Informazione
2006:54:28&log=lautrehistoire
Les USA ont d'abord utilisé le napalm en Grèce en 1949
La guerre civile en Grèce (1946-1949)
Costas Pateras
Notes sur la guerre civile grecque (1946-1949)
Le 2 juillet 2006, des milliers de membres et de sympathisants/antes
du Parti communiste grec (KKE) et de la Jeunesse communiste de Grèce
(KNE) se sont réunis au village de Likorakhi, situé au cœur de la
chaîne de montagnes Grammos, pour participer à la cérémonie
d'inauguration d'un mémorial commémorant le 60ème anniversaire de la
fondation de l'Armée démocratique de la Grèce (ADG) et rendre hommage
aux milliers de militants/antes qui ont sacrifié leur vie au cours
des trois années de guerre civile (1946-1949), dans la lutte contre
la réaction locale et l'impérialisme anglo-états-unien.
PC de Grèce, Notes sur la guerre civile grecque (1946-1949) [Première
partie]
L'emplacement du mémorial est, lui aussi, hautement symbolique. Il
est situé à l'endroit où se trouvait un nid de mitrailleuse de
l'Armée démocratique de Grèce, au sein des montagnes où ont eu lieu,
en 1948 et en 1949, les plus violents combats de la guerre civile.
Dans sa déclaration commémorant le 60ème anniversaire, le Comité
central du Parti communiste grec a souligné le fait que la guerre
civile a été «la période de lutte de classe la plus intense ayant eu
lieu en Grèce au cours du vingtième siècle», la lutte pour la
démocratie du peuple contre la classe dirigeante monarcho-fasciste
corrompue et contre ses alliés impérialistes étrangers. Le droit des
communistes grecs/grecques et des autres progressistes de rendre
hommage aux militants/antes de l'Armée démocratique de la Grèce est,
en fait, un droit durement gagné, car pendant de nombreuses années
après la guerre civile, les membres et les sympathisants/antes ont
été persécutés/ées de toutes les façon possibles. Ce n'est qu'en 1989
que le Parlement grec a adopté une résolution déclarant que les
partisans/anes de l'Armée démocratique de la Grèce (ADG) n'étaient
pas des bandits. Cette période de l'histoire a été particulièrement
l'objet de distorsions par des propagandistes, des journalistes et
des historiens de Grèce et de l'étranger. Leur but est de ternir
l'image du mouvement populaire et de miner les luttes passées,
présentes et futures en faveur du socialisme, en les décrivant comme
des tentatives sinistres, appuyées par les Soviétiques, d'établir une
dictature, ainsi que comme un exemple d'agression et de fanatisme.
La guerre civile grecque n'est, bien sûr, pas tombée du ciel; elle a
été le résultat d'une série d'interventions et de développements
impérialistes relatifs au mouvement populaire et qui remontent à la
Seconde guerre mondiale et à la période précédant celle-ci. Le texte
qui suit est une description brève et un peu schématique des
processus qui ont conduit à la guerre civile. Ce sont des aspects que
nous traiterons de façon plus développée et approfondie dans des
articles subséquents. En 1940, quand le régime fasciste italien a
envahi la Grèce, les communistes et les progressistes grecs/grecques
se trouvaient aux premières lignes de la résistance et remportaient
des victoires, malgré le fait que des milliers d'entre elles/eux
languissaient en prison, et que le Parti communiste grec conduisait
ses opérations dans des conditions particulièrement difficiles, étant
une organisation illégale et persécutée. Le secrétaire général du
Parti communiste grec, Nikos Zachariadis, a écrit une lettre ouverte
au people grec, qui est devenue célèbre. Il exhortait ce dernier à
résister à l'agression italienne et prévoyait qu'une telle résistance
populaire engendrerait une Grèce nouvelle. Après la lâche reddition
de l'Ancien régime à la «Wehrmacht», les progressistes grecs ont
entrepris la tâche d'organiser la résistance. Cette tâche a atteint
son plein développement lors de la 6ème session du Parti communiste
grec, en juillet 1941, qui a alors affirmé la nécessité de créer un
Front national de libération (EAM). C'est ainsi qu'ont été constitués
(a) le légendaire Front national de libération (EAM), (b) son aile
militaire, l'Armée populaire de libération nationale (ELAS) et (3),
un peu plus tard, la légendaire organisation de jeunesse (EPON). Au
cours des trois années suivantes, ces organisations légendaires
allaient écrire les pages les plus glorieuses de l'histoire moderne
de la Grèce au cours de leur combat contre l'occupation nazie. La
preuve de leur effectivité est qu'en avril 1944, ces organisations
avaient libéré 90% de la région continentale de la Grèce. Dans les
régions contrôlées par le Front national de libération (EAM), les
femmes se sont vues, pour la première fois, attribuer des droits
politiques; d'autre part des conseils et des tribunaux populaires
démocratiques ont été établis. C'est au cours de la lutte contre
l'occupation que le peuple grec, ayant à son avant-garde le Parti
communiste grec, a créé ses bases démocratiques.
Ce fait n'est pas passé inaperçu de la classe dirigeante britannique.
Il était clair qu'un gouvernement populaire constitué par le Front
national de libération (EAM) au sein duquel le Parti communiste grec
aurait une position dirigeante était une menace pour les intérêts
historiques de la Grande-Bretagne en Grèce et dans la partie
occidentale de la Méditerranée. Alors, malgré l'occupation nazie, les
Britanniques ont déployé tous leurs efforts pour freiner le Front
national de libération / Armée populaire de libération nationale
(EAM / ELAS), surtout en renforçant «Ligue nationale républicaine
grecque» (EDES), organisation petite et violemment anti-communiste,
connue pour sa collaboration fréquente avec les occupants nazis afin
de combattre l'Armée populaire de libération nationale (ELAS). Alors
que les troupes allemandes étaient repoussées hors de Grèce, ces
efforts se sont intensifiés, et ne pouvaient plus être vus autrement
que comme des préparatifs systématiques à une attaque contre les
organes de résistance du peuple grec. En avril 1944, Churchill a
donné l'ordre à la BBC de ne plus décrire favorablement les activités
du Front national de libération / Armée populaire de libération
nationale (EAM / ELAS). Par une série de provocations bien
planifiées, les Britanniques ont purgé l'armée grecque d'Afrique du
Nord des soldats de gauche, ce qui a conduit à l'emprisonnement de 18
500 d'entre eux dans des camps de concentration d'Afrique du Nord.
Ceci a eu lieu en coordination avec la formation de bataillons
ultraroyalistes au sein de l'Armée grecque, tels que les régiments
alpins, dans le but de créer des outils qui pourraient être utilisés
contre le mouvement populaire. Churchill a déployé beaucoup d'efforts
pour porter des politiciens grecs d'avant-guerre comme George
Papandreou à des postes de direction au sein du premier gouvernement
oecuménique, et pour aider la création de bandes de collaborateurs
pouvant agir librement et d'escadrons de la mort pro royalistes, tels
que les bataillons «Grivas’ X». Une série d'attaques contre le
mouvement populaire et contre ses représentants ont abouti à la
démission des ministres du Front national de libération (EAM) du
gouvernement. Une importante manifestation de protestation avait été
convoquée pour le dimanche 3 décembre. Alors qu'un foule se dirigeait
en masse vers le Square de la Constitution, la police a ouvert le feu
sur celle-ci, tuant 15 manifestants et en blessant une centaine.
Après ce massacre, le secrétaire général du Front national de
libération (EAM), Dimitris Partsalidis, a déclaré que «le peuple
luttera pour la liberté à n'importe quel prix». C'est ainsi qu'a
commencé la bataille d'Athènes entre d'une part l'Armée populaire de
libération nationale (ELAS) et d'autre part l'armée britannique et
les forces de sécurité collaboratrices. Le Front national de
libération (EAM) a essayé plusieurs fois de négocier un cessez-le-
feu, mais selon les Britanniques, le but fondamental était, comme
Churchill le disait, «d'écraser le Front national de libération
(EAM)». Pour écraser le mouvement populaire, l'impérialisme
britannique a dépêché 60 000 soldats, 200 chars d'assaut, des avions,
entre autres, ainsi que des combattants qui avaient collaboré avec
les nazis! Après 44 jours de violents combats, les unités de l'Armée
populaire de libération nationale (ELAS) se sont retirées d'Athènes,
et une semaine plus tard le cessez-le-feu a été déclaré. Le 12
février, le Front national de libération (EAM) a signé l'accord de
Varkiza, qui comprenait, entre autres clauses, le désarmement du
Front national de libération (ELAS) et des bataillons de sécurité
ainsi que d'autres mesures visant à garantir la normalisation de la
situation.
Il est devenu rapidement clair que l'accord ne serait respecté que
par le Front national de libération (EAM) et par le Parti communiste
grec. Des groupes paramilitaires, de connivence avec l'appareil de
sécurité et avec l'armée britannique, ont entrepris une campagne de
terreur. Les partisans/anes de l'Armée populaire de libération
nationale (ELAS) étaient massacrés/ées, torturés/ées, arrêtés/ées et
accusés/ées de “crimes”, alors que les collaborateurs des nazis,
lorsqu'ils étaient accusés, recevaient des sentences ridiculement
légères. Quelques chiffres montrent l'amplitude de la “Terreur
blanche”, dont la durée s'est étendue de l'accord de Varkiza au 31
mars 1946 : parmi les membres de la résistance il y a eu 1 289
assassinés, 6 671 blessés, 31 632 torturés, 84 931 arrêtés et 8 624
emprisonnés; 677 bureaux d'organisations de la résistance ont été
attaqués; 165 femmes membres du Front national de libération (EAM)
ont été violées. Au cours de toute cette période, alors que plusieurs
combinaisons de partis bourgeois ont été au pouvoir, les Britanniques
n'ont jamais essayé de mettre fin aux tentatives d'écraser le
mouvement démocratique grec et de restaurer la monarchie. Il convient
de souligner le fait que l'élection d'un gouvernement travailliste
n'a rien changé à cette politique, qui est conséquente avec la nature
pro impérialiste de la social-démocratie en général au niveau
mondial, et en particulier dans le cas du Parti travailliste
britannique. C'est dans ce climat de terreur que des élections
complètement frauduleuses ont eu lieu le 31 mars 1946. Le Parti
communiste et le Front national de libération (EAM) ont refusé de
participer à cette élection en raison de leur nature et en guise de
protestation.
À partir du début de 1946, de petits groupes de partisans ont quitté
les villes et se sont installés dans les montagnes pour pouvoir se
défendre. Comme première grande opération, ils ont attaqué un poste
de police de la ville de Litochori. Ensuite a commencé une série de
confrontations avec les forces gouvernementales et les escadrons de
la mort paramilitaires. Le 28 octobre 1946, l'Armée démocratique de
la Grèce (ADG) a été constituée. Au cours de cette période, la
terreur s'est intensifiée et a atteint son paroxysme le 17 juin, date
à laquelle le parlement a voté des "mesures d'urgence", qui, somme
toute, abolissaient tous les droits individuels et politiques et
établissait la loi martiale.
La description des nombreuses opérations effectuées par l'Armée
démocratique de la Grèce (ADG) au cours de la guerre civile dépasse
le cadre de cet article. Il faudrait cependant décrire certains
aspects de cette période, tels que la nature de l'ADG, le
gouvernement provisoire et les tactiques utilisées par les monarcho-
fascistses.
Nous avons déjà fourni quelques données sur la terreur utilisée par
les impérialistes et par leurs alliés locaux, qui a duré tout au long
de la guerre civile. Un exemple des actes barbares qu'ils
commettaient est l'étalage, en juillet 1947, dans la ville de
Florina, des têtes coupées de partisans. Cet acte survenait dans le
cadre du ratissage systématique et massif de la campagne et de la
déportation d'environ 700 000 personnes de leurs villages, visant à
priver l'Armée démocratique de la Grèce (ADG) de recrues. Ces
personnes sont devenues des réfugiés internes dans d'autres villages
et villes. Le réseau d'îles servant de prison et de camps de
concentration s'est étendu pour interner les personnes soupçonnées
d'être de gauche, des membres de leurs familles et des militaires
accusés d'être de gauche. Entre 1947 et 1950, environ 28 800
personnes auraient été détenues dans des camps de prisonniers. Ces
personnes étaient envoyées dans des cachots tristement célèbres de
Makronissos et de Yioura, entre autres. Des formes de torture et des
actes dégradants de toutes sortes étaient infligés aux personnes qui
avaient le malheur d'être détenus dans ces prisons.
Ensuite, les États-uniens sont arrivés, ont retiré aux Britanniques
la responsabilité d'administrer la Grèce et ont appliqué la Doctrine
Truman. L'étendue et la quantité de l'aide militaire fournie au
gouvernement grec se sont développées considérablement. Ce que peu de
gens savent c'est que le napalm, utilisé de façon si dévastatrice au
Viêt-Nam, a d'abord été utilisé en Grèce. Dans les batailles qui se
sont déroulées en 1949 dans les montagnes Grammos-Vitsi, 388 bombes
au napalm ont été utilisées.
L'Armée démocratique de la Grèce (ADG) était, sous tous ses aspects,
une armée populaire démocratique. Des assemblées étaient tenues au
niveau des pelotons, au cours desquelles tout soldat pouvait exprimer
son opinion; chaque militant prononçait un serment d'allégeance, qui
soulignait les idéaux et les principes de l'Armée démocratique de la
Grèce (ADG) et la manière selon laquelle chaque militant/ante doit se
comporter à l'égard du peuple. L'éducation politique était assurée
systématiquement par les officiers politiques assignés dans chaque
unité. Les femmes jouaient un rôle important au cours des combats :
elles constituaient plus de 30% des effectifs militaires de l'ADG et
70% du personnel médical et de soutien. Ceci était en flagrant
contraste avec le rôle réservé aux femmes de la classe dominante
grecque. Ce n'est que dans les régions contrôlées par les forces
démocratiques que les femmes avaient des droits politiques.
L'enseignement médical était assuré par des écoles de formation et
par des hôpitaux. 125 travailleurs/euses de la santé avaient reçu une
formation. Aleka Papariga, secrétaire générale du Parti communiste
grec, a expliqué que malgré le manque de fournitures, «toute
opération qui devait être effectuée était effectuée».
Le 23 décembre 1947, dans les régions libres de la Grèce, le
Gouvernement démocratique provisoire (GDP) a été fondé. Il était basé
sur douze principes, entre autres la reconnaissance du droit des
femmes et des minorités et l'indépendance de la Grèce par rapport au
capital étranger. Le Gouvernement démocratique provisoire (GDP) a
institué des conseils populaires dans les villages et des assemblées
représentatives populaires dans des villes, qui élisaient des
exécutifs et avaient le droit de révoquer ces derniers. Des élections
ont eu lieu dans 300 municipalités du Nord de la Grèce en 1948 et
dans 323 villages du Péloponnèse. Des tribunaux populaires ont été
élus, les électeurs/trices ayant le droit de révoquer ses officiels
(des cours d'appel ont aussi été élues). Le grec démotique, langue
utilisée par le peuple, a été adopté comme langue officielle et a été
enseigné dans les écoles établies par le Gouvernement démocratique
provisoire (GDP), et les minorités ont aussi pu étudier dans leurs
propres langues. L'éducation était gratuite et obligatoire, et il y a
avait une école dans chaque village. La propriété de la terre était
réglementée et la terre était redistribuée. Chaque agriculteur avait
le droit de posséder une quantité minimale de terre et un niveau
maximal était également fixé. Les réalisations de la période du Front
national de libération (EAM) ont été développées et approfondies, et
elles constituent les éléments de base du peuple démocratique de Grèce.
Après trois années de combat, le reste des forces de l'Armée
démocratique de la Grèce (ADG), surtout après l'intervention des
États-uniens de 1948 et après, ont été forcées de se retirer en
Albanie après les violents combats dans les chaînes de montagnes de
Vitsi et de Grammos, en août 1949. La résistance a continué malgré
tout dans certaines régions telles que Lesbos, au cours de l'année
1950. En Crète, les deux derniers partisans de l'Armée démocratique
de la Grèce (ADG), Giorgos Tzompanakis et Spiros Blazakis, sont
descendus des montagnes après la chute de la dictature, survenue le
24 février 1975.
Le nombre de personnes tuées au cours de la Guerre civile est
d'environ 150 000. Selon les données officielles de la direction
générale de l'armée grecque, environ 38 839 partisans/anes de l'Armée
démocratique de la Grèce (ADG) ont été tués/ées ou blessés/ées, 20
128 ont été emprisonnés/ées. Selon les données officielles, 55 528
soldats de l'armée gouvernementale ont été tués.
Plus de 65 000 personnes, entre communistes, autres combatants/antes
et sympathisants/antes du Front national de libération (EAM) et de
l'Armée démocratique de la Grèce (ADG) ont été obligés/ées de quitter
la Grèce et de se réfugier dans des pays socialistes (environ 20 000
ont été privés de leur citoyenneté), 40 000 ont été envoyés/ées dans
des prisons et des camps de concentration tels que Makronnissos. Les
exécutions de combattants de la Résistance ont continué jusqu'en
1955. Au moins 5 000 ont été exécutés y compris Nikos Belogiannis,
membre du Bureau politique du parti communiste grec, dont le procès
est devenu très célèbre. La monarchie a été rétablie conjointement
avec le régime réactionnaire, qui a été connu pour sa soumission à
l'impérialisme anglo-états-unien, par la répression qu'il a exercée
contre la Gauche, par sa mauvaise gestion économique, par ses échecs
politiques et culturels. Cette situation a atteint son apogée pendant
les sept années tristement célèbres de dictature des colonels,
appuyée par les Etats-Unis..
La période de la Guerre civile et de la Résistance du Front national
de libération (EAM) a été importante pour la formation du mouvement
populaire. Le Parti communiste grec et ses alliés n'ont jamais cessé
de lutter pour la démocratie et le socialisme dans les conditions
d'illégalité, soit avec le front gauche de la Gauche démocratique
unie (EDA) dans la lutte pour l'éducation et pour les droits des
détenus/ues, sur la question de Chypre et de l'indépendance
nationale, pour développer une culture populaire vivante et dynamique
contrairement aux dogmes bourgeois stériles des années 1950 et 1960.
