Befehle? Die Ziele für jeden Einsatz wurden vom Deskofficer
des Combined Allied Operations Command im italienischen Vicenca
zusammengestellt. Grundlagen waren Ziellisten, die - so die "Washington
Post" - ein NATO-Planungsstab angefertigt hatte und die von den
politischen Spitzen der NATO-Staaten - Clinton, Blair, Jospin und auch
Schröder - abgesegnet worden sind. Bekannt ist, daß die französische
Regierung in einigen Fällen erfolgreich ihr Veto gegen die
Bombardierung ziviler Ziele, etwa von Donaubrücken, eingelegt hat.

Sekundärziele, so Oberstleutnant Kämmerer, wurden allerdings ohne
politische Gegenkontrolle festgelegt. Nach Meinung von Paul Beaver von
der Fachzeitschrift "Jane's Defense Weekly" wurden die Koordinaten
dieser Ausweichziele den Piloten von den Awacs-Flugzeugen mitgeteilt,
also den fliegenden NATO-Kommandozentralen. An Bord waren auch deutsche
Spezialisten und Offiziere.

Die Bundesregierung hat sich über ihre Anwälte gegen die Behauptung
verwahrt, die NATO habe 1999 "einen gegen die Zivilbevölkerung
gerichteten Angriffskrieg geführt". "Der Umstand, daß es nur in 0,4 bis
0,9 Prozent der Einsatzfälle zu zivilen Opfer kam", wird als Beleg
angeführt. Diese Statistik verschweigt das Verhältnis zwischen
militärischen Treffen und den sogenannten Kollateralschäden: In 78
Tagen Bombenkrieg zerstörte die NATO nur 14 jugoslawische Panzer, aber
48 Krankenhäuser, 74 TV-Stationen und 422 Schulen. 20.000
Splitterbomben liegen noch heute als Blindgänger in der Erde und können
jederzeit explodieren. Über 2.000 jugoslawische Zivilisten wurden
getötet, ein Drittel davon Kinder. Dem stehen 1.000 gefallene Polizei-
und Armeeangehörige gegenüber.

Wenn das Bonner Landgericht die Klage nicht gleich zu Beginn abweist,
müßte in einer umfangreichen Beweisaufnahme geklärt werden, welche
Rolle deutsche Stellen bei der Auswahl der Bombenziele trugen.
Generäle, Verteidigungsminister und Kanzler im Zeugenstand, womöglich
im Kreuzverhör, schließlich auf der Anklagebank - das hätte die
Republik noch nicht gesehen.

=== 3 ===

Junge Welt, 16/10/2003

Bedauern oder mehr?  

Gericht läßt Klage wegen deutscher Beteiligung am NATO-Krieg gegen
Jugoslawien zu  

Ein übervoller Gerichtsaal, ein riesiges Medienaufgebot, Rosen für die
Serben, die Anwälte der Bundesregierung finster und wortkarg – dies ist
ein Prozeß, der schon jetzt Geschichte macht. Zum ersten Mal wird in
Deutschland nicht wegen der Verbrechen des Naziregimes, sondern denen
der Bundesrepublik verhandelt. Es geht um den ersten Krieg der
Deutschen nach 1945, den Angriff der NATO-Verbündeten auf Jugoslawien
im Jahre 1999.

