Informazione
Convegno CNJ 16/11/2002
5: Pavicevac prima parte
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Trieste / Trst, 16 novembre 2002, Convegno:
"...PASSANDO SEMPRE PER LA JUGOSLAVIA..."
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/files/CONVEGNOTRIESTE/
pavicevac.html
INTERVENTO DI IVAN PAVICEVAC
(CNJ / "Voce Jugoslava" su Radio Citta' Aperta, Roma)
La disinformazione di guerra: il caso jugoslavo
Prima parte
[nota: la trascrizione dell'intervento registrato e' stata
completamente rivista e corredata di note per facilitare la lettura.
CNJ]
Mi e' stato assegnato il compito, non facile, di sostituire Fulvio
Grimaldi nell'esporre la problematica della disinformazione di
guerra... e non solo di guerra, aggiungerei. Non e' facile per me poter
essere "distaccato" e lucido quanto sarebbe necessario, su questa
immensa tragedia che ha toccato il nostro popolo jugoslavo: una
comunità che e' stata a suo tempo esempio nel mondo di pace,
convivenza, progresso.
Nella presentazione del suo libro "Menzogne di guerra" (1),
di cui consiglio caldamente la lettura, Juergen Elsaesser
sottolinea che non si può capire la distruzione della
Jugoslavia socialista se non si conosce la storia di questo paese: una
storia non tanto remota, in effetti.
LA STORIA SI RIPETE
"In Jugoslavia, all'insaputa degli italiani, agenti tedeschi tentano di
promuovere la secessione della Croazia facendo leva sui capi
nazionalisti"... Non sono poi tanto strane, queste parole, anzi
sarebbero applicabili all'oggi. Eppure sono state riprese da una
cronologia dell'anno 1941, apparsa sulla rivista dell'Associazione
Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia "Patria Indipendente".
1941: "in Jugoslavia, all'insaputa degli italiani, agenti tedeschi
tentano di promuovere la secessione della Croazia facendo leva sui
capi nazionalisti". Se osservate la piantina della Jugoslavia sotto il
nazifascismo, notate la presenza di truppe straniere a sancire la
spartizione, allora come oggi - a parte poche sfumature.
La Germania - parliamo degli ultimi eventi - ha poi imposto
agli altri membri dell'Unione Europea il riconoscimento di Slovenia e
Croazia. E non dimentichiamo la "longa manus" vaticana: il tradizionale
nemico della Jugoslavia, il Vaticano, ha riconosciuto la Slovenia e la
Croazia due giorni prima dell'UE (2).
Grazie al sostegno fornito, la Chiesa cattolica ha incassato la
restituzione delle proprietà nazionalizzate nel dopoguerra: i boschi in
Slovenia, nonché uno "status specialissimo" per le istituzioni
cattoliche nel nuovo Stato di Tudjman.
Come nel 1941, così anche nel 1991 la parola d'ordine e' stata: "La
Jugoslavia deve sparire. La Serbia deve morire!" ("Serbien muss
sterbien!"). Nella nuova edizione aggiornata di Klaus Kinkel, Ministro
degli Esteri tedesco nei primi anni Novanta, essa suona: "La Serbia va
messa in ginocchio" - l'ha detto esplicitamente il 27 maggio 1992...
Nel maggio 1941, invece, l'editorialista del periodico "Conquiste", un
fascista di nome Bartoli, scriveva un articolo intitolato: "La Nemesi
divina". E sosteneva: "La Provvidenza divina è favorevole alla
Germania... la Serbia dovrà inchinarsi per anni e anni ad essa, e
poi... e poi...".
Ne' l'Europa, ne' gli USA vogliono ricordare quel passato, per non
dover ricordare il loro ruolo disonesto in quel passato ed in questo
presente. L'assassino torna sempre sul luogo del delitto: nel 1941,
allo scoppio della guerra mondiale, Belgrado viene bombardata dai
tedeschi; nell'aprile 1944 (Pasqua ortodossa) Belgrado viene bombardata
dai "nostri alleati" anglo-americani. Il giorno dopo si contavano più
di 2000 civili morti, case, ospedali, asili nido, scuole distrutte.
PACIFISTI E "SINISTRA"
Quando nel 1994 si presento' forte la minaccia che gli USA-NATO
avrebbero bombardato i serbi di Bosnia, il sottoscritto consegnò "due
righe" scritte, all'attenzione degli addetti militari
dell'Ambasciata USA e di quella della Gran Bretagna a Roma:
"Nel 1941 la Germania bombardò Belgrado. Nel 1944 gli
anglo-americani. Nel 1994 insieme?!", scrissi. Era il periodo della
campagna di stampa su "Sarajevo assediata": una micidiale trappola per
tutto il movimento pacifista. Tra i pochissimi a testimoniare che, in
realta', la citta' era tragicamente divisa in due piuttosto che
"assediata" (o "doppiamente assediata", secondo Tommaso di Francesco),
c'erano alcuni nostri amici e compagni. Tra questi Manuela Marianetti e
Maurizio Caldarola, che si offrirono anche di fare da "scudi umani" in
caso di bombardamento su Pale.
USA ed "alleati", piu' Germania ed Italia, bombardarono in effetti i
serbi della Bosnia nel 1995 con l'uranio impoverito (3) - ed il
comando italiano, pare, "non ne era stato informato" (sic! Italiani
brava gente...). Ma nel mio piccolo, con la mia attivita' di
controinformazione e sensibilizzazione, mi sforzavo di avvertire i
compagni che i paesi NATO non si sarebbero fermati fintantoché non
avessero bombardato Belgrado. E cosi' fu.
La barbara aggressione contro Belgrado e tutta la Repubblica
Federale di Jugoslavia (RFJ, cio' che rimaneva della RFSJ)
avvenne nel 1999. Il pretesto era che lì si consumava una
"pulizia etnica", si commettevano "crimini contro l'umanità"...
E dagli addosso, per l'ennesima volta, all'unisono con tutti i
media, a quel "tiranno" di Milosevic... Ma chi voleva comprendere
capiva che la posta in gioco era alta. Si trattava della sovranità
dello Stato jugoslavo, minacciata con l'ultimatum-ricatto di
Washington: l'ultimatum di Rambouillet. Purtroppo anche quella volta,
nonostante l'enormita' degli avvenimenti, la sinistra "perse il passo",
mal consigliata dai soliti pacifisti del "ne'-ne'" (ne' con Milosevic,
ne' con gli USA), che non hanno fatto altro che il gioco dello zio Sam,
come ha fatto ben notare Grimaldi in numerosi interventi.
E dunque, avanti con "l'intervento umanitario", con D'Alema in
persona che senza vergogna diceva: "Abbiamo fatto il nostro
dovere... Siamo una nazione affidabile". Tuttavia in tanti,
gente comune o "anime belle", si chiedevano quale interesse
avesse l'America a promuovere i bombardamenti sulla RFJ.
"Perché questa guerra feroce, queste atrocità che fanno
inorridire il mondo?" Risposta tipica: "Bisognava
intervenire perché altrimenti... la Grande Serbia...
Milosevic...". Ed insistevano: "La ex-Jugoslavia
[seppellita come "ex", prima ancora di essere morta, con
particolare zelo proprio da certi "sinistri" ambienti]
non ha petrolio, non è un grande mercato da conquistare...
Dunque per comprendere occorre risalire indietro nei secoli...
I nazionalismi... Gli odii etnici..." (4)
I NEMICI ESTERNI ED INTERNI
Davvero, ad ascoltarli, veniva da chiedersi: "Ma ci sono o ci
fanno"?! Ce l'hanno, eccome, gli USA e i loro alleati NATO,
l'interesse a distruggere e ad infiltrarsi nei Balcani!
Interessi simili a quelli che l'imperialismo americano nutre
quasi in ogni angolo del pianeta (5). Anche la Jugoslavia, alla
fine degli anni Ottanta, si era incamminata verso le riforme
sociali ed economiche in atto in tutti i paesi socialisti d'Europa.
Aveva persino richiesto l'adesione all'UE. Lo standard economico era
uguale a quello spagnolo. Evidentemente a qualcuno (SI-SA-A-CHI, come
diciamo dalle parti nostre) nemmeno questo bastava. Furono poste
condizioni inaccettabili, dei veri e propri ricatti che hanno
accelerato la vertiginosa disgregazione dello Stato e la decomposizione
della stessa coscienza del popolo jugoslavo, con
l'obiettivo di sottometterlo totalmente agli interessi altrui.
"Piatto ricco, mi ci ficco"... ed ecco allora anche noi
italiani, e persino gli ungheresi, gli albanesi... Tutti a
gettarsi come rapaci sulle spoglie della Jugoslavia.
Tito ammoniva: "Se rimarremo uniti, non dovremo temere nessuno".
Invece di seguire le orme di Tito, su cui pure giuravano con
slogan del tipo: "Anche dopo Tito, Tito!", furono in primis
proprio certi leader politici della Lega dei Comunisti a
dileguarsi nelle formazioni nazionaliste, tradendo così non
solo Tito ma anche tutti i combattenti per una Jugoslavia libera,
e tradendo le generazioni che si erano adoperate, con il
volontariato, a ricostruire il paese, a farlo risorgere dalle
macerie nel dopoguerra (6). Creano partiti "democratici",
rinnegano il passato definendolo improvvisamente "periodo buio", e
cosi' via. Tutti a precipitarsi, a candidarsi a capo del proprio
piccolo "cortile" - da non crederci... Gli sloveni Dolanc,
Kucan e Drnovsek, i Racan ed i Mesic croati, il Djukanovic
montenegrino... Persino le maggiori cariche politiche ed
istituzionali! Ed altrettanto gli schipetari Vllasi (gia'
segretario della gioventu' comunista jugoslava) e Hodza (gia'
presidente nella presidenza "a rotazione").
L'unico a non essere mai stato comunista, nemmeno per sbaglio, era
Izetbegovic: integralista da sempre, dopo aver scritto nei primi anni
Settanta la "Dichiarazione Islamica" aveva dovuto giustamente scontare
qualche anno di "patrie galere". Per noi e per quelli che conoscono
anche solo un pò di storia delle nostre terre, questa sua prigionia non
aveva proprio niente di strano o deprecabile. Ma qui si dovrebbe aprire
un altro capitolo: quello della formazione "Handzar", la divisione
delle SS musulmane costituita su invito del mufti di Gerusalemme e con
l'approvazione di Hitler; poi le formazioni SS "Skanderbeg" ed i
"balisti" albanesi...
I PAPPAGALLI
La Jugoslavia dunque non si è "disgregata", come spesso
sostengono i media ed i soliti papagalli - "pappagallo magna risi, quel
che senti tutto dizi", si dice in Istria. La Jugoslavia è
stata attaccata, dall'interno e dall'esterno, con una determinazione ed
una ferocia mirate a distruggere, senza precedenti nella Storia.
Soltanto chi non aveva mai lavorato ne' contribuito alla ricostruzione
del paese dalle macerie della Guerra mondiale poteva scagliarsi con una
tale rabbia contro di esso. Quando mi presentavo dicendo "sono
jugoslavo", mi sentivo rispondere con una soddisfatta cattiveria: "La
Jugoslavia non esiste più".
Ma come potete voi definire noi, jugoslavi, "ex-jugoslavi",
malgrado esistiamo?!
Non vi chiediamo di comprendere il risentimento che possono provare
intere generazioni, compresa la mia, che hanno contribuito con il
lavoro volontario alla ricostruzione del paese ed alla edificazione di
tutti quei diritti sociali fondamentali, ottenuti con il lungo lavoro
delle masse popolari, ispirati solamente dagli ideali di pace,
uguaglianza, lavoro. Ma la "sinistra" italiana, e non solo quella
italiana, avrebbe dovuto capire che l'attacco alla Jugoslavia
socialista era un attacco contro la classe operaia.
Il concreto esempio lo abbiamo, di questi tempi, nel trasferimento
delle fabbriche dall'Italia in altri paesi, dove l'operaio qualificato
costa meno... Sin da allora abbiamo ritenuto che una rielaborazione di
quanto avveniva in Jugoslavia, un approfondimento di analisi sarebbe
stato doveroso per la sinistra italiana.
Purtroppo invece, niente da fare: equivoci ed "errori" di giudizio
si sono protratti ad auto-alimentati fino all'esito disastroso
dei bombardamenti. Cosi', rappresentanti di un governo (italiano) che
si definiva di centrosinistra andarono a stringere la mano a
rappresentanti di un governo di ultradestra, quello di Tudjman.
Certo, nemmeno ci sognamo oggi di chiedere ad un D'Alema - che sembra
godere di impunita' per i crimini ordinati nel 1999, ed e' poi stato
autore di un libro surreale sulla guerra per il
Kosovo - di vergognarsi, come pure sarebbe giusto, perché camaleonti
del genere non conoscono la vergogna. Non era forse chiaro sin
dall'inizio che, finche' la denominazione stessa di "Jugoslavia" non
fosse sparita dalle piantine geografiche, questi politici occidentali
avrebbero comunque continuato ad attaccare, ad "alzare il livello dello
scontro"? E quale senso attribuire, se non quello di un amaro
paradosso, a proposte come quella della "Euroslavia" (10), proposte
nate dopo tanta insistenza sulla distruzione della "slavia" federativa
e socialista?
Dunque, nelle parole dello scrittore e poeta Mesa Selimovic, ma
riferendoci ai nemici interni (i "quisling") ed esterni (la NATO): "Gli
uomini sono dei bambini malvagi. Malvagi per i loro atti, bambini nella
mente. E mai saranno diversi".
L'INIZIO DELLA FINE
L'attacco contro la Jugoslavia ebbe inizio con la "terapia d'urto"
del FMI, alla fine degli anni Ottanta, e con una accelerazione
degli eventi da parte degli USA che stavano organizzando la
divisione della RFSJ proprio mentre, dal punto di vista militare,
si mobilitavano per la prima guerra contro l'Irak (8). Lo riferisce
in dettaglio Sara Flounders dell'International Action Center (9),
l'organizzazione di cui fa parte anche l'ex ministro americano
della Giustizia Ramsey Clark (poi fondatore del "Tribunale"
popolare per i crimini della NATO). Scriveva Sara Flounders:
<<Il Congresso americano approvava [nel novembre 1990] una risoluzione
che tagliava qualsiasi aiuto, prestito o commercio (ma anche congelava
nelle banche americane i depositi jugoslavi) con la RFS di Jugoslavia e
ordinava elezioni separate nello spazio di un semestre in ciascuna
delle Repubbliche federate.>>
In questo contesto si inseri' l'equivoco sulle
"autodeterminazioni": secondo la Costituzione federale
l'autodeterminazione era ammessa, ma con riferimento esplicito ai
"popoli costitutivi" e non alle Repubbliche federate - tanto meno alle
Regioni autonome (Kosovo e Vojvodina). Percio' tutti i confini interni
amministrativi andavano ridiscussi.
Sapevano bene dove andare a piazzare i semi malati, gia'
all'inizio, perche' infestassero tutto: ad esempio nello sport.
La cultura sportiva era anch'essa un simbolo dell'Unità jugoslava.
Roma, giugno 1991, Campionato europeo di pallacanestro. Arriva da
Lubiana al giocatore sloveno Jure Zdovc un ordine: "Non devi piu'
giocare con la Nazionale jugoslava, altrimenti sarai dichiarato nemico
del tuo popolo!" Ero li' da accompagnatore sportivo, ne sono testimone.
E vi posso dire, in quei giorni, quanto si sono viceversa dimostrati
affiatati, amici, patrioti i giocatori slavi di tutte le nazionalita'!
Ma purtroppo, dovendo ritornare a casa dall'estero, ognuno nella sua
Repubblica secessionista, quegli sportivi dovevano stare molto attenti
ad elogiare la vittoria della formazione jugoslava.
In quei giorni che seguirono il 25 giugno - data delle proclamazioni di
indipendenza - l'Esercito Federale fu ostaggio non solamente dei
rivoltosi di Slovenia e Croazia, nelle caserme assediate, ma anche
delle opinioni pubbliche, interna ed internazionale. Derisa e
demoralizzata, con i soldati impossibilitati a rispondere agli spari
dei "territoriali" sloveni, con il comando pressato dai media, dalle
famiglie e dai parenti dei soldati di leva che chiedevano che i loro
figli tornassero subito a casa... l'Armija non svolse il suo ruolo.
Quella "abdicazione" di allora e' costata dieci anni di carneficine e
la distruzione del paese.
Negli stessi giorni giorni Tudjman, sull'ex Piazza della
Repubblica a Zagabria, davanti ad una folla che sbandierava
simboli nefasti e scandiva lugubri slogan, sentiti già nel 1941,
dichiarava che soltanto con la guerra (l'aiuto dell'Occidente e
la benedizione di Papa Wojtyla erano sottintesi!) avrebbero
ottenuto il loro tanto agognato cosiddetto Stato indipendente
croato. Precedentemente Tudjman - che per molti mesi si mosse come un
temporeggiatore, in attesa delle armi dall'estero oltreche' del
determinarsi di condizioni militari e diplomatiche favorevoli - aveva
affermato alla stampa: "Grazie a Dio, mia moglie non è ne' ebrea ne'
serba". La "piena indipendenza" croata fu in effetti acquisita solo nel
1995, con la ferocia, attraverso le varie operazioni "Tuono" e "Lampo",
sotto la guida e le istruzioni dei generali americani in pensione (12),
attaccando anche le colonne indifese dei profughi delle Krajne.
Vi potete immaginare quanto sia stata grande la tragedia dei
padri, delle famiglie cacciate dalle loro case, dai loro focolari.
Adesso, come nel 1941, i serbi ortodossi scacciati dalle loro
terre: dalle Krajne, dalla Erzegovina ("Erzegbosnia" nella
denominazione ustascia usata oggi ahinoi anche da Predrag Matvejevic)
per mano di "cattolicissimi" croati, con la diretta complicità della
Chiesa cattolica croata e del suo arcivescovo Stepinac - beatificato
nel 1997 da questo Papa (13)!
PRODROMI DI DISINFORMAZIONE
Ecco perche' la disinformazione sulla Jugoslavia non e'
solamente "disinformazione di guerra". Un grande contributo
alla disgregazione della Jugoslavia lo hanno dato i media.
"L'atroce guerra in Jugoslavia - a pochi mesi dal trionfale
spettacolo del Golfo - è nata nella bella capitale della
Slovenia, Lubiana, sotto il segno della disinformazione. Non è
più riuscita a liberarsene!", scriveva cosi nel suo libro "Sotto
la notizia niente" Claudio Fracassi (edizioni Avvenimenti).
Quando un giornalista, un reporter, vuole "vedere", riprende i fatti,
quando riesce a mostrarli, viene subito allontanato dai media, viene
messo in quarantena. Come ben sa Milena Gabanelli. (15)
Forse ricordate come stampa e TV mostravano i cittadini di
Lubiana scappare nei rifugi perché le sirene suonavano l'allarme di un
inesistente attacco dell'Esercito Popolare Jugoslavo... Ed il Corriere
della Sera titolava bugiardamente: "Lubiana bombardata".
Aerei militari sarebbero decollati dall'aeroporto militare di Pola,
o di Bihac... Lo stesso ministro degli Esteri italiano di allora,
Gianni De Michelis, ha poi dichiarato a voce e per iscritto (su
"Limes") che era tutto un bluff. Fu accusato prontamente dal Vaticano
di essere amico dei serbi...
Lo sanno benissimo i cittadini di Gorizia e della frontiera con la
Slovenia, compresi i compagni qui presenti, quello che stavano facendo
piuttosto i territoriali sloveni, contro le caserme, contro i militari
di leva... Fu abbattutto l'elicottero che
portava viveri ed acqua alle reclute nelle caserme assediate:
cadde nei pressi del consolato austriaco. Negli attacchi i
nazionalisti sloveni uccisero 34 soldati federali - di ogni
nazionalita'! - mentre dalla parte dei territoriali caddero in
quattro o cinque.
Nel frattempo, in Croazia si complottava sulla messa in opera di piani
preparati precedentemente. Fu intercettata e filmata una riunione, fu
mostrata alla TV. Tra gli altri, a tale riunione
partecipava il generale Martin Spegelj, che l'anno prima (1990)
era comandante in capo a Zagabria; c'era poi un altro alto
ufficiale, Boljkovac... In quella occasione preparava l'attacco
contro le caserme e contro gli ufficiali dell'Esercito Popolare
Jugoslavo, persino nei loro appartamenti privati. E' presente qui
Gordana Pavlovic, il cui marito medico è stato ucciso in Croazia.
Tanti compagni e amici hanno incolpato lo Stato Maggiore per non essere
prontamente intervenuto; ma piu' ancora gli hanno dato addosso gli
altri, quelli che dicevano: "l'Esercito è serbo". Questa è stata una
delle tante enormi menzogne diffuse a bella posta dagli uffici stampa
delle Repubbliche secessioniste. Anche questo abbiamo cercato di dirlo,
con ben poco successo, visto che lo spazio ci era negato in tutte le
sedi. Vi elenco chi erano in quel periodo le persone ai vertici del
Comando dell'Armata Popolare Jugoslava. Si noti che
nazionalmente la composizione non era esattamente proporzionata, bensi'
sfavorevole per i serbi.
Alla carica di segretario (ministro) della Difesa era il generale
d'Armata Veljko Kadijevic, che si e' dichiarato sempre jugoslavo. Il
capo di Stato maggiore era Blagoje Abdic, serbo.
Il vicesegretario alla Difesa era l'ammiraglio Stane Brovet, sloveno.
Comandate in capo dell'Esercito era Josip Gregoric, croato.
Comandante dell'Aviazione: Zvonko Jurjevic, croato. Egli, 15
giorni prima della secessione della Slovenia aveva sostituito
Antun Tus, anch'egli croato. Antun Tus avrebbe voluto fare un enorme
regalo a Tudjman, consegnandogli l'aeroporto militare di Bihac, in
Bosnia ed Erzegovina. Questo ve lo devo ricordare perché non l'avete
trovato scritto sui media italiani. Tus non riuscì nell'intento perché
l'Armata federale distrusse l'aeroporto, che era il migliore in Europa:
ci erano voluti 30 anni di lavoro per farlo, a ricostruirlo non
basterebbero 50 anni. Se fosse stato preso dai paramilitari croati gli
scontri bellici su quei territori sarebbero durati almeno 30 anni...
Bihac, la sacca di Bihac, vi ricorda qualcosa? Fikret Abdic,
musulmano, ne prende il controllo, ed in quella regione stipula
la pace sia con i croati che con i serbi. Poi viene attaccato
dal V Corpo d'Armata della soldatesca dell'integralista Izetbegovic
(1994). Abdic ripara in Croazia, e viene accusato di crimini di guerra.
Il governo della Federazione croato-musulmana della Bosnia-Erzegovina
chiede che sia consegnato alle autorità di Sarajevo, per trasferirlo
all'Aia. Zagabria non lo consegna, essendo lui diventato cittadino
della Croazia. Ma recentemente, per accontentare Sarajevo e
l'Occidente, la Croazia ha celebrato un processo-farsa ed ha condannato
Abdic per crimini di guerra, punendolo cosi'... per avere voluto la
pace con tutti.
Chiusa la parentesi, continuiamo: comandante della Marina militare era
l'ammiraglio Bozidar Grubisic, croato, che l'anno prima della
secessione aveva sostituito Fridrih Moretti, anche lui di nazionalità
croata. Del Servizio d'informazione e controspionaggio si occupavano
gli sloveni ed i croati. I maggiori capi di alcune sezioni erano
macedoni e musulmano-bosniaci. E cosi via.
LE OSTILITA' IN CROAZIA
Ancora non si erano raffredati i fucili dai tafferugli in Slovenia,
che subito iniziarono a divampare le fiamme in Croazia. La
popolazione serba della Croazia, vedendo cosa si stava preparando - un
vero e proprio ritorno al 1941 - incomincio' ad innalzare le barricate
nei comuni a maggioranza serba. Non sono forse le barricate segno di
difesa, e non di attacco!? Dovevano farle, perche' i territoriali
croati nel frattempo cercavano di disarmare i serbi appartenti alla
difesa territoriale ed alla polizia. I primi poliziotti uccisi nei
dintorni dei laghi di
Plitvice sono finiti nel "dimenticatoio" dei media... Ironia
della sorte: l'attuale presidente croato Mesic (è superfuo ricordare
chi e' questo individuo) presenzierà il 16 dicembre prossimo, in Piazza
San Pietro a Roma, alla posa dell'albero di Natale, sradicato dalla
zona suddetta, cioé il Gorski Kotar, e donato quest'anno al Papa dalla
Croazia. Bisognerebbe far notare dunque al Papa che quell'albero si e'
nutrito del sudore e del sangue serbo!
Con la Costituzione "di Natale", regalo di Tudjman alla "Croazia dei
croati", nel 1990 i serbi erano gia' stati esclusi dallo status di
"popolo costitutivo" ed erano diventati "minoranza". Venivano
licenziati dal lavoro, allontanati da tutti i posti di responsabilita'.
Poi furono prese di mira le case dei serbi in Dalmazia, sulle isole e
in altre parti della Croazia. Ed i media su tutto questo neanche si
sono mai soffermati. In seguito qualcuno ha versato lacrime di
coccodrillo, ammettendo che la Croazia e la Slovenia erano state
riconosciute prematuramente. Nel frattempo la Croazia si stava armando,
alla grande... Le armi venivano dalla Germania, dall'Ungheria, e con
l'aiuto di chi, se non del Vaticano?
Sono passati inosservati i retroscena, la vera ragione del crack
della banca Kreditna di Trieste, compresa la morte - "suicidio" -
del Rettore del Collegio Croato di San Girolamo a Roma. E poi, non
abbiamo forse visto persino alla TV italiana i reportage
sull'implicazione della Chiesa cattolica nel traffico di armi, con la
scoperta della falsa missione del "Pane di S. Antonio"?! (14)
I traffici erano coperti anche dalla ditta "Astra" di Zagabria.
Questo avveniva mentre la Comunità internazionale ci presentava i serbi
come aggressori, come occupatori (delle proprie terre).
Sono tante le ingiurie con le quali venivano gia' allora presentati i
serbi ed i loro leader politici. A buon titolo, i semplici cittadini
serbi si chiedevano:" Ma perché tanto odio verso di noi?".
Personalmente mi chiedevo se non fossero casi patologici le Albraight,
i Kucan, quelli che insieme ai loro genitori si erano rifugiati in
Serbia durante il nazismo; e poi Havel, e tutti quelli che hanno
letteralmente sopravvissuto solo grazie al pane serbo. Questo popolo
ospitale, dignitoso, che non ha mai cercato vendetta, e nemmeno chiede
di esser ringraziato, ma che non si aspettava certo di esser offeso,
segregato, pugnalato allo stomaco. Un popolo che insegna ai suoi figli
i valori espressi nella testimonianza di quella ragazza intervistata
alla TV, che dopo i bombardamenti disse: "Non vorrei che questo
succedesse mai ai miei coetanei in tutto il mondo". Ma quel popolo non
potrà e non deve
dimenticare certi tragici eventi. "No, i bambini morti, quelli
non ve li perdoniamo!" era il titolo di una canzone composta
durante i bombardamenti NATO all'uranio impoverito.
LO SQUARTAMENTO DELLA BOSNIA-ERZEGOVINA
Intanto, mentre vari gruppi, organizzazioni, ONG, Caritas,
eccetera, continuano a versare "lacrime di coccodrillo", ne viene
combinata un'altra, ancora più grossa: viene riconosciuta la Bosnia ed
Erzegovina come Stato indipendente. Benzina sul fuoco della guerra
civile. Viene firmato, a Lisbona, l'accordo elaborato da Cutileiro, con
il quale la Bosnia veniva cantonizzata - un piano accettato da tutte le
parti in causa, dai serbi, dai croati e dai musulmano bosniaci - ma
Izetbegovic, su invito dell'ex ambasciatore USA in Jugoslavia
Zimmermann, ritira subito la firma. (16)
Gli scontri si inaspriscono. Alla fine, gli USA imporranno l'accordo di
Dayton, dopo che i serbi sono stati scacciati da varie regioni e
"sistemati" in due territori, collegati tra loro dal sottile corridoio
di Brcko. Come se vi venissero assegnate due stanze collegate con un
corridoio che non potete usare indisturbati.
A Dayton firmano Tudjman, Izetbegovic e Milosevic, ma l'accordo non
soddisfa nessuna delle tre parti in causa. I musulmano-bosniaci sono
insoddisfatti per non avere ottenuto il loro stato islamico; i croati
perché non hanno ottenuto i territori promessi; figuriamoci se potevano
essere soddisfatti i serbi, scacciati dalla loro terra "occupata" da
centinaia di anni. E' la solita politica americana: accordi di pace
perché pace non sia, fintanto che lo vuole zio Sam. Scriveva Ivo
Andric, lo jugoslavo premio Nobel per la letteratura, nei "Racconti di
Bosnia":
<<Niente di buono in Bosnia fintantoché Dzelaludin comanda.
