Informazione
* IAC:
- Presa di posizione dell'IAC sull'apparente interessamento del
Tribunale dell'Aia ai crimini di guerra della NATO (31/12)
- L'IAC sulla recente "scoperta" da parte dei mass-media dei crimini e
della malafede della NATO (12/01)
* SEZIONE AUSTRIACA del Tribunale indipendente:
- Atto d'accusa
- altra documentazione su: http://members.magnet.at/rkl
* International Ethical Alliance (IEA) denounces NATO's bombings
Yugoslavia
* Sulle azioni della magistratura e della popolazione greca contro i
crimini di guerra della NATO segnaliamo:
http://www.arpnet.it/%7eregis/giudicg.htm
http://balkan.pengo.it/documenti/intellettuali_greci.htm
===
>
> STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
>
> Statement from the IAC on the UN War Crimes Tribunal's report on NATO
> air strikes
> 31 Dec 1999
> It is only the growing international pressure to indict Bill Clinton and
> other NATO leaders for war crimes against the people of Yugoslavia that
> forced the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for
> the former Yugoslavia to announce the review of possible NATO war
> crimes. But don't expect any indictments of NATO leaders. The
> announcement to review NATO conduct is intended as a cynical white wash
> by a court that was established at the behest of and financed by NATO
> members.
> On Dec. 28, the chief prosecutor for the special War Crimes Tribunal
> based at the Hague, Carla Del Ponte, announced she would review a report
> on the conduct of NATO pilots and their commanders during last spring's
> 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. The United Nations Security
> Council set up the tribunal in 1993 at the instigation of Madeline
> Albright. It has depended on financial support from NATO countries to
> operate since then, and looks to NATO to enforce its decisions and
> arrest those indicted. This court has no connection to the World Court
> and it has no precedent in international law or in the UN Charter.
> The International Action Center never considered this tribunal to be an
> unbiased or independent court. It was created to do the bidding of the
> Western powers and specifically to discredit the political leadership in
> Yugoslavia and prepare public opinion for war. It was another instrument
> in the aggressive war against Yugoslavia. Most of the charges have been
> brought against Serbs. The indictment of President Slobodan Milosevic
> and other Yugoslav leaders took place while NATO bombs were raining on
> Pristina and other cities and towns in Kosovo, in Belgrade, Novi Sad and
> throughout Yugoslavia.
> The NATO aggressors indicted their victims for war crimes. This has some
> historical precedent. In the early 1940's, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany
> held a sham war crimes trial for French socialist leader Leon Blum. Blum
> and the socialists were blamed for "starting World War II." He and
> millions of others were then deported to concentration camps.
> While none of the media accounts of Del Ponte's announcement expected
> that she would press charges against any individual associated with NATO
> as a result of the report, even to raise such a possibility is a
> profound development. As one report said, "Never has a Western leader or
> military figure been hauled before an international tribunal."
> The International Action Center on July 31, 1999, initiated an
> Independent Commission of Inquiry to Investigate U.S./NATO War Crimes
> Against the People of Yugoslavia before 700 people in New York. At that
> meeting, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark charged U.S.-NATO
> political and military leaders with 19 counts of war crimes, crimes
> against humanity and crimes against peace.
> Since July there have been dozens of similar hearings held in 10 U.S.
> cities and in Rome, Berlin, Oslo, Paris, Vienna, Novi Sad, Sydney and
> Tokyo, with the most dramatic a "People's Tribunal" on Nov. 8, 1999, in
> Athens, Greece before 10,000 people.
> Others, members of the Russian Duma and respected attorneys from Canada,
> Greece and Britain for example, have participated in the "tribunal
> movement" by attempting to bring evidence before the International
> Criminal Tribunal established by the Security Council at the Hague. They
> have documented NATO's war crimes and demanded that they also be
> investigated. Other attorneys and magistrates in at least Italy and
> Germany have brought charges against their own governments for violating
> constitutional provisions against waging an aggressive war.
> In addition, the mainstream media has finally published several truthful
> accounts of events surrounding the war that expose the NATO powers for
> the worst of the war crimes. These news stories confirm that it was a
> war of aggression and that NATO targeted civilians. These include
> (1) U.S. and other NATO forces provoked the war by setting terms at
> Rambouillet in March 1999 for NATO occupation of all of Yugoslavia that
> the Yugoslav Government could never accept. (Article by Robert Fisk in
> the British daily, The Independent, Nov. 26, 1999). Go to Excerpt
> (2) U.S. generals directing NATO bombing purposely struck civilian
> economic targets in Serbia to bring pressure on the Belgrade government
> to capitulate (Dana Priest in the Washington Post, Sept 19, 20, 21,
> 1999). Go to Excerpt
> (3) The cries of "genocide" NATO politicians used to justify the
> intervention had no basis in fact. U.S. officials said first that
> 500,000 Kosovo Albanians had been killed, then 100,000, then 40,000. Yet
> forensic teams from 17 nations digging in Kosovo 6 months to investigate
> so-called "mass graves" found 2,108 bodies—and these were of all
> nationalities and had died from all causes. (Toronto Star Nov. 4, 1999,
> New York Times, Nov. 10, 1999). Go to Excerpt
> In all, the mounting evidence against U.S.-NATO forces and growing
> pressure to investigate NATO for war crimes has forced the Tribunal
> established by the Security Council to try to at least look less like a
> blatant anti-Yugoslav star chamber.
> While we in the International Action Center have no confidence that the
> International Criminal Tribunal on former Yugoslavia based at The Hague
> will bring the U.S.-NATO war criminals to trial, we take encouragement
> from this additional sign of growing hostility to NATO's aggressive war.
> And we will proceed with our independent tribunal to try the U.S.-NATO
> criminals before a court of world public opinion this coming June 2000.
> IAC co-directors Sara Flounders and Brian Becker and Staff member John
> Catalinotto are available for questions on this statement.
>
>
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
International Action Center
Mainstream Press Reveals Truths about U.S.-NATO Aggression in Yugoslavia
Below are selections from four articles from the mainstream press from
June to November 1999 that indicate that U.S.-NATO forces did indeed (1)
target civilians, (2) provoked the war and thereby committed a planned
aggression against a sovereign state, (3) falsified claims of "genocide"
in order to justify this intervention. A fourth article indicates how
the War Crimes Court in the Hague is itself a tool of NATO. The
newspapers basically supported NATO's war and these articles are
themselves hostile to the Yugoslav government, yet they finally admitted
some truths.
1. Purposely targeted civilians
(From: "Tension Grew With Divide Over Strategy"
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 21, 1999; Page A01
Third of three articles )
Planning for the campaign dated back to June 1998. By the opening night,
strategists had produced 40 versions of an air war, according to Gen.
John P. Jumper, commander of the U.S. Air Force in Europe. Some of these
documents were highly critical of using air power alone, without troops
on the ground to help flush out the enemy. But NATO ultimately settled
on a three-phase air campaign. In Phase I, NATO would strike
antiaircraft defenses and command bunkers. Phase II would extend the
strikes to Yugoslavia's infrastructure below the 44th parallel, well
south of Belgrade. Only in Phase III would the alliance hit targets in
the capital. That was Plan A. There was no Plan B. NATO did not have a
contingency blueprint for a longer campaign, officials now say, because
the Clinton administration and Clark feared that if the alliance's 19
member states were asked to contemplate such a possibility, they would
not agree to begin the war at all. ... Short On March 24, the opening
night of the war, Lt. Gen. Short sat in a darkened room full of computer
screens, the Combined Air Operations Center at Vicenza Air Base in
Italy. Yellow, green and red tadpole-shaped symbols moved across large
electronic maps on the walls, representing all the enemy and NATO
aircraft over Yugoslavia. As Short waited for the first missiles to
strike, he clenched his jaw and kept his silence, a self-control that
some subordinates noted and admired. The three-star general with a
drilling blue stare and gruff manner had argued many times to his
superiors that the most effective tactic for the first night of the war
would be a knockout punch to Belgrade's power stations and government
ministries. ns. Clark Clark also harbored doubts about the initial
plan's meager size. But after a year of coaxing the allies, he felt this
was the biggest and best operation he could get NATO to approve. He also
believed there was a 40 percent chance that the war would end within
three days, since Milosevic might just be looking for an excuse to
withdraw from Kosovo. ....
"From the very beginning, Clark changed the strategy," says a European
diplomat in Brussels. "He quickly decided to strike on a broader
geographic scale and, second, to strike a different type of target. . .
. It made us worried about the political risks, the political impact."
...While the allies were hesitating to approve strikes on Belgrade,
however, Air Force commanders were unhappy about searching for tanks and
troops in Kosovo. Body Language "There was a fundamental difference of
opinion at the outset between General Clark, who was applying a ground
commander's perspective . . . and General Short as to the value of going
after fielded forces," says Vice Adm. Daniel J. Murphy Jr., who was
commander of all naval forces aligned against Yugoslavia.
...In the Air Force magazine interview, Short said that Clark urged him
even before the conflict started to "get down amongst" Yugoslav armored
vehicles and troops in the field. Eventually, he said, "we, the airmen
of the alliance, were able to convince General Clark" of a need to
conduct sustained operations against "more lucrative and compelling
targets . . . in Serbia proper." (IAC's emphasis) No Pause Clark says he
didn't need any convincing about strategic targets, but he wanted to
strike Serbian forces in Kosovo, as well. Meanwhile, he was fending off
proposals from the political leaders of some NATO
countries—particularly Italy and Greece—who wanted to suspend the
bombing altogether. Clark's frustration with the alliance's timidity was
reflected in a video conference on March 27. These live, highly secure
communication links replaced the crackly field telephones and urgent
cables of previous wars. They were part theater, say some of the people
who sat through them, with a dozen large personalities on the stage.
NATO must strike "as many targets as we can each night," said Clark,
seated at the head of a classroom-style conference room, staring at a
television screen hanging from the ceiling. "I don't want to let the
perception get started that we're not doing much, so we can have a
pause." ...Yet, in the end, Clark pushed hard for approval to go after
exactly the kind of targets that the Air Force wanted. And it was then
that his political acumen proved useful. Aim Points ...On March 30, day
seven of the war, the North Atlantic Council debated Clark's request but
made no decision. Instead, the council left Solana with the job of
interpreting its wishes. A few days later, he gave the go-ahead. By
winning approval for continuing strikes on Belgrade as well as Kosovo,
Clark finally brought the allies and the Air Force together, creating
the broader war that led Milosevic to capitulate. But military
historians, air power strategists and budding commanders at war colleges
will long debate the merits of Short's position vs. Clark's. Last week,
Clark released some long-awaited figures on the Kosovo campaign: Allied
warplanes destroyed or damaged 93 tanks, 153 armored personnel carriers,
339 military vehicles and 389 artillery pieces and mortars. Those
numbers represent only about one-third of all the weaponry and vehicles
that the Yugoslav army had in Kosovo; two-thirds survived intact. To
those in Short's camp, this is strong evidence that the war was won by
strategic bombing of Serbia proper, where NATO damaged or destroyed 24
bridges, 12 railway stations, 36 factories, seven airports, 16 fuel
plants and storage depots, 17 television transmitters and several
electrical facilities, according to a Yugoslav government report. Clark
is not swayed. He argues that Yugoslavia was defeated by steady losses
both in Kosovo and in the rest of Serbia, combined with diplomatic
pressure and the threat of an allied invasion. The air campaign "was an
effort to coerce, not to seize," said Clark. "It only made good sense
that at some point, if [Milosevic] continued to lose and we didn't, that
he would throw in the towel. But we could never predict how long he
would hold on because it wasn't a function of any specific set of
losses. It was a function of variables that were beyond our
predictions—ultimately, his state of mind."
Back to: Statement from the IAC on Hague
2. U.S. provoked war
FROM THIS ARTICLE ON RAMBOUILLET PART B, PUBLISHED NOV. 26 IN THE
BRITISH NEWSPAPER THE INDEPENDENT, WITH THE HEADLINE "THE TROJAN HORSE
THAT 'STARTED' A 79-DAY WAR" ---
By Robert Fisk in Belgrade
In the last days of the Paris peace talks on Yugoslavia last March,
something extraordinary happened. The Serb delegation - after agreeing
to a political revolution in Kosovo - was presented with a military
appendix to the treaty which demanded the virtual Nato occupation of all
Yugoslavia.
The Serbs turned it down and Nato went to war. Yet 79 days later, Nato -
which had refused to contemplate a change in the military document -
lost all interest in the annexe and at the final dramatic meetings on
the Macedonian border was content with a Nato force inside only Kosovo.
Official obfuscation and confusion has ever since surrounded this
all-important, last-minute addition to the Paris "peace" agreement. Was
it presented by the Americans to force President Slobodan Milosevic to
reject the whole peace package and permit Nato to bomb Serbia?...
The full annexes demanded Nato rights of road, rail and air passage
across all of Yugoslavia, the use of radio stations, even the waiving of
any claims of damages against Nato. For any state - even one as
grotesque as Serbia - this would have amounted to occupation.
The Foreign Minister of France, Hubert Védrine, said the military
appendix was similar to that used by Nato when it moved troops into
Bosnia and that Nato forces needed access to Kosovo through Belgrade.
But he has never explained why this supposedly essential part of the
treaty was abandoned once Nato troops moved into the province.
Milan Komnenic, who was the Yugoslav Federal Information minister and a
member of Vuk Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement (then in government
but soon to be in opposition), was in Paris during the talks and has
become preoccupied with the military annexe. He is writing a book about
the negotiations, The Trap of Rambouillet.....
According to Mr Komnenic, the American negotiator Christopher Hill and
the Austrian diplomat at the talks, Boris [Wolfgang—IAC] Petritsch,
insisted on the annexe while the Russian negotiator, Boris Mayorski -
who later refused to attend the Kosovo Albanian signing of the "peace"
agreement - abstained. "Hill and Petritsch were 'for' the annexe and
[Robin] Cook and Védrine apparently agreed with a version - not
identical to the final annexe - which was called an 'explanation' of the
political agreement and which said there could be no implementation with
a Nato presence only in Kosovo," Mr Komnenic said. .... United Nations
Security Council resolution 1244 [which ended the conflict] could have
been accepted before the bombing."
In any event, when Nato commanders met the Serbs for the
"military-technical agreement" at the end of the war - after thousands
of Kosovo Albanians had been murdered by Serb forces and as many as
1,500 civilians killed by Nato bombs - the supposedly crucial military
annexe was never mentioned. Miraculously, Nato - with 40,000 troops to
move into the province (10,000 more than originally envisaged) - no
longer needed appendix B. Not a single Nato soldier moved north of
Kosovo into the rest of Serbia. What was the real purpose of Nato's last
minute demand? Was it a Trojan horse? To save the peace? Or to sabotage
it? (END)
Back to: Statement from the IAC on Hague
3. U.S. lied to justify war
>>From Nov.3, Toronto Star (a similar article appeared in the Nov. 11 New
York Times)
"No genocide, no justification for war on Kosovo"
IN THE GENOCIDE of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by the forces of Serb
leader Slobodan Milosevic, the worst incident occurred at the Trepca
mine. As reported by American and NATO officials, large numbers of
bodies were brought in by trucks under the cover of darkness. The bodies
were then thrown down the shafts, or were disposed of entirely in the
mine's vats of hydrochloric acid. Estimates of the number of dead began
at 1,000. That was six months ago, in the middle of the war undertaken
to halt what both U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister
Tony Blair called "a human catastrophe." Estimates of the number of
ethnic Albanians slaughtered went upward from 10,000. U.S. Defence
Secretary William Cohen put the count at 100,000. Three weeks ago, the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia released the
findings of Western forensic teams investigating the horror at Trepca.
There were not 1,000 bodies down the mine shafts at Trepca, reported the
tribunal. There were not 100 bodies there. There was not one body there,
nor was there any evidence the vats had ever been used to dispose of
human remains. Shortly afterward, the tribunal reported on its work at
the most infamous of all the mass graves of ethnic Albanians, at
Ljubenic near the town of Pec. Earlier, NATO officials had said 350
victims had been hastily buried there by the retreating Serb forces.
There were not 350 bodies at Ljubenic, though. There were five. So far,
not one mass grave has been found in Kosovo, despite four months' work
by forensic teams, including experts from the FBI and the RCMP. This
discovery - more accurately, this non-discovery - first was made public
three weeks ago by the Texas-based intelligence think tank, Stratfor.
Stratfor estimated the number of ethnic Albanian dead in Kosovo at 500.
Last weekend, the story was broadcast for the first time by the TV
Ontario program Diplomatic Immunity. (Last Sunday's New York Times was
still using the "10,000 deaths" figure.) The story has begun to appear
in European newspapers. Spain's El Pais has quoted the head of the
Spanish forensic team, Emilo Pujol, as saying he had resigned because,
after being told to expect to have to carry out 2,000 autopsies, he'd
only had 97 bodies to examine - none of which "showed any signs of
mutilation or torture." Because 250 of 400 suspected mass graves in
Kosovo remain to be examined, it's possible that evidence of mass
killings will yet be found. This is highly unlikely though, because the
worst sites were dug up first. No genocide of ethnic Albanians by Serbs,
therefore. No "human catastrophe." No "modern-day Holocaust." All of
those claims may have been an honest mistake. Equally, they may have
been a grotesque lie concocted to justify a war that NATO originally
assumed would be over in a day or two, with Milosevic using the excuse
of some minimal damage as a cover for a surrender, but then had to fight
(at great expense) for months. There's no question that atrocities were
committed in Kosovo, overwhelmingly by the Serb forces, although the
ethnic Albanian guerrillas were not innocent. Quite obviously, these
forces, acting on Milosevic's explicit orders, carried out mass
expulsions of people, terrorizing them and destroying their homes and
property. Acts like these are inexcusable. That they occur often in
civil wars (far worse are being committed by the Russians in Chechnya),
is irrelevant to their horror. But they have nothing to do with
genocide. No genocide means no justification for a war inflicted by NATO
on a sovereign nation. Only a certainty of imminent genocide could have
legally justified a war that was not even discussed by the U.N. Security
Council. No genocide means that the tribunal's indictment of Milosevic
becomes highly questionable. Even more questionable is the West's
continued punishment of the Serbs - the Danube bridges and the power
stations remain in ruins - when their offence may well have been
stupidity rather than criminality. The absence of genocide may mean
something else, something deeply shaming. To halt the supposed genocide,
NATO bombed targets in Serbia proper. Because of "collateral" or
accidental damage, such as the bombing of a train, some 500 civilians
were killed (Belgrade claims almost 1,000 deaths). NATO very likely
killed as many people as were killed in Kosovo. The number of these dead
isn't large enough to justify NATO's actions being called a "human
catastrophe." But, unless proof of genocide can be produced, NATO's
actions were clearly a moral catastrophe.
Richard Gwyn's column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday in The Star
Back to: Statement from the IAC on Hague
Here's a comment on the War crimes Tribunal in the Hague: From the
London Times, June 18, 1999
"This is not victors' justice in the former Yugoslavia in fact, it is no
justice at all."
By John Laughland
Emotion may be a spur to justice, but it is rarely its guarantor. The
allegations of war crimes eagerly funnelled out of Kosovo by the
thousands of journalists in the province have provoked a demand for
retribution. That cry for justice is natural. But the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the body charged with
pursuing those accused of war crimes in Kosovo, is a rogue court with
rigged rules....
The International Criminal Tribunal shows little sign of caring that
NATO has itself broken nearly every rule of war, or that the peace deal
concluded with Belgrade is null and void in international law, since
Yugoslavia's signature was obtained by force. Instead, it displays
considerable contempt for the very thing which distinguishes the rule of
law from retributive justice, namely due process....
Although it is a key requirement for due process that a defendant be
tried by a body "established by law", the Security Council is not a
law-making body. Faced with the allegation that it had no legitimacy,
the tribunal did not refer the matter to another body, such as the
International Court of Justice, but instead decided to deal with the
charge itself. Not surprisingly, it found in its own favour....
The tribunal gives itself powers as it goes along. Louise Arbour, the
recently departed Chief Prosecutor, has said: "The law, to me, should be
creative and used to make things tight," and the tribunal dips into a
potpourri of different legal systems from around the world. In one case,
the tribunal defended itself against charges that it had illegally
seized documents from the Bosnian Government by saying that its
procedures were compatible with the law in Paraguay. General Stroessner
evidently has a place in the tribunal's judicial pantheon alongside Sir
Edward Coke and William Blackstone.