Im NATO-Bombenhagel starben im Verlaufe des 78tägigen Krieges insgesamt
2000 jugoslawische Zivilisten, darunter etwa 700 Kinder, des weiteren
fielen etwa 1000 Militärangehörige. Stellvertretend für alle
Hinterbliebenen klagen jetzt 34 Bewohner der mittelserbischen Ortschaft
Varvarin auf Schadensersatz. Der Fall ist besonders eklatant: Am 30.
Mai 1999 flogen NATO-Bomber einen Angriff auf die Brücke des
Städtchens. »Hätten die Piloten nur gewollt, hätten sie sehen müssen,
daß unmittelbar neben der Brücke ein großes Kirchenfest mit mehreren
tausend Besuchern stattfand«, legte Bürgermeister Zoran Milenkovic dem
Richter dar. Seine Tochter Sanja war unter den Toten des ersten
Angriffes. Als dann Hilfswillige herbeiströmten, um die Verletzten zu
bergen, kehrte der NATO-Bomber zurück und feuerte weitere Raketen ab.
Dabei starben noch mehr Menschen. Insgesamt verloren an jenem Tag zehn
Varvariner Bürger ihr Leben, weitere 17 wurden schwer verletzt.
»Ich kann mich nicht damit abfinden, daß meine Tochter ein
Kollateralschaden sein soll«, rief Milenkovic aus. An ein Versehen will
er nicht glauben, vielmehr habe die NATO an jenem Tag absichtlich den
serbischen Blutzoll in die Höhe treiben wollen. »Zu dieser Zeit hatten
die heimlichen Verhandlungen mit Milosevic schon begonnen. Es ging der
NATO darum, den Druck auf Milosevic zu erhöhen, in einen Friedensschluß
zu ihren Bedingungen einzuwilligen. Dafür brauchte man entsprechende
Bilder.«

Die Anwälte der Bundesregierung sprachen den Hinterbliebenen auch
gestern wieder ihr »ausdrückliches Bedauern« aus, betonten aber, daß es
sich nicht um eine »NATO-Aggression« gehandelt habe und Soldaten der
Bundeswehr an jenem 30. Mai nicht tatbeteiligt waren. »Dieses
Mitleidsgejammer halte ich für unehrlich«, entgegnete Anwalt Ulrich
Dost. »Die Bundesregierung hat im Verlaufe des Krieges wirklich alles
unterlassen, um zu erreichen, daß zivile Opfer vermieden werden
können.« Folge man etwa den Aufzeichnungen des damaligen
Verteidigungsministers Rudolf Scharping (SPD) in seinem
»Kriegstagebuch«, so habe die Zielplanung immer auf der Tagesordnung
des NATO-Rates gestanden. »Die Bundesregierung hatte also jeden Tag die
Möglichkeit, im NATO-Rat ihr Veto gegen bestimmte Ziele einzulegen. Sie
hat es nie gemacht.« Deswegen erfülle die Bundesregierung »eindeutig
die Voraussetzung der Mittäterschaft«.

Richter Heinz Sonnenberg machte die Bedeutung des »Musterprozesses«
deutlich. Es gehe darum, ob Individualkläger ihr Recht gegen einen
Staat durchsetzen könnten. Die bisherige Rechtsprechung in der
Bundesrepublik habe dies verneint, zuletzt im Sommer dieses Jahres im
sogenannten Distomo-Prozeß. Hinterbliebene eines SS-Massakers in dieser
griechischen Ortschaft waren mit ihren Ansprüchen gegenüber Deutschland
abgewiesen worden. Sie wurden, wie andere NS-Opfergruppen, an ihren
eigenen Staat verwiesen, der zunächst ein Reparationsabkommen mit der
BRD aushandeln müsse und sie dann mit den zwischenstaatlichen
Ausgleichszahlungen entschädigen könne. Doch der Richter betonte, daß
der Bundesgerichtshof »ausdrücklich offen gelassen« habe, ob diese
Rechtsprechung über Verbrechen des Zweiten Weltkrieges auch für die
heutige Zeit gilt. Wie stark das Völkerrecht im Umbruch ist, zeigt die
Einrichtung des Internationalen Strafgerichtshofes in Den Haag (ICC),
vor dem Staaten auch wegen individueller Menschenrechtsverletzungen
beklagt werden können. Die Bundesregierung gehört, im Unterschied zur
US-Regierung, zu den energischen Förderern des ICC. Nun wird sich
zeigen, ob sie dessen Prinzipien auch für ihre eigene Justiz anzuwenden
bereit ist. »Wir sind optimistisch, daß der Richter zu unseren Gunsten
entscheidet«, sagte Anwältin Gül Pinar. »Immerhin hat er unsere
Tatsachenfeststellung und die Zuständigkeit eines deutschen Gerichtes
anerkannt und die Klage nicht aus formalen Gründen abgewiesen.«
Das Urteil wird bereits beim nächsten Verhandlungstermin am 10.
Dezember verkündet werden.