Oggi Dzelaludin, domani chissà, qualcuno ancora peggiore.>>
LA DISGREGAZIONE TOTALE. IL RUOLO DEI MERCENARI
La secessione della Macedonia viene riconosciuta cosi' come quella
della Bosnia ed Erzegovina. I media (tutti indistintamente) non si sono
mai chiesti perché la Macedonia sia potuta uscire dalla Jugoslavia
senza uno sparo. La risposta e' semplice: perché li' non hanno fatto
quello che i nazionalisti secessionisti facevano nelle altre due
repubbliche. Il Capo di Stato Maggiore jugoslavo si era tranquillamente
accordato con la dirigenza macedone sul ritiro dell'Armija.
Ma se la Bosnia-Erzegovina è oggi un protettorato, la Macedonia ha
perso la sua "indipendenza" prima ancora di acquisirla con il
riconoscimento occidentale. Gli USA hanno piazzato lì subito 500
marines "per difenderla dalle truppe di Milosevic"... Oggi migliaia di
soldati di svariate forze occupatrici si trovano su quel territorio, e
sotto il loro attento sguardo si affermano le pretese secessioniste
degli estremisti schipetari e delle loro organizzazioni mafiose, cosi'
come in Kosmet. Lo dicono anche nei loro murales: "Kosova - Tetova".
Murales visti a Roma nel 1992, durante una sessione FAO, che passarono
"inosservati" benche' segnalassero forze sovversive. Si allesti'
invece, in quella occasione, uno stand ufficiale della inesistente
"Repubblica Kosova", con una "bella" piantina della "grande Albania" in
distribuzione gratuita. Era in effetti lo stand del partito di Rugova.
Uccisi o scacciati i serbi dalla Croazia, e mentre ancora le
fiamme si stavano spegnendo, Tudjman ordinò che soldati croati - quelli
nati in Bosnia-Erzegovina, insieme ad altri quadri
militari - formassero Unità Speciali da spedire in Bosnia,
e precisamente nella cosiddetta "Erzegbosnia", a fare "piazza
pulita" dei musulmani. Di questo esistono le testimonianze di
croati i quali, nati in Bosnia-Erzegovina, per ottenere la
"domovnica" (il "pedigree" razziale valido come certificato di
cittadinanza) dovettero prestarsi a questa operazione. Ma
furono coinvolti anche cittadini di altre nazionalità, come
quell'alto ufficiale schipetaro che si vantò di "aver contribuito
[anche lui] per questa patria", prima di essere "invitato" a
presentarsi al Tribunale dell'Aja.
In Bosnia divampava una feroce guerra civile. Dall'islamista
Izetbegovic venivano reclutati mercenari di tutte le specie:
pakistani, "mujaheddin" di Bin Laden, africani. In verità, il
governo croato di Tudjman già agli inizi dei scontri bellici
aveva usato i mercenari. Tra questi c'erano circa 600 rumeni
della ex polizia speciale "Securitate", nonche' filippini,
curdi, albanesi, africani... E volontari italiani, britannici e
tedeschi "pescati" nelle formazioni di estrema destra dei loro
paesi. Trovavamo questi individui nelle fotografie scattate
a fianco dei francescani croati! Paracadutisti scozzesi si
impegnavano con i croati nelle esercitazioni militari. E cosi' via.
Tutti questi mercenari non hanno disdegnato nemmeno di vantarsi di
quanti "serbo-cetnizi" avessero sgozzato: come un certo Roberto Delle
Fave, che gira tuttora indisturbato in Italia (19). Apparivano foto di
teste mozzate, si faceva riferimento a delitti commessi dai serbi,
oppure le foto erano inserite in articoli con titoli e didascalie di
dubbia interpretazione. Ma non dovrebbero, tutti costoro, andare
dinanzi al Tribunale Internazionale insieme a chi li ha ingaggiati?!
Secondo alcuni dati i mercenari venivano pagati attorno ai 2.000 marchi
tedeschi. Però le banconote trovate in possesso dei mercenari, morti o
catturati, erano di solito banconote ritirate dal corso legale. Gli
appartenenti alle forze croate erano spesso imbottiti di alcool e
stupefacenti, il che veniva confermato dai soldati catturati (20).
LA DEMONIZZAZIONE DEI SERBI
Malgrado delle varie carneficine - al mercato di Sarajevo, nella
via Miskina, a Zepa, a Srebrenica - fossero sempre smentite le
attribuzioni o le descrizioni immediatamente fornite dai media,
le sanzioni contro Belgrado venivano inasprite sempre di più.
Era impossibile far passare i medicinali tra gli aiuti umanitari.
La RF di Jugoslavia era trattata come un immenso lager. I media e i
politici si scatenavano a più non posso, contro Milosevic e contro
l'intero popolo serbo: vedevano se stessi nello specchio e accusavano
gli altri. Milosevic era definito "macellaio dei Balcani" su
indicazione del tandem radicale Bonino-Pannella.
In un cruciverba apparso sull'"Espresso" bisognava trovare
una parola di nove lettere, che comincia per "M" e finisce per
"C", in base alla definizione: "il capo dei barbari". La
soluzione era sin troppo facile, perche' ci avevano messo pure la foto.
I serbi aggressori, torturatori, stupratori di donne musulmane.
I serbi erano stati fatti tanto "neri" che... nascevano addirittura
dei bimbi di "colore". Non è una barzelletta, ma il caso vero di
un parto di una donna musulmano-bosniaca in una clinica Svizzera.
Sarebbe impossibile spiegare la asprezza dello scontro tra le
"etnie" nella Jugoslavia senza considerare il ruolo decisivo
giocato dai giornali e dalle TV, nonche' dalla maggiorparte degli
"intellettuali". Sentivamo e vedevamo in TV una cronista di nome Bimba
Di Maria riportare in italiano, nel doppiaggio, parole che non
corrispondevano per niente a quelle canticchiate dai bimbi serbi delle
Krajne. E Barbara Spinelli, da Mosca, sulla "Stampa": "La figura di
Milosevic produce cloni tra la bandiera rossa e la svastica." Parole
che rasentavano il razzismo. E non era la prima volta che questa
giornalista, seduta su di una comoda poltrona a Parigi o Mosca,
scriveva idiozie. Ma le idiozie rimarrebbero soltanto tali se non
avessero effetti cosi' nefasti. E' per questo che sarebbe necessario
andare a cercare i veri criminali di guerra anche tra i giornalisti
occidentali.
Prezzolati della stampa di regime, come Paolo Rumiz che dichiarò a
Limes nel 1995: "Sarò amico dei serbi solo quando Belgrado sarà
bombardata." In realta' "amico dei serbi" non lo e' stato mai, nemmeno
dopo il bombardamento sulla sede della TV serba, nel quale perirono
tanti suoi colleghi. Forse qualcuno ricorderà Rumiz in un dibattito
alla RAI TV, durante i bombardamenti del 1999, "preso in castagna" da
Dragos Kalajic mentre dichiara il falso.
Lungo sarebbe l'elenco di questi giornalisti "di servizio".
Quanto agli intellettuali, ai giornalisti-scrittori, ricordiamo
innanzitutto quelli di origini "nostrane". Come Enzo Bettiza,
con gli occhi "foderati da prosciutto dalmata", o Demetrio Volcic, che
scrisse un libro sugli eventi in Bosnia, ma ad una domanda di un
giornalista, che gli chiese se fosse stato recentemente da quelle
parti, rispose di esser stato all'aeroporto di Sarajevo - per qualche
ora, forse (concediamogli tanto!).
Poi un certo professor Pirjevec... Ma gli intellettual-borghesi
nostrani sono "degnamente" rappresentati innanzitutto
dall'arcinoto Predrag Matvejevic, il professore appeso "tra asilo
ed esilio" - certamente dorato, il suo "esilio" in Italia, nelle pause
tra una vacanza in Dalmazia e la consegna di una onoreficenza a
Zagabria. Al quale Matvejevic vorremmo davvero chiedere di che "asilo
ed esilio" va blaterando.
L'unica verità della guerra civile in Bosnia, come su tutti
i territori delle ex Repubbliche federate, sono le vittime. Di
vittime, veramente, ce ne sono state troppe, non c'e' dubbio.
Ha scritto "Hrvatska ljevica" (il mensile della sinistra croata,
n.10/1995):
<<Sulle disgrazie della gente e del popolo della Bosnia-Erzegovina ci
sono già tonnellate di documenti. Ogni etnia cerca di convincere il
mondo e se stessa di essere la piu' grande vittima e di essere oggetto
delle bestialità degli altri. Le Nazioni Unite raccolgono e detengono
la loro documentazione, l'UE la sua, il Tribunale per i crimini in
Jugoslavia la sua esclusiva...
Riguardo a questo, i fantocci del Nuovo ordine mondiale
piazzano le prove dei delitti secondo il loro tornaconto,
cosicche' al momento adatto possano ottenere qualcosa sul piano
diplomatico e sul "terreno". Malgrado fosse molto difficile
attestare tutta la verità sulle vittime e sui crimini commessi
dall'una, dall'altra, dalla terza parte, sicuramente i
musulmano-bosniaci hanno avuto il maggior numero dei morti.
I musulmani sono stati vittime dei serbi, dei croati e degli
stessi musulmani; imprigionati, scacciati, le donne stuprate.
Tra i serbi, almeno 20.000 sono morti in uniforme, e almeno
40.000 civili. Sono stati vittime dei musulmani e dei croati.
I croati morti in Bosnia-Erzegovina sono stati 15.000.
Morti, costoro, molto di più negli scontri con i musulmani
che non contro i serbi...>>
Claudio Fracassi lamentava in "Sotto la notizia niente":
<<Come una telenovela, abbiamo distrattamente seguito ogni sera la
nuova puntata. Siamo stati messi in grado, com'è d'obbligo in ogni
serial che si rispetti, di capire subito chi erano i buoni e chi i
cattivi, anche senza conoscere la trama; bastava una frase del
reporter, un'immagine, un rumore, una musica sullo sfondo. Ma nessuno
ci ha spiegato il contenuto delle puntate precedenti...>>
(fine prima parte - segue)
NOTE:
(1) "Menzogne di guerra", di Juergen Elsaesser, Edizioni "La Città del
Sole", Napoli 2002.
(2) A Maastricht (novembre 1991) l'Unione monetaria europea, con il
marco tedesco come valuta-base, e' stata creata in cambio della
distruzione della Repubblica Federativa Socialista di Jugoslavia
(RFSJ): questa infatti la condizione posta dal Ministro degli Esteri
tedesco Genscher. Il giorno di Natale 1991 i tedeschi annunciano che
riconosceranno formalmente le secessioni; il 13 gennaio 1992 il
Vaticano compie il primo passo ufficiale; il 15 gennaio seguono tutti i
paesi UE.
(3) Sul criminale impiego delle munizioni all'uranio impoverito in
Jugoslavia ed altrove, nonche' sulle conseguenze dei bombardamenti
NATO sulle infrastrutture e sui civili, si vedano ad esempio i due
libri del comitato Scienziate/i contro la guerra: "Imbrogli di guerra"
(1999) e "Contro le nuove guerre" (2000), Edizioni Odradek, Roma (anche
su
http://www.scienzaepace.it).
(4) Il culmine lo aveva forse gia' raggiunto Rossana Rossanda con un
articolo sul "Manifesto" nei giorni di meta' agosto 1995, nel quale la
giornalista si dichiarava esplicitamente favorevole
all'intervento NATO contro i serbi della Bosnia, ed affermava con
irresponsabile superficialita' che gli USA non avevano alcun interesse
strategico nell'area balcanica!
(5) La strategia dell'imperialismo americano e' illustrata bene
da Noam Chomski nel suo libro "I cortili dello zio Sam" (editore
Gamberetti), dove si spiega perché gli USA mirino a distruggere
qualunque Stato, anche piccolo, ed il suo governo, se il sistema di
quello Stato non corrisponde ai parametri USA.
(6) Il movimento delle "brigate di lavoro", grazie alle quali
le infrastrutture del paese furono (ri)costruite soprattutto negli
anni Quaranta e Cinquanta, ed alle quali l'autore di questo
intervento partecipo', fu un formidabile fenomeno di massa.
(7) "No East no West, Islam is the best", era uno dei sottotitoli
di una edizione del libro di Izetbegovic. Fu il lancio della
campagna islamista in Bosnia. Nel 1990 usci' sulla rivista "Vox",
pubblicata in Germania, un esplicito proclama di 12 punti: "Che cosa
fare dei serbi nella Repubblica islamica di Bosnia ed Erzegovina".
(8) Il 29 novembre 1990 i giornali riportavano notizie di agenzia in
base alle quali la CIA "prevedeva" il disastro che poi, l'anno
successivo, in Jugoslavia si sarebbe effettivamente
verificato. Noi disponiamo dei ritagli da "La Stampa" ed
"Il Tempo": "La CIA ha detto: la Jugoslavia esisterà per
ancora 18 mesi... Non si escludono scontri bellici e il maggior
responsabile sarà indicato [sic] in Milosevic". Vanno fatte due
considerazioni: primo, i servizi segreti non "prevedono" se
non "vogliono", ovvero se non stanno lavorando affinche'
succeda; secondo, il 29 novembre era guarda caso la ricorrenza
nazionale della RFSJ (la "Giornata della Repubblica"). Piu' esplicita
di cosi' la CIA non sarebbe potuta essere!
(9) Si veda: "NATO in the Balkans", IAC, New York 1997.
Pubblicato in versione ridotta in lingua italiana da Editori Riuniti,
"La NATO nei Balcani" (1999) e' uno dei testi piu' preziosi per la
ricostruzione della guerra di distruzione della RFSJ (1990-1996), ma
sembra essere ignorato dagli stessi suoi curatori italiani, che non lo
hanno mai menzionato ne' recensito sulla stampa su cui pure
regolarmente scrivono.
(10) La proposta della "Euroslavia" apparve su Limes ma fini'
presto nel dimenticatoio, sommersa dal fragore delle bombe all'U238.
(11) E' successo ad esempio a Spalato, in occasione della visita del
Papa.
(12) L'esercito croato, come poi quelli bosniaco-musulmano e macedone
nonche' l'UCK, sono stati addestrati dalla Military Professional
Resources Inc., nota agenzia con sede in Virginia (USA). L'esercito
croato ha avuto anche l'appoggio logistico della NATO per il
completamento della pulizia etnica delle Krajne nel 1995.
(13) Sulla figura dell'arcivescovo cattolico nazista Stepinac e sul
genocidio, a danno soprattutto dei serbi, commesso durante la Seconda
guerra mondiale in Croazia, si veda ad esempio: "L'Arcivescovo del
genocidio", di M.A. Rivelli, Ed. Kaos, Milano 1999.
(14) <<Non c'è nessun nuovo indagato nell'inchiesta condotta dal
sostituto procuratore della Repubblica di Ancona Cristina Tedeschini
sui tre tir bloccati dalla Guardia di Finanza e dalla dogana nel porto
di Ancona lo scorso 12 aprile (ma la notizia del sequestro è stata data
solo l'altro giorno): seppur carichi d'aiuti umanitari per i profughi
del Kosovo, i camion trasportavano nei doppifondi un enorme carico
d'armi diretto all'Uck. Al centro dell'interesse del magistrato ci
sarebbe per ora la figura di un prete, probabilmente coinvolto nella
vicenda. I tre tir viaggiavano sotto le insegne dell'organizzazione
umanitaria "Kruh Svetog Ante" (Il pane di Sant'Antonio) di Sarajevo ed
erano diretti, secondo la bolla d'accompagnamento, alla "Caritas" di
Scutari...>>.
Tratto da: La Padania, 4 maggio 1999. Del ritrovamento parlo' per primo
il "Corriere della Sera".
(15) Il caso di Milena Gabanelli viene descritto nel gia' citato
"Sotto la notizia niente" ed anche, da lei stessa, in una appendice
contenuta nel peraltro discutibile "La sconfitta dei media", di Marco
Guidi (Baskerville, Bologna, 1993).
(16) Ha scritto Andy Wilcoxson in «How the war started» (su:
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/bosnia-started):
<<On March 18, 1992, Alija Izetbegovic (Bosnian-Muslim
leader), Mate Boban (Bosnian-Croat leader), and Radovan
Karadzic (Bosnian-Serb Leader) all reached an agreement
on the peaceful succession of Bosnia & Herzegovina from
Yugoslavia. The Agreement was known as the Lisbon Agreement (it is also
known as the Cutileiro Plan). The agreement called for an independent
Bosnia divided into three constituent and geographically separate
parts, each of which would be autonomous. Izetbegovic, Boban, and
Karadzic all agreed to the plan, and signed the agreement.
The agreement was all set, internal and external borders, and
the administrative functions of the central and autonomous
governments had all been agreed upon. The threat of civil
war had been removed from Bosnia that is until, the U.S.
Ambassador Warren Zimmerman showed up.
On March 28, 1992, ten days after the agreement was reached
that would have avoided war in Bosnia, Warren Zimmerman
flew to Sarajevo and met with the Bosnian-Muslim leader,
Alija Izetbegovic. Upon finding that Izetbegovic was having
second thoughts about the agreement he had signed in
Lisbon, the Ambassador suggested that if he withdrew his
signature, the United States would grant recognition to
Bosnia as an independent state. Izetbegovic then withdrew his
signature and renounced the agreement.
After Izetbegovic reneged on the Lisbon Agreement, he called
a referendum on separation that was constitutionally illegal.
On the second day of the referendum there was a Muslim-led
attack on a Serb wedding. But the real trigger was
Izetbegovic announcing a full mobilization on April 4, 1992.
He could not legally do that without Serb & Croat consent,
but he did it anyway. That night terror reigned in Sarajevo.
The war was on. (...)
If Ambassador Zimmerman had just left Izetbegovic alone,
then none of this would have happened to begin with.
Its that simple. The blame for all of
the death and destruction associated with the Bosnian war
lies exclusively with Alija Izetbegovic for starting the war,
and with the U.S. President Bill Clinton for sending that idiot
Zimmerman to Bosnia in the first place.>>
(17) Djelaludin - soprannome di un visir ottomano - rappresenta lo
straniero occupante, il colonizzatore.
(18) La desinenza con la "a" e' propria della lingua schipetara (cioe'
albanese in senso "etnico" e non nel senso della cittadinanza della
Repubblica di Albania). Tetovo è una cittadina della Macedonia
occidentale.
(19) Clamoroso il caso del criminale di guerra italiano Roberto Delle
Fave, che rivelo' la sua vicenda di mercenario a stampa e televisione,
e dopo aver contribuito a massacri come quello nella zona di Divo Selo
(Gospic, Krajna) ed all'assassinio del giornalista francese Xavier ha
vissuto indisturbato a Bordighera ed e' stato "risparmiato" da
qualsivoglia inchiesta penale, all'Aia o altrove.
(20) I dati sull'uso di stupefacenti nell'esercito croato si possono
trarre dall'opuscolo "Nasiljem i zlocinom protiv prava. Hrvatska '91"
(Belgrado 1991. Trad.: "Con la violenza ed il delitto contro la
ragione. Croazia '91). Per quanto riguarda i drogati, ne abbiamo avuto
testimonianza da quanto apparso nel 1995 sul quotidiano "Corriere della
Sera", ed anche in televisione, sui soldati croati in cura presso la
"Comunità di San Patrignano".
(21) Andrea Catone nella prefazione del libro "Menzogne di
guerra" di J. Elsasser (Nota 1).
(22) Il libro di J. Merlino (trad.: "Le verità sulla Jugoslavia non
sono tutte buone a dirsi") e' stato pubblicato in Francia da Albin
Michel nel 1993. Mai tradotto in lingua italiana, e poco pubblicizzato
nella stessa Francia, il libro documenta la verita' sconvolgente della
disinformazione strategica ai danni dei serbi della Bosnia. Brani della
intervista ad Harff sono stati riproposti nel libro di Claudio Fracassi
"Sotto la notizia niente". Ulteriore dettagliatissima documentazione
sulla attivita' di disinformazione strategica compiuta dalle grandi
catene di "media" e da agenzie specializzate si possono trovare in
tutta la produzione del giornalista belga Michel Collon. Ricordiamo ad
esempio i libri: "Monopoly" e "Poker Menteur" (Edizioni
EPO, si veda: http://www.epo.be/index.html )
(22) Questo e' documentato ad esempio nella intervista ad Hakija
Meholjic, presidente del Social Democratic Party a Srebrenica,
pubblicata su "Dani" il 22/06/1998. Ampia documentazione sul "balletto
dei morti" di Srebrenica si trovano sul libro di Elsaesser (Nota 1).
(23) Ennio Remondino ha recentemente rivelato in "La televisione va
alla guerra" (Edizioni ERI/RAI) che nelle valigie della delegazione UCK
a Rambouillet furono trovati sacchetti di "polvere bianca": come dire,
l'utile ed il dilettevole... Per noi italiani e' particolarmente
significativo ricordare che tra i consiglieri della delegazione,
insieme a molti americani, c'erano personaggi come un tale Di Robilant,
appartenente al Partito Radicale Transnazionale (Fonte: il "Corriere
della Sera" di quei giorni).
(24) Sulla condizione del Kosmet occupato dalla NATO, dopo il 1999, e
governato dai terroristi e dai mafiosi suoi alleati; sul
regime di terrore ed apartheid oggi vigente; e sulle migliaia di
"desaparecidos" che ormai si contano: si veda l'eccezionale
documentazione prodotta da Michel Collon e Vanessa Stojiljkovic nel
video "I dannati del Kosovo" (Edizione italiana a cura del Comitato SOS
Yugoslavia di Torino).
5: Pavicevac prima parte
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/files/CONVEGNOTRIESTE/
trascrizioni.html
---
Trieste / Trst, 16 novembre 2002, Convegno:
"...PASSANDO SEMPRE PER LA JUGOSLAVIA..."
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/files/CONVEGNOTRIESTE/
pavicevac.html
INTERVENTO DI IVAN PAVICEVAC
(CNJ / "Voce Jugoslava" su Radio Citta' Aperta, Roma)
La disinformazione di guerra: il caso jugoslavo
Prima parte
[nota: la trascrizione dell'intervento registrato e' stata
completamente rivista e corredata di note per facilitare la lettura.
CNJ]
Mi e' stato assegnato il compito, non facile, di sostituire Fulvio
Grimaldi nell'esporre la problematica della disinformazione di
guerra... e non solo di guerra, aggiungerei. Non e' facile per me poter
essere "distaccato" e lucido quanto sarebbe necessario, su questa
immensa tragedia che ha toccato il nostro popolo jugoslavo: una
comunità che e' stata a suo tempo esempio nel mondo di pace,
convivenza, progresso.
Nella presentazione del suo libro "Menzogne di guerra" (1),
di cui consiglio caldamente la lettura, Juergen Elsaesser
sottolinea che non si può capire la distruzione della
Jugoslavia socialista se non si conosce la storia di questo paese: una
storia non tanto remota, in effetti.
LA STORIA SI RIPETE
"In Jugoslavia, all'insaputa degli italiani, agenti tedeschi tentano di
promuovere la secessione della Croazia facendo leva sui capi
nazionalisti"... Non sono poi tanto strane, queste parole, anzi
sarebbero applicabili all'oggi. Eppure sono state riprese da una
cronologia dell'anno 1941, apparsa sulla rivista dell'Associazione
Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia "Patria Indipendente".
1941: "in Jugoslavia, all'insaputa degli italiani, agenti tedeschi
tentano di promuovere la secessione della Croazia facendo leva sui
capi nazionalisti". Se osservate la piantina della Jugoslavia sotto il
nazifascismo, notate la presenza di truppe straniere a sancire la
spartizione, allora come oggi - a parte poche sfumature.
La Germania - parliamo degli ultimi eventi - ha poi imposto
agli altri membri dell'Unione Europea il riconoscimento di Slovenia e
Croazia. E non dimentichiamo la "longa manus" vaticana: il tradizionale
nemico della Jugoslavia, il Vaticano, ha riconosciuto la Slovenia e la
Croazia due giorni prima dell'UE (2).
Grazie al sostegno fornito, la Chiesa cattolica ha incassato la
restituzione delle proprietà nazionalizzate nel dopoguerra: i boschi in
Slovenia, nonché uno "status specialissimo" per le istituzioni
cattoliche nel nuovo Stato di Tudjman.
Come nel 1941, così anche nel 1991 la parola d'ordine e' stata: "La
Jugoslavia deve sparire. La Serbia deve morire!" ("Serbien muss
sterbien!"). Nella nuova edizione aggiornata di Klaus Kinkel, Ministro
degli Esteri tedesco nei primi anni Novanta, essa suona: "La Serbia va
messa in ginocchio" - l'ha detto esplicitamente il 27 maggio 1992...
Nel maggio 1941, invece, l'editorialista del periodico "Conquiste", un
fascista di nome Bartoli, scriveva un articolo intitolato: "La Nemesi
divina". E sosteneva: "La Provvidenza divina è favorevole alla
Germania... la Serbia dovrà inchinarsi per anni e anni ad essa, e
poi... e poi...".
Ne' l'Europa, ne' gli USA vogliono ricordare quel passato, per non
dover ricordare il loro ruolo disonesto in quel passato ed in questo
presente. L'assassino torna sempre sul luogo del delitto: nel 1941,
allo scoppio della guerra mondiale, Belgrado viene bombardata dai
tedeschi; nell'aprile 1944 (Pasqua ortodossa) Belgrado viene bombardata
dai "nostri alleati" anglo-americani. Il giorno dopo si contavano più
di 2000 civili morti, case, ospedali, asili nido, scuole distrutte.
PACIFISTI E "SINISTRA"
Quando nel 1994 si presento' forte la minaccia che gli USA-NATO
avrebbero bombardato i serbi di Bosnia, il sottoscritto consegnò "due
righe" scritte, all'attenzione degli addetti militari
dell'Ambasciata USA e di quella della Gran Bretagna a Roma:
"Nel 1941 la Germania bombardò Belgrado. Nel 1944 gli
anglo-americani. Nel 1994 insieme?!", scrissi. Era il periodo della
campagna di stampa su "Sarajevo assediata": una micidiale trappola per
tutto il movimento pacifista. Tra i pochissimi a testimoniare che, in
realta', la citta' era tragicamente divisa in due piuttosto che
"assediata" (o "doppiamente assediata", secondo Tommaso di Francesco),
c'erano alcuni nostri amici e compagni. Tra questi Manuela Marianetti e
Maurizio Caldarola, che si offrirono anche di fare da "scudi umani" in
caso di bombardamento su Pale.
USA ed "alleati", piu' Germania ed Italia, bombardarono in effetti i
serbi della Bosnia nel 1995 con l'uranio impoverito (3) - ed il
comando italiano, pare, "non ne era stato informato" (sic! Italiani
brava gente...). Ma nel mio piccolo, con la mia attivita' di
controinformazione e sensibilizzazione, mi sforzavo di avvertire i
compagni che i paesi NATO non si sarebbero fermati fintantoché non
avessero bombardato Belgrado. E cosi' fu.
La barbara aggressione contro Belgrado e tutta la Repubblica
Federale di Jugoslavia (RFJ, cio' che rimaneva della RFSJ)
avvenne nel 1999. Il pretesto era che lì si consumava una
"pulizia etnica", si commettevano "crimini contro l'umanità"...
E dagli addosso, per l'ennesima volta, all'unisono con tutti i
media, a quel "tiranno" di Milosevic... Ma chi voleva comprendere
capiva che la posta in gioco era alta. Si trattava della sovranità
dello Stato jugoslavo, minacciata con l'ultimatum-ricatto di
Washington: l'ultimatum di Rambouillet. Purtroppo anche quella volta,
nonostante l'enormita' degli avvenimenti, la sinistra "perse il passo",
mal consigliata dai soliti pacifisti del "ne'-ne'" (ne' con Milosevic,
ne' con gli USA), che non hanno fatto altro che il gioco dello zio Sam,
come ha fatto ben notare Grimaldi in numerosi interventi.
E dunque, avanti con "l'intervento umanitario", con D'Alema in
persona che senza vergogna diceva: "Abbiamo fatto il nostro
dovere... Siamo una nazione affidabile". Tuttavia in tanti,
gente comune o "anime belle", si chiedevano quale interesse
avesse l'America a promuovere i bombardamenti sulla RFJ.
"Perché questa guerra feroce, queste atrocità che fanno
inorridire il mondo?" Risposta tipica: "Bisognava
intervenire perché altrimenti... la Grande Serbia...
