Informazione
Subject: Yugoslavia in Crisis section of www.iacenter.org
Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 14:43:09 -0400
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Dear Friends
In light of the grave events in Belgrade Oct. 5, 2000 and
the threat of a complete U.S.-NATO takeover of Yugoslavia,
the International Action Center has decided to set up a new
section on its web site called "Yugoslavia in
Crisis--reports and analyses." Here we will reproduce some
of the reports and analyses from sources independent of the
corporate media, both organizationally and ideologically.
Where possible this will include reports from Yugoslavia
written by honest journalists who have proven themselves
opposed to the NATO bombing campaign and war of 1999.
Yugoslavia in Crisis--reports and analyses
The articles include reports from Michel Collon, author of
two books on the Balkan crisis and a resolute anti-war and
anti-NATO activist; Ruediger Goebel, an editor and
correspondent from the German progressive daily newspaper,
Junge Welt, who was in Yugoslavia during the NATO bombing
campaign writing daily articles, and Tanja Djurovic, a Junge
Welt correspondent from Belgrade. We will also publish IAC
analyses and those from other non-corporate sources.
Where we receive articles not in English, we will include
the original language as well as our English translation.
You can find this material at www.iacenter.org on the home
page under the above title. For your information, we include
some sample reports from the correspondents.
Yours in struggle,
Sara Flounders and John Catalinotto
October 9, 2000
BELGRADE JOURNAL - Friday October 6, 3 p.m.
Michel Collon
The 8 questions of the day
I shall try to answer the 8 questions that sum up the events
:
1. Did the TV show all ?
2. Did we experience a well-prepared coup-d'Etat ?
3. What is the U.S. trying to accomplish in the current
situation ?
4. Did people vote for Kostunica or against Milosevic ?
5. Why did those in power not forsee their electoral setback
?
6. Were the elections truly free and fair ?
7. Are those people who support Kostunica also for the
United States ?
8. What is going to happen ?
1. Did the TV show all ? Nothing to add to the images
presented by BBC and CNN. In effect there was an enormous
crowd, the police put up a very weak resistance and above
all looked for ways to avoid serious confrontations. But
what I didn't see exposed on the Western networks was the
plundering of the headquarters of the Socialist Party (while
Kostunica had announced that there should be no
revenge-taking toward the parties), and the buildings of
various public enterprises. Neither was shown the broken
windows of a certain number of stores in the center, which
were subsequently looted. I personally saw demonstrators
leave center city by the bridge over the Sava, while
carrying on their shoulders stolen computers. In the center
also, those not demonstrating found it deplorable that
people were destroying public property : " We'll have to pay
for it. " But the most important thing is that the
opposition succeeded in bringing out an enormous
mobilization and that those in power were unable to oppose
it with a counter-mobilization.
2. Carefully prepared coup d'Etat ? The demonstrators were
led by some hundreds of very active young people, most of
whom had come from Cacak, Kragujevac and other opposition
strongholds (Belgrade is luke-warm). You could say that they
proceeded methodically to take control of a series of key
places. First of all, the Parliament. Obviously a symbol.
Still one could notice that Mr. Kostunica, always presented
as a convinced legalist and constitutionalist, had taken
over the Parliament at the moment when that Parliament had
just been elected and that the opposition was not
challenging the results of the parliamentary elections. What
does the USA want ? We shall soon see. Next, the television
station RTS. Just like in Romania in 1989 and in each coup
d'Etat, to take over the big media centers and deprive the
enemy of the right of response seems to have become
Objective Number 1. The other media centers and certain
buildings of public enterprises followed.
This systematic and well-planned character of the action
reminded one that the real chief of the opposition, Zoran
Djindjic, had declared several months ago to Greek TV that
if they failed to win the elections, they would take over
parliament. This was nothing new. In 1993 in Moscow, Yeltsin
- backed by the U.S. - had burned down Parliament [the
Russian Duma] and killed a number of deputies that had been
resisting him. Another opposition leader, Mrs. Pesic, had
raised the need to " create a Bucharest syndrome. " These
things were prepared long in advance.
3. Why is the U.S. still pushing for a test of strength ?
Why this attempt at a total confrontation ? Why do they
refuse all negociated compromise that would permit them to
avoid the risk of a bloodbath ? Because they know that the
opposition that they are about to lead to power suffers two
serious weaknesses that could be fatal to it, and without
needed to wait long years for these weaknesses to show. What
are these weaknesses ?
First, the DOS coalition is completely heterogenous.
Nineteen (18 ?) parties that have nothing in common but the
will to take power and a taste for dollars from Washington.
In this coalition you can find people who have fought each
other more or less to the death for years (Djindjic had
pushed out Kostunica and many others), monarchists and
republicans, Serbian nationalists and separatists (from
Sandjak and Vojvodinje) whose programs are diametrically
opposed. Once in office, it is clear they will once again
begin making the gravest splits and conflicts of interests.
It will be absolutely impossible to carry out the programs
of all the parties. The magic of " Unity behind Kostunica "
won't last long.
In addition, and this is the second factor, the DOS will
strongly disillusion its electors. Those voters, financially
and morally exhausted by 10 years of sanctions, desire to "
live normally, " (that's the idea that was most frequently
expressed to me by the demonstrators that I questioned on
October 5), that is to have a standard of living as close as
possible to that of the West. But, as we have already
explained in an earlier article, the opposition's G-17
program forsees the liquidation of social protections and
the public enterprises, massive layoffs and carte blanche
for the multinational corporations to buy the enterprises
they are interested in and to more effectively exploit the
workers. A few people will live better, many will live
worse.
With the result that, sooner or later, Kostunica will
disillusion his supporters and they will give up hope. Will
there be an alternative then ? Could the left parties and
those who defend the independence of the country return to
power (on the condition that they carry out certain
self-examinations, as we will see) as could be the case in
the next elections in three neighboring countries :
Macedonia, the Serb Republic in Bosnia and Romania ? It is
just to avoid this possibility of a legitimate return to
power in the next elections that the U.S. is trying so hard
to break the current governmental apparatus and that of the
left parties in Yugoslavia.
In the last elections in Macedonia, the left candidate was
leading, but violent incidents grew to the point that the
leader of the left finally pulled back for fear of very
violent confrontations. We should point out that U.S. and
other troops occupy this country and there is no doubt their
intervention is aimed at stopping the left. We add that for
the West that claims it is so careful of legality, the
elections in Macedonia were " perfect. "
4. Did people vote for Kostunica or against Milosevic ? The
latter answer is correct according to many people I spoke
with. Despite his 10 years in power, Milosevic had acquired
a great prestige during the war for firmly resisting NATO,
which is what corresponded to the will of all his people.
But the party in power wasted its opportunities by commiting
two major errors.
First, it permitted, even favored the growth of social
inequalities. Yes, sanctions (embargo) are a crime the West
imposed that made the population suffer cruelly. But that
public had also seen certain outrageously large fortunes
grow up under its eyes. It is incorrect to claim, as the
Western media does, that " all the nomenklatura lives in
luxury. " I managed to visit the appartments of certain
mid-level ministry officials - they were just as modest as
those of the neighbors, in the socially constructed
buildings that had nothing of luxury about them.
Nevertheless, there were also scandalous life-styles of
those in business and in trafficking. To hold onto its
support, the regime would have to fight against the interest
of those with large fortunes and devote more effort to
social services to aid the poorest people.
In addition, the communication strategy of the leadership as
well as the public media had not proven fruitful. A number
of jokes circulated about RTS television and messages from
the top leadership had lost their credibility when it was
constantly repeated that all was going well.
5. Why didn't Milosevic see it coming ? How could it be that
Milosevic had decided to call these early elections himself
? And that, up to the last minute, the parties in power
showed themselves sure of winning, so much so that they were
taken completely aback when they had to " manage " their
defeat ?
A certain bureaucratism is involved in the answer. You can
find among the officials and functionaries many very devoted
people, full of enthusiasm to defend their country. You also
find a certain number of bureaucrats who never tire of
looking for solutions to problems. And one has the very
clear impression that the reports that they send to the "
top " are of the sort : " All is very well, your grace. "
Those in power had not taken into consideration that they
had lost a great part of the popularity they had during the
war. They believed that the elections were in their pocket.
And their campaign strategy was not good : Milosevic absent,
the self-satisfied discourses on reconstrution that is real,
but also negating the social problem and a systematic
message of the sort that " all will be very well " that had
lost its credibility.
6. Were the elections truly free and fair ? Of course,
this attempt at an analysis of the weaknesses of the parties
in office removes nothing from what we have already shown.
Yes, the elections were not at all free and fair. When you
bombard a people, destroy their factories, their electricity
and heating plants, their roads and their bridges, when you
throw horrible weapons like fragmentation bombs and depleted
uranium at them, when you submit the population to a
disgusting extortion - " Vote for the pro-West parties or
you will continue to starve " -- when you spread hundreds of
millions of dollars to aid certain political parties to
deceive the people with the help of advisers specialized in
scientific methods of organizing campaigns based on lies,
they one has to conclude that if these elections are as free
and fair, then Jamie Shea [spokesperson for NATO during the
bombing campaign] is a sincere and objective person.
7. Are those people who support Kostunica also for the
United States ? A argued with Kostunica's supports. It was
instructive. Since the opposition parties are financed -
grossly - by Washington, one could believe that Kostunica's
supporters were also partial to the United States.
False. A proverb that the Serbs apply to themselves with a
sort of self-mocking, points this out : " If you have two
Serbs, you will have three opinions. " Many demonstrators
spontaneously told me " We are not NATO. " A hairdresser of
French origin, having recognized me in the street (following
my television appearances), came spontaneously to let me
know that he greatly appreciated my criticisms against NATO,
but that I had been wrong to put the opposition parties in
the same bag. " We here detest the Americans, we know very
well what they are and what their interests are. "
" But we want no more of Milosevic. We want to live normally
without sanctions and like you others in the West. " Like
the unemployed and those on welfare in the West or like the
rich of the West ? Doesn't he realize that the Western
multinational corporations will not bring prosperity here
but a harsher exploitation ? No, this type of talk, for the
moment, they don't want to hear : " You could be right, but
we have to try it, we want change, change ! And if these new
leaders don't keep their promises, we will change again ! "
That though is a grand illusion, to believe that NATO will
permit a " step back. " But that is the current mood.
Another element to take notice of is that the DOS election
campaign strategy succeeded in promoting a strange but
effective idea : Milosevic was in fact a tool of the United
States - he served them and helped maintain their influence.
That idea doesn't hold up - why would the U.S. do everything
it could to eliminate the one that served them so well - but
certain people bought it anyway. Indeed, it was a classic
method of advertising : those who steal, cry " Stop, thief.
" Those who are paid by the [north] Americans, seem to by
crying " Down with the United States ! "
8. Que va-t-il se passer? Cette apres-midi, une vie plus ou
moins normale a repris dans les rues, encore que les
commerces restent fermes. Mais l'opposition veut maintenir
ses troupes dans le centre, pour eviter toute intervention
policiere de reprise en mains. Elle annonce une mobilisation
plus importante encore.
D'une part, l'opposition DOS cherche a conclure une alliance
au parlement en faisant eclater le parti montenegrin de
Bulatovic et en y trouvant les voix qui leur manquent pour
acquerir la majorite. On peut etre certain que les dollars
de Washington servent d'appat. De l'autre cote, le
gouvernement cherche la parade sans l'avoir trouve. Il
affirme ne pas vouloir lancer l'armée pour eviter un bain de
sang, il demande que la légalité soit respectee. Il
s'efforce de retrouver un média qui lui permette de faire
passer son message. Mais sa stratégie de communication
s'avere toujours aussi lente et chaotique. On attend en vain
une prise de position officielle. Ilosevic pourrait
prononcer un discours... On attend. A bientot!
8. What will happen ? This afternoon [Oct. 6], a
more-or-less normal life returned to the streets, although
the shops remained closed. But the opposition wants to keep
its troops in the center to avoid all possible police
intervention to retake it. It announced an even larger
mobilization. On the one hand, the DOS opposition is
looking to conclude a parliamentary alliance by splitting up
Bulatovic's Montenegrin party and finding there teh votes
that they lack to obtain a majority. One can be certain that
Washington's dollars will serve as bait. On the other hand,
the government is looking for a path of action without
finding it. It affirms it doesn't want to call out the army
because it wants to avoid a bloodbath, and demands that
legality be respected. It tries to find a media that will
allow it to spread its message. But its strategy of
communication is still slow and chaotic. One waits in vain
for an official position. Milosevic could be making a speech
… one waits. Soon.
NATO is getting ready to pick up the harvest. By Tanja
Djurovic, Belgrade
"I've just received information from official sources that
Vojislav Kostunica won the elections. I congratulate Mr.
Kostunica on his election victory...", said recent Yugoslav
president Slobodan Milosevic in his address to the nation
broadcast on Yu-Info TV channel on Friday (Oct. 6),
admitting defeat in the presidential elections by his
opponent Vojislav Kostunica, candidate of Democratic
opposition of Serbia (DOS).
"I personally intend to take a short break, to spend more
time with my family, and then, afterwards, to primarily
strengthen my party...Socialist party of Serbia will be a
very strong opposition" finished Milosevic his address
making it clear that he has no intention of fleeing the
country, or leaving political life.
This seems to be the epilogue of election crisis in
Yugoslavia and two-week long fight between Milosevic and
Kostunica for presidency of FRY, which culminated on
Thursday in Belgrade with mass and violent protests
orchestrated by DOS.
Vojislav Kostunica made his oath on Saturday night in
Belgrade "Sava Center", by which he officially became new
president of Yugoslavia. On the joint constitutive sessions
of both chambers of Federal Parliament, Kostunica bounded
himself to "respect and implement the Constitution of FRY
and federal laws, to preserve the sovereignty, independence
and integrity of FRY..."
Earlier in the night, both chambers of the Yugoslav
Parliament were constituted for the new session. The Chamber
of Citizens verified 119 out of 138 deputy mandates, and
Chamber of Republics 39 out of 40 mandates.
In both chambers of the Federal Parliament the
representatives of Milosevic's left coalition have the
majority. This was clear from the start, and even DOS
representatives agreed to it.
Still, Milosevic's obvious presence in Yugoslav capital and
appearance on TV, putting the end to rumors and wild guesses
as to his whereabouts and intentions, came as a shock to DOS
leaders and their supporters, who had been convinced that
ex-Yugoslav president had long since left Belgrade, if not
indeed the country. That, coupled with the fact that a
leftist government might be formed soon, is casting a shadow
on DOS's present advantage.
Zoran Djindjic, DOS campaign manager, gave a statement to
the press immediately after Milosevic's address on Friday,
saying that Slobodan Milosevic is just preparing a blow from
the back and intends to consolidate the police forces, so he
could come back on scene as a tough hand. Obviously afraid
that someone or something can still endanger their
"democratic revolution", Djindjic finished rather
paranoically: "I do not trust Milosevic!"
Still, if Milosevic is not to be trusted, why not accept the
assurances and congratulations offered to Kostunica by
thehighest representatives of the army and police? It seems
that DOS's fear of one man and his presence is so great,
that not even the fact that those institutions didn't react
during Thursday's vandalistic demonstrations can reassure
the Serbian opposition.
Perhaps the DOS is simply being aware of its own fragility:
from the very beginning, it has been highly dependent on
foreign support and money. This ad hoc alliance of some 18
parties has only one common ground and program - to oust
Milosevic.
Not to forget that the DOS candidate, newly-proclaimed FRY
president Kostunica, is a leader of a small party with low
support from the people, and a man of low significance. The
person running the show for this particular puppet on a
string is Zoran Djindjic, who in his own turn is a puppet of
the administration in Washington.
Not to forget that over 2 million Yugoslav citizens voted
against Kostunica precisely for the above mentioned reasons,
knowing who the powers behind DOS are and not wanting to be
a part of "Pax Americana".
"Slobodan Milosevic had very little or no chance at all"
said Petar Raskov (70), a Federal court judge on pension,
underlining that pressure exercised on Serbia, of power,
money and media combined, was too heavy for Serbian people
not to yield. "Milosevic was the only man to preserve the
FRY resistance to NATO's "Drang nach Osten" (Push to the
East) strategy. I couldn't vote for NATO, not even if it
puts on a disguise of Serbian nationalist with anti-American
policy".
As for those who did - a gun at man's temple can be a good
incentive, and endlessly repeated "international community"
treats to Serbian people that as long as Milosevic is
Yugoslav president, sanctions against their country won't be
lifted, obviously influenced the ultimate decision,
especially with the young people.
"I didn't vote for Kostunica, he is nobody!" says Milan
Ristic (24), a student from Belgrade. "But his victory might
bring better days for Yugoslavia. I voted against Milosevic,
because the whole world was against him!"
Therefore, after plowing Yugoslav land with bombs and
missiles in Spring of 1999, after fertilizing it for over a
year with media-launched lies and money, Military Alliance
of the West is getting ready to pick up the harvest.
END
---
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What is Albright Really Promising for the
'New' Yugoslavia?
by Jared Israel (10-8-2000)
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
As Clinton administration officials wax euphoric over their
'democratic' coup d'état in Yugoslavia, we say, "Why not?
What is democracy without a few hundred million dollars in
US bribes plus a mob that sacks the parliament building and
loots paintings, chairs and computers?"
Is this what they meant by 'free elections'?
Accompanying the expressions of euphoria are promises of
Good Things to Come:
"[Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright]...promised assistance from Washington
and its European allies for reconstruction so that
Yugoslavs 'can have the normal life that the rest of
the Balkans are beginning to have.'" ('LA Times',
10-6-2000)
Assistance and a normal life. We will be publishing an
in-depth look at the meaning of this assistance. The plan for
Yugoslavia is a Marshall plan in reverse. Whereas the first
Marshall Plan was a Keynsian affair, pumping money into
local economies, providing cheap credit and so on, this plan
will do the reverse. In essence, Yugoslavia will pay war
reparations to the West. More on that in later articles.
Albright promises to bring Yugoslavia "the normal life that
the rest of the Balkans are beginning to have."
That suggests the ''rest of the Balkans'' was doing badly
before the West took over and now they doing better.
Untrue. The countries the US has 'assisted', particularly
Bulgaria and Albania in the Balkans, along with Ukraine and
the Russian Federation next door, had a decent standard of
living before the West imposed 'structural adjustment' plans.
These plans have caused economic and social devastation.
And conditions are getting worse.
Albania has in essence no functioning economy. If it weren't
for the 1/3 of the labor force that works outside the country,
mainly in Italy and Greece, and the money these people remit
back to their families, there would be no economy at all.
(Albanian economic figures are manipulated to give the false
impression of economic improvement. In reality there is
almost no economic activity.) Bulgarian industry and social
life have been destroyed. Bulgaria and Russia have falling
populations.
Radio Free Europe had a story recently that
ONLY 30 PERCENT OF RUSSIAN BIRTHS
ARE 'NORMAL.
'The Russian Academy of Medical Sciences told
AP on 5 October that the number of normal births
in the Russian Federation declined from 45.3
percent in 1992 [after International Monetary
Fund 'reforms' were first instituted, which
destroyed the Russian social safety net] to just 30
percent in 1999. (RFRFE/RL Newsline, 10/6/00)
The story goes on to blame this terrible statistic mainly on
personal problems - excessive drinking and the like. It is true
enough that many people in economically devastated
countries develop extreme personal problems. But it is
important to understand the cause: the International
Monetary Fund ordered the Russia government to institute
extreme social spending cuts, and these cuts shattered the
medical system. At the same time, wages were pushed down
to as little as $2 a month. People who don't eat properly and
regularly don't have healthy pregnancies, do they?
****
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www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
---
The url for this article is
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/everybody's.htm
Did any major power NOT fund the Kostunica campaign?
"For Germans it was 'an obligation based on history.' to back the push
for
democracy [said Fischer.]...
''Der Spiegel also reported that Fischer, U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine
Albright and some G-8 foreign ministers brought the Yugoslav opposition
together in Berlin on December 17.
'''We read the riot act to the opposition then and told them to get
their
act together,'' it quoted one participant as saying.'' [From article
below]
[Note: If you are familiar with Germany's history in the Balkans
Fischer's
remark is chilling. Our thanks to Professor of Linguistics Peter Maher
for
sending in this story.]
BERLIN, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Germany said on Saturday it had supported the
Yugoslav opposition with millions of marks in financial aid.
Norway also said it had helped fund the Yugoslav opposition's election
campaign, which led to victory by opposition candidate Vojislav
Kostunica
and soon afterwards to the overthrow of strongman President Slobodan
Milosevic.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said in a magazine interview
that
Germany had been duty bound to provide financial support to Slobodan
Milosevic's opponents.
``It could have all ended up being far bloodier,'' Fischer told Der
Spiegel. For Germans it was ``an obligation based on history'' to back
the
push for democracy, he added.
Der Spiegel said around $30 million, mostly from the United States, was
channelled through an office in Budapest.
Another 45 million marks ($20 million) from Germany and other Western
states went to cities that were under opposition control. Der Spiegel
said
the Foreign Ministry sent around 17 million marks through 16 German
towns,
which also contributed.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry confirmed the figures. ``It was
not
disguised but rather it was entirely normal financial aid from the
budget,'' she said.
She said four million marks in media support went to Yugoslavia. She
declined to identify which media outlets channelled the money, but Der
Spiegel said state broadcasters ZDF and Bayerischer Rundfunk were used.
No
one from either broadcaster was available for comment.
Der Spiegel also reported that Fischer, U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine
Albright and some G-8 foreign ministers brought the Yugoslav opposition
together in Berlin on December 17.
``We read the riot act to the opposition then and told them to get their
act together,'' it quoted one participant as saying.
Most of the opposition, long divided by infighting and personality
clashes,
united behind Kostunica in last month's presidential election that
ultimately ended Milosevic's rule.
Germany urged the European Union on Friday to offer immediate assistance
to
the new government in Belgrade. Economics Minister Werner Mueller
promised
in an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper to be published on Sunday
that Yugoslavia would receive ``immediate aid'' from the EU.
NORWAY ALSO SAYS HELPED OPPOSITION
In Oslo, Foreign Ministry spokesman Victor Roenneberg told Reuters the
government had given ``several million crowns'' in financial aid to
Yugoslavia and provided supplies ranging from computer and
communications
equipment for the opposition's vote count to oil to
opposition-controlled
villages.
Norway also funded opposition-run newspapers, radio stations and
Internet
media, he said.
``It is highly unusual to fund one party against another, but because we
had assisted the opposition throughout the election, we were quite
convinced that the opposition had a clear majority from the beginning,''
Roenneberg said.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorbjoern Jagland arrived in Belgrade early
on
Saturday and met with Kostunica, who was to be sworn in at a ceremony
later
in the day.
``Norwegian diplomacy manages to do things even though it works
quietly,''
Jagland told national news agency NTB.
Norway has also said it will concentrate more of its foreign aid on
Yugoslavia.
(c) Reuters 2000. Reposted for fair use only.
www.tenc.net [Emperor's Clothes]
********************************************************
DON'T BE FOOLED BY POSTURING O YUGO COUP "GOVERNMENT"
Dear people,
In a message posted earlier there is a quote from the British
'Independent'
which reads:
<< The new government of Yugoslavia was furious yesterday after
Washington
suggested that sanctions would not be lifted unless Slobodan Milosevic
was
handed over to the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. Vladeta Jankovic,
the
number two to the president-elect, Vojislav Kostunica, issued a stark
warning that relations between the new government and the West will not
run as smoothly as had been hoped >>
Bertolt Brecht says: "When the leaders speak of peace the common people
know war is coming." In other words, beware of posturing.
I think it's very important that the peace movement not be fooled by
some
recent posturing on the part of the self-proclaimed "new government" in
Yugoslavia. This is a US-installed regime, not a "new Government" - it
only exists as a government, if indeed it does exist as a government, by
virtue of a fortune in US bribe money, which financed its organizing
efforts, its violence, aimed at denying the recent election and the
endorsement of Western Imperial governments.
The parliamentary election that accompanied the election for the
ceremonial
post of President on Sept. 24, gave a full majority in both houses to
the
coalition the West calls "Milosevich". Milosevich personally leads far
and
away the biggest mass party in the Balkans. This despite the dangling of
massive US government monetary bribes for any leader willing to join the
DOS coalition which supports Kostunica.
Kostunica was 'approved' as President by the Yugoslav Constitutional
Court
in a situation where a mob straight out of Roman history (but even
better
than Rome cause they had cellular phones) had already gutted parliament,
looted everything possible, and had beaten resisting officials. That is,
the Court gave its approval in a very dangerous situation.
Precisely because the Kostunica/Djidjic Coup was NOT approved by a
majority
- between the people who voted against Kostunica and the people who
didn't
vote, the vast majority have never expressed support for him and many of
those who did vote for him certainly did not vote for a coup - precisely
because most people do NOT approve what he has done, he cannot appear to
be
subservient to the US. His position is most fragile. His entire
apparatus
of support is US funded. This is true of the so-called independent
media,
which now has taken control, gangster fashion, of the mass media such as
Politika that was not previously in the peace of the US government.
This
is true of the political parties that comprise the DOS coalition which
is
Kostunica's tenuous (because infested with mutual hostility) base of
support.
Because Kostunica relies on US paid groups and media in a country that
loathes the US government, his position is fragile. The US has
recognized
this and countless articles hint, or even state outright, that US
officials
are trying not to look to supportive. Obviously a little public
squabbling
with the US is useful. But this is for appearance. As someone once
said,
if you want to figure out where political loyalties lie, "Look at the
money, stupid." And the bribe money comes from Uncle Sugar.
Perhaps the socialist party or other anti-DOS groups needed to make the
best of a bad situation. Perhaps they intelligently avoided a fight
when
the mob ransacked Belgrade because they realized the US was looking for
a
blood bath as an excuse to intervene. Perhaps they handled a very
difficult situation brilliantly. Does that mean we have should be
silence
in the face of a US-paid for coup? If we do not expose the fact that a
NATO proxy force has seized power, or at least partly seized power, if
we
attempt to gloss over the hard reality, that US government overt and
covert
agencies organized and financed a coup in Yugoslavia - if we do not
tell
the truth about these things we would become the pets of the Empire: Yap
yap, cute doggy; don't worry, he doesn't bite. We would fail in our most
important task: to help the people in our countries understand the
Imperial
hand behind these events.
Peace activist Marjaleena Repo and Canadian Professor Kitsikis (the
latter
specializes in electoral practices in the Balkans) interviewed Vladeta
Jankovic, the man quoted by the "independent' above. This was at the
time
of the Sept 24 Yugoslav elections. Jankovic endorsed the taking of vast
sums of US
money. Jankovic justified it by saying "we really need it badly" - an
argument that can be used to justify any crime. Indeed. Prof. Kitsikis
responded that this was high treason. Jankovic had no answer.
