Informazione
June 30, 2000
THE ROCKFORD INSTITUTE
La censura nelle democrazie liberali post-moderne:
il caso dell'immagine che ha preso in giro il mondo
Perche' Living Marxism ha perso la causa contro l'ITN
di THOMAS DEICHMANN
(per una introduzione sull'argomento si veda anche:
IL CASO LM / ITN
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/142?&start=115 )
CENSORSHIP IN POST-MODERN “LIBERAL DEMOCRACY”:
THE CASE OF “THE PICTURE THAT FOOLED THE WORLD”D
WHY LM LOST THE LIBEL CASE
Il video "Judgement", con tutta la documentazione usata da Thomas
Deichmann per svelare la truffa mediatica di Trnopolje, si puo' ordinare
attraverso il sito internet http://www.emperors-clothes.com
You can order the video "Judgement' at http://www.emperors-clothes.com
with all the documentation Deichmann used to prove the accepted frauds.
Na http://www.emperors-clothes.com moze da se naruci kaseta Judgement
koja dokumentuje sve sto Deichmann kaze.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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TELLING THE TRUTH, AND OTHER CRIMES
Last week the British alternative magazine, LM, was fined over $500,000
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for libel. LM had printed a story that that charged British news station
ITN
and reporters Penny Marshall and Ian Williams with fraud. LM said ITN
had
faked the "death camp" pictures to demonize the Serbs.
The Judge in the libel case admitted that ITN might have made some
mistakes.
But he argued: the LM people weren't in Bosnia that day. So how could LM
be
sure what was really happening there?
IN FACT another film crew was present the entire time. They filmed the
footage used in "JUDGMENT!"
"JUDGMENT!" proves LM was simply telling the truth. "JUDGMENT!" proves
Penny
Marshall lied. "JUDGMENT!" shows how Marshall produced the picture that
fooled the world and justified a war.
The ITN crew visited a POW center and a refugee camp. By sheer luck they
were accompanied by a crew from Serbian television (RTS). The RTS crew
filmed the ITN crew at work. Using this RTS footage, a small Yugoslav
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RTS is the TV station that NATO bombed in April, 1999, killing 20
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pictures. We say this because the images that Penny Marshall fabricated
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laid the political basis for the bombing of the Bosnian loyalist
government
and of Serbia itself a year ago.
WHAT THIS FILM PROVES
1) The Loyalist ("Serbian") Authorities were humane.
>From the pictures that ITN produced one would think that Marshall and
her
crew had sneaked into a death camp and shot their film when nobody was
watching. Not so. The ITN crew visited two surprisingly casual and
humane
locations. They were protected but not controlled by the loyalist
authorities whom they later compared to Nazi's.
2) Marshall KNEW the loyalists were humane.
She and the crew from RTS interviewed POWs', their wives, non-POW
refugees,
a doctor, at least one red cross worker, the commander of the POW
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The film shows these interviews. Marshall simply suppressed this
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humane treatment. Instead she staged some pictures. These were then
doctored
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3) The refugees SAID they were treated decently.
Marshall is shown arguing with one refugee. She tries to coerce the man
to
say something anti-Yugoslav. He refuses. "No, no," he protests
vehemently.
"Not a prison. No, no. REFUGEE center. They treat us very kind. No, no,
very
kind." Undeterred, Marshall used this very location to stage her phony
death
camp shots.
4) Marshall staged the death camp sequence seen around the world.
She went out of her way to film from inside an awkward storage area.
Why?
Because one side had what she wanted: a fence, mainly chicken wire but
with
a few strands of barbed wire at the top. Shooting through the barbed
wire,
Marshall talked to refugees OUTSIDE the fence. She then doctored the raw
footage to produce false images of prisoners behind barbed wire.
5) Marshall and Ian Williams were filmed in the act of lying.
The amazing thing is -- the RTS people were filming a few feet away.
They
caught the same shots from a slightly different angle. They got pictures
of
Marshall, Ian Williams, a cameraman, a man holding a mike. You will see,
step by step, just how Marshall doctored her pictures to produce the
look of
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proceeds to alter it, as you watch, producing the phony ITN photos of
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It documents that Marshall and ITN have committed the worst crime
against
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=======================================================================
June 30, 2000
THE ROCKFORD INSTITUTE
Thomas Deichmann:CENSORSHIP IN POST-MODERN “LIBERAL DEMOCRACY”:
THE CASE OF “THE PICTURE THAT FOOLED THE WORLD”
Our regular readers will recall that just over two months ago we
published a commentary by the
British historian Michael Stenton on the use of libel laws in the UK as
a means of silencing
views at odds with the received wisdom of the ruling mainstream (Libel
and the truth: Bosnia
and “holocaust denial” – April 20). One of three cases invoked by Dr.
Stenton to illustrate the
use of libel laws as a means of muzzling free speech, and censoring
politically incorrect ideas,
concerned the lawsuit by one of Britain’s most powerful media
conglomerates – “Independent
Television News” (ITN) against the LM Magazine (formerly known as
“Living Marxism”). The
defendants had pointed out some inaccuracies in a TV report about the
Trnopolje POW camp in
Bosnia in summer 1992. LM had gone on to complain that misleading TV
pictures had helped
mislead the world about what was happening in Bosnia at the time.
Needless to say the side
with most money, once again, won the action.
While the outcome of the trial was dealt with briefly and only provided
a peg for Dr. Stenton’s general point about the threat to
the freedom of thought and expression in our time, some of our readers
have expressed an interest in the details of the case
itself. It seemed incredible that Great Britain, the world’s oldest
democracy, could allow such miscarriages of justice to get
legal sanctification. In the meantime we have received a more
comprehensive account of the now infamous LM trial from a key
figure in this complex case, German journalist Thomas Deichmann. His
1997 article “The picture that fooled the world,” in
which he exposed the ITN manipulations with images from Bosnia, caused
the controversy in the first place.--S.T.
WHY LM LOST THE LIBEL CASE
by Thomas Deichmann
The High Court in London delivered its harsh verdict on March 14th 2000.
The editor of the British magazine LM (previously
Living Marxism), its publisher Helene Guldberg and her publishing house
Informinc were found liable in defamation
proceedings after eleven days of court room proceedings. They were
ordered to pay the British news channel Independent
Television News (ITN) and two of its reporters, Penny Marshall and Ian
Williams massive damages. This comprised 75,000
pounds sterling payable to ITN and an additional 150,000 pounds payable
to each of the two reporters. The defendants were
also ordered to pay the legal fees of the claimants – an additional
300,000 pounds. The total is calculated as more than one
million dollars.
After the verdict Informinc went into liquidation, and Mick Hume and
Helene Guldberg prepared for personal bankruptcy.
Another immediate consequence was that most of LM’s Website
(www.informinc.co.uk) had to be shut down on the same
day. A few hours after the conclusion of the legal battle LM received a
letter from ITN asking when payment of the money
could be expected.
Censorship for Hire
A tragic chapter in modern media history was thus brought to an end. It
may usher in a
threatening new era. London, the Mecca of the Libel Suit, was used for
the first time by a mighty
media corporation to censor an important debate and to knock an unloved
and weaker opponent
out of the running. The arrogant behavior of ITN, represented during the
hearing by its Chief
Editor Richard Tait, and the two ITN reporters Penny Marshall and Ian
Williams, represents a
blow to every journalist. It is a warning especially to investigative
reporters whose job it is to
go against the mainstream and to help bring to light inconvenient
truths.
The publication of my article ‘The Picture that fooled the World’ in the
February 1997 edition
of LM was the catalyst which began the saga. This article had already
been printed in highly
regarded European publications and later been copied many times over. In
the article I showed
in great detail that the famous ITN-pictures of an emaciated Bosnian
Muslim behind a barbed
wire fence taken at the Bosnian Serb camp of Trnopolje in August 1992
were misleading and
fooled the world.
ITN won the case at the High Court but the victory left a foul
aftertaste – so openly did the
media giant attempt to manipulate the debate from the start. Immediately
after the verdict, ITN
set its PR-apparatus in motion in order to mislead the public anew.
Statements by both reporters
and the news channel tried to leave the uninformed viewer with the
impression that the trial jury
found that the central allegation against the ITN reporters in my LM
article of February 1997
was incorrect. The opposite is true.
ITN Reporter Behind Barbed Wire
In my 1997 article, I showed in great detail, first, that there was no
barbed wire fence
surrounding Trnopolje and the Muslims filmed there in August 1992.
Secondly, that the barbed
wire on the (in)famous ITN pictures belonged to a small agricultural
compound neighbouring the
Trnopolje camp grounds. I further explained that the British reporters
stood inside this
compound surrounded by the barbed wire fence and that from inside there
they filmed the
(in)famous pictures. Thirdly, I explained that nowhere else in Trnopolje
did any barbed wire
fence exist; and fourthly, that the conclusions drawn by politicians and
the media worldwide that
Trnopolje was a concentration camp similar to Auschwitz and
Bergen-Belsen, were wrong and
based on a very misleading image.
The first three aspects of my story were proved during the court
proceedings of the Case. In
particular, the uncut ITN tapes, the so-called ‘rushes’, were important.
This was more or less
the same material I used during my research beginning in late 1996. The
fourth point was not
dealt with during the proceedings. However, by this stage, nobody
questioned that Trnopolje
was not a Nazi-style concentration camp.
Judge Morland gave his summary the day before the end of the case and
stressed with his own
words to the jury that the reporters were surrounded by a barbed wire
fence in August 1992:
‘It is a matter for you but, having seen the rushes and the bundles of
Mr. Deichmann’s
photographs, is it not clear that before the civil war there was fencing
surrounding the area
containing the barn, the garage and the electricity transformer? That
fence was made of tall
metal posts with barbed wire strands on top, and below chicken wire,
with a gate on the east
road. Clearly Ian Williams and Penny Marshall and their TV teams were
mistaken in thinking
they were not enclosed by the old barbed wire fence.’
Facts Don’t Matter
Judge Morland elaborated at this point of his summary: ‘But does it
matter?’ By raising this
question he wished to remind the members of the jury what this libel
case was about. The
central question which the jury had to decide on was this: did the ITN
reporters in 1992
deliberately publish a misleading image. The case therefore did not
mainly consider if this
happened or not, instead it dealt first of all with the question if the
reporters publicized their
barbed wire shots with clear intent to fool the world. The Judge
formulated at the beginning of
his summation some sympathy for my investigative reporting. However, he
then defined what
this libel case was about:
‘Members of the jury, you may well think that in a democratic society it
is vital that journalists
are fearless, investigative reporters. It is, you may well think, of the
utmost importance that they
are accurate and fair reporters. It is right that one journalist, if he
considers that another
journalist has been inaccurate, unfair and misleading, should say so.
But this case, you may
think, is not about whether Penny Marshall and Ian Williams have been
inaccurate, unfair or
misleading; the nub of this case is whether the defendants have
established that Penny Marshall
and Ian Williams have deliberately – I emphasize that word
‚deliberately’ – compiled
misleading television footage.’ Nick Higham, media correspondent of the
BBC, recapitulated
these explanations of the Judge in a news commentary on the day of the
verdict in the following
manner: ‘Mr. Justice Morland told the jury LM’s facts might have been
right, but he asked, did
that matter?’
The judge’s summary finally brought to the surface the scale of dirty
tricks ITN and its reporters
had used with their libel suit against LM. They did not merely hid for
three years (that is how
long it took to come to trial) behind the repressive English libel laws
that are considered so
frightening inside media circles. ITN argued that the central libelous
connotation of my article,
an accompanying leader by Mick Hume, and a LM press release circulated
in January 1997,
was that LM made the ordinary reader believe that ITN and its reporters
with full and complete
knowledge deliberately lied to the world. Actually, I am of the opinion
that the reporters must
have known exactly what they were doing at the time. However, I did not
state this in my article.
Instead I wrote, ‘Whatever the British news team’s intentions may have
been, their pictures
were seen around the world as the first hard evidence of concentration
camps in Bosnia.’
But ITN put this point at center stage of the libel suit because their
lawyers from Biddle & Co.
knew that in this manner they could not lose the case. Their task was
made easier by the fact that
in English libel law the burden of proof lies with the defendant (a
further indication of the
absurdity of this law). LM had to prove the bad intent of the ITN
reporters in order to win the
case. Therefore the verdict did not come as a surprise to the LM-team.
Editor Mick Hume
commented: ‘We had to prove the unprovable.’
Memory Gaps
Gavin Millar, LM’s barrister, despite all this did a great job and first
worked to convince the
jury of the correctness of my explanation of where the barbed wire fence
was located. He
further exerted himself to establish that the two ITN reporters must
have known that at the time
they took the famous pictures that they were standing in the small
compound surrounded by
barbed wire.
But none of the ITN witnesses, with the exception of Penny Marshall’s
cameraman, remembered
that this was the case. Ian Williams was the first witness giving
evidence. He, for example, was
asked by Millar how he was able to reach from the fenced-in compound the
open field just to the
west of it. Williams answered he simply walked around the corner. When
he then was
confronted with the ITN rushes which clearly showed a barbed wire fence
there at the corner
and all along the Western side of the compound he then could not
remember the exact details of
his movements any more. In any event, at the end of his testimony, on
the fourth day of the
courtroom proceedings he again stated that it was a ‘lie’ that the
reporters were surrounded by
barbed wire.
But during the testimony of the next witness, only a few hours later,
Judge Morland intervened
and gave his opinion that after viewing the ITN tapes various times now,
he was convinced that
this was precisely the situation. He asked the ITN lawyer not to waste
any more time disputing
this point. The next day, Ian William’s sound man indicated a new
version of the story:
William’s team reached the open field through the barbed wire fence
somewhere further south,
possibly through a hole in the fence. This again did not show up on the
ITN tapes.
Penny Marshall also had memory gaps specifically regarding the fenced in
compound, even
though it was uncontested that she had entered it through a gap in the
barbed wire fence from the
southern side next to a small electricity transformer building and that
she had passed the barn
situated in the middle of this compound. But she could not remember that
she was surrounded by
barbed wire. Nor could she remember how she exited the fenced in
compound.
Gavin Millar, LM’s barrister, further questioned the statements of the
ITN reporters that it never
had crossed their minds in August 1992 that the (in)famous pictures of
the emaciated Muslim
taken behind barbed wire could trigger comparisons with the Holocaust.
He also raised doubts
concerning ITN’s explanation that the news reporters were not under any
pressure to come up
with a camp scoop given the widely disseminated speculative reports of
possible
‘Concentration Camps’ and ‘Death Camps’ in Northern Bosnia. Millar
succeeded numerous
times in entangling the ITN employees in contradictions – but he was
unable to establish ITN’s
deliberate manipulation – what was in their minds at the time.
Disappearing Videotapes and Witnesses
Besides memory gaps there were other obstacles with which LM had to
contend. One of these was that an important video
tape of the ITN rushes had been lost in the ITN archives. This tape
could have shown Penny Marshall continuously moving on
the compound surrounded by the barbed wire fence, and perhaps her
commenting on the situation, and exiting from there.
Only a short sequence of this tape could be seen in the courtroom having
been taken from an ITN news broadcast in August
1992. The first time the subject of the disappearing videotape came up,
ripples of surprise and speculation ran through the
courtroom. The video tape of a Bosnian-Serbian cameraman in military
uniform, which was shot on the same day in Trnopolje
as Penny Marshall filmed, could not make up for the loss of this part of
the ITN rushes. However, it did show that Marshall
interviewed at least two other men before she shook hands with the
emaciated man and talked to him through the barbed wire.
This contradicted the way the matter was presented in the ITN news and
in later interviews she gave. One of these interviewed
men, wearing a blue overall, introduced himself as Mehmet. He repeatedly
stressed when questioned by the British reporters,
that Trnopolje was not a prison but a refugee camp and he felt safe
there. This did not feature in the report.
Finally the ITN lawyers were able to make use of the repressive nature
of English libel laws in
a way, that all further witnesses for the Defense were struck out of the
case before they could
give evidence. The most prominent was John Simpson, BBC World Affairs
Editor, one of the
world’s most highly regarded reporters. Also denied the opportunity to
take the witness stand
for LM was the well known and highly respected former war correspondent
Phillip Knightley,
author of the book ‘The First Casualty’. In addition, the London Queen’s
Counsel barrister
Steven Kay was prevented from testifying. Only LM editor Mick Hume and
myself were
allowed to give evidence for the defence. For good measure, even my own
testimony was
severely reduced.
Smear Campaign
But that wasn’t all. In 1997, at the outset, ITN had charged LM with
malice on top of libel after
the publication of my article. ITN tried to prevent the distribution of
LM and demanded the
destruction of all copies of the edition. This happened one day after LM
circulated a press
release announcing my article and even before ITN even had read my
piece. Despite this ITN
claimed that my article was outrageous and untrue.
In ITN’s subsequent ‘malice’ claim LM and I were described as intending
to spread
pro-Serbian propaganda and that this intent was the real reason for the
publication of my article
in LM. As supposed proof of this charge, ITN provided an odd list of
articles appearing in LM
dealing with the Balkan War and related topics. For example it included
an excerpt from an
interview I had done with the famous Austrian novelist Peter Handke in
the Spring of 1996. I
had offered to let LM along with other publications in Europe publish
the interview.
However the malice charge invited the wildest denunciations against LM
and myself.
Impertinent lies and gossip quickly made the rounds. For example, that I
was an agent of the
Serbs and received payment from them. Even one week before the start of
the court hearings, I
received for the n-th time a telephone call from a reporter (this time
from the British paper ‘The
Guardian’) who wished to know if I was married to a Serb. Despite
repeated explanations that I
was not, and that I had no connections to the Serb authorities, and that
I supported none of the
parties involved in the Bosnian civil war, there were many such rumors –
all thanks to ITN’s
malice suit. Ed Vulliamy, the Guardian reporter who had also visited the
North Bosnian camps
along with the ITN teams in August 1992, contributed to the mood with
repeated hysterical
defamations, while ITN, Marshall and Williams kept quiet and let their
lawyers act.
Interesting enough, the malice charge was dropped when the case came to
court. ITN’s lawyer
Tom Shields let it go without a murmur because there was not the
slightest evidence for such
conspiracy theories. This made clear to me that the malice charge was
only added to the libel
suit in the first place in order to support a smear campaign against
myself and LM.
Historical Revisionism
ITN’s QC barrister Tom Shields stressed during the trial the miserable
conditions in Trnopolje
in summer 1992. To prove this the Plaintiffs brought as a witness a
Muslim doctor who under
the guard of Bosnian Serb authorities cared for the camp’s inmates and
locals in 1992. At the
time he was also interviewed by Penny Marshall and gave her a camera
with an undeveloped
film. The photos on it where published in August 1992 in some British
papers. They showed
Bosnian Muslims who had been beaten by Serbian guards. The doctor
described on the witness
stand how he met the ITN teams in summer 1992, and confirmed the stories
of the rape and
assault of defenseless civilians in Trnopolje – stories which I and LM
have never disputed, and
in fact reported in my article. His very short testimony was of cause
moving, but my impression
was that he was only invited to give evidence for ITN to score moral
points for the Plaintiffs.
LM barrister Millar declined to cross examine the doctor.
Tom Shields for ITN used the testimony of the doctor to give the utterly
false impression that I
wished to excuse those who were guilty of evil acts in Trnopolje and
elsewhere. The ITN
lawyer further exerted himself to question my description of Trnopolje
as a refugee and transit
camp in which many Muslims sought safety from the bloody civil war going
on around them.
During my testimony it became clear that Shields, despite his hectoring
me with morally laden
catch-phrases, didn’t have the slightest idea what had happened during
the Bosnian civil war.
Trnopolje was surely a chaotic and awful place, but it was also surely
not a detention camp or
prison and most surely it was not a concentration camp comparable with
Auschwitz or
Bergen-Belsen as suggested by the famous ITN shots with the barbed wire.
The single positive feature of the proceedings in the High Court in
London was that they finally
proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that neither Trnopolje camp nor the
filmed Bosnian
Muslims were surrounded by a barbed wire fence as suggested by ITN’s
shots. Rather, it was
the journalists who were surrounded by barbed wire as my article ‘The
picture that fooled the
world’ had shown.
But on the other hand, the verdict spelled the end of LM and now hangs
like a sword of
Damocles over every English journalist. LM, an opinionated magazine with
intelligent articles
contrary to the Zeitgeist, was brought to ruin. One can only hope that
other media organizations
and journalists will not follow ITN’s example but instead follow the
example of publications
like LM and its creators.
Thomas Deichmann, 37, is a freelance journalist and author and editor of
the bimonthly German magazine Novo.
Further information on the libel case including the original article in
German language is available on
http://www.novo-magazin.de/itn-vs-lm Deichmann’s article ‘The picture
that fooled the world’ was reprinted in the
U.S. in Ramsey Clark et al: ‘NATO in the Balkans. Voices of Opposition’,
International Action Centre, New York
1998. An analytical piece on the same story with the title
‘Misinformation: TV Coverage of a Bosnian Camp’
appeared in CovertAction Quarterly, Fall 1998. Deichmann’s study of Roy
Gutman’s war reporting recently appeared
in the US under the title ‘The Pulitzer Price and Croatian Propaganda’
in ‘War Lies & Videotape. How Media
Monopoly stifles truth’, International Action Centre, New York 2000. You
may call Thomas Deichmann in Frankfurt
at +49 69 722271; send him a fax at 720913; or send him an e-mail at
Thomas.Deichmann@...