Milosevic...". Ed insistevano: "La ex-Jugoslavia
[seppellita come "ex", prima ancora di essere morta, con
particolare zelo proprio da certi "sinistri" ambienti]
non ha petrolio, non è un grande mercato da conquistare...
Dunque per comprendere occorre risalire indietro nei secoli...
I nazionalismi... Gli odii etnici..." (4)
I NEMICI ESTERNI ED INTERNI
Davvero, ad ascoltarli, veniva da chiedersi: "Ma ci sono o ci
fanno"?! Ce l'hanno, eccome, gli USA e i loro alleati NATO,
l'interesse a distruggere e ad infiltrarsi nei Balcani!
Interessi simili a quelli che l'imperialismo americano nutre
quasi in ogni angolo del pianeta (5). Anche la Jugoslavia, alla
fine degli anni Ottanta, si era incamminata verso le riforme
sociali ed economiche in atto in tutti i paesi socialisti d'Europa.
Aveva persino richiesto l'adesione all'UE. Lo standard economico era
uguale a quello spagnolo. Evidentemente a qualcuno (SI-SA-A-CHI, come
diciamo dalle parti nostre) nemmeno questo bastava. Furono poste
condizioni inaccettabili, dei veri e propri ricatti che hanno
accelerato la vertiginosa disgregazione dello Stato e la decomposizione
della stessa coscienza del popolo jugoslavo, con
l'obiettivo di sottometterlo totalmente agli interessi altrui.
"Piatto ricco, mi ci ficco"... ed ecco allora anche noi
italiani, e persino gli ungheresi, gli albanesi... Tutti a
gettarsi come rapaci sulle spoglie della Jugoslavia.
Tito ammoniva: "Se rimarremo uniti, non dovremo temere nessuno".
Invece di seguire le orme di Tito, su cui pure giuravano con
slogan del tipo: "Anche dopo Tito, Tito!", furono in primis
proprio certi leader politici della Lega dei Comunisti a
dileguarsi nelle formazioni nazionaliste, tradendo così non
solo Tito ma anche tutti i combattenti per una Jugoslavia libera,
e tradendo le generazioni che si erano adoperate, con il
volontariato, a ricostruire il paese, a farlo risorgere dalle
macerie nel dopoguerra (6). Creano partiti "democratici",
rinnegano il passato definendolo improvvisamente "periodo buio", e
cosi' via. Tutti a precipitarsi, a candidarsi a capo del proprio
piccolo "cortile" - da non crederci... Gli sloveni Dolanc,
Kucan e Drnovsek, i Racan ed i Mesic croati, il Djukanovic
montenegrino... Persino le maggiori cariche politiche ed
istituzionali! Ed altrettanto gli schipetari Vllasi (gia'
segretario della gioventu' comunista jugoslava) e Hodza (gia'
presidente nella presidenza "a rotazione").
L'unico a non essere mai stato comunista, nemmeno per sbaglio, era
Izetbegovic: integralista da sempre, dopo aver scritto nei primi anni
Settanta la "Dichiarazione Islamica" aveva dovuto giustamente scontare
qualche anno di "patrie galere". Per noi e per quelli che conoscono
anche solo un pò di storia delle nostre terre, questa sua prigionia non
aveva proprio niente di strano o deprecabile. Ma qui si dovrebbe aprire
un altro capitolo: quello della formazione "Handzar", la divisione
delle SS musulmane costituita su invito del mufti di Gerusalemme e con
l'approvazione di Hitler; poi le formazioni SS "Skanderbeg" ed i
"balisti" albanesi...
I PAPPAGALLI
La Jugoslavia dunque non si è "disgregata", come spesso
sostengono i media ed i soliti papagalli - "pappagallo magna risi, quel
che senti tutto dizi", si dice in Istria. La Jugoslavia è
stata attaccata, dall'interno e dall'esterno, con una determinazione ed
una ferocia mirate a distruggere, senza precedenti nella Storia.
Soltanto chi non aveva mai lavorato ne' contribuito alla ricostruzione
del paese dalle macerie della Guerra mondiale poteva scagliarsi con una
tale rabbia contro di esso. Quando mi presentavo dicendo "sono
jugoslavo", mi sentivo rispondere con una soddisfatta cattiveria: "La
Jugoslavia non esiste più".
Ma come potete voi definire noi, jugoslavi, "ex-jugoslavi",
malgrado esistiamo?!
Non vi chiediamo di comprendere il risentimento che possono provare
intere generazioni, compresa la mia, che hanno contribuito con il
lavoro volontario alla ricostruzione del paese ed alla edificazione di
tutti quei diritti sociali fondamentali, ottenuti con il lungo lavoro
delle masse popolari, ispirati solamente dagli ideali di pace,
uguaglianza, lavoro. Ma la "sinistra" italiana, e non solo quella
italiana, avrebbe dovuto capire che l'attacco alla Jugoslavia
socialista era un attacco contro la classe operaia.
Il concreto esempio lo abbiamo, di questi tempi, nel trasferimento
delle fabbriche dall'Italia in altri paesi, dove l'operaio qualificato
costa meno... Sin da allora abbiamo ritenuto che una rielaborazione di
quanto avveniva in Jugoslavia, un approfondimento di analisi sarebbe
stato doveroso per la sinistra italiana.
Purtroppo invece, niente da fare: equivoci ed "errori" di giudizio
si sono protratti ad auto-alimentati fino all'esito disastroso
dei bombardamenti. Cosi', rappresentanti di un governo (italiano) che
si definiva di centrosinistra andarono a stringere la mano a
rappresentanti di un governo di ultradestra, quello di Tudjman.
Certo, nemmeno ci sognamo oggi di chiedere ad un D'Alema - che sembra
godere di impunita' per i crimini ordinati nel 1999, ed e' poi stato
autore di un libro surreale sulla guerra per il
Kosovo - di vergognarsi, come pure sarebbe giusto, perché camaleonti
del genere non conoscono la vergogna. Non era forse chiaro sin
dall'inizio che, finche' la denominazione stessa di "Jugoslavia" non
fosse sparita dalle piantine geografiche, questi politici occidentali
avrebbero comunque continuato ad attaccare, ad "alzare il livello dello
scontro"? E quale senso attribuire, se non quello di un amaro
paradosso, a proposte come quella della "Euroslavia" (10), proposte
nate dopo tanta insistenza sulla distruzione della "slavia" federativa
e socialista?
Dunque, nelle parole dello scrittore e poeta Mesa Selimovic, ma
riferendoci ai nemici interni (i "quisling") ed esterni (la NATO): "Gli
uomini sono dei bambini malvagi. Malvagi per i loro atti, bambini nella
mente. E mai saranno diversi".
L'INIZIO DELLA FINE
L'attacco contro la Jugoslavia ebbe inizio con la "terapia d'urto"
del FMI, alla fine degli anni Ottanta, e con una accelerazione
degli eventi da parte degli USA che stavano organizzando la
divisione della RFSJ proprio mentre, dal punto di vista militare,
si mobilitavano per la prima guerra contro l'Irak (8). Lo riferisce
in dettaglio Sara Flounders dell'International Action Center (9),
l'organizzazione di cui fa parte anche l'ex ministro americano
della Giustizia Ramsey Clark (poi fondatore del "Tribunale"
popolare per i crimini della NATO). Scriveva Sara Flounders:
<<Il Congresso americano approvava [nel novembre 1990] una risoluzione
che tagliava qualsiasi aiuto, prestito o commercio (ma anche congelava
nelle banche americane i depositi jugoslavi) con la RFS di Jugoslavia e
ordinava elezioni separate nello spazio di un semestre in ciascuna
delle Repubbliche federate.>>
In questo contesto si inseri' l'equivoco sulle
"autodeterminazioni": secondo la Costituzione federale
l'autodeterminazione era ammessa, ma con riferimento esplicito ai
"popoli costitutivi" e non alle Repubbliche federate - tanto meno alle
Regioni autonome (Kosovo e Vojvodina). Percio' tutti i confini interni
amministrativi andavano ridiscussi.
Sapevano bene dove andare a piazzare i semi malati, gia'
all'inizio, perche' infestassero tutto: ad esempio nello sport.
La cultura sportiva era anch'essa un simbolo dell'Unità jugoslava.
Roma, giugno 1991, Campionato europeo di pallacanestro. Arriva da
Lubiana al giocatore sloveno Jure Zdovc un ordine: "Non devi piu'
giocare con la Nazionale jugoslava, altrimenti sarai dichiarato nemico
del tuo popolo!" Ero li' da accompagnatore sportivo, ne sono testimone.
E vi posso dire, in quei giorni, quanto si sono viceversa dimostrati
affiatati, amici, patrioti i giocatori slavi di tutte le nazionalita'!
Ma purtroppo, dovendo ritornare a casa dall'estero, ognuno nella sua
Repubblica secessionista, quegli sportivi dovevano stare molto attenti
ad elogiare la vittoria della formazione jugoslava.
In quei giorni che seguirono il 25 giugno - data delle proclamazioni di
indipendenza - l'Esercito Federale fu ostaggio non solamente dei
rivoltosi di Slovenia e Croazia, nelle caserme assediate, ma anche
delle opinioni pubbliche, interna ed internazionale. Derisa e
demoralizzata, con i soldati impossibilitati a rispondere agli spari
dei "territoriali" sloveni, con il comando pressato dai media, dalle
famiglie e dai parenti dei soldati di leva che chiedevano che i loro
figli tornassero subito a casa... l'Armija non svolse il suo ruolo.
Quella "abdicazione" di allora e' costata dieci anni di carneficine e
la distruzione del paese.
Negli stessi giorni giorni Tudjman, sull'ex Piazza della
Repubblica a Zagabria, davanti ad una folla che sbandierava
simboli nefasti e scandiva lugubri slogan, sentiti già nel 1941,
dichiarava che soltanto con la guerra (l'aiuto dell'Occidente e
la benedizione di Papa Wojtyla erano sottintesi!) avrebbero
ottenuto il loro tanto agognato cosiddetto Stato indipendente
croato. Precedentemente Tudjman - che per molti mesi si mosse come un
temporeggiatore, in attesa delle armi dall'estero oltreche' del
determinarsi di condizioni militari e diplomatiche favorevoli - aveva
affermato alla stampa: "Grazie a Dio, mia moglie non è ne' ebrea ne'
serba". La "piena indipendenza" croata fu in effetti acquisita solo nel
1995, con la ferocia, attraverso le varie operazioni "Tuono" e "Lampo",
sotto la guida e le istruzioni dei generali americani in pensione (12),
attaccando anche le colonne indifese dei profughi delle Krajne.
Vi potete immaginare quanto sia stata grande la tragedia dei
padri, delle famiglie cacciate dalle loro case, dai loro focolari.
Adesso, come nel 1941, i serbi ortodossi scacciati dalle loro
terre: dalle Krajne, dalla Erzegovina ("Erzegbosnia" nella
denominazione ustascia usata oggi ahinoi anche da Predrag Matvejevic)
per mano di "cattolicissimi" croati, con la diretta complicità della
Chiesa cattolica croata e del suo arcivescovo Stepinac - beatificato
nel 1997 da questo Papa (13)!
PRODROMI DI DISINFORMAZIONE
Ecco perche' la disinformazione sulla Jugoslavia non e'
solamente "disinformazione di guerra". Un grande contributo
alla disgregazione della Jugoslavia lo hanno dato i media.
"L'atroce guerra in Jugoslavia - a pochi mesi dal trionfale
spettacolo del Golfo - è nata nella bella capitale della
Slovenia, Lubiana, sotto il segno della disinformazione. Non è
più riuscita a liberarsene!", scriveva cosi nel suo libro "Sotto
la notizia niente" Claudio Fracassi (edizioni Avvenimenti).
Quando un giornalista, un reporter, vuole "vedere", riprende i fatti,
quando riesce a mostrarli, viene subito allontanato dai media, viene
messo in quarantena. Come ben sa Milena Gabanelli. (15)
Forse ricordate come stampa e TV mostravano i cittadini di
Lubiana scappare nei rifugi perché le sirene suonavano l'allarme di un
inesistente attacco dell'Esercito Popolare Jugoslavo... Ed il Corriere
della Sera titolava bugiardamente: "Lubiana bombardata".
Aerei militari sarebbero decollati dall'aeroporto militare di Pola,
o di Bihac... Lo stesso ministro degli Esteri italiano di allora,
Gianni De Michelis, ha poi dichiarato a voce e per iscritto (su
"Limes") che era tutto un bluff. Fu accusato prontamente dal Vaticano
di essere amico dei serbi...
Lo sanno benissimo i cittadini di Gorizia e della frontiera con la
Slovenia, compresi i compagni qui presenti, quello che stavano facendo
piuttosto i territoriali sloveni, contro le caserme, contro i militari
di leva... Fu abbattutto l'elicottero che
portava viveri ed acqua alle reclute nelle caserme assediate:
cadde nei pressi del consolato austriaco. Negli attacchi i
nazionalisti sloveni uccisero 34 soldati federali - di ogni
nazionalita'! - mentre dalla parte dei territoriali caddero in
quattro o cinque.
Nel frattempo, in Croazia si complottava sulla messa in opera di piani
preparati precedentemente. Fu intercettata e filmata una riunione, fu
mostrata alla TV. Tra gli altri, a tale riunione
partecipava il generale Martin Spegelj, che l'anno prima (1990)
era comandante in capo a Zagabria; c'era poi un altro alto
ufficiale, Boljkovac... In quella occasione preparava l'attacco
contro le caserme e contro gli ufficiali dell'Esercito Popolare
Jugoslavo, persino nei loro appartamenti privati. E' presente qui
Gordana Pavlovic, il cui marito medico è stato ucciso in Croazia.
Tanti compagni e amici hanno incolpato lo Stato Maggiore per non essere
prontamente intervenuto; ma piu' ancora gli hanno dato addosso gli
altri, quelli che dicevano: "l'Esercito è serbo". Questa è stata una
delle tante enormi menzogne diffuse a bella posta dagli uffici stampa
delle Repubbliche secessioniste. Anche questo abbiamo cercato di dirlo,
con ben poco successo, visto che lo spazio ci era negato in tutte le
sedi. Vi elenco chi erano in quel periodo le persone ai vertici del
Comando dell'Armata Popolare Jugoslava. Si noti che
nazionalmente la composizione non era esattamente proporzionata, bensi'
sfavorevole per i serbi.
Alla carica di segretario (ministro) della Difesa era il generale
d'Armata Veljko Kadijevic, che si e' dichiarato sempre jugoslavo. Il
capo di Stato maggiore era Blagoje Abdic, serbo.
Il vicesegretario alla Difesa era l'ammiraglio Stane Brovet, sloveno.
Comandate in capo dell'Esercito era Josip Gregoric, croato.
Comandante dell'Aviazione: Zvonko Jurjevic, croato. Egli, 15
giorni prima della secessione della Slovenia aveva sostituito
Antun Tus, anch'egli croato. Antun Tus avrebbe voluto fare un enorme
regalo a Tudjman, consegnandogli l'aeroporto militare di Bihac, in
Bosnia ed Erzegovina. Questo ve lo devo ricordare perché non l'avete
trovato scritto sui media italiani. Tus non riuscì nell'intento perché
l'Armata federale distrusse l'aeroporto, che era il migliore in Europa:
ci erano voluti 30 anni di lavoro per farlo, a ricostruirlo non
basterebbero 50 anni. Se fosse stato preso dai paramilitari croati gli
scontri bellici su quei territori sarebbero durati almeno 30 anni...
Bihac, la sacca di Bihac, vi ricorda qualcosa? Fikret Abdic,
musulmano, ne prende il controllo, ed in quella regione stipula
la pace sia con i croati che con i serbi. Poi viene attaccato
dal V Corpo d'Armata della soldatesca dell'integralista Izetbegovic
(1994). Abdic ripara in Croazia, e viene accusato di crimini di guerra.
Il governo della Federazione croato-musulmana della Bosnia-Erzegovina
chiede che sia consegnato alle autorità di Sarajevo, per trasferirlo
all'Aia. Zagabria non lo consegna, essendo lui diventato cittadino
della Croazia. Ma recentemente, per accontentare Sarajevo e
l'Occidente, la Croazia ha celebrato un processo-farsa ed ha condannato
Abdic per crimini di guerra, punendolo cosi'... per avere voluto la
pace con tutti.
Chiusa la parentesi, continuiamo: comandante della Marina militare era
l'ammiraglio Bozidar Grubisic, croato, che l'anno prima della
secessione aveva sostituito Fridrih Moretti, anche lui di nazionalità
croata. Del Servizio d'informazione e controspionaggio si occupavano
gli sloveni ed i croati. I maggiori capi di alcune sezioni erano
macedoni e musulmano-bosniaci. E cosi via.
LE OSTILITA' IN CROAZIA
Ancora non si erano raffredati i fucili dai tafferugli in Slovenia,
che subito iniziarono a divampare le fiamme in Croazia. La
popolazione serba della Croazia, vedendo cosa si stava preparando - un
vero e proprio ritorno al 1941 - incomincio' ad innalzare le barricate
nei comuni a maggioranza serba. Non sono forse le barricate segno di
difesa, e non di attacco!? Dovevano farle, perche' i territoriali
croati nel frattempo cercavano di disarmare i serbi appartenti alla
difesa territoriale ed alla polizia. I primi poliziotti uccisi nei
dintorni dei laghi di
Plitvice sono finiti nel "dimenticatoio" dei media... Ironia
della sorte: l'attuale presidente croato Mesic (è superfuo ricordare
chi e' questo individuo) presenzierà il 16 dicembre prossimo, in Piazza
San Pietro a Roma, alla posa dell'albero di Natale, sradicato dalla
zona suddetta, cioé il Gorski Kotar, e donato quest'anno al Papa dalla
Croazia. Bisognerebbe far notare dunque al Papa che quell'albero si e'
nutrito del sudore e del sangue serbo!
Con la Costituzione "di Natale", regalo di Tudjman alla "Croazia dei
croati", nel 1990 i serbi erano gia' stati esclusi dallo status di
"popolo costitutivo" ed erano diventati "minoranza". Venivano
licenziati dal lavoro, allontanati da tutti i posti di responsabilita'.
Poi furono prese di mira le case dei serbi in Dalmazia, sulle isole e
in altre parti della Croazia. Ed i media su tutto questo neanche si
sono mai soffermati. In seguito qualcuno ha versato lacrime di
coccodrillo, ammettendo che la Croazia e la Slovenia erano state
riconosciute prematuramente. Nel frattempo la Croazia si stava armando,
alla grande... Le armi venivano dalla Germania, dall'Ungheria, e con
l'aiuto di chi, se non del Vaticano?
Sono passati inosservati i retroscena, la vera ragione del crack
della banca Kreditna di Trieste, compresa la morte - "suicidio" -
del Rettore del Collegio Croato di San Girolamo a Roma. E poi, non
abbiamo forse visto persino alla TV italiana i reportage
sull'implicazione della Chiesa cattolica nel traffico di armi, con la
scoperta della falsa missione del "Pane di S. Antonio"?! (14)
I traffici erano coperti anche dalla ditta "Astra" di Zagabria.
Questo avveniva mentre la Comunità internazionale ci presentava i serbi
come aggressori, come occupatori (delle proprie terre).
Sono tante le ingiurie con le quali venivano gia' allora presentati i
serbi ed i loro leader politici. A buon titolo, i semplici cittadini
serbi si chiedevano:" Ma perché tanto odio verso di noi?".
Personalmente mi chiedevo se non fossero casi patologici le Albraight,
i Kucan, quelli che insieme ai loro genitori si erano rifugiati in
Serbia durante il nazismo; e poi Havel, e tutti quelli che hanno
letteralmente sopravvissuto solo grazie al pane serbo. Questo popolo
ospitale, dignitoso, che non ha mai cercato vendetta, e nemmeno chiede
di esser ringraziato, ma che non si aspettava certo di esser offeso,
segregato, pugnalato allo stomaco. Un popolo che insegna ai suoi figli
i valori espressi nella testimonianza di quella ragazza intervistata
alla TV, che dopo i bombardamenti disse: "Non vorrei che questo
succedesse mai ai miei coetanei in tutto il mondo". Ma quel popolo non
potrà e non deve
dimenticare certi tragici eventi. "No, i bambini morti, quelli
non ve li perdoniamo!" era il titolo di una canzone composta
durante i bombardamenti NATO all'uranio impoverito.
LO SQUARTAMENTO DELLA BOSNIA-ERZEGOVINA
Intanto, mentre vari gruppi, organizzazioni, ONG, Caritas,
eccetera, continuano a versare "lacrime di coccodrillo", ne viene
combinata un'altra, ancora più grossa: viene riconosciuta la Bosnia ed
Erzegovina come Stato indipendente. Benzina sul fuoco della guerra
civile. Viene firmato, a Lisbona, l'accordo elaborato da Cutileiro, con
il quale la Bosnia veniva cantonizzata - un piano accettato da tutte le
parti in causa, dai serbi, dai croati e dai musulmano bosniaci - ma
Izetbegovic, su invito dell'ex ambasciatore USA in Jugoslavia
Zimmermann, ritira subito la firma. (16)
Gli scontri si inaspriscono. Alla fine, gli USA imporranno l'accordo di
Dayton, dopo che i serbi sono stati scacciati da varie regioni e
"sistemati" in due territori, collegati tra loro dal sottile corridoio
di Brcko. Come se vi venissero assegnate due stanze collegate con un
corridoio che non potete usare indisturbati.
A Dayton firmano Tudjman, Izetbegovic e Milosevic, ma l'accordo non
soddisfa nessuna delle tre parti in causa. I musulmano-bosniaci sono
insoddisfatti per non avere ottenuto il loro stato islamico; i croati
perché non hanno ottenuto i territori promessi; figuriamoci se potevano
essere soddisfatti i serbi, scacciati dalla loro terra "occupata" da
centinaia di anni. E' la solita politica americana: accordi di pace
perché pace non sia, fintanto che lo vuole zio Sam. Scriveva Ivo
Andric, lo jugoslavo premio Nobel per la letteratura, nei "Racconti di
Bosnia":
<<Niente di buono in Bosnia fintantoché Dzelaludin comanda.
Oggi Dzelaludin, domani chissà, qualcuno ancora peggiore.>>
LA DISGREGAZIONE TOTALE. IL RUOLO DEI MERCENARI
La secessione della Macedonia viene riconosciuta cosi' come quella
della Bosnia ed Erzegovina. I media (tutti indistintamente) non si sono
mai chiesti perché la Macedonia sia potuta uscire dalla Jugoslavia
senza uno sparo. La risposta e' semplice: perché li' non hanno fatto
quello che i nazionalisti secessionisti facevano nelle altre due
repubbliche. Il Capo di Stato Maggiore jugoslavo si era tranquillamente
accordato con la dirigenza macedone sul ritiro dell'Armija.
Ma se la Bosnia-Erzegovina è oggi un protettorato, la Macedonia ha
perso la sua "indipendenza" prima ancora di acquisirla con il
riconoscimento occidentale. Gli USA hanno piazzato lì subito 500
marines "per difenderla dalle truppe di Milosevic"... Oggi migliaia di
soldati di svariate forze occupatrici si trovano su quel territorio, e
sotto il loro attento sguardo si affermano le pretese secessioniste
degli estremisti schipetari e delle loro organizzazioni mafiose, cosi'
come in Kosmet. Lo dicono anche nei loro murales: "Kosova - Tetova".
Murales visti a Roma nel 1992, durante una sessione FAO, che passarono
"inosservati" benche' segnalassero forze sovversive. Si allesti'
invece, in quella occasione, uno stand ufficiale della inesistente
"Repubblica Kosova", con una "bella" piantina della "grande Albania" in
distribuzione gratuita. Era in effetti lo stand del partito di Rugova.
Uccisi o scacciati i serbi dalla Croazia, e mentre ancora le
fiamme si stavano spegnendo, Tudjman ordinò che soldati croati - quelli
nati in Bosnia-Erzegovina, insieme ad altri quadri
militari - formassero Unità Speciali da spedire in Bosnia,
e precisamente nella cosiddetta "Erzegbosnia", a fare "piazza
pulita" dei musulmani. Di questo esistono le testimonianze di
croati i quali, nati in Bosnia-Erzegovina, per ottenere la
"domovnica" (il "pedigree" razziale valido come certificato di
cittadinanza) dovettero prestarsi a questa operazione. Ma
furono coinvolti anche cittadini di altre nazionalità, come
quell'alto ufficiale schipetaro che si vantò di "aver contribuito
[anche lui] per questa patria", prima di essere "invitato" a
presentarsi al Tribunale dell'Aja.
In Bosnia divampava una feroce guerra civile. Dall'islamista
Izetbegovic venivano reclutati mercenari di tutte le specie:
pakistani, "mujaheddin" di Bin Laden, africani. In verità, il
governo croato di Tudjman già agli inizi dei scontri bellici
aveva usato i mercenari. Tra questi c'erano circa 600 rumeni
della ex polizia speciale "Securitate", nonche' filippini,
curdi, albanesi, africani... E volontari italiani, britannici e
tedeschi "pescati" nelle formazioni di estrema destra dei loro
paesi. Trovavamo questi individui nelle fotografie scattate
a fianco dei francescani croati! Paracadutisti scozzesi si
impegnavano con i croati nelle esercitazioni militari. E cosi' via.
Tutti questi mercenari non hanno disdegnato nemmeno di vantarsi di
quanti "serbo-cetnizi" avessero sgozzato: come un certo Roberto Delle
Fave, che gira tuttora indisturbato in Italia (19). Apparivano foto di
teste mozzate, si faceva riferimento a delitti commessi dai serbi,
oppure le foto erano inserite in articoli con titoli e didascalie di
dubbia interpretazione. Ma non dovrebbero, tutti costoro, andare
dinanzi al Tribunale Internazionale insieme a chi li ha ingaggiati?!
Secondo alcuni dati i mercenari venivano pagati attorno ai 2.000 marchi
tedeschi. Però le banconote trovate in possesso dei mercenari, morti o
catturati, erano di solito banconote ritirate dal corso legale. Gli
appartenenti alle forze croate erano spesso imbottiti di alcool e
stupefacenti, il che veniva confermato dai soldati catturati (20).
LA DEMONIZZAZIONE DEI SERBI
Malgrado delle varie carneficine - al mercato di Sarajevo, nella
via Miskina, a Zepa, a Srebrenica - fossero sempre smentite le
attribuzioni o le descrizioni immediatamente fornite dai media,
le sanzioni contro Belgrado venivano inasprite sempre di più.
Era impossibile far passare i medicinali tra gli aiuti umanitari.
La RF di Jugoslavia era trattata come un immenso lager. I media e i
politici si scatenavano a più non posso, contro Milosevic e contro
l'intero popolo serbo: vedevano se stessi nello specchio e accusavano
gli altri. Milosevic era definito "macellaio dei Balcani" su
indicazione del tandem radicale Bonino-Pannella.
In un cruciverba apparso sull'"Espresso" bisognava trovare
una parola di nove lettere, che comincia per "M" e finisce per
"C", in base alla definizione: "il capo dei barbari". La
soluzione era sin troppo facile, perche' ci avevano messo pure la foto.
I serbi aggressori, torturatori, stupratori di donne musulmane.
I serbi erano stati fatti tanto "neri" che... nascevano addirittura
dei bimbi di "colore". Non è una barzelletta, ma il caso vero di
un parto di una donna musulmano-bosniaca in una clinica Svizzera.
Sarebbe impossibile spiegare la asprezza dello scontro tra le
"etnie" nella Jugoslavia senza considerare il ruolo decisivo
giocato dai giornali e dalle TV, nonche' dalla maggiorparte degli
"intellettuali". Sentivamo e vedevamo in TV una cronista di nome Bimba
Di Maria riportare in italiano, nel doppiaggio, parole che non
corrispondevano per niente a quelle canticchiate dai bimbi serbi delle
Krajne. E Barbara Spinelli, da Mosca, sulla "Stampa": "La figura di
Milosevic produce cloni tra la bandiera rossa e la svastica." Parole
che rasentavano il razzismo. E non era la prima volta che questa
giornalista, seduta su di una comoda poltrona a Parigi o Mosca,
scriveva idiozie. Ma le idiozie rimarrebbero soltanto tali se non
avessero effetti cosi' nefasti. E' per questo che sarebbe necessario
andare a cercare i veri criminali di guerra anche tra i giornalisti
occidentali.
Prezzolati della stampa di regime, come Paolo Rumiz che dichiarò a
Limes nel 1995: "Sarò amico dei serbi solo quando Belgrado sarà
bombardata." In realta' "amico dei serbi" non lo e' stato mai, nemmeno
dopo il bombardamento sulla sede della TV serba, nel quale perirono
tanti suoi colleghi. Forse qualcuno ricorderà Rumiz in un dibattito
alla RAI TV, durante i bombardamenti del 1999, "preso in castagna" da
Dragos Kalajic mentre dichiara il falso.