Isn't it a bit late for Mr. Jankovic to posture about his virginity?
Jared Israel
For more on these questions please see www.tenc.net [Emperor's Clothes]
******************************************************
>From Milosevic to the Future
>From the standpoint of cameras and Western journalists, the fall of
Milosevic appears indistinguishable from other velvet and near-velvet
revolutions that have toppled dictators from Prague to Manila. A
righteous
outpouring of people into the streets, a ham-handed, venal government
capitulates and a new day is born.
But it is never as simple as breathless broadcasts might paint it. To
understand the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, it is important to understand
the manner in which he fell. The truth in Yugoslavia lies somewhere
between
the grand aesthetic of the public drama and the more mundane details of
deal making. Indeed, the latter is frequently more defining than the
former. And many disappointed expectations are rooted in details
overlooked
by revolution's glamour.
The roots of Milosevic's demise can be traced to the frustration of the
American and British governments, enmeshed in the realities of
peacekeeping
in Kosovo, with no hope of conclusion. NATO was trapped in a quagmire
without exit. In Belgrade, the opposition failed, divided, and were
discredited as agents of NATO, all against a backdrop of Serb
victimization.
Everyday Serbs were convinced of two things: They had not committed
atrocities, and they themselves were the targets of an unjust bombing
campaign. Milosevic was the great beneficiary. He might have been a
swine,
but he was Serbia's swine. Incompetent on many fronts, he at least
defended
the national interest. In this context, the opposition had as much
chance
of winning as Quisling had of carrying Norway in World War II.
The United States reacted with a new strategy. Described in "Toppling
Milosevic: The Carrot Instead of the Stick," the new strategy consisted
of
splitting Milosevic from his followers. Cracks opened but were contained
when Milosevic called for elections. But before the election it became
clear Milosevic had
nearly trapped himself, as recounted in "Checkmate in Yugoslavia,".
Milosevic's Cabinet, his cronies and the army and police held the key to
the drama. Milosevic had to be isolated from those levers of power
before
the crowds could storm parliament. Thousands could have been killed, as
they were in Romania with the fall of Ceaucescu. Milosevic might cling
to
power.
It was imperative the leadership split from Milosevic and accommodate
Kostunica. Public displays of police suddenly embracing demonstrators
probably had less to do with the passions of the moment than with
fevered
deals being made between Kostunica and former Milosevic followers. These
deals brought both the peace and the revolution.
The deals also created a revolution with a complex genesis and an
uncertain
future. Milosevic is certainly gone. The temptation among many,
including
his closest followers, is to blame everything on him. The head of the
international war crimes tribunal in the Hague has made it clear
Milosevic
should be tried for war crimes, but Kostunica has made it clear he does
not
want to see prosecution proceed.
As president, he might be able to stomach Milosevic's trial, but many of
the people he and the United States had to deal with over the past few
months are also subject to indictment and trial. They would not have
been
as cooperative had Kostunica and likely the United States not made
guarantees about their legal status. Given the example of former
President
Augusto Pinochet of Chile, it seems probable that any world-wise
operators
asked for promises.
As important as the status of charges against Milosevic followers, is
the
issue of Serbian territorial claims, particularly in Kosovo. Kostunica
was
an adamant supporter of Serbian claims in Kosovo. What did the United
States promise Kostunica? Indeed, how long can Kostunica survive without
some movement on Kosovo? And what will Albanians do about the new
darling
of the West?
Kostunica himself remains an enigma. The West would like to turn him
into
another Vaclav Havel. He is not a communist, but he is not a liberal
either. He is a nationalist who, like the rest of Serbia, has viewed the
West with suspicion. He has also created a coalition of diverse
elements,
including former Milosevic supporters who hope to retain their
influence,
if not their position.
It is reasonable to say Kostunica is a snapshot of Serbia today: tired
of
Milosevic, deeply suspicious and resentful of the West, nationalistic to
the very bone. Kostunica is formally democratic, but he understands the
complex personalism and clannishness that comprise Balkan culture. No
Havel, Kostunica is a hardline
nationalist who has come to power partly by accommodating his public
enemies.
The fall of Milosevic gives the West the opportunity to wash its hands
of
the mess. But trying to wash hands and actually washing them are
different
things. The West now finds itself in a position in which it must support
a
political figure financially and politically. The problem is that
political
figure has certain interests that will likely be anathema. If the West
does
not support him, it loses credibility. If it does, it can wind up
supporting the very perspectives that helped lead to war in the first
place.
This is what the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo will fear most. They see
Kostunica as the West's excuse to abandon the Albanians to the Serbs
once
again. And, indeed, that might be the case. Washington, weary of the
mess,
may well declare victory and go home.
(c) 2000 Stratfor, Inc.
***************************************************************
DJINDJIC: FUTURE STATE WILL BE UNION OF SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
ZAGREB, October 7 (Tanjug) - The future state will not be Yugoslavia
but a
union of Serbia and Montenegro with a common foreign policy, defense and
currency, Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) election headquarters
chief
Zoran Djindjic said for the Zagreb daily Jutarnji list on Saturday.
Everything else will be separate, he said, adding that a common
parliament, government and president were "unnecessary."
Asked if he would agree to a secession of Montenegro, Djindjic said
this
republic could be as independent as it wished, and that, if the majority
people agreed to secession, "that is not an issue at all."
The situation with Kosovo and Metohija province is different "because
that
region is seen by people as a cradle of the Serb being," Djindjic said.
"Our monasteries, our history" are there, he said.
"In Kosovo at first we want to be present in resolving problems and
realizing international decisions through a new ministry in Pristina
which
would settle problems in the field. Anything else would be an illusion.
Integration is not realistic," he said.
Djindjic said the main issue in future contacts with Croatia would be
the
problem of refugees, and that relations would become harmonious once
this
was settled. He said he believed there was no more hatred for Croatia in
Serbia.
---
Why Germany is in a hurry to help
GERMANY DISBURSES A MILLION EUROS FOR CLEARING DANUBE IN YUGOSLAVIA
BERLIN, October 8 (Tanjug) - Germany paid on Friday the first
instalment
out of one million euros (1.95 million German marks) pledged for
clearing
the River Danube through Yugoslavia, according to a foreign ministry
spokesman in Berlin on Saturday.
The payment of 500,000 euros (977,500 G-marks), spokesman Andreas
Michaelis said, was made into an international fund for clearing the
Danube, an important European traffic artery that NATO's bombs closed to
navigation last year.
This makes Germany the first donor actually to make a payment to the
Fund,
Michaelis said, adding that Germany was giving the first clear signal of
support for a democratic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, both
bilaterally
and as a member of the European Union.
He explained that the campaign for clearing the Danube of the debris of
war had long been planned, but could not be implemented because of
frequent
disagreements with the Yugoslav side.
He went on to say that the problem was expected to be cleared up soon
with
the inauguration of Yugoslavia's new President Vojislav Kostunica.
**********************************************
Albright Says Priority Is to Help Kostunica
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Sunday that its
priority
in Yugoslavia was to help President Vojislav Kostunica by lifting
economic
sanctions and giving the people of Yugoslavia a democracy dividend.
Accountability for defeated Yugoslav leader and indicted war criminal
Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) will come ``ultimately'' as
Yugoslavia becomes part of a democratic Europe, Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright said on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' program.
Kostunica took the oath of office on Saturday, one day after Milosevic
conceded defeat in presidential elections held on Sept. 24. He has said
he
opposes extraditing Milosevic to face trial on war crimes charges in The
Hague.
Albright said she was confident that Yugoslavs would eventually come
round
to the view that Milosevic should face trial.
``They will get behind this, believe me, when they figure out that they
are free and democratic and that they will be a part of a real Europe,''
she said.
But she added: ``We have to show the Serb people that they did the
right
thing by going out to vote. They need to have some dividends out of
democracy.
``I have no doubt that there will be accountability and Yugoslavia will
not be truly free until that happens. We have to give President
Kostunica
now a chance. Let's help him. The people of Serbia have voted for him.
Let's help him.''
``We want to support him, we want to get assistance to him. I've been
talking to our European partners. We will be lifting certain economic
sanctions to make sure that the people can recover and the Danube is
cleared,'' she added.
Portions of the Danube River in Yugoslavia are closed to traffic
because
of bridges wrecked by NATO (news - web sites)'s bombing campaign last
year.
The European Union is expected on Monday to lift a ban on oil sales and
flights to Yugoslavia. A freeze on the assets of former leaders will
stay.
Pressed on whether extradition of Milosevic was a condition for an end
to
sanctions, Albright noted there was no time limit on prosecutions for
war
crimes for Milosevic and other indicted Serbs, such as Bosnian Serb
political leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic.
``It doesn't run out. ... The United States has insisted and, believe
me,
their time will come,'' she said.
Albright also made a rare foray into domestic politics, backing Vice
President Al Gore (news - web sites), a fellow Democrat, against Texas
Governor George Bush on Balkan policy.
In the first presidential debate on Tuesday, the Republican Bush called
for a bigger Russian role in pushing Milosevic to leave power, a
position
Gore opposed on the grounds that the Russians had not yet recognized
Kostunica as winner.
Albright criticized the Russians for their delay in deciding that
Milosevic had lost.
``Frankly they were late. It took them a little while to assess the
reality there but ultimately, in recognizing President Kostunica they
have
done the right thing.
``We did not want the Russians to mediate, and Vice President Gore made
that quite clear. ... The way the vice president described it was right.
They did not play the role that they needed to at the right time,'' she
said.
*********************************************************
DINKIC: RATE OF EXCHANGE HALVED FOR D-MARK
BELGRADE, October 8 (Tanjug) - G 17 PLUS Executive Director Mladjan
Dinkic
said on Sunday that the new authorities have taken control over the
Foreign
Currency Department and the Payment Operations Service of the National
Bank
of Yugoslavia.
Consequently, the black-market rate of exchange for the D-mark has been
halved and the going rate is now 22 dinars, instead of 40 of two days
ago,
Dinkic said.
The new authorities prevented the withdrawal of some 50 million D-marks
from an account at the National Bank on Friday, even though the
withdrawal
slip had been based on a legitimate decision of the federal government,
Dinkic said, explaining that this action had been carried out in the
interest of the people.
Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 14:43:09 -0400
From: iacenter@...
To: "International" <iacenter@...>
International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, #206
NY, NY 10011
212-633-6646
212-633-2889 fax
iacenter@...
www.iacenter.org
Dear Friends
In light of the grave events in Belgrade Oct. 5, 2000 and
the threat of a complete U.S.-NATO takeover of Yugoslavia,
the International Action Center has decided to set up a new
section on its web site called "Yugoslavia in
Crisis--reports and analyses." Here we will reproduce some
of the reports and analyses from sources independent of the
corporate media, both organizationally and ideologically.
Where possible this will include reports from Yugoslavia
written by honest journalists who have proven themselves
opposed to the NATO bombing campaign and war of 1999.
Yugoslavia in Crisis--reports and analyses
The articles include reports from Michel Collon, author of
two books on the Balkan crisis and a resolute anti-war and
anti-NATO activist; Ruediger Goebel, an editor and
correspondent from the German progressive daily newspaper,
Junge Welt, who was in Yugoslavia during the NATO bombing
campaign writing daily articles, and Tanja Djurovic, a Junge
Welt correspondent from Belgrade. We will also publish IAC
analyses and those from other non-corporate sources.
Where we receive articles not in English, we will include
the original language as well as our English translation.
You can find this material at www.iacenter.org on the home
page under the above title. For your information, we include
some sample reports from the correspondents.
Yours in struggle,
Sara Flounders and John Catalinotto
October 9, 2000
BELGRADE JOURNAL - Friday October 6, 3 p.m.
Michel Collon
The 8 questions of the day
I shall try to answer the 8 questions that sum up the events
:
1. Did the TV show all ?
2. Did we experience a well-prepared coup-d'Etat ?
3. What is the U.S. trying to accomplish in the current
situation ?
4. Did people vote for Kostunica or against Milosevic ?
5. Why did those in power not forsee their electoral setback
?
6. Were the elections truly free and fair ?
7. Are those people who support Kostunica also for the
United States ?
8. What is going to happen ?
1. Did the TV show all ? Nothing to add to the images
presented by BBC and CNN. In effect there was an enormous
crowd, the police put up a very weak resistance and above
all looked for ways to avoid serious confrontations. But
what I didn't see exposed on the Western networks was the
plundering of the headquarters of the Socialist Party (while
Kostunica had announced that there should be no
revenge-taking toward the parties), and the buildings of
various public enterprises. Neither was shown the broken
windows of a certain number of stores in the center, which
were subsequently looted. I personally saw demonstrators
leave center city by the bridge over the Sava, while
carrying on their shoulders stolen computers. In the center
also, those not demonstrating found it deplorable that
people were destroying public property : " We'll have to pay
for it. " But the most important thing is that the
opposition succeeded in bringing out an enormous
mobilization and that those in power were unable to oppose
it with a counter-mobilization.
2. Carefully prepared coup d'Etat ? The demonstrators were
led by some hundreds of very active young people, most of
whom had come from Cacak, Kragujevac and other opposition
strongholds (Belgrade is luke-warm). You could say that they
proceeded methodically to take control of a series of key
places. First of all, the Parliament. Obviously a symbol.
Still one could notice that Mr. Kostunica, always presented
as a convinced legalist and constitutionalist, had taken
over the Parliament at the moment when that Parliament had
just been elected and that the opposition was not
challenging the results of the parliamentary elections. What
does the USA want ? We shall soon see. Next, the television
station RTS. Just like in Romania in 1989 and in each coup
d'Etat, to take over the big media centers and deprive the
enemy of the right of response seems to have become
Objective Number 1. The other media centers and certain
buildings of public enterprises followed.
This systematic and well-planned character of the action
reminded one that the real chief of the opposition, Zoran
Djindjic, had declared several months ago to Greek TV that
if they failed to win the elections, they would take over
parliament. This was nothing new. In 1993 in Moscow, Yeltsin
- backed by the U.S. - had burned down Parliament [the
Russian Duma] and killed a number of deputies that had been
resisting him. Another opposition leader, Mrs. Pesic, had
raised the need to " create a Bucharest syndrome. " These
things were prepared long in advance.
3. Why is the U.S. still pushing for a test of strength ?
Why this attempt at a total confrontation ? Why do they
refuse all negociated compromise that would permit them to
avoid the risk of a bloodbath ? Because they know that the
opposition that they are about to lead to power suffers two
serious weaknesses that could be fatal to it, and without
needed to wait long years for these weaknesses to show. What
are these weaknesses ?
First, the DOS coalition is completely heterogenous.
Nineteen (18 ?) parties that have nothing in common but the
will to take power and a taste for dollars from Washington.
In this coalition you can find people who have fought each
other more or less to the death for years (Djindjic had
pushed out Kostunica and many others), monarchists and
republicans, Serbian nationalists and separatists (from
Sandjak and Vojvodinje) whose programs are diametrically
opposed. Once in office, it is clear they will once again
begin making the gravest splits and conflicts of interests.
It will be absolutely impossible to carry out the programs
of all the parties. The magic of " Unity behind Kostunica "
won't last long.
In addition, and this is the second factor, the DOS will
strongly disillusion its electors. Those voters, financially
and morally exhausted by 10 years of sanctions, desire to "
live normally, " (that's the idea that was most frequently
expressed to me by the demonstrators that I questioned on
October 5), that is to have a standard of living as close as
possible to that of the West. But, as we have already
explained in an earlier article, the opposition's G-17
program forsees the liquidation of social protections and
the public enterprises, massive layoffs and carte blanche
for the multinational corporations to buy the enterprises
they are interested in and to more effectively exploit the
workers. A few people will live better, many will live
worse.
With the result that, sooner or later, Kostunica will
disillusion his supporters and they will give up hope. Will
there be an alternative then ? Could the left parties and
those who defend the independence of the country return to
power (on the condition that they carry out certain
self-examinations, as we will see) as could be the case in
the next elections in three neighboring countries :
Macedonia, the Serb Republic in Bosnia and Romania ? It is
just to avoid this possibility of a legitimate return to
power in the next elections that the U.S. is trying so hard
to break the current governmental apparatus and that of the
left parties in Yugoslavia.
In the last elections in Macedonia, the left candidate was
leading, but violent incidents grew to the point that the
leader of the left finally pulled back for fear of very
violent confrontations. We should point out that U.S. and
other troops occupy this country and there is no doubt their
intervention is aimed at stopping the left. We add that for
the West that claims it is so careful of legality, the
elections in Macedonia were " perfect. "
4. Did people vote for Kostunica or against Milosevic ? The
latter answer is correct according to many people I spoke
with. Despite his 10 years in power, Milosevic had acquired
a great prestige during the war for firmly resisting NATO,
which is what corresponded to the will of all his people.
But the party in power wasted its opportunities by commiting
two major errors.
First, it permitted, even favored the growth of social
inequalities. Yes, sanctions (embargo) are a crime the West
imposed that made the population suffer cruelly. But that
public had also seen certain outrageously large fortunes
grow up under its eyes. It is incorrect to claim, as the
Western media does, that " all the nomenklatura lives in
luxury. " I managed to visit the appartments of certain
mid-level ministry officials - they were just as modest as
those of the neighbors, in the socially constructed
buildings that had nothing of luxury about them.
Nevertheless, there were also scandalous life-styles of
those in business and in trafficking. To hold onto its
support, the regime would have to fight against the interest
of those with large fortunes and devote more effort to
social services to aid the poorest people.
In addition, the communication strategy of the leadership as
well as the public media had not proven fruitful. A number
of jokes circulated about RTS television and messages from
the top leadership had lost their credibility when it was
constantly repeated that all was going well.
5. Why didn't Milosevic see it coming ? How could it be that
Milosevic had decided to call these early elections himself
? And that, up to the last minute, the parties in power
showed themselves sure of winning, so much so that they were
taken completely aback when they had to " manage " their
defeat ?
A certain bureaucratism is involved in the answer. You can
find among the officials and functionaries many very devoted
people, full of enthusiasm to defend their country. You also
find a certain number of bureaucrats who never tire of
looking for solutions to problems. And one has the very
clear impression that the reports that they send to the "
top " are of the sort : " All is very well, your grace. "
Those in power had not taken into consideration that they
had lost a great part of the popularity they had during the
war. They believed that the elections were in their pocket.
And their campaign strategy was not good : Milosevic absent,
the self-satisfied discourses on reconstrution that is real,
but also negating the social problem and a systematic
message of the sort that " all will be very well " that had
lost its credibility.
6. Were the elections truly free and fair ? Of course,
this attempt at an analysis of the weaknesses of the parties
in office removes nothing from what we have already shown.
Yes, the elections were not at all free and fair. When you
bombard a people, destroy their factories, their electricity
and heating plants, their roads and their bridges, when you
throw horrible weapons like fragmentation bombs and depleted
uranium at them, when you submit the population to a
disgusting extortion - " Vote for the pro-West parties or
you will continue to starve " -- when you spread hundreds of
millions of dollars to aid certain political parties to
deceive the people with the help of advisers specialized in
scientific methods of organizing campaigns based on lies,
they one has to conclude that if these elections are as free
and fair, then Jamie Shea [spokesperson for NATO during the
bombing campaign] is a sincere and objective person.
7. Are those people who support Kostunica also for the
United States ? A argued with Kostunica's supports. It was
instructive. Since the opposition parties are financed -
grossly - by Washington, one could believe that Kostunica's
supporters were also partial to the United States.
False. A proverb that the Serbs apply to themselves with a
sort of self-mocking, points this out : " If you have two
Serbs, you will have three opinions. " Many demonstrators
spontaneously told me " We are not NATO. " A hairdresser of
French origin, having recognized me in the street (following
my television appearances), came spontaneously to let me
know that he greatly appreciated my criticisms against NATO,
but that I had been wrong to put the opposition parties in
the same bag. " We here detest the Americans, we know very
well what they are and what their interests are. "
" But we want no more of Milosevic. We want to live normally
without sanctions and like you others in the West. " Like
the unemployed and those on welfare in the West or like the
rich of the West ? Doesn't he realize that the Western
multinational corporations will not bring prosperity here
but a harsher exploitation ? No, this type of talk, for the
moment, they don't want to hear : " You could be right, but
we have to try it, we want change, change ! And if these new
leaders don't keep their promises, we will change again ! "
That though is a grand illusion, to believe that NATO will
permit a " step back. " But that is the current mood.
Another element to take notice of is that the DOS election
campaign strategy succeeded in promoting a strange but
effective idea : Milosevic was in fact a tool of the United
States - he served them and helped maintain their influence.
That idea doesn't hold up - why would the U.S. do everything
it could to eliminate the one that served them so well - but
certain people bought it anyway. Indeed, it was a classic
method of advertising : those who steal, cry " Stop, thief.
" Those who are paid by the [north] Americans, seem to by
crying " Down with the United States ! "
8. Que va-t-il se passer? Cette apres-midi, une vie plus ou
moins normale a repris dans les rues, encore que les
commerces restent fermes. Mais l'opposition veut maintenir
ses troupes dans le centre, pour eviter toute intervention
policiere de reprise en mains. Elle annonce une mobilisation
plus importante encore.
D'une part, l'opposition DOS cherche a conclure une alliance
au parlement en faisant eclater le parti montenegrin de
Bulatovic et en y trouvant les voix qui leur manquent pour
acquerir la majorite. On peut etre certain que les dollars
de Washington servent d'appat. De l'autre cote, le
gouvernement cherche la parade sans l'avoir trouve. Il
affirme ne pas vouloir lancer l'armée pour eviter un bain de
sang, il demande que la légalité soit respectee. Il
s'efforce de retrouver un média qui lui permette de faire
passer son message. Mais sa stratégie de communication
s'avere toujours aussi lente et chaotique. On attend en vain
une prise de position officielle. Ilosevic pourrait
prononcer un discours... On attend. A bientot!
8. What will happen ? This afternoon [Oct. 6], a
more-or-less normal life returned to the streets, although
the shops remained closed. But the opposition wants to keep
its troops in the center to avoid all possible police
intervention to retake it. It announced an even larger
mobilization. On the one hand, the DOS opposition is
looking to conclude a parliamentary alliance by splitting up
Bulatovic's Montenegrin party and finding there teh votes
that they lack to obtain a majority. One can be certain that
Washington's dollars will serve as bait. On the other hand,
the government is looking for a path of action without
finding it. It affirms it doesn't want to call out the army
because it wants to avoid a bloodbath, and demands that
legality be respected. It tries to find a media that will
allow it to spread its message. But its strategy of
communication is still slow and chaotic. One waits in vain
for an official position. Milosevic could be making a speech
… one waits. Soon.
NATO is getting ready to pick up the harvest. By Tanja
Djurovic, Belgrade
"I've just received information from official sources that
Vojislav Kostunica won the elections. I congratulate Mr.
Kostunica on his election victory...", said recent Yugoslav
president Slobodan Milosevic in his address to the nation
broadcast on Yu-Info TV channel on Friday (Oct. 6),
admitting defeat in the presidential elections by his
opponent Vojislav Kostunica, candidate of Democratic
opposition of Serbia (DOS).
"I personally intend to take a short break, to spend more
time with my family, and then, afterwards, to primarily
strengthen my party...Socialist party of Serbia will be a
very strong opposition" finished Milosevic his address
making it clear that he has no intention of fleeing the
country, or leaving political life.
This seems to be the epilogue of election crisis in
Yugoslavia and two-week long fight between Milosevic and
Kostunica for presidency of FRY, which culminated on
Thursday in Belgrade with mass and violent protests
orchestrated by DOS.
Vojislav Kostunica made his oath on Saturday night in
Belgrade "Sava Center", by which he officially became new
president of Yugoslavia. On the joint constitutive sessions
of both chambers of Federal Parliament, Kostunica bounded
himself to "respect and implement the Constitution of FRY
and federal laws, to preserve the sovereignty, independence
and integrity of FRY..."
Earlier in the night, both chambers of the Yugoslav
Parliament were constituted for the new session. The Chamber
of Citizens verified 119 out of 138 deputy mandates, and
Chamber of Republics 39 out of 40 mandates.
In both chambers of the Federal Parliament the
representatives of Milosevic's left coalition have the
majority. This was clear from the start, and even DOS
representatives agreed to it.
Still, Milosevic's obvious presence in Yugoslav capital and
appearance on TV, putting the end to rumors and wild guesses
as to his whereabouts and intentions, came as a shock to DOS
leaders and their supporters, who had been convinced that
ex-Yugoslav president had long since left Belgrade, if not
indeed the country. That, coupled with the fact that a
leftist government might be formed soon, is casting a shadow
on DOS's present advantage.
Zoran Djindjic, DOS campaign manager, gave a statement to
the press immediately after Milosevic's address on Friday,
saying that Slobodan Milosevic is just preparing a blow from
the back and intends to consolidate the police forces, so he
could come back on scene as a tough hand. Obviously afraid
that someone or something can still endanger their
"democratic revolution", Djindjic finished rather
paranoically: "I do not trust Milosevic!"
Still, if Milosevic is not to be trusted, why not accept the
assurances and congratulations offered to Kostunica by
thehighest representatives of the army and police? It seems
that DOS's fear of one man and his presence is so great,
that not even the fact that those institutions didn't react
during Thursday's vandalistic demonstrations can reassure
the Serbian opposition.
Perhaps the DOS is simply being aware of its own fragility:
from the very beginning, it has been highly dependent on
foreign support and money. This ad hoc alliance of some 18
parties has only one common ground and program - to oust
Milosevic.
Not to forget that the DOS candidate, newly-proclaimed FRY
president Kostunica, is a leader of a small party with low
support from the people, and a man of low significance. The
person running the show for this particular puppet on a
string is Zoran Djindjic, who in his own turn is a puppet of
the administration in Washington.
Not to forget that over 2 million Yugoslav citizens voted
against Kostunica precisely for the above mentioned reasons,
knowing who the powers behind DOS are and not wanting to be
a part of "Pax Americana".
"Slobodan Milosevic had very little or no chance at all"
said Petar Raskov (70), a Federal court judge on pension,
underlining that pressure exercised on Serbia, of power,
money and media combined, was too heavy for Serbian people
not to yield. "Milosevic was the only man to preserve the
FRY resistance to NATO's "Drang nach Osten" (Push to the
East) strategy. I couldn't vote for NATO, not even if it
puts on a disguise of Serbian nationalist with anti-American
policy".
As for those who did - a gun at man's temple can be a good
incentive, and endlessly repeated "international community"
treats to Serbian people that as long as Milosevic is
Yugoslav president, sanctions against their country won't be
lifted, obviously influenced the ultimate decision,
especially with the young people.
"I didn't vote for Kostunica, he is nobody!" says Milan
Ristic (24), a student from Belgrade. "But his victory might
bring better days for Yugoslavia. I voted against Milosevic,
because the whole world was against him!"
