"Liberazione" prova a parlare di Mostar


Matteo Tacconi su "Liberazione" rompe parzialmente con il vezzo
squallido dei commentatori italiani di non parlare (magari
seppellendola sotto a quintali di puzzolente sarcasmo) della
nostalgia degli jugoslavi per la Jugoslavia. Lo fa concentrandosi
sulla Bosnia. Il discorso si sposta via via sullo sciovinismo croato,
che esplode segnatamente in occasione delle partite di calcio
(ricordiamo anche la "svastica umana" approntata dagli ultras
ustascia a Livorno lo scorso 16/8, si veda ad es.: http://www.
24sata.hr/articles/view/31583/ ). L'Erzegovina è d'altronde il centro
del nazionalismo ustascia.

Nel ragionamento di Tacconi non mancano tuttavia alcune inaccettabili
sciocchezze: quella su Tito che avrebbe avuto "migliaia di donne";
l'affermazione lapidaria secondo cui l'esperienza jugoslava sarebbe
"irripetibile"; l'idea per cui quello socialdemocratico (di
Lagumdzija, filooccidentale) sarebbe l’unico partito bosniaco
autenticamente multietnico (per inciso: "Liberazione", visto che ti
occupi di Tito, lo sai che in Bosnia ci sono anche i comunisti?); o
la bugia secondo cui "i serbi assediarono la città" di Mostar, una
bugia degna di Predrag Matvejevic. In realtà, i serbi furono i primi
a subire la pulizia etnica della città, dovendo scappare tutti, circa
ventimila, sulle colline attorno a Mostar subito allo scoppio della
guerra fratricida, e solo in questo senso "assediandola".

In generale, anche i migliori articoli dei commentatori italiani
sulla Bosnia tradiscono una incomprensione di fondo: e cioè il non
voler prendere atto che non esiste e non può esistere alcuna Bosnia-
Erzegovina multinazionale se non all'interno di una Jugoslavia
multinazionale. (Italo Slavo)


Liberazione
22 agosto 2006

Nel paese balcanico tagliato a fette dalla guerra etnica cresce il
rimpianto verso vecchio modello jugoslavo

Quando c’era Tito...
La Bosnia ha nostalgia del Maresciallo

Matteo Tacconi

Sarajevo - La rivoluzione toponomastica degli anni Novanta ha
risparmiato il buon vecchio Tito. La Marsala Tita ha conservato
l’antica e prestigiosa collocazione, tanto a Sarajevo, quanto a
Mostar. La via intitolata al padre della “Seconda Jugoslavia”, quella
successiva alla parentesi monarchica e precedente all’era di Slobodan
Milosevic, percorre le due città più famose della Bosnia e dai
rispettivi centri storici fila via verso le periferie, dilatandosi
fino a diventare un’arteria.

Contrariamente a quanto accaduto nei vecchi paesi d’oltrecortina,
dove il crollo dei regimi socialisti ha avuto come corollario la
tenuta a battesimo di nuove vie, prima intitolate ai volti noti della
falce e del martello, finiti presto nel dimenticatoio e cestinati in
tutta fretta, la Bosnia ha lasciato le cose così com’erano: Josip
Broz è rimasto nel cuore delle città e della gente.

Il maresciallo è il simbolo di un’epoca irripetibile durante la quale
la gente aveva casa, lavoro e pace. Era così anche negli altri paesi
d’oltrecortina, ma il modello socialista jugoslavo era quello
dell’autogestione, ibrido, collettivista ma aperto anche
all’iniziativa privata. Liberale e senza tracce di cupezza. E poi
c’era l’ideale della Jugoslavia, la terra degli slavi del sud, un
grande coacervo di religioni e popoli, un esempio di convivenza
pacifica e fruttuosa tra tre religioni (cattolica, musulmana e
ortodossa), cinque popoli (croati, sloveni, serbi, bosniaci,
albanesi) e un unico partito, centralista e strutturato intorno alla
figura di Tito, ma pronto a elasticizzare l’apparato per comporre
contrasti e fratture.

Mugdim rimpiange i vecchi tempi. La sua casa sorge nella Jelica
Ulica, un vicolo che congiunge la Ferhadija e Mula Moustafa
Beseskije, le due vie che racchiudono il quartiere turco prima e
quello asburgico poi e che confluiscono nello slargo dove sorge il
monumento ai partigiani jugoslavi, che marca l’inizio della Marsala
Tita. Mugdim, ingegnere in pensione, ha combattuto nell’esercito
bosniaco e difeso Sarajevo dall’assedio dei serbi. Un cecchino lo ha
colpito e gli ha traforato il fianco, dov’è rimasta una grande
cicatrice. La piccola feritoia del bagno della sua abitazione si
affaccia su un rudere di guerra; sembra che la mattanza degli anni
Novanta non voglia lasciare in pace questo modesto e umile cittadino
della capitale, che affitta una stanza ai viaggiatori, senza
sciacallare: 12 euro a notte, compresa un’abbondante colazione.

Mugdim rifiuta di essere chiamato bosgnacco, l’aggettivo che segna
l’appartenenza alla “nazione” musulmana. «Io sono bosniaco e lo sono
anche i croati dell’Erzegovina e i serbi della repubblica Srpska. La
guerra ha tagliato a fette questo paese e la classe politica non fa
altro che alimentare i rancori per guadagnarne in termini di voti».
Sfoglia il giornale, Mugdim e scuote la testa quando intercetta con
lo sguardo i titoli delle pagine politiche, grondanti di
chiacchiericcio nazionalista e accuse reciproche, un continuo botta e
risposta tra i boss della Srpska e della Federazione, le due entità
che formano la Bosnia. «Quando c’era Tito vivevamo tutti sotto lo
stesso tetto», afferma.

Il figlio di Mugdim, Ervin, è un dinamico ventenne che lavora alla
commissione elettorale e sfida coraggiosamente la cortina etnica. Si
è fidanzato con una ragazza serba, contravvenendo all’ideologia
corrente, secondo la quale fidanzamenti e matrimoni misti sono quanto
di più squallido possa esserci, in un paese in cui l’ideologia della
divisione etnica, portato della guerra, appesta ancora l’aria. Quando
c’era Tito non era così. I musulmani si sposavano con gli ortodossi,
gli ortodossi con i cattolici, i cattolici con i musulmani. Le storie
di sposi e spose appartenenti a religioni diverse sono state cantate
con acume da Ivo Andric, romanziere nato a Travnik, nella Bosnia
centrale, insignito nel 1961 nel premio Nobel. «Prima c’era grande
tolleranza e rispetto per la fede altrui», afferma Dragan,
disoccupato di Brcko, mentre sorseggia stancamente rakija, la grappa
locale. Anche Dragan, serbo, è figlio della guerra. «Uno schifo»,
dice senza pensarci su troppo. Anche lui conferma che con Tito le
cose andavano diversamente. «La Jugoslavia era un paese rispettato,
equidistante dai blocchi, non allineato». Proprio questa è stata la
forza del maresciallo, che ha sfruttato al meglio la collocazione
geopolitica della Jugoslavia e flirtato con gli uni e con gli altri
(oltre che con migliaia di donne, data la sua proverbiale vocazione
da playboy), chiedendo prestiti a destra e manca.

Gli storici affermano che non è stato solamente il venire meno della
figura unitaria di Tito a spingere la Jugoslavia verso il baratro e
scatenare la carneficina in Bosnia. La morte, nel 1980, del patriarca
della seconda Jugoslavia è stato un duro colpo all’unità degli slavi
del sud. Ma, sostiene la storiografia, Tito ha le sue responsabilità:
ha accentrato in maniera eccessiva il potere senza mai porsi il
problema di individuare un degno successore e ha lasciato al paese
una mastodontica quantità di debiti, accumulati senza sosta durante
il periodo d’oro della Jugoslavia, la cui curva ha iniziato a
scendere dopo la morte del maresciallo, portando prima crisi
economica e inflazione e poi bombe, eccidi, stupri, morte.

Ma i nostalgici di Tito non si soffermano sulle discussioni
d’accademia. Rimangono ancorati all’idea di Jugoslavia, al benessere
di una volta, alla convivenza costruttiva tra i popoli dei Balcani. E
il movimento titino esce allo scoperto. Il caffé Marshall di Mostar è
un locale pieno di busti e foto del Maresciallo. C’è anche una copia,
chiaramente non originale, della taglia messa su di lui dai nazisti,
all’epoca della resistenza. Il posto è frequentato dai giovani di
Mostar, la cui parte musulmana (l’altra è quella croata) si distingue
per una certa indole progressista e per la volontà di riscoprire il
patrimonio politico della Jugoslavia titina. Nani, uno dei fondatori
del centro sociale Abrasevic di Mostar, palazzina diroccata in Ulica
Aleste Santica, la strada che segna la vecchia linea del fronte e che
è stata simbolicamente scelta dai giovani di Mostar per fondare il
centro, che si propone di favorire la riconciliazione tra le comunità
bosgnacca e croata, racconta: «Ero piccolo per ricordarmi della
Jugoslavia e celebrarla. Noi giovani respingiamo i nazionalismi
serbo, croato e bosgnacco e vediamo in Tito un simbolo di pace».
Maria, croata, altra animatrice dell’Abrasevic e candidata alle
parlamentari del primo ottobre, nelle fila dei socialdemocratici,
l’unico partito bosniaco autenticamente multietnico, non ha dubbi.
«La riscoperta di Tito va di pari passo con la voglia, avvertita
dalla gente comune, di riconciliazione e serenità». Fosse facile. La
Bosnia è un puzzle incandescente di nazionalismi, i politici
cavalcano lo sciovinismo per tirare acqua al proprio mulino. Il
titoismo è lontano. Ma crederci non fa mica male.


Liberazione
23 agosto 2006

Nel dualismo tra Zrinjski e Velez, le due squadre della città della
Bosnia-Erzegovina, entrano politica e tensioni mai superate tra
croati e musulmani

La guerra dei Balcani non è mai finita per chi gioca il derby di Mostar

Matteo Tacconi

Mostar - Difficile che il dualismo tra Zrinjski e Velez Mostar, le
due squadre della principale città dell’Erzegovina, la fascia
meridionale della Bosnia, possa suscitare l’interesse con cui si
segue il derby tra Roma e Lazio o le sfida tra Real e Barcellona. Ma,
pur lontano dalla vetrina della mondovisione, la sfida cittadina di
Mostar travalica abbondantemente il perimetro di gioco e sfocia
nell’aperta contesa politica. I croati (di destra) da una parte, i
musulmani (di sinistra) dall’altra. Il rischio è quello di
generalizzare, di etichettare con troppa precipitazione i primi e
attribuire ai bosgnacchi (i musulmani bosniaci) una qualità che non
hanno. Ma sconfinare nella porzione croata di Mostar fa un certo
effetto, per la notevole quantità di scritte murali inneggianti al
generale Ante Gotovina e le numerose croci celtiche che affiancano
gli slogan pro-Zrinjski. E allo stesso modo impressiona la zona
islamica della città, dove la musica cambia e balzano agli occhi
centinaia di “Red Army” pennellati sui muri e altrettante stelle
rosse (che è pure il simbolo del Velez).

Mostar è una mela spaccata. Durante la prima fase della guerra,
quando i serbi assediarono la città, croati e musulmani unirono le
forze. Poi, all’improvviso, i primi attaccarono i secondi, li
espulsero dalla parte occidentale della città e imposero loro di
spostarsi a est. A più di dieci anni dalla guerra, le due rive della
Neretva, il fiume verde smeraldo che scorre nella città, sono due
mondi impermeabili, i reciproci rancori sono qualcosa di più
significativo di una semplice intolleranza e in pochi hanno avuto il
coraggio di tornarsene a vivere nelle case in cui abitavano prima
della guerra, dall’altra parte del fiume.

Quest’anno ci sarà il derby cittadino. Il Velez, relegato negli
ultimi anni nel purgatorio della seconda serie, è stato promosso e
sfiderà i più blasonati cugini. Nello stadio dello Zrinjski
sventolano decine di bandiere croate. Chiedo al custode quali sono i
giocatori più bravi dello Zrinjski e lui cita praticamente a memoria
la formazione, talmente rapidamente che terminata la filastrocca è
impossibile memorizzare anche un solo cognome dell’undici titolare,
che, dice con orgoglio l’interlocutore, è arrivato secondo in
campionato «davanti al Sarajevo», la squadra della capitale che
schiera solamente calciatori musulmani. Gli domando cosa ne pensa del
prossimo derby. La risposta è netta e induce a riflettere. «Non è una
sfida cittadina. È piuttosto nazionale». Il fatto è che i croati
della Bosnia si sentono come stranieri e tendono a costruire un
legame forte con Zagabria, la terra dei loro padri, la madrepatria.
Si definiscono croati a tutti gli effetti, vedono la Bosnia come un
qualcosa di posticcio e ricordano ancora gloriosamente la Herceg-
Bosna, il parastato croato nella Bosnia meridionale, riflesso delle
velleità espansioniste di Franjo Tudjman. È, quello di sentirsi non-
bosniaci, un portato della guerra, che si ripercuote anche nella
comunità serba, portando loro a vivere in malo modo la propria
presenza all’interno dei confini bosniaci.

Chiaramente, per la proprietà transitiva, tutto ciò si riflette nel
calcio. Milorad Dodik, primo ministro della repubblica Srpska, ha
dichiarato qualche tempo fa al settimanale Dani: «Purtroppo non ce la
faccio a tifare per la nazionale di calcio della Bosnia-Erzegovina,
se non quando gioca contro la Turchia». Ovvero: se non quando sfida
un’odiata squadra musulmana.

Torniamo a Mostar. Durante lo scorso mondiale è accaduto il
finimondo, il giorno della gara tra Croazia e Brasile, terminata uno
a zero per i carioca. «Vera e propria guerriglia urbana», racconta
Elena, una cooperante italiana. La cronaca dice che al termine della
gara, i croati di Mostar hanno scatenato la loro rabbia nella piazza
di Spagna della città, dove sorge l’unico liceo multietnico di
Mostar, a due passi dalla linea di demarcazione tra i due emisferi,
il croato e il musulmano. Dall’altra parte c’erano i bosgnacchi, che
simpatizzavano per il Brasile. Inutile dire che la rissa è stata
inevitabile, anche perché la polizia s’è fatta ancora una volta
trovare impreparata e ha peccato in quanto a tempestività. Il
bollettino relativo agli scontri è stato quello di una vera e propria
battaglia: una ventina di feriti, tra i quali alcuni agenti. Alcuni,
come ha raccontato Osservatorio sui Balcani, per colpi d’arma da fuoco.

Il giorno dopo i teppisti croati si sono diretti al liceo
multietnico, edificio, come tanti a Mostar, che porta ancora i segni
della guerra e il cui restauro è finanziato dall’ambasciata spagnola
di Sarajevo. I rivoltosi hanno aggredito verbalmente gli studenti
musulmani, insultandoli a più riprese. Stranamente, i croati non
erano a scuola, in quel giorno, “bloccati” a casa da una festività
religiosa.

Qui a Mostar, in molti giurano che il giorno del derby scoppierà
nuovamente una guerriglia urbana. La stampa locale aveva previsto che
ci sarebbero sicuramente stati disordini lo scorso 16 agosto, visto
che la Bosnia sfidava a Sarajevo la Francia e la Croazia incontrava
l’Italia. Guadare la città in quel giorno è stato davvero curioso. A
est tutti erano sintonizzati sulla sfida tra Bosnia e Francia,
dall’altra parte si guardava la Croazia. «Grazie al cielo era
solamente una amichevole», sostiene Goksi, fotografo di origine
croata, ancora scioccato dai disordini seguiti alla partita tra
Croazia e Brasile. «Il calcio divide in ogni parte del mondo, ma qui
ancora di più».

I vecchi cittadini della Jugoslavia lo sanno bene. Il prologo della
guerra, la triste introduzione al penoso decennio passato, arrivò
proprio con una gara, fra Dinamo Zagabria e Stella Rossa Belgrado,
giocata nel maggio del 1990, quando a livello calcistico la
Jugoslavia era ancora unita. I tifosi si scatenarono, se le diedero
di santa ragione e alcuni calciatori si lanciarono nella mischia, a
colpire a destra e manca e pestare le forze dell’ordine. Zvonimir
Boban divenne per i croati un eroe nazionale, quando colpì
violentemente un poliziotto che cercava di impedire l’ingresso dei
teppisti in campo. Era la fine della Jugoslavia. Arriverà anche la
fine della Bosnia? Improbabile. Ma attraversandone i paesi e
percorrendone le strade, l’impressione che si ricava è che di certo
la riconciliazione tra le tre anime etniche del Paese arriverà nel
lungo termine. Sperando che arrivi davvero. E che Milorad Dodik e i
croati inizino a fare il tifo per la nazionale della Bosnia-Erzegovina.

Documentazione importante sulla crisi in Medio Oriente

1. Incontro straordinario dei PC ad Atene, 19-20 Agosto 2006:
Dichiarazione alla stampa

2. Intervista esclusiva del quotidiano turco (di sinistra) "Evrensel"
al leader di Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah

3. LA GUERRA AL LIBANO E LA BATTAGLIA PER IL PETROLIO
di MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY (Global Research)


=== 1 ===

Incontro straordinario dei Partiti Comunisti e Operai del
Mediterraneo Meridionale e Orientale, della Regione del Golfo e del
Mar Rosso

Atene, 19-20 Agosto 2006

Dichiarazione alla stampa

Un incontro straordinario dei Partiti Comunisti e Operai del
Mediterraneo Meridionale e Orientale, della Regione del Golfo e del
Mar Rosso si è tenuto ad Atene il 19 e 20 Agosto, ospitato dal
Partito Comunista di Grecia con la partecipazione della Tribuna
Democratica Progressista di Bahrain, del Partito Tudeh dell’Iran, del
Partito Comunista di Israele, del Partito Comunista Giordano, del
Partito Comunista Libanese, del Partito del Popolo Palestinese, del
Partito Comunista Sudanese, del Partito Comunista Siriano.
All’incontro erano presenti anche il Partito Comunista di Cuba, AKEL
di Cipro, il Partito Comunista Unificato della Georgia, il Partito
Comunista Portoghese, il Partito Comunista della Federazione Russa e
il Partito Comunista di Turchia, mentre alcuni altri partiti che non
hanno potuto presenziare hanno espresso il loro sostegno inviando
messaggi.

I partecipanti hanno condannato la politica degli USA e delle altre
potenze imperialiste basata sullo sfruttamento e la violazione dei
fondamentali diritti democratici e civili. Tale politica è la causa
reale dei conflitti e dell’instabilità nella regione. I comunisti e
le altre forze antimperialiste si oppongono fermamente a ciò,
lottando contro la guerra imperialista, per i diritti del popolo
lavoratore, per la pace, la democrazia e il socialismo.

L’incontro è scaturito dall’esigenza di esaminare la situazione, di
scambiare opinioni e di assumere iniziative di solidarietà con i
popoli del Libano, della Palestina e di altri paesi della regione che
stanno lottando contro le ingiuste e aggressive operazioni militari
di Israele e contro il tentativo di realizzare i piani USA-NATO per
il “grande Medio Oriente”. I partecipanti hanno evidenziato e
condannato l’aggressione israeliana al Libano del 19 Agosto e le
violazioni dello spazio aereo libanese, fatti che provano come la
risoluzione 1701/2006 del Consiglio di Sicurezza dell’ONU incoraggi
l’aggressività israeliana.

I rappresentanti dei partiti hanno salutato l’eroica resistenza e
lotta del popolo libanese e l’eroico comportamento del PC di Israele
e delle altre forze progressiste del paese favorevoli alla pace; essi
hanno reso omaggio alla resistenza del Partito Comunista Libanese e
ai suoi sacrifici nell’ambito della Resistenza Nazionale Libanese. I
rappresentanti dei partiti hanno anche salutato la lotta del popolo
palestinese e il contributo apportatovi dal Partito del Popolo
Palestinese.

I rappresentanti dei partiti presenti hanno anche salutato il
massiccio movimento mondiale di solidarietà e di protesta e
valorizzato il significato internazionale della dichiarazione
congiunta del 20 luglio 2006 di 71 Partiti Comunisti e Operai in
solidarietà con i popoli sofferenti di Palestina e Libano. I
partecipanti hanno messo in rilievo le responsabilità degli USA e
delle altre potenze imperialiste che con il loro comportamento hanno
incoraggiato le azioni omicide dell’esercito israeliano. Il fatto che
il governo di Israele e i suoi alleati non siano stati in grado di
realizzare i loro obiettivi in questa guerra dimostra le enormi
potenzialità del movimento di resistenza dei popoli, malgrado il
difficile rapporto di forze in campo militare.

I rappresentanti dei partiti hanno denunciato il comportamento di
quelle forze che in nome dell’ “imparzialità” in realtà hanno aiutato
l’aggressione. I partecipanti hanno ben accolto la posizione
antimperialista della Siria. Essi hanno sottolineato le
responsabilità di quei governi che non hanno condannato quanto è
avvenuto e che non hanno assunto misure efficaci per far cessare gli
attacchi, secondo quanto era richiesto dai trattati e dal diritto
internazionale. Essi hanno rilevato che gli USA e le altre principali
potenze imperialiste stanno usando gli attuali rapporti di forza
negativi nell’ONU per legittimare i loro interventi, per imporre il
diritto della forza e per promuovere i loro piani e interessi a spese
dei popoli.

I partecipanti, come del resto tutti i popoli progressisti, hanno
rifiutato l’argomento degli invasori secondo cui l’attacco sarebbe
stato attuato nell’esercizio di un presunto diritto all’
“autodifesa”. E’ stato rilevato che in tale frangente la maggioranza
delle vittime è risultata essere di civili, che sono stati colpiti
ospedali e case e che sono stati effettuati migliaia di arresti
illegali di prigionieri politici, tra i quali si trovano ministri e
rappresentanti eletti del popolo palestinese. Questo attacco, insieme
all’ingiusta guerra contro il popolo dell’Iraq e alle minacce degli
USA e dei loro alleati contro altri popoli della regione, come quelli
dell’Iran e della Siria, è indirizzato a stroncare ogni resistenza
popolare che sta lottando giustamente contro le invasioni straniere e
le forze di occupazione e per l’inalienabile diritto di un popolo ad
essere padrone del proprio destino, a difendere la libertà,
l’indipendenza e l’integrità territoriale del proprio paese, a
ricercare cambiamenti sociali e politici in direzione del socialismo.
E’ stato notato che per promuovere efficacemente la direzione
antimperialista delle lotte, le forze politiche popolari,
progressiste e popolari devono essere in grado di conquistare una
posizione egemone. L’incontro ha riconosciuto anche la necessità di
rafforzare i Partiti Comunisti e Operai, affinché possano mettersi
alla testa del più ampio fronte di resistenza contro l’imperialismo,
lo sfruttamento di classe e l’oppressione. Solo così la lotta
popolare potrà avere successo a livello nazionale, regionale e
internazionale.

I partecipanti all’incontro condannano tutti gli sforzi che sono
stati fatti per ritardare l’emissione di una risoluzione del
Consiglio di Sicurezza. Essi hanno espresso il loro disaccordo
rispetto alle clausole della risoluzione 1701/2006 del Consiglio di
Sicurezza dell’ONU, dal momento che essa è l’espressione dello sforzo
degli USA teso a concedere ad Israele ciò che non è riuscito ad
ottenere con il suo attacco. E’ stato anche rilevato che la
risoluzione dà ad Israele il diritto di rivendicare il fatto di agire
per “autodifesa”. Allo stesso tempo, Israele continua ad intervenire
negli affari interni del Libano in merito alla questione del disarmo,
nonostante il fatto che il popolo libanese, le forze politiche e il
governo del Libano ritengano che tale questione riguardi il dialogo
nazionale interno. I partecipanti hanno anche rifiutato le
enunciazioni riguardanti lo spiegamento della forza internazionale e
il suo mandato, in particolare perché si dà il diritto di realizzare
gli obiettivi stabiliti da Israele. I partecipanti fanno appello ai
paesi perché si astengano dal partecipare con truppe che ricevano
tale mandato.

I rappresentanti dei partiti rilevano il fatto che il lungo processo
che ha portato a questa risoluzione mostra con sufficiente chiarezza
l’acutezza della competizione tra le maggiori potenze imperialiste
per le sfere di influenza e dominio. I partecipanti hanno
sottolineato la necessità di lavorare attivamente per la creazione di
un fronte unito politico e sociale nella regione con il sostegno
internazionale di altri partiti, movimenti e organizzazioni, contro
il piano imperialista per il “grande Medio Oriente” e la sua presunta
democratizzazione. I comunisti si pongono all’avanguardia della lotta
per la democrazia e per la promozione degli interessi popolari,
fronteggiando i tentativi di forze politiche che potrebbero cercare
di sfruttare la situazione, descrivendo sé stesse come tutrici e
“protettrici” dei popoli, pur essendo in realtà motivate dai propri
interessi e dalla loro competizione con gli USA.

