Serbia and NATO
1) Diana Johnstone on Belgrade Forum´s position on Serbia-NATO relationship
2) Russian official on Serbia and NATO
3) Request for a referendum on Serbia’s joining NATO / 200 intellectuals want referendum on NATO
=== 1 ===
(In response to:
Belgrade Forum´s position on Serbia-NATO relationship (Zivadin Jovanovic)
Diana Johnstone :
“BETTER LIFE WITH NATO – CYNICAL FRAUDE”
“BETTER LIFE WITH NATO – CYNICAL FRAUDE”
Dear Zivadin,
The issue of NATO is very important for the future of Serbia. The claim that joining NATO would somehow improve the standard of living of the Serbian people is of course a cynical fraud. There is no logic to such a claim. In reality, NATO membership is clearly designed to accomplish the following aims:
• destroy Serbia’s capacity for self-defense both by taking control of its armed forces and by redesigning them to take part in so-called "peace missions" (foreign wars), not to defend the nation;
• employ Serbia’s traditionally able soldiers on distant battlefields such as Afghanistan in order to support the United States’ effort to control and conquer the world;
• prevent the sort of neutrality that characterized Yugoslavia as member of the non-aligned movement, thus solidifying the Western European alliance against most of the world;
• prevent any possible alliance with Russia or China;
• require Serbia to spend its scarce foreign currency (perhaps through loans that would have to be repaid with interest) in order to "modernize" and "standarize" its armed forces by buying US military equipment.
Clearly, all of these aims are contrary to Serbian interests.
No doubt the majority of Serbian people are smart enough to figure this out for themselves. What is needed is a strong campaign to force politicians to defend Serbian interests without betrayal.
Current Serbian leaders’ desire to join NATO can be described as the rats trying to get aboard the sinking ship.
The future lies not with NATO but with the world of equals you advocate.
Best wishes,
Diana Johnstone
Paris, France
=== 2 ===
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=01&dd=13&nav_id=64436
FoNet - January 13, 2010
Russian official on Serbia and NATO
BELGRADE: Head of the Russian Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev said that Serbia has to decide on its own whether it wants to join NATO.
He added however that he doubts that the Serb people, after the tragedy they endured during the Alliance bombing of 1999, would want to join NATO.
“I am deeply convinced that the Serbian defense minister, who said that it is good for Serbia to become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance, was only stating his personal opinion,” Kosachev said.
“I believe that such decision should not be made by individuals, even if they are ministers, but that the people should be asked, and ideally, a referendum should be held,” the Russian official concluded.
FoNet - January 13, 2010
Russian official on Serbia and NATO
BELGRADE: Head of the Russian Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev said that Serbia has to decide on its own whether it wants to join NATO.
He added however that he doubts that the Serb people, after the tragedy they endured during the Alliance bombing of 1999, would want to join NATO.
“I am deeply convinced that the Serbian defense minister, who said that it is good for Serbia to become a member of the North Atlantic Alliance, was only stating his personal opinion,” Kosachev said.
“I believe that such decision should not be made by individuals, even if they are ministers, but that the people should be asked, and ideally, a referendum should be held,” the Russian official concluded.
=== 3 ===
http://glassrbije.org/E/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9646&Itemid=26
Serbian Radio - January 11, 2010
Request for a referendum on Serbia’s joining NATO
A group of eminent persons in Serbia has submitted a request to competent institutions for a referendum on the issue of Serbia’s joining NATO.
In their request, read out by academician and writer Matija Beckovic at a press conference, the signatories stressed the military neutrality of Serbia would be no exception at all and that there was one more reason for such a status – the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. They also claim that, by entering NATO, Serbia would recognize independence of Kosovo.
Serbian Radio - January 11, 2010
Request for a referendum on Serbia’s joining NATO
A group of eminent persons in Serbia has submitted a request to competent institutions for a referendum on the issue of Serbia’s joining NATO.
In their request, read out by academician and writer Matija Beckovic at a press conference, the signatories stressed the military neutrality of Serbia would be no exception at all and that there was one more reason for such a status – the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. They also claim that, by entering NATO, Serbia would recognize independence of Kosovo.
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http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=01&dd=11&nav_id=64393
Beta News Agency - January 11, 2010
200 intellectuals want referendum on NATO
BELGRADE: A group of 200 intellectuals has asked the Serbian parliament to call a referendum on the country’s possible future NATO membership.
“Serbia has many times, from the world’s most important podiums, said it will ‘never recognize an independent state of Kosovo’, and that means that Serbia will never join NATO.”
“‘Independent Kosovo’ is NATO’s doing, it created this phony state and gave itself supreme and unchallenged powers [there],” the group said in its request, read during a news conference in Belgrade this Monday by author and member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) Matija Beckovic.
The letter adds that a “militarily neutral Serbia, true to herself and her own traditions, is no exception”.
“Serbia also has another reason [not to join], that no other country has, and that is the criminal NATO bombing and destruction of Serbia and her people, while trampling on sacrosanct norms of international law. That reason has not been produced from times immemorial, nor is some other NATO, rather than this one, responsible for that crime,“ the intellectuals wrote, in reference to the 1999 attacks the Western military alliance staged against then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ).
This is a reason that the Serb people cannot ignore, without ignoring their own memory and their own dignity, the intellectuals further said.
Beckovic said that while Serbia’s NATO membership is “discussed in every family in the country”, there is fear that this could be done behind citizens’ backs and behind closed doors.
“If that is not the case, all the better, but, once bitten, twice shy. It would not be a first for some institution to solve an issue of common importance. This question is such that no one party, government, or even parliament can solve. No nation would hand an issue of this kind over to someone else,” he said.
Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) President Ljiljana Smajlovic, who signed the document on her own behalf, said there is a general national consensus about Serbia’s NATO membership, and that is not visible because of otherwise deep political divisions.
“That consensus does not favor Serbia’s NATO membership, and we are asking that the citizens be given an opportunity to express this consensus in a referendum.”
She reminded that NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was quoted as saying that “Serbia needs a debate” on joining the alliance.
“Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac says that the best answer about Serbia’s NATO membership would be provided by the business and security people and that the real issue is whether it’s best to have real estate worth more or less. High real estate prices are favorable to those who have lots of real estate. There is this manner of the people in power in Serbia to start off from whatever suits those who have a lot,” Smajlovic said.
She pointed out that “whether real estate prices will go up or down” is not Serbia’s major issue.
Member of the Council of the Broadcasting Agency Svetozar Stojanovic, who signed the document as a private citizen, also took part in the news conference today and reminded that Serbian citizens’ will regarding the country’s military neutrality was expressed only indirectly through parliament, which adopted a declaration to that end.
“It’s surprising that people in power are making statements which are contrary to the parliamentary declaration,” Stojanovic commented, and added that he believed Serbians would say no to NATO membership if given a chance in a referendum.
The document was, among others, signed by former PM Vojislav Kostunica, film director Emir Kusturica, SPC Metropolitan Amfilohije, Bishop Atanasije, and former Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic.