Informazione
South of Serbia: American setup
By: Aleksandar Djaja
The newly appointed American ambassador in Yugoslavia, Mr.
William Montgomery, has delivered the handful of compliments to
the Yugoslavian federal government,
because it did not use any "brutal force" against the "Albanian
guerrilas" that had invaded some regions in the south of Serbia.
More precisely, the FRY federal government did nothing. The
Albanian (Sqipetar) UCK terrorists of Hashim Taqi, the killers of
Serbian policemen, have been
"camping" in that part of the Republic of Serbia, where they calmly
and undisturbed, dig trenches, establish communications, logistics
and transport links, and
amass ammunition, passing through the "security zone" which is,
according to the Kumanovo accord, (surprisingly!) guarded by the
American troops from the KFOR.
Certainly, Mr. Montgomery did not miss the opportunity to
indicate that the "Albanian guerrilas" made a big mistake, while his
fellow-countryman Mr. Richard Hollbruck
(better known as "the spice in every soup"-man) grabbed this
opportunity to announce the need for a new "Dayton".
Unfortunately, neither of the above gentlemen, nor any members
of the FRY federal government and of the federal parliament from
DOS, considered a trivial
question. Is the presence of a foreign army at the territory of the
Republic of Serbia normal, and can it be permitted, as if it was a
visiting football team, rather
than the Albanian terrorist gang, set to kill and slaughter any
Serbian policeman or farmer they would come across? Either the
newly formed DOS/Montenegrin federal authorities and their
diplomacy are exhibiting an utmost shrewdness and exceptional
wisdom, or we shall soon have to ask the American permission
even when we want to cross the street.
Certainly, we do not want to go to a war. What this nation and
this country have been through in the past ten-odd years, many
nations have not experienced in their entire history. However, what
is the lower limit of the human, national and political dignity? Can
it, indeed, be lowered for ever? Perhaps, there is somebody who
believes in the newly devised alchemical formula that giving up the
right to defend ones own territory and of the national integrity, is
the best way to defend both the territory and the national integrity!
Should we all go along by the recommendations of some of our
present political leaders, and become deaf and blind for everything
that occurs around (and also inside) us? Should we entrust our
destiny, totally and without any reserves, to those who, for a long
time, have not even tried to conceal the fact that the sole goal of
their last year's aggression was the occupation of the Kosovo and
Metohija, and the establishment of the largest American military
base in this part of the world?
Has any of the State Department officials refuted the cynical
statement of Ibrahim Rugova (the one who has "dismissed' Mr.
Kostunica) that NATO is, actually, the "private army" of the
Albanians in Kosova, which should remain there for ever?
Finally, what was the NATO/American reply to the DOS cry for
the establishment of the mutual diplomatic relations?
It was, as we have seen, both quick and resolute: the Sqipetar
gangs, escorted and protected by the American helicopters,
carrying heavy weapons, crossed the so-called "security zone" to
the territory of the Bujanovac community, and attacked our
policemen, that had been disarmed by the Kumanovo accord.
And that's it. "The sight of sad events" (I use here the title of the
play by my esteemed colleague), that has lately befell to all of us,
quite logically (but that is the logic of demons) come from one
another, so that only the persons without morality, or those whose
mind has become sick, may regard this malignant process of the
destruction of Serbia as - xenophobia!
How will the events in the communities of Bujanovac, Presevo
and Medvedja, unfold in the future?
The goal of American government has been the same for several
years. It is that the American soldiers should get as deep into
Serbia as deep as possible, no matter whether they would be
wearing the uniforms of the NATO, KFOR, ice cream salesmen or
janitors. The means they use for this purpose is called the
Sqipetari terrorist armies, ranging from the OVK (UCK) to the
Kosovo Protection Corps, to the latest invention called OVBPM.
This unnatural "political-military debauchery" between the largest
military and economical power of the world and a small, autistic,
tribally organized nation, with the largest birthrate on Earth,
realizes a seemingly contradictory, but mutually beneficial
symbiosis. In other words, NATO indeed is the Albanian "private
army", but the Albanians are the American "private soldiers", too.
In their long time political, economical and military engagement
against the Serbs, if necessary, the Americans will, no doubt,
wage a war until the last Albanian.
However, how to continue the old policy of the breaking up of the
Serbian state and of the Serbian nation, when it can not be pushed
any longer under the old guise called "the struggle against the
dictatorship regime" of the previous Yugoslavian authorities? How
to publicly support the "democratic changes" in Serbia, tapping the
Yugoslavian president on the shoulder at any occasion, even
pushing such a Yugoslavia into the United Nations, and
simultaneously being aware that it is just a political "soap opera",
in whose scenario even the actors do not believe.
For America and its strategic interests on the Balkans the
answer seems to be simple. It will resort to its favorite method,
tested in the innumerable occasions - the "stick and carrot"
method. Which means, if you are good and obedient, we will give
you a few million dollars' loan (note, a loan, not aid or war
reparations!). However, if you attempt to thing by your own brains,
we will, as usually, unleash a few thousands of Albanian terrorists
to "camp" in your land, and you should continue to be "shrewd"
and not use any "brutal force" against them.
Who is the ass (donkey) in this story?
It is not the worst thing, however, if a small nation, exhausted by
the economical sanction, political blackmails and the military
aggression, had the moment of weakness when confronted the
ultimatum of arrogant bullies. The biggest humiliation is that we
should accept such a situation as the large success of our
diplomacy!
How will the situation in the communities of Presevo, Bujanovac
and Medvedja evolve in the future?
Unfortunately (somebody might say luckily), that virtually does
not depend upon our present authorities. As some of the DOS
leaders used to refer to the (still) actual president of the Republic of
Serbia, Mr. Milutinovic, as the man who "does not interfere in his
business", I fear that many of the present leaders, with the
corresponding responsibilities in the government, will be referred to
as the "men not knowing what their business is".
Well, at least until the Serbian elections, scheduled for 23rd
December. After that, as DOS is claiming, everything will "fall at its
place". I wonder, wasn't all this time sufficient for the Albanian
terrorists around Bujanovac, and should we allow them the
overtime, too?
Yet, there is a conclusion that we may unmistakably draw: the
previous SPS/SRS/Montenegrin SNP coalition at the federal level,
and the present DOS/Montenegrin SNP government, had
diametrically opposed attitudes towards the American-Albanian
unnatural "political debauchery". While their predecessors, mostly,
refused the blackmails and ultimatums, and after the two-and-a-half
months' bombardment signed a document that is somewhere half
way between the agreement and surrender, the current DOS
authorities de facto give up the destiny of both the Kosovo and
Metohija and the south of the Serbia proper to the Americans.