I partecipanti, alla luce dei più recenti sviluppi, hanno espresso il
loro disappunto in merito ad un’ulteriore scalata dell’aggressività
israeliana contro i palestinesi e gli altri popoli della regione.

Nell’affrontare questa situazione, i partecipanti hanno ritenuto che
il movimento internazionale di solidarietà con i popoli di Libano e
Palestina e dell’intera regione debba essere ulteriormente
rafforzato, insieme al sostegno alla lotta delle forze progressiste e
democratiche della regione per la democrazia, la libertà e la
giustizia sociale.

Essi hanno evidenziato la necessità di intensificare la lotta per
difendere l’indipendenza nazionale e l’integrità territoriale di
tutti i paesi contro ogni intervento imperialista, con qualsiasi
pretesto avvenga.

I partecipanti richiedono:

- L’immediata cessazione del fuoco e l’immediato ritiro delle truppe
israeliane dai territori libanesi, comprese le fattorie di Sebaa e
l’immediato rilascio dei prigionieri libanesi. Essi inoltre
condannano la violazione dello spazio aereo e terrestre e delle
frontiere del Libano e richiedono la rimozione del blocco aereo,
terrestre e marittimo del Libano da parte di Israele.

- Il ritiro dell’esercito israeliano da tutti i territori
palestinesi, libanesi e siriani occupati dal 1967, il completo
smantellamento degli insediamenti, la demolizione del muro israeliano
e la creazione di uno Stato palestinese con capitale Gerusalemme Est,
accanto ad Israele.

- L’immediato rilascio di tutti i prigionieri politici libanesi,
palestinesi e altri arabi, e l’immediata rimozione dell’assedio e del
blocco dei territori palestinesi.

- L’immediato rilascio dello speaker del Parlamento palestinese e di
tutti parlamentari e ministri che sono stati presi in ostaggio da
Israele.

- Un Medio Oriente senza armi nucleari.

L’incontro ha approvato una serie di iniziative e azioni congiunte
che comprendono:

- Una delegazione congiunta di rappresentanti dei Partiti Comunisti e
Operai in Libano, Palestina e Israele.

- L’azione congiunta dei nostri partiti nel Parlamento Europeo e
nell’Assemblea Parlamentare del Consiglio d’Europa. L’invito a
prendere parte alle sessioni del Parlamento Europeo esteso ai
rappresentanti dei Partiti Comunisti e Operai della regione, in
particolare a quelli di Libano, Palestina e Israele.

- L’organizzazione di azioni congiunte e di mobilitazioni dei partiti
intorno alla metà di settembre. L’utilizzo di eventi di massa,
festival, ecc. per esprimere solidarietà.

- La pressione su ogni governo che non condanni l’aggressione
israeliana.

- La richiesta di riparazione a Israele e la condanna dei
responsabili di crimini di guerra, con ogni metodo legale o
utilizzabile.

- L’intensificazione della solidarietà e delle azioni congiunte anche
in occasione dell’Incontro Internazionale dei Partiti Comunisti e
Operai che sarà ospitato dal PC Portoghese a Lisbona il 10-12
Novembre 2006.

- L’incoraggiamento della cooperazione tra le organizzazioni
giovanili dei nostri partiti per la condanna degli interventi e delle
guerre imperialisti mediante manifestazioni comuni, attività
specifiche, ecc. L’organizzazione di un campo internazionale nel Sud
Libano e la partecipazione allo sforzo di ricostruzione.

- Il sostegno agli sforzi per incrementare l’aiuto umanitario, in
cooperazione e coordinamento con il Partito Comunista Libanese.

- La continuazione delle dimostrazioni, delle mobilitazioni e delle
manifestazioni di solidarietà.

- Il sostegno alle iniziative di solidarietà delle organizzazioni di
massa, dei movimenti, dei sindacati, delle organizzazioni giovanili,
contro la guerra imperialista in Libano, Palestina e Israele.

- Il sostegno alle più significative azioni e iniziative
internazionali dei movimenti di massa e delle organizzazioni
internazionali come WPC, WFDY, WFTU, WIFD, ecc.


Atene, 20 Agosto 2006

Traduzione dall’inglese per www.resistenze.org a cura del
Centro di Cultura e Documentazione Popolare

(Fonte: solidnet.org via Mauro Gemma - http://www.solidnet.org 22
Agosto 2006)


=== 2 ===

Fonte: www.sottolebandieredelmarxismo.it

Intervista esclusiva del quotidiano turco (di sinistra) "Evrensel" al
leader
di Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah

autori: Roza Cigdem Erdogan e Mutlu Sahin (traduzione dal turco di Bahar
Kimyongür) (traduzione dal francese di Lorenzo Mazzucato)

Evrensel, 12 agosto 2006

oggi, mentre l'umanità guarda con sorpresa e ammirazione alla clamorosa
vittoria della resistenza libanese di fronte alla quarta potenza
militare
mondiale, questa intervista esclusiva del segretario generale di
Hezbollah,
realizzata il 12 agosto scorso, ha il vantaggio e il merito di
passare al
vaglio i tratti sorprendenti di colui che i media arabi progressisti
salutano oggi come il "nuovo Nasser", ma che i grandi media occidentali
continuano a demonizzare al fine di raffigurare nell'opinione pubblica
l'immagine spaventevole del "terrorista islamico sanguinario fanatico".
Questa intervista ci da l'occasione di conoscere meglio la filosofia e
l'etica politica di Hassan Nasrallah, il suo punto di vista
sull'internazionalismo, sul progetto del Grande Medioriente difeso
dall'amministrazione Bush, le organizzazioni islamiste che nuocciono
alla
resistenza in Iraq, sul movimento rivoluzionario in Turchia. Buona
lettura.

Bahar Kimyongür

Un solo fronte contro l'imperialismo!

Evrensel :

Fin dai primi giorni di guerra, Israele dichiarò che il suo scopo era
quello
di "distruggere Hezbollah". Tuttavia, lo stato ebraico ha avuto di
fronte
una resistenza che non si aspettava, e oggi sembra avere abbandonato le
ambizioni iniziali. A causa di violenti scontri, l'armata di
occupazione ha
subito pesanti perdite. Comunque, sui media questa realtà è molto
sfumata o
decisamente dissimulata. Può fornirci indicazioni sull'attuale
situazione
della Reisistenza?

Hasan Nasrallah:

Le bande sioniste che agiscono per conto dell'imperialismo USA
utilizzano i
media con destrezza. I media occidentali e, in particolare, i media
americani sono detenuti dai capitalisti ebrei. Essi pretendono di aver
bombardato e distrutto le posizioni di Hezbollah e sperano così
d'ingannare
i popoli. E' solo una menzogna. Avete constatato voi stessi che mentono!
Martirizzano i civili innocenti. Assassinano vigliaccamente donne e
bambini.
Ma lì dove li affrontiamo essi subiscono la sconfitta. Contrariamente al
nemico sionista, noi agiamo con precauzione e discernimento. Noi non
spariamo sui civili. Mentono quando affermano il contrario. Noi
indirizziamo
i missili su obiettivi militari preventivamente localizzati. Ma bisogna
sapere che i Sionisti spingono deliberatamente gli Arabi israeliani
verso la
frontiera. Li utilizzano come bersagli, noi ci rifiutiamo di cadere
nella
provocazione e la discordia (con gli Arabi d'Israele, ndt). I nostri
bersagli non sono i civili ma le forze militari sioniste. I nostri
combattenti infliggono pesanti perdite ai Sionisti sul campo di
battaglia;
ciò accadeva ancor prima di utilizzare le nostre armi più potenti. I
Sionisti oggi comprendono che non possono sconfiggerci, perciò
distruggono
le nostre strade e ammazzano le nostre donne e i nostri bambini.
Credono di
poterci spingere alla capitolazione. Non ci piegheremo mai! Non
accetteremo
altra soluzione che non sia la libertà della nostra patria. Per questo,
resisteremo e combatteremo fino alla fine. L'imperialismo e la sua
banda di
sostituti locali sappiano che noi li aspettiamo su ogni collina, in ogni
valle, su ogni strada e su ogni pugno di terra della nostra patria. La
nostra resistenza è destinata alla vittoria. Non abbiamo alternativa.
Questa
guerra porterà alla vittoria tutti gli oppressi e tutti i Musulmani del
mondo.

Evrensel :

E' vero che il Libano si troverebbe di fronte al pericolo di guerra
civile?

Hassan Nasrallah :

Il regime sionista spera di provocare un confronto etnico e religioso
nella
regione, provocando tensioni intercomunitarie. Ma Hezbollah ha
spezzato quel
piano. Nel nostro paese così come in tutto il Medioriente, i popoli
oppressi
hanno difeso Hezbollah e gli hanno portato il loro sostegno. Compresi i
socialisti e i Cristiani. Certo, l'imperialismo ha creato delle
organizzazioni islamiche collaboratrici che hanno non solo seminato
l'odio
tra le comunità, ma anche combattuto le forze rivoluzionarie. Ora le
condizioni sono cambiate. Per citare un altro esempio, prima di
rovesciare
Saddam Hussein, gli USA l'hanno usato per combattere l'Iran, i Kurdi
e noi.
Molte organizzazioni al soldo dell'imperialismo hanno agito per questi
conflitti intercomunitari. Noi siamo perfettamente al corrente di questa
strategia. L'abbiamo ben compreso e nella nostra storia abbiamo
scrupolosamente evitato di cadere in questa trappola

Evrensel :

Malgrado l'aggressione della Palestina e del Libano, i governi arabi
tacciono. Qual è la ragione di quel silenzio?

Hasan Nasrallah :

La maggior parte di quei governi arabi collaborano con il nemico.
L'Arabia
saudita ha, per esempio, lanciato delle fatwe contro di noi. Quelle
fatwe
sono ridicole. Nessuno ci ha creduto, nemmeno il loro popolo. Quelle
fatwe
sono politiche. Esse sono state preparate nell'interesse degli USA.
Non le
prendiamo sul serio. Poiché per noi una cosa è molto chiara: non
permetteremo che una guerra di religione deflagri sulle nostre terre.
Quelle
fatwe servono proprio a seminare divisioni interconfessionali. In Iraq,
questo flagello ha funzionato ma oggi il popolo irakeno se ne rende
conto.

Evrensel :

Visto che abbiamo toccato la questione irakena, vorremmo porle una
domanda a
tal proposito: constatiamo che, in un certo senso, è stata
effettivamente
costruita una guerra interconfessionale in quel paese occupato.
Recentemente, certi generali americani hanno anche messo in guardia
circa
una guerra civile imminente in Iraq. Qual è il vostro punto di vista al
riguardo?

Hasan Nasrallah :

Quando gli imperialisti non riescono a sconfiggere un popolo con le
armi,
creano dal nulla delle organizzazioni interne, autodefinite
resistenti, al
fine di fomentare guerre civili. Ciò permette agli imperialisti di
presentarsi come salvatori e vincitori. Ma, qualunque cosa facciano,
essi
non raggiungono i loro scopi. Questo trucco è stato utilizzato in Iraq
contro Sciiti e Curdi. Gli imperialisti perseguono attualmente la stessa
strategia. Oggi, Saddam non è più al potere, ma ci sono centinaia di
Saddam
potenziali. Noi vogliamo che il nostro popolo, i nostri popoli, restino
vigilanti di fronte alle minacce di guerre fratricide.

Evrensel :

Come giudicate l'atteggiamento del governo turco?

Hasan Nasrallah :

Il governo turco ha inviato messaggi di condanna contro Israele. Ma
questi
messaggi sono rimasti parole. Sappiamo inoltre che le bombe lanciate sul
nostro paese hanno circolato in Turchia. D'altronde, grazie a vostre
informazioni, numerosi deputati turchi sono membri di un gruppo di
solidarietà israelo-turco. Attendiamo dalla Turchia reazioni
concrete. Il
governo turco è ancora e sempre uno dei più leali alleati della banda di
subappaltatori sionisti!

Evrensel :

Qual è il livello delle vostre relazioni con il movimento socialista?

Hasan Nasrallah :

Parecchio tempo fa il movimento socialista ha preso le sue distanze
dalla
lotta internazionale. Oggi, per contro, esso inizia a ridarci qualche
speranza. L'esempio più concreto è il sostegno portato dal presidente
del
Venezuela, Hugo Chavez. Il richiamo del suo ambasciatore in Israele è un
atto che perfino diversi stati musulmani non hanno osato proporre.
Inoltre,
Chavez ha portato il suo sostegno alla nostra resistenza in modo
esplicito.
Questa dichiarazione di Chavez ci notevolmente incoraggiato. Abbiamo
potuto
constatare lo stesso atteggiamento da parte del movimento rivoluzionario
turco. Negli anni '60, fratelli socialisti turchi erano andati in
Palestina
per combattere contro Israele. Uno di loro continua a vivere nella mia
memoria e nel mio cuore: è Deniz Gezmis! (*)

Evrensel :

Qual è l'importanza di Deniz per voi?

Hasan Nasrallah :

Noi vorremmo vedere nuovi Deniz tra noi. I nostri ranghi avranno
sempre un
posto per accogliere nuovi Deniz. Deniz vivrà per sempre nel cuore della
Palestina e del Libano. Nessuno può dubitarne. Sfortunatamente, dobbiamo
constatare che la fraternità di una volta che esisteva tra coloro che
combattevano il nemico comune non è più così vivace. Noi vorremmo poter
combattere l'imperialismo e il sionismo, fianco a fianco, con i nostri
fratelli socialisti libanesi. Poiché questa guerra non è solo nostra.
È un
conflitto comune a tutti gli oppressi del mondo. Non dimenticate che
se la
Palestina e il Libano perderanno questa guerra, sarà una sconfitta
per ogni
popolo sfruttato. Nella nostra lotta contro l'imperialismo, i
rivoluzionari
devono assumersi responsabilità e devono ridiventare dei "Deniz" nel
cuore
dei popoli libanese e palestinese.

Evrensel :

Nelle strade libanesi, s'incontrano i poster del Che, di Chavez, di
Ahmadinejad e di Hezbollah. E' il segno della nascita di un nuovo polo?

Hasan Nasrallah :

Noi vogliamo salutare i popoli dell'America latina e i loro
dirigenti. Hanno
sempre opposto resistenza ai briganti del Nord, in modo eroico. La loro
lotta costituisce una sorgente di speranza per noi. Essi mostrano la
via da
seguire a tutti i popoli oppressi. Camminate sulle nostre strade:
vedrete
che il nostro popolo porta Chavez ed Ernesto Che Guevara nel suo
cuore. Agli
amici socialisti che scelgono di battersi con noi per la fraternità e la
libertà, noi diciamo che se è per dirci che "la religione è l'oppio dei
popoli", non vale la pena che vengano. Noi rifiutiamo tali concezioni.
Tuttavia, al di là delle differenze, teniamo raccolte una affianco
all'altra, come prova della nostra intesa, le foto di Chavez, del
Che, di
Sadr e di Kameney. Questi leaders salutano insieme il nostro popolo.
Se noi
rispettiamo le vostre opinioni, e voi le nostre, nessuna potenza
imperialista potrà batterci!

Evrensel :

Tra i tanti pericoli che minacciano la regione, c'è il "cambiamento di
regime" pianificato dai governi occidentali, ed in questa prospettiva le
pressioni che costoro esercitano su Damasco e Teheran. Certe fonti
prevedono
che l'aggressione contro il Libano andrà a precipitare sulla Siria.
Ritenete
che possa accadere una guerra regionale?

Hasan Nasrallah :

Le potenze imperialiste dichiarano senza dubbio di voler assoggettare i
popoli della regione e rimodellare il Medioriente installando governi
servili. È contro tutto ciò che noi resistiamo a fianco della Siria e
dell'Iran. La provocazione dell'attentato contro l'ex-premier
libanese Rafik
Hariri era servita loro per ottenere la ritirata delle truppe siriane
dal
Libano. Ma a quei vigliacchi non è bastato quel risultato. Oggi, essi
vogliono attaccare militarmente Teheran e Damasco, di nuovo con quel
genere
di pretesti. La Siria, l'Iran e Hezbollah resisteranno senza tregua.
Combatteremo per la nostra patria e per la libertà. Resisteremo almeno
perché rifiutiamo di metterci in ginocchio. Gli imperialisti occidentali
sperano di fare del Libano e della nostra regione un secondo Kosovo,
accendendo tensioni tra le comunità. Noi non stiamo al gioco. Nelle
nostre
strade, ogni libanese, che sia cristiano, sunnita o sciita impugna la
bandiera di Hezbollah. Ormai, il loro mondo "unipolare" fa parte del
passato. Di fronte a loro ci siamo noi, l'Iran, la Siria, il
Venezuela, Cuba
e la Corea del Nord. C'è la resistenza palestinese, irakena e afghana!
Finché esisteranno le guerre di occupazione, i popoli continueranno la
resistenza. Gli imperialisti possono dimenticare la pace. Se la
vogliono,
essi devono immediatamente rispettare la libertà dei popoli ed
eliminare le
orde di sottoposti. Grazie a Dio, la vittoria sarà nostra. Non li
lasceremo
fare del nostro paese un nuovo Kosovo. Il nostro popolo è consapevole e
vigila. In caso di aggressione non abbandoneremo mai l'Iran né la
Siria… per
la nostra libertà, credeteci, combatteremo fino all'ultima goccia di
sangue.
I nostri nemici se la prendono con l'Iran perché disporrà di armi
nucleari,
mentre gli USA e i loro sbirri israeliani ne hanno in gran numero. Il
possesso di armi nucleari è solo un pretesto per giustificare
l'instaurazione di regimi fantoccio.

Evrensel :

Alcuni pretendono che Hezbollah sia teleguidato dall'Iran. Cosa
rispondete a
questa accusa?

Hasan Nasrallah :

E' solo una menzogna. Noi siamo un'organizzazione libanese
indipendente. Non
accettiamo ordini da nessuno. Ma ciò non significa, comunque, che non
cooperiamo. Lo ripeto, siamo partigiani. Prendiamo le parti dell'Iran e
della Siria. Sono nostri fratelli. Lo stesso attacco dovesse subire
Damasco
o Teheran, noi lo sentiremmo come un'aggressione fatta a noi. Siamo
pronti a
difenderli fino all'ultimo respiro. Raccomandiamo la resistenza
globale al
terrorismo imperialista globale.

Evrensel :

Volete aggiungere qualcosa?

Hasan Nasrallah :

La pace non è mai l'opera di una sola parte. È impossibile instaurare
una
pace duratura in un mondo dominato dall'imperialismo. La pace può
sorgere
solo dalla lotta per l'emancipazione. Di conseguenza, la pace non può
essere
raggiunta finché paesi come l'Iraq, l'Afghanistan o la Palestina
subiranno
l'occupazione.


(*) Deniz Gezmis, figura leggendaria del maggio '68 turco, fu
successivamente uno dei dirigenti del movimento studentesco turco dei
Giovani rivoluzionari (Dev Genç) e dell'Armata di Liberazione
popolare di
Turchia (THKO). Nel 1969, raggiunse l'OLP clandestino in Palestina, e vi
restò circa tre mesi. Il 4 marzo 1971, partecipò al rapimento di quattro
militari americani nel quartiere di Balgat ad Ankara. Catturato a
Sarkisla,
nelle montagne di Sivas, fu giudicato secondo l'art. 146/1 per
"tentativo di
rovesciamento del'ordine costituzionale turco", e condannato a morte
il 16
luglio 1971, assieme ai suoi compagni Yusuf Aslan et Hüseyin Inan. Per
tentare uno scambio di prigionieri con il governo turco, e così evitare
l'esecuzione di Deniz e dei suoi compagni, alcuni combattenti del
THKP-C,
Partito-fronte di Liberazione popolare della Turchia ed il suo dirigente
Mahir Cayan (che nel maggio del '71 si fecero conoscere per l'esecuzione
dell'ambasciatore israeliano ad Ankara, Efraim Elrom) organizzarono
il 27
marzo 1972 il rapimento di tre agenti britannici dalla base NATO
situata a
Ünye. Il 30 marzo 1972, i combattenti del THKP-C falliscono il
tentativo di
negoziato, e rimangono uccisu dall'esercito governativo nel villaggio di
Kizildere. Il 6 maggio 1972, Deniz Gezmis e i suoi due compagni
morirono da
eroi sotto la potenza, dopo aver sfidato i loro carnefici invocando
l'insurrezione dei popoli turchi e curdi.


=== 3 ===

LA GUERRA AL LIBANO E LA BATTAGLIA PER IL PETROLIO

DI MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY
Global Research

C'è forse una relazione tra il bombardamento del Libano e
l'inaugurazione del più grande oleodotto strategico del mondo, che
trasporterà oltre un milione di barili di petrolio al giorno ai
mercati occidentali?

Virtualmente ignota, l'inaugurazione dell'oleodotto Ceyhan-Tblisi-
Baku (BTC), che collega il Mar Caspio al Mediterraneo Orientale, ha
avuto luogo il 13 luglio, all'inizio dei bombardamenti israeliani in
Libano.

Un giorno prima degli attacchi aerei israeliani, i principali partner
ed azionari del progetto BTC, tra cui molti capi di stato e quadri di
compagnie petrolifere, erano in attesa al porto di Ceyhan. Poi sono
stati precipitati ad un ricevimento inaugurale ad Instanbul,
patrocinato dal presidente turco Ahmet Necdet Sezer nei lussuosi
dintorni del Palazzo Çýraðan.

In attesa c'era anche l'amministratore delegato della British
Petroleum (BP), Lord Browne, insieme ad alti funzionari dei governi
di Gran Bretagna, Stati Uniti ed Israele. La BP guida il consorzio
dell'oleodotto BTC. Tra gli altri principali azionisti occidentali ci
sono Chevron, Conoco-Phillips, Total (Francia) ed 'ENI (Italia).
(vedi Annesso).

Il ministro dell'energia e delle infrastrutture israeliano Binyamin
Ben-Eliezer era presente insieme ad una delegazione di alti
funzionari israeliani del settore petrolifero.

L'oleodotto BTC elude del tutto il territorio della Federazione
Russa. Transita lungo le ex repubbliche sovietiche dell'Azerbaijan e
della Georgia, entrambe le quali sono diventate "protettorati" degli
Stati Uniti, fortemente integrate in un'alleanza militare con gli Usa
e la NATO. Inoltre, sia l'Azerbaijan che la Georgia hanno accordi di
cooperazione militare a lungo termine con Israele. Nel 2005, le
compagnie georgiane hanno ricevuto circa 24 milioni di dollari in
contratti finanziati al di fuori dell'assistenza militare
statunitense ad Israele secondo il cosiddetto "programma di
finanziamento militare straniero".

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/states/GA.html

Israele ha una quota nei campi petroliferi azeri, dai quali importa
circa il venti percento del suo petrolio. L'apertura dell'oleodotto
aumenterà in modo sostanziale le importazioni petrolifere israeliane
dal bacino del Mar Caspio. Ma c'è un'altra dimensione che si correla
direttamente alla guerra in Libano. Laddove la Russia è stata
indebolita, Israele ha buone possibilità di giocare un ruolo
strategico importante nel "proteggere" il trasporto e i corridoi
dell'oleodotto nel Mediterraneo Orientale fuori da Ceyhan.

La militarizzazione del Mediterraneo Orientale

Il bombardamento del Libano è parte di una road map militare
attentamente pianificata e coordinata. L'estensione della guerra alla
Siria e all'Iran è già stata contemplata dai pianificatori di guerra
statunitensi ed israeliani. La più vasta agenda militare è
intimamente connessa al ruolo strategico del petrolio e degli
oleodotti. Ed è sostenuta dai giganti petroliferi occidentali che
controllano i corridoi petroliferi. In ultima analisi, la guerra mira
al controllo territoriale sulla linea costiera del Mediterraneo
orientale.

In questo contesto, l'oleodotto BTC, controllato dalla British
Petroleum, ha cambiato drammaticamente la geo-politica del
Mediterraneo Orientale, che è ora collegata, mediante un corridoio
energetico, al bacino del Mar Caspio.

"[L'oleodotto BTC] cambia considerevolmente lo status dei paesi della
regione e cementa una nuova alleanza pro-Occidente. Avendo collegato
l'oleodotto al Mediterraneo, Washington ha praticamente creato un
nuovo blocco con Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turchia ed Israele" (Komerzant,
Mosca, 14 luglio 2006).

Israele fa ora parte del asse militare anglo-statunitense, che serve
gli interessi dei giganti petroliferi occidentali in Medio Oriente e
nell'Asia Centrale.

Mentre i rapporti ufficiali dichiarano che l'oleodotto BTC "porterà
petrolio ai mercati occidentali", quello che viene raramente
riconosciuto è che parte di quel petrolio dal Mar Caspio sarà
direttamente incanalato verso Israele. A riguardo, è stato previsto
che un progetto di oleodotto subacqueo israelo-turco collegherebbe
Ceyhan al porto israeliano di Ashkelon e da lì, mediante il
principale sistema di trasporto petrolifero israeliano, al Mar Rosso.