Therefore, after plowing Yugoslav land with bombs and
missiles in Spring of 1999, after fertilizing it for over a
year with media-launched lies and money, Military Alliance
of the West is getting ready to pick up the harvest.
END
---
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What is Albright Really Promising for the
'New' Yugoslavia?
by Jared Israel (10-8-2000)
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
As Clinton administration officials wax euphoric over their
'democratic' coup d'état in Yugoslavia, we say, "Why not?
What is democracy without a few hundred million dollars in
US bribes plus a mob that sacks the parliament building and
loots paintings, chairs and computers?"
Is this what they meant by 'free elections'?
Accompanying the expressions of euphoria are promises of
Good Things to Come:
"[Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright]...promised assistance from Washington
and its European allies for reconstruction so that
Yugoslavs 'can have the normal life that the rest of
the Balkans are beginning to have.'" ('LA Times',
10-6-2000)
Assistance and a normal life. We will be publishing an
in-depth look at the meaning of this assistance. The plan for
Yugoslavia is a Marshall plan in reverse. Whereas the first
Marshall Plan was a Keynsian affair, pumping money into
local economies, providing cheap credit and so on, this plan
will do the reverse. In essence, Yugoslavia will pay war
reparations to the West. More on that in later articles.
Albright promises to bring Yugoslavia "the normal life that
the rest of the Balkans are beginning to have."
That suggests the ''rest of the Balkans'' was doing badly
before the West took over and now they doing better.
Untrue. The countries the US has 'assisted', particularly
Bulgaria and Albania in the Balkans, along with Ukraine and
the Russian Federation next door, had a decent standard of
living before the West imposed 'structural adjustment' plans.
These plans have caused economic and social devastation.
And conditions are getting worse.
Albania has in essence no functioning economy. If it weren't
for the 1/3 of the labor force that works outside the country,
mainly in Italy and Greece, and the money these people remit
back to their families, there would be no economy at all.
(Albanian economic figures are manipulated to give the false
impression of economic improvement. In reality there is
almost no economic activity.) Bulgarian industry and social
life have been destroyed. Bulgaria and Russia have falling
populations.
Radio Free Europe had a story recently that
ONLY 30 PERCENT OF RUSSIAN BIRTHS
ARE 'NORMAL.
'The Russian Academy of Medical Sciences told
AP on 5 October that the number of normal births
in the Russian Federation declined from 45.3
percent in 1992 [after International Monetary
Fund 'reforms' were first instituted, which
destroyed the Russian social safety net] to just 30
percent in 1999. (RFRFE/RL Newsline, 10/6/00)
The story goes on to blame this terrible statistic mainly on
personal problems - excessive drinking and the like. It is true
enough that many people in economically devastated
countries develop extreme personal problems. But it is
important to understand the cause: the International
Monetary Fund ordered the Russia government to institute
extreme social spending cuts, and these cuts shattered the
medical system. At the same time, wages were pushed down
to as little as $2 a month. People who don't eat properly and
regularly don't have healthy pregnancies, do they?
****
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[Emperor's Clothes]
---
The url for this article is
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/everybody's.htm
Did any major power NOT fund the Kostunica campaign?
"For Germans it was 'an obligation based on history.' to back the push
for
democracy [said Fischer.]...
''Der Spiegel also reported that Fischer, U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine
Albright and some G-8 foreign ministers brought the Yugoslav opposition
together in Berlin on December 17.
'''We read the riot act to the opposition then and told them to get
their
act together,'' it quoted one participant as saying.'' [From article
below]
[Note: If you are familiar with Germany's history in the Balkans
Fischer's
remark is chilling. Our thanks to Professor of Linguistics Peter Maher
for
sending in this story.]
BERLIN, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Germany said on Saturday it had supported the
Yugoslav opposition with millions of marks in financial aid.
Norway also said it had helped fund the Yugoslav opposition's election
campaign, which led to victory by opposition candidate Vojislav
Kostunica
and soon afterwards to the overthrow of strongman President Slobodan
Milosevic.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said in a magazine interview
that
Germany had been duty bound to provide financial support to Slobodan
Milosevic's opponents.
``It could have all ended up being far bloodier,'' Fischer told Der
Spiegel. For Germans it was ``an obligation based on history'' to back
the
push for democracy, he added.
Der Spiegel said around $30 million, mostly from the United States, was
channelled through an office in Budapest.
Another 45 million marks ($20 million) from Germany and other Western
states went to cities that were under opposition control. Der Spiegel
said
the Foreign Ministry sent around 17 million marks through 16 German
towns,
which also contributed.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry confirmed the figures. ``It was
not
disguised but rather it was entirely normal financial aid from the
budget,'' she said.
She said four million marks in media support went to Yugoslavia. She
declined to identify which media outlets channelled the money, but Der
Spiegel said state broadcasters ZDF and Bayerischer Rundfunk were used.
No
one from either broadcaster was available for comment.
Der Spiegel also reported that Fischer, U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine
Albright and some G-8 foreign ministers brought the Yugoslav opposition
together in Berlin on December 17.
``We read the riot act to the opposition then and told them to get their
act together,'' it quoted one participant as saying.
Most of the opposition, long divided by infighting and personality
clashes,
united behind Kostunica in last month's presidential election that
ultimately ended Milosevic's rule.
Germany urged the European Union on Friday to offer immediate assistance
to
the new government in Belgrade. Economics Minister Werner Mueller
promised
in an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper to be published on Sunday
that Yugoslavia would receive ``immediate aid'' from the EU.
NORWAY ALSO SAYS HELPED OPPOSITION
In Oslo, Foreign Ministry spokesman Victor Roenneberg told Reuters the
government had given ``several million crowns'' in financial aid to
Yugoslavia and provided supplies ranging from computer and
communications
equipment for the opposition's vote count to oil to
opposition-controlled
villages.
Norway also funded opposition-run newspapers, radio stations and
Internet
media, he said.
``It is highly unusual to fund one party against another, but because we
had assisted the opposition throughout the election, we were quite
convinced that the opposition had a clear majority from the beginning,''
Roenneberg said.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorbjoern Jagland arrived in Belgrade early
on
Saturday and met with Kostunica, who was to be sworn in at a ceremony
later
in the day.
``Norwegian diplomacy manages to do things even though it works
quietly,''
Jagland told national news agency NTB.
Norway has also said it will concentrate more of its foreign aid on
Yugoslavia.
(c) Reuters 2000. Reposted for fair use only.
www.tenc.net [Emperor's Clothes]
********************************************************
DON'T BE FOOLED BY POSTURING O YUGO COUP "GOVERNMENT"
Dear people,
In a message posted earlier there is a quote from the British
'Independent'
which reads:
<< The new government of Yugoslavia was furious yesterday after
Washington
suggested that sanctions would not be lifted unless Slobodan Milosevic
was
handed over to the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. Vladeta Jankovic,
the
number two to the president-elect, Vojislav Kostunica, issued a stark
warning that relations between the new government and the West will not
run as smoothly as had been hoped >>
Bertolt Brecht says: "When the leaders speak of peace the common people
know war is coming." In other words, beware of posturing.
I think it's very important that the peace movement not be fooled by
some
recent posturing on the part of the self-proclaimed "new government" in
Yugoslavia. This is a US-installed regime, not a "new Government" - it
only exists as a government, if indeed it does exist as a government, by
virtue of a fortune in US bribe money, which financed its organizing
efforts, its violence, aimed at denying the recent election and the
endorsement of Western Imperial governments.
The parliamentary election that accompanied the election for the
ceremonial
post of President on Sept. 24, gave a full majority in both houses to
the
coalition the West calls "Milosevich". Milosevich personally leads far
and
away the biggest mass party in the Balkans. This despite the dangling of
massive US government monetary bribes for any leader willing to join the
DOS coalition which supports Kostunica.
Kostunica was 'approved' as President by the Yugoslav Constitutional
Court
in a situation where a mob straight out of Roman history (but even
better
than Rome cause they had cellular phones) had already gutted parliament,
looted everything possible, and had beaten resisting officials. That is,
the Court gave its approval in a very dangerous situation.
Precisely because the Kostunica/Djidjic Coup was NOT approved by a
majority
- between the people who voted against Kostunica and the people who
didn't
vote, the vast majority have never expressed support for him and many of
those who did vote for him certainly did not vote for a coup - precisely
because most people do NOT approve what he has done, he cannot appear to
be
subservient to the US. His position is most fragile. His entire
apparatus
of support is US funded. This is true of the so-called independent
media,
which now has taken control, gangster fashion, of the mass media such as
Politika that was not previously in the peace of the US government.
This
is true of the political parties that comprise the DOS coalition which
is
Kostunica's tenuous (because infested with mutual hostility) base of
support.
Because Kostunica relies on US paid groups and media in a country that
loathes the US government, his position is fragile. The US has
recognized
this and countless articles hint, or even state outright, that US
officials
are trying not to look to supportive. Obviously a little public
squabbling
with the US is useful. But this is for appearance. As someone once
said,
if you want to figure out where political loyalties lie, "Look at the
money, stupid." And the bribe money comes from Uncle Sugar.
Perhaps the socialist party or other anti-DOS groups needed to make the
best of a bad situation. Perhaps they intelligently avoided a fight
when
the mob ransacked Belgrade because they realized the US was looking for
a
blood bath as an excuse to intervene. Perhaps they handled a very
difficult situation brilliantly. Does that mean we have should be
silence
in the face of a US-paid for coup? If we do not expose the fact that a
NATO proxy force has seized power, or at least partly seized power, if
we
attempt to gloss over the hard reality, that US government overt and
covert
agencies organized and financed a coup in Yugoslavia - if we do not
tell
the truth about these things we would become the pets of the Empire: Yap
yap, cute doggy; don't worry, he doesn't bite. We would fail in our most
important task: to help the people in our countries understand the
Imperial
hand behind these events.
Peace activist Marjaleena Repo and Canadian Professor Kitsikis (the
latter
specializes in electoral practices in the Balkans) interviewed Vladeta
Jankovic, the man quoted by the "independent' above. This was at the
time
of the Sept 24 Yugoslav elections. Jankovic endorsed the taking of vast
sums of US
money. Jankovic justified it by saying "we really need it badly" - an
argument that can be used to justify any crime. Indeed. Prof. Kitsikis
responded that this was high treason. Jankovic had no answer.
Isn't it a bit late for Mr. Jankovic to posture about his virginity?
Jared Israel
For more on these questions please see www.tenc.net [Emperor's Clothes]
******************************************************
>From Milosevic to the Future
>From the standpoint of cameras and Western journalists, the fall of
Milosevic appears indistinguishable from other velvet and near-velvet
revolutions that have toppled dictators from Prague to Manila. A
righteous
outpouring of people into the streets, a ham-handed, venal government
capitulates and a new day is born.
But it is never as simple as breathless broadcasts might paint it. To
understand the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, it is important to understand
the manner in which he fell. The truth in Yugoslavia lies somewhere
between
the grand aesthetic of the public drama and the more mundane details of
deal making. Indeed, the latter is frequently more defining than the
former. And many disappointed expectations are rooted in details
overlooked
by revolution's glamour.
The roots of Milosevic's demise can be traced to the frustration of the
American and British governments, enmeshed in the realities of
peacekeeping
in Kosovo, with no hope of conclusion. NATO was trapped in a quagmire
without exit. In Belgrade, the opposition failed, divided, and were
discredited as agents of NATO, all against a backdrop of Serb
victimization.
Everyday Serbs were convinced of two things: They had not committed
atrocities, and they themselves were the targets of an unjust bombing
campaign. Milosevic was the great beneficiary. He might have been a
swine,
but he was Serbia's swine. Incompetent on many fronts, he at least
defended
the national interest. In this context, the opposition had as much
chance
of winning as Quisling had of carrying Norway in World War II.
The United States reacted with a new strategy. Described in "Toppling
Milosevic: The Carrot Instead of the Stick," the new strategy consisted
of
splitting Milosevic from his followers. Cracks opened but were contained
when Milosevic called for elections. But before the election it became
clear Milosevic had
nearly trapped himself, as recounted in "Checkmate in Yugoslavia,".
Milosevic's Cabinet, his cronies and the army and police held the key to
the drama. Milosevic had to be isolated from those levers of power
before
the crowds could storm parliament. Thousands could have been killed, as
they were in Romania with the fall of Ceaucescu. Milosevic might cling
to
power.
It was imperative the leadership split from Milosevic and accommodate
Kostunica. Public displays of police suddenly embracing demonstrators
probably had less to do with the passions of the moment than with
fevered
deals being made between Kostunica and former Milosevic followers. These
deals brought both the peace and the revolution.
The deals also created a revolution with a complex genesis and an
uncertain
future. Milosevic is certainly gone. The temptation among many,
including
his closest followers, is to blame everything on him. The head of the
international war crimes tribunal in the Hague has made it clear
Milosevic
should be tried for war crimes, but Kostunica has made it clear he does
not
want to see prosecution proceed.
As president, he might be able to stomach Milosevic's trial, but many of
the people he and the United States had to deal with over the past few
months are also subject to indictment and trial. They would not have
been
as cooperative had Kostunica and likely the United States not made
guarantees about their legal status. Given the example of former
President
Augusto Pinochet of Chile, it seems probable that any world-wise
operators
asked for promises.
As important as the status of charges against Milosevic followers, is
the
issue of Serbian territorial claims, particularly in Kosovo. Kostunica
was
an adamant supporter of Serbian claims in Kosovo. What did the United
States promise Kostunica? Indeed, how long can Kostunica survive without
some movement on Kosovo? And what will Albanians do about the new
darling
of the West?
Kostunica himself remains an enigma. The West would like to turn him
into
another Vaclav Havel. He is not a communist, but he is not a liberal
either. He is a nationalist who, like the rest of Serbia, has viewed the
West with suspicion. He has also created a coalition of diverse
elements,
including former Milosevic supporters who hope to retain their
influence,
if not their position.
It is reasonable to say Kostunica is a snapshot of Serbia today: tired
of
Milosevic, deeply suspicious and resentful of the West, nationalistic to
the very bone. Kostunica is formally democratic, but he understands the
complex personalism and clannishness that comprise Balkan culture. No
Havel, Kostunica is a hardline
nationalist who has come to power partly by accommodating his public
enemies.
The fall of Milosevic gives the West the opportunity to wash its hands
of
the mess. But trying to wash hands and actually washing them are
different
things. The West now finds itself in a position in which it must support
a
political figure financially and politically. The problem is that
political
figure has certain interests that will likely be anathema. If the West
does
not support him, it loses credibility. If it does, it can wind up
supporting the very perspectives that helped lead to war in the first
place.
This is what the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo will fear most. They see
Kostunica as the West's excuse to abandon the Albanians to the Serbs
once
again. And, indeed, that might be the case. Washington, weary of the
mess,
may well declare victory and go home.
(c) 2000 Stratfor, Inc.
***************************************************************
DJINDJIC: FUTURE STATE WILL BE UNION OF SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO
ZAGREB, October 7 (Tanjug) - The future state will not be Yugoslavia
but a
union of Serbia and Montenegro with a common foreign policy, defense and
currency, Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) election headquarters
chief
Zoran Djindjic said for the Zagreb daily Jutarnji list on Saturday.
Everything else will be separate, he said, adding that a common
parliament, government and president were "unnecessary."
Asked if he would agree to a secession of Montenegro, Djindjic said
this
republic could be as independent as it wished, and that, if the majority
people agreed to secession, "that is not an issue at all."
The situation with Kosovo and Metohija province is different "because
that
region is seen by people as a cradle of the Serb being," Djindjic said.
"Our monasteries, our history" are there, he said.
"In Kosovo at first we want to be present in resolving problems and
realizing international decisions through a new ministry in Pristina
which
would settle problems in the field. Anything else would be an illusion.
Integration is not realistic," he said.
Djindjic said the main issue in future contacts with Croatia would be
the
problem of refugees, and that relations would become harmonious once
this
was settled. He said he believed there was no more hatred for Croatia in
Serbia.
---
Why Germany is in a hurry to help
GERMANY DISBURSES A MILLION EUROS FOR CLEARING DANUBE IN YUGOSLAVIA
BERLIN, October 8 (Tanjug) - Germany paid on Friday the first
instalment
out of one million euros (1.95 million German marks) pledged for
clearing
the River Danube through Yugoslavia, according to a foreign ministry
spokesman in Berlin on Saturday.
The payment of 500,000 euros (977,500 G-marks), spokesman Andreas
Michaelis said, was made into an international fund for clearing the
Danube, an important European traffic artery that NATO's bombs closed to
navigation last year.
This makes Germany the first donor actually to make a payment to the
Fund,
Michaelis said, adding that Germany was giving the first clear signal of
support for a democratic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, both
bilaterally
and as a member of the European Union.
He explained that the campaign for clearing the Danube of the debris of
war had long been planned, but could not be implemented because of
frequent
disagreements with the Yugoslav side.
He went on to say that the problem was expected to be cleared up soon
with
the inauguration of Yugoslavia's new President Vojislav Kostunica.
**********************************************
Albright Says Priority Is to Help Kostunica
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Sunday that its
priority
in Yugoslavia was to help President Vojislav Kostunica by lifting
economic
sanctions and giving the people of Yugoslavia a democracy dividend.
Accountability for defeated Yugoslav leader and indicted war criminal
Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) will come ``ultimately'' as
Yugoslavia becomes part of a democratic Europe, Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright said on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' program.
Kostunica took the oath of office on Saturday, one day after Milosevic
conceded defeat in presidential elections held on Sept. 24. He has said
he
opposes extraditing Milosevic to face trial on war crimes charges in The
Hague.
Albright said she was confident that Yugoslavs would eventually come
round
to the view that Milosevic should face trial.
``They will get behind this, believe me, when they figure out that they
are free and democratic and that they will be a part of a real Europe,''
she said.
But she added: ``We have to show the Serb people that they did the
right
thing by going out to vote. They need to have some dividends out of
democracy.
``I have no doubt that there will be accountability and Yugoslavia will
not be truly free until that happens. We have to give President
Kostunica
now a chance. Let's help him. The people of Serbia have voted for him.
Let's help him.''
``We want to support him, we want to get assistance to him. I've been
talking to our European partners. We will be lifting certain economic
sanctions to make sure that the people can recover and the Danube is
cleared,'' she added.
Portions of the Danube River in Yugoslavia are closed to traffic
because
of bridges wrecked by NATO (news - web sites)'s bombing campaign last
year.
The European Union is expected on Monday to lift a ban on oil sales and
flights to Yugoslavia. A freeze on the assets of former leaders will
stay.
Pressed on whether extradition of Milosevic was a condition for an end
to
sanctions, Albright noted there was no time limit on prosecutions for
war
crimes for Milosevic and other indicted Serbs, such as Bosnian Serb
political leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic.
``It doesn't run out. ... The United States has insisted and, believe
me,
their time will come,'' she said.
Albright also made a rare foray into domestic politics, backing Vice
President Al Gore (news - web sites), a fellow Democrat, against Texas
Governor George Bush on Balkan policy.
In the first presidential debate on Tuesday, the Republican Bush called
for a bigger Russian role in pushing Milosevic to leave power, a
position
Gore opposed on the grounds that the Russians had not yet recognized
Kostunica as winner.
Albright criticized the Russians for their delay in deciding that
Milosevic had lost.
``Frankly they were late. It took them a little while to assess the
reality there but ultimately, in recognizing President Kostunica they
have
done the right thing.
``We did not want the Russians to mediate, and Vice President Gore made
that quite clear. ... The way the vice president described it was right.
They did not play the role that they needed to at the right time,'' she
said.
*********************************************************
DINKIC: RATE OF EXCHANGE HALVED FOR D-MARK
BELGRADE, October 8 (Tanjug) - G 17 PLUS Executive Director Mladjan
Dinkic
said on Sunday that the new authorities have taken control over the
Foreign
Currency Department and the Payment Operations Service of the National
Bank
of Yugoslavia.
Consequently, the black-market rate of exchange for the D-mark has been
halved and the going rate is now 22 dinars, instead of 40 of two days
ago,
Dinkic said.
The new authorities prevented the withdrawal of some 50 million D-marks
from an account at the National Bank on Friday, even though the
withdrawal
slip had been based on a legitimate decision of the federal government,
Dinkic said, explaining that this action had been carried out in the
interest of the people.
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/submit2.htm
Opposition Leader Djindjic Calls for Complete Yugoslav
Submission to U.S.
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
Comments by Jared Israel (10-09-2000)
Comments: An AP dispatch, reprinted below, gives some glimpse of the
speed
with which the U.S. is consolidating its position in Yugoslavia.
The critical statement in the AP dispatch is made by Zoran Djindjic.
Djindjic is an
open employee of the U.S. and German governments and a key organizer of
the
distribution of US-German bribe money within Yugoslavia. Here is the
account of his
remarks:
"A key Kostunica aide, Zoran Djindjic, signaled the new government's
desire for closer ties to Washington after an election campaign in
which
the opposition sought to distance itself from the United States
because of
public anger over last year's NATO bombing campaign.
'''Without a strategic partnership with America, there is no
solution for
the Serbian national interests,' Djindjic said.'' ('AP', 10-09-2000)
The domination of Yugoslavia by Imperial powers is the precondition for
aggressive
action towards Russia, the Caucuses, Central Asia, Greece and other
countries which
have not entirely folded under U.S. pressure. Even those Balkans
countries where the
US has almost unchallenged domination, like Albania, Bulgaria and the
former
Yugoslav Republics, would find themselves under much harsher conditions
if
Yugoslavia falls to the U.S. For Yugoslavia has stood as a beacon, an
alternative to the
U.S.; if U.S. government behavior got too harsh, there was always
Yugoslavia as a
focal point of resistance. But as Senator Biden said in the July 29,
1999 Senate
hearings on Yugoslavia:
"I mean, for example, it's amazing what can happen when you
eliminate the
extremes. I mean, the single best thing that ever happened to the
Republic of
Srpska is we kicked the living hell out of Milosevic. There ain't no
alternative
left. …It's amazing what a salutary impact that has upon extremes in
countries.
And that's why the single best thing we -- my dream is to visit
Milosevic in
prison. (Laughter.) I mean that sincerely. I'm not being facetious.
Because you
put Milosevic in prison, and things in the region will change
drastically."
(Senator Joseph Biden at Senate Hearings on Serbia, July 29, 1999,
Quoted in
"US Arrogance and Yugoslav Elections', readable at
www.emperors-clothes.com/engl2.htm )
Thus Djindjic's statement is very serious. It translates: the Serbs must
become the
tool of the US in its effort to subjugate a vast section of the world.
There is an obstacle for the U.S. government. The bulk of the Serbian
people as well
as other loyal Yugoslavs who live in Serbia, are opposed to U.S.-German
control of
the Balkans. This is why throughout the century Germany's key
geopolitical goal has
been to crush Serbia. Crushing Serbia was and is the precondition for
firmly
consolidating power in the Balkans and going after the East, the former
Soviet Union.
So how does Djindjic, who is now so openly the dominant leader in the
DOS (the
opposition) - how does he intend to make Serbs and others who oppose US
domination accept US domination? There is only one way: terror. We have
received
first hand reports that terror is going on right now. It is highly
organized. The
terrorist groups, which are controlled by the DOS, have lists of people
who belong to
parties other than DOS or who are non-party, as well as those considered
"nationalist
activists." These, especially the activists, are the target; they are
being physically
attacked or threatened with attack. Institutions (e.g., the Customs
Department) and
key businesses are being illegally seized. The increasing campaign of
terror by
opposition forces is just barely hinted at in the Western media.
The method for dealing with difficult Serbs is long established. It is:
kill them. This
was how the pro-German government in Croatia tried to make Yugoslavia
safe for
German domination: it wiped out over 700,000 Serbs (as well as almost
all Jews and
countless Gypsies.) Get rid of the troublesome elements - that was the
method.
It was done twice after World War II. The Tito government was interested
in
reducing the influence of Serbia in the new Yugoslavia. So it
slaughtered the Cetniks
whom the British turned over. And then, in 1948, when Tito decided to go
all-out
with a Western strategy he ordered the murder of between 50,000 and
100,000
Serbian Communists.
If the Serbian and other loyal Yugoslav people do not resist they will
be eliminated.
Do not be deceived by sweet talking US leaders, NGO activists, and the
like. The US
government, dedicated to efficiency, always applies the simplest
solution to a
problem. When they encountered groups of Korean refugees who might
include
North Korean agents, they simply shot everyone in the group.
If the Serbs do resist, they may face great difficulties; on the other
hand, they may
succeed in stopping the terror. The vast majority of the population does
not want the
coup but they are to some extent cowed by terror, by the indecision of
the governing
forces, who have plenty of weaknesses, by the apparent vacillation of
the Russians and
by the fierce determination of the US side, inside and outside
Yugoslavia. And many
people are of course confused by the false promises of massive economic
aid.
Preparing to defend themselves, not to adopt foolhardy measures, but to
take firm
measures to guarantee the rule of law, including demanding the arrest of
those who
sacked Parliament, who illegally have seized government institutions,
and so on -
taking these firm measures is the only hope of the Serbian people. If
these measures
are not taken there will be great suffering. At this point organized
forces, such as the
Army, may still be able to act.
As for the U.S. government, it can "live with" the possibility of great
suffering in
Yugoslavia and throughout the Balkans if the result is US domination of
the area.
Remember, we are dealing with people like Madeline Albright. When asked
whether
she felt the containment of Iraq was worth the death of the 500,000
children killed by
sanctions, she said "Yes, I believe it is." You see, she felt their
pain, but she endured.
The plan is mainly to use proxy forces to do the dirty work. This is how
the moderate
Muslims and Serbs in Bosnia were fought - by Islamist Muslims working
with the US
Ambassador and an army of US government and semi-government helpers, as
well
as plenty of money and arms. People are silenced by terror and then
recruited by
terror. The anti-racist Croatians were the first target of Mr. Tudjman's
neo-Nazis in
Croatia. The KLA is just the latest example of a proxy force suppressing
"its own"
people.
The use of domestic forces (in this case the "Serbian opposition") to
suppress a
difficult population would allow NATO to bring in troops in the guise of
supporting
native leaders. This is the classic divide and rule policy that colonial
powers have
employed since Rome. It is .much less politically costly at home than
outright
invasion.
Make no mistake: the danger of war, including nuclear war, is increased
rather than
diminished by this most reckless US policy. For one of the key targets
of what Mr.
Djindjic calls "a strategic alliance with the U.S." is Russia. And
Russia is bristling
with nuclear arms.
Whether the Yugoslav people stand up now and fight, or do not, there
will be
suffering, which is a tragedy. But if they fail to stop the opposition's
illegal actions
their suffering will be incomparably worse. The U.S. elite is not a
tolerant winner. Its
goal remains to crush Serbia as even a potential political force.
