* Considerazioni sul Montenegro

* Per i mafiosi di tutto il mondo: "Open an off-shore bank in
Montenegro!"

* Russia Surprised With NATO Planned Military Action in Montenegro

* 12/9/2000: Arrestato in Montenegro braccio destro di Milosevic

ALTRI LINK SEGNALATI:

> http://www.iacenter.org/bosnia/elich_strike.htm
NATO PREPARING NEW MILITARY STRIKE IN BALKANS

Nostri documenti dello scorso anno:
> http://www.marx2001.org/nuovaunita/jugo/crj/m_l/160799a.htm
> http://www.marx2001.org/nuovaunita/jugo/crj/m_l/090899.htm


---


CONSIDERAZIONI SUL MONTENEGRO

Ieri mi sono imbattuto quasi per caso nel programma TG2 Dossier di RAI2
dove si parlava della situazione in Jugoslavia
alla vigilia delle elezioni. Dopo il primo servizio delirante di Ennio
Remondino, come al solito fazioso e pieno di bugie,
c'è stato un servizio sul Montenegro.
Adesso la tattica per disorientare lo spettatore è quella di
presentargli i due nazionalismi contrapposti, quello serbo
panslavo e quello montenegrino, senza quasi mai far riferimento ai
sentimenti jugoslavisti, ancora presenti secondo me
nella maggioranza della popolazione, anzi la parola Jugoslavia non viene
quasi mai detta e viene sostituita con la parola
Serbia.
Le parole del metropolita della chiesa ortodossa in Montenegro vengono
messe in contrapposizione con quelle dei
nazionalisti montenegrini e presentate come opinioni personali al fine
di screditarle, con affermazioni del tipo "Lui crede
che in Montenegro hanno sempre vissuto i serbi sa secoli" oppure
"Secondo lui non esiste nessuna etnia montenegrina".
Anche Milosevic sarebbe un nazionalista che tenta di tenere sottomessi i
montenegrini come una provincia serba, non come
una regione della federazione jugoslava. Per questo motivo (cioè per
colpa di Milosevic) è normale che si sviluppi il
nazionalismo in Montenegro ("con la sua politica Milosevic sta
incendiando il nazionalismo"). Hanno presentato
Djukanovic come colui che ha sconfitto alle elezioni (democratiche,
quando gli fa comodo in Serbia c'è la dittatura) il
candidato del partito di Milosevic. Hanno intervistato anche Bogdanovic,
che si vantava di come le sue squadracce ("la
polizia speciale del Montenegro") abbiano fermato l'esercito federale
diretto in Kossovo al tempo della guerra.

Insomma, la disinformazione strategica ha messo le mani pure sul
Montenegro e io non sono molto ottimista. Come
possiamo evitare che si compia un altro scempio? Dopo inizieranno pure
con la Vojvodina o il Sangiaccato?
Vi ho tediato anche troppo. Vi volevo soltanto ringraziare perché per
merito vostro mi sono innamorato di un paese e del
suo modo di vivere, anche se ormai questo quasi non esiste più. Adesso
so veramente cosa significa Jugoslavia, però so
anche che la stiamo perdendo e questo mi fa star male...

Spero di poter vedere la Jugoslavia tornare quella di un tempo, uno dei
pochi paesi dove vorrei vivere.
Un fraterno abbraccio.

Pino C.

---

JUGOSLAVIA: ELEZIONI; MINACCE MONTENEGRO, DENUNCIA BULATOVIC

(ANSA) - BELGRADO, 25 SET - Il voto in
Montenegro e' stato
condizionato da ''pressioni e minacce'' del governo
riformista
del presidente Milo Djukanovic, ha sostenuto il
premier federale
Momir Bulatovic in una conferenza stampa.
Molti cittadini, ha detto Bulatovic, ''sono stati
minacciati
di licenziamento se fossero andati a votare, e da
stamane
infatti i siluramenti sono cominciati''. Sarebbe
questa, secondo
il premier, la causa della bassa affluenza, che egli
stima
comunque intorno al 60% e non il 22% come dichiarato
dall'opposizione serba. Stando a Bulatovic, il 93%
dei votanti
montenegrini si sono pronunciati per l'attuale
presidente
federale Slobodan Milosevic. Dei 50 seggi
parlamentari riservati
al Montenegro, ha concluso, la coalizione di regime
ne controlla
almeno 47. (ANSA).

OT

25/09/2000 15:56

---

http://offshore-bank-accounts.net/Offshorebank.html

Your own Offshore Bank for $8,000.
Everybody knows how much money there is to be made in the banking
business. You've heard that money makes money… and banks make money with
other people's money!

If you are looking to open a fully licensed bank which is authorised to
carry on all banking business world-wide, the most attractive
jurisdiction
is currently the Republic of Montenegro.

Key advantages include:

Low set-up cost : just $8,000 for a fully functioning bank (plus $4,000
annual fees).
Correspondent account included in package.
Mailing address with forwarding, and tel/fax included in package.
No large capital requirements - just $10,000 capital gets your licence
Favourable tax rate of just 2.5%.
May be formed by any natural person or company world-wide - no intrusive
background checks.
European jurisdiction.
Ideal for internet or private banking operations.
Fast set-up time.
The country.
The Republic of Montenegro technically forms part of the Yugoslav
Federation and is situated on Balkans, having the seashore on Adriatic
right in the heart of Europe and Mediterranean.

However, Montenegro is autonomous within Yugoslavia. Montenegro has a
pro-western government and remained neutral during the recent Balkan
war.
Economic sanctions against Yugoslavia do not apply to Montenegro.

The capital of the Republic of Montenegro is Podgorica. The country has
its own Constitution and President, as well as Government and Parliament
structures.

The Government of the Republic of Montenegro has been preparing for a
long
time and with great care the Montenegro - Free Economic Zone, within
which
"Development of Montenegro as an International Offshore Centre" is one
of
the main sub projects. This project envisages that Montenegro shall
become
a new centre suitable for international business operations providing
business, tourist and other services to foreign companies on top-level
standards.

Legal Basis of Offshore Banking in Montenegro.
The "Act on companies which are established and which conduct business
activity on special terms" was adopted by the Assembly of the Republic
of
Montenegro July 26 1996 in conformity with the Article 88, point 2 of
the
Constitution of Montenegro.

This act allows for the establishment offshore banks, and also for
numerous other tax advantages designed to encourage inward foreign
investment. Foreign-owned companies are privileged and completely
exempted
from exchange controls etc. Further details of this law can be supplied
on
request to seriously interested parties.


According to the Article 2 of the Act one of the allowed activities is
financial services. To obtain a banking license a company must be
established as Joint Stock Company ("JSC") formed by at least two
subscribers (as subscriber may participate physical or juridical person)
and have it paid capital of US$ 10,000.

Confidentiality.
All information provided to the Ministry of Finance, banks and other
organizations who perform duties of registering the bank and other
duties
for the company, is protected by specific confidentiality laws. This
includes identities of principals, financial statements etc.

Bank License.
The Ministry of Finance of Montenegro is also the regulatory body which
issues the bank licence.

A standard bank license allows a JSC registered under the Act the
following banking operations:

Payments under client instructions and bank exchanges under
correspondent
banks name, cashing services, establishing of correspondent relations
with
foreign banks and opening of "nostro" and "loro" accounts.
Opening and supervising of clients' nominee accounts in correspondent
banks in foreign currencies.
Acceptance of all kinds of deposits and exercising of all kinds of
deposit
works.
Attracting and managing of new money instruments, deposits, and credits
of
business partners, excluding money deposits of Citizens of the Republic
of
Montenegro.
Financing under other party instruction.
Handling, buying, selling and keeping of payment documents and value
papers (checks, letters of credit, shares, taxes and other documents and
exercising of other legal operations with these documents.
Granting of bank guaranties for third parties, which foresee payment in
money.
Contracting and exercising of factoring services, purchasing of the
rights
on goods delivery and services granting, acceptance of risks under non
cumpliment of such liabilities and bills collecting.
Purchasing and selling of cash currency and currency which is deposited
on
accounts of juridical and physical persons.
Intermediary operations in trade with value papers.
Purchasing and payment receiving.
Attracting and investing of assets and managing of value papers
according
clients instructions and other persons on the market and trust
representation operations.
Rendering of brokerage, consultant service and leasing.
Creating a reserve, insurance and other funds from own and attracted
assets for guaranties and insurance and development of banking activity
and investment to Montenegro, according to the law on companies
established and operated under special terms.
Participating as a founding party or shareholder of banking
organizations
in Montenegro and also abroad - in subsidiary banks, as well as in
similar
institutions and organizations, according to the law on companies that
established and operated in Montenegro.
Opening of branches and representation offices on the territory of the
republic of Montenegro and abroad".
Such banking license is not limited by time.
Tax Regime.
The bank has a duty to file a tax declaration in due time or to hand
over
to the competent tax authority other data necessary for calculating
taxable profit. The bank pays the tax at the rate 2.5% on its declared
profit. The tax base is further reduced with the amount of financial
resources from income which is directed into investments within the
territory of the Republic.

Annual Payments.
An amount of US$ 100 is payable to the Registry for the joint stock
companies annually. An annual fee of US$4000 is payable for the
Registered
Agent and Registered Office in the Republic of Montenegro (payable on
incorporation, then annually on the anniversary thereafter).
Book-keeping
and accountancy costs are not included: these extra services can be
provided if required.

This fee includes provision of mail forwarding and shared telephone and
fax facilities. It is therefore possible to run an internet banking
operation without the need to establish a physical presence in
Montenegro
beyond the registered office address.

Correspondent Accounts.
The basic package includes opening a correspondent account at the Bank
of
Montenegro. This allows the new bank to use their existing correspondent
network which includes Citibank, Commerzbank, Union Bank of Switzerland
etc for sending and receiving payments.

For additional fee we can arrange direct correspondent accounts with
banks
in other countries.

Formation Time.
Usually to form a new bank with the client's directors and name proposed
takes 4-8 weeks. Sometimes it can be completed much quicker, especially
if
extra care is taken to ensure that all documents are in order.

Requirements to Commence Formation.
At least three potential names of the bank, so that one can be chosen
which is free. Please send them by e-mail, since all documents which we
send you will bear the name of the bank.
At least two founders - they can be physical persons, in which case we
will require photocopies of their passports, certified with an
Apostille;
if the founders are legal entities, then copies of the registration
papers, which must also be affixed with an Apostille. If you require
nominees, we recommend you simply take two off-the-shelf Panama
corporations which we have in stock with all necessary documents.
Payment of USD 10,000 as founder's capital, which you must pay by wire
transfer direct to the central bank of Montenegro. After formation you
are
free to withdraw or reallocate this capital.
Power-of-Attorney to our lawyers in Montenegro to file the necessary
documents. We can supply this form on receipt of your confirmed order
and
payment.
Payment of incorporation fee ($8000) plus first year's domiciliary fee
($4000) by wire transfer. (Guaranteed refundable in the unlikely event
that your banking licence is declined). A 50% deposit will be accepted
to
start work, with the balance payable when your banking licence has been
issued and you have verified it with the government if you wish.
Documents you will receive by courier on completion:
Certificate of the opened foreign currency correspondent account as well
as a receipt for the foreign currency account issued by MONTENEGRO BANK.
Certificate of inscription in the Companies Register.
Memorandum of Association of the bank.
Articles of Association.
Licence as proof for conducting bank and other financial activities.
Certified translations of above in English and Russian with Apostille.
If you have any additional question feel free to ask: simply click here!

---

http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=199518

Russia Surprised With NATO Planned Military Action in Montenegro

MOSCOW, Sep 15, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Russia was deeply
concerned
with NATO's threat of sending ground troops to Montenegro in the case of
Belgrade using force in Podgorica, the Russian foreign ministry said in
a
statement Thursday.

"Recent comments made by U.S. Air Force Commander in Europe, General
Gregory Martin, about NATO having already conceived several variants of
military action against Montenegro, including the use of ground troops,
are
shocking," said the ministry.

"By his statement, the general has confirmed that the North Atlantic
alliance is constantly planning military operations against a sovereign
state without consulting Russia, which is in breach of the cooperation
agreement between NATO and Russia," the statement read.

"It is amazing that the general could make that statement, especially
during such a critical time in the Balkan region," the ministry said.

Local and presidential elections are due to be held in the former
Yugoslavia on September 24.

The Russian State Duma lower house of parliament plans to send observers
to
monitor the forthcoming elections. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)

---

dal Corriere della Sera on line 12/9/2000

PER ALCUNE ORE
Arrestato in Montenegro braccio destro di Milosevic


Il braccio destro di Slobodan Milosevic, Ratko Krsmanovic, è stato
arrestato per alcune ore dalla polizia montenegrina perché sorpreso a
scrivere sui muri di un palazzo di Podgorica con una bomboletta spray.
[SIC! Facile immaginare che il vero motivo del sequestro e' legato alle
elezioni nella Federazione...]


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------

Yugoslavia Amid the Maelstrom

By Gregory Elich


The sound was like no other. Hundreds of blackbirds were perched in trees
throughout the park in central Belgrade where our bus stopped, and their
loud and raucous cries startled me. I had never seen so many blackbirds in
one place. Our host, Nikola Moraca, and his son were there to greet us.
When asked about the blackbirds, Nikola replied, "We never had these
before. They are from Kosovo. They migrated here because the bombing in
Kosovo was too intense." The birds' piercing cries were unsettling, and
seemed a harbinger of all of the pain and suffering we would come to
witness during our stay in Yugoslavia. We were a delegation of peace
activists and concerned individuals, organized and led by Barry Lituchy, a
specialist on European history. Our mission was to bring medical aid to
the people of Yugoslavia, and we would spend the first two weeks of August
1999 gathering evidence of NATO war crimes for former U.S. Attorney
General Ramsey Clark's Independent Commission of Inquiry.

Years of hardship had taken their toll on Yugoslav society. Burdened by
sanctions, a massive influx of refugees, and NATO's destruction of
factories and workplaces, the unemployment rate had soared. All along
Revolution Boulevard, sidewalks were jammed with street vendors selling
paltry goods. It was an important means of survival for many people in
Belgrade. I saw two very elderly women sitting behind a card table, on
which the only goods were stones, hand-painted with designs and
affectionate sayings. Gasoline is strictly rationed, and stations were
usually closed. We frequently saw people standing by roadsides, plastic
bottles of gasoline for sale. Gasoline smuggled across the border from
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Hungary was another means of survival for the
destitute. Buses and streetcars were densely crowded. Windows were sealed
in some streetcars, a sign of air conditioning in better times. Now the
closed windows served to trap the oppressive summer heat as people, soaked
with sweat, crowded and pressed against each other. "The burden of imposed
sanctions is felt in nearly every situation on a daily basis," Danka
Moraca, Nikola's wife, informed us. "Sanctions have changed our lives
tremendously, if not totally. Now we are all used to shortages of everyday
necessities such as basic food, cleaning products and personal items. If
you are fortunate enough to be able to afford them, you must wait in long
lines." Sanctions, she added, have resulted in a "decline of salaries,
pensions and a general impoverishment of ordinary people." According to
the Yugoslav Red Cross, approximately 100,000 people, primarily pensioners
and welfare recipients, rely on soup kitchens, but the need outstrips the
supply of available meals. Eight years of sanctions have taken their toll,
and the war compounded the effect, nearly doubling the poverty rate.

On our first morning in Belgrade, we met with Bratislava Morina, Federal
Minister for Refugees, Displaced Persons and Humanitarian Aid. It was
Morina's ministry that was responsible for coping with Europe's largest
refugee population. Already burdened with 700,000 refugees from wars in
Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, more than 200,000 people had fled from
Kosovo by the time of our visit, a number that would soon grow to over
350,000. Morina, whose husband is Albanian, listed several prominent
political positions held by Albanians in Yugoslavia, "until they were
given orders to leave office" by secessionists "and become part of the
parallel world." - a reference to the secessionist's boycott of
institutions. Calm and dignified, Morina spoke eloquently of the
destruction wrought by NATO, but concluded that these were "not the worst
crimes committed" by President Clinton. "When we hear claims that they
want to create a multiethnic society in Kosovo, this is ironic," she said,
"because we have witnessed one of the most radical ethnic cleansing
campaigns" since the arrival of NATO troops.

We next met with officials of the Yugoslav Red Cross. We gave them several
bags of medicines that were donated by American doctors and individuals.
Dr. Miodrag Starcevic talked of the refugee crisis, pointing out that "our
needs are very urgent," and that they lacked food, shelter, clothes and
medicines for refugees. Officials there felt that the level of need for
humanitarian aid greatly exceeded what international organizations were
providing. Another serious problem for the organization is that it cannot
operate freely in Kosovo. "We cannot go there," Dr. Starcevic said. "Even
when we send humanitarian relief, we must provide in advance for some kind
of escort by KFOR [NATO's Kosovo Force], because it is impossible to go
there. It is too dangerous." Medical officer Ljubisa Dragisic told us that
local production met most of the nation's needs for drugs and medical
supplies, but that sanctions caused shortages in imported medicines. "It's
especially a problem with some services," she said. "For example, the
transfusion service, because we import the bags and blood tests, and some
drugs...oncology drugs, and some programs for example, the dialysis
program, and a part of the program for treatment of diabetics." Suture
material and anesthetic drugs were also in short supply.

Poisoning an Entire Nation and People

We were particularly interested in learning more about the environmental
aspect of NATO bombing. The systematic destruction of chemical,
petrochemical, fertilizer plants, and oil refineries seriously poisoned
the local environment. In the early morning hours of April 18, 1999, NATO
missiles rained down on the industrial town of Pancevo, just northeast of
Belgrade. A petrochemical plant was hit, sending into the atmosphere 900
tons of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), an extremely dangerous carcinogen.
By sunrise, clouds of VCM poured through the town, at levels exceeding
10,600 times the permissible limit for human safety. Burning VCM released
phosgene gas, a substance that was used as a poison gas during the First
World War. Chlorine gas - also used as a poison gas during World War I -
was also discharged by fires at the plant, as were other dangerous
chemicals, such as naptha, ethylene dichloride and hydrochloric acid. A
poison rain spattered the region, and hundreds of tons of oil and
chemicals soaked into the soil and poured into the Danube River. Pools of
mercury formed on the grounds of the plant. After a missile narrowly
missed striking a tank of liquid ammonia, panicked workers dumped the
liquid ammonia into the Danube in order to avert a terrible tragedy. The
entire population of Pancevo was evacuated immediately, but residents had
returned to their homes by the time of our visit. Doctors there advise
women to avoid pregnancy for the next two years, and many residents are
coming down with red rashes and blisters. Although we were only in Pancevo
for a few hours, some of us, myself included, found rashes appearing on
our legs before the end of the day. My lower legs were covered with
rashes, and it was two weeks before they would finally disappear.
According to one worker we talked with, eighty percent of the
petrochemical plant was destroyed. Another worker told us that "vast
quantities of ammonia and VCM spilled into the river," and that he could
"see an immediate effect because one meter above the river the bank
appears burned. All the plants look as if they had been burned by fire."
Several people expressed fears for their health and that of their
families.

Serious environmental hazards also resulted from the destruction of power
plants in Bor and Kragujevac. Transformers there relied on transformer oil
containing polychlorinated biphenyles (PCB) pyralene, as a coolant.
According to the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern
Europe, "one liter of the PCB pyralene pollutes one billion liters of
water." We visited an oil refinery in Novi Sad. One resident of Novi Sad,
whose home was located a mere three blocks from the refinery, later told
me that the refinery was bombed on virtually a daily basis and that his
neighborhood was constantly enveloped in smoke. Outside the refinery, we
saw a struggling bird soaked in oil, near death

Perhaps the deadliest weapon in NATO's arsenal was depleted uranium (DU)
tipped missiles and bombs. Depleted uranium's high density enables
projectiles to easily penetrate armor and concrete targets. When DU
weapons impact on their target, thousands of radioactive particles are
released into the atmosphere, and may be borne for miles by the wind. When
people ingest these particles, serious bodily damage can result. Following
the use of DU weapons in the 1991 Gulf War, rates of birth defects and
leukemia rose dramatically in southern Iraq.

Barry and I talked with Dr. Radoje Lausevic, an environmental specialist
and assistant professor at the University of Belgrade. Dr. Lausevic's
appearance and manner of speech reminded me of my best friend, Jorge, so
he made an immediately favorable impression. While driving us in his car,
he commented on the ecological impact of the war, and it wasn't until we
arrived at our destination that I realized that his talk was so
interesting that I forgot to record him or take notes. We arrived at the
office of the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern
Europe, where we briefly concluded our discussion of the environmental
damage. Barry asked about depleted uranium (DU) weapons. My impression was
that use of depleted uranium weapons was limited to Kosovo, but Dr.
Lausevic told us that Russian sources determined that 30 metric tons of DU
was used outside of Kosovo. The entire territory of Yugoslavia was exposed
to these weapons. One particle of DU in the lungs, he said, is equivalent
to a daily chest x-ray for life.

The delegation also met with Dusan Vasiljevic, president of Green Table, a
Belgrade-based environmental non-governmental organization. A man with an
elegant manner of speech, he also acted as our guide and translator when
we visited Pancevo. Vasiljevic told us that 135,000 tons of toxic
chemicals spilled into the environment as a result of NATO bombing.
Speaking of Pancevo, he pointed out that VCM "is one of the most dangerous
toxic chemicals that ever existed. It's gastro organic in the first place,
and disrupts the cells inside," the consequences of which are "liver
disease, kidney disease and of course cancer itself." Vasiljevic also
confirmed Dr. Lausevic's report of widespread use of DU weapons.
Vasiljevic explained that as DU particles spread over an area, it "enters
the food chain, as well as to water, soil, even in the air. Once you get
these depleted uranium particles in your body, they stay there. You can't
get rid of them. And they move in your body...mostly they go to the
kidneys, and also to the liver." Vasiljevic's comments on Kosovo were
sobering. "Kosovo itself is a nuclear desert now. I wouldn't go there
myself...because the level of radiation in Kosovo is over any tolerable
level." Depleted uranium emits primarily alpha radiation, which is 20
times more deadly internally than gamma radiation, he said. The United
Nations Balkan Task Force, as well as other Western investigators "did not
find any increased radiation. How could they say so? Because they did not
have the proper equipment for that....They had just a Geiger counter." A
Geiger counter is worthless for measuring DU because it measures primarily
gamma radiation, not alpha.

Exhaust from NATO overflights, Vasiljevic claimed, severely damaged the
ozone layer above Yugoslavia. Immediately following NATO's bombing
campaign, Yugoslavia was ravaged by a series of floods and severe
rainstorms. By the time of our visit, the temperature was searing,
unbearable at times. People speculated that the heat, floods and rains
were a result of the thinning of the ozone. The damaged ozone layer would
soon drift over Western Europe, Vasiljevic said. It is difficult to
determine a correlation, but on December 2, 1999, the European Space
Agency reported that the lowest ever levels of ozone, "nearly as low as
those found in the Antarctic," were measured over northwest Europe during
November. Everyone was concerned about the food supply. Danka worried that
"all that we have on the green markets or in the shops nowadays has been
contaminated, either by the destroyed chemical industry or by the new
weapons dropped on our heads. I can't even think about the possible
consequences of consuming such food."

A City Crippled by Bombs

In the northern city of Novi Sad, we viewed three bridges spanning the
Danube River. All three were severed by NATO missiles. The Varadin Bridge
carried a main water pipe, and when the bridge was destroyed on April 1,
the Petrovaradin section of the city lost its water supply. Similarly,
destruction of the Zezelj Bridge on April 26 eliminated water in the
suburbs. Water had to be trucked in until service could be restored. At
the Executive Council Building in Novi Sad, we met Dr. Zivorad Smiljanic,
president of the Assembly of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, and an
interesting and knowledgeable man. Smiljanic pointed out, as did many
others during our visit, that Yugoslavia has 26 nationalities and is a
multiethnic society. "Even the smallest nationalities have education in
their own mother tongue," he said. "Now you can see for yourselves what
NATO did." NATO leaders "constantly talk about democracy, but we could see
that democracy in action here: democracy that bombed and destroyed
bridges, schools and hospitals....all these aims were actually false,
because the real truth and their real aim was to conquer everything and
put everything under one system." Smiljanic was asked to name their most
urgent need. "The thing that we would like most of all is for the
international community to leave us alone;" he exclaimed, "to lift
blockades and sanctions, and stop 'helping' us in the way that they are
doing."

Following the meeting, one official approached Barry. His eyes were moist.
"It was such a difficult time for those of us with children," he said. "We
didn't know what to do: take both children in one cellar, or put them in
separate cellars." A terrible dilemma, whether to keep the family together
and risk losing everyone in a single moment; or split the family apart,
thus increasing the chances of losing someone.

We were scheduled to tour and view bomb damage at the Executive Council
building later in the day. When we arrived, our bus pulled to a stop in
front of the building and our delegation began to disembark. A woman
walked up to our bus, and asked us through an open window, "Are you a
delegation?" Receiving an affirmative answer, she spoke in an angry and
outraged tone, "We're a delegation from Germany. We've been here one week
already. We've seen such terrible things, you can't imagine. People here
have a system like no one in the world. It's a true multiethnic society.
Back in Germany, all we hear are lies. There is no way to get the truth
out." We soon came to share her reaction and her outrage. The portrayal of
Yugoslavia in Western media is bizarre for anyone who troubles himself to
actually visit the place. A multiethnic society where peoples of many
nationalities work and live together is painted as racist. A society in
which women walk calmly and unafraid in a park at midnight, as we
regularly saw, is portrayed as crime-ridden. Knowledgeable and worldly
people are represented as ignorant and irrational. How often had I read in
the Western press of President Slobodan Milosevic's 1989 speech at Kosovo
Polje, in which it was claimed that he whipped the crowd into a
nationalist frenzy with a language of hate? Western reporters can get away
with such monstrous lies because they know no one will bother to check the
text of that speech. I couldn't believe the accusation because it ran
counter to those speeches I was familiar with. When I found a copy of the
speech, my suspicions were confirmed. There was not one phrase of hatred.
What I found instead were phrases such as, "Serbia has never had only
Serbs living in it. Today, more than in the past, members of other peoples
and nationalities also live in it. This is not a disadvantage for Serbia.
I am truly convinced that it is its advantage." Or these examples:
"Socialism in particular, being a progressive and just democratic society,
should not allow people to be divided in the national and religious
respect," and "Yugoslavia is a multiethnic community and it can survive
only under the conditions of full equality for all nations that live in
it." These are the phrases Western media would have one believe are filled
with hate and racism. When I returned to the United States, it was weeks
before I could bear to listen to the news and its spewing of lies and
obsession with trivial issues.

Whatever else would happen during our stay in Yugoslavia, it was clear
that we would be well fed. Every morning and evening, Nikola and Danka
prepared a spectacular banquet for us. We were continually delighted by a
dazzling array of delicious dishes. Their extraordinary hospitality and
kindness made me feel like part of their family, and Nikola's impish sense
of humor brought daily merriment. The importance of family and friends was
paramount in this society. Friends, family, and neighbors often visited.
On the street, we often saw family members holding hands. Displays of
affection were open. Due to sanctions, their lives are materially
impoverished compared to earlier times, but still they lead rich lives. As
one man in Novi Sad told me, "We have a different philosophy here than in
the West. We have a saying, 'The man is rich who has many friends'."

