Jugoinfo
http://www.ptb.be/solidaire/article.phtml?lang=1&obid=2217
EXCLUSIF:
Interview de trois prisonniers serbes, victimes de la Kfor, à Mitrovica
(Kosovo)
«En prison depuis treize mois, je n’ai pas encore vu le juge
d’instruction!»
Kosovska Mitrovica (où
l’Otan vient
de fermer une usine),
nord du
Kosovo, 26 juillet.
Nous sommes à
l’hôpital situé dans la
partie serbe de
la ville, le seul resté
ouvert à tous:
Serbes, Albanais et
autres. Le
directeur nous propose
de visiter
aussi «le bâtiment des
prisonniers».
Intrigués, nous y
découvrons deux
Serbes d’une
soixantaine d’années et
un de quarante ans,
gardés par la
Kfor (forces Otan
occupant le
Kosovo). Notre visite
va nous
révéler des souffrances
poignantes,
un arbitraire
insoupçonné et une
parodie de justice de
la part des
forces occupantes.
Bouleversés, nous
le serons encore
davantage en
apprenant, quelques
jours plus tard,
que ces trois
prisonniers ont
mystérieusement
disparu. Se
sont-ils évadés?
Ont-ils, comme
beaucoup le craignent là-bas, été livrés à l’UCK albanaise? Un document
exceptionnel.
Michel Collon et Germain Mugemangango
Kosovoska Mitrovica est la seule ville du Kosovo d’où les Serbes n’ont
pas été chassés par l’actuel nettoyage ethnique.
Nous la visitons avec une délégation de jeunes Belges participant depuis
quelques jours au Camp International d’Amitié à
Sirogojno (Yougoslavie).
Dans le couloir de l’hôpital, plusieurs policiers pakistanais de l’Unmik
(police de l’Onu), armés comme des soldats.
Etonnamment, ils veulent contrôler le directeur de l’hôpital qui nous
sert de guide. Ne le connaissent-ils pas? Non, car
leurs supérieurs les font relever toutes les quatre heures pour éviter
tout contact avec les Serbes. Présents depuis trois
mois, ils n’ont donc jamais vu le directeur. Et ils fuient nos
questions. Ambiance très lourde quand nous entrons dans la
chambre où les trois prisonniers sont allongés sur leur lit après une
grève de la faim...
Quand et pourquoi avez-vous été arrêté?
Dragan Jovanovic. Le 2 juillet 1999, il y a donc
plus d’un an, des soldats
français m’ont arrêté sans aucune explication.
J’ai été enlevé et emmené à la prison
de Lipljane, bien que la prison du district soit
située à Mitrovica même. Plus
tard, j’ai appris que c’était la volonté du juge
albanais, pour empêcher les
protestations dans la ville. En effet, les Serbes
allaient manifester sur les ponts
pour que je sois enfin remis en liberté, car on
m’avait arrêté sans raison.
A Lipljane, j’ai été gardé quatre mois par les
soldats britanniques. Nous étions
une quarantaine de prisonniers serbes et la
majorité se trouve encore en prison. On
n’a pas eu de chance. Il n’y avait pas
d’interprète serbe pour communiquer entre
l’Unmik, la Kfor et les Serbes. Tout se passait
uniquement entre l’Unmik, les
soldats de la Kfor et les Albanais.
Selon vous, quelle est la véritable raison de
votre arrestation?
Dragan Jovanovic. J’ai été arrêté parce que je
défendais le pont. Les Albanais
veulent continuer ici ce qu’ils ont fait dans tout le Kosovo. Dès le
début, ils ont tenté de rentrer dans la partie nord de
Mitrovica, peuplée en majorité de Serbes et qui a toujours été serbe.
Mais, avec quelques Serbes, nous nous sommes
rassemblés sur le pont - une limite naturelle - pour les empêcher de
passer.
Nous n’avons pas dit cela aux Albanais qui vivaient depuis toujours avec
nous. Seulement à ceux qui sont arrivés
récemment d’Albanie, de Macédoine. Cela s’est passé spontanément, sans
aucune organisation, nous voulions simplement
défendre le pont.
Pourquoi ces Albanais veulent-ils venir dans la partie nord?
Dragan Jovanovic. Je ne sais pas exactement si c’est la communauté
internationale, un autre pays ou des groupes
nationalistes qui veulent une Grande Albanie dans les Balkans. La partie
sud de notre ville était en majorité peuplée
d’Albanais, mais il y avait aussi des Serbes. A présent, il n’en reste
plus du tout. Par contre, dans la partie nord, il reste
toujours beaucoup d’Albanais, et ce n’est pas un problème pour nous.
Mais l’UCK affirme que les Albanais étaient persécutés depuis longtemps…
Dragan Jovanovic. Jusqu’il y a dix ans, 75% des policiers étaient
albanais. Ils avaient leurs magasins, leurs écoles.
Toutes les grandes institutions étaient à majorité albanaise. Pour la
présidence de la province, il y avait toujours neuf
Albanais, deux Serbes et un Monténégrin.
Avez-vous beaucoup d’amis albanais?
Dragan Jovanovic. Oui, beaucoup.
Donc, vous pensez qu’on vous a arrêté pour écarter un défenseur du pont?
Dragan Jovanovic. Oui. Une femme qui était de l’autre côté du pont m’a
montré du doigt: «Il a tué 26 personnes!» Cela
a suffi pour me maintenir treize mois en prison!
L’Unmik a-t-elle
vérifié cette
accusation?
Dragan Jovanovic.
Malheureusement, depuis
le jour de
l’arrestation, je n’ai
eu aucune
conversation avec aucun
policier,
aucun juge. Seulement
avec mes
avocats et certains
représentants
d’associations
médicales
internationales. Parce
que nous
avons fait une grève de
la faim qui a
duré quarante jours.
Dragisa, ici à côté de
moi, peut
confirmer mon histoire.
Lui aussi est
en prison depuis treize
mois. Accusé
de ‘génocide’, il n’a
eu aucune
conversation ni avec
l’Unmik, ni avec
un juge. Il n’y a pas d’acte d’accusation. Il ne sait pas quand il sera
jugé. On le garde en prison sans aucune explication.
Dragisa Peca. J’ai été kidnappé par des soldats de la Kfor. Un major
britannique était venu dire que ceux qui le désiraient
pouvaient aller visiter leur maison. Je suis parti visiter ma propriété
où j’ai dû tout abandonner.
Pourquoi?
Dragisa Peca. Pas à cause de mes voisins albanais,
mais à cause des terroristes de
l’UCK. Pendant trois ou quatre jours durant
lesquels je m’étais absenté, le voisin
avait surveillé mon bétail. Il m’a dit: «Si
demain, tu ne prends pas ton bétail,
quelqu’un le volera, je ne peux plus le garder.»
J’ai donc demandé au major de
pouvoir l’accompagner et je suis allé prendre le
bétail. Les voisins albanais sont
venus m’aider à charger le blé et le bétail.
Alors, la police de la Kfor est arrivée avec une
famille albanaise, prétendant que
j’avais commis un génocide sur le peuple albanais.
J’ai interrogé mes voisins
albanais: «Vous savez très bien si j’ai commis un
génocide ou pas.» Et les voisins
ont dit que je n’étais pas coupable. Mais
l’officier britannique leur a dit: «Shut up!»
Je ne savais pas ce que cela voulait dire. C’est
seulement dans la prison que j’ai appris
que cela voulait dire: «Ferme ta gueule!» Ils
m’ont amené à la prison de Lipljane.
Depuis le 23 juin 1999, personne ne m’a dit
pourquoi j’étais en prison, qui j’avais tué.
Ni la Kfor, ni la police de l’Unmik, personne! Et
pourtant, je suis ici.
Au pire moment des bombardements, notre voisine albanaise devait
accoucher. Elle avait perdu ses eaux trois jours plus
tôt. Son frère m’a dit: «Seuls toi et Dieu pouvez la sauver. Veux-tu
bien l’amener à l’hôpital?» J’ai répondu: «Je veux
bien, mais à condition que tu viennes aussi.» Car elle aurait pu mourir,
tant elle était gonflée. Alors, nous l’avons
emmenée à Pristina. Les bombes de l’Otan tombaient de tous les côtés.
Nous avons attendu à l’hôpital, où elle a accouché d’un petit garçon.
Après cinq jours, j’ai ramené son frère. Puis, je suis
retourné à l’hôpital, seul, et je l’ai ramenée chez elle. Aujourd’hui,
ces mêmes personnes, ces mêmes voisins avec qui je
m’entendais très bien, à qui j’amenais de la nourriture et des
médicaments, n’ont pas le droit de dire la vérité. A cause de
l’UCK.
Vous voulez dire que les Albanais sont terrorisés par l’UCK?
Dragisa Peca. Oui, extrêmement terrorisés.
Selon vous, pourquoi la Kfor est-elle au Kosovo?
Dragisa Peca. S’ils voulaient vraiment nous aider, et Kouchner en
premier lieu, ils auraient respecté la résolution 1244
de l’Onu. (Confiant à la Kfor la protection de toutes les nationalités
et le maintien du Kosovo dans le cadre de la
Yougoslavie. En réalité, la Kfor a expulsé elle-même des milliers de
travailleurs serbes de leur lieu de travail, elle a
refusé de protéger les civils serbes contre les expulsions et les
violences, et de nombreuses décisions administratives de
Kouchner préparent une sécession de fait.)
Pensez-vous qu’il sera un jour possible pour les Serbes et les Albanais
de revivre ensemble, paisiblement?
Dragisa Peca. Peut-être, mais sans la Kfor et l’Unmik.
Vous êtes également prisonnier ici. Que vous est-il arrivé?
Vlastimir Aleksic. Avec mon fils Srdjan,
nous vivions dans la partie
sud de Mitrovica. La majorité de nos
voisins étaient albanais.
Jusqu’aux bombardements de l’Otan, nous
n’avions aucun problème
dans l’immeuble, nous allions les uns
chez les autres. Puis, les
sentiments et les opinions de mes voisins
ont changé…
Le 14 août 99, mon fils se trouvait dans
l’appartement de sa
belle-mère. La gendarmerie française y a
procédé à un contrôle. Juste
avant de partir, ils ont demandé les
papiers d’identité de mon fils.
Dès qu’ils ont vu qu’il habitait la
partie sud de la ville, ils l’ont
arrêté et emmené à Vucitrn, à douze
kilomètres d’ici. L’UCK était
présente, et les interprètes étaient
albanais. Ils l’ont obligé à avouer
des choses qu’il n’avait pas faites. Ils
ont menacé de le violer, de le
battre. Ils ont demandé : «Qu’as-tu
encore comme famille?» Puis,
ils ont fouillé son appartement à la
recherche d’une arme, mais n’ont
rien trouvé.
Ils l’ont gardé quelques jours et il a
dit où se trouvait son père. J’étais
à Zubin Potok. La gendarmerie française
est venue m’interroger avec
des interprètes albanais. Ils demandaient
où se trouvait mon fils
Srdjan. J’ai répondu qu’il se trouvait au
Monténégro, parce que sa
femme était enceinte. Mais le problème,
c’est qu’il était revenu au
Kosovo entre temps. Ce que j’ignorais complètement. Alors, ils ont
perquisitionné sans mandat toute ma maison. Ils
n’ont trouvé qu’un pistolet, pour lequel j’avais un permis, avec un peu
de munitions.
Ensuite, ils m’ont emmené à Mitrovica-sud. Les gendarmes français ont
promis qu’ils allaient juste me poser quelques
questions et me ramener ensuite. Mais ce fut tout le contraire.
L’interprète albanais s’est rendu dans la rue où j’habitais.
Les voisins avec qui nous vivions ont raconté les pires choses aux
soldats français…
Y a-t-il eu enquête?
Dragisa Peca. Je suis arrêté depuis le 14 août 1999 et sans nouvelles
depuis. Après trois jours, on m’a mis en prison où
j’ai retrouvé mon fils. J’aimerais ajouter une chose concernant mes
voisins. Quand les bombardements de l’Otan ont
commencé, les Albanais ont quitté la ville. Ils ont choisi leurs
meilleurs voisins pour garder leur appartement, leur
garage ou la voiture. Les Serbes, eux, n’avaient aucun endroit où
s’enfuir, parce que toute la Serbie était bombardée. Ils
étaient donc obligés de rester. Cependant, mes voisins, dont j’ai gardé
tous les biens, ont témoigné contre moi et mon fils
parce qu’ils sont effrayés par l’UCK.
En Occident, on dit que les Serbes sont contre tous les Albanais. Mais
je vois que vous avez des amis albanais...
Dragisa Peca. Oui, nous avions et nous avons toujours de grands amis
albanais. Tous les Albanais ne sont pas des
terroristes de l’UCK. 70% étaient loyaux à l’Etat de la Serbie, à la
Yougoslavie. Malheureusement, ce n’est plus le cas
aujourd’hui. On mène à présent une toute autre politique.
Que pensez-vous de la Kfor?
Dragisa Peca. Ils ont incendié ma maison et détruit tout ce que je
possédais. S’ils ne m’avaient pas arrêté, peut-être
serais-je encore dans mon village...
Mais ce n’est pas la Kfor elle-même qui a incendié votre maison...
Dragisa Peca. Au fond si. En m’arrêtant, ils ont permis aux Albanais de
faire ce qu’ils voulaient. Ils empêchaient les
Serbes de circuler, tandis que les Albanais pouvaient aller où ils
voulaient et faire ce qu’ils désiraient.
Quel métier exercez-vous?
Dragisa Peca. Je travaille comme forestier. J’étais constamment dans la
forêt, à Janjevo, un endroit où vivent des
Croates catholiques. Si j’étais un mauvais homme, si j’avais commis un
génocide, ils auraient pu me tuer à n’importe quel
moment, tous les jours. Ils m’avaient toujours entre leurs mains.
D’ailleurs, le mieux serait de demander aux habitants
de Janjevo et dans les villages serbes des environs quel homme j’étais.
Il faudrait aussi demander aux voisins albanais.
Malheureusement, je ne peux pas vous envoyer là-bas. Ils auraient de
graves problèmes avec l’UCK.
Vlastimir Aleksic. Je voudrais encore vous dire quelque chose. Dans la
partie sud de Mitrovica, j’avais deux
appartements, où je vivais avec les Albanais. Nous avons été expulsés et
nous n’avons pu emporter qu’un sac. Nous
n’avions pas d’endroit où dormir.
Personne ne se soucie de savoir dans quel état sont mes appartements
là-bas. Ils exercent sans arrêt des pressions pour
s’emparer de ces logements qui ne leur appartiennent pas. Personne ne se
préoccupe de ce que j’ai mis trente ans de ma vie à
créer.
Vidéos, voyages, site
info &
paix...
Une vidéo de cette
interview est
disponible auprès de
l’asbl Parole
aux jeunes, qui a
organisé ce voyage
en Yougoslavie. Elle
prépare la
publication de
plusieurs autres
reportages passionnants
réalisés par
les jeunes eux-mêmes.
Et de
nouveaux projets de
voyages
d’enquêtes et de
reportages.
Intéressé? Contactez
Sébastien
Vandeputte au 02 / 513
66 26 ou
jab@.... Vous pouvez
aussi aider
à promouvoir la paix et
l’amitié,
grâce à l’information
directe et aux
réfutations des médiamensonges. Avec le site Internet: Peace and
resistance (www.lai-aib.org)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
EXCLUSIF:
Interview de trois prisonniers serbes, victimes de la Kfor, à Mitrovica
(Kosovo)
«En prison depuis treize mois, je n’ai pas encore vu le juge
d’instruction!»
Kosovska Mitrovica (où
l’Otan vient
de fermer une usine),
nord du
Kosovo, 26 juillet.
Nous sommes à
l’hôpital situé dans la
partie serbe de
la ville, le seul resté
ouvert à tous:
Serbes, Albanais et
autres. Le
directeur nous propose
de visiter
aussi «le bâtiment des
prisonniers».
Intrigués, nous y
découvrons deux
Serbes d’une
soixantaine d’années et
un de quarante ans,
gardés par la
Kfor (forces Otan
occupant le
Kosovo). Notre visite
va nous
révéler des souffrances
poignantes,
un arbitraire
insoupçonné et une
parodie de justice de
la part des
forces occupantes.
Bouleversés, nous
le serons encore
davantage en
apprenant, quelques
jours plus tard,
que ces trois
prisonniers ont
mystérieusement
disparu. Se
sont-ils évadés?
Ont-ils, comme
beaucoup le craignent là-bas, été livrés à l’UCK albanaise? Un document
exceptionnel.
Michel Collon et Germain Mugemangango
Kosovoska Mitrovica est la seule ville du Kosovo d’où les Serbes n’ont
pas été chassés par l’actuel nettoyage ethnique.
Nous la visitons avec une délégation de jeunes Belges participant depuis
quelques jours au Camp International d’Amitié à
Sirogojno (Yougoslavie).
Dans le couloir de l’hôpital, plusieurs policiers pakistanais de l’Unmik
(police de l’Onu), armés comme des soldats.
Etonnamment, ils veulent contrôler le directeur de l’hôpital qui nous
sert de guide. Ne le connaissent-ils pas? Non, car
leurs supérieurs les font relever toutes les quatre heures pour éviter
tout contact avec les Serbes. Présents depuis trois
mois, ils n’ont donc jamais vu le directeur. Et ils fuient nos
questions. Ambiance très lourde quand nous entrons dans la
chambre où les trois prisonniers sont allongés sur leur lit après une
grève de la faim...
Quand et pourquoi avez-vous été arrêté?
Dragan Jovanovic. Le 2 juillet 1999, il y a donc
plus d’un an, des soldats
français m’ont arrêté sans aucune explication.
J’ai été enlevé et emmené à la prison
de Lipljane, bien que la prison du district soit
située à Mitrovica même. Plus
tard, j’ai appris que c’était la volonté du juge
albanais, pour empêcher les
protestations dans la ville. En effet, les Serbes
allaient manifester sur les ponts
pour que je sois enfin remis en liberté, car on
m’avait arrêté sans raison.
A Lipljane, j’ai été gardé quatre mois par les
soldats britanniques. Nous étions
une quarantaine de prisonniers serbes et la
majorité se trouve encore en prison. On
n’a pas eu de chance. Il n’y avait pas
d’interprète serbe pour communiquer entre
l’Unmik, la Kfor et les Serbes. Tout se passait
uniquement entre l’Unmik, les
soldats de la Kfor et les Albanais.
Selon vous, quelle est la véritable raison de
votre arrestation?
Dragan Jovanovic. J’ai été arrêté parce que je
défendais le pont. Les Albanais
veulent continuer ici ce qu’ils ont fait dans tout le Kosovo. Dès le
début, ils ont tenté de rentrer dans la partie nord de
Mitrovica, peuplée en majorité de Serbes et qui a toujours été serbe.
Mais, avec quelques Serbes, nous nous sommes
rassemblés sur le pont - une limite naturelle - pour les empêcher de
passer.
Nous n’avons pas dit cela aux Albanais qui vivaient depuis toujours avec
nous. Seulement à ceux qui sont arrivés
récemment d’Albanie, de Macédoine. Cela s’est passé spontanément, sans
aucune organisation, nous voulions simplement
défendre le pont.
Pourquoi ces Albanais veulent-ils venir dans la partie nord?
Dragan Jovanovic. Je ne sais pas exactement si c’est la communauté
internationale, un autre pays ou des groupes
nationalistes qui veulent une Grande Albanie dans les Balkans. La partie
sud de notre ville était en majorité peuplée
d’Albanais, mais il y avait aussi des Serbes. A présent, il n’en reste
plus du tout. Par contre, dans la partie nord, il reste
toujours beaucoup d’Albanais, et ce n’est pas un problème pour nous.
Mais l’UCK affirme que les Albanais étaient persécutés depuis longtemps…
Dragan Jovanovic. Jusqu’il y a dix ans, 75% des policiers étaient
albanais. Ils avaient leurs magasins, leurs écoles.
Toutes les grandes institutions étaient à majorité albanaise. Pour la
présidence de la province, il y avait toujours neuf
Albanais, deux Serbes et un Monténégrin.
Avez-vous beaucoup d’amis albanais?
Dragan Jovanovic. Oui, beaucoup.
Donc, vous pensez qu’on vous a arrêté pour écarter un défenseur du pont?
Dragan Jovanovic. Oui. Une femme qui était de l’autre côté du pont m’a
montré du doigt: «Il a tué 26 personnes!» Cela
a suffi pour me maintenir treize mois en prison!
L’Unmik a-t-elle
vérifié cette
accusation?
Dragan Jovanovic.
Malheureusement, depuis
le jour de
l’arrestation, je n’ai
eu aucune
conversation avec aucun
policier,
aucun juge. Seulement
avec mes
avocats et certains
représentants
d’associations
médicales
internationales. Parce
que nous
avons fait une grève de
la faim qui a
duré quarante jours.
Dragisa, ici à côté de
moi, peut
confirmer mon histoire.
Lui aussi est
en prison depuis treize
mois. Accusé
de ‘génocide’, il n’a
eu aucune
conversation ni avec
l’Unmik, ni avec
un juge. Il n’y a pas d’acte d’accusation. Il ne sait pas quand il sera
jugé. On le garde en prison sans aucune explication.
Dragisa Peca. J’ai été kidnappé par des soldats de la Kfor. Un major
britannique était venu dire que ceux qui le désiraient
pouvaient aller visiter leur maison. Je suis parti visiter ma propriété
où j’ai dû tout abandonner.
Pourquoi?
Dragisa Peca. Pas à cause de mes voisins albanais,
mais à cause des terroristes de
l’UCK. Pendant trois ou quatre jours durant
lesquels je m’étais absenté, le voisin
avait surveillé mon bétail. Il m’a dit: «Si
demain, tu ne prends pas ton bétail,
quelqu’un le volera, je ne peux plus le garder.»
J’ai donc demandé au major de
pouvoir l’accompagner et je suis allé prendre le
bétail. Les voisins albanais sont
venus m’aider à charger le blé et le bétail.
Alors, la police de la Kfor est arrivée avec une
famille albanaise, prétendant que
j’avais commis un génocide sur le peuple albanais.
J’ai interrogé mes voisins
albanais: «Vous savez très bien si j’ai commis un
génocide ou pas.» Et les voisins
ont dit que je n’étais pas coupable. Mais
l’officier britannique leur a dit: «Shut up!»
Je ne savais pas ce que cela voulait dire. C’est
seulement dans la prison que j’ai appris
que cela voulait dire: «Ferme ta gueule!» Ils
m’ont amené à la prison de Lipljane.
Depuis le 23 juin 1999, personne ne m’a dit
pourquoi j’étais en prison, qui j’avais tué.
Ni la Kfor, ni la police de l’Unmik, personne! Et
pourtant, je suis ici.
Au pire moment des bombardements, notre voisine albanaise devait
accoucher. Elle avait perdu ses eaux trois jours plus
tôt. Son frère m’a dit: «Seuls toi et Dieu pouvez la sauver. Veux-tu
bien l’amener à l’hôpital?» J’ai répondu: «Je veux
bien, mais à condition que tu viennes aussi.» Car elle aurait pu mourir,
tant elle était gonflée. Alors, nous l’avons
emmenée à Pristina. Les bombes de l’Otan tombaient de tous les côtés.
Nous avons attendu à l’hôpital, où elle a accouché d’un petit garçon.