Jürgen Elsässer

=== 4 ===

http://www.tol.cz/look/BRR/
article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=9&NrIssue=1&NrSection=1&NrArticle
=10826

Transitions Online
October 20, 2003

Germany on Trial for NATO

by Sasa Grubanovic


BELGRADE, Serbia and Montenegro--In a landmark trial
that opened last week in Bonn, 35 Serbs are suing
Germany over the 1999 NATO bombing of the Serbian town
of Varvarin, which killed 10 civilians and wounded 17.

The lawsuit--supported by the human rights group
Amnesty International--is the first of its kind in
Europe. It could open the way for trials against other
NATO member states that participated in the 1999
bombings against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
(now Serbia and Montenegro) at the height of the
Kosovo conflict.

The trial opened on 15 October at a Bonn tribunal with
a request for 1 million euros ($1.17 million) in
compensation for the wounded and the families of those
killed in the NATO bombardment. Pacifists demonstrated
in support of the victims in front of the courthouse.

Germany has refused to admit responsibility, claiming
that its soldiers did not participate directly in the
bombing of Serbia. But German lawyers representing the
plaintiffs say that Berlin, as a NATO member, is
responsible for the attacks. According to the victims’
lawyer, Ulrich Dost, Germany is being sued because it
“neglected to avoid civilian victims.”

NATO cannot be sued as an organization, but NATO
member countries can be sued individually.

FESTIVAL FATALITIES

The plaintiffs and Amnesty International are arguing
that on 30 May 1999, NATO bombed a purely civilian
target in the town of Varvarin. The bombing occurred
in the midst of the NATO campaign aimed at pushing
Yugoslav troops, led by Slobodan Milosevic, out of the
southern Serbian province of Kosovo. At the time,
Kosovo was wracked by a violent conflict between
Belgrade security forces and Albanian separatist
guerrillas.

Varvarin, with 4,000 inhabitants, is situated some 150
kilometers (about 75 miles) south of Belgrade and 150
kilometers north of Kosovo. It contained no military
or industrial bases and was not being used at the time
for any military transports.

On Sunday, 30 May 1999, the country was celebrating
one of the holiest Orthodox holidays, Duhovi (Day of
the Spirits), and throngs of people had gathered at
the market near the town’s bridge.

At 1:25 p.m., two F-16 NATO warplanes appeared in the
sky over Varvarin. Suddenly, they fired two
2,000-pound laser-guided bombs, sending vehicles and
people crashing into the river below. Then the planes
doubled back and fired two more bombs, hitting the
bridge's central support column. The bridge collapsed
into the Morava River, along with all the vehicles and
pedestrians that were on it.

According to a New York Times report that cited
eyewitness accounts, “After the first strike, people
rushed from the nearby market to help those injured on
the bridge. Then the planes came back and struck
again, unleashing two bombs that smashed the bridge
off its concrete supports and sent lethal shrapnel
flying up the street into the marketplace.”

The casualties continued to pile up. Rescuers who went
to help the first victims were hit in the second wave
of bombings. Witnesses said blood and body parts were
everywhere. A total of 10 people died in the attack
and 17 were seriously wounded. The youngest fatality
was a 15-year-old girl named Sanja Milenkovic.

NATO: BRIDGE WAS LEGITIMATE TARGET

“There was no military excuse for the attack,"
plaitiffs' lawyer Dost told the Bonn court last week.
"It was directed at civilians. This is a crime.”