Une lutte qui a continué après la chute de la Junte, contre les
guerres impérialistes contre la Yougoslavie et l'Irak, contre les
centres impérialistes que sont les Etats-Unis et l'Union européenne,
pour défendre les droits et les acquis des travailleurs/euses, Aleka
Papariga a résumé cet héritage dans son discours prononcé à Lykorakhi :
«Le terrorisme et la violence dirigés contre les communistes et les
militants/antes de la Résistance sont les facteurs qui ont entraîné
la naissance à l'Armée démocratique de la Grèce (ADG), pas seulement
en tant que forme de défense, mais aussi en tant que tentative
héroïque d'appliquer les objectifs de la Résistance nationale.
Si les conditions matérielles soulèvent pour des communistes, pour
des anti-capitalistes la question faut-il «contre-attaquer ou se
soumettre», il n'y a qu'une réponse : «Il faut contre-attaquer!».
Costas Pateras est membre de la Section internationale du Parti
communiste grec (KKE)
-------------------------------------------------
Source : Parti communiste de Grèce, jeudi 24 août 2006
http://inter.kke.gr , mailto:cpg@ int.kke.gr
Neverending pogroms in Kosmet (5)
SUMMARY:
230 Attacks Against Serbs and Other Non-Albanians Committed in Kosovo
Since October / 230 AGGRESSIONI CONTRO NON-ALBANESI IN MENO DI UN ANNO
Kosovo Serbians 'living in fear' / TADIC: I SERBI KOSOVARI VIVONO NEL
TERRORE
Explosion in northern Kosovo injures 9, including British policeman /
NOVE FERITI COMPRESI ALCUNI OCCIDENTALI IN UN ATTENTATO AD UN CAFFÈ
DI MITROVICA
Serbia protests at UN envoy's remarks on "collective guilt" over
Kosovo / "MEDIATORE" ONU AHTISAARI DICHIARA CHE I SERBI SONO
"COLPEVOLI COME POPOLO"
Albanians who beat Serbian professor Vuk Danilovic in the center of
Decani on August 21 have not been arrested yet, although the attack
took place before many eyewitnesses / IMPUNITÀ GARANTITA PER GLI
AGGRESSORI DI DANILOVIC
International Community Tolerating Albanian Acts of Violence in
Kosovo / IL GOVERNO DELLA SERBIA DENUNCIA LA TOLLERANZA DELLA
"COMUNITÀ INTERNAZIONALE" NEI CONFRONTI DEI POGROM CHE PROSEGUONO IN
KOSOVO
Russia supports Serbian integrity - Putin / PUTIN: LA RUSSIA APPOGGIA
L'INTEGRITÀ DELLA SERBIA
Czech KFOR soldiers seize weapons, ammunition in Kosovo / SEQUESTRATO
UN ARSENALE
Ferrero-Waldner says new escalation in Kosovo is possible / FERRERO-
WALDNER TEME NUOVA ESCALATION IN KOSOVO
Serbia might request Ahtisaari's recall / LA SERBIA DENUNCIA LE FRASI
RAZZISTE DEL "MEDIATORE" ONU E METTE IN QUESTIONE IL SUO MANDATO
China supports Serbia in Kosovo talks / LA CINA SOSTIENE LA POSIZIONE
DELLA SERBIA SULLA QUESTIONE DEL KOSOVO
Moscow Calls for Universal Approach in Conflict Resolution / LA
RUSSIA CONTRO I "DOPPI STANDARD" DELL'IMPERIALISMO STATUNITENSE
Contact Group on Kosovo / IL "GRUPPO DI CONTATTO" TORNA A RIUNIRSI A
VIENNA CON IL "MEDIATORE" ANTISERBO AHTISAARI
Adem Demaci, Ideologist of Kosovo’s Independence / DEMACI REDIVIVO
SPINGE L'ACCELERATORE SUL KOSOVO "INDIPENDENTE"
Displaced in Serbia / PIÙ DI 200MILA I PROFUGHI KOSOVARI REGISTRATI
IN SERBIA, DI CUI MOLTE CENTINAIA ALBANOFONI E MUSULMANI
Serbs are unhappy over pro-albanian position of new U.N. mission
head / IL TEDESCO RUECKEN, FILOALBANESE, ASSUMERÀ IL CONTROLLO CIVILE
DELLA PROVINCIA
NATO's new Kosovo commander pledges resolve during status talks / IL
GENERALE TEDESCO KATER ASSUME IL CONTROLLO MILITARE DELLA PROVINCIA
Kosovo Serbs question security build-up / I SERBI DEL KOSOVO SI
SENTONO ABBANDONATI DALLA "COMUNITÀ INTERNAZIONALE"
US Think Kosovo Should Receive Some Kind of Independence: Serbia’s
President / TADIC: I NOSTRI PADRONI USA VOGLIONO LA SECESSIONE DEL
KOSOVO
=== NEWS ===
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=144&newsid=93989&ch=0
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - August 13, 2006
230 Attacks Against Serbs and Other Non-Albanians Committed in Kosovo
Since October
Belgrade - Since October last year 230 attacks against
Serbs and other non-Albanians have been committed in
Kosovo.
This is what the Coordination Center for Kosovo
announced cited by Serbian news agency TANJUG.
3 people have been killed and 25 have been wounded in
the attacks.
21 of the attacks were committed with a firearm.
In 32 of the cases the perpetrators used explosive
devices and in other 32 cases they threw stones at
people, houses and cars.
Meanwhile, there were also 9 physical attacks, 113
thefts and 3 attacks against religious sites.
---
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/08/13/serbia.kosovo.ap/
Associated Press - August 13, 2006
Kosovo Serbians 'living in fear'
BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbia's president said Sunday that
Serbs in Kosovo live in fear, despite promises to
protect their rights as a minority from the U.N.
authorities and ethnic Albanian leaders in the
troubled province.
President Boris Tadic issued a statement to mark the
third anniversary of an attack on Serb teenagers in
Kosovo, when gunmen killed two and wounded four while
they were swimming in a river in the western village
of Gorazdevac.
"Serbs live in constant fear for their lives and the
lives of their families," Tadic said. "The
international community must find the perpetrators of
this crime and provide security for all."
Kosovo is a province of Serbia, but it has been an
international protectorate since 1999. Majority ethnic
Albanians want independence from Serbia, but Belgrade
opposes it. Kosovo's final status will be decided at
ongoing U.N.-brokered talks.
Tadic accused the international officials in Kosovo
and the local authorities of "doing nothing to solve
the murder of the children."
The Serbs in Kosovo - about 100,000 of them who
remained there after Serbia lost control over the
province after the 1999 NATO air war - live in
isolated enclaves, without freedom of movement and
fearing attacks from extremist ethnic Albanians.
Ethnic Albanian leaders recently have sought to dispel
Serb fears and promise more rights, but have been
unable to curb attacks from extremists who wish to
drive the remaining Serbs from Kosovo....
Tadic urged the ethnic Albanian leaders to "do
something against extremists and criminals in their
ranks." He insisted that "words are not good enough."
There was no immediate comment from Kosovo on Tadic's
statement.
The talks on Kosovo's final status started earlier
this year. The rights and the position of the Serbs in
Kosovo are a key issue at the negotiations.
---
http://www.680news.com/news/international/article.jsp?content=w082637A
Associated Press - August 26, 2006
Explosion in northern Kosovo injures 9, including British policeman
PRISTINA, Serbia - An explosion at a bar in Kosovo's
tense north injured nine people Saturday night,
including a British policeman with UN forces in the
Serbian province, officials said.
An explosive device was thrown at the Dolce Vita bar
shortly before 7 p.m. local time in the ethnically
divided town Kosovska Mitrovica, UN police spokesman
Larry Miller said. He said a possible suspect was
detained for questioning.
"Two of those injured are foreign nationals, one of
them is a police officer," Miller said, without giving
further details.
A spokesman for the British office in Kosovo said a
British citizen serving with the UN police in the
province was among the injured.
A Dutch woman was also hurt in the explosion, said
Milan Ivanovic, director of the hospital in Kosovska
Mitrovica.
Kosovska Mitrovica has often been the scene of clashes
between Albanians and Serbs. The river Ibar divides
the town between its northern Serbian-controlled
sector and the Albanian south.
The incident came a day after the UN's chief envoy for
negotiations aimed at resolving Kosovo's post-war
status, Martti Ahtisaari, finished a three-day visit
to the province. The envoy's latest trip was aimed at
pressing Albanians to grant more rights to minority
Serbs.
There have been fears of rising tension between
Kosovo's communities during the status talks, which
are expected to conclude by year's end.
NATO troops reopened a military base in the
Serbian-dominated area in northern Kosovo and UN
police deployed about 500 police officers to boost
security after local Serbian officials said they would
sever ties with Albanian-dominated institutions
following a series of violent incidents they blamed on
Albanians.
26 August 2006 | 20:02 -> 22:30 | Source: Beta, reported by Radio B92
Bomb explosion in Kosovska Mitrovica
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Nine people were injured when a bomb exploded
in Kosovska Mitrovica around 19:00 tonight.
Beta agency named Adem Dibrani (16) from the southern end of the
ethnically divided town as the perpetrator of the incident.
Beta agency reports that the perpetrator has been put under arrest
and the Kosovo Police Service has confirmed that a person suspected
of throwing the explosive device at the café Dolce Vita is in
custody, but declined to reveal his identity or ethnic background.
Deputy Director of the Medical Centre in Kosovska Mitrovica Milan
Ivanović told B92 that nine people with injuries from the blast were
hospitalised tonight. He added that two people were discharged
immediately after receiving first aid.
“Seven people have been kept for further treatment. The injuries
were inflicted by shrapnel and one of the injured is an international
policeman from Great Britain. The other six are civilians, two of
them young women. One Dutch child-bearing woman was also hurt”,
Ivanović said.
Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica stated that “both the Albanian
terrorists and representatives of the international community were
equally to blame for tonight’s bomb attack on innocent Serbian
citizens in Kosovska Mitrovica because since their daily actions were
encouraging these kinds of incidents”.
“Albanian separatists were quick to react to [UN Envoy]Ahtisaari’s
statement that Serbs were guilty as a nation by tossing a bomb at
innocent Serbian citizens in Kosovska Mitrovica”, said
Koštunica’s communiqué to Beta news agency.
“Although [UN envoy] Ahtisaari has been entrusted with a mandate to
ensure negotiations that will lead to a compromise, a historically
just solution based on international legal norms, the UN special
envoy seems to be acting in complete contrast to such a goal”, the
Prime Minister added.
The leader of the Serbian List for Kosovo and Metohija Oliver
Ivanović was sitting in the cafe Dolce Vita when the bomb exploded.
“This is horrible. I’m very upset. A man calmly approached the
café and just threw the bomb. Anyone could have done it and the
incident happened when a lot of young people were around”, Ivanović
told B92. Ivanović added he was concerned about the feeble reaction
by Kosovo Police Service and KFOR.
UNMIK forces blocked access to the café and are currently
investigating the scene. Several hundred citizens gathered in
discontent and started off towards the bridge that was currently
under a blockade.
Jakšić: The attacker should stand trial before a Serbian court
Member of the Belgrade team for negotiations Marko Jakšić told Beta
agency he would demand that the person who threw the bomb at the café
in Kosovska Mitrovica tonight be handed over to Serbian police and
should stand trial before a Serbian court.
“We will also demand the bridge over the Ibar River that divides the
two communities in Kosovska Mitrovica be closed down until the status
of Kosovo and Metohija is resolved. As of tonight, self-organised
citizens will keep watch at the bridge”, Jakšić announced.
He added that the bomb attack in Kosovska Mitrovica demonstrated that
the crime wave against Serbs has not come to an end.
“This is more proof of the policy of double standards lead by the
international community. Words do not mean anything anymore and we
now demand that the international community finally start doing its
job and protect those who are in danger, in this specific case the
Serb community in Kosovo”, Jakšić said.
BBC Monitoring International Reports, August 26, 2006 Saturday,
A2006082619-1223C-GNW, 268 words
Text of report by Serbian TV on 26 August - Source: RTS 1 TV,
Belgrade, in Serbian 1758 gmt 26 Aug 06
BELGRADE TV SHOWS KOSOVO CAFE BLAST AFTERMATH, SERBS WANT BRIDGE CLOSED
[Presenter] Let us recall the news from the beginning of Dnevnik [RTS
main news bulletin]. A hand grenade exploded in Dolce Vita cafe in
the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica around 1900 [1700 gmt]. As
our correspondent has reported six persons were injured, including a
Canadian policemen working with the United Nations. An ethnic
Albanian young man ran across the bridge from the southern [Albanian-
populated] part of town and lobbed the bomb into the cafe garden.
Eyewitnesses said that members of the Kosovo Police Service [KPS]
were on the bridge while the young man was running across it. Kfor
[NATO-led Kosovo Force] troops came to the scene as late as half an
hour after the explosion, and our correspondent reported that around
300 Serbs already gathered in protest in the area near the bridge in
whose vicinity Dolce Vita Cafe is located.
We have received first footage from the scene.
[Footage broadcast by Zvecan-based TV Most shown, smashed glass,
shrapnel, holes in the door]
[Nebojsa Jovic, captioned as the chairman of the SNV [Serb National
Council] for Kosovska Mitrovica] The Serb National Council will do
everything it can to keep the situation under control, because, as I
have said, we do not want any incidents, but I think that a decision
has already been made. It is clear that the bridge can no longer
remain open [for civilian traffic], at least not until that infamous
[Kosovo] status is solved, because it is evident that there is no
security on the bridge.
Agence France Presse -- English, August 26, 2006 Saturday, 7:26 PM
GMT, 238 words, MITROVICA, Serbia, Aug 26 2006
Grenade attack injures nine in Kosovo
At least nine people, two of them foreigners, were injured Saturday
in a grenade attack in northern Kosovo, a local doctor said.
He said an international policeman and a Dutch woman along with six
Serb civilians, including two young women, were injured when an
unknown attacker threw a hand grenade at a cafe in the ethnically
divided town of Mitrovica.
Three of the nine were severely wounded, doctor Radomir Jankovic of
Mitrovica hospital said.
The cafe is near a bridge over the Ibar river, which divides the
ethnic Albanian south of the town from the Serb-controlled north.
"Police arrested a person suspected to have committed the attack," a
spokesman for the Kosovo Police Service told AFP in Pristina,
refusing to reveal the nationality of the suspect.
But another source within the UN mission said the suspect was a 16-
year old ethnic Albanian.
Several hundred angry Serbs gathered in front of the bridge to
protest against the attack, while police increased security.
Both international and local police are keeping the situation in the
town under control, the spokesman said.
The southern Serbian province of Kosovo has been run by the United
Nations and NATO since the end of a conflict between Serbian forces
and armed ethnic Albanian separatists in June 1999.
Ethnic tensions between the province's ethnic Albanian majority and
its Serb minority remain high despite the presence of thousands of
NATO peacekeepers.
Associated Press Worldstream, August 26, 2006 Saturday, 9:02 PM GMT,
INTERNATIONAL NEWS, 287 words, By NEBI QENA, Associated Press Writer,
PRISTINA Serbia
Explosion in northern Kosovo injures 9
An explosion at a bar in Kosovo's tense north injured nine people on
Saturday night, including a British policeman with U.N. forces in the
province, officials said.
An explosive device was thrown at the Dolce Vita bar shortly before 7
p.m. (1700GMT) in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica,
U.N. police spokesman Larry Miller said. He said a possible suspect
was detained for questioning.
"Two of those injured are foreign nationals, one of them is a police
officer," Miller said, without giving further details.
A spokesman for the British office in Kosovo said a British citizen
serving with the U.N police in the province was among the injured.
A Dutch woman was also hurt in the explosion, said Milan Ivanovic,
director of the hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica.
Kosovska Mitrovica has often been the scene of clashes between ethnic
Albanians and Serbs. The river Ibar divides the town between its
northern Serb-controlled sector and the ethnic Albanian south.
The incident comes a day after the U.N.'s chief envoy for
negotiations aimed at resolving Kosovo's postwar status, Martti
Ahtisaari, finished a three-day visit to the province. The envoy's
latest trip was aimed at pressing ethnic Albanians to grant more
rights to minority Serbs.
There have been fears of rising tension between Kosovo's communities
during the status talks, which are expected to conclude by year's end.
NATO peacekeepers reopened a military base in the Serb-dominated area
in northern Kosovo and U.N. police deployed about 500 police officers
to boost security after local Serbian officials said they would sever
ties with ethnic Albanian-dominated institutions following a series
of violent incidents that they blamed on ethnic Albanians.
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm
Blic (Serbia) - August 26, 2006
Bomb attack on a cafe in Mitrovica
Serbs requesting bridge to be closed
The health condition of nine people injured in a bomb
attack on a cafe in the northern part of Kosovska
Mitrovica is stable and their lives are not
threatened.
Six individuals have been hospitalized, two released
to home care, while international policeman David
Hoffey has been transferred to a KFOR military
hospital.
The attack took place on Saturday evening about 19.00.
A young Albanian man, aged 16, threw a bomb at the
entrance of the 'Dolce vita' cafe that is in close
vicinity to the city bridge over the Ibar River in the
northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica.
According to eyewitnesses, that young man entered the
cafe, looked around and while going out took out a
hand bomb and threw it at the entrance of the cafe.
He then moved away towards the bridge absolutely
relaxed. Only after Serbs started shouting at and
chasing him did police arrest him.
The Kosovo Protection Service announced that the name
of the attacker was Adem Dibrani, 16 years old. He is
now in a district prison in the northern part of
Kosovska Mitrovica.
Representatives of Serbian National Council of the
northern part of Kosovo and Metohija requested
yesterday from international authorities in the
province to close the bridge dividing the Albanian and
Serbian parts of the city until the end of
negotiations over Kosovo's status.