Seemingly, they think that the Americans, burdened with such a
responsibility, will decide in the Serbian favor?
And, why not in the Albanian favor? But, most likely, in the favor
of their policy of the global economical and military domination over
small states and nations, according to their neocolonial vision of
the New World Order.
Manipulation - attraction!
---
Bollettino di controinformazione del
Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'"
Sito WEB : http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono il Coordinamento, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only")
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By: Aleksandar Djaja
The newly appointed American ambassador in Yugoslavia, Mr.
William Montgomery, has delivered the handful of compliments to
the Yugoslavian federal government,
because it did not use any "brutal force" against the "Albanian
guerrilas" that had invaded some regions in the south of Serbia.
More precisely, the FRY federal government did nothing. The
Albanian (Sqipetar) UCK terrorists of Hashim Taqi, the killers of
Serbian policemen, have been
"camping" in that part of the Republic of Serbia, where they calmly
and undisturbed, dig trenches, establish communications, logistics
and transport links, and
amass ammunition, passing through the "security zone" which is,
according to the Kumanovo accord, (surprisingly!) guarded by the
American troops from the KFOR.
Certainly, Mr. Montgomery did not miss the opportunity to
indicate that the "Albanian guerrilas" made a big mistake, while his
fellow-countryman Mr. Richard Hollbruck
(better known as "the spice in every soup"-man) grabbed this
opportunity to announce the need for a new "Dayton".
Unfortunately, neither of the above gentlemen, nor any members
of the FRY federal government and of the federal parliament from
DOS, considered a trivial
question. Is the presence of a foreign army at the territory of the
Republic of Serbia normal, and can it be permitted, as if it was a
visiting football team, rather
than the Albanian terrorist gang, set to kill and slaughter any
Serbian policeman or farmer they would come across? Either the
newly formed DOS/Montenegrin federal authorities and their
diplomacy are exhibiting an utmost shrewdness and exceptional
wisdom, or we shall soon have to ask the American permission
even when we want to cross the street.
Certainly, we do not want to go to a war. What this nation and
this country have been through in the past ten-odd years, many
nations have not experienced in their entire history. However, what
is the lower limit of the human, national and political dignity? Can
it, indeed, be lowered for ever? Perhaps, there is somebody who
believes in the newly devised alchemical formula that giving up the
right to defend ones own territory and of the national integrity, is
the best way to defend both the territory and the national integrity!
Should we all go along by the recommendations of some of our
present political leaders, and become deaf and blind for everything
that occurs around (and also inside) us? Should we entrust our
destiny, totally and without any reserves, to those who, for a long
time, have not even tried to conceal the fact that the sole goal of
their last year's aggression was the occupation of the Kosovo and
Metohija, and the establishment of the largest American military
base in this part of the world?
Has any of the State Department officials refuted the cynical
statement of Ibrahim Rugova (the one who has "dismissed' Mr.
Kostunica) that NATO is, actually, the "private army" of the
Albanians in Kosova, which should remain there for ever?
Finally, what was the NATO/American reply to the DOS cry for
the establishment of the mutual diplomatic relations?
It was, as we have seen, both quick and resolute: the Sqipetar
gangs, escorted and protected by the American helicopters,
carrying heavy weapons, crossed the so-called "security zone" to
the territory of the Bujanovac community, and attacked our
policemen, that had been disarmed by the Kumanovo accord.
And that's it. "The sight of sad events" (I use here the title of the
play by my esteemed colleague), that has lately befell to all of us,
quite logically (but that is the logic of demons) come from one
another, so that only the persons without morality, or those whose
mind has become sick, may regard this malignant process of the
destruction of Serbia as - xenophobia!
How will the events in the communities of Bujanovac, Presevo
and Medvedja, unfold in the future?
The goal of American government has been the same for several
years. It is that the American soldiers should get as deep into
Serbia as deep as possible, no matter whether they would be
wearing the uniforms of the NATO, KFOR, ice cream salesmen or
janitors. The means they use for this purpose is called the
Sqipetari terrorist armies, ranging from the OVK (UCK) to the
Kosovo Protection Corps, to the latest invention called OVBPM.
This unnatural "political-military debauchery" between the largest
military and economical power of the world and a small, autistic,
tribally organized nation, with the largest birthrate on Earth,
realizes a seemingly contradictory, but mutually beneficial
symbiosis. In other words, NATO indeed is the Albanian "private
army", but the Albanians are the American "private soldiers", too.
In their long time political, economical and military engagement
against the Serbs, if necessary, the Americans will, no doubt,
wage a war until the last Albanian.
However, how to continue the old policy of the breaking up of the
Serbian state and of the Serbian nation, when it can not be pushed
any longer under the old guise called "the struggle against the
dictatorship regime" of the previous Yugoslavian authorities? How
to publicly support the "democratic changes" in Serbia, tapping the
Yugoslavian president on the shoulder at any occasion, even
pushing such a Yugoslavia into the United Nations, and
simultaneously being aware that it is just a political "soap opera",
in whose scenario even the actors do not believe.
For America and its strategic interests on the Balkans the
answer seems to be simple. It will resort to its favorite method,
tested in the innumerable occasions - the "stick and carrot"
method. Which means, if you are good and obedient, we will give
you a few million dollars' loan (note, a loan, not aid or war
reparations!). However, if you attempt to thing by your own brains,
we will, as usually, unleash a few thousands of Albanian terrorists
to "camp" in your land, and you should continue to be "shrewd"
and not use any "brutal force" against them.
Who is the ass (donkey) in this story?
It is not the worst thing, however, if a small nation, exhausted by
the economical sanction, political blackmails and the military
aggression, had the moment of weakness when confronted the
ultimatum of arrogant bullies. The biggest humiliation is that we
should accept such a situation as the large success of our
diplomacy!
How will the situation in the communities of Presevo, Bujanovac
and Medvedja evolve in the future?
Unfortunately (somebody might say luckily), that virtually does
not depend upon our present authorities. As some of the DOS
leaders used to refer to the (still) actual president of the Republic of
Serbia, Mr. Milutinovic, as the man who "does not interfere in his
business", I fear that many of the present leaders, with the
corresponding responsibilities in the government, will be referred to
as the "men not knowing what their business is".
