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1999: UN CULT-MOVIE PER NEONAZISTI PRODOTTO DALLO STATO CROATO?
used without permission, for 'fair use" only
Film "In Four Rows" by Jakov Sedlar and Ivan Aralica Missed Chance to
Become Cult Film of European Neo-Nazism
Naked in Saddlear
If he managed to do what he had tried to do, Jakov Sedlar would have
entered
the history of
European culture as the director of the first openly revisionist,
neo-Nazi
movie, which in a radical
manner questions and distorts the results of WWII, and accuses war
victors of
crimes which have
been assigned to the losers for the last fifty years. God himself, if
that
was him indeed, saved us
from ignominy which we would not have been able to wash off for a long
time,
by denying Sedlar
all that is needed by a human or a creature to be an artist. Budak's
"Hearths" [Ognjista] are for
"In Four Rows" [Cetvorored], both the book and the movie, a highly
articulate, non-ideological
and modern work of art.
by Miljenko Jergovic
Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, December 27 1999
If he managed to do what he had tried to do, Jakov Sedlar would have
entered
the history of European
culture as the director of the first openly revisionist, neo-Nazi movie,
which in a radical manner questions
and distorts the results of WWII, and accuses war victors of crimes
which
have been assigned to the
losers for the last fifty years.
Here is how, according to Sedlar's concept, "In Four Rows" was supposed
to
come out: two peaceful and
highly civilized inhabitants of Zagreb, a young actor and a make up
artist,
decided in May 1945 to leave
the city in front of an unstoppable antifascist beast. They join columns
of
Domobrans [conscript army of
the Independent State of Croatia, WWII Nazi puppet state in present
Croatia
and Bosnia-Hercegovina],
the peaceful Croatian Army, city gents and youth, among whom are four or
five
Ustashe [Croatian
pro-Nazi movement during and before WWII; the relationship between
Ustashe
and Domobrans is similar
to that of SS and German Army in the Nazi Germany] of whom one is a
criminal
(probably because he
lost an arm in the war). The column is bombarded by British airplanes
and on
the Bleiburg field they are
captured by cynical British officers, who turn all of these highly
cultured
and civilized people over to the
Partisans. After that, the Partisans slaughter them, execute by a firing
squad, rape, rob, and to make the
whole thing even clearer, at one point Soviet Red army soldiers show up
to
take away whatever the
Partisans hadn't already snatched away, and in the process cut off a
finger
of a high school graduate from
Zagreb in order to take his ring.
According to Sedlar's idea, the film ends after the surviving young
actor,
saved by the goodness of a
Jewish Partisan, vows not to say a word about these events as long as he
lives. The film refers to his act
as the Croatian silence, in order to make it crystal clear on behalf of
what
and against what it was
necessary to keep quiet.
Croatian Ed Wood
However, Jakov Sedlar did not know how to turn all of that into a movie,
nor
could Ivan Aralica offer a
story which would provide a framework for this construction, so that
instead
of a cult work of European
neo-Nazism that would find its underground audience from the Pyrenees to
the
Urals and Hamburg to
Piraeus, we got only another trivial product of Croatian Ed Wood,
something
that can even be amusing in
its inadequate execution.
For example, how does Jakov Sedlar imagine Partisan butchers? All of
them are
Serbs, men and women,
from different parts of the former Yugoslavia. Their origin is suggested
by
their accents. However, then
Sedlar decided that that was not enough, so that he made sure that every
Partisan butcher nicely
introduces himself or herself to their victims. Thus fat and mustachioed
Danko Ljustina plays a murderer
from Bosanska Krajina, Bozidar Alic portrays a slaughterer from Serbia,
and
Nives Ivankovic is supposed
to be a typical Jane Partisan, a Croat Serb woman who is jealous because
Partisans are mass raping
refined Zagreb women, so that she kills them all with a machine gun.
Sedlar's
Partisans usually confine
their acting to making facial expressions usually seen only on seriously
constipated persons. It is surprising
that Bozidar Alic did not end up with a hernia from all that hard work.
Of course, Sedlar had to explain why Partisans were so bloodthirsty.
With
that in mind a character, which
is not really a character but is there just for the hell of it, reads
Djilas'
[Yugoslav Communist official]
article from Borba [official publication of the Yugoslav Communist
party]
which clearly states what the
attitude of Partisans towards Ustashe should be; from a public
announcement
system at a train station we
can hear Tito's speech on the same topic, and it is indicated that one
of the
Partisans had been until
recently a Chetnik [Serb nationalist and monarchist guerrillas during
WWII],
although it is not entirely
clear whether Chetniks are worse or better than Partisans or whether
that
statement was simply supposed
to indicate the origin of all partisans.
Scandalous Idea
The victims are as a rule civilians with a Domobran thrown in here and
there.
A Domobran victim is, of
course, a Jehovah's Witness in a uniform of the Croatian Army. Domobrans
usually die because they
refuse to put on Ustashe insignia, nor admit in front of Partisan
butchers
that they are Ustashe. And all of
them are sooo good, peaceful and silky, and only Partisan crimes can
force
them to an occasional
self-sacrifice and a heroic deed.
But, how come that in all of that, there is a good Partisan? Very
simply:
Sedlar's and Aralica's revisionist
vision needed a place for a Jew. And since the authors drew their lesson
from
Tudman's "Wastelands of
Historical Reality", they decided to replace unnecessary and senseless
anti-Semitism by very deliberate
filo-Semitism. It seemed smart to them to, in the film with which they
intended to spread national hatred
and destroy the last traces of Croatian antifascism, use a Jew as the
most
positive character. Hey, there
are not any Jews in Croatia anyway and only fools would cause trouble
about
them. On the other hand,
believe Sedlar and Aralica, if you are nice to Jews, you can do with
Partisans and Serbs, as well as with
the results of the war, whatever you like. A smart Croatian revisionist
would
always praise Jews.
The very idea to shoot "In Four Rows" was scandalous since Aralica's
novel,
on which the movie is
based, was also scandalous. But the film was produced by four Croatian
Ministries, the Croatian
Privatization Fund, Croatian Tourist Association, Croatian
Telecommunications, the City of Zagreb,
Croatian Lottery, Croatian Oil Industry INA and many smaller and less
impressive sounding producers, so
that Sedlar's film is actually the result of a widely based social
action and
thereby similar to the Partisan
films from the former Yugoslavia, such as "Sutjeska" and "Neretva".
In practice, thousands of Croatian citizens have ended up in the role of
passive co-producers of "In Four
Rows". Perhaps, all of those who have paid a single Kuna of taxes to the
Croatian state budget deserve
such a credit. That does not mean that all of us share guilt for "In
Four
Rows", but it is the fact that all of
us have been involved in "In Four Rows" and that only unprecedented
Sedlar's
lack of talent saved us
from worse consequences. God himself, if that was him indeed, saved us
from
ignominy which we would
not have been able to wash off for a long time, by denying Sedlar all
that is
needed by a human or a
creature to be an artist.
Greatest Trickery
Actually, no matter now much we curse fate for sending us all those
Vukojevics, Krpinas, and midget
Rottweilers of Croatian judiciary, we should be at least grateful that
it
also included people like Sedlar and
Aralica. It has been proven, namely, that bastards can be extremely
talented,
that creeps can be terrific
writers and that very well articulated works of art can be motivated by
hatred and evil. What would have
happened if, for example, Sedlar were Kusturica [famous Serbian
film-maker]
and Aralica, for example,
Peter Handke [pro-Serb world-famous Austrian writer], and that the two
of
them took upon themselves
to re-tailor history and turn antifascists into fascists, and fascists
into
civilians and brothers of good soldier
Svejk? We would have had problems that we cannot even dream of today, we
would feel miserable and
empty, ungifted and lost with respect to our own enemies and enemies of
our
lives.
It is wonderful to have Sedlar and Aralica whose greatest trickery is to
include a Partisan-Jew. There is
nothing more harmless than filo-Semitic anti-Semitism, although it is
sickening and disgusting, but at least
it is so obvious and clear as every act rooted in unclear conscience. It
is
wonderful to have Sedlar because
of his fascination with male haircuts. Namely, as in "Mother of God"
[Gospa]
the hairdo on the head of
Martin Sheen, even after hours and days of torture looked as if it had
just
been sealed under a hairdryer
of a provincial hair salon, thus in "In Four Rows" the hairdo of Ivan
Marevic
is tussled in the same
seductive manner both at the start and the end of the Croatian Cavalry.
Unfortunate Jakov Sedlar does
not see such things and exactly that saves us from his idea. It is also
wonderful to have Sedlar because of
the fact that his main character can hardly speak the Croat language.
Actually, he speaks it as every
Australian, Canadian, or American of Croatian origin, and he is supposed
to
be a young actor from Zagreb
in the movie. What wonderful cynicism: In the most Croatian of all
Croatian
movies, the most valiant
Croat cannot speak Croatian. Something so mean would not have occurred
even
to the most evil of the
Partisan butchers from "In Four Rows".
Sanity Check
It is rumored among Zagreb actors that actor's wages for work in "In
Four
Rows" were enormous, the
highest in the more recent history of domestic film making, and that
that is
the reason that a team of our
best actors appears in the movie, as well as almost all young Croatian
actors. Their excuse is that Sedlar
was making offers that could not be refused, so that very few did
indeed, but
that is not a story about
historical revisionism, nor about lack of talent, but about misery and
poverty of the public scene on which
jobs are accepted and refused based on offered remuneration, so that
actors
play without any faith in their
characters.
After watching "In Four Rows", it is hard to understand why the Croatian
TV
decided to show that movie
two days after Christmas and on a day of electoral silence. Sedlar's and
Aralica's work is hardly good
propaganda; it cannot change anyone's opinion, apart from being a sanity
check for those who will watch
TV that night and nevertheless vote for HDZ. Essentially, for the
democratization of this country and
even for the opposition, it is useful to show "In Four Rows", and then
repeat
it as often as possible until
the last one among us realizes what has remained of the Independent
State of
Croatia fifty five years after
the war, and to what the old Ustashe have been transformed. Budak's
"Hearths"
[Ognjista] are for "In
Four Rows", both the book and the movie, a highly articulate,
non-ideological
and modern work of art.
However, something in all of this is still very sad. People did die in
Bleiburg and in the Croatian Cavalry.
It does not matter how many of them were killed because they were
definitely
too many. Various people
suffered and it is not the most important whether they were civilians,
soldiers, innocent people or
criminals. The fact that behind they left relatives who for years could
not
find out the truth about their
fates and who hoped for years that they would eventually return. In some
parts of Croatia and especially
Bosnia-Hercegovina there are very few families which haven't lost
someone in
Bleiburg. In principle, they
do not care whether their loved ones were criminals or innocents,
murderers
or conscripted children.
Uncertainty and empty hope with which those people lived is the greatest
and
usually totally undeserved
punishment. Ivan Aralica and Jakov Sedlar arrogantly and mercilessly
played
with emotions of the
relatives of the victims of the Croatian Cavalry. Thus a huge and
horrible
topic, which deserves human
sympathy, and probably also books and films that it will never greet,
has
been wasted. Bleiburg, ignoring
history and focusing on people from our homelands, is a sad story about
those
who waited and do not
know when exactly they stopped waiting.
[1] The Croatian Calvary (Croatian: KRIZNI PUT = the way of the cross),
an
episode in Croatian
history, when, in 1945, the Ustashe army surrendered, with a great
number of
civilians who were fleeing
communist Partisans, to the British at the town of Bleiburg in Austria.
The
British, in turn, surrendered
them to Tito's army. Most of them were soon executed without a trial,
some in
death marches led
throughout the country. The Croatian official history compares the
plight of
the "Croatian martyrs who
were executed only for being Croats" with that of Jesus Christ and his
carrying of the cross on the way to
crucifixion.
[2] The surname of director Sedlar is pronounced saddle-ar
[3] Mile Budak was an Ustashe official during WWII and a writer.
"Hearths" is
his best known novel. He
is infamous for his participation in the organization of the genocide of
Serbs, Jews and Gypsies in the
Independent State of Croatia. Since the independence he has been a sort
of a
poster boy for Croatian
nationalists and his name has been given to many streets throughout
Croatia.
Translated on March 24 2000
---
1997: I PADRI FONDATORI (FASCISTI) DELLA CROAZIA INDIPENDENTE
Fascists Reborn as Croatia's Founding Fathers
By CHRIS HEDGES
The old fascist marching songs were sung, a moment of silence was
observed
for all who died defending the fatherland, and the gathering was
reminded
that today was the 57th anniversary of the founding of Croatia's
Nazi-allied
wartime government. Then came the most chilling words of the afternoon.
"For Home!" shouted Anto Dapic, surrounded by bodyguards in black suits
and
crew cuts.
"Ready!" responded the crowd of 500 supporters, their arms rising in a
stiff
Nazi salute.
The call and response -- the Croatian equivalent of "Sieg!" "Heil!" --
was
the wartime greeting used by supporters of the fascist Independent State
of
Croatia, which governed the country for most the Second World War and
murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Croatian resistance
fighters.
Today, in the final day of campaigning before local elections on Sunday,
supporters of Croatia's Party of Rights used the chant as a rallying
cry. But
the shouts of the black-shirted young men -- and the indifferent
reactions of
passersby -- illustrated a broader aspect of this country's self-image.
President Franjo Tudjman and his Croatian Democratic Union party rose to
popularity and power on the strength of its appeals to Croatians'
national
pride. Now, six years after the war that won Croatia its independence
from
Yugoslavia, Mr. Tudjman's party continues to cast the World War II
fascist
fighters as patriots and precursors of the modern Croatian state.
The Party of Rights took only 7 percent of the vote in the last
election, but
it is the closest ally of Mr. Tudjman, who is reported to be suffering
from
cancer but who has still campaigned actively.
Perhaps no other country has failed as openly as Croatia to come to
terms
with its fascist legacy. While the French celebrate a resistance
movement
that was often dwarfed by the widespread collaboration with the Vichy
regime,
and while the Austrians often act as if the war never happened, the
Croats
have rehabilitated the Croatian fascist collaborators, known as the
Ustashe.
The Ustashe was led by Ante Pavelic, the wartime dictator whose picture
was
plastered on walls in Split in preparation for the rally.
"A majority of the Croats oppose this rehabilitation," said Viktor
Ivancic,
editor in chief of the opposition weekly, The Feral Tribune. "But they
are
afraid. These neo-fascist groups, protected by the state, are ready to
employ
violence against their critics."
Ustashe veterans receive larger pensions than old Partisan fighters, who
waged a savage fight against the German and Croatian fascist armies.
Former
Ustashe soldiers are invited to state celebrations, like the annual army
day,
while Partisan fighters are ignored. And state authorities have stood by
as
pro-Ustashe groups have dismantled or destroyed 2,964 of 4,073 monuments
to
those who died in the resistance struggle, according to veteran Partisan
groups.
The identification with the quisling regime does not stop there. The
Croatian
currency is the kuna, the same instituted by the fascists. And the red
and
white checkerboard on the flag, taken from medieval Croatian emblems,
previously adorned the Ustashe uniform. The President recently proposed
bringing Mr. Pavelic's remains from Spain, where he died in exile in
1959,
for burial in Croatia, a move rejected by Mr. Pavelic's family. And
Vinko
Nikolic, an 85-year-old former high-ranking Ustashe official who fled
into
exile after the war, was appointed by the President to the Croatian
Parliament.
The transformation is all the more noticeable because of widespread
participation by many Croats in the Partisan guerrilla movement led by
Josip
Broz Tito, himself a Croat.
"A huge number of Croats fought the Nazis and the Ustashe," said
77-year-Partisan veteran Milivoj Borosa, who defected in his bomber in
1942
from the Ustashe air force and dropped his payload on a German unit
during
his escape to the Soviet Union. "But today, those who should hold their
heads
in shame, are national heroes."
The Partisans, who included among their ranks the young Franjo Tudjman,
committed what today is viewed as an unforgivable sin. They built a
united,
Communist Yugoslavia. And while the Ustashe state may have been a Nazi
puppet, it had as its stated aim the establishment of an independent
Croatia,
although it was forced by the Axis to turn over large parts of Croatia,
including much of the Dalmatian coast, to the Italians.
In the current campaign, President Tudjman sought to reconcile the
country's
wartime divisions by arguing that the fascist and anti-fascist Croatians
performed equally valuable service for their country. A general who
became a
historian after leaving the Yugoslav Army, Mr. Tudjman is among the
leaders
of a revisionist school of history that has sought to counterbalance the
Communists' relentlessly dark view of the fascist years.
But many Croats, especially those who had relatives killed by the
fascists,
smolder with indignation over the glorification of a regime that
massacred
opponents with a ferocity that often shocked its Italian and German
allies.
"You cannot reconcile victims and butchers," said Ognjen Kraus, the head
of
Zagreb's small Jewish community. "No one has the right to carry out a
reconciliation in the name of those who vanished."
The climate has become so charged that those who oppose the
rehabilitation of
the Ustashe do not dare raise their voices. And there have been several
attacks carried out against members of the Social Democratic Party, the
old
Communist party, currently fielding candidates for the municipal
elections.
Many of the black-uniformed bodyguards at the rally here fought against
the
Serbs as members of The Croatian Liberation Forces, a brutal right-wing
paramilitary unit formed by the party.
The Ustashe supporters also have a powerful ally in the Catholic Church
in
Croatia. The church, led during the war by Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac,
was
a prominent backer of the Ustashe regime. It forcibly converted tens of
thousands of Orthodox Serbs and did not denounce the government's
roundup and
massacre of Jews and Serbs.
During the war, Jews and Orthodox Serbs were subject to racial laws. The
Serbs had to wear blue arm bands with the letter "P" for "Pravoslav" --
Orthodox -- before being deported to death camps like Jasenovac.
After the war, many priests, rather than condemn the brutality of the
fascist
regime, went on to set up an underground network know as "the rat line"
to
smuggle former Ustashe leaders, including Mr. Pavelic, to countries like
Argentina.
The church, persecuted by the Communists, has now re-emerged as one of
the
most powerful institutions in the country, in large part because
religion is
the only tangible difference separating Serbs, Muslims and Croats.
Several
priests have enthusiastically joined the rehabilitation campaign,
portraying
Mr. Pavelic as a pious leader who championed Christian values.
"Ante Pavelic was a good Catholic," said Father Luka Prcela, who has
held a
memorial Mass for the former dictator in Split for the last four years.
"He
went to mass daily in his own chapel. Many of the crimes alleged to have
been
committed by his Government never happened. These stories were lies
spread by
the communists. He fought for a free, Catholic Croatia. We have this
state
today because of him."
(c) The New York Times, April 12, 1997
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1995: PERPLESSITA' EBRAICHE SUI RAPPORTI TRA USA E CROAZIA...
Open Letter to Branko Lustig, Producer of a Misunderstanding in
Washington
by Mirko Mirkovic
Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, 2/20/95
I would like to review your speech presented to the Press Club in
Washington,
D.C. on 11/21/94, which
made a great impact recently in Croatia. It was published in its
entirety by
Vjesnik and then by Vecernji
List [state-owned daily newspapers]. Obviously, it deserved such
publicity,
since it is full of praise for
President Tudjman. You had an honor of sitting next to him at the
premier of
the film ``Schindler's List"
in cinema ``Europe" [in Zagreb]. You were, in your words,``excited
because
all of the important officials
in the Croatian government were present." I can sympathize that it
really
must have been exciting. You
noticed that the president was personally moved by the film:``after the
film
finished, he got up, gave me a
hug and I could swear that his eyes were full of tears."
If only he could have seen ``Schindler's List" before he published his
book
``Wastelands of Historical
Reality" [``Bespuca Historijske Zbiljnosti"]. Maybe he would not have
quoted
a disgusting story about the
Jews in Jasenovac [largest concentration camp in Croatia during the
WWII],
contributed by two
antisemites who had been released from the camp. In any case, why is it
that,
as a historian, he did not
find it necessary to quote testimonies of Jewish inmates who survived
the
Ustashe [Croatian fascists]
Auschwitz by pure luck? Their testimonies about that inferno were
collected
in a book published in 1972.
It is true that, later, as a president of the republic, he ``expressed
sorrow
for the suffering of the Croatian
Jews in the holocaust." Commendable. However, the president of Germany,
Roman
Hertzog went a step
further than expressing ``sorrow" when last summer he said in Warsaw:``I
beg
for forgiveness for what
the Germans did to you."
The day after the premiere of ``Schindler's List", you said:``I received
a
high Croatian decoration, Order
of Prince Trpimir... During the ceremony the president apologized to me
and
all members of the Jewish
community for those who during the Second World War took part in
Enforcement
of Hitler's racist laws."
In 1941 you were still a child and maybe did not know that in Croatia
racist
laws were not enacted by
Hitler, but by Independent State of Croatia (ISC) [Nezavisna Drzave
Hrvatska
or NDH was a Nazi
puppet state from 1941 to 1945; it was run by Croatian fascist movement
-
Ustashe in Croatian] and
enforced by Ustashe government. You might not be aware that Vinko
Nikolic was
an important
functionary in that government, a member of the Ustashe High Command. He
was
enraptured by the
Poglavnik [term corresponding to Fuhrer in Ustashe terminology] Ante
Pavelic.
``Our new intelligentsia,"
wrote Vinko Nikolic in the Novi List on 7/2/41,``must raise new
generations
under ustashe [ie. fascist]
values and above all, must engender in Croatian youth, from the earliest
age,
unlimited and devoted
loyalty towards the Poglavnik." He was not only enraptured with the
Poglavnik, but also interested in
literature, which, according to him would help the Ustashe movement ``to
mold
a new man," whose main
characteristics must be:``nationalistic soul, Ustashe heart, Poglavnik's
teaching and Ustashe creed" (Vinko
Nikolic, National Goals of Literature, Zagreb, 1944). He showed his
``loyalty
to the Poglavnik" in the
emigration to Madrid in 1949, when the Ustashe crimes were already known
around the world, by
composing an ode to Poglavnik's ISC.
Why am I mentioning this to you? Because that gentlemen recently
returned to
Zagreb, to the
government's warm welcome. President Tudjman, fighter against fascism in
the
WWII, did not know
better then to make this gentlemen (who with his ``Ustashe heart" took
part
in the machinery of the
holocaust) a member of the upper house of the Croatian parliament! No,
that
``educator according to the
fascist values" never killed anyone himself. He sat at his desk and
supported
criminals with his pen. Do
you know that, mister Lustig ?
Men for all Times
Do you think that a man who in the third Reich demanded from the youth
``limitless devotion to the
Fuhrer," could today, in democratic Germany become a member of Bundestag
-
German Federal
Parliament? Do you think that the units of the German Army could be
named
after Nazi war criminals, as
some units of the Croatian Army bear names of Ustashe butchers? Do you
think
that some
SS-Sturmbandfuhrer, who during the third Reich signed a racist order,
could
get today a high decoration
from the president of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)? Still, all
of
this is possible. But not in
todays Germany. Signatory of the racist Ustashe order in 1941, Ustashe
stozernik [military rank] Ivo
Rojnica, was decorated by the Poglavnik with the order of merit `` for
the
zealous service in Ustashe
movement." The very same zealot of Ustashe movement - who declared in
``Slobodna
Dalmacija":``everything I did in 1941 I would do again" - has recently
received a decoration of the high
Order of Prince Trpimir from the hands of president Tudjman personally!
Of
course this case is not
unique. Accomplice in the German genocide on the Balkan, Kurt Waldheim
also
received a high
decoration from Pavelic and then, after the war, as a secretary of the
UN,
another one from Tito! Some
people are truly for all times. Franjo Tudjman, Tito's general, knows
that
much.
The grotesque part is that you, Mr. Lustig, an Auschwitz survivor, wear
the
same decoration as a Ustashe
officer who ``zealously worked" to implement the holocaust on the
territory
of the ISC. And with great
success. Of approximately 40,000 Jews on the territory of ISC, three
quarters
were killed. Survivors were
only those who managed to escape to the Italian occupation zone or
joined the
Partisans [indigenous
communist guerilla army under Tito's leadership]. Many were helped by
the
Croatians. But while the
Croatian citizens, in personal danger, were helping persecuted Jews as
much
as they could, the
government of ISC was killing them whenever possible.
You quoted president Tudjman's message to Melvin Salzberger and Abraham
Foxman, in which he
distances himself and the Croatian government from the quisling Croatian
state [ISC] and the Ustashe
regime. Very good and commendable. But if you lived here, I believe that
as a
Jew, you would be worried
by the rehabilitation of the Ustashe ISC, which encompasses
historiography,
newspaper articles, TV talk
shows, naming of military units after infamous Ustashe ``knights", all
the
way to restaurants with names
like ``Poglavnik", ``Coffee Bar Ustasha" and similar reminders of the
genocide of the Jews in ISC. Not
far from the house in which I live, one can find Poglavnik's picture and
a
bust in a bar, so that the patrons
can get the idea about the owner's political leanings. I am convinced
that
you will agree with me that it is
unimaginable that in todays Germany restaurants and hotels would be
named
after the Fuhrer or the SS
officers, or that a Fuhrer's picture could be displayed in them. In
Germany,
such things are regulated by
the law. We in Croatia apparently have more democracy than Germans. If
it is
true, as you said, that it is
``improbable that in Croatia we see the strengthening of fascism," one
faces
a question: why does not the
president and the government protest against the rehabilitation of the
criminal ISC? It is true, as you said,
that in Croatia ``there is no antisemitism but there are a few
antisemites."
After Auschwitz, antisemitism
can hardly be en vogue. The Croatian president and the government on
several
occasions, have expressed
their favorable inclination towards the Jewish community. Was that
because of
some special love towards
the Jews? Or in order to score a few good PR points in the USA? - I
leave the
answer to you.
It is unthinkable that in democratic Germany an ex-Nazi propaganda boss
could
appear on TV and discuss
the benefits of the third Reich. On the other hand, one of the Zagreb TV
channels showed in 1992 a
program with the boss of Ustashe propaganda, Daniel Crljen. The same one
who
during the ISC
declared:``Croatia has radically solved its Jewish problem."
Points scored away from the Home field
You said that ``the tendencies described in the press (I suppose foreign
!)
are marginal and have no
support from the president or the government." Very good. However, a
striking
question is why that same
president and the government do not publicly and decisively condemn
numerous
cases of rehabilitation of
Ustashe ISC. Nothing would be easier, since they have a total control
over
the daily press and the
electronic media.
For the Jewish community, the instances of Ustashe rehabilitation can
hardly
be ``marginal." Especially
not for those Jews who survived the holocaust and who after returning to
their homeland found out that
they were left alone in this world, without a mother and a father,
without
brothers and sisters, without
their children. All of them have disappeared without a trace in Ustashe
branch offices of ``the final
solution", in Jasenovac, Stara Gradiska, Jadovna, on Pag. By the way,
the
last several hundred Jews in
Croatia, mostly elderly, were turned turned over to Eichmann, ie. sent
straight to the Nazi gas chambers.
Cardinal Stepinac tried to save Zagreb Chef Rabbi, Miroslav Freiberger
and
his family. He did not
succeed. Eichmann's word had more importance for the Poglavnik than that
of
Cardinal Stepinac.
Would it therefore be marginal for you, Mr. Lustig, if you were facing
today
the rehabilitation of racist
butchers from Auschwitz? You also said:``claims that the present
government
encourages fascism are
absolutely false." If that is true, I would be grateful if you could
explain
how that squares with the fact
that the approximately 2000 monuments to the fighters against and
victims of
fascism have been
destroyed in Croatia [since 1991] ( by ``unknown" perpetrators);
memorials
for the people who were
cruelly killed simply because they had been born Jews, or Serbs or
Gypsies or
were Croatian antifascists!
Also, do not you find it perplexing, as an Auschwitz survivor, that
president
Tudjman was so keen to
erase the Victims of Fascism Square name? I believe that you will agree
with
me, when I say that those
fighters against fascism in Croatia sacrificed their lives in the common
struggle of the humanity against the
deadly darkness which threatened to turn all of Europe in a continental
Auschwitz. Why have not the
Croatian authorities condemned or why have not they decisively
confronted
that barbarian destruction of
the memorials for the victims of fascism? Or maybe someone thinks that
the
historical facts can be
thrown into a black hole of oblivion, as did the Big Brother's
``Ministry of
Truth" in Orwell's 1984?
Black Hole of Oblivion
In your Washington speech you said:``the number of Jews in Partisans was
small." With that claim you
unfortunately misinformed your American audience. Yugoslavia had about
70,000
Jews before the
WWII. About 4,500 of those, or more than 6 percent of the total Jewish
population, took part in the
national liberation war. That means that the participation of Jews in
the
antifascist struggle was
proportionally larger than that of any other nation on the territory of
ex-Yugoslavia.
You tried to convince your American audience that Kuna is an appropriate
choice for the name of the
Croatian currency. You said:`` I personally do not see that as a
connection
with the fascist period.".
Ustashe ISC was just the first state to name the Croatian currency Kuna.
But
what sort of connection
could that have with our ``most democratic country in Europe" [a common
phrase in the Croatian press,
referring to Croatia].
Commemoration of the 50 years since the liberation of Auschwitz has
recently
taken place in Poland. Eli
Wiesel, Nobel Prize winner, and ,as you said, your friend from the death
march in January of 1943 took
part in the commemoration. you quoted his words:`` To forget is to kill
the
victims for the second time.
We could not stop their death the first time round. We must not allow
them to
be killed again." Don't you
also find intolerable the rehabilitation of Ustashe ISC, which was until
the
last moment of the third Reich
its ally in the most horrendous genocide in history?
The author is a writer and translator, ex-secretary of Croatian PEN and
a
longtime member of the
Jewish Community Council in Zagreb
Translated in May 1995
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
---
1999: UN CULT-MOVIE PER NEONAZISTI PRODOTTO DALLO STATO CROATO?
used without permission, for 'fair use" only
Film "In Four Rows" by Jakov Sedlar and Ivan Aralica Missed Chance to
Become Cult Film of European Neo-Nazism
Naked in Saddlear
If he managed to do what he had tried to do, Jakov Sedlar would have
entered
the history of
European culture as the director of the first openly revisionist,
neo-Nazi
movie, which in a radical
manner questions and distorts the results of WWII, and accuses war
victors of
crimes which have
been assigned to the losers for the last fifty years. God himself, if
that
was him indeed, saved us
from ignominy which we would not have been able to wash off for a long
time,
by denying Sedlar
all that is needed by a human or a creature to be an artist. Budak's
"Hearths" [Ognjista] are for
"In Four Rows" [Cetvorored], both the book and the movie, a highly
articulate, non-ideological
and modern work of art.
by Miljenko Jergovic
Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, December 27 1999
If he managed to do what he had tried to do, Jakov Sedlar would have
entered
the history of European
culture as the director of the first openly revisionist, neo-Nazi movie,
which in a radical manner questions
and distorts the results of WWII, and accuses war victors of crimes
which
have been assigned to the
losers for the last fifty years.