As if this were not enough, the tribunal is not funded by disinterested
parties, but by those who waged or supported the attacks on Yugoslavia.
These include the leading NATO governments (especially the United
States) and various non- governmental organisations like George Soros's
Open Society Institute, whose head of office in Kosovo is a militant
supporter of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Might, it seems, is always right. Just ask the NATO spokesman Jamie
Shea. On May 17, he was asked whether NATO leaders could ever be
indicted by the tribunal. "As you know," he replied, "without NATO
countries there would be no International Court of Justice, nor would
there be any International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
because NATO countries are in the forefront of those who have
established these two tribunals, who fund these tribunals and who
support on a daily basis their activities."
This is not victors' justice it is no justice at all.
posted: 1/12/00
war crimes
inquiry press releases
===
Vorbereitungskomitee
Wiener Tribunal
Wir erheben politische Anklage gegen
Bundeskanzler Mag. Viktor Klima
Vizekanzler und Außenminister Dr. Wolfgang Schüssel
Verteidigungsminister Dr. Werner Fasslabend
Ehem. EU-Sonderbeauftragten Dr. Wolfgang Petritsch, dzt. Hoher
Repräsentant
für Bosnien
Außenminister a.D. Dr. Alois Mock
Wegen Unterstützung und Befürwortung des Angriffskriegs der NATO gegen
die
Bundesrepublik Jugoslawien. Wegen offener Parteinahme in einem
Bürgerkrieg,
politisch, wirtschaftlich und logistisch, als auch mit Söldnern.
Wegen des Verdachts der Verletzung der völkerrechtlich verankerten
immerwährenden Neutralität Österreichs, indem Verpflichtungen über das
Verhalten eines immerwährend neutralen Staates, sich in jedem Falle,
auch in
Friedenszeiten, so zu verhalten, daß keine Begünstigung einer
Konfliktseite
herausgelesen werden kann, nicht eingehalten wurden.
Wegen des Verdachts von stattgefundenen Überflügen durch Flugzeuge der
NATO-Luftwaffen zur Zeit des Krieges gegen Jugoslawien, die, obwohl in
diesem Fall von Österreich nicht genehmigt, nach Aufschlüssen der
österr.
Luftverkehrskontrolle massiv zugenommen haben, wobei nicht bekannt ist,
wie
viele davon evtl. bewaffnet zur Unterstützung des Luftkrieges der NATO
stattgefunden haben und welche Protestmaßnahmen von Seiten
österreichischer
Organe ergriffen wurden. Ebenso wegen schon lange vorher wiederholt
getätigter Durchfahrten von NATO-Fahrzeugen nach Stützpunkten in Ungarn,
von
denen angenommen werden kann, daß nicht nur "humanitäre" Transporte
vorlagen.
Wegen des Verdachts der Weitergabe von Erkenntnissen, welchen
Wahrheitsgehaltes auch immer, geheimdienstlicher Art über Aktivitäten
auf
dem Gebiet der Bundesrepublik Jugoslawien durch österreichische Stellen
an
v.a. westliche bzw. NATO-Dienste, wodurch Verletzungen der
Neutralitätsverpflichtungen Österreichs angenommen werden können.
Wegen des Verdachts der Begünstigung bzw. Unterstützung des Bruchs des
Verbotes der Führung eines "ökologischen Krieges" durch die NATO (d.i.
Bombardierung von Erdölraffinerien, chemischen Fabriken und anderen, bei
Beschädigung oder Zerstörung negative Umweltfolgen zeitigenden
Einrichtungen, lokal wie auch regional), sowie des Einsatzes verbotener
Waffen (Cluster-bombs, d.i. Streubomben, und Munition ummantelt mit
abgereichertem Uran, Depleted Uranium, DU).
Wegen des Verdachts der Begünstigung einer Aggressionshandlung der
Nordatlantischen Vertragsorganisation, die, sich selbst mandatierend,
ohne
einen Beschluß oder die Beauftragung durch den UN-Sicherheitsrat und
entgegen allen anderen eingegangenen völkerrechtlichen Verpflichtungen
zum
Gewaltverzicht in den internationalen Beziehungen und den Beziehungen
der
Staaten untereinander, einen Angriffskrieg gegen das Territorium eines
souveränen Staates geführt hat und darüberhinaus auch ihre eigene
Vertragsgrundlage verletzte.
Wegen des Verdachts der Zustimmung zu einer daraus folgenden "neuen
Weltordnung", in der ein dauernd beschworenes Recht auf "humanitäre
Interventionen" von der Nordatlantischen Vertragsorganisation (NATO) mit
Waffengewalt und dem Rückhalt der größten militärischen Mächte global
durchgesetzt werden soll.
Wegen des Verdachts des Hintanhaltens von Durchsetzung
nicht-militärischer
und gewaltfreier Konfliktlösungsmöglichkeiten, wie in der Verhinderung
von
Aufgaben der OSZE auch durch das neutrale Österreich, etwa durch einen
nicht
nachvollziehbaren Abzugsbefehl, durch die Auslieferung des Mandats an
einen
Beauftragten wie den US-Diplomaten William Walker, durch den nicht
vorhandenen Widerstand der Bundesregierung gegen den - mißbräuchlichen -
Einsatz der OSZE bei der strategischen Vorbereitung des Krieges gegen
Jugoslawien sowie durch die nicht vorhandenen Bemühungen der
Bundesregierung
den Status der Suspendierung der Bundesrepublik Jugoslwawien in der
Organisation aufzuheben, um Bemühungen für Verhandlungslösungen zu
begünstigen.
Wegen des Verdachts des Inkaufnehmens des vorhersehbaren Scheiterns der
sog.
Friedensverhandlungen von Paris und Rambouillet, die auf den
erpresserischen
und auf ein Besetzungsdiktat hinauslaufenden, erst später der
Öffentlichkeit
bekannt gewordenen, angefügten Annex B, einem als Ultimatum zu
bewertenden
Zusatz, der schlußendlich zur conditio sine qua non erklärt wurde,
eskaliert
wurden, wobei nach völkerrechtlichen Maßstäben ein Vertrag, der unter
dem
Zwang eines faktischen Ultimatums zustande käme, per se ungültig wäre.
Wegen des Verdachts der wiederholten Inkaufnahme wenn nicht Begünstigung
der
Zerschlagung der damaligen souveränen SFR Jugoslawien durch
Unterstützung,
Zustimmung und Vorwegnahme einer, v.a. durch bzw. in Verbindung mit der
Bundesrepublik Deutschland vorangetriebenen, Anerkennungspolitik der
Sezession von Teilrepubliken der damaligen SFR Jugoslawien.
Wegen des Verdachts zumindest der Duldung von verhetzender
Berichterstattung
v.a. gegenüber dem serbischen Bevölkerungsteil der Bundesrepublik
Jugoslawien, insbesondere in Medien öffentlichen Rechts. Sowohl wegen
des
Verdachts der Berichterstattung gegenüber Serbien wie auch der
Aufhetzung
von Volksgruppen gegeneinander auf dem Territorium der Bundesrepublik
Jugoslawien und nicht erfolgten Eingriffen bzw. Richtigstellungen der
österr. Bundesregierung, wobei dadurch das Verhalten eines immerwährend
neutralen Staates ebenfalls in Frage gestellt wurde.
Aufgrund dieser Verdachtsmomente verlangen die VertreterInnen des
Vorbereitungskomitees des Wiener Tribunals eine Anklage der österr.
Bundesregierung bzw. der ob. angef. namentlich genannten Personen durch
das
Wiener Tribunal am 4. Dezember 1999 wegen Begünstigung und Unterstützung
des
NATO-Angriffskrieges gegen die BR Jugoslawien.
Eine etwaige Verurteilung soll dem Internationalen Tribunal, vertreten
durch
Mr. Ramsey Clark, für die Generalanklage vor dem Internationalen
Gerichtshof
in Den Haag zur Verfügung gestellt werden.
===
STOP NATO: !NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
>IEA War Crimes Indictment Had Claimed Conflict of Interest
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>--
>By REVEREND CANON KENNETH GUNN-WALBERG
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>--
[Excerpted from an address before the Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan
Studies and the Centre for Peace in the Balkans (Toronto) 10/31/99]
I am speaking today in my capacity as President of the International
Ethical
Alliance (IEA) -- which denounces NATO's bombings of Yugoslavia. IEA is
a
United States non-profit organization committed to enhancing ethics in
government
On July 8, 1999 IEA filed a formal indictment with the International
Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia charging President Clinton and others
with
War Crimes against the people of Serbia. The indictment was drafted by
the
Chairman of our Board of Directors, Jerome M. Zeifman.
"Jerry" (of whom I am a quasi-father confessor) is a life-long Democrat.
(I
am not.) At the time of the Nixon impeachment inquiry he served as Chief
Counsel to the House Judiciary Committee. As was first reported by
Insight
Magazine, and then by Matt Drudge on Fox TV, the indictment IEA filed
with
the ICTY has five prongs.
First, it charges defendants Clinton, Cohen, and other leaders of NATO
countries with "non-defensive aggressive military attacks on Yugoslavia,
which have not been necessary to defend the national security of the
United
States ... and are proscribed inter alia in the Charter of the
International
Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, Aug. 8, 1945, and the 1947 Charter of the
United Nations.
Second, it relies on specified evidence and expert testimony from
witnesses
whom IEA wants the Tribunal to summon, "including but not limited to:
former
U.S. President Jimmy Carter; former Nuremberg prosecutor for the United
States, Walter Rockler; Bishop Artemious of Kosovo; journalist Alexander
Cockburn; and playwright Harold Pinter."
Third, it charges, "There is substantial evidence of conduct by [then]
prosecutor Louise Arbour that warrants her disqualification, including
but
not limited to: (i) the engaging in selective prosecution by
intentionally
failing to consider and act on evidence which incriminates defendants
Clinton
and Cohen, and other as yet unindicted officials of NATO countries; (ii)
conflicts of interest, or the appearance thereof, in receiving
compensation
from funds contributed to the Tribunal in whole or in part by
governments of
NATO; and (iii) bias in favor of the attacks by NATO on former
Yugoslavia."
Fourth, it calls for, "The appointment of an independent prosecutor who:
(i)
is not a citizen or permanent resident of a NATO country; (ii) is
compensated
only from funds specifically contributed by non-NATO countries; and
(iii) has
an independent staff that is not compensated directly or indirectly from
funds contributed by NATO countries.
Fifth, of the Tribunal's fourteen justices, it calls for the
disqualification
for conflicts of interest of five justices representing NATO countries,
including chief justice Gabrielle Kirk McDonald of the United States
I am pleased today to inform you that (as was also first reported by
Insight
Magazine) IEA's indictment has already had a modicum of success. Of the
five
Tribunal members for whose disqualification IEA had petitioned, by now
three
have resigned before the expiration of their terms.
On September 6, 1999, Justice Antonio Cassese of Italy (whose term was
not up
until 17 November 2001) announced his retirement and plans to resume an
academic career at Florence University.
On September 15, Louise Arbour resigned. She has been appointed to the
Canadian Supreme Court. Many Canadian critics of Prime Minister Chretien
have
opposed her appointment -- and consider it as a reward for suppressing
evidence of Chretien's and Clinton's war crimes in the bombing of
Yugoslavia
As Arbour's replacement, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has appointed
Carla
Del Ponte, a former Attorney General of Switzerland. Based on her prior
record for professional integrity and traditional Swiss neutrality in
military affairs she appears to Mr. Zeifman to be qualified.
As of November 17 the Tribunal's Chief Justice McDonald will be also
vacating
her unexpired term. As her replacement, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
has
appointed Patricia Wald, currently a Judge of the U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia. Jerry Zeifman is particularly
pleased
by Kofi Annan's appointment of Justice Wald -- of whose prior career he
has
some personal knowledge. She had served as Assistant Attorney General
during the Carter administration. Carter eventually appointed her to a
federal Judgeship.
[Canon Gunn-Walberg is a Canadian and an Anglican Catholic Priest now
residing in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania
Membership in IEA is free and includes a subscription to an email
news letter. Persons who wish to receive more information may phone or
fax
Canon Gunn-Walberg at 814 342 0224 or send email to jzeifman@....
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
** NO COPYRIGHT ! **
------------------------------------------------------------
- Presa di posizione dell'IAC sull'apparente interessamento del
Tribunale dell'Aia ai crimini di guerra della NATO (31/12)
- L'IAC sulla recente "scoperta" da parte dei mass-media dei crimini e
della malafede della NATO (12/01)
* SEZIONE AUSTRIACA del Tribunale indipendente:
- Atto d'accusa
- altra documentazione su: http://members.magnet.at/rkl
* International Ethical Alliance (IEA) denounces NATO's bombings
Yugoslavia
* Sulle azioni della magistratura e della popolazione greca contro i
crimini di guerra della NATO segnaliamo:
http://www.arpnet.it/%7eregis/giudicg.htm
http://balkan.pengo.it/documenti/intellettuali_greci.htm
===
>
> STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
>
> Statement from the IAC on the UN War Crimes Tribunal's report on NATO
> air strikes
> 31 Dec 1999
> It is only the growing international pressure to indict Bill Clinton and
> other NATO leaders for war crimes against the people of Yugoslavia that
> forced the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for
> the former Yugoslavia to announce the review of possible NATO war
> crimes. But don't expect any indictments of NATO leaders. The
> announcement to review NATO conduct is intended as a cynical white wash
> by a court that was established at the behest of and financed by NATO
> members.
> On Dec. 28, the chief prosecutor for the special War Crimes Tribunal
> based at the Hague, Carla Del Ponte, announced she would review a report
> on the conduct of NATO pilots and their commanders during last spring's
> 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. The United Nations Security
> Council set up the tribunal in 1993 at the instigation of Madeline
> Albright. It has depended on financial support from NATO countries to
> operate since then, and looks to NATO to enforce its decisions and
> arrest those indicted. This court has no connection to the World Court
> and it has no precedent in international law or in the UN Charter.
> The International Action Center never considered this tribunal to be an
> unbiased or independent court. It was created to do the bidding of the
> Western powers and specifically to discredit the political leadership in
> Yugoslavia and prepare public opinion for war. It was another instrument
> in the aggressive war against Yugoslavia. Most of the charges have been
> brought against Serbs. The indictment of President Slobodan Milosevic
> and other Yugoslav leaders took place while NATO bombs were raining on
> Pristina and other cities and towns in Kosovo, in Belgrade, Novi Sad and
> throughout Yugoslavia.
> The NATO aggressors indicted their victims for war crimes. This has some
> historical precedent. In the early 1940's, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany
> held a sham war crimes trial for French socialist leader Leon Blum. Blum
> and the socialists were blamed for "starting World War II." He and
> millions of others were then deported to concentration camps.
> While none of the media accounts of Del Ponte's announcement expected
> that she would press charges against any individual associated with NATO
> as a result of the report, even to raise such a possibility is a
> profound development. As one report said, "Never has a Western leader or
> military figure been hauled before an international tribunal."
> The International Action Center on July 31, 1999, initiated an
> Independent Commission of Inquiry to Investigate U.S./NATO War Crimes
> Against the People of Yugoslavia before 700 people in New York. At that
> meeting, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark charged U.S.-NATO
> political and military leaders with 19 counts of war crimes, crimes
> against humanity and crimes against peace.
> Since July there have been dozens of similar hearings held in 10 U.S.
> cities and in Rome, Berlin, Oslo, Paris, Vienna, Novi Sad, Sydney and
> Tokyo, with the most dramatic a "People's Tribunal" on Nov. 8, 1999, in
> Athens, Greece before 10,000 people.
> Others, members of the Russian Duma and respected attorneys from Canada,
> Greece and Britain for example, have participated in the "tribunal
> movement" by attempting to bring evidence before the International
> Criminal Tribunal established by the Security Council at the Hague. They
> have documented NATO's war crimes and demanded that they also be
> investigated. Other attorneys and magistrates in at least Italy and
> Germany have brought charges against their own governments for violating
> constitutional provisions against waging an aggressive war.
> In addition, the mainstream media has finally published several truthful
> accounts of events surrounding the war that expose the NATO powers for
> the worst of the war crimes. These news stories confirm that it was a
> war of aggression and that NATO targeted civilians. These include
> (1) U.S. and other NATO forces provoked the war by setting terms at
> Rambouillet in March 1999 for NATO occupation of all of Yugoslavia that
> the Yugoslav Government could never accept. (Article by Robert Fisk in
> the British daily, The Independent, Nov. 26, 1999). Go to Excerpt
> (2) U.S. generals directing NATO bombing purposely struck civilian
> economic targets in Serbia to bring pressure on the Belgrade government
> to capitulate (Dana Priest in the Washington Post, Sept 19, 20, 21,
> 1999). Go to Excerpt
> (3) The cries of "genocide" NATO politicians used to justify the
> intervention had no basis in fact. U.S. officials said first that
> 500,000 Kosovo Albanians had been killed, then 100,000, then 40,000. Yet
> forensic teams from 17 nations digging in Kosovo 6 months to investigate
> so-called "mass graves" found 2,108 bodies—and these were of all
> nationalities and had died from all causes. (Toronto Star Nov. 4, 1999,
> New York Times, Nov. 10, 1999). Go to Excerpt
> In all, the mounting evidence against U.S.-NATO forces and growing
> pressure to investigate NATO for war crimes has forced the Tribunal
> established by the Security Council to try to at least look less like a
> blatant anti-Yugoslav star chamber.
> While we in the International Action Center have no confidence that the
> International Criminal Tribunal on former Yugoslavia based at The Hague
> will bring the U.S.-NATO war criminals to trial, we take encouragement
> from this additional sign of growing hostility to NATO's aggressive war.
> And we will proceed with our independent tribunal to try the U.S.-NATO
> criminals before a court of world public opinion this coming June 2000.
> IAC co-directors Sara Flounders and Brian Becker and Staff member John
> Catalinotto are available for questions on this statement.
>
>
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
International Action Center
Mainstream Press Reveals Truths about U.S.-NATO Aggression in Yugoslavia
Below are selections from four articles from the mainstream press from
June to November 1999 that indicate that U.S.-NATO forces did indeed (1)
target civilians, (2) provoked the war and thereby committed a planned
aggression against a sovereign state, (3) falsified claims of "genocide"
in order to justify this intervention. A fourth article indicates how
the War Crimes Court in the Hague is itself a tool of NATO. The
newspapers basically supported NATO's war and these articles are
themselves hostile to the Yugoslav government, yet they finally admitted
some truths.
1. Purposely targeted civilians
(From: "Tension Grew With Divide Over Strategy"
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 21, 1999; Page A01
Third of three articles )
Planning for the campaign dated back to June 1998. By the opening night,
strategists had produced 40 versions of an air war, according to Gen.
John P. Jumper, commander of the U.S. Air Force in Europe. Some of these
documents were highly critical of using air power alone, without troops
on the ground to help flush out the enemy. But NATO ultimately settled
on a three-phase air campaign. In Phase I, NATO would strike
antiaircraft defenses and command bunkers. Phase II would extend the
strikes to Yugoslavia's infrastructure below the 44th parallel, well
south of Belgrade. Only in Phase III would the alliance hit targets in
the capital. That was Plan A. There was no Plan B. NATO did not have a
contingency blueprint for a longer campaign, officials now say, because
the Clinton administration and Clark feared that if the alliance's 19
member states were asked to contemplate such a possibility, they would
not agree to begin the war at all. ... Short On March 24, the opening
night of the war, Lt. Gen. Short sat in a darkened room full of computer
screens, the Combined Air Operations Center at Vicenza Air Base in
Italy. Yellow, green and red tadpole-shaped symbols moved across large
electronic maps on the walls, representing all the enemy and NATO
aircraft over Yugoslavia. As Short waited for the first missiles to
strike, he clenched his jaw and kept his silence, a self-control that
some subordinates noted and admired. The three-star general with a
drilling blue stare and gruff manner had argued many times to his
superiors that the most effective tactic for the first night of the war
would be a knockout punch to Belgrade's power stations and government
ministries. ns. Clark Clark also harbored doubts about the initial
plan's meager size. But after a year of coaxing the allies, he felt this
was the biggest and best operation he could get NATO to approve. He also
believed there was a 40 percent chance that the war would end within
three days, since Milosevic might just be looking for an excuse to
withdraw from Kosovo. ....