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
THE ROCKFORD INSTITUTE
La censura nelle democrazie liberali post-moderne:
il caso dell'immagine che ha preso in giro il mondo
Perche' Living Marxism ha perso la causa contro l'ITN
di THOMAS DEICHMANN
(per una introduzione sull'argomento si veda anche:
IL CASO LM / ITN
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/142?&start=115 )
CENSORSHIP IN POST-MODERN “LIBERAL DEMOCRACY”:
THE CASE OF “THE PICTURE THAT FOOLED THE WORLD”D
WHY LM LOST THE LIBEL CASE
Il video "Judgement", con tutta la documentazione usata da Thomas
Deichmann per svelare la truffa mediatica di Trnopolje, si puo' ordinare
attraverso il sito internet http://www.emperors-clothes.com
You can order the video "Judgement' at http://www.emperors-clothes.com
with all the documentation Deichmann used to prove the accepted frauds.
Na http://www.emperors-clothes.com moze da se naruci kaseta Judgement
koja dokumentuje sve sto Deichmann kaze.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A stunning new film -
"JUDGMENT!"
http://www.emperors-clothes.com
At last we have visual proof that the media lied about Yugoslavia...
To order now, click here
We just finished production work on the English version of a stunning
new
film - "JUDGMENT!" It exposes the tricks used to concoct phony pictures
of a
nonexistent Serbian 'death camp' in 1992. These doctored images --
especially the famous emaciated man behind barbed wire -- were broadcast
worldwide to dehumanize the Serbs. They led to the deaths of thousands
and
great suffering for millions of human beings.
"JUDGMENT!" PROVES THOSE PICTURES WERE CYNICAL FABRICATIONS.
We urge you: Buy this film today Give a copy to a friend who doesn't
want to
believe the mass media would fabricate phony atrocity pictures. Show
this
film on TV stations, show it to local organizations, get it reviewed in
local papers. It will change people's minds. It will change your mind.
TELLING THE TRUTH, AND OTHER CRIMES
Last week the British alternative magazine, LM, was fined over $500,000
US
for libel. LM had printed a story that that charged British news station
ITN
and reporters Penny Marshall and Ian Williams with fraud. LM said ITN
had
faked the "death camp" pictures to demonize the Serbs.
The Judge in the libel case admitted that ITN might have made some
mistakes.
But he argued: the LM people weren't in Bosnia that day. So how could LM
be
sure what was really happening there?
IN FACT another film crew was present the entire time. They filmed the
footage used in "JUDGMENT!"
"JUDGMENT!" proves LM was simply telling the truth. "JUDGMENT!" proves
Penny
Marshall lied. "JUDGMENT!" shows how Marshall produced the picture that
fooled the world and justified a war.
The ITN crew visited a POW center and a refugee camp. By sheer luck they
were accompanied by a crew from Serbian television (RTS). The RTS crew
filmed the ITN crew at work. Using this RTS footage, a small Yugoslav
film
studio has recreated the events of that day. Emperors-Clothes edited the
Yugoslav movie to produce the English language film, "JUDGMENT!"
RTS is the TV station that NATO bombed in April, 1999, killing 20
people.
The film is dedicated to those dead, whose murders began with the ITN
pictures. We say this because the images that Penny Marshall fabricated
in
1992 began the dehumanization of the Serbian people. ITN and Penny
Marshall
laid the political basis for the bombing of the Bosnian loyalist
government
and of Serbia itself a year ago.
WHAT THIS FILM PROVES
1) The Loyalist ("Serbian") Authorities were humane.
>From the pictures that ITN produced one would think that Marshall and
her
crew had sneaked into a death camp and shot their film when nobody was
watching. Not so. The ITN crew visited two surprisingly casual and
humane
locations. They were protected but not controlled by the loyalist
authorities whom they later compared to Nazi's.
2) Marshall KNEW the loyalists were humane.
She and the crew from RTS interviewed POWs', their wives, non-POW
refugees,
a doctor, at least one red cross worker, the commander of the POW
Center.
The film shows these interviews. Marshall simply suppressed this
evidence of
humane treatment. Instead she staged some pictures. These were then
doctored
to produce Nazi-like images for mass consumption. The height of cynicism
and
dishonesty.
3) The refugees SAID they were treated decently.
Marshall is shown arguing with one refugee. She tries to coerce the man
to
say something anti-Yugoslav. He refuses. "No, no," he protests
vehemently.
"Not a prison. No, no. REFUGEE center. They treat us very kind. No, no,
very
kind." Undeterred, Marshall used this very location to stage her phony
death
camp shots.
4) Marshall staged the death camp sequence seen around the world.
She went out of her way to film from inside an awkward storage area.
Why?
Because one side had what she wanted: a fence, mainly chicken wire but
with
a few strands of barbed wire at the top. Shooting through the barbed
wire,
Marshall talked to refugees OUTSIDE the fence. She then doctored the raw
footage to produce false images of prisoners behind barbed wire.
5) Marshall and Ian Williams were filmed in the act of lying.
The amazing thing is -- the RTS people were filming a few feet away.
They
caught the same shots from a slightly different angle. They got pictures
of
Marshall, Ian Williams, a cameraman, a man holding a mike. You will see,
step by step, just how Marshall doctored her pictures to produce the
look of
a Nazi death camp. That is, the film takes footage shot by RTS and then
proceeds to alter it, as you watch, producing the phony ITN photos of
Nazi-like atrocities.
This film will change people's minds.
It documents that Marshall and ITN have committed the worst crime
against
humanity: they lied to millions of people in order to justify a war.
1. Order now by Phone, Mail or secure Server
VHS TAPES NOW AVAILABLE (Prices on PAL and SECAM tapes, often used
outside
US, as soon as possible)
Base price, $19.95 * Add $1 tax ONLY in Massachusetts
TOTAL PRICE including shipping and handling:
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2. HOW TO ORDER
BY MAIL - Send check and instructions to EMPERORS CLOTHES, PO Box
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Newton, MA 02461-0321 Please state how you heard about the film.
BY PHONE - all 617-916-1705 from 8:30 am to 4:30 PM Eastern Standard
Time
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Pay
the appropriate amount AS A DONATION. Then PLEASE email us stating the
amount donated and the number of films desired and shipping
instructions.
Send that email to emperors1000@... This MUST be done so we'll know
your
donation is to pay for the film! Please also tell us how you heard about
the
film. Please tell us any ideas for increasing distribution. Thanks!
WE PRESENTLY HAVE FILMS IN STOCK. WE CAN REPLENISH STOCK WITHIN ONE DAY.
VIEW "JUDGMENT!" SHOW it to friends. MAIL IT to friends and relatives.
SHOW
it to organizations, churches, unions, at schools. GET it on TV.
NOTE TO WEBSITES, MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS AND TV STATIONS: IF YOU
ADVERTISE
THIS FILM YOUR ORGANIZATION CAN RECEIVE A COMMISSION FOR EVERY FILM YOU
HELP
TO SELL. Drop us an email for details. Emperors1000@... . So far the
film is being distributed by www.emperors-clothes.com and
www.antiwar.com .
Would you care to join us?
=======================================================================
June 30, 2000
THE ROCKFORD INSTITUTE
Thomas Deichmann:CENSORSHIP IN POST-MODERN “LIBERAL DEMOCRACY”:
THE CASE OF “THE PICTURE THAT FOOLED THE WORLD”
Our regular readers will recall that just over two months ago we
published a commentary by the
British historian Michael Stenton on the use of libel laws in the UK as
a means of silencing
views at odds with the received wisdom of the ruling mainstream (Libel
and the truth: Bosnia
and “holocaust denial” – April 20). One of three cases invoked by Dr.
Stenton to illustrate the
use of libel laws as a means of muzzling free speech, and censoring
politically incorrect ideas,
concerned the lawsuit by one of Britain’s most powerful media
conglomerates – “Independent
Television News” (ITN) against the LM Magazine (formerly known as
“Living Marxism”). The
defendants had pointed out some inaccuracies in a TV report about the
Trnopolje POW camp in
Bosnia in summer 1992. LM had gone on to complain that misleading TV
pictures had helped
mislead the world about what was happening in Bosnia at the time.
Needless to say the side
with most money, once again, won the action.
While the outcome of the trial was dealt with briefly and only provided
a peg for Dr. Stenton’s general point about the threat to
the freedom of thought and expression in our time, some of our readers
have expressed an interest in the details of the case
itself. It seemed incredible that Great Britain, the world’s oldest
democracy, could allow such miscarriages of justice to get
legal sanctification. In the meantime we have received a more
comprehensive account of the now infamous LM trial from a key
figure in this complex case, German journalist Thomas Deichmann. His
1997 article “The picture that fooled the world,” in
which he exposed the ITN manipulations with images from Bosnia, caused
the controversy in the first place.--S.T.
WHY LM LOST THE LIBEL CASE
by Thomas Deichmann
The High Court in London delivered its harsh verdict on March 14th 2000.
The editor of the British magazine LM (previously
Living Marxism), its publisher Helene Guldberg and her publishing house
Informinc were found liable in defamation
proceedings after eleven days of court room proceedings. They were
ordered to pay the British news channel Independent
Television News (ITN) and two of its reporters, Penny Marshall and Ian
Williams massive damages. This comprised 75,000
pounds sterling payable to ITN and an additional 150,000 pounds payable
to each of the two reporters. The defendants were
also ordered to pay the legal fees of the claimants – an additional
300,000 pounds. The total is calculated as more than one
million dollars.
After the verdict Informinc went into liquidation, and Mick Hume and
Helene Guldberg prepared for personal bankruptcy.
Another immediate consequence was that most of LM’s Website
(www.informinc.co.uk) had to be shut down on the same
day. A few hours after the conclusion of the legal battle LM received a
letter from ITN asking when payment of the money
could be expected.
Censorship for Hire
A tragic chapter in modern media history was thus brought to an end. It
may usher in a
threatening new era. London, the Mecca of the Libel Suit, was used for
the first time by a mighty
media corporation to censor an important debate and to knock an unloved
and weaker opponent
out of the running. The arrogant behavior of ITN, represented during the
hearing by its Chief
Editor Richard Tait, and the two ITN reporters Penny Marshall and Ian
Williams, represents a
blow to every journalist. It is a warning especially to investigative
reporters whose job it is to
go against the mainstream and to help bring to light inconvenient
truths.
The publication of my article ‘The Picture that fooled the World’ in the
February 1997 edition
of LM was the catalyst which began the saga. This article had already
been printed in highly
regarded European publications and later been copied many times over. In
the article I showed
in great detail that the famous ITN-pictures of an emaciated Bosnian
Muslim behind a barbed
wire fence taken at the Bosnian Serb camp of Trnopolje in August 1992
were misleading and
fooled the world.
ITN won the case at the High Court but the victory left a foul
aftertaste – so openly did the
media giant attempt to manipulate the debate from the start. Immediately
after the verdict, ITN
set its PR-apparatus in motion in order to mislead the public anew.
Statements by both reporters
and the news channel tried to leave the uninformed viewer with the
impression that the trial jury
found that the central allegation against the ITN reporters in my LM
article of February 1997
was incorrect. The opposite is true.
ITN Reporter Behind Barbed Wire
In my 1997 article, I showed in great detail, first, that there was no
barbed wire fence
surrounding Trnopolje and the Muslims filmed there in August 1992.
Secondly, that the barbed
wire on the (in)famous ITN pictures belonged to a small agricultural
compound neighbouring the
Trnopolje camp grounds. I further explained that the British reporters
stood inside this
compound surrounded by the barbed wire fence and that from inside there
they filmed the
(in)famous pictures. Thirdly, I explained that nowhere else in Trnopolje
did any barbed wire
fence exist; and fourthly, that the conclusions drawn by politicians and
the media worldwide that
Trnopolje was a concentration camp similar to Auschwitz and
Bergen-Belsen, were wrong and
based on a very misleading image.
The first three aspects of my story were proved during the court
proceedings of the Case. In
particular, the uncut ITN tapes, the so-called ‘rushes’, were important.
This was more or less
the same material I used during my research beginning in late 1996. The
fourth point was not
dealt with during the proceedings. However, by this stage, nobody
questioned that Trnopolje
was not a Nazi-style concentration camp.
Judge Morland gave his summary the day before the end of the case and
stressed with his own
words to the jury that the reporters were surrounded by a barbed wire
fence in August 1992:
‘It is a matter for you but, having seen the rushes and the bundles of
Mr. Deichmann’s
photographs, is it not clear that before the civil war there was fencing
surrounding the area
containing the barn, the garage and the electricity transformer? That
fence was made of tall
metal posts with barbed wire strands on top, and below chicken wire,
with a gate on the east
road. Clearly Ian Williams and Penny Marshall and their TV teams were
mistaken in thinking
they were not enclosed by the old barbed wire fence.’
Facts Don’t Matter
Judge Morland elaborated at this point of his summary: ‘But does it
matter?’ By raising this
question he wished to remind the members of the jury what this libel
case was about. The
central question which the jury had to decide on was this: did the ITN
reporters in 1992
deliberately publish a misleading image. The case therefore did not
mainly consider if this
happened or not, instead it dealt first of all with the question if the
reporters publicized their
barbed wire shots with clear intent to fool the world. The Judge
formulated at the beginning of
his summation some sympathy for my investigative reporting. However, he
then defined what
this libel case was about:
‘Members of the jury, you may well think that in a democratic society it
is vital that journalists
are fearless, investigative reporters. It is, you may well think, of the
utmost importance that they
are accurate and fair reporters. It is right that one journalist, if he
considers that another
journalist has been inaccurate, unfair and misleading, should say so.
But this case, you may
think, is not about whether Penny Marshall and Ian Williams have been
inaccurate, unfair or
misleading; the nub of this case is whether the defendants have
established that Penny Marshall
and Ian Williams have deliberately – I emphasize that word
‚deliberately’ – compiled
misleading television footage.’ Nick Higham, media correspondent of the
BBC, recapitulated
these explanations of the Judge in a news commentary on the day of the
verdict in the following
manner: ‘Mr. Justice Morland told the jury LM’s facts might have been
right, but he asked, did
that matter?’
The judge’s summary finally brought to the surface the scale of dirty
tricks ITN and its reporters
had used with their libel suit against LM. They did not merely hid for
three years (that is how
long it took to come to trial) behind the repressive English libel laws
that are considered so
frightening inside media circles. ITN argued that the central libelous
connotation of my article,
an accompanying leader by Mick Hume, and a LM press release circulated
in January 1997,
was that LM made the ordinary reader believe that ITN and its reporters
with full and complete
knowledge deliberately lied to the world. Actually, I am of the opinion
that the reporters must
have known exactly what they were doing at the time. However, I did not
state this in my article.
Instead I wrote, ‘Whatever the British news team’s intentions may have
been, their pictures
were seen around the world as the first hard evidence of concentration
camps in Bosnia.’
But ITN put this point at center stage of the libel suit because their
lawyers from Biddle & Co.
knew that in this manner they could not lose the case. Their task was
made easier by the fact that
in English libel law the burden of proof lies with the defendant (a
further indication of the
absurdity of this law). LM had to prove the bad intent of the ITN
reporters in order to win the
case. Therefore the verdict did not come as a surprise to the LM-team.
Editor Mick Hume
commented: ‘We had to prove the unprovable.’
Memory Gaps
Gavin Millar, LM’s barrister, despite all this did a great job and first
worked to convince the
jury of the correctness of my explanation of where the barbed wire fence
was located. He
further exerted himself to establish that the two ITN reporters must
have known that at the time
they took the famous pictures that they were standing in the small
compound surrounded by
barbed wire.
But none of the ITN witnesses, with the exception of Penny Marshall’s
cameraman, remembered
that this was the case. Ian Williams was the first witness giving
evidence. He, for example, was
asked by Millar how he was able to reach from the fenced-in compound the
open field just to the
west of it. Williams answered he simply walked around the corner. When
he then was
confronted with the ITN rushes which clearly showed a barbed wire fence
there at the corner
and all along the Western side of the compound he then could not
remember the exact details of
his movements any more. In any event, at the end of his testimony, on
the fourth day of the
courtroom proceedings he again stated that it was a ‘lie’ that the
reporters were surrounded by
barbed wire.
But during the testimony of the next witness, only a few hours later,
Judge Morland intervened
and gave his opinion that after viewing the ITN tapes various times now,
he was convinced that
this was precisely the situation. He asked the ITN lawyer not to waste
any more time disputing
this point. The next day, Ian William’s sound man indicated a new
version of the story:
William’s team reached the open field through the barbed wire fence
somewhere further south,
possibly through a hole in the fence. This again did not show up on the
ITN tapes.
Penny Marshall also had memory gaps specifically regarding the fenced in
compound, even
though it was uncontested that she had entered it through a gap in the
barbed wire fence from the
southern side next to a small electricity transformer building and that
she had passed the barn
situated in the middle of this compound. But she could not remember that
she was surrounded by
barbed wire. Nor could she remember how she exited the fenced in
compound.
Gavin Millar, LM’s barrister, further questioned the statements of the
ITN reporters that it never
had crossed their minds in August 1992 that the (in)famous pictures of
the emaciated Muslim
taken behind barbed wire could trigger comparisons with the Holocaust.
He also raised doubts
concerning ITN’s explanation that the news reporters were not under any
pressure to come up
with a camp scoop given the widely disseminated speculative reports of
possible
‘Concentration Camps’ and ‘Death Camps’ in Northern Bosnia. Millar
succeeded numerous
times in entangling the ITN employees in contradictions – but he was
unable to establish ITN’s
deliberate manipulation – what was in their minds at the time.
Disappearing Videotapes and Witnesses
Besides memory gaps there were other obstacles with which LM had to
contend. One of these was that an important video
tape of the ITN rushes had been lost in the ITN archives. This tape
could have shown Penny Marshall continuously moving on
the compound surrounded by the barbed wire fence, and perhaps her
commenting on the situation, and exiting from there.
Only a short sequence of this tape could be seen in the courtroom having
been taken from an ITN news broadcast in August
1992. The first time the subject of the disappearing videotape came up,
ripples of surprise and speculation ran through the
courtroom. The video tape of a Bosnian-Serbian cameraman in military
uniform, which was shot on the same day in Trnopolje
as Penny Marshall filmed, could not make up for the loss of this part of
the ITN rushes. However, it did show that Marshall
interviewed at least two other men before she shook hands with the
emaciated man and talked to him through the barbed wire.
This contradicted the way the matter was presented in the ITN news and
in later interviews she gave. One of these interviewed
men, wearing a blue overall, introduced himself as Mehmet. He repeatedly
stressed when questioned by the British reporters,
that Trnopolje was not a prison but a refugee camp and he felt safe
there. This did not feature in the report.
Finally the ITN lawyers were able to make use of the repressive nature
of English libel laws in
a way, that all further witnesses for the Defense were struck out of the
case before they could
give evidence. The most prominent was John Simpson, BBC World Affairs
Editor, one of the
world’s most highly regarded reporters. Also denied the opportunity to
take the witness stand
for LM was the well known and highly respected former war correspondent
Phillip Knightley,
author of the book ‘The First Casualty’. In addition, the London Queen’s
Counsel barrister
Steven Kay was prevented from testifying. Only LM editor Mick Hume and
myself were
allowed to give evidence for the defence. For good measure, even my own
testimony was
severely reduced.
Smear Campaign
But that wasn’t all. In 1997, at the outset, ITN had charged LM with
malice on top of libel after
the publication of my article. ITN tried to prevent the distribution of
LM and demanded the
destruction of all copies of the edition. This happened one day after LM
circulated a press
release announcing my article and even before ITN even had read my
piece. Despite this ITN
claimed that my article was outrageous and untrue.
In ITN’s subsequent ‘malice’ claim LM and I were described as intending
to spread
pro-Serbian propaganda and that this intent was the real reason for the
publication of my article
in LM. As supposed proof of this charge, ITN provided an odd list of
articles appearing in LM
dealing with the Balkan War and related topics. For example it included
an excerpt from an
interview I had done with the famous Austrian novelist Peter Handke in
the Spring of 1996. I
had offered to let LM along with other publications in Europe publish
the interview.
However the malice charge invited the wildest denunciations against LM
and myself.
Impertinent lies and gossip quickly made the rounds. For example, that I
was an agent of the
Serbs and received payment from them. Even one week before the start of
the court hearings, I
received for the n-th time a telephone call from a reporter (this time
from the British paper ‘The
Guardian’) who wished to know if I was married to a Serb. Despite
repeated explanations that I
was not, and that I had no connections to the Serb authorities, and that
I supported none of the
parties involved in the Bosnian civil war, there were many such rumors –
all thanks to ITN’s
malice suit. Ed Vulliamy, the Guardian reporter who had also visited the
North Bosnian camps
along with the ITN teams in August 1992, contributed to the mood with
repeated hysterical
defamations, while ITN, Marshall and Williams kept quiet and let their
lawyers act.
Interesting enough, the malice charge was dropped when the case came to
court. ITN’s lawyer
Tom Shields let it go without a murmur because there was not the
slightest evidence for such
conspiracy theories. This made clear to me that the malice charge was
only added to the libel
suit in the first place in order to support a smear campaign against
myself and LM.