Dost said the lawsuit is based on a 1977 protocol of
the Geneva Convention. Article 52 of Protocol 1 states
that "Attacks shall be limited strictly to military
objectives," defined as "those objects which by their
nature, location, purpose or use make effective
contribution to military action."

At the time of the bombardment, NATO defended its
actions. Spokesperson Jamie Shea said, “NATO does not
attack civilian targets, we attack exclusively
military targets and take every precaution to avoid
inflicting harm on civilians.”

“This was a major line of communication and a
designated and legitimate target,” NATO said in a
statement from its supreme commander at the time,
General Wesley Clark.

Amnesty International doesn't agree, and has called
the Varvarin bombing proof that NATO “did not always
[sic] meet its legal obligations in selecting targets
and in choosing means and methods of attack.”

A follow-up investigation showed the Varvarin bridge
could support weight only up to 12 tons, less than the
weight of most military vehicles.

Immediately after the Varvarin bombing, NATO decided
it would no longer attack certain objectives, such as
bridges, when many civilians were likely to be in the
vicinity.

Amnesty International argues that such policy changes
were “basic precautions that should have been adopted
from the start of the campaign, in order to ensure
that NATO’s rules of engagement did not allow for
breaches of the laws of war.”

The Varvarin bombing came after a series of other
deadly "erroneous" bombings by NATO. More than 150
people died when two refugee columns in Western Kosovo
were bombed (Meja on 14 April, Korisa on 14 May); more
than 80 civilians died in attacks on buses (Luzane on
1 May, Savine Vode on 3 May) and trains (Grdelica, 12
May); and hundreds of civilians died in bombings in
Aleksinac, Surdulica, and Nis. In Belgrade, employees
of RTS state television and the Chinese Embassy were
also killed by NATO bombs.

When the NATO bombing campaign ended, Carla Del Ponte,
chief prosecutor for the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The
Hague, told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)
that there was “no basis” to open an investigation
into NATO’s actions.

Without elaborating, the ICTY review committee
concluded that “neither an in-depth investigation
related to the bombing campaign as a whole nor
investigations related to specific incidents are
justified.”

German pacifists demonstrated in support of the
victims on the trial's opening day, carrying banners
that read, “Pay damages to the victims of NATO
bombings in Varvarin.”

NO LEGAL PRECEDENT

For reasons similar to the ITCY’s, NATO
Secretary-General George Robertson rejected calls for
an investigation, and he denounced Amnesty
International’s allegations as “baseless and
ill-founded.”

When the Serb families first asked German lawyers to
help them seek a legal judgement against NATO, few
observers believed the case would make it to trial.
But after more than a year of painstaking work
gathering evidence and making the necessary legal
submissions, Dost was able to file the Varvarin
victims’ claim for damages.

The case has drawn considerable atttention. Even the
German Defense Ministry felt obligated to respond, in
2002, that “not a single German soldier or plane of
the Bundeswehr participated in the attack.”

But Dost argues that no matter which nation’s planes
carried out the assault on Varvarin, Germany is guilty
of illegally causing damages to the population by
virtue of its membership in NATO and its acquiescence
in the bombing raids.

At the Bonn trial, a representative of the ministry,
Holger Zetzsche, expressed “deep regret” for the death
of civilians. The president of the Bonn tribunal,
Heinz Sonnenberger, admitted the case was “a new area”
for the German justice system.

Citing German World War II casualties, Sonnenberger
also noted that in the past, the courts have ruled
against individuals seeking compensation from
governments for wartime victims. “Our fathers could
not sue Russia or other countries,” he said at a Bonn
press conference.

But Zoran Milenkovic, the father of the youngest
Varvarin victim, 15-year old Sanja, called for the
setting of a new legal precedent. "It is important
that the world knows what happened that day," he said.
"This crime should not be forgotten.”

The court expects to reach a decision by 10 December.