"From the very beginning, Clark changed the strategy," says a European
diplomat in Brussels. "He quickly decided to strike on a broader
geographic scale and, second, to strike a different type of target. . .
. It made us worried about the political risks, the political impact."
...While the allies were hesitating to approve strikes on Belgrade,
however, Air Force commanders were unhappy about searching for tanks and
troops in Kosovo. Body Language "There was a fundamental difference of
opinion at the outset between General Clark, who was applying a ground
commander's perspective . . . and General Short as to the value of going
after fielded forces," says Vice Adm. Daniel J. Murphy Jr., who was
commander of all naval forces aligned against Yugoslavia.
...In the Air Force magazine interview, Short said that Clark urged him
even before the conflict started to "get down amongst" Yugoslav armored
vehicles and troops in the field. Eventually, he said, "we, the airmen
of the alliance, were able to convince General Clark" of a need to
conduct sustained operations against "more lucrative and compelling
targets . . . in Serbia proper." (IAC's emphasis) No Pause Clark says he
didn't need any convincing about strategic targets, but he wanted to
strike Serbian forces in Kosovo, as well. Meanwhile, he was fending off
proposals from the political leaders of some NATO
countries—particularly Italy and Greece—who wanted to suspend the
bombing altogether. Clark's frustration with the alliance's timidity was
reflected in a video conference on March 27. These live, highly secure
communication links replaced the crackly field telephones and urgent
cables of previous wars. They were part theater, say some of the people
who sat through them, with a dozen large personalities on the stage.
NATO must strike "as many targets as we can each night," said Clark,
seated at the head of a classroom-style conference room, staring at a
television screen hanging from the ceiling. "I don't want to let the
perception get started that we're not doing much, so we can have a
pause." ...Yet, in the end, Clark pushed hard for approval to go after
exactly the kind of targets that the Air Force wanted. And it was then
that his political acumen proved useful. Aim Points ...On March 30, day
seven of the war, the North Atlantic Council debated Clark's request but
made no decision. Instead, the council left Solana with the job of
interpreting its wishes. A few days later, he gave the go-ahead. By
winning approval for continuing strikes on Belgrade as well as Kosovo,
Clark finally brought the allies and the Air Force together, creating
the broader war that led Milosevic to capitulate. But military
historians, air power strategists and budding commanders at war colleges
will long debate the merits of Short's position vs. Clark's. Last week,
Clark released some long-awaited figures on the Kosovo campaign: Allied
warplanes destroyed or damaged 93 tanks, 153 armored personnel carriers,
339 military vehicles and 389 artillery pieces and mortars. Those
numbers represent only about one-third of all the weaponry and vehicles
that the Yugoslav army had in Kosovo; two-thirds survived intact. To
those in Short's camp, this is strong evidence that the war was won by
strategic bombing of Serbia proper, where NATO damaged or destroyed 24
bridges, 12 railway stations, 36 factories, seven airports, 16 fuel
plants and storage depots, 17 television transmitters and several
electrical facilities, according to a Yugoslav government report. Clark
is not swayed. He argues that Yugoslavia was defeated by steady losses
both in Kosovo and in the rest of Serbia, combined with diplomatic
pressure and the threat of an allied invasion. The air campaign "was an
effort to coerce, not to seize," said Clark. "It only made good sense
that at some point, if [Milosevic] continued to lose and we didn't, that
he would throw in the towel. But we could never predict how long he
would hold on because it wasn't a function of any specific set of
losses. It was a function of variables that were beyond our
predictions—ultimately, his state of mind."
Back to: Statement from the IAC on Hague
2. U.S. provoked war
FROM THIS ARTICLE ON RAMBOUILLET PART B, PUBLISHED NOV. 26 IN THE
BRITISH NEWSPAPER THE INDEPENDENT, WITH THE HEADLINE "THE TROJAN HORSE
THAT 'STARTED' A 79-DAY WAR" ---
By Robert Fisk in Belgrade
In the last days of the Paris peace talks on Yugoslavia last March,
something extraordinary happened. The Serb delegation - after agreeing
to a political revolution in Kosovo - was presented with a military
appendix to the treaty which demanded the virtual Nato occupation of all
Yugoslavia.
The Serbs turned it down and Nato went to war. Yet 79 days later, Nato -
which had refused to contemplate a change in the military document -
lost all interest in the annexe and at the final dramatic meetings on
the Macedonian border was content with a Nato force inside only Kosovo.
Official obfuscation and confusion has ever since surrounded this
all-important, last-minute addition to the Paris "peace" agreement. Was
it presented by the Americans to force President Slobodan Milosevic to
reject the whole peace package and permit Nato to bomb Serbia?...
The full annexes demanded Nato rights of road, rail and air passage
across all of Yugoslavia, the use of radio stations, even the waiving of
any claims of damages against Nato. For any state - even one as
grotesque as Serbia - this would have amounted to occupation.
The Foreign Minister of France, Hubert Védrine, said the military
appendix was similar to that used by Nato when it moved troops into
Bosnia and that Nato forces needed access to Kosovo through Belgrade.
But he has never explained why this supposedly essential part of the
treaty was abandoned once Nato troops moved into the province.
Milan Komnenic, who was the Yugoslav Federal Information minister and a
member of Vuk Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement (then in government
but soon to be in opposition), was in Paris during the talks and has
become preoccupied with the military annexe. He is writing a book about
the negotiations, The Trap of Rambouillet.....
According to Mr Komnenic, the American negotiator Christopher Hill and
the Austrian diplomat at the talks, Boris [Wolfgang—IAC] Petritsch,
insisted on the annexe while the Russian negotiator, Boris Mayorski -
who later refused to attend the Kosovo Albanian signing of the "peace"
agreement - abstained. "Hill and Petritsch were 'for' the annexe and
[Robin] Cook and Védrine apparently agreed with a version - not
identical to the final annexe - which was called an 'explanation' of the
political agreement and which said there could be no implementation with
a Nato presence only in Kosovo," Mr Komnenic said. .... United Nations
Security Council resolution 1244 [which ended the conflict] could have
been accepted before the bombing."
In any event, when Nato commanders met the Serbs for the
"military-technical agreement" at the end of the war - after thousands
of Kosovo Albanians had been murdered by Serb forces and as many as
1,500 civilians killed by Nato bombs - the supposedly crucial military
annexe was never mentioned. Miraculously, Nato - with 40,000 troops to
move into the province (10,000 more than originally envisaged) - no
longer needed appendix B. Not a single Nato soldier moved north of
Kosovo into the rest of Serbia. What was the real purpose of Nato's last
minute demand? Was it a Trojan horse? To save the peace? Or to sabotage
it? (END)
Back to: Statement from the IAC on Hague
3. U.S. lied to justify war
>>From Nov.3, Toronto Star (a similar article appeared in the Nov. 11 New
York Times)
"No genocide, no justification for war on Kosovo"
IN THE GENOCIDE of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by the forces of Serb
leader Slobodan Milosevic, the worst incident occurred at the Trepca
mine. As reported by American and NATO officials, large numbers of
bodies were brought in by trucks under the cover of darkness. The bodies
were then thrown down the shafts, or were disposed of entirely in the
mine's vats of hydrochloric acid. Estimates of the number of dead began
at 1,000. That was six months ago, in the middle of the war undertaken
to halt what both U.S. President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister
Tony Blair called "a human catastrophe." Estimates of the number of
ethnic Albanians slaughtered went upward from 10,000. U.S. Defence
Secretary William Cohen put the count at 100,000. Three weeks ago, the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia released the
findings of Western forensic teams investigating the horror at Trepca.
There were not 1,000 bodies down the mine shafts at Trepca, reported the
tribunal. There were not 100 bodies there. There was not one body there,
nor was there any evidence the vats had ever been used to dispose of
human remains. Shortly afterward, the tribunal reported on its work at
the most infamous of all the mass graves of ethnic Albanians, at
Ljubenic near the town of Pec. Earlier, NATO officials had said 350
victims had been hastily buried there by the retreating Serb forces.
There were not 350 bodies at Ljubenic, though. There were five. So far,
not one mass grave has been found in Kosovo, despite four months' work
by forensic teams, including experts from the FBI and the RCMP. This
discovery - more accurately, this non-discovery - first was made public
three weeks ago by the Texas-based intelligence think tank, Stratfor.
Stratfor estimated the number of ethnic Albanian dead in Kosovo at 500.
Last weekend, the story was broadcast for the first time by the TV
Ontario program Diplomatic Immunity. (Last Sunday's New York Times was
still using the "10,000 deaths" figure.) The story has begun to appear
in European newspapers. Spain's El Pais has quoted the head of the
Spanish forensic team, Emilo Pujol, as saying he had resigned because,
after being told to expect to have to carry out 2,000 autopsies, he'd
only had 97 bodies to examine - none of which "showed any signs of
mutilation or torture." Because 250 of 400 suspected mass graves in
Kosovo remain to be examined, it's possible that evidence of mass
killings will yet be found. This is highly unlikely though, because the
worst sites were dug up first. No genocide of ethnic Albanians by Serbs,
therefore. No "human catastrophe." No "modern-day Holocaust." All of
those claims may have been an honest mistake. Equally, they may have
been a grotesque lie concocted to justify a war that NATO originally
assumed would be over in a day or two, with Milosevic using the excuse
of some minimal damage as a cover for a surrender, but then had to fight
(at great expense) for months. There's no question that atrocities were
committed in Kosovo, overwhelmingly by the Serb forces, although the
ethnic Albanian guerrillas were not innocent. Quite obviously, these
forces, acting on Milosevic's explicit orders, carried out mass
expulsions of people, terrorizing them and destroying their homes and
property. Acts like these are inexcusable. That they occur often in
civil wars (far worse are being committed by the Russians in Chechnya),
is irrelevant to their horror. But they have nothing to do with
genocide. No genocide means no justification for a war inflicted by NATO
on a sovereign nation. Only a certainty of imminent genocide could have
legally justified a war that was not even discussed by the U.N. Security
Council. No genocide means that the tribunal's indictment of Milosevic
becomes highly questionable. Even more questionable is the West's
continued punishment of the Serbs - the Danube bridges and the power
stations remain in ruins - when their offence may well have been
stupidity rather than criminality. The absence of genocide may mean
something else, something deeply shaming. To halt the supposed genocide,
NATO bombed targets in Serbia proper. Because of "collateral" or
accidental damage, such as the bombing of a train, some 500 civilians
were killed (Belgrade claims almost 1,000 deaths). NATO very likely
killed as many people as were killed in Kosovo. The number of these dead
isn't large enough to justify NATO's actions being called a "human
catastrophe." But, unless proof of genocide can be produced, NATO's
actions were clearly a moral catastrophe.
Richard Gwyn's column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday in The Star
Back to: Statement from the IAC on Hague
Here's a comment on the War crimes Tribunal in the Hague: From the
London Times, June 18, 1999
"This is not victors' justice in the former Yugoslavia in fact, it is no
justice at all."
By John Laughland
Emotion may be a spur to justice, but it is rarely its guarantor. The
allegations of war crimes eagerly funnelled out of Kosovo by the
thousands of journalists in the province have provoked a demand for
retribution. That cry for justice is natural. But the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the body charged with
pursuing those accused of war crimes in Kosovo, is a rogue court with
rigged rules....
The International Criminal Tribunal shows little sign of caring that
NATO has itself broken nearly every rule of war, or that the peace deal
concluded with Belgrade is null and void in international law, since
Yugoslavia's signature was obtained by force. Instead, it displays
considerable contempt for the very thing which distinguishes the rule of
law from retributive justice, namely due process....
Although it is a key requirement for due process that a defendant be
tried by a body "established by law", the Security Council is not a
law-making body. Faced with the allegation that it had no legitimacy,
the tribunal did not refer the matter to another body, such as the
International Court of Justice, but instead decided to deal with the
charge itself. Not surprisingly, it found in its own favour....
The tribunal gives itself powers as it goes along. Louise Arbour, the
recently departed Chief Prosecutor, has said: "The law, to me, should be
creative and used to make things tight," and the tribunal dips into a
potpourri of different legal systems from around the world. In one case,
the tribunal defended itself against charges that it had illegally
seized documents from the Bosnian Government by saying that its
procedures were compatible with the law in Paraguay. General Stroessner
evidently has a place in the tribunal's judicial pantheon alongside Sir
Edward Coke and William Blackstone.
As if this were not enough, the tribunal is not funded by disinterested
parties, but by those who waged or supported the attacks on Yugoslavia.
These include the leading NATO governments (especially the United
States) and various non- governmental organisations like George Soros's
Open Society Institute, whose head of office in Kosovo is a militant
supporter of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Might, it seems, is always right. Just ask the NATO spokesman Jamie
Shea. On May 17, he was asked whether NATO leaders could ever be
indicted by the tribunal. "As you know," he replied, "without NATO
countries there would be no International Court of Justice, nor would
there be any International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
because NATO countries are in the forefront of those who have
established these two tribunals, who fund these tribunals and who
support on a daily basis their activities."
This is not victors' justice it is no justice at all.
posted: 1/12/00
war crimes
inquiry press releases
===
Vorbereitungskomitee
Wiener Tribunal
Wir erheben politische Anklage gegen
Bundeskanzler Mag. Viktor Klima
Vizekanzler und Außenminister Dr. Wolfgang Schüssel
Verteidigungsminister Dr. Werner Fasslabend
Ehem. EU-Sonderbeauftragten Dr. Wolfgang Petritsch, dzt. Hoher
Repräsentant
für Bosnien
Außenminister a.D. Dr. Alois Mock
Wegen Unterstützung und Befürwortung des Angriffskriegs der NATO gegen
die
Bundesrepublik Jugoslawien. Wegen offener Parteinahme in einem
Bürgerkrieg,
politisch, wirtschaftlich und logistisch, als auch mit Söldnern.
Wegen des Verdachts der Verletzung der völkerrechtlich verankerten
immerwährenden Neutralität Österreichs, indem Verpflichtungen über das
Verhalten eines immerwährend neutralen Staates, sich in jedem Falle,
auch in
Friedenszeiten, so zu verhalten, daß keine Begünstigung einer
Konfliktseite
herausgelesen werden kann, nicht eingehalten wurden.
Wegen des Verdachts von stattgefundenen Überflügen durch Flugzeuge der
NATO-Luftwaffen zur Zeit des Krieges gegen Jugoslawien, die, obwohl in
diesem Fall von Österreich nicht genehmigt, nach Aufschlüssen der
österr.
Luftverkehrskontrolle massiv zugenommen haben, wobei nicht bekannt ist,
wie
viele davon evtl. bewaffnet zur Unterstützung des Luftkrieges der NATO
stattgefunden haben und welche Protestmaßnahmen von Seiten
österreichischer
Organe ergriffen wurden. Ebenso wegen schon lange vorher wiederholt
getätigter Durchfahrten von NATO-Fahrzeugen nach Stützpunkten in Ungarn,
von
denen angenommen werden kann, daß nicht nur "humanitäre" Transporte
vorlagen.
Wegen des Verdachts der Weitergabe von Erkenntnissen, welchen
Wahrheitsgehaltes auch immer, geheimdienstlicher Art über Aktivitäten
auf
dem Gebiet der Bundesrepublik Jugoslawien durch österreichische Stellen
an
v.a. westliche bzw. NATO-Dienste, wodurch Verletzungen der
Neutralitätsverpflichtungen Österreichs angenommen werden können.
Wegen des Verdachts der Begünstigung bzw. Unterstützung des Bruchs des
Verbotes der Führung eines "ökologischen Krieges" durch die NATO (d.i.
Bombardierung von Erdölraffinerien, chemischen Fabriken und anderen, bei
Beschädigung oder Zerstörung negative Umweltfolgen zeitigenden
Einrichtungen, lokal wie auch regional), sowie des Einsatzes verbotener
Waffen (Cluster-bombs, d.i. Streubomben, und Munition ummantelt mit
abgereichertem Uran, Depleted Uranium, DU).
Wegen des Verdachts der Begünstigung einer Aggressionshandlung der
Nordatlantischen Vertragsorganisation, die, sich selbst mandatierend,
ohne
einen Beschluß oder die Beauftragung durch den UN-Sicherheitsrat und
entgegen allen anderen eingegangenen völkerrechtlichen Verpflichtungen
zum
Gewaltverzicht in den internationalen Beziehungen und den Beziehungen
der
Staaten untereinander, einen Angriffskrieg gegen das Territorium eines
souveränen Staates geführt hat und darüberhinaus auch ihre eigene
Vertragsgrundlage verletzte.
Wegen des Verdachts der Zustimmung zu einer daraus folgenden "neuen
Weltordnung", in der ein dauernd beschworenes Recht auf "humanitäre
Interventionen" von der Nordatlantischen Vertragsorganisation (NATO) mit
Waffengewalt und dem Rückhalt der größten militärischen Mächte global
durchgesetzt werden soll.
Wegen des Verdachts des Hintanhaltens von Durchsetzung
nicht-militärischer
und gewaltfreier Konfliktlösungsmöglichkeiten, wie in der Verhinderung
von
Aufgaben der OSZE auch durch das neutrale Österreich, etwa durch einen
nicht
nachvollziehbaren Abzugsbefehl, durch die Auslieferung des Mandats an
einen
Beauftragten wie den US-Diplomaten William Walker, durch den nicht
vorhandenen Widerstand der Bundesregierung gegen den - mißbräuchlichen -
Einsatz der OSZE bei der strategischen Vorbereitung des Krieges gegen
Jugoslawien sowie durch die nicht vorhandenen Bemühungen der
Bundesregierung
den Status der Suspendierung der Bundesrepublik Jugoslwawien in der
Organisation aufzuheben, um Bemühungen für Verhandlungslösungen zu
begünstigen.
Wegen des Verdachts des Inkaufnehmens des vorhersehbaren Scheiterns der
sog.
Friedensverhandlungen von Paris und Rambouillet, die auf den
erpresserischen
und auf ein Besetzungsdiktat hinauslaufenden, erst später der
Öffentlichkeit
bekannt gewordenen, angefügten Annex B, einem als Ultimatum zu
bewertenden
Zusatz, der schlußendlich zur conditio sine qua non erklärt wurde,
eskaliert
wurden, wobei nach völkerrechtlichen Maßstäben ein Vertrag, der unter
dem
Zwang eines faktischen Ultimatums zustande käme, per se ungültig wäre.
Wegen des Verdachts der wiederholten Inkaufnahme wenn nicht Begünstigung
der
Zerschlagung der damaligen souveränen SFR Jugoslawien durch
Unterstützung,
Zustimmung und Vorwegnahme einer, v.a. durch bzw. in Verbindung mit der
Bundesrepublik Deutschland vorangetriebenen, Anerkennungspolitik der
Sezession von Teilrepubliken der damaligen SFR Jugoslawien.
Wegen des Verdachts zumindest der Duldung von verhetzender
Berichterstattung
v.a. gegenüber dem serbischen Bevölkerungsteil der Bundesrepublik
Jugoslawien, insbesondere in Medien öffentlichen Rechts. Sowohl wegen
des
Verdachts der Berichterstattung gegenüber Serbien wie auch der
Aufhetzung
von Volksgruppen gegeneinander auf dem Territorium der Bundesrepublik
Jugoslawien und nicht erfolgten Eingriffen bzw. Richtigstellungen der
österr. Bundesregierung, wobei dadurch das Verhalten eines immerwährend
neutralen Staates ebenfalls in Frage gestellt wurde.
Aufgrund dieser Verdachtsmomente verlangen die VertreterInnen des
Vorbereitungskomitees des Wiener Tribunals eine Anklage der österr.
Bundesregierung bzw. der ob. angef. namentlich genannten Personen durch
das
Wiener Tribunal am 4. Dezember 1999 wegen Begünstigung und Unterstützung
des
NATO-Angriffskrieges gegen die BR Jugoslawien.
Eine etwaige Verurteilung soll dem Internationalen Tribunal, vertreten
durch
Mr. Ramsey Clark, für die Generalanklage vor dem Internationalen
Gerichtshof
in Den Haag zur Verfügung gestellt werden.