Here is how, according to Sedlar's concept, "In Four Rows" was supposed
to
come out: two peaceful and
highly civilized inhabitants of Zagreb, a young actor and a make up
artist,
decided in May 1945 to leave
the city in front of an unstoppable antifascist beast. They join columns
of
Domobrans [conscript army of
the Independent State of Croatia, WWII Nazi puppet state in present
Croatia
and Bosnia-Hercegovina],
the peaceful Croatian Army, city gents and youth, among whom are four or
five
Ustashe [Croatian
pro-Nazi movement during and before WWII; the relationship between
Ustashe
and Domobrans is similar
to that of SS and German Army in the Nazi Germany] of whom one is a
criminal
(probably because he
lost an arm in the war). The column is bombarded by British airplanes
and on
the Bleiburg field they are
captured by cynical British officers, who turn all of these highly
cultured
and civilized people over to the
Partisans. After that, the Partisans slaughter them, execute by a firing
squad, rape, rob, and to make the
whole thing even clearer, at one point Soviet Red army soldiers show up
to
take away whatever the
Partisans hadn't already snatched away, and in the process cut off a
finger
of a high school graduate from
Zagreb in order to take his ring.
According to Sedlar's idea, the film ends after the surviving young
actor,
saved by the goodness of a
Jewish Partisan, vows not to say a word about these events as long as he
lives. The film refers to his act
as the Croatian silence, in order to make it crystal clear on behalf of
what
and against what it was
necessary to keep quiet.
Croatian Ed Wood
However, Jakov Sedlar did not know how to turn all of that into a movie,
nor
could Ivan Aralica offer a
story which would provide a framework for this construction, so that
instead
of a cult work of European
neo-Nazism that would find its underground audience from the Pyrenees to
the
Urals and Hamburg to
Piraeus, we got only another trivial product of Croatian Ed Wood,
something
that can even be amusing in
its inadequate execution.
For example, how does Jakov Sedlar imagine Partisan butchers? All of
them are
Serbs, men and women,
from different parts of the former Yugoslavia. Their origin is suggested
by
their accents. However, then
Sedlar decided that that was not enough, so that he made sure that every
Partisan butcher nicely
introduces himself or herself to their victims. Thus fat and mustachioed
Danko Ljustina plays a murderer
from Bosanska Krajina, Bozidar Alic portrays a slaughterer from Serbia,
and
Nives Ivankovic is supposed
to be a typical Jane Partisan, a Croat Serb woman who is jealous because
Partisans are mass raping
refined Zagreb women, so that she kills them all with a machine gun.
Sedlar's
Partisans usually confine
their acting to making facial expressions usually seen only on seriously
constipated persons. It is surprising
that Bozidar Alic did not end up with a hernia from all that hard work.
Of course, Sedlar had to explain why Partisans were so bloodthirsty.
With
that in mind a character, which
is not really a character but is there just for the hell of it, reads
Djilas'
[Yugoslav Communist official]
article from Borba [official publication of the Yugoslav Communist
party]
which clearly states what the
attitude of Partisans towards Ustashe should be; from a public
announcement
system at a train station we
can hear Tito's speech on the same topic, and it is indicated that one
of the
Partisans had been until
recently a Chetnik [Serb nationalist and monarchist guerrillas during
WWII],
although it is not entirely
clear whether Chetniks are worse or better than Partisans or whether
that
statement was simply supposed
to indicate the origin of all partisans.
Scandalous Idea
The victims are as a rule civilians with a Domobran thrown in here and
there.
A Domobran victim is, of
course, a Jehovah's Witness in a uniform of the Croatian Army. Domobrans
usually die because they
refuse to put on Ustashe insignia, nor admit in front of Partisan
butchers
that they are Ustashe. And all of
them are sooo good, peaceful and silky, and only Partisan crimes can
force
them to an occasional
self-sacrifice and a heroic deed.
But, how come that in all of that, there is a good Partisan? Very
simply:
Sedlar's and Aralica's revisionist
vision needed a place for a Jew. And since the authors drew their lesson
from
Tudman's "Wastelands of
Historical Reality", they decided to replace unnecessary and senseless
anti-Semitism by very deliberate
filo-Semitism. It seemed smart to them to, in the film with which they
intended to spread national hatred
and destroy the last traces of Croatian antifascism, use a Jew as the
most
positive character. Hey, there
are not any Jews in Croatia anyway and only fools would cause trouble
about
them. On the other hand,
believe Sedlar and Aralica, if you are nice to Jews, you can do with
Partisans and Serbs, as well as with
the results of the war, whatever you like. A smart Croatian revisionist
would
always praise Jews.
The very idea to shoot "In Four Rows" was scandalous since Aralica's
novel,
on which the movie is
based, was also scandalous. But the film was produced by four Croatian
Ministries, the Croatian
Privatization Fund, Croatian Tourist Association, Croatian
Telecommunications, the City of Zagreb,
Croatian Lottery, Croatian Oil Industry INA and many smaller and less
impressive sounding producers, so
that Sedlar's film is actually the result of a widely based social
action and
thereby similar to the Partisan
films from the former Yugoslavia, such as "Sutjeska" and "Neretva".
In practice, thousands of Croatian citizens have ended up in the role of
passive co-producers of "In Four
Rows". Perhaps, all of those who have paid a single Kuna of taxes to the
Croatian state budget deserve
such a credit. That does not mean that all of us share guilt for "In
Four
Rows", but it is the fact that all of
us have been involved in "In Four Rows" and that only unprecedented
Sedlar's
lack of talent saved us
from worse consequences. God himself, if that was him indeed, saved us
from
ignominy which we would
not have been able to wash off for a long time, by denying Sedlar all
that is
needed by a human or a
creature to be an artist.
Greatest Trickery
Actually, no matter now much we curse fate for sending us all those
Vukojevics, Krpinas, and midget
Rottweilers of Croatian judiciary, we should be at least grateful that
it
also included people like Sedlar and
Aralica. It has been proven, namely, that bastards can be extremely
talented,
that creeps can be terrific
writers and that very well articulated works of art can be motivated by
hatred and evil. What would have
happened if, for example, Sedlar were Kusturica [famous Serbian
film-maker]
and Aralica, for example,
Peter Handke [pro-Serb world-famous Austrian writer], and that the two
of
them took upon themselves
to re-tailor history and turn antifascists into fascists, and fascists
into
civilians and brothers of good soldier
Svejk? We would have had problems that we cannot even dream of today, we
would feel miserable and
empty, ungifted and lost with respect to our own enemies and enemies of
our
lives.
It is wonderful to have Sedlar and Aralica whose greatest trickery is to
include a Partisan-Jew. There is
nothing more harmless than filo-Semitic anti-Semitism, although it is
sickening and disgusting, but at least
it is so obvious and clear as every act rooted in unclear conscience. It
is
wonderful to have Sedlar because
of his fascination with male haircuts. Namely, as in "Mother of God"
[Gospa]
the hairdo on the head of
Martin Sheen, even after hours and days of torture looked as if it had
just
been sealed under a hairdryer
of a provincial hair salon, thus in "In Four Rows" the hairdo of Ivan
Marevic
is tussled in the same
seductive manner both at the start and the end of the Croatian Cavalry.
Unfortunate Jakov Sedlar does
not see such things and exactly that saves us from his idea. It is also
wonderful to have Sedlar because of
the fact that his main character can hardly speak the Croat language.
Actually, he speaks it as every
Australian, Canadian, or American of Croatian origin, and he is supposed
to
be a young actor from Zagreb
in the movie. What wonderful cynicism: In the most Croatian of all
Croatian
movies, the most valiant
Croat cannot speak Croatian. Something so mean would not have occurred
even
to the most evil of the
Partisan butchers from "In Four Rows".
Sanity Check
It is rumored among Zagreb actors that actor's wages for work in "In
Four
Rows" were enormous, the
highest in the more recent history of domestic film making, and that
that is
the reason that a team of our
best actors appears in the movie, as well as almost all young Croatian
actors. Their excuse is that Sedlar
was making offers that could not be refused, so that very few did
indeed, but
that is not a story about
historical revisionism, nor about lack of talent, but about misery and
poverty of the public scene on which
jobs are accepted and refused based on offered remuneration, so that
actors
play without any faith in their
characters.
After watching "In Four Rows", it is hard to understand why the Croatian
TV
decided to show that movie
two days after Christmas and on a day of electoral silence. Sedlar's and
Aralica's work is hardly good
propaganda; it cannot change anyone's opinion, apart from being a sanity
check for those who will watch
TV that night and nevertheless vote for HDZ. Essentially, for the
democratization of this country and
even for the opposition, it is useful to show "In Four Rows", and then
repeat
it as often as possible until
the last one among us realizes what has remained of the Independent
State of
Croatia fifty five years after
the war, and to what the old Ustashe have been transformed. Budak's
"Hearths"
[Ognjista] are for "In
Four Rows", both the book and the movie, a highly articulate,
non-ideological
and modern work of art.
However, something in all of this is still very sad. People did die in
Bleiburg and in the Croatian Cavalry.
It does not matter how many of them were killed because they were
definitely
too many. Various people
suffered and it is not the most important whether they were civilians,
soldiers, innocent people or
criminals. The fact that behind they left relatives who for years could
not
find out the truth about their
fates and who hoped for years that they would eventually return. In some
parts of Croatia and especially
Bosnia-Hercegovina there are very few families which haven't lost
someone in
Bleiburg. In principle, they
do not care whether their loved ones were criminals or innocents,
murderers
or conscripted children.
Uncertainty and empty hope with which those people lived is the greatest
and
usually totally undeserved
punishment. Ivan Aralica and Jakov Sedlar arrogantly and mercilessly
played
with emotions of the
relatives of the victims of the Croatian Cavalry. Thus a huge and
horrible
topic, which deserves human
sympathy, and probably also books and films that it will never greet,
has
been wasted. Bleiburg, ignoring
history and focusing on people from our homelands, is a sad story about
those
who waited and do not
know when exactly they stopped waiting.
[1] The Croatian Calvary (Croatian: KRIZNI PUT = the way of the cross),
an
episode in Croatian
history, when, in 1945, the Ustashe army surrendered, with a great
number of
civilians who were fleeing
communist Partisans, to the British at the town of Bleiburg in Austria.
The
British, in turn, surrendered
them to Tito's army. Most of them were soon executed without a trial,
some in
death marches led
throughout the country. The Croatian official history compares the
plight of
the "Croatian martyrs who
were executed only for being Croats" with that of Jesus Christ and his
carrying of the cross on the way to
crucifixion.
[2] The surname of director Sedlar is pronounced saddle-ar
[3] Mile Budak was an Ustashe official during WWII and a writer.
"Hearths" is
his best known novel. He
is infamous for his participation in the organization of the genocide of
Serbs, Jews and Gypsies in the
Independent State of Croatia. Since the independence he has been a sort
of a
poster boy for Croatian
nationalists and his name has been given to many streets throughout
Croatia.
Translated on March 24 2000
---
1997: I PADRI FONDATORI (FASCISTI) DELLA CROAZIA INDIPENDENTE
Fascists Reborn as Croatia's Founding Fathers
By CHRIS HEDGES
The old fascist marching songs were sung, a moment of silence was
observed
for all who died defending the fatherland, and the gathering was
reminded
that today was the 57th anniversary of the founding of Croatia's
Nazi-allied
wartime government. Then came the most chilling words of the afternoon.
"For Home!" shouted Anto Dapic, surrounded by bodyguards in black suits
and
crew cuts.
"Ready!" responded the crowd of 500 supporters, their arms rising in a
stiff
Nazi salute.
The call and response -- the Croatian equivalent of "Sieg!" "Heil!" --
was
the wartime greeting used by supporters of the fascist Independent State
of
Croatia, which governed the country for most the Second World War and
murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Croatian resistance
fighters.
Today, in the final day of campaigning before local elections on Sunday,
supporters of Croatia's Party of Rights used the chant as a rallying
cry. But
the shouts of the black-shirted young men -- and the indifferent
reactions of
passersby -- illustrated a broader aspect of this country's self-image.
President Franjo Tudjman and his Croatian Democratic Union party rose to
popularity and power on the strength of its appeals to Croatians'
national
pride. Now, six years after the war that won Croatia its independence
from
Yugoslavia, Mr. Tudjman's party continues to cast the World War II
fascist
fighters as patriots and precursors of the modern Croatian state.
The Party of Rights took only 7 percent of the vote in the last
election, but
it is the closest ally of Mr. Tudjman, who is reported to be suffering
from
cancer but who has still campaigned actively.
Perhaps no other country has failed as openly as Croatia to come to
terms
with its fascist legacy. While the French celebrate a resistance
movement
that was often dwarfed by the widespread collaboration with the Vichy
regime,
and while the Austrians often act as if the war never happened, the
Croats
have rehabilitated the Croatian fascist collaborators, known as the
Ustashe.
The Ustashe was led by Ante Pavelic, the wartime dictator whose picture
was
plastered on walls in Split in preparation for the rally.
"A majority of the Croats oppose this rehabilitation," said Viktor
Ivancic,
editor in chief of the opposition weekly, The Feral Tribune. "But they
are
afraid. These neo-fascist groups, protected by the state, are ready to
employ
violence against their critics."
Ustashe veterans receive larger pensions than old Partisan fighters, who
waged a savage fight against the German and Croatian fascist armies.
Former
Ustashe soldiers are invited to state celebrations, like the annual army
day,
while Partisan fighters are ignored. And state authorities have stood by
as
pro-Ustashe groups have dismantled or destroyed 2,964 of 4,073 monuments
to
those who died in the resistance struggle, according to veteran Partisan
groups.
The identification with the quisling regime does not stop there. The
Croatian
currency is the kuna, the same instituted by the fascists. And the red
and
white checkerboard on the flag, taken from medieval Croatian emblems,
previously adorned the Ustashe uniform. The President recently proposed
bringing Mr. Pavelic's remains from Spain, where he died in exile in
1959,
for burial in Croatia, a move rejected by Mr. Pavelic's family. And
Vinko
Nikolic, an 85-year-old former high-ranking Ustashe official who fled
into
exile after the war, was appointed by the President to the Croatian
Parliament.
The transformation is all the more noticeable because of widespread
participation by many Croats in the Partisan guerrilla movement led by
Josip
Broz Tito, himself a Croat.
"A huge number of Croats fought the Nazis and the Ustashe," said
77-year-Partisan veteran Milivoj Borosa, who defected in his bomber in
1942
from the Ustashe air force and dropped his payload on a German unit
during
his escape to the Soviet Union. "But today, those who should hold their
heads
in shame, are national heroes."
The Partisans, who included among their ranks the young Franjo Tudjman,
committed what today is viewed as an unforgivable sin. They built a
united,
Communist Yugoslavia. And while the Ustashe state may have been a Nazi
puppet, it had as its stated aim the establishment of an independent
Croatia,
although it was forced by the Axis to turn over large parts of Croatia,
including much of the Dalmatian coast, to the Italians.
In the current campaign, President Tudjman sought to reconcile the
country's
wartime divisions by arguing that the fascist and anti-fascist Croatians
performed equally valuable service for their country. A general who
became a
historian after leaving the Yugoslav Army, Mr. Tudjman is among the
leaders
of a revisionist school of history that has sought to counterbalance the
Communists' relentlessly dark view of the fascist years.
But many Croats, especially those who had relatives killed by the
fascists,
smolder with indignation over the glorification of a regime that
massacred
opponents with a ferocity that often shocked its Italian and German
allies.
"You cannot reconcile victims and butchers," said Ognjen Kraus, the head
of
Zagreb's small Jewish community. "No one has the right to carry out a
reconciliation in the name of those who vanished."
The climate has become so charged that those who oppose the
rehabilitation of
the Ustashe do not dare raise their voices. And there have been several
attacks carried out against members of the Social Democratic Party, the
old
Communist party, currently fielding candidates for the municipal
elections.
Many of the black-uniformed bodyguards at the rally here fought against
the
Serbs as members of The Croatian Liberation Forces, a brutal right-wing
paramilitary unit formed by the party.
The Ustashe supporters also have a powerful ally in the Catholic Church
in
Croatia. The church, led during the war by Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac,
was
a prominent backer of the Ustashe regime. It forcibly converted tens of
thousands of Orthodox Serbs and did not denounce the government's
roundup and
massacre of Jews and Serbs.
During the war, Jews and Orthodox Serbs were subject to racial laws. The
Serbs had to wear blue arm bands with the letter "P" for "Pravoslav" --
Orthodox -- before being deported to death camps like Jasenovac.
After the war, many priests, rather than condemn the brutality of the
fascist
regime, went on to set up an underground network know as "the rat line"
to
smuggle former Ustashe leaders, including Mr. Pavelic, to countries like
Argentina.
The church, persecuted by the Communists, has now re-emerged as one of
the
most powerful institutions in the country, in large part because
religion is
the only tangible difference separating Serbs, Muslims and Croats.
Several
priests have enthusiastically joined the rehabilitation campaign,
portraying
Mr. Pavelic as a pious leader who championed Christian values.
"Ante Pavelic was a good Catholic," said Father Luka Prcela, who has
held a
memorial Mass for the former dictator in Split for the last four years.
"He
went to mass daily in his own chapel. Many of the crimes alleged to have
been
committed by his Government never happened. These stories were lies
spread by
the communists. He fought for a free, Catholic Croatia. We have this
state
today because of him."
(c) The New York Times, April 12, 1997
---
1995: PERPLESSITA' EBRAICHE SUI RAPPORTI TRA USA E CROAZIA...
Open Letter to Branko Lustig, Producer of a Misunderstanding in
Washington
by Mirko Mirkovic
Feral Tribune, Split, Croatia, 2/20/95
I would like to review your speech presented to the Press Club in
Washington,
D.C. on 11/21/94, which
made a great impact recently in Croatia. It was published in its
entirety by
Vjesnik and then by Vecernji
List [state-owned daily newspapers]. Obviously, it deserved such
publicity,
since it is full of praise for
President Tudjman. You had an honor of sitting next to him at the
premier of
the film ``Schindler's List"
in cinema ``Europe" [in Zagreb]. You were, in your words,``excited
because
all of the important officials
in the Croatian government were present." I can sympathize that it
really
must have been exciting. You
noticed that the president was personally moved by the film:``after the
film
finished, he got up, gave me a
hug and I could swear that his eyes were full of tears."
If only he could have seen ``Schindler's List" before he published his
book
``Wastelands of Historical
Reality" [``Bespuca Historijske Zbiljnosti"]. Maybe he would not have
quoted
a disgusting story about the
Jews in Jasenovac [largest concentration camp in Croatia during the
WWII],
contributed by two
antisemites who had been released from the camp. In any case, why is it
that,
as a historian, he did not
find it necessary to quote testimonies of Jewish inmates who survived
the
Ustashe [Croatian fascists]
Auschwitz by pure luck? Their testimonies about that inferno were
collected
in a book published in 1972.
It is true that, later, as a president of the republic, he ``expressed
sorrow
for the suffering of the Croatian
Jews in the holocaust." Commendable. However, the president of Germany,
Roman
Hertzog went a step
further than expressing ``sorrow" when last summer he said in Warsaw:``I
beg
for forgiveness for what
the Germans did to you."
The day after the premiere of ``Schindler's List", you said:``I received
a
high Croatian decoration, Order
of Prince Trpimir... During the ceremony the president apologized to me
and
all members of the Jewish
community for those who during the Second World War took part in
Enforcement
of Hitler's racist laws."
In 1941 you were still a child and maybe did not know that in Croatia
racist
laws were not enacted by
Hitler, but by Independent State of Croatia (ISC) [Nezavisna Drzave
Hrvatska
or NDH was a Nazi
puppet state from 1941 to 1945; it was run by Croatian fascist movement
-
Ustashe in Croatian] and
enforced by Ustashe government. You might not be aware that Vinko
Nikolic was
an important
functionary in that government, a member of the Ustashe High Command. He
was
enraptured by the
Poglavnik [term corresponding to Fuhrer in Ustashe terminology] Ante
Pavelic.
``Our new intelligentsia,"
wrote Vinko Nikolic in the Novi List on 7/2/41,``must raise new
generations
under ustashe [ie. fascist]
values and above all, must engender in Croatian youth, from the earliest
age,
unlimited and devoted
loyalty towards the Poglavnik." He was not only enraptured with the
Poglavnik, but also interested in
literature, which, according to him would help the Ustashe movement ``to
mold
a new man," whose main
characteristics must be:``nationalistic soul, Ustashe heart, Poglavnik's
teaching and Ustashe creed" (Vinko
Nikolic, National Goals of Literature, Zagreb, 1944). He showed his
``loyalty
to the Poglavnik" in the
emigration to Madrid in 1949, when the Ustashe crimes were already known
around the world, by
composing an ode to Poglavnik's ISC.
Why am I mentioning this to you? Because that gentlemen recently
returned to
Zagreb, to the
government's warm welcome. President Tudjman, fighter against fascism in
the
WWII, did not know
better then to make this gentlemen (who with his ``Ustashe heart" took
part
in the machinery of the
holocaust) a member of the upper house of the Croatian parliament! No,
that
``educator according to the
fascist values" never killed anyone himself. He sat at his desk and
supported
criminals with his pen. Do
you know that, mister Lustig ?
Men for all Times
Do you think that a man who in the third Reich demanded from the youth
``limitless devotion to the
Fuhrer," could today, in democratic Germany become a member of Bundestag
-
German Federal
Parliament? Do you think that the units of the German Army could be
named
after Nazi war criminals, as
some units of the Croatian Army bear names of Ustashe butchers? Do you
think
that some
SS-Sturmbandfuhrer, who during the third Reich signed a racist order,
could
get today a high decoration
from the president of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)? Still, all
of
this is possible. But not in
todays Germany. Signatory of the racist Ustashe order in 1941, Ustashe
stozernik [military rank] Ivo
Rojnica, was decorated by the Poglavnik with the order of merit `` for
the
zealous service in Ustashe
movement." The very same zealot of Ustashe movement - who declared in
``Slobodna
Dalmacija":``everything I did in 1941 I would do again" - has recently
received a decoration of the high
Order of Prince Trpimir from the hands of president Tudjman personally!
Of
course this case is not
unique. Accomplice in the German genocide on the Balkan, Kurt Waldheim
also
received a high
decoration from Pavelic and then, after the war, as a secretary of the
UN,
another one from Tito! Some
people are truly for all times. Franjo Tudjman, Tito's general, knows
that
much.
The grotesque part is that you, Mr. Lustig, an Auschwitz survivor, wear
the
same decoration as a Ustashe
officer who ``zealously worked" to implement the holocaust on the
territory
of the ISC. And with great
success. Of approximately 40,000 Jews on the territory of ISC, three
quarters
were killed. Survivors were
only those who managed to escape to the Italian occupation zone or
joined the
Partisans [indigenous
communist guerilla army under Tito's leadership]. Many were helped by
the
Croatians. But while the
Croatian citizens, in personal danger, were helping persecuted Jews as
much
as they could, the
government of ISC was killing them whenever possible.
You quoted president Tudjman's message to Melvin Salzberger and Abraham
Foxman, in which he
distances himself and the Croatian government from the quisling Croatian
state [ISC] and the Ustashe
regime. Very good and commendable. But if you lived here, I believe that
as a
Jew, you would be worried
by the rehabilitation of the Ustashe ISC, which encompasses
historiography,
newspaper articles, TV talk
shows, naming of military units after infamous Ustashe ``knights", all
the
way to restaurants with names
like ``Poglavnik", ``Coffee Bar Ustasha" and similar reminders of the
genocide of the Jews in ISC. Not
far from the house in which I live, one can find Poglavnik's picture and
a
bust in a bar, so that the patrons
can get the idea about the owner's political leanings. I am convinced
that
you will agree with me that it is
unimaginable that in todays Germany restaurants and hotels would be
named
after the Fuhrer or the SS
officers, or that a Fuhrer's picture could be displayed in them. In
Germany,
such things are regulated by
the law. We in Croatia apparently have more democracy than Germans. If
it is
true, as you said, that it is
``improbable that in Croatia we see the strengthening of fascism," one
faces
a question: why does not the
president and the government protest against the rehabilitation of the
criminal ISC? It is true, as you said,
that in Croatia ``there is no antisemitism but there are a few
antisemites."
After Auschwitz, antisemitism
can hardly be en vogue. The Croatian president and the government on
several
occasions, have expressed
their favorable inclination towards the Jewish community. Was that
because of
some special love towards
the Jews? Or in order to score a few good PR points in the USA? - I
leave the
answer to you.
It is unthinkable that in democratic Germany an ex-Nazi propaganda boss
could
appear on TV and discuss
the benefits of the third Reich. On the other hand, one of the Zagreb TV
channels showed in 1992 a
program with the boss of Ustashe propaganda, Daniel Crljen. The same one
who
during the ISC
declared:``Croatia has radically solved its Jewish problem."
Points scored away from the Home field
You said that ``the tendencies described in the press (I suppose foreign
!)
are marginal and have no
support from the president or the government." Very good. However, a
striking
question is why that same
president and the government do not publicly and decisively condemn
numerous
cases of rehabilitation of
Ustashe ISC. Nothing would be easier, since they have a total control
over
the daily press and the
electronic media.
For the Jewish community, the instances of Ustashe rehabilitation can
hardly
be ``marginal." Especially
not for those Jews who survived the holocaust and who after returning to
their homeland found out that
they were left alone in this world, without a mother and a father,
without
brothers and sisters, without
their children. All of them have disappeared without a trace in Ustashe
branch offices of ``the final
solution", in Jasenovac, Stara Gradiska, Jadovna, on Pag. By the way,
the
last several hundred Jews in
Croatia, mostly elderly, were turned turned over to Eichmann, ie. sent
straight to the Nazi gas chambers.
Cardinal Stepinac tried to save Zagreb Chef Rabbi, Miroslav Freiberger
and
his family. He did not
succeed. Eichmann's word had more importance for the Poglavnik than that
of
Cardinal Stepinac.
Would it therefore be marginal for you, Mr. Lustig, if you were facing
today
the rehabilitation of racist
butchers from Auschwitz? You also said:``claims that the present
government
encourages fascism are
absolutely false." If that is true, I would be grateful if you could
explain
how that squares with the fact
that the approximately 2000 monuments to the fighters against and
victims of
fascism have been
destroyed in Croatia [since 1991] ( by ``unknown" perpetrators);
memorials
for the people who were
cruelly killed simply because they had been born Jews, or Serbs or
Gypsies or
were Croatian antifascists!
Also, do not you find it perplexing, as an Auschwitz survivor, that
president
Tudjman was so keen to
erase the Victims of Fascism Square name? I believe that you will agree
with
me, when I say that those
fighters against fascism in Croatia sacrificed their lives in the common
struggle of the humanity against the
deadly darkness which threatened to turn all of Europe in a continental
Auschwitz. Why have not the
Croatian authorities condemned or why have not they decisively
confronted
that barbarian destruction of
the memorials for the victims of fascism? Or maybe someone thinks that
the
historical facts can be
thrown into a black hole of oblivion, as did the Big Brother's
``Ministry of
Truth" in Orwell's 1984?
Black Hole of Oblivion
In your Washington speech you said:``the number of Jews in Partisans was
small." With that claim you
unfortunately misinformed your American audience. Yugoslavia had about
70,000
Jews before the
WWII. About 4,500 of those, or more than 6 percent of the total Jewish
population, took part in the
national liberation war. That means that the participation of Jews in
the
antifascist struggle was
proportionally larger than that of any other nation on the territory of
ex-Yugoslavia.
You tried to convince your American audience that Kuna is an appropriate
choice for the name of the
Croatian currency. You said:`` I personally do not see that as a
connection
with the fascist period.".
Ustashe ISC was just the first state to name the Croatian currency Kuna.
But
what sort of connection
could that have with our ``most democratic country in Europe" [a common
phrase in the Croatian press,
referring to Croatia].
Commemoration of the 50 years since the liberation of Auschwitz has
recently
taken place in Poland. Eli
Wiesel, Nobel Prize winner, and ,as you said, your friend from the death
march in January of 1943 took
part in the commemoration. you quoted his words:`` To forget is to kill
the
victims for the second time.
We could not stop their death the first time round. We must not allow
them to
be killed again." Don't you
also find intolerable the rehabilitation of Ustashe ISC, which was until
the
last moment of the third Reich
its ally in the most horrendous genocide in history?
The author is a writer and translator, ex-secretary of Croatian PEN and
a
longtime member of the
Jewish Community Council in Zagreb
Translated in May 1995
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
* Nazismo croato: non solo ultras
* L'Italia alla conquista dell'economia croata
* Gli USA promettono altri aiuti militari alla Croazia; dispute legali
per i crimini croati in Bosnia; e' la BADURINA & ASSOCIATES che cura le
operazioni di "lobbying" della Croazia negli ambienti statunitensi che
contano
* Flashback: Haider in Croazia...
---
NAZISMO CROATO: NON SOLO ULTRAS
Gli incidenti che hanno avuto luogo tra ultras del Milan e teppisti
della Dinamo Zagabria, molti dei quali reduci dalla guerra di
"indipendenza" della Croazia, lo scorso 9 agosto a Milano hanno portato
alla ribalta delle cronache l'esistenza dei neonazisti ustascia croati.
Apriti cielo! Come se nessuno sapesse che il nazismo ustascia e' vivo e
vegeto, essendo stato in questi anni uno dei principali strumenti usati
dalla NATO per distruggere la RFSJ ed edificare il nuovo stato
"indipendente" croato filo-atlantico.
*** Tre siti per farsi un'idea di cosa e' il nazismo croato oggi:
USTASA NET - http://www.ustasa.net/
NEZAVISNA DRZAVA HRVATSKA - http://www.hop.hr/
CROAT NETLINK - http://ns.cronet.com/
*** Una "guida" della mafia erzegovese e delle principali formazioni
dello squadrismo ustascia in Bosnia-Erzegovina e' leggibile su:
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/39
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/40
*** LA NOSTRA PAGINA SULLA CROAZIA "INDIPENDENTE":
http://www.marx2001.org/crj/hr.html
*** ALCUNI VECCHI ARTICOLI IN INGLESE SUL NEONAZISMO CROATO:
1999: UN CULT-MOVIE PER NEONAZISTI PRODOTTO DALLO STATO CROATO?
Film "In Four Rows" by Jakov Sedlar and Ivan Aralica Missed Chance to
Become Cult Film of European Neo-Nazism
1997: I PADRI FONDATORI (FASCISTI) DELLA CROAZIA INDIPENDENTE
Fascists Reborn as Croatia's Founding Fathers
1995: PERPLESSITA' EBRAICHE SUI RAPPORTI TRA USA E CROAZIA...
Open Letter to Branko Lustig, Producer of a Misunderstanding in
Washington
Li trovate su: http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/421
---
> http://www.ecn.org/est/balcani/italia/italia11.htm
>
> Home L'Italia e i Balcani
>
> L'Italia...
> NOTIZIE EST #332 - ITALIA/BALCANI
> est@... 13 giugno 2000
>
> LE BANCHE ITALIANE FANNO ACQUISTI NEI BALCANI
>
> [Seguono due pezzi, uno dal settimanale di
> Zagabria "Nacional" sulla svendita delle banche
> croate, che ha visto in prima fila come
> controparti acquirenti due delle maggiori banche
> italiane, la Comit e la UniCredito, e uno
> sull'importante operazione di acquisto che
> quest'ultima, secondo il settimanale di Sofia
> "Kapital", si appresta a concludere in Bulgaria,
> nonché sui problemi che sta avendo in questo
> paese un'altra azienda italiana, la Marconi. Ai
> due pezzi fa seguito un commento sulla strana
> tempistica delle maggiori operazioni del grande
> capitale italiano nei Balcani - a.f.]
>
> LA SVENDITA DELLE BANCHE CROATE
> di Zeljko Rogosic - ("Nacional", 6 aprile 2000)
>
> [Il settimanale "Nacional" ha pubblicato, oltre
> a quello che segue qui sotto, altri due lunghi
> articoli sulla vendita della Splitska Banka e
> sul suo passato ruolo di finanziatrice, "a fondo
> perso", della cerchia di Pasalic e Kutle,
> rispettivamente uno esponente dell'ala destra
> della HDZ e l'altro miliardario legato a doppio
> filo con il regime di Tudjman, articoli
> pubblicati nel n. 222 del 17 febbraio 2000 e n.
> 224 del 2 marzo 2000 e archiviati nel sito web
> del giornale: http://www.nacional.hr Quando è
> stato pubblicato l'articolo che segue qui sotto,
> l'acquisto della Splitska Banka da parte della
> UniCredito non era ancora stato portato a
> termine - l'affare è stato comunque finalizzato
> poco dopo, il 19 aprile scorso. Data la
> lunghezza dell'articolo, abbiamo tradotto solo
> le parti riguardanti più direttamente le
> operazioni delle banche italiane. Sull'acquisto
> della Privredna Banka da parte della Comit
> segnaliamo il testo del Centro di Iniziativa
> Politica sui Balcani (http://www.ecn.org/cipb)]
>
> [...] Il governo di Ivica Racan non intende
> interrompere la privatizzazione delle banche del
> paese, illegale e altamente dannosa per i conti
> dello stato croato, avviata già dal governo di
> Matesa. Dopo la privatizzazione e la vendita
> delle quote di controllo della Slavonska Banka e
> della Privredna Banka Zagreb, e la recente
> vendita della Rijecka Banka alla tedesca
> Bayerische Landesbank, nonché l'annuncio
> dell'avvio di trattative per la scandalosa
> vendita della Splitska Banka alla banca italiana
> UniCredito di Milano - di cui "Nacional" ha già
> informato in maniera dettagliata l'opinione
> pubblica croata, senza che nessuno smentisse con
> una parola le nostre affermazioni - il danno
> arrecato ai conti dello stato croato ammonta
> ormai oggi a 14 miliardi di kune e continua a
> seguire una tendenza alla crescita. Nessuno si
> inquieta per il fatto che la piccola banca
> triestina Cassa di Risparmio di Trieste abbia
> deciso di acquistare la Splitska Banka
> presentandosi come parte del gruppo bancario
> UniCredito, che non ha mai manifestato nemmeno
> un lontano interesse d'affari riguardo a tale
> acquisto. I sospetti riguardo alla vendita e
> alla strana presa di controllo della Privredna
> Banka sotto il governo della HDZ verrà ora
> completato dalla coalizione di governo con
> un'altra vendita sospetta! Il governo di Racan
> punta unicamente a una soluzione a breve termine
> degli interessi croati, visto che con la somma
> limitata di 200 milioni di marchi che andranno a
> finire nelle casse di stato con la vendita della
> Rijecka Banka e della Splitska Banka, intende
> almeno per un breve periodo di tempo dare
> ossigeno a un bilancio statale eccessivamente
> carico di oneri. Questo desiderio degli
> strateghi del SDP, Slavko Linic e Mate Crkvenac,
> sarebbe del tutto comprensibile se in origine la
> politica della HDZ e la strategia di svendita
> delle proprietà croate avviata dal governo
> Matesa non avessero dato luogo al saccheggio più
> grande mai visto fino a oggi in Croazia. Secondo
> i dati della Banca Nazionale Croata, per il
> risanamento e le operazioni di salvataggio della
> banche croate in stato di fallimento o portate
> sull'orlo della bancarotta, sono stati spesi 48
> miliardi di kune, che hanno pagato di loro tasca
> i contribuenti croati. Per il risanamento della
> banche in bancarotta, il cui capitale è
> chiaramente diventato di proprietà dei magnati
> croati, sono stati prelevati dal bilancio
> statale, quindi, sei miliardi di dollari [...]
> [pari a] un terzo del prodotto interno lordo. Ma
> con la vendita della Privredna Banka alla
> italiana Comit, della Slavonska Banka
> all'austriaca Hypo Banka, della Rijecka e della
> Istarska alla tedesca Bayerische Landesbank e
> della Splitska Banka all'italiana UniCredito, il
> bilancio statale croato incasserà solamente 3,6
> miliardi di kune. La sproporzione tra i soldi
> stanziati per il risanamento e ciò che secondo
> le promesse dei politici dovrebbe tornare sotto
> forma di entrate dalle privatizzazioni delle
> banche è grande. Con il modello dominante della
> privatizzazione delle banche a ogni costo, la
> Croazia perderà milioni di marchi e sarà l'unico
> stato del mondo il cui governo ha organizzato e
> messo in atto una svendita a prezzi minimi delle
> proprie banche. Grazie a una tale
> privatizzazione, nelle casse dei cosiddetti
> partner e investitori strategici esteri vengono
> riversate decine di miliardi di kune dal
> bilancio statale croato. Gli appelli, le
> informazioni e la documentazione fatti pervenire
> alle più alte cariche del Governo,
> l'avvertimento formulato pubblicamente che con
> la vendita della Rijecka, e in particolare con
> la vendita criminale della Splitska Banka si
> arreca, e prosegue, un vero e proprio colpo
> contro il bilancio statale e la stabilità
> finanziaria dello stato, non hanno dato alcun
> risultato. Il governo ha deciso di chiudere gli
> occhi di fronte ai fatti. Esso non ha nemmeno
> sottoposto a riesame l'offerta della UniCredito
> per l'acquisto della Splitska Banka, anche se è
> evidente che nei preparativi per la sua
> privatizzazione sono stati compiuti anche gravi
> atti penali. Nel governo croato si è creata
> l'immagine fantastica che la vendita
> "salvatrice" della Splitska Banka agli italiani
> sia l'unica soluzione.
>
> IL MODELLO DELLA HDZ
> Il modello della HDZ per la vendita delle banche
> statali è stato illustrato alla fine del 1998
> dall'allora premier Zlatko Matesa. Egli ha
> annunciato che nella prima fase di
> privatizzazione sarebbe stato venduto solo il 25
> per cento della Rijecka Banka e il 36 per cento
> della Privredna Banka e della Splitska Banka, e
> che lo stato avrebbe continuato a esserne
> l'azionista di maggioranza. Chissà per decisione
> di chi, e comunque senza copertura e motivi
> finanziari effettivi, gli investitori esteri
> oggi controllano praticamente quote di
> maggioranza in tutte le banche croate
> privatizzate. La Hypo Banka, che ha comprato il
> relativo pacchetto azionario dalla EBRD (la
> Banca Europea per il Rinnovo e lo Sviluppo),
> controlla il 75 per cento del capitale della
> Slavonska Banka, la Comit detiene il 66,3 per
> cento della Privredna Banka e la BLB e la
> UniCredito riceveranno in dono rispettivamente
> il 66 e il 65 per cento della Rijecka Banka e
> della Splitska Banka. Con la vendita della
> Privredna Banka alla Comit alla fine dell'anno
> scorso è stato direttamente inaugurato il
> modello di svendita delle banche croate. Tale
> modello è stato portato alla perfezione con la
> prevista vendita della Splistka Banka, a quanto
> si dice, alla milanese UniCredito per il tramite
> della piccola Cassa triestina, vendita della
> quale "Nacional" ha esaurientemente scritto
> alcune settimane fa. Per il pacchetto di
> maggioranza della Privredna Banka la Comit ha
> pagato 660 milioni di marchi, ovvero due
> miliardi e 440 milioni di kune, una cifra che
> [l'allora] ministro delle finanze Borislav
> Skegro aveva valutato di fronte all'opinione
> pubblica come un affare eccezionale. Ma la HDZ e
> Skegro hanno dimenticato di dire che con la
> vendita della Privredna Banka i danni per il
> bilancio statale sono stati di alcune volte
> maggiori. Anche la Privredna Banka [come la
> Rijecka Banka] ha risanato il proprio bilancio,
> vale a dire che ha trasferito il proprio
> portafoglio di crediti inesigibili per un valore
> di non meno di 2,5 miliardi di kune, all'Agenzia
> statale per il risanamento delle banche (DAB). A
> nome dello stato, la DAB si è impegnata a pagare
> alla banca, cioè al suo nuovo proprietario, nel
> corso dei prossimi sette anni e con un interesse
> del 6,5 per cento, attingendo al bilancio
> statale, una somma di entità identica. Solo con
> questa operazione, il partner strategico
> italiano ha compensato le spese effettuate e
> inoltre, sulla base degli interessi, ha
> guadagnato come minimo mezzo milione di kune. Ma
> con l'acquisto della Privredna Banka da parte
> della Comit è stato acquisito anche il diritto a
> obbligazioni croate per 3,2 miliardi di kune
> emesse al fine del risanamento della banca, che
> recano un interesse del 7,5 per cento, nonché il
> diritto a un miliardo e 460 milioni di kune di
> obbligazioni statali emesse al fine della
> ricapitalizzazione della banca, che hanno una
> scadenza a 15 anni a cominciare dal 1 luglio
> 1997, con un interesse del 5 per cento, il tutto
> insieme a una clausola valutaria. Quindi, la
> Comit ha pagato per la Privredna Banka 2,4
> miliardi di kune e, solo a fronte delle
> obbligazioni basate sul bilancio statale croato,
> otterrà 4,6 miliardi di kune.
>
> LA PRIVATIZZAZIONE DANNOSA
> Ma non è tutto. Lo stato si è preso carico anche
> dei debiti della Privredna Banka conseguenti ai
> crediti contratti dalla banca all'estero e pari
> a 346 milioni di dollari, ovvero 2,7 miliardi di
> kune. Quindi alla Comit verranno pagati dal
> bilancio statale croato, e questo senza tenere
> conto del valore del portafoglio e dei crediti
> inesigibili trasferiti allo stato, ben 7,3
> miliardi di kune. La "vendita", o meglio il dono
> della Privredna Banka è stato un modello
> esemplare di come effettuare la privatizzazione
> di una banca con esiti dannosi per la Croazia.
> Il minimo che in questo saccheggio del bilancio
> statale e in questa svendita di banche statali
> poteva fare il governo di Racan sarebbe stato di
> mostrare una specifica delle quote e dei crediti
> inesigibili che la Privredna Banka ha trasferito
> allo stato, in modo tale da rendere pubblico
> quante obbligazioni nei confronti della Comit si
> è assunto lo stato croato. Per esempio, allo
> stato è stata trasferita la quota del 63 per
> cento che la Privredna Banka detiene nella
> Jadroplov di Split, per un valore di 400 milioni
> di kune - i debiti che si è così assunto lo
> stato sono pari a 80 milioni di dollari e sono
> identici ai valori delle proprietà. Si ritiene
> che oltre alla Jadroplov, tra i debiti assunti
> dallo stato ci siano anche la Ina, la Kutina e
> molte altre imprese e quindi per ora si può solo
> intuire quanti siano i crediti inesigibili e non
> pagati della Privredna Banka trasferiti a onere
> del bilancio statale. Se non vogliono mettere a
> tacere il più grande scandalo statale, il
> governo e la DAB devono rendere pubblico ai
> contribuenti l'accordo sul trasferimento allo
> stato delle quote e dei crediti inesigibili
> della Privredna Banka, della Rijecka Banka e
> della Splitska Banka, perché sono tenuti a
> farlo. Il governo dovrebbe rispondere alla
> domanda del perché la Privredna Banka è stata
> comprata attraverso la filiale lussemburghese
> della Comit e in quali rapporti è tale filiale
> con la sede centrale del nuovo proprietario di
> maggioranza della Privredna Banka, del quale si
> segnala che è un membro del "Gruppo Intesa", il
> maggiore gruppo finanziario italiano.
> Bisognerebbe rispondere chi è veramente il nuovo
> proprietario della Privredna Banka, se si tratta
> di cittadini italiani o croati, qual è il ruolo
> di alcuni ex ministri croati in tutto questo e
> perché la Comit ha acquistato la Privredna Banka
> con una linea di credito in features che,
> mediante un indebitamento sul mercato locale dei
> capitali, è stata procurata dalla filiale
> brasiliana della Comit. L'elenco delle quote e
> dei crediti inesigibili della Splitska Banka
> trasferiti allo stato, per un valore di 1,166
> milioni di kune, è noto a "Nacional", che lo
> possiede. Alla DAB sono state trasferite quote
> bancarie senza valore in residenze turistiche
> (629 milioni di kune), crediti inesigibili (345
> milioni di kune), imprese con enormi perdite
> (Plodina, Slobodna Dalmacija, Dalmacijavino),
> crediti nei confronti di imprese che sono in
> bancarotta (Tisak, Jadrantekstil, Mornar). In
> cambio di tutto ciò, lo stato è tenuto a pagare
> alla Splitska Banka 687 milioni di kune. Quello
> che non sapevamo ce lo ha raccontato Tomo
> Bolotin, in un'intervista su commissione alla
> rivista d'affari "Banka", con la quale ha
> cercato assolutamente senza successo di smentire
> il testo pubblicato da "Nacional". Bolotin
> ammette che il partner italiano ha ordinato il
> risanamento del bilancio della banca, che
> l'accordo con la DAB è effettivamente
> un'obbligazione contrattuale a sette anni con
> interessi del 6,5 per cento insieme alla
> clausola valutaria. Questo significa che
> l'obbligazione dello stato non è più la
> restituzione al proprietario della banca di 687
> milioni di kune, ma la stessa somma maggiorata
> di 150 milioni di kune per interessi. [...] Le
> residenze turistiche non sono più proprietà
> della Splitska Banka, bensì dello stato, ma nei
> libri della banca vengono ancora registrati
> stanziamenti approvati destinati a tali imprese
> per un valore di 140 milioni di marchi, ovvero
> 570 milioni di kune. Si tratta di crediti
> "vivi", che la banca ha assicurato mediante
> ipoteca sugli immobili, ma, ammette lo stesso
> Bolotin, anche con garanzie che devono essere
> pagate dallo stato alla prima richiesta.
>
> Quindi con l'operazione di risanamento del
> bilancio grazie all'"eccellente" vendita alla
> UniCredito lo stato non ha la possibilità di
> vendere gli alberghi, perché il nuovo
> proprietario ha registrato un'ipoteca su di essi
> e garanzie da pagarsi alla prima richiesta.
> Dunque, oltre ai 687 milioni di kune
> contrattuali, oltre ai 150 milioni di kune di
> interessi, oltre ai 1,193 miliardi di
> obbligazioni della Croazia, oltre alle proprietà
> della Splitska Banka per il valore di 137
> milioni di kune, il nuovo proprietario della
> Splitska Banka otterrà anche 570 milioni di kune
> di crediti approvati per il turismo con garanzie
> del governo croato, cosa che finora ancora non
> sapevamo. I nuovi dati dicono che con la
> svendita delle proprietà croate e l'acquisto
> della Splitska Banka, UniCredito guadagnerà due
> miliardi e 588 milioni di kune. [...]
>
> Rimane l'amaro sapore del dovere prendere atto
> che, per mettere delle pezze temporanee al
> bilancio, il governo di Racan ha amnistiato la
> politica della HDZ e copre tutte le mancanze, le
> illegalità e gli affari dubbi nella politica
> creditizia delle banche. In tal modo vengono
> amnistiati dalle loro responsabilità tutti i
> consigli di amministrazione e i collegi di
> controllo che sono sempre stati al servizio dei
> più grandi magnati. Se si apre il caso della
> Splitska Banka, bisognerà farlo anche con la
> Privredna Banka e questo per il governo,
> evidentemente, sarebbe un peso troppo grosso
> [...].
>
> LA UNICREDITO E LA BULGARIA
> La banca milanese UniCredito non limita i suoi
> interessi di acquisto alla Croazia. Nelle scorse
> settimane è stato annunciato dal viceministro
> bulgaro Zotev che la UniCredito è stata
> selezionata dal governo per l'acquisto della
> Bulbank, la maggiore banca bulgara. La
> UniCredito ha presentato un'offerta in consorzio
> con la tedesca Allianz AG, che tuttavia
> partecipa in misura minima (5%) all'operazione
> di acquisto. Il contratto dovrà essere
> finalizzato entro la fine di giugno e finora
> sono ignoti i dettagli dell'operazione, anche se
> secondo dati non ufficiali citati dal
> settimanale economico "Kapital" (n. 19, maggio
> 2000) la cifra offerta da UniCredito/Allianz
> sarebbe di 350 milioni di euro che, sempre
> secondo il settimanale, rappresenterebbero una
> cifra maggiore rispetto a quanto prevedeva di
> incassare il governo bulgaro, che l'anno scorso,
> per bocca del ministro delle finanze Radev,
> aveva detto di attendersi di incassare 300
> milioni di dollari. La quota acquistata dal
> consorzio guidato dalla UniCredito sarà comunque
> di controllo, ma non ne è ancora nota l'esatta
> percentuale - l'ente venditore, la Società di
> consolidazione bancaria bulgara, detiene il 98%
> delle azioni, ma è possibile che una quota di
> circa il 9-10% venga riservata ai dirigenti e ai
> dipendenti della banca. Secondo altre
> informazioni non ufficiali citate da "Kapital"
> la UniCredito sarebbe stata disposta a pagare
> una somma ancora maggiore per la Bulbank se
> fosse stata prescelta anche per l'acquisto della
> OBB, la terza banca bulgara in ordine di
> grandezza. Per quest'ultima, tuttavia, sembra
> che il governo bulgaro sia orientato a dare la
> preferenza alla Banca Nazionale Greca, secondo
> indiscrezioni dell'agenzia Reuters riportate da
> "Kapital" (n. 21, maggio 2000). La banca greca
> sarebbe disposta a pagare 240 milioni di euro,
> un cifra decisamente maggiore rispetto alle
> offerte degli altri contendenti, la Piraeus Bank
> SA e la UniCredito. Nel caso della Bulbank, la
> cui privatizzazione, a differenza di quella
> della OBB, è stata oggetto di una procedura il
> cui esito è stato ufficializzato, la UniCredito
> aveva battuto la Canovas Consortium SA, formata
> da capitali della famiglia greca Vardinojanis e
> della banca francese Credit Agricole Indosuez.
> Il prezzo che pagherà la UniCredito potrebbe
> comunque variare di molto in funzione della
> decisione della banca di avvalersi dello schema
> "debito contro proprietà" concordato l'anno
> scorso tra il governo italiano e quello bulgaro,
> con il quale i debiti (124 milioni di marchi) di
> due banche bulgare nei confronti della
> assicuratrice italiana SACE sono stati
> trasformati in debito statale, che la Bulgaria
> può rimborsare con quote di aziende da
> privatizzare. Da parte sua, la Canovas SA si è
> immediatamente lamentata di irregolarità nella
> gara e ha rilasciato una serie di dichiarazioni
> dalle quali risulta chiaro che effettuerà lavoro
> di lobby in parlamento per ottenere una
> revisione delle varie offerte. Se andrà in
> porto, questo sarà solo l'ultimo della serie di
> acquisti effettuati dalla UniCredito nell'Europa
> Orientale: oltre alla Splitska Banka (si veda
> sopra), la banca milanese ha di recente
> acquistato una quota di controllo della Pekao
> Bank SA, la seconda banca polacca, per più di un
> miliardo di dollari.
>
> Meno fortunata è stata la genovese Marconi
> Communications, affiliata italiana della General
> Electrics, che si era aggiudicata in Bulgaria
> alla fine del 1998 un importante contratto da 58
> milioni di dollari per la costruzione di un
> sistema di comunicazioni militari conforme agli
> standard NATO, dopo un'opera di lobby degli
> allora primo ministro Prodi e ministro della
> difesa Andreatta (si veda "La Marconi e i
> miliardi bulgari per la NATO" di Momcil Milev,
> in "Notizie Est" #96 del 22 ottobre 1998). Il
> ministero della difesa bulgaro (dopo il recente
> cambio ai vertici di quest'ultimo in seguito al
> rimpasto di governo del dicembre scorso) ha
> rescisso il contratto con l'azienda italiana,
> asserendo il mancato rispetto da parte di
> quest'ultima di alcune clausole contrattuali. La
> Marconi, da parte sua, ha affermato che la
> decisione è dovuta a "motivi interni" della
> Bulgaria. La rottura di questo contratto pone
> problemi non indifferenti al governo bulgaro: da
> una parte, metà del prezzo era già stato pagato
> a fronte della consegna di strumentazioni e pare
> che ora la parte bulgara intenda chiedere un
> difficilmente ottenibile rimborso, dall'altra la
> Bulgaria rischia ora di non essere pronta per
> una serie di appuntamenti del suo processo per
> l'adesione alla NATO. Nel 1998 la Marconi aveva
> vinto il concorso battendo la svedese Ericsson e
> la tedesca Daimler-Benz. La procedura era stata
> seguita da alcune dimissioni all'interno del
> ministero della difesa bulgaro, che alcuni
> organi di stampa di Sofia avevano messo in
> collegamento con l'assegnazione del contratto
> alla Marconi (da "Pari", 4 maggio 2000)
>
> COMMENTO: LA STRANA TEMPISTICA DEGLI
> INVESTIMENTI ITALIANI NEI BALCANI
> di Andrea Ferrario
>
> Sarà un caso, ma la scelta dei tempi di
> intervento da parte del grande capitale italiano
> nei Balcani sembra ricalcare un modello ben
> preciso che si ripete a più riprese: laddove c'è
> un regime autoritario o un'oligarchia in crisi,
> il più delle volte si trova anche un'azienda
> italiana pronta a riversare centinaia di
> miliardi nelle loro casse (beninteso, facendo
> molta attenzione ai propri interessi). E'
> avvenuto così con la privatizzazione della
> Telekom serba nel 1997, che ha visto l'italiana
> STET "finanziarie" indirettamente il bilancio
> del regime di Belgrado con centinaia di miliardi
> nel momento in cui le casse dello stato serbo
> erano vuote e gli oligarchi di Milosevic si
> preparavano alla resa dei conti in Kosovo. E'
> avvenuto così ancora una volta nel dicembre
> scorso, quando la Comit ha trattato e concluso
> con il ministro Skegro, uomo di Tudjman e
> corresponsabile con quest'ultimo della
> catastrofe economica del paese, un affare da
> centinaia di miliardi che ha nei fatti aiutato,
> non i croati, ma l'oligarchia
> politico-finanziaria del regime, a rendere più
> "indolore" il passaggio dei poteri dopo la morte
> di Tudjman, a scapito dei lavoratori del paese
> (si vedano nell'articolo di "Nacional" i costi
> del risanamento delle banche di svariate volte
> superiori agli introiti generati dalla loro
> successiva vendita) e questo al di fuori di ogni
> controllo democratico (l'affare è stato concluso
> quando il parlamento era sciolto, in attesa
> delle elezioni). Il modello si replica poi in
> buona parte, anche se in un contesto politico
> diverso, con il recente acquisto, sempre in
> Croazia, della Splitska Banka da parte della
> UniCredito. Anche la "variante bulgara", pur
> nella sua diversità contestuale, rimane analoga
> nella sostanza: l'offerta e il probabile accordo
> finale della UniCredito per l'acquisto della
> Bulbank arrivano nel momento in cui il regime di
> Sofia è in piena crisi, travagliato da violente
> lotte intestine e in preda a paranoici timori
> "golpisti", in un'atmosfera che ricorda quella
> che regnava nel regime di Tudjman mentre andava
> verso la disfatta (e anche qui, come scrive il
> settimanale "Kapital" [n. 22, giugno 2000] in
> edicola la settimana scorsa, si apre la
> possibilità che, grazie a una recente operazione
> della Bulbank ancora statale, la Bulbank
> "italianizzata" riesca in futuro a mettere le
> mani sugli attivi della Parva Castna Banka, la
> ex maggiore banca bulgara, fallita anni fa per
> malversazioni con esiti disastrosi per
> l'economia del paese). Anche gli affari che non
> sono andati bene, come il contratto della
> Marconi con il governo bulgaro, sono indicativi
> del contesto in cui si svolgono gli affari:
> l'accordo, siglato nell'inverno '98, è stato
> disdetto nei mesi scorsi, poco dopo un
> avvicendamento ai vertici del ministero della
> difesa bulgaro in seguito alla "purga" messa in
> atto dal premier Kostov e con la quale sono
> state emarginate importanti lobby
> politico-finanziarie (a vantaggio di altre).
> Quello che rimane più esemplare, tuttavia, di
> questo affare è il fatto che il governo bulgaro
> si sia impegnato a stanziare cento miliardi per
> la costruzione di un sistema di
> telecomunicazioni militari il cui unico scopo è
> quello di facilitare le operazioni NATO
> nell'area, mentre nel paese la disoccupazione
> continua a fare balzi in avanti e sono decine di
> migliaia i lavoratori che non ricevono lo
> stipendio da mesi e, in alcuni casi, anche da
> anni. Anche in questo caso, il capitale italiano
> è stato subito presente all'appello.
---
GLI USA PROMETTONO ALTRI AIUTI MILITARI ALLA CROAZIA
U.S. Promises To Increase Military Aid To Croatia
WASHINGTON, Aug 9, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) The United States on
Tuesday signaled its readiness to increase military aid to Croatia and
help the country's new reformist government strengthen its ties with
NATO.
"It's on the way up, and it's up from basically zero the year before,"
said Defense Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon.
The current amount of US military aid to Croatia is less than one
million dollars, according to the Pentagon.
The comment came after US Secretary of Defense William Cohen hosted at
the Pentagon a full honors arrival ceremony for Croatian President Stipe
Mesic and Prime Minister Ivica Racan.
During their visit to Washington, the two leaders were expected to
discuss a broad array of cooperation projects designed to bolster
Croatia's economy and its standing in the international community.
"We see this visit as an important step in strengthening the growing
cooperation between the United States and the Republic of Croatia in the
wake of that country's democratic transition," State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Topics during a lunchtime discussion at the Pentagon included Croatia's
role in the Partnership for Peace program, created in 1994 to establish
cooperation and security partnerships between NATO and former Eastern
Bloc countries.
This is Mesic's first visit to the Pentagon as president, said Bacon.
Mesic and Cohen discussed an assessment by US officials on how best to
reform the Croatian military, according to the spokesman.
"They also talked about Croatia's steps toward civilian control of the
military," he added.
Croatia "has taken a big step forward to democracy which we're
encouraging," Bacon said. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)
-
PROBLEMINI LEGALI PER LA CROAZIA
A CAUSA DEI CRIMINI COMMESSI IN BOSNIA...
http://washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=wpni/print&articleid=A27787-2000Jun30
D.C. Lawyer in Dispute With Croatia
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday , July 1, 2000 ; A18
ZAGREB, Croatia –– Top Croatian ministers looked to a Washington
attorney for advice in recent
years as they weighed demands from the international war crimes tribunal
for information about
alleged atrocities committed by Croatian troops in the 1991-95 Bosnian
war...
-
BADURINA & ASSOCIATES: PUBLIC RELATIONS PER SFASCIARE UN PAESE
Below you will find a page from the Badurina and Associtates site. This
PR
firm partly is responsible for the creation and speard of anti-Serb
hatred
and racism among US Congressmen.
The link goes to a page which list those Congressmen backing anti-Serb,
racist actions through NATO.
If you are a Serb, consider these people your enemy!
Hummm. . .
http://www.dalmatia.net/croatia/badurina/us_backs_croatia.htm
---
"Il Manifesto" del 24 Maggio 2000
Haider al palio dell'anello
CROAZIA
L'invito al leader razzista corona l'offensiva di destra
GIACOMO SCOTTI
Continua in Croazia l'offensiva dell'estrema destra che ha
lo scopo dichiarato di seminare il caos nel paese governato
dalla coalizione di centrosinistra. Tutte le occasioni sono
buone. Ieri è stato annunciato che il leader degli
xenofobi-liberali austriaci e governatore della Carinzia
Jorg Haider sarà "ospite d'onore" al 285esimo Palio
dell'Anello: il più celebre torneo cavalleresco della zona
che si corre ogni anno ad agosto dal 1715 nella cittadina
croata di Sinj (retroterra della Dalmazia). La competizione
dei cavalieri in uniformi settecentesche che galoppano
lancia in resta per centrare un anello di ferro ebbe dal
1990 al 1999 per supremo "carambascià" il defunto Franjo
Tudjman. Gli organizzatori, come dimostra l'invito,
accettato, a Haider e da questi accettato sono ancor sempre
estremisti di destra che vorrebbero trasformare l'edizione
2000 in raduno di filonazisti decisi a sferrare un ennesimo
colpo al governo post-tudjmaniano. Il pretesto per invitare
Haider a Sinj è stato trovato nella tradizione popolare
secondo la quale nel villaggio di Pribude, sulle pendici
del monte Svilaja, a una trentina di chilometri da Sinj,
vivono gli Haider croati. Un Haider austriaco, ufficiale
dell'esercito asburgico, dopo la prima guerra mondiale
decise di ritirarsi sul monte dove mise famiglia; i suoi
discendenti stanno ancora lassù.