L'obbiettivo di Israele non è solo acquisire petrolio del Mar Caspio
per il proprio consumo interno, ma anche giocare un ruolo chiave
nella ri-esportazione del petrolio dal Mar Caspio verso i mercati
asiatici lungo il porto di Eilat sul Mar Rosso. Le implicazioni
strategiche di questo re-indirizzamento del petrolio dal Mar Caspio
sono di vasta portata.

E' previsto il collegamento dell'oleodotto BTC all'oleodotto trans-
israeliano Eilat-Ashkelon, anche noto come Tipline Israeliano, che va
da Ceyhan al porto israeliano di Ashkelon. Nell'aprile 2006, Israele
e Turchia hanno annunciato piani per oleodotti subacquei, che
eviterebbero il territorio siriano e libanese.

"Turchia e Israele stanno negoziando la costruzione di un progetto
energetico ed idrico multi miliardario che trasporterà acqua,
elettricità, gas naturale e petrolio mediante dei condotti diretti
verso Israele, con il petrolio da trasportare ancora più in là, da
Israele al Lontano Oriente.

La nuova proposta israelo-turca in discussione vedrebbe il
trasferimento di acqua, elettricità, gas naturale e petrolio ad
Israele mediante quattro oleodotti subacquei.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?
cid=1145961328841&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Il petrolio di Baku può essere trasportato ad Ashkelon grazie a
questo nuovo oleodotto e all'India e al Lontano Oriente [lungo il Mar
Rosso]

"Ceyhan e il porto mediterraneo di Ashkelon sono situati a solo 400
km di distanza. Il petrolio può essere trasportato alla città in
cisterne o mediante un oleodotto subacqueo appositamente costruito.
Da Ashkelon il petrolio può essere pompato grazie ad un oleodotto già
esistente al porto di Eilat sul Mar Rosso; e da lì all'India e ad
altri paesi asiatici con delle cisterne (REGNUM)".

L'acqua per Israele

In questo progetto è coinvolto anche un oleodotto che porta acqua ad
Israele, pompandola dalle riserve a monte del Tigri e dell'Eufrate in
Anatolia. Questo è stato a lungo un obbiettivo strategico di Israele
per il detrimento della Siria e dell'Iraq. L'agenda di Israele
riguardo l'acqua è sostenuta dall'accordo di cooperazione militare
tra Tel Aviv ed Ankara.

Il re-indirizzamento del petrolio dell'Asia Centrale

Stornare il petrolio e il gas dell'Asia Centrale verso il
Mediterraneo Orientale (sotto la protezione militare israeliana) per
il re-export all'Asia serve a minare il mercato energetico inter-
asiatico, che è basato sullo sviluppo di corridoi petroliferi diretti
che collegano l'Asia Centrale alla Russia e all'Asia del Sud, la Cina
e il Lontano Oriente.

In ultima analisi, il progetto vuole indebolire il ruolo della Russia
in Asia Centrale e tagliare fuori la Cina dalle riserve petrolifere
della regione. Ha anche lo scopo di isolare l'Iran.

Nel frattempo, Israele è emerso come nuovo e potente giocatore nel
mercato energetico globale.

La presenza militare russa in Medio Oriente

Contemporaneamente, Mosca ha risposto al progetto israelo-turco di
militarizzare la linea costiera del Mediterraneo Orientale con dei
piani per stabilire una base navale russa nel porto siriano di Tartus:

"Fonti nel ministero della difesa rivelano che la base navale a
Tartus permetterà alla Russia di solidificare le proprie posizioni in
Medio Oriente e assicurerà la sicurezza della Siria. Mosca intende
dispiegare un sistema di difesa aereo attorno alla base – per fornire
protezione aerea alla base stessa e ad una parte consistente del
territorio siriano (i sistemi S-300PMU-2 non saranno ceduti ai
Siriani. Saranno in dotazione e manutenzione del personale russo)
(Kommerzant, 2 giugno 2006 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?
context=viewArticle&code=IVA20060728&articleId=2847

Tartus è strategicamente situata a 30 km dal confine libanese.

Inoltre, Mosca e Damasco hanno raggiunto un accordo sulla
modernizzazione delle difese aeree siriane e su un programma a
sostegno delle proprie forze di terra, la modernizzazione dei caccia
MIG-29 e dei sottomarini. (Kommerzant, 2 giugno 2006). Nel contesto
di un conflitto in escalation, questi sviluppi hanno ampie implicazioni.

Guerra ed oleodotti

Prima del bombardamento del Libano, Israele e Turchia avevano
annunciato oleodotti subacquei che evitassero la Siria e il Libano.
Questi oleodotti non violerebbero apertamente la sovranità
territoriale del Libano e della Siria.

D'altra parte, lo sviluppo di corridoi terrestri alternativi (per il
petrolio e l'acqua) attraverso il Libano e la Siria richiederebbe il
controllo territoriale israelo-turco sulla linea costiera del
Mediterraneo Orientale via Libano e Siria.

L'implementazione di questo progetto richiede la militarizzazione
della linea costiera del Mediterraneo Orientale, strade marine e
rotte terrestri, estendendosi dal porto di Ceyhan attraverso Siria e
Libano fino al confine israelo-libanese.

Non è forse questo uno degli obbiettivi segreti della guerra in
Libano? Aprire uno spazio che permetta ad Israele di controllare un
ampio territorio che va dal confine libanese attraverso Siria e Turchia.

"La lunga guerra"

Il primo ministro israeliano Ehud Olmert ha dichiarato che
l'offensiva israeliana contro il Libano "durerà molto a lungo". Nel
frattempo, gli Stati Uniti hanno accelerato i carichi di armi verso
Israele.

Ci sono obbiettivi strategici sottesi alla "Lunga Guerra", connessi
al petrolio e agli oleodotti.

La campagna aerea contro il Libano è inestricabilmente legata agli
obbiettivi strategici israelo-statunitensi nel più vasto Medio
Oriente, che include Siria ed Iran. In recenti sviluppi, la
segretaria di stato Usa Condoleeza Rice ha dichiarato che il
principale obbiettivo della sua missione in Medio Oriente non era
sollecitare un cessate il fuoco in Libano, ma piuttosto isolare la
Siria e l'Iran (Daily Telegraph, 22 luglio 2006).

In questo particolare momento, il rifornimento degli arsenali
israeliani con armi di distruzione di massa prodotte negli Stati
Uniti punta ad un'escalation della guerra sia all'interno che
all'esterno dei confini libanesi.

Annesso

Gli azionisti della BTC Co. sono: BP (30.1%); AzBTC (25.00%); Chevron
(8.90%); Statoil (8.71%); TPAO (6.53%); Eni (5.00%); Total (5.00%),
Itochu (3.40%); INPEX (2.50%), ConocoPhillips (2.50%) e Amerada Hess
(2.36%). (Fonte: BP)

Per dettagli sulla campagna contro l'oleodotto, vedi: http://
www.bakuceyhan.org.uk/more_info/bp_pipeline.htm

Michel Chossudovsky
Fonte: http://www.globalresearch.ca/

In italiano: a.fiore @ libero.it su aa-info @ yahoogroups.com

(english, con telegrafiche sintesi in italiano)

Neverending pogroms in Kosmet (4)



=== LINKS ===

"GIORNI DI PAURA" - DVD SUL KOSOVO

http://daysmadeoffear.com/dvd.html

DAYS MADE OF FEAR - 1998-2005

NEW DVD WITH EXCLUSIVE DOCUMENTARY FILMS ABOUT KOSOVO CRISIS
Directed, produced and published by:
Ninoslav Randjelovic (RONIN production)
---

CONTO ALLA ROVESCIA PER L'ESODO DEI SERBI

http://www.serbianna.com/news/2006/02028.shtml

COUNTDOWN TO SERBIAN EXODUS
Serbianna - July 11, 2006
---

L'ANA ORDINA DI ATTACCARE IL NORD DEL KOSOVO (DOVE È ANCORA FORTE LA
COMPONENTE NON-ALBANOFONA)

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/kd071206.htm

ALBANIAN NATIONAL ARMY (ANA) ORDERS ATTACK ON NORTHERN KOSOVO
Koha Ditore (Kosovo-Albanian) - July 12, 2006
---

ALBANESE-KOSOVARO RAPISCE FIGLIA DI FUNZIONARIO MONTENEGRINO

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/vijesti071306.htm

KOSOVO-ALBANIAN KIDNAPS MONTENEGRIN OFFICIAL'S DAUGHTER
Vijesti (Montenegro) - July 13, 2006
---

CRESCE IL FERMENTO TRA I SECESSIONISTI PAN-ALBANESI IN MONTENEGRO

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/kl071306.htm

HERE WE GO AGAIN: KOSOVO-ALBANIAN GROUP ACCUSES MONTENEGRO OF RIGHTS
VIOLATIONS
KosovaLive (Kosovo-Albanian) - July 15, 2006
---

IL WHC SOTTOLINEA IL PERICOLO PER IL PATRIMONIO STORICO-RELIGIOSO
SERBO-KOSOVARO

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/xinhua071706.htm

WORLD HERITAGE COUNSEL SAYS KOSOVO-SERB HISTORICAL AND RELIGIOUS
MONUMENTS IN DANGER
Xinhua (China) - July 16, 2006
---

I SONDAGGI MOSTRANO LA DIVERSITÀ DI OPINIONI SUL FUTURO DEL KOSOVO

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet072006.htm

POLL SHOWS SERBS AND ALBANIANS DEEPLY SPLIT OVER KOSOVO
FoNet - July 21, 2006

---

IL TRAFFICO DI DROGA IN ALBANIA È LEGATO A FUNZIONARI DI GOVERNO

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/dfasa071706b.htm

ALBANIAN DRUG TRAFFICKING LINKED TO GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis - August 5, 2006

---

LE VIE BALCANICHE DEL TRAFFICO DI DROGA E ARMI

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/dfasa071706.htm

NEW SMUGGLING ROUTES DEMONSTRATE LINK BETWEEN BALKAN JIHADISTS AND MAFIA
Defense & Foreign Affairs Special Analysis - August 6, 2006

---

CONSIGLIERE DI BERISHA INNEGGIA ALLA "GRANDE ALBANIA"

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?
cat=Politics&loid=8.0.332806468&par=0

BALKANS: OFFICIAL CALLS FOR A 'NATURAL ALBANIA'
ADN Kronos International (Italy) - August 22, 2006

=== NEWS ===

CINQUE ARRESTATI PER L'ATTACCO CONTRO LA POLIZIA NEL NORD DI MITROVICA

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=91400&ch=0

Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - July 1, 2006

Police Arrest Five Albanians for Attacking Kosovo Police Patrol

Kosovska Mitrovica - The police arrested five
Albanians who attacked a patrol of the Kosovo police
unit in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica,
Montenegrin news agency MINA told FOCUS News Agency.
The Albanians attacked the patrol at about 8 p.m.
Friday on the road Kosovska Mitrovica – Suvi Do.
Before that the attackers beat up two Kosovo Serb
policemen and after that two of their colleagues who
are Albanian.

---

TRUPPE ITALIANE IN KOSOVO DANNEGGIANO CASE SPARANDO PER FESTEGGIARE
LA VITTORIA AI MONDIALI DI CALCIO

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/srna070506.htm

Italian troops' gun celebration damages Kosovo Serb homes

BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - July 5, 2006, Wednesday
Excerpt from report by Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA
Source: SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 1148
gmt 5 Jul 06
Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation - Posted for Fair Use
only.

Pristina, 5 July: Italian Kfor [NATO-led Kosovo Force] members caused
an unintentional incident last night in the village of Grabac [near
Klina in central Kosovo], when they fired a number of rounds from
automatic weapons and hand-held mortars celebrating the victory of
their football team over Germany [in the World Cup], Kfor spokesman
Klaus Treude said today in Pristina.
"The celebration disturbed the locals, who are returnees to the
village of Grabac, and Kfor command has ordered an investigation to
be conducted," Treude said at a press conference.
The representative of the Serb community in the Klina municipality,
Tatjana Tosic confirmed that last night's gunfire celebration
resulted in cracked roofs and damaged roof tiles in the village.
"Locals retreated into their homes because of the gunfire and the
situation calmed down only after the arrival of a Kfor patrol and the
Kosovo Police Service [KPS] in Grabac," Tosic said.

---

L'UNHCR PREPARA LA EPURAZIONE FINALE DEI SERBI KOSOVARI

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/gj070605.htm

UNHCR SAID CHECKING OUT SOUTH SERBIA FOR SERB EVACUATION FROM KOSOVO
- PAPER
BBC Monitoring International Reports - July 6, 2006, Thursday
Source: Glas javnosti, Belgrade, in Serbian 30 Jun 06
Copyright 2006 Financial Times Information - All Rights Reserved

Text of report by B. Ristic entitled "Big Evacuation of Serbs being
prepared"? published by the Serbian newspaper Glas javnosti on 30 June

Belgrade: For more than a month now, UNHCR members from Kosovo-
Metohija have been informally touring municipalities in southern
Serbia along the administrative boundary line with Kosmet [Kosovo-
Metohija], checking out accommodation capacities for a swift
evacuation of Serbs from Kosmet if the southern province should
become independent or - which is another possibility that is being
considered - if the Albanian side should be dissatisfied with
Kosmet's status settlement. This has been confirmed for Glas javnosti
in informal contacts by Serb councilmen in the Medvedja Municipal
Council, whom UNHCR members have recently contacted, as well as -
again informally - by sources in the civilian segment of UNMIK [UN
Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] and Albanian members of the
KPS [Kosovo Police Service] in Kosmet. Kfor [Kosovo Force] troops in
Kosmet also say that their internal level of alert has been raised,
but they could not say whether this has anything to do with the above.
Serbs living in enclaves in the south of Kosmet say that an
unofficial population census has recently been taken in the villages,
that is, representatives of local international forces asked "village
elders" to submit an approximate list of people permanently living in
the area.
One of the main problems about this "operation of sheltering the Serb
population" comes from the fact that the Serb enclaves are small and
tucked away deep in the territory of Kosmet, among the Albanian
population; according to KPC representatives, again speaking
informally, these areas are predominantly populated by Albanians that
have come from Albania and settled here since 1999 and who are
regarded as "extremists" even by their indigenous ethnic kin in
Kosmet. Glas javnosti's source says that it has been recommended to
Serbs in this area to try to "group themselves" somehow, that is, to
organize themselves in a way that would enable international troops
to evacuate them swiftly in case of a crisis.
In Medvedja they say that Serbs in southern Serbia have some fear
also from Albanians, whose numbers they estimate at about 250,000 at
any time and who practically "live" on both sides of the
administrative line with Kosmet. In their view, depending on the
Kosmet status solution, these Albanians could make problems in this
part of Serbia. They say that Serbs have discussed this matter with
UNHCR officials who, the Serbs were told, are also aware of the
problem but "do not have a solution" for the moment. Although Glas
javnosti tried on Wednesday [28 June] to obtain official confirmation
of this report on the ground, from local UNHCR officials in Kosmet,
none of them were willing to comment, but the fact that they did not
deny it speaks for itself.
Albanians in Kosmet say that parallel with these plans, there are
also plans being made for the evacuation from Kosmet of international
civilian and military forces, who are apparently becoming less and
less popular with Albanians in Kosmet.
---

L'ULTIMA IMMORALE BOUTADE DI AHTISAARI PRIMA DI ANDARSENE: I SERBI
LASCINO IL KOSOVO, PAGHEREMO BENE

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=91824&ch=0

Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - July 8, 2006

UN Kosovo Envoy Buying Kosovo

Pristina - In his wish to preserve his position
European Union's Special Envoy for Kosovo Marti
Ahtisaari has sent a new unexpected proposal to
Serbia: to recognize Kosovo’s independence and in
return receive money and concessions.
In the language of diplomacy this is called a
“shopping list”, Serbian newspaper Vecerne Novosti
reads.
From diplomatic sources the newspaper found out that
the so-called shopping list includes five points:

1. Serbia to join in NATO’s Partnership for Peace
program (without being obliged to capture General
Ratko Mladic)

2. An agreement Serbia to join the European Union
(also without being obliged to hand in Mladic)

3. Financial aid from the US

4. Access to EU funds

5. Increase of direct foreign investments.

Marti Ahtisaari’s proposal to the southern Serbia
region does not sound bad at all – at least on paper.
But it means: “Give Kosovo up and we will give you
everything else!” the newspaper comments.
According to an anonymous government source there is
no official document for Ahtisaari’s shopping list.

---

KOSTUNICA: LA SECESSIONE KOSOVARA DESTABILIZZEREBBE LA REGIONE

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=92059&ch=0

Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - July 12, 2006

Kosovo’s Independence Would Destabilize Region: Serbia’s PM

Washington - If Kosovo is granted independence this
would seriously destabilize the region, Serbia’s Prime
Minister Vojislav Kostunica said during his meeting
with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in
Washington RTS reports.
“A country to be robbed of 15% of its territory – this
would be possible only if democracy is violated,” PM
Kostunica told journalists after his conversation with
Condoleezza Rice.
Kostunica and Rice agreed that it is of extreme
importance the talks for Kosovo to be very well
prepared and a solution for the region to be found in
accordance with the leading principles of the Contact
Group.

---

ATTACCO CONTRO PROFUGO SERBO-KOSOVARO

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/kp071406.htm

Kosovo Albanians give chase to would-be Serb returnee - Kosovo Serb
radio

BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - July 14, 2006, Friday
Source: Kontakt Plus, Kosovska Mitrovica, in Serbian 1400 gmt 14 Jul 06
Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation - Posted for Fair Use
only.

Text of report by Serbia-Montenegrin radio Kontakt Plus on 14 July

[Announcer] A group of Albanians from Srbobran village near Istok
yesterday attacked Dragi Malikovic, dean at the [Kosovska Mitrovica-
based] Pristina University Philosophy Department, who was visiting
his family property with his friends. Jelena Markovic has a detailed
report.
[Reporter] I heard that an Albanian had built a four-storey house on
my family's property. I went there with some of my friends to see for
myself, and I saw that it was true. I entered the other part of my
courtyard which this Albanian had also usurped and prepared for the
construction of another house. While I was visiting the property, the
owner of the aforementioned house spotted me and immediately went
somewhere with his tractor. Just ten minutes later, two vans carrying
around 15 Albanians arrived. We got into our vehicle and departed for
[Kosovska] Mitrovica but they followed us for more than 10 kilometres
with various shouts and threats, Dragi Malikovic told the
International Press Centre in Kosovska Mitrovica.
Until 1999, Srbobran was a purely Serb village with 59 households
whose owners have been keenly waiting to return to their hearth and
home for over seven years. Currently, work to restore five houses in
the village is nearing its end. Recent attacks against Serb returnees
demonstrate that Albanians from neighbouring villages, helped by the
Pristina authorities, want an ethnically pure Kosovo-Metohija without
a Serb presence. This is also confirmed by the fact that six multiple
store houses owned by Albanians from neighbouring villages had been
built on village land which belongs solely to the Serbs exiled from
Srbobran.
Despite the attacks and large sums of money which Albanians offer for
our property, we are determined and will persist in our wish to
return and begin our lives anew on this Kosovo-Metohija land, Dragi
Malikovic said.
---

DELEGAZIONE RUSSA ALL'ONU PREOCCUPATA PER LA QUESTIONE KOSOVARA

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/07/14/kosovo.shtml

MosNews - July 14, 2006

Russia Challenges UN Power on Kosovo, Calls for Talks

Russia said on Thursday the United Nations had no
authority to impose a solution on Serbia over the
status of its breakaway Kosovo province and only a
negotiated deal was acceptable, the Reuters news
agency reported.
The statement by Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin
was significant as the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia
have dug their heels in the international talks aimed
at determining whether Kosovo wins independence or
remains a part of Serbia, making an imposed solution
more likely.
“I stated today in the closed meeting of the Security
Council that I do not believe that the international
community has legal, political or moral ground to
force Serbia into a solution on this issue,” Churkin
told reporters.
“There is plenty of opportunity for the sides to have
their discussions, and the only stable solution, the
only solution good for regional and global stability,
would be a solution negotiated between the two sides,”
Churkin said.
Ethnic Albanians, 90 percent of the impoverished
province’s 2 million people, demand independence while
Serbia insists Kosovo must remain within its borders,
albeit with substantial autonomy.
Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since June
1999 when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces....
Martti Ahtisaari of Finland is leading the U.N.-backed
process set up to determine Kosovo’s eventual status.
Direct talks on the fate of Kosovo began in February
in Vienna, and he hopes for a result by the end of
this year.
Churkin spoke after Ahtisaari briefed the council -
and then talked to reporters - on his talks.
During the closed-door meeting, Serbian Prime Minister
Vojislav Kostunica again ruled out independence and
accused the international community of seeking to
change Serbia’s borders by force, diplomats attending
the session said.
Ahtisaari, asked before Churkin spoke whether he
thought a solution might have to be imposed because of
Kostunica’s hard line, said it was “entirely premature
to start talking how the end result of this exercise
is going to be.”
But other council diplomats said an imposed solution
would clearly be in order if a deal could not be
negotiated.
Ahtisaari said he had strong council support for his
work. “I think everyone is interested that we have a
thorough process - in the end of the day that we can
say that we have done our utmost to try to find a
negotiated settlement,” he said.

---

SERBO SFUGGE A LINCIAGGIO A SRBOBRAN

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=92333&ch=0

Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - July 16, 2006

Serbs Escape Lynching in Kosovo Village

Istok - Serbs who visited their property in the Kosovo
village of Srbobran were lucky to escape after they
were attacked by Albanians residing in the village,
Serbian newspaper Politika reads today.
The Serbs were made to leave the village in order to
escape the clash with the group of Albanians.
Only a few days ago Albanians robbed a house which was
being built for a returning Serb, after which they set
fire to it.
Meanwhile the work on five of the 59 Serbian houses,
which existed in the village before 1999, is almost
finished.

---

I MINISTRI DELLA UE SE NE FREGANO DI TUTTO E VOGLIONO IL KOSOVO
"INDIPENDENTE"

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1961498&C=europe

Defense News - July 18, 2006

EU Ministers Support Kosovo Independence
By BROOKS TIGNER

BRUSSELS - European Union foreign ministers issued a
clear signal of support July 17 for Kosovo’s impending
independence, declaring the union would take a leading
role within the international community as the
province prepares to break away from Serbia.
....
In a joint report to the foreign chiefs during their
July 17 gathering here, Solana and Olli Rehn, European
commissioner for enlargement, recommended three
courses of action by the EU in support of Kosovo,
currently administered by the United Nations. These
call for the:

• Creation of a double-hatted post to lead the
international community’s work in Kosovo and to serve
as the EU special representative to Kosovo.

• The European Union will launch a new mission, under
its security and defense policy, to help reform and
strengthen Kosovo’s law enforcement and justice
authorities.

• Use EU financial instruments to help Kosovo prepare
for a so-called Stabilization and Association
Agreement covering trade and investment with the
union.

The goal is for Kosovo to become “a reliable partner,
progressing towards integration with the EU together
with the rest of the region,” according to the report.
Though Pristina would be responsible for handling most
government functions, the report also reaffirms that
the international security presence in Kosovo is
needed to guarantee the rule of law and stable
relations between Kosovo’s dominant Albanian majority
and its Serb minority.
A NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force of 17,000 soldiers
currently has this role, a mission that will continue
under the NATO flag after Kosovo secures its
independence, say EU and NATO officials.
....

---

IL CRIMINALE "PREMIER" KOSOVARO PROMETTE "INDIPENDENZA" ENTRO LA FINE
DELL'ANNO

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=92601&ch=0

Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - July 20, 2006

Kosovo PM: Kosovo to be Independent by Year’s End

Ljubljana - Kosovo will be an independent state even
before the end of the year, Kosovo’s Prime Minister
Agim Ceku, the Serbian radio B92 reported.
Ceku is on a visit to Slovenia at the invitation of
his Slovenian counterpart Janez Jansa.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister stated he would voice his
stand during his first meeting with UN special envoy
for the Kosovo status talks Marti Ahtisaari on July 24
in Vienna.

---

MAFIA KOSOVARA MINACCIA ANCHE L'UNMIK

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=92650&ch=0

Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - July 21, 2006

Kosovo Mafia Makes Death Threat to UNMIK Police Commissioner

Pristina - UNMIK Police Commissioner Kai Vittrup told
in an interview with a Danish TV station that the
Kosovo Albanians mafia had threatened him with death
and that is why his personal protection has been
reinforced, RTS informs.
“One gets used to the threats and if I were afraid I
wouldn’t have stayed in Kosovo.
"The threat I received is actually a threat to all UN
officials in Kosovo therefore we are carrying out an
investigation and are taking the necessary protection
measures,” Kai Vittrup said.
“My wife left Kosovo and it was a joint decision. No
threat should make a Police Commissioner leave
Kosovo,” he added.
The UNMIK Police Chief said that there are various
crime forms in the region – from the classical, like
robberies and murders, to organized crime dealing with
drugs and arms.
“This is a mafia ran by families on the clan
principle. It is a closed system that is hard to track
down, but we are progressing,” Kai Vittrup added.