---
Serbia protests at UN envoy's remarks on "collective guilt" over
Kosovo - Text of report by Serbian TV on 25 August
BBC Monitoring Europe - Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide
Monitoring, August 25, 2006 Friday, 378 words - Source: RTS 1 TV,
Belgrade, in Serbian 1000 gmt 25 Aug 06
[Announcer] The Serbian negotiating team has sent a letter of protest
to Martti Ahtisaari, special envoy of the UN Secretary-General for
talks on the future status of Kosovo-Metohija. The letter says that
Ahtisaari had said in talks with members of the Serbian delegation on
8 August in Vienna that the Serbs were guilty as a nation. The
Serbian negotiating team believes that this seriously brings into
question Ahtisaari's unbiasedness in the negotiations and warrants a
reply and clarification.
[Reporter Biljana Pekusic] That Ahtisaari had really told the
negotiating team that the Serbs were to blame as a nation was
confirmed by all members of the Serbian delegation taking part in the
Vienna talks. The letter of protest was sent on 10 August - 15 days
ago - but Ahtisaari has still not replied.
[Serbian negotiating team coordinator Slobodan Samardzic speaking at
presser] The second mistake he made was to ignore our fair offer to
clarify such important matters. As far as I personally am concerned,
this only made me even more suspicious about his good intentions.
[Reporter] In order for the talks to continue it is necessary for
Ahtisaari to clarify his statement. The Serbian negotiating team will
assess the reactions of Ahtisaari, the Contact Group and the overall
political public and decide on its future moves on this basis.
Speaking about Martti Ahtisaari's recent contacts with Serb
representatives in Kosmet, the negotiating team says that in these
talks Oliver Ivanovic was systematically manipulating the Serb List
for his own purposes.
[Serbian negotiating team coordinator Leon Kojen] What Oliver
Ivanovic is doing while submitting different proposals allegedly on
behalf of the Serb List, as well as when meeting [Kosovo Premier]
Agim Ceku, again allegedly on behalf of the Serb List, is pure
political manipulation.
[Reporter] By giving precedence to Oliver Ivanovic, Martti Ahtisaari
wishes to shift the focus of the negotiations from the state
negotiating team to someone else, Slobodan Samardzic says. However,
in the very next meeting his attention will be drawn to the fact that
the Belgrade team is the only authorized instance in the negotiations.
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#1
Blic (Serbia) - August 26, 2006
Government: Ahtisaari responsible
By the latest terrorist attacks in Northern Mitrovica,
Albanian separatists showed how they understood Marti
Ahtisaari's statement that 'Serbs as a nation are
guilty', an announcement issued by the Serbian
Government reads.
'This bomb attack should be the last alarm for the
international community to keep the peace in this part
of Europe', the Serbian Government pointed out.
President Boris Tadic, the Coordination Center for KiM
as well as leaders of Kosovo Serbs condemned the
attack.
....
'I am shocked and disappointed over the bomb attack',
Steven Shook, Deputy UNMIK's Chief said. He also
condemned the attack.
---
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#2
Blic (Serbia) - August 26, 2006
Attackers of Serbian professor still free
Albanians who beat Serbian professor Vuk Danilovic in
the center of Decani on August 21 have not been
arrested yet, although the attack took place before
many eyewitnesses.
In the meantime the organization of war veterans [KLA]
Dukadjini accused Danilovic [of being] a war criminal,
threatening him that he would be treated 'as all other
Serbs'.
The police are said to have serious suspicions that
the attackers of professor Danilovic are members of
the abovementioned organization.
'The announcement is an incorrect interpretation of
the event and is filled with hatred', an OSCE report
specified.
The president of Decani municipality Nazmi Selmanaj
also condemned the attack.
'It is well known to everybody that Danilovic has
always been a peaceful and respected citizen',
Selmanaj said.
Professor Danilovic is temporarily displaced in the
village of Berane.
When the attack occurred, he was in Decani with five
Serbian children within an OSCE project called
'Multiethnic Camp'.
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n94833
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - August 28, 2006
International Community Tolerating Albanian Acts of
Violence in Kosovo
Belgrade - With the latest terrorist attack in
Kosovska Mitrovica on Saturday the Albanian
separatists showed how they have understood the
statement of UN Special Envoy for Kosovo Marti
Ahtisaari that “the Serbs as people” are to blame for
Kosovo’s fate.
If the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo can say such a
thing then any act of violence committed against the
Serbs is justified and rewarded, a statement of the
Serbian government says made with regard to the
terrorist attack at a café in the northern part of
Kosovska Mitrovica, the Serbian newspaper Danas reads
today.
Nine people were wounded in the attack that took place
on Saturday.
The terror exerted over the Serbs in Kosovo in the
presence of the international community has been going
on for seven years now.
Instead of counteracting the Albanian separatist
violence the international community representatives
turn a blind eye and sometimes even tolerate the
violence just like Marti Ahtisaari did with his
statement, the Serbian government says.
The bomb attack in Kosovska Mitrovica should be the
last indicator for the international community that it
has to use decisive measures to preserve the peace in
this part of Europe, the statement reads.
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n94832
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - August 28, 2006
Serbian Parliament to Hold Special Session on Kosovo
Belgrade - After the sharp reaction of the Serbian
authorities with regard to the statement of UN Special
Envoy for Kosovo Marti Ahtisaari that “the Serbs as
people” are to blame for Kosovo’s fate and especially
after the explosion in Kosovska Mitrovica on Saturday
it is becoming more and more certain that soon the
Serbian parliament will have the possibility to state
its position on the matter, the Serbian newspaper
Danas reads today.
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica himself announced
last week that the government will request a special
session of the parliament which will be dedicated to
the talks on the region’s future status.
The Serbian negotiating team is expected to present a
report on the progress of the talks and the MPs to
confirm that Kosovo is an inseparable part of Serbia.
This would be yet another unity declaration on the eve
of the forthcoming meetings for Kosovo’s
decentralization, the newspaper comments.
---
http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11578890
Interfax - August 28, 2006
Russia supports Serbian integrity - Putin
SOCHI - Russian President Vladimir Putin has
reiterated Russia's support of the territorial
integrity of Serbia in a meeting with Montenegrin
Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic on Monday,
The president confirmed Russia's support of Serbia's
territorial integrity, but noted that much depended on
Serbia itself, presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko told
reporters after the meeting.
Putin asked Djukanovic's opinion of the Kosovo
situation and his assessment of the prospects for
Serbian-Montenegrin relations, the aide said.
Putin repeated an earlier statement that Russia had
taken a cautious position on the creation of new
states due to the potential weakening of these states,
Prikhodko said.
---
http://www.praguemonitor.com/ctk/?
story_id=w39824i20060828;story=Czech-KFOR-soldiers-seize-weapons-
ammunition-in-Kosovo
Czech News Agency - August 28, 2006
Czech KFOR soldiers seize weapons, ammunition in Kosovo
Prague/Pristina - Czech, Finnish and Swedish soldiers
and Kosovo police seized an unspecified quantity of
illegally possessed weapons and ammunition in a search
in the area controlled by the Czech KFOR contingent in
Kosovo, Lieutenant Vit Rapan told CTK today.
The operation that lasted about eight hours was unique
by its extent.
[A]bout 10 houses and farm buildings were searched,
said Rapan, spokesman for the 9th KFOR contingent in
Kosovo.
The Czech KFOR contingent in Kosovo has about 500
soldiers.
It controls the whole central part of Kosovo in which
units from several other states also operate.
---
http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?
IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=34665&NrIssue=123&NrSection=20
MakFax (Macedonia) - August 28, 2006
Ferrero-Waldner says new escalation in Kosovo is possible
Vienna - The EU's external relations commissioner,
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, did not rule out the
possibility of fresh outbreak of violence in Kosovo.
"The Kosovo issue is very tough", she said.
After a standstill in the negotiations over the future
status of the province, she told the Austrian Agency
APA that the Kosovo issue is very tough, which is why
fresh escalation of the situation might take place.
---
http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?
IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=34681&NrIssue=123&NrSection=20
MakFax (Macedonia) - August 28, 2006
Serbia might request Ahtisaari's recall
Belgrade - The President of the Coordination Center
for Kosovo and Metohija, Sanda Rashkovic-Ivic, will
put forward a motion recommending to the Belgrade
negotiating team to urge the recall of Martti
Ahtisaari from the post of chief UN mediator in the
negotiations over Kosovo.
In an interview with Radio Free Europe, Rashkovic-Ivic
said that by his recent statement "Serbs as a nation
are guilty", the UN Envoy Ahtisaari "has debased and
insulted the Serbian nation", clearly taking the
Albanian side in the negotiating process.
A meeting of the Serbian negotiating team aimed at
reviewing the results of the current stage of Kosovo
status talks is taking place on Monday.
It is due to be attended also by the President Boris
Tadic, Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Foreign
Minister Vuk Draskovic. Simultaneously, the Serbian
Parliament convened for a session today to discuss the
same topic.
As announced, the Serbian negotiators are due to
decide on further steps, in the light of the recent
Ahtisaari statement that "Serbs as a nation are
guilty", i.e. that Slobodan Milosevic's policy will be
taken into consideration when making decision on the
Kosovo's status, since "every nation has to take
responsibility for its past".
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?
cat=Politics&loid=8.0.334408002&par=0
ADN Kronos International (Italy) - August 28, 2006
KOSOVO: CHIEF UN NEGOTIATOR STIRS UP SERB STORM
Belgrade - Chief United Nations negotiator for Kosovo
Martti Ahtisaari drew unprecedented criticism over the
weekend from Serbian politicians for allegedly saying
that "Serbs are guilty as people" and implying that
they would have to pay for it, possibly by losing
Kosovo, which is seeking independence.
The statement, allegedly made by Ahtisaari during
Kosovo talks in Vienna on 8 August, was made public
Friday by members of Belgrade's negotiating team and
immediately provoked a public shock.
A weekend bomb [was used] against a cafe in the
northern Serb area of the divided town of Kosovska
Mitrovica where ethnic Albanians live to the south of
a UN-guarded bridge.
Ahtisaari, winding up his four-day visit to Kosovo on
Friday, indirectly confirmed his earlier stance.
Asked by journalists for comment he said that "every
nation carries a burden for which it has to pay".
....
The statement further enraged Belgrade, which opposes
Kosovo's independence, and some politicians even
called for Ahtisaari’s resignation.
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said in a statement
that while the UN was seeking "a just and tenable
solution for the status of Kosovo" Ahtisaari seemed
"determined to do just the opposite."
Ahtisaari has been creating the impression that the
negotiations were unnecessary, he said, "because the
solution already exists and has only to be implemented
- and that is Kosovo independence".
Spokesman for Kostunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia,
Andreja Mladenovic, said that "before Ahtisaari only
Hitler had dared to say that an entire people was
guilty”, slamming Ahtisaari’s statement as
"scandalous, shameful and racist."
Tension was heightened after an attack late Saturday
on a Serbian cafe in the city of Kosovska Mitrovica,
in which nine people, including a UN policemen and a
pregnant Dutch woman, were injured.
The Serbian government said in a statement the
“terrorist act” was encouraged by Ahtisaari’s
statement that “Serbs were guilty as a people”.
"If something like that is said by a special envoy of
the UN Secretary-general in the talks on the Kosovo
status, then any violence against Serbs in justified
and awarded,” the government statement said.
The cafe in the divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica on
Saturday, which injured nine people, has fuelled fears
of a fresh wave of violence in the UN-run province,
where nearly two million ethnic Albanians are pushing
for independence from Serbia.
http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/novina/article.tpl?
IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=2&NrArticle=34711&NrIssue=123&NrSection=20
MakFax (Macedonia) - August 28, 2006
Serbia questions Ahtisaari's position
Belgrade - Serbia has officially condemned the UN
Envoy in Kosovo status talks Martti Ahtisaari,
announcing that "resolving of the situation following
his statement" will be demanded.
The Serbian negotiating team has unanimously condemned
the latest Ahtisaari's statements, describing them as
diametrically opposing to his mandate granted by the
Un Secretary General Kofi Annan.
"It was agreed that it is necessary to take all
diplomatic and other steps in order to prevent any
damages that might incur as a result of the recent
Ahtisaari's statements", says the statement released
after today's session of the negotiating team,
attended also by the President Boris Tadic, Prime
Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Foreign Minister Vuk
Draskovic.
Earlier today, the President of the Coordination
Center for Kosovo and Metohija, Sanda Rashkovic-Ivic
said that by stating "Serbs as a nation are guilty",
i.e. that Slobodan Milosevic's policy will be taken
into consideration when making decision on the
Kosovo's status, since "every nation has to take
responsibility for its past", the UN Envoy Ahtisaari
"has debased and insulted the Serbian nation", clearly
taking the Albanian side in the negotiating process.
---
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060828-104955-4896r
United Press International - August 28, 2006
China supports Serbia in Kosovo talks
BELGRADE, Serbia - China's state envoy says his
country supports Serbia in safeguarding its
sovereignty in U.N.-led talks on Kosovo's future,
Belgrade media said.
Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan on Monday told
Serbian President Boris Tadic that Beijing advocates a
compromise, just and peaceful solution to the future
status of Serbia's predominantly ethnic-Albanian
Kosovo province, Belgrade' s Beta news agency
reported.
In a separate meeting with Serbian Prime Minister
Vojislav Kostunica, Tang said the respect of
sovereignty and the territorial integrity of states is
the basis of international order, the premier's office
said in a statement.
Formally part of Serbia, Kosovo's 1.8 million
population is 90-percent ethnic-Albanian and their
leaders insist on independence from the Serbian
government in Belgrade.
But, Serbia's leaders, who represent Kosovo's 100,000
Serbs, will accept any solution except a Kosovo
independent of Belgrade.
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#3
Blic (Serbia) - August 28, 2006
Support to Serbia
Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan said during
yesterday's meeting with Serbian President Boris Tadic
that 'China is respecting Serbia's stances over the
preservation of sovereignty and territorial
integrity', the President's cabinet announced.
Djasuien yesterday also met with Serbian Prime
Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Foreign Minister Vuk
Draskovic.
http://english.people.com.cn/200608/28/eng20060828_297481.html
Xinhua News Agency - August 28, 2006
China willing to promote Sino-Serbian ties to new level: senior official
Visiting Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan said on
Sunday that China is willing to work together with
Serbia to promote the bilateral ties to a new level.
Tang made the comments during a meeting with Serbian
Deputy Prime Minister Ivana Dulich Markovich.
Tang told Markovich that China is devoted to the
development of bilateral relations and that it
respects the path of development taken by the Serbian
people as well as the domestic and foreign policies
pursued by the Serbian government.
China will join efforts with Serbia to promote the
bilateral relationship to a new level, Tang stressed.
---
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=13414
Civil Georgia - August 30, 2006
Moscow Calls for Universal Approach in Conflict Resolution
Tbilisi - Russian Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov said
in an interview with Interfax news agency that
international community should work out universal
approach in respect of conflict resolution issues.
“There should be no “double standards.”
It is of principle importance not to let use of one
approach in respect of Kosovo problems and another in
respect of similar situations in other regions.
It is clear for us that even now “Kosovo factor” is
already influencing on those processes which take
place in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transdnestria, and
in other regions of Europe and of world,” Titov said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060830/53312897.html
Russian Information Agency (Novosti) - August 30, 2006
Russia wants common approach over Kosovo, frozen conflicts
MOSCOW - Russia insists that a common approach be
taken to resolving the problem of Kosovo and other
regional, "frozen" conflicts, a deputy foreign
minister said Wednesday.
Russia has repeatedly said that sovereignty for the
UN-administered Serbian province of Kosovo, which is
sought by the ethnic Albanian majority but opposed by
Belgrade, could have negative consequences for
conflicts in the former Soviet Union that erupted in
the early 1990s.
"It is extremely important to avoid a situation when
one approach is taken to the Kosovo problem and
another one to similar conflicts in other regions,"
Vladimir Titov said.
Russia has peacekeepers stationed in the zones of
three conflicts in the former Soviet Union.
Two of them are in Georgia, where the self-proclaimed
republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia refuse to
recognize Tbilisi's rule, and the other is in Moldova,
where the unrecognized Transdnestr has sought to break
away from the central authorities.
"For us it is obvious that the Kosovo factor has
influenced processes in Abkhazia, South Ossetia,
Transdnestr, and other regions in Europe and the
world," Titov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned in July
against any double standards with regard to the
unrecognized republics in Georgia and Moldova and said
there had always been contradictions in the principles
of international law.
"[Russia] wants and will insist on decisions to be
based on a universal principle to prevent cases when
approaches to the regions like Kosovo are different
from those to Abkhazia or South Ossetia, as it is
incorrect," the president said during a Web cast.
Titov said status for Kosov was still to be defined
and added that Russia, a veto-wielding member of the
UN Security Council and one of the six-nation Kosovo
Contact Group, would continue efforts to help find a
solution that would be approved by the UN, but
insisted a solution should not be imposed by one of
the countries involved.
http://www.vor.ru/index_eng.phtml?view=news_eng&id=11630
Voice of Russia - August 30, 2006
Russia favours a similar treatment of the Kosovo
problem and other problems of this kind elsewhere in
the world
Russia favours a similar treatment of the Kosovo
problem and other problems of this kind elsewhere in
the world.
This came in a statement by the deputy Russian Foreign
Minister Vladimir Titov.
According to him, the Kosovo factor affects the
processes under way in Abkhazia, South Ossetia and
Trans-Dniestria.
The diplomat pointed out that Albanians press for
Kosovo’s independence at a time when Belgrade comes up
with an offer of broad autonomy for the province
within Serbia.
Meanwhile settlement standards have been set down in
the UN Charter and also, in relation to Kosovo, in the
relevant UN Security Council resolution and other
documents.
These claim that Serbia is indivisible and that Kosovo
is part thereof.
---
http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?
yyyy=2006&mm=08&dd=31&nav_category=92&nav_id=36405
B92/Beta (Serbia) - August 31, 2006
Contact Group on Kosovo [Excerpt]
BELGRADE - The Contact Group will meet in Vienna to
determine the next steps in the Kosovo status
negotiations. Belgrade-Ahtisaari feud continues.
The meeting will be attended by the chief UN
negotiator Martti Ahtisaari.
His spokeswoman told B92 that the Contact Group will
analyze the negotiations’ achievements so far. The
meeting will take place in the midst of a war of words
between official Belgrade and Martti Ahtisaari on his
alleged statement on Serbs being guilty as a nation.
