Informazione
ON HATE-MONGERING AND THE GUILTY SERBS
A Case of non-Justifiable Retribution
R.K.Kent
Emeritus Professor of History
University of California at Berkeley
27 March 2001
If there is a dominant feature of the Clinton era involvement in the
Balkans it can be summed-up with the saying that "the enemy of my
enemy is my friend." Science has abandoned "Reasoning by Analogy" for
at least two centuries but, than, there was nothing remotely
"scientific" involved in the Clintonite foreign "policy."despite the
pretensions of a Magister Dixit Dr. Seceratry of State. For a number
of complex reasons, the Serbs became the selected "enemy" of the
"West" as a whole through NATO, and even of Civilization itself. Ipso
facto, all other ethno-religious groups within the ex-Yugoslav space
became our "allies." The Croats, the Bosnian Muslims and Kosovo’s
ethnic Albanians ---all three were also transformed into "victims."
It was a "status" condition for which the Serbs were not allowed to
qualify. The "victims" had all the rights and deserved all the external
support. The "aggressors" had no rights. The Serbs were gradually
dehumanized through the Western media and governmental propaganda. They
were subjected to crippling and long-lasting economic sanctions.
NATO bombed the Serbs twice, once in Bosnia for three weeks and the
second time for eleven weeks in Serbia proper and Kosovo.
A Bogus Enemy and a War without Precedent
The 78-day attack had several unique features. First and foremost it
had no popular support at home. None of the "explanations" for it
seemed convincing enough. . Inter alia, it was regularly served to
the American People as a "humanitarian intervention." Few continued to
see it as such as the war went on and on. Anti-war activists began to
organize as it became clear that the American People had been simply
by-passed. Demonstrations were slated for 5th June 1999. It may be a
coincidence but the actual bombings stopped the day before while the
war’s "official end" was announced a week later.
Although it was presented as a joint Euro-American endeavor the U.S.
was the driving force and an 80 percent contributor to the total war
effort. It was the largest military undertaking in Europe since World
War II. It was launched without a declaration of war which the U.S.
Congress, for example, would not grant the President even 26 days into
the bombing campaign. For the first time, through control of NATO, the
U.S. bombed a state inside Europe and not in Asia, Africa
or Latin America. Yet, the United States was under no attack. The Serbs
had even been its allies in two World Wars. It had no economic
positions to defend in the Balkans. It was physically absent from the
Balkans in both World Wars, although it did bomb Roumania’s Ploesti
Oil Fields in 1944 as well as Belgrade, eleven times, at the request of
the Communist Tito, then trying to conquer Serbia. As others would do
more recently in ex-Yugoslavia, Tito "borrowed" the USAF to "soften"
Serbia. .
In a language reminiscent of Orwell, the "Air War" over Serbia
and Kosovo suggested air combat but it was nothing of the kind. .
Basically, the USAF, within NATO dropped bombs, Tomahawk and Cruise
missiles (and cluster bombs) firing shells dipped in depleted uranium
on a virtually defenseless nation. Another first, no single U.S. soldier
was lost in the Air War.
In the media drive to impose cerebral terror on "the Serbs," few
bona fide reporters made serious attempts to verify and fine- tune
into all the charges and horrors swirling about, in gore, on TV
screens, in articles dripping with blood, in pious postures of the
we-must-do-something hawks. The parlor-room Moral Giants, who own
and dominate most of the scribal and audio-visual media in the U.S.,
set up a political agenda. It was hardly advertised but it came into
view anyway. .The Serbs must not only be punished. They must be
humiliated, brought down on their knees. They must be "taught a
lesson." They are "collectively sick." They suffer from "pernicious
nationalism" and need to be "cured." They are the harbingers of another
Holocaust.. They should even be "hit in the genes" to induce collective
remorse through physical mutations in their yet-to-be-born children.
As that might take some time, a faster lane in which the Guardians of
Civilization could come to travel in their "justifiable retribution" was
to create a "special" Tribunal with another unstated but clear-cut
mission. By indicting and trying mainly and constantly "the Serbs,"
with a few cosmetic exceptions of several low and mid-ranking Croats
plus a Bosnian Muslim or two, "the Serbs" would continue to be "roasted"
on the spit of public opinion even long after the fratricidal wars had
stopped in ex-Yugoslavia. Needless to stress, this "Tribunal" is the
greatest violator of civilized laws, one step removed from a Kangaroo
Court and is even in constant violation of its own mandate’s provision
that it cannot accept funds from individuals (like George Soros) or be
supported by considerable aid from a single country, like the Unietd
States. In practice, if not widely known or understood, the Tribunal has
been basically a political arm of the State Department.
While all sorts of "indignant" hawks lambasted "the Serbs" for being
the "prisoners of their past," others accused them of failure to "face
their own past." Few could ask such a "sophisticated" question as
"where does one start or cut-off the Serb past?" To give an example, had
the "International Community" taken a long and hard look at Kosovo
between, say, 1974 and 1984 it would have iscovered that the Serb
minority was actually being victimized by the ethnic Albanian majority.
This happened because in 1974 the Federal Constitution of Yugoslavia was
changed radically to give virtually all powers to majorities in all the
Republics and Autonomous Regions. A decade later, the Serb minority got
the upper hand. To put it another way, why should the Serbs have to
accept and even favor external "explanations" of "Serb History," much
of it hardly a product of serious scholarship. Much of it has also been
"constructed" in haste, suffering from what professional historians
call "backward projection." This is an all-too prevalent habit to look,
usually with a strong partisan bias, at a given present and THEN
"explain it" by forcing the past to "fit" into it. The stronger
Victors are usually ‘VIRTUOUS" and apt to demand that only their
versions of History be perceived and accepted as valid.
The fall of "Milosevic" who was used as a substitute for the real
target, namely the Serb people and their Nationalism as defined
externally (but no one else’s in ex-Yugoslavia) did not eliminate the
political agenda. The entire Serb leadership from both Pale and
Belgrade has been on top of the Tribunal’s list of indicted war
criminals. The new Serb Government and its President Kostunica are now
being blackmailed. Unless they deliver Milosevic and his Cabinet to
the Hague Tribunal (ICTY) a Serbia that was bombed back into the
Nineteenth Century will not get the aid it needs to pull its people out
of economic and social misery. Why is an "international" trial of
alleged top Serb "war criminals" relative to Kosovo in 1998-1999, a
matter of such priority and urgency since there is no statute of
limitations for war crimes.?
What did the Serbs really do to deserve all the punishments? .Their
first "sin" was to attempt to preserve a Federal Yugoslavia threatened
at the same time from within and without by hardly new enemies. Strange
as it may seem today , the foreign-policy team of George Bush Senior
initially agreed with the Serb position. They were afraid of what could
happen if, by contagion, a dissolutioin of the USSR became too
violent. But, they all yielded to powerful and well-financed pressures
to crack-up Yugoslavia for good. These pressures came first from an
aggressive Croatian Lobby in Washington. It was reported to have spent
as much as $55 million to literally buy certain targeted U.S.
legislators, especially those considered to be "conservative." Germany’s
Chancellor Kohl also persuaded President Bush, Sr. to abandon any
defense of Federal Yugoslavia.
An American Public Relations firm (Ruder Finn) was hired to smear the
Serbs politically. Its CEO later bragged that his work turned the
Jewish organizations in the U.S .against the Serbs. He simply passed
on to them propaganda emanating from extreme Croat nationalist sources
in Zagreb and in the North American diaspora. In fact, Ruder Finn was
able to GLOBALIZE the pathological hate of the Serbs which had united
and is still the only sure-fire glue holding together the otherwise
disunited Croat nationalists everywhere..
The Earliest Victims in Disintegrating
Yugoslavia
Hardly anyone in the West knew that between August 1991 and February
1992 the new Croat Army and the para-military carried out the first
"ethnic cleansing" campaign in ex-Yugoslavia since WWII. It took place
in Western Slavonia as some 40,000 Serb civilians fled in panic, as all
of the elderly who remained behind were killed, as all of the Serb
Orthodox Churches were systematically destroyed. Hardly anyone knew in
the West that "human rights" of the Serbs in Krajina and Croatia in
general were being grossly violated in the newly Independent Croat
State under Franjo Tudjman. He had been a Communist General in Tito’s
Yugoslavia. His main job, at least until he went into opposition as a
Croat Nationalist, was to indoctrinate troops in the Yugoslav Federal
Army.
As that Army lost its non-Serb officers and tried to prevent Croatia’s
violent exit from the Yugoslav Federation, two YFA helicopters were shot
down by small arms ground fire from the Croat side. All of the two
dozen low-ranking YFA officers were wounded in the crashes. None died
from the impact but all of their heads were simply cut-off. The
"incident" never "reached" the Western media either. Similarly, as the
YFA was losing its Bosnian Muslim components, one of its Serb units,
600-men strong, negotiated a safe passage in exchange for not fighting
its way out of the Muslim -controlled area in Bosnia. Instead, half were
simply slaughtered and the few survivors from the other half stated that
the dead soldiers had a better deal in comparison what was done to the
survivors.
In short, the Serbs were the EARLIEST VICTIMS of post-WWII ethnic
cleansing and atrocities but the Western Governments and media did not
want to know or hear or report. The new "ethos" in the West was to smear
and keep smearing the Serbs and the Serbs only. Let us now review the
war crimes with which "the Serbs" have been charged in public and let
us try to provide some idea of context.
Arkan.
These fall into several categories. There are "war crimes" (actually
civil war crimes despite the international rhetoric to the contrary) of
which individual Serbs
and/or a specific Serb para- military group were actually guilty.
Here, the Serb warlord, Zeljko Raznjatovic or Arkan, and his "Tigers,"
mostly men released from jails in Serbia, top the list as the worst of
Serb wartime criminals. They committed initial atrocities in Eastern
Bosnia and later in parts of Croatia. To borrow Bernard Kouchner’s
twisted phrase at Kosovo, they saw their bloody work as "justifiable
retribution." This was not only for what was happening to
contemnporary Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia. It was also in memory of
what was done to hundreds of thousands of Serbs between 1941-1944 in
the "Independent State of Croatia" run by local Nazis, the Ustashe.
Bosnia was at the time under their rule as well. It was a gift from
Adolf Hitler for joining Nazi Germany in WWII. That is how it was. All
justifications aside, a crime is a crime, collective or individual. Two
Wrongs do not make a single Right, something that will be recalled in
connection with NATO’s "Humanitarian Intervention."
The First and Second Market-Place Massacres at
Sarajevo
Another category consists of crimes alleged to have been committed by
the Serbs without any real evidence. Such are the first and second
market-place "massacres at Sarajevo". After the first one, President
George Bush Senior was quoted as having said at a social gathering that
"the Serbs didn’t do it." Yet, no one supplied any solid evidence one
way or another. The Western media, parroting the Sarajevo
Government, accused the Serbs anyway. It is hard to believe, however,
that an American President, who had also been Director of the CIA,
would be uninformed about realities on the ground. .
Still, the Media optics were, in the case of Sarajevo, doubly skewed
against the Serbs. This is so because the Bosnian Serb Army attained no
victories at Sarajevo while shelling a very particular city from
adjacent hills. Even a part of Sarajevo inhabited mostly by the Serbs
was shelled from time to time. The hill gunners did not grasp the fact
that Sarajevo had endeared itself to the outside world because of
recently held Olympics. It had become everyone’s town. It was
constantly filmed by TV crews as the shelling went on.
The Sarajevo Government understood the context. It deliberately
provoked much of the shelling to gain more international support. In a
single move, it was able to gain the political loyalty of an entire
foreign press corps, residing in the local Hilton. A Bosnian Muslim
battery was positioned behind the Hotel and repeatedly drew ripostes
from the hills. Thereafter, no reporter in residence could adhere to
any effort that would resemble the craft of journalism. It all became
pure advocacy. .Like their bosses at home they WANTED to accept the
fare which came from the old hands of Tito’s Yugoslavia. They now
specialized
in disinformation working for the new Bosnian Ministries of Interior
and Information.
The Massacre at Srebrenica
Another category of war crimes and crimes against humanity leads into
those which are either deliberately severed from conext to remove
serious provocation or else exaggerated to gain international support..
The most poignant example of this kind, repeatedly brought-up in the
media, even six years later, is Srebrenica. It did not "surface" when
it was evolving but later, or more precisely at a particular moment in
time. It was in August 1995 that Madeleine Albright , then U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations, unveiled at the meeting of its
General Assembly an enlarged and dated CIA aereal photograph. . In it
was a freshly ploughed field that could have been anywhere but she
placed it at Srebrenica, a silver-mining town in Eastern Bosnia
inhabited mostly by Muslims. With a hint of a CIA in possession of
photographic evidence, she claimed that the field contained the buried
bodies of some 4,000 Muslim men, massacred in cold blood by the Bosnian
Serb Army. No such evidence ever surfaced.
Later, with the "help" of the Sarajevo Government, the figure
"escalated" to 7,000 and even 8,000, with added claims of "genocide."
It became by convention the worst blood-bath of the war in Bosnia.
Strictly speaking, this is not true. The entire Elite 5th Corps of the
Bosnian Muslim Army, trained by a retired U.S. General, was trapped by
the Bosnian Serbs and lost about 10,000 men to enfilade machine-gun,
tank and cannon fire, in a single encounter. For the record, this
happened inside the part of Bosnia under Serb control, now in Republika
Srpaska. The significance of the event and its location will be brought
out further below. At this point, it must be stressed that none of the
Western media involved in the heavy coverage of events in Bosnia
reported several aspects that would make the "Srebrenica Story"
considerably less one-sided with the local Muslims as the usual
"victims" and the Serbs as the perennial neo-Nazi "butchers."
Srebrenica had been declared a "Safe Zone," protected by U.N. Dutch
contingent, and containing presumably no armed Bosnian Muslim men. They
had been theoretically "disarmed." In fact, a local warlord, Nasir Oric
(a huge man and one-time Milosevic’s bodyguard) and his para-military
raided routinely the local countryside inhabited by the Serbs. This was
done over a period of months and it resulted in the looting and torching
of 42 Serb villages. Estimates vary for the civilians killed by Oric
and his men but the minimal one is 1,800 and the largest is 3,000. Oric
went even as far as to show to two Western reporters ( from Canada and
from Boston) a video tape of his own mayhem, bragging openly about his
"exploits."
The two top Generals of the Serb Bosnian Army that took Srebrenica manu
militare are now indicted war criminals at the Hague’s Tribunal for
Yugoslavia. Oric is running a disco for American G.I.s.in Tuzla. The
main General, Ratko Mladic, is accused even of "genocide" despite the
fact that he had ordered the busing out of Srebrenica all of the
Bosnian Muslim women and children. A rather sharp contrast in
comparison with what Oric did to the Serb women and children.
A tragic-comic story illustrates just how exclusively anti-Serb the
Tribunal has been. Two Serb university professors approached an
American who had gained some notoriety in "reporting" the miseries of
Bosnia. With simulated confidentiality, they revealed to him the
existence of a horrible Serb war criminal who had escaped attention.
They gave him a name. Within weeks, it appeared on the list of war
criminals wanted at the Tribunal. The only problem was that the man
never existed. It was a deliberate hoax to test "the channels." This was
still at the time when the Tribunal issued open indictments. Later,
these became secret.
Using an educated Mulsim intermediary, General Mladic demanded that
the Bosnian Muslim men hidden in the woods around Srebrenica surrender.
Instead, they made a run for Tuzla, a Bosnian Muslim stronghold. This is
when the Serb tanks began to shell and machinegun the woods
indiscriminately, killing in the view of its low-ranking commanders men
of a fleeing enemy army. It did not matter that most of hose in flight
did not carry any weapons. This is because, in civil wars, a man with a
rifle is a fighter. One without it is a civilian and they are and have
been entirely interchangeable. Suffice it to say that, at the end of the
Gulf War, USAF jets strafed the fleeing Iraqi soldiers much in the
same way. There was however one major difference.
At Srebernica, many of those in flight who had been caught were executed
in a summary fashion. This is where the real war crime comes in. Only
here Oric, by association, and as yet undesignated Bosnian Serb Army
soldiers, are the dual culprits in this the tragedy. The fleeing men
were afraid of reprisals for what Oric had done to the Serbs. The Serb
soldiers did not look only for the men that Oric used to exterminate
Srebrenica’s rural Serbs. All men of fighting age were automatically
regarded as Oric’s men. There remains the question of figures.
One needs to bring in some new elements up. Nasir Oric and his "elite
army" left Srebrenica a few days before the Bosnian Serbs went into
attack. They were incorporated into the Bosnian Muslim Army with the
request that it be kept a secret. There was even a Pentagon "angle"
here in that its strategists had concluded that Bosnian Muslim enclaves
like Srebrenica and Zepa were
indefensible and should be abandoned to the Serbs. Nasir Oric and his
para-military were almost certainly tipped-off about the impending Serb
Army invasion. Next, in the first municipal elections for Srebrenica,
after the Serbs took over, the names of 3003 Bosnian Muslim men listed
as "killed" showed up on the electoral rolls.
This writer was present at the University of California panel recently
on which a Bosnian Muslim politician without scholarly credentials
claimed, with a poker face, that no one from Srebrenica did any harm to
the rural Serbs because all were disarmed. He went further, all the
bodies found in the Serb part of Bosnia were those of Muslim men
"slaughtered in cold blood," within Serb territory, forgetting that
there were about 10,000 Muslim combatants’ bodies in there, from the 5th
Corps’ military disaster. He even claimed that 4,000 bodies had their
hands "tied" behind their backs. One was tempted to ask if they might
not have been tied after the excavations, even without imagining the
logistics involved in tying 8,000 hands for executions. Se non e
vero.
So, how many Bosnian Muslim men from Srebrenica were killed while
fleeing as against those killed execution style? It may take a
decade plus a Truth- and- Reconcilliation Commission to arrive at an
accurate number. At this time, if pre-departures and flights that
succeded are taken into account, the global figure of 4,000 dead, if
accepted by convention, needs to be sub-divided , with probably
one-third for the executed men. This is not very far from the Serb
victims of Oric to be found nowhere in the annals constructed by the
Moral Giants and their often breathless . "reporters." . The
"unreconstructed" Serb haters who read the present text will almost
certainly attempt to smear this writer for "trying to whitewash Serb
crimes." Nothing could be farther from such an endeavor. . It is an
attempt to confront the hysteria which blocks all serious inquiry into
the nitty-gritty of it all. One does get tired of having to read the
uninformed human parrots who keep repeating the same bogus "verdict"
in which the Bosnian Muslims are the innocent "lambs" " slaughtered" by
Bosnian Serb "Nazis" at Srebrenica.
One more item on Srebrenica. The reason why Madeleine Albright decided
to produce the CIA aereal fotograph that proved nothing visually by
itself, is that t the Croat Army "cleansed" out of Krajina some 250,000
Serbs, killing over 5,000 who could not flee and systematically looting
and torching their properties. Madeleine Albright and the National
Security Adviser, Anthony Lake, had given the green light to the Croat
Army knowing full-well what the result would be. After the NATO troops
occupied Bosnia without a shot, no bodies were found in the field made
famous by "Dr." Albright, as the New York
Times tried to boost her dubious "expertise" regarding the Balkans as
a whole. There is yet another and last category to be dealt with.
There are distinct war crimes for which the Serbs had been accused but
which they almost certainly did not commit. This is not the reference
to "minor" accusations. Among them, the sending of a bus full of
children through Sarajevo’s "Sniper Alley" and claiming that the Serbs
shoot children because a Bosnian Muslim girl was killed by an
apparently stray bullet. It mattered little that the victim was a Serb.
Or, a TV picture of a graveyard with tomb stones while the commentator
stated with assurance that it was the burial place of Bosnian Muslims
killed by the Serbs. The only problem was that the inscriptions were in
the Cyrillic alphabet and the tombs had crosses over them. It was, with
no chance of error, a Serb graveyard. No, reference here is to two
PIVOTAL "massacres." One led, in a few hours, to a three-week
bombing campaign against the Bosnian Serbs by the USAF within NATO. The
other was actually the triggering mechanism for eleven weeks of
U.S./NATO destruction of Serbia (and Kosovo).
The Massacre at Markale
The reference is to the Markale market- place massacre at Sarajevo
(sometimes called the Third Market-place massacre) and to the "massacre
at Racak.," Kosovo.It so happened that an ABC –TV crew was in place to
film the Markale massacre. It so happened also that a detailed U.N.
Report exculpated the Serbs, attributing this massacre to the Muslim
side. Enter again Madeleine Albright. She demanded that the U.N. Report
be kept under wraps. It remains secret to this day but the gist of its
findings leaked out through a respected Japanese U.N. official, Mr.
Akashi. Ambassador Albright had once told him arrogantly "to mind his
own business." Her Czech Jewish family was twice given shelter and
warm reception by the Serbs. Yet, she became the foremost Serb
hate-monger of the Clinton Administration. A case worth the extended
sessions that Sigmund Freud had with Frau Lou. After the Serb Army
took the town of Vukovar through intense fighting with the Croat
forces, she visited Vukovar to PUBLICIZE "yet another Serb atrocity."
It was the killing of some 300 wounded Croats, yanked out of the local
hospital and shot by "the Serbs." The killing was real but it was Arkan
and his Tigers who did the killings again, not the Serb Army and not
"the Serbs" collectively. She "neglected" to "tell the World" two other
very pertinent aspects. One was that an entire Serb population of
Vukovar under Croat control had disappeared without a trace but signs
of torture and killings were found by the Serb Army in the old Austrian
catacombs under Vukovar. Moreover, it would
appear that the 300 or so hospital "patients" turned out to have been
the extreme nationalist defenders of Vukovar who had kicked out the real
patients in
order to avoid being executed. But, that was Arkan’s claim. It may have
been true or not is the only rational assessment, the kind that has
been a rarity in the psychological bashing of "the Serbs" in the Western
and especially U.S. and German media.
The Massacre at Racak
.
The "massacre" at Racak differed significantly from the Markale
antecedent. Racak was a stronghold of the Albanian Kosovo Liberation
Army. It was attacked by the Serb police units on November 15 1999. The
next day , a special U.S. Envoy , Richard Walker, former U.S.
Ambassador to el-Salvador led a group of journalists and a TV crew to
a would-be "mass" grave filled with 47 bodies, all men, but left
completely open. It "was a massacre ," said Walker. Within hours, the
media across the globe had repeated his words. As Madeleine Albright
would say after the "air war," this ‘Serb atrocity’ did "galvanize the
International Community." It led to the talks at Rambouillet, France,
where the Serbs were set-up to take a fall big enough to justify the air
war itself. No one bothered to ask if there really was a mass execution
and whether the Serbs were really guilty. The verdict was carved in
stone before a jury of experts could convene. It still repeated from
time to time.
A forensic team led by a Finnish Doctor examined the bodies and the
site and produced 20 kilograms of research plus 3,000 photographs. The
lengthy report was never released but a summary did reach the media.
There were no spent cartridges at the site. The bodies had to be brought
from somewhere else. Only a single person in the all-male grave had been
shot at close range. Since the Serbs had been accused of hiding bodies
in Bosnia, why would they leave a "mass grave" open and deliberately
provoke an even more unfavorable opinion abroad that could lead to
military reprisals? But the clincher for an obvious "montage" was in the
record of Mr. Walker. He had close ties with both the CIA and the
Central American right-wing death squads. A French journal stated even
that he was "running them," all in character with his reputation as an
ardent anti-Communist warrior of long standing. Given that the day
before the "mass" grave was "discovered" there was heavy fighting at
Racak between the KLA and the Serb police, it would appear that the 47
bodies were those of the KLA soldiers fallen in battle. There was no
reason why they could not serve the KLA cause again even in death,
especially with Mr. Walker around So much for the "Racak massacre." One
thing is undeniable. Both the Markale and Racak massacres, one real and
the other unreal, provided the U.S.- led and dominated NATO with enough
"legitimacy" to respond with "justifiable retributions."
It would be claimed later that NATO’s intervention in Bosnia forced the
Serbs to come to the negotiating table at Dayton. Wrong again. Bosnian
Serbs in authority, both military and civilian, had been asking for
negotiations for almost a year before being bombed by NATO. But, the
Izetbegovic Government kept refusing until it secured the deadly
services of the USAF. It was the Bosnian Muslm Army Commander Rasim
Delic who selected its targets. With the U.S. air might behind them, a
brigade composed of grandmothers could beat "the Serbs." This was
essentially true at Kosovo as well.
Back in 1998, at Geneva, a U.S. diplomat met with members of the Kosovo
Liberation Army. For some time, the Clinton Administration wanted to
go to war against "Milosevic" but without using the American ground
troops. A "deal" was struck at Geneva. What had been an essentially
localized and containable guerrilla activity by a shadowy KLA, once
defined as "terrorists," would soon escalate. At home in the U.S, the
KLA was laundered away from its ties with the drug traffic and
transformed into a Freedom Fighting but under-armed outfit. The Pentagon
and the CIA had been in Albania itself for almost a decade, training and
supplying its army with weapons. It was never clear why? But, Albania
even became a "Cooperating Associate of NATO" and gave the U.S. its
first military base in the Balkans. It was thus hardly difficult to
extend this "alliance" to the KLA.within a Kosovo dominated by the
Albanian demographic majority. This alliance has not broken down to this
very day while the media are serving "splinter groups" of the KLA in the
"neutral zone" of southern Serbia and inside Macedonia. At the same
time, the Albanian Lobby in the U.S. has an unbreakable lock-in on
Congress. There is even an "Albanian Caucus" within it. But, the
American People have no voice in such matters.
By the time 1999 rolled-in, the KLA had killed, mostly from ambush, some
300 Serb policemen. Its tactic was "hit-and-run- and- melt" into their
clans thereafter. When Serb police managed to pinpoint and surround
the KLA fighters in a clan compound, the result would invariably be the
same. Some women and children would be killed along with the men with
guns. Such events only served to boost the level of international
indignation about the Serb atrocities against the ethnic Albanian
civilians. The KLA was almost never even mentioned, let alone the
right of every state to defend itself against insurgency. All civil
and guerrilla wars are particularly nasty but this perception was lost
entirely in the plethora of one-way accusations against the "guilty
Serbs." This would have ensued, most likely, even if the Serb police
had fought the KLA with sling-shots.
Psychological Warfare against the Serbs
Part I – Croatia and Bosnia
When all the dust had settled from various battles, massacres and
interventions in the ex-Yugoslav space the Serbs were left with a
wrecked economy and a bunch of toxins and mutants in their air, water
and soil. They had "become" the neo-Nazis of the Fin du Siecle, unable
to live with other ethnicities by virtue of the "fact" that they were
the "greatest" of "ethnic cleansers" within old Yugoslavia Yet, the
simple willingness to take a somewhat closer look would show a couple of
STARTLING revelations to those who cultivate their gnorance in order to
remain perpetually "indignant." At the height of shootings in
Croatia, some 60,000 Croats lived in Belgrade unmolested. No one ever
booted them out of Serbia. At the height of the Serb-KLA fighting, some
200,000 Albanians lived unmolested in Serbia, 80,000 of them inhabit
TODAY the Greater Belgrade. Not a few pro-Yugoslav Albanians, as yet
"unradicalized" by the KLA, had fled Kosovo into SERBIA and into the
hands of the Serb Red Cross. Serbia alone incorporates 26 different
ethnicities and is the only multi-ethnic state left in ex-Yugoslavia. As
such, Serbia should receive all the support possible, including war
reparations, from the champion of plural societies, the United States of
America. Instead, pure Croatia, pure Slovenia and pure Kosovo are today
the "good guys."
The second "surprise" comes from another set of figures. Ethnic Serbs
made up about 14% of Croatia’s total population. About 40,000 Serbs
were "cleansed" out of Western Slavonia and another 250,000 from
Krajina. Bosnia produced about 400,000 Serb refugees. Most recently,
after the "air war," some 150,000-200,000 Serb were cleansed out by a
supposedly "disarmed" KLA Today, there are almost a million Serbs in
Serbia proper that had been "cleansed" out of the rest of
ex-Yugoslavia.The Western media have conveniently covered this fact by
omission (it is hardly ever mentioned) and by psychological ploy found
in the following and endlessly repeated statement: "Milosevic lost four
wars." When the actually HEAVIEST "ethnic cleansing" affected the
Serbs who became refugees that is because they "lost wars." The
"winners," of course did not do anything so there are no Serb "victims"
only casualties of wars "the Serbs themselves had started." Really?
When the Yugoslav Army attempted to prevent Slovenia from orbiting out
of the Federation, there was relatively little fighting. In fact, YFA
troops and tanks were blocked in urban settings, going nowhere. There
was, however, no bad blood between the Serbs and the Slovenes deriving
from World War II. In fact, busloads of Serb mothers came to Slovenia
to take their sons back into Serbia, Neither the Serbs nor the Slovenes
were looking for a war. There were hardly any large numbers of Serbs in
Slovenia to be "cleansed out" either.
The case of Croatia was different entirely because the Croat Nazis
killed hundreds of thousands of Serb civilians (between 1941-1944),
many in the most bestial manner that offended even some of the German
officers. The Serbs of Krajina attempted simply to escape a Croat
State in the process of becoming independent from the Federal
Yugoslavia. Bad memories were a major factor but both the Western
media and the Croat Nationalists "helped" to revive them. Instead of
reporting the on-going and constantly escalating violations of Human
Rights of the Serb minority in Croatia, the Western media served another
psychological "canard." The Serbs wanted to create a "Greater Serbia."
In that way, no one needed to worry about what was being done to the
Serbs in the New Croatia. The Croats became the "certified" "victims"
of "the Serbs" collectively again.
Krajina was on its way to become a Croat Kosovo when local Serbs
refused to accept Croat over-rule. Only here, the Clinton Administration
helped the newly sovereign State of Croatia against the rebelling Serbs.
It saw to it that a U.S. General and other officers trained the new army
and modernized it. Electronic intelligence was given to Croatia’s Army
as well. When it launched Operation Storm in August 1995, U.S. jets
strafed the Serb radar positions around Knin, Krajina’s capital. This
was direct intervention without naming it. The U.S. General who trained
the new Army feigned utter surprise that it would come to expel by
terror and war a quarter of a million people, killing several thousand
in the process, with all the properties looted and torched. Given the
"American factor," Milosevic’s Yugoslav Army did not interfere and
Croatia became, at long last, ethnically pure one more time.It was
assisted in a major way by the Clinton Administration. In fact, the
Green Light for the Operation Storm was given by none other than
Madeleine Albright and Anthony Lake, then National Security Adviser.
Serbia itself did not lose this war because it did not enter it. But,
the Krajina Serbs lost a home which their ancestors began to settle
some three centuries earlier.
The situation in Bosnia, at end-game, left the local Serbs in
possession of about 40 percent of the real estate, having lost about 20
percent . They had legally owned about 62 percent of Bosnia, mostly
rural for a historical reason. Under the occupation of Ottoman Turks,
local Muslim overlords occupied the towns and the Christian raja got
the countryside. What ended the war in Bosnia was
Nothing that resembled anyone’s decisive military victory or defeat.
But, the war in Bosnia provided the Western media and some "publicity
scavengers" and "hogs" with a gold mine for sensationalism and
hate-mongering against the Serbs. There was the famous picture of an
emasciated Bosnian Muslim man in a Serb camp immediately "diagnosed"
as a "death camp." He was ostensibly behind the wire and he had a
gentle look in his face. The picture brough back immediately the
Holocaust and went Around the World. Newsweek had it as its
frontispiece. Beind all of this was a hoax. The Serbs allowed a British
TV crew and the producer to film the camp because they had nothing to
hide. It was a detention camp, noting more sinister. A closer look
inside the picture reveals a whole group of men who appeared well-fed
and well-dressed. A Serb TV crew was also filming their British guests
and it turned out that the emasciated man was in front of the wire, not
behind it. It also came out that he was suffering from Tuberculosis. The
producer saw the possibilities of a major media coup with which to pay
back the Serb hospitality and openness by a blow aiming to incite
forever against the Serb People men and women of Jewish faith in the
U.S. and Western Europe.
When fatigue was setting in among the Western publics about the war
crimes in Bosnia, there came out of Sarajevo the story of systematic
mass rapes of Muslim Women by Serb soldiers and para-military. Figures
of 20,000 to 40,000 were cited with assurances that can only accompany
the lack of any accuracy. A French TV reporter went to Tuzla,
Bosniuan Muslim stronghold, to verify the claim that some 4,000 of the
raped Bosnian women were in a large soccer field and vicinity.Half way
to Tuzla the numbers came down to 400. Near Tuzla they went down to 40.
In Tuzla, he found just 4. While the "mass rapes" of Muslim women were
circulated even in Muslim countries for an obvious reason, the
Yugoslav Government presented to the United Nations a formal dossier and
evidence. It revealed that hundreds of Serbian girls and women were
being abducted, brought into Sarajevo and put into brothels called"
troop entertainment centers." No one took notice. To get the "flavor "
also of non-Serb cruelty to alien women, herewith is briefly a story
that never reached the U.S. media. A young and idealistic woman from
Milan, Italy, went to Sarajevo to "help Bosnia." She was persuaded to go
with a man to Srebrenica where her help was "even more needed." Once
there, she was gang raped several times, sold and re-sold for a pack of
cigarettes. When the Serb Bosnian Army took Srebrenica its soldiers
found her in a dark cellar, in rags, chained to a wall and so
traumatized that she lost the power to speak. It took a week of hospital
care and a female social
worker to get her to talk and reveal what had happened. Some of the
reports from Kosovo reveal even more harrowing tales of cruelty to women
and girls "imported" by the Albanian freedom fighters and Mafiosi from
Albania, But, they are U.S. allies and who wants to diminish the great
achievement of NATO by revealing just how really out of hand the
situation inside Kosovo has gotten under the benevolent Gaulaiter
Bernard Kouchner and 40,000 NATO troops.
Out of the propaganda mill at Sarajevo came yet another set of figures
widely circulated. It concerned some 250,000 to 500,000 Bosnian Muslims
killed by the Serbs (this was BEFORE Srebrenica). A State Departmenbt
official who resigned his post reduced the figure down to about
40,000, a more realistic one. A few media sources did pick this up
because of his correct political pedigree but it was hardly enough to
prevent endless parroting of the higher mortality figures, for effect.
Psychological War Against the Serbs
Part II – Kosovo
For Kosovo, most of the fellow-Americans are still unaware of the
extent to which they had been savagely manipulated by the Clinton
Administration and the corporate media trying to "outrun" the White
House, the CIA and the Pentagon. After the bogus "massacre" at Racak,
there came the Rambouillet Conference in February 1999. The Big Lie that
came out of it was that the Serbs walked out and refused to sign the
"Peace Plan." There was "no alternative" but to "let" NATO bomb
Serbia. Facts tell otherwise. The Serbs were willing to restore Kosovo’s
autonomy, the original main provision of the "Peace Plan," and even
allow foreign troops to be stationed there under U.N. authority without
a fight. In return, the KLA was to be disarmed. The KLA’s political
head would not sign without the promise of formal independence for
Kosovo. Than came the con-game switch that hardly renders honor to the
American People or American professional Diplomacy. An Appendix (B) was
added in the last minute. Stripped of its meandering language, it simply
meant that the Serbs must accept the NATO occupation of Serbia,
including Belgrade. As Madeleine Albright would quip after the eleven
weeks of destruction and killing from the air, "we raised the bar so
Milosevic could not jump over it. Yugoslavia needed a little bombing."
Once assured by General Wesley Clark that it would de facto "borrow" the
USAF services over Serbia and the Serb Army positions at Kosovo, the
KLA signed the "Peace Plan" for war against Serbia. On 24 March 1999,
the U.S. (inside of NATO) went into action after having pre-planned
aerial attacks against Serbia since at least 1997. Now the propaganda
and the hate-mongering in full bloom.
A "humanitarian disaster" was being worked out in Belgrade to affect
ethnic Albanians. In a TV discussion, Senator Joseph Biden, was almost
foaming at the mouth while stressing the claim. The Serbs had beefed-up
their Third Army in order to carry this plan out..Shortly after the NATO
bombs and missiles began to fall on Serbia and Kosovo and the "Kosovars"
started to come out in large numbers, the German secret services came up
with the "discovery" of a would-be top secret Serb Plan to empty Kosovo
out of its Albanian majority. This was an ex-post-facto hoax as
documented in Germany itself. There never was such a plan. The reality
of it was that the Serb Third Army had been pulled out of Kosovo as a
resul of direct negotiations between Milosevic and Richard Holbrooke.
But, Holbrooke did not lift a finger to prevent the KLA from moving into
the power vacuum created by the Third Army’s removal from Kosovo. It was
now moving to retake the territories and put an end to the KLA. It did
not need anyone’s "permission" to so do.
Ah, but the Kosovars were fleeing Kosovo en masse. Proof positive of
"Operation Horseshoe," as the hoax was called.The difficulty was
obvious. No such flights occurred before 24th March 1999, the day of
NATO’s "humanitarian intervention" to "save the Kosovars." They were
leaving Kosovo for the first time in huge numbers to escape from
escalated fighting between Serb units and the KLA as well as from the
NATO bombs At that point Jewish Organizations in the U.S. ran a huge
picture in the New York Times of trainloads of European Jews being taken
to death camps in Nazi-occupied Europe, with Kosovo on the point and the
highlight of "Never Again." The analogy was pure emotional anti-Serb
hate-mongering because the fleeing Kosovars were going into the safety
of refugee camps across the borders. They were not going into the gas
chambers. Moreover, they were actually helped to do so by the Serb
military and were urged to leave Kosovo in big numbers by the KLA
itself.
Ah, but the Serbs had killed 100,000 Albanian men assured Secretary
of Defense Cohen. This was later scaled down to 10,000 but still with
"mass graves" populating the countryside at Kosovo. After the NATO
occupation a total of 2008 bodies had been excavated by forensic teams.
There was one particular
grave containing 150 bodies. They were quickly re-buried under the eyes
of NATO commanders when it was found that the bodies were those of
Serbs. The very near- crime of re-burial was committed to again deny the
Serbs even the right to be the victims of someone else in death. With
all the outcries about "mass graves" at Kosovo, the Spanish forensic
team walked out in frustration since the claim had outpaced the reality
by an unbearable distance. The desire to unearth a real mass grave
containing Albanian ethnic bodies was intense in June 1999 that a TV
crew offered a reward of $250,000 for such a bona fide find. The Medium
is the Message and no one did more to uphold this simulated reality than
CNN. It was the first TV outfit to second and surpass the propaganda
emanating
from the Clinton team and its lower-ranking associates. It even allowed
the Government’s psychological warfare personnel to be at the Network,
ostensibly for "training purposes," another canard served to the public.
Even after twenty-one months of NATO and U.N. presence at Kosovo, after
the expulsion of not only the Serbs from most of it but also all the
other minorities,after the kidnappings and murders of over 1,000 Serb
civilians, the "psy-ops" are "publicizing" the would-be gruesome
incinerations of 1,500 ethnic Albanian men in the smelter furnace of
the Trepca mine during the air war. This has been refuted by foreign
experts who went into the mine and examined the furnace. It is further
documented as another attempt to keep smearing the Serbs –now
"inconvenient" because Milosevic has been replaced by a democratic
Government—by the fact that the Serbs had shut the smelter furnace and
the mine during the whole period of NATO’s air war. But, no matter what
evidence is presented to the contrary by real experts who are neither
Serbs nor pro-Serb, the human parrots are constantly at work.
. As a result of a decade of hate-mongering against the Serbs the
Clinton Administration and the corporate media have spawned several
hundred clerks whose career advances are inter-linked with continued
cerebral bashing of "the Serbs." They are to be found on newspaper
staffs, in editorial rooms, in various NGOs and Governmental agencies
and nothing apparently delights many of them more than to "develop"
same new "variant" of the same bashing endeavor. But that is only one
duct into protracted smearing of a single ethnicity.. There are two
others with far greater influence in the corridors of power. One can be
called the "anti-Serb brigade." It populates various think tanks,
peace institutes, human rights centers, Congressional staffs and the
like. Time and time again, these are the same people who are called upon
by Congressional Committees to "testify" and "inform" what policies
should be pursued in respect to ex-Yugoslavia as a whole. It is a
replica of Catch-22.