===
STOP NATO: !NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
>IEA War Crimes Indictment Had Claimed Conflict of Interest
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>--
>By REVEREND CANON KENNETH GUNN-WALBERG
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>--
[Excerpted from an address before the Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan
Studies and the Centre for Peace in the Balkans (Toronto) 10/31/99]
I am speaking today in my capacity as President of the International
Ethical
Alliance (IEA) -- which denounces NATO's bombings of Yugoslavia. IEA is
a
United States non-profit organization committed to enhancing ethics in
government
On July 8, 1999 IEA filed a formal indictment with the International
Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia charging President Clinton and others
with
War Crimes against the people of Serbia. The indictment was drafted by
the
Chairman of our Board of Directors, Jerome M. Zeifman.
"Jerry" (of whom I am a quasi-father confessor) is a life-long Democrat.
(I
am not.) At the time of the Nixon impeachment inquiry he served as Chief
Counsel to the House Judiciary Committee. As was first reported by
Insight
Magazine, and then by Matt Drudge on Fox TV, the indictment IEA filed
with
the ICTY has five prongs.
First, it charges defendants Clinton, Cohen, and other leaders of NATO
countries with "non-defensive aggressive military attacks on Yugoslavia,
which have not been necessary to defend the national security of the
United
States ... and are proscribed inter alia in the Charter of the
International
Military Tribunal, Nuremberg, Aug. 8, 1945, and the 1947 Charter of the
United Nations.
Second, it relies on specified evidence and expert testimony from
witnesses
whom IEA wants the Tribunal to summon, "including but not limited to:
former
U.S. President Jimmy Carter; former Nuremberg prosecutor for the United
States, Walter Rockler; Bishop Artemious of Kosovo; journalist Alexander
Cockburn; and playwright Harold Pinter."
Third, it charges, "There is substantial evidence of conduct by [then]
prosecutor Louise Arbour that warrants her disqualification, including
but
not limited to: (i) the engaging in selective prosecution by
intentionally
failing to consider and act on evidence which incriminates defendants
Clinton
and Cohen, and other as yet unindicted officials of NATO countries; (ii)
conflicts of interest, or the appearance thereof, in receiving
compensation
from funds contributed to the Tribunal in whole or in part by
governments of
NATO; and (iii) bias in favor of the attacks by NATO on former
Yugoslavia."
Fourth, it calls for, "The appointment of an independent prosecutor who:
(i)
is not a citizen or permanent resident of a NATO country; (ii) is
compensated
only from funds specifically contributed by non-NATO countries; and
(iii) has
an independent staff that is not compensated directly or indirectly from
funds contributed by NATO countries.
Fifth, of the Tribunal's fourteen justices, it calls for the
disqualification
for conflicts of interest of five justices representing NATO countries,
including chief justice Gabrielle Kirk McDonald of the United States
I am pleased today to inform you that (as was also first reported by
Insight
Magazine) IEA's indictment has already had a modicum of success. Of the
five
Tribunal members for whose disqualification IEA had petitioned, by now
three
have resigned before the expiration of their terms.
On September 6, 1999, Justice Antonio Cassese of Italy (whose term was
not up
until 17 November 2001) announced his retirement and plans to resume an
academic career at Florence University.
On September 15, Louise Arbour resigned. She has been appointed to the
Canadian Supreme Court. Many Canadian critics of Prime Minister Chretien
have
opposed her appointment -- and consider it as a reward for suppressing
evidence of Chretien's and Clinton's war crimes in the bombing of
Yugoslavia
As Arbour's replacement, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has appointed
Carla
Del Ponte, a former Attorney General of Switzerland. Based on her prior
record for professional integrity and traditional Swiss neutrality in
military affairs she appears to Mr. Zeifman to be qualified.
As of November 17 the Tribunal's Chief Justice McDonald will be also
vacating
her unexpired term. As her replacement, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
has
appointed Patricia Wald, currently a Judge of the U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals for the District of Columbia. Jerry Zeifman is particularly
pleased
by Kofi Annan's appointment of Justice Wald -- of whose prior career he
has
some personal knowledge. She had served as Assistant Attorney General
during the Carter administration. Carter eventually appointed her to a
federal Judgeship.
[Canon Gunn-Walberg is a Canadian and an Anglican Catholic Priest now
residing in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania
Membership in IEA is free and includes a subscription to an email
news letter. Persons who wish to receive more information may phone or
fax
Canon Gunn-Walberg at 814 342 0224 or send email to jzeifman@....
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
** NO COPYRIGHT ! **
------------------------------------------------------------
* Riepilogo degli atti terroristici e di violenza nella provincia di
Kosovo e Metohija dall'arrivo di KFOR ed UNMIK, tra il 12 giugno 1999 ed
il 13 gennaio 2000 (Yugoslav Daily Survey / Min. Esteri RFJ)
* La morte di Dragoslav Basic (Tom Lochner, "The Times"; in italiano ed
in inglese)
---
Yugoslav Daily Survey - Special Issues
BELGRADE, 18 January 2000
O V E R V I E W
of terrorist and other acts of violence in the province of Kosovo and
Metohija
since the arrival of KFOR and UNMIK in the period from 12 June 1999 to
13
January 2000
1) Number of terrorist attacks: 3,688
Out of which 3,630 were committed against civilians, i.e. 3,433 against
Serbs and Montenegrins, 87 against Albanians and 110 against members of
other nationalities.
2) Number of abducted and missing persons: 688
Out of whom 656 were civilians, i.e. 598 were Serbs and Montenegrins, 36
Albanians and 22 members of other nationalities.
The fate of 559 abducted civilians is still unknown while 64 were
killed.
3) Number of killed persons: 793
Out of whom 772 were civilians, i.e. 684 were Serbs and Montenegrins (22
massacred, 84 mutilated and 5 burned to death), 63 were Albanians and 25
members of other nationalities in Kosovo and Metohija.
4) Number of arbitrarily arrested persons by KFOR:
Serbs accused of allegedly committing "war crimes" are detained in
prisons
in Pristina, Prizren, Sojevo near Urosevac, Kosovska Mitrovica,
Gnjilane,
Lipljan and Kolokot Banja. They have been arrested only on the ground of
information provided by the Albanians of the so-called "KLA" and a large
number of these persons are detained without any court decision.
5) Number of wounded persons: 611
6) Reported cases of physical assault, harassment and inflicted grave
bodily harm: 416
7) Registered cases of threats: 356
8) Registered number of dwellings broken into and forcibly taken
occupancy
of: 776 in Pristina, over 200 in Kosovska Mitrovica, 190 in Gnjilane,
124
in Orahovac, a large number in Kosovo Polje and Lipljan.
9) Ethnic cleansing: Many towns were ethnically cleansed of Serbs and
other
non-Albanians. According to available UNHCR data of September 1999,
about
220 000 mainly Serbs and Montenegrins were driven out of Kosovo and
Metohija.
According to the latest data over 330 000 Serbs, Montenegrins, Roma,
Muslims, Goranci, Turks and other non-Albanians were expelled, of whom
250
000 are Serbs.
10) Registered number of homes burned down: about 50 000 houses were
burned
down in Kosovo and Metohija.
11) Registered number of stolen vehicles: over 12 000 vehicles. As a
result
of open borders with Macedonia and Albania 250 000 vehicles were brought
into Kosovo and Metohija without payment of customs duties and most of
these vehicles were stolen.
12) Destruction of churches, monasteries and cultural monuments:
About 80 churches, monasteries and other religious buildings and
cultural
monuments were burned down or damaged including the following: the
Church
of Assumption of Our Lady in Dolac, monastery of St. Marco in Korisa
from
1467, monastery of Prophets Kosmo and Damien in Zatociste from 14
century,
the church in Kijev from the 14th century, the Holy Trinity monastery
from
the 14th century near Musutiste, monastery Devic built in 1440, church
of
St. Paraskeva in Drenik from the 16th century, church of St. Dimitri
near
Pec, the Orthodox church in Grmovo near Vitina, church of St. Ilija in
Cegra near Gnjilane, church of Holy Mother in Musutiste from 1315,
church
of Prophet Ilija in Bistricin, church of Apostles Peter and Paul in Suva
Reka, monastery of St. Uros in Nerodimlje, monastery of Archangel
Gabriel
from the 14th century in Binac, church of the Holy Virgin from the 16th
century in Belo Polje, church of St. John the Baptist in Pecka Banja,
churches in the villages of Naklo, Vucitrn, Petrovac, Urosevac,
Podgorce,
Djurakovac, Krusevo, Osojane, Samodreca, Dresna near Klina, Rekovac,
Petric, monastery Dinac near Vitina, Holy Trinity Cathedral in
Djakovica.
Places of worship were attacked, desecrated, demolished and burned down.
Clergy were terrorized and prosecuted. More than 150 parish residences
were
destroyed or damaged. Over 10 000 icons and other sacred objects were
stolen or destroyed.
The following cultural monuments were damaged and demolished:
- monuments in memory of giants of Serbian and Montenegrin literature
Vuk
Karadzic and Petar Petrovic Njegos in the very centre of Pristina;
- monuments in memory of King Uros in Urosevac and King Dusan in
Prizren;
- memorial to Prince Lazar in Gnjilane and the memorial to Serbian
rulers
from the Nemanjic dynasty in the village of Gornje Nerodimlje.
13) Forced and illegal taking over of public institutions:
- forcible and illegal take-overs of premises and buildings of post
offices, banks, medical institutions, water and power supply systems,
university, elementary and secondary schools, municipal and other
authorities of local administration, local communes, buildings of the
Ministry of the Interior and the Army of Yugoslavia, factories,
enterprises, cooperatives, etc. in Pristina (premises of the Clinical
centre "Pristina" and the health station, the Federal Customs
Administration, the Public Housing Company, Institute for Urban
Planning,
the public enterprise "Vodovod", thermal power plant "Kosovo B", depots
and
petrol stations of "Jugopetrol", the share-holding companies
"Kosmet-Pristina", "Kosovo-Trans", the public enterprise "Energoinvest",
the public enterprise "Auto-Pristina", "Car shock absorbers plant",
"Jugotrans", etc.) as well as in Prizren, Dragas, Podujevo, Lipljan,
Strpci, Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo Polje (with the assistance of the
members of KFOR), Djakovica (with the assistance of the members of
KFOR).
- by forced and illegal taking over of public enterprises and
institutions
over 20 000 employed Serbs, Montenegrins, Roma, Muslims, Goranci, Turks
and
other non-Albanians were sacked and replaced exclusively by Albanians,
who
are mostly unskilled.
14) Registered armed attacks on villages: Slovinj, Maticane, Orahovac,
Konjuh, Berivojce, Gornja Brnjica, the villages around Kosovska
Kamenica:
Grncar, Magila, Ajvalija, all the villages of the Istok-Klina region,
Goracdevac near Pec, Svinjare, Klokot, Novo Brdo, Zjum, Donja and Gornja
Gusterica, Susica, Badavac, Bresje, Vrbovac, Vitina, Cernice,
(municipality
of Gnjilane), Dobrusa, Veliko Ropotovo (municipality of Kosovska
Kamenica),
Partes (municipality of Gnjilane), Pasjane (municipality of Gnjilane),
Ljestar, Budriga, Dobrotin (municipality of Lipljan), Grncar, Binac,
Ranilug, Silovo, Odovce, Rajanovce, Bosce, Caglavica, Paravolo, Lebane,
Gojbulja, in the following villages in the area of the municipality of
Gora: Brodosvce, Belobrod, Kukavce - frequent attacks against the houses
of
Goranci, Muslims and Albanians who are loyal to the FR of Yugoslavia.
All this runs counter to the assertions about the disarming of the
terrorist "KLA".
15) Registered sieges of villages: Gadnje, Orahovac and Velika Hoca
(population lives in a "ghetto"), Koretin, villages around Gnjilane,
Priluzje, Gornja Srbica, Gorazdevac.
16) Armed threats against villages and terror committed on a daily basis
against non-Albanian population: Ugljari, Srpski Babus, Stimlje, Novo
Selo,
Bresje, the area around Kosovo Polje, Milosevo (against which the armed
attack was carried out), village of Zebnice (dramatic humanitarian
situation), majority of the mainly Croatian Catholic population who
lived
in the villages of Letinice, Vrnez, Vrnavo Kolo and Sasare have moved
out,
Drenovac (50 Serbs massacred), village of Cernice (series of incidents
in
which members of the US contingent of KFOR maltreated Serbs), Pozaranje,
Gotovusa, Gatnje, Zubin Potok, Veliki Alas, Vrelo and Radevo.
(17) The looted Serb villages from which the residents were forced out:
Muzicani, Slivovo, Orlovic, Dragas, the area around Kosovo Polje,
Sofalija,
Livadice, Mirovac, Siriniska zupa, Medregovac, Grace, Zociste, Sofalije,
Dragoljevac, Tomance, Koretin, Lestar, Donja Sipasnica.
(18) Serb neighbourhoods set on fire: Istok, Klina, Donja Lapastica,
Obrandza, Velika Reka, Perane, Lause, the villages around Podujevo,
Grace,
Donja Dubica, Zociste, Orahovac, Naklo, Vitomirice, Belo Polje,
Kojlovice,
Alos-Toplicane, Krajiste, Rudnik, Donji Strmac, Goles (municipality of
Lipljan), Orlovic (municipality of Pristina), Krpimej and Lausa
(municipality of Podujevo), Muzicane (all Serbian houses burned down),
Zaimovo, Denovac, Lesjane, Gornje and Donje Nerodimlje (all Serbian
houses
looted and then burned down), Sinaje (municipality of Istok), Belovac,
Mali
Talinovac, Ljubizda, Klobuka (municipality of Kosovska Kamenica).
(19) Towns and residential areas ethnically cleansed of Serbs, Roma,
Muslims, Goranci and other non-Albanians: Prizren, Djakovica, Pec,
Srbica,
Podujevo, Vucitrn, Glogovac as well as the villages in the municipality
of
Istok: Dzakovo, Osojane, Tuzepom, Kos, Zac, Belica, Krnjine, Maticane,
Kacanik, Stimlje, Kmetovaska Vrbica, surroundings of Urosevac, Slivovo,
Nedakovac, Nevoljane, Vrpica, Ljestar, Zegra (municipality of Gnjilane),
Zitnje, Pozaranje, Grmovo, Drobes, Kabas and Binac (municipality of
Vitina).
- The ethnic cleansing has been in its final stages in Pristina (all the
Serbian population has been driven out of the largest residential
quarters:
Ulpijana, Sun_ani Breg, Dardanija, Univerzitetsko Naselje), Gnjilane,
Urosevac, Kosovska Mitrovica, Lipljan, Kosovo Polje where 80 per cent of
the Serbian population has been expelled (houses burned down, looted,
property seized from the owners of shops, Albanian terrorists maltreat
and
physically abuse Serbs, who refused to sell their houses and move out of
Kosovo and Metohija, before the very eyes of the members of KFOR),
Kosovska
Kamenica, area of Vitina and Kosovsko Pomoravlje, as well as in the
villages of Toplicane, Rujice, Magure, Slovinja, Staro Gracko.
20) Registered number of illegal entries of foreign citizens into the
territory of the FR of Yugoslavia (Kosovo and Metohija) without the
necessary papers (visas and registration of stay with the competent
authorities): 677
Over 200 000 foreigners have illegally entered into the Province with
the
consent of UNMIK and KFOR. The Government of the FR of Yugoslavia has
officially requested their expulsion.
21) Registered number of criminal acts of illicit trafficking and
possession of goods without appropriate documents:137
22) Registered number of cases of violation of the land security zone by
KFOR 236
* * *
REVIEW
OF TERRORIST AND OTHER ACTS OF VIOLENCE PERPETRATED BY ALBANIAN
TERRORISTS
IN THE PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA SINCE THE DEPLOYMENT OF KFOR AND
UNMIK
IN THE PERIOD FROM 12 JUNE 1999 TO 13 JANUARY 2000
Terrorism of Albanian separatists
Total number of terrorist attacks 3,688
1. Civilians 3,630
- Serbs and Montenegrins 3,433
- Albanians 87
- members of other nationalities 110
2. Officials and facilities 58
A. Killed 793
1. Civilians 772
- Serbs and Montenegrins 684
- Albanians 63
- members of other nationalities 25
2. Officials 21
B. Wounded 611
1. Civilians 604
- Serbs and Montenegrins 565
- Albanians 18
- members of other nationalities 21
2. Officials 7
C. Kidnapped and missing 688
1. Civilians
656
- Serbs and Montenegrins 598
- Albanians 36
- members of other nationalities 22
2. Officials 32
Fate of kidnapped and missing
1. Killed 69
2. Escaped 6
3. Unaccounted-for 581
4. Released 32
---
>From kfqma@... Mon Jan 24 11:33:22 2000
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 21:37:12 +0100
From: Alessandro Marescotti <kfqma@...>
Reply-To: pck-yugoslavia@...
To: pck-yugoslavia@...
Cc: pck-pcknews@...
Subject: Dragoslav Basic morto per il sogno del Kosovo
Resent-Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 23:53:47 +0100
Resent-From: pck-yugoslavia@...
[The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set]
[Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set]
[Some characters may be displayed incorrectly]
Pubblicato Mercoledi 15 Dicembre 1999
Professore dell'Universita' della California morto per il sogno del
Kosovo
Dragoslav Basic era tornato in patria per "costruire un ponte di
umanita' ": e' stato ucciso e i suoi familiari gravemente feriti.
Di Tom Lochner
L'uomo Serbo ucciso da un commando nelle strade di Pristina<
Jugoslavia, due setimane fa, era un ex-residente in Albania e
professore in visita all'Universita' della California , Berkeley, che
era tornato in patria per perseguire il suo sogno di un Kosovo in
armonia.
Amici della baia orientale dicono che Dragoslav Basic, 63 anni, era una
autorevole voce di pace. Nato a Pristina, capitale del Kosovo, Basic
era professore di ingegneria civile, specializzatosi nella costruzione
di ponti ed altri progetti per lavori pubblici in aree ad elevato
rischio sismico.
Ma quando assunse la sua cattedra all'Universita' del Kosovo nel 1990,
dopo un anno e mezzo in California, Basic progetto' un diverso tipo di
ponte.
"Mi disse 'Potrei aiutare la gente a costruire un ponte di umanita' che
nessun terremoto distrugga mai'" ha detto Nick Tomasevic, residente di
Berkley, pilota in pensione ed amico di Basic.
LA mattina del 29 Novembre Basic e' stato tirato fuori dalla sua
macchina con la moglie e la suocera e poi colpito con arma da
fuoco mentre una folla percoteva e torturava le donne tra i
festeggiamenti per la Giornata della Bandiera Albanese (commemorata dal
KLA), la festa che ricorda la nascita del moderno stato Albanese subito
dopo la I Guerra Mondiale.
L'attacco, ampiamente riportato da televisioni, stampa e radio a
livello internazionale, e' stato un segnale visibile e un richiamo alla
rabbia etnica a cui Basic cercava di porre fine.
"Non e' soo stato ucciso a colpi d'arma da fuoco- ha detto Snezana
Landau di El Cerrito, amica di famiglia - gli e' stato saparato come ad
un cane rabbioso in strada, con centinaia di persone che guardavano. E
nessuno ha voluto fare qualcosa".
Si pensa che Basic e sua moglie Dragica, 51, stessero portando la
madre di Dragica, Borka Jovanovic, 74, all'ospedale in seguito ad un
malore dell'anziana donna.
Le donne hanno riportato molteplici ferite e sono state ospedalizzate
a Nis, fuori dal Kosovo, nella Serbia orientale.
"Tomislav, il figlio della coppia, ha visto sua madre a Nis e ha detto
di non averla riconosciuta; racconta Desa Wakeman di Berkley, una
impiegata di una compagnia di leasing in pensionee sorella di
Tomasevic. I parenti di Wakeman hanno parlato con Tomislav per
telefono. " Ha detto: ' mia madre aveva dei bellissimi capelli neri, ma
non li ho potuti vedere tanto era l sangue che li copriva'".
Il martedi Dragica Basic era all'ospedale di Belgrado, quando e' stata
trasferita d'urgenza per un intervento agli occhi. Il giovedi Jovanovic
era nelo stesso ospedale in condizioni critiche.
Al momento della morte di Basic, il corpo studentesco dell'universita'
del Kosovo era diventato prevalentemente di etnia Albanese. Sebbene
insegnasse in Serbo-Croato e in Inglese, Basic aveva acquisito una
quasi completa padronanza della lingua Albanese ed aveva esortato altri
a fare lo stesso.