GLI ASCARI ALBANESI

(see english summary at bottom)


Il Messaggero (Roma), Venerdì 17 Ottobre 2003

http://ilmessaggero.caltanet.it/
view.php?data=20031017&ediz=01_NAZIONALE&npag=15&file=A.xml&type=STANDAR
D

Martino: sì agli albanesi nell’Esercito italiano

Il ministro: «Non mi pare scandaloso». «L’Iraq? L’opposizione non sia
autolesionista»
di CARLO MERCURI

ROMA - «Una volta, in Albania, feci un pensiero ad alta voce. Dissi:
“Sarebbe bello arruolare una brigata albanese nell’Esercito italiano”.
Pensavo che la cosa fosse finita lì, invece qualche tempo dopo il mio
collega Pandeli Majko mi chiese conto di quell’affermazione. Mi disse:
“Vanno avanti i lavori per la Brigata albanese”? [SIC] A Tirana avevano
preso molto sul serio la mia idea».

Invece a Roma, ministro Martino, che effetto ha fatto la sua proposta?

«Guardi, io non ci trovo nulla di scandaloso. In Italia abbiamo una
situazione demografica disastrosa: aumentano gli anziani e diminuiscono
i giovani. L’idea di arruolare gli albanesi nell’Esercito italiano è
buona: alla fine dei cinque anni di ferma gli albanesi potrebbero
diventare cittadini italiani e, in più, avrebbero imparato un mestiere
[SIC]. D’altronde, i francesi hanno la Legione straniera, gli inglesi
hanno i “Gurkha”. Perché noi no? [SIC]».

A che punto è, ministro, l’Europa della Difesa?

«Preferirei parlare di Europa della sicurezza, essendo il concetto di
Difesa molto cambiato negli ultimi anni [SIC]. (...)».

Ministro, l’Onu ha appena varato una risoluzione che dà il via a una
Forza multinazionale in Iraq. Che ne pensa?

«Che è un fatto meraviglioso [SIC]. Io sono convinto che l’Iraq non
sarà, come ha detto qualcuno, un nuovo Vietnam per le forze della
coalizione. (...)».

Ministro, la previsione del bilancio della Difesa per il 2004 vede
ancora un taglio dei fondi. Ci sono dei programmi a rischio?

«(...) Certo, mi dispiace che là dove la spesa pubblica è giustificata,
come nella Difesa, si spenda di meno [SIC]. La Difesa non è un apparato
dello Stato, è lo Stato».

http://ilmessaggero.caltanet.it/
view.php?data=20031017&ediz=01_NAZIONALE&npag=1&file=GOLINI.xml&type=STA
NDARD