---

IL "KOSOVO" PARLA SOLO DI "INDIPENDENZA"

http://news.scotsman.com/latest_international.cfm?id=1041302006

Reuters - July 17, 2006

Kosovo ready to talk independence with Serbia
By Shaban Buza

PRISTINA, Serbia - Kosovo said on Monday it would
demand independence from Serbia when the two sides
meet this month for the highest-level talks between
the two sides since NATO's 1999 air war drove out Serb
forces.
U.N. mediators hope to bring together the presidents
and prime ministers of Serbia and its United
Nations-run, majority Albanian province in Vienna on
July 24.
For the first time, Kosovo's international status -
independence or autonomy - will top the agenda, after
six months of lower-level talks on the rights and
security of minority Serbs. The West wants a decision
within the year.
"The Kosovo delegation will go to Vienna, not to
negotiate but once more to argue its case that full
independence and sovereignty for our country based on
the will of the people ... is the vital solution that
must be confirmed," Skender Hyseni, adviser to Kosovo
President Fatmir Sejdiu, told reporters.
Serbia has yet to confirm its participation.
Legally part of Serbia, Kosovo has been run by the
United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombed to drive
out Serb forces...during a two-year war with
separatist guerrillas.
The meeting is not expected to yield any concrete
results, the chasm between the two sides seemingly
unbridgeable.

AID ONCE STATUS CLEAR
Ninety percent of Kosovo's 2 million people are
[currently] ethnic Albanians impatient for
independence.
Serbia has offered wide autonomy for land seen as the
sacred cradle of the nation.
But diplomats say Kosovo is heading for independence,
under European Union supervision and secured by a NATO
peace force that currently numbers 17,000.
In a report to EU foreign ministers meeting in
Brussels, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said
the bloc intended to be the driving force of the
international presence, with the head of that mission
also serving as EU Special Representative.
It would monitor the implementation of a status
settlement, the rule of law and certain economic and
fiscal matters.
"The international presence will need to have some
limited intervention powers to ensure that the status
settlement is implemented," Rehn wrote, according to a
summary of his report, drafted with EU foreign policy
chief Javier Solana.
The West is pushing for a deal by the end of 2006,
concerned that a delay could spark fresh violence
against the U.N. mission and Kosovo's 100,000
remaining Serbs, a ghettoised minority.
The seven-year limbo is blamed for the lack of
investment and deep poverty in Kosovo, where
unemployment is 50 percent.
Rehn added that the EU and the World Bank would
convene a donors' conference once status was settled
and the EU would contribute to a "well-coordinated mix
of grant assistance, macro-financial support and
loans".

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Brussels)

---

IL CRIMINALE "PREMIER" KOSOVARO CHIEDE AD ONU E NATO DI TAGLIARE I
LEGAMI TRA NORD KOSOVO E RESTO DELLA SERBIA

http://kosovareport.blogspot.com/2006/07/un-nato-must-isolate-north-
kosovo-from.html

Agence France-Presse - July 22, 2006

UN, NATO must isolate north Kosovo from Serbia: PM

PRISTINA, Serbia [for now] - The prime minister of
Kosovo on Saturday called on the province's UN
administration to increase security on its northern
border to isolate it from Serbia proper.
"KFOR (NATO peacekeepers) and (the UN administration)
UNMIK have to undertake measures in order to isolate
this part (of Kosovo) from Serbia, politically and
practically, and establish such measures on the border
which are the same as on the rest of the Kosovo
borders," PM Agim Ceku said.
He was speaking before attending UN-sponsored talks
between the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo's ethnic
Albanian leaders in Vienna on Monday, the first such
meeting since the 1998-1999 Kosovo war.
The one-day meeting in Vienna, chaired by UN special
envoy Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, is expected to
tackle for the first time the core issue of Kosovo's
future status and the ethnic Albanians' demands for
full independence.
Ceku said the border between Kosovo and the rest of
Serbia was so "soft" that visitors did not believe
that it was a border at all, believing instead that
the border is on the Ibar river, which runs through
the volatile and ethnicly-divided town Kosovska
Mitrovica.
The river separates and marks the boundary between the
biggest Serb-populated area in northern Kosovo with
about 60,000 inhabitants and about two million ethnic
Albanians in the rest of the UN-administered Serbian
province.
One of the toughest issues at the talks is the issue
of northern Kosovo, where Serbs have been calling for
the partition of the province.
Serbs warn that this region along the border with
Serbia proper would secede if independence was granted
to Pristina.
In June, Serbs in the north proclaimed a "state of
emergency", cutting off their relations with the
Kosovo institutions, a move considered to be a first
step towards the partition of the province.
The decision, strongly opposed by the Kosovo Albanian
and UN authorities, came after a series of small-scale
attacks against Serbs, including a murder of a young
Serb man.
Kosovo, legally still a province of Serbia, has been
run by the UN and NATO since mid-1999, when the
military alliance's air war drove out forces loyal to
then Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic over a
crackdown against the province's separatist ethnic
Albanian majority.
The international mission in Kosovo has failed to
enforce its mandate in the Serb-dominated north and to
sever Belgrade's influence. [UN Resolution 1244 - the
mandate - states no such thing; in fact it upholds the
opposite, including the return of Serbian security
forces.]

---

ALTRI 650 SOLDATI DELLA GRANDE GERMANIA NELLA GRANDE ALBANIA

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=1969247&C=europe

Agence France-Presse - July 22, 2006

NATO Deploys German Soldiers in Kosovo

PRISTINA - NATO has deployed some 650 German soldiers
to Kosovo, as part of an operation to show its
commitment to security in the United Nations-run
province, officials said July 21.
”The German army battalion, comprised of some 650
soldiers, has been deployed to Kosovo since Monday,”
Colonel Pio Sabetta, KFOR (NATO-led peacekeeping
mission) spokesman told AFP.
”The deployment confirms NATO’s ability to reinforce
in-theater NATO-led forces on very short notice and
continues NATO’s mission to provide a safe and secure
environment for all of Kosovo.”
KFOR earlier also increased its presence in northern
Kosovo after Serbs there announced in June a state of
emergency, breaking off its relations with Kosovo’s
institutions, a move which was considered as a
precursor to a bid to partition the province.
The decision came after the series of small-scale
attacks against Serbs, in which a young Serb was
killed.
Following the latest tensions in north of the
province, the U.N. Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and KFOR
increased security in the north, deploying additional
police forces and reopening KFOR’s base by the
northern administrative border with Serbia.
”The battalion is part of NATO’s Operational Reserve
Force (ORF) and they will be used all around Kosovo,
also in north,” Sabetta said.
Sabetta said KFOR wanted to show its commitment to
security.
Kosovo, a province in southern Serbia, has been run by
the U.N. and NATO since mid-1999, after the alliance’s
air war drove out forces loyal to former Serbian
leader Slobodan Milosevic who were cracking down on
the province’s separatist ethnic Albanian majority.
Talks on the future of Kosovo are set to resume Monday
in Vienna under the auspices of the United Nations.
Kosovo’s Albanian majority wants independence for the
province, but its demand has been rejected by Belgrade
and the province’s minority Serb community.

---

SCONTRI A FUOCO TRA ALBANESI-KOSOVARI E MONTENEGRINI SUL CONFINE

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/vijesti072306.htm

Montenegrin police confirm exchange of fire along border with Kosovo

BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - July 23, 2006, Sunday
Source: Vijesti, Podgorica, in Serbian 23 Jul 06 p9
Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation - Posted for Fair Use
only.

Excerpt from report by Bi.B entitled "First insulted and then shot at
border guards" published by Montenegrin newspaper Vijesti on 23 July

Podgorica - Last weekend an incident occurred on Bogicevica Mountain
in the Hadzina Ravan village area near Plav [town in northern
Montenegro], close to the junction of three borders - that of
Montenegro, Kosovo and Albania. Several persons entered Montenegro
from Kosovo and fired shots at border guard policemen.
The incident happened last Sunday [16 July] about noon [1000gmt],
when young men from Kosovo crossed the border and advanced about 50
metres into Montenegro.
They were singing and cursing. Border guard policemen tried to stop
them but the young men form Kosovo fired several bullets at them.
Border guard policemen fired several warning shots into the air and
then the attackers escaped back to Kosovo, police sources told Vijesti.
---

LOBBYSTI DELL'ICG SENTENZIANO: IL "KOSOVO" DEVE AVERE UN SUO ESERCITO

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=93077&ch=0

Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - July 28, 2006

Kosovo Must Have Own Army: International Crisis Group

[The board of the so-called International Crisis Group
includes such disinterested luminaries as George
Soros, Morton Abramowitz, Kenneth Adelman, Zbigniew
Brzezinski, Wesley Clark, Joschka Fischer, Martti
Ahtisaari, Chris Patten and George Mitchell.]

Pristina - The independent Kosovo must have its own
army despite Serbia’s disagreement on the issue, a
report of the International Crisis Group reads.
According to the organization the armed forces in
Kosovo must be small, they should concentrate mainly
on performing peacekeeping operations and to be placed
under NATO’s command.
In the report entitled “Army for Kosovo?” the
International Crisis Group thinks that a Kosovo army
would help Kosovo’s Liberation Army and the existing
military formations to receive an official status
after which they would threaten neither the new state
nor its neighbors.
The report supports the thesis the future army would
be one of the pillars of the new state.
The paramilitary formations and those connected to
organized crime must be eliminated, the International
Crisis Group recommends in its report.

---

DROGA ED ARMI SEQUESTRATE IN KOSOVO

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/ap073106.htm

Police seize large quantities of marijuana, weapons in two raids in
Kosovo

Associated Press Worldstream - July 31, 2006 Monday 6:04 PM GMT
Copyright 2006 Associated Press - Posted for Fair Use only.

PRISTINA Serbia - Police in Kosovo seized large quantities of
marijuana and weapons in two separate raids in the province,
officials said Monday.
Police units specialized in narcotics arrested five people during the
operations, and confiscated 36 kilograms (about 80 pounds) of
marijuana in the southern town of Prizren and another 8 kilograms
(about 18 pounds) in the province's capital, Pristina, a police
statement said.
An AK-47 assault rifle, a revolver and ammunition were also found in
Sunday's raids, it said.
Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations and patrolled by
NATO peacekeepers since 1999. The province is believed to be often
used as a transit point for drugs intended for sale in Western Europe.
---

PARTITI MONTENEGRINI SOTTOLINEANO LA MINACCIA PROVENIENTE DAL KOSOVO

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/mina073106.htm

Montenegrin Serb party wants ban on "extremist tourists" from Kosovo

BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - July 31, 2006 Monday
Source: Mina news agency, Podgorica, in Serbian 0916 gmt 30 Jul 06
Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation - Posted for Fair Use
only.

Excerpt from report by Montenegrin Mina news agency

Podgorica, 30 July: The Serbian People's Party (SNS) today stated
that the dramatic events in Ulcinj yesterday [29 July] had shown the
real face of Montenegro after the referendum and asked the government
to proclaim the perpetrators of the incident personae non gratae.
Some 2,000 Kosovo Albanians yesterday blocked the Little Beach
promenade in protest over the detention of two of their countrymen.
[Passage omitted]
"Thousands of extremists dressed as tourists were charging at the
police, chanting slogans supporting the terrorist OVK [disbanded
Kosovo Liberation Army], and members of the Ministry of Internal
Affairs failed to react adequately," said a statement by [the SNS]
information service head, Jovan Vucurovic.
The state of Montenegro, he said, showed the strength embodied in
"the beat-up policemen who were running around the Little Beach in
front of outraged pro-sovereignty protesters from Kosovo-Metohija".
"This incident can be defined as a classic clash with another state's
bodies and an expression of various pretensions towards it,"
Vucurovic believes.
He said that the regime would do everything in its power to cover up
this incident, because these Albanian tourists had brought
independence to Montenegro and now assessed that they could do
whatever they wanted without being held accountable.
"Only naive people can believe that this was a spontaneous gathering
of over 2,000 persons, and the SNS openly suspects that this was a
well-organized action and that those whom [Kosovo Prime Minister]
Agim Ceku and [Democratic Party of Kosovo chairman] Hashim Thaci
recently praised for their selfless participation in the dissolution
of the country were also among the protesters," Vucurovic said.
The SNS believes that this incident could cause numerous problems in
Montenegro, not only because of the increasing Albanian extremism,
but also because the regime was not capable of reacting "to a sort of
occupation of its territory".
"The question arising is who has allowed such a large number of
extremists to enter Montenegro and whether anyone is checking the
identity of the persons crossing the border between Montenegro and
Serbia from the territory of Kosovo-Metohija," Vucurovic said.
---

TENSIONE ALTA NEL NORD DEL KOSOVO

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/04/
AR2006080400320.html

Reuters - August 4, 2006

Major powers warn of tensions in north Kosovo
By Matt Robinson

BELGRADE - The major powers voiced concern on Friday
at tensions in northern Kosovo, where there are
growing signs of Serb resistance as the majority
Albanian province pushes for independence from Serbia.
A statement issued by the six-member Contact Group
expressed concern at "recent developments" in the
mainly Serb north of Kosovo adjacent to central
Serbia.
It did not specify which developments. Reports suggest
Serbs there are strengthening what they say are
self-defense groups made up of former military and
police officers.
"Both Belgrade and Pristina should take immediate
steps to reduce tensions in northern Kosovo,
particularly to encourage responsible leadership and
build confidence among communities," said the
statement, issued by the U.S. liaison office in Kosovo
on behalf of the United States, Britain, Germany,
France, Italy and Russia.
Seven years since NATO bombs drove out Serb forces and
the United Nations took control, the West is pushing
for a decision on Kosovo's fate in 2006. Some Serb
leaders have threatened to split it in two if the
Albanians win independence.
Three northern Serb municipalities, home to around
50,000 Serbs or almost half Kosovo's Serb population,
have already cut what minimal cooperation they had
with the Albanian-dominated institutions in Pristina,
citing security concerns.
The statement called on "Belgrade, Pristina and
Kosovo's residents to take steps to ensure northern
Kosovo remains a stable region where the rights of all
are respected."

PARTITION
Diplomats say the 90-percent Albanian province is
likely to win independence under European
Union-supervision. U.N. mediator Martti Ahtisaari is
working to propose a settlement to the U.N. Security
Council by year-end. He opened talks in February.
The Contact Group, which sets international policy on
Kosovo, says the north must remain part of Kosovo. It
fears that splitting the province in two would revive
separatism in south Serbia and Macedonia, where
Albanians took up arms in 2000-01.
The 17,000-strong NATO peace force in June reopened
its only base in the north, and the West is mulling a
specific international mission to oversee the area's
integration.
The province of 2 million has been run by the U.N.
since 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces....
Half the Serb population fled a wave of revenge
[sic]attacks after the war.
The 100,000 Serbs left lead a grim, ghettoized
existence, financially supported...by Belgrade.
Serbs in the north enjoy greater freedom, forming the
majority above the Ibar River with a clear land link
to the rest of Serbia.
Belgrade says it does not want to partition Kosovo.
But Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said on Monday
that, in the event independence is imposed, Belgrade
would declare Kosovo an integral part of Serbian
territory. Serbs consider Kosovo the cradle of their
nation stretching back 1,000 years.

---

FERITO A COLTELLATE UN SERBO-KOSOVARO

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet080506.htm

Stabbed Kosovo Serb released for home treatment; ethnic Albanian
suspected

BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - August 5, 2006, Saturday
Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1311 gmt 5 Aug 06
Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation - Posted for Fair Use
only.
Text of report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet

Kosovska Mitrovica, 5 August: Ljubisa Janackovic, who was stabbed
with a knife in Priluzje village near Vucitrn on Friday around 1900
[1700 gmt], was released for home treatment, it was confirmed to KiM
[Kosovo-Metohija] Radio in the Kosovska Mitrovica hospital.
Janackovic was given first aid in the village and then Kosovo Police
Service (KPS) transferred him to the hospital in the northern [Serb-
held] part of Kosovska Mitrovica where he was admitted to the
orthopaedic ward.
KPS spokesman Veton Elshani told KiM Radio that Janackovic had been
attacked near Lab River and had received two stabs with a knife in
his left shoulder during the incident. He added that his two mobile
phones had been stolen.
For the time being, one ethnic Albanian was suspected in relation to
this incident and the investigation is progressing, KiM Radio said.
---

SACCHEGGIATA CHIESA TRECENTESCA

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/fonet080606.htm

SERB CHURCH IN KOSOVO PLUNDERED, DESECRATED

BBC Monitoring International Reports - August 6, 2006 Sunday
Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1457 gmt 6 Aug 06
Copyright 2006 Financial Times Information
Copyright 2006 BBC Monitoring/BBC Source: Financial Times Information
Limited - Posted for Fair Use only.
Text of report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet

Belgrade, 6 August: Unknown perpetrators have broken into, plundered
and desecrated the Church of the Holy Mother of God (Presveta
Bogorodica) in the Serb village of Babin Most near Obilic, the Rasko-
Prizren Eparchy has said.
The thieves broke in last night at around midnight [2200 gmt] after
smashing the bars and the windows on the rear side of the church
where the priest's home is also situated.
The St Stefan fresco was taken from the church along with 50,000
dinars in donations, the priests' habits and ritual objects, while
some ten frescoes and icons were destroyed and found smashed on the
floor.
The Kosovo Police Service [KSP] carried out on-the-spot checks and
began their investigation, although no details have been made public.
The Church of the Holy Mother of God was built in the 14th century
and is one of the oldest Serb churches in central Kosovo-Metohija.
---

IL PRESIDENTE DELL'ALBANIA GALVANIZZATO PER LA PROSSIMA
"INDIPENDENZA" KOSOVARA

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=128&newsid=93590&ch=0

Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - August 6, 2006

Makfax: Independence of Kosovo will Increase Influence
of Albanian Factor, Alfred Moisiu Announced

Tirana - The opinion of Albanians will be heard more
and more if there are two Albanian states in the
region and at the same time they will be able to
strengthen the friendly relations they have with the
USA, the Albanian President Alfred Moisiu announced at
his yesterday meeting with representatives of
Albanian-American National Organization that is
visiting Albania, Makfax announced.
Moisiu is expecting that Kosovo will gain its
independence this year and thus the peace and
stability on the Balkans will strengthen as well as
the Albanian factor will increase.

---

LA RUSSIA CONDIVIDE LA POSIZIONE DI BELGRADO

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-08/08/content_4932218.htm

Xinhua News Agency - August 8, 2006

Russia shares stand of Belgrade on Kosovo status

BELGRADE - Visiting Russian Minister for Civil Defense
and Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu said here on
Monday that Russia shares Belgrade's stand on the
issue of Kosovo's future status.
During talks with Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav
Kostunica, Shoigu conveyed the same opinion that the
best solution for this southern province is essential
autonomy within the existing state borders of Serbia,
the official Tanjug news agency reported.
"The resolving of Kosovo's future status must not be
imposed, nor the negotiations on this issue placed
under a time limit", said Shoigu, adding that it was
the principled stand of Russia and its President
Vladimir Putin.
Kostunica said that Serbia deeply appreciates the
principled stand of Russia and President Putin.
He also underscored that a possibly imposed solution
would have serious consequences for peace and
stability, not only in the region of the Balkans, but
also much wider.
Since the end of the Kosovo war in June 1999, the
province has become a UN protectorate under Security
Council Resolution 1244. Kosovo 's Albanian majority
demand outright independence, but Serbia only agrees
to grant Kosovo essential autonomy.
The UN-mediated negotiations on the future status of
Kosovo started last November. But thorny problems have
not been addressed after eight rounds of talks.

---

I SERBI-KOSOVARI BOICOTTANO I "COLLOQUI" DI VIENNA

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5257566.stm

BBC News - August 8, 2006

Kosovo Serbs boycott Vienna talks

The Serb delegation from Kosovo has boycotted a
session of talks about the future of the province.
The second day of negotiations brokered by the United
Nations in Vienna concentrated on the rights of the
province's minorities.
The Serb representatives said they did not accept
being given the status of a minority.
The talks are trying to resolve issues of education,
health care, police and justice systems.
The Tuesday session on minority rights was attended by
the delegation from Belgrade.
The first day of the latest round of talks on Monday
ended with no progress on the major stumbling blocks
between the ethnic Serb and Albanian communities.
There is international pressure on both sides to
resolve the long-term political status of the province
by the end of the year.
Officially still part of Serbia, Kosovo has been run
by the UN since the war there ended in 1999.

Rising tensions

Kosovo's Albanians want independence. Serbia has said it is willing
only to grant wide "substantial autonomy". Tensions have been rising
in Kosovo in recent weeks. Local Serb politicians have heavily
criticised the acting head of the United Nations mission, accusing
him of favouring the Kosovo Albanians. The Nato-led peacekeeping
force, K-For, has recently reopened a base and deployed extra troops
in Serb areas to the north.

On Monday, a human rights group said the UN and the
international community were failing to protect the
rights of Kosovo's minorities.
"Nowhere [in Europe] is there such a level of fear for
so many minorities that they will be harassed or
attacked, simply for who they are," a report by
London-based Minority Rights Group International
(MRGI) said.

---

TRE ALBANESI-KOSOVARI ARRESTATI PER CRIMINI COMMESSI CONTRO ALBANESI-
KOSOVARI JUGOSLAVISTI

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/afp081106.htm

Three Kosovo Albanians jailed for war crimes

Agence France Presse (English) - August 11, 2006 Friday 9:43 AM GMT
Copyright 2006 Agence France Presse - Posted for Fair Use only.

PRISTINA, Serbia, Aug 11 2006 - Three ethnic Albanians were sentenced
to seven-year jail terms for war crimes committed during Kosovo's
1998-1999 conflict, the United Nations said Friday.
Selim Krasniqi, Agron Krasniqi and Bedri Zyberaj, former members of
the Kosovo Liberation Army, a rebel force that fought Serbian forces
during the war, were found guilty of detaining and beating fellow
Albanians, said the justice department of the UN mission in Kosovo.
"The panel of international judges carefully considered the evidence
and found the three defendants guilty of the war crime of inhumane
treatment, which consisted of detaining and beating fellow Kosovo
Albanians whom they believed to be collaborating with Serbian
authorities," it said in a statement.
The crimes were committed between June and September 1998, when
members of the KLA organised and ran a detention centre in the
basement of a school building in the central Kosovo village of Drenovac.
Selim Krasniqi and Zyberaj were also senior officials of Kosovo
Protection Corps, an emergency service formed after the KLA was
demilitarised at the end of the conflict.
A fourth defendant, Islam Gashi, was acquitted, while charges were
withdrawn against two others, Isuf Gashi and Xhavit Elshani due to a
lack of evidence, said the UN statement.
Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and NATO since June 1999,
after the alliance's bombing campaign drove out Serbian forces over a
crackdown against separatist Albanian rebels.
The future status of the disputed province, which technically remains
a Serbian province, is being decided in UN-backed talks due to be
completed by the year's end.
---

ALBANESI-KOSOVARI AGGREDISCONO SERBO IN SERBIA CENTRALE

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/b92081206.htm

ARMED KOSOVO ALBANIANS REPORTEDLY ENTER SERBIA, FIRE SHOTS AT FORMER
SERB MAYOR

BBC Monitoring International Reports - August 12, 2006, Saturday
Source: Radio B92, Belgrade, in Serbian 1500 gmt 12 Aug 06
Copyright 2006 Financial Times Information
Copyright 2006 BBC Monitoring/BBC Source: Financial Times Information
Limited - Posted for Fair Use only.
Text of report by Belgrade-based Radio B92 on 12 August

[Announcer] A group of armed [ethnic] Albanians carried out an armed
attack on the territory of Kursumlija municipality's village of
Tacevac on the administrative border between Serbia and Kosovo just
as former Podujevo Mayor Milovan Tomcic was out in his field with his
family. Ljiljana Danilovic reports from Kursumlija.

[Reporter] According to the testimony of former Podujevo Mayor
Milovan Tomcic, who was with his family in the field close to the
administrative border between Serbia and Kosovo, a large group of
armed Albanians penetrated around three kilometres into the territory
of Kursumlija municipality in Tacevac village and carried out an
armed attack.
Tomcic said that there was a barrage of fire from automatic weapons
which lasted for about ten minutes.

[Tomcic] I was barely 20 paces from the road when the shots were
fired. Bullets started whistling above our heads. This was a real
barrage of separate shots fired from several pieces of weapons and
from a number of locations. At least five or six types of weapons
were fired, but I managed to take cover.

[Tomcic's wife] When the barrage started getting fiercer, I told our
daughter to get to the ground and start crawling. We managed to get
close to a fence and then we climbed over it and got away.

[Reporter] The police went to the scene after the incident but an
investigation was not carried out for security reasons. A spokeswoman
for the police in Prokuplje, Jasmina Stamenkovic, confirmed that a
group of armed Albanians had carried out an attack in the territory
of Tacevac village.

[Stamenkovic] Members of Kfor [NATO-led Kosovo Force] were informed
about the incident via our team for cooperation with Kfor so that
they could undertake measures envisaged by the law.

[Reporter] Nobody was injured in this armed attack. We should say
several dozens of armed attacks by Kosovo Albanians had been carried
out in Kursumlija's Tacevac village over the past few years in which
one local inhabitant was killed and several houses were torched.

---
"POLIZIA KOSOVARA" RIMPIAZZA L'ONU ALL'AEREOPORTO

http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/30406

Associated Press - August 14, 2006

Kosovo police replace U.N. border forces

PRISTINA, Serbia - Police in Serbia's mainly
ethnic-Albanian Kosovo province on Monday replaced
U.N. civilian forces overseeing Pristina's airport.
The Kosovo police units also assumed control of the
province's borders with Albania, Macedonia and
Montenegro, Belgrade's Beta news agency reported.
Political analysts in Pristina saw the authority
transfer from the U.N. administration to the Kosovo
provincial police as recognition of high standards
under which the ethnic-Albanian-led law enforcement is
organized [sic], Beta said.
Formally, Kosovo is Serbia's province, but since 1999
it has been administered by a U.N. civilian mission.
NATO troops have been deployed to prevent ethnic
conflicts between the Serb minority of 100,000 and
ethnic-Albanians who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's
1.8 million population.
U.N.-led, Serb-ethnic Albanian talks, under way in
Austria since February, will decide who will govern
Kosovo once U.N. and NATO personnel leave.

---

DELEGAZIONE SERBO-KOSOVARA CRITICA LA SCELTA DI UN TEDESCO A GUIDARE
L'UNMIK

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/beta081506.htm

Serbian Kosovo negotiating team member criticizes new UNMIK chief

BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - August 15, 2006 Tuesday
Source: Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian 1848 gmt 14 Aug 06
Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation - Posted for Fair Use
only.
Text of report by Serbian news agency Beta

Belgrade, 14 August: Marko Jaksic, a member of the Belgrade
negotiating team for the status of Kosovo, today said that the Serbs
in Kosovo were not very happy to hear that German diplomat Joachim
Ruecker had been appointed new UNMIK [UN Interim Administration
Mission in Kosovo] chief.
"We can only hope that the situation and the attitude towards the
Serbs in Kosovo will not be as bleak as so far, but we know from
experience that UNMIK chiefs have been figureheads and that the most
important moves have been made from the shadow by their deputies, who
have always and regularly been Americans," Jaksic told the Beta news
agency.
Jaksic, who is chairman of the Community of Serb Municipalities in
Kosovo, accused Ruecker of being the "architect of the plundering
privatization" in Kosovo and "one of the people guilty of the fact
that Serbs in Kosovo do not have electricity."
"Having that in mind, we are afraid that Ruecker might even be worse
than Soren Jessen Petersen as far as the position of the Serb
community in Kosovo is concerned," Jaksic said.
The other members of the Belgrade negotiating team and
representatives of the Serbian government who were contacted by Beta
did not wish to comment on the appointment of Ruecker as UNMIK chief
and said that they would most likely do so tomorrow.
Representatives of Albanian political parties in Kosovo described
Ruecker as the "right man in the right place."
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan earlier today appointed Ruecker UNMIK
chief and informed the UN Security Council that Ruecker would take
over as of 1 September, 2006.
---

TADIC CONTRO LA CREAZIONE DI UN "ESERCITO KOSOVARO"

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n94329

Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - August 19, 2006

Forming Kosovo Army Would Endanger Regional Stability: Serbia’s
President

Belgrade - Serbia’s President Boris Tadic condemned
the statements of Kosovo Albanians leaders that Kosovo
will have its own army and warned the international
community that it would endanger the stability in the
region, as well as that it would present an
international precedent, RTS informs.
According to President Tadic the plans to form an army
in Kosovo are unacceptable and extremely dangerous
because Kosovo must be demilitarized and should have
its own police force according to international
standards.
Boris Tadic will once again informed of the problem
the UN Security Council member states, the Contact
Group member states (the UK, Germany, France, Italy,
Russia and the US), the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo
Marti Ahtisaari, the High Representative of the Common
Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, as well as
the NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

---

L'UNMIK INDAGA SU CELLULE JIHADISTE

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n94502

Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - August 22, 2006

UNMIK Police Investigating Possible Extremist Activity in Kosovo

Pristina - The police of the UN Mission in Kosovo
(UNMIK) started an investigation of a possible
activity of radical Islamists in the area of Urosevac,
Serbian news agency TANJUG informs.
The investigation was launched when after a search of
a house of Kosovo Albanian in the village of
Talinovac, near Urosevac, the police found a “certain
amount” of materials related to Al Qaeda activities, a
source of the international police force said.

---

LA RUSSIA CONTRARIA ALLA "INDIPENDENZA" KOSOVARA

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060823/53030820.html

Russian Information Agency (Novosti) - August 23, 2006

Kosovo independence could set risky precedent - dep. Russia FM

MOSCOW - Independence for Kosovo would set a dangerous
precedent for other "frozen" conflicts, a deputy
Russian foreign minister said in an interview with a
respected Russian daily Wednesday.
Russia has consistently taken the position that
sovereignty for Kosovo, which remains a province of
Serbia under a UN protectorate, could have negative
consequences for conflicts in the former Soviet Union
that erupted in the early 1990s.
"Should 'sovereignization' of the province [of Kosovo]
be imposed on Serbia, as [our] Western partners are
attempting to do, a clear precedent will be set in
international law that cannot but be projected onto
other frozen conflicts," Grigory Karasin told
Izvestia. "This applies not only to the post-Soviet
space, but also to other regions."
The deputy minister said that unlike the
disintegration of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia or
Czechoslovakia, Kosovo independence was being claimed
not by a republic as part of a federation but by an
autonomy as part of a federation constituent member.
"Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transdnestr have the
same status," he said, referring to two similar
conflicts in Georgia and one in Moldova.
He accused those who saw Kosovo as a "unique" case of
either forgetting or deliberately ignoring differences
in approaches to conflicts around the world.
The West has supported the Georgian government's
attempts to bring breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia
back under its control, as well as Moldova's efforts
to return unrecognized Transdenstr to Chisinau's fold.
"This approach erodes trust in the international
community, leading to chaos and instability in
international relations," Karasin told Izvestia.
"Needless to say, this is unacceptable to Russia,"
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned last month
against any double standards in regard to the
unrecognized republics in Georgia and Moldova.
Putin said there had always been contradictions in the
principles of international law.
"[Russia] wants and will insist on such decisions to
be based on a universal principle to prevent such
cases when approaches to the regions like Kosovo are
different from those to Abkhazia or South Ossetia,
which is incorrect," the president said during a Web
cast.

---

MONTGOMERY: "I COLLOQUI DI VIENNA SONO UNA FARSA"

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n94650

Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - August 24, 2006

Kosovo Talks Are Farce: Former US Ambassador to Belgrade

Belgrade - The talks for Kosovo’s future status that
are held in Vienna are a “farce directed by the
international community”.
This is what former US Ambassador to Belgrade William
Montgomery said cited by Serbian news agency TANJUG.
“We saw how even in public statements various Contact
Group representatives gave signals that the inevitable
result of this process would be an independent Kosovo.
"I am sure that Serbia’s Prime Minister Vojislav
Kostunica has already been informed of that directly
during a private conversation,” William Montgomery
added.

---



LA RUSSIA USERÀ IL KOSOVO COME "PRECEDENTE"



http://www.regnum.ru/english/693406.html

Regnum (Russia) - August 24, 2006

Grigory Karasin: It is naive to say that the Kosovo precedent is unique

“Territorial integrity does not rule out the
possibility of a multi-scenario resolution of the
status problem and does not imply that the will of a
nation can be ignored,” Russian Deputy Foreign
Minister Grigory Karasin says in an interview to
Izvestia daily, when asked if the Kosovo precedent can
be applied to Transdnestr, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Karasin says that in the Kosovo case, unlike the
collapse of the USSR and Yugoslavia and the division
of Czechoslovakia, [is a case of] claiming
independence by an autonomy within a republic of a
federation rather than a republic of federation
[federated republic].
“Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transdnestr have a
similar status. So, if the Western partners force
Serbia to acknowledge the sovereignty of this region,
they will create an obvious international legal
precedent, which cannot but be projected to other
frozen conflicts — and not only in the post-Soviet
area but also in other regions.
"Some people in the West are trying to convince us
that Kosovo is a unique case – a result of some unique
historical circumstances. It is naive to say that the
Kosovo case is unique, we can’t agree with this.
"Precedents come from reality and one can’t abolish
them just by persistently denying them. Can anybody
say to people in other autonomies that in this case we
give independence, but for you this can in no way be
an example?” wonders Karasin.
“Those speaking about the ‘uniqueness’ of the Kosovo
case either forget or deliberately neglect that, in
fact, the question is about inconsistency in
approaching different conflicts, in other words, about
‘double standards.’
"Such an approach undermines confidence in the
international community and leads to chaos and
selectivity in international relations. Of course, for
Russia this is unacceptable. That’s why our position
is that, even though each specific conflict is
peculiar, there should be some universal settlement
rules based on the generally accepted norms of the
international law,” says Karasin.



http://www.azi.md/news?ID=40668

Infotag (Moldova) - August 24, 2006

Russia Considers It Possible to Use Kosovo Precedent in FSU Republics

The Russian Federation considers as acceptable the
spreading of the Kosovo self-determination precedent
in the former Soviet Union area.
Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Grigory
Karasin stated in his interview with Russia's Izvestia
newspaper published today that in case of Kosovo's
sovereignization, being imposed on Serbia by Western
partners, an obvious international law precedent will
be created, which cannot help telling on other frozen
conflicts. [Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia,
Transdniester in the former Soviet Union]
Karasin stated Moscow shall never let down its
compatriots living outside Russia borders - no matter
if they find themselves in humanitarian hardships or
under a threat to their security.
"Nowadays, peacekeepers are guarantors of stability in
conflict regions and guarantors of security of the
people living there, no matter their nationality",
said the Deputy Minister.
....



http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/08/24/kosovo.shtml

MosNews (Russia) - August 24, 2006

Kosovo Independence Fraught With Risks — Russia

A Russian government minister says independence for
Serbia’s Kosovo province could set a risky precedent
for other contested regions.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said
if independence of Kosovo is granted from Serbia, “a
clear precedent will be set in international law that
cannot but be projected onto other frozen conflicts,”
the RIA Novosti news agency reported Wednesday.
“This applies not only to the post-Soviet space, but
also to other regions,” Karasin said in an interview
with Moscow’s Izvestia newspaper.
Karasin said that unlike the disintegration of the
Soviet Union, Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia, Kosovo
independence was being claimed not by a republic as
part of a federation but by an autonomy as part of a
federation.
Serbs, led by the Belgrade government, and ethnic
Albanians have been holding talks on who will govern
the predominantly Albanian Kosovo, once the UN
administration and NATO protection troops leave.
The Serbian government wants to retain Kosovo as its
province, while Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians insist on
independence from Belgrade.


http://www.geotimes.ge/index.php?m=home&newsid=1439

Prime News (Georgia) - August 24, 2006

Deputy Foreign Minister Of Russia Said That Kosovo
Case Is Exemplary For Abkhazia

Gregory Karasin, Deputy Foreign Minister Of Russia
said that the Kosovo case is an exemplary precedent
for Abkhazia.
Gregory Karasin, Deputy Foreign Minister Of Russia
said, “the international precedent concerning
sovereignty of Kosovo is very interesting, the
absolute majority of citizens of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia have Russian citizenship. We will not leave
our citizens without care, they can rely on Russia’s
support in the military, humanitarian or security
spheres.”
Gregory Karasin, Deputy Foreign Minister Of Russia
said, that concerning Georgia’s intention to leave the
Commonwealth of Independent States, Georgia is a
sovereign country and is eligible to make decisions
independently.


http://www.trend.az/?mod=shownews&news=26118&lang=en

Trend News Agency (Azerbaijan) - August 24, 2006

Kosovo independence could set risky precedent - dep. Russia FM

À. Mammadov

Independence for Kosovo would set a dangerous
precedent for other "frozen" conflicts, a deputy
Russian foreign minister said in an interview with a
respected Russian daily Wednesday.
Russia has consistently taken the position that
sovereignty for Kosovo, which remains a province of
Serbia under a UN protectorate, could have negative
consequences for conflicts in the former Soviet Union
that erupted in the early 1990s, reports Trend.
"Should 'sovereignization' of the province [of Kosovo]
be imposed on Serbia, as [our] Western partners are
attempting to do, a clear precedent will be set in
international law that cannot but be projected onto
other frozen conflicts," Grigory Karasin told
Izvestia. "This applies not only to the post-Soviet
space, but also to other regions."
The deputy minister said that unlike the
disintegration of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia or
Czechoslovakia, Kosovo independence was being claimed
not by a republic as part of a federation but by an
autonomy as part of a federation constituent member.
"Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transdnestr have the
same status," he said, referring to two similar
conflicts in Georgia and one in Moldova.
He accused those who saw Kosovo as a "unique" case of
either forgetting or deliberately ignoring differences
in approaches to conflicts around the world. The West
has supported the Georgian government's attempts to
bring breakaway South Ossetia
and Abkhazia back under its control, as well as
Moldova's efforts to return unrecognized Transdenstr
to Chisinau's fold.
"This approach erodes trust in the international
community, leading to chaos and instability in
international relations," Karasin told Izvestia.
"Needless to say, this is unacceptable to Russia."
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned last month
against any double standards in regard to the
unrecognized republics in Georgia and Moldova.
Putin said there had always been contradictions in the
principles of international law.
"Russia wants and will insist on such decisions to be
based on a universal principle to prevent such cases
when approaches to the regions like Kosovo are
different from those to Abkhazia or South Ossetia,
which is incorrect," the president said during a Web
cast.

Clash of Civilizations' Shortcut: The Balkan Mirror

(L'ideologia dello "scontro di civiltà" elaborata dai rozzi teorici
neocons statunitensi, dalla quale non sono immuni certi settori
nazionalisti, anticomunisti e filo-occidentali del campo serbo, è
entrata in corto circuito: come si può scatenare una "guerra contro i
fascisti islamici" in mezzo mondo se proprio al centro dell'Europa
fascisti islamisti veri e propri sono stati sostenuti e
ricompensati?...)

1. The Balkan Mirror; What it says about the Middle East

Michael Djordjevich: "America did not oppose Germany's drive for the
dismemberment of Yugoslavia and then sided with Islamists in Bosnia.
Secretary of State James Baker said 'we have no dog in this fight'
but in the end America was the top dog in the fight..."

2. Former Serb member of Presidency sees no hope for Bosnia's
survival as state

Nenad Kecmanovic: "the West and the East have been deluding each
other to a high degree. Neither side has ever truly believed in that
delusion, because under the table one side was holding Samuel
Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations", while the other had Alija
Izetbegovic's Islamic Declaration..."

3. The Yugoslav Caldron

Jürgen Elsässer: "The CIA recruited and trained the jihadists"


=== 1 ===

The Balkan Mirror; What it says about the Middle East

The Washington Times - August 15, 2006 Tuesday

By Michael Djordjevich, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Together with the Middle East, the border lands of southeast Europe
known as the Balkans have been a region of the world where seminal
events and trends in human history have taken place. It has been
called many names, including "the powder keg of Europe" or "the
graveyard of empires." The conflicts in the region have also been a
mirror of history.

Long before Samuel Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations," in the
period between the 14th and 19th centuries, the incessant ebb and
flow in the conflict between Islam and the West took place in the
Balkans. Early in the 20th century, Serbian gun shots in Sarajevo
ushered in World War I, Communism and Nazism. At the end of the
century, Bosnian Muslim fundamentalists fired gun shots in Sarajevo,
killing several Christian Serbs at a wedding party and began a bloody
war in Bosnia among Christian Serbs and Croats and Muslims. This war
may have well reflected in earnest the renewed clash of civilizations.

The Berlin Wall fell at the end of 1989. The Soviet Union imploded
and the end of Communism as a global force followed. Balkan countries
joined the trend. However, the pivotal and largest state, Yugoslavia,
rapidly descended into a bloody civil-religious war and dissolution.
This decade-long war at the end of 20th century mirrored a number of
important political, legal, religious and geopolitical precedents for
the post-Communist world. Of particular significance are those
involving America, the European Union and the United Nations.

At first, the United States favored the preservation of Yugoslavia,
or at least its peaceful and orderly dissolution. Changing this
position abruptly, America did not oppose Germany's drive for the
dismemberment of Yugoslavia and then sided with Islamists in Bosnia.
Secretary of State James Baker said "we have no dog in this fight"
but in the end America was the top dog in the fight.

The international community's engagement in the Balkans have so far
been a textbook illustration of the dangers of contradictory
policies, chronic indecisions, confusion and ignorance about
historical forces in play, double standards and flawed precedents.
America was not prepared for the peace and the role of the only
superpower in the world. Our leadership has failed in this task so far.

Apparently, not much has been learned from this experience. We could
replace the location, inserting Iraq instead of the Balkans, and the
aforementioned assessment would be similar today.

The Balkan mirror also shows the impotence and irrelevance of the
United Nations. Any country and any people would be foolhardy to
place their destiny in the hands of this inept institution. With
America's complicity, the United Nations did nothing when its embargo
on arms shipments was violated by Iran sending planeloads of arms to
Bosnian Muslims. Subsequently, when veteran jihadists came to the
country to fight Serbs, the West was also supportive.

The Serbian province of Kosovo has been ethnically cleansed from
Serbs, Roma and other non-Albanians while 150 churches and many
medieval monasteries have been destroyed during 10 years of U.N.
governance.

The mirror showed the duplicitous methods by which world media
influenced world opinion. With few exceptions, it has abused its
power and professional responsibility, failing to heed Ed Murrow's
admonition to examine all sides of a story and aim to elucidate, not
advocate. It did the latter and in general continues to advocate an
Islamic agenda in Bosnia and Kosovo.

The Balkan realities also show a great adaptability of Islamists to
present a worldly, democratic face. Readily accepted by the West,
Bosnian leader and fundamentalist Islamist Alija Izetbegovic was
tolerated and praised as a democrat. Nevertheless, in his book "The
Islamic Declaration" Izetbegovic asserted absolute validity of
dominance of Islam: "There can be neither peace nor coexistence
between Islamic religion and non-Islamic social and political
institutions," he wrote. Later in the war, Mr. Izetbegovic was
influenced and financially and militarily supported by fundamentalist
Islamists (including Osama bin Laden). Similarly, some Kosovo
leaders, previously called terrorists and thugs by U.S. special envoy
Robert Gelbard, are now afforded respect in the United Nations and
elsewhere.

The ugliest and most dangerous reflection in the mirror is that of
double-standards. As we are facing challenges and dangers of radical
Islam and terrorism worldwide, let's not dismiss the Balkan
experience. Our policies must contain moral dimensions. International
agreements, legal precedents and evenhanded treatment of warring
people were not followed in the Yugoslav tragedy. If we are to get
out of the Middle East quagmire we must change these policies.
Failing to realize that by endeavoring to resolve complex problems by
double standards, we more often than not double them in the end.

In addition, the Balkan Mirror has provided important and troubling
reflections upon Islam and the new world (dis)order.


Michael Djordjevich, an American of Serbian origin, founded and was
the first president of the Serbian Unity Congress.

Copyright 2006 News World Communications, Inc.
Posted for Fair Use only.

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/wt081506.htm


=== 2 ===

http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/gs072606.htm

Former Serb member of Presidency sees no hope for Bosnia's survival
as state

BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - July 26, 2006, Wednesday
Source: Glas Srpske, Banja Luka, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 25 Jul
06 p 2
Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation - Posted for Fair Use
only.

Text of commentary by Nenad Kecmanovic, prewar Serb member of Bosnian
Presidency, entitled "Last dictatorship in Europe" published by
Bosnian Serb newspaper Glas Srpske on 25 July


If the Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks [Bosnian Muslims] could not find a
way to live together before the war, if they fought one another for
three and a half years over it, and if a decade of peace has not been
enough for them to try to achieve a compromise without an
intermediary, this means that we can forget about Bosnia-Hercegovina
[B-H] as a state.

There is no democracy in the world that can keep people under the
same roof who do not want to be there. This can be achieved only by
force, whether you call it occupation, colonization or a protectorate.

Some Western analysts have already called the regime of the Office of
the High Representative in B-H "the last dictatorship in Europe" and
rightly so. All this has been seen before in Bosnia-Hercegovina. For
half a millennium Bosnia-Hercegovina has existed only as a "dungeon
for people". When it occasionally changed the guard in the course of
history, the Bosnians and Hercegovinians were at each other's throats
along religious and national lines, as they had been the previous time.

I repeat again: the West and the East have been deluding each other
to a high degree. Neither side has ever truly believed in that
delusion, because under the table one side was holding Samuel
Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations", while the other had Alija
Izetbegovic's Islamic Declaration. However, their mutual interests
forced them to keep up the game of mutual pretence and we know what
the result was like.

People often ask me: "Do you go to Sarajevo? Do you follow the
Sarajevo media? What reactions do you get from Sarajevo to your
political analyses?"

I almost regularly read their weeklies; I occasionally read their
dailies and I watch television. My public reactions are partly a
reaction to what I hear or read in their media.

The reactions to my reactions are malicious and without any depth,
because our neighbours are used to looking at themselves in a magic
fairytale mirror, while I remind them of some unpleasant truths.

The fact that neither Banja Luka nor Belgrade shows much interest in
the political scene in the other entity, where the joint institutions
are located, makes it sometimes look as if I am the only one who
spoils their fanciful picture of themselves.

Quite often I meet old acquaintances, colleagues and friends,
Bosnians in Sarajevo, but that is something completely different.
Despite certain disagreements and endless debate, they know what I
could have really said or written, what was taken out of context, and
what was suppressed or simply made up.

In any event, they know that I am not responsible for the problems
that Bosnia has got itself into nor do I have bad intentions towards
Bosniaks. On the contrary, I have lived my life in that environment
and those are the people with whom I lived for almost half a century.
Therefore, I cannot be indifferent, nor am I ignorant; my
professional interest is focused on researching politics.

Many things that I find out as an analyst do not make me happy as a
human being, so I would not mind if I turned out to be wrong.


=== 3 ===

http://signs-of-the-times.org/signs/editorials/
signs20060815_TheYugoslavCaldronJFCrgenElsE4sser22TheCIArecruitedandtrai
nedthejihadists22.php

http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=25794&s2=16

The Yugoslav Caldron: Jürgen Elsässer: "The CIA recruited and trained
the jihadists"

By Silvia Cattori

In his latest book, How the Jihad Came to Europe, German journalist
Jürgen Elsässer unravels the Jihadist thread. Muslim fighters
recruited by the CIA to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan were
used successively in Yugoslavia and Chechnya, still supported by the
CIA, but perhaps sometimes out of its control. Basing himself on
diverse sources, mainly Yugoslavian, Dutch, and German, he
reconstructed the development of Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants
at the side of NATO in Bosnia-Herzegovinia.

Silvia Cattori: Your investigation into the actions of the secret
services makes a frightening report. We discover that since the 80's
the United States has invested billions of dollars to finance
criminal activities and that by means of the CIA they are directly
implicated in the attacks attributed to the Moslems. What is the
contribution of your book?

Jurgen Elsässer: It is the only work that establishes the tie between
wars in the Balkan of the 90's and the attack of September 11, 2001.
All the large attacks, in New York, in London, in Madrid, would never
have taken place without the recruitment by the American and British
secret services of these jihadists who have been blamed for the
attacks. I bring a new light on the manipulations of the intelligence
agencies. Other books than mine have noted the presence of Ossama Ben
Laden in the Balkans. But their authors presented the Moslem fighters
in the Balkan as enemies of the west. The information that I
collected from multiple sources, demonstrate that these jihadists are
puppets in the hands of the west and are not, as one pretends, enemies.

Silvia Cattori: In the case of the war in the Balkan, the
manipulations of various States are clearly designated in your book.
The United States supported Ben Laden whose work was to form the
Mujahidines. How can anyone continue to ignore that these attempts
that horrify public opinion would never have existed if these
«terrorists» had not been driven and financed by the western
intelligence services?

Jürgen Elsässer: Yes, indeed, it is the result of facts that one can
observe. But one cannot say that the western intervention in ex -
Yugoslavia had for objective to prepare attack of September 11. To be
precise: these attacks are a consequence of western politics of the
90's because NATO put these jihadists in place in the Balkans and
collaborated with them. The Moslem militants who have been designated
the persons responsible for the attacks of September 11 were part of
this network.

Silvia Cattori: According to you, what was the interest of the United
States and Germany to set the people of the Balkans one against the
other?

Jürgen Elsässer: The west had a common interest to destroy
Yugoslavia, to dismember it, because, after the end of the soviet
bloc, it would have been a model of the intelligent combination of
capitalist and socialist elements. But the west wanted to impose the
neoliberal model on all countries.

Silvia Cattori: Is not Europe itself imprudently committed to a war
manipulated by the neoconservatives?