Well, at least until the Serbian elections, scheduled for 23rd
December. After that, as DOS is claiming, everything will "fall at its
place". I wonder, wasn't all this time sufficient for the Albanian
terrorists around Bujanovac, and should we allow them the
overtime, too?
Yet, there is a conclusion that we may unmistakably draw: the
previous SPS/SRS/Montenegrin SNP coalition at the federal level,
and the present DOS/Montenegrin SNP government, had
diametrically opposed attitudes towards the American-Albanian
unnatural "political debauchery". While their predecessors, mostly,
refused the blackmails and ultimatums, and after the two-and-a-half
months' bombardment signed a document that is somewhere half
way between the agreement and surrender, the current DOS
authorities de facto give up the destiny of both the Kosovo and
Metohija and the south of the Serbia proper to the Americans.
Seemingly, they think that the Americans, burdened with such a
responsibility, will decide in the Serbian favor?
And, why not in the Albanian favor? But, most likely, in the favor
of their policy of the global economical and military domination over
small states and nations, according to their neocolonial vision of
the New World Order.
Manipulation - attraction!
---
Bollettino di controinformazione del
Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'"
Sito WEB : http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono il Coordinamento, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only")
Archivio di JUGOINFO:
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BASTA LA PAROLA
>
>
"posso garantire che non c'è nessun legame tra le morti per leucemia e
i proiettili di uranio impoverito"Carlo Cabigiosu, comandante della
Kfor (STEFANO CITATI - Repubblica) "I proiettili da 30 mm controcarro
contenenti DU [uranio impoverito][...] costituiscono una particolare
forma di rischio [...] sia dal punto di vista chimico sia dal punto di
vista radiologico."Stato maggiore dell'esercito italiano (sito di
Repubblica) "I decessi per leucemia sono aumentati del 500%" Ivan
Zafirovic municipalità di Pancevo(la stampa)
>
(Un grazie a Gian - sepoina@...)
---
Bollettino di controinformazione del
Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'"
Sito WEB : http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono il Coordinamento, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only")
Archivio di JUGOINFO:
> http://www.ecircle.it/an_ecircle/articles?ecircleid%c2%91979 oppure
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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>
>
"posso garantire che non c'è nessun legame tra le morti per leucemia e
i proiettili di uranio impoverito"Carlo Cabigiosu, comandante della
Kfor (STEFANO CITATI - Repubblica) "I proiettili da 30 mm controcarro
contenenti DU [uranio impoverito][...] costituiscono una particolare
forma di rischio [...] sia dal punto di vista chimico sia dal punto di
vista radiologico."Stato maggiore dell'esercito italiano (sito di
Repubblica) "I decessi per leucemia sono aumentati del 500%" Ivan
Zafirovic municipalità di Pancevo(la stampa)
>
(Un grazie a Gian - sepoina@...)
---
Bollettino di controinformazione del
Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'"
Sito WEB : http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono il Coordinamento, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only")
Archivio di JUGOINFO:
> http://www.ecircle.it/an_ecircle/articles?ecircleid%c2%91979 oppure
> http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
eCircle ti offre una nuova opportunita:
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Da Gian (Venezia) riceviamo e volentieri diffondiamo:
>
>
"Noi non sottovalutiamo e non trascuriamo alcuna verifica. Ma quello
che però dobbiamo dire è che allo stato attuale, tutti i dati,
elementi e notizie acquisite, dimostrano che non vi è motivo di
allarme collegato con i luoghi in cui operano in nostri soldati nei
Balcani": così Mattarella ha risposto ieri alle domande
sull'allarme-uranio, ricordando che le truppe italiane non hanno tra i
loro armamenti tali proiettili, presenti invece negli arsenali
americani, britannici e francesi. (repubblica 19 dicembre 2000) Bene,
dati alla mano vediamo di smentire il ministro Mattarella; l'uranio
c'è nelle tute delle "nostre" truppe, c'è in Kossovo, e c'è (e qui
ecco una guerra dimenticata) anche in Bosnia. Data l'importanza della
questione mi scuso con tutti per la lunghezza ma credo ne valga la
pena...ci ho perso un paio d'ore...mi dovete il panettone.
Gian.
> Prima di tutto, ecco cosa scrive lo stato maggiore della difesa come
> avvertenza ai soldati distaccati in Kossovo: "I proiettili da 30 mm
> controcarro contenenti DU (depleted uranium, uranio impoverito ndr), e
> ritrovati in Kossovo, nell'area di impiego del contingente italiano,
> costituiscono una particolare forma di rischio. La pericolosità di
> tale munizionamento deriva dalla tossicità dell' Uranio stesso che si
> manifesta sia dal punto di vista chimico sia dal punto di vista
> radiologico. (...) la permanenza del personale nelle aree
> caratterizzate dalla presenza di mezzi corazzati colpiti, ovvero in
> aree dove sono stati individuati o dichiarati presenti proiettili DU
> deve essere ridotta al tempo strettamente necessario; (...) tutto il
> personale deve essere avvisato circa le aree interessate dalla
> presenza del munizionamento DU, informandolo delle caratteristiche di
> quello individuato (munizionamento PGU - 14 e 30 mm.). Chiunque
> individui munizionamento DU deve avvertire tempestivamente la cp. NBC;
> (le squadre di rilevazione e bonifica degli agenti chimici, ndr).
> (...) il personale che ha sostato e/o operato in aree caratterizzate
> dalla presenza di mezzi corazzati colpiti (...) deve togliersi con
> molta attenzione la tuta che indossa e riporla in un sacchetto di
> plastica integro che verrà sigillato e conservato per il successivo
> smaltimento a cura della cp. NBC".
