Informazione
*** Dal Comitato jugoslavo per la liberazione di Milosevic:
MEETING INTERNAZIONALE A BELGRADO, 20 E 21 OTTOBRE 2001
*** Dal Comitato russo per la liberazione di Milosevic:
UNA DICHIARAZIONE DI ALEXANDER ZINOVYEV
*** Dagli Stati Uniti d'America: DICHIARAZIONE DI R. DITTMANN,
FISICO, PRESIDENTE DELLA FED. USA DEI DOCENTI E DEGLI SCIENZIATI,
RAPPRESENTANTE ALL'ONU DELLA FED. MONDIALE DEI LAVORATORI
DELLA SCIENZA
==
Data: 20/10/2001 00:45
Da: "Vladimir Krsljanin"
Oggetto: Freedom for Slobodan Milosevic as Moral, Political and
Legal Imperative
SLOBO DA FREEDOM ASSOCIATION
YUGOSLAV COMMITTEE
To Free Slobodan Milosevic
ICDSM announces meeting in Belgrade, on October 21-22, 2001
In these decisive days for the peace in the world and for the future of
mankind, Slobodan Milosevic, leader of Serb nation, who opposed
American money&war machinery, which for 150 years terrorizes the world
and finishes now its imperial conquest in shame - with killing the
fellow Americans, man who opposed KLA - European Talibans who with open
American support burn the Balkans - gate to Middle East&Caspian oil
(and about whose essence Americans are still ignorant because they are
not allowed to know), that man is abducted and detained in the Hague to
be put on show trial by those who were in cold blood killing Serbian
children and destroying his fatherland. No matter that he is without
support of his own state, whose American installed puppet government
delivered him for bribery, aware of essential support of Serb people
which suffers under NATO occupation and aware of the increasing threat
against freedom of all nations, Slobodan Milosevic stands firmly,
bravely and defiantly against his Soros paid �judges�, �prosecutors�
and �quasidefense�.
Lets gather in Belgrade and express our solidarity with Slobodan
Milosevic and with all Yugoslav and Serb patriots who despite
sufferings still stand for eternal ideals of liberty, peace and
independence. Lets present our arguments for their freedom and lets
discuss how to abolish the illegal "International Criminal Tribunal for
Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)" in the Hague.
On the initiative of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan
Milosevic (ICDSM), Yugoslav Committee to Free Slobodan Milosevic
("Freedom" Association) hosts the Working Meeting of ICDSM
representatives with representatives of respective National Committees
and other prominent experts and activists (invited from Australia,
Belarus, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cuba, Czech Republic,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iraq, Italy, the Netherlands,
Palestine, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Ukraine, USA,
Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Yugoslavia) and the
I n t e r n a t i o n a l C o n f e r e n c e
Freedom for Slobodan Milosevic as Moral, Political and Legal Imperative
The conference will be held in Belgrade, October 21-22, 2001.
Representatives of all Yugoslav patriotic parties, organizations and
institutions will also take part. The conference will work in opening
and closing plenaries and three working sessions devoted to three
aspects of our struggle: A) ethics and international policy; B)
international and national law and human rights; C) international
activism. A joint declaration is expected to be adopted.
To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sps.org.yu/ (official SPS website)
http://www.belgrade-forum.org/ (forum for the world of equals)
http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan
Milosevic)
http://www.jutarnje.co.yu/ ('morning news' the only Serbian newspaper
advocating liberation)
==
Data: 20/10/2001 01:56
Da: "Vladimir Krsljanin"
Oggetto: FREEDOM FOR MILOSEVIC: Alexander Zinovyev (Russia)
Russian Social Committee for the defense of Slobodan Milosevic
STATEMENT
In the center of the attention of the World today is the
struggle against terrorism. However, this phenomenon cannot be
considered connected to the terrorist acts in the USA only, without
taking in consideration the circumstances of growing terrorism in the
Balkans. In Kosovo in 1998-1999 there was no violation of the rights of
the national minorities in the way western politicians and media
have presented. The World has faced the aggressive armed separatism
that chose terror as its main weapon.
The Albanian terrorist army - KLA, having got in 1998 a wide
support from the USA and its allies, participated in the NATO
aggression against Yugoslavia. At the same time, KLA was having direct
links with the international terrorist network. Osama Bin Laden has
been in 1998 in Albania. The American representative R. Hollbrooke was
informed about that.
The tragic events in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Macedonia, New
York - are all links in the same chain. The terrorist acts there have
been organized by the very same forces.
At the very source of these events are the USA, that have
trained, financed and armed the international terrorist network and
gave it its political and military support. Now, when the Americans are
calling the World to unite in the struggle against terror, they should
be looking for the roots of this phenomenon in their own house first -
in Washington.
On the other side, President Slobodan Milosevic has fought
namely against terrorism defending the people of his country, including
the Albanians as well. Nevertheless, the open support of the West to
Albanian terrorism, the demonization of Serbia and of Slobodan
Milosevic, have brought to the defeat of antiterrorist forces in the
FRY and to turmoils in Macedonia.
The World community, considering the circumstances, should
reconsider its own assessments on the events in Yugoslavia.
We call upon the Parliaments and Governments of the member-countries of
the United Nations Security Council with the appeal that the so-called
International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), founded
in violation of the UN Charter, stops its activities. That so-called
tribunal is in fact defending Albanian extremists who have committed
monstrous crimes in Kosovo. ICTY has not presented not even one charge
against Kosovo Albanians who have committed crimes against humanity.
We demand for a halt of the persecution of President
Milosevic and his fellow-fighters who fought against terrorism, for
safeguarding the integrity of the country in full accordance with the
FRY Constitution.
Slobodan Milosevic, who has been at the forefront of the
resistance to terrorism in the Balkans, must be freed immediately.
A. A. Zinovyev
Chairman
To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sps.org.yu/ (official SPS website)
http://www.belgrade-forum.org/ (forum for the world of equals)
http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan
Milosevic)
http://www.jutarnje.co.yu/ ('morning news' the only Serbian newspaper
advocating liberation
==
Data: 20/10/2001 02:00
Da: "Vladimir Krsljanin"
Oggetto: FREEDOM FOR MILOSEVIC: Roger Dittmann (USA)
STATEMENT
In the U.S. we currently simultaneously hear both appeals to war and
retribution and appeals to law and justice. The slogan, "No justice, no
peace", contains wisdom and merit. Unfortunately, it is a human
tendency to take sides in a conflict to the detriment of principles.
One should support principles instead of taking sides. Generally there
are principled people deserving support on all sides.
Fortunately, however, basic consensus principles of jurisprudence are
widely, if not universally recognized, to wit:
1) Law depends primarily upon voluntary compliance.
2) Voluntary compliance is enhanced if law is perceived as legitimate
and just, i.e.,
a) It was democratically formulated;
b) It is universally applicable;
c) It is uniformly enforced: This is largely achieved through
separation of powers, and checks and balances, including:
i) An independent judiciary,
ii) An independent prosecutor,
iii) "Grand jury" and "Bill of Rights" type protections against
politically motivated or malicious prosecution;
iv) Due process guarantees, including a prohibition against ex post
facto laws.
The Rome Statute Treaty for the International Criminal Court [ICC] was
carefully crafted by the representatives of the world's nations in a
conference of plenipotentiaries with full, deliberate participation of
NGO's. The ICC honors these basic principles of jurisprudence.
{In addition, aggression will be defined as an international crime [by
the ICC Assembly of State Parties that will serve as an international
parliament for the definition of the elements of international criminal
law] for the first time in human history. The era of "rules of
engagement" according to which wars [which previously remained legal]
are supposed to be conducted,
hopefully will soon be past once the ICC Treaty is ratified.}
The International Criminal Tribunals [ICT] essentially violate all of
these principles. They lack legitimacy. The Nuremburg Principles of
individual responsibility and culpability and international treaties,
like the Geneva Accords, are to be applauded, but they should be
uniformly enforced by an
independent prosecutor and a legitimate court with due process
guarantees.
The imposition of "might makes right", or "victors' justice" may be
tolerated by brute force, but it won't be respected or honored, and
inevitably engenders resentment and opposition instead of voluntary
compliance.
Milosevic, and other defendants before the illegitimate ICT's, should
be immediately released.
October 15, 2001
Roger Dittmann
Professor of Physics Emeritus
California State University, Fullerton
President, US Federation of Scholars and Scientists
UN Representative of the World Federation of Scientific Workers
To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sps.org.yu/ (official SPS website)
http://www.belgrade-forum.org/ (forum for the world of equals)
http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan
Milosevic)
http://www.jutarnje.co.yu/ ('morning news' the only Serbian newspaper
advocating liberation)
---
Questa lista e' curata da componenti del
Coordinamento Nazionale per la Jugoslavia (CNJ).
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente
le posizioni ufficiali o condivise da tutto il CNJ, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo oppure:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
---- Spot ------------------------------------------------------------
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MEETING INTERNAZIONALE A BELGRADO, 20 E 21 OTTOBRE 2001
*** Dal Comitato russo per la liberazione di Milosevic:
UNA DICHIARAZIONE DI ALEXANDER ZINOVYEV
*** Dagli Stati Uniti d'America: DICHIARAZIONE DI R. DITTMANN,
FISICO, PRESIDENTE DELLA FED. USA DEI DOCENTI E DEGLI SCIENZIATI,
RAPPRESENTANTE ALL'ONU DELLA FED. MONDIALE DEI LAVORATORI
DELLA SCIENZA
==
Data: 20/10/2001 00:45
Da: "Vladimir Krsljanin"
Oggetto: Freedom for Slobodan Milosevic as Moral, Political and
Legal Imperative
SLOBO DA FREEDOM ASSOCIATION
YUGOSLAV COMMITTEE
To Free Slobodan Milosevic
ICDSM announces meeting in Belgrade, on October 21-22, 2001
In these decisive days for the peace in the world and for the future of
mankind, Slobodan Milosevic, leader of Serb nation, who opposed
American money&war machinery, which for 150 years terrorizes the world
and finishes now its imperial conquest in shame - with killing the
fellow Americans, man who opposed KLA - European Talibans who with open
American support burn the Balkans - gate to Middle East&Caspian oil
(and about whose essence Americans are still ignorant because they are
not allowed to know), that man is abducted and detained in the Hague to
be put on show trial by those who were in cold blood killing Serbian
children and destroying his fatherland. No matter that he is without
support of his own state, whose American installed puppet government
delivered him for bribery, aware of essential support of Serb people
which suffers under NATO occupation and aware of the increasing threat
against freedom of all nations, Slobodan Milosevic stands firmly,
bravely and defiantly against his Soros paid �judges�, �prosecutors�
and �quasidefense�.
Lets gather in Belgrade and express our solidarity with Slobodan
Milosevic and with all Yugoslav and Serb patriots who despite
sufferings still stand for eternal ideals of liberty, peace and
independence. Lets present our arguments for their freedom and lets
discuss how to abolish the illegal "International Criminal Tribunal for
Former Yugoslavia (ICTY)" in the Hague.
On the initiative of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan
Milosevic (ICDSM), Yugoslav Committee to Free Slobodan Milosevic
("Freedom" Association) hosts the Working Meeting of ICDSM
representatives with representatives of respective National Committees
and other prominent experts and activists (invited from Australia,
Belarus, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Cuba, Czech Republic,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Iraq, Italy, the Netherlands,
Palestine, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Ukraine, USA,
Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Yugoslavia) and the
I n t e r n a t i o n a l C o n f e r e n c e
Freedom for Slobodan Milosevic as Moral, Political and Legal Imperative
The conference will be held in Belgrade, October 21-22, 2001.
Representatives of all Yugoslav patriotic parties, organizations and
institutions will also take part. The conference will work in opening
and closing plenaries and three working sessions devoted to three
aspects of our struggle: A) ethics and international policy; B)
international and national law and human rights; C) international
activism. A joint declaration is expected to be adopted.
To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sps.org.yu/ (official SPS website)
http://www.belgrade-forum.org/ (forum for the world of equals)
http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan
Milosevic)
http://www.jutarnje.co.yu/ ('morning news' the only Serbian newspaper
advocating liberation)
==
Data: 20/10/2001 01:56
Da: "Vladimir Krsljanin"
Oggetto: FREEDOM FOR MILOSEVIC: Alexander Zinovyev (Russia)
Russian Social Committee for the defense of Slobodan Milosevic
STATEMENT
In the center of the attention of the World today is the
struggle against terrorism. However, this phenomenon cannot be
considered connected to the terrorist acts in the USA only, without
taking in consideration the circumstances of growing terrorism in the
Balkans. In Kosovo in 1998-1999 there was no violation of the rights of
the national minorities in the way western politicians and media
have presented. The World has faced the aggressive armed separatism
that chose terror as its main weapon.
The Albanian terrorist army - KLA, having got in 1998 a wide
support from the USA and its allies, participated in the NATO
aggression against Yugoslavia. At the same time, KLA was having direct
links with the international terrorist network. Osama Bin Laden has
been in 1998 in Albania. The American representative R. Hollbrooke was
informed about that.
The tragic events in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Macedonia, New
York - are all links in the same chain. The terrorist acts there have
been organized by the very same forces.
At the very source of these events are the USA, that have
trained, financed and armed the international terrorist network and
gave it its political and military support. Now, when the Americans are
calling the World to unite in the struggle against terror, they should
be looking for the roots of this phenomenon in their own house first -
in Washington.
On the other side, President Slobodan Milosevic has fought
namely against terrorism defending the people of his country, including
the Albanians as well. Nevertheless, the open support of the West to
Albanian terrorism, the demonization of Serbia and of Slobodan
Milosevic, have brought to the defeat of antiterrorist forces in the
FRY and to turmoils in Macedonia.
The World community, considering the circumstances, should
reconsider its own assessments on the events in Yugoslavia.
We call upon the Parliaments and Governments of the member-countries of
the United Nations Security Council with the appeal that the so-called
International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), founded
in violation of the UN Charter, stops its activities. That so-called
tribunal is in fact defending Albanian extremists who have committed
monstrous crimes in Kosovo. ICTY has not presented not even one charge
against Kosovo Albanians who have committed crimes against humanity.
We demand for a halt of the persecution of President
Milosevic and his fellow-fighters who fought against terrorism, for
safeguarding the integrity of the country in full accordance with the
FRY Constitution.
Slobodan Milosevic, who has been at the forefront of the
resistance to terrorism in the Balkans, must be freed immediately.
A. A. Zinovyev
Chairman
To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sps.org.yu/ (official SPS website)
http://www.belgrade-forum.org/ (forum for the world of equals)
http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan
Milosevic)
http://www.jutarnje.co.yu/ ('morning news' the only Serbian newspaper
advocating liberation
==
Data: 20/10/2001 02:00
Da: "Vladimir Krsljanin"
Oggetto: FREEDOM FOR MILOSEVIC: Roger Dittmann (USA)
STATEMENT
In the U.S. we currently simultaneously hear both appeals to war and
retribution and appeals to law and justice. The slogan, "No justice, no
peace", contains wisdom and merit. Unfortunately, it is a human
tendency to take sides in a conflict to the detriment of principles.
One should support principles instead of taking sides. Generally there
are principled people deserving support on all sides.
Fortunately, however, basic consensus principles of jurisprudence are
widely, if not universally recognized, to wit:
1) Law depends primarily upon voluntary compliance.
2) Voluntary compliance is enhanced if law is perceived as legitimate
and just, i.e.,
a) It was democratically formulated;
b) It is universally applicable;
c) It is uniformly enforced: This is largely achieved through
separation of powers, and checks and balances, including:
i) An independent judiciary,
ii) An independent prosecutor,
iii) "Grand jury" and "Bill of Rights" type protections against
politically motivated or malicious prosecution;
iv) Due process guarantees, including a prohibition against ex post
facto laws.
The Rome Statute Treaty for the International Criminal Court [ICC] was
carefully crafted by the representatives of the world's nations in a
conference of plenipotentiaries with full, deliberate participation of
NGO's. The ICC honors these basic principles of jurisprudence.
{In addition, aggression will be defined as an international crime [by
the ICC Assembly of State Parties that will serve as an international
parliament for the definition of the elements of international criminal
law] for the first time in human history. The era of "rules of
engagement" according to which wars [which previously remained legal]
are supposed to be conducted,
hopefully will soon be past once the ICC Treaty is ratified.}
The International Criminal Tribunals [ICT] essentially violate all of
these principles. They lack legitimacy. The Nuremburg Principles of
individual responsibility and culpability and international treaties,
like the Geneva Accords, are to be applauded, but they should be
uniformly enforced by an
independent prosecutor and a legitimate court with due process
guarantees.
The imposition of "might makes right", or "victors' justice" may be
tolerated by brute force, but it won't be respected or honored, and
inevitably engenders resentment and opposition instead of voluntary
compliance.
Milosevic, and other defendants before the illegitimate ICT's, should
be immediately released.
October 15, 2001
Roger Dittmann
Professor of Physics Emeritus
California State University, Fullerton
President, US Federation of Scholars and Scientists
UN Representative of the World Federation of Scientific Workers
To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sps.org.yu/ (official SPS website)
http://www.belgrade-forum.org/ (forum for the world of equals)
http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan
Milosevic)
http://www.jutarnje.co.yu/ ('morning news' the only Serbian newspaper
advocating liberation)
---
Questa lista e' curata da componenti del
Coordinamento Nazionale per la Jugoslavia (CNJ).
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente
le posizioni ufficiali o condivise da tutto il CNJ, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo oppure:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
---- Spot ------------------------------------------------------------
SEI UN APPASSIONATO DI PC, SOFTWARE E PERIFERICHE?
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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SESSANTA ANNI FA:
LO STERMINIO DELLE "SUMARICE" A KRAGUJEVAC
> http://digilander.iol.it/convogliogiorgiana/kragujevac1941.html
In un solo giorno 7300 morti nella citt� martire. � l'autunno del 1941.
Pochi mesi dopo la dissoluzione del regno di Jugoslavia, la penisola
balcanica � insorta contro l'occupante nazifascista. Alla rivolta
partigiana i tedeschi rispondono facendo strage della popolazione
civile.
---
Il seguente articolo e' tratto da "Storia Illustrata"
del gennaio 1979
STERMINIO NAZISTA IN SERBIA
In un solo giorno 7300 morti nella citt� martire. � l'autunno del 1941.
Pochi mesi dopo la dissoluzione del regno di Jugoslavia, la penisola
balcanica � insorta contro l'occupante nazifascista. Alla rivolta
partigiana i tedeschi rispondono facendo strage della popolazione
civile.
di ANTONIO PITAMITZ
Il 20 ottobre 1941, sei mesi dopo l'invasione tedesca della Jugoslavia,
nei due Ginnasi di Kragujevac (leggi Kragujevaz), la citt� serba posta
nel centro della regione della �umadija, le lezioni iniziano alle 8.30,
come di consueto. Sono in programma quel giorno la sintassi della
lingua serbocroata, matematica, la poesia di Goethe, la fisica. In una
classe, un professore croato, un profugo fuggito dal regime fascista
instaurato in Croazia da Ante Pavelic, sottolinea il valore della
libert�. Poco lontano, un altro spiega l'opera di un poeta serbo del
romanticismo risorgimentale. La mente rivolta alle secolari lotte
sostenute dai serbi per la loro indipendenza e a quella presente che
cresce irresistibilmente, anch'egli parla di libert�. La voce calma e
profonda che illustra i versi del poeta: "La libert� � un nettare che
inebria / Io la bevvi perch� avevo sete" , ne nasconde a fatica la
tensione, che aleggia anche nell'aula, che grava su tutti, sulla
cittadina, sui suoi abitanti, e che l'eco strozzata di fucilerie
lontane da alcuni giorni alimenta.
Dal 13 ottobre 1941 Kragujevac e la sua regione sono teatro di una
vasta azione di rappresaglia, che i tedeschi stanno conducendo con
spietata decisione contemporaneamente anche nel resto della Serbia. La
ferocia di cui essi in quei giorni danno prova ha una ragione specifica
contingente. La rapida vittoria dell'Asse ha dissolto uno Stato, il
regno dei Karadjeordjevic, ma non ha prostrato i popoli della
Jugoslavia. L'illusione tedesca di una comoda permanenza in quella
terra � stata presto delusa. Sin dai primi giorni dell'occupazione, i
tedeschi hanno avuto filo da torcere. La guerra, che anche in �umadija
i resistenti fanno, � senza quartiere. Sabotaggi sensazionali e
diversioni in grande stile si registrano sin dal mese di maggio. Linee
telefoniche e telegrafiche vengono tagliate, ponti e strade ferrate
saltano. Il movimento di resistenza cresce cos� rapidamente, ben presto
� cos� ampio che i tedeschi e le truppe collaborazioniste del quisling
serbo Milan Nedic abbandonano il presidio dei villaggi. Gli invasori si
sentono troppo esposti, isolati, preferiscono arroccarsi in citt�. La
lotta contro i patrioti la organizzano dai centri urbani, e la
conducono secondo il metro nazista che misura in tutti gli slavi una
razza inferiore, da sterminare. La traduzione pratica di questo
principio � all'altezza della fama che si guadagnano. A Belgrado, una
moto incendiata della Wehrmacht vale la vita di 122 serbi. Solo nella
capitale, in sette mesi fucilano 4700 ostaggi.
Incredibilmente, gli hitleriani ritengono di poter coprire con la
propaganda questo pugno di ferro che calano sul paese. Le
argomentazioni che diffondono sono quelle care alla "dottrina"
nazifascista dell'Ordine Nuovo Europeo. Ai contadini serbi dicono di
averli salvati dagli ebrei e dai capitalisti, e promettono anche di
salvarli dal bolscevismo semita, che sta per essere sicuramente
sconfitto sul fronte orientale.
L'itinerario di questa vittoria, a Kragujevac pu� essere seguito sulla
grande carta geografica che campeggia nel centro della citt�. Una croce
uncinata segna la progressione delle forze dell'Asse in direzione di
Mosca. Per�, come altrove, nemmeno a Kragujevac terrore, repressione,
lusinghe, denaro fatto circolare per corrompere, valgono a indebolire
il sostegno alla lotta partigiana, a ridurne il seguito. A dare
contorni netti alla situazione, le risposte alla propaganda tedesca non
mancano. La carta geografica dell'Asse viene bruciata in pieno giorno.
Il fuoco divora anche una delle fabbriche militari della citt�. Un
treno di quaranta vagoni viene distrutto sulla linea Kragujevac-
Kraljevo, provocando la morte di cinquanta tedeschi. Da vincitori e
occupanti, i tedeschi si trovano nella condizione di assediati.
� Kragujevac, citt� da sempre ribelle, che prende il suo nome da
kraguj, dal rapace grifone che popolava i sui boschi, che alimenta la
Resistenza della zona. � questa citt� di antiche tradizioni nazionali e
socialiste che guida la lotta della �umadija, il cuore della Serbia.
Gli operai comunisti che costituiscono il nerbo delle formazioni
partigiane vengono dal suo arsenale militare. Dalle sue case dai cento
nascondigli, che hanno gi� ingannato turchi e austroungarici, escono le
armi, le munizioni, il materiale sanitario, i libri che donne, bambini
e ragazzi portano quotidianamente ai combattenti del bosco.
Per contenere la sua iniziativa, per fronteggiare questa lotta di
bande, che � lotta di popolo e che sconvolge gli schemi bellici dei
signori nazisti della guerra, gi� alla fine dell'agosto 1941 Kragujevac
conta la guarnigione tedesca pi� forte di tutta la Serbia centrale. Ma
i due battaglioni e i mezzi corazzati di cui i tedeschi dispongono non
sono sufficienti ad arrestare lo slancio delle tre compagnie partigiane
che operano fuori della citt�. N� tantomeno la Gestapo � in grado di
bloccare i gruppi clandestini che si annidano dentro. La loro azione
anzi si fa sempre pi� audace, punta sul risultato militare, ma ricerca
anche l'effetto psicologico. Per i partigiani, importante � non
soltanto colpire il nemico, ma aiutare anche i serbi oppressi a
sperare, a vivere. Una notte d'agosto, cento metri di ferrovia vengono
fatti saltare in citt�, proprio sotto il naso dei tedeschi.
� una sfida, che ha sapore di beffa. In questa situazione, la rabbia e
il desiderio di vendetta dei tedeschi crescono quotidianamente. Quando
nel settembre 1941, la ribellione guadagna tutta la Serbia, e
conseguentemente mette radici ancora pi� profonde in �umadija, il
generale Boehme, comandante delle forze tedesche nel Paese, considera
che la misura � colma. Il prestigio dei suoi soldati deve essere
risollevato, una dura lezione deve essere somministrata ai serbi. Una
spietata repressione, da condurre senza esitazione, � decisa. A rendere
pi� chiara la direttiva che passa ai subalterni, e che precisa
la "filosofia" del comando tedesco, Boehme ricorda che "una vita umana
non vale nulla", e che perci� per intimidire bisogna ricorrere a
una "crudelt� senza eguali". A met� settembre i tedeschi passano
all'azione. La macchina si mette in moto.
Per un mese la Serbia centrale � trasformata in un campo di sterminio.
A decine villaggi grandi e piccoli sono bruciati, spesso, come a Novo
Mesto o a Debrc, con dentro gli abitanti. I serbi muoiono a migliaia,
uccisi, massacrati. A �abac, il 26 settembre, sono 3000 gli uomini dai
14 ai 70 anni che rimangono vittime della razzia tedesca. Cinquecento
muoiono durante una marcia fatta fare al passo di corsa per 46
chilometri. Gli altri sono fucilati. Una sorte analoga hanno, il 10
ottobre, a Valjevo, 2200 ostaggi: finiscono al muro. "Pagano" 10
tedeschi uccisi e 24 feriti. Cinque giorni dopo, il 15, � "sentenziata"
la punizione di Kraljevo, un'altra citt� che resiste. I plotoni di
esecuzione lavorano per cinque giorni, le vittime sono 5000. Sembra
impossibile immaginare una strage ancora pi� grande. Eppure,
l'allucinante escalation non ha toccato la sua punta di massimo orrore.
Lo far� a Kragujevac, e nel suo circondario. La "spedizione punitiva"
comincia il 13 ottobre. Quel giorno, nel quartiere operaio di
Kragujevac, i tedeschi prendono 30 uomini. Per 3 giorni se li
trascinano dietro nella puntata che fanno contro il paese vicino,
Gornji Milanovac. Affamati, percossi, costretti a rimuovere tronchi
d'albero e a tirare fuori dal fango carri armati, adoperati come scudo
contro i partigiani, sono testimoni della sorte del piccolo paese di
pastori. Vivono un'agonia che ha fine solo con il grande massacro, nel
quale scompaiono anche i 132 ostaggi di Gornji Milanovac. In quanto al
paese, anche questo viene bruciato. I tedeschi saldano cos� un vecchio
conto che avevano in sospeso. Anche per questa impresa per� devono
pagare uno scotto. Trentasei uomini vengono messi fuori combattimento
dai partigiani, che attaccano senza sosta.
Di fronte a questo "smacco" la logica tedesca della ritorsione non
tarda a scattare. Sar� Kragujevac a pagare, con la vita di 100
cittadini ogni tedesco morto, e con quella di 50 ogni tedesco ferito.
Duemilatrecento persone sono condannate a morte.
La rappresaglia punta per primo sui "nemici storici" del Reich:
comunisti e ebrei. Gli ebrei maschi, e un certo numero di comunisti, 66
persone in tutto, vengono arrestati sulla base delle liste che i
collaborazionisti forniscono. Ma questo non basta. Il giorno
successivo, il 19 ottobre, una massiccia operazione ha luogo
nell'immediata periferia della citt�. Tre paesi, posti nel giro di tre
chilometri, sono travolti della furia tedesca. Gro�nica, Meckovac,
Mar�ic bruciano, 423 uomini muoiono. A Meckovac, donne e bambini sono
costretti ad assistere all'esecuzione. Lo stesso macabro rituale �
imposto a Gro�nica, dove si distinguono i Volontari Anticomunisti di
Dimitrjie Ljotic. Il paese quel giorno celebra la festa del patrono. I
fascisti serbi strappano il pope dell'altare con il vangelo ancora in
mano, i fedeli vanno a morire stringendo i pani benedetti della
comunione ortodossa. Vengono falciati tutti l� vicino, con le
mitragliatrici. Cos�, intorno a Kragujevac si � fatto un cerchio di
morte. La prova generale � compiuta. Ora si passa al "grande massacro".
L'azione inizia la mattina del 20 ottobre. Alle prime luci dell'alba,
gli accessi a Kragujevac vengono bloccati. Mitragliatrici sono postate
nei punti nevralgici. Nessuno pu� pi� uscire dalla citt�, nessuno pu�
pi� entrarvi. Chi, ignorando il dispositivo, si avvicina, viene ucciso.
� quanto accade a uno zingaro, che arriva dalla campagna, a un vecchio
che in citt� muove verso il mercato. Agli ordini del maggiore Koenig,
tedeschi e collaborazionisti aprono la caccia all'uomo. Nessuno sfugge,
nessuno � "dimenticato". Il gruppo di operai che lavora tranquillamente
a un torrente, i tre popi di una chiesa, che sperano di trovare la
salvezza dietro le icone. I razziatori entrano a stanare ovunque. Gli
impiegati sono portati fuori dal municipio; giudici, scrivani,
pubblico, dal tribunale. Dalle abitazioni vengono tratti anche gli
ammalati. Un barbiere � prelevato dal negozio insieme al suo cliente,
che con altri disgraziati marcia verso il suo destino, una guancia
insaponata, l'altra no.
Alle dieci i tedeschi irrompono anche nei due ginnasi. L'apparizione di
quelle uniformi verdi armate di fucili e parabellum, infrange la
normalit� forzata che da tre giorni nelle due scuole vige. Il barone
Bischofhausen, il comandante tedesco della piazza, il 17 ha minacciato
presidi, professori e genitori di severe sanzioni se i ragazzi non
frequentavano la scuola. Lo ha fatto ripetere anche per le vie della
citt�, a suon di tamburo, dal banditore pubblico. Li vuole tutti in
aula, sempre. L'ufficiale tedesco, che da civile � insegnante, combatte
l'assenteismo degli studenti non certo perch� mosso da passione
pedagogica. Chiedendo che proprio per quel giorno 20 tutti siano
presenti, egli fa apparire di voler esercitare un controllo; che per�
si trasforma in una trappola. In realt�, egli non dimentica che i
ginnasiali di Kragujevac hanno manifestato sin dai primi giorni la pi�
violenta opposizione all'occupante. Un giovane � finito impiccato dopo
uno scontro con la polizia. Il barone sa pure che anche in quelle aule
la Resistenza attinge, per alimentare i suoi "gruppi d'azione", i suoi
propagandisti e sabotatori.
L'ispezione annunciata per quel giorno � arrivata. I registri chiesti
dal barone sono pronti. Arrivando quella mattina a scuola, i ragazzi
hanno cancellato i loro nomi dall'elenco. Precauzione inutile. Non c'�
appello. I tedeschi entrano direttamente nelle aule, e rastrellano.
Hinaus, fuori tutti quelli dai 16 anni in su. Anche il ragazzo invalido
che si trascina con la stampella, per il quale invano una professoressa
intercede. Anche la classe che il professore di tedesco tenta di
salvare. Ai soldati che si affacciano, il professore dice, per
rabbonirli, che stanno facendo lezione di tedesco. Mente. E mente una
seconda volta quando gli chiedono quanti anni hanno i suoi ragazzi.
Quindici dice. I tedeschi, convinti, fanno per andarsene. Ma in quel
momento un alunno si alza dall'ultimo banco. � lo spilungone della
classe. I tedeschi, dalla soglia si girano, capiscono, e sbattono fuori
tutti.
I ginnasiali raggiungono le file dei razziati, i professori in testa.
Con loro, ci sono anche Mile Novakovic, insegnante di chimica, celibe,
e Djordje Stefanov, di letteratura croata, anche lui rifugiato in
Serbia con la moglie e le due figlie per sfuggire ai fascisti della
Croazia. Quel giorno i due professori non hanno lezione. Ma quando
hanno visto che in citt� i tedeschi rastrellavano, certi che la scuola
non sarebbe stata risparmiata, sono venuti lo stesso, per essere
insieme ai loro ragazzi. Li vogliono seguire fino in fondo. Andranno
insieme a loro alla fucilazione. Del corpo insegnante, solo le donne
non sono razziate. Dalle finestre della scuola vedono sfilare i
professori e gli alunni, e "cento berretti levarsi in segno di
saluto" . I ragazzi credono ancora che torneranno.
Pochi sono i fortunati che riescono a filtrare tra le maglie di quella
immensa rete gettata sulla citt�. Chi vi riesce, va a unirsi ai
partigiani. Avr� sicuramente qualcuno da vendicare. Gli altri, a
migliaia, ingrossano le colonne che tutto il giorno scorrono per
Kragujevac dirette ai luoghi di raccolta. I razziati sono quasi 10.000,
su meno di 30.000 abitanti che conta la citt�. I tedeschi non hanno
tralasciato nemmeno il carcere. Ultimi ad arrivare, quei detenuti sono,
con comunisti ed ebrei, i primi ad essere fucilati.
Dai luoghi dove sono concentrati in attesa di conoscere la loro sorte,
la sera di quel 20 ottobre i prigionieri sentono le prime scariche di
fucileria. � l'avvio della grande carneficina. Contando sulla sorpresa,
e sulla iniziale "distrazione" dei fucilatori, alcuni dei condannati
riescono a salvarsi. Qualcuno fugge appena messo in riga. Altri, come
Zivotjin Jovanovic, alla scarica si getta a terra anche se non �
colpito, poi balza e corre. Viene ricatturato a un posto di blocco.
Tenta di nuovo la fuga, e il suo guardiano gli spara a bruciapelo. Gli
sfiora l'inguine. Poi dopo avergli dato il colpo di grazia nella spalla
invece che in testa, lo lascia a terra credendolo morto. L'uomo
striscia tutta la notte a palmo a palmo finch� arriva alla casa di un
amico. � soccorso, si crede in salvo. Arrivano i fascisti serbi, che lo
riprendono. Dopo averlo picchiato decidono che, essendo ormai in fin di
vita, tanto vale lasciarlo morire. Ma l'uomo non muore.
Altri ancora devono la vita alla fortuna, alla professione, al sangue
freddo che riescono ad avere anche in un tale frangente. A mano a mano
che inquadrano i gruppi per condurli alla fucilazione, i tedeschi fanno
la selezione. Alcuni criteri non sono molto chiari. Risparmiano, per
esempio, gli elettricisti, gli idraulici, i panettieri. Altri lo sono
di pi�. Ai loro collaboratori fascisti concedono di tirare fuori i loro
amici e parenti. In questo mercato i fascisti serbi sono generosi.
Arrivano a offrire dei ragazzi di 10/12 anni in cambio dei loro
protetti. Viene risparmiato anche chi � cittadino di un paese alleato
dell'Asse. O che lo faccia credere. Escono romeni, ungheresi. Un
dalmata si dichiara italiano. Forse lo � davvero, forse � solo un
croato acculturato italiano, bilingue. Ma riesce a salvarsi, e a
salvare il ragazzo che gli � accanto, affermando alla guardia, con la
sua "autorit�" di "alleato", che non ha ancora 16 anni. Un serbo,
invece, mostra un certificato bulgaro qualunque, rilasciato dalle
truppe di Sofia che occupano il suo Paese di origine, e viene messo da
parte.
Non fa nulla invece per salvarsi Jovan Kalafatic, professore,
insegnante di religione, che invece potrebbe. Tutti sanno che � un
fascista convinto. A scuola sospettano anche che sia un delatore, che
alcuni professori progressisti siano finiti in galera per opera sua.
Basterebbe che dica chi �. Kalafatic invece tace. Tace anche quando
passano i fascisti serbi per la "loro" selezione. Forse, nelle lunghe
ore della tragedia passate con il suo popolo, deve aver capito la vera
natura dell'Ordine Nuovo nel quale crede. Va, volontariamente, alla
fucilazione con gli altri. Vanno volontari anche due vecchi genitori
che non vogliono abbandonare i figli. Alla fucilazione vanno, divisi in
due gruppi, anche i 300 studenti ginnasiali e i loro professori. Alla
testa di un gruppo vi � il preside del ginnasio. L'altro gruppo marcia
verso la morte in fila indiana, le mani sulle spalle, come dovessero
danzare il kolo, la danza nazionale serba. Poi, cantano. Intonano "Hej
Slaveni!", l'inno antico e comune a tutti gli slavi. Cadono cantando.
Il massacro dura a lungo. Su un fronte di morte lungo oltre dieci
chilometri, fuori della citt� le armi crepitano fino alle 14 del giorno
21 ottobre. Settemilatrecento uomini di Kragujevac dai 16 ai 60 anni
cadono divisi in 33 gruppi. Dovevano essere 2300. I tedeschi hanno pi�
che triplicato il "coefficiente dichiarato" di rappresaglia. I graziati
sono circa 3000. Molti di questi sopravvissuti rientreranno a piangere
un morto. Kragujevac onora la memoria dei suoi fucilati il sabato
successivo al massacro. Il rito ortodosso per il quale il sabato � il
giorno dei morti, vuole anche che per ogni morto sia accesa una candela
gialla e per ogni candela, cui si accompagna un pane che � da benedire
con il vino santo, il pope reciti la parola dei defunti. I sacerdoti
rimasti a Kragujevac sono solo due. Altri sette sono stati fucilati. Ma
il rito deve essere compiuto. Mentre le donne piantano le candele,
presentano i pani, gridano il nome del defunto, i due preti cantano
l'antica preghiera della liturgia veteroslava. Dandosi il cambio
pregano per ventiquattro ore, dalle sette alle sette.
Inutilmente i nazisti tentano poi di nascondere la verit� sulla strage,
alterando registri, imbrogliando le cifre, esumando e cremando
cadaveri. Kragujevac ha fatto il "suo" appello. � la prova che Zivotjin
Jovanovic, l'uomo sopravvissuto tre volte, porta ai giudici di
Norimberga: "...Quell'ottobre del 1941 a Kragujevac furono esposte piů
di settemila bandiere nere... nella chiesa vennero presentati e
benedetti in un giorno pi� di settemila pani... E furono accese
settemila e trecento candele...".
---
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LO STERMINIO DELLE "SUMARICE" A KRAGUJEVAC
> http://digilander.iol.it/convogliogiorgiana/kragujevac1941.html
In un solo giorno 7300 morti nella citt� martire. � l'autunno del 1941.
Pochi mesi dopo la dissoluzione del regno di Jugoslavia, la penisola
balcanica � insorta contro l'occupante nazifascista. Alla rivolta
partigiana i tedeschi rispondono facendo strage della popolazione
civile.
---
Il seguente articolo e' tratto da "Storia Illustrata"
del gennaio 1979
STERMINIO NAZISTA IN SERBIA
In un solo giorno 7300 morti nella citt� martire. � l'autunno del 1941.
Pochi mesi dopo la dissoluzione del regno di Jugoslavia, la penisola
balcanica � insorta contro l'occupante nazifascista. Alla rivolta
partigiana i tedeschi rispondono facendo strage della popolazione
civile.
di ANTONIO PITAMITZ
Il 20 ottobre 1941, sei mesi dopo l'invasione tedesca della Jugoslavia,
nei due Ginnasi di Kragujevac (leggi Kragujevaz), la citt� serba posta
nel centro della regione della �umadija, le lezioni iniziano alle 8.30,
come di consueto. Sono in programma quel giorno la sintassi della
lingua serbocroata, matematica, la poesia di Goethe, la fisica. In una
classe, un professore croato, un profugo fuggito dal regime fascista
instaurato in Croazia da Ante Pavelic, sottolinea il valore della
libert�. Poco lontano, un altro spiega l'opera di un poeta serbo del
romanticismo risorgimentale. La mente rivolta alle secolari lotte
sostenute dai serbi per la loro indipendenza e a quella presente che
cresce irresistibilmente, anch'egli parla di libert�. La voce calma e
profonda che illustra i versi del poeta: "La libert� � un nettare che
inebria / Io la bevvi perch� avevo sete" , ne nasconde a fatica la
tensione, che aleggia anche nell'aula, che grava su tutti, sulla
cittadina, sui suoi abitanti, e che l'eco strozzata di fucilerie
lontane da alcuni giorni alimenta.
Dal 13 ottobre 1941 Kragujevac e la sua regione sono teatro di una
vasta azione di rappresaglia, che i tedeschi stanno conducendo con
spietata decisione contemporaneamente anche nel resto della Serbia. La
ferocia di cui essi in quei giorni danno prova ha una ragione specifica
contingente. La rapida vittoria dell'Asse ha dissolto uno Stato, il
regno dei Karadjeordjevic, ma non ha prostrato i popoli della
Jugoslavia. L'illusione tedesca di una comoda permanenza in quella
terra � stata presto delusa. Sin dai primi giorni dell'occupazione, i
tedeschi hanno avuto filo da torcere. La guerra, che anche in �umadija
i resistenti fanno, � senza quartiere. Sabotaggi sensazionali e
diversioni in grande stile si registrano sin dal mese di maggio. Linee
telefoniche e telegrafiche vengono tagliate, ponti e strade ferrate
saltano. Il movimento di resistenza cresce cos� rapidamente, ben presto
� cos� ampio che i tedeschi e le truppe collaborazioniste del quisling
serbo Milan Nedic abbandonano il presidio dei villaggi. Gli invasori si
sentono troppo esposti, isolati, preferiscono arroccarsi in citt�. La
lotta contro i patrioti la organizzano dai centri urbani, e la
conducono secondo il metro nazista che misura in tutti gli slavi una
razza inferiore, da sterminare. La traduzione pratica di questo
principio � all'altezza della fama che si guadagnano. A Belgrado, una
moto incendiata della Wehrmacht vale la vita di 122 serbi. Solo nella
capitale, in sette mesi fucilano 4700 ostaggi.
Incredibilmente, gli hitleriani ritengono di poter coprire con la
propaganda questo pugno di ferro che calano sul paese. Le
argomentazioni che diffondono sono quelle care alla "dottrina"
nazifascista dell'Ordine Nuovo Europeo. Ai contadini serbi dicono di
averli salvati dagli ebrei e dai capitalisti, e promettono anche di
salvarli dal bolscevismo semita, che sta per essere sicuramente
sconfitto sul fronte orientale.
L'itinerario di questa vittoria, a Kragujevac pu� essere seguito sulla
grande carta geografica che campeggia nel centro della citt�. Una croce
uncinata segna la progressione delle forze dell'Asse in direzione di
Mosca. Per�, come altrove, nemmeno a Kragujevac terrore, repressione,
lusinghe, denaro fatto circolare per corrompere, valgono a indebolire
il sostegno alla lotta partigiana, a ridurne il seguito. A dare
contorni netti alla situazione, le risposte alla propaganda tedesca non
mancano. La carta geografica dell'Asse viene bruciata in pieno giorno.
Il fuoco divora anche una delle fabbriche militari della citt�. Un
treno di quaranta vagoni viene distrutto sulla linea Kragujevac-
Kraljevo, provocando la morte di cinquanta tedeschi. Da vincitori e
occupanti, i tedeschi si trovano nella condizione di assediati.
� Kragujevac, citt� da sempre ribelle, che prende il suo nome da
kraguj, dal rapace grifone che popolava i sui boschi, che alimenta la
Resistenza della zona. � questa citt� di antiche tradizioni nazionali e
socialiste che guida la lotta della �umadija, il cuore della Serbia.
Gli operai comunisti che costituiscono il nerbo delle formazioni
partigiane vengono dal suo arsenale militare. Dalle sue case dai cento
nascondigli, che hanno gi� ingannato turchi e austroungarici, escono le
armi, le munizioni, il materiale sanitario, i libri che donne, bambini
e ragazzi portano quotidianamente ai combattenti del bosco.
Per contenere la sua iniziativa, per fronteggiare questa lotta di
bande, che � lotta di popolo e che sconvolge gli schemi bellici dei
signori nazisti della guerra, gi� alla fine dell'agosto 1941 Kragujevac
conta la guarnigione tedesca pi� forte di tutta la Serbia centrale. Ma
i due battaglioni e i mezzi corazzati di cui i tedeschi dispongono non
sono sufficienti ad arrestare lo slancio delle tre compagnie partigiane
che operano fuori della citt�. N� tantomeno la Gestapo � in grado di
bloccare i gruppi clandestini che si annidano dentro. La loro azione
anzi si fa sempre pi� audace, punta sul risultato militare, ma ricerca
anche l'effetto psicologico. Per i partigiani, importante � non
soltanto colpire il nemico, ma aiutare anche i serbi oppressi a
sperare, a vivere. Una notte d'agosto, cento metri di ferrovia vengono
fatti saltare in citt�, proprio sotto il naso dei tedeschi.
� una sfida, che ha sapore di beffa. In questa situazione, la rabbia e
il desiderio di vendetta dei tedeschi crescono quotidianamente. Quando
nel settembre 1941, la ribellione guadagna tutta la Serbia, e
conseguentemente mette radici ancora pi� profonde in �umadija, il
generale Boehme, comandante delle forze tedesche nel Paese, considera
che la misura � colma. Il prestigio dei suoi soldati deve essere
risollevato, una dura lezione deve essere somministrata ai serbi. Una
spietata repressione, da condurre senza esitazione, � decisa. A rendere
pi� chiara la direttiva che passa ai subalterni, e che precisa
la "filosofia" del comando tedesco, Boehme ricorda che "una vita umana
non vale nulla", e che perci� per intimidire bisogna ricorrere a
una "crudelt� senza eguali". A met� settembre i tedeschi passano
all'azione. La macchina si mette in moto.
Per un mese la Serbia centrale � trasformata in un campo di sterminio.
A decine villaggi grandi e piccoli sono bruciati, spesso, come a Novo
Mesto o a Debrc, con dentro gli abitanti. I serbi muoiono a migliaia,
uccisi, massacrati. A �abac, il 26 settembre, sono 3000 gli uomini dai
14 ai 70 anni che rimangono vittime della razzia tedesca. Cinquecento
muoiono durante una marcia fatta fare al passo di corsa per 46
chilometri. Gli altri sono fucilati. Una sorte analoga hanno, il 10
ottobre, a Valjevo, 2200 ostaggi: finiscono al muro. "Pagano" 10
tedeschi uccisi e 24 feriti. Cinque giorni dopo, il 15, � "sentenziata"
la punizione di Kraljevo, un'altra citt� che resiste. I plotoni di
esecuzione lavorano per cinque giorni, le vittime sono 5000. Sembra
impossibile immaginare una strage ancora pi� grande. Eppure,
l'allucinante escalation non ha toccato la sua punta di massimo orrore.