Historical Revisionism
ITN’s QC barrister Tom Shields stressed during the trial the miserable
conditions in Trnopolje
in summer 1992. To prove this the Plaintiffs brought as a witness a
Muslim doctor who under
the guard of Bosnian Serb authorities cared for the camp’s inmates and
locals in 1992. At the
time he was also interviewed by Penny Marshall and gave her a camera
with an undeveloped
film. The photos on it where published in August 1992 in some British
papers. They showed
Bosnian Muslims who had been beaten by Serbian guards. The doctor
described on the witness
stand how he met the ITN teams in summer 1992, and confirmed the stories
of the rape and
assault of defenseless civilians in Trnopolje – stories which I and LM
have never disputed, and
in fact reported in my article. His very short testimony was of cause
moving, but my impression
was that he was only invited to give evidence for ITN to score moral
points for the Plaintiffs.
LM barrister Millar declined to cross examine the doctor.
Tom Shields for ITN used the testimony of the doctor to give the utterly
false impression that I
wished to excuse those who were guilty of evil acts in Trnopolje and
elsewhere. The ITN
lawyer further exerted himself to question my description of Trnopolje
as a refugee and transit
camp in which many Muslims sought safety from the bloody civil war going
on around them.
During my testimony it became clear that Shields, despite his hectoring
me with morally laden
catch-phrases, didn’t have the slightest idea what had happened during
the Bosnian civil war.
Trnopolje was surely a chaotic and awful place, but it was also surely
not a detention camp or
prison and most surely it was not a concentration camp comparable with
Auschwitz or
Bergen-Belsen as suggested by the famous ITN shots with the barbed wire.
The single positive feature of the proceedings in the High Court in
London was that they finally
proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that neither Trnopolje camp nor the
filmed Bosnian
Muslims were surrounded by a barbed wire fence as suggested by ITN’s
shots. Rather, it was
the journalists who were surrounded by barbed wire as my article ‘The
picture that fooled the
world’ had shown.
But on the other hand, the verdict spelled the end of LM and now hangs
like a sword of
Damocles over every English journalist. LM, an opinionated magazine with
intelligent articles
contrary to the Zeitgeist, was brought to ruin. One can only hope that
other media organizations
and journalists will not follow ITN’s example but instead follow the
example of publications
like LM and its creators.
Thomas Deichmann, 37, is a freelance journalist and author and editor of
the bimonthly German magazine Novo.
Further information on the libel case including the original article in
German language is available on
http://www.novo-magazin.de/itn-vs-lm Deichmann’s article ‘The picture
that fooled the world’ was reprinted in the
U.S. in Ramsey Clark et al: ‘NATO in the Balkans. Voices of Opposition’,
International Action Centre, New York
1998. An analytical piece on the same story with the title
‘Misinformation: TV Coverage of a Bosnian Camp’
appeared in CovertAction Quarterly, Fall 1998. Deichmann’s study of Roy
Gutman’s war reporting recently appeared
in the US under the title ‘The Pulitzer Price and Croatian Propaganda’
in ‘War Lies & Videotape. How Media
Monopoly stifles truth’, International Action Centre, New York 2000. You
may call Thomas Deichmann in Frankfurt
at +49 69 722271; send him a fax at 720913; or send him an e-mail at
Thomas.Deichmann@...
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Sul lavoro effettuato dai criminali della agenzia di lobbying
"Ruder&Finn" per fomentare la guerra nei Balcani si veda:
http://www.marx2001.org/crj/DOCS/ruderfinn.html
http://www.marx2001.org/crj/DOCS/desinf.html
---
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
RUDER FINN - Boycott ALL of their clients!!!
Ruder Finn has repeatedly distributed false accusations against the
Yugoslav
nation and the Serbian people, with both the intention AND THE RESULT of
inciting other governments to engage in armed attacks, sanctions, and
other
unprovoked acts of destruction against the Yugoslav nation and the
Serbian
people.
"Direct and public incitement to commit genocide" is punishable,
according
to Article 3 of the U.N. General Assembly resolution 260 A (III),
"Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide."
(See
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/p_genoci.htm).
>The following acts shall be punishable:
>(a) Genocide;
>(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
>(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
>(d ) Attempt to commit genocide;
>(e) Complicity in genocide.
Therefore, Ruder Finn and its owners and employees are war criminals in
the
tradition of Josef Goebbels and Julius Streicher.
What to do about it? The best way to shut down this, or any other,
public
relations firm once and for all is to boycott ALL of their clients.
DON'T buy ANYTHING from ANY of their clients. And tell those clients why
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DON'T subscribe to any periodical that carries an ad for Ruder-Finn's
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PASS THIS MESSAGE ALONG!!!
Alida Weber
"NEXT YEAR IN KOSOVO!"
=====================================================
Date: Saturday, June 17, 2000 9:10 AM
Subject: [STOPNATO] Ruder Finn
http://www.plannedtelevisionarts.com/intl/index.html
RUDER FINN STILL AT IT
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Cathay Pacific Airways
City of Cannes and Convention Center
Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Public Library; Regional Transportation
Authority
Croatia National Tourist Board
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau
Finnair
Hilton Hotels Corporation
Howard Johnson
Hyatt Hotel Corporation
New Orleans
Qantas Airways
South African Airways
St. James Club/Los Angeles
The Tudor Hotel (New York)
Toronto, Canada: Toronto International Festival; Toronto Transit
Commission
Universal Studios, Florida
Vail / Beaver Creek, Colorado
Westin Hotels
travel & tourism clients | international relations clients | economic
development clients
International Relations Clients
American Society of Travel Agents
Atlas Travel of Dubrovnik
Axa-Medi Assurances
Croatian National Tourism Office
European Council of American Chambers of Commerce
Fyffes Bananas
Plastico Limited
Republic of Albania
Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina
Republic of Croatia
Republic of El Salvador
Republic of Estonia
Republic of Kosova
The Rebuild Dubrovnik Fund
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
World Alpine Ski Championships
This is truly am interesting post.
Reminds me of my days in college in American Government class listening
to
all the Second Amendment arguments and wondering what it was all about!
(?)
Date: Saturday, June 17, 2000 9:10 AM
Subject: [STOPNATO] Ruder Finn
>> STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
>>
>> I suggest everyone check out Ruder Finns website. A
>> list of Ruder Finns
>> clients can be found at
>>
>(http://www.plannedtelevisionarts.com/intl/index.html).
>> They include such
>> non-existent states as the Republic of Kosova and
>> the Turkish Republic of
>> Northern Cyprus. Other Balkan clients include,
>> Bosnia, Albania,
>> Croatia...hmmm, does this firm have a political
>> agenda or what?
>>
>"We have the best congress money can buy!"
>This could very well be the slogan of this PR firm and
>the others working for the forses of genocide and
>anti-Serb racism on Capitol Hill.
>As a American I am ashamed to say that these firms
>have bought access to our corupt and criminal national
>government which is now involved in the slaughter and
>genocide of the Serbian people.
>I would like to add that these firms have also locked
>us out of congress so that common sense and humanity
>cannot get through.
>As an American I am UPSET that these governments can
>come here to my country and have more access to MY
>government that I do. They use this access to spread
>hate.
>congress is committing genocide because the price is
>right.
>We may soon have to take that original rights of self
>defense and clear house on capital hill.
---
STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
http://swans.com
Swans
The Media and their Atrocities
by Michael Parenti
May 22, 2000
For the better part of a decade the U.S. public has been bombarded with
a media campaign to demonize the Serbian people and their elected
leaders. During that time, the U.S. government has pursued a goal of
breaking up Yugoslavia into a cluster of small, weak, dependent,
free-market principalities. Yugoslavia was the only country in Eastern
Europe that would not dismantle its welfare state and public sector
economy. It was the only one that did not beg for entry into NATO. It
was--and what's left of it, still is--charting an independent course not
in keeping with the New World Order.
Targeting the Serbs
Of the various Yugoslav peoples, the Serbs were targeted for
demonization because they were the largest nationality and the one most
opposed to the breakup of Yugoslavia. But what of the atrocities they
committed? All sides committed atrocities in the fighting that has been
encouraged by the western powers over the last decade, but the reporting
has been consistently one-sided. Grisly incidents of Croat and Muslim
atrocities against the Serbs rarely made it into the U.S. press, and
when they did they were accorded only passing mention.1 Meanwhile Serb
atrocities were played up and sometimes even fabricated, as we shall
see. Recently, three Croatian generals were indicted by the Hague War
Crimes Tribunal for the bombardment and deaths of Serbs in Krajina and
elsewhere. Where were the U.S. television crews when these war crimes
were being committed? John Ranz, chair of Survivors of the Buchenwald
Concentration Camp, USA, asks: Where were the TV cameras when hundreds
of Serbs were slaughtered by Muslims near Srebrenica?2 The official
line, faithfully parroted in the U.S. media, is that Bosnian Serb forces
committed all the atrocities at Srebrenica.
Are we to trust U.S. leaders and the corporate-owned news media when
they dish out atrocity stories? Recall the five hundred premature babies
whom Iraqi soldiers laughingly ripped from incubators in Kuwait? A story
repeated and believed until exposed as a total fabrication years later.
During the Bosnian war in 1993, the Serbs were accused of pursuing an
official policy of rape. "Go forth and rape" a Bosnian Serb commander
supposedly publicly instructed his troops. The source of that story
never could be traced. The commander's name was never produced. As far
as we know, no such utterance was ever made. Even the New York Times
belatedly ran a tiny retraction, coyly allowing that "the existence of
'a systematic rape policy' by the Serbs remains to be proved."3
Bosnian Serb forces supposedly raped anywhere from 25,000 to 100,000
Muslim women, the stories varied. The Bosnian Serb army numbered not
more than 30,000 or so, many of whom were engaged in desperate military
engagements. A representative from Helsinki Watch noted that stories of
massive Serbian rapes originated with the Bosnian Muslim and Croatian
governments and had no credible supporting evidence. Common sense would
dictate that these stories be treated with the utmost skepticism--and
not be used as an excuse for an aggressive and punitive policy against
Yugoslavia.
The "mass rape" propaganda theme was resuscitated in 1999 to justify the
continued NATO slaughter of Yugoslavia. A headline in the San Francisco
Examiner (April 26, 1999) tells us: "SERB TACTIC IS ORGANIZED RAPE,
KOSOVO REFUGEES SAY." No evidence or testimony is given to support the
charge of organized rape. Only at the bottom of the story, in the
nineteenth paragraph, do we read that reports gathered by the Kosovo
mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe found
no such organized rape policy. The actual number of rapes were in the
dozens "and not many dozens," according to the OSCE spokesperson. This
same story did note in passing that the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal
sentenced a Bosnian Croat military commander to ten years in prison for
failing to stop his troops from raping Muslim women in 1993--an atrocity
we heard little about when it was happening.
A few dozen rapes is a few dozen too many. But can it serve as one of
the justifications for a massive war? If Mr. Clinton wanted to stop
rapes, he could have begun a little closer to home in Washington D.C.,
where dozens of rapes occur every month. Indeed, he might be able to
alert us to how women are sexually mistreated on Capitol Hill and in the
White House itself.
The Serbs were blamed for the infamous Sarajevo market massacre. But
according to the report leaked out on French TV, Western intelligence
knew that it was Muslim operatives who had bombed Bosnian civilians in
the marketplace in order to induce NATO involvement. Even international
negotiator David Owen, who worked with Cyrus Vance, admitted in his
memoir that the NATO powers knew all along that it was a Muslim bomb.4
On one occasion, notes Barry Lituchy, the New York Times ran a photo
purporting to be of Croats grieving over Serbian atrocities when in fact
the murders had been committed by Bosnian Muslims. The Times printed an
obscure retraction the following week.5
The propaganda campaign against Belgrade has been so relentless that
even prominent personages on the Left--who oppose the NATO policy
against Yugoslavia--have felt compelled to genuflect before this
demonization orthodoxy, referring to unspecified and unverified Serbian
"brutality" and "the monstrous Milosevic."6 Thus they reveal themselves
as having been influenced by the very media propaganda machine they
criticize on so many other issues. To reject the demonized image of
Milosevic and of the Serbian people is not to idealize them or claim
that Serb forces are faultless or free of crimes. It is merely to
challenge the one-sided propaganda that laid the grounds for NATO's
aggression against Yugoslavia.
The Ethnic Cleansing Hype
Up until the NATO bombings began in March 1999, the conflict in Kosovo
had taken 2000 lives altogether from both sides, according to Kosovo
Albanian sources. Yugoslavian sources put the figure at 800. Such
casualties reveal a civil war, not genocide. Belgrade is condemned for
the forced expulsion policy of Albanians from Kosovo. But such
expulsions began in substantial numbers only after the NATO bombings,
with thousands being uprooted by Serb forces especially from areas where
KLA mercenaries were operating
We should keep in mind that tens of thousands also fled Kosovo because
it was being mercilessly bombed by NATO, or because it was the scene of
sustained ground fighting between Yugoslav forces and the KLA, or
because they were just afraid and hungry. An Albanian woman crossing
into Macedonia was eagerly asked by a news crew if she had been forced
out by Serb police. She responded: "There were no Serbs. We were
frightened of the [NATO] bombs."7 I had to read this in the San
Francisco Guardian, an alternative weekly, not in the New York Times or
Washington Post.
During the bombings, an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 Serbian residents of
Kosovo took flight (mostly north but some to the south), as did
thousands of Roma and others.8 Were the Serbs ethnically cleansing
themselves? Or were these people not fleeing the bombing and the ground
war? Yet, the refugee tide caused by the bombing was repeatedly used by
U.S. war makers as justification for the bombing, a pressure put on
Milosevic to allow "the safe return of ethnic Albanian refugees."9
While Kosovo Albanians were leaving in great numbers--usually
well-clothed and in good health, some riding their tractors, trucks, or
cars, many of them young men of recruitment age--they were described as
being "slaughtered." It was repeatedly reported that "Serb
atrocities"--not the extensive ground war with the KLA and certainly not
the massive NATO bombing--"drove more than one million Albanians from
their homes."10 More recently, there have been hints that Albanian
Kosovar refugees numbered nowhere near that number.
Serbian attacks on KLA strongholds or the forced expulsion of Albanian
villagers were described as "genocide." But experts in surveillance
photography and wartime propaganda charged NATO with running a
"propaganda campaign" on Kosovo that lacked any supporting evidence.
State Department reports of mass graves and of 100,000 to 500,000
missing Albanian men "are just ludicrous," according to these
independent critics.11 Their findings were ignored by the major networks
and other national media.
Early in the war, Newsday reported that Britain and France were
seriously considering "commando assaults into Kosovo to break the
pattern of Serbian massacres of ethnic Albanians."12 What discernible
pattern of massacres? Of course, no commando assaults were put into
operation, but the story served its purpose of hyping an image of mass
killings.
An ABC "Nightline" show made dramatic and repeated references to the
"Serbian atrocities in Kosovo" while offering no specifics. Ted Kopple
asked a group of angry Albanian refugees, what specifically had they
witnessed. They pointed to an old man in their group who wore a wool
hat. One of them reenacted what the Serbs had done to him, throwing the
man's hat to the ground and stepping on it-"because the Serbs knew that
his hat was the most important thing to him." Kopple was appropriately
horrified about this "war crime," the only example offered in an
hour-long program.
A widely circulated story in the New York Times, headlined "U.S. REPORT
OUTLINES SERB ATTACKS IN KOSOVO," tells us that the State Department
issued "the most comprehensive documentary record to date on
atrocities." The report concluded that there had been organized rapes
and systematic executions. But as one reads further and more closely
into the article, one finds that State Department reports of such crimes
"depend almost entirely on information from refugee accounts. There was
no suggestion that American intelligence agencies had been able to
verify, most, or even many, of the accounts . . . and the word
'reportedly' and 'allegedly' appear throughout the document."13
British journalist Audrey Gillan interviewed Kosovo refugees about
atrocities and found an impressive lack of evidence or credible
specifics. One woman caught him glancing at the watch on her wrist,
while her husband told him how all the women had been robbed of their
jewelry and other possessions. A spokesman for the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees talked of mass rapes and what sounded like
hundreds of killings in three villages, but when Gillan pressed him for
more precise information, he reduced it drastically to five or six
teenage rape victims. But he had not spoken to any witnesses, and
admitted that "we have no way of verifying these reports."14
Gillan notes that some refugees had seen killings and other atrocities,
but there was little to suggest that they had seen it on the scale that
was being reported. One afternoon, officials in charge said there were
refugees arriving who talked of sixty or more being killed in one
village and fifty in another, but Gillan "could not find one eye-witness
who actually saw these things happening." Yet every day western
journalists reported "hundreds" of rapes and murders. Sometimes they
noted in passing that the reports had yet to be substantiated, but then
why were such unverified stories being so eagerly reported in the first
place?
The Disappearing "Mass Graves"
After NATO forces occupied Kosovo, the stories about mass atrocities
continued fortissimo. The Washington Post reported that 350 ethnic
Albanians "might be buried in mass graves" around a mountain village in
western Kosovo. They "might be" or they might not be. These estimates
were based on sources that NATO officials refused to identify. Getting
down to specifics, the article mentions "four decomposing bodies"
discovered near a large ash heap.15
It was repeatedly announced in the first days of the NATO occupation
that 10,000 Albanians had been killed (down from the 100,000 and even
500,000 Albanian men supposedly executed during the war). No evidence
was ever offered to support the 10,000 figure, nor even to explain how
it was arrived at so swiftly and surely while NATO troops were still
moving into place and did not occupy but small portions of the province.
Likewise, repeatedly unsubstantiated references to "mass graves," each
purportedly filled with hundreds or even thousands of Albanian victims
also failed to materialize. Through the summer of 1999, the media hype
about mass graves devolved into an occasional unspecified reference. The
few sites actually unearthed offered up as many as a dozen bodies or
sometimes twice that number, but with no certain evidence regarding
causes of death or even the nationality of victims. In some cases there
was reason to believe the victims were Serbs.16
On April 19, 1999, while the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia were going on,
the State Department announced that up to 500,000 Kosovo Albanians were
missing and feared dead. On May 16, U.S. Secretary of Defense William
Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine now serving in President
Clinton's Democratic Administration, stated that 100,000 military-aged
ethnic Albanian men had vanished and might have been killed by the
Serbs.17 Such widely varying but horrendous figures from official
sources went unchallenged by the media and by the many liberals who
supported NATO's "humanitarian rescue operation." Among these latter
were some supposedly progressive members of Congress who seemed to
believe they were witnessing another Nazi Holocaust.
On June 17, just before the end of the war, British Foreign Office
Minister Geoff Hoon said that "in more than 100 massacres" some 10,000
ethnic Albanians had been killed (down from the 500,000 and 100,000
bandied about by U.S. officials)."18 A day or two after the bombings
stopped, the Associate Press and other news agency, echoing Hoon,
reported that 10,000 Albanians had been killed by the Serbs.19 No
explanation was given as to how this figure was arrived at, especially
since not a single war site had yet been investigated and NATO forces
had barely begun to move into Kosovo. On August 2, Bernard Kouchner, the
United Nations' chief administrator in Kosovo (and organizer of Doctors
Without Borders), asserted that about 11,000 bodies had been found in
common graves throughout Kosovo. He cited as his source the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Republic of Yugoslavia
(ICTY). But the ICTY denied providing any such information. To this day,
it is not clear how Kouchner came up with his estimate.20
As with the Croatian and Bosnian conflicts, the image of mass killings
was hyped once again. Repeatedly unsubstantiated references to "mass
graves," each purportedly filled with hundreds or even thousands of
Albanian victims were publicized in daily media reports. In September
1999, Jared Israel did an internet search for newspaper articles,
appearing over the previous three months including the words "Kosovo"
and "mass grave." The report came back: "More than 1000-- too many to
list." Limiting his search to articles in the New York Times , he came
up with eighty, nearly one a day. Yet when it came down to hard
evidence, the mass graves seemed to disappear.
Thus, in mid-June, the FBI sent a team to investigate two of the sites
listed in the war-crimes indictment against Slobodan Milosevic, one
purportedly containing six victims and the other twenty. The team lugged
107,000 pounds of equipment into Kosovo to handle what was called the
"largest crime scene in the FBI's forensic history," but it came up with
no reports about mass graves. Not long after, on July 1, the FBI team
returned home, oddly with not a word to say about their investigation.21
Forensic experts from other NATO countries had similar experiences. A
Spanish forensic team, for instance, was told to prepare for at least
2,000 autopsies, but found only 187 bodies, usually buried in individual
graves, and showing no signs of massacre or torture. Most seemed to have
been killed by mortar shells and firearms. One Spanish forensic expert,
Emilio Perez Puhola, acknowledged that his team did not find one mass
grave. He dismissed the widely publicized references about mass graves
as being part of the "machinery of war propaganda."22
The Washington Post reported that 350 ethnic Albanians "might be buried
in mass graves" around a mountain village in western Kosovo. Or they
might not. Such speculations were based on sources that NATO officials
refused to identify. Getting down to specifics, the article mentions
"four decomposing bodies" discovered near a large ash heap, with no
details as to who they might be or how they died.23
In late August 1999, the Los Angeles Times tried to salvage the genocide
theme with a story about how the wells of Kosovo might be "mass graves
in their own right." The Times claimed that "many corpses have been
dumped into wells in Kosovo . . . Serbian forces apparently
stuffed...many bodies of ethnic Albanians into wells during their
campaign of terror."24 Apparently? Whenever the story got down to
specifics, it dwelled on only one village and only one well--in which
one body of a 39-year-old male was found, along with three dead cows and
a dog. Neither his nationality nor cause of death was given. Nor was it
clear who owned the well. "No other human remains were discovered," the
Times lamely concluded. As far as I know, neither the Los Angeles Times
nor any other media outlet ran any more stories of wells stuffed with
victims.