Yugoslav PM and Police Chief Resign
By DUSAN STOJANOVIC .c The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Key remnants of Slobodan Milosevic's regime
crumbled Monday after Yugoslavia's prime minister and the country's most
powerful
police chief resigned. Early elections were set for the Serbian
parliament, a last
bastion of the old order.
Riding the wave of public support that brought him to power, President
Vojislav
Kostunica moved swiftly to drive out remaining Milosevic stalwarts. The
government
in Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic, was expected to be dissolved
Tuesday.
Just two days after formally taking office, Kostunica was also putting
his supporters in
charge of the country's most important institutions, including the
police, judiciary,
banks and state-run companies.
A key Kostunica aide, Zoran Djindjic, signaled the new government's
desire for
closer ties to Washington after an election campaign in which the
opposition sought
to distance itself from the United States because of public anger over
last year's
NATO bombing campaign.
``Without a strategic partnership with America, there is no solution for
the Serbian
national interests,'' Djindjic said.
Milosevic, who has been holed up at one of the president's official
residences in a
Belgrade suburb, remained out of public view Monday.
But two of his key allies, federal Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic and
Serbian
Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic - who controlled about 100,000
policemen -
both stepped down.
All major Serbian parties agreed to early parliamentary elections in
December - a
move that could spell the end of Milosevic supporters' control of the
republic's
government and legislature. Given the current popular support for
Kostunica, his
allies are likely to win a strong majority in the new parliament.
Serbia is home to more than 90 percent of Yugoslavs and whoever rules it
holds the
balance of authority in the country, which includes one other republic,
Montenegro. If
the current Serbian government and the parliament remain in place, they
could block
many pro-democracy reforms pushed by Kostunica on the federal level.
Serbia's president and parliament are elected separately from federal
posts and were
not involved in the contentious federal vote Sept. 24. Serbian President
Milan
Milutinovic and other Serbian government leaders were elected in 1998 to
four-year
terms.
Still, Milosevic's hard-line allies in the Serbian parliament were
trying to keep the
current legislature in place until the new elections, despite calls for
its immediate
dissolution.
``This is a highway robbery,'' said Vojislav Seselj, Serbia's
ultranationalist deputy
prime minister who has been allied with Milosevic. ``You will not get
our blessing for
a coup,'' referring to alleged forceful removal of Milosevic's cronies
from all major
state institutions.
Seselj accused pro-democracy forces of using ``lynching methods'' to
force out rivals.
Seselj, for the first time, acknowledged that Serbia's parliament had
lost control of
the republic's police to pro-Kostunica forces.
As Seselj was leaving Serbia's parliament, he was jostled by an irate
crowd. One of his
bodyguards fired shots in the air, and a photographer was punched and
kicked in the
head by a bodyguard. No one was seriously hurt.
In the streets, factories and other public places, anger against
Milosevic's cronies
sometimes boiled over into violence.
A mob of workers attacked Radoman Bozovic, a close Milosevic aide and
the director
of a major Belgrade trading corporation. He tried to flee from his car,
but he was
caught and beaten. His bodyguards snatched him and moved him into a
nearby
building for safety. Later, Bozovic resigned as the head of Genex, the
biggest
state-run import-export operation.
In the city of Nis, workers stormed the state-run textile factory,
Nitex, demanding the
management be fired. Employees of Investbanka demanded that Borka Vucic,
a top
financial associate of Milosevic, leave the Belgrade headquarters of the
state-run
bank because ``her safety is jeopardized.''
As the vestiges of the old regime were being cleared away, the European
Union lifted
economic sanctions against Yugoslavia and offered it $2 billion in aid
to help rebuild
the country, as well as lifting key anti-Milosevic sanctions.
The decision marked a turning point in Yugoslavia's relations with the
rest of Europe
and was seen as a first step toward integrating the country into the
European
mainstream.
Still, obstacles remained for the Kostunica camp.
Yugoslavia's defense minister attempted Monday to rally opponents of the
new
government, issuing a last-ditch appeal to Milosevic's shaken supporters
not to
abandon the ousted leader.
Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic said that ``the disunity among the Serbs is
inciting the plans
of our proven (foreign) enemies'' to occupy the country. Milosevic's
allies have
consistently referred to Kostunica and his followers as Western lackeys
bent on
taking over the Serb state.
Ojdanic, a close Milosevic ally who has also been indicted for war
crimes, has not
formally recognized Kostunica as the new Yugoslav president and is not
expected to
keep his position in the new government. He has no direct control of the
military,
which has fallen under Kostunica's command.
Still, he retains influence among the military brass, and any call he
might make to
rally pro-Milosevic forces could be problematic for the new regime.
The military leadership - which consist mostly of Milosevic loyalists -
has only
grudgingly endorsed Kostunica as the new head of state. The top generals
will likely be
all replaced as part of a sweeping purge of Milosevic supporters.
(c) AP-NY-10-09-00 1536EDT Reproduced for fair use only
Footnote
Several articles on Emperor's Clothes have dealt with the G-17 econ
omists. We
especially suggest reading:
* 'The International Monetary Fund And The Yugoslav Elections' by Michel
Chossudovsky and Jared Irael at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/1.htm
* 'Yugoslav Opposition Negotiates Surrender of Yugoslavia' by Michel
Chossudovsky
and Jared Irael at http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/11.htm
***
We get by with a little help from our friends...
We receive all of our funding from individuals like you. We want
everyone to read our
articles, whether they can contribute financially or not, but if you are
able to
contribute, please do. Recently we were shut down for a wee by a hacker.
We are
taking steps to improve our security and also to increase the number of
people we
reach with our analyses. These improvements cost money.
Small contributions hel and so do big ones. You can make a donation by
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www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
---
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/dos2.htm
DOS leader Djindjic: Yugoslavia is to be no more
Text of statement from Montenegrin Website of the Soros "Open Society"
type.
Comments by Jared Israel, Emperor's Clothes
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
"Djindjic said that he explained DOS’s thinking on renewing FRY.'We
believe the joint state should not be called Yugoslavia but the “The
Union
of Serbia and Montenegro'....Responding to the question of whether
this is
really DOS’s program, given Vojislav Kostunica’s statement on
strengthening the joint state, Djindjic said: “We, in the campaign,
did not
have completely differing views on these issues. I explained these
ideas in
the joint meetings of the DOS leaders and they were positively
accepted
both in the coalition and by the Serbian public."
Comments: It becomes increasingly evident with every passing hour that
Mr.
Kostunica is not the dominant leader in the Serbian opposition. The key
person is
Zoran Djindjic. In the text below, Mr. Djindjic is asked if Mr.
Kostunica accepts his
idea for dissolving Yugoslavia. His response is diplomatic but perfectly
clear: Djindjic
lays down the law, Kostunica follows. And why not? He is the point man
for the US;
he is the guy with the $77 million dollar check.
Djindjic seems slated to be Prime Minister. Mr. Dinkic from the
US/German-
controlled G-17 group of economists is slated to be head of a
colonial-style Central
Bank. [See Footnote near end]
Djindjic Proposes Abolition of Yugoslavia
When Mr. Djindjic opens his mouth it is Madeline Albright talking.
The consequences of the proposal to abolish Yugoslavia, expressed by Mr.
Djindjic in
the name of the entire opposition including Mr. Kostunica, are very
grave. . The
continued existence of Yugoslavia is the critical question in the
Balkans. Yugoslavia's
existence prevents the consolidation of US/German power in the Balkans
and
therefore hinders taking aggressive action toward the former Soviet
Union.
The act of relinquishing the name "Yugoslavia" would be a sharp blow to
the morale
of those who are trying to hold back the US/German assault.
Moreover, if Yugoslavia ceased to exist there would be immediate
consequences.
These would include the loss of all Yugoslav property, currently held by
Yugoslavia or
frozen by order of the U.S. This amounts to over $20 billion US. It
would mean that
the agreement by which Kosovo is legally part of Serbia - UN resolution
1244 - would
be void because that agreement was signed by the UN and Yugoslavia. It
would mean
the Yugoslavs would lose all right to speak in the UN - a right the US
has suppressed.
But up until now the Yugoslavs have had legality on their side. Agreeing
that
Yugoslavia is no more means relinquishing all claim to legal rights.
Here is the full text of the report on the conversation betyween Zoran
Djindjic and
Milo Djukanovic.
Djukanovic and Kostunica schedule a meeting on changes
in the military leadership
President of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic and the new president of FRY
Vojislav
Kostunica agreed that a meeting of the Supreme defense council should be
held soon,
where changes in the military leadership could be agreed, it was
confirmed by the
leader of the Democratic party, Zoran Djindjic.
Djindjic said that Kostunica and Djukanovic spoke on the phone and
agreed that a
meeting of the Supreme council should be held within the next three
days.
Djukanovic met Djindjic, who was representing the Democratic Opposition
of Serbia,
last night in Podgorica. Djindjic informed Djukanovic on DOS’s plans to
possibly
form an expert government with the SNP. This government would spend the
first two
to three months around issues connected to the removal of international
sanctions
and for the pledged international financial support for economic
recovery to be
realized, and therefore this government would not interfere in the
authorities of the
Republican governments. This government would “be voted in by the
representatives
of DOS, the Montenegrin SNP, and the occasional patriot from the SPS”,
said Djinjic.
The leader of the Democratic party claims that Djukanovic assessed this
idea as
interesting and “the least bad transitory solution”.
Djindjic said that he explained DOS’s thinking on renewing FRY.
“We believe the joint state should not be called Yugoslavia but the “The
Union of
Serbia and Montenegro”. This union should have much less joint
functions, because at
the moment there is a lot of overlap with the republics. The joint
functions should be
reduced to defense, and if regional stability is enhanced this would
assume a small
army, then also foreign policy and monetary policy based on a
convertible currency. It
is also true that the expensive institutions of the parliament and
government should
be reduced, because we already have this at the level of the independent
states. The
idea is to decrease the size of the federal functions but significantly
improve their
efficiency, which would mean reduced costs”, said the leader of the
Democratic party.
Responding to the question of whether this is really DOS’s program,
given Vojislav
Kostunica’s statement on strengthening the joint state, Djindjic said:
“We, in the campaign, did not have completely differing views on these
issues. I
explained these ideas in the joint meetings of the DOS leaders and they
were
positively accepted both in the coalition and by the Serbian public. I
think we should
first clarify what strengthening the joint state means. If the state has
three functions,
which are strong, this is better than if it has 20 which are weak”,
explained Djindjic.
Djindjic said the talks between the representatives of DOS and the
Montenegrin
government about the future relations between Serbia and Montenegro are
to start
this week.
***
Footnotes
Several articles on Emperor's Clothes have dealt with the G-17 group of
economists,
who are clearly slated to dominate the remaking of Yugoslavia. We
especially suggest
reading:
'The International Monetary Fund And The Yugoslav Elections' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/1.htm
'Yugoslav Opposition Negotiates Surrender of Yugoslavia' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/11.htm
We get by with a little help from our friends...
We receive all of our funding from individuals like you. We want
everyone to read our
articles, whether they can contribute financially or not, but if you are
able to
contribute, please do. Recently we were shut down for a wee by a hacker.
We are
taking steps to improve our security and also to increase the number of
people we
reach with our analyses. These improvements cost money.
Small contributions hel and so do big ones. You can make a donation by
mailing a
check to Emperor's Clothes, P.O. Box 610-321, Newton, MA 02461-0321.
(USA) Or
if you'd like to do it by credit card, please call 617 916-1705 between
9:30 AM and
5:30 PM, Eastern Time (USA). .
Thanks for reading and thanks for helping. It's a joint effort, isn't
it?
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
---
http://www.iacenter.org/nato_harvest.htm
NATO is getting ready to pick up the harvest
By Tanja Djurovic
Junge Welt, Monday, 9.10.2000
Belgrade -- "I've just received information from official sources
that Vojislav
Kostunica won the elections. I congratulate Mr. Kostunica on his
election victory...",
said recent Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in his address to the
nation
broadcast on Yu-Info TV channel on Friday (Oct. 6), admitting defeat in
the
presidential elections by his opponent Vojislav Kostunica, candidate of
Democratic
opposition of Serbia (DOS).
"I personally intend to take a short break, to spend more time with my
family, and
then, afterwards, to primarily strengthen my party...Socialist party of
Serbia will be a
very strong opposition" finished Milosevic his address making it clear
that he has no
intention of fleeing the country, or leaving political life.
This seems to be the epilogue of election crisis in Yugoslavia and
two-week long
fight between Milosevic and Kostunica for presidency of FRY, which
culminated on
Thursday in Belgrade with mass and violent protests orchestrated by
DOS.
Vojislav Kostunica made his oath on Saturday night in Belgrade "Sava
Center", by
which he officially became new president of Yugoslavia. On the joint
constitutive
sessions of both chambers of Federal Parliament, Kostunica bounded
himself to
"respect and implement the Constitution of FRY and federal laws, to
preserve the
sovereignty, independence and integrity of FRY..."
Earlier in the night, both chambers of the Yugoslav Parliament were
constituted for
the new session. The Chamber of Citizens verified 119 out of 138 deputy
mandates,
and Chamber of Republics 39 out of 40 mandates.
In both chambers of the Federal Parliament the representatives of
Milosevic's left
coalition have the majority. This was clear from the start, and even DOS
representatives agreed to it.
Still, Milosevic's obvious presence in Yugoslav capital and appearance
on TV,
putting the end to rumors and wild guesses as to his whereabouts and
intentions, came
as a shock to DOS leaders and their supporters, who had been convinced
that
ex-Yugoslav president had long since left Belgrade, if not indeed the
country. That,
coupled with the fact that a leftist government might be formed soon, is
casting a
shadow on DOS's present advantage.
Zoran Djindjic, DOS campaign manager, gave a statement to the press
immediately
after Milosevic's address on Friday, saying that Slobodan Milosevic is
just preparing a
blow from the back and intends to consolidate the police forces, so he
could come
back on scene as a tough hand. Obviously afraid that someone or
something can still
endanger their "democratic revolution", Djindjic finished rather
paranoically: "I do
not trust Milosevic!"
Still, if Milosevic is not to be trusted, why not accept the
assurances and
congratulations offered to Kostunica by thehighest representatives of
the army and
police? It seems that DOS's fear of one man and his presence is so
great, that not
even the fact that those institutions didn't react during Thursday's
vandalistic
demonstrations can reassure the Serbian opposition.
Perhaps the DOS is simply being aware of its own fragility: from the
very beginning,
it has been highly dependent on foreign support and money. This ad hoc
alliance of
some 18 parties has only one common ground and program - to oust
Milosevic.
Not to forget that the DOS candidate, newly-proclaimed FRY president
Kostunica,
is a leader of a small party with low support from the people, and a man
of low
significance. The person running the show for this particular puppet on
a string is
Zoran Djindjic, who in his own turn is a puppet of the administration in
Washington.
Not to forget that over 2 million Yugoslav citizens voted against
Kostunica precisely
for the above mentioned reasons, knowing who the powers behind DOS are
and not
wanting to be a part of "Pax Americana".
"Slobodan Milosevic had very little or no chance at all" said Petar
Raskov (70), a
Federal court judge on pension, underlining that pressure exercised on
Serbia, of
power, money and media combined, was too heavy for Serbian people not to
yield.
"Milosevic was the only man to preserve the FRY resistance to NATO's
"Drang nach
Osten" (Push to the East) strategy. I couldn't vote for NATO, not even
if it puts on a
disguise of Serbian nationalist with anti-American policy".
As for those who did - a gun at man's temple can be a good incentive,
and endlessly
repeated "international community" treats to Serbian people that as long
as Milosevic
is Yugoslav president, sanctions against their country won't be lifted,
obviously
influenced the ultimate decision, especially with the young people.
"I didn't vote for Kostunica, he is nobody!" says Milan Ristic (24), a
student from
Belgrade. "But his victory might bring better days for Yugoslavia. I
voted against
Milosevic, because the whole world was against him!"
Therefore, after plowing Yugoslav land with bombs and missiles in
Spring of 1999,
after fertilizing it for over a year with media-launched lies and money,
Military
Alliance of the West is getting ready to pick up the harvest.
Tanja Djurovic is a Junge Welt correspondent from Belgrade.
Opposition Leader Djindjic Calls for Complete Yugoslav
Submission to U.S.
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
Comments by Jared Israel (10-09-2000)
Comments: An AP dispatch, reprinted below, gives some glimpse of the
speed
with which the U.S. is consolidating its position in Yugoslavia.
The critical statement in the AP dispatch is made by Zoran Djindjic.
Djindjic is an
open employee of the U.S. and German governments and a key organizer of
the
distribution of US-German bribe money within Yugoslavia. Here is the
account of his
remarks:
"A key Kostunica aide, Zoran Djindjic, signaled the new government's
desire for closer ties to Washington after an election campaign in
which
the opposition sought to distance itself from the United States
because of
public anger over last year's NATO bombing campaign.
'''Without a strategic partnership with America, there is no
solution for
the Serbian national interests,' Djindjic said.'' ('AP', 10-09-2000)
The domination of Yugoslavia by Imperial powers is the precondition for
aggressive
action towards Russia, the Caucuses, Central Asia, Greece and other
countries which
have not entirely folded under U.S. pressure. Even those Balkans
countries where the
US has almost unchallenged domination, like Albania, Bulgaria and the
former
Yugoslav Republics, would find themselves under much harsher conditions
if
Yugoslavia falls to the U.S. For Yugoslavia has stood as a beacon, an
alternative to the
U.S.; if U.S. government behavior got too harsh, there was always
Yugoslavia as a
focal point of resistance. But as Senator Biden said in the July 29,
1999 Senate
hearings on Yugoslavia:
"I mean, for example, it's amazing what can happen when you
eliminate the
extremes. I mean, the single best thing that ever happened to the
Republic of
Srpska is we kicked the living hell out of Milosevic. There ain't no
alternative
left. …It's amazing what a salutary impact that has upon extremes in
countries.
And that's why the single best thing we -- my dream is to visit
Milosevic in
prison. (Laughter.) I mean that sincerely. I'm not being facetious.
Because you
put Milosevic in prison, and things in the region will change
drastically."
(Senator Joseph Biden at Senate Hearings on Serbia, July 29, 1999,
Quoted in
"US Arrogance and Yugoslav Elections', readable at
www.emperors-clothes.com/engl2.htm )
Thus Djindjic's statement is very serious. It translates: the Serbs must
become the
tool of the US in its effort to subjugate a vast section of the world.
There is an obstacle for the U.S. government. The bulk of the Serbian
people as well
as other loyal Yugoslavs who live in Serbia, are opposed to U.S.-German
control of
the Balkans. This is why throughout the century Germany's key
geopolitical goal has
been to crush Serbia. Crushing Serbia was and is the precondition for
firmly
consolidating power in the Balkans and going after the East, the former
Soviet Union.
So how does Djindjic, who is now so openly the dominant leader in the
DOS (the
opposition) - how does he intend to make Serbs and others who oppose US
domination accept US domination? There is only one way: terror. We have
received
first hand reports that terror is going on right now. It is highly
organized. The
terrorist groups, which are controlled by the DOS, have lists of people
who belong to
parties other than DOS or who are non-party, as well as those considered
"nationalist
activists." These, especially the activists, are the target; they are
being physically
attacked or threatened with attack. Institutions (e.g., the Customs
Department) and
key businesses are being illegally seized. The increasing campaign of
terror by
opposition forces is just barely hinted at in the Western media.
The method for dealing with difficult Serbs is long established. It is:
kill them. This
was how the pro-German government in Croatia tried to make Yugoslavia
safe for
German domination: it wiped out over 700,000 Serbs (as well as almost
all Jews and
countless Gypsies.) Get rid of the troublesome elements - that was the
method.
It was done twice after World War II. The Tito government was interested
in
reducing the influence of Serbia in the new Yugoslavia. So it
slaughtered the Cetniks
whom the British turned over. And then, in 1948, when Tito decided to go
all-out
with a Western strategy he ordered the murder of between 50,000 and
100,000
Serbian Communists.
If the Serbian and other loyal Yugoslav people do not resist they will
be eliminated.
Do not be deceived by sweet talking US leaders, NGO activists, and the
like. The US
government, dedicated to efficiency, always applies the simplest
solution to a
problem. When they encountered groups of Korean refugees who might
include
North Korean agents, they simply shot everyone in the group.
If the Serbs do resist, they may face great difficulties; on the other
hand, they may
succeed in stopping the terror. The vast majority of the population does
not want the
coup but they are to some extent cowed by terror, by the indecision of
the governing
forces, who have plenty of weaknesses, by the apparent vacillation of
the Russians and
by the fierce determination of the US side, inside and outside
Yugoslavia. And many
people are of course confused by the false promises of massive economic
aid.
Preparing to defend themselves, not to adopt foolhardy measures, but to
take firm
measures to guarantee the rule of law, including demanding the arrest of
those who
sacked Parliament, who illegally have seized government institutions,
and so on -
taking these firm measures is the only hope of the Serbian people. If
these measures
are not taken there will be great suffering. At this point organized
forces, such as the
Army, may still be able to act.
As for the U.S. government, it can "live with" the possibility of great
suffering in
Yugoslavia and throughout the Balkans if the result is US domination of
the area.
Remember, we are dealing with people like Madeline Albright. When asked
whether
she felt the containment of Iraq was worth the death of the 500,000
children killed by
sanctions, she said "Yes, I believe it is." You see, she felt their
pain, but she endured.
The plan is mainly to use proxy forces to do the dirty work. This is how
the moderate
Muslims and Serbs in Bosnia were fought - by Islamist Muslims working
with the US
Ambassador and an army of US government and semi-government helpers, as
well
as plenty of money and arms. People are silenced by terror and then
recruited by
terror. The anti-racist Croatians were the first target of Mr. Tudjman's
neo-Nazis in
Croatia. The KLA is just the latest example of a proxy force suppressing
"its own"
people.
The use of domestic forces (in this case the "Serbian opposition") to
suppress a
difficult population would allow NATO to bring in troops in the guise of
supporting
native leaders. This is the classic divide and rule policy that colonial
powers have
employed since Rome. It is .much less politically costly at home than
outright
invasion.
Make no mistake: the danger of war, including nuclear war, is increased
rather than
diminished by this most reckless US policy. For one of the key targets
of what Mr.
Djindjic calls "a strategic alliance with the U.S." is Russia. And
Russia is bristling
with nuclear arms.
Whether the Yugoslav people stand up now and fight, or do not, there
will be
suffering, which is a tragedy. But if they fail to stop the opposition's
illegal actions
their suffering will be incomparably worse. The U.S. elite is not a
tolerant winner. Its
goal remains to crush Serbia as even a potential political force.
Yugoslav PM and Police Chief Resign
By DUSAN STOJANOVIC .c The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Key remnants of Slobodan Milosevic's regime
crumbled Monday after Yugoslavia's prime minister and the country's most
powerful
police chief resigned. Early elections were set for the Serbian
parliament, a last
bastion of the old order.
Riding the wave of public support that brought him to power, President
Vojislav
Kostunica moved swiftly to drive out remaining Milosevic stalwarts. The
government
in Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic, was expected to be dissolved
Tuesday.
Just two days after formally taking office, Kostunica was also putting
his supporters in
charge of the country's most important institutions, including the
police, judiciary,
banks and state-run companies.
A key Kostunica aide, Zoran Djindjic, signaled the new government's
desire for
closer ties to Washington after an election campaign in which the
opposition sought
to distance itself from the United States because of public anger over
last year's
NATO bombing campaign.
``Without a strategic partnership with America, there is no solution for
the Serbian
national interests,'' Djindjic said.
Milosevic, who has been holed up at one of the president's official
residences in a
Belgrade suburb, remained out of public view Monday.
But two of his key allies, federal Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic and
Serbian
Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic - who controlled about 100,000
policemen -
both stepped down.
All major Serbian parties agreed to early parliamentary elections in
December - a
move that could spell the end of Milosevic supporters' control of the
republic's
government and legislature. Given the current popular support for
Kostunica, his
allies are likely to win a strong majority in the new parliament.
Serbia is home to more than 90 percent of Yugoslavs and whoever rules it
holds the
balance of authority in the country, which includes one other republic,
Montenegro. If
the current Serbian government and the parliament remain in place, they
could block
many pro-democracy reforms pushed by Kostunica on the federal level.
Serbia's president and parliament are elected separately from federal
posts and were
not involved in the contentious federal vote Sept. 24. Serbian President
Milan
Milutinovic and other Serbian government leaders were elected in 1998 to
four-year
terms.
Still, Milosevic's hard-line allies in the Serbian parliament were
trying to keep the
current legislature in place until the new elections, despite calls for
its immediate
dissolution.
``This is a highway robbery,'' said Vojislav Seselj, Serbia's
ultranationalist deputy
prime minister who has been allied with Milosevic. ``You will not get
our blessing for
a coup,'' referring to alleged forceful removal of Milosevic's cronies
from all major
state institutions.
Seselj accused pro-democracy forces of using ``lynching methods'' to
force out rivals.
Seselj, for the first time, acknowledged that Serbia's parliament had
lost control of
the republic's police to pro-Kostunica forces.
As Seselj was leaving Serbia's parliament, he was jostled by an irate
crowd. One of his
bodyguards fired shots in the air, and a photographer was punched and
kicked in the
head by a bodyguard. No one was seriously hurt.
In the streets, factories and other public places, anger against
Milosevic's cronies
sometimes boiled over into violence.
A mob of workers attacked Radoman Bozovic, a close Milosevic aide and
the director
of a major Belgrade trading corporation. He tried to flee from his car,
but he was
caught and beaten. His bodyguards snatched him and moved him into a
nearby
building for safety. Later, Bozovic resigned as the head of Genex, the
biggest
state-run import-export operation.
In the city of Nis, workers stormed the state-run textile factory,
Nitex, demanding the
management be fired. Employees of Investbanka demanded that Borka Vucic,
a top
financial associate of Milosevic, leave the Belgrade headquarters of the
state-run
bank because ``her safety is jeopardized.''
As the vestiges of the old regime were being cleared away, the European
Union lifted
economic sanctions against Yugoslavia and offered it $2 billion in aid
to help rebuild
the country, as well as lifting key anti-Milosevic sanctions.
The decision marked a turning point in Yugoslavia's relations with the
rest of Europe
and was seen as a first step toward integrating the country into the
European
mainstream.
Still, obstacles remained for the Kostunica camp.
Yugoslavia's defense minister attempted Monday to rally opponents of the
new
government, issuing a last-ditch appeal to Milosevic's shaken supporters
not to
abandon the ousted leader.
Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic said that ``the disunity among the Serbs is
inciting the plans
of our proven (foreign) enemies'' to occupy the country. Milosevic's
allies have
consistently referred to Kostunica and his followers as Western lackeys
bent on
taking over the Serb state.
Ojdanic, a close Milosevic ally who has also been indicted for war
crimes, has not
formally recognized Kostunica as the new Yugoslav president and is not
expected to
keep his position in the new government. He has no direct control of the
military,
which has fallen under Kostunica's command.