Après cinq jours, j’ai ramené son frère. Puis, je suis
retourné à l’hôpital, seul, et je l’ai ramenée chez elle. Aujourd’hui,
ces mêmes personnes, ces mêmes voisins avec qui je
m’entendais très bien, à qui j’amenais de la nourriture et des
médicaments, n’ont pas le droit de dire la vérité. A cause de
l’UCK.
Vous voulez dire que les Albanais sont terrorisés par l’UCK?
Dragisa Peca. Oui, extrêmement terrorisés.
Selon vous, pourquoi la Kfor est-elle au Kosovo?
Dragisa Peca. S’ils voulaient vraiment nous aider, et Kouchner en
premier lieu, ils auraient respecté la résolution 1244
de l’Onu. (Confiant à la Kfor la protection de toutes les nationalités
et le maintien du Kosovo dans le cadre de la
Yougoslavie. En réalité, la Kfor a expulsé elle-même des milliers de
travailleurs serbes de leur lieu de travail, elle a
refusé de protéger les civils serbes contre les expulsions et les
violences, et de nombreuses décisions administratives de
Kouchner préparent une sécession de fait.)
Pensez-vous qu’il sera un jour possible pour les Serbes et les Albanais
de revivre ensemble, paisiblement?
Dragisa Peca. Peut-être, mais sans la Kfor et l’Unmik.
Vous êtes également prisonnier ici. Que vous est-il arrivé?
Vlastimir Aleksic. Avec mon fils Srdjan,
nous vivions dans la partie
sud de Mitrovica. La majorité de nos
voisins étaient albanais.
Jusqu’aux bombardements de l’Otan, nous
n’avions aucun problème
dans l’immeuble, nous allions les uns
chez les autres. Puis, les
sentiments et les opinions de mes voisins
ont changé…
Le 14 août 99, mon fils se trouvait dans
l’appartement de sa
belle-mère. La gendarmerie française y a
procédé à un contrôle. Juste
avant de partir, ils ont demandé les
papiers d’identité de mon fils.
Dès qu’ils ont vu qu’il habitait la
partie sud de la ville, ils l’ont
arrêté et emmené à Vucitrn, à douze
kilomètres d’ici. L’UCK était
présente, et les interprètes étaient
albanais. Ils l’ont obligé à avouer
des choses qu’il n’avait pas faites. Ils
ont menacé de le violer, de le
battre. Ils ont demandé : «Qu’as-tu
encore comme famille?» Puis,
ils ont fouillé son appartement à la
recherche d’une arme, mais n’ont
rien trouvé.
Ils l’ont gardé quelques jours et il a
dit où se trouvait son père. J’étais
à Zubin Potok. La gendarmerie française
est venue m’interroger avec
des interprètes albanais. Ils demandaient
où se trouvait mon fils
Srdjan. J’ai répondu qu’il se trouvait au
Monténégro, parce que sa
femme était enceinte. Mais le problème,
c’est qu’il était revenu au
Kosovo entre temps. Ce que j’ignorais complètement. Alors, ils ont
perquisitionné sans mandat toute ma maison. Ils
n’ont trouvé qu’un pistolet, pour lequel j’avais un permis, avec un peu
de munitions.
Ensuite, ils m’ont emmené à Mitrovica-sud. Les gendarmes français ont
promis qu’ils allaient juste me poser quelques
questions et me ramener ensuite. Mais ce fut tout le contraire.
L’interprète albanais s’est rendu dans la rue où j’habitais.
Les voisins avec qui nous vivions ont raconté les pires choses aux
soldats français…
Y a-t-il eu enquête?
Dragisa Peca. Je suis arrêté depuis le 14 août 1999 et sans nouvelles
depuis. Après trois jours, on m’a mis en prison où
j’ai retrouvé mon fils. J’aimerais ajouter une chose concernant mes
voisins. Quand les bombardements de l’Otan ont
commencé, les Albanais ont quitté la ville. Ils ont choisi leurs
meilleurs voisins pour garder leur appartement, leur
garage ou la voiture. Les Serbes, eux, n’avaient aucun endroit où
s’enfuir, parce que toute la Serbie était bombardée. Ils
étaient donc obligés de rester. Cependant, mes voisins, dont j’ai gardé
tous les biens, ont témoigné contre moi et mon fils
parce qu’ils sont effrayés par l’UCK.
En Occident, on dit que les Serbes sont contre tous les Albanais. Mais
je vois que vous avez des amis albanais...
Dragisa Peca. Oui, nous avions et nous avons toujours de grands amis
albanais. Tous les Albanais ne sont pas des
terroristes de l’UCK. 70% étaient loyaux à l’Etat de la Serbie, à la
Yougoslavie. Malheureusement, ce n’est plus le cas
aujourd’hui. On mène à présent une toute autre politique.
Que pensez-vous de la Kfor?
Dragisa Peca. Ils ont incendié ma maison et détruit tout ce que je
possédais. S’ils ne m’avaient pas arrêté, peut-être
serais-je encore dans mon village...
Mais ce n’est pas la Kfor elle-même qui a incendié votre maison...
Dragisa Peca. Au fond si. En m’arrêtant, ils ont permis aux Albanais de
faire ce qu’ils voulaient. Ils empêchaient les
Serbes de circuler, tandis que les Albanais pouvaient aller où ils
voulaient et faire ce qu’ils désiraient.
Quel métier exercez-vous?
Dragisa Peca. Je travaille comme forestier. J’étais constamment dans la
forêt, à Janjevo, un endroit où vivent des
Croates catholiques. Si j’étais un mauvais homme, si j’avais commis un
génocide, ils auraient pu me tuer à n’importe quel
moment, tous les jours. Ils m’avaient toujours entre leurs mains.
D’ailleurs, le mieux serait de demander aux habitants
de Janjevo et dans les villages serbes des environs quel homme j’étais.
Il faudrait aussi demander aux voisins albanais.
Malheureusement, je ne peux pas vous envoyer là-bas. Ils auraient de
graves problèmes avec l’UCK.
Vlastimir Aleksic. Je voudrais encore vous dire quelque chose. Dans la
partie sud de Mitrovica, j’avais deux
appartements, où je vivais avec les Albanais. Nous avons été expulsés et
nous n’avons pu emporter qu’un sac. Nous
n’avions pas d’endroit où dormir.
Personne ne se soucie de savoir dans quel état sont mes appartements
là-bas. Ils exercent sans arrêt des pressions pour
s’emparer de ces logements qui ne leur appartiennent pas. Personne ne se
préoccupe de ce que j’ai mis trente ans de ma vie à
créer.
Vidéos, voyages, site
info &
paix...
Une vidéo de cette
interview est
disponible auprès de
l’asbl Parole
aux jeunes, qui a
organisé ce voyage
en Yougoslavie. Elle
prépare la
publication de
plusieurs autres
reportages passionnants
réalisés par
les jeunes eux-mêmes.
Et de
nouveaux projets de
voyages
d’enquêtes et de
reportages.
Intéressé? Contactez
Sébastien
Vandeputte au 02 / 513
66 26 ou
jab@.... Vous pouvez
aussi aider
à promouvoir la paix et
l’amitié,
grâce à l’information
directe et aux
réfutations des médiamensonges. Avec le site Internet: Peace and
resistance (www.lai-aib.org)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
SOROS, L'INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP E LE MINIERE DI TREPCA
Sull'argomento si veda anche la illuminante analisi di Diana Johnstone:
'Globalist Thinktank Conceived Excuse for Today's NATO Assault on
Mitrovica'
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/Johnstone/howitis.htm
---
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/pf/p-j081600.html
Behind the Headlines
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
August 16, 2000
WHY KOSOVO? FOLLOW THE MONEY!
When the Kosovo war broke out, and the "Allies" took up the cause of
that Albanian
terrorist gang known as the Kosovo Liberation Army, Antiwar.com received
a lot of
email from baffled readers who wondered: "Why Kosovo?" Here was an
impoverished
and isolated country in a notoriously unstable region of the world,
without any strategic
or military value to the US, the conquest of which could only add to our
burdens.
Virtually none of my correspondents believed the official explanation –
that the
Milosevic regime was slaughtering tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians
in the
province, and was determined to "cleanse" Kosovo so that it would be
ethnically Serb.
Since the inhabitants of Kosovo were then more than 90 percent
Albanians, this would
have meant the complete depopulation of the province – a policy that
made absolutely
no economic or political sense. The supposedly "humanitarian" motives of
the
NATO-crats were a fraud from the very beginning, it was clear, and in
any case their
fraudulence was proved after the war when UN forensic experts went in
and
recovered and identified a little over 2,000 bodies (including Serbs).
But this only
deepened the mystery, and the question went unanswered: why Kosovo, of
all places,
the closest thing to a Third World country in all of Europe? Over a year
after the
"humanitarians" bombed Belgrade and reduced much of Yugoslavia to
rubble, the
answer is beginning to take shape. . . .
THE $5 BILLION DOOR PRIZE
Yesterday 900 British, Danish, and French troops moved in to take over
the Trepca
complex of mines in the northern city of Mitrovice – and were met with
determined
resistance by hundreds of mine workers. Hurling rocks, sticks, and
stones, and wielding
the tools of their trade as weapons, Serbs downed four Brits, shouting
their defiance at
this escalation of NATO's war on the last Serbs left in Kosovo. For the
Trepca mining
complex is an ancient treasure, mined by the Greeks, the Romans, the
Turks, and is the
richest source of lead and zinc in Europe. There is enough lignite
deposits in those
mines to last for the next 13 centuries. The capacity of Trepca's
refineries ranks third
worldwide. The now-deposed mine director reported that "in the last
three years we
have mined 2,538,124 tons of lead and zinc crude ore and produced
286,502 tons of
lead and zinc and 139,789 tons of pure lead, zinc, cadmium, silver and
gold." We don't
need to ask why this action was taken: we have only to note Trepca's
estimated value –
over $5 billion. What else do we need to know?
ENVIRONMENTALLY CORRECT LIES
Naturally, they couldn't just go in there, and grab Kosovo's crown
jewels, without
coming up with a politically correct rationale. Leave it to "Unmik," the
acronymic
tyranny set up by the NATO-crats to administer their conquered province,
to come up
with the most transparent lie imaginable – albeit one that, in its sheer
ludicrousness, will
appeal to such enthusiasts of the Kosovo war as the German Greens and
their even
flakier American counterparts. According to a report from MSNBC, French
spokesman Colonel Henry Aussavy solemnly declared: "We've noted a
significant
increase in the level of lead in the air, which was dangerous for the
people of Mitrovica
and for KFOR (NATO-led) troops. We had to react."
THE ARROGANCE OF POWER
Let's see if I get this straight: after a year and some months of
organized ethnic
cleansing by the Kosovar Albanians against the defeated Serbs – as NATO
not only
stood by but actively aided the KLA's campaign for a Serb-free Kosovo –
Unmik
finally decides to react: not, mind you, to the murder, rape, and
pillaging of Kosovo's
embattled Serb communities, but to the alleged threat of air pollution.
Do these people
even care if anyone believes their lies? I don't think so. Real power
means that your lies
don't even have to be convincing. It means further humiliating your
victims – in the
process of beating them to the ground and robbing them blind – by
constructing the
flimsiest of pretexts, the more absurd the better.
DUBIOUS DIAGNOSIS
While the UN bureaucrats insisted that air samples indicated levels of
pollution 200
times above World Health Organization standards, the Serbs counter that
their
measurements indicate ".12 milligrams of lead per cubic metre (permitted
level .15
mg), .019 mg of zinc (permitted level .4 mg), copper .004 mg (permitted
level .01 mg),
iron .002 mg (permitted level .2 mg), etc." As to the medical rationale
for this brazen act
of thievery, doctors from the local hospital were more than skeptical
about the veracity
of the NATO-crats' diagnosis. Dr. Radoslav Jankovic wryly observed that
"we
haven't had a patient with a toxicology problem for years. Today only
soldiers and
Unmik police officers suffer problems of lead in the blood."
THE MONEY TRAIL
Are you beginning to see the answer to "why Kosovo?" A $5 billion prize
– but who
gets to claim it? Trepca was state-owned under Yugoslav suzerainty, but
now it will be
"privatized" and sold off to Western investors. In this context, it is
important to realize
just whom we are talking about. . . .
THE SOROS CONNECTION
When George Soros invested $150 million in the region – most of it
backed up by
fail-safe US government guarantees – he declared that this was not
strictly a
humanitarian effort. While known for his philanthropy, Soros said that
in the case of his
Balkan investments he would be guided by the concept of "tough love" and
insisted that
the new enterprise must be "driven purely by profit." With $100 million
of the US
taxpayers' money in his pocket, Soros and his gang are swooping down on
the
prostrate body of the Serbian nation like vultures feeding on the liver
of Prometheus –
the Titan of Greek mythology who stole fire from the depths of the earth
and gave it to
mankind. The Titans, a subterranean race, were the first miners, who
taught their
metal-smelting techniques to mortal men and were punished for the sin of
such
extravagant gift-giving, were obliterated by the gods of Olympus. Our
own Olympians
seem determined to visit a similar fate on the Serbs – who, for their
part, seem to be
guilty only of getting between George Soros and $5 billion.
JOHNSTONE'S PREDICTION
That the NATO-crats dare to invoke such a pathetic pretext for their
plundering is
not exactly astonishing. These people are moral monsters, after all, who
would have
reduced Belgrade to a smoking ruin if they hadn't been too afraid of the
political
consequences – and they may do so yet. What is truly astonishing is that
all this was
predicted, down to the details, back in February by Diana Johnstone, in
a remarkably
prescient article on Emperors-Clothes.com, in which she foretold not
only the
expropriation of the Trepca complex, but also exposed Soros as the
source of the
scheme. Analyzing two key documents – a November 1999 International
Crisis Group
(ICG) paper on the Trepca mining complex, and a February 2000 article in
the Toronto
Star by ICG consultant Susan Blaustein – Johnstone saw it all coming,
and with such
stunning accuracy that one can hardly believe that her piece wasn't
written yesterday.
What is especially revealing is the role of the International Crisis
Group in fomenting
the takeover of Trepca – and the role of Soros as the ICG's main
sugar-daddy. In its
report, the ICG drools at the prospect of having such a rich prize fall
into its
benefactor's hands. As Johnstone relates:
"In the 'game-plan of measures' recommended by the ICG, UNMIK is advised
to
instruct a 'Zvecan environmental assessment team' to report on the
status of the
equipment and thereupon 'advise as to what measures must be taken'...
Environmental hazards are to be the pretext to shut down Zvecan and
deprive the last
Serbs in Kosovo of their livelihood. Meanwhile, 'Stari Trg, one of the
richest mines in
Europe, must be potentially profitable again and should be a priority
for donors
interested in setting Kosovo on its feet.'"
PHILANTHROPY FOR FUN – AND PROFIT
Chief among these "donors" is none other than Soros, who now expects to
be paid
back for his "philanthropy" – with interest. Trepca can be profitable
again, but the
question is: for whom. Trepca seems to have fallen into Soros's lap – or
was it pushed
there? Another interesting aspect of this whole affair is that the
seizure of the Trepca
complex by NATO forces is part of the Sorosian "business strategy"
designed to
forestall and ultimately nullify the claims of two European companies
derived from
contracts signed with the Serbs. As the ICG report puts it:
"In July 1999, shortly after the conquest of Kosovo, one Jean-Pierre
Rozan showed
up claiming that 2.8% ownership of Trepca belonged to the Paris-based
SCMM, of
which he was a director. Rozan's claim was based on an agreement with
Belgrade, in
which SCMM took over Jugobanka's subsidiary in Kosovo as a result of
Belgrade's
default.
SOROSIAN ETHNIC CLEANSING
The ICG derides the Société Commerciale de Métaux et de Minéraux (SCMM)
claim as being without foundation on the somewhat questionable grounds
that the
French government is giving it no backing. But just in case this is not
enough, they
throw another factor into their argument that Rozan's claim must be
summarily
dismissed. This being Kosovo, there is an ethnic angle in all this,
underscored by the
ICG report,
"Some Kosovar Albanians, always ready to believe in a conspiracy however
unlikely,
are prepared to perceive SCMM as part of a wider Franco-Serbian
understanding,
which incorporates French KFOR acquiescence in the partition of
Mitrovicë, French
economic interests in Trepca, and even the appointment of Dr Bernard
Kouchner
himself as head of UNMIK and Special Representative of the UN
Secretary-General.
The recent award of a GSM telecommunications concession, regardless of
the
transparency of the process, to French company Alcatel, has fueled the
suspicions of
such conspiracy-theorists."
OUR CONSPIRACY THEORIES, AND THEIRS
Soros and his hired hands have an inherent hostility to "conspiracy
theorists," quite
naturally, but that doesn't stop them from placing the blame for
everything that goes
wrong in the Balkans on Slobodan Milosevic
"To other veteran observers of the Balkans, however, the involvement of
SCMM looks
like a Miloševic-style attempt to create a diversion (including by
encouraging exactly
that Balkan and Kosovar propensity for conspiracy-identification
outlined above),
and confuse the thinking of international officials charged with working
out the
problem. By putting this and other claims to due process of arbitration,
and meanwhile
getting on with what needs to be done, the problem can be neatly
sidestepped. "
ARREST THAT MAN!
How's that for a conspiracy theory? SCMM's claims are all part of a plot
by
Milosevic to "create a diversion." How convenient for Soros & Company
that their
chief competitors turn out to be enemy agents. Now that the NATO-crats
have
definitively settled the question of the ownership of the Trepca mines
by force of arms,
the next logical step is to lock up Monsieur Rozan and be done with it.
In any case, it is
clear that the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo will be carried out in the
mines, if the ICG has
anything to say about it. The author of the ICG report notes with some
irritation that:
"The UNMIK regional office in Mitrovica meanwhile occupies the Jugobanka
building
and continues to display Jugobanka insignia in the very meeting room to
which
Kosovars are invited to discuss Trepca – some report that they feel
uneasy in such
surroundings. Rozan, as 'owner' of Jugobanka and the building, is
demanding rent,
which UNMIK has refused to pay."
OUR ORWELLIAN AGE
Who cares about property rights when those poor sensitive souls, the
Kosovars,
reportedly feel "uncomfortable" in close proximity to anything Serbian,
even a
company logo. The ICG is basically making the argument that the ethnic
cleansing of
Kosovo must be completed: not only churches and other historical
monuments must be
destroyed – and there is hardly a Serbian church left standing in Kosovo
– but everything
Serbian must go. The ICG describes itself as a "private, multinational"
organization
devoted to strengthening the capacity of the international community to
anticipate,
understand and act to contain and prevent conflict." In our Orwellian
age this means a
government-connected tool of corporate plunderers devoted to
anticipating the profits
to be made from military conflict, and acting to furthering the
interests of war profiteers.
THE GREEK CLAIM
Another company, the Greek firm of Mytineleos, has a claim through
contracts with
Yugoslav companies to market Trepca's lead and zinc, and this claim is
going to be "a
harder problem than SCMM for UNMIK" as the ICG report admits. With close
ties to
the Greek government, and a sterling international track record for
solidity and
performance, Mytineleos can make a strong case. The report also somewhat
reluctantly notes that
"UNMIK cannot simply ignore claims which may be genuine, and the UN
legal
advisers in New York have concluded that the rights of claimants like
Mytilineos must
go to adjudication. The question arises as to which court. So far that
is left in
abeyance, as is the nature of the legal proceedings themselves. If all
other decisions
are left to depend upon the resolution of this issue, it could be many
years before
Trepca starts working again."
A PROBLEM NEATLY SOLVED
The military occupation of Trepca solves Soros's two major problems by
arrogating
de facto ownership of the mines to "the international community"
embodied by Unmik –
and deftly sidelines the French and the Greeks. Never mind the legal
technicalities, and
the risks of adjudication: just go in there and grab it! This is how the
much-vaunted
"Third Way" between socialism and capitalism, touted by the Clintonians
and their
British Laborite first cousins, works in practice. First, you invade a
country; then you
strip it of its assets, and sell them off to your politically connected
friends, such as Soros
– this is called "privatization," but there is nothing "private" about
it. The source of
Soros's Balkan coup is government power: the armed fist of the State,
and not the
invisible hand of the market. As the declared enemy of laissez-faire
capitalism, which
he rails against in several unbearably pretentious books, Soros
practices what he
preaches: using NATO and the UN as his instruments, he profits from the
plundering of
a proud nation – while his bought-and-paid-for shills rationalize the
schemes of this
modern Visigoth in the name of "humanitarianism" and "multiculturalism."
It kind of makes you want to puke, doesn't it?
A QUESTION NEATLY ANSWERED
For years, Soros funded the American Committee to Save Bosnia, the
Balkan Action
Council, and a plethora of other groups devoted to persuading US policy
makers that
nothing less than American military intervention in the region could
save the Kosovar
Albanians from "genocide." Soros himself spoke out on the issue, and
chided the West
for "appeasing" the Serbs. Now comes the payoff. Trepca is his, or will
be shortly. So
we have finally come up with the answer to the question that has been
haunting us for
over a year: why Kosovo? The answer consists of two words: George Soros.
All you
would-be tycoons out there, take heed: If you want to know what
investment strategy
to follow in era of the Third Way, then Soros has certainly set the
example.
---
Letters
The Guardian (London)
UNITED KINGDOM
Wednesday August 16, 2000
The
first casualty of war.
•It's interesting that Nato seems so concerned about stopping a
Serb-run mine (one of the few enterprises in Kosovo that employs its
dwindling Serb population) from polluting the atmosphere in Kosovo
(Serbs turn on British troops, August 15), but had no problems with
poisoning the entire Balkans by bombing chemical plants and oil
refineries (releasing tons of chemical toxins such as ethylene
dichloride, cynanide, and heavy metals into the atmosphere, ground, and
the Danube river); and using depleted but still radioactive uranium
ammunition and cluster bombs. The issue for Nato isn't about air
pollution - it's about stealing the massive Trepca mining complex for
western capitalists like George Soros.
Dr Michael Pravica
Las Vegas, USA
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Sull'argomento si veda anche la illuminante analisi di Diana Johnstone:
'Globalist Thinktank Conceived Excuse for Today's NATO Assault on
Mitrovica'
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/Johnstone/howitis.htm
---
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/pf/p-j081600.html
Behind the Headlines
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
August 16, 2000
WHY KOSOVO? FOLLOW THE MONEY!
When the Kosovo war broke out, and the "Allies" took up the cause of
that Albanian
terrorist gang known as the Kosovo Liberation Army, Antiwar.com received
a lot of
email from baffled readers who wondered: "Why Kosovo?" Here was an
impoverished
and isolated country in a notoriously unstable region of the world,
without any strategic
or military value to the US, the conquest of which could only add to our
burdens.
Virtually none of my correspondents believed the official explanation –
that the
Milosevic regime was slaughtering tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians
in the
province, and was determined to "cleanse" Kosovo so that it would be
ethnically Serb.
Since the inhabitants of Kosovo were then more than 90 percent
Albanians, this would
have meant the complete depopulation of the province – a policy that
made absolutely
no economic or political sense. The supposedly "humanitarian" motives of
the
NATO-crats were a fraud from the very beginning, it was clear, and in
any case their
fraudulence was proved after the war when UN forensic experts went in
and
recovered and identified a little over 2,000 bodies (including Serbs).