The Serbs invariably get the short end of the stick without much by
way of real carrots. We had real wars with the Japanese and the Germans
and we rebuilt their economies. Even an unreal war of our own making
has not produced anything close as yet. Just three months after the new
Government was elected in Belgrade, the same coterie of real
intellectual pygmies and a few phoney Moral Giants is shedding
crocodile tears about the slow pace into Democracy and capitalist
underpinnings within Serbia They keep insisting that Belgrade MUST
deliver Milosevic and his Cabinet to the Hague in order to "prove" that
"real" reforms are taking place. Against the background of NATO
destruction and a million refugees, the Serbs are not even allowed to
set their own priorities, a given in any valid concept of Democracy. It
cannot be IMPOSED from outside. In an unguarded moment, even Morton
Abramowitz conceded that the Serbs are the pivotal people of
ex-Yugoslavia. Negotiating and siding with the KLA insurgents against
the Serbs sets a most destabilizing example of reckless risk- taking.
There are some 5,000 ethnicities in about 150 countries. If their
sovereignty is downgraded and even non-existent there will be no end to
an imploding and un-manageable international chaos but it is a sure
bet that neither the U.S. nor NATO will wish to attain another
Kosovo-like "victory." Had they not internationalized a local and minor
guerrilla it would have been eliminated by now and foreign troops would
not have been necessary along with a U.N. Trusteeship. To say nothing of
pouring billions of dollars don the drain. Some 1300 European (OSCE)
Observers at Kosovo just beore the air war had concluded that the Serb
units at Kosovo did NOT TARGET ethnic Albanians as a people but the KLA
instead. The Clinton Administration would not listen. It did not even
wish to make the massive report of OSCE Observers available to the
public. As a prominent ethnic Albanian in Macedonia said aptly, foreign
intervention at Kosovo allowed the Genie to "get out of the bottle."
The coterie does not see it that way.
Some in it are "Senior Fellows," like Morton Abramowitz who had been a
Political Adviser to the KLA at Rambouillet and has a long anti-Serb and
anti-Armenian record. He is now the most vocal and influential
point-man for the Kosovo Albanians in demands that Kosovo be given
independence from Yugoslavia. He argues that there is "no other way."
But, someone should remind him that, in the Balkans, the unspoken rule
of politics is that hardly anybody gets everything they would wish to
have. An internationally backed partition of Kosovo, with the northern
and much smaller area remaining Serb and the rest free to be independent
or unite with Albania could be a possible resolution of the "Kosovo
Problem" that would allow our troops to come home instead of staying
there for a generation.
But, this cannot happen as long as the "ex-KLA" "factions" are not
disarmed completely by a NATO able and willing to show its teeth. This
goal was one of the three main provisions in the "Peace Plan" at
Rambouillet. The KLA even signed it. . It cannot happen as long as the
same people keep "testifying" and "informing " repeatedly a Congress
that is already "captured" by the Albanian Lobby. It cannot happen
while NATO looks the other way. The political head of the "e-KLA," the
main general of the KLA{who is an attested war crimnal for what he did
in Croatia to the Serbs) and the ONCE-MODERATE leader of most Kosovo
Albanians are all in accord that ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia,
western Macedonia and eastern Montenegro "deserve" self-determination.
There is a third level at home in the U.S., the one that really counts
because it is composed of the actual decision makers who command the
military, political, and economic resources of the United States. They
define strategic objectives without communicating with the American
People that ultimately pays the bills and will come to benefit or to
harm for what they do or not do abroad. Until the change in Presidency,
many in this group defined themselves through the Holocaust. It is a
powerful influence, just like the World War II, which impacted an
entire generation in Europe and the U.S. But, as was pointed earlier,
the analogy with what happened at Kosovo does not work. It may even be
extremely counter-productive to the U.S. National Interest.
The preceding "determinators" have been replaced by what one could call
the "oil men," a practical, hard-ball bunch ready to be real tough only
when clear and widely discernible aspects of the National Interest are
at stake. It is too early to tell what this group, now in-charge, will
come up with but whatever it does come up with it will fail ultimately
unless it develops a real respect for facts and contexts in which these
devolve. In short, until they avoid the tendency to dupe the American
People in pursuit of "geo-political strategies" and "higher goals" that
only they grasp and for which they are ultimately not accountable even
in cases of egregious errors. They can learn a most profitable lesson by
a close and real look at what has been done to "the Serbs." It should
ring the bell on how NOT to deal with peoples out there and avoid, at
the same time, a Balkanization of America in the belief that they can
promote Democracy abroad while losing it at home.
Raymond K. Kent
History Department,
University of California,
Berkeley, Ca. 97720
(510/642-1971)
A Case of non-Justifiable Retribution
R.K.Kent
Emeritus Professor of History
University of California at Berkeley
27 March 2001
If there is a dominant feature of the Clinton era involvement in the
Balkans it can be summed-up with the saying that "the enemy of my
enemy is my friend." Science has abandoned "Reasoning by Analogy" for
at least two centuries but, than, there was nothing remotely
"scientific" involved in the Clintonite foreign "policy."despite the
pretensions of a Magister Dixit Dr. Seceratry of State. For a number
of complex reasons, the Serbs became the selected "enemy" of the
"West" as a whole through NATO, and even of Civilization itself. Ipso
facto, all other ethno-religious groups within the ex-Yugoslav space
became our "allies." The Croats, the Bosnian Muslims and Kosovo’s
ethnic Albanians ---all three were also transformed into "victims."
It was a "status" condition for which the Serbs were not allowed to
qualify. The "victims" had all the rights and deserved all the external
support. The "aggressors" had no rights. The Serbs were gradually
dehumanized through the Western media and governmental propaganda. They
were subjected to crippling and long-lasting economic sanctions.
NATO bombed the Serbs twice, once in Bosnia for three weeks and the
second time for eleven weeks in Serbia proper and Kosovo.
A Bogus Enemy and a War without Precedent
The 78-day attack had several unique features. First and foremost it
had no popular support at home. None of the "explanations" for it
seemed convincing enough. . Inter alia, it was regularly served to
the American People as a "humanitarian intervention." Few continued to
see it as such as the war went on and on. Anti-war activists began to
organize as it became clear that the American People had been simply
by-passed. Demonstrations were slated for 5th June 1999. It may be a
coincidence but the actual bombings stopped the day before while the
war’s "official end" was announced a week later.
Although it was presented as a joint Euro-American endeavor the U.S.
was the driving force and an 80 percent contributor to the total war
effort. It was the largest military undertaking in Europe since World
War II. It was launched without a declaration of war which the U.S.
Congress, for example, would not grant the President even 26 days into
the bombing campaign. For the first time, through control of NATO, the
U.S. bombed a state inside Europe and not in Asia, Africa
or Latin America. Yet, the United States was under no attack. The Serbs
had even been its allies in two World Wars. It had no economic
positions to defend in the Balkans. It was physically absent from the
Balkans in both World Wars, although it did bomb Roumania’s Ploesti
Oil Fields in 1944 as well as Belgrade, eleven times, at the request of
the Communist Tito, then trying to conquer Serbia. As others would do
more recently in ex-Yugoslavia, Tito "borrowed" the USAF to "soften"
Serbia. .
In a language reminiscent of Orwell, the "Air War" over Serbia
and Kosovo suggested air combat but it was nothing of the kind. .
Basically, the USAF, within NATO dropped bombs, Tomahawk and Cruise
missiles (and cluster bombs) firing shells dipped in depleted uranium
on a virtually defenseless nation. Another first, no single U.S. soldier
was lost in the Air War.
In the media drive to impose cerebral terror on "the Serbs," few
bona fide reporters made serious attempts to verify and fine- tune
into all the charges and horrors swirling about, in gore, on TV
screens, in articles dripping with blood, in pious postures of the
we-must-do-something hawks. The parlor-room Moral Giants, who own
and dominate most of the scribal and audio-visual media in the U.S.,
set up a political agenda. It was hardly advertised but it came into
view anyway. .The Serbs must not only be punished. They must be
humiliated, brought down on their knees. They must be "taught a
lesson." They are "collectively sick." They suffer from "pernicious
nationalism" and need to be "cured." They are the harbingers of another
Holocaust.. They should even be "hit in the genes" to induce collective
remorse through physical mutations in their yet-to-be-born children.
As that might take some time, a faster lane in which the Guardians of
Civilization could come to travel in their "justifiable retribution" was
to create a "special" Tribunal with another unstated but clear-cut
mission. By indicting and trying mainly and constantly "the Serbs,"
with a few cosmetic exceptions of several low and mid-ranking Croats
plus a Bosnian Muslim or two, "the Serbs" would continue to be "roasted"
on the spit of public opinion even long after the fratricidal wars had
stopped in ex-Yugoslavia. Needless to stress, this "Tribunal" is the
greatest violator of civilized laws, one step removed from a Kangaroo
Court and is even in constant violation of its own mandate’s provision
that it cannot accept funds from individuals (like George Soros) or be
supported by considerable aid from a single country, like the Unietd
States. In practice, if not widely known or understood, the Tribunal has
been basically a political arm of the State Department.
While all sorts of "indignant" hawks lambasted "the Serbs" for being
the "prisoners of their past," others accused them of failure to "face
their own past." Few could ask such a "sophisticated" question as
"where does one start or cut-off the Serb past?" To give an example, had
the "International Community" taken a long and hard look at Kosovo
between, say, 1974 and 1984 it would have iscovered that the Serb
minority was actually being victimized by the ethnic Albanian majority.
This happened because in 1974 the Federal Constitution of Yugoslavia was
changed radically to give virtually all powers to majorities in all the
Republics and Autonomous Regions. A decade later, the Serb minority got
the upper hand. To put it another way, why should the Serbs have to
accept and even favor external "explanations" of "Serb History," much
of it hardly a product of serious scholarship. Much of it has also been
"constructed" in haste, suffering from what professional historians
call "backward projection." This is an all-too prevalent habit to look,
usually with a strong partisan bias, at a given present and THEN
"explain it" by forcing the past to "fit" into it. The stronger
Victors are usually ‘VIRTUOUS" and apt to demand that only their
versions of History be perceived and accepted as valid.
The fall of "Milosevic" who was used as a substitute for the real
target, namely the Serb people and their Nationalism as defined
externally (but no one else’s in ex-Yugoslavia) did not eliminate the
political agenda. The entire Serb leadership from both Pale and
Belgrade has been on top of the Tribunal’s list of indicted war
criminals. The new Serb Government and its President Kostunica are now
being blackmailed. Unless they deliver Milosevic and his Cabinet to
the Hague Tribunal (ICTY) a Serbia that was bombed back into the
Nineteenth Century will not get the aid it needs to pull its people out
of economic and social misery. Why is an "international" trial of
alleged top Serb "war criminals" relative to Kosovo in 1998-1999, a
matter of such priority and urgency since there is no statute of
limitations for war crimes.?
What did the Serbs really do to deserve all the punishments? .Their
first "sin" was to attempt to preserve a Federal Yugoslavia threatened
at the same time from within and without by hardly new enemies. Strange
as it may seem today , the foreign-policy team of George Bush Senior
initially agreed with the Serb position. They were afraid of what could
happen if, by contagion, a dissolutioin of the USSR became too
violent. But, they all yielded to powerful and well-financed pressures
to crack-up Yugoslavia for good. These pressures came first from an
aggressive Croatian Lobby in Washington. It was reported to have spent
as much as $55 million to literally buy certain targeted U.S.
legislators, especially those considered to be "conservative." Germany’s
Chancellor Kohl also persuaded President Bush, Sr. to abandon any
defense of Federal Yugoslavia.
An American Public Relations firm (Ruder Finn) was hired to smear the
Serbs politically. Its CEO later bragged that his work turned the
Jewish organizations in the U.S .against the Serbs. He simply passed
on to them propaganda emanating from extreme Croat nationalist sources
in Zagreb and in the North American diaspora. In fact, Ruder Finn was
able to GLOBALIZE the pathological hate of the Serbs which had united
and is still the only sure-fire glue holding together the otherwise
disunited Croat nationalists everywhere..
The Earliest Victims in Disintegrating
Yugoslavia
Hardly anyone in the West knew that between August 1991 and February
1992 the new Croat Army and the para-military carried out the first
"ethnic cleansing" campaign in ex-Yugoslavia since WWII. It took place
in Western Slavonia as some 40,000 Serb civilians fled in panic, as all
of the elderly who remained behind were killed, as all of the Serb
Orthodox Churches were systematically destroyed. Hardly anyone knew in
the West that "human rights" of the Serbs in Krajina and Croatia in
general were being grossly violated in the newly Independent Croat
State under Franjo Tudjman. He had been a Communist General in Tito’s
Yugoslavia. His main job, at least until he went into opposition as a
Croat Nationalist, was to indoctrinate troops in the Yugoslav Federal
Army.
As that Army lost its non-Serb officers and tried to prevent Croatia’s
violent exit from the Yugoslav Federation, two YFA helicopters were shot
down by small arms ground fire from the Croat side. All of the two
dozen low-ranking YFA officers were wounded in the crashes. None died
from the impact but all of their heads were simply cut-off. The
"incident" never "reached" the Western media either. Similarly, as the
YFA was losing its Bosnian Muslim components, one of its Serb units,
600-men strong, negotiated a safe passage in exchange for not fighting
its way out of the Muslim -controlled area in Bosnia. Instead, half were
simply slaughtered and the few survivors from the other half stated that
the dead soldiers had a better deal in comparison what was done to the
survivors.
In short, the Serbs were the EARLIEST VICTIMS of post-WWII ethnic
cleansing and atrocities but the Western Governments and media did not
want to know or hear or report. The new "ethos" in the West was to smear
and keep smearing the Serbs and the Serbs only. Let us now review the
war crimes with which "the Serbs" have been charged in public and let
us try to provide some idea of context.
Arkan.
These fall into several categories. There are "war crimes" (actually
civil war crimes despite the international rhetoric to the contrary) of
which individual Serbs
and/or a specific Serb para- military group were actually guilty.
Here, the Serb warlord, Zeljko Raznjatovic or Arkan, and his "Tigers,"
mostly men released from jails in Serbia, top the list as the worst of
Serb wartime criminals. They committed initial atrocities in Eastern
Bosnia and later in parts of Croatia. To borrow Bernard Kouchner’s
twisted phrase at Kosovo, they saw their bloody work as "justifiable
retribution." This was not only for what was happening to
contemnporary Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia. It was also in memory of
what was done to hundreds of thousands of Serbs between 1941-1944 in
the "Independent State of Croatia" run by local Nazis, the Ustashe.
Bosnia was at the time under their rule as well. It was a gift from
Adolf Hitler for joining Nazi Germany in WWII. That is how it was. All
justifications aside, a crime is a crime, collective or individual. Two
Wrongs do not make a single Right, something that will be recalled in
connection with NATO’s "Humanitarian Intervention."
The First and Second Market-Place Massacres at
Sarajevo
Another category consists of crimes alleged to have been committed by
the Serbs without any real evidence. Such are the first and second
market-place "massacres at Sarajevo". After the first one, President
George Bush Senior was quoted as having said at a social gathering that
"the Serbs didn’t do it." Yet, no one supplied any solid evidence one
way or another. The Western media, parroting the Sarajevo
Government, accused the Serbs anyway. It is hard to believe, however,
that an American President, who had also been Director of the CIA,
would be uninformed about realities on the ground. .
Still, the Media optics were, in the case of Sarajevo, doubly skewed
against the Serbs. This is so because the Bosnian Serb Army attained no
victories at Sarajevo while shelling a very particular city from
adjacent hills. Even a part of Sarajevo inhabited mostly by the Serbs
was shelled from time to time. The hill gunners did not grasp the fact
that Sarajevo had endeared itself to the outside world because of
recently held Olympics. It had become everyone’s town. It was
constantly filmed by TV crews as the shelling went on.
The Sarajevo Government understood the context. It deliberately
provoked much of the shelling to gain more international support. In a
single move, it was able to gain the political loyalty of an entire
foreign press corps, residing in the local Hilton. A Bosnian Muslim
battery was positioned behind the Hotel and repeatedly drew ripostes
from the hills. Thereafter, no reporter in residence could adhere to
any effort that would resemble the craft of journalism. It all became
pure advocacy. .Like their bosses at home they WANTED to accept the
fare which came from the old hands of Tito’s Yugoslavia. They now
specialized
in disinformation working for the new Bosnian Ministries of Interior
and Information.
The Massacre at Srebrenica
Another category of war crimes and crimes against humanity leads into
those which are either deliberately severed from conext to remove
serious provocation or else exaggerated to gain international support..
The most poignant example of this kind, repeatedly brought-up in the
media, even six years later, is Srebrenica. It did not "surface" when
it was evolving but later, or more precisely at a particular moment in
time. It was in August 1995 that Madeleine Albright , then U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations, unveiled at the meeting of its
General Assembly an enlarged and dated CIA aereal photograph. . In it
was a freshly ploughed field that could have been anywhere but she
placed it at Srebrenica, a silver-mining town in Eastern Bosnia
inhabited mostly by Muslims. With a hint of a CIA in possession of
photographic evidence, she claimed that the field contained the buried
bodies of some 4,000 Muslim men, massacred in cold blood by the Bosnian
Serb Army. No such evidence ever surfaced.
Later, with the "help" of the Sarajevo Government, the figure
"escalated" to 7,000 and even 8,000, with added claims of "genocide."
It became by convention the worst blood-bath of the war in Bosnia.
Strictly speaking, this is not true. The entire Elite 5th Corps of the
Bosnian Muslim Army, trained by a retired U.S. General, was trapped by
the Bosnian Serbs and lost about 10,000 men to enfilade machine-gun,
tank and cannon fire, in a single encounter. For the record, this
happened inside the part of Bosnia under Serb control, now in Republika
Srpaska. The significance of the event and its location will be brought
out further below. At this point, it must be stressed that none of the
Western media involved in the heavy coverage of events in Bosnia
reported several aspects that would make the "Srebrenica Story"
considerably less one-sided with the local Muslims as the usual
"victims" and the Serbs as the perennial neo-Nazi "butchers."
Srebrenica had been declared a "Safe Zone," protected by U.N. Dutch
contingent, and containing presumably no armed Bosnian Muslim men. They
had been theoretically "disarmed." In fact, a local warlord, Nasir Oric
(a huge man and one-time Milosevic’s bodyguard) and his para-military
raided routinely the local countryside inhabited by the Serbs. This was
done over a period of months and it resulted in the looting and torching
of 42 Serb villages. Estimates vary for the civilians killed by Oric
and his men but the minimal one is 1,800 and the largest is 3,000. Oric
went even as far as to show to two Western reporters ( from Canada and
from Boston) a video tape of his own mayhem, bragging openly about his
"exploits."
The two top Generals of the Serb Bosnian Army that took Srebrenica manu
militare are now indicted war criminals at the Hague’s Tribunal for
Yugoslavia. Oric is running a disco for American G.I.s.in Tuzla. The
main General, Ratko Mladic, is accused even of "genocide" despite the
fact that he had ordered the busing out of Srebrenica all of the
Bosnian Muslim women and children. A rather sharp contrast in
comparison with what Oric did to the Serb women and children.
A tragic-comic story illustrates just how exclusively anti-Serb the
Tribunal has been. Two Serb university professors approached an
American who had gained some notoriety in "reporting" the miseries of
Bosnia. With simulated confidentiality, they revealed to him the
existence of a horrible Serb war criminal who had escaped attention.
They gave him a name. Within weeks, it appeared on the list of war
criminals wanted at the Tribunal. The only problem was that the man
never existed. It was a deliberate hoax to test "the channels." This was
still at the time when the Tribunal issued open indictments. Later,
these became secret.
Using an educated Mulsim intermediary, General Mladic demanded that
the Bosnian Muslim men hidden in the woods around Srebrenica surrender.
Instead, they made a run for Tuzla, a Bosnian Muslim stronghold. This is
when the Serb tanks began to shell and machinegun the woods
indiscriminately, killing in the view of its low-ranking commanders men
of a fleeing enemy army. It did not matter that most of hose in flight
did not carry any weapons. This is because, in civil wars, a man with a
rifle is a fighter. One without it is a civilian and they are and have
been entirely interchangeable. Suffice it to say that, at the end of the
Gulf War, USAF jets strafed the fleeing Iraqi soldiers much in the
same way. There was however one major difference.
At Srebernica, many of those in flight who had been caught were executed
in a summary fashion. This is where the real war crime comes in. Only
here Oric, by association, and as yet undesignated Bosnian Serb Army
soldiers, are the dual culprits in this the tragedy. The fleeing men
were afraid of reprisals for what Oric had done to the Serbs. The Serb
soldiers did not look only for the men that Oric used to exterminate
Srebrenica’s rural Serbs. All men of fighting age were automatically
regarded as Oric’s men. There remains the question of figures.
One needs to bring in some new elements up. Nasir Oric and his "elite
army" left Srebrenica a few days before the Bosnian Serbs went into
attack. They were incorporated into the Bosnian Muslim Army with the
request that it be kept a secret. There was even a Pentagon "angle"
here in that its strategists had concluded that Bosnian Muslim enclaves
like Srebrenica and Zepa were
indefensible and should be abandoned to the Serbs. Nasir Oric and his
para-military were almost certainly tipped-off about the impending Serb
Army invasion. Next, in the first municipal elections for Srebrenica,
after the Serbs took over, the names of 3003 Bosnian Muslim men listed
as "killed" showed up on the electoral rolls.
This writer was present at the University of California panel recently
on which a Bosnian Muslim politician without scholarly credentials
claimed, with a poker face, that no one from Srebrenica did any harm to
the rural Serbs because all were disarmed. He went further, all the
bodies found in the Serb part of Bosnia were those of Muslim men
"slaughtered in cold blood," within Serb territory, forgetting that
there were about 10,000 Muslim combatants’ bodies in there, from the 5th
Corps’ military disaster. He even claimed that 4,000 bodies had their
hands "tied" behind their backs. One was tempted to ask if they might
not have been tied after the excavations, even without imagining the
logistics involved in tying 8,000 hands for executions. Se non e
vero.
So, how many Bosnian Muslim men from Srebrenica were killed while
fleeing as against those killed execution style? It may take a
decade plus a Truth- and- Reconcilliation Commission to arrive at an
accurate number. At this time, if pre-departures and flights that
succeded are taken into account, the global figure of 4,000 dead, if
accepted by convention, needs to be sub-divided , with probably
one-third for the executed men. This is not very far from the Serb
victims of Oric to be found nowhere in the annals constructed by the
Moral Giants and their often breathless . "reporters." . The
"unreconstructed" Serb haters who read the present text will almost
certainly attempt to smear this writer for "trying to whitewash Serb
crimes." Nothing could be farther from such an endeavor. . It is an
attempt to confront the hysteria which blocks all serious inquiry into
the nitty-gritty of it all. One does get tired of having to read the
uninformed human parrots who keep repeating the same bogus "verdict"
in which the Bosnian Muslims are the innocent "lambs" " slaughtered" by
Bosnian Serb "Nazis" at Srebrenica.
One more item on Srebrenica. The reason why Madeleine Albright decided
to produce the CIA aereal fotograph that proved nothing visually by
itself, is that t the Croat Army "cleansed" out of Krajina some 250,000
Serbs, killing over 5,000 who could not flee and systematically looting
and torching their properties. Madeleine Albright and the National
Security Adviser, Anthony Lake, had given the green light to the Croat
Army knowing full-well what the result would be. After the NATO troops
occupied Bosnia without a shot, no bodies were found in the field made
famous by "Dr." Albright, as the New York
Times tried to boost her dubious "expertise" regarding the Balkans as
a whole. There is yet another and last category to be dealt with.
There are distinct war crimes for which the Serbs had been accused but
which they almost certainly did not commit. This is not the reference
to "minor" accusations. Among them, the sending of a bus full of
children through Sarajevo’s "Sniper Alley" and claiming that the Serbs
shoot children because a Bosnian Muslim girl was killed by an
apparently stray bullet. It mattered little that the victim was a Serb.
Or, a TV picture of a graveyard with tomb stones while the commentator
stated with assurance that it was the burial place of Bosnian Muslims
killed by the Serbs. The only problem was that the inscriptions were in
the Cyrillic alphabet and the tombs had crosses over them. It was, with
no chance of error, a Serb graveyard. No, reference here is to two
PIVOTAL "massacres." One led, in a few hours, to a three-week
bombing campaign against the Bosnian Serbs by the USAF within NATO. The
other was actually the triggering mechanism for eleven weeks of
U.S./NATO destruction of Serbia (and Kosovo).
The Massacre at Markale
The reference is to the Markale market- place massacre at Sarajevo
(sometimes called the Third Market-place massacre) and to the "massacre
at Racak.," Kosovo.It so happened that an ABC –TV crew was in place to
film the Markale massacre. It so happened also that a detailed U.N.
Report exculpated the Serbs, attributing this massacre to the Muslim
side. Enter again Madeleine Albright. She demanded that the U.N. Report
be kept under wraps. It remains secret to this day but the gist of its
findings leaked out through a respected Japanese U.N. official, Mr.
Akashi. Ambassador Albright had once told him arrogantly "to mind his
own business." Her Czech Jewish family was twice given shelter and
warm reception by the Serbs. Yet, she became the foremost Serb
hate-monger of the Clinton Administration. A case worth the extended
sessions that Sigmund Freud had with Frau Lou. After the Serb Army
took the town of Vukovar through intense fighting with the Croat
forces, she visited Vukovar to PUBLICIZE "yet another Serb atrocity."
It was the killing of some 300 wounded Croats, yanked out of the local
hospital and shot by "the Serbs." The killing was real but it was Arkan
and his Tigers who did the killings again, not the Serb Army and not
"the Serbs" collectively. She "neglected" to "tell the World" two other
very pertinent aspects. One was that an entire Serb population of
Vukovar under Croat control had disappeared without a trace but signs
of torture and killings were found by the Serb Army in the old Austrian
catacombs under Vukovar. Moreover, it would
appear that the 300 or so hospital "patients" turned out to have been
the extreme nationalist defenders of Vukovar who had kicked out the real
patients in
order to avoid being executed. But, that was Arkan’s claim. It may have
been true or not is the only rational assessment, the kind that has
been a rarity in the psychological bashing of "the Serbs" in the Western
and especially U.S. and German media.
The Massacre at Racak
.
The "massacre" at Racak differed significantly from the Markale
antecedent. Racak was a stronghold of the Albanian Kosovo Liberation
Army. It was attacked by the Serb police units on November 15 1999. The
next day , a special U.S. Envoy , Richard Walker, former U.S.
Ambassador to el-Salvador led a group of journalists and a TV crew to
a would-be "mass" grave filled with 47 bodies, all men, but left
completely open. It "was a massacre ," said Walker. Within hours, the
media across the globe had repeated his words. As Madeleine Albright
would say after the "air war," this ‘Serb atrocity’ did "galvanize the
International Community." It led to the talks at Rambouillet, France,
where the Serbs were set-up to take a fall big enough to justify the air
war itself. No one bothered to ask if there really was a mass execution
and whether the Serbs were really guilty. The verdict was carved in
stone before a jury of experts could convene. It still repeated from
time to time.
A forensic team led by a Finnish Doctor examined the bodies and the
site and produced 20 kilograms of research plus 3,000 photographs. The
lengthy report was never released but a summary did reach the media.
There were no spent cartridges at the site. The bodies had to be brought
from somewhere else. Only a single person in the all-male grave had been
shot at close range. Since the Serbs had been accused of hiding bodies
in Bosnia, why would they leave a "mass grave" open and deliberately
provoke an even more unfavorable opinion abroad that could lead to
military reprisals? But the clincher for an obvious "montage" was in the
record of Mr. Walker. He had close ties with both the CIA and the
Central American right-wing death squads. A French journal stated even
that he was "running them," all in character with his reputation as an
ardent anti-Communist warrior of long standing. Given that the day
before the "mass" grave was "discovered" there was heavy fighting at
Racak between the KLA and the Serb police, it would appear that the 47
bodies were those of the KLA soldiers fallen in battle. There was no
reason why they could not serve the KLA cause again even in death,
especially with Mr. Walker around So much for the "Racak massacre." One
thing is undeniable. Both the Markale and Racak massacres, one real and
the other unreal, provided the U.S.- led and dominated NATO with enough
"legitimacy" to respond with "justifiable retributions."
It would be claimed later that NATO’s intervention in Bosnia forced the
Serbs to come to the negotiating table at Dayton. Wrong again. Bosnian
Serbs in authority, both military and civilian, had been asking for
negotiations for almost a year before being bombed by NATO. But, the
Izetbegovic Government kept refusing until it secured the deadly
services of the USAF. It was the Bosnian Muslm Army Commander Rasim
Delic who selected its targets. With the U.S. air might behind them, a
brigade composed of grandmothers could beat "the Serbs." This was
essentially true at Kosovo as well.
Back in 1998, at Geneva, a U.S. diplomat met with members of the Kosovo
Liberation Army. For some time, the Clinton Administration wanted to
go to war against "Milosevic" but without using the American ground
troops. A "deal" was struck at Geneva. What had been an essentially
localized and containable guerrilla activity by a shadowy KLA, once
defined as "terrorists," would soon escalate. At home in the U.S, the
KLA was laundered away from its ties with the drug traffic and
transformed into a Freedom Fighting but under-armed outfit. The Pentagon
and the CIA had been in Albania itself for almost a decade, training and
supplying its army with weapons. It was never clear why? But, Albania
even became a "Cooperating Associate of NATO" and gave the U.S. its
first military base in the Balkans. It was thus hardly difficult to
extend this "alliance" to the KLA.within a Kosovo dominated by the
Albanian demographic majority. This alliance has not broken down to this
very day while the media are serving "splinter groups" of the KLA in the
"neutral zone" of southern Serbia and inside Macedonia. At the same
time, the Albanian Lobby in the U.S. has an unbreakable lock-in on
Congress. There is even an "Albanian Caucus" within it. But, the
American People have no voice in such matters.
By the time 1999 rolled-in, the KLA had killed, mostly from ambush, some
300 Serb policemen. Its tactic was "hit-and-run- and- melt" into their
clans thereafter. When Serb police managed to pinpoint and surround
the KLA fighters in a clan compound, the result would invariably be the
same. Some women and children would be killed along with the men with
guns. Such events only served to boost the level of international
indignation about the Serb atrocities against the ethnic Albanian
civilians. The KLA was almost never even mentioned, let alone the
right of every state to defend itself against insurgency. All civil
and guerrilla wars are particularly nasty but this perception was lost
entirely in the plethora of one-way accusations against the "guilty
Serbs." This would have ensued, most likely, even if the Serb police
had fought the KLA with sling-shots.
Psychological Warfare against the Serbs
Part I – Croatia and Bosnia
When all the dust had settled from various battles, massacres and
interventions in the ex-Yugoslav space the Serbs were left with a
wrecked economy and a bunch of toxins and mutants in their air, water
and soil. They had "become" the neo-Nazis of the Fin du Siecle, unable
to live with other ethnicities by virtue of the "fact" that they were
the "greatest" of "ethnic cleansers" within old Yugoslavia Yet, the
simple willingness to take a somewhat closer look would show a couple of
STARTLING revelations to those who cultivate their gnorance in order to
remain perpetually "indignant." At the height of shootings in
Croatia, some 60,000 Croats lived in Belgrade unmolested. No one ever
booted them out of Serbia. At the height of the Serb-KLA fighting, some
200,000 Albanians lived unmolested in Serbia, 80,000 of them inhabit
TODAY the Greater Belgrade. Not a few pro-Yugoslav Albanians, as yet
"unradicalized" by the KLA, had fled Kosovo into SERBIA and into the
hands of the Serb Red Cross. Serbia alone incorporates 26 different
ethnicities and is the only multi-ethnic state left in ex-Yugoslavia. As
such, Serbia should receive all the support possible, including war
reparations, from the champion of plural societies, the United States of
America. Instead, pure Croatia, pure Slovenia and pure Kosovo are today
the "good guys."
The second "surprise" comes from another set of figures. Ethnic Serbs
made up about 14% of Croatia’s total population. About 40,000 Serbs
were "cleansed" out of Western Slavonia and another 250,000 from
Krajina. Bosnia produced about 400,000 Serb refugees. Most recently,
after the "air war," some 150,000-200,000 Serb were cleansed out by a
supposedly "disarmed" KLA Today, there are almost a million Serbs in
Serbia proper that had been "cleansed" out of the rest of
ex-Yugoslavia.The Western media have conveniently covered this fact by
omission (it is hardly ever mentioned) and by psychological ploy found
in the following and endlessly repeated statement: "Milosevic lost four
wars." When the actually HEAVIEST "ethnic cleansing" affected the
Serbs who became refugees that is because they "lost wars." The
"winners," of course did not do anything so there are no Serb "victims"
only casualties of wars "the Serbs themselves had started." Really?
When the Yugoslav Army attempted to prevent Slovenia from orbiting out
of the Federation, there was relatively little fighting. In fact, YFA
troops and tanks were blocked in urban settings, going nowhere. There
was, however, no bad blood between the Serbs and the Slovenes deriving
from World War II. In fact, busloads of Serb mothers came to Slovenia
to take their sons back into Serbia, Neither the Serbs nor the Slovenes
were looking for a war. There were hardly any large numbers of Serbs in
Slovenia to be "cleansed out" either.
The case of Croatia was different entirely because the Croat Nazis
killed hundreds of thousands of Serb civilians (between 1941-1944),
many in the most bestial manner that offended even some of the German
officers. The Serbs of Krajina attempted simply to escape a Croat
State in the process of becoming independent from the Federal
Yugoslavia. Bad memories were a major factor but both the Western
media and the Croat Nationalists "helped" to revive them. Instead of
reporting the on-going and constantly escalating violations of Human
Rights of the Serb minority in Croatia, the Western media served another
psychological "canard." The Serbs wanted to create a "Greater Serbia."
In that way, no one needed to worry about what was being done to the
Serbs in the New Croatia. The Croats became the "certified" "victims"
of "the Serbs" collectively again.
Krajina was on its way to become a Croat Kosovo when local Serbs
refused to accept Croat over-rule. Only here, the Clinton Administration
helped the newly sovereign State of Croatia against the rebelling Serbs.
It saw to it that a U.S. General and other officers trained the new army
and modernized it. Electronic intelligence was given to Croatia’s Army
as well. When it launched Operation Storm in August 1995, U.S. jets
strafed the Serb radar positions around Knin, Krajina’s capital. This
was direct intervention without naming it. The U.S. General who trained
the new Army feigned utter surprise that it would come to expel by
terror and war a quarter of a million people, killing several thousand
in the process, with all the properties looted and torched. Given the
"American factor," Milosevic’s Yugoslav Army did not interfere and
Croatia became, at long last, ethnically pure one more time.It was
assisted in a major way by the Clinton Administration. In fact, the
Green Light for the Operation Storm was given by none other than
Madeleine Albright and Anthony Lake, then National Security Adviser.
Serbia itself did not lose this war because it did not enter it. But,
the Krajina Serbs lost a home which their ancestors began to settle
some three centuries earlier.
The situation in Bosnia, at end-game, left the local Serbs in
possession of about 40 percent of the real estate, having lost about 20
percent . They had legally owned about 62 percent of Bosnia, mostly
rural for a historical reason. Under the occupation of Ottoman Turks,
local Muslim overlords occupied the towns and the Christian raja got
the countryside. What ended the war in Bosnia was
Nothing that resembled anyone’s decisive military victory or defeat.
But, the war in Bosnia provided the Western media and some "publicity
scavengers" and "hogs" with a gold mine for sensationalism and
hate-mongering against the Serbs. There was the famous picture of an
emasciated Bosnian Muslim man in a Serb camp immediately "diagnosed"
as a "death camp." He was ostensibly behind the wire and he had a
gentle look in his face. The picture brough back immediately the
Holocaust and went Around the World. Newsweek had it as its
frontispiece. Beind all of this was a hoax. The Serbs allowed a British
TV crew and the producer to film the camp because they had nothing to
hide. It was a detention camp, noting more sinister. A closer look
inside the picture reveals a whole group of men who appeared well-fed
and well-dressed. A Serb TV crew was also filming their British guests
and it turned out that the emasciated man was in front of the wire, not
behind it. It also came out that he was suffering from Tuberculosis. The
producer saw the possibilities of a major media coup with which to pay
back the Serb hospitality and openness by a blow aiming to incite
forever against the Serb People men and women of Jewish faith in the
U.S. and Western Europe.
When fatigue was setting in among the Western publics about the war
crimes in Bosnia, there came out of Sarajevo the story of systematic
mass rapes of Muslim Women by Serb soldiers and para-military. Figures
of 20,000 to 40,000 were cited with assurances that can only accompany
the lack of any accuracy. A French TV reporter went to Tuzla,
Bosniuan Muslim stronghold, to verify the claim that some 4,000 of the
raped Bosnian women were in a large soccer field and vicinity.Half way
to Tuzla the numbers came down to 400. Near Tuzla they went down to 40.
In Tuzla, he found just 4. While the "mass rapes" of Muslim women were
circulated even in Muslim countries for an obvious reason, the
Yugoslav Government presented to the United Nations a formal dossier and
evidence. It revealed that hundreds of Serbian girls and women were
being abducted, brought into Sarajevo and put into brothels called"
troop entertainment centers." No one took notice. To get the "flavor "
also of non-Serb cruelty to alien women, herewith is briefly a story
that never reached the U.S. media. A young and idealistic woman from
Milan, Italy, went to Sarajevo to "help Bosnia." She was persuaded to go
with a man to Srebrenica where her help was "even more needed." Once
there, she was gang raped several times, sold and re-sold for a pack of
cigarettes. When the Serb Bosnian Army took Srebrenica its soldiers
found her in a dark cellar, in rags, chained to a wall and so
traumatized that she lost the power to speak. It took a week of hospital
care and a female social
worker to get her to talk and reveal what had happened. Some of the
reports from Kosovo reveal even more harrowing tales of cruelty to women
and girls "imported" by the Albanian freedom fighters and Mafiosi from
Albania, But, they are U.S. allies and who wants to diminish the great
achievement of NATO by revealing just how really out of hand the
situation inside Kosovo has gotten under the benevolent Gaulaiter
Bernard Kouchner and 40,000 NATO troops.
Out of the propaganda mill at Sarajevo came yet another set of figures
widely circulated. It concerned some 250,000 to 500,000 Bosnian Muslims
killed by the Serbs (this was BEFORE Srebrenica). A State Departmenbt
official who resigned his post reduced the figure down to about
40,000, a more realistic one. A few media sources did pick this up
because of his correct political pedigree but it was hardly enough to
prevent endless parroting of the higher mortality figures, for effect.
Psychological War Against the Serbs
Part II – Kosovo
For Kosovo, most of the fellow-Americans are still unaware of the
extent to which they had been savagely manipulated by the Clinton
Administration and the corporate media trying to "outrun" the White
House, the CIA and the Pentagon. After the bogus "massacre" at Racak,
there came the Rambouillet Conference in February 1999. The Big Lie that
came out of it was that the Serbs walked out and refused to sign the
"Peace Plan." There was "no alternative" but to "let" NATO bomb
Serbia. Facts tell otherwise. The Serbs were willing to restore Kosovo’s
autonomy, the original main provision of the "Peace Plan," and even
allow foreign troops to be stationed there under U.N. authority without
a fight. In return, the KLA was to be disarmed. The KLA’s political
head would not sign without the promise of formal independence for
Kosovo. Than came the con-game switch that hardly renders honor to the
American People or American professional Diplomacy. An Appendix (B) was
added in the last minute. Stripped of its meandering language, it simply
meant that the Serbs must accept the NATO occupation of Serbia,
including Belgrade. As Madeleine Albright would quip after the eleven
weeks of destruction and killing from the air, "we raised the bar so
Milosevic could not jump over it. Yugoslavia needed a little bombing."