Still, he retains influence among the military brass, and any call he
might make to
rally pro-Milosevic forces could be problematic for the new regime.
The military leadership - which consist mostly of Milosevic loyalists -
has only
grudgingly endorsed Kostunica as the new head of state. The top generals
will likely be
all replaced as part of a sweeping purge of Milosevic supporters.
(c) AP-NY-10-09-00 1536EDT Reproduced for fair use only
Footnote
Several articles on Emperor's Clothes have dealt with the G-17 econ
omists. We
especially suggest reading:
* 'The International Monetary Fund And The Yugoslav Elections' by Michel
Chossudovsky and Jared Irael at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/1.htm
* 'Yugoslav Opposition Negotiates Surrender of Yugoslavia' by Michel
Chossudovsky
and Jared Irael at http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/11.htm
***
We get by with a little help from our friends...
We receive all of our funding from individuals like you. We want
everyone to read our
articles, whether they can contribute financially or not, but if you are
able to
contribute, please do. Recently we were shut down for a wee by a hacker.
We are
taking steps to improve our security and also to increase the number of
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reach with our analyses. These improvements cost money.
Small contributions hel and so do big ones. You can make a donation by
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[Emperor's Clothes]
---
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/dos2.htm
DOS leader Djindjic: Yugoslavia is to be no more
Text of statement from Montenegrin Website of the Soros "Open Society"
type.
Comments by Jared Israel, Emperor's Clothes
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
"Djindjic said that he explained DOS’s thinking on renewing FRY.'We
believe the joint state should not be called Yugoslavia but the “The
Union
of Serbia and Montenegro'....Responding to the question of whether
this is
really DOS’s program, given Vojislav Kostunica’s statement on
strengthening the joint state, Djindjic said: “We, in the campaign,
did not
have completely differing views on these issues. I explained these
ideas in
the joint meetings of the DOS leaders and they were positively
accepted
both in the coalition and by the Serbian public."
Comments: It becomes increasingly evident with every passing hour that
Mr.
Kostunica is not the dominant leader in the Serbian opposition. The key
person is
Zoran Djindjic. In the text below, Mr. Djindjic is asked if Mr.
Kostunica accepts his
idea for dissolving Yugoslavia. His response is diplomatic but perfectly
clear: Djindjic
lays down the law, Kostunica follows. And why not? He is the point man
for the US;
he is the guy with the $77 million dollar check.
Djindjic seems slated to be Prime Minister. Mr. Dinkic from the
US/German-
controlled G-17 group of economists is slated to be head of a
colonial-style Central
Bank. [See Footnote near end]
Djindjic Proposes Abolition of Yugoslavia
When Mr. Djindjic opens his mouth it is Madeline Albright talking.
The consequences of the proposal to abolish Yugoslavia, expressed by Mr.
Djindjic in
the name of the entire opposition including Mr. Kostunica, are very
grave. . The
continued existence of Yugoslavia is the critical question in the
Balkans. Yugoslavia's
existence prevents the consolidation of US/German power in the Balkans
and
therefore hinders taking aggressive action toward the former Soviet
Union.
The act of relinquishing the name "Yugoslavia" would be a sharp blow to
the morale
of those who are trying to hold back the US/German assault.
Moreover, if Yugoslavia ceased to exist there would be immediate
consequences.
These would include the loss of all Yugoslav property, currently held by
Yugoslavia or
frozen by order of the U.S. This amounts to over $20 billion US. It
would mean that
the agreement by which Kosovo is legally part of Serbia - UN resolution
1244 - would
be void because that agreement was signed by the UN and Yugoslavia. It
would mean
the Yugoslavs would lose all right to speak in the UN - a right the US
has suppressed.
But up until now the Yugoslavs have had legality on their side. Agreeing
that
Yugoslavia is no more means relinquishing all claim to legal rights.
Here is the full text of the report on the conversation betyween Zoran
Djindjic and
Milo Djukanovic.
Djukanovic and Kostunica schedule a meeting on changes
in the military leadership
President of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic and the new president of FRY
Vojislav
Kostunica agreed that a meeting of the Supreme defense council should be
held soon,
where changes in the military leadership could be agreed, it was
confirmed by the
leader of the Democratic party, Zoran Djindjic.
Djindjic said that Kostunica and Djukanovic spoke on the phone and
agreed that a
meeting of the Supreme council should be held within the next three
days.
Djukanovic met Djindjic, who was representing the Democratic Opposition
of Serbia,
last night in Podgorica. Djindjic informed Djukanovic on DOS’s plans to
possibly
form an expert government with the SNP. This government would spend the
first two
to three months around issues connected to the removal of international
sanctions
and for the pledged international financial support for economic
recovery to be
realized, and therefore this government would not interfere in the
authorities of the
Republican governments. This government would “be voted in by the
representatives
of DOS, the Montenegrin SNP, and the occasional patriot from the SPS”,
said Djinjic.
The leader of the Democratic party claims that Djukanovic assessed this
idea as
interesting and “the least bad transitory solution”.
Djindjic said that he explained DOS’s thinking on renewing FRY.
“We believe the joint state should not be called Yugoslavia but the “The
Union of
Serbia and Montenegro”. This union should have much less joint
functions, because at
the moment there is a lot of overlap with the republics. The joint
functions should be
reduced to defense, and if regional stability is enhanced this would
assume a small
army, then also foreign policy and monetary policy based on a
convertible currency. It
is also true that the expensive institutions of the parliament and
government should
be reduced, because we already have this at the level of the independent
states. The
idea is to decrease the size of the federal functions but significantly
improve their
efficiency, which would mean reduced costs”, said the leader of the
Democratic party.
Responding to the question of whether this is really DOS’s program,
given Vojislav
Kostunica’s statement on strengthening the joint state, Djindjic said:
“We, in the campaign, did not have completely differing views on these
issues. I
explained these ideas in the joint meetings of the DOS leaders and they
were
positively accepted both in the coalition and by the Serbian public. I
think we should
first clarify what strengthening the joint state means. If the state has
three functions,
which are strong, this is better than if it has 20 which are weak”,
explained Djindjic.
Djindjic said the talks between the representatives of DOS and the
Montenegrin
government about the future relations between Serbia and Montenegro are
to start
this week.
***
Footnotes
Several articles on Emperor's Clothes have dealt with the G-17 group of
economists,
who are clearly slated to dominate the remaking of Yugoslavia. We
especially suggest
reading:
'The International Monetary Fund And The Yugoslav Elections' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/1.htm
'Yugoslav Opposition Negotiates Surrender of Yugoslavia' at
http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/11.htm
We get by with a little help from our friends...
We receive all of our funding from individuals like you. We want
everyone to read our
articles, whether they can contribute financially or not, but if you are
able to
contribute, please do. Recently we were shut down for a wee by a hacker.
We are
taking steps to improve our security and also to increase the number of
people we
reach with our analyses. These improvements cost money.
Small contributions hel and so do big ones. You can make a donation by
mailing a
check to Emperor's Clothes, P.O. Box 610-321, Newton, MA 02461-0321.
(USA) Or
if you'd like to do it by credit card, please call 617 916-1705 between
9:30 AM and
5:30 PM, Eastern Time (USA). .
Thanks for reading and thanks for helping. It's a joint effort, isn't
it?
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
---
http://www.iacenter.org/nato_harvest.htm
NATO is getting ready to pick up the harvest
By Tanja Djurovic
Junge Welt, Monday, 9.10.2000
Belgrade -- "I've just received information from official sources
that Vojislav
Kostunica won the elections. I congratulate Mr. Kostunica on his
election victory...",
said recent Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in his address to the
nation
broadcast on Yu-Info TV channel on Friday (Oct. 6), admitting defeat in
the
presidential elections by his opponent Vojislav Kostunica, candidate of
Democratic
opposition of Serbia (DOS).
"I personally intend to take a short break, to spend more time with my
family, and
then, afterwards, to primarily strengthen my party...Socialist party of
Serbia will be a
very strong opposition" finished Milosevic his address making it clear
that he has no
intention of fleeing the country, or leaving political life.
This seems to be the epilogue of election crisis in Yugoslavia and
two-week long
fight between Milosevic and Kostunica for presidency of FRY, which
culminated on
Thursday in Belgrade with mass and violent protests orchestrated by
DOS.
Vojislav Kostunica made his oath on Saturday night in Belgrade "Sava
Center", by
which he officially became new president of Yugoslavia. On the joint
constitutive
sessions of both chambers of Federal Parliament, Kostunica bounded
himself to
"respect and implement the Constitution of FRY and federal laws, to
preserve the
sovereignty, independence and integrity of FRY..."
Earlier in the night, both chambers of the Yugoslav Parliament were
constituted for
the new session. The Chamber of Citizens verified 119 out of 138 deputy
mandates,
and Chamber of Republics 39 out of 40 mandates.
In both chambers of the Federal Parliament the representatives of
Milosevic's left
coalition have the majority. This was clear from the start, and even DOS
representatives agreed to it.
Still, Milosevic's obvious presence in Yugoslav capital and appearance
on TV,
putting the end to rumors and wild guesses as to his whereabouts and
intentions, came
as a shock to DOS leaders and their supporters, who had been convinced
that
ex-Yugoslav president had long since left Belgrade, if not indeed the
country. That,
coupled with the fact that a leftist government might be formed soon, is
casting a
shadow on DOS's present advantage.
Zoran Djindjic, DOS campaign manager, gave a statement to the press
immediately
after Milosevic's address on Friday, saying that Slobodan Milosevic is
just preparing a
blow from the back and intends to consolidate the police forces, so he
could come
back on scene as a tough hand. Obviously afraid that someone or
something can still
endanger their "democratic revolution", Djindjic finished rather
paranoically: "I do
not trust Milosevic!"
Still, if Milosevic is not to be trusted, why not accept the
assurances and
congratulations offered to Kostunica by thehighest representatives of
the army and
police? It seems that DOS's fear of one man and his presence is so
great, that not
even the fact that those institutions didn't react during Thursday's
vandalistic
demonstrations can reassure the Serbian opposition.
Perhaps the DOS is simply being aware of its own fragility: from the
very beginning,
it has been highly dependent on foreign support and money. This ad hoc
alliance of
some 18 parties has only one common ground and program - to oust
Milosevic.
Not to forget that the DOS candidate, newly-proclaimed FRY president
Kostunica,
is a leader of a small party with low support from the people, and a man
of low
significance. The person running the show for this particular puppet on
a string is
Zoran Djindjic, who in his own turn is a puppet of the administration in
Washington.
Not to forget that over 2 million Yugoslav citizens voted against
Kostunica precisely
for the above mentioned reasons, knowing who the powers behind DOS are
and not
wanting to be a part of "Pax Americana".
"Slobodan Milosevic had very little or no chance at all" said Petar
Raskov (70), a
Federal court judge on pension, underlining that pressure exercised on
Serbia, of
power, money and media combined, was too heavy for Serbian people not to
yield.
"Milosevic was the only man to preserve the FRY resistance to NATO's
"Drang nach
Osten" (Push to the East) strategy. I couldn't vote for NATO, not even
if it puts on a
disguise of Serbian nationalist with anti-American policy".
As for those who did - a gun at man's temple can be a good incentive,
and endlessly
repeated "international community" treats to Serbian people that as long
as Milosevic
is Yugoslav president, sanctions against their country won't be lifted,
obviously
influenced the ultimate decision, especially with the young people.
"I didn't vote for Kostunica, he is nobody!" says Milan Ristic (24), a
student from
Belgrade. "But his victory might bring better days for Yugoslavia. I
voted against
Milosevic, because the whole world was against him!"
Therefore, after plowing Yugoslav land with bombs and missiles in
Spring of 1999,
after fertilizing it for over a year with media-launched lies and money,
Military
Alliance of the West is getting ready to pick up the harvest.
Tanja Djurovic is a Junge Welt correspondent from Belgrade.
JOURNAL DE BELGRADE – VENDREDI 6 octobre, 15 heures.
Michel Collon
Les 8 questions du moment
Je vais essayer de répondre aux 8 questions qui ressortent des
événements:
La TV a-t-elle tout montré?
Est-on en présence d'une stratégie de coup d'Etat bien preparé?
Que recherchent les Etats-Unis dans la situation actuelle?
A-t-on vote pour Kostunica ou contre Milosevic?
Pourquoi le pouvoir n'a-t-il senti venir sa défaite?
Les élections ont-elles été régulières?
Ceux qui soutiennent Kostunica se sont-ils pour autant rallies aux
Etats-Unis?
Que va-t-il se passer?
La TV a-t-elle tout montré? Rien à redire sur les images présentées par
la
BBC ou CNN. Il y avait effectivement une foule énorme, les policiers ont
opposé une résistance très faible et ont surtout cherche à éviter des
affrontements graves. Mais ce que je n'ai pas vu exposé dans ces chaînes
occidentales, c'est le saccage du siège du parti socialiste (alors que
Kostunica avait annoncé qu'il n'y aurait pas de revanchisme envers les
partis), et de bâtiments de diverses entreprises publiques. Ni les
vitrines
brisées d'un certain nombre de magasins du centre, qui ont ensuite été
pillés. J'ai personnellement vu des manifestants quittant le centre par
le
pont sur la Sava et emportant sur leurs épaules des ordinateurs voles.
Dans
le centre aussi, des non-manifestants déploraient qu'on détruise des
biens
de la voie publique: "C'est nous qui paierons". Mais le plus important
est
que l'opposition a réussi une mobilisation énorme et que le pouvoir n'a
pu
y opposer de contre-mobilisation.
Stratégie de coup d'Etat soigneusement préparée? Les manifestants
étaient
guidés par quelques centaines de jeunes gens fort actifs, venus surtout
de
Cacak, Kragujevac et autrès place-fortes de l'opposition (Belgrade est
plus
tiède). On constate qu'ils ont procède méthodiquement pour prendre le
contrôle de toute une série d'objectifs-clés. Le Parlement d'abord. Un
symbole évidemment. Encore doit-on remarquer que Monsieur Kostunica,
toujours presenté comme un constitutionnaliste et légaliste convaincu,
s'en
est donc pris à ce parlement au moment où celui-ci vient d'être élu et
que
l'opposition ne conteste pas les résultats des élections parlementaires.
Que veulent donc les USA? Nous y venons bientôt.
La TV RTS ensuite. Comme en Roumanie en 89 et dans chaque coup
d'Etat,
contrôler les grands médias et priver l'adversaire du droit de
réponse semble
devenu l'objectif numéro 1. Ont suivi les autrès médias et
certains bâtiments
d'entreprises publiques.
Ce caractère systématique et bien planifie fait rappeler que
le
chef réel de
l'opposition, Zoran Djindjic, avait déclaré il y a quelques
mois,
à la TV grecque que
s'ils ne gagnaient pas les élections, ils s'en prendraient au
parlement. Pas
nouveau, en 92, a Moscou, Elstine soutenu par les Etats-Unis,
avait carrément fait
incendier le parlement et fait tuer de nombreux députés qui
lui
résistaient.
Une autre dirigeante de l'opposition, Madame Pesic avait,
elle,
évoqué la nécessité
de "créer un syndrome de Bucarest'. Ces choses-là se préparent
longtemps à
l'avance.
Pourquoi les Etats-Unis poussent-ils encore a l'épreuve de force?
Pourquoi
cette recherche de l'affrontement total? Pourquoi refusent-ils tout
compromis négocié qui permettrait d'écarter le risque d'un bain de sang?
Parce qu'ils savent que l'opposition qu'ils sont en train d'amener au
pouvoir souffre de deux faiblesses graves, qui devraient lui être
fatales
sans qu'il faille attendre de longues années pour le constater. Quelle
sont
ces faiblesses?
Premièrement, la coalition DOS est complètement hétéroclite. 19 partis
qui
n'ont en commun que la volonté d'arriver au pouvoir et l'appétit envers
les
dollars de Washington. Dans cette coalition, on trouve en effet des gens
qui se sont disputes a mort pendant de longues années (Djindjic avait
exclu
Kostunica et bien d'autrès), des monarchistes et des republicains, des
unitaristes nationalistes serbes et des separatistes (du Sandjak et de
la
Voivodine) dont les programmes sont diametralement opposes. Une fois au
pouvoir, il est clair que recommenceront de plus belle les dechirements
et
les conflits d'interets. Il sera absolument impossible de realiser les
programmes de tous ces partis. La magie de "l'unite derriere Kostunica"
fera certainement long feu.
D'autant que, et c'est le deuxième facteur, DOS décevra forcement ses
electeurs. Ceux-ci, epuises financierement et moralement par dix années
de
sanctions aspirent a "vivre normalement" (c'est l'idee qui m'a ete le
plus
souvent exprimee par les manifestants d'hier que j'ai interroges), donc
a
rattraper un niveau de vie plus proche de l'Ouest. Mais, comme nous
l'avons
deja explique dans un precedent article, le programme « G-17 » de
l'opposition prevoit la liquidation des protections sociales et des
entreprises publiques, des licenciements massifs et carte blanche pour
les
multinationales afin de racheter les entreprises qui les interessent et
d'exploiter plus efficacement les travailleurs. Quelques uns vivront
mieux,
beaucoup vivront plus mal.
De sorte que, tot ou tard, Kostunica decevra et le souffle de l'espoir
retombera. Y aura-t-il alors une alternative? Les partis de gauche et
defenseurs de l'independance du pays pourraient-ils revenir au pouvoir
(a
condition, nous le verrons plus loin d'effectuer certains examens de
conscience) comme cela devrait etre le cas aux prochaines élections de
trois pays voisins: Macedoine, Republique Serbe de Bosnie et Roumanie?
C'est justement pour eviter cette possibilite de retour, legitime, au
pouvoir, lors des élections suivantes, que les Etats-Unis s'acharnent a
briser l'appareil gouvernemental actuel et celui des partis de gauche de
Yougoslavie.
En Macedoine, aux dernieres élections , le candidat de gauche était en
tete, les incidents violents se sont multiplies au point que le leader
de
la gauche s'est finalement desiste dans la crainte d'affrontements très
violents. Il faut dire que les troupes americaines et autrès occupent le
pays et que leur intervention pour arreter la gauche ne faisait aucun
doute. Ajoutons que, pour l'Ouest qui se dit si soucieux de la légalité,
ces élections-la ont ete "parfaites".
4. A-t-on vote pour Kostunica ou contre Milosevic? La bonne reponse est
la
seconde selon beaucoup de gens avec qui j'ai parle. Malgre dix ans de
pouvoir, Milosevic avait acquis un grand prestige durant la guerre en
resistant fermement a l'Otan, ce qui correspondait a la volonté de tout
son
peuple. Mais le parti au pouvoir a gaspille ses chances en commettant
deux
fautes majeures.
D'abord, il a permis, voire favorise la croissance de l'inegalite
sociale.
Oui, les sanctions (l'embargo) sont un crime de l'Ouest qui fait
souffrir
cruellement la population. Mais celle-ci a vu aussi se developper sous
ses
yeux certaines fortunes insolentes. Il n'est pas exact de pretendre,
comme
on dit dans les médias occidentaux, que « toute la nomenklatura vit dans
le
luxe ». Il m'est arrive d'entrer dans les appartements prives de
certains
cadres intermédiaires de ministeres; ils étaient tout aussi modestes que
ceux de leurs voisins, dans des cites d'immeubles sociaux qui n'avaient
vraiment rien de luxueux. Neanmoins, il y a aussi, dans le business et
dans
les trafics, des trains de vie scandaleux. Pour garder son soutien, le
regime aurait du combattre ces grosses fortunes et consacrer davantage
d'efforts au social.
Ensuite, la stratégie de communication aussi bien des dirigeants que des
médias publics n'a pas ete fructueuse. Il circulait de nombreuses
plaisanteries sur la television RTS et les messages d'en haut ont perdu
leur crédibilite a force de repeter que tout allait bien.
5. Pourquoi Milosevic ne l'a-t-il pas senti venir? Comment se fait-il
que
Milosevic ait décide de convoquer lui-meme des élections anticipees? Et
que, jusqu'a la derniere minute, les partis au pouvoir se montraient
surs
de l'emporter, de sorte qu'ils ont ete pris au depourvu quand ils ont du
"gerer" leur defaite?
La reponse tient dans le poids d'un certain bureaucratisme. On trouve
parmi
les fonctionnaires et les responsables politiques beaucoup de gens très
devoues et pleins d'enthousiasme pour défendre leur pays. On trouve
aussi
un certain nombre de bureaucrates qui ne se fatiguent pas beaucoup pour
chercher des solutions aux problèmes. Et on a l'impression très nette
que
les rapports qu'ils envoient "en-haut" sont du genre "Tout va très bien
madame la marquise". Le pouvoir ne s'est pas rendu compte qu'il avait
perdu
une grande partie de sa popularite de la guerre. Il a cru que les
élections
étaient gagnées d'avance. E sa stratégie de campagne n'a pas ete bonne:
Milosevic absent, des discours autosatisfaits sur la reconstruction qui
est
reelle, mais aussi la negation du problème social et un message
systematique du genre "tout ira très bien" qui a perdu sa crédibilite .
6. Les élections ont-elle ete regulieres? Bien sur, cette tentative
d'analyse des faiblesses des partis en place n'enleve rien au constat
que
nous avons deja fait. Oui, les élections n'ont pas ete regulieres. Quand
on
bombarde un peuple, qu'on detruit ses usines, ses installations civiles
d'electricite et de chauffage, ses routes et ses ponts, quand on lui
jette
des armes horribles comme les bombes a fragmentation et a l'uranium,
quand
on soumet sa population a un chantage repugnant "Votez pour les partis
pro-occidentaux ou vous continuerez a crever de faim", quand on deverse
des
centaines de millions de dollars pour aider certains partis politiques a
tromper les gens grace a des conseillers specialises en campagnes
mensongeres aux methodes scientifiques, alors il faut bien conclure que
ces
élections sont regulieres comme Jamie Shea est un homme objectif et
sincere.
7. Ceux qui soutiennent Kostunica se sont-ils pour autant rallies aux
Etats-Unis? J'ai discute avec des partisans de Kostunica. C'est
instructif.
Comme ces partis d'opposition sont finances – grassement – par
Washington,
on pourrait croire que les partisans de Kostunica sont automatiquement
partisans des Etats-Unis.
Faux. Un proverbe, que les Serbes s'appliquent avec auto-derision a
eux-memes, indique: "Si vous avez deux Serbes, vous avez trois
opinions."
Plusieurs manifestants m'ont dit spontanement "Nous ne sommes pas
l'Otan".
Un coiffeur, d'origine francaise, m'ayant reconnu dans la rue (suite a
des
apparitions televisees) est venu spontanement me signaler qu'il
appreciait
beaucoup mes critiques contre l'Otan, mais que j'avais tort de mettre
les
partis de l'opposition dans le meme sac. "Nous on deteste les
Americains,
on sait très bien ce qu'ils sont et leurs interets".
"Mais on ne veut plus de Milosevic, on veut vivre normalement sans
sanctions et comme vous autrès a l'Ouest." Comme les chomeurs et les SDF
de
l'Ouest ou comme les richards de l'Ouest? Ne se rend-il pas compte que
les
multinationales occidentales n'apportreront pas ici la prosperite mais
une
exploitation plus impitoyable?
Non, ce discours-la, pour l'instant, ils ne veulent pas l'entendre:
"Vous
avez peut-etre raison, mais il faut essayer, on veut du changement, du
changement! Et si ces nouveaux dirigeants ne tiennent pas leurs
promesses,
on changera de nouveau!" Ca, c'est la grande illusion de croire que
l'Otan
permettra une "marche arriere", mais voila l'etat d'esprit ici
actuellement.
Un autre element d'appreciation est que les strateges de la campagne
electorale de DOS ont reussi a faire passer une idee curieuse, mais
efficace: Milosevic serait en fait l'homme des Etats-Unis, il leur
servirait a maintenir leur emprise. Ca ne tient pas debout – pourquoi
les
Etats-Unis feraient tout pour eliminer celui qui leur servirait tant –
mais
ca marche aupres de certains. En fait, c'est une methode classique de
pub:
celui qui vole, crie "au voleur". Celui qui est paye par les Americains,
fait semblant de crier "A bas les Etats-Unis!"
8. Que va-t-il se passer? Cette apres-midi, une vie plus ou moins
normale a
repris dans les rues, encore que les commerces restent fermes. Mais
l'opposition veut maintenir ses troupes dans le centre, pour eviter
toute
intervention policiere de reprise en mains. Elle annonce une
mobilisation
plus importante encore.
D'une part, l'opposition DOS cherche a conclure une alliance au
parlement
en faisant eclater le parti montenegrin de Bulatovic et en y trouvant
les
voix qui leur manquent pour acquerir la majorite. On peut etre certain
que
les dollars de Washington servent d'appat. De l'autre cote, le
gouvernement
cherche la parade sans l'avoir trouve. Il affirme ne pas vouloir lancer
l'armée pour eviter un bain de sang, il demande que la légalité soit
respectee. Il s'efforce de retrouver un média qui lui permette de faire
passer son message. Mais sa stratégie de communication s'avere toujours
aussi lente et chaotique. On attend en vain une prise de position
officielle. Ilosevic pourrait prononcer un discours... On attend. A
bientot!
JOURNAL DE BELGRADE - Samedi 7 octobre, 12 heures
Ce sont les douze mois à venir
qui décideront du sort de la Yougoslavie
MICHEL COLLON
Les nouvelles importantes se sont succédé hier soir. Celle dont parlent
tous les médias
internationaux. Milosevic a reconnu la victoire de Kostunica aux
présidentielles.
Et celle dont ils ne parlent pas mais qui pourrait s'avérer plus
importante encore pour
les huit mois cruciaux qui viennent. La tentative de l'opposition de
débaucher certains
parlementaires monténégrins pour former une majorité gouvernementale de
rechange a échoué.
Sous réserve de confirmation, le prochain gouvernement yougoslave
devrait donc etre
formé du SPS, le parti de Milosevic, son allié traditionnel YUL et les
députés
monténegrins du SNP de Momir Bulatovic. Se retrouverait-on alors dans
une
situation de double pouvoir? Non, car celui du président est moins
important que celui
du gouvernement yougoslave, et moins important encore que celui du
gouvernement
serbe qui dispose de la majorité des budgets.
Kostunica président et Milosevic premier ministre?
Kostunica président et Milosevic premier ministre? Ce scénario
surréaliste que nous
avions envisagé il y a quelques jours, ce scénario serait le cauchemar
de Washington.
Et c'est pourquoi l'Óuest est en train de tout faire pour éliminer
définitivement de la
vie politique Milosevic et son parti.