ARRIVA LA BRIGATA ALBANESE

di ANTONIO GOLINI

LA LEGIONE straniera: degli stranieri al servizio della Francia. Questa
è la definizione che campeggia sul sito Internet della famosissima
legione che finora ha visto morire, sacrificandosi per la Francia, 35
mila stranieri di tutte le parti del mondo. Una legione, singolare per
molti versi, che affonda le sue radici nel lontano 1831 e che finora è
rimasta unica, o quasi. Ma da qualche tempo si parla di un progetto per
crearne una anche in Italia. Almeno queste sembrano essere le proposte
contenute in una analisi dell’Istituto di studi e ricerche della difesa
e questa è una ipotesi cui ha fatto cenno il ministro della Difesa,
Antonio Martino, parlandone ieri ai giornalisti come di un fatto «che
non è assolutamente scandaloso». L’idea sarebbe quella di reclutare
extracomunitari dando così vita a un corpo simile alla legione
straniera francese.
La demografia è tutt’altro che estranea a questo progetto. I
diciottenni maschi sono calati da circa 500 mila nel 1982 a circa 320
mila nel 2002 e contemporaneamente gli obiettori di coscienza non
importa se del tutto convinti o meno convinti sono cresciuti
straordinariamente. Da qui la ”esigenza” di abolire la leva (la cui
fine è stata anticipata al 2005), una macchina costosa che non
garantiva più un reclutamento adeguato. Ma di nuovo la demografia ci
mette lo zampino: le pochissime nascite degli ultimi decenni si
riflettono in un decrescente numero di giovani. In particolare quelli
di età compresa fra i 20 e i 40 anni, che sono coloro da cui dovrebbero
provenire le forze armate professioniste, stanno calando a un ritmo di
300 mila all’anno e così continuerà ad essere per molti anni e così
continuerà ad essere per molti anni a venire. Questa fortissima
diminuzione dei giovani, che sta anche alla base della consistente
immigrazione straniera, crea da parte del ”mercato del lavoro civile”
una fortissima concorrenza al ”mercato del lavoro militare”. Si
ripropone così il problema di avere un numero adeguato di forze armate,
attive, fra l’altro, in un crescente numero di parti del mondo ad
assicurare o a mantenere la pace. Ed ecco la proposta di costituire una
brigata, per esempio, di albanesi, e più in generale di arruolare
immigrati che, per quello che si sa, dovrebbero essere muniti di
permesso di soggiorno di almeno un anno e avere la residenza in Italia;
otterrebbero la cittadinanza italiana dopo almeno cinque anni di
servizio volontario, svolto eventualmente anche all’estero nelle
numerose missioni di pace in cui siamo impegnati.
Sulla proposta si sono avute, a suo tempo, interpellanze parlamentari
che fra l’altro sottolineano la «inaccettabile prosa neocoloniale nei
confronti dell’Albania, quale ex ”protettorato” fascista del Re
d’Italia». Bisogna essere realisti però. Le condizioni di contesto sono
quelle sottolineate prima e gli albanesi sono, fra gli immigrati,
quelli che parlano di più e meglio l’italiano. E d’altra parte se si
guarda alla Francia si trova che i 7.770 legionari, che hanno un’età
media di 23 anni, provengono da 136 Paesi diversi, ma con una
nettissima maggioranza (50 per cento) di slavi.
Il problema più rilevante mi pare un altro, e cioè che i nostri
”legionari” acquisirebbero la cittadinanza italiana soltanto dopo
cinque anni di servizio. Come si può immaginare che si possa chiedere a
delle persone di entrare in un esercito che dovrebbe avere come quello
francese uno straordinario spirito di corpo e il culto della missione
da compiere da straniero e non da cittadino italiano? Come si può
pensare che in un Paese così vivace politicamente e socialmente come il
nostro non ci sarebbero manifestazioni di un giusto e netto disagio
morale per il fatto di richiedere a stranieri un servizio delicato e
oneroso, pericoloso in alcuni casi, prima ancora che siano stati
accettati come italiani?


--- ENGLISH ---

http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/bp/Qitaly-albania-army.RZTX_DOH.html

Italy may enlist Albanian recruits in the army

Friday, 17-Oct-2003 8:40AM
Story from AFP
Copyright 2003 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)

ROME, Oct 17 (AFP) - Italy could seek to recruit Albanians to reverse a
fall in numbers in the Italian army, Defense Minister Antonio Marzano
[read: Martino] said Friday in an interview.
"I think the idea of recruiting Albanians in the Italian army is a good
one and I don't think there is anything scandalous about it. Our
demography is disastrous: the number of elderly people is rising and
the number of young people is falling," Marzano [read: Martino] told Il
Messagero daily.
The Italian army is set to turn professional in 2005 with the end of
conscription and is having trouble recruiting new members.
"At the end of serving five years in the army, the Albanians could then
become Italian citizens, and on top of that they would have learnt a
profession," he added.
There are more than 144,000 Albanians in Italy and they form the second
largest immigrant group in the country. But Italians are sometimes wary
of them, as mafia gangs of Albanian origin are said to be operating in
Italy.
The Italian and Albanian police have already joined forces as the
result of an accord signed between both countries in 1997 whereby the
Italian police frequenty patrols Albanian waters looking for would-be
illegal immigrants.

clr/ebk/jkb
Italy-Albania-army