NATO did not ignore Vidovdan Skonaselje, a suburb of Novi Sad. People were
living in the ruins of their homes, simply because they had nowhere else
to go. The home of Rajko and Gordana Matic was severely damaged. Rajko and
his wife Gordana fled Zagreb in 1992 and built their new home here. Now
NATO had bombed their new house. Heavy plastic covered the windows. With
the exception of the frame and base, nothing remained of the roof. The
explosion had dented and twisted their car. They allowed us inside to view
their home. Holes in the walls, a result of the bomb blast, allowed
chickens to enter and wander about. On the second floor, one of the
interior walls, broken and cracked, was bowed to an alarming degree, like
the letter 'C'. Light streamed in through a ruptured wall, and mounds of
rubble filled the rooms. It didn't seem safe, but they had nowhere else to
go, nor money to repair the damage. Previous Western visitors had promised
them help, which never came. To the left of the Matic's house stood an
empty shell of another home. Only the brick walls still stood. Everything
else was blown away in the bombing. Farther to the left, the roof of a
demolished home angled down to the ground. Behind it stood more homes with
blasted roofs, damaged walls and seared interiors. The house to the right
was missing the second floor. Only remnants of the front and back wall
remained. Hammering sounds told us that the owners had begun the arduous
task of rebuilding. Across the street, the roof of one home was a mass of
twisted wreckage. Between these buildings, a roadside sign listed at a
drunken angle, punctured neatly by shrapnel from a NATO bomb. It was a
"welcome" sign.

NATO also left its calling card at another suburb of Novi Sad, Detelinara.
On May 6, a powerful bomb landed at the juncture of two apartment
buildings and the Svetozar Markovic elementary school. By the time of our
visit, the huge crater had been filled in, and all 20 of the demolished
automobiles removed. The buildings were severely damaged, and many
apartments were devastated. Seven people were wounded in the attack, and
the site followed a pattern that we would witness repeatedly during our
two weeks in Yugoslavia. Residential areas with no military value were
targeted on a regular basis.

Belgrade Bombarded

In New Belgrade, the more recently built section of the city, we stopped
at Hotel Yugoslavia. On May 7, just before midnight, two NATO missiles
struck the hotel near the main entrance. One person was killed, and four
wounded. It was impossible to view the extensive destruction without
contemplating the mentality that could order missiles to be fired at a
hotel. As we stood before the Chinese embassy, only a few blocks away,
NATO's excuses seemed absurd. Architecturally distinctive, the embassy's
unique beauty could not possibly be mistaken for the nearby Federal
Directorate of Supply and Procurement, nor any other building in the
vicinity. Similarly difficult to swallow was the claim that the embassy
was bombed because the CIA had relied on an old map. The embassy building
was built during 1992-93, and an old map would have shown an empty field.
One would have to believe that NATO intended to bomb an empty field.
Certainly, the CIA would have closely monitored the Chinese embassy in
Belgrade, particularly as NATO prepared to wage war on Yugoslavia. Three
satellite-guided missiles struck the embassy, just twenty minutes after
the bombing of Hotel Yugoslavia. The missile that did the most damage
penetrated through the roof, burrowing down to the basement. Three people
were killed, and 20 wounded. Fire and smoke poured through the building.
The stairways were demolished, and people trapped on the top three floors
tied bedsheets together, hanging them out of windows as a means of escape.
We saw that one rope of bedsheets still hung from a fourth story window.
Two days before my departure for Yugoslavia, I obtained a copy of an
article from the July 2 issue of Kai Fang, published in Hong Kong. The
article's author, Su Lan, wrote that embassy personnel electronically
monitored NATO's military operations, and that NATO feared that the
downing of its F-117 Stealth fighter-bomber may have been a result of
information passed along by them to Yugoslav officials. The October 17
issue of The Observer and a follow-up story a few weeks later, confirmed
that the embassy was deliberately targeted. A NATO flight controller based
in Naples told The Observer, "The Chinese embassy had an electronic
profile, which NATO located and pinpointed." "The aim," said another NATO
officer, "was to send a clear message to Milosevic that he should not use
outside help in the shape of the Chinese."

Not far away stood the ruins of another beautiful building, the 23-story
Usce Business Center, the target of four missiles on April 21. Much of the
building's exterior was blackened by fire, and many windows were a mass of
twisted metal. I remembered seeing dramatic photographs of this building
engulfed in flames. NATO planners anticipated high "collateral damage."
Their plans anticipated that up to 100 government officials and 250
civilians residing in nearby apartments in the "expected blast radius"
would be killed in the attack. Unfazed at the prospect of murdering up to
350 people, President Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair gave
their approval for the building's destruction. The Usce Business Center
housed offices of a variety of businesses and political organizations. The
rationale for the building's destruction was that some of the offices
belonged to the Serbian Socialist Party and the closely allied Yugoslav
United Left. Only prior evacuation of the building averted a tragedy and
no one perished in the attack.

NATO's bland assertions seemed obscene. Bombing the Chinese embassy was an
"accident," and therefore excusable. This carried with it the unspoken
assumption that bombing another building and killing Yugoslav civilians
would be acceptable. The destruction of Hotel Yugoslavia and the Usce
Business Center was also acceptable, because these somehow fell into the
all-inclusive category of "military targets." Many people in the West were
completely indifferent to the death and destruction carried out in their
names. All of NATO's claims were accepted without examination or
questioning. The United States, it is assumed, has an inherent right to
invade or bomb another country and to trample international law underfoot.
In this context, I found it poignant when we saw a billboard in Belgrade,
which read: "They believe in bombs. We believe in God."

That night, in the Moraca's home, delegation member Ken Freeland
interviewed Nenad Gudjic, a Serbian refugee from Kosovo. Gudjic said he
felt that "Albanians suppressed me, especially when I started to date my
present wife, who is Albanian." His wife also felt strong pressure from
Albanian extremists, prompting them to leave Kosovo. "Something very
interesting is happening now," Gudjic said. "I lived in Pristina for 33
years. Now, on the streets of Belgrade, I saw a few of my Albanian friends
who escaped, as I escaped, from Pristina. They are living now in Belgrade
without any problems. These are ethnic Albanians of my generation who
escaped that chaos."

Every Federal building in downtown Belgrade bore the scars of bombing.
Almost every day we passed these buildings, and each day the sight was as
painful as the day before. Late one night during the war, kept awake by an
air raid, Nikola was on his balcony talking to his neighbor across the
street on her balcony. The sound of flying missiles interrupted their
conversation. Nikola shouted at his neighbor, "Get down. This one will hit
us." His shoulders rose as a chill travelled down the back of his neck.
Two explosions roared. Only a few short blocks away, one missile smashed a
house on Maxim Gorky Street, also damaging an adjoining apartment building
and a restaurant. The other missile struck a street nearby. Four people
were injured; one of whom, 23-year old Sofija Jovanovic, died of her
wounds two days later. On my last day in Belgrade, I walked down to view
the site. Nothing remained but a mound of concrete, bricks, broken boards,
and upturned earth. As a sort of memorial, someone had scrawled graffiti
on the remnants of an adjacent building: "Bombed April 30." With
fatalistic humor, graffiti on another house read, "Sorry. You missed us."
Danka described life during the bombing. "We were bombed constantly for 78
days and nights, without any break or pause. We were without water or
electricity for days. We had to throw away everything from the
refrigerator, including all medicaments essential for our family, because
of the high temperatures in May. The bombing was awful, cruel and savage.
We were all afraid, staying in the dark lobby for hours, listening to the
scary sounds of the low-flying warplanes, detonations, children crying,
car alarms, and people screaming who simply couldn't stand it anymore."
Later in the war, "NATO changed its tactics, and by the end they were
bombing us every two hours. That was part of their psychological war, I
suppose." The effects of the bombardment were widespread. "There was no
bread. The bakeries couldn't produce bread without electricity. The smell
of spoiled food spread from nearby supermarkets. There was no milk for
children." Her children were upset, asking, "Why are those people bombing
us? Why do they hate us so much when we didn't do anything wrong to them?"
Danka revealed that every time she kissed her children goodnight "during
the bombing campaign, deep inside me I was praying for God to see them
healthy and alive the next morning. During those long bombing nights, they
were awakened so many times by strong nearby explosions, annoyed and
panicked."

The Belgrade 5 transformer station of the Serbian Electric Company is
located at Bezanijska Kosa in New Belgrade. It was bombed, as were many
other electrical power and transformer stations. Several Tomahawk missiles
struck here, as well as a new weapon, the CBU-94, a cluster bomb which
releases a web of carbon-graphite threads, resulting in electrical
short-circuits and burnt components. At one point, seventy percent of
Yugoslavia's power supply was knocked out, which also adversely affected
water supplies that depended on electrical pumps. About 50,000 hospital
patients, including those on dialysis and babies in incubators, also
suffered from the power outages. When workers proved adept at restoring
power rapidly, NATO then targeted the plants with cruise missiles and
conventional bombs. By the end of the war, one third of the electricity
transmission systems were damaged or destroyed. During our visit to
Belgrade 5, workers were busily repairing the damage. We talked with one
of the workers, who said that most of the Belgrade suburb of Zemun was
without electricity. He worried about the onset of winter, when people
would have to rely on alternative sources of heat, such as coal and small
heaters. He pointed out that the coolant for the plant's transformers
contained PCBs, and that consequently, "when the fuel burns, it is toxic,
so [NATO] poisoned nature around here also. It went into the ground, so it
will reach our water supplies." One of our delegation members, Jeff
Goldberg, asked him if this was the most expensive damage inflicted on
Yugoslavia, and the worker immediately responded, "The most expensive
damage is that they killed a lot of people." When asked about the length
of time required for repair, the worker answered. "We need equipment. We
need spare parts...without foreign aid we are dead. We have a factory that
makes spare parts, converters, but...they can make only one switch per
month. It's a low capacity factory."

The previous day, due to bomb damage, virtually all of Serbia's steam
power plants shut down, and much of the country was left without power. On
the day of our visit, a breakdown at the power line at the Djerdap-Bor
hydroelectric plant caused a chain-reaction of breakdowns in other power
lines, resulting in more blackouts. It was expected that hundreds of
thousands of people would freeze during winter, with sanctions blocking
the import of much-needed parts, but prospects improved due to a
remarkable program of reconstruction and improvisation. Electricity is
severely rationed, with frequent power cuts. But what seemed an inevitable
humanitarian disaster has been averted through the ingenuity and heroic
efforts of workers in overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The
electrical worker we talked with summed up the war: "We were bombed
because we refuse to be slaves. We are a proud people and we don't want to
be enslaved. Rich people want slaves. They want obedient people."

Our meeting with the Belgrade-based Committee for Compiling Data on Crimes
against Humanity and International Law was of particular interest for me.
I had read several articles about the work of the committee as well as
interviews with its president, Dr. Zoran Stankovic, so I was familiar with
the meticulous and significant work they had done in Bosnia-Herzegovina
and Croatia. All nine members of the committee work on a volunteer basis,
constrained by severely limited resources, outmoded personal computers and
only one copy machine. The committee was tasked to investigate NATO war
crimes, and that was the main focus of our discussion. A point of
frustration for the committee was that they had submitted eight files of
documentation with The Hague War Crimes Tribunal, which treated their
reports with complete disinterest.

Albanian Refugees and Civil War: Behind the Media Screen

NATO officials accused the Yugoslav government of expelling its Albanian
population and committing genocide. The flood of refugees pouring into
Albania and Macedonia was trumpeted as justification for bombing
Yugoslavia. Few dwelled on the logical fallacy of NATO's claim that a
refugee crisis which occurred subsequent to bombing was itself the
motivation for that bombing. Western leaders presented a simple picture,
one easily grasped. Reality is seldom as simple as a Hollywood action
movie, though, and Western leaders intentionally distorted events for an
uncritical public.

Every nationality can be found in the membership of the Serbian Socialist
Party, including Albanian, and the party has long prided itself on a
commitment to a multiethnic society. This commitment is evident in its
program and in virtually every document and every speech. Toward the end
of 1998, during the period of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo, the Yugoslav
government set up 14 centers throughout Kosovo, where people could come
and take free lumber and building supplies for reconstruction of homes
damaged in the civil war. These supplies were open to every person of
every nationality. There were no restrictions. It was impossible for me to
believe that the Serbian Socialist Party metamorphosed overnight into a
racist organization, bent on national exclusivity. It did not fit, so I
dug into the matter, trying to ascertain the truth among a torrent of
lies. A more subtle picture emerged, still with suffering on a mass scale,
but this time with NATO as the central catalyst. According to an
intelligence report from the German Foreign Office, dated January 12,
1999, "Even in Kosovo an explicit political persecution linked to Albanian
ethnicity is not verifiable...actions of the security forces [are] not
directed against the Kosovo Albanians as an ethnically defined group, but
against the military opponent and its actual or alleged supporters." A
civil war was raging in the province of Kosovo between the Albanian
secessionist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and Yugoslav security forces.
This internal document presented a very different message than Western
leaders' public statements.

Concomitant with NATO's bombing campaign, hundreds of thousands of people
of all nationalities fled their homes. When the first bombs fell,
extremists became enraged and blamed Albanians for the bombing. Many of
these extremists formed paramilitary groups and criminal gangs, and vented
their rage on the local Albanian population. NATO's bombs created an
environment of anarchy and chaos that allowed thugs, paramilitary gangs,
and renegade police to operate freely. One Serbian official was reported
as saying, "It was a catastrophe. Podujevo was emptied in about three
hours. There were a lot of vile and angry people, maddened, who were out
of control." In Kosovo's capital city of Pristina, the first wave of
refugees departed when threatened by thugs during the week and a half
following NATO's first bombs on March 24. The second wave left when the
center of the city was bombed on April 6 and 7, and the third wave left
later, out of a panic that something may happen. Zoran Andjelkovic,
president of the then governing Provisional Executive Council for Kosovo,
pointed out that the first ten days or so of chaos included fierce clashes
among angry civilians. Criminal gangs ran wild, ordering people to leave
so that their homes could be robbed. Both Albanian and Serbian criminal
gangs roamed the region. Adrian Gillan, in an article in the London Review
of Books, talked with Ben Ward, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. Ward
told him, "There doesn't appear to be anything to support allegations of
mass killings. It is generally paramilitaries who are responsible. It
doesn't seem organized. There appear to be individual acts of sadism
rather than anything else. There seems not to be any policy or
instruction, but that isn't to say that people have not been given the
latitude to kill. However, I don't think at this stage we have anything
that adds up to the systematic killing of civilians." Restoring order was
an extremely difficult task for the Yugoslav Army and security forces
because they were under constant NATO bombardment. Yet, by the third week
of the war they had succeeded in restoring order in much of the region,
and in the latter half of April, Yugoslav police began escorting refugees
back to their homes. By the time Yugoslav troops and security forces
withdrew from Kosovo in early June, they had arrested over 800 thugs and
paramilitaries for crimes against civilians.

At the beginning of the war, Yugoslav troops evacuated villages along the
border with Albania where KLA bunkers and arms depots where found. An
invasion by NATO troops was anticipated, and as one Yugoslav soldier
explained, "You can't be waiting for the American army and at the same
time have armed Albanians behind your back." In an interview for UPI
conducted during the war, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic said, "Our
regular forces are highly disciplined. The paramilitary irregular forces
are a different story. Bad things happened, as they did with both sides
during the Vietnam war, or any other war for that matter. We have arrested
those irregular self-appointed leaders. Some have already been tried and
sentenced to 20 years in prison."

People fled for other reasons as well. There was a clear pattern of people
fleeing areas subjected to intensive bombardment. Some of the refugees Ben
Ward talked with said they had fled from NATO bombs. Other refugees fled
to escape being caught in battles between Yugoslav and KLA forces.
Thousands more fled to avoid forcible conscription into KLA ranks. Every
Albanian man KLA soldiers encountered was forced to enlist. Those who
refused were either savagely beaten or killed.

Refugee flight, though, was never as thorough as painted by NATO
propaganda, and hundreds of thousands of Albanians remained in Kosovo.
Paramilitary rage swept through portions of the western region, while much
of the remainder of the province was unscathed. Even during the period of
bombing, many thousands of Albanian refugees returned to their homes.

The web of lies spun by the NATO propaganda machine started to unravel
once KFOR entered the province. Claiming that there would be half a
million internally displaced people inside the province, KFOR instead
found only small isolated pockets of refugees. "We planned for what we
thought was a potential disaster...and we just haven't found it," admitted
Lt. General Mike McDuffie. Lurid tales of mass genocide fell apart, as
forensic specialists investigated suspected mass graves. Up to 700 bodies
were said to be hidden in the Trepca lead and zinc mines. Not one body was
found there. About 350 were buried in a mass grave in Ljubenic, the public
was told. A thorough examination of the site found only seven. The leader
of the Spanish forensic team, Emilio Perez Pujo, was told that his team
would go to the "worst zone of Kosovo," and to "prepare ourselves to
perform more than 2,000 autopsies." But, "the result is very different. We
only found 187 cadavers." "There were no mass graves" in his team's area,
he said. "For the most part the Serbs are not as bad as they have been
painted." Faced with increasingly embarrassing questions about the lack of
evidence for NATO's justification for military aggression, The Hague war
crimes tribunal scrambled to release a statement asserting that they had
indeed found 2,108 bodies. Far short of genocide, but certainly more than
individual reports of excavations would indicate. Significantly, the
tribunal neglected to categorize these deaths. We are not told how many
bodies of each nationality were found, how many died from executions, how
many were KLA or Yugoslav soldiers killed in combat, how many died from
NATO bombs, and how many died from natural causes.

NATO claimed that its intervention was necessary to quell the civil war in
Kosovo, while neglecting to reveal its role in creating and escalating the
conflict. A September 24, 1998 report on the Monitor television program on
German ARD Television Network, revealed that the German Federal
Intelligence Service [BND] was engaged in "several illegal arms supplies"
to Albania, in cooperation with the Military Counter Intelligence Service
[MAD], and that "via these channels" military equipment was supplied to
the KLA. An ex-MAD official claimed that orders for the illegal arms
shipments were issued "from the very top." Several monitors from the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) patrolling
Kosovo during 1998-99 were CIA officers, revealed The Times on March 12,
2000. Their function was to provide advice and training manuals to the
KLA. The same article reports that Shaban Shala, a KLA commander, met
British, American and Swiss intelligence agents in northern Albanian as
early as 1996. According to Belgrade's Politika Ekspres, "a leak from
well-informed circles in the [secessionist] Democratic League of Kosovo"
disclosed that during a meeting between US envoy Richard Holbrooke and KLA
officers at Junik on June 26, 1998, Holbrooke promised the KLA $10 million
for the purchase of U.S. arms. One week later, Albanian media reported
mysterious flights of U.S. C-130 cargo planes landing at Gjadar airport in
northern Albania, a region under the control of the KLA. None of the
flights were reported to Albanian air traffic controllers, causing alarm
over potential collisions. Paul Beaver, an editor at Jane's Defence Weekly
was told by a Pentagon source, "Even before the air strikes seemed
inevitable, a [Military Professional Resources - MPRI] team was there [in
Kosovo] giving basic military training in tactics to the KLA field
commanders." MPRI is an organization of ex-US military officers that is
contracted by the Pentagon to provide training to foreign armed forces
when it is politically awkward for the U.S. government to be seen as
directly involved. KLA bunkers captured by Yugoslav forces often turned up
sophisticated Western weapons and U.S. food tins and medical packs. The
Fate of the Roma (Gypsy) People in Kosovo

On August 6, we visited Zemun and met with Jovan Damjanovic, president of
the Federal Association of Roma (Gypsy) People in Yugoslavia. A passionate
man, Damjanovic described the horrors visited upon his community by the
KLA following the occupation of the province by KFOR. Once Yugoslav forces
withdrew, there was nothing to restrain the KLA from pursuing its policy
of murdering and driving out every non-Albanian ethnic group, and every
non-secessionist Albanian. Under the protective umbrella of KFOR, the KLA
went on a murderous rampage, killing or expelling virtually everyone who
opposed it and leaving in its wake a trail of burning homes.

Damjanovic told us that the European Union had issued a list of 300
Yugoslav citizens who it banned from travel outside of Yugoslavia. The
United States and several other nations also joined in imposing the travel
restrictions. Individuals whose names are on the list and who have
investments or accounts outside of Yugoslavia had those assets seized.
U.S. intelligence agents visited many of the people on the list, implying
that their names could be removed from the list if they cooperated with
Western attempts to overthrow the democratically elected government of
Yugoslavia. There were also hints that uncooperative individuals would
face trumped-up war crimes charges. Right-wing opposition leader Vuk
Draskovic is not on the list, but he also was told he would face war
crimes charges if he did not join the U.S. effort to topple the
government, an assignment he readily accepted. Almost the entire
government of Yugoslavia is on the list, as well as many prominent people
in the society. On December 6, 1999, the list was expanded to 590 names,
and more than two months later, on February 28, an additional 180 names
were added. Looking over the list of names, I recognized several people we
had met, such as Commissioner for Refugees, Displaced Persons and
Humanitarian Aid Bratislava Morina and President of the Vojvodina Assembly
Zivorad Smiljanic. In Smiljanic's case, Western officials supposedly knew
enough about him to add him to the list, but not enough to spell his name
correctly. Only a complete reading of the list can bring a full
understanding of its vindictive nature. Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic's daughter-in-law is on the list. The Minister of Sport,
apparently, also bears guilt, as do the Minister of Tourism and the
Minister of Family Care. Also punished is the owner of a fashion-clothing
store, the owner of a watch company, bankers, family members of a banker,
and the Secretary of the Red Cross. In short, anyone of prominence who has
not lent him or herself to the Western project to impose a puppet
government is treated as a criminal.

On September 17, 1999, Damjanovic issued a statement condemning the KLA's
pogrom against non-Albanians in Kosovo. "This state of affairs calls into
question the justification for the foreign presence," the statement
declared, and "the exodus of Serbs, Montenegrins, and the Romanies
continues on the lines of the Nazi scenario of fifty years ago, while the
world looks on." It was a strong statement, but also a cry from the heart.
Damjanovic's organization faced the daunting task of providing housing and
aid for the mass exodus of the Romany people from Kosovo. His plea did not
go unnoticed in the West. On December 6, he too, was added to the EU's
travel ban list. Now the president of the Roma people in Yugoslavia, too,
is a criminal.

We were driven to a Roma settlement in Zemun Polje, on the outskirts of
Zemun. Romany residents here and in Zemun itself had taken into their
homes over 5,000 refugees. Coping with this influx placed a considerable
strain on the local population. Those who had little still opened their
arms to help their fellow human beings. It said much for the people, and I
was deeply impressed. This was a poor neighborhood, and several of the
homes demonstrated an ingenuity for improvised construction with found
materials that reminded me of a similar resourcefulness found among poor
residents of Bangkok. One home in particular fascinated me, with what
appeared to be a fur-covered roof, and a fur tail waving aloft from a pole
which protruded from the roof. The moment our cars pulled to a stop, a
crowd gathered. We interviewed several Roma and Egyptian refugees; people
who had lost everything. Krasnic Tefiq brought his family here from Obilic
after KLA soldiers came to his house and threatened to kill him and his
family. For two months they had nowhere to sleep until a family here took
them in, but life was still hard. "We have no food," he told us, "We are
starving. We are begging in the streets for food." Puco Rezeza's
experience was similar. His brother was killed by the KLA, and KLA
soldiers threatened to kill him and his family if they did not leave. He
too told us he was starving. We interviewed several more people, but when
emotions flared, Damjanovic decided to cut short the interviews. As our
cars departed, children ran excitedly behind us, enveloped in the dust
kicked up by our cars. We passed two boys standing by the side of the
road, who pumped their fists in the air, and chanted, "Yugoslavia!
Yugoslavia!"

We resumed our interviews in Zemun the next day. We were surrounded and
pressed on all sides by a crowd of refugees, all anxious to tell us their
stories and to hear what others had to say. The heat was sweltering, and
sweat poured down my back. Estrep Ramadanovic, vice president of the Roma
association, told us that 120,000 out of 150,000 Romany people had been
expelled from Kosovo. Ramadanovic himself had taken 20 refugees into his
home. "The KLA soldiers don't want any other ethnic group to be in
Kosovo," he told us, "Only Albanians." Bajrosha Dulaj was angry. "My
daughter, Anesi Akmeti, was raped by KLA soldiers. At night we were
sleeping in our house, and KLA soldiers broke in and dragged my daughter
out and raped her." Her family's only remaining possessions were the
clothes they wore on the day they were driven from Kosovo. "These are the
only clothes I have. I have no food, nowhere to sleep," she said. "Should
I sleep on the street?" The psychological effects of bombing persisted.
"The children awake at night, calling 'Mama, Mama,' and I have nothing to
give to them. They are afraid of airplanes. They can't sleep well. They
can't eat."

Adan Berisha survived KLA torture. He showed us his wife, who was also
tortured by KLA soldiers. It appeared as if acid had been poured on her
face and arm. The KLA killed their 12-year-old son, Idis, as well as
Adan's father and two of his uncles. "A KLA soldier gave us only three
hours to leave our home," Adan said, "or he would kill us." His voice was
filled with anguish as he concluded, "Sorrow. A world of sorrow."

"KLA soldiers took everything, all my furniture from my home," Rakmani
Elis told us, "and then they burned down my house." Rakmani expressed
himself with a passion that swept all before it. "I'm not against the
American people," he exclaimed, "but this decision they made strikes me as
lunatic. The rights of every people, the Serb, the Montenegrin and the
Gypsy, have been annulled. People are going out to kill, but you, as an
army," - referring to KFOR - "just sit there. Did you come here to help or
to watch this circus going on? Events now are making history. It is not
acceptable what the American people are doing to us. If they came to help,
let me see them help. But if they did not come here to help, then
everyone, Serbs and Gypsies, will be stamped out."

KLA solders had dragged Aysha Shatili and her children from her home, and
started removing her furniture. "I called three British KFOR soldiers for
help. They came, but did nothing," she said. Her son was stabbed in the
back when he attempted to stop the KLA soldiers from looting their home.
Her two houses were then burned down. Like most of the refugees, she too
owned only the clothes she wore on the day she was driven from her home.

Five KLA soldiers visited Hasim Berisha, looking for his brother. "They
told me I have just five minutes to produce my brother or they will kill
my entire family." He left immediately and went to his sister's house. His
sister reported the incident to British KFOR headquarters, where they told
her to go wherever she would like to go, just so she won't be killed.
Hasim checked on his house the following day, and saw that it had been
burned down. His brother was caught by the KLA and severely beaten, and he
too was forced to flee the province.

Abdullah Shefik was fleeing from Urosevac in his van when KLA soldiers
stopped him and ordered him to leave his van with them. "American KFOR
soldiers stood nearby when my van was hijacked," he said, "but they did
nothing." All of his belongings were in the van.

Becet Kotesi told us that when British and French KFOR troops entered
Gnjilane, KLA soldiers "attacked Serbian and Roma people. KFOR did nothing
because they were on the other side of town, but the town is not very big,
so they had to know what was happening." Kotesi was in a pharmacy when the
shooting began, and promptly left to ride his bicycle home. "Three hundred
meters behind me was another man riding a bicycle, and KLA soldiers threw
a grenade at him and killed him." Kotesi fled the province because "KLA
soldiers searched for my compatriots, to beat and kill them because many
fought against them as members of the Yugoslav Army."