L'annunciata presenza di Jorge Haider in Croazia è
un'ennesima provocazione, naturalmente, ma preoccupa il
fatto che il governo di Zagabria - condizionato dalla
presenza dei social-liberali di Budisa che non nascondono
la loro parentela con l'Hdz, il loro orientamento
nazionalistico e l'avversione agli antifascisti - lascia
ampi spazio alle sfide dei movimenti estremisti capeggiati
da Anto Djapic, Ivan Gabelica, Mladen Schwartz, Lioyic ed
altri caporioni neonazisti che sono riusciti, anche col
sostegno della destra accadizeta, a mobilitare in più
occasioni parte dei reduci della "guerra patriottica".
Negli ultimi 100 giorni, quasi ogni giorno, i neoustascia
croati, legati alla criminalità organizzata ed a schegge
deviate dei servizi segreti, hanno organizzato provocazioni
fino al tentativo di golpe. Ricordiamone alcune.
A Veljun, nella seconda guerra mondiale gli ustascia
massacrarono 520 civili di etnia serba: lì i neoustascia
hanno impedito agli ex partigiani di deporre corone sul
monumento che ricorda quelle vittime, hanno devastato il
monumento e una donna - fra gli applausi delle camicie nere
- si è calata le mutandine urinando sull'ossario; al
danneggiamento hanno preso parte cinque ufficiali
dell'esercito, ma la polizia ha lasciato fare.
In più comizi, il capo delle camicie nere Djapic ha
minacciato di far scorrere il sangue se i profughi serbi
dovessero tornare alle loro case e pretendessero di
prenderne possesso; il governo non ha reagito. Nella Piazza
dei martiri antifascisti a Zagabria, ribattezzata da
Tudjman "Piazza dei Grandi croati", gli ustascia hanno
aggredito e bastonato gli ex partigiani venuti per
celebrare la Giornata della vittoria sul fascismo; la
polizia ha lasciato fare.
A Bleiburg, in Austria, diverse migliaia di nostalgici
ustascia croati hanno celebrato la "giornata delle vittime"
commemorando con discorsi filonazisti i camerati caduti il
15 maggio '45. A quella manifestazione hanno portato il
saluto e l'adesione del Governo croato, ben tre ministri e
il vicepresidente del Parlamento, tutti social-liberali.
Uno di essi ha detto che "l'esercito partigiano non fu il
nostro esercito", aggiungendo che l'odierna Croazia
indipendente "è nata sulle ossa di questi caduti".
E non si contano le manifestazioni di protesta, organizzate
dai neoustascia, che si susseguono a Gospic, a Spalato, a
Zagabria, a Vukivar a difesa dei criminali di guerra,
contro le "interferenze" del Tribunale internazionale
dell'Aja. Ecco: impedire le indagini sulle stragi in
Croazia, impedire la consegna al tribunale dell'Aja degli
autori di quei crimini; impedire il rientro dei profughi
serbi cacciati dalla Croazia con la pulizia etnica dal 1991
al 1995; impedire la costruzione della democrazia e la
liquidazione delle strutture dell'ex regime; destabilizzare
il paese: questi sono gli obiettivi dei neoustascia e dei
loro alleati in questa sfrenata catena di provocazioni.
Un'esigua minoranza, infiltrata nei più delicati tessuti
dello stato, cerca di gettare la Croazia nel disordine, di
provocare una nuova guerra civile; una minaccia anche per i
paesi vicini dell'aera balcanico-adriatica. L'Europa, e
l'Italia in primo luogo, non può chiudere gli occhi.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
* L'Italia alla conquista dell'economia croata
* Gli USA promettono altri aiuti militari alla Croazia; dispute legali
per i crimini croati in Bosnia; e' la BADURINA & ASSOCIATES che cura le
operazioni di "lobbying" della Croazia negli ambienti statunitensi che
contano
* Flashback: Haider in Croazia...
---
NAZISMO CROATO: NON SOLO ULTRAS
Gli incidenti che hanno avuto luogo tra ultras del Milan e teppisti
della Dinamo Zagabria, molti dei quali reduci dalla guerra di
"indipendenza" della Croazia, lo scorso 9 agosto a Milano hanno portato
alla ribalta delle cronache l'esistenza dei neonazisti ustascia croati.
Apriti cielo! Come se nessuno sapesse che il nazismo ustascia e' vivo e
vegeto, essendo stato in questi anni uno dei principali strumenti usati
dalla NATO per distruggere la RFSJ ed edificare il nuovo stato
"indipendente" croato filo-atlantico.
*** Tre siti per farsi un'idea di cosa e' il nazismo croato oggi:
USTASA NET - http://www.ustasa.net/
NEZAVISNA DRZAVA HRVATSKA - http://www.hop.hr/
CROAT NETLINK - http://ns.cronet.com/
*** Una "guida" della mafia erzegovese e delle principali formazioni
dello squadrismo ustascia in Bosnia-Erzegovina e' leggibile su:
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/39
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/40
*** LA NOSTRA PAGINA SULLA CROAZIA "INDIPENDENTE":
http://www.marx2001.org/crj/hr.html
*** ALCUNI VECCHI ARTICOLI IN INGLESE SUL NEONAZISMO CROATO:
1999: UN CULT-MOVIE PER NEONAZISTI PRODOTTO DALLO STATO CROATO?
Film "In Four Rows" by Jakov Sedlar and Ivan Aralica Missed Chance to
Become Cult Film of European Neo-Nazism
1997: I PADRI FONDATORI (FASCISTI) DELLA CROAZIA INDIPENDENTE
Fascists Reborn as Croatia's Founding Fathers
1995: PERPLESSITA' EBRAICHE SUI RAPPORTI TRA USA E CROAZIA...
Open Letter to Branko Lustig, Producer of a Misunderstanding in
Washington
Li trovate su: http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/421
---
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> L'Italia...
> NOTIZIE EST #332 - ITALIA/BALCANI
> est@... 13 giugno 2000
>
> LE BANCHE ITALIANE FANNO ACQUISTI NEI BALCANI
>
> [Seguono due pezzi, uno dal settimanale di
> Zagabria "Nacional" sulla svendita delle banche
> croate, che ha visto in prima fila come
> controparti acquirenti due delle maggiori banche
> italiane, la Comit e la UniCredito, e uno
> sull'importante operazione di acquisto che
> quest'ultima, secondo il settimanale di Sofia
> "Kapital", si appresta a concludere in Bulgaria,
> nonché sui problemi che sta avendo in questo
> paese un'altra azienda italiana, la Marconi. Ai
> due pezzi fa seguito un commento sulla strana
> tempistica delle maggiori operazioni del grande
> capitale italiano nei Balcani - a.f.]
>
> LA SVENDITA DELLE BANCHE CROATE
> di Zeljko Rogosic - ("Nacional", 6 aprile 2000)
>
> [Il settimanale "Nacional" ha pubblicato, oltre
> a quello che segue qui sotto, altri due lunghi
> articoli sulla vendita della Splitska Banka e
> sul suo passato ruolo di finanziatrice, "a fondo
> perso", della cerchia di Pasalic e Kutle,
> rispettivamente uno esponente dell'ala destra
> della HDZ e l'altro miliardario legato a doppio
> filo con il regime di Tudjman, articoli
> pubblicati nel n. 222 del 17 febbraio 2000 e n.
> 224 del 2 marzo 2000 e archiviati nel sito web
> del giornale: http://www.nacional.hr Quando è
> stato pubblicato l'articolo che segue qui sotto,
> l'acquisto della Splitska Banka da parte della
> UniCredito non era ancora stato portato a
> termine - l'affare è stato comunque finalizzato
> poco dopo, il 19 aprile scorso. Data la
> lunghezza dell'articolo, abbiamo tradotto solo
> le parti riguardanti più direttamente le
> operazioni delle banche italiane. Sull'acquisto
> della Privredna Banka da parte della Comit
> segnaliamo il testo del Centro di Iniziativa
> Politica sui Balcani (http://www.ecn.org/cipb)]
>
> [...] Il governo di Ivica Racan non intende
> interrompere la privatizzazione delle banche del
> paese, illegale e altamente dannosa per i conti
> dello stato croato, avviata già dal governo di
> Matesa. Dopo la privatizzazione e la vendita
> delle quote di controllo della Slavonska Banka e
> della Privredna Banka Zagreb, e la recente
> vendita della Rijecka Banka alla tedesca
> Bayerische Landesbank, nonché l'annuncio
> dell'avvio di trattative per la scandalosa
> vendita della Splitska Banka alla banca italiana
> UniCredito di Milano - di cui "Nacional" ha già
> informato in maniera dettagliata l'opinione
> pubblica croata, senza che nessuno smentisse con
> una parola le nostre affermazioni - il danno
> arrecato ai conti dello stato croato ammonta
> ormai oggi a 14 miliardi di kune e continua a
> seguire una tendenza alla crescita. Nessuno si
> inquieta per il fatto che la piccola banca
> triestina Cassa di Risparmio di Trieste abbia
> deciso di acquistare la Splitska Banka
> presentandosi come parte del gruppo bancario
> UniCredito, che non ha mai manifestato nemmeno
> un lontano interesse d'affari riguardo a tale
> acquisto. I sospetti riguardo alla vendita e
> alla strana presa di controllo della Privredna
> Banka sotto il governo della HDZ verrà ora
> completato dalla coalizione di governo con
> un'altra vendita sospetta! Il governo di Racan
> punta unicamente a una soluzione a breve termine
> degli interessi croati, visto che con la somma
> limitata di 200 milioni di marchi che andranno a
> finire nelle casse di stato con la vendita della
> Rijecka Banka e della Splitska Banka, intende
> almeno per un breve periodo di tempo dare
> ossigeno a un bilancio statale eccessivamente
> carico di oneri. Questo desiderio degli
> strateghi del SDP, Slavko Linic e Mate Crkvenac,
> sarebbe del tutto comprensibile se in origine la
> politica della HDZ e la strategia di svendita
> delle proprietà croate avviata dal governo
> Matesa non avessero dato luogo al saccheggio più
> grande mai visto fino a oggi in Croazia. Secondo
> i dati della Banca Nazionale Croata, per il
> risanamento e le operazioni di salvataggio della
> banche croate in stato di fallimento o portate
> sull'orlo della bancarotta, sono stati spesi 48
> miliardi di kune, che hanno pagato di loro tasca
> i contribuenti croati. Per il risanamento della
> banche in bancarotta, il cui capitale è
> chiaramente diventato di proprietà dei magnati
> croati, sono stati prelevati dal bilancio
> statale, quindi, sei miliardi di dollari [...]
> [pari a] un terzo del prodotto interno lordo. Ma
> con la vendita della Privredna Banka alla
> italiana Comit, della Slavonska Banka
> all'austriaca Hypo Banka, della Rijecka e della
> Istarska alla tedesca Bayerische Landesbank e
> della Splitska Banka all'italiana UniCredito, il
> bilancio statale croato incasserà solamente 3,6
> miliardi di kune. La sproporzione tra i soldi
> stanziati per il risanamento e ciò che secondo
> le promesse dei politici dovrebbe tornare sotto
> forma di entrate dalle privatizzazioni delle
> banche è grande. Con il modello dominante della
> privatizzazione delle banche a ogni costo, la
> Croazia perderà milioni di marchi e sarà l'unico
> stato del mondo il cui governo ha organizzato e
> messo in atto una svendita a prezzi minimi delle
> proprie banche. Grazie a una tale
> privatizzazione, nelle casse dei cosiddetti
> partner e investitori strategici esteri vengono
> riversate decine di miliardi di kune dal
> bilancio statale croato. Gli appelli, le
> informazioni e la documentazione fatti pervenire
> alle più alte cariche del Governo,
> l'avvertimento formulato pubblicamente che con
> la vendita della Rijecka, e in particolare con
> la vendita criminale della Splitska Banka si
> arreca, e prosegue, un vero e proprio colpo
> contro il bilancio statale e la stabilità
> finanziaria dello stato, non hanno dato alcun
> risultato. Il governo ha deciso di chiudere gli
> occhi di fronte ai fatti. Esso non ha nemmeno
> sottoposto a riesame l'offerta della UniCredito
> per l'acquisto della Splitska Banka, anche se è
> evidente che nei preparativi per la sua
> privatizzazione sono stati compiuti anche gravi
> atti penali. Nel governo croato si è creata
> l'immagine fantastica che la vendita
> "salvatrice" della Splitska Banka agli italiani
> sia l'unica soluzione.
>
> IL MODELLO DELLA HDZ
> Il modello della HDZ per la vendita delle banche
> statali è stato illustrato alla fine del 1998
> dall'allora premier Zlatko Matesa. Egli ha
> annunciato che nella prima fase di
> privatizzazione sarebbe stato venduto solo il 25
> per cento della Rijecka Banka e il 36 per cento
> della Privredna Banka e della Splitska Banka, e
> che lo stato avrebbe continuato a esserne
> l'azionista di maggioranza. Chissà per decisione
> di chi, e comunque senza copertura e motivi
> finanziari effettivi, gli investitori esteri
> oggi controllano praticamente quote di
> maggioranza in tutte le banche croate
> privatizzate. La Hypo Banka, che ha comprato il
> relativo pacchetto azionario dalla EBRD (la
> Banca Europea per il Rinnovo e lo Sviluppo),
> controlla il 75 per cento del capitale della
> Slavonska Banka, la Comit detiene il 66,3 per
> cento della Privredna Banka e la BLB e la
> UniCredito riceveranno in dono rispettivamente
> il 66 e il 65 per cento della Rijecka Banka e
> della Splitska Banka. Con la vendita della
> Privredna Banka alla Comit alla fine dell'anno
> scorso è stato direttamente inaugurato il
> modello di svendita delle banche croate. Tale
> modello è stato portato alla perfezione con la
> prevista vendita della Splistka Banka, a quanto
> si dice, alla milanese UniCredito per il tramite
> della piccola Cassa triestina, vendita della
> quale "Nacional" ha esaurientemente scritto
> alcune settimane fa. Per il pacchetto di
> maggioranza della Privredna Banka la Comit ha
> pagato 660 milioni di marchi, ovvero due
> miliardi e 440 milioni di kune, una cifra che
> [l'allora] ministro delle finanze Borislav
> Skegro aveva valutato di fronte all'opinione
> pubblica come un affare eccezionale. Ma la HDZ e
> Skegro hanno dimenticato di dire che con la
> vendita della Privredna Banka i danni per il
> bilancio statale sono stati di alcune volte
> maggiori. Anche la Privredna Banka [come la
> Rijecka Banka] ha risanato il proprio bilancio,
> vale a dire che ha trasferito il proprio
> portafoglio di crediti inesigibili per un valore
> di non meno di 2,5 miliardi di kune, all'Agenzia
> statale per il risanamento delle banche (DAB). A
> nome dello stato, la DAB si è impegnata a pagare
> alla banca, cioè al suo nuovo proprietario, nel
> corso dei prossimi sette anni e con un interesse
> del 6,5 per cento, attingendo al bilancio
> statale, una somma di entità identica. Solo con
> questa operazione, il partner strategico
> italiano ha compensato le spese effettuate e
> inoltre, sulla base degli interessi, ha
> guadagnato come minimo mezzo milione di kune. Ma
> con l'acquisto della Privredna Banka da parte
> della Comit è stato acquisito anche il diritto a
> obbligazioni croate per 3,2 miliardi di kune
> emesse al fine del risanamento della banca, che
> recano un interesse del 7,5 per cento, nonché il
> diritto a un miliardo e 460 milioni di kune di
> obbligazioni statali emesse al fine della
> ricapitalizzazione della banca, che hanno una
> scadenza a 15 anni a cominciare dal 1 luglio
> 1997, con un interesse del 5 per cento, il tutto
> insieme a una clausola valutaria. Quindi, la
> Comit ha pagato per la Privredna Banka 2,4
> miliardi di kune e, solo a fronte delle
> obbligazioni basate sul bilancio statale croato,
> otterrà 4,6 miliardi di kune.
>
> LA PRIVATIZZAZIONE DANNOSA
> Ma non è tutto. Lo stato si è preso carico anche
> dei debiti della Privredna Banka conseguenti ai
> crediti contratti dalla banca all'estero e pari
> a 346 milioni di dollari, ovvero 2,7 miliardi di
> kune. Quindi alla Comit verranno pagati dal
> bilancio statale croato, e questo senza tenere
> conto del valore del portafoglio e dei crediti
> inesigibili trasferiti allo stato, ben 7,3
> miliardi di kune. La "vendita", o meglio il dono
> della Privredna Banka è stato un modello
> esemplare di come effettuare la privatizzazione
> di una banca con esiti dannosi per la Croazia.
> Il minimo che in questo saccheggio del bilancio
> statale e in questa svendita di banche statali
> poteva fare il governo di Racan sarebbe stato di
> mostrare una specifica delle quote e dei crediti
> inesigibili che la Privredna Banka ha trasferito
> allo stato, in modo tale da rendere pubblico
> quante obbligazioni nei confronti della Comit si
> è assunto lo stato croato. Per esempio, allo
> stato è stata trasferita la quota del 63 per
> cento che la Privredna Banka detiene nella
> Jadroplov di Split, per un valore di 400 milioni
> di kune - i debiti che si è così assunto lo
> stato sono pari a 80 milioni di dollari e sono
> identici ai valori delle proprietà. Si ritiene
> che oltre alla Jadroplov, tra i debiti assunti
> dallo stato ci siano anche la Ina, la Kutina e
> molte altre imprese e quindi per ora si può solo
> intuire quanti siano i crediti inesigibili e non
> pagati della Privredna Banka trasferiti a onere
> del bilancio statale. Se non vogliono mettere a
> tacere il più grande scandalo statale, il
> governo e la DAB devono rendere pubblico ai
> contribuenti l'accordo sul trasferimento allo
> stato delle quote e dei crediti inesigibili
> della Privredna Banka, della Rijecka Banka e
> della Splitska Banka, perché sono tenuti a
> farlo. Il governo dovrebbe rispondere alla
> domanda del perché la Privredna Banka è stata
> comprata attraverso la filiale lussemburghese
> della Comit e in quali rapporti è tale filiale
> con la sede centrale del nuovo proprietario di
> maggioranza della Privredna Banka, del quale si
> segnala che è un membro del "Gruppo Intesa", il
> maggiore gruppo finanziario italiano.
> Bisognerebbe rispondere chi è veramente il nuovo
> proprietario della Privredna Banka, se si tratta
> di cittadini italiani o croati, qual è il ruolo
> di alcuni ex ministri croati in tutto questo e
> perché la Comit ha acquistato la Privredna Banka
> con una linea di credito in features che,
> mediante un indebitamento sul mercato locale dei
> capitali, è stata procurata dalla filiale
> brasiliana della Comit. L'elenco delle quote e
> dei crediti inesigibili della Splitska Banka
> trasferiti allo stato, per un valore di 1,166
> milioni di kune, è noto a "Nacional", che lo
> possiede. Alla DAB sono state trasferite quote
> bancarie senza valore in residenze turistiche
> (629 milioni di kune), crediti inesigibili (345
> milioni di kune), imprese con enormi perdite
> (Plodina, Slobodna Dalmacija, Dalmacijavino),
> crediti nei confronti di imprese che sono in
> bancarotta (Tisak, Jadrantekstil, Mornar). In
> cambio di tutto ciò, lo stato è tenuto a pagare
> alla Splitska Banka 687 milioni di kune. Quello
> che non sapevamo ce lo ha raccontato Tomo
> Bolotin, in un'intervista su commissione alla
> rivista d'affari "Banka", con la quale ha
> cercato assolutamente senza successo di smentire
> il testo pubblicato da "Nacional". Bolotin
> ammette che il partner italiano ha ordinato il
> risanamento del bilancio della banca, che
> l'accordo con la DAB è effettivamente
> un'obbligazione contrattuale a sette anni con
> interessi del 6,5 per cento insieme alla
> clausola valutaria. Questo significa che
> l'obbligazione dello stato non è più la
> restituzione al proprietario della banca di 687
> milioni di kune, ma la stessa somma maggiorata
> di 150 milioni di kune per interessi. [...] Le
> residenze turistiche non sono più proprietà
> della Splitska Banka, bensì dello stato, ma nei
> libri della banca vengono ancora registrati
> stanziamenti approvati destinati a tali imprese
> per un valore di 140 milioni di marchi, ovvero
> 570 milioni di kune. Si tratta di crediti
> "vivi", che la banca ha assicurato mediante
> ipoteca sugli immobili, ma, ammette lo stesso
> Bolotin, anche con garanzie che devono essere
> pagate dallo stato alla prima richiesta.
>
> Quindi con l'operazione di risanamento del
> bilancio grazie all'"eccellente" vendita alla
> UniCredito lo stato non ha la possibilità di
> vendere gli alberghi, perché il nuovo
> proprietario ha registrato un'ipoteca su di essi
> e garanzie da pagarsi alla prima richiesta.
> Dunque, oltre ai 687 milioni di kune
> contrattuali, oltre ai 150 milioni di kune di
> interessi, oltre ai 1,193 miliardi di
> obbligazioni della Croazia, oltre alle proprietà
> della Splitska Banka per il valore di 137
> milioni di kune, il nuovo proprietario della
> Splitska Banka otterrà anche 570 milioni di kune
> di crediti approvati per il turismo con garanzie
> del governo croato, cosa che finora ancora non
> sapevamo. I nuovi dati dicono che con la
> svendita delle proprietà croate e l'acquisto
> della Splitska Banka, UniCredito guadagnerà due
> miliardi e 588 milioni di kune. [...]
>
> Rimane l'amaro sapore del dovere prendere atto
> che, per mettere delle pezze temporanee al
> bilancio, il governo di Racan ha amnistiato la
> politica della HDZ e copre tutte le mancanze, le
> illegalità e gli affari dubbi nella politica
> creditizia delle banche. In tal modo vengono
> amnistiati dalle loro responsabilità tutti i
> consigli di amministrazione e i collegi di
> controllo che sono sempre stati al servizio dei
> più grandi magnati. Se si apre il caso della
> Splitska Banka, bisognerà farlo anche con la
> Privredna Banka e questo per il governo,
> evidentemente, sarebbe un peso troppo grosso
> [...].
>
> LA UNICREDITO E LA BULGARIA
> La banca milanese UniCredito non limita i suoi
> interessi di acquisto alla Croazia. Nelle scorse
> settimane è stato annunciato dal viceministro
> bulgaro Zotev che la UniCredito è stata
> selezionata dal governo per l'acquisto della
> Bulbank, la maggiore banca bulgara. La
> UniCredito ha presentato un'offerta in consorzio
> con la tedesca Allianz AG, che tuttavia
> partecipa in misura minima (5%) all'operazione
> di acquisto. Il contratto dovrà essere
> finalizzato entro la fine di giugno e finora
> sono ignoti i dettagli dell'operazione, anche se
> secondo dati non ufficiali citati dal
> settimanale economico "Kapital" (n. 19, maggio
> 2000) la cifra offerta da UniCredito/Allianz
> sarebbe di 350 milioni di euro che, sempre
> secondo il settimanale, rappresenterebbero una
> cifra maggiore rispetto a quanto prevedeva di
> incassare il governo bulgaro, che l'anno scorso,
> per bocca del ministro delle finanze Radev,
> aveva detto di attendersi di incassare 300
> milioni di dollari. La quota acquistata dal
> consorzio guidato dalla UniCredito sarà comunque
> di controllo, ma non ne è ancora nota l'esatta
> percentuale - l'ente venditore, la Società di
> consolidazione bancaria bulgara, detiene il 98%
> delle azioni, ma è possibile che una quota di
> circa il 9-10% venga riservata ai dirigenti e ai
> dipendenti della banca. Secondo altre
> informazioni non ufficiali citate da "Kapital"
> la UniCredito sarebbe stata disposta a pagare
> una somma ancora maggiore per la Bulbank se
> fosse stata prescelta anche per l'acquisto della
> OBB, la terza banca bulgara in ordine di
> grandezza. Per quest'ultima, tuttavia, sembra
> che il governo bulgaro sia orientato a dare la
> preferenza alla Banca Nazionale Greca, secondo
> indiscrezioni dell'agenzia Reuters riportate da
> "Kapital" (n. 21, maggio 2000). La banca greca
> sarebbe disposta a pagare 240 milioni di euro,
> un cifra decisamente maggiore rispetto alle
> offerte degli altri contendenti, la Piraeus Bank
> SA e la UniCredito. Nel caso della Bulbank, la
> cui privatizzazione, a differenza di quella
> della OBB, è stata oggetto di una procedura il
> cui esito è stato ufficializzato, la UniCredito
> aveva battuto la Canovas Consortium SA, formata
> da capitali della famiglia greca Vardinojanis e
> della banca francese Credit Agricole Indosuez.
> Il prezzo che pagherà la UniCredito potrebbe
> comunque variare di molto in funzione della
> decisione della banca di avvalersi dello schema
> "debito contro proprietà" concordato l'anno
> scorso tra il governo italiano e quello bulgaro,
> con il quale i debiti (124 milioni di marchi) di
> due banche bulgare nei confronti della
> assicuratrice italiana SACE sono stati
> trasformati in debito statale, che la Bulgaria
> può rimborsare con quote di aziende da
> privatizzare. Da parte sua, la Canovas SA si è
> immediatamente lamentata di irregolarità nella
> gara e ha rilasciato una serie di dichiarazioni
> dalle quali risulta chiaro che effettuerà lavoro
> di lobby in parlamento per ottenere una
> revisione delle varie offerte. Se andrà in
> porto, questo sarà solo l'ultimo della serie di
> acquisti effettuati dalla UniCredito nell'Europa
> Orientale: oltre alla Splitska Banka (si veda
> sopra), la banca milanese ha di recente
> acquistato una quota di controllo della Pekao
> Bank SA, la seconda banca polacca, per più di un
> miliardo di dollari.
>
> Meno fortunata è stata la genovese Marconi
> Communications, affiliata italiana della General
> Electrics, che si era aggiudicata in Bulgaria
> alla fine del 1998 un importante contratto da 58
> milioni di dollari per la costruzione di un
> sistema di comunicazioni militari conforme agli
> standard NATO, dopo un'opera di lobby degli
> allora primo ministro Prodi e ministro della
> difesa Andreatta (si veda "La Marconi e i
> miliardi bulgari per la NATO" di Momcil Milev,
> in "Notizie Est" #96 del 22 ottobre 1998). Il
> ministero della difesa bulgaro (dopo il recente
> cambio ai vertici di quest'ultimo in seguito al
> rimpasto di governo del dicembre scorso) ha
> rescisso il contratto con l'azienda italiana,
> asserendo il mancato rispetto da parte di
> quest'ultima di alcune clausole contrattuali. La
> Marconi, da parte sua, ha affermato che la
> decisione è dovuta a "motivi interni" della
> Bulgaria. La rottura di questo contratto pone
> problemi non indifferenti al governo bulgaro: da
> una parte, metà del prezzo era già stato pagato
> a fronte della consegna di strumentazioni e pare
> che ora la parte bulgara intenda chiedere un
> difficilmente ottenibile rimborso, dall'altra la
> Bulgaria rischia ora di non essere pronta per
> una serie di appuntamenti del suo processo per
> l'adesione alla NATO. Nel 1998 la Marconi aveva
> vinto il concorso battendo la svedese Ericsson e
> la tedesca Daimler-Benz. La procedura era stata
> seguita da alcune dimissioni all'interno del
> ministero della difesa bulgaro, che alcuni
> organi di stampa di Sofia avevano messo in
> collegamento con l'assegnazione del contratto
> alla Marconi (da "Pari", 4 maggio 2000)
>
> COMMENTO: LA STRANA TEMPISTICA DEGLI
> INVESTIMENTI ITALIANI NEI BALCANI
> di Andrea Ferrario
>
> Sarà un caso, ma la scelta dei tempi di
> intervento da parte del grande capitale italiano
> nei Balcani sembra ricalcare un modello ben
> preciso che si ripete a più riprese: laddove c'è
> un regime autoritario o un'oligarchia in crisi,
> il più delle volte si trova anche un'azienda
> italiana pronta a riversare centinaia di
> miliardi nelle loro casse (beninteso, facendo
> molta attenzione ai propri interessi). E'
> avvenuto così con la privatizzazione della
> Telekom serba nel 1997, che ha visto l'italiana
> STET "finanziarie" indirettamente il bilancio
> del regime di Belgrado con centinaia di miliardi
> nel momento in cui le casse dello stato serbo
> erano vuote e gli oligarchi di Milosevic si
> preparavano alla resa dei conti in Kosovo. E'
> avvenuto così ancora una volta nel dicembre
> scorso, quando la Comit ha trattato e concluso
> con il ministro Skegro, uomo di Tudjman e
> corresponsabile con quest'ultimo della
> catastrofe economica del paese, un affare da
> centinaia di miliardi che ha nei fatti aiutato,
> non i croati, ma l'oligarchia
> politico-finanziaria del regime, a rendere più
> "indolore" il passaggio dei poteri dopo la morte
> di Tudjman, a scapito dei lavoratori del paese
> (si vedano nell'articolo di "Nacional" i costi
> del risanamento delle banche di svariate volte
> superiori agli introiti generati dalla loro
> successiva vendita) e questo al di fuori di ogni
> controllo democratico (l'affare è stato concluso
> quando il parlamento era sciolto, in attesa
> delle elezioni). Il modello si replica poi in
> buona parte, anche se in un contesto politico
> diverso, con il recente acquisto, sempre in
> Croazia, della Splitska Banka da parte della
> UniCredito. Anche la "variante bulgara", pur
> nella sua diversità contestuale, rimane analoga
> nella sostanza: l'offerta e il probabile accordo
> finale della UniCredito per l'acquisto della
> Bulbank arrivano nel momento in cui il regime di
> Sofia è in piena crisi, travagliato da violente
> lotte intestine e in preda a paranoici timori
> "golpisti", in un'atmosfera che ricorda quella
> che regnava nel regime di Tudjman mentre andava
> verso la disfatta (e anche qui, come scrive il
> settimanale "Kapital" [n. 22, giugno 2000] in
> edicola la settimana scorsa, si apre la
> possibilità che, grazie a una recente operazione
> della Bulbank ancora statale, la Bulbank
> "italianizzata" riesca in futuro a mettere le
> mani sugli attivi della Parva Castna Banka, la
> ex maggiore banca bulgara, fallita anni fa per
> malversazioni con esiti disastrosi per
> l'economia del paese). Anche gli affari che non
> sono andati bene, come il contratto della
> Marconi con il governo bulgaro, sono indicativi
> del contesto in cui si svolgono gli affari:
> l'accordo, siglato nell'inverno '98, è stato
> disdetto nei mesi scorsi, poco dopo un
> avvicendamento ai vertici del ministero della
> difesa bulgaro in seguito alla "purga" messa in
> atto dal premier Kostov e con la quale sono
> state emarginate importanti lobby
> politico-finanziarie (a vantaggio di altre).