But this only
deepened the mystery, and the question went unanswered: why Kosovo, of
all places,
the closest thing to a Third World country in all of Europe? Over a year
after the
"humanitarians" bombed Belgrade and reduced much of Yugoslavia to
rubble, the
answer is beginning to take shape. . . .
THE $5 BILLION DOOR PRIZE
Yesterday 900 British, Danish, and French troops moved in to take over
the Trepca
complex of mines in the northern city of Mitrovice – and were met with
determined
resistance by hundreds of mine workers. Hurling rocks, sticks, and
stones, and wielding
the tools of their trade as weapons, Serbs downed four Brits, shouting
their defiance at
this escalation of NATO's war on the last Serbs left in Kosovo. For the
Trepca mining
complex is an ancient treasure, mined by the Greeks, the Romans, the
Turks, and is the
richest source of lead and zinc in Europe. There is enough lignite
deposits in those
mines to last for the next 13 centuries. The capacity of Trepca's
refineries ranks third
worldwide. The now-deposed mine director reported that "in the last
three years we
have mined 2,538,124 tons of lead and zinc crude ore and produced
286,502 tons of
lead and zinc and 139,789 tons of pure lead, zinc, cadmium, silver and
gold." We don't
need to ask why this action was taken: we have only to note Trepca's
estimated value –
over $5 billion. What else do we need to know?
ENVIRONMENTALLY CORRECT LIES
Naturally, they couldn't just go in there, and grab Kosovo's crown
jewels, without
coming up with a politically correct rationale. Leave it to "Unmik," the
acronymic
tyranny set up by the NATO-crats to administer their conquered province,
to come up
with the most transparent lie imaginable – albeit one that, in its sheer
ludicrousness, will
appeal to such enthusiasts of the Kosovo war as the German Greens and
their even
flakier American counterparts. According to a report from MSNBC, French
spokesman Colonel Henry Aussavy solemnly declared: "We've noted a
significant
increase in the level of lead in the air, which was dangerous for the
people of Mitrovica
and for KFOR (NATO-led) troops. We had to react."
THE ARROGANCE OF POWER
Let's see if I get this straight: after a year and some months of
organized ethnic
cleansing by the Kosovar Albanians against the defeated Serbs – as NATO
not only
stood by but actively aided the KLA's campaign for a Serb-free Kosovo –
Unmik
finally decides to react: not, mind you, to the murder, rape, and
pillaging of Kosovo's
embattled Serb communities, but to the alleged threat of air pollution.
Do these people
even care if anyone believes their lies? I don't think so. Real power
means that your lies
don't even have to be convincing. It means further humiliating your
victims – in the
process of beating them to the ground and robbing them blind – by
constructing the
flimsiest of pretexts, the more absurd the better.
DUBIOUS DIAGNOSIS
While the UN bureaucrats insisted that air samples indicated levels of
pollution 200
times above World Health Organization standards, the Serbs counter that
their
measurements indicate ".12 milligrams of lead per cubic metre (permitted
level .15
mg), .019 mg of zinc (permitted level .4 mg), copper .004 mg (permitted
level .01 mg),
iron .002 mg (permitted level .2 mg), etc." As to the medical rationale
for this brazen act
of thievery, doctors from the local hospital were more than skeptical
about the veracity
of the NATO-crats' diagnosis. Dr. Radoslav Jankovic wryly observed that
"we
haven't had a patient with a toxicology problem for years. Today only
soldiers and
Unmik police officers suffer problems of lead in the blood."
THE MONEY TRAIL
Are you beginning to see the answer to "why Kosovo?" A $5 billion prize
– but who
gets to claim it? Trepca was state-owned under Yugoslav suzerainty, but
now it will be
"privatized" and sold off to Western investors. In this context, it is
important to realize
just whom we are talking about. . . .
THE SOROS CONNECTION
When George Soros invested $150 million in the region – most of it
backed up by
fail-safe US government guarantees – he declared that this was not
strictly a
humanitarian effort. While known for his philanthropy, Soros said that
in the case of his
Balkan investments he would be guided by the concept of "tough love" and
insisted that
the new enterprise must be "driven purely by profit." With $100 million
of the US
taxpayers' money in his pocket, Soros and his gang are swooping down on
the
prostrate body of the Serbian nation like vultures feeding on the liver
of Prometheus –
the Titan of Greek mythology who stole fire from the depths of the earth
and gave it to
mankind. The Titans, a subterranean race, were the first miners, who
taught their
metal-smelting techniques to mortal men and were punished for the sin of
such
extravagant gift-giving, were obliterated by the gods of Olympus. Our
own Olympians
seem determined to visit a similar fate on the Serbs – who, for their
part, seem to be
guilty only of getting between George Soros and $5 billion.
JOHNSTONE'S PREDICTION
That the NATO-crats dare to invoke such a pathetic pretext for their
plundering is
not exactly astonishing. These people are moral monsters, after all, who
would have
reduced Belgrade to a smoking ruin if they hadn't been too afraid of the
political
consequences – and they may do so yet. What is truly astonishing is that
all this was
predicted, down to the details, back in February by Diana Johnstone, in
a remarkably
prescient article on Emperors-Clothes.com, in which she foretold not
only the
expropriation of the Trepca complex, but also exposed Soros as the
source of the
scheme. Analyzing two key documents – a November 1999 International
Crisis Group
(ICG) paper on the Trepca mining complex, and a February 2000 article in
the Toronto
Star by ICG consultant Susan Blaustein – Johnstone saw it all coming,
and with such
stunning accuracy that one can hardly believe that her piece wasn't
written yesterday.
What is especially revealing is the role of the International Crisis
Group in fomenting
the takeover of Trepca – and the role of Soros as the ICG's main
sugar-daddy. In its
report, the ICG drools at the prospect of having such a rich prize fall
into its
benefactor's hands. As Johnstone relates:
"In the 'game-plan of measures' recommended by the ICG, UNMIK is advised
to
instruct a 'Zvecan environmental assessment team' to report on the
status of the
equipment and thereupon 'advise as to what measures must be taken'...
Environmental hazards are to be the pretext to shut down Zvecan and
deprive the last
Serbs in Kosovo of their livelihood. Meanwhile, 'Stari Trg, one of the
richest mines in
Europe, must be potentially profitable again and should be a priority
for donors
interested in setting Kosovo on its feet.'"
PHILANTHROPY FOR FUN – AND PROFIT
Chief among these "donors" is none other than Soros, who now expects to
be paid
back for his "philanthropy" – with interest. Trepca can be profitable
again, but the
question is: for whom. Trepca seems to have fallen into Soros's lap – or
was it pushed
there? Another interesting aspect of this whole affair is that the
seizure of the Trepca
complex by NATO forces is part of the Sorosian "business strategy"
designed to
forestall and ultimately nullify the claims of two European companies
derived from
contracts signed with the Serbs. As the ICG report puts it:
"In July 1999, shortly after the conquest of Kosovo, one Jean-Pierre
Rozan showed
up claiming that 2.8% ownership of Trepca belonged to the Paris-based
SCMM, of
which he was a director. Rozan's claim was based on an agreement with
Belgrade, in
which SCMM took over Jugobanka's subsidiary in Kosovo as a result of
Belgrade's
default.
SOROSIAN ETHNIC CLEANSING
The ICG derides the Société Commerciale de Métaux et de Minéraux (SCMM)
claim as being without foundation on the somewhat questionable grounds
that the
French government is giving it no backing. But just in case this is not
enough, they
throw another factor into their argument that Rozan's claim must be
summarily
dismissed. This being Kosovo, there is an ethnic angle in all this,
underscored by the
ICG report,
"Some Kosovar Albanians, always ready to believe in a conspiracy however
unlikely,
are prepared to perceive SCMM as part of a wider Franco-Serbian
understanding,
which incorporates French KFOR acquiescence in the partition of
Mitrovicë, French
economic interests in Trepca, and even the appointment of Dr Bernard
Kouchner
himself as head of UNMIK and Special Representative of the UN
Secretary-General.
The recent award of a GSM telecommunications concession, regardless of
the
transparency of the process, to French company Alcatel, has fueled the
suspicions of
such conspiracy-theorists."
OUR CONSPIRACY THEORIES, AND THEIRS
Soros and his hired hands have an inherent hostility to "conspiracy
theorists," quite
naturally, but that doesn't stop them from placing the blame for
everything that goes
wrong in the Balkans on Slobodan Milosevic
"To other veteran observers of the Balkans, however, the involvement of
SCMM looks
like a Miloševic-style attempt to create a diversion (including by
encouraging exactly
that Balkan and Kosovar propensity for conspiracy-identification
outlined above),
and confuse the thinking of international officials charged with working
out the
problem. By putting this and other claims to due process of arbitration,
and meanwhile
getting on with what needs to be done, the problem can be neatly
sidestepped. "
ARREST THAT MAN!
How's that for a conspiracy theory? SCMM's claims are all part of a plot
by
Milosevic to "create a diversion." How convenient for Soros & Company
that their
chief competitors turn out to be enemy agents. Now that the NATO-crats
have
definitively settled the question of the ownership of the Trepca mines
by force of arms,
the next logical step is to lock up Monsieur Rozan and be done with it.
In any case, it is
clear that the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo will be carried out in the
mines, if the ICG has
anything to say about it. The author of the ICG report notes with some
irritation that:
"The UNMIK regional office in Mitrovica meanwhile occupies the Jugobanka
building
and continues to display Jugobanka insignia in the very meeting room to
which
Kosovars are invited to discuss Trepca – some report that they feel
uneasy in such
surroundings. Rozan, as 'owner' of Jugobanka and the building, is
demanding rent,
which UNMIK has refused to pay."
OUR ORWELLIAN AGE
Who cares about property rights when those poor sensitive souls, the
Kosovars,
reportedly feel "uncomfortable" in close proximity to anything Serbian,
even a
company logo. The ICG is basically making the argument that the ethnic
cleansing of
Kosovo must be completed: not only churches and other historical
monuments must be
destroyed – and there is hardly a Serbian church left standing in Kosovo
– but everything
Serbian must go. The ICG describes itself as a "private, multinational"
organization
devoted to strengthening the capacity of the international community to
anticipate,
understand and act to contain and prevent conflict." In our Orwellian
age this means a
government-connected tool of corporate plunderers devoted to
anticipating the profits
to be made from military conflict, and acting to furthering the
interests of war profiteers.
THE GREEK CLAIM
Another company, the Greek firm of Mytineleos, has a claim through
contracts with
Yugoslav companies to market Trepca's lead and zinc, and this claim is
going to be "a
harder problem than SCMM for UNMIK" as the ICG report admits. With close
ties to
the Greek government, and a sterling international track record for
solidity and
performance, Mytineleos can make a strong case. The report also somewhat
reluctantly notes that
"UNMIK cannot simply ignore claims which may be genuine, and the UN
legal
advisers in New York have concluded that the rights of claimants like
Mytilineos must
go to adjudication. The question arises as to which court. So far that
is left in
abeyance, as is the nature of the legal proceedings themselves. If all
other decisions
are left to depend upon the resolution of this issue, it could be many
years before
Trepca starts working again."
A PROBLEM NEATLY SOLVED
The military occupation of Trepca solves Soros's two major problems by
arrogating
de facto ownership of the mines to "the international community"
embodied by Unmik –
and deftly sidelines the French and the Greeks. Never mind the legal
technicalities, and
the risks of adjudication: just go in there and grab it! This is how the
much-vaunted
"Third Way" between socialism and capitalism, touted by the Clintonians
and their
British Laborite first cousins, works in practice. First, you invade a
country; then you
strip it of its assets, and sell them off to your politically connected
friends, such as Soros
– this is called "privatization," but there is nothing "private" about
it. The source of
Soros's Balkan coup is government power: the armed fist of the State,
and not the
invisible hand of the market. As the declared enemy of laissez-faire
capitalism, which
he rails against in several unbearably pretentious books, Soros
practices what he
preaches: using NATO and the UN as his instruments, he profits from the
plundering of
a proud nation – while his bought-and-paid-for shills rationalize the
schemes of this
modern Visigoth in the name of "humanitarianism" and "multiculturalism."
It kind of makes you want to puke, doesn't it?
A QUESTION NEATLY ANSWERED
For years, Soros funded the American Committee to Save Bosnia, the
Balkan Action
Council, and a plethora of other groups devoted to persuading US policy
makers that
nothing less than American military intervention in the region could
save the Kosovar
Albanians from "genocide." Soros himself spoke out on the issue, and
chided the West
for "appeasing" the Serbs. Now comes the payoff. Trepca is his, or will
be shortly. So
we have finally come up with the answer to the question that has been
haunting us for
over a year: why Kosovo? The answer consists of two words: George Soros.
All you
would-be tycoons out there, take heed: If you want to know what
investment strategy
to follow in era of the Third Way, then Soros has certainly set the
example.
---
Letters
The Guardian (London)
UNITED KINGDOM
Wednesday August 16, 2000
The
first casualty of war.
•It's interesting that Nato seems so concerned about stopping a
Serb-run mine (one of the few enterprises in Kosovo that employs its
dwindling Serb population) from polluting the atmosphere in Kosovo
(Serbs turn on British troops, August 15), but had no problems with
poisoning the entire Balkans by bombing chemical plants and oil
refineries (releasing tons of chemical toxins such as ethylene
dichloride, cynanide, and heavy metals into the atmosphere, ground, and
the Danube river); and using depleted but still radioactive uranium
ammunition and cluster bombs. The issue for Nato isn't about air
pollution - it's about stealing the massive Trepca mining complex for
western capitalists like George Soros.
Dr Michael Pravica
Las Vegas, USA
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------------------------------------------------------------
DAL DOCUMENTO UFFICIALE DEL SOROSIANO "INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP"
SULLA STRATEGIA DA SEGUIRE PER SOTTRARRE ALLA JUGOSLAVIA IL COMPLESSO
METALLURGICO DI TREPCA:
Excerpts from -
"International Crisis Group's" thnk-tank instructions on How the West
Should
Take the Trepca Mine Complex In Serbia/Kosovo
International Crisis Group
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/
[See at end of excerpts identity of ICG]
"Trepca: Making Sense of the Labyrinth"
26 November 1999
------
p.2
After nearly three years of economic sanctions instituted as punishment
for
its role in the Bosnian war, Belgrade was looking for ways to acquire
large
injections of cash. Exploiting Trepca seemed a likely option. In
February
1995, new management was installed, and a 'program of revitalization'
was
undertaken. The new team claimed that by the end of 1996 all the
production
plants were back into operation, ore excavation had increased, modern
mining
equipment had been purchased from Sweden, and all the lead and zinc
mines in
Serbia and Montenegro had been brought under the management of the
Trepca
company. Again according to Serbian official sources, in 1996 Trepca had
exported $100 million of products, making it the largest exporting
company in
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.6 Belgrade even planned to bring
mineral concentrates from the Bosnian Serb controlled mine in
Srebrenica,
site of the notorious massacre by Serb forces in July 1995.
------
p.3
The problems of Trepca are many and complex. They include its alleged
liabilities, the question who really owns it and who has been profiting
from
it, the deteriorating condition of its antiquated machinery, its
anachronistically oversized workforce, the scant field of prospective
investors, the disastrous environmental impact of the Zvecan smelter,
and
internal Kosovo politics. Even so, it is critical that at least some
aspects
of the Trepca issue be addressed immediately and not await the
resolution of
the entire nexus of problems. Most urgently, because of its importance
to
Belgrade, Trepca figures centrally in the unresolved security situation
in
Mitrovicë/a and in its current status as a divided city. At least some
of the
talk of a partition of Kosovo arises from the knowledge that control of
Trepca makes a vast difference to the territory's economic prospects.
Reports
of Serbian police in and around Zvecan, of Serb looting, rumours even of
Albanian prisoners being held there - all point to a need for immediate
international action.
------
p.3
It is also urgent that the people of Kosovo begin to see signs of
progress
towards some sort of economic normality. The return to work of even a
few
hundred Kosovar miners would represent, for all Kosovars, the reclaiming
of
their patrimony.
------
p.4
The Structure of the Trepca Conglomerate From Mine to Factory
As already noted, Trepca is a conglomerate which includes not only its
three
key components - Stari Trg9 mine, Zvecan smelter and the Mitrovicë/a
industrial complex - but a total of 41 installations, including some
outside
Kosovo. Trepca encompasses four distinct processes: extraction,
flotation,
smelting, and downstream processing, as well as other production and
marketing units. The Stari Trg mine east of Mitrovicë/a was, in 1989,
responsible for 40-50% of the mining production. Other mines in Kosovo -
Hajvali/Ajvalija, Novo Bërdë/Novo Brdo, Kishnicë/Kisnica, and
Badoc/Badovac -
accounted for roughly another 30% of Trepca's production. Two more
mining
facilities, at Crnac and Belo Brdo, are in the Serb-held areas north of
Mitrovicë/a, while three other mines are outside of Kosovo - these five
mines
are estimated to account for an estimated 20% of Trepca's total mining
extraction.
The minerals taken from Stari Trg are fed into the flotation facility on
the
Stari Trg premises, whereas the minerals extracted from Kosovo's other
four
mines undergo flotation at the Badoc/Badovac plant and those taken from
Crnac
and Belo Brdo are processed in Leposaviq/c. The resulting lead
concentrates
from all these flotation facilities, in addition to that coming from the
mines outside of Kosovo, used to be smelted at Zvecan.
The lead, zinc, silver, gold, cadmium and bismuth then go to such
downstream
facilities as the battery factories in Mitrovicë/a and Pejë/Pec, the
FAMIPA
factory in Prizren, and a hunting munitions factory in
Skënderaj/Srbica.
Hydrogen sulphide from Zvecan is processed in Mitrovicë/a's industrial
chemical plant, and the zinc and cadmium, after being processed in
Mitrovicë/a, are then sent to Gjilan/Gnjiljane for further industrial
processing.
The Environmental Concerns at Zvecan
The Trepca conglomerate has had a long history of environmental
problems.
During the 1980s a Trepca plant that produced agricultural chemicals was
blamed for producing fertilizers with such high super phosphate strength
that
livestock died after grazing on treated land. The worst pollution comes
from
the smelter in Zvecan, just a few kilometres northwest of Mitrovicë/a.
The
river Ibar runs past the smelter, before flowing through the city of
Mitrovicë/a and then into the Gazivoda Lake and so into Serbia proper.
Sulphur dioxide as a by-product of the metallurgical process is released
into
the air. With little or no investment in the plant over the last ten
years
the equipment has not been updated to meet increasingly stringent modern
standards.11 Some Kosovar experts also fear that current smelting
practices
as run by the Serbs are environmentally worse than those of ten years
ago.
They suspect that ore concentrates coming from as far away as Colombia
contain far higher levels of mercury and arsenic than is allowed by
international standards.12 Both Kosovar and international officials
stress
the importance of an in-depth and technically competent environmental
assessment of this outdated and run-down plant.
------
p. 13
Serbia
More serious repercussions could occur in Serbia. None of the opposition
leaders in Serbia has ever tolerated the idea of an independent Kosovo.
On
the contrary Serbian politicians compete to be 'most Serb' over Kosovo.
A key
issue over the next few months will be not only the developments in the
relationship between Montenegro and Serbia but the possibility of
elections
in Serbia itself. The question arises as to what effect firm UNMIK
action on
Trepca would do to the chances of the opposition to weaken or topple the
Milosevic regime. Making no bold moves leaves the festering wound of
Mitrovicë/a to be exploited by Milosevic in claiming his ability to
maintain
a key economic foothold in Kosovo. Should UNMIK assume the
administration of
Trepca and take the Zvecan smelter out of Belgrade's hands all Serb
politicians would have to react. Milosevic would continue to foster the
notion of the great US-EU conspiracy against the Serbs. Vojislav Seselj
would
likely take a stronger line and issue violent threats as he has done on
many
occasions. Opposition leaders like Djindjic and Draskovic would also
likely
deplore the international community's action. However they could exploit
the
argument that the 'loss' was due to the pariah status of
Milosevic himself, so that once again Serbia has lost assets due to his
presence in office. So provided action were taken before any elections
in
Serbia it need not upset, and might contribute to, any strategy for
unseating
Milosevic.
------
p.14
An initial assessment of Stari Trg has already been made: the priority
now
must be to produce a game-plan of measures whether easy and quick or
depending on major investment of money and time, and vigorous attempts
made
to interest donors - Trepca featured as a separate issue neither in the
World
Bank's twin recent reports on Kosovo reconstruction 43 nor at the 17
November
donors' conference in Brussels. Yet Stari Trg, one of the richest mines
in
Europe, must be potentially profitable again and should be a priority
for
donors interested in setting Kosovo on its feet.
------
p.15
Simply handing Trepca over to the Kosovars is ruled out by the shortage
of
modern skills available locally, the need for internationally-verifiable
standards to avoid corruption, and the sheer scale of damage and
degradation
at the various installations. But the people of Kosovo must be included
in
the process. An energetic approach should be taken during the assessment
and
start-up period in attempting to define a consensus amongst the Kosovars
-
meaning the Albanian parties and the Serb professional workforce, since
the
Albanians will not treat with the Belgrade-appointed management of the
combine.
------
p.15
The social impact of the reduced workforce would need to be balanced
against
the need for competitively based private investment
------
p.15
The workforce and management of all Trepca facilities should be selected
on a
merit basis only. Kosovars - living in Kosovo, regardless of ethnicity -
should have preference to work at any Trepca facility.44 But no one with
ties
to the Belgrade regime should be considered.
Finally, looking beyond Kosovo's boundaries, it would be better to have
accomplished the first key steps of this approach before a Serbian
election
campaign in order that the perception of 'who lost Kosovo' falls on the
rightful culprit, Slobodan Milosevic, and to avoid the perception that
a
new, with luck more progressive government, can be accused of 'losing
Trepca'.
------
p.16
Recommendations
UNMIK should as a priority build up the staff capacity to assert total
control over Trepca in accordance with the terms of its stewardship of
Kosovo, take over the installations and announce a modest programme of
action
for a 'pre-donor phase' of rehabilitation.
------
p.16
A court of adjudication should be nominated for claims, in the knowledge
that
this court will probably act very slowly, so that the situation on the
ground
will either have to stagnate, or else develop independently of it. The
above
programme should begin before elections in Serbia.
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/
The International Crisis Group (ICG) is a private, multinational
organisation
committed to strengthening the capacity of the international community
to
understand and respond to impending crises.
ICG's approach is grounded in field research. Teams of political
analysts
based on the ground in countries at risk of crisis, gather information
from a
wide range of sources, assess local conditions and produce regular
analytical reports containing practical recommendations targeted at key
international decision-takers.
The next step is advocacy.
ICG reports are distributed widely to officials in foreign ministries
and
international organisations and made available to the general public via
the
organisation's internet site, located at www.crisisweb.org. The
organisation
works closely with governments and the press to highlight key issues
identified in the field and to stimulate discussion of potential policy
responses. The ICG Board - which includes prominent figures from the
fields
of politics, diplomacy, business and the media - is also involved in
helping
to bring ICG reports and recommendations to the attention of senior
policy-makers around the world.
The ICG Board is chaired by former US Senate Majority Leader George
Mitchell,
who recently brokered the "Good Friday" Peace Agreement in Northern
Ireland.
ICG is headquartered in Brussels with a U.S. branch in Washington DC.
The organisation currently operates field projects in seven countries
world
wide: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia, the Federal Republic
of
Yugoslavia, Algeria, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
ICG raises funds from the European Union, governments, charitable
foundations, companies and individual donors. The following governments
currently have funding agreements with ICG: Austria, Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway,
the
Republic of China (Taiwan), Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.