Lungo sarebbe l'elenco di questi giornalisti "di servizio".
Quanto agli intellettuali, ai giornalisti-scrittori, ricordiamo
innanzitutto quelli di origini "nostrane". Come Enzo Bettiza,
con gli occhi "foderati da prosciutto dalmata", o Demetrio Volcic, che
scrisse un libro sugli eventi in Bosnia, ma ad una domanda di un
giornalista, che gli chiese se fosse stato recentemente da quelle
parti, rispose di esser stato all'aeroporto di Sarajevo - per qualche
ora, forse (concediamogli tanto!).
Poi un certo professor Pirjevec... Ma gli intellettual-borghesi
nostrani sono "degnamente" rappresentati innanzitutto
dall'arcinoto Predrag Matvejevic, il professore appeso "tra asilo
ed esilio" - certamente dorato, il suo "esilio" in Italia, nelle pause
tra una vacanza in Dalmazia e la consegna di una onoreficenza a
Zagabria. Al quale Matvejevic vorremmo davvero chiedere di che "asilo
ed esilio" va blaterando.
L'unica verità della guerra civile in Bosnia, come su tutti
i territori delle ex Repubbliche federate, sono le vittime. Di
vittime, veramente, ce ne sono state troppe, non c'e' dubbio.
Ha scritto "Hrvatska ljevica" (il mensile della sinistra croata,
n.10/1995):
<<Sulle disgrazie della gente e del popolo della Bosnia-Erzegovina ci
sono già tonnellate di documenti. Ogni etnia cerca di convincere il
mondo e se stessa di essere la piu' grande vittima e di essere oggetto
delle bestialità degli altri. Le Nazioni Unite raccolgono e detengono
la loro documentazione, l'UE la sua, il Tribunale per i crimini in
Jugoslavia la sua esclusiva...
Riguardo a questo, i fantocci del Nuovo ordine mondiale
piazzano le prove dei delitti secondo il loro tornaconto,
cosicche' al momento adatto possano ottenere qualcosa sul piano
diplomatico e sul "terreno". Malgrado fosse molto difficile
attestare tutta la verità sulle vittime e sui crimini commessi
dall'una, dall'altra, dalla terza parte, sicuramente i
musulmano-bosniaci hanno avuto il maggior numero dei morti.
I musulmani sono stati vittime dei serbi, dei croati e degli
stessi musulmani; imprigionati, scacciati, le donne stuprate.
Tra i serbi, almeno 20.000 sono morti in uniforme, e almeno
40.000 civili. Sono stati vittime dei musulmani e dei croati.
I croati morti in Bosnia-Erzegovina sono stati 15.000.
Morti, costoro, molto di più negli scontri con i musulmani
che non contro i serbi...>>
Claudio Fracassi lamentava in "Sotto la notizia niente":
<<Come una telenovela, abbiamo distrattamente seguito ogni sera la
nuova puntata. Siamo stati messi in grado, com'è d'obbligo in ogni
serial che si rispetti, di capire subito chi erano i buoni e chi i
cattivi, anche senza conoscere la trama; bastava una frase del
reporter, un'immagine, un rumore, una musica sullo sfondo. Ma nessuno
ci ha spiegato il contenuto delle puntate precedenti...>>
(fine prima parte - segue)
NOTE:
(1) "Menzogne di guerra", di Juergen Elsaesser, Edizioni "La Città del
Sole", Napoli 2002.
(2) A Maastricht (novembre 1991) l'Unione monetaria europea, con il
marco tedesco come valuta-base, e' stata creata in cambio della
distruzione della Repubblica Federativa Socialista di Jugoslavia
(RFSJ): questa infatti la condizione posta dal Ministro degli Esteri
tedesco Genscher. Il giorno di Natale 1991 i tedeschi annunciano che
riconosceranno formalmente le secessioni; il 13 gennaio 1992 il
Vaticano compie il primo passo ufficiale; il 15 gennaio seguono tutti i
paesi UE.
(3) Sul criminale impiego delle munizioni all'uranio impoverito in
Jugoslavia ed altrove, nonche' sulle conseguenze dei bombardamenti
NATO sulle infrastrutture e sui civili, si vedano ad esempio i due
libri del comitato Scienziate/i contro la guerra: "Imbrogli di guerra"
(1999) e "Contro le nuove guerre" (2000), Edizioni Odradek, Roma (anche
su
http://www.scienzaepace.it).
(4) Il culmine lo aveva forse gia' raggiunto Rossana Rossanda con un
articolo sul "Manifesto" nei giorni di meta' agosto 1995, nel quale la
giornalista si dichiarava esplicitamente favorevole
all'intervento NATO contro i serbi della Bosnia, ed affermava con
irresponsabile superficialita' che gli USA non avevano alcun interesse
strategico nell'area balcanica!
(5) La strategia dell'imperialismo americano e' illustrata bene
da Noam Chomski nel suo libro "I cortili dello zio Sam" (editore
Gamberetti), dove si spiega perché gli USA mirino a distruggere
qualunque Stato, anche piccolo, ed il suo governo, se il sistema di
quello Stato non corrisponde ai parametri USA.
(6) Il movimento delle "brigate di lavoro", grazie alle quali
le infrastrutture del paese furono (ri)costruite soprattutto negli
anni Quaranta e Cinquanta, ed alle quali l'autore di questo
intervento partecipo', fu un formidabile fenomeno di massa.
(7) "No East no West, Islam is the best", era uno dei sottotitoli
di una edizione del libro di Izetbegovic. Fu il lancio della
campagna islamista in Bosnia. Nel 1990 usci' sulla rivista "Vox",
pubblicata in Germania, un esplicito proclama di 12 punti: "Che cosa
fare dei serbi nella Repubblica islamica di Bosnia ed Erzegovina".
(8) Il 29 novembre 1990 i giornali riportavano notizie di agenzia in
base alle quali la CIA "prevedeva" il disastro che poi, l'anno
successivo, in Jugoslavia si sarebbe effettivamente
verificato. Noi disponiamo dei ritagli da "La Stampa" ed
"Il Tempo": "La CIA ha detto: la Jugoslavia esisterà per
ancora 18 mesi... Non si escludono scontri bellici e il maggior
responsabile sarà indicato [sic] in Milosevic". Vanno fatte due
considerazioni: primo, i servizi segreti non "prevedono" se
non "vogliono", ovvero se non stanno lavorando affinche'
succeda; secondo, il 29 novembre era guarda caso la ricorrenza
nazionale della RFSJ (la "Giornata della Repubblica"). Piu' esplicita
di cosi' la CIA non sarebbe potuta essere!
(9) Si veda: "NATO in the Balkans", IAC, New York 1997.
Pubblicato in versione ridotta in lingua italiana da Editori Riuniti,
"La NATO nei Balcani" (1999) e' uno dei testi piu' preziosi per la
ricostruzione della guerra di distruzione della RFSJ (1990-1996), ma
sembra essere ignorato dagli stessi suoi curatori italiani, che non lo
hanno mai menzionato ne' recensito sulla stampa su cui pure
regolarmente scrivono.
(10) La proposta della "Euroslavia" apparve su Limes ma fini'
presto nel dimenticatoio, sommersa dal fragore delle bombe all'U238.
(11) E' successo ad esempio a Spalato, in occasione della visita del
Papa.
(12) L'esercito croato, come poi quelli bosniaco-musulmano e macedone
nonche' l'UCK, sono stati addestrati dalla Military Professional
Resources Inc., nota agenzia con sede in Virginia (USA). L'esercito
croato ha avuto anche l'appoggio logistico della NATO per il
completamento della pulizia etnica delle Krajne nel 1995.
(13) Sulla figura dell'arcivescovo cattolico nazista Stepinac e sul
genocidio, a danno soprattutto dei serbi, commesso durante la Seconda
guerra mondiale in Croazia, si veda ad esempio: "L'Arcivescovo del
genocidio", di M.A. Rivelli, Ed. Kaos, Milano 1999.
(14) <<Non c'è nessun nuovo indagato nell'inchiesta condotta dal
sostituto procuratore della Repubblica di Ancona Cristina Tedeschini
sui tre tir bloccati dalla Guardia di Finanza e dalla dogana nel porto
di Ancona lo scorso 12 aprile (ma la notizia del sequestro è stata data
solo l'altro giorno): seppur carichi d'aiuti umanitari per i profughi
del Kosovo, i camion trasportavano nei doppifondi un enorme carico
d'armi diretto all'Uck. Al centro dell'interesse del magistrato ci
sarebbe per ora la figura di un prete, probabilmente coinvolto nella
vicenda. I tre tir viaggiavano sotto le insegne dell'organizzazione
umanitaria "Kruh Svetog Ante" (Il pane di Sant'Antonio) di Sarajevo ed
erano diretti, secondo la bolla d'accompagnamento, alla "Caritas" di
Scutari...>>.
Tratto da: La Padania, 4 maggio 1999. Del ritrovamento parlo' per primo
il "Corriere della Sera".
(15) Il caso di Milena Gabanelli viene descritto nel gia' citato
"Sotto la notizia niente" ed anche, da lei stessa, in una appendice
contenuta nel peraltro discutibile "La sconfitta dei media", di Marco
Guidi (Baskerville, Bologna, 1993).
(16) Ha scritto Andy Wilcoxson in «How the war started» (su:
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/bosnia-started):
<<On March 18, 1992, Alija Izetbegovic (Bosnian-Muslim
leader), Mate Boban (Bosnian-Croat leader), and Radovan
Karadzic (Bosnian-Serb Leader) all reached an agreement
on the peaceful succession of Bosnia & Herzegovina from
Yugoslavia. The Agreement was known as the Lisbon Agreement (it is also
known as the Cutileiro Plan). The agreement called for an independent
Bosnia divided into three constituent and geographically separate
parts, each of which would be autonomous. Izetbegovic, Boban, and
Karadzic all agreed to the plan, and signed the agreement.
The agreement was all set, internal and external borders, and
the administrative functions of the central and autonomous
governments had all been agreed upon. The threat of civil
war had been removed from Bosnia that is until, the U.S.
Ambassador Warren Zimmerman showed up.
On March 28, 1992, ten days after the agreement was reached
that would have avoided war in Bosnia, Warren Zimmerman
flew to Sarajevo and met with the Bosnian-Muslim leader,
Alija Izetbegovic. Upon finding that Izetbegovic was having
second thoughts about the agreement he had signed in
Lisbon, the Ambassador suggested that if he withdrew his
signature, the United States would grant recognition to
Bosnia as an independent state. Izetbegovic then withdrew his
signature and renounced the agreement.
After Izetbegovic reneged on the Lisbon Agreement, he called
a referendum on separation that was constitutionally illegal.
On the second day of the referendum there was a Muslim-led
attack on a Serb wedding. But the real trigger was
Izetbegovic announcing a full mobilization on April 4, 1992.
He could not legally do that without Serb & Croat consent,
but he did it anyway. That night terror reigned in Sarajevo.
The war was on. (...)
If Ambassador Zimmerman had just left Izetbegovic alone,
then none of this would have happened to begin with.
Its that simple. The blame for all of
the death and destruction associated with the Bosnian war
lies exclusively with Alija Izetbegovic for starting the war,
and with the U.S. President Bill Clinton for sending that idiot
Zimmerman to Bosnia in the first place.>>
(17) Djelaludin - soprannome di un visir ottomano - rappresenta lo
straniero occupante, il colonizzatore.
(18) La desinenza con la "a" e' propria della lingua schipetara (cioe'
albanese in senso "etnico" e non nel senso della cittadinanza della
Repubblica di Albania). Tetovo è una cittadina della Macedonia
occidentale.
(19) Clamoroso il caso del criminale di guerra italiano Roberto Delle
Fave, che rivelo' la sua vicenda di mercenario a stampa e televisione,
e dopo aver contribuito a massacri come quello nella zona di Divo Selo
(Gospic, Krajna) ed all'assassinio del giornalista francese Xavier ha
vissuto indisturbato a Bordighera ed e' stato "risparmiato" da
qualsivoglia inchiesta penale, all'Aia o altrove.
(20) I dati sull'uso di stupefacenti nell'esercito croato si possono
trarre dall'opuscolo "Nasiljem i zlocinom protiv prava. Hrvatska '91"
(Belgrado 1991. Trad.: "Con la violenza ed il delitto contro la
ragione. Croazia '91). Per quanto riguarda i drogati, ne abbiamo avuto
testimonianza da quanto apparso nel 1995 sul quotidiano "Corriere della
Sera", ed anche in televisione, sui soldati croati in cura presso la
"Comunità di San Patrignano".
(21) Andrea Catone nella prefazione del libro "Menzogne di
guerra" di J. Elsasser (Nota 1).
(22) Il libro di J. Merlino (trad.: "Le verità sulla Jugoslavia non
sono tutte buone a dirsi") e' stato pubblicato in Francia da Albin
Michel nel 1993. Mai tradotto in lingua italiana, e poco pubblicizzato
nella stessa Francia, il libro documenta la verita' sconvolgente della
disinformazione strategica ai danni dei serbi della Bosnia. Brani della
intervista ad Harff sono stati riproposti nel libro di Claudio Fracassi
"Sotto la notizia niente". Ulteriore dettagliatissima documentazione
sulla attivita' di disinformazione strategica compiuta dalle grandi
catene di "media" e da agenzie specializzate si possono trovare in
tutta la produzione del giornalista belga Michel Collon. Ricordiamo ad
esempio i libri: "Monopoly" e "Poker Menteur" (Edizioni
EPO, si veda: http://www.epo.be/index.html )
(22) Questo e' documentato ad esempio nella intervista ad Hakija
Meholjic, presidente del Social Democratic Party a Srebrenica,
pubblicata su "Dani" il 22/06/1998. Ampia documentazione sul "balletto
dei morti" di Srebrenica si trovano sul libro di Elsaesser (Nota 1).
(23) Ennio Remondino ha recentemente rivelato in "La televisione va
alla guerra" (Edizioni ERI/RAI) che nelle valigie della delegazione UCK
a Rambouillet furono trovati sacchetti di "polvere bianca": come dire,
l'utile ed il dilettevole... Per noi italiani e' particolarmente
significativo ricordare che tra i consiglieri della delegazione,
insieme a molti americani, c'erano personaggi come un tale Di Robilant,
appartenente al Partito Radicale Transnazionale (Fonte: il "Corriere
della Sera" di quei giorni).
(24) Sulla condizione del Kosmet occupato dalla NATO, dopo il 1999, e
governato dai terroristi e dai mafiosi suoi alleati; sul
regime di terrore ed apartheid oggi vigente; e sulle migliaia di
"desaparecidos" che ormai si contano: si veda l'eccezionale
documentazione prodotta da Michel Collon e Vanessa Stojiljkovic nel
video "I dannati del Kosovo" (Edizione italiana a cura del Comitato SOS
Yugoslavia di Torino).
Center for Research on Globalization
Remember Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia
Speaking of Blackouts
www.globalresearch.ca 17 August 2003
The URL of this article is:
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/PRI308A.html
---
Speaking of blackouts.....maybe after experiencing a mere 16 or so
hours without power, people in the Canadian province of Ontario and in
the American states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York might
think a bit about what it means when we wage war on civilians in other
countries and bomb electrical power plants.
And of course, when a power plant is bombed, the power does not come
back on in 16 hours as it did here. It is out for days, weeks , or
months, along with water treatment and pumping facilities, sewage and
sanitary systems, all food refrigeration and storage, hospitals and
medical facilities and communication and transport that depend on
electricity.
As very brief reminder, here are a few news items from [Iraq
April-August 2003] and May 1999 when we bombed power plants in
Yugoslavia. Remember, but more importantly...think.
Mart (PRIME News Group)
---
THE IMPACTS OF THE ELECTRICITY BLACKOUT IN IRAQ (2003)
The Age, Melbourne, 21 April 03
"Hundreds of people are dying who should not die, simply because there
is a lack of adequate nursing and because basic operations cannot be
performed due to the lack of medicines and electricity. Unless they get
the power and the water back on soon we are facing a disaster," (The
Age, Melbourne, 21 April 03)
Morning Star, 21 April 03
But the lack of electricity means that medicines cannot be refrigerated
and much hospital equipment lies idle. The UN children's fund Unicef
says that piles of rubbish are accumulating at the hospitals and up to
70 per cent of patients at the children's hospital now have diarrhoea.
(Morning Star, 21 april 03)
Department of Defense Press Briefing, 12 August 03
MR. BREMER: The problem of power I have addressed before; I will say it
again. The structural problem in electricity in this country is due to
malfeasance and incompetent economic management by the Ba'athists over
a period of almost 40 years. [It is not related to the bombing] When
the war started, this country had about 4,000 megawatts of generating
capability, but the demand was more than 6,000 megawatts. In other
words, before the war, there was a gap of almost 33, 34 percent, a
deficiency.[i.e. not due to economic sanctions and the 1991 Gulf War]
We are working to restore all of the generating capability in the
country. That means getting it back to 4,000 megawatts. We are running
between 3,3(00) and 3,400 megawatts a day. We will try to get to 4,000
megawatts by the end of September. We are affected by the kind of
sabotage which continues to be conducted against transmission lines and
by the lack of maintenance of these systems for a very long time and
the complete lack of capital investment in the power industry.
So getting to the point where we can provide every Iraqi with the
amount of power that he or she wants is a long-term problem, at least
another year, because you cannot create 2,000 megawatts of power
overnight.
What we are trying to do is, therefore, arrive at a solution which has
-- takes into account everybody's interest, not just the interest of a
few elite Ba'athists or people in the Republican Guard or the killers
of the Fedayeen Saddam, but trying to say to all Iraqis: We will share
all of the power we have, but you have to remember we don't have enough
power for everybody.
So three weeks ago, I instituted a policy of sharing the electricity
around the country, which means that at least you can plan on when the
blackouts will happen. Of course, this depends on not having attacks
against the power industry and not having breakdowns because of poor
maintenance.
On the whole, that system is beginning to work, and parts of the
country now are enjoying more electricity than they ever had before,
because we are able to share it.
But it will take time, and I'm sympathetic with the problem of the
people sleeping on their roofs and not having air conditioning at this
time. We simply have to work at it, and we will. We intend to restore
basic services to every Iraqi man, woman and child here, and we will do
that. (DoD Press Briefing, 12 August 03)
Pensacola News, 14 August 03
Paul Bremer, the chief U.S. administrator in Iraq, told reporters it
will take "staggering" sums - about $30 billion - just to restore
Iraq's electricity and water systems. [contracts to Western energy
companies to be financed on borrowed money]. That comes on top of a
reported $4 billion a month to maintain military forces and operations
there.
"It does leave us with a substantial problem in the next year - as we
have to make these major infrastructure investments - about where we're
going to get the capital," he said. Incredibly, Bremer apparently is
hoping that a lot of the money will come from a conference of "donor
nations" [creditors not donors] scheduled for October. Given the lack
of international support for the U.S. effort so far, it seems more
likely that American taxpayers will be the top "donor."
Meanwhile, the Bush administration is angering both Republicans and
Democrats by refusing to provide even rough estimates of what Congress
will be asked to appropriate next year for Iraq.
Bremer rejected an Arab reporter's assertion that the country was in
chaos, despite the fuel riots in Basra, more attacks on U.S. forces
that left two G.I.s dead, severe shortages of electricity exacerbated
by continuing sabotage, last week's bombing of the Jordanian embassy,
and new reports of accidents or sabotage at oil pipelines that have
resulted in fires, interrupting the flow of oil. (Pensacola News, 14
August 03)
CNN 11 August 03
[Denial that the bombing affected Iraq's Electricity Grid]
Paul Bremer and his people will tell you that they are actually
supplying more electricity now than Saddam's government was before the
invasion.
Ret. General Jay Garner Statement to House Sub-committee on National
Security, FDCH, 18 July 2003
GARNER: As I left, the North and South had as good a water and better
electricity than they ever had because they were getting electricity 24
hours a day. Now, the problem was in Baghdad. Because Baghdad never had
the electrical grid capacity to generate enough electricity for the
city. So that the electricity for Baghdad had to be ported or
transported from the northern grids and the southern grids into Baghdad.
Daily Telegraph, 11 August 03
But the British official in charge of the reconstruction of Iraq has
given warning that it could take at least a year before the country's
infrastructure is repaired and running at pre-war levels.
Andy Bearpark, coalition director of operations and infrastructure,
said that four months after the fall of Baghdad many critical
installations, from telephone networks to sewage treatment plants, are
still a year away from their pre-war standards.
And with temperatures hitting upwards of 122F (50C) he said that
pre-war power supply would not be restored to its former levels for
another couple of months, leaving many Iraqis to swelter in the summer
sun.
"We will be up to pre-war generation of electricity in the next 60 or
so days," said Mr Bearpark, 50, a bluff Rochdale man who has spent his
career directing post-war reconstruction across the globe. "At the
moment the minimum supply is three hours on, three hours off."
But protesters have long grown sceptical of coalition promises,
complaining that provision rarely matches them.
Mr Bearpark has his own complaints, blaming rebuilding delays on the
damage caused by looters, such as the organised gangs that strip pylons
of electricity cables for their copper.
It is up to Gen Freddy Viggers, Britain's deputy to the overall
coalition forces commander in Iraq, US Gen Ricardo Sanchez, to ward off
such criminals. "Our main job is to look after the security threat,"
said Gen Viggers, who liaises with Mr Bearpark to provide military
protection for rebuilding projects. 'We try to protect the pylon lines
but beyond that the military can't do much in terms of civil
reconstruction."
So fragile is Iraq's infrastructure that during a recent crisis, when
one of Iraq's main power stations was offline, the country's entire
electricity supply depended on a 30-mile stretch of cable. Mr Bearpark,
who reports directly to Iraq's US administrator, Paul Bremer, said:
"Freddy was able to put guards along that little section of wire to
prevent complete meltdown."
There are other successes, including the rapid re-equipping of schools
in time for the new school year beginning in September. Other complex
exercises, such as the currency swap that will see Saddam Hussein's
face disappear from banknotes from October, are dwarfed by major
projects.
"For the moment we are pumping raw sewage into the Tigris," Mr Bearpark
said. "Getting Baghdad's two sewage stations back will take 12 months.
Then there's the telecoms. Roughly 50 per cent of the network was taken
out by bombing. To get that all back will take a year."
Los Angeles Times, 11 August 03
The riots, in the city's north, were smaller than Saturday's protests
but more violent, British soldiers said.
"They're shooting at us," said one soldier manning a checkpoint. "It's
the petrol queues. They've been without electricity for four days now."
Many Iraqis are convinced that the U.S.-led occupation forces could
provide electricity and gasoline, if only they made it a priority.
"We have no electricity, no gasoline, no water, no butane, no wood,"
said Aruba Saad, a housewife. "Why don't the Americans do something?
How do they expect us to live? We're not animals."
Near the southern city of Diwaniyah, a U.S. soldier in a convoy died of
heat stress Saturday, Central Command said. Another soldier was found
dead in his quarters of unknown causes.
Sunday's unrest came as two Arab television networks broadcast videos
of masked fighters calling for armed uprisings against occupation
forces.
The Herald, Scotland, 14 August 03
[Iraq Electricity Blackout is Good for Business: The Spoils of War]
Patricia Hewitt, the trade and industry secretary, is understood to
have asked the Ministry of Defence to take a more active role in
support of British companies seeking reconstruction work.
She intervened after an approach from Siemens UK, which was putting
together a bid to help repair Iraq's shattered electricity
infrastructure, but faced stiff competition from America's General
Electric.
It was perhaps the first sign of a real impetus on the part of the UK
government to seriously promote UK business interests in the war-torn
country.
That, coupled with the announcement of Mr Wilson being appointed as
Tony Blair's special envoy to Iraq, and the announcement that British
Airways is resuming flights to Iraq after 13 years, may improve
prospects for UK firms.
They have viewed bidding for contracts in Iraq as a case of history
repeating itself, following military interventions in Kosovo and
Afghanistan.
Colin Adams, director of the British Consultants' Bureau, which
co-ordinated restruction projects in Kosovo, has said British firms
would be "extremely well -placed" for the rebuilding of Afghanistan.
---
THE IMPACTS OF THE ELECTRICITY BLACKOUT IN AFGHANISTAN (2001)
The Guardian, 8 October 2001 Attack on Afghanistan: The bombing begins:
50 cruise missiles fired: 2am news
The US and Britain launched a massive air onslaught on Afghanistan last
night, including 50 cruise missiles and wave after wave of heavy
bombers, in the opening blow of what President George Bush vowed would
be a "sustained, comprehensive and relentless" campaign against Osama
bin Laden and his supporters.
Cruise missile strikes aimed at crippling anti-aircraft defences were
followed by raids by high-altitude and stealth bombers. The sorties
were flown from the Gulf and the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia,
while B-2 long-range stealth bombers flew from the American Midwest and
refuelled in mid-air.
The bombing campaign, nearly a month after the terrorist massacres in
New York and Washington, was aimed at devastating the forces of
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and the threadbare infrastructure of Bin
Laden's al-Qaida organisation.
The first indication from Afghanistan that the campaign had begun came
when several loud explosions were reported in Kabul and electricity
supplies were cut.
[Media lies: Denial that they bombed electricity grids]: New Republic,
29 October 2003
The insistence on not attacking bridges and electricity grids, the
sluggish and exquisitely calibrated air campaign, the parade of
American diplomats courting the former Afghan king--all testify to the
imperative of keeping the country's infrastructure intact.
---
THE IMPACTS OF THE BLACKOUT IN YUGOSLAVIA (1999)
http://cgi.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9905/02/kosovo.02/
2 May 1999
Serbia plunges into darkness after NATO raid
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- NATO air raids struck a series of major
Yugoslav power plants Sunday, knocking out power across Serbia,
including Belgrade, senior Yugoslav officials told CNN Sunday.
NATO bombs damaged a power plant in Kostolac, 25 miles (40 km)
southeast of Belgrade along the Danube River, which supplies
electricity to all subsidiary power plants across Serbia.
An official government source said NATO planes also hit a plant in the
southern city of Nis and another in Obrenovac, about 18 miles (30 km)
west of Belgrade.
State-owned Serbian television, a repeated target of NATO airstrikes,
went off the air around 9:45 p.m. (3:45 p.m. ET), as did all other
television and radio stations.
Yugoslav Minister of Health Leposava Milicevic, speaking with CNN by
phone, said the situation was causing serious problems throughout
Serbia.
Without electricity, water could not be supplied to critical locations
like hospitals, she said.
CNN's Brent Sadler, reporting from the Yugoslav capital, said:
"Belgrade is now in darkness for as far as the eye can see."
While there was heavy anti-aircraft fire in Belgrade, Sadler did not
report any explosions in or around the city center of Yugoslavia's
capital.
NATO renews attacks despite prisoner release
NATO and Pentagon declined to say whether the power plants were
targeted for an attack, and deferred further questions until a Monday
morning briefing.
But earlier Sunday, U.S. and alliance officials said that, despite the
release of three U.S. soldiers in Yugoslav captivity, air attacks
against the country will continue unabated.
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic must fully accept NATO conditions
for a resolution to the civil conflict in Kosovo between separatist
ethnic Albanians and Serbian forces before the alliance halts the
airstrikes, the officials said.
Two U.S. warplanes crash in airstrikes
NATO on Sunday reported that it had lost two U.S. aircraft in its
Kosovo air campaign overnight Saturday.
An F-16 crashed about 18 kilometers (11 miles) east of the Serbian town
of Kozluk early Sunday, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said. The plane was
returning from a combat mission in Yugoslavia.
"The pilot ejected at around 2:20 a.m. (1200 GMT) this morning, and he
was rescued by NATO forces two hours later," Shea said. "He is safely
back at his operating base, where he is receiving medical attention and
being debriefed on the incident."
Serbian air defense officials said they shot down the F-16, but NATO
military spokesman Col. Konrad Freytag said the jet crashed after
experiencing engine failure. He said the cause of the engine failure
was unknown.
The second plane lost was a Harrier jump jet, which crashed into the
Adriatic Sea while returning to the amphibious assault carrier USS
Kearsarge from a t raining mission. Its pilot was also rescued, Shea
said.
Previously, NATO lost an F-117 stealth fighter, which went down in
Serbia on March 27; and an Apache helicopter, which crashed while
training in Albania last month. Four pilotless "drones" also have been
lost.
NATO admits civilian bus strike
NATO also said early Sunday that one of its attacks hit a civilian bus
crossing a bridge near Luzane, north of Kosovo's capital, Pristina.
NATO says the bridge was "used extensively by the Serb armed forces."
At least 34 people died in the attack, according to Serb news reports
and witnesses.