Una volta mi disse: "Quasi ogni albanese in Kosovo parla serbo-croato,
ogni non albanese in Kosovo dovrebbe parlare la sua bellissima lingua"
ha detto Tomasevic.
Basic era orgoglioso delle sue origini Serbe e fiducioso nel proprio
ruolo nel vecchio e nel nuovo Kosovo.
" questo e' il postoo dove la sua famiglia era vissuta per secoli"
disse Wakeman " erano persone con poca istruzione, serbi ortodossi,
portatori della tradizione serba e conoscitori della storia della zona.
Ecco perche' non hanno mai voluto spostarsi".
Basic consegui' un Master all'universita' del Mississippi alla fine
degli anni 70. Viveva nello University Village, un progetto di
costruzioni di proprieta' dell'univerista' di Berkley UC in Albania.
La figlia della coppia, Nikoleta, si e' dipomata alla scuola superiore
Albany nel 1989; Tomislav ha frequentato la scuola elementare Cornell.
I figli vivono attualmente in Serbia , dove Nikoleta insegna inglese e
Tomislav studia farmacologia.
Basic era presso l'universita' della California nel 1989 quando il
Presidente Yugoslavo Slobodan Milosevic, in piena crescita della
tensione etnica, revoco' lo status del Kosovo come provincia autonoma
all'interno della Repubblica Serba.
"(Basic) aveva un forte dilemma" ha detto Wakeman " disse: ' se tutti
scappano chi restera' la'? "
" Senti' che era suo dovere tornare, non solo come Serbo ma anche come
educatore", ha detto Wakeman " creeva che attraverso l'istruzione
superiore si potesse ottenere qualcosa di buono tra la gente del
Kosovo".
E non solo fra Serbi ed Albanesi, ma anche tra le minoranze Turche,
Greche e Rom della provincia.
In un certo senso Basic stava cercando di reclamare parte della sua
giovinezza.
" Il problema del Kosovo e della Yugoslavia gli premeva
particolarmente, non solo perche' era la sua patria ma perche' era un
esempio del fato che gli esseri umani possono coesistere se ci si mette
una maggior dose di buona volonta' ", ha detto Tomasevic.
I contrasti Cristiano-Musulmani nei Balcani risalgono al 1389, quando
un esercito Serbo fu sconfitto dai Turchi nella battaglia del Kosovo.
Basic era convinto, 600 anni dopo, che fosse tempo per rimarginare
quella ferita. Egli obiettava ai leader politici e religiosi che
perpetuavano la violenza per quello che non avevano detto quanto per
quello che avevano detto.
"BAsic fu molto critico quando Milosevic ando' in Kosovo per la
commemorazione dei 600 anni, per il fatto che non si rivolse alla
popolazione Albanese. Credeva che Milosevic avrebbe dovuto dire 'Cari
fratelli Albanesi: 600 anni fa una catastrofe si abbatte' su tutti noi
ed ora abbiamo un dovere. C'e' abbastanza spazio in Kosovo per tutti
noi".
Basic era convinto che nella Seconda Guerra Mondiale una semplice
lettera enciclica a tutte le Chiese Cattoliche Romane nel mondo, con
un'enfasi sul fatto che Cristo era Ebreo e che la Cristianita' e' una
branca del Giudaismo, avrebe potuto evitare l'Olocausto.
Dopo il suo ritorno Basic espresse disaccordo su cio' che aveva visto
come un ncoraggiamento da parte degli USA di una frammentazione della
Yugoslavia post- Tito. Wakeman e Tomasevic sono tra quelli di etnia
serba che nel 1941 furono 'ripuliti' dalla loro terra natia, la
Croazia, come dice Wakeman.
"BAsic accuso' il governo degli USA di non aver promosso l'idea del
melting pot", ha detto Tomasevic.
Basic credeva che gli USA aavrebbero dovuto dire ' Ascoltate: siete
dita di una stessa mano. Noi non tollereremo la disintegrazione del
vostro paese e vi aiuteremo a riorganizzarlo." ha detto Tomasevic.
Basic aveva una citazione preferita sulla fine della guerra, presa dal
poeta Ungherese del diaciannovesimo secolo Sandor PetÎfy, che pensava
avrebbe potuto diventare un motto per le Nazioni Unite:
" che cosa e' la gloria su un campo di battaglia rispetto al bellissimo
arcobaleno formato dai raggi di sole che filtrano attraverso una
pioggia di lacrime? " ha detto Toamsevic.
"Basic era un ingegnere civile- ha detto Tomasevic-ma oltre la sua
professione, era un grande umanista, un filosofo e un pacifista".
TESTO ORIGINALE (tradotto da Catia Morgetta)
>From: Herman de Tollenaere <hermantl@...>
>Subject: pacifist professor died for Kosovo dream [fwd]
>
>Published Wednesday, December 15, 1999
>
>UC professor died for Kosovo dream
>Dragoslav Basic returned to his homeland to 'build a bridge of humanity'
>over ethnic gulf; he was slain, his family critically injured
>
>There will be a commemorative service for Dragoslav Basic at noon Jan. 16
>at Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church in Moraga.
>
>By Tom Lochner
>TIMES STAFF WRITER
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>----
>
>The Serbian man killed by a mob in the streets of Pristina, Yugoslavia, two
>weeks ago was a former Albany resident and visiting professor at
>UC-Berkeley who went home to pursue his dream of a harmonious Kosovo.
>
>Friends in the East Bay say Dragoslav Basic, 63, was a powerful voice for
>peace.
>
>A native of Pristina, Kosovo's capital, Basic was a professor of civil
>engineering who specialized in the construction of bridges and other public
>works projects in earthquake-prone areas.
>
>But when he took a position at the University of Kosovo in 1990 after 11/2
>years at Cal, Basic envisioned a different kind of bridge.
>
>"He told me 'I could help the people build a bridge of humanity that no
>earthquake could ever destroy,' " said Berkeley resident Nick Tomasevic, a
>retired pilot and friend.
>
>Early in the morning of Nov. 29, Basic was pulled from his car along with
>his wife and mother-in-law, then shot as a crowd beat and tortured the
>women amid revelry on Albanian Flag Day [as celebrated by the KLA], the
>holiday that commemorates the birth of the modern Albanian state in the
>aftermath of World War I.
>
>The attack, reported widely on international television, newspapers and
>radio, was a graphic reminder of the ethnic rage Basic sought to quell.
>
>"It was not like he was just shot and killed," said Snezana Landau of El
>Cerrito, a friend of the family. "He was shot like a mad dog in the street
>with hundreds of people looking on. And nobody wanted to do anything."
>
>Basic and his wife, Dragica, 51, are believed to have been taking Dragica's
>mother, Borka Jovanovic, 74, to a hospital after the older woman fell ill.
>
>The women suffered numerous injuries and were hospitalized in Nis, outside
>Kosovo in eastern Serbia.
>
>"Tomislav (the couple's son) saw his mother in Nis; he said he could not
>recognize her," said Desa Wakeman of Berkeley, a retired executive for a
>leasing company and Tomasevic's sister.
>
>Wakeman's relatives spoke to Tomislav by phone.
>
>"He said, 'My mother, you know, had beautiful black hair, but I couldn't
>see it, there was so much blood.' "
>
>On Tuesday, Dragica Basic was in a Belgrade hospital where she had been
>transferred for emergency eye surgery on Thursday. Jovanovic was in the
>same hospital in critical condition.
>
>By the time of Basic's death, the student body at the University of Kosovo
>had become overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian. Although he taught in
>Serbo-Croatian and English, Basic had become almost fluent in Albanian and
>advocated that others do the same.
>
>"He once said to me, 'Almost every Albanian in Kosovo speaks
>Serbo-Croatian; every non-Albanian in Kosovo should speak their beautiful
>language,' " Tomasevic said.
>
>Basic, a Fulbright scholar, was proud of his Serbian roots and confident of
>his place in the old, and the new, Kosovo.
>
>"This is where his family had lived for centuries," said Wakeman. "They
>were very literate, Serbian Orthodox people, carriers of the Serbian
>tradition, who knew the history of the area. That is why they did not want
>to move."
>
>Basic earned a master's degree at the University of Mississippi in the late
>1970s, friends said. Basic lived at University Village, a UC-Berkeley-owned
>housing project in Albany.
>
>The couple's daughter, Nikoleta, graduated from Albany High School in 1989;
>Tomislav attended Cornell Elementary School. The children live in Serbia
>today, where Nikoleta teaches English and Tomislav studies pharmacology.
>
>Basic was at Cal in 1989 when Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic,
>with ethnic strife on the rise, revoked Kosovo's status as an autonomous
>province within the Serbian Republic.
>
>"(Basic) had a tremendous dilemma," said Wakeman. "He said, 'If everybody
>escapes, who is going to remain there?'
>
>"He felt it was his duty to return, not just as a Serb but as an educator,"
>said Wakeman. "He believed that through higher education, something good
>could be achieved among the people of Kosovo."
>
>And not just among Serbs and Albanians, but the province's Turkish, Greek
>and Rom minorities as well.
>
>In a sense, Basic was trying to reclaim a part of his youth.
>
>"The problem of Kosovo and Yugoslavia affected him terribly, not just
>because it was his homeland but because it was an example that human beings
>could coexist if the good will was applied more often," Tomasevic said.
>
>Christian-Muslim animosity in the Balkans goes back to 1389, when a Serbian
>army fell to the Turks at the Battle of Kosovo. Basic was determined, 600
>years later, that it was time for that wound to heal. He objected to
>political and religious leaders perpetuating violence, often by what they
>failed to say as much as by what they said.
>
>"Basic was very critical when Milosevic went to Kosovo on the commemoration
>of 600 years, that he did not address the Albanian people," Tomasevic said.
>"He believed (Milosevic) should have said, 'Dear brother Albanians: 600
>years ago, a catastrophe happened to all of us, and now we have a duty.
>There is enough room in Kosovo for all of us."
>
>In World War II, Basic believed, "a simple encyclical letter to all the
>Roman Catholic churches in the world, emphasizing that Jesus Christ was
>Jewish, that Christianity is a branch of Judaism, like Islam, too," might
>have staved off the Holocaust, Tomasevic said.
>
>After Basic returned, he lamented what he saw as U.S. encouragement of
>post-Tito Yugoslavia's fragmentation, said Tomasevic. Wakeman and Tomasevic
>are ethnic Serbs who in 1941 were "cleansed" from their native Croatia, as
>Wakeman puts it.
>
>"(Basic) accused the U.S. government of not (promoting) the idea of the
>melting pot," Tomasevic said.
>
>Basic believed the U.S. should have said, "Listen, people: you are fingers
>of the same hand. We ... will not tolerate disintegration of your country.
>We will help you reorganize it," said Tomasevic.
>
>Basic had a favorite saying about the end of war, by the 19th century
>Hungarian poet Sandor PetÎfy, that he thought would make a great motto for
>the United Nations:
>
>"What is battlefield glory compared to the beautiful rainbow made by
>breaking the sun's rays through the rain of tears?," Tomasevic said.
>
>"This fellow, Basic, he was a civil engineer," said Tomasevic, "but besides
>his profession, he was a great humanist, a philosopher and a pacifist."
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>Herman de Tollenaere
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
------------------------------------------------------------
Kosovo e Metohija dall'arrivo di KFOR ed UNMIK, tra il 12 giugno 1999 ed
il 13 gennaio 2000 (Yugoslav Daily Survey / Min. Esteri RFJ)
* La morte di Dragoslav Basic (Tom Lochner, "The Times"; in italiano ed
in inglese)
---
Yugoslav Daily Survey - Special Issues
BELGRADE, 18 January 2000
O V E R V I E W
of terrorist and other acts of violence in the province of Kosovo and
Metohija
since the arrival of KFOR and UNMIK in the period from 12 June 1999 to
13
January 2000
1) Number of terrorist attacks: 3,688
Out of which 3,630 were committed against civilians, i.e. 3,433 against
Serbs and Montenegrins, 87 against Albanians and 110 against members of
other nationalities.
2) Number of abducted and missing persons: 688
Out of whom 656 were civilians, i.e. 598 were Serbs and Montenegrins, 36
Albanians and 22 members of other nationalities.
The fate of 559 abducted civilians is still unknown while 64 were
killed.
3) Number of killed persons: 793
Out of whom 772 were civilians, i.e. 684 were Serbs and Montenegrins (22
massacred, 84 mutilated and 5 burned to death), 63 were Albanians and 25
members of other nationalities in Kosovo and Metohija.
4) Number of arbitrarily arrested persons by KFOR:
Serbs accused of allegedly committing "war crimes" are detained in
prisons
in Pristina, Prizren, Sojevo near Urosevac, Kosovska Mitrovica,
Gnjilane,
Lipljan and Kolokot Banja. They have been arrested only on the ground of
information provided by the Albanians of the so-called "KLA" and a large
number of these persons are detained without any court decision.
5) Number of wounded persons: 611
6) Reported cases of physical assault, harassment and inflicted grave
bodily harm: 416
7) Registered cases of threats: 356
8) Registered number of dwellings broken into and forcibly taken
occupancy
of: 776 in Pristina, over 200 in Kosovska Mitrovica, 190 in Gnjilane,
124
in Orahovac, a large number in Kosovo Polje and Lipljan.
9) Ethnic cleansing: Many towns were ethnically cleansed of Serbs and
other
non-Albanians. According to available UNHCR data of September 1999,
about
220 000 mainly Serbs and Montenegrins were driven out of Kosovo and
Metohija.
According to the latest data over 330 000 Serbs, Montenegrins, Roma,
Muslims, Goranci, Turks and other non-Albanians were expelled, of whom
250
000 are Serbs.
10) Registered number of homes burned down: about 50 000 houses were
burned
down in Kosovo and Metohija.
11) Registered number of stolen vehicles: over 12 000 vehicles. As a
result
of open borders with Macedonia and Albania 250 000 vehicles were brought
into Kosovo and Metohija without payment of customs duties and most of
these vehicles were stolen.
12) Destruction of churches, monasteries and cultural monuments:
About 80 churches, monasteries and other religious buildings and
cultural
monuments were burned down or damaged including the following: the
Church
of Assumption of Our Lady in Dolac, monastery of St. Marco in Korisa
from
1467, monastery of Prophets Kosmo and Damien in Zatociste from 14
century,
the church in Kijev from the 14th century, the Holy Trinity monastery
from
the 14th century near Musutiste, monastery Devic built in 1440, church
of
St. Paraskeva in Drenik from the 16th century, church of St. Dimitri
near
Pec, the Orthodox church in Grmovo near Vitina, church of St. Ilija in
Cegra near Gnjilane, church of Holy Mother in Musutiste from 1315,
church
of Prophet Ilija in Bistricin, church of Apostles Peter and Paul in Suva
Reka, monastery of St. Uros in Nerodimlje, monastery of Archangel
Gabriel
from the 14th century in Binac, church of the Holy Virgin from the 16th
century in Belo Polje, church of St. John the Baptist in Pecka Banja,
churches in the villages of Naklo, Vucitrn, Petrovac, Urosevac,
Podgorce,
Djurakovac, Krusevo, Osojane, Samodreca, Dresna near Klina, Rekovac,
Petric, monastery Dinac near Vitina, Holy Trinity Cathedral in
Djakovica.
Places of worship were attacked, desecrated, demolished and burned down.
Clergy were terrorized and prosecuted. More than 150 parish residences
were
destroyed or damaged. Over 10 000 icons and other sacred objects were
stolen or destroyed.
The following cultural monuments were damaged and demolished:
- monuments in memory of giants of Serbian and Montenegrin literature
Vuk
Karadzic and Petar Petrovic Njegos in the very centre of Pristina;
- monuments in memory of King Uros in Urosevac and King Dusan in
Prizren;
- memorial to Prince Lazar in Gnjilane and the memorial to Serbian
rulers
from the Nemanjic dynasty in the village of Gornje Nerodimlje.
13) Forced and illegal taking over of public institutions:
- forcible and illegal take-overs of premises and buildings of post
offices, banks, medical institutions, water and power supply systems,
university, elementary and secondary schools, municipal and other
authorities of local administration, local communes, buildings of the
Ministry of the Interior and the Army of Yugoslavia, factories,
enterprises, cooperatives, etc. in Pristina (premises of the Clinical
centre "Pristina" and the health station, the Federal Customs
Administration, the Public Housing Company, Institute for Urban
Planning,
the public enterprise "Vodovod", thermal power plant "Kosovo B", depots
and
petrol stations of "Jugopetrol", the share-holding companies
"Kosmet-Pristina", "Kosovo-Trans", the public enterprise "Energoinvest",
the public enterprise "Auto-Pristina", "Car shock absorbers plant",
"Jugotrans", etc.) as well as in Prizren, Dragas, Podujevo, Lipljan,
Strpci, Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo Polje (with the assistance of the
members of KFOR), Djakovica (with the assistance of the members of
KFOR).
- by forced and illegal taking over of public enterprises and
institutions
over 20 000 employed Serbs, Montenegrins, Roma, Muslims, Goranci, Turks
and
other non-Albanians were sacked and replaced exclusively by Albanians,
who
are mostly unskilled.
14) Registered armed attacks on villages: Slovinj, Maticane, Orahovac,
Konjuh, Berivojce, Gornja Brnjica, the villages around Kosovska
Kamenica:
Grncar, Magila, Ajvalija, all the villages of the Istok-Klina region,
Goracdevac near Pec, Svinjare, Klokot, Novo Brdo, Zjum, Donja and Gornja
Gusterica, Susica, Badavac, Bresje, Vrbovac, Vitina, Cernice,
(municipality
of Gnjilane), Dobrusa, Veliko Ropotovo (municipality of Kosovska
Kamenica),
Partes (municipality of Gnjilane), Pasjane (municipality of Gnjilane),
Ljestar, Budriga, Dobrotin (municipality of Lipljan), Grncar, Binac,
Ranilug, Silovo, Odovce, Rajanovce, Bosce, Caglavica, Paravolo, Lebane,
Gojbulja, in the following villages in the area of the municipality of
Gora: Brodosvce, Belobrod, Kukavce - frequent attacks against the houses
of
Goranci, Muslims and Albanians who are loyal to the FR of Yugoslavia.
All this runs counter to the assertions about the disarming of the
terrorist "KLA".
15) Registered sieges of villages: Gadnje, Orahovac and Velika Hoca
(population lives in a "ghetto"), Koretin, villages around Gnjilane,
Priluzje, Gornja Srbica, Gorazdevac.
16) Armed threats against villages and terror committed on a daily basis
against non-Albanian population: Ugljari, Srpski Babus, Stimlje, Novo
Selo,
Bresje, the area around Kosovo Polje, Milosevo (against which the armed
attack was carried out), village of Zebnice (dramatic humanitarian
situation), majority of the mainly Croatian Catholic population who
lived
in the villages of Letinice, Vrnez, Vrnavo Kolo and Sasare have moved
out,
Drenovac (50 Serbs massacred), village of Cernice (series of incidents
in
which members of the US contingent of KFOR maltreated Serbs), Pozaranje,
Gotovusa, Gatnje, Zubin Potok, Veliki Alas, Vrelo and Radevo.
(17) The looted Serb villages from which the residents were forced out:
Muzicani, Slivovo, Orlovic, Dragas, the area around Kosovo Polje,
Sofalija,
Livadice, Mirovac, Siriniska zupa, Medregovac, Grace, Zociste, Sofalije,
Dragoljevac, Tomance, Koretin, Lestar, Donja Sipasnica.
(18) Serb neighbourhoods set on fire: Istok, Klina, Donja Lapastica,
Obrandza, Velika Reka, Perane, Lause, the villages around Podujevo,
Grace,
Donja Dubica, Zociste, Orahovac, Naklo, Vitomirice, Belo Polje,
Kojlovice,
Alos-Toplicane, Krajiste, Rudnik, Donji Strmac, Goles (municipality of
Lipljan), Orlovic (municipality of Pristina), Krpimej and Lausa
(municipality of Podujevo), Muzicane (all Serbian houses burned down),
Zaimovo, Denovac, Lesjane, Gornje and Donje Nerodimlje (all Serbian
houses
looted and then burned down), Sinaje (municipality of Istok), Belovac,
Mali
Talinovac, Ljubizda, Klobuka (municipality of Kosovska Kamenica).