Ahtisaari’s chief spokesperson Hua Jiang told B92 that
Ahtisaari will not apologise for his statements
because he never mentioned the collective guilt of the
Serbian people.
“The statement was taken out of context and poorly
presented. He never mentioned the collective guilt of
the Serbian people. Ahtisaari spoke of the historical
legacy, that every nation should have the courage to
face its own past. There is no reason for Ahtisaari to
offer an apology and that is not going to happen.”
Jiang said.
The Serbian Government responded by publishing a
document which the Serbian Kosovo status negotiation
team had sent to Ahtisaari in early August. The letter
states that Ahtisaari literally said that the Serbian
people are to blame for the Kosovo crisis and that all
members of the negotiation delegation can confirm
that.
Regardless of the recent bickering, UN officials are
continuing to prepare the continuation of the
discussions. In light of these preparations, the
Serbian discussion team met with UNOSEK
decentralisation experts this morning.
Meanwhile, it was announced that the Serbian
government will demand the clarification of the UN
Kosovo Envoy’s statement on the Serbs’ collective
guilt from the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The Kosovo Coordinating Center chairwoman Sanda
Raškoviæ-Iviæ held a press conference after the
government session, and expressed her expectation that
Annan, “renowned for fighting racism and
discrimination”, would not support the statement
accusing an entire people of being guilty.
“To say that Serbs are guilty as a nation, that any
nation is guilty as such, is one of the basic
assumptions of fascism and it cannot be overlooked”,
she said and added that the entire negotiating team is
demanding Ahtisaari’s apology.
....
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n95069
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - September 1, 2006
Adem Demaci, Ideologist of Kosovo’s Independence:
Serbia Wants Kosovo to Turn into Embers
Pristina - “The solution of the Kosovo issue has been
predetermined long ago. Now, dramas are being played
in Kosovo and Serbia, which are staged by the
international community”, Adem Demaci, the most
popular political prisoner of former Yugoslavia and an
ideologist of Kosovo’s independence since 1958, said
in an interview with the Serbian newspaper Glas
Javnosti.
Currently, Demaci is a chairman of the Union of
Writers in Kosovo.
According to him, the international community is
trying to draw the two countries’ stands closer so
that the UN Security Council could solve the issue at
once when the time is appropriate.
He added that the Serbian and Kosovo politicians were
the same – they all aim to preserve their power.
“The world accepts an independent Kosovo, which will
exist within the EU. Under the EU shelter, the
Albanian people will be united. Serbia wants Kosovo.
But neither the Serbs, nor the Albanians will accept
that. So Serbia wants a division, which would mean a
Palestinization of Kosovo. Serbia wants Kosovo to turn
into embers”, Demaci stated.
---
http://www.blic.co.yu/blic/danas/broj/E-Index.htm#2
Blic (Serbia) - September 1, 2006
Displaced in Serbia
In the territory of Serbia, seven years after the end
of conflicts in Kosovo and Metohija, there are more
than 200,000 people displaced from that province, the
new UNHCR report specifies.
Among 207,000 refugees there are 155,000 Serbs, 22,000
Gypsies, 8,000 Montenegrins, slightly more than 5,000
Bosniacs and about 500 Albanians.
---
http://www.vor.ru/Exclusive/excl_next8234_eng.html
Voice of Russia - September 1, 2006
SERBS ARE UNHAPPY OVER PRO-ALBANIAN POSITION OF NEW U.N MISSION HEAD
Pyotr Iskenderov
The new U.N mission head in Kosovo, 55-year old German
diplomat, Joachim Ruecker, has today, September 1,
taken up his new post and simultaneously a German
general, Roland Kather, has taken over command of KFOR
in Kosovo.
The changes in the administration and KFOR have been
effected on the eve of crucial events in the
settlement in Kosovo.
The UN Security Council is due to meet on September 18
to listen to a progress report by the U.N special
envoy to talks on Kosovo future, Marti Ahtisaari.
But before September 18, diplomats of the Contact
Group will review the report.
Ahtisaari has promised to present to the diplomats a
preliminary version of Kosovo’s new status.
The new U.N mission head has let it be known that he
hopes to be the last person to occupy the post since
he believes that shortly a solution of the final
status of Kosovo will be found, a statement seen by
knowledgeable experts as a an attempt to prepare world
public opinion to accept a fait accompli - Kosovo
independence.
In the meantime, Serbs are unhappy over the
appointment of Joachim Ruecker as the new head of the
U.N mission in Kosovo.
Until his new appointment he supervised the process of
privatization in the province and he encouraged the
buying at give-away prices of Serbian enterprises and
property by local Albanians.
The chief of the economic council for Kosovo and
Metohia plus southern Serbia in the Serbian
government, Nenada Popovica, has disclosed that about
250 enterprises have already changed ownership and 99
per cent of their new owners are Albanians living
either in Kosovo or outside its border.
With such a dented reputation Joachim Ruecker can
hardly expect to easily win the trust of Serbs.
---
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/09/01/europe/EU_GEN_Kosovo_NATO.php
Associated Press - September 2, 2006
NATO's new Kosovo commander pledges resolve during status talks
PRISTINA - Serbia NATO's new commander in Kosovo
pledged Friday that the force would deal swiftly with
security threats in the province as it enters the
endgame in resolving its political status.
In what he said was a year of shaping the future,
German Lt. Gen. Roland Kather said the peacekeeping
force was set on overcoming obstacles in providing
stability in the volatile province.
"If there are some, we will push them away, you can be
sure," Kather said.
Kather is the 11th commander of the force of some
16,000 peacekeepers and replaces Italian Lt. Gen.
Giuseppe Valotto, who led the force for nearly a year.
The ceremony for the transfer of command was attended
by Italian Defense Minister Arturo Parisi and his
German counterpart, Franz Josef Jung, as well as the
commander of NATO's Joint Force Command based in
Naples, Italy, Adm. Harry Ulrich.
The move comes as Germany takes a more prominent
political and military role in the region. Another
German, Joachim Ruecker officially took over as the
head of the U.N. mission in the province on Friday.
Germany is the largest contributor to the peacekeeping
force in Kosovo with some 2,500 soldiers. A battalion
was deployed recently into Kosovo to reinforce the
NATO-led peacekeepers.
Talks to determine Kosovo's future — whether it
becomes an independent state, as the ethnic Albanians
demand, or remains attached to Serbia, as the
province's minority Serbs insist — are under way and
are aimed at steering the two sides toward settling
the province's status by the end of the year.
Kather said his new duty was to ensure "everything
remains under control" during the status talks.
International authorities fear tensions between the
communities might spill over as the talks become more
intensive. So far there has been little progress
between the delegations that have been meeting in
Vienna, Austria in U.N.-run negotiations.
In a recent incident in Kosovo's north, nine people
were injured when an explosive device was thrown in a
bar frequented by Serbs. Police arrested an
ethnic-Albanian suspect.
Kather said the force would concentrate on the
northern part of the province, where most of Kosovo's
Serbs are.
"We all know that the presence of minorities in the
north is in numbers more numerous than in other parts,
therefore for us it will be a big challenge. For the
time being, I believe that the situation in the north
is quiet. But will it remain stable? Time will show,"
Kather said through a translator.
This is Kather's second tour of duty in Kosovo. He
previously commanded the troops in Kosovo's southern
German-controlled sector in 1999 and 2000, soon after
the province came under U.N. and NATO control.
The alliance's peacekeepers are in charge of the
overall security of the province.
---
http://www.b92.net/eng/insight/opinions.php?nav_id=36489
Balkan Insight - September 4, 2006
Kosovo Serbs question security build-up
Zeljko Tvrdišiæ
International forces in Kosovo have stepped up their
police presence in northern Kosovo, saying local Serbs
need more protection from attacks.
But local Serb population and officials as well as
some Albanian analysts fear the real goal is to ensure
the Serb enclave does not unite with Serbia in the
event of Kosovo being declared independent.
Tensions are running high in northern Kosovo after a
bomb went off on August 27 in the Dolce Vita café, a
popular hang-out for Serbs in divided Mitrovica.
Local Serbs say if the international police were
serious about protecting them, the bombing, which
injured nine people, would not have happened in the
first place.
Serbs nerves are on edge over the likely outcome of
status talks on the future of the bitterly disputed
territory.
In 1999, UN Security Council Resolution 1244 declared
Kosovo a UN protectorate, although it formally
remained a part of Serbia.
The majority Albanian population insists on an
independent state, while Belgrade and most Kosovo
Serbs staunchly oppose the idea.
Talks on Kosovo's final status started in February in
Vienna but have yielded no results.
While the representatives of Pristina and Belgrade are
at loggerheads, the mediators in the process - the UN
and the so-called Contact Group of countries the
Balkans - insist negotiations must wrap up this year.
The Contact Group has already established ten
principles for Kosovo`s future status. Among them are
the decrees that Kosovo will not be divided, will not
unite with any other country and will never return to
the status it held before 1999.
Serbia fears the international community may then
impose its own solution, which will involve some form
of independent statehood for Kosovo.
The UN's human rights arm, UNHCR, supports the claim
of official sources in Serbia and Montenegro that
around 223,000 Serbs, Montenegrins, Roma and other
minorities have fled Kosovo since 1999.
Serbs remaining in Kosovo, meanwhile, have been on the
receiving end of frequent attacks by Albanians who
especially target the isolated enclaves Serb south of
the Ibar River, which runs through Mitrovica.
Nor has the mainly Serb north of Kosovo escaped
attack. Early in July a Serb youth, Miljan Veskovic,
was murdered in Zveèan, in northern Kosovo.
In protest, three northern Serb municipalities
suspended all cooperation with Albanian controlled
institutions in the Kosovo capital, Priština.
The international forces in Kosovo, known as KFOR,
have now established a military base in the northern
town of Leposaviæ, deploying about 300 soldiers. The
UN administration, meanwhile, is planning to send an
additional 500 international police to the area.
UNMIK police commissioner Vein Hissong said on August
9 that the extra police were coming at the request of
the local Serb authorities.
A KFOR representative, Lieutenant Colonel Bertrand
Fayet, said the two companies of a German battalion,
now stationed near Leposaviæ, would remain till the
end of September when units from other tactical KFOR
forces will replace them.
Fayet told Balkan Insight that the beefed-up military
presence was meant to "reassure and calm down the
local population".
But Slaviša Ristiæ, mayor of Zubin Potok, a
municipality in northern Kosovo, told Balkan Insight
that Serbs suspected the real intention was to prevent
the area from uniting with Serbia. "Otherwise, I see
no reason to beef up the presence of police forces,"
said Ristiæ.
Some Albanians agree. A local political analyst,
Nedzmedin Spahiu, told Balkan Insight he also thought
the increased presence signalled the international
community's determination to prevent Kosovo's
partition.
"The Serbian government wants the partition of Kosovo,
and this move on the part of the international
community is intended to preclude such a development,"
said Spahiu.
Živojin Rakoèeviæ, a Kosovo Serb media editor from
Graèanica, in central Kosovo, said the move was a
warning to officials from Priština and Belgrade who
have discussed the possibility of partition.
"This is why the international community has
strengthened its presence, sending a clear message
that the partition is not a viable option - for the
time being," said Rakoèeviæ.
The local Serbs share the views of the analysts and
Serb representatives. Most are suspicious of the
international community's intentions, pointing out
that incidents have continued to occur, despite the
increased international presence. The bombing on
August 27 in Mitrovica bolstered their suspicions.
"I used to think safety concerns were the reason to
increase the international military and police
presence here, but after this incident in Mitrovica I
doubt it," said law student Jelena Dabetiæ from
Mitrovica.
She said the UNMIK police were probably preparing for
"something much bigger and more sinister", meaning the
imposition of Kosovo's final status as an independent
state.
Nebojša Markoviæ, another Serb from Mitrovica, agreed.
"They are not here to protect us but the
administrative border with Serbia," he said, referring
to the international forces, "since the international
community fears the Serb reaction in case Kosovo's
independence is declared".
Markoviæ said the UN police was acting under pressure
of the Albanians, who insist on creating their own
state.
However, Larry Miller, Mitrovica region's police press
officer, said such talk was nonsense.
"The increased presence of international officers in
the Northern Mitrovica region is to provide security
for all citizens and ensure that rule of law
prevails," he said.
"These officers have been assigned to Mitrovica,
partially in response to requests from local political
leaders for increase security.
"Everything else would be pure speculation."
Zeljko Tvrdisic is the editor-in-chief of Kontakt Plus
Radio in Kosovska Mitrovica and Kosovo correspondent
of Tanjug press agency. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s
online publication.
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n95476
Focus News Agency (Bulgaria) - September 8, 2006
US Think Kosovo Should Receive Some Kind of
Independence: Serbia’s President
Washington - Serbia’s President Boris Tadic stated
yesterday evening that during all his conversations
with US officials, including with US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice, he felt there was an overall
opinion that Kosovo should receive some kind of
independence, Serbian online edition Mondo informs.
“Such an opinion is felt in all Washington
conversations and Serbia should know this.
"On the other hand Serbia is defending its position –
of opposing Kosovo’s independence and of preserving
the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the
country - with legal means,” Mr. Tadic told RTS.
He pointed out that he had expressed his opinion
openly and at the same time had pointed out that
“Serbia is more than interested in a strategic
partnership with the US”.
da noi diffusa lo scorso 27 agosto nella versione italiana dopo che
aveva circolato per molti giorni anche nelle versioni turca, inglese
e francese, ci perviene la notizia di una smentita da parte del
responsabile stampa di Hezbollah, Hussain Rahhal, secondo il quale
"Nasrallah non ha rilasciato alcuna intervista ad alcun giornalista
turco o non-libanese durante il mese di agosto".
Diffondiamo di seguito i dettagli sulla vicenda, ancora non chiarita,
raccolti dai compagni statunitensi di Workers World.
CNJ
--------
http://www.workers.org/2006/world/interview-0903/
Hezbollah denies interview
Published Sep 3, 2006 9:42 AM
Workers World newspaper's editors learned on Sept. 1 that Hussain
Rahhal, Hezbollah's press liaison, while answering a question from a
correspondent of the Anatolian Press Agency regarding an interview
purported to be with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and published
Aug. 12 in the Turkish socialist newspaper Evrensel, said: "Our
secretary general Nasrallah has not given any interviews to any
Turkish or other non-Lebanese journalist during the month of August."
Soon after it had been published in Turkish, an English translation
of the original purported interview was made available on the
Internet. On Aug. 23, Workers World published excerpts from this
text. It was also published in English by Counterpunch as well as
other publications, and translated and published in other languages.
At the time of publication, some had questioned the authenticity of
the interview. Counterpunch's Alexander Cockburn wrote a reply
defending the publication of the purported interview, citing, in
part, the lack of any denial of the interview from Nasrallah or
Hezbollah. When excerpts were published in Workers World on Aug. 23,
some 11 days after the original Turkish publication, there still had
been no public denial of the interview.
What Workers World knows of the story behind the interview comes
mostly from the newspaper Evrensel, which has been publishing for 12
years and is a respected newspaper of the Turkish left. Two Turkish
filmmakers associated with the "Sheikh Bedreddin Film Collective,"
Roza Cigdem Erdogan and Mutlu Sahin, were in Beirut making
documentary films. The two had written other newspaper reports for
Evrensel before they turned in the purported interview with Nasrallah.
Evrensel apologized to its readers and to those who republished the
text for publishing the alleged interview and demanded an explanation
from the film collective. The film collective has replied with a
statement saying they are investigating the events. There was no
immediate response from the two filmmakers who had claimed to have
done the interview.
—WW editorial board, Sept. 2
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@...
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@...
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php
On Aug 27, 2006, at 2:58 PM, Coord. Naz. per la Jugoslavia wrote:
>
> 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)
>
(...)
2001: Afghanistan Opium Said Wiped Out
http://english.people.com.cn/english/200102/16/eng20010216_62580.html
2001: L'OPPIO È STATO ELIMINATO DALL'AFGHANISTAN (Il Quotidiano del
Popolo, Cina)
2006: Opium Harvest at Record Level in Afghanistan
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/world/asia/03afghan.html?
ex=1314936000&en=9d6b28a949c8576c&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
2006: LA RACCOLTA DI OPPIO IN AFGHANISTAN A LIVELLI DA RECORD (The
New York Times, USA)
New Al Qaeda Video More CIA Black Op Propaganda
Pathetic pretence kept up that "Al Qaeda" is still or ever was a real
organized terror outfit and not the creation of deep intelligence.
(Steve Watson / Infowars)
The latest cobbled together trash home video to be released and
accredited to "Al Qaeda" is yet another piece of scripted propaganda
that portrays a desperate attempt to give the impression that the
group operates as a cohesive unit. It is becoming tiresome to have to
address these endless videos which are released whenever the
Administration is feeling the pressure, something that now seems to
be a permanent feature of this government...
http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=26408&s2=06
oppure http://infowars.net/articles/September2006/040906AlQaeda.htm
A proposto dell’articolo sul Libano che porta la mia firma sul manifesto del 4 settembre 2006.
Discipline of Political Economy
School of Economics and Political Science, Sidney
In the days after Hezbollah crossed from Lebanon into Israel, on July 12th, to kidnap two soldiers, triggering an Israeli air attack on Lebanon and a full-scale war, the Bush Administration seemed strangely passive. “It’s a moment of clarification,” President George W. Bush said at the G-8 summit, in St. Petersburg, on July 16th. “It’s now become clear why we don’t have peace in the Middle East.” He described the relationship between Hezbollah and its supporters in Iran and Syria as one of the “root causes of instability,” and subsequently said that it was up to those countries to end the crisis. Two days later, despite calls from several governments for the United States to take the lead in negotiations to end the fighting, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that a ceasefire should be put off until “the conditions are conducive.”
The Bush Administration, however, was closely involved in the planning of Israel’s retaliatory attacks. President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney were convinced, current and former intelligence and diplomatic officials told me, that a successful Israeli Air Force bombing campaign against Hezbollah’s heavily fortified underground-missile and command-and-control complexes in Lebanon could ease Israel’s security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American preëmptive attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear installations, some of which are also buried deep underground.