> (Stralci dal documento dello Stato maggiore dell'esercito italiano
> sulla pericolosità dell'uranio impoverito - dal sito di Repubblica) La
> smentita sarebbe già evidente nelle contraddizioni interne alla difesa
> italiana. Ma l'abile sotterfugio letterario del salomonico ministro
> del centrosinistra gioca di tacco..."non abbiamo uranio nelle NOSTRE
> dotazioni" lasciando intendere che altri ce l'hanno e ne fanno l'uso
> che credono... mi ricorda la famosa ammissione del capo di stato
> maggiore su Ustica "queste domande vanno poste ad ALTRI...".Ecco
> perchè è forse il caso di approfittare di questa performances
> ministeriale per un escursus storico che non fà mai male e che serve a
> rammentare ai più distratti che non è quella in Kossovo la prima
> guerra Balcanica dell'ultimo decennio, e il fatto, non casuale, che i
> malati di "sindrome del golfo yugoslavo" si siano sicuramente
> avvelenati in periodo precedente in territorio Bosniaco e non in
> Kossovo.Ma c'era sto uranio in Bosnia e chi lo ha messo? Dobbiamo per
> saperlo andare con la memoria alla guerra dimenticata, alla operazione
> "Deliberation Force". Questa operazione come scrivevo ieri è stata
> condotta ufficialmente per contenere le richieste serbe in Bosnia. Si
> trattava di "proteggere" ad opera della Nato dagli attacchi le aree di
> Gorazde, Tuzla, Bihac e Sarajevo. La campagna militare della Nato
> inizia il 30 agosto 1995 ufficialmente come risposta ad un attentato
> serbo ad obiettivi civili in Sarajevo (rivelatosi poi una provocazione
> d'intelligence come ammise buona parte della stampa internazionale).In
> effetti la campagna inizia il giorno 29, ma le prime missioni sono
> puramente ricognitive. Successivamente le missioni aeree aumentano
> d'intensità fino al 14 settembre del '95.I voli effettuati sono 3515,
> dei quali 2470 sono classificati come "penetrating sorties" contro 48
> complessi militari serbo-bosniaci e 338 obiettivi diretti. Vengono
> lanciate 1026 bombe, delle quali 708 precise (ovvero intelligenti) e
> 318 imprecise (ovvero più intelligenti). Il primo giorno di conflitto
> tra la Nato e le truppe serbo bosniache porta all'abbattimento di un
> mirage francese a 40 chilometri a nord di Pale per opera di una
> fortunosa contraerea (un missile terra-aria manuale...). I serbo
> bosniaci catturano il pilota francese (secondo la legislazione
> internazionale puro "terrorista" data la mancanza di dichiarazione di
> guerra) se volete saperne di più su esiti e sviluppi ecco due siti
> sulla
> vicenda... http://cgi.cnn.com/WORLD/Bosnia/updates/sep95/9-29/french_pilots/http://europe.cnn.com/WORLD/Bosnia/updates/dec95/12-12/pilots_9am/ Per
> concludere il breve escursus, la guerra bosniaca si conclude con
> l'occupazione militare da parte delle truppe nato e la disgregazione
> speriamo non definitiva della Bosnia in 3 stati etnici, uno dei quali
> riassorbito di fatto dalla Croazia, uno divenuto un casino senza
> l'accento per i militari con troppo tempo libero ed il terzo distrutto
> e lasciato al tragico destino del popolo serbo. Su internet ovviamente
> si può trovare di tutto ed ecco quindi dal sito del FAS (gruppo di
> analisi strategiche vicino al pentagono) un ottimo escursus mascolino
> sulle "dotazioni" militari della operazione Deliberate Force (lo
> trovate in allegato 3) oltre a dimostrare ampiamente l'uso di armi di
> distruzione di massa (allegato 1) utilizzate in precedenza nel golfo
> persico.
> A conclusione di questo breve riassunto possiamo trarre le seguenti
> considerazioni: 1) Il ministro della difesa ignora che siano state
> scaricate bombe (usate dalla nato in precedenza anche in Iraq
> appesantite da uranio impoverito) nel suolo Bosniaco. Ignora anche le
> 35 azioni compiute da caccia italiani su quei territori e forse anche
> il tipo di arma di distruzione di massa utilizzata dai pacificatori in
> quella occasione. 2) Il ministro ignora ancora che lo stato maggiore
> della difesa avverte i militari distaccati della pericolosità delle
> armi all'uranio in suolo Kossovaro. 3) Il ministro ignora che il primo
> caso di leucemia sospetto si verificò un anno or sono cioè prima della
> operazione Kossovo e quindi va ovviamente collegato all'uranio
> Bosniaco e non a quello Kossovaro, ma tant'è... 4) Giornali, ministro
> e soldati, sembrano ignorare che in quei posti ci sono degli abitanti.
> Triste destino l'esser pacificati nuclearmente...
> Gian.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Allegato 1: munizioni della operazione deliberate force
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> PRECISION MUNITIONS: TYPE MUNITION TOTAL
> Laser Guided Bomb
> LGB/GBU 10 303
> LGB/GBU 12 125
> LGB/GBU 16 215
> LGB/GBU 24 6
> LGB/GBU AS30L 4
> LGB/GBU TOTAL 653Electro-Optical
> EO/IR SLAM GUIDED MISSILE 10
> EO/IR GBU-15 GUIDED MISSILE 9
> EO/IR MAVRICK GUIDED MISSILE 23
> EO/IR TOTAL 42
> Tomahawk Cruise Missile 13
> GRAND TOTAL 708
> NON-PRECISION MUNITIONS:
> TYPE MUNTION TOTAL
> MK 82 175
> MK 83 99
> MK 84 42
> CBU-87 2
> GRAND TOTAL 318
> Fonte Fas
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Allegato 2: Fatevi una cultura
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> * Operation Deliberate ForceALLIED FORCES SOUTHERN EUROPE Fact
> Sheet
> * "The Balkans Air Campaign Study: Part 1," Lt Col Robert C. Owen,
> Air Power Journal Vol. XI, No. 2 (Summer 1997): 4-24.
> * "The Balkans Air Campaign Study: Part 2," Lt Col Robert C. Owen,
> Air Power Journal Vol. XI, No. 3 (Fall 1997): 6-26.
> * BOMBS OVER BOSNIA: THE ROLE OF AIRPOWER IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
> MICHAEL O. BEALE School of Advanced Airpower Studies JUNE 1996
> * Deliberate Force By John A. Tirpak, Air Force Magazine October
> 1997
> A three-week air campaign in the fall of 1995 was the decisive
> factor in bringing the recalcitrant Serbs to the peace talks in
> Dayton.
> * Deliberate Force: Reaffirmation of the Gulf Experience Air Power
> Studies Centre PAPER NUMBER 53 Richard P. Hallion
> * Serbian air defenses a threat (AFNS) 12 September 1995 -- Bosnian
> Serb air defenses continue to present a high-threat environment
> for NATO air crews attacking military positions in support of
> Operation Deliberate Force. Although the Serbs have fewer
> surface-to-air missiles than the coalition force faced during
> Operation Desert Storm, the Serbs show a higher proficiency with
> the weapons than the Iraqis did.