A Humanist Scholar, Driven from his Home

The Provisional Executive Council, which governed Kosovo up until the
entry of NATO troops, represented every ethnic group in the province. On
August 8 we interviewed Bajram Haliti, one of the Council's members.
Haliti, a Roma, also serves as Secretary for Development of Information on
the Languages of National Minorities. Always well-dressed and dignified,
he was gentle and soft-spoken, and I took an immediate liking to this
scholarly man who described himself as a humanist. Two years before, he
published a book, "The Roma: a People's Terrible Destiny," concerning the
genocide against the Roma people during the Second World War, and he
kindly gave each of us a copy of his book. In his personal library were
over 500 books in several languages from many countries on the subject of
the Roma and the genocide against them. Both of his homes were burned down
by KLA soldiers, including the library that Haliti had spent a lifetime
collecting. "I can't set a price on that library," he told us. At the
beginning of May 1999, Haliti sent an open letter to President Clinton,
protesting the bombing of his country. In the letter, he wrote, "Everyone
who cares for peace supports Yugoslavia, its leadership and people, who
are fighting for freedom, independence and territorial integrity." Calling
for an end to the bombing, his letter pointed out that "only peaceful
means can lead to a just settlement for all national communities which
live in Kosovo and Metohija." The letter made an impression. Haliti was on
the first travel ban list.

Addressing the issue of the rights of the Albanian people in Kosovo,
Haliti mentioned that a Yugoslav delegation arranged 17 meetings with
secessionists prior to NATO's bombardment. "In those negotiations," he
said, "we wanted to offer the Albanian people maximum legal, cultural and
political autonomy," but the secessionist delegation refused to meet with
them. "Every ethnic group was guaranteed all political, cultural and legal
rights," but secessionist Albanians boycotted institutions. "People
outside of Yugoslavia did not know that Albanians refused to exercise
their rights. For example, Albanians boycotted schools in their own
language, and told the world that they can't receive an education in their
own language." There were 65 newspapers in the Albanian language in
Kosovo, he added. "Many of these newspapers advocated secession, to sever
ties. Not one newspaper was forbidden. In America, if a group put out a
newspaper advocating secession and terrorism, would that newspaper be
allowed to publish?"

"Why doesn't NATO challenge [KLA leader] Hasim Thaci? Why don't they bomb
Hasim Thaci," he asked, "as he carries out massive ethnic cleansing? In
Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija] now, few Serbs remain, few Roma remain and few
Gorans remain.... The Roma people are in a very hard situation. It is the
same situation Jewish people faced in 1939. At that time, Hitler
persecuted every Jew in his territory. And now we have Hasim Thaci. Now
Roma houses are burned down. Roma are expelled by the KLA."

"The hostility toward Roma people is because we want a normal life
together with other ethnic groups, we oppose division of our country, and
we give our political support to the government."

One of our delegation members, Ken Freeland, a pacifist and anti-war
activist from Houston, was keenly interested in a journal edited by
Haliti, Ahimsa, the title of which was taken from Gandhi's term for
non-violence. "Roma people are a peaceful people," Haliti explained. "The
Roma are a cosmopolitan people. Roma do not have a country. The exodus of
the Roma people has brought them to every country, where they are loyal
citizens who live a normal life. The Roma people have earned the right to
give this name to the journal."

Haliti told us that in a few months "we will have our own radio and
television frequencies, and a station" called Romany National Television,
and that he would be the station's chief editor. I wondered in how many
other countries Romanies held government positions. How many other
countries had a Romany radio and television station, in the Romany
language? Were there any, besides Yugoslavia? NATO propaganda had turned
reality completely on its head, painting the most multiethnic society in
the Balkans, in which every nationality was represented in the Kosovo
government, as nationalist and racist.

Haliti and I shared a passion for music, and following our interview, we
had a very interesting discussion of Roma culture, and the contribution of
the Romany people to the world of music. Haliti told us that flamenco
music originated among Roma people, and also talked of several prominent
Roma musicians, such as jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and flamenco
musician Camaron De La Isla.

Twelve days later, Haliti was again interviewed, this time by Tanjug, the
Yugoslav news agency. "It is useless to talk about the position and the
rights of Romanies, as the UN peace mission is unable to protect any
inhabitants of the province, including ethnic Albanians who do not accept
the terror of their extremist fellows," he declared. KLA leaders "reject
the fundamental democratic and humane principles on which contemporary
civilization rests and without which there can be no peace or stability in
multiethnic communities." It will be a long time before Bajram Haliti's
name is removed from the travel ban "enemies list."

War on Belgrade

One of NATO's innovations was a rather novel form of censorship. On April
23, missiles slammed into Radio Television Serbia (RTS) in downtown
Belgrade, killing 16. The studio, NATO claimed, was a "legitimate military
target" because it broadcast "propaganda," meaning, of course, that it was
reporting the effects of NATO's bombing. RTS Belgrade was passing footage
of destruction to Western media, a practice that evidently had to be
stopped. CNN had a studio there, but was warned of the attack beforehand
and pulled out its equipment and personnel. CNN invited Serbian Minister
of Information Aleksandar Vucic to the studio for a live broadcast
interview. Vucic was asked to arrive for makeup at 2:00 AM sharp on April
23, for an interview scheduled to take place half an hour later. At 2:20,
RTS was no more. Shortly after the attack, RTS employee Sava Andjelkovic
described the scene. "A wall behind me virtually vanished, and then the
entire wing of the building. We heard screams of wounded people." Several
people were trapped in the rubble, and it was some time before all of the
survivors could be rescued. Vucic was more fortunate. His tardiness spared
his life, foiling the attempted assassination.

By the time of our visit, the rubble had been cleared, but the building
still stood with one wing sheared away, the multi-floor building standing
with each floor exposed. Nearby, missing railings and smashed windows at
the Dusko Radovic Children's Theater hinted at greater damage within.

RTS Belgrade was not alone. Radio and television stations and towers
throughout Yugoslavia were targeted. Our host Nikola demonstrated what was
on his television. Only static could be found on state channels. Untouched
were opposition channels, as well as music video and fashion channels, and
always there was access to Western cable. Western media stories about the
so-called "media dictatorship" in Yugoslavia, like all Western media
stories about Yugoslavia, are less believable for those who visit there.
We stopped at the Tanjug Press Center, housed in an aged and
unprepossessing building. As we climbed the stairs, delegation member
Michael Parenti pointed to several steps that were missing chunks of
concrete and quipped, "So this is the well-oiled Milosevic propaganda
machine we hear so much about." Not far away, an opposition-owned
television station, housed in a tall gleaming modern building, towered
above its surroundings. The U.S. and European Union have funnelled
millions of dollars to opposition media in Yugoslavia. One wonders what
the reaction would be in the United States were a hostile foreign
government to fund American media advocating the overthrow of the
government. In Yugoslavia, this media, bought and paid for, operated
freely. Newsstands were everywhere, and perusal revealed that a flood of
opposition newspapers and magazines vastly outnumbered pro-government
publications such as Politika, Borba, and Vecernje Novosti. It presented
an interesting study in semantics. A media dictatorship is where state
television cannot be viewed, but opposition television can; where there
are three pro-government papers and dozens of opposition papers. In the
United States, freedom of the press is lauded. One can pick up any
newspaper in any city with the confident expectation that it will have
essentially the same content as any other newspaper in any other city.
Alternative publications, often tepid and predictable, are marginalized
and often difficult to find, virtually to the point of irrelevance.

NATO's media war against Yugoslavia continues unabated. In place of bombs,
more subtle methods are implemented, outside the perception of the
American public. As state television returns to the air, transmitters
based in neighboring countries jam it. Such stations as Voice of America,
BBC, Radio Free Europe and USA Radio broadcast on Yugoslav state radio and
television frequencies. While we were in Yugoslavia, on August 11, RTS
issued a statement condemning this "media occupation," and pointing out
that these "frequencies were awarded to our country by international
conventions" and that this "violates all international standards in the
sphere of telecommunications." Appeals to international law fell on deaf
ears.

From RTS, a long trolley ride took us to the Belgrade suburb of Rakovica.
There we viewed the 21st of May Industrial Complex, which manufactured
automobile engines, and like many factories throughout Yugoslavia, it lay
in ruins. Now it was merely a mass of twisted wreckage; steel pipes,
girders and concrete jumbled together. The deliberate targeting of
factories was an extension of sanctions, an attempt at economic
strangulation. Over 600,000 people lost their jobs during the period of
bombing, raising the number of unemployed to over two million. About $100
billion damage was inflicted on Yugoslavia, president of the Trade Union
Association Radoslav Ilic announced during the war. "This aggression has
all the characteristics of a dirty war," he said, "in which workers are
the biggest sufferers. Workers and the products of their work have become
military targets, and the international progressive public is too slow in
awakening." Much of the Western progressive public still slumbers.

While in Rakovica, we met a refugee from Bosnia-Herzegovina who had
earlier worked in Germany for seven years. He wanted to show us his
child's school, the France Presern elementary school, one of dozens of
schools targeted by NATO. Virtually every window was broken and several
window frames were damaged. The doors were locked, so we were unable to
view interior damage. He told us that the school year would begin in two
weeks, and wondered where his child would go to school.

Kosovo's Other Albanians

Later that afternoon we met with three Albanian refugees from Kosovo. All
three, Faik Jasari, Corin Ismali and Fatmir Seholi, were members of the
Kosovo Democratic Initiative, an Albanian political party that favored a
multiethnic Kosovo within Yugoslavia and opposed the KLA's policy of
secession and racial exclusion. Jasari is president of the Kosovo
Democratic Initiative, as well as a member of the Provisional Executive
Council, which governed Kosovo prior to NATO's occupation of the province.
Jasari said he was forced to flee from his home in Gnjilane on June 18th
because "members of the KLA were showing photos of my family and me to
people, trying to find us. I am now at the top of the list of people the
KLA is looking for." Jasari lost everything. "My wife and I worked for 34
years, and now we have nothing. Nothing." Barry asked him if he was afraid
for his life. "Yes. I am afraid.....If they find me, they will kill me."
He had good reason to be afraid. The KLA had already killed several
hundred pro-Yugoslav Albanians. Many more were beaten and tortured. In
all, Jasari said, the KLA had expelled over 150,000 Albanians from Kosovo,
both before and after the entry of KFOR. He could not stand idly by, and
sent a letter to UN Special Representative for Kosovo Bernard Kouchner,
asking "to visit with him and discuss the situation in Kosovo and with my
party." Predictably, his letter went unanswered. "Where is democracy and
pluralism in Kosovo? I can't go there," he told us. I can't take part in
the political process. Where is democracy?" All of NATO's pretty-sounding
phrases about democracy and human rights, aimed at the Western domestic
audience, rang hollow for him.

When asked about reports of Serbian oppression of Albanians, Jasari
responded firmly, "It is not true. It is not true. I am Albanian and I
have all the same rights as any Serbian."

Corin Ismali, Under-Secretary for National Social Questions in the
Provisional Executive Council, also attempted to meet with Kouchner, and
he too was rebuffed. Ismali was forced from his home by threats from KLA
soldiers, he explained, "because I supported Yugoslavia and I opposed
secession....We want to live with other ethnic groups in Yugoslavia. We do
not want to live in a country that has only one ethnic group."

Fatmir Seholi worked in public relations for the Kosovo Democratic
Initiative, and was chief editor at Radio Television Pristina. "I must
point out," he said, "that the Albanian people had more media than did the
Serbian people" in Kosovo. "You could find only one newspaper in the
Serbian language, but you could find about 65 newspapers in the Albanian
language." That one Serbian newspaper was closed down shortly after the
arrival of KFOR in Kosovo. Seholi studied at Pristina University, and
pointed out that Albanian people were able to study in their own language.
"I think that America did not have the right information about Albanian
people in Kosovo, or did not want to get the correct information about the
rights of Albanian people in Kosovo."

The tragedy that befell Seholi's country had disillusioned him. "Until the
NATO bombing, I loved and<br/><br/>(Message over 64 KB, truncated)

From "International Policy" - http://www.inaffairs.org.yu


John Catalinotto
International Coordinator in
Ramsey Clark's International Action Center


NATO Must Be Abolished

In the name of the International Action Center and its president, former
US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, I would like to thank the Institute
for
International Politics and Economics for inviting us to participate in
this important symposium to discuss the roots and the consequences of
the
war of aggression the US-led NATO powers waged against the people of
Yugoslavia.

Yugoslavia has always had a special place in our hearts. Why? Exactly
because the ideal of Yugoslavia is that of a multi-ethnic,
multi-national,
multi-religious state founded on social justice and equality of
nationalities, religions and languages.

The greatest military powers on earth – just a year ago– unleashed a
vicious, cold-blooded war against the people of Yugoslavia. These powers
expected the Yugoslavs to beg for mercy after two, three days at most.
Instead, the people here stood up bravely to 78 days of relentless
bombing. We are proud to be here on this anniversary among such people.
We
only regret we couldn't have done more in our own country to stop the
bombing and the war waged against you.

Long Live Yugoslavia!

Since the defeat of the Soviet Union strategists in US ruling circles
have
promoted the policy of expanding NATO and using that military pact as a
world policeman. This policy is directed against smaller and weaker
countries in Africa and the Middle East. It is also aimed at plundering
the East, up to the Caspian Sea with its oil riches.

While the major NATO powers are military allies, they are rivals for
markets, resources and areas to invest in. The US strategy of expanding
NATO is also aimed at keeping these powerful rivals in line behind
Washington.

The people of Yugoslavia were the direct targets of this policy. But
they
were only the first part of the world's peoples endangered by a strategy
that leads towards bigger, more dangerous wars – unless the people of
the
world are able to stop it.

WHO MAKES UP NATO

With the exception of Japan and Australia, NATO includes all the major
industrial and financial powers: the United States, Germany, France,
Britain, Italy and Canada. These six plus Japan make up the G-7
countries
that set economic rules for the world.

The corporate and financial rulers of these countries control the bulk
of
the world's wealth, both in these industrialized countries themselves
and
in what can be described as the oppressed countries or the Third World.

These capitalist countries were the first to industrialize, they are now
the most advanced in technology, they control the mass media, and of
course they manufacture the most powerful weapons and are the most
heavily
armed. They sell weapons to the world but keep the most powerful and
advanced weapons for themselves.

They include the big colonial powers of the 19th century – Britain and
France – that directly ruled vast parts of the earth, and others that
held
colonies like Germany (Namibia, Tanzania), the Netherlands (Indonesia)
and
Belgium (Congo). Now there are few direct colonies, but through control
of
the world market, currency exchange rates and banking, and on the basis
of
their technological advantages, they now indirectly control and oppress
most of the world. In 1878 they met in Berlin and carved up the Balkans.
In 1885 they met in Berlin and carved up Africa into spheres of
influence.
In 1999 they met in Bosnia and carved up Kosovo for the so-called
peace-keeping forces.

It should never be forgotten that, while pursuing their rivalry for
markets, colonies and raw materials in the first half of this century,
these predatory states launched two world wars that together killed 100
to
200 million people.

Of these seven countries, the United States, with the greatest single
national economy and by far the biggest military power, is now the most
dangerous to the rest of the world.

This analysis will focus on statements coming from United States
military
and diplomatic leaders and from their own media. Yet it will clearly
show
how the war against Yugoslavia was premeditated, planned in advance,
with
wide-ranging geostrategic goals, and that it contains the seeds of new
wars.

1992 PENTAGON WHITE PAPER

On March 8, 1992, the New York Times published excerpts from a 46-page
White Paper
leaked by Pentagon officials. This paper asserts the need for complete
US world domination in
both political and military terms and threatens other countries that
even aspire to a greater role.
The public threats seem to be aimed at the European powers and Japan.
Here's some part of
what it said:

"Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival...
First, the US must show the
leadership necessary to establish and protect a new order that holds the
promise of convincing
potential competitors that they need not aspire to a greater role or
pursue a more aggressive
posture to protect their legitimate interests. We must account
sufficiently for the interests of the
advanced industrial nations to discourage them from seeking to overturn
the established political
and economic order. Finally, we must maintain the mechanism for
deterring potential competitors
from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role".

Regarding Europe, the document continues:

"It is of fundamental importance to preserve NATO as the primary
instrument of Western defense
and security... We must seek to prevent the emergence of European-only
security arrangements
which would undermine NATO".

GEN. DUGAN'S PLAN FOR THE BALKANS

It wasn't too long before strategists began adapting this policy to the
developing crisis in the
Balkans.

Retired Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael J. Dugan and George Kenney
of the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace wrote an opinion piece for the New
York Times published
November 29, 1992, entitled "Operation 'Balkan Storm': Here's a Plan".

"A win in the Balkans would establish US leadership in the post-Cold War
world in a way that
Operation Desert Storm never could". Dugan laid out a scenario of
building a coalition with
Britain, France and Italy on an ad hoc basis, if possible, because he
believed the United Nations
Security Council would not approve a NATO assault. He described arming
the pro-US Bosnian
forces to use "unconventional" operations in Bosnia to force the UN to
suspend humanitarian
programs.

Then, he said, massive air power should be used against Serbs in Bosnia
and Serbia. Dugan
suggested using aircraft carriers, F-15s, F-16s, F-18s, and F-111s,
Tomahawk missiles, and the
JSTARS surveillance system to destroy Serbia's electricity grid,
refineries, storage facilities, and
communications. "But the US costs in blood and treasure would be modest
compared with that of
Bosnian trauma".

Gen. Dugan was infamous for his interview in September 1990 where he
candidly laid out US
plans for the massive assault on and destruction of Iraq. For speaking
out so frankly, he was
relieved of his command. But the US carried out this vicious plan
against Iraq.

His scenario for Bosnia too was carried out a little over six years
later, but starting instead from
Kosovo. And by then Washington was able to push and pull all of NATO
behind it while the UN
was left powerless.

From 1993 to 1995 in Bosnia the US, through NATO, increasingly used air
power against
Bosnian and Croatian Serbs as well as against those Muslim forces that
opposed the Izetbegovic
regime.

In August and September 1995, NATO launched a massive air war against
positions of the
Bosnian Serbs. The combination of these air raids with the NATO-enforced
economic blockade
led to the Dayton Accords of 1995. As part of the agreement, 60,000 NATO
troops, 20,000 of
them US soldiers, were sent into Bosnia under US command.

Earlier, a German/French-backed European force intervened in Bosnia,
where it attempted to
broker a truce. But US officials prodded the Bosnian regime to sabotage
this agreement, leading
to more bloodshed. Finally, US officials brokered the Dayton Accords on
more or less the same
terms except with a major US role as the occupying army.

A large new NATO base was established in Hungary to facilitate troop
deployment in Bosnia.
The US also established new bases in Macedonia and northern Albania.
(San Francisco
Chronicle, September 12, 1995)

As early as 1990, the US government had put in place plans for a
military occupation of Eastern
Europe and possibly parts of the former Soviet Union. That plan included
the 100,000 strong
Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps, the NATO unit in charge of
the Bosnia
operation.

At the end of November 1995, Reuters reported that: "The Allied Command
Europe Rapid
Reaction Corps (ARRC), based at Rheindahlen in western Germany, has
worked relatively
unnoticed since 1992 to put into practice NATO's new emphasis... (It
has) NATO's full array of
firepower (and) a tailor-made fighting force of up to 100,000 soldiers
able to deploy quickly. As
ARRC commander, British Lt.-Gen. Michael Walker, is in charge of running
the multinational
ground force to be stationed in and around Bosnia for NATO's first
ground deployment outside
its own area. The corps, with headquarters in Sarajevo, is taking three
divisions into Bosnia. Two
of them, the US First Armored Division and the British Third Mechanized
Division, are
permanently assigned to it. The third division is French".

The US used the Bosnia operation as a wedge for the expansion of NATO
into Eastern Europe.

AUGUST 1998, ATTACK ON YUGOSLAVIA AT WORK

By August 4, 1998 the Clinton administration confirmed that NATO had
developed detailed plans
for an attack on Yugoslavia. Sources told the New York Times that the
focus is on "a variety of
air-power options that could punish or intimidate".

On July 29, 1998, the Albanian government had announced that 76 top NATO
officers were in
Tirana, the capital, to plan "joint Albania–NATO exercises" from August
17 to August 22, 1998
within 50 miles of the border with Kosovo. The maneuvers will prepare
NATO and Albanian
troops for a "peacekeeping mission". Similar exercises are planned for
Macedonia in September.

These maneuvers were recommended in a March 20, 1998 position paper of
the International
Crisis Group, a think-tank with White House ties, headed by former
Senate Democratic Leader
George Mitchell.

That report also recommended "an international force in Albania close to
the borders of Kosovo
to help prevent the conflict in Kosovo from spreading and... facilitate
rapid and effective action
should an intervention become necessary". On July 29, 1998, German
Foreign Minister Klaus
Kinkel recommended similar action by NATO.

An article in the November 28, 1998 New York Times, headlined "A policy
struggle stirs within
NATO", provided advance notice of US plans to expand NATO's use beyond
Europe.

Washington wanted NATO forces ready to intervene not only in the Balkans
and against
countries like Iraq or Iran in the Middle East, or Libya, Sudan or Congo
in Africa – but against
any attempt at a popular revolution anywhere, from Russia to Indonesia.

UN Security Council resolutions have often provided a cover for US
military intervention –
against Korea in 1950 and Iraq in 1991, for example. Yet the council is
not certain to ratify all US
military aggression.

Washington noted in its "mission statement" for NATO that the alliance
may act without the
Security Council's approval. US officials argue that otherwise a Russian
or Chinese veto could
stop a military action. One NATO official brazenly explained this to the
Times: "A Security
Council mandate is highly desirable but we should not tie our hands in
advance".

US – EUROPE CONFLICTS

On March 4, 1999:

– A Marine court martial in North Carolina acquitted the captain whose
jet fighter-bomber
snapped a gondola cable in the Italian Alps a year before, killing 20
European tourists. Italians
protested.

– The state of Arizona executed by lethal injection German-American
Walter LaGrand. The
German government protested.

– Media worldwide announced that the Clinton administration imposed 100
percent import duties
on selected European-produced goods. The European Union protested.

These three seemingly unrelated events expressed open economic
competition between US
business interests and those of its former Cold War "allies" in Western
Europe, a competition
carried out through the national states.

Within three weeks this competition was buried under the weight of US
air power. When
Belgrade refused to sign the Rambouillet surrender terms, Washington
used this pretext to launch
a war against Yugoslavia.

By the time the North Atlantic Treaty Organization celebrated its 50th
anniversary on April 4,
1999, it had just made its first military assault beyond its borders and
carried out the largest
bombing in Europe since World War II.

Washington used the war against Yugoslavia to impose its changes on NATO
– changing it from a
no-longer-needed anti-Soviet alliance to an intervention force ready to
strike worldwide. NATO
powers met in Washington in late April to ratify this proposal.

In addition, the US government had recently succeeded in gaining NATO
admission for Poland,
Hungary and the Czech Republic over the objection of other NATO members.
It then pulled
these three countries directly into the war.

The brutal bombing of Yugoslavia gives the first example of how the US
wants to use the new,
post-Cold War NATO to lead its European allies into battle. Washington
says the NATO
countries have an "alliance of interests". What this means is the common
need of the predatory
ruling classes in the US and Europe to suppress any popular revolt that
threatens their ability to
plunder the raw materials and labor of the rest of the world.

It also means a common interest in preventing any newer capitalist
country from being able to
challenge the G-7's domination of the world economy. Neither would-be
capitalists in Russia and
Eastern Europe nor up-and-coming entrepreneurs in south Korea or
Indonesia will be allowed to
challenge the supremacy of US, West European and Japanese capital. They
will have to consider
themselves fortunate to get crumbs off the tables of their masters.

Along with this "alliance of interests", however, there is also a bitter
rivalry between the same
powers over economic and strategic interests. This has already burst out
with the "banana war"
and the battle between the US and the European Union over
hormone-fattened meat.

Washington's first de facto expansion of NATO's role is against
Yugoslavia. To contain the
competing interests of the NATO countries and submit them all to US
strategic control,
Washington had NATO be the instrument for its conquest of Yugoslavia.

Throughout the 11-week assault on Yugoslavia by most of the world's
biggest military powers,
US and European mainstream politicians of all political shades tried to
give the impression that the
NATO forces were united, whatever trade rivalries and military
maneuvering were going on
behind the scenes.

But no sooner had Yugoslavia agreed to terms the European Union's
leaders made a remarkable
statement: the European Union, up to now a primarily economic alliance
centered around German
banks and industry, announced plans to emerge as a military power.

Leaders from 15 European countries announced the move on June 3, 1999 –
the same day that
the Yugoslav leadership announced its acceptance, on paper, of NATO's
onerous terms.

"The union must have the capacity for autonomous action", the EU
statement read, "backed up by
credible military forces, the means to decide to use them, and a
readiness to do so, in order to
respond to international crises without prejudice to actions by NATO".

Make no mistake. The emergence of a new European military power does not
bode well for
ordinary working people anywhere. European workers in particular can
look forward to having
more of their labor robbed to fund the new military apparatus while
social services are cut – an
experience US workers have been forced to endure for decades.

WASHINGTON A REPEAT OFFENDER

Just since World War II, Washington has fought the Korean War;
overthrown the elected
governments of Guatemala, Iran, Chile, Indonesia; fought wars against
the people of Central
America; invaded Lebanon; carried out a genocidal war in Indochina, in
which millions of
Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians and more than 50,000 US troops died;
and enforced an
economic blockade against Iraq that has taken the lives of more than a
million and a half people,
half of them children under the age of five. The real objective of the
war on Yugoslavia is to
re-balkanize the Balkans – to break up Yugoslavia into small, easily
controllable and digestible
pieces, in order to insure US/NATO, and especially US, domination of
this key strategic region.

While 10 years ago it had no bases in Eastern Europe, today the United
States has military bases
in Albania, Macedonia, Hungary, Bosnia and Croatia. Washington and its
NATO partners have
cut up Kosovo into little pieces, occupation zones. And they have
assisted in forcing out all ethnic
and national groups who were not Albanian, and even some Albanians.

Thomas Friedman, who writes for the New York Times – is a thoroughly
despicable individual
who is now held up as the highest example of US journalism. Friedman
wrote approvingly on
March 28, 1999: "For globalization to work, America can't be afraid to
act like the almighty
superpower that it is. The hidden hand of the market will never work
without a hidden fist.
McDonald's cannot flourish without McDonnell-Douglas, the designer of
the F-15, and the hidden
fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley's technology is called
the United States Army, Air
Force, Navy and Marine Corps".

NEW US MILITARY BUILDUP

US military superiority is the key to US global economic domination. The
United States does not
have superiority over its rivals just by virtue of its economic system
and technology. But what it
does have is this vast military apparatus to implement its will.

A new military buildup is already under way, even though the United
States today already spends
more on its military that the rest of the UN Security Council combined.
Having spent US$ 19
trillion since 1940 on the military, the US government proposes to spend
an additional US$ 1,2
trillion in the next four years.

But Washington doesn't want to be the only one spending on the military.
US Defense Secretary
William Cohen used an evaluation of the war against Yugoslavia to bully
the NATO allies into
accepting US policies at an "informal meeting" of 19 NATO defense
ministers in Toronto
September 21–22, 1999.

Cohen said NATO won the war with US "precision-guided weapons" and other
high-tech
systems. Speaking of European NATO members, he said that "in some cases
countries would
have to spend more money" to buy such weapons – by implication from US
arms makers.

Speaking earlier at the Institute of Strategic Studies in San Diego on
September 9, 1999, Defense
Secretary William Cohen boasted of the US role in this bombing. He
outlined what he would
demand from France, Britain, Germany and the other European powers
regarding the US's new
NATO proposal called the Defense Capabilities Initiative.

"We have all agreed to develop forces that are more mobile, beginning
with the reassessment of
NATO's strategic lift requirements for planning purposes. We need
forces, we've agreed, that can
sustain themselves longer; that means having a logistics system that
will ensure they have the
supplies when and where they need them".

Cohen said the NATO powers need "forces that can engage more
effectively; that means having
the new advanced technologies such as greater stocks of precision-guided
munitions and forces
that can survive better against chemical, biological or nuclear weapons,
and also information
warfare".