(19) Towns and residential areas ethnically cleansed of Serbs, Roma,
Muslims, Goranci and other non-Albanians: Prizren, Djakovica, Pec,
Srbica,
Podujevo, Vucitrn, Glogovac as well as the villages in the municipality
of
Istok: Dzakovo, Osojane, Tuzepom, Kos, Zac, Belica, Krnjine, Maticane,
Kacanik, Stimlje, Kmetovaska Vrbica, surroundings of Urosevac, Slivovo,
Nedakovac, Nevoljane, Vrpica, Ljestar, Zegra (municipality of Gnjilane),
Zitnje, Pozaranje, Grmovo, Drobes, Kabas and Binac (municipality of
Vitina).
- The ethnic cleansing has been in its final stages in Pristina (all the
Serbian population has been driven out of the largest residential
quarters:
Ulpijana, Sun_ani Breg, Dardanija, Univerzitetsko Naselje), Gnjilane,
Urosevac, Kosovska Mitrovica, Lipljan, Kosovo Polje where 80 per cent of
the Serbian population has been expelled (houses burned down, looted,
property seized from the owners of shops, Albanian terrorists maltreat
and
physically abuse Serbs, who refused to sell their houses and move out of
Kosovo and Metohija, before the very eyes of the members of KFOR),
Kosovska
Kamenica, area of Vitina and Kosovsko Pomoravlje, as well as in the
villages of Toplicane, Rujice, Magure, Slovinja, Staro Gracko.
20) Registered number of illegal entries of foreign citizens into the
territory of the FR of Yugoslavia (Kosovo and Metohija) without the
necessary papers (visas and registration of stay with the competent
authorities): 677
Over 200 000 foreigners have illegally entered into the Province with
the
consent of UNMIK and KFOR. The Government of the FR of Yugoslavia has
officially requested their expulsion.
21) Registered number of criminal acts of illicit trafficking and
possession of goods without appropriate documents:137
22) Registered number of cases of violation of the land security zone by
KFOR 236
* * *
REVIEW
OF TERRORIST AND OTHER ACTS OF VIOLENCE PERPETRATED BY ALBANIAN
TERRORISTS
IN THE PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA SINCE THE DEPLOYMENT OF KFOR AND
UNMIK
IN THE PERIOD FROM 12 JUNE 1999 TO 13 JANUARY 2000
Terrorism of Albanian separatists
Total number of terrorist attacks 3,688
1. Civilians 3,630
- Serbs and Montenegrins 3,433
- Albanians 87
- members of other nationalities 110
2. Officials and facilities 58
A. Killed 793
1. Civilians 772
- Serbs and Montenegrins 684
- Albanians 63
- members of other nationalities 25
2. Officials 21
B. Wounded 611
1. Civilians 604
- Serbs and Montenegrins 565
- Albanians 18
- members of other nationalities 21
2. Officials 7
C. Kidnapped and missing 688
1. Civilians
656
- Serbs and Montenegrins 598
- Albanians 36
- members of other nationalities 22
2. Officials 32
Fate of kidnapped and missing
1. Killed 69
2. Escaped 6
3. Unaccounted-for 581
4. Released 32
---
>From kfqma@... Mon Jan 24 11:33:22 2000
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 21:37:12 +0100
From: Alessandro Marescotti <kfqma@...>
Reply-To: pck-yugoslavia@...
To: pck-yugoslavia@...
Cc: pck-pcknews@...
Subject: Dragoslav Basic morto per il sogno del Kosovo
Resent-Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 23:53:47 +0100
Resent-From: pck-yugoslavia@...
[The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set]
[Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set]
[Some characters may be displayed incorrectly]
Pubblicato Mercoledi 15 Dicembre 1999
Professore dell'Universita' della California morto per il sogno del
Kosovo
Dragoslav Basic era tornato in patria per "costruire un ponte di
umanita' ": e' stato ucciso e i suoi familiari gravemente feriti.
Di Tom Lochner
L'uomo Serbo ucciso da un commando nelle strade di Pristina<
Jugoslavia, due setimane fa, era un ex-residente in Albania e
professore in visita all'Universita' della California , Berkeley, che
era tornato in patria per perseguire il suo sogno di un Kosovo in
armonia.
Amici della baia orientale dicono che Dragoslav Basic, 63 anni, era una
autorevole voce di pace. Nato a Pristina, capitale del Kosovo, Basic
era professore di ingegneria civile, specializzatosi nella costruzione
di ponti ed altri progetti per lavori pubblici in aree ad elevato
rischio sismico.
Ma quando assunse la sua cattedra all'Universita' del Kosovo nel 1990,
dopo un anno e mezzo in California, Basic progetto' un diverso tipo di
ponte.
"Mi disse 'Potrei aiutare la gente a costruire un ponte di umanita' che
nessun terremoto distrugga mai'" ha detto Nick Tomasevic, residente di
Berkley, pilota in pensione ed amico di Basic.
LA mattina del 29 Novembre Basic e' stato tirato fuori dalla sua
macchina con la moglie e la suocera e poi colpito con arma da
fuoco mentre una folla percoteva e torturava le donne tra i
festeggiamenti per la Giornata della Bandiera Albanese (commemorata dal
KLA), la festa che ricorda la nascita del moderno stato Albanese subito
dopo la I Guerra Mondiale.
L'attacco, ampiamente riportato da televisioni, stampa e radio a
livello internazionale, e' stato un segnale visibile e un richiamo alla
rabbia etnica a cui Basic cercava di porre fine.
"Non e' soo stato ucciso a colpi d'arma da fuoco- ha detto Snezana
Landau di El Cerrito, amica di famiglia - gli e' stato saparato come ad
un cane rabbioso in strada, con centinaia di persone che guardavano. E
nessuno ha voluto fare qualcosa".
Si pensa che Basic e sua moglie Dragica, 51, stessero portando la
madre di Dragica, Borka Jovanovic, 74, all'ospedale in seguito ad un
malore dell'anziana donna.
Le donne hanno riportato molteplici ferite e sono state ospedalizzate
a Nis, fuori dal Kosovo, nella Serbia orientale.
"Tomislav, il figlio della coppia, ha visto sua madre a Nis e ha detto
di non averla riconosciuta; racconta Desa Wakeman di Berkley, una
impiegata di una compagnia di leasing in pensionee sorella di
Tomasevic. I parenti di Wakeman hanno parlato con Tomislav per
telefono. " Ha detto: ' mia madre aveva dei bellissimi capelli neri, ma
non li ho potuti vedere tanto era l sangue che li copriva'".
Il martedi Dragica Basic era all'ospedale di Belgrado, quando e' stata
trasferita d'urgenza per un intervento agli occhi. Il giovedi Jovanovic
era nelo stesso ospedale in condizioni critiche.
Al momento della morte di Basic, il corpo studentesco dell'universita'
del Kosovo era diventato prevalentemente di etnia Albanese. Sebbene
insegnasse in Serbo-Croato e in Inglese, Basic aveva acquisito una
quasi completa padronanza della lingua Albanese ed aveva esortato altri
a fare lo stesso.
Una volta mi disse: "Quasi ogni albanese in Kosovo parla serbo-croato,
ogni non albanese in Kosovo dovrebbe parlare la sua bellissima lingua"
ha detto Tomasevic.
Basic era orgoglioso delle sue origini Serbe e fiducioso nel proprio
ruolo nel vecchio e nel nuovo Kosovo.
" questo e' il postoo dove la sua famiglia era vissuta per secoli"
disse Wakeman " erano persone con poca istruzione, serbi ortodossi,
portatori della tradizione serba e conoscitori della storia della zona.
Ecco perche' non hanno mai voluto spostarsi".
Basic consegui' un Master all'universita' del Mississippi alla fine
degli anni 70. Viveva nello University Village, un progetto di
costruzioni di proprieta' dell'univerista' di Berkley UC in Albania.
La figlia della coppia, Nikoleta, si e' dipomata alla scuola superiore
Albany nel 1989; Tomislav ha frequentato la scuola elementare Cornell.
I figli vivono attualmente in Serbia , dove Nikoleta insegna inglese e
Tomislav studia farmacologia.
Basic era presso l'universita' della California nel 1989 quando il
Presidente Yugoslavo Slobodan Milosevic, in piena crescita della
tensione etnica, revoco' lo status del Kosovo come provincia autonoma
all'interno della Repubblica Serba.
"(Basic) aveva un forte dilemma" ha detto Wakeman " disse: ' se tutti
scappano chi restera' la'? "
" Senti' che era suo dovere tornare, non solo come Serbo ma anche come
educatore", ha detto Wakeman " creeva che attraverso l'istruzione
superiore si potesse ottenere qualcosa di buono tra la gente del
Kosovo".
E non solo fra Serbi ed Albanesi, ma anche tra le minoranze Turche,
Greche e Rom della provincia.
In un certo senso Basic stava cercando di reclamare parte della sua
giovinezza.
" Il problema del Kosovo e della Yugoslavia gli premeva
particolarmente, non solo perche' era la sua patria ma perche' era un
esempio del fato che gli esseri umani possono coesistere se ci si mette
una maggior dose di buona volonta' ", ha detto Tomasevic.
I contrasti Cristiano-Musulmani nei Balcani risalgono al 1389, quando
un esercito Serbo fu sconfitto dai Turchi nella battaglia del Kosovo.
Basic era convinto, 600 anni dopo, che fosse tempo per rimarginare
quella ferita. Egli obiettava ai leader politici e religiosi che
perpetuavano la violenza per quello che non avevano detto quanto per
quello che avevano detto.
"BAsic fu molto critico quando Milosevic ando' in Kosovo per la
commemorazione dei 600 anni, per il fatto che non si rivolse alla
popolazione Albanese. Credeva che Milosevic avrebbe dovuto dire 'Cari
fratelli Albanesi: 600 anni fa una catastrofe si abbatte' su tutti noi
ed ora abbiamo un dovere. C'e' abbastanza spazio in Kosovo per tutti
noi".
Basic era convinto che nella Seconda Guerra Mondiale una semplice
lettera enciclica a tutte le Chiese Cattoliche Romane nel mondo, con
un'enfasi sul fatto che Cristo era Ebreo e che la Cristianita' e' una
branca del Giudaismo, avrebe potuto evitare l'Olocausto.
Dopo il suo ritorno Basic espresse disaccordo su cio' che aveva visto
come un ncoraggiamento da parte degli USA di una frammentazione della
Yugoslavia post- Tito. Wakeman e Tomasevic sono tra quelli di etnia
serba che nel 1941 furono 'ripuliti' dalla loro terra natia, la
Croazia, come dice Wakeman.
"BAsic accuso' il governo degli USA di non aver promosso l'idea del
melting pot", ha detto Tomasevic.
Basic credeva che gli USA aavrebbero dovuto dire ' Ascoltate: siete
dita di una stessa mano. Noi non tollereremo la disintegrazione del
vostro paese e vi aiuteremo a riorganizzarlo." ha detto Tomasevic.
Basic aveva una citazione preferita sulla fine della guerra, presa dal
poeta Ungherese del diaciannovesimo secolo Sandor PetÎfy, che pensava
avrebbe potuto diventare un motto per le Nazioni Unite:
" che cosa e' la gloria su un campo di battaglia rispetto al bellissimo
arcobaleno formato dai raggi di sole che filtrano attraverso una
pioggia di lacrime? " ha detto Toamsevic.
"Basic era un ingegnere civile- ha detto Tomasevic-ma oltre la sua
professione, era un grande umanista, un filosofo e un pacifista".
TESTO ORIGINALE (tradotto da Catia Morgetta)
>From: Herman de Tollenaere <hermantl@...>
>Subject: pacifist professor died for Kosovo dream [fwd]
>
>Published Wednesday, December 15, 1999
>
>UC professor died for Kosovo dream
>Dragoslav Basic returned to his homeland to 'build a bridge of humanity'
>over ethnic gulf; he was slain, his family critically injured
>
>There will be a commemorative service for Dragoslav Basic at noon Jan. 16
>at Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church in Moraga.
>
>By Tom Lochner
>TIMES STAFF WRITER
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>----
>
>The Serbian man killed by a mob in the streets of Pristina, Yugoslavia, two
>weeks ago was a former Albany resident and visiting professor at
>UC-Berkeley who went home to pursue his dream of a harmonious Kosovo.
>
>Friends in the East Bay say Dragoslav Basic, 63, was a powerful voice for
>peace.
>
>A native of Pristina, Kosovo's capital, Basic was a professor of civil
>engineering who specialized in the construction of bridges and other public
>works projects in earthquake-prone areas.
>
>But when he took a position at the University of Kosovo in 1990 after 11/2
>years at Cal, Basic envisioned a different kind of bridge.
>
>"He told me 'I could help the people build a bridge of humanity that no
>earthquake could ever destroy,' " said Berkeley resident Nick Tomasevic, a
>retired pilot and friend.
>
>Early in the morning of Nov. 29, Basic was pulled from his car along with
>his wife and mother-in-law, then shot as a crowd beat and tortured the
>women amid revelry on Albanian Flag Day [as celebrated by the KLA], the
>holiday that commemorates the birth of the modern Albanian state in the
>aftermath of World War I.
>
>The attack, reported widely on international television, newspapers and
>radio, was a graphic reminder of the ethnic rage Basic sought to quell.
>
>"It was not like he was just shot and killed," said Snezana Landau of El
>Cerrito, a friend of the family. "He was shot like a mad dog in the street
>with hundreds of people looking on. And nobody wanted to do anything."
>
>Basic and his wife, Dragica, 51, are believed to have been taking Dragica's
>mother, Borka Jovanovic, 74, to a hospital after the older woman fell ill.
>
>The women suffered numerous injuries and were hospitalized in Nis, outside
>Kosovo in eastern Serbia.
>
>"Tomislav (the couple's son) saw his mother in Nis; he said he could not
>recognize her," said Desa Wakeman of Berkeley, a retired executive for a
>leasing company and Tomasevic's sister.
>
>Wakeman's relatives spoke to Tomislav by phone.
>
>"He said, 'My mother, you know, had beautiful black hair, but I couldn't
>see it, there was so much blood.' "
>
>On Tuesday, Dragica Basic was in a Belgrade hospital where she had been
>transferred for emergency eye surgery on Thursday. Jovanovic was in the
>same hospital in critical condition.
>
>By the time of Basic's death, the student body at the University of Kosovo
>had become overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian. Although he taught in
>Serbo-Croatian and English, Basic had become almost fluent in Albanian and
>advocated that others do the same.
>
>"He once said to me, 'Almost every Albanian in Kosovo speaks
>Serbo-Croatian; every non-Albanian in Kosovo should speak their beautiful
>language,' " Tomasevic said.
>
>Basic, a Fulbright scholar, was proud of his Serbian roots and confident of
>his place in the old, and the new, Kosovo.
>
>"This is where his family had lived for centuries," said Wakeman. "They
>were very literate, Serbian Orthodox people, carriers of the Serbian
>tradition, who knew the history of the area. That is why they did not want
>to move."
>
>Basic earned a master's degree at the University of Mississippi in the late
>1970s, friends said. Basic lived at University Village, a UC-Berkeley-owned
>housing project in Albany.
>
>The couple's daughter, Nikoleta, graduated from Albany High School in 1989;
>Tomislav attended Cornell Elementary School. The children live in Serbia
>today, where Nikoleta teaches English and Tomislav studies pharmacology.
>
>Basic was at Cal in 1989 when Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic,
>with ethnic strife on the rise, revoked Kosovo's status as an autonomous
>province within the Serbian Republic.
>
>"(Basic) had a tremendous dilemma," said Wakeman. "He said, 'If everybody
>escapes, who is going to remain there?'
>
>"He felt it was his duty to return, not just as a Serb but as an educator,"
>said Wakeman. "He believed that through higher education, something good
>could be achieved among the people of Kosovo."
>
>And not just among Serbs and Albanians, but the province's Turkish, Greek
>and Rom minorities as well.
>
>In a sense, Basic was trying to reclaim a part of his youth.
>
>"The problem of Kosovo and Yugoslavia affected him terribly, not just
>because it was his homeland but because it was an example that human beings
>could coexist if the good will was applied more often," Tomasevic said.
>
>Christian-Muslim animosity in the Balkans goes back to 1389, when a Serbian
>army fell to the Turks at the Battle of Kosovo. Basic was determined, 600
>years later, that it was time for that wound to heal. He objected to
>political and religious leaders perpetuating violence, often by what they
>failed to say as much as by what they said.
>
>"Basic was very critical when Milosevic went to Kosovo on the commemoration
>of 600 years, that he did not address the Albanian people," Tomasevic said.
>"He believed (Milosevic) should have said, 'Dear brother Albanians: 600
>years ago, a catastrophe happened to all of us, and now we have a duty.
>There is enough room in Kosovo for all of us."
>
>In World War II, Basic believed, "a simple encyclical letter to all the
>Roman Catholic churches in the world, emphasizing that Jesus Christ was
>Jewish, that Christianity is a branch of Judaism, like Islam, too," might
>have staved off the Holocaust, Tomasevic said.
>
>After Basic returned, he lamented what he saw as U.S. encouragement of
>post-Tito Yugoslavia's fragmentation, said Tomasevic. Wakeman and Tomasevic
>are ethnic Serbs who in 1941 were "cleansed" from their native Croatia, as
>Wakeman puts it.
>
>"(Basic) accused the U.S. government of not (promoting) the idea of the
>melting pot," Tomasevic said.
>
>Basic believed the U.S. should have said, "Listen, people: you are fingers
>of the same hand. We ... will not tolerate disintegration of your country.
>We will help you reorganize it," said Tomasevic.
>
>Basic had a favorite saying about the end of war, by the 19th century
>Hungarian poet Sandor PetÎfy, that he thought would make a great motto for
>the United Nations:
>
>"What is battlefield glory compared to the beautiful rainbow made by
>breaking the sun's rays through the rain of tears?," Tomasevic said.
>
>"This fellow, Basic, he was a civil engineer," said Tomasevic, "but besides
>his profession, he was a great humanist, a philosopher and a pacifist."
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>Herman de Tollenaere
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
------------------------------------------------------------
La seguente intervista, pubblicata sul quotidiano ``Politika'' e poi
riprodotta sul sito del Ministero dell'Informazione della Serbia
www.serbia-info.com/news/1999-12/31/16573.html
e' stata rilasciata da Slobodan Milosevic in occasione del Capodanno
2000.
Ne riportiamo i passaggi politicamente piu' rilevanti. CRJ
---
December 31, 1999
Federal President Slobodan Miloševic
agreed to an interview for "Politika"
daily. In a lengthy conversation with
the "Politika" Editor-in-Chief - Mr.
Hadži Dragan Antic, President Miloševic
replied to all the 15 questions
concerning the position, the efforts
and the development prospectives of our
nation, as well as the standpoints
related to key political issues
pertaining to the present and the
future.
The interview took place on Wednesday
December 29th, at the presidential
palace.
(...)
During the year we are about to leave
behind the pressure and the attacks our
country has been facing for the last
ten years have culminated. What is it
that the West wants?
- The West wants to seize control of
the entire world. The most developed
part of the global community, usually
called the West, is determined to force
the world around to serve its needs and
interests. Rich countries want to
become even richer. To do that, they
need other countries to become sources
of their constant and unlimited
accumulation of wealth. For the time
being, the most developed part of the
world is rather concerted. At least it
seems to be. But, along with their need
for expansion, their mutual envy will
grow stringer. Such rivalry might hurl
the world - both the developed and the
under-developed world - into a series
of major, tragic conflicts, which might
prove catastrophic for all mankind.
Let us hope that the developed
countries will realize the threat they
represent for themselves in this world
of ours. Still we should hope that the
rest of the world will find the
strength to unite and oppose the
downfall that is inevitable if we are
to wait for things to be solved
spontaneously. In life no solution
comes about by itself. At least no
major and important solution. Everyone
should contribute to the shaping of a
better and a more just world in the
coming century.
I believe that the positive trend that
marked the 20th century will override
the destructiveness that - especially
towards the end of the century - has
grown quite strong.
The Chinese embassy in Belgrade has
been bombed during the war. The
Yugoslavs have grasped the meaning of
it. So did the Chinese. What is your
evaluation of our relations with that
part of the world?
- The Chinese embassy was targeted
deliberately and after serious
planning. It was a message for China to
the effect that in world affairs it
hardly has more influence than
Yugoslavia. That it might even face the
fate of Yugoslavia should it fail to
show obedience to the new world order.