Israeli military and intelligence experts I spoke to emphasized that the country’s immediate security issues were reason enough to confront Hezbollah, regardless of what the Bush Administration wanted. Shabtai Shavit, a national-security adviser to the Knesset who headed the Mossad, Israel’s foreign-intelligence service, from 1989 to 1996, told me, “We do what we think is best for us, and if it happens to meet America’s requirements, that’s just part of a relationship between two friends. Hezbollah is armed to the teeth and trained in the most advanced technology of guerrilla warfare. It was just a matter of time. We had to address it.”
Hezbollah is seen by Israelis as a profound threat—a terrorist organization, operating on their border, with a military arsenal that, with help from Iran and Syria, has grown stronger since the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon ended, in 2000. Hezbollah’s leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, has said he does not believe that Israel is a “legal state.” Israeli intelligence estimated at the outset of the air war that Hezbollah had roughly five hundred medium-range Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 rockets and a few dozen long-range Zelzal rockets; the Zelzals, with a range of about two hundred kilometres, could reach Tel Aviv. (One rocket hit Haifa the day after the kidnappings.) It also has more than twelve thousand shorter-range rockets. Since the conflict began, more than three thousand of these have been fired at Israel.
According to a Middle East expert with knowledge of the current thinking of both the Israeli and the U.S. governments, Israel had devised a plan for attacking Hezbollah—and shared it with Bush Administration officials—well before the July 12th kidnappings. “It’s not that the Israelis had a trap that Hezbollah walked into,” he said, “but there was a strong feeling in the White House that sooner or later the Israelis were going to do it.”
The Middle East expert said that the Administration had several reasons for supporting the Israeli bombing campaign. Within the State Department, it was seen as a way to strengthen the Lebanese government so that it could assert its authority over the south of the country, much of which is controlled by Hezbollah. He went on, “The White House was more focussed on stripping Hezbollah of its missiles, because, if there was to be a military option against Iran’s nuclear facilities, it had to get rid of the weapons that Hezbollah could use in a potential retaliation at Israel. Bush wanted both. Bush was going after Iran, as part of the Axis of Evil, and its nuclear sites, and he was interested in going after Hezbollah as part of his interest in democratization, with Lebanon as one of the crown jewels of Middle East democracy.”
Administration officials denied that they knew of Israel’s plan for the air war. The White House did not respond to a detailed list of questions. In response to a separate request, a National Security Council spokesman said, “Prior to Hezbollah’s attack on Israel, the Israeli government gave no official in Washington any reason to believe that Israel was planning to attack. Even after the July 12th attack, we did not know what the Israeli plans were.” A Pentagon spokesman said, “The United States government remains committed to a diplomatic solution to the problem of Iran’s clandestine nuclear weapons program,” and denied the story, as did a State Department spokesman.
The United States and Israel have shared intelligence and enjoyed close military coöperation for decades, but early this spring, according to a former senior intelligence official, high-level planners from the U.S. Air Force—under pressure from the White House to develop a war plan for a decisive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities—began consulting with their counterparts in the Israeli Air Force.
“The big question for our Air Force was how to hit a series of hard targets in Iran successfully,” the former senior intelligence official said. “Who is the closest ally of the U.S. Air Force in its planning? It’s not Congo—it’s Israel. Everybody knows that Iranian engineers have been advising Hezbollah on tunnels and underground gun emplacements. And so the Air Force went to the Israelis with some new tactics and said to them, ‘Let’s concentrate on the bombing and share what we have on Iran and what you have on Lebanon.’ ” The discussions reached the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, he said.
“The Israelis told us it would be a cheap war with many benefits,” a U.S. government consultant with close ties to Israel said. “Why oppose it? We’ll be able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels, and bunkers from the air. It would be a demo for Iran.”
A Pentagon consultant said that the Bush White House “has been agitating for some time to find a reason for a preëmptive blow against Hezbollah.” He added, “It was our intent to have Hezbollah diminished, and now we have someone else doing it.” (As this article went to press, the United Nations Security Council passed a ceasefire resolution, although it was unclear if it would change the situation on the ground.)
According to Richard Armitage, who served as Deputy Secretary of State in Bush’s first term—and who, in 2002, said that Hezbollah “may be the A team of terrorists”—Israel’s campaign in Lebanon, which has faced unexpected difficulties and widespread criticism, may, in the end, serve as a warning to the White House about Iran. “If the most dominant military force in the region—the Israel Defense Forces—can’t pacify a country like Lebanon, with a population of four million, you should think carefully about taking that template to Iran, with strategic depth and a population of seventy million,” Armitage said. “The only thing that the bombing has achieved so far is to unite the population against the Israelis.”
Several current and former officials involved in the Middle East told me that Israel viewed the soldiers’ kidnapping as the opportune moment to begin its planned military campaign against Hezbollah. “Hezbollah, like clockwork, was instigating something small every month or two,” the U.S. government consultant with ties to Israel said. Two weeks earlier, in late June, members of Hamas, the Palestinian group, had tunnelled under the barrier separating southern Gaza from Israel and captured an Israeli soldier. Hamas also had lobbed a series of rockets at Israeli towns near the border with Gaza. In response, Israel had initiated an extensive bombing campaign and reoccupied parts of Gaza.
The Pentagon consultant noted that there had also been cross-border incidents involving Israel and Hezbollah, in both directions, for some time. “They’ve been sniping at each other,” he said. “Either side could have pointed to some incident and said ‘We have to go to war with these guys’—because they were already at war.”
David Siegel, the spokesman at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, said that the Israeli Air Force had not been seeking a reason to attack Hezbollah. “We did not plan the campaign. That decision was forced on us.” There were ongoing alerts that Hezbollah “was pressing to go on the attack,” Siegel said. “Hezbollah attacks every two or three months,” but the kidnapping of the soldiers raised the stakes.
In interviews, several Israeli academics, journalists, and retired military and intelligence officers all made one point: they believed that the Israeli leadership, and not Washington, had decided that it would go to war with Hezbollah. Opinion polls showed that a broad spectrum of Israelis supported that choice. “The neocons in Washington may be happy, but Israel did not need to be pushed, because Israel has been wanting to get rid of Hezbollah,” Yossi Melman, a journalist for the newspaper Ha’aretz, who has written several books about the Israeli intelligence community, said. “By provoking Israel, Hezbollah provided that opportunity.”
“We were facing a dilemma,” an Israeli official said. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert “had to decide whether to go for a local response, which we always do, or for a comprehensive response—to really take on Hezbollah once and for all.” Olmert made his decision, the official said, only after a series of Israeli rescue efforts failed.
The U.S. government consultant with close ties to Israel told me, however, that, from Israel’s perspective, the decision to take strong action had become inevitable weeks earlier, after the Israeli Army’s signals intelligence group, known as Unit 8200, picked up bellicose intercepts in late spring and early summer, involving Hamas, Hezbollah, and Khaled Meshal, the Hamas leader now living in Damascus.
One intercept was of a meeting in late May of the Hamas political and military leadership, with Meshal participating by telephone. “Hamas believed the call from Damascus was scrambled, but Israel had broken the code,” the consultant said. For almost a year before its victory in the Palestinian elections in January, Hamas had curtailed its terrorist activities. In the late May intercepted conversation, the consultant told me, the Hamas leadership said that “they got no benefit from it, and were losing standing among the Palestinian population.” The conclusion, he said, was “ ‘Let’s go back into the terror business and then try and wrestle concessions from the Israeli government.’ ” The consultant told me that the U.S. and Israel agreed that if the Hamas leadership did so, and if Nasrallah backed them up, there should be “a full-scale response.” In the next several weeks, when Hamas began digging the tunnel into Israel, the consultant said, Unit 8200 “picked up signals intelligence involving Hamas, Syria, and Hezbollah, saying, in essence, that they wanted Hezbollah to ‘warm up’ the north.” In one intercept, the consultant said, Nasrallah referred to Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz “as seeming to be weak,” in comparison with the former Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak, who had extensive military experience, and said “he thought Israel would respond in a small-scale, local way, as they had in the past.”
Earlier this summer, before the Hezbollah kidnappings, the U.S. government consultant said, several Israeli officials visited Washington, separately, “to get a green light for the bombing operation and to find out how much the United States would bear.” The consultant added, “Israel began with Cheney. It wanted to be sure that it had his support and the support of his office and the Middle East desk of the National Security Council.” After that, “persuading Bush was never a problem, and Condi Rice was on board,” the consultant said.
The initial plan, as outlined by the Israelis, called for a major bombing campaign in response to the next Hezbollah provocation, according to the Middle East expert with knowledge of U.S. and Israeli thinking. Israel believed that, by targeting Lebanon’s infrastructure, including highways, fuel depots, and even the civilian runways at the main Beirut airport, it could persuade Lebanon’s large Christian and Sunni populations to turn against Hezbollah, according to the former senior intelligence official. The airport, highways, and bridges, among other things, have been hit in the bombing campaign. The Israeli Air Force had flown almost nine thousand missions as of last week. (David Siegel, the Israeli spokesman, said that Israel had targeted only sites connected to Hezbollah; the bombing of bridges and roads was meant to prevent the tran
(Message over 64 KB, truncated)
SKOJ condemns Ahtisaari's antiserb racism
Belgrade, 2 septembre 2006
The League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ) most severely
condemns the scandalous declaration of Martti Ahtisaari, UN Special
Envoy for the Question of Kosovo and Metohia according to which "the
Serbian people is guilty and must pay the price for its historical
mistakes".
Such an assertion by the UN Special Envoy represents an obvious and
intentional provocation by which openly seeks fear and provokes anxiety
in regulating the future status of Kosovo and Metohia.
The League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ) has been from the
very beginning against every and any negotiation of Kosovo being under
NATO Pact occupation. Ahtisaari’s remark shows that western imperialism
in Kosovo and Metohia is behaving like an occupier and that the
"negotiation process" is a bald-faced lie to give full legitimacy to the
occupation.
Ahtisaari’s remark made in the course of discussions with the Serbian
negotiating team is utterly unacceptable and uncivilized. In all history
there has been only one person who made such an assertion.. And that was
Adolf Hitler. Who condemned the Jewish people as "to blame for
everything". Die Juden sind unser Unglueck.
We remember well the "noble peace mission"of Martti Ahtisaari in 1999,
when, with the threat of total destruction of Belgrade and Serbia on a
"take it or leave it" basis, he compelled the then government of Serbia
to sign the Kumanovo accord by which Kosovo I Metohia was occupied and
turned into NATO’s biggest military base. There is no nation that can be
guilty of collective guilt.
In the siege of Leningrad the whole Finnish Army of Karelia participated
with 300,000 troops. In this blockade more than a million citizens of
Leningrad died. Does that mean that the Finnish people as a whole is
genocidal? . Yes, by Ahtisaari’s logic.
In Kosovo and Metohia there wasn’t any aggression by the "Greater
Serbia" or the Army of Yugoslavia, because it was obliged by its
constitution to defend its own territory. The Army of Yugoslavia did not
invade Iraq or Afghanistan, but only defended its own territory.
Unfortunately, there were violations of the Geneva Convention for which
individuals in the army and police of federal Yugoslavia were tried. The
crimes of individuals or small groups cannot be the justification for
condemning a whole people
The escalation of conflict in Kosovo and Metohia in 1998.-99 was without
a doubt directed by the western imperialists with the goal of occupying
that part of the Balkans and turning it into a training ground. NATO’s
occupation of Kosovo and Metohia has in no way contributed to peace or
development of prosperity, but has totally nullified the results that
were achieved in the five and a half decades when Kosovo by its own
efforts and the support of all Yugoslavia realized significant progress
in all fields. Over 73% inhabitants of Kosovo is unemployed, and all
major economic branches are in the hands of the NATO occupiers, who
freely dispose of and reap the benefit of whatever was created in the
interest of the people of Kosovo and Metohia in the course of the past 5
years. Kosmet has been turned into a nest of world terrorism, black
marketing and mafia. It is clear that the existing state of occupation
is not conducive to the real and lasting interests of the peoples that
live in Kosovo. It is all acceptable only to the imperial expansionist
goals of NATO.
The goal of the policy conducted by certain international "peace "
commissions is a further deepening of the crisis by the principle of
"divide and conquer", with the goal of further occupation of this part
of the Balkans.
It is hypocritical of the representatives of the pro-imperialist
bourgeois regime in Belgrade to excuse Ahtisaari for his gaffe. By this
the government of Serbia expresses its fake bourgeois patriotism, which
wont fool the people of Serbia. The government of Serbia also shows
political shortsightedness, because it is obvious that in case Ahtisaari
apologizes, which is hardly to be expected, the policy of separating
Kosovo from Serbia and the total legalization of the occupation by
western imperialism, of which Ahtisaari is the ambassador, will not be
changed.
If the government of Serbia were really to behave patriotically, it
would clearly show that Kosovo I Metohia is occupied territory and
demand the that all foreign occupation troops should leave its
territory. To us in SKOJ it is clear that nothing of the sort can be
expected from this or any other bourgeois pro-imperialist government.
=== izvorna verzija/srpskohrvatska ===
Savez komunisticke omladine Jugoslavije najostrije osudjuje skandaloznu
izjavu specijalnog izaslanika Ujedinjenih nacija Martija Ahtisarija za
pitanje Kosova i Metohije o tome da je „srpski narod kriv i da se
istorijske greske moraju platiti“.
Ovakva tvrdnja specijalnog izaslanika UN predstavlja ociglednu i
smisljenu provokaciju kojom se otvoreno iskazuje pristrasnost u
odreðivanju buduæeg statusa Kosova i Metohije. SKOJ je od samog pocetka
bio protiv bilo kakvih pregovora u situaciji u kojoj je Kosovo pod
okupacijom NATO pakta. Ahtisarijeva izjava pokazuje da se zapadni
imperijalizam na Kosovu i Metohiji ponaša kao okupator a da je
"pregovaracki proces" u stvari samo sarena laza, odnosno proces koji
treba da da pun legitimitet okupaciji.
Izjava koju je Ahtisari izrekao tokom razgovora sa srpskim pregovarackim
timom je apsolutno neprihvatljiva i necivilizacijska. U istoriji se samo
jedna osoba do sada usudila da kaze tako nesto, to je Adolf Hitler koji
je osudio jevrejski narod da su "krivi kao narod za sve zlo".
Dobro pamtimo „plemenitu mirovnu misiju“ Martija Ahtisarija 1999. godine
kada je sa pod pretnjom potpunog razaranja Beograda i Srbije po principu
„uzmi ili ostavi“ primorao tadašnju srpsku Vladu da potpiše Kumanovski
sporazum èime je Kosovo i Metohija okupirana od starne NATO-a i
pretvorena u najveæu vojnu bazu NATO pakta.
Ni jedan narod ne moze snositi nikakvu kolektivnu krivicu. U opsadi
Lenjingrada ucestvovala je cela finska Karelijska armija sa 300 000
boraca. U ovoj blokadi umrlo je vise od milion stanovnika Lenjingrada.
Da li to znaci da je finski narod genocidan? Po logici Ahtisarija jeste.
Na Kosovu i Metohiji nije bilo agresije Vojske Jugoslavije, jer je ona
bila dužna da cuva svoju teritoriju po ustavu; nije Vojska Jugoslavije
krocila u Irak ili Avganistan vec je branila svoju teritoriju. Nazalost,
bilo je krsenja Zenevske konvencije za sta su sudjenja pojedinim
pripadnicima vojske i policije , otpocela jos u vreme postojanja Savezne
Republike Jugoslavije. Zlocini pojedinaca ili manjih bandi ne mogu biti
opravdanje za tvrdnje da krivicu snosi ceo narod.
Eskalaciju sukoba na Kosovu i Metohiji 1998.-99. godine nedvosmisleno su
rezirali zapadni imperijalisti sa ciljem okupacije tog dela Balkana i
njegovog pretvaranja u svoj vojni poligon. NATO okupacija Kosmeta ni u
jednom segmentu nije doprinela miru, razvoju i prosperitetu. Ona je
potpuno anulirala rezultate koji su postignuti u proteklih pet i po
decenija kada je Kosovo vlastitim naporima i uz podrsku cele SFRJ
ostvarilo znacajan napredak na svim poljima. Preko 73% zitelja Kosova je
nezaposleno, a sve glavne privredne grane su u rukama NATO okupatora
koji slobodno raspolaže i ubira prihoda od onoga što je stvarano u
interesu naroda Kosova i Metohije tokom proteklih pet decenija. Kosmet
je pretvoren u leglo svetskog terorizma, sverca i mafije.
Jasno je da postojeæe okupaciono stanje ne odgovara trajnim i stvarnim
interesima naroda koji zive na Kosovu, ono odgovara jedino
imperijalno-ekspanzionistickim ciljevima NATO-a.
Cilj politike koju vode razne „mirovne“ medjunarodne komisije jeste
dalje produbljivanje postojeceg stanja po principu „zavadi, pa vladaj“ u
cilju sto duze okupacije ovog dela Balkana.
Licemerni su zahtevi predstavnika proimperijalistickog burzoaskog rezima
u Beogradu da se Ahtisari izvini za izrecene reci.Time Vlada Srbije
izrazava svoj lazni burzoaski patriotizam koji ne moze zavarati narod
Srbije.Vlada Srbije pokazuje i politicku kratkovidost jer je ocito da i
u sluaju da se Ahtisari izvini, a do cega gotovo sigurno nece doci,
politika odvajanja Kosova od Srbije i potpunog legalizovanja okupacionog
stanja od strane zapadnog imperijalizma, ciji je Ahtisari izaslanik,
nece biti promenjena. Da Vlada Srbije postupa zaista patriotski ona bi
jasno iskazala da je Kosovo i Metohija okupirana teritorija i zatrazila
od stranih okupacionih trupa da napusti njegovu teritoriju.Nama u SKOJ
je jasno da se tako nesto ne moze ocekivati od ove ali ni od jedne druge
burzoaske proimperijalisticke vlade.
http://www.skoj.co.sr/
Revisionismo pangermanico per un'Europa neocarolingia
(2a parte; la prima parte alla pagina:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/5077 )
1. A proposito della mostra di Berlino e della alleanza strategica
tra revanscismo pantedesco e neoirredentismo italiano
2. Ordre supranational
29/08/2006 - http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/
=== 1 ===
A proposito della mostra di Berlino
Di seguito un estratto da un articolo di Giuseppe Genna che parla del
caso Grass e anche di questa mostra. Non necessariamente sono
condivisibili tutte le affermazioni di Genna, però è interessante che
l'articolo di Repubblica (da noi segnalato nel precedente invio) non
parli dello spazio dedicato nella mostra all'esodo e alle foibe
istriane.