In one grave site after another, bodies were failing to materialize in
any substantial numbers-or any numbers at all. In July 1999, a mass
grave in Ljubenic, near Pec (an area of concerted fighting), believed to
be holding some 350 corpses, produced only seven after the exhumation.
In Djacovica, town officials claimed that one hundred ethnic Albanians
had been murdered, but there were no bodies because the Serbs had
returned in the middle of the night, dug them up, and carted them away,
the officials seemed to believe. In Pusto Selo, villagers claimed that
106 men were captured and killed by Serbs at the end of March, but again
no remains were discovered. Villagers once more suggested that Serb
forces must have come back and removed them. How they accomplished this
without being detected was not explained. In Izbica, refugees reported
that 150 ethnic Albanians were executed in March. But their bodies were
nowhere to be found. In Kraljan, 82 men were supposedly killed, but
investigators found not a single cadaver.25
The worst incident of mass atrocities ascribed to Yugoslavian leader
Slobodan Milosevic allegedly occurred at the Trepca mine. As reported by
U.S. and NATO officials, the Serbs threw a thousand or more bodies down
the shafts or disposed of them in the mine's vats of hydrochloric acid.
In October 1999, the ICTY released the findings of Western forensic
teams investigating Trepca. Not one body was found in the mine shafts,
nor was there any evidence that the vats had ever been used in an
attempt to dissolve human remains.26
By late autumn of 1999, the media hype about mass graves had fizzled
noticeably. The many sites unearthed, considered to be the most
notorious, offered up a few hundred bodies altogether, not the thousands
or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands previously trumpeted, and
with no evidence of torture or mass execution. In many cases, there was
no certain evidence regarding the nationality of victims.27 No mass
killings means that the Hague War Crimes Tribunal indictment of
Milosevic "becomes highly questionable," notes Richard Gwyn. "Even more
questionable is the West's continued punishment of the Serbs."28
No doubt there were graves in Kosovo that contained two or more persons
(which is NATO's definition of a "mass grave"). People were killed by
bombs and by the extensive land war that went on between Yugoslav and
KLA forces. Some of the dead, as even the New York Times allowed, "are
fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army or may have died ordinary
deaths"-- as would happen in any large population over time.29 And no
doubt there were grudge killings and summary executions as in any war,
but not on a scale that would warrant the label of genocide and justify
the massive death and destruction and the continuing misery inflicted
upon Yugoslavia by the western powers.
We should remember that the propaganda campaign waged by NATO officials
and the major media never claimed merely that atrocities (murders and
rapes) occurred. Such crimes occur in every war, indeed, in many
communities during peacetime. What the media propaganda campaign against
Yugoslavia charged was that mass atrocities and mass rapes and mass
murders had been perpetrated, that is, genocide, as evidenced by mass
graves.
In contrast to its public assertions, the German Foreign Office
privately denied there was any evidence that genocide or ethnic
cleansing was ever a component of Yugoslav policy: "Even in Kosovo, an
explicit political persecution linked to Albanian ethnicity is not
verifiable. . . . The actions of the [Yugoslav] security forces [were]
not directed against the Kosovo-Albanians as an ethnically defined
group, but against the military opponent and its actual or alleged
supporters."30
Still, Milosevic was indicted as a war criminal, charged with the forced
expulsion of Kosovar Albanians, and with summary executions of a hundred
or so individuals, again, alleged crimes that occurred after the NATO
bombing had started, yet were used as justification for the bombing. The
biggest war criminal of all is NATO and the political leaders who
orchestrated the aerial campaign of death and destruction. But here is
how the White House and the U.S. media reasoned at the time: Since the
aerial attacks do not intend to kill civilians, then presumably there is
no liability and no accountability, only an occasional apology for the
regrettable mistakes-as if only the intent of an action counted and not
its ineluctable effects. In fact, a perpetrator can be judged guilty of
willful murder without explicitly intending the death of a particular
victim--as when the death results from an unlawful act that the
perpetrator knew would likely cause death. George Kenney, a former State
Department official under the Bush Administration, put it well:
"Dropping cluster bombs on highly populated urban areas doesn't result
in accidental fatalities. It is purposeful terror bombing."31
In sum, through a process of monopoly control and distribution,
repetition and image escalation, the media achieve self-confirmation,
that is, they find confirmation for the images they fabricate in the
images they have already fabricated. Hyperbolic labeling takes the place
of evidence: "genocide," "mass atrocities," "systematic rapes" and even
"rape camps"--camps which no one has ever located. Through this process,
evidence is not only absent, it becomes irrelevant.
So the U.S. major media (and much of the minor media) are not free and
independent, as they claim, they are not the watchdog of democracy but
the lapdog of the national security state. They help reverse the roles
of victims and victimizers, warmongers and peacekeepers, reactionaries
and reformers. The first atrocity, the first war crime committed in any
war of aggression by the aggressors is against the truth.
--------------
Michael Parenti is the author of Against Empire and America Besieged.
His most recent book is History as Mystery (City Lights Books).
Notes:
1. For instance, Raymond Bonner, "War Crimes Panel Finds Croat Troops
'Cleansed' the Serbs," New York Times, March 21, 1999, a revealing
report that has been ignored in the relentless propaganda campaign
against the Serbs.
2. John Ranz in his paid advertisement in the New York Times, April 29,
1993.
3. "Correction: Report on Rape in Bosnia," New York Times, October 23,
1993.
4. David Owen, Balkan Odyssey, p. 262.
5. Barry Lituchy, "Media Deception and the Yugoslav Civil War," in NATO
in the Balkans, p. 205; see also New York Times, August 7, 1993.
6. Both Noam Chomsky in his comments on Pacifica Radio, April 7, 1999,
and Alexander Cockburn in the Nation, May 10, 1999, describe Milosevic
as "monstrous" without offering any specifics.
7. Brooke Shelby Biggs, "Failure to Inform," San Francisco Bay Guardian,
May 5, 1999, p. 25.
8 Washington Post, June 6, 1999.
9. See for instance, Robert Burns, Associated Press report, April 22,
1999.
10. For example, New York Times, June 15, 1998.
11. Charles Radin and Louise Palmer, "Experts Voice Doubts on Claims of
Genocide: Little Evidence for NATO Assertions," San Francisco Chronicle,
April 22, 1999.
12. Newsday, March 31, 1999.
13. New York Times, May 11, 1999.
14. Audrey Gillan "What's the Story?" London Review of Books, May 27,
1999.
15. Washington Post, July 10, 1999.
16. See for instance, Carlotta Gall, "Belgrade Sees Grave Site as Proof
NATO Fails to Protect Serbs," New York Times, August 27, 1999.
17. Both the State Department and Cohen's figures are reported in the
New York Times, November 11, 1999.
18. New York Times, November 11, 1999.
19. Associate Press release, June 18, 1999. Reuters (July 12, 1999)
reported that NATO forces had catalogued more than one hundred sites
containing the bodies of massacred ethnic Albanians.
20. Stratfor.com, Global Intelligence Update, "Where Are Kosovo's
Killing Fields?" Weekly Analysis, October 18, 1999.
21. Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid, "Playing the Numbers Game"
(www.aim.org/mm/1999/08/03.htm).
22. London Sunday Times, October 31, 1999.
23. Washington Post, July 10, 1999.
24. Los Angeles Times, August 28, 1999.
25. Stratfor.com, Global Intelligence Update, "Where Are Kosovo's
Killing Fields?" Weekly Analysis, October 18, 1999.
26. Richard Gwyn in the Toronto Star, November 3, 1999.
27. See for instance, Carlotta Gall, "Belgrade Sees Grave Site as Proof
NATO Fails to Protect Serbs," New York Times, August 27, 1999.
28. Richard Gwyn in the Toronto Star, November 3, 1999.
29. New York Times, November 11, 1999.
30. Intelligence reports from the German Foreign Office, January 12,
1999 and October 29, 1998 to the German Administrative Courts,
translated by Eric Canepa, Brecht Forum, New York, April 20, 1999.
31. Teach-in, Leo Baeck Temple, Los Angeles, May 23, 1999.
http://www.swans.com
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
"Ruder&Finn" per fomentare la guerra nei Balcani si veda:
http://www.marx2001.org/crj/DOCS/ruderfinn.html
http://www.marx2001.org/crj/DOCS/desinf.html
---
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
RUDER FINN - Boycott ALL of their clients!!!
Ruder Finn has repeatedly distributed false accusations against the
Yugoslav
nation and the Serbian people, with both the intention AND THE RESULT of
inciting other governments to engage in armed attacks, sanctions, and
other
unprovoked acts of destruction against the Yugoslav nation and the
Serbian
people.
"Direct and public incitement to commit genocide" is punishable,
according
to Article 3 of the U.N. General Assembly resolution 260 A (III),
"Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide."
(See
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/p_genoci.htm).
>The following acts shall be punishable:
>(a) Genocide;
>(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
>(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
>(d ) Attempt to commit genocide;
>(e) Complicity in genocide.
Therefore, Ruder Finn and its owners and employees are war criminals in
the
tradition of Josef Goebbels and Julius Streicher.
What to do about it? The best way to shut down this, or any other,
public
relations firm once and for all is to boycott ALL of their clients.
DON'T buy ANYTHING from ANY of their clients. And tell those clients why
you
aren't buying from them!
DON'T subscribe to any periodical that carries an ad for Ruder-Finn's
public
relations services. And write to that periodical explaining what is
wrong
with Ruder Finn!
DON'T travel to any country or locality that uses their services, unless
you
are traveling to Kosovo to assist beleaguered Serbs or Roma.
PASS THIS MESSAGE ALONG!!!
Alida Weber
"NEXT YEAR IN KOSOVO!"
=====================================================
Date: Saturday, June 17, 2000 9:10 AM
Subject: [STOPNATO] Ruder Finn
http://www.plannedtelevisionarts.com/intl/index.html
RUDER FINN STILL AT IT
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Australian Tourist Commission
Barbados Tourism Authority
Canadian Airlines
Cathay Pacific Airways
City of Cannes and Convention Center
Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Public Library; Regional Transportation
Authority
Croatia National Tourist Board
Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau
Finnair
Hilton Hotels Corporation
Howard Johnson
Hyatt Hotel Corporation
New Orleans
Qantas Airways
South African Airways
St. James Club/Los Angeles
The Tudor Hotel (New York)
Toronto, Canada: Toronto International Festival; Toronto Transit
Commission
Universal Studios, Florida
Vail / Beaver Creek, Colorado
Westin Hotels
travel & tourism clients | international relations clients | economic
development clients
International Relations Clients
American Society of Travel Agents
Atlas Travel of Dubrovnik
Axa-Medi Assurances
Croatian National Tourism Office
European Council of American Chambers of Commerce
Fyffes Bananas
Plastico Limited
Republic of Albania
Republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina
Republic of Croatia
Republic of El Salvador
Republic of Estonia
Republic of Kosova
The Rebuild Dubrovnik Fund
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
World Alpine Ski Championships
This is truly am interesting post.
Reminds me of my days in college in American Government class listening
to
all the Second Amendment arguments and wondering what it was all about!
(?)
Date: Saturday, June 17, 2000 9:10 AM
Subject: [STOPNATO] Ruder Finn
>> STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
>>
>> I suggest everyone check out Ruder Finns website. A
>> list of Ruder Finns
>> clients can be found at
>>
>(http://www.plannedtelevisionarts.com/intl/index.html).
>> They include such
>> non-existent states as the Republic of Kosova and
>> the Turkish Republic of
>> Northern Cyprus. Other Balkan clients include,
>> Bosnia, Albania,
>> Croatia...hmmm, does this firm have a political
>> agenda or what?
>>
>"We have the best congress money can buy!"
>This could very well be the slogan of this PR firm and
>the others working for the forses of genocide and
>anti-Serb racism on Capitol Hill.
>As a American I am ashamed to say that these firms
>have bought access to our corupt and criminal national
>government which is now involved in the slaughter and
>genocide of the Serbian people.
>I would like to add that these firms have also locked
>us out of congress so that common sense and humanity
>cannot get through.
>As an American I am UPSET that these governments can
>come here to my country and have more access to MY
>government that I do. They use this access to spread
>hate.
>congress is committing genocide because the price is
>right.
>We may soon have to take that original rights of self
>defense and clear house on capital hill.
---
STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
http://swans.com
Swans
The Media and their Atrocities
by Michael Parenti
May 22, 2000
For the better part of a decade the U.S. public has been bombarded with
a media campaign to demonize the Serbian people and their elected
leaders. During that time, the U.S. government has pursued a goal of
breaking up Yugoslavia into a cluster of small, weak, dependent,
free-market principalities. Yugoslavia was the only country in Eastern
Europe that would not dismantle its welfare state and public sector
economy. It was the only one that did not beg for entry into NATO. It
was--and what's left of it, still is--charting an independent course not
in keeping with the New World Order.
Targeting the Serbs
Of the various Yugoslav peoples, the Serbs were targeted for
demonization because they were the largest nationality and the one most
opposed to the breakup of Yugoslavia. But what of the atrocities they
committed? All sides committed atrocities in the fighting that has been
encouraged by the western powers over the last decade, but the reporting
has been consistently one-sided. Grisly incidents of Croat and Muslim
atrocities against the Serbs rarely made it into the U.S. press, and
when they did they were accorded only passing mention.1 Meanwhile Serb
atrocities were played up and sometimes even fabricated, as we shall
see. Recently, three Croatian generals were indicted by the Hague War
Crimes Tribunal for the bombardment and deaths of Serbs in Krajina and
elsewhere. Where were the U.S. television crews when these war crimes
were being committed? John Ranz, chair of Survivors of the Buchenwald
Concentration Camp, USA, asks: Where were the TV cameras when hundreds
of Serbs were slaughtered by Muslims near Srebrenica?2 The official
line, faithfully parroted in the U.S. media, is that Bosnian Serb forces
committed all the atrocities at Srebrenica.
Are we to trust U.S. leaders and the corporate-owned news media when
they dish out atrocity stories? Recall the five hundred premature babies
whom Iraqi soldiers laughingly ripped from incubators in Kuwait? A story
repeated and believed until exposed as a total fabrication years later.
During the Bosnian war in 1993, the Serbs were accused of pursuing an
official policy of rape. "Go forth and rape" a Bosnian Serb commander
supposedly publicly instructed his troops. The source of that story
never could be traced. The commander's name was never produced. As far
as we know, no such utterance was ever made. Even the New York Times
belatedly ran a tiny retraction, coyly allowing that "the existence of
'a systematic rape policy' by the Serbs remains to be proved."3
Bosnian Serb forces supposedly raped anywhere from 25,000 to 100,000
Muslim women, the stories varied. The Bosnian Serb army numbered not
more than 30,000 or so, many of whom were engaged in desperate military
engagements. A representative from Helsinki Watch noted that stories of
massive Serbian rapes originated with the Bosnian Muslim and Croatian
governments and had no credible supporting evidence. Common sense would
dictate that these stories be treated with the utmost skepticism--and
not be used as an excuse for an aggressive and punitive policy against
Yugoslavia.
The "mass rape" propaganda theme was resuscitated in 1999 to justify the
continued NATO slaughter of Yugoslavia. A headline in the San Francisco
Examiner (April 26, 1999) tells us: "SERB TACTIC IS ORGANIZED RAPE,
KOSOVO REFUGEES SAY." No evidence or testimony is given to support the
charge of organized rape. Only at the bottom of the story, in the
nineteenth paragraph, do we read that reports gathered by the Kosovo
mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe found
no such organized rape policy. The actual number of rapes were in the
dozens "and not many dozens," according to the OSCE spokesperson. This
same story did note in passing that the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal
sentenced a Bosnian Croat military commander to ten years in prison for
failing to stop his troops from raping Muslim women in 1993--an atrocity
we heard little about when it was happening.
A few dozen rapes is a few dozen too many. But can it serve as one of
the justifications for a massive war? If Mr. Clinton wanted to stop
rapes, he could have begun a little closer to home in Washington D.C.,
where dozens of rapes occur every month. Indeed, he might be able to
alert us to how women are sexually mistreated on Capitol Hill and in the
White House itself.
The Serbs were blamed for the infamous Sarajevo market massacre. But
according to the report leaked out on French TV, Western intelligence
knew that it was Muslim operatives who had bombed Bosnian civilians in
the marketplace in order to induce NATO involvement. Even international
negotiator David Owen, who worked with Cyrus Vance, admitted in his
memoir that the NATO powers knew all along that it was a Muslim bomb.4
On one occasion, notes Barry Lituchy, the New York Times ran a photo
purporting to be of Croats grieving over Serbian atrocities when in fact
the murders had been committed by Bosnian Muslims. The Times printed an
obscure retraction the following week.5
The propaganda campaign against Belgrade has been so relentless that
even prominent personages on the Left--who oppose the NATO policy
against Yugoslavia--have felt compelled to genuflect before this
demonization orthodoxy, referring to unspecified and unverified Serbian
"brutality" and "the monstrous Milosevic."6 Thus they reveal themselves
as having been influenced by the very media propaganda machine they
criticize on so many other issues. To reject the demonized image of
Milosevic and of the Serbian people is not to idealize them or claim
that Serb forces are faultless or free of crimes. It is merely to
challenge the one-sided propaganda that laid the grounds for NATO's
aggression against Yugoslavia.
The Ethnic Cleansing Hype
Up until the NATO bombings began in March 1999, the conflict in Kosovo
had taken 2000 lives altogether from both sides, according to Kosovo
Albanian sources. Yugoslavian sources put the figure at 800. Such
casualties reveal a civil war, not genocide. Belgrade is condemned for
the forced expulsion policy of Albanians from Kosovo. But such
expulsions began in substantial numbers only after the NATO bombings,
with thousands being uprooted by Serb forces especially from areas where
KLA mercenaries were operating
We should keep in mind that tens of thousands also fled Kosovo because
it was being mercilessly bombed by NATO, or because it was the scene of
sustained ground fighting between Yugoslav forces and the KLA, or
because they were just afraid and hungry. An Albanian woman crossing
into Macedonia was eagerly asked by a news crew if she had been forced
out by Serb police. She responded: "There were no Serbs. We were
frightened of the [NATO] bombs."7 I had to read this in the San
Francisco Guardian, an alternative weekly, not in the New York Times or
Washington Post.
During the bombings, an estimated 70,000 to 100,000 Serbian residents of
Kosovo took flight (mostly north but some to the south), as did
thousands of Roma and others.8 Were the Serbs ethnically cleansing
themselves? Or were these people not fleeing the bombing and the ground
war? Yet, the refugee tide caused by the bombing was repeatedly used by
U.S. war makers as justification for the bombing, a pressure put on
Milosevic to allow "the safe return of ethnic Albanian refugees."9
While Kosovo Albanians were leaving in great numbers--usually
well-clothed and in good health, some riding their tractors, trucks, or
cars, many of them young men of recruitment age--they were described as
being "slaughtered." It was repeatedly reported that "Serb
atrocities"--not the extensive ground war with the KLA and certainly not
the massive NATO bombing--"drove more than one million Albanians from
their homes."10 More recently, there have been hints that Albanian
Kosovar refugees numbered nowhere near that number.
Serbian attacks on KLA strongholds or the forced expulsion of Albanian
villagers were described as "genocide." But experts in surveillance
photography and wartime propaganda charged NATO with running a
"propaganda campaign" on Kosovo that lacked any supporting evidence.
State Department reports of mass graves and of 100,000 to 500,000
missing Albanian men "are just ludicrous," according to these
independent critics.11 Their findings were ignored by the major networks
and other national media.
Early in the war, Newsday reported that Britain and France were
seriously considering "commando assaults into Kosovo to break the
pattern of Serbian massacres of ethnic Albanians."12 What discernible
pattern of massacres? Of course, no commando assaults were put into
operation, but the story served its purpose of hyping an image of mass
killings.
An ABC "Nightline" show made dramatic and repeated references to the
"Serbian atrocities in Kosovo" while offering no specifics. Ted Kopple
asked a group of angry Albanian refugees, what specifically had they
witnessed. They pointed to an old man in their group who wore a wool
hat. One of them reenacted what the Serbs had done to him, throwing the
man's hat to the ground and stepping on it-"because the Serbs knew that
his hat was the most important thing to him." Kopple was appropriately
horrified about this "war crime," the only example offered in an
hour-long program.