Lo far� a Kragujevac, e nel suo circondario. La "spedizione punitiva"
comincia il 13 ottobre. Quel giorno, nel quartiere operaio di
Kragujevac, i tedeschi prendono 30 uomini. Per 3 giorni se li
trascinano dietro nella puntata che fanno contro il paese vicino,
Gornji Milanovac. Affamati, percossi, costretti a rimuovere tronchi
d'albero e a tirare fuori dal fango carri armati, adoperati come scudo
contro i partigiani, sono testimoni della sorte del piccolo paese di
pastori. Vivono un'agonia che ha fine solo con il grande massacro, nel
quale scompaiono anche i 132 ostaggi di Gornji Milanovac. In quanto al
paese, anche questo viene bruciato. I tedeschi saldano cos� un vecchio
conto che avevano in sospeso. Anche per questa impresa per� devono
pagare uno scotto. Trentasei uomini vengono messi fuori combattimento
dai partigiani, che attaccano senza sosta.
Di fronte a questo "smacco" la logica tedesca della ritorsione non
tarda a scattare. Sar� Kragujevac a pagare, con la vita di 100
cittadini ogni tedesco morto, e con quella di 50 ogni tedesco ferito.
Duemilatrecento persone sono condannate a morte.
La rappresaglia punta per primo sui "nemici storici" del Reich:
comunisti e ebrei. Gli ebrei maschi, e un certo numero di comunisti, 66
persone in tutto, vengono arrestati sulla base delle liste che i
collaborazionisti forniscono. Ma questo non basta. Il giorno
successivo, il 19 ottobre, una massiccia operazione ha luogo
nell'immediata periferia della citt�. Tre paesi, posti nel giro di tre
chilometri, sono travolti della furia tedesca. Gro�nica, Meckovac,
Mar�ic bruciano, 423 uomini muoiono. A Meckovac, donne e bambini sono
costretti ad assistere all'esecuzione. Lo stesso macabro rituale �
imposto a Gro�nica, dove si distinguono i Volontari Anticomunisti di
Dimitrjie Ljotic. Il paese quel giorno celebra la festa del patrono. I
fascisti serbi strappano il pope dell'altare con il vangelo ancora in
mano, i fedeli vanno a morire stringendo i pani benedetti della
comunione ortodossa. Vengono falciati tutti l� vicino, con le
mitragliatrici. Cos�, intorno a Kragujevac si � fatto un cerchio di
morte. La prova generale � compiuta. Ora si passa al "grande massacro".
L'azione inizia la mattina del 20 ottobre. Alle prime luci dell'alba,
gli accessi a Kragujevac vengono bloccati. Mitragliatrici sono postate
nei punti nevralgici. Nessuno pu� pi� uscire dalla citt�, nessuno pu�
pi� entrarvi. Chi, ignorando il dispositivo, si avvicina, viene ucciso.
� quanto accade a uno zingaro, che arriva dalla campagna, a un vecchio
che in citt� muove verso il mercato. Agli ordini del maggiore Koenig,
tedeschi e collaborazionisti aprono la caccia all'uomo. Nessuno sfugge,
nessuno � "dimenticato". Il gruppo di operai che lavora tranquillamente
a un torrente, i tre popi di una chiesa, che sperano di trovare la
salvezza dietro le icone. I razziatori entrano a stanare ovunque. Gli
impiegati sono portati fuori dal municipio; giudici, scrivani,
pubblico, dal tribunale. Dalle abitazioni vengono tratti anche gli
ammalati. Un barbiere � prelevato dal negozio insieme al suo cliente,
che con altri disgraziati marcia verso il suo destino, una guancia
insaponata, l'altra no.
Alle dieci i tedeschi irrompono anche nei due ginnasi. L'apparizione di
quelle uniformi verdi armate di fucili e parabellum, infrange la
normalit� forzata che da tre giorni nelle due scuole vige. Il barone
Bischofhausen, il comandante tedesco della piazza, il 17 ha minacciato
presidi, professori e genitori di severe sanzioni se i ragazzi non
frequentavano la scuola. Lo ha fatto ripetere anche per le vie della
citt�, a suon di tamburo, dal banditore pubblico. Li vuole tutti in
aula, sempre. L'ufficiale tedesco, che da civile � insegnante, combatte
l'assenteismo degli studenti non certo perch� mosso da passione
pedagogica. Chiedendo che proprio per quel giorno 20 tutti siano
presenti, egli fa apparire di voler esercitare un controllo; che per�
si trasforma in una trappola. In realt�, egli non dimentica che i
ginnasiali di Kragujevac hanno manifestato sin dai primi giorni la pi�
violenta opposizione all'occupante. Un giovane � finito impiccato dopo
uno scontro con la polizia. Il barone sa pure che anche in quelle aule
la Resistenza attinge, per alimentare i suoi "gruppi d'azione", i suoi
propagandisti e sabotatori.
L'ispezione annunciata per quel giorno � arrivata. I registri chiesti
dal barone sono pronti. Arrivando quella mattina a scuola, i ragazzi
hanno cancellato i loro nomi dall'elenco. Precauzione inutile. Non c'�
appello. I tedeschi entrano direttamente nelle aule, e rastrellano.
Hinaus, fuori tutti quelli dai 16 anni in su. Anche il ragazzo invalido
che si trascina con la stampella, per il quale invano una professoressa
intercede. Anche la classe che il professore di tedesco tenta di
salvare. Ai soldati che si affacciano, il professore dice, per
rabbonirli, che stanno facendo lezione di tedesco. Mente. E mente una
seconda volta quando gli chiedono quanti anni hanno i suoi ragazzi.
Quindici dice. I tedeschi, convinti, fanno per andarsene. Ma in quel
momento un alunno si alza dall'ultimo banco. � lo spilungone della
classe. I tedeschi, dalla soglia si girano, capiscono, e sbattono fuori
tutti.
I ginnasiali raggiungono le file dei razziati, i professori in testa.
Con loro, ci sono anche Mile Novakovic, insegnante di chimica, celibe,
e Djordje Stefanov, di letteratura croata, anche lui rifugiato in
Serbia con la moglie e le due figlie per sfuggire ai fascisti della
Croazia. Quel giorno i due professori non hanno lezione. Ma quando
hanno visto che in citt� i tedeschi rastrellavano, certi che la scuola
non sarebbe stata risparmiata, sono venuti lo stesso, per essere
insieme ai loro ragazzi. Li vogliono seguire fino in fondo. Andranno
insieme a loro alla fucilazione. Del corpo insegnante, solo le donne
non sono razziate. Dalle finestre della scuola vedono sfilare i
professori e gli alunni, e "cento berretti levarsi in segno di
saluto" . I ragazzi credono ancora che torneranno.
Pochi sono i fortunati che riescono a filtrare tra le maglie di quella
immensa rete gettata sulla citt�. Chi vi riesce, va a unirsi ai
partigiani. Avr� sicuramente qualcuno da vendicare. Gli altri, a
migliaia, ingrossano le colonne che tutto il giorno scorrono per
Kragujevac dirette ai luoghi di raccolta. I razziati sono quasi 10.000,
su meno di 30.000 abitanti che conta la citt�. I tedeschi non hanno
tralasciato nemmeno il carcere. Ultimi ad arrivare, quei detenuti sono,
con comunisti ed ebrei, i primi ad essere fucilati.
Dai luoghi dove sono concentrati in attesa di conoscere la loro sorte,
la sera di quel 20 ottobre i prigionieri sentono le prime scariche di
fucileria. � l'avvio della grande carneficina. Contando sulla sorpresa,
e sulla iniziale "distrazione" dei fucilatori, alcuni dei condannati
riescono a salvarsi. Qualcuno fugge appena messo in riga. Altri, come
Zivotjin Jovanovic, alla scarica si getta a terra anche se non �
colpito, poi balza e corre. Viene ricatturato a un posto di blocco.
Tenta di nuovo la fuga, e il suo guardiano gli spara a bruciapelo. Gli
sfiora l'inguine. Poi dopo avergli dato il colpo di grazia nella spalla
invece che in testa, lo lascia a terra credendolo morto. L'uomo
striscia tutta la notte a palmo a palmo finch� arriva alla casa di un
amico. � soccorso, si crede in salvo. Arrivano i fascisti serbi, che lo
riprendono. Dopo averlo picchiato decidono che, essendo ormai in fin di
vita, tanto vale lasciarlo morire. Ma l'uomo non muore.
Altri ancora devono la vita alla fortuna, alla professione, al sangue
freddo che riescono ad avere anche in un tale frangente. A mano a mano
che inquadrano i gruppi per condurli alla fucilazione, i tedeschi fanno
la selezione. Alcuni criteri non sono molto chiari. Risparmiano, per
esempio, gli elettricisti, gli idraulici, i panettieri. Altri lo sono
di pi�. Ai loro collaboratori fascisti concedono di tirare fuori i loro
amici e parenti. In questo mercato i fascisti serbi sono generosi.
Arrivano a offrire dei ragazzi di 10/12 anni in cambio dei loro
protetti. Viene risparmiato anche chi � cittadino di un paese alleato
dell'Asse. O che lo faccia credere. Escono romeni, ungheresi. Un
dalmata si dichiara italiano. Forse lo � davvero, forse � solo un
croato acculturato italiano, bilingue. Ma riesce a salvarsi, e a
salvare il ragazzo che gli � accanto, affermando alla guardia, con la
sua "autorit�" di "alleato", che non ha ancora 16 anni. Un serbo,
invece, mostra un certificato bulgaro qualunque, rilasciato dalle
truppe di Sofia che occupano il suo Paese di origine, e viene messo da
parte.
Non fa nulla invece per salvarsi Jovan Kalafatic, professore,
insegnante di religione, che invece potrebbe. Tutti sanno che � un
fascista convinto. A scuola sospettano anche che sia un delatore, che
alcuni professori progressisti siano finiti in galera per opera sua.
Basterebbe che dica chi �. Kalafatic invece tace. Tace anche quando
passano i fascisti serbi per la "loro" selezione. Forse, nelle lunghe
ore della tragedia passate con il suo popolo, deve aver capito la vera
natura dell'Ordine Nuovo nel quale crede. Va, volontariamente, alla
fucilazione con gli altri. Vanno volontari anche due vecchi genitori
che non vogliono abbandonare i figli. Alla fucilazione vanno, divisi in
due gruppi, anche i 300 studenti ginnasiali e i loro professori. Alla
testa di un gruppo vi � il preside del ginnasio. L'altro gruppo marcia
verso la morte in fila indiana, le mani sulle spalle, come dovessero
danzare il kolo, la danza nazionale serba. Poi, cantano. Intonano "Hej
Slaveni!", l'inno antico e comune a tutti gli slavi. Cadono cantando.
Il massacro dura a lungo. Su un fronte di morte lungo oltre dieci
chilometri, fuori della citt� le armi crepitano fino alle 14 del giorno
21 ottobre. Settemilatrecento uomini di Kragujevac dai 16 ai 60 anni
cadono divisi in 33 gruppi. Dovevano essere 2300. I tedeschi hanno pi�
che triplicato il "coefficiente dichiarato" di rappresaglia. I graziati
sono circa 3000. Molti di questi sopravvissuti rientreranno a piangere
un morto. Kragujevac onora la memoria dei suoi fucilati il sabato
successivo al massacro. Il rito ortodosso per il quale il sabato � il
giorno dei morti, vuole anche che per ogni morto sia accesa una candela
gialla e per ogni candela, cui si accompagna un pane che � da benedire
con il vino santo, il pope reciti la parola dei defunti. I sacerdoti
rimasti a Kragujevac sono solo due. Altri sette sono stati fucilati. Ma
il rito deve essere compiuto. Mentre le donne piantano le candele,
presentano i pani, gridano il nome del defunto, i due preti cantano
l'antica preghiera della liturgia veteroslava. Dandosi il cambio
pregano per ventiquattro ore, dalle sette alle sette.
Inutilmente i nazisti tentano poi di nascondere la verit� sulla strage,
alterando registri, imbrogliando le cifre, esumando e cremando
cadaveri. Kragujevac ha fatto il "suo" appello. � la prova che Zivotjin
Jovanovic, l'uomo sopravvissuto tre volte, porta ai giudici di
Norimberga: "...Quell'ottobre del 1941 a Kragujevac furono esposte piů
di settemila bandiere nere... nella chiesa vennero presentati e
benedetti in un giorno pi� di settemila pani... E furono accese
settemila e trecento candele...".
---
Questa lista e' curata da componenti del
Coordinamento Nazionale per la Jugoslavia (CNJ).
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente
le posizioni ufficiali o condivise da tutto il CNJ, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
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---- Spot ------------------------------------------------------------
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FIABA CRUENTA
(Desanka Maksimovic)
Avvenne in un paese di contadini
nella Balcania montuosa:
una compagnia di alunni
in un giorno solo mor�
di morte gloriosa.
Avevano tutti la stessa et�,
scorrevano uguali per tutti
i giorni di scuola, andavano alle cerimonie in compagnia,
li vaccinavano tutti
contro la stessa malattia.
Morirono tutti in una giornata sola.
Avvenne in un paese di contadini
nella Balcania montuosa:
una compagnia di alunni
in un solo giorno mor�
di morte gloriosa.
Cinquantacinque minuti
prima che la morte se li portasse via
sedevano sui banchi di scuola
i ragazzi della piccola compagnia,
e con lo stesso compito assillante;
andando a piedi, quanto
impiega un viandante
e cos� via.
Erano pieni delle stesse cifre
i loro pensieri,
e nei quaderni, dentro la cartella,
giacevano assurdi innumerevoli
i cinque e gli zeri
Stringevano in saccoccia con ardore
una manciata di comuni sogni,
di comuni segreti
patriottici e d'amore.
E ognuno, lieto della propria aurora,
credeva di poter correre molto
tanto ancora
sotto l'azzurro tetto rotondo
fino a risolvere
tutti i compiti di questo mondo.
Avvenne in un paese di contadini
nella Balcania montuosa:
una compagnia di alunni
in un giorno solo mor�
di morte gloriosa.
File intere di ragazzi
Si presero per mano
e, dall'ultima ora di scuola,
si avviarono alla fucilazione
calmi, col cuore forte,
come se nulla fosse la morte.
File intere di compagni
salirono nella stessa ora
verso l'eterna dimora.
(La poesia si ispira ad uno dei pi� terribili
massacri compiuti dagli occupatori nazisti nel
corso della seconda guerra mondiale.
Nei giorni dal 21 al 23 ottobre 1941, a Kragujevac,
in Serbia, i Tedeschi fucilarono oltre 7000
persone, fra cui numerosi alunni delle scuole
di quella citt�. Insieme ai loro alunni, andarono
alla morte anche alcuni insegnanti, che non avevano
voluto abbandonare i loro ragazzi in quel terribile
momento.
La strage di Kragujevac viene rievocata ogni anno
nel Parco della Rimembranza a Kragujevac con una
manifestazione a cui partecipano poeti e
artisti di tutte le regioni della Jugoslavia.)
---
Questa lista e' curata da componenti del
Coordinamento Nazionale per la Jugoslavia (CNJ).
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente
le posizioni ufficiali o condivise da tutto il CNJ, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo oppure:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
---- Spot ------------------------------------------------------------
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Vuoi sapere quanti utenti hanno letto le tue News?
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eC-Messenger e' il sistema white label ideato da Domeus
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http://www.domeus.it/ad4082610/interestmarketing
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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(Desanka Maksimovic)
Avvenne in un paese di contadini
nella Balcania montuosa:
una compagnia di alunni
in un giorno solo mor�
di morte gloriosa.
Avevano tutti la stessa et�,
scorrevano uguali per tutti
i giorni di scuola, andavano alle cerimonie in compagnia,
li vaccinavano tutti
contro la stessa malattia.
Morirono tutti in una giornata sola.
Avvenne in un paese di contadini
nella Balcania montuosa:
una compagnia di alunni
in un solo giorno mor�
di morte gloriosa.
Cinquantacinque minuti
prima che la morte se li portasse via
sedevano sui banchi di scuola
i ragazzi della piccola compagnia,
e con lo stesso compito assillante;
andando a piedi, quanto
impiega un viandante
e cos� via.
Erano pieni delle stesse cifre
i loro pensieri,
e nei quaderni, dentro la cartella,
giacevano assurdi innumerevoli
i cinque e gli zeri
Stringevano in saccoccia con ardore
una manciata di comuni sogni,
di comuni segreti
patriottici e d'amore.
E ognuno, lieto della propria aurora,
credeva di poter correre molto
tanto ancora
sotto l'azzurro tetto rotondo
fino a risolvere
tutti i compiti di questo mondo.
Avvenne in un paese di contadini
nella Balcania montuosa:
una compagnia di alunni
in un giorno solo mor�
di morte gloriosa.
File intere di ragazzi
Si presero per mano
e, dall'ultima ora di scuola,
si avviarono alla fucilazione
calmi, col cuore forte,
come se nulla fosse la morte.
File intere di compagni
salirono nella stessa ora
verso l'eterna dimora.
(La poesia si ispira ad uno dei pi� terribili
massacri compiuti dagli occupatori nazisti nel
corso della seconda guerra mondiale.
Nei giorni dal 21 al 23 ottobre 1941, a Kragujevac,
in Serbia, i Tedeschi fucilarono oltre 7000
persone, fra cui numerosi alunni delle scuole
di quella citt�. Insieme ai loro alunni, andarono
alla morte anche alcuni insegnanti, che non avevano
voluto abbandonare i loro ragazzi in quel terribile
momento.
La strage di Kragujevac viene rievocata ogni anno
nel Parco della Rimembranza a Kragujevac con una
manifestazione a cui partecipano poeti e
artisti di tutte le regioni della Jugoslavia.)
---
Questa lista e' curata da componenti del
Coordinamento Nazionale per la Jugoslavia (CNJ).
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente
le posizioni ufficiali o condivise da tutto il CNJ, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo oppure:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
---- Spot ------------------------------------------------------------
Vuoi gestire da solo la pubblicita' della tua Newsletter?
Vuoi sapere quanti utenti hanno letto le tue News?
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eC-Messenger e' il sistema white label ideato da Domeus
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http://www.domeus.it/ad4082610/interestmarketing
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Lo scandalo dei rapporti tra la leadership secessionista ed
islamista di Izetbegovic ed i gruppi di mujaheddin stranieri
(tra i quali quelli di Bin Laden) ha spinto Izetbegovic a
lasciare la politica. Nel frattempo, dopo anni di appoggio
sfacciato allo stesso Izetbegovic e di copertura delle sue
"relazioni pericolose" con il terrorismo wahabita,
alcune ambasciate occidentali tra cui quella statunitense
inscenano la "chiusura causa terrorismo islamico".
=====================================================
1. BOSNIA: IZETBEGOVIC LASCIA PRESIDENZA PARTITO SDA
(ANSA, 12/10/01)
2. SARAJEVO HIT BY BIN LADEN PANIC
(IWPR, 19/10/01)
3. Bosnian embassies closed after threats
(BBC News, 17/10/01)
4a. Bosnia: Dr. Frankenstein Tries To Deny His Creation
(R. Rozoff, 15/10/01)
4b. Analysis: Bosnian stability at stake
(BBC News , 15/10/01)
=====================================================
> http://www.ansa.it/balcani/bosnia/
20011012164232013245.html
BOSNIA: IZETBEGOVIC LASCIA PRESIDENZA PARTITO SDA
(ANSA) - SARAJEVO, 12 OTT - Il leader del Partito
di azione democratica (Sda) ed ex presidente bosniaco
Alija Izetbegovic lascia l'incarico.
Lo ha annunciato oggi a Sarajevo lo stesso
Izetbegovic, alla vigilia del congresso dell'Sda
che domani eleggera' la nuova dirigenza, dicendo che
non si candidera'alla guida del partito. Izetbegovic,
76 anni, fondatore del maggiore partito nazionalista
musulmano che ha guidato per dieci anni, ha spiegato
che il motivo principale del suo ritiro sono le
cattive condizioni di salute e la sua eta'. ''Sarebbe
irresponsabile - ha detto - assumere
questo difficile incarico in tempi difficili e in
presenza di sempre piu' frequenti tentativi di
disintegrazione della Bosnia''. Izetbegovic ha
annunciato, senza fare nomi, che anche altri suoi
collaboratori lasceranno incarichi di primo piano nel
partito per lasciare lo spazio ai piu' giovani.
Malato di cuore, nell'ottobre dell'anno scorso
Izetbegovic ha lasciato, con due anni d'anticipo
rispetto alla scadenza del mandato, il seggio
musulmano nella presidenza tripartita (serba,
croata e musulmana) della Bosnia. Secondo fonti
dell'Sda, ora all'opposizione, il leader carismatico
e presidente della Bosnia durante la guerra (1992-
95), sara' domani eletto alla presidenza onoraria
del partito e a capo del comitato politico.
(ANSA). COR*VD
12/10/2001 16:42
==============================================
SARAJEVO HIT BY BIN LADEN PANIC
The closure of the US and UK embassies in
Bosnia is rumoured to be linked to Bin Laden
terror threat. Janez Kovac reports from Sarajevo
---
>From info@... Fri Oct 19 14:05:52 2001
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 10:42:10 +0100
From: Institute for War & Peace Reporting
To: Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Subject: IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 289
WELCOME TO IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 289,
October 19, 2001
(...)
SARAJEVO HIT BY BIN LADEN PANIC
The closure of the US and UK embassies in Bosnia
is rumoured to be linked to Bin Laden terror threat
By Janez Kovac in Sarajevo
Embassies and other agencies of the
United States and Britain were suddenly
closed in Sarajevo until further notice
on Wednesday because of an unspecified
"credible threat" to their security.
The US also shut down its
consulates in Mostar and Banja Luka.
A Western diplomat serving in Bosnia
said, "The embassy closures were a
result of information intercepted by
intelligence services. I am not in a
position to say if this is linked to
al-Qaeda or any other terrorist
organisation but I think it is related
to individuals in Bosnia. It is a
serious threat."
Bosnian prime minister Zlatko Lagumdzija
said authorities are providing
additional protection for unspecified
facilities used by international
organisations. He said Bosnian officials
are in "constant communication"
with their US counterparts but would
not define the nature of the threat.
An official from the British Foreign
Office told IWPR that the UK
embassy was closed because of
"increased international tension". The
official, who asked not to be named,
added that "appropriate security
action" was undertaken to protect
British nationals abroad.
Until the closures on October 17,
authorities had shown little concern at
the prospect of Osama bin Laden's
al-Qaeda movement spreading its activities
to Bosnia. On Friday October 12 US
Lt. Gen. John Sylvester, commander of
SFOR, told a press conference, "I
have no concerns about any mujahedin
threat in Bosnia at all."
But tension among ordinary people had
been running high ever since the
September 11 terrorist attack in New
York. It is believed that some 3,000
Islamic fighters, the so-called mujahedins,
passed through Bosnia during the
war to fight alongside Bosniak (Bosnian
Muslim) soldiers against Bosnian
Serb and Croat forces.
Around 300 of these fighters remained
in the country and settled down. Some
were found to be involved in criminal
activities in Bosnia and abroad.
The vast majority of people who live
in Bosnia view mujahedins with suspicion
and hostility because of their radical
religious and ideological practices.
An additional concern is the presence
in Bosnia of tens of thousands of
Western soldiers, policemen, diplomats
and other officials working for
numerous international organisations.
All possible targets for terrorists.
News of the embassy closures sparked
furious speculation and stirred
passions One ominous sign in recent
days has been the appearance in Sarajevo
and other towns in the Federation of
graffiti supporting Osama bin Laden.
Wild rumours spread rapidly. "I've
heard that Osama bin Laden was arrested
yesterday in central Bosnia," one Sarajevo
woman told friends over the telephone.
Another claim that Sarajevo airport had
been closed turned out to be false.
A terse advisory from the US consulate
urged all Americans in Bosnia to
"maintain the highest level of vigilance
for the foreseeable future,
particularly over the next several days".
Neither of the embassies nor any other
American or British official would provide
further explanation for the alarm. As a
matter of fact, most American, British
and other Western officials in
Bosnia-Herzegovina appeared just as puzzled,
confused and scared as anyone else.
"We just received a phone call last
night and were told that we did not have
to come to the office today," said a staff
member of the US embassy in Sarajevo on
Wednesday. "No explanation was given."
"We are being kept in the dark," complained
another official working for an
international organisation who was trying
to find out whether he too should
evacuate his office or leave the country entirely.
The mysterious security threat
appeared limited to Bosnia and was not
evident elsewhere in the region.
Janez Kovac is a regular IWPR contributor
*********** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: http://www.iwpr.net
IWPR's network of leading correspondents
in the region provides inside
analysis of the events and issues
driving crises in the Balkans. The reports
are available on the Web in English,
Serbian and Albanian. They are also
available via e-mail. For syndication
information, contact Anthony Borden
<tony@...>.
Balkan Crisis Report is supported by
the Department for International
Development, European Commission,
Swedish International Development and
Cooperation Agency, The Netherlands
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and other
sources. IWPR also acknowledges general
support from the Ford Foundation.
For further details on this project
and other information services and media
programmes, visit IWPR's Website:
<http://www.iwpr.net>.
All IWPR's reporting services including
Balkan Crisis Reports, Reporting
Central Asia and Tribunal Update are
available free of charge via e-mail
subscription or direct from the Web.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit Web page:
http://www.mystery.com/ml/iwpr.html
Editor-in-chief: Anthony Borden.
Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan. Associate
Editor: Gordana Igric. Assistant
Editors: Alan Davis and Heather Milner.
Editorial Assistant: Mirna Jancic.
Kosovo Project Manager: Nehat Islami.
Translation: Alban Mitrushi, Dragana
Nikolic, Denisa Kostovic and others.
The Institute for War & Peace Reporting
(IWPR) is a London-based independent
non-profit organisation supporting
regional media and democratic change.
Lancaster House, 33 Islington High
Street, London N1 9LH, UK Tel: (44 171)
713 7130; Fax: (44 171) 713 7140
E-mail: info@...; Web: www.iwpr.net
The opinions expressed in "Balkan Crisis
Report" are those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent those
of the publication or of IWPR.
Copyright (C) 2001 The Institute for
War & Peace Reporting
*** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: http://www.iwpr.net
============================================
BBC News
Wednesday, 17 October, 2001, 15:11 GMT 16:11 UK
Bosnian embassies closed after threats
The United States and Britain have closed their
embassies in Bosnia after what American officials
described as credible security threats.
They gave no further details, but an official at the
British embassy in Sarajevo said the threats appeared
to be linked to the military operation in Afghanistan.
The United States has also closed offices in the towns
of Banja Luka and Mostar, and the premises of its aid
agency.
NATO-led peacekeepers in the country say they have
been made aware of the situation. Several people have
been arrested in Bosnia since last month's attacks in
the United States, but officials say they have no
evidence of links to the people who carried it out.
>From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
==================================================
Subject: Bosnia: Dr. Frankenstein Tries To Deny His Creation
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 09:17:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rick Rozoff
"...Bosnia, with a majority Muslim population...,"
repeats Wolfgang Pietritsch.
Curious, when the most inflated recent statistics
state that only 44% of residents of the recently
reinstated Hitlerite statelet of Bosnia and
Herzegovina are "people of Muslim cultual background."
But notwithstanding, that's always been good enough
for the United States and NATO to support the
abrogation of the Helsinki Final Agreement and to
recognize the Islamist theocracy of former president
Izetbegovic.
Good enough, in fact, to slaughter hundreds of ethnic
Serb soldiers and civilians in U.S. bombing raids, and
to lend CIA and other operatives to advise and spot
for their pristinely innocent clients in Sarajevo.
Now they have to cover their tracks. As they have with
Afghanistan and a dozen other places. Hard to be a
god, as Virgil says; or an evil scientist.]
BBC News
Monday, 15 October, 2001, 11:12 GMT 12:12 UK
Analysis: Bosnian stability at stake
By the BBC's Alix Kroeger in Belgrade
The commander of Nato's peacekeeping forces in
Bosnia-Hercegovina, Lieutenant-General John Sylvester,
says there is no threat to the country from Muslim
radicals.
There are mujahideen in Bosnia - no one knows exactly
how many But not everyone is convinced.
Since the attacks on the US on 11 September, attention
is now focusing anew on Bosnia's possible links with
Osama Bin Laden.
'Active cells'
Bosnia is one of 19 countries listed by the US State
Department as having active cells of Bin Laden's
al-Qaeda network.
Was Bin Laden given a Bosnian passport during the
1992-95 war? No, says Bosnia's foreign minister.
In any case, he adds, Bosnia has changed its passport
system twice since then. A passport from 1993, say,
would no longer be valid.
The government has reviewed its records on the 11,000
people naturalised as Bosnian citizens during and
after the war - about 420 originally came from Islamic
countries.
But some of those records may be less than complete.
Suspect arrested
On 8 October, Bosnian police arrested a man suspected
of links to Bin Laden.
Bensayah Belkacem was arrested after a tip-off from US
intelligence that he had made a phone call to one of
Bin Laden's top aides.
Belkacem holds a Bosnian passport, but his other
documents give different ages and places of birth.
Some say Yemen, others Algeria.
He was arrested in the central Bosnian town of Zenica,
a base for mujahideen during the war.
Several people - from Bosnia, Jordan, Egypt and
Pakistan - have been detained over the past few weeks.
All have been released and the foreigners deported.
There are mujahideen in Bosnia - no one knows exactly
how many. Estimates range from several dozen to 400 or
more.
They came from countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan
and Saudi Arabia. Most of them married Bosnian women
and settled in the country after the war.
They were granted citizenship by the Muslim-dominated
wartime government.
Secular society
Most Bosnian Muslims are determinedly secular.
But during the Bosnian war, when the West imposed an
arms embargo, it was the Islamic countries, especially
Iran, who gave the government army the guns they asked
for. Many Bosnians felt abandoned by the international
community and a minority turned to radical Islam.
An investigation by the Los Angeles Times newspaper
claimed that dangerous Islamic extremists travel in
and out of Bosnia at will.
The article quoted a former senior US State Department
official who described Bosnia as "a staging area and
safe haven" for terrorists.
It documented several incidents in which foreign
nationals with Bosnian passports tried to launch
actions against Western targets, including US military
installations in Germany and Los Angeles Airport.
And last week the chief United Nations war crimes
prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, said she had turned over
information to the United States on "people who were
staying in Bosnia in connection with terrorist
groups."
Threat of rumours
But there is another threat to Bosnia - the possible
use of allegations about terrorism both to discredit
the Muslim population, and to stir up fear among
Bosnian Serbs and Croats.
Before and during the Bosnian war, Bosnian Serb
nationalists in particular mobilised their own people
to fight with scare stories about Islamic fundamentalists.
If they did not arm themselves against the Muslims,
they were told, the mujahideen would slit their
throats and rape Serb women.
Such rumours still hold currency today in nationalist
circles.
International officials have sought to play down these
fears.
"The danger of having Bosnia, with a majority Muslim
population, involved in the conflict within the
community of Islamic countries is overestimated," said
Bosnia's chief international mediator, Wolfgang
Petritsch in a recent newspaper interview.
Possible benefit
But there may be one benefit for Bosnia in all this.
Two weeks after the attacks on America,
representatives from Bosnia's state government and its
two ethnically based entities met in Sarajevo to
discuss increasing security measures both in-country
and at the borders.
It was the first such meeting since the end of the war
without the presence of international officials.
It ended with unanimous agreement - another first.
It has taken the perception of an external threat to
bring Bosnia's old enemies together.
=====================================================
Questa lista e' curata da componenti del
Coordinamento Nazionale per la Jugoslavia (CNJ).
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente
le posizioni ufficiali o condivise da tutto il CNJ, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Archivio:
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Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
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Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
---- Spot ------------------------------------------------------------
I gruppi di discussione + interessanti e divertenti!
Le liste + calde!! Il meglio di Domeus!!!
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islamista di Izetbegovic ed i gruppi di mujaheddin stranieri
(tra i quali quelli di Bin Laden) ha spinto Izetbegovic a
lasciare la politica. Nel frattempo, dopo anni di appoggio
sfacciato allo stesso Izetbegovic e di copertura delle sue
"relazioni pericolose" con il terrorismo wahabita,
alcune ambasciate occidentali tra cui quella statunitense
inscenano la "chiusura causa terrorismo islamico".
=====================================================
1. BOSNIA: IZETBEGOVIC LASCIA PRESIDENZA PARTITO SDA
(ANSA, 12/10/01)
2. SARAJEVO HIT BY BIN LADEN PANIC
(IWPR, 19/10/01)
3. Bosnian embassies closed after threats
(BBC News, 17/10/01)
4a. Bosnia: Dr. Frankenstein Tries To Deny His Creation
(R. Rozoff, 15/10/01)
4b. Analysis: Bosnian stability at stake
(BBC News , 15/10/01)
=====================================================
> http://www.ansa.it/balcani/bosnia/
20011012164232013245.html
BOSNIA: IZETBEGOVIC LASCIA PRESIDENZA PARTITO SDA
(ANSA) - SARAJEVO, 12 OTT - Il leader del Partito
di azione democratica (Sda) ed ex presidente bosniaco
Alija Izetbegovic lascia l'incarico.
Lo ha annunciato oggi a Sarajevo lo stesso
Izetbegovic, alla vigilia del congresso dell'Sda
che domani eleggera' la nuova dirigenza, dicendo che
non si candidera'alla guida del partito. Izetbegovic,
76 anni, fondatore del maggiore partito nazionalista
musulmano che ha guidato per dieci anni, ha spiegato
che il motivo principale del suo ritiro sono le
cattive condizioni di salute e la sua eta'. ''Sarebbe
irresponsabile - ha detto - assumere
questo difficile incarico in tempi difficili e in
presenza di sempre piu' frequenti tentativi di
disintegrazione della Bosnia''. Izetbegovic ha
annunciato, senza fare nomi, che anche altri suoi
collaboratori lasceranno incarichi di primo piano nel
partito per lasciare lo spazio ai piu' giovani.
Malato di cuore, nell'ottobre dell'anno scorso
Izetbegovic ha lasciato, con due anni d'anticipo
rispetto alla scadenza del mandato, il seggio
musulmano nella presidenza tripartita (serba,
croata e musulmana) della Bosnia. Secondo fonti
dell'Sda, ora all'opposizione, il leader carismatico
e presidente della Bosnia durante la guerra (1992-
95), sara' domani eletto alla presidenza onoraria
del partito e a capo del comitato politico.
(ANSA). COR*VD
12/10/2001 16:42
==============================================
SARAJEVO HIT BY BIN LADEN PANIC
The closure of the US and UK embassies in
Bosnia is rumoured to be linked to Bin Laden
terror threat. Janez Kovac reports from Sarajevo
---
>From info@... Fri Oct 19 14:05:52 2001
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 10:42:10 +0100
From: Institute for War & Peace Reporting
To: Institute for War & Peace Reporting
Subject: IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 289
WELCOME TO IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 289,
October 19, 2001
(...)
SARAJEVO HIT BY BIN LADEN PANIC
The closure of the US and UK embassies in Bosnia
is rumoured to be linked to Bin Laden terror threat
By Janez Kovac in Sarajevo
Embassies and other agencies of the
United States and Britain were suddenly
closed in Sarajevo until further notice
on Wednesday because of an unspecified
"credible threat" to their security.
The US also shut down its
consulates in Mostar and Banja Luka.
A Western diplomat serving in Bosnia
said, "The embassy closures were a
result of information intercepted by
intelligence services. I am not in a
position to say if this is linked to
al-Qaeda or any other terrorist
organisation but I think it is related
to individuals in Bosnia. It is a
serious threat."
Bosnian prime minister Zlatko Lagumdzija
said authorities are providing
additional protection for unspecified
facilities used by international
organisations. He said Bosnian officials
are in "constant communication"
with their US counterparts but would
not define the nature of the threat.
An official from the British Foreign
Office told IWPR that the UK
embassy was closed because of
"increased international tension". The
official, who asked not to be named,
added that "appropriate security
action" was undertaken to protect
British nationals abroad.
Until the closures on October 17,
authorities had shown little concern at
the prospect of Osama bin Laden's
al-Qaeda movement spreading its activities
to Bosnia. On Friday October 12 US
Lt. Gen. John Sylvester, commander of
SFOR, told a press conference, "I
have no concerns about any mujahedin
threat in Bosnia at all."
But tension among ordinary people had
been running high ever since the
September 11 terrorist attack in New
York. It is believed that some 3,000
Islamic fighters, the so-called mujahedins,
passed through Bosnia during the
war to fight alongside Bosniak (Bosnian
Muslim) soldiers against Bosnian
Serb and Croat forces.
Around 300 of these fighters remained
in the country and settled down. Some
were found to be involved in criminal
activities in Bosnia and abroad.
The vast majority of people who live
in Bosnia view mujahedins with suspicion
and hostility because of their radical
religious and ideological practices.
An additional concern is the presence
in Bosnia of tens of thousands of
Western soldiers, policemen, diplomats
and other officials working for
numerous international organisations.
All possible targets for terrorists.
News of the embassy closures sparked
furious speculation and stirred
passions One ominous sign in recent
days has been the appearance in Sarajevo
and other towns in the Federation of
graffiti supporting Osama bin Laden.
Wild rumours spread rapidly. "I've
heard that Osama bin Laden was arrested
yesterday in central Bosnia," one Sarajevo
woman told friends over the telephone.
Another claim that Sarajevo airport had
been closed turned out to be false.
A terse advisory from the US consulate
urged all Americans in Bosnia to
"maintain the highest level of vigilance
for the foreseeable future,
particularly over the next several days".
Neither of the embassies nor any other
American or British official would provide
further explanation for the alarm. As a
matter of fact, most American, British
and other Western officials in
Bosnia-Herzegovina appeared just as puzzled,
confused and scared as anyone else.
"We just received a phone call last
night and were told that we did not have
to come to the office today," said a staff
member of the US embassy in Sarajevo on
Wednesday. "No explanation was given."
"We are being kept in the dark," complained
another official working for an
international organisation who was trying
to find out whether he too should
evacuate his office or leave the country entirely.
The mysterious security threat
appeared limited to Bosnia and was not
evident elsewhere in the region.
Janez Kovac is a regular IWPR contributor
*********** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: http://www.iwpr.net
IWPR's network of leading correspondents
in the region provides inside
analysis of the events and issues
driving crises in the Balkans. The reports
are available on the Web in English,
Serbian and Albanian. They are also
available via e-mail. For syndication
information, contact Anthony Borden
<tony@...>.
Balkan Crisis Report is supported by
the Department for International
Development, European Commission,
Swedish International Development and
Cooperation Agency, The Netherlands
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and other
sources. IWPR also acknowledges general
support from the Ford Foundation.
For further details on this project
and other information services and media
programmes, visit IWPR's Website:
<http://www.iwpr.net>.
All IWPR's reporting services including
Balkan Crisis Reports, Reporting
Central Asia and Tribunal Update are
available free of charge via e-mail
subscription or direct from the Web.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit Web page:
http://www.mystery.com/ml/iwpr.html
Editor-in-chief: Anthony Borden.
Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan. Associate
Editor: Gordana Igric. Assistant
Editors: Alan Davis and Heather Milner.
Editorial Assistant: Mirna Jancic.
Kosovo Project Manager: Nehat Islami.
Translation: Alban Mitrushi, Dragana
Nikolic, Denisa Kostovic and others.
The Institute for War & Peace Reporting
(IWPR) is a London-based independent
non-profit organisation supporting
regional media and democratic change.
Lancaster House, 33 Islington High
Street, London N1 9LH, UK Tel: (44 171)
713 7130; Fax: (44 171) 713 7140
E-mail: info@...; Web: www.iwpr.net
The opinions expressed in "Balkan Crisis
Report" are those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent those
of the publication or of IWPR.
Copyright (C) 2001 The Institute for
War & Peace Reporting
*** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: http://www.iwpr.net
============================================
BBC News
Wednesday, 17 October, 2001, 15:11 GMT 16:11 UK
Bosnian embassies closed after threats
The United States and Britain have closed their
embassies in Bosnia after what American officials
described as credible security threats.
They gave no further details, but an official at the
British embassy in Sarajevo said the threats appeared
to be linked to the military operation in Afghanistan.
The United States has also closed offices in the towns
of Banja Luka and Mostar, and the premises of its aid
agency.
NATO-led peacekeepers in the country say they have
been made aware of the situation. Several people have
been arrested in Bosnia since last month's attacks in
the United States, but officials say they have no
evidence of links to the people who carried it out.
>From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
==================================================
Subject: Bosnia: Dr. Frankenstein Tries To Deny His Creation
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 09:17:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rick Rozoff
"...Bosnia, with a majority Muslim population...,"
repeats Wolfgang Pietritsch.
Curious, when the most inflated recent statistics
state that only 44% of residents of the recently
reinstated Hitlerite statelet of Bosnia and
Herzegovina are "people of Muslim cultual background."
But notwithstanding, that's always been good enough
for the United States and NATO to support the
abrogation of the Helsinki Final Agreement and to
recognize the Islamist theocracy of former president
Izetbegovic.
Good enough, in fact, to slaughter hundreds of ethnic
Serb soldiers and civilians in U.S. bombing raids, and
to lend CIA and other operatives to advise and spot
for their pristinely innocent clients in Sarajevo.
Now they have to cover their tracks. As they have with
Afghanistan and a dozen other places. Hard to be a
god, as Virgil says; or an evil scientist.]
BBC News
Monday, 15 October, 2001, 11:12 GMT 12:12 UK
Analysis: Bosnian stability at stake
By the BBC's Alix Kroeger in Belgrade
The commander of Nato's peacekeeping forces in
Bosnia-Hercegovina, Lieutenant-General John Sylvester,
says there is no threat to the country from Muslim
radicals.
There are mujahideen in Bosnia - no one knows exactly
how many But not everyone is convinced.
Since the attacks on the US on 11 September, attention
is now focusing anew on Bosnia's possible links with
Osama Bin Laden.
'Active cells'
Bosnia is one of 19 countries listed by the US State
Department as having active cells of Bin Laden's
al-Qaeda network.
Was Bin Laden given a Bosnian passport during the
1992-95 war? No, says Bosnia's foreign minister.
In any case, he adds, Bosnia has changed its passport
system twice since then. A passport from 1993, say,
would no longer be valid.
The government has reviewed its records on the 11,000
people naturalised as Bosnian citizens during and
after the war - about 420 originally came from Islamic
countries.
But some of those records may be less than complete.
Suspect arrested
On 8 October, Bosnian police arrested a man suspected
of links to Bin Laden.
Bensayah Belkacem was arrested after a tip-off from US
intelligence that he had made a phone call to one of
Bin Laden's top aides.
Belkacem holds a Bosnian passport, but his other
documents give different ages and places of birth.
Some say Yemen, others Algeria.
He was arrested in the central Bosnian town of Zenica,
a base for mujahideen during the war.
Several people - from Bosnia, Jordan, Egypt and
Pakistan - have been detained over the past few weeks.
All have been released and the foreigners deported.
There are mujahideen in Bosnia - no one knows exactly
how many. Estimates range from several dozen to 400 or
more.
They came from countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan
and Saudi Arabia. Most of them married Bosnian women
and settled in the country after the war.
They were granted citizenship by the Muslim-dominated
wartime government.
Secular society
Most Bosnian Muslims are determinedly secular.
But during the Bosnian war, when the West imposed an
arms embargo, it was the Islamic countries, especially
Iran, who gave the government army the guns they asked
for. Many Bosnians felt abandoned by the international
community and a minority turned to radical Islam.
An investigation by the Los Angeles Times newspaper
claimed that dangerous Islamic extremists travel in
and out of Bosnia at will.
The article quoted a former senior US State Department
official who described Bosnia as "a staging area and
safe haven" for terrorists.
It documented several incidents in which foreign
nationals with Bosnian passports tried to launch
actions against Western targets, including US military
installations in Germany and Los Angeles Airport.
And last week the chief United Nations war crimes
prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, said she had turned over
information to the United States on "people who were
staying in Bosnia in connection with terrorist
groups."
Threat of rumours
But there is another threat to Bosnia - the possible
use of allegations about terrorism both to discredit
the Muslim population, and to stir up fear among
Bosnian Serbs and Croats.
Before and during the Bosnian war, Bosnian Serb
nationalists in particular mobilised their own people
to fight with scare stories about Islamic fundamentalists.
If they did not arm themselves against the Muslims,
they were told, the mujahideen would slit their
throats and rape Serb women.
Such rumours still hold currency today in nationalist
circles.
International officials have sought to play down these
fears.
"The danger of having Bosnia, with a majority Muslim
population, involved in the conflict within the
community of Islamic countries is overestimated," said
Bosnia's chief international mediator, Wolfgang
Petritsch in a recent newspaper interview.
Possible benefit
But there may be one benefit for Bosnia in all this.
Two weeks after the attacks on America,
representatives from Bosnia's state government and its
two ethnically based entities met in Sarajevo to
discuss increasing security measures both in-country
and at the borders.
It was the first such meeting since the end of the war
without the presence of international officials.
It ended with unanimous agreement - another first.
It has taken the perception of an external threat to
bring Bosnia's old enemies together.
=====================================================
Questa lista e' curata da componenti del
Coordinamento Nazionale per la Jugoslavia (CNJ).
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente
le posizioni ufficiali o condivise da tutto il CNJ, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo oppure:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
---- Spot ------------------------------------------------------------
I gruppi di discussione + interessanti e divertenti!
Le liste + calde!! Il meglio di Domeus!!!
Iscriviti a listparade-subscribe@...
e visita il sito del momento:
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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L'odierna sceneggiata della chiusura di alcune
rappresentanze diplomatiche occidentali in
Bosnia-Erzegovina perde ogni senso se si volge un
attimo lo sguardo all'indietro. L'ambasciatore USA
in Bosnia dell'era-Clinton, Thomas Miller, e'
stato ad esempio ripetutamente denunciato da serbi
e croati per il suo sostegno al partito islamista
di Izetbegovic (SDA - Partito di Azione
Democratica), fino a tempi recentissimi, come
documentano gli articoli allegati. Inoltre, la
copertura e l'omerta' occidentale sulla presenza
in Bosnia di mujaheddin stranieri, in particolare
di quelli legati a Bin Laden, non sara' certo
compensata dagli attuali ipocriti "timori" per
possibili attentati.
*** BOSNIA, THE GLOBAL TAMMANY HALL
(S. Trifkovic, 24/08/01)
*** L'AMBASCIATORE AMERICANO E' PORTAVOCE DELL'SDA
(Srpsko Oslobodjenje, 05/07/00)
===================================================
Subject: Scandal re. US Ambassador in Bosnia?
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 09:05:44 -0400
From: Serge Trifkovic
http://www.rockfordinstitute.org/News/Trifkovic/
NewsST082401.htm oppure News&Views.htm
Friday, August 24, 2001
BOSNIA, THE GLOBAL TAMMANY HALL
by Srdja Trifkovic
Bosnia is the Imperium's first major experiment in
nation-building. It is the harbinger of great and
glorious things to come in the new millennium, and
the experiences of this multiethnic,
multiconfessional, multicultural polity based on
democracy and human rights will be closely watched
by other aspiring clients of the international
community. It is therefore disheartening that in
Bosnia we encounter evidence that the officials of
the 'international community' are perhaps no more
virtuous or high-minded than the old rogues who
governed the nation-states of yore.