> * Joint cooperation key to deliberate force (AFNS) 11 September
> 1995 -- NATO aircraft flying in support of Operation Deliberate
> Force continue to streak over the Adriatic Sea to deliver their
> weapons to Bosnian Serb military targets. The multi-national
> force has combined to deliver more than 300 tons of ordnance
> during the operation's nearly 1,200 sorties. U.S. Air Force crews
> and aircraft account for about 800 of the sorties.
> * NATO air strikes continue (AFNS) 06 September 1995 -- Fighter
> aircraft bristling with weapons left here in waves Sept. 6 to
> continue the air strikes resumed Sept. 5 on Bosnian Serb
> strongholds. The attacks were temporarily halted to permit
> meetings between U.N. and Bosnian Serb leaders, but resumed
> Tuesday when it became apparent the Serbs would not meet U.N. and
> NATO demands.
> * NATO RECOMMENCES AIR STRIKES AGAINST BOSNIAN SERBSTRANSCRIPT OF
> PRESS CONFERENCE ADMIRAL LEIGHTON W. SMITH COMMANDER IN CHIEF
> ALLIED FORCES SOUTHERN EUROPE 06 September 1995 -- As you know,
> NATO air assets recommenced strike operations against Bosnian
> Serb military significant targets in Bosnia Herzegovina. The
> reason for the recommencement is that NATO and the United Nations
> have collectively agreed on certain conditions which must be met.
> * Statement by the Secretary General of NATO 05 September 1995 --
> NATO aircraft operating within the provisions of Operation
> "Deliberate Force", today, at 13.08 LOCAL, resumed attacks on
> Bosnian-Serb military targets in Bosnia. The air operations were
> reinitiated after UN and NATO military commanders concluded that
> the Bosnian Serbs had failed to demonstrate their intent to
> comply with United Nations demands to remove military threats
> against Sarajevo.
> * Commander relates Aviano role in Deliberate Force (AFNS) 05
> September 1995 -- Scores of thunderous, white-hot afterburners
> lit up the pre-dawn skies here Aug. 30 as waves of Aviano-based
> jets joined in the largest strike mission over Bosnia-Herzegovina
> since NATO's Operation Deny Flight began more than two years ago.
> * Air strikes on Bosnia resume (AFNS) 05 September 1995 -- NATO
> aircraft resumed Operation Deliberate Force air strikes on
> Bosnian Serb positions Sept. 5 after a three-day lull. More than
> 100 sorties were flown by the multinational coalition assembled
> here as part of Operation Deny Flight, enforcing the no-fly zone
> over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
> * President warns Bosnian Serbs Air Force News Service 01 September
> 1995 -- President Clinton warned Bosnian Serbs to end their civil
> war the same day he kicked off events to honor the end of World
> War II. Greeted by a cheering, flag-waving crowd of about 700
> people on the base flightline Aug. 31, Clinton said NATO bombing
> strikes against Bosnian targets were "the right response to the
> savagery in Sarajevo."
> * NATO begins air strikes on Bosnia (AFNS) 30 August 1995 -- NATO
> aircraft began attacks on Bosnian Serb military targets in Bosnia
> Aug 30. The NATO - and United Nations-approved air strikes
> included air defense missile sites, radar sites, and
> communication facilities. More than 60 aircraft from several NATO
> nations operating from bases in Italy and the U.S. aircraft
> carrier Theodore Roosevelt participated in the initial strikes.
> * NATO Statement by Sec. Gen. Will Claes 30 August 1995 -- ``NATO
> aircraft operating with the provisions of Operation Deny Flight
> today (30 August 1995) just after 00:00 GMT (0200 local)
> commenced attacks on Bosnian Serb military targets in Bosnia. The
> air operations were initiated after the U.N. military commanders
> concluded, beyond reasonable doubt, that Monday's brutal mortar
> attack in Sarajevo came from Bosnian Serb positions.
> * Clinton: U.S. should be prepared to assist NATO (AFNS) 07 June
> 1995 -- President Bill Clinton believes America should be
> prepared to assist NATO if the alliance decides to meet a request
> from the United Nations for help in a withdrawal or a
> reconfiguration and a strengthening of its forces in Bosnia.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Allegato 3: Chi e come
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> DELIBERATE FORCE SUMMARY DATA:
>
> * Total sorties flown: 3515
> o Penetrating sorties (CAS, BAI, SEAD, RECCE, SAR/CSAR): 2470
> o Support sorties (NAEW, ABCCC, ELINT/ESM, AAR,): 1045
> * Total bombs dropped: 1026
> o Precision munitions: 708
> o Non-precision munitions: 318
>
> Airstrikes were conducted on eleven days during the period 29 Aug - 14
> Sep 95
>
> * 48 target complexes
> * 338 individual targets within target complexes
>
> DELIBERATE FORCE SORTIE BREAKDOWN FROM 29 AUG 95 - 14 SEP 95
>
> NATION TOTAL PERCENTAGE
> SORIES OF TOTAL
>
> FRANCE 84 8.1%
> GERMANY 59 1.7%
> ITALY 35 1.0%
> NETHERLANDS 198 5.6%
> SPAIN 12 3.4%
> TURKEY 78 2.2%
> UNITED KINGDOM 326 9.3%
> UNITED STATES 2318 65.9%
> NATO (NAEW) 96 2.7%
>
> TOTAL 3515 100.0%
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
---
Bollettino di controinformazione del
Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'"
Sito WEB : http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
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vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only")
Archivio di JUGOINFO:
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I gruppi di discussione + interessanti e divertenti!
Le liste + calde!!
Il meglio di eCircle!!!
http://www.ecircle.de/ad622329/www.listparade.it
>
>
"Noi non sottovalutiamo e non trascuriamo alcuna verifica. Ma quello
che però dobbiamo dire è che allo stato attuale, tutti i dati,
elementi e notizie acquisite, dimostrano che non vi è motivo di
allarme collegato con i luoghi in cui operano in nostri soldati nei
Balcani": così Mattarella ha risposto ieri alle domande
sull'allarme-uranio, ricordando che le truppe italiane non hanno tra i
loro armamenti tali proiettili, presenti invece negli arsenali
americani, britannici e francesi. (repubblica 19 dicembre 2000) Bene,
dati alla mano vediamo di smentire il ministro Mattarella; l'uranio
c'è nelle tute delle "nostre" truppe, c'è in Kossovo, e c'è (e qui
ecco una guerra dimenticata) anche in Bosnia. Data l'importanza della
questione mi scuso con tutti per la lunghezza ma credo ne valga la
pena...ci ho perso un paio d'ore...mi dovete il panettone.