A widely circulated story in the New York Times, headlined "U.S. REPORT
OUTLINES SERB ATTACKS IN KOSOVO," tells us that the State Department
issued "the most comprehensive documentary record to date on
atrocities." The report concluded that there had been organized rapes
and systematic executions. But as one reads further and more closely
into the article, one finds that State Department reports of such crimes
"depend almost entirely on information from refugee accounts. There was
no suggestion that American intelligence agencies had been able to
verify, most, or even many, of the accounts . . . and the word
'reportedly' and 'allegedly' appear throughout the document."13
British journalist Audrey Gillan interviewed Kosovo refugees about
atrocities and found an impressive lack of evidence or credible
specifics. One woman caught him glancing at the watch on her wrist,
while her husband told him how all the women had been robbed of their
jewelry and other possessions. A spokesman for the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refugees talked of mass rapes and what sounded like
hundreds of killings in three villages, but when Gillan pressed him for
more precise information, he reduced it drastically to five or six
teenage rape victims. But he had not spoken to any witnesses, and
admitted that "we have no way of verifying these reports."14
Gillan notes that some refugees had seen killings and other atrocities,
but there was little to suggest that they had seen it on the scale that
was being reported. One afternoon, officials in charge said there were
refugees arriving who talked of sixty or more being killed in one
village and fifty in another, but Gillan "could not find one eye-witness
who actually saw these things happening." Yet every day western
journalists reported "hundreds" of rapes and murders. Sometimes they
noted in passing that the reports had yet to be substantiated, but then
why were such unverified stories being so eagerly reported in the first
place?
The Disappearing "Mass Graves"
After NATO forces occupied Kosovo, the stories about mass atrocities
continued fortissimo. The Washington Post reported that 350 ethnic
Albanians "might be buried in mass graves" around a mountain village in
western Kosovo. They "might be" or they might not be. These estimates
were based on sources that NATO officials refused to identify. Getting
down to specifics, the article mentions "four decomposing bodies"
discovered near a large ash heap.15
It was repeatedly announced in the first days of the NATO occupation
that 10,000 Albanians had been killed (down from the 100,000 and even
500,000 Albanian men supposedly executed during the war). No evidence
was ever offered to support the 10,000 figure, nor even to explain how
it was arrived at so swiftly and surely while NATO troops were still
moving into place and did not occupy but small portions of the province.
Likewise, repeatedly unsubstantiated references to "mass graves," each
purportedly filled with hundreds or even thousands of Albanian victims
also failed to materialize. Through the summer of 1999, the media hype
about mass graves devolved into an occasional unspecified reference. The
few sites actually unearthed offered up as many as a dozen bodies or
sometimes twice that number, but with no certain evidence regarding
causes of death or even the nationality of victims. In some cases there
was reason to believe the victims were Serbs.16
On April 19, 1999, while the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia were going on,
the State Department announced that up to 500,000 Kosovo Albanians were
missing and feared dead. On May 16, U.S. Secretary of Defense William
Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine now serving in President
Clinton's Democratic Administration, stated that 100,000 military-aged
ethnic Albanian men had vanished and might have been killed by the
Serbs.17 Such widely varying but horrendous figures from official
sources went unchallenged by the media and by the many liberals who
supported NATO's "humanitarian rescue operation." Among these latter
were some supposedly progressive members of Congress who seemed to
believe they were witnessing another Nazi Holocaust.
On June 17, just before the end of the war, British Foreign Office
Minister Geoff Hoon said that "in more than 100 massacres" some 10,000
ethnic Albanians had been killed (down from the 500,000 and 100,000
bandied about by U.S. officials)."18 A day or two after the bombings
stopped, the Associate Press and other news agency, echoing Hoon,
reported that 10,000 Albanians had been killed by the Serbs.19 No
explanation was given as to how this figure was arrived at, especially
since not a single war site had yet been investigated and NATO forces
had barely begun to move into Kosovo. On August 2, Bernard Kouchner, the
United Nations' chief administrator in Kosovo (and organizer of Doctors
Without Borders), asserted that about 11,000 bodies had been found in
common graves throughout Kosovo. He cited as his source the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Republic of Yugoslavia
(ICTY). But the ICTY denied providing any such information. To this day,
it is not clear how Kouchner came up with his estimate.20
As with the Croatian and Bosnian conflicts, the image of mass killings
was hyped once again. Repeatedly unsubstantiated references to "mass
graves," each purportedly filled with hundreds or even thousands of
Albanian victims were publicized in daily media reports. In September
1999, Jared Israel did an internet search for newspaper articles,
appearing over the previous three months including the words "Kosovo"
and "mass grave." The report came back: "More than 1000-- too many to
list." Limiting his search to articles in the New York Times , he came
up with eighty, nearly one a day. Yet when it came down to hard
evidence, the mass graves seemed to disappear.
Thus, in mid-June, the FBI sent a team to investigate two of the sites
listed in the war-crimes indictment against Slobodan Milosevic, one
purportedly containing six victims and the other twenty. The team lugged
107,000 pounds of equipment into Kosovo to handle what was called the
"largest crime scene in the FBI's forensic history," but it came up with
no reports about mass graves. Not long after, on July 1, the FBI team
returned home, oddly with not a word to say about their investigation.21
Forensic experts from other NATO countries had similar experiences. A
Spanish forensic team, for instance, was told to prepare for at least
2,000 autopsies, but found only 187 bodies, usually buried in individual
graves, and showing no signs of massacre or torture. Most seemed to have
been killed by mortar shells and firearms. One Spanish forensic expert,
Emilio Perez Puhola, acknowledged that his team did not find one mass
grave. He dismissed the widely publicized references about mass graves
as being part of the "machinery of war propaganda."22
The Washington Post reported that 350 ethnic Albanians "might be buried
in mass graves" around a mountain village in western Kosovo. Or they
might not. Such speculations were based on sources that NATO officials
refused to identify. Getting down to specifics, the article mentions
"four decomposing bodies" discovered near a large ash heap, with no
details as to who they might be or how they died.23
In late August 1999, the Los Angeles Times tried to salvage the genocide
theme with a story about how the wells of Kosovo might be "mass graves
in their own right." The Times claimed that "many corpses have been
dumped into wells in Kosovo . . . Serbian forces apparently
stuffed...many bodies of ethnic Albanians into wells during their
campaign of terror."24 Apparently? Whenever the story got down to
specifics, it dwelled on only one village and only one well--in which
one body of a 39-year-old male was found, along with three dead cows and
a dog. Neither his nationality nor cause of death was given. Nor was it
clear who owned the well. "No other human remains were discovered," the
Times lamely concluded. As far as I know, neither the Los Angeles Times
nor any other media outlet ran any more stories of wells stuffed with
victims.
In one grave site after another, bodies were failing to materialize in
any substantial numbers-or any numbers at all. In July 1999, a mass
grave in Ljubenic, near Pec (an area of concerted fighting), believed to
be holding some 350 corpses, produced only seven after the exhumation.
In Djacovica, town officials claimed that one hundred ethnic Albanians
had been murdered, but there were no bodies because the Serbs had
returned in the middle of the night, dug them up, and carted them away,
the officials seemed to believe. In Pusto Selo, villagers claimed that
106 men were captured and killed by Serbs at the end of March, but again
no remains were discovered. Villagers once more suggested that Serb
forces must have come back and removed them. How they accomplished this
without being detected was not explained. In Izbica, refugees reported
that 150 ethnic Albanians were executed in March. But their bodies were
nowhere to be found. In Kraljan, 82 men were supposedly killed, but
investigators found not a single cadaver.25
The worst incident of mass atrocities ascribed to Yugoslavian leader
Slobodan Milosevic allegedly occurred at the Trepca mine. As reported by
U.S. and NATO officials, the Serbs threw a thousand or more bodies down
the shafts or disposed of them in the mine's vats of hydrochloric acid.
In October 1999, the ICTY released the findings of Western forensic
teams investigating Trepca. Not one body was found in the mine shafts,
nor was there any evidence that the vats had ever been used in an
attempt to dissolve human remains.26
By late autumn of 1999, the media hype about mass graves had fizzled
noticeably. The many sites unearthed, considered to be the most
notorious, offered up a few hundred bodies altogether, not the thousands
or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands previously trumpeted, and
with no evidence of torture or mass execution. In many cases, there was
no certain evidence regarding the nationality of victims.27 No mass
killings means that the Hague War Crimes Tribunal indictment of
Milosevic "becomes highly questionable," notes Richard Gwyn. "Even more
questionable is the West's continued punishment of the Serbs."28
No doubt there were graves in Kosovo that contained two or more persons
(which is NATO's definition of a "mass grave"). People were killed by
bombs and by the extensive land war that went on between Yugoslav and
KLA forces. Some of the dead, as even the New York Times allowed, "are
fighters of the Kosovo Liberation Army or may have died ordinary
deaths"-- as would happen in any large population over time.29 And no
doubt there were grudge killings and summary executions as in any war,
but not on a scale that would warrant the label of genocide and justify
the massive death and destruction and the continuing misery inflicted
upon Yugoslavia by the western powers.
We should remember that the propaganda campaign waged by NATO officials
and the major media never claimed merely that atrocities (murders and
rapes) occurred. Such crimes occur in every war, indeed, in many
communities during peacetime. What the media propaganda campaign against
Yugoslavia charged was that mass atrocities and mass rapes and mass
murders had been perpetrated, that is, genocide, as evidenced by mass
graves.
In contrast to its public assertions, the German Foreign Office
privately denied there was any evidence that genocide or ethnic
cleansing was ever a component of Yugoslav policy: "Even in Kosovo, an
explicit political persecution linked to Albanian ethnicity is not
verifiable. . . . The actions of the [Yugoslav] security forces [were]
not directed against the Kosovo-Albanians as an ethnically defined
group, but against the military opponent and its actual or alleged
supporters."30
Still, Milosevic was indicted as a war criminal, charged with the forced
expulsion of Kosovar Albanians, and with summary executions of a hundred
or so individuals, again, alleged crimes that occurred after the NATO
bombing had started, yet were used as justification for the bombing. The
biggest war criminal of all is NATO and the political leaders who
orchestrated the aerial campaign of death and destruction. But here is
how the White House and the U.S. media reasoned at the time: Since the
aerial attacks do not intend to kill civilians, then presumably there is
no liability and no accountability, only an occasional apology for the
regrettable mistakes-as if only the intent of an action counted and not
its ineluctable effects. In fact, a perpetrator can be judged guilty of
willful murder without explicitly intending the death of a particular
victim--as when the death results from an unlawful act that the
perpetrator knew would likely cause death. George Kenney, a former State
Department official under the Bush Administration, put it well:
"Dropping cluster bombs on highly populated urban areas doesn't result
in accidental fatalities. It is purposeful terror bombing."31
In sum, through a process of monopoly control and distribution,
repetition and image escalation, the media achieve self-confirmation,
that is, they find confirmation for the images they fabricate in the
images they have already fabricated. Hyperbolic labeling takes the place
of evidence: "genocide," "mass atrocities," "systematic rapes" and even
"rape camps"--camps which no one has ever located. Through this process,
evidence is not only absent, it becomes irrelevant.
So the U.S. major media (and much of the minor media) are not free and
independent, as they claim, they are not the watchdog of democracy but
the lapdog of the national security state. They help reverse the roles
of victims and victimizers, warmongers and peacekeepers, reactionaries
and reformers. The first atrocity, the first war crime committed in any
war of aggression by the aggressors is against the truth.
--------------
Michael Parenti is the author of Against Empire and America Besieged.
His most recent book is History as Mystery (City Lights Books).
Notes:
1. For instance, Raymond Bonner, "War Crimes Panel Finds Croat Troops
'Cleansed' the Serbs," New York Times, March 21, 1999, a revealing
report that has been ignored in the relentless propaganda campaign
against the Serbs.
2. John Ranz in his paid advertisement in the New York Times, April 29,
1993.
3. "Correction: Report on Rape in Bosnia," New York Times, October 23,
1993.
4. David Owen, Balkan Odyssey, p. 262.
5. Barry Lituchy, "Media Deception and the Yugoslav Civil War," in NATO
in the Balkans, p. 205; see also New York Times, August 7, 1993.
6. Both Noam Chomsky in his comments on Pacifica Radio, April 7, 1999,
and Alexander Cockburn in the Nation, May 10, 1999, describe Milosevic
as "monstrous" without offering any specifics.
7. Brooke Shelby Biggs, "Failure to Inform," San Francisco Bay Guardian,
May 5, 1999, p. 25.
8 Washington Post, June 6, 1999.
9. See for instance, Robert Burns, Associated Press report, April 22,
1999.
10. For example, New York Times, June 15, 1998.
11. Charles Radin and Louise Palmer, "Experts Voice Doubts on Claims of
Genocide: Little Evidence for NATO Assertions," San Francisco Chronicle,
April 22, 1999.
12. Newsday, March 31, 1999.
13. New York Times, May 11, 1999.
14. Audrey Gillan "What's the Story?" London Review of Books, May 27,
1999.
15. Washington Post, July 10, 1999.
16. See for instance, Carlotta Gall, "Belgrade Sees Grave Site as Proof
NATO Fails to Protect Serbs," New York Times, August 27, 1999.
17. Both the State Department and Cohen's figures are reported in the
New York Times, November 11, 1999.
18. New York Times, November 11, 1999.
19. Associate Press release, June 18, 1999. Reuters (July 12, 1999)
reported that NATO forces had catalogued more than one hundred sites
containing the bodies of massacred ethnic Albanians.
20. Stratfor.com, Global Intelligence Update, "Where Are Kosovo's
Killing Fields?" Weekly Analysis, October 18, 1999.
21. Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid, "Playing the Numbers Game"
(www.aim.org/mm/1999/08/03.htm).
22. London Sunday Times, October 31, 1999.
23. Washington Post, July 10, 1999.
24. Los Angeles Times, August 28, 1999.
25. Stratfor.com, Global Intelligence Update, "Where Are Kosovo's
Killing Fields?" Weekly Analysis, October 18, 1999.
26. Richard Gwyn in the Toronto Star, November 3, 1999.
27. See for instance, Carlotta Gall, "Belgrade Sees Grave Site as Proof
NATO Fails to Protect Serbs," New York Times, August 27, 1999.
28. Richard Gwyn in the Toronto Star, November 3, 1999.
29. New York Times, November 11, 1999.
30. Intelligence reports from the German Foreign Office, January 12,
1999 and October 29, 1998 to the German Administrative Courts,
translated by Eric Canepa, Brecht Forum, New York, April 20, 1999.
31. Teach-in, Leo Baeck Temple, Los Angeles, May 23, 1999.
http://www.swans.com
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Si e' recentemente costituito il Comitato Promotore per il Coordinamento
Nazionale "LA JUGOSLAVIA DEVE VIVERE"
LE REALTA' INTERESSATE AD UNIRSI AL COMITATO PROMOTORE
SONO PREGATE DI SCRIVERE ALL'INDIRIZZO This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SPECIFICANDO I PROPRI RECAPITI E DESCRIVENDO BREVEMENTE LA ATTIVITA'
EFFETTUATA
>
> ASSEMBLEA BOLOGNA 24/6/2000
>
> Durante l'assemblea del 24/6/2000 si è costituito a Bologna un
> COMITATO PROMOTORE che si pone quale obiettivo la
> creazione di un coordinamento stabile tra i soggetti attivi in Italia
> nella solidarietà al popolo jugoslavo, contro gli embarghi e contro
> la NATO, dal nome "LA JUGOSLAVIA DEVE VIVERE".
>
> Il Comitato promotore ha deciso di impegnarsi nella realizzazione a
> breve termine di TRE INIZIATIVE finalizzate al lancio di una campagna
> contro l'embargo alla Jugoslavia:
>
> * adesione alla contromarcia per la pace promossa, su contenuti
> effettivamente pacifisti ed in solidarietà ai popoli vittima della
> aggressione NATO, dal Comitato Umbro Antimperialista e da altre realtà
> antimperialiste territoriali per il giorno 24/9/2000 con partenza da
> Assisi; le organizzazioni aderenti al Comitato promotore si impegnano a
> far circolare il relativo appello e a raccogliere adesioni;
> * promozione di azioni di sensibilizzazione a livello locale sulla
> questione jugoslava, da concentrarsi tutte in una stessa giornata,
> presumibilmente il 30/9/2000, in vista di una
> * grande iniziativa simbolica di rottura dell'embargo alla RFJ, da
> tenersi orientativamente a metà ottobre, se possibile organizzando una
> imbarcazione che attraversi l'Adriatico dando così un segnale visibile
> di disobbedienza civile, e che prosegua con una carovana diretta a
> Belgrado. Si inviteranno a questa iniziativa rappresentanze dei popoli
> tuttora vittima degli embarghi o minacciati dall'interventismo
> imperialista.
>
> Quanto sopra verrà meglio esplicitato e reso noto tramite un MANIFESTO,
> il cui testo sarà approntato dai comitati della Romagna e vagliato dagli
> altri comitati aderenti al Comitato Promotore entro la fine di giugno
> 2000. Il manifesto sarà poi divulgato capillarmente con richiesta di
> adesione a tutti i comitati e le realtà che si trovino d'accordo con i
> suoi contenuti.
> All'uopo verrano anche stampati alcune migliaia di manifesti di grande
> formato (10000 minimo) tramite l'utilizzo dei fondi raccolti da tutti
> gli organismi presenti, da affiggere sul territorio nazionale a cura dei
> vari comitati e soggetti locali.
>
> ---
* PROMOTORI:
Comitato contro la guerra e la NATO - Ravenna
Coordinamento romagnolo contro la guerra e la NATO
Associazione Italia Jugoslavia (ASSIJUG)
Comitato contro la guerra Sesto s. Giovanni
Coordinamento comitati contro la guerra zona sud Milano
Comitato contro la guerra e "Un Ponte Per" - Treviso
Tribunale per i crimini di guerra della NATO
"Un Ponte per" BOLOGNA
Voce Operaia
Coord. Umbro Antiimperialista
"Non solo tramonti" Bologna
Coordinamento Romano per la Jugoslavia
Fondazione Nino Pasti
Mir 2000 Cremona
Centro autogestito PELLEROSSA Cesena
Fulvio Grimaldi (Liberazione)
Bartoli Carla
Gabriele Campana - Trieste
Emanuele Laffi - Bologna
Maria Rossini - Faenza
Stella Cappellini Assojug Bologna
Vincenzo Scalia - Bologna
Giovanelli Giovanna - Perugia
Tiziano Urbano di Alba nuova di Roma
* ADESIONI SUCCESSIVAMENTE PERVENUTE
Most za Beograd - un ponte per Belgrado in terra di Bari
Ass. Cult. Punto Rosso (VI) - Collettivo Spartakus
L'avamposto degli incompatibili
* ADESIONI DA FORMALIZZARE
Comitato di Faenza che non ha ancora aderito come comitato ma
solo alcuni.
"Internazionalismo e solidariet" di Trieste che si riunisce il 29/6 per
decidere
Comitato cittadino contro la guerra BOLOGNA
Centro di Documentazione Krupskaja - BO
* ALTRI INVITATI AD ADERIRE
"Un ponte per..." nazionale
Democrazia popolare & AIASP
Vesna Adum
J.V.P. Sri-Lanka rohana@...
Coordinamento Torinese per la Jugoslavia
Convoglio Internazionalista di Solidarieta' "G. Masi"
Forum per il diritto a comunicare
contropiano & radio citta' aperta di Roma
L'Ernesto
Comitato Centocelle contro la guerra - Roma
Centro di documentazione "P. Gatto", Napoli
OCI Cividale del Friuli
Che Fare
Nuova Unita'
Natasa Karanovic - Varese
SLAI Cobas Alfa Romeo
Zoran Borovac
Licia Mazzola
---
DI SEGUITO IL MESSAGGIO DI ADESIONE GIUNTO DA
"UN PONTE PER IN TERRA DI BARI"
Cari compagni,
Non abbiamo potuto - per ragioni di tempo e di lavoro - partecipare
alle precedenti
riunioni di costituzione del comitato promotore del coordinamento
permanente "La
Jugoslavia deve vivere".
Ne condividiamo sostanzialmente i motivi ispiratori e le linee di
intervento e quindi diamo la
nostra adesione.
Da un anno - prima come comitato e poi come associazione - siamo
impegnati in
un'attività che si è mossa su un duplice (e interattivo) binario: quello
della
controinformazione (o, meglio, della lotta contro la disinformazione
strategica, funzionale
alle aggressioni dell'imperialismo), attraverso un centro di
documentazione; e quello della
solidarietà con la popolazione jugoslava.
Abbiamo promosso il controvertice di Bari (ottobre 1999), che ha
messo in luce i piani
economici di spartizione dei Balcani, il ruolo giocato dai singoli
Stati, il carattere
imperialistico del "Patto di stabilità" (quello che tanto piace all'ICS,
che si lamenta solo del
fatto che alle ONG non è concesso tutto lo spazio che vorrebbero), il
ruolo sostanzialmente
colonizzatore svolto da numerose ONG (col business del peacemaking o del
peacekeeping)
e siamo riusciti a svolgere - non senza difficoltà, perché qui bisogna
sempre remare
controcorrente) - un'attività continua e costante nel tempo, con mostre
fotografiche,
video, conferenze, dibattiti, pubblicazione di bollettini, nonché del
libro di poesie contro la
guerra alla Jugoslava, "Gli assassini della tenerezza" (pubblicato
gratuitamente dall'editore
Sergio Manes, della Città del Sole di Napoli; il ricavato delle vendite
va integralmente ai
lavoratori dell aZastava). Nell'azione di controinformazione un apporto
prezioso - per la
grande ricchezza di dati e documentazione pressoché quotidianamente
fornita - ci è venuto
dal Coordinamento romano Jugoslavia.