Take the case of Thomas Miller, the United States
ambassador in Sarajevo, who is rumored to have
conspired a year ago with Milorad Dodik, then
prime minister of the Bosnian-Serb Republic, to
divert $500,000 of an American aid package to the
Gore/Lieberman campaign. This claim, made
privately by a former minister in Dodik's
government, has been confirmed by another highly
placed source in Banja Luka, the capital of the
Republika Srpska (RS).
The alleged deal was simple: Last July, Ambassador
Miller is said to have arranged a
multimillion-dollar USAID grant for the RS budget.
Once the money arrived in Banja Luka, half a
million was allocated to the prime minister's
discretionary fund'-over which he had exclusive
control-and promptly sent back to the United
States as his contribution to the Gore/Lieberman
campaign. This was not the only payment to a
Western political figure from the fund (the
existence of which Dodik admitted in a television
interview last November), but it was the largest
single disbursement ever made from it.
Our source insists that Miller was behind the
scheme but does not know whether the
administration or 'Gore's people in Washington'
were aware of what was going on:
"It is possible that Ambassador Miller arranged it
all on his own initiative, because he is a
committed Democrat--just like all other key U.S.
officials in Bosnia: Jacques Klein, U.N. mission
chief in Sarajevo, Ralph Johnson, first deputy
high representative, and Robert Berry, OSCE
mission chief. They all rooted for Gore, and
Miller is known to have expressed his concern for
'the future of Bosnia' if Bush won. And he could
not conceal his fury at the outcome of the
election dispute in Florida."
When some revelations of Dodik's corrupt
practices--including the first partial disclosure
of the Gore deal--were published by the Banja Luka
magazine Extra last February, it looked like the
cat was out of the bag.
Interestingly, however, there has been no
follow-up. It was widely expected that the new
government of Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic,
publicly committed to fighting corruption, would
make public the results of an investigation into
his predecessor's practices. This has not happened
so far, and our sources indicate that Dr. Ivanic
is under heavy pressure from Ambassador Miller and
other American political heavyweights in Bosnia
not to rock the boat. He has agreed to comply,
thus betraying his own electoral promise to
eradicate corruption and hold former officials
responsible.
Their motives are easy to understand. Dodik was
persona gratissima in Bill Clinton's
Washington-Madeleine Albright once described him
as "a breath of fresh air"-and the proponents of
"continuity" of the U.S. policy in Bosnia want to
keep him in reserve as a tried and true quisling.
He could come in handy if they are allowed to play
the next act in their arcane Balkan game: the
scrapping of the Dayton Accord in favor of a
centralized Bosnian state.
Even after Dodik's crushing defeat at last fall's
RS general election, Ambassador Miller was
promoting him for a ministerial position at the
federal level in Sarajevo. Because Dodik's
reputation for greed and graft has made him odious
even to the Muslim politicians who had found him
useful in the past, he was unsuccessful in his
bid. In addition, Mr. Miller, a prot�g� of Richard
Holbrooke, may have strong personal reasons for
wanting the new RS government to keep quiet about
some of Dodik's shenanigans. If the allegations
are corroborated, it could mark not only the end
of his diplomatic career but the beginning of a
criminal investigation back in Washington. "I am
honored to appear before you today as President
Clinton's nominee to receive the rank of
ambassador. I am grateful to the President and to
Secretary Albright for the confidence they have
shown in appointing me to this position," Thomas
Miller declared at his Senate confirmation hearing
in October 1997. His gratitude to the Democratic
White House seems to have acquired a tangible form
three years later.
In the meantime Miller had stepped on many Bosnian
toes. During his tenure he has openly campaigned
for the "non-nationalist" parties in Bosnia's
elections and earned the lasting wrath of both
Serbs and Croats, who resented his support for the
Muslims' preferred model of a centralized
Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Serb member of the
tripartite Bosnian presidency, Zivko Radisic, last
fall even asked for Miller's recall because "his
activities in support of his preferred political
parties and personalities in Bosnia are
incompatible with the proper role of a diplomat."
The Croats' leader Ante Jelavic agreed. The Croats
were even more resentful of Miller's imperious
posture in the aftermath of the clampdown by the
"international community" on their stronghold in
Mostar, which included a raid on the vault of the
bank used by their main political party.
Even if the Bosnian Serb government is bullied
into silence, our source says that it should be
possible to learn the truth about any misuse of
USAID funds from Deloitte Touche Tohmantsu (DTT)
and KPMG, as those two companies manage the
consulting and lending program that makes USAID
the largest lender in the RS and Bosnia. Right
now, the source claims, DTT is covering up
malfeasance in its Bosnian projects:
"An effort is under way, sometimes desperate, by
DTT to prevent an independent investigation of
what is behind observed suspicious behavior in its
project. They probably know if the alleged
contribution to the Gore campaign has been made,
but there is reason to suspect a corrupt
connection between the DTT project and Dodik, and
to expect that Ambassador Miller will go out of
his way to thwart an independent investigation."
If there is a scandal involving foreign aid, it
won't be the first since the "international
community" started its involvement in post-Dayton
Bosnia. During 1996-99, the United States and its
allies committed more than $5 billion to finance
civil aspects of the Dayton Agreement; and as of
March 2000, U.S. military costs to support the
agreement totaled about $10 billion. In the summer
of 1999, the office of the high representative-the
U.N. Gauleiter in Sarajevo who wields the real
power in the hybrid "country"-confirmed that more
than one billion dollars had been lost in postwar
Bosnia through tax evasion, customs fraud, or
embezzlement of public funds. Much of that money
was simply stolen from international aid projects.
For instance, more than $20 million deposited by
ten foreign embassies and international aid
agencies in a Bosnian bank has disappeared. Over
$500 million was missing from the Muslim city of
Tuzla's budget alone. The town of Sanski Most used
municipal funds to build a horseracing track,
while its Mayor, Mehmed Alagic, is accused of
stealing $450,000 in aid from Saudi Arabia. In
July of last year the Clinton Administration was
forced to agree with the "basic thrust" of a
report from the General Accounting Office (GAO)
that crime and corruption are "endemic problems"
in Bosnia which "seriously inhibit" both economic
and political development and implementation of
the Dayton peace agreement.
But as Ambassador James Pardew tried to explain to
the House of Representatives Committee on
International Relations July 19 of last year,
there are "reform-minded Bosnians" who are willing
to work hard to change the situation, and the
"entire thrust" of U.S. assistance for Bosnia is
designed "to help these people establish a
peaceful, transparent and democratic society."
Dodik was an example of "reform-mindedness" to
Pardew and his bosses, and Miller is their man in
situ. Another form of institutionalized corruption
involves international bureaucrats who lobby local
politicians on behalf of companies from their
countries. According to our source in Banja Luka,
"The British dominate the so-called Independent
Commission for Media and they swiftly tailored the
privatization of the Bosnian television system so
that British companies appear as best qualified
potential buyers. The Bosnian tsar himself, High
Representative Wolfgang Petritsch, tirelessly
demands that Austria Telecom be granted the
license as the second mobile-phone provider for
Bosnia-Herzegovina. His deputy, Ralph Johnson of
the United States, is involved in setting up
consolidated public utilities for gas and
electricity so that they can be sold off more
easily to foreign investors who fit his bill."
Lower down the scale, foreign bureaucrats-
especially those from Eastern Europe and the Third
World-are involved in large-scale smuggling of
American cigarettes that arrive from Montenegro
and are then shipped via Bosnia to the European
Union.
Bosnia, of course, is no exception to the rule
that there is no correlation between foreign
assistance and economic growth, but the
"international community" is by now aiding and
abetting the open-ended burgeoning of the culture
of corruption. Foreigners have absolute power in
Bosnia. The results were to be expected. The
future will only bring more of the same,
corrupting not only Bosnia--the victim of
international largesse--but all those who enter
the dark villayet to distribute it.
Endemic and institutionalized corruption at all
levels and by all participants is an apt symbol of
"Bosnia" because it is an edifice is based on a
lie. The lie was supposed to replace the bonds of
loyalty, authority, and legitimacy that link
Bosnian Croats and Croatia and Bosnian Serbs and
Serbia. These bonds are rooted in centuries of
political, ethnic, and cultural identity and are
sure to prove stronger than bonds to a hastily
fabricated central government. The way the whole
Dayton package has been put together reflects the
short-termism of Western policy, and its ultimate
preference for form over substance. It will not
survive in the long term: the inherent dynamics of
Bosnia's disintegration are still there. Those
same centrifugal forces which had doomed
Yugoslavia as a whole are still present in Bosnia,
probably even more than before the U.S. got
involved.
As for Ambassador Miller, his apparently
well-deserved demise will have to wait: the Bush
administration, either oblivious of his alleged
transgressions or indifferent to them, has
rewarded him for his efforts with the
ambassadorial appointment to Greece.
Copyright 2001, www.ChroniclesMagazine.org
928 N. Main St., Rockford, IL 61103
===============================================
Da "Srpsko Oslobodjenje", quotidiano della
Repubblica Serba di Bosnia, 5 luglio 2000
L'AMBASCIATORE AMERICANO E' PORTAVOCE DELL'SDA
L'Ambasciata americana a Sarajevo ha manifestato
la piu' grande tracotanza ed il pi� grande cinismo
mai registrato finora nella diplomazia mondiale.
Invece di comportarsi in conformit� con le norme
internazionali stabilite e il codice diplomatico,
questa ambasciata si immischia nel modo pi�
brutale nelle relazioni interne e nelle situazioni
politiche dello Stato da cui ha ricevuto
ospitalit�. Per questo comportamento senza
precedenti nella diplomazia mondiale, il maggior
responsabile � l'ambasciatore Tony Miller, del
quale si pu� liberamente dire che sia il portavoce
del Partito di Azione Democratica. Che sia
veramente cosi, lo testimonia nel modo migliore la
vergognosa dichiarazione per il pubblico che �
stata inviata da quella ambasciata ai media della
Bosnia Erzegovina l'ultimo giorno di giugno. In
questa faziosa e unilaterale dichiarazione si
citano congetture false e meschine che hanno come
scopo di screditare nel modo pi� brutale tutto il
popolo serbo. Il testo dice:
"L'ambasciatore USA condanna assai duramente la
dichiarazione dell'Organizzazione dei combattenti
di Srebrenica. E' vergognoso che questa
organizzazione sostenga che "nessuno sia stato
ferito e tantomeno ucciso" a Potocari l?11.7.l995,
quando il mondo sa che li sono stati uccisi, in
quel giorno, migliaia di civili innocenti" - e
cosi via...
Voi mentite, signor Miller, lei e tutti quelli che
parlano per bocca dei fanatici musulmani, quando
dite che a Potocari sono stati uccisi dei civili.
Da dove vi viene il diritto di mentire e
pregiudicare ci� che ancora non � stato provato? A
Potocari c'era soltanto un campo di accoglienza,
da dove sono stati evacuati civili mandati a Tuzla
e in altre parti della Federazione di
Bosnia-Erzegovina.
Lei mente, signor Miller, quando sostiene che
"migliaia di civili innocenti sono stati uccisi -
12.000 (!?) musulmani"; questo numero poi � stato
diminuito a 7000, poi a 3000, il che esprime
chiaramente che con gli inganni politici e con le
invenzioni si vuole addossare la colpa ad un
popolo intero. E' sfacciato e maligno da parte di
un cittadino straniero, valutare e confrontare il
cosiddetto massacro di Srebrenica con l'olocausto
della II guerra mondiale. Meno di tutti lei ha il
diritto, dopo i crimini che avete commesso in
tutto il mondo, di parlare di un supposto massacro
a Srebrenica. Ricordiamo soltanto Hiroshima, i
crimini nel Vietnam, in Cambogia, lo scorso anno
in Jugoslavia, e dovunque nel mondo gli americani
causassero intenzionalmente le crisi e
provocassero uccisioni di massa dei civili. Lei
mente anche nella prima parte della frase, quando
dice: "tutto il mondo sa che migliaia di civili
innocenti sono stati uccisi". Queste sono soltanto
le sue congetture menzognere e i suoi inganni
pericolosi, perch� alle sue "constatazioni" la
maggioranza della popolazione mondiale non crede.
Lei ha la mania di servirsi di menzogne ed
inganni, come testimonia la vostra vergognosa
dichiarazione pubblica.
La "vera" verit� su Srebrenica bisogna dirla, ma
lei ha imparato a proiettare in avanti la
menzogna. Si � mai chiesto finora quanti civili
serbi siano stati ucccisi a Sarajevo? Li, signor
ambasciatore, sotto al governo musulmano sono
stati uccisi altre 6000 serbi. Questo � un
olocausto, e non Srebrenica, dove sono stati
uccisi soltanto militari musulmani armati, ai
quali gli appartenenti al battaglione olandese
nelle fila dell'UNPROFOR hanno reso possibile di
essere armati fino ai denti benche' fossero nella
cosiddetta "zona protetta".
Esistono dei comunicati, signor Miller, sui quali
lei tace perch� non corrispondono ai vostri scopi
disonesti...
[trad. a cura del Coord. Romano per la Jugoslavia;
sulla disinformazione strategica relativa ai fatti
di Srebrenica abbiamo inviato ed invieremo presto
ulteriore documentazione]
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rappresentanze diplomatiche occidentali in
Bosnia-Erzegovina perde ogni senso se si volge un
attimo lo sguardo all'indietro. L'ambasciatore USA
in Bosnia dell'era-Clinton, Thomas Miller, e'
stato ad esempio ripetutamente denunciato da serbi
e croati per il suo sostegno al partito islamista
di Izetbegovic (SDA - Partito di Azione
Democratica), fino a tempi recentissimi, come
documentano gli articoli allegati. Inoltre, la
copertura e l'omerta' occidentale sulla presenza
in Bosnia di mujaheddin stranieri, in particolare
di quelli legati a Bin Laden, non sara' certo
compensata dagli attuali ipocriti "timori" per
possibili attentati.
*** BOSNIA, THE GLOBAL TAMMANY HALL
(S. Trifkovic, 24/08/01)
*** L'AMBASCIATORE AMERICANO E' PORTAVOCE DELL'SDA
(Srpsko Oslobodjenje, 05/07/00)
===================================================
Subject: Scandal re. US Ambassador in Bosnia?
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001 09:05:44 -0400
From: Serge Trifkovic
http://www.rockfordinstitute.org/News/Trifkovic/
NewsST082401.htm oppure News&Views.htm
Friday, August 24, 2001
BOSNIA, THE GLOBAL TAMMANY HALL
by Srdja Trifkovic
Bosnia is the Imperium's first major experiment in
nation-building. It is the harbinger of great and
glorious things to come in the new millennium, and
the experiences of this multiethnic,
multiconfessional, multicultural polity based on
democracy and human rights will be closely watched
by other aspiring clients of the international
community. It is therefore disheartening that in
Bosnia we encounter evidence that the officials of
the 'international community' are perhaps no more
virtuous or high-minded than the old rogues who
governed the nation-states of yore.
Take the case of Thomas Miller, the United States
ambassador in Sarajevo, who is rumored to have
conspired a year ago with Milorad Dodik, then
prime minister of the Bosnian-Serb Republic, to
divert $500,000 of an American aid package to the
Gore/Lieberman campaign. This claim, made
privately by a former minister in Dodik's
government, has been confirmed by another highly
placed source in Banja Luka, the capital of the
Republika Srpska (RS).
The alleged deal was simple: Last July, Ambassador
Miller is said to have arranged a
multimillion-dollar USAID grant for the RS budget.
Once the money arrived in Banja Luka, half a
million was allocated to the prime minister's
discretionary fund'-over which he had exclusive
control-and promptly sent back to the United
States as his contribution to the Gore/Lieberman
campaign. This was not the only payment to a
Western political figure from the fund (the
existence of which Dodik admitted in a television
interview last November), but it was the largest
single disbursement ever made from it.
Our source insists that Miller was behind the
scheme but does not know whether the
administration or 'Gore's people in Washington'
were aware of what was going on:
"It is possible that Ambassador Miller arranged it
all on his own initiative, because he is a
committed Democrat--just like all other key U.S.
officials in Bosnia: Jacques Klein, U.N. mission
chief in Sarajevo, Ralph Johnson, first deputy
high representative, and Robert Berry, OSCE
mission chief. They all rooted for Gore, and
Miller is known to have expressed his concern for
'the future of Bosnia' if Bush won. And he could
not conceal his fury at the outcome of the
election dispute in Florida."
When some revelations of Dodik's corrupt
practices--including the first partial disclosure
of the Gore deal--were published by the Banja Luka
magazine Extra last February, it looked like the
cat was out of the bag.
Interestingly, however, there has been no
follow-up. It was widely expected that the new
government of Prime Minister Mladen Ivanic,
publicly committed to fighting corruption, would
make public the results of an investigation into
his predecessor's practices. This has not happened
so far, and our sources indicate that Dr. Ivanic
is under heavy pressure from Ambassador Miller and
other American political heavyweights in Bosnia
not to rock the boat. He has agreed to comply,
thus betraying his own electoral promise to
eradicate corruption and hold former officials
responsible.
Their motives are easy to understand. Dodik was
persona gratissima in Bill Clinton's
Washington-Madeleine Albright once described him
as "a breath of fresh air"-and the proponents of
"continuity" of the U.S. policy in Bosnia want to
keep him in reserve as a tried and true quisling.
He could come in handy if they are allowed to play
the next act in their arcane Balkan game: the
scrapping of the Dayton Accord in favor of a
centralized Bosnian state.
Even after Dodik's crushing defeat at last fall's
RS general election, Ambassador Miller was
promoting him for a ministerial position at the
federal level in Sarajevo. Because Dodik's
reputation for greed and graft has made him odious
even to the Muslim politicians who had found him
useful in the past, he was unsuccessful in his
bid. In addition, Mr. Miller, a prot�g� of Richard
Holbrooke, may have strong personal reasons for
wanting the new RS government to keep quiet about
some of Dodik's shenanigans. If the allegations
are corroborated, it could mark not only the end
of his diplomatic career but the beginning of a
criminal investigation back in Washington. "I am
honored to appear before you today as President
Clinton's nominee to receive the rank of
ambassador. I am grateful to the President and to
Secretary Albright for the confidence they have
shown in appointing me to this position," Thomas
Miller declared at his Senate confirmation hearing
in October 1997. His gratitude to the Democratic
White House seems to have acquired a tangible form
three years later.
In the meantime Miller had stepped on many Bosnian
toes. During his tenure he has openly campaigned
for the "non-nationalist" parties in Bosnia's
elections and earned the lasting wrath of both
Serbs and Croats, who resented his support for the
Muslims' preferred model of a centralized
Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Serb member of the
tripartite Bosnian presidency, Zivko Radisic, last
fall even asked for Miller's recall because "his
activities in support of his preferred political
parties and personalities in Bosnia are
incompatible with the proper role of a diplomat."
The Croats' leader Ante Jelavic agreed. The Croats
were even more resentful of Miller's imperious
posture in the aftermath of the clampdown by the
"international community" on their stronghold in
Mostar, which included a raid on the vault of the
bank used by their main political party.
Even if the Bosnian Serb government is bullied
into silence, our source says that it should be
possible to learn the truth about any misuse of
USAID funds from Deloitte Touche Tohmantsu (DTT)
and KPMG, as those two companies manage the
consulting and lending program that makes USAID
the largest lender in the RS and Bosnia. Right
now, the source claims, DTT is covering up
malfeasance in its Bosnian projects:
"An effort is under way, sometimes desperate, by
DTT to prevent an independent investigation of
what is behind observed suspicious behavior in its
project. They probably know if the alleged
contribution to the Gore campaign has been made,
but there is reason to suspect a corrupt
connection between the DTT project and Dodik, and
to expect that Ambassador Miller will go out of
his way to thwart an independent investigation."
If there is a scandal involving foreign aid, it
won't be the first since the "international
community" started its involvement in post-Dayton
Bosnia. During 1996-99, the United States and its
allies committed more than $5 billion to finance
civil aspects of the Dayton Agreement; and as of
March 2000, U.S. military costs to support the
agreement totaled about $10 billion. In the summer
of 1999, the office of the high representative-the
U.N. Gauleiter in Sarajevo who wields the real
power in the hybrid "country"-confirmed that more
than one billion dollars had been lost in postwar
Bosnia through tax evasion, customs fraud, or
embezzlement of public funds. Much of that money
was simply stolen from international aid projects.
For instance, more than $20 million deposited by
ten foreign embassies and international aid
agencies in a Bosnian bank has disappeared. Over
$500 million was missing from the Muslim city of
Tuzla's budget alone. The town of Sanski Most used
municipal funds to build a horseracing track,
while its Mayor, Mehmed Alagic, is accused of
stealing $450,000 in aid from Saudi Arabia. In
July of last year the Clinton Administration was
forced to agree with the "basic thrust" of a
report from the General Accounting Office (GAO)
that crime and corruption are "endemic problems"
in Bosnia which "seriously inhibit" both economic
and political development and implementation of
the Dayton peace agreement.
But as Ambassador James Pardew tried to explain to
the House of Representatives Committee on
International Relations July 19 of last year,
there are "reform-minded Bosnians" who are willing
to work hard to change the situation, and the
"entire thrust" of U.S. assistance for Bosnia is
designed "to help these people establish a
peaceful, transparent and democratic society."
Dodik was an example of "reform-mindedness" to
Pardew and his bosses, and Miller is their man in
situ. Another form of institutionalized corruption
involves international bureaucrats who lobby local
politicians on behalf of companies from their
countries. According to our source in Banja Luka,
"The British dominate the so-called Independent
Commission for Media and they swiftly tailored the
privatization of the Bosnian television system so
that British companies appear as best qualified
potential buyers. The Bosnian tsar himself, High
Representative Wolfgang Petritsch, tirelessly
demands that Austria Telecom be granted the
license as the second mobile-phone provider for
Bosnia-Herzegovina. His deputy, Ralph Johnson of
the United States, is involved in setting up
consolidated public utilities for gas and
electricity so that they can be sold off more
easily to foreign investors who fit his bill."
Lower down the scale, foreign bureaucrats-
especially those from Eastern Europe and the Third
World-are involved in large-scale smuggling of
American cigarettes that arrive from Montenegro
and are then shipped via Bosnia to the European
Union.
Bosnia, of course, is no exception to the rule
that there is no correlation between foreign
assistance and economic growth, but the
"international community" is by now aiding and
abetting the open-ended burgeoning of the culture
of corruption. Foreigners have absolute power in
Bosnia. The results were to be expected. The
future will only bring more of the same,
corrupting not only Bosnia--the victim of
international largesse--but all those who enter
the dark villayet to distribute it.
Endemic and institutionalized corruption at all
levels and by all participants is an apt symbol of
"Bosnia" because it is an edifice is based on a
lie. The lie was supposed to replace the bonds of
loyalty, authority, and legitimacy that link
Bosnian Croats and Croatia and Bosnian Serbs and
Serbia. These bonds are rooted in centuries of
political, ethnic, and cultural identity and are
sure to prove stronger than bonds to a hastily
fabricated central government. The way the whole
Dayton package has been put together reflects the
short-termism of Western policy, and its ultimate
preference for form over substance. It will not
survive in the long term: the inherent dynamics of
Bosnia's disintegration are still there. Those
same centrifugal forces which had doomed
Yugoslavia as a whole are still present in Bosnia,
probably even more than before the U.S. got
involved.
As for Ambassador Miller, his apparently
well-deserved demise will have to wait: the Bush
administration, either oblivious of his alleged
transgressions or indifferent to them, has
rewarded him for his efforts with the
ambassadorial appointment to Greece.
Copyright 2001, www.ChroniclesMagazine.org
928 N. Main St., Rockford, IL 61103
===============================================
Da "Srpsko Oslobodjenje", quotidiano della
Repubblica Serba di Bosnia, 5 luglio 2000
L'AMBASCIATORE AMERICANO E' PORTAVOCE DELL'SDA
L'Ambasciata americana a Sarajevo ha manifestato
la piu' grande tracotanza ed il pi� grande cinismo
mai registrato finora nella diplomazia mondiale.
Invece di comportarsi in conformit� con le norme
internazionali stabilite e il codice diplomatico,
questa ambasciata si immischia nel modo pi�
brutale nelle relazioni interne e nelle situazioni
politiche dello Stato da cui ha ricevuto
ospitalit�. Per questo comportamento senza
precedenti nella diplomazia mondiale, il maggior
responsabile � l'ambasciatore Tony Miller, del
quale si pu� liberamente dire che sia il portavoce
del Partito di Azione Democratica. Che sia
veramente cosi, lo testimonia nel modo migliore la
vergognosa dichiarazione per il pubblico che �
stata inviata da quella ambasciata ai media della
Bosnia Erzegovina l'ultimo giorno di giugno. In
questa faziosa e unilaterale dichiarazione si
citano congetture false e meschine che hanno come
scopo di screditare nel modo pi� brutale tutto il
popolo serbo. Il testo dice:
"L'ambasciatore USA condanna assai duramente la
dichiarazione dell'Organizzazione dei combattenti
di Srebrenica. E' vergognoso che questa
organizzazione sostenga che "nessuno sia stato
ferito e tantomeno ucciso" a Potocari l?11.7.l995,
quando il mondo sa che li sono stati uccisi, in
quel giorno, migliaia di civili innocenti" - e
cosi via...
Voi mentite, signor Miller, lei e tutti quelli che
parlano per bocca dei fanatici musulmani, quando
dite che a Potocari sono stati uccisi dei civili.
Da dove vi viene il diritto di mentire e
pregiudicare ci� che ancora non � stato provato? A
Potocari c'era soltanto un campo di accoglienza,
da dove sono stati evacuati civili mandati a Tuzla
e in altre parti della Federazione di
Bosnia-Erzegovina.
Lei mente, signor Miller, quando sostiene che
"migliaia di civili innocenti sono stati uccisi -
12.000 (!?) musulmani"; questo numero poi � stato
diminuito a 7000, poi a 3000, il che esprime
chiaramente che con gli inganni politici e con le
invenzioni si vuole addossare la colpa ad un
popolo intero. E' sfacciato e maligno da parte di
un cittadino straniero, valutare e confrontare il
cosiddetto massacro di Srebrenica con l'olocausto
della II guerra mondiale. Meno di tutti lei ha il
diritto, dopo i crimini che avete commesso in
tutto il mondo, di parlare di un supposto massacro
a Srebrenica. Ricordiamo soltanto Hiroshima, i
crimini nel Vietnam, in Cambogia, lo scorso anno
in Jugoslavia, e dovunque nel mondo gli americani
causassero intenzionalmente le crisi e
provocassero uccisioni di massa dei civili. Lei
mente anche nella prima parte della frase, quando
dice: "tutto il mondo sa che migliaia di civili
innocenti sono stati uccisi". Queste sono soltanto
le sue congetture menzognere e i suoi inganni
pericolosi, perch� alle sue "constatazioni" la
maggioranza della popolazione mondiale non crede.
Lei ha la mania di servirsi di menzogne ed
inganni, come testimonia la vostra vergognosa
dichiarazione pubblica.
La "vera" verit� su Srebrenica bisogna dirla, ma
lei ha imparato a proiettare in avanti la
menzogna. Si � mai chiesto finora quanti civili
serbi siano stati ucccisi a Sarajevo? Li, signor
ambasciatore, sotto al governo musulmano sono
stati uccisi altre 6000 serbi. Questo � un
olocausto, e non Srebrenica, dove sono stati
uccisi soltanto militari musulmani armati, ai
quali gli appartenenti al battaglione olandese
nelle fila dell'UNPROFOR hanno reso possibile di
essere armati fino ai denti benche' fossero nella
cosiddetta "zona protetta".
Esistono dei comunicati, signor Miller, sui quali
lei tace perch� non corrispondono ai vostri scopi
disonesti...
[trad. a cura del Coord. Romano per la Jugoslavia;
sulla disinformazione strategica relativa ai fatti
di Srebrenica abbiamo inviato ed invieremo presto
ulteriore documentazione]
---
Questa lista e' curata da componenti del
Coordinamento Nazionale per la Jugoslavia (CNJ).
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente
le posizioni ufficiali o condivise da tutto il CNJ, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Archivio:
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---- Spot ------------------------------------------------------------
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Data: 18/10/2001 19:27
Da: "Forum delle Donne"
Oggetto: missione in Macedonia
Seguito della discussione del disegno di
legge: Conversione in legge del decreto-legge
18 settembre 2001, n. 348, recante
disposizioni urgenti per la partecipazione
militare italiana alla missione internazionale
di pace in Macedonia (1596)
Stenografico Aula in corso di seduta
Seduta n. 47 del 17/10/2001
PRESIDENTE. Ha chiesto di parlare per
dichiarazione di voto l'onorevole Deiana. Ne
ha facolt�.
ELETTRA DEIANA. Signor Presidente, annuncio il
voto contrario dei deputati del gruppo di
Rifondazione comunista e vorrei essere messa
in grado di spiegarne le ragioni visto che il
nostro sar� l'unico voto contrario. Si tratta
di ragioni specifiche, relative alla natura
della missione �Raccolto essenziale�, e di
ragioni legate al quadro strategico in cui
queste missioni si collocano; quadro definito
dal Nuovo concetto strategico della NATO -
dall'articolo 24 di un documento sottoscritto
dai governi dei paesi membri nell'aprile del
1999, mai sottoposto al dibattito dei
parlamenti interessati - che legittima
l'attivazione di operazioni militari
apparentemente diverse tra loro: missioni di
pace, polizia internazionale, guerre pi� o
meno chirurgiche, guerre umanitarie, guerre
che prevedono "incidenti inevitabili" ma tutte
accomunate dal disegno di controllo globale
del pianeta che la NATO persegue e che � una
delle cause - forse la fondamentale -
dell'instabilit� crescente nei rapporti
internazionali.
Non si produce pace in questo modo - � il
nostro punto di vista - senza regole,
istituzioni, soggetti realmente preposti a
questo scopo, e al di sopra delle parti, e
mentre si sterilizza la funzione dell'ONU. La
decisione di dispiegare nuove truppe NATO in
Macedonia allo scadere dell'operazione
�Raccolta essenziale� (questa � la proposta
del Governo) che doveva essere conclusa entro
un mese - cos� ci avevano detto i ministri
Ruggiero e Martino - � il segnale pi� evidente
di tutto ci� che sto dicendo, del carattere
complesso della missione (tutt'altro che
operazione di facile pacificazione), delle
incognite che le dinamiche in quella zona dei
Balcani nascondono, del rischio che di nuovo
si inneschi un processo incontrollabile con la
conseguenza di far saltare l'equilibrio che
sembrava conseguito - ma non � cos�!- tra le
parti in causa: la guerriglia albanese, il
Governo macedone e la NATO.
Nella riunioni delle Commissioni esteri e
difesa di Camera e Senato svoltosi in agosto i
ministri Martino e Ruggiero, nel presentare la
missione, usarono toni dimessi e defilati;
operazione di basso profilo, di semplicissimo
operativit�! In realt�, la balcanizzazione dei
Balcani continua e si allarga a macchia
d'olio, secondo il copione consolidato di una
crescente etnicizzazione del conflitto tra i
gruppi locali che vogliono spartirsi, con
nuove regole di confine, il territorio della
ex Jugoslavia e con il rischio di ulteriori
coinvolgimenti di tipo etnico, come i
disordini in Montenegro stanno a dimostrare.
Quanto, in questo processo di continua
deflagrazione dei precedenti assetti statuali,
hanno pesato interessi, strategie politiche,
prove di forza dei paesi della NATO?
Quanto la pretesa della NATO di definire
nell'area il contesto generale della legalit�,
della legittimit� e della convenienza ha
contribuito e contribuisce alla
destabilizzazione di fatto, mentre ci si
attribuisce come occidente il ruolo salvifico
di grandi pacificatori?
Il caso della Macedonia, passata indenne per
quasi dieci anni dal virus dell'odio
interetnico e degli scontri civili, �
emblematico e parla con chiarezza delle
responsabilit� dirette dei paesi aderenti alla
NATO. � stata esposta, infatti, anche la
Macedonia all'insorgenza etnica e ai
nazionalismi incrociati sicuramente anche per
il ruolo di punta che l'Uck ha potuto
guadagnarsi grazie proprio alla NATO che ha
condannato o legittimato la guerriglia
albanese, prima in Kosovo poi in Macedonia, a
seconda dei casi e dei momenti ed ha attivato
l'operazione �Raccolta essenziale� (raccolta
di armi) mentre nulla hanno fatto i paesi
membri per controllare il mercato delle armi
che fornisce la materia prima del conflitto.
La consegna delle armi da parte delle unit�
dell'Uck � servita solo a legittimare una
corrente radicale del nazionalismo albanese
che crede venuto il momento di realizzare il
vecchio sogno di riunificare tutte le terre
albanesi dei Balcani (non a caso l'Uck � la
stessa sigla in Kosovo ed in Macedonia) e,
contemporaneamente, a suscitare dinamiche
negative tra la popolazione macedone che
accusa in gran parte l'occidente di faziosit�
in favore degli albanesi. Cos� prende quota il
nazionalismo slavo-macedone e vengono alla
ribalta gruppi paramilitari animati dal
progetto aberrante di una Macedonia
etnicamente pura.
Di fronte a tutto ci�, il sottosegretario
Cicu, in sede di discussione sulle linee
generali in aula, ha affermato che dei
problemi dell'area e delle dinamiche
strategiche dei Balcani ci si occupa in sede
NATO, che noi facciamo parte di una missione
con obiettivi limitati che sono stati
raggiunti in maniera soddisfacente e che di
questo solo dobbiamo occuparci. La nostra
politica di difesa � diventata, secondo questa
impostazione, una funzione della NATO,
completamente sottratta alla sovranit� di
questo Parlamento.
Il concetto di pace � stato cos� stravolto e
deturpato; viene usato ormai soltanto per
coprire e rendere accettabili ad una opinione
pubblica italiana ancora largamente permeata
di vocazione pacifista opzioni e strategie
definite in un ambito, quello della NATO, che
poco ha a che fare con la pace, con
un'autentica politica di pace rispettosa dei
vincoli costituzionali, dei trattati
internazionali e di quella faticosa rete di
norme e di interdizioni giuridiche all'opzione
bellica che l'Europa seppe costruire
all'indomani della seconda guerra mondiale e
che in questi anni l'Europa stessa sta invece
distruggendo, ricreando l'abitudine terribile
a convivere con la guerra. Vengono chiamate
missioni di pace ma sono un patchwork, come
dicevo prima, di volta in volta di azioni di
protettorato lungo zone considerate
strategiche dall'Occidente, di gendarmeria
mondiale, di vera e propria guerra
guerregiata. Insomma, una difesa a geometria
variabile, secondo interessi di volta in volta
definiti. La politica della difesa italiana ha
subito un mutamento radicale che non ha nulla
pi� a che vedere, nella geografia concettuale
che si � venuta robustamente affermando negli
anni '90, con il concetto di difesa secondo
l'articolo 11 della Costituzione. Per questi
motivi, noi esprimiamo il nostro voto
contrario sul provvedimento. (Applausi dei
deputati del gruppo di Rifondazione
comunista).
Forum delle donne di Rifondazione comunista
Viale del Policlinico 131 - CAP 00161 - Roma
Tel. 06/44182204
Fax 06/44239490
---
Questa lista e' curata da componenti del
Coordinamento Nazionale per la Jugoslavia (CNJ).
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente
le posizioni ufficiali o condivise da tutto il CNJ, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo oppure:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
---- Spot ------------------------------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Per cancellarti da questo gruppo, invia un messaggio vuoto a: jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...
Da: "Forum delle Donne"
Oggetto: missione in Macedonia
Seguito della discussione del disegno di
legge: Conversione in legge del decreto-legge
18 settembre 2001, n. 348, recante
disposizioni urgenti per la partecipazione
militare italiana alla missione internazionale
di pace in Macedonia (1596)
Stenografico Aula in corso di seduta
Seduta n. 47 del 17/10/2001
PRESIDENTE. Ha chiesto di parlare per
dichiarazione di voto l'onorevole Deiana. Ne
ha facolt�.
ELETTRA DEIANA. Signor Presidente, annuncio il
voto contrario dei deputati del gruppo di
Rifondazione comunista e vorrei essere messa
in grado di spiegarne le ragioni visto che il
nostro sar� l'unico voto contrario. Si tratta
di ragioni specifiche, relative alla natura
della missione �Raccolto essenziale�, e di
ragioni legate al quadro strategico in cui
queste missioni si collocano; quadro definito
dal Nuovo concetto strategico della NATO -
dall'articolo 24 di un documento sottoscritto
dai governi dei paesi membri nell'aprile del
1999, mai sottoposto al dibattito dei
parlamenti interessati - che legittima
l'attivazione di operazioni militari
apparentemente diverse tra loro: missioni di
pace, polizia internazionale, guerre pi� o
meno chirurgiche, guerre umanitarie, guerre
che prevedono "incidenti inevitabili" ma tutte
accomunate dal disegno di controllo globale
del pianeta che la NATO persegue e che � una
delle cause - forse la fondamentale -
dell'instabilit� crescente nei rapporti
internazionali.
Non si produce pace in questo modo - � il
nostro punto di vista - senza regole,
istituzioni, soggetti realmente preposti a
questo scopo, e al di sopra delle parti, e
mentre si sterilizza la funzione dell'ONU. La
decisione di dispiegare nuove truppe NATO in
Macedonia allo scadere dell'operazione
�Raccolta essenziale� (questa � la proposta
del Governo) che doveva essere conclusa entro
un mese - cos� ci avevano detto i ministri
Ruggiero e Martino - � il segnale pi� evidente
di tutto ci� che sto dicendo, del carattere
complesso della missione (tutt'altro che
operazione di facile pacificazione), delle
incognite che le dinamiche in quella zona dei
Balcani nascondono, del rischio che di nuovo
si inneschi un processo incontrollabile con la
conseguenza di far saltare l'equilibrio che
sembrava conseguito - ma non � cos�!- tra le
parti in causa: la guerriglia albanese, il
Governo macedone e la NATO.
Nella riunioni delle Commissioni esteri e
difesa di Camera e Senato svoltosi in agosto i
ministri Martino e Ruggiero, nel presentare la
missione, usarono toni dimessi e defilati;
operazione di basso profilo, di semplicissimo
operativit�! In realt�, la balcanizzazione dei
Balcani continua e si allarga a macchia
d'olio, secondo il copione consolidato di una
crescente etnicizzazione del conflitto tra i
gruppi locali che vogliono spartirsi, con
nuove regole di confine, il territorio della
ex Jugoslavia e con il rischio di ulteriori
coinvolgimenti di tipo etnico, come i
disordini in Montenegro stanno a dimostrare.
Quanto, in questo processo di continua
deflagrazione dei precedenti assetti statuali,
hanno pesato interessi, strategie politiche,
prove di forza dei paesi della NATO?
Quanto la pretesa della NATO di definire
nell'area il contesto generale della legalit�,
della legittimit� e della convenienza ha
contribuito e contribuisce alla
destabilizzazione di fatto, mentre ci si
attribuisce come occidente il ruolo salvifico
di grandi pacificatori?
Il caso della Macedonia, passata indenne per
quasi dieci anni dal virus dell'odio
interetnico e degli scontri civili, �
emblematico e parla con chiarezza delle
responsabilit� dirette dei paesi aderenti alla
NATO. � stata esposta, infatti, anche la
Macedonia all'insorgenza etnica e ai
nazionalismi incrociati sicuramente anche per
il ruolo di punta che l'Uck ha potuto
guadagnarsi grazie proprio alla NATO che ha
condannato o legittimato la guerriglia
albanese, prima in Kosovo poi in Macedonia, a
seconda dei casi e dei momenti ed ha attivato
l'operazione �Raccolta essenziale� (raccolta
di armi) mentre nulla hanno fatto i paesi
membri per controllare il mercato delle armi
che fornisce la materia prima del conflitto.
La consegna delle armi da parte delle unit�
dell'Uck � servita solo a legittimare una
corrente radicale del nazionalismo albanese
che crede venuto il momento di realizzare il
vecchio sogno di riunificare tutte le terre
albanesi dei Balcani (non a caso l'Uck � la
stessa sigla in Kosovo ed in Macedonia) e,
contemporaneamente, a suscitare dinamiche
negative tra la popolazione macedone che
accusa in gran parte l'occidente di faziosit�
in favore degli albanesi. Cos� prende quota il
nazionalismo slavo-macedone e vengono alla
ribalta gruppi paramilitari animati dal
progetto aberrante di una Macedonia
etnicamente pura.
Di fronte a tutto ci�, il sottosegretario
Cicu, in sede di discussione sulle linee
generali in aula, ha affermato che dei
problemi dell'area e delle dinamiche
strategiche dei Balcani ci si occupa in sede
NATO, che noi facciamo parte di una missione
con obiettivi limitati che sono stati
raggiunti in maniera soddisfacente e che di
questo solo dobbiamo occuparci. La nostra
politica di difesa � diventata, secondo questa
impostazione, una funzione della NATO,
completamente sottratta alla sovranit� di
questo Parlamento.
Il concetto di pace � stato cos� stravolto e
deturpato; viene usato ormai soltanto per
coprire e rendere accettabili ad una opinione
pubblica italiana ancora largamente permeata
di vocazione pacifista opzioni e strategie
definite in un ambito, quello della NATO, che
poco ha a che fare con la pace, con
un'autentica politica di pace rispettosa dei
vincoli costituzionali, dei trattati
internazionali e di quella faticosa rete di
norme e di interdizioni giuridiche all'opzione
bellica che l'Europa seppe costruire
all'indomani della seconda guerra mondiale e
che in questi anni l'Europa stessa sta invece
distruggendo, ricreando l'abitudine terribile
a convivere con la guerra. Vengono chiamate
missioni di pace ma sono un patchwork, come
dicevo prima, di volta in volta di azioni di
protettorato lungo zone considerate
strategiche dall'Occidente, di gendarmeria
mondiale, di vera e propria guerra
guerregiata. Insomma, una difesa a geometria
variabile, secondo interessi di volta in volta
definiti. La politica della difesa italiana ha
subito un mutamento radicale che non ha nulla
pi� a che vedere, nella geografia concettuale
che si � venuta robustamente affermando negli
anni '90, con il concetto di difesa secondo
l'articolo 11 della Costituzione. Per questi
motivi, noi esprimiamo il nostro voto
contrario sul provvedimento. (Applausi dei
deputati del gruppo di Rifondazione
comunista).
Forum delle donne di Rifondazione comunista
Viale del Policlinico 131 - CAP 00161 - Roma
Tel. 06/44182204
Fax 06/44239490
---
Questa lista e' curata da componenti del
Coordinamento Nazionale per la Jugoslavia (CNJ).
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente
le posizioni ufficiali o condivise da tutto il CNJ, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo oppure:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
---- Spot ------------------------------------------------------------
Vuoi gestire da solo la pubblicita' della tua Newsletter?
Vuoi sapere quanti utenti hanno letto le tue News?
Vuoi pagare solo quello che consumi come traffico mail?
eC-Messenger e' il sistema white label ideato da Domeus
che ti permette di sfruttare al meglio le potenzialita' del
knowledge management e del CRM
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Sulla biografia di Walter dall'Omo si veda:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1304
--- In ita-jug@y..., Claudio Del Bello <delbello@o...> ha scritto:
Mercoledì 17, all'Alpheus (Roma, via del Commercio 36/38), alle ore
21,30, ci sarà un concerto (ingresso 20.000) in memoria di Walter
Dall'Omo, partigiano, morto la scorsa settimana.
Chi era "Falco" sarà ricordato brevemente.
Suonerà la "Banda Bassotti" - band romana tra le più amate, arrabbiata
e
ska - che generosamente devolverà l'incasso alla vedova.
La partecipazione valga, se non per altro, come risposta alle
farneticanti parole dell'attuale presidente della Repubblica.
Walter Dall'Omo era ufficiale dei servizi segreti jugoslavi dal 1947
al
1952, anno in cui fu catturato
mentre era in missione in Italia. Condannato per alto tradimento, si è
fatto diciotto anni in varie carceri italiane.
Anche per questo, i compagni di Roma sono invitati a partecipare.
--- Fine messaggio inoltrato ---
---- Spot ------------------------------------------------------------
I gruppi di discussione + interessanti e divertenti!
Le liste + calde!! Il meglio di Domeus!!!
Iscriviti a listparade-subscribe@...
e visita il sito del momento:
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
Per cancellarti da questo gruppo, invia un messaggio vuoto a: jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1304
--- In ita-jug@y..., Claudio Del Bello <delbello@o...> ha scritto:
Mercoledì 17, all'Alpheus (Roma, via del Commercio 36/38), alle ore
21,30, ci sarà un concerto (ingresso 20.000) in memoria di Walter
Dall'Omo, partigiano, morto la scorsa settimana.
Chi era "Falco" sarà ricordato brevemente.
Suonerà la "Banda Bassotti" - band romana tra le più amate, arrabbiata
e
ska - che generosamente devolverà l'incasso alla vedova.
La partecipazione valga, se non per altro, come risposta alle
farneticanti parole dell'attuale presidente della Repubblica.
Walter Dall'Omo era ufficiale dei servizi segreti jugoslavi dal 1947
al
1952, anno in cui fu catturato
mentre era in missione in Italia. Condannato per alto tradimento, si è
fatto diciotto anni in varie carceri italiane.
Anche per questo, i compagni di Roma sono invitati a partecipare.
--- Fine messaggio inoltrato ---
---- Spot ------------------------------------------------------------
I gruppi di discussione + interessanti e divertenti!
Le liste + calde!! Il meglio di Domeus!!!
Iscriviti a listparade-subscribe@...
e visita il sito del momento:
http://www.domeus.it/ad4037700/domeus
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Per cancellarti da questo gruppo, invia un messaggio vuoto a: jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...
The story of the independent muslim unit "Mesa Selimovic" may be read in
the english version at
> http://www.vorstadtzentrum.net/cgi-bin/joesb/
news/viewnews.cgi?category=all&id01232785
or
> http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1327
---
L'histoire de la � Mesa Selimovic �, unit� musulmane ind�pendante
� D'abord, il faut se d�barrasser des communistes. Vous savez qui c'est,
voil� les listes ici. Et apr�s �a, on liquide les Serbes. �
Cet article a �t� publi� dans le journal Dani. Il pr�sente un compte
rendu int�ressant sur le d�but de la guerre en Bosnie-Herz�govine. C'est
l'interview d'Ismet Djuheric, commandant d'une division musulmane qui a
combattu aux c�t�s des Serbes.
Une compagnie d'honn�tes combattants
par Vlado Mrkic
Ismet Djuheric a �t� le premier commandant de l'unit� �Mesa Selimovic�,
appartenant � l'arm�e de la r�publique serbe, et dont les membres
�taient pour la plupart des musulmans en provenance des villages des
municipalit�s de Bosanski Brod et Derventa. Cette unit� de � Chetniks
musulmans �, comme certains l'ont appel�e, a �t� et reste encore
aujourd'hui l'une des grosses controverses de la guerre �coul�e.
Ismet Djuheric parle dans Dani des �v�nements auxquels il a particip� ou
assist� en tant que simple t�moin.