> Quello che rimane più esemplare, tuttavia, di
> questo affare è il fatto che il governo bulgaro
> si sia impegnato a stanziare cento miliardi per
> la costruzione di un sistema di
> telecomunicazioni militari il cui unico scopo è
> quello di facilitare le operazioni NATO
> nell'area, mentre nel paese la disoccupazione
> continua a fare balzi in avanti e sono decine di
> migliaia i lavoratori che non ricevono lo
> stipendio da mesi e, in alcuni casi, anche da
> anni. Anche in questo caso, il capitale italiano
> è stato subito presente all'appello.
---
GLI USA PROMETTONO ALTRI AIUTI MILITARI ALLA CROAZIA
U.S. Promises To Increase Military Aid To Croatia
WASHINGTON, Aug 9, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) The United States on
Tuesday signaled its readiness to increase military aid to Croatia and
help the country's new reformist government strengthen its ties with
NATO.
"It's on the way up, and it's up from basically zero the year before,"
said Defense Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon.
The current amount of US military aid to Croatia is less than one
million dollars, according to the Pentagon.
The comment came after US Secretary of Defense William Cohen hosted at
the Pentagon a full honors arrival ceremony for Croatian President Stipe
Mesic and Prime Minister Ivica Racan.
During their visit to Washington, the two leaders were expected to
discuss a broad array of cooperation projects designed to bolster
Croatia's economy and its standing in the international community.
"We see this visit as an important step in strengthening the growing
cooperation between the United States and the Republic of Croatia in the
wake of that country's democratic transition," State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher said.
Topics during a lunchtime discussion at the Pentagon included Croatia's
role in the Partnership for Peace program, created in 1994 to establish
cooperation and security partnerships between NATO and former Eastern
Bloc countries.
This is Mesic's first visit to the Pentagon as president, said Bacon.
Mesic and Cohen discussed an assessment by US officials on how best to
reform the Croatian military, according to the spokesman.
"They also talked about Croatia's steps toward civilian control of the
military," he added.
Croatia "has taken a big step forward to democracy which we're
encouraging," Bacon said. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)
-
PROBLEMINI LEGALI PER LA CROAZIA
A CAUSA DEI CRIMINI COMMESSI IN BOSNIA...
http://washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=wpni/print&articleid=A27787-2000Jun30
D.C. Lawyer in Dispute With Croatia
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday , July 1, 2000 ; A18
ZAGREB, Croatia –– Top Croatian ministers looked to a Washington
attorney for advice in recent
years as they weighed demands from the international war crimes tribunal
for information about
alleged atrocities committed by Croatian troops in the 1991-95 Bosnian
war...
-
BADURINA & ASSOCIATES: PUBLIC RELATIONS PER SFASCIARE UN PAESE
Below you will find a page from the Badurina and Associtates site. This
PR
firm partly is responsible for the creation and speard of anti-Serb
hatred
and racism among US Congressmen.
The link goes to a page which list those Congressmen backing anti-Serb,
racist actions through NATO.
If you are a Serb, consider these people your enemy!
Hummm. . .
http://www.dalmatia.net/croatia/badurina/us_backs_croatia.htm
---
"Il Manifesto" del 24 Maggio 2000
Haider al palio dell'anello
CROAZIA
L'invito al leader razzista corona l'offensiva di destra
GIACOMO SCOTTI
Continua in Croazia l'offensiva dell'estrema destra che ha
lo scopo dichiarato di seminare il caos nel paese governato
dalla coalizione di centrosinistra. Tutte le occasioni sono
buone. Ieri è stato annunciato che il leader degli
xenofobi-liberali austriaci e governatore della Carinzia
Jorg Haider sarà "ospite d'onore" al 285esimo Palio
dell'Anello: il più celebre torneo cavalleresco della zona
che si corre ogni anno ad agosto dal 1715 nella cittadina
croata di Sinj (retroterra della Dalmazia). La competizione
dei cavalieri in uniformi settecentesche che galoppano
lancia in resta per centrare un anello di ferro ebbe dal
1990 al 1999 per supremo "carambascià" il defunto Franjo
Tudjman. Gli organizzatori, come dimostra l'invito,
accettato, a Haider e da questi accettato sono ancor sempre
estremisti di destra che vorrebbero trasformare l'edizione
2000 in raduno di filonazisti decisi a sferrare un ennesimo
colpo al governo post-tudjmaniano. Il pretesto per invitare
Haider a Sinj è stato trovato nella tradizione popolare
secondo la quale nel villaggio di Pribude, sulle pendici
del monte Svilaja, a una trentina di chilometri da Sinj,
vivono gli Haider croati. Un Haider austriaco, ufficiale
dell'esercito asburgico, dopo la prima guerra mondiale
decise di ritirarsi sul monte dove mise famiglia; i suoi
discendenti stanno ancora lassù.
L'annunciata presenza di Jorge Haider in Croazia è
un'ennesima provocazione, naturalmente, ma preoccupa il
fatto che il governo di Zagabria - condizionato dalla
presenza dei social-liberali di Budisa che non nascondono
la loro parentela con l'Hdz, il loro orientamento
nazionalistico e l'avversione agli antifascisti - lascia
ampi spazio alle sfide dei movimenti estremisti capeggiati
da Anto Djapic, Ivan Gabelica, Mladen Schwartz, Lioyic ed
altri caporioni neonazisti che sono riusciti, anche col
sostegno della destra accadizeta, a mobilitare in più
occasioni parte dei reduci della "guerra patriottica".
Negli ultimi 100 giorni, quasi ogni giorno, i neoustascia
croati, legati alla criminalità organizzata ed a schegge
deviate dei servizi segreti, hanno organizzato provocazioni
fino al tentativo di golpe. Ricordiamone alcune.
A Veljun, nella seconda guerra mondiale gli ustascia
massacrarono 520 civili di etnia serba: lì i neoustascia
hanno impedito agli ex partigiani di deporre corone sul
monumento che ricorda quelle vittime, hanno devastato il
monumento e una donna - fra gli applausi delle camicie nere
- si è calata le mutandine urinando sull'ossario; al
danneggiamento hanno preso parte cinque ufficiali
dell'esercito, ma la polizia ha lasciato fare.
In più comizi, il capo delle camicie nere Djapic ha
minacciato di far scorrere il sangue se i profughi serbi
dovessero tornare alle loro case e pretendessero di
prenderne possesso; il governo non ha reagito. Nella Piazza
dei martiri antifascisti a Zagabria, ribattezzata da
Tudjman "Piazza dei Grandi croati", gli ustascia hanno
aggredito e bastonato gli ex partigiani venuti per
celebrare la Giornata della vittoria sul fascismo; la
polizia ha lasciato fare.
A Bleiburg, in Austria, diverse migliaia di nostalgici
ustascia croati hanno celebrato la "giornata delle vittime"
commemorando con discorsi filonazisti i camerati caduti il
15 maggio '45. A quella manifestazione hanno portato il
saluto e l'adesione del Governo croato, ben tre ministri e
il vicepresidente del Parlamento, tutti social-liberali.
Uno di essi ha detto che "l'esercito partigiano non fu il
nostro esercito", aggiungendo che l'odierna Croazia
indipendente "è nata sulle ossa di questi caduti".
E non si contano le manifestazioni di protesta, organizzate
dai neoustascia, che si susseguono a Gospic, a Spalato, a
Zagabria, a Vukivar a difesa dei criminali di guerra,
contro le "interferenze" del Tribunale internazionale
dell'Aja. Ecco: impedire le indagini sulle stragi in
Croazia, impedire la consegna al tribunale dell'Aja degli
autori di quei crimini; impedire il rientro dei profughi
serbi cacciati dalla Croazia con la pulizia etnica dal 1991
al 1995; impedire la costruzione della democrazia e la
liquidazione delle strutture dell'ex regime; destabilizzare
il paese: questi sono gli obiettivi dei neoustascia e dei
loro alleati in questa sfrenata catena di provocazioni.
Un'esigua minoranza, infiltrata nei più delicati tessuti
dello stato, cerca di gettare la Croazia nel disordine, di
provocare una nuova guerra civile; una minaccia anche per i
paesi vicini dell'aera balcanico-adriatica. L'Europa, e
l'Italia in primo luogo, non può chiudere gli occhi.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
> Dal sito del Convoglio di solidarieta' internazionalista
> "Giorgiana Masi"
> http://digilander.iol.it/convogliogiorgiana/jugo9800.html
Dal 15 al 31 luglio 2000 si è tenuto nel museo all'aria aperta di
Sirogojno (Jugoslavia)
un Campus di solidarietà con il popolo jugoslavo. Un nostro
compagno, ALBERTO,
ha partecipato all'iniziativa, riportandone una positiva valutazione
nonché una serie di
preziosi materiali di documentazione. Divulgheremo le sue
impressioni e le notizie più
significative nei prossimi giorni, se possibile anche via radio
(Radio città aperta o
Radio onda rossa). La dichiarazione finale del Campus ed un
documento di
solidarietà studentesca sono riportati nell'allegato 2 e
nell'allegato 3. Al campus
jugoslavo ha partecipato, tra gli altri, M. Collon che ha diffuso
una serie di materiali,
scritti ed audiovisivi, sull'aggressione USA-NATO e sugli eventi
successivi nel
Kosmet (si veda il suo recente libro sull'aggressione Nato nei
Balcani). In particolare
segnaliamo un dossier di solidarietà internazionale relativo
all'aggressione NATO nei
Balcani e su un progetto di aggressione USA contro la Corea del
Nord.
ALLEGATO 2
Dichiarazione finale del Campus internazionale di Sirogojno
(Jugoslavia)
Assumendo come punto di partenza i seguenti fatti emersi da numerosi
dibattiti, visite
e ricerche condotte nel corso del nostro soggiorno nella Repubblica
Federale di
Jugoslavia (RFJ):
la RFJ è stata vittima di un'aggressione militare da parte
degli USA e dei suoi
satelliti NATO
l'aggressione Nato contro la Jugoslavia viola in modo
flagrante le norme del
diritto internazionale, in particolare la Carta dell'ONU e
numerose convenzioni
sulla protezione dei civili ed il divieto di usare certi tipi
di proiettili e munizioni
la Nato ha condotto la sua aggressione contro la Jugoslavia
senza
l'autorizzazione del Consiglio di sicurezza dell'ONU
l'aggressione Nato è stata preceduta da una fase in cui la
Jugoslavia è stata
sottoposta ad una forte pressione di Washington e dei governi
occidentali
mediante interferenza nei suoi affari interni e con il
sostegno a movimenti
separatisti e terroristici in Kosovo-Metohija
la RFJ è ancora soggetta a sanzioni illegali imposte
arbitrariamente dagli USA
e dall'Unione Europea bypassando l'ONU
la RFJ è stata vittima di una campagna di propaganda condotta
da reti TV
globali e centri mediatici nelle capitali occidentali con lo
scopo di calunniare la
nazione serba e il governo Jugoslavo
in data 30 luglio 2000, i partecipanti al Campus internazionale di
amicizia hanno
definito la seguente
D I C H I A R A Z I O N E
Chiamiamo i cittadini di tutto il mondo, l'ONU, i governi, i
parlamenti e tutti i
movimenti anti-imperialisti, pacifisti e progressisti, i partiti
politici e le organizzazioni
non governative a dare il loro contributo per una giusta soluzione
della crisi in Kosovo
che onori la sovranità e l'integrità territoriale della RF di
Jugoslavia nonché il carattere
multietnico e multiconfessionale di questa provincia Jugoslava.
Chiamiamo il Consiglio di sicurezza dell'ONU ad assumere le
necessarie misure di
emergenza, in armonia con la applicazione della risoluzione 1244, ed
assicurare il
ritorno e la sicurezza di più di mezzo milione di serbi e di non
albanesi cacciati dal
Kosovo.
Le azioni dell'UNMIK e KFOR, lungi da un tale risultato, hanno
invece prodotto una
rapida caduta degli impegni ONU per la fine dell'aggressione Nato
contro la RF di
Jugoslavia. Il loro dispiegamento e le loro decisioni hanno solo
esacerbato separatismo
e terrorismo in Kosovo, dove, in un anno di amministrazione UNMIK e
KFOR, sono
stati uccisi più di 1100 serbi, Rom e non albanesi. 960 persone sono
state deportate e
qualcosa come un centinaio di chiese ortodosse e monasteri sono
stati danneggiati o
distrutti. Le vittime del terrorismo albanese includono anche 290
Albanesi.
Segnaliamo ai cittadini del mondo che la RF di Jugoslavia è uno
Stato multietnico in cui
vivono 29 nazionalità diverse, cioè un paese unico in un contesto
sempre più
monoetnico.
Inoltre la RF di Jugoslavia è il paese con il più alto numero di
rifugiati in Europa, un
totale di 1,5 ml dalla regione della ex SFRF e del Kosovo, che ha
sostenuto facendo
affidamento principalmente sulle proprie forze e su magre risorse,
anche per il fatto
che la sua economia è stata collassata dalle sanzioni di lungo
periodo introdotte
dall'Occidente.
Rivendichiamo la soppressione di sanzioni ingiuste, imposte
illegalmente dagli USA e
dalla UE, che colpiscono la maggioranza della popolazione civile,
particolarmente
quella più vulnerabile, come bambini, vecchi e rifugiati.
Le sanzioni hanno praticamente impedito la cooperazione con la RF di
Jugoslavia in
altre sfere come la scienza, la cultura, l'educazione ed il piacere.
Gli sforzi condotti
per isolare sul piano internazionale la RF di Jugoslavia sono in
contrasto con gli
obiettivi ed i progetti tesi ad incoraggiare la cooperazione e la
sicurezza nei Balcani, in
virtù del fatto che tale paese è elemento chiave ed inevitabile
nella regione.
L'aggressione Nato contro la RF di Jugoslavia ha distrutto molte
vite ed ha prodotto
danni stimati in 100 ML di dollari. Gli USA e gli altri paesi che
hanno preso parte
all'aggressione debbono risarcire la RF di Jugoslavia senza
condizioni. I loro leaders
debbono essere portati davanti al tribunale internazionale dell'Aja
per crimini contro
l'umanità e violazione della Convenzione di Ginevra ed altre
convenzioni
internazionali.
I partecipanti al campus internazionale di amicizia provenienti
dall'Europa e da altri
continenti hanno esaminato attentamente i rapporti e le analisi
sulla manipolazione
politica e mediatica intessuta allo scopo di giustificare un
predeterminato pretesto alla
aggressione Nato.
Anche se la verità sta ormai emergendo più che chiaramente in tutto
il mondo, si è
concluso all'unanimità che, sia a livello nazionale che globale,
occorre prendere una
serie di iniziative per contrastare i pregiudizi antiserbi e la
propaganda diffusa per
anni.
Sirogojno (Repubblica Federale di Jugoslavia), 30 luglio 2000
ALLEGATO 3
Documento per la solidarietà studentesca
La guerra di aggressione, condotta dalla Nato contro la Jugoslavia,
ha avuto serie
conseguenze per il popolo jugoslavo e, tra gli altri, per la
gioventù e gli studenti, cioè,
per le nuove generazioni.
Tutti i 19 Paesi, appartenenti al patto di aggressione, non si sono
accontentati di
distruggere questo Paese sotto una pioggia di bombe, ma sono ora
impegnati ad
applicare sanzioni economiche che tremendamente colpiscono gli
studenti. Dopo due
settimane passate in Jugoslavia, siamo coscienti dell'urgenza e
dell'importanza che
può avere il nostro aiuto alle Università. Questo documento vuole
presentare alcuni
suggerimenti, in modo che ciascuna delegazione possa parlarne con i
giovani studenti
jugoslavi.
Ecco i suggerimenti :
La conferenza europea dei rettori ha escluso la Jugoslavia da
questa
istituzione. In ciascun Paese europeo noi dobbiamo fare
pressione affinché
questa istituzione decida di reintegrare le Università
jugoslave. Per ottenere
ciò possiamo, ad es., organizzare una giornata internazionale
di azione per
aiutare la Jugoslavia !
Potremmo organizzare in alcune Università europee una
Conferenza per
illustrare il nostro viaggio e tutto ciò che abbiamo appreso
durante il nostro
soggiorno in Jugoslavia, nonché le nostre attività nel campo
internazionale di
amicizia. Potremmo anche presentare concreti materiali in modo
da essere più
convincenti: un video con le visite del nostro viaggio, un
quiz con le
informazioni sulla Jugoslavia, una mostra fotografica ma,
soprattutto, noi
siamo tutti testimoni di ciò che abbiamo visto e sperimentato.
Dovremmo
parlarne nelle Università dei nostri Paesi !
Con gli studenti che presentano maggiore interesse per la
questione, noi
potremmo formare una lista di alleanza con tutti i maggiori
eventi occorsi
durante i bombardamenti della Jugoslavia.Sarebbe anche utile
per noi
conoscere ciò che è accaduto da allora, per mobilitarci se
necessario. In pari
tempo potremmo organizzare un Forum per una seria discussione
sull'argomento. Gli studenti jugoslavi potrebbero offrirci il
massimo di
informazione sulla situazione, sulle condizioni di vita della
popolazione, da
diffondere poi nei nostri Paesi.
Potremmo organizzare alcuni scambi tra docenti e studenti
provenienti dalla
Jugoslavia e dei loro amici di altre nazionalità. Sarebbe
interessante
scambiarci conoscenze reciproche ed essere ben informati sulla
situazione in
Jugoslavia. Di conseguenza, dovremmo saper formare, durante
l'anno,
delegazioni jugoslave ma anche delegazioni di altri Paesi.
L'embargo non consente agli scienziati di lavorare, ed
impedisce agli studenti
di avere i libri per i loro studi. Gli studenti di tutta
Europa potrebbero
intervenire e contribuire all'invio di tutti i libri
importanti e necessari in
Jugoslavia.
Tutti gli studenti dovrebbero contribuire a questa azione
umanitaria (e non
solo) rincontrandosi a Sirogojno l'anno venturo, allo scopo di
continuare il
lavoro del movimento internazionale per la Pace.
I giovani, gli studenti, in Jugoslavia come in altri Paesi, sono il
futuro delle società.
Dopo aver distrutto il presente di questo Paese con le bombe, i
Paesi aggressori
vogliono distruggere anche il futuro stesso. Ciò è inaccettabile !
Questo è il motivo per
il quale ci mobilitiamo, allo scopo di evitare, per quanto possibile
, le conseguenze di
queste azioni illegali, in attesa di annichilirle.
Lunga vita agli studenti ed al popolo della Jugoslavia !
Tutti insieme contro l'imperialismo !
Sirogojno 30 luglio 2000
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 17, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
YUGOSLAVIA:
YOUTHS SEE WAR'S DEVASTATION AND
PEOPLE'S RESISTANCE
By Josina Dunkel
Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Youth delegations from over 20 countries around the world
came together from July 15 to Aug. 1 for the first annual
International Campus of Friendship in Yugoslavia. The
gathering was sponsored by the Patriotic Union of
Yugoslavia.
During those weeks the delegates not only learned about
Yugoslavia's complex history and society, but also
strengthened international contacts to further the struggle
against imperialism.
The youth camp was located in the mountains in Sirogojna,
the only "living museum" in Yugoslavia. From this center
the delegates visited museums, monuments and other sites of
political and cultural interest. Camp meetings heard and
discussed the economic impact of sanctions on Yugoslavia,
the real reasons behind the U.S. and NATO's 78-day bombing
assault last year and other topics.
In Belgrade and Novi Sad the delegates saw what U.S. bombs
destroyed in the northern Serbia.
They saw that many of NATO's targets were not military at
all but hospitals, schools and electricity-generation
plants. The U.S. generals running the bombing tried to
destroy Yugoslavia's civilian infrastructure.
As political graffiti in Belgrade pointed out, last year's
NATO bombs were not the first attempt by imperialists to
destroy the spirit of the socialist revolution. Nazi
Germany tried 60 years ago. But Yugoslavia didn't surrender
to the fascists or to NATO.
The young delegates visited Kragujevac, where Nazis
executed 7,000 men in one afternoon during World War II.
The town had only 30,000 people at the time. The Nazis
chose this town because it was the heart of the partisan
liberation movement.
Last year a bomb that fell nearby damaged the museum
dedicated to preserving this part of Yugoslav history. The
youth delegation placed a wreath at the town's monument, a
stylized bird with a broken wing. The monument was
dedicated to the hundreds of students the Nazis marched
from their classrooms to murder.
IN KOSOVO MITROVICA
Today an occupation force patrols and divides the city of
Kosovo Mitrovica. A barbaric tangle of barbed wire and a
resident force of KFOR soldiers from the United States,
Germany, England, France and other countries maintains the
separation of Albanians from the rest of this multiethnic
city.
Last year NATO propagandists falsely accused the Serbs of
genocide. Today right-wing Albanians have expelled other
ethnic groups from Kosovo. The Albanian section of Kosovo
Mitrovica has ejected the ethnically and physically
distinct Roma people.
The so-called Kosovo Liberation Army burned out a Roma
camp on the southern side of the city and forced its
inhabitants into tents. The attacks have not ended. During
the first week of August a twelve-year old Roma boy was
struck by a grenade when the encampment was attacked.
In Kosovo Mitrovica only one hospital admits Serbs. While
the medical staff tries to perform regular operations,
including complex procedures, their efforts are made very
difficult by the lack of water, medicine and equipment.
The water plant is located in the southern part of the
city. The KLA-controlled government allows only a very
limited amount to flow for a few hours a day. The same goes
for electricity.
In this hospital all signs are still in Albanian and
Serbian, in that order. Where separatism exists now, there
had been integration. Albanian doctors worked with Serbian
patients, and vice versa. Now the KLA encourages Albanian
patients to use only Albanian hospitals with Albanian
doctors.
While the bombs have stopped falling, the war is not over.
Kosovo, considered by Serbs to be the cradle of their
society, is being occupied by foreign troops who drive
around in tanks and military vehicles carrying automatic
weapons slung across their backs.
On this visit to Kosovo, Belgrade law student Ivana Antic
told how the local Serb residents sought more aid from the
Belgrade government. "There are police and KFOR troops but
no security. Albanians can make wild claims and Serbs will
be imprisoned," she said.
Last year U.S., German and other NATO officials justified
the destructive bombardments of Kosovo by claming that
Serbs were committing genocide against Muslim Albanians.
To clarify the situation during a visit to the Zabucje
Refugee Camp, Buba Morina, the Yugoslav minister for
refugees, displaced persons and humanitarian relief, said,
"NATO bombs fell mostly on Kosovo. That was a display of
how much NATO loves the Albanian population."
SANCTIONS ATTACK DAILY LIFE
Yugoslavia has been under attack for over 10 years. This
Balkan country has a multitude of ethnically, religiously,
and historically diverse peoples. The partisan movement and
the revolution of 1945 welded these diverse groups into an
independent country. But foreign multinationals and the
Western regimes have exploited ethnic differences to gain a
stronger position in the region.
The Romans had a strategy of "divide and rule." U.S.
imperialist strategists use this same policy. They
encouraged and cheered the dissolving of the former Soviet
Union. They also support separatist movements in China.
When they funneled money to the KLA, neither the United
States nor Germany was interested in defending minorities.
They were interested in dividing up a country that resisted
total foreign domination.
Sanctions have been in place for a decade. Bosnia and
Kosovo have been separated from Yugoslavia. Across the
country there are shortages of food and gas. People can't
get sugar or cooking oil, even on the underground market.
Elementary schools and high schools have not recovered
from the bombing. Most were disbanded during the bombing.
With the sanctions keeping teachers' salaries fixed at 67
German Marks a month (about $30 U.S.), strikes have closed
the schools regularly.
Rents vary from 20 to 30 German Marks a month. While
salaries in general are very low, there is also a lack of
work for those who are employed. Sanctions have eliminated
most exports and imports. There are no markets for
Yugoslavian goods so production is very low.
The Yugoslav government has received no compensation for
the destruction of buildings, bridges, and the lives of the
thousands killed by U.S./NATO bombs. Belgrade can't get
loans and must pay for reconstruction on its own.
As one economist pointed out, every year there is a
greater loss, which cannot be made up despite an expanding
economy. Things are not stagnant in Yugoslavia, just
disadvantaged.
YOUTHS PLAN SOLIDARITY
The delegates visited Yugoslavia to witness for themselves
the situation a year after bombs were dropped. They were
all moved by witnessing the Yugoslav people's spirit of
resistance and the determination to survive the daily
hardships.
Delegates have already begun to plan solidarity
demonstrations in many countries Oct. 20-22, a medical aid
project, and student solidarity projects including a drive
for scientific journals and law books restricted by
sanctions.
For updates, visit the International Action Center's Web
site at www.iacenter.org.
[Dunkel represented the IAC at the International Campus of
Friendship in Yugoslavia.]
- 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
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--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
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------------------------------------------------------------
> "Giorgiana Masi"
> http://digilander.iol.it/convogliogiorgiana/jugo9800.html
Dal 15 al 31 luglio 2000 si è tenuto nel museo all'aria aperta di
Sirogojno (Jugoslavia)
un Campus di solidarietà con il popolo jugoslavo. Un nostro
compagno, ALBERTO,
ha partecipato all'iniziativa, riportandone una positiva valutazione
nonché una serie di
preziosi materiali di documentazione. Divulgheremo le sue
impressioni e le notizie più
significative nei prossimi giorni, se possibile anche via radio
(Radio città aperta o
Radio onda rossa). La dichiarazione finale del Campus ed un
documento di
solidarietà studentesca sono riportati nell'allegato 2 e
nell'allegato 3. Al campus
jugoslavo ha partecipato, tra gli altri, M. Collon che ha diffuso
una serie di materiali,
scritti ed audiovisivi, sull'aggressione USA-NATO e sugli eventi
successivi nel
Kosmet (si veda il suo recente libro sull'aggressione Nato nei
Balcani). In particolare
segnaliamo un dossier di solidarietà internazionale relativo
all'aggressione NATO nei
Balcani e su un progetto di aggressione USA contro la Corea del
Nord.
ALLEGATO 2
Dichiarazione finale del Campus internazionale di Sirogojno
(Jugoslavia)
Assumendo come punto di partenza i seguenti fatti emersi da numerosi
dibattiti, visite
e ricerche condotte nel corso del nostro soggiorno nella Repubblica
Federale di
Jugoslavia (RFJ):
la RFJ è stata vittima di un'aggressione militare da parte
degli USA e dei suoi
satelliti NATO
l'aggressione Nato contro la Jugoslavia viola in modo
flagrante le norme del
diritto internazionale, in particolare la Carta dell'ONU e
numerose convenzioni
sulla protezione dei civili ed il divieto di usare certi tipi
di proiettili e munizioni
la Nato ha condotto la sua aggressione contro la Jugoslavia
senza
l'autorizzazione del Consiglio di sicurezza dell'ONU
l'aggressione Nato è stata preceduta da una fase in cui la
Jugoslavia è stata
sottoposta ad una forte pressione di Washington e dei governi
occidentali
mediante interferenza nei suoi affari interni e con il
sostegno a movimenti
separatisti e terroristici in Kosovo-Metohija
la RFJ è ancora soggetta a sanzioni illegali imposte
arbitrariamente dagli USA
e dall'Unione Europea bypassando l'ONU
la RFJ è stata vittima di una campagna di propaganda condotta
da reti TV
globali e centri mediatici nelle capitali occidentali con lo
scopo di calunniare la
nazione serba e il governo Jugoslavo
in data 30 luglio 2000, i partecipanti al Campus internazionale di
amicizia hanno
definito la seguente
D I C H I A R A Z I O N E
Chiamiamo i cittadini di tutto il mondo, l'ONU, i governi, i
parlamenti e tutti i
movimenti anti-imperialisti, pacifisti e progressisti, i partiti
politici e le organizzazioni
non governative a dare il loro contributo per una giusta soluzione
della crisi in Kosovo
che onori la sovranità e l'integrità territoriale della RF di
Jugoslavia nonché il carattere
multietnico e multiconfessionale di questa provincia Jugoslava.
Chiamiamo il Consiglio di sicurezza dell'ONU ad assumere le
necessarie misure di
emergenza, in armonia con la applicazione della risoluzione 1244, ed
assicurare il
ritorno e la sicurezza di più di mezzo milione di serbi e di non
albanesi cacciati dal
Kosovo.
Le azioni dell'UNMIK e KFOR, lungi da un tale risultato, hanno
invece prodotto una
rapida caduta degli impegni ONU per la fine dell'aggressione Nato
contro la RF di
Jugoslavia. Il loro dispiegamento e le loro decisioni hanno solo
esacerbato separatismo
e terrorismo in Kosovo, dove, in un anno di amministrazione UNMIK e
KFOR, sono
stati uccisi più di 1100 serbi, Rom e non albanesi. 960 persone sono
state deportate e
qualcosa come un centinaio di chiese ortodosse e monasteri sono
stati danneggiati o
distrutti. Le vittime del terrorismo albanese includono anche 290
Albanesi.
Segnaliamo ai cittadini del mondo che la RF di Jugoslavia è uno
Stato multietnico in cui
vivono 29 nazionalità diverse, cioè un paese unico in un contesto
sempre più
monoetnico.
Inoltre la RF di Jugoslavia è il paese con il più alto numero di
rifugiati in Europa, un
totale di 1,5 ml dalla regione della ex SFRF e del Kosovo, che ha
sostenuto facendo
affidamento principalmente sulle proprie forze e su magre risorse,
anche per il fatto
che la sua economia è stata collassata dalle sanzioni di lungo
periodo introdotte
dall'Occidente.
Rivendichiamo la soppressione di sanzioni ingiuste, imposte
illegalmente dagli USA e
dalla UE, che colpiscono la maggioranza della popolazione civile,
particolarmente
quella più vulnerabile, come bambini, vecchi e rifugiati.