The message was addressed to China not
only because it constitutes a potential
threat to this order, but also because
it publicly and repeatedly condemned
the aggression on Yugoslavia.
Naturally, the message inherent in the
bombing of the Chinese embassy has been
understood by the Chinese, the
Yugoslavs and everyone else. The
message wasn't a complicated or an
ambiguous one. In fact, the West isn't
capable of sending messages to the East
that the East would view as mysteries
it can't understand. Only the other way
around might occur. That's why the
Chinese have not only realized the
message quickly, but gave a quick
answer as well. Not only on the
government level, but also on the level
of ordinary people. Their reply was
that they shall defend their country
fiercely, that they are determined to
develop rapidly and that in
international relations they shall
always endorse peace, equality among
nations and the right of every country
to shape its future autonomously...
With these stands, China is very close
to Yugoslavia, but probably also to all
other peoples and countries that risk
facing aggression and humiliation
tomorrow. Our relations with China are
extremely friendly, our cooperation
with China is comprehensive - economic,
scientific, cultural... We plan to
develop and enhance it in the spirit of
common interests and benefit for both
countries.
Do you think that the future of
Montenegro lies within the Federal
Republic?
- The best solution for Montenegro is
the one that suits the Montenegrin
people. If the Montenegrins believe
that their life without Yugoslavia
would be a better one, then they have
the right to make such a choice. And
vice-versa. If the people of Montenegro
believe that life within Yugoslavia is
the optimum choice, then they should
keep it.
In that case, they must honor the rules
of the game imposed by such life in
common with another nation or another
federal entity. First of all the
Constitution that they have - obviously
- adopted jointly. The Constitution
can, naturally, be changed and it is
good to make changes in it. We live in
dynamic times and it is logical that a
state is to be managed more dynamically
than in the past, keeping in step with
the rhythm of changes that take place.
Life in common is simple and easy for
those that are determined to live
together, and difficult and unpleasant
for those that live together forcibly.
When life together entails imposition,
it is not only difficult and
unpleasant, but it has no prospective.
Lessons have been learnt from the
aggression on Yugoslavia. The rich and
mighty - that a local war and not only
a global one can be a dangerous
adventure even when the enemy is
considered inferior, and the poor and
small and all other nations were faced
with the fact that they shall continue
being poor, insignificant, other,
unless they choose to change it.
At the end of a century in which two
big, tragic wars have been fought, and
practically countless little ones, the
greatest military power assaulted us,
or to be more precise, newly assaulted
us. What is your interpretation of this
occurrence in view of the future of our
country, but of the future of mankind
as well?
- The aggression on the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia was supposed to
be a lesson for all disobedient nations
in the world, to make them realize that
the order of things dictated from a
single place must be respected. With
the aggression on FR Yugoslavia
international organizations have been
suspended, first of all the United
Nations, as the most important
organization that had the task of
arbitrating international conflicts and
controversies. The aggression on
Yugoslavia also deferred international
law and initiated a process for the
abolition of the sovereignty of every
country - big or small - standing in
the way of an order it did not help
create, and that dared voice its
opinion without being asked, or even
dared to rebel. Our country took a
stand, rebelled and hence faced
retaliation.
I would like to stress in particular
the major experience Yugoslavia, and
particularly Serbia have in
international politics, and their
openness for all forms of cooperation
with the immediate environment, but
also with the most distant countries in
the world. We have always been open for
all those that wanted to be here and
had a positive attitude towards those
that wanted to be with us. It is
characteristic of our nation. It is
also our historical heritage.
But this characteristic and heritage do
not include renouncing to the right to
freedom and independence.
For its entire duration, the aggression
kept our nation unified. Everyone knows
that from the very beginning of the
aggression the unity of our heroic
people amazed the world. At least that
part of the world which has free media,
where there's no censorship and where
correspondents reporting the truth and
journalists commenting in favor of it
(the truth) do not risk loosing their
jobs. But the unity of our people faced
with threats and difficulties during
the war is not the only issue. It was a
united, proud and enthusiastic
resistance to the aggressor that was
preparing to become the occupying
power. It was a rare and magnificent
resistance they never expected. The
feeling of invincibility, superiority,
obstinacy, goodness - resulted in a
specific resistance, admired in the
countries where the media are free, and
concealed from the public in the
countries where censorship and
autocracy rule.
But in those countries they also hid
everything else concerning Yugoslavia
and themselves. First of all the truth
that Yugoslavia is by no means an
aggressor. That it was victim of
unprovoked aggression by countries
portraying as the aggressor in order to
use this alleged aggression as an
excuse for the war they started against
it. Partially to teach a lesson, and to
a greater extent to secure their
interests. To seize control of the
Balkans - strategically important both
in the military and economic sense -
and also to use this peninsula as a
beachhead for taking hold of even more
militarily and economically important
regions - in the East: Near and Far.
Lessons have been learnt from the
aggression on Yugoslavia. The rich and
mighty - that a local war and not only
a global one can be a dangerous
adventure even when the enemy is
considered inferior, and the poor and
small and all other nations were faced
with the fact that they shall continue
being poor, insignificant, other,
unless they choose to change it.
Albanian separatists and their NATO
sponsors want to seize Kosovo and
Metohija. What will become of Kosovo
and Metohija?
- Albanian separatism in Kosovo and Metohija
failed to reach its goal even after it brought in
the most powerful ally on the planet in the
shape of NATO and its war machinery.
Warranties of our sovereignty and territorial
integrity are not the result of a unilateral
position but rather conditions under which the war was stopped. These
guarantees that we have accepted are for us final and unchangeable. All
decisions contrary to the guarantees contained in the Ahtisari -
Chernomyrdin Plan and UN SC Resolution 1244 are illegal and void for
us. The presence of the security forces under the auspices of the UN is
temporary. We have to endure and display great patience. NO one can
take Kosovo away from us.
In final instance 1999 will always be remembered here as a war
year. Evil forces attacked us bringing death and destruction. Will
they answer for it and will the immense damages we have suffered
be compensated?
- The question of their responsibility is not a future issue, it is a
question
raised already throughout the world, although it is still mostly limited
to
moral condemnation. Nevertheless everyone expects them to answer for
all this. We do because we have suffered vast material destruction, we
had quite a number of casualties, all people in Serbia went through
terrible
stress, and all this without objectively provoking anyone in the world
to
inflict such evil upon us. Many are those around the world that hope the
criminals shall answer - many world public segments, entire countries,
the
majority of the population, all normal people. But those that
responsibility
falls upon, also fear it. We do not live in times of Hun invasions,
allowing
massacres against nations and crimes against people to be committed
without fear of punishment, except maybe individual.
Half way through this century Fascism had to answer before mankind. I
am confident that this neo-Fascist beast shall also face judgement in
its
time, before entire mankind and in contemporary - not some distant -
history.
As far as compensations are concerned, they go along with the
responsibility. Should the so-called international community fail to
identify
those responsible for the crime against our country, then it is to
assume the
responsibility itself, as well as the compensation of the damages that
can
be paid with money.
The decision to launch a process of rapid, intense reconstruction of
that
has been damaged by the bombing, was not based on the hope that the
reconstruction can rely on the payment of war damages. The decision was
based on the conviction that we are capable of relying on our own forces
and that we shall do everything possible to rebuild and make operational
as quickly as possible all those facilities that have vital importance
for the
country. Naturally, in this reconstruction effort, we enjoy the support
of
certain countries, various foreign companies and numerous individuals
throughout the world. Still, for the time being, the decisive source of
financing of the reconstruction is our own country.
(...) We continue to live with
moderation and self-denial, but also with great efforts; it seems
that even the countries around us, especially former socialist
countries still haven't caught up with us in spite of the fact that
they did not face sanctions and went through a series of
transitions. Do you believe that we can prosper economically even
without the World Bank and the famous IMF?
- Certainly. In the year that lies ahead of us, priority objectives,
along with
the renewal of the country involve development, increase of agricultural
and industrial production, growth of wages, living standard and
employment. The reconstruction of the country is proceeding quickly and
with success. Everything also favors the rapid and successful
realization of
our development objectives. Still, I see no reason why we should be
denied the support you have mentioned. If the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank really are international and really belong to
the
world, then they ought to endorse the interests of all countries and all
nations. Selective support to chosen countries and only given nations
invalidates their international institution character. In that case, the
support
of such institutions shall be denied to many countries not appearing on
the
favorites' list of the financial lobby abusing the name of the
International
Fund and the World Bank for the realization of its extremely partial
interests.
This is becoming increasingly clear not only to financial experts and
skilled
politicians, but to the general public as well. Recently we had the
opportunity to see the humiliating end of the World Trade Organization
meeting in Seattle, where hundreds, thousands of people from the US,
and from all over the world protested against the abuse of this
international organization by the US and its efforts to impose its
interests -
fully, openly and quite brutally - to all, including its partners in
Europe -
the most developed West European countries. The degradation of world
institutions such as the UN, the IMF, the World Bank... or regional
structures such as OSCE, by placing them at the service of Washington's
interests, does not have a negative effect only. It activates the need
of all
free countries in the world to face the threat of hegemonism more
quickly
and more efficiently.
But to go back to the final part of your question concerning our
international economic and financial cooperation. We have no intention
of
isolating ourselves. That's exactly what our foes are hoping for. That's
why
they are upholding the sanctions. We are countering it by establishing
ties
and cooperation with numerous countries in the free world - with the
whole planet. The fact that according to the NATO dictate we are not
being financed by the IMF and the World Bank, did not prevent us from
securing a set of credit arrangements with friendly countries, totaling
more
than the support allocated to all the neighboring countries, even though
they enjoy the support - at least verbal - of the IMF, the European
Union,
the World Bank and America.
You are head of state but also
leader of the strongest political
party in the country. The
Socialist Party of Serbia will
soon hold its congress. What do
You expect from it?
- I expect that the Socialist Party of Serbia shall maintain the
patriotic
heading it has been following ever since its foundation in 1990. Ten
years
we have been defending our country and our people. Some people
realized the country was under attack only when bombs started falling.
But if we hadn't defended the country before, all those long ten years,
we
wouldn't have managed to defend it when the bombing started.
Acting in the most difficult period in this century for the Serbian
people
and Serbian citizens, the SPS has strived to find the right answers to
the
challenges presented by the times we lived in. The citizens trusted this
answer for an entire decade and voted for SPS in all the elections we
had.
This constitutes a major support for our conviction that we managed to
find the right answers for difficult, tormented, unfortunate times.
Maybe
this answer wasn't always the best possible, and maybe better ones might
have been found. It is however important that we acted with the best
intentions, that we made great efforts, and that we are ready to face
the
facts and shape our policy accordingly.
Furthermore, SPS will try to contribute to the strengthening of the
leftist
block now growing in our country and acquiring a new face. There's
nothing illogical in the fact that other leftwing parties different from
SPS
exist. After all, the Left has always been a highly diversified front
encompassing very different leftist, progressive and avant-garde stands.
Furthermore, since our country faced enormous foreign pressure
culminating this spring with the aggression on Yugoslavia, I think that
this is
no time for great and tempestuous party passions, and certainly no time
for such conflicts between the parties. I believe that in the time we
are
living in, all parties that value their country above all, that believe
the love
for one's country is the most profound feeling, that are guided by
patriotism in all their political activities, should find a common
approach in
the efforts to alleviate these dire times for their people, and to
jointly bring
about happier times for all the citizens, for the entire country.
This is why I am certain that at the congress and after it SPS will
build the
spirit of a patriotic front and true solidarity and cooperation with all
those
that wish their country well - peace, economic prosperity, modern
cultural
development, cooperation on equal footing with all the countries in the
world.
Is the unification of Russia and Belorussia a sign of the renewal
and stronger ties between the former Soviet Union countries, and
is this also an indication of broader integration processes
involving Russia, China and India creating a counterbalance for
America?
- The unification of Russia and Belorussia is an indication of a
potential
rapprochement and establishing of ties between Eur-Asian nations and
countries that might mark - should stronger and more rapid ties be
established - the beginning of the establishment of global balance which
was completely abolished at the beginning of the nineties. The
cancellation
of the Warsaw Pact and the League of East European Countries not only
undermined the world balance, but gave a free hand to the members of
the surviving block, primarily to the NATO military alliance, to redraw
the
borders of countries, regulate countries, cause wars, introduce
sanctions,
punish the recalcitrant, award the obedient and submissive and generally
organize the entire world to their liking.
This is why any form of serious, and especially major, association
anywhere in the world constitutes a chance to establish the balance
which
has been missing for a decade and a chance to protect mankind from
hegemonism and violence which accompanies it inevitably.
Our Parliament endorsed the project for the adherence of our
country to the commonwealth of Russia and Belorussia. Now that
this community has been formalized, what is the prospect of our
status being also formalized within it?
- We stand fast in this decision and hope that in the foreseeable and
not a
very distant future we shall join this alliance. I hope this will be in
the
interest of our country, but also in the interest of bringing together
Slav
and other nations having a common goal to live in peace and evolve
freely.
Big countries like China, Russia, India, as well as the Arab world,
Latin America and Africa, undoubtedly support our just struggle
for independence and territorial integrity. The European public,
also is increasingly becoming aware to which extent has
Yugoslavia first been demonized by the media, and then brutally
attacked by NATO countries. What is you view of the relations
with Europe and with the other countries and regions I
mentioned?
- First of all, we are not out of Europe. We are a European country. The
question can be raised how will our relations evolve with the European
Union countries, or with the countries that have taken part in the
aggression on Yugoslavia, or with the neighboring countries, etc. The
answers are quite different. Except one. We are willing to cooperate
with
the whole world and hence with all the countries on our continent.
Obviously we are most interested in cooperation with the countries from
our own continent.
But for cooperation on equal footing. For cooperation that can help the
development of our country and for cooperation that will give us a
chance
to help the development of others, of all. In all times, and especially
in our
times, everyone must rely on others, all communications are precious,
everyone can contribute to his wellbeing and that of others, at the same
time even.
With the neighboring countries we will implement cooperation -
successful
and mutual to the extent that they are prepared and available for such
collaboration. This is also the case of our cooperation with Eastern
Europe countries. These countries can learn much from Yugoslav
experience, particularly from what happened to us this spring. From
their
experience we have drawn precious lessons and our conviction that we
must confront hegemonism partially results from those lessons.
As far as the countries that took part in the aggression on Yugoslavia
are
concerned, we will have relations with them as states, with their
institutions
and organizations, commensurate to their good will to help remove the
effects of the evil they have done to us.
The West should find the courage and moral strength to face the guilt
for
the crimes committed in the aggression on Yugoslavia. Otherwise it will
loose all self-respect. The longer it hesitates, the greater shall be
its shame.
And some new Willy Brandt will have to come up and tell the truth.
We often hear that the media have greatly contributed to the
creation of the bad image of our country. Can you draw a
comparison between foreign media and domestic media?
- In Yugoslavia, and primarily in Serbia, there' s absolute freedom in
the
operation of all media. Most of the media belongs to the private sector.
In
our country there's no state control of the media. However, a
significant
percentage of television and radio stations and printed media is
financially
and politically under the full control of given western governments or
their
institutions operating as non-government organizations and they have the
task to promote the destabilization of Yugoslavia, to discredit all the
efforts of the Yugoslav authorities for the reconstruction and
development
of the country, to stir up public diffidence, suspicion and intolerance
for all
that the legally elected government is doing, to depict in the worse
possible way government officials and their families, to belittle all
the
progressive and humane achievement made in our country, to question the
very sense of freedom, independence and patriotism, to represent our
people as inferior, stupid, retrograde and conservative unlike
"sophisticated" nations that are rational, educated, smart, progressive
etc.
Such "freedom" of the media, is obviously more than freedom. The Public
Information Law, passed by the Serbian Parliament two years ago,
prepared as a compilation of corresponding laws in a number of western,
introduced certain moderate means of protecting the truth, the dignity
of
the country and its citizens, the right of the individual not to be
humiliated,
i.e. to be protected from slander, intrigue etc. This law was greatly
opposed by a segment of opposition parties and part of the media sector
that are under foreign influence. Their objections have been promptly
echoed and joined by their mentors abroad that consult no one about the
laws they adopt in their own country, but deem themselves authorized to
shape the laws of other countries. On the other hand, they rigorously
apply far more radical and stricter laws not only on public media but
other
domains as well, and never dream of engage in polemics about those laws
with foreign governments or television stations.
Our institutions and individuals have made an effort to honor this law,
but
lately its enforcement is rather feeble and in practice we are nearly
back in
the phase of media irresponsibility that we faced in the past ten years
or
so.
As far as the media abroad are concerned, in most countries, and
especially in developed western countries, the situation is quite
different.
All media there - both private and state owned, are under intense
government control. All that the government deems contrary to the
interests of its current policy can not appear in the media, or it is
published
at the risk of facing diverse forms of retribution for going against the
will of
the authorities - such consequences can be financial, political, moral,
physical...
In western democracies, all media are dependent on their owner - state,
corporate or individual. Still, in final instance the state has the
decisive role
in the responsibility of the media. This is quite logical because modern
media play an important part in conflicts of interests, in clashes of
concepts, in creating the vision of global and regional development, in
determining the fate of the community and its individual members, in
shaping the life every single person.
What would you like to wish to the people of Yugoslavia for the
coming year 2000?
- I wish our country peace. That it may develop swiftly, successfully
and
in step with the times. I wish it to cooperate with the whole world, on
grounds of parity and mutual interest. The people of Yugoslavia, the
people of Serbia in particular, should never forget the violence we have
faced this year. The memory of all that evil shall shield us and other
nations from new, future violence.
The new century shall be better and nicer than this one only if mankind
manages to triumph against violence, first of all wars, but also against
its
other forms all the way down to the family level - between sexes and
generations.
Should the 21st century bring about the victory of peace, good will,
solidarity and equality among men, humanity shall be able to say that
all
the lives sacrificed throughout the centuries for those were not
immolated
in vain. That the enormous efforts to make those ideals come true made
by noble and courageous men throughout history had a purpose and
brought about results. I believe that in the coming century our people
will
achieve the tranquility and prosperity it well deserves. Therefore I
wish all
of us unity and concord that we may deserve and reach these happier
times - President Slobodan Miloševic said at the end of his interview
for
"Politika". H. D. A.
Copyright © 1998, 1999 Ministry of Information
Email: mirs@...
riprodotta sul sito del Ministero dell'Informazione della Serbia
www.serbia-info.com/news/1999-12/31/16573.html
e' stata rilasciata da Slobodan Milosevic in occasione del Capodanno
2000.
Ne riportiamo i passaggi politicamente piu' rilevanti. CRJ
---
December 31, 1999
Federal President Slobodan Miloševic
agreed to an interview for "Politika"
daily. In a lengthy conversation with
the "Politika" Editor-in-Chief - Mr.
Hadži Dragan Antic, President Miloševic
replied to all the 15 questions
concerning the position, the efforts
and the development prospectives of our
nation, as well as the standpoints
related to key political issues
pertaining to the present and the
future.
The interview took place on Wednesday
December 29th, at the presidential
palace.
(...)
During the year we are about to leave
behind the pressure and the attacks our
country has been facing for the last
ten years have culminated. What is it
that the West wants?
- The West wants to seize control of
the entire world. The most developed
part of the global community, usually
called the West, is determined to force
the world around to serve its needs and
interests. Rich countries want to
become even richer. To do that, they
need other countries to become sources
of their constant and unlimited
accumulation of wealth. For the time
being, the most developed part of the
world is rather concerted. At least it
seems to be. But, along with their need
for expansion, their mutual envy will
grow stringer. Such rivalry might hurl
the world - both the developed and the
under-developed world - into a series
of major, tragic conflicts, which might
prove catastrophic for all mankind.
Let us hope that the developed
countries will realize the threat they
represent for themselves in this world
of ours. Still we should hope that the
rest of the world will find the
strength to unite and oppose the
downfall that is inevitable if we are
to wait for things to be solved
spontaneously. In life no solution
comes about by itself. At least no
major and important solution. Everyone
should contribute to the shaping of a
better and a more just world in the
coming century.
I believe that the positive trend that
marked the 20th century will override
the destructiveness that - especially
towards the end of the century - has
grown quite strong.
The Chinese embassy in Belgrade has
been bombed during the war. The
Yugoslavs have grasped the meaning of
it. So did the Chinese. What is your
evaluation of our relations with that
part of the world?