"The pilot released the weapon, and only after he released the weapon
did the bus come on the bridge," Shea said. "We will continue to do
everything we can to try and avoid those kinds of incidents. We can't
eliminate them altogether."
The bus was sliced in half by the attack and caught fire. Half of it
remained on the bridge, while the other half plunged 13 meters (40
feet) over the edge. The bridge remained standing.
Reporters brought to the scene said they saw bodies and body parts
strewn around the scene.
In Macedonia, an estimated 5,000 refugees streamed across the border
within the past day, officials told CNN.
Macedonia refugee plight worsens
Some refugees have only blankets for living quarters At least 80,000
are squeezed into refugee camps with hopelessly inadequate facilities,
they said. For some of the new arrivals, a piece of plastic is all they
can expect for living quarters, as relief officials are unable to house
nearly half the newcomers.
Macedonian Prime Minister Zupce Georievski, touring a border camp
Sunday, expressed concern that his country had "not received one
dollar" from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Four hundred of the refugees are expected to leave Tuesday to fly to
the United States, which has agreed to temporarily house 20,000
Kosovars during the conflict. They will be processed for several weeks
at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
In Albania, new refugees from Kosovo say Serb police are detaining
women and children, possibly using them to serve as human shields.
One refugee from the border town of Prizen said, "It's totally panicky
in the city. They're taking people as hostages."
Reports of intense KLA, Serb combat
In Southwest Kosovo, there were reports of heavy fighting between
separatist ethnic Albanians and Serbian military forces.
Rebels with the Kosovo Liberation Army have engaged in a major
offensive to open a corridor and unite with other KLA forces farther in
the interior of the province, Turkish journalist Mithat Bereket told
CNN.
The Serbian military answered with heavy artillery and tanks, he said.
Bereket said there were indications that the Serbian army was suffering
from low morale and a high rate of desertions.
He said there were reports that Serbian soldiers were making 15- to
50-year-old Kosovar Albanians set up mines, dig trenches against tanks
and give blood to prepare for a ground offensive.
Correspondents Brent Sadler, Tom Mintier and Jane Arraf contributed to
this report.
---
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9905/23/kosovo.01/
23 May 1999
NATO strikes at Yugoslav power plants
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- NATO bombs put Yugoslavia's largest
coal-burning power plant out of business Sunday, the state-run Tanjug
news agency said.
Tanjug said two rockets hit the Nikola Tesla plant near Obrenovac, 30
kilometers (20 miles) southwest of Belgrade, just before dawn. The
attack caused "additional problems" in supplying the Yugoslav capital
with electricity after attacks early Saturday struck the nearby
Kolubara power plant.
Other NATO targets included armored vehicles and tanks; artillery
positions; parked aircraft; a command post; ammunition and petroleum
storage sites; and communications facilities.
"It was quite an intensive night of air operations," NATO spokesman
Jamie Shea said in Brussels, Belgium.
Overnight, NATO planes flew 652 sorties over Yugoslavia, 301 of them
striking targets. Alliance members vowed to continue the strikes until
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic agrees to their conditions for a
safe return of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians who have fled
their homes in Serbia's Kosovo province.
"The NATO campaign is doing real damage to his military machine," said
British Foreign Office Minister Tony Lloyd. "And NATO is prepared to go
on and on with its air campaign while building up its forces necessary
to take the refugees home in safety."
Lloyd added that NATO was equally committed to the diplomatic search
for peace, "but it must be a peace that gives the people of Kosovo a
secure future."
Ground troop debate continues
The British also continued their push for a willingness to send a
ground force into Kosovo before Milosevic has fully complied with
NATO's demands, which include a complete pullout of Yugoslav and Serb
forces from the region.
Returning from a trip to Washington, British Foreign Secretary Robin
Cook told the British Broadcasting Corp. that NATO must be ready to
"deploy troops in a permissive or a non-permissive environment" --
meaning with or without Milosevic's consent.
Cook also praised signals from Washington that the United States was no
longer categorically rejecting early deployment of ground troops.
In an opinion piece published in Sunday's New York Times, U.S.
President Bill Clinton reiterated NATO's oft-stated view that the air
campaign was working, but said he did "not rule out other military
options."
The U.S. has now joined other NATO allies in calling for a larger
peacekeeping force than originally planned. The alliance is massing
some 28,000 troops along the Macedonian border for the mission, but the
U.S. and others said as many a s 50,000 troops should be ready for
action.
NATO's Shea said that the discussion about ground troops was to be
expected from democracies, but the 19 NATO allies were still unified in
their determination to force Milosevic's hand with an air campaign.
"We are not planning an invasion force for Kosovo," he told CNN on
Sunday. "We still have confidence that our air power ... will force the
Serb forces to withdraw from Kosovo. What we are doing is simply
preparing for a peace implementation force which is going to big enough
and robust enough to move quickly into Kosovo ... and allow the
refugees to go back into their homes."
NATO's Shea said that the discussion about ground troops was to be
expected from democracies, but the 19 NATO allies were still unified in
their determination to force Milosevic's hand with an air campaign.
"We are not planning an invasion force for Kosovo," he told CNN on
Sunday. "We still have confidence that our air power ... will force the
Serb forces to withdraw from Kosovo. What we are doing is simply
preparing for a peace implementation force which is going to big enough
and robust enough to move quickly into Kosovo ... and allow the
refugees to go back into their homes."
Correspondent John Raedler contributed to this report.
---
http://www.freeserbia.net/Documents/Kosovo/Shea2.html
NATO plunges Serbia into darkness in overnight strikes
Jamie Shea Backgrounder in Brussels on 3 May 1999
JAMIE SHEA: Good morning! I am here to give you the quick operational
update in the usual fashion. Let me just point out that the Council is
meeting today at 11 o'clock and that I will be back with SHAPE in the
usual fashion at 3 o'clock for the daily operational briefing on camera.
There is one expression of SACEUR's that I'm sure you've heard on many
previous occasions, he has said: "There are tanks and there are tanks!"
What he means by that is that a tank which is stuck in its tracks
because it has no fuel is far less of a tank and far less of a threat
than one that has fuel and can move and as you know -- and I think
President Milosevic has realised this this morning more than ever
before -- there are also command-and-control systems and
command-and-control systems and if a command-and-control system has no
electricity to turn it on, it is of course wire, metal and plastic and
not a functioning military system and that is what we did in our
operations last night, we went out to deprive the command-and-control
system of its electricity, of its power and to reduce it to wire,
plastic and metal.
Alliance aircraft yesterday evening struck the five main electric yards
that distribute power to the Serb armed forces, the military machine of
President Milosevic, the power which supplies his airfields, his
headquarters, his communication systems, his command-and-control
network and no power means no runway lights, no computers, no secure
communications.
More specifically, NATO aircraft last night struck the transformer
yards of Opranovac (phon), a key electrical distribution station in
western Serbia. We also attacked the transformer yard at Nis in
southern Serbia and this has degraded significantly the command,
control and communications capabilities of the 3rd Yugoslav Army
headquartered in Nis; and we hit the transformer yards also in three
other locations -- Bajinabasta (phon), Dermo and Novi Sad -- as well.
I want you to know -- and I want to stress this -- that NATO forces
took the utmost care to ensure that important civilian facilities like
hospitals had redundant power capabilities and that they had therefore
the back-up transformers to keep their systems running through these
power outages and I believe that you have seen from reports this
morning from Belgrade that that was indeed the case, that those
essential civilian services like hospitals were running.
We regret the inconvenience that power outages have caused to the Serb
people but we have no choice but to continue attacking every element of
the Yugoslav armed forces until such time as President Milosevic
accepts the demands of the international community, those five
unconditional points which we reiterate every day and I just want to
remind you of what those five points are: that Milosevic must stop the
killing, that he must get his troops out of Kosovo, that he must accept
an international military presence with NATO as its core to establish
security inside Kosovo, that he must allow without any restriction or
qualification the return of all refugees and that he must work to build
a permanent political solution based on the Rambouillet peace plan and
we are not asking for anything more but we will not settle for anything
less.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
QUESTION (ABC NEWS): What's on the Council's agenda for today?
JAMIE SHEA: The Council today will be updating its assessments of the
current situation in Kosovo based on a report by Klaus Naumann, the
Chairman of the Military Committee, particularly reviewing -- as I am
doing with you at the moment the developments on the military scene
over the last 24 hours and in that respect let me stress that, as you
know, the last 72 hours have seen the most intensive period thus far of
NATO air operations bringing us beyond the 14,000 sortie mark since the
operation began on 24th March and with on average over 600 sorties per
night in recent nights so I think that will be the first thing on the
agenda.
Secondly, there will be a review of the current humanitarian situation
which continues to cause us enormous concern -- I will be speaking
about that later at 3 o'clock -- and then obviously NATO ambassadors
will discuss various planning activities following on from the
Washington summit.
QUESTION (CNN): Reaction to the Chirnomyrdin visit to Washington?
JAMIE SHEA: Well obviously we are very pleased that Russia clearly
wants to engage with the NATO countries in the search for a diplomatic
solution to the crisis in Kosovo. It is very encouraging that not only
does Mr. Chirnomyrdin want to be in Washington today to meet President
Clinton but also apparently wants to go on to Paris, to London and
other NATO capitals in the next few days. We have always made it clear
that we want Russia to be our partner in seeking a diplomatic solution
but everybody knows that that diplomatic solution can only be based on
the five principles, principles which are not simply NATO principles,
they have been endorsed by virtually the entire international
community. It is only on that basis that we can create a lasting real
peace for Kosovo, anything less risks purely postponing the crisis to a
later stage. We have seen with President Milosevic last October that
half a cake is as good as no cake because he then slides back and we
find ourselves in an even worse situation that we were in before so we
hope obviously with Russia to build a common position but it has to be
based on the five principles and we will continue to engage Russia in
that respect -- let us obviously see what happens in Washington -- but
I think the fact that we are talking to the Russians so intensively,
that the Russians are engaging so intensively is an encouraging sign
even if we may still have differences in our positions but at least we
are working to narrow those positions but it has to be once again on
the basis of the five core requirements of the international community.
DIMITRI: As a follow-up, is it only bilateral relations with NATO
countries or are there some signs of relations between NATO
headquarters here and the Russians?
JAMIE SHEA: No. This is being done, Dimitri, on a bilateral basis but
obviously the NATO Allies are all heavily engaged in those talks. It's
not simply France or the UK or the United States, you've seen that the
Canadian Foreign Minister, Mr. Axworthy (phon), has been in Moscow; we
know that the Belgian Foreign Minister, Mr. Dereik (phon), is there
today to see Foreign Minister Ivanov; last week, Mr. Papandreou, the
Greek Foreign Minister, was also in Moscow; Mr. Chirnomyrdin was in
Rome last week meeting the Italian government before his trip to
Belgrade so what I want to show you is that it's not simply the larger
NATO countries that are involved in this, all NATO countries almost
without exception are speaking to the Russians trying to engage the
Russians, to seek their support on the five core principles that we
know are the only way to solve this crisis.
JULIE: There were some reports that the ordnance used was a powder that
was dropped on these power plants. I wonder if you could tell us a
little bit about that?
JAMIE SHEA: I am not a military specialist, Julie, and the SHAPE
briefing this afternoon I think will be a bit more detailed on that,
particularly coming from the experts but what we have done is to
demonstrate our ability to shut off the power system whenever we want
and to do it in a way which short-circuits electrical systems without
destroying the basic infrastructure which drives those systems and I
think that shows that first of all, our key objective is not to deprive
the Serb people of their electrical grid but to be able to disrupt and
degrade at will the power that drives the military machine so that it
is shut off for significant periods of time and so that the Yugoslav
Army has to go to enormous trouble to try to restore that power and
that disruption is going to cause a sufficient degree of uncertainty in
their command-and-control systems to give NATO a significant tactical
advantage as well so that shows that we have the technology to achieve
a significant military result in an essential area -- the
command-and-control system -- without having to destroy that basic
infrastructure which of course is what drives the civilian electricity
grid and I think that that will show President Milosevic in a very
significant way just how much we can now shut down the power system as
and when we have to do it.
JOHN: Jamie, doesn't the study of bombardment campaigns like this in
the past show that when targets like power systems and other things
that affect the civilian population are hit, that this actually
increases the support of the civilian population for the regime in
place? It seems to be that there has been a Rubicon crossed here.
JAMIE SHEA: John, obviously we want to spare the inconvenience to the
Serb people but clearly we have to go after the fundamental military
objectives.
One thing that I have noticed -- and I don't know if you have noticed
this too -- but over the last couple of days we haven't seen on our
television screens the outpouring of nationalism that characterised the
early stages of this air campaign, the rock concerts in Belgrade, the
human shields although I wouldn't used that term but they were
described as human shields on the bridges in Belgrade, the expressions
of support seem to have disappeared and I don't believe it is because
people have stopped filming, I think it is because they haven't taken
place. I said the other day that when Vuk Draskovic was still in the
government and tried to organise his so-called "anti-NATO happenings",
they collapsed because virtually nobody showed up and I've seen several
reports -- and these are in the open press, in the presses of different
countries -- over the last few days of people in Belgrade that say that
the mood has changed, that if you like, the euphoria of nationalism is
subsiding, that people are starting to weigh the consequences of the
type of confrontation that Milosevic has embarked them on and they
don't like it and they like it less and less. Even if this is not the
type of organised resistance that we saw in 1996 and 1997, people are
now starting to question where Milosevic is taking them and I think
these signs will grow so I don't share that hypothesis that these
things are going to stir up patriotism, I think quite the contrary,
they are going to increase demands on Milosevic to stop this, to settle
on the reasonable terms of the international community and start
looking after what any leader should be looking after which is not his
own prestige but the interests of his people.
DOUG: Just a follow-up on all of that, Jamie. Surely it is a little bit
disingenuous to say that NATO regrets the inconvenience, surely you
want large areas of the population in the country to get the message?
JAMIE SHEA: We don't want the population to get the message, Doug, I
think they got the message years ago when their standards of living
started plummeting as a result of the misrule of the current
government. No, we want the regime to get the message and I think with
their command-and-control severely disrupted last night and seeing just
how quickly and massively NATO is able to do this, they will have one
more thing to worry about in addition to all of the other things they
have to worry about and maybe they will start worrying a little bit
about how they are going to accept the five key provisions of the
international community. We want to worry the government first and
foremost and I think we did that last night.
---
Copyright CNN 2003 For fair use only/ pour usage équitable seulement .
Remember Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia
Speaking of Blackouts
www.globalresearch.ca 17 August 2003
The URL of this article is:
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/PRI308A.html
---
Speaking of blackouts.....maybe after experiencing a mere 16 or so
hours without power, people in the Canadian province of Ontario and in
the American states of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York might
think a bit about what it means when we wage war on civilians in other
countries and bomb electrical power plants.
And of course, when a power plant is bombed, the power does not come
back on in 16 hours as it did here. It is out for days, weeks , or
months, along with water treatment and pumping facilities, sewage and
sanitary systems, all food refrigeration and storage, hospitals and
medical facilities and communication and transport that depend on
electricity.
As very brief reminder, here are a few news items from [Iraq
April-August 2003] and May 1999 when we bombed power plants in
Yugoslavia. Remember, but more importantly...think.
Mart (PRIME News Group)
---
THE IMPACTS OF THE ELECTRICITY BLACKOUT IN IRAQ (2003)
The Age, Melbourne, 21 April 03
"Hundreds of people are dying who should not die, simply because there
is a lack of adequate nursing and because basic operations cannot be
performed due to the lack of medicines and electricity. Unless they get
the power and the water back on soon we are facing a disaster," (The
Age, Melbourne, 21 April 03)
Morning Star, 21 April 03
But the lack of electricity means that medicines cannot be refrigerated
and much hospital equipment lies idle. The UN children's fund Unicef
says that piles of rubbish are accumulating at the hospitals and up to
70 per cent of patients at the children's hospital now have diarrhoea.
(Morning Star, 21 april 03)
Department of Defense Press Briefing, 12 August 03
MR. BREMER: The problem of power I have addressed before; I will say it
again. The structural problem in electricity in this country is due to
malfeasance and incompetent economic management by the Ba'athists over
a period of almost 40 years. [It is not related to the bombing] When
the war started, this country had about 4,000 megawatts of generating
capability, but the demand was more than 6,000 megawatts. In other
words, before the war, there was a gap of almost 33, 34 percent, a
deficiency.[i.e. not due to economic sanctions and the 1991 Gulf War]
We are working to restore all of the generating capability in the
country. That means getting it back to 4,000 megawatts. We are running
between 3,3(00) and 3,400 megawatts a day. We will try to get to 4,000
megawatts by the end of September. We are affected by the kind of
sabotage which continues to be conducted against transmission lines and
by the lack of maintenance of these systems for a very long time and
the complete lack of capital investment in the power industry.
So getting to the point where we can provide every Iraqi with the
amount of power that he or she wants is a long-term problem, at least
another year, because you cannot create 2,000 megawatts of power
overnight.
What we are trying to do is, therefore, arrive at a solution which has
-- takes into account everybody's interest, not just the interest of a
few elite Ba'athists or people in the Republican Guard or the killers
of the Fedayeen Saddam, but trying to say to all Iraqis: We will share
all of the power we have, but you have to remember we don't have enough
power for everybody.
So three weeks ago, I instituted a policy of sharing the electricity
around the country, which means that at least you can plan on when the
blackouts will happen. Of course, this depends on not having attacks
against the power industry and not having breakdowns because of poor
maintenance.
On the whole, that system is beginning to work, and parts of the
country now are enjoying more electricity than they ever had before,
because we are able to share it.
But it will take time, and I'm sympathetic with the problem of the
people sleeping on their roofs and not having air conditioning at this
time. We simply have to work at it, and we will. We intend to restore
basic services to every Iraqi man, woman and child here, and we will do
that. (DoD Press Briefing, 12 August 03)
Pensacola News, 14 August 03
Paul Bremer, the chief U.S. administrator in Iraq, told reporters it
will take "staggering" sums - about $30 billion - just to restore
Iraq's electricity and water systems. [contracts to Western energy
companies to be financed on borrowed money]. That comes on top of a
reported $4 billion a month to maintain military forces and operations
there.
"It does leave us with a substantial problem in the next year - as we
have to make these major infrastructure investments - about where we're
going to get the capital," he said. Incredibly, Bremer apparently is
hoping that a lot of the money will come from a conference of "donor
nations" [creditors not donors] scheduled for October. Given the lack
of international support for the U.S. effort so far, it seems more
likely that American taxpayers will be the top "donor."
Meanwhile, the Bush administration is angering both Republicans and
Democrats by refusing to provide even rough estimates of what Congress
will be asked to appropriate next year for Iraq.
Bremer rejected an Arab reporter's assertion that the country was in
chaos, despite the fuel riots in Basra, more attacks on U.S. forces
that left two G.I.s dead, severe shortages of electricity exacerbated
by continuing sabotage, last week's bombing of the Jordanian embassy,
and new reports of accidents or sabotage at oil pipelines that have
resulted in fires, interrupting the flow of oil. (Pensacola News, 14
August 03)
CNN 11 August 03
[Denial that the bombing affected Iraq's Electricity Grid]
Paul Bremer and his people will tell you that they are actually
supplying more electricity now than Saddam's government was before the
invasion.
Ret. General Jay Garner Statement to House Sub-committee on National
Security, FDCH, 18 July 2003
GARNER: As I left, the North and South had as good a water and better
electricity than they ever had because they were getting electricity 24
hours a day. Now, the problem was in Baghdad. Because Baghdad never had
the electrical grid capacity to generate enough electricity for the
city. So that the electricity for Baghdad had to be ported or
transported from the northern grids and the southern grids into Baghdad.
Daily Telegraph, 11 August 03
But the British official in charge of the reconstruction of Iraq has
given warning that it could take at least a year before the country's
infrastructure is repaired and running at pre-war levels.
Andy Bearpark, coalition director of operations and infrastructure,
said that four months after the fall of Baghdad many critical
installations, from telephone networks to sewage treatment plants, are
still a year away from their pre-war standards.
And with temperatures hitting upwards of 122F (50C) he said that
pre-war power supply would not be restored to its former levels for
another couple of months, leaving many Iraqis to swelter in the summer
sun.
"We will be up to pre-war generation of electricity in the next 60 or
so days," said Mr Bearpark, 50, a bluff Rochdale man who has spent his
career directing post-war reconstruction across the globe. "At the
moment the minimum supply is three hours on, three hours off."
But protesters have long grown sceptical of coalition promises,
complaining that provision rarely matches them.
Mr Bearpark has his own complaints, blaming rebuilding delays on the
damage caused by looters, such as the organised gangs that strip pylons
of electricity cables for their copper.
It is up to Gen Freddy Viggers, Britain's deputy to the overall
coalition forces commander in Iraq, US Gen Ricardo Sanchez, to ward off
such criminals. "Our main job is to look after the security threat,"
said Gen Viggers, who liaises with Mr Bearpark to provide military
protection for rebuilding projects. 'We try to protect the pylon lines
but beyond that the military can't do much in terms of civil
reconstruction."
So fragile is Iraq's infrastructure that during a recent crisis, when
one of Iraq's main power stations was offline, the country's entire
electricity supply depended on a 30-mile stretch of cable. Mr Bearpark,
who reports directly to Iraq's US administrator, Paul Bremer, said:
"Freddy was able to put guards along that little section of wire to
prevent complete meltdown."
There are other successes, including the rapid re-equipping of schools
in time for the new school year beginning in September. Other complex
exercises, such as the currency swap that will see Saddam Hussein's
face disappear from banknotes from October, are dwarfed by major
projects.
"For the moment we are pumping raw sewage into the Tigris," Mr Bearpark
said. "Getting Baghdad's two sewage stations back will take 12 months.
Then there's the telecoms. Roughly 50 per cent of the network was taken
out by bombing. To get that all back will take a year."
Los Angeles Times, 11 August 03
The riots, in the city's north, were smaller than Saturday's protests
but more violent, British soldiers said.
"They're shooting at us," said one soldier manning a checkpoint. "It's
the petrol queues. They've been without electricity for four days now."
Many Iraqis are convinced that the U.S.-led occupation forces could
provide electricity and gasoline, if only they made it a priority.
"We have no electricity, no gasoline, no water, no butane, no wood,"
said Aruba Saad, a housewife. "Why don't the Americans do something?
How do they expect us to live? We're not animals."
Near the southern city of Diwaniyah, a U.S. soldier in a convoy died of
heat stress Saturday, Central Command said. Another soldier was found
dead in his quarters of unknown causes.
Sunday's unrest came as two Arab television networks broadcast videos
of masked fighters calling for armed uprisings against occupation
forces.
The Herald, Scotland, 14 August 03
[Iraq Electricity Blackout is Good for Business: The Spoils of War]
Patricia Hewitt, the trade and industry secretary, is understood to
have asked the Ministry of Defence to take a more active role in
support of British companies seeking reconstruction work.
She intervened after an approach from Siemens UK, which was putting
together a bid to help repair Iraq's shattered electricity
infrastructure, but faced stiff competition from America's General
Electric.
It was perhaps the first sign of a real impetus on the part of the UK
government to seriously promote UK business interests in the war-torn
country.
That, coupled with the announcement of Mr Wilson being appointed as
Tony Blair's special envoy to Iraq, and the announcement that British
Airways is resuming flights to Iraq after 13 years, may improve
prospects for UK firms.
They have viewed bidding for contracts in Iraq as a case of history
repeating itself, following military interventions in Kosovo and
Afghanistan.
Colin Adams, director of the British Consultants' Bureau, which
co-ordinated restruction projects in Kosovo, has said British firms
would be "extremely well -placed" for the rebuilding of Afghanistan.
---
THE IMPACTS OF THE ELECTRICITY BLACKOUT IN AFGHANISTAN (2001)
The Guardian, 8 October 2001 Attack on Afghanistan: The bombing begins:
50 cruise missiles fired: 2am news
The US and Britain launched a massive air onslaught on Afghanistan last
night, including 50 cruise missiles and wave after wave of heavy
bombers, in the opening blow of what President George Bush vowed would
be a "sustained, comprehensive and relentless" campaign against Osama
bin Laden and his supporters.
Cruise missile strikes aimed at crippling anti-aircraft defences were
followed by raids by high-altitude and stealth bombers. The sorties
were flown from the Gulf and the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia,
while B-2 long-range stealth bombers flew from the American Midwest and
refuelled in mid-air.
The bombing campaign, nearly a month after the terrorist massacres in
New York and Washington, was aimed at devastating the forces of
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and the threadbare infrastructure of Bin
Laden's al-Qaida organisation.
The first indication from Afghanistan that the campaign had begun came
when several loud explosions were reported in Kabul and electricity
supplies were cut.
[Media lies: Denial that they bombed electricity grids]: New Republic,
29 October 2003
The insistence on not attacking bridges and electricity grids, the
sluggish and exquisitely calibrated air campaign, the parade of
American diplomats courting the former Afghan king--all testify to the
imperative of keeping the country's infrastructure intact.
---
THE IMPACTS OF THE BLACKOUT IN YUGOSLAVIA (1999)
http://cgi.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9905/02/kosovo.02/
2 May 1999
Serbia plunges into darkness after NATO raid
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- NATO air raids struck a series of major
Yugoslav power plants Sunday, knocking out power across Serbia,
including Belgrade, senior Yugoslav officials told CNN Sunday.
NATO bombs damaged a power plant in Kostolac, 25 miles (40 km)
southeast of Belgrade along the Danube River, which supplies
electricity to all subsidiary power plants across Serbia.
An official government source said NATO planes also hit a plant in the
southern city of Nis and another in Obrenovac, about 18 miles (30 km)
west of Belgrade.
State-owned Serbian television, a repeated target of NATO airstrikes,
went off the air around 9:45 p.m. (3:45 p.m. ET), as did all other
television and radio stations.
Yugoslav Minister of Health Leposava Milicevic, speaking with CNN by
phone, said the situation was causing serious problems throughout
Serbia.
Without electricity, water could not be supplied to critical locations
like hospitals, she said.
CNN's Brent Sadler, reporting from the Yugoslav capital, said:
"Belgrade is now in darkness for as far as the eye can see."
While there was heavy anti-aircraft fire in Belgrade, Sadler did not
report any explosions in or around the city center of Yugoslavia's
capital.
NATO renews attacks despite prisoner release
NATO and Pentagon declined to say whether the power plants were
targeted for an attack, and deferred further questions until a Monday
morning briefing.
But earlier Sunday, U.S. and alliance officials said that, despite the
release of three U.S. soldiers in Yugoslav captivity, air attacks
against the country will continue unabated.
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic must fully accept NATO conditions
for a resolution to the civil conflict in Kosovo between separatist
ethnic Albanians and Serbian forces before the alliance halts the
airstrikes, the officials said.
Two U.S. warplanes crash in airstrikes
NATO on Sunday reported that it had lost two U.S. aircraft in its
Kosovo air campaign overnight Saturday.
An F-16 crashed about 18 kilometers (11 miles) east of the Serbian town
of Kozluk early Sunday, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said. The plane was
returning from a combat mission in Yugoslavia.
"The pilot ejected at around 2:20 a.m. (1200 GMT) this morning, and he
was rescued by NATO forces two hours later," Shea said. "He is safely
back at his operating base, where he is receiving medical attention and
being debriefed on the incident."
Serbian air defense officials said they shot down the F-16, but NATO
military spokesman Col. Konrad Freytag said the jet crashed after
experiencing engine failure. He said the cause of the engine failure
was unknown.
The second plane lost was a Harrier jump jet, which crashed into the
Adriatic Sea while returning to the amphibious assault carrier USS
Kearsarge from a t raining mission. Its pilot was also rescued, Shea
said.
Previously, NATO lost an F-117 stealth fighter, which went down in
Serbia on March 27; and an Apache helicopter, which crashed while
training in Albania last month. Four pilotless "drones" also have been
lost.
NATO admits civilian bus strike
NATO also said early Sunday that one of its attacks hit a civilian bus
crossing a bridge near Luzane, north of Kosovo's capital, Pristina.
NATO says the bridge was "used extensively by the Serb armed forces."
At least 34 people died in the attack, according to Serb news reports
and witnesses.
"The pilot released the weapon, and only after he released the weapon
did the bus come on the bridge," Shea said. "We will continue to do
everything we can to try and avoid those kinds of incidents. We can't
eliminate them altogether."
The bus was sliced in half by the attack and caught fire. Half of it
remained on the bridge, while the other half plunged 13 meters (40
feet) over the edge. The bridge remained standing.
Reporters brought to the scene said they saw bodies and body parts
strewn around the scene.
In Macedonia, an estimated 5,000 refugees streamed across the border
within the past day, officials told CNN.