EUROPEAN SECURITY AND DEFENSE IDENTITY

Cohen and his European allies had different views on what the so-called
European Security and
Defense Identity (ESDI) should mean. Washington would oppose any force
that challenges its
domination even in Europe itself. Washington sees the ESDI as a way of
harnessing European
militarism back into NATO – where the Pentagon holds the reins. That's
what Cohen told
reporters in Toronto on September 22.

"There was unanimity of expression (supporting ESDI)", he said. "This is
important for the
Europeans to undertake. It is important also to make sure that it is not
seen as a separate
institution and capability, but rather that it is maintained under the
umbrella so to speak of
NATO".

On September 22, French Press Agency report noted that ESDI was supposed
to allow
European NATO members to carry out "a peacekeeping operation, for
example, using NATO
materiel and resources but not involving the US or Canada. It was
unclear, however, how the
Europeans would be able to act independently while relying on assets
under the control of an
alliance still dominated by the Pentagon".

Cohen wants a situation in which the European NATO countries take the
risks of wartime
casualties and pay the costs, but where US control of strategic weapons
and logistics gives
Washington all the trump cards.

It's clear that Cohen expects NATO to fight future wars of a Kosovo size
and bigger – and more
distant from the United States or Western Europe. Now, without a USSR,
Washington wants
NATO to be a world cop. And Cohen expects the European governments to
pick up a big share
of the costs of expansion. But he was definitely talking about "the next
war", without clarifying if
that war was against Iraq, Libya, in the Balkans, in Central Asia, in
Africa, against the Colombian
revolutionaries, against the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.
Perhaps it will be some new
target with a leader the US media demonizes.

Because NATO is such a threat to peace, Ramsey Clark has declared
publicly that he sees no
other alternative but to abolish NATO. And we in the International
Action Center have made this
demand central to our anti-war work.

WHAT IS OUR ROLE?

This conference is doing an excellent job analyzing the war against
Yugoslavia and its
consequences. But our responsibility is not simply to analyze the world,
but to change it. NATO's
armies are strong, but they too have weaknesses. The US military fears
that any significant
casualties among US troops will arouse a mass anti-war movement as
happened during the war
against Vietnam. Some of the other European powers have populations that
are also reluctant to
back a war that demands sacrifices. They are in conflict with each
other. All this raises possibilities
to fight back.

I especially address this to those of us here from the very NATO
countries that waged aggression
against Yugoslavia. Our responsibility is to use the facts and analysis
from here to mobilize our
home populations to fight the government's policies, to lift the
sanctions against Yugoslavia, to
send aid – really reparations for the crimes committed.

On June 10, the International Action Center is holding a day-long
International Tribunal on
US/NATO War Crimes Against Yugoslavia in New York. Our initial hearing
last July 31 inspired
or encouraged a dozen US cities. Those working in parallel with us held
similar hearings in Oslo,
Novi Sad, Berlin, Rome, Vienna, Moscow, Kiev, Sydney, and even Tokyo.
The most dramatic
was a mass people tribunal in Athens last fall where thousands found
Clinton guilty of war crimes.
More hearings are planned for Belgrade, Hamburg, Prague, Boston and
elsewhere.

We do not expect to make the people in power see reason and change their
minds. These
tribunals are a way to mobilize mass public opinion and build a movement
that can fight the
governments that wage these wars. In the International Action Center we
also support the
struggles of oppressed groups in the United States – or example, the
fight to free political prisoner
Mumia Abu-Jamal. Only by building bridges to others can we succeed in
turning back the US war
machine.

On June 10, former Attorney General Ramsey Clark will prosecute US and
NATO leaders for
19 charges of war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against
humanity. International expert
witnesses will present testimony. And a distinguished international
panel of judges will hear the
case. Come and be part of this historic event.

Down with NATO! Long live Yugoslavia!


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------

SULLE ELEZIONI NELLA RF DI JUGOSLAVIA


Gentile Tommaso Di Francesco,
nei giorni precedenti la tornata elettorale in Jugoslavia abbiamo notato
uno zelo particolare da parte tua e del tuo giornale nel sostegno ad uno
dei candidati della opposizione di destra, il liberista e nazionalista
Kostunica. In particolare, nel tuo articolo "I profughi dimenticati di
Belgrado"
(http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/23-Settembre-2000/art13.htm)
sostieni che "solo Kostunica non ha smesso di insistere sulla questione
Kosovo e sul rientro dei profughi", sorvolando sul fatto che proprio
Kostunica in Kosovo e' stato preso a sassate in faccia dai serbi sotto
assedio, mentre l'attuale governo jugoslavo chiede costantemente che, in
applicazione alla Risoluzione ONU 1244, non solo rientrino i profughi,
ma persino alle forze di sicurezza jugoslave sia consentito di
rientrare. Per quanto riguarda il voto ai profughi, tu biasimi Milosevic
che non li fa votare; a parte il fatto che i profughi hanno
tranquillamente diritto di voto nei loro seggi (in Kosovo), ma non
possono esercitarlo perche' - appunto - sono profughi (ma la colpa di
questo di chi e'?): se il governo jugoslavo avesse organizzato dei seggi
elettorali appositi nei campi profughi tu avresti sicuramente scritto
che sarebbe stata una "speculazione politica di Milosevic" per
garantirsi i voti dei profughi.
Comunque si voglia girare la frittata, la colpa e' di Milosevic.
D'altronde, lo dicono pure tutti gli altri giornali.

Saluti
Coordinamento Romano per la Jugoslavia

PS. non contiamo nella pubblicazione, ma una risposta diretta ci sarebbe
gradita.
PPS. perche', piuttosto, non pubblicate l'intervista di Juergen
Elsaesser a Mihailo Markovic? Se c'e' un problema di copyright crediamo
sia facilmente risolvibile... O non e' quello il motivo?


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------

DA PEACELINK: A PROPOSITO DI LIBERTA' DI VOTO


------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date forwarded: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 04:37:12 +0200
From: "francesco iannuzzelli" <francesco@...>
Organization: peacelink
To: pck-armamenti@...

Come segnalato in home page dalla testimonianza di Zoran, gli
USA stanno compiendo parecchie operazioni militari in
concomitanza con il voto in Yugoslavia.

In Kosovo sono arrivati altri 4 battaglioni di truppe alleate portando
la K-For a 45.000 effettivi.

Nella confinante Romania forze della Nato insieme a rumeni,
svizzeri e bulgari simulano un "intervento teso a riportare la pace in
un paese sconvolto dalla guerra civile".

In Slovacchia e Repubblica Ceca si svolgono le manovre "Blue Line
2000" con piloti e jet statunitensi.

Le operazioni piu' significative pero' riguardano l'esercitazione
congiunta tra truppe USA e croate, sia di terra che di mare, che si
svolgera' dal 25 al 29 settembre, coinvolgendo 600 soldati
americani e 9.000 croati nelle citta' di Spalato e Sebenik.

Sono accompagnati da due unita' di trasporto per operazioni
anfibie, la USS Austin e la USS Saipan, che nei giorni scorsi era
nel porto di Trieste (prima ancora a La Spezia).

Inoltre la portaerei Washington, a propulsione nucleare, e' stata
trasferita all'ultimo momento dal Golfo Persico all'Adriatico, dove e'
giunta in questi giorni.

Il dipartimento della difesa statunitense ha smentito ogni legame
tra queste manovre e le concomitanti elezioni yugoslave...

ciao
francesco


Fonti:

Reuters:
http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=2205001&ern=y

Analisidifesa:
http://www.analisidifesa.it/numero7/natobelg.htm



francesco iannuzzelli francesco@...
associazione peacelink - sez. disarmo
http://www.peacelink.it


===


DUE MESSAGGI DA MICHEL COLLON, PRESENTE IN JUGOSLAVIA


Message urgent de Michel Collon de Belgrade



L?opposition va provoquer des incidents Dimanche soir. Ils diront qu?ils
ont gagné les élections à 9 heures, les bureaux
fermant à 8 heures. Mais les résultats officiels n?étant connus qu?à
minuit. Ils diront que les sondages étaient à leur
faveur et que si Milosevic gagne ça ne peut être qu?une fraude. Ils
cherecheront des bagares avec la police et avoir de
mauvaises images. Peut-être aussi des incidents à Montenegro.

Pourtant les sondages ne sont pas fiables, reconnaît même un responsable
des observateurs dits indépendants, organisés
par l?opposition et les USA, qui reconnaît qu?on ne peut rien prédire.

La tactique de déstabilisation est bien coordonnée, les prix augmentent
chacun de ces derniers jours, on (qui?) organise des
pénuries, huile et sucre sont retirés, les gens se ruent pour stocker.
Les prix augmentent, un dinar de plus chaque jour pour
un mark. L?atmosphère devient engoissante.

La différence entre les meetings électoraux frappe. A celui de Milosevic
: « En tant que colonie, nous ne serions jamais
libres des sanctions car le statut de colonie c?est la pire forme de
sanctions ». Les gens sont fiers de ce qu?ils ont fait :
resister. Milosevic a beaucoup reconstruit. Mais bien sûr, il y a la
lassitude des sanctions et les illusions de la jeunesse qui
n?a pas vecu le fascisme. Il y a un fosse entre générations, d?autant
que l?Ouest envahit la jeunesse avec sa pub et son
modèle de consommation.

Et au meetings de Kostunica, les gens sont tristes, ils sont vite partis
apres le discours, il ne restent même pas pour le
concert. C?est normal, il se prétend un homme de principes mais il est
en train de vendre la souveraineté du pays.

L?opposition, trouvera-t-elle assez de gens pour le soutenir dans ces
incidents ? On verra?

Je ne sais pas comment ca va tourner, en tout cas ça valait la peine de
venir ici. Il faut se préparer au pire et mobiliser les
gens


> Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2000 17:24:19 +0200
> From: Marko Atanasievski
> To: pdevos@...
> Subject: Message de Michel Collon de Belgrade
>
> Nous sommes ici plus de 200 observateurs venus de 53 pays (Russie,
> Argentine, Chili, Jordanie, Chine, Allemagne, etc) pour contr^oler la
> legalite des elections en Yougoslavie.
> Au parlement, nous avons rencontre la commission de supervision des
> elections qui nous a explique les regles. En fait, elles ressemblent
> tout a fait a ce quon voit dans les pays occidentaux: vote secret,
> bulletins controles, dans tous les bureaux de vote, commissions de
> controle ouvertes a tous les partis.
> En fait, les methodes electorales sont celles pronees par l'OSCE,
> Organisation pour la Cooperation et la Securite en Europe, qui avait
> d'ailleurs declare parfaitement correctes les elections yougoslaves
> de 1996.
> On se demande alors pourquoi la presse occidentale repete inlassablement
> que les elections seront truquees pour permettre a Milosevic de gagner.
> Parce qu'elle pense que l'opposition va perdre? Parce que l'Otan
> cherche un pretexte pour intervenir a nouveau?
> Nous avons essaye de repondre a cette question, ce samedi matin, en
> echangeant nos observations entre observateurs d'une vingtaine de
> pays. D'abord, nous avons constate qu'a l'etranger, on racontait des
> choses assez incroyables. En Hongrie, la presse pretend que les
> observateurs etrangers viennent seulement de quatre pays (Russie,
> Libye, Irak et Hongrie), qu'ils ne peuvent rencontrer l'opposition et
> que celle ci ne pourra etre dans les bureaux de vote pour controler
> les operations. Trois mensonges grossiers, nous avons pu le
> constater. Au Canada, les medias ont pretendu que tous les
> journalistes etrangers avaient ete expulses. Archi-faux: il reste ici
> des dizaines de correspondants internationaux meme si cest vrai,
> quelques journalistes ont ete expulses.
> Cest peut etre regrettable dans certains cas, mais il faut aussi
> comprendre: les Yougoslaves ont subi une guerre, des milliers de gens
> ont perdu la vie, leurs maisons, leurs biens, l'Otan a foutu des
> dechets nucleaires un peu partout et ca provoquer des millers de
> cancers dans quelques annes, et toute cette guerre a ete prepare par
> des mediamensonges occidentaux. Aujourdhui, ils sont a nouveau
> nerveux car les Etats Unis manifestement font monter la tension...
> Il y a dix jours, un journal de l'opposition yougoslave a revele que
> Madeleine Albright, ministre US des Affaires etrangeres, avait reclame
> qu'on bombarde a nouveau la Yougoslavie. Proposition non acceptee
> pour l'instant par les autres responsables americains, mais demain
> qu'arrivera-t-il? Avant les guerres precedentes contre la
> Yougoslavie, on avait constate aussi une campagne psychologique
> preparatoire: demonisation de l'adversaire, creation d'un etat de
> tension en lui attribuant des projets agressifs (ici on pretend que
> Milosevic va attaquer le Montenegro, ce qui ne tient pas debout),
> etcetera... Dans cette campagne psychologique, les sondages doivent
> etre consideres comme une arme de propagande parmi d'autres. Selon
> beaucoup de gens a qui j'ai parle, la lutte sera serree. Voteront
> Milosevic ceux qui, en depit de critiques qu'ils lui font, mettent
> pardessus tout la defense de l'independance. Voteront pour
> l'opposition ceux qui, lasses par des annes depreuves et de
> privations, s'efforcent de croire Kostunica et les promesses des
> EtatsUnis. Mais les medias occidentaux avancent que Kostunica serait
> sur de gagner. Ca ne repose pas sur des enquetes serieuses, en fait
> il n'existe pas de sondage scientifiquement fiable. Pourquoi alors ce
> pronostic trompeur? Pour decourager les electeurs yougoslave et pour
> preparer l'opinion occidentale a cette idee: si Milosevic gagne, ce
> ne pourra etre qu'en fraudant, donc nous devrons intervenir de
> nouveau contre la Yougoslavie (par une nouvelle guerre ou de nouveaux
> bombardements? Esperons que non, et faisons tout pour qu'il n'en soit
> pas ainsi). Les Etats Unis ont fourni a l'opposition une serie de
> consultants specialistes de la communication (le genre de ceux qui
> ont assiste Jamie Shea durant la guerre); les sondages trompeurs
> font partie de leur panoplie d'armes psychologiques. Les Etats-Unis
> font aujourd'hui plein de promesses, garantissant aux Yougoslaves
> qu'ils vivront prosperes s'ils votent bien. D'abord, il faut
> remarquer que ces promesses ils les ont deja faites aux Russes, aux
> Bulgares et aux Albanais avec les resultats qu'on sait....
> En Occident, on n'en parle guere, mais ici, on est tres choques par
> les 70 millions de dollars que les Usa reconnaissent verser aux
> partis, medias dits independants et a d'autres organisations. Acheter
> la Yougoslavie? Que diraient les medias occidentaux si Belgrade ou
> Pekin versait 5 milliards de FB (somme equivalente si on compare les
> niveaux de vie) pour aider un parti d'extreme gauche en France parce
> qu'elle ne respecte pas les droits des Corses ou des Basques? Ou en
> Belgique parce qu'elle enferme les refugies dans des prisons?
>
> Redevenons serieux: les Etats-Unis sont en train de preparer
> psychologiquement l'opinion internationale a la possibilite dune
> nouvelle agression (n'oublions pas qu'ils bobardemt impunement l'Irak
> depuis neuf ans!). Ils osent presenter comme une lecon de
> <democratie> le chantage <Votez pour nous ou crevez de faim a moins
> qu'on vous bombarde a nouveau!>
>
> Au moment ou ils preparent un Plan Colombie, veritable declaration de
> guerre contre toute l'Amerique latime et ses nouvelles luttes au
> Venezuela, em Argentine et ailleurs, au moment ou ils soutiennent
> ferocement Israel responsable d'une purification ethnique
> systematique depuis plus de cinquante ans, au moment ou le monde
> entier se mobilise tres positivement contre les injustices de la
> globalisation imposee par les multinationales, il est tres important
> d'arreter cette nouvelle menace d'agression.
>
> Demain, les 200 observateurs se disperseront dans tout le pays ou ils
> pourront tout controler dans les bureaux de vote et les operations de
> comptage. Nous avons convenu d'echanger nos impressions dimache soir
> et lundi matin tres tot. Les resultats devraient etre connus dans la
> nuit. Il me parait tres important de contrer IMMEDIATEMENT la
> desinformation que certains milieux essaient d'organiser au sujet de
> ces elections. Je suggere de contacter d'avance des journalistes
> honnetes pour leur expliquer qu'une autre information est disponible.
> On peut me joindre a l'hotel Intercontinental, chambre 313.
>
> Michel Collon
> samedi 23 septembre, Belgrade


===


IMPORTANTI INFORMAZIONI DALLA BULGARIA

http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/doncheva/electionday.htm

>Election Day Meddling
>A letter from Blagovesta Doncheva in Sofia, Bulgaria
>(9-24-2000)

http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/doncheva/bulgmed.htm

>Bulgaria Meddles in Yugoslav Vote
>
>'Monitor,' [Bulgaria] September 22, p. 1-2-3
>
>Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marin Raikov, is behind an unprecedented
>plan for parallel Yugoslav vote counting from Sofia. Kostov threatens
>Milosevic with "categorical/decisive actions" if he 'manipulates' the vote on
>Sunday...


===


SULLE INTERFERENZE EUROPEE E STATUNITENSI


-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 28, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------

YUGOSLAVIA ELECTIONS: U.S., W. EUROPE USE CARROT &
STICK

By John Catalinotto

With the big vote set for Sept. 24, the European Union and
the U.S. government have stepped up their already blatant
intervention in Yugoslavia's national election. Both the
Yugoslav government and anti-war forces in NATO countries
have reacted with anti-NATO actions.

The EU offered the carrot. In a "message to the Serbian
people" from a Sept. 18 monthly foreign ministers' meeting
in Brussels, the EU said it would lift sanctions if
Yugoslavs voted out President Slobodan Milosevic in the
presidential election.

"The elections ... will give the Serbian people the
opportunity to repudiate clearly and peacefully the policy
of Milosevic." Should they do so, "we will lift the
sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, we
will support the necessary economic aid for its
reconstruction, and we will support the reintegration of the
FRY into the international community," is how the EU
presented its bribe.

Washington continued to wave the big stick. The U.S. Navy
plans maneuvers in the Adriatic Sea off the Yugoslav coast
on election weekend. Both U.S. and NATO leaders have
threatened intervention should there be conflict in
Montenegro, the smaller republic, which along with Serbia
makes up what remains of Yugoslavia.

If Yugoslavia is treated like the other former socialist
countries of the Balkans, "reintegration" means that a
handful of Yugoslavs will grow rich while the bulk of the
population is driven deeper into poverty and the people as a
whole are forced to submit to Western imperialism.

An article in the Sept. 19 New York Times makes it clear
that the only job opportunities for young Bulgarian women is
to work as prostitutes in the Czech Republic near the German
border.

The only serious candidates for president of Yugoslavia are
Milosevic and Vojislav Kostunica, who is backed by 18 small
opposition parties, some of them openly pro-NATO and all pro-
Western. Kostunica is a long-time anti-communist with
credentials as a Serbian nationalist.

Kostunica is also the only opposition figure who is not
tarnished by open association with NATO forces. He can
possibly attract voters who are weary of the assault on
Yugoslavia and who hope that removing Milosevic will end the
hostility.

The U.S. and West European imperialists, however, want
Kostunica to defeat Milosevic in order to weaken the best-
organized anti-NATO structures inside Yugoslavia. These
structures include Milosevic's Socialist Party and the party
called the Yugoslav United Left, plus the security forces
and the army.

Weakening this apparatus would leave the road open for
imperialist penetration and for turning all of Yugoslavia
back into a colony of the West, whether or not that is what
Kostunica plans.

The Western media claim Kostunica is leading in election
polls. Pro-Milosevic sources point out that the polls were
taken by pro-NATO organizations that want to try to claim
Milosevic "stole" the election should he win.

BELGRADE PUTS NATO LEADERS ON TRIAL

Meanwhile, the Milosevic forces have run their election
campaign against NATO threats, pointing to the opposition as
NATO puppets.

In addition, the Yugoslav government has gone on the
political offensive against NATO. In Belgrade Sept. 18 the
government opened a trial of NATO leaders for war crimes
committed during the 1999 aggression and 78-day bombing
assault.

Yugoslavia charged Presidents Bill Clinton of the United
States and Jacques Chirac of France, British Prime Minister
Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, U.S.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and nine other NATO
and Western government leaders with war crimes. Their names
were attached to 14 empty chairs in the front of a Belgrade
courtroom.

Serb authorities appointed a lawyer for each of the accused.
Yugoslav officials said it would take four days to present
the evidence.

"They are charged with inciting an aggressive war...war
crimes against civilian population...use of banned combat
means, attempted murder of the Yugoslav president...the
violation of the country's territorial integrity. ..," the
charge sheet read.

"They fired 600 cruise missiles and made 25,119 [air]
sorties during the 78-day aggression, attacking both
military and civilian targets, killing and wounding many
people, causing mass destruction of property," it added.

The charges were similar in structure to those presented at
the dozens of "People's Tribunals" held in Germany, the
United States, Italy, Austria, Greece, Russia and other
countries in the past 14 months, all of which found the NATO
leaders guilty. The Yugoslavs will be able to present more
detailed, eyewitness descriptions of the crimes.

Exposing NATO's crimes and especially the lies NATO leaders
used to justify their aggression has strengthened solidarity
with Yugoslavia in some of the NATO countries.

In Italy, a traditional annual peace march from Perugia to
Assisi will take place Sept. 24 with a more clearly anti-
NATO position than it has had in recent years. Last year
former Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema led the march--but he
also had led the war against Yugoslavia. This year march
organizers invited forces carrying a banner "Against NATO,
against the embargoes" to play a big role in the march and
promised that none of the war criminals from the Italian
regime would be present.

In Germany, a group of anti-war intellectuals have issued a
call from Berlin: "No new NATO-war on the Balkans!" The call
warns of U.S.-NATO military preparations for a possible new
assault on Yugoslavia, and asks for actions against this new
aggression. There are also vigils planned in Bonn on Sept.
22 and 29.

- 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)


YUGOSLAVIA LODGES PROTEST WITH E.U. COUNCIL
BRUSSELS, September 23 (Tanjug) Yugoslavia has filed a protest
with the European Union in Brussels over a socalled "message" that E.U.
foreign ministers have recently sent Yugoslavs in connection with
Sunday's
presidential and parliamentary elections in Yugoslavia.
Yugoslav Charge d'Affaires Dragan Zupanjevac delivered the
protest
note to E.U. Ministerial Council Director General Brian Crowe.
The note says, among others, that the E.U. ministers' "message"
constitutes gross and unacceptable interference in the internal affairs
of
a sovereign country, and is without a precedent in democratic practice.
Yugoslavia believes it is high time the European Union
abandoned
its unprincipled and antiEuropean policy, its antiYugoslav policy of
sanctions and isolation, which is achieving nothing other than
continuing
to destabilise southeast Europe, the protest note says.

===

F.R. YUGOSLAVIA ELECTIONS

YUGOSLAVIA TO ELECT PRESIDENT AND MP'S ON SUNDAY
BELGRADE, September 23 (Tanjug) Yugoslavia will be electing a
president and federal parliament deputies, while its republic of Serbia
will be voting also for local administration officials on Sunday,
September
24.
According to the Central Electoral Commission, Yugoslavia has
an
electorate of 7,861,327; of this number, 7,417,197 are in Serbia, and
444,130 in the other Yugoslav federal unit, Montenegro.
This will be the first time for the people to be electing a
president directly, and they will have the choice of five candidates:
Incumbent Slobodan Milosevic, nominated by a leftist coalition
made up of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), the Yugoslav Left (JUL),
and the Socialist People's Party (SNP) of Montenegro;
Vojislav Kostunica, nominated by 18 opposition parties rallied
into the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS) bloc;
Tomislav Nikolic of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS);
Vojislav Mihailovic of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO);
Miroljub Vidojkovic of the Affirmative Party.
Should none of the candidates secure an outright majority of
the
votes cast in the first round, the two leading candidates will fight it
out
between them in a runoff two weeks later.
Serbs and Montenegrins will be voting in 27 electoral districts
to
elect 138 deputies to the Chamber of Citizens (lower house) of the
Yugoslav
federal parliament, from among candidates nominated by 30 parties on 30
tickets.
Of this number, Serbia will be giving 108 deputies to the
Chamber,
and Montenegro, 30.
Yugoslav citizens displaced from Serbia's U.N.administered
Kosovo
and Metohija province will be voting in Serbia's southern Prokuplje and
Vranje municipalities.
Deputies to the Chamber of Republics (Upper house) will be
elected
by direct ballot another first with Serbia and Montenegro, as two
equal
constituencies, giving 20 deputies each.
Parallel with the federal elections, polls will be held for
electing 120 deputies to the Serbian Vojvodina province's assembly
(Parliament), and local administrations in Serbia.
Also, 110 deputies to the Belgrade City Council will be elected
from among 548 candidates nominated by 21 parties.
Belgrade has an electorate of 1,351,365.
Apart from local monitors, the elections will be monitored by
more
than 200 foreign observers from 52 countries, who have already arrived
in
Yugoslavia.

YUGOSLAVIA TAKES FURTHER STEPS TO PREVENT ELECTION FRAUD
BELGRADE, September 23 (Tanjug) The Yugoslav Central Electoral
Commission on Saturday reviewed reports on a plot to illegally augment
the
number of ballots at polling stations and issued further instructions to
prevent fraud on the eve of Sunday's elections.
Yugoslavia votes for president and deputies to both chambers of
the federal parliament, while its republic of Serbia elects local
administrators on Sunday, September 24.
The Commission said in a statement it has come in possession of
information that, as part of subversive activities against Yugoslavia, a
plan has been hatched to sabotage and compromise the presidential
election.
"Foreign factors have prepared a number of ballots for the
presidential election, which their stooges among the Yugoslav people
should
drop in the ballot boxes folded inside the regular ballot papers...
"This has been done because, under election rules, in case
there
is a single ballot in a box more than there were voters at that
particular
polling station, the polling must be declared invalid", the Commission
said.
In this way, a couple of hundred unscrupulous individuals could
invalidate the will of hundreds of thousands, it added.
The Commission has therefore decreed that the invigilators at
the
polling stations must check that the ballot paper of each voter in the
presidential election is a single paper, with nothing folded in it.
"The check will be made by each voter marking the ballot,
folding
it and then handing it over to an invigilator to see that it is a single
paper, while not violating the secrecy of the voting, and then dropping
it
in the box", the statement said.
The Commission appealed to the people to respect the reasons
that
have made this kind of control necessary.




--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------

The Economist April 1st-7th, 2000

The next Balkan War


It could still be avoided with a relatively small amount of money, so
long
as it is spent wisely and soon



LOST in their cyber-dreams in Lisbon, the European Union's leaders must
have felt pleasantly far from the mess in the Balkans. They did, it is
true, offer some reassuring generalities about fast-track procedures for
effective assistance and so on in their conclusions; and EU panjandrums
and officials from a host of governments and international institutions
were taking stock of the Balkan imbroglio again in Brussels a few days
later. But there is little evidence that the Union's leaders are ready
to
devote the necessary attention to an issue that should be high on the
agenda of any European political summit right now: the avoidance of
another war in the Balkans, which remains all too real a possibility.

In case the summiteers have forgotten, the most dramatic event in Europe
last year was not, alas, the launch of some bold economic experiment but
the outbreak of the continent's most intensive war for half a
century-and
its conclusion on terms that offered no guarantee against a recurrence.
Since the end of the war over Kosovo last June, the West's adversary
Slobodan Milosevic has tightened his grip on power, at least in his
native
Serbia, and raised the rhetorical temperature. He is a man who thrives
on
wars, even though they invariably leave him king of an ever-smaller
castle, and several signs suggest that his next war could be fought over
Montenegro, the last remaining republic with which Serbia is linked in
the
shrunken Yugoslav federation.