Once assured by General Wesley Clark that it would de facto "borrow" the
USAF services over Serbia and the Serb Army positions at Kosovo, the
KLA signed the "Peace Plan" for war against Serbia. On 24 March 1999,
the U.S. (inside of NATO) went into action after having pre-planned
aerial attacks against Serbia since at least 1997. Now the propaganda
and the hate-mongering in full bloom.
A "humanitarian disaster" was being worked out in Belgrade to affect
ethnic Albanians. In a TV discussion, Senator Joseph Biden, was almost
foaming at the mouth while stressing the claim. The Serbs had beefed-up
their Third Army in order to carry this plan out..Shortly after the NATO
bombs and missiles began to fall on Serbia and Kosovo and the "Kosovars"
started to come out in large numbers, the German secret services came up
with the "discovery" of a would-be top secret Serb Plan to empty Kosovo
out of its Albanian majority. This was an ex-post-facto hoax as
documented in Germany itself. There never was such a plan. The reality
of it was that the Serb Third Army had been pulled out of Kosovo as a
resul of direct negotiations between Milosevic and Richard Holbrooke.
But, Holbrooke did not lift a finger to prevent the KLA from moving into
the power vacuum created by the Third Army’s removal from Kosovo. It was
now moving to retake the territories and put an end to the KLA. It did
not need anyone’s "permission" to so do.
Ah, but the Kosovars were fleeing Kosovo en masse. Proof positive of
"Operation Horseshoe," as the hoax was called.The difficulty was
obvious. No such flights occurred before 24th March 1999, the day of
NATO’s "humanitarian intervention" to "save the Kosovars." They were
leaving Kosovo for the first time in huge numbers to escape from
escalated fighting between Serb units and the KLA as well as from the
NATO bombs At that point Jewish Organizations in the U.S. ran a huge
picture in the New York Times of trainloads of European Jews being taken
to death camps in Nazi-occupied Europe, with Kosovo on the point and the
highlight of "Never Again." The analogy was pure emotional anti-Serb
hate-mongering because the fleeing Kosovars were going into the safety
of refugee camps across the borders. They were not going into the gas
chambers. Moreover, they were actually helped to do so by the Serb
military and were urged to leave Kosovo in big numbers by the KLA
itself.
Ah, but the Serbs had killed 100,000 Albanian men assured Secretary
of Defense Cohen. This was later scaled down to 10,000 but still with
"mass graves" populating the countryside at Kosovo. After the NATO
occupation a total of 2008 bodies had been excavated by forensic teams.
There was one particular
grave containing 150 bodies. They were quickly re-buried under the eyes
of NATO commanders when it was found that the bodies were those of
Serbs. The very near- crime of re-burial was committed to again deny the
Serbs even the right to be the victims of someone else in death. With
all the outcries about "mass graves" at Kosovo, the Spanish forensic
team walked out in frustration since the claim had outpaced the reality
by an unbearable distance. The desire to unearth a real mass grave
containing Albanian ethnic bodies was intense in June 1999 that a TV
crew offered a reward of $250,000 for such a bona fide find. The Medium
is the Message and no one did more to uphold this simulated reality than
CNN. It was the first TV outfit to second and surpass the propaganda
emanating
from the Clinton team and its lower-ranking associates. It even allowed
the Government’s psychological warfare personnel to be at the Network,
ostensibly for "training purposes," another canard served to the public.
Even after twenty-one months of NATO and U.N. presence at Kosovo, after
the expulsion of not only the Serbs from most of it but also all the
other minorities,after the kidnappings and murders of over 1,000 Serb
civilians, the "psy-ops" are "publicizing" the would-be gruesome
incinerations of 1,500 ethnic Albanian men in the smelter furnace of
the Trepca mine during the air war. This has been refuted by foreign
experts who went into the mine and examined the furnace. It is further
documented as another attempt to keep smearing the Serbs –now
"inconvenient" because Milosevic has been replaced by a democratic
Government—by the fact that the Serbs had shut the smelter furnace and
the mine during the whole period of NATO’s air war. But, no matter what
evidence is presented to the contrary by real experts who are neither
Serbs nor pro-Serb, the human parrots are constantly at work.
. As a result of a decade of hate-mongering against the Serbs the
Clinton Administration and the corporate media have spawned several
hundred clerks whose career advances are inter-linked with continued
cerebral bashing of "the Serbs." They are to be found on newspaper
staffs, in editorial rooms, in various NGOs and Governmental agencies
and nothing apparently delights many of them more than to "develop"
same new "variant" of the same bashing endeavor. But that is only one
duct into protracted smearing of a single ethnicity.. There are two
others with far greater influence in the corridors of power. One can be
called the "anti-Serb brigade." It populates various think tanks,
peace institutes, human rights centers, Congressional staffs and the
like. Time and time again, these are the same people who are called upon
by Congressional Committees to "testify" and "inform" what policies
should be pursued in respect to ex-Yugoslavia as a whole. It is a
replica of Catch-22.
The Serbs invariably get the short end of the stick without much by
way of real carrots. We had real wars with the Japanese and the Germans
and we rebuilt their economies. Even an unreal war of our own making
has not produced anything close as yet. Just three months after the new
Government was elected in Belgrade, the same coterie of real
intellectual pygmies and a few phoney Moral Giants is shedding
crocodile tears about the slow pace into Democracy and capitalist
underpinnings within Serbia They keep insisting that Belgrade MUST
deliver Milosevic and his Cabinet to the Hague in order to "prove" that
"real" reforms are taking place. Against the background of NATO
destruction and a million refugees, the Serbs are not even allowed to
set their own priorities, a given in any valid concept of Democracy. It
cannot be IMPOSED from outside. In an unguarded moment, even Morton
Abramowitz conceded that the Serbs are the pivotal people of
ex-Yugoslavia. Negotiating and siding with the KLA insurgents against
the Serbs sets a most destabilizing example of reckless risk- taking.
There are some 5,000 ethnicities in about 150 countries. If their
sovereignty is downgraded and even non-existent there will be no end to
an imploding and un-manageable international chaos but it is a sure
bet that neither the U.S. nor NATO will wish to attain another
Kosovo-like "victory." Had they not internationalized a local and minor
guerrilla it would have been eliminated by now and foreign troops would
not have been necessary along with a U.N. Trusteeship. To say nothing of
pouring billions of dollars don the drain. Some 1300 European (OSCE)
Observers at Kosovo just beore the air war had concluded that the Serb
units at Kosovo did NOT TARGET ethnic Albanians as a people but the KLA
instead. The Clinton Administration would not listen. It did not even
wish to make the massive report of OSCE Observers available to the
public. As a prominent ethnic Albanian in Macedonia said aptly, foreign
intervention at Kosovo allowed the Genie to "get out of the bottle."
The coterie does not see it that way.
Some in it are "Senior Fellows," like Morton Abramowitz who had been a
Political Adviser to the KLA at Rambouillet and has a long anti-Serb and
anti-Armenian record. He is now the most vocal and influential
point-man for the Kosovo Albanians in demands that Kosovo be given
independence from Yugoslavia. He argues that there is "no other way."
But, someone should remind him that, in the Balkans, the unspoken rule
of politics is that hardly anybody gets everything they would wish to
have. An internationally backed partition of Kosovo, with the northern
and much smaller area remaining Serb and the rest free to be independent
or unite with Albania could be a possible resolution of the "Kosovo
Problem" that would allow our troops to come home instead of staying
there for a generation.
But, this cannot happen as long as the "ex-KLA" "factions" are not
disarmed completely by a NATO able and willing to show its teeth. This
goal was one of the three main provisions in the "Peace Plan" at
Rambouillet. The KLA even signed it. . It cannot happen as long as the
same people keep "testifying" and "informing " repeatedly a Congress
that is already "captured" by the Albanian Lobby. It cannot happen
while NATO looks the other way. The political head of the "e-KLA," the
main general of the KLA{who is an attested war crimnal for what he did
in Croatia to the Serbs) and the ONCE-MODERATE leader of most Kosovo
Albanians are all in accord that ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia,
western Macedonia and eastern Montenegro "deserve" self-determination.
There is a third level at home in the U.S., the one that really counts
because it is composed of the actual decision makers who command the
military, political, and economic resources of the United States. They
define strategic objectives without communicating with the American
People that ultimately pays the bills and will come to benefit or to
harm for what they do or not do abroad. Until the change in Presidency,
many in this group defined themselves through the Holocaust. It is a
powerful influence, just like the World War II, which impacted an
entire generation in Europe and the U.S. But, as was pointed earlier,
the analogy with what happened at Kosovo does not work. It may even be
extremely counter-productive to the U.S. National Interest.
The preceding "determinators" have been replaced by what one could call
the "oil men," a practical, hard-ball bunch ready to be real tough only
when clear and widely discernible aspects of the National Interest are
at stake. It is too early to tell what this group, now in-charge, will
come up with but whatever it does come up with it will fail ultimately
unless it develops a real respect for facts and contexts in which these
devolve. In short, until they avoid the tendency to dupe the American
People in pursuit of "geo-political strategies" and "higher goals" that
only they grasp and for which they are ultimately not accountable even
in cases of egregious errors. They can learn a most profitable lesson by
a close and real look at what has been done to "the Serbs." It should
ring the bell on how NOT to deal with peoples out there and avoid, at
the same time, a Balkanization of America in the belief that they can
promote Democracy abroad while losing it at home.
Raymond K. Kent
History Department,
University of California,
Berkeley, Ca. 97720
(510/642-1971)
NATIONALISMS AND THE ABSOLUTE
CORRUPTABILITY OF IMAGINED
ABSOLUTE POWER
(a slight embelishment of Lord Acton’s Dictum)
R.K.Kent
18 Mar 2001
International legalities mean nothing any longer as individuals in
Congress of the United States as well as in the Executive Branch
continuously state and re-state in a host of ways that the U.S. Might
makes everything Right. Last year, the U.N. General Assembly passed
Resolution 54/168 as a step toward an upward growth of Democracy around
the globe. It simply requires of all the member states not to interfere
in foreign elections. Yet, quite openly and with unabashed arrogance,
millions of dollars are funnelled into Yugoslavia precisely to do the
opposite.A State Department Bureau is openly set-up in Budapest to
"run" the Yugoslav opposition in the name of "Democracy." A CIA
office is now in Sofia to train Serb university students in the arts of
resistance to the existing government. Somewhere along the line it will
be grasped that the Serbs are massively against Milosevic because he
stole another, much bigger, election and not because they were "bought"
by the CIA. Even a mega-founded "Intelligence Community" with a huge
capacity for mischief abroad is far from having anything close to
absolute power.
Our Solons and high ranking members of the Clinton Administration are
constantly lecturing Serbs about how they must re-arrange their
government, economy and society They have just invented a thermometer
which monitors the temperature of "Serb Nationalism." Anything less than
complete compliance with the dicta from Washington certifies high fever
and the mounting Nationalist disease requiring strong medecine and even
major surgery. The electoral winner who leads the Serb Democratic
opposition is already on notice that if he does not turn Kosovo over to
the "Kosovars" (almost an endearing name along the Beltway), if he does
not deliver "Serb War Criminals" to the "Hague Tribunal," if he does not
grant autonomy to Vojvodina (with its 3 milion Serbs and a Hungarian
minority of 300,000), sanctionas will be re-imposed and Serbia will be
"boxed-in" from all sides, completely isolated, and doomed to become a
backwater. Even the West European States and other members of the NATO
alliance are warned not to tolerate "Serb Nationalism with a kinder
face" or the U.S. will pursue its own agenda in the Balkans without
seeking Europe’s cooperation or approval. It is astonishing to find two
key Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee plus a Vice-Presidential
candidate, willing to subordinte U.S. relations with the European Union
to an obssession with "Serb Nationalism" which is almost certainly not
even understood in its historical context.
Until only yesterday, the Clinton Administration used "Milosevic" as a
substitute for "the Serbs." It did not bomb the Serbs for 78 days. It
bombed Milosevic. Open threats are now made to and demands are made
upon his Democratic successor-in- the- making who has yet to even
assume the Presidency. As, up front, the Serbs are suddenly transformed
from a nation of neo-Nazi "subhumans" into a "brave and valiant
people," a decade of carefully nurtured Serbophobia lurks in the
background. A host of people in governmemnt, politics, intellectual
journals , scribal and
(2)
audio-visual media have gained in careers and prominence through
hate-mongering against the Serbs. This will not be given up easily. It
does not only threaten long-range relations with the European Union. It
negates, upon minimal reflection, a number of widely understood
Democratic ideals. There is no divine right to "run" other peoples’
democracies. Despite approval in the Senate, the American People have no
desire for an "opportunity" to spend $77 million of tax-payers money ,
with more dollars to come, to "buy" elections abroad so that local
politicians can act as U.S. forign- policy surrogates. A recent
attempt, attributed to China, to buy votes in the U.S. caused an uproar.
It is not an American cultural value to threaten again and again a
people bombed for eleven weeks by the USAF, punished with a decade of
brutal economic sanctions and satanized through the major media just as
long without posing any real threat to the American People. Apparently,
a few dozen influential persons in the U.S. Government have slipped the
civilized leash, descending into the kind of punishing, vengeful
violence-prone passion attributed to "Milosevic" himself. Milosevic is
no longer around to oblige them They will be forced by events to either
find new ways of gratifying their dislike and hate or else shed years of
Serbophobia. In practice,however, they are accountable to no one. All
share the same conviction that the U.S.is omnipotent. None will admit
to any egregious foreign-policy errors and none see any serious
adversities generated mainly by their own arrogance.
Following the demise of the Soviet Union, the U.S., too, jumped on "the
Serbs," first gingerly during the Bush Administration and far more
actively by 1993. One of the short-term goals was to provide a
re-defned NATO with a New Enemy, tough enough to validate the New NATO
as a military arm of the New World Order and yet not strong enough to
threaten NATO’s defeat. The Serbs drew the lot. . They were reputed to
have one of the best armies in Europe. Two of their known national
traits, love of independence and sustained bravery in wars, made them an
ideal choice for the role through which to make the New NATO
"credible." From the outset, hence, the U.S. became a clandestine and
open supporter of any and all anti-Serb forces rising out of
Yugoslavia’s ashes. It sided with the Croat and Bosnian Muslim
successors of extreme Nationalists who had opposed the U.S. in World War
II. At the same time, it condemned strongly the proven Serb allies for
their own nationalist reactions to a replay of Yugoslavia under Hitler.
The cardinal , most pointed Serb "crime" was a refusal to live inside
Franjo Tudjman’s neo-Fascist Croatia and Alija Izetbgovic’s
fundamentally Islamic State. Its close second was Belgrade’s effort to
hold the Federal Yugoslavia together. Thus, while supporting the Croat
and Bosnian Muslim nationalist drives, while promoting
self-determination of ethnicities opposed to the Serbs the Clinton
Administration isolated "Serb Nationaism" as the enemy of Mankind
itself. .
It even went back to the Medieval formula that "the enemy of my enemy is
my friend"and applied it to the Kosovo Liberation Army which has been
the armed tentacle of an international drug
(3)
cartel. One remembers Senator Lieberman’s lofty claim that the "KLA
fights for American Values" According to recently released PAC
contributions and sources, Senator Lieberman
accepted a $10,000 contribution from ethnic Albanians in the U.S.He is
also the co-sponsor of a recent bill that re-states the obssession with
"Serb Nationalism" in the post-Milosevic era.Since Kosovo was
"liberated" from the Serb army and police a clandestine KLA has been
the real ruler of this area. In roughly one year, some 300,000
non-Albanians have been cleansed from Kosovo by Albanian terror. Over
1,000 Serbs have been kidnapped along with hundreds of Kosovo minorities
and even Albanians. . Drug dealing, white slavery, fraud, theft (even
KFOR treasuries have been raided and looted) ) and general lawlessness
dominate Kosovo as the U.S. continues to support the "ex" KLA military
and civilian leadership. Internal oponents of KLA’s political leader
have simply been assassinated. The main sponsor of the logically faulty
Medieval formula was Madeleine Albright. To gain the KLA signature to a
non-existing Accord at Rambouillet and thus have the cosmetic green
light to bomb the Serbs, Madame Secretary of State almost certainly made
a "deal" to get independence for Kosovo in the not too-distant future
She also abandoned the only true representative of the Kosovo Albanians
, the Poet Ibrahim Rugova, believer in non-violence. In turn, this
abandonment entrenched the KLA in Kosovo and makes it impossible to
arrive at some future democratic solution to the Kosovo Problem.The KLA
is working to create a Greater Albania. U.S. and other European troops
are still in Kosovo. Perceived as saviors last year, they will become
soon the "occupying force of Colonial Powers." .
An article written five years ago(1) pointed out a striking historical
pattern in respect to Serbia and the Great Powers. First Austria,
followed by Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union, found obsession
with the Serbs fatal to their real interests. Austria’s 10-point
ultimatum in 1914 became a pretext to launch a massive attack on Serbia.
Initially, Austria was badly beaten on the battlefield and its" body
bags" brought German fury and, with it, the start of World War I. It
obliterated an entire generation in Europe, helped establish Communism
in Russia and paved the ground for Hitler and World War II. When the
Serbs defied Hitler on 27th March 1941 and alone stood with Britain
against the Nazi might in Europe, Hitler promised to reduce Serbia to
ashes. He sent the Stukas and the Wermacht to teach the Serbs a lesson.
Hitler’s little Serb side- show retarded his attack on Russia
(Operation Barbarossa) by three crucial months. His troops got bogged
down in the merciless Russian winter and a number of Germany’s divisions
remained in
Yugoslavia to deal with those recalcitratnt Serbs, royalists and
partisans alike. Without "the Serbs" Hitler might well have won World
War II in Europe. He might even have developed the missle technology
well ahead of anyone else. When the Serbs disobeyed Stalin he kicked
Yugoslavia out of the Cominform in 1948. That was the beginning of the
"poly-centric Communism" gradually dominated by Nationalisms and
decidedly a major factor in the U.S. ability to survive the Cold War as
the only super-Power around . Indeed "Nationalism" had been an
important U.S.ally against Moscow’s attempts to dominate the world
through a Communist Orthodoxy and local parties.It was re-used in
Yugoslavia against the Serbs and their attempts to preserve the Federal
Yugoslavia.
(4)
A sustained international campaign came into being subjecting the
Serbs to cerebral terror. Sporadic Serb atrocities, mainly by the
para-military nationalist revanchists, were blown out of
proportions into full-fledged "genocide" filling the landscape with
"mass garves." Staged "Serb " massacres at Sarajevo and Racak were
employed to use NATO force against the Serbs without serious public
opposition at home, first in Bosnia and later in Serbia . A Tribunal was
set up at the Hague by Madeleine Albright in 1993. Until 1996 it
indicted and tried only alleged Serb war criminals. It even attempted
to try two officers of the Bosnian Serb army who were not accused of
anything and were kidnapped in Sarajevo even after Dayton assured free
movement. Their only "crime" was Serb ethnicity and uniform. Although
mandated by the U.N. Security Council, the Tribunal has had no real
connection to either the International or criminal Law as practiced,
say, in the United States In the U.S. the burden of proof is on the
accuser. At the "Tribunal" it is the other way around. .A fair trial of
such already indicted and publicly condemned "war criminals" as Radovan
Karadzic, General Ratko Mladic and Slobodan Milosevic is simply not
possible at this "Tribunal." But, fair trials are not on Tribunal’s
agenda when it comes to "the Serbs." Even a substantial part of its
most recent funding comes from a single private donor, George Soros, a
Serbophobe with billions to spend in his"eternal combat" against the
dragons of Nationalism. Unfortunately, the fig leaf of such phrases as
the "Hague Tribunal" and "indicted war criminals" has hidden in general
from the American People the true nature of this quasi-legalistic
perversion.
At the same time, while the Serbs were being routinely accused of
everything except bad weather, war crimes and crimes against humanity
perpetrated by the Croat and Bosnian Muslim forces (later by the
Albanian KLA) were hardly ever reported, if at all. The Serbs became
sub-human, without the right of self-determination at Krajina and in
Bosnia, without the right of self-defense at Kosovo. They were set-up to
take the fall no matter what they did or did not do. Serb para-military
"avengers," the stupid and unnecessary shelling of Sarajevo (an"Olympic
Town" in Western eyes}, the holding of U.N. hostages, the
"Macho"counter-poise ("inat") to the far more powerful NATO member
states and the total denial of any atrocities committed against other
ethnic groups played right into the hands of the Serb haters. Hate
invariably warps. It makes caricatures of those who are seduced by it.
It robs them of reason, logic, willingnes to listen and learn. It robs
them of the very humanity they profess with astounding contradictions.
The Clinton foreign policy team, infected by Madeleine Albright’s
masked but acute Serbophobia with a record, could not tolerate defiance
and"disobediance" to its dicta any more than Hitler. Secretary of
Defense Cohen even said that if the Serbs continue to defy the U.S.
Serbia "will be reduced to ashes." It came close to that after
Rambouilled in February 1999 over Kosovo. Serbia and Kosovo werre
bombed mainly by the USAF for 78 days ostensibly to force "Milosevic" to
accept a "Peace Plan" and return Autonomy to Kosovo. The Rambouillet
(5)
ultimatum actually demanded the occupation of Yugoslavia by NATO
troops. It was even harsher than the Austrian ultimatum of 1914 which
may have inspired its March 1999 drafters.
The invincible U.S., sole remaining International Giant , had used air
power to impose its will on a peanut country in Europe.It did not work
at all. It even proclaimed total "victory" at Kosovo. an
interpretation questionable by anyone familiar with facts on the ground
and capable of minimal logic. There is an old Slavic proverb. It
states that when God wishes to punish an individual He first removes the
capacity to reason.
It is obvious that foreign policy makers in Washington are unwilling to
be impressed by the historical pattern of results that have affected
three great powers in their obsession with the Sertbs. With the Soviet
Union out of the way Washington’s foreign-policy, intelligence and
military elites convinced themselves that America’s power is today so
absolute that they can do anything and get away with it, usually on
moralistic grounds The main reason why the Presidential race hardly
touches on foreign policy is not the claim that the American People are
totally disinterested in what goes on "out there." It is becuse the
perception and feeling of omipotence, of absolute power, has eliminated
the need to be held accountable to the American People for egregious
foreign-policy errors in both theory and practice.The leading question
poses now itself. Will the U.S. obssession with" the Serbs" allow it to
orbit out of the historical pattern outlined at the beginning of this
essay? Having proclaimed " victory" at Kosovo, are there losses
involved at all? This is a virtually unexplored area of serious
inquiry. It is in dire need of analysis in its domestic and foreign
dimensions. Some preliminary observations suggest themselves.
Deceit, disinformation, violations of elementary logic through
well-planned lobotomies on the public mind, and misuse of the
"Intelligence Community" to "trick" the American People into supporting
military actions in the name of "National Interest," enter immediately
into view. Of the 47 military engagements since 1945, 33 took place in
the last eight years. The United States had no vital national interests
in the Balkans in World Wars One and Two. Betwen 1956 and 1989 it
supported the Federal and Communist-ruled Yugoslavia’s independence
from Moscow but it committed no major military and financial resources
to prevent a Soviet take-over. Yugoslavia never became a part of NATO
and its is extremely doubtful that Washington would have risked a
thermonuclear war with Moscow over such an attempt. That is because the
U.S. did not really have a vital National Interest in the Yugoslav
space. Now, suddenly in the 1990’s, without any Soviet threat, one is
told that American troops, planes, bombs and missiles and an expenditure
of billions of dollars are there to defend a vital National Interest.
As yet, no one has been able to define persuasively what it is today.
Defense of Human Rights is about the only "over-arching" argument
advanced. It collapses upon closer scrutiny. While professing acute
concerns for Serb violations of Human Rights the "National-Interest"
promoters could not care less for what was done to the Serbs. The
record is there , it is clear and offers a devastating
(6)
indictment of moral poverty involved in the bogus claim to a "vital
National Interest." In Kosovo, today, under NATO and the U.N., the
gross, daily and witnessed violations of Human Rights, perpetrated by
the clandestine KLA against the dwindling Serb and other minorities, has
not produced a single major voice in the Administration or in Congress
to crack down on and dismantle the KLA completely, arrest its leaders
and deliver them to the Hague Tribunal. Instead, members of the
"ex-KLA," transformed into the U.N. Constabulary at Kosovo have just
been funded in Congress despite repeated evidence that they have engaged
and engage in extortion, beatings and even murder. While a five million
dollar reward is offered to anyone able to deliver Milosevic to the
Hague , the political head of the "ex-KLA" attends the Democratic
Convention in Los Angeles exchanging kisses with Secretary of State
Albright. .
As an outgrrowth of deciet and disinformation needed to justify
military interventions abroad, an unusually intimate relationship of
the major scribal and audio visual media and the Administration has
emerged in the shaping of foreign policy. While a "patriotic
mutuality" of government and media was commonplace in major wars, it
never loomed as large in peace-time as in the last decade while focusing
on the Balkans and the Yugoslav tragedy. Most of this "mutuality" was
not directed at any real "enemy" of the United States. Nor was the
country in a state of formal war. Its planes and missiles did bomb
Serbia and Kosovo relentlessly for eleven weeks but lack of casualties
on the NATO side confirmed the purely punitive nature of this military
intervention. A real war between two countries simply did not
materialize. As the USAF General Nash said in plain English, the "air
war": was meant"to break the will of the Serb people." Instead, it
prolongued their support for a leader they had wanted to ditch years
earler, first in 1991 and again in 1996/1997.
It cannot be said enough times that anti-Serb propaganda saturating the
print, the images and the waves was directed mainly at the home
audience. Quite simply, the American People have been massively cheated
out of getting the truth. Thus, from both the foreign and domestic
points of reference there is nothing to brag about despite claims of
"victory." If this is not altered by a re-emergence of true sequence of
events, by the discovery that the Clinton Administration’s meddling in
Yugoslavia was the greater part of the problem and hardly a part of its
solution, the American People risk losing any control at all over a
foreign policy that could spell major disasters yet to come or manifest
themselves. . That is why our politicl leaders do not wish to discuss
openly and at length the truth about American foreign policy in the
1990’s in the Balkans.They are afraid of revealing their own moral and
intellectual fragilities. They invent Geopolitical fantasies because
they do not really know where they are going. But that is not all.
The 78 days of bombing a small European country which hardly put up any
defense created a major problem with its own offshoots. No matter what
moralistic braggadocio comes out of Washington about "protecting
Democratic values ," the mask is off an Imperial Power out to control
the World with a new process and a new ideology, a newly perceived "
Evil Empire." The process has been called "Globalization," the ideology
"Globalism." Millions have died in the
(7)
name of various "isms." There is every chance that millions more will
die. Today, military-political strategists in Washington are asking for
additional billions in order to be able to "fight simultaneously on two
fronts." Reference here is clearly to "regional conflicts" which will
be"sold" to the American People much in the same ways as already worked
out in the Balkans. The process of Globalization was anticipated by
James Burnham in the early 1940’s when he wrote about the "Managerial
Revolution" but localized it in the U.S. In simplified language,
globalized economy will reduce the state to a janitorial role and
replace sovereignty with Multinationals.
In a short cross-over from process to dogma, Globalism replaces
Communism whih also sought to impose itself on the whole world and
dissolve the state. Those who dilligently promote Globalism as an
idology and Globalization as its tool need to be reminded that no global
"ism" has ever defeated local "isms." The former are synthetic while
local Nationalisms are visceral and tend to prevail or re-assert
themselves either aggressively or defensively. Wherever Globalization
and economic prosperity march hand in hand and are visibly
inter-conncted, detonators with which to trigger - off visceral
reactions of latent Nationalism will be missing. At the moment , the
tendency is to jump into the Globalizing band-wagon pulled by the
mighty Multinationals. Yet, it is hardly difficult to predict a host of
the coming defensive Nationalist reactions . If the U.S. uses its
capacity to actually fight in two (or more) regional conflicts at the
same time to attack one ethnic group in support of another it will
neither manage to promote the cause of universal Human Rights nor remove
the detonator that goes off in defense of a tribe. By using a selective
approach to Nationalism in ex-Yugoslavia and, indeed in the Balkans,
the Clinton Administration has already made a most egregious error.
It has shown convincingly that there is no such thing as "humanitarian
military intervention," tnat it is Might that decides who shall and who
shall not have access to Human Rights and that international obedience
to its imagined absolute power has already corrupted Washington
absolutely. One might add, without redemption unless the American
People take their government back. In respct at least to the Serbs and
Yugoslavia this is not so very difficult despite the lasting and
lingering Serbophobia which needs to be cured. To this end a few
concrete proposals seem in order.
It is high time to deliver on the claim that "the U.S. has never been
against the Serb people" but only "against Milosevic." For starters,
home-grown Serbophobes should be made increasingly uncomfortable in
further attempts at getting their jollies by bashing "the Serbs."
Outright hate-mongering of the Serb ethnicity might be something that
Serb-Americans and other fellow-Americans might wish to pursue through
courts.Secondly, if there is no will to downgrade or even punish we
should at least stop glorifying as our "heroes" Madeleine Albright,
Generals Clark and Short.We are demanding that all ethnicities in
Yugoslavia --but especially the Serbs-- stop glorifying as their
"heroes" such people as Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic
(Serbs),General Rasim Delic and Warlord Nasir Oric (Bosnian Muslims),
deceased General Franjo Tudjman and very much live General Agim Ceku
(Croat and Albanian in Croatia’s Army)
(8)
and, again, Agim Ceku and Hashim Thaci (Kosovo Albanians). Next, even
our current President Clinton can issue an Executive Order to all the
Armed forces that the Serbs are not considered to be an enemy of the
United States. A claim is standing that the" moment Milosevic steps
down" and is replaced as the Yugoslavia’s President by an election, all
sanctions are to be lifted. It is time to stop a decade of a cruel
economic punishment and deliver on the claim no matter what else
happens with or to "Milosevic." At the same time, the White House should
honor the request of Western Europe to extend immediate recogniion to
Vojislav Kostunica. It would be a serious mistake to start labelling him
as a "Serb Nationalist with a kinder face" simply because he is not
immediately assuming the role of Washington’s likeable lapdog. While
stating and restating that the U.S. will share with Western Europe the
burden of paying Yugoslavia for the damages caused by eleven weeks of
bombing its civilian infrastructure and properties, it would be useful
to repair specific damages by an advance of funds. Sending our own
medical experts to determine the extent of released toxins and a mutant
like depleted uranium would show also also some real concern for genetic
damages in the making. We should reopen the Embassy in Belgrade and send
a diplomat untainted by Serbophobia.
There should be no immediate demands for deliveries to the Hague
Tribunal of alleged Serb war criminals. A little healing time is needed.
A hemorrage has been stopped with a strong bandage and it is too early
to remove it. A little patience is required. In the cited article of
five years ago, this writer suggested that the only sure way of ending
ethnic conflicts in ex-Yugoslavia for good would be to strengthen local
judicial systems to have them try their own alleged war criminals
perceived as "heroes." At the same time, the high life with perks of
those associated with the Hague Tribunal should be no longer funded, the
Tribunal’s funding should go to Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and
Kosovo and the Tribunal should be replaced by an already ratified in
part World Court to deal with future war crimes and crimes against
humanity. It is not out of question for an ordinary citizen to make
another suggestion. The Puritans, who are the antecedents of America,
absolutely rejected displays of arrogant behavior. Could our present
foreign policy elites be perdsuaded, while forming the United States of
the World, to be at least overtly humble?
MILOSEVIC, THE SERBS AND THE WEST
R.K.Kent
Emeritus Professor of History
University of California at Berkeley
13 Mar 2001
Those who know Serb History will recall that in 1804 Karadjordje almost
refused to lead a revolt against the Turks because of his choleric
nature. " When men disgree with me," he said, "I lop their heads off."
"Can you accept this (kind of leadership)" he asked at an assembly."That
is why we precisely wish you to lead us now." Later on "when you are no
longer needed we will lop YOUR head off." This is exactly what happened.
A page, torn out of the Serb past, connects with the universal fact
that no individual -- declared "bad" or" good"-- can or should replace
an entire people when it comes to its National Interest. It also reveals
that different times and different crises require different types of
leadership. While in power, Milosevic wrapped himself in Serb
Nationalism everywhere in ex-Yugoslavia except in Kosovo where he
attempted to "play the Yugoslav card." Neither of the two constitute an
unforgivable political sin and let it be noted at once that Milosevic
came to Dayton, Ohio, and signed an international agreement without
being considered, charged or arrested at that time as a "war criminal."
There were no other armed conflicts between Dayton and 1998/1999 when
the Kosovo Liberation Army escalated its guerrila war until it
resulted in the NATO (primarily U.S.)"air war" of eleven weeks.
The NATO "humanitarian intervention," dipped in depleted uraniam and
sprinkled with cluster bombs, was a war crime and a crime against
humanity under an Open Sun. It did enrmous and as yet incompletely
assessed damage to the Serb people , their properties, land, air and
rivers. It was not only criminal in nature, deliberately hitting
civilian targets in order "to break the will of the Serbian people," as
General Nash said in public after the "air war" of 78 days. . It was
both an unneccessary and an avoidable war. Its driving mechanism was an
almost insane desire to assert power through physical punishment and
humiliation of a people demonized during an entire decade (1989-1999).
As a result, Milosevic became both a Hero of Serb Resistance to
Foreign Imperialism and an unhappy choice as the Serb leader at a time
when the United States underwent a hi-tech revolution that could shape
and re-shape public opinion at will, within days. Or conduct a war
without losing a soldier. At the same time the ""prevailing ethos"
precluded the labelling of entire populations as "inherently evil."
That would be both "uncivilized" and "undemocratic." It thus found in
Milosevic a villian that could be depicted as the evil "Butcher of
the Balkans." After playing a hefty part in the fall of Milosevic from
power, the Clintonites are demanding --despite losing the
Presidency--that he be delivered to the Hague Tribunal for Yugoslavia.
He has been indicted in public for alleged war crimes and "genocide"
exclusively at Kosovo. No credible, prima facie, evidence to support
this indictment has surfaced in public.Yet, in the post-Clinton America,
the new Sereb Government is now being blackmailed via denials of
economic aid unless they at least arrest and try Milosevic in
Belgrade. A subsequent delivery to the Hague, along with other indicted
top Serb officials in the Milosevic_s government would follow.
(2)
A Petition is being circulated at this moment demanding the end of a
witch hunt involving Milosevic. It castigates all Serbs prone and
willing to deliver Milosevic to the Hague. But, it also attacks all
those willing to put him on trial in Belgrade as boot-lickers and
lackeys of American Imperialism who are selling the Serb people out. The
Petition has chosen the Hero model and only a Serb Medal of Honor is
lacking. This is a gut reaction against international injustice both at
the Hague and over the skies of Serbia and Kosovo. It is also an
attampt, at least indirectly, to uncouple the reconstruction aid which
is owed by any civilized standards as well as promised if Milosevic
fell from power. The drafters and co-signers of the Petition, all
time-honored and tested defenders of the Serbs in the U.S.thus
interpret the current National Intrest of the Serb people not on the
basis of reason but emotion. Let this writer make the case for reason
and see if it can prevail over visceral reactions.
First and foremost, the Serbs have no real friends among the influential
persons in the U.S. who make foreign policy. Many among them have
convinced themselves that they can prevent another Holocaust by
developing a new bunch of "Neo-Nazis" slated not only for punishment but
also for collective humiliation. Most of them are interventionist
hawks, regardless of party affiliation. Some are quite bloody-minded
They would kill and maim and attack the genetic code of Serb civilians.
One is even a political adviser to the KLA.They have no intention of
letting go of either Milosevic or the Serbs. Since "Milosevic" is out
of power these Establishmentarians must have him at the Hague Tribunal
because only THERE he can be humiliated beyond physical punishment. The
Tribunal is a DE FACTO political weapon and not a court of law. It
would provide basically a show trial, for him as well as the other
"indicted" top members of his government.
But, there is a world of diference if Milosevic comes to trial in
Belgrade. In a real domestic Court of Law Milosevic will have the kind
of legal defense he could never secure at the Hague. His attorneys, in
defense, can just as well put NATO on trial for war crimes and crimes
against humanity and peace. They can demand that the Hague Tribunal_s
Prosecutor realease documents which provide prima facie evidence agaisnt
Milosevic as a "genocidal" "war criminal" at Kosovo. This can be done,
amicus curae, to "assist" the High Serb Court in fact- finding in
respect to alleged Hague accusations. A trial of Milosevic in Belgrade
with INVITED FOREIGN OBSERVERS OF LEGAL STATURE could turn the tables on
his Hague indictment, resulting in a law suit at the World Court for
"MALICIOUS DEFAMATION. " Damages could be asked for in the neighborhood
of $100,000,000. At the same time Milosevic would be undeliverable to
the Hague if the indictment for alleged genocide and war crimes
directly linked to him cannot be supported. There would have to be some
prima facie evidence, subject to detailed scrutiny of his defense
attorneys. REAL LAW IS THE ARENA FOR COMBAT, not emotional petitions
even when the sentiment is shared. Witch -hunts die out when
dissected and singed by truth. Some last observations, now..
(3)
When Carla del Ponte wanted to open a Tribunal Office in Belgrade, the
same visceral reaction took place as some wre horrified at the lack of
national backbone in opposing "legitimization" of the Tribunal. The
Tribunal is a political fact of life. It has to be dealt with as
such.This means that an Office of the ICTY should be allowed to open in
Belgrade only to be flooded with thousands of Serb victims willing to
provide evidence of what has been done to them in other parts of
ex-Yugoslavia. The story of atrocities against the Serbs during the last
decade is far from being told or even known to the wider publics in the
U.S. and Western Europe.
It is very much in the Serb National Interest to put Milosevic on
trial in Belgrade to determine the extent and scope of his alleged
guilt. It is his turn to have the symnbolic "head lopped off " if he
is really found guilty of genocide and war crimes. But, there is more to
it. For 36 years (1944-1980), Serbia was ruled by Tito and the
Communist League. . After a rotating Presidency of about a
decade(1980-1990) former Yugoslav Communists became Socialists overnight
and all of their top leaders enveloped themselves in ethno-religious
nationalist cacoons. This writer refuses to accept the contention that
only the supporters of Milosevic and of Tito_s Yugoslavia have the right
to monopolize the interpretation of the current Serb National
Interest.
Serbia has a broken infrastructure. Half of its working force is
without jobs or a social and medical net as the old economy is not quite
out and the new economy has not quite gotten in. Almost a million of the
"precanski Srbi" are now refugees in Serbia proper, not to mention a
couple of hundred thousand ethnic Albanians, thousands of mixed-marriage
Yugoslavs, Croats, Hungarians and other minorities, 26 ethnicities
altogether. Leaving aside the potentially gruesome medical outcome of
the air war that lasted almost three months, Economic Recovery is the
top priority that dominates the National Interest of the Serb People. It
is not the affirmation of National Pride or the perception that it is
gone forever through some "bending" by the new Government in
Belgrade. To put National Pride on a pedestal that cannot be "violated"
through a trial of Milosevic in Belgrade would almost certainly play in
the hands of the anti-Serb brigades throughout the "West" and
especially in the U.S. At the moment, they are eating their collective
liver becuae Kostunica is no Milosevic and the DOS is willing to take
the"capitalist road" into Liberal Democracy. Liberal or not, Winston
Churchill has called Democracy the worst form of government on earth.
The trouble, he added, is that we have not been able to invent anything
better.
Raymond K. Kent
Emeritus
History Department,
University of California,
Berkeley. Ca. 94720
Subject: Prof. R.K.Kent: An open letter to senator Jesse A. Helms
Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2001 17:19:42 -0500
From: "minja m." <minja@...>
To: KPAJ 3A HATO <kpaj-3a-hato@...>
The Honorable Jesse A. Helms,
Chairman,
Foreign Relations Committee,
United States Senate’
Washington D.C.