Macedonia refugee plight worsens
Some refugees have only blankets for living quarters At least 80,000
are squeezed into refugee camps with hopelessly inadequate facilities,
they said. For some of the new arrivals, a piece of plastic is all they
can expect for living quarters, as relief officials are unable to house
nearly half the newcomers.
Macedonian Prime Minister Zupce Georievski, touring a border camp
Sunday, expressed concern that his country had "not received one
dollar" from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Four hundred of the refugees are expected to leave Tuesday to fly to
the United States, which has agreed to temporarily house 20,000
Kosovars during the conflict. They will be processed for several weeks
at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
In Albania, new refugees from Kosovo say Serb police are detaining
women and children, possibly using them to serve as human shields.
One refugee from the border town of Prizen said, "It's totally panicky
in the city. They're taking people as hostages."
Reports of intense KLA, Serb combat
In Southwest Kosovo, there were reports of heavy fighting between
separatist ethnic Albanians and Serbian military forces.
Rebels with the Kosovo Liberation Army have engaged in a major
offensive to open a corridor and unite with other KLA forces farther in
the interior of the province, Turkish journalist Mithat Bereket told
CNN.
The Serbian military answered with heavy artillery and tanks, he said.
Bereket said there were indications that the Serbian army was suffering
from low morale and a high rate of desertions.
He said there were reports that Serbian soldiers were making 15- to
50-year-old Kosovar Albanians set up mines, dig trenches against tanks
and give blood to prepare for a ground offensive.
Correspondents Brent Sadler, Tom Mintier and Jane Arraf contributed to
this report.
---
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9905/23/kosovo.01/
23 May 1999
NATO strikes at Yugoslav power plants
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- NATO bombs put Yugoslavia's largest
coal-burning power plant out of business Sunday, the state-run Tanjug
news agency said.
Tanjug said two rockets hit the Nikola Tesla plant near Obrenovac, 30
kilometers (20 miles) southwest of Belgrade, just before dawn. The
attack caused "additional problems" in supplying the Yugoslav capital
with electricity after attacks early Saturday struck the nearby
Kolubara power plant.
Other NATO targets included armored vehicles and tanks; artillery
positions; parked aircraft; a command post; ammunition and petroleum
storage sites; and communications facilities.
"It was quite an intensive night of air operations," NATO spokesman
Jamie Shea said in Brussels, Belgium.
Overnight, NATO planes flew 652 sorties over Yugoslavia, 301 of them
striking targets. Alliance members vowed to continue the strikes until
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic agrees to their conditions for a
safe return of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians who have fled
their homes in Serbia's Kosovo province.
"The NATO campaign is doing real damage to his military machine," said
British Foreign Office Minister Tony Lloyd. "And NATO is prepared to go
on and on with its air campaign while building up its forces necessary
to take the refugees home in safety."
Lloyd added that NATO was equally committed to the diplomatic search
for peace, "but it must be a peace that gives the people of Kosovo a
secure future."
Ground troop debate continues
The British also continued their push for a willingness to send a
ground force into Kosovo before Milosevic has fully complied with
NATO's demands, which include a complete pullout of Yugoslav and Serb
forces from the region.
Returning from a trip to Washington, British Foreign Secretary Robin
Cook told the British Broadcasting Corp. that NATO must be ready to
"deploy troops in a permissive or a non-permissive environment" --
meaning with or without Milosevic's consent.
Cook also praised signals from Washington that the United States was no
longer categorically rejecting early deployment of ground troops.
In an opinion piece published in Sunday's New York Times, U.S.
President Bill Clinton reiterated NATO's oft-stated view that the air
campaign was working, but said he did "not rule out other military
options."
The U.S. has now joined other NATO allies in calling for a larger
peacekeeping force than originally planned. The alliance is massing
some 28,000 troops along the Macedonian border for the mission, but the
U.S. and others said as many a s 50,000 troops should be ready for
action.
NATO's Shea said that the discussion about ground troops was to be
expected from democracies, but the 19 NATO allies were still unified in
their determination to force Milosevic's hand with an air campaign.
"We are not planning an invasion force for Kosovo," he told CNN on
Sunday. "We still have confidence that our air power ... will force the
Serb forces to withdraw from Kosovo. What we are doing is simply
preparing for a peace implementation force which is going to big enough
and robust enough to move quickly into Kosovo ... and allow the
refugees to go back into their homes."
NATO's Shea said that the discussion about ground troops was to be
expected from democracies, but the 19 NATO allies were still unified in
their determination to force Milosevic's hand with an air campaign.
"We are not planning an invasion force for Kosovo," he told CNN on
Sunday. "We still have confidence that our air power ... will force the
Serb forces to withdraw from Kosovo. What we are doing is simply
preparing for a peace implementation force which is going to big enough
and robust enough to move quickly into Kosovo ... and allow the
refugees to go back into their homes."
Correspondent John Raedler contributed to this report.
---
http://www.freeserbia.net/Documents/Kosovo/Shea2.html
NATO plunges Serbia into darkness in overnight strikes
Jamie Shea Backgrounder in Brussels on 3 May 1999
JAMIE SHEA: Good morning! I am here to give you the quick operational
update in the usual fashion. Let me just point out that the Council is
meeting today at 11 o'clock and that I will be back with SHAPE in the
usual fashion at 3 o'clock for the daily operational briefing on camera.
There is one expression of SACEUR's that I'm sure you've heard on many
previous occasions, he has said: "There are tanks and there are tanks!"
What he means by that is that a tank which is stuck in its tracks
because it has no fuel is far less of a tank and far less of a threat
than one that has fuel and can move and as you know -- and I think
President Milosevic has realised this this morning more than ever
before -- there are also command-and-control systems and
command-and-control systems and if a command-and-control system has no
electricity to turn it on, it is of course wire, metal and plastic and
not a functioning military system and that is what we did in our
operations last night, we went out to deprive the command-and-control
system of its electricity, of its power and to reduce it to wire,
plastic and metal.
Alliance aircraft yesterday evening struck the five main electric yards
that distribute power to the Serb armed forces, the military machine of
President Milosevic, the power which supplies his airfields, his
headquarters, his communication systems, his command-and-control
network and no power means no runway lights, no computers, no secure
communications.
More specifically, NATO aircraft last night struck the transformer
yards of Opranovac (phon), a key electrical distribution station in
western Serbia. We also attacked the transformer yard at Nis in
southern Serbia and this has degraded significantly the command,
control and communications capabilities of the 3rd Yugoslav Army
headquartered in Nis; and we hit the transformer yards also in three
other locations -- Bajinabasta (phon), Dermo and Novi Sad -- as well.
I want you to know -- and I want to stress this -- that NATO forces
took the utmost care to ensure that important civilian facilities like
hospitals had redundant power capabilities and that they had therefore
the back-up transformers to keep their systems running through these
power outages and I believe that you have seen from reports this
morning from Belgrade that that was indeed the case, that those
essential civilian services like hospitals were running.
We regret the inconvenience that power outages have caused to the Serb
people but we have no choice but to continue attacking every element of
the Yugoslav armed forces until such time as President Milosevic
accepts the demands of the international community, those five
unconditional points which we reiterate every day and I just want to
remind you of what those five points are: that Milosevic must stop the
killing, that he must get his troops out of Kosovo, that he must accept
an international military presence with NATO as its core to establish
security inside Kosovo, that he must allow without any restriction or
qualification the return of all refugees and that he must work to build
a permanent political solution based on the Rambouillet peace plan and
we are not asking for anything more but we will not settle for anything
less.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
QUESTION (ABC NEWS): What's on the Council's agenda for today?
JAMIE SHEA: The Council today will be updating its assessments of the
current situation in Kosovo based on a report by Klaus Naumann, the
Chairman of the Military Committee, particularly reviewing -- as I am
doing with you at the moment the developments on the military scene
over the last 24 hours and in that respect let me stress that, as you
know, the last 72 hours have seen the most intensive period thus far of
NATO air operations bringing us beyond the 14,000 sortie mark since the
operation began on 24th March and with on average over 600 sorties per
night in recent nights so I think that will be the first thing on the
agenda.
Secondly, there will be a review of the current humanitarian situation
which continues to cause us enormous concern -- I will be speaking
about that later at 3 o'clock -- and then obviously NATO ambassadors
will discuss various planning activities following on from the
Washington summit.
QUESTION (CNN): Reaction to the Chirnomyrdin visit to Washington?
JAMIE SHEA: Well obviously we are very pleased that Russia clearly
wants to engage with the NATO countries in the search for a diplomatic
solution to the crisis in Kosovo. It is very encouraging that not only
does Mr. Chirnomyrdin want to be in Washington today to meet President
Clinton but also apparently wants to go on to Paris, to London and
other NATO capitals in the next few days. We have always made it clear
that we want Russia to be our partner in seeking a diplomatic solution
but everybody knows that that diplomatic solution can only be based on
the five principles, principles which are not simply NATO principles,
they have been endorsed by virtually the entire international
community. It is only on that basis that we can create a lasting real
peace for Kosovo, anything less risks purely postponing the crisis to a
later stage. We have seen with President Milosevic last October that
half a cake is as good as no cake because he then slides back and we
find ourselves in an even worse situation that we were in before so we
hope obviously with Russia to build a common position but it has to be
based on the five principles and we will continue to engage Russia in
that respect -- let us obviously see what happens in Washington -- but
I think the fact that we are talking to the Russians so intensively,
that the Russians are engaging so intensively is an encouraging sign
even if we may still have differences in our positions but at least we
are working to narrow those positions but it has to be once again on
the basis of the five core requirements of the international community.
DIMITRI: As a follow-up, is it only bilateral relations with NATO
countries or are there some signs of relations between NATO
headquarters here and the Russians?
JAMIE SHEA: No. This is being done, Dimitri, on a bilateral basis but
obviously the NATO Allies are all heavily engaged in those talks. It's
not simply France or the UK or the United States, you've seen that the
Canadian Foreign Minister, Mr. Axworthy (phon), has been in Moscow; we
know that the Belgian Foreign Minister, Mr. Dereik (phon), is there
today to see Foreign Minister Ivanov; last week, Mr. Papandreou, the
Greek Foreign Minister, was also in Moscow; Mr. Chirnomyrdin was in
Rome last week meeting the Italian government before his trip to
Belgrade so what I want to show you is that it's not simply the larger
NATO countries that are involved in this, all NATO countries almost
without exception are speaking to the Russians trying to engage the
Russians, to seek their support on the five core principles that we
know are the only way to solve this crisis.
JULIE: There were some reports that the ordnance used was a powder that
was dropped on these power plants. I wonder if you could tell us a
little bit about that?
JAMIE SHEA: I am not a military specialist, Julie, and the SHAPE
briefing this afternoon I think will be a bit more detailed on that,
particularly coming from the experts but what we have done is to
demonstrate our ability to shut off the power system whenever we want
and to do it in a way which short-circuits electrical systems without
destroying the basic infrastructure which drives those systems and I
think that shows that first of all, our key objective is not to deprive
the Serb people of their electrical grid but to be able to disrupt and
degrade at will the power that drives the military machine so that it
is shut off for significant periods of time and so that the Yugoslav
Army has to go to enormous trouble to try to restore that power and
that disruption is going to cause a sufficient degree of uncertainty in
their command-and-control systems to give NATO a significant tactical
advantage as well so that shows that we have the technology to achieve
a significant military result in an essential area -- the
command-and-control system -- without having to destroy that basic
infrastructure which of course is what drives the civilian electricity
grid and I think that that will show President Milosevic in a very
significant way just how much we can now shut down the power system as
and when we have to do it.
JOHN: Jamie, doesn't the study of bombardment campaigns like this in
the past show that when targets like power systems and other things
that affect the civilian population are hit, that this actually
increases the support of the civilian population for the regime in
place? It seems to be that there has been a Rubicon crossed here.
JAMIE SHEA: John, obviously we want to spare the inconvenience to the
Serb people but clearly we have to go after the fundamental military
objectives.
One thing that I have noticed -- and I don't know if you have noticed
this too -- but over the last couple of days we haven't seen on our
television screens the outpouring of nationalism that characterised the
early stages of this air campaign, the rock concerts in Belgrade, the
human shields although I wouldn't used that term but they were
described as human shields on the bridges in Belgrade, the expressions
of support seem to have disappeared and I don't believe it is because
people have stopped filming, I think it is because they haven't taken
place. I said the other day that when Vuk Draskovic was still in the
government and tried to organise his so-called "anti-NATO happenings",
they collapsed because virtually nobody showed up and I've seen several
reports -- and these are in the open press, in the presses of different
countries -- over the last few days of people in Belgrade that say that
the mood has changed, that if you like, the euphoria of nationalism is
subsiding, that people are starting to weigh the consequences of the
type of confrontation that Milosevic has embarked them on and they
don't like it and they like it less and less. Even if this is not the
type of organised resistance that we saw in 1996 and 1997, people are
now starting to question where Milosevic is taking them and I think
these signs will grow so I don't share that hypothesis that these
things are going to stir up patriotism, I think quite the contrary,
they are going to increase demands on Milosevic to stop this, to settle
on the reasonable terms of the international community and start
looking after what any leader should be looking after which is not his
own prestige but the interests of his people.
DOUG: Just a follow-up on all of that, Jamie. Surely it is a little bit
disingenuous to say that NATO regrets the inconvenience, surely you
want large areas of the population in the country to get the message?
JAMIE SHEA: We don't want the population to get the message, Doug, I
think they got the message years ago when their standards of living
started plummeting as a result of the misrule of the current
government. No, we want the regime to get the message and I think with
their command-and-control severely disrupted last night and seeing just
how quickly and massively NATO is able to do this, they will have one
more thing to worry about in addition to all of the other things they
have to worry about and maybe they will start worrying a little bit
about how they are going to accept the five key provisions of the
international community. We want to worry the government first and
foremost and I think we did that last night.
---
Copyright CNN 2003 For fair use only/ pour usage équitable seulement .
Milosevic's "trial" (italiano / english)
1. MILOSEVIC'S BIRTHDAY, AUGUST 20th
Compleanno di Milosevic il 20 agosto
2. JOINT STATEMENT OF THE BOARD OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE TO
DEFEND SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC - ICDSM
Comunicato unitario della direzione del Comitato Internazionale per la
Difesa di Slobodan Milosevic
3. SPEECHES AT THE HAGUE, JUNE 28th
Gli interventi alla manifestazione dell'Aia di Velko Valkanov, Klaus
Hartmann, Aldo Bernardini, Jane Kelly, Heather Cottin
=== 1: MILOSEVIC'S BIRTHDAY, AUGUST 20th ===
From: Vladimir Krsljanin
(Italiano)
IL 20 AGOSTO IL PRESIDENTE SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC COMPIE 62 ANNI. SARA'
QUESTO IL SUO TERZO COMPLEANNO TRASCORSO IN PRIGIONE. INVIATE I VOSTRI
AUGURI E MESSAGGI DI SOSTEGNO - CARTOLINE, LETTERE O TELEGRAMMI -
ALL'INDIRIZZO RIPORTATO DI SEGUITO.
(English)
ON AUGUST 20, PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC WILL BE 62. THIS WILL BE HIS
THIRD BIRTHDAY IN PRISON.
PLEASE SEND YOUR SUPPORT MESSAGES AND BITHDAY GREETINGS AS POST-CARDS,
LETTERS OR CABLES TO THE FOLLOWING ADDRESS:
(Russian)
20-OGO AVGUSTA PREZIDENTU MILOSHEVICHU NAVESHITSYA 62 GODA. EHTO BUDET
EGO TRETIJ DEN' ROZHDENIYA V TYUR'ME.
POZHALUJSTA POSSYLAJTE VIRAZHENIYA PODDERZHKI I POZDRAVLENIYA V FORME
OTKRYTOK, PISEM I TELEGRAMM NA SLEDUYUSHCHIJ ADRES:
(Serbian)
20. AVGUSTA PREDSEDNIK MILOSEVIC CE IMATI 62 GODINE. TO CE BITI NJEGOV
TRECI RODJENDAN U ZATVORU.
POSALJITE SVOJE IZRAZE PODRSKE I CESTITKE U OBLIKU RAZGLEDNICA, PISAMA
I TELEGRAMA NA SLEDECU ADRESU:
PRESIDENT
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
UN Detention Unit
Postbus 87810
2508 Den Haag
Pomp Stations Weg 32
The Neteherlands
---
YOUR HELP
The work for the defense of Slobodan Milosevic totally depends on your
donations.
For more details, see: http://www.sloboda.org.yu/finappeal.htm
Send a check to our address:
SLOBODA
Rajiceva 16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, Yugoslavia
or transfer your donation to our account using the instructions at:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/pomocdet.htm
=== 2 : ICDSM STATEMENT ===
JOINT STATEMENT OF THE BOARD OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE TO DEFEND
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC - ICDSM
The Board of ICDSM informs that Jared Israel and Nico Varkevisser are
not members of ICDSM. They left the Committee, its goals and
commitments in May-June 2003 by launching a series of reckless actions
against it and its leading members, even misusing the name of President
Milosevic. Their unauthorized misuse of the title, website and
financial account of ICDSM to promote their fabricated allegations and
distorted facts has to stop immediately, otherwise they should face
moral and legal consequences.
ICDSM remains committed to the struggle to free President Slobodan
Milosevic from his illegal NATO prison and to promote and assist his
battle for truth, freedom and dignity in the interest of the
people. This battle is of the greatest importance for equality and
democracy in the World.
Our engagement will be only to that end.
This is our common and indisputable position.
August 18, 2003
THE BOARD OF ICDSM
---
Traduzione italiana:
COMUNICATO UNITARIO DELLA DIREZIONE DEL COMITATO INTERNAZIONALE PER LA
DIFESA DI SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC - ICDSM
La direzione dell'ICDSM informa che Jared Israel e Nico Varkevisser non
sono membri dell'ICDSM. Essi hanno di fatto abbandonato il Comitato, i
suoi scopi ed i suoi obblighi nel maggio-giugno 2003, allorquando hanno
incominciato a lanciare una serie di attacchi avventati contro di esso
e contro i suoi principali componenti, persino abusando del nome del
presidente Milosevic.
Il loro improprio e non autorizzato uso del nome, del sito web e del
conto finanziario dell'ICDSM allo scopo di promuovere le loro
supposizioni e distorsioni dei fatti deve cessare immediatamente. In
caso contrario essi dovranno sostenerne le conseguenze morali e legali.
L'ICDSM resta impegnato nella lotta per la liberazione del Presidente
Slobodan Milosevic dalla illegale prigionia NATO, e nella assistenza e
promozione della sua battaglia per la verita', la liberta' e la
dignita' nell'interesse della gente. Questa battaglia e' di estrema
importanza per le sorti della eguaglianza e della democrazia nel mondo.
Il nostro impegno sara' solo a questo scopo.
Questa e' la nostra posizione comune ed irrevocabile.
18 Agosto 2003
La direzione dell'ICDSM
=== 3 : SPEECHES AT THE HAGUE, JUNE 28th ===
From "Sloboda", Belgrade
(To see full coverage of the June 28th demonstration at The Hague,
please go to
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/engleski/index-demonstr.html )
---
Speech given by Prof. Dr. Velko Valkanov, Co-Chairman of the ICDSM, at
the protest at The Hague, June 28th, 2003
Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen,
Since two years, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is in the
prison at The Hague, not far from here. He is in jail not because he
committed a crime, but on the opposite, because he was fighting against
criminals. He defended the freedom and honor of its people, he defended
the freedom and honor of all people. That’s why we have the right to
say: in prison at The Hague, there is not just president Milosevic, but
freedom itself, human dignity itself.
President Milosevic stands before a tribunal that lacks not only legal
grounds, but moral grounds as well. It was established by people who do
not recognize International Law. Although they committed many crimes
against the human kind, not them but their victims were made
responsible. The United States of America, which is the strongest force
behind the tribunal, is not recognizing the legitimate International
Criminal Court that was formed on basis of the Rome Statute. They are
of the opinion that people from all nations can be put on trial but not
their own citizens, the citizens of the United States. That is the peak
of hypocrisy, the peak of a robbing moral.
Dear friends,
Yesterday, Klaus Hartmann and me visited president Milosevic in prison.
We talked for about two hours. He sends all his regards to you.
We, Klaus Hartmann and myself, are able to tell you that president
Milosevic has a strong spirit. His inquisitors used different means to
break his strength of mind. Those inferior people even organized a
campaign of hatred against his family. But they will be disappointed.
They can kill president Milosevic, but they cannot defeat this great
man.
Dear friends,
Here, in The Hague, two powers are fighting a difficult battle: the
'world-lie' and the 'world-truth'. In that battle, we stand on the side
of the 'world-truth'. We have no right to loose this battle, the battle
of the future of human kind.
I thank you for your attention.
---
Klaus Hartmann, Vice-Chairman of the ICDSM and speaker of the German
section of the ICDSM, before prison in The Hague where Slobodan
Milosevic is imprisoned, June 28, 2003
Friends, citizens:
We are standing here in front of a building that was used by the German
fascists to imprison Dutch anti-fascist and resistance fighters.
Today once again the criminals have locked up their victims, the
representatives of the resistance to the dictatorship of the “New World
Order”.
We direct our solidarity to these political prisoners, who are
imprisoned here illegally.
The so-called Hague Tribunal, which violates International Law, serves
not only to legitimize NATO’s crimes against Yugoslavia, it is also
part of the colonial authority over the Balkans, a part of a network of
custodial authorities and protectorates, that lie over this country
like a leaden net and prevent the people there from rising up to take
their fate in their own hands and themselves determine their fate.
Yesterday I together with Velko Valkanov had the opportunity to hold a
discussion with President Slobodan Milosevic. He made it quite clear
that the charges this false tribunal is bringing are aimed at
solidifying the colonial order in the Balkans:
–The charges of alleged Serbian crimes in Kosovo have the goal of
laying the foundations for the separation of Kosovo from Serbia;
–The charge of alleged genocide in Bosnia has the goal of ending the
existence of the Serb Republic.
Up to now Slobodan Milosevic has managed to repudiate all the
prosecution’s witnesses, to reduce their testimony to nothing. The
latest, occurring in the last few days, was former U.S. Ambassador
Galbraith. And once again a special guardian angel had to come to the
rescue of this witness. It was the so-called “Judge’ May, this
caricature of a neutral figure, who unsuccessfully sought to rescue Mr.
Ambassador as he cut down the time that Slobodan Milosevic had for his
cross-examination.
In her own “half time,” in which prosecution witnesses are brought on
to support the charges, Ms. Del Ponte stands before us fully naked–a
frightful vision!
Slobodan Milosevic’s morale for struggle is unbroken.
Despite this, his joy over the victorious battles in the “court” room
is limited. The situation, he says, is from one point of view comical,
but even so ridiculous and tragic. Always having to deal with these
small-spirited people is no joy.
How much this court-martial fears the second “half time” in which
Slobodan Milosevic calls the witnesses, has been shown by the
prosecution’s already extending twice the time to make its case, now at
least until the beginning of 2004.
At the same time they have piled up Slobo with paper, tons of paper,
almost a half-million DIN A4 pages. To read these papers through he
would need three years, even if he read 400 pages each day.
It is a requirement of minimal fairness that he be provided with time
for an orderly preparation of his defense.
We demand then:
At least a one-year interruption and corresponding release from prison
for an orderly preparation of the defense!
In agreement with our friend and comrade Slobo, I issue a call that we
all concentrate the attention of the International Committee (for the
Defense of Slobodan Milosevic) and all the organizations of Serbs in
the diaspora to place all our weight on the scales to win this demand
for an interruption in the trial and the corresponding release from
prison!
A further protest is directed at the mistreatment and persecution of
his family, against whom a thoroughgoing witch-hunt has been launched.
While the public with the goal of their well known and practiced
deception of the people learns, that the order to arrest apparently has
something to do with a murder investigation, in reality it is either
over battles among youths or that his wife has allegedly used
“connections” to procure an apartment for the babysitter of her
grandchild.
This is the basis for an “International Arrest Order,” an unrepeatable
joke and a scandal, which is aimed only at undermining his strength for
the battle, his will to struggle, in that every visit from Mirjana and
other members of his family should be made impossible.
We raise the strongest protest and demand the withdrawal of this
illegal arrest orders!
Dear friends and comrades!
We are today for the first time in The Hague. But we will come again–we
are not here for the last time.
Yesterday at noon Slobo asked me, how many participants we expected for
our demonstration. I said, we would be happy if a few hundred were
there, because we have to begin, not wait until we are thousands, but
act with as many as we are able to reach. What is important is the
example, what is important is the first step, and I told him that
Aristoteles had already said, “the beginning is more than half of the
whole” - and today we have gone down more than half the road.
Dear friends!
* With the struggle for the freedom of Slobodan Milosevic we
struggle for all our freedom.
* We struggle against the new imperialist re-division of the world,
against neocolonialism, against the New World War Order.
* We struggle for the defense of people rights, for equality, for
independence, for national sovereignty and dignity of all countries.
We are convinced:
They shall not pass!
The slaveholders have never been the victors in history!
The people have the last word!
Thus:
Zivela Jugoslavija! Sloboda za Slobodana!
(Long live Yugoslavia! Freedom for Slobodan!)
Thank you.
---
Speech by Prof. Aldo Bernardini at the Vidovdan demonstration at The
Hague, June 28, 2003
Dear Comrades and Friends,
I bring here my full solidarity and the solidarity of many Italians to
President Slobodan Milosevic and the other Yugoslav people, who are
arbitrarily detained in this country by an illegitimate Tribunal
established by an anti-Charter order of Security Council. I express our
thanks to all who have organized this meeting and to everyone who is
here.
I met President Milosevic in his arbitrary jail two years ago and was
very impressed by his personality, sense of justice, courage, spirit of
resistance. Two considerations, among many others, made a deep
impression on me. Globalisation is imperialism, the imperialism of our
days, since there is no equality for States and peoples and it will be
forced on the world through other wars (as we know at present, a real
prophecy: Afghanistan, Iraq and so on): so President Milosevic is with
full right a forerunner of anti-globalism.
Second: no State would have accepted the U.N. Charter if there would
have been envisaged even implicitly such a mechanism as this Hague
Tribunal.
The United Nations and its Security Council is not a Superstate, a
Supergovernment with authority over individuals and the measures
envisaged in Chapter VII may not include such operations. As a matter
of fact other attempts at or cases of so-called international criminal
justice over individuals are based on treaties between sovereign States
(they pose also problems, but of another kind): only for Yugoslavia and
Rwanda there was an order by Security Council. If this were accepted as
law, as legitimate rules, Security Council could order everything in
front of everyone: a global dictatorship.
I don’t speak of other aspects of the specific action by the illegal
Tribunal, of its refusal to judge the crimes by NATO (who will be
judged, who will pay for the assassination of Yugoslavs?) Of it’s
denial to pay full respect for human rights: the barbaric abduction of
President Milosevic from Belgrade, for ex., and the shameful attitude
to his family, to his wife that cannot even visit President Milosevic
and is threatened with judicial prosecution. Why? This is the most
cruel torture.
So the Hague Tribunal is a Court for the winners, against people who
resist imperialism, who defend their country against imperialistic
divisions and wars. It is a tool not of justice, but of imperialism.
Freedom and justice for Slobodan Milosevic and the other victims, shame
on the instruments of imperialism!
Resurrection for Serbia and Yugoslavia!
Prof. Dott. Aldo Bernardini
Ordinario di Diritto internazionale
Università di Teramo
---
Speech given on June 28, 2003 at The Hague demonstration by June Kelly
of the Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic - Ireland
Down with new colonialism!
Abolish the US/NATO Tribunal!
Free Serbia! Free Yugoslavia!
Free Slobodan Milosevic!
The following is a message of Solidarity from the Committee to Defend
Slobodan Milosevic – (Ireland) who have travelled to The Hague for the
Demonstration on 28th June and those members who were unable to attend:
“To the organisers and all attending the International Demonstration
against the NATO “Court” in The Hague, on this, the second anniversary
of the abduction of the former President of Serbia and Yugoslavia, we
extend our warmest best wishes and message of solidarity in the
struggle for TRUTH, JUSTICE and PEACE.
Be assured that our members in Ireland will continue to campaign with
all of our means for the abolition of the US/NATO “Court” and for
the freedom of President Milosevic, other innocent prisoners in The
Hague and for the liberation of all peoples of Serbia and Yugoslavia”.
The writer Phillip K Dick once described the West succinctly as Lies –
Inc.
The campaign against the Serbian people and Slobodan Milosevic in terms
of concentrated levels of lies, irrationality and hysteria has exceeded
anything previously conceived of by propagandists in the service of
Imperialism.
It cannot be said often enough that the media is Licenced to Lie
On behalf of the war profiteers and their minions who are Licensed to
Kill.
Death dealing glamorised by James Bond the creation of nazi sympathiser
Ian Fleming.
The Director of a public relations company in Washington funded to
manufacture lies against the Serbs and Yugoslavia to enlist world wide
support for the barbaric assaults by NATO on the Bosnian Serbs in 1995
and on Yugoslavia in 1999 has said concernedly –
“We may have won the shooting war –If we lose the propaganda war the
consequences will be catastrophic – “
Signs are that this could be about to happen.
In the aftermath to the (criminal and unjust) bombardments of Iraq this
year it must be increasingly obvious even to the politically naïve that
Western nations do not attack other sovereign nations and depose the
leaders of those nations on either ultruistic or humanitarian grounds.
The agenda is McDonaldisation of the universe. Nothing less.
The tragedy is that remarkably few people across the globe
extraordinarily enough perceived the enormity to the Lie propagated
remorselessly by the Deceivers to garner support for the demolition of
what was then Yugoslavia and the ultimate establishment of a puppet
regime to serve the interests of the Imperialists (in Washington).
June Kelly
Coordinator
Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic-Ireland
---
Speech given by Heather Cottin
at The Hague demonstration on June 28, 2003
I greet you today with solidarity from the International Action
Center in New York, founded by Ramsey Clark.
This wonderful demonstration shows how important is
international solidarity. We come here today from two continents to
fight for truth and for the liberation of Slobodan Milosevic. We
continue to struggle for the liberation from NATO/US occupation and
oppression.
We are part of a world movement. Because we know that the
illegal US invasion, bombing and occupation of Iraq really began with
US/NATO destabilization, bombing and occupation of Yugoslavia.
My late husband, Sean Gervasi, died in Belgrade seven years ago.
He worked tirelessly in solidarity with the Serbian people and for
Yugoslavia. He wrote, he spoke, he traveled and organized to try to
save that beautiful nation. He said, "The US struggle to force change
on Yugoslavia is driven by . . . tensions between socialism and
capitalism. . . [but also] between independence and recolonization."
Yugoslavia, the Serbian people, and President Slobodan Milosevic
tried to keep their economy, their independence, and to resist
colonization, just as the Iraqi people are doing. This was their crime
against United States hegemony-and they paid dearly.
The International Action Center worked hard in the 1990s to
build solidarity with Yugoslavia. My late husband worked with the IAC
and throughout the Serbian community in North America and in Europe for
the freedom of Yugoslav from western control. Ramsey Clark and members
of the IAC visited Yugoslavia many times, including during the bombing
in 1999. The IAC conducted a peoples' tribunal in New York, finding the
United States guilty of violating international law and of crimes
against peace. We organized a march on Washington in June of 1999.
The IAC published three books on Yugoslavia, “NATO in the
Balkans”, “Liars Poker” by Michel Collon and “Hidden Agenda”, written
after the war on Yugoslavia. We worked with many of the groups
represented here today- the German section of the International
Committee to defend Slobodan Milosevic, the Pasti Foundation, the PTB,
the New Communist Party of the Netherlands and others.
In a recent interview in Junge Welt Ramsey Clark said,
"People who want peace can’t be taken in by propaganda that makes them
think that by [demonizing people] you can find peace and human rights.
You'll find instead war, injustice, and indignity."
It is against war, injustice and indignity that Slobodan
Milosevic and those in solidarity with him stand today.
As the international anti-imperialist movement grows, we see
millions rising up against war and occupation. This means we have work
to do.
Already at a conference last month organized by the
International Act Now to Stop War and End racism (ANSWER) coalition,
the IAC presented a workshop on Yugoslavia. There was standing room
only. People are eager to learn the truth - to see how the war on
Yugoslav was, as Sean Gervasi showed, "The foot in the door." The
people now understand the media lies. They are beginning to understand
U.S. militarism, globalization and imperialism.
The anti-imperialist movement must take up the cause of
president Milosevic, must see how the demonization of the Serbian
people only served the interests of U.S. hegemony. They need to see
NATO as the military arm of globalization and privatization.
Slobodan Milosevic has alone put NATO in the dock! But he is not
alone. We join with him against the illegal NATO court.
Tonight, in New York at the IAC, we are having a meeting in
solidarity with this important demonstration. We are joined against all
illegal wars and the occupation of Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan,
Palestine, and Iraq.
Sloboda means freedom! Yugoslavia!
Heather Cottin
International Action Center
NY, New York, USA
---
SLOBODA urgently needs your donation.
Please find the detailed instructions at:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/pomoc.htm
To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/ (Sloboda/Freedom association)
http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan
Milosevic)
http://www.free-slobo.de/ (German section of ICDSM)
http://www.wpc-in.org/ (world peace council)
http://www.geocities.com/b_antinato/ (Balkan antiNATO center)
1. MILOSEVIC'S BIRTHDAY, AUGUST 20th
Compleanno di Milosevic il 20 agosto
2. JOINT STATEMENT OF THE BOARD OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE TO
DEFEND SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC - ICDSM
Comunicato unitario della direzione del Comitato Internazionale per la
Difesa di Slobodan Milosevic
3. SPEECHES AT THE HAGUE, JUNE 28th
Gli interventi alla manifestazione dell'Aia di Velko Valkanov, Klaus
Hartmann, Aldo Bernardini, Jane Kelly, Heather Cottin
=== 1: MILOSEVIC'S BIRTHDAY, AUGUST 20th ===
From: Vladimir Krsljanin
(Italiano)
IL 20 AGOSTO IL PRESIDENTE SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC COMPIE 62 ANNI. SARA'
QUESTO IL SUO TERZO COMPLEANNO TRASCORSO IN PRIGIONE. INVIATE I VOSTRI
AUGURI E MESSAGGI DI SOSTEGNO - CARTOLINE, LETTERE O TELEGRAMMI -
ALL'INDIRIZZO RIPORTATO DI SEGUITO.
(English)
ON AUGUST 20, PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC WILL BE 62. THIS WILL BE HIS
THIRD BIRTHDAY IN PRISON.
PLEASE SEND YOUR SUPPORT MESSAGES AND BITHDAY GREETINGS AS POST-CARDS,
LETTERS OR CABLES TO THE FOLLOWING ADDRESS:
(Russian)
20-OGO AVGUSTA PREZIDENTU MILOSHEVICHU NAVESHITSYA 62 GODA. EHTO BUDET
EGO TRETIJ DEN' ROZHDENIYA V TYUR'ME.
POZHALUJSTA POSSYLAJTE VIRAZHENIYA PODDERZHKI I POZDRAVLENIYA V FORME
OTKRYTOK, PISEM I TELEGRAMM NA SLEDUYUSHCHIJ ADRES:
(Serbian)
20. AVGUSTA PREDSEDNIK MILOSEVIC CE IMATI 62 GODINE. TO CE BITI NJEGOV
TRECI RODJENDAN U ZATVORU.
POSALJITE SVOJE IZRAZE PODRSKE I CESTITKE U OBLIKU RAZGLEDNICA, PISAMA
I TELEGRAMA NA SLEDECU ADRESU:
PRESIDENT
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC
UN Detention Unit
Postbus 87810
2508 Den Haag
Pomp Stations Weg 32
The Neteherlands
---
YOUR HELP
The work for the defense of Slobodan Milosevic totally depends on your
donations.
For more details, see: http://www.sloboda.org.yu/finappeal.htm
Send a check to our address:
SLOBODA
Rajiceva 16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro, Yugoslavia
or transfer your donation to our account using the instructions at:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/pomocdet.htm
=== 2 : ICDSM STATEMENT ===
JOINT STATEMENT OF THE BOARD OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE TO DEFEND
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC - ICDSM
The Board of ICDSM informs that Jared Israel and Nico Varkevisser are
not members of ICDSM. They left the Committee, its goals and
commitments in May-June 2003 by launching a series of reckless actions
against it and its leading members, even misusing the name of President
Milosevic. Their unauthorized misuse of the title, website and
financial account of ICDSM to promote their fabricated allegations and
distorted facts has to stop immediately, otherwise they should face
moral and legal consequences.
ICDSM remains committed to the struggle to free President Slobodan
Milosevic from his illegal NATO prison and to promote and assist his
battle for truth, freedom and dignity in the interest of the
people. This battle is of the greatest importance for equality and
democracy in the World.
Our engagement will be only to that end.
This is our common and indisputable position.
August 18, 2003
THE BOARD OF ICDSM
---
Traduzione italiana:
COMUNICATO UNITARIO DELLA DIREZIONE DEL COMITATO INTERNAZIONALE PER LA
DIFESA DI SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC - ICDSM
La direzione dell'ICDSM informa che Jared Israel e Nico Varkevisser non
sono membri dell'ICDSM. Essi hanno di fatto abbandonato il Comitato, i
suoi scopi ed i suoi obblighi nel maggio-giugno 2003, allorquando hanno
incominciato a lanciare una serie di attacchi avventati contro di esso
e contro i suoi principali componenti, persino abusando del nome del
presidente Milosevic.
Il loro improprio e non autorizzato uso del nome, del sito web e del
conto finanziario dell'ICDSM allo scopo di promuovere le loro
supposizioni e distorsioni dei fatti deve cessare immediatamente. In
caso contrario essi dovranno sostenerne le conseguenze morali e legali.
L'ICDSM resta impegnato nella lotta per la liberazione del Presidente
Slobodan Milosevic dalla illegale prigionia NATO, e nella assistenza e
promozione della sua battaglia per la verita', la liberta' e la
dignita' nell'interesse della gente. Questa battaglia e' di estrema
importanza per le sorti della eguaglianza e della democrazia nel mondo.
Il nostro impegno sara' solo a questo scopo.
Questa e' la nostra posizione comune ed irrevocabile.
18 Agosto 2003
La direzione dell'ICDSM
=== 3 : SPEECHES AT THE HAGUE, JUNE 28th ===
From "Sloboda", Belgrade
(To see full coverage of the June 28th demonstration at The Hague,
please go to
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/engleski/index-demonstr.html )
---
Speech given by Prof. Dr. Velko Valkanov, Co-Chairman of the ICDSM, at
the protest at The Hague, June 28th, 2003
Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen,
Since two years, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic is in the
prison at The Hague, not far from here. He is in jail not because he
committed a crime, but on the opposite, because he was fighting against
criminals. He defended the freedom and honor of its people, he defended
the freedom and honor of all people. That’s why we have the right to
say: in prison at The Hague, there is not just president Milosevic, but
freedom itself, human dignity itself.
President Milosevic stands before a tribunal that lacks not only legal
grounds, but moral grounds as well. It was established by people who do
not recognize International Law. Although they committed many crimes
against the human kind, not them but their victims were made
responsible. The United States of America, which is the strongest force
behind the tribunal, is not recognizing the legitimate International
Criminal Court that was formed on basis of the Rome Statute. They are
of the opinion that people from all nations can be put on trial but not
their own citizens, the citizens of the United States. That is the peak
of hypocrisy, the peak of a robbing moral.
Dear friends,
Yesterday, Klaus Hartmann and me visited president Milosevic in prison.
We talked for about two hours. He sends all his regards to you.
We, Klaus Hartmann and myself, are able to tell you that president
Milosevic has a strong spirit. His inquisitors used different means to
break his strength of mind. Those inferior people even organized a
campaign of hatred against his family. But they will be disappointed.
They can kill president Milosevic, but they cannot defeat this great
man.
Dear friends,
Here, in The Hague, two powers are fighting a difficult battle: the
'world-lie' and the 'world-truth'. In that battle, we stand on the side
of the 'world-truth'. We have no right to loose this battle, the battle
of the future of human kind.
I thank you for your attention.
---
Klaus Hartmann, Vice-Chairman of the ICDSM and speaker of the German
section of the ICDSM, before prison in The Hague where Slobodan
Milosevic is imprisoned, June 28, 2003
Friends, citizens:
We are standing here in front of a building that was used by the German
fascists to imprison Dutch anti-fascist and resistance fighters.
Today once again the criminals have locked up their victims, the
representatives of the resistance to the dictatorship of the “New World
Order”.
We direct our solidarity to these political prisoners, who are
imprisoned here illegally.
The so-called Hague Tribunal, which violates International Law, serves
not only to legitimize NATO’s crimes against Yugoslavia, it is also
part of the colonial authority over the Balkans, a part of a network of
custodial authorities and protectorates, that lie over this country
like a leaden net and prevent the people there from rising up to take
their fate in their own hands and themselves determine their fate.
Yesterday I together with Velko Valkanov had the opportunity to hold a
discussion with President Slobodan Milosevic. He made it quite clear
that the charges this false tribunal is bringing are aimed at
solidifying the colonial order in the Balkans:
–The charges of alleged Serbian crimes in Kosovo have the goal of
laying the foundations for the separation of Kosovo from Serbia;
–The charge of alleged genocide in Bosnia has the goal of ending the
existence of the Serb Republic.
Up to now Slobodan Milosevic has managed to repudiate all the
prosecution’s witnesses, to reduce their testimony to nothing. The
latest, occurring in the last few days, was former U.S. Ambassador
Galbraith. And once again a special guardian angel had to come to the
rescue of this witness. It was the so-called “Judge’ May, this
caricature of a neutral figure, who unsuccessfully sought to rescue Mr.
Ambassador as he cut down the time that Slobodan Milosevic had for his
cross-examination.
In her own “half time,” in which prosecution witnesses are brought on
to support the charges, Ms. Del Ponte stands before us fully naked–a
frightful vision!
Slobodan Milosevic’s morale for struggle is unbroken.
Despite this, his joy over the victorious battles in the “court” room
is limited. The situation, he says, is from one point of view comical,
but even so ridiculous and tragic. Always having to deal with these
small-spirited people is no joy.
How much this court-martial fears the second “half time” in which
Slobodan Milosevic calls the witnesses, has been shown by the
prosecution’s already extending twice the time to make its case, now at
least until the beginning of 2004.
At the same time they have piled up Slobo with paper, tons of paper,
almost a half-million DIN A4 pages. To read these papers through he
would need three years, even if he read 400 pages each day.
It is a requirement of minimal fairness that he be provided with time
for an orderly preparation of his defense.
We demand then:
At least a one-year interruption and corresponding release from prison
for an orderly preparation of the defense!
In agreement with our friend and comrade Slobo, I issue a call that we
all concentrate the attention of the International Committee (for the
Defense of Slobodan Milosevic) and all the organizations of Serbs in
the diaspora to place all our weight on the scales to win this demand
for an interruption in the trial and the corresponding release from
prison!
A further protest is directed at the mistreatment and persecution of
his family, against whom a thoroughgoing witch-hunt has been launched.
While the public with the goal of their well known and practiced
deception of the people learns, that the order to arrest apparently has
something to do with a murder investigation, in reality it is either
over battles among youths or that his wife has allegedly used
“connections” to procure an apartment for the babysitter of her
grandchild.
This is the basis for an “International Arrest Order,” an unrepeatable
joke and a scandal, which is aimed only at undermining his strength for
the battle, his will to struggle, in that every visit from Mirjana and
other members of his family should be made impossible.
We raise the strongest protest and demand the withdrawal of this
illegal arrest orders!
Dear friends and comrades!
We are today for the first time in The Hague. But we will come again–we
are not here for the last time.
Yesterday at noon Slobo asked me, how many participants we expected for
our demonstration. I said, we would be happy if a few hundred were
there, because we have to begin, not wait until we are thousands, but
act with as many as we are able to reach. What is important is the
example, what is important is the first step, and I told him that
Aristoteles had already said, “the beginning is more than half of the
whole” - and today we have gone down more than half the road.
Dear friends!
* With the struggle for the freedom of Slobodan Milosevic we
struggle for all our freedom.
* We struggle against the new imperialist re-division of the world,
against neocolonialism, against the New World War Order.
* We struggle for the defense of people rights, for equality, for
independence, for national sovereignty and dignity of all countries.
We are convinced:
They shall not pass!
The slaveholders have never been the victors in history!
The people have the last word!
Thus:
Zivela Jugoslavija! Sloboda za Slobodana!
(Long live Yugoslavia! Freedom for Slobodan!)
Thank you.
---
Speech by Prof. Aldo Bernardini at the Vidovdan demonstration at The
Hague, June 28, 2003
Dear Comrades and Friends,
I bring here my full solidarity and the solidarity of many Italians to
President Slobodan Milosevic and the other Yugoslav people, who are
arbitrarily detained in this country by an illegitimate Tribunal
established by an anti-Charter order of Security Council. I express our
thanks to all who have organized this meeting and to everyone who is
here.
I met President Milosevic in his arbitrary jail two years ago and was
very impressed by his personality, sense of justice, courage, spirit of
resistance. Two considerations, among many others, made a deep
impression on me. Globalisation is imperialism, the imperialism of our
days, since there is no equality for States and peoples and it will be
forced on the world through other wars (as we know at present, a real
prophecy: Afghanistan, Iraq and so on): so President Milosevic is with
full right a forerunner of anti-globalism.
Second: no State would have accepted the U.N. Charter if there would
have been envisaged even implicitly such a mechanism as this Hague
Tribunal.
The United Nations and its Security Council is not a Superstate, a
Supergovernment with authority over individuals and the measures
envisaged in Chapter VII may not include such operations. As a matter
of fact other attempts at or cases of so-called international criminal
justice over individuals are based on treaties between sovereign States
(they pose also problems, but of another kind): only for Yugoslavia and
Rwanda there was an order by Security Council. If this were accepted as
law, as legitimate rules, Security Council could order everything in
front of everyone: a global dictatorship.
I don’t speak of other aspects of the specific action by the illegal
Tribunal, of its refusal to judge the crimes by NATO (who will be
judged, who will pay for the assassination of Yugoslavs?) Of it’s
denial to pay full respect for human rights: the barbaric abduction of
President Milosevic from Belgrade, for ex., and the shameful attitude
to his family, to his wife that cannot even visit President Milosevic
and is threatened with judicial prosecution. Why? This is the most
cruel torture.
So the Hague Tribunal is a Court for the winners, against people who
resist imperialism, who defend their country against imperialistic
divisions and wars. It is a tool not of justice, but of imperialism.
Freedom and justice for Slobodan Milosevic and the other victims, shame
on the instruments of imperialism!
Resurrection for Serbia and Yugoslavia!
Prof. Dott. Aldo Bernardini
Ordinario di Diritto internazionale
Università di Teramo
---
Speech given on June 28, 2003 at The Hague demonstration by June Kelly
of the Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic - Ireland
Down with new colonialism!
Abolish the US/NATO Tribunal!
Free Serbia! Free Yugoslavia!
Free Slobodan Milosevic!
The following is a message of Solidarity from the Committee to Defend
Slobodan Milosevic – (Ireland) who have travelled to The Hague for the
Demonstration on 28th June and those members who were unable to attend:
“To the organisers and all attending the International Demonstration
against the NATO “Court” in The Hague, on this, the second anniversary
of the abduction of the former President of Serbia and Yugoslavia, we
extend our warmest best wishes and message of solidarity in the
struggle for TRUTH, JUSTICE and PEACE.
Be assured that our members in Ireland will continue to campaign with
all of our means for the abolition of the US/NATO “Court” and for
the freedom of President Milosevic, other innocent prisoners in The
Hague and for the liberation of all peoples of Serbia and Yugoslavia”.
The writer Phillip K Dick once described the West succinctly as Lies –
Inc.
The campaign against the Serbian people and Slobodan Milosevic in terms
of concentrated levels of lies, irrationality and hysteria has exceeded
anything previously conceived of by propagandists in the service of
Imperialism.
It cannot be said often enough that the media is Licenced to Lie
On behalf of the war profiteers and their minions who are Licensed to
Kill.
Death dealing glamorised by James Bond the creation of nazi sympathiser
Ian Fleming.
The Director of a public relations company in Washington funded to
manufacture lies against the Serbs and Yugoslavia to enlist world wide
support for the barbaric assaults by NATO on the Bosnian Serbs in 1995
and on Yugoslavia in 1999 has said concernedly –
“We may have won the shooting war –If we lose the propaganda war the
consequences will be catastrophic – “
Signs are that this could be about to happen.
In the aftermath to the (criminal and unjust) bombardments of Iraq this
year it must be increasingly obvious even to the politically naïve that
Western nations do not attack other sovereign nations and depose the
leaders of those nations on either ultruistic or humanitarian grounds.
The agenda is McDonaldisation of the universe. Nothing less.
The tragedy is that remarkably few people across the globe
extraordinarily enough perceived the enormity to the Lie propagated
remorselessly by the Deceivers to garner support for the demolition of
what was then Yugoslavia and the ultimate establishment of a puppet
regime to serve the interests of the Imperialists (in Washington).
June Kelly
Coordinator
Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic-Ireland
---
Speech given by Heather Cottin
at The Hague demonstration on June 28, 2003
I greet you today with solidarity from the International Action
Center in New York, founded by Ramsey Clark.
This wonderful demonstration shows how important is
international solidarity. We come here today from two continents to
fight for truth and for the liberation of Slobodan Milosevic. We
continue to struggle for the liberation from NATO/US occupation and
oppression.
We are part of a world movement. Because we know that the
illegal US invasion, bombing and occupation of Iraq really began with
US/NATO destabilization, bombing and occupation of Yugoslavia.
My late husband, Sean Gervasi, died in Belgrade seven years ago.
He worked tirelessly in solidarity with the Serbian people and for
Yugoslavia. He wrote, he spoke, he traveled and organized to try to
save that beautiful nation. He said, "The US struggle to force change
on Yugoslavia is driven by . . . tensions between socialism and
capitalism. . . [but also] between independence and recolonization."
Yugoslavia, the Serbian people, and President Slobodan Milosevic
tried to keep their economy, their independence, and to resist
colonization, just as the Iraqi people are doing. This was their crime
against United States hegemony-and they paid dearly.
The International Action Center worked hard in the 1990s to
build solidarity with Yugoslavia. My late husband worked with the IAC
and throughout the Serbian community in North America and in Europe for
the freedom of Yugoslav from western control. Ramsey Clark and members
of the IAC visited Yugoslavia many times, including during the bombing
in 1999. The IAC conducted a peoples' tribunal in New York, finding the
United States guilty of violating international law and of crimes
against peace. We organized a march on Washington in June of 1999.
The IAC published three books on Yugoslavia, “NATO in the
Balkans”, “Liars Poker” by Michel Collon and “Hidden Agenda”, written
after the war on Yugoslavia. We worked with many of the groups
represented here today- the German section of the International
Committee to defend Slobodan Milosevic, the Pasti Foundation, the PTB,
the New Communist Party of the Netherlands and others.
In a recent interview in Junge Welt Ramsey Clark said,
"People who want peace can’t be taken in by propaganda that makes them
think that by [demonizing people] you can find peace and human rights.
You'll find instead war, injustice, and indignity."
It is against war, injustice and indignity that Slobodan
Milosevic and those in solidarity with him stand today.
As the international anti-imperialist movement grows, we see
millions rising up against war and occupation. This means we have work
to do.
Already at a conference last month organized by the
International Act Now to Stop War and End racism (ANSWER) coalition,
the IAC presented a workshop on Yugoslavia. There was standing room
only. People are eager to learn the truth - to see how the war on
Yugoslav was, as Sean Gervasi showed, "The foot in the door." The
people now understand the media lies. They are beginning to understand
U.S. militarism, globalization and imperialism.
The anti-imperialist movement must take up the cause of
president Milosevic, must see how the demonization of the Serbian
people only served the interests of U.S. hegemony. They need to see
NATO as the military arm of globalization and privatization.
Slobodan Milosevic has alone put NATO in the dock! But he is not
alone. We join with him against the illegal NATO court.
Tonight, in New York at the IAC, we are having a meeting in
solidarity with this important demonstration. We are joined against all
illegal wars and the occupation of Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan,
Palestine, and Iraq.
Sloboda means freedom! Yugoslavia!
Heather Cottin
International Action Center
NY, New York, USA
---
SLOBODA urgently needs your donation.
Please find the detailed instructions at:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/pomoc.htm
To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/ (Sloboda/Freedom association)
http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan
Milosevic)
http://www.free-slobo.de/ (German section of ICDSM)
http://www.wpc-in.org/ (world peace council)
http://www.geocities.com/b_antinato/ (Balkan antiNATO center)
1999 - NATO Aggression against FR Yugoslavia
1. A pattern of agression (The Guardian)
"Iraq was not the first illegal US-led attack on a sovereign state in
recent times. The precedent was set in 1999 in Yugoslavia writes Kate
Hudson"
2. Belgrade regime to drop lawsuits against NATO criminals
3. Russian Court May Try Clinton For War Crimes Against Yugoslavia
=== 1 ===
A pattern of aggression
Iraq was not the first illegal US-led attack on a sovereign state in
recent times. The precedent was set in 1999 in Yugoslavia writes Kate
Hudson
Thursday August 14, 2003
The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk>
The legality of the war against Iraq remains the focus of intense
debate - as is the challenge it poses to the post-second-world-war
order, based on the inviolability of sovereign states. That challenge,
however, is not a new one. The precursor is without doubt Nato's 1999
attack on Yugoslavia, also carried out without UN support. Look again
at how the US and its allies
behaved then, and the pattern is unmistakable.
Yugoslavia was a sovereign state with internationally recognised
borders; an unsolicited intervention in its internal affairs was
excluded by international law. The US-led onslaught was therefore
justified as a humanitarian war - a concept that most international
lawyers regarded as having no legal standing (the Commons foreign
affairs select committee
described it as of "dubious legality"). The attack was also outside
Nato's own remit as a defensive organisation - its mission statement
was later rewritten to allow for such actions.
In Yugoslavia, as in Iraq, the ultimate goal of the aggressor nations
was regime change. In Iraq, the justification for aggression was the
possession of weapons of mass destruction; in Yugoslavia, it was the
prevention of a
humanitarian crisis and genocide in Kosovo. In both cases, the evidence
for such accusations has been lacking: but while this is now widely
accepted in relation to Iraq, the same is not true of Yugoslavia.
In retrospect, it has become ever clearer that the justification for
war was the result of a calculated provocation - and manipulation of
the legitimate grievances of the Kosovan Albanians - in an already
tense situation within the Yugoslav republic of Serbia. The
constitutional status of Kosovo had
been long contested and the case for greater Kosovan Albanian
self-government had been peacefully championed by the Kosovan
politician, Ibrahim Rugova.
In 1996, however, the marginal secessionist group, the Kosovo
Liberation Army, stepped up its violent campaign for Kosovan
independence and launched a series of assassinations of policemen and
civilians in Kosovo, targeting not only Serbs, but also Albanians who
did not support the KLA. The Yugoslav
government branded the KLA a terrorist organisation - a description
also used by US officials. As late as the beginning of 1998, Robert
Gelbard, US special envoy to Bosnia, declared: "The UCK (KLA) is
without any question a
terrorist group."
KLA attacks drew an increasingly heavy military response from Yugoslav
government forces and in the summer of 1998 a concerted offensive
against KLA strongholds began. In contrast to its earlier position, the
US administration now threatened to bomb Yugoslavia unless the
government withdrew its forces from the province, verified by the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The US was
now clearly determined to remove Milosevic, who was obstructing
Yugoslavia's integration into the western institutional and economic
framework.
Agreement was reached in October 1998 and 1,000 OSCE observers went to
Kosovo to oversee the withdrawal of government troops. But the KLA used
the pullback to renew armed attacks. In January 1999 an alleged
massacre of 45
Kosovan Albanians by Yugoslav government forces took place at Racak.
Both at the time and subsequently, evidence has been contradictory and
fiercely contested as to whether the Racak victims were civilians or
KLA fighters and whether they died in a firefight or close-range
shootings.
Nevertheless, Racak was seized on by the US to justify acceleration
towards war. In early 1999, the OSCE reported that "the current
security environment in Kosovo is characterised by the disproportionate
use of force by the
Yugoslav authorities in response to persistent attacks and provocations
by the Kosovan Albanian paramilitaries." But when the Rambouillet talks
convened in February 1999, the KLA was accorded the status of national
leader. The Rambouillet text, proposed by the then US secretary of
state,
Madeleine Albright, included a wide range of freedoms and immunities
for Nato forces within Yugoslavia that amounted to an effective
occupation. Even the former US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger,
described it as "a provocation, an excuse to start bombing". The
Yugoslavs refused to sign, so bombing began on March 24 1999.
Despite claims by western leaders that Yugoslav forces were conducting
"genocide" against the Kosovan Albanians, reports of mass killings and
atrocities - such as the supposed concealment of 700 murdered Kosovan
Albanians in the Trepca mines - were often later admitted to be wrong.
Atrocities certainly were carried out by both Serb and KLA forces. But
investigative teams did not find evidence of the scale of dead or
missing claimed at the time, responsibility for which was attributed to
the Yugoslavs. The damage inflicted by US and British bombing,
meanwhile, was considerable, including civilian casualties estimated at
between 1,000 and
5,000 deaths. Nato forces also used depleted uranium weapons - linked
to cancers and birth defects - while Nato bombers destroyed swathes of
Serbia's economic and social infrastructure.