Heading for the last bust-up


Montenegro is hardly a model democracy, neither is its president, Milo
Djukanovic, a model citizen. But he is pro-western and no friend of Mr
Milosevic. Indeed, he has been trying to put some distance between his
small republic and Serbia, and the West would rightly like to see him
succeed, so long as his efforts do not precipitate a bloody rupture.

That, however, is just what Mr Milosevic might welcome. As an indicted
war criminal, in charge of a country under sanctions, Mr Milosevic may
well calculate that he has nothing to lose by testing transatlantic
solidarity once again and drawing Russia's new administration, as well
as
NATO, into an international crisis. As the experience of the past
decade
makes plain, European governments cannot keep the peace in the Balkans
without taking America into account. In the continent's potential
killing
fields, moreover, there is a natural division of labour whereby
America's
might serves as a strategic deterrent, while artfully applied economic
assistance from EU governments keeps local antagonisms from boiling
over.

In sensitive spots like Macedonia, Kosovo and, above all, Montenegro,
the
swift dispatch of relatively small sums of financial assistance could
well
make the difference between peace and war. Many European politicians
understand this perfectly well, but their collective response to the
need
has shown up many of the EU's worst features: introversion, lack of
urgency and an obsession with arcane technicalities.

In the Balkans no less than in cyberspace, the EU is always capable of
conjuring up lofty visions. At this week's conference in Brussels on
economic development in south-eastern Europe, there was much talk-some
of
it sensible-about the need for bridges, roads, railway links and the
like
to create inter-dependence. There was also a realisation that
Montenegro's pro-western government needs aid over the next few weeks if
it is to fend off economic warfare from Serbia and maintain some
credibility at home: Mr Djukanovic says Mr Milosevic is trying to
promote
a coup against him, using Yugoslav troops garrisoned in Montenegro.
There
was a realisation, too, that spending money wisely in the Balkans is not
quite the same as spending it freely: if the aim is to keep Mr
Djukanovic
in power, it must go to pay the pensions of deserving Montenegrins
(including the Serb-minded) and so on, not to finance
cigarette-smuggling
by corrupt members of the regime. But did all that add up to action?

In Lisbon, the heads of government urged the "competent
institutions"-including, presumably, their own finance ministers-to
"make
necessary decisions"
to help Montenegro. But if those decisions continue to be held up by
technicalities and buck-passing between different parts of the EU's
decision-making structure, they may come too late to bolster the
Montenegrin government against a takeover bid by Mr Milosevic-and hence
too late to avert another war in the Balkans. If Europe's minds are
indeed genuinely concentrated on high, no time should be wasted in
taking
action lower down.


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------

Kostunica: the New US Bait for the Serb People

The international media excitedly distributes Mr. Kostunica’s statements
against US interference in
Yugoslavia inner affairs (at the moment having in mind only the coming
Federal Presidential
Elections), the terror in Kosovo, etc.
He even called the World “Peacemaker”, USA, “an evil” for the Serbs.
And charmed by his patriotic statements, man is apt to forget he is only
one of the so-called Serb
Opposition’s two Candidates.
He is Zoran Djindjic and Co.’s candidate.
Same Djindjic who has worn out his shoes soles taking part in the
well-advertised meetings with the
USA Administration emissaries since USA-NATO occupation of the Serb
Province Kosovo in June
1999.
Who has repeatedly shaken hands with Mrs. MacDeath Alldark and the other
Clinton Administration
puppets on the string (the string being played on by the US
transnational corporations - especially
those, connected with the sophisticated weapon production, like
Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing,
Microsoft, etc.)
Whom and his buddies the US Senate has voted millions of US dollars
help...

Dear neighbours,
Do not get carried away by sweet talks: it is time for cutting off
emotions - it is time for a level
common sense logical thinking.
Remember: not only your country’s future is at stake.
The whole world is holding its breath now watching your steps!..



I feel like sharing with you my reasoning concerning Kostunica, based on
my experience as a former
activist of the Bulgarian Union of “Democratic” Forces (known now as the
“Union of Demonic
Forces”) and my life in “democratic” Bulgaria for more than ten years.

There are two possible scenarios if Kostunica comes into power.

First scenario: he proves to be really an honest person and patriot.

But what do you think he will manage to do by himself, notwithstanding
his eventual good intentions?
Could he possibly provide an independence from the Globo Cop?
Could he keep the US front line vultures, the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank,
outside your country?
Could he keep Soros, that deadly pest of nowadays, on the outer side of
your boundaries?



Would the Globo Cop’s highly paid local lackeys like Djindjic let him do
it?
Would Globo Cop’s highly paid agents of his own let him do it?

An example from Bulgarian last ten year history.
In that period of ten years there was only one attempt for a nation
responsible more independent
ruling, carried out by a single person and a handful of supporters. I
have in mind Jan Videnov’s
two-year rule.
That young man had been a Bulgarian Premier in the period from 1994
(October-November) till
December 1996.
He was a Bulgarian Socialist Party Leader and the Bulgarian Socialist
Party government Premier after
that party great election victory in October 1994.
The Stripes and Stars had allowed the concentration of so much power in
his hands sure their local
lackeys would easily manipulate him because of his being so young.
But they had brought their goods to the wrong market.
He proved to be first a Bulgarian, and then a member and a Party leader!

After February 4 1997 a well-known Bulgarian intellectual, Mr.Hristo
Genchev, an architect by
profession, wrote: “The last nation-responsible government has fallen
down...”
He was the only one in that ten-year period who had tried to fight IMF
and WB!
The only one who had shown he cared for his country and people.
(And he was in power just in the period when the Big Brother Beyond the
Ocean needed
servile governments in all the countries neighbouring Yugoslavia!)
Having in mind the planned assault against Yugoslavia, the Empire of
Evil could not take
risks. Orders had been dutifully sent and the Bulgarian political circus
had been reopened
with a flourish!
Everybody jumped against the young Criminal! Not only the Union of
Demonic Forces but the
people from his government and his party - the Bulgarian Socialist
Party: i.e., all the US
Bulgarian lackeys gobbling hungrily at the US trough!
After some months-orchestrated tension in the Parliament, the government
and inside the
BSP, the first actual step has been taken: flour disappeared magically
from the market and a
bread crisis had burst in August 1996. It provided the necessary tension
and negative
atmosphere of rejection among the population. The notorious bread crisis
continued only
some weeks and then disappeared as magically as it had appeared!
Presumably, that Circus
Director had decided the public was heated enough against the BSP
Premier and called
withdrawal in expectation that Videnov would hand his resignation and
step down.
Again wrong calculation: Videnov stayed and continued fighting his very
lonely fight. Then
the Russian governmental Mafia threaten him and served his head on a
tray to the Stars and
Stripes - just as Chernomirdin did later with a whole country:
Yugoslavia!
He resigned but the US think-tanks dealing with the region had decided
then that it would be
more convenient for the US Balkans plans that the Bulgarian Socialist
Party should be
kicked out of power and replaced by the Union of Demonic Forces. It was
certainly evaluated
that UDF would support the aggression against Yugoslavia without any
voices of dissent, and
would readily provide all the necessary logistic collaboration or at
least would not create any
problems during the long time planned Great US “Humanitarian” War on the
Balkans!
So the US Ambassador, Mrs. Bowlen rolled her sleeves and stepped on it;
some of Mr.
Tenet’s tough CIA boys rushed to help armed with those special psychic
weapons they know
best about
* - and UDF called the famous jumping-up meetings in January 1997!
(“Jumping- up”
meetings because their essential part was the slogan: “If You Do Not
Jump, You Are Red!”
Those meetings were called everyday near the Parliament - the UDF
leaders and speakers
soon have worn out their anticommunist repertoire, and took refuge in
the quoted slogan and
started jumping eagerly in front of the crowds, making them jump too.
(By the way, not so
bad an idea: January 1997 happened to be rather cold indeed.)
The funniest thing was that both UDF and BSP came from the traitorous
Bulgarian
Communist Party, and those from the UDF who jumped most eagerly to prove
they were not
“red”, were just the persons with many years of communist past and
communist party work
behind themselves. I am talking about people in the periphery of the
Bulgarian Communist
Party Central Committee, of the Communist Secret Police Force agents, of
paid Communist
Party secretaries at different levels. ( Ivan Kostov, the UDF Bulgarian
Premier now, had
applied several times for a membership of the Bulgarian Communist Party;
his wife and Mr.
Sokolov’s wife had been for many years paid Communist Party secretaries
in Sofia Institutes
- Mr. Sokolov is the Bulgarian Parliament UDF head at the moment, former
UDF Minister of
Inner Affairs and a high level UDF Party functionary!)
The last round of the “January Revolution” (they call that pitiable
circus so!) had been an
orchestrated currency crisis a la Soros: $1 reached 3000 leva!
Results:
Certain people got very rich for hours only.
Others lost their many year savings for hours only.
Some credit millionaires woke up innocent like newly born babies: the
millions of dollars they
had to pay back to the banks had melted away like last year snow!
Lots of small shop owners went bankrupt.
And the ordinary Bulgarians started hating Videnov’s guts and his party
just as they should -
just according to plan!

On February 4, 1997 BSP resigned and new parliamentary elections were
announced.

Mr. Sofianski (UDF), the present Sofia mayor, was appointed for a
temporary Premier till the
elections, and immediately the US dollar most magically fell to its old
level well below 2 leva!

And the Bulgarian public learned - at last! - who are the Good Boys, and
who - - the Bad
Ones.

Elections presented no problem.

And Mrs. Bowlen, the US Ambassador in Sofia, clicked heels; reported
task fulfilled and was
assigned to a well- deserved higher post. The new Governor, Mr. Miles
swam heavily from
Belgrade and took to distributing power and money in Bulgaria, and to
keep generally the
newly acquired US province in line.

Videnov still keeps getting accused both from BSP and UDF for everything
negative
happening here, in the world in general, and in the Milky Way, maybe. (I
would not be
surprised if he gets accused also for the recent food price drastic
rise, and even for the fires
both in Bulgaria and USA -to say nothing about those in Greece!)

So much for Kostunica’s chances - if he happened to be really an honest
patriot.

Second possible scenario: Kostunica is the same shit as Djindjic and Co,
only his US trained
and supported image-makers have advised him to talk anti USA to make use
of the bitterness
and anti-US sentiments understandably prevailing in Yugoslavia after the
USA and NATO
aggression, Kosovo occupation, and the ethnic cleansing carried there by
Thaci the Snake’s
Great Albanian Warriors, KFOR, Koushner and his pay masters from USA.

He will manipulate people before the elections and afterwards he will
kick them coldly into
the teeth, and will start energetically licking the Ugly Uncle’s boots.
And if the Great
Globalizer demands from him to level out Belgrade to start building
another Bondsteel Base
just there, he, Djindjic and Co. will do it without batting an eye -
just as Kostov and Co.
(UDF) gave all the possible corridors for US and NATO in that bloody
spring of 1999 - or
Parvanov and Co. (BSP) turned to 180? at their Convention on April 6-7,
2000, and declared
their passionate love for NATO!

Then most of you will be very sorry for having given your votes for him,
but it will be too late.


The same holds true for Drashkovic’s candidate Voislav Mihailovic. Let’s
leave Mihailovic
aside, let’s concentrate on Drashkovic.

He is like a sunflower: always ready to turn to the sun, i.e., to bent a
knee to the Power on a
Rise. Against Milosevic, thinking wrongly he is weak enough to be kicked
out and replaced
with his own great person - then with Milosevic, because the last has
proved strong enough to
keep the power - against Milosevic again, writhing in front of Uncle Sam
and kissing hands to
the Serb and Iraqis children Murderess, unique Mrs. Mac Death
Alldark!... What could you
expect from him and his candidate? He has many times proved that he
loves best Power with
a capital P, not his country and his people!
Drashkovic, the pitiable clown, who could not think of any other ways to
draw the public
attention to himself, besides the laughable staged assassination
attempts!
Come on, you cannot be serious!

Something else: do not think he has stuck to a candidate of his own in
some defiance of Ugly
Uncle’s scenario for the Serb elections. Tenet’s boys and girls are not
orchestrating an
election in a sovereign country for the first time: they have rich
experience in the Latin
America countries and lately in the East European countries, especially
in Bulgaria! Their
strategy is as follows:
Stage One: find your men and play on their greediness and lust for
power.
Stage Two: get as many candidates/parties in the political space in the
pre- election period as
it is possible.
In ten years we had four elections for a Parliament, two Presidential
Elections, to say nothing
about the mayor elections!
Every time They stuck to that scenario: as many candidates as possible -
for Presidents and
mayors, as many parties as possible - for Parliamentary elections!
My observations: It gets the people in a state of uncertainty; it
provides a second stage of
voting (balloting); an atmosphere of pressure, tension and fear is
usually successfully created
between the first and second date of voting (that is the great time for
blows under the waist!).
And most important: less apolitical persons take part in the second
voting (balloting).
And very often that decides the end result.

Mihailovic has already declared he will give his votes to Kostunica!
They are sure there will
be a second voting and follow strictly the US model!
Well-worked model for orchestrating elections in sovereign countries
with US supported and
lectured “opposition”!

I had taken an active part in the first two Parliamentary elections
(1990 and 1991) and in one
Presidential election (1992). I had gone to the country to canvass for
the UDF candidates, I
had talked with lots of people. My conclusions: the strategy with lots
of candidates is usually
effective.
Example:
The first “free” election in Bulgaria was in June 1990.
Dozens of parties popped up in the political space in the short period
of several months after
the coup in November 1989 - among them the Turkish party of Ahmed Dogan,
“Movement
for Rights (!) and Freedom(!!)”. And that had proved to be the winning
move.
Our UDF canvass team happened to work in a region with prevailing
Turkish villages. We
had been warmly welcome but we had been told they would vote for Dogan’s
party: “We
have our party now. If we hadn’t had it we would have voted for you...”
Surely somebody did not like the idea of an overwhelming UDF election
victory at that early

stage of Bulgarian US so-called “democratisation”...

The US New World Order think-tanks’ leading strategy is: ”Divide and
Conquer!” It is
applied everywhere - in the pre-election period too.
See what a simple psychological game it is.
The scenario is targeting the mass of people without clear understanding
of the political
situation, the apolitical persons. They are the most easily manipulated
ones. They vote
emotionally and usually their vote is unpredictable to the last moment.
Imagine a person who is critical to Miloshevic but dislikes Djindjc
more, so his decision is to
vote for M. But here the couple Drashkovic-Mihailovic crops up, and our
man says to
himself: “Aha! I’ll teach the other two a lesson and will vote for that
one!”
The poor man is duped by the false impression that he is offered a third
choice instead of only
two crystal clear possibilities, namely:
Should Yugoslavia exist - or not?
Should Yugoslavia be a sovereign country - or a USA province, cantonised
to six and more
different parts and killed altogether and forever?
Let’s simplify it even more:
Yugoslavia - or USA (IMF, WB, WTO, Soros, etc.)?
What those apolitical persons do not know is that the couple Mihailovic-
Kostunica is at the
one side of the barricade and Miloshevic and his people are on the other
one.
What Ugly Uncle’s strategic brains rely on is that Mihailovic will take
votes from Miloshevic
- i.e., will add duped people under the USA banner. People who will not
know for some time
they have voted for their own death, for the death of their country, for
the isljamisation of the
Balkans, for killing the world in general in the name of the USA
transcontinental
corporations’ profit!...
Imagine a river with a USA banner at one bank and Yugoslavian - at the
other.
Under the Yugo banner you see Milosevic and his supporters trying hard
to hold the banner
up.
Under the USA banner you see Kostunica and Mihailovic in a brotherly
hug.
If you look more intently you will see behind their wretched small
figures of paid traitors the
deadly monstrous grin of USA terror-inspiring creations, IMF, WB, WTO,
Soros, the New
American Terrorist Organisation - NATO, and so on, and so forth!

THE CHOICE IS ONLY BETWEEN TWO POSSIBILITIES - VERY CLEARLY DEFINED
AT THAT!

Of course the election strategists will stress on the difference in
details between the “two”
opposition candidates - the public should be duped into believing they
are “different” - that
the Serbs are offered more than ONLY TWO possibilities!

Example:
Bulgaria is in a pre-election period too.
You look at the river’s two banks and you do not see the Bulgarian
banner on either of them.
You look at one of the banks - and you see only Mother Bulgaria on her
dead bed!...
You look at the other and you see only the Stripes and Stars cheerfully
flapping there!
And under it you see both Kostov - or the Union of Demonic Forces - and
Parvanov - or the
Bulgarian Socialist Party - clutching greedily to the Globo Cop’s
banner!
And behind both of them the deadly monstrous grin of USA
terror-inspiring creations, IMF,
WB, WTO, Soros, EU and NATO!

The election strategists here are trying hard to convince the so-called
electorate that UDF
and BSP are “different”, when the truth is there is no political choice
anymore in Bulgaria.
JUST AS IT HAS BEEN IN THE SO-CALLED “COMMUNIST” PAST!

Nevertheless the BSP daily “Duma” keeps pouring horrible stories about
destruction, death,
hunger, poverty and screaming misery, rapes and madness flourishing in
Bulgaria. The daily
keeps instilling into its readers that only UDF, Kostov and Co. are to
be blame. When BSP
comes into power things will change. Blah, blah, blah...
The Genocide over my people and country is carried out for more than ten
years by ALL the
Bulgarian governments under the orders of IMF and WB!
The Big Brother wants only the territory, not the population on it. It
is superfluous and
should disappear.
All the Bulgarian Premiers since Lukanov (BSP) - who signed the first
agreement with the
IMF - till Kostov (UDF) are only the USA local lackeys, carrying out
orders!
How could BSP change things when Parvanov (BSP leader) and that most
greedy, traitorous
company around him had declared at their Party Congress in April 6-7
that they were
embracing eagerly IMF and WB, EU and NATO, and promised to be most
obedient servants
to all of them - just as the Union of Demonic Forces is!
WHERE IS THE DIFFERENCE?
They know very well they will change NOTHING, but they keep lying most
arrogantly their
members, sympathisers and the Bulgarian public in general that they will
save Bulgaria - if
they are elected.

Meanwhile the Governor of the newly acquired US province* Bulgaria on
the Balkans,
honourable Mr. Richard Miles, has given his pay masters’ order for a
coalition government:
BB (Big Brother) wants a coalition government and a Parliament of many
parties in
Bulgaria, and so it will be.
Again the principle “Divide and Master Them!” in action!

So much for the Bulgarian Parliamentary election next year.
If the Yugoslavians elect the opposition candidates - IT DOES NOT MATTER
WHOM OF
THEM!!!! - Yugoslavia will be erased from the map forever, and the next
election in Serbia
will be just like the Bulgarian election in 2001.
(Of course if in the meantime the Global Master or UU (Ugly Uncle) has
not cut Serbia into
several cantons: i.e., has not wiped it from the world map too...)

That is what will happen to your country if you vote for the pair
Kostuniza- Mihailovic.
Let’s now answer the question what will happen to you if you vote for
them.
What will happen to you under the IMF and WB yoke - i.e., under the USA
yoke?

The same what is happening to us here!..
(See “Recent News From Bulgaria: Bulgaria Under USA Yoke”)

Here I will try only to answer one more question, namely:


Is Bulgaria an Independent, Sovereign Country?
“Ha, ha!... - said the Clown.”
(A line from a song.)

A/ Food prices, July-August, 2000; Cost of Living
Eleven years of “democracy” - USA style

Preface
The Union of Demonic Forces Congress took a decision “to freeze" the
electricity and
central heating prices for one year. (Scrambling after votes: there will
be elections in
Bulgaria in the spring of 2001.)
High positioned vultures from IMF poured into Bulgaria in June 2000, all
of them red in face
and stomping most angrily around. They had several classified
conversations with their boys
here - surely, garnered with some juicy reminders of Videnov’s plight,
evoking images of
Mrs. Bowlen as Jana d’Ark in the stone-pelted Parliament in January
1997.
Afterwards Mr. Kostov, the Premier, appeared on the TV looking as if
chewed by a
hippopotamus, to announce that the electricity prices will be raised
with 4 % since August 1.

And the food prices rushed merrily-merrily up!...

B/ Read this:
“On August 14 CIA Head George Tenet* made a round of the official
Bulgarian institutions
under severe security measures. He spared 115 minute from his most
precious time for our
statesmen. Tenet spoke to the President, the Premier and the Minister of
the Internal
Affairs...
Dimo Gjaurov, the Director of the Bulgarian National Investigation
Agency, and US
Ambassador Richard Miles were constantly with the US Spy Number 1...
The official announcements declared that Tenet had discussed with our
statesmen
regional security in south-eastern Europe (i.e., the Balkans. Are They
going to obliterate the
name as well?),
Bulgarian Euro-Atlantic integration (i.e., NATO integration), and
the fight with the international crimes and terrorism.”* (Monitor,
August 15 2000, leading
article - p.1)

Some days later, on August 19, the daily “Monitor” announced in a
leading article again that
5 (five) FOREIGN businessmen were to be expelled from the country. “They
have
endangered the national security and have had connections with
international criminal
organisation.” End of quotation.
Were those five criminal and very dangerous businessmen Americans? NO!
Were they Germans, French, Italians, English or Spanish, Turkish or
Greek? No! No! No!
Were they all RUSSIANS? Yes, of course! YES!!!

On August 21 the Bulgarian media commented the information.
The daily “24 Hours”: “The CIA Boss declared that Sofia is a RRUSSIAN
spying centre.” (p.
1, leading article)

SEGA, August 22, p. 24: “For those who do not know: even in the years of
the greatest
dependence on the Soviet Union, KGB had not allowed itself to arrogantly
declare that Sofia
was a USA spying centre.”

But Great Boss Tenet, US Errand Assassin Number 1 - i.e., US Spy No.1,
as the Bulgarian
media calls him, had more orders for General Atanas Atanasov, Head of
the Bulgarian
Contra-Investigation Agency.

Yesterday evening (August 21) a TV speaker announced that more foreign
businessmen were
to leave Bulgaria for 7 days. They had been found to be a threat for the
Bulgarian national
security too!

Guess their nationality! If not RUSSIANS then - what?
SERBS, of course!!! No doubt about it!

“...They have been breaking the sanctions against Yugoslavia, organising
export of forbidden
goods or goods with possible double use.
A check in the State Newspaper has revealed that the eight Serbs had
firms registered in
Bulgaria after 1996. There is a speculation that some of them might be
in contact with the
Yugoslav Investigation Agency in Bulgaria.
As a threat to the national security might be construed also the
attempts for recruiting state
institution employees and ordinary citizens. During the Kosovo crisis
(i.e., US-NATO
aggression against Yugoslavia!) the ex-Minister of Internal Affairs,
Bonev, declared that the
participants in all the anti-US-NATO protests were “Serb mekereta”.
SEGA, August 23,
p.1-2

(“mekereta“, plural from “mekare” - Turkish.
1/ A beast of burden.
2/ Bootlicker, flunkey /lackey/, bastard /scoundrel, skunk, rat/.)

So much for the Bulgarian “open boundaries”: opened for some, closed for
others -
depending on the ethnic origin. (Hi, Amnesty International, Helsinki
Human Rights Watch,
Women in Stripes and Stars - forgive me, in Black, etc. where are you to
scream and cry in
anger?!)

Where is Soros the Opened - Soros the Great?
Doesn’t he hear? Doesn’t he see?
Or Soros the Vulture is highly paid
Countries to open only to a certain degree?

As one of the Bulgarian Serb mekereta, I have a question to Tenet The
World Errand
Assassin Number 1:
What are His Majesty’s orders concerning the Bulgarian Serb mekereta?
Are we going to be expelled from Bulgaria too? Not likely.
Then what? Threatened, arrested - what?
Or maybe silently extinguished in the dark of night, if we refuse to
shut up...
Only Tenet the US Errand Good Boy and CIA know... plus the ruling USA
mekereta in
Bulgaria.

By the way some bad boys and girls from the Bulgarian media have hinted
that Tenet the
Professional Killer is of Albanian origin. (No wonder about it!)

Come on, Tenet, boy, say it! Nowadays it is a pride to be from the Great
Albanian Nation that
is going to eat out the Balkans, as it seems the US plans are.
With the active passionate work of such like you and the Bulgarian USA
mekereta like all
those in power at the moment - plus valorous, most independent General
Atanas Atanasov!...

So, after 200 years of Byzantine yoke and 500 years under Turkish yoke
Bulgaria has been
“enjoying” USA yoke for more than ten years.

No fear of century-long yoke. Americans are neither Byzantines nor
Turks. They have all the
modern science last achievements at their disposal - all the economical,
all the possible
military means!...
Besides, they have a passionate love for speed, in addition.

Having in mind what is going on here in the last few months, we think
that the local colonial
administration boys have been rather severely scolded by Ugly Uncle for
the Bulgarians’
tenacious love for life. They have surely been kicked into quickening up
the desired
extermination of the remaining undesired population.
And the well-paid Bulgarian puppets-on-a-string clicked heels, rolled
sleeves and
energetically rushed to action!...

Monitor, August 28
Title: “The Balkans Are Second Latin America for CIA
CIA Lectures To Serb Opposition Representatives From “Otpor” in Sofia
Since Today”
“... 10 days special course is starting today in our capital in which
USA spies will lecture to
Serb activists from “Otpor”, according to BBC information...”

No comment.

Blagovesta Doncheva,
An ordinary Bulgarian and
a Serb Mekere, according to Gen. B.Bonev, Ex-Minister of Internal
Affairs


August 23-29, 2000
Sofia,
Bulgaria, the Balkans
(Still outside Albania... Still not a part of Turkey... For how long,
Tenet?...)


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------

Who Are the G-17?

By Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, University of , Ottawa,
author Globalization of Poverty, Third World of "The Network, Penang,
Zed
Books, London, 1997. and Jared Israel , editor, www.tenc.net (Emperor's
Clothes)

" We want to be open colony and open society." G-17 coordinator VESELIN
VUKOTIC interviewed on "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer", US Public
Television, July 14, 1999

Recently there's been a lot of interest in the economists in the
Yugoslav
group G-17. They wrote the Program adopted by the so- called
"democratic"
opposition and its Presidential candidate, Vojislav Kostunica.

The G-17 likes to give the impression it is independent and
Yugoslav-oriented. In fact it is funded mainly through the
Washington-based
"Center for International Private Enterprise" (CIPE). CIPE describes
itself
as "an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. " But in fact it is "a
core institute" of the National Endowment for Democracy. The National
Endowment for Democracy has nothing to do, as far as we can discern,
with
Democracy. Rather, the Endowment was created in 1983 to solve a problem
of
Empire.
People knew that the CIA bribed intellectuals and leaders and set up
phony
front groups to carry out US policy:

"When these covert activities surfaced (as they inevitably did), the
fallout was devastating." ('Washington Post', Sept. 22, 1991)

So Congress created the National Endowment for Democracy. Allen
Weinstein,
who planned the Endowment, said:

"A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."
('Washington Post', Sept. 21, 1991)

So the National Endowment (a sort of spinoff from the CIA) controls and
pays for the Center for International Private Enterprise which in turn
funds the G-17. In addition, the leading G-17 economists hold important
positions in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and have
for
many years.

If the "democratic" opposition got in power, the G-17 economists would
be
in charge of the Yugoslav economy. This is not a matter of speculation.
The
"democratic" opposition program calls for working with the International
Monetary Fund and the Fund does not work on a casual basis. It
invariably
insists that its men (who conveniently happen to be the G-17 economists)
run the show. That is not open for negotiation.