(segnalato da Claudia Cernigoi - Trieste)
---
(...) Al Kronprinzenpalais, un'ulteriore mostra, non permanente, che
ha scatenato polemiche in tutto il mondo, e della quale, qui in
Italia, si è avuta qualche eco. Non reperendo una copia di giornali
italiani che fosse una, pur chiedendo a ogni edicola in corretto
inglese e venendo misinterpretato perché gran parte dei berlinesi che
ho incontrato non parla inglese, mi sono ridotto a leggere Le Monde,
il New York Times, lo Herald Tribune, le cui pagine culturali erano
dominate dal caso Grass e dallo scandalo di questa esibizione,
fragile in apparenza e muscolare a un secondo livello. Si tratta di
una rassegna degli esodi politici del Novecento: masse di presuli ed
esiliati nel XX secolo. La documentazione è scarsissima e per questo
stesso motivo risulta emblematica. Quattro lettere affiancate da una
tiara ortodossa e la questione turco-greca è sistemata (non ne sono
esperto, ma, avendo letto "Middlesex" di Jeffrey Eugenides, ho una
percezione attendibile dell'immane tragedia che fu vissuta e dai
turchi e dai greci). Enorme attenzione per lo sterminio, con
conseguente esodo di profughi in massa, degli armeni: sta diventando
l'argomento storico da opporre all'Olocausto. A proposito del quale,
compio un'unica constatazione: siamo presenti anche noi italiani
nell'esposizione, con la questione istriana e la storia delle foibe,
a cui viene dedicato un terzo dello spazio dedicato all'Olocausto.
Questa è la pietra dello scandalo internazionale (con
giustificatissima sottopolemica dalla Polonia), il motivo per cui la
stampa mondiale si è scagliata contro i pessimi (o benaccorti)
curatori della mostra: una riduzione, sic et simpliciter, della Shoah
a esodo, citando un pochino di massacri, in uno spazio
documentaristico ristrettissimo, con posizionamento in teca di una
valigia di deportato come testimonianza diretta. La questione
sottopelle di un revisionismo che, come dicevo, si respira o, almeno,
io ho respirato. (E non parliamo delle foibe: multimedializzate con
tre interventi: il servizio-fiume dell'Istituto Luce postfascista, il
cui unico sintomo di postfascismo sta nel rallentamento della voce
retorica ed enfatica che descrive l'esodo da Pola con terminologia da
Troiane euripidee; un'intervista a una signora che ammette di non
essersi nemmeno recata alle foibe e conta sette familiari morti;
dichiarazioni di ex bambini che ricordano la fuga da Pola. Nessun
dubbio, nessun approfondimento storiografico per una questione che
scatena invece, da anni, non soltanto uno scontro ideologico in
Italia, ma anche indagini di tutt'altro esito, come abbiamo
estesamente segnalato su Carmilla - http://www.carmillaonline.com/cgi-
bin/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=2&search=Santi+subito%21+%22Infoibati%
22+veri+e+presunti )...
(Fonte: http://www.carmillaonline.com/archives/
2006/08/001896.html#001896
WIR SIND EIN VOLK: Grass e il caso Germania - di Giuseppe Genna )
=== 2 ===
http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/fr/fulltext/55908
Ordre supranational
29/08/2006
BERLIN/MAGDEBOURG (Compte-rendu de la rédaction) - L'Empire allemand
du Moyen Âge qui s'étendait sur une large partie de l'Europe peut
être considéré comme un modèle pour le regroupement des états de
l'Union Européenne (UE) d'aujourd'hui. C'est ce que vient de déclarer
le ministre d'état de Berlin pour la culture, Bernd Neumann. Ainsi le
souvenir du Saint Empire romain germanique révèle "la logique
inhérente, historique" de la création et de l'élargissement continu
de l'UE. Ces remarques préparent les festivités données à l'occasion
du 50ème anniversaire de la Communauté économique européenne (CEE),
pour lesquelles la chancelière Merkel a invité le pape allemand
Joseph Ratzinger. Ratzinger est un partisan engagé de "L'idée de
l'Empire" et doit parler dans la capitale allemande des "fondements
spirituels" de l'Europe. L'offensive du gouvernement pour revitaliser
l'idée de l'Empire confirme des craintes en France, en Grande-
Bretagne et dans presque tous les états d'Europe de l'est. Plusieurs
parties de l'élite allemande mettent en garde contre une politique
hégémoniale de leur pays trop ouvertement affichée.
Signification importante
Comme le déclare le ministre d'état chargé de la culture, Bernd
Neumann, l'Empire allemand du Moyen Âge peut être considéré "de nos
jours" comme "le modèle d'un ordre supranational fonctionnant".[1]
Neumann a choisi cette référence contemporaine lorsqu'il a ouvert
dimanche dernier (27 août) une exposition historique dédiée au
prétendu modèle historique ("Saint Empire romain germanique de 962 à
1806"). A cause du lieu d'exposition de premier plan (entre autre le
Musée d'histoire allemande de Berlin, contrôlé par l'état) les objets
présentés et la façon dont ils sont assemblés sont particulièrement
remarqués. L'intervention du ministre d'état chargé de la culture,
immédiatement subordonné à la chancelière, renforce la signification
politique de cette exposition. Elle jette "un pont (...) qui nous
fait comprendre la logique inhérente, historique de l'intégration
européenne", a déclaré Neumann dimanche dernier. Le but explicite des
organisateurs est d'"examiner le passé de l'ancienne Europe dans une
période de réorientations intérieures et extérieures".[2] On a décelé
des "structures et des procédures de développement", qui "sont d'une
grande importance pour les discussions actuelles et la construction
fédérale de l'Europe", ont déclaré les organisateurs.
L'Europe de demain
La référence explicite aux structures de l'Empire du Moyen-Âge, qui
est visible dans la déclaration de Neumann, s'est longtemps limitée,
après la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, à l'extrême droite allemande ainsi
qu'aux milieux conservateurs et cléricaux. Ainsi Otto de Habsbourg,
politicien membre de la CSU (Conservateurs bavarois) et petit-fils du
dernier empereur, a cru pouvoir découvrir à la fin des années 70 que
la "politique d'intégration européenne (...) [est] la continuation
des grandes lignes et des principes fondamentaux de l'Empire qui ont
survécu à 1806, car ils ont une validité permanente".[3] Dans l'Union
Paneuropéenne, une association de partisans de l'UE proche de la CSU,
on tenait un discours semblable: il faudrait renouveler "dans
l'Europe de demain la fonction éternelle de l'Empire - dans l'intérêt
de l'Occident".[4] Joseph Ratzinger, l'actuel pape Benoît XVI, a
également voulu découvrir aux origines de l'actuelle UE une "Idée
commune d'Empire".[5] Ces dernières années, des journaux
conservateurs allemands ont ouvert leurs pages de culture et de
débats à de nouveaux plaidoyers pour l'"Empire".[6]
Discours du Pape
Le Président du Bundestag (Parlement fédéral allemand), Norbert
Lammert (CDU, Chrétien-démocrate), vient de déclarer qu'il a invité
le partisan de l'Idée de l'Empire, Joseph Ratzinger, à Berlin pour
l'année prochaine. L'invitation a été expliquée par la chancelière
allemande lundi dernier lorsqu'elle a été reçue par le Pape à Castel
Gandolfo. Le pape allemand doit assister à Berlin aux festivités
données à l'occasion du 50ème anniversaire des traités de Rome et
honorer l'événement par un discours. Cette bénédiction religieuse est
consacrée à la Communauté économique européenne (CEE) et aux
"fondements spirituels de l'intégration politique de l'Europe", a-t-
on pu lire préalablement dans la presse allemande.[7] L'invitation
actualise la conception de l'"Empire" comme coexistence permanente de
l'Eglise et de l'Etat et représente un affront particulier contre la
France, membre fondateur de la CEE. Paris est voué à la laïcité. La
séparation de l'église et de l'état est considérée depuis la
Révolution française en 1789 comme un principe fondamental de la vie
politique.
L'Europe centrale
Le discours qu'a tenu dimanche dernier le ministre d'état de la
culture de Berlin représente également un affront pour les états
voisins à l'Est et au Sud-est de l'Allemagne. En faisant ouvertement
allusion à la Pologne et à la République Tchèque, ce membre du
gouvernement allemand déclarait que le Saint Empire romain germanique
fait "partie du passé de nombreux états européens". Selon Neumann,
"l'Allemagne et l'Europe centrale [sont] (...) entremêlées
historiquement et culturellement de manière indissoluble".[8] Le
ministre d'état a ainsi rappelé l'ancienne hégémonie allemande à
l'est de son actuelle frontière, et dont le rétablissement est le but
de Berlin depuis 1990.
Craintes
La revitalisation du mythe de l'Empire se heurte à des critiques
virulentes. Dans une interview, l'historien Heinrich August Winkler a
fait remarqué l'importance du mythe de l'Empire pour la propagande
nazie. Selon Winkler, il était décisif "que l'Empire fût toujours
différent et plus qu'un Etat-nation ordinaire": "Lorsque Hitler
établit en Tchéquie occupée le Protectorat Bohème et Moravie en 1939,
des historiens d'inspiration pangermanique lui ont attesté que ceci
était tout à fait dans l'esprit de l'ancienne idée de l'Empire, qui a
toujours été supranationale." Winkler met en garde contre de
nouvelles tensions entre les états européens: Une "invocation de
l'Empire" va susciter "inévitablement (...) des craintes de
prétentions allemandes de vouloir être de nouveau un modèle pour
l'ordre européen".[9] Comme la critique du célèbre historien Winkler
a été publiée dans un grand hebdomadaire il y a déjà trois semaines
[10], l'actuel discours du ministre ne peut être compris autrement
que comme une propagande clairement affichée pour l'Empire.
[1] Kulturstaatsminister Bernd Neumann eröffnet Ausstellung "Heiliges
Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation 962-1806"; Pressemitteilung des
Presse- und Informationsamts der Bundesregierung 27.08.2006
[2] www.dhm.de/ausstellungen/heiliges-roemisches-reich/index_2.html
[3] Otto von Habsburg: Karl IV. Ein europäischer Friedensfürst,
München/Wien 1978
[4] Monatsinformationen der Paneuropa-Union, Januar 1977
[5] voir aussi Habemus Europam ( http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/
fr/fulltext/52653?PHPSESSID=005tj1l0ih7mcj0il5shs9q660 ) et Fils
allemand ( http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/fr/fulltext/55879?
PHPSESSID=005tj1l0ih7mcj0il5shs9q660 )
[6] voir aussi Genèse d'un nouvel empire ( http://www.german-foreign-
policy.com/fr/fulltext/46973?PHPSESSID=005tj1l0ih7mcj0il5shs9q660 )
et Heiliges Reich ( http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/de/fulltext/
54117?PHPSESSID=005tj1l0ih7mcj0il5shs9q660 )
[7] Lammert lädt Papst in den Bundestag ein; Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung 28.08.2006
[8] Kulturstaatsminister Bernd Neumann eröffnet Ausstellung "Heiliges
Römisches Reich Deutscher Nation 962-1806"; Pressemitteilung des
Presse- und Informationsamts der Bundesregierung 27.08.2006
[9], [10] "Erste Macht Europas"; Der Spiegel 32/2006
riciclaggi_e_mancate_epurazioni_nel_dopoguerra..php
Riciclaggi e Mancate Epurazioni nel Dopoguerra.
RICICLAGGI E MANCATE EPURAZIONI NEL DOPOGUERRA:
IL CASO DEGLI ISPETTORI GENERALI VERDIANI E MESSANA.
A chi parla di “pacificazione” e di riconoscimenti anche ai
“vinti” della Seconda guerra mondiale, che, stando alla vulgata
(falsificatrice e fuorviante, lo diciamo subito) che si va
diffondendo in questi ultimi anni, non avrebbero goduto di alcun
diritto nell’Italia del dopoguerra, vogliamo qui portare ad esempio
la storia di due alti funzionari della PS, che dopo avere raggiunto i
vertici della carriera in epoca fascista, la proseguirono, senza
alcun problema, nell’Italia repubblicana “nata dalla Resistenza”.
Iniziamo parlando dell’ispettore generale di PS Ciro Verdiani, che
iniziò la propria carriera nel 1916 “al Quirinale come responsabile
della sicurezza personale dei Savoia” e nel 1930 fu nominato capo di
Gabinetto del questore di Roma. Verdiani fu inviato a Lubiana nel
maggio ‘41 subito dopo l’occupazione militare italiana della
cosiddetta “provincia di Lubiana”, dal Capo della Polizia di Roma,
allo scopo di “esaminare a fondo le necessità degli uffici e dei
comandi di polizia e Carabinieri” . Le proposte di Verdiani a questo
scopo (successivamente approvate da Mussolini) furono
“l’istituzione di una questura a Lubiana, due uffici di PS a Novo
Mesto e Kočevje, alcuni uffici confinari di Polizia ed un battaglione
di agenti di PS a Lubiana”. Sugli uffici di Novo Mesto e Kočevje,
considerati in zona di confine, esercitava alcune “competenze
speciali” il dottor Luciano Palmisani, allora dirigente la Polizia
di Frontiera a Trieste; Palmisani fu anche il reggente
dell’Ispettorato Speciale di PS (un corpo di polizia creato
specificamente per la lotta antipartigiana nell’allora Venezia
Giulia) nel periodo in cui il dirigente Giuseppe Gueli era fuori sede
in quanto si trovava a dirigere il corpo di sorveglianza di Mussolini
al Gran Sasso. Vale la pena di ricordare che, stando alle memorie
dello stesso Gueli, sarebbe stato proprio grazie alla sua
“sorveglianza” che il commando di Otto Skorzeny riuscì a liberare
il “duce” e portarselo via .
Verdiani propose anche di estendere alla “provincia di Lubiana” le
competenze dell’OVRA, ma “mentre la Venezia Giulia apparteneva
alla 1^ zona OVRA (con sede a Milano), la provincia di Lubiana venne
aggregata all’11^ Zona OVRA, con sede a Zagabria”, diretta da
Verdiani tra il 1941 ed il ‘43. Verdiani divenne infine dirigente
dell’Ispettorato Generale di Polizia in Croazia con sede a Zagabria,
come si evince da alcuni documenti datati luglio ed agosto ‘43, sia
d’epoca fascista, sia badogliana.
Finita la parentesi fascista, Verdiani ebbe una curiosa evoluzione:
nel 1944 fu “arrestato dalla Muti come antifascista. Liberato
all’inizio del 1945, si trasferisce a Venezia per attivare contatti
segreti con la Resistenza” ; successivamente, nel dopoguerra,
vantando il possesso di una “cassa dell’archivio dell’OVRA
contenente documenti riguardanti alcune personalità allora al
governo” riuscì ad avere un “colloquio con Pietro Nenni cui
consegnò personalmente la cassa (che conteneva anche il fascicolo di
Nenni) avendone in cambio, con la sua iscrizione al Partito
socialista, promessa di protezione per evitargli l’epurazione e le
sanzioni”. Nel 1946 ricoprì la carica di questore di Roma, il
secondo dopo la liberazione. Nel 1947 fu sentito come teste nel
processo a carico di Giuseppe Gueli e di altri membri
dell’Ispettorato Speciale celebrato a Trieste: doveva riferire
dell’inchiesta che un altro Ispettore generale di PS, Cocchia,
avrebbe svolto in seguito alla denuncia del vescovo di Trieste
Antonio Santin per le sevizie cui agenti dell’Ispettorato
sottoponevano i prigionieri. Verdiani asserì in udienza che la
relazione di Cocchia non era reperibile ma che Cocchia avrebbe
constatato che s’era trattato di esagerazioni sulle violenze che in
ogni caso andavano attribuite al solo commissario Gaetano Collotti
(nel frattempo deceduto) e non anche ai suoi collaboratori. Dato che
Cocchia non fu sentito, e la relazione non saltò mai fuori, la Corte
si basò, per giudicare questi fatti, solo sulle parole di Verdiani.
Ricordiamo che la sentenza sancì che era “molto riprovevole anche
moralmente” ma non penalmente perseguibile il fatto che Gueli fosse
venuto a conoscenza delle sevizie cui si dedicavano i suoi
sottoposti, e quindi lo assolse da questo capo di imputazione .
Nel dopoguerra Verdiani operò in Sicilia come dirigente di un
“Ispettorato per la lotta alla mafia”, assieme ad un suo vecchio
collega, Ettore Messana, che aveva diretto la questura di Lubiana
(istituita, lo ricordiamo, su proposta di Verdiani) fino a giugno
1942, e successivamente quella di Trieste, fino a giugno 1943.
Il nome di Messana risulta nell’elenco dei criminali di guerra
denunciati dalla Jugoslavia alla Commissione delle Nazioni Unite per
i crimini di guerra (United Nations War Crimes Commission). Il
rapporto di denuncia, redatto in lingua inglese ed inviato dalla
Commissione statale jugoslava in data 14/7/45 , lo accusa, sulla base
di documentazione che era stata trovata in possesso della Divisione
“Isonzo” dell’Esercito italiano di occupazione, di crimini
vari: “assassinio e massacri; terrorismo sistematico; torture ai
civili; violenza carnale; deportazioni di civili; detenzione di
civili in condizioni disumane; tentativo di denazionalizzare gli
abitanti dei territori occupati; violazione degli articoli 4, 5, 45 e
46 della Convenzione dell’Aja del 1907 e dell’articolo 13 del
Codice militare jugoslavo del 1944”.