Al tempo stesso abbiamo avviato l'iniziativa di solidarietà con i
lavoratori della Zastava
bombardata dalla NATO, principalmente attraverso la raccolta di fondi
(in parte di
medicinali) e soprattutto con la campagna di "adozioni a distanza" dei
figli dei lavoratori
disoccupati in seguito ai bombardamenti (versando 50.000 lire al mese
per famiglia). Questa
campagna ha ottenuto discreti risultati (siamo a quota 169 "adozioni")
contribuendo ad
avvicinare alla questione jugoslava (e alla critica dell'aggressione
NATO) anche strati
sociali e persone che il movimento contro la guerra della NATO non era
riuscito a
coinvolgere direttamente. In diversi casi, la lettera di un bambino di
Kragujevac che parlava
della sua vita sotto le bombe e delle enormi difficoltà in cui versa il
suo paese a causa dei
bombardamenti si è rivelata più efficace di un articolo o di un
documento (alcuni sostenitori
sono stati spinti ad approfondire la questione e hanno scoperto una
realtà che prima
vedevano con tutt'altri occhi, deformata dalla campagna di
demonizzazione dei serbi).
Questa solidarietà internazionalista con i lavoratori e con la
popolazione aggredita dalla
NATO crediamo si inserisca a pieno titolo nel solco della tradizione del
movimento operaio:
è una forma della lotta politica. Non fornisce solo - cosa di per sé
significativa - un
sostanziale aiuto concreto (abbiamo raccolto sinora 84 milioni, tra
quote delle adozioni,
raccolta generale di contributi, vendita libri di poesie), ma diviene
strumento di
comunicazione e critica della guerra della NATO.
Questa campagna di solidarietà ci ha consentito di stringere contatti
anche con diverse altre
città fuori della regione Puglia (in cui, nella zona Bari-Taranto in
particolare, abbiamo
svolto decine di iniziative), soprattutto a Napoli, Bolzano, Bologna,
dove sono sorti altri
nuclei o comitati o associazioni.
Questa campagna di solidarietà ci ha consentito di sviluppare
numerose iniziative a febbraio, quando abbiamo invitato tre
delegati della Zastava, che hanno compiuto un lungo giro in Italia, da
Taranto a Bolzano...).
Nella nostra attività ci siamo mossi sulla base delle seguenti
coordinate:
1. cercare di praticare una politica di massa e non settaria.
Cercare i fondamentali elementi di
unità. Non fare questione di sigle o etichette, ma di sostanza, di
contenuti. Il rapporto col
coordinamento nazionale RSU e con i compagni del "Progetto Zastava"
della CGIL-Lombardia è
stato sinora sostanzialmente positivo: il sostegno incondizionato ai
lavoratori della Zastava e i
rapporti col sindacato unitario della Zastava (che i nostri
"democratici" considerano
filogovernativo, preferendogli quelli pseudoindipendenti come
Nezavisnost, pagati
dall'Occidente) sono stati la base su cui abbiamo costruito la
collaborazione.
2. Rifiuto di qualsiasi solidarietà condizionata, mirante ad
interferire nelle questioni interne di un paese sovrano.
Insomma: autodeterminazione del popolo jugoslavo (e nel movimento
operaio questa parola d'ordine aveva una valenza
prettamente politica, non etnicistica!). E quindi critica ferma di tutte
quelle iniziative - promosse dai governi della
NATO e dalle associazioni paraNATO, più o meno mascherate - che fanno
solidarietà selettiva (qualche ettolitro di
petrolio alle città governate dai "democratici"). E' chiaro che quella
non e' solidarietà ma intervento neocoloniale:
imporre alla RFJ attraverso l'embargo, il ricatto economico, l'aiuto
condizionato, i governanti che fanno comodo
all'Occidente.
Non è stato facile, non è facile, muoversi all'interno di questi
parametri. Ma questa linea ha
ottenuto dei risultati, è riuscita a modificare gli orientamenti di
alcuni, a isolare le posizioni -
notevolmente diffuse nei coordinamenti contro la guerra sorti nella
primavera del '99 - tendenti a
demonizzare il governo jugoslave, a mettere sullo stesso piano negativo
l'aggredito e l'aggressore
(l'insulso e pericoloso slogan "nè con la NATO nè con Milosevic"),
posizioni che in ultima istanza
finivano col fornire un alibi alla NATO.
In merito alle prossime iniziative:
- Pienamente d'accordo con un'iniziativa unitaria in tutte le realtà
italiane per fine settembre (il
30 è un sabato: bisogna valutare se è la giornata migliore per
raggiungere il maggior numero di
persone: se dovesse essere un'assemblea-dibattito o una conferenza
pomeridiana, avremmo
difficoltà a realizzarla, e il sabato mattina molti che sono insegnanti
o impiegati sarebbero tagliati
fuori).
- Pienamente d'accordo col "piano di Nando" (mi riferisco
all'articolo di Liberazione con cui
Fulvio Grimaldi ha lanciato la proposta di una nave della solidarietà).
Credo che occorra mettersi a
lavorare sodo perché riesca. Qui occorrono consistenti mezzi e supporti,
ma è un'iniziativa che se
ben propagandata può raccogliere l'adesione entusiastica di tanti
giovani - e meno giovani -
compagni. Bisogna però studiare bene i modi per renderla effettivamente
praticabile. In primis:
quanto costa noleggiare una nave? Vi sono armatori che vogliano sfidare
l'embargo? Credo che si
dovrebbero contattare i compagni greci (quelli che a Salonicco mandarono
fuori strada un
battaglione della NATO).
- Qualche dubbio sulla "contromarcia della pace" (non abbiamo
partecipato alle riunioni, quindi
non ne conosciamo i dettagli).
Il 24 settembre dovrebbe essere il giorno della tradizionale "marcia
della pace", alla quale lo
scorso anno si presentò pure spudoratamente - ed ecumenicamente accolto
- il sergente
D'Alema, quello che ancora oggi dichiara che l'a cosa migliore del suo
governo è stata
l'aggressione alla Jugoslavia, che avrebbe dato all'Italia "credibilità
internazionale".
E' chiaro che quella marcia è diventata un pot pourri, un fritto
misto, che non critica la Nato, non
chiama gli aggressori con nome e cognome e alla fin fine serve piuttosto
a giustificare le prossime
aggressioni imperialiste che a combatterle. Il ruolo che in essa
svolgono le organizzazioni
promotrici egemoni è proprio quello di cavalcare il movimento per la
pace (che nelle condizioni
attuali non può non fondarsi sulla critica della NATO e delle potenze
imperialiste, quali principali
fattori della produzione di guerra) per depotenziarlo, morfinizzarlo.
E tuttavia, questa marcia ha una dimensione di massa. Sia pur
confusamente, una buona parte
dei partecipanti è sinceramente avversa alla guerra (poi vi sono i
predicatori di pace che
consapevolmente preparano la guerra imperialista, ma non ci sembra che
costituiscano la massa
dei partecipanti). Non ci sembra si tratti di una massa reazionaria.
(Diverso è il caso di chi ne ha
la direzione).
Se è così, bisognerebbe valutare cosa è più opportuno fare.
Un "Controvertice" ha un significato chiaro: c'è una parte del paese
che - con manifestazioni,
assemblee, conferenze - interviene contro una ventina (al massimo una
cinquantina) di capi di
Stato, ministri, plenipotenziari. Al loro seguito vi è al più qualche
segretario, qualche amante,
qualche pennivendolo. Essi rappresentano pienamente e consapevolmente i
poteri statali ed
economici che opprimono e affamano i popoli. A loro difesa si schierano
polizia ed esercito.
Neppure i fascisti osano promuovere manifestazioni di massa a loro
difesa.
Contro una manifestazione dal carattere dichiaratamente nazista e
fascista - composta
essenzialmente da bande e picchiatori fascisti - si può intervenire con
una
"Contromanifestazione" per impedire che prendano spazi, che occupino
piazze, per dimostrare che
non c'è spazio per loro.
Ma è conveniente promuovere una "contromarcia", una manifestazione
contro una marcia in cui
intervengono non masse reazionarie, ma confuse, egemonizzate da una
direzione (i preti hanno
una scuola di 2000 anni!) che tende a depotenziarne e annacquarne
sentimenti e tendenze in sé
positivi, che, sotto un'altra direzione, potrebbero sfociare in un serio
movimento per la pace?
Forse sarebbe più utile, in una lotta di egemonie, intervenire in
quella marcia con un
volantinaggio di massa, con propri striscioni e parole d'ordine, per
discutere con i partecipanti,
aprire contraddizioni (ad es.: com'è possibile marciare insieme per la
pace col governo che ha
fatto la guerra di aggressione e quell'aggressione continua con
l'embargo, coi tentativi di
sovversione e destabilizzazione della RFJ?).
Fraterni saluti
Andrea Catone, presidente di Most za Beograd
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Nazionale "LA JUGOSLAVIA DEVE VIVERE"
LE REALTA' INTERESSATE AD UNIRSI AL COMITATO PROMOTORE
SONO PREGATE DI SCRIVERE ALL'INDIRIZZO This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SPECIFICANDO I PROPRI RECAPITI E DESCRIVENDO BREVEMENTE LA ATTIVITA'
EFFETTUATA
>
> ASSEMBLEA BOLOGNA 24/6/2000
>
> Durante l'assemblea del 24/6/2000 si è costituito a Bologna un
> COMITATO PROMOTORE che si pone quale obiettivo la
> creazione di un coordinamento stabile tra i soggetti attivi in Italia
> nella solidarietà al popolo jugoslavo, contro gli embarghi e contro
> la NATO, dal nome "LA JUGOSLAVIA DEVE VIVERE".
>
> Il Comitato promotore ha deciso di impegnarsi nella realizzazione a
> breve termine di TRE INIZIATIVE finalizzate al lancio di una campagna
> contro l'embargo alla Jugoslavia:
>
> * adesione alla contromarcia per la pace promossa, su contenuti
> effettivamente pacifisti ed in solidarietà ai popoli vittima della
> aggressione NATO, dal Comitato Umbro Antimperialista e da altre realtà
> antimperialiste territoriali per il giorno 24/9/2000 con partenza da
> Assisi; le organizzazioni aderenti al Comitato promotore si impegnano a
> far circolare il relativo appello e a raccogliere adesioni;
> * promozione di azioni di sensibilizzazione a livello locale sulla
> questione jugoslava, da concentrarsi tutte in una stessa giornata,
> presumibilmente il 30/9/2000, in vista di una
> * grande iniziativa simbolica di rottura dell'embargo alla RFJ, da
> tenersi orientativamente a metà ottobre, se possibile organizzando una
> imbarcazione che attraversi l'Adriatico dando così un segnale visibile
> di disobbedienza civile, e che prosegua con una carovana diretta a
> Belgrado. Si inviteranno a questa iniziativa rappresentanze dei popoli
> tuttora vittima degli embarghi o minacciati dall'interventismo
> imperialista.
>
> Quanto sopra verrà meglio esplicitato e reso noto tramite un MANIFESTO,
> il cui testo sarà approntato dai comitati della Romagna e vagliato dagli
> altri comitati aderenti al Comitato Promotore entro la fine di giugno
> 2000. Il manifesto sarà poi divulgato capillarmente con richiesta di
> adesione a tutti i comitati e le realtà che si trovino d'accordo con i
> suoi contenuti.
> All'uopo verrano anche stampati alcune migliaia di manifesti di grande
> formato (10000 minimo) tramite l'utilizzo dei fondi raccolti da tutti
> gli organismi presenti, da affiggere sul territorio nazionale a cura dei
> vari comitati e soggetti locali.
>
> ---
* PROMOTORI:
Comitato contro la guerra e la NATO - Ravenna
Coordinamento romagnolo contro la guerra e la NATO
Associazione Italia Jugoslavia (ASSIJUG)
Comitato contro la guerra Sesto s. Giovanni
Coordinamento comitati contro la guerra zona sud Milano
Comitato contro la guerra e "Un Ponte Per" - Treviso
Tribunale per i crimini di guerra della NATO
"Un Ponte per" BOLOGNA
Voce Operaia
Coord. Umbro Antiimperialista
"Non solo tramonti" Bologna
Coordinamento Romano per la Jugoslavia
Fondazione Nino Pasti
Mir 2000 Cremona
Centro autogestito PELLEROSSA Cesena
Fulvio Grimaldi (Liberazione)
Bartoli Carla
Gabriele Campana - Trieste
Emanuele Laffi - Bologna
Maria Rossini - Faenza
Stella Cappellini Assojug Bologna
Vincenzo Scalia - Bologna
Giovanelli Giovanna - Perugia
Tiziano Urbano di Alba nuova di Roma
* ADESIONI SUCCESSIVAMENTE PERVENUTE
Most za Beograd - un ponte per Belgrado in terra di Bari
Ass. Cult. Punto Rosso (VI) - Collettivo Spartakus
L'avamposto degli incompatibili
* ADESIONI DA FORMALIZZARE
Comitato di Faenza che non ha ancora aderito come comitato ma
solo alcuni.
"Internazionalismo e solidariet" di Trieste che si riunisce il 29/6 per
decidere
Comitato cittadino contro la guerra BOLOGNA
Centro di Documentazione Krupskaja - BO
* ALTRI INVITATI AD ADERIRE
"Un ponte per..." nazionale
Democrazia popolare & AIASP
Vesna Adum
J.V.P. Sri-Lanka rohana@...
Coordinamento Torinese per la Jugoslavia
Convoglio Internazionalista di Solidarieta' "G. Masi"
Forum per il diritto a comunicare
contropiano & radio citta' aperta di Roma
L'Ernesto
Comitato Centocelle contro la guerra - Roma
Centro di documentazione "P. Gatto", Napoli
OCI Cividale del Friuli
Che Fare
Nuova Unita'
Natasa Karanovic - Varese
SLAI Cobas Alfa Romeo
Zoran Borovac
Licia Mazzola
---
DI SEGUITO IL MESSAGGIO DI ADESIONE GIUNTO DA
"UN PONTE PER IN TERRA DI BARI"
Cari compagni,
Non abbiamo potuto - per ragioni di tempo e di lavoro - partecipare
alle precedenti
riunioni di costituzione del comitato promotore del coordinamento
permanente "La
Jugoslavia deve vivere".
Ne condividiamo sostanzialmente i motivi ispiratori e le linee di
intervento e quindi diamo la
nostra adesione.
Da un anno - prima come comitato e poi come associazione - siamo
impegnati in
un'attività che si è mossa su un duplice (e interattivo) binario: quello
della
controinformazione (o, meglio, della lotta contro la disinformazione
strategica, funzionale
alle aggressioni dell'imperialismo), attraverso un centro di
documentazione; e quello della
solidarietà con la popolazione jugoslava.
Abbiamo promosso il controvertice di Bari (ottobre 1999), che ha
messo in luce i piani
economici di spartizione dei Balcani, il ruolo giocato dai singoli
Stati, il carattere
imperialistico del "Patto di stabilità" (quello che tanto piace all'ICS,
che si lamenta solo del
fatto che alle ONG non è concesso tutto lo spazio che vorrebbero), il
ruolo sostanzialmente
colonizzatore svolto da numerose ONG (col business del peacemaking o del
peacekeeping)
e siamo riusciti a svolgere - non senza difficoltà, perché qui bisogna
sempre remare
controcorrente) - un'attività continua e costante nel tempo, con mostre
fotografiche,
video, conferenze, dibattiti, pubblicazione di bollettini, nonché del
libro di poesie contro la
guerra alla Jugoslava, "Gli assassini della tenerezza" (pubblicato
gratuitamente dall'editore
Sergio Manes, della Città del Sole di Napoli; il ricavato delle vendite
va integralmente ai
lavoratori dell aZastava). Nell'azione di controinformazione un apporto
prezioso - per la
grande ricchezza di dati e documentazione pressoché quotidianamente
fornita - ci è venuto
dal Coordinamento romano Jugoslavia.
Al tempo stesso abbiamo avviato l'iniziativa di solidarietà con i
lavoratori della Zastava
bombardata dalla NATO, principalmente attraverso la raccolta di fondi
(in parte di
medicinali) e soprattutto con la campagna di "adozioni a distanza" dei
figli dei lavoratori
disoccupati in seguito ai bombardamenti (versando 50.000 lire al mese
per famiglia). Questa
campagna ha ottenuto discreti risultati (siamo a quota 169 "adozioni")
contribuendo ad
avvicinare alla questione jugoslava (e alla critica dell'aggressione
NATO) anche strati
sociali e persone che il movimento contro la guerra della NATO non era
riuscito a
coinvolgere direttamente. In diversi casi, la lettera di un bambino di
Kragujevac che parlava
della sua vita sotto le bombe e delle enormi difficoltà in cui versa il
suo paese a causa dei
bombardamenti si è rivelata più efficace di un articolo o di un
documento (alcuni sostenitori
sono stati spinti ad approfondire la questione e hanno scoperto una
realtà che prima
vedevano con tutt'altri occhi, deformata dalla campagna di
demonizzazione dei serbi).
Questa solidarietà internazionalista con i lavoratori e con la
popolazione aggredita dalla
NATO crediamo si inserisca a pieno titolo nel solco della tradizione del
movimento operaio:
è una forma della lotta politica. Non fornisce solo - cosa di per sé
significativa - un
sostanziale aiuto concreto (abbiamo raccolto sinora 84 milioni, tra
quote delle adozioni,
raccolta generale di contributi, vendita libri di poesie), ma diviene
strumento di
comunicazione e critica della guerra della NATO.
Questa campagna di solidarietà ci ha consentito di stringere contatti
anche con diverse altre
città fuori della regione Puglia (in cui, nella zona Bari-Taranto in
particolare, abbiamo
svolto decine di iniziative), soprattutto a Napoli, Bolzano, Bologna,
dove sono sorti altri
nuclei o comitati o associazioni.
Questa campagna di solidarietà ci ha consentito di sviluppare
numerose iniziative a febbraio, quando abbiamo invitato tre
delegati della Zastava, che hanno compiuto un lungo giro in Italia, da
Taranto a Bolzano...).
Nella nostra attività ci siamo mossi sulla base delle seguenti
coordinate:
1. cercare di praticare una politica di massa e non settaria.
Cercare i fondamentali elementi di
unità. Non fare questione di sigle o etichette, ma di sostanza, di
contenuti. Il rapporto col
coordinamento nazionale RSU e con i compagni del "Progetto Zastava"
della CGIL-Lombardia è
stato sinora sostanzialmente positivo: il sostegno incondizionato ai
lavoratori della Zastava e i
rapporti col sindacato unitario della Zastava (che i nostri
"democratici" considerano
filogovernativo, preferendogli quelli pseudoindipendenti come
Nezavisnost, pagati
dall'Occidente) sono stati la base su cui abbiamo costruito la
collaborazione.
2. Rifiuto di qualsiasi solidarietà condizionata, mirante ad
interferire nelle questioni interne di un paese sovrano.
Insomma: autodeterminazione del popolo jugoslavo (e nel movimento
operaio questa parola d'ordine aveva una valenza
prettamente politica, non etnicistica!). E quindi critica ferma di tutte
quelle iniziative - promosse dai governi della
NATO e dalle associazioni paraNATO, più o meno mascherate - che fanno
solidarietà selettiva (qualche ettolitro di
petrolio alle città governate dai "democratici"). E' chiaro che quella
non e' solidarietà ma intervento neocoloniale:
imporre alla RFJ attraverso l'embargo, il ricatto economico, l'aiuto
condizionato, i governanti che fanno comodo
all'Occidente.
Non è stato facile, non è facile, muoversi all'interno di questi
parametri. Ma questa linea ha
ottenuto dei risultati, è riuscita a modificare gli orientamenti di
alcuni, a isolare le posizioni -
notevolmente diffuse nei coordinamenti contro la guerra sorti nella
primavera del '99 - tendenti a
demonizzare il governo jugoslave, a mettere sullo stesso piano negativo
l'aggredito e l'aggressore
(l'insulso e pericoloso slogan "nè con la NATO nè con Milosevic"),
posizioni che in ultima istanza
finivano col fornire un alibi alla NATO.
In merito alle prossime iniziative:
- Pienamente d'accordo con un'iniziativa unitaria in tutte le realtà
italiane per fine settembre (il
30 è un sabato: bisogna valutare se è la giornata migliore per
raggiungere il maggior numero di
persone: se dovesse essere un'assemblea-dibattito o una conferenza
pomeridiana, avremmo
difficoltà a realizzarla, e il sabato mattina molti che sono insegnanti
o impiegati sarebbero tagliati
fuori).
- Pienamente d'accordo col "piano di Nando" (mi riferisco
all'articolo di Liberazione con cui
Fulvio Grimaldi ha lanciato la proposta di una nave della solidarietà).