24.2.2001
Dear Senator Helms,
I still treasure a note you had sent me requesting copies of my
writings as you had found them generally interesting to read. I did not
have the heart to comply fully with your request. The volume is so
large that you could not possibly find the time to read all of the
texts. This is not preventing me from sending you just four. They are
entitled respectively: (1)Dr. Strangelove is Alive and Well - How
Madeleine got to Bomb the Serbs; (2)Beltway’s Moral Giants and Lessons
from Clio, the Muse of History; (3)Suggestions on Kosovo (with
sub-title); and (4) "Old and New Fascism -Eviva la Pace Americana."
While I am under no illusion that you will agree with all the
major points and suggestions, I regard you as a quintessential Old
American Patriot, one who knows the difference between Right and Wrong ,
one who grasps that the long-lasting attraction of America has come in
three parts. Its magnetic freedoms, its unsurpassed Constitution and
its powerful economy.. It is my contention that the luster of the first
two has dimmed in the last decade. Only the third retains its glow. The
Administration of William Jefferson Clinton was not only "corrupt." It
has attempted to transform America into a Fascist country with a new
face. With a strange resemblance of the First Family to Peron and Evita.
This thesis is stated, with some humor and sexual metaphor most
clearly in the piece on "Old and New Fascism." It is a road that should
be most repugnant to both Republicans and Democrats who can see the
forest and not succumb to a single-tree myopia, supporting any
Presidential action abroad and indulging in humanitarian asymmetry.
It is unfortunate how so many have persuaded themselves that the
"Indispensable Nation" and "sole remaining Super-Power" can do
anything it wants, "Exceptionally," in any society around Planet
Earth. As if the U.S. possesses unlimited Absolute Power. New Moral
Giants came on the Beltway. They are far above us ordinary Americans.
They disregard completely even citizens with specialized knoweldge
and the will to prove that we, the People, are no real pygmies who must
invariably follow their phoney giants. Today, after bombing a small
state and its people into the Nineteenth century for nothing
substantial at all , some of our Solons are blackmailing Belgrade
instead of showing at least tolerance after 78 days of bombings if not
remorse for damages in human lives and unremunerated property. To say
nothing of the totally missing capacity to be magnanimous even in a
self-proclaimed "Victory." Permit me now to summarize the arguments in
the three articles apart from the one on Fascism, old and new. I do so
in an amplified way as a reading option. . Representative Dan Burton
told me once:
Anything longer than six pages is not likely to be read." The reduction
here is to four pages.
President Clinton and Secretary Albright bombed both Kosovo and Serbia
to "save" Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians from "the Serbs." In so doing, they
used false reports, outright lies
and crass duplicity both at home and abroad. They certainly violated
the U.S.Constitution and broke International Law with impunity. The
often repeated trite phrase that "truth is war’s first vicitim " does
not even apply .The U.S. Congress had not declared war on Serbia. The
intended victim of their contemptible manipulations was the American
People. In seeking to impose a Pax Americana in the Balkans the
media-driven Clinton Administration (with some support in Comgress) )
has gradually succumbed to a re-birth of Fascism in a new form. Yet, it
was pre-disposed by its own amorality and will-to-power which are
central to Fascism as a phenomenon and noumenon.
Anyone with sustained knowledge of Balkan History in the 1900’s could
easily perceive that the Clinton Administration turned an American
ally in two World Wars, the Serbs, into an "enemy" without any real
threat to any serious aspect of the National Interest. . It was hardly
a foreign-policy "accomplishment." Training and arming directly and
indirectly the nationalist successors of proclaimed U.S. enemies in
World War II coupled with the doctrine of "levelling battlefield
opportunities" was hardly conducive to peace in the Balkans.
Had the Clinton foreign-policy team not stood in the way of even one of
the two most workable peace proposals (the Lisbon Agreement of February
1992 and Vance-Owen Plan of 1993) most of the fratricidal carnage in
Bosnia would have been avoided. There would have been no Dayton to
inspire an ever-escalating ethnic Albanian insurgency at Kosovo. Had
what was left of Yugoslavia been completely opened as a free market
economy with Western support , Milosevic would have fallen a lot
sooner. Instead, we punished the Serb people with brutal economic
sanctions.While proclaiming the New Age of Humanitarianism , our
sanctions hurt mostly the children , the elderly and the sick. One of
this writer’s friends had sent some bottles of Aspirin to a sick, old
relative in Belgrade. The package was returned by the Post Office ,
citing the embargo.
Had the enclosed "Suggestions" for a solution to the Kosovo Problem
been taken seriously , the U.S. would not have had to post and keep
our troops in a danger zone indefinitely and spend additional
billioins of dollars needed at home. Copies had been sent to the entire
Foreign Relations Committeee of the Senate. Equally, Kosovo today is in
such a state that even some Albanians who had fought with the "Kosovo
Liberation Army " have had enough. It is no longer "liberation" of
Kosovo from "the Serbs." Since June 1999, they have ben virtually
cleansed out, along with all the other ethnic minorities. This took
place with 40,000 NATO troops in a Kosovo under the UN Administration.
This writer has invested huge amounts of time over the years to find
out what National Interest was really involved in the ex-Yugoslav
space and how did the Clinton-Albright foreign policy relate to it.
German influence was perceived. The Vatican was not too far behind.
These were the "traditional" anti-Yugoslav forces, along with a
nostalgia for the Austro-Hungarian Empire among some and for a
re-creation of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, among others. But, a
U.S. National Interest? If one were to extract the major claims on its
behalf they could be reduced to just a few. One is a virtual
declaration of war on "ethnic nationalism." "Humanitarian intervention"
came into view as a twin. The two were rooted in an "unbendable" claim
that "our" (please note the Royal "we") policy objective was to insure
peace in the area. Let us quickly look at the broad picture.
No one can credibly claim today that there has been any symmetry in
the would-be "Humanitarian Interventions," from Krajina to Bosnia and
Kosovo. While roundly blasting "ethnic cleansing" by the Serbs in
Bosnia, the Clinton Administration took an active part in developing and
permitting the Croat Operation Storm in August 1995 which produced by
far the greatest instance of "ethnic cleansing" up to that time. This
involved between 200,000 and 250,000 Serbs whose ancestors settled in
Krajina centuries earlier. Clearly, support for one ethnicity’s
Nationalism was used to "eliminate the problem" of dealing with
another.. The
architects of the "Kosovo Policy" first "laundered" the
"terrorists" (as defined by the State Department) into a "Liberation
Army." Next, they went on to support the KLA in a number of ways. In
so doing , they sided de facto with ethnic Albanian Nationalism. Most
could and did perceive the rapid advent of " ethnic cleansing " But,
since, this time, those "cleansed" were mainly Serbs the KLA’s crime
against humanity was explained away as "justifiable retribution."
Such a dogmatic explanation of crimes against humanity -even war
crimes- committed , say, by Serb individuals, army soldiers and
para-military units, not only in Bosnia but also in Kosovo, could
only earn "nationalist" accolades. What about the establishment of
peace? Two torpedoed peace proposals, imports of weapons, training of
armies,lending of the USAF to one against another --such is the PATTERN
revealing that "Peace" becomes an Orwellian term meaning "War." If not
peace, as the pivot of foreign policy in the area from 1992 to 1999,
why war? To believe simply that "Milosevoc" was the only or main reason
would require two things. One is to re-write the History of this period
. The second would be that Mickey is a real, ever-live , Mouse. A
strong case can be made for a perceived need to "resurrect" NATO
after the Cold War. Yet, it cannot explain what National Interest was
served in saving NATO from self-extinction by exacerbating the
southeastern Europe’s turmoil? One other "explanation." a
"geo-political" one has been advanced. The route to tapping the
reportedly huge Caspian oil reserves would require an indefinite U.S.
military presence at Kosovo-Metohija. Not an absolute necessity. Yet,
Even if certain, this would and could not explain the U.S. involvement
in ex-Yugoslavia before 1998. So, what is the one, fundamental,
underpinning of the Clinton-Albright policy here? It finally emerges
that there was no policy relating to any real National Interest. In
fact, there was no
policy at all. Its substitute was a capricious use of power for the sake
of power , using different component parts and accents. This was no
crude Fascism of Benito’s time. Our military did not drop captured Serbs
from planes without parachutes as did the Fascists in Lybia witn
Arabs who resisted. Instead, the "missions" have been and are still
endowed with High Moral Purposre which can only exist as a Kantian
noumenon that cannot be demonstrated . All of the phenomena of the
Clinton-Albright policy in ex-Yugoslavia show the contrary. There is
also another revelation. It is INCOMPETENCE masked as "achievement ."
The best example is found in the "Kosovo Policy." Most of its
architects saw in the KLA an Albanian Nationalism at work, aiming at
Kosovo’s independence. Some perceived a drive for "Greater Albania" as
its ultimate goal.One or two even wished it would come about.
What virtually none of the architects grasped is that "Greater Albania"
is a misleading cunstruct. It coveys an ultimate Nationaist Agenda.
In reality, as has clearly emerged at Kosovo since June 1999, the aim
of a "Greater Albania" is not some sort of national unity of all
Albanians under a single government. They have had a time-honored
acephalous society, dominated by clans. Moreover, hardly all of the
Albanians in Albania look with favor to a single, unfied Greater
Albania. Albania’s southern Christians do not wish to see more of the
Albanian Muslims added north into a unified state. The ultimate goal
of the main forces behind the KLA is to secure and control a
Commercial Empire enageged in illegal and criminal activities. It is
not only destabilizing the region. It is destibilizing Western European
societies as well. Over 80 percent of heroin goes into them via Kosovo
despite NATO’s presence in situ. .Many of the West European prostitution
rings and networks are Albanian-controlled as is the flow if illegal
shipments of humans from Asia and Africa. This is surely not a result
working in favor of the NATO intervention. Yet, it remains favored
as such to maintain the myth of an " Air Victory at Kosovo" and
rescue NATO for a second time from becoming irrelevant in one Europe.
In conclusion, I hope that you might find the time to read the four
articles enclosed and perhaps persuade you to enter them into the
Congressional Record, with this letter, despite their political
incorrectness or, possibly, because of it. Can we Amricans transcend
an endless dialogue of the deaf?
Respectfully
Raymond K. Kent, Emeritus
History Department,
University of California,
Berkeley, CA. 94720
(510/642-1971).
CORRUPTABILITY OF IMAGINED
ABSOLUTE POWER
(a slight embelishment of Lord Acton’s Dictum)
R.K.Kent
18 Mar 2001
International legalities mean nothing any longer as individuals in
Congress of the United States as well as in the Executive Branch
continuously state and re-state in a host of ways that the U.S. Might
makes everything Right. Last year, the U.N. General Assembly passed
Resolution 54/168 as a step toward an upward growth of Democracy around
the globe. It simply requires of all the member states not to interfere
in foreign elections. Yet, quite openly and with unabashed arrogance,
millions of dollars are funnelled into Yugoslavia precisely to do the
opposite.A State Department Bureau is openly set-up in Budapest to
"run" the Yugoslav opposition in the name of "Democracy." A CIA
office is now in Sofia to train Serb university students in the arts of
resistance to the existing government. Somewhere along the line it will
be grasped that the Serbs are massively against Milosevic because he
stole another, much bigger, election and not because they were "bought"
by the CIA. Even a mega-founded "Intelligence Community" with a huge
capacity for mischief abroad is far from having anything close to
absolute power.
Our Solons and high ranking members of the Clinton Administration are
constantly lecturing Serbs about how they must re-arrange their
government, economy and society They have just invented a thermometer
which monitors the temperature of "Serb Nationalism." Anything less than
complete compliance with the dicta from Washington certifies high fever
and the mounting Nationalist disease requiring strong medecine and even
major surgery. The electoral winner who leads the Serb Democratic
opposition is already on notice that if he does not turn Kosovo over to
the "Kosovars" (almost an endearing name along the Beltway), if he does
not deliver "Serb War Criminals" to the "Hague Tribunal," if he does not
grant autonomy to Vojvodina (with its 3 milion Serbs and a Hungarian
minority of 300,000), sanctionas will be re-imposed and Serbia will be
"boxed-in" from all sides, completely isolated, and doomed to become a
backwater. Even the West European States and other members of the NATO
alliance are warned not to tolerate "Serb Nationalism with a kinder
face" or the U.S. will pursue its own agenda in the Balkans without
seeking Europe’s cooperation or approval. It is astonishing to find two
key Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee plus a Vice-Presidential
candidate, willing to subordinte U.S. relations with the European Union
to an obssession with "Serb Nationalism" which is almost certainly not
even understood in its historical context.
Until only yesterday, the Clinton Administration used "Milosevic" as a
substitute for "the Serbs." It did not bomb the Serbs for 78 days. It
bombed Milosevic. Open threats are now made to and demands are made
upon his Democratic successor-in- the- making who has yet to even
assume the Presidency. As, up front, the Serbs are suddenly transformed
from a nation of neo-Nazi "subhumans" into a "brave and valiant
people," a decade of carefully nurtured Serbophobia lurks in the
background. A host of people in governmemnt, politics, intellectual
journals , scribal and
(2)
audio-visual media have gained in careers and prominence through
hate-mongering against the Serbs. This will not be given up easily. It
does not only threaten long-range relations with the European Union. It
negates, upon minimal reflection, a number of widely understood
Democratic ideals. There is no divine right to "run" other peoples’
democracies. Despite approval in the Senate, the American People have no
desire for an "opportunity" to spend $77 million of tax-payers money ,
with more dollars to come, to "buy" elections abroad so that local
politicians can act as U.S. forign- policy surrogates. A recent
attempt, attributed to China, to buy votes in the U.S. caused an uproar.
It is not an American cultural value to threaten again and again a
people bombed for eleven weeks by the USAF, punished with a decade of
brutal economic sanctions and satanized through the major media just as
long without posing any real threat to the American People. Apparently,
a few dozen influential persons in the U.S. Government have slipped the
civilized leash, descending into the kind of punishing, vengeful
violence-prone passion attributed to "Milosevic" himself. Milosevic is
no longer around to oblige them They will be forced by events to either
find new ways of gratifying their dislike and hate or else shed years of
Serbophobia. In practice,however, they are accountable to no one. All
share the same conviction that the U.S.is omnipotent. None will admit
to any egregious foreign-policy errors and none see any serious
adversities generated mainly by their own arrogance.
Following the demise of the Soviet Union, the U.S., too, jumped on "the
Serbs," first gingerly during the Bush Administration and far more
actively by 1993. One of the short-term goals was to provide a
re-defned NATO with a New Enemy, tough enough to validate the New NATO
as a military arm of the New World Order and yet not strong enough to
threaten NATO’s defeat. The Serbs drew the lot. . They were reputed to
have one of the best armies in Europe. Two of their known national
traits, love of independence and sustained bravery in wars, made them an
ideal choice for the role through which to make the New NATO
"credible." From the outset, hence, the U.S. became a clandestine and
open supporter of any and all anti-Serb forces rising out of
Yugoslavia’s ashes. It sided with the Croat and Bosnian Muslim
successors of extreme Nationalists who had opposed the U.S. in World War
II. At the same time, it condemned strongly the proven Serb allies for
their own nationalist reactions to a replay of Yugoslavia under Hitler.
The cardinal , most pointed Serb "crime" was a refusal to live inside
Franjo Tudjman’s neo-Fascist Croatia and Alija Izetbgovic’s
fundamentally Islamic State. Its close second was Belgrade’s effort to
hold the Federal Yugoslavia together. Thus, while supporting the Croat
and Bosnian Muslim nationalist drives, while promoting
self-determination of ethnicities opposed to the Serbs the Clinton
Administration isolated "Serb Nationaism" as the enemy of Mankind
itself. .
It even went back to the Medieval formula that "the enemy of my enemy is
my friend"and applied it to the Kosovo Liberation Army which has been
the armed tentacle of an international drug
(3)
cartel. One remembers Senator Lieberman’s lofty claim that the "KLA
fights for American Values" According to recently released PAC
contributions and sources, Senator Lieberman
accepted a $10,000 contribution from ethnic Albanians in the U.S.He is
also the co-sponsor of a recent bill that re-states the obssession with
"Serb Nationalism" in the post-Milosevic era.Since Kosovo was
"liberated" from the Serb army and police a clandestine KLA has been
the real ruler of this area. In roughly one year, some 300,000
non-Albanians have been cleansed from Kosovo by Albanian terror. Over
1,000 Serbs have been kidnapped along with hundreds of Kosovo minorities
and even Albanians. . Drug dealing, white slavery, fraud, theft (even
KFOR treasuries have been raided and looted) ) and general lawlessness
dominate Kosovo as the U.S. continues to support the "ex" KLA military
and civilian leadership. Internal oponents of KLA’s political leader
have simply been assassinated. The main sponsor of the logically faulty
Medieval formula was Madeleine Albright. To gain the KLA signature to a
non-existing Accord at Rambouillet and thus have the cosmetic green
light to bomb the Serbs, Madame Secretary of State almost certainly made
a "deal" to get independence for Kosovo in the not too-distant future
She also abandoned the only true representative of the Kosovo Albanians
, the Poet Ibrahim Rugova, believer in non-violence. In turn, this
abandonment entrenched the KLA in Kosovo and makes it impossible to
arrive at some future democratic solution to the Kosovo Problem.The KLA
is working to create a Greater Albania. U.S. and other European troops
are still in Kosovo. Perceived as saviors last year, they will become
soon the "occupying force of Colonial Powers." .
An article written five years ago(1) pointed out a striking historical
pattern in respect to Serbia and the Great Powers. First Austria,
followed by Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union, found obsession
with the Serbs fatal to their real interests. Austria’s 10-point
ultimatum in 1914 became a pretext to launch a massive attack on Serbia.
Initially, Austria was badly beaten on the battlefield and its" body
bags" brought German fury and, with it, the start of World War I. It
obliterated an entire generation in Europe, helped establish Communism
in Russia and paved the ground for Hitler and World War II. When the
Serbs defied Hitler on 27th March 1941 and alone stood with Britain
against the Nazi might in Europe, Hitler promised to reduce Serbia to
ashes. He sent the Stukas and the Wermacht to teach the Serbs a lesson.
Hitler’s little Serb side- show retarded his attack on Russia
(Operation Barbarossa) by three crucial months. His troops got bogged
down in the merciless Russian winter and a number of Germany’s divisions
remained in
Yugoslavia to deal with those recalcitratnt Serbs, royalists and
partisans alike. Without "the Serbs" Hitler might well have won World
War II in Europe. He might even have developed the missle technology
well ahead of anyone else. When the Serbs disobeyed Stalin he kicked
Yugoslavia out of the Cominform in 1948. That was the beginning of the
"poly-centric Communism" gradually dominated by Nationalisms and
decidedly a major factor in the U.S. ability to survive the Cold War as
the only super-Power around . Indeed "Nationalism" had been an
important U.S.ally against Moscow’s attempts to dominate the world
through a Communist Orthodoxy and local parties.It was re-used in
Yugoslavia against the Serbs and their attempts to preserve the Federal
Yugoslavia.
(4)
A sustained international campaign came into being subjecting the
Serbs to cerebral terror. Sporadic Serb atrocities, mainly by the
para-military nationalist revanchists, were blown out of
proportions into full-fledged "genocide" filling the landscape with
"mass garves." Staged "Serb " massacres at Sarajevo and Racak were
employed to use NATO force against the Serbs without serious public
opposition at home, first in Bosnia and later in Serbia . A Tribunal was
set up at the Hague by Madeleine Albright in 1993. Until 1996 it
indicted and tried only alleged Serb war criminals. It even attempted
to try two officers of the Bosnian Serb army who were not accused of
anything and were kidnapped in Sarajevo even after Dayton assured free
movement. Their only "crime" was Serb ethnicity and uniform. Although
mandated by the U.N. Security Council, the Tribunal has had no real
connection to either the International or criminal Law as practiced,
say, in the United States In the U.S. the burden of proof is on the
accuser. At the "Tribunal" it is the other way around. .A fair trial of
such already indicted and publicly condemned "war criminals" as Radovan
Karadzic, General Ratko Mladic and Slobodan Milosevic is simply not
possible at this "Tribunal." But, fair trials are not on Tribunal’s
agenda when it comes to "the Serbs." Even a substantial part of its
most recent funding comes from a single private donor, George Soros, a
Serbophobe with billions to spend in his"eternal combat" against the
dragons of Nationalism. Unfortunately, the fig leaf of such phrases as
the "Hague Tribunal" and "indicted war criminals" has hidden in general
from the American People the true nature of this quasi-legalistic
perversion.
At the same time, while the Serbs were being routinely accused of
everything except bad weather, war crimes and crimes against humanity
perpetrated by the Croat and Bosnian Muslim forces (later by the
Albanian KLA) were hardly ever reported, if at all. The Serbs became
sub-human, without the right of self-determination at Krajina and in
Bosnia, without the right of self-defense at Kosovo. They were set-up to
take the fall no matter what they did or did not do. Serb para-military
"avengers," the stupid and unnecessary shelling of Sarajevo (an"Olympic
Town" in Western eyes}, the holding of U.N. hostages, the
"Macho"counter-poise ("inat") to the far more powerful NATO member
states and the total denial of any atrocities committed against other
ethnic groups played right into the hands of the Serb haters. Hate
invariably warps. It makes caricatures of those who are seduced by it.
It robs them of reason, logic, willingnes to listen and learn. It robs
them of the very humanity they profess with astounding contradictions.
The Clinton foreign policy team, infected by Madeleine Albright’s
masked but acute Serbophobia with a record, could not tolerate defiance
and"disobediance" to its dicta any more than Hitler. Secretary of
Defense Cohen even said that if the Serbs continue to defy the U.S.
Serbia "will be reduced to ashes." It came close to that after
Rambouilled in February 1999 over Kosovo. Serbia and Kosovo werre
bombed mainly by the USAF for 78 days ostensibly to force "Milosevic" to
accept a "Peace Plan" and return Autonomy to Kosovo. The Rambouillet
(5)
ultimatum actually demanded the occupation of Yugoslavia by NATO
troops. It was even harsher than the Austrian ultimatum of 1914 which
may have inspired its March 1999 drafters.
The invincible U.S., sole remaining International Giant , had used air
power to impose its will on a peanut country in Europe.It did not work
at all. It even proclaimed total "victory" at Kosovo. an
interpretation questionable by anyone familiar with facts on the ground
and capable of minimal logic. There is an old Slavic proverb. It
states that when God wishes to punish an individual He first removes the
capacity to reason.
It is obvious that foreign policy makers in Washington are unwilling to
be impressed by the historical pattern of results that have affected
three great powers in their obsession with the Sertbs. With the Soviet
Union out of the way Washington’s foreign-policy, intelligence and
military elites convinced themselves that America’s power is today so
absolute that they can do anything and get away with it, usually on
moralistic grounds The main reason why the Presidential race hardly
touches on foreign policy is not the claim that the American People are
totally disinterested in what goes on "out there." It is becuse the
perception and feeling of omipotence, of absolute power, has eliminated
the need to be held accountable to the American People for egregious
foreign-policy errors in both theory and practice.The leading question
poses now itself. Will the U.S. obssession with" the Serbs" allow it to
orbit out of the historical pattern outlined at the beginning of this
essay? Having proclaimed " victory" at Kosovo, are there losses
involved at all? This is a virtually unexplored area of serious
inquiry. It is in dire need of analysis in its domestic and foreign
dimensions. Some preliminary observations suggest themselves.
Deceit, disinformation, violations of elementary logic through
well-planned lobotomies on the public mind, and misuse of the
"Intelligence Community" to "trick" the American People into supporting
military actions in the name of "National Interest," enter immediately
into view. Of the 47 military engagements since 1945, 33 took place in
the last eight years. The United States had no vital national interests
in the Balkans in World Wars One and Two. Betwen 1956 and 1989 it
supported the Federal and Communist-ruled Yugoslavia’s independence
from Moscow but it committed no major military and financial resources
to prevent a Soviet take-over. Yugoslavia never became a part of NATO
and its is extremely doubtful that Washington would have risked a
thermonuclear war with Moscow over such an attempt. That is because the
U.S. did not really have a vital National Interest in the Yugoslav
space. Now, suddenly in the 1990’s, without any Soviet threat, one is
told that American troops, planes, bombs and missiles and an expenditure
of billions of dollars are there to defend a vital National Interest.
As yet, no one has been able to define persuasively what it is today.
Defense of Human Rights is about the only "over-arching" argument
advanced. It collapses upon closer scrutiny. While professing acute
concerns for Serb violations of Human Rights the "National-Interest"
promoters could not care less for what was done to the Serbs. The
record is there , it is clear and offers a devastating
(6)
indictment of moral poverty involved in the bogus claim to a "vital
National Interest." In Kosovo, today, under NATO and the U.N., the
gross, daily and witnessed violations of Human Rights, perpetrated by
the clandestine KLA against the dwindling Serb and other minorities, has
not produced a single major voice in the Administration or in Congress
to crack down on and dismantle the KLA completely, arrest its leaders
and deliver them to the Hague Tribunal. Instead, members of the
"ex-KLA," transformed into the U.N. Constabulary at Kosovo have just
been funded in Congress despite repeated evidence that they have engaged
and engage in extortion, beatings and even murder. While a five million
dollar reward is offered to anyone able to deliver Milosevic to the
Hague , the political head of the "ex-KLA" attends the Democratic
Convention in Los Angeles exchanging kisses with Secretary of State
Albright. .
As an outgrrowth of deciet and disinformation needed to justify
military interventions abroad, an unusually intimate relationship of
the major scribal and audio visual media and the Administration has
emerged in the shaping of foreign policy. While a "patriotic
mutuality" of government and media was commonplace in major wars, it
never loomed as large in peace-time as in the last decade while focusing
on the Balkans and the Yugoslav tragedy. Most of this "mutuality" was
not directed at any real "enemy" of the United States. Nor was the
country in a state of formal war. Its planes and missiles did bomb
Serbia and Kosovo relentlessly for eleven weeks but lack of casualties
on the NATO side confirmed the purely punitive nature of this military
intervention. A real war between two countries simply did not
materialize. As the USAF General Nash said in plain English, the "air
war": was meant"to break the will of the Serb people." Instead, it
prolongued their support for a leader they had wanted to ditch years
earler, first in 1991 and again in 1996/1997.
It cannot be said enough times that anti-Serb propaganda saturating the
print, the images and the waves was directed mainly at the home
audience. Quite simply, the American People have been massively cheated
out of getting the truth. Thus, from both the foreign and domestic
points of reference there is nothing to brag about despite claims of
"victory." If this is not altered by a re-emergence of true sequence of
events, by the discovery that the Clinton Administration’s meddling in
Yugoslavia was the greater part of the problem and hardly a part of its
solution, the American People risk losing any control at all over a
foreign policy that could spell major disasters yet to come or manifest
themselves. . That is why our politicl leaders do not wish to discuss
openly and at length the truth about American foreign policy in the
1990’s in the Balkans.They are afraid of revealing their own moral and
intellectual fragilities. They invent Geopolitical fantasies because
they do not really know where they are going. But that is not all.
The 78 days of bombing a small European country which hardly put up any
defense created a major problem with its own offshoots. No matter what
moralistic braggadocio comes out of Washington about "protecting
Democratic values ," the mask is off an Imperial Power out to control
the World with a new process and a new ideology, a newly perceived "
Evil Empire." The process has been called "Globalization," the ideology
"Globalism." Millions have died in the
(7)
name of various "isms." There is every chance that millions more will
die. Today, military-political strategists in Washington are asking for
additional billions in order to be able to "fight simultaneously on two
fronts." Reference here is clearly to "regional conflicts" which will
be"sold" to the American People much in the same ways as already worked
out in the Balkans. The process of Globalization was anticipated by
James Burnham in the early 1940’s when he wrote about the "Managerial
Revolution" but localized it in the U.S. In simplified language,
globalized economy will reduce the state to a janitorial role and
replace sovereignty with Multinationals.
In a short cross-over from process to dogma, Globalism replaces
Communism whih also sought to impose itself on the whole world and
dissolve the state. Those who dilligently promote Globalism as an
idology and Globalization as its tool need to be reminded that no global
"ism" has ever defeated local "isms." The former are synthetic while
local Nationalisms are visceral and tend to prevail or re-assert
themselves either aggressively or defensively. Wherever Globalization
and economic prosperity march hand in hand and are visibly
inter-conncted, detonators with which to trigger - off visceral
reactions of latent Nationalism will be missing. At the moment , the
tendency is to jump into the Globalizing band-wagon pulled by the
mighty Multinationals. Yet, it is hardly difficult to predict a host of
the coming defensive Nationalist reactions . If the U.S. uses its
capacity to actually fight in two (or more) regional conflicts at the
same time to attack one ethnic group in support of another it will
neither manage to promote the cause of universal Human Rights nor remove
the detonator that goes off in defense of a tribe. By using a selective
approach to Nationalism in ex-Yugoslavia and, indeed in the Balkans,
the Clinton Administration has already made a most egregious error.
It has shown convincingly that there is no such thing as "humanitarian
military intervention," tnat it is Might that decides who shall and who
shall not have access to Human Rights and that international obedience
to its imagined absolute power has already corrupted Washington
absolutely. One might add, without redemption unless the American
People take their government back. In respct at least to the Serbs and
Yugoslavia this is not so very difficult despite the lasting and
lingering Serbophobia which needs to be cured. To this end a few
concrete proposals seem in order.
It is high time to deliver on the claim that "the U.S. has never been
against the Serb people" but only "against Milosevic." For starters,
home-grown Serbophobes should be made increasingly uncomfortable in
further attempts at getting their jollies by bashing "the Serbs."
Outright hate-mongering of the Serb ethnicity might be something that
Serb-Americans and other fellow-Americans might wish to pursue through
courts.Secondly, if there is no will to downgrade or even punish we
should at least stop glorifying as our "heroes" Madeleine Albright,
Generals Clark and Short.We are demanding that all ethnicities in
Yugoslavia --but especially the Serbs-- stop glorifying as their
"heroes" such people as Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko Mladic
(Serbs),General Rasim Delic and Warlord Nasir Oric (Bosnian Muslims),
deceased General Franjo Tudjman and very much live General Agim Ceku
(Croat and Albanian in Croatia’s Army)
(8)
and, again, Agim Ceku and Hashim Thaci (Kosovo Albanians). Next, even
our current President Clinton can issue an Executive Order to all the
Armed forces that the Serbs are not considered to be an enemy of the
United States. A claim is standing that the" moment Milosevic steps
down" and is replaced as the Yugoslavia’s President by an election, all
sanctions are to be lifted. It is time to stop a decade of a cruel
economic punishment and deliver on the claim no matter what else
happens with or to "Milosevic." At the same time, the White House should
honor the request of Western Europe to extend immediate recogniion to
Vojislav Kostunica. It would be a serious mistake to start labelling him
as a "Serb Nationalist with a kinder face" simply because he is not
immediately assuming the role of Washington’s likeable lapdog. While
stating and restating that the U.S. will share with Western Europe the
burden of paying Yugoslavia for the damages caused by eleven weeks of
bombing its civilian infrastructure and properties, it would be useful
to repair specific damages by an advance of funds. Sending our own
medical experts to determine the extent of released toxins and a mutant
like depleted uranium would show also also some real concern for genetic
damages in the making. We should reopen the Embassy in Belgrade and send
a diplomat untainted by Serbophobia.
There should be no immediate demands for deliveries to the Hague
Tribunal of alleged Serb war criminals. A little healing time is needed.
A hemorrage has been stopped with a strong bandage and it is too early
to remove it. A little patience is required. In the cited article of
five years ago, this writer suggested that the only sure way of ending
ethnic conflicts in ex-Yugoslavia for good would be to strengthen local
judicial systems to have them try their own alleged war criminals
perceived as "heroes." At the same time, the high life with perks of
those associated with the Hague Tribunal should be no longer funded, the
Tribunal’s funding should go to Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and
Kosovo and the Tribunal should be replaced by an already ratified in
part World Court to deal with future war crimes and crimes against
humanity. It is not out of question for an ordinary citizen to make
another suggestion. The Puritans, who are the antecedents of America,
absolutely rejected displays of arrogant behavior. Could our present
foreign policy elites be perdsuaded, while forming the United States of
the World, to be at least overtly humble?
MILOSEVIC, THE SERBS AND THE WEST
R.K.Kent
Emeritus Professor of History
University of California at Berkeley
13 Mar 2001
Those who know Serb History will recall that in 1804 Karadjordje almost
refused to lead a revolt against the Turks because of his choleric
nature. " When men disgree with me," he said, "I lop their heads off."
"Can you accept this (kind of leadership)" he asked at an assembly."That
is why we precisely wish you to lead us now." Later on "when you are no
longer needed we will lop YOUR head off." This is exactly what happened.
A page, torn out of the Serb past, connects with the universal fact
that no individual -- declared "bad" or" good"-- can or should replace
an entire people when it comes to its National Interest. It also reveals
that different times and different crises require different types of
leadership. While in power, Milosevic wrapped himself in Serb
Nationalism everywhere in ex-Yugoslavia except in Kosovo where he
attempted to "play the Yugoslav card." Neither of the two constitute an
unforgivable political sin and let it be noted at once that Milosevic
came to Dayton, Ohio, and signed an international agreement without
being considered, charged or arrested at that time as a "war criminal."
There were no other armed conflicts between Dayton and 1998/1999 when
the Kosovo Liberation Army escalated its guerrila war until it
resulted in the NATO (primarily U.S.)"air war" of eleven weeks.
The NATO "humanitarian intervention," dipped in depleted uraniam and
sprinkled with cluster bombs, was a war crime and a crime against
humanity under an Open Sun. It did enrmous and as yet incompletely
assessed damage to the Serb people , their properties, land, air and
rivers. It was not only criminal in nature, deliberately hitting
civilian targets in order "to break the will of the Serbian people," as
General Nash said in public after the "air war" of 78 days. . It was
both an unneccessary and an avoidable war. Its driving mechanism was an
almost insane desire to assert power through physical punishment and
humiliation of a people demonized during an entire decade (1989-1999).
As a result, Milosevic became both a Hero of Serb Resistance to
Foreign Imperialism and an unhappy choice as the Serb leader at a time
when the United States underwent a hi-tech revolution that could shape
and re-shape public opinion at will, within days. Or conduct a war
without losing a soldier. At the same time the ""prevailing ethos"
precluded the labelling of entire populations as "inherently evil."
That would be both "uncivilized" and "undemocratic." It thus found in
Milosevic a villian that could be depicted as the evil "Butcher of
the Balkans." After playing a hefty part in the fall of Milosevic from
power, the Clintonites are demanding --despite losing the
Presidency--that he be delivered to the Hague Tribunal for Yugoslavia.
He has been indicted in public for alleged war crimes and "genocide"
exclusively at Kosovo. No credible, prima facie, evidence to support
this indictment has surfaced in public.Yet, in the post-Clinton America,
the new Sereb Government is now being blackmailed via denials of
economic aid unless they at least arrest and try Milosevic in
Belgrade. A subsequent delivery to the Hague, along with other indicted
top Serb officials in the Milosevic_s government would follow.
(2)
A Petition is being circulated at this moment demanding the end of a
witch hunt involving Milosevic. It castigates all Serbs prone and
willing to deliver Milosevic to the Hague. But, it also attacks all
those willing to put him on trial in Belgrade as boot-lickers and
lackeys of American Imperialism who are selling the Serb people out. The
Petition has chosen the Hero model and only a Serb Medal of Honor is
lacking. This is a gut reaction against international injustice both at
the Hague and over the skies of Serbia and Kosovo. It is also an
attampt, at least indirectly, to uncouple the reconstruction aid which
is owed by any civilized standards as well as promised if Milosevic
fell from power. The drafters and co-signers of the Petition, all
time-honored and tested defenders of the Serbs in the U.S.thus
interpret the current National Intrest of the Serb people not on the
basis of reason but emotion. Let this writer make the case for reason
and see if it can prevail over visceral reactions.
First and foremost, the Serbs have no real friends among the influential
persons in the U.S. who make foreign policy. Many among them have
convinced themselves that they can prevent another Holocaust by
developing a new bunch of "Neo-Nazis" slated not only for punishment but
also for collective humiliation. Most of them are interventionist
hawks, regardless of party affiliation. Some are quite bloody-minded
They would kill and maim and attack the genetic code of Serb civilians.
One is even a political adviser to the KLA.They have no intention of
letting go of either Milosevic or the Serbs. Since "Milosevic" is out
of power these Establishmentarians must have him at the Hague Tribunal
because only THERE he can be humiliated beyond physical punishment. The
Tribunal is a DE FACTO political weapon and not a court of law. It
would provide basically a show trial, for him as well as the other
"indicted" top members of his government.
But, there is a world of diference if Milosevic comes to trial in
Belgrade. In a real domestic Court of Law Milosevic will have the kind
of legal defense he could never secure at the Hague. His attorneys, in
defense, can just as well put NATO on trial for war crimes and crimes
against humanity and peace. They can demand that the Hague Tribunal_s
Prosecutor realease documents which provide prima facie evidence agaisnt
Milosevic as a "genocidal" "war criminal" at Kosovo. This can be done,
amicus curae, to "assist" the High Serb Court in fact- finding in
respect to alleged Hague accusations. A trial of Milosevic in Belgrade
with INVITED FOREIGN OBSERVERS OF LEGAL STATURE could turn the tables on
his Hague indictment, resulting in a law suit at the World Court for
"MALICIOUS DEFAMATION. " Damages could be asked for in the neighborhood
of $100,000,000. At the same time Milosevic would be undeliverable to
the Hague if the indictment for alleged genocide and war crimes
directly linked to him cannot be supported. There would have to be some
prima facie evidence, subject to detailed scrutiny of his defense
attorneys. REAL LAW IS THE ARENA FOR COMBAT, not emotional petitions
even when the sentiment is shared. Witch -hunts die out when
dissected and singed by truth. Some last observations, now..
(3)
When Carla del Ponte wanted to open a Tribunal Office in Belgrade, the
same visceral reaction took place as some wre horrified at the lack of
national backbone in opposing "legitimization" of the Tribunal. The
Tribunal is a political fact of life. It has to be dealt with as
such.This means that an Office of the ICTY should be allowed to open in
Belgrade only to be flooded with thousands of Serb victims willing to
provide evidence of what has been done to them in other parts of
ex-Yugoslavia. The story of atrocities against the Serbs during the last
decade is far from being told or even known to the wider publics in the
U.S. and Western Europe.
It is very much in the Serb National Interest to put Milosevic on
trial in Belgrade to determine the extent and scope of his alleged
guilt. It is his turn to have the symnbolic "head lopped off " if he
is really found guilty of genocide and war crimes. But, there is more to
it. For 36 years (1944-1980), Serbia was ruled by Tito and the
Communist League. . After a rotating Presidency of about a
decade(1980-1990) former Yugoslav Communists became Socialists overnight
and all of their top leaders enveloped themselves in ethno-religious
nationalist cacoons. This writer refuses to accept the contention that
only the supporters of Milosevic and of Tito_s Yugoslavia have the right
to monopolize the interpretation of the current Serb National
Interest.
Serbia has a broken infrastructure. Half of its working force is
without jobs or a social and medical net as the old economy is not quite
out and the new economy has not quite gotten in. Almost a million of the
"precanski Srbi" are now refugees in Serbia proper, not to mention a
couple of hundred thousand ethnic Albanians, thousands of mixed-marriage
Yugoslavs, Croats, Hungarians and other minorities, 26 ethnicities
altogether. Leaving aside the potentially gruesome medical outcome of
the air war that lasted almost three months, Economic Recovery is the
top priority that dominates the National Interest of the Serb People. It
is not the affirmation of National Pride or the perception that it is
gone forever through some "bending" by the new Government in
Belgrade. To put National Pride on a pedestal that cannot be "violated"
through a trial of Milosevic in Belgrade would almost certainly play in
the hands of the anti-Serb brigades throughout the "West" and
especially in the U.S. At the moment, they are eating their collective
liver becuae Kostunica is no Milosevic and the DOS is willing to take
the"capitalist road" into Liberal Democracy. Liberal or not, Winston
Churchill has called Democracy the worst form of government on earth.