Gian.
> Prima di tutto, ecco cosa scrive lo stato maggiore della difesa come
> avvertenza ai soldati distaccati in Kossovo: "I proiettili da 30 mm
> controcarro contenenti DU (depleted uranium, uranio impoverito ndr), e
> ritrovati in Kossovo, nell'area di impiego del contingente italiano,
> costituiscono una particolare forma di rischio. La pericolosità di
> tale munizionamento deriva dalla tossicità dell' Uranio stesso che si
> manifesta sia dal punto di vista chimico sia dal punto di vista
> radiologico. (...) la permanenza del personale nelle aree
> caratterizzate dalla presenza di mezzi corazzati colpiti, ovvero in
> aree dove sono stati individuati o dichiarati presenti proiettili DU
> deve essere ridotta al tempo strettamente necessario; (...) tutto il
> personale deve essere avvisato circa le aree interessate dalla
> presenza del munizionamento DU, informandolo delle caratteristiche di
> quello individuato (munizionamento PGU - 14 e 30 mm.). Chiunque
> individui munizionamento DU deve avvertire tempestivamente la cp. NBC;
> (le squadre di rilevazione e bonifica degli agenti chimici, ndr).
> (...) il personale che ha sostato e/o operato in aree caratterizzate
> dalla presenza di mezzi corazzati colpiti (...) deve togliersi con
> molta attenzione la tuta che indossa e riporla in un sacchetto di
> plastica integro che verrà sigillato e conservato per il successivo
> smaltimento a cura della cp. NBC".
> (Stralci dal documento dello Stato maggiore dell'esercito italiano
> sulla pericolosità dell'uranio impoverito - dal sito di Repubblica) La
> smentita sarebbe già evidente nelle contraddizioni interne alla difesa
> italiana. Ma l'abile sotterfugio letterario del salomonico ministro
> del centrosinistra gioca di tacco..."non abbiamo uranio nelle NOSTRE
> dotazioni" lasciando intendere che altri ce l'hanno e ne fanno l'uso
> che credono... mi ricorda la famosa ammissione del capo di stato
> maggiore su Ustica "queste domande vanno poste ad ALTRI...".Ecco
> perchè è forse il caso di approfittare di questa performances
> ministeriale per un escursus storico che non fà mai male e che serve a
> rammentare ai più distratti che non è quella in Kossovo la prima
> guerra Balcanica dell'ultimo decennio, e il fatto, non casuale, che i
> malati di "sindrome del golfo yugoslavo" si siano sicuramente
> avvelenati in periodo precedente in territorio Bosniaco e non in
> Kossovo.Ma c'era sto uranio in Bosnia e chi lo ha messo? Dobbiamo per
> saperlo andare con la memoria alla guerra dimenticata, alla operazione
> "Deliberation Force". Questa operazione come scrivevo ieri è stata
> condotta ufficialmente per contenere le richieste serbe in Bosnia. Si
> trattava di "proteggere" ad opera della Nato dagli attacchi le aree di
> Gorazde, Tuzla, Bihac e Sarajevo. La campagna militare della Nato
> inizia il 30 agosto 1995 ufficialmente come risposta ad un attentato
> serbo ad obiettivi civili in Sarajevo (rivelatosi poi una provocazione
> d'intelligence come ammise buona parte della stampa internazionale).In
> effetti la campagna inizia il giorno 29, ma le prime missioni sono
> puramente ricognitive. Successivamente le missioni aeree aumentano
> d'intensità fino al 14 settembre del '95.I voli effettuati sono 3515,
> dei quali 2470 sono classificati come "penetrating sorties" contro 48
> complessi militari serbo-bosniaci e 338 obiettivi diretti. Vengono
> lanciate 1026 bombe, delle quali 708 precise (ovvero intelligenti) e
> 318 imprecise (ovvero più intelligenti). Il primo giorno di conflitto
> tra la Nato e le truppe serbo bosniache porta all'abbattimento di un
> mirage francese a 40 chilometri a nord di Pale per opera di una
> fortunosa contraerea (un missile terra-aria manuale...). I serbo
> bosniaci catturano il pilota francese (secondo la legislazione
> internazionale puro "terrorista" data la mancanza di dichiarazione di
> guerra) se volete saperne di più su esiti e sviluppi ecco due siti
> sulla
> vicenda... http://cgi.cnn.com/WORLD/Bosnia/updates/sep95/9-29/french_pilots/http://europe.cnn.com/WORLD/Bosnia/updates/dec95/12-12/pilots_9am/ Per
> concludere il breve escursus, la guerra bosniaca si conclude con
> l'occupazione militare da parte delle truppe nato e la disgregazione
> speriamo non definitiva della Bosnia in 3 stati etnici, uno dei quali
> riassorbito di fatto dalla Croazia, uno divenuto un casino senza
> l'accento per i militari con troppo tempo libero ed il terzo distrutto
> e lasciato al tragico destino del popolo serbo. Su internet ovviamente
> si può trovare di tutto ed ecco quindi dal sito del FAS (gruppo di
> analisi strategiche vicino al pentagono) un ottimo escursus mascolino
> sulle "dotazioni" militari della operazione Deliberate Force (lo
> trovate in allegato 3) oltre a dimostrare ampiamente l'uso di armi di
> distruzione di massa (allegato 1) utilizzate in precedenza nel golfo
> persico.
> A conclusione di questo breve riassunto possiamo trarre le seguenti
> considerazioni: 1) Il ministro della difesa ignora che siano state
> scaricate bombe (usate dalla nato in precedenza anche in Iraq
> appesantite da uranio impoverito) nel suolo Bosniaco. Ignora anche le
> 35 azioni compiute da caccia italiani su quei territori e forse anche
> il tipo di arma di distruzione di massa utilizzata dai pacificatori in
> quella occasione. 2) Il ministro ignora ancora che lo stato maggiore
> della difesa avverte i militari distaccati della pericolosità delle
> armi all'uranio in suolo Kossovaro. 3) Il ministro ignora che il primo
> caso di leucemia sospetto si verificò un anno or sono cioè prima della
> operazione Kossovo e quindi va ovviamente collegato all'uranio
> Bosniaco e non a quello Kossovaro, ma tant'è... 4) Giornali, ministro
> e soldati, sembrano ignorare che in quei posti ci sono degli abitanti.