Credo che occorra mettersi a
lavorare sodo perché riesca. Qui occorrono consistenti mezzi e supporti,
ma è un'iniziativa che se
ben propagandata può raccogliere l'adesione entusiastica di tanti
giovani - e meno giovani -
compagni. Bisogna però studiare bene i modi per renderla effettivamente
praticabile. In primis:
quanto costa noleggiare una nave? Vi sono armatori che vogliano sfidare
l'embargo? Credo che si
dovrebbero contattare i compagni greci (quelli che a Salonicco mandarono
fuori strada un
battaglione della NATO).
- Qualche dubbio sulla "contromarcia della pace" (non abbiamo
partecipato alle riunioni, quindi
non ne conosciamo i dettagli).
Il 24 settembre dovrebbe essere il giorno della tradizionale "marcia
della pace", alla quale lo
scorso anno si presentò pure spudoratamente - ed ecumenicamente accolto
- il sergente
D'Alema, quello che ancora oggi dichiara che l'a cosa migliore del suo
governo è stata
l'aggressione alla Jugoslavia, che avrebbe dato all'Italia "credibilità
internazionale".
E' chiaro che quella marcia è diventata un pot pourri, un fritto
misto, che non critica la Nato, non
chiama gli aggressori con nome e cognome e alla fin fine serve piuttosto
a giustificare le prossime
aggressioni imperialiste che a combatterle. Il ruolo che in essa
svolgono le organizzazioni
promotrici egemoni è proprio quello di cavalcare il movimento per la
pace (che nelle condizioni
attuali non può non fondarsi sulla critica della NATO e delle potenze
imperialiste, quali principali
fattori della produzione di guerra) per depotenziarlo, morfinizzarlo.
E tuttavia, questa marcia ha una dimensione di massa. Sia pur
confusamente, una buona parte
dei partecipanti è sinceramente avversa alla guerra (poi vi sono i
predicatori di pace che
consapevolmente preparano la guerra imperialista, ma non ci sembra che
costituiscano la massa
dei partecipanti). Non ci sembra si tratti di una massa reazionaria.
(Diverso è il caso di chi ne ha
la direzione).
Se è così, bisognerebbe valutare cosa è più opportuno fare.
Un "Controvertice" ha un significato chiaro: c'è una parte del paese
che - con manifestazioni,
assemblee, conferenze - interviene contro una ventina (al massimo una
cinquantina) di capi di
Stato, ministri, plenipotenziari. Al loro seguito vi è al più qualche
segretario, qualche amante,
qualche pennivendolo. Essi rappresentano pienamente e consapevolmente i
poteri statali ed
economici che opprimono e affamano i popoli. A loro difesa si schierano
polizia ed esercito.
Neppure i fascisti osano promuovere manifestazioni di massa a loro
difesa.
Contro una manifestazione dal carattere dichiaratamente nazista e
fascista - composta
essenzialmente da bande e picchiatori fascisti - si può intervenire con
una
"Contromanifestazione" per impedire che prendano spazi, che occupino
piazze, per dimostrare che
non c'è spazio per loro.
Ma è conveniente promuovere una "contromarcia", una manifestazione
contro una marcia in cui
intervengono non masse reazionarie, ma confuse, egemonizzate da una
direzione (i preti hanno
una scuola di 2000 anni!) che tende a depotenziarne e annacquarne
sentimenti e tendenze in sé
positivi, che, sotto un'altra direzione, potrebbero sfociare in un serio
movimento per la pace?
Forse sarebbe più utile, in una lotta di egemonie, intervenire in
quella marcia con un
volantinaggio di massa, con propri striscioni e parole d'ordine, per
discutere con i partecipanti,
aprire contraddizioni (ad es.: com'è possibile marciare insieme per la
pace col governo che ha
fatto la guerra di aggressione e quell'aggressione continua con
l'embargo, coi tentativi di
sovversione e destabilizzazione della RFJ?).
Fraterni saluti
Andrea Catone, presidente di Most za Beograd
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
In seguito alle polemiche scoppiate sulla lista del Coordinamento
"NOOCSE" a causa di un volantinaggio a favore della opposizione
liberista e filoatlantica in Serbia...
---
Ci è giunto oggi questo messaggio dal noOcse di Bologna.
> Il gruppo donne Contropiani NoOcse Bologna riunitosi presso
Atlantide il
> 26/6/2000 esprime la propria adesione all'appello di solidarietà con
la
> "Serbia Democratica" per lanciare per il 24/6/2000 ponti di
solidarietà
> concreti con più di venti città italiane, con:
> - la rete delle donne in nero contro la guerra sia in Serbia che
kosovo/a
> - appello per l'immediata liberazione di Flora Brovina
> - con il movimento studentesco Otpop (Resistenza)
>
> Riuniamoci tutte/i per il volantinaggio insieme con le donne in nero
di
> Bologna in piazza ore 18 il 24/6/2000. Saranno fatte comunicazioni
anche
> durante ko Street Rave Parade antiprobizionista.
>
> 20/6/2000.
> Gruppo Donne Contropiani.
>
Permetteteci di esprimere il nostro sdegno.
Come è possibile che dall'interno di una rete che si proclama
antagonista si faccia da sponda ai governi NATO nel solidarizzare
con la "Serbia Democratica", cioè con le forze filo-occidentali che
proclamano apertamente la loro simpatia con l'Europa di
Maastricht e che chiedono l'ingresso della Iugoslavia nella NATO?
Come non sapere che sono proprio i governi NATO (gli stessi che
hanno sganciato tonnellate di bombe all'uranio impoverito, gli
stessi che stringono i popoli iugoslavi in un'embargo infame e
illegale) a promettere aiuti solo a quei municipi amministrati dalle
forze politiche filo-USA-UE, cioè alla "Serbia democratica"?
Come è possibile rivendicare la liberazione dell'unico prigioniero
dell'UCK nelle prigioni iugoslave mentre nel Kosovo, col terrore,
sono stati espulsi 250mila rom, serbi, gorani, montenegrini e
albanesi anti-UCK? Mentre a Kosovska Mitrovica sono detenuti e
in sciopero della fame per protestare contro la violazione da parte
dei poliziotti ONU dei più elementari diritti umani, una quarantina
di cittadini non-albanesi?
Come è possibile solidarizzare con il movimento "Otpop" il quale
solidarizza a sua volta con i tirannosauri del turbocapitalismo
globalizzato contro i quali ci siamo mobilitati ad Ancona, Firenze,
Genova e Bologna?
Donne in nero?
Qui in lutto ci sono solo l'intelligenza, la dignità, la coerenza di
tutti quelli che erano a Bologna con la rete noOcse, e che si
illudevano di avere al fianco, pur nella diversità di opinioni,
compagni e compagne che avevano chiaro, come minimo, cosa
stavamo facendo, contri chi stavamo lottando.
Invitiamo i compagni a boicottare, a sabotare, ad impedire il
proclamato volantinaggio ed a partecipare invece all'incontro
nazionale delle Associazioni anti-NATO e di solidarietà con la
Iugoslavia che si svolgerà proprio a Bologna, proprio il 24
giugno, dalle ore 11 in poi presso la saletta del sindacato
ferrovieri dentro la stazione FS centrale.
VOCE OPERAIA
Subject: Bifo politically S/correct
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 02:02:29 +0800
From: VOCE OPERAIA <voceoperaia@...>
To: <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Franco Berardi "Bifo" denudandosi un'altra volta,
ha così risposto al nostro invito a boicottare il meeting in
difesa della "Serbia
democratica", cioè di quel cartello di forze politiche iugoslave
notoriamente
sponzorizzate dalla NATO:
"Esprimo la mia solidarietà e il mio affetto per le donne in nero
per il
movimento OTPOR e per tutti coloro che hanno saputo riconoscere
nel regime
fascista serbo e nel criminale Milosevic un nemico dell'umanità -
non meno
ripugnante ed orrendo dei bombardieri della NATO e dei regimi
occidentali che
speculano sulla guerra.
Vorrei inoltre sapere come questi signori che si firmano Voce
operaia
pensano di potere sabotare, boicottare, impedire il volantinaggio
delle donne
in nero. Forse dispongono delle squadre naziste di Seselj, o si
rivolgeranno
per un petit coup de main alle tigri di Arkan?
Su molte cose ci può essere discussione, differenza, disaccordo,
all'interno
della rete che si sta costituendo. Su questa cosa no. Sappiamo
riconoscere i
fascisti, i nazionalisti, e gli assassini, quale che sia la
bandiera che
sventolano.
Per quel che io ne so la rete NOOCSE è pronta a rispondere
all'appello di ogni
oppresso, che sia uomo o donna, kosovaro o albanese, serbo o
croato.
Ma non è disposta a difendere nessun regime dittatoriale. E meno
di ogni altro
il regime dei violentatori serbi, di Milosevic, di Seselj, di
Karadzic, di
Mladic e di Arkan.
Scomparite, miserabili".
Franco Berardi Bifo
Allo s.d.e.g.n.o. si aggiunge la nostra pena.
Questo messaggio di Bifo sembra una fotocopia dei discorsetti che
James
Shea, portavoce della NATO, a nome del Segretario di Stato USA M.
Albright, diffondeva un anno fa per giustificare i bombardamenti
"intelligenti"
in Iugoslavia.
Essi ci dicevano infatti che si trattava di una "guerra
umanitaria" in difesa dei
"poveri kosovari" contro il "regime fascista serbo" capeggiato
"dal criminale
Milosevic nemico dell'umanità". E noi, che assieme a milioni di
antimperialisti
e di democratici ci siamo battuti per fermare l'aggressione,
proprio come
dicevano Veltroni e D'Alema, siamo stati in realtà dei servi degli
"violentatori serbi",dei sostenitori della "pulizia etnica".
Ma un anno è passato, e solo Bifo sembra non essersi accorto di
cosa nel
frattempo è accaduto in Kosovo sotto lo sguardo 'vigile' dei
mercenari
NATO. (...)
Se solo Bifo conservasse un briciolo della passione sociale di un
tempo, se
volesse davvero difendere ogni uomo o donna opressi, se volesse
combattere davvero contro ogni dittatura e violenza, saprebbe da
che parte
stare. Chiederebbe la fine delle sanzioni contro la Iugoslavia,
vorrebbe che
sul banco degli accusati, come criminali di guerra, sedessero i
ministri dei
governi NATO, si batterebbe per i diritti dei Rom ( e delle altre
minoranze
oppresse dalla mafia albanese) non solo a Bologna (questo fa
chic!) ma
proprio in Kosovo, chiederebbe il ritiro delle truppe NATO da i
Balcani,
sarebbe per spazzare via i papponi narcotrafficanti
(ultranazionalisti)
dell'UCK. Ma egli ha perso, assieme alla passione per la
giustizia, anche la
lucidità (altrimenti non direbbe che la nostra difesa della
Iugoslavia equivale a
difendere il suo regime attuale), e non sa più riconoscere
oppressi e
oppressori, ricchi e poveri, tiranni e ribelli. A forza di
trastullarsi con il cyber
spazio e le reti virtuali, ha perso ogni contatto con la concreta
realtà
mondiale. L'odio antiserbo e antiiugoslavo da cui è accecato è una
buona
credenziale per accreditarsi come pupillo politically S/correct
nei salotti buoni
dell'imperialismo, ma che non ci venga allora a prendere per il
culo con il suo
antagonismo da baraccone. Anche la battaglia per cibi non
transgenici va
benissimo ai borghesi, basta che non metta in discussione
l'imperialismo,
questo sistema di saccheggio planetario che solo con la rapina a
spese dei
quattro quinti della popolazione mondiale può garantire i
privilegi dei bifi e dei
bifetti dell'Occidente opulento. Noi possiamo permetterci il lusso
di chiedere
cibi biologici solo perché in Africa, Asia, America Latina i
proletari non
mangiano che una ciotola di riso, perché in Iugoslavia si fanno le
file per il
pane, perché in Iraq o a Cuba non ci sono latte o medicinali per i
bambini. E
cosa fanno i bifi dell'Occidente che mangiano pastasciutta con
farina
biologica a 10mila al chilo? Si lagnano perché in simili
circostanze, in questi
paesi martoriati, non c'è libertà (borghese, s'intende), si
mettono a
pontificare, a dare lezioni di democrazia.
Questo è quello che chiamiamo antagonismo da baraccone,
l'antagonismo di
plebei che cercano una civile convivenza dentro la fortezza
imperialista, una
nicchietta confortevole per mettersi la coscienza a posto, in cui
sia loro
concesso fingere di battersi per i diritti degli schiavi.
E' no cari signori! Anche se voi vi credete assolti, siete per
sempre coinvolti!
Voce Operaia
Subject: R.I.T.E.G.N.O.
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 20:04:43 +0800
From: VOCEOPERAIA <voceoperaia@...>
To: <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
28 giugno
voce operaia
Tentando di chiarire la nostra posizione....
Francamente non pensavamo che il nostro S.D.E.G.N.O. del 22 giugno
avrebbe suscitato questo
putiferio.
E' facile dedurre che se ciò è accaduto è perché abbiamo ficcato il
coltello in una piaga del corpo
del movimento antagonista. Un movimento non può essere giudicato da ciò
che dice di se stesso,
ma dalle posizioni che assume riguardo ai fatti salienti, i quali, in un
contesto globalizzato, sono
anzitutto fatti di rilievo internazionale. E di primissimo rilievo è, da
almeno l'estate del 1990, la
tragedia della Iugoslavia.
Dopo tutte le accuse mosseci (prendiamo in considerazione quelle
meritevoli di attenzione)
riteniamo di non abusare della pazienza dei compagni/e se ci prendiamo
il diritto di replica.
Partiamo da un primo elemento. Non è vero che il panorama iugoslavo è
diviso in due campi
soltanto: quello capeggiato da PSS di Milosevic e la filo-occidentale
"Opposizione Unita"
--facciamo notare che in una riunione dei Ministri degli esteri della
NATO svoltasi a Sarajevo nel
luglio del 1999 l'investitura a leader di questa coalizione è caduta dul
banchiere Abramovic.
I progressisti europei potranno anche fare spallucce, ma in Iugoslavia,
esistono più campi politici
in lotta fra loro, a dimostrazione che c'è un regime democratico, una
variante della sola
democrazia oggi esistente, quella borghese. Che essa sia blindata non
crediamo dipenda anzitutto
dalla paranoia di Milosevic, ma dalle profonde tensioni sociali causate
da dieci anni di guerra e di
embargo. Per molto meno, negli anni '20 e '30 la democrazia europea, è
sfociata nella tirannide
fascista. Checcé deducano i nostri critici VOCE OPERAIA non sta nel
campo di Milosevic, ma, e
da più di un decennio, in quello dell'estrema sinistra. Si compagni!
esiste una sinistra comunista
Iugoslava ed è con questa che da almeno dieci anni abbiamo relazioni
strettissime, loro ci passano
informazioni di prima mano, loro ci hanno aiutato nei nostri continui
viaggi dal 1991 in poi, loro
hanno consenito, nell'estate del 1998, il campo antimperialista in
Montenegro. Si tratta di
organizzazioni di operai, contadini, intellettuali che nel 1989/90 non
seguirono Milosevic e Mira
Markovic (della JUL) quando imboccarono, tanbto per capirci, la via
della disoluzione della
vecchia lega dei Comunisti titoista. Non si tratta però solo di
nostalgici del titoismo, ci sono anche
antitotisti a vario titolo (ad esempio gli staliniani del NKPJ-Nuovo
Partito Comunista di
Jugoslavia- guidati da Kitanovic che come cominternista si fece sotto
Tito una decina d'anni di
galera. C'è la Lega dei Comunisti di Stevan Mirkovic, considerato il
vero erede di Tito. Ci sono
gruppi tacciati di essere trotskysti (come il Partito dei Lavoratori),
titoisti autogestionari e
internazionalisti come il Partito Comunista Serbo e il Partito
Socialista Popolare. In Montenegro,
come da tradizione, a questi partito se ne aggiungono anche altri,
componendo un'area composita
e spesso litigiosa. Esisitono infine, per quanto i progressisti nostrani
possano socchignare, varie
correnti organizzate di sinistra, sia nalla Sinistra Jugosva (JUL) che
nel partito Socialista di
Milosevic.
Noi è a questo "terzo campo" comunista che siamo legati da vincoli di
amicizia e solidarietà.
Ricordiamo anche l'Associaziione Internazionale E. Che Guevara di
Pristina, i cui dirigenti,
assolutamente "multietnici" sono dovuti scappare dal Kosovo già nel
dicembre del 1998, quando,
sotto gli occhi degli "Osservatori" dell'ONU, l'UCK scatenava la sua
caccia all'uomo, non solo
anti-serba, non solo anti-rom, ma pure anticomunista.
Con questi compagni riteniamo che nonostante tutti gli errori e i
crimini commessi durante un
decennio di conflitto, nonostante il regime "socialista" di Milosevic la
Iugoslavia andava difesa,
l'espansione della NATO contrastata. Dubitiamo che i nostri critici
riescano a capire questa
dialettica (che essi scambiano con la duplicità): comunque quest'estrema
sinistra, considerando
che l'esplosione della Iugoslavia era nell'interesse dell'imperialismo,
ha combattuto la NATO
(anche inviando propri volontari in alcuni fronti di guerra), pur senza
aver mai appoggiato
Milosevic e il suo governo.
L'equazione: difesa della Iugoslavia uguale difesa di Milosevic è una
delle armi più sottili e infami
della propaganda imperialista nonché delle forze disfattiste iugoslave.
Qui in Occidente la storia è vecchia come il cucco: difendi l'Argentina
contro la Gran Bretagna nel
conflitto sulle Malvinas? Ma allora stai coi generali golpisti! Difendi
l'Iran? Quindi sei con
l'integralismo islamico. Dici giù le mani dall'Iraq? Dunque sei con
Saddam Hussein che fa strage
dei curdi! Sei contro l'invasione "democratica" di Panama? Ma allora
difendi il narcotrafficante
Noriega! Sostieni la resistenza Hezbollah in Libano? Dunque sei per
imporre lo chador alle donne!
Ogni compagno/a intellettualmente onesto e che non abbia gettato alle
ortiche certi fondamentali
criteri marxisti e antimperialisti di interpretazioni dei fatti, però,
capisce al volo il senso della
nostra posizione.
Il dramma è che il "terzocampismo" --la posizione di equidistanza tra la
NATO che avanza come
un rullo compressore per spianare la strada alle multinazionali e al
capitale finanziario e quegli
stati ribelli che dicono Signor No!-- non è più l'atteggiamento
snobistico di certi settori della
borghesia, è diventata, pensate un po', la posizione di buona parte
dell'antagonismo qui in
Occidente. Qui in Occidente certi compagni, si mettono a fare le pulci a
questi regimi, misurano il
loro tasso di democraticità (borghese) e condizionano il loro appoggio
al rispetto di quelli che essi
considerano principi sacri, metastorici. Degli apriori di natura
etico-morale, quindi metapolitici.
Potremmo farla lunga sul discorso della "democrazia", potremmo ribadire
che la democrazia è
sempre una forma mascherata di dittatura. Ma la facciamo corta. Per dare
lezioni di democrazia ai
cittadini iugoslavi (facendo il contrappunto a criminali internazionali
come Clinton e company) essi
dovrebbero prima conquistarla nel loro proprio paese. Come possono,
degli italiani il cui governo
D'Alema ha calpestato come Mussolini non solo la democrazia formale
(Costituzione) ma lo
stesso Diritto internazionale, arrogarsi quello di chiedere più
democrazia per i serbi? Come
possono gli antagonisti italiani che non riescono ad impedire i lavori
dell'OCSE, salire in cattedra e
dare lezioni a chi da dieci anni difende con le unghie e coi denti i
principi non meno democratici di
quello di voto o di parola, come quelli della sovranità e
dell'indipendenza nazionali? Come possono,
gli antagonisti per cui la classe operaia non esiste, in un paese in cui
si consente che i proletari
ammazzati sul lavoro superino quelli massacrati dalla NATO in
Iugoslavia, dare lezioni? Come
possono, certi antagonisti, firmare petizioni per la libertà di una
poetessa kosovara per sua
ammissione vicina all'UCK, quando in Italia essi non muovono un dito per
i nostri 200 prigionieri
politici? Questi nostri antagonisti che hanno fatto finta di nulla
mentre il regime di centro-sinistra,
non venti anni fa, ma nel 1999, ha affibbiato il 270bis ad un centinaio
di militanti anti--NATO e
incarcerato e condannato una cinquantina di compagni, comunisti e
anarchici, in base alle
legislazione speciale anti-terrorismo?
Dovrebbero solo vergognarsi per i loro livelli di opportunismo, di
assuefazione, di cerchiobottismo,
di consociativismo oggettivo con questo sistema di merda e i suoi
satrapi eletti a suffragio
universale.
VOCE OPERAIA
Ultimo ma non meno importante.
Il nostro appello a boicottare i sit-in in favore della "serbia
democratica" e il movimento Otpor era
aleatorio, virtuale, dello stesso tipo di quello tanto strombazzato per
sabotare il vertice dell'OCSE.