Jürgen Elsässer: It is difficult to say. I believe that in the 90's,
the politics of the United States was inspired by their victory
against Soviets in Afghanistan. It was the model that they wanted to
apply in Balkans. If, during those years, the economy of the United
States had not fallen into depression, maybe the more realistic
politicians, such as Kissinger, could have kept control of American
politics. I think that the coincidence between the economic
depression and the aggressiveness of the neoconservative school
determined what happened.

Silvia Cattori: Do you think that a leader like Blair, for example,
once embarked in the neoconservative project, has become a hostage to
a certain point?

Jürgen Elsässer: I don't know the position of Blair enough well. It
is easier to see what goes on in the United States. One can see that
Bush is the hostage of those around him. And, as he is not very
intelligent, he is not able to take decisions and must follow ideas
of his entourage. It is clear that his father was against the attack
on Iraq in 2003.

Silvia Cattori: Wasn't the first Gulf war part of a plan aiming to
trigger other wars thereafter?

Jürgen Elsässer: No, there was no tie with the war in Iraq in 1991.
There were two phases. Until the end of the Clinton period, the
politics of the United States were imperialistic, but at the same
time, pragmatic. They chased the Soviets out of Afghanistan. They
defeated Iraq in 1991. Their war stopped once Kuwait was free. Then
they attacked Bosnia and Yugoslavia; but it occurred stage by stage.
Everything went out of control after September 11.

Silvia Cattori: The neoconservatives don't count for anything?

Jürgen Elsässer: The neoconservatives, grouped around Pearl, had
written a document one year before September 11, according to which
America had need of a catalyzing event similar to the attack on Pearl
Harbor. September 11 was this catalyzing event. I believe that people
around Pearl wished for the attacks of September 11.

Silvia Cattori: What was the objective pursued by the United States
in attacking Serbia? Was it merely about, as is indicated in your
book, the US getting itself installed in a strategic region situated
on a transit line for the oil and the gas of central Asia? Or did the
alliance of the United States with the Moslem fighters directed by
Izetbegovic have a second objective: to create a Moslem extremism at
the doors of Europe in order to make use of it in the setting of
terrorist manipulations? And, if yes, towards what goal?

Jürgen Elsässer: The United States wanted, as did Austria at the end
of the 19th century in Bosnia, to create a "European" Islam to weaken
the Islamic states in the Middle East, meaning, at that time, the
Ottoman empire, and today, Iran and the Arab states. The
neoconservatives had other plans again: to construct a clandestine
network of "fundamentalist" puppets to do the dirty work against
"old" Europe.

Silvia Cattori: The result, a terrifying civil war. How could Europe
have participated in the destruction of Yugoslavia, which appeared as
an example of the perfectly successful cohabitation between ethnic
groups? By making the Serbians the guilty party, didn't Europe
destroy a country that was one of the major constructions of the
postwar era? On what legitimacy did Europe base its intervention?

Jürgen Elsässer: First, in the beginning of the 90's, Germany led the
attack based upon the principles of the self-determination of ethnic
groups: in other words, Hitler's old ruse against Czechoslovakia and
Poland in 1938/39. Then, the United States took the relay and praised
"human rights", an obvious swindle.

Silvia Cattori: In your investigation Israel is never mentioned. Have
you not minimized the importance of pro-Israeli neoconservatives
inside the Pentagon, who serve interests of Israel more that those of
the United States?

Jürgen Elsässer: There are Israelis who collaborated with the
neoconservatives; it is a fact. But I am not sure of the role played
by Israel in this business. Sharon was against NATO support for the
Albanians of Kosovo. And, in 1998, he expressed his worry over the
idea that NATO support the setting up of pro-Islamic elements in the
Balkan. I also believe that he was not favorable to this war the
following year.

Silvia Cattori: Don't you see ties between the Israeli secret
services and the attacks of September 11, 2001?

Jürgen Elsässer: There are ties, but I didn't analyze the character
of these ties. For example, immediately after September 11, a certain
number of Israeli agents were arrested in the United States. They
were present in places where the attacks were prepared. There are
analysts who say this is proof that Israel was directly implicated in
these attacks. But it could also mean something else. It could be
that these agents were watching what happened, that they were aware
that the American secret services supported these "terrorists" in the
preparation of these attacks, but that they kept their knowledge to
use it at the appropriate moment, and to be able to use it as
blackmail when the moment came: "If you don't increase your support
for Israel, we are going to hand over this information to the media".
There is even a third possibility: that these Israeli spies wanted to
warn about the attacks but failed. At the moment, we only know that
these types were there and that they were arrested. Supplementary
investigations are necessary.

Silvia Cattori: Do these ties put in evidence that the attacks of
September 11, 2001 were part of a plan conceived a long time before?

Jürgen Elsässer: I am not certain that a plan had been established
for a long time. It could be that people such as Richard Perle
improvise a lot and use criminal elements that they put in place but
that they don't permanently control. As, at the time of Kennedy's
murder, it is clear that the CIA was implicated, but one doesn't know
if it had been planned at the top, at Langley [the headquarters of
the CIA], or if it was conceived among the most violent Cuban exiles
working for the CIA, the headquarters of the CIA limiting themselves
to tolerating it.

Silvia Cattori: If tomorrow these characters grouped around Pearl
were removed, would that stop the anti-Muslim war strategy of the
United States and the manipulations that justify it?

Jürgen Elsässer: It stops when they lose a war.

Silvia Cattori: The war, didn't they lose it in Iraq?

Jürgen Elsässer: The war will only be lost when they leave the
country, as in Vietnam.

Silvia Cattori: These Moslems who, like Mohammed Atta, were just
ordinary citizens before being enlisted by the CIA, how could they be
driven to such terrifying actions, without knowing that they were
being manipulated by intelligence agents of the opposite camp?

Jürgen Elsässer: There are some youth that can be turned into
fanatics and manipulated very easily by intelligence services. High-
placed characters are not unaware of what happens and know by who
they are hired.

Silvia Cattori: Ben Laden, for example, did he know that he served
the interests of the United States?

Jürgen Elsässer: I didn't study his case. I studied the case of Al
Zawahiri, Ben Laden's right arm, who was the chief of operations in
the Balkans. In the beginning of the 90's, he traveled all through
the United States with an agent of the US Special Command to collect
money for the Jihad; this man knew that he participated in this
collection of money as an activity that was supported by the United
States.

Silvia Cattori: All of this is very troubling. You bring the proof
that that attacks that have occurred since 1996 (attacks in the
subway of Paris), would never have been possible if the war in the
Balkan had not taken place. And you impute these attacks, that left
thousands of victims, to western intelligence services. Has opinion
in West therefore been deceived by governments that have embarked on
terrorist actions?

Jürgen Elsässer: The terrorist network that the American and British
secret services formed during the civil war in Bosnia and later in
Kosovo provided a reservoir of militants that we find implicated
later in the attacks in New York, Madrid, London.

Silvia Cattori: How did this happen concretely?

Jürgen Elsässer: Once the war was finished in Afghanistan, Osama Ben
Laden recruited these jihadist militants. It was his work. It was he
that trained them, partially with the support of the CIA, and put
them in place in Bosnia. The Americans tolerated the connection
between the President Izetbegovic and Ben Laden. Two years later, in
1994, the Americans began to send weapons, in a common clandestine
operation with Iran. After the treaty of Dayton, in November 1995,
the CIA and the Pentagon recruited best of the jihadists that had
fought in Bosnia.

Silvia Cattori: How does it happen that these Moslems got into the
hands of services that served ideological interests opposed to theirs?

Jürgen Elsässer: I analyzed testimonies given by some jihadists
interrogated by the German judges. They said that after the treaty of
Dayton, which stipulated that all foreign ex-fighters had to leave
the country, they didn't have any more money and had nowhere to go.
As for those that could remain in Bosnia, because they had been
provided with Bosnian passports, they were without work and without
money. The day when the recruiters came and rang at their doors and
proposed to pay them 3000 dollars a month to serve in the Bosnian
army, they didn't know that they were recruited and paid by
emissaries of the CIA to serve the United States.

Silvia Cattori: After, when they were sent to prepare the attacks in
London in July 2005, for example, did they not become aware that they
were in the hands of western intelligence agents who manipulated them?

Jürgen Elsässer: It is not clear that it was really the young Moslems
from the suburbs of London that committed the attacks, as the police
claim. There are other indications according to which the bombs were
fixed under the trains. It is possible the bombs were attached under
the trains without these young men knowing about it. In that case it
is not sure that the young Moslems, incriminated by the
investigation, committed these attempts.

Silvia Cattori: It is hard to understand the goal that the western
States pursue when they engage their services in criminal manipulations?

Jürgen Elsässer: This is not easy to say. Remember Kennedy's murder.
Who did it? It is certain that it was people from the CIA that
supported the second killer, it is certain that Oswald was murdered
by a man who had been mandated by the CIA. What is not clear is if
these men recruited by the CIA acted on order of Johnson or Dulles,
or if they were link to the milieu of extremist Cuban exiles, which
means affiliated to the mafia. I don't believe that Bush or Blairs
are chiefs. I don't believe in the theory of the big conspiracy. I
believe that the secret services hire men who are ordered to carry
out the dirty business; these agents act as they want. Perhaps you
know that on September 11, 2001, someone tried to kill Bush. What
does it mean? It is difficult to explain.

Silvia Cattori: Do you mean that Bush is, for example, himself
hostage of the people who, inside the Pentagon, form a State within
the state, one that also escapes the command of the American army?

Jürgen Elsässer: Yes. Bush is stupid. He is only an instrument in
other people's hands.

Silvia Cattori: Are you thinking about people that are under the
direct influence of characters such as Pearl, Wolfowitz, Feith? Do
you think that it is they who, after the war of the Balkan, would
have been the real backers of these attacks and that these attacks
are not separate from each other, that there is a link between Madrid
and London? Does it mean that the Americans are ready to ally with
the devil to sow chaos everywhere under the pretext of this anti-
Muslim, anti - Arabic war waged under the banner of terrorism? A
fabricated terrorism?

Jürgen Elsässer: Yes, there is a duplicate government that escapes
Bush's control. It is the neoconservatives, such as Cheney, Rumsfeld,
Wolfowitz, Pearl, the people tied into the oil and the military
industries,. The global chaos is in the interest of the military
industry: when there is the chaos all over the world, one can sell
weapons and oil for a bigger price.

Silvia Cattori: Youssef Asckar described this State within in the
state very well, to which you give credit [1]. Isn't Israel the first
country interested by this strategy of chaos, therefore by the
manipulation of terrorist attacks? Doesn't the propaganda of the pro-
Israeli lobby have the tendency to make us believe that Israel is
threatened by Arabs fanatics?

Jürgen Elsässer: It is not certain that this strategy can serve the
interests of Israel because, if things continue this way, the whole
Middle East will be in flames, including Israel. They used the same
process during the war in Bosnia. In order to demonize the Serbs, the
western media invented stories of concentration camps and made photo
montages that compared the Serbs to the Nazis. This propaganda aimed
to win opinion over to the war against Serbia, but, with regard to
the United States, it was not nourished necessarily by the Jewish
lobby, but by the Christian and atheist strategists. These
strategists play the "Jewish" card. That is my thesis. One sees it
currently with the propaganda against Iran; strategists of the war
play the "Jewish" card to impress people that have more morals than
intelligence.

Silvia Cattori: The recent manipulations confirm, in part, your
thesis: at the same moment where the United States wanted the
Security Council to pass sanctions against Iran, a Canadian newspaper
wrote that Iran wanted to force Iranian Jews to wear the equivalent
of a yellow star [2]. But I refer to these openly pro-Israeli
personalities that, in France for example, play an important role in
the formation of opinion because they occupy some strategic positions
in the media, and whose community allegiance psuyhes them to support
the policies of Israel and the United States, even if it is criminal.
Remember the active support brought to Izetbegovic in Bosnia by
Bernard-Henri Lévy and Bernard Kouchner. As soon as Serbia was on the
knees, they immediately turned their propaganda against Arabs and
Moslems; this time it was to mobilize opinion in favor of the so-
called "war of civilizations". When they spoke of "concentration
camps" to associate the Serbs with Hitler, didn't they participate in
manipulations of NATO?

Jürgen Elsässer: We watched the same phenomenon in Germany. The
Jewish journalists that supported the war against Yugoslavia had
access to the televised studios. But the journalists that were
against, whether they were Jewish or not, were excluded from the
debate. I think that the media and politicians use the Jewish voices
for geostrategic stakes.

Silvia Cattori: So, as you see it, what happened in the Balkan was
only the repetition of what had happened in Afghanistan, what
followed was part of the same process. Do you think that our
authorities know risks of the wars provoked by their intelligence
agencies?

Jürgen Elsässer: My hope is that there is a reaction on behalf of the
military in the United States. There are among them people who know
very well that all these wars are not intelligent. They know that the
United States is going to lose this war. In the American army, they
are imperialistic but they are not crazy, they don't agree with what
is happening. But the neoconservatives are crazy, they want to wage
the Third World War against all Arabs and all Moslems, just like
Hitler who wanted to kill all Jews and to attack all other countries;
the German generals had warned Hitler of all that he risked.

Silvia Cattori: Is your hope that a change occurs unexpectedly?

Jürgen Elsässer: To stop this madness I see possibility of change
only among those forces that remained rational. The high command of
the American army wrote a letter to Bush to say that it doesn't want
to participate in an attack against Iran with nuclear weapons. Maybe
Bush will attack; but the consequences would be more serious than in
the case of Iraq. The same thing happened with the Nazis: they
attacked, they attacked, and one day there was Stalingrad and the
beginning of the defeat. But this adventure cost the lives of 60
million human beings.

Silvia Cattori: Is that what motivated your effort while writing this
book: to alert people's consciences in order to avoid new disasters
and new suffering? Moreover, that after Iraq it would be Iran's turn?

Jürgen Elsässer: Yes. But characters like Bush don't care about all
of that. I am not completely pessimistic on Iran: one could see a
repetition of the Paris, Berlin, Moscow axis. Our chancellor, who is
normally a puppet of the United States, offered strategic cooperation
with Russia, because Germany depends entirely on Russian oil and gas.
It is a strong argument. Germans are imperialists, but they are not
crazy.

Silvia Cattori: In the Balkans, was it not Germany that opened the
door to the war?

Jürgen Elsässer: Yes, it is true. But, today, you see that Joschka
Fischer and Madeleine Albright have sent an open letter to Bush to
tell him not to attack Iran. Mrs. Albright specified that one cannot
attack all the people that one doesn't like. It is rational.

Silvia Cattori: Were you able to collect these elements that
illustrate the actions of the intelligence agencies because, today,
people, worried of the evolution of international politics, are
beginning to speak?

Jürgen Elsässer: Yes. I depended a great deal on information from
people that work in the belly of "the beast".

Silvia Cattori: Everywhere in the world?

Jürgen Elsässer: I can only tell you that it is people from Western
Europe. It is people that haven't stopped using their heads.

Silvia Cattori: To obtain the proof of the manipulations
surroundeding the "Gulf of Tonkin Incident", the incident that
permitted the United States to unleash the war against the Vietnamese
people, it was necessary to wait a long time. Have things therefore
changed today, permitting a response in time?

Jürgen Elsässer: There is a big difference between the situation in
the 60's and the one today. In the Federal Republic of Germany, they
were, for example, at that time in favor of the war against
Communists in Vietnam. The official version that said our republic
was in danger of being attacked by Communists was shared by a big
part of public opinion. What has changed is that, today, the majority
of the population is against the war, without discussion.

Silvia Cattori: You rightly underline the extremist religious
character of Bosnia-Herzegovina under Izetbegovic, but, whereas you
doubt the support of Israel to this sort of draft of the emirate of
the Talibans, don't you overvalue the role of Iran and Saudi Arabia?
Richard Perle was the principal political advisor to Izetbegovic.
Didn't the Iranians and the Saudis raise the ante on the question of
Islam hoping to take the control of a Moslem regime that only took
its orders from Tel Aviv and Washington? In fact, was Izetbegovic not
an agent of Israel?

Jürgen Elsässer: The Mossad helped the Bosnian Serbians, they even
provided them weapons. There is nothing that indicates that the
Israeli government helped Izetbegovic. It was supported by Americans,
and Clinton depended upon the Zionist lobby in the United States, but
this lobby didn't have the support of the Israeli government during
the war of Bosnia.

Silvia Cattori: With regard to some of your sources, can one grant
credit to the assertions of Yossef Bodanski, director of the Working
Group on Terrorism and Non-Conventional war close to the American
Senate?

Jürgen Elsässer: I don't trust anybody. They claim that Bodansky has
ties with sources in Mossad and it renders a number of his findings
suspect. On the other hand, he brings to our knowledge a lot of
interesting facts that contradict the official propaganda. In my book
I show the contradictions within the dominant elites of the United
States, and, in this respect, Bodansky, is very interesting.

Silvia Cattori: It says in your book: "Terrorism exists in Kosovo and
Macedonia, but in its majority it is not controled by Ben Laden but
by US intelligence". Do you doubt the existence of Al Qaeda?

Jürgen Elsässer: Yes, as I wrote it in my book, it is propaganda
manufactured by the west.

Silvia Cattori: One has a bit the impression that, to go to the end
of its logic, your investigation is not finished. Certainly,
Yugoslavia was a laboratory for the manufacture of the Islamic
networks, and your book shows well that these networks serve the
interests of the United States. However, you seem to believe in the
existence of international Islamic networks who would have a popular
base in the Moslem world, whereas at the same time your research
demonstrates that these networks are only mercenaries of the United
States and that they have never done anything for the Moslems?

Jürgen Elsässer: Look at the example of Hamas: in the beginning of
the 80's, it was fomented by Mossad to counter the influence of the
PLO. But thereafter, Hamas developed its own popular base and, now,
it is part of the resistance. But I bet that there are still foreign
agents inside Hamas.

Silvia Cattori: You mentioned that the inspectors of the United
Nations are infiltrated by spies from the United States. Could we
have some precisions?

Jürgen Elsässer: Some blue helmets of the UNPROFOR in Bosnia
transported weapons to destinations of the Mujahidines.

Silvia Cattori: When Peter Handke affirms that Serbs are not the only
guilty party, that they are victims of the war of the Balkans, one
banish it. Who is right in this business?

Jürgen Elsässer: On all sides - Serbs, Croatians, Moslems - the
ordinary people have all lost. Moslems won the war in Bosnia with the
help of Ben Laden and Clinton but, now, their country is occupied by
NATO. They have less independence today than at the time of Yugoslavia.

Silvia Cattori: How does your research relate to that of Andreas Von
Bülow and Thierry Meyssan?

Jurgen Elsässer: We share the same opinion on the events of September
11, 2001: we think that the official version is not true. All this
combined research is very useful to be able to continue to deepen the
reality of the facts. My specialty is to have made the link between
wars of the Balkans and September 11, while Thierry Meyssan analyzed
the attack on the Pentagon to demonstrate that it was due to a
missile and not to a plane, and Von Bülow arrived at the conclusion
that planes were guided by a beacon.

Silvia Cattori: To having put into question the official truth,
Thierry Meyssan was discredited and blocked by the media. Are you
going to escape that?

Jürgen Elsässer: There is also a blockage against my book. It is not
possible for one author alone to break this blockage. However, it
can't prevent our theses from making their path. The public is not in
agreement with what the media says: in spite of their blockage 35 to
40% of people don't believe what media tells them. There is the
example of Kennedy's assassination: today, 90% of people don't
believe in the official version and think that Kennedy's murder was
an action of the CIA.

Silvia Cattori: Isn't it dangerous to uncover the manipulations of
States that use their intelligence services in criminal ways?

Jürgen Elsässer: I believe that the danger only comes when one sells
more than 100 000 books. In Germany, in eleven months, my book has
only sold 6 000 copies.

Silvia Cattori
Swiss Journalist.

Comment le Djihad est arrivé en Europe by Jürgen Elsässer, preface by
Jean-Pierre Chevènement. Éditions Xenia (Suisse), 304 pages, 19 euros.

[1] Read "La 'guerre contre le terrorisme' est une guerre contre les
peoples" by Youssef Aschkar, Voltaire, 16 mars 2006.

[2] "Iran : les gouvernements anglo-saxons fabriquent de fausses
nouvelles », Voltaire, 24 mai 2006.

---

Jürgen Elsässer

Wie der Dschihad nach Europa kam:
Gotteskrieger und Geheimdienste auf dem Balkan

NP-Verlag, 240 Seiten, 19.90 €

https://www.cnj.it/INIZIATIVE/roma290305.htm

---

Jürgen Elsässer

Comment le Djihad est arrivé en Europe

préface de Jean-Pierre Chevènement

Éditions Xenia (Suisse) 2006, 304 pages, 19 euros
ISBN 2-88892-004-2

http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/ASIN/2888920042/qid=1149522318/
sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/403-4260395-4442061
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/4992
http://www.voltairenet.org/article139861.html
http://www.oulala.net/Portail/article.php3?id_article=2474
http://www.legrandsoir.info/article.php3?id_article=3788
Balkans Info N.112
http://www.editions-xenia.com/php2/xedox/article_elsaesser_agefi.pdf
Jean-Pierre Chevenement sur "Horizons et debats"
Introduction de Jean-Pierre Chevenement sur "Observatoire du
communautarisme"
http://www.horizons-et-debats.ch/36/36_22.htm
http://www.anis-online.de/1/orient-online/elsaesser.htm

CONVERTITO SULLA VIA DI DAMASCO?

D. Anche il Libano ha comunque perso.

R. «Ha subito enormi distruzioni. Ma è stato invaso sei volte e una
certa esperienza di ricostruzione ce l'ha».

D. Chi ha vinto allora?

R. «Come spesso accade in guerra hanno perso tutti. Si vince quando
si esce dal conflitto...».

Così parlò Massimo D'Alema, responsabile per l'Italia della guerra di
aggressione contro la Repubblica Federale di Jugoslavia nella
primavera 1999.
Intervistato su L' Espresso, 18 agosto 2006 (tratto da www.esteri.it
via http://www.studiperlapace.it/view_news_html?news_id=20060812135005 )

(english / italiano)

<< ALBANIA NATURALE >> PARTE PRIMA: SPAZIO VITALE



Koco Danaj, consigliere del primo ministro albanese Sali Berisha, ha
dichiarato ieri al quotidiano Epoka e Re che entro il 2013 tutti gli
albanesi della regione saranno riuniti in un unico Stato. Questa
Grande Albania, che Danaj definisce "naturale" al contrario degli
attuali Stati di Serbia, Macedonia e Montenegro che Danaj definisce
"non naturali", dovrà dunque comprendere pezzi di Macedonia e
Montenegro oltrechè tutto il Kosovo. Ricordiamo però che anche
l'Epiro settentrionale ("Camerija"), ora appartenente alla Grecia, è
rivendicato dagli irredentisti pan-albanesi.

Le dichiarazioni di Danaj seguono di pochi mesi quelle del Ministro
degli esteri Mustafaj (vedi JUGOINFO 17/3/2006 - http://
it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/4821 ) secondo cui
la secessione del Kosovo - data per scontata a causa
dell'atteggiamento neo-nazista di NATO ed UE in materia - causerà
immediatamente la messa in discussione dei confini della Repubblica
di Albania.



http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?
cat=Politics&loid=8.0.332806468&par=0

ADN Kronos International (Italy)
August 22, 2006

BALKANS: OFFICIAL CALLS FOR A 'NATURAL ALBANIA'


Tirana - Albanians living in the Balkan region should
unite and be integrated into a "natural Albania" by
2013, a senior Albanian official said on Tuesday.

Neighbouring Macedonia, with a 25 percent Albanian
population, is likely to be partitioned first, if its
authorities fail to honour the five-year-old Ohrid
peace agreement - which gave Albanians more autonomy
and increased their political representation - Koco
Danaj, political adviser to Albania's prime minister,
Sali Berisha, told Pristina-based Albanian language
daily Epoka e Re.

“In politics it’s easier to face the painful truth,
than the painful lies,” said Danaj. “Therefore, I
emphasise again that disrespect of the Ohrid agreement
would mean partitioning of Macedonia,” he added.

Danaj said the greatest threat to the Ohrid agreement
- which in 2001 ended ethnic Albanian rebellion in
Macedonia - to power of the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE,
the Macedonian political party that won the 5 July
general election.

VMRO-DPMNE leader, Nikola Gruevski is expected this
week to form a coalition government with the
Democratic Party of Albanians, triggering protests
from the biggest ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic
Union for Integration [KLA's/NLA's Ali Ahmeti], which
also wants to participate in the government.

With Serbia’s southern Kosovo province seeming to be
moving towards independence, Danaj said that ethnic
Albanians in Macedonia and Montenegro should also have
the right to choose with whom to live.

Instead of having Albanians participate in those
countries' governments, it would be more natural that
they had one government in the Albanian capital,
Tirana, Danaj said.