> Triste destino l'esser pacificati nuclearmente...
> Gian.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Allegato 1: munizioni della operazione deliberate force
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> PRECISION MUNITIONS: TYPE MUNITION TOTAL
> Laser Guided Bomb
> LGB/GBU 10 303
> LGB/GBU 12 125
> LGB/GBU 16 215
> LGB/GBU 24 6
> LGB/GBU AS30L 4
> LGB/GBU TOTAL 653Electro-Optical
> EO/IR SLAM GUIDED MISSILE 10
> EO/IR GBU-15 GUIDED MISSILE 9
> EO/IR MAVRICK GUIDED MISSILE 23
> EO/IR TOTAL 42
> Tomahawk Cruise Missile 13
> GRAND TOTAL 708
> NON-PRECISION MUNITIONS:
> TYPE MUNTION TOTAL
> MK 82 175
> MK 83 99
> MK 84 42
> CBU-87 2
> GRAND TOTAL 318
> Fonte Fas
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Allegato 2: Fatevi una cultura
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> * Operation Deliberate ForceALLIED FORCES SOUTHERN EUROPE Fact
> Sheet
> * "The Balkans Air Campaign Study: Part 1," Lt Col Robert C. Owen,
> Air Power Journal Vol. XI, No. 2 (Summer 1997): 4-24.
> * "The Balkans Air Campaign Study: Part 2," Lt Col Robert C. Owen,
> Air Power Journal Vol. XI, No. 3 (Fall 1997): 6-26.
> * BOMBS OVER BOSNIA: THE ROLE OF AIRPOWER IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
> MICHAEL O. BEALE School of Advanced Airpower Studies JUNE 1996
> * Deliberate Force By John A. Tirpak, Air Force Magazine October
> 1997
> A three-week air campaign in the fall of 1995 was the decisive
> factor in bringing the recalcitrant Serbs to the peace talks in
> Dayton.
> * Deliberate Force: Reaffirmation of the Gulf Experience Air Power
> Studies Centre PAPER NUMBER 53 Richard P. Hallion
> * Serbian air defenses a threat (AFNS) 12 September 1995 -- Bosnian
> Serb air defenses continue to present a high-threat environment
> for NATO air crews attacking military positions in support of
> Operation Deliberate Force. Although the Serbs have fewer
> surface-to-air missiles than the coalition force faced during
> Operation Desert Storm, the Serbs show a higher proficiency with
> the weapons than the Iraqis did.
> * Joint cooperation key to deliberate force (AFNS) 11 September
> 1995 -- NATO aircraft flying in support of Operation Deliberate
> Force continue to streak over the Adriatic Sea to deliver their
> weapons to Bosnian Serb military targets. The multi-national
> force has combined to deliver more than 300 tons of ordnance
> during the operation's nearly 1,200 sorties. U.S. Air Force crews
> and aircraft account for about 800 of the sorties.
> * NATO air strikes continue (AFNS) 06 September 1995 -- Fighter
> aircraft bristling with weapons left here in waves Sept. 6 to
> continue the air strikes resumed Sept. 5 on Bosnian Serb
> strongholds. The attacks were temporarily halted to permit
> meetings between U.N. and Bosnian Serb leaders, but resumed
> Tuesday when it became apparent the Serbs would not meet U.N. and
> NATO demands.
> * NATO RECOMMENCES AIR STRIKES AGAINST BOSNIAN SERBSTRANSCRIPT OF
> PRESS CONFERENCE ADMIRAL LEIGHTON W. SMITH COMMANDER IN CHIEF
> ALLIED FORCES SOUTHERN EUROPE 06 September 1995 -- As you know,
> NATO air assets recommenced strike operations against Bosnian
> Serb military significant targets in Bosnia Herzegovina. The
> reason for the recommencement is that NATO and the United Nations
> have collectively agreed on certain conditions which must be met.
> * Statement by the Secretary General of NATO 05 September 1995 --
> NATO aircraft operating within the provisions of Operation
> "Deliberate Force", today, at 13.08 LOCAL, resumed attacks on
> Bosnian-Serb military targets in Bosnia. The air operations were
> reinitiated after UN and NATO military commanders concluded that
> the Bosnian Serbs had failed to demonstrate their intent to
> comply with United Nations demands to remove military threats
> against Sarajevo.
> * Commander relates Aviano role in Deliberate Force (AFNS) 05
> September 1995 -- Scores of thunderous, white-hot afterburners
> lit up the pre-dawn skies here Aug. 30 as waves of Aviano-based
> jets joined in the largest strike mission over Bosnia-Herzegovina
> since NATO's Operation Deny Flight began more than two years ago.
> * Air strikes on Bosnia resume (AFNS) 05 September 1995 -- NATO
> aircraft resumed Operation Deliberate Force air strikes on
> Bosnian Serb positions Sept. 5 after a three-day lull. More than
> 100 sorties were flown by the multinational coalition assembled
> here as part of Operation Deny Flight, enforcing the no-fly zone
> over Bosnia-Herzegovina.
> * President warns Bosnian Serbs Air Force News Service 01 September
> 1995 -- President Clinton warned Bosnian Serbs to end their civil
> war the same day he kicked off events to honor the end of World
> War II. Greeted by a cheering, flag-waving crowd of about 700
> people on the base flightline Aug. 31, Clinton said NATO bombing
> strikes against Bosnian targets were "the right response to the
> savagery in Sarajevo."
> * NATO begins air strikes on Bosnia (AFNS) 30 August 1995 -- NATO
> aircraft began attacks on Bosnian Serb military targets in Bosnia
> Aug 30. The NATO - and United Nations-approved air strikes
> included air defense missile sites, radar sites, and
> communication facilities. More than 60 aircraft from several NATO
> nations operating from bases in Italy and the U.S. aircraft
> carrier Theodore Roosevelt participated in the initial strikes.
> * NATO Statement by Sec. Gen. Will Claes 30 August 1995 -- ``NATO
> aircraft operating with the provisions of Operation Deny Flight
> today (30 August 1995) just after 00:00 GMT (0200 local)
> commenced attacks on Bosnian Serb military targets in Bosnia. The
> air operations were initiated after the U.N. military commanders
> concluded, beyond reasonable doubt, that Monday's brutal mortar
> attack in Sarajevo came from Bosnian Serb positions.