Private sector donors include the Blaustein Foundation, the Fares
Foundation,
the Hewlett Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Open
Society
Institute, the Smith Richardson Foundation and the U.S. Institute of
Peace.
November 1999
Board of Trustees November 1999
George Soros Chairman, Open Society Institute
Senator George J. Mitchell, Chairman Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Morton Abramowitz Former US Assistant Secretary of State
Hon Gareth Evans QC, ICG President Former Foreign Minister of Australia
Gianfranco Dell'Alba Member of the European Parliament
Oscar Arias Sanchez Former President of Costa Rica; Nobel Peace Prize,
1987
Ersin Arioglu Chairman, Yapi Merkezi, Turkey
Christoph Bertram Director, Science and Policy Foundation
Alan Blinken Former US Ambassador to Belgium
Maria Livanos Cattaui Secretary-General, International Chamber of
Commerce
Mong Joon Chung Member of the Korean National Assembly
Alain Destexhe ICG President Emeritus, Member of the Belgian Senate.
Mou-Shih Ding Senior Advisor to the President, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Mark Eyskens Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Issam M Fares Chairman, Wedge International
Malcolm Fraser Former Prime Minister of Australia
HRH El-Hassan bin Talal Prince of Jordan Website:
http://www.princehassan.gov.jo
Marianne Heiberg Special Advisor to Director-General of UNESCO
Max Jakobson Former Ambassador of Finland to the UN
Elliott F. Kulick Chairman, Pegasus International
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman Novelist and journalist
Allan J MacEachen Former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
Graça Machel Vice Chair, ICG Former Minister of Education, Mozambique
Nobuo Matsunaga President, Japan Institute for International Affairs
Barbara McDougall Former Secretary of State for External Affairs, Canada
Matthew McHugh Counsellor to the President, The World Bank
Miklós Németh Vice President, European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development; Former Prime Minister of Hungary
Olara Otunnu President, International Peace Academy; Former Foreign
Minister
of Uganda
Wayne Owens President, Center for Middle East Peace and Economic
Cooperation
Shimon Peres Former Prime Minister, Israel; Nobel Prize, 1994
David de Pury Chairman, de Pury Pictet Turettini & Co. Ltd.; Former
Swiss
Trade Ambassador
Cyril Ramaphosa Deputy Executive Chairman, New Africa Investments Ltd.,
South Africa
Michel Rocard Former Prime Minister of France
Christian Schwarz-Schilling Member of Bundestag; Former Minister of Post
and
Telecommunications, Germany
William Shawcross Journalist and author
Michael Sohlman Executive Director, Nobel Foundation, Sweden
Stephen Solarz Vice Chair, ICG Former US Congressman
Pär Stenbäck President, Finnish Red Cross; Former Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Finland
Thorvald Stoltenberg Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway
William O Taylor Chairman, Globe Newspapers Co.,USA
Leo Tindemans Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Ed Turner Former Executive Vice President, Turner Broadcasting Inc., USA
Eduard van Thijn Former Minister of the Interior, The Netherlands;
Former
Mayor of Amsterdam
Simone Veil Former President of the European Parliament; Former Minister
for
Health, France
Shirley Williams Member of the House of Lords; Former Secretary of State
for
Education and Science, United Kingdom
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
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------------------------------------------------------------
SULLA STRATEGIA DA SEGUIRE PER SOTTRARRE ALLA JUGOSLAVIA IL COMPLESSO
METALLURGICO DI TREPCA:
Excerpts from -
"International Crisis Group's" thnk-tank instructions on How the West
Should
Take the Trepca Mine Complex In Serbia/Kosovo
International Crisis Group
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/
[See at end of excerpts identity of ICG]
"Trepca: Making Sense of the Labyrinth"
26 November 1999
------
p.2
After nearly three years of economic sanctions instituted as punishment
for
its role in the Bosnian war, Belgrade was looking for ways to acquire
large
injections of cash. Exploiting Trepca seemed a likely option. In
February
1995, new management was installed, and a 'program of revitalization'
was
undertaken. The new team claimed that by the end of 1996 all the
production
plants were back into operation, ore excavation had increased, modern
mining
equipment had been purchased from Sweden, and all the lead and zinc
mines in
Serbia and Montenegro had been brought under the management of the
Trepca
company. Again according to Serbian official sources, in 1996 Trepca had
exported $100 million of products, making it the largest exporting
company in
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.6 Belgrade even planned to bring
mineral concentrates from the Bosnian Serb controlled mine in
Srebrenica,
site of the notorious massacre by Serb forces in July 1995.
------
p.3
The problems of Trepca are many and complex. They include its alleged
liabilities, the question who really owns it and who has been profiting
from
it, the deteriorating condition of its antiquated machinery, its
anachronistically oversized workforce, the scant field of prospective
investors, the disastrous environmental impact of the Zvecan smelter,
and
internal Kosovo politics. Even so, it is critical that at least some
aspects
of the Trepca issue be addressed immediately and not await the
resolution of
the entire nexus of problems. Most urgently, because of its importance
to
Belgrade, Trepca figures centrally in the unresolved security situation
in
Mitrovicë/a and in its current status as a divided city. At least some
of the
talk of a partition of Kosovo arises from the knowledge that control of
Trepca makes a vast difference to the territory's economic prospects.
Reports
of Serbian police in and around Zvecan, of Serb looting, rumours even of
Albanian prisoners being held there - all point to a need for immediate
international action.
------
p.3
It is also urgent that the people of Kosovo begin to see signs of
progress
towards some sort of economic normality. The return to work of even a
few
hundred Kosovar miners would represent, for all Kosovars, the reclaiming
of
their patrimony.
------
p.4
The Structure of the Trepca Conglomerate From Mine to Factory
As already noted, Trepca is a conglomerate which includes not only its
three
key components - Stari Trg9 mine, Zvecan smelter and the Mitrovicë/a
industrial complex - but a total of 41 installations, including some
outside
Kosovo. Trepca encompasses four distinct processes: extraction,
flotation,
smelting, and downstream processing, as well as other production and
marketing units. The Stari Trg mine east of Mitrovicë/a was, in 1989,
responsible for 40-50% of the mining production. Other mines in Kosovo -
Hajvali/Ajvalija, Novo Bërdë/Novo Brdo, Kishnicë/Kisnica, and
Badoc/Badovac -
accounted for roughly another 30% of Trepca's production. Two more
mining
facilities, at Crnac and Belo Brdo, are in the Serb-held areas north of
Mitrovicë/a, while three other mines are outside of Kosovo - these five
mines
are estimated to account for an estimated 20% of Trepca's total mining
extraction.
The minerals taken from Stari Trg are fed into the flotation facility on
the
Stari Trg premises, whereas the minerals extracted from Kosovo's other
four
mines undergo flotation at the Badoc/Badovac plant and those taken from
Crnac
and Belo Brdo are processed in Leposaviq/c. The resulting lead
concentrates
from all these flotation facilities, in addition to that coming from the
mines outside of Kosovo, used to be smelted at Zvecan.
The lead, zinc, silver, gold, cadmium and bismuth then go to such
downstream
facilities as the battery factories in Mitrovicë/a and Pejë/Pec, the
FAMIPA
factory in Prizren, and a hunting munitions factory in
Skënderaj/Srbica.
Hydrogen sulphide from Zvecan is processed in Mitrovicë/a's industrial
chemical plant, and the zinc and cadmium, after being processed in
Mitrovicë/a, are then sent to Gjilan/Gnjiljane for further industrial
processing.
The Environmental Concerns at Zvecan
The Trepca conglomerate has had a long history of environmental
problems.
During the 1980s a Trepca plant that produced agricultural chemicals was
blamed for producing fertilizers with such high super phosphate strength
that
livestock died after grazing on treated land. The worst pollution comes
from
the smelter in Zvecan, just a few kilometres northwest of Mitrovicë/a.
The
river Ibar runs past the smelter, before flowing through the city of
Mitrovicë/a and then into the Gazivoda Lake and so into Serbia proper.
Sulphur dioxide as a by-product of the metallurgical process is released
into
the air. With little or no investment in the plant over the last ten
years
the equipment has not been updated to meet increasingly stringent modern
standards.11 Some Kosovar experts also fear that current smelting
practices
as run by the Serbs are environmentally worse than those of ten years
ago.
They suspect that ore concentrates coming from as far away as Colombia
contain far higher levels of mercury and arsenic than is allowed by
international standards.12 Both Kosovar and international officials
stress
the importance of an in-depth and technically competent environmental
assessment of this outdated and run-down plant.
------
p. 13
Serbia
More serious repercussions could occur in Serbia. None of the opposition
leaders in Serbia has ever tolerated the idea of an independent Kosovo.
On
the contrary Serbian politicians compete to be 'most Serb' over Kosovo.
A key
issue over the next few months will be not only the developments in the
relationship between Montenegro and Serbia but the possibility of
elections
in Serbia itself. The question arises as to what effect firm UNMIK
action on
Trepca would do to the chances of the opposition to weaken or topple the
Milosevic regime. Making no bold moves leaves the festering wound of
Mitrovicë/a to be exploited by Milosevic in claiming his ability to
maintain
a key economic foothold in Kosovo. Should UNMIK assume the
administration of
Trepca and take the Zvecan smelter out of Belgrade's hands all Serb
politicians would have to react. Milosevic would continue to foster the
notion of the great US-EU conspiracy against the Serbs. Vojislav Seselj
would
likely take a stronger line and issue violent threats as he has done on
many
occasions. Opposition leaders like Djindjic and Draskovic would also
likely
deplore the international community's action. However they could exploit
the
argument that the 'loss' was due to the pariah status of
Milosevic himself, so that once again Serbia has lost assets due to his
presence in office. So provided action were taken before any elections
in
Serbia it need not upset, and might contribute to, any strategy for
unseating
Milosevic.
------
p.14
An initial assessment of Stari Trg has already been made: the priority
now
must be to produce a game-plan of measures whether easy and quick or
depending on major investment of money and time, and vigorous attempts
made
to interest donors - Trepca featured as a separate issue neither in the
World
Bank's twin recent reports on Kosovo reconstruction 43 nor at the 17
November
donors' conference in Brussels. Yet Stari Trg, one of the richest mines
in
Europe, must be potentially profitable again and should be a priority
for
donors interested in setting Kosovo on its feet.
------
p.15
Simply handing Trepca over to the Kosovars is ruled out by the shortage
of
modern skills available locally, the need for internationally-verifiable
standards to avoid corruption, and the sheer scale of damage and
degradation
at the various installations. But the people of Kosovo must be included
in
the process. An energetic approach should be taken during the assessment
and
start-up period in attempting to define a consensus amongst the Kosovars
-
meaning the Albanian parties and the Serb professional workforce, since
the
Albanians will not treat with the Belgrade-appointed management of the
combine.
------
p.15
The social impact of the reduced workforce would need to be balanced
against
the need for competitively based private investment
------
p.15
The workforce and management of all Trepca facilities should be selected
on a
merit basis only. Kosovars - living in Kosovo, regardless of ethnicity -
should have preference to work at any Trepca facility.44 But no one with
ties
to the Belgrade regime should be considered.
Finally, looking beyond Kosovo's boundaries, it would be better to have
accomplished the first key steps of this approach before a Serbian
election
campaign in order that the perception of 'who lost Kosovo' falls on the
rightful culprit, Slobodan Milosevic, and to avoid the perception that
a
new, with luck more progressive government, can be accused of 'losing
Trepca'.
------
p.16
Recommendations
UNMIK should as a priority build up the staff capacity to assert total
control over Trepca in accordance with the terms of its stewardship of
Kosovo, take over the installations and announce a modest programme of
action
for a 'pre-donor phase' of rehabilitation.
------
p.16
A court of adjudication should be nominated for claims, in the knowledge
that
this court will probably act very slowly, so that the situation on the
ground
will either have to stagnate, or else develop independently of it. The
above
programme should begin before elections in Serbia.
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/
The International Crisis Group (ICG) is a private, multinational
organisation
committed to strengthening the capacity of the international community
to
understand and respond to impending crises.
ICG's approach is grounded in field research. Teams of political
analysts
based on the ground in countries at risk of crisis, gather information
from a
wide range of sources, assess local conditions and produce regular
analytical reports containing practical recommendations targeted at key
international decision-takers.
The next step is advocacy.
ICG reports are distributed widely to officials in foreign ministries
and
international organisations and made available to the general public via
the
organisation's internet site, located at www.crisisweb.org. The
organisation
works closely with governments and the press to highlight key issues
identified in the field and to stimulate discussion of potential policy
responses. The ICG Board - which includes prominent figures from the
fields
of politics, diplomacy, business and the media - is also involved in
helping
to bring ICG reports and recommendations to the attention of senior
policy-makers around the world.
The ICG Board is chaired by former US Senate Majority Leader George
Mitchell,
who recently brokered the "Good Friday" Peace Agreement in Northern
Ireland.
ICG is headquartered in Brussels with a U.S. branch in Washington DC.
The organisation currently operates field projects in seven countries
world
wide: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia, the Federal Republic
of
Yugoslavia, Algeria, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
ICG raises funds from the European Union, governments, charitable
foundations, companies and individual donors. The following governments
currently have funding agreements with ICG: Austria, Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway,
the
Republic of China (Taiwan), Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.
Private sector donors include the Blaustein Foundation, the Fares
Foundation,
the Hewlett Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Open
Society
Institute, the Smith Richardson Foundation and the U.S. Institute of
Peace.
November 1999
Board of Trustees November 1999
George Soros Chairman, Open Society Institute
Senator George J. Mitchell, Chairman Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Morton Abramowitz Former US Assistant Secretary of State
Hon Gareth Evans QC, ICG President Former Foreign Minister of Australia
Gianfranco Dell'Alba Member of the European Parliament
Oscar Arias Sanchez Former President of Costa Rica; Nobel Peace Prize,
1987
Ersin Arioglu Chairman, Yapi Merkezi, Turkey
Christoph Bertram Director, Science and Policy Foundation
Alan Blinken Former US Ambassador to Belgium
Maria Livanos Cattaui Secretary-General, International Chamber of
Commerce
Mong Joon Chung Member of the Korean National Assembly
Alain Destexhe ICG President Emeritus, Member of the Belgian Senate.
Mou-Shih Ding Senior Advisor to the President, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Mark Eyskens Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Issam M Fares Chairman, Wedge International
Malcolm Fraser Former Prime Minister of Australia
HRH El-Hassan bin Talal Prince of Jordan Website:
http://www.princehassan.gov.jo
Marianne Heiberg Special Advisor to Director-General of UNESCO
Max Jakobson Former Ambassador of Finland to the UN
Elliott F. Kulick Chairman, Pegasus International
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman Novelist and journalist
Allan J MacEachen Former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
Graça Machel Vice Chair, ICG Former Minister of Education, Mozambique
Nobuo Matsunaga President, Japan Institute for International Affairs
Barbara McDougall Former Secretary of State for External Affairs, Canada
Matthew McHugh Counsellor to the President, The World Bank
Miklós Németh Vice President, European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development; Former Prime Minister of Hungary
Olara Otunnu President, International Peace Academy; Former Foreign
Minister
of Uganda
Wayne Owens President, Center for Middle East Peace and Economic
Cooperation
Shimon Peres Former Prime Minister, Israel; Nobel Prize, 1994
David de Pury Chairman, de Pury Pictet Turettini & Co. Ltd.; Former
Swiss
Trade Ambassador
Cyril Ramaphosa Deputy Executive Chairman, New Africa Investments Ltd.,
South Africa
Michel Rocard Former Prime Minister of France
Christian Schwarz-Schilling Member of Bundestag; Former Minister of Post
and
Telecommunications, Germany
William Shawcross Journalist and author
Michael Sohlman Executive Director, Nobel Foundation, Sweden
Stephen Solarz Vice Chair, ICG Former US Congressman
Pär Stenbäck President, Finnish Red Cross; Former Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Finland
Thorvald Stoltenberg Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway
William O Taylor Chairman, Globe Newspapers Co.,USA
Leo Tindemans Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Ed Turner Former Executive Vice President, Turner Broadcasting Inc., USA
Eduard van Thijn Former Minister of the Interior, The Netherlands;
Former
Mayor of Amsterdam
Simone Veil Former President of the European Parliament; Former Minister
for
Health, France
Shirley Williams Member of the House of Lords; Former Secretary of State
for
Education and Science, United Kingdom
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
ANCORA SULLA OCCUPAZIONE DEL COMPLESSO DI TREPCA
E GLI ENORMI INTERESSI CHE CI SONO DIETRO
La NATO, nota organizzazione di soccorso umanitario, dopo avere
devastato
il petrolchimico di Pancevo e cosparso di DU mezzi Balcani, ha ora
deciso
di impegnarsi per la salubrita' dell'aria: con questa scusa ridicola ha
infatti chiuso e preso possesso del complesso metallurgico di Trepca,
comprese le preziose miniere, occupando anche tutta l'area nord di
Kosovska Mitrovica, l'unica della zona ancora non ripulita etnicamente
dai
terroristi dell'UCK (alleati della NATO).
Tutte cose previste e dette gia' dall'inizio del conflitto per il
Kosovo,
conflitto che niente ha mai avuto a che vedere con presunti diritti
delle
minoranze. Attraverso la albanizzazione totale dell'area la NATO mira a
ricostruire lo status quo del nazifascismo (Grande Albania)
appoggiandosi
sul nazionalismo locale, come ha gia' fatto con tutte le altre
secessioni
e come si appresta a fare con il Montenegro; e contestualmente
mira a stabilirsi permanentemente al centro del Balcani prendendo pieno
possesso delle ricchezze jugoslave dell'area.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 24, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
Kosovo
NATO TROOPS SEIZE MINING COMPLEX
By Sara Flounders
Claiming they were concerned about controlling air
pollution, some 3,000 NATO soldiers stormed a lead smelting
plant in Zvecan at 4:30 in the morning of Aug. 14. The plant
was the only functioning industry in the vast Trepca mining
complex in northern Kosovo, a few miles from the city of
Mitrovica.
At 6:30 a.m., in a further attack that had nothing to do
with air pollution, NATO soldiers closed down and
confiscated the equipment of Zvecan's Radio S--the only
station that dared to report information critical of NATO.
The northern part of Mitrovica is the only remaining multi-
ethnic part of Kosovo. Thousands of Serbs, Romani people,
Slavic Muslims, other nationalities and peoples of mixed
backgrounds have been driven out of other areas by Kosovo
Liberation Army thugs and vigilante groups. Many have fled
to the north side of the Iber river.
There, with the local Serbian population, they have resisted
more than a year of KLA attacks in an economically
devastated region.
The surprise attack by NATO shut down the only radio station
and the main source of employment for the local population.
The mines, with their smelting, refining and power centers,
once constituted one of Yugoslavia's leading export
industries and a main source of hard currency. It was the
major source of jobs in the region.
Defending the pre-dawn attack, Bernard Kouchner, the head of
the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said, "As a
doctor and chief administrator of Kosovo I would be derelict
if I allowed a threat to the health of children and pregnant
women to continue for one more day." UNMIK is the police
force set up by NATO to administer Kosovo.
Kouchner has never had a word of criticism for the
environmental havoc NATO created throughout the entire
region with the use of depleted uranium weapons, the bombing
of chemical plants and the use of cluster bombs.
If you find it hard to accept that NATO is suddenly
concerned with pollution, it's worth looking for what is
really at stake.
'MOST VALUABLE PIECE OF REAL ESTATE'
On July 8, 1998, New York Times reporter Chrisopher Hedges
wrote, "The sprawling state-owned Trepca mining complex is
the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans."
Hedges described glittering veins of lead, cadmium, zinc,
gold and silver.
The Stari Trg mine is ringed with smelting plants, 17 metal
treatment sites, warehouses, freight yards, railroad lines,
a power plant and the country's largest battery plant. It is
the richest lead and zinc mine in Europe. There are also 17
billion tons of coal.
It was George Soros, the multi-billionaire financier, who
wrote Kouchner's script.
Paris-based journalist Diana Johnstone, in a Feb. 28 report,
described a policy paper by the International Crisis Group.
This is a think tank set up by Soros to provide guidance in
the NATO-led reshaping of the Balkans.
The think tank publicly called on Kouch ner to take over the
management of Trepca and to use the pretext of environmental
hazards to shut the Zvecan smelter down.
The Soros group stressed that the takeover should happen
before new elections in Yugoslavia so that the opposition
could blame Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for the
loss of Trepca. The elections are now six weeks away.
At the time this proposal was made there was no pollution--
the lead smelter was not even in operation. It was closed
for several months after the NATO bombing.
Production in this state-owned industry started again only
two months ago, at great sacrifice and expense. The hard
currency it could have earned was desperately needed to
rebuild Yugoslavia's ravaged economy.
SKIMMING THE PROFITS
With the seizure of the smelting plant in Zvenca, NATO will
control the entire Trepca complex.
Proving once again that NATO is the military arm to insure
primarily U.S. corporate control, the first move after
seizing the complex was to turn it over to a consortium of
private mining companies. This consortium--ITT Kosovo Ltd.--
is a joint venture of U.S., French and Swedish companies.
The most interesting partner in this deal to control Trepca
is the U.S. company Morrison Knudsen International. On July
7 Morrison Knudsen merged with Raytheon Engineers and
Constructors, a major military contractor that makes Patriot
missiles and radar equipment for the Pentagon.
This is an enormously lucrative deal. ITT Kosovo Ltd. will
administer Trepca, appoint executives and a board of
directors, develop the investment strategy and skim the
greatest profits from every possible deal.
Those in the Albanian population who hold illusions that
control by these corporations will mean the return of the
thousands of well-paid, secure jobs with benefits that
existed before the war should read the plans multi-
billionaire Soros has in store.
Once NATO has control of the whole industrial complex,
according to the International Crisis Group, foreign
investors will develop a very modern, highly profitable
facility with a small workforce.
In this outright theft of an industry that was built by the
efforts of all the peoples of Yugoslavia, Soros's think tank
recommends that the management and administration be made up
of foreign executives "in order to prevent corruption"!
- END -
(Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
ww@.... For subscription info send message to:
info@.... Web: http://www.workers.org)
---
Sempre di Sarah Flounders, gia' nel 1998 un articolo spiegava tutta la
problematica delle miniere:
"Kosovo: la guerra e' per le miniere"
KOSOVO: "THE WAR IS ABOUT THE MINES"
http://www.marx2001.org/crj/DOCS/flou_mines.html
---
TREPCA - PHONE NUMBERS
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
On August 14th NATO forces swooped down into the Zvecan smelter in
Kosovo
and seized the last remaining bit of Yugoslav government owned property
- the
Trepca mining complex. This action directly violates UN Security
Council
Resolution 1244 which concluded the war and reafirmed Yugoslav
sovereignty
over the province. Workers were greeted with a shower of tear-gas and
rubber
bullets as they went to work on Monday. Since then Kosovska Mitrovica's
workers have been holding daily protests in front the plant, while a
dozen
members of the plants management are still refusing to leave the offices
of
the smelter. It now appears that the US-backed administrator of Kosovo,
Bernard Kouchner (who rules by decree) has decided to hand over these
Yugoslav state properties to a Western mining consortium ITT Kosovo
consisting of:
- the Washington Group (a big US DOD and DOE contractor, created through
the
merger of Morisson Knudsen International and Raytheon Engineering and
Construction Corp.),
- Boliden Ltd. (a Canadian firm that's been involved in some major
environmental disasters and whose Swedish subsidiary Boliden-Contech is
directly involved in the project), and
- TEC-Ingenierie (a French mining firm).