Aujourd'hui, Ismet Djuheric vit en compagnie de son �pouse Hanumica dans
le village de Sijekovac, pr�s de Bosanski Brod. Sa fille et lui sont
employ�s � la raffinerie de p�trole de Brod. Hormis plusieurs mois
pass�s comme r�fugi�s dans les villages avoisinants de Dubocac et de
Kobas, les Djuheric sont la seule famille musulmane � avoir pass� toute
la guerre dans le village de Sijekovac.
Cet article ne repr�sente qu'une petite partie de l'histoire, c'est un
t�moignage sur une �poque tragique, sur des �v�nements qui ne pourraient
avoir eu lieu, nous semble-t-il, que dans ce chaudron bosniaque chauff�
� blanc par les dissensions et la haine des voisins des deux rives de la
Sava et de la Drina.
Le d�but des troubles
Avant la guerre, je travaillais � l'H�tel de Ville de Brod, en Bosnie,
et mon travail se rapportait � certaines activit�s des autorit�s.
J'�tais �galement en relation avec les autorit�s elles-m�mes. Je
mentionne ce d�tail parce qu'il devait affecter ma destin�e ult�rieure.
J'ai toujours �t� actif en politique, j'ai toujours �t� � gauche, comme
membre du Parti communiste et, plus tard, de la Ligue communiste.
Aujourd'hui, je suis socialiste. Je pense que ce choix est correct. J'ai
toujours dit, et je le pense toujours, que ce sont les extr�mistes qui
ont d�clench� cette guerre. Ils �taient un outil dans les mains de ceux
qui sont venus au pouvoir � l'issue des premi�res �lections
multipartites, c'est-�-dire au moment o� nos malheurs ont commenc�.
Avant la guerre, j'�tais officier de r�serve de l'arm�e populaire
yougoslave (APY). J'avais le grade de capitaine et j'�tait membre de la
327e Brigade (� l'�poque), � Derventa. Le bataillon de Brod faisait
partie de cette m�me 327e Brigade. J'effectuais certaines t�ches. A
l'�poque, c'�tait l�gal. La guerre n'avait pas encore d�but� dans cette
r�gion, mais j'appr�hendais d�j� sa venue. Mes activit�s � l'H�tel de
Ville �taient d'ailleurs en rapport avec les �v�nements. Beaucour de
gens n'aimaient pas cela, surtout les extr�mistes, la plupart �taient
des Croates, et puis des musulmans, aussi.
Je dis �musulmans� parce que j'en suis un. Avant, j'�tais un Yougoslave.
Aujourd'hui, je suis un musulman [aujourd'hui, on d�signe les musulmans
de Bosnie par le terme de Bosniaques].
Apr�s la chute des casernes de l'APY � Slavonski Brod [de l'autre c�t�
du cours d'eau, en Croatie], les tensions dans la r�gion ont
consid�rablement augment�. Des heurts de sont produits: les gens avaient
des armes. J'�tais du nombre de ceux qui �taient d'avis de laisser la
vie suivre normalement son cours, � d�faut de fraternit� et d'unit�. La
Croatie �tait d�j� un Etat nouveau. Si nous avons besoin de nous
prot�ger contre qui que ce soit, avais-je l'habitude de dire,
prot�geons-nous au moins tous ensemble, puisque
nous vivons d�j� ensemble, Serbes, Croates et musulmans. Les
extr�mistes, tant chez les Croates que chez les musulmans, �taient
oppos�s � cette id�e et je peux vous dire que les deux groupes ont tent�
de me convaincre de me joindre � eux. Non en raison d'id�aux, mais pour
des questions d'int�r�ts, du fait qu'ils esp�raient probablement que ma
r�putation et mes connaissances dans le cadre de mon travail auraient pu
aider leur cause.
Ils m'ont dit : � Viens avec nous, et rien ne t'arrivera. � C'a �t�
�vident quand ils m'ont attaqu� par la suite. J'ai �t� attaqu� par les
membres de la milice qui avait �t� constitu�e � Brod au d�but mars 1992
et qui comptait exclusivement des membres croates et musulmans. Le
premier commandant de la police militaire de Bosanski Brod fut Josip
Bilic. Tous ces gens avaient �t� nomm�s selon des ordres venant de
Slavonski Brod. Les Serbes s'�taient d�j� repli�s sur Lijesce.
De violentes fusillades
J'�tais pr�sident de la Commune locale de Sijekovac et lorsque certains
habitants m'ont approch� pour que je leur explique la mani�re dont nous
allions nous prot�ger, surtout des tueurs. L'attitude g�n�rale a �t�
pour dire que nous tous, Serbes, musulmans et Croates, devions
participer � des patrouilles locales. Toutefois, les extr�mistes l'ont
emport� � la fin et ont �vinc� tous ceux qui voulaient vivre ensemble.
Toute de suite, j'ai �t� vir� de mon poste de pr�sident de la commune
locale. En fait, ils ne m'ont pas vir�. Ils ont tout simplement repris
mes fonctions.
Dix-sept membres de la pr�tendue police militaire ont pris part � une
agression physique contre moi-m�me et ma famille. Ils nous ont attaqu�s
� notre domicile en exigeant que je leur c�de des armes. Ils pensaient
que l'APY avait stock� des armes chez moi. Je n'�tais pas en possession
de ces armes mais, par contre, j'avais les miennes propres. Ils ont
d'abord tir�, puis ont exig� que je me rende. La fusillade a �t�
nourrie. Cette nuit-l�, je me suis entretenu avec le g�n�ral Kukanjac,
avec le commandant de la Brigade de Derventa, avec le quartier g�n�ral
de Brod, avec le quartier g�n�ral de Lijesce, et j'ai exig� qu'on fasse
cesser cette attaque contre ma personne. Je n'avais pas l'intention de
me rendre. Ma femme, mon fils et ma fille, qui �taient encore mineurs, �
l'�poque, �taient avec moi dans notre maison. Ce qui m'avait choqu� le
plus, c'est que parmi les agresseurs, il y avait certains de mes voisins
et leurs enfants.
Les murs de notre maison �taient cribl�s d'impacts de balles. Une
intervention pour mettre un terme � ces attaques est venue d'en haut,
mais nous n'avons pas eu d'autre choix que de nous en aller. Ce jour-l�,
il y avait un enterrement. Un personnage important dans je ne sais quel
domaine �tait d�c�d� et tout le monde assistait aux fun�railles. Lorsque
nous avons vu que la sentinelle avait quitt� son poste, nous nous somes
�loign�s quelque peu de Sijekovac et nous nous sommes rendus � Dubocac,
la localit� o� je suis n�. Je suis entr� en contact avec la garnison et
me suis rendu ensuite � Derventa.
Les HOS arrivent
Toutefois, le m�me groupe qui m'avait attaqu� � Sijekovac, renforc� par
un groupe de soldats des HOS [Les HOS, ou Forces croates de D�fense,
�taient une milice croate d'extr�me droite (pro-oustachi), active � la
fois en Croatie et en Bosnie-Herz�govine en 1991 et 1992] sous le
commandement d'Obradovic, un homme bien connu dans cette r�gion, a
attaqu� Dubovac et s'en est empar�. Obradovic vivait � Slavonski Brod,
o� il poss�dait un bar. C'�tait un Serbe. Il provenait de Kraljevo, en
Serbie, mais �tait toujours dans les HOS. Apr�s la chute de Dubocac,
nous nous sommes enfuis vers le village musulman de Kobas, o� ma famille
s�journa durant tout le temps o� je fus � Derventa avec la Brigade.
Un groupe de 22 soldats des HOS, les fameux Handzars, dont le commandant
�tait un certain Ekrem Mendela, originaire de quelque part en Bosnie
centrale, quitta la Croatie pour s'installer � Sijekovac et s'installa
dans un camp de conteneurs appartenant � une compagnie provenant de
Teslic, non loin de chez moi. Ils contr�laient Sijekovac, en m�me temps
que le pr�tendu peloton d'intervention de Nijaz Causevic, de Sijekovac,
connu aussi sous le surnom de Medo. Obradovic et Causevic ont �cum� la
r�gion avec leurs groupes jusqu'au moment de la lib�ration de Brod.
Obradovic est mort plus tard, tu� par ses propres soldats, au moment o�
ils s'enfuyaient de Zboriste. Il avait essay� de les arr�ter et l'un de
ses hommes l'avait abattu.
Un renard � Kobas
Depuis lors, et jusqu'� la lib�ration de Brod, je suis rest� � Derventa.
En ao�t 1992, j'ai form� ma propre unit� au sein de l'Arm�e de la
r�publique de Serbie. La plupart de ses membres �taient des musulmans,
mais il y avait �galement quelques Serbes et quelques Croates. On
l'avait baptis�e l'unit� musulmane ind�pendante �Mesa Selimovic� [un
c�l�bre �crivain musulman de Bosnie], et elle servit dans l'arm�e de la
r�p�blique serbe jusqu'� la fin de la guerre. Elle �tait cantonn�e dans
le village de Kulina, pr�s de Derventa, en face de l'�cole du village.
C'est le g�n�ral Kelecevic et le colonel Slavko Lisica, aujourd'hui
g�n�ral, qui lui avaient donn� son nom.
Je fus le premier commandant de l'unit�, jusqu'en janvier 1993. Par la
suite, je quittai l'arm�e et travaillai � Brod. L'unit� comptait environ
120 hommes, mais les effectifs variaient de temps � autre. Elle avait
donc la taille d'une compagnie. Elle a �t� op�rationnelle dans tous les
combats aux alentours de Bord et de Derventa, et a �galement particip�
aux combats des environs de Teslic, Tesanj, Maglaj et Zavidovici. Ses
membres �taient tous des gars honn�tes, sans exception, et ils sont
d'ailleurs rest�s ici pour y vivre, par la suite. L'unit� faisait son
boulot honn�tement, consciencieusement. A notre avis, nous avions le
droit de d�fendre notre pays et nos biens, et c'est ce que nous avons
fait, nous sommes rest�s dans la r�gion et nous avons fait ce que nous
estimions juste. Et, bien s�r, aujourd'hui, la plupart de ces gens
vivent et travaillent toujours ici.
Comment cette unit� avait-elle �t� constitu�e ? Qu'il n'y ait pas de
confusion. Nous �tions des volontaires. D'une certaine fa�on, je voulais
prot�ger les gens qui �taient rest�s chez eux. Nous avons contact�
Lisica et il a accept� notre proposition. A l'�poque, il �tait colonel
et commandait un groupe tactique. Il vint � Kobas, o� nous nous �tions
r�fugi�s apr�s nous �tre �chapp�s de Dubocac, il rassembla des musulmans
dans la cour de la maison o� je vivais, leur tint un petit discours et
promit � la population que personne ne leur ferait le moindre mal. Puis,
il ajouta : � Si vous le d�sirez, je vous enverrai des v�hicules. � Il
n'y a eu aucune coercition.
Plus tard, nous nous sommes rassembl�s en face de l'�cole de Kulina et
nous avons r�fl�chi au nom que nous allions donner � notre unit�. Pour
autant que je m'en souvienne, je pense que c'est Lisica qui a sugg�r� le
nom de Mesa Selimovic, et que le g�n�ral Kelecevic a ensuite �t�
d'accord. Moi aussi, ce nom me plaisait, et je marquai �galement mon
accord. J'avais lu Mesa, en partie parce que ses oeuvres figuraient sur
la liste des lectures obligatoires de l'�cole, mais aussi parce que
j'aimais beaucoup ce qu'il �crivait. Et c'est ainsi que le nom est
rest�. En tant qu'unit�, nous n'avons commis aucun acte r�pr�hensible,
m�me si nos ennemis pr�tendent que c'est faux. Nous avons re�u la visite
de journalistes �trangers, et m�me la princesse Jelisaveta s'est rendue
au front pour nous rencontrer. Nous avons �galement re�u la visite de
parlementaires britanniques qui ont bu du caf� avec nous. Nous �tions
r�put�s pour notre cuisine. Comme la plupart des gens originaires des
rives de la Sava, nous pr�parions tr�s bien le poisson.
Des agresseurs de leur propre pays?
Ce que j'ai fait, ce que tous, parmi nous, nous avons fait, nous avons
choisi de le faire et n'en sommes nullement d�sol�s. Je sais que les
Serbes ont �t� trait�s d'agresseurs, mais nous ne l'avons pas accept�.
Nous faisions partie de l'arm�e de la r�publique serbe, nous �tions avec
nos voisins, et il n'y avait personne d'autre, ici. Il n'y avait
personne du Montenegro ou de la Serbie. S'ils �taient des agresseurs,
nous �tions nous aussi des agresseurs, dans ce cas, puisque nous �tions
avec eux. Et comment pourrais-je �tre l'agresseur de mon propre pays ?
C'est quelque chose que je ne puis comprendre. C'�tait la guerre, il y
avait ceux qui portaient les armes et qui n'�taient pas assez m�rs pour
le faire. Il se passait toutes sortes de choses et il fallait faire
attention � sa peau et rester dans son propre pays. Certains ne l'ont
pas support� et ils sont partis, mais d'autres ont pers�v�r� et sont
rest�s. Tous les villages musulmans sont rest�s. Prenez, par exemple,
Luzani et Omeragici, dans la municipalit� de Derventa, c'�taient des
villages essentiellement peupl�s de musulmans et tous ces gens sont
toujours l�, aujourd'hui.
Il y avait beaucoup de musulmans de Derventa, dans ma compagnie, mais
�galement dans le reste de la Brigade Derventa. Il est impossible de
juger cette affaire sur les apparences, sur tout ce que l'on a racont� �
propos de l'agression. Jusqu'en mai 1992, lorsque ces gosses, les
conscrits de 18 ans de l'APY, ont �t� tu�s � Kolibe, l'APY �tait une
force militaire l�gale, dans la r�gion. M�me � l'�poque, il �tait
impossible de parler d'agression.
Le mot a �t� utilis� pour faire pencher la communaut� internationale
vers l'un des camps du conflit. Tout le monde le souhaitait. Je connais
des cas o� les trois camps ont attaqu� leurs propres villages afin
d'accuser les autres camps et cela ne peut donc constituer un alibi pour
aucun des trois camps. C'est la stricte v�rit�. Tout cela a �t� organis�
de fa�on � semer le chaos et la confusion, puisque les gens, hormis les
extr�mistes, voulaient toujours rester dans leur propre pays et vivre
avec leurs voisins. Et, voyez, ils reviennent, aujourd'hui.
Il est vrai que l'on trouvait beaucoup plus de musulmans dans l'autre
camp. Mais ils ne l'avaient pas choisi d'eux-m�mes. Ils combattaient au
sein des HVO. Ils devaient ob�ir aux ordres. Chaque unit� musulmane des
HVO avait un �conseiller� croate, et nous savons tous ce que cela veut
dire. J'�tais compl�tement ind�pendant, et je jouissais de la pleine
confiance de mes sup�rieurs. Je n'avais pas de � conseillers �, dans ma
compagnie. La m�me chose est d'ailleurs vraie aussi pour mon successeur.
Le � crime � de Sijekovac
Le � crime � de Sijekovac a eu lieu le 26 mars 1992. A l'�poque, j'�tais
� Derventa, en compagnie de mon unit�, op�rationnelle au sein du QG de
la Brigade. J'ai �t� le premier, � Derventa, � recevoir des informations
sur ce qui s'est pass�. Je sais que l'�tat-major de crise de l'�poque, �
Sijekovac, avait d�cid� d'attaquer et de d�sarmer une partie du village.
Des documents �crits le confirment, d'ailleurs. L'ordre fut sign� par
Smajo Havic, � l'�poque pr�sident de l'�quipe de crise de Sijekovac. Peu
apr�s, il d�missionna, probablement apr�s avoir compris ce qu'il avait
fait. Les troupes des HOS d'Obradovic et le peloton d'intervention de
Nijaz Causevic Medo particip�rent � l'attaque. Les membres du peloton
d'intervention �taient des extr�mistes originaires de Sijekovac, des
musulmans et des Croates. Huit Serbes perdirent la vie dans l'attaque.
Tous �taient innocents, certains �taient m�me des attard�s mentaux.
J'appris la nouvelle du crime � Derventa, de la bouche de feu Miso
Bacic. J'esp�re qu'on le r�habilitera, puisque la fa�on dont on l'a tu�
est une insulte pour tous les gens d'ici.
Avant la guerre, les musulmans �taient les plus nombreux, dans la
population de Sijekovac. Puis, venaient les Serbes, puis les Croates.
S'il n 'y avait eu ces extr�mistes et ces criminels, Sijekovac aurait pu
garder le statut de village neutre, bien qu'� l'�poque il f�t
particuli�rement difficile de demeurer neutre.
On se servit de cet incident comme d'une excuse pour poursuivre la
guerre et, en fin de compte, il exer�a une grande influence sur
celle-ci. Ce fut l'un des �v�nements qui allait indiquer qu'il n'y
aurait plus de retour en arri�re. Sans ce crime, bien des personnes
n'auraient pu s'en sortir lorsque nous sommes arriv�s. Beaucoup ne
voulaient pas partir, mais elles craignaient les repr�sailles.
Piklovic tourne un film
Le HVO [Conseil croate de D�fense, la milice bosniaque � officielle �,
le HVO a absorb� les membres des HOS apr�s le meurtre non �lucid� de
leur dirigeant en Herz�govine] s'�tait vu confier cette r�gion. Par
exemple, la 102e Brigade de Bosanski Bord comptait un bataillon en
provenance de Sijekovac; Adnan Ramadanovic (tu� plus tard par ses
voisins) commandait le bataillon. Il fut le premier commandant de la
police militaire de Sijekovac, au d�but mars 1992. Tous les ordres
�manaient du HVO. Ivan Brzic �tait pr�sident de l'�tat-major de crise.
Armin Pohara �tait en quelque sorte son principal ex�cutant, mais tous
les ordres venaient de Slavonski Brod. Il existe un film, tourn� par les
gens du HVO, et qui montre comment les villages ont �t� br�l�s apr�s le
retrait des Serbes, � commencer par Lijesce, etc. Piklovic en personne
�tait mont� dans une voiture et avait observ� la destruction
syst�matique de ces villages par le feu; le film a �t� tourn� � partir
de sa voiture. A l'�poque, il �tait pr�sident du conseil
ex�cutif de la municipalit� de Slavonski Brod. Je pense que c'est
Tudjman en personne qui a donn� l'autorisation � Ante Prkacin d'agir �
sa guise en Posavina. Le HVO a d�truit par le feu tous les villages
serbes en direction de Doboj. On a probablement agi de la sorte pour
emp�cher les musulmans de Kotorsko et de Modrica d'emm�nager dans ces
villages serbes et de modifier ainsi la composition ethnique de la
population de la r�gion.
Il y a des documents, avec des noms, qui montrent que les membres du
bataillon dit de Sijekovac, qui comptait en ses rangs de tr�s nombreux
musulmans, ont �t� pay�s par la Croatie. Dans ce cas, qui �tait
l'agresseur? Plusieurs formations de l'arm�e croate ont combattu dans
cette r�gion. L'une d'entre elles �tait la 108e Brigade, la premi�re
brigade de l'arm�e croate qui, comme ils le pr�tendent, a lib�r� les
casernes de l'APY � Slavonski Brod. Elle a connu un cuisante revers �
Kostres et � Novo Selo, o� entre 60 et 70% de ses effectifs ont �t�
tu�s. J'ai fait main basse sur toutes ses archives. Le commandement de
la Brigade se tenait dans un restaurant pr�s d'Ukrina. Je me souviens
que le commandant se pr�nommait Martin, mais je ne me souviens plus de
son nom de famille. Je me rappelle aussi qu'il avait �t� officier de
r�serve dans une compagnie d'ing�nierie de l'APY de la Brigade de
Derventa.
Ils �taient venus ici en mission, depuis la Croatie. La Brigade de
Bjelovar et quelques autres brigades de l'arm�e croate se sont �galement
battues ici.
Lorsque nous avons lib�r� Brod et captur� plusieurs personnes, celles-ci
nous ont dit qu'elles avaient �t� embarqu�es en Posavina [r�gion
avoisinant la rivi�re Sava, en Bosnie du Nord] par tromperie. On leur
avait dit qu'elles allaient marcher sur Okucani et, ensuite, on les
avait emmen�es � Brod.
J'�tais de service aux casernes de Derventa lorsque le HVO a captur�
Fikret Abdic � Radic. J'ai d�croch� le t�l�phone et quelqu'un m'a dit :
�Vous pouvez avoir Abdic, refilez-nous simplement Vencelovka et Stanic.�
C'�taient deux Croates que nous avions captur�s, mais nous les avions
imm�diatement rel�ch�s. J'ai appel� le responsable de la d�fense des
casernes, le major Stajcic. Nous n'avions nullement l'intention de
n�gocier quelque �change que ce soit.
Ce que tout le monde sait
Une fosse commune de Serbes assassin�s par le HVO avant octobre 1992 a
�t� d�couverte � Brod, mais l'affaire n'a'pas �t� publi�e. Il existe des
documents sur les actions de Nijaz Causevic Medo, des t�moins ont fait
des d�clarations, il existe aussi des preuves film�es. Causevic a tourn�
un film de trois heures sur son unit�. Des hommes de son groupe ont
viol� une femme serbe originaire de Sijekovac, l'ont d�pec�e et ont
ensuite jet� ses restes en p�ture aux chiens. Il y a eu d'autres viols
et bien d'autres histoires encore. Un membre de l'unit� de Medo a tu� un
homme qui avait vendu un cheval, un Croate. Tous ces actes ont �t�
examin�s, tant par l'arm�e que par la police, et ont fait l'objet de
poursuites. Le 26 mars, les personnes suivantes �taient assassin�es �
Sijekovac : les trois Zecevic, Milan, Vaso et Petar (Milan �tait
chauffeur � la raffinerie), puis Luka Milosevic et ses
deux fils. Sreto Trivic, un grand ami � moi . Puis un homme plus �g�, un
retrait�, a �t� massacr� dans sa chaise roulante. Cela a �t� prouv�. Ils
sont venus chez lui et l'ont massacr�.
Mustafa Kovacevic, un ing�nieur �lectricien de la raffinerie, expert de
renomm�e mondiale, ainsi que sa femme Mirsada ont �t� tu�s pendant que
le HVO et Medo �taient au pouvoir. Leurs corps ont �t� incin�r�s, mais
nous avons d�couvert leurs restes et leur avons donn� une s�pulture. Mon
ami Mustafa Alic a �t� assassin� dans sa propre maison, mais on n'a
jamais retrouv� son corps, par contre. Quelques autres personnes,
surtout des Serbes et des musulmans, ont disparu sans laisser de traces.
La section croate de la direction extr�miste avait l'habitude de dire :
�D'abord, il faut se d�barrasser des communistes. Vous savez qui c'est,
voil� les listes ici. Et apr�s �a, on liquide les Serbes.�
C'est la v�rit�. Tout le monde le sait. Aujourd'hui, certains des
coupables circulent toujours librement dans les environs.
Medo � l'assembl�e
Cela s'est poursuivi jusqu'au 7 octobre 1992, lorsque nous sommes entr�s
� Brod. Je dis � nous � parce que j'�tais l'un des commandants qui ont
particip� � ce que nous appelons la lib�ration de Bosanski Brod. Quoi
qu'il en soit, nous avons mis un terme � nos op�rations dans la r�gion
de Sijekovac, et nous sommes rentr�s chez nous. Nous �tions press�s
parce que nous savions que l�, il y avait des gens honn�tes et braves et
que certains d'entre eux nous attendaient. Voil� comment les choses se
sont pass�es.
Malheureusement, certains sont rest�s et l'ont pay� de leur vie. C'est
ainsi que les choses se sont pass�es, voil� comment a �t� la guerre,
telle est notre infortune.
Je suis assez m�content de la fa�on dont on s'y est pris pour �lucider
les crimes. Nos autorit�s ont fait un certain travail, l'IPTF aussi.
Quelques-unes de ces personnes, dont Nijaz Causevic Medo, qui est en fin
de compte responsable de nombreux crimes qui se sont produits dans cette
r�gion, et sp�cialement � Sijekovac, n'ont jamais �t� inqui�t�es.
Obradovic a �t� tu�, il est parti, mais nombre de ses hommes qui ont
particip� � toutes ses op�rations sont toujours en libert� ici. Par
exemple, Zeljko Barisic, qui �tait ici � l'�poque en qualit� de g�n�ral
du HVO. Il existe un film montrant Barisic � la t�te de ce groupe et
l'emmenant se battre contre des francs-tireurs, � proximit� du bureau de
poste de Brod. Ce film a �t� truqu�. Blazen Kljajic est un autre type de
ce genre.
Progressivement, la vie reprend son cours normal, � Sijekovac. Environ
70% des Serbes sont revenus, il y a plusieurs r�fugi�s et, r�cemment,
une petite douzaine de musulmans ainsi qu'une famille croate sont
revenus. La plupart d'entre eux sont des gens �g�s. Les jeunes viennent
jeter un oeil, puis s'en vont. Mais m�me apr�s tout ce qui s'est pass�,
les gens veulent � nouveau vivre ensemble.
Traduit de l'anglais
par Jean-Marie FLEMAL
avec mes remerciements.
Roger ROMAIN <r.romain@...>
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L'histoire de la � Mesa Selimovic �, unit� musulmane ind�pendante
� D'abord, il faut se d�barrasser des communistes. Vous savez qui c'est,
voil� les listes ici. Et apr�s �a, on liquide les Serbes. �
Cet article a �t� publi� dans le journal Dani. Il pr�sente un compte
rendu int�ressant sur le d�but de la guerre en Bosnie-Herz�govine. C'est
l'interview d'Ismet Djuheric, commandant d'une division musulmane qui a
combattu aux c�t�s des Serbes.
Une compagnie d'honn�tes combattants
par Vlado Mrkic
Ismet Djuheric a �t� le premier commandant de l'unit� �Mesa Selimovic�,
appartenant � l'arm�e de la r�publique serbe, et dont les membres
�taient pour la plupart des musulmans en provenance des villages des
municipalit�s de Bosanski Brod et Derventa. Cette unit� de � Chetniks
musulmans �, comme certains l'ont appel�e, a �t� et reste encore
aujourd'hui l'une des grosses controverses de la guerre �coul�e.
Ismet Djuheric parle dans Dani des �v�nements auxquels il a particip� ou
assist� en tant que simple t�moin.
Aujourd'hui, Ismet Djuheric vit en compagnie de son �pouse Hanumica dans
le village de Sijekovac, pr�s de Bosanski Brod. Sa fille et lui sont
employ�s � la raffinerie de p�trole de Brod. Hormis plusieurs mois
pass�s comme r�fugi�s dans les villages avoisinants de Dubocac et de
Kobas, les Djuheric sont la seule famille musulmane � avoir pass� toute
la guerre dans le village de Sijekovac.
Cet article ne repr�sente qu'une petite partie de l'histoire, c'est un
t�moignage sur une �poque tragique, sur des �v�nements qui ne pourraient
avoir eu lieu, nous semble-t-il, que dans ce chaudron bosniaque chauff�
� blanc par les dissensions et la haine des voisins des deux rives de la
Sava et de la Drina.
Le d�but des troubles
Avant la guerre, je travaillais � l'H�tel de Ville de Brod, en Bosnie,
et mon travail se rapportait � certaines activit�s des autorit�s.
J'�tais �galement en relation avec les autorit�s elles-m�mes. Je
mentionne ce d�tail parce qu'il devait affecter ma destin�e ult�rieure.
J'ai toujours �t� actif en politique, j'ai toujours �t� � gauche, comme
membre du Parti communiste et, plus tard, de la Ligue communiste.
Aujourd'hui, je suis socialiste. Je pense que ce choix est correct. J'ai
toujours dit, et je le pense toujours, que ce sont les extr�mistes qui
ont d�clench� cette guerre. Ils �taient un outil dans les mains de ceux
qui sont venus au pouvoir � l'issue des premi�res �lections
multipartites, c'est-�-dire au moment o� nos malheurs ont commenc�.
Avant la guerre, j'�tais officier de r�serve de l'arm�e populaire
yougoslave (APY). J'avais le grade de capitaine et j'�tait membre de la
327e Brigade (� l'�poque), � Derventa. Le bataillon de Brod faisait
partie de cette m�me 327e Brigade. J'effectuais certaines t�ches. A
l'�poque, c'�tait l�gal. La guerre n'avait pas encore d�but� dans cette
r�gion, mais j'appr�hendais d�j� sa venue. Mes activit�s � l'H�tel de
Ville �taient d'ailleurs en rapport avec les �v�nements. Beaucour de
gens n'aimaient pas cela, surtout les extr�mistes, la plupart �taient
des Croates, et puis des musulmans, aussi.
Je dis �musulmans� parce que j'en suis un. Avant, j'�tais un Yougoslave.
Aujourd'hui, je suis un musulman [aujourd'hui, on d�signe les musulmans
de Bosnie par le terme de Bosniaques].
Apr�s la chute des casernes de l'APY � Slavonski Brod [de l'autre c�t�
du cours d'eau, en Croatie], les tensions dans la r�gion ont
consid�rablement augment�. Des heurts de sont produits: les gens avaient
des armes. J'�tais du nombre de ceux qui �taient d'avis de laisser la
vie suivre normalement son cours, � d�faut de fraternit� et d'unit�. La
Croatie �tait d�j� un Etat nouveau. Si nous avons besoin de nous
prot�ger contre qui que ce soit, avais-je l'habitude de dire,
prot�geons-nous au moins tous ensemble, puisque
nous vivons d�j� ensemble, Serbes, Croates et musulmans. Les
extr�mistes, tant chez les Croates que chez les musulmans, �taient
oppos�s � cette id�e et je peux vous dire que les deux groupes ont tent�
de me convaincre de me joindre � eux. Non en raison d'id�aux, mais pour
des questions d'int�r�ts, du fait qu'ils esp�raient probablement que ma
r�putation et mes connaissances dans le cadre de mon travail auraient pu
aider leur cause.
Ils m'ont dit : � Viens avec nous, et rien ne t'arrivera. � C'a �t�
�vident quand ils m'ont attaqu� par la suite. J'ai �t� attaqu� par les
membres de la milice qui avait �t� constitu�e � Brod au d�but mars 1992
et qui comptait exclusivement des membres croates et musulmans. Le
premier commandant de la police militaire de Bosanski Brod fut Josip
Bilic. Tous ces gens avaient �t� nomm�s selon des ordres venant de
Slavonski Brod. Les Serbes s'�taient d�j� repli�s sur Lijesce.
De violentes fusillades
J'�tais pr�sident de la Commune locale de Sijekovac et lorsque certains
habitants m'ont approch� pour que je leur explique la mani�re dont nous
allions nous prot�ger, surtout des tueurs. L'attitude g�n�rale a �t�
pour dire que nous tous, Serbes, musulmans et Croates, devions
participer � des patrouilles locales. Toutefois, les extr�mistes l'ont
emport� � la fin et ont �vinc� tous ceux qui voulaient vivre ensemble.
Toute de suite, j'ai �t� vir� de mon poste de pr�sident de la commune
locale. En fait, ils ne m'ont pas vir�. Ils ont tout simplement repris
mes fonctions.
Dix-sept membres de la pr�tendue police militaire ont pris part � une
agression physique contre moi-m�me et ma famille. Ils nous ont attaqu�s
� notre domicile en exigeant que je leur c�de des armes. Ils pensaient
que l'APY avait stock� des armes chez moi. Je n'�tais pas en possession
de ces armes mais, par contre, j'avais les miennes propres. Ils ont
d'abord tir�, puis ont exig� que je me rende. La fusillade a �t�
nourrie. Cette nuit-l�, je me suis entretenu avec le g�n�ral Kukanjac,
avec le commandant de la Brigade de Derventa, avec le quartier g�n�ral
de Brod, avec le quartier g�n�ral de Lijesce, et j'ai exig� qu'on fasse
cesser cette attaque contre ma personne. Je n'avais pas l'intention de
me rendre. Ma femme, mon fils et ma fille, qui �taient encore mineurs, �
l'�poque, �taient avec moi dans notre maison. Ce qui m'avait choqu� le
plus, c'est que parmi les agresseurs, il y avait certains de mes voisins
et leurs enfants.
Les murs de notre maison �taient cribl�s d'impacts de balles. Une
intervention pour mettre un terme � ces attaques est venue d'en haut,
mais nous n'avons pas eu d'autre choix que de nous en aller. Ce jour-l�,
il y avait un enterrement. Un personnage important dans je ne sais quel
domaine �tait d�c�d� et tout le monde assistait aux fun�railles. Lorsque
nous avons vu que la sentinelle avait quitt� son poste, nous nous somes
�loign�s quelque peu de Sijekovac et nous nous sommes rendus � Dubocac,
la localit� o� je suis n�. Je suis entr� en contact avec la garnison et
me suis rendu ensuite � Derventa.
Les HOS arrivent
Toutefois, le m�me groupe qui m'avait attaqu� � Sijekovac, renforc� par
un groupe de soldats des HOS [Les HOS, ou Forces croates de D�fense,
�taient une milice croate d'extr�me droite (pro-oustachi), active � la
fois en Croatie et en Bosnie-Herz�govine en 1991 et 1992] sous le
commandement d'Obradovic, un homme bien connu dans cette r�gion, a
attaqu� Dubovac et s'en est empar�. Obradovic vivait � Slavonski Brod,
o� il poss�dait un bar. C'�tait un Serbe. Il provenait de Kraljevo, en
Serbie, mais �tait toujours dans les HOS. Apr�s la chute de Dubocac,
nous nous sommes enfuis vers le village musulman de Kobas, o� ma famille
s�journa durant tout le temps o� je fus � Derventa avec la Brigade.
Un groupe de 22 soldats des HOS, les fameux Handzars, dont le commandant
�tait un certain Ekrem Mendela, originaire de quelque part en Bosnie
centrale, quitta la Croatie pour s'installer � Sijekovac et s'installa
dans un camp de conteneurs appartenant � une compagnie provenant de
Teslic, non loin de chez moi. Ils contr�laient Sijekovac, en m�me temps
que le pr�tendu peloton d'intervention de Nijaz Causevic, de Sijekovac,
connu aussi sous le surnom de Medo. Obradovic et Causevic ont �cum� la
r�gion avec leurs groupes jusqu'au moment de la lib�ration de Brod.
Obradovic est mort plus tard, tu� par ses propres soldats, au moment o�
ils s'enfuyaient de Zboriste. Il avait essay� de les arr�ter et l'un de
ses hommes l'avait abattu.
Un renard � Kobas
Depuis lors, et jusqu'� la lib�ration de Brod, je suis rest� � Derventa.
En ao�t 1992, j'ai form� ma propre unit� au sein de l'Arm�e de la
r�publique de Serbie. La plupart de ses membres �taient des musulmans,
mais il y avait �galement quelques Serbes et quelques Croates. On
l'avait baptis�e l'unit� musulmane ind�pendante �Mesa Selimovic� [un
c�l�bre �crivain musulman de Bosnie], et elle servit dans l'arm�e de la
r�p�blique serbe jusqu'� la fin de la guerre. Elle �tait cantonn�e dans
le village de Kulina, pr�s de Derventa, en face de l'�cole du village.
C'est le g�n�ral Kelecevic et le colonel Slavko Lisica, aujourd'hui
g�n�ral, qui lui avaient donn� son nom.
Je fus le premier commandant de l'unit�, jusqu'en janvier 1993. Par la
suite, je quittai l'arm�e et travaillai � Brod. L'unit� comptait environ
120 hommes, mais les effectifs variaient de temps � autre. Elle avait
donc la taille d'une compagnie. Elle a �t� op�rationnelle dans tous les
combats aux alentours de Bord et de Derventa, et a �galement particip�
aux combats des environs de Teslic, Tesanj, Maglaj et Zavidovici. Ses
membres �taient tous des gars honn�tes, sans exception, et ils sont
d'ailleurs rest�s ici pour y vivre, par la suite. L'unit� faisait son
boulot honn�tement, consciencieusement. A notre avis, nous avions le
droit de d�fendre notre pays et nos biens, et c'est ce que nous avons
fait, nous sommes rest�s dans la r�gion et nous avons fait ce que nous
estimions juste. Et, bien s�r, aujourd'hui, la plupart de ces gens
vivent et travaillent toujours ici.
Comment cette unit� avait-elle �t� constitu�e ? Qu'il n'y ait pas de
confusion. Nous �tions des volontaires. D'une certaine fa�on, je voulais
prot�ger les gens qui �taient rest�s chez eux. Nous avons contact�
Lisica et il a accept� notre proposition. A l'�poque, il �tait colonel
et commandait un groupe tactique. Il vint � Kobas, o� nous nous �tions
r�fugi�s apr�s nous �tre �chapp�s de Dubocac, il rassembla des musulmans
dans la cour de la maison o� je vivais, leur tint un petit discours et
promit � la population que personne ne leur ferait le moindre mal. Puis,
il ajouta : � Si vous le d�sirez, je vous enverrai des v�hicules. � Il
n'y a eu aucune coercition.
Plus tard, nous nous sommes rassembl�s en face de l'�cole de Kulina et
nous avons r�fl�chi au nom que nous allions donner � notre unit�. Pour
autant que je m'en souvienne, je pense que c'est Lisica qui a sugg�r� le
nom de Mesa Selimovic, et que le g�n�ral Kelecevic a ensuite �t�
d'accord. Moi aussi, ce nom me plaisait, et je marquai �galement mon
accord. J'avais lu Mesa, en partie parce que ses oeuvres figuraient sur
la liste des lectures obligatoires de l'�cole, mais aussi parce que
j'aimais beaucoup ce qu'il �crivait. Et c'est ainsi que le nom est
rest�. En tant qu'unit�, nous n'avons commis aucun acte r�pr�hensible,
m�me si nos ennemis pr�tendent que c'est faux. Nous avons re�u la visite
de journalistes �trangers, et m�me la princesse Jelisaveta s'est rendue
au front pour nous rencontrer. Nous avons �galement re�u la visite de
parlementaires britanniques qui ont bu du caf� avec nous. Nous �tions
r�put�s pour notre cuisine. Comme la plupart des gens originaires des
rives de la Sava, nous pr�parions tr�s bien le poisson.
Des agresseurs de leur propre pays?
Ce que j'ai fait, ce que tous, parmi nous, nous avons fait, nous avons
choisi de le faire et n'en sommes nullement d�sol�s. Je sais que les
Serbes ont �t� trait�s d'agresseurs, mais nous ne l'avons pas accept�.
Nous faisions partie de l'arm�e de la r�publique serbe, nous �tions avec
nos voisins, et il n'y avait personne d'autre, ici. Il n'y avait
personne du Montenegro ou de la Serbie. S'ils �taient des agresseurs,
nous �tions nous aussi des agresseurs, dans ce cas, puisque nous �tions
avec eux. Et comment pourrais-je �tre l'agresseur de mon propre pays ?
C'est quelque chose que je ne puis comprendre. C'�tait la guerre, il y
avait ceux qui portaient les armes et qui n'�taient pas assez m�rs pour
le faire. Il se passait toutes sortes de choses et il fallait faire
attention � sa peau et rester dans son propre pays. Certains ne l'ont
pas support� et ils sont partis, mais d'autres ont pers�v�r� et sont
rest�s. Tous les villages musulmans sont rest�s. Prenez, par exemple,
Luzani et Omeragici, dans la municipalit� de Derventa, c'�taient des
villages essentiellement peupl�s de musulmans et tous ces gens sont
toujours l�, aujourd'hui.
Il y avait beaucoup de musulmans de Derventa, dans ma compagnie, mais
�galement dans le reste de la Brigade Derventa. Il est impossible de
juger cette affaire sur les apparences, sur tout ce que l'on a racont� �
propos de l'agression. Jusqu'en mai 1992, lorsque ces gosses, les
conscrits de 18 ans de l'APY, ont �t� tu�s � Kolibe, l'APY �tait une
force militaire l�gale, dans la r�gion. M�me � l'�poque, il �tait
impossible de parler d'agression.
Le mot a �t� utilis� pour faire pencher la communaut� internationale
vers l'un des camps du conflit. Tout le monde le souhaitait. Je connais
des cas o� les trois camps ont attaqu� leurs propres villages afin
d'accuser les autres camps et cela ne peut donc constituer un alibi pour
aucun des trois camps. C'est la stricte v�rit�. Tout cela a �t� organis�
de fa�on � semer le chaos et la confusion, puisque les gens, hormis les
extr�mistes, voulaient toujours rester dans leur propre pays et vivre
avec leurs voisins. Et, voyez, ils reviennent, aujourd'hui.
Il est vrai que l'on trouvait beaucoup plus de musulmans dans l'autre
camp. Mais ils ne l'avaient pas choisi d'eux-m�mes. Ils combattaient au
sein des HVO. Ils devaient ob�ir aux ordres. Chaque unit� musulmane des
HVO avait un �conseiller� croate, et nous savons tous ce que cela veut
dire. J'�tais compl�tement ind�pendant, et je jouissais de la pleine
confiance de mes sup�rieurs. Je n'avais pas de � conseillers �, dans ma
compagnie. La m�me chose est d'ailleurs vraie aussi pour mon successeur.
Le � crime � de Sijekovac
Le � crime � de Sijekovac a eu lieu le 26 mars 1992. A l'�poque, j'�tais
� Derventa, en compagnie de mon unit�, op�rationnelle au sein du QG de
la Brigade. J'ai �t� le premier, � Derventa, � recevoir des informations
sur ce qui s'est pass�. Je sais que l'�tat-major de crise de l'�poque, �
Sijekovac, avait d�cid� d'attaquer et de d�sarmer une partie du village.
Des documents �crits le confirment, d'ailleurs. L'ordre fut sign� par
Smajo Havic, � l'�poque pr�sident de l'�quipe de crise de Sijekovac. Peu
apr�s, il d�missionna, probablement apr�s avoir compris ce qu'il avait
fait. Les troupes des HOS d'Obradovic et le peloton d'intervention de
Nijaz Causevic Medo particip�rent � l'attaque. Les membres du peloton
d'intervention �taient des extr�mistes originaires de Sijekovac, des
musulmans et des Croates. Huit Serbes perdirent la vie dans l'attaque.
Tous �taient innocents, certains �taient m�me des attard�s mentaux.
J'appris la nouvelle du crime � Derventa, de la bouche de feu Miso
Bacic. J'esp�re qu'on le r�habilitera, puisque la fa�on dont on l'a tu�
est une insulte pour tous les gens d'ici.
Avant la guerre, les musulmans �taient les plus nombreux, dans la
population de Sijekovac. Puis, venaient les Serbes, puis les Croates.
S'il n 'y avait eu ces extr�mistes et ces criminels, Sijekovac aurait pu
garder le statut de village neutre, bien qu'� l'�poque il f�t
particuli�rement difficile de demeurer neutre.
On se servit de cet incident comme d'une excuse pour poursuivre la
guerre et, en fin de compte, il exer�a une grande influence sur
celle-ci. Ce fut l'un des �v�nements qui allait indiquer qu'il n'y
aurait plus de retour en arri�re. Sans ce crime, bien des personnes
n'auraient pu s'en sortir lorsque nous sommes arriv�s. Beaucoup ne
voulaient pas partir, mais elles craignaient les repr�sailles.
Piklovic tourne un film
Le HVO [Conseil croate de D�fense, la milice bosniaque � officielle �,
le HVO a absorb� les membres des HOS apr�s le meurtre non �lucid� de
leur dirigeant en Herz�govine] s'�tait vu confier cette r�gion. Par
exemple, la 102e Brigade de Bosanski Bord comptait un bataillon en
provenance de Sijekovac; Adnan Ramadanovic (tu� plus tard par ses
voisins) commandait le bataillon. Il fut le premier commandant de la
police militaire de Sijekovac, au d�but mars 1992. Tous les ordres
�manaient du HVO. Ivan Brzic �tait pr�sident de l'�tat-major de crise.
Armin Pohara �tait en quelque sorte son principal ex�cutant, mais tous
les ordres venaient de Slavonski Brod. Il existe un film, tourn� par les
gens du HVO, et qui montre comment les villages ont �t� br�l�s apr�s le
retrait des Serbes, � commencer par Lijesce, etc. Piklovic en personne
�tait mont� dans une voiture et avait observ� la destruction
syst�matique de ces villages par le feu; le film a �t� tourn� � partir
de sa voiture. A l'�poque, il �tait pr�sident du conseil
ex�cutif de la municipalit� de Slavonski Brod. Je pense que c'est
Tudjman en personne qui a donn� l'autorisation � Ante Prkacin d'agir �
sa guise en Posavina. Le HVO a d�truit par le feu tous les villages
serbes en direction de Doboj. On a probablement agi de la sorte pour
emp�cher les musulmans de Kotorsko et de Modrica d'emm�nager dans ces
villages serbes et de modifier ainsi la composition ethnique de la
population de la r�gion.
Il y a des documents, avec des noms, qui montrent que les membres du
bataillon dit de Sijekovac, qui comptait en ses rangs de tr�s nombreux
musulmans, ont �t� pay�s par la Croatie. Dans ce cas, qui �tait
l'agresseur? Plusieurs formations de l'arm�e croate ont combattu dans
cette r�gion. L'une d'entre elles �tait la 108e Brigade, la premi�re
brigade de l'arm�e croate qui, comme ils le pr�tendent, a lib�r� les
casernes de l'APY � Slavonski Brod. Elle a connu un cuisante revers �
Kostres et � Novo Selo, o� entre 60 et 70% de ses effectifs ont �t�
tu�s. J'ai fait main basse sur toutes ses archives. Le commandement de
la Brigade se tenait dans un restaurant pr�s d'Ukrina. Je me souviens
que le commandant se pr�nommait Martin, mais je ne me souviens plus de
son nom de famille. Je me rappelle aussi qu'il avait �t� officier de
r�serve dans une compagnie d'ing�nierie de l'APY de la Brigade de
Derventa.
Ils �taient venus ici en mission, depuis la Croatie. La Brigade de
Bjelovar et quelques autres brigades de l'arm�e croate se sont �galement
battues ici.
Lorsque nous avons lib�r� Brod et captur� plusieurs personnes, celles-ci
nous ont dit qu'elles avaient �t� embarqu�es en Posavina [r�gion
avoisinant la rivi�re Sava, en Bosnie du Nord] par tromperie. On leur
avait dit qu'elles allaient marcher sur Okucani et, ensuite, on les
avait emmen�es � Brod.
J'�tais de service aux casernes de Derventa lorsque le HVO a captur�
Fikret Abdic � Radic. J'ai d�croch� le t�l�phone et quelqu'un m'a dit :
�Vous pouvez avoir Abdic, refilez-nous simplement Vencelovka et Stanic.�
C'�taient deux Croates que nous avions captur�s, mais nous les avions
imm�diatement rel�ch�s. J'ai appel� le responsable de la d�fense des
casernes, le major Stajcic. Nous n'avions nullement l'intention de
n�gocier quelque �change que ce soit.