Le sanzioni hanno praticamente impedito la cooperazione con la RF di
Jugoslavia in
altre sfere come la scienza, la cultura, l'educazione ed il piacere.
Gli sforzi condotti
per isolare sul piano internazionale la RF di Jugoslavia sono in
contrasto con gli
obiettivi ed i progetti tesi ad incoraggiare la cooperazione e la
sicurezza nei Balcani, in
virtù del fatto che tale paese è elemento chiave ed inevitabile
nella regione.
L'aggressione Nato contro la RF di Jugoslavia ha distrutto molte
vite ed ha prodotto
danni stimati in 100 ML di dollari. Gli USA e gli altri paesi che
hanno preso parte
all'aggressione debbono risarcire la RF di Jugoslavia senza
condizioni. I loro leaders
debbono essere portati davanti al tribunale internazionale dell'Aja
per crimini contro
l'umanità e violazione della Convenzione di Ginevra ed altre
convenzioni
internazionali.
I partecipanti al campus internazionale di amicizia provenienti
dall'Europa e da altri
continenti hanno esaminato attentamente i rapporti e le analisi
sulla manipolazione
politica e mediatica intessuta allo scopo di giustificare un
predeterminato pretesto alla
aggressione Nato.
Anche se la verità sta ormai emergendo più che chiaramente in tutto
il mondo, si è
concluso all'unanimità che, sia a livello nazionale che globale,
occorre prendere una
serie di iniziative per contrastare i pregiudizi antiserbi e la
propaganda diffusa per
anni.
Sirogojno (Repubblica Federale di Jugoslavia), 30 luglio 2000
ALLEGATO 3
Documento per la solidarietà studentesca
La guerra di aggressione, condotta dalla Nato contro la Jugoslavia,
ha avuto serie
conseguenze per il popolo jugoslavo e, tra gli altri, per la
gioventù e gli studenti, cioè,
per le nuove generazioni.
Tutti i 19 Paesi, appartenenti al patto di aggressione, non si sono
accontentati di
distruggere questo Paese sotto una pioggia di bombe, ma sono ora
impegnati ad
applicare sanzioni economiche che tremendamente colpiscono gli
studenti. Dopo due
settimane passate in Jugoslavia, siamo coscienti dell'urgenza e
dell'importanza che
può avere il nostro aiuto alle Università. Questo documento vuole
presentare alcuni
suggerimenti, in modo che ciascuna delegazione possa parlarne con i
giovani studenti
jugoslavi.
Ecco i suggerimenti :
La conferenza europea dei rettori ha escluso la Jugoslavia da
questa
istituzione. In ciascun Paese europeo noi dobbiamo fare
pressione affinché
questa istituzione decida di reintegrare le Università
jugoslave. Per ottenere
ciò possiamo, ad es., organizzare una giornata internazionale
di azione per
aiutare la Jugoslavia !
Potremmo organizzare in alcune Università europee una
Conferenza per
illustrare il nostro viaggio e tutto ciò che abbiamo appreso
durante il nostro
soggiorno in Jugoslavia, nonché le nostre attività nel campo
internazionale di
amicizia. Potremmo anche presentare concreti materiali in modo
da essere più
convincenti: un video con le visite del nostro viaggio, un
quiz con le
informazioni sulla Jugoslavia, una mostra fotografica ma,
soprattutto, noi
siamo tutti testimoni di ciò che abbiamo visto e sperimentato.
Dovremmo
parlarne nelle Università dei nostri Paesi !
Con gli studenti che presentano maggiore interesse per la
questione, noi
potremmo formare una lista di alleanza con tutti i maggiori
eventi occorsi
durante i bombardamenti della Jugoslavia.Sarebbe anche utile
per noi
conoscere ciò che è accaduto da allora, per mobilitarci se
necessario. In pari
tempo potremmo organizzare un Forum per una seria discussione
sull'argomento. Gli studenti jugoslavi potrebbero offrirci il
massimo di
informazione sulla situazione, sulle condizioni di vita della
popolazione, da
diffondere poi nei nostri Paesi.
Potremmo organizzare alcuni scambi tra docenti e studenti
provenienti dalla
Jugoslavia e dei loro amici di altre nazionalità. Sarebbe
interessante
scambiarci conoscenze reciproche ed essere ben informati sulla
situazione in
Jugoslavia. Di conseguenza, dovremmo saper formare, durante
l'anno,
delegazioni jugoslave ma anche delegazioni di altri Paesi.
L'embargo non consente agli scienziati di lavorare, ed
impedisce agli studenti
di avere i libri per i loro studi. Gli studenti di tutta
Europa potrebbero
intervenire e contribuire all'invio di tutti i libri
importanti e necessari in
Jugoslavia.
Tutti gli studenti dovrebbero contribuire a questa azione
umanitaria (e non
solo) rincontrandosi a Sirogojno l'anno venturo, allo scopo di
continuare il
lavoro del movimento internazionale per la Pace.
I giovani, gli studenti, in Jugoslavia come in altri Paesi, sono il
futuro delle società.
Dopo aver distrutto il presente di questo Paese con le bombe, i
Paesi aggressori
vogliono distruggere anche il futuro stesso. Ciò è inaccettabile !
Questo è il motivo per
il quale ci mobilitiamo, allo scopo di evitare, per quanto possibile
, le conseguenze di
queste azioni illegali, in attesa di annichilirle.
Lunga vita agli studenti ed al popolo della Jugoslavia !
Tutti insieme contro l'imperialismo !
Sirogojno 30 luglio 2000
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 17, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
YUGOSLAVIA:
YOUTHS SEE WAR'S DEVASTATION AND
PEOPLE'S RESISTANCE
By Josina Dunkel
Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Youth delegations from over 20 countries around the world
came together from July 15 to Aug. 1 for the first annual
International Campus of Friendship in Yugoslavia. The
gathering was sponsored by the Patriotic Union of
Yugoslavia.
During those weeks the delegates not only learned about
Yugoslavia's complex history and society, but also
strengthened international contacts to further the struggle
against imperialism.
The youth camp was located in the mountains in Sirogojna,
the only "living museum" in Yugoslavia. From this center
the delegates visited museums, monuments and other sites of
political and cultural interest. Camp meetings heard and
discussed the economic impact of sanctions on Yugoslavia,
the real reasons behind the U.S. and NATO's 78-day bombing
assault last year and other topics.
In Belgrade and Novi Sad the delegates saw what U.S. bombs
destroyed in the northern Serbia.
They saw that many of NATO's targets were not military at
all but hospitals, schools and electricity-generation
plants. The U.S. generals running the bombing tried to
destroy Yugoslavia's civilian infrastructure.
As political graffiti in Belgrade pointed out, last year's
NATO bombs were not the first attempt by imperialists to
destroy the spirit of the socialist revolution. Nazi
Germany tried 60 years ago. But Yugoslavia didn't surrender
to the fascists or to NATO.
The young delegates visited Kragujevac, where Nazis
executed 7,000 men in one afternoon during World War II.
The town had only 30,000 people at the time. The Nazis
chose this town because it was the heart of the partisan
liberation movement.
Last year a bomb that fell nearby damaged the museum
dedicated to preserving this part of Yugoslav history. The
youth delegation placed a wreath at the town's monument, a
stylized bird with a broken wing. The monument was
dedicated to the hundreds of students the Nazis marched
from their classrooms to murder.
IN KOSOVO MITROVICA
Today an occupation force patrols and divides the city of
Kosovo Mitrovica. A barbaric tangle of barbed wire and a
resident force of KFOR soldiers from the United States,
Germany, England, France and other countries maintains the
separation of Albanians from the rest of this multiethnic
city.
Last year NATO propagandists falsely accused the Serbs of
genocide. Today right-wing Albanians have expelled other
ethnic groups from Kosovo. The Albanian section of Kosovo
Mitrovica has ejected the ethnically and physically
distinct Roma people.
The so-called Kosovo Liberation Army burned out a Roma
camp on the southern side of the city and forced its
inhabitants into tents. The attacks have not ended. During
the first week of August a twelve-year old Roma boy was
struck by a grenade when the encampment was attacked.
In Kosovo Mitrovica only one hospital admits Serbs. While
the medical staff tries to perform regular operations,
including complex procedures, their efforts are made very
difficult by the lack of water, medicine and equipment.
The water plant is located in the southern part of the
city. The KLA-controlled government allows only a very
limited amount to flow for a few hours a day. The same goes
for electricity.
In this hospital all signs are still in Albanian and
Serbian, in that order. Where separatism exists now, there
had been integration. Albanian doctors worked with Serbian
patients, and vice versa. Now the KLA encourages Albanian
patients to use only Albanian hospitals with Albanian
doctors.
While the bombs have stopped falling, the war is not over.
Kosovo, considered by Serbs to be the cradle of their
society, is being occupied by foreign troops who drive
around in tanks and military vehicles carrying automatic
weapons slung across their backs.
On this visit to Kosovo, Belgrade law student Ivana Antic
told how the local Serb residents sought more aid from the
Belgrade government. "There are police and KFOR troops but
no security. Albanians can make wild claims and Serbs will
be imprisoned," she said.
Last year U.S., German and other NATO officials justified
the destructive bombardments of Kosovo by claming that
Serbs were committing genocide against Muslim Albanians.
To clarify the situation during a visit to the Zabucje
Refugee Camp, Buba Morina, the Yugoslav minister for
refugees, displaced persons and humanitarian relief, said,
"NATO bombs fell mostly on Kosovo. That was a display of
how much NATO loves the Albanian population."
SANCTIONS ATTACK DAILY LIFE
Yugoslavia has been under attack for over 10 years. This
Balkan country has a multitude of ethnically, religiously,
and historically diverse peoples. The partisan movement and
the revolution of 1945 welded these diverse groups into an
independent country. But foreign multinationals and the
Western regimes have exploited ethnic differences to gain a
stronger position in the region.
The Romans had a strategy of "divide and rule." U.S.
imperialist strategists use this same policy. They
encouraged and cheered the dissolving of the former Soviet
Union. They also support separatist movements in China.
When they funneled money to the KLA, neither the United
States nor Germany was interested in defending minorities.
They were interested in dividing up a country that resisted
total foreign domination.
Sanctions have been in place for a decade. Bosnia and
Kosovo have been separated from Yugoslavia. Across the
country there are shortages of food and gas. People can't
get sugar or cooking oil, even on the underground market.
Elementary schools and high schools have not recovered
from the bombing. Most were disbanded during the bombing.
With the sanctions keeping teachers' salaries fixed at 67
German Marks a month (about $30 U.S.), strikes have closed
the schools regularly.
Rents vary from 20 to 30 German Marks a month. While
salaries in general are very low, there is also a lack of
work for those who are employed. Sanctions have eliminated
most exports and imports. There are no markets for
Yugoslavian goods so production is very low.
The Yugoslav government has received no compensation for
the destruction of buildings, bridges, and the lives of the
thousands killed by U.S./NATO bombs. Belgrade can't get
loans and must pay for reconstruction on its own.
As one economist pointed out, every year there is a
greater loss, which cannot be made up despite an expanding
economy. Things are not stagnant in Yugoslavia, just
disadvantaged.
YOUTHS PLAN SOLIDARITY
The delegates visited Yugoslavia to witness for themselves
the situation a year after bombs were dropped. They were
all moved by witnessing the Yugoslav people's spirit of
resistance and the determination to survive the daily
hardships.
Delegates have already begun to plan solidarity
demonstrations in many countries Oct. 20-22, a medical aid
project, and student solidarity projects including a drive
for scientific journals and law books restricted by
sanctions.
For updates, visit the International Action Center's Web
site at www.iacenter.org.
[Dunkel represented the IAC at the International Campus of
Friendship in Yugoslavia.]
- 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)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
RELAZIONI BILATERALI RFJ-SENEGAL
YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC SENDS MESSAGE TO SENEGALESE COUNTERPART
BELGRADE, Aug 24 (Tanjug). Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic
has addressed a message to his Senegalese counterpart Abdoulaye Wade.
The message was presented by Ambassador Danilo Milic of the
Yugoslav foreign ministry to Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane
Gadio in Dakar.
The message points to the need for expanding the traditionally
friendly relations between the two countries on the basis of equality
and
mutual respect, and for stepping up bilateral cooperation and joint
endeavors in international forums.
Gadio accepted the message on behalf of absent President Wade
and
underlined that Senegal wishes to enhance the friendly ties and allround
cooperation with Yugoslavia.
The talks also focused on the forthcoming Millennium Summit in
New
York and 55th UN General Assembly.
Senegal, one of the leading memberstates of the Organization of
the Islamic Conference, advocates Yugoslavia's full reintegration in the
UN
and the Nonaligned Movement.
---
RELAZIONI BILATERALI RFJ-IRAQ
YUGOSLAV DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER RECEIVES IRAQI HEALTH MINISTER
BELGRADE, Aug 23 (Tanjug) Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister
Nikola
Sainovic received on Wednesday Iraqi Health Minister Omar Madhat
Mubarak,
who is on a few days visit to Yugoslavia heading an Iraqi delegation of
leading medical and pharmacological experts.
The two governments give priority to bilateral cooperation in the
health
sector, as both countries have been victims of NATO aggressions and
international sanctions, it was said at the meeting.
During the Iraqi delegation's visit to Belgrade, programmes for
cooperation between the two countries concerning mother and child health
care, cancer treatment, production and supply of medicines and
professional
staff training must be defined, both sides noted.
Yugoslav Minister of Labour, Health and Social Policy, Miodrag Kovac
and
Iraqi Ambassador to Yugoslavia Sami Sadun were present at the meeting, a
Yugoslav information ministry statement said.
YUGOSLAVIA AND IRAQ CONDEMN SANCTIONS
BELGRADE, Aug 24 (Tanjug). Serbian parliament Speaker Dragan
Tomic
met Thursday the Iraqi Minister of Health Omar Madhat Mubarak.
Both sides expressed satisfaction with the development of
overall
bilateral cooperation based on traditional friendship, understanding and
mutual trust, the parliamentary press service said in a statement.
Both countries abide by the principles of peaceful coexistence,
the UN Charter and international law, and both most strongly condemn the
practice of sanctions which are applied against countries such as
Yugoslavia and Iraq by states whose hegemonistic policies are aimed at
creating a unipolar world, it was noted during the meeting.
Yugoslavia and Iraq will continue stepping up their cooperation
in
the economic and other fields to mutual benefit, in line with the
stances
of Presidents Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and Saddam Hussein of
Iraq,
the statement says.
---
L'AMBASCIATORE JUGOSLAVO ALL'ONU ACCUSA KFOR, UNMIK E KOUCHNER
YUGOSLAV UN AMBASSADOR CHARGES KFOR, UNMIK, KOUCHNER WITH COMPLICITY
GENEVA, Aug 24 (Tanjug). Head of Yugoslavia's permanent mission
at
the UN in Geneva Branko Brankovic addressed Thursday to various
international figures a letter strongly condemning the crimes
perpetrated
by ethnic Albanian terrorists in Serbia's KosovoMetohija province,
following the recent discovery of a mass grave containing bodies of Serb
victims in the provincial capital Pristina.
The letter was addressed to the DirectorGeneral of the UN
Office
in Geneva Vladimir Petrovsky, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Sadako
Ogata, head of the UN Human Rights Commission Mary Robinson. Special
Rapporteur on Human Rights for the former Yugoslavia Jiri Dienstbier,
Special Envoy of the UN SecretaryGeneral for the Balkans Carl Bildt and
others.
Recent press reports said that the international administration
in
KosovoMetohija had long been aware of the discovery of a mass grave
containing bodies of 160 Serbs and other nonAlbanians in a Pristina
cemetery. The victims were killed over the past 14 months, since the
arrival of international KFor troops and UN civilian administration
UNMIK
and the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces in June 1999.
The following is the official translation of the letter:
Excellency,
As is publicly well known, KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner
openly
assist terrorists of the socalled KLA to carry out ethnic cleansing of
Serbs and other nonAlbanian population in the Serbian province of Kosovo
and Metohija.
KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner go even further. Namely, they
are
doing their best to hide crimes committed by Albanian terrorists in
Kosovo
and Metohija. The latest example testifying to this is the discovery of
mass graves with Serbs. The largest one was discovered in the Dragodan
village. More than 160 brutally killed Serbs were buried in it. These
persons were buried under either false names, or names of living
persons,
or even with only a number on metal plaques. KFOR has found the graves
several months ago but it is only at the beginning of August that it
called
family members to help identify the bodies.
This massacre of Serbs by Albanian terrorists was committed
soon
after the arrival in Kosovo and Metohija of KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard
Kouchner. The way KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner, call, individually
and
in secrecy, family members to identify the bodies, indicates that KFOR,
UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner are doing everything to conceal the crime
committed by Albanian terrorists against innocent Serbian civilians.
Only
close relatives, who were long ago expelled from Kosovo and Metohija,
can
identify the killed Serbs.
KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner were dutybound to inform of
the
massacre and discovered graves the relevant authorities of the FR of
Yugoslavia, which they did not do. It means that identification of
bodies
is being continued without the assistance of pathologists from the FR of
Yugoslavia. KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner neglect on a daily basis
the
fact that Kosovo and Metohija is the integral part of the Republic of
Serbia and the FR of Yugoslavia.
Excellency,
The concealing by KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner of crimes
committed by Albanian terrorists against innocent Serbian civilians is,
de
facto, as if they themselves committed the said crimes. Consequently,
KFOR,
UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner are equally responsible for the massacre of
Serbs as the perpetrators of this crime.
The government of the FR of Yugoslavia expects that you will
most
energetically publicly condemn these crimes committed against innocent
Serb
civilians by Albanian terrorists. At the same time, it expects that you
will condemn the complicity of KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner in these
crimes and do your utmost that the UN Security Council Resolution 1244
(1999) be implemented without delay.
In expectation of your prompt reaction, please accept,
Excellency,
the assurances of my highest consideration. (end of translation)
---
LA JUGOSLAVIA FA APPELLO ALL'UNESCO PER LA SISTEMATICA DISTRUZIONE DEI
BENI ARTISTICI E DEL PATRIMONIO CULTURALE DEL KOSMET DA PARTE DEGLI
ALLEATI DELLA NATO
YUGOSLAVIA APPEALS TO UNESCO TO PROTECT CULTURAL
MONUMENTS
PARIS, Aug 23 (Tanjug). Head of Yugoslavia's permanent
delegation
to the UNESCO in Paris, Ambassador Nada Popovic Perisic, has appealed to
the organization to take measures against the continuing systematic
destruction of cultural heritage in Serbia's KosovoMetohija province and
violence against its population, particularly children.
Instead of securing the conditions for peace, safety of all
inhabitants of the province and interethnic coexistence and equality of
all
ethnic communities in line with the Security Council Resolution 1244,
the
UN civilian and military missions in KosovoMetohija (UNMIK and KFor)
have
allowed ethnic Albanian separatists and terrorists to systematically
endanger the safety and lives of Serbs and other nonAlbanians, to
perpetrate murders, abductions and arson and to destroy the rich
cultural
heritage in order to annihilate all traces of centuries of Serb presence
in
the area, PopovicPerisic said in a letter to the UNESCO executive
council.
Children in KosovoMetohija are the most endangered, she said.
Ethnic Albanian terrorists do not refrain even from violence
against children at play. In the past few days only, they threw a bomb
at a
playground and seriously injured nine Serb children in Crkvene Vodice
village near Obilic and opened fire on a group of children in Staro
Gracko
village, who were saved only by chance.
The rights of Serb inhabitants of KosovoMetohija to education
and
information in their own language are being violated by decisions of
UNMIK
chiefs, whose task is precisely to protect such rights, PopovicPerisic
said.
Following the closure of the Pristina paper Jedinstvo and
Pristina
TV, The Zvecan Radio S which used to broadcast in the Serb language was
also silenced a few days ago, she noted.
---
LA RUSSIA CONDANNA IL TERRORISMO IN KOSMET
RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY CONDEMNS TERRORISM IN KOSOVOMETOHIJA
MOSCOW, Aug 23 (Tanjug) Russian foreign ministry once again
condemned terrorist acts in KosovoMetohija on Wednesday, saying that the
leaders of the civilian mission UNMIK and the international force KFor
are
fully responsible for inadequate safety conditions in the province.
The statement, carried by Russian ItarTass news agency
Wednesday,
said that people were injured in the Aug 18 blast that targeted the
building in Pristina housing the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) mission and offices of the Yugoslav Committee for
Liaison
with the U.N. mission in KosovoMetohija and of several political
parties.
On Aug 17, another blast demolished the Orthodox church in
Velika
Reka village. The day before, eight Serb children from Crkvena Vodica
village, near Obilic, were seriously injured in an ethnic Albanian
extremists' bomb attack.
This evidently shows that the leaders of U.N. mission and KFor
are turning a blind eye to the violence against Serbs and ethnic
minorities
in KosovoMetohija, and are therefore fully responsible for inadequate
safety conditions in the province. Scheduled local elections cannot
therefore be fair, free or democratic, the statement said.
UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner scheduled local elections for
Oct.
28 in KosovoMetohija, despite the strong opposition of the local Serbs
and
the Yugoslav government in Belgrade.
This is the second protest of the Russian Ministry to the same
effect in two days. In the first protest, made public on Tuesday, the
ministry described the August 17 UNMIK and KFor declaration on their own
status as a glaring violation of the Security Council resolution 1244
which
placed Serbia's southern province under UN administration last summer.
KFor and UNMIK proclaimed their own status unilaterally,
without
approval by legitimate Yugoslav authorities, the ministry said.
Claims by KFor and UNMIK that they are empowered to decide
their
own status are untrue. Moscow considers this document to be politically
harmful and dangerous, as it violates in form and content the basic
provisions of Resolution 1244 regarding Yugoslavia's sovereignty and
territorial integrity, the statement says.
---
FOSSA COMUNE CON I CORPI DI 160 SERBI RAPITI DAGLI ALLEATI DELLA NATO
MASS CRIMES BY ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS REVEALED
PRISTINA, Aug 23 (Tanjug). The two mass graves discovered in
Pristina, capital of Serbia's KosovoMetohija province, have once again
revealed the horrible truth about the atrocities committed by ethnic
Albanian terrorists last year, the Pristina Center for Peace and
Tolerance
said in a statement Wednesday.
Bodies of 160 victims were discovered Monday in a mass grave in
the Pristina district of Dragodan. They are believed to have been killed
by
ethnic Albanian terrorists over the past 14 months, since the arrival of
international KFor troops and UN civilian mission UNMIK following the
pullout of Yugoslav security forces from the province.
KFor's and UNMIK's silence so far about the discovery
constitutes
complicity with the crimes and an encouragement to the terrorists to
commit
more murders, abductions or bomb attacks on innocent children and state
institutions, the statement says.
The Center urges representatives of the international community
to
respond to the demands of relatives of about 1,000 abducted Serbs and
other
nonAlbanians and to appeals by humanitarian organization for information
regarding the whereabouts of the bodies of the victims and for autopsy
results, the statement says.
It is evident that the international mission in KosovoMetohija
is
unwilling to face reality, secure peace or provide safety to all in the
province, the Center said.
The UN Security Council must therefore reconsider its decisions
and withdraw the military and civilian missions from Serbia's province
in
order to entrust the resolving of the situation there to others who will
strive for peace and safety for all inhabitants, the statement says.
---
EVOLUZIONI NEL CONTENZIOSO SULLE MINIERE SEQUESTRATE DALLA NATO
TREPCA MANAGER MAKES OFFER TO UN KOSOVOMETOHIJA ADMINISTRATOR
NOVI PAZAR, Aug 23 (Tanjug). General Manager of the Trepca
mining
industry of Serbia's KosovoMetohija province Novak Bjelic addressed
Wednesday an open letter to the head of the UN civilian mission Bernard
Kouchner proposing conditions for resuming production in the Kosovska
Mitrovica and Zvecan plants.
KFor and UNMIK stormed Trepca plants in Mitrovica and Zvecan
and
its mines in Leposavic on August 14 at dawn, justifying their action by
environmental concerns.
Bjelic addressed his letter from the temporary Trepca
management
office in Novi Pazar, southern Serbia, as he is banned from entering
KosovoMetohija by Kouchner, who had said that his return would depend on
changing his stance regarding company activities.
The letter also points to the need for the immediate pullout of
KFor and UNMIK from Trepca plants and mines.
Bjelic requested tenders for revitalizing the industry and
acquiring modern equipment for production and environment protection,
and
proposed that Trepca itself finance environment cleanup activities in
Kosovska Mitrovica.
Trepca can overhaul its installations and ensure highest
environment protection standards within six months, Bjelic said.
The zinc processing installations could be made operational
within
18 months after revitalization works start, Bjelic said.
Work in Zvecan should be done exclusively by nonAlbanians and
in
the southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica exclusively by ethnic Albanians
in
a first stage, until full conditions for peace and tolerance are ensured
throughout the province, Bjelic said in his letter.
PROTESTING TREPCA WORKERS ENDORSE THEIR MANAGER'S OFFER TO
KOUCHNER
ZVECAN, Aug 24 (Tanjug). Workers of the Trepca mining industry
and
Kosovska Mitrovica residents continued their protest Thursday in Zvecan,
Serbia's KosovoMetohija province, over the storming of the Trepca lead
smelter by Kfor troops on August 14.
Management member Dragan Vasic read to the protesters a letter
addressed Wednesday by Trepca general manager Novak Bijelic to civilian
mission UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner, proposing a resumption of work
provided some conditions are ensured.
The principal condition for resuming production is a pullout of
Kfor and UNMIK forces from the Zvecan plant and the Trepca mine in
Leposavic within three days, Bijelic said in his letter.
---
L'ALTO COMMISSARIO ONU IN BOSNIA-ERZEGOVINA
CENSURA LE TRASMISSIONI DI RADIO JUGOSLAVIA
REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS CONCERNED OVER CLOSURE OF RADIO YUGOSLAVIA
SARAJEVO, Aug 24 (Tanjug). International nongovernmental
organization Reporters Without Borders expressed concern Thursday over
the
recent closure of the Radio Yugoslavia broadcasting center in Bijeljina,
Republika Srpska.
The organization requested clarifications in a letter to the
High
Representative of the international community for BosniaHerzegovina
Wolfgang Petritsch.
Last weekend, Petritch ordered the personnel of Radio
Yugoslavia
in Bijeljina to cease broadcasting under threat of force.
---
SOLDATI DELLA KFOR PICCHIANO SUORA DEL CONVENTO DI SOKOLICA
E POI ADDUCONO SCUSE RAZZISTE: "SEMBRAVA EGIZIANA"
> > >Politika, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
> > >August 23, 2000
> > >
> > >BRUTISH BEHAVIOR OF KFOR MEMBERS IN NORTHERN KOSOVO
> > >
> > >Danish soldiers beat prioress of Sokolica Monastery
> > >
> > >KFOR's cynical explanation is that the soldiers thought she was an
> > Egyptian
> > woman
> > >because women in that country dress similarly to our nuns
> > >
> > >Kosovska Mitrovica, August 22
> > >
> > >The arrogant behavior of members of KFOR and the UNMIK police in the
> > northern
> > part
> > >of Kosovo during "routine" controls at permanent and temporary
> > check-points
> > has
> > >exceeded all measure in recent days. For three days now hardly anyone
> > can pass
> > along
> > >the main road from Kosovska Mitrovica - Leposavic by the newly formed
> > checkpoint at
> > >the spot called "Kod Simonide" ("At Simonida's"), held by Danish
> > soldiers,
> > without
> > >being subjected to mistreatment, a detailed search and beatings as
> > well.
> > Danish
> > >soldiers at this check-point are especially rough toward the clergy.
> > Recently
> > they
> > >stopped the prioress of Sokolica Monastery, Mother Dr. Makarija
> > (Obradovic),
> > who was
> > >returning from Kraljevo to the monastery, and forced her to get out of
> > the
> > >automobile by beating her.
> > >
> > >"They stopped me and since I could not understand what they were
> > saying, I
> > answered
> > >that I could communicate with them in either Serbian, or in the
> > English,
> > German,
> > >Greek or Slovenian languages and I simply did not understand what they
> > were
> > saying.
> > >At that moment, one of the soldiers swung his arm and struck me on the
> > neck.
> > >Humiliated, in pain which caused me to see stars in the middle of the
> > day, I
> > reacted
> > >humanly, as any elderly woman would. I cried while they searched my
> > automobile," the
> > >prioress of Sokolica Monastery, Dr. Makarija, told us.
> > >
> > >An artist herself and a former professer of Byzantine art at the
> > Swedish Royal
> > >Academy, Dr. Makarija was a professor of physical chemistry at the
> > University
> > of
> > >Belgrade prior to taking her vows; for the past ten years, she has been
> > the
> > head of
> > >the one of the most renowned schools of iconography, besides Krska,
> > which is
> > located
> > >inside Sokolica Monastery, seven kilometers from Kosovska Mitrovica.
> > >
> > >Even more ironically, she subsequently received a cynical explanation
> > from
> > KFOR that
> > >the Danish soldiers thought she was an Egyptian woman because women of
> > that
> > country
> > >wear black dresses similiar to the robes worn by Christian Orthodox
> > nuns.
> > >
> > >M. L.
> > >
> > >Translated by S. Lazovic (August 23, 2000)
---
"NUOVA DOTTRINA MILITARE" PER LA RF DI JUGOSLAVIA
YUGOSLAVIA'S CHIEF OF STAFF GIVES INTERVIEW ON MILITARY DOCTRINE
BELGRADE, Aug 21 (Tanjug). Yugoslavia's recently adopted
military
doctrine is a sciencebased and experiencetested system of organizing,
training, deployment and safety of the Yugoslav Army in war and peace
both
at present and in the future, Chief of General Staff General Nebojsa
Pavkovic said in an interview published Monday by the Belgrade daily
Politika.
Pavkovic underlined that the doctrine duly takes into account
Yugoslavia's general capabilities, is founded on international law and
humanitarian law, abides by all international charters, resolutions and
agreements, and reflects Yugoslavia's lasting and traditional adherence
to
peace and freedom.
The public has demonstrated a great interest in the document in
the present situation characterized by the use of military force in
international relations and the attempts of the single world
superpower the US to create a unipolar world, Pavkovic said.
The military doctrine is neither a policy, an economy, a
technology nor a science, it is a document comprising specific
instructions
to the military profession on its place, role, purpose and tasks in
confronting various forms and methods of military threats to national
security and takes into account the achievements of all the mentioned
fields of human endeavour, Pavkovic said.