Let us take a look at three of the leading G-17 economists. Their record
is
most disturbing.

One of the writers of this article, Prof. Chossudovsky, studies the
effects
of the economic "medicine" imposed by the International Monetary Fund
and
World Bank. The G-17 program contains the same economic measures they
forced on Russia, the Ukraine, Bulgaria and Peru, among many others. The
results: social and economic devastation. But because of the long-term
US/German attack on Yugoslavia, the results in the Yugoslav case would
be
much worse.

G-17 economists are fond of phrases like "free markets" and
"privatization," but their International Monetary Fund "reforms" wreck
countries. First, they force governments to do away with any social
protections - subsidized food or rent, free transportation, free medical
care. Out the window. Second, they use economic manipulation and new
laws
to force businesses - public and private - into bankruptcy. Then these
businesses are taken over by a small clique of thieves, international
banks, rich speculators and foreign companies. They purchase the
businesses
at rock bottom prices. This is called "Privatization through
Liquidation."

A case in point is Yugoslavia, 1989.

The elder statesman of the G-17 is Professor Veselin Vukotic. Presently
he
is one of the brains behind Montenegrin secessionism. But in 1989 he was
Minister of Privatization under Yugoslav Premier Ante Markovic.

Yugoslavs have bitter memories of 1989-1990. But do they "put a human
face"
on the nightmare? Perhaps people think the economic disaster that befell
Yugoslavia that year was the natural result of "market mechanisms" or
the
fault of "incompetent government." It wasn't. There was somebody pulling
the strings.

That somebody was Veselin Vukotic.

In 1989-90, Professor Vukotic worked out of governmental offices in
Belgrade alongside an army of Western lawyers and consultants to impose
the
Financial Operations Act. It was a World Bank plan.

Under this law, companies were selected for bankruptcy or liquidation.
They
were forced to meet impossible conditions. In this way, Vukotic
orchestrated the breakup of fifty percent of Yugoslav industry. 50%!
World
Bank data confirms that under his direction more than 1100 industrial
firms
were wiped out from January 1989 to September 1990 And that was only the
beginning.

Over 614,000 industrial workers were laid off out of 2.7 million. The
areas
hardest hit were: Serbia, including Kosovo, and Bosnia-Herzegovina and
Macedonia. Real wages did a nose-dive. Social programs collapsed.
Unemployment shot up.

And now this same Vukotic, a key man in G-17, wants to return to power.

When the IMF gets its jaws on a country it forces the government to work
under people like Vukotic. So Vukotic could finish the job he started in
1989 and which ironically was discontinued when economic sanctions were
imposed in 1992. (Bulgaria would probably be better off today if it had
been hit with sanctions instead of with the International Monetary
Fund!)

While hoping to get his hands on all of Yugoslavia once again, Mr.
Vukotic
is practicing on the cooperative regime in Montenegro. Montenegrin boss
Milo Djukanovic, his former student, has appointed Vukotic Deputy Chief
of
the Privation Commission which is auctioning off state property in
Montenegro. Recently we discovered a US Commerce Department
advertisement
on the internet. The title is: " Montenegro: Seeks Privatization Fund
Managers." The advertisement explains that these Managers are needed in
Montenegro, where US officials are "providing technical support" for
so-called privatization. The managers would control "funds" that would
take
over ownership of what is now public property. The Managers could
"restructure" these privatized companies - lay off the workers and sell
the
most valuable components. The Commerce department promises that this
"should be quite profitable." Note how brazenly the U.S. Commerce
Department celebrates the transformation of Montenegrin property into
foreign profits.

Vukotic is helping in other areas as well. For example, last June NATO
marched into Kosovo, and the UCK along with them. Wherever they went,
they
drove loyal Yugoslav citizens from their homes, stole or destroyed their
property and threatened them with death. By June 26, the expulsions were
at
a peak.

Vukotic could no longer remain silent. According to the Associated
Press,
on June 26 Vukotic demanded that Kosovo have its own currency, separate
from the dinar!

Dr. Dusan Vujovic

One of the most prominent G-17 people is Dr. Dusan Vujovic, a senior
economist at the World Bank. He acts as a link between G-17 and
Washington.
He has been very active overseeing "reforms" in so-called "transition
countries". In August 2000, Vujovic was in charge of negotiating one of
the
World Bank's most deadly economic packages, imposed on the Ukraine,
already
devastated by previous International Monetary Fund Measures.

What happened to the Ukraine?

The Ukraine disaster started in the fall of 1994 in Madrid, Spain. Prime
Minister Vitali Masol signed an agreement with the International
Monetary
Fund.

In exchange for accepting "economic shock treatment" Ukraine got a 360
million dollar loan, a very small amount as these things are calculated.
Reforms were launched in mid-October, 1994. The IMF ordered the
Ukrainian
authorities to abandon State controls over the exchange rate. This led
to
the collapse of the currency. The price of bread increased overnight -
300%. Electricity shot up - 600%. Public transportation - 900%.

"Dollarised" prices were forced on a population with earnings below ten
dollars a month. Credit was frozen. With super high electricity prices
and
no credit, public and private industry was destroyed. The international
speculators moved in like sharks in a frenzy.

Then in November 1994, World Bank negotiators were sent in to "advise"
the
government on overhauling Ukraine's agriculture. The grain market was
deregulated. This opened Ukraine up to the dumping of US grain
surpluses.
Ukraine went from being a grain exporter to begging for Food Aid from
the
European Union and the U.S. Thanks to the International Monetary Fund,
Ukraine is a starving political protectorate of the US and Germany. And
remember, Ukraine never did anything to offend the U.S., unlike
Yugoslavia.

Zeliko Bogetic and the Rape of Bulgaria

G-17 member Dr. Zeliko Bogetic has a senior position at the
International
Monetary Fund. Bogetic has been doctor in many economic cures. The
patient
always dies.

In 1994-96, he played a key role in forcing a structural adjustment
program
(SAP) on Bulgaria. All social defenses - price controls, subsidized
food,
housing and medical care, were stripped away.

The program led to mass poverty. By 1997, old age pensions (according to
World Bank sources) had collapsed to two dollars a month. The World Bank
admits that 90 percent of Bulgarians now live below the extreme poverty
level but, they say, much economic progress is being made. Apparently
perfection will be achieved when there are no Bulgarians left alive.

What would Mr. Bogetic do if he and his G-17 colleagues came to power
under
a "democratic" opposition government?

Bogetic was dispatched by the International Monetary Fund to Podgorica,
Montenegro to advise the pro-secessionist government of President Milo
Djukanovic. Bogetic was to set up a currency board modeled on that of
Bosnia under the Dayton Accord. Bogetic's advice was to stop using the
Dinar, the Yugoslav currency. He said that under no circumstances should
Montenegro establish a Central Bank. Now remember, the Djukanovic
government in Montenegro says it wants "independence" from Yugoslavia -
but
a Central Bank is a requirement for real independence. No, said Bogetic,
that is the "worst possible solution". Meaning: independence in the
colonial sense.

Bogetic would be the likely candidate for Yugoslav Central Bank Governor
if
the "democratic" opposition were to win.

What would he do?

The same thing he's been doing in Montenegro - establish a colonial
style
currency board linked to the Deutschmark. Then monetary policy would be
controlled by the country's creditors. This would be an excellent state
of
affairs for the creditors, but very bad for the common people. It would
make it impossible to finance economic reconstruction through the
mobilization of Yugoslavia's own domestic resources. The country would
be
in a straightjacket.

What would International Monetary Fund-Type Reforms mean for Yugoslavia?
If
the "democratic opposition" came to power they would enforce
International
Monetary Fund economic medicine. That's what they say in their Program.

But would this be the same medicine that the Fund (including some of the
people who lead the G-17) have prescribed for Russia, Bulgaria and
Ukraine?

Russia, Bulgaria and Ukraine cooperated fully with Washington. As
nations,
they never resisted being turned into colonies. Was the West merciful?

Consider Russia. During the first year that the reforms were applied,
1992,
wages collapsed by 86 percent. And in many of the countries of the
Balkans
and Eastern Europe, economic activity has been cut in half, even if it
was
low before.

And these are cooperative countries. As everyone knows, the U.S. is very
annoyed with Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia has not been a good slave. It has
not
kissed the hand of the bombers.

History shows that if the Monetary Fund gets hold of a country that has
been rebellious the treatment is vicious. And we are not talking about
major rebels, like Yugoslavia. We are talking about very moderate
rebels,
like Peru.

In Peru, the government of President Alan Garcia (1985-1990) refused to
do
some of what the International Monetary Fund ordered it to do. In 1985,
it
decided to pay international debts at a reduced rate. It instituted an
economic program that would help (instead of destroying) the economy.

The country was immediately put on a black list by the International
Monetary Fund. This disrupted Peru's foreign trade.

Enter Professor Alberto Fujimori. It was the 1990 elections. With help
from
Washington, Peru was having economic problems, so many people wanted a
change. Fujimori was an unknown. People felt he was "honest" and
"promising". He led a tiny party that had never held power. He seemed to
be
squeaky clean.
With Washington's help, he was the top runner-up in the 1990 elections.
The
electorate chose him over the other candidates "because we did not know
who
he was" and "we thought he was honest" and "maybe if we put in someone
Washington likes they will go easy on us." They did not understand.
Washington has no mercy.

Fujimori of course caved in to the International Monetary Fund's
demands.
What followed was the most deadly economic "reform" in Latin American
history. From one day to the next, the price of fuel increased by 31
times
(2,968 per cent) and the price of bread increased more than twelve times
(1,150 per cent).

People could no longer afford to boil water. A cholera epidemic broke
out.

The social consequences were devastating. An agricultural worker in
August
1990 was paid $7.50 a month (US). That was enough to buy two hamburgers
and
a drink at McDonalds. Consumer prices in Lima were higher than New York.

Real earnings dropped by 60 per cent. By mid-1991 the standard of living
had declined by 85 per cent.

And this was the just beginning of ten years of deadly reforms under
Fujimori.

And remember, Peru didn't really do anything. Just resisted a few
International Monetary Fund Measures. But Yugoslavia? Yugoslavia has
been
driving the German Establishment (and now the Americans) crazy for 100
years or more. Washington and Berlin would like nothing more than to
make
Yugoslavia an example of total enslavement, to show people what would
happen to them if they were to resist.

Haven't the U.S. and Germany made this perfectly clear in Kosovo? A
gangster-fascist regime has been installed. And Western leaders are
fully
aware of the horror they have wrought in Kosovo. UN Secretary General
Kofi
Annan received a special report about this. The report was discussed by
the
British newspaper, the 'Observer':

"Murder, torture and extortion: these are the extraordinary charges made
against the UN's own Kosovo Protection Corps in a confidential United
Nations report written for Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"The KPC stands accused in the document, drawn up on 29 February, of
'criminal activities - killings, ill-treatment/torture, illegal
policing,
abuse of authority, intimidation, breaches of political neutrality and
hate-speech'. " (quoted in "How Will You Plead at your Trial, Mr.
Annan?"
at http://emperors-clothes.com/news/howwill.htm )

What would Washington do if it's G-17 employees got hold of Yugoslavia?
They would institute the most extreme economic "reforms" to devastate
the
country.
Prices would go sky high; farmers would lose their land; businesses
would
be bought up and closed down. In Hungary they privatized the only light
bulb factory and shut it down so that now everybody has to buy bulbs
from
the US company, General Electric. In Yugoslavia they would take away the
lamps. People would be reduced to starvation.

This kind of suffering produces ethnic tension. Washington would whip
this
up by sending in their UCK (KLA) fascist terrorists. Why does Washington
keep the UCK in power in Kosovo? Because they want to use them again.
For
what? They are incapable of fighting a real army. But they are capable
of
terrorizing civilians.

A Washington-controlled government would bring in NATO troops to "help
keep
order." The troops would never leave. The hunt for imaginary war
criminals
would go on, a thousand times worse than it is in the Bosnian Serb
Republic. Croatians, Bosnian Muslims and ethnic Albanians who fled to
Serbia to escape fascist persecution would be put on the list of phony
war
criminals. All loyal Yugoslavs would have to pay for their (imaginary)
crimes so that "healing can begin."

Every effort would be made to humiliate the people, to break their
spirit,
and to eliminate potential leaders of resistance.

Do you know what the United States did a few years ago to Vietnam? When
the
Vietnam War ended, the US government ordered an embargo which did
Vietnam a
lot of harm, economically. A few years ago, Washington agreed to lift
the
embargo. In exchange, Vietnam had to agree to pay the debts of the
former
South Vietnamese government, a puppet government controlled by
Washington.
Most of its debt came from borrowing money (from the US) to buy weapons
(from the US) to kill its own people. And now Vietnam is being forced to
pay this "debt" to Washington, after Washington had invaded Vietnam and
was
driven
out, leaving two million Vietnamese dead.

The "democratic" opposition says that if they can just get into power
everything will be normal. Washington would treat the Yugoslavs right.
Sure
they would. Just the way they treated the American Indians.

www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------

Most za Beograd - Un ponte per Belgrado in terra di Bari - Associazione
culturale di solidarietà con la popolazione jugoslava

c/o RdB, via M. Cristina di Savoia 40, 70126 BARI
tel/fax 0805562663 e-mail: ponte@... Codice Fiscale 93242490725
conto corrente postale n. 13087754 intestato a: Associazione Most za
Beograd - Un ponte per Belgrado in terra di Bari
-c/o RdB, via M. Cristina di Savoia 40, 70126 BARI



INIZIATIVE DI SOLIDARIETA' CON I LAVORATORI DELLA ZASTAVA DI KRAGUJEVAC
BOMBARDATA DALLA NATO



Bari, 15 settembre 2000

Abbiamo approfittato delle ferie estive per recarci finalmente a
Kragujevac a fine luglio e consegnare di persona,
direttamente alle singole famiglie, il denaro raccolto per l'iniziativa
di "adozione a distanza" per i mesi di luglio e agosto
(100 marchi a testa per tutti i 169 bambini "a carico"
dell'associazione: 16.900 DM).



Abbiamo inoltre consegnato un'altra parte del denaro ricavato dalla
vendita del libro di poesie Gli assassini della
tenerezza: 8.400 DM, che si aggiungono ai 5.450 DM già consegnati da noi
in febbraio. Col ricavato dei libri venduti da
altri singoli o associazioni e consegnati direttamente a febbraio ai
delegati della Zastava, abbiamo superato i 17 milioni di
lire, che i delegati del Samostalni Sindikat di Kragujevac hanno deciso
di destinare all'acquisto di legna per l'inverno per le
famiglie più bisognose.



Abbiamo potuto renderci conto di persona dell'importanza - economica e
morale a un tempo - che ha la nostra iniziativa.
Mariella Cataldo ne dà un ampio resoconto nei suoi Appunti di viaggio,
allegati a questa lettera. Il salario medio di un
operaio della Zastava corrisponde a meno di 100 DM. Ma solo per quel 50%
che è ora in produzione. Gli altri percepiscono
un'indennità di disoccupazione di circa 20 marchi più un sussidio della
Federazione jugoslava in generi di prima necessità. I
prezzi dei generi alimentari, delle sigarette e di altri beni di largo
consumo sono abbastanza più bassi che in Italia, ma,
molto molto alti se rapportati al salario operaio (insegnanti e medici
non stanno meglio). I prezzi di libri, quaderni,
penne, zaini e altro materiale didattico non sono molto più bassi dei
nostri, mentre altri beni, divenuti da noi di uso
comune, quali personal computer, fotocopie, ecc., costano in assoluto
più che in Italia. Da questi scarni dati ci si può
rendere conto di quanto sia dura e difficile la vita di questo popolo,
sorretto da una grande dignità e spirito di resistenza, e
quanto sia significativa anche sotto il profilo economico quella modesta
somma che noi inviamo ogni mese. Torniamo da
Kragujevac ancor più decisi a continuare e sviluppare l'iniziativa delle
"adozioni a distanza". Abbiamo avviato la ricerca di
sostenitori di un sesto gruppo di 31 bambini, che portano a 200 il
numero complessivo di quelli affidati alla nostra
associazione. Ogni sostenitore potrebbe trovarne altri, coinvolgendo
amici, colleghi di lavoro, conoscenti. Lo hanno già
fatto con successo alcuni sostenitori di Bolzano e di Bologna, dove sono
state costituite delle associazioni di solidarietà,
che hanno realizzato un buon numero di "adozioni a distanza".



Durante l'assemblea alla Zastava di Kragujevac, quando abbiamo
consegnato il denaro alle famiglie e abbiamo parlato con
loro, abbiamo esposto il progetto di pubblicare - ovviamente con il
consenso dei diretti interessati - le lettere più belle e
interessanti della corrispondenza tra i bambini della Zastava e i loro
sostenitori italiani, per farne un libro, Lettere da
Kragujevac, che avrà la duplice funzione di essere una testimonianza
diretta del vissuto in una grande città operaia
bombardata e, al tempo stesso, serva a finanziare una campagna di
solidarietà, come abbiamo già fatto con discreto successo
con Gli assassini della tenerezza. Prego vivamente perciò quanti - e
sappiamo che sono tanti - abbiano ricevuto lettere,
anche brevi, degne di nota, di farcele pervenire (per fotocopia, fax,
e-mail, ecc.).



Come è stato già spiegato in precedenti lettere, abbiamo deciso - per
motivi facilmente comprensibili - di consegnare
sempre una somma uguale per tutti i bambini dello stesso gruppo,
ripartendo tutto il denaro raccolto per il numero di
bambini. Ci è stato possibile anticipare il mese di agosto e coprire
anche le quote di alcuni sostenitori "ritardatari", grazie
al fatto che alcuni degli aderenti a questa iniziativa di solidarietà
hanno preferito versare subito più mensilità in anticipo
(alcuni hanno coperto la quota di un intero anno) e grazie ai fondi
raccolti per la popolazione jugoslava. Chi ha scelto
volontariamente e responsabilmente di aderire all'iniziativa, sa bene
quanto sia importante la regolarità e costanza nei
versamenti: abbiamo suscitato aspettative e speranze in persone colpite
dalla guerra, dall'embargo, dalla distruzione
dell'apparato economico, dall'inquinamento dell'ambiente provocato dai
bombardamenti: non si può deluderle, né giocare
con le loro sofferenze e la loro vita.



Accanto all'impegno, che rimane per noi principale, delle "adozioni a
distanza", abbiamo aderito - con la somma di 1.400
marchi, raccolti in precedenti iniziative pubbliche a sostegno della
popolazione jugoslava - all'iniziativa di acquisto di
materiale didattico per l'inizio dell'anno scolastico a Belgrado per 28
bambini profughi dal Kosovo (a causa delle continue
aggressioni e violenze attuate tra l'estate del '99 e la primavera 2000
dall'UCK).



Accludo il bilancio sintetico del denaro che abbiamo finora consegnato e
di quello attualmente in cassa per il bimestre
settembre-ottobre (che dovremmo consegnare a Kragujevac alla metà di
ottobre).



Dopo qualche lungaggine burocratica, abbiamo ora il numero di conto
corrente postale intestato all'associazione:
13087754, di cui accludo un paio di moduli per gli eventuali versamenti.
Resta inteso che per tutto il tempo necessario di
questa fase transitoria rimarrà disponibile per l'attività
dell'associazione anche il ccp intestato al sottoscritto, finora
utilizzato da diversi sostenitori.



Tutto il lavoro che abbiamo svolto è volontario e completamente
gratuito. Per quanto riguarda le spese per l'attività
dell'associazione (spese di registrazione atto costitutivo, spese di
viaggio per i delegati jugoslavi, materiale per le mostre
fotografiche, fotocopie, manifesti, carta, buste, spese postali,
materiale di cancelleria, ecc.), abbiamo finora provveduto
con alcuni contributi volontari degli associati, con qualche contributo
versatoci da alcuni aderenti all'iniziativa di
adozione a distanza, con alcuni contributi saltuari raccolti durante
alcune iniziative, con la percentuale sulla vendita di
alcuni libri sull'argomento Jugoslavia e i Balcani, o il ricavato della
vendita (detratte le spese di produzione) del
bollettino 24 marzo 1999 - Un anno dopo - Lezioni da una guerra. Spese
per telefono, fax, e-mail non gravano sul
bilancio dell'associazione: si è fatto ricorso a quello della propria
abitazione personale. In due occasioni, grazie
all'intervento di un sostenitore, abbiamo avuto la possibilità - come si
può leggere nel rendiconto - di non pagare nessuna
commissione e nessuna percentuale per il cambio lire-marchi (che le
banche si fanno pagare in genere a caro prezzo,
finendo col far costare 1 DM qualcosa in più di 1000 lire) e abbiamo
iscritto quanto risparmiato tra i contributi per le
spese generali dell'associazione. Per quanto riguarda la sede, la RdB ci
ha messo a disposizione la sua come domicilio
legale dell'associazione e per le abituali riunioni settimanali del
mercoledì. In questa situazione, ogni contributo per
l'attività dell'associazione è sempre molto ben accetto...

Ci sono pervenute alcune richieste di tesseramento
all'associazione. La quota annuale è di L. 50.000 per i lavoratori e di
L. 20.000 per studenti, lavoratori precari, disoccupati. Ai soci verrà
inviato un bollettino periodico di informazione e
documentazione sulle questioni dell'area jugoslava e balcanica e
sull'attività dell'associazione (che, come si è può leggere
nella "carta di presentazione", è stata molto intensa e si propone di
esserlo altrettanto in futuro).



Diversi comitati e associazioni di solidarietà hanno costituito
nei mesi scorsi il coordinamento nazionale La Jugoslavia
vivrà, che si è posto, tra gli altri, l'obiettivo di una grande
mobilitazione contro l'embargo imposto da USA e UE alla
Repubblica Federale Jugoslava. L'embargo -come abbiamo noi stessi potuto
constatare di persona e come è tristemente
noto già per l'Iraq (un milione e mezzo di vittime in 10 anni di
sanzioni) - mina alla base le possibilità di sussistenza e di
sviluppo economico del paese. E' già cominciata la raccolta di
medicinali e di beni necessari per far partire a fine anno un
grande convoglio per la Jugoslavia (possibilmente una nave dal porto di
Bari): testimonianza concreta e manifestazione
aperta della volontà di tanti cittadini italiani di non essere complici,
ancora una volta, della distruzione di un popolo.
Chiunque senta l'importanza di questa battaglia per la vita è invitato a
partecipare con proposte e attività
(sensibilizzazione al problema, raccolta di firme, raccolta di
medicinali e materiali). A supporto della campagna contro
l'embargo, sarà presto disponibile il nuovo video di Fulvio Grimaldi,
Popoli di troppo: embargo! (durata circa 40'),
presentato a Bari (all'Auditorium della Vallisa, nella città vecchia)
ancora in versione non definitiva. Il costo di ogni
videocassetta sarà di 25.000 lire e tutto il ricavato (tolte le spese di
produzione) andrà a sostegno della campagna contro
l'embargo (privilegiando l'acquisto di beni utili per la popolazione).

Fraterni saluti

Andrea Catone











Ho seppellito il mio cuore a Kragujevac...

appunti di viaggio di Mariella Cataldo

dell'associazione Most za Beograd - un ponte per Belgrado in terra di
Bari

c/o RdB, via M. Cristina di Savoia 40, 70126 Bari, tel/fax 0805562663 -
e-mail Ponte@...



------------------------------------------



Il nostro viaggio comincia martedì 25 luglio. All'aeroporto di
Belgrado ci attendono Rajka, Salvatore Cinque e sua
moglie Alba. A Kragujevac ci danno il benvenuto Ruzica, presidente del
Samostalni Sindikat, Sreten, segretario del
sindacato della Zastava automobili, Milan, della Zastava Iveco, Giorgio,
il cassiere. Siamo alloggiati all'albergo
"Sumarice".

Kragujevac è una città operaia di 250.000 abitanti, di cui 38.000
lavoravano alla Zastava. Prende il suo nome da kraguj, il
rapace grifone che popolava i boschi della Sumadja. L'albergo è nel
Parco della Memoria, tra sconfinate distese di betulle
in cui si erge il Monumento delle Ali Spezzate che ricorda la terribile
rappresaglia nazista del 21 ottobre 1941: 7.300
persone fucilate, tra cui 300 studenti ginnasiali con i loro professori.
Ogni anno, il 21 ottobre, lezione di storia: i bambini,
invece di andare a scuola portano fiori a questo monumento. C'è anche il
monumento chiamato Il Fiore per ricordare i
piccoli lustrascarpe rom trucidati per essersi rifiutati di lucidare gli
stivali insanguinati dei nazisti.



Mercoledì 26 un pulmino della Zastava, guidato da Branko, ci porta
in gita al Monastero di S. Sava. Sulla strada
costeggiamo immensi campi di mais arsi dal sole e resi sterili
dall'uranio impoverito e Rajka li innaffia con lo sguardo
sussurrando "quest'inverno sarà dura...". Infatti quest'anno il raccolto
sarà scarso per la siccità. Mentre proseguiamo
nella calura estiva, io penso che mentre nazisti e NATO si sono così
accaniti su questa terra sfortunata, la natura si è
vendicata regalando filari di acacie, noci, betulle, ippocastani. Tutto
a piene mani... come le bombe a grappolo e all'uranio.
Il giorno di S. Sava, i bambini ricevono regali. All'interno del
monastero, affreschi del 1200, prima della battaglia di
Kosovo Polie, mentre una devota mano ha deposto un rametto di basilico
sfiorito davanti all'icona del santo. Nel giardino
delle monache, cespugli di peonie e di jorgovan - i lillà - a
profusione. Milan ci regala una croce ortodossa e una piccola
preghiera per i viaggiatori. Lungo la strada incontriamo carri di
zigani, mentre Branko si scatena con musica serba
"strazzacore", che come un baklave inzuppa di miele i fondi del nostro
cuore.

Ci rechiamo poi alle terme di Vrnjacka Banija, dove visitiamo il
sanatorio dei lavoratori della Zastava che hanno
problemi di intestino e di diabete. Il presidente del sanatorio ci parla
dell'ospedale con 900 letti. I pazienti vengono qui a
curarsi su indicazione medica. Essi gestiscono cinque sorgenti di acqua
minerale. Il sanatorio ha acque termali per massaggi
e diete riducenti (efficaci in 15-21 giorni). Anche gli sportivi di
fitness vengono qui. Le aziende pagano per ogni
lavoratore il 60%, il restante 40% è pagato da un fondo pensionistico
statale. Per un cittadino jugoslavo il soggiorno e la
cura costano circa 20.000 lire, per gli stranieri circa 35.000.
Salvatore ci fa un pensierino e prende dépliants da distribuire
in Italia. Ci sono anche acque sulfuree. Qui tutti ricordano Pertini e
questo ci fa sentire meno vigliacchi come italiani.



Giovedì 27, cerimonia di consegna del denaro raccolto dalla nostra
sottoscrizione ai bambini della Zastava. In tutta la
mattinata prenderanno dalle nostre mani il loro "stipendio" circa 500
bambini, perché insieme con noi di Bari c'è la
delegazione della CGIL di Brescia con Salvatore e Alba. E' presente la
TV nazionale. Ruzica, presidente del Samostalni
Sindikat, ci presenta, dicendo che abbiamo sacrificato le nostre ferie
per i bambini della Zastava.