Ce que tout le monde sait
Une fosse commune de Serbes assassin�s par le HVO avant octobre 1992 a
�t� d�couverte � Brod, mais l'affaire n'a'pas �t� publi�e. Il existe des
documents sur les actions de Nijaz Causevic Medo, des t�moins ont fait
des d�clarations, il existe aussi des preuves film�es. Causevic a tourn�
un film de trois heures sur son unit�. Des hommes de son groupe ont
viol� une femme serbe originaire de Sijekovac, l'ont d�pec�e et ont
ensuite jet� ses restes en p�ture aux chiens. Il y a eu d'autres viols
et bien d'autres histoires encore. Un membre de l'unit� de Medo a tu� un
homme qui avait vendu un cheval, un Croate. Tous ces actes ont �t�
examin�s, tant par l'arm�e que par la police, et ont fait l'objet de
poursuites. Le 26 mars, les personnes suivantes �taient assassin�es �
Sijekovac : les trois Zecevic, Milan, Vaso et Petar (Milan �tait
chauffeur � la raffinerie), puis Luka Milosevic et ses
deux fils. Sreto Trivic, un grand ami � moi . Puis un homme plus �g�, un
retrait�, a �t� massacr� dans sa chaise roulante. Cela a �t� prouv�. Ils
sont venus chez lui et l'ont massacr�.
Mustafa Kovacevic, un ing�nieur �lectricien de la raffinerie, expert de
renomm�e mondiale, ainsi que sa femme Mirsada ont �t� tu�s pendant que
le HVO et Medo �taient au pouvoir. Leurs corps ont �t� incin�r�s, mais
nous avons d�couvert leurs restes et leur avons donn� une s�pulture. Mon
ami Mustafa Alic a �t� assassin� dans sa propre maison, mais on n'a
jamais retrouv� son corps, par contre. Quelques autres personnes,
surtout des Serbes et des musulmans, ont disparu sans laisser de traces.
La section croate de la direction extr�miste avait l'habitude de dire :
�D'abord, il faut se d�barrasser des communistes. Vous savez qui c'est,
voil� les listes ici. Et apr�s �a, on liquide les Serbes.�
C'est la v�rit�. Tout le monde le sait. Aujourd'hui, certains des
coupables circulent toujours librement dans les environs.
Medo � l'assembl�e
Cela s'est poursuivi jusqu'au 7 octobre 1992, lorsque nous sommes entr�s
� Brod. Je dis � nous � parce que j'�tais l'un des commandants qui ont
particip� � ce que nous appelons la lib�ration de Bosanski Brod. Quoi
qu'il en soit, nous avons mis un terme � nos op�rations dans la r�gion
de Sijekovac, et nous sommes rentr�s chez nous. Nous �tions press�s
parce que nous savions que l�, il y avait des gens honn�tes et braves et
que certains d'entre eux nous attendaient. Voil� comment les choses se
sont pass�es.
Malheureusement, certains sont rest�s et l'ont pay� de leur vie. C'est
ainsi que les choses se sont pass�es, voil� comment a �t� la guerre,
telle est notre infortune.
Je suis assez m�content de la fa�on dont on s'y est pris pour �lucider
les crimes. Nos autorit�s ont fait un certain travail, l'IPTF aussi.
Quelques-unes de ces personnes, dont Nijaz Causevic Medo, qui est en fin
de compte responsable de nombreux crimes qui se sont produits dans cette
r�gion, et sp�cialement � Sijekovac, n'ont jamais �t� inqui�t�es.
Obradovic a �t� tu�, il est parti, mais nombre de ses hommes qui ont
particip� � toutes ses op�rations sont toujours en libert� ici. Par
exemple, Zeljko Barisic, qui �tait ici � l'�poque en qualit� de g�n�ral
du HVO. Il existe un film montrant Barisic � la t�te de ce groupe et
l'emmenant se battre contre des francs-tireurs, � proximit� du bureau de
poste de Brod. Ce film a �t� truqu�. Blazen Kljajic est un autre type de
ce genre.
Progressivement, la vie reprend son cours normal, � Sijekovac. Environ
70% des Serbes sont revenus, il y a plusieurs r�fugi�s et, r�cemment,
une petite douzaine de musulmans ainsi qu'une famille croate sont
revenus. La plupart d'entre eux sont des gens �g�s. Les jeunes viennent
jeter un oeil, puis s'en vont. Mais m�me apr�s tout ce qui s'est pass�,
les gens veulent � nouveau vivre ensemble.
Traduit de l'anglais
par Jean-Marie FLEMAL
avec mes remerciements.
Roger ROMAIN <r.romain@...>
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1. NATO'S Peace in Macedonia: Kosovo Redux
by Jared Israel [29 August 2001]
2. NATO playing favourites in treatment of
indicted war criminal
Indicted war criminal Agim Ceku still collects a UN
paycheque. By S. Taylor on Target. Monday,
September 10, 2001
3. "What do we have to fear if they stop
us? Three days in Camp Bondsteel, then freedom"
AFP, Tuesday September 4, 10:15 PM
4. T�moignage sur les livraisons d'armes clandestines
Un article de Scott Taylor - Tetovo, 20/8/01
5. Canadian Officer Confirms NATO Backing
Albanian Rebels in Macedonia
Truth in Media's GLOBAL WATCH Bulletin 2001/8-3
http://www.truthinmedia.org/Bulletins2001/
tim2001-8-3.html
====================================================
URL for this article:
http://emperors-clothes.com/mac/terror.htm
www.tenc.net * [Emperor's Clothes]
======================================NATO'S Peace in Macedonia: Kosovo Redux
by Jared Israel [29 August 2001]
======================================
The people who bombed Yugoslavia and decimated
Kosovo by installing the Kosovo Liberation Army
in power are trying to bring Peace to Macedonia.
What that peace would mean if fully realized (and
hopefully the Macedonian people will prevent
this) is described in an astonishingly honest
article in the London Telegraph. The article
describes how the so-called NLA rebels target
Macedonian civilians, killing them and driving
them from their homes.
The pattern is eerily familiar.
In Macedonia, as in Kosovo, NATO stonewalls
reality, claiming it only wants to halt abuses
and bring ethnic peace.
At first these propaganda/promises fooled most of
the Serbian residents of the Kosovo town of
Orahovac. Initially they fooled Chedomir
Pralinchevich, the Jewish leader who was driven
from Kosovo by the KLA with NATO's consent.
Soon the horrific truth became clear: while NATO
broadcasted soothing platitudes, its proxy force,
the Kosovo Liberation Army marched in through the
open border with Albania, slaughtering farmers,
terrorizing people simply for being Serbs,
killing residents for their apartments,
instituting a reign of terror that combined
Nazi-like ethnic terror with gangsterism, so that
no one, not even ethnic Albanians, was safe
All this was neatly packaged for politically
correct western consumption. The province filled
with Western NGOs who spoke of conflict
resolution and healing and building democratic
institutions even as the KLA bumped off its
opponents and drove out the same people Hitler
had targeted during World War II.
The KLA was then recycled as a UN outfit called
the Kosovo Protection Corps, or KPC. The NATO/UN
occupiers even hired the KLA terrorists (now KPC)
a liberal Swedish outfit to hold consciousness
raising sessions and put out public statements
describing how the KPC death squad folks were
getting in touch with their feminine side:
"In the first part of my lecture, I think, I
succeeded in getting the participants to actively
take part and reflect. In the second part about
reconciliation I could feel and see the deep
affection in the eyes of the participants,
although it was such a large group. They were
very active in the first part of the lecture,
giving comments and asking questions. In the
second part I could experience a silent, very
active listening.
"A rose - and other reactions
"After the lecture I got several positive
responses from the audience; as well as from the
interpreters. Some of them told me that they had
really learned something, something new. They not
only applauded, I also received a red rose from
the participants. We were all very touched of the
situation." (From "Training the Kosovo
Protection Corps in Kosovo. A Report," by Kerstin
Schultz of Jan Oberg's Transnational Foundation
for Peace and Future Research, at
www.transnational.org/forum/meet/2000/
KerstinKPCrep.html
Fortunately, most Macedonians know that NATO and
its NGO groupies are the enemy. So perhaps NATO
will not succeed in recreating Kosovo so easily.
In which case, the NLA (NATO's name for their pet
terrorists when they operate in Macedonia) may
not get their training and maybe, just maybe, the
world will get a little consciousness-raising.
Which it sorely needs.
-- Jared Israel
Further Reading:
1) The 'Telegraph' article, documenting
terrorist ethnic violence can be read at
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/
news//2001/08/28/wmac228.xml
2) For articles documenting NATO's
responsibility for anti-Macedonian terror,
see http://emperors-clothes.com/mac/list-m.htm
3) On NATO's terror in the Kosovo town of
Orahovac, see "The Women of Orahovac Answer the
Colonel" at
http://emperors-clothes.com/interviews/trouw.htm
4) A Jewish leader tells how he, other Jews and
indeed all Yugoslav loyalists were driven from
Pristina, capital of Kosovo, while NATO looked on at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/interviews/ceda.htm
5) On how NATO's policy of opening the border
between Kosovo and Albania led to slaughter, see
"Gracko survivors blame NATO" at
http://emperors-clothes.com/misc/grack.htm
6) On how those running Kosovo have mixed business
and race hate, see "Death of a Yugoslav," at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/news/letter.htm
7) More on the mix of gangsterism and
fascism: "Concentration camps in Kosovo:
The KLA Archipelago" at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/reporter.htm
8) The UN is fully aware that its Kosovo
Protection Corps is the Kosovo Liberation Army
death squad recycled. See "How will you plead at
your trial, Mr. Annan?" at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/howwill.htm
9) Being a Serb in Kosovo has become a fatal
condition. See "I cannot give it a name but it
seems like hell" at
http://emperors-clothes.com/misc/name.htm
10) On the heroic resistance of the Macedonian
people, please see "People of Tetovo Refuse to be
Left on the Mercy of the Terrorists" at
http://www.realitymacedonia.org.mk/news/s_mia14.html
***
To join Emperor's Clothes email list, go to:
http://emperors-clothes.com/feedback.htm
===================================================
Subject: NATO Playing Favourites In Treatment Of
Indicted War Criminal
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 23:07:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rick Rozoff
http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2001/09/10/
f121.raw.html
Monday, September 10, 2001
The Halifax Herald Limited
NATO playing favourites in treatment of indicted war
criminal
Indicted war criminal Agim Ceku still collects a UN
paycheque.
By Scott Taylor ON TARGET
WITH SOME 200 troops now on the ground in Macedonia,
as part of NATO's latest intervention force, it's
about time somebody started seriously questioning
Canada's long-range Balkan policy.
Throughout the decade of bloody civil wars in the 90s,
which accompanied the disintegration of Yugoslavia,
Canadian soldiers have been on continuous deployment
to the region. Originally serving as UN peacekeepers
(who evolved into NATO peacemakers by the time of the
Kosovo crisis), Canada's military had become a
belligerent in this complex conflict. Despite our oft
changing role, one constant that has remained is the
reality experienced by our frontline soldiers, which
is rarely reflected by the Western (read: U.S. State
Department inspired) media portrayals of the ongoing
Yugoslavian tragedy.
The most vivid examples of this dichotomy became
evident during the 1999, 78-day NATO air campaign
against Yugoslavia. As cockney spokesman Jamie Shea
took to the airwaves to demonize the Serbian people
and justify NATO's attacks, respected veteran officers
such as General Lewis Mackenzie and Colonel Don Ethell
spoke out to publicly denounce Canada's participation
in the bombing. Having witnessed first-hand the
multi-factional hatred which pervades the Balkan
theatre, Canadian soldiers are unwilling to assign
blame and/or take sides in this brutal civil war.
However, driven by U.S. interests and fuelled by a
jingoistic media corps, NATO leaders have not been so
hesitant to play favourites.
This current crisis in Macedonia originated last March
with Albanian guerrillas attacking from inside
NATO-occupied Kosovo. The guns carried by the
Albanians were the same weapons that NATO was to have
removed from the Kososvo Liberation Army (known as the
UCK) back in 1999. However, over the past two years
with a powerful 40,000 strong occupation force, NATO
has been unwilling and/or unable to strip these
Albanian (UCK) guerrillas of their arsenal. Only now
that a wave of terror has been successfully exported
into heretofore peaceful Macedonia, and the UCK have
seized control of some 30 per cent of Macedonia
territory, has NATO decided to intervene.
The Canadian Combat Group which has been hastily
dispatched from service in Bosnia to participate in
the Macedonia mission is equipped with new Coyote
reconnaissance vehicles. These state of the art
armoured personnel carriers have been roundly praised
by NATO spokesmen for "providing a vital asset in
monitoring the flow of illegal arms across
Macedonian/Kosovo border."
Disgruntled Macedonian citizens are correct in asking
"if such a surveillance capability existed within
NATO's arsenal-why wasn't it employed to prevent
Albanians from entering Macedonia in the first place?"
A similar stumper could be posed to NATO spokesmen
regarding their reluctance to arrest the UCK's
military figurehead General Agim Ceku, an indicted war
criminal. Many of our peacekeepers witnessed the
barbarism committed by Ceku's troops in Croatia in
1993 and 1995 and it is largely on the strength of
Canadian soldiers testimony that The Hague War Crimes
Tribunal has been forced to issue this rogue commander
a sealed indictment.
Agim Ceku, an Albanian Kosovar by birth, began his
military career as an officer in the former federal
Yugoslavian Army (JNA). When the initial Yugoslav
break-up occurred in 1991, Ceku was quick to switch
his loyalty to the Croatian cause of independence. As
a colonel in the Croatian army, Ceku commanded the
notorious 1993 operation now known as the Medak
Pocket.
It was here that the men of the Second Battalion
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry came face
to face with the vulgar savagery of which Ceku was
capable. Over 200 Serbian inhabitants of the Medak
Pocket were slaughtered in a grotesque manner (female
rape victims were found after being burned alive). Our
traumatized troops that buried the grisly remains were
encouraged to collect evidence.
Nevertheless in 1995, Ceku, by then a general of
artillery, was still at large. In fact, he was the
officer responsible for shelling the Serbian refugee
columns and for targeting the UN "safe" city of Knin
during the Croatian offensive known as Operation
Storm.
Just a few months after the Storm atrocities, Canada's
own Louise Arbour began making a name for herself as
the chief prosecutor for The Hague tribunal. Despite
the Canadian connection to these alleged crimes,
Arbour and her lawyers chose instead to pursue more
"politically prominent" individuals and seemingly
little was done to bring Ceku to justice.
Fast forward to January 1999 and the world's attention
begins to focus on a war ravaged Kosovo. With the
blessing of the U.S. State Department, Agim Ceku took
his retirement (at age 37) from the Croatian army and
was pronounced Supreme Commander of the Kosovo
Liberation Army (UCK).
Throughout the air campaign against Yugoslavia, Ceku
was portrayed as a loyal ally and he was frequently
present at the NATO briefings with top generals such
as Wesley Clark and Michael Jackson.
Under terms of the Kosovo peace deal, Ceku's Albanian
guerrillas were to be disarmed and re-constituted into
a UN sponsored, (non-military) disaster relief
organization known as the Kosovo Protection Corps
(KPC). ButCeku's UCK never gave up their guns - nor
their quest for a Greater Albania.
Although he is nominally maintaining an 'arms-length'
posture towards his former comrades, Agim Ceku is
still worshipped as a saviour by both the UCK troops
and Albanian-minority in Macedonia.
As this indicted war criminal continues to enjoy his
freedom, bask in public attention, and collect a UN
paycheque, our Canadian soldiers are risking their
lives to disarm his UCK in Macedonia.
All in the name of peace and justice.
E-mail: espritdecorp@...
===================================================
Subject: NATO Provides KLA R&R
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 07:58:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rick Rozoff
"What do we have to fear if they stop us? Three days
in Camp Bondsteel, then freedom?"
Tuesday September 4, 10:15 PM
Rebel Albanians from Macedonia lay low in Kosovo
UROSEVAC, Yugoslavia, Sept 4 (AFP) -
Hundreds of ethnic Albanian guerrillas have crossed
over from Macedonia to the Serbian province of Kosovo
since demobilising under an August peace deal aimed at
ending a seven-month insurgency.
For members of the National Liberation Army who come
from Kosovo itself, it is a return home, but for those
coming from Macedonia it is a question of lying low
for a few months before returning home when conditions
are safer.
Most of those who have chosen to go to Kosovo do so by
crossing the mountains which separate the mainly
ethnic-Albanian province of Serbia from Macedonia,
with little heed for NATO-led (KFOR) peacekeepers in
the UN-administered province.
"What do we have to fear if they stop us? Three days
in Camp Bondsteel, then freedom?" said commander Ali
Daja, a former official of rebe brigade 113 in the
northern region of Kumanovo, refering to KFOR's
detention centre.
Many witnesses said that commanders and other fighters
stroll the streets of the Kosovo towns of Urosevac,
Prizren and Gnjilane having crossed either legally or
illegally into Kosovo territory.
Since the peace accord struck in the southwestern
Macedonian town of Ohrid on August 13 aimed at ending
the rebellion over minority rights, several hundreds
of fighters have been stopped by KFOR entering Kosovo
illegally, but most were released shortly afterwards.
According to Captain Daniel Byer, spokesman for the
KFOR brigade, only around 100 fighters are still in
detention in Camp Bondsteel. Over a thousand have been
arrested since the beginning of the conflict in
February.
A 21-year-old man, nicknamed Barut, says that he was
detained for three days by KFOR after being
demobilised by the rebels' 113 brigade. Then he was
taken by KFOR soldiers to the bus station several
kilometres (miles) away.
"Last week between 10 and 50 former combatants were
released each day," a witness at the bus station cafe
said.
A welcome committee has been set up by the rebels in
Kosovo to help those coming from Macedonia who have
nowhere to go.
On Friday 140 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo who claimed
they were former rebel soldiers came to Kosovo legally
right under the noses of KFOR troops and the United
Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
They went first to Albania, then they presented
themselves as unarmed civilians at a border post at
Verbnica, 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Prizren.
Embarrassed UNMIK officials finally allowed their
entry. "Not one of them was stopped because they had
regulation Macedonian passports," said an UNMIK
spokesman.
A number of KLA guerrillas injured in the war have
also found refuge in hospitals in Kosovo where they
are treated just like other patients. Doctors and
nurses know where their injuries came from, but they
maintain a code of silence.
According to witnesses, one rebel shot in the leg at
Slupcane in northern Macedonia has already spent two
months in hospital in Kosovo without receiving a
single visit from the police or KFOR forces.
====================================================
----- Original Message -----
From: Roger ROMAIN
To: r.romain@...
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 8:00 PM
Subject: MACEDOINE : oui, la "moisson
indispensable" en Mac�doine est bien une
nouvelle fumisterie am�ricano-otano-europ�enne
occidentale !
MAC�DOINE : oui, la "moisson indispensable" en
Mac�doine est bien une nouvelle fumisterie
am�ricano-otano-europ�enne occidentale !
Mac�doine : une guerre Made in USA !
T�moignage sur les livraisons d'armes clandestines
Ancien soldat canadien, devenu journaliste
sp�cialiste des questions militaires, le Canadien
Scott Taylor le confirme sur le terrain :
Washington, avide de dominer militairement les
Balkans, joue double jeu en armant l'UCK
albanaise.
Un article de Scott Taylor - Tetovo
Tetovo - 20 ao�t. Lundi, un accord de paix a �t�
sign�. Mais cette tentative de la onzi�me heure
d'�viter une autre guerre civile balkanique
risque bien de rester vaine.
Les 3.000 hommes de l'Otan auront pour t�che de
d�sarmer la gu�rilla albanaise, ma�tresse de 30%
du territoire. Mais leur arriv�e sera une pilule
am�re pour les forces de s�curit� mac�doniennes
combattant l'UCK depuis six mois : �Si l'Otan
n'avait pas arm� et �quip� l'UCK au Kosovo, il ne
serait pas n�cessaire de la d�sarmer � pr�sent en
Mac�doine�, explique le sergent Goran Stevanovic.
"God bless America !"
Les diplomates d�noncent vivement l'aide
militaire apport�e � l'UCK, mais sur le terrain,
personne ne conteste l'aide massive (mat�riel et
experts) que leur apporte l'Otan. D'ailleurs, les
commandants UCK m'accueillent par un �Dieu
b�nisse l'Am�rique, et le Canada, pour tout ce
qu'ils nous ont fournis!�
Dans leurs bunkers bien construits, tout - des
armes de poing aux fusils de snipers - porte le
Made in USA. Un abondant stock de lunettes de
vision nocturne, tr�s sophistiqu�es, leur fournit
un �norme avantage sur les forces de s�curit�
mac�doniennes, oblig�es de rester terr�es dans
leurs bunkers pendant que l'UCK d�ambule � son
aise dans les rues de Tetovo. "Serpent" Arifaj
(22 ans), fier commandant d'un peloton UCK, se
f�licite : �Gr�ce � l'Oncle Sam, les Mac�doniens
ne nous posent pas de probl�mes.�
Il y a deux mois, les protestations diplomatiques
ont afflu� lorsqu'on a vu des h�licopt�res US
effectuer des livraisons � un village albanais
surplombant Tetovo. Version officielle : �aide
humanitaire�. Mais le commandant UCK "Mouse" a
confirm� qu'il s'agissait de canons lourds et
munitions. La preuve : le 16, l'UCK a bombard�
Tetovo avec des canons de 120 mm et 82 mm. Et vu
la dur�e et l'intensit� des tirs, les munitions
ne sont pas un probl�me pour eux.
Fr�quemment aussi, les Etats-Unis envoient leurs
h�licopt�res tactiques d'espionnage, sans
autorisation du gouvernement mac�donien. Et les
villageois albanais l�vent les bras pour saluer
�leur force a�rienne�. Enfin, au Q - G de l'UCK,
� la sortie de Tetovo, les gardiens portent des
T-shirts au logo Nike: "NATO Air : Just do it!"
Untertitre
De l'autre c�t�, la Mac�doine - Tr�sor en
faillite et �conomie en d�gringolade - n'avait
pas donn� la priorit� � �quiper son arm�e. Apr�s
le d�but de l'insurrection, en mars, elle a
import� en masse du mat�riel et des conseillers
mercenaires, principalement d'Ukraine.
Mais, la semaine pass�e, George Robertson et
Javier Solana, secr�taires-g�n�raux
respeectivement de l'Otan et de l'Union
Europ�enne, se sont entretenus avec les
Ukrainiens pour arr�ter cet approvisionnement.
Cette ing�rence explique que la majorit� des
Mac�doniens se soit engag�e dans de violentes
�meutes anti-Otan, attaquant r�cemment les
ambassades et les restos McDonald's.
Roger ROMAIN
a/conseiller communal PCB
B6180 COURCELLES
sites :
http://homeusers.brutele.be/r.romain/Sommario.html
==================================================
---------------------------------------------------
Truth in Media's GLOBAL WATCH Bulletin 2001/8-3
26-Aug-2001
---------------------------------------------------
Topic: BALKAN AFFAIRS
-----------------------------------
HEADLINES
Ottawa 1. Canadian Officer Confirms NATO Backing
Albanian Rebels in Macedonia
Skopje 2. Ukraine, Russia Continue to Arm
Macedonia?
Kiev 3. Macedonian President Gets Putin's,
Kuchma's "Support"
Skopje 4. NATO "Peace Farce" Unfolding
Skopje 5. Angry Macedonians Block NATO
Supply Route
http://www.truthinmedia.org/Bulletins2001/
tim2001-8-3.html
-------------
NOTE: To cancel the e-mail editions of our
reports, just reply REMOVE or
UNSUBSCRIBE, followed by your e-mail address.
-------------
Canadian Officer Confirms NATO's Backing of
Albanian Rebels in Macedonia
OTTAWA, Aug. 26 - Once again, we have to turn to
Canada to find out what's really going on in
Washington or Brussels, not to mention Skopje or
Pristina. This time, it was an Ottawa-based
journalist that quoted a former Canadian officer,
now also turned journalist and author, as saying
that the Canadian had seen evidence during of
NATO's backing (and arming!) the Albanian rebels
his recent trip to Macedonia.
Of course, this is nothing new to TiM readers.
But while we arrived at the same conclusion via a
geopolitical analysis (see Macedonia: Another
Farcical American Oil War, Aug. 10), this
Canadian officer did it the old-fashioned way -
he saw it with his own eyes.
"A Canadian journalist has evidence that NATO is
arming and equipping the ethnic Albanian
guerillas who have waged a five-month long
insurgency against the Macedonian government in
Skopje" wrote Stephen Gowans in an Aug. 23
special report published first at the Media
Monitors web site. "Scott Taylor, editor of
Espirit de Corps magazine, says that on a visit
to guerilla bunkers overlooking the besieged
Macedonian city of Tetovo he was welcomed with
shouts of, "God bless America and Canada too for
all they have provided to us." Canada is a member
of the US-led NATO coalition."
Taylor should be no stranger to longtime TiM
readers, either. Just like the TiM editor, he
was in Belgrade in the spring of 1999, while the
NATO bombs were raining down on the Yugoslav
capital and on much of the country (see his
moving account of a funeral he attended in June
1999, published contemporaneously in the NATO War
section of the TiM web site -
http://www.truthinmedia.org/Kosovo/War/day78.html
).
The two of us met for the first time in Toronto,
in December 1999, following the TiM editor's
lecture on NATO's war on Serbia (see New World
Order Pits Canadians vs. Serbs, Dec. 1999 -
http://www.truthinmedia.org/Tour-de-Canada/tor-12-99.html).
That's when we learned that Taylor had also
served as a Canadian officer within the UN
peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Krajina. In
other words, he knows of what he speaks - inside
out.
And now, with this as a brief preamble, here's
the rest of Steve Gowans article, republished
here by TiM with permission of the Media
Monitors' publisher:
More signs NATO is behind ethnic Albanian attacks
on Macedonia by Stephen Gowans
Taylor says guerrilla commanders showed off their
arsenal, which included side arms, sniper rifles
and grenade launchers, all marked "Made in the
USA."
Says Taylor, one commander remarked that, "thanks
to Uncle Sam, the Macedonians are no match for
us." Taylor isn't the first to charge that
Washington is aiding the guerillas. The
Macedonian government alleged that US helicopters
were delivering supplies to guerillas in the
mountains above Tetovo. US officials don't deny
that airdrops were made, but say helicopters were
transporting vital humanitarian aid. But Taylor
says the local guerilla commander told him that
the helicopters were delivering heavy mortars and
ammunition. The guerillas have bombarded Tetovo
with artillery.
Taylor says ethnic Albanian villagers cheer at
the sight of US helicopters, while guerillas at
brigade headquarters wear Nike-style T-shirts
bearing the phrase, "NATO Air - Just do it!"
Meanwhile, one Macedonian police officer lamented
to Taylor that "if NATO hadn't been arming and
equipping the (KLA) in Kosovo there would be no
need for them to disarm these guerillas now."
This isn't the first time complaints about the US
and NATO arming ethnic Albanian guerillas have
been made. In March, a European K-For battalion
commander told the London Observer that, "the CIA
has been allowed to run riot in Kosovo with a
private army designed to overthrow Slobodan
Milosevic...Most of last year, there was a
growing frustration with US support for the
radical Albanians." And in January the BBC
reported that Western forces were training
guerillas, then opening a new front in southern
Serbia and Macedonia.
In June, when Macedonian forces were closing in
on guerillas in the town of Aracinovo, NATO
intervened, transporting ethnic Albanian rebels
out of the besieged town in air-conditioned
busses. According to the German newspaper
Hamburger Abendblatt, 17 US advisors, belonging
to an American mercenary firm involved in other
Balkan conflicts, were among the guerillas. And
the newspaper pointed out that 70 percent of the
equipment carried away by the guerillas was US
made.
Days earlier, a American diplomat was slightly
wounded by Macedonian gunfire as he emerged from
the woods (around Aracinovo) with two other
Americans," according to the International Herald
Tribune. The diplomats were emerging from
rebel-held territory. Two months ago, the London
Sunday Times reported that at least 800 ethnic
Albanian guerillas fighting in Macedonia are
members of the Kosovo Protection Corps, a
paramilitary police unit created by the UN from
the KLA. The Times says, "Hundreds of KPC
reservists were called up by their Albanian
commander Agim Ceku, in March. They subsequently
disappeared to former KLA training camps in
Albania and are now re-emerging in Macedonia."
Ceku, one of the top leaders of the KLA, along
with Hacim Thaci, was artillery chief of the
Croatian army when it launched a war in the
Krajina region of Croatia, which led to 250,000
Serbs being driven from their homes. Under the
KPC, 250,000 Serbs, and another 100,000 Roma,
Gorani, Turks and Jews have been driven from
Kosovo. Now, the KLA offshoot in Macedonia, the
NLA, seems intent on ethnically cleansing the
largely Albanian Tetovo region. Over 120,000
Macedonians have fled or have been driven from
their Tetovo area homes by guerillas. Ilir Hoxha,
a 25-year old ethnic Albanian said, "Let them
leave. They should never return. Tetovo is
Albanian and it will remain Albanian."
For years, many Albanians have dreamed of
resurrecting the greater Albania established
under the Italian fascists, and then under the
Nazis. It incorporated parts of Macedonia and
Greece, southern Serbia, and Kosovo into Albania
proper. Some reports say an ethnic Albanian
Liberation Army of Chameria will open a new front
in Greece soon.
Skopje has been hampered in its response to the
guerillas. NATO and the EU have warned Macedonia
not to crack down on the guerillas, and Ukraine,
which was providing equipment to the
under-equipped Macedonian army, was warned to
stop shipments of materiel. Meanwhile, press
reports in the West describe NATO and EU
diplomatic efforts as aimed at preventing a civil
war, though the intention appears to be to
prevent a strong Macedonian response.
The guerillas say they're fighting to win
language rights, but critics point out that an
armed attack is highly disproportional to the
NLA's stated aims. Moreover, the fact that the
guerillas have been recruited from Kosovo, pass
freely over a Kosovo-Macedonia border presumably
patrolled by NATO K-For forces, and have driven
non-Albanians from their homes in an apparent
effort to ethnically cleanse the Tetovo region,
points to the pursuit of other goals, fully
backed by NATO.
Taylor, who served in the Canadian Armed Forces,
says NATO's support of the guerillas is so
blatant "it is little wonder that the Macedonian
majority have staged violent anti-NATO riots."
Mr. Steve Gowans is a writer and political
activist who lives in Ottawa, Canada.
---
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IL FONDO PER LA TERRA HA SUONATO LA CARICA DEI 100.000!
Entra a far parte della comunita' online del Fondo per la Terra
e insieme potremo creare la piu' grande comunita' online italiana
per la tutela dell'ambiente e raccogliere, senza interventi economici
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by Jared Israel [29 August 2001]
2. NATO playing favourites in treatment of
indicted war criminal
Indicted war criminal Agim Ceku still collects a UN
paycheque. By S. Taylor on Target. Monday,
September 10, 2001
3. "What do we have to fear if they stop
us? Three days in Camp Bondsteel, then freedom"
AFP, Tuesday September 4, 10:15 PM
4. T�moignage sur les livraisons d'armes clandestines
Un article de Scott Taylor - Tetovo, 20/8/01
5. Canadian Officer Confirms NATO Backing
Albanian Rebels in Macedonia
Truth in Media's GLOBAL WATCH Bulletin 2001/8-3
http://www.truthinmedia.org/Bulletins2001/
tim2001-8-3.html
====================================================
URL for this article:
http://emperors-clothes.com/mac/terror.htm
www.tenc.net * [Emperor's Clothes]
======================================NATO'S Peace in Macedonia: Kosovo Redux
by Jared Israel [29 August 2001]
======================================
The people who bombed Yugoslavia and decimated
Kosovo by installing the Kosovo Liberation Army
in power are trying to bring Peace to Macedonia.
What that peace would mean if fully realized (and
hopefully the Macedonian people will prevent
this) is described in an astonishingly honest
article in the London Telegraph. The article
describes how the so-called NLA rebels target
Macedonian civilians, killing them and driving
them from their homes.
The pattern is eerily familiar.
In Macedonia, as in Kosovo, NATO stonewalls
reality, claiming it only wants to halt abuses
and bring ethnic peace.
At first these propaganda/promises fooled most of
the Serbian residents of the Kosovo town of
Orahovac. Initially they fooled Chedomir
Pralinchevich, the Jewish leader who was driven
from Kosovo by the KLA with NATO's consent.
Soon the horrific truth became clear: while NATO
broadcasted soothing platitudes, its proxy force,
the Kosovo Liberation Army marched in through the
open border with Albania, slaughtering farmers,
terrorizing people simply for being Serbs,
killing residents for their apartments,
instituting a reign of terror that combined
Nazi-like ethnic terror with gangsterism, so that
no one, not even ethnic Albanians, was safe
All this was neatly packaged for politically
correct western consumption. The province filled
with Western NGOs who spoke of conflict
resolution and healing and building democratic
institutions even as the KLA bumped off its
opponents and drove out the same people Hitler
had targeted during World War II.
The KLA was then recycled as a UN outfit called
the Kosovo Protection Corps, or KPC. The NATO/UN
occupiers even hired the KLA terrorists (now KPC)
a liberal Swedish outfit to hold consciousness
raising sessions and put out public statements
describing how the KPC death squad folks were
getting in touch with their feminine side:
"In the first part of my lecture, I think, I
succeeded in getting the participants to actively
take part and reflect. In the second part about
reconciliation I could feel and see the deep
affection in the eyes of the participants,
although it was such a large group. They were
very active in the first part of the lecture,
giving comments and asking questions. In the
second part I could experience a silent, very
active listening.
"A rose - and other reactions
"After the lecture I got several positive
responses from the audience; as well as from the
interpreters. Some of them told me that they had
really learned something, something new. They not
only applauded, I also received a red rose from
the participants. We were all very touched of the
situation." (From "Training the Kosovo
Protection Corps in Kosovo. A Report," by Kerstin
Schultz of Jan Oberg's Transnational Foundation
for Peace and Future Research, at
www.transnational.org/forum/meet/2000/
KerstinKPCrep.html
Fortunately, most Macedonians know that NATO and
its NGO groupies are the enemy. So perhaps NATO
will not succeed in recreating Kosovo so easily.
In which case, the NLA (NATO's name for their pet
terrorists when they operate in Macedonia) may
not get their training and maybe, just maybe, the
world will get a little consciousness-raising.
Which it sorely needs.
-- Jared Israel
Further Reading:
1) The 'Telegraph' article, documenting
terrorist ethnic violence can be read at
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/
news//2001/08/28/wmac228.xml
2) For articles documenting NATO's
responsibility for anti-Macedonian terror,
see http://emperors-clothes.com/mac/list-m.htm
3) On NATO's terror in the Kosovo town of
Orahovac, see "The Women of Orahovac Answer the
Colonel" at
http://emperors-clothes.com/interviews/trouw.htm
4) A Jewish leader tells how he, other Jews and
indeed all Yugoslav loyalists were driven from
Pristina, capital of Kosovo, while NATO looked on at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/interviews/ceda.htm
5) On how NATO's policy of opening the border
between Kosovo and Albania led to slaughter, see
"Gracko survivors blame NATO" at
http://emperors-clothes.com/misc/grack.htm
6) On how those running Kosovo have mixed business
and race hate, see "Death of a Yugoslav," at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/news/letter.htm
7) More on the mix of gangsterism and
fascism: "Concentration camps in Kosovo:
The KLA Archipelago" at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/reporter.htm
8) The UN is fully aware that its Kosovo
Protection Corps is the Kosovo Liberation Army
death squad recycled. See "How will you plead at
your trial, Mr. Annan?" at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/howwill.htm
9) Being a Serb in Kosovo has become a fatal
condition. See "I cannot give it a name but it
seems like hell" at
http://emperors-clothes.com/misc/name.htm
10) On the heroic resistance of the Macedonian
people, please see "People of Tetovo Refuse to be
Left on the Mercy of the Terrorists" at
http://www.realitymacedonia.org.mk/news/s_mia14.html
***
To join Emperor's Clothes email list, go to:
http://emperors-clothes.com/feedback.htm
===================================================
Subject: NATO Playing Favourites In Treatment Of
Indicted War Criminal
Date: Mon, 10 Sep 2001 23:07:51 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rick Rozoff
http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2001/09/10/
f121.raw.html
Monday, September 10, 2001
The Halifax Herald Limited
NATO playing favourites in treatment of indicted war
criminal
Indicted war criminal Agim Ceku still collects a UN
paycheque.
By Scott Taylor ON TARGET
WITH SOME 200 troops now on the ground in Macedonia,
as part of NATO's latest intervention force, it's
about time somebody started seriously questioning
Canada's long-range Balkan policy.
Throughout the decade of bloody civil wars in the 90s,
which accompanied the disintegration of Yugoslavia,
Canadian soldiers have been on continuous deployment
to the region. Originally serving as UN peacekeepers
(who evolved into NATO peacemakers by the time of the
Kosovo crisis), Canada's military had become a
belligerent in this complex conflict. Despite our oft
changing role, one constant that has remained is the
reality experienced by our frontline soldiers, which
is rarely reflected by the Western (read: U.S. State
Department inspired) media portrayals of the ongoing
Yugoslavian tragedy.
The most vivid examples of this dichotomy became
evident during the 1999, 78-day NATO air campaign
against Yugoslavia. As cockney spokesman Jamie Shea
took to the airwaves to demonize the Serbian people
and justify NATO's attacks, respected veteran officers
such as General Lewis Mackenzie and Colonel Don Ethell
spoke out to publicly denounce Canada's participation
in the bombing. Having witnessed first-hand the
multi-factional hatred which pervades the Balkan
theatre, Canadian soldiers are unwilling to assign
blame and/or take sides in this brutal civil war.
However, driven by U.S. interests and fuelled by a
jingoistic media corps, NATO leaders have not been so
hesitant to play favourites.
This current crisis in Macedonia originated last March
with Albanian guerrillas attacking from inside
NATO-occupied Kosovo. The guns carried by the
Albanians were the same weapons that NATO was to have
removed from the Kososvo Liberation Army (known as the
UCK) back in 1999. However, over the past two years
with a powerful 40,000 strong occupation force, NATO
has been unwilling and/or unable to strip these
Albanian (UCK) guerrillas of their arsenal. Only now
that a wave of terror has been successfully exported
into heretofore peaceful Macedonia, and the UCK have
seized control of some 30 per cent of Macedonia
territory, has NATO decided to intervene.
The Canadian Combat Group which has been hastily
dispatched from service in Bosnia to participate in
the Macedonia mission is equipped with new Coyote
reconnaissance vehicles. These state of the art
armoured personnel carriers have been roundly praised
by NATO spokesmen for "providing a vital asset in
monitoring the flow of illegal arms across
Macedonian/Kosovo border."
Disgruntled Macedonian citizens are correct in asking
"if such a surveillance capability existed within
NATO's arsenal-why wasn't it employed to prevent
Albanians from entering Macedonia in the first place?"
A similar stumper could be posed to NATO spokesmen
regarding their reluctance to arrest the UCK's
military figurehead General Agim Ceku, an indicted war
criminal. Many of our peacekeepers witnessed the
barbarism committed by Ceku's troops in Croatia in
1993 and 1995 and it is largely on the strength of
Canadian soldiers testimony that The Hague War Crimes
Tribunal has been forced to issue this rogue commander
a sealed indictment.
Agim Ceku, an Albanian Kosovar by birth, began his
military career as an officer in the former federal
Yugoslavian Army (JNA). When the initial Yugoslav
break-up occurred in 1991, Ceku was quick to switch
his loyalty to the Croatian cause of independence. As
a colonel in the Croatian army, Ceku commanded the
notorious 1993 operation now known as the Medak
Pocket.
It was here that the men of the Second Battalion
Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry came face
to face with the vulgar savagery of which Ceku was
capable. Over 200 Serbian inhabitants of the Medak
Pocket were slaughtered in a grotesque manner (female
rape victims were found after being burned alive). Our
traumatized troops that buried the grisly remains were
encouraged to collect evidence.
Nevertheless in 1995, Ceku, by then a general of
artillery, was still at large. In fact, he was the
officer responsible for shelling the Serbian refugee
columns and for targeting the UN "safe" city of Knin
during the Croatian offensive known as Operation
Storm.
Just a few months after the Storm atrocities, Canada's
own Louise Arbour began making a name for herself as
the chief prosecutor for The Hague tribunal. Despite
the Canadian connection to these alleged crimes,
Arbour and her lawyers chose instead to pursue more
"politically prominent" individuals and seemingly
little was done to bring Ceku to justice.
Fast forward to January 1999 and the world's attention
begins to focus on a war ravaged Kosovo. With the
blessing of the U.S. State Department, Agim Ceku took
his retirement (at age 37) from the Croatian army and
was pronounced Supreme Commander of the Kosovo
Liberation Army (UCK).
Throughout the air campaign against Yugoslavia, Ceku
was portrayed as a loyal ally and he was frequently
present at the NATO briefings with top generals such
as Wesley Clark and Michael Jackson.
Under terms of the Kosovo peace deal, Ceku's Albanian
guerrillas were to be disarmed and re-constituted into
a UN sponsored, (non-military) disaster relief
organization known as the Kosovo Protection Corps
(KPC). ButCeku's UCK never gave up their guns - nor
their quest for a Greater Albania.
Although he is nominally maintaining an 'arms-length'
posture towards his former comrades, Agim Ceku is
still worshipped as a saviour by both the UCK troops
and Albanian-minority in Macedonia.
As this indicted war criminal continues to enjoy his
freedom, bask in public attention, and collect a UN
paycheque, our Canadian soldiers are risking their
lives to disarm his UCK in Macedonia.
All in the name of peace and justice.
E-mail: espritdecorp@...
===================================================
Subject: NATO Provides KLA R&R
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 07:58:52 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rick Rozoff
"What do we have to fear if they stop us? Three days
in Camp Bondsteel, then freedom?"
Tuesday September 4, 10:15 PM
Rebel Albanians from Macedonia lay low in Kosovo
UROSEVAC, Yugoslavia, Sept 4 (AFP) -
Hundreds of ethnic Albanian guerrillas have crossed
over from Macedonia to the Serbian province of Kosovo
since demobilising under an August peace deal aimed at
ending a seven-month insurgency.
For members of the National Liberation Army who come
from Kosovo itself, it is a return home, but for those
coming from Macedonia it is a question of lying low
for a few months before returning home when conditions
are safer.
Most of those who have chosen to go to Kosovo do so by
crossing the mountains which separate the mainly
ethnic-Albanian province of Serbia from Macedonia,
with little heed for NATO-led (KFOR) peacekeepers in
the UN-administered province.
"What do we have to fear if they stop us? Three days
in Camp Bondsteel, then freedom?" said commander Ali
Daja, a former official of rebe brigade 113 in the
northern region of Kumanovo, refering to KFOR's
detention centre.
Many witnesses said that commanders and other fighters
stroll the streets of the Kosovo towns of Urosevac,
Prizren and Gnjilane having crossed either legally or
illegally into Kosovo territory.
Since the peace accord struck in the southwestern
Macedonian town of Ohrid on August 13 aimed at ending
the rebellion over minority rights, several hundreds
of fighters have been stopped by KFOR entering Kosovo
illegally, but most were released shortly afterwards.
According to Captain Daniel Byer, spokesman for the
KFOR brigade, only around 100 fighters are still in
detention in Camp Bondsteel. Over a thousand have been
arrested since the beginning of the conflict in
February.
A 21-year-old man, nicknamed Barut, says that he was
detained for three days by KFOR after being
demobilised by the rebels' 113 brigade. Then he was
taken by KFOR soldiers to the bus station several
kilometres (miles) away.
"Last week between 10 and 50 former combatants were
released each day," a witness at the bus station cafe
said.
A welcome committee has been set up by the rebels in
Kosovo to help those coming from Macedonia who have
nowhere to go.
On Friday 140 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo who claimed
they were former rebel soldiers came to Kosovo legally
right under the noses of KFOR troops and the United
Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).
They went first to Albania, then they presented
themselves as unarmed civilians at a border post at
Verbnica, 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Prizren.
Embarrassed UNMIK officials finally allowed their
entry. "Not one of them was stopped because they had
regulation Macedonian passports," said an UNMIK
spokesman.
A number of KLA guerrillas injured in the war have
also found refuge in hospitals in Kosovo where they
are treated just like other patients. Doctors and
nurses know where their injuries came from, but they
maintain a code of silence.
According to witnesses, one rebel shot in the leg at
Slupcane in northern Macedonia has already spent two
months in hospital in Kosovo without receiving a
single visit from the police or KFOR forces.
====================================================
----- Original Message -----
From: Roger ROMAIN
To: r.romain@...
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 8:00 PM
Subject: MACEDOINE : oui, la "moisson
indispensable" en Mac�doine est bien une
nouvelle fumisterie am�ricano-otano-europ�enne
occidentale !
MAC�DOINE : oui, la "moisson indispensable" en
Mac�doine est bien une nouvelle fumisterie
am�ricano-otano-europ�enne occidentale !
Mac�doine : une guerre Made in USA !
T�moignage sur les livraisons d'armes clandestines
Ancien soldat canadien, devenu journaliste
sp�cialiste des questions militaires, le Canadien
Scott Taylor le confirme sur le terrain :
Washington, avide de dominer militairement les
Balkans, joue double jeu en armant l'UCK
albanaise.
Un article de Scott Taylor - Tetovo
Tetovo - 20 ao�t. Lundi, un accord de paix a �t�
sign�. Mais cette tentative de la onzi�me heure
d'�viter une autre guerre civile balkanique
risque bien de rester vaine.
Les 3.000 hommes de l'Otan auront pour t�che de
d�sarmer la gu�rilla albanaise, ma�tresse de 30%
du territoire. Mais leur arriv�e sera une pilule
am�re pour les forces de s�curit� mac�doniennes
combattant l'UCK depuis six mois : �Si l'Otan
n'avait pas arm� et �quip� l'UCK au Kosovo, il ne
serait pas n�cessaire de la d�sarmer � pr�sent en
Mac�doine�, explique le sergent Goran Stevanovic.
"God bless America !"
Les diplomates d�noncent vivement l'aide
militaire apport�e � l'UCK, mais sur le terrain,
personne ne conteste l'aide massive (mat�riel et
experts) que leur apporte l'Otan. D'ailleurs, les
commandants UCK m'accueillent par un �Dieu
b�nisse l'Am�rique, et le Canada, pour tout ce
qu'ils nous ont fournis!�
Dans leurs bunkers bien construits, tout - des
armes de poing aux fusils de snipers - porte le
Made in USA. Un abondant stock de lunettes de
vision nocturne, tr�s sophistiqu�es, leur fournit
un �norme avantage sur les forces de s�curit�
mac�doniennes, oblig�es de rester terr�es dans
leurs bunkers pendant que l'UCK d�ambule � son
aise dans les rues de Tetovo. "Serpent" Arifaj
(22 ans), fier commandant d'un peloton UCK, se
f�licite : �Gr�ce � l'Oncle Sam, les Mac�doniens
ne nous posent pas de probl�mes.�
Il y a deux mois, les protestations diplomatiques
ont afflu� lorsqu'on a vu des h�licopt�res US
effectuer des livraisons � un village albanais
surplombant Tetovo. Version officielle : �aide
humanitaire�. Mais le commandant UCK "Mouse" a
confirm� qu'il s'agissait de canons lourds et
munitions. La preuve : le 16, l'UCK a bombard�
Tetovo avec des canons de 120 mm et 82 mm. Et vu
la dur�e et l'intensit� des tirs, les munitions
ne sont pas un probl�me pour eux.