Depuis Belgrade, j'ai regardé la BBC, CNN et une télé allemande. Toutes
présentaient
une image caricaturale: un peuple entier uni contre un dictateur. La
réalité est
différente. Milosevic conserve un soutien important - l'opposition ne
conteste pas les
résultats des élections parlementaires - et on se trouve plutot face à
un pays divisé en
deux camps, après des mois de pressions et de campagnes extérieures
énormes.
Comme je l'ai écrit hier, les dirigeants de l'opposition ont cherché à
créer un
"syndrome de Bucarest". Milosevic a tout fait pour éviter d'entrer dans
ce piège, il a
attendu dans une guerre d'usure, une guerre des nerfs, comme lors de
précédents
affrontements déclenchés par l'opposition (91 et 96-97) auxquels il
avait survécu:
"En tout cas, nous ne voulions pas envoyer l'armée et provoquer un bain
de sang",
m'ont déclaré des responsables gouvernementaux.
N'aurait-il pas mieux valu reconnaître de suite la victoire de
Kostunica? Beaucoup,
même dans son camp, le pensent: "Les gens ont cru qu'íl allait tenter de
manoeuvrer
et n'ont pas aimé ca", m'explique Ivana, qui a pourtant voté Milosevic.
Mais au camp Kostunica, on peut adresser une autre question: pourquoi
ont-ils refusé
le second tour qu'il semblait assuré de gagner? Nous pensons que
Washington et les
dirigeants de l'opposition ont cherché à provoquer le "syndrome
Bucarest" pour
tenter déliminer définitivement Milosevic de la scène politique.
Mais s'agit-il seulement de Milosevic? Non. Il s'agit de tout un courant
de la société
yougoslave qui résiste à la prise de contrôle par les multinationales.
Le 17 novembre
98, l'agence officielle britannique Reuter mentionnait un sondage auprès
de 300
sociétés selon lequel "la privatisation ne suscite pas l'enthousiasme en
Serbie, les
travailleurs craignent des licenciements massifs. Aucune compagnie n'a
encore été
privatisée depuis la nouvelle loi de privatisation adoptée il y a un
mois."
En outre, la volonté d'éliminer Milosevic ne concerne pas seulement la
Yougoslavie.
Pourquoi Milosevic est-il la bête noire de Washington?
"Parce qu'il symbolise la résistance au Nouvel Ordre Mondial et qu'il
pourrait donner
de mauvaises idées à d'autres forces dans les Balkans, m'explique
Ljliljana,
fonctionnaire dans un ministère. Aux yeux de Washington, Milosevic est
un virus
dangereux qui peut contaminer les Balkans."
Clinton et la démonisation des Serbes
A présent, Kostunica se trouve, lui, face à deux problèmes. L'un
immédiat: l'incendie
du parlement n'a pas été approuvée y compris parmi ses propres
supporters. "Même
l'Otan avait épargné ce symbole, s'indigne-t-on ici. Hitler avait
incendié le Reichstag
comme provocation avant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Et la télévision RTS
avait été
bombardée par l'Otan: 16 victimes. Les traces sont encore fraiches.
C'est indigne."
Deuxième problème: les encombrantes félicitations des Etats-Unis. Hier
soir,
j'entendais le discours de Bill Clinton. En substance: ""Cette victoire,
c?est la notre,
c'est la consécration du combat des Etats-Unis depuis dix ans. Nous
avons empêché
Milosevic de continuer à attaquer la Croatie, la Bosnie et d'autres
pays. Avec la
manifestation de Belgrade, nous avons mis fin à la menace d'un homme qui
avait fait
des centaines de milliers de victimes."
Ah oui? Milosevic aurait tué tant de gens? A lui tout seul? Clinton peut
être assuré
qu'aucun Serbe ne pense ainsi. Pratiquement tous continuent à penser que
leur pays a
été attaqué par les grandes puissances qui ont soutenu des extrémistes
comme
Tudjman et Izetbegovic et se sont montrés injustes envers les Serbes.
Certains - y
compris parmi les électeurs de l'opposition - reprochent même à
Milosevic de ne pas
avoir été assez ferme jusqu'au bout.
Quoi qu'il en soit, ce discours de Clinton poursuit la démonisation des
Serbes
présentés comme des monstres car il est évident que s'il y a "des
centaines de milliers
de victimes", un grand nombre de Serbes sont criminels, et la chasse aux
sorcières va
commencer avec toute la sélectivité et l'arbitraire dont Washington est
capable.
En outre, Washington ne compte nullement rendre justice aux Serbes, par
exemple au
Kosovo. Bernard Kouchner vient d'annoncer qu'il faudrait rester la-bas
une
géneration et que les troupes américaines y resteraient "sans doute dix
ans."(Washington Times, 30 septembre)
Meme avec Kostunica, les Serbes ne verraient pas la couleur de la paix
car les
Etats-Unis ont besoin d'une situation de conflit "de basse intensité"
permanente.
Une situation qui leur permette de maintenir la tension dans une région,
et la pression
contre un pays. Croire que les USA sont au Kosovo pour rétablir la paix
et aider les
Albanais, c'est comme croire qu'Hitler était allé occuper la
Tchéquoslovaquie pour
l'amour des minorités sudètes allemandes. Prétextes, prétextes... Tout
ce qui compte
pour les grandes puissances, c'est d'occuper des régions stratégiques.
Les douze mois qui viennent, avant les élections en Serbie, seront
décisives. La
Yougoslavie deviendra-t-elle ou non une colonie du FMI et de l?Otan?
S'ils veulent
renverser la tendance électorale actuelle - surtout dans la jeunesse -
Milosevic et ses
alliés auront à mener une politique plus sociale encore, une lutte plus
ferme contre les
privilèges. Et une stratégie de communication plus efficace, notamment
envers les
jeunes. Mais les forces progressistes du monde entier auront aussi un
rôle à jouer pour
démasquer l'action de Washington derrière des élections pas vraiment
libres.
Michel Collon
Les 8 questions du moment
Je vais essayer de répondre aux 8 questions qui ressortent des
événements:
La TV a-t-elle tout montré?
Est-on en présence d'une stratégie de coup d'Etat bien preparé?
Que recherchent les Etats-Unis dans la situation actuelle?
A-t-on vote pour Kostunica ou contre Milosevic?
Pourquoi le pouvoir n'a-t-il senti venir sa défaite?
Les élections ont-elles été régulières?
Ceux qui soutiennent Kostunica se sont-ils pour autant rallies aux
Etats-Unis?
Que va-t-il se passer?
La TV a-t-elle tout montré? Rien à redire sur les images présentées par
la
BBC ou CNN. Il y avait effectivement une foule énorme, les policiers ont
opposé une résistance très faible et ont surtout cherche à éviter des
affrontements graves. Mais ce que je n'ai pas vu exposé dans ces chaînes
occidentales, c'est le saccage du siège du parti socialiste (alors que
Kostunica avait annoncé qu'il n'y aurait pas de revanchisme envers les
partis), et de bâtiments de diverses entreprises publiques. Ni les
vitrines
brisées d'un certain nombre de magasins du centre, qui ont ensuite été
pillés. J'ai personnellement vu des manifestants quittant le centre par
le
pont sur la Sava et emportant sur leurs épaules des ordinateurs voles.
Dans
le centre aussi, des non-manifestants déploraient qu'on détruise des
biens
de la voie publique: "C'est nous qui paierons". Mais le plus important
est
que l'opposition a réussi une mobilisation énorme et que le pouvoir n'a
pu
y opposer de contre-mobilisation.
Stratégie de coup d'Etat soigneusement préparée? Les manifestants
étaient
guidés par quelques centaines de jeunes gens fort actifs, venus surtout
de
Cacak, Kragujevac et autrès place-fortes de l'opposition (Belgrade est
plus
tiède). On constate qu'ils ont procède méthodiquement pour prendre le
contrôle de toute une série d'objectifs-clés. Le Parlement d'abord. Un
symbole évidemment. Encore doit-on remarquer que Monsieur Kostunica,
toujours presenté comme un constitutionnaliste et légaliste convaincu,
s'en
est donc pris à ce parlement au moment où celui-ci vient d'être élu et
que
l'opposition ne conteste pas les résultats des élections parlementaires.
Que veulent donc les USA? Nous y venons bientôt.
La TV RTS ensuite. Comme en Roumanie en 89 et dans chaque coup
d'Etat,
contrôler les grands médias et priver l'adversaire du droit de
réponse semble
devenu l'objectif numéro 1. Ont suivi les autrès médias et
certains bâtiments
d'entreprises publiques.
Ce caractère systématique et bien planifie fait rappeler que
le
chef réel de
l'opposition, Zoran Djindjic, avait déclaré il y a quelques
mois,
à la TV grecque que
s'ils ne gagnaient pas les élections, ils s'en prendraient au
parlement. Pas
nouveau, en 92, a Moscou, Elstine soutenu par les Etats-Unis,
avait carrément fait
incendier le parlement et fait tuer de nombreux députés qui
lui
résistaient.
Une autre dirigeante de l'opposition, Madame Pesic avait,
elle,
évoqué la nécessité
de "créer un syndrome de Bucarest'. Ces choses-là se préparent
longtemps à
l'avance.
Pourquoi les Etats-Unis poussent-ils encore a l'épreuve de force?
Pourquoi
cette recherche de l'affrontement total? Pourquoi refusent-ils tout
compromis négocié qui permettrait d'écarter le risque d'un bain de sang?
Parce qu'ils savent que l'opposition qu'ils sont en train d'amener au
pouvoir souffre de deux faiblesses graves, qui devraient lui être
fatales
sans qu'il faille attendre de longues années pour le constater. Quelle
sont
ces faiblesses?
Premièrement, la coalition DOS est complètement hétéroclite. 19 partis
qui
n'ont en commun que la volonté d'arriver au pouvoir et l'appétit envers
les
dollars de Washington. Dans cette coalition, on trouve en effet des gens
qui se sont disputes a mort pendant de longues années (Djindjic avait
exclu
Kostunica et bien d'autrès), des monarchistes et des republicains, des
unitaristes nationalistes serbes et des separatistes (du Sandjak et de
la
Voivodine) dont les programmes sont diametralement opposes. Une fois au
pouvoir, il est clair que recommenceront de plus belle les dechirements
et
les conflits d'interets. Il sera absolument impossible de realiser les
programmes de tous ces partis. La magie de "l'unite derriere Kostunica"
fera certainement long feu.
D'autant que, et c'est le deuxième facteur, DOS décevra forcement ses
electeurs. Ceux-ci, epuises financierement et moralement par dix années
de
sanctions aspirent a "vivre normalement" (c'est l'idee qui m'a ete le
plus
souvent exprimee par les manifestants d'hier que j'ai interroges), donc
a
rattraper un niveau de vie plus proche de l'Ouest. Mais, comme nous
l'avons
deja explique dans un precedent article, le programme « G-17 » de
l'opposition prevoit la liquidation des protections sociales et des
entreprises publiques, des licenciements massifs et carte blanche pour
les
multinationales afin de racheter les entreprises qui les interessent et
d'exploiter plus efficacement les travailleurs. Quelques uns vivront
mieux,
beaucoup vivront plus mal.
De sorte que, tot ou tard, Kostunica decevra et le souffle de l'espoir
retombera. Y aura-t-il alors une alternative? Les partis de gauche et
defenseurs de l'independance du pays pourraient-ils revenir au pouvoir
(a
condition, nous le verrons plus loin d'effectuer certains examens de
conscience) comme cela devrait etre le cas aux prochaines élections de
trois pays voisins: Macedoine, Republique Serbe de Bosnie et Roumanie?
C'est justement pour eviter cette possibilite de retour, legitime, au
pouvoir, lors des élections suivantes, que les Etats-Unis s'acharnent a
briser l'appareil gouvernemental actuel et celui des partis de gauche de
Yougoslavie.
En Macedoine, aux dernieres élections , le candidat de gauche était en
tete, les incidents violents se sont multiplies au point que le leader
de
la gauche s'est finalement desiste dans la crainte d'affrontements très
violents. Il faut dire que les troupes americaines et autrès occupent le
pays et que leur intervention pour arreter la gauche ne faisait aucun
doute. Ajoutons que, pour l'Ouest qui se dit si soucieux de la légalité,
ces élections-la ont ete "parfaites".
4. A-t-on vote pour Kostunica ou contre Milosevic? La bonne reponse est
la
seconde selon beaucoup de gens avec qui j'ai parle. Malgre dix ans de
pouvoir, Milosevic avait acquis un grand prestige durant la guerre en
resistant fermement a l'Otan, ce qui correspondait a la volonté de tout
son
peuple. Mais le parti au pouvoir a gaspille ses chances en commettant
deux
fautes majeures.
D'abord, il a permis, voire favorise la croissance de l'inegalite
sociale.
Oui, les sanctions (l'embargo) sont un crime de l'Ouest qui fait
souffrir
cruellement la population. Mais celle-ci a vu aussi se developper sous
ses
yeux certaines fortunes insolentes. Il n'est pas exact de pretendre,
comme
on dit dans les médias occidentaux, que « toute la nomenklatura vit dans
le
luxe ». Il m'est arrive d'entrer dans les appartements prives de
certains
cadres intermédiaires de ministeres; ils étaient tout aussi modestes que
ceux de leurs voisins, dans des cites d'immeubles sociaux qui n'avaient
vraiment rien de luxueux. Neanmoins, il y a aussi, dans le business et
dans
les trafics, des trains de vie scandaleux. Pour garder son soutien, le
regime aurait du combattre ces grosses fortunes et consacrer davantage
d'efforts au social.
Ensuite, la stratégie de communication aussi bien des dirigeants que des
médias publics n'a pas ete fructueuse. Il circulait de nombreuses
plaisanteries sur la television RTS et les messages d'en haut ont perdu
leur crédibilite a force de repeter que tout allait bien.
5. Pourquoi Milosevic ne l'a-t-il pas senti venir? Comment se fait-il
que
Milosevic ait décide de convoquer lui-meme des élections anticipees? Et
que, jusqu'a la derniere minute, les partis au pouvoir se montraient
surs
de l'emporter, de sorte qu'ils ont ete pris au depourvu quand ils ont du
"gerer" leur defaite?
La reponse tient dans le poids d'un certain bureaucratisme. On trouve
parmi
les fonctionnaires et les responsables politiques beaucoup de gens très
devoues et pleins d'enthousiasme pour défendre leur pays. On trouve
aussi
un certain nombre de bureaucrates qui ne se fatiguent pas beaucoup pour
chercher des solutions aux problèmes. Et on a l'impression très nette
que
les rapports qu'ils envoient "en-haut" sont du genre "Tout va très bien
madame la marquise". Le pouvoir ne s'est pas rendu compte qu'il avait
perdu
une grande partie de sa popularite de la guerre. Il a cru que les
élections
étaient gagnées d'avance. E sa stratégie de campagne n'a pas ete bonne:
Milosevic absent, des discours autosatisfaits sur la reconstruction qui
est
reelle, mais aussi la negation du problème social et un message
systematique du genre "tout ira très bien" qui a perdu sa crédibilite .
6. Les élections ont-elle ete regulieres? Bien sur, cette tentative
d'analyse des faiblesses des partis en place n'enleve rien au constat
que
nous avons deja fait. Oui, les élections n'ont pas ete regulieres. Quand
on
bombarde un peuple, qu'on detruit ses usines, ses installations civiles
d'electricite et de chauffage, ses routes et ses ponts, quand on lui
jette
des armes horribles comme les bombes a fragmentation et a l'uranium,
quand
on soumet sa population a un chantage repugnant "Votez pour les partis
pro-occidentaux ou vous continuerez a crever de faim", quand on deverse
des
centaines de millions de dollars pour aider certains partis politiques a
tromper les gens grace a des conseillers specialises en campagnes
mensongeres aux methodes scientifiques, alors il faut bien conclure que
ces
élections sont regulieres comme Jamie Shea est un homme objectif et
sincere.
7. Ceux qui soutiennent Kostunica se sont-ils pour autant rallies aux
Etats-Unis? J'ai discute avec des partisans de Kostunica. C'est
instructif.
Comme ces partis d'opposition sont finances – grassement – par
Washington,
on pourrait croire que les partisans de Kostunica sont automatiquement
partisans des Etats-Unis.
Faux. Un proverbe, que les Serbes s'appliquent avec auto-derision a
eux-memes, indique: "Si vous avez deux Serbes, vous avez trois
opinions."
Plusieurs manifestants m'ont dit spontanement "Nous ne sommes pas
l'Otan".
Un coiffeur, d'origine francaise, m'ayant reconnu dans la rue (suite a
des
apparitions televisees) est venu spontanement me signaler qu'il
appreciait
beaucoup mes critiques contre l'Otan, mais que j'avais tort de mettre
les
partis de l'opposition dans le meme sac. "Nous on deteste les
Americains,
on sait très bien ce qu'ils sont et leurs interets".
"Mais on ne veut plus de Milosevic, on veut vivre normalement sans
sanctions et comme vous autrès a l'Ouest." Comme les chomeurs et les SDF
de
l'Ouest ou comme les richards de l'Ouest? Ne se rend-il pas compte que
les
multinationales occidentales n'apportreront pas ici la prosperite mais
une
exploitation plus impitoyable?
Non, ce discours-la, pour l'instant, ils ne veulent pas l'entendre:
"Vous
avez peut-etre raison, mais il faut essayer, on veut du changement, du
changement! Et si ces nouveaux dirigeants ne tiennent pas leurs
promesses,
on changera de nouveau!" Ca, c'est la grande illusion de croire que
l'Otan
permettra une "marche arriere", mais voila l'etat d'esprit ici
actuellement.
Un autre element d'appreciation est que les strateges de la campagne
electorale de DOS ont reussi a faire passer une idee curieuse, mais
efficace: Milosevic serait en fait l'homme des Etats-Unis, il leur
servirait a maintenir leur emprise. Ca ne tient pas debout – pourquoi
les
Etats-Unis feraient tout pour eliminer celui qui leur servirait tant –
mais
ca marche aupres de certains. En fait, c'est une methode classique de
pub:
celui qui vole, crie "au voleur". Celui qui est paye par les Americains,
fait semblant de crier "A bas les Etats-Unis!"
8. Que va-t-il se passer? Cette apres-midi, une vie plus ou moins
normale a
repris dans les rues, encore que les commerces restent fermes. Mais
l'opposition veut maintenir ses troupes dans le centre, pour eviter
toute
intervention policiere de reprise en mains. Elle annonce une
mobilisation
plus importante encore.
D'une part, l'opposition DOS cherche a conclure une alliance au
parlement
en faisant eclater le parti montenegrin de Bulatovic et en y trouvant
les
voix qui leur manquent pour acquerir la majorite. On peut etre certain
que
les dollars de Washington servent d'appat. De l'autre cote, le
gouvernement
cherche la parade sans l'avoir trouve. Il affirme ne pas vouloir lancer
l'armée pour eviter un bain de sang, il demande que la légalité soit
respectee. Il s'efforce de retrouver un média qui lui permette de faire
passer son message. Mais sa stratégie de communication s'avere toujours
aussi lente et chaotique. On attend en vain une prise de position
officielle. Ilosevic pourrait prononcer un discours... On attend. A
bientot!
JOURNAL DE BELGRADE - Samedi 7 octobre, 12 heures
Ce sont les douze mois à venir
qui décideront du sort de la Yougoslavie
MICHEL COLLON
Les nouvelles importantes se sont succédé hier soir. Celle dont parlent
tous les médias
internationaux. Milosevic a reconnu la victoire de Kostunica aux
présidentielles.
Et celle dont ils ne parlent pas mais qui pourrait s'avérer plus
importante encore pour
les huit mois cruciaux qui viennent. La tentative de l'opposition de
débaucher certains
parlementaires monténégrins pour former une majorité gouvernementale de
rechange a échoué.
Sous réserve de confirmation, le prochain gouvernement yougoslave
devrait donc etre
formé du SPS, le parti de Milosevic, son allié traditionnel YUL et les
députés
monténegrins du SNP de Momir Bulatovic. Se retrouverait-on alors dans
une
situation de double pouvoir? Non, car celui du président est moins
important que celui
du gouvernement yougoslave, et moins important encore que celui du
gouvernement
serbe qui dispose de la majorité des budgets.
Kostunica président et Milosevic premier ministre?
Kostunica président et Milosevic premier ministre? Ce scénario
surréaliste que nous
avions envisagé il y a quelques jours, ce scénario serait le cauchemar
de Washington.
Et c'est pourquoi l'Óuest est en train de tout faire pour éliminer
définitivement de la
vie politique Milosevic et son parti.
Depuis Belgrade, j'ai regardé la BBC, CNN et une télé allemande. Toutes
présentaient
une image caricaturale: un peuple entier uni contre un dictateur. La
réalité est
différente. Milosevic conserve un soutien important - l'opposition ne
conteste pas les
résultats des élections parlementaires - et on se trouve plutot face à
un pays divisé en
deux camps, après des mois de pressions et de campagnes extérieures
énormes.
Comme je l'ai écrit hier, les dirigeants de l'opposition ont cherché à
créer un
"syndrome de Bucarest". Milosevic a tout fait pour éviter d'entrer dans
ce piège, il a
attendu dans une guerre d'usure, une guerre des nerfs, comme lors de
précédents
affrontements déclenchés par l'opposition (91 et 96-97) auxquels il
avait survécu:
"En tout cas, nous ne voulions pas envoyer l'armée et provoquer un bain
de sang",
m'ont déclaré des responsables gouvernementaux.
N'aurait-il pas mieux valu reconnaître de suite la victoire de
Kostunica? Beaucoup,
même dans son camp, le pensent: "Les gens ont cru qu'íl allait tenter de
manoeuvrer
et n'ont pas aimé ca", m'explique Ivana, qui a pourtant voté Milosevic.
Mais au camp Kostunica, on peut adresser une autre question: pourquoi
ont-ils refusé
le second tour qu'il semblait assuré de gagner? Nous pensons que
Washington et les
dirigeants de l'opposition ont cherché à provoquer le "syndrome
Bucarest" pour
tenter déliminer définitivement Milosevic de la scène politique.
Mais s'agit-il seulement de Milosevic? Non. Il s'agit de tout un courant
de la société
yougoslave qui résiste à la prise de contrôle par les multinationales.
Le 17 novembre
98, l'agence officielle britannique Reuter mentionnait un sondage auprès
de 300
sociétés selon lequel "la privatisation ne suscite pas l'enthousiasme en
Serbie, les
travailleurs craignent des licenciements massifs. Aucune compagnie n'a
encore été
privatisée depuis la nouvelle loi de privatisation adoptée il y a un
mois."
En outre, la volonté d'éliminer Milosevic ne concerne pas seulement la
Yougoslavie.
Pourquoi Milosevic est-il la bête noire de Washington?
"Parce qu'il symbolise la résistance au Nouvel Ordre Mondial et qu'il
pourrait donner
de mauvaises idées à d'autres forces dans les Balkans, m'explique
Ljliljana,
fonctionnaire dans un ministère. Aux yeux de Washington, Milosevic est
un virus
dangereux qui peut contaminer les Balkans."
Clinton et la démonisation des Serbes
A présent, Kostunica se trouve, lui, face à deux problèmes. L'un
immédiat: l'incendie
du parlement n'a pas été approuvée y compris parmi ses propres
supporters. "Même
l'Otan avait épargné ce symbole, s'indigne-t-on ici. Hitler avait
incendié le Reichstag
comme provocation avant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Et la télévision RTS
avait été
bombardée par l'Otan: 16 victimes. Les traces sont encore fraiches.
C'est indigne."
Deuxième problème: les encombrantes félicitations des Etats-Unis. Hier
soir,
j'entendais le discours de Bill Clinton. En substance: ""Cette victoire,
c?est la notre,
c'est la consécration du combat des Etats-Unis depuis dix ans. Nous
avons empêché
Milosevic de continuer à attaquer la Croatie, la Bosnie et d'autres
pays. Avec la
manifestation de Belgrade, nous avons mis fin à la menace d'un homme qui
avait fait
des centaines de milliers de victimes."
Ah oui? Milosevic aurait tué tant de gens? A lui tout seul? Clinton peut
être assuré
qu'aucun Serbe ne pense ainsi. Pratiquement tous continuent à penser que
leur pays a
été attaqué par les grandes puissances qui ont soutenu des extrémistes
comme
Tudjman et Izetbegovic et se sont montrés injustes envers les Serbes.
Certains - y
compris parmi les électeurs de l'opposition - reprochent même à
Milosevic de ne pas
avoir été assez ferme jusqu'au bout.
Quoi qu'il en soit, ce discours de Clinton poursuit la démonisation des
Serbes
présentés comme des monstres car il est évident que s'il y a "des
centaines de milliers
de victimes", un grand nombre de Serbes sont criminels, et la chasse aux
sorcières va
commencer avec toute la sélectivité et l'arbitraire dont Washington est
capable.
En outre, Washington ne compte nullement rendre justice aux Serbes, par
exemple au
Kosovo. Bernard Kouchner vient d'annoncer qu'il faudrait rester la-bas
une
géneration et que les troupes américaines y resteraient "sans doute dix
ans."(Washington Times, 30 septembre)
Meme avec Kostunica, les Serbes ne verraient pas la couleur de la paix
car les
Etats-Unis ont besoin d'une situation de conflit "de basse intensité"
permanente.
Une situation qui leur permette de maintenir la tension dans une région,
et la pression
contre un pays. Croire que les USA sont au Kosovo pour rétablir la paix
et aider les
Albanais, c'est comme croire qu'Hitler était allé occuper la
Tchéquoslovaquie pour
l'amour des minorités sudètes allemandes. Prétextes, prétextes... Tout
ce qui compte
pour les grandes puissances, c'est d'occuper des régions stratégiques.
Les douze mois qui viennent, avant les élections en Serbie, seront
décisives. La
Yougoslavie deviendra-t-elle ou non une colonie du FMI et de l?Otan?
S'ils veulent
renverser la tendance électorale actuelle - surtout dans la jeunesse -
Milosevic et ses
alliés auront à mener une politique plus sociale encore, une lutte plus
ferme contre les
privilèges. Et une stratégie de communication plus efficace, notamment
envers les
jeunes. Mais les forces progressistes du monde entier auront aussi un
rôle à jouer pour
démasquer l'action de Washington derrière des élections pas vraiment
libres.
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 22:58:36 EDT
From: klasber@...
Who is Vojislav Kostunica?
Kostunica is a political personality who not until the presidential
election campaign was introduced by the Western media and who, according to
the reports, previously had played only a subordinate
role in Serbia and Yugoslavia. He is the chairman of a "Democratic Party of
Serbia". For a short time now he has been the presidential candidate of the
"Democratic Opposition of Serbia", a coalition of
several parties in which apparently Zoran Djindic calls the shots, acting
as Kostunicas campaign manager.This union actually already tells essentials
about Kostunica, because among the "opposition" politicians who since long
have been built up by the West, Djindic is the one who during the NATO
terror bombings went so far as to demand to give up the independence of the
country and to have it formally incorporated into the realm dominated by
the aggressors. Since then, of course, he cannot dare any longer to run for
a public office in Serbia, and it seems reasonable to suspect that
Kostunica is serving as a fig leaf for Djindic's direction, for enabling it
to anyway take part in the election campaign and for pushing the West's
objectives nearer to their fulfillment in spite of all of this.