Salvatore Cinque chiede scusa a nome di tutti i cittadini democratici di
Brescia, per quello che i nostri governi hanno fatto,
specificando che quello che noi facciamo non è carità ma un piccolo
risarcimento. Egli porta l'aiuto di tanti operai che
stentano a tirare avanti e fa l'esempio di una scuola di Brescia i cui
scolari hanno rinunciato per un giorno al pasto mensa
per adottare due bambini. Porta il saluto di Lino Anelli, tra i
coordinatori del progetto Zastava, del sindaco di Brescia che
ha dato come comune 10 milioni di lire, si sente onorato di aver
conosciuto gli operai che hanno fatto da scudo umano per
difendere la fabbrica. Promette di darsi da fare con i sindacati europei
per far cessare l'embargo. Bacia poi il bimbo Rados
perché dia un bacio a tutti i bambini della Zastava. Ruzica consegna
quattro tessere di iscrizione al sindacato Samostalni a
Salvatore e a sua moglie Alba, ad Andrea e a me. Alba consegna
personalmente il denaro raccolto dalla CGIL di Brescia ai
bambini. Facce di operai apparentemente fredde e distaccate ci sfilano
davanti e un operaio, dopo aver preso la busta ci
saluta ad occhi bassi, quasi a volersi scusare per averci dato quel
fastidio: la commozione è alle stelle! Anche un bambino
rom, nerissimo e secchissimo, accompagnato dalla mamma, prende il
"salario". Un operaio in tuta blu prende la busta per
il suo bambino. Una donna bacia la mano a Rajka dicendo: "Tu sei il mio
angelo salvatore". Quante mani abbiamo stretto
quella mattina, anche quelle di una bambina con il peluche di un
coniglietto celeste, quante speranze abbiamo seminato in
quei cuori sfiduciati!

Sreten presenta poi la delegazione barese composta da Andrea e me. Dice
che noi li abbiamo aiutati durante l'aggressione
della NATO, che siamo insegnanti e non siamo pagati bene. Racconta della
calorosa accoglienza che la delegazione della
Zastava ricevette a Bari i febbraio (l'associazione era a corto di soldi
per l'albergo e li ospitammo in casa). Spiega che
abbiamo svolto un lavoro di sensibilizzazione a Bari e in altre città
d'Italia (Taranto, Bologna, Bolzano). Parla del nostro
lavoro difficile, dell'alto numero di bambini "adottati" dalla nostra
associazione (169), del fatto che se un donatore non
invia l'aiuto mensile, l'associazione interviene. Parla della nostra
umanità e dice ai bambini presenti che il loro dovere è
scrivere ai donatori italiani: le loro letterine serviranno per aiutare
altri bambini.

Parla poi Andrea, che, a nome dei cittadini italiani che si sono opposti
alla guerra, chiede scusa per non aver avuto
sufficiente forza per sconfiggere chi ha portato l'aggressione alla
Jugoslavia. "La nostra associazione si chiama Most za
Beograd, perché noi vogliamo costruire ponti che la Nato non potrà
distruggere (ponte in serbo si dice "most"). La guerra
contro la Jugoslavia continua con l'embargo; chi ha decretato le
sanzioni vuole imporre i governanti che fanno comodo
all'Occidente. E' un vero e proprio assedio per imporre la
capitolazione. Noi faremo una battaglia contro le menzogne
costruite contro la Jugoslavia, siamo impegnati per la verità, nelle
scuole, nelle fabbriche, ovunque". (Nel frattempo
Giorgio piange come una fontana). Andrea ricorda che Kragujevac è una
città martire dell'aggressione nazifascista. Allora
i partigiani jugoslavi, i primi e i più decisi in Europa, hanno saputo
sollevarsi, come fecero poi i partigiani italiani. Allora
si costruì un fronte comune nella lotta antifascista, oggi, i cittadini
italiani che hanno una mente e un cuore sapranno
sollevarsi e lottare insieme contro chi vuole strangolare la Jugoslavia
e imporre il "nuovo ordine mondiale". Ieri era
Hitler, oggi è la NATO. Il fine della nostra associazione non è la sola
"beneficenza", ma la solidarietà, cioè il sostenersi
reciprocamente nella lotta contro il neocolonialismo e l'imperialismo.
Noi non siamo ricchi (come crede il piccolo
Stepan, che ci ha scritto una simpatica lettera), siamo gente comune e
facciamo i mestieri più disparati, non siamo dei
benestanti. Il nome Zastava significa bandiera e questo rappresenta per
tutti noi la bandiera di chi vuole resistere contro
l'oppressione. Andrea espone poi il progetto dell'associazione di
pubblicare un libro delle lettere e dei disegni dei bambini
di Kragujevac: il ricavato delle vendite, come si è già fatto per il
libro di poesie Gli assassini della tenerezza andrà in
solidarietà ai lavoratori della Zastava. Invita ad intensificare la
corrispondenza con i sostenitori italiani: ogni piccolo
scrittore contribuirà così ad aiutare altri suoi coetanei...



Io saluto i bambini dicendo che mi sembra un sogno di essere arrivata a
Kragujevac. Invito i bambini a studiare la loro
storia, le cui pagine più belle le hanno scritte i partigiani jugoslavi,
quelli di ieri e quelli di oggi (gli operai Sreten, Milan,
Rajka, Ruzica, e tutti quanti ostinatamente combattono contro
l'aggressione della NATO). Aggiungo che il popolo
jugoslavo non ha nulla di cui vergognarsi, solo chi non ha storia né
civiltà si accanisce contro chi ne ha per distruggerla: chi
non ha memoria storica non ha futuro. Sarà la tenerezza dei bambini a
legare le mani ai signori della guerra. Un operaio
piange e afferra la mia mano e la bacia; la sera verrà a trovarmi al
ristorante per regalarmi un vasetto di miele che le sue api
hanno prodotto e aggiunge che non ha mai pianto tanto in vita sua
neanche per la morte dei suoi genitori. Si procede poi alla
consegna dei soldi. Milan fa l'appello dei bambini, Milica e George
fanno firmare ed io consegno i soldi. Consegniamo
anche le lettere e i regali dei donatori italiani, combinando un gran
casino perché s'inceppa la "catena di montaggio" della
consegna delle buste... Tutti vogliono dirci qualcosa, tutti vogliono
che Rajka traduca il loro pensiero, tutti vogliono
dirci grazie.

Nevena (la bambina di Andrea) è bellissima e dolcissima. Il pomeriggio
visiteremo la sua famiglia, quella di Danjel (il
mio bambino), della piccola Maja (semicieca, adottata dalla madre di
Andrea) e di Mirjana (adottata da mia madre).
Ovunque, grande accoglienza e tanti regali, tanti dolci, tanti caffè
turchi, tante lacrime. Tutti inzuppiamo una mollica dei
nostri cuori in un mare di lacrime salate. Piangere ha un effetto
catartico dopo tanta vergogna e tanto male che la NATO e
il governo italiano (e la nostra incapacità di contrastarlo
efficacemente) hanno fatto a questa gente ingenua.

La famiglia di Danjel, che abita in un casolare bombardato di fronte ad
una caserma bombardata, vuole regalarci degli
enormi libri di storia della Serbia, ma nonostante Andrea sia tentato di
accettare, io rifiuto con garbo, perché, spiego, non
è giusto privarsi degli strumenti per conoscere la propria storia.
Danjel ci regala un bellissimo acquerello col monumento
delle "Ali spezzate", vicino ha disegnato una lapide con una scritta in
cirillico: "sparate pure, io continuo la mia lezione".
Sono le ultime parole del professore, prima di essere mitragliato dai
nazisti. E' il regalo più bello che abbia portato da
questa terra, dove mi hanno riempito le valigie di regali e del loro
immenso cuore.

A casa di Maja, dobbiamo difenderci dalla generosa ospitalità della
nonna (le nonne serbe sono meravigliose) che ci ha
preparato una cena sontuosa. La piccola Maja è quasi cieca, ha bisogno
di un'altra operazione e di molti soldi, anche il
compagno Nico Perrone e suo figlio Raffaele l'hanno aiutata. I medici
non le hanno dato molte speranze, ma lei,
ostinatamente, vuole tentare, chissà se il suo istinto avrà ragione
sulla scienza. Nonostante la miseria, si respira grande
umanità coraggio e pulizia in questa casa, la nonna ci mostra la stanza
di Maja, con qualche peluche, e un enorme mazzo di
zinnie e garofolini giapponesi sulla sua scrivania.

A casa di Mirjana ho visto la miseria più nera: una casa in aperta
campagna; abbiamo dovuto lasciare la macchina di Rajka
che non ce la faceva ad affrontare una strada sterrata e piena di fossi.
A piedi abbiamo raggiunto un casolare sperduto tra
alberi di melo, terreno spaccato per la siccità, in un campo di fiori di
zucca e peperoncini. La casa è senz'acqua e senza fogna.
La sorellina con gli occhi di felce ci osserva muta con il suo vestitino
a pois verde. La mamma ci ha confessato che l'anno
scorso non hanno mai mangiato un pezzo di carne e che grazie agli aiuti
della signora Maria Antonietta (mia madre) hanno
comprato un maialetto che ci ha salutato coi suoi grugniti al nostro
arrivo. Nonostante questa miseria, le bambine vanno a
scuola, facendo molta strada a piedi e Mirjana scrive bellissime poesie
e ci ha mostrato il suo quaderno. Salutiamo questa
"Madre Coraggio" e siamo soddisfatti che i nostri aiuti vadano nelle
mani giuste. Il maialetto mi ha proprio convinta e
commossa (anche per la sua sorte futura...).



Venerdì 28 luglio Sreten e Rajka ci portano in visita alla
fabbrica di automobili, la Jugo-Zastava. Sreten ci fa vedere
dalla finestra del suo ufficio il centro elaborazione dati colpito dalla
NATO; tutti i vetri delle finestre sono andati in
frantumi e gli operai ne hanno ricavato dei portacenere. Molti dei
bambini adottati sono figli di operai che facevano da
scudo umano. Sei feriti gravi durante il bombardamento, uno è caduto dal
tetto durante la ricostruzione. Veniamo ricevuti
dal signor Dgiorgevic, direttore della Zastava, che ci ringrazia per
quello che noi facciamo, soprattutto per l'aiuto morale,
che è più prezioso di quello economico. Parla della stupidità
dell'embargo e della forza del popolo jugoslavo che
difficilmente chiede aiuto, poiché è orgoglioso. Spera di ospitarci in
un futuro migliore come amici senza più problemi.
Sreten ci parla poi di questo direttore, ingegnere di ricerca e sviluppo
che in passato ha collaborato con l'Italia. E' un uomo
che lavora molto e la sua salute ne ha risentito. E' onesto, non
appartiene a nessun partito. Quando ci sono trattative
difficili col sindacato, alla fine si riesce ad avere un accordo
favorevole per i lavoratori. Dopo la metà di aprile si è fermata
la produzione perché è difficile importare lamiere e materiale per la
verniciatura. In agosto si spera di riprendere la
produzione, prevedendo di produrre 20.000 vetture in tutto per l'anno
2000. La fabbrica è stata ricostruita per due terzi.
La parte non ricostruita è quella relativa al montaggio e verniciatura.
Dopo l'alluvione sono fuoriuscite tre tonnellate di
PCB,usato nei trasformatori, altamente inquinante. Manca il gas russo a
causa del debito statale e questo incide sulla
ripresa della produzione. Il gas serve per la centrale termica, per la
cottura dello smalto e la verniciatura. La nafta costa
tre volte di più e bisognerebbe ricostruire gli impianti. Nella fabbrica
di automobili sono impiegati 11794 lavoratori di
cui 3500 lavorano a rotazione ogni mese. Gli impiegati sono in
prevalenza disoccupati, e come tali percepiscono
un'indennità equivalente a 20 DM al mese, più pacchi di aiuti della
Federazione jugoslava. Sreten, con malcelata
soddisfazione, ci anticipa una notizia che fa sgranare gli occhi a
Rajka: il sindacato ha strappato con i ministeri un contratto
favorevole per i lavoratori: tutti per il prossimo autunno avranno 10 kg
di zucchero, 25 kg di farina, 10 kg di pollo, 10 kg
di bue, 10 kg di maiale. I due terzi della città lavorano alla Zastava.
Scioperi non ce ne sono stati dopo la guerra: in questa
situazione lo sciopero è l'ultima arma di lotta. Il problema non risolto
è il riscaldamento nei reparti. Molti capannoni
sono scoperti. Nel 1989 la fabbrica aveva prodotto 289.000 vetture. Se
non ci fossero stati 10 anni di embargo ne avrebbe
prodotte 350.000 e sarebbero stati occupati tutti e assunti altri. Il
PCB è conservato ma non distrutto. Servono molti
soldi per distruggerlo. Esso è stato conservato in contenitori di
metallo con trucioli di legno e attende di essere smaltito.
A causa di questo inquinamento una donna su due ha il tumore alla
mammella, crescono le malattie della pelle e delle vie
respiratorie. La mortalità è aumentata di tre volte.

Sreten ci porta in giro per i reparti della fabbrica e molti lavoratori
ci salutano, alcuni di loro hanno ricevuto i soldi dalle
nostre mani il giorno prima e ci hanno riconosciuti. Per festeggiare
hanno portato sul luogo di lavoro bibite ai loro
compagni meno fortunati. Nel nostro giro scopriamo che molti reparti
sono stati ricostruiti grazie alla tenacia degli
operai che nel fango e tra le macerie hanno scavato a mani nude il loro
futuro. Incontriamo un chilometro di macerie
radioattive che sono state dislocate in un luogo isolato in attesa di
essere portate altrove, per non danneggiare la
popolazione. In un punto della Zastava è scritto: Per il successo
occorrono tutti, per l'insuccesso ne basta uno. I reparti
sono stati pitturati con colori diversi per indicare cosa è stato
distrutto e cosa ricostruito. Sreten ci spiega che nei reparti
nocivi (per inquinamento acustico) c'è una riduzione dell'orario di
lavoro: 7 ore al giorno.

All'uscita della Zastava incontriamo e fotografiamo cataste di carbone e
legna che il sindacato, utilizzando i contributi di
solidarietà, distribuisce ai lavoratori per l'inverno (come ha già fatto
per quello passato). Anche noi vi abbiamo
contribuito con il ricavato del libro delle poesie Gli assassini della
tenerezza: in totale sinora circa 17 milioni di lire. Ci
imbattiamo anche nel presidio sanitario Zastava bombardato dalla NATO.
La Zastava prima si chiamava Crvena Zastava
(Bandiera Rossa).

Venerdì sera cena di addio, violini zigani, pianti, abbracci, baci,
regali e un arrivederci a mercoledì prossimo a Pancevo.
Rajka è una fontana di lacrime e rassomiglia sempre di più a Lara del
dottor Zivago.



Sabato 29 ci trasferiamo a Belgrado con Rajka. A casa della
sorella di Rajka abbiamo avuto il complimento più bello da
un ingegnere che lavora a Pancevo, profugo serbo della Bosnia, il quale
ci ha detto, dopo averci ascoltato: "sarebbe bello se
tante persone come voi fossero sparse per il mondo". A Belgrado ci
sistemiamo alla Fondazione Ivo Andric in via
Milutinova 4, dove era ad attendermi un micino nero (chissà da quanti
anni) che per l'attesa si era tutto consumato.
Visitiamo la città anche in compagnia di Svetlana e di Nicola. Vediamo
la televisione bombardata, il palazzo del governo
bombardato, il quartier generale dell'armata, ospedali, palazzi ...
tutti bombardati. Dal parco Kalemegdan, dove non è
raro trovare uno scoiattolo, si vede il palazzo del "CK" (il Comitato
centrale del partito comunista ai tempi di Tito)
bombardato. Era vuoto al momento del bombardamento, ora si erge come una
torcia spenta. Andiamo a vedere
l'ambasciata cinese bombardata che è in un posto isolato, impossibile
sbagliare. Chi l'ha bombardata sapeva cosa faceva. A
Zemun (città vecchia) la strada principale era intitolata al maresciallo
Tito, poi, i radicali di Seselj l'hanno chiamata
"Strada principale". A passeggio per Kneza Mihajlova, un bianco
professore fa naufragio col suo violino sul bel Danubio
blu e i bambini alla fontana vendono i loro giochini, i loro puffi e le
loro scarpette usate. Nicola ci porta a spasso e,
superato il ponte Branko (il ponte da cui Santoro fece la sua
trasmissione TV sotto i bombardamenti) arriviamo sulla via
delle ambasciate. Le ambasciate aperte sono quella italiana (dove non
c'è però un ambasciatore, ma un addetto...), quella
tedesca, quella inglese (dove funziona solo la sezione consolare)
canadese (che raccoglie i visti e li manda in Ungheria
all'ambasciata canadese di Budapest). Per quanto riguarda i visti di
jugoslavi che vogliono andare in America le cose vanno
così: da Belgrado parte alle cinque del mattino un pulmino che porta i
futuri emigranti a Budapest all'ambasciata
americana e la sera stessa essi rientrano a Belgrado. Una scritta in
perfetto stile belgradese mi ha colpito sulla facciata
dell'edificio dell'ambasciata americana ora chiusa: "noi non siamo degli
indiani".



Mercoledì due agosto il pulmino della Zastava guidato da Branko
con a bordo Sreten, Milan, Jelena, Gordana, Nada ci
preleva davanti al teatro nazionale, in piazza della Repubblica. La
destinazione è Pancevo. Lungo il viaggio si scherza e
ogni tanto ci arriva una grande pacca operaia sulla spalla. A proposito
degli aiuti umanitari, chiedo a Sreten se altri paesi
fanno come l'Italia. Risposta: la Francia è inesistente, la IG Metall
tedesca ha regalato un grosso tornio alla Zastava. E'
arrivato dalla Germania anche un tir di grosse mutande da uomo blu e
bianche. Il sindacato distribuisce le mutande
(enormi, tedesche...) ai lavoratori che ringraziano. Ma il giorno dopo
si presentano dicendo: "c'è un piccolo problema, le
mutande non hanno l'elastico!" Così, le donne di Kragujevac si mettono
all'opera e mettono gli elastici. Anche Andrea
avrà da Sreten un simpatico pacchetto a forma di uovo di Pasqua con
dentro due mutande tedesche, una blu e l'altra bianca...
grandi risate, e ancora grandi pacche sulle spalle. Gli operai ci
spiegano che solo la Grecia ha un grande cuore come l'Italia.
Hanno adottato 500 bambini. I greci, durante i bombardamenti avevano
istallato a Kragujevac un'antenna che trasmetteva
via satellite; grazie ad essa i cittadini di Kragujevac erano più
informati. Poi, una bomba l'ha colpita e l'antenna greca non
ha più trasmesso, come pure una bomba assassina ha colpito in pieno un
camion umanitario greco. Tutti morti. Mentre
andiamo a Pancevo parliamo con la crocerossina Gordana, vedova di un
ufficiale serbo morto nella guerra con la Croazia.
Ci parla di un progetto a favore dei bambini profughi del Kosovo: si
tratta di assicurare l'inizio dell'anno scolastico a
bambini di scuola elementare consegnando ad ognuno un pacco del valore
di 50 DM con l'occorrente per la scuola. Il tutto
sarà fatto nella massima trasparenza e con le dovute garanzie. Come
associazione ci impegniamo nel progetto. Ai primi di
settembre un membro dell'associazione, Stefano, recatosi in Jugoslavia a
visitare il bambino "adottato", consegna 1.400
DM per i bambini profughi. La Croce Rossa jugoslava ha rapporti
ufficiali con quelle di Norvegia, Germania, Grecia,
Francia, Inghilterra. Spicca per la sua assenza la Croce Rossa italiana.

A Pancevo ci rechiamo in tre complessi industriali: Petrolchimico,
Fabbrica di azoto e Raffineria. Al Petrolchimico
siamo accolti da Jovanka Kandic che si occupa di problemi ambientali.
Ella ci spiega che il petrolchimico è stato
bombardato due volte ed è rimasto solo il 40% della capacità produttiva.
Il territorio è molto degradato. Molte sostanze
cancerogene si trovano nell'aria, nella terra, nel Danubio. Ella si
occupa di risanare la produzione e il territorio. In
collaborazione con la Focus e col governo svizzero stanno elaborando
progetti collettivi di risanamento. Le sostanze
cancerogene sono ormai nella terra visto che sono stati danneggiati i
contenitori per i materiali dannosi.

Nel frattempo ci mostrano un filmato di una decina di minuti sul
disastro di Pancevo. L'incendio è durato mesi e anche il
monastero che era nella fabbrica è andato distrutto. La schiuma per
spegnere non era sufficiente. Il 18 aprile sono state
colpite tutte le fabbriche. Tutto era fumo nero e fiamme arancione.
Anche i pesci del fiume sono stati avvelenati e la gente
è andata nei villaggi di campagna.

Jovanka ci dice: "In ognuno di noi c'è un muro che divide quello che era
prima e quello che è dopo. Vogliamo dimenticare.
Purtroppo, tutto si deve fare sulle rovine. La gente comune vive in
continuo stress, e ogni volta che un aereo sorvola la
città riviviamo l'incubo". Anche Svetlana ci aveva detto: "Noi abbiamo
dimenticato, noi vogliamo dimenticare. Quello che
è successo si è nascosto da qualche parte nel corpo, non so dove, e un
giorno uscirà fuori, non so da dove...".

Nel petrolchimico ci sono nove fabbriche e tre sono andate distrutte
(quelle più tossiche). E' fuoriuscito il cloruro di
vinile monomero che l'Organizzazione Mondiale della Sanità considera
cancerogeno. Il primo bombardamento del 15
aprile ha colpito gli impianti del cloruro di vinile monomero (VCM) e
del di cloruro di etilene e sono stati pesantemente
danneggiati gli impianti del cloro-alcali e del polivinilcloruro. Il
desiderio della NATO era di mettere fine alla
produzione nonostante nessuna fabbrica producesse materiale bellico. Il
18 aprile hanno bombardato i serbatoi delle
materie tossiche, uno dei due era vuoto, l'altro era pieno. Volevano
provocare una catastrofe e non solo interrompere la
produzione. Il VCM contenuto in un serbatoio di 1200 tonnellate è
esploso dopo essere stato colpito da un missile e
inquinerà suolo e acque per chissà quanti anni. Nella stessa notte è
stato bombardato anche il serbatoio di cloro puro. Il
cloro si usava come gas nervino nella prima guerra mondiale. Per
sopravvivere, spiega Jovanka, hanno cominciato col
risanare la produzione mettendo in funzione le linee risanabili. Ora le
altre fabbriche del petrolchimico lavorano, ma la
linea dell'etilene e quella del cloro sono fuori funzione. Il 25% dei
lavoratori è senza lavoro (cassa integrazione). Essi
ricevono regolarmente il 70% della paga. Il petrolchimico compra le
materie prime all'estero, il popolo jugoslavo,
aggiunge, è un popolo che sempre riesce a farcela.

Il danno calcolato è di 432 milioni di DM. Circa 8 tonnellate di
mercurio sono nel terreno in forma metallica e il resto è
nel Danubio. Le attrezzature per il trattamento delle acque sono andate
perdute non solo per i bombardamenti, ma per i
fluidi liquidi. Circa 170.000 metri cubi sono passati attraverso gli
impianti e contenevano anche mercurio, soda caustica,
petrolio. I centri sanitari hanno controllato regolarmente i cloridi.
Subito dopo i bombardamenti è stata vietata la
raccolta di frutta. Sull'acqua non si può dire molto, ma essa è
continuamente monitorata. "Non troveremo mai
giustificazioni per quello che è stato fatto" aggiunge tristemente.
Jovanka ci dice di essere stata l'estate scorsa a Porto
Marghera per vedere come, in tempi normali, si risana l'ambiente; il
problema più grosso è di ripulire il terreno dal
mercurio, in ciò arrivano aiuti dal governo svizzero tramite
organizzazioni umanitarie e tra un anno si spera di risanare
tutto. Per quanto riguarda il problema dello stoccaggio delle scorie, è
stato creato un sarcofago chiuso in cui c'è il terreno
molto contaminato.

Ci danno poi un dépliant con dati in inglese e ci chiedono di
divulgarlo. Jovanka aggiunge tristemente che solo gli italiani
hanno dato un supporto psicologico pieno e che ci sono cose che si
devono ricordare perché non si ripetano, ma è molto
difficile essere coinvolti in prima persona e parlarne. Ricorda come il
primo giorno dei bombardamenti, tutti i lavoratori
(3000) sono venuti in fabbrica alle sei del mattino. Essi tentavano di
entrare, c'era il pericolo di un'esplosione che poteva
distruggere l'intera città.

Ma non solo la guerra ha creato degrado all'economia, il problema dura
da dieci anni. Nel '92 ci sono state le sanzioni, in
estate la produzione si è fermata per 4 anni fino a luglio '96; era
necessario mantenere tutte le linee per poter ricominciare
la produzione e... nel momento della massima produzione c'è stato il
bombardamento!

Ci spostiamo poi alla fabbrica di fertilizzanti, dove veniamo ricevuti
dal presidente e dal segretario del Samostalni
sindikat. Questa è la più grande fabbrica di concimi (fertilizzanti
minerali) di azoto dei Balcani. E' una fabbrica di base per
altre sei fabbriche. Prima dei bombardamenti le capacità produttive
giornaliere erano di 1300 tonnellate di fertilizzanti.
Poiché questa fabbrica è direttamente legata alle altre, è chiamata
fabbrica per la produzione dei cibi. E' dai fertilizzanti
che dipende la politica della Jugoslavia. Il nutrimento della
popolazione dipende da questa fabbrica e per questo essa è
stata scelta come obiettivo militare, visto che - aggiunge Ljubisa
Nestorovic, presidente del Samostalni - "possiamo
vivere senza vestiti ma non con lo stomaco vuoto".

Dopo i bombardamenti, per sette mesi gli operai hanno lavorato con un
salario di 10 DM. Hanno continuato a lavorare per
risollevare la fabbrica di ammoniaca distrutta. Ora è stata risanata e
la produzione è ricominciata. Per i primi tre mesi sono
state prodotte 440 tonnellate al mese con cui sono stati nutriti i
campi, poi però si sono ridotte le forniture di gas russo e
la paura è di ritornare al salario di 10 DM al mese. Si sta riattivando
la seconda linea (di fertilizzanti complessivi) che si
spera di finire in un anno. Mancano gli investimenti. Per ora fanno da
soli con investimenti cinesi nella fabbrica di urea (la
più grande dei Balcani) in tempi rapidi. "E' una cosa incredibile quanto
siano entusiasti i nostri lavoratori, l'Occidente non
sopporta che si rimetta su questa fabbrica per alimenti. Essa è esclusa
dalle liste nere (sanzioni) solo formalmente. Di
fatto si impedisce a questa fabbrica di produrre, perché sono vietati
gli investimenti. Ciò è una ipocrisia. Ci sono 2000
impiegati e non si sa per quanto ancora resisteranno. Rispetto i miei
amici di Kragujevac, ma si può vivere senza auto, non
senza cibo".