Nello specifico viene addebitata a Messana (in concorso con il
commissario di PS Pellegrino e col giudice del Tribunale militare di
Lubiana dott. Macis) la costruzione di false prove che servirono a
condannare diversi imputati (tra i quali Anton Tomsič alla pena
capitale, eseguita in data 21/5/42) per dei reati che non avevano
commesso. La responsabilità di Messana e Pellegrino in questo fatto
è confermata da documenti dell’archivio della questura di Lubiana ,
che fanno riferimento ad una “operazione di polizia politica”
condotte dal vicequestore Mario Ferrante e dal vicecommissario
Antonio Pellegrina sotto la direzione personale di Messana, contro
una “cellula sovversiva di Lubiana” della quale facevano parte,
oltre al Tomsič prima citato, anche Michele Marinko (condannato a 30
anni di reclusione), Vida Bernot (a 25 anni), Giuseppina Maček (a 18
anni) ed altri tre a pene minori.
Messana e gli altri furono anche accusati di avere creato false prove
nel corso di una indagine da loro condotta, in conseguenza della
quale 16 persone innocenti furono fucilate dopo la condanna comminata
dal giudice Macis. Si tratta dell’indagine per l’attentato al
ponte ferroviario di Prešerje del 15/12/41, per la quale indagine,
come risulta da altri documenti della questura di Lubiana
dell’epoca, Messana, il suo vice Ferrante, l’ufficiale dei
Carabinieri Raffaele Lombardi ed altri agenti e militi furono
proposti per onorificenze e premi in denaro per la buona riuscita
delle indagini relative all’attentato di Preserje. Nello specifico
Messana ricevette come riconoscimento per il suo operato la
“commenda dell’Ordine di S. Maurizio e Lazzaro”.
Ettore Messana fu anche segnalato con nota del 21/9/45 dall’Alto
Commissario Aggiunto per l’Epurazione di Roma al Prefetto di
Trieste, che richiese un’indagine alla Polizia Civile del GMA . Il
risultato di questa indagine è contenuto in una relazione datata
6/10/45 e firmata dall’ispettore Feliciano Ricciardelli della
Divisione Criminale Investigativa , dalla quale citiamo alcuni passaggi.
“… il Messana era preceduto da pessima fama per le sue malefatte
quale Questore di Lubiana. Si vociferava infatti che in quella città
aveva infierito contro i perseguitati politici permettendo di usare
dei mezzi brutali e inumani nei confronti di essi per indurli a fare
delle rivelazioni (…) vi era anche (la voce, n.d.r.) che ordinava
arresti di persone facoltose contro cui venivano mossi addebiti
infondati al solo scopo di conseguire profitti personali. Difatti si
diceva che tali detenuti venivano poi avvicinati in carcere da un
poliziotto sloveno, compare del Messana, che prometteva loro la
liberazione mediante il pagamento di ingenti importi di denaro.
Inoltre gli si faceva carico che a Lubiana si era dedicato al
commercio in pellami da cui aveva ricavato lauti profitti.
Durante la sua permanenza a Trieste, ove rimase fino al giugno 1943,
per la creazione in questa città del famigerato e tristemente noto
Ispettorato Speciale di polizia diretto dal comm. Giuseppe Gueli,
amico del Messana, costui non riuscì ad effettuare operazioni di
polizia politica degne di particolare rilievo.
Ma anche qui, così come a Lubiana, egli si volle distinguere per la
mancanza assoluta di ogni senso di umanità e di giustizia, che
dimostrò chiaramente nella trattazione di pratiche relative a
perseguitati politici (…)”.
Dopo avere letto i curricula di questi due funzionari di PS, ci si
aspetterebbe di trovarli, se non condannati per il loro operato sotto
il fascismo, quantomeno “epurati” dalla Pubblica Sicurezza. Invece
li ritroviamo, nell’immediato dopoguerra, nella natia Sicilia, a
dirigere un “Ispettorato generale di PS per la Sicilia”, un
“organo creato per la repressione della delinquenza associata, e
specificamente per la repressione del banditismo che faceva capo a
Giuliano (il “bandito” Salvatore Giuliano, n.d.r.)” . Per sapere
come i due alti funzionari di PS svolsero il compito loro
affidatogli, leggiamo alcuni stralci dalla sentenza che fu emanata in
merito alla strage di Portella della Ginestra (1/5/47), dove gli
uomini di Giuliano spararono sulla folla che si era radunata per
festeggiare il Primo maggio, uccidendo undici persone tra cui donne e
bambini e ferendone molte altre.
Così “l’Ispettore Verdiani non esitò ad avere rapporti con il
capo della mafia di Monreale, Ignazio Miceli, ed anche con lo stesso
Giuliano, con cui si incontrò nella casetta campestre di un sospetto
appartenente alla mafia, Giuseppe Marotta in territorio di
Castelvetrano ed alla presenza di Gaspare Pisciotta, nonché dei
mafiosi Miceli, zio e nipote, quest’ultimo cognato dell’imputato
Remo Corrao, e dal mafioso Albano. E quel convegno si concluse con la
raccomandazione fatta al capo della banda ed al luogotenente di
essere dei bravi e buoni figlioli, perché egli si sarebbe adoperato
presso il Procuratore Generale di Palermo, che era Pili Emanuele,
onde Maria Lombardo madre del capo bandito, fosse ammessa alla
libertà provvisoria. E l’attività dell’ispettore Verdiani non
cessò più; poiché qualche giorno prima che Giuliano fosse
soppresso, attraverso il mafioso Marotta pervenne o doveva a Giuliano
pervenire una lettera con cui lo si metteva in guardia, facendogli
intendere che Gaspare Pisciotta era entrato nell’orbita del
Colonnello Luca ed operava con costui contro Giuliano”.
Per quanto riguarda Messana, invece, leggiamo che “l’Ispettore
Generale di PS Messana negò ed insistette nel negare di avere avuto
confidente il Ferreri, ma la negativa da lui opposta deve cadere di
fronte all’affermazione del capitano dei Carabinieri Giallombardo,
il quale ripetette (sic) in dibattimento che Ferreri fu ferito dai
carabinieri presso Alcamo, ove avvenne il conflitto in cui restarono
uccise quattro persone; e, ferito, il Ferreri stesso chiese di essere
portato a Palermo, spiegando che era un agente segreto al servizio
dell’Ispettorato e che doveva subito parlare col Messana”;
Salvatore Ferreri era “conosciuto anche come Totò il palermitano,
ma definito come pericoloso pregiudicato, appartenente alla banda
Giuliano, già condannato in contumacia alla pena dell’ergastolo per
omicidio consumato allo scopo di rapinare una vettura automobile”.
Verdiani morì a Roma nel 1952, e il suo “decesso fece in modo che
il suo ruolo in quegli anni piano piano si dissolvesse sotto i
riflettori”.
Sui rapporti tra la “banda” Giuliano, l’Ispettorato generale di
Messana e Verdiani, i servizi segreti statunitensi ed italiani,
nonché sul riciclaggio da parte di questi di personale che aveva
operato con la Decima Mas di Borghese (soprattutto il battaglione
Vega, emanazione dei Nuotatori Paracadutisti comandati dal triestino
Nino Buttazzoni, il quale, dopo avere “comandato il battaglione
NP” anche nella “zona di Gorizia contro i partigiani comunisti
italo-slavi, difendendola dall’occupazione titina”, si trovava a
Venezia alla fine della guerra, pronto, con i suoi uomini, ad andare
a Trieste in previsione del fatto che “la città sarà invasa dagli
slavi di Tito” : a Venezia nello stesso periodo in cui Verdiani
maneggiava con alleati e resistenti) per organizzare un fronte
anticomunista in Sicilia (ma non solo), vi rimandiamo allo studio di
Giuseppe Casarrubea, “Storia segreta della Sicilia” (Bompiani
2005), in questo articolo da noi già ripetutamente citato .
È curioso, a questo proposito, che lo storico Giuseppe Parlato abbia,
nel corso della presentazione del libro “Trieste 1945-1954. Moti
giovanili per Trieste italiana”, dopo avere definito Trieste un
“un laboratorio della guerra fredda” ed “elemento centrale per
porre la questione della difesa dal comunismo nel disegno
anticomunista”, in quanto la “progettualità dell’OSS dal 1944
si dipana fino al 1954 triestino”, abbia usato la definizione
“teoremi costruiti che portano a deliri” in merito alle ricerche
di Casarrubea. Curioso perché questa affermazione è stata fatta in
un contesto dove nessuno dei presenti poteva fare riferimento ai
“teoremi” di Casarrubea, a meno che non si trattasse di persone
che avevano approfondito l’argomento e quindi potevano mettere in
collegamento la situazione della strategia della tensione creata
nella Zona A da parte di coloro che finanziavano e fomentavano i
“moti per la Trieste italiana”, con i “maneggi” denunciati
dalle ricerche di Casarrubea (e che emergono, ricordiamolo, in gran
parte da documentazione proveniente dagli archivi USA).
Ma in merito a quanto è emerso nel corso di questa serata di
presentazione, vi rimandiamo all’articolo intitolato “apologia di
scontri di piazza e di esercitazioni paramilitari” ( http://
www.nuovaalabarda.org/leggi-articolo-
apologia_di_scontri_di_piazza_ed_esercitazioni_paramilitari.php ).
Luglio 2006
Translated, Edited, and Supplemented by Milo Yelesiyevich
New York. Unwritten History, Inc., 2006. 730 pp.
http://www.unwrittenhistory.com/
<< The only certainty of his whereabouts has been at the top of the
world's most-wanted-men list with a huge price on his head. Little
else is widely known about Gen. Ratko Mladic beyond the accusation of
committing war crimes during the 1992-1995 civil war in Bosnia.
Here for the first time is almost everything one could want to know
about Mladic — except where he has been for most of the last decade.
Milo Yelesiyevich has done a masterful job of assembling a huge
variety of material beginning with the revealing biography “Hero or
War Criminal?” by Ljubodrag Stojadinovic and including 96 pages of
translated interviews with Mladic. It concludes with the text of the
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia indictments
against Mladic and Radovan Karadzic.
Altogether it constitutes an unvarnished portrait of a man widely
acclaimed for his military skills and bravery, but also criticized
for intemperate statements and accused of crimes on the battlefield.
Read this and make up your mind whether Ratko Mladic is guilty until
proven innocent as the Hague court holds, or innocent until proven
guilty. >>
— David Binder began covering the Balkans
for The New York Times in 1963
Ratko Mladic: Tragic Hero is the first book-length study to appear in
English about the controversial Serbian general. It departs radically
from mainstream news coverage of General Mladic because it presumes
him to be innocent of charges of war crimes and genocide until he has
been proven guilty. Furthermore, Ratko Mladic: Tragic Hero presumes
that the West has been acting against its own best interests by
supporting Islamic fundamentalist terrorism in the former Yugoslavia,
while at the same time attempting to prosecute General Mladic for
alleged crimes for which there is still no proof, even after the
passage of more than a decade. Genegal Ratko Mladic was the first
General to fight Islamic fundamentalism in Europe. Why has he been
demonized while others, who have done little or nothing—or who have
even aided and abetted the rise of Islamic fundamentalism—have been
praised?
Ratko Mladic, Tragic Hero consists of an abridgment of Mr.
Stojadinovic’s book, Ratko Mladic, Hero or War Criminal? (Evro,
Belgrade: 2001) which discusses Mladic’s biography, his successes and
failures as a general, the dilemmas he faced as a soldier, and tries
to answer the question: how good a general was he? and is he a war
criminal? It is followed by Bringing Democracy to Bosnia, by Gregory
Elich, a respected journalist whose work has appeared on
counterpunch.org and Covert Action, which examines the results of the
Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia, and demonstrates that the West has
imposed a dictatorship in Bosnia that benefits only globalists and
multinational corporations.
Background chapters provide a context for the Bosnian War that the
mainstream media has systematically ignored. Bosniacs, Nazi Muslims,
Mujahideen, and Bin Laden traces the rise of Bosnian Muslim fascism
and its connection to Islamic fundamentalism as exemplified by the
Nazi SS Handzar Division during WWII, which was organized by Himmler
and Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Alija
Izetbegovic, former President of Bosnia-Herzegovina, began his career
as recruiter for the Handzar Division and acted as a historical link,
connecting resurgent Muslim fascism and fundamentalism in Yugoslavia
in the 1990s to that of WWII. Ustashi, Murderer Monks, and the Modern
Croatian State examines the Ustashi Nazi Puppet state created by
Hitler in Croatia during WWII, and the involvement of the Roman
Catholic clergy in the administration of the Jasenovac death camp, as
well as many others like it. The contemporary Croatian state is shown
to be a direct heir to the Croatian Nazi puppet state of WWII.
The most controversial chapter is Srebrenica, the Phantom Massacre,
which analyzes the alleged “Srebrenica Massacre” and challenges the
groundless accusation that “7,000 Muslim men and boys” were killed
there. This analysis relies on mainstream news coverage of The Hague
Tribunal, the work of independent analysts, and the Srebrenica Report
(authored by Darko Trifunovic) that was issued by the Republika
Srpska in 2002. UN High Representative Paddy Ashdown dismissed this
2002 Report without ever having read it. The analysis argues
persuasively that at most about 1,800 armed Bosnian Muslim soldiers
died in combat, and that about 100 were killed in summary executions.
In other words, there was no massacre—only combat fatalities.
Seventy pages of interviews with General Mladic appear in English for
the first time, along with appendices that reprint key articles by
David Binder, A.M. Rosenthal, Chris Hedges, Kosta Cavoski, and T.W.
Carr. The Hague indictment is also reprinted
Ratko Mladic: Tragic Hero will contribute to a greater understanding
of General Mladic’s role in the Bosnian war that will benefit
scholars, historians, journalists and students, as well as Americans
who want to take a more critical look at U.S. military adventures
overseas.
Ratko Mladic is a tragic hero because he fought the rising tide of
Islamic fundamentalism and neo-fascism in the Balkans, which U.S.
foreign policy supported. Yet there is another, greater tragedy
looming: the U.S. itself, whose use of power, isolated from external
criticism and restraint in order to “fight evil,” has become self-
destructive. U.S. citizens have suffered a serious erosion of civil
liberties as the U.S. transformed itself from a republic into an
empire. Hubris destroys the great as well as the small.
The lesson we in the United States must learn is that we cannot fight
Islamic fundamentalist terrorism in the U.S. and in Europe by
harboring and supporting Islamic fundamentalist terrorism in Bosnia,
in Croatia, in Kosovo, in Macedonia and in Chechnya. The World Trade
Center attacks may be viewed as a monument to our corrupt and short-
sighted policies that tried to appease radical Islam in exchange for
cheap oil and commerce. It is high time for us to re-evaluate our
role in the Balkans, our relations with the Islamic world, and our
own national ideals and aspirations. No serious discussion of evil
can take place unless we acknowledge our own participation in it. And
General Mladic is at the heart of the matter.
---
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/080.shtml
BOOK REVIEW
Justice or Vindictive Triumph?
By Carl Savich
Is the indictment by the Hague Tribunal of Ratko Mladic on war crimes
charges based on “justice” or “vindictive triumph”, revenge and
retribution? Is he indicted because he prevented NATO expansion and
US penetration into Southeastern Europe? Is his greatest crime
opposition to the US and NATO and the EU?
One person’s war criminal is another person’s hero. On June 30, 2006,
the ICTY convicted the senior Bosnian Muslim military commander of
Srebrenica of committing war crimes against Bosnian Serb civilians
because forces under his control tortured and murdered unarmed
Bosnian Serb civilians in Srebrenica. Oric was a convicted war
criminal. But he was regarded as a “hero” by Bosnian Muslims as
reported by AKI, “Convicted War Criminal Returns to Hero’s Welcome”.
Moreover, he was regarded as a hero in the US and the Western media.
The US and Western media reported with satisfaction his arrival in
Bosnia to cheering Bosnian Muslim crowds. Why and how is a convicted
war criminal a hero? His forces beheaded and slit the throats of
Bosnian Serb civilians and POWs. Oric himself led the attack on
Kravica where his forces burned down Serbian houses and destroyed the
Serbian Orthodox Church. Oric never took any Bosnian Serb POWs. He
ordered that all Bosnian Serb POWs be executed. He burned down at
least 50 Bosnian Serb villages in eastern Bosnia around Srebrenica.
Is he a “hero”? How is this to be explained?
Croatian General Ante Gotovina has been indicted for the mass murder
of over 150 Krajina Serb civilians during the Croatian takeover of UN
protected zones in Krajina. Over 200,000 Krajina Serbs were
ethnically cleansed from the Krajina in a US-planned operation in
1995. Yet the BBC reported that Gotovina is a hero in the West. In
the BBC article, “Croatian fugitive general seized”, BBC, December 8,
2005, the reported noted that: “Many Croats consider Gen. Gotovina to
be a hero.” How can a mass murderer be a “hero”? Is one person’s war
criminal another person’s hero? Are Naser Oric and Ante Gotovina war
criminals or heroes? Who decides? Based on what legal principles?
Does it matter if the accused is a proxy and ally of the US and NATO
and the EU? Does it matter if he advances US geopolitical, economic,
and military interests in Eastern Europe?
What about Ratko Mladic? Is he a war criminal or a hero?
Ratko Mladic, Tragic Hero, edited by Milo Yelesiyevich, is a
collection of essays, news articles, analyses, and interviews, which
rebuts the US propaganda on Ratko Mladic and the Bosnian civil war.
In the introduction, Yelesiyevich wrote that the book “attempts to
redress the obfuscations, omissions and outright lies the American
people have been subjected to.” Yelesiyevich argued that Mladic is a
“tragic hero”: Mladic is “a virtuous individual who is catapulted
into a series of intolerable yet unavoidable situations in which he
must make difficult moral decisions that ultimately bring misfortune
upon himself by means of his own tragic flaw.” He has “an excess of
virtue” which resulted in hubris. The tragedy is “not brought about
by villainy but by an error in judgment.” The misperceptions were
also created by the US and Western media and governments. Mladic is
quoted: “The West understands that the human mind has a limited
capacity, and that they can shape it as if it were well-kneaded
dough.” Mladic noted how Western PR firms, the corporate media, and
organizations “which accept money for their services”, were
“fabricating loathsome lies” and “demonizing us”.