Far from solving a humanitarian crisis, the 79-day bombardment
triggered the flight of hundreds of thousands of Kosovans. Half a
million Kosovan Albanians who had supposedly been internally displaced
turned out not to
have been, and of the 800,000 who had sought refuge or been forced into
neighbouring countries, the UNHCR estimated that 765,000 had already
returned to Kosovo by August of the same year. A more long-lasting
result, however, was that half the Kosovan Serb population -
approximately 100,000 - left Kosovo or was driven out.
So was the war worth it? Notwithstanding the Nato-UN protectorate
established in Kosovo, the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia was no
longer under threat - the Kosovans did not achieve their independence.
Nor has western support for the KLA been mirrored in Kosovan voting
patterns: the party of Rugova, who never backed the violent path,
received a convincing majority in the elections in 2001.
Meanwhile, violence dogs the surviving minority communities, and in
spite of the presence of 40,000 K-For troops and a UN police force, the
Serb and other minorities (such as Roma) have continued to be forced
out. More than 200,000 are now estimated to have left. In the short
term, support for Milosevic actually increased as a result of the war,
and the regime was only changed through a combination of economic
sanctions, elections and heavy western intervention. Such interference
in a country's internal politics does not generally lead to a stable
and peaceful society, as evidenced by the recent assassination of
Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic, the most pro-western politician
in the country.
As in Yugoslavia, so in Iraq: illegal aggression justified by spin and
fabrication enables might to prevail and deals a terrible blow to the
framework of international law. As in Yugoslavia, so in Iraq, people's
wellbeing comes a poor second-best to the interests of the world's
self-appointed moral and economic arbiters.
ˇKate Hudson is principal lecturer in Russian and East European
politics at South Bank University, London and author of Breaking the
South Slav Dream: the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia
=== 2 ===
From "Sloboda", Belgrade, 6.6.2003
"YES, MASA", SAY THE BELGRADE PUPPETS, "WE ARE GUILTY FOR YOUR BOMBING
OF OUR COUNTRY AND KILLING OF OUR CHILDREN"
"The conditions [to join PfP - VK] include continued full cooperation
with The Hague Tribunal and the dropping of the lawsuit brought against
NATO member countries for the 1999 bombing campaign.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a NATO library at Belgrade’s
Institute for International Police and Economy, [British Ambassador]
Crawford said that the lawsuit filed by the Belgrade government against
members of the western alliance gives a “bizarre tone” to
Serbia-Montenegro’s desire to join the Partnership. "
The Serbian version of Beta news agency dispatch (bellow) contains also
a quote of certain Igor Luksic, present deputy foreign minister of what
is called Serbia-Montenegro. Our translation of that part of Serbian
Beta dispatch:
"Deputy foreign minister of Serbia-Montenegro Igor Luksic have stated
that the state community will officially request the membership to the
Partnership for Peace when the conditions for the admission will be
fulfilled, adding that Serbia-Montenegro will try to reach that "as
soon as possible". According to his words, it is paradoxical to sue the
organization, the member of which you want to become."
B92, June 05, 2003.
NATO Partnership in weeks, provided conditions are met | 15:14 | Beta
BELGRADE -- Thursday -- "Charles Crawford, British Ambassador to
Belgrade, and NATO official George Katsirdakis have today laid down the
conditions for the state union’s accession to NATO’s Partnership for
Peace programme.
The conditions include continued full cooperation with The Hague
Tribunal and the dropping of the lawsuit brought against NATO member
countries for the 1999 bombing campaign.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a NATO library at Belgrade’s
Institute for International Police and Economy, Crawford said that the
lawsuit filed by the Belgrade government against members of the western
alliance gives a “bizarre tone” to Serbia-Montenegro’s desire to join
the Partnership.
The ambassador noted the about-turn of Serbia-Montenegro officials, who
claimed last year that the army had never protected any war crimes
suspects, although they now claim differently.
Confirming that Britain has agreed to mediate between Serbia-Montenegro
and Euro-Atlantic institutions, Crawford insisted that it was
imperative they know the truth about occurrences in the union.
However, Crawford praised the reform efforts in Serbia-Montenegro,
insisting that they are achieving positive results and that successful
integration into the Partnership for Peace programme would be a clear
message of the state union’s determination to secure peace and
stability in the region.
He added that such a move would also attract foreign investors.
NATO’s Katsirdakis acknowledged Serbia-Montenegro’s success in meeting
a number of requirements for Partnership membership, but insisted that
the case of indicted Hague suspect General Ratko Mladic remained a
major sticking point.
Speaking on behalf of the alliance, Katsirdakis said he was aware that
Serbia-Montenegro has made considerable efforts to meet conditions for
admission to the Partnership, but that the case of Mladic, former
commander of the republic of Srpska Army, was unique and of particular
significance because of his alleged involvement in the 1995 Srebranica
massacre.
However, the NATO official insisted that full membership of the
Partnership could be realised within weeks, provided all conditions are
met.
In the meantime, Serbia-Montenegro is to be granted official observer
status for upcoming activities, although Katsirdakis insisted this
would not affect practical work."
SO, MOST OF THE NATO/HAGUE TERROR IN SERBIA IS ABOUT THE RESPONSIBILITY
OF REAL WAR CRIMINALS AND ABOUT THEIR FEAR.
SLOBODA CALLS FOR ALL KINDS OF OPPOSITION, PROTEST AND INTERNATIONAL
SOLIDARITY TO PREVENT FINAL ATTACK ON OUR FREEDOM AND DIGNITY, AS WELL
AS ON HISTORICAL TRUTH AND INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE.
LETS FREE PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC, CHAMPION OF THIS STRUGGLE!
LETS FIGHT THE NATO/HAGUE MACHINERY OF DESTRUCTION AND KILLING PEOPLE!
---
MINISTER SAYS SERBIA-MONTENEGRO WILL NOT DROP CHARGES AGAINST NATO
BELGRADE, June 27 (Beta) - Serbia Montenegro Minister of Defense Boris
Tadic said on June 27 that Serbia Montenegro would not drop charges
against NATO before the International Court of Justice in The Hague,
unless Bosnia and Croatia dropped their charges against Serbia
Montenegro.
"We equally perceive all charges before the International Court of
Justice in The Hague," Tadic told journalists, adding that if the
country must drop its charges against NATO, than Bosnia and Herzegovina
and Croatia must drop their charges as well.
He expressed the conviction that the country's suit against NATO for
bombing it in 1999 would not represent an obstacle to membership in
NATO's Partnership for Peace program and Euro Atlantic integration
processes.
It would be good if charges were withrawn, Batic
BANJA LUKA, June 30 (Tanjug) - Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic
has said that it would be good, both for the future and friendly
telations, if Bosnia-Herzegovina withrew the charges it had filed with
The Hague tribunal against Serbia and Montenegro for agression and
genocide.
In an interview for the Banja Luka daily Nezavisne Novine, Batic said
that "if that does not happen, then we have to defend ourselves from
the charges and prove an another truth."
"As regards the charges, the Serbian Justice Ministry has prepared
such evidence that will surprise both the domestic and foreign
public," the Serbian misister warned.
TADIC SAYS ALL LAWSUITS SHOULD BE WITHDRAWN SIMULTANEOUSLY
PODGORICA, July 2 (Tanjug) - Serbia-Montenegro Defense Minister Boris
Tadic said in Podgorica late on Tuesday that any withdrawal of a
lawsuit against 19 NATO countries for aggression against our country
was in connection with the lawsuits of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia
against Serbia-Montenegro before the International Court of Justice.
"Our stand is that if some lawsuits are withdrawn, all should be
withdrawn simultaneously. This is a principle that might be
criticized, but at this point we don't have a better instrument for
securing our interests before the International Court of Justice,"
Tadic told the Montenegrin state television. He said he expected that
the international community would put pressure on Croatia and
Bosnia-Herzegovina to give up their lawsuits against
Serbia-Montenegro, like it was putting pressure on Serbia-Montenegro
to give up its lawsuit against NATO member-countries.
Drop NATO charges, says Filipovic | 13:13 -> 18:19 | Dnevnik
BELGRADE -- Friday – Serbia-Montenegro should drop its lawsuit against
the 19 NATO countries that took part in the bombing of Yugoslavia in
1999, the state union’s NATO liaison said today.
“I saw no opportunity for the state to benefit from this
lawsuit. If it’s making problems for us then it’s better that
we give up on it,” said Miroslav Filipovic.
Filipovic claimed that if Serbia-Montenegro dropped the charges against
NATO, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina would drop theirs against Belgrade.
Serbia-Montenegro MP Filipovic participated in a two-day
roundtable this week regarding the reform of the security
sector. Also in attendance were Serbia-Montengro Defence
Minister Boris Tadic and Chief-of-Staff of the state union army
General Branko Krga.
The event, organised by The Club of Madrid, was also attended by Chris
Donnelly, Senior Advisor to the NATO Secretary-General for Central and
Eastern Europe, Narcis Serra, former Spanish vice president and defence
minister, and Jim O'Brien, former US Envoy to the Balkans.
Two conditions for membership
Donnelly said during the discussion that Serbia-Montenegro were guilty
of not letting their voice be heard, urging them to
fight for their rights once members of the western alliance's
Partnership for Peace Programme.
However, Donnelly stressed that two conditions had still to be
met before membership would be granted: the arrest and
extradition of former Republika Srpska commander General Ratko Mladic;
the dropping of the lawsuit the state union have filed against NATO,
seeking compensation for the damage caused by the 1999 bombing campaign.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?&nav_category=&nav_id
=23559&order=priority&style=headlines
=== 3 ===
Da: Rick Rozoff
Data: Mer 11 Giu 2003 12:07:36 Europe/Rome
Oggetto: [yugoslaviainfo] Russian Court May Try Clinton For War Crimes
Against Yugoslavia
http://www.interfax.ru/
one_news_en.html?lang=EN&tz=0&tz_format=MSK&id_news=5642675
Interfax (Russia) - June 11, 2003
Saratov region intends to try Clinton
-According to the claimants, the former U.S. president
violated five articles of the Russian Criminal Code,
such as "the planning, preparation, launching, or
conducting of an aggressive war" (Article 353), "the
use of banned means and methods of conducting a war"
(Article 356), "genocide" (Article 357), "ecocide"
(Article 358), and "an attack against individuals or
establishments enjoying international protection"
(Article 360). Those found guilty of the crimes
described by these articles could face from 20 years
to life in prison.
SARATOV. June 11 (Interfax) - The Saratov Regional
Court has satisfied an appeal by five Saratov
residents against a ruling handed down earlier by the
Volga District Court, which refused to try former U.S.
President Bill Clinton in Russia for the bombardment
of Yugoslavia in 1999.
Interfax obtained this information from a source in
the regional court.
In late March this year, five Saratov residents,
including a local journalist, the deputy director of
an Orthodox high school, and three members of the
Russian Writers Union, appealed to the Saratov
regional prosecutor's office, demanding that Clinton
be prosecuted for bombing Yugoslavia.
According to the claimants, the former U.S. president
violated five articles of the Russian Criminal Code,
such as "the planning, preparation, launching, or
conducting of an aggressive war" (Article 353), "the
use of banned means and methods of conducting a war"
(Article 356), "genocide" (Article 357), "ecocide"
(Article 358), and "an attack against individuals or
establishments enjoying international protection"
(Article 360). Those found guilty of the crimes
described by these articles could face from 20 years
to life in prison.
The Volga District Court ruled that Clinton cannot be
tried in the Russian Federation. However, the
claimants field an appeal, citing Article 12 of the
Russian Criminal Code, under which a criminal case can
be opened against a foreigner if he or she caused
damage to Russia. In the claimants' view, the U.S. Air
Force, which bombed Yugoslavia, caused significant
damage to Russia, in particular, by destroying Russian
pipelines.
The Saratov Regional Court's board satisfied the
appeal and returned the case to the Volga District
Court for new consideration.
===
1999 - NATO Aggression against FR Yugoslavia
*** WE WILL NEVER STOP ASKING FOR JUSTICE ***
1. A pattern of agression (The Guardian)
"Iraq was not the first illegal US-led attack on a sovereign state in
recent times. The precedent was set in 1999 in Yugoslavia writes Kate
Hudson"
2. Belgrade regime to drop lawsuits against NATO criminals
3. Russian Court May Try Clinton For War Crimes Against Yugoslavia
=== 1 ===
A pattern of aggression
Iraq was not the first illegal US-led attack on a sovereign state in
recent times. The precedent was set in 1999 in Yugoslavia writes Kate
Hudson
Thursday August 14, 2003
The Guardian <http://www.guardian.co.uk>
The legality of the war against Iraq remains the focus of intense
debate - as is the challenge it poses to the post-second-world-war
order, based on the inviolability of sovereign states. That challenge,
however, is not a new one. The precursor is without doubt Nato's 1999
attack on Yugoslavia, also carried out without UN support. Look again
at how the US and its allies
behaved then, and the pattern is unmistakable.
Yugoslavia was a sovereign state with internationally recognised
borders; an unsolicited intervention in its internal affairs was
excluded by international law. The US-led onslaught was therefore
justified as a humanitarian war - a concept that most international
lawyers regarded as having no legal standing (the Commons foreign
affairs select committee
described it as of "dubious legality"). The attack was also outside
Nato's own remit as a defensive organisation - its mission statement
was later rewritten to allow for such actions.
In Yugoslavia, as in Iraq, the ultimate goal of the aggressor nations
was regime change. In Iraq, the justification for aggression was the
possession of weapons of mass destruction; in Yugoslavia, it was the
prevention of a
humanitarian crisis and genocide in Kosovo. In both cases, the evidence
for such accusations has been lacking: but while this is now widely
accepted in relation to Iraq, the same is not true of Yugoslavia.
In retrospect, it has become ever clearer that the justification for
war was the result of a calculated provocation - and manipulation of
the legitimate grievances of the Kosovan Albanians - in an already
tense situation within the Yugoslav republic of Serbia. The
constitutional status of Kosovo had
been long contested and the case for greater Kosovan Albanian
self-government had been peacefully championed by the Kosovan
politician, Ibrahim Rugova.
In 1996, however, the marginal secessionist group, the Kosovo
Liberation Army, stepped up its violent campaign for Kosovan
independence and launched a series of assassinations of policemen and
civilians in Kosovo, targeting not only Serbs, but also Albanians who
did not support the KLA. The Yugoslav
government branded the KLA a terrorist organisation - a description
also used by US officials. As late as the beginning of 1998, Robert
Gelbard, US special envoy to Bosnia, declared: "The UCK (KLA) is
without any question a
terrorist group."
KLA attacks drew an increasingly heavy military response from Yugoslav
government forces and in the summer of 1998 a concerted offensive
against KLA strongholds began. In contrast to its earlier position, the
US administration now threatened to bomb Yugoslavia unless the
government withdrew its forces from the province, verified by the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The US was
now clearly determined to remove Milosevic, who was obstructing
Yugoslavia's integration into the western institutional and economic
framework.
Agreement was reached in October 1998 and 1,000 OSCE observers went to
Kosovo to oversee the withdrawal of government troops. But the KLA used
the pullback to renew armed attacks. In January 1999 an alleged
massacre of 45
Kosovan Albanians by Yugoslav government forces took place at Racak.
Both at the time and subsequently, evidence has been contradictory and
fiercely contested as to whether the Racak victims were civilians or
KLA fighters and whether they died in a firefight or close-range
shootings.
Nevertheless, Racak was seized on by the US to justify acceleration
towards war. In early 1999, the OSCE reported that "the current
security environment in Kosovo is characterised by the disproportionate
use of force by the
Yugoslav authorities in response to persistent attacks and provocations
by the Kosovan Albanian paramilitaries." But when the Rambouillet talks
convened in February 1999, the KLA was accorded the status of national
leader. The Rambouillet text, proposed by the then US secretary of
state,
Madeleine Albright, included a wide range of freedoms and immunities
for Nato forces within Yugoslavia that amounted to an effective
occupation. Even the former US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger,
described it as "a provocation, an excuse to start bombing". The
Yugoslavs refused to sign, so bombing began on March 24 1999.
Despite claims by western leaders that Yugoslav forces were conducting
"genocide" against the Kosovan Albanians, reports of mass killings and
atrocities - such as the supposed concealment of 700 murdered Kosovan
Albanians in the Trepca mines - were often later admitted to be wrong.
Atrocities certainly were carried out by both Serb and KLA forces. But
investigative teams did not find evidence of the scale of dead or
missing claimed at the time, responsibility for which was attributed to
the Yugoslavs. The damage inflicted by US and British bombing,
meanwhile, was considerable, including civilian casualties estimated at
between 1,000 and
5,000 deaths. Nato forces also used depleted uranium weapons - linked
to cancers and birth defects - while Nato bombers destroyed swathes of
Serbia's economic and social infrastructure.
Far from solving a humanitarian crisis, the 79-day bombardment
triggered the flight of hundreds of thousands of Kosovans. Half a
million Kosovan Albanians who had supposedly been internally displaced
turned out not to
have been, and of the 800,000 who had sought refuge or been forced into
neighbouring countries, the UNHCR estimated that 765,000 had already
returned to Kosovo by August of the same year. A more long-lasting
result, however, was that half the Kosovan Serb population -
approximately 100,000 - left Kosovo or was driven out.
So was the war worth it? Notwithstanding the Nato-UN protectorate
established in Kosovo, the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia was no
longer under threat - the Kosovans did not achieve their independence.
Nor has western support for the KLA been mirrored in Kosovan voting
patterns: the party of Rugova, who never backed the violent path,
received a convincing majority in the elections in 2001.
Meanwhile, violence dogs the surviving minority communities, and in
spite of the presence of 40,000 K-For troops and a UN police force, the
Serb and other minorities (such as Roma) have continued to be forced
out. More than 200,000 are now estimated to have left. In the short
term, support for Milosevic actually increased as a result of the war,
and the regime was only changed through a combination of economic
sanctions, elections and heavy western intervention. Such interference
in a country's internal politics does not generally lead to a stable
and peaceful society, as evidenced by the recent assassination of
Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic, the most pro-western politician
in the country.
As in Yugoslavia, so in Iraq: illegal aggression justified by spin and
fabrication enables might to prevail and deals a terrible blow to the
framework of international law. As in Yugoslavia, so in Iraq, people's
wellbeing comes a poor second-best to the interests of the world's
self-appointed moral and economic arbiters.
ˇKate Hudson is principal lecturer in Russian and East European
politics at South Bank University, London and author of Breaking the
South Slav Dream: the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia
=== 2 ===
From "Sloboda", Belgrade, 6.6.2003
"YES, MASA", SAY THE BELGRADE PUPPETS, "WE ARE GUILTY FOR YOUR BOMBING
OF OUR COUNTRY AND KILLING OF OUR CHILDREN"
"The conditions [to join PfP - VK] include continued full cooperation
with The Hague Tribunal and the dropping of the lawsuit brought against
NATO member countries for the 1999 bombing campaign.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a NATO library at Belgrade’s
Institute for International Police and Economy, [British Ambassador]
Crawford said that the lawsuit filed by the Belgrade government against
members of the western alliance gives a “bizarre tone” to
Serbia-Montenegro’s desire to join the Partnership. "
The Serbian version of Beta news agency dispatch (bellow) contains also
a quote of certain Igor Luksic, present deputy foreign minister of what
is called Serbia-Montenegro. Our translation of that part of Serbian
Beta dispatch:
"Deputy foreign minister of Serbia-Montenegro Igor Luksic have stated
that the state community will officially request the membership to the
Partnership for Peace when the conditions for the admission will be
fulfilled, adding that Serbia-Montenegro will try to reach that "as
soon as possible". According to his words, it is paradoxical to sue the
organization, the member of which you want to become."
B92, June 05, 2003.
NATO Partnership in weeks, provided conditions are met | 15:14 | Beta
BELGRADE -- Thursday -- "Charles Crawford, British Ambassador to
Belgrade, and NATO official George Katsirdakis have today laid down the
conditions for the state union’s accession to NATO’s Partnership for
Peace programme.
The conditions include continued full cooperation with The Hague
Tribunal and the dropping of the lawsuit brought against NATO member
countries for the 1999 bombing campaign.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a NATO library at Belgrade’s
Institute for International Police and Economy, Crawford said that the
lawsuit filed by the Belgrade government against members of the western
alliance gives a “bizarre tone” to Serbia-Montenegro’s desire to join
the Partnership.
The ambassador noted the about-turn of Serbia-Montenegro officials, who
claimed last year that the army had never protected any war crimes
suspects, although they now claim differently.
Confirming that Britain has agreed to mediate between Serbia-Montenegro
and Euro-Atlantic institutions, Crawford insisted that it was
imperative they know the truth about occurrences in the union.
However, Crawford praised the reform efforts in Serbia-Montenegro,
insisting that they are achieving positive results and that successful
integration into the Partnership for Peace programme would be a clear
message of the state union’s determination to secure peace and
stability in the region.
He added that such a move would also attract foreign investors.
NATO’s Katsirdakis acknowledged Serbia-Montenegro’s success in meeting
a number of requirements for Partnership membership, but insisted that
the case of indicted Hague suspect General Ratko Mladic remained a
major sticking point.
Speaking on behalf of the alliance, Katsirdakis said he was aware that
Serbia-Montenegro has made considerable efforts to meet conditions for
admission to the Partnership, but that the case of Mladic, former
commander of the republic of Srpska Army, was unique and of particular
significance because of his alleged involvement in the 1995 Srebranica
massacre.
However, the NATO official insisted that full membership of the
Partnership could be realised within weeks, provided all conditions are
met.
In the meantime, Serbia-Montenegro is to be granted official observer
status for upcoming activities, although Katsirdakis insisted this
would not affect practical work."
SO, MOST OF THE NATO/HAGUE TERROR IN SERBIA IS ABOUT THE RESPONSIBILITY
OF REAL WAR CRIMINALS AND ABOUT THEIR FEAR.
SLOBODA CALLS FOR ALL KINDS OF OPPOSITION, PROTEST AND INTERNATIONAL
SOLIDARITY TO PREVENT FINAL ATTACK ON OUR FREEDOM AND DIGNITY, AS WELL
AS ON HISTORICAL TRUTH AND INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE.
LETS FREE PRESIDENT SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC, CHAMPION OF THIS STRUGGLE!
LETS FIGHT THE NATO/HAGUE MACHINERY OF DESTRUCTION AND KILLING PEOPLE!
---
MINISTER SAYS SERBIA-MONTENEGRO WILL NOT DROP CHARGES AGAINST NATO
BELGRADE, June 27 (Beta) - Serbia Montenegro Minister of Defense Boris
Tadic said on June 27 that Serbia Montenegro would not drop charges
against NATO before the International Court of Justice in The Hague,
unless Bosnia and Croatia dropped their charges against Serbia
Montenegro.
"We equally perceive all charges before the International Court of
Justice in The Hague," Tadic told journalists, adding that if the
country must drop its charges against NATO, than Bosnia and Herzegovina
and Croatia must drop their charges as well.
He expressed the conviction that the country's suit against NATO for
bombing it in 1999 would not represent an obstacle to membership in
NATO's Partnership for Peace program and Euro Atlantic integration
processes.
It would be good if charges were withrawn, Batic
BANJA LUKA, June 30 (Tanjug) - Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic
has said that it would be good, both for the future and friendly
telations, if Bosnia-Herzegovina withrew the charges it had filed with
The Hague tribunal against Serbia and Montenegro for agression and
genocide.
In an interview for the Banja Luka daily Nezavisne Novine, Batic said
that "if that does not happen, then we have to defend ourselves from
the charges and prove an another truth."
"As regards the charges, the Serbian Justice Ministry has prepared
such evidence that will surprise both the domestic and foreign
public," the Serbian misister warned.
TADIC SAYS ALL LAWSUITS SHOULD BE WITHDRAWN SIMULTANEOUSLY
PODGORICA, July 2 (Tanjug) - Serbia-Montenegro Defense Minister Boris
Tadic said in Podgorica late on Tuesday that any withdrawal of a
lawsuit against 19 NATO countries for aggression against our country
was in connection with the lawsuits of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia
against Serbia-Montenegro before the International Court of Justice.
"Our stand is that if some lawsuits are withdrawn, all should be
withdrawn simultaneously. This is a principle that might be
criticized, but at this point we don't have a better instrument for
securing our interests before the International Court of Justice,"
Tadic told the Montenegrin state television. He said he expected that
the international community would put pressure on Croatia and
Bosnia-Herzegovina to give up their lawsuits against
Serbia-Montenegro, like it was putting pressure on Serbia-Montenegro
to give up its lawsuit against NATO member-countries.
Drop NATO charges, says Filipovic | 13:13 -> 18:19 | Dnevnik
BELGRADE -- Friday – Serbia-Montenegro should drop its lawsuit against
the 19 NATO countries that took part in the bombing of Yugoslavia in
1999, the state union’s NATO liaison said today.
“I saw no opportunity for the state to benefit from this
lawsuit. If it’s making problems for us then it’s better that
we give up on it,” said Miroslav Filipovic.
Filipovic claimed that if Serbia-Montenegro dropped the charges against
NATO, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina would drop theirs against Belgrade.
Serbia-Montenegro MP Filipovic participated in a two-day
roundtable this week regarding the reform of the security
sector. Also in attendance were Serbia-Montengro Defence
Minister Boris Tadic and Chief-of-Staff of the state union army
General Branko Krga.
The event, organised by The Club of Madrid, was also attended by Chris
Donnelly, Senior Advisor to the NATO Secretary-General for Central and
Eastern Europe, Narcis Serra, former Spanish vice president and defence
minister, and Jim O'Brien, former US Envoy to the Balkans.
Two conditions for membership
Donnelly said during the discussion that Serbia-Montenegro were guilty
of not letting their voice be heard, urging them to
fight for their rights once members of the western alliance's
Partnership for Peace Programme.
However, Donnelly stressed that two conditions had still to be
met before membership would be granted: the arrest and
extradition of former Republika Srpska commander General Ratko Mladic;
the dropping of the lawsuit the state union have filed against NATO,
seeking compensation for the damage caused by the 1999 bombing campaign.
http://www.b92.net/english/news/index.php?&nav_category=&nav_id
=23559&order=priority&style=headlines
=== 3 ===
Da: Rick Rozoff
Data: Mer 11 Giu 2003 12:07:36 Europe/Rome
Oggetto: [yugoslaviainfo] Russian Court May Try Clinton For War Crimes
Against Yugoslavia
http://www.interfax.ru/
one_news_en.html?lang=EN&tz=0&tz_format=MSK&id_news=5642675
Interfax (Russia) - June 11, 2003
Saratov region intends to try Clinton
-According to the claimants, the former U.S. president
violated five articles of the Russian Criminal Code,
such as "the planning, preparation, launching, or
conducting of an aggressive war" (Article 353), "the
use of banned means and methods of conducting a war"
(Article 356), "genocide" (Article 357), "ecocide"
(Article 358), and "an attack against individuals or
establishments enjoying international protection"
(Article 360). Those found guilty of the crimes
described by these articles could face from 20 years
to life in prison.
SARATOV. June 11 (Interfax) - The Saratov Regional
Court has satisfied an appeal by five Saratov
residents against a ruling handed down earlier by the
Volga District Court, which refused to try former U.S.
President Bill Clinton in Russia for the bombardment
of Yugoslavia in 1999.
Interfax obtained this information from a source in
the regional court.
In late March this year, five Saratov residents,
including a local journalist, the deputy director of
an Orthodox high school, and three members of the
Russian Writers Union, appealed to the Saratov
regional prosecutor's office, demanding that Clinton
be prosecuted for bombing Yugoslavia.
According to the claimants, the former U.S. president
violated five articles of the Russian Criminal Code,
such as "the planning, preparation, launching, or
conducting of an aggressive war" (Article 353), "the
use of banned means and methods of conducting a war"
(Article 356), "genocide" (Article 357), "ecocide"
(Article 358), and "an attack against individuals or
establishments enjoying international protection"
(Article 360). Those found guilty of the crimes
described by these articles could face from 20 years
to life in prison.
The Volga District Court ruled that Clinton cannot be
tried in the Russian Federation. However, the
claimants field an appeal, citing Article 12 of the
Russian Criminal Code, under which a criminal case can
be opened against a foreigner if he or she caused
damage to Russia. In the claimants' view, the U.S. Air
Force, which bombed Yugoslavia, caused significant
damage to Russia, in particular, by destroying Russian
pipelines.
The Saratov Regional Court's board satisfied the
appeal and returned the case to the Volga District
Court for new consideration.
===
1999 - NATO Aggression against FR Yugoslavia
*** WE WILL NEVER STOP ASKING FOR JUSTICE ***