The trouble, he added, is that we have not been able to invent anything
better.
Raymond K. Kent
Emeritus
History Department,
University of California,
Berkeley. Ca. 94720
Subject: Prof. R.K.Kent: An open letter to senator Jesse A. Helms
Date: Sat, 03 Mar 2001 17:19:42 -0500
From: "minja m." <minja@...>
To: KPAJ 3A HATO <kpaj-3a-hato@...>
The Honorable Jesse A. Helms,
Chairman,
Foreign Relations Committee,
United States Senate’
Washington D.C.
24.2.2001
Dear Senator Helms,
I still treasure a note you had sent me requesting copies of my
writings as you had found them generally interesting to read. I did not
have the heart to comply fully with your request. The volume is so
large that you could not possibly find the time to read all of the
texts. This is not preventing me from sending you just four. They are
entitled respectively: (1)Dr. Strangelove is Alive and Well - How
Madeleine got to Bomb the Serbs; (2)Beltway’s Moral Giants and Lessons
from Clio, the Muse of History; (3)Suggestions on Kosovo (with
sub-title); and (4) "Old and New Fascism -Eviva la Pace Americana."
While I am under no illusion that you will agree with all the
major points and suggestions, I regard you as a quintessential Old
American Patriot, one who knows the difference between Right and Wrong ,
one who grasps that the long-lasting attraction of America has come in
three parts. Its magnetic freedoms, its unsurpassed Constitution and
its powerful economy.. It is my contention that the luster of the first
two has dimmed in the last decade. Only the third retains its glow. The
Administration of William Jefferson Clinton was not only "corrupt." It
has attempted to transform America into a Fascist country with a new
face. With a strange resemblance of the First Family to Peron and Evita.
This thesis is stated, with some humor and sexual metaphor most
clearly in the piece on "Old and New Fascism." It is a road that should
be most repugnant to both Republicans and Democrats who can see the
forest and not succumb to a single-tree myopia, supporting any
Presidential action abroad and indulging in humanitarian asymmetry.
It is unfortunate how so many have persuaded themselves that the
"Indispensable Nation" and "sole remaining Super-Power" can do
anything it wants, "Exceptionally," in any society around Planet
Earth. As if the U.S. possesses unlimited Absolute Power. New Moral
Giants came on the Beltway. They are far above us ordinary Americans.
They disregard completely even citizens with specialized knoweldge
and the will to prove that we, the People, are no real pygmies who must
invariably follow their phoney giants. Today, after bombing a small
state and its people into the Nineteenth century for nothing
substantial at all , some of our Solons are blackmailing Belgrade
instead of showing at least tolerance after 78 days of bombings if not
remorse for damages in human lives and unremunerated property. To say
nothing of the totally missing capacity to be magnanimous even in a
self-proclaimed "Victory." Permit me now to summarize the arguments in
the three articles apart from the one on Fascism, old and new. I do so
in an amplified way as a reading option. . Representative Dan Burton
told me once:
Anything longer than six pages is not likely to be read." The reduction
here is to four pages.
President Clinton and Secretary Albright bombed both Kosovo and Serbia
to "save" Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians from "the Serbs." In so doing, they
used false reports, outright lies
and crass duplicity both at home and abroad. They certainly violated
the U.S.Constitution and broke International Law with impunity. The
often repeated trite phrase that "truth is war’s first vicitim " does
not even apply .The U.S. Congress had not declared war on Serbia. The
intended victim of their contemptible manipulations was the American
People. In seeking to impose a Pax Americana in the Balkans the
media-driven Clinton Administration (with some support in Comgress) )
has gradually succumbed to a re-birth of Fascism in a new form. Yet, it
was pre-disposed by its own amorality and will-to-power which are
central to Fascism as a phenomenon and noumenon.
Anyone with sustained knowledge of Balkan History in the 1900’s could
easily perceive that the Clinton Administration turned an American
ally in two World Wars, the Serbs, into an "enemy" without any real
threat to any serious aspect of the National Interest. . It was hardly
a foreign-policy "accomplishment." Training and arming directly and
indirectly the nationalist successors of proclaimed U.S. enemies in
World War II coupled with the doctrine of "levelling battlefield
opportunities" was hardly conducive to peace in the Balkans.
Had the Clinton foreign-policy team not stood in the way of even one of
the two most workable peace proposals (the Lisbon Agreement of February
1992 and Vance-Owen Plan of 1993) most of the fratricidal carnage in
Bosnia would have been avoided. There would have been no Dayton to
inspire an ever-escalating ethnic Albanian insurgency at Kosovo. Had
what was left of Yugoslavia been completely opened as a free market
economy with Western support , Milosevic would have fallen a lot
sooner. Instead, we punished the Serb people with brutal economic
sanctions.While proclaiming the New Age of Humanitarianism , our
sanctions hurt mostly the children , the elderly and the sick. One of
this writer’s friends had sent some bottles of Aspirin to a sick, old
relative in Belgrade. The package was returned by the Post Office ,
citing the embargo.
Had the enclosed "Suggestions" for a solution to the Kosovo Problem
been taken seriously , the U.S. would not have had to post and keep
our troops in a danger zone indefinitely and spend additional
billioins of dollars needed at home. Copies had been sent to the entire
Foreign Relations Committeee of the Senate. Equally, Kosovo today is in
such a state that even some Albanians who had fought with the "Kosovo
Liberation Army " have had enough. It is no longer "liberation" of
Kosovo from "the Serbs." Since June 1999, they have ben virtually
cleansed out, along with all the other ethnic minorities. This took
place with 40,000 NATO troops in a Kosovo under the UN Administration.
This writer has invested huge amounts of time over the years to find
out what National Interest was really involved in the ex-Yugoslav
space and how did the Clinton-Albright foreign policy relate to it.
German influence was perceived. The Vatican was not too far behind.
These were the "traditional" anti-Yugoslav forces, along with a
nostalgia for the Austro-Hungarian Empire among some and for a
re-creation of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, among others. But, a
U.S. National Interest? If one were to extract the major claims on its
behalf they could be reduced to just a few. One is a virtual
declaration of war on "ethnic nationalism." "Humanitarian intervention"
came into view as a twin. The two were rooted in an "unbendable" claim
that "our" (please note the Royal "we") policy objective was to insure
peace in the area. Let us quickly look at the broad picture.
No one can credibly claim today that there has been any symmetry in
the would-be "Humanitarian Interventions," from Krajina to Bosnia and
Kosovo. While roundly blasting "ethnic cleansing" by the Serbs in
Bosnia, the Clinton Administration took an active part in developing and
permitting the Croat Operation Storm in August 1995 which produced by
far the greatest instance of "ethnic cleansing" up to that time. This
involved between 200,000 and 250,000 Serbs whose ancestors settled in
Krajina centuries earlier. Clearly, support for one ethnicity’s
Nationalism was used to "eliminate the problem" of dealing with
another.. The
architects of the "Kosovo Policy" first "laundered" the
"terrorists" (as defined by the State Department) into a "Liberation
Army." Next, they went on to support the KLA in a number of ways. In
so doing , they sided de facto with ethnic Albanian Nationalism. Most
could and did perceive the rapid advent of " ethnic cleansing " But,
since, this time, those "cleansed" were mainly Serbs the KLA’s crime
against humanity was explained away as "justifiable retribution."
Such a dogmatic explanation of crimes against humanity -even war
crimes- committed , say, by Serb individuals, army soldiers and
para-military units, not only in Bosnia but also in Kosovo, could
only earn "nationalist" accolades. What about the establishment of
peace? Two torpedoed peace proposals, imports of weapons, training of
armies,lending of the USAF to one against another --such is the PATTERN
revealing that "Peace" becomes an Orwellian term meaning "War." If not
peace, as the pivot of foreign policy in the area from 1992 to 1999,
why war? To believe simply that "Milosevoc" was the only or main reason
would require two things. One is to re-write the History of this period
. The second would be that Mickey is a real, ever-live , Mouse. A
strong case can be made for a perceived need to "resurrect" NATO
after the Cold War. Yet, it cannot explain what National Interest was
served in saving NATO from self-extinction by exacerbating the
southeastern Europe’s turmoil? One other "explanation." a
"geo-political" one has been advanced. The route to tapping the
reportedly huge Caspian oil reserves would require an indefinite U.S.
military presence at Kosovo-Metohija. Not an absolute necessity. Yet,
Even if certain, this would and could not explain the U.S. involvement
in ex-Yugoslavia before 1998. So, what is the one, fundamental,
underpinning of the Clinton-Albright policy here? It finally emerges
that there was no policy relating to any real National Interest. In
fact, there was no
policy at all. Its substitute was a capricious use of power for the sake
of power , using different component parts and accents. This was no
crude Fascism of Benito’s time. Our military did not drop captured Serbs
from planes without parachutes as did the Fascists in Lybia witn
Arabs who resisted. Instead, the "missions" have been and are still
endowed with High Moral Purposre which can only exist as a Kantian
noumenon that cannot be demonstrated . All of the phenomena of the
Clinton-Albright policy in ex-Yugoslavia show the contrary. There is
also another revelation. It is INCOMPETENCE masked as "achievement ."
The best example is found in the "Kosovo Policy." Most of its
architects saw in the KLA an Albanian Nationalism at work, aiming at
Kosovo’s independence. Some perceived a drive for "Greater Albania" as
its ultimate goal.One or two even wished it would come about.
What virtually none of the architects grasped is that "Greater Albania"
is a misleading cunstruct. It coveys an ultimate Nationaist Agenda.
In reality, as has clearly emerged at Kosovo since June 1999, the aim
of a "Greater Albania" is not some sort of national unity of all
Albanians under a single government. They have had a time-honored
acephalous society, dominated by clans. Moreover, hardly all of the
Albanians in Albania look with favor to a single, unfied Greater
Albania. Albania’s southern Christians do not wish to see more of the
Albanian Muslims added north into a unified state. The ultimate goal
of the main forces behind the KLA is to secure and control a
Commercial Empire enageged in illegal and criminal activities. It is
not only destabilizing the region. It is destibilizing Western European
societies as well. Over 80 percent of heroin goes into them via Kosovo
despite NATO’s presence in situ. .Many of the West European prostitution
rings and networks are Albanian-controlled as is the flow if illegal
shipments of humans from Asia and Africa. This is surely not a result
working in favor of the NATO intervention. Yet, it remains favored
as such to maintain the myth of an " Air Victory at Kosovo" and
rescue NATO for a second time from becoming irrelevant in one Europe.
In conclusion, I hope that you might find the time to read the four
articles enclosed and perhaps persuade you to enter them into the
Congressional Record, with this letter, despite their political
incorrectness or, possibly, because of it. Can we Amricans transcend
an endless dialogue of the deaf?
Respectfully
Raymond K. Kent, Emeritus
History Department,
University of California,
Berkeley, CA. 94720
(510/642-1971).
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/891
MILOSEVIC'S ARREST OCCASION FOR MORE NATO LIES AND HYPOCRISY
by Stephen Gowans (Antiwar.com)
STATEMENT OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF SERBIA
Belgrade, April 4, 2001
SPS ON MILUTINOVIC RESIGNATION
Belgrade, April 4, 2001
REMEMBER KOSOVO
Serbian Unity Congress
MARCH 24th 1999
http://serbianunity.net/index.html
OPEN LETTER TO SERBIAN CHURCHES AND ORGANIZATIONS IN CANADA
By Chris Soda - 23/3/2001
HOW THE NEW WORLD ORDER IS 'HELPING' SERBIA
By Aleksandar Pavic
(C) 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
'THIS DJINDJIC PEOPLE ARE BROWN SHIRTS!'
An Interview with a Serbian political activist, by Jared Israel
www.tenc.net
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/891
---
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/892
WHAT THE US IS ACTUALLY AFTER IN YUGOSLAVIA?
By Tika Jankovic, 18/12/2000
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/892
---
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/893
ON HATE-MONGERING AND THE GUILTY SERBS
A Case of non-Justifiable Retribution
R.K.Kent
Emeritus Professor of History
University of California at Berkeley
27 March 2001
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/893
---
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/894
NATIONALISMS AND THE ABSOLUTE
CORRUPTABILITY OF IMAGINED ABSOLUTE POWER
(a slight embelishment of Lord Actons Dictum)
R.K.Kent 18 Mar 2001
MILOSEVIC, THE SERBS AND THE WEST
R.K.Kent 13 Mar 2001
AN OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR JESSE A. HELMS
R.K.Kent 24.2.2001
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/894
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
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> http://www.tuttinlotta.org
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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MILOSEVIC'S ARREST OCCASION FOR MORE NATO LIES AND HYPOCRISY
by Stephen Gowans (Antiwar.com)
STATEMENT OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF SERBIA
Belgrade, April 4, 2001
SPS ON MILUTINOVIC RESIGNATION
Belgrade, April 4, 2001
REMEMBER KOSOVO
Serbian Unity Congress
MARCH 24th 1999
http://serbianunity.net/index.html
OPEN LETTER TO SERBIAN CHURCHES AND ORGANIZATIONS IN CANADA
By Chris Soda - 23/3/2001
HOW THE NEW WORLD ORDER IS 'HELPING' SERBIA
By Aleksandar Pavic
(C) 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
'THIS DJINDJIC PEOPLE ARE BROWN SHIRTS!'
An Interview with a Serbian political activist, by Jared Israel
www.tenc.net
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/891
---
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/892
WHAT THE US IS ACTUALLY AFTER IN YUGOSLAVIA?
By Tika Jankovic, 18/12/2000
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/892
---
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/893
ON HATE-MONGERING AND THE GUILTY SERBS
A Case of non-Justifiable Retribution
R.K.Kent
Emeritus Professor of History
University of California at Berkeley
27 March 2001
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/893
---
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/894
NATIONALISMS AND THE ABSOLUTE
CORRUPTABILITY OF IMAGINED ABSOLUTE POWER
(a slight embelishment of Lord Actons Dictum)
R.K.Kent 18 Mar 2001
MILOSEVIC, THE SERBS AND THE WEST
R.K.Kent 13 Mar 2001
AN OPEN LETTER TO SENATOR JESSE A. HELMS
R.K.Kent 24.2.2001
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/894
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
oggi "Comitato Promotore dell'Assemblea Antimperialista":
> http://www.tuttinlotta.org
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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QUANTO VALGONO 30 DENARI
Le recenti vicende jugoslave consentono di stimare approssimativamente
quanto varrebbero oggi i denari, valuta un tempo impiegata per le
transazioni sottobanco con il nemico - da non confondersi con i dinari
jugoslavi che valgono sempre meno grazie alle politiche devastanti
attuate dalle grandi istituzioni internazionali e dai loro servi locali
contro le popolazioni balcaniche. Poiche' l'arresto di Milosevic ha
fruttato solo 50 dei 100 milioni di dollari offerti dagli USA, un
semplice calcolo consente di fissare un tasso di cambio di 1 a 1 virgola
sei periodico milioni di dollari. (I. Slavo)
---
10 marzo 2001 - Repubblica on line
BELGRADO - Tramite il loro ambasciatore in Jugoslavia, gli Stati Uniti
hanno lanciato un ultimatum al primo ministro Zoran Djindjic.
Se Milosevic non verr� arrestato entro il 31 marzo o se la Jugoslavia
non dar� altri segnali concreti di voler collaborare con il Tribunale
dell'Aia, Washington non invier� i 100 milioni di dollari (oltre 200.000
miliardi di lire) d'aiuti promessi a Belgrado, di cui la met� sar� a
fondo perduto.
31 marzo 2001 - CNN
CNN 31-3-01 -- The arrest of former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic could trigger $50 million of aid for the Balkan nation from
the United States. [...] So far, $45 million has already been allocated
to the Yugoslav government, Milan Prodic, Yugoslav ambassador to the
United States, told CNN.
2 aprile 2001 - Repubblica on line
[...] Intanto gli Stati Uniti hanno deciso di sbloccare gli aiuti
economici alla Jugoslavia. Nel prendere la decisione, il segretario di
Stato americano Colin Powell ha per� notato che "gli Stati Uniti
s'attendono pi� progressi verso la democrazia in Jugoslavia nei prossimi
mesi". Arrivano quindi a Belgrado i 50 milioni di dollari (oltre 100
miliardi di lire) come "seconda rata" di aiuti Usa per quest'anno,
nonch� un prestito di 260 milioni di dollari del Fondo monetario
internazionale, per il quale era indispensabile il voto favorevole di
Washington.
---
Washington's cash injection far from enough for
Belgrade
BELGRADE, April 3 (AFP) -
The 50 million dollars in US aid approved by
Washington after Belgrade arrested Slobodan Milosevic
will be a desperately needed, but insufficient, shot
in the arm for Yugoslavia's devastated economy,
analysts said Tuesday.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell's announcement
Monday that Yugoslavia had qualified for the aid was
greeted with relief in a country trying to recover
from years of war, corruption and mismanagement.
Release of the funds was contingent upon Belgrade
cooperating with the United Nations war crimes
tribunal in The Hague.
"If Washington had given its veto, it would have been
a catastrophe," Budimir Babovic, a member of a
Belgrade foreign relations forum, told AFP.
"We need air or we won't be able to survive. Fifty
million dollars is not much, but it does open the door
to other opportunities," Babovic said.
Powell said Monday that Yugoslavia had qualified for
ongoing support by locking up the ex-leader Sunday,
hours after a deadline the United States had set for
Belgrade to either cooperate with the UN court or lose
the money.
But he added that unless Belgrade continues to work
with the court, Washington will not help convene a
donors conference for Yugoslavia.
Although the US money offers a crucial reprieve,
Belgrade is most eagerly waiting for cash infusions
from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Yugoslav deputy prime minister Miroljub Labus said
last week that he had reached "a preliminary accord"
with the IMF for a 260 million dollar aid package. The
agreement is to be sealed in May, he said.
Belgrade rejoined the IMF in December after being
kicked out of the powerful Washington-based fund eight
years ago for its role in a series of Balkan wars.
Labus is also hoping for a pact with the Paris Club of
creditor nations to reschedule five billion dollars of
Yugoslavia's total international debt, currently at
12.2 billion dollars.
Although more aid appears to be forthcoming, Yugoslav
economist Branko Radulovic has said the country needs
2.5 billion dollars in external assistance to get the
country back on its feet.
And according to the last report by G-17, a group of
economists close to the new Belgrade government, it
will take no less than seven billion dollars to
restore the country's core infrastructure including
roads, electricity grids and the mining industry.
Nevertheless, the green light from Washington was a
crucial psychological boost for the weary Belgrade
reformers.
"Popular discontent continues to grow," Babovic said.
"Without foreign assistance, there is truly the risk
of political destabilization," he said.
Few Serbs have seen the quality of their lives improve
since Milosevic was toppled in a bloodless revolution
in October and Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica
took the reins.
Unemployment continues to hover at more than 40
percent and the gross national product, which
according to Labus fell 60 percent during Milosevic's
10 years in power, has dragged average per capita
annual income down to about 1,000 dollars.
The aid has also failed to alleviate fundamental
crises such as electricity and gas shortages in many
areas.
Belgrade is doing its best to bring order to the
chaotic public finances of Serbia, the larger of
Yugoslavia's two republics, and crack down on
widespread tax evasion.
The Serbian parliament approved a 129.4 billion dinar
(1.9 billion dollar) budget Friday that introduced an
unpopular salary freeze for public sector and state
administration workers.
Year-on-year inflation is forecast at 30 percent this
year, down from 110 percent in 2000.
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
oggi "Comitato Promotore dell'Assemblea Antimperialista":
> http://www.tuttinlotta.org
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Sito WEB (non aggiornato):
> http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Se vuoi cancellarti da questo gruppo, clicca qui: http://www.domeus.it/info/unsubscribe
Le recenti vicende jugoslave consentono di stimare approssimativamente
quanto varrebbero oggi i denari, valuta un tempo impiegata per le
transazioni sottobanco con il nemico - da non confondersi con i dinari
jugoslavi che valgono sempre meno grazie alle politiche devastanti
attuate dalle grandi istituzioni internazionali e dai loro servi locali
contro le popolazioni balcaniche. Poiche' l'arresto di Milosevic ha
fruttato solo 50 dei 100 milioni di dollari offerti dagli USA, un
semplice calcolo consente di fissare un tasso di cambio di 1 a 1 virgola
sei periodico milioni di dollari. (I. Slavo)
---
10 marzo 2001 - Repubblica on line
BELGRADO - Tramite il loro ambasciatore in Jugoslavia, gli Stati Uniti
hanno lanciato un ultimatum al primo ministro Zoran Djindjic.
Se Milosevic non verr� arrestato entro il 31 marzo o se la Jugoslavia
non dar� altri segnali concreti di voler collaborare con il Tribunale
dell'Aia, Washington non invier� i 100 milioni di dollari (oltre 200.000
miliardi di lire) d'aiuti promessi a Belgrado, di cui la met� sar� a
fondo perduto.
31 marzo 2001 - CNN
CNN 31-3-01 -- The arrest of former Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic could trigger $50 million of aid for the Balkan nation from
the United States. [...] So far, $45 million has already been allocated
to the Yugoslav government, Milan Prodic, Yugoslav ambassador to the
United States, told CNN.
2 aprile 2001 - Repubblica on line
[...] Intanto gli Stati Uniti hanno deciso di sbloccare gli aiuti
economici alla Jugoslavia. Nel prendere la decisione, il segretario di
Stato americano Colin Powell ha per� notato che "gli Stati Uniti
s'attendono pi� progressi verso la democrazia in Jugoslavia nei prossimi
mesi". Arrivano quindi a Belgrado i 50 milioni di dollari (oltre 100
miliardi di lire) come "seconda rata" di aiuti Usa per quest'anno,
nonch� un prestito di 260 milioni di dollari del Fondo monetario
internazionale, per il quale era indispensabile il voto favorevole di
Washington.
---
Washington's cash injection far from enough for
Belgrade
BELGRADE, April 3 (AFP) -
The 50 million dollars in US aid approved by
Washington after Belgrade arrested Slobodan Milosevic
will be a desperately needed, but insufficient, shot
in the arm for Yugoslavia's devastated economy,
analysts said Tuesday.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell's announcement
Monday that Yugoslavia had qualified for the aid was
greeted with relief in a country trying to recover
from years of war, corruption and mismanagement.
Release of the funds was contingent upon Belgrade
cooperating with the United Nations war crimes
tribunal in The Hague.
"If Washington had given its veto, it would have been
a catastrophe," Budimir Babovic, a member of a
Belgrade foreign relations forum, told AFP.
"We need air or we won't be able to survive. Fifty
million dollars is not much, but it does open the door
to other opportunities," Babovic said.
Powell said Monday that Yugoslavia had qualified for
ongoing support by locking up the ex-leader Sunday,
hours after a deadline the United States had set for
Belgrade to either cooperate with the UN court or lose
the money.
But he added that unless Belgrade continues to work
with the court, Washington will not help convene a
donors conference for Yugoslavia.
Although the US money offers a crucial reprieve,
Belgrade is most eagerly waiting for cash infusions
from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Yugoslav deputy prime minister Miroljub Labus said
last week that he had reached "a preliminary accord"
with the IMF for a 260 million dollar aid package. The
agreement is to be sealed in May, he said.
Belgrade rejoined the IMF in December after being
kicked out of the powerful Washington-based fund eight
years ago for its role in a series of Balkan wars.
Labus is also hoping for a pact with the Paris Club of
creditor nations to reschedule five billion dollars of
Yugoslavia's total international debt, currently at
12.2 billion dollars.
Although more aid appears to be forthcoming, Yugoslav
economist Branko Radulovic has said the country needs
2.5 billion dollars in external assistance to get the
country back on its feet.
And according to the last report by G-17, a group of
economists close to the new Belgrade government, it
will take no less than seven billion dollars to
restore the country's core infrastructure including
roads, electricity grids and the mining industry.
Nevertheless, the green light from Washington was a
crucial psychological boost for the weary Belgrade
reformers.
"Popular discontent continues to grow," Babovic said.
"Without foreign assistance, there is truly the risk
of political destabilization," he said.
Few Serbs have seen the quality of their lives improve
since Milosevic was toppled in a bloodless revolution
in October and Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica
took the reins.
Unemployment continues to hover at more than 40
percent and the gross national product, which
according to Labus fell 60 percent during Milosevic's
10 years in power, has dragged average per capita
annual income down to about 1,000 dollars.
The aid has also failed to alleviate fundamental
crises such as electricity and gas shortages in many
areas.
Belgrade is doing its best to bring order to the
chaotic public finances of Serbia, the larger of
Yugoslavia's two republics, and crack down on
widespread tax evasion.
The Serbian parliament approved a 129.4 billion dinar
(1.9 billion dollar) budget Friday that introduced an
unpopular salary freeze for public sector and state
administration workers.
Year-on-year inflation is forecast at 30 percent this
year, down from 110 percent in 2000.
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
oggi "Comitato Promotore dell'Assemblea Antimperialista":
> http://www.tuttinlotta.org
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Sito WEB (non aggiornato):
> http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Alcuni rapporti sulle manifestazioni internazionali tenutesi
nel 2. anniversario dell'aggressione NATO alla Jugoslavia
si possono trovare sul sito internet del Campo Antimperialista:
> http://www.antiimperialista.com/en/
---
Note di CARLO PONA
(dalla mailing list scienzaepace@...)
Martedi sera [27/3] sono tornato da Belgrado dopo aver partecipato alla
conferenza del Belgrade Forum a due anni dall'inizio dei bombardamenti
sulla Jugoslavia. Prima un breve resoconto della conferenza, poi le
considerazioni personali sui tre giorni e sulla situazione a Belgrado e
dintorni.
Pre- conferenza:
Mercoledi 21 ci invitano (i pochi gia' arrivati: io, Fulvio Grimaldi, i
tre russi e pochi altri) alla conferenza stampa di presentazione.
Arrivano un bel gruppetto di giornalisti, anche se non capisco di quali
giornali. Il tutto ovviamente si svolge in puro serbo ortodosso per cui
posso solo intuire quello di cui si parla, nonostante i miei sforzi
(vani) di imparare la lingua.
Il chairman della conferenza, Zivadin Jovanovic, ex ministro degli
esteri di Milosevic, tra le altre cose, ci parla di arresti
indiscriminati verso esponenti del partito socialista (il suo), di
requisizioni degli uffici, di una situazione debitoria preoccupante, di
rischi di chiusura totale, eccetera. Insomma un quadro preoccupante.
Conferenza.
Alle 9:30 ci mettiamo ad aspettare il pullman che ci deve portare alla
conferenza (a Novi Beograd). Dopo piu' di un'ora cominciamo a
preoccuparci. Viste le premesse del giorno prima abbiamo subito pensato
che la conferenza era stata cancellata, i responsabili arrestati,
deportati, e che presto sarebbe invece arrivato un cellulare a prendere
a noi e a rispedirci a casa.... invece il pullman e' semplicemente
andato a sbattere!
Insomma alle 11, piu' o meno, finalmente arriviamo e la conferenza
inizia. La lista degli interventi e' lunghissima... ci sono solo i nomi
e si capisce gia' che sara' un carnaio. Gli interventi sono di 10
minuti, invece dei 15 concoradti inizialmente, ma tutti sforano e di
conseguenza il mio inetrvento che era programmato all'1:20 slitta fino
alle 17:30 circa! Alla fine dei due giorni gli interventi saranno circa
70 (!!) e quasi tutti uguali: i corridoi, le interfenze del FMI, il
libro di Brzinski, gli imperialisti, i capitalisti, la necessita' di
creare un fronte antiimperialista, gli errori della Russia, la
situazione in Palestina e Iraq, l'UCK, il controllo dei Balcani, il
ruolo della sinistra europea, le sanzioni, i parallelismi e le diffenze
con l'America Latina, le violazioni al diritto internazionale, Solana,
la catastrofe umanitaria, ruolo della Germania, pretesto della difesa
dei diritti umani, la politica britrannica degli ultimi 100 anni
eccetera; questi piu' o meno i temi trattati.
Come avete potuto gia' capire c'e' stato poco spazio per interventi
"scientifici" o cumunque con un supporto scientifico alle spalle. Ce ne
sono stati, credo, 3.
Il primo e' stato di un certo Prof. Skaric, Macedone, che si e' preso la
briga di cniare un neologismo: Natocide per indicare tutta la tragedia
ecologica causata dai bombardamenti e per dire che con questa
aggressione la NATO si' e' votata alla propria dissoluzione e al proprio
suicidio (beato lui!). Ha parlato del DU, ma lui e' un professore di
diritto all'Univ. di Skopje, per cui ha parlato di questo aspetto. Sta
scrivendo un libro.
Il secondo e' stato di P.Simonovic, che ha parlato della
cancerogenicita' del DU e che in alcure aree si registra un aumento
della incidenza dei tumori (K.Mitrovica). Dice pure che da quando i
serbi sono usciti dal Kosovo, non si hanno piu' dati sulle popolazioni
albanesi.
Il terzo e' il mio/nostro. Per questioni di tempo e visto l'ambiente,
non ho fatto una disquisizione sull'uranio, ma ho cercato di far capire
quello che stiamo facendo in Italia come Comitato al fine di far
trapelare un po' di verita' sulla condotta dell'aggressione; del nostro
ruolo di scienzoiati contrapposti alla scienza "ufficiale" (quella per
capirci della comm Mandelli). Il testo dell'intervento, appena ho un po'
piu' di tempo lo trascrivo e ve lo faccio avere.
Oltre a questi interventi orali, hanno girato due articoli:
uno di Darko Nadic della facolta' di Scienze Politiche di Belgrado (A
socio ecological approach to investigating the environment in
Yugoslavia) che io ho e che scannerizzero' per farvelo avere.
l'altro di un tal Predrag Jaksic, che non si sa di dove sia, perche' il
suo articolo di due pagine e' comparso senza la sua presenza. Il titolo
e' molto attraente: Discovering the full truth about the use of depleted
uranium during the NATO air strikes in Kosovo and Metohia. questo tipo
avrebbe scoperto, analizzando le informazioni della NATO e le coordinate
delle localita' che sarebbero state bombardate con il DU, che delle 112
localita', 6 sono nel Mare Adriatico (!!), 14 in Albania e 14 in
Macedonia!!! Anche questo lo scannerizzo e ve lo mando appena possibile.
(...)
---
Note di FULVIO GRIMALDI
(dalla mailing list pck-yugoslavia@...)
(...) Il convegno del Foro di Belgrado in occasione del secondo
anniversario
dell'aggressione Nato nonchè della grande manifestazione di massa di
sabato
scorso, alla quale ho avuto il privilegio di essere invitato... Entrambe
le
iniziative sono state coronate da enorme successo e il provvedimento
preso
dal regime [il ventilato arresto di Jovanovic, principale organizzatore,
arresto
poi smentito] è chiaramente anche una vendetta contro la riuscita
dell'impresa
e, implicitamente, contro la ricomparsa in forze del Partito Socialista,
anche sulla scena internazionale. La frustrazione del regime di Zoran
Djindjic è stata poi accentuata dalla clamorosa vittoria del sindacato
autonomo della Zastava sul sindacatino giallo, altro segno che in
Jugoslavia
i tempi della ripresa si stanno accorciando. Il convegno di Belgrado, di
cui
avete potuto leggere il comunicato finale messo in rete dal Tribunale
Clark, ha visto la partecipazione di 17 paesi e 25 delegati, tra i quali
Jaret Israel, degli USA, e esponenti del vertice del Partito Comunista
Russo, tra i quali la viocepresidente della Duma, delegati britannici,
greci, argentini, tedeschi, iracheni, libici, palestinesi, italiani e
altri.
Nel corso degli interventi sono state illustrate le menzogne che hanno
accompagnato l'aggressione, la situazione nei Balcani con la nuova
offensiva
dei banditi UCK addestrati ed armati nelle basi USA e britanniche, gli
equilibri internazionali, le infiltrazioni USA e Nato nella DOS e in
particolare in Otpor. E' stato formulato anche un piano d'azione
internazionale i cui punti principali sono l'attuazione della
risoluzione
ONU 1244 suilla sovranità jugoslava sul Kosovo, il ritiro della Nato
dal
Kosovo e dai Balcani, il ritorno delle forze armate jugoslave in Kosovo,
il
disarmo e scioglimento dei pulitori etnici dell'UCK e bande associate,
il
ritorno dei profughi di ogni nazionalità in Kosovo e il loro
risarcimento,
il risarcimento per tutti i danni di guerra, la messa sotto accusa dei
leader della Nato responsabili dell'aggressione e di crimini di guerra e
contro l'umanità, la bonifica immediata, pagata dalla Nato, di tutti i
siti
contaminati, la liberazione di coloro che sono stati arbitrariamente
arrestati, a cominciare dal direttore della TV di Stato, Dragoljub
Milanovic.
(...) Con Milosevic ho avuto un incontro di due ore e mezza e una
conversazione
molto rivelatrice sui retroscena dell'aggressione, delle campagne di
diffamazione e del putsch di ottobre. Il contenuto dettagliato della
conversazione verrà pubblicato nei prossimi giorni, dopodichè mi
preoccuperò
di metterlo in rete. Intanto posso dire che ho trovato un uomo nel pieno
delle sue forze psichiche, fisiche e morali, con una lucida analisi, pur
nella debolezza dell'impianto ideologico di Milosevic, della situazione
interna ed internazionale. La determinazione a resistere alla
cospirazione
imperialista è evidente in Milosevic, il quale nutre una discreta
fiducia
nel patriottismo di Kostunica, anche se non si nasconde il fatto che il
presidente è molto isolato nell'ambito delle forze al potere. E' diffusa
tra
i dirigenti del PSS la convinzione che un colpo di mano contro Milosevic
possa portare alla guerra civile. Motivo per il quale si sta ora
cercando di
fare il vuoto intorno a lui. Lo stesso PSS mi è parso radicalmente
rinnovato. Sono andati via, passati alla controparte oppure cacciati gli
elementi della passata dirigenza compromessi con operazioni
affaristiche,
opportunistiche, speculative e il Partito si è rafforzato con l'arrivo
di
moltissimi quadri volontari giovani, fortemente motivati e dotati di
indubbio coraggio, date le difficilissime condizioni attuali.
Ho anche parlato con il leader del Nuovo Partito Comunista e della
coalizione di sei partitini comunisti che, insieme, appoggiano la
controffensiva guidata dal PSS, Kitanovic. La consistenza numerica di
questo
schieramento è minima, la sua pretesa di fungere da forza guida delle
sinistre antimperialiste un po' patetica. Ho avuto l'impressione di
personaggi un po' fuori dal tempo, incapsulati ideologicamente in
formule
astratte e di scarso rilievo per la situazione contingente,
caratterizati da
una presunzione che la loro piccolissima entità numerica rende quasi
grottesca, divisi tra posizioni titine, cominformiste, staliniste pure,
post-titine e altre. Ben venga comunque un fronte comune tra quella che
è
oggi indiscutibilmente la vera forza di massa della resistenza
patriottica e
antimperialista e tutte le formazioni di sinistra. Del resto, lo stesso
Kitanovic mi ha detto che Milosevic e il PSS rappresentano il cuore
dell'opposizione patriottica agli aggressori ed ai loro fiduciari nel
paese.
Ogni divergenza verrà affrontata una volta sciolta la contraddizione
principale. (...)
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
oggi "Comitato Promotore dell'Assemblea Antimperialista":
> http://www.tuttinlotta.org
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Sito WEB (non aggiornato):
> http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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nel 2. anniversario dell'aggressione NATO alla Jugoslavia
si possono trovare sul sito internet del Campo Antimperialista:
> http://www.antiimperialista.com/en/
---
Note di CARLO PONA
(dalla mailing list scienzaepace@...)
Martedi sera [27/3] sono tornato da Belgrado dopo aver partecipato alla
conferenza del Belgrade Forum a due anni dall'inizio dei bombardamenti
sulla Jugoslavia. Prima un breve resoconto della conferenza, poi le
considerazioni personali sui tre giorni e sulla situazione a Belgrado e
dintorni.
Pre- conferenza:
Mercoledi 21 ci invitano (i pochi gia' arrivati: io, Fulvio Grimaldi, i
tre russi e pochi altri) alla conferenza stampa di presentazione.
Arrivano un bel gruppetto di giornalisti, anche se non capisco di quali
giornali. Il tutto ovviamente si svolge in puro serbo ortodosso per cui
posso solo intuire quello di cui si parla, nonostante i miei sforzi
(vani) di imparare la lingua.
Il chairman della conferenza, Zivadin Jovanovic, ex ministro degli
esteri di Milosevic, tra le altre cose, ci parla di arresti
indiscriminati verso esponenti del partito socialista (il suo), di
requisizioni degli uffici, di una situazione debitoria preoccupante, di
rischi di chiusura totale, eccetera. Insomma un quadro preoccupante.
Conferenza.
Alle 9:30 ci mettiamo ad aspettare il pullman che ci deve portare alla
conferenza (a Novi Beograd). Dopo piu' di un'ora cominciamo a
preoccuparci. Viste le premesse del giorno prima abbiamo subito pensato
che la conferenza era stata cancellata, i responsabili arrestati,
deportati, e che presto sarebbe invece arrivato un cellulare a prendere
a noi e a rispedirci a casa.... invece il pullman e' semplicemente
andato a sbattere!
Insomma alle 11, piu' o meno, finalmente arriviamo e la conferenza
inizia. La lista degli interventi e' lunghissima... ci sono solo i nomi
e si capisce gia' che sara' un carnaio. Gli interventi sono di 10
minuti, invece dei 15 concoradti inizialmente, ma tutti sforano e di
conseguenza il mio inetrvento che era programmato all'1:20 slitta fino
alle 17:30 circa! Alla fine dei due giorni gli interventi saranno circa
70 (!!) e quasi tutti uguali: i corridoi, le interfenze del FMI, il
libro di Brzinski, gli imperialisti, i capitalisti, la necessita' di
creare un fronte antiimperialista, gli errori della Russia, la
situazione in Palestina e Iraq, l'UCK, il controllo dei Balcani, il
ruolo della sinistra europea, le sanzioni, i parallelismi e le diffenze
con l'America Latina, le violazioni al diritto internazionale, Solana,
la catastrofe umanitaria, ruolo della Germania, pretesto della difesa
dei diritti umani, la politica britrannica degli ultimi 100 anni
eccetera; questi piu' o meno i temi trattati.
Come avete potuto gia' capire c'e' stato poco spazio per interventi
"scientifici" o cumunque con un supporto scientifico alle spalle. Ce ne
sono stati, credo, 3.
Il primo e' stato di un certo Prof. Skaric, Macedone, che si e' preso la
briga di cniare un neologismo: Natocide per indicare tutta la tragedia
ecologica causata dai bombardamenti e per dire che con questa
aggressione la NATO si' e' votata alla propria dissoluzione e al proprio
suicidio (beato lui!). Ha parlato del DU, ma lui e' un professore di
diritto all'Univ. di Skopje, per cui ha parlato di questo aspetto. Sta
scrivendo un libro.
Il secondo e' stato di P.Simonovic, che ha parlato della
cancerogenicita' del DU e che in alcure aree si registra un aumento
della incidenza dei tumori (K.Mitrovica). Dice pure che da quando i
serbi sono usciti dal Kosovo, non si hanno piu' dati sulle popolazioni
albanesi.