Fr�quemment aussi, les Etats-Unis envoient leurs
h�licopt�res tactiques d'espionnage, sans
autorisation du gouvernement mac�donien. Et les
villageois albanais l�vent les bras pour saluer
�leur force a�rienne�. Enfin, au Q - G de l'UCK,
� la sortie de Tetovo, les gardiens portent des
T-shirts au logo Nike: "NATO Air : Just do it!"
Untertitre
De l'autre c�t�, la Mac�doine - Tr�sor en
faillite et �conomie en d�gringolade - n'avait
pas donn� la priorit� � �quiper son arm�e. Apr�s
le d�but de l'insurrection, en mars, elle a
import� en masse du mat�riel et des conseillers
mercenaires, principalement d'Ukraine.
Mais, la semaine pass�e, George Robertson et
Javier Solana, secr�taires-g�n�raux
respeectivement de l'Otan et de l'Union
Europ�enne, se sont entretenus avec les
Ukrainiens pour arr�ter cet approvisionnement.
Cette ing�rence explique que la majorit� des
Mac�doniens se soit engag�e dans de violentes
�meutes anti-Otan, attaquant r�cemment les
ambassades et les restos McDonald's.
Roger ROMAIN
a/conseiller communal PCB
B6180 COURCELLES
sites :
http://homeusers.brutele.be/r.romain/Sommario.html
==================================================
---------------------------------------------------
Truth in Media's GLOBAL WATCH Bulletin 2001/8-3
26-Aug-2001
---------------------------------------------------
Topic: BALKAN AFFAIRS
-----------------------------------
HEADLINES
Ottawa 1. Canadian Officer Confirms NATO Backing
Albanian Rebels in Macedonia
Skopje 2. Ukraine, Russia Continue to Arm
Macedonia?
Kiev 3. Macedonian President Gets Putin's,
Kuchma's "Support"
Skopje 4. NATO "Peace Farce" Unfolding
Skopje 5. Angry Macedonians Block NATO
Supply Route
http://www.truthinmedia.org/Bulletins2001/
tim2001-8-3.html
-------------
NOTE: To cancel the e-mail editions of our
reports, just reply REMOVE or
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-------------
Canadian Officer Confirms NATO's Backing of
Albanian Rebels in Macedonia
OTTAWA, Aug. 26 - Once again, we have to turn to
Canada to find out what's really going on in
Washington or Brussels, not to mention Skopje or
Pristina. This time, it was an Ottawa-based
journalist that quoted a former Canadian officer,
now also turned journalist and author, as saying
that the Canadian had seen evidence during of
NATO's backing (and arming!) the Albanian rebels
his recent trip to Macedonia.
Of course, this is nothing new to TiM readers.
But while we arrived at the same conclusion via a
geopolitical analysis (see Macedonia: Another
Farcical American Oil War, Aug. 10), this
Canadian officer did it the old-fashioned way -
he saw it with his own eyes.
"A Canadian journalist has evidence that NATO is
arming and equipping the ethnic Albanian
guerillas who have waged a five-month long
insurgency against the Macedonian government in
Skopje" wrote Stephen Gowans in an Aug. 23
special report published first at the Media
Monitors web site. "Scott Taylor, editor of
Espirit de Corps magazine, says that on a visit
to guerilla bunkers overlooking the besieged
Macedonian city of Tetovo he was welcomed with
shouts of, "God bless America and Canada too for
all they have provided to us." Canada is a member
of the US-led NATO coalition."
Taylor should be no stranger to longtime TiM
readers, either. Just like the TiM editor, he
was in Belgrade in the spring of 1999, while the
NATO bombs were raining down on the Yugoslav
capital and on much of the country (see his
moving account of a funeral he attended in June
1999, published contemporaneously in the NATO War
section of the TiM web site -
http://www.truthinmedia.org/Kosovo/War/day78.html
).
The two of us met for the first time in Toronto,
in December 1999, following the TiM editor's
lecture on NATO's war on Serbia (see New World
Order Pits Canadians vs. Serbs, Dec. 1999 -
http://www.truthinmedia.org/Tour-de-Canada/tor-12-99.html).
That's when we learned that Taylor had also
served as a Canadian officer within the UN
peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Krajina. In
other words, he knows of what he speaks - inside
out.
And now, with this as a brief preamble, here's
the rest of Steve Gowans article, republished
here by TiM with permission of the Media
Monitors' publisher:
More signs NATO is behind ethnic Albanian attacks
on Macedonia by Stephen Gowans
Taylor says guerrilla commanders showed off their
arsenal, which included side arms, sniper rifles
and grenade launchers, all marked "Made in the
USA."
Says Taylor, one commander remarked that, "thanks
to Uncle Sam, the Macedonians are no match for
us." Taylor isn't the first to charge that
Washington is aiding the guerillas. The
Macedonian government alleged that US helicopters
were delivering supplies to guerillas in the
mountains above Tetovo. US officials don't deny
that airdrops were made, but say helicopters were
transporting vital humanitarian aid. But Taylor
says the local guerilla commander told him that
the helicopters were delivering heavy mortars and
ammunition. The guerillas have bombarded Tetovo
with artillery.
Taylor says ethnic Albanian villagers cheer at
the sight of US helicopters, while guerillas at
brigade headquarters wear Nike-style T-shirts
bearing the phrase, "NATO Air - Just do it!"
Meanwhile, one Macedonian police officer lamented
to Taylor that "if NATO hadn't been arming and
equipping the (KLA) in Kosovo there would be no
need for them to disarm these guerillas now."
This isn't the first time complaints about the US
and NATO arming ethnic Albanian guerillas have
been made. In March, a European K-For battalion
commander told the London Observer that, "the CIA
has been allowed to run riot in Kosovo with a
private army designed to overthrow Slobodan
Milosevic...Most of last year, there was a
growing frustration with US support for the
radical Albanians." And in January the BBC
reported that Western forces were training
guerillas, then opening a new front in southern
Serbia and Macedonia.
In June, when Macedonian forces were closing in
on guerillas in the town of Aracinovo, NATO
intervened, transporting ethnic Albanian rebels
out of the besieged town in air-conditioned
busses. According to the German newspaper
Hamburger Abendblatt, 17 US advisors, belonging
to an American mercenary firm involved in other
Balkan conflicts, were among the guerillas. And
the newspaper pointed out that 70 percent of the
equipment carried away by the guerillas was US
made.
Days earlier, a American diplomat was slightly
wounded by Macedonian gunfire as he emerged from
the woods (around Aracinovo) with two other
Americans," according to the International Herald
Tribune. The diplomats were emerging from
rebel-held territory. Two months ago, the London
Sunday Times reported that at least 800 ethnic
Albanian guerillas fighting in Macedonia are
members of the Kosovo Protection Corps, a
paramilitary police unit created by the UN from
the KLA. The Times says, "Hundreds of KPC
reservists were called up by their Albanian
commander Agim Ceku, in March. They subsequently
disappeared to former KLA training camps in
Albania and are now re-emerging in Macedonia."
Ceku, one of the top leaders of the KLA, along
with Hacim Thaci, was artillery chief of the
Croatian army when it launched a war in the
Krajina region of Croatia, which led to 250,000
Serbs being driven from their homes. Under the
KPC, 250,000 Serbs, and another 100,000 Roma,
Gorani, Turks and Jews have been driven from
Kosovo. Now, the KLA offshoot in Macedonia, the
NLA, seems intent on ethnically cleansing the
largely Albanian Tetovo region. Over 120,000
Macedonians have fled or have been driven from
their Tetovo area homes by guerillas. Ilir Hoxha,
a 25-year old ethnic Albanian said, "Let them
leave. They should never return. Tetovo is
Albanian and it will remain Albanian."
For years, many Albanians have dreamed of
resurrecting the greater Albania established
under the Italian fascists, and then under the
Nazis. It incorporated parts of Macedonia and
Greece, southern Serbia, and Kosovo into Albania
proper. Some reports say an ethnic Albanian
Liberation Army of Chameria will open a new front
in Greece soon.
Skopje has been hampered in its response to the
guerillas. NATO and the EU have warned Macedonia
not to crack down on the guerillas, and Ukraine,
which was providing equipment to the
under-equipped Macedonian army, was warned to
stop shipments of materiel. Meanwhile, press
reports in the West describe NATO and EU
diplomatic efforts as aimed at preventing a civil
war, though the intention appears to be to
prevent a strong Macedonian response.
The guerillas say they're fighting to win
language rights, but critics point out that an
armed attack is highly disproportional to the
NLA's stated aims. Moreover, the fact that the
guerillas have been recruited from Kosovo, pass
freely over a Kosovo-Macedonia border presumably
patrolled by NATO K-For forces, and have driven
non-Albanians from their homes in an apparent
effort to ethnically cleanse the Tetovo region,
points to the pursuit of other goals, fully
backed by NATO.
Taylor, who served in the Canadian Armed Forces,
says NATO's support of the guerillas is so
blatant "it is little wonder that the Macedonian
majority have staged violent anti-NATO riots."
Mr. Steve Gowans is a writer and political
activist who lives in Ottawa, Canada.
---
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Militant groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan
By The Associated Press
The Associated Press
03/16/00 1:04 AM Eastern
Following are some of the Islamic militant groups the
United States is pressuring Pakistan to close down or ban:
HARAKAT-UL-MUJAHEDEEN: Previously Harakat-ul-Ansar,
but changed its name after United States declared the
group a terrorist organization. Harakat-ul-Ansar was
founded by Masood Azhar, one of three Kashmiri
militants freed by India last December to end the
hijacking of an Indian Airlines jetliner.
Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen's leader is Fazal-ur-Rehman
Khalil. Headquartered in Pakistan, with a membership
believed to be in the hundreds, the group is committed
to fighting Indian soldiers in Indian-ruled Kashmir.
It's fighters, trained in Afghanistan, are believed to
have also fought in the breakaway republic of
Chechnya, Bosnia and Algeria.
HARAKAT-UL-JEHAD-E-ISLAMI: The parent organization of
Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen, led by Qari Saifullah Akhtar,
who spends most of his time in Afghanistan. It is
believed to have thousands of fighters, who train in
Afghanistan and have fought in Chechnya and Bosnia.
LASHKAR-E-TAYYABA: Led by Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, it is
based in Muridke, in Pakistan's eastern Punjab
province, and has a membership in the thousands, who
are trained in Afghanistan and in Pakistan-ruled
Kashmir.
AL QAIDA: Led by Osama bin Laden, Al Qaida is
committed to forcing the United States to withdraw its
army from Saudi Arabia, where two of Islam's holiest
sites are located. Its membership figure is unknown
but bin Laden is believed to have thousands of
followers. His popularity soared after 1998, when the
United States fired Tomahawk cruise missiles at
eastern Afghanistan where bin Laden is believed to
operate military training camps. Bin Laden, a
millionaire Saudi, also raises millions of dollars
from sympathizers throughout the Muslim world. Al
Qaida members fight alongside the Taliban in
Afghanistan and reportedly train militants to fight in
Indian-held Kashmir. Al Qaida also is known to have
sent fighters to Chechnya, Bosnia and Kosovo.
==========================================
Osama Bin Laden
Le ditte del terrorista islamico Bin Laden in tutta Europa
Un giornalista del giornale "Vecernji list" di Zagabria, ha soggiornato
segretamente nel segreto campo di addestramento dei seguaci del più
famoso e ricercato terrorista del mondo, Osam Bin Laden.
Il giornalista conferma che, questo ricchissimo estremista musulmano
ha delle ditte in tutta la Europa, comprese la Croazia e la Bosnia.
- Bin Laden i soldi li guadagna attraverso le sue ditte che sono
registrate con i nomi dei presta nomi, o con i nomi falsi.
Le ditte si trovano in Albania, Olanda, Gran Bretagna, Romania,
Croazia, Bosnia ...- ha dichiarato Abu Baker, uno dei più stretti
collaboratori di Bin Laden e aggiunge che, "durante la ultima guerra
in Zagabria operava una organizzazione pseudo-umanitaria di Bin Laden
"Moafak".
Nel testo del detto quotidiano si dice pure che, le ditte di Bin Laden
in Croazia sono abbastanza bene organizzate e funzionano molto bene, e
la maggioranza delle persone che fanno gli affari con queste ditte non
sanno con chi hanno che fare.
... e in lingua originale:
"VECERNJI LIST" O NAJTRA?ENIJEM TERORISTI
LADENOVE FIRME PO CELOJ EVROPI
Reporter zagrebackog "Vecernjeg lista" koji je boravio u tajnom kampu za
obuku sledbenika najtra?enijeg teroriste na svetu Osame Bin Ladena tvrdi
da ovaj bogati muslimanski ekstremista ima preduzeæa sirom Evrope,
ukljucujuci Bosnu i Hrvatsku.
- Bin Laden novac zaradjuje preko svojih preduzeæa koja su registrovana
na tudja i la?na imena koja su rasuta po celom svetu. Preduzeca su u
Albaniji, Holandiji, Britaniji, Rumuniji, Hrvatskoj, Bosni... - ka?e Abu
Baker, jedan od najbli?ih saradnika Bin Ladena i dodaje da je za vreme
poslednjeg rata u Zagrebu radila Ben Ladenova navodna humanitarna
organizacija "Moafak".
U tekstu se navodi da je Bin Ladenovo preduzece u Hrvatskoj veoma
razgranato i da vecina ljudi koja posluje sa njim nema pojma sa kim se
upusta u biznis.
V. Mt.
(tratto da Vecernji List, aprile 2000; comunicazione personale)
=================================================
Subject: [COMMUNISM LIST]Afghanistan background
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 00:15:58 +0100
From: "Karl Carlile" <dagda@...>
Reply-To: communism@...
Organization: Communism List
To: <communism@...>
Communism List:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~kampf/
Workers of the world unite!
_______________________________________
Afghanistan 1979-1992: America's Jihad
His followers first gained attention by throwing acid in the faces of
women who refused to wear the veil. CIA and State Department
officials I have spoken with call him "a fascist," "definite
dictatorship material."
This did not prevent the United States government from showering the
man with large amounts of aid to fight against the Soviet-supported
government of Afghanistan. His name was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. He was
the head of the Islamic Party and he hated the United States almost
as much as he hated the Russians. His followers screamed "Death to
America" along with "Death to the Soviet Union'", only the Russians
were not showering him with large amounts of aid.
The United States began supporting Afghan Islamic fundamentalists in
1979 despite the fact that in February of that year some of them had
kidnapped the American ambassador in he capital city of Kabul,
leading to his death in the rescue attempt. The support continued
even after their brother Islamic fundamentalists in next-door Iran
seized the US Embassy in Teheran in November and held 55 Americans
hostage for over a year. Hekmatyar and his were, after all, in battle
against the Soviet Evil Empire; he was thus an important member of
those forces Ronald Reagan called "freedom fighters".
On 27 April 1978, a coup staged by the People's Democratic Party
(PDP) overthrew the government of Mohammad Daoud. Daoud, five years
earlier, had overthrown the monarchy and established a republic,
although he himself was a member of the royal family. He had been
supported by the left in this endeavor, but it turned out that
Daoud's royal blood was thicker than his progressive water. When the
Daoud regime had a PDP leader killed, arrested the rest of the
leadership, and purged hundreds of suspected party sympathizers from
government posts, the PDP, aided by its supporters in the army,
revolted and took power.
Afghanistan was a backward nation: a life expectancy of about 40,
infant mortality of at least 25 percent, absolutely primitive
sanitation, widespread malnutrition, illiteracy of more than 90
percent, very few highways, not one mile of railway, most people
living in nomadic tribes or as impoverished farmers in mud villages,
identifying more with ethnic groups than with a larger political
concept, a life scarcely different from many centuries earlier.
Reform with a socialist bent was the new government's ambition; land
reform (while still retaining private property), controls on prices
and profits, and strengthening of the public sector, as well as
separation of church and state, eradication of illiteracy,
legalization of trade unions, and the emancipation of women in a land
almost entirely Muslim.
Afghanistan's thousand-mile border with the Soviet Union had always
produced a special relationship. Even while it was a monarchy, the
country had been under the strong influence of its powerful northern
neighbor, which had long been its largest trading partner, aid donor,
and military supplier. But the country had never been gobbled up by
the Soviets, a fact that perhaps lends credence to the oft-repeated
Soviet claim that their hegemony over Eastern Europe was only created
as a buffer between themselves and the frequently-invading West.
Nevertheless, for decades Washington and the Shah of Iran tried to
pressure and bribe Afghanistan in order to roll back Russian
influence in the country. During the Daoud regime, Iran, encouraged
by the United States, sought to replace the Soviet Union as Kabul's
biggest donor with a $2 billion economic aid agreement, and urged
Afghanistan to join the Regional Cooperation for Development, which
consisted of Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. (This organization was
attacked by the Soviet Union and its friends in Afghanistan as being
"a branch of CENTO" the 1950s regional security pact that was part of
the US policy of containment of the Soviet Union.) At the same time,
Iran's infamous secret police SAVAK was busy fingering suspected
Communist sympathizers in the Afghan government. In September 1975,
prodded by Iran which was conditioning its aid on such policies,
Daoud gradually dismissed 40 Soviet-trained military officers and
moved to reduce future Afghan dependence on officer training in the
USSR by initiating training arrangements with India and Egypt. Most
important, in Soviet eyes, Daoud gradually broke off his alliance
with the PDP, announcing that he would start his own party and ban
all other political activity under a projected new constitution.
Selig Harrison, the Washington Post's South Asia specialist, wrote an
article in 1970 entitled "'The Shah, Not the Kremlin, Touched off
Afghan Coup", concluding:
"The Communist takeover in Kabul (April 1978] came about when it did,
and in the way that it did, because the Shah disturbed the tenuous
equilibrium that had existed in Afghanistan between the Soviet Union
and the West for neatly three decades. In Iranian and American eyes,
Teheran's offensive was merely- designed to make Kabul more truly
nonaligned, but it went far beyond that Given the unusually long
frontier with Afghanistan, the Soviet Union would clearly go to great
lengths to prevent Kabul from moving once again toward a pro-western
stance."
When the Shah was overthrown in January 1979, the United States lost
its chief ally and outpost in the Soviet-border region, as well as
its military installations and electronic monitoring stations aimed
at the Soviet Union. Washington's cold warriors could only eye
Afghanistan even more covetously than before.
After the April revolution, the new government under President Noor
Mohammed Taraki declared a commitment to Islam within a secular
state, and to non-alignment in foreign affairs. It maintained that
the coup had not been foreign inspired, that it was not a "Communist
takeover", and that they were not "Communists" but rather
nationalists and revolutionaries. (No official or traditional
Communist Party had ever existed in Afghanistan.) But because of its
radical reform program, its class-struggle and anti-imperialist-type
rhetoric, its support of all the usual suspects (Cuba, North Korea,
etc.), its signing of a friendship treaty and other cooperative
agreements with the Soviet Union, and an increased presence in the
country of Soviet civilian and military advisers (though probably
less than the US had in Iran at the time), it was labeled "communist"
by the world's media and by its domestic opponents.
Whether or not the new government in Afghanistan should properly have
been called communist, whether or not it made any difference what it
was called, the lines were now drawn for political, military, and
propaganda battle: a jihad (holy war) between fundamentalist Muslims
and "godless atheistic communists"; Afghan nationalism vs. a
"Soviet-run" government; large landowners, tribal chiefs,
businessmen, the extended royal family, and others vs. the
government's economic reforms. Said the new prime minister about this
elite, who were needed to keep the country running, "every effort
will be made to attract them. But we want to re-educate them in such
a manner that they should think about the people, and not, as
previously, just about themselves-to have a good house and a nice
car" while other people die of hunger."
The Afghan government was trying to drag the country into the 20th
century. In May 1979, British political scientist Fred Halliday
observed that "probably more has changed in the countryside over the
last year than in the two centuries since the state was established."
Peasant debts to landlords had been canceled, the system of usury (by
which peasant were forced to borrow money against future crops, were
left in perpetual debt to lenders) was abolished, and hundreds of
schools and medical clinics were being built in the countryside.
Halliday also reported that a substantial land-redistribution program
was underway, with many of the 200,000 rural families scheduled to
receive land under this reform already having done so. But this last
claim must be approached with caution. Revolutionary land reform is
always an extremely complex and precarious under the best of
conditions, and ultra-backward, tradition-hound Afghanistan in the
midst of nascent civil war hardly offered the best of conditions for
social experiment.
The reforms also encroached into the sensitive area of Islamic
subjugation of women by outlawing child marriage and the giving of a
woman in marriage in exchange for money or commodities, and teaching
women to read, at a time when certain Islamic sectors were openly
calling for reinforcement of 'purdah', the seclusion of women from
public observation.
Halliday noted that the People's Democratic Party saw the Soviet
Union as the only realistic source of support for the long-overdue
modernization. The illiterate Afghan peasant's ethnic cousins across
the border in the Soviet Union were, after all, often university
graduates and professionals.
The argument of the Moujahedeen ("holy warriors") rebels that the
"communist" government would curtail their religious freedom was
never borne out in practice. A year and a half after the change in
government, the conservative British magazine The Economist reported
that "no restrictions had been imposed on religious practice".
Earlier, the New York Times stated that the religious issue "is being
used by some Afghans who actually object more to President Taraki's
plans for land reforms and other changes in this feudal society."
Many of the Muslim clergy were in fact rich landowners. The rebels,
concluded a BBC reporter who spent four months with them, are
"fighting to retain their feudal system and stop the Kabul
government's left-wing reforms which [are] considered anti-Islamic."
The two other nations which shared a long border with Afghanistan,
and were closely allied to the United States, expressed their fears
of the new government. To the west, Iran, still under the Shah,
worried about "threats to oil-passage routes in the Persian Gulf".
Pakistan, to the south, spoke of "threats from a hostile and
expansionist Afghanistan." A former US ambassador to Afghanistan saw
it as part of a "gradually closing pincer movement aimed at Iran and
the oil regions of the Middle East." None of these alleged fears
turned out to have any substance or evidence to back them up, but to
the anti-communist mind this might prove only that the Russians and
their Afghan puppets had been stopped in time.
Two months after the April 1978 coup, an alliance formed by a number
of conservative Islamic factions was waging guerrilla war against the
government. By spring 1979, fighting was taking place on many fronts,
and the State Department was cautioning the Soviet Union that its
advisers in Afghanistan should not interfere militarily in the civil
strife. One such warning in the summer by State Department spokesman
Hodding Carter was another of those Washington monuments to chutzpah;
"We expect the principle of nonintervention to be respected by all
parties in the area, including the Soviet Union." This while the
Soviets were charging the CIA with arming Afghan exiles in Pakistan;
and the Afghanistan government was accusing Pakistan and Iran of also
aiding the guerrillas and even of crossing the border to take part in
the fighting. Pakistan had recently taken its own turn toward strict
Muslim orthodoxy, which the Afghan government deplored as a
"fanatic," while in January, Iran had established a Muslim state
after overthrowing the Shah. (As opposed to the Afghan fundamentalist
freedom fighters, the Iranian Islamic fundamentalists were regularly
described in the West as terrorists, ultra-conservatives, and
anti-democratic.)
A "favorite tactic" of the Afghan freedom fighters was "to torture
victims [often Russians] by first cutting off their noses, ears, and
genitals, then removing one slice of skin after another", producing
"a slow, very painful death". The Moujahedeen also killed a Canadian
tourist and six West Germans, including two children, and a U.S.
military attaché was dragged from his car and beaten; all due to the
rebels' apparent inability to distinguish Russians from other
Europeans.
In March 1979, Taraki went to Moscow to press the Soviets to send
ground troops to help the Afghan army put down the Moujahedeen. He
was promised military assistance, but ground troops could not be
committed. Soviet Prime Minister Kosygin told the Afghan leader:
"The entry of our troops into Afghanistan would outrage the
international community, triggering a string of extremely negative
consequences in many different areas. Our common enemies are just
waiting for the moment when Soviet troops appear in Afghanistan. This
will give them the excuse they need to send armed bands into the
country."
In September, the question became completely academic for Noor
Mohammed Taraki, for he was ousted (and his death soon announced) in
an intra -party struggle and replaced by his own deputy prime
minister, Hafizullah Amin. Although Taraki had sometimes been
heavy-handed in implementing the reform program, and had created
opposition even amongst the intended beneficiaries, he turned out to
be a moderate compared to Amin who tried to institute social change
by riding roughshod over tradition and tribal and ethnic autonomy.
The Kremlin was unhappy with Amin. The fact that he had been involved
in the overthrow and death of the much-favored Taraki was bad enough.
But the Soviets also regarded him as thoroughly unsuitable for the
task that was Moscow's sine qua non; preventing an anti-communist
Islamic state from arising in Afghanistan. Amin gave reform an
exceedingly bad name. The KGB station in Kabul, in pressing for
Amin's removal, stated that his usurpation of power would lead to
"harsh repressions and, as a reaction, the activation and
consolidation of the opposition". Moreover, as we shall see, the
Soviets were highly suspicious about Amin's ideological convictions.
Thus it was, that what in March had been unthinkable, in December
became a reality. Soviet troops began to arrive in Afghanistan around
the 8th of the month - to what extent at Amin's request or with his
approval, and, consequently, whether to call the action an "invasion"
or not, has been the subject of much discussion and controversy.
On the 23rd the Washington Post commented "There was no charge [by
the State Department] that the Soviets have invaded Afghanistan,
since the troops apparently were invited."
However, at a meeting with Soviet-bloc ambassadors in October, Amin's
foreign minister had openly criticized the Soviet Union for
interfering in Afghan affairs. Amin himself insisted that Moscow
replace its ambassador. Yet, on 26 December, while the main body of
Soviet troops was arriving in Afghanistan, Amin gave "a relaxed
interview" to an Arab journalist. "The Soviets," he said, "supply my
country with economic and military aid, but at the same time they
respect our independence and our sovereignty. They do not interfere
in our domestic affairs." He also spoke approvingly of the USSR's
willingness to accept his veto on military bases.
The very next day, a Soviet military force stormed the presidential
palace and shot Amin dead.
He was replaced by Babrak Karmal, who had been vice president and
deputy prime minister in the 1978 revolutionary government.
Moscow denied any part in Amin's death, though they didn't pretend to
be sorry about it, as Brezhnev made clear:
"The actions of the aggressors against Afghanistan were facilitated
by Amin who, on seizing power, started cruelly repressing broad
sections of Afghan society, party and military cadres, members of the
intelligentsia and of the Moslem clergy, that is, the very sections
on which the April revolution relied. And the people under the
leadership of the People's Democratic Party,' headed by Babrak
Karmal, rose against Amin's tyranny and put an end to it. Now in
Washington and some other capitals they are mourning Amin. This
exposes their hypocrisy with particular clarity. Where were these
mourners when Amin was conducting mass repressions, when he forcibly
removed and unlawfully killed Taraki, the founder of the new Afghan
state?"
After Amin's ouster and execution, the public thronged the streets in
"a holiday spirit". "If Karmal could have overthrown Amin without the
Russians," observed a Western diplomat, "he would have been seen as a
hero of the people."
The Soviet government and press repeatedly referred to Amin as a "CIA
agent", a charge which was greeted with great skepticism in the
United States and elsewhere. However, enough circumstantial evidence
supporting the charge exists so that it perhaps should not be
dismissed entirely out of hand.
During the late 1950s and early '60s, Amin had attended Columbia
University Teachers College and the University of Wisconsin. This was
a heyday period for the CIA-using impressive bribes and threats-to
regularly try to recruit foreign students in the United States to act
as agents for them when they returned home. During this period, at
least one president of the Afghanistan Students Association (ASA),
Zia H. Noorzay, was working with the CIA in the United States and
later became president of the Afghanistan state treasury. One of the
Afghan students whom Noorzay and the CIA tried in vain to recruit,
Abdul Latif Hotaki, declared in 1967 that a good number of the key
officials in the Afghanistan government who studied in the United
States "are either CIA trained or indoctrinated. Some are cabinet
level people." It has been reported that in 1963 Amin became head of
the ASA, but this has not been corroborated. However, it is known
that the ASA received part of its funding from the Asia Foundation,
the CIA's principal front in Asia for many years, and that at one
time Amin was associated with this organization.
In September 1979, the month that Amin took power, the American
charge d'affaires in Kabul, Bruce Amstutz, began to hold friendly
meetings with him to reassure him that he need not worry about his
unhappy Soviet allies as long as the US maintained a strong presence
in Afghanistan. The strategy may have worked, for later in the month,
Amin made a special appeal to Amstutz for improved relations with the
United States. Two days later in New York, the Afghan Foreign
Minister quietly expressed the same sentiments to State Department
officials. And at the end of October, the US Embassy in Kabul
reported that Amin was "painfully aware of the exiled leadership the
Soviets [were] keeping on the shelf" (a reference to Karmal who was
living in Czechoslovakia). Under normal circumstances, the Amin-US
meetings might be regarded as routine and innocent diplomatic
contact, but these were hardly normal circumstances-the Afghan
government was engaged in a civil war, and the United States was
supporting the other side.
Moreover, it can be said that Amin, by his ruthlessness, was doing
just what an American agent would be expected to do: discrediting the
People's Democratic Party, the Party's reforms, the idea of socialism
or communism, and the Soviet Union, all associated in one package.
Amin also conducted purges in the army officer corps which seriously
underlined the army's combat capabilities.
But why would Amin, if he were actually plotting with the Americans,
request Soviet military forces on several occasions? The main reason
appears to be that he was being pressed to do so by high levels of
the PDP and he had to comply for the sake of appearances. Babrak
Karmal has suggested other, more Machiavellian, scenarios.
"The Carter administration jumped on the issue of the Soviet
"invasion" and soon launched a campaign of righteous indignation,
imposing what President Carter called "Penalties"-from halting the
delivery of grain to the Soviet Union to keeping the US team out of
the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
The Russians countered that the US was enraged by the intervention
because Washington had been plotting to turn the country into an
American base to replace the loss of lran.
Unsurprisingly, on this seemingly clear-cut anti-communist issue, the
American public and media easily fell in line with the president. The
Wall Street Journal called for a "military" reaction, the
establishment of US bases in the Middle East, "reinstatement of draft
registration", development of a new missile, and giving the CIA more
leeway, adding "Clearly we ought to keep open the chance of covert
aid to Afghan rebels." The last, whether the newspaper knew it or
not, had actually been going on for some time. In February 1980, the
Washington Post disclosed that while the United States was now
supplying weapons to the guerrillas,
"U.S. covert aid prior to the December invasion, according to
sources, was limited to funneling small amounts of medical supplies
and communications equipment to scattered rebel tribes, plus what is
described as "technical advice" to the rebels about where they could
acquire arms on their own ."
US foreign service officers had been meeting with rebel leaders to
determine their need at least as early as April 1979, and the CIA had
been training guerrillas in Pakistan and beaming radio propaganda
into Afghanistan since the year before.
Intervention in the Afghan civil war by the United States, Iran,
Pakistan, China and others gave the Russians grave concern about who
was going to wield power next door. They consistently cited these
"aggressive imperialist forces" to rationalize their own intervention
into Afghanistan, which was the first time Soviet ground troops had
engaged in military action anywhere in the world outside its post-
World War II Eastern European borders. The potential establishment of
an anti-communist Islamic state on the borders of the Soviet Union's
own republics in Soviet Central Asia that were home to some 40
million Muslims could not be regarded with equanimity by the Kremlin
any more than Washington could be unruffled about a communist
takeover in Mexico.
As we have seen repeatedly, the United States did not limit its
defense perimeter to its immediate neighbors, or even to Western
Europe, but to the entire globe. President Carter declared that the
Persian Gulf area was "now threatened by Soviet troops in
Afghanistan," that this area was synonymous with US interests, and
that the United States would "defend" it against any threat by all
means necessary. He called the Soviet action "the greatest threat to
peace since the Second World War", a statement that required
overlooking a great deal of post-war history. But 1980 was an
election year.
Brezhnev, on the other hand, declared that "the national interests or
security of the United States of America and other states are in no
way affected by the events Afghanistan. All attempts to portray
matters otherwise are sheer nonsense."
The Carter administration was equally dismissive of Soviet concerns.
National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski later stated that "the
issue was not what might have Brezhnev's subjective motives in going
into Afghanistan but the objective consequences of a Soviet military
presence so much closer to the Persian Gulf."
The stage was now set for 12 long years of the most horrific kind of
warfare, a daily atrocity for the vast majority of the Afghan people
who never asked for or wanted this war.
But the Soviet Union was determined that its borders must be
unthreatening. The Afghan government was committed to its goal of a
secular, reformed Afghanistan. The United States was determined that,
at a minimum, this should be the Soviets' Vietnam that they should
slowly bleed as the Americans had at a minimum; at a maximum ... that
was perhaps not as well thought out but American policymakers could
not fail to understand - though they dared not say it publicly and
explicitly - that support of the Moujahedeen (many of whom carried
pictures of the Ayatollah Khomeini with them) could lead to a
fundamentalist Islamic state established in Afghanistan every bit as
repressive as in next-door Iran, which in the 1980s; was Public Enemy
Number One in America. Neither could the word "terrorist" cross the
lips of Washington officials in speaking of their new allies/clients,
though these same people shot down civilian airliners and planted
bombs at the airport. In 1986, British Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher, whose emotional invectives against "terrorists" were second
to none, welcomed Abdul Haq, an Afghan rebel leader who admitted that
he had ordered the planting of a bomb at Kabul airport in 1984 which
killed at least 28 people. Such, then, were the scruples of cold-war
anti-communists in late 20th century. As Anastasio Somoza had been
"our son of a bitch", the Moujahedeen were now "our fanatic
terrorists". At the beginning there had been some thought given to
the morality of the policy. "The question here," a senior official in
the Carter administration said, "was whether it was morally
acceptable that, in order to keep the Soviets off balance, which was
the reason for the operation, it was permissible to use other lives
for our geopolitical interests."
But such sentiments could not survive. Afghanistan was a
cold-warrior's dream: The CIA and the Pentagon, finally, had one of
their proxy armies in direct confrontation with the forces of the
Evil Empire. There was no price too high to pay for this Super
Nintendo game, neither the hundreds of thousands of Afghan lives, nor
the destruction of Afghan society, nor three billion (sic) dollars of
American taxpayer money poured into a bottomless hole, much of it
going only to make a few Afghans and Pakistanis rich. Congress was
equally enthused-without even the moral uncertainty that made them
cautious about arming the Nicaraguan contras-and became a veritable
bipartisan horn of plenty as it allocated more and more money for the
effort each year. Rep. Charles Wilson of Texas expressed a
not-atypical sentiment of official Washington when he declared:
"There were 58,000 dead in Vietnam and we owe the Russians one ... I
have a slight obsession with it, because of Vietnam. I thought the
Soviets ought to get a dose of it ... I've been of the opinion that
this money was better spent to hurt our adversaries than other money
in the Defense Department budget."
--
Louis Proyect, lnp3@... on 09/16/2001
Marxism list: http://www.marxmail.org
Communism List _______________________________________________
Communism@...
By The Associated Press
The Associated Press
03/16/00 1:04 AM Eastern
Following are some of the Islamic militant groups the
United States is pressuring Pakistan to close down or ban:
HARAKAT-UL-MUJAHEDEEN: Previously Harakat-ul-Ansar,
but changed its name after United States declared the
group a terrorist organization. Harakat-ul-Ansar was
founded by Masood Azhar, one of three Kashmiri
militants freed by India last December to end the
hijacking of an Indian Airlines jetliner.
Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen's leader is Fazal-ur-Rehman
Khalil. Headquartered in Pakistan, with a membership
believed to be in the hundreds, the group is committed
to fighting Indian soldiers in Indian-ruled Kashmir.
It's fighters, trained in Afghanistan, are believed to
have also fought in the breakaway republic of
Chechnya, Bosnia and Algeria.
HARAKAT-UL-JEHAD-E-ISLAMI: The parent organization of
Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen, led by Qari Saifullah Akhtar,
who spends most of his time in Afghanistan. It is
believed to have thousands of fighters, who train in
Afghanistan and have fought in Chechnya and Bosnia.
LASHKAR-E-TAYYABA: Led by Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, it is
based in Muridke, in Pakistan's eastern Punjab
province, and has a membership in the thousands, who
are trained in Afghanistan and in Pakistan-ruled
Kashmir.
AL QAIDA: Led by Osama bin Laden, Al Qaida is
committed to forcing the United States to withdraw its
army from Saudi Arabia, where two of Islam's holiest
sites are located. Its membership figure is unknown
but bin Laden is believed to have thousands of
followers. His popularity soared after 1998, when the
United States fired Tomahawk cruise missiles at
eastern Afghanistan where bin Laden is believed to
operate military training camps. Bin Laden, a
millionaire Saudi, also raises millions of dollars
from sympathizers throughout the Muslim world. Al
Qaida members fight alongside the Taliban in
Afghanistan and reportedly train militants to fight in
Indian-held Kashmir. Al Qaida also is known to have
sent fighters to Chechnya, Bosnia and Kosovo.
==========================================
Osama Bin Laden
Le ditte del terrorista islamico Bin Laden in tutta Europa
Un giornalista del giornale "Vecernji list" di Zagabria, ha soggiornato
segretamente nel segreto campo di addestramento dei seguaci del più
famoso e ricercato terrorista del mondo, Osam Bin Laden.
Il giornalista conferma che, questo ricchissimo estremista musulmano
ha delle ditte in tutta la Europa, comprese la Croazia e la Bosnia.
- Bin Laden i soldi li guadagna attraverso le sue ditte che sono
registrate con i nomi dei presta nomi, o con i nomi falsi.
Le ditte si trovano in Albania, Olanda, Gran Bretagna, Romania,
Croazia, Bosnia ...- ha dichiarato Abu Baker, uno dei più stretti
collaboratori di Bin Laden e aggiunge che, "durante la ultima guerra
in Zagabria operava una organizzazione pseudo-umanitaria di Bin Laden
"Moafak".
Nel testo del detto quotidiano si dice pure che, le ditte di Bin Laden
in Croazia sono abbastanza bene organizzate e funzionano molto bene, e
la maggioranza delle persone che fanno gli affari con queste ditte non
sanno con chi hanno che fare.
... e in lingua originale:
"VECERNJI LIST" O NAJTRA?ENIJEM TERORISTI
LADENOVE FIRME PO CELOJ EVROPI
Reporter zagrebackog "Vecernjeg lista" koji je boravio u tajnom kampu za
obuku sledbenika najtra?enijeg teroriste na svetu Osame Bin Ladena tvrdi
da ovaj bogati muslimanski ekstremista ima preduzeæa sirom Evrope,
ukljucujuci Bosnu i Hrvatsku.
- Bin Laden novac zaradjuje preko svojih preduzeæa koja su registrovana
na tudja i la?na imena koja su rasuta po celom svetu. Preduzeca su u
Albaniji, Holandiji, Britaniji, Rumuniji, Hrvatskoj, Bosni... - ka?e Abu
Baker, jedan od najbli?ih saradnika Bin Ladena i dodaje da je za vreme
poslednjeg rata u Zagrebu radila Ben Ladenova navodna humanitarna
organizacija "Moafak".
U tekstu se navodi da je Bin Ladenovo preduzece u Hrvatskoj veoma
razgranato i da vecina ljudi koja posluje sa njim nema pojma sa kim se
upusta u biznis.
V. Mt.
(tratto da Vecernji List, aprile 2000; comunicazione personale)
=================================================
Subject: [COMMUNISM LIST]Afghanistan background
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 00:15:58 +0100
From: "Karl Carlile" <dagda@...>
Reply-To: communism@...
Organization: Communism List
To: <communism@...>
Communism List:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~kampf/
Workers of the world unite!
_______________________________________
Afghanistan 1979-1992: America's Jihad
His followers first gained attention by throwing acid in the faces of
women who refused to wear the veil. CIA and State Department
officials I have spoken with call him "a fascist," "definite
dictatorship material."
This did not prevent the United States government from showering the
man with large amounts of aid to fight against the Soviet-supported
government of Afghanistan. His name was Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. He was
the head of the Islamic Party and he hated the United States almost
as much as he hated the Russians. His followers screamed "Death to
America" along with "Death to the Soviet Union'", only the Russians
were not showering him with large amounts of aid.
The United States began supporting Afghan Islamic fundamentalists in
1979 despite the fact that in February of that year some of them had
kidnapped the American ambassador in he capital city of Kabul,
leading to his death in the rescue attempt. The support continued
even after their brother Islamic fundamentalists in next-door Iran
seized the US Embassy in Teheran in November and held 55 Americans
hostage for over a year. Hekmatyar and his were, after all, in battle
against the Soviet Evil Empire; he was thus an important member of
those forces Ronald Reagan called "freedom fighters".
On 27 April 1978, a coup staged by the People's Democratic Party
(PDP) overthrew the government of Mohammad Daoud. Daoud, five years
earlier, had overthrown the monarchy and established a republic,
although he himself was a member of the royal family. He had been
supported by the left in this endeavor, but it turned out that
Daoud's royal blood was thicker than his progressive water. When the
Daoud regime had a PDP leader killed, arrested the rest of the
leadership, and purged hundreds of suspected party sympathizers from
government posts, the PDP, aided by its supporters in the army,
revolted and took power.
Afghanistan was a backward nation: a life expectancy of about 40,
infant mortality of at least 25 percent, absolutely primitive
sanitation, widespread malnutrition, illiteracy of more than 90
percent, very few highways, not one mile of railway, most people
living in nomadic tribes or as impoverished farmers in mud villages,
identifying more with ethnic groups than with a larger political
concept, a life scarcely different from many centuries earlier.
Reform with a socialist bent was the new government's ambition; land
reform (while still retaining private property), controls on prices
and profits, and strengthening of the public sector, as well as
separation of church and state, eradication of illiteracy,
legalization of trade unions, and the emancipation of women in a land
almost entirely Muslim.
Afghanistan's thousand-mile border with the Soviet Union had always
produced a special relationship. Even while it was a monarchy, the
country had been under the strong influence of its powerful northern
neighbor, which had long been its largest trading partner, aid donor,
and military supplier. But the country had never been gobbled up by
the Soviets, a fact that perhaps lends credence to the oft-repeated
Soviet claim that their hegemony over Eastern Europe was only created
as a buffer between themselves and the frequently-invading West.
Nevertheless, for decades Washington and the Shah of Iran tried to
pressure and bribe Afghanistan in order to roll back Russian
influence in the country. During the Daoud regime, Iran, encouraged
by the United States, sought to replace the Soviet Union as Kabul's
biggest donor with a $2 billion economic aid agreement, and urged
Afghanistan to join the Regional Cooperation for Development, which
consisted of Iran, Pakistan and Turkey. (This organization was
attacked by the Soviet Union and its friends in Afghanistan as being
"a branch of CENTO" the 1950s regional security pact that was part of
the US policy of containment of the Soviet Union.) At the same time,
Iran's infamous secret police SAVAK was busy fingering suspected
Communist sympathizers in the Afghan government. In September 1975,
prodded by Iran which was conditioning its aid on such policies,
Daoud gradually dismissed 40 Soviet-trained military officers and
moved to reduce future Afghan dependence on officer training in the
USSR by initiating training arrangements with India and Egypt. Most
important, in Soviet eyes, Daoud gradually broke off his alliance
with the PDP, announcing that he would start his own party and ban
all other political activity under a projected new constitution.
Selig Harrison, the Washington Post's South Asia specialist, wrote an
article in 1970 entitled "'The Shah, Not the Kremlin, Touched off
Afghan Coup", concluding:
"The Communist takeover in Kabul (April 1978] came about when it did,
and in the way that it did, because the Shah disturbed the tenuous
equilibrium that had existed in Afghanistan between the Soviet Union
and the West for neatly three decades. In Iranian and American eyes,
Teheran's offensive was merely- designed to make Kabul more truly
nonaligned, but it went far beyond that Given the unusually long
frontier with Afghanistan, the Soviet Union would clearly go to great
lengths to prevent Kabul from moving once again toward a pro-western
stance."
When the Shah was overthrown in January 1979, the United States lost
its chief ally and outpost in the Soviet-border region, as well as
its military installations and electronic monitoring stations aimed
at the Soviet Union. Washington's cold warriors could only eye
Afghanistan even more covetously than before.
After the April revolution, the new government under President Noor
Mohammed Taraki declared a commitment to Islam within a secular
state, and to non-alignment in foreign affairs. It maintained that
the coup had not been foreign inspired, that it was not a "Communist
takeover", and that they were not "Communists" but rather
nationalists and revolutionaries. (No official or traditional
Communist Party had ever existed in Afghanistan.) But because of its
radical reform program, its class-struggle and anti-imperialist-type
rhetoric, its support of all the usual suspects (Cuba, North Korea,
etc.), its signing of a friendship treaty and other cooperative
agreements with the Soviet Union, and an increased presence in the
country of Soviet civilian and military advisers (though probably
less than the US had in Iran at the time), it was labeled "communist"
by the world's media and by its domestic opponents.
Whether or not the new government in Afghanistan should properly have
been called communist, whether or not it made any difference what it
was called, the lines were now drawn for political, military, and
propaganda battle: a jihad (holy war) between fundamentalist Muslims
and "godless atheistic communists"; Afghan nationalism vs. a
"Soviet-run" government; large landowners, tribal chiefs,
businessmen, the extended royal family, and others vs. the
government's economic reforms. Said the new prime minister about this
elite, who were needed to keep the country running, "every effort
will be made to attract them. But we want to re-educate them in such
a manner that they should think about the people, and not, as
previously, just about themselves-to have a good house and a nice
car" while other people die of hunger."
The Afghan government was trying to drag the country into the 20th
century. In May 1979, British political scientist Fred Halliday
observed that "probably more has changed in the countryside over the
last year than in the two centuries since the state was established."
Peasant debts to landlords had been canceled, the system of usury (by
which peasant were forced to borrow money against future crops, were
left in perpetual debt to lenders) was abolished, and hundreds of
schools and medical clinics were being built in the countryside.
Halliday also reported that a substantial land-redistribution program
was underway, with many of the 200,000 rural families scheduled to
receive land under this reform already having done so. But this last
claim must be approached with caution. Revolutionary land reform is
always an extremely complex and precarious under the best of
conditions, and ultra-backward, tradition-hound Afghanistan in the
midst of nascent civil war hardly offered the best of conditions for
social experiment.
The reforms also encroached into the sensitive area of Islamic
subjugation of women by outlawing child marriage and the giving of a
woman in marriage in exchange for money or commodities, and teaching
women to read, at a time when certain Islamic sectors were openly
calling for reinforcement of 'purdah', the seclusion of women from
public observation.
Halliday noted that the People's Democratic Party saw the Soviet
Union as the only realistic source of support for the long-overdue
modernization. The illiterate Afghan peasant's ethnic cousins across
the border in the Soviet Union were, after all, often university
graduates and professionals.