This is your chance to prevent the militaristic takeover of a
critical
lifeline for Kosovo's embattled ethnic-communities like the Serbs, Roma,
Muslim Slavs, Montenegrins, Turks, Goranies, Egyptians, and non-KLA
supporting Albanians, who have suffered greatly since the NATO
occupation of
the province a year ago. With 300,000 already ethnically cleansed from
Kosovo, and the remainder of the provinces minorities living in
ethnic-ghettoes ringed with barbed wire and subjected to almost daily
terrorist attacks, the NATO occupation has rendered the alliances claims
of
"humanitarian intervention" ring hollow. It is now evident that what
was
really at stake was NATO's survival, as well as Kosovo's mineral wealth
and
strategic importance. The largest concentration of minerals in Europe
not in
the hands of Western multinationals was in Kosovo! This is changed with
NATO's commando raid on the Zvecan smelter...Please contact the
following
firms to voice your outrage at this undemocratic, militaristic, and
imperialistic act:
WASHINGTON GROUP
Corporate Headquarters
Tel: (208) 386-5000
BOLIDEN LTD.
Toronto Headquarters
Tel: (416) 216-2272
Boliden-Contech (Swedish subsidiary directly involved in the project)
Tel: (011) 46 8 610 1500 [ask for Stefan Kekel]
TEC INGENIERIE
Tel: (011) 33 1 30 66 27 50
---
Url for this article is www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/inthewee.htm
Trepca Takeover:By the Script
by Jared Israel (8-17-00)
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
In the wee hours of the morning, Monday, August 14, KFOR (that is NATO
forces
in Kosovo) swept into Northern Mitrovica and seized the lead smelting
plant,
part of the fabulously valuable Trepca mining complex.
The excuse given: pollution.
Oh pollution, how hast we suffered in thy good name. Or words to that
effect.
Here's what the 'AP' said, as reported by Richard Hugus in a sharp news
analysis last night:
"Hundreds of NATO-led peacekeeping troops wearing surgical masks against
toxic smoke swept into a Serb-run metal smelting complex." ('Boston
Globe'
August 15, 2000) (1)
Denouncing the takeover as theft, the Yugoslav government quoted the
mine's
managers saying that the "dark satanic mills" stuff was hypocritical
fiction.
The Yugoslav news agency, 'Tanjug', reported:
"According to these [recent test] results, there was .12 milligrams of
lead
per cubic metre (permitted level .15 mg), .019 mg of zinc (permitted
level .4
mg), copper .004 mg (permitted level .01 mg), iron .002 mg (permitted
level
.2 mg), etc.
'"If UNMIK experts are concerned for the children and pregnant women in
Kosovska Mitrovica, they should take care of the waste gases from their
own
heavy-duty vehicles that throng our roads at all hours and poison the
people', the statement said." (2)
What is truly amazing is, in a report posted on Emperor's Clothes Feb.
28,
1999, Diana Johnstone noted that the ICG, an international think tank
that
does some of the thinking for NATO, proposed that the Internationals
seize
the smelter using an environmental excuse - proposed this all months
ago.
'''UNMIK [said the ICG report] and KFOR should implement a rapid and
categorical takeover of the Trepca complex, including the immediate
total
shutdown of the environmentally hazardous facilities at Zvecan'.
''In the 'game-plan of measures' recommended by the ICG, UNMIK is
advised to
instruct a 'Zvecan environmental assessment team' to report on the
status of
the equipment and thereupon 'advise as to what measures must be
taken'...
Environmental hazards are to be the pretext to shut down Zvecan and
deprive
the last Serbs in Kosovo of their livelihood.'' (3)
We have posted the actual ICG report as well at the end of Diana's
analysis
so you can see how the plan for using environmental arguments as a cover
for
theft was originally formulated.
It's unusual for an analyst to discover a document like the ICG report
and
based on this document make a prediction and have it come so completely
true.
Unusual and in this case more than a little horrifying.
But in fact Diana Johnstone didn't just hit one home run here, she hit
two.
She cited a second piece of advice in the ICG report. Some advice about
the
Yugoslav elections. Here's what she wrote:
'''The ICG urges UNMIK to hurry up with the game plan for taking over
the
valuable mining complex before Serbian elections so that a new
government
more to the West's liking cannot be accused of 'losing Trepca'. All
Serbian
leaders, including opposition leaders, the ICG observes, will have to
protest
when UNMIK takes over Trepca and the Zvecan smelter. 'However they could
exploit the argument that the `loss' was due to the pariah status of
Milosevic himself, so that once again Serbia has lost assets due to his
presence in office. So provided action were taken before any elections
in
Serbia it need not upset, and might contribute to, any strategy for
unseating
Milosevic.'''
And low and behold, this prediction of Diana Johnstone's has come true
as
well. Because there are indeed elections scheduled soon in Yugoslavia.
In
those elections, the pro-US 'democratic' opposition (most notably Zoran
Djindjic) has more or less lined up behind a politician little known
outside
Yugoslavia, Vojislav Kostunica of the Democratic Party of Serbia. The
'democratic' opposition is notable for having been promised $100,000,00
by
the US Senate last July, a lot of which has been delivered. (Working for
the
US is the best job in Yugoslavia.) (4)
In a chilling echo of the ICG report, Kostunica has, sure enough, issued
a
statement accusing Milosevich of losing (indeed, of 'trading away'!) the
Trepca mines. Here's the statement. I have restrained myself and only
made a
couple of comments.
KOSTUNICA WRITES: "The game over the "Trepca" complex, whose lead
smelter in
Zvecan has been taken over by the international administration in
Kosovo-Metohija, continues. Instead of the promised 50 German marks,
Unmik
representatives are offering the employees 1,250 dinars as an advance,
in
brand new, unused banknotes. Unmik also possesses lists of all the
employees".
KOSTUNICA CONTINUES: "Therefore, one can rightly ask how Unmik managed
to
come by dinars, and also brand new ones? [Emperors-clothes note: NATO is
the
military arm of the richest Empire in history. Now how could it POSSIBLY
get
hold of a few thousand dinars? Like Du-uh.] How did it obtain the lists
of
employees? [Emperors-clothes note: ditto with the list of employees.
That one
wouldn't even cost Kouchner money.] How is it that Unmik, whose head
Bernard
Kouchner last year introduced the German mark as the only legal tender,
is
now paying in dinars? [One more Emperor's Clothes note: didn't the
Yugo's
grab some guys last year smuggling brand new counterfeit dinars from the
Bosnian Serb 'entity' into Serbia? Weren't they supposed to be agents of
Dodik, a collaborator NATO installed in the Bosnian Serb 'entity'?]
KOSTUNICA ASKS: "Could it be that the Milosevic regime has once again
concluded a secret deal and sold 'Trepca'"?
I ASK: Could it just be that the ICG is stranger than fiction?
"Cut! It's a take! Print it!"
Further reading...
(1) 'Hollywood Invades Kosovo: The NATO Trepca Takeover'
by Richard Hugus at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/hugus/surgical.htm
(2) 'Management Denounced UN Pollution Claims Prior to Seizure of Trepca
Smelter' at www.emperors-clothes.com/news/yugoslav.htm
(3) 'Pro-NATO Thinktank Thought-up Excuse for Grabbing Trepca Smelter
Plant'
at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/Johnstone/howitis.htm
(4) The July 29th Senate hearings on how to help bring 'democracy' to
Serbia
are amazing. They reveal first and foremost the disease which has
possessed
the USA: Empire. The assumption that the US has the right to meddle
infuses
every paragraph of the transcript of testimony and the casual intimacy
with
which these US officials discuss their domination of the leaders of the
Yugoslav 'democratic' opposition is a marvel. 'July 29th Senate Hearings
on
Bringing 'democracy' to Serbia' at
www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/hearin.htm
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
---
MEDIA CENTRE
August 16, 2000
DIVISON OF SPOILS
The takeover of Trepca, Thermal electric power plant "Kosovo B", the
mine,
telephone system..., all create the impression that in Kosovo and
Metohija
the division of spoils, estimated at over ten billion dollars, is
taking
place The true reasons for the 79-day bombing are becoming
increasingly
clear after the signing and enforcement of the "Early House
Declaration",
says Milenko Radic commenting on the KFOR takeover of "Trepca" mining
and
smelter complex.
Organized by the Washington Institute for Peace, a meeting of crucial
importance for the Kosovo Serbs took place in Early House Virginia from
July
21 to 23, 2000. The meeting was attended by 26 representatives of the
Albanian community (including Hashim Taci, Ibrahim Rugova, Redzep Cosja,
Edita Tahiri, Mahmut Bakali, Kacusa Jasari, Ljuljeta Pulja, ...) and 16
"representatives of the Serbian community in Kosovo and Metohija "
(bishop
Artemije, father Sava Janjic, Rada Trajkovic, Randjel Nojkic...). At the
end
of the meeting they, "in the name of the Serbian community in Kosovo and
Metohija" signed a DECLARATION, which actually supplements and amends
the UN
SC Resolution 1244.
Regardless of the fact that the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija believe
that
not even the minimum conditions have been fulfilled for their
participation
in the coming elections, this Declaration, singed in their name by the
"representatives of the Serbs" obliges them to respect the legality of
the
elections and their results. At the same time, it authorizes Bernard
Kouchner to use his own discretion in selecting the Serbs to be
appointed
members of municipal councils. Having been given this agreement,
Kouchner
has already scheduled "democratic elections" for October 28, 2000 which
are
already legal for the "representatives of the Serbs", especially since
those
among them Kouchner intends to appoint to future municipal councils in
Kosovo are already known.
With a view to preventing the influence of (imported) radio and TV
programs,
"representatives of the Serbs" authorized Kouchner to undertake the
measures
to prevent that. A few days after the signing, on august 13, Kouchner
closed the single Serbian language radio station in Zvecan which
re-broadcast Radio Belgrade programs.
With this Declaration the "Serbian representatives" asked the KFOR and
UNMIK to close the border towards Serbia, i.e. demanded "more efficient
control of entry" into Kosovo and Metohija.
With this Declaration "the representatives of the Serbs" insist on
urgent
disbanding of all parallel structures of power and security. In addition
they demand from the KFOR and UNMIK to engage in coordinated action to
affirm the authorities in all parts of Kosovo and Metohija, implying the
opposition to the influence of Yugoslavia. If what bishop Artemije says
is
true, namely that he went to the U.S.A. with the patriarchs blessing and
that he did report to him upon his return, it remains unclear why the
fifth
church's instruction has not abolished, requesting "prayer for those in
power". Starting from the Declaration whereby the above-mentioned
"representatives of the Serbs" amended the UN SC Resolution, Bernard
Kouchner, on August 13, assisted by a few hundred armed soldiers,
occupied
Trepca, invoking "health protection from over-pollution". This actually
marks the start of taking the northern parts of Kosovo and Metohija away
from Serbs.
This Declaration, in addition to other requests, instructs the KFOR and
UNMIK to disband all unauthorized security forces operating in Kosovo,
but
are not from Kosovo. Judging by numerous statements of the "Serbian
representatives" one gets the impression that the unauthorized operators
in
this sense are the Serbian security units.
The takeover of Trepca, Thermal electric power plant "Kosovo B", the
mine,
telephone system..., all create the impression that in Kosovo and
Metohija
the division of spoils, estimated at over ten billion dollars, is
taking
place The true reasons for the 79-day bombing are becoming
increasingly
clear after the signing and enforcement of the "Early House
Declaration".
(The author is president of the Fund for the Development of Democracy.)
---
UN to start lengthy repairs of Kosovo mine complex
By Sean Maguire
MITROVICA, Yugoslavia, Aug 14 (Reuters) - The United Nations said on
Monday
it would take one to three years of repairs before Kosovo's dilapidated
Trepca mine complex could produce commercially viable quantities of
metals.
NATO-led peacekeepers seized control of Serb-held parts of the Trepca
group
on Monday for the U.N., which runs Kosovo as a de facto protectorate, to
enable it to shut down the Zvecan smelter which it said was polluting
the air
with lead fumes.
But the seizure of Zvecan, part of the Trepca group, has also finally
given
the U.N. control of the entire complex and allowed it to hire a
consortium of
mining companies to begin a revamp of the mining and metallurgy industry
in
northern Kosovo.
"Now we can get to work to bring Trepca back to life, and back to the
people
of Kosovo," said the head of the Kosovo U.N. mission, Bernard Kouchner.
Some $16 million of aid money from the EU, United States, France, Italy,
Holland and Sweden will pay for the work of ITT Kosovo Consortium Ltd, a
joint venture of TEC-Ingenierie of France, Sweden's Boliden
Contech<BOL.ST>
and Morrison Knudsen International<MK.N> of the United States.
Trepca comprises 14 mines yielding lead, zinc, gold and silver, plus
nine
flotation plants, two metallurgy plants and 14 factories. All facilities
are
in very poor repair, with many of them almost derelict.
An earlier U.N.-commissioned study judged that parts of the mining
complex
could be made safe and economically viable with sufficient investment
and
Italian engineers have already done emergency work to prevent one of the
larger mines from flooding.
The ITT Kosovo consortium will assess what facilities can be rescued and
what
needs to be done to restart production. But Bernard Salome, Kouchner's
chief
economic adviser, warned it might be as much as three years before
significant output appeared.
OUTPUT FORECASTS EXAGGERATED
Trepca's once prodigious output of lead, as much as 90,000 tonnes
annually
before the break-up of Yugoslavia, has dwindled to almost nothing over
the
last decade, with production halting when NATO's 78-day bombing campaign
starting in March 1999.
Serbs fled most of Kosovo when NATO troops entered and they became
victims of
revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians but clung on in the northern
Mitrovica
area around Zvecan.
With Belgrade eager for the hard currency to be made from selling lead
in
Europe, Serb managers restarted production in June. But local mining
experts
said the Zvecan plant had been running at below 10 percent capacity.
"The average capacity utilisation in lead metallurgy and refinery has
been
below 10 percent, more precisely it stood at around 6.0 percent since
the
beginning of the year," Desimir Petkovic, a former Trepca manager, told
Reuters.
In February, the head of the Trepca mining and smelting complex, Novak
Bijelic, was quoted by official Yugoslav news agency as saying Trepca
would
produce 46,500 tonnes of lead, 25,000 tonnes of silver and 100 kilograms
of
gold this year.
But international traders, who spoke under condition of anonymity due to
various international financial sanctions, said there was no way the
smelter
could have achieved that goal.
"It's wishful thinking. They would need between 70,000 and 100,000
tonnes of
concentrate depending on the quality of the ore. There is no chance they
could have obtained it without us knowing it," one trader told Reuters.
In 1998, the year before Belgrade let slip its grip on its rebellious
ethnic
Albanian-dominated Kosovo province, Trepca produced some 40,000 tonnes
of
lead.
(with additional reporting by Gordana Filipovic in Belgrade)
11:18 08-14-00
---
FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
YUGOSLAVIA PROTESTS WITH U.N. OVER KFOR'S STORMING OF TREPCA
NEW YORK, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Yugoslavia's U.N. ambassador has
lodged
a strongly worded protests with the U.N. Security Council over Monday's
storming of the Trepca mining complex in Serbian (Yugoslav)
KosovoMetohija
by the international force KFor.
Ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic wrote to Council President Agam
Hasmy demanding an urgent session of the body over the outrage, and
asked
that the letter be circulated as an official document.
The letter says (official translation):
"I have been instructed by my Government to lodge the strongest
protest on its behalf and to request an urgent meeting of the Security
Council at the armed attack on, and the usurpation of, the RMHK "Trepca"
Shareholding Corporation by the Kosovo Force (KFOR).
"In the night between 13 and 14 August 2000, massive KFOR
forces
carried out an unprovoked brutal attack on "Trepca" near Kosovska
Mitrovica
and occupied it. In doing so, they violated the KFOR mandate and
Security
Council resolution 1244 (1999) of 10 June 1999 in the most flagrant way
so
far.
"KFOR used armed force against peaceful employees and
management
of "Trepca" and the official state representatives, as well as the
peaceful
Serbian population in that part of the Province. Even though the basic
task
of UNMIK and KFOR under Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) is to
guarantee physical and property security of residents, and to provide a
secure environment in the Province, by this attack they have openly
aligned
themselves before the eyes of the entire world public with ethnic
Albanian
separatists and terrorists.
"The attack on, and the occupation of, "Trepca" by KFOR
constitutes the most drastic violation of their mandate and the
provisions
of the Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) so far. This is a unique
case of forces acting under a mandate of the United Nations being
massively
engaged against a peaceful population for the protection of which they
have
been dispatched by the Security Council and accepted by the Government
of
my country. The goals of the demonstration of the armed force of KFOR
are
very clear indeed: the intimidation and expulsion of the Serbian
population, continuation of the ethnic cleansing of Serbs and other
nonAlbanians and an illegal usurpation of "Trepca" and of national,
economic and natural resources.
"The alleged concern of Bernard Kouchner for the protection of
the
environment is yet another cynical and transparent attempt to hoodwink
the
world public opinion and the Security Council, which confirms that the
KFOR
action is completely unfounded and represents the most flagrant and
brazen
violation of the decisions of the Security Council and the norms of the
international law in general. Behind the deception are those who are
responsible for the aggression on my country last year, for the loss of
thousands of human lives, for the humanitarian, economic and
environmental
catastrophe, as well as for the escalation of terrorism and separatism
in
South East Europe and in other parts of the world. They are those who
sowed
over 30,000 bombs with depleted uranium all over Kosovo and Metohija
during
the 3month aerial bombardment the consequences of which are
unforeseeable.
"The action of KFOR and UNMIK is without a precedent and
constitutes an attempt to abuse and manipulate the Security Council.
This
is a blow to the inviolability of property rights and attempt to occupy
natural and economic assets of a sovereign country illegally and by
force.
"Bearing in mind the gravity of the situation and the
consequences
that may arise from such acts, the Government of the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia demands energetically that the Security Council condemn the
takeover of "Trepca" and to bring a decision to return the situation
into
the status quo ante so as to enable "Trepca" and its employees to
continue
normal work. The Government of the FR of Yugoslavia wishes to point out
that it will not recognize the consequences of this violent act nor the
situations that have arisen on the basis of the acts of KFOR and UNMIK.
"Alongside the armed action against "Trepca", KFOR has carried
out
vandal raids against the only remaining organs in the Serbian language
in
Kosovo and Metohija, Radio "S" at Zvecan and the newspaper "Jedinstvo"
in
Pristina. Their offices and equipment have been smashed and destroyed
while
brute force has been used against journalists and other personnel. The
vandal suppression of the Serbianlangauge media with the use of armed
military force continues an unprecedented act and is part of the
extended
collaboration of KFOR and UNMIK with ethnic Albanian separatists and
terrorists on the realization of the concept of ethnic cleansing.
"The aforementioned is a clear confirmation that the overall
activity of UNMIK and KFOR serves the goals that are in full contrast to
Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) and that they are conducive to
the
further exacerbation of the situation with the unforeseeable
consequences.
The Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia expects therefore
from
the Security Council to take, without further delay, concrete and
energetic
measures to finally put under control the activities of its
representatives
and to end their policy of fait accompli that threatens peace and
stability
in the region. It is only in this way that it will be possible to stop a
further erosion of the authority of the United Nations and pave the way
to
a peaceful political solution as provided for by Security Council
resolution 1244 (1999).
"I should be grateful if you would have the present letter
circulated as a document of the Security Council."
YUGOSLAVIA ASKS U.N. AGENCIES TO CONDEMN KFOR'S TREPCA SEIZURE
GENEVA, Aug 16 (Tanjug) Yugoslavia will not recognise any
action
by the U.N. force KFor or the U.N. mission UNMIK in Kosovo Metohija that
runs counter to U.N. Resolution 1244, according to Yugoslavia's U.N.
mission chief in Geneva on Wednesday.
Ambassador Branko Brankovic wrote to this effect to the heads
of
U.N. agencies based in the Swiss capital, in connection with KFor's
storming on Monday of the Trepca lead smelter in the U.N.run
KosovoMetohija
province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.
Letters were sent to Under Secretary General Vladimir
Petrovsky,
High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, High Commissioner for Human
Rights Mary Robinson, and Balkan human rights rapporteur Jiri
Dienstbier,
asking that they resolutely condemn the outrage.
Brankovic said that UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner and KFor
surpass
themselves with their practically daily flagrant violations of
Resolution
1244.
According to Brankovic, the storming of the lead smelter at
Zvecan
is one of the most dangerous moves taken by Kouchner so far, which might
have farreaching consequences for the entire situation and the
normalisation process in the province.
It was clear that the chief reason for KFor's violent storming
of
the Zvecan plant was plunder, ethnic cleansing and an attempt to prevent
KosovoMetohija voting in upcoming Yugoslav federal and Serbian local
elections, Brankovic said.
He added that this kind of behaviour by Kouchner was in
flagrant
violation of the fundamental principles of the U.N. Charter and of the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia.
This behaviour was the height of hypocrisy on the part of
Bernard
Kouchner, designed to justify last year's NATO aggression on Yugoslavia,
Brankovic said.
NATO SUCKS PROFIT OUT OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA, SERBIAN MINISTER AVERS
KRAGUJEVAC, Yugoslavia, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Monday's storming of
the
Trepca smelter at Zvecan, KosovoMetohija, by the U.N. mission (UNMIK) is
NATO's way of encouraging ethnic Albanian extremists and intimidating
Serbs, according to a Serbian minister on Tuesday.
The operation gas clearly exposed a plan for ethnically
cleansing
this U.N.administered Serbian (Yugoslav) province of its Serbs and
Montenegrins for economic reasons, among others, Minister of Energy and
Mining Slobodan Tomovic told TANJUG.
What they are really after is KosovoMetohija's mineral
resources,
Tomovic said.
The "peacekeepers" of UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner have
demonstrated arrogance and force, as well as their intention to conquer
KosovoMetohija, completely flouting agreements and documents they have
themselves signed, he added.
"The West preaches democracy and inviolability of private
property, and all the while its troops seize at arms facilities such as
Trepca, the Obilic thermoelectric power plant, Telecom, and the Pristina
factory of shock absorbers", he said.
TREPCA EXECUTIVES STRONGLY CONDEMN KFOR'S STORMING OF MINING
COMPLEX
BELGRADE, Aug 15 (Tanjug) The shareholdersowners of the Trepca
industrial complex on Tuesday strongly condemned Monday's seizure of the
Zvecan lead smelter by the international force KFor and the U.N.
civilian
mission UNMIK.
A statement released from Trepca's Board of Governors in
Belgrade
condemned also the seizure of the office building in Zvecan, mines in
the
Leposavic area and other facilities.
At its session chaired by Board President Milos Milosavljevic,
the
Board of Governors said it would immediately take all legal and other
steps
to protect the property rights and all other rights of the shareholders.
The body dismissed allegations that Trepca had been sold away
by
the state and the management, and instructed the executives to seek
legal
redress for slander injurious to the reputation of Trepca.
Neither the Trepca general manager nor the Board president have
ever discussed the matter of ownership with KFor or UNMIK, since the
shareholders' property rights in Trepca are indisputable, the statement
said.