The book is made up of three sections. The first section presents a
condensed biography and an analysis of Mladic’s military career and
record during the Bosnian civil war of 1992-1995 by Ljubodrag
Stojadinovic, “Ratko Mladic: Hero or War Criminal?” Stojadinovic
concluded that Mladic was neither a hero nor a war criminal but
somewhere in between. Instead of confronting the intellectual and
moral issues involved directly, Stojadinovic displays journalistic
detachment and coyly shirks the issues and sits on the fence. He does
quote Mladic, however, as refusing “to be tried by those whom he
himself would put on trial.” This implies that “justice” is based on
might makes right. Is “justice” merely about winners and losers? Do
the victors try the losers for “war crimes”? Why aren’t the victors
ever tried for war crimes? Why are the political and military leaders
of the losing and weak powers always tried for war crimes but never
the winning powers? Why are proxies and allies never prosecuted for
war crimes? Is it just “victor’s justice”?
The second section examines the historical background to the Bosnian
conflict with analyses of the World War II period.
This background has been carefully and systematically censored and
covered-up in the US and the West. The chapter "Bosniacs, Nazi
Muslims, Mujahideen, and Bin Laden" explored the origins of Bosnian
Muslim ultra-nationalism during World War II when Bosnian Muslims
formed two Nazi SS Divisions, Handzar and Kama, which were created by
Heinrich Himmler and Haj Amin el-Husseini, the Palestinian Grand
Mufti of Jerusalem. The connection of Alija Izetbegovic to radical
Islam and Muslim ultra-nationalism is examined with an analysis of
The Islamic Declaration, a book long suppressed and censored in the
US and the West. The role of the Afghan-Arab mujahedeen, Ossama bin
Laden, and Al-Qaeda in the Bosnian civil war is examined. The US
empowered Al-Qaeda in Bosnia by supporting the mujahedeen and Iranian
“volunteers” and relief and “assistance” to the Bosnian Muslim
forces. The US even allowed “secular” Alija Izetbegovic to visit
Tehran in 1993, at the height of the civil war. Iran also openly sent
shipments of arms and weapons routinely to the Bosnian Muslim forces
via Zagreb. At that time, Iran was the main supplier and ally of the
Bosnian Muslim regime, which the mainstream US media erroneously
claimed was “pluralist” and multi-ethnic, and Western-oriented. Two
prominent Western journalists, Renate Flottau and Eve-Ann Prentice,
even stated that they saw Ossama bin Laden in Sarajevo in 1994, at an
official meeting with Alija Izetbegovic. Misguided US advocacy
journalism and unprecedented propaganda that relied on the Holocaust
and “genocide” paradigms empowered radical Islam, US propaganda
portrayed the Bosnian Muslim faction as “victims” and the Jews of the
1990s, facing genocide. Such reckless and mindless propaganda only
strengthened Ossama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda and radical Islam. It gave
radical Islam moral and legal empowerment.
The chapter "Ustashi, Murderer Monks, and the Modern Croatian State"
analyzed the Ustasha Movement and its role in Croatian nationalism.
The Ustasha Nazi puppet state, the NDH, was created by Adolf Hitler
and Ante Pavelic. The NDH embarked on a systematic campaign to
exterminate the Serbian, Jewish, and Roma populations of Croatia and
Bosnia. The involvement of the Roman Catholic clergy in the genocide
and in the administration of the Jasenovac death camp was discussed.
The chapter "Srebrenica, the Phantom Massacre," analyzed the lack of
conclusive evidence to to warrant the conclusion that a “massacre”
occurred. Srebrenica is largely a US propaganda construct used to
justify U.S. support for the Bosnian Muslim faction during the civil
war. This analysis offers critical and opposing perspectives on
Srebrenica and presents evidence that disproves the US propaganda
allegations.
There is a section consisting of interviews that Ratko Mladic gave to
the press.
The last section examines the Hague Tribunal and the indictment
brought against Mladic.
The one-sided and biased nature of the ICTY has made it
controversial. Is it imposing “justice” or revenge and punishment on
those who opposed the “international community”? Controversial Swiss-
born prosecutor Carla Del Ponte has been referred to as “the new
Gestapo”, “La Puttana” or “the whore”, “the personification of
stubbornness”, and “the unguided missile”. Del Ponte has demonstrated
an obsession and an idee fixe in going after Serbian “war criminals”
almost exclusively. She showed all the zeal and determination of
German police chiefs Heinrich Himmler and Heinrich Muller and FBI
chief J. Edgar Hoover. According to the BBC News profile, “She takes
perverse pride in such labels---she says they show she is doing her
job.” The BBC notes that the “petite, chain smoking war crimes
prosecutor, who is famous for her ruthless pursuit of goals”, has a
“vigorous approach” to the pursuit of justice. She gained notoriety
in the 1980s by exposing the “pizza connection”, the link in the
Italian drug trade to Swiss banks.
Del Ponte was appointed ICTY prosecutor on September 15, 1999 after
the US/NATO bombardment and occupation of Yugoslavia, primarily to
rationalize and justify the illegal US/NATO aggression and war crimes
committed against Yugoslavia. She was, in essence, appointed by the
US and NATO, to give ex post facto legitimacy to their illegal war
against Yugoslavia, a war organized to help Albanian separatists and
secessionists achieve a Greater Albania. The US State department
absurdly and paradoxically itself labeled the KLA a “terrorist”
organization. Del Ponte was appointed to prosecute the Balkans case
and the Rwanda case. She was dismissed from the Rwanda case because
there was “insufficient attention” shown. African countries accused
her of “insufficient progress” on Rwanda.
Why this lack of commitment to Rwanda? Why doesn’t Del Ponte show
concern for a real genocide committed in Rwanada? Is this because
there is very little to gain for herself and her paymasters?
During the Rwandan genocide, US President Bill Clinton was more
concerned about adulterous dalliances and affairs than he was with
preventing a real genocide in Rwanda. Clinton and the US
“humanitarian interventionists” totally dismissed the Rwanda
genocide. Clinton was more concerned with Monica Lewinsky. This is
the moral calculus of humanitarian interventionism. It is not
surprising that Del Ponte would show “insufficient attention” to the
Rwandan genocide. This is what her paymasters have pursued all along.
Del Ponte administers “justice” in whatever manner her paymasters
dictate.
Is “justice” in the guise of “victor’s justice” or “vindictive
triumph” counterproductive to ensuring enduring peace and stability
in the Balkans? By not granting amnesty to all combatants following
the Dayton Peace Accords, “the international community” only
perpetuates ethnic and religious enmity and prolongs the divisiveness
and division in the region.
Ratko Mladic: Tragic Hero, edited, introduced, translated, and
published by Milo Yelesiyevich, rebuts the US propaganda allegations
regarding the role of Ratko Mladic in the Bosnian Civil War,
1992-1995. The book allows an unbiased and neutral reader to make up
his or her mind for themselves. Mladic has already been found guilty
and convicted in the US and corporate globalist media as a "war
criminal". He is guilty until proven innocent. And there is no
intention to prove him innocent. Guilt is thus assumed and presupposed.
The corporate media can induce us to think however its paymasters
want us to think. We were told that Iraqi troops had killed Kuwaiti
babies in the infamous Iraqi Incubator Hoax of Gulf War I. This was
later shown to be a blatant deception orchestrated by the US media
with collusion by the US government. We were told there were
concentration camps in Bosnia. This was exposed as a deception
concocted by US PR firms and in collusion with the US government and
media. We were told that there were “mass rapes” in Bosnia against
Bosnian Muslim women. This was proven to be a propaganda hoax. We
were told thee was a “genocide” in Kosovo. It was later shown to be a
separatist war of secession by Albanian terrorists supported by the
US government, NATO, the EU, and the globalist, corporate media. We
were told by our media that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in
Iraq. There were none. We were told by our media that Al-Qaeda had
links to Saddam Hussein. There were no links. We were told Hussein
sought to buy uranium from Africa. This was not true. In order to
foment war in Yugoslavia in 1999, we were told that there was a
"genocide" in Kosovo. This was not true. In fact, Kosovo was a
separatist terrorist conflict meant to create a Muslim statelet of
Kosova as part of Greater Albania. These events show a pattern of
deception and brainwashing that should trouble and perplex all
Americans. We should question a media and a government that
brainwashes and deceives its own citizens. These are not harmless and
meaningless lies and deceptions? They were the lies and untruths
meant to foment war and to incite racial, religious, and ethnic
conflict. They were the lies that kill. They were the lies that
fomented war. We need to ask why? We live in a democracy. We need to
hold people and governments accountable. We need answers. Where are
the Weapons of Mass Destruction? Where are the “concentration camps”,
“rape camps”, “rape motels”, in Bosnia? Where is the other side to
the Bosnian conflict?
This book gives the other side to the Bosnian civil war. The book
presents the historical context to the conflict. During World War II,
Adolf Hitler made Bosnia a part of a Greater Croatia which was ruled
by Croatian Roman Catholic and Bosnian Muslim leaders. This Nazi/
fascist Ustasha regime, made up of Croats and Bosnian Muslims,
embarked upon a systematic and planned campaign of genocide against
Serbs, Jews, and Roma. Hundreds of thousands of Serbs were murdered
in Bosnia and Croatia. Roman Catholic priests Alojzije Stepinac of
Zagreb and Ivan Saric of Sarajevo endorsed and sanctioned the Ustasha
genocide of Serbs, Jews, and Roma. There is Vatican complicity in
this genocide committed against Serbs and Jews. The Vatican under
Pope Pius XII had legates to the Nazi Croat puppet state and knew
what was happening but did nothing to prevent the genocide, indeed,
encouraging it.
In Bosnia, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem came to Sarajevo in 1943 to
form the Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division Handzar or Handschar, made
up of Bosnian Muslims. This Bosnian Muslim Nazi SS Division was
deployed in eastern Bosnia against mostly Serbian guerrillas and
resistance groups. Bosnian Muslim political leaders had written a
famous Memorandum in 1942 to Adolf Hitler requesting that he make
Muslim Bosnia a part of the Nazi New Order. The Bosnian Muslims would
form two Nazi SS Divisions, Handzar and Kama. The Bosnian Muslims
played a role in the Final Solution, the Holocaust. All of this
factual background is censored and suppressed in our free and open
societies and by our free media.
This is the context for the Bosnian civil war and for Ratko Mladic,
whose father was killed in 1945 fighting Nazi Croat and Bosnian
Muslim forces during the Holocaust. This event cast a shadow on
Mladic's view of Bosnia and Croatia. Mladic’s father was a Communist
Partisan. Mladic himself grew up under the Communist/socialist slogan
“brotherhood and unity” of the Josip Broz Tito regime and regarded
himself as a “Yugoslav”, not a Serb. He rose rapidly in the ranks of
the Yugoslav military. He was first stationed in Skopje in Macedonia
in 1965. When Yugoslavia began disintegrating along ethnic and
religious lines after the revival of rival nationalisms in 1990,
Mladic had to choose sides in an ethnic conflict. He did not want a
repeat of World War II. He did not want to witness again the genocide
and mass murder of the Serbian population. This is an important fact
in showing what motivated Mladic. It shows that Mladic came from an
anti-nationalist background.
The book dispels many of the US propaganda constructs. The Bosnian
Muslims had a well-armed military division stationed in Srebrenica.
The Bosnian Muslim commander of Srebrenica, Naser Oric, was convicted
of war crimes in 2006. Oric burned down Serbian Orthodox churches,
murdered Serbian civilians and POWs, and burned down at least 50
Serbian villages. His forces would castrate and cut the throats of
Serbian POWs and civilians and mutilate the bodies, usually by
decapitating the corpse or by circumcising the victim. Oric told the
UN commander Philippe Morillon that he never took any Serbian
prisoners, but executed all Serbian POWs he could find. Oric was
never tried for these blatant and egregious war crimes.
This created the background to Srebrenica. Srebrenica was a military
defeat and disaster for the Bosnian Muslim faction. It was a military
loss. All those killed were well-armed Bosnian Muslim military
forces. When is killing armed soldiers in a war considered "genocide"?
The US has created an absurd notion of war. When we or our proxies
kill, we do so in legitimate self-defense and are perfectly justified
in doing so. When those who oppose us kill, they are committing
genocide and illegal war crimes. This is an absurdity. War itself is
always organized murder. There is no such thing as a good war. The
real responsibility for the Yugoslav conflicts rests on those outside
powers that fomented the war, such as US ambassador Warren
Zimmermann, German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, and Pope John Paul II.
They rejected diplomacy and negotiations and opted for ultimatums and
diktats that they knew would result in civil war. They bear ultimate
responsibility for the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia. But
paradoxically, they will not have to account for their actions.
Instead, scapegoats and straw men will be found. This book exposes
the absurd US propaganda claims. Moreover, there is no proof for any
of the allegations made about Srebrenica. There is only propaganda.
And this book does an excellent job in disproving the US-manufactured
propaganda.
This book also shows that war crimes were committed against Bosnian
Serb civilians, in Pofalici, in Celebici, and in the towns and
villages around Srebrenica. Ossama bin Laden made an official visit
to Sarajevo in 1994, meeting with Alija Izetbegovic in his office. Al-
Qaeda forces were actively fighting as members of the Bosnian Muslim
Army under ultra-nationalist radical Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic.
Al-Qaeda even formed a special unit in the Bosnian Muslim Army known
as the El Mujahedeen Unit. Iran was the major backer and supplier of
the Bosnian Muslim forces. Izetbegovic visited Tehran in 1993 on an
official diplomatic mission at the height of the Bosnian civil war.
The Ossama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, and Iranian connection to the Alija
Izetbegovic regime has been very carefully covered-up. This is done
in a very subtle way. None of this factual material has been
presented in the US media. It has been censored and suppressed. Why?
This book allows you to make up your own mind based on all the facts
and not from handouts from the US State Department. This book allows
you to cut through the brainwashing and “infowar” technology and
propaganda and to decide for yourself. What harm can that do? Why is
the US propaganda machine so alarmed by an opposing view? What is
there to be so afraid of? Show us both sides to the issue. Let us
decide. That is real democracy and freedom.
This encyclopedic collection allows differing and opposing viewpoints
and analyses. Dissent and debate are crucial in a democracy. Lock-
step uniformity, conformity, and mindless subservience are anathema
in a true democracy. US President Thomas Jefferson noted that a well-
informed public is essential in a democracy:
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of
civilization, it expects what never was and never will be... [I]f we
are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the
responsibility of every American to be informed.”
Jefferson noted how images and perceptions can be disseminated to
manipulate and to deceive: “Those who don't read the newspapers are
better off than those who do insofar as those who know nothing are
better off than those whose heads are filled with half-truths and
lies.” One must be wary of a corporate media that seeks to “persuade”
by infowar technology and advocacy journalism. Jefferson was able to
see the danger even in his time.
Knowledge and information are essential for Jefferson. In a
democracy, one has to be informed: “I know of no safe depository of
the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; not
enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome
discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform
their discretion. Enlighten the people generally and tyranny and
oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the
dawn of day.”
What was Ratko Mladic’s real crime? Why is he a “villain” and not a
“hero” in the New World Order? Is it because he opposed the
imposition of the New World Order from Washington and Bonn? Is that
his real “crime”? His biggest “crime” was standing up to Germany and
the US and the EU and NATO. He prevented NATO expansion and US
penetration into the Balkans, Southeastern Europe. Opposition and
dissent are always unacceptable when power is the sole criterion of
right. In a might makes right scenario, the greatest danger and the
greatest threat is opposition, any opposition, any dissent. Dissent
is, frankly, unacceptable. Why? Dissent implies freedom. Dissent
implies individuality and choice. You can choose to disagree. It is
this freedom to choose and to decide that is perceived as a threat.
As Thomas Jefferson noted, the decision a person makes can be altered
and manipulated through infowar techniques, public relations, a
corporate globalist media, and biased news sources. Ignorance and
democracy are incompatible. Ignorance and freedom are incompatible.
That is why this book is needed to allow a different perspective, a
different set of facts. It allows you to analyze all the different
sides to an issue and to decide for yourself.
Is there a distinction between “justice” and “the law”? As Thomas
Jefferson noted, “law is often but the tyrant's will” In US history
itself, the law was used to institutionalize slavery, segregation,
and the racist policy of “separate but equal” in the schools and in
public places, Law can be used to institutionalize and to justify
injustice. The Dred Scott case of 1857 is an important example of how
“the law” differs from “justice”. US Supreme Court Chief Justice
Roger Taney held that blacks were “beings of an inferior order, and
altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social
or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights
which the white man was bound to respect.” Blacks were legally
regarded as not citizens of the U.S. and legally subhuman, not
accorded the rights that “all men” enjoyed under the Declaration of
Independence and the US Constitution. Blacks were not human beings,
but property. “Justice” and the “law” do not always coincide.
Ratko Mladic. Is he a “hero” or “villain”? Decide for yourself. As
David Binder noted, this collection allows the reader to decide by
examining the full picture, not merely half the picture. Is it
justice or is it just the law imposed by NATO and the US? Is it
justice or the imposition of “the tyrant’s will”, the will of the US,
NATO, and the EU? This book allows the reader to determine whether
the Ratko Mladic case is about “justice” or about triumphal
vengeance, about going after and destroying those who would dare to
oppose the New World Order. It offers another perspective, a
perspective meticulously censored and suppressed in the US and
Western mainstream. Moreover, the book is essentially antiwar because
it shows how wars are manipulated and exploited and fomented by self-
interested outside powers and interests. They maliciously foment war
and incite hatred and encourage killing, then sit back and judge and
impose their “justice”.
This book is highly recommended. It encourages critical and
independent thought, not mindless, lock-step conformity and obeisance.
... Alfred (Sherman) sees precise parallels (...) between the
fashionable denunciation of the Czechs for their treatment of the
Sudeten Germans in 1938 and the recent excoriation of the Serbs in
Kosovo and elsewhere... "It reminds one of the late 1930's, when most
of the British press demonised the Czechs at Downing Streets behest,
denouncing them as a threat to European peace and for ill-treating
their peaceful German Sudetenland minority; 'Herr' Hitler, by
contrast was held up as a reasonable man... It its almost invariably
the innocent who suffer in war..."
(Source: ChroniclesOnline August 30, 2006
Sir Alfred Sherman: Witness to a Century, By Srdja Trifkovic
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/cgi-bin/newsviews.cgi/
Sir_Alfred_Sherman_.html?seemore=y )