Il terzo e' il mio/nostro. Per questioni di tempo e visto l'ambiente,
non ho fatto una disquisizione sull'uranio, ma ho cercato di far capire
quello che stiamo facendo in Italia come Comitato al fine di far
trapelare un po' di verita' sulla condotta dell'aggressione; del nostro
ruolo di scienzoiati contrapposti alla scienza "ufficiale" (quella per
capirci della comm Mandelli). Il testo dell'intervento, appena ho un po'
piu' di tempo lo trascrivo e ve lo faccio avere.
Oltre a questi interventi orali, hanno girato due articoli:
uno di Darko Nadic della facolta' di Scienze Politiche di Belgrado (A
socio ecological approach to investigating the environment in
Yugoslavia) che io ho e che scannerizzero' per farvelo avere.
l'altro di un tal Predrag Jaksic, che non si sa di dove sia, perche' il
suo articolo di due pagine e' comparso senza la sua presenza. Il titolo
e' molto attraente: Discovering the full truth about the use of depleted
uranium during the NATO air strikes in Kosovo and Metohia. questo tipo
avrebbe scoperto, analizzando le informazioni della NATO e le coordinate
delle localita' che sarebbero state bombardate con il DU, che delle 112
localita', 6 sono nel Mare Adriatico (!!), 14 in Albania e 14 in
Macedonia!!! Anche questo lo scannerizzo e ve lo mando appena possibile.
(...)
---
Note di FULVIO GRIMALDI
(dalla mailing list pck-yugoslavia@...)
(...) Il convegno del Foro di Belgrado in occasione del secondo
anniversario
dell'aggressione Nato nonchè della grande manifestazione di massa di
sabato
scorso, alla quale ho avuto il privilegio di essere invitato... Entrambe
le
iniziative sono state coronate da enorme successo e il provvedimento
preso
dal regime [il ventilato arresto di Jovanovic, principale organizzatore,
arresto
poi smentito] è chiaramente anche una vendetta contro la riuscita
dell'impresa
e, implicitamente, contro la ricomparsa in forze del Partito Socialista,
anche sulla scena internazionale. La frustrazione del regime di Zoran
Djindjic è stata poi accentuata dalla clamorosa vittoria del sindacato
autonomo della Zastava sul sindacatino giallo, altro segno che in
Jugoslavia
i tempi della ripresa si stanno accorciando. Il convegno di Belgrado, di
cui
avete potuto leggere il comunicato finale messo in rete dal Tribunale
Clark, ha visto la partecipazione di 17 paesi e 25 delegati, tra i quali
Jaret Israel, degli USA, e esponenti del vertice del Partito Comunista
Russo, tra i quali la viocepresidente della Duma, delegati britannici,
greci, argentini, tedeschi, iracheni, libici, palestinesi, italiani e
altri.
Nel corso degli interventi sono state illustrate le menzogne che hanno
accompagnato l'aggressione, la situazione nei Balcani con la nuova
offensiva
dei banditi UCK addestrati ed armati nelle basi USA e britanniche, gli
equilibri internazionali, le infiltrazioni USA e Nato nella DOS e in
particolare in Otpor. E' stato formulato anche un piano d'azione
internazionale i cui punti principali sono l'attuazione della
risoluzione
ONU 1244 suilla sovranità jugoslava sul Kosovo, il ritiro della Nato
dal
Kosovo e dai Balcani, il ritorno delle forze armate jugoslave in Kosovo,
il
disarmo e scioglimento dei pulitori etnici dell'UCK e bande associate,
il
ritorno dei profughi di ogni nazionalità in Kosovo e il loro
risarcimento,
il risarcimento per tutti i danni di guerra, la messa sotto accusa dei
leader della Nato responsabili dell'aggressione e di crimini di guerra e
contro l'umanità, la bonifica immediata, pagata dalla Nato, di tutti i
siti
contaminati, la liberazione di coloro che sono stati arbitrariamente
arrestati, a cominciare dal direttore della TV di Stato, Dragoljub
Milanovic.
(...) Con Milosevic ho avuto un incontro di due ore e mezza e una
conversazione
molto rivelatrice sui retroscena dell'aggressione, delle campagne di
diffamazione e del putsch di ottobre. Il contenuto dettagliato della
conversazione verrà pubblicato nei prossimi giorni, dopodichè mi
preoccuperò
di metterlo in rete. Intanto posso dire che ho trovato un uomo nel pieno
delle sue forze psichiche, fisiche e morali, con una lucida analisi, pur
nella debolezza dell'impianto ideologico di Milosevic, della situazione
interna ed internazionale. La determinazione a resistere alla
cospirazione
imperialista è evidente in Milosevic, il quale nutre una discreta
fiducia
nel patriottismo di Kostunica, anche se non si nasconde il fatto che il
presidente è molto isolato nell'ambito delle forze al potere. E' diffusa
tra
i dirigenti del PSS la convinzione che un colpo di mano contro Milosevic
possa portare alla guerra civile. Motivo per il quale si sta ora
cercando di
fare il vuoto intorno a lui. Lo stesso PSS mi è parso radicalmente
rinnovato. Sono andati via, passati alla controparte oppure cacciati gli
elementi della passata dirigenza compromessi con operazioni
affaristiche,
opportunistiche, speculative e il Partito si è rafforzato con l'arrivo
di
moltissimi quadri volontari giovani, fortemente motivati e dotati di
indubbio coraggio, date le difficilissime condizioni attuali.
Ho anche parlato con il leader del Nuovo Partito Comunista e della
coalizione di sei partitini comunisti che, insieme, appoggiano la
controffensiva guidata dal PSS, Kitanovic. La consistenza numerica di
questo
schieramento è minima, la sua pretesa di fungere da forza guida delle
sinistre antimperialiste un po' patetica. Ho avuto l'impressione di
personaggi un po' fuori dal tempo, incapsulati ideologicamente in
formule
astratte e di scarso rilievo per la situazione contingente,
caratterizati da
una presunzione che la loro piccolissima entità numerica rende quasi
grottesca, divisi tra posizioni titine, cominformiste, staliniste pure,
post-titine e altre. Ben venga comunque un fronte comune tra quella che
è
oggi indiscutibilmente la vera forza di massa della resistenza
patriottica e
antimperialista e tutte le formazioni di sinistra. Del resto, lo stesso
Kitanovic mi ha detto che Milosevic e il PSS rappresentano il cuore
dell'opposizione patriottica agli aggressori ed ai loro fiduciari nel
paese.
Ogni divergenza verrà affrontata una volta sciolta la contraddizione
principale. (...)
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
oggi "Comitato Promotore dell'Assemblea Antimperialista":
> http://www.tuttinlotta.org
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
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Subject: Death threat for Milosevic
Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2001 13:30:09 +0200
From: global reflexion <office@...>
To: office@...
The Global Reflexion Foundation contributes, according to her ability,
to
the distribution of information on international issues that in the
media
does not recieve proper attention or is presented in a distorted way. We
receive information from different sources, that does not necessary
reflect
our opinion. If you don't want to receive it, please send us an e-mail.
See also http://emperors-clothes.com/ and http://www.targets.org/
*********************************************************
Wednesday, april 4, 2001
1. Death threat for Milosevic
2. Milosevic's lawyer appeals detention decision
3. Milosevic says process against him political staged
4. US pressures on Yugoslavia could cause serious rift
5. Statement of Gennady Zyuganov
6. Yugoslav leader distances himself from arrest of predecessor
7. Milosevic arrest heightens feud
**********************************************************
DEATH THREAT FOR MILOSEVIC
Milosevic may choose to go to The Hague sais interior minister
VIENNA, April 2 (Reuters) - Serbia's interior minister said on Monday
that
former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic might choose to go to The
Hague to face war crimes charges in order to avoid the death penalty at
home.
Dusan Mihajlovic, in a brief interview with Austria's ORF television
after
his arrival for an official visit to Austria, added that the discomfort
of
Belgrade prisons might be a further incentive for Milosevic.
"He will certainly come to a court hearing in Belgrade and perhaps he
may
wish to be handed over to The Hague," Mihajlovic said.
When the interviewer questioned whether the former Yugoslav ruler would
really choose to go to the
international war crimes tribunal voluntarily, Mihajlovic replied:
"There
is an essential difference between The Hague and Serbia. Serbian
criminal
law envisages the death penalty. Also the prisons in Serbia are far from
being very comfortable."
Milosevic, arrested in Belgrade on Sunday after a standoff with security
forces, was indicted by the Hague Tribunal in 1999 for alleged
atrocities
against Kosovo Albanians. Justice authorities in Serbia have not so far
accused Milosevic of any offence serious enough to carry the death
penalty.
He currently faces charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy.
However,
many of his opponents have accused him of involvement in politically
motivated killings, which could in theory result in the death penalty.
The
penalty has not, though, been carried out in Serbia for many years.
Mihajlovic, speaking through an interpreter, said Milosevic had hoped to
encourage destabilisation in Serbia which could have paved the way for a
comeback. "These were just dreams of Milosevic. He hoped there would be
a
destabilisation of democratic forces in Serbia. He hoped that in the
difficult economic and social conditions there would be unrest among the
population. He hoped he would get the support of his party friends," the
minister said. "His hopes were not fulfilled. Milosevic is today in
prison
and Serbia is free."
http://www.serbianna.com/news/04_02/20.shtml
********************************************
MILOSEVIC'S LAWYER APPEALS DETENTION DECISION
BELGRADE, April 2 (Tanjug) - The lawyer of former Yugoslav president
Slobodan Milosevic, Toma Fila, said on Monday that he appealed the
decision
of Belgrade district court on the pre-trial detention of Milosevic.
Fila
told Tanjug that the appeal in question was written by Milosevic
himself,
and that he (Fila) previosuly submitted his own appeal. Fila told Tanjug
that the results of the appeal were expected within 48 hours. "We will
have
an answer most probably Tuesday morning. I think it will be a negative
one."
"We are not against the investigation, because we consider that every
citizen against whom proceedings are underway must respond to the
summons
of a judge," Fila said. It is a lie, and the former president wrote that
in
his appeal, that he refuses to be held accountable in his country, Fila
aid, stressing that Milosevic does not want to go to The Hague. Fila
said
that Milosevic is feeling very well, "as well as a person can feel when
in
prison."
************************************************
MILOSEVIC SAYS PROCESS AGAINST HIM POLITICAL STAGED
BELGRADE, April 3 (Tanjug) - Former Yugoslav president Slobodan
Milosevic
said in a complaint filed with the Belgrade District Court on Monday
against the court decision on his detention that the process against him
was politically staged. "I believe the court proceedings against me are
politically staged, at the orders of the new authorities, with the
purpose
of tarnishing and discrediting my long-term work, and, in particular,
because I opposed world power-wielders in the interests of the state and
the people," Milosevic said.
Milosevic rejected the reasons for his detention, explaining that "over
the
past six months I was accused and condemned for every possible criminal
act
in the entire press of the current regime, and yet I did not flee." "I
am
filing this complaint strictly in the interest of truth. I do not mind
any
investigation into anything I have done in my life, but I mind being
treated like a criminal for what I did for my state to the best of my
ability," Milosevic said in the complaint, adding that he was ready at
any
time to appear before the judicial organs of his country.
*************************************************
US PRESSURES ON YUGOSLAVIA COULD CAUSE SERIOUS RIFT
MOSCOW, April 2 (Tanjug) - Russian Duma international relations
committee
chairman Dmitry Rogozin warned on Monday that US pressures on the
Yugoslav
leadership to extradite Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague show that the
United States is interfering in the internal affairs of the country and
threatens to provoke a serious rift in Yugoslavia. Such a rift int he
country could provoke wide-ranging conflicts in the center of Europe,
Rogozin said.
According to him, the armtwisting and issuing of ultimatums to Yugoslav
leaders, including deadlines for the extradition of the former Yugoslav
president and its linking to economic aid, constitute planned
activities,
which are strongly destabilizing the democratic forces of the country.
The
provoking of such the crisis could be extremely dangerous for the whole
of
Europe, Rogozin said.
********************************************
STATEMENT OF GENNADY ZYUGANOV
Chairman of the People's Patriotic Union of Russia
Moscow, April 2, 2001
Slobodan Milosevic, Chairman of the Serbian Socialist Party and former
President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, was arrested in
Belgrade.
All circumstances directly indicate that this action was ordered by the
United States. The intensity of pressure on the Yugoslav government was
unprecedented, and the decision to arrest Mr. Milosevic was made under
the
threat of vicious economic and political blackmail.
This represents the most deplorable interference in the internal affairs
of
a sovereign state and a fresh violation of international legal norms,
already shaken by the rogue bombings of Iraq, Libya, Sudan, and
especially
the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999.
By arresting a former head of a foreign country, the United States is
introducing a dangerous element into international relations. The
consequences of this precedent could be far-reaching for any head of
state
trying to run an independent foreign and domestic policy, including the
leaders of Russia and Belarus.
With that in mind, the deafening silence of the Russian Federation s
Foreign Ministry is simply shocking. Those forces in Yugoslavia that
favor
the preservation of the historical friendship between the Yugoslav
people
and Russia are being openly harassed. The continuance of the current
faceless policy of the Russian Foreign Ministry is bound to lead to
Russia
s removal from the Balkans altogether.
The decision of the Yugoslav regime to arrest its former head of state
for
the sake of financial "aid" is contemptible - especially since it is
obvious that the demand for Slobodan Milosevic's arrest came from the
leaders of NATO, convicted by a Yugoslav court for crimes against the
people of Yugoslavia and responsible for war damages in excess of tens
of
billions of dollars.
The People's Patriotic Union of Russia condemns the persecution of
Slobodan
Milosevic, as it will further increase tensions in Yugoslavia, contrary
to
our desires for peace and stability in that country.
Judging that the persecution of the Serbian Socialist Party leader
represents an attempt to impose the American "New World Order," the
People's Patriotic Union of Russia calls for an international campaign
to
cease political persecution of Slobodan Milosevic and support the
patriotic
forces in Yugoslavia, which continue to resist the expansion of NATO.
*********************************************
YUGOSLAV LEADER DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM ARREST OF PREDECESSOR
BELGRADE, April 3 (AFP) - Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica
distanced
himself Tuesday from his predecessor Slobodan Milosevic's arrest but
stressed he has no say in whether the man wanted by a UN court for war
crimes will be transferred to The Hague.
Speaking to reporters for the first time since a weekend siege ended in
Milosevic's arrest on corruption charges, Kostunica said the police
action
had been "clumsy", uncoordinated with army guards at the residence, and
was
not reported to him until it had already bogged down in an armed
stand-off.
He insisted the arrest had nothing to do with US pressure to move
against
the ex-leader by midnight Saturday or lose millions of dollars in
badly-needed aid, which Washington on Monday freed up as promised.
Kostunica said US President George W. Bush would have signed the release
anyway based on democratic changes his reformers had carried out since
toppling Milosevic in October.
But the president's opposition to extraditing Milosevic to a UN war
crimes
court -- which he accused of only prosecuting Serb suspects -- earned
him a
rebuke from one of Europe's top rights bodies. The Council of Europe
said
he risked ruining his reputation as a reformer by refusing to hand over
Milosevic to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia
(ICTY) in The Hague.
Milosevic was locked up in a Belgrade prison after his arrest early
Sunday,
as investigators probe him on charges of stealing public funds to prop
up
his authoritarian regime, which was isolated by the international
community
and then bombed by NATO over its Kosovo policies in 1999.
Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said on a visit to Vienna
that
Milosevic could be tried for "serious crimes" which carry the death
penalty. "But we are talking at the moment about an enquiry, we still
need
proof," he said.
A judicial board rejected Milosevic's appeal to be released from 30 days
investigative custody. He was detained after a gun battle with police
outside his residence which left four officers injured, one of them
seriously.
The appeal, drafted and signed by Milosevic himself, claimed that he had
used the missing state money to finance Serb armies fighting in Bosnia
and
Croatia as the republics broke away from Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
The admission increased pressure on Belgrade to cooperate with the ICTY,
but also threatened to rekindle nationalist sentiment among supporters
who
had turned away from him among mounting accusations of corruption.
As Milosevic's wife Mira Markovic visited her husband in jail, and was
booed by teenagers waiting outside, one of his key aides was being
quizzed
by investigators on the same charges as his former boss.
Former Yugoslav customs chief Mihalj Kertes was questioned for six hours
before leaving a district courthouse in Belgarde without speaking to
reporters. Kertes was briefly detained earlier this year but was
released
after citing his immunity as a member of parliament.
Two other top Milosevic aides also showed up in the courthouse but it
was
not known if they faced questioning.
And the shockwaves of Milosevic's dramatic arrest were felt in the
Socialist Party (SPS) he founded a decade ago and which he still heads.
Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, the last Milosevic ally to hold on
to
a top government post after six months of reforms, resigned from the
high-level SPS posts he held, citing "increased pressure" from the
party.
The SPS has accused Milutinovic -- who like Milosevic has been indicted
by
the ICTY for war crimes in Kosovo -- of being too close to the new
authorities. He also has, along with the Kostunica, the power to pardon
his
former boss.
Kostunica insisted Tuesday that Milosevic stand trial in Serbia,
accusing
the ICTY of practising "selective justice" in not prosecuting high-level
Bosnian, Croatian or even NATO leaders, all of whom he said bore some
responsibility for crimes committed in the Balkans in the past decade.
He
added that he had ordered a South African-style truth and reconciliation
committee to look into Yugoslavia's recent history.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010403/1/ly2n.html
*******************************************
MILOSEVIC ARREST HEIGHTENS FEUD
Stratfor.com, 2345 GMT, 010330 - The apparent arrest of Former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic marks the beginning of a stand-off among
Yugoslav officials. For the past few weeks, Serbian Justice Minister
Vladan
Batic has encouraged compliance to European Union and U.S. demands to
indict Milosevic for war crimes, and see his trial in The Hague.
Batic's concern anticipated a harsh U.S. response and suspension of aid.
Batic has the full support of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. But
Yugoslav President Kostunica has rejected the gestures of cooperation by
Djindjic and Batic, aggressively contesting the pretension. But the row
between the officials is not yet over since the arrest of Milosevic is
short of full compliance with EU and U.S. demands.
The U.S. Congress determined March 31, 2001 as the deadline for
Yugoslavia
to demonstrate good faith to the international community. If deemed an
ally, the United States would clear $100 million dollars in aid to the
new
government, formed last October when a popular uprising forced strongman
Slobodan Milosevic from office. If deemed an adversary, Washington would
suspend funding.
The ultimate decision was left to Secretary of State Colin Powell, who
decided on March 30 to delay a verdict through the weekend. Reason for
the
delay is unclear, though Powell is likely gauging the political
consequences of Milosevic's arrest.
Reports of Milosevic's arrest conflicted throughout the day March 30,
but
several news sources, including Reuters, Tass and AFP, reported
Milosevic
was taken from his home outside Belgrade and ushered to the Palace of
Justice in Belgrade by a handful of Serbia's Interior Ministry Police.
It was later reported by international news organizations and news
outlets
in Belgrade that Milosevic had returned home and appeared before
reporters
and supporters outside his home. Details of the proceedings inside the
courthouse have not been disclosed.
Milosevic is expected to stand trial in Serbia with no immediate risk of
extradition to The Hague. But the significance of the day's events are
interwoven with the move by the two Serbian ministers against President
Kostunica. Kostunica has a higher diplomatic profile than the Serb prime
minister and justice minister and even garnered support from France for
the
United States to delay its decision.
Kostunica will now have to rally against ministers Batic and Djindjic
and
their attempt to arrest Milosevic. Such a move may turn Kostunica to
rouse
fashionable, populist sentiments in defense of Yugoslavia's sovereignty.
Batic and Djindjic are attempting to isolate Kostunica and potentially
cow
him politically before the Serb public. Kostunica is appealing to Milo
supporters and conservatives to expand his popularity, according to IWPR
analyst Zeljko Cvijanovic.
Djindjic's move against Milosevic is a swift challenge, and Kostunica is
likely to invoke nationalist sentiments as a shield against his more
moderate partners. This may result in less cooperation from Yugoslavia,
and
may even flaunt the will of EU and U.S. representatives.
***********************************************
Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2001 13:30:09 +0200
From: global reflexion <office@...>
To: office@...
The Global Reflexion Foundation contributes, according to her ability,
to
the distribution of information on international issues that in the
media
does not recieve proper attention or is presented in a distorted way. We
receive information from different sources, that does not necessary
reflect
our opinion. If you don't want to receive it, please send us an e-mail.
See also http://emperors-clothes.com/ and http://www.targets.org/
*********************************************************
Wednesday, april 4, 2001
1. Death threat for Milosevic
2. Milosevic's lawyer appeals detention decision
3. Milosevic says process against him political staged
4. US pressures on Yugoslavia could cause serious rift
5. Statement of Gennady Zyuganov
6. Yugoslav leader distances himself from arrest of predecessor
7. Milosevic arrest heightens feud
**********************************************************
DEATH THREAT FOR MILOSEVIC
Milosevic may choose to go to The Hague sais interior minister
VIENNA, April 2 (Reuters) - Serbia's interior minister said on Monday
that
former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic might choose to go to The
Hague to face war crimes charges in order to avoid the death penalty at
home.
Dusan Mihajlovic, in a brief interview with Austria's ORF television
after
his arrival for an official visit to Austria, added that the discomfort
of
Belgrade prisons might be a further incentive for Milosevic.
"He will certainly come to a court hearing in Belgrade and perhaps he
may
wish to be handed over to The Hague," Mihajlovic said.
When the interviewer questioned whether the former Yugoslav ruler would
really choose to go to the
international war crimes tribunal voluntarily, Mihajlovic replied:
"There
is an essential difference between The Hague and Serbia. Serbian
criminal
law envisages the death penalty. Also the prisons in Serbia are far from
being very comfortable."
Milosevic, arrested in Belgrade on Sunday after a standoff with security
forces, was indicted by the Hague Tribunal in 1999 for alleged
atrocities
against Kosovo Albanians. Justice authorities in Serbia have not so far
accused Milosevic of any offence serious enough to carry the death
penalty.
He currently faces charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy.
However,
many of his opponents have accused him of involvement in politically
motivated killings, which could in theory result in the death penalty.
The
penalty has not, though, been carried out in Serbia for many years.
Mihajlovic, speaking through an interpreter, said Milosevic had hoped to
encourage destabilisation in Serbia which could have paved the way for a
comeback. "These were just dreams of Milosevic. He hoped there would be
a
destabilisation of democratic forces in Serbia. He hoped that in the
difficult economic and social conditions there would be unrest among the
population. He hoped he would get the support of his party friends," the
minister said. "His hopes were not fulfilled. Milosevic is today in
prison
and Serbia is free."
http://www.serbianna.com/news/04_02/20.shtml
********************************************
MILOSEVIC'S LAWYER APPEALS DETENTION DECISION
BELGRADE, April 2 (Tanjug) - The lawyer of former Yugoslav president
Slobodan Milosevic, Toma Fila, said on Monday that he appealed the
decision
of Belgrade district court on the pre-trial detention of Milosevic.
Fila
told Tanjug that the appeal in question was written by Milosevic
himself,
and that he (Fila) previosuly submitted his own appeal. Fila told Tanjug
that the results of the appeal were expected within 48 hours. "We will
have
an answer most probably Tuesday morning. I think it will be a negative
one."
"We are not against the investigation, because we consider that every
citizen against whom proceedings are underway must respond to the
summons
of a judge," Fila said. It is a lie, and the former president wrote that
in
his appeal, that he refuses to be held accountable in his country, Fila
aid, stressing that Milosevic does not want to go to The Hague. Fila
said
that Milosevic is feeling very well, "as well as a person can feel when
in
prison."
************************************************
MILOSEVIC SAYS PROCESS AGAINST HIM POLITICAL STAGED
BELGRADE, April 3 (Tanjug) - Former Yugoslav president Slobodan
Milosevic
said in a complaint filed with the Belgrade District Court on Monday
against the court decision on his detention that the process against him
was politically staged. "I believe the court proceedings against me are
politically staged, at the orders of the new authorities, with the
purpose
of tarnishing and discrediting my long-term work, and, in particular,
because I opposed world power-wielders in the interests of the state and
the people," Milosevic said.
Milosevic rejected the reasons for his detention, explaining that "over
the
past six months I was accused and condemned for every possible criminal
act
in the entire press of the current regime, and yet I did not flee." "I
am
filing this complaint strictly in the interest of truth. I do not mind
any
investigation into anything I have done in my life, but I mind being
treated like a criminal for what I did for my state to the best of my
ability," Milosevic said in the complaint, adding that he was ready at
any
time to appear before the judicial organs of his country.
*************************************************
US PRESSURES ON YUGOSLAVIA COULD CAUSE SERIOUS RIFT
MOSCOW, April 2 (Tanjug) - Russian Duma international relations
committee
chairman Dmitry Rogozin warned on Monday that US pressures on the
Yugoslav
leadership to extradite Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague show that the
United States is interfering in the internal affairs of the country and
threatens to provoke a serious rift in Yugoslavia. Such a rift int he
country could provoke wide-ranging conflicts in the center of Europe,
Rogozin said.
According to him, the armtwisting and issuing of ultimatums to Yugoslav
leaders, including deadlines for the extradition of the former Yugoslav
president and its linking to economic aid, constitute planned
activities,
which are strongly destabilizing the democratic forces of the country.
The
provoking of such the crisis could be extremely dangerous for the whole
of
Europe, Rogozin said.
********************************************
STATEMENT OF GENNADY ZYUGANOV
Chairman of the People's Patriotic Union of Russia
Moscow, April 2, 2001
Slobodan Milosevic, Chairman of the Serbian Socialist Party and former
President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, was arrested in
Belgrade.
All circumstances directly indicate that this action was ordered by the
United States. The intensity of pressure on the Yugoslav government was
unprecedented, and the decision to arrest Mr. Milosevic was made under
the
threat of vicious economic and political blackmail.
This represents the most deplorable interference in the internal affairs
of
a sovereign state and a fresh violation of international legal norms,
already shaken by the rogue bombings of Iraq, Libya, Sudan, and
especially
the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999.
By arresting a former head of a foreign country, the United States is
introducing a dangerous element into international relations. The
consequences of this precedent could be far-reaching for any head of
state
trying to run an independent foreign and domestic policy, including the
leaders of Russia and Belarus.
With that in mind, the deafening silence of the Russian Federation s
Foreign Ministry is simply shocking. Those forces in Yugoslavia that
favor
the preservation of the historical friendship between the Yugoslav
people
and Russia are being openly harassed. The continuance of the current
faceless policy of the Russian Foreign Ministry is bound to lead to
Russia
s removal from the Balkans altogether.
The decision of the Yugoslav regime to arrest its former head of state
for
the sake of financial "aid" is contemptible - especially since it is
obvious that the demand for Slobodan Milosevic's arrest came from the
leaders of NATO, convicted by a Yugoslav court for crimes against the
people of Yugoslavia and responsible for war damages in excess of tens
of
billions of dollars.
The People's Patriotic Union of Russia condemns the persecution of
Slobodan
Milosevic, as it will further increase tensions in Yugoslavia, contrary
to
our desires for peace and stability in that country.
Judging that the persecution of the Serbian Socialist Party leader
represents an attempt to impose the American "New World Order," the
People's Patriotic Union of Russia calls for an international campaign
to
cease political persecution of Slobodan Milosevic and support the
patriotic
forces in Yugoslavia, which continue to resist the expansion of NATO.
*********************************************
YUGOSLAV LEADER DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM ARREST OF PREDECESSOR
BELGRADE, April 3 (AFP) - Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica
distanced
himself Tuesday from his predecessor Slobodan Milosevic's arrest but
stressed he has no say in whether the man wanted by a UN court for war
crimes will be transferred to The Hague.
Speaking to reporters for the first time since a weekend siege ended in
Milosevic's arrest on corruption charges, Kostunica said the police
action
had been "clumsy", uncoordinated with army guards at the residence, and
was
not reported to him until it had already bogged down in an armed
stand-off.
He insisted the arrest had nothing to do with US pressure to move
against
the ex-leader by midnight Saturday or lose millions of dollars in
badly-needed aid, which Washington on Monday freed up as promised.
Kostunica said US President George W. Bush would have signed the release
anyway based on democratic changes his reformers had carried out since
toppling Milosevic in October.
But the president's opposition to extraditing Milosevic to a UN war
crimes
court -- which he accused of only prosecuting Serb suspects -- earned
him a
rebuke from one of Europe's top rights bodies. The Council of Europe
said
he risked ruining his reputation as a reformer by refusing to hand over
Milosevic to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia
(ICTY) in The Hague.
Milosevic was locked up in a Belgrade prison after his arrest early
Sunday,
as investigators probe him on charges of stealing public funds to prop
up
his authoritarian regime, which was isolated by the international
community
and then bombed by NATO over its Kosovo policies in 1999.
Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic said on a visit to Vienna
that
Milosevic could be tried for "serious crimes" which carry the death
penalty. "But we are talking at the moment about an enquiry, we still
need
proof," he said.
A judicial board rejected Milosevic's appeal to be released from 30 days
investigative custody. He was detained after a gun battle with police
outside his residence which left four officers injured, one of them
seriously.
The appeal, drafted and signed by Milosevic himself, claimed that he had
used the missing state money to finance Serb armies fighting in Bosnia
and
Croatia as the republics broke away from Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
The admission increased pressure on Belgrade to cooperate with the ICTY,
but also threatened to rekindle nationalist sentiment among supporters
who
had turned away from him among mounting accusations of corruption.
As Milosevic's wife Mira Markovic visited her husband in jail, and was
booed by teenagers waiting outside, one of his key aides was being
quizzed
by investigators on the same charges as his former boss.
Former Yugoslav customs chief Mihalj Kertes was questioned for six hours
before leaving a district courthouse in Belgarde without speaking to
reporters. Kertes was briefly detained earlier this year but was
released
after citing his immunity as a member of parliament.
Two other top Milosevic aides also showed up in the courthouse but it
was
not known if they faced questioning.
And the shockwaves of Milosevic's dramatic arrest were felt in the
Socialist Party (SPS) he founded a decade ago and which he still heads.
Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, the last Milosevic ally to hold on
to
a top government post after six months of reforms, resigned from the
high-level SPS posts he held, citing "increased pressure" from the
party.
The SPS has accused Milutinovic -- who like Milosevic has been indicted
by
the ICTY for war crimes in Kosovo -- of being too close to the new
authorities. He also has, along with the Kostunica, the power to pardon
his
former boss.
Kostunica insisted Tuesday that Milosevic stand trial in Serbia,
accusing
the ICTY of practising "selective justice" in not prosecuting high-level
Bosnian, Croatian or even NATO leaders, all of whom he said bore some
responsibility for crimes committed in the Balkans in the past decade.
He
added that he had ordered a South African-style truth and reconciliation
committee to look into Yugoslavia's recent history.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010403/1/ly2n.html
*******************************************
MILOSEVIC ARREST HEIGHTENS FEUD
Stratfor.com, 2345 GMT, 010330 - The apparent arrest of Former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic marks the beginning of a stand-off among
Yugoslav officials. For the past few weeks, Serbian Justice Minister
Vladan
Batic has encouraged compliance to European Union and U.S. demands to
indict Milosevic for war crimes, and see his trial in The Hague.
Batic's concern anticipated a harsh U.S. response and suspension of aid.
Batic has the full support of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. But
Yugoslav President Kostunica has rejected the gestures of cooperation by
Djindjic and Batic, aggressively contesting the pretension. But the row
between the officials is not yet over since the arrest of Milosevic is
short of full compliance with EU and U.S. demands.
The U.S. Congress determined March 31, 2001 as the deadline for
Yugoslavia
to demonstrate good faith to the international community. If deemed an
ally, the United States would clear $100 million dollars in aid to the
new
government, formed last October when a popular uprising forced strongman
Slobodan Milosevic from office. If deemed an adversary, Washington would
suspend funding.
The ultimate decision was left to Secretary of State Colin Powell, who
decided on March 30 to delay a verdict through the weekend. Reason for
the
delay is unclear, though Powell is likely gauging the political
consequences of Milosevic's arrest.
Reports of Milosevic's arrest conflicted throughout the day March 30,
but
several news sources, including Reuters, Tass and AFP, reported
Milosevic
was taken from his home outside Belgrade and ushered to the Palace of
Justice in Belgrade by a handful of Serbia's Interior Ministry Police.
It was later reported by international news organizations and news
outlets
in Belgrade that Milosevic had returned home and appeared before
reporters
and supporters outside his home. Details of the proceedings inside the
courthouse have not been disclosed.
Milosevic is expected to stand trial in Serbia with no immediate risk of
extradition to The Hague. But the significance of the day's events are
interwoven with the move by the two Serbian ministers against President
Kostunica. Kostunica has a higher diplomatic profile than the Serb prime
minister and justice minister and even garnered support from France for
the
United States to delay its decision.
Kostunica will now have to rally against ministers Batic and Djindjic
and
their attempt to arrest Milosevic. Such a move may turn Kostunica to
rouse
fashionable, populist sentiments in defense of Yugoslavia's sovereignty.
Batic and Djindjic are attempting to isolate Kostunica and potentially
cow
him politically before the Serb public. Kostunica is appealing to Milo
supporters and conservatives to expand his popularity, according to IWPR
analyst Zeljko Cvijanovic.
Djindjic's move against Milosevic is a swift challenge, and Kostunica is
likely to invoke nationalist sentiments as a shield against his more
moderate partners. This may result in less cooperation from Yugoslavia,
and
may even flaunt the will of EU and U.S. representatives.
***********************************************
European Foundation Intelligence Digest
Issue No. 116
22nd March � 5th April 2001
[Excerpt]
Happy anniversary for Yugoslavia
UN FELICE [SIC!] ANNIVERSARIO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA
L'arresto di Milosevic a Belgrado, largamente salutato
come un passo verso l'Europa per la Jugoslavia, coincide
con il 50esimo anniversario dell'attacco della Germania nazista
contro la Jugoslavia. Hitler aveva incominciato a fare
preparativi per l'invasione dell'Unione Sovietica ed originariamente
l'attacco sarebbe dovuto incominciare nel marzo 1941. Ma la guerra
di Mussolini contro la Grecia ha ritardato il tutto perche' Hitler
aveva bisogno dei Balcani stabilizzati e liberi da conflitti,
affinche' servissero da canale per il rifornimento di materie
prime e di cibo per le sue armate in Russia. La Romania e
la Bulgaria furono costrette ad unirsi alle potenze dell'Asse
e vi furono inviate truppe tedesche. Ma per qualche tempo la
posizione della Jugoslavia non fu chiara.
Minacce e promesse finalmente indussero l'allora primo
ministro, Dragisa Cvetkovic, a firmare un patto con le
potenze dell'Asse nel Palazzo del Belvedere di Vienna,
il 25 marzo 1941. Questo andava contro gli umori dominanti
nella opinione pubblica in Serbia, che era in maggioranza
filo-britannica. Due giorni dopo, percio', un golpe militare
rovescio' il governo ed il giovane principe reggente Pietro II.
Il vecchio odio austriaco di Hitler contro i serbi riemerse
ed egli considero' il golpe come una dichiarazione di guerra.
Con la collaborazione di Ungheria e Bulgaria decise di
spazzare via la Jugoslavia in quanto Stato. La
guerra ebbe inizio la mattina presto del 6 aprile 1941
[quando i tedeschi bombardarono Belgrado con l'aviazione
causando decine di migliaia di morti civili, ndT]. La
Wehrmacht penetro' dalla Bulgaria [e da Nord] e raggiunse
Skopje il 7 aprile, Zagabria l'11 aprile e Belgrado il 13
aprile. La guerra-lampo costo' ai tedeschi un numero quasi
trascurabile di perdite, circa 150, mentre la popolazione
civile soffri' perdite terribili nel bombardamento tedesco
di Belgrado. Fu immediatamente realizzato un Nuovo Ordine
balcanico: la Slovenia fu assorbita nelle provincie austriache
della Carinzia e della Stiria [ed il resto, fino a Lubiana,
lo occupo' l'Italia, ndT]; l'Italia prese la Dalmazia con
Spalato come capitale; fu proclamato uno Stato croato
che includeva parti della Bosnia [tutta la Bosnia, piu' parte
della Vojvodina, ndT]; ed il Montenegro divento' uno
Stato vassallo dell'Italia.
Il Kosovo fu annesso all'Albania sotto occupazione italiana,
i bulgari presero la Macedonia, e gli ungheresi ne
approfittarono sulla Vojvodina. Cio' che rimaneva della Serbia
fu governato da un serbo collaborazionista, il generale
Nedic. [Tratto da "Der Standard", 3 aprile 2001]
-
Original text:
Happy anniversary for Yugoslavia
The arrest of Milo�evic in Belgrade, widely welcomed
as a step for Yugoslavia towards Europe, coincides
with the 50th anniversary of Nazi Germany�s attack on
Yugoslavia. Hitler had begun to make preparations for
the invasion of the Soviet Union and originally the
attack was due to start in March 1941. But Mussolini�s
war with Greece delayed matters because Hitler needed
the Balkans to be stabilised and free from conflict in
order to serve as a conduit for the supply of raw
materials and food to his armies in Russia. Romania
and Bulgaria were co-opted into joining the Axis
powers and German troops were sent there. But for a
while Yugoslavia�s position remained unclear. Threats
and promises finally coaxed the then Yugoslav prime
minister, Dragi�a Cvetkovic, to sign a pact with the
Axis powers in the Belvedere Palace in Vienna on 25th
March 1941. This went against the dominant public
opinion in Serbia, which was predominantly
pro-British. Two days later, therefore, an army putsch
overthrew the government and the young prince regent
Peter II. Hitler�s old Austrian hatred of the Serbs
resurfaced and he treated the putsch as a declaration
of war. With the co-operation of Hungary and Bulgaria,
he decided to crush Yugoslavia as a state. The war
began in the early morning of 6th April 1941. The
Wehrmacht invaded from Bulgaria and reached Skopje by
7th April, Zagreb by 11th April and Belgrade by 13th
April. The Blitzkrieg cost the Germans an almost
negligible number of casualties, about 150, while the
civil population suffered terrible losses in the
German bombing of Belgrade. A New Order in the Balkans
was rapidly implemented: Slovenia was absorbed into
the Austrian provinces Carinthia and Styria; Italy
took Dalmatia with Split as the capital; a Croat state
was created including parts of Bosnia; and Montenegro
became a vassal state of Italy. Kosovo was annexed to
Italian-occupied Albania, the Bulgarians took
Macedonia, and the Hungarians helped themselves to the
Vojvodina. The remaining rump of Serbia was governed
by a Serb collaborationist General Nedic. [Der
Standard, 3rd April 2001]
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
oggi "Comitato Promotore dell'Assemblea Antimperialista":
> http://www.tuttinlotta.org
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Sito WEB (non aggiornato):
> http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Issue No. 116
22nd March � 5th April 2001
[Excerpt]
Happy anniversary for Yugoslavia
UN FELICE [SIC!] ANNIVERSARIO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA
L'arresto di Milosevic a Belgrado, largamente salutato
come un passo verso l'Europa per la Jugoslavia, coincide
con il 50esimo anniversario dell'attacco della Germania nazista
contro la Jugoslavia. Hitler aveva incominciato a fare
preparativi per l'invasione dell'Unione Sovietica ed originariamente
l'attacco sarebbe dovuto incominciare nel marzo 1941. Ma la guerra
di Mussolini contro la Grecia ha ritardato il tutto perche' Hitler
aveva bisogno dei Balcani stabilizzati e liberi da conflitti,
affinche' servissero da canale per il rifornimento di materie
prime e di cibo per le sue armate in Russia. La Romania e
la Bulgaria furono costrette ad unirsi alle potenze dell'Asse
e vi furono inviate truppe tedesche. Ma per qualche tempo la
posizione della Jugoslavia non fu chiara.
Minacce e promesse finalmente indussero l'allora primo
ministro, Dragisa Cvetkovic, a firmare un patto con le
potenze dell'Asse nel Palazzo del Belvedere di Vienna,
il 25 marzo 1941. Questo andava contro gli umori dominanti
nella opinione pubblica in Serbia, che era in maggioranza
filo-britannica. Due giorni dopo, percio', un golpe militare
rovescio' il governo ed il giovane principe reggente Pietro II.