Environmental hazards pleaded in justification of the takeover
are
nothing but an excuse to mask the real motives behind the outrage, as
evident from the simultaneous seizure of four Trepca mines at Leposavic,
which pose no threat to the environment.
The Board of Governors instructed Trepca General Manager Novak
Bijelic to work out a production plan which should provide employment
and a
source of income for the employees in the present circumstances.
KOSOVOMETOHIJA OFFICIAL AVERS KFOR WAGES SERB INTIMIDATION
CAMPAIGN
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Serbia, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Monday's storming
of
the Trepca lead smelter at Zvecan, KosovoMetohija, by the international
force KFor was designed to intimidate the local Serbs, according to a
local
government official on Tuesday.
Zdravko Trajkovic, chief administrator of the Kosovska
Mitrovica
District, said the operation demonstrated KFor's bias in favour of
ethnic
Albanian terrorists and was part of an effort to drive Serbs out of this
U.N.run Serbian (Yugoslav) province.
"The brutality and cruelty demonstrated by KFor and UNMIK
members
in dealing with Trepca's workers and the population of Zvecan serve the
purpose of intimidating the people and expelling Serbs from north
KosovoMetohija.
"This falls in with the plans of ethnic Albanian terrorist
leader
Hashim Thaqi", Trajkovic told TANJUG.
The Serbian people are embittered and indignant also at ethnic
Albanians' vandalising of headstones at the Serbian cemetery in the
south,
ethnic Albanianhelp part of ethnically divided Kosovska Mitrovica, he
went
on to say.
What gives special rise to concern at this time, according to
him,
is "the violent arrogance demonstrated by KFor troops," who showed they
do
not shy from the darkest methods in dealing with Serbs and Montenegrins
in
KosovoMetohija.
The people in the Kosovska Mitrovica District, primarily in the
towns of Kosovska Mitrovica and Zvecan, remain determined to defend and
protect these lands, he said, adding that the latest outrage has only
given
them new strength to endure.
RUSSIA BLASTS KFOR'S STORMING OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA'S TREPCA
SMELTER
MOSCOW, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Russia on Tuesday voiced deep concern
over Monday's storming of the Trepca smelter at Zvecan, Kosovo Metohija,
by
the international force KFor and the U.N. civilian mission UNMIK, which
it
saw as a property seizure bid.
The foreign ministry issued a statement to say that U.N.
mission
officials' justification of the takeover by allegations of air pollution
from the lead smelting plant's fumes could not stand up under
criticisism.
Even if there were an environmental threat, which Trepca's
laboratory findings refute, it would still not justify KFor's use of
force,
which was nothing short of an effort to seize assets that do not belong
to
it, the statement said.
UNMIK and its chief, the U.N. secretary general's special envoy
Bernard Kouchner, have again proven their impotence to solve problems,
where they exist, through political dialogue, it added.
The document further said that the U.N. mission's arrogant
seizure
of Trepca was obviously politically motivated and undertaken without the
consent of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia as the owner of the company
in
the eyes of the law.
The ministry called for refraining from any new steps that
might
additionally aggravate the volatile and dangerous situation in that
U.N.administered Serbian province.
YUGOSLAV COMMITTEE - KFOR SEIZES TREPCA AND CARRIES ON AGGRESSION
BELGRADE, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Monday's predawn storming by KFor of
the Trepca lead smelter in Zvecan, KosovoMetohija, is nothing but
continued
aggression by new and dangerous methods, according to Yugoslav and
KosovoMetohija government bodies on Monday.
The Yugoslav committee liaising with the U.N. mission (UNMIK)
and
the KosovoMetohija Provisional Executive Council issued a statement to
say
the latest outrage continued a practice of seizing industrial facilities
in
that U.N.run Serbian (Yugoslav) province, begun with the coming of the
international force KFor and UNMIK in June 1999.
"Sacking of Serbs from their jobs and scenarios such as
poisonings
that attack only one ethnic community have been used several times
before
by the forces that have been given the mandate to secure law and order
in
KosovoMetohija.
"It was precisely this kind of behaviour that has created the
present chaos in the electric power industry, postal services,
Jugopetrol
oil company and others, and the result has been ethnic cleansing and a
genocide.
"Circulating of untrue reports about environmental pollution
only
screen an intention to seize this economic giant, in whose vicinity
miners,
engineers, smelters and their families have lived for a generation, and
they certainly care more about their own health and environment than
KFor
and UNMIK ever could.
"But what we have here is pressure and intimidation, designed
to
ethnically cleanse the area, as has been done with the rest of
KosovoMetohija, which they have been practising for 13 months in plain
view
of the international community and the United Nations.
"Instead of securing equality for all, KFor and UNMIK keep
tensions permanently alive and sow uncertainty among the Serbs and other
nonAlbanians, preventing the people from living normal lives.
"Operation of the international mission from positions of force
has no foundation in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244.
"The Yugoslav Committee and the KosovoMetohija Provisional
Executive Council therefore demand that equal conditions be created for
all
people, that they be given safety, economic security, the right to work,
to
education, health protection, culture and information.
"Since they have not created conditions, in line with their
mandate and Resolution 1244, for the workers of Trepca, Serbian language
Radio S and other institutions to work unhampered, without fear of
violence, the presence of Kfor and UNMIK has lost all meaning and their
departure from KosovoMetohija is inevitable", the statement said.
SERB SERIOUSLY INJURED IN KFOR'S STORMING OF ZVECAN SMELTER
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) A Serb was gravely injured
when international force KFor troops stormed the Trepca smelter in
Zvecan
in U.N.run KosovoMetohija before dawn on Monday.
Five other civilians and four Kfor troops were also injured in
clashes which broke out between the people in Zvecan near the Serbian
(Yugoslav) province's chief city of Pristina and the Kfor troops.
The seriously injured Serb, Igor Stefanovic, aged 27, a worker
at
the plant which worked as part of the Trepca industrial complex, had to
be
hospitalized in nearby Kosovska Mitrovica with a rubber bullet wound to
the
head.
Tanjug learns that some 30 workers, technicians and engineers
who
had barricaded themselves in the office building at the time of the
helicoptersupported KFor operation, left the building in the afternoon.
KFOR ARRESTS AND ORDERS TREPCA MANAGER OUT OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA
RASKA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) The Trepca general manager vowed on
Monday
that, despite the international force KFor's pre dawn storming of
Trepca's
Zvecan lead smelter, Trepca would never give up on its plants in Zvecan
or
anywhere else in KosovoMetohija.
Novak Bijelic, who was late on Sunday arrested by KFor police
without an explanation and then ordered out of KosovoMetohija, was
speaking
for TANJUG in the Serbian town of Raska, outside that U.N.run province
of
the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.
"Fascist occupiers did the same thing in 1941", said Bijelic,
who
was arrested at 8 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) and held for hours before
being thrown out of KosovoMetohija without an explanation.
"The UNMIK (U.N. mission) police chief told me the notorious
criminal Bernard Kouchner had ordered that I must leave the territory of
KosovoMetohija at once and must not even try to come back", Bijelic
said.
Bijelic was born in KosovoMetohija and has lived most of his
adult
life there.
"Fascists expelled me and my parents from Metohija in 1941,
when I
was just a toddler", he added.
According to Bijelic, Trepca's 16 industrial plants in
KosovoMetohija have been destroyed on Kouchner's orders.
As a case in point, he quoted the torching of the zinc
processing
plant in the south, ethnic Albanianpopulated part of ethnically divided
Kosovska Mitrovica.
The flooding of coal mines which had operated as part of the
Serbian electric power company in KosovoMetohija has deprived of their
jobs
many ethnic Albanians too.
"In November 1999, Trepca officially requested UNMIK to pay
indemnity for the damage done to the company's facilities in
KosovoMetohija
in the amount of 192 million dollars", Bijelic said.
This amount has now been greatly augmented and is still
pending,
he added.
He stressed the workers are refusing all invitations to go back
to
work, because this morning's fascist seizure was designed to destroy the
facility and expel Serbs from their ancestral homes in Kosovska
Mitrovica
and Zvecan.
"This is indisputably the aim of Bernard Kouchner", Bijelic
said.
U.N. ENVOY KOUCHNER CARES MORE FOR FACTORY THAN FOR SICK
CHILDREN
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) U.N. mission (UNMIK) chief
Bernard Kouchner's justification of Monday's storming of the Trepca lead
smelter in KosovoMetohija's Zvecan town with environmental reasons has
stunned the people in nearby Kosovska Mitrovica.
The indignant people see the explanation, offered in writing on
Monday, as the height of shamelessness and hypocrisy on the part of the
strutting French doctor who boasts of his socalled humanism.
In the statement, Kouchner alleged that air in Zvecan was
polluted
with lead and that as a doctor and KosovoMetohija's chief administrator
he
would be a criminal if he allowed the threat to the health of the
children
and pregnant women to persist.
After Monday's predawn Zvecan storming operation by the
international force KFor, in which the smelting plant was seized, it is
clear that the allegation was a handy story circulated to justify the
plunder of property and natural resources of the province.
Kouchner never raised his voice when NATO bombs murdered
children
throughout Yugoslavia in last year's aggression more than 80 children
were
killed in the air strikes.
He supported the use of bombs with depleted uranium charges
against KosovoMetohija, which are now causing grave health problems to
KFor
troops.
He never stirred when NATO dropped on KosovoMetohija cluster
bombs
which have killed or maimed 110 children between June 1999 and April
2000.
The good doctor Kouchner was silent also when NATO bombs
demolished hospitals and denied medical assistance to 120,000 pregnant
women and at least as many newborn babies.
And now, he feels morally justified to claim that the seizure
of a
factory at arms was legitimate!
U.N. ENVOYS KOUCHNER AND ORTUNO JUSTIFY TREPCA SEIZURE
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Top officials of the
international force Kfor and the U.N. mission UNMIK in Serbian
(Yugoslav)
KosovoMetohija on Monday pleaded environmental reasons for the predawn
storming of the lead smelting plant in Zvecan.
KFor Commander Juan Ortuno of Spain and UNMIK chief Bernard
Kouchner were speaking at a news conference in ethnically divided
Kosovska
Mitrovica, in its south, ethnic Albanian part.
Ortuno said the Zvecan lead smelter, located not far from that
U.N.run province's chief city of Pristina, and the adjacent Trepca
facilities had been seized by KFor troops, commanded by French General
JeanLouis Soublet, commander of Kfor Sector North.
The operation involved troops from France, Great Britain,
Belgium,
Denmark, Ireland and Pakistan and UNMIK police.
According to Ortuno, Kfor only helped UNMIK police take over
the
smelter, and the number of troops in Zvecan and at Trepca would soon be
reduced to the lowest possible level.
The reasons alleged for the smelter takeover were high levels
of
lead and sulphur dioxide in the air, although Trepca's figures published
last week and information from the Kosovska Mitrovica city hospital
denied
the claim.
Kouchner, for his part, tried with empty rhetoric about care
for
the health of the local population and KFor troops to hide the true aim
of
the operation, which was to plunder private property and natural
resources
of the province.
Kouchner's statement that the smelting plant's management would
be
placed in the hands of a 30member team of engineers and administrators
already well versed in Trepca's affairs shows that the operation was a
deliberate and premeditated plunder campaign.
Kouchner said an agreement would be signed with an
international
consortium which would help administer the Trepca mining complex,
appoint
executives and a Board of Directors from all local communities, but did
not
elaborate.
As for Sunday's arrest and expulsion from the province of
Trepca
Director Novak Bijelic, Kouchner claimed he had taken the decision on
the
strength of U.N. Resolution 1244, Article 2, explaining that Bijelic
would
not be allowed back for three months.
GERMAN MEDIA REPORT ON KFOR'S STORMING OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA'S ZVECAN
BERLIN, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Germany's state news agency DPA and
television reported early on Monday that the international force KFor
stormed and shut down the Zvecan smelter in the Serbian (Yugoslav)
KosovoMetohija province.
Although the report is bare of any comment, the motives behind
the
operation by the U.N. mission UNMIK and Kfor can be clearly discerned.
The German media quote as the reason for the closure lead
pollution and environmental hazards, while saying also that Western
companies will take over the management of the plant.
DPA quoted UNMIK as saying that a contract has been signed with
a
consortium of international mining companies, comprising a German and a
French company, to administer the complex in future.
The report said nothing, however, about the Zvecan smelter
being
the last Serboperated facility of the Trepca complex, and that plans for
the takeover had been in the making long since.
BRITISH PAPER - KFOR'S ZVECAN SMELTER SEIZURE IS PART OF WIDER PLAN
LONDON, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Monday's predawn storming by
international force Kfor troops of the Trepca lead smelter in Zvecan,
KosovoMetohija, was part of a wider plan, according to reports in London
on
Monday.
Reports indicate that the takeover was part of a strategy of
the
U.N. administration of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's KosovoMetohija
province to seize control of the province's predominantly Serbpopulated
north.
The takeover was prepared two weeks ago and was even announced
by
London's Guardian newspaper in its Monday edition.
The newspaper says ethnic Albanians in KosovoMetohija have long
been asking that Kfor and the U.N. administration occupy the north,
Serbpopulated part of ethnically divided Kosovska Mitrovica, and the
international forces are now apparently acting on the demands.
Radio BBC says that the takeover of the plant was only an
excuse
for concentrating Kfor troops in north Kosovska Mitrovica, preparatory
to
taking control of north KosovoMetohija. The recent ban of
Serbianlanguage
Radio S was part of this plan.
British media report that tensions are running high in north
Kosovska Mitrovica, and it is uncertain how the situation will develop.
>SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA KFOR'S TREPCA SEIZURE VIOLATES
>U.N. RESOLUTION - YUGOSLAV MINISTER BELGRADE, Aug 14 (Tanjug) - Monday's
>storming of the Trepca lead smelting plant in Zvecan, Kosovo-Metohija, by the
>international force KFor was in flagrant violation of U.N. Resolution 1244,
>according to Yugoslavia's information minister on Monday. "The resolution does
>not authorise KFor or UNMIK (U.N. civilian mission) to carry out acts of
>occupation," Information Minister Goran Matic told TANJUG. Kfor's attack,
>carried out on UNMIK's orders, "was the same kind of act of occupation as that
>carried out by German Nazis during the Second World War, when they wrested
>Trepca away from the French", Matic added. This was further evidence of
>non-implementation of U.N. Resolution 1244 or any other standards or norms of
>international law, and of the flouting of the country's economic system, he
>stressed. The operation, involving some 3,000 armed KFor troops with
>helicopter support and launched against 250 Trepca employees has no precedent
>in history and hardly does credit to the troops, for the most part from Great
>Britain, France, Italy and Pakistan, he said. "This is another proof of the
>system of occupation emplaced by KFor in (the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's
>U.N.-administered province of) Kosovo-Metohija", he added. He went on to
>refute as groundless the allegation circulated by some media that the reason
>for the seizure was environmental protection, because the Trepca lead smelting
>plant in Zvecan was polluting the environment. He said the operation was
>nothing short of text-book plunder and highway robbery. "Tens of thousands of
>kilos of depleted uranium dropped on Kosovo-Metohija by NATO in its aggression
>last year do not seem to bother either KFor or UNMIK", he said. The armed
>storming of Trepca must not be tolerated by the United Nations, which has the
>duty to exercise its mechanisms to make KFor and UNMIK and their
>administrators conform to their mandate and to the U.N. standards and respect
>Resolution 1244, Matic said. He went on to comment on the storming, smashing
>up and seizure of Serbian-language Radio S broadcasting out of Zvecan. The
>Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), he said, which
>"cares" so much about the freedom of the media and free speech in Yugoslavia,
>has shut down the only radio station in Kosovo-Metohija broadcasting in
>Serbian, alleging licence problems. "We shall return there and Trepca will
>work and produce again, because it belongs to the people of this country and
>to the workers who have helped build it and have worked in it", he vowed,
>saying that factories cannot be taken at arms. He went on to say this was the
>first time in history that anybody has stormed with helicopter support a
>factory with unarmed workers in it, and used the operation to promote their
>doctrine. He hoped that diplomats of Yugoslavia and other countries that have
>had a principled approach to these matters would act in the United Nations to
>find an answer to the question of KFor's storming of Trepca.
>
>KFOR TROOPS SEIZE KOSOVO-METOHIJA'S ZVECAN LEAD SMELTER Zvecan, Serbia, Aug 14
>(tanjug) - Around 3,000 international force kfor troops with helicopter
>support at dawn on monday seized the lead smelter in zvecan near divided
>Kosovska Mitrovica in the serbian U.N.-Run Kosovo-Metohija province. Some 250
>serb workers at the plant, which is part of the trepca industrial complex,
>offered spunky though unsuccessful resistance to the storm-troops. The strong
>Kfor detail, comprising french, italian, british and pakistani troops, used
>force against the workers, some of whom they tied and took away. One of the
>workers was seriously injured, according to tanjug's sources. Trepca general
>manager Novak Bijelic, who was away from Kosovo-Metohija at the time of the
>seizure of zvecan, was prevented by the international forces from re-entering
>the province early monday. Also early on monday, at 6.30 A.M. Local time (0430
>gmt), pakistani kfor troops seized serbian-language radio s, broadcasting out
>of zvecan, and took away some of the equipment. Kfor tanks and armoured
>vehicles blocked the Zvecan-Kosovska Mitrovica arterial road.
>
>KFOR TROOPS STORM KOSOVO-METOHIJA'S ZVECAN, BEAT SERBS Zvecan, aug 14 (tanjug)
>- International force Kfor troops' storming of the zvecan lead smelting plant
>in kosovo- metohija early monday morning was followed by a violent clash
>between local residents and british Kfor troops. The baton-wielding british
>troops, who patrol this serb-populated town in serbian U.N.-Run
>Kosovo-Metohija demonstrating brute force, injured several citizens of zvecan,
>a small industrial town not far from the province's chief city of pristina. At
>dawn on monday, the french kfor battalion, supported by british, belgian,
>danish, pakistani and italian troops, stormed the Zvecan plant which works as
>part of the Trepca mining, chemical and metallurgical complex, and where the
>third shift was on duty. As part of the planned seizure operation, about 150
>british troops stormed trepca's hotel in zvecan, breaking down the main door,
>tied up the employees they found on duty and placed the hotel under UNMIK
>police guard. The Kosovska Mitrovca-Zvecan road is blocked to traffic.
>
>KFOR STORMS KOSOVO-METOHIJA ZVECAN TOWN, SMASHES UP SERB RADIO ZVECAN, Serbia,
>Aug 14 (Tanjug) - Radio S, the only radio broadcasting in the Serbian language
>out of Zvecan in U.N.-run Kosovo-Metohija province, has been practically
>smashed up and put out of commission, according to its editor-in-chief on
>Monday. Before dawn on Monday, the international force KFor stormed the town
>of Zvecan, not far from the Serbian (Yugoslav) province's chief city of
>Pristina, and seized the Trepca lead smelting plant, smashing up the radio
>station in the process. "The way the operation was carried out was far worse
>and arrogant than the behaviour of the Nazis when they seized Trepca in 1941,"
>Radio S Editor-in-Chief Radovan Gligovic told TANJUG. Gligovic said Radio S
>was broken into by more than 50 Jordanian KFor special troops at 6:35 a.m.
>(0435 GMT) local time. "In the face of their loaded and cocked rifles, we had
>to evacuate the premises, because our lives were in dire jeopardy", he said.
>According to him, the Jordanian troops thoroughly smashed the station, putting
>both the high-voltage and the low-voltage equipment out of commission, and
>taking away a vital part of the transmitter. He added that other
>privately-owned radio stations in the Kosovska Mitrovica area, broadcasting
>music for the most part, were spared. Most radio stations in Kosovo-Metohija
>are controlled by the U.N. civilian mission (UNMIK) and solely re-broadcast
>programmes that promote NATO, such as Deutsche Welle, the Voice of America and
>Radio Free Europe. Radio S has been destroyed because it broadcast its own
>news programmes and was the only media house in the area that carried news
>from Yugoslavia and its republic of Serbia.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
E GLI ENORMI INTERESSI CHE CI SONO DIETRO
La NATO, nota organizzazione di soccorso umanitario, dopo avere
devastato
il petrolchimico di Pancevo e cosparso di DU mezzi Balcani, ha ora
deciso
di impegnarsi per la salubrita' dell'aria: con questa scusa ridicola ha
infatti chiuso e preso possesso del complesso metallurgico di Trepca,
comprese le preziose miniere, occupando anche tutta l'area nord di
Kosovska Mitrovica, l'unica della zona ancora non ripulita etnicamente
dai
terroristi dell'UCK (alleati della NATO).
Tutte cose previste e dette gia' dall'inizio del conflitto per il
Kosovo,
conflitto che niente ha mai avuto a che vedere con presunti diritti
delle
minoranze. Attraverso la albanizzazione totale dell'area la NATO mira a
ricostruire lo status quo del nazifascismo (Grande Albania)
appoggiandosi
sul nazionalismo locale, come ha gia' fatto con tutte le altre
secessioni
e come si appresta a fare con il Montenegro; e contestualmente
mira a stabilirsi permanentemente al centro del Balcani prendendo pieno
possesso delle ricchezze jugoslave dell'area.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 24, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
Kosovo
NATO TROOPS SEIZE MINING COMPLEX
By Sara Flounders
Claiming they were concerned about controlling air
pollution, some 3,000 NATO soldiers stormed a lead smelting
plant in Zvecan at 4:30 in the morning of Aug. 14. The plant
was the only functioning industry in the vast Trepca mining
complex in northern Kosovo, a few miles from the city of
Mitrovica.
At 6:30 a.m., in a further attack that had nothing to do
with air pollution, NATO soldiers closed down and
confiscated the equipment of Zvecan's Radio S--the only
station that dared to report information critical of NATO.
The northern part of Mitrovica is the only remaining multi-
ethnic part of Kosovo. Thousands of Serbs, Romani people,
Slavic Muslims, other nationalities and peoples of mixed
backgrounds have been driven out of other areas by Kosovo
Liberation Army thugs and vigilante groups. Many have fled
to the north side of the Iber river.
There, with the local Serbian population, they have resisted
more than a year of KLA attacks in an economically
devastated region.
The surprise attack by NATO shut down the only radio station
and the main source of employment for the local population.
The mines, with their smelting, refining and power centers,
once constituted one of Yugoslavia's leading export
industries and a main source of hard currency. It was the
major source of jobs in the region.
Defending the pre-dawn attack, Bernard Kouchner, the head of
the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said, "As a
doctor and chief administrator of Kosovo I would be derelict
if I allowed a threat to the health of children and pregnant
women to continue for one more day." UNMIK is the police
force set up by NATO to administer Kosovo.
Kouchner has never had a word of criticism for the
environmental havoc NATO created throughout the entire
region with the use of depleted uranium weapons, the bombing
of chemical plants and the use of cluster bombs.
If you find it hard to accept that NATO is suddenly
concerned with pollution, it's worth looking for what is
really at stake.
'MOST VALUABLE PIECE OF REAL ESTATE'
On July 8, 1998, New York Times reporter Chrisopher Hedges
wrote, "The sprawling state-owned Trepca mining complex is
the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans."
Hedges described glittering veins of lead, cadmium, zinc,
gold and silver.
The Stari Trg mine is ringed with smelting plants, 17 metal
treatment sites, warehouses, freight yards, railroad lines,
a power plant and the country's largest battery plant. It is
the richest lead and zinc mine in Europe. There are also 17
billion tons of coal.