In fact all the signs are that Kostunica is acting as the still relatively
guiltless and unsuspected one who helps Djindic come to power - a Trojan
horse of the US- and NATO-dependent opposition.
Kostunica appears as someone who objects NATO, who condemns the aggression
against his country and the separation of Kosovo, and who also drops
critical remarks about the US' interference into Yugoslavia's domestic
affairs.
It is worthwhile, however, to have a closer look at Kostunica's statements
What, for example, should one think about the following explanations in a
speech by Kostunica of April 14, 2000:
(http://www.bbnet.org.yu/bdnet/elections/eng/0414kostunica.htm)
1. "There is one more thing Serbia desperately needs today -
national reconciliation. First of all, the living Serbs are to
bury the hatchet and allow the dead to make up and bring about
that historic reconciliation. The first step to reconciliation
is to abolish the existing division into patriots and traitors.
After all, the present-day rulers of Serbia, who decreed
themselves patriots, have demonstrated their patriotism to all
but the Serbs. They have built other people� s countries and
demolished their own. They did many a good turn, but caused
their own people to grieve. Slobodan Milosevic has committed a
mortal sin against his own people and his own state.
Accordingly, he has to leave."
Here Kostunica accuses Milosevic who so far has been trying, within the
bounds of his possibilities, to defend Serbia's and Yugoslavia's
independence, of being a non-patriot, whereas he wants figures like Djindic
who definitely represent nothing but serfdom towards the West, to be freed
of the treason accusation.
In the same speech Kostunica continues:
2. "It is my duty to say one more thing. There is another sort
of violence that befell our misfortunate people - external
violence spearheaded by power-wielders in Washington and
Brussels. The forms of the external violence are the long-
standing sanctions, last year� s bombs and support to Albanian
terrorists in Kosovo. Whatever the source, violence is always
violence, despite occasional attempts at presenting it as
humane. It is hard to believe that people are killed, exhausted
and starved by sanctions, and that their environment poisoned
for their own benefit. First and foremost, we have to trample
the domestic violence underfoot. In order to survive as a
people, we have to normalise our relations with the world, but
we must neither disregard nor forget the foreign violence
conceived by the United States and NATO. More importantly, we
must never elevate it in our esteem or present it as anything
else but violence. Otherwise we will forget who and what we
are."
These sentences deserve a more detailed commentary.
Here "the external violence" is criticized, and a critical attitude is at
first taken towards NATO, towards the US and the EU. If however this is at
the same time subordinated to a maxim like "whatever the source - violence
is always violence", this criticism immediately evaporates into cheap talk.
For it is by no means unimportant from which sources violence originates
and which objectives it serves. Violence motivated by neocolonialism, as
exerted by NATO's latest war, by the economic sanctions and the
starvation strategy against the Serbian people, has to be objected and
fought against exactly because of its political goals, whereas military
violence for repelling this aggression is necessary and
must be supported. More generally, the resistance against these objectives
of the West cannot be denied the right to apply force if necessary.
Even more clearly Kostunica speaks in the following when he goes so far as
to declare the "domestic violence" to be the main enemy. This means in
other words: we regret to be the victims of violent
acts by the NATO countries, but it is not our main task to do away with
that but instead with the domestic violence. Having the situation in mind
one has to understand by this "domestic violence"
repressive acts by the Milosevic government, and in the first place such
against the so-called opposition of the Djindic and Draskovic type.
Kostunica here apparently chooses expressions by which the most miserable
forces can be vindicated. He avoids the concrete articulation of just
demands from the people against the bureaucratic apparatus, although he
likes to allude vaguely to the struggle against corruption, but on the
other hand he puts possible justified measures by the government against
treason, or corresponding acts by the people, on the same level as the
suppression of democracy.
Here Kostunica's adaptation to the West's strategy becomes already very clear.
Now a passage from an interview with the magazine
Vreme:(www.freespeech.org/ex-yupress/vreme/vreme79.html)
3."I also believed that we have to distance ourselves from
declarative, conterproductive support coming from the present,
departing, American administration which has proved to be
absolutely useless for the opposition and democratic forces in
Serbia. And that support can cause a lot of harm in the
election campaign. It is common knowledge how they can help the
population in Serbia. It seems that some European states are
far more aware of that, and they have over some small but
important projects, such as energy for democracy, established
some cooperation and assistance and led to a quiet and gradual
abolishment of sanctions."
To publicly play the distance from the US is absolutely necessary for
somebody who wants to act as an opponent of the Milosevic government - this
Kostunica is admitting here. If the connection with the US is all too
clear, if somebody like Djindic appears in Ms. Albright's office for
receiving her orders, if the US from their part are too openly sponsoring,
financing and media-supporting this "opposition", this cannot be but
"counterproductive", therefore its image has to be changed. The substance
of NATO's policy however is what this Kostunica identifies himself with.
The program "energy for democracy" is
nothing but a part, an element of the war and its continuation by different
means. After the bombs had destroyed power plants, refineries and transport
routes and an import blockade had been erected, NATO offered delivery of
oil and food to those regional rulers in Yugoslavia who would associate
themselves with NATO against Milosevic It is a prime example of the
"democracy" of Western capitalism which even after decades will be able to
claim a prominent place in the list of its self-exposures: 'you dance to
our tune and acknowledge the government we selected for you, or
else we look after your dying a wretched death.'
One more clear example for Kostunica's bootlicking of this kind of
"democracy" (from the same interview):
4. "VREME: In first news about your presidential campaign,
foreign news agencies mostly described you as a 'moderate
nationalist, inclined to democratic changes', and 'a fierce
critic of the American administration'.
Would you add anything to or take away from this news agency
portrait of Vojislav Kostunica?
KOSTUNICA: I would add a few things. Above all, there is a
radical dedication to the struggle against corruption,
regardless of its source. That has characterized my political
struggle so far. As far as the fierce criticism of the current
American administration is concerned, it does not at all imply
an anti-western attitude. On the contrary. That criticism is in
a way balanced with a different attitude with respect to
Europe. That criticism is pro-western rather than anti-western.
In as much as it advocates the return of the West to its
original democratic and liberal values."
The European governments which represent this dog's muck of an "energy and
food for democracy" program, are for Kostunica relatively close to the
"original democratic and liberal values" of the West. Enjoy your meal!
Apart from the toadying, Kostunica's analysis completely misses the heart
of the matter. In fact, the EU countries made war against Yugoslavia
shoulder to shoulder with the US, and exactly they in fact are the ones
which continue to exert massive pressure against Serbia and Yugoslavia by
their extortionist policy. Basically they are only subordinates of the US.
Concerning this one more statement by Kostunica. In a "Statement by
Democratic Oppostion of Serbia (DOS) Presidential Candidate
Vojislav Kostunica 18.9.2000" he says:
5. "In what they called a message to the Serbian people, EU
foreign ministers unequivocally pledged to lift the sanctions
against Yugoslavia if the September 24 election results led to
a democratic change, thus furnishing compelling evidence that
Europe� s policy towards Yugoslavia has changed for the better.
Of course, it would have been much more useful for Serbia� s
democracy hadn� t the ministers made the lifting of
international sanctions conditional, but this gesture of
goodwill will no doubt mean a lot to the Serbs, particularly
given the fact that we have already fulfilled their sole
condition - readiness for democracy. This is also yet another
opportunity to pay full respect to France� s diplomacy and
Hubert Vedrine, a man at its helm."
The shameless extortion from the part of the EU which ties the abolition of
the embargo to the installation of a government according to the wishes of
the US and the EU, for him really is "a
change for the better", "a gesture of goodwill".
We don't to withhold from the Serbian people what a special sort of friend
Mr. Kostunica chose for it in the person of Hubert Vedrine, the French
foreign minister. In an interview with the US paper "International Herald
Tribune" of April 20, 1999, Vedrine came to the fore:
(Q.) "The air strikes seem to put the Serbian population
strongly in tune with their leader, Slobodan Milosevic. Is a
harsher Western military blow needed to bring home to people
the consequences of what they've done, perhaps shock them to
their senses after living in denial about the outside world
for several years?
(Answer Vedrine:)
"For 10 years, in fact, ever since Mr. Milosevic seized on the
Kosovo issue to propagate the backward-looking nationalistic
delusions that have done so much harm to the country he runs.
Someday the people of Serbia will have a place in Europe, but
right now they have developed a mood of paranoia - which
existed before the air strikes but has worsened.
After a decade in which Serbian leaders have misled their
people so badly, Western governments can't operate in terms of
collective guilt, we can't make war on a people. We did not
intervene to change the regime in Serbia; we intervened
because the Kosovo situation was intolerable. Now we have to
work for solutions, not think about punishment. It's going to
take the Serbs a long time to recover and we're somehow going
to have to manage for them - until they are again ready to
take responsibility for themselves."
* * *
wg / Editorial staff of Neue Einheit Oct.2, 2000
E-mail: verlag@...
Internet: http://www.neue-einheit.com
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Message: 16
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 22:58:45 EDT
From: klasber@...
THE YUGOSLAVIAN ELECTIONS AND THE WEST
The 1999 war against Yugoslavia, if you look at how the West behaved, how
self-righteously an aggression and a terror bombing against a country were
justified, and afterwards the making up the minds for somebody else and the
threatening were sold as "democratic policy", is truly singular in history.
Such a bold and unconcealed posture was second not even to the most
arrogant gestures of a Hitler. The late Breshnew's theories about limited
sovereignty are just peanuts as compared with how the West of today treats
the whole world and presumes to determine election outcomes in several
countries in advance. It has already become a standard formula if Ms.
Albright, US secretary of state, declares towards the leader of a country
that there "will be trouble" if the election doesn't produce the result
that suits the US. Interference like that would have lead to outcries in
the past; every other country would have been utterly condemned.
All of that is being outdone by what is presently done with Yugoslavia
The present government has without doubt its weaknesses and provides
targets. But indubitably it has kept up the banner of Serbian independence
since 1995 and attempts to assert itself also against the great powers. In
a time when almost all statesmen, especially in Europe, excel by incredible
toadyism and bootlicking in front of US imperialism, this must be regarded
as something exceptional and valuable.
Already before the elections there were warnings that all results which
would not lead to Kostunica's absolute majority would be regarded as
falsifications. And when the counting still was on, the Western media and
statesmen for their part without further ado declared Kostunica the winner,
although besides their own projections no figures were available yet, and
even Kostunica's followers had not yet given figures. There are no
considerable figures yet but Gerhard Schroeder already announces that an
election victory by the so-called opposition is crystallizing itself
clearer and clearer. Where does the chancellor Schroeder know this from?
Still some weeks ago even the men behind this so-called opposition in the
Foreign Office in Washington or in Josef Fischer's office or elsewhere were
very sceptical about the fragmented movement and doubted if it really would
be able to gain ground in the elections.
Several times already there were attempts from the West to build an
opposition in Serbia, in 1997 and later on again, and always this was a
failure. During the war in 1999 probably 95% of the Serbian people backed
the government and condemned NATO's terror attacks.
The main figures of this so-called opposition like Zoran Djinjic are
infamous and discredited in Serbia. Because of their despicable behavior
and their direct partisanship for those who threw bombs on Yugoslavia they
had lost almost any credibility. The discreditation is also valid for the
highly dubious figure of Vuk Draskovic who on the one hand makes deals with
the West, too, and on the other represents an extreme Serbian chauvinism,
in particular also during the time when the Serbian name by the acts of
Serbian chauvinists in Bosnia but also in some other areas of conflict was
deeply connected to wrongdoing - what is to be the pretext in 1999 and 2000.
It is very significant in this context that one of the figures who bear a
good deal of responsibility for certain Serbian forces' latest inglorious
tradition, Seselj - a radical rightist and in the war until 1995
intermediary of the Bosnian Serbs - stabs Milosevic into the back in the
present situation and is working into the hands of the so-called
opposition. And this is actually cherished by the West. Also the infamous
butcher Arkan who not long ago lost his life by an attack, had connections
into the US. And didn't their and German government's most compliant tool
in Serbia, their "model democrat" Djinjic,
demonstratively travel to Pale still in 1995, when the official Serbia
already had more and more distanced herself from Karadzic, and showed
solidarity with Karadzic who is known to bear the responsibility for
innumerable war crimes from the part of certain Bosnian Serbs? Which
standards are employed here? And the same people claim the moral right for
themselves to pass judgement over Serbia, to cover her with terror
bombings, and in face of the present elections they even pretend to
represent the interests of the Serbian people!
Kostunicas nomination as presidential candidate is the attempt to seemingly
show a way out for Serbia with a new figure, in order to actually open the
portal for those who want to get Serbia completely in their clutches; it is
a trick in order to complete the dictate over Serbia by these forces from
the US in coalition with other capitalists in Europe.
Who is that Vojislav Kostunica who bestowed to this so-called opposition at
least a relative success in the elections?
>From all what has become known Kostunica is a relatively unknown quantity,
having so far kept himself more in the background. He is not stigmatized by
open partisanship with NATO as it is the case with Djinjic. He appears as a
patriot, recognizes Kosovo as part of Serbia and has condemned the bombings
by the US and the NATO. There are however several recent interviews in
which he unmasks himself as a fundamental admirer of the US and the EU,
criticizing the US only because of his all too open support for the
so-called opposition which would discredit it completely in front of the
Serbian people. He even goes so far to support the EU 's extortionist
policy to lift the embargo only for
cities which are run by the so-called opposition, and to supply oil and
food to them. [See also "Who is Vojislav Kostunica" at
<http://www.neue-einheit.com/is/is2000-23e.htm> ]
It cannot be called just interference what the West is doing regarding the
elections in Yugoslavia. This would be a gross understatement. From the
outset it is dominated by extortion. Already in July 1999, after the war
was in the main over, Clinton declared that there would be economic aid for
the country destroyed by NATO bombs only if Milosevic would disappear. (See
note) It is impossible to conceive of a more direct interference. And the
same people who talk like this are now posturing
and declare their resolve to look after correctness in the elections.
If the elections were rigged we cannot decide from here. If the
administration or parts of it should have committed something like this it
certainly must be investigated in detail, evaluated and lead to the
corresponding consequences. But also this has to be regarded in relationto
the general situation. One thing however is for certain: to flatten the
economic fundaments of life with bombs, openly declaring that this is for
creating need and hunger, in order to force the people to accept the
government chosen by the West so that they can get oil and food, is the
harshest variant of vote rigging which can be imagined.
Whatever the present government may be reproached of in detail: there is no
right whatsoever for the West, for these terror bombers, these rogue
politicians to raise such moral accusations. Their whole cause is extortion
and interference from the beginning to the end. Serbia would even have the
right to put every politician who sides with the West, and this is also in
fact the case with Kostunica, on the ground of illegality in Serbia,
because a country has the right to act against traitors.
Those who bombed and extorted Serbia now put forward the kind of logic that
Belgrade has to acknowledge "the Serbian people's will" - and they have the
nerve to define that will - in order to prevent "an escalation of violence".
We hope that the Serbian people will prick up their ears here, and that as
much of this extortion as possible is also publicly clarified and denounced.
But even if now those should come to power who make deals with these
criminals and blackmailers and are in cahoots with them, there will be no
democracy at all in Serbia, notwithstanding the election mechanisms which
might be installed. Then the unconcealed and brutal dictatorship of
international capitalism in Yugoslavia will be the consequence, so that any
movement of national independence and autonomy - and this is the
precondition for democracy in Serbia and Yugoslavia - will be impossible
from the start.
We still want to say some words about the hopes which, as it seems from
here, are stirred by the so-called opposition's propaganda. The Yugoslavian
people are promised opening and modernizing of the society, participation
in the international progressive developments, probably also better and
more interesting job opportunities etc. We see such wishes justified,
actually much new has to happen in this respect, not only in Serbia and
Yugoslavia. But to tie such hopes to a change of government towards the
opposition built up by the West must be questioned. Russia also was
promised the opening by the West, what became reality under the government
of the forces supported and
controlled by the West is such a disaster that many millions of Russians,
up to 40 or 50 millions, have left the country.
In particular the integration into the EU as promised by people like
Kostunica will be translated into reality only under the condition that
Serbia makes the total inner kowtow in front of the Western political order
of today, going as far as to self-denial. The European countries' inner
development not only shows positive signals. A doubtful extinction of great
parts of the production basis, the discarding of parts of the own
population, and the extinction of own identity are leading to considerable
social problems which already begin to show and which will show with all of
their consequences in the future.
As a negative example you can take Germany with a development of the own
nation's population towards self-eradication, with its destruction of the
will for independence and for future going to a dangerous limit, a
development which took place in particular during the last 25 years. A lot
is being just a fa�ade here and actually the EU itself is in a deep state
of crisis.
Because of all of these points named here we are not at all able to
sympathize with the so-called opposition which actually is easily
boughtfrom top to bottom, or even hedge the slightest wish that it be
victorious. Very certainly there are social conflicts and problems in
Serbia which must be solved. These however the Serbian and Yugoslavian
people have to settle within their own framework, without any foreign
interference. Here, though, forces are active who work for the complete
occupation of
Serbia by the NATO, the US, France, Great Britain and the Federal Republic
of Germany, and who in order to divert from this fact chose somebody who
speaks of nation, of national independence etc. but who shall only serve
for bringing these forces, with Zoran Djinjic in the first place, to power.
We can afford a prognosis: even if these forces should be successful - the
US and the other NATO countries do not have a solution. How do they intend
to solve the Kosovo question according to their wishes if their allies of
yesterday, the Albanians, urge the total separation? The new government
will have to save face. For that, civil war-like occurrences might be the
consequence in Kosovo. The contradictions which today exist in Serbia won't
be solved by the West by means of this kind of lackeys. Many of their
promises will vanish into thin air. Capitalism does not make such attempts
to corrupt without reason.
If the forces who stand for Serbia's national independence really want to
grasp a chance yet, then they will have to attack the miserable essence of
this so-called opposition to the full extent, and in the future they
certainly will have to fight decidedly against privileges, mismanagement,
corruption and other things within the bureaucratic state apparatus. This
will be a precondition. A renewal of the state is needed but how and under
which preconditions it will take place, this will be the decisive factor.
We want to express the hope that the Serbian people will resist the
infiltrative methods as it resisted the war and the military threatening.
The whole of Europa is required to lift the sanctions against Yugoslavia
immediately!
--------
Note:
In this year's June, concrete sums for the "post-Milosevic Serbia" were
named by the US and the EU to the participating members of the so-
called opposition, at a meeting of the so-called "Balkans stability pact":
$ 4 billions.
===============================================
Editorial staff of Neue Einheit
4.10.2000
E-mail: verlag@...
Internet: http://www.neue-einheit.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
neue einheit
Zeitschrift fuer Politik, Oekonomie und Kultur
-------------------------------------------------------------
copyright 2000, Verlag NEUE EINHEIT (Inh. H.Dicke)
Mallinckrodtstr 177, D-44147 Dortmund Germany
and D-10973 Berlin, Postfach 360 309
Phone: +49-231-838932 resp. +49-30-6937470
---
----- Original Message -----
From: Warren Smith
To: marxist-leninist-list@...
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2000 8:37 AM
Subject: [MLL]Yugoslavia: what the media is hiding
Yugoslavia: what the media is hiding
While the western mass media is whipping up a tremendous campaign
against Yugoslavia's President Milosevic, the same media has absolutely
nothing to say about the election results for the upper and lower houses of
Yugoslavia's parliament. Yugoslavia has a parliamentary system with two
national leaders. First there is a ceremonial President with no real power.
Second there is a Prime Minister chosen by Parliament.
The real question in the Yugoslav election was always whether the
opposition could muster the votes to gain a parliamentary majority.
As a result of last week's election there is no chance that they can
govern, not even as part of a coalition.
For the first time, Milosevic's Socialist Party and its allies have won an
absolute majority of seats in both the upper and lower houses of
Parliament.
The results of the Presidential vote are being subjected to much (ill-
informed) debate. But nobody contests the parliamentary results.
In Yugoslavia, prior to this latest election, the Government had only 64
seats out of 138 in the lower house. Now they have added eight in the Lower
House to gain a three-vote majority: 72 out of 138 seats.
Up until now the Government had to forge a coalition with one of the minor
parties if it wanted to pass a law. With its new majority in the Lower
House, the Government no longer has to rely on a shaky coalition to pass
much-needed legislation.
The Government scored a bigger victory in the Yugoslav Senate race, the
upper house. They won seven out of 20 senate seats in Serbia and 19 of 20
senate seats in Montenegro. The Opposition won just 10 of 40 senate seats.
The Government is just short of a 2/3 majority.
Milosevic's governing party won a tremendous victory by gaining a majority
in both the upper and lower houses of Parliament.
It is this result that the western powers are out to undo at any cost, even
to the point of attempting to spark a civil war or by cooking up a
provocation to justify an invasion of Yugoslavia.
They are creating an extremely dangerous situation. But first of all, the
West must hoodwink the people into believing that Milosevic lost the
election and has fraudulently rigged the results.
The parliamentary election results explain why the opposition forces are
desperately against any run-off for the Presidency and why the West is
attempting to railroad their chosen representative into the President's
shoes.
* * *
Acknowledgement to Max Sinclair writing for Emperor's Clothes
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/sinclair/governin.htm
for some of the material in this article.
---
Subject:
We do not celebrate
Date:
Sat, 7 Oct 2000 18:20:57 +0200
From:
"ILC" <ilc@...>
To:
<ilc@...>
Clinton and his European satraps are celebrating because they think that
with Milosevic leaving the scene they have taken Belgrade and thus paved the
way for their rule over the Balkans.
They are wrong! It is not enough to oust Milosevic in order to take
Belgrade. Therefore the surrender of the Serb people, the destruction of the
federal army, the smashing of the state apparatus as well as their
substitution with servants of Western interests would be necessary.
Therefore that what happened is definitely not enough. It necessitates that
Nato finds a kind of KLA in Yugoslavia, a people that is ready to be
enslaved.
The latest events only close a phase of the Balkanic turbulences. But they
do not bring the turbulences as such to an end. Those are defined by the
imperialist politics that by trying to destroy all obstacles for its
supremacy are doomed to create new and ever more destructive crisis.
The analysis must be carried out from two different points of view, the
geopolitical and the class viewpoint. Even if they are interlinked it is
useful to regard them separately.
Geopolitically speaking we doubt that Yugoslavia under Serb hegemony could
ever become a protectorate of Nato as the other �republics� of the Balkans.
History teaches that this is highly unlikely. Even Kostunica had to
demarcate himself from the tutelage offered to him by Nato in order to win
the consensus of the masses.
The regime of Milosevic refused the capitulation of Yugoslavia to Nato.
Therefore, and only therefore, the serious anti-imperialist and
revolutionary forces throughout the world did support him. Actually they
never endorsed his domestic politics that � although never becoming
neo-liberal � did neither follow socialist principles nor strived for the
active defence of the interests of the working class and the poorest strata
of the population.
This is the reason for the collapse of the regime facing the waves of the
mass movement led by Kostunica. If the regime is not able to defend the
parliament and the TV station being set on fire by the revolt that means
nothing else than that it has lost the social consensus it used to have.
Already since a certain time this rule has rested on sand and was secured
mainly by the monopoly of force.
The conception that the attack of imperialism, the starvation caused by it,
the sanctions and the embargo could by put down solely by resorting to
nationalist and anti-Western sentiments has been proved to be a catastrophic
illusion.
In order to destroy the magic it was enough that Kostunica by his turn
raised the patriotic banner. Nationalism is an important factor, but not the
decisive one. Such as all feelings it vanishes facing the daily struggle for
bread. In order to secure the social consensus resolute politics for social
justice and intransigent defence of the interests and rights of the workers
and peasants would have been indispensable. Contrary to that Milosevic had
been accepting privatisations and had been demanding unprecedented
sacrifices from the workers, while at the same time he let the mafia
bourgeoisie enrich itself at the black market. While the people had been
starving and had to send its sons to Kosovo to defend the country, the
nomenclature increased corruption and hold its protecting hands over its
sons in order to save them from serving in arms.
>From this point of view we warn the youth that seems to have delivered the
final blow to the SPS JUL regime that the Serb people could fall out of the
frying-pan into the fire. Even if we would assume that Kostunica is the
brave and proper man as which he likes it to present himself we will not be
able to block the bourgeois forces that rally behind him in order to inflict
savage neo-liberal capitalism on the people. They hope for lucrative
business with the reconstruction and thirst for the money being promised by
the West with nice words. If the workers and the Serb people is not vigilant
the �Red mafia� will be substituted by a even more unscrupulous �democratic
Camorra�.
We therefore refuse to participate at the hypocritical chorus of those who
celebrate an alleged �democratic revolution�. There never have been
communists who celebrate political events together with their worst enemies.
We still remember certain �anti-capitalists� who welcomed the collapse of
the USSR between 1989 and 1991 whose result was the creation of several
statelets that serve the Western interests. They claimed that we were facing
revolutions because some movements rallied masses behind them. But the
decisive criteria to evaluate events is not mainly that the masses get into
movement, but in what direction they move. The direction is determined by
the international relationship of forces as well as by the political groups
that take the leadership.
Finally we want to re-iterate that our tenacious support for the resistance
of the Yugoslav people and the Yugoslav army against the Nato aggression was
not erroneous. Certain seeds only carry fruits after a long period. The
current flood, the �democratic� drunkenness will neither eradicate the deep
socialist tradition among the Serb people nor the traces of the tremendous
anti-imperialist solidarity delivered to it mainly in the last year.
The Serb proletarians and among them the genuine communists will need our
help and fraternity.
Executive Committee of the ILC
5th October, 2000
***************************************
International Leninist Current (ILC)
Corriente Leninista Internacional (CLI)
PF 23, A-1040 Wien, Austria
Tel & Fax +43 1 504 00 10
ilc@...
www.comports.com/ilc
www.antiimperialista.com
===
Bollettino di controinformazione del
Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'"
> http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono il Coordinamento, ma vengono
fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al solo scopo di
segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only")
Per contributi e segnalazioni: jugocoord@...
*** QUESTO SERVIZIO E' ANCORA IN FASE SPERIMENTALE ***
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Una newsletter personale,
un forum web personale,
una mailing list personale, ...?
Gratis sotto
http://www.ecircle.de/ad173636/www.ecircle.it
From: klasber@...
Who is Vojislav Kostunica?