- The Chinese embassy was targeted
deliberately and after serious
planning. It was a message for China to
the effect that in world affairs it
hardly has more influence than
Yugoslavia. That it might even face the
fate of Yugoslavia should it fail to
show obedience to the new world order.
The message was addressed to China not
only because it constitutes a potential
threat to this order, but also because
it publicly and repeatedly condemned
the aggression on Yugoslavia.
Naturally, the message inherent in the
bombing of the Chinese embassy has been
understood by the Chinese, the
Yugoslavs and everyone else. The
message wasn't a complicated or an
ambiguous one. In fact, the West isn't
capable of sending messages to the East
that the East would view as mysteries
it can't understand. Only the other way
around might occur. That's why the
Chinese have not only realized the
message quickly, but gave a quick
answer as well. Not only on the
government level, but also on the level
of ordinary people. Their reply was
that they shall defend their country
fiercely, that they are determined to
develop rapidly and that in
international relations they shall
always endorse peace, equality among
nations and the right of every country
to shape its future autonomously...
With these stands, China is very close
to Yugoslavia, but probably also to all
other peoples and countries that risk
facing aggression and humiliation
tomorrow. Our relations with China are
extremely friendly, our cooperation
with China is comprehensive - economic,
scientific, cultural... We plan to
develop and enhance it in the spirit of
common interests and benefit for both
countries.
Do you think that the future of
Montenegro lies within the Federal
Republic?
- The best solution for Montenegro is
the one that suits the Montenegrin
people. If the Montenegrins believe
that their life without Yugoslavia
would be a better one, then they have
the right to make such a choice. And
vice-versa. If the people of Montenegro
believe that life within Yugoslavia is
the optimum choice, then they should
keep it.
In that case, they must honor the rules
of the game imposed by such life in
common with another nation or another
federal entity. First of all the
Constitution that they have - obviously
- adopted jointly. The Constitution
can, naturally, be changed and it is
good to make changes in it. We live in
dynamic times and it is logical that a
state is to be managed more dynamically
than in the past, keeping in step with
the rhythm of changes that take place.
Life in common is simple and easy for
those that are determined to live
together, and difficult and unpleasant
for those that live together forcibly.
When life together entails imposition,
it is not only difficult and
unpleasant, but it has no prospective.
Lessons have been learnt from the
aggression on Yugoslavia. The rich and
mighty - that a local war and not only
a global one can be a dangerous
adventure even when the enemy is
considered inferior, and the poor and
small and all other nations were faced
with the fact that they shall continue
being poor, insignificant, other,
unless they choose to change it.
At the end of a century in which two
big, tragic wars have been fought, and
practically countless little ones, the
greatest military power assaulted us,
or to be more precise, newly assaulted
us. What is your interpretation of this
occurrence in view of the future of our
country, but of the future of mankind
as well?
- The aggression on the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia was supposed to
be a lesson for all disobedient nations
in the world, to make them realize that
the order of things dictated from a
single place must be respected. With
the aggression on FR Yugoslavia
international organizations have been
suspended, first of all the United
Nations, as the most important
organization that had the task of
arbitrating international conflicts and
controversies. The aggression on
Yugoslavia also deferred international
law and initiated a process for the
abolition of the sovereignty of every
country - big or small - standing in
the way of an order it did not help
create, and that dared voice its
opinion without being asked, or even
dared to rebel. Our country took a
stand, rebelled and hence faced
retaliation.
I would like to stress in particular
the major experience Yugoslavia, and
particularly Serbia have in
international politics, and their
openness for all forms of cooperation
with the immediate environment, but
also with the most distant countries in
the world. We have always been open for
all those that wanted to be here and
had a positive attitude towards those
that wanted to be with us. It is
characteristic of our nation. It is
also our historical heritage.
But this characteristic and heritage do
not include renouncing to the right to
freedom and independence.
For its entire duration, the aggression
kept our nation unified. Everyone knows
that from the very beginning of the
aggression the unity of our heroic
people amazed the world. At least that
part of the world which has free media,
where there's no censorship and where
correspondents reporting the truth and
journalists commenting in favor of it
(the truth) do not risk loosing their
jobs. But the unity of our people faced
with threats and difficulties during
the war is not the only issue. It was a
united, proud and enthusiastic
resistance to the aggressor that was
preparing to become the occupying
power. It was a rare and magnificent
resistance they never expected. The
feeling of invincibility, superiority,
obstinacy, goodness - resulted in a
specific resistance, admired in the
countries where the media are free, and
concealed from the public in the
countries where censorship and
autocracy rule.
But in those countries they also hid
everything else concerning Yugoslavia
and themselves. First of all the truth
that Yugoslavia is by no means an
aggressor. That it was victim of
unprovoked aggression by countries
portraying as the aggressor in order to
use this alleged aggression as an
excuse for the war they started against
it. Partially to teach a lesson, and to
a greater extent to secure their
interests. To seize control of the
Balkans - strategically important both
in the military and economic sense -
and also to use this peninsula as a
beachhead for taking hold of even more
militarily and economically important
regions - in the East: Near and Far.
Lessons have been learnt from the
aggression on Yugoslavia. The rich and
mighty - that a local war and not only
a global one can be a dangerous
adventure even when the enemy is
considered inferior, and the poor and
small and all other nations were faced
with the fact that they shall continue
being poor, insignificant, other,
unless they choose to change it.
Albanian separatists and their NATO
sponsors want to seize Kosovo and
Metohija. What will become of Kosovo
and Metohija?
- Albanian separatism in Kosovo and Metohija
failed to reach its goal even after it brought in
the most powerful ally on the planet in the
shape of NATO and its war machinery.
Warranties of our sovereignty and territorial
integrity are not the result of a unilateral
position but rather conditions under which the war was stopped. These
guarantees that we have accepted are for us final and unchangeable. All
decisions contrary to the guarantees contained in the Ahtisari -
Chernomyrdin Plan and UN SC Resolution 1244 are illegal and void for
us. The presence of the security forces under the auspices of the UN is
temporary. We have to endure and display great patience. NO one can
take Kosovo away from us.
In final instance 1999 will always be remembered here as a war
year. Evil forces attacked us bringing death and destruction. Will
they answer for it and will the immense damages we have suffered
be compensated?
- The question of their responsibility is not a future issue, it is a
question
raised already throughout the world, although it is still mostly limited
to
moral condemnation. Nevertheless everyone expects them to answer for
all this. We do because we have suffered vast material destruction, we
had quite a number of casualties, all people in Serbia went through
terrible
stress, and all this without objectively provoking anyone in the world
to
inflict such evil upon us. Many are those around the world that hope the
criminals shall answer - many world public segments, entire countries,
the
majority of the population, all normal people. But those that
responsibility
falls upon, also fear it. We do not live in times of Hun invasions,
allowing
massacres against nations and crimes against people to be committed
without fear of punishment, except maybe individual.
Half way through this century Fascism had to answer before mankind. I
am confident that this neo-Fascist beast shall also face judgement in
its
time, before entire mankind and in contemporary - not some distant -
history.
As far as compensations are concerned, they go along with the
responsibility. Should the so-called international community fail to
identify
those responsible for the crime against our country, then it is to
assume the
responsibility itself, as well as the compensation of the damages that
can
be paid with money.
The decision to launch a process of rapid, intense reconstruction of
that
has been damaged by the bombing, was not based on the hope that the
reconstruction can rely on the payment of war damages. The decision was
based on the conviction that we are capable of relying on our own forces
and that we shall do everything possible to rebuild and make operational
as quickly as possible all those facilities that have vital importance
for the
country. Naturally, in this reconstruction effort, we enjoy the support
of
certain countries, various foreign companies and numerous individuals
throughout the world. Still, for the time being, the decisive source of
financing of the reconstruction is our own country.
(...) We continue to live with
moderation and self-denial, but also with great efforts; it seems
that even the countries around us, especially former socialist
countries still haven't caught up with us in spite of the fact that
they did not face sanctions and went through a series of
transitions. Do you believe that we can prosper economically even
without the World Bank and the famous IMF?
- Certainly. In the year that lies ahead of us, priority objectives,
along with
the renewal of the country involve development, increase of agricultural
and industrial production, growth of wages, living standard and
employment. The reconstruction of the country is proceeding quickly and
with success. Everything also favors the rapid and successful
realization of
our development objectives. Still, I see no reason why we should be
denied the support you have mentioned. If the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank really are international and really belong to
the
world, then they ought to endorse the interests of all countries and all
nations. Selective support to chosen countries and only given nations
invalidates their international institution character. In that case, the
support
of such institutions shall be denied to many countries not appearing on
the
favorites' list of the financial lobby abusing the name of the
International
Fund and the World Bank for the realization of its extremely partial
interests.
This is becoming increasingly clear not only to financial experts and
skilled
politicians, but to the general public as well. Recently we had the
opportunity to see the humiliating end of the World Trade Organization
meeting in Seattle, where hundreds, thousands of people from the US,
and from all over the world protested against the abuse of this
international organization by the US and its efforts to impose its
interests -
fully, openly and quite brutally - to all, including its partners in
Europe -
the most developed West European countries. The degradation of world
institutions such as the UN, the IMF, the World Bank... or regional
structures such as OSCE, by placing them at the service of Washington's
interests, does not have a negative effect only. It activates the need
of all
free countries in the world to face the threat of hegemonism more
quickly
and more efficiently.
But to go back to the final part of your question concerning our
international economic and financial cooperation. We have no intention
of
isolating ourselves. That's exactly what our foes are hoping for. That's
why
they are upholding the sanctions. We are countering it by establishing
ties
and cooperation with numerous countries in the free world - with the
whole planet. The fact that according to the NATO dictate we are not
being financed by the IMF and the World Bank, did not prevent us from
securing a set of credit arrangements with friendly countries, totaling
more
than the support allocated to all the neighboring countries, even though
they enjoy the support - at least verbal - of the IMF, the European
Union,
the World Bank and America.
You are head of state but also
leader of the strongest political
party in the country. The
Socialist Party of Serbia will
soon hold its congress. What do
You expect from it?
- I expect that the Socialist Party of Serbia shall maintain the
patriotic
heading it has been following ever since its foundation in 1990. Ten
years
we have been defending our country and our people. Some people
realized the country was under attack only when bombs started falling.
But if we hadn't defended the country before, all those long ten years,
we
wouldn't have managed to defend it when the bombing started.
Acting in the most difficult period in this century for the Serbian
people
and Serbian citizens, the SPS has strived to find the right answers to
the
challenges presented by the times we lived in. The citizens trusted this
answer for an entire decade and voted for SPS in all the elections we
had.
This constitutes a major support for our conviction that we managed to
find the right answers for difficult, tormented, unfortunate times.
Maybe
this answer wasn't always the best possible, and maybe better ones might
have been found. It is however important that we acted with the best
intentions, that we made great efforts, and that we are ready to face
the
facts and shape our policy accordingly.
Furthermore, SPS will try to contribute to the strengthening of the
leftist
block now growing in our country and acquiring a new face. There's
nothing illogical in the fact that other leftwing parties different from
SPS
exist. After all, the Left has always been a highly diversified front
encompassing very different leftist, progressive and avant-garde stands.
Furthermore, since our country faced enormous foreign pressure
culminating this spring with the aggression on Yugoslavia, I think that
this is
no time for great and tempestuous party passions, and certainly no time
for such conflicts between the parties. I believe that in the time we
are
living in, all parties that value their country above all, that believe
the love
for one's country is the most profound feeling, that are guided by
patriotism in all their political activities, should find a common
approach in
the efforts to alleviate these dire times for their people, and to
jointly bring
about happier times for all the citizens, for the entire country.
This is why I am certain that at the congress and after it SPS will
build the
spirit of a patriotic front and true solidarity and cooperation with all
those
that wish their country well - peace, economic prosperity, modern
cultural
development, cooperation on equal footing with all the countries in the
world.
Is the unification of Russia and Belorussia a sign of the renewal
and stronger ties between the former Soviet Union countries, and
is this also an indication of broader integration processes
involving Russia, China and India creating a counterbalance for
America?
- The unification of Russia and Belorussia is an indication of a
potential
rapprochement and establishing of ties between Eur-Asian nations and
countries that might mark - should stronger and more rapid ties be
established - the beginning of the establishment of global balance which
was completely abolished at the beginning of the nineties. The
cancellation
of the Warsaw Pact and the League of East European Countries not only
undermined the world balance, but gave a free hand to the members of
the surviving block, primarily to the NATO military alliance, to redraw
the
borders of countries, regulate countries, cause wars, introduce
sanctions,
punish the recalcitrant, award the obedient and submissive and generally
organize the entire world to their liking.
This is why any form of serious, and especially major, association
anywhere in the world constitutes a chance to establish the balance
which
has been missing for a decade and a chance to protect mankind from
hegemonism and violence which accompanies it inevitably.
Our Parliament endorsed the project for the adherence of our
country to the commonwealth of Russia and Belorussia. Now that
this community has been formalized, what is the prospect of our
status being also formalized within it?
- We stand fast in this decision and hope that in the foreseeable and
not a
very distant future we shall join this alliance. I hope this will be in
the
interest of our country, but also in the interest of bringing together
Slav
and other nations having a common goal to live in peace and evolve
freely.
Big countries like China, Russia, India, as well as the Arab world,
Latin America and Africa, undoubtedly support our just struggle
for independence and territorial integrity. The European public,
also is increasingly becoming aware to which extent has
Yugoslavia first been demonized by the media, and then brutally
attacked by NATO countries. What is you view of the relations
with Europe and with the other countries and regions I
mentioned?
- First of all, we are not out of Europe. We are a European country. The
question can be raised how will our relations evolve with the European
Union countries, or with the countries that have taken part in the
aggression on Yugoslavia, or with the neighboring countries, etc. The
answers are quite different. Except one. We are willing to cooperate
with
the whole world and hence with all the countries on our continent.
Obviously we are most interested in cooperation with the countries from
our own continent.
But for cooperation on equal footing. For cooperation that can help the
development of our country and for cooperation that will give us a
chance
to help the development of others, of all. In all times, and especially
in our
times, everyone must rely on others, all communications are precious,
everyone can contribute to his wellbeing and that of others, at the same
time even.
With the neighboring countries we will implement cooperation -
successful
and mutual to the extent that they are prepared and available for such
collaboration. This is also the case of our cooperation with Eastern
Europe countries. These countries can learn much from Yugoslav
experience, particularly from what happened to us this spring. From
their
experience we have drawn precious lessons and our conviction that we
must confront hegemonism partially results from those lessons.
As far as the countries that took part in the aggression on Yugoslavia
are
concerned, we will have relations with them as states, with their
institutions
and organizations, commensurate to their good will to help remove the
effects of the evil they have done to us.
The West should find the courage and moral strength to face the guilt
for
the crimes committed in the aggression on Yugoslavia. Otherwise it will
loose all self-respect. The longer it hesitates, the greater shall be
its shame.
And some new Willy Brandt will have to come up and tell the truth.
We often hear that the media have greatly contributed to the
creation of the bad image of our country. Can you draw a
comparison between foreign media and domestic media?
- In Yugoslavia, and primarily in Serbia, there' s absolute freedom in
the
operation of all media. Most of the media belongs to the private sector.
In
our country there's no state control of the media. However, a
significant
percentage of television and radio stations and printed media is
financially
and politically under the full control of given western governments or
their
institutions operating as non-government organizations and they have the
task to promote the destabilization of Yugoslavia, to discredit all the
efforts of the Yugoslav authorities for the reconstruction and
development
of the country, to stir up public diffidence, suspicion and intolerance
for all
that the legally elected government is doing, to depict in the worse
possible way government officials and their families, to belittle all
the
progressive and humane achievement made in our country, to question the
very sense of freedom, independence and patriotism, to represent our
people as inferior, stupid, retrograde and conservative unlike
"sophisticated" nations that are rational, educated, smart, progressive
etc.
Such "freedom" of the media, is obviously more than freedom. The Public
Information Law, passed by the Serbian Parliament two years ago,
prepared as a compilation of corresponding laws in a number of western,
introduced certain moderate means of protecting the truth, the dignity
of
the country and its citizens, the right of the individual not to be
humiliated,
i.e. to be protected from slander, intrigue etc. This law was greatly
opposed by a segment of opposition parties and part of the media sector
that are under foreign influence. Their objections have been promptly
echoed and joined by their mentors abroad that consult no one about the
laws they adopt in their own country, but deem themselves authorized to
shape the laws of other countries. On the other hand, they rigorously
apply far more radical and stricter laws not only on public media but
other
domains as well, and never dream of engage in polemics about those laws
with foreign governments or television stations.
Our institutions and individuals have made an effort to honor this law,
but
lately its enforcement is rather feeble and in practice we are nearly
back in
the phase of media irresponsibility that we faced in the past ten years
or
so.
As far as the media abroad are concerned, in most countries, and
especially in developed western countries, the situation is quite
different.
All media there - both private and state owned, are under intense
government control. All that the government deems contrary to the
interests of its current policy can not appear in the media, or it is
published
at the risk of facing diverse forms of retribution for going against the
will of
the authorities - such consequences can be financial, political, moral,
physical...
In western democracies, all media are dependent on their owner - state,
corporate or individual. Still, in final instance the state has the
decisive role
in the responsibility of the media. This is quite logical because modern
media play an important part in conflicts of interests, in clashes of
concepts, in creating the vision of global and regional development, in
determining the fate of the community and its individual members, in
shaping the life every single person.
What would you like to wish to the people of Yugoslavia for the
coming year 2000?
- I wish our country peace. That it may develop swiftly, successfully
and
in step with the times. I wish it to cooperate with the whole world, on
grounds of parity and mutual interest. The people of Yugoslavia, the
people of Serbia in particular, should never forget the violence we have
faced this year. The memory of all that evil shall shield us and other
nations from new, future violence.
The new century shall be better and nicer than this one only if mankind
manages to triumph against violence, first of all wars, but also against
its
other forms all the way down to the family level - between sexes and
generations.
Should the 21st century bring about the victory of peace, good will,
solidarity and equality among men, humanity shall be able to say that
all
the lives sacrificed throughout the centuries for those were not
immolated
in vain. That the enormous efforts to make those ideals come true made
by noble and courageous men throughout history had a purpose and
brought about results. I believe that in the coming century our people
will
achieve the tranquility and prosperity it well deserves. Therefore I
wish all
of us unity and concord that we may deserve and reach these happier
times - President Slobodan Miloševic said at the end of his interview
for
"Politika". H. D. A.
Copyright © 1998, 1999 Ministry of Information
Email: mirs@...
WHAT'S AMERICA, DIREBBE NANDO MENICONI!...
Ultima tra le visite illustri sul nostro sito internet - a seguire di
poche settimane quelle da parte della base NATO di Vicenza e del
Ministero dell'Interno italiano - registriamo questa settimana un
collegamento da parte di un computer del Pentagono.
Cogliamo l'occasione per salutare i militari americani, cui saremo ben
lieti di fornire ogni ulteriore documentazione sulle questioni
balcaniche di cui non fossero ancora in possesso... Se ce ne fosse
bisogno, siamo anche disponibili a piazzare un grande TARGET sulla
nostra home page, casomai avessero difficolta' a prendere la mira.
US Military:
otjag-pcip-122.army.pentagon.mil
26 Jan -- 22:47:56 -- -- /crj/RELIGIO/stepinac.html
(un grazie al compagno R.R. ed al suo formidabile programmino per la
lettura degli accessi sul sito web!)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
** NO COPYRIGHT ! **
------------------------------------------------------------
Ultima tra le visite illustri sul nostro sito internet - a seguire di
poche settimane quelle da parte della base NATO di Vicenza e del
Ministero dell'Interno italiano - registriamo questa settimana un
collegamento da parte di un computer del Pentagono.
Cogliamo l'occasione per salutare i militari americani, cui saremo ben
lieti di fornire ogni ulteriore documentazione sulle questioni
balcaniche di cui non fossero ancora in possesso... Se ce ne fosse
bisogno, siamo anche disponibili a piazzare un grande TARGET sulla
nostra home page, casomai avessero difficolta' a prendere la mira.
US Military:
otjag-pcip-122.army.pentagon.mil
26 Jan -- 22:47:56 -- -- /crj/RELIGIO/stepinac.html
(un grazie al compagno R.R. ed al suo formidabile programmino per la
lettura degli accessi sul sito web!)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
** NO COPYRIGHT ! **
------------------------------------------------------------