It was George Soros, the multi-billionaire financier, who
wrote Kouchner's script.
Paris-based journalist Diana Johnstone, in a Feb. 28 report,
described a policy paper by the International Crisis Group.
This is a think tank set up by Soros to provide guidance in
the NATO-led reshaping of the Balkans.
The think tank publicly called on Kouch ner to take over the
management of Trepca and to use the pretext of environmental
hazards to shut the Zvecan smelter down.
The Soros group stressed that the takeover should happen
before new elections in Yugoslavia so that the opposition
could blame Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for the
loss of Trepca. The elections are now six weeks away.
At the time this proposal was made there was no pollution--
the lead smelter was not even in operation. It was closed
for several months after the NATO bombing.
Production in this state-owned industry started again only
two months ago, at great sacrifice and expense. The hard
currency it could have earned was desperately needed to
rebuild Yugoslavia's ravaged economy.
SKIMMING THE PROFITS
With the seizure of the smelting plant in Zvenca, NATO will
control the entire Trepca complex.
Proving once again that NATO is the military arm to insure
primarily U.S. corporate control, the first move after
seizing the complex was to turn it over to a consortium of
private mining companies. This consortium--ITT Kosovo Ltd.--
is a joint venture of U.S., French and Swedish companies.
The most interesting partner in this deal to control Trepca
is the U.S. company Morrison Knudsen International. On July
7 Morrison Knudsen merged with Raytheon Engineers and
Constructors, a major military contractor that makes Patriot
missiles and radar equipment for the Pentagon.
This is an enormously lucrative deal. ITT Kosovo Ltd. will
administer Trepca, appoint executives and a board of
directors, develop the investment strategy and skim the
greatest profits from every possible deal.
Those in the Albanian population who hold illusions that
control by these corporations will mean the return of the
thousands of well-paid, secure jobs with benefits that
existed before the war should read the plans multi-
billionaire Soros has in store.
Once NATO has control of the whole industrial complex,
according to the International Crisis Group, foreign
investors will develop a very modern, highly profitable
facility with a small workforce.
In this outright theft of an industry that was built by the
efforts of all the peoples of Yugoslavia, Soros's think tank
recommends that the management and administration be made up
of foreign executives "in order to prevent corruption"!
- END -
(Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
ww@.... For subscription info send message to:
info@.... Web: http://www.workers.org)
---
Sempre di Sarah Flounders, gia' nel 1998 un articolo spiegava tutta la
problematica delle miniere:
"Kosovo: la guerra e' per le miniere"
KOSOVO: "THE WAR IS ABOUT THE MINES"
http://www.marx2001.org/crj/DOCS/flou_mines.html
---
TREPCA - PHONE NUMBERS
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
On August 14th NATO forces swooped down into the Zvecan smelter in
Kosovo
and seized the last remaining bit of Yugoslav government owned property
- the
Trepca mining complex. This action directly violates UN Security
Council
Resolution 1244 which concluded the war and reafirmed Yugoslav
sovereignty
over the province. Workers were greeted with a shower of tear-gas and
rubber
bullets as they went to work on Monday. Since then Kosovska Mitrovica's
workers have been holding daily protests in front the plant, while a
dozen
members of the plants management are still refusing to leave the offices
of
the smelter. It now appears that the US-backed administrator of Kosovo,
Bernard Kouchner (who rules by decree) has decided to hand over these
Yugoslav state properties to a Western mining consortium ITT Kosovo
consisting of:
- the Washington Group (a big US DOD and DOE contractor, created through
the
merger of Morisson Knudsen International and Raytheon Engineering and
Construction Corp.),
- Boliden Ltd. (a Canadian firm that's been involved in some major
environmental disasters and whose Swedish subsidiary Boliden-Contech is
directly involved in the project), and
- TEC-Ingenierie (a French mining firm).
This is your chance to prevent the militaristic takeover of a
critical
lifeline for Kosovo's embattled ethnic-communities like the Serbs, Roma,
Muslim Slavs, Montenegrins, Turks, Goranies, Egyptians, and non-KLA
supporting Albanians, who have suffered greatly since the NATO
occupation of
the province a year ago. With 300,000 already ethnically cleansed from
Kosovo, and the remainder of the provinces minorities living in
ethnic-ghettoes ringed with barbed wire and subjected to almost daily
terrorist attacks, the NATO occupation has rendered the alliances claims
of
"humanitarian intervention" ring hollow. It is now evident that what
was
really at stake was NATO's survival, as well as Kosovo's mineral wealth
and
strategic importance. The largest concentration of minerals in Europe
not in
the hands of Western multinationals was in Kosovo! This is changed with
NATO's commando raid on the Zvecan smelter...Please contact the
following
firms to voice your outrage at this undemocratic, militaristic, and
imperialistic act:
WASHINGTON GROUP
Corporate Headquarters
Tel: (208) 386-5000
BOLIDEN LTD.
Toronto Headquarters
Tel: (416) 216-2272
Boliden-Contech (Swedish subsidiary directly involved in the project)
Tel: (011) 46 8 610 1500 [ask for Stefan Kekel]
TEC INGENIERIE
Tel: (011) 33 1 30 66 27 50
---
Url for this article is www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/inthewee.htm
Trepca Takeover:By the Script
by Jared Israel (8-17-00)
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
In the wee hours of the morning, Monday, August 14, KFOR (that is NATO
forces
in Kosovo) swept into Northern Mitrovica and seized the lead smelting
plant,
part of the fabulously valuable Trepca mining complex.
The excuse given: pollution.
Oh pollution, how hast we suffered in thy good name. Or words to that
effect.
Here's what the 'AP' said, as reported by Richard Hugus in a sharp news
analysis last night:
"Hundreds of NATO-led peacekeeping troops wearing surgical masks against
toxic smoke swept into a Serb-run metal smelting complex." ('Boston
Globe'
August 15, 2000) (1)
Denouncing the takeover as theft, the Yugoslav government quoted the
mine's
managers saying that the "dark satanic mills" stuff was hypocritical
fiction.
The Yugoslav news agency, 'Tanjug', reported:
"According to these [recent test] results, there was .12 milligrams of
lead
per cubic metre (permitted level .15 mg), .019 mg of zinc (permitted
level .4
mg), copper .004 mg (permitted level .01 mg), iron .002 mg (permitted
level
.2 mg), etc.
'"If UNMIK experts are concerned for the children and pregnant women in
Kosovska Mitrovica, they should take care of the waste gases from their
own
heavy-duty vehicles that throng our roads at all hours and poison the
people', the statement said." (2)
What is truly amazing is, in a report posted on Emperor's Clothes Feb.
28,
1999, Diana Johnstone noted that the ICG, an international think tank
that
does some of the thinking for NATO, proposed that the Internationals
seize
the smelter using an environmental excuse - proposed this all months
ago.
'''UNMIK [said the ICG report] and KFOR should implement a rapid and
categorical takeover of the Trepca complex, including the immediate
total
shutdown of the environmentally hazardous facilities at Zvecan'.
''In the 'game-plan of measures' recommended by the ICG, UNMIK is
advised to
instruct a 'Zvecan environmental assessment team' to report on the
status of
the equipment and thereupon 'advise as to what measures must be
taken'...
Environmental hazards are to be the pretext to shut down Zvecan and
deprive
the last Serbs in Kosovo of their livelihood.'' (3)
We have posted the actual ICG report as well at the end of Diana's
analysis
so you can see how the plan for using environmental arguments as a cover
for
theft was originally formulated.
It's unusual for an analyst to discover a document like the ICG report
and
based on this document make a prediction and have it come so completely
true.
Unusual and in this case more than a little horrifying.
But in fact Diana Johnstone didn't just hit one home run here, she hit
two.
She cited a second piece of advice in the ICG report. Some advice about
the
Yugoslav elections. Here's what she wrote:
'''The ICG urges UNMIK to hurry up with the game plan for taking over
the
valuable mining complex before Serbian elections so that a new
government
more to the West's liking cannot be accused of 'losing Trepca'. All
Serbian
leaders, including opposition leaders, the ICG observes, will have to
protest
when UNMIK takes over Trepca and the Zvecan smelter. 'However they could
exploit the argument that the `loss' was due to the pariah status of
Milosevic himself, so that once again Serbia has lost assets due to his
presence in office. So provided action were taken before any elections
in
Serbia it need not upset, and might contribute to, any strategy for
unseating
Milosevic.'''
And low and behold, this prediction of Diana Johnstone's has come true
as
well. Because there are indeed elections scheduled soon in Yugoslavia.
In
those elections, the pro-US 'democratic' opposition (most notably Zoran
Djindjic) has more or less lined up behind a politician little known
outside
Yugoslavia, Vojislav Kostunica of the Democratic Party of Serbia. The
'democratic' opposition is notable for having been promised $100,000,00
by
the US Senate last July, a lot of which has been delivered. (Working for
the
US is the best job in Yugoslavia.) (4)
In a chilling echo of the ICG report, Kostunica has, sure enough, issued
a
statement accusing Milosevich of losing (indeed, of 'trading away'!) the
Trepca mines. Here's the statement. I have restrained myself and only
made a
couple of comments.
KOSTUNICA WRITES: "The game over the "Trepca" complex, whose lead
smelter in
Zvecan has been taken over by the international administration in
Kosovo-Metohija, continues. Instead of the promised 50 German marks,
Unmik
representatives are offering the employees 1,250 dinars as an advance,
in
brand new, unused banknotes. Unmik also possesses lists of all the
employees".
KOSTUNICA CONTINUES: "Therefore, one can rightly ask how Unmik managed
to
come by dinars, and also brand new ones? [Emperors-clothes note: NATO is
the
military arm of the richest Empire in history. Now how could it POSSIBLY
get
hold of a few thousand dinars? Like Du-uh.] How did it obtain the lists
of
employees? [Emperors-clothes note: ditto with the list of employees.
That one
wouldn't even cost Kouchner money.] How is it that Unmik, whose head
Bernard
Kouchner last year introduced the German mark as the only legal tender,
is
now paying in dinars? [One more Emperor's Clothes note: didn't the
Yugo's
grab some guys last year smuggling brand new counterfeit dinars from the
Bosnian Serb 'entity' into Serbia? Weren't they supposed to be agents of
Dodik, a collaborator NATO installed in the Bosnian Serb 'entity'?]
KOSTUNICA ASKS: "Could it be that the Milosevic regime has once again
concluded a secret deal and sold 'Trepca'"?
I ASK: Could it just be that the ICG is stranger than fiction?
"Cut! It's a take! Print it!"
Further reading...
(1) 'Hollywood Invades Kosovo: The NATO Trepca Takeover'
by Richard Hugus at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/hugus/surgical.htm
(2) 'Management Denounced UN Pollution Claims Prior to Seizure of Trepca
Smelter' at www.emperors-clothes.com/news/yugoslav.htm
(3) 'Pro-NATO Thinktank Thought-up Excuse for Grabbing Trepca Smelter
Plant'
at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/Johnstone/howitis.htm
(4) The July 29th Senate hearings on how to help bring 'democracy' to
Serbia
are amazing. They reveal first and foremost the disease which has
possessed
the USA: Empire. The assumption that the US has the right to meddle
infuses
every paragraph of the transcript of testimony and the casual intimacy
with
which these US officials discuss their domination of the leaders of the
Yugoslav 'democratic' opposition is a marvel. 'July 29th Senate Hearings
on
Bringing 'democracy' to Serbia' at
www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/hearin.htm
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
---
MEDIA CENTRE
August 16, 2000
DIVISON OF SPOILS
The takeover of Trepca, Thermal electric power plant "Kosovo B", the
mine,
telephone system..., all create the impression that in Kosovo and
Metohija
the division of spoils, estimated at over ten billion dollars, is
taking
place The true reasons for the 79-day bombing are becoming
increasingly
clear after the signing and enforcement of the "Early House
Declaration",
says Milenko Radic commenting on the KFOR takeover of "Trepca" mining
and
smelter complex.
Organized by the Washington Institute for Peace, a meeting of crucial
importance for the Kosovo Serbs took place in Early House Virginia from
July
21 to 23, 2000. The meeting was attended by 26 representatives of the
Albanian community (including Hashim Taci, Ibrahim Rugova, Redzep Cosja,
Edita Tahiri, Mahmut Bakali, Kacusa Jasari, Ljuljeta Pulja, ...) and 16
"representatives of the Serbian community in Kosovo and Metohija "
(bishop
Artemije, father Sava Janjic, Rada Trajkovic, Randjel Nojkic...). At the
end
of the meeting they, "in the name of the Serbian community in Kosovo and
Metohija" signed a DECLARATION, which actually supplements and amends
the UN
SC Resolution 1244.
Regardless of the fact that the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija believe
that
not even the minimum conditions have been fulfilled for their
participation
in the coming elections, this Declaration, singed in their name by the
"representatives of the Serbs" obliges them to respect the legality of
the
elections and their results. At the same time, it authorizes Bernard
Kouchner to use his own discretion in selecting the Serbs to be
appointed
members of municipal councils. Having been given this agreement,
Kouchner
has already scheduled "democratic elections" for October 28, 2000 which
are
already legal for the "representatives of the Serbs", especially since
those
among them Kouchner intends to appoint to future municipal councils in
Kosovo are already known.
With a view to preventing the influence of (imported) radio and TV
programs,
"representatives of the Serbs" authorized Kouchner to undertake the
measures
to prevent that. A few days after the signing, on august 13, Kouchner
closed the single Serbian language radio station in Zvecan which
re-broadcast Radio Belgrade programs.
With this Declaration the "Serbian representatives" asked the KFOR and
UNMIK to close the border towards Serbia, i.e. demanded "more efficient
control of entry" into Kosovo and Metohija.
With this Declaration "the representatives of the Serbs" insist on
urgent
disbanding of all parallel structures of power and security. In addition
they demand from the KFOR and UNMIK to engage in coordinated action to
affirm the authorities in all parts of Kosovo and Metohija, implying the
opposition to the influence of Yugoslavia. If what bishop Artemije says
is
true, namely that he went to the U.S.A. with the patriarchs blessing and
that he did report to him upon his return, it remains unclear why the
fifth
church's instruction has not abolished, requesting "prayer for those in
power". Starting from the Declaration whereby the above-mentioned
"representatives of the Serbs" amended the UN SC Resolution, Bernard
Kouchner, on August 13, assisted by a few hundred armed soldiers,
occupied
Trepca, invoking "health protection from over-pollution". This actually
marks the start of taking the northern parts of Kosovo and Metohija away
from Serbs.
This Declaration, in addition to other requests, instructs the KFOR and
UNMIK to disband all unauthorized security forces operating in Kosovo,
but
are not from Kosovo. Judging by numerous statements of the "Serbian
representatives" one gets the impression that the unauthorized operators
in
this sense are the Serbian security units.
The takeover of Trepca, Thermal electric power plant "Kosovo B", the
mine,
telephone system..., all create the impression that in Kosovo and
Metohija
the division of spoils, estimated at over ten billion dollars, is
taking
place The true reasons for the 79-day bombing are becoming
increasingly
clear after the signing and enforcement of the "Early House
Declaration".
(The author is president of the Fund for the Development of Democracy.)
---
UN to start lengthy repairs of Kosovo mine complex
By Sean Maguire
MITROVICA, Yugoslavia, Aug 14 (Reuters) - The United Nations said on
Monday
it would take one to three years of repairs before Kosovo's dilapidated
Trepca mine complex could produce commercially viable quantities of
metals.
NATO-led peacekeepers seized control of Serb-held parts of the Trepca
group
on Monday for the U.N., which runs Kosovo as a de facto protectorate, to
enable it to shut down the Zvecan smelter which it said was polluting
the air
with lead fumes.
But the seizure of Zvecan, part of the Trepca group, has also finally
given
the U.N. control of the entire complex and allowed it to hire a
consortium of
mining companies to begin a revamp of the mining and metallurgy industry
in
northern Kosovo.
"Now we can get to work to bring Trepca back to life, and back to the
people
of Kosovo," said the head of the Kosovo U.N. mission, Bernard Kouchner.
Some $16 million of aid money from the EU, United States, France, Italy,
Holland and Sweden will pay for the work of ITT Kosovo Consortium Ltd, a
joint venture of TEC-Ingenierie of France, Sweden's Boliden
Contech<BOL.ST>
and Morrison Knudsen International<MK.N> of the United States.
Trepca comprises 14 mines yielding lead, zinc, gold and silver, plus
nine
flotation plants, two metallurgy plants and 14 factories. All facilities
are
in very poor repair, with many of them almost derelict.
An earlier U.N.-commissioned study judged that parts of the mining
complex
could be made safe and economically viable with sufficient investment
and
Italian engineers have already done emergency work to prevent one of the
larger mines from flooding.
The ITT Kosovo consortium will assess what facilities can be rescued and
what
needs to be done to restart production. But Bernard Salome, Kouchner's
chief
economic adviser, warned it might be as much as three years before
significant output appeared.
OUTPUT FORECASTS EXAGGERATED
Trepca's once prodigious output of lead, as much as 90,000 tonnes
annually
before the break-up of Yugoslavia, has dwindled to almost nothing over
the
last decade, with production halting when NATO's 78-day bombing campaign
starting in March 1999.
Serbs fled most of Kosovo when NATO troops entered and they became
victims of
revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians but clung on in the northern
Mitrovica
area around Zvecan.
With Belgrade eager for the hard currency to be made from selling lead
in
Europe, Serb managers restarted production in June. But local mining
experts
said the Zvecan plant had been running at below 10 percent capacity.
"The average capacity utilisation in lead metallurgy and refinery has
been
below 10 percent, more precisely it stood at around 6.0 percent since
the
beginning of the year," Desimir Petkovic, a former Trepca manager, told
Reuters.
In February, the head of the Trepca mining and smelting complex, Novak
Bijelic, was quoted by official Yugoslav news agency as saying Trepca
would
produce 46,500 tonnes of lead, 25,000 tonnes of silver and 100 kilograms
of
gold this year.
But international traders, who spoke under condition of anonymity due to
various international financial sanctions, said there was no way the
smelter
could have achieved that goal.
"It's wishful thinking. They would need between 70,000 and 100,000
tonnes of
concentrate depending on the quality of the ore. There is no chance they
could have obtained it without us knowing it," one trader told Reuters.
In 1998, the year before Belgrade let slip its grip on its rebellious
ethnic
Albanian-dominated Kosovo province, Trepca produced some 40,000 tonnes
of
lead.
(with additional reporting by Gordana Filipovic in Belgrade)
11:18 08-14-00
---
FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
YUGOSLAVIA PROTESTS WITH U.N. OVER KFOR'S STORMING OF TREPCA
NEW YORK, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Yugoslavia's U.N. ambassador has
lodged
a strongly worded protests with the U.N. Security Council over Monday's
storming of the Trepca mining complex in Serbian (Yugoslav)
KosovoMetohija
by the international force KFor.
Ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic wrote to Council President Agam
Hasmy demanding an urgent session of the body over the outrage, and
asked
that the letter be circulated as an official document.
The letter says (official translation):
"I have been instructed by my Government to lodge the strongest
protest on its behalf and to request an urgent meeting of the Security
Council at the armed attack on, and the usurpation of, the RMHK "Trepca"
Shareholding Corporation by the Kosovo Force (KFOR).
"In the night between 13 and 14 August 2000, massive KFOR
forces
carried out an unprovoked brutal attack on "Trepca" near Kosovska
Mitrovica
and occupied it. In doing so, they violated the KFOR mandate and
Security
Council resolution 1244 (1999) of 10 June 1999 in the most flagrant way
so
far.
"KFOR used armed force against peaceful employees and
management
of "Trepca" and the official state representatives, as well as the
peaceful
Serbian population in that part of the Province. Even though the basic
task
of UNMIK and KFOR under Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) is to
guarantee physical and property security of residents, and to provide a
secure environment in the Province, by this attack they have openly
aligned
themselves before the eyes of the entire world public with ethnic
Albanian
separatists and terrorists.
"The attack on, and the occupation of, "Trepca" by KFOR
constitutes the most drastic violation of their mandate and the
provisions
of the Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) so far. This is a unique
case of forces acting under a mandate of the United Nations being
massively
engaged against a peaceful population for the protection of which they
have
been dispatched by the Security Council and accepted by the Government
of
my country. The goals of the demonstration of the armed force of KFOR
are
very clear indeed: the intimidation and expulsion of the Serbian
population, continuation of the ethnic cleansing of Serbs and other
nonAlbanians and an illegal usurpation of "Trepca" and of national,
economic and natural resources.
"The alleged concern of Bernard Kouchner for the protection of
the
environment is yet another cynical and transparent attempt to hoodwink
the
world public opinion and the Security Council, which confirms that the
KFOR
action is completely unfounded and represents the most flagrant and
brazen
violation of the decisions of the Security Council and the norms of the
international law in general. Behind the deception are those who are
responsible for the aggression on my country last year, for the loss of
thousands of human lives, for the humanitarian, economic and
environmental
catastrophe, as well as for the escalation of terrorism and separatism
in
South East Europe and in other parts of the world. They are those who
sowed
over 30,000 bombs with depleted uranium all over Kosovo and Metohija
during
the 3month aerial bombardment the consequences of which are
unforeseeable.
"The action of KFOR and UNMIK is without a precedent and
constitutes an attempt to abuse and manipulate the Security Council.
This
is a blow to the inviolability of property rights and attempt to occupy
natural and economic assets of a sovereign country illegally and by
force.
"Bearing in mind the gravity of the situation and the
consequences
that may arise from such acts, the Government of the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia demands energetically that the Security Council condemn the
takeover of "Trepca" and to bring a decision to return the situation
into
the status quo ante so as to enable "Trepca" and its employees to
continue
normal work. The Government of the FR of Yugoslavia wishes to point out
that it will not recognize the consequences of this violent act nor the
situations that have arisen on the basis of the acts of KFOR and UNMIK.
"Alongside the armed action against "Trepca", KFOR has carried
out
vandal raids against the only remaining organs in the Serbian language
in
Kosovo and Metohija, Radio "S" at Zvecan and the newspaper "Jedinstvo"
in
Pristina. Their offices and equipment have been smashed and destroyed
while
brute force has been used against journalists and other personnel. The
vandal suppression of the Serbianlangauge media with the use of armed
military force continues an unprecedented act and is part of the
extended
collaboration of KFOR and UNMIK with ethnic Albanian separatists and
terrorists on the realization of the concept of ethnic cleansing.
"The aforementioned is a clear confirmation that the overall
activity of UNMIK and KFOR serves the goals that are in full contrast to
Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) and that they are conducive to
the
further exacerbation of the situation with the unforeseeable
consequences.
The Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia expects therefore
from
the Security Council to take, without further delay, concrete and
energetic
measures to finally put under control the activities of its
representatives
and to end their policy of fait accompli that threatens peace and
stability
in the region. It is only in this way that it will be possible to stop a
further erosion of the authority of the United Nations and pave the way
to
a peaceful political solution as provided for by Security Council
resolution 1244 (1999).
"I should be grateful if you would have the present letter
circulated as a document of the Security Council."
YUGOSLAVIA ASKS U.N. AGENCIES TO CONDEMN KFOR'S TREPCA SEIZURE
GENEVA, Aug 16 (Tanjug) Yugoslavia will not recognise any
action
by the U.N. force KFor or the U.N. mission UNMIK in Kosovo Metohija that
runs counter to U.N. Resolution 1244, according to Yugoslavia's U.N.
mission chief in Geneva on Wednesday.