Alla richiesta di Andrea di notizie sui danni provocati dall'embargo e
sul sindacato, Ljubisa dice che ci sono tre sindacati:
Samostalni, Solidarnost e Nezavisnost. "Pancevo è una città di
opposizione, come Kragujevac. Anch'io appartengo
politicamente all'opposizione e non sono d'accordo col governo, ma posso
separare l'interesse generale da quello
personale. Alcuni mesi fa, ci sono state delegazioni internazionali di
sindacati ed io ho potuto notare la vergogna di molti
italiani presenti nella delegazione, ma non si può dare la colpa al
popolo italiano. Dico questo perché non giustifico questo
governo. Il popolo soffre. Il nostro popolo è orgoglioso, non coraggioso
come dicono sempre. Buoni rapporti tra Italia e
Jugoslavia ci sono da 50 anni". Esprime poi preoccupazione per la
situazione del Kosovo che per lui è un problema più grave
dei bombardamenti perché - aggiunge "le origini del nostro popolo si
trovano lì". Andrea aggiunge che, come il
Samostalni tende ad unire i lavoratori senza condizionamenti politici,
la nostra associazione non interferisce nei problemi
interni della Jugoslavia. Le interferenze esterne continuano la vecchia
linea del colonialismo. Ljubisa esprime la sua
soddisfazione per il fatto di trovarsi tra amici. "La nostra patria è
più importante, siamo grati a tutti, ma dovete sapere che
avete a che fare con un popolo buono e orgoglioso e non ci possono
comprare. Così è il Samostalni Sindikat. Possiamo
vivere anche per vent'anni con l'embargo".

Passiamo poi alla Raffineria che visitiamo a bordo di un pulmino in
compagnia di un tecnologo e alcuni sindacalisti. Essi ci
spiegano che la raffineria è stata colpita per ben 7 volte e sono stati
danneggiati 6 impianti, molti contenitori di derivati e
di petrolio, i generatori e i supporti delle pompe per ricevere e
distribuire i derivati. La linea più danneggiata è quella degli
impianti per il trasporto di benzina ad alti ottani. Il 90% è stato
danneggiato e il risanamento di questo impianto è
terminato un mese fa, ma ora è fermo per mancanza di materie prime. Il
tecnologo ci fa vedere un buco dove prima c'era un
forno che è stato distrutto. Si prevede di ricostruirlo in due mesi con
finanziamenti di tasca propria. Il gruppo NIS
(gruppo statale del petrolio serbo) è intervenuto nella ricostruzione
che si prevede di ultimare entro la fine dell'anno. Il
51% rimarrà statale e il 49% diventerà privato (anche occidentale). Nel
frattempo incontriamo una gracile betullina tra i
rottami in una chiazza di petrolio greggio e per associazione di idee la
sua possibilità di sopravvivenza la paragono a quella
del popolo serbo. Incontriamo un impianto danneggiato per il 60% che il
primo maggio è stato rimesso in funzione. E' il
complesso della raffineria dalle cui scorie si produce benzina. Esso è
il più importante e deve essere ricostruito in due
mesi. I danni sono stati più gravi di quelli di Novi Sad. Il generatore
di vapore distrutto al 90% è lì. Solo uno dei tre
contenitori è stato ricostruito. Il secondo e terzo forno sono
completamente distrutti e il quarto lo ricostruiranno ex
novo. Distrutti sono i generatori di corrente e li stanno ricostruendo.
In questi fabbricati sono morti tre lavoratori. Dei
2300 lavoratori, circa l'80% lavorano, il 20% riceve l'80% del salario
(che qui è più alto: 200 DM al mese).

Arriviamo alla casa delle pompe attraverso cui si trasportano i derivati
verso i recipienti. Qui c'erano molte pompe che
prendevano i carburanti che venivano inviati alle cisterne, ferrovie,
ecc. Ci imbattiamo nell'impianto per la fabbricazione
di asfalto danneggiato al 35% che è stato risanato e funziona da maggio.
I più danneggiati sono gli impianti per il trasporto
dei derivati. Prima dei bombardamenti si lavorava per il 60-70%, ora
forse per il 10%, a causa dell'embargo.

Alla domanda se il problema è la Russia, la risposta è negativa: sono
gli Usa ad aver bloccato tutto. Alla fine della visita
un fotografo della fabbrica ci fa una foto davanti al monumento che
ricorda le vittime dei bombardamenti ed è stato
ricavato coi materiali della fabbrica. La foto sarà pubblicata sul
giornale della fabbrica Rafineraz, di cui ci danno una copia
precedente. Intanto, pranziamo alla mensa della raffineria in compagnia
del vicepresidente del sindacato, del tecnologo e
dei nostri amici di Kragujevac. Divorando un karageorgevic ed una trota
del Danubio e brindando con vino veruscko, chiedo
al vicepresidente del sindacato come hanno passato l'inverno senza
nafta. La risposta è: "Solo noi sappiamo come abbiamo
fatto!". Con i distributori privati non sottoposti ad embargo si era
sviluppato il mercato nero. Non tutte le case hanno
impianti di riscaldamento e lì dove c'era l'impianto centralizzato, la
temperatura massima era stata ridotta da 18 a 16
gradi (Ma non c'era il rischio di arrivare a tanto...). Alla domanda se
in fabbrica si verificano morti bianche e in quali
percentuali, la risposta è che in 30 anni c'è stato un solo morto per
incidente sul lavoro: è scoppiato un tubo di un forno, il
dirigente è andato a controllare, ha aperto il finestrino, e così è
morto. La sicurezza dei lavoratori è tenuta in grande
considerazione. Ai lavoratori spettano le cure termali. Ogni anno vanno
400 lavoratori e dopo gli interventi chirurgici
spettano 15 giorni di ferie (circa 200-300 lavoratori all'anno quelli
interessati). Poi ci sono le vacanze semigratuite. Per
quanto riguarda le malattie professionali, su 2300 lavoratori, circa 300
sono invalidi del lavoro ed essi per ora non
vengono licenziati, ma spostati a posti meno pesanti.

Il problema futuro della raffineria sarà quello dei licenziamenti se ci
sarà la privatizzazione. I privatizzatori hanno poco
interesse a comperare la raffineria per produrre petrolio. Mirano più
alla conquista del mercato che alla produzione. Dieci
anni fa la raffineria si preoccupava di far lavorare il più possibile i
lavoratori, ma se un capitalista occidentale comprerà
una ditta così ridurrà il personale. Però, "il sindacato è autonomo e
potente tanto quanto i soldi..."

Alla raffineria prelevo dagli alberi delle foglie di betulla e Sreten mi
regala un grappolo di ippocastani, intendo portarlo
all'amico Franco Selleri perché mi aiuti a farli analizzare.



Ci congediamo da Pancevo e torniamo a Belgrado in compagnia dei nostri
amici di Kragujevac a cui offriamo un gelato alla
gelateria italiana, Milan vorrebbe la Nastro azzurro ma l'embargo non
glielo permette e rimpiange casa nostra. A spasso
per le vie di Belgrado tra panetterie e pasticcerie albanesi,
incontriamo facce intelligenti e dignitose, donne eleganti e
slanciate, autosufficienti. Anche la vecchiaia è composta e asciutta!
Tutti sembrano aver dimenticato. Alla fine ci
separiamo per l'ultima volta dai nostri amici di Kragujevac e le nostre
braccia e i nostri cuori non si vogliono più separare.
Tra poco sarò nel mio plastificato esilio; mi sembra un delitto
abbandonare questo popolo che si consuma come l'agonia
delle candeline per i vivi e per i morti che ho visto al monastero di
San Sava. Questo popolo meraviglioso e ingenuo, non
cinico e freddo come ce l'hanno dipinto, questo popolo ancora capace di
sognare un futuro, nonostante quello che il nostro
governo gli ha fatto, questo popolo che mi ha contagiato mortalmente, in
cui ho visto brillare la febbre degli occhi di
Gavrilo Princip (la sua foto, e tantissime dei partigiani jugoslavi sono
esposte al documentatissimo Museo della Guerra al
parco di Kalemegdan). Questo popolo che ci ama follemente e non è capace
di odiare, come non ci odia Elisabetta, figlia di
genitori separati (lui barese, lei belgradese) che abbiamo conosciuto al
caffè vicino alla facoltà di Filosofia. Lei ha vissuto
a Bari fino all'età di dodici anni, poi si è trasferita a Belgrado e
studia ingegneria e lavora al caffè. Il padre non le ha mai
telefonato durante i bombardamenti. Alla domanda se odia gli italiani
risponde candidamente: "Per odiare ci vogliono
molte energie ed io preferisco impegnarle per amare...". Muto
l'etnografico museo osserva i nostri addii! Le grandi braccia
operaie intrecciano i nostri cuori ed io ho appena la forza di
sussurrare "ho seppellito il mio cuore a Kragujevac e un giorno
verrò a riprendermelo..."


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------

QUINDICI MESI DOPO la fine dei bombardamenti della NATO e l'inizio della
occupazione coloniale del Kosovo, su "LA REPUBBLICA ON-LINE" campeggiano
ancora tutti i pezzi di disinformazione strategica redatti in clima di
guerra (vedi sotto) mentre nessuna inchiesta o fotografia e' dedicata ai
crimini commessi nel frattempo dalle forze alleate UCK-KFOR sul
territorio della provincia.
Lo stesso bilancio definitivo ufficiale della NATO sulle "fosse comuni",
reso noto sotto ferragosto anche sulla stampa occidentale (vedi sotto)
viene taciuto, preferendo riportare servizi vecchi di piu' di un anno.


---

> http://www.repubblica.it/online/mondo/fossa/elezioni/elezioni.html

Si vota domenica. Secondo i sondaggi [della agenzia statunitense
Bloomberg e dei gruppi della opposizione filooccidentale, non proprio
affidabili, come ammesso dallo stesso autore nel suo articolo] Milosevic
avrebbe già perso: 20% contro il 40% di Kostunica.
Jugoslavia alle urne con le minacce dei generali [della NATO, ma
l'autore si riferisce al capo di Stato maggiore jugoslavo]
"Siamo pronti a sparare" [in caso di invasione della NATO] dice il capo
di stato maggiore dell'esercito di Belgrado e parla di un piano della
Nato [ne parla la stessa NATO, che ha riempito di militari il lembo piu'
meridionale della Croazia ed ha avvicinato le portaerei]
dal nostro inviato RENATO CAPRILE (22 settembre 2000)


DAI LINK SULLA STESSA PAGINA:

> http://www.repubblica.it/online/mondo/fossa/osce/osce.html

Tutte le atrocità del Kosovo in un dossier dell'Osce [non si riferisce
ai 1100 morti ammazzati, 900 scomparsi ne' alle abitazioni, strutture e
monumenti distrutti, bensi' alle violenze sul terreno durante i
bombardamenti della NATO: si noti che e' un articolo del 5 dicembre
1999! Dice: "Domani il rapporto: violenze, esecuzioni e torture
su donne e bambini... Un campionario agghiacciante di atrocità e
brutture - soprattutto dalla parte serba...", ma il rapporto non c'e'!]

> http://www.repubblica.it/online/speciale/fosse/fosse/fosse.html

La Nato: fosse comuni a Izbica e Pusto Selo
Secondo l'alleanza [bonta' loro] queste immagini "catturate" in 2
villaggi del Kosovo mostrano il sorgere di cimiteri improvvisati
(20 aprile 1999)

> http://www.repubblica.it/online/mondo/fossa/fossa/fossa.html

Kosovo, le fosse dell'orrore fanno paura all'Occidente
E' già polemica sul numero delle vittime. Ma gli scavi
sono appena cominciati. Ispezionate solo poche aree
(3 novembre 1999)

> http://www.repubblica.it/online/fatti/16giu/pec/pec.html

Sono 11.000 i kosovari sepolti nelle fosse comuni
Gli investigatori dell'Onu hanno cominciato a scavare
Al cimitero di Pec scoperte 205 tombe in più
(2 agosto 1999 - SIC!!!)

> http://www.repubblica.it/online/fatti/16giu/nuovo/nuovo.html

Kosovo: 10.000 vittime di massacri e atrocità
Prime stime della Nato: ma il bilancio potrebbe salire
Scoperte altre fosse comuni e la "stanza delle torture"
(17 giugno 1999 - SIC!!!)

> http://www.repubblica.it/online/fatti/16giu/delre/delre.html

Mattatoio Kosovo le prove degli eccidi
A Velika Krusha quaranta cadaveri nella casa degli orrori
[notare l'abbondante utilizzo di testimonianze inattendibili; con una
foto di un terrorista della NATO (UCK) che tiene in mano un teschio di
persona di ignota identita' morta non si sa quando non si sa come]
(16 giugno 1999 - SIC!!!)

===

FONTI UFFICIALI NATO SULLE FOSSE COMUNI
(NOTIZIA INTROVABILE SUL SITO DI "REPUBBLICA"):

"Gli ufficiali della NATO hanno ammesso ieri sera che le loro stime sul
numero dei civili kosovaro-albanesi massacrati dalle forze serbe fatte
in tempo di guerra potrebbero essere state troppo alte... Non si puo'
dimostrare che tutti i cadaveri esumati [meno di tremila, di tutti i
gruppi etnici] siano stati vittima di assassinio o esecuzioni..."

(The Guardian, 18/8/2000)

> Figures put on Serb killings too high
> Special report: Kosovo
>
> Jonathan Steele
> Friday August 18, 2000
> The Guardian
>
> Nato officials conceded last night that their wartime
> estimates of the number of Kosovo Albanian civilians
> massacred by Serb forces might have been too high.
> They were reacting to findings by forensic experts for
> the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague who
> are preparing to complete their work in Kosovo after
> exhuming about 3,000 bodies.
>
> Not all of the dead can be proved to be victims of
> murder or execution...

===

ED ANCORA:
> http://www.repubblica.it/online/fatti/16giu/altra/altra.html
Kosovo, scoperta seconda camera di tortura (19 giugno 1999)
> http://www.repubblica.it/online/fatti/16giu/tortu/tortu.html
Pristina: ecco le stanze dell'orrore serbo (18 giugno 1999)
> http://www.repubblica.it/misc/corredo_serbia/corredo_serbia/corredo_serbia.html
Le immagini della stanza degli orrori (18 giugno 1999)
> eccetera eccetera...
vedasi anche il penoso Dossier "Guerra del Kosovo" che non riporta
nessun bilancio finale della aggressione e non scrive niente del
bombardamento genocida contro il petrolchimico di Pancevo


---


Puntate precedenti:
GIORNALI DA BUTTARE: 1. "LA REPUBBLICA"
> http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/75
GIORNALI DA BUTTARE: 2. "IL PICCOLO"
> http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/456


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------

AUMMA AUMMA


(si dice che il giornalista che scrive articoli pieni di ambiguita'
sulla Jugoslavia per "Liberazione" usando lo pseudonimo "Gino Sergi" sia
in realta' lo scrittore Giacomo Scotti. Costui collabora anche con "Il
Manifesto" ma l'abbiamo visto occasionalmente pure su altri giornali...
Insomma un vero e proprio "prezzemolo", che sta bene su tutti i piatti.
La cosa importante d'altronde e' evitare accuratamente di far scrivere,
o riportare le opinioni, dei comunisti jugoslavi.
Ma acqua in bocca, sono solo voci...)


--------- 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 elections & Abolish NATO Campaign (IAC)

* Opinions exchange regarding the elections (STOPNATO)

More links:

> http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/461
Who Are the G-17?
By Michel Chossudovsky

> http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/460
Blagovesta Doncheva, an ordinary Bulgarian:
"Kostunica: the New US Bait for the Serb People"

> http://www.emperors-clothes.com/letters/yugoltr.htm
Criticism of Emperor's Clothes on Yugoslav Elections,
With Reply

> http://www.Antiwar.com
Will the US Get Their Money's Worth in Yugo Elections?
by George Szamuely


---


Subject: Yugoslav elections & Abolish NATO Campaign
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 16:59:39 -0400
From: iacenter@...
To: "International" <iacenter@...>


INTERNATIONAL CALL MADE FOR
DEMONSTRATIONS TO ‘ABOLISH NATO’
October 20 - 28, 2000

The International Action Center on Sept. 22 denounced U.S. and West
European interference in the Sept. 24 Yugoslav elections and
announced it was calling for actions across the United States for the
week
of October 20 to 28 to demand an end to U.S. intervention and to
demand
that the NATO military alliance be abolished.

The IAC, founded by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark in
1992, was a leading organizer of anti-war protests during the 78-day
NATO
war against Yugoslavia. It has also organized to stop sanctions against
Yugoslavia, Iraq, Cuba and other targets of Washington.

THE U.S. IS TRYING TO STEAL THE YUGOSLAV ELECTIONS

Sara Flounders, an IAC national coordinator, explained why her
organization was protesting what she called “blatant interference in the
Yugoslav elections. The U.S. is, in effect, trying to steal the
Yugoslav
elections.”

“The destabilization campaign has been in full swing through the
election period,” she said. “It’s a no-holds-barred full court press
that
includes everything from covert operations involving assassinations;
open
funding for opposition parties; economic strangulation; media
manipulation; and psychological warfare, including the threat of another
NATO war should Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic be returned to
office.”

“While the U.S. Navy schedules maneuvers in the Adriatic Sea off the
Yugoslav coast during the election,” she continued, “the European Union
tries to bribe Yugoslav voters by promising to lift the murderous
sanctions – but only if Milosevic loses the vote. It’s an open attempt
to
manipulate the Yugoslav electorate and steal the election.”

“The New York Times (Sept. 20, 2000) ran an article saying that
Milosevic was running his election campaign against NATO,” the anti-
war leader said. “This makes perfect sense since the U.S. and its NATO
allies are the real power behind his opponent organizations and the ones
who want to turn all of Yugoslavia back into a colony of the West. Both
the New York Times (Sept. 20, 2000) and the Washington Post (Sept. 19,
2000) describe how Washington has been pumping millions of dollars into
Milosevic’s opposition.” (see quotes from article below)

Washington is using the same tactics against Yugoslavia that they have
used countless times in the past to overthrow elected governments and
establish dependent semi colonial regimes. Secret funding and military
pressure were used in Nicaragua, Panama, Iran, Philippines and
throughout
Eastern Europe.

Flounders said her group had called for coordinated international
actions against NATO for next month.

“The U.S.-led NATO alliance carried out a war of aggression against
Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999. At hearings in 14 countries the IAC
and
many others showed that U.S. and NATO leaders were guilty of war crimes.
Last June here in New York the people’s tribunal we held concluded that
NATO must be abolished, a demand raised by Ramsey Clark.”

“Now we are calling for demonstrations, meetings, rallies and other
suitable actions in as many cities and countries as possible, especially
in NATO countries, in the week from October 20—the anniversary of
Belgrade’s liberation from Nazi occupation—to October 28, when the OSCE
is
running municipal elections in Kosovo unauthorized by Serbia. The OSCE
and
NATO totally dominate every aspect of life in Kosovo. These October
elections are an effort to put a fig leaf of democracy on complete
colonial occupation. We will demand that NATO be abolished, that the
sanctions be lifted against Yugoslavia, and that the U.S. and its allies
leave the Balkans,” she said.

The IAC spokesperson said that anti-war groups in Italy, Austria,
Germany had already called local or regional protests for that time, and
that the Italian organizations were also organizing a solidarity
shipment
of medicine and other vital goods to Yugoslavia for the end of December.

“Since the U.S. military is also threatening war against Iraq and
intervention in Colombia, and U.S troops occupy Puerto Rico, the island
of
Vieques and South Korea, we expect to also raise these issues at the
protests we organize in the United States,” she concluded.

(Quotes from article referred to in the above release)

THE NEW YORK TIMES SEPTEMBER 20, 2000
Milosevic, Trailing in Polls, Rails Against NATO
By Steven Erlanger

BELGRADE, Serbia, Sept. 19 - In his race for re-election, President
Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia is running against NATO and the
United States, not against his democratic opposition.

He is not entirely mistaken to do so. The United States and its
European allies have made it clear that they want Mr. Milosevic ousted,
and they have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to get it done.

Portraying himself as the defender of Yugoslavia's sovereignty against a
hostile, hegemonic West led by Washington, Mr. Milosevic and his
government argue that opposition leaders are merely the paid, traitorous
tools of enemies who are continuing their war against him by other
means.
In March 1999, NATO began a 78-day bombing campaign to drive Serbian
forces out of Kosovo.

The Yugoslav elections are on Sunday, but there has hardly been a day
since the bombing began that state television news has not railed
against
"NATO aggressors."…

The money from the West is going to most of the institutions that the
government attacks for receiving it - sometimes in direct aid, sometimes
in indirect aid like computers and broadcasting equipment, and sometimes
in suitcases of cash carried across the border between Yugoslavia and
Hungary or Serbia and Montenegro….

Even before the Kosovo war, the United States was spending up to $10
million a year to back opposition parties, independent news media and
other institutions opposed to Mr. Milosevic. The war itself cost
billions
of dollars. This fiscal year, through September, the administration is
spending $25 million to support Serbian "democratization," with an
unknown
amount of money spent covertly to help the failed rallies of last year,
which did not bring down Mr. Milosevic, or to influence the current
election. For next year, the administration is requesting $41.5 million
in
open aid to Serbian democratization, though Congress is likely to cut
that
request.

Independent journalists and broadcasters here have been told by
American aid officials "not to worry about how much they're spending
now,"
that plenty more is in the pipeline, said one knowledgeable aid worker.
Others in the opposition complain that the Americans are clumsy, sending
e-mails from "state.gov" - the State Department's address - summoning
people to impolitic meetings with American officials in Budapest,
Montenegro or Dubrovnik, Croatia.

But there is little effort to disguise the fact that Western money pays
for much of the polling, advertising, printing and other costs of the
opposition political campaign …

THE WASHINGTON POST, SEPTEMBER 19, 2000 (Final Edition)
U.S. Funds Help Milosevic's Foes in Election Fight
By John Lancaster, Washington Post Staff Writer

Charges of Chinese influence-buying in the 1996 U.S. presidential
campaign caused a political storm in Washington that has yet to fully
abate. By some measures, however, that episode pales by comparison to
American political interference in Serbia, locus of a $ 77 million U.S.
effort to do with ballots what NATO bombs could not--get rid of Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic.

In the run-up to national elections on Sept. 24, U.S. aid officials and
contractors are working to strengthen Serbia's famously fractured
democratic opposition. They have helped train its organizers, equipped
their offices with computers and fax machines and provided opposition
parties with sophisticated voter surveys compiled by the same New York
firm that conducts polls for President Clinton.

More generally, they have sought to foster what one aid consultant
calls "democracy with a small 'd'," funneling support to student groups,
labor unions, independent media outlets, even Serbian heavy metal bands
that stage street concerts as part of a voter registration drive called
"Rock the Vote."…

Underscoring worries about Serbia and Montenegro, the Pentagon
yesterday began a global shift of forces to bolster the U.S. military
presence in the Balkans. A carrier battle group led by the USS Abraham
Lincoln left Thai waters ahead of schedule and headed toward the Persian
Gulf, which will free up another carrier group, led by the USS George
Washington, for movement to the Adriatic Sea, Defense Department
officials
said.

THE NEW YORK TIMES, MARCH 31, 1997 (Late Edition - Final)
Political Meddling by Outsiders: Not New for U.S.
By JOHN M. BRODER

Members of both political parties express horror at accusations that the
Chinese may have tried to use covert campaign donations to influence
American policy, but the United States has long meddled in other
nations'
internal affairs.

Congress routinely appropriates tens of millions of dollars in covert
and
overt money to use in influencing domestic politics abroad.

The National Endowment for Democracy, created 15 years ago to do in
the open what the Central Intelligence Agency has done surreptitiously
for
decades, spends $30 million a year to support things like political
parties, labor unions, dissident movements and the news media in dozens
of
countries, including China.

The endowment has financed unions in France, Paraguay, the
Philippines and Panama. In the mid-1980's, it provided $5 million to
Polish emigres to keep the Solidarity movement alive. It has
underwritten
moderate political parties in Portugal, Costa Rica, Bolivia and Northern
Ireland. It provided a $400,000 grant for political groups in
Czechoslovakia that backed the election of Vaclav Havel as president in
1990. For the Nicaraguan election of 1990, it provided more than $3
million in "technical" assistance, some of which was used to bolster
Violeta Barrios de Chamorro, the presidential candidate favored by the
United States.

International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: iacenter@...
web: www.iacenter.org
CHECK OUT THE NEW SITE www.mumia2000.org
phone: 212 633-6646
fax: 212 633-2889


---


STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK

Dear "appliedms",
When the first coffin of a dead American will go home, (and there will
be
many coffins in case of any NATO invasion, even if some Serbs are
"utterly
exhausted by
a decade of wars and rootless sanctions"), many unbelievable things will

happen.
America can't stand a second Vietnam. In Serbia it will have it.
Best
Maria

appliedms wrote:

> STOP NATO: ?NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
>
> The forthcoming Yugoslav elections are a turning point
> for both Yugoslavia and the New World Order.
>
> The elections will be conducted in the atmosphere of
> unadulterated political pressure and military threats by the
> Western Alliance. About 160,000 well equipped Western
> troops all around Serbia, together with US airforce bombers
> in Hungary and Bulgaria, about 6 minutes flight away
> from Belgrade, "George Washington" in the Adriatic
> and more than US$100M in funding for the
> opposition are "helping" push democracy along.
>
> What remains of Yugoslavia is utterly exhausted by
> a decade of wars and rootless sanctions. The remaining Yugoslavs
> seem to have lost their penchant for resisting the NWO.
> For 10 years the NWO has been making Yugoslavia, together with
> Iraq, an example of what happens to those who resist its rule.
> It seams that it is time for Serbia to lower its head.
>
> There are only two bad electoral choices in Yugoslavia:
>
> Option A: A vote for Milosevic is a vote for fast death of Yugoslavia

>
> Scenario of Milosevic's Win: in early March 2001 Djukanovic of
> Montenegro
> declares independence without a referendum, which sparks a conflict
> between
> Montenegrian paramilitaries and pro-Serbian Montenegrians.
> Yugoslav Army gets involved to prevent the killings. Then NATO rushes

> in to help the "fledgling democracy" of Montenegro. After a couple of

> days
> of intensive bombing NATO enters Yugoslavia simultaneously from
> Hungary, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia and Croatia, including
> a landing of US Marines on the Montenegrian shore at Ulcinj.
Yugoslavia
>
> is overrun in 15 days (it took Nazi's 17 days for the whole of old
> Yugoslavia).
> About 10,000 Serb civilians are killed by NATO in the process.
> Before the fall, Slobo and Mira disappear for China.
>
> Victorious Djindjic enters Belgrade with a Serbian flag on top of a US

> tank.
> Nobody even remembers the last elections and some individual called
> Kostunjica.
>
> Option B: A vote for Kostunjica is a vote for a slow death of
> Yugoslavia
>
> Scenario of Kostunjica's Win: Kostunjica is removed from the top
> position within
> 6 months after the elections (either politically marginalized by his
> coalition
> partners, made into a puppet by secret CIA files on him or even
> physically
> eliminated by the CIA). Before this, Slobo and Mira secretly jet to
> their
> love nest in China. Serbia disappears from the Western media, like
> Kosovo.
> Only occasionally, the world's sheeple (a hybrid of sheep and people)
> are
> reminded by the media how bad the Serbs under Milosevic were.
> Ultimately,
> the Western media stories about Serbian atrocities make it even into
the
> official
> school curriculum in Serbia (the sense of guilt needs to be installed
> early).
>
> Serbia withers away as NATO rewards its allies for their cooperation
> with
> "administration" of parts of Serbia (the same as the US rewarded the
> KLA).
> Djindjic springs up as a new leader with hugely publicized promises
> of the "New Age for All Serbs" as an associated partner of the EU and
> NATO.
> NATO troops are stationed all over Serbia and Montenegro as guarantors

> of "peace and prosperity". But, the promised New Age always remains
> just
> outside the reach. Just a little more of IMF and World Bank economic
> medicine. Just one more year of economic austerity measures before
> Serbia starts blossoming.
>
> So, which evil do you think the Serbs should vote for,
> Milosevic evil or NATO evil?
>
> [If Milosevic wins the only solution for Serbia are Russian S300's
> bought
> by Chinese loans. Those would keep NATO humanitarians away from
> Serbia for the next couple of years.]


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------