After Montenegro, with a population of 620,000, voted
for independence and separation from Serbia at a
referendum on 21 May, 500,000 ethnic Albanians in
Macedonia should have the same right, Danaj said.

Neither Serbia, nor Macedonia and Montenegro were
"natural creations," Danaj pointed out.

Giving apparent credence to the fears of Serb and
other Slav politicians in the Balkan countries that
the creation of a Greater Albania is the main threat
to the region, Danaj said all Albanians will be united
“in natural Albania” by 2013.

(Source: Rick Rozoff via stopnato @yahoogroups.com)

<< ALBANIA NATURALE >> PARTE SECONDA: TUTTO IN SVENDITA


ALBANIA: GOVERNO, TUTTO A 1 EURO PER GLI INVESTITORI
(ANSA) - TIRANA, 16 AGO - ''L'Albania a 1 Euro''; e' questo lo slogan
col quale il governo albanese del premier Sali Berisha ha battezzato
la sua iniziativa per incentivare gli investimenti, sopratutto quelli
esteri. ''Ci siamo posti come obiettivo di fare dell'Albania il paese
piu' attraente per gli imprenditori e per farlo dobbiamo attuare
pratiche differenti dagli altri paesi, cioe' offrire un'Albania senza
costi'', ha dichiarato oggi il premier nel corso della riunione del
governo invitando tutte le istituzioni a presentare a proposito, idee
concrete ed in tempi brevi. In un anno di governo la destra al potere
ha intrapreso una serie di interventi fiscali che tendono ad
abbassare i costi per l'imprenditoria, tanto da essere qualificato al
primo posto in tutta l'Europa centrale e quella di sud-est, per il
livello della riduzione delle tasse e delle imposte. ''L'incremento
degli investimenti sara' la nostra sfida'' ha ribadito Berisha
offrendo alcuni dettagli sulla sua nuova iniziativa: ''Offriremo ad 1
Euro i terreni, la qualifica per gli operai, il rifornimento con
l'acqua alle industrie, di 1 Euro sara' la tariffa per la
registrazione delle attivita' commerciali ed anche la tassa per
l'entrata in Albania degli stranieri'', ha spiegato il premier
precisando che tanto, sara' il costo anche per molti altri servizi.
Per il governo albanese questa strategia fara' crescere l'economia
del paese, abbassera' il tasso di disoccupazione, e spingera' gli
albanesi a ''non abbandonare il proprio paese per lavorare invece
all'estero e costruire strade, edifici ed industrie degli altri'', ha
detto Berisha. L'Albania e' il paese con il minor flusso di
investimenti esteri diretti che negli ultimi anni hanno appena
sorpassato la sogli dei 300 milioni di dollari annui. (ANSA) COR
16/08/2006 16:57

(english / francais)

Due campagne per sanzionare Israele per i crimini di guerra commessi

1. From Ramsey Clark: Join me in the Campaign for Accountability for
U.S./Israeli War Crimes

2. Les crimes de guerre commis au Liban doivent être jugés par la
Cour pénale internationale !


=== 1 ===


August 20, 2006

From Ramsey Clark:

Join me in the Campaign for Accountability for U.S./Israeli War Crimes

Dear Friends,

On August 30, 2006 the International Action Center will launch a
major campaign to require accountability by the United States and
Israel for their wars of aggression and assaults on the equal
sovereignty of nations, which are crimes against peace, and their war
crimes which include excessive force, indiscriminate bombing,
targeting civilians and civilian facilities and collective
punishments of entire populations.

Reparations are required for more than a thousands deaths, many
thousands of injures and an estimated $10 billion for destruction of
civilian facilities in Lebanon in one month alone; and thousands of
deaths and injuries in Palestine since the Oslo Accords, the
systematic destruction of the government of Palestine, the
kidnapping of half the cabinet and the speaker of the Palestinian
Parliament, the assassination of leaders and indiscriminate killing
of others, and the destruction of the offices of President Arafat,
the Foreign Ministry and civilian facilities throughout Gaza and the
West Bank.

If the present ceasefire does not hold, bolder action must be taken.
There must be absolute assurance from the U.S. and Israel that they
will honor the equal sovereignty of Lebanon, Syria, and Iran and
recognize and honor the sovereignty of the State of Palestine,
cruelly delayed for 58 years.

Individuals in the U.S. and Israeli governments must be held
accountable by prosecution for their criminal acts, and responsible
leaders must be removed from office by impeachment in the U.S. and
appropriate legal action in Israel.

The new tragedy of Lebanon has brought death to hundreds of
civilians, children, women and men. Hundreds of thousands,
approaching one-fourth the population of four million, are fugitives
from their homes within and outside of their country. Destruction of
the infrastructure will require decades to rebuild, if and when peace
comes. Rage at Israel and the U.S. dominate all other emotions in
Lebanon and throughout the Muslim world. New anger is spreading over
every continent.

If the capture of two soldiers, or one in the case of Palestine,
justifies assaults against whole nations and peoples, as Israel has
done, then there is no law, no alternative to war, no hope for peace.
Only a person with a memory no longer than three weeks could believe
the capture of three Israeli soldiers began the present violence. Was
not cross-border violence between Israel and Lebanon commonplace for
decades? Had not Israel kidnapped half the Palestinian cabinet,
destroyed its Foreign Ministry offices and other government buildings
and engaged in summary executions throughout Palestine, the West Bank
and Gaza, since the elections this year of the Hamas majority in the
Palestinian parliament? Was there not a continuum of assaults at will
against the Palestinian people over decades?

We must ask whether the forced withdrawal of Syrian peacekeepers from
Lebanon earlier this year by the U.S., and Israeli political pressure
after the murder of former Lebanon Prime Minister Hariri, were the
preludes of a plan for Israel to assault Lebanon and reoccupy
territories up to the Litani river in Southern Lebanon. While Syrian
forces were present in Lebanon, such an assault did not occur.

And we must ask whether the fierce assault on Lebanon and Palestine
are the prelude to broader actions against Syria and Iran. President
Bush has made it abundantly clear that he would like nothing better
than regime change in Iran and Syria and has attempted to lay
responsibility for violence in Lebanon and Palestine at their door.

As Iraq descends into uncontrollable sectarian war, President Bush
needs new threats to distract the attention of people in the U.S.
from what his Shock and Awe policy has brought for Iraq, for us, and
for the world. War in Lebanon helps divert attention temporarily and
may serve to widen the conflict to include Syria and/or Iran. If not,
there are always Cuba, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Venezuela and
others to act against.

As with Iraq, in Lebanon we have seen a war of aggression, the
supreme international crime; an attack on the equal sovereignty of
Lebanon, violating the First Principle of the United Nations Charter;
excessive force of a major magnitude, with Israeli planes striking a
nation defenseless against aerial assaults; indiscriminate bombing;
targeting of civilians; and collective punishment, in which everyone
in Lebanon suffers.

The future of Palestine remains the central issue for peace in the
Middle East. That future is more endangered than at any time since
the Oslo Accords. Everyone in Palestine suffers from the violence
unleashed on its people by Israel’s renewed Roadmap to War.

President George Bush supports every act of Israel, every strike
against Lebanon and Palestine, alone among international heads of
government. And Condoleezza Rice congratulates the Prime Minister of
Lebanon for his courage while telling him there must be further
destruction of his nation and government--an insult to every human
being who cares about peace and understands that the world cannot be
made safe for hypocrisy.

By permitting President Bush to pursue his policy of domination
through threat and lawless force, we risk ever widening international
violence.

I hope to see you at the UN Church Center on August 30th . This
historic meeting will be the first in a series of national and
international mass public gatherings in a Campaign for Accountability
for U.S./Israeli war crimes in Palestine and Lebanon. We need your
support, participation, and donations.

I hope that you will lend a hand to this campaign as best you can. We
must persevere until peace prevails.

Sincerely,
Ramsey Clark

P.S. By making a donation, you will support the August 30th event
and the ongoing work of the Campaign of Accountability, including
videos and podcasts, international dissemination of testimony given
at that event and other information giving the truth about U.S./
Israeli war crimes.

How you can help:
Donate - http://www.iacenter.org/acctabilitydonate.shtml
Download Fliers and help get the word out - http://iacenter.org/
images/aug302006.pdf
Endorse - http://www.peoplejudgebush.org/acctabilityendorse.shtml


### AUGUST 30 - Wednesday 6 - 9 pm
United Nations Church Center
777 UN Plaza - 44th St. & 1st Ave, NYC ###


=== 2 ===


http://www.protection-palestine.org/article.php3?id_article=3406

Israël doit être jugé !

publié le samedi 26 août 2006.

Les crimes de guerre commis au Liban doivent être jugés par la Cour
pénale internationale ! Appel lancé par Jean-Claude Lefort (député
français) pour rassembler toutes les individualités et sensibilités
respectueuses des droits humains afin de saisir la Cour pénale
internationale. Nos signatures valent plaintes ...

Communiqué de presse, 16 août 2006

Les crimes de guerre commis au Liban doivent être jugés par la Cour
pénale internationale ! Citoyennes et Citoyens du monde, attachés aux
valeurs universelles qui fondent la civilisation et au respect absolu
de la Charte de Nations unies ainsi qu’à d’autres Conventions
internationales qui énoncent les principes majeurs qui doivent
impérativement être respectés par tous les Etats de la planète sous
peine d’un recul tragique des droits humains, nous exprimons notre
vive condamnation contre les crimes perpétués par l’armée israélienne
à Cana, qui ont entraîné la mort volontaire de dizaines de civils
libanais, en particulier d’enfants et de bébés. Ces crimes,
qualifiables de « crimes de guerre », ne peuvent et ne doivent pas
rester impunis pas plus que d’autres qui se révéleraient. Il en va du
respect de la justice humaine sur cette planète et de l’avenir des
relations internationales.

Citoyennes et Citoyens du monde, nous considérons comme un devoir et
un droit imprescriptibles de traduire les responsables de ces crimes,
en particulier le Premier ministre israélien, M. Ehud Olmert, devant
la Cour pénale internationale absolument qualifiée pour en juger. La
Cour pénale internationale peut être saisie de diverses manières et
non pas seulement sur décision du Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU. En
particulier, le Procureur de la Cour pénale internationale peut en
décider sur la base et au vu des plaintes déposées qui lui sont
transmises.

Estimant que les autres voies de saisine de la Cour pénale
internationale se révèlent actuellement bouchées du fait d’un blocage
prévisible de la part de certaines grandes puissances et de
l’impossibilité pour le Liban de la faire actuellement, alors qu’il
n’est pas partie du traité instituant cette Cour, nous décidons de
prendre fermement le relais des défaillances des institutions
actuelles et de rassembler, au niveau mondial, toutes celles et tous
ceux qui ont à cœur et veulent défendre la justice et le droit mais
aussi porter un coup d’arrêt aux politiques de force aveugle et
brutale en les sanctionnant.

Cet « Appel de Paris » est lancé à travers le monde. Il se veut
rassembleur de toutes les individualités et sensibilités
respectueuses des droits humains et décidées à apporter leur
contribution à leur pleine réalisation sur terre. Pour que l’avenir
ne répète à l’infini pas ce triste et insupportable passé, qui s’est
déroulé à Cana mais aussi à Gaza, la Cour pénale internationale doit
être saisie et doit juger.

Nos signatures valent plaintes. Elles seront déposées et transmises
au Procureur de la Cour dès que leur nombre sera significatif pour
que notre démarche citoyenne soit efficace.

Il y a urgence. Sans attendre nous décidons de former une chaîne
humaine sur les cinq continents pour exiger justice et réparation.
Justice et droit pour le Proche-Orient !


P. S : cet Appel sera traduit en 10 langues. Il est suggéré de le
reproduire et de le faire circuler le plus largement possible sous
forme papier ou électronique. Les signatures, avec les noms, prénoms,
coordonnées, titres de chaque signataire et le pays d’origine de
chacune et chacun sont nécessaires.

Elles doivent être rassemblées à l’adresse électronique suivante
solidariteliban@...

Un site Internet global sera ouvert et porté à la connaissance de
tous. Des sites nationaux peuvent aussi voir le jour. Chacun
s’organisera comme il souhaitera. Un maximum d’initiatives
individuelles ou collectives s’impose pour aboutir.

Jean Claude Lefort (Député français)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=72&ItemID=10731

ZMAG (USA)

Ethnic Cleansing: Constructive, Benign, and Nefarious
(Kafka Era Studies, No. 1)

by Edward S. Herman; August 09, 2006



Some years ago Noam Chomsky and I found it useful to distinguish
between three categories of terrorism--constructive, benign and
nefarious--the classification based strictly on the utility of the
terrorism to U.S. interests as perceived by the ruling political
elite [1]

Thus, when terrorism is seen by U.S. officials as highly advantageous
to U.S. interests, it is treated by those officials, and hence by the
media, as a positive development and hence "constructive." This was
the case with the vast massacres by Suharto and colleagues in
Indonesia in 1965-1966, that wiped out the base of a communist party
and cleared the ground for an open door to foreign investment and a
realignment of Indonesian foreign policy in favor of the West. In
this instance not only was there no moral indignation expressed at
the mass murder of many hundreds of thousands of civilians, it was
treated as a "dividend" from our policy of military aid to the
Indonesian army (Robert McNamara), and a "a gleam of light" in Asia
(James Reston). [2]

When the terrorism is not especially helpful to U.S. interests but is
carried out by an ally or client that U.S. officials want to placate
or protect, the killing of large numbers of civilians is treated as
of little interest and no evident moral concern-it is "benign"--as in
the case of Indonesia's invasion-occupation of East Timor in 1975 and
after, which resulted in the death of a third of the East Timorese
population, but which was aided and diplomatically protected by the
U. S. government, based on the perceived merits of the Suharto
dictatorship and kleptocracy. [3]

On the other hand, a terrorism carried out by a communist or any
other designated enemy state is given great attention, arouses great
moral fervor, and is treated as "nefarious." This was the case with
the killings by Pol Pot in Cambodia, the NLF in Vietnam, and Saddam
Hussein in Iraq--except during the period in the 1980s when Saddam
was serving U.S. interests by killing Iranians. This classification
system was and remains useful, and is notable in its successful
tracking not only official designations but media treatment as well.
For the first two kinds of terrorism, the media are reliably very
quiet, with little coverage, antiseptic and sometimes apologetic
treatment of murderous behavior where it is mentioned at all, [4] and
with no indignation. With nefarious terror, on the other hand,
coverage is intense, detailed, includes many personal stories of
suffering, and elicits great indignation. [5]

Over the past two decades, during which ethnic cleansing has
frequently been featured by Western officials, pundits and human
rights activists, a closely parallel system of official treatment and
media follow-on is also evident. As with terrorism, in the official
view ethnic cleansing can be constructive, benign, or nefarious, and
the media recognize this and adjust with almost clockwork precision
to the demands of state policy in treating its different manifestations.


Constructive Ethnic Cleansing: Croatia and the Krajina Serbs

As a model instance of constructive ethnic cleansing, we may take the
case of the Croat ethnic cleansing of Serbs from the Krajina region
of Croatia in August 1995. Long before that date the Clinton
administration had aligned itself with the Croats and Bosnian Muslims
in the externally stoked civil war that engulfed the region from 1991
onward: it had supported sanctions on the Serbs alone, sponsored and
used the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
(ICTY) as an anti-Serb political-PR-judicial instrument, [6]
encouraged the Bosnian Muslims to withdraw from the Lisbon agreement
in March 1992--an agreement that would have settled the conflict and
prevented the further large-scale blood-letting--helped organize an
alliance between the Muslims and Croats to help them better fight the
Serbs, and supported the import of arms and mujahadeen to help the
Muslims fight and kill more effectively, among other matters.

To further weaken the bargaining position of the Serbs, the Clinton
administration actively supported the Croatian army's attacks on the
Serb communities in Croatia in Operation Flash in May 1995 and then
in the massive ethnic cleansing of Krajina Serbs in Operation Storm
in August 1995. Richard Holbrooke visited Zagreb two days before the
beginning of Operation Storm, and clearly did not exercise any
restraining influence on the imminent cleansing operation. Active
U.S. support came in the form of military aid, the provision of
military "advisers" closely affiliated with the U.S. armed forces,
direct participation in the military operations via intelligence
provision and even selective bombing missions, and a refusal to
cooperate with the ICTY in providing information on possible war
crimes committed by the Croatian armed forces. [7]

Another form of U.S. support was an intense and indignant focus on
the Srebrenica massacre, [8] which took place during the month before
Operation Storm and helped justify and distract attention from the
Croatian ethnic cleansing and massacre. Operation Storm involved the
removal of some 200,000 to 250,000 Krajina Serbs, in contrast with
perhaps one-tenth that number of Bosnian Muslims removed from
Srebrenica. [9] Operation Storm may also have involved the killing of
more Serb civilians than Bosnian Muslim civilians killed in the
Srebrenica area in July: virtually all of the Bosnian Muslim victims
were fighters, not civilians, as the Bosnian Serbs bused the
Srebrenica women and children to safety. The Croats made no such
provision and hundreds of women, children and old people were
slaughtered in Krajina. [10] The ruthlessness of the Croats was
impressive: Tim Ripley notes that "UN troops watched horrified as
Croat soldiers dragged the bodies of dead Serbs along the road
outside the UN compound and then pumped them full of rounds from the
AK-47s. They then crushed the bullet-ridden bodies under the tracks
of a tank." [11]

Media treatment of the Srebrenica and Krajina cases followed the
familiar pattern of fixing victim worthiness and unworthiness in
accord with a political agenda. With the Serbs their government's
target, and their government actively aiding the massive Croat ethnic
cleansing program in Krajina, the media gave huge and indignant
treatment to the first, with invidious language, calls for action,
and little context. On the other hand, with Krajina, attention was
slight and passing, detailed reporting on the condition of the
victims was minimal, descriptive language was neutral, indignation
was absent, and the slight context offered made the cleansing and
killings acceptable.

The contrast in language is notable: the attack on Srebrenica
"chilling," "murderous," "savagery," "cold-blooded killing,"
"genocidal," "aggression," and of course "ethnic cleansing." With
Krajina, the media used no such strong language-even ethnic cleansing
was too much for them, even though this was an obvious, carefully
planned, and major case. The Croat assault was merely a big
"upheaval" that is "softening up the enemy," "a lightning offensive,"
explained away as a "response to Srebrenica" and a result of Serb
leaders "overplaying their hand." The Washington Post even cited U.S.
Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith saying the "the Serb exodus was
not 'ethnic cleansing'." [12] The paper did not allow a challenge to
that judgment. In fact, however, the Croat operations in Krajina left
Croatia the most ethnically purified of all the former components of
the former Yugoslavia, although the NATO occupation of Kosovo allowed
an Albanian ethnic cleansing of Serbs, Roma and others that rivalled
that of Croatia in ethnic purification. [13]

Although in recent years there has been a trickle of expelled Serbs
returning to Croatian Krajina, in neither the Krajina nor Kosovo
cases has there been any effort by the NATO powers to organize the
return of the ethnically-cleansed Serbs to their homes from which
they were removed by force. Civilian victims associated with a
Western target are unworthy. Based on no substantive differences
whatever, their killers and ethnic cleansers are allowed to be
retaliating and taking revenge, rather than pursuing ethnic cleansing
for more sinister motives (racial hatred, land hunger), and these
unworthy victims have no right of return.

In the case of Kosovo, the UN is actually planning for 40,000
additional Serb refugees in case of an expected granting of full
independence to Kosovo and Kosovo Albanian control. [14] Thus, not
only are unworthy victims not treated with sympathy or allowed any
right of return, the international community will even plan to
collaborate in a further round of ethnic cleansing by a Western ally
or client, and the media won't complain or even notice.


Benign Ethnic Cleansing: Israel's Removal of the Palestinians to
"Redeem the Land"

As an illustration of benign ethnic cleansing, the case of Israel's
long-term expropriation and removal of Palestinians in Israel proper,
on the West Bank, in East Jerusalem, and Gaza is clear and very
important, morally and politically. It is "benign," because the
United States does not benefit from this process, which has a
negative feedback effect on Arab and many other peoples' view of the
United States; this is a case of the tail wagging the dog, with the
dog injuring itself as it spins around in service to its tail.

Its importance rests on several other considerations: This has been a
very obvious--even model--case of ethnic cleansing, in which one
ethnic group has used its military power and aid from the West
(mainly the United States) to evict another ethnic group that stands
in its way. This fundamental fact has been acknowledged by a long
line of Israeli officials and intellectual defenders of Israel, who
have admitted, sometimes regretfully, that to "redeem the land"
occupied by Palestinians in favor of the "chosen people" would
require systematic expropriation and associated killing and forced
transfer.

Back in 1948, David Ben-Gurion was clear that "We must use terror,
assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of
all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population." Fifty
years later, in 1998, Ariel Sharon made the same point about the
centrality of ethnic cleansing in Israeli policy: "It is the duty of
Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and
courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with
time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonization
or Jewish state without the eviction of the Arabs and the
expropriation of their lands." On May 24, 2006, Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert told a joint session of congress that "I
believed and to this day still believe, in our people's eternal and
historic right to this entire land."

Despite these and numerous other statements along the same line, [15]
the Western elites pretend that Israel's expropriations and ethnic
cleansing are not the basic (and profoundly immoral) causal force in
the struggle over Palestine, and in a Kafkaesque mode it is the
Palestinian resistance to their ethnic cleansing that is to be
condemned.

It should be noted that Israel's "eternal and historic right" to
Olmert's "entire land" may well underlie the current and renewed
Israeli aggression in Lebanon and huge ethnic cleansing and refugee
generation in southern Lebanon. Officially, Israel's ground invasion
of Lebanon is an act of self-defense against Hezbollah's threat,
aimed at creating a security buffer zone until the arrival of a
"multinational force with an enforcement capability." But
increasingly, as the initial goal of a narrow strip of only a few
kilometers has now been extended up to the Litani River deep in
Lebanon, the real motives behind Israel's invasion are becoming
crystal clear.

Back in the 1940s Ben Gurion declared that Israel's "natural borders"
extended to the Litani in the north and the Jordan to the east--
coincidentally the two sources of snow fed water in the region. Even
in their current announced plan to evacuate the West Bank the
Israelis intend to hold the Jordan "for security reasons." The Litani
is next. The Golan is also valued for its water. Thus, while
officially, Israel's ground invasion of Lebanon is claimed to be an
act of self-defense against Hezbollah's threat, aimed at creating a
security buffer zone until the arrival of a "multinational force with
an enforcement capability," the initial goal of a narrow strip of
southern Lebanon "has now been extended up to the Litani River deep
in Lebanon, [and] the real motives behind Israel's invasion are
becoming crystal-clear…. This is a war to annex a major chunk of
Lebanese territory without necessarily saying so, under the pretext
of security buffer and deterrence against future attacks on
Israel." [16]

This drive to "redeem the land," requiring the takeover of land in
the possession of others by force, also constitutes a model case of
a quest for a "Greater" entity--here a Greater Israel-a drive which
in the case of Milosevic's and the Serbs' alleged drive for a
"Greater Serbia" was presented as a prime element of illegal
activity in the ICTY indictment of Milosevic (see below under
Nefarious). In no case has this drive for a Greater Israel been
pointed to by U.S. officials or the U.S. mainstream media as an
immoral and illegal program that should call for international
intervention and prosecution in the mode of the Serb prosecution,
although the Israeli program has been explicitly designed to
ethnically cleanse a sizable civilian population.

This model case of ethnic cleansing also represents a clear instance
of applied racism, in which the militarily stronger and ethnic
cleansing state--its leaders, armed forces, and a major part of its
media, intellectuals and citizenry, who would be called "willing
executioners" if residing in a Western targeted state--in both words
and actions treat the population in process of removal as inferiors
(untermenschen in the Nazi mode). These inferiors are not merely
discriminated against but freely abused with beatings, harsh
treatment at checkpoints, home demolitions and expropriations in
accord with Israeli desires, theft of land and water, and killings
without penalty. As the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem states,
"Israel has established in the occupied Territories a separation cum
discrimination regime, in which it maintains two systems of laws, and
a person's rights are based on his or her national origin. This
regime is the only of its kind in the world, and brings to mind dark
regimes of the past, such as the Apartheid regime in South Africa."