Resta il fatto che il cartello di forze che si oppone al regime di
Milosevic non è né democratico, né
popolare. Chi conosce le vicende iugoslave lo sa e non aspetta di
prendere la linea dal TG1 o dal
TG5, da Gad Lerner o dalla Annunziata. Il cartello di partiti raccolti
nella sigla "Opposizione
Unita" è composto notoriamente da partitelli "democratici" sponzorizzati
dai paesi NATO (ognuno
ha il suo preferito) ma anche, da ultra-monarchici, fascisti e cetnici
serbi di diverso stampo, da
leader che si sono macchiati, tra il 1992 e il 1996, nelle Kraijne e in
Bosnia, dei peggiori crimini
nazionalistici (non ci sono solo le Aquile Bianche di Seselj o le Tigri
di Arkan). Dei veri
democratici-terzocampisti-pacifisti, se fossero coerenti, dovrebbero
disprezzare questi non meno
di Milosevic.
Per quanto riguarda Otpor (la coalizione di certe associazioni di base,
non solo studentesche!)
solo un movimentismo becero e apolitico può considerarlo un elemento
autonomo nella lotta per il
potere attualmente in atto in Iugoslavia. Che ci credano o no i nostri
detrattori, il loro legame con la
"Opposizione Unita" di Draskovic, Dindijc e Obramovic, è dichiarato e
indissolubile. Non si tratta
di un movimento spontaneo di studenti all'italiana, ma di un reparto
d'assalto, del cavallo di Troia
dei reazionari.
Ecco perché, anche i Diessini (leggasi DS), oltre a fungere in Italia da
architrave del potere
neoliberista, possono aderire a pieno titolo alla iniziativa con
rappresentanti di Otpor che i
compagni di Radio Sherwood (leggasi radio Sherwood) svolgeranno a Padova
sabato 1. luglio.
Sarebbe necessario boicottare anche questa iniziativa, ovviamente.
Tuttavia chiamiamo . Certi
compagni padovani non vanno troppo per il sottile. Già l'anno scorso, ad
Aviano, ci hanno
malmenato perché portavamo delle bandiere iugoslave (quelle con la
stella rossa beninteso). Loro
odiano la "pulizia etnica" serba, ma non disdegnano quella politica di
stampo "stalinista" (senza
offesa per i compagni stalinisti).
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
"NOOCSE" a causa di un volantinaggio a favore della opposizione
liberista e filoatlantica in Serbia...
---
Ci è giunto oggi questo messaggio dal noOcse di Bologna.
> Il gruppo donne Contropiani NoOcse Bologna riunitosi presso
Atlantide il
> 26/6/2000 esprime la propria adesione all'appello di solidarietà con
la
> "Serbia Democratica" per lanciare per il 24/6/2000 ponti di
solidarietà
> concreti con più di venti città italiane, con:
> - la rete delle donne in nero contro la guerra sia in Serbia che
kosovo/a
> - appello per l'immediata liberazione di Flora Brovina
> - con il movimento studentesco Otpop (Resistenza)
>
> Riuniamoci tutte/i per il volantinaggio insieme con le donne in nero
di
> Bologna in piazza ore 18 il 24/6/2000. Saranno fatte comunicazioni
anche
> durante ko Street Rave Parade antiprobizionista.
>
> 20/6/2000.
> Gruppo Donne Contropiani.
>
Permetteteci di esprimere il nostro sdegno.
Come è possibile che dall'interno di una rete che si proclama
antagonista si faccia da sponda ai governi NATO nel solidarizzare
con la "Serbia Democratica", cioè con le forze filo-occidentali che
proclamano apertamente la loro simpatia con l'Europa di
Maastricht e che chiedono l'ingresso della Iugoslavia nella NATO?
Come non sapere che sono proprio i governi NATO (gli stessi che
hanno sganciato tonnellate di bombe all'uranio impoverito, gli
stessi che stringono i popoli iugoslavi in un'embargo infame e
illegale) a promettere aiuti solo a quei municipi amministrati dalle
forze politiche filo-USA-UE, cioè alla "Serbia democratica"?
Come è possibile rivendicare la liberazione dell'unico prigioniero
dell'UCK nelle prigioni iugoslave mentre nel Kosovo, col terrore,
sono stati espulsi 250mila rom, serbi, gorani, montenegrini e
albanesi anti-UCK? Mentre a Kosovska Mitrovica sono detenuti e
in sciopero della fame per protestare contro la violazione da parte
dei poliziotti ONU dei più elementari diritti umani, una quarantina
di cittadini non-albanesi?
Come è possibile solidarizzare con il movimento "Otpop" il quale
solidarizza a sua volta con i tirannosauri del turbocapitalismo
globalizzato contro i quali ci siamo mobilitati ad Ancona, Firenze,
Genova e Bologna?
Donne in nero?
Qui in lutto ci sono solo l'intelligenza, la dignità, la coerenza di
tutti quelli che erano a Bologna con la rete noOcse, e che si
illudevano di avere al fianco, pur nella diversità di opinioni,
compagni e compagne che avevano chiaro, come minimo, cosa
stavamo facendo, contri chi stavamo lottando.
Invitiamo i compagni a boicottare, a sabotare, ad impedire il
proclamato volantinaggio ed a partecipare invece all'incontro
nazionale delle Associazioni anti-NATO e di solidarietà con la
Iugoslavia che si svolgerà proprio a Bologna, proprio il 24
giugno, dalle ore 11 in poi presso la saletta del sindacato
ferrovieri dentro la stazione FS centrale.
VOCE OPERAIA
Subject: Bifo politically S/correct
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 02:02:29 +0800
From: VOCE OPERAIA <voceoperaia@...>
To: <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Franco Berardi "Bifo" denudandosi un'altra volta,
ha così risposto al nostro invito a boicottare il meeting in
difesa della "Serbia
democratica", cioè di quel cartello di forze politiche iugoslave
notoriamente
sponzorizzate dalla NATO:
"Esprimo la mia solidarietà e il mio affetto per le donne in nero
per il
movimento OTPOR e per tutti coloro che hanno saputo riconoscere
nel regime
fascista serbo e nel criminale Milosevic un nemico dell'umanità -
non meno
ripugnante ed orrendo dei bombardieri della NATO e dei regimi
occidentali che
speculano sulla guerra.
Vorrei inoltre sapere come questi signori che si firmano Voce
operaia
pensano di potere sabotare, boicottare, impedire il volantinaggio
delle donne
in nero. Forse dispongono delle squadre naziste di Seselj, o si
rivolgeranno
per un petit coup de main alle tigri di Arkan?
Su molte cose ci può essere discussione, differenza, disaccordo,
all'interno
della rete che si sta costituendo. Su questa cosa no. Sappiamo
riconoscere i
fascisti, i nazionalisti, e gli assassini, quale che sia la
bandiera che
sventolano.
Per quel che io ne so la rete NOOCSE è pronta a rispondere
all'appello di ogni
oppresso, che sia uomo o donna, kosovaro o albanese, serbo o
croato.
Ma non è disposta a difendere nessun regime dittatoriale. E meno
di ogni altro
il regime dei violentatori serbi, di Milosevic, di Seselj, di
Karadzic, di
Mladic e di Arkan.
Scomparite, miserabili".
Franco Berardi Bifo
Allo s.d.e.g.n.o. si aggiunge la nostra pena.
Questo messaggio di Bifo sembra una fotocopia dei discorsetti che
James
Shea, portavoce della NATO, a nome del Segretario di Stato USA M.
Albright, diffondeva un anno fa per giustificare i bombardamenti
"intelligenti"
in Iugoslavia.
Essi ci dicevano infatti che si trattava di una "guerra
umanitaria" in difesa dei
"poveri kosovari" contro il "regime fascista serbo" capeggiato
"dal criminale
Milosevic nemico dell'umanità". E noi, che assieme a milioni di
antimperialisti
e di democratici ci siamo battuti per fermare l'aggressione,
proprio come
dicevano Veltroni e D'Alema, siamo stati in realtà dei servi degli
"violentatori serbi",dei sostenitori della "pulizia etnica".
Ma un anno è passato, e solo Bifo sembra non essersi accorto di
cosa nel
frattempo è accaduto in Kosovo sotto lo sguardo 'vigile' dei
mercenari
NATO. (...)
Se solo Bifo conservasse un briciolo della passione sociale di un
tempo, se
volesse davvero difendere ogni uomo o donna opressi, se volesse
combattere davvero contro ogni dittatura e violenza, saprebbe da
che parte
stare. Chiederebbe la fine delle sanzioni contro la Iugoslavia,
vorrebbe che
sul banco degli accusati, come criminali di guerra, sedessero i
ministri dei
governi NATO, si batterebbe per i diritti dei Rom ( e delle altre
minoranze
oppresse dalla mafia albanese) non solo a Bologna (questo fa
chic!) ma
proprio in Kosovo, chiederebbe il ritiro delle truppe NATO da i
Balcani,
sarebbe per spazzare via i papponi narcotrafficanti
(ultranazionalisti)
dell'UCK. Ma egli ha perso, assieme alla passione per la
giustizia, anche la
lucidità (altrimenti non direbbe che la nostra difesa della
Iugoslavia equivale a
difendere il suo regime attuale), e non sa più riconoscere
oppressi e
oppressori, ricchi e poveri, tiranni e ribelli. A forza di
trastullarsi con il cyber
spazio e le reti virtuali, ha perso ogni contatto con la concreta
realtà
mondiale. L'odio antiserbo e antiiugoslavo da cui è accecato è una
buona
credenziale per accreditarsi come pupillo politically S/correct
nei salotti buoni
dell'imperialismo, ma che non ci venga allora a prendere per il
culo con il suo
antagonismo da baraccone. Anche la battaglia per cibi non
transgenici va
benissimo ai borghesi, basta che non metta in discussione
l'imperialismo,
questo sistema di saccheggio planetario che solo con la rapina a
spese dei
quattro quinti della popolazione mondiale può garantire i
privilegi dei bifi e dei
bifetti dell'Occidente opulento. Noi possiamo permetterci il lusso
di chiedere
cibi biologici solo perché in Africa, Asia, America Latina i
proletari non
mangiano che una ciotola di riso, perché in Iugoslavia si fanno le
file per il
pane, perché in Iraq o a Cuba non ci sono latte o medicinali per i
bambini. E
cosa fanno i bifi dell'Occidente che mangiano pastasciutta con
farina
biologica a 10mila al chilo? Si lagnano perché in simili
circostanze, in questi
paesi martoriati, non c'è libertà (borghese, s'intende), si
mettono a
pontificare, a dare lezioni di democrazia.
Questo è quello che chiamiamo antagonismo da baraccone,
l'antagonismo di
plebei che cercano una civile convivenza dentro la fortezza
imperialista, una
nicchietta confortevole per mettersi la coscienza a posto, in cui
sia loro
concesso fingere di battersi per i diritti degli schiavi.
E' no cari signori! Anche se voi vi credete assolti, siete per
sempre coinvolti!
Voce Operaia
Subject: R.I.T.E.G.N.O.
Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 20:04:43 +0800
From: VOCEOPERAIA <voceoperaia@...>
To: <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
28 giugno
voce operaia
Tentando di chiarire la nostra posizione....
Francamente non pensavamo che il nostro S.D.E.G.N.O. del 22 giugno
avrebbe suscitato questo
putiferio.
E' facile dedurre che se ciò è accaduto è perché abbiamo ficcato il
coltello in una piaga del corpo
del movimento antagonista. Un movimento non può essere giudicato da ciò
che dice di se stesso,
ma dalle posizioni che assume riguardo ai fatti salienti, i quali, in un
contesto globalizzato, sono
anzitutto fatti di rilievo internazionale. E di primissimo rilievo è, da
almeno l'estate del 1990, la
tragedia della Iugoslavia.
Dopo tutte le accuse mosseci (prendiamo in considerazione quelle
meritevoli di attenzione)
riteniamo di non abusare della pazienza dei compagni/e se ci prendiamo
il diritto di replica.
Partiamo da un primo elemento. Non è vero che il panorama iugoslavo è
diviso in due campi
soltanto: quello capeggiato da PSS di Milosevic e la filo-occidentale
"Opposizione Unita"
--facciamo notare che in una riunione dei Ministri degli esteri della
NATO svoltasi a Sarajevo nel
luglio del 1999 l'investitura a leader di questa coalizione è caduta dul
banchiere Abramovic.
I progressisti europei potranno anche fare spallucce, ma in Iugoslavia,
esistono più campi politici
in lotta fra loro, a dimostrazione che c'è un regime democratico, una
variante della sola
democrazia oggi esistente, quella borghese. Che essa sia blindata non
crediamo dipenda anzitutto
dalla paranoia di Milosevic, ma dalle profonde tensioni sociali causate
da dieci anni di guerra e di
embargo. Per molto meno, negli anni '20 e '30 la democrazia europea, è
sfociata nella tirannide
fascista. Checcé deducano i nostri critici VOCE OPERAIA non sta nel
campo di Milosevic, ma, e
da più di un decennio, in quello dell'estrema sinistra. Si compagni!
esiste una sinistra comunista
Iugoslava ed è con questa che da almeno dieci anni abbiamo relazioni
strettissime, loro ci passano
informazioni di prima mano, loro ci hanno aiutato nei nostri continui
viaggi dal 1991 in poi, loro
hanno consenito, nell'estate del 1998, il campo antimperialista in
Montenegro. Si tratta di
organizzazioni di operai, contadini, intellettuali che nel 1989/90 non
seguirono Milosevic e Mira
Markovic (della JUL) quando imboccarono, tanbto per capirci, la via
della disoluzione della
vecchia lega dei Comunisti titoista. Non si tratta però solo di
nostalgici del titoismo, ci sono anche
antitotisti a vario titolo (ad esempio gli staliniani del NKPJ-Nuovo
Partito Comunista di
Jugoslavia- guidati da Kitanovic che come cominternista si fece sotto
Tito una decina d'anni di
galera. C'è la Lega dei Comunisti di Stevan Mirkovic, considerato il
vero erede di Tito. Ci sono
gruppi tacciati di essere trotskysti (come il Partito dei Lavoratori),
titoisti autogestionari e
internazionalisti come il Partito Comunista Serbo e il Partito
Socialista Popolare. In Montenegro,
come da tradizione, a questi partito se ne aggiungono anche altri,
componendo un'area composita
e spesso litigiosa. Esisitono infine, per quanto i progressisti nostrani
possano socchignare, varie
correnti organizzate di sinistra, sia nalla Sinistra Jugosva (JUL) che
nel partito Socialista di
Milosevic.
Noi è a questo "terzo campo" comunista che siamo legati da vincoli di
amicizia e solidarietà.
Ricordiamo anche l'Associaziione Internazionale E. Che Guevara di
Pristina, i cui dirigenti,
assolutamente "multietnici" sono dovuti scappare dal Kosovo già nel
dicembre del 1998, quando,
sotto gli occhi degli "Osservatori" dell'ONU, l'UCK scatenava la sua
caccia all'uomo, non solo
anti-serba, non solo anti-rom, ma pure anticomunista.
Con questi compagni riteniamo che nonostante tutti gli errori e i
crimini commessi durante un
decennio di conflitto, nonostante il regime "socialista" di Milosevic la
Iugoslavia andava difesa,
l'espansione della NATO contrastata. Dubitiamo che i nostri critici
riescano a capire questa
dialettica (che essi scambiano con la duplicità): comunque quest'estrema
sinistra, considerando
che l'esplosione della Iugoslavia era nell'interesse dell'imperialismo,
ha combattuto la NATO
(anche inviando propri volontari in alcuni fronti di guerra), pur senza
aver mai appoggiato
Milosevic e il suo governo.
L'equazione: difesa della Iugoslavia uguale difesa di Milosevic è una
delle armi più sottili e infami
della propaganda imperialista nonché delle forze disfattiste iugoslave.
Qui in Occidente la storia è vecchia come il cucco: difendi l'Argentina
contro la Gran Bretagna nel
conflitto sulle Malvinas? Ma allora stai coi generali golpisti! Difendi
l'Iran? Quindi sei con
l'integralismo islamico. Dici giù le mani dall'Iraq? Dunque sei con
Saddam Hussein che fa strage
dei curdi! Sei contro l'invasione "democratica" di Panama? Ma allora
difendi il narcotrafficante
Noriega! Sostieni la resistenza Hezbollah in Libano? Dunque sei per
imporre lo chador alle donne!
Ogni compagno/a intellettualmente onesto e che non abbia gettato alle
ortiche certi fondamentali
criteri marxisti e antimperialisti di interpretazioni dei fatti, però,
capisce al volo il senso della
nostra posizione.
Il dramma è che il "terzocampismo" --la posizione di equidistanza tra la
NATO che avanza come
un rullo compressore per spianare la strada alle multinazionali e al
capitale finanziario e quegli
stati ribelli che dicono Signor No!-- non è più l'atteggiamento
snobistico di certi settori della
borghesia, è diventata, pensate un po', la posizione di buona parte
dell'antagonismo qui in
Occidente. Qui in Occidente certi compagni, si mettono a fare le pulci a
questi regimi, misurano il
loro tasso di democraticità (borghese) e condizionano il loro appoggio
al rispetto di quelli che essi
considerano principi sacri, metastorici. Degli apriori di natura
etico-morale, quindi metapolitici.
Potremmo farla lunga sul discorso della "democrazia", potremmo ribadire
che la democrazia è
sempre una forma mascherata di dittatura. Ma la facciamo corta. Per dare
lezioni di democrazia ai
cittadini iugoslavi (facendo il contrappunto a criminali internazionali
come Clinton e company) essi
dovrebbero prima conquistarla nel loro proprio paese. Come possono,
degli italiani il cui governo
D'Alema ha calpestato come Mussolini non solo la democrazia formale
(Costituzione) ma lo
stesso Diritto internazionale, arrogarsi quello di chiedere più
democrazia per i serbi? Come
possono gli antagonisti italiani che non riescono ad impedire i lavori
dell'OCSE, salire in cattedra e
dare lezioni a chi da dieci anni difende con le unghie e coi denti i
principi non meno democratici di
quello di voto o di parola, come quelli della sovranità e
dell'indipendenza nazionali? Come possono,
gli antagonisti per cui la classe operaia non esiste, in un paese in cui
si consente che i proletari
ammazzati sul lavoro superino quelli massacrati dalla NATO in
Iugoslavia, dare lezioni? Come
possono, certi antagonisti, firmare petizioni per la libertà di una
poetessa kosovara per sua
ammissione vicina all'UCK, quando in Italia essi non muovono un dito per
i nostri 200 prigionieri
politici? Questi nostri antagonisti che hanno fatto finta di nulla
mentre il regime di centro-sinistra,
non venti anni fa, ma nel 1999, ha affibbiato il 270bis ad un centinaio
di militanti anti--NATO e
incarcerato e condannato una cinquantina di compagni, comunisti e
anarchici, in base alle
legislazione speciale anti-terrorismo?
Dovrebbero solo vergognarsi per i loro livelli di opportunismo, di
assuefazione, di cerchiobottismo,
di consociativismo oggettivo con questo sistema di merda e i suoi
satrapi eletti a suffragio
universale.
VOCE OPERAIA
Ultimo ma non meno importante.
Il nostro appello a boicottare i sit-in in favore della "serbia
democratica" e il movimento Otpor era
aleatorio, virtuale, dello stesso tipo di quello tanto strombazzato per
sabotare il vertice dell'OCSE.
Resta il fatto che il cartello di forze che si oppone al regime di
Milosevic non è né democratico, né
popolare. Chi conosce le vicende iugoslave lo sa e non aspetta di
prendere la linea dal TG1 o dal
TG5, da Gad Lerner o dalla Annunziata. Il cartello di partiti raccolti
nella sigla "Opposizione
Unita" è composto notoriamente da partitelli "democratici" sponzorizzati
dai paesi NATO (ognuno
ha il suo preferito) ma anche, da ultra-monarchici, fascisti e cetnici
serbi di diverso stampo, da
leader che si sono macchiati, tra il 1992 e il 1996, nelle Kraijne e in
Bosnia, dei peggiori crimini
nazionalistici (non ci sono solo le Aquile Bianche di Seselj o le Tigri
di Arkan). Dei veri
democratici-terzocampisti-pacifisti, se fossero coerenti, dovrebbero
disprezzare questi non meno
di Milosevic.
Per quanto riguarda Otpor (la coalizione di certe associazioni di base,
non solo studentesche!)
solo un movimentismo becero e apolitico può considerarlo un elemento
autonomo nella lotta per il
potere attualmente in atto in Iugoslavia. Che ci credano o no i nostri
detrattori, il loro legame con la
"Opposizione Unita" di Draskovic, Dindijc e Obramovic, è dichiarato e
indissolubile. Non si tratta
di un movimento spontaneo di studenti all'italiana, ma di un reparto
d'assalto, del cavallo di Troia
dei reazionari.
Ecco perché, anche i Diessini (leggasi DS), oltre a fungere in Italia da
architrave del potere
neoliberista, possono aderire a pieno titolo alla iniziativa con
rappresentanti di Otpor che i
compagni di Radio Sherwood (leggasi radio Sherwood) svolgeranno a Padova
sabato 1. luglio.
Sarebbe necessario boicottare anche questa iniziativa, ovviamente.
Tuttavia chiamiamo . Certi
compagni padovani non vanno troppo per il sottile. Già l'anno scorso, ad
Aviano, ci hanno
malmenato perché portavamo delle bandiere iugoslave (quelle con la
stella rossa beninteso). Loro
odiano la "pulizia etnica" serba, ma non disdegnano quella politica di
stampo "stalinista" (senza
offesa per i compagni stalinisti).
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