The argument of the Moujahedeen ("holy warriors") rebels that the
"communist" government would curtail their religious freedom was
never borne out in practice. A year and a half after the change in
government, the conservative British magazine The Economist reported
that "no restrictions had been imposed on religious practice".
Earlier, the New York Times stated that the religious issue "is being
used by some Afghans who actually object more to President Taraki's
plans for land reforms and other changes in this feudal society."
Many of the Muslim clergy were in fact rich landowners. The rebels,
concluded a BBC reporter who spent four months with them, are
"fighting to retain their feudal system and stop the Kabul
government's left-wing reforms which [are] considered anti-Islamic."
The two other nations which shared a long border with Afghanistan,
and were closely allied to the United States, expressed their fears
of the new government. To the west, Iran, still under the Shah,
worried about "threats to oil-passage routes in the Persian Gulf".
Pakistan, to the south, spoke of "threats from a hostile and
expansionist Afghanistan." A former US ambassador to Afghanistan saw
it as part of a "gradually closing pincer movement aimed at Iran and
the oil regions of the Middle East." None of these alleged fears
turned out to have any substance or evidence to back them up, but to
the anti-communist mind this might prove only that the Russians and
their Afghan puppets had been stopped in time.
Two months after the April 1978 coup, an alliance formed by a number
of conservative Islamic factions was waging guerrilla war against the
government. By spring 1979, fighting was taking place on many fronts,
and the State Department was cautioning the Soviet Union that its
advisers in Afghanistan should not interfere militarily in the civil
strife. One such warning in the summer by State Department spokesman
Hodding Carter was another of those Washington monuments to chutzpah;
"We expect the principle of nonintervention to be respected by all
parties in the area, including the Soviet Union." This while the
Soviets were charging the CIA with arming Afghan exiles in Pakistan;
and the Afghanistan government was accusing Pakistan and Iran of also
aiding the guerrillas and even of crossing the border to take part in
the fighting. Pakistan had recently taken its own turn toward strict
Muslim orthodoxy, which the Afghan government deplored as a
"fanatic," while in January, Iran had established a Muslim state
after overthrowing the Shah. (As opposed to the Afghan fundamentalist
freedom fighters, the Iranian Islamic fundamentalists were regularly
described in the West as terrorists, ultra-conservatives, and
anti-democratic.)
A "favorite tactic" of the Afghan freedom fighters was "to torture
victims [often Russians] by first cutting off their noses, ears, and
genitals, then removing one slice of skin after another", producing
"a slow, very painful death". The Moujahedeen also killed a Canadian
tourist and six West Germans, including two children, and a U.S.
military attaché was dragged from his car and beaten; all due to the
rebels' apparent inability to distinguish Russians from other
Europeans.
In March 1979, Taraki went to Moscow to press the Soviets to send
ground troops to help the Afghan army put down the Moujahedeen. He
was promised military assistance, but ground troops could not be
committed. Soviet Prime Minister Kosygin told the Afghan leader:
"The entry of our troops into Afghanistan would outrage the
international community, triggering a string of extremely negative
consequences in many different areas. Our common enemies are just
waiting for the moment when Soviet troops appear in Afghanistan. This
will give them the excuse they need to send armed bands into the
country."
In September, the question became completely academic for Noor
Mohammed Taraki, for he was ousted (and his death soon announced) in
an intra -party struggle and replaced by his own deputy prime
minister, Hafizullah Amin. Although Taraki had sometimes been
heavy-handed in implementing the reform program, and had created
opposition even amongst the intended beneficiaries, he turned out to
be a moderate compared to Amin who tried to institute social change
by riding roughshod over tradition and tribal and ethnic autonomy.
The Kremlin was unhappy with Amin. The fact that he had been involved
in the overthrow and death of the much-favored Taraki was bad enough.
But the Soviets also regarded him as thoroughly unsuitable for the
task that was Moscow's sine qua non; preventing an anti-communist
Islamic state from arising in Afghanistan. Amin gave reform an
exceedingly bad name. The KGB station in Kabul, in pressing for
Amin's removal, stated that his usurpation of power would lead to
"harsh repressions and, as a reaction, the activation and
consolidation of the opposition". Moreover, as we shall see, the
Soviets were highly suspicious about Amin's ideological convictions.
Thus it was, that what in March had been unthinkable, in December
became a reality. Soviet troops began to arrive in Afghanistan around
the 8th of the month - to what extent at Amin's request or with his
approval, and, consequently, whether to call the action an "invasion"
or not, has been the subject of much discussion and controversy.
On the 23rd the Washington Post commented "There was no charge [by
the State Department] that the Soviets have invaded Afghanistan,
since the troops apparently were invited."
However, at a meeting with Soviet-bloc ambassadors in October, Amin's
foreign minister had openly criticized the Soviet Union for
interfering in Afghan affairs. Amin himself insisted that Moscow
replace its ambassador. Yet, on 26 December, while the main body of
Soviet troops was arriving in Afghanistan, Amin gave "a relaxed
interview" to an Arab journalist. "The Soviets," he said, "supply my
country with economic and military aid, but at the same time they
respect our independence and our sovereignty. They do not interfere
in our domestic affairs." He also spoke approvingly of the USSR's
willingness to accept his veto on military bases.
The very next day, a Soviet military force stormed the presidential
palace and shot Amin dead.
He was replaced by Babrak Karmal, who had been vice president and
deputy prime minister in the 1978 revolutionary government.
Moscow denied any part in Amin's death, though they didn't pretend to
be sorry about it, as Brezhnev made clear:
"The actions of the aggressors against Afghanistan were facilitated
by Amin who, on seizing power, started cruelly repressing broad
sections of Afghan society, party and military cadres, members of the
intelligentsia and of the Moslem clergy, that is, the very sections
on which the April revolution relied. And the people under the
leadership of the People's Democratic Party,' headed by Babrak
Karmal, rose against Amin's tyranny and put an end to it. Now in
Washington and some other capitals they are mourning Amin. This
exposes their hypocrisy with particular clarity. Where were these
mourners when Amin was conducting mass repressions, when he forcibly
removed and unlawfully killed Taraki, the founder of the new Afghan
state?"
After Amin's ouster and execution, the public thronged the streets in
"a holiday spirit". "If Karmal could have overthrown Amin without the
Russians," observed a Western diplomat, "he would have been seen as a
hero of the people."
The Soviet government and press repeatedly referred to Amin as a "CIA
agent", a charge which was greeted with great skepticism in the
United States and elsewhere. However, enough circumstantial evidence
supporting the charge exists so that it perhaps should not be
dismissed entirely out of hand.
During the late 1950s and early '60s, Amin had attended Columbia
University Teachers College and the University of Wisconsin. This was
a heyday period for the CIA-using impressive bribes and threats-to
regularly try to recruit foreign students in the United States to act
as agents for them when they returned home. During this period, at
least one president of the Afghanistan Students Association (ASA),
Zia H. Noorzay, was working with the CIA in the United States and
later became president of the Afghanistan state treasury. One of the
Afghan students whom Noorzay and the CIA tried in vain to recruit,
Abdul Latif Hotaki, declared in 1967 that a good number of the key
officials in the Afghanistan government who studied in the United
States "are either CIA trained or indoctrinated. Some are cabinet
level people." It has been reported that in 1963 Amin became head of
the ASA, but this has not been corroborated. However, it is known
that the ASA received part of its funding from the Asia Foundation,
the CIA's principal front in Asia for many years, and that at one
time Amin was associated with this organization.
In September 1979, the month that Amin took power, the American
charge d'affaires in Kabul, Bruce Amstutz, began to hold friendly
meetings with him to reassure him that he need not worry about his
unhappy Soviet allies as long as the US maintained a strong presence
in Afghanistan. The strategy may have worked, for later in the month,
Amin made a special appeal to Amstutz for improved relations with the
United States. Two days later in New York, the Afghan Foreign
Minister quietly expressed the same sentiments to State Department
officials. And at the end of October, the US Embassy in Kabul
reported that Amin was "painfully aware of the exiled leadership the
Soviets [were] keeping on the shelf" (a reference to Karmal who was
living in Czechoslovakia). Under normal circumstances, the Amin-US
meetings might be regarded as routine and innocent diplomatic
contact, but these were hardly normal circumstances-the Afghan
government was engaged in a civil war, and the United States was
supporting the other side.
Moreover, it can be said that Amin, by his ruthlessness, was doing
just what an American agent would be expected to do: discrediting the
People's Democratic Party, the Party's reforms, the idea of socialism
or communism, and the Soviet Union, all associated in one package.
Amin also conducted purges in the army officer corps which seriously
underlined the army's combat capabilities.
But why would Amin, if he were actually plotting with the Americans,
request Soviet military forces on several occasions? The main reason
appears to be that he was being pressed to do so by high levels of
the PDP and he had to comply for the sake of appearances. Babrak
Karmal has suggested other, more Machiavellian, scenarios.
"The Carter administration jumped on the issue of the Soviet
"invasion" and soon launched a campaign of righteous indignation,
imposing what President Carter called "Penalties"-from halting the
delivery of grain to the Soviet Union to keeping the US team out of
the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
The Russians countered that the US was enraged by the intervention
because Washington had been plotting to turn the country into an
American base to replace the loss of lran.
Unsurprisingly, on this seemingly clear-cut anti-communist issue, the
American public and media easily fell in line with the president. The
Wall Street Journal called for a "military" reaction, the
establishment of US bases in the Middle East, "reinstatement of draft
registration", development of a new missile, and giving the CIA more
leeway, adding "Clearly we ought to keep open the chance of covert
aid to Afghan rebels." The last, whether the newspaper knew it or
not, had actually been going on for some time. In February 1980, the
Washington Post disclosed that while the United States was now
supplying weapons to the guerrillas,
"U.S. covert aid prior to the December invasion, according to
sources, was limited to funneling small amounts of medical supplies
and communications equipment to scattered rebel tribes, plus what is
described as "technical advice" to the rebels about where they could
acquire arms on their own ."
US foreign service officers had been meeting with rebel leaders to
determine their need at least as early as April 1979, and the CIA had
been training guerrillas in Pakistan and beaming radio propaganda
into Afghanistan since the year before.
Intervention in the Afghan civil war by the United States, Iran,
Pakistan, China and others gave the Russians grave concern about who
was going to wield power next door. They consistently cited these
"aggressive imperialist forces" to rationalize their own intervention
into Afghanistan, which was the first time Soviet ground troops had
engaged in military action anywhere in the world outside its post-
World War II Eastern European borders. The potential establishment of
an anti-communist Islamic state on the borders of the Soviet Union's
own republics in Soviet Central Asia that were home to some 40
million Muslims could not be regarded with equanimity by the Kremlin
any more than Washington could be unruffled about a communist
takeover in Mexico.
As we have seen repeatedly, the United States did not limit its
defense perimeter to its immediate neighbors, or even to Western
Europe, but to the entire globe. President Carter declared that the
Persian Gulf area was "now threatened by Soviet troops in
Afghanistan," that this area was synonymous with US interests, and
that the United States would "defend" it against any threat by all
means necessary. He called the Soviet action "the greatest threat to
peace since the Second World War", a statement that required
overlooking a great deal of post-war history. But 1980 was an
election year.
Brezhnev, on the other hand, declared that "the national interests or
security of the United States of America and other states are in no
way affected by the events Afghanistan. All attempts to portray
matters otherwise are sheer nonsense."
The Carter administration was equally dismissive of Soviet concerns.
National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski later stated that "the
issue was not what might have Brezhnev's subjective motives in going
into Afghanistan but the objective consequences of a Soviet military
presence so much closer to the Persian Gulf."
The stage was now set for 12 long years of the most horrific kind of
warfare, a daily atrocity for the vast majority of the Afghan people
who never asked for or wanted this war.
But the Soviet Union was determined that its borders must be
unthreatening. The Afghan government was committed to its goal of a
secular, reformed Afghanistan. The United States was determined that,
at a minimum, this should be the Soviets' Vietnam that they should
slowly bleed as the Americans had at a minimum; at a maximum ... that
was perhaps not as well thought out but American policymakers could
not fail to understand - though they dared not say it publicly and
explicitly - that support of the Moujahedeen (many of whom carried
pictures of the Ayatollah Khomeini with them) could lead to a
fundamentalist Islamic state established in Afghanistan every bit as
repressive as in next-door Iran, which in the 1980s; was Public Enemy
Number One in America. Neither could the word "terrorist" cross the
lips of Washington officials in speaking of their new allies/clients,
though these same people shot down civilian airliners and planted
bombs at the airport. In 1986, British Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher, whose emotional invectives against "terrorists" were second
to none, welcomed Abdul Haq, an Afghan rebel leader who admitted that
he had ordered the planting of a bomb at Kabul airport in 1984 which
killed at least 28 people. Such, then, were the scruples of cold-war
anti-communists in late 20th century. As Anastasio Somoza had been
"our son of a bitch", the Moujahedeen were now "our fanatic
terrorists". At the beginning there had been some thought given to
the morality of the policy. "The question here," a senior official in
the Carter administration said, "was whether it was morally
acceptable that, in order to keep the Soviets off balance, which was
the reason for the operation, it was permissible to use other lives
for our geopolitical interests."
But such sentiments could not survive. Afghanistan was a
cold-warrior's dream: The CIA and the Pentagon, finally, had one of
their proxy armies in direct confrontation with the forces of the
Evil Empire. There was no price too high to pay for this Super
Nintendo game, neither the hundreds of thousands of Afghan lives, nor
the destruction of Afghan society, nor three billion (sic) dollars of
American taxpayer money poured into a bottomless hole, much of it
going only to make a few Afghans and Pakistanis rich. Congress was
equally enthused-without even the moral uncertainty that made them
cautious about arming the Nicaraguan contras-and became a veritable
bipartisan horn of plenty as it allocated more and more money for the
effort each year. Rep. Charles Wilson of Texas expressed a
not-atypical sentiment of official Washington when he declared:
"There were 58,000 dead in Vietnam and we owe the Russians one ... I
have a slight obsession with it, because of Vietnam. I thought the
Soviets ought to get a dose of it ... I've been of the opinion that
this money was better spent to hurt our adversaries than other money
in the Defense Department budget."
--
Louis Proyect, lnp3@... on 09/16/2001
Marxism list: http://www.marxmail.org
Communism List _______________________________________________
Communism@...
Subject: [COMMUNISM LIST]Fw: historical questions
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 00:13:01 +0100
From: "Karl Carlile" <dagda@...>
Reply-To: communism@...
Organization: Communism List
To: <communism@...>
Communism List:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~kampf/
Workers of the world unite!
_______________________________________
The Guardian (London), November 23, 1995
PAKISTAN IS SECRET OF TALIBAN'S SUCCESS;
By John-Thor Dahlburg
IT HAS been one of the most breathtaking advances in the annals of
modern warfare: master of little more than a single city in
Afghanistan a year ago, the Taliban now controls more than half the
country.
And standing at the gates of Kabul, the Muslim fundamentalists
announced at the weekend that they had launched their final assault
to overrun the capital and chase President Burhanuddin Rabbani from
office.
Many observers believe it is only a matter of time before the
political map of a country mauled by more than 15 years of warfare
will be changed decisively.
The Taliban, a motley band of fighters chiefly composed of
inexperienced but courageous Islamic students, credits its lightning
success to its creed and to Allah. "The only real superpower is
Allah," said a commander, Mulvi Abdul Samad. But in the rugged
countryside of Baluchistan, the sparsely populated Pakistani province
of mountain and desert that runs parallel to Afghanistan for 670
miles, more worldly reasons come to light.
Attracted by the sacred Islamic ideal of jihad, or holy war, young
Pakistanis have flooded across the border to embrace Kalashnikov
rifles and the Taliban's cause.
And, despite repeated official denials, the Islamic republic of
Pakistan has given enormous support to the Muslim Afghan fighters in
the past year, the Los Angeles Times has learnt.
"Pakistan has decided not to give financial or military support to
any faction of the Afghans," the prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, told
an Iranian audience earlier this month.
But from Pakistan have come petrol for the Taliban's tanks, aircraft
and armoured vehicles, lorry convoys filled with munitions and other
supplies, and telecommunications equipment, experts and advice.
"This is the work of the Lawrence of Arabias of the ISI
(Inter-Services Intelligence)," said an opposition senator, Abdur
Rahim Khan Mandokhel of Baluchistan, who accuses the government of
trying to play puppet-master in Afghanistan.
===
The Guardian (London)
April 8, 1995
MUFTI IQBAL'S SCHOOL FOR MARTYRS;
'Rent-a-jihad' groups are sending out Muslims, including foreigners,
to fight abroad. Benazir Bhutto must crack down on fundamentalism to
prove her pro-Western credentials, but dare not go too far. Kathy
Evans in Peshawar reports on her dilemma
By Kathy Evans
THE bearded mullah sat cross-legged on the floor, fingering his beard
thoughtfully. "No, money is not a problem. We have many supporters
and they help us keep the jihad going," Mufti Iqbal smiled.
Mufti Iqbal is the Karachi front man for Harakat al Ansar, one of
Pakistan's numerous "rent-a-jihad" services. It is his job to recruit
local volunteers, receive foreign Muslims, and send them on to jihads
of their choosing. It is one of Pakistan's growing businesses.
The focus of Harakat's attention is Kashmir, the slither of territory
claimed by both India and Pakistan. Liberating the Kashmiri Muslims
from the Indian yoke is a national cause in Pakistan shared by
government and the man in the street. Mufti Iqbal, himself an Afghan
jihad veteran, offers contacts to other causes and conflicts,
however.
"Our main objective is to help Muslims all over the world secure
their freedom. We have received thousands of volunteers to fight in
Kashmir, Bosnia, Tajikistan and Chechenia. Jihad is, after all, an
obligation on all Muslims."
It was through Harakat al Ansar's conduit for would-be martyrs that
the young east London Pakistani, Ahmed Sheikh, was reported to have
passed. The former London School of Economics student now faces
charges of kidnapping two British tourists in India. Mufti Iqbal, the
Karachi recruiter, denies any knowledge of him.
Harakat al Ansar says it has several hundred foreign Muslims who have
come to "learn". Among the volunteers are Pakistanis, black American
Muslims, Arabs, Indians, Afghans, and even one Canadian.
The movement's officials deny they offer military training, saying
such skills are acquired at the front line. But Western diplomats in
Karachi say they have a well-established camp in Miranshahr, a remote
area bordering neighbouring Afghanistan.
The rent-a-jihad service is just one of the avenues available in
Pakistan to young Muslims from all over the world who seek to grow in
their religion and get an insight into the growing list of conflicts
in which Muslims find themselves in, against oppressive
Western-backed governments and the Christian world.
For such Muslims, Pakistan offers a number of attractions. It is a
cheap, police are bribeable, arms all too easily available, and in
whole chunks of the country government officials rarely venture.
The tribal areas function as playgrounds for the heroin and weapons
mafia. Here you can buy vital necessities for a terrorist movement.
Moreover, some of the causes espoused by religious groups enjoy
government support.
Throughout the interview with Mufti Iqbal, a man sat beside him on
the floor, prompting his answers. He claimed he was from a Pakistani
news agency.
"It's the ISI man" laughed my local newspaper colleague as we left.
"He is his minder".
ISI is the acronym for the Inter-Services Intelligence, one of
Pakistan's main intelligence agencies. It has many rivals, but none
enjoys the covert power of the ISI. That power is the product of the
multi-billion-dollar war effort launched by the West at the beginning
of the eighties to fight communism in Afghanistan. Today, its main
focus is Kashmir.
Afghanistan was the West's last war against the Soviet Union. More
than $ 10 billion was ploughed into this "heroic" cause by the US,
Britain and Saudi Arabia.
An early agreement in the conflict between America's CIA and the ISI
made the Pakistani agency the sole channel for the billions of
dollars worth of arms to the jihad. This gave the agency an
unprecedented influence in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, which
lingers to this day. Headed by General Hamid Gul, working under
General Zia ul-Haq, ISI established the seven guerrilla groups known
as the mojahedin.
Today, the mojahedin groups have become little more than heroin
warlords.
In Pakistani internal politics, ISI functions as an instrument of the
government in power, drumming up evidence against opponents and
making and un-making political parties.
Embarrassingly, some of its creations are thought to be behind the
recent killing sprees in Karachi, including possibly the shooting
last month of two US embassy officials.
ISI's Afghan jihad operation was also a siren call to militant
Muslims in the Middle and Far East. The agency turned a blind eye to
the thousands who flocked to Afghanistan for military training.
Afghanistan became a playground for any disgruntled Muslim who felt
oppressed.
Today, veterans of the Afghan war dominate terrorist groups in
Algeria and Egypt, and they remain a latent and feared force in the
Gulf states.
A number of Arab veterans of the Afghan war are facing trial in New
York for suspected involvement in the bombing of the World Trade
Centre in 1993. The latest suspect to join them in the New York
courtroom is Ramzi Youssef, said to be the master bomber.
If Western intelligence sources are to be believed, Ramzi Youssef was
one of the world's most dangerous terrorists. However, it is still
unclear whether he is a Pakistani Baluch, a Kuwaiti or an Iraqi.
Since his arrest, many stories have grown up around him. He was known
to have travelled to Manila, allegedly to kill the Pope on his tour
there.
It is not just abroad that Youssef was allegedly active. Benazir
Bhutto, Pakistan's prime minister, told journalists last month that
he was also behind an attempt to assassinate her in 1993. Pakistani
press reports have linked him with the Sunni extremist group Sepah
Sehaba, believed to be behind dozens of killings of Shias in Karachi,
and also a bombing in Iran.
Today the Arab route to training grounds in Afghanistan has virtually
ceased to exist. Dozens of Arab mojahedin have been arrested and
hundreds more have fled.
It has become virtual grounds for arrest to be an Arab and an Afghan
veteran and still live in Pakistan.
It is not just Arabs who have been subjected to the police's tactic
of rounding up the usual suspects. Last week, offices of the region's
oldest and largest Islamic group, the Jamaat Islami, were raided in
the police effort to root out militants.
The crackdown on militants preceded the vital trip to the United
States this week by Ms Bhutto. For her, it is the most important trip
of her administration, one in which she will attempt to portray
herself as the only reliable partner Washington and the West has to
fight fundamentalism in the region.
Only last year, Pakistan narrowly avoided being put on the American
list of states sponsoring terrorism. But in the effort to clean
militants out of Pakistan and brush up the country's image, Ms Bhutto
risks all.
Gen Hamid Gul, the former head of ISI, warns that if these arrests
continue, a typhoon will hit Pakistan.
"What is a fundamentalist anyway? A man with a beard? If the state
machinery goes after what it calls extremists, then the reaction
could be very very nasty. Inflation, the effects of IMF policies - if
mixed with a danger to the faith - could be very dangerous for the
country," he says.
Naturally, the first beneficiary of such a backlash would be groups
Gen Gul is associated with. The former intelligence chief is said to
be a key figure behind the increasingly political campaign by the
former playboy-cricketer Imran Khan.
Another beneficiary of any reaction from Muslim groups is Ms Bhutto's
long-standing rival, the Lahore businessman Nawaz Sharif. Mr Sharif
has already been able to accuse her of attacking Islam to appease the
Americans. Unwittingly or not, Ms Bhutto has provided her opponents
with potent slogans.
It is not just on the parliamentary front that dangers lurk for Ms
Bhutto. Kashmir is a cause supported by both the ISI and the army,
two institutions which Ms Bhutto has to live with. India accuses both
of training and arming the Kashmiri militants. Western diplomats
believe that help is being organised by renegade elements in the ISI
and the army.
Figures such as Gen Gul continue to be admired in military circles
for their devotion to Islamic causes. In the past year, Ms Bhutto has
been trying to clean out Jamaat Islami sympathisers in the
intelligence service through her new ISI chief and loyalist, Javed
Ashraf.
Jamaat officials shrug off such changes, saying that in the end Ms
Bhutto has to do "her duty" towards Kashmir.
Publicly, Pakistani officials have consistently denied that they are
arming and training the militants. However, few Pakistanis would
bother to deny that the militants are able to buy weapons freely or
that they are helped to cross over to the Indian-controlled part of
Kashmir.
Any attack on these delicate covert mechanisms by Ms Bhutto would
lead to charges that the prime minister is not only against Islam but
against Pakistan's national cause, Kashmir. During the last 15 months
she has made her support for the cause a central platform from which
to reaffirm all her Islamic credentials. Rarely does she make a
speech without mentioning Kashmir and Islam in the same breath.
In private, her diplomats wonder why Pakistan cannot consider the
unthinkable third option - supporting total independence for
Kashmiris from both India and Pakistan. That way, they argue, the
fundamentalist groups and the role of the intelligence agencies, can
be wiped away in one go.
Gen Gul argues that if the West is really interested in curbing the
terrorism carried out in the name of Kashmir, it should try to
resolve the conflict, rather than fighting its symptoms.
Meanwhile, the prime minister's crackdown on militants is getting
closer to the groups and rent-a-jihad services that the Kashmir cause
has created. Ms Bhutto may find she can go only so far. It is a
dilemma which even her friends in Washington cannot help her with.
--
Communism List _______________________________________________
Communism@...
Subject:
[COMMUNISM LIST]Fw: Very interesting article from 1999 about
Bin Laden
Date:
Mon, 17 Sep 2001 00:10:23 +0100
From:
"Jeff Seaman" <scratcher11@...>
Reply-To:
communism@...
To:
<communism@...>
Communism List:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~kampf/
Workers of the world unite!
_______________________________________
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 3:31 PM
Subject: Very interesting article from 1999 about Bin Laden
I remember being struck by the tone of this article when it appeared.
It
suggests that Bin Laden is more the inspiration for terrorists than
their
mastermind, and that his grievances are focused on the US presence in
Saudi
Arabia. I had seen nothing like it in the mainstream media before, and
nothing since. Did anyone see the Frontline documentary related to this
article?
Steven Sherman
April 13, 1999, Tuesday
U.S. Hard Put to Find Proof Bin Laden Directed Attacks
By TIM WEINER
American commandos are poised near the Afghan border, hoping to capture
Osama
bin Laden, the man charged with blowing up two American embassies in
Africa
eight months ago, senior American officials say.
But they still do not know how to find him. They are depending on his
protectors in Afghanistan to betray him -- a slim reed of hope for one
of the
biggest and most complicated international criminal investigations in
American history.
Capturing Mr. bin Laden alive could deepen the complications. American
officials say that so far, firsthand evidence that could be used in
court to
prove that he commanded the bombings has proven difficult to obtain.
According to the public record, none of the informants involved in the
case
have direct knowledge of Mr. bin Laden's involvement.
For now, officials say, Federal prosecutors appear to be building a case
that
his violent words and ideas, broadcast from an Afghan cave, incited
terrorist
acts thousands of miles away.
In their war against Mr. bin Laden, American officials portray him as
the
world's most dangerous terrorist. But reporters for The New York Times
and
the PBS program ''Frontline,'' working in cooperation, have found him to
be
less a commander of terrorists than an inspiration for them.
Enemies and supporters, from members of the Saudi opposition to present
and
former American intelligence officials, say he may not be as globally
powerful as some American officials have asserted. But his message and
aims
have more resonance among Muslims around the world than has been
understood
here.
''You can kill Osama bin Laden today or tomorrow; you can arrest him and
put
him on trial in New York or in Washington,'' said Ahmed Sattar, an aide
to
Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric convicted of
inspiring the
bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. ''If this will end the
problem --
no. Tomorrow you will get somebody else.''
Interviews with senior American officials and knowledgeable observers of
Mr.
bin Laden in Pakistan, Sudan and elsewhere suggest that there is
widespread
support among ordinary people in the Muslim world for his central
political
argument: that American troops should get out of Saudi Arabia. The
embassy
bombings, they note, took place eight years to the day after the G.I.'s
were
ordered onto Saudi soil.
The interviews also raise questions about key assertions that have been
made
by the Government about Mr. bin Laden. Senior intelligence officials
concede
that their knowledge of him is sketchy.
''We can't say for sure what was going on'' with him from 1991 to 1996
--
most of the years covered in the indictment -- one senior official said.
His Affluence Seems Overstated
Present and former American officials and former business associates of
Mr.
bin Laden say he appears to control only a fraction of the $250 million
fortune that the American Government says he possesses.
''Clearly, his money's running out,'' said Frank Anderson, a former
senior
Central Intelligence Agency official who maintains close Middle Eastern
contacts.
Larry Johnson, the State Department deputy counterterrorism director
from
1988 to 1993, said Administration officials had ''tended to make Osama
bin
Laden sort of a Superman in Muslim garb -- he's 10 feet tall, he's
everywhere, he knows everything, he's got lots of money and he can't be
challenged.''
Milton Bearden, a retired senior C.I.A. official who ran the agency's
war in
Afghanistan and retired in 1995, said the Government had ''created a
North
Star'' in Mr. bin Laden.
''He is public enemy No. 1,'' Mr. Bearden said. ''We've got a $5 million
reward out for his head. And now we have, with I'm not sure what
evidence,
linked him to all of the terrorist acts of this year -- of this decade,
perhaps.''
Political leaders in Sudan and Pakistan who have met Mr. bin Laden
describe
him as intelligent, soft-spoken, polite. They also say he is deadly
serious
about his violent brand of radical politics and capable of killing in
God's
name.
Mr. bin Laden was born into the ruling class of Saudi Arabia. His father
was
the favorite construction magnate of the Saudi royal family, who gave
Mr. bin
Laden's family huge contracts to renovate the holy cities of Mecca and
Medina
and build palaces for Saudi princes.
American officials calculated Mr. bin Laden's fortune by estimating the
family fortune at $5 billion and dividing by 20, the number of male
heirs.
But business associates of Mr. bin Laden said his family cut him off
years
ago and are managing his share of his inheritance for him as long as he
is
disowned. Business associates say that Mr. bin Laden has been living on
a
generous allowance from his eldest brother and that his assets in Saudi
Arabia are now frozen.
In 1980, at 22, Mr. bin Laden left Saudi Arabia and moved to the Afghan
frontier. In Peshawar, Pakistan -- working alongside, but never directly
allied with, the C.I.A. -- he used his money and his machines to help
the
Afghan rebels fight the Soviet Army invaders.
The Afghan war shaped Mr. bin Laden, those who know him say. ''He is an
ordinary person who is very religious,'' said President Omar Hassan
al-Bashir
of Sudan, who met Mr. bin Laden often from 1992 to 1996. ''He believes
in the
rule of Islam and where possible the establishment of an Islamic state.
The
time that he spent in Afghanistan led him to believe that this might be
achieved through military means.''
Legend has it that Mr. bin Laden fought bravely against Soviet troops.
But
former C.I.A. officers say he was a financier, not a warrior -- ''a
philanthropist supporting a number of health care, widows-and-orphans
charity
operations in Peshawar for Afghan refugees,'' as Mr. Anderson put it.
He also helped create a headquarters called Al Qaeda, the Base. It was a
way
station in Peshawar where Egyptian and Saudi volunteers rested before
setting
off for battle in Afghanistan. Its name became a kind of flag uniting
Mr. bin
Laden's followers. American officials call it a global terrorist
network.
When the Soviet forces left Afghanistan in 1989, Mr. bin Laden went home
to
Saudi Arabia. He soon set his sights on the last remaining superpower.
''He himself was very much wary about America,'' said Saad al-Faqih, a
Saudi
exile living in London, who worked as a surgeon for wounded Afghan
fighters,
''very skeptical about America and the Saudi regime.''
He found a new enemy on Aug. 7, 1990, when the United States began
sending
half a million soldiers to Saudi Arabia, preparing for war against Iraq.
''One of the stories put out by bin Laden is that he went to King Fahd
and
promised that he would raise holy warriors who would protect Saudi
Arabia,''
said Mr. Anderson, who was the chief of the C.I.A.'s Near East
operations in
the mid-1990's. ''His violent opposition to the Saudi royal family began
when
King Fahd denied or rejected that offer.''
Americans Painted As New Crusaders
To Mr. bin Laden the deployment of Americans in the land of Mecca and
Medina
smacked of the Crusades, the Christian religious wars against Islam that
began nine centuries ago. His rage transformed him into a stateless
outlaw.
In November 1991, Saudi intelligence officers caught Mr. bin Laden
smuggling
weapons from Yemen, his father's homeland. They withdrew his passport.
Soon
afterward he made his way to Sudan, which had decreed its borders open
to all
Muslims, with or without passports or visas.
Veterans of the Afghan jihad, or holy war, against Moscow followed Mr.
bin
Laden, under Al Qaeda's banner. But ''when Al Qaeda was moved to Sudan,
it
lost around 70 percent of its members,'' Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, accused
of
being an associate of Mr. bin Laden, said during an interrogation by the
German police after his arrest in September.
''This group didn't have a purpose except to carry out the jihad,'' Mr.
Salim
said, ''and since nobody carried out the jihad, it lost a lot of its
members.''
He Lived As an Investor
There were three kinds of men in Al Qaeda, he said. First, ''people who
had
no success in life, had nothing in their heads and wanted to join just
to
keep from falling on their noses.'' Second, ''people who loved their
religion
but had no idea what their religion really meant.'' And third, ''people
who
have nothing in their heads but to fight and solve all the problems in
the
world with battles.''
Mr. bin Laden lived in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, ''as an
investor,''
said President Bashir. ''With his money, he was adventurous, and
probably he
gained this mentality by his experiences as a fighter.''
The indictment against Mr. bin Laden says he provided training camps in
Sudan
where Afghan war veterans prepared for terrorist missions. But a senior
American intelligence official contradicted that, saying, ''There was
never a
bin Laden-financed training camp in Sudan.''
The official added: ''In 1993, '94, '95, he's managing and building up
his
legitimate business presence there in Sudan. I won't pretend we've got a
good
intelligence base on this period, but we think he was laying the
groundwork
for Al Qaeda.''
In 1995 two C.I.A. officers were stalked by teen-age followers of Mr.
bin
Laden in the streets of Khartoum. ''Bin Laden was approached by us and
was
told that this would not be tolerated,'' said Ghazi Salaheldin, the
Sudanese
Information Minister. Sudan expelled the teen-agers.
In the face of such perceived threats -- though some were mirages, based
on a
slew of false C.I.A. reports -- the United States withdrew from Sudan in
late
1995. The absence of American diplomats and spies in the country
diminished
Washington's ability to know what Mr. bin Laden was doing at the very
moment
he stepped up his political war.
In 1995, after the Saudi Government rescinded his citizenship, he began
sending scathing attacks on the royal family from Khartoum.
''Bin Laden took a chance and started doing some political activities,''
President Bashir said, ''not terrorist activities, but he started
issuing
political bulletins and communiques and faxes'' denouncing the Saudi
Government as corrupt and repressive.
The United States took notice. ''There had been confusion'' after the
World
Trade Center bombing about the nature of radical Islamic threats to the
United States, said Mr. Johnson, the former senior counterterrorism
official.
No Evidence To Implicate Him
''There were lots of theories, not very good intelligence, and so the
intelligence community actually started generating a picture that Osama
bin
Laden was, if you will, the new face of terrorism,'' he said.
On May 31, 1996, four Saudis were beheaded after confessing to bombing a
Saudi National Guard post in Riyadh and killing five Americans. All told
their interrogators that they had received Mr. bin Laden's communiques.
Only
25 days later, a truck bomb tore through a military post in Dhahran,
killing
19 American soldiers.
Mr. bin Laden was blamed by American officials for instigating the
attacks.
But no known evidence implicates him, and the Saudi Interior Minister,
Prince
Nayef ibn Abdel Aziz, has absolved him. ''Maybe there are people who
adopt
his ideas,'' Prince Nayef said. ''He does not constitute any security
problem
to us.''
Shortly before the Dhahran attack, Mr. bin Laden and members of his
entourage
left Sudan in a C-130 military transport plane. The Sudanese had asked
him to
leave -- at the request of the United States. Mr. bin Laden landed at an
American-built airport in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Three months later, on
Aug.
23, 1996, he declared war on the United States.
''The situation in Saudi Arabia is like a great volcano about to
erupt,'' his
declaration stated. ''Everyone talks openly about economic recession,
high
prices, debt'' and ''the filling up of the prisons.''
How Did He Control the Bombers?
Mr. bin Laden's criticisms of Saudi repression and corruption closely
corresponded with State Department reports and C.I.A. analyses. But Mr.
bin
Laden blamed the United States. ''The root of the problem is the
occupying
American enemy,'' he proclaimed, ''and all efforts should focus on
killing,
fighting and destroying it.''
A second, more ominous warning from him came on Feb. 23, 1998: ''To kill
Americans and their allies, both civil and military, is an individual
duty of
every Muslim who is able, in any country where this is possible,'' until
American armies, ''shattered and broken-winged, depart from all the
lands of
Islam.''
Then came the embassy bombings last August. American authorities say the
men
who attacked the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were controlled by Mr.
bin
Laden. But they still have no clear idea how.
Despite efforts at the highest levels of the United States Government,
Mr.
bin Laden and his closest associates remain isolated in Afghanistan.
It is difficult to say precisely where the criminal case against Mr. bin
Laden stands. Prosecutors have obtained unusually restrictive court
orders
that bar the defendants and their lawyers from communicating with
virtually
anyone.
The Case Runs Out of Steam
Publicly, at least, the case has lost momentum. While two men suspected
of
being bombers were quickly apprehended, many other suspects are still at
large. The last arrest was more than six months ago. A spokesman for the
United States Attorney in Manhattan declined comment.
Now the hunt for Mr. bin Laden depends on whether the Taliban, his
radical
hosts in Afghanistan, will betray him. The United States has little
leverage
with the Taliban, and little fresh intelligence on how to capture Mr.
bin
Laden. It has no spies in Afghanistan and little new information on
precisely
how he might have instigated the deadly bombings.
''I do not have a clear picture yet of what happened when,'' said
Prudence
Bushnell, the United States Ambassador to Kenya, who was wounded in the
bomb
blast, which killed 12 of her colleagues. ''I may not ever have a clear
picture of what happened when. None of us may.''
A COLLABORATION
This article resulted from a collaboration between The New York Times
and the
PBS program ''Frontline,'' which will broadcast a documentary tonight
about
Osama bin Laden that will run on most PBS stations at 9 o'clock. The
''Frontline'' program was based on the work of Lowell Bergman,
correspondent,
Martin Smith, producer, and Orianna Zill and Ivana Damjanov, associate
producers.
ON THE WEB
Past coverage of Mr. bin Laden, the 1998 bombings of the American
embassies
in East Africa and the American response to terrorism is available from
The
New York Times on the Web:
www.nytimes.com/ international
Communism List _______________________________________________
Communism@...
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 00:13:01 +0100
From: "Karl Carlile" <dagda@...>
Reply-To: communism@...
Organization: Communism List
To: <communism@...>
Communism List:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~kampf/
Workers of the world unite!
_______________________________________
The Guardian (London), November 23, 1995
PAKISTAN IS SECRET OF TALIBAN'S SUCCESS;
By John-Thor Dahlburg
IT HAS been one of the most breathtaking advances in the annals of
modern warfare: master of little more than a single city in
Afghanistan a year ago, the Taliban now controls more than half the
country.
And standing at the gates of Kabul, the Muslim fundamentalists
announced at the weekend that they had launched their final assault
to overrun the capital and chase President Burhanuddin Rabbani from
office.
Many observers believe it is only a matter of time before the
political map of a country mauled by more than 15 years of warfare
will be changed decisively.
The Taliban, a motley band of fighters chiefly composed of
inexperienced but courageous Islamic students, credits its lightning
success to its creed and to Allah. "The only real superpower is
Allah," said a commander, Mulvi Abdul Samad. But in the rugged
countryside of Baluchistan, the sparsely populated Pakistani province
of mountain and desert that runs parallel to Afghanistan for 670
miles, more worldly reasons come to light.
Attracted by the sacred Islamic ideal of jihad, or holy war, young
Pakistanis have flooded across the border to embrace Kalashnikov
rifles and the Taliban's cause.
And, despite repeated official denials, the Islamic republic of
Pakistan has given enormous support to the Muslim Afghan fighters in
the past year, the Los Angeles Times has learnt.
"Pakistan has decided not to give financial or military support to
any faction of the Afghans," the prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, told
an Iranian audience earlier this month.
But from Pakistan have come petrol for the Taliban's tanks, aircraft
and armoured vehicles, lorry convoys filled with munitions and other
supplies, and telecommunications equipment, experts and advice.
"This is the work of the Lawrence of Arabias of the ISI
(Inter-Services Intelligence)," said an opposition senator, Abdur
Rahim Khan Mandokhel of Baluchistan, who accuses the government of
trying to play puppet-master in Afghanistan.
===
The Guardian (London)
April 8, 1995
MUFTI IQBAL'S SCHOOL FOR MARTYRS;
'Rent-a-jihad' groups are sending out Muslims, including foreigners,
to fight abroad. Benazir Bhutto must crack down on fundamentalism to
prove her pro-Western credentials, but dare not go too far. Kathy
Evans in Peshawar reports on her dilemma
By Kathy Evans
THE bearded mullah sat cross-legged on the floor, fingering his beard
thoughtfully. "No, money is not a problem. We have many supporters
and they help us keep the jihad going," Mufti Iqbal smiled.
Mufti Iqbal is the Karachi front man for Harakat al Ansar, one of
Pakistan's numerous "rent-a-jihad" services. It is his job to recruit
local volunteers, receive foreign Muslims, and send them on to jihads
of their choosing. It is one of Pakistan's growing businesses.
The focus of Harakat's attention is Kashmir, the slither of territory
claimed by both India and Pakistan. Liberating the Kashmiri Muslims
from the Indian yoke is a national cause in Pakistan shared by
government and the man in the street. Mufti Iqbal, himself an Afghan
jihad veteran, offers contacts to other causes and conflicts,
however.
"Our main objective is to help Muslims all over the world secure
their freedom. We have received thousands of volunteers to fight in
Kashmir, Bosnia, Tajikistan and Chechenia. Jihad is, after all, an
obligation on all Muslims."
It was through Harakat al Ansar's conduit for would-be martyrs that
the young east London Pakistani, Ahmed Sheikh, was reported to have
passed. The former London School of Economics student now faces
charges of kidnapping two British tourists in India. Mufti Iqbal, the
Karachi recruiter, denies any knowledge of him.
Harakat al Ansar says it has several hundred foreign Muslims who have
come to "learn". Among the volunteers are Pakistanis, black American
Muslims, Arabs, Indians, Afghans, and even one Canadian.
The movement's officials deny they offer military training, saying
such skills are acquired at the front line. But Western diplomats in
Karachi say they have a well-established camp in Miranshahr, a remote
area bordering neighbouring Afghanistan.
The rent-a-jihad service is just one of the avenues available in
Pakistan to young Muslims from all over the world who seek to grow in
their religion and get an insight into the growing list of conflicts
in which Muslims find themselves in, against oppressive
Western-backed governments and the Christian world.
For such Muslims, Pakistan offers a number of attractions. It is a
cheap, police are bribeable, arms all too easily available, and in
whole chunks of the country government officials rarely venture.
The tribal areas function as playgrounds for the heroin and weapons
mafia. Here you can buy vital necessities for a terrorist movement.
Moreover, some of the causes espoused by religious groups enjoy
government support.
Throughout the interview with Mufti Iqbal, a man sat beside him on
the floor, prompting his answers. He claimed he was from a Pakistani
news agency.
"It's the ISI man" laughed my local newspaper colleague as we left.
"He is his minder".
ISI is the acronym for the Inter-Services Intelligence, one of
Pakistan's main intelligence agencies. It has many rivals, but none
enjoys the covert power of the ISI. That power is the product of the
multi-billion-dollar war effort launched by the West at the beginning
of the eighties to fight communism in Afghanistan. Today, its main
focus is Kashmir.
Afghanistan was the West's last war against the Soviet Union. More
than $ 10 billion was ploughed into this "heroic" cause by the US,
Britain and Saudi Arabia.
An early agreement in the conflict between America's CIA and the ISI
made the Pakistani agency the sole channel for the billions of
dollars worth of arms to the jihad. This gave the agency an
unprecedented influence in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, which
lingers to this day. Headed by General Hamid Gul, working under
General Zia ul-Haq, ISI established the seven guerrilla groups known
as the mojahedin.
Today, the mojahedin groups have become little more than heroin
warlords.
In Pakistani internal politics, ISI functions as an instrument of the
government in power, drumming up evidence against opponents and
making and un-making political parties.
Embarrassingly, some of its creations are thought to be behind the
recent killing sprees in Karachi, including possibly the shooting
last month of two US embassy officials.
ISI's Afghan jihad operation was also a siren call to militant
Muslims in the Middle and Far East. The agency turned a blind eye to
the thousands who flocked to Afghanistan for military training.
Afghanistan became a playground for any disgruntled Muslim who felt
oppressed.
Today, veterans of the Afghan war dominate terrorist groups in
Algeria and Egypt, and they remain a latent and feared force in the
Gulf states.
A number of Arab veterans of the Afghan war are facing trial in New
York for suspected involvement in the bombing of the World Trade
Centre in 1993. The latest suspect to join them in the New York
courtroom is Ramzi Youssef, said to be the master bomber.
If Western intelligence sources are to be believed, Ramzi Youssef was
one of the world's most dangerous terrorists. However, it is still
unclear whether he is a Pakistani Baluch, a Kuwaiti or an Iraqi.
Since his arrest, many stories have grown up around him. He was known
to have travelled to Manila, allegedly to kill the Pope on his tour
there.
It is not just abroad that Youssef was allegedly active. Benazir
Bhutto, Pakistan's prime minister, told journalists last month that
he was also behind an attempt to assassinate her in 1993. Pakistani
press reports have linked him with the Sunni extremist group Sepah
Sehaba, believed to be behind dozens of killings of Shias in Karachi,
and also a bombing in Iran.
Today the Arab route to training grounds in Afghanistan has virtually
ceased to exist. Dozens of Arab mojahedin have been arrested and
hundreds more have fled.
It has become virtual grounds for arrest to be an Arab and an Afghan
veteran and still live in Pakistan.
It is not just Arabs who have been subjected to the police's tactic
of rounding up the usual suspects. Last week, offices of the region's
oldest and largest Islamic group, the Jamaat Islami, were raided in
the police effort to root out militants.
The crackdown on militants preceded the vital trip to the United
States this week by Ms Bhutto. For her, it is the most important trip
of her administration, one in which she will attempt to portray
herself as the only reliable partner Washington and the West has to
fight fundamentalism in the region.
Only last year, Pakistan narrowly avoided being put on the American
list of states sponsoring terrorism. But in the effort to clean
militants out of Pakistan and brush up the country's image, Ms Bhutto
risks all.
Gen Hamid Gul, the former head of ISI, warns that if these arrests
continue, a typhoon will hit Pakistan.
"What is a fundamentalist anyway? A man with a beard? If the state
machinery goes after what it calls extremists, then the reaction
could be very very nasty. Inflation, the effects of IMF policies - if
mixed with a danger to the faith - could be very dangerous for the
country," he says.