High Israeli officials have for years described the Palestinians as
"cockroaches," "lice," "grasshoppers," "animals," "two-legged
beasts," a "cancer," along with other epithets of dehumanization, and
they have repeatedly devalued Palestinian life as compared with that
of Jews (most recently, Olmert's statement that "the lives and well-
being of Sderot's residents are more important than those of Gaza
residents"; more dramatically, Rabbi Yaacov Perin's "One million
Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail"). Palestinian numbers
represent what in Israel is called a "demographic threat," and
Israeli academic and human rights activist Jeff Halper states that
"schemes of 'transfer' have become an acceptable part of Israeli
political discourse...[as Israel] actively pursues policies of
displacement: exile and deportation, the revoking of residency
rights, economic impoverishment, land expropriations, house
demolitions, and other means of making life so unbearable as to
induce 'voluntary' Palestinian emigration." [17]

Hundreds of checkpoints make Palestinian movement difficult and
insecure, even between local neighborhoods, and they are closed on
Jewish holidays, paralyzing Palestinian economic and social life. As
of two years ago 79 Palestinians had died as a result of delays at
checkpoints and dozens of women had given childbirth (along with many
still-borns) at or near obstructed checkpoints. [18] There have been
over 11,000 Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes since 1967,
fewer than 600 belonging to people accused of terrorist activities
or their families (the latter a form of collective punishment that is
a war crime). One Israeli cabinet minister, Yosef Lapid, a holocaust
survivor, caused an uproar at one weekly cabinet meeting, at which
the demolition of homes in the Rafah refugee camp was being
discussed, when he said that a picture of an old Palestinian women on
the rubble of her home reminded him "of my grandmother in the
Holocaust," adding that there "is no forgiveness for people who treat
an old woman this way." [19] His remarks, unreported in the New York
Times, had no influence on Israeli policy.

The demolitions are almost all to clear the ground for homes or roads
or "security zones" for the ubermenschen, with minimal notice and
zero indignation from the Western establishment. In Jerusalem,
"Jewish-Israeli homes are never demolished, although 80% of the
building violations take place on the Western side of the city." [20]
When the settlers were removed from Gaza, they had long notice and
received between $140,000 and $400,000 per family for this
dislocation. Palestinians whose houses are demolished rarely receive
even token compensation and, as Amnesty International notes, "the
family may only have 15 minutes to take out what belongings they have
before the furniture is thrown into the street and their home
bulldozed" [21] This racist double standard, as well as the
associated racist language and perspectives, has been normalized and
has caused no negative reaction toward the racist state in the West.

Israel's Western-approved ethnic cleansing program has been massive,
proceeding both in spurts of larger-scale cleansing and in continual
lower-intensity expropriations and removal for almost 60 years
(1947-2006). Some 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed in
1947-48, several hundred thousand were removed during and immediately
after the 1967 war, and an exodus, partially "voluntary," based on
Israeli violence, threats, fear, and impoverishment has been
continuous at other times up to the present day. The apartheid wall
under construction within the boundaries of the West Bank has
involved the removal of thousands, with larger numbers in prospect,
plus damage to a great many whose lands have been partly expropriated
or divided by the wall (which carefully avoids disturbing Jewish
settlements, but not Palestinian settlements or property). Large
numbers of Palestinians have simply moved out of their homeland,
adding a 2.4 million non-refugee diaspora to a refugee diaspora of
2.5 million (the total Palestinian population worldwide is estimated
to be 9.7 million).

It is an important fact that this durable and massive ethnic
cleansing process has taken place in daily violation of international
law, from which the ethnic cleansing state is exempt by virtue of
long-standing primary U.S. support, a lesser but real support by the
other great powers, and the weakness and compromised character of the
Arab and other members of the international community. Israel has
simply ignored dozens of Security Council and other UN rulings, the
Geneva Conventions applicable to an occupying power, and decisions of
the International Court. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention
stipulates that "the occupying power shall not transfer parts of its
own civilian population into the territory it occupies," a clear ban
on settlements, ignored along with numerous other provisions of
international law (which illegalize the theft of water, the
checkpoints and abusive treatment, and the numerous other
restrictions on movement).

Israel's huge wall, built almost entirely within Palestinian
territory, inflicting serious damage on several hundred thousand
Palestinians and blatantly in violation of the Geneva Conventions,
was found illegal by the International Court on July 9, 2004, the
court requesting the international community "not to render any aid
or assistance to the wall and associated regime." But Israel has
simply ignored this legal ruling, with the crucial support of the
United States and de facto support of the international community,
the latter (including the World Bank), continuing to do normal
business with the outlaw and thus colluding in its law violations and
ethnic cleansing program. [22]

Israel has been able to violate international law and continue its
ethnic cleansing project without obstruction or any sort of penalty
to this day. The United States vetoed a demand for international
monitors during the second intifada in 2002, and has also prevented
any international intervention in the serial and brutal Israeli armed
attacks on Palestinian refugee camps and cities (e.g., Jenin, Nablus,
Ramallah in 2002) and currently Gaza and Lebanon once again.
Obviously, no tribunals have been established to deal with these
blatant and large-scale war crimes and massive ethnic cleansing.
This is benign ethnic cleansing.

The rationalizations for this systematic ethnic cleansing have been
extremely crude and question-begging, but effective in the West.
Israel is always allowed to be "retaliating" to terror, although
there is invariably a sequence of tit-for-tat violence that the
Western establishment regularly cuts off at the point of a
Palestinian action, ignoring the prior Israeli provocations. [23]
That the Israelis keep seizing large and small blocs of Palestinian-
occupied land in response to "terror" and for Israeli "security" is
laughable, and of course flies in the face of the long-standing
Israeli admission of plans for "redeeming the land," but the
Israelis have been allowed to get away with this laughable basis for
land theft and expulsions. Palestinian resistance to their removal is
allowed to be "terrorism" and not retaliation for Israeli violence,
which is never terrorism or causal.

The Palestinians are in a lose-lose situation: if they don't resist
removal they will be removed and the West will not help them; if they
resist without violence, as in the first intifada, the West will not
help them and they will continue to be removed; and if they resist
with their puny force, they will be "terrorists" and the West will
condemn their "violence" as it collaborates further in their ethnic
cleansing!

Arabs and Third World peoples more generally can see that despite the
preachings of the West on the enlightenment values of equality, the
value of each individual, tolerance, and the importance of the rule
of law, all of these values have been suspended in the conflict
between the Israelis and Palestinians, with the West providing
unstinting and hypocritical support to Israel's brutal ethnic
cleansing and applied racism. This has fed the anger of the Islamic
world and beyond by providing an ongoing and exceedingly clear
illustrative case of Western racism and discrimination, a case where
the West is engaged in a wholly unprovoked war of aggression and
colonial aggrandizement against a non-Western people. .


Nefarious Ethnic Cleansing: The Case of the Serbs in Kosovo

The best known case in which the West has denounced and fought
against ethnic cleansing has been that of the Serbs fighting in
Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. In fact the term really came into its own
in application to this case. The Serbs were also accused of genocide
in Bosnia and Kosovo, although there was the difficulty that after
the Kosovo bombing war was over in June 1999 and intensive forensic
searches yielded only some 4,000 bodies from all sides, the
hysterical claims of U.S. officials (which at a peak hit 500,000
Kosovo Albanian victims) were shown to be wild propaganda
exaggerations. Thus, to establish a charge of genocide against
Milosevic the ICTY had to extend his villainy to Bosnia and,
accordingly, he was belatedly made part of a "joint criminal
conspiracy" along with Bosnian Serb officials. [24]

There is no question but that there was ethnic cleansing in Bosnia in
the years 1991-1995, and that the Bosnian Serbs were implicated in
the ethnic cleansing operations of those years. But they were not
alone-the Croats and Bosnian Muslims were very active participants,
with substantial armed forces, imported mujahadeen fighters, and
growing aid from the United States and other external allies
(including Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia) that produced an
eventual military stalemate and threatened defeat for the Bosnian
Serbs. [25] And as noted earlier, the largest single ethnic cleansing
of the Yugoslavia wars was in Operation Storm, carried out by the
Croats against the Krajina Serbs, with active U.S. assistance. In
Bosnia the ethnic cleansing resulted from a struggle for land control
by three ethnic groups or "nations" in a civil conflict unleashed by
the unmediated breakup of Yugoslavia. None of the three was
powerless, and all suffered casualties, the Bosnian Muslims the most,
the Croats the least. [26]

One important difference from the case of Israel in Palestine is that
all three ethnic groups in Bosnia were seeking to improve their
strategic position, whereas in the Israel-Palestine case, only one
side has been seeking to take land from the other contestant. A
second difference is that in Bosnia and Croatia all three parties in
the struggle were well armed, and in the end the Bosnian Serbs were
even overbalanced by their military opponents, [27] whereas in the
Israel-Palestine case the contestants are one of the world's
strongest military powers (Israel), backed by a superpower, versus a
virtually defenseless population that doesn't even have the support
of several of its important local Arab neighbors. A third difference,
following plausibly from the second, is that whereas the ratio of
Muslim to Serb civilian deaths in Bosnia was perhaps two to one, the
ratio of Palestinian to Israeli civilian deaths was for many years
something like 25 to1, dropping in the second intifada to 3 or 4 to 1
(with a higher injury ratio). [28]

In Kosovo, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) became very active in
1998 and the Yugoslav army responded with a crackdown that produced a
large number of internal refugees. NATO threats and an accord in
October 1998 forced the Serbs to accept a large body of OSCE
monitors and to withdraw Yugoslav army forces from Kosovo. The KLA
was not subject to any restraints by NATO and took advantage of the
new arrangements to occupy more Kosovo space, and they engaged in
numerous provocations to entice the Yugoslav police to crackdowns
that would help precipitate NATO intervention. The Racak "massacre"
of January 15, 1999, almost surely not a genuine massacre but an
incident in which KLA battle deaths were converted into a civilian
massacre by KLA-OSCE-ICTY and media cooperation, [29] helped
precipitate a NATO war on behalf of the Kosovo Albanians. The war
produced a flood of refugees fleeing the Yugoslav army, the KLA, and
the NATO bombs.

Was any of this "ethnic cleansing"? Before the NATO bombing war began
there had been many refugees created by Yugoslav army actions in
pursuit of the KLA and treating Albanian villagers sometimes very
harshly. There were, however, no cases reported of slaughters by the
Serbs comparable to the U.S. massacre at Haditha, nothing remotely
like the U.S. destruction of Falluja, and pre-bombing war civilian
casualties in Kosovo were only a very small fraction of those
produced by the U.S. forces in Iraq. [30] The Kosovo Albanians who
became refugees in that period were victims of a civil war within a
part of Serbia, whereas West Bank victims were in occupied territory
outside of Israel. Most relevant to the issue of ethnic cleansing,
Kosovo Albanians were not being pushed out to make way for Serb
settlers, as Palestinians were displaced by Jewish settlers in the
true case of ethnic cleansing on the West Bank. The German Foreign
office stated explicitly that the turmoil and refugee generation in
Kosovo before the bombing war was not a case of ethnic cleansing,
[31] and British officials even acknowledged that in the runup to the
bombing war the KLA killed more people in Kosovo, including Albanian
"traitors" as well as Serb police and civilians, than did the
Yugoslav army and police. [32]

Albanians who fled during the bombing war were war refugees, not
victims of ethnic cleansing, and Serbs in Kosovo fled with even
greater frequency than the Albanians. Nevertheless, in a remarkable
propaganda coup, the war propagandists made and actually got away
with the claim that the war was necessary to allow the return of
Albanians whose exit was a result of the war itself.

A number of consequences followed from the fact that the Serbs were
the targets of the United States and its allies. Flowing strictly
from this political alignment, Serb treatment of their antagonists in
the wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo was nefarious, and from 1991
onward the Serbs were the focus of attention and vilification and
subject to inflated claims, sanctions and legal (ICTY) attacks from
which others doing much the same thing were free. As regards ethnic
cleansing, the term was applied to them freely, not only in Bosnia
but in Kosovo, where it was not applicable. As noted earlier, ethnic
cleansing was extremely applicable to the removal of Serbs from
Croatian Krajina, but as this was done under U.S. auspices the term
was not applied there, nor was it applied to Israel on the West Bank
where ethnic cleansing was crystal clear.

In the three year period 1998 through 2000, the New York Times,
Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Time and Newsweek used the phrase
"ethnic cleansing" some 1,200 times in discussing Kosovo, in about
four-fifths of the cases in reference to Serb policy, whereas during
the entire decade of the 1990s they used the phrase only 14 times in
discussing Israel, and only five times referring to Israeli policy.
This reflects massive internalized bias.

Another consequence of the Serbs being U.S. targets was that they
were allegedly guilty of striving for a "Greater Serbia," an
important feature of the ICTY case against Milosevic. But this
accusation was silly and effectively fell apart during the Milosevic
trial when the prosecutor Geoffrey Nice admitted to the court that
Milosevic wasn't striving to enlarge Serb claims but merely to keep
all Serbs under one flag as Yugoslavia disintegrated-and there was a
great deal of evidence that Milosevic wasn't trying very hard even to
keep Serbs in one state. [33] The contrast here with Israel in
Palestine is dramatic-Israel has been openly trying to enlarge
Israeli territory at the expense of another people. But as noted
earlier, this is not something the U.S.-dominated international
community interferes with, and this model case of ethnic cleansing
isn't even worth discussing in the West. This is benign, not
nefarious ethnic cleansing.

In the case of Kosovo, the West was so upset at the effects of the
struggle there and victimization of the Kosovo Albanians that the
Serbs were warned that force might be employed against them if they
didn't restrain themselves, and the Serbs were compelled to accept a
large number of OSCE monitors, although as noted earlier no
restrictions were place by the OSCE on the KLA. Again the contrast
with the West Bank case is dramatic: there, where there was real
ethnic cleansing by Israel on behalf of settlers taking over
Palestinian property, and with massive Israeli operations in
violation of the Third and Fourth Geneva Convention, no monitors were
allowed, because the United States wouldn't support this, so ethnic
cleansing could proceed unhindered.

Then, with the excuse of Racak, the United States could go to war and
devastate Serbia and Kosovo, to protect those victims of Serbia in
Kosovo in a great moral crusade against "ethnic cleansing"! Racak
was not a massacre of civilians, the Serbs were not ethnically
cleansing in Kosovo, and the Serbs were not violating international
law in their civil war struggle in Kosovo as the Israelis were doing
on the West Bank, but the United States has been able to get away
with the active support of ethnic cleansing in the one case and
illegal war against a non-existent ethnic cleansing on the other
hand, with the support of the international community.


Conclusion

In the age of Kafka, ethnic cleansing is clearly acceptable when it
is serviceable to the United States or carried out by one of its
allies or clients, but it is assailed with great energy and
indignation and opposed by force when engaged in (or asserted to be
engaged in) by a U.S. target. In the former cases, the United States
and its allies may actively aid the ethnic cleansing state, and,
except for occasional nominal actions that the international
community does not attempt to enforce, and its occasional whimpers
calling for restraint, ethnic cleansing can proceed for decades in
violation of both international law and the moral rules supposedly
guiding the enlightened West. This of course requires great
discipline by the intellectual class and media, who must keep the
bulk of relevant facts out of sight and allow the ethnic cleansing
state to expropriate and remove its unwanted ethnic target population
under cover of a combination of silence and its alleged necessary
response to "terror" and inability to locate a "negotiating partner."

On the other hand, ethnic cleansing and claims of ethnic cleansing by
a target country like the former Yugoslavia is treated with an
intense focus of attention, great moral indignation, and aggressive
"humanitarian intervention," in keeping with Western enlightenment
values. In this case, sanctions may be imposed and international
monitors may be forced upon the delinquent country to constrain its
misbehavior, and an incident such as the killing of 40 Kosovo
Albanians by Yugoslav police can bring about a bombing war and
occupation of part of the villain's national territory. In this case
also an international tribunal can be organized to bring the ethnic
cleansing state's leaders and military commanders to justice.
Nefarious ethnic cleansing can be treated harshly.

In 1996 Israel could kill 104 Lebanese civilians, 86 of them
children, in a bombing raid on a UN refugee facility, and in July
2006 kill another 36 children in a UN facility along with killing 4
UN observers in July 2006, and lie about their knowledge of the
nature of the targets in all three cases, and receive no reprimand
from its U.S. sponsor and hence no serious response from the
"international community." In fact, Boutros-Boutros Ghali's taking
the 1996 killings a bit too seriously for Clinton administration
tastes may have hastened his replacement as UN leader. [34] This was
the same Clinton administration that found the 40 killed at Racak
(none children, one woman, all but the woman almost surely KLA
fighters) a really terrible event worthy of a violent international
response!

The hypocrisy involved in this applied double standard is breath-
taking. As noted earlier, whereas both the Croat leadership in
cleansing Serbs from Krajina and the Israeli leadership in removing
Palestinians were very clearly doing this to get rid of an unwanted
population to replace it with a competing ethnic group, the Yugoslav
actions in Kosovo were features of a civil war. Whereas the Israeli
leadership was and still is quite explicitly seeking a "Greater
Israel" by land theft and people expulsion, Milosevic was trying to
keep the Serbs of the former Yugoslavia within a single remnant
political entity and not trying to enlarge Serb territory at the
expense of some other ethnic group (as Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice
acknowledged during the Milosevic trial). Whereas the Israeli
leadership has for years described the Palestinians in extremely
derogatory and racist language, no such derogation of Kosovo
Albanians (or other nationalities) has ever been attributed to
Milosevic, and Albanians in Belgrade have never been subjected to
discrimination such as Arabs undergo in Israel (not to speak of the
occupied territories). In sum, the differential treatment of
Milosevic and Sharon, the one prosecuted--after a failed
assassination attempt-[35] and the other honored as a Free World
leader and "man of peace," was not only not based on the realities of
ethnic cleansing or any honest application of the law, it reflects
pure power and structured injustice in the age of Kafka.

-------------------------------------------
Endnotes:

1. Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, The Washington Connection and
Third World Fascism (Boston; South End Press, 1979).

2. Ibid., chapter 4, sec. 4.1.

3. Ibid., chapter 3, section 3.4.4.

4. In a classic case, when Indonesian violence in East Timor reached
its peak in 1977-1978, New York Times coverage fell to zero; see
ibid.; see also Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing
Consent (New York: Pantheon, 1988, 2002), chapter 2, "Worthy and
Unworthy Victims.".

5. See Washington Connection, chap. 5, sec. 5.2; Noam Chomsky and
Edward S. Herman, After the Cataclysm (Boston: South End Press,
1979), esp. chap. 6.

6. See Michael Mandel, How America Gets Away With Murder (London:
Pluto, 2005), chaps. 4-6.

7. Raymond Bonner, "War Crimes Panel Finds Croat Troops 'Cleansed'
the Serbs," New York Times, March 21, 1999.

8. See Edward Herman, "<http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?
SectionID=74&ItemID=8244> The Politics of the Srebrenica Massacre,"
ZNet, July 7, 2005..

9. On August 10, 1995, Madeleine Albright cried out to the Security
Council that "as many as 13,000 men, women and children were driven
from their homes" in Srebrenica.. (<The">http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/
UNDOC/PRO/N95/858/

26/PDF/N9585826.pdf?OpenElement>The Situation in the Republic of
Bosnia and Herzegovina (<S/PV.3564">http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/
PRO/N95/858/26/PDF/N9585826.pdf?OpenElement>S/PV.3564), UN Security
Council, August 10, 1995, 5.30 p.m., pp. 6-7). Needless to say,
Albright did not cry out about the 200,000+ Karajina Serbs being
driven out of their homes in the same time frame as she wept for the
13,000.

10. The Krajina Serb human rights organization Veritas estimated that
1,205 civilians were killed in Operation Storm, including 358 women
and 10 children. See "Croatian Serb Exodus Commemorated," Agence
France Press, Aug. 4, 2004; also, Veritas at
www.veritas.org.yu'">http://www.veritas.org.yu/>www.veritas.org.yu'.
In the graves around Srebrenica exhumed through 2000, only one of
the 1,883 bodies was identified as female.

11. Tim Ripley, Operation Deliberate Force (Lancaster, UK: CDISS,
1999), p. 192.

12. "U.N. Report: Bosnian Serbs Massacred Srebrenica Muslims,"
Washington Post, Aug. 12, 1995. For illustrative language, see also
John Pomfret, "Investigators Begin Exhuming Group of Mass Graves in
Bosnia," Washington Post, July 8, 1996. "Upheaval" is in "Softening
Up The Enemy," Newsweek, Aug. 21, 1995.

13. Jan Oberg, "Misleading UN Report on Kosovo (Part A)," TFF
PressInfo 77, Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research,
Lund, Sweden, October 3, 1999, <http://www.transnational.org/pressinf/
pf77.html

14. "Europe Prepares to Evacuate 40,000 Kosovo Serbs," Focus News
Agency (Bulgaria), April 18, 2006.

15. For several dozen Israeli leaders' statements of racist
denigration and indication that ethnic cleansing is a necessary and
proper course, see "<Quotes">http://www.monabaker.com/
quotes.htm>Quotes," < The">The">http://www.monabaker.com/quotes.htm>
The Middle East Conflict (Personal Website of Mona Baker);
"<Israel's">http://www.just-international.org/article.cfm?
newsid=20001494>Israel's Barbaric and Primitive Action: Examples of
Hate Speech," International Movement for a Just World, 2005. Olmert's
speech can be found at http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/
PMSpeaks/speechcong240506.htm

16. Kaveh L Afrasiabi , "It's about annexation, stupid!": <">http://
www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH05Ak01.html>
; see also. Paul Larudee, "The Clearing of South Lebanon: The
Lebanese Nakba and Israeli Ambitiions": http://www.counterpunch.org/
larudee08082006.html

17. Jeff Halper, Obstacles to Peace: A Re-Framing of the Palestinian-
Israeli Conflict (Carrboro, NC: The Israeli Committee Against House
Demolitions, 2004), p. 17.

18. Ibid, p. 18.

19. A.P., "Official Compares Israeli Action to Nazi's," Guardian, May
21, 2004.

20. Halper, Obstacles to Peace, p. 34.

21. AI, "Israel: Home Demolitions," Dec. 8, 1999.

22. See "Free Markets: Imprisoned People," in "Against 'Sustainable'
Apartheid & Occupation," www.stopthewall.org'">http://
www.stopthewall.org/>www.stopthewall.org'

23. This is dramatically evident in the cases of the recent Israeli
invasions of Gaza and Lebanon, where the U.S. mainstream media have
simply taken the captures of a few Israeli soldiers as the
precipitating events, neglecting both any prior Israeli actions and
the evidence of Israeli plans for these actions that were simply
waiting for the proper moment to execute.

24. For a discussion of "joint criminal enterprise," along with
other relevant matters, see Edward Herman and David Peterson,
"<Milosevic's">Milosevic's">http://www.electricpolitics.com/2006/05/
milosevics_death_in_the_propag.html>Milosevic's Death in the
Propaganda System," <ElectricPolitics.com">ElectricPolitics.com">
http://www.electricpolitics.com/index.html>
ElectricPolitics.com, May 14, 2006.

25. This military stalemate is discussed in Tim Fenton's "The
Military Context," in Edward S. Herman, ed., The Srebrenica Massacre:
Evidence, Context, Politics (forthcoming).

26. Ewa Tabeau and Jakub Bijak, "War-related Deaths in the 1992-1995
Armed Conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Critique of Previous
Estimates and Recent Results," European Journal of Population, Vol.
21, No. 2-3, June, 2005, pp. 187-215; Mirsad Tokaca of the Sarajevo-
based Research and Documentation Center, as quoted in "Bosnian war
'claimed 100,000 lives'," Deutsche Presse-Agentur, November 21, 2005;
in Nedim Dervisbegovic, "Research halves Bosnia war death toll to
100,000," Reuters, November 23, 2005.

27. See note 25 above.

28. Ibid.; James Bennett, "MIDEAST TURMOIL: NEWS ANALYSIS; Mideast
Balance Sheet," New York Times, March 12, 2002 .

29. See Mandel, How America Gets Away With Murder, pp. 72-80; Edward
Herman, "Propaganda System Number 1," Z Magazine, July-Aug. 2001

30. The total killings in Kosovo in the year before the NATO bombing
war was estimated at some 2,000, with less than half of those
allocable to the Yugoslav army (see note 30). As the U.S. killings in
Iraq are surely greater than 50,000, we are talking about a ratio of
better than 50 to 1 in favor of the United States as killer.

31. Both the German foreign office, German courts, and British
intelligence denied that Serb actions in Kosovo before the war were
linked to ethnicity: see Noam Chomsky, A New Generation Draws the
Line [London: Verso, 2000], pp. 112-3.

32. British Minister of Defense George Robertson told the House of
Commons on March 24, 1999 that until mid-January 1999 "the KLA were
responsible for more deaths in Kosovo than the Yugoslav authorities
had been." (Cited in ibid., p. 106.)

33. See Herman and Peterson, "Death of Milosevic in the Propaganda
System."

34. In Ran HaCohen's "The UN from Qana to Jenin: Why the Secretary
General's Report Cannot Be Trusted," Letter From Israel, Aug. 14,
2002, HaCohen describes how back in 1996 then Secretary General
Boutros-Ghali had insisted on publishing a report on Israel's killing
of over a 100 civilians in Qana, over U.S. protests. The result was
that a week later, on May 13, 1996, U.S. Secretary of State Warren
Christopher informed Boutros-Ghali that the United States would veto
his re-election. Writing in 2002 HaCohen was explaining how the more
pliable Kofi Annan, in dealing with Jenin, "without visiting the
sceneŠissued a shameful report, echoing Israeli propaganda, ignoring
even 'embarrassing' material published in the Israeli press."

35. A U.S. missile attack targeted Milosevic's residence in Belgrade
on April 22, 1999, but failed to assassinate him.