Ambassador Branko Brankovic wrote to this effect to the heads
of
U.N. agencies based in the Swiss capital, in connection with KFor's
storming on Monday of the Trepca lead smelter in the U.N.run
KosovoMetohija
province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.
Letters were sent to Under Secretary General Vladimir
Petrovsky,
High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, High Commissioner for Human
Rights Mary Robinson, and Balkan human rights rapporteur Jiri
Dienstbier,
asking that they resolutely condemn the outrage.
Brankovic said that UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner and KFor
surpass
themselves with their practically daily flagrant violations of
Resolution
1244.
According to Brankovic, the storming of the lead smelter at
Zvecan
is one of the most dangerous moves taken by Kouchner so far, which might
have farreaching consequences for the entire situation and the
normalisation process in the province.
It was clear that the chief reason for KFor's violent storming
of
the Zvecan plant was plunder, ethnic cleansing and an attempt to prevent
KosovoMetohija voting in upcoming Yugoslav federal and Serbian local
elections, Brankovic said.
He added that this kind of behaviour by Kouchner was in
flagrant
violation of the fundamental principles of the U.N. Charter and of the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia.
This behaviour was the height of hypocrisy on the part of
Bernard
Kouchner, designed to justify last year's NATO aggression on Yugoslavia,
Brankovic said.
NATO SUCKS PROFIT OUT OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA, SERBIAN MINISTER AVERS
KRAGUJEVAC, Yugoslavia, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Monday's storming of
the
Trepca smelter at Zvecan, KosovoMetohija, by the U.N. mission (UNMIK) is
NATO's way of encouraging ethnic Albanian extremists and intimidating
Serbs, according to a Serbian minister on Tuesday.
The operation gas clearly exposed a plan for ethnically
cleansing
this U.N.administered Serbian (Yugoslav) province of its Serbs and
Montenegrins for economic reasons, among others, Minister of Energy and
Mining Slobodan Tomovic told TANJUG.
What they are really after is KosovoMetohija's mineral
resources,
Tomovic said.
The "peacekeepers" of UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner have
demonstrated arrogance and force, as well as their intention to conquer
KosovoMetohija, completely flouting agreements and documents they have
themselves signed, he added.
"The West preaches democracy and inviolability of private
property, and all the while its troops seize at arms facilities such as
Trepca, the Obilic thermoelectric power plant, Telecom, and the Pristina
factory of shock absorbers", he said.
TREPCA EXECUTIVES STRONGLY CONDEMN KFOR'S STORMING OF MINING
COMPLEX
BELGRADE, Aug 15 (Tanjug) The shareholdersowners of the Trepca
industrial complex on Tuesday strongly condemned Monday's seizure of the
Zvecan lead smelter by the international force KFor and the U.N.
civilian
mission UNMIK.
A statement released from Trepca's Board of Governors in
Belgrade
condemned also the seizure of the office building in Zvecan, mines in
the
Leposavic area and other facilities.
At its session chaired by Board President Milos Milosavljevic,
the
Board of Governors said it would immediately take all legal and other
steps
to protect the property rights and all other rights of the shareholders.
The body dismissed allegations that Trepca had been sold away
by
the state and the management, and instructed the executives to seek
legal
redress for slander injurious to the reputation of Trepca.
Neither the Trepca general manager nor the Board president have
ever discussed the matter of ownership with KFor or UNMIK, since the
shareholders' property rights in Trepca are indisputable, the statement
said.
Environmental hazards pleaded in justification of the takeover
are
nothing but an excuse to mask the real motives behind the outrage, as
evident from the simultaneous seizure of four Trepca mines at Leposavic,
which pose no threat to the environment.
The Board of Governors instructed Trepca General Manager Novak
Bijelic to work out a production plan which should provide employment
and a
source of income for the employees in the present circumstances.
KOSOVOMETOHIJA OFFICIAL AVERS KFOR WAGES SERB INTIMIDATION
CAMPAIGN
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Serbia, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Monday's storming
of
the Trepca lead smelter at Zvecan, KosovoMetohija, by the international
force KFor was designed to intimidate the local Serbs, according to a
local
government official on Tuesday.
Zdravko Trajkovic, chief administrator of the Kosovska
Mitrovica
District, said the operation demonstrated KFor's bias in favour of
ethnic
Albanian terrorists and was part of an effort to drive Serbs out of this
U.N.run Serbian (Yugoslav) province.
"The brutality and cruelty demonstrated by KFor and UNMIK
members
in dealing with Trepca's workers and the population of Zvecan serve the
purpose of intimidating the people and expelling Serbs from north
KosovoMetohija.
"This falls in with the plans of ethnic Albanian terrorist
leader
Hashim Thaqi", Trajkovic told TANJUG.
The Serbian people are embittered and indignant also at ethnic
Albanians' vandalising of headstones at the Serbian cemetery in the
south,
ethnic Albanianhelp part of ethnically divided Kosovska Mitrovica, he
went
on to say.
What gives special rise to concern at this time, according to
him,
is "the violent arrogance demonstrated by KFor troops," who showed they
do
not shy from the darkest methods in dealing with Serbs and Montenegrins
in
KosovoMetohija.
The people in the Kosovska Mitrovica District, primarily in the
towns of Kosovska Mitrovica and Zvecan, remain determined to defend and
protect these lands, he said, adding that the latest outrage has only
given
them new strength to endure.
RUSSIA BLASTS KFOR'S STORMING OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA'S TREPCA
SMELTER
MOSCOW, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Russia on Tuesday voiced deep concern
over Monday's storming of the Trepca smelter at Zvecan, Kosovo Metohija,
by
the international force KFor and the U.N. civilian mission UNMIK, which
it
saw as a property seizure bid.
The foreign ministry issued a statement to say that U.N.
mission
officials' justification of the takeover by allegations of air pollution
from the lead smelting plant's fumes could not stand up under
criticisism.
Even if there were an environmental threat, which Trepca's
laboratory findings refute, it would still not justify KFor's use of
force,
which was nothing short of an effort to seize assets that do not belong
to
it, the statement said.
UNMIK and its chief, the U.N. secretary general's special envoy
Bernard Kouchner, have again proven their impotence to solve problems,
where they exist, through political dialogue, it added.
The document further said that the U.N. mission's arrogant
seizure
of Trepca was obviously politically motivated and undertaken without the
consent of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia as the owner of the company
in
the eyes of the law.
The ministry called for refraining from any new steps that
might
additionally aggravate the volatile and dangerous situation in that
U.N.administered Serbian province.
YUGOSLAV COMMITTEE - KFOR SEIZES TREPCA AND CARRIES ON AGGRESSION
BELGRADE, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Monday's predawn storming by KFor of
the Trepca lead smelter in Zvecan, KosovoMetohija, is nothing but
continued
aggression by new and dangerous methods, according to Yugoslav and
KosovoMetohija government bodies on Monday.
The Yugoslav committee liaising with the U.N. mission (UNMIK)
and
the KosovoMetohija Provisional Executive Council issued a statement to
say
the latest outrage continued a practice of seizing industrial facilities
in
that U.N.run Serbian (Yugoslav) province, begun with the coming of the
international force KFor and UNMIK in June 1999.
"Sacking of Serbs from their jobs and scenarios such as
poisonings
that attack only one ethnic community have been used several times
before
by the forces that have been given the mandate to secure law and order
in
KosovoMetohija.
"It was precisely this kind of behaviour that has created the
present chaos in the electric power industry, postal services,
Jugopetrol
oil company and others, and the result has been ethnic cleansing and a
genocide.
"Circulating of untrue reports about environmental pollution
only
screen an intention to seize this economic giant, in whose vicinity
miners,
engineers, smelters and their families have lived for a generation, and
they certainly care more about their own health and environment than
KFor
and UNMIK ever could.
"But what we have here is pressure and intimidation, designed
to
ethnically cleanse the area, as has been done with the rest of
KosovoMetohija, which they have been practising for 13 months in plain
view
of the international community and the United Nations.
"Instead of securing equality for all, KFor and UNMIK keep
tensions permanently alive and sow uncertainty among the Serbs and other
nonAlbanians, preventing the people from living normal lives.
"Operation of the international mission from positions of force
has no foundation in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244.
"The Yugoslav Committee and the KosovoMetohija Provisional
Executive Council therefore demand that equal conditions be created for
all
people, that they be given safety, economic security, the right to work,
to
education, health protection, culture and information.
"Since they have not created conditions, in line with their
mandate and Resolution 1244, for the workers of Trepca, Serbian language
Radio S and other institutions to work unhampered, without fear of
violence, the presence of Kfor and UNMIK has lost all meaning and their
departure from KosovoMetohija is inevitable", the statement said.
SERB SERIOUSLY INJURED IN KFOR'S STORMING OF ZVECAN SMELTER
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) A Serb was gravely injured
when international force KFor troops stormed the Trepca smelter in
Zvecan
in U.N.run KosovoMetohija before dawn on Monday.
Five other civilians and four Kfor troops were also injured in
clashes which broke out between the people in Zvecan near the Serbian
(Yugoslav) province's chief city of Pristina and the Kfor troops.
The seriously injured Serb, Igor Stefanovic, aged 27, a worker
at
the plant which worked as part of the Trepca industrial complex, had to
be
hospitalized in nearby Kosovska Mitrovica with a rubber bullet wound to
the
head.
Tanjug learns that some 30 workers, technicians and engineers
who
had barricaded themselves in the office building at the time of the
helicoptersupported KFor operation, left the building in the afternoon.
KFOR ARRESTS AND ORDERS TREPCA MANAGER OUT OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA
RASKA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) The Trepca general manager vowed on
Monday
that, despite the international force KFor's pre dawn storming of
Trepca's
Zvecan lead smelter, Trepca would never give up on its plants in Zvecan
or
anywhere else in KosovoMetohija.
Novak Bijelic, who was late on Sunday arrested by KFor police
without an explanation and then ordered out of KosovoMetohija, was
speaking
for TANJUG in the Serbian town of Raska, outside that U.N.run province
of
the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.
"Fascist occupiers did the same thing in 1941", said Bijelic,
who
was arrested at 8 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) and held for hours before
being thrown out of KosovoMetohija without an explanation.
"The UNMIK (U.N. mission) police chief told me the notorious
criminal Bernard Kouchner had ordered that I must leave the territory of
KosovoMetohija at once and must not even try to come back", Bijelic
said.
Bijelic was born in KosovoMetohija and has lived most of his
adult
life there.
"Fascists expelled me and my parents from Metohija in 1941,
when I
was just a toddler", he added.
According to Bijelic, Trepca's 16 industrial plants in
KosovoMetohija have been destroyed on Kouchner's orders.
As a case in point, he quoted the torching of the zinc
processing
plant in the south, ethnic Albanianpopulated part of ethnically divided
Kosovska Mitrovica.
The flooding of coal mines which had operated as part of the
Serbian electric power company in KosovoMetohija has deprived of their
jobs
many ethnic Albanians too.
"In November 1999, Trepca officially requested UNMIK to pay
indemnity for the damage done to the company's facilities in
KosovoMetohija
in the amount of 192 million dollars", Bijelic said.
This amount has now been greatly augmented and is still
pending,
he added.
He stressed the workers are refusing all invitations to go back
to
work, because this morning's fascist seizure was designed to destroy the
facility and expel Serbs from their ancestral homes in Kosovska
Mitrovica
and Zvecan.
"This is indisputably the aim of Bernard Kouchner", Bijelic
said.
U.N. ENVOY KOUCHNER CARES MORE FOR FACTORY THAN FOR SICK
CHILDREN
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) U.N. mission (UNMIK) chief
Bernard Kouchner's justification of Monday's storming of the Trepca lead
smelter in KosovoMetohija's Zvecan town with environmental reasons has
stunned the people in nearby Kosovska Mitrovica.
The indignant people see the explanation, offered in writing on
Monday, as the height of shamelessness and hypocrisy on the part of the
strutting French doctor who boasts of his socalled humanism.
In the statement, Kouchner alleged that air in Zvecan was
polluted
with lead and that as a doctor and KosovoMetohija's chief administrator
he
would be a criminal if he allowed the threat to the health of the
children
and pregnant women to persist.
After Monday's predawn Zvecan storming operation by the
international force KFor, in which the smelting plant was seized, it is
clear that the allegation was a handy story circulated to justify the
plunder of property and natural resources of the province.
Kouchner never raised his voice when NATO bombs murdered
children
throughout Yugoslavia in last year's aggression more than 80 children
were
killed in the air strikes.
He supported the use of bombs with depleted uranium charges
against KosovoMetohija, which are now causing grave health problems to
KFor
troops.
He never stirred when NATO dropped on KosovoMetohija cluster
bombs
which have killed or maimed 110 children between June 1999 and April
2000.
The good doctor Kouchner was silent also when NATO bombs
demolished hospitals and denied medical assistance to 120,000 pregnant
women and at least as many newborn babies.
And now, he feels morally justified to claim that the seizure
of a
factory at arms was legitimate!
U.N. ENVOYS KOUCHNER AND ORTUNO JUSTIFY TREPCA SEIZURE
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Top officials of the
international force Kfor and the U.N. mission UNMIK in Serbian
(Yugoslav)
KosovoMetohija on Monday pleaded environmental reasons for the predawn
storming of the lead smelting plant in Zvecan.
KFor Commander Juan Ortuno of Spain and UNMIK chief Bernard
Kouchner were speaking at a news conference in ethnically divided
Kosovska
Mitrovica, in its south, ethnic Albanian part.
Ortuno said the Zvecan lead smelter, located not far from that
U.N.run province's chief city of Pristina, and the adjacent Trepca
facilities had been seized by KFor troops, commanded by French General
JeanLouis Soublet, commander of Kfor Sector North.
The operation involved troops from France, Great Britain,
Belgium,
Denmark, Ireland and Pakistan and UNMIK police.
According to Ortuno, Kfor only helped UNMIK police take over
the
smelter, and the number of troops in Zvecan and at Trepca would soon be
reduced to the lowest possible level.
The reasons alleged for the smelter takeover were high levels
of
lead and sulphur dioxide in the air, although Trepca's figures published
last week and information from the Kosovska Mitrovica city hospital
denied
the claim.
Kouchner, for his part, tried with empty rhetoric about care
for
the health of the local population and KFor troops to hide the true aim
of
the operation, which was to plunder private property and natural
resources
of the province.
Kouchner's statement that the smelting plant's management would
be
placed in the hands of a 30member team of engineers and administrators
already well versed in Trepca's affairs shows that the operation was a
deliberate and premeditated plunder campaign.
Kouchner said an agreement would be signed with an
international
consortium which would help administer the Trepca mining complex,
appoint
executives and a Board of Directors from all local communities, but did
not
elaborate.
As for Sunday's arrest and expulsion from the province of
Trepca
Director Novak Bijelic, Kouchner claimed he had taken the decision on
the
strength of U.N. Resolution 1244, Article 2, explaining that Bijelic
would
not be allowed back for three months.
GERMAN MEDIA REPORT ON KFOR'S STORMING OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA'S ZVECAN
BERLIN, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Germany's state news agency DPA and
television reported early on Monday that the international force KFor
stormed and shut down the Zvecan smelter in the Serbian (Yugoslav)
KosovoMetohija province.
Although the report is bare of any comment, the motives behind
the
operation by the U.N. mission UNMIK and Kfor can be clearly discerned.
The German media quote as the reason for the closure lead
pollution and environmental hazards, while saying also that Western
companies will take over the management of the plant.
DPA quoted UNMIK as saying that a contract has been signed with
a
consortium of international mining companies, comprising a German and a
French company, to administer the complex in future.
The report said nothing, however, about the Zvecan smelter
being
the last Serboperated facility of the Trepca complex, and that plans for
the takeover had been in the making long since.
BRITISH PAPER - KFOR'S ZVECAN SMELTER SEIZURE IS PART OF WIDER PLAN
LONDON, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Monday's predawn storming by
international force Kfor troops of the Trepca lead smelter in Zvecan,
KosovoMetohija, was part of a wider plan, according to reports in London
on
Monday.
Reports indicate that the takeover was part of a strategy of
the
U.N. administration of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's KosovoMetohija
province to seize control of the province's predominantly Serbpopulated
north.
The takeover was prepared two weeks ago and was even announced
by
London's Guardian newspaper in its Monday edition.
The newspaper says ethnic Albanians in KosovoMetohija have long
been asking that Kfor and the U.N. administration occupy the north,
Serbpopulated part of ethnically divided Kosovska Mitrovica, and the
international forces are now apparently acting on the demands.
Radio BBC says that the takeover of the plant was only an
excuse
for concentrating Kfor troops in north Kosovska Mitrovica, preparatory
to
taking control of north KosovoMetohija. The recent ban of
Serbianlanguage
Radio S was part of this plan.
British media report that tensions are running high in north
Kosovska Mitrovica, and it is uncertain how the situation will develop.
>SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA KFOR'S TREPCA SEIZURE VIOLATES
>U.N. RESOLUTION - YUGOSLAV MINISTER BELGRADE, Aug 14 (Tanjug) - Monday's
>storming of the Trepca lead smelting plant in Zvecan, Kosovo-Metohija, by the
>international force KFor was in flagrant violation of U.N. Resolution 1244,
>according to Yugoslavia's information minister on Monday. "The resolution does
>not authorise KFor or UNMIK (U.N. civilian mission) to carry out acts of
>occupation," Information Minister Goran Matic told TANJUG. Kfor's attack,
>carried out on UNMIK's orders, "was the same kind of act of occupation as that
>carried out by German Nazis during the Second World War, when they wrested
>Trepca away from the French", Matic added. This was further evidence of
>non-implementation of U.N. Resolution 1244 or any other standards or norms of
>international law, and of the flouting of the country's economic system, he
>stressed. The operation, involving some 3,000 armed KFor troops with
>helicopter support and launched against 250 Trepca employees has no precedent
>in history and hardly does credit to the troops, for the most part from Great
>Britain, France, Italy and Pakistan, he said. "This is another proof of the
>system of occupation emplaced by KFor in (the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's
>U.N.-administered province of) Kosovo-Metohija", he added. He went on to
>refute as groundless the allegation circulated by some media that the reason
>for the seizure was environmental protection, because the Trepca lead smelting
>plant in Zvecan was polluting the environment. He said the operation was
>nothing short of text-book plunder and highway robbery. "Tens of thousands of
>kilos of depleted uranium dropped on Kosovo-Metohija by NATO in its aggression
>last year do not seem to bother either KFor or UNMIK", he said. The armed
>storming of Trepca must not be tolerated by the United Nations, which has the
>duty to exercise its mechanisms to make KFor and UNMIK and their
>administrators conform to their mandate and to the U.N. standards and respect
>Resolution 1244, Matic said. He went on to comment on the storming, smashing
>up and seizure of Serbian-language Radio S broadcasting out of Zvecan. The
>Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), he said, which
>"cares" so much about the freedom of the media and free speech in Yugoslavia,
>has shut down the only radio station in Kosovo-Metohija broadcasting in
>Serbian, alleging licence problems. "We shall return there and Trepca will
>work and produce again, because it belongs to the people of this country and
>to the workers who have helped build it and have worked in it", he vowed,
>saying that factories cannot be taken at arms. He went on to say this was the
>first time in history that anybody has stormed with helicopter support a
>factory with unarmed workers in it, and used the operation to promote their
>doctrine. He hoped that diplomats of Yugoslavia and other countries that have
>had a principled approach to these matters would act in the United Nations to
>find an answer to the question of KFor's storming of Trepca.
>
>KFOR TROOPS SEIZE KOSOVO-METOHIJA'S ZVECAN LEAD SMELTER Zvecan, Serbia, Aug 14
>(tanjug) - Around 3,000 international force kfor troops with helicopter
>support at dawn on monday seized the lead smelter in zvecan near divided
>Kosovska Mitrovica in the serbian U.N.-Run Kosovo-Metohija province. Some 250
>serb workers at the plant, which is part of the trepca industrial complex,
>offered spunky though unsuccessful resistance to the storm-troops. The strong
>Kfor detail, comprising french, italian, british and pakistani troops, used
>force against the workers, some of whom they tied and took away. One of the
>workers was seriously injured, according to tanjug's sources. Trepca general
>manager Novak Bijelic, who was away from Kosovo-Metohija at the time of the
>seizure of zvecan, was prevented by the international forces from re-entering
>the province early monday. Also early on monday, at 6.30 A.M. Local time (0430
>gmt), pakistani kfor troops seized serbian-language radio s, broadcasting out
>of zvecan, and took away some of the equipment. Kfor tanks and armoured
>vehicles blocked the Zvecan-Kosovska Mitrovica arterial road.
>
>KFOR TROOPS STORM KOSOVO-METOHIJA'S ZVECAN, BEAT SERBS Zvecan, aug 14 (tanjug)
>- International force Kfor troops' storming of the zvecan lead smelting plant
>in kosovo- metohija early monday morning was followed by a violent clash
>between local residents and british Kfor troops. The baton-wielding british
>troops, who patrol this serb-populated town in serbian U.N.-Run
>Kosovo-Metohija demonstrating brute force, injured several citizens of zvecan,
>a small industrial town not far from the province's chief city of pristina. At
>dawn on monday, the french kfor battalion, supported by british, belgian,
>danish, pakistani and italian troops, stormed the Zvecan plant which works as
>part of the Trepca mining, chemical and metallurgical complex, and where the
>third shift was on duty. As part of the planned seizure operation, about 150
>british troops stormed trepca's hotel in zvecan, breaking down the main door,
>tied up the employees they found on duty and placed the hotel under UNMIK
>police guard. The Kosovska Mitrovca-Zvecan road is blocked to traffic.
>
>KFOR STORMS KOSOVO-METOHIJA ZVECAN TOWN, SMASHES UP SERB RADIO ZVECAN, Serbia,
>Aug 14 (Tanjug) - Radio S, the only radio broadcasting in the Serbian language
>out of Zvecan in U.N.-run Kosovo-Metohija province, has been practically
>smashed up and put out of commission, according to its editor-in-chief on
>Monday. Before dawn on Monday, the international force KFor stormed the town
>of Zvecan, not far from the Serbian (Yugoslav) province's chief city of
>Pristina, and seized the Trepca lead smelting plant, smashing up the radio
>station in the process. "The way the operation was carried out was far worse
>and arrogant than the behaviour of the Nazis when they seized Trepca in 1941,"
>Radio S Editor-in-Chief Radovan Gligovic told TANJUG. Gligovic said Radio S
>was broken into by more than 50 Jordanian KFor special troops at 6:35 a.m.
>(0435 GMT) local time. "In the face of their loaded and cocked rifles, we had
>to evacuate the premises, because our lives were in dire jeopardy", he said.
>According to him, the Jordanian troops thoroughly smashed the station, putting
>both the high-voltage and the low-voltage equipment out of commission, and
>taking away a vital part of the transmitter. He added that other
>privately-owned radio stations in the Kosovska Mitrovica area, broadcasting
>music for the most part, were spared. Most radio stations in Kosovo-Metohija
>are controlled by the U.N. civilian mission (UNMIK) and solely re-broadcast
>programmes that promote NATO, such as Deutsche Welle, the Voice of America and
>Radio Free Europe. Radio S has been destroyed because it broadcast its own
>news programmes and was the only media house in the area that carried news
>from Yugoslavia and its republic of Serbia.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
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