Underlining that the fundamental message of Yugoslavia's
military
doctrine is peace as the basic precondition for general development of
all
world nations and states, Pavkovic noted that the military option
unfortunately increasingly prevails today in international relations.
Defensive strategies and doctrines are applied by countries
favouring peace and peaceful settlement of all issues, and by countries
which are unable to keep the pace of contemporary trends of development
of
the deadliest armament systems, Pavkovic said.
Contemporary strategies and doctrines are conditioned by the
aspirations of neighbouring states and by the present possibilities of
manufacturing or acquiring modern combat systems, Pavkovic said.
One article of the doctrine analyses all elements of world
military factors and sums up the experience of last year's NATO
aggression
on Yugoslavia. This was done in an objective manner, taking into account
both the positive and negative aspects, with a special emphasis on the
outstanding achievement of the unity of the people, the state
leadership,
the Yugoslav Army and the police, Pavkovic said.
As regards Yugoslavia's strategic position, it is based on an
allround analysis of all military and political factors which as a
changing category influence the training, the organization and the
deployment of the Yugoslav Army.
It is obvious that all attempts to threaten Yugoslavia's
security
at first focus on the socalled unarmed methods of destabilizing the
country
from the inside, which then escalate into armed rebellion as a specific
form of internal aggression an external blow dealt internally, Pavkovic
said.
That socalled indirect strategy consisting of threats to
national
security through finding hostile forces within the country which was the
victim of aggression, was realized most brutally in Yugoslavia, where
ethnic Albanian terrorism, powerfully backed by external factors, had
brought about the armed aggression by NATO, Pavkovic said.
The Yugoslav military doctrine points to the presence of latent
threats to national security by both internal and external factors in
both
unarmed and armed forms, Pavkovic said. An armed aggression such as the
one
launched against Yugoslavia is also possible in a local or world war, in
which military operations would depend on the relative power of parties
to
the conflict, the goals of the aggressor, the focus of military
operations,
the kind of combat means and other factors, Pavkovic explained.
Yugoslavia's military doctrine specifies that the defense
system
comprises the general organization, preparedness and functioning of all
defense forces and subjects with the aim of protecting national
sovereignty, territory, independence and constitutional order, Pavkovic
said.
The basic goals of Yugoslavia's defense system are: 1.
preventing
and eliminating internal crises, 2. dissuading a potential aggressor
from
undertaking aggression, 3. preventing a strategic surprise and 4.
successful warfare, Pavkovic said.
Referring to the doctrine section on war, Pavkovic said that
Yugoslavia has no territorial pretensions towards any country and never
designates an aggressor in advance. Any war that Yugoslavia may fight if
it
is imposed on this country will be defensive, conventional, contemporary
and offensive. Yugoslavia deems such a war as just and will fight it in
abidance with all provisions of international war and humanitarian laws
in
order to reduce to a minimum its own losses and devastation to the
country
and to achieve a maximum defense effect, Pavkovic said.
A special and central section of the doctrine is devoted to the
Yugoslav Army. As a defense army, its priority tasks are deterring a
potential aggressor, fighting against terrorist and rebel forces, and
armed
combat throughout the country in any conditions of aggression on
Yugoslavia, Pavkovic said.
The Yugoslav Army is organized in line with its purpose and its
tasks, international agreements, and demographic, economic, material and
territorial factors, keeping in mind all international norms and
experiences of other contemporary armies, Pavkovic said.
The size of the Yugoslav Army in war and peace has been
realistically assessed on the basis of an allround analysis of all
factors,
especially economic capabilities. It retains its three principal
armies the land army, the airforce and the antiaircraft defense, and
the
navy, and priorities have been set as regards equipment and
modernization
which will enable it to carry out its constitutional role and tasks in
contemporary combat conditions, Pavkovic said.
The doctrine precisely defines the command structure, ranging
from
the strategic commanding the army in war and peace to the tactical.
The
president of the republic commands the Yugoslav Army in war and peace as
supreme commander, Pavkovic said.
The doctrine defines the use of the army as regards function
and
tasks, he said, underlining that the Yugoslav Army is the fundamental
force
for deterring a potential aggressor and for armed combat, and that its
parts can be engaged in combatting terrorism or rebellion in cooperation
with the police, Pavkovic said.
Referring to the recent public reactions to the military
doctrine,
Pavkovic agreed that the military doctrine must be a part of the defense
doctrine, but underlined that the military doctrine is a professional
document which cannot be made dependent on the political will of any
political party, as it would then have to be changed after any
elections.
A serious military organization must be conceived in such a way
as
to ensure the carrying out of consititional tasks, regardless of the
political views of authorities in power or of the identity and power of
a
potential aggressor. The military doctrine was not adopted hastily or as
part of the preelection campaign, but through a normal procedure and as
part of the overall process of reorganizing the national defense force
in
line with internal and international conditions, Pavkovic said.
Yugoslavia's military doctrine was drawn up and adopted in line
with all legal regulations and procedures and constitutes one of the
regular and basic issues in the reorganization of the Yugoslav Army. It
was
drawn up on the basis of known military doctrines of various states and
takes into account the real national situation and capabilities,
Pavkovic
said.
Like all military doctrines in the world, Yugoslavia's military
doctrine is temporary in nature and can be changed according to changes
in
relevant factors, General Pavkovic concluded.
---
RAPPORTI BILATERALI RFJ-INDIA
YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER JOVANOVIC SENDS MESSAGE TO INDIAN COUNTERPART
BELGRADE, Aug 21 (Tanjug) Ambassador at the Yugoslav Foreign
Ministry Milena Vlahovic has delivered Foreign Minister Zivadin
Jovanovic's
personal message to his Indian counterpart Jashvanth Singh in New Delhi,
said a statement from the Ministry on Monday.
The topics of ensuing talks were the forthcoming Millennium
summit
in New York, the 55th session of the U.N. General Assembly, as well as
activities related to the NonAligned Movement.
Both sides stressed the importance of improving bilateral
relations, as well as political, economic, and other aspects of
cooperation.
International relations can be based exclusively on strict
adherence to sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as on
noninterference in internal affairs of other countries. Democratization
of
decisionmaking within the U.N., as well as the organization itself,
should
have a distinctive role to play in international relations, and the
NonAligned Movement can make a significant contribution in that respect.
The Indian officials reiterated their support for Yugoslav
standpoints on the situation in the Serbian KosovoMetohija province,
expressing great concern about the ongoing violation of the U.N.
Security
Council Resolution 1244. They also condemned all forms of separatism and
terrorism leading to destabilization of prodemocratic countries, as well
as
the policy of double standards.
---
UN NUOVO CENSIMENTO DEI PROFUGHI NELLA RFJ
UNHCR TO CARRY OUT A NEW REFUGEE CENSUS IN YUGOSLAVIA THIS YEAR
BELGRADE, Aug 22 (Tanjug) In the year 2000, the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will carry out a census of
refugees
in the territory of Yugoslavia, the UNHCR Belgrade office spokeswoman
Maki
Shinohara told media on Tuesday.
In cooperation with the Serbian Refugees Commissioner and the
Montenegro Commissioner for Displaced Persons, the UNHCR carried out the
first census in 1996. It showed that there were 600,000 refugees and
displaced persons from BosniaHerzegovina and Croatia.
Preparations are being made for a media campaign promoting the
return of refugees from Yugoslavia to BosniaHerzegovina. UNHCR Sarajevo
office Chief Werner Glother has recently met with Yugoslav Minister for
Refugees Bratislava Morina to discuss this issue.
The Serbian province of KosovoMetohija is not a safe
environment
for nonAlbanian communities, and their position is very grave, Shinohara
said. She went on to say that since the arrival of Eric Morris, the new
envoy for Yugoslavia whose office is in Pristina, the UNHCR is no longer
part of the U.N. mission in KosovoMetohija (UNMIK), and will operate
independently in future.
Conditions for the safe return of the KosovoMetohija refugees
have
not been ensured. Therefore, the UNHCR does not encourage the return to
the
province, not only for security reasons, but because of insufficient
accommodation as well, Shinohara explained.
She added that the UNHCR is focusing on help for nonAlbanian
communities that have remained in the province.
---
KOUCHNER SOTTO INDAGINE IN SERBIA PER GENOCIDIO
SERBIAN MINISTER: U.N. KOSOVOMETOHIJA ENVOY UNDER INVESTIGATION
BELGRADE, Aug 22 (Tanjug) The Pristina District Court in
Serbian
(Yugoslav) U.N.run KosovoMetohija is investigating U.N. mission (UNMIK)
chief Bernard Kouchner for crimes of genocide against Serbs, Serbia's
justice minister said on Tuesday.
"Since he came to our southern province, Bernard Kouchner has,
by
commission or omission and together with UNMIK and the international
force
KFor, been the perpetrator of or an accessory to numerous crimes
punishable
under the laws of Yugoslavia and its republic of Serbia", Dragoljub
Jankovic told TANJUG.
The court has started proceedings on the orders of the district
prosecutor in Pristina, Jankovic explained. "To the wide pallette of his
crimes Kouchner has recently added further crimes of inciting or failing
to
prevent the storming of the Trepca lead smelter at Zvecan, driveby
bombing
of Serb children and bombing of the Yugoslav U.N. liaison office," he
added.
He went on to say that these actions perpetuate the process of
ethnic cleansing of KosovoMetohija and are designed to prevent
KosovoMetohija residents from voting in Yugoslav parliamentary and
presidential elections called for Sept. 24.
---
50 MOSCHEE NUOVE DI ZECCA DAGLI EMIRATI ARABI UNITI PER IL KOSMET
UAE minister to build 50 mosques in Kosovo The defence minister
offered to build 50 mosques in Kosovo at his own expense
August 20, 2000, 07:43 AM
DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates' defence minister has offered
to build 50 mosques in Kosovo at his own expense, the official WAM news
agency reported on Saturday.
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum's project would be carried out
with the help of UAE troops serving in the NATO-led peacekeeping force
in the province, WAM added. It did not say how much the building work
would cost.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population is nominally Muslim, while the
minority Serbs belong mainly to the Orthodox church.
International authorities took responsibility for Kosovo in June last
year after a NATO bombing campaign to drive out Serb forces. The UAE has
about 1,200 troops in Kosovo and another 250 soldiers operating nearby.
---
UN UFFICIO PER LA OPPOSIZIONE DEMOCRATICA...
A BUDAPEST, CON I SOLDI AMERICANI
U.S. Opens New Office in Hungary
The Associated Press
Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2000; 4:20 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON –– The State Department has opened a new office at the
U.S.
Embassy in Hungary to support democratic forces in Yugoslavia in advance
of
national elections, a spokesman said Tuesday.
The office will be headed by the ambassador to Croatia, William
Montgomery.
"We think it's very important to let those committed to true democracy
in
Serbia know that we support their efforts," State Department spokesman
Philip
Reeker said. Serbia and the smaller republic of Montenegro comprise the
Yugoslav Federation.
Montgomery will be addressing "a full range of issues related to our
long-term goal of advancing democracy in Serbia," Reeker said.
The Clinton administration is hoping for a strong showing by opposition
forces in the Sept. 24 elections. President Slobodan Milosevic has
changed
the constitution to allow him to serve an additional eight years. In
addition
to the presidency, elections for the federal parliament also will be
held.
Reeker said Montgomery will retain the title of ambassador to Croatia
but
will be based in Budapest until a new ambassador is appointed in Zagreb.
© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
---
LA NATO NASCONDE LA VERITA' SULLE BOMBE A FRAMMENTAZIONE
http://www.serbia-info.com/news
NATO accused of hiding truth about cluster bombs
August 12, 2000
Shocking document about cluster bombs
Lisboa, August - Today, Portuguese dailies pass a report of the
International Association for campaign against contact mines (WGL) in
which, governments of countries, members of NATO pact are accused of
interfering in detailed investigation about cluster bombs, which take
victims after NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
Leading Lisboa daily "Publico" points out that "governments of
countries, members of NATO pact have been accused, these days, of making
it impossible to find out new proofs about contents of cluster bombs,
although there are more and more innocent victims in the territory of
Kosovo and Metohija".
Portuguese daily also quotes Director of International Association WGL
Richard Lloyd that "cluster bombs were thrown at the territory of
Yugoslavia and in that way NATO pact severely violated existing
international law and U.N. Charter".
Large number of civilians, throughout Yugoslavia, are becoming victims
of sudden explosions, and little boys are the most frequent victims,
Portuguese daily quotes parts of the report of Association of WGL.
Only, during June, over 200 persons died because of mines, and among
them, 50 were victims of cluster bombs, which look like tin of beer or
coca-cola", stresses "Publiko" quoting parts from the report.
That international association recently published shocking document,
after detailed analysis of their experts for explosives of all kinds,
and emergently demanded that energetic measures be taken for cleaning of
terrain, Portuguese dailies quote.
Portuguese dailies remark that every "cluster bomb contains about 147
smaller bombs with strong effect, which during the fall breaks into
pieces". Experts think that, during last year's bombing of Yugoslavia,
bombardiers of squadrons of NATO pact threw 1392 "cluster bombs". After
the explosions of "bombs carriers" about 205 thousand small bombs left
unexploded.
"Publico" writes that published report on dangerous effect of cluster
bombs included an interesting detail that mentioned bomb in British
cooperation (RBL 755) has some kind of impreciseness during targeting
objects and "if it misses wanted target, it can sow death where it
explodes". This kind of cluster bombs is used in Kosovo and Metohija
where large misses were registered, quotes Portuguese daily.
Portuguese analysts conclude energetically that cluster bombs are
continuing with sowing death and with the presence of international
forces for establishing peace.
---
STRANO "ESPERTO" EUROPEO IN MONTENEGRO
ILLEGAL EUROSLOVENIAN "EXPERT" IN MONTENEGRO
PODGORICA, August 9 (Tanjug) Illegally, without any legal
basis
or approval of the Yugoslav government, the Council of Europe has
appointed
its "expert" in Podgorica, the capital of the Yugoslav republic of
Montenegro, which is, among other things, proof of attempts by certain
western countries to treat a Yugoslav republic as a separate state.
Slovenian diplomat Eva Tomic has been appointed special
representative of the Council of Europe in Podgorica. In the status of
expert, she will work within the representative office of the
Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and be in charge of
"providing assistance to the Montenegrin authorities in reforming
education, local selfadministration, the judicial system, and drafting
laws."
In appointing an "expert" within the OSCE, the Council of
Europe
gave up its original plan to open its office in Podgorica, which implies
that there are inside conflicts and divisions regarding Yugoslavia's
stand
that the opening of a Council representative office must imply the
previous
regulation of Yugoslavia's status within the Council of Europe, and that
the opening of a representative office is possible only following
approval
of the Yugoslav government.
The appointment of an official at "expert" level also confirms
that most members of the Council of Europe refuse to accept a stand
which
more seriously denies Yugoslavia's sovereignty and territorial
integrity,
since an "expert" acting within an OSCE office has neither the status
nor
prerogatives of a representative office, which is for certain countries
an
alibi and a way to "ease their conscience."
However, regardless of the fact that its presence has been
reduced
to the slightest possible form, such a decision by the Council of Europe
is
in violation of its own Statute, presents an attempt at direct
interference
in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia as a unique and sovereign state,
as
well as an attempt at stoking activities by secessionist forces in
Montenegro.
Such an action by the Council of Europe also runs contrary to
the
usual practice of international organizations that their representatives
in
federal states are appointed in agreement with that state's central
organs,
and not with the approval of only one of the members of the federal
state.
This is why Yugoslavia has lodged a protest in the strongest
terms
to Council SecretaryGeneral Walter Schwimmer, critically pointing out
that
the Council had opted, in spite of Yugoslavia's expressed readiness for
cooperation, to send an expert without approval of the Belgrade
government,
thus violating the usual forms of cooperation, its own Statute, and the
very procedure for sending representatives to European countries. In the
protest, Yugoslavia also demanded the recalling of Eva Tomic.
---
CHI HA PAURA DI RADOVAN KARADZIC?
THE TIMES (London)
August 8 2000
US 'too afraid of casualties to arrest Karadzic'
BY JAMES PRINGLE IN FOCA
BRITISH forces in Bosnia are the only troops capable of arresting
Radovan Karadzic, the indicted Bosnian Serb war criminal,
American officials working in the region believe.
Although the United States, with more than 4,000 troops in
southeastern Bosnia has almost double Britain's force of 2,400,
American observers claim that fears of losing a US soldier in
combat will render them incapable of taking on the mission. "It's
not a question of courage, it's a political decision in Washington
that there should be no American deaths in Bosnia," one
American official, exasperated by the US troops' failure to act,
said. "Given that, probably only British troops backed by the
SAS are up to the job."
Western offcials doubt US troops will be ordered to act because
of the so-called "Somalia syndrome" that stemmed from the death
of 18 US soldiers in Mogadishu in 1993.
The watchword of American troops in the Nato-led Stabilisation
Force is "force protection" - a focus on avoiding casualties - in
spite of the State Department plastering "wanted" posters across
the region and offering a $5 million (#3.3 million) reward for the
capture of Dr Karadzic and other alleged war criminals. Jacques
Klein, a retired American general who heads the United Nations
Mission in Bosnia, is pressing for his capture before
parliamentary elections in November so as to remove his
influence on Bosnian Serb voters.
"We must arrest Karadzic," he said. "How can we ask the
Croatian Government to pick up their war criminals and hand them
over when the international community isn't willing to do that
here?"
In April French Nato troops arrested Momcilo Krajisnik in Pale,
the highest-ranking war crimes suspect to be detained in Bosnia.
But since 1995, French forces stationed near Visegrad had been
accused of ignoring war crimes suspects.
Dr Karadzic, charged for crimes linked to the siege of Sarajevo
and the slaughter of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in
Srebrenica, remains at large in eastern Bosnia. Ratko Mladic, the
infamous chief of the Bosnian Serb armed forces, is said to be in
Belgrade.
Western intelligence sources say that Dr Karadzic is guarded by
a formidable paramilitary force and that capturing him would be
"not only difficult but dangerous". British officials said that there
were no plans to deploy troops in the hunt for the former Bosnian
Serb leader..
---
LA NATO MINACCIA UNA NUOVA GUERRA DI AGGRESSIONE CONTRO LA JUGOSLAVIA
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 10, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
NATO THREATENS NEW WAR AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA
By John Catalinotto
With news statements and articles, NATO leaders renewed
their threats against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in
the last week of July, raising the specter of a new war of
aggression against that country.
NATO Secretary General George Rob ert son threw the weight
of the military alliance behind the move to split Montenegro
away from the remaining Yugoslavia.
Speaking to the media July 27, Robertson said, "I again
repeat my warning to President Milosevic not to make
mistakes that he has made in the past and not to continue to
undermine the elected government of Montenegro."
This is a barely veiled threat that NATO will again bomb
Yugoslavia, as it did for 78 days after Belgrade refused in
March 1999 to submit to the Rambouillet ultimatum that would
have opened all of Yugoslavia to NATO occupation.
What Robertson calls "the elected government of Montenegro"
is the regime headed by President Milo Djukanovic, who is
always described as "pro-Western" in the big-business media
here. This means he has adopted the German Deutschemark as
Montenegro's currency and has tried to split from
Yugoslavia.
Of the 800,000 people living in Montenegro, however, at
least half prefer to remain part of Yugoslavia. This was
seen in last June's elections, which pro-Yugoslavia parties
won in the major seaport town of Herceg Novi and almost won
in Podgorica, the capital. In reality Montenegro is not a
viable independent state. If it split it would become a NATO
protectorate.
Under those conditions, an attempt by Djukanovic to
unconstitutionally split from Yugoslavia runs the danger of
starting a civil war. Asked about possible NATO intervention
in this situation, Robertson made this vague threat: "We
aren't saying what we will do. One of the lessons of Kosovo
is that you don't reveal your cards too far in advance."
To add to the danger, U.S. President Bill Clinton and German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder--heads of the two biggest
imperialist powers in NATO--signed an article in the July 28
International Herald Tribune pledging to intervene in the
Yugoslav national election now set for Sept. 24.
They said they would help the opposition to Milosevic unite
and that they would also support Djukanovic if he boycotts
the election.
"We will continue to work with the democratic opposition in
Serbia, to help it unite around a common platform, to
support nongovernmental organizations and the independent
media, and to back President Milo Djukanovic of Montenegro
until all those who have suffered under Mr. Milosevic's rule
can take their place in Europe," Clinton and Schroeder
wrote.
If there were any doubt before, the two Western leaders made
it clear that there is no serious opposition to Milosevic's
party and its allies except those groups that are toadies of
the Western imperialist powers.
The Yugoslav political leaders have set local, national
parliamentary and presidential elections for Sept. 24. Using
strictly legal parliamentary decisions to change some
election laws, the Milosevic government has maximized its
chances of surviving the election and of keeping Yugoslavia
out of the clutches of NATO.
But this does not end the threat of new NATO intervention in
Yugoslavia, as the NATO leaders have now made clear.
- 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
contactWorkers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-
mail: ww@.... For subscription info send message to:
info@.... Web: http://www.workers.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/
------------------------------------------------------------
YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC SENDS MESSAGE TO SENEGALESE COUNTERPART
BELGRADE, Aug 24 (Tanjug). Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic
has addressed a message to his Senegalese counterpart Abdoulaye Wade.
The message was presented by Ambassador Danilo Milic of the
Yugoslav foreign ministry to Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidiane
Gadio in Dakar.
The message points to the need for expanding the traditionally
friendly relations between the two countries on the basis of equality
and
mutual respect, and for stepping up bilateral cooperation and joint
endeavors in international forums.
Gadio accepted the message on behalf of absent President Wade
and
underlined that Senegal wishes to enhance the friendly ties and allround
cooperation with Yugoslavia.
The talks also focused on the forthcoming Millennium Summit in
New
York and 55th UN General Assembly.
Senegal, one of the leading memberstates of the Organization of
the Islamic Conference, advocates Yugoslavia's full reintegration in the
UN
and the Nonaligned Movement.
---
RELAZIONI BILATERALI RFJ-IRAQ
YUGOSLAV DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER RECEIVES IRAQI HEALTH MINISTER
BELGRADE, Aug 23 (Tanjug) Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister
Nikola
Sainovic received on Wednesday Iraqi Health Minister Omar Madhat
Mubarak,
who is on a few days visit to Yugoslavia heading an Iraqi delegation of
leading medical and pharmacological experts.
The two governments give priority to bilateral cooperation in the
health
sector, as both countries have been victims of NATO aggressions and
international sanctions, it was said at the meeting.
During the Iraqi delegation's visit to Belgrade, programmes for
cooperation between the two countries concerning mother and child health
care, cancer treatment, production and supply of medicines and
professional
staff training must be defined, both sides noted.
Yugoslav Minister of Labour, Health and Social Policy, Miodrag Kovac
and
Iraqi Ambassador to Yugoslavia Sami Sadun were present at the meeting, a
Yugoslav information ministry statement said.
YUGOSLAVIA AND IRAQ CONDEMN SANCTIONS
BELGRADE, Aug 24 (Tanjug). Serbian parliament Speaker Dragan
Tomic
met Thursday the Iraqi Minister of Health Omar Madhat Mubarak.
Both sides expressed satisfaction with the development of
overall
bilateral cooperation based on traditional friendship, understanding and
mutual trust, the parliamentary press service said in a statement.
Both countries abide by the principles of peaceful coexistence,
the UN Charter and international law, and both most strongly condemn the
practice of sanctions which are applied against countries such as
Yugoslavia and Iraq by states whose hegemonistic policies are aimed at
creating a unipolar world, it was noted during the meeting.
Yugoslavia and Iraq will continue stepping up their cooperation
in
the economic and other fields to mutual benefit, in line with the
stances
of Presidents Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia and Saddam Hussein of
Iraq,
the statement says.
---
L'AMBASCIATORE JUGOSLAVO ALL'ONU ACCUSA KFOR, UNMIK E KOUCHNER
YUGOSLAV UN AMBASSADOR CHARGES KFOR, UNMIK, KOUCHNER WITH COMPLICITY
GENEVA, Aug 24 (Tanjug). Head of Yugoslavia's permanent mission
at
the UN in Geneva Branko Brankovic addressed Thursday to various
international figures a letter strongly condemning the crimes
perpetrated
by ethnic Albanian terrorists in Serbia's KosovoMetohija province,
following the recent discovery of a mass grave containing bodies of Serb
victims in the provincial capital Pristina.
The letter was addressed to the DirectorGeneral of the UN
Office
in Geneva Vladimir Petrovsky, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Sadako
Ogata, head of the UN Human Rights Commission Mary Robinson. Special
Rapporteur on Human Rights for the former Yugoslavia Jiri Dienstbier,
Special Envoy of the UN SecretaryGeneral for the Balkans Carl Bildt and
others.
Recent press reports said that the international administration
in
KosovoMetohija had long been aware of the discovery of a mass grave
containing bodies of 160 Serbs and other nonAlbanians in a Pristina
cemetery. The victims were killed over the past 14 months, since the
arrival of international KFor troops and UN civilian administration
UNMIK
and the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces in June 1999.
The following is the official translation of the letter:
Excellency,
As is publicly well known, KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner
openly
assist terrorists of the socalled KLA to carry out ethnic cleansing of
Serbs and other nonAlbanian population in the Serbian province of Kosovo
and Metohija.
KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner go even further. Namely, they
are
doing their best to hide crimes committed by Albanian terrorists in
Kosovo
and Metohija. The latest example testifying to this is the discovery of
mass graves with Serbs. The largest one was discovered in the Dragodan
village. More than 160 brutally killed Serbs were buried in it. These
persons were buried under either false names, or names of living
persons,
or even with only a number on metal plaques. KFOR has found the graves
several months ago but it is only at the beginning of August that it
called
family members to help identify the bodies.
This massacre of Serbs by Albanian terrorists was committed
soon
after the arrival in Kosovo and Metohija of KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard
Kouchner. The way KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner, call, individually
and
in secrecy, family members to identify the bodies, indicates that KFOR,
UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner are doing everything to conceal the crime
committed by Albanian terrorists against innocent Serbian civilians.
Only
close relatives, who were long ago expelled from Kosovo and Metohija,
can
identify the killed Serbs.
KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner were dutybound to inform of
the
massacre and discovered graves the relevant authorities of the FR of
Yugoslavia, which they did not do. It means that identification of
bodies
is being continued without the assistance of pathologists from the FR of
Yugoslavia. KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner neglect on a daily basis
the
fact that Kosovo and Metohija is the integral part of the Republic of
Serbia and the FR of Yugoslavia.
Excellency,
The concealing by KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner of crimes
committed by Albanian terrorists against innocent Serbian civilians is,
de
facto, as if they themselves committed the said crimes. Consequently,
KFOR,
UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner are equally responsible for the massacre of
Serbs as the perpetrators of this crime.
The government of the FR of Yugoslavia expects that you will
most
energetically publicly condemn these crimes committed against innocent
Serb
civilians by Albanian terrorists. At the same time, it expects that you
will condemn the complicity of KFOR, UNMIK and Bernard Kouchner in these
crimes and do your utmost that the UN Security Council Resolution 1244
(1999) be implemented without delay.
In expectation of your prompt reaction, please accept,
Excellency,
the assurances of my highest consideration. (end of translation)
---
LA JUGOSLAVIA FA APPELLO ALL'UNESCO PER LA SISTEMATICA DISTRUZIONE DEI
BENI ARTISTICI E DEL PATRIMONIO CULTURALE DEL KOSMET DA PARTE DEGLI
ALLEATI DELLA NATO
YUGOSLAVIA APPEALS TO UNESCO TO PROTECT CULTURAL
MONUMENTS
PARIS, Aug 23 (Tanjug). Head of Yugoslavia's permanent
delegation
to the UNESCO in Paris, Ambassador Nada Popovic Perisic, has appealed to
the organization to take measures against the continuing systematic
destruction of cultural heritage in Serbia's KosovoMetohija province and
violence against its population, particularly children.
Instead of securing the conditions for peace, safety of all
inhabitants of the province and interethnic coexistence and equality of
all
ethnic communities in line with the Security Council Resolution 1244,
the
UN civilian and military missions in KosovoMetohija (UNMIK and KFor)
have
allowed ethnic Albanian separatists and terrorists to systematically
endanger the safety and lives of Serbs and other nonAlbanians, to
perpetrate murders, abductions and arson and to destroy the rich
cultural
heritage in order to annihilate all traces of centuries of Serb presence
in
the area, PopovicPerisic said in a letter to the UNESCO executive
council.
Children in KosovoMetohija are the most endangered, she said.
Ethnic Albanian terrorists do not refrain even from violence
against children at play. In the past few days only, they threw a bomb
at a
playground and seriously injured nine Serb children in Crkvene Vodice
village near Obilic and opened fire on a group of children in Staro
Gracko
village, who were saved only by chance.
The rights of Serb inhabitants of KosovoMetohija to education
and
information in their own language are being violated by decisions of
UNMIK
chiefs, whose task is precisely to protect such rights, PopovicPerisic
said.
Following the closure of the Pristina paper Jedinstvo and
Pristina
TV, The Zvecan Radio S which used to broadcast in the Serb language was
also silenced a few days ago, she noted.
---
LA RUSSIA CONDANNA IL TERRORISMO IN KOSMET
RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY CONDEMNS TERRORISM IN KOSOVOMETOHIJA
MOSCOW, Aug 23 (Tanjug) Russian foreign ministry once again
condemned terrorist acts in KosovoMetohija on Wednesday, saying that the
leaders of the civilian mission UNMIK and the international force KFor
are
fully responsible for inadequate safety conditions in the province.
The statement, carried by Russian ItarTass news agency
Wednesday,
said that people were injured in the Aug 18 blast that targeted the
building in Pristina housing the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) mission and offices of the Yugoslav Committee for
Liaison
with the U.N. mission in KosovoMetohija and of several political
parties.
On Aug 17, another blast demolished the Orthodox church in
Velika
Reka village. The day before, eight Serb children from Crkvena Vodica
village, near Obilic, were seriously injured in an ethnic Albanian
extremists' bomb attack.
This evidently shows that the leaders of U.N. mission and KFor
are turning a blind eye to the violence against Serbs and ethnic
minorities
in KosovoMetohija, and are therefore fully responsible for inadequate
safety conditions in the province. Scheduled local elections cannot
therefore be fair, free or democratic, the statement said.
UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner scheduled local elections for
Oct.
28 in KosovoMetohija, despite the strong opposition of the local Serbs
and
the Yugoslav government in Belgrade.
This is the second protest of the Russian Ministry to the same
effect in two days. In the first protest, made public on Tuesday, the
ministry described the August 17 UNMIK and KFor declaration on their own
status as a glaring violation of the Security Council resolution 1244
which
placed Serbia's southern province under UN administration last summer.
KFor and UNMIK proclaimed their own status unilaterally,
without
approval by legitimate Yugoslav authorities, the ministry said.
Claims by KFor and UNMIK that they are empowered to decide
their
own status are untrue. Moscow considers this document to be politically
harmful and dangerous, as it violates in form and content the basic
provisions of Resolution 1244 regarding Yugoslavia's sovereignty and
territorial integrity, the statement says.
---
FOSSA COMUNE CON I CORPI DI 160 SERBI RAPITI DAGLI ALLEATI DELLA NATO
MASS CRIMES BY ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS REVEALED
PRISTINA, Aug 23 (Tanjug). The two mass graves discovered in
Pristina, capital of Serbia's KosovoMetohija province, have once again
revealed the horrible truth about the atrocities committed by ethnic
Albanian terrorists last year, the Pristina Center for Peace and
Tolerance
said in a statement Wednesday.
Bodies of 160 victims were discovered Monday in a mass grave in
the Pristina district of Dragodan. They are believed to have been killed
by
ethnic Albanian terrorists over the past 14 months, since the arrival of
international KFor troops and UN civilian mission UNMIK following the
pullout of Yugoslav security forces from the province.
KFor's and UNMIK's silence so far about the discovery
constitutes
complicity with the crimes and an encouragement to the terrorists to
commit
more murders, abductions or bomb attacks on innocent children and state
institutions, the statement says.
The Center urges representatives of the international community
to
respond to the demands of relatives of about 1,000 abducted Serbs and
other
nonAlbanians and to appeals by humanitarian organization for information
regarding the whereabouts of the bodies of the victims and for autopsy
results, the statement says.
It is evident that the international mission in KosovoMetohija
is
unwilling to face reality, secure peace or provide safety to all in the
province, the Center said.
The UN Security Council must therefore reconsider its decisions
and withdraw the military and civilian missions from Serbia's province
in
order to entrust the resolving of the situation there to others who will
strive for peace and safety for all inhabitants, the statement says.
---
EVOLUZIONI NEL CONTENZIOSO SULLE MINIERE SEQUESTRATE DALLA NATO
TREPCA MANAGER MAKES OFFER TO UN KOSOVOMETOHIJA ADMINISTRATOR
NOVI PAZAR, Aug 23 (Tanjug). General Manager of the Trepca
mining
industry of Serbia's KosovoMetohija province Novak Bjelic addressed
Wednesday an open letter to the head of the UN civilian mission Bernard
Kouchner proposing conditions for resuming production in the Kosovska
Mitrovica and Zvecan plants.
KFor and UNMIK stormed Trepca plants in Mitrovica and Zvecan
and
its mines in Leposavic on August 14 at dawn, justifying their action by
environmental concerns.
Bjelic addressed his letter from the temporary Trepca
management
office in Novi Pazar, southern Serbia, as he is banned from entering
KosovoMetohija by Kouchner, who had said that his return would depend on
changing his stance regarding company activities.
The letter also points to the need for the immediate pullout of
KFor and UNMIK from Trepca plants and mines.
Bjelic requested tenders for revitalizing the industry and
acquiring modern equipment for production and environment protection,
and
proposed that Trepca itself finance environment cleanup activities in
Kosovska Mitrovica.
Trepca can overhaul its installations and ensure highest
environment protection standards within six months, Bjelic said.
The zinc processing installations could be made operational
within
18 months after revitalization works start, Bjelic said.
Work in Zvecan should be done exclusively by nonAlbanians and
in
the southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica exclusively by ethnic Albanians
in
a first stage, until full conditions for peace and tolerance are ensured
throughout the province, Bjelic said in his letter.
PROTESTING TREPCA WORKERS ENDORSE THEIR MANAGER'S OFFER TO
KOUCHNER
ZVECAN, Aug 24 (Tanjug). Workers of the Trepca mining industry
and
Kosovska Mitrovica residents continued their protest Thursday in Zvecan,
Serbia's KosovoMetohija province, over the storming of the Trepca lead
smelter by Kfor troops on August 14.
Management member Dragan Vasic read to the protesters a letter
addressed Wednesday by Trepca general manager Novak Bijelic to civilian
mission UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner, proposing a resumption of work
provided some conditions are ensured.
The principal condition for resuming production is a pullout of
Kfor and UNMIK forces from the Zvecan plant and the Trepca mine in
Leposavic within three days, Bijelic said in his letter.
---
L'ALTO COMMISSARIO ONU IN BOSNIA-ERZEGOVINA
CENSURA LE TRASMISSIONI DI RADIO JUGOSLAVIA
REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS CONCERNED OVER CLOSURE OF RADIO YUGOSLAVIA
SARAJEVO, Aug 24 (Tanjug). International nongovernmental
organization Reporters Without Borders expressed concern Thursday over
the
recent closure of the Radio Yugoslavia broadcasting center in Bijeljina,
Republika Srpska.
The organization requested clarifications in a letter to the
High
Representative of the international community for BosniaHerzegovina
Wolfgang Petritsch.
Last weekend, Petritch ordered the personnel of Radio
Yugoslavia
in Bijeljina to cease broadcasting under threat of force.
---
SOLDATI DELLA KFOR PICCHIANO SUORA DEL CONVENTO DI SOKOLICA
E POI ADDUCONO SCUSE RAZZISTE: "SEMBRAVA EGIZIANA"
> > >Politika, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
> > >August 23, 2000
> > >
> > >BRUTISH BEHAVIOR OF KFOR MEMBERS IN NORTHERN KOSOVO
> > >
> > >Danish soldiers beat prioress of Sokolica Monastery
> > >
> > >KFOR's cynical explanation is that the soldiers thought she was an
> > Egyptian
> > woman
> > >because women in that country dress similarly to our nuns
> > >
> > >Kosovska Mitrovica, August 22
> > >
> > >The arrogant behavior of members of KFOR and the UNMIK police in the
> > northern
> > part
> > >of Kosovo during "routine" controls at permanent and temporary
> > check-points
> > has
> > >exceeded all measure in recent days. For three days now hardly anyone
> > can pass
> > along
> > >the main road from Kosovska Mitrovica - Leposavic by the newly formed
> > checkpoint at
> > >the spot called "Kod Simonide" ("At Simonida's"), held by Danish
> > soldiers,
> > without
> > >being subjected to mistreatment, a detailed search and beatings as
> > well.
> > Danish
> > >soldiers at this check-point are especially rough toward the clergy.
> > Recently
> > they
> > >stopped the prioress of Sokolica Monastery, Mother Dr. Makarija
> > (Obradovic),
> > who was
> > >returning from Kraljevo to the monastery, and forced her to get out of
> > the
> > >automobile by beating her.
> > >
> > >"They stopped me and since I could not understand what they were
> > saying, I
> > answered
> > >that I could communicate with them in either Serbian, or in the
> > English,
> > German,
> > >Greek or Slovenian languages and I simply did not understand what they
> > were
> > saying.
> > >At that moment, one of the soldiers swung his arm and struck me on the
> > neck.
> > >Humiliated, in pain which caused me to see stars in the middle of the
> > day, I
> > reacted
> > >humanly, as any elderly woman would. I cried while they searched my
> > automobile," the
> > >prioress of Sokolica Monastery, Dr. Makarija, told us.
> > >
> > >An artist herself and a former professer of Byzantine art at the
> > Swedish Royal
> > >Academy, Dr. Makarija was a professor of physical chemistry at the
> > University
> > of
> > >Belgrade prior to taking her vows; for the past ten years, she has been
> > the
> > head of
> > >the one of the most renowned schools of iconography, besides Krska,
> > which is
> > located
> > >inside Sokolica Monastery, seven kilometers from Kosovska Mitrovica.
> > >
> > >Even more ironically, she subsequently received a cynical explanation
> > from
> > KFOR that
> > >the Danish soldiers thought she was an Egyptian woman because women of
> > that
> > country
> > >wear black dresses similiar to the robes worn by Christian Orthodox
> > nuns.
> > >
> > >M. L.
> > >
> > >Translated by S. Lazovic (August 23, 2000)
---
"NUOVA DOTTRINA MILITARE" PER LA RF DI JUGOSLAVIA
YUGOSLAVIA'S CHIEF OF STAFF GIVES INTERVIEW ON MILITARY DOCTRINE
BELGRADE, Aug 21 (Tanjug). Yugoslavia's recently adopted
military
doctrine is a sciencebased and experiencetested system of organizing,
training, deployment and safety of the Yugoslav Army in war and peace
both
at present and in the future, Chief of General Staff General Nebojsa
Pavkovic said in an interview published Monday by the Belgrade daily
Politika.
Pavkovic underlined that the doctrine duly takes into account
Yugoslavia's general capabilities, is founded on international law and
humanitarian law, abides by all international charters, resolutions and
agreements, and reflects Yugoslavia's lasting and traditional adherence
to
peace and freedom.
The public has demonstrated a great interest in the document in
the present situation characterized by the use of military force in
international relations and the attempts of the single world
superpower the US to create a unipolar world, Pavkovic said.
The military doctrine is neither a policy, an economy, a
technology nor a science, it is a document comprising specific
instructions
to the military profession on its place, role, purpose and tasks in
confronting various forms and methods of military threats to national
security and takes into account the achievements of all the mentioned
fields of human endeavour, Pavkovic said.
Underlining that the fundamental message of Yugoslavia's
military
doctrine is peace as the basic precondition for general development of
all
world nations and states, Pavkovic noted that the military option
unfortunately increasingly prevails today in international relations.
Defensive strategies and doctrines are applied by countries
favouring peace and peaceful settlement of all issues, and by countries
which are unable to keep the pace of contemporary trends of development
of
the deadliest armament systems, Pavkovic said.
Contemporary strategies and doctrines are conditioned by the
aspirations of neighbouring states and by the present possibilities of
manufacturing or acquiring modern combat systems, Pavkovic said.
One article of the doctrine analyses all elements of world
military factors and sums up the experience of last year's NATO
aggression
on Yugoslavia. This was done in an objective manner, taking into account
both the positive and negative aspects, with a special emphasis on the
outstanding achievement of the unity of the people, the state
leadership,
the Yugoslav Army and the police, Pavkovic said.
As regards Yugoslavia's strategic position, it is based on an
allround analysis of all military and political factors which as a
changing category influence the training, the organization and the
deployment of the Yugoslav Army.
It is obvious that all attempts to threaten Yugoslavia's
security
at first focus on the socalled unarmed methods of destabilizing the
country
from the inside, which then escalate into armed rebellion as a specific
form of internal aggression an external blow dealt internally, Pavkovic
said.
That socalled indirect strategy consisting of threats to
national
security through finding hostile forces within the country which was the
victim of aggression, was realized most brutally in Yugoslavia, where
ethnic Albanian terrorism, powerfully backed by external factors, had
brought about the armed aggression by NATO, Pavkovic said.
The Yugoslav military doctrine points to the presence of latent
threats to national security by both internal and external factors in
both
unarmed and armed forms, Pavkovic said. An armed aggression such as the
one
launched against Yugoslavia is also possible in a local or world war, in
which military operations would depend on the relative power of parties
to
the conflict, the goals of the aggressor, the focus of military
operations,
the kind of combat means and other factors, Pavkovic explained.
Yugoslavia's military doctrine specifies that the defense
system
comprises the general organization, preparedness and functioning of all
defense forces and subjects with the aim of protecting national
sovereignty, territory, independence and constitutional order, Pavkovic
said.
The basic goals of Yugoslavia's defense system are: 1.
preventing
and eliminating internal crises, 2. dissuading a potential aggressor
from
undertaking aggression, 3. preventing a strategic surprise and 4.
successful warfare, Pavkovic said.
Referring to the doctrine section on war, Pavkovic said that
Yugoslavia has no territorial pretensions towards any country and never
designates an aggressor in advance. Any war that Yugoslavia may fight if
it
is imposed on this country will be defensive, conventional, contemporary
and offensive. Yugoslavia deems such a war as just and will fight it in
abidance with all provisions of international war and humanitarian laws
in
order to reduce to a minimum its own losses and devastation to the
country
and to achieve a maximum defense effect, Pavkovic said.
A special and central section of the doctrine is devoted to the
Yugoslav Army. As a defense army, its priority tasks are deterring a
potential aggressor, fighting against terrorist and rebel forces, and
armed
combat throughout the country in any conditions of aggression on
Yugoslavia, Pavkovic said.
The Yugoslav Army is organized in line with its purpose and its
tasks, international agreements, and demographic, economic, material and
territorial factors, keeping in mind all international norms and
experiences of other contemporary armies, Pavkovic said.
The size of the Yugoslav Army in war and peace has been
realistically assessed on the basis of an allround analysis of all
factors,
especially economic capabilities. It retains its three principal
armies the land army, the airforce and the antiaircraft defense, and
the
navy, and priorities have been set as regards equipment and
modernization
which will enable it to carry out its constitutional role and tasks in
contemporary combat conditions, Pavkovic said.
The doctrine precisely defines the command structure, ranging
from
the strategic commanding the army in war and peace to the tactical.
The
president of the republic commands the Yugoslav Army in war and peace as
supreme commander, Pavkovic said.
The doctrine defines the use of the army as regards function
and
tasks, he said, underlining that the Yugoslav Army is the fundamental
force
for deterring a potential aggressor and for armed combat, and that its
parts can be engaged in combatting terrorism or rebellion in cooperation
with the police, Pavkovic said.
Referring to the recent public reactions to the military
doctrine,
Pavkovic agreed that the military doctrine must be a part of the defense
doctrine, but underlined that the military doctrine is a professional
document which cannot be made dependent on the political will of any
political party, as it would then have to be changed after any
elections.
A serious military organization must be conceived in such a way
as
to ensure the carrying out of consititional tasks, regardless of the
political views of authorities in power or of the identity and power of
a
potential aggressor. The military doctrine was not adopted hastily or as
part of the preelection campaign, but through a normal procedure and as
part of the overall process of reorganizing the national defense force
in
line with internal and international conditions, Pavkovic said.
Yugoslavia's military doctrine was drawn up and adopted in line
with all legal regulations and procedures and constitutes one of the
regular and basic issues in the reorganization of the Yugoslav Army. It
was
drawn up on the basis of known military doctrines of various states and
takes into account the real national situation and capabilities,
Pavkovic
said.
Like all military doctrines in the world, Yugoslavia's military
doctrine is temporary in nature and can be changed according to changes
in
relevant factors, General Pavkovic concluded.
---
RAPPORTI BILATERALI RFJ-INDIA
YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER JOVANOVIC SENDS MESSAGE TO INDIAN COUNTERPART
BELGRADE, Aug 21 (Tanjug) Ambassador at the Yugoslav Foreign
Ministry Milena Vlahovic has delivered Foreign Minister Zivadin
Jovanovic's
personal message to his Indian counterpart Jashvanth Singh in New Delhi,
said a statement from the Ministry on Monday.
The topics of ensuing talks were the forthcoming Millennium
summit
in New York, the 55th session of the U.N. General Assembly, as well as
activities related to the NonAligned Movement.
Both sides stressed the importance of improving bilateral
relations, as well as political, economic, and other aspects of
cooperation.
International relations can be based exclusively on strict
adherence to sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as on
noninterference in internal affairs of other countries. Democratization
of
decisionmaking within the U.N., as well as the organization itself,
should
have a distinctive role to play in international relations, and the
NonAligned Movement can make a significant contribution in that respect.
The Indian officials reiterated their support for Yugoslav
standpoints on the situation in the Serbian KosovoMetohija province,
expressing great concern about the ongoing violation of the U.N.
Security
Council Resolution 1244. They also condemned all forms of separatism and
terrorism leading to destabilization of prodemocratic countries, as well
as
the policy of double standards.
---
UN NUOVO CENSIMENTO DEI PROFUGHI NELLA RFJ
UNHCR TO CARRY OUT A NEW REFUGEE CENSUS IN YUGOSLAVIA THIS YEAR
BELGRADE, Aug 22 (Tanjug) In the year 2000, the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will carry out a census of
refugees
in the territory of Yugoslavia, the UNHCR Belgrade office spokeswoman
Maki
Shinohara told media on Tuesday.
In cooperation with the Serbian Refugees Commissioner and the
Montenegro Commissioner for Displaced Persons, the UNHCR carried out the
first census in 1996. It showed that there were 600,000 refugees and
displaced persons from BosniaHerzegovina and Croatia.
Preparations are being made for a media campaign promoting the
return of refugees from Yugoslavia to BosniaHerzegovina. UNHCR Sarajevo
office Chief Werner Glother has recently met with Yugoslav Minister for
Refugees Bratislava Morina to discuss this issue.
The Serbian province of KosovoMetohija is not a safe
environment
for nonAlbanian communities, and their position is very grave, Shinohara
said. She went on to say that since the arrival of Eric Morris, the new
envoy for Yugoslavia whose office is in Pristina, the UNHCR is no longer
part of the U.N. mission in KosovoMetohija (UNMIK), and will operate
independently in future.
Conditions for the safe return of the KosovoMetohija refugees
have
not been ensured. Therefore, the UNHCR does not encourage the return to
the
province, not only for security reasons, but because of insufficient
accommodation as well, Shinohara explained.
She added that the UNHCR is focusing on help for nonAlbanian
communities that have remained in the province.
---
KOUCHNER SOTTO INDAGINE IN SERBIA PER GENOCIDIO
SERBIAN MINISTER: U.N. KOSOVOMETOHIJA ENVOY UNDER INVESTIGATION
BELGRADE, Aug 22 (Tanjug) The Pristina District Court in
Serbian
(Yugoslav) U.N.run KosovoMetohija is investigating U.N. mission (UNMIK)
chief Bernard Kouchner for crimes of genocide against Serbs, Serbia's
justice minister said on Tuesday.
"Since he came to our southern province, Bernard Kouchner has,
by
commission or omission and together with UNMIK and the international
force
KFor, been the perpetrator of or an accessory to numerous crimes
punishable
under the laws of Yugoslavia and its republic of Serbia", Dragoljub
Jankovic told TANJUG.
The court has started proceedings on the orders of the district
prosecutor in Pristina, Jankovic explained. "To the wide pallette of his
crimes Kouchner has recently added further crimes of inciting or failing
to
prevent the storming of the Trepca lead smelter at Zvecan, driveby
bombing
of Serb children and bombing of the Yugoslav U.N. liaison office," he
added.
He went on to say that these actions perpetuate the process of
ethnic cleansing of KosovoMetohija and are designed to prevent
KosovoMetohija residents from voting in Yugoslav parliamentary and
presidential elections called for Sept. 24.
---
50 MOSCHEE NUOVE DI ZECCA DAGLI EMIRATI ARABI UNITI PER IL KOSMET
UAE minister to build 50 mosques in Kosovo The defence minister
offered to build 50 mosques in Kosovo at his own expense
August 20, 2000, 07:43 AM
DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates' defence minister has offered
to build 50 mosques in Kosovo at his own expense, the official WAM news
agency reported on Saturday.
Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum's project would be carried out
with the help of UAE troops serving in the NATO-led peacekeeping force
in the province, WAM added. It did not say how much the building work
would cost.
Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population is nominally Muslim, while the
minority Serbs belong mainly to the Orthodox church.
International authorities took responsibility for Kosovo in June last
year after a NATO bombing campaign to drive out Serb forces. The UAE has
about 1,200 troops in Kosovo and another 250 soldiers operating nearby.
---
UN UFFICIO PER LA OPPOSIZIONE DEMOCRATICA...
A BUDAPEST, CON I SOLDI AMERICANI
U.S. Opens New Office in Hungary
The Associated Press
Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2000; 4:20 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON –– The State Department has opened a new office at the
U.S.
Embassy in Hungary to support democratic forces in Yugoslavia in advance
of
national elections, a spokesman said Tuesday.
The office will be headed by the ambassador to Croatia, William
Montgomery.
"We think it's very important to let those committed to true democracy
in
Serbia know that we support their efforts," State Department spokesman
Philip
Reeker said. Serbia and the smaller republic of Montenegro comprise the
Yugoslav Federation.
Montgomery will be addressing "a full range of issues related to our
long-term goal of advancing democracy in Serbia," Reeker said.
The Clinton administration is hoping for a strong showing by opposition
forces in the Sept. 24 elections. President Slobodan Milosevic has
changed
the constitution to allow him to serve an additional eight years. In
addition
to the presidency, elections for the federal parliament also will be
held.
Reeker said Montgomery will retain the title of ambassador to Croatia
but
will be based in Budapest until a new ambassador is appointed in Zagreb.
© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
---
LA NATO NASCONDE LA VERITA' SULLE BOMBE A FRAMMENTAZIONE
http://www.serbia-info.com/news
NATO accused of hiding truth about cluster bombs
August 12, 2000
Shocking document about cluster bombs
Lisboa, August - Today, Portuguese dailies pass a report of the
International Association for campaign against contact mines (WGL) in
which, governments of countries, members of NATO pact are accused of
interfering in detailed investigation about cluster bombs, which take
victims after NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
Leading Lisboa daily "Publico" points out that "governments of
countries, members of NATO pact have been accused, these days, of making
it impossible to find out new proofs about contents of cluster bombs,
although there are more and more innocent victims in the territory of
Kosovo and Metohija".
Portuguese daily also quotes Director of International Association WGL
Richard Lloyd that "cluster bombs were thrown at the territory of
Yugoslavia and in that way NATO pact severely violated existing
international law and U.N. Charter".
Large number of civilians, throughout Yugoslavia, are becoming victims
of sudden explosions, and little boys are the most frequent victims,
Portuguese daily quotes parts of the report of Association of WGL.
Only, during June, over 200 persons died because of mines, and among
them, 50 were victims of cluster bombs, which look like tin of beer or
coca-cola", stresses "Publiko" quoting parts from the report.
That international association recently published shocking document,
after detailed analysis of their experts for explosives of all kinds,
and emergently demanded that energetic measures be taken for cleaning of
terrain, Portuguese dailies quote.
Portuguese dailies remark that every "cluster bomb contains about 147
smaller bombs with strong effect, which during the fall breaks into
pieces". Experts think that, during last year's bombing of Yugoslavia,
bombardiers of squadrons of NATO pact threw 1392 "cluster bombs". After
the explosions of "bombs carriers" about 205 thousand small bombs left
unexploded.
"Publico" writes that published report on dangerous effect of cluster
bombs included an interesting detail that mentioned bomb in British
cooperation (RBL 755) has some kind of impreciseness during targeting
objects and "if it misses wanted target, it can sow death where it
explodes". This kind of cluster bombs is used in Kosovo and Metohija
where large misses were registered, quotes Portuguese daily.
Portuguese analysts conclude energetically that cluster bombs are
continuing with sowing death and with the presence of international
forces for establishing peace.
---
STRANO "ESPERTO" EUROPEO IN MONTENEGRO
ILLEGAL EUROSLOVENIAN "EXPERT" IN MONTENEGRO
PODGORICA, August 9 (Tanjug) Illegally, without any legal
basis
or approval of the Yugoslav government, the Council of Europe has
appointed
its "expert" in Podgorica, the capital of the Yugoslav republic of
Montenegro, which is, among other things, proof of attempts by certain
western countries to treat a Yugoslav republic as a separate state.
Slovenian diplomat Eva Tomic has been appointed special
representative of the Council of Europe in Podgorica. In the status of
expert, she will work within the representative office of the
Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and be in charge of
"providing assistance to the Montenegrin authorities in reforming
education, local selfadministration, the judicial system, and drafting
laws."
In appointing an "expert" within the OSCE, the Council of
Europe
gave up its original plan to open its office in Podgorica, which implies
that there are inside conflicts and divisions regarding Yugoslavia's
stand
that the opening of a Council representative office must imply the
previous
regulation of Yugoslavia's status within the Council of Europe, and that
the opening of a representative office is possible only following
approval
of the Yugoslav government.
The appointment of an official at "expert" level also confirms
that most members of the Council of Europe refuse to accept a stand
which
more seriously denies Yugoslavia's sovereignty and territorial
integrity,
since an "expert" acting within an OSCE office has neither the status
nor
prerogatives of a representative office, which is for certain countries
an
alibi and a way to "ease their conscience."
However, regardless of the fact that its presence has been
reduced
to the slightest possible form, such a decision by the Council of Europe
is
in violation of its own Statute, presents an attempt at direct
interference
in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia as a unique and sovereign state,
as
well as an attempt at stoking activities by secessionist forces in
Montenegro.
Such an action by the Council of Europe also runs contrary to
the
usual practice of international organizations that their representatives
in
federal states are appointed in agreement with that state's central
organs,
and not with the approval of only one of the members of the federal
state.
This is why Yugoslavia has lodged a protest in the strongest
terms
to Council SecretaryGeneral Walter Schwimmer, critically pointing out
that
the Council had opted, in spite of Yugoslavia's expressed readiness for
cooperation, to send an expert without approval of the Belgrade
government,
thus violating the usual forms of cooperation, its own Statute, and the
very procedure for sending representatives to European countries. In the
protest, Yugoslavia also demanded the recalling of Eva Tomic.
---
CHI HA PAURA DI RADOVAN KARADZIC?
THE TIMES (London)
August 8 2000
US 'too afraid of casualties to arrest Karadzic'
BY JAMES PRINGLE IN FOCA
BRITISH forces in Bosnia are the only troops capable of arresting
Radovan Karadzic, the indicted Bosnian Serb war criminal,
American officials working in the region believe.
Although the United States, with more than 4,000 troops in
southeastern Bosnia has almost double Britain's force of 2,400,
American observers claim that fears of losing a US soldier in
combat will render them incapable of taking on the mission. "It's
not a question of courage, it's a political decision in Washington
that there should be no American deaths in Bosnia," one
American official, exasperated by the US troops' failure to act,
said. "Given that, probably only British troops backed by the
SAS are up to the job."
Western offcials doubt US troops will be ordered to act because
of the so-called "Somalia syndrome" that stemmed from the death
of 18 US soldiers in Mogadishu in 1993.
The watchword of American troops in the Nato-led Stabilisation
Force is "force protection" - a focus on avoiding casualties - in
spite of the State Department plastering "wanted" posters across
the region and offering a $5 million (#3.3 million) reward for the
capture of Dr Karadzic and other alleged war criminals. Jacques
Klein, a retired American general who heads the United Nations
Mission in Bosnia, is pressing for his capture before
parliamentary elections in November so as to remove his
influence on Bosnian Serb voters.
"We must arrest Karadzic," he said. "How can we ask the
Croatian Government to pick up their war criminals and hand them
over when the international community isn't willing to do that
here?"
In April French Nato troops arrested Momcilo Krajisnik in Pale,
the highest-ranking war crimes suspect to be detained in Bosnia.
But since 1995, French forces stationed near Visegrad had been
accused of ignoring war crimes suspects.
Dr Karadzic, charged for crimes linked to the siege of Sarajevo
and the slaughter of thousands of Bosnian Muslims in
Srebrenica, remains at large in eastern Bosnia. Ratko Mladic, the
infamous chief of the Bosnian Serb armed forces, is said to be in
Belgrade.
Western intelligence sources say that Dr Karadzic is guarded by
a formidable paramilitary force and that capturing him would be
"not only difficult but dangerous". British officials said that there
were no plans to deploy troops in the hunt for the former Bosnian
Serb leader..
---
LA NATO MINACCIA UNA NUOVA GUERRA DI AGGRESSIONE CONTRO LA JUGOSLAVIA
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 10, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
NATO THREATENS NEW WAR AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA
By John Catalinotto
With news statements and articles, NATO leaders renewed
their threats against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in
the last week of July, raising the specter of a new war of
aggression against that country.
NATO Secretary General George Rob ert son threw the weight
of the military alliance behind the move to split Montenegro
away from the remaining Yugoslavia.
Speaking to the media July 27, Robertson said, "I again
repeat my warning to President Milosevic not to make
mistakes that he has made in the past and not to continue to
undermine the elected government of Montenegro."
This is a barely veiled threat that NATO will again bomb
Yugoslavia, as it did for 78 days after Belgrade refused in
March 1999 to submit to the Rambouillet ultimatum that would
have opened all of Yugoslavia to NATO occupation.
What Robertson calls "the elected government of Montenegro"
is the regime headed by President Milo Djukanovic, who is
always described as "pro-Western" in the big-business media
here. This means he has adopted the German Deutschemark as
Montenegro's currency and has tried to split from
Yugoslavia.
Of the 800,000 people living in Montenegro, however, at
least half prefer to remain part of Yugoslavia. This was
seen in last June's elections, which pro-Yugoslavia parties
won in the major seaport town of Herceg Novi and almost won
in Podgorica, the capital. In reality Montenegro is not a
viable independent state. If it split it would become a NATO
protectorate.
Under those conditions, an attempt by Djukanovic to
unconstitutionally split from Yugoslavia runs the danger of
starting a civil war. Asked about possible NATO intervention
in this situation, Robertson made this vague threat: "We
aren't saying what we will do. One of the lessons of Kosovo
is that you don't reveal your cards too far in advance."
To add to the danger, U.S. President Bill Clinton and German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder--heads of the two biggest
imperialist powers in NATO--signed an article in the July 28
International Herald Tribune pledging to intervene in the
Yugoslav national election now set for Sept. 24.
They said they would help the opposition to Milosevic unite
and that they would also support Djukanovic if he boycotts
the election.
"We will continue to work with the democratic opposition in
Serbia, to help it unite around a common platform, to
support nongovernmental organizations and the independent
media, and to back President Milo Djukanovic of Montenegro
until all those who have suffered under Mr. Milosevic's rule
can take their place in Europe," Clinton and Schroeder
wrote.
If there were any doubt before, the two Western leaders made
it clear that there is no serious opposition to Milosevic's
party and its allies except those groups that are toadies of
the Western imperialist powers.
The Yugoslav political leaders have set local, national
parliamentary and presidential elections for Sept. 24. Using
strictly legal parliamentary decisions to change some
election laws, the Milosevic government has maximized its
chances of surviving the election and of keeping Yugoslavia
out of the clutches of NATO.
But this does not end the threat of new NATO intervention in
Yugoslavia, as the NATO leaders have now made clear.
- END -
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