Naturally, the first beneficiary of such a backlash would be groups
Gen Gul is associated with. The former intelligence chief is said to
be a key figure behind the increasingly political campaign by the
former playboy-cricketer Imran Khan.
Another beneficiary of any reaction from Muslim groups is Ms Bhutto's
long-standing rival, the Lahore businessman Nawaz Sharif. Mr Sharif
has already been able to accuse her of attacking Islam to appease the
Americans. Unwittingly or not, Ms Bhutto has provided her opponents
with potent slogans.
It is not just on the parliamentary front that dangers lurk for Ms
Bhutto. Kashmir is a cause supported by both the ISI and the army,
two institutions which Ms Bhutto has to live with. India accuses both
of training and arming the Kashmiri militants. Western diplomats
believe that help is being organised by renegade elements in the ISI
and the army.
Figures such as Gen Gul continue to be admired in military circles
for their devotion to Islamic causes. In the past year, Ms Bhutto has
been trying to clean out Jamaat Islami sympathisers in the
intelligence service through her new ISI chief and loyalist, Javed
Ashraf.
Jamaat officials shrug off such changes, saying that in the end Ms
Bhutto has to do "her duty" towards Kashmir.
Publicly, Pakistani officials have consistently denied that they are
arming and training the militants. However, few Pakistanis would
bother to deny that the militants are able to buy weapons freely or
that they are helped to cross over to the Indian-controlled part of
Kashmir.
Any attack on these delicate covert mechanisms by Ms Bhutto would
lead to charges that the prime minister is not only against Islam but
against Pakistan's national cause, Kashmir. During the last 15 months
she has made her support for the cause a central platform from which
to reaffirm all her Islamic credentials. Rarely does she make a
speech without mentioning Kashmir and Islam in the same breath.
In private, her diplomats wonder why Pakistan cannot consider the
unthinkable third option - supporting total independence for
Kashmiris from both India and Pakistan. That way, they argue, the
fundamentalist groups and the role of the intelligence agencies, can
be wiped away in one go.
Gen Gul argues that if the West is really interested in curbing the
terrorism carried out in the name of Kashmir, it should try to
resolve the conflict, rather than fighting its symptoms.
Meanwhile, the prime minister's crackdown on militants is getting
closer to the groups and rent-a-jihad services that the Kashmir cause
has created. Ms Bhutto may find she can go only so far. It is a
dilemma which even her friends in Washington cannot help her with.
--
Communism List _______________________________________________
Communism@...
Subject:
[COMMUNISM LIST]Fw: Very interesting article from 1999 about
Bin Laden
Date:
Mon, 17 Sep 2001 00:10:23 +0100
From:
"Jeff Seaman" <scratcher11@...>
Reply-To:
communism@...
To:
<communism@...>
Communism List:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~kampf/
Workers of the world unite!
_______________________________________
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 3:31 PM
Subject: Very interesting article from 1999 about Bin Laden
I remember being struck by the tone of this article when it appeared.
It
suggests that Bin Laden is more the inspiration for terrorists than
their
mastermind, and that his grievances are focused on the US presence in
Saudi
Arabia. I had seen nothing like it in the mainstream media before, and
nothing since. Did anyone see the Frontline documentary related to this
article?
Steven Sherman
April 13, 1999, Tuesday
U.S. Hard Put to Find Proof Bin Laden Directed Attacks
By TIM WEINER
American commandos are poised near the Afghan border, hoping to capture
Osama
bin Laden, the man charged with blowing up two American embassies in
Africa
eight months ago, senior American officials say.
But they still do not know how to find him. They are depending on his
protectors in Afghanistan to betray him -- a slim reed of hope for one
of the
biggest and most complicated international criminal investigations in
American history.
Capturing Mr. bin Laden alive could deepen the complications. American
officials say that so far, firsthand evidence that could be used in
court to
prove that he commanded the bombings has proven difficult to obtain.
According to the public record, none of the informants involved in the
case
have direct knowledge of Mr. bin Laden's involvement.
For now, officials say, Federal prosecutors appear to be building a case
that
his violent words and ideas, broadcast from an Afghan cave, incited
terrorist
acts thousands of miles away.
In their war against Mr. bin Laden, American officials portray him as
the
world's most dangerous terrorist. But reporters for The New York Times
and
the PBS program ''Frontline,'' working in cooperation, have found him to
be
less a commander of terrorists than an inspiration for them.
Enemies and supporters, from members of the Saudi opposition to present
and
former American intelligence officials, say he may not be as globally
powerful as some American officials have asserted. But his message and
aims
have more resonance among Muslims around the world than has been
understood
here.
''You can kill Osama bin Laden today or tomorrow; you can arrest him and
put
him on trial in New York or in Washington,'' said Ahmed Sattar, an aide
to
Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric convicted of
inspiring the
bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. ''If this will end the
problem --
no. Tomorrow you will get somebody else.''
Interviews with senior American officials and knowledgeable observers of
Mr.
bin Laden in Pakistan, Sudan and elsewhere suggest that there is
widespread
support among ordinary people in the Muslim world for his central
political
argument: that American troops should get out of Saudi Arabia. The
embassy
bombings, they note, took place eight years to the day after the G.I.'s
were
ordered onto Saudi soil.
The interviews also raise questions about key assertions that have been
made
by the Government about Mr. bin Laden. Senior intelligence officials
concede
that their knowledge of him is sketchy.
''We can't say for sure what was going on'' with him from 1991 to 1996
--
most of the years covered in the indictment -- one senior official said.
His Affluence Seems Overstated
Present and former American officials and former business associates of
Mr.
bin Laden say he appears to control only a fraction of the $250 million
fortune that the American Government says he possesses.
''Clearly, his money's running out,'' said Frank Anderson, a former
senior
Central Intelligence Agency official who maintains close Middle Eastern
contacts.
Larry Johnson, the State Department deputy counterterrorism director
from
1988 to 1993, said Administration officials had ''tended to make Osama
bin
Laden sort of a Superman in Muslim garb -- he's 10 feet tall, he's
everywhere, he knows everything, he's got lots of money and he can't be
challenged.''
Milton Bearden, a retired senior C.I.A. official who ran the agency's
war in
Afghanistan and retired in 1995, said the Government had ''created a
North
Star'' in Mr. bin Laden.
''He is public enemy No. 1,'' Mr. Bearden said. ''We've got a $5 million
reward out for his head. And now we have, with I'm not sure what
evidence,
linked him to all of the terrorist acts of this year -- of this decade,
perhaps.''
Political leaders in Sudan and Pakistan who have met Mr. bin Laden
describe
him as intelligent, soft-spoken, polite. They also say he is deadly
serious
about his violent brand of radical politics and capable of killing in
God's
name.
Mr. bin Laden was born into the ruling class of Saudi Arabia. His father
was
the favorite construction magnate of the Saudi royal family, who gave
Mr. bin
Laden's family huge contracts to renovate the holy cities of Mecca and
Medina
and build palaces for Saudi princes.
American officials calculated Mr. bin Laden's fortune by estimating the
family fortune at $5 billion and dividing by 20, the number of male
heirs.
But business associates of Mr. bin Laden said his family cut him off
years
ago and are managing his share of his inheritance for him as long as he
is
disowned. Business associates say that Mr. bin Laden has been living on
a
generous allowance from his eldest brother and that his assets in Saudi
Arabia are now frozen.
In 1980, at 22, Mr. bin Laden left Saudi Arabia and moved to the Afghan
frontier. In Peshawar, Pakistan -- working alongside, but never directly
allied with, the C.I.A. -- he used his money and his machines to help
the
Afghan rebels fight the Soviet Army invaders.
The Afghan war shaped Mr. bin Laden, those who know him say. ''He is an
ordinary person who is very religious,'' said President Omar Hassan
al-Bashir
of Sudan, who met Mr. bin Laden often from 1992 to 1996. ''He believes
in the
rule of Islam and where possible the establishment of an Islamic state.
The
time that he spent in Afghanistan led him to believe that this might be
achieved through military means.''
Legend has it that Mr. bin Laden fought bravely against Soviet troops.
But
former C.I.A. officers say he was a financier, not a warrior -- ''a
philanthropist supporting a number of health care, widows-and-orphans
charity
operations in Peshawar for Afghan refugees,'' as Mr. Anderson put it.
He also helped create a headquarters called Al Qaeda, the Base. It was a
way
station in Peshawar where Egyptian and Saudi volunteers rested before
setting
off for battle in Afghanistan. Its name became a kind of flag uniting
Mr. bin
Laden's followers. American officials call it a global terrorist
network.
When the Soviet forces left Afghanistan in 1989, Mr. bin Laden went home
to
Saudi Arabia. He soon set his sights on the last remaining superpower.
''He himself was very much wary about America,'' said Saad al-Faqih, a
Saudi
exile living in London, who worked as a surgeon for wounded Afghan
fighters,
''very skeptical about America and the Saudi regime.''
He found a new enemy on Aug. 7, 1990, when the United States began
sending
half a million soldiers to Saudi Arabia, preparing for war against Iraq.
''One of the stories put out by bin Laden is that he went to King Fahd
and
promised that he would raise holy warriors who would protect Saudi
Arabia,''
said Mr. Anderson, who was the chief of the C.I.A.'s Near East
operations in
the mid-1990's. ''His violent opposition to the Saudi royal family began
when
King Fahd denied or rejected that offer.''
Americans Painted As New Crusaders
To Mr. bin Laden the deployment of Americans in the land of Mecca and
Medina
smacked of the Crusades, the Christian religious wars against Islam that
began nine centuries ago. His rage transformed him into a stateless
outlaw.
In November 1991, Saudi intelligence officers caught Mr. bin Laden
smuggling
weapons from Yemen, his father's homeland. They withdrew his passport.
Soon
afterward he made his way to Sudan, which had decreed its borders open
to all
Muslims, with or without passports or visas.
Veterans of the Afghan jihad, or holy war, against Moscow followed Mr.
bin
Laden, under Al Qaeda's banner. But ''when Al Qaeda was moved to Sudan,
it
lost around 70 percent of its members,'' Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, accused
of
being an associate of Mr. bin Laden, said during an interrogation by the
German police after his arrest in September.
''This group didn't have a purpose except to carry out the jihad,'' Mr.
Salim
said, ''and since nobody carried out the jihad, it lost a lot of its
members.''
He Lived As an Investor
There were three kinds of men in Al Qaeda, he said. First, ''people who
had
no success in life, had nothing in their heads and wanted to join just
to
keep from falling on their noses.'' Second, ''people who loved their
religion
but had no idea what their religion really meant.'' And third, ''people
who
have nothing in their heads but to fight and solve all the problems in
the
world with battles.''
Mr. bin Laden lived in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, ''as an
investor,''
said President Bashir. ''With his money, he was adventurous, and
probably he
gained this mentality by his experiences as a fighter.''
The indictment against Mr. bin Laden says he provided training camps in
Sudan
where Afghan war veterans prepared for terrorist missions. But a senior
American intelligence official contradicted that, saying, ''There was
never a
bin Laden-financed training camp in Sudan.''
The official added: ''In 1993, '94, '95, he's managing and building up
his
legitimate business presence there in Sudan. I won't pretend we've got a
good
intelligence base on this period, but we think he was laying the
groundwork
for Al Qaeda.''
In 1995 two C.I.A. officers were stalked by teen-age followers of Mr.
bin
Laden in the streets of Khartoum. ''Bin Laden was approached by us and
was
told that this would not be tolerated,'' said Ghazi Salaheldin, the
Sudanese
Information Minister. Sudan expelled the teen-agers.
In the face of such perceived threats -- though some were mirages, based
on a
slew of false C.I.A. reports -- the United States withdrew from Sudan in
late
1995. The absence of American diplomats and spies in the country
diminished
Washington's ability to know what Mr. bin Laden was doing at the very
moment
he stepped up his political war.
In 1995, after the Saudi Government rescinded his citizenship, he began
sending scathing attacks on the royal family from Khartoum.
''Bin Laden took a chance and started doing some political activities,''
President Bashir said, ''not terrorist activities, but he started
issuing
political bulletins and communiques and faxes'' denouncing the Saudi
Government as corrupt and repressive.
The United States took notice. ''There had been confusion'' after the
World
Trade Center bombing about the nature of radical Islamic threats to the
United States, said Mr. Johnson, the former senior counterterrorism
official.
No Evidence To Implicate Him
''There were lots of theories, not very good intelligence, and so the
intelligence community actually started generating a picture that Osama
bin
Laden was, if you will, the new face of terrorism,'' he said.
On May 31, 1996, four Saudis were beheaded after confessing to bombing a
Saudi National Guard post in Riyadh and killing five Americans. All told
their interrogators that they had received Mr. bin Laden's communiques.
Only
25 days later, a truck bomb tore through a military post in Dhahran,
killing
19 American soldiers.
Mr. bin Laden was blamed by American officials for instigating the
attacks.
But no known evidence implicates him, and the Saudi Interior Minister,
Prince
Nayef ibn Abdel Aziz, has absolved him. ''Maybe there are people who
adopt
his ideas,'' Prince Nayef said. ''He does not constitute any security
problem
to us.''
Shortly before the Dhahran attack, Mr. bin Laden and members of his
entourage
left Sudan in a C-130 military transport plane. The Sudanese had asked
him to
leave -- at the request of the United States. Mr. bin Laden landed at an
American-built airport in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Three months later, on
Aug.
23, 1996, he declared war on the United States.
''The situation in Saudi Arabia is like a great volcano about to
erupt,'' his
declaration stated. ''Everyone talks openly about economic recession,
high
prices, debt'' and ''the filling up of the prisons.''
How Did He Control the Bombers?
Mr. bin Laden's criticisms of Saudi repression and corruption closely
corresponded with State Department reports and C.I.A. analyses. But Mr.
bin
Laden blamed the United States. ''The root of the problem is the
occupying
American enemy,'' he proclaimed, ''and all efforts should focus on
killing,
fighting and destroying it.''
A second, more ominous warning from him came on Feb. 23, 1998: ''To kill
Americans and their allies, both civil and military, is an individual
duty of
every Muslim who is able, in any country where this is possible,'' until
American armies, ''shattered and broken-winged, depart from all the
lands of
Islam.''
Then came the embassy bombings last August. American authorities say the
men
who attacked the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were controlled by Mr.
bin
Laden. But they still have no clear idea how.
Despite efforts at the highest levels of the United States Government,
Mr.
bin Laden and his closest associates remain isolated in Afghanistan.
It is difficult to say precisely where the criminal case against Mr. bin
Laden stands. Prosecutors have obtained unusually restrictive court
orders
that bar the defendants and their lawyers from communicating with
virtually
anyone.
The Case Runs Out of Steam
Publicly, at least, the case has lost momentum. While two men suspected
of
being bombers were quickly apprehended, many other suspects are still at
large. The last arrest was more than six months ago. A spokesman for the
United States Attorney in Manhattan declined comment.
Now the hunt for Mr. bin Laden depends on whether the Taliban, his
radical
hosts in Afghanistan, will betray him. The United States has little
leverage
with the Taliban, and little fresh intelligence on how to capture Mr.
bin
Laden. It has no spies in Afghanistan and little new information on
precisely
how he might have instigated the deadly bombings.
''I do not have a clear picture yet of what happened when,'' said
Prudence
Bushnell, the United States Ambassador to Kenya, who was wounded in the
bomb
blast, which killed 12 of her colleagues. ''I may not ever have a clear
picture of what happened when. None of us may.''
A COLLABORATION
This article resulted from a collaboration between The New York Times
and the
PBS program ''Frontline,'' which will broadcast a documentary tonight
about
Osama bin Laden that will run on most PBS stations at 9 o'clock. The
''Frontline'' program was based on the work of Lowell Bergman,
correspondent,
Martin Smith, producer, and Orianna Zill and Ivana Damjanov, associate
producers.
ON THE WEB
Past coverage of Mr. bin Laden, the 1998 bombings of the American
embassies
in East Africa and the American response to terrorism is available from
The
New York Times on the Web:
www.nytimes.com/ international
Communism List _______________________________________________
Communism@...
Subject: Clinton Administration Supported the "Militant Islamic
Base"
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 14:17:51 -0400
From: Michel Chossudovsky <chossudovsky@...>
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
CLINTON ADMINISTRATION SUPPORTED THE "MILITANT ISLAMIC BASE"
To read the complete 1997 Congressional document entitled:
"CLINTON-APPROVED IRANIAN ARMS TRANSFERS HELP TURN BOSNIA INTO MILITANT
ISLAMIC BASE"
click: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/DCH109A.html
Editorial Note:
Centre for Research on Globalisation at http://globalresearch.ca, 21
September 2001
Since the Soviet-Afghan war, recruiting Mujahedin ("holy warriors") to
fight covert wars on Washington's behest has become an integral part of
US
foreign policy. A 1997 document of the US Congress reveals how the
Clinton administration --under advice from the National Security Council
headed
by Anthony Lake-- had "helped turn Bosnia into a militant Islamic base"
leading to the recruitment through the so-called "Militant Islamic
Network,"
of thousands of Mujahedin from the Muslim world.
The "Bosnian pattern" has since been replicated in Kosovo, Southern
Serbia and Macedonia. Among the foreign mercenaries now fighting with
the
Kosovo Liberation Army(KLA) in Macedonia are Mujahedin from the Middle
East and the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. Also
within the ranks of the Kosovo Liberation Army are senior US military
advisers from a private mercenary outfit on contract to the Pentagon as
well as
"soldiers of fortune" from Britain, Holland and Germany.
"Americans have many questions tonight. Americans are asking, ``Who
attacked our country?'' said George W. Bush in his address to the US
Congress on September 20th. "This group and its leader, a person named
Osama bin Laden are linked to many other organizations in different
countries"
What the President fails to mention in his speech is the complicity of
agencies of the US government in supporting and abetting Osama bin
Laden.
[link to Who is Osama bin Laden]
The Bush Administration has misled the American people. What is the
hidden agenda? The largest military operation since the Vietnam War is
being
launched against Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda network, when the
evidence amply confirms that Osama has been "harbored" since the
Soviet-Afghan war by agencies of the US government.
To read the 1997 Congressional Press release entitled:
CLINTON-APPROVED IRANIAN ARMS TRANSFERS HELP TURN BOSNIA INTO MILITANT
ISLAMIC BASE
click http://globalresearch.ca/articles/DCH109A.html
The congressional report provides detailed evidence from official
sources of the links between the Islamic Jihad and the US government
during the
Clinton Adminstration.
Michel Chossudovsky, Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRT), 21
September 2001.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [COMMUNISM LIST]How the CIA created Osama bin Laden
Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 18:29:39 +0100
From: "Karl Carlile" <dagda@...>
Reply-To: communism@...
Organization: Communism List
To: <communism@...>
Communism List:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~kampf/
Workers of the world unite!
_______________________________________
How the CIA created Osama bin Laden
BY NORM DIXON
"Throughout the world ... its agents, client states and satellites are
on the
defensive - on the moral defensive, the intellectual defensive, and the
political and
economic defensive. Freedom movements arise and assert themselves.
They're doing so
on almost every continent populated by man - in the hills of
Afghanistan, in Angola,
in Kampuchea, in Central America ... [They are] freedom fighters."
Is this a call to jihad (holy war) taken from one of Islamic
fundamentalist Osama bin
Laden's notorious fatwas? Or perhaps a communique issued by the
repressive Taliban
regime in Kabul?
In fact, this glowing praise of the murderous exploits of today's
supporters of
arch-terrorist bin Laden and his Taliban collaborators, and their holy
war against
the "evil empire", was issued by US President Ronald Reagan on March 8,
1985. The
"evil empire" was the Soviet Union, as well as Third World movements
fighting
US-backed colonialism, apartheid and dictatorship.
How things change. In the aftermath of a series of terrorist atrocities
- the most
despicable being the mass murder of more than 6000 working people in New
York and
Washington on September 11 - bin Laden the "freedom fighter" is now
lambasted by US
leaders and the Western mass media as a "terrorist mastermind" and an
"evil-doer".
Yet the US government refuses to admit its central role in creating the
vicious
movement that spawned bin Laden, the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalist
terrorists
that plague Algeria and Egypt - and perhaps the disaster that befell New
York.
The mass media has also downplayed the origins of bin Laden and his
toxic brand of
Islamic fundamentalism.
Mujaheddin
In April 1978, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA)
seized power in
Afghanistan in reaction to a crackdown against the party by that
country's repressive
government.
The PDPA was committed to a radical land reform that favoured the
peasants, trade
union rights, an expansion of education and social services, equality
for women and
the separation of church and state. The PDPA also supported
strengthening
Afghanistan's relationship with the Soviet Union.
Such policies enraged the wealthy semi-feudal landlords, the Muslim
religious
establishment (many mullahs were also big landlords) and the tribal
chiefs. They
immediately began organising resistance to the government's progressive
policies,
under the guise of defending Islam.
Washington, fearing the spread of Soviet influence (and worse the new
government's
radical example) to its allies in Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf states,
immediately
offered support to the Afghan mujaheddin, as the "contra" force was
known.
Following an internal PDPA power struggle in December 1979 which toppled
Afghanistan's leader, thousands of Soviet troops entered the country to
prevent the
new government's fall. This only galvanised the disparate fundamentalist
factions.
Their reactionary jihad now gained legitimacy as a "national liberation"
struggle in
the eyes of many Afghans.
The Soviet Union was eventually to withdraw from Afghanistan in 1989 and
the
mujaheddin captured the capital, Kabul, in 1992.
Between 1978 and 1992, the US government poured at least US$6 billion
(some estimates
range as high as $20 billion) worth of arms, training and funds to prop
up the
mujaheddin factions. Other Western governments, as well as oil-rich
Saudi Arabia,
kicked in as much again. Wealthy Arab fanatics, like Osama bin Laden,
provided
millions more.
Washington's policy in Afghanistan was shaped by US President Jimmy
Carter's national
security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and was continued by his
successors. His plan
went far beyond simply forcing Soviet troops to withdraw; rather it
aimed to foster
an international movement to spread Islamic fanaticism into the Muslim
Central Asian
Soviet republics to destabilise the Soviet Union.
Brzezinski's grand plan coincided with Pakistan military dictator
General Zia
ul-Haq's own ambitions to dominate the region. US-run Radio Liberty and
Radio Free
Europe beamed Islamic fundamentalist tirades across Central Asia (while
paradoxically
denouncing the "Islamic revolution" that toppled the pro-US Shah of Iran
in 1979).
Washington's favoured mujaheddin faction was one of the most extreme,
led by
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The West's distaste for terrorism did not apply to
this
unsavoury "freedom fighter". Hekmatyar was notorious in the 1970s for
throwing acid
in the faces of women who refused to wear the veil.
After the mujaheddin took Kabul in 1992, Hekmatyar's forces rained
US-supplied
missiles and rockets on that city - killing at least 2000 civilians -
until the new
government agreed to give him the post of prime minister. Osama bin
Laden was a close
associate of Hekmatyar and his faction.
Hekmatyar was also infamous for his side trade in the cultivation and
trafficking in
opium. Backing of the mujaheddin from the CIA coincided with a boom in
the drug
business. Within two years, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border was the
world's single
largest source of heroin, supplying 60% of US drug users.
In 1995, the former director of the CIA's operation in Afghanistan was
unrepentant
about the explosion in the flow of drugs: "Our main mission was to do as
much damage
as possible to the Soviets... There was a fallout in terms of drugs,
yes. But the
main objective was accomplished. The Soviets left Afghanistan."
Made in the USA
According to Ahmed Rashid, a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic
Review, in
1986 CIA chief William Casey committed CIA support to a long-standing
ISI proposal to
recruit from around the world to join the Afghan jihad. At least 100,000
Islamic
militants flocked to Pakistan between 1982 and 1992 (some 60,000
attended
fundamentalist schools in Pakistan without necessarily taking part in
the fighting).
John Cooley, a former journalist with the US ABC television network and
author of
Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism, has
revealed that
Muslims recruited in the US for the mujaheddin were sent to Camp Peary,
the CIA's spy
training camp in Virginia, where young Afghans, Arabs from Egypt and
Jordan, and even
some African-American "black Muslims" were taught "sabotage skills".
The November 1, 1998, British Independent reported that one of those
charged with the
1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Ali Mohammed, had
trained "bin
Laden's operatives" in 1989.
These "operatives" were recruited at the al Kifah Refugee Centre in
Brooklyn, New
York, given paramilitary training in the New York area and then sent to
Afghanistan
with US assistance to join Hekmatyar's forces. Mohammed was a member of
the US army's
elite Green Berets.
The program, reported the Independent, was part of a Washington-approved
plan called
"Operation Cyclone".
In Pakistan, recruits, money and equipment were distributed to the
mujaheddin
factions by an organisation known as Maktab al Khidamar (Office of
Services - MAK).
MAK was a front for Pakistan's CIA, the Inter-Service Intelligence
Directorate. The
ISI was the first recipient of the vast bulk of CIA and Saudi Arabian
covert
assistance for the Afghan contras. Bin Laden was one of three people who
ran MAK. In
1989, he took overall charge of MAK.
Among those trained by Mohammed were El Sayyid Nosair, who was jailed in
1995 for
killing Israeli rightist Rabbi Meir Kahane and plotting with others to
bomb New York
landmarks, including the World Trade Center in 1993.
The Independent also suggested that Shiekh Omar Abdel-Rahman, an
Egyptian religious
leader also jailed for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, was
also part of
Operation Cyclone. He entered the US in 1990 with the CIA's approval. A
confidential
CIA report concluded that the agency was "partly culpable" for the 1993
World Trade
Center blast, the Independent reported.
Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden, one of 20 sons of a billionaire construction magnate,
arrived in
Afghanistan to join the jihad in 1980. An austere religious fanatic and
business
tycoon, bin Laden specialised in recruiting, financing and training the
estimated
35,000 non-Afghan mercenaries who joined the mujaheddin.
The bin Laden family is a prominent pillar of the Saudi Arabian ruling
class, with
close personal, financial and political ties to that country's pro-US
royal family.
Bin Laden senior was appointed Saudi Arabia's minister of public works
as a favour by
King Faisal. The new minister awarded his own construction companies
lucrative
contracts to rebuild Islam's holiest mosques in Mecca and Medina. In the
process, the
bin Laden family company in 1966 became the world's largest private
construction
company.
Osama bin Laden's father died in 1968. Until 1994, he had access to the
dividends
from this ill-gotten business empire.
(Bin Laden junior's oft-quoted personal fortune of US$200-300 million
has been
arrived at by the US State Department by dividing today's value of the
bin Laden
family net worth - estimated to be US$5 billion - by the number of bin
Laden senior's
sons. A fact rarely mentioned is that in 1994 the bin Laden family
disowned Osama and
took control of his share.)
Osama's military and business adventures in Afghanistan had the blessing
of the bin
Laden dynasty and the reactionary Saudi Arabian regime. His close
working
relationship with MAK also meant that the CIA was fully aware of his
activities.
Milt Bearden, the CIA's station chief in Pakistan from 1986 to 1989,
admitted to the
January 24, 2000, New Yorker that while he never personally met bin
Laden, "Did I
know that he was out there? Yes, I did ... [Guys like] bin Laden were
bringing
$20-$25 million a month from other Saudis and Gulf Arabs to underwrite
the war. And
that is a lot of money. It's an extra $200-$300 million a year. And this
is what bin
Laden did."
In 1986, bin Laden brought heavy construction equipment from Saudi
Arabia to
Afghanistan. Using his extensive knowledge of construction techniques
(he has a
degree in civil engineering), he built "training camps", some dug deep
into the sides
of mountains, and built roads to reach them.
These camps, now dubbed "terrorist universities" by Washington, were
built in
collaboration with the ISI and the CIA. The Afghan contra fighters,
including the
tens of thousands of mercenaries recruited and paid for by bin Laden,
were armed by
the CIA. Pakistan, the US and Britain provided military trainers.
Tom Carew, a former British SAS soldier who secretly fought for the
mujaheddin told
the August 13, 2000, British Observer, "The Americans were keen to teach
the Afghans
the techniques of urban terrorism - car bombing and so on - so that they
could strike
at the Russians in major towns ... Many of them are now using their
knowledge and
expertise to wage war on everything they hate."
Al Qaeda (the Base), bin Laden's organisation, was established in
1987-88 to run the
camps and other business enterprises. It is a tightly-run capitalist
holding
company - albeit one that integrates the operations of a mercenary force
and related
logistical services with "legitimate" business operations.
Bin Laden has simply continued to do the job he was asked to do in
Afghanistan during
the 1980s - fund, feed and train mercenaries. All that has changed is
his primary
customer. Then it was the ISI and, behind the scenes, the CIA. Today,
his services
are utilised primarily by the reactionary Taliban regime.
Bin Laden only became a "terrorist" in US eyes when he fell out with the
Saudi royal
family over its decision to allow more than 540,000 US troops to be
stationed on
Saudi soil following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
When thousands of US troops remained in Saudi Arabia after the end of
the Gulf War,
bin Laden's anger turned to outright opposition. He declared that Saudi
Arabia and
other regimes - such as Egypt - in the Middle East were puppets of the
US, just as
the PDPA government of Afghanistan had been a puppet of the Soviet
Union.
He called for the overthrow of these client regimes and declared it the
duty of all
Muslims to drive the US out of the Gulf states. In 1994, he was stripped
of his Saudi
citizenship and forced to leave the country. His assets there were
frozen.
After a period in Sudan, he returned to Afghanistan in May 1996. He
refurbished the
camps he had helped build during the Afghan war and offered the
facilities and
services - and thousands of his mercenaries - to the Taliban, which took
power that
September.
Today, bin Laden's private army of non-Afghan religious fanatics is a
key prop of the
Taliban regime.
Prior to the devastating September 11 attack on the twin towers of World
Trade
Center, US ruling-class figures remained unrepentant about the
consequences of their
dirty deals with the likes of bin Laden, Hekmatyar and the Taliban.
Since the awful
attack, they have been downright hypocritical.
In an August 28, 1998, report posted on MSNBC, Michael Moran quotes
Senator Orrin
Hatch, who was a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee
which approved US
dealings with the mujaheddin, as saying he would make "the same call
again", even
knowing what bin Laden would become.
"It was worth it. Those were very important, pivotal matters that played
an important
role in the downfall of the Soviet Union."
Hatch today is one of the most gung-ho voices demanding military
retaliation.
Another face that has appeared repeatedly on television screens since
the attack has
been Vincent Cannistrano, described as a former CIA chief of
"counter-terrorism
operations".
Cannistrano is certainly an expert on terrorists like bin Laden, because
he directed
their "work". He was in charge of the CIA-backed Nicaraguan contras
during the early
1980s. In 1984, he became the supervisor of covert aid to the Afghan
mujaheddin for
the US National Security Council.
The last word goes to Zbigniew Brzezinski: "What was more important in
the world view
of history? The Taliban or the fall of the Soviet Empire? A few stirred
up Muslims or
the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?"
Communism List _______________________________________________
Communism@...
(Found on Johnson's Russia List)
Interview of Zbigniew Brzezinski
Le Nouvel Observateur (France), Jan 15-21, 1998, p. 76*
Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs
["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid
the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention.
In this period you were the national security adviser to President
Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?
Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA
aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the
Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality,
secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was
July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for
secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And
that very day, I wrote
a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion
this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.
Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But
perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to
provoke it?
B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but
we knowingly increased the probability that they would.
Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that
they intended to fight against a secret
involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe
them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything
today?
B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had
the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want
me to regret it?
(End of excerpt from Brzezinski interview.)
Base"
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 14:17:51 -0400
From: Michel Chossudovsky <chossudovsky@...>
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
CLINTON ADMINISTRATION SUPPORTED THE "MILITANT ISLAMIC BASE"
To read the complete 1997 Congressional document entitled:
"CLINTON-APPROVED IRANIAN ARMS TRANSFERS HELP TURN BOSNIA INTO MILITANT
ISLAMIC BASE"
click: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/DCH109A.html
Editorial Note:
Centre for Research on Globalisation at http://globalresearch.ca, 21
September 2001
Since the Soviet-Afghan war, recruiting Mujahedin ("holy warriors") to
fight covert wars on Washington's behest has become an integral part of
US
foreign policy. A 1997 document of the US Congress reveals how the
Clinton administration --under advice from the National Security Council
headed
by Anthony Lake-- had "helped turn Bosnia into a militant Islamic base"
leading to the recruitment through the so-called "Militant Islamic
Network,"
of thousands of Mujahedin from the Muslim world.
The "Bosnian pattern" has since been replicated in Kosovo, Southern
Serbia and Macedonia. Among the foreign mercenaries now fighting with
the
Kosovo Liberation Army(KLA) in Macedonia are Mujahedin from the Middle
East and the Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union. Also
within the ranks of the Kosovo Liberation Army are senior US military
advisers from a private mercenary outfit on contract to the Pentagon as
well as
"soldiers of fortune" from Britain, Holland and Germany.
"Americans have many questions tonight. Americans are asking, ``Who
attacked our country?'' said George W. Bush in his address to the US
Congress on September 20th. "This group and its leader, a person named
Osama bin Laden are linked to many other organizations in different
countries"
What the President fails to mention in his speech is the complicity of
agencies of the US government in supporting and abetting Osama bin
Laden.
[link to Who is Osama bin Laden]
The Bush Administration has misled the American people. What is the
hidden agenda? The largest military operation since the Vietnam War is
being
launched against Osama bin Laden and the al Qaeda network, when the
evidence amply confirms that Osama has been "harbored" since the
Soviet-Afghan war by agencies of the US government.
To read the 1997 Congressional Press release entitled:
CLINTON-APPROVED IRANIAN ARMS TRANSFERS HELP TURN BOSNIA INTO MILITANT
ISLAMIC BASE
click http://globalresearch.ca/articles/DCH109A.html
The congressional report provides detailed evidence from official
sources of the links between the Islamic Jihad and the US government
during the
Clinton Adminstration.
Michel Chossudovsky, Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRT), 21
September 2001.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [COMMUNISM LIST]How the CIA created Osama bin Laden
Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 18:29:39 +0100
From: "Karl Carlile" <dagda@...>
Reply-To: communism@...
Organization: Communism List
To: <communism@...>
Communism List:
http://homepage.eircom.net/~kampf/
Workers of the world unite!
_______________________________________
How the CIA created Osama bin Laden
BY NORM DIXON
"Throughout the world ... its agents, client states and satellites are
on the
defensive - on the moral defensive, the intellectual defensive, and the
political and
economic defensive. Freedom movements arise and assert themselves.
They're doing so
on almost every continent populated by man - in the hills of
Afghanistan, in Angola,
in Kampuchea, in Central America ... [They are] freedom fighters."
Is this a call to jihad (holy war) taken from one of Islamic
fundamentalist Osama bin
Laden's notorious fatwas? Or perhaps a communique issued by the
repressive Taliban
regime in Kabul?
In fact, this glowing praise of the murderous exploits of today's
supporters of
arch-terrorist bin Laden and his Taliban collaborators, and their holy
war against
the "evil empire", was issued by US President Ronald Reagan on March 8,
1985. The
"evil empire" was the Soviet Union, as well as Third World movements
fighting
US-backed colonialism, apartheid and dictatorship.
How things change. In the aftermath of a series of terrorist atrocities
- the most
despicable being the mass murder of more than 6000 working people in New
York and
Washington on September 11 - bin Laden the "freedom fighter" is now
lambasted by US
leaders and the Western mass media as a "terrorist mastermind" and an
"evil-doer".
Yet the US government refuses to admit its central role in creating the
vicious
movement that spawned bin Laden, the Taliban and Islamic fundamentalist
terrorists
that plague Algeria and Egypt - and perhaps the disaster that befell New
York.
The mass media has also downplayed the origins of bin Laden and his
toxic brand of
Islamic fundamentalism.
Mujaheddin
In April 1978, the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA)
seized power in
Afghanistan in reaction to a crackdown against the party by that
country's repressive
government.
The PDPA was committed to a radical land reform that favoured the
peasants, trade
union rights, an expansion of education and social services, equality
for women and
the separation of church and state. The PDPA also supported
strengthening
Afghanistan's relationship with the Soviet Union.
Such policies enraged the wealthy semi-feudal landlords, the Muslim
religious
establishment (many mullahs were also big landlords) and the tribal
chiefs. They
immediately began organising resistance to the government's progressive
policies,
under the guise of defending Islam.
Washington, fearing the spread of Soviet influence (and worse the new
government's
radical example) to its allies in Pakistan, Iran and the Gulf states,
immediately
offered support to the Afghan mujaheddin, as the "contra" force was
known.
Following an internal PDPA power struggle in December 1979 which toppled
Afghanistan's leader, thousands of Soviet troops entered the country to
prevent the
new government's fall. This only galvanised the disparate fundamentalist
factions.
Their reactionary jihad now gained legitimacy as a "national liberation"
struggle in
the eyes of many Afghans.
The Soviet Union was eventually to withdraw from Afghanistan in 1989 and
the
mujaheddin captured the capital, Kabul, in 1992.
Between 1978 and 1992, the US government poured at least US$6 billion
(some estimates
range as high as $20 billion) worth of arms, training and funds to prop
up the
mujaheddin factions. Other Western governments, as well as oil-rich
Saudi Arabia,
kicked in as much again. Wealthy Arab fanatics, like Osama bin Laden,
provided
millions more.
Washington's policy in Afghanistan was shaped by US President Jimmy
Carter's national
security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and was continued by his
successors. His plan
went far beyond simply forcing Soviet troops to withdraw; rather it
aimed to foster
an international movement to spread Islamic fanaticism into the Muslim
Central Asian
Soviet republics to destabilise the Soviet Union.
Brzezinski's grand plan coincided with Pakistan military dictator
General Zia
ul-Haq's own ambitions to dominate the region. US-run Radio Liberty and
Radio Free
Europe beamed Islamic fundamentalist tirades across Central Asia (while
paradoxically
denouncing the "Islamic revolution" that toppled the pro-US Shah of Iran
in 1979).
Washington's favoured mujaheddin faction was one of the most extreme,
led by
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. The West's distaste for terrorism did not apply to
this
unsavoury "freedom fighter". Hekmatyar was notorious in the 1970s for
throwing acid
in the faces of women who refused to wear the veil.
After the mujaheddin took Kabul in 1992, Hekmatyar's forces rained
US-supplied
missiles and rockets on that city - killing at least 2000 civilians -
until the new
government agreed to give him the post of prime minister. Osama bin
Laden was a close
associate of Hekmatyar and his faction.
Hekmatyar was also infamous for his side trade in the cultivation and
trafficking in
opium. Backing of the mujaheddin from the CIA coincided with a boom in
the drug
business. Within two years, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border was the
world's single
largest source of heroin, supplying 60% of US drug users.
In 1995, the former director of the CIA's operation in Afghanistan was
unrepentant
about the explosion in the flow of drugs: "Our main mission was to do as
much damage
as possible to the Soviets... There was a fallout in terms of drugs,
yes. But the
main objective was accomplished. The Soviets left Afghanistan."
Made in the USA
According to Ahmed Rashid, a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic
Review, in
1986 CIA chief William Casey committed CIA support to a long-standing
ISI proposal to
recruit from around the world to join the Afghan jihad. At least 100,000
Islamic
militants flocked to Pakistan between 1982 and 1992 (some 60,000
attended
fundamentalist schools in Pakistan without necessarily taking part in
the fighting).
John Cooley, a former journalist with the US ABC television network and
author of
Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism, has
revealed that
Muslims recruited in the US for the mujaheddin were sent to Camp Peary,
the CIA's spy
training camp in Virginia, where young Afghans, Arabs from Egypt and
Jordan, and even
some African-American "black Muslims" were taught "sabotage skills".
The November 1, 1998, British Independent reported that one of those
charged with the
1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Ali Mohammed, had
trained "bin
Laden's operatives" in 1989.
These "operatives" were recruited at the al Kifah Refugee Centre in
Brooklyn, New
York, given paramilitary training in the New York area and then sent to
Afghanistan
with US assistance to join Hekmatyar's forces. Mohammed was a member of
the US army's
elite Green Berets.
The program, reported the Independent, was part of a Washington-approved
plan called
"Operation Cyclone".
In Pakistan, recruits, money and equipment were distributed to the
mujaheddin
factions by an organisation known as Maktab al Khidamar (Office of
Services - MAK).
MAK was a front for Pakistan's CIA, the Inter-Service Intelligence
Directorate. The
ISI was the first recipient of the vast bulk of CIA and Saudi Arabian
covert
assistance for the Afghan contras. Bin Laden was one of three people who
ran MAK. In
1989, he took overall charge of MAK.
Among those trained by Mohammed were El Sayyid Nosair, who was jailed in
1995 for
killing Israeli rightist Rabbi Meir Kahane and plotting with others to
bomb New York
landmarks, including the World Trade Center in 1993.
The Independent also suggested that Shiekh Omar Abdel-Rahman, an
Egyptian religious
leader also jailed for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, was
also part of
Operation Cyclone. He entered the US in 1990 with the CIA's approval. A
confidential
CIA report concluded that the agency was "partly culpable" for the 1993
World Trade
Center blast, the Independent reported.
Bin Laden
Osama bin Laden, one of 20 sons of a billionaire construction magnate,
arrived in
Afghanistan to join the jihad in 1980. An austere religious fanatic and
business
tycoon, bin Laden specialised in recruiting, financing and training the
estimated
35,000 non-Afghan mercenaries who joined the mujaheddin.
The bin Laden family is a prominent pillar of the Saudi Arabian ruling
class, with
close personal, financial and political ties to that country's pro-US
royal family.
Bin Laden senior was appointed Saudi Arabia's minister of public works
as a favour by
King Faisal. The new minister awarded his own construction companies
lucrative
contracts to rebuild Islam's holiest mosques in Mecca and Medina. In the
process, the
bin Laden family company in 1966 became the world's largest private
construction
company.
Osama bin Laden's father died in 1968. Until 1994, he had access to the
dividends
from this ill-gotten business empire.
(Bin Laden junior's oft-quoted personal fortune of US$200-300 million
has been
arrived at by the US State Department by dividing today's value of the
bin Laden
family net worth - estimated to be US$5 billion - by the number of bin
Laden senior's
sons. A fact rarely mentioned is that in 1994 the bin Laden family
disowned Osama and
took control of his share.)
Osama's military and business adventures in Afghanistan had the blessing
of the bin
Laden dynasty and the reactionary Saudi Arabian regime. His close
working
relationship with MAK also meant that the CIA was fully aware of his
activities.
Milt Bearden, the CIA's station chief in Pakistan from 1986 to 1989,
admitted to the
January 24, 2000, New Yorker that while he never personally met bin
Laden, "Did I
know that he was out there? Yes, I did ... [Guys like] bin Laden were
bringing
$20-$25 million a month from other Saudis and Gulf Arabs to underwrite
the war. And
that is a lot of money. It's an extra $200-$300 million a year. And this
is what bin
Laden did."
In 1986, bin Laden brought heavy construction equipment from Saudi
Arabia to
Afghanistan. Using his extensive knowledge of construction techniques
(he has a
degree in civil engineering), he built "training camps", some dug deep
into the sides
of mountains, and built roads to reach them.
These camps, now dubbed "terrorist universities" by Washington, were
built in
collaboration with the ISI and the CIA. The Afghan contra fighters,
including the
tens of thousands of mercenaries recruited and paid for by bin Laden,
were armed by
the CIA. Pakistan, the US and Britain provided military trainers.
Tom Carew, a former British SAS soldier who secretly fought for the
mujaheddin told
the August 13, 2000, British Observer, "The Americans were keen to teach
the Afghans
the techniques of urban terrorism - car bombing and so on - so that they
could strike
at the Russians in major towns ... Many of them are now using their
knowledge and
expertise to wage war on everything they hate."
Al Qaeda (the Base), bin Laden's organisation, was established in
1987-88 to run the
camps and other business enterprises. It is a tightly-run capitalist
holding
company - albeit one that integrates the operations of a mercenary force
and related
logistical services with "legitimate" business operations.
Bin Laden has simply continued to do the job he was asked to do in
Afghanistan during
the 1980s - fund, feed and train mercenaries. All that has changed is
his primary
customer. Then it was the ISI and, behind the scenes, the CIA. Today,
his services
are utilised primarily by the reactionary Taliban regime.
Bin Laden only became a "terrorist" in US eyes when he fell out with the
Saudi royal
family over its decision to allow more than 540,000 US troops to be
stationed on
Saudi soil following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
When thousands of US troops remained in Saudi Arabia after the end of
the Gulf War,
bin Laden's anger turned to outright opposition. He declared that Saudi
Arabia and
other regimes - such as Egypt - in the Middle East were puppets of the
US, just as
the PDPA government of Afghanistan had been a puppet of the Soviet
Union.
He called for the overthrow of these client regimes and declared it the
duty of all
Muslims to drive the US out of the Gulf states. In 1994, he was stripped
of his Saudi
citizenship and forced to leave the country. His assets there were
frozen.
After a period in Sudan, he returned to Afghanistan in May 1996. He
refurbished the
camps he had helped build during the Afghan war and offered the
facilities and
services - and thousands of his mercenaries - to the Taliban, which took
power that
September.
Today, bin Laden's private army of non-Afghan religious fanatics is a
key prop of the
Taliban regime.
Prior to the devastating September 11 attack on the twin towers of World
Trade
Center, US ruling-class figures remained unrepentant about the
consequences of their
dirty deals with the likes of bin Laden, Hekmatyar and the Taliban.
Since the awful
attack, they have been downright hypocritical.
In an August 28, 1998, report posted on MSNBC, Michael Moran quotes
Senator Orrin
Hatch, who was a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee
which approved US
dealings with the mujaheddin, as saying he would make "the same call
again", even
knowing what bin Laden would become.
"It was worth it. Those were very important, pivotal matters that played
an important
role in the downfall of the Soviet Union."
Hatch today is one of the most gung-ho voices demanding military
retaliation.
Another face that has appeared repeatedly on television screens since
the attack has
been Vincent Cannistrano, described as a former CIA chief of
"counter-terrorism
operations".
Cannistrano is certainly an expert on terrorists like bin Laden, because
he directed
their "work". He was in charge of the CIA-backed Nicaraguan contras
during the early
1980s. In 1984, he became the supervisor of covert aid to the Afghan
mujaheddin for
the US National Security Council.
The last word goes to Zbigniew Brzezinski: "What was more important in
the world view
of history? The Taliban or the fall of the Soviet Empire? A few stirred
up Muslims or
the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?"
Communism List _______________________________________________
Communism@...
(Found on Johnson's Russia List)
Interview of Zbigniew Brzezinski
Le Nouvel Observateur (France), Jan 15-21, 1998, p. 76*
Q: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs
["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid
the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention.
In this period you were the national security adviser to President
Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?
Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA
aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the
Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality,
secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise: Indeed, it was
July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for
secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And
that very day, I wrote
a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion
this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.
Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But
perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to
provoke it?
B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but
we knowingly increased the probability that they would.
Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that
they intended to fight against a secret
involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe
them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything
today?
B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had
the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want
me to regret it?
(End of excerpt from Brzezinski interview.)
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