Kostunica is a political personality who not until the presidential
election campaign was introduced by the Western media and who, according to
the reports, previously had played only a subordinate
role in Serbia and Yugoslavia. He is the chairman of a "Democratic Party of
Serbia". For a short time now he has been the presidential candidate of the
"Democratic Opposition of Serbia", a coalition of
several parties in which apparently Zoran Djindic calls the shots, acting
as Kostunicas campaign manager.This union actually already tells essentials
about Kostunica, because among the "opposition" politicians who since long
have been built up by the West, Djindic is the one who during the NATO
terror bombings went so far as to demand to give up the independence of the
country and to have it formally incorporated into the realm dominated by
the aggressors. Since then, of course, he cannot dare any longer to run for
a public office in Serbia, and it seems reasonable to suspect that
Kostunica is serving as a fig leaf for Djindic's direction, for enabling it
to anyway take part in the election campaign and for pushing the West's
objectives nearer to their fulfillment in spite of all of this.
In fact all the signs are that Kostunica is acting as the still relatively
guiltless and unsuspected one who helps Djindic come to power - a Trojan
horse of the US- and NATO-dependent opposition.
Kostunica appears as someone who objects NATO, who condemns the aggression
against his country and the separation of Kosovo, and who also drops
critical remarks about the US' interference into Yugoslavia's domestic
affairs.
It is worthwhile, however, to have a closer look at Kostunica's statements
What, for example, should one think about the following explanations in a
speech by Kostunica of April 14, 2000:
(http://www.bbnet.org.yu/bdnet/elections/eng/0414kostunica.htm)
1. "There is one more thing Serbia desperately needs today -
national reconciliation. First of all, the living Serbs are to
bury the hatchet and allow the dead to make up and bring about
that historic reconciliation. The first step to reconciliation
is to abolish the existing division into patriots and traitors.
After all, the present-day rulers of Serbia, who decreed
themselves patriots, have demonstrated their patriotism to all
but the Serbs. They have built other people� s countries and
demolished their own. They did many a good turn, but caused
their own people to grieve. Slobodan Milosevic has committed a
mortal sin against his own people and his own state.
Accordingly, he has to leave."
Here Kostunica accuses Milosevic who so far has been trying, within the
bounds of his possibilities, to defend Serbia's and Yugoslavia's
independence, of being a non-patriot, whereas he wants figures like Djindic
who definitely represent nothing but serfdom towards the West, to be freed
of the treason accusation.
In the same speech Kostunica continues:
2. "It is my duty to say one more thing. There is another sort
of violence that befell our misfortunate people - external
violence spearheaded by power-wielders in Washington and
Brussels. The forms of the external violence are the long-
standing sanctions, last year� s bombs and support to Albanian
terrorists in Kosovo. Whatever the source, violence is always
violence, despite occasional attempts at presenting it as
humane. It is hard to believe that people are killed, exhausted
and starved by sanctions, and that their environment poisoned
for their own benefit. First and foremost, we have to trample
the domestic violence underfoot. In order to survive as a
people, we have to normalise our relations with the world, but
we must neither disregard nor forget the foreign violence
conceived by the United States and NATO. More importantly, we
must never elevate it in our esteem or present it as anything
else but violence. Otherwise we will forget who and what we
are."
These sentences deserve a more detailed commentary.
Here "the external violence" is criticized, and a critical attitude is at
first taken towards NATO, towards the US and the EU. If however this is at
the same time subordinated to a maxim like "whatever the source - violence
is always violence", this criticism immediately evaporates into cheap talk.
For it is by no means unimportant from which sources violence originates
and which objectives it serves. Violence motivated by neocolonialism, as
exerted by NATO's latest war, by the economic sanctions and the
starvation strategy against the Serbian people, has to be objected and
fought against exactly because of its political goals, whereas military
violence for repelling this aggression is necessary and
must be supported. More generally, the resistance against these objectives
of the West cannot be denied the right to apply force if necessary.
Even more clearly Kostunica speaks in the following when he goes so far as
to declare the "domestic violence" to be the main enemy. This means in
other words: we regret to be the victims of violent
acts by the NATO countries, but it is not our main task to do away with
that but instead with the domestic violence. Having the situation in mind
one has to understand by this "domestic violence"
repressive acts by the Milosevic government, and in the first place such
against the so-called opposition of the Djindic and Draskovic type.
Kostunica here apparently chooses expressions by which the most miserable
forces can be vindicated. He avoids the concrete articulation of just
demands from the people against the bureaucratic apparatus, although he
likes to allude vaguely to the struggle against corruption, but on the
other hand he puts possible justified measures by the government against
treason, or corresponding acts by the people, on the same level as the
suppression of democracy.
Here Kostunica's adaptation to the West's strategy becomes already very clear.
Now a passage from an interview with the magazine
Vreme:(www.freespeech.org/ex-yupress/vreme/vreme79.html)
3."I also believed that we have to distance ourselves from
declarative, conterproductive support coming from the present,
departing, American administration which has proved to be
absolutely useless for the opposition and democratic forces in
Serbia. And that support can cause a lot of harm in the
election campaign. It is common knowledge how they can help the
population in Serbia. It seems that some European states are
far more aware of that, and they have over some small but
important projects, such as energy for democracy, established
some cooperation and assistance and led to a quiet and gradual
abolishment of sanctions."
To publicly play the distance from the US is absolutely necessary for
somebody who wants to act as an opponent of the Milosevic government - this
Kostunica is admitting here. If the connection with the US is all too
clear, if somebody like Djindic appears in Ms. Albright's office for
receiving her orders, if the US from their part are too openly sponsoring,
financing and media-supporting this "opposition", this cannot be but
"counterproductive", therefore its image has to be changed. The substance
of NATO's policy however is what this Kostunica identifies himself with.
The program "energy for democracy" is
nothing but a part, an element of the war and its continuation by different
means. After the bombs had destroyed power plants, refineries and transport
routes and an import blockade had been erected, NATO offered delivery of
oil and food to those regional rulers in Yugoslavia who would associate
themselves with NATO against Milosevic It is a prime example of the
"democracy" of Western capitalism which even after decades will be able to
claim a prominent place in the list of its self-exposures: 'you dance to
our tune and acknowledge the government we selected for you, or
else we look after your dying a wretched death.'
One more clear example for Kostunica's bootlicking of this kind of
"democracy" (from the same interview):
4. "VREME: In first news about your presidential campaign,
foreign news agencies mostly described you as a 'moderate
nationalist, inclined to democratic changes', and 'a fierce
critic of the American administration'.
Would you add anything to or take away from this news agency
portrait of Vojislav Kostunica?
KOSTUNICA: I would add a few things. Above all, there is a
radical dedication to the struggle against corruption,
regardless of its source. That has characterized my political
struggle so far. As far as the fierce criticism of the current
American administration is concerned, it does not at all imply
an anti-western attitude. On the contrary. That criticism is in
a way balanced with a different attitude with respect to
Europe. That criticism is pro-western rather than anti-western.
In as much as it advocates the return of the West to its
original democratic and liberal values."
The European governments which represent this dog's muck of an "energy and
food for democracy" program, are for Kostunica relatively close to the
"original democratic and liberal values" of the West. Enjoy your meal!
Apart from the toadying, Kostunica's analysis completely misses the heart
of the matter. In fact, the EU countries made war against Yugoslavia
shoulder to shoulder with the US, and exactly they in fact are the ones
which continue to exert massive pressure against Serbia and Yugoslavia by
their extortionist policy. Basically they are only subordinates of the US.
Concerning this one more statement by Kostunica. In a "Statement by
Democratic Oppostion of Serbia (DOS) Presidential Candidate
Vojislav Kostunica 18.9.2000" he says:
5. "In what they called a message to the Serbian people, EU
foreign ministers unequivocally pledged to lift the sanctions
against Yugoslavia if the September 24 election results led to
a democratic change, thus furnishing compelling evidence that
Europe� s policy towards Yugoslavia has changed for the better.
Of course, it would have been much more useful for Serbia� s
democracy hadn� t the ministers made the lifting of
international sanctions conditional, but this gesture of
goodwill will no doubt mean a lot to the Serbs, particularly
given the fact that we have already fulfilled their sole
condition - readiness for democracy. This is also yet another
opportunity to pay full respect to France� s diplomacy and
Hubert Vedrine, a man at its helm."
The shameless extortion from the part of the EU which ties the abolition of
the embargo to the installation of a government according to the wishes of
the US and the EU, for him really is "a
change for the better", "a gesture of goodwill".
We don't to withhold from the Serbian people what a special sort of friend
Mr. Kostunica chose for it in the person of Hubert Vedrine, the French
foreign minister. In an interview with the US paper "International Herald
Tribune" of April 20, 1999, Vedrine came to the fore:
(Q.) "The air strikes seem to put the Serbian population
strongly in tune with their leader, Slobodan Milosevic. Is a
harsher Western military blow needed to bring home to people
the consequences of what they've done, perhaps shock them to
their senses after living in denial about the outside world
for several years?
(Answer Vedrine:)
"For 10 years, in fact, ever since Mr. Milosevic seized on the
Kosovo issue to propagate the backward-looking nationalistic
delusions that have done so much harm to the country he runs.
Someday the people of Serbia will have a place in Europe, but
right now they have developed a mood of paranoia - which
existed before the air strikes but has worsened.
After a decade in which Serbian leaders have misled their
people so badly, Western governments can't operate in terms of
collective guilt, we can't make war on a people. We did not
intervene to change the regime in Serbia; we intervened
because the Kosovo situation was intolerable. Now we have to
work for solutions, not think about punishment. It's going to
take the Serbs a long time to recover and we're somehow going
to have to manage for them - until they are again ready to
take responsibility for themselves."
* * *
wg / Editorial staff of Neue Einheit Oct.2, 2000
E-mail: verlag@...
Internet: http://www.neue-einheit.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
neue einheit
Zeitschrift fuer Politik, Oekonomie und Kultur
-------------------------------------------------------------
copyright 2000, Verlag NEUE EINHEIT (Inh. H.Dicke)
Mallinckrodtstr 177, D-44147 Dortmund Germany
and D-10973 Berlin, Postfach 360 309
Phone: +49-231-838932 resp. +49-30-6937470
*******************************************************
Message: 16
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 22:58:45 EDT
From: klasber@...
THE YUGOSLAVIAN ELECTIONS AND THE WEST
The 1999 war against Yugoslavia, if you look at how the West behaved, how
self-righteously an aggression and a terror bombing against a country were
justified, and afterwards the making up the minds for somebody else and the
threatening were sold as "democratic policy", is truly singular in history.
Such a bold and unconcealed posture was second not even to the most
arrogant gestures of a Hitler. The late Breshnew's theories about limited
sovereignty are just peanuts as compared with how the West of today treats
the whole world and presumes to determine election outcomes in several
countries in advance. It has already become a standard formula if Ms.
Albright, US secretary of state, declares towards the leader of a country
that there "will be trouble" if the election doesn't produce the result
that suits the US. Interference like that would have lead to outcries in
the past; every other country would have been utterly condemned.
All of that is being outdone by what is presently done with Yugoslavia
The present government has without doubt its weaknesses and provides
targets. But indubitably it has kept up the banner of Serbian independence
since 1995 and attempts to assert itself also against the great powers. In
a time when almost all statesmen, especially in Europe, excel by incredible
toadyism and bootlicking in front of US imperialism, this must be regarded
as something exceptional and valuable.
Already before the elections there were warnings that all results which
would not lead to Kostunica's absolute majority would be regarded as
falsifications. And when the counting still was on, the Western media and
statesmen for their part without further ado declared Kostunica the winner,
although besides their own projections no figures were available yet, and
even Kostunica's followers had not yet given figures. There are no
considerable figures yet but Gerhard Schroeder already announces that an
election victory by the so-called opposition is crystallizing itself
clearer and clearer. Where does the chancellor Schroeder know this from?
Still some weeks ago even the men behind this so-called opposition in the
Foreign Office in Washington or in Josef Fischer's office or elsewhere were
very sceptical about the fragmented movement and doubted if it really would
be able to gain ground in the elections.
Several times already there were attempts from the West to build an
opposition in Serbia, in 1997 and later on again, and always this was a
failure. During the war in 1999 probably 95% of the Serbian people backed
the government and condemned NATO's terror attacks.
The main figures of this so-called opposition like Zoran Djinjic are
infamous and discredited in Serbia. Because of their despicable behavior
and their direct partisanship for those who threw bombs on Yugoslavia they
had lost almost any credibility. The discreditation is also valid for the
highly dubious figure of Vuk Draskovic who on the one hand makes deals with
the West, too, and on the other represents an extreme Serbian chauvinism,
in particular also during the time when the Serbian name by the acts of
Serbian chauvinists in Bosnia but also in some other areas of conflict was
deeply connected to wrongdoing - what is to be the pretext in 1999 and 2000.
It is very significant in this context that one of the figures who bear a
good deal of responsibility for certain Serbian forces' latest inglorious
tradition, Seselj - a radical rightist and in the war until 1995
intermediary of the Bosnian Serbs - stabs Milosevic into the back in the
present situation and is working into the hands of the so-called
opposition. And this is actually cherished by the West. Also the infamous
butcher Arkan who not long ago lost his life by an attack, had connections
into the US. And didn't their and German government's most compliant tool
in Serbia, their "model democrat" Djinjic,
demonstratively travel to Pale still in 1995, when the official Serbia
already had more and more distanced herself from Karadzic, and showed
solidarity with Karadzic who is known to bear the responsibility for
innumerable war crimes from the part of certain Bosnian Serbs? Which
standards are employed here? And the same people claim the moral right for
themselves to pass judgement over Serbia, to cover her with terror
bombings, and in face of the present elections they even pretend to
represent the interests of the Serbian people!
Kostunicas nomination as presidential candidate is the attempt to seemingly
show a way out for Serbia with a new figure, in order to actually open the
portal for those who want to get Serbia completely in their clutches; it is
a trick in order to complete the dictate over Serbia by these forces from
the US in coalition with other capitalists in Europe.
Who is that Vojislav Kostunica who bestowed to this so-called opposition at
least a relative success in the elections?
>From all what has become known Kostunica is a relatively unknown quantity,
having so far kept himself more in the background. He is not stigmatized by
open partisanship with NATO as it is the case with Djinjic. He appears as a
patriot, recognizes Kosovo as part of Serbia and has condemned the bombings
by the US and the NATO. There are however several recent interviews in
which he unmasks himself as a fundamental admirer of the US and the EU,
criticizing the US only because of his all too open support for the
so-called opposition which would discredit it completely in front of the
Serbian people. He even goes so far to support the EU 's extortionist
policy to lift the embargo only for
cities which are run by the so-called opposition, and to supply oil and
food to them. [See also "Who is Vojislav Kostunica" at
<http://www.neue-einheit.com/is/is2000-23e.htm> ]
It cannot be called just interference what the West is doing regarding the
elections in Yugoslavia. This would be a gross understatement. From the
outset it is dominated by extortion. Already in July 1999, after the war
was in the main over, Clinton declared that there would be economic aid for
the country destroyed by NATO bombs only if Milosevic would disappear. (See
note) It is impossible to conceive of a more direct interference. And the
same people who talk like this are now posturing
and declare their resolve to look after correctness in the elections.
If the elections were rigged we cannot decide from here. If the
administration or parts of it should have committed something like this it
certainly must be investigated in detail, evaluated and lead to the
corresponding consequences. But also this has to be regarded in relationto
the general situation. One thing however is for certain: to flatten the
economic fundaments of life with bombs, openly declaring that this is for
creating need and hunger, in order to force the people to accept the
government chosen by the West so that they can get oil and food, is the
harshest variant of vote rigging which can be imagined.
Whatever the present government may be reproached of in detail: there is no
right whatsoever for the West, for these terror bombers, these rogue
politicians to raise such moral accusations. Their whole cause is extortion
and interference from the beginning to the end. Serbia would even have the
right to put every politician who sides with the West, and this is also in
fact the case with Kostunica, on the ground of illegality in Serbia,
because a country has the right to act against traitors.
Those who bombed and extorted Serbia now put forward the kind of logic that
Belgrade has to acknowledge "the Serbian people's will" - and they have the
nerve to define that will - in order to prevent "an escalation of violence".
We hope that the Serbian people will prick up their ears here, and that as
much of this extortion as possible is also publicly clarified and denounced.
But even if now those should come to power who make deals with these
criminals and blackmailers and are in cahoots with them, there will be no
democracy at all in Serbia, notwithstanding the election mechanisms which
might be installed. Then the unconcealed and brutal dictatorship of
international capitalism in Yugoslavia will be the consequence, so that any
movement of national independence and autonomy - and this is the
precondition for democracy in Serbia and Yugoslavia - will be impossible
from the start.
We still want to say some words about the hopes which, as it seems from
here, are stirred by the so-called opposition's propaganda. The Yugoslavian
people are promised opening and modernizing of the society, participation
in the international progressive developments, probably also better and
more interesting job opportunities etc. We see such wishes justified,
actually much new has to happen in this respect, not only in Serbia and
Yugoslavia. But to tie such hopes to a change of government towards the
opposition built up by the West must be questioned. Russia also was
promised the opening by the West, what became reality under the government
of the forces supported and
controlled by the West is such a disaster that many millions of Russians,
up to 40 or 50 millions, have left the country.
In particular the integration into the EU as promised by people like
Kostunica will be translated into reality only under the condition that
Serbia makes the total inner kowtow in front of the Western political order
of today, going as far as to self-denial. The European countries' inner
development not only shows positive signals. A doubtful extinction of great
parts of the production basis, the discarding of parts of the own
population, and the extinction of own identity are leading to considerable
social problems which already begin to show and which will show with all of
their consequences in the future.
As a negative example you can take Germany with a development of the own
nation's population towards self-eradication, with its destruction of the
will for independence and for future going to a dangerous limit, a
development which took place in particular during the last 25 years. A lot
is being just a fa�ade here and actually the EU itself is in a deep state
of crisis.
Because of all of these points named here we are not at all able to
sympathize with the so-called opposition which actually is easily
boughtfrom top to bottom, or even hedge the slightest wish that it be
victorious. Very certainly there are social conflicts and problems in
Serbia which must be solved. These however the Serbian and Yugoslavian
people have to settle within their own framework, without any foreign
interference. Here, though, forces are active who work for the complete
occupation of
Serbia by the NATO, the US, France, Great Britain and the Federal Republic
of Germany, and who in order to divert from this fact chose somebody who
speaks of nation, of national independence etc. but who shall only serve
for bringing these forces, with Zoran Djinjic in the first place, to power.
We can afford a prognosis: even if these forces should be successful - the
US and the other NATO countries do not have a solution. How do they intend
to solve the Kosovo question according to their wishes if their allies of
yesterday, the Albanians, urge the total separation? The new government
will have to save face. For that, civil war-like occurrences might be the
consequence in Kosovo. The contradictions which today exist in Serbia won't
be solved by the West by means of this kind of lackeys. Many of their
promises will vanish into thin air. Capitalism does not make such attempts
to corrupt without reason.
If the forces who stand for Serbia's national independence really want to
grasp a chance yet, then they will have to attack the miserable essence of
this so-called opposition to the full extent, and in the future they
certainly will have to fight decidedly against privileges, mismanagement,
corruption and other things within the bureaucratic state apparatus. This
will be a precondition. A renewal of the state is needed but how and under
which preconditions it will take place, this will be the decisive factor.
We want to express the hope that the Serbian people will resist the
infiltrative methods as it resisted the war and the military threatening.
The whole of Europa is required to lift the sanctions against Yugoslavia
immediately!
--------
Note:
In this year's June, concrete sums for the "post-Milosevic Serbia" were
named by the US and the EU to the participating members of the so-
called opposition, at a meeting of the so-called "Balkans stability pact":
$ 4 billions.
===============================================
Editorial staff of Neue Einheit
4.10.2000
E-mail: verlag@...
Internet: http://www.neue-einheit.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
neue einheit
Zeitschrift fuer Politik, Oekonomie und Kultur
-------------------------------------------------------------
copyright 2000, Verlag NEUE EINHEIT (Inh. H.Dicke)
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and D-10973 Berlin, Postfach 360 309
Phone: +49-231-838932 resp. +49-30-6937470
---
----- Original Message -----
From: Warren Smith
To: marxist-leninist-list@...
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2000 8:37 AM
Subject: [MLL]Yugoslavia: what the media is hiding
Yugoslavia: what the media is hiding
While the western mass media is whipping up a tremendous campaign
against Yugoslavia's President Milosevic, the same media has absolutely
nothing to say about the election results for the upper and lower houses of
Yugoslavia's parliament. Yugoslavia has a parliamentary system with two
national leaders. First there is a ceremonial President with no real power.
Second there is a Prime Minister chosen by Parliament.
The real question in the Yugoslav election was always whether the
opposition could muster the votes to gain a parliamentary majority.
As a result of last week's election there is no chance that they can
govern, not even as part of a coalition.
For the first time, Milosevic's Socialist Party and its allies have won an
absolute majority of seats in both the upper and lower houses of
Parliament.
The results of the Presidential vote are being subjected to much (ill-
informed) debate. But nobody contests the parliamentary results.
In Yugoslavia, prior to this latest election, the Government had only 64
seats out of 138 in the lower house. Now they have added eight in the Lower
House to gain a three-vote majority: 72 out of 138 seats.
Up until now the Government had to forge a coalition with one of the minor
parties if it wanted to pass a law. With its new majority in the Lower
House, the Government no longer has to rely on a shaky coalition to pass
much-needed legislation.
The Government scored a bigger victory in the Yugoslav Senate race, the
upper house. They won seven out of 20 senate seats in Serbia and 19 of 20
senate seats in Montenegro. The Opposition won just 10 of 40 senate seats.
The Government is just short of a 2/3 majority.
Milosevic's governing party won a tremendous victory by gaining a majority
in both the upper and lower houses of Parliament.
It is this result that the western powers are out to undo at any cost, even
to the point of attempting to spark a civil war or by cooking up a
provocation to justify an invasion of Yugoslavia.
They are creating an extremely dangerous situation. But first of all, the
West must hoodwink the people into believing that Milosevic lost the
election and has fraudulently rigged the results.
The parliamentary election results explain why the opposition forces are
desperately against any run-off for the Presidency and why the West is
attempting to railroad their chosen representative into the President's
shoes.
* * *
Acknowledgement to Max Sinclair writing for Emperor's Clothes
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/sinclair/governin.htm
for some of the material in this article.
---
Subject:
We do not celebrate
Date:
Sat, 7 Oct 2000 18:20:57 +0200
From:
"ILC" <ilc@...>
To:
<ilc@...>
Clinton and his European satraps are celebrating because they think that
with Milosevic leaving the scene they have taken Belgrade and thus paved the
way for their rule over the Balkans.
They are wrong! It is not enough to oust Milosevic in order to take
Belgrade. Therefore the surrender of the Serb people, the destruction of the
federal army, the smashing of the state apparatus as well as their
substitution with servants of Western interests would be necessary.
Therefore that what happened is definitely not enough. It necessitates that
Nato finds a kind of KLA in Yugoslavia, a people that is ready to be
enslaved.
The latest events only close a phase of the Balkanic turbulences. But they
do not bring the turbulences as such to an end. Those are defined by the
imperialist politics that by trying to destroy all obstacles for its
supremacy are doomed to create new and ever more destructive crisis.
The analysis must be carried out from two different points of view, the
geopolitical and the class viewpoint. Even if they are interlinked it is
useful to regard them separately.
Geopolitically speaking we doubt that Yugoslavia under Serb hegemony could
ever become a protectorate of Nato as the other �republics� of the Balkans.
History teaches that this is highly unlikely. Even Kostunica had to
demarcate himself from the tutelage offered to him by Nato in order to win
the consensus of the masses.
The regime of Milosevic refused the capitulation of Yugoslavia to Nato.
Therefore, and only therefore, the serious anti-imperialist and
revolutionary forces throughout the world did support him. Actually they
never endorsed his domestic politics that � although never becoming
neo-liberal � did neither follow socialist principles nor strived for the
active defence of the interests of the working class and the poorest strata
of the population.
This is the reason for the collapse of the regime facing the waves of the
mass movement led by Kostunica. If the regime is not able to defend the
parliament and the TV station being set on fire by the revolt that means
nothing else than that it has lost the social consensus it used to have.
Already since a certain time this rule has rested on sand and was secured
mainly by the monopoly of force.
The conception that the attack of imperialism, the starvation caused by it,
the sanctions and the embargo could by put down solely by resorting to
nationalist and anti-Western sentiments has been proved to be a catastrophic
illusion.
In order to destroy the magic it was enough that Kostunica by his turn
raised the patriotic banner. Nationalism is an important factor, but not the
decisive one. Such as all feelings it vanishes facing the daily struggle for
bread. In order to secure the social consensus resolute politics for social
justice and intransigent defence of the interests and rights of the workers
and peasants would have been indispensable. Contrary to that Milosevic had
been accepting privatisations and had been demanding unprecedented
sacrifices from the workers, while at the same time he let the mafia
bourgeoisie enrich itself at the black market. While the people had been
starving and had to send its sons to Kosovo to defend the country, the
nomenclature increased corruption and hold its protecting hands over its
sons in order to save them from serving in arms.
>From this point of view we warn the youth that seems to have delivered the
final blow to the SPS JUL regime that the Serb people could fall out of the
frying-pan into the fire. Even if we would assume that Kostunica is the
brave and proper man as which he likes it to present himself we will not be
able to block the bourgeois forces that rally behind him in order to inflict
savage neo-liberal capitalism on the people. They hope for lucrative
business with the reconstruction and thirst for the money being promised by
the West with nice words. If the workers and the Serb people is not vigilant
the �Red mafia� will be substituted by a even more unscrupulous �democratic
Camorra�.
We therefore refuse to participate at the hypocritical chorus of those who
celebrate an alleged �democratic revolution�. There never have been
communists who celebrate political events together with their worst enemies.
We still remember certain �anti-capitalists� who welcomed the collapse of
the USSR between 1989 and 1991 whose result was the creation of several
statelets that serve the Western interests. They claimed that we were facing
revolutions because some movements rallied masses behind them. But the
decisive criteria to evaluate events is not mainly that the masses get into
movement, but in what direction they move. The direction is determined by
the international relationship of forces as well as by the political groups
that take the leadership.
Finally we want to re-iterate that our tenacious support for the resistance
of the Yugoslav people and the Yugoslav army against the Nato aggression was
not erroneous. Certain seeds only carry fruits after a long period. The
current flood, the �democratic� drunkenness will neither eradicate the deep
socialist tradition among the Serb people nor the traces of the tremendous
anti-imperialist solidarity delivered to it mainly in the last year.
The Serb proletarians and among them the genuine communists will need our
help and fraternity.
Executive Committee of the ILC
5th October, 2000
***************************************
International Leninist Current (ILC)
Corriente Leninista Internacional (CLI)
PF 23, A-1040 Wien, Austria
Tel & Fax +43 1 504 00 10
ilc@...
www.comports.com/ilc
www.antiimperialista.com
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