Il vecchio odio austriaco di Hitler contro i serbi riemerse
ed egli considero' il golpe come una dichiarazione di guerra.
Con la collaborazione di Ungheria e Bulgaria decise di
spazzare via la Jugoslavia in quanto Stato. La
guerra ebbe inizio la mattina presto del 6 aprile 1941
[quando i tedeschi bombardarono Belgrado con l'aviazione
causando decine di migliaia di morti civili, ndT]. La
Wehrmacht penetro' dalla Bulgaria [e da Nord] e raggiunse
Skopje il 7 aprile, Zagabria l'11 aprile e Belgrado il 13
aprile. La guerra-lampo costo' ai tedeschi un numero quasi
trascurabile di perdite, circa 150, mentre la popolazione
civile soffri' perdite terribili nel bombardamento tedesco
di Belgrado. Fu immediatamente realizzato un Nuovo Ordine
balcanico: la Slovenia fu assorbita nelle provincie austriache
della Carinzia e della Stiria [ed il resto, fino a Lubiana,
lo occupo' l'Italia, ndT]; l'Italia prese la Dalmazia con
Spalato come capitale; fu proclamato uno Stato croato
che includeva parti della Bosnia [tutta la Bosnia, piu' parte
della Vojvodina, ndT]; ed il Montenegro divento' uno
Stato vassallo dell'Italia.
Il Kosovo fu annesso all'Albania sotto occupazione italiana,
i bulgari presero la Macedonia, e gli ungheresi ne
approfittarono sulla Vojvodina. Cio' che rimaneva della Serbia
fu governato da un serbo collaborazionista, il generale
Nedic. [Tratto da "Der Standard", 3 aprile 2001]
-
Original text:
Happy anniversary for Yugoslavia
The arrest of Milo�evic in Belgrade, widely welcomed
as a step for Yugoslavia towards Europe, coincides
with the 50th anniversary of Nazi Germany�s attack on
Yugoslavia. Hitler had begun to make preparations for
the invasion of the Soviet Union and originally the
attack was due to start in March 1941. But Mussolini�s
war with Greece delayed matters because Hitler needed
the Balkans to be stabilised and free from conflict in
order to serve as a conduit for the supply of raw
materials and food to his armies in Russia. Romania
and Bulgaria were co-opted into joining the Axis
powers and German troops were sent there. But for a
while Yugoslavia�s position remained unclear. Threats
and promises finally coaxed the then Yugoslav prime
minister, Dragi�a Cvetkovic, to sign a pact with the
Axis powers in the Belvedere Palace in Vienna on 25th
March 1941. This went against the dominant public
opinion in Serbia, which was predominantly
pro-British. Two days later, therefore, an army putsch
overthrew the government and the young prince regent
Peter II. Hitler�s old Austrian hatred of the Serbs
resurfaced and he treated the putsch as a declaration
of war. With the co-operation of Hungary and Bulgaria,
he decided to crush Yugoslavia as a state. The war
began in the early morning of 6th April 1941. The
Wehrmacht invaded from Bulgaria and reached Skopje by
7th April, Zagreb by 11th April and Belgrade by 13th
April. The Blitzkrieg cost the Germans an almost
negligible number of casualties, about 150, while the
civil population suffered terrible losses in the
German bombing of Belgrade. A New Order in the Balkans
was rapidly implemented: Slovenia was absorbed into
the Austrian provinces Carinthia and Styria; Italy
took Dalmatia with Split as the capital; a Croat state
was created including parts of Bosnia; and Montenegro
became a vassal state of Italy. Kosovo was annexed to
Italian-occupied Albania, the Bulgarians took
Macedonia, and the Hungarians helped themselves to the
Vojvodina. The remaining rump of Serbia was governed
by a Serb collaborationist General Nedic. [Der
Standard, 3rd April 2001]
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
oggi "Comitato Promotore dell'Assemblea Antimperialista":
> http://www.tuttinlotta.org
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Sito WEB (non aggiornato):
> http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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Puoi disporre in ogni gruppo di 20 MB
per documenti, file musicali, film e foto.
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Se vuoi cancellarti da questo gruppo, clicca qui: http://www.domeus.it/info/unsubscribe
> http://www.24casa.co.yu/
"24Casa" Jedina dnevna novina bez kriznog staba
8:00:15 Sreda, 4-i April
TRIBINA
CISTA POLITICKA HAJKA
STRELAC
MONTIRANI PROCES
SVE JE LICILO NA OTMICU
ATAK NA DOSTOJANSTVO ZEMLJE
VREME BE�CA�CA
GUBLJENJE OBRAZA
ME�UNARODNA PETICIJA
NEMINOVNI IZBORI
NEDOSTOJNA POSLU�NOST
SRAMNA PREDSTAVA
ZVANICNICI O SARADNJI SA HAGOM
MILUTINOVIC PODNEO OSTAVKU
SVE PESME U VODI
PRAZNA OBECANJA
TERORISTI SE UTVR�UJU
NI MINIMUM USLOVA
POVODI
Tekstove na adresu: http://www.24casa.co.yu/jugoslavija.htm
---
Dear friend,
Thank you for your excellent posts. I haven't seen a number of
articles
recently posted on Emperor's Clothes which are I think of importance.
If
you go to www.tenc.net you will find the following articles, which are
at or
near the top of the page:
WASHINGTON FINANCES ETHNIC WARFARE IN THE BALKANS
by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky [3 April 2001]
> http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/choss/fin.htm
The 'New York Times' Spreads a Deadly Lie
by Jared Israel [2 April 2001]
> http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/lie.htm
Slobodan Miloshevich: Key Symbol in a Great Power Game
by Sven Olafsson [2 April 2001]
> http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/sven/scapegoat.htm
Threat of Chilean Scenario Looms in Belgrade
Statement of the Serbian Socialist Party, 9:00 PM Belgrade Time, 31-3-
2001
> http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/chile.htm
Reject Blackmail & Vilification
by T.V. & Alida Weber [31-3-2001]
> http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/weber/threatof.htm
Civilian Defenders of Miloshevich Break Through Police Lines [31-3-2001]
> http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/civilian.htm
Best regards,
jared Israel
---
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/885
The Global Reflexion Foundation:
1. Death threat for Milosevic
2. Milosevic's lawyer appeals detention decision
3. Milosevic says process against him political staged
4. US pressures on Yugoslavia could cause serious rift
5. Statement of Gennady Zyuganov
6. Yugoslav leader distances himself from arrest of predecessor
7. Milosevic arrest heightens feud
See also http://emperors-clothes.com/ and http://www.targets.org/
---
> http://www.sps.org.yu/eng/index-n.htm
Belgrade, April 01, 2001, 05:00 p.m.
THE STATEMENT
The Head Committee of the Socialist Party of Serbia has condemned
most strongly the inquiry-process and the decision on one-month
temporary custody against former President of Serbia and Yugoslavia
and the President of the Socialist Party of Serbia Mr. Slobodan
Milosevic. The very content of the report against Mr. Slobodan
Milosevic and the action of the Interior Ministry are the shameful
facts in the history of Serbia and Yugoslavia, particularly having
in mind that more policemen have been engaged than in the battles
against Albanian terrorist in south Serbia.
Mr. Slobodan Milosevic does not feel guilty and immediately he has
expressed his readiness to contribute in dismantling of the
monstrous fabrications. It is clear to all decent citizens of Serbia
that there are no intentions at all of proving alleged misdoing of
Mr. Slobodan Milosevic, but the only intention is fulfillment of the
orders of the former US Administration. The final aim is to have
pardoned of any crime Clinton, Albright and other who ordered the
bombardment of our country and our people by trial against Mr.
Slobodan Milosevic and other persecuted Serbs.
In all this, the most shocking is the role of some media that have
allegedly become "free" after October 05th last year. Not just that
their information have not been true and accurate, but they
initiated and lead persecution campaign against Mr. Slobodan
Milosevic and the Socialist Party of Serbia, bringing Serbia by such
information at the very edge of civil war. The leading role in that
dirty campaign had "BK" TV network, whose owners have become rich in
the very dubious manner that they would like to conceal. Therefore,
the Head Committee of the Socialist Party of Serbia decided to break
any cooperation with this TV network until their dirty approach is
changed, even regardless to the fact that it will decrease the
presence of the Socialist Party of Serbia in media which is anyhow
very small and limited.
The Socialist Party of Serbia would like to express its appreciation
to all citizens who participated, besides our members and
supporters, in symbolic "people guard", to all citizens who gave by
that the political support to Mr. Slobodan Milosevic and the
Socialist Party of Serbia. By protesting against the pressures and
attacks on Mr. Slobodan Milosevic and the Socialist Party of Serbia,
they defend in the same time the freedom, dignity and national pride
of Serbia and all Serbs.
Mr. Slobodan Milosevic personally, the Socialist Party of Serbia and
all democratic and freedom-loving people in our country and abroad
are very keen to have urgent public establishment of the full truth
in the process based on the monstrous fabrications against Mr.
Slobodan Milosevic.
We request immediate release of Mr. Slobodan Milosevic from custody
in order to stop this shameful charade which will leave the blemish
on the face of all Serbs.
We call all citizens, along with our members and supporters, to
continue and to keep up their political struggle, as well as to use
all democratic means to have Mr. Slobodan Milosevic released.
We request authorities to free Mr. Slobodan Milosevic immediately
and to allow him to defend himself as a free person, since he is the
most honest man who will never leave his country or run away
anywhere.
The Socialist Party of Serbia would like to express its gratitude to
numerous honorable policemen who, with tears in their eyes and
apologies on their mouths, were forced to participate unwillingly in
the dubious action of the Interior Ministry against those same
citizens who stand along with them during patriotic defense of the
country, particularly in Kosovo and Metohija.
We condemn, also, all fabricated attacks on the Yugoslav Army who
strictly fulfilled its legal role and tasks in securing the objects
that are vitally important for the country. Yugoslav Army prevented
possible bloodshed since policemen from Interior Ministry have tried
to penetrate into object contrary to the valid Government's decision
on the security of the former Yugoslav President.
Copyright � 1997-2001 SPS
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
oggi "Comitato Promotore dell'Assemblea Antimperialista":
> http://www.tuttinlotta.org
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Sito WEB (non aggiornato):
> http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Vuoi sapere proprio tutto su Domeus?
Chi siamo, cosa facciamo e a cosa serviamo?
Conoscici meglio!
tuttosu-subscribe@... oppure
http://www.domeus.it/ad1360570/www.domeus.it
Se vuoi cancellarti da questo gruppo, clicca qui: http://www.domeus.it/info/unsubscribe
"24Casa" Jedina dnevna novina bez kriznog staba
8:00:15 Sreda, 4-i April
TRIBINA
CISTA POLITICKA HAJKA
STRELAC
MONTIRANI PROCES
SVE JE LICILO NA OTMICU
ATAK NA DOSTOJANSTVO ZEMLJE
VREME BE�CA�CA
GUBLJENJE OBRAZA
ME�UNARODNA PETICIJA
NEMINOVNI IZBORI
NEDOSTOJNA POSLU�NOST
SRAMNA PREDSTAVA
ZVANICNICI O SARADNJI SA HAGOM
MILUTINOVIC PODNEO OSTAVKU
SVE PESME U VODI
PRAZNA OBECANJA
TERORISTI SE UTVR�UJU
NI MINIMUM USLOVA
POVODI
Tekstove na adresu: http://www.24casa.co.yu/jugoslavija.htm
---
Dear friend,
Thank you for your excellent posts. I haven't seen a number of
articles
recently posted on Emperor's Clothes which are I think of importance.
If
you go to www.tenc.net you will find the following articles, which are
at or
near the top of the page:
WASHINGTON FINANCES ETHNIC WARFARE IN THE BALKANS
by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky [3 April 2001]
> http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/choss/fin.htm
The 'New York Times' Spreads a Deadly Lie
by Jared Israel [2 April 2001]
> http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/lie.htm
Slobodan Miloshevich: Key Symbol in a Great Power Game
by Sven Olafsson [2 April 2001]
> http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/sven/scapegoat.htm
Threat of Chilean Scenario Looms in Belgrade
Statement of the Serbian Socialist Party, 9:00 PM Belgrade Time, 31-3-
2001
> http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/chile.htm
Reject Blackmail & Vilification
by T.V. & Alida Weber [31-3-2001]
> http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/weber/threatof.htm
Civilian Defenders of Miloshevich Break Through Police Lines [31-3-2001]
> http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/civilian.htm
Best regards,
jared Israel
---
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/885
The Global Reflexion Foundation:
1. Death threat for Milosevic
2. Milosevic's lawyer appeals detention decision
3. Milosevic says process against him political staged
4. US pressures on Yugoslavia could cause serious rift
5. Statement of Gennady Zyuganov
6. Yugoslav leader distances himself from arrest of predecessor
7. Milosevic arrest heightens feud
See also http://emperors-clothes.com/ and http://www.targets.org/
---
> http://www.sps.org.yu/eng/index-n.htm
Belgrade, April 01, 2001, 05:00 p.m.
THE STATEMENT
The Head Committee of the Socialist Party of Serbia has condemned
most strongly the inquiry-process and the decision on one-month
temporary custody against former President of Serbia and Yugoslavia
and the President of the Socialist Party of Serbia Mr. Slobodan
Milosevic. The very content of the report against Mr. Slobodan
Milosevic and the action of the Interior Ministry are the shameful
facts in the history of Serbia and Yugoslavia, particularly having
in mind that more policemen have been engaged than in the battles
against Albanian terrorist in south Serbia.
Mr. Slobodan Milosevic does not feel guilty and immediately he has
expressed his readiness to contribute in dismantling of the
monstrous fabrications. It is clear to all decent citizens of Serbia
that there are no intentions at all of proving alleged misdoing of
Mr. Slobodan Milosevic, but the only intention is fulfillment of the
orders of the former US Administration. The final aim is to have
pardoned of any crime Clinton, Albright and other who ordered the
bombardment of our country and our people by trial against Mr.
Slobodan Milosevic and other persecuted Serbs.
In all this, the most shocking is the role of some media that have
allegedly become "free" after October 05th last year. Not just that
their information have not been true and accurate, but they
initiated and lead persecution campaign against Mr. Slobodan
Milosevic and the Socialist Party of Serbia, bringing Serbia by such
information at the very edge of civil war. The leading role in that
dirty campaign had "BK" TV network, whose owners have become rich in
the very dubious manner that they would like to conceal. Therefore,
the Head Committee of the Socialist Party of Serbia decided to break
any cooperation with this TV network until their dirty approach is
changed, even regardless to the fact that it will decrease the
presence of the Socialist Party of Serbia in media which is anyhow
very small and limited.
The Socialist Party of Serbia would like to express its appreciation
to all citizens who participated, besides our members and
supporters, in symbolic "people guard", to all citizens who gave by
that the political support to Mr. Slobodan Milosevic and the
Socialist Party of Serbia. By protesting against the pressures and
attacks on Mr. Slobodan Milosevic and the Socialist Party of Serbia,
they defend in the same time the freedom, dignity and national pride
of Serbia and all Serbs.
Mr. Slobodan Milosevic personally, the Socialist Party of Serbia and
all democratic and freedom-loving people in our country and abroad
are very keen to have urgent public establishment of the full truth
in the process based on the monstrous fabrications against Mr.
Slobodan Milosevic.
We request immediate release of Mr. Slobodan Milosevic from custody
in order to stop this shameful charade which will leave the blemish
on the face of all Serbs.
We call all citizens, along with our members and supporters, to
continue and to keep up their political struggle, as well as to use
all democratic means to have Mr. Slobodan Milosevic released.
We request authorities to free Mr. Slobodan Milosevic immediately
and to allow him to defend himself as a free person, since he is the
most honest man who will never leave his country or run away
anywhere.
The Socialist Party of Serbia would like to express its gratitude to
numerous honorable policemen who, with tears in their eyes and
apologies on their mouths, were forced to participate unwillingly in
the dubious action of the Interior Ministry against those same
citizens who stand along with them during patriotic defense of the
country, particularly in Kosovo and Metohija.
We condemn, also, all fabricated attacks on the Yugoslav Army who
strictly fulfilled its legal role and tasks in securing the objects
that are vitally important for the country. Yugoslav Army prevented
possible bloodshed since policemen from Interior Ministry have tried
to penetrate into object contrary to the valid Government's decision
on the security of the former Yugoslav President.
Copyright � 1997-2001 SPS
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[Emperor's Clothes]
WASHINGTON FINANCES ETHNIC WARFARE
IN THE BALKANS
by
Michel Chossudovsky [3 April 2001]
Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa, author of
The Globalization of Poverty, second edition, Common
Courage Press, 2001.
Synopsis
While Washington supports the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, it is at the same time --behind the scenes--
funneling money and military hardware to the Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA) now engaged in a border war with
the Macedonian Security Forces. In a cruel irony,
Washington is arming and advising both the KLA attackers
and the Macedonian defenders under military and
intelligence authorization acts approved by the US
Congress. Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), a
mercenary outfit on contract to the Pentagon, is helping
Macedonia --as part of a US military aid package-- "to
deter armed aggression and defend Macedonian territory."
But MPRI is also advising and equipping the KLA, which is
responsible for the terrorist assaults. In this war, the
American military-intelligence apparatus is pulling
strings "on both sides of the fence". What is the hidden
agenda?
"[The] United States of America and the Kosovo
Liberation Army stand for the same human values
and principles ... Fighting for the KLA is
fighting for human rights and American
values."(Senator Jo. Lieberman, quoted in the
'Washington Post', 28 April 1999)
-- M.C.
WASHINGTON FINANCES ETHNIC WARFARE
IN THE BALKANS
by Michel Chossudovsky [3 April 2001]
The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) --transformed in
September 1999 into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC)
under UN auspices-- is behind the terrorist attacks in
the Tetovo region of Macedonia as well as in Southern
Serbia. In Macedonia, these assaults are waged by the
KLA's proxy: the Ushtira Clirimtare Komtare (UCK) or
National Liberation Army (NLA). The terrorists operate
from KLA bases inside Kosovo under KFOR protection.
Supported by the US, the KLA and its various proxies are
well equipped. According to Carl Bildt (special UN
coordinator for the Balkans), the Macedonian Security
Forces "are no match" for the rebels: 'the guerrillas are
a competent military organization� They have a core of
very experienced fighters. They are well fortified,
evidently well prepared, and in all probability they
control substantial parts of the hinterland.'"
But where did they get the money? The Western media
conveys the impression that the National Liberation Army
(NLA) developed into a modern rebel force overnight,
spontaneously "out of thin air" and that NATO leaders
have no contacts with the KLA.
UN PEACE-KEEPING FINANCES TERRORISM
According to the (London) 'Sunday Times',
"American intelligence agents have admitted
they helped to train the Kosovo Liberation Army
before NATO�s bombing of Yugoslavia".1
A review of US Congressional documents would suggest that
CIA support was not discontinued after the war.2
Moreover, while the KLA maintains its links both to the
CIA and criminal syndicates involved in the Balkans
narcotics trade, the paramilitary organisation -renamed
the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) has been elevated to UN
status, implying the granting of legitimate sources of
funding through UN as well as through bilateral channels.
Procurement of military supplies, training of the KLA and
military advisers has been entrusted to Military
Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), a US based mercenary
outfit linked to the Pentagon. The pattern is similar to
that followed in Croatia and in the Bosnian
Muslim-Croatian Federation where so-called "equip and
train" programmes were put together by the Pentagon.
MPRI's training concepts --which had already been tested
in Croatia and Bosnia� are based on imparting "offensive
tactics... as the best form of defence".3 In the Kosovar
context, this so-called "defensive doctrine" applied in
terrorist assaults in Southern Serbia and Macedonia is
intent upon transforming the KLA paramilitary into a
modern military force which serves the Alliance's
strategic objectives. MPRI listed in 1999 "ninety-one
highly experienced, former military professionals working
in Bosnia & Herzegovina".4 The number of military
officers working on contract with the KLA has not been
disclosed.
There is, however, a consistent thread: KLA Chief of
Staff Agim Ceku (previously with the Croatian Armed
Forces) has been involved in a long-term relationship
with the MPRI. Ceku started working with MPRI in 1995 in
the planning of "Operation Storm" in Croatia, which led
to ethnic massacres and the expulsion of more than
200.000 Serbs from the Krajina region of Croatia. The
fact that Ceku is "an alleged war criminal" -- according
to the files of the Hague Tribunal (a body reporting to
the UN Secretary General)-- does not, however, seem to
bother anybody in the "international community".5
Ceku holds a UN passport (Laissez-Passer) which provides
him with diplomatic immunity within Kosovo. According to
ICTY prosecutor Carla del Ponte, Ceku's reputation and
integrity, however, are unstained because the Hague
tribunal's "inquiries ... relate to atrocities committed
[by Ceku] in Krajina ... between 1993 and 1995... Ceku's
record in Kosovo itself is not thought to be in
question�".6
Behind to polite fa�ade of international diplomacy, UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan has --on Washington's
instructions-- knowingly and willfully approved the
appointment of "an alleged war criminal" to participate
in a UN peacekeeping operation. In other words, the UN
system is "financing terrorism," creating an ugly
precedent in the history of a respected international
body: "The United Nations is paying the salaries of many
of the gangsters," who are now involved in the terrorist
assaults into Macedonia.7
RECYCLING NARCO-DOLLARS
US support to the KLA is only one among several sources
of KLA financing. Various Islamic organisations have
channeled money and military equipment to the KLA. Prior
to the 1999 war,
"German, Turkish and Afghan instructors were
reported to be training the KLA in guerilla and
diversion tactics."8
Mujehadeen mercenaries recruited in a number of countries
fought against Serb Security forces alongside the KLA in
Kosovo. According to the 'Sunday Times,' the recent
assaults by the KLA's proxy in the Tetovo region of
Macedonia have been "encouraged by mercenaries from
Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia."9
Amply documented, the Balkans drug trade is used to
finance ethnic warfare with the complicity of the US and
NATO. The pattern of covert support --through the
recycling of narco-dollars-- has been an integral part of
CIA covert operations since the Soviet-Afghan war.
According to documents of the US Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), "members of the notorious Albanian
mafia have links to a drug smuggling cartel'' based in
Kosovo's capital, Pristina. This cartel is allegedly
manned by ethnic Albanians who are members of the Kosovo
National Front (KNF) whose armed wing is the KLA. The DEA
documents apparently show it is one of the "most powerful
heroin smuggling organisations in the world'' with its
profits being diverted to the KLA to buy weapons.10
In the words of former DEA agent and author Michael
Levine:
"Ten years ago we were arming and equipping the
worst elements of the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan
- drug traffickers, arms smugglers,
anti-American terrorists�Now we're doing the
same thing with the KLA, which is tied in with
every known middle and far eastern drug cartel.
Interpol, Europol, and nearly every European
intelligence and counter-narcotics agency has
files open on drug syndicates that lead right
to the KLA, and right to Albanian gangs in this
country."11
While US aid --combined with drug money-- is channeled to
the KLA, Washington and Brussels perfunctorily condemn
the NLA-Tetovo instigated terrorist assaults while
casually denying the links of the attackers to the KLA.
In the words of former NATO Secretary General Javier
Solana: "'it would be a mistake to negotiate,� the
terrorists have to be isolated. All of us have to condemn
and isolate them. Nothing can be achieved through
violence'' �
NATO has pledged to ''starve'' the rebels by cutting
supply lines from neighboring Kosovo".12 While condemning
the terrorists, NATO --through the UN-- has also been
"raising the urgent need for restraint by the Macedonian
forces".13
This double talk is of course a form of political
camouflage: you say that you are against the terrorists
and then support them via the KLA with guns, ammo and
military advisers paid by the US public purse.
FINANCING BOTH SIDES
But there is something else even more terrifying which
has not been revealed to public opinion. The guerilla war
in the Tetovo region of Macedonia is being financed and
therefore controlled by Washington "on both sides" of the
border. While Washington pumps money into the KLA, the
FYR of Macedonia --which has been an obedient client
state-- is also the recipient of US military aid and
training. Macedonia is a member of NATO's Partnership for
Peace (PfP) and aspires to acquire full NATO membership.
The same group of US military advisers on contract with
the KLA is also "helping" the Macedonian Armed Forces.
The MPRI --while assisting the KLA in its terrorist
assaults-- is also present behind enemy lines in
Macedonia under a so-called "Stability and Deterrence
Program". The later is intent upon "assisting the
Macedonian Armed Forces � to deter armed aggression and,
should deterrence fail, defend Macedonian territory�".14
What is happening is that the US mercenary company with a
mandate "to defend the border" is also advising the KLA
on how best "to attack the border".
Is this not crystal clear: The military-intelligence ploy
is to finance both sides of the conflict, provide
military aid to one side and finance the other side. And
then "make them fight". It�s a sinister
military-intelligence game, an "insider operation" with
US military advisers on both sides from the same
mercenary outfit (the MPRI). Macedonia's "Stability and
Deterrence Program" is in fact largely supported by US
foreign military sales (FMS), namely MPRI is in charge of
delivering (i.e. dumping) to the Macedonian Armed Forces
obsolete weapons and hardware which the US Department of
Defense wants to get rid of.
Moreover, with its various sources of financing (drugs,
Islamic organisations, US military aid, contributions
from the US-Albanian community), the KLA and its
Macedonian proxy the Ushtira Clirimtare Komtare have the
upper edge. The money channeled from various sources
including the drug trade far exceeds the meager FMS
allocations granted in the form of surplus military
equipment to the Macedonian Ministry of Defence. 15
The friendly and cordial meetings held in Skopje (July
2000) between General Henry H. Shelton, Chairman of the
US Joint Chiefs of Staff and his Macedonian counterpart,
General Jovan Andrevski, constitute an obvious smoke
screen. While America's top brass pays lip service to its
PfP partner and ally, the KLA --with the support of the
Albanian American community-- is actively recruiting US
citizens to fight as volunteers against the Macedonian
Security Forces.16 Bear in mind that this pattern of
"financing both sides" is not limited to the Balkans:
since the end of the Cold War, Washington has been
involved in channeling covert financing and triggering
civil conflicts in different parts of the World including
Central Africa, the Caucasus and Central Asia. By
financing both sides of the conflict, the US controls the
outcome of the war.
MPRI OVERSEES THE SHOW
While recruiting a wide range of military and
intelligence expertise from its data bank of former
military personnel, MPRI is controlled by a handful of
former generals and ex-CIA officers. MPRI General
(retired) Rich Griffitts --responsible for MPRI's program
in Macedonia-- is talking to the Macedonian Chief of
Staff. He also talks to KLA Commander Agim Ceku --with
whom he has established a longstanding relationship since
Operation Storm in Croatia in 1995. Ceku is part of the
MPRI's "old boys network"; in collaboration with MPRI, he
was one of the main architects of "Operation Storm". In
this capacity, he also acted as Commander of the
Artillery division, which ruthlessly shelled Krajina Serb
civilians.!7
Whether MPRI personnel stationed in Kosovo is in direct
contact or communication with their colleagues in
Macedonia is not the issue: all MPRI military staff in
the field report back to Rich Griffitt, Crosbie Saint and
Carl Vuono (President of MPRI) at the company's
headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. Crosbie Saint --in
charge of the company's "International Group"--
coordinates MPRI's various operations in Kosovo and
Macedonia as well as in Croatia and Bosnia. In turn,
Saint --who is a former director of military
intelligence-- is in permanent contact with the Pentagon,
KFOR and the CIA.18
HIDDEN AGENDA
So what kind of war is this? Both sides in the Macedonia
border war are controlled by the US. American military
personnel from the same private mercenary company are
stationed on "both sides of the fence" assisting their
local counterparts to fight a war on Washington's behest.
If this war is allowed to continue, it will inevitably
lead to the escalation of ethnic hatred, civilian
casualties and refugees. This in turn will result in
political destabilization and social unrest in both
Macedonia and Yugoslavia, thereby providing a pretext to
Washington and NATO to directly intervene under the
disguise of "peace-keeping" and "confidence building."
The hidden agenda also consists in the mobilization of
ethnic Albanians in Macedonia to support or become part
of the KLA'S structure.
In other words, Washington is "financing ethnic warfare"
as a means to achieving broad geopolitical, strategic and
economic objectives using the KLA as proxy force.
Meanwhile, the 'international community" --warning of an
impending "humanitarian disaster"-- has sent in an army
of observers and human rights experts, with a mandate to
protect the political and social rights of ethnic
Albanians. This brokered "reconciliation" --imposed by
NATO under UN auspices-- is based on the premise that
ethnic Albanians in Macedonia are an oppressed social
minority. It not only fosters socio-ethnic divisions
within Macedonia; it also provides legitimacy to the KLA
sponsored "freedom fighters" as well as international
media sympathy. It tends to discredit the Macedonian
Security Forces, thereby weakening their ability to fight
the KLA.
While Washington continues to support the terrorists
behind the scenes, the military alliance presents itself
as an impartial mediator. In turn, NATO's informal
mouthpiece, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE), is placing the blame on the Skopje
government, calling upon:
"the legal authorities in the FYR of Macedonia,
Presevo and Kosovo to act to restore peace and
security, � all sectors of the Macedonian
society [should] co-operate peacefully and �
build inter-ethnic confidence."19
The dispatching of Bulgarian troops into Macedonia (under
NATO's "Partnership for Peace" Program) to fight the
rebels could (if implemented) contribute to triggering a
much broader conflagration in the region. Similarly,
ethnic clashes --also engineered by Washington-- have
been triggered in Montenegro, which has a sizeable
Albanian ethnic minority. And in Montenegro, the MUP,
Montenegro's highly partisan police force is being
assisted by the Croatian Armed Forces, which in turn are
being trained by the MPRI under the so-called Croatian
Armed Forces Readiness and Training System (CARTS).
Similarly, demanding "autonomy" for ethnic Hungarians in
the North of Vojvodina is part of NATO's ploy with large
numbers of NATO troops stationed on the Hungarian side of
the border. More generally, the various military aid
packages provided to Croatia, Bosnia and the KLA are
ultimately directed against Serbia.20
Despite the compliance of the Belgrade and Skopje
governments to Washington's demands, US foreign policy
purports to eventually dismantle political institutions
and get rid of political parties which resist US-NATO
domination. Their objective is to eventually break up
what remains of Yugoslavia into what UN Balkans envoy
Carl Bildt has called a "patchwork of protectorates" on
the "Kosovo-Bosnia model under UN "peace-keeping", namely
under military occupation. 21
A Dayton-style agreement is the chosen framework for
displacing and destroying existing State institutions
including a fragile yet functioning parliamentary system.
With regard to Macedonia, the OSCE has appointed
Ambassador Robert Frowick to work with the Skopje
government. His terms of reference are clear. In 1996,
Frowick was put in charge of implementing "democracy" in
Bosnia-Hercegovina under the Dayton agreement: the
Bosnian "Constitution" -- previously drafted by American
lawyers at the US Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio-- was
appended to the 1995 US brokered "General Framework
Agreement."22
DISARMING THE NEW WORLD ORDER
The terrorist assaults in Macedonia and Southern Serbia
are serving Washington's strategic goals in blatant
violation of international law. NATO is increasingly
discredited in the eyes of World public opinion. The lies
and falsehoods are surfacing and the people of Yugoslavia
are determined to preserve their sovereignty in the face
of American aggression.
US foreign policy directed against so-called "rogue
states" lacks credibility both in the US and
internationally. Around the World, citizens are looking
to Yugoslavia and the courage of its people who have
resisted the imposition of the New World Order. The lies
concerning the war against Yugoslavia have been uncovered
and revealed to millions of people.
ENDNOTES
1. Tom Walker and Aiden Laverty, �CIA Aided Kosovo
Guerrilla Army�, Sunday Times, 12 March 2000) .
2. See "Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2000." HR 1555, Section 308 entitled "Report on Kosova
Liberation Army" available at
http://www.senate.gov/search/index.html).
3. See Tammy Arbucki, "Building a Bosnian Army", Jane
International Defence Review, August 1997.
4. See Military Professional Resources, Inc, "Personnel
Needs", MPRI web page at http://www.mpri.com/.
5. See Michel Chossudovsky, "United Nations Appoints
Alleged War Criminal", Emperors Clothes, March 2000,
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/unandthe.htm).
6. See Tom Walker, "Kosovo Defense Chief Accused of War
Crimes", Sunday Times, London, 10 October 1999.
7. Quoted in John Sweeney and Jen Holsoe, "Kosovo
Disaster Response Service Stands Accused of Murder and
Torture," The Observer, London, 12 March 2000.
8. Michel Chossudovsky, "Kosovo Freedom Fighter Financed
by Organized Crime", Covert Action Quarterly, Fall 1999,
also published by Emperors Clothes,
http://emperors-clothes.com/indexe.htm
9. Tom Walker, "NATO Troops caught in a Balkan Ulster",
Sunday Times, London, 18 March 2001.
10. According to DEA documents reviewed and quoted in R.
Chandran, "US-backed KLA linked to Heroin Network"
http://www.voz-rebelde.de/ipan51.htm. See also Michel
Chossudovsky, Kosovo Freedom Fighters Financed by
Organized Crime".
11. Quoted in the New American Magazine, May 24, 1999)
12. Quoted in the New York Times, 20 March 2001)
13. United Nations Interim Administration Mission In
Kosovo (UNMIK), Press Release, 29 March 2001.
14. See MPRI at
http://www.mpri.com/subchannels/int_europe.html.
15. US military aid under the FMS program for Macedonia
was $4 million in FY 2000, 7.9 million was appropriated
for 2001. More recently, the US announced a $13.5 million
military aid package, See Government of Macedonia,
Ministry of Defence, Communique, 21 March 2001;
Congressional Budget Justification for Foreign
Operations, Fiscal Year 2001, Released by the Office of
the Secretary of State, Resources, Plans and Policy, U.S.
Department of State, March 15, 2000.
16. New York Times, 19 March 2001.
!7. See Michel Chossudovsky, NATO has Installed a Reign
of Terror in Kosovo, July 1999,
http://emperors-clothes.com/indexe.htm.
18. See MPRI web page, op cit
19. Statement by OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President
Severin on former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and
Kosovo, 23 March 2001,
http://www.osce.org/news/generate.php3?news_id63.
20. See Michel Chossudovsky, "The War Against Yugoslavia
Is Not Over", June 2000, at
www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/warnot.htm.
21. See Carl Bildt's statement at
http://www.usip.org/oc/cibriefing/bildt_cib.html, Bildt
was formerly the High Representative in Bosnia following
the adoption of the Dayton Agreement in 1995).
22. For a discussion see Michel Chossudovsky, Dismantling
Yugoslavia, Recolonizing Bosnia, Covert Action Quarterly,
Spring 1996, also published by Emperors Clothes at
http://emperors-clothes.com/indexe.htm. The text of the
Bosnian Constitution is available at
http://www.bosnia.co.uk/dayton.html
C Copyright by Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa, March 2001.
All rights reserved. Permission is granted to post this
text on non-commercial community internet sites, provided
the essay remains intact and the copyright note is
displayed. To publish this text in printed and/or other
form, contact the author at chossudovsky@...,
fax: 1-514-4256224.
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[Emperor's Clothes]
WASHINGTON FINANCES ETHNIC WARFARE
IN THE BALKANS
by
Michel Chossudovsky [3 April 2001]
Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa, author of
The Globalization of Poverty, second edition, Common
Courage Press, 2001.
Synopsis
While Washington supports the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, it is at the same time --behind the scenes--
funneling money and military hardware to the Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA) now engaged in a border war with
the Macedonian Security Forces. In a cruel irony,
Washington is arming and advising both the KLA attackers
and the Macedonian defenders under military and
intelligence authorization acts approved by the US
Congress. Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), a
mercenary outfit on contract to the Pentagon, is helping
Macedonia --as part of a US military aid package-- "to
deter armed aggression and defend Macedonian territory."
But MPRI is also advising and equipping the KLA, which is
responsible for the terrorist assaults. In this war, the
American military-intelligence apparatus is pulling
strings "on both sides of the fence". What is the hidden
agenda?
"[The] United States of America and the Kosovo
Liberation Army stand for the same human values
and principles ... Fighting for the KLA is
fighting for human rights and American
values."(Senator Jo. Lieberman, quoted in the
'Washington Post', 28 April 1999)
-- M.C.
WASHINGTON FINANCES ETHNIC WARFARE
IN THE BALKANS
by Michel Chossudovsky [3 April 2001]
The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) --transformed in
September 1999 into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC)
under UN auspices-- is behind the terrorist attacks in
the Tetovo region of Macedonia as well as in Southern
Serbia. In Macedonia, these assaults are waged by the
KLA's proxy: the Ushtira Clirimtare Komtare (UCK) or
National Liberation Army (NLA). The terrorists operate
from KLA bases inside Kosovo under KFOR protection.
Supported by the US, the KLA and its various proxies are
well equipped. According to Carl Bildt (special UN
coordinator for the Balkans), the Macedonian Security
Forces "are no match" for the rebels: 'the guerrillas are
a competent military organization� They have a core of
very experienced fighters. They are well fortified,
evidently well prepared, and in all probability they
control substantial parts of the hinterland.'"
But where did they get the money? The Western media
conveys the impression that the National Liberation Army
(NLA) developed into a modern rebel force overnight,
spontaneously "out of thin air" and that NATO leaders
have no contacts with the KLA.
UN PEACE-KEEPING FINANCES TERRORISM
According to the (London) 'Sunday Times',
"American intelligence agents have admitted
they helped to train the Kosovo Liberation Army
before NATO�s bombing of Yugoslavia".1
A review of US Congressional documents would suggest that
CIA support was not discontinued after the war.2
Moreover, while the KLA maintains its links both to the
CIA and criminal syndicates involved in the Balkans
narcotics trade, the paramilitary organisation -renamed
the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC) has been elevated to UN
status, implying the granting of legitimate sources of
funding through UN as well as through bilateral channels.
Procurement of military supplies, training of the KLA and
military advisers has been entrusted to Military
Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), a US based mercenary
outfit linked to the Pentagon. The pattern is similar to
that followed in Croatia and in the Bosnian
Muslim-Croatian Federation where so-called "equip and
train" programmes were put together by the Pentagon.
MPRI's training concepts --which had already been tested
in Croatia and Bosnia� are based on imparting "offensive
tactics... as the best form of defence".3 In the Kosovar
context, this so-called "defensive doctrine" applied in
terrorist assaults in Southern Serbia and Macedonia is
intent upon transforming the KLA paramilitary into a
modern military force which serves the Alliance's
strategic objectives. MPRI listed in 1999 "ninety-one
highly experienced, former military professionals working
in Bosnia & Herzegovina".4 The number of military
officers working on contract with the KLA has not been
disclosed.
There is, however, a consistent thread: KLA Chief of
Staff Agim Ceku (previously with the Croatian Armed
Forces) has been involved in a long-term relationship
with the MPRI. Ceku started working with MPRI in 1995 in
the planning of "Operation Storm" in Croatia, which led
to ethnic massacres and the expulsion of more than
200.000 Serbs from the Krajina region of Croatia. The
fact that Ceku is "an alleged war criminal" -- according
to the files of the Hague Tribunal (a body reporting to
the UN Secretary General)-- does not, however, seem to
bother anybody in the "international community".5
Ceku holds a UN passport (Laissez-Passer) which provides
him with diplomatic immunity within Kosovo. According to
ICTY prosecutor Carla del Ponte, Ceku's reputation and
integrity, however, are unstained because the Hague
tribunal's "inquiries ... relate to atrocities committed
[by Ceku] in Krajina ... between 1993 and 1995... Ceku's
record in Kosovo itself is not thought to be in
question�".6
Behind to polite fa�ade of international diplomacy, UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan has --on Washington's
instructions-- knowingly and willfully approved the
appointment of "an alleged war criminal" to participate
in a UN peacekeeping operation. In other words, the UN
system is "financing terrorism," creating an ugly
precedent in the history of a respected international
body: "The United Nations is paying the salaries of many
of the gangsters," who are now involved in the terrorist
assaults into Macedonia.7
RECYCLING NARCO-DOLLARS
US support to the KLA is only one among several sources
of KLA financing. Various Islamic organisations have
channeled money and military equipment to the KLA. Prior
to the 1999 war,
"German, Turkish and Afghan instructors were
reported to be training the KLA in guerilla and
diversion tactics."8
Mujehadeen mercenaries recruited in a number of countries
fought against Serb Security forces alongside the KLA in
Kosovo. According to the 'Sunday Times,' the recent
assaults by the KLA's proxy in the Tetovo region of
Macedonia have been "encouraged by mercenaries from
Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia."9
Amply documented, the Balkans drug trade is used to
finance ethnic warfare with the complicity of the US and
NATO. The pattern of covert support --through the
recycling of narco-dollars-- has been an integral part of
CIA covert operations since the Soviet-Afghan war.
According to documents of the US Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA), "members of the notorious Albanian
mafia have links to a drug smuggling cartel'' based in
Kosovo's capital, Pristina. This cartel is allegedly
manned by ethnic Albanians who are members of the Kosovo
National Front (KNF) whose armed wing is the KLA. The DEA
documents apparently show it is one of the "most powerful
heroin smuggling organisations in the world'' with its
profits being diverted to the KLA to buy weapons.10
In the words of former DEA agent and author Michael
Levine:
"Ten years ago we were arming and equipping the
worst elements of the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan
- drug traffickers, arms smugglers,
anti-American terrorists�Now we're doing the
same thing with the KLA, which is tied in with
every known middle and far eastern drug cartel.
Interpol, Europol, and nearly every European
intelligence and counter-narcotics agency has
files open on drug syndicates that lead right
to the KLA, and right to Albanian gangs in this
country."11
While US aid --combined with drug money-- is channeled to
the KLA, Washington and Brussels perfunctorily condemn
the NLA-Tetovo instigated terrorist assaults while
casually denying the links of the attackers to the KLA.
In the words of former NATO Secretary General Javier
Solana: "'it would be a mistake to negotiate,� the
terrorists have to be isolated. All of us have to condemn
and isolate them. Nothing can be achieved through
violence'' �
NATO has pledged to ''starve'' the rebels by cutting
supply lines from neighboring Kosovo".12 While condemning
the terrorists, NATO --through the UN-- has also been
"raising the urgent need for restraint by the Macedonian
forces".13
This double talk is of course a form of political
camouflage: you say that you are against the terrorists
and then support them via the KLA with guns, ammo and
military advisers paid by the US public purse.
FINANCING BOTH SIDES
But there is something else even more terrifying which
has not been revealed to public opinion. The guerilla war
in the Tetovo region of Macedonia is being financed and
therefore controlled by Washington "on both sides" of the
border. While Washington pumps money into the KLA, the
FYR of Macedonia --which has been an obedient client
state-- is also the recipient of US military aid and
training. Macedonia is a member of NATO's Partnership for
Peace (PfP) and aspires to acquire full NATO membership.
The same group of US military advisers on contract with
the KLA is also "helping" the Macedonian Armed Forces.
The MPRI --while assisting the KLA in its terrorist
assaults-- is also present behind enemy lines in
Macedonia under a so-called "Stability and Deterrence
Program". The later is intent upon "assisting the
Macedonian Armed Forces � to deter armed aggression and,
should deterrence fail, defend Macedonian territory�".14
What is happening is that the US mercenary company with a
mandate "to defend the border" is also advising the KLA
on how best "to attack the border".
Is this not crystal clear: The military-intelligence ploy
is to finance both sides of the conflict, provide
military aid to one side and finance the other side. And
then "make them fight". It�s a sinister
military-intelligence game, an "insider operation" with
US military advisers on both sides from the same
mercenary outfit (the MPRI). Macedonia's "Stability and
Deterrence Program" is in fact largely supported by US
foreign military sales (FMS), namely MPRI is in charge of
delivering (i.e. dumping) to the Macedonian Armed Forces
obsolete weapons and hardware which the US Department of
Defense wants to get rid of.
Moreover, with its various sources of financing (drugs,
Islamic organisations, US military aid, contributions
from the US-Albanian community), the KLA and its
Macedonian proxy the Ushtira Clirimtare Komtare have the
upper edge. The money channeled from various sources
including the drug trade far exceeds the meager FMS
allocations granted in the form of surplus military
equipment to the Macedonian Ministry of Defence. 15
The friendly and cordial meetings held in Skopje (July
2000) between General Henry H. Shelton, Chairman of the
US Joint Chiefs of Staff and his Macedonian counterpart,
General Jovan Andrevski, constitute an obvious smoke
screen. While America's top brass pays lip service to its
PfP partner and ally, the KLA --with the support of the
Albanian American community-- is actively recruiting US
citizens to fight as volunteers against the Macedonian
Security Forces.16 Bear in mind that this pattern of
"financing both sides" is not limited to the Balkans:
since the end of the Cold War, Washington has been
involved in channeling covert financing and triggering
civil conflicts in different parts of the World including
Central Africa, the Caucasus and Central Asia. By
financing both sides of the conflict, the US controls the
outcome of the war.
MPRI OVERSEES THE SHOW
While recruiting a wide range of military and
intelligence expertise from its data bank of former
military personnel, MPRI is controlled by a handful of
former generals and ex-CIA officers. MPRI General
(retired) Rich Griffitts --responsible for MPRI's program
in Macedonia-- is talking to the Macedonian Chief of
Staff. He also talks to KLA Commander Agim Ceku --with
whom he has established a longstanding relationship since
Operation Storm in Croatia in 1995. Ceku is part of the
MPRI's "old boys network"; in collaboration with MPRI, he
was one of the main architects of "Operation Storm". In
this capacity, he also acted as Commander of the
Artillery division, which ruthlessly shelled Krajina Serb
civilians.!7
Whether MPRI personnel stationed in Kosovo is in direct
contact or communication with their colleagues in
Macedonia is not the issue: all MPRI military staff in
the field report back to Rich Griffitt, Crosbie Saint and
Carl Vuono (President of MPRI) at the company's
headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia. Crosbie Saint --in
charge of the company's "International Group"--
coordinates MPRI's various operations in Kosovo and
Macedonia as well as in Croatia and Bosnia. In turn,
Saint --who is a former director of military
intelligence-- is in permanent contact with the Pentagon,
KFOR and the CIA.18
HIDDEN AGENDA
So what kind of war is this? Both sides in the Macedonia
border war are controlled by the US. American military
personnel from the same private mercenary company are
stationed on "both sides of the fence" assisting their
local counterparts to fight a war on Washington's behest.
If this war is allowed to continue, it will inevitably
lead to the escalation of ethnic hatred, civilian
casualties and refugees. This in turn will result in
political destabilization and social unrest in both
Macedonia and Yugoslavia, thereby providing a pretext to
Washington and NATO to directly intervene under the
disguise of "peace-keeping" and "confidence building."
The hidden agenda also consists in the mobilization of
ethnic Albanians in Macedonia to support or become part
of the KLA'S structure.
In other words, Washington is "financing ethnic warfare"
as a means to achieving broad geopolitical, strategic and
economic objectives using the KLA as proxy force.
Meanwhile, the 'international community" --warning of an
impending "humanitarian disaster"-- has sent in an army
of observers and human rights experts, with a mandate to
protect the political and social rights of ethnic
Albanians. This brokered "reconciliation" --imposed by
NATO under UN auspices-- is based on the premise that
ethnic Albanians in Macedonia are an oppressed social
minority. It not only fosters socio-ethnic divisions
within Macedonia; it also provides legitimacy to the KLA
sponsored "freedom fighters" as well as international
media sympathy. It tends to discredit the Macedonian
Security Forces, thereby weakening their ability to fight
the KLA.
While Washington continues to support the terrorists
behind the scenes, the military alliance presents itself
as an impartial mediator. In turn, NATO's informal
mouthpiece, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE), is placing the blame on the Skopje
government, calling upon:
"the legal authorities in the FYR of Macedonia,
Presevo and Kosovo to act to restore peace and
security, � all sectors of the Macedonian
society [should] co-operate peacefully and �
build inter-ethnic confidence."19
The dispatching of Bulgarian troops into Macedonia (under
NATO's "Partnership for Peace" Program) to fight the
rebels could (if implemented) contribute to triggering a
much broader conflagration in the region. Similarly,
ethnic clashes --also engineered by Washington-- have
been triggered in Montenegro, which has a sizeable
Albanian ethnic minority. And in Montenegro, the MUP,
Montenegro's highly partisan police force is being
assisted by the Croatian Armed Forces, which in turn are
being trained by the MPRI under the so-called Croatian
Armed Forces Readiness and Training System (CARTS).
Similarly, demanding "autonomy" for ethnic Hungarians in
the North of Vojvodina is part of NATO's ploy with large
numbers of NATO troops stationed on the Hungarian side of
the border. More generally, the various military aid
packages provided to Croatia, Bosnia and the KLA are
ultimately directed against Serbia.20
Despite the compliance of the Belgrade and Skopje
governments to Washington's demands, US foreign policy
purports to eventually dismantle political institutions
and get rid of political parties which resist US-NATO
domination. Their objective is to eventually break up
what remains of Yugoslavia into what UN Balkans envoy
Carl Bildt has called a "patchwork of protectorates" on
the "Kosovo-Bosnia model under UN "peace-keeping", namely
under military occupation. 21
A Dayton-style agreement is the chosen framework for
displacing and destroying existing State institutions
including a fragile yet functioning parliamentary system.
With regard to Macedonia, the OSCE has appointed
Ambassador Robert Frowick to work with the Skopje
government. His terms of reference are clear. In 1996,
Frowick was put in charge of implementing "democracy" in
Bosnia-Hercegovina under the Dayton agreement: the
Bosnian "Constitution" -- previously drafted by American
lawyers at the US Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio-- was
appended to the 1995 US brokered "General Framework
Agreement."22
DISARMING THE NEW WORLD ORDER
The terrorist assaults in Macedonia and Southern Serbia
are serving Washington's strategic goals in blatant
violation of international law. NATO is increasingly
discredited in the eyes of World public opinion. The lies
and falsehoods are surfacing and the people of Yugoslavia
are determined to preserve their sovereignty in the face
of American aggression.
US foreign policy directed against so-called "rogue
states" lacks credibility both in the US and
internationally. Around the World, citizens are looking
to Yugoslavia and the courage of its people who have
resisted the imposition of the New World Order. The lies
concerning the war against Yugoslavia have been uncovered
and revealed to millions of people.
ENDNOTES
1. Tom Walker and Aiden Laverty, �CIA Aided Kosovo
Guerrilla Army�, Sunday Times, 12 March 2000) .
2. See "Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2000." HR 1555, Section 308 entitled "Report on Kosova
Liberation Army" available at
http://www.senate.gov/search/index.html).
3. See Tammy Arbucki, "Building a Bosnian Army", Jane
International Defence Review, August 1997.
4. See Military Professional Resources, Inc, "Personnel
Needs", MPRI web page at http://www.mpri.com/.
5. See Michel Chossudovsky, "United Nations Appoints
Alleged War Criminal", Emperors Clothes, March 2000,
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/unandthe.htm).
6. See Tom Walker, "Kosovo Defense Chief Accused of War
Crimes", Sunday Times, London, 10 October 1999.
7. Quoted in John Sweeney and Jen Holsoe, "Kosovo
Disaster Response Service Stands Accused of Murder and
Torture," The Observer, London, 12 March 2000.
8. Michel Chossudovsky, "Kosovo Freedom Fighter Financed
by Organized Crime", Covert Action Quarterly, Fall 1999,
also published by Emperors Clothes,
http://emperors-clothes.com/indexe.htm
9. Tom Walker, "NATO Troops caught in a Balkan Ulster",
Sunday Times, London, 18 March 2001.
10. According to DEA documents reviewed and quoted in R.
Chandran, "US-backed KLA linked to Heroin Network"
http://www.voz-rebelde.de/ipan51.htm. See also Michel
Chossudovsky, Kosovo Freedom Fighters Financed by
Organized Crime".
11. Quoted in the New American Magazine, May 24, 1999)
12. Quoted in the New York Times, 20 March 2001)
13. United Nations Interim Administration Mission In
Kosovo (UNMIK), Press Release, 29 March 2001.
14. See MPRI at
http://www.mpri.com/subchannels/int_europe.html.
15. US military aid under the FMS program for Macedonia
was $4 million in FY 2000, 7.9 million was appropriated
for 2001. More recently, the US announced a $13.5 million
military aid package, See Government of Macedonia,
Ministry of Defence, Communique, 21 March 2001;
Congressional Budget Justification for Foreign
Operations, Fiscal Year 2001, Released by the Office of
the Secretary of State, Resources, Plans and Policy, U.S.
Department of State, March 15, 2000.
16. New York Times, 19 March 2001.
!7. See Michel Chossudovsky, NATO has Installed a Reign
of Terror in Kosovo, July 1999,
http://emperors-clothes.com/indexe.htm.
18. See MPRI web page, op cit
19. Statement by OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President
Severin on former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and
Kosovo, 23 March 2001,
http://www.osce.org/news/generate.php3?news_id63.
20. See Michel Chossudovsky, "The War Against Yugoslavia
Is Not Over", June 2000, at
www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/chuss/warnot.htm.
21. See Carl Bildt's statement at
http://www.usip.org/oc/cibriefing/bildt_cib.html, Bildt
was formerly the High Representative in Bosnia following
the adoption of the Dayton Agreement in 1995).
22. For a discussion see Michel Chossudovsky, Dismantling
Yugoslavia, Recolonizing Bosnia, Covert Action Quarterly,
Spring 1996, also published by Emperors Clothes at
http://emperors-clothes.com/indexe.htm. The text of the
Bosnian Constitution is available at
http://www.bosnia.co.uk/dayton.html
C Copyright by Michel Chossudovsky, Ottawa, March 2001.
All rights reserved. Permission is granted to post this
text on non-commercial community internet sites, provided
the essay remains intact and the copyright note is
displayed. To publish this text in printed and/or other
form, contact the author at chossudovsky@...,
fax: 1-514-4256224.
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/choss/fin.htm
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DAL NOSTRO INVIATO SPECIALE
Sono andato all'iniziativa sui monumenti del Kosovo [tenutasi alla
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa il 30 marzo 2001], ma dopo un'oretta
me ne sono andato perche' le palle mi spazzavano per terra. A parte
alcuni "esperti" italiani che citavano Sgarbi, c'era il vescovo Artemije
(circondato da altri pretoni) che distribuiva un opuscolo clericale e
anticomunista dove tutto quello che e' successo in Kosovo era imputato
1) a Satana; 2) a Milosevic; 3) al Comunismo. C'era poi uno del
Ministero dei Beni Culturali jugoslavo (un bel "nazional-democratico"
di quelli che tanto piacciono agli americani e a noi) che faceva tirate
ipernazionaliste grandi-serbe e offensive per l'Islam e per gli
schipetari, e infine c'era un kosovaro albanese fatto arrivare in
Italia direttamente con un aereo presidenziale (cosi' mi hanno detto
quelli della Normale) che, parlando in inglese, ha spiegato che in
realta' erano i serbi a distruggere le moschee (ha fatto vedere delle
foto che per quello che ne so potevano essere state scattate a
Cologno Monzese), dando chiaramente per scontato che gli schipetari
siano tutti musulmani.
Tutto cio' in un clima blindatissimo e senza la minima possibilita' di
fare domande o quant'altro. Sono forse da biasimare se alla fine mi
sono rotto le palle di stare li'?
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Sono andato all'iniziativa sui monumenti del Kosovo [tenutasi alla
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa il 30 marzo 2001], ma dopo un'oretta
me ne sono andato perche' le palle mi spazzavano per terra. A parte
alcuni "esperti" italiani che citavano Sgarbi, c'era il vescovo Artemije
(circondato da altri pretoni) che distribuiva un opuscolo clericale e
anticomunista dove tutto quello che e' successo in Kosovo era imputato
1) a Satana; 2) a Milosevic; 3) al Comunismo. C'era poi uno del
Ministero dei Beni Culturali jugoslavo (un bel "nazional-democratico"
di quelli che tanto piacciono agli americani e a noi) che faceva tirate
ipernazionaliste grandi-serbe e offensive per l'Islam e per gli
schipetari, e infine c'era un kosovaro albanese fatto arrivare in
Italia direttamente con un aereo presidenziale (cosi' mi hanno detto
quelli della Normale) che, parlando in inglese, ha spiegato che in
realta' erano i serbi a distruggere le moschee (ha fatto vedere delle
foto che per quello che ne so potevano essere state scattate a
Cologno Monzese), dando chiaramente per scontato che gli schipetari
siano tutti musulmani.
Tutto cio' in un clima blindatissimo e senza la minima possibilita' di
fare domande o quant'altro. Sono forse da biasimare se alla fine mi
sono rotto le palle di stare li'?
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DA FULVIO GRIMALDI
A SANDRO CURZI, DIRETTORE DI "LIBERAZIONE"
Caro Direttore, dopo lo scoop che Liberazione ha voluto bucare, ti
prego di pubblicare almeno questa lettera. Grazie e un abbraccio.
Fulvio.
Quando da Belgrado, avendo seguito da vicino e con impegno
professionale tutta la crisi jugoslava, nel corso dei rivolgimenti
dell�ottobre scorso ho inviato a "Liberazione" corrispondenze che
descrivevano quanto andava accadendo e, soprattutto, i retroscena delle
manipolazione USA e Nato della presunta "rivoluzione democratica", il
giornale non ritenne di pubblicarle. Eppure, poche settimane pi� tardi
tutta la stampa statunitense e anche organi italiani come "Il Diario"
di Enrico De Aglio confermavano tutte le mie analisi. Che cio� si era
trattato di un colpo di stato orchestrato e guidato da formazioni
politiche istruite e finanziate dagli Stati Uniti. Giornali come il
Washington Post e il New York Times, emittenti come la BBC, elogiavano
il "capolavoro" dei servizi USA nel manovrare la folla di un paese
gettato nella devastazione, nella disperazione e nella fame
dall�aggressione Nato. Ho proposto al giornale nel giorno successivo
all�arresto di Slobodan Milosevic un lavoro giornalistico non comune:
l�ultima intervista a un giornalista occidentale, cio� a me, dell�ex-
presidente della Jugoslavia. La mia offerta � stata respinta con
l�argomento che avrebbe fatto "appiattire il partito sulle posizioni di
Milosevic". Nel resoconto di quella storica conversazione, a poche ore
dall�arresto ordinato dagli USA con il ricatto della cattura
del "mostro" contro aiuti finanziari, non avevo espresso alcuna
valutazione personale, ma avevo fatto parlare soltanto il protagonista,
nel bene e nel male a seconda delle opinioni, della tragedia balcanica.
A me pare che qualsiasi giornale avrebbe dovuto pubblicare con
soddisfazione un tale documento, prendendone eventualmente le distanze.
Come ha fatto il Corriere della Sera che della mia intervista ha
pubblicato uno stralcio. Il Corriere pi� a sinistra di noi? In questo
modo non ci si sar� "appiattiti su Milosevic", ma forse si � apparsi
appiattiti su buona parte della canea diffamatoria allestita dalla
stampa ufficiale con il ripescaggio di fandonie ed invenzioni da lungo
tempo smentite e provate false. Tutto questo indebolisce la resistenza
jugoslava agli aggressori e ai Quisling che oggi li rappresentano,
disonorati addirittura dall�accettazione della violenta interferenza di
una potenza straniera nelle sue questioni pi� strettamente nazionali.
Tutto questo serve, nonostante i melliflui ed ambigui distinguo, a
fornire agli USA e alla Nato la copertura per un�operazione che
vorrebbe scaricare sul solo Milosevic le immani responsabilit� dei
distruttori della Jugoslavia e dei Balcani, tuttora all�opera, ed a
esonerarli dal sacrosanto dovere di risarcire gli jugoslavi delle
vittime e dei danni, incommensurabili anche sul piano ambientale (vedi
l�uranio), che per pura volont� di dominio universale gli sono stati
arrecati. Mi dispiace che "Liberazione" abbia perso un�occasione
storica di imparziale informazione. Mi dispiacer� ancora di pi� quando
la storia dimostrer� che il nostro giornale ha voluto costeggiare un
vortice di bugie e di mistificazioni. Come gi� accaduto a proposito del
colpo di stato del 5 ottobre. Ho l�impressione che i giornalisti della
televisione di Stato jugoslava siano stati ammazzati un�altra volta.
Fulvio Grimaldi
From: "glr" <glr.y@i...>
Date: Tue Apr 3, 2001 1:03pm
Subject: Il Prc sull'arresto di Slobodan Milosevic - da Liberazione
"Al di la' del nostro giudizio su Milosevic e sul suo regime, quello
che sta
avvenendo a Belgrado e nei Balcani in generale e' la dimostrazione di
quanto abbiamo detto piu' volte: gli Stati Uniti lavorano per una
sitiazione
permanente di instabilita' politica in tutta la regione. Con l'arresto
dell'ex
Presidente della Jugoslavia si e' voluto continuare su questa strada.
L'arresto di Milosevic e' una scelta grave. (...) I Balcani devono
restare
instabili nel lungo periodo: e' questo l'obiettivo degli Usa, e anche
se
l'Europa dovrebbe esprimere un altro interesse i suoi comportamenti non
fanno che incoraggiare questa strategia. Innanzitutto l'Europa dovrebbe
ottenere la sostituzione delle truppe Nato presenti in Bosnia e Kosovo
con
truppe Onu con un mandato diverso da quello dell'Alleanza atlantica. In
secondo luogo, bisognerebbe convocare una conferenza internazionale
sotto egida Onu e Osce capace di affrontare tutti i problemi aperti con
il
metodo della trattativa e nel rispetto delle sovranita' attuali. Infine,
l'Europa
dovrebbe progettare un piano di aiuti tesi a ricostruire tutte le
devastazioni
della guerra e soprattutto a promuovere uno sviluppo socialmente equo e
ambientalmente compatibile. Purtroppo sia la Nato, sia Prodi, sia i
singoli
governi europei procedono in direzione opposta".
Ramon Mantovani, responsabile esteri di Rifondazione comunista
Liberazione, 3 aprile 2001 - articolo su http://www.liberazione.it
Inoltre, Liberazione presenta altri tre articoli sui Balcani di S.
Podda, P.
Pittei
e Fa. Seba., piu' un estratto dell'intervista di Grimaldi a Milosevic
dal
Corsera e un resoconto del sit-in del Tribunale Clark a Roma completo
della
lettera integrale al governo jugoslavo consegnata all'ambasciatore.
yure
---
> http://www.europeaninternet.com/centraleurope/news.php3?id28178
Milosevic's Arrest is "A Disgrace" for Belgrade, Says
Lukashenko
MOSCOW, Apr 3, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) The
arrest of former president Slobodan Milosevic is a
"disgrace" for Belgrade and creates "a bad precedent,"
Belarus's Soviet-style leader Alexander Lukashenko
said on Monday.
"You cannot betray your own citizen, especially a
president, for money. This was a mistake by the
Yugoslav authorities," Lukashenko told a press
conference.
The United States had set a March 31 deadline for
Belgrade to show it was cooperating with the UN war
crimes tribunal, which has indicted Milosevic, in
return for releasing 50 million dollars in aid and
supporting International Monetary Fund and World Bank
programs for Belgrade.
Lukashenko however said his offer for Yugoslavia to
become a member of the Russia-Belarus union stands
firm.
"Yugoslavia can still join the union without
Milosevic. President (Vojislav) Kostunica is also a
patriot," he said.
Lukashenko was in Moscow for a ceremony marking the
fifth anniversary of the launch of an embryonic union
between Russia and Belarus. ((c) 2001 Agence France
Presse)
> http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id27165%ef%bf%bdion%ef%bf%bdfault
"The daily Izvestia, close to the Kremlin, said that
if Yugoslavia gave in to the United States' ultimatum
and handed Milosevic over to the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), it
would be endorsing NATO's 11-week bombing campaign of
Yugoslavia in 1999."
[Trust you can screen out the NATOspeak, with
characteristic Slav-baiting, in the rest of the
report.]
---
Russia's Press Laments Loss of Russian Influence in
Yugoslavia
MOSCOW, Apr 2, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Russia's
media on Monday portrayed the arrest of former
Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic as a trade off
between the United States and Belgrade which shut out
traditional Slav ally Russia.
The daily Izvestia, close to the Kremlin, said that if
Yugoslavia gave in to the United States' "ultimatum"
and handed over Milosevic to the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), it
would be endorsing NATO's 11-week bombing campaign of
Yugoslavia in 1999.
"It will amount to a confession that NATO was right to
bomb Yugoslavia," the newspaper said.
The opposition liberal daily Segodnia said the affair
showed Moscow had lost influence in Yugoslavia, with
which it has traditionally held close ties.
"In Moscow, where there are myths of Slavic fraternity
and popular support for special links with Belgrade,
there reigns the disappointment at having lost yet
another zone of influence," it said.
It said that in the heat of the NATO bombing campaign,
the former president had called for a union with
Russia and Belarus.
The daily Kommersant said that Moscow had avoided
criticizing Belgrade's arrest of Milosevic on Sunday.
"Russia has too often been on the side of the losers
in the Balkans," it said. ((c) 2001 Agence France
Presse)
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
oggi "Comitato Promotore dell'Assemblea Antimperialista":
> http://www.tuttinlotta.org
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Sito WEB (non aggiornato):
> http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I gruppi di discussione + interessanti e divertenti!
Le liste + calde!! Il meglio di Domeus!!!
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A SANDRO CURZI, DIRETTORE DI "LIBERAZIONE"
Caro Direttore, dopo lo scoop che Liberazione ha voluto bucare, ti
prego di pubblicare almeno questa lettera. Grazie e un abbraccio.
Fulvio.
Quando da Belgrado, avendo seguito da vicino e con impegno
professionale tutta la crisi jugoslava, nel corso dei rivolgimenti
dell�ottobre scorso ho inviato a "Liberazione" corrispondenze che
descrivevano quanto andava accadendo e, soprattutto, i retroscena delle
manipolazione USA e Nato della presunta "rivoluzione democratica", il
giornale non ritenne di pubblicarle. Eppure, poche settimane pi� tardi
tutta la stampa statunitense e anche organi italiani come "Il Diario"
di Enrico De Aglio confermavano tutte le mie analisi. Che cio� si era
trattato di un colpo di stato orchestrato e guidato da formazioni
politiche istruite e finanziate dagli Stati Uniti. Giornali come il
Washington Post e il New York Times, emittenti come la BBC, elogiavano
il "capolavoro" dei servizi USA nel manovrare la folla di un paese
gettato nella devastazione, nella disperazione e nella fame
dall�aggressione Nato. Ho proposto al giornale nel giorno successivo
all�arresto di Slobodan Milosevic un lavoro giornalistico non comune:
l�ultima intervista a un giornalista occidentale, cio� a me, dell�ex-
presidente della Jugoslavia. La mia offerta � stata respinta con
l�argomento che avrebbe fatto "appiattire il partito sulle posizioni di
Milosevic". Nel resoconto di quella storica conversazione, a poche ore
dall�arresto ordinato dagli USA con il ricatto della cattura
del "mostro" contro aiuti finanziari, non avevo espresso alcuna
valutazione personale, ma avevo fatto parlare soltanto il protagonista,
nel bene e nel male a seconda delle opinioni, della tragedia balcanica.
A me pare che qualsiasi giornale avrebbe dovuto pubblicare con
soddisfazione un tale documento, prendendone eventualmente le distanze.
Come ha fatto il Corriere della Sera che della mia intervista ha
pubblicato uno stralcio. Il Corriere pi� a sinistra di noi? In questo
modo non ci si sar� "appiattiti su Milosevic", ma forse si � apparsi
appiattiti su buona parte della canea diffamatoria allestita dalla
stampa ufficiale con il ripescaggio di fandonie ed invenzioni da lungo
tempo smentite e provate false. Tutto questo indebolisce la resistenza
jugoslava agli aggressori e ai Quisling che oggi li rappresentano,
disonorati addirittura dall�accettazione della violenta interferenza di
una potenza straniera nelle sue questioni pi� strettamente nazionali.
Tutto questo serve, nonostante i melliflui ed ambigui distinguo, a
fornire agli USA e alla Nato la copertura per un�operazione che
vorrebbe scaricare sul solo Milosevic le immani responsabilit� dei
distruttori della Jugoslavia e dei Balcani, tuttora all�opera, ed a
esonerarli dal sacrosanto dovere di risarcire gli jugoslavi delle
vittime e dei danni, incommensurabili anche sul piano ambientale (vedi
l�uranio), che per pura volont� di dominio universale gli sono stati
arrecati. Mi dispiace che "Liberazione" abbia perso un�occasione
storica di imparziale informazione. Mi dispiacer� ancora di pi� quando
la storia dimostrer� che il nostro giornale ha voluto costeggiare un
vortice di bugie e di mistificazioni. Come gi� accaduto a proposito del
colpo di stato del 5 ottobre. Ho l�impressione che i giornalisti della
televisione di Stato jugoslava siano stati ammazzati un�altra volta.
Fulvio Grimaldi
From: "glr" <glr.y@i...>
Date: Tue Apr 3, 2001 1:03pm
Subject: Il Prc sull'arresto di Slobodan Milosevic - da Liberazione
"Al di la' del nostro giudizio su Milosevic e sul suo regime, quello
che sta
avvenendo a Belgrado e nei Balcani in generale e' la dimostrazione di
quanto abbiamo detto piu' volte: gli Stati Uniti lavorano per una
sitiazione
permanente di instabilita' politica in tutta la regione. Con l'arresto
dell'ex
Presidente della Jugoslavia si e' voluto continuare su questa strada.
L'arresto di Milosevic e' una scelta grave. (...) I Balcani devono
restare
instabili nel lungo periodo: e' questo l'obiettivo degli Usa, e anche
se
l'Europa dovrebbe esprimere un altro interesse i suoi comportamenti non
fanno che incoraggiare questa strategia. Innanzitutto l'Europa dovrebbe
ottenere la sostituzione delle truppe Nato presenti in Bosnia e Kosovo
con
truppe Onu con un mandato diverso da quello dell'Alleanza atlantica. In
secondo luogo, bisognerebbe convocare una conferenza internazionale
sotto egida Onu e Osce capace di affrontare tutti i problemi aperti con
il
metodo della trattativa e nel rispetto delle sovranita' attuali. Infine,
l'Europa
dovrebbe progettare un piano di aiuti tesi a ricostruire tutte le
devastazioni
della guerra e soprattutto a promuovere uno sviluppo socialmente equo e
ambientalmente compatibile. Purtroppo sia la Nato, sia Prodi, sia i
singoli
governi europei procedono in direzione opposta".
Ramon Mantovani, responsabile esteri di Rifondazione comunista
Liberazione, 3 aprile 2001 - articolo su http://www.liberazione.it
Inoltre, Liberazione presenta altri tre articoli sui Balcani di S.
Podda, P.
Pittei
e Fa. Seba., piu' un estratto dell'intervista di Grimaldi a Milosevic
dal
Corsera e un resoconto del sit-in del Tribunale Clark a Roma completo
della
lettera integrale al governo jugoslavo consegnata all'ambasciatore.
yure
---
> http://www.europeaninternet.com/centraleurope/news.php3?id28178
Milosevic's Arrest is "A Disgrace" for Belgrade, Says
Lukashenko
MOSCOW, Apr 3, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) The
arrest of former president Slobodan Milosevic is a
"disgrace" for Belgrade and creates "a bad precedent,"
Belarus's Soviet-style leader Alexander Lukashenko
said on Monday.
"You cannot betray your own citizen, especially a
president, for money. This was a mistake by the
Yugoslav authorities," Lukashenko told a press
conference.
The United States had set a March 31 deadline for
Belgrade to show it was cooperating with the UN war
crimes tribunal, which has indicted Milosevic, in
return for releasing 50 million dollars in aid and
supporting International Monetary Fund and World Bank
programs for Belgrade.
Lukashenko however said his offer for Yugoslavia to
become a member of the Russia-Belarus union stands
firm.
"Yugoslavia can still join the union without
Milosevic. President (Vojislav) Kostunica is also a
patriot," he said.
Lukashenko was in Moscow for a ceremony marking the
fifth anniversary of the launch of an embryonic union
between Russia and Belarus. ((c) 2001 Agence France
Presse)
> http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id27165%ef%bf%bdion%ef%bf%bdfault
"The daily Izvestia, close to the Kremlin, said that
if Yugoslavia gave in to the United States' ultimatum
and handed Milosevic over to the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), it
would be endorsing NATO's 11-week bombing campaign of
Yugoslavia in 1999."
[Trust you can screen out the NATOspeak, with
characteristic Slav-baiting, in the rest of the
report.]
---
Russia's Press Laments Loss of Russian Influence in
Yugoslavia
MOSCOW, Apr 2, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Russia's
media on Monday portrayed the arrest of former
Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic as a trade off
between the United States and Belgrade which shut out
traditional Slav ally Russia.
The daily Izvestia, close to the Kremlin, said that if
Yugoslavia gave in to the United States' "ultimatum"
and handed over Milosevic to the International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), it
would be endorsing NATO's 11-week bombing campaign of
Yugoslavia in 1999.
"It will amount to a confession that NATO was right to
bomb Yugoslavia," the newspaper said.
The opposition liberal daily Segodnia said the affair
showed Moscow had lost influence in Yugoslavia, with
which it has traditionally held close ties.
"In Moscow, where there are myths of Slavic fraternity
and popular support for special links with Belgrade,
there reigns the disappointment at having lost yet
another zone of influence," it said.
It said that in the heat of the NATO bombing campaign,
the former president had called for a union with
Russia and Belarus.
The daily Kommersant said that Moscow had avoided
criticizing Belgrade's arrest of Milosevic on Sunday.
"Russia has too often been on the side of the losers
in the Balkans," it said. ((c) 2001 Agence France
Presse)
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
oggi "Comitato Promotore dell'Assemblea Antimperialista":
> http://www.tuttinlotta.org
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Sito WEB (non aggiornato):
> http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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/ad1348390/www.listparade.it
Se vuoi cancellarti da questo gruppo, clicca qui: http://www.domeus.it/info/unsubscribe
LETTERA DALLA VOJVODINA
Serba, cio� colpevole
RUZICA *
Il 5 ottobre � stato il giorno della nuova vita, della speranza, di un
radioso futuro per molta gente nel mio paese. Nella mia citt�, nel nord
della Serbia dove ci sono pi� ungheresi che serbi, ci sono state molti
festeggiamenti tra gli ungheresi e molta paura tra i serbi. Dopo le
elezioni, noi abbiamo preso coscienza dei cambiamenti. Il nuovo governo
locale � stato formato solo da ungheresi, i direttori delle fabbriche
sono stati sostituiti, ma solo quelli serbi. Nella commissione
umanitaria della municipalit� sono stata sostituita,
perch� io sono serba.
Non potevano negare che io avessi svolto le attivit� umanitarie pi� di
qualsiasi altro nella regione, che io avessi lavorato con
l'associazione umanitaria italiana Abc, con l'Unicef e
due chiese, una cattolica e una ortodossa. Ma io sono serba.
Sanno che io ho diretto questa scuola per 15 anni, lavorando giorno e
notte per il bene e una felice infanzia dei miei bambini. Ma io sono
serba. Il governo locale sa che cinque anni fa noi siamo diventati il
centro educativo dell'innovazione in regione, che siamo stati la
scuola pi� attrezzata e di maggior successo per i risultati educativi.
Ma io sono serba.
Hanno cominciato a realizzare la loro politica con l'intenzione di
unire le sette municipalit� in cui gli ungheresi sono in maggioranza,
organizzando gare solo per i bimbi ungheresi, regali di Natale solo per
i bimbi ungheresi (due libri sui 10.000 anni di presenza ungherese
qui). Ai bimbi serbi hanno dato Cenerentola.
Le autorit� locali ci hanno inviato dei questionari dettagliati da
riempire in cui si chiedono informazioni sulle nostre scuole, da
consegnare al governo ungherese. Ho rifiutato di fare
questo per il governo di un paese straniero. E ho rifiutato di fare
qualsiasi cosa suonasse alle mie orecchie come nazionalismo o fosse
estraeo ai miei doveri e responsabilit�.
Qualsiasi cosa fosse estraneo al mio cuore o al mio cervello, alla mia
educazione, al mio patriottismo, al mio amore per i bambini e per il
paese. Perch� io sono serba.
(*) direttrice didattica in una scuola della Vojvodina
Tratto da: "Il Manifesto" del 3 aprile 2001
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
oggi "Comitato Promotore dell'Assemblea Antimperialista":
> http://www.tuttinlotta.org
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Sito WEB (non aggiornato):
> http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Una newsletter personale,
un forum web personale,
una mailing list personale, ...?
Gratis sotto
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Se vuoi cancellarti da questo gruppo, clicca qui: http://www.domeus.it/info/unsubscribe
Serba, cio� colpevole
RUZICA *
Il 5 ottobre � stato il giorno della nuova vita, della speranza, di un
radioso futuro per molta gente nel mio paese. Nella mia citt�, nel nord
della Serbia dove ci sono pi� ungheresi che serbi, ci sono state molti
festeggiamenti tra gli ungheresi e molta paura tra i serbi. Dopo le
elezioni, noi abbiamo preso coscienza dei cambiamenti. Il nuovo governo
locale � stato formato solo da ungheresi, i direttori delle fabbriche
sono stati sostituiti, ma solo quelli serbi. Nella commissione
umanitaria della municipalit� sono stata sostituita,
perch� io sono serba.
Non potevano negare che io avessi svolto le attivit� umanitarie pi� di
qualsiasi altro nella regione, che io avessi lavorato con
l'associazione umanitaria italiana Abc, con l'Unicef e
due chiese, una cattolica e una ortodossa. Ma io sono serba.
Sanno che io ho diretto questa scuola per 15 anni, lavorando giorno e
notte per il bene e una felice infanzia dei miei bambini. Ma io sono
serba. Il governo locale sa che cinque anni fa noi siamo diventati il
centro educativo dell'innovazione in regione, che siamo stati la
scuola pi� attrezzata e di maggior successo per i risultati educativi.
Ma io sono serba.
Hanno cominciato a realizzare la loro politica con l'intenzione di
unire le sette municipalit� in cui gli ungheresi sono in maggioranza,
organizzando gare solo per i bimbi ungheresi, regali di Natale solo per
i bimbi ungheresi (due libri sui 10.000 anni di presenza ungherese
qui). Ai bimbi serbi hanno dato Cenerentola.
Le autorit� locali ci hanno inviato dei questionari dettagliati da
riempire in cui si chiedono informazioni sulle nostre scuole, da
consegnare al governo ungherese. Ho rifiutato di fare
questo per il governo di un paese straniero. E ho rifiutato di fare
qualsiasi cosa suonasse alle mie orecchie come nazionalismo o fosse
estraeo ai miei doveri e responsabilit�.
Qualsiasi cosa fosse estraneo al mio cuore o al mio cervello, alla mia
educazione, al mio patriottismo, al mio amore per i bambini e per il
paese. Perch� io sono serba.
(*) direttrice didattica in una scuola della Vojvodina
Tratto da: "Il Manifesto" del 3 aprile 2001
---
Questa lista e' provvisoriamente curata da componenti
dell'ex Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'",
oggi "Comitato Promotore dell'Assemblea Antimperialista":
> http://www.tuttinlotta.org
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono questa struttura, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only").
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Per inviare materiali e commenti: <jugocoord@...>
Archivio:
> http://www.domeus.it/circles/jugoinfo
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/messages
Sito WEB (non aggiornato):
> http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Una newsletter personale,
un forum web personale,
una mailing list personale, ...?
Gratis sotto
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