> * Clinton: U.S. should be prepared to assist NATO (AFNS) 07 June
> 1995 -- President Bill Clinton believes America should be
> prepared to assist NATO if the alliance decides to meet a request
> from the United Nations for help in a withdrawal or a
> reconfiguration and a strengthening of its forces in Bosnia.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Allegato 3: Chi e come
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> DELIBERATE FORCE SUMMARY DATA:
>
> * Total sorties flown: 3515
> o Penetrating sorties (CAS, BAI, SEAD, RECCE, SAR/CSAR): 2470
> o Support sorties (NAEW, ABCCC, ELINT/ESM, AAR,): 1045
> * Total bombs dropped: 1026
> o Precision munitions: 708
> o Non-precision munitions: 318
>
> Airstrikes were conducted on eleven days during the period 29 Aug - 14
> Sep 95
>
> * 48 target complexes
> * 338 individual targets within target complexes
>
> DELIBERATE FORCE SORTIE BREAKDOWN FROM 29 AUG 95 - 14 SEP 95
>
> NATION TOTAL PERCENTAGE
> SORIES OF TOTAL
>
> FRANCE 84 8.1%
> GERMANY 59 1.7%
> ITALY 35 1.0%
> NETHERLANDS 198 5.6%
> SPAIN 12 3.4%
> TURKEY 78 2.2%
> UNITED KINGDOM 326 9.3%
> UNITED STATES 2318 65.9%
> NATO (NAEW) 96 2.7%
>
> TOTAL 3515 100.0%
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
---
Bollettino di controinformazione del
Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'"
Sito WEB : http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono il Coordinamento, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only")
Archivio di JUGOINFO:
> http://www.ecircle.it/an_ecircle/articles?ecircleid%c2%91979 oppure
> http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
Per iscriversi al bollettino: <jugoinfo-subscribe@...>
Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
Contributi e segnalazioni: <jugocoord@...>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I gruppi di discussione + interessanti e divertenti!
Le liste + calde!!
Il meglio di eCircle!!!
http://www.ecircle.de/ad622329/www.listparade.it
> http://www.espresso-verlag.de/kuentzelfr.htm
Matthias Küntzel
Germany and Kosovo
How Germany's independent line paved the way to the Kosovo War
Contribution to the 2nd International Hearing of the European Tribunal
concerning Nato's war against Yugoslavia. Hamburg, April 16, 2000 (1)
In 1991, a delegation of the German Bundestag visited Kosovo for the
first
time in order to talk with Kosovo Albanian nationalist leaders. This
prompted - as early as 1991! - the warning by a senior member of the
Yugoslavian parliament that "the British and the Germans would create a
common intervention force with 70,000 soldiers in order to intervene in
Kosovo." (2) Indeed an early and accurate prophecy! So what about
Germany's role in preparing for the Kosovo war?
There were and there are strategic differences between German and the US
policies about how to retain or enhance hegemony. "As a wealthy status
quo
power, the United States has an interest in maintaining international
order", wrote Joseph S. Nye, Jr, a former US deputy secretary of
defense.
"In a world where there are some two hundred states but many thousands
of
often overlapping entities that might eventually make a claim to
nationhood, blind promotion of self-determination would have highly
problematic consequences." (3) Berlin, however, in seeking to create
conditions for an ongoing expansion of German influnce (that means:
changing the international order) does not share this priority. As
Rupert
Scholz, the former German secretary of defense, explained: "The aim of
maintaining "stability" in Europe seems to be a most dangerous one.
There
will not be any real stablity, which is able to maintain peace, if
individual nations are held prisoner in unwanted and unnatural
("unnatürliche") state organizations, which have been imposed upon
them."
Since 1990, German foreign policy has "constantly persisted in activly
advocating a universal right of self-determination." (4)
This policy has a particular bearing on Kosovo. The hidden war about
Kosovo's future started in 1995 at the latest. In February 1995 in the
presence of Roman Herzog, Germany's President at that time, Germany and
Albania signed a common declaration of principle at Tirana. This
declaration is rarely mentioned in the literature but nevertheless
decisive because it promised to find a "solution to the Kosovo question"
by advocating the right of self-determination for Kosovo's Albanians.
(5)
Advocating self-determination for Kosovo's Albanians, however, meant
advocating their right to secede from Yugoslavia. This declaration was
in
so far a kind of advance notice to continue Germany's 1991 course
(recognition of Croatia) in order to further split up Yugoslavia
following
a racist (völkisch) concept of self-determination.
In the period following, the German goverment did everything it could to
spur on the separation of Albanians within Kosovo. Germany supported and
financed those nationalists who sought to pursue the goal of full
independence by creating alternative governing institutions as well as
independent Albanian educational and medical systems in Kosovo which
systematically separated the majority of the people in Kosovo from the
other peoples of Yugoslavia. In addition, German secret diplomacy was
instrumental in helping the "Kosovo Liberation Army" (KLA), as they call
themselves, since its creation in February 1996. The daily newspaper
"The
European" stated that "German civil and military intelligence services
have been involved in training and equipping the rebels with the aim of
cementing German influence in the Balkan area." (6)
During those years, Germany unilaterally supported the secessionist
movements. In 1997 editor Johann Georg Reißmüller of the Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung (a German daily newspaper) wrote: "The US government
is
not at all happy with Germany's policy in Kosovo".
It was, however, exactly that year - 1997 - that the crisis in Kosovo
began to escalate. After the destruction of the Albanian army arsenals
the
KLA armed itself in order to start a large-scale nationalist rebellion.
This development and the following counter-attack by the Serbian police
moved Kosovo into the headlines and into the focal point of NATO's
considerations. How did Germany and the United States react?
"The Clinton administration is still uncertain about how to deal with
this
crisis", later wrote the weekly newspaper Die Zeit. A senior official
from
the German foreign office was sent to Washington to put pressure on the
deputy secretary of state, Strobe Talbott. "We urgently need U.S.
leadership now" claimed Germany's emissary. (7) This pattern: Germany
calls for the U.S. government - actually for a special wing of the U.S
government - to act against Yugoslavia were repeated between March 1998
and March 1999 over and over again. Let us now take a closer look at
that
pre-war diplomacy which paved the way to war.
The US government is responsible for most of the war crimes NATO
committed
against Yugoslavia. But even in 1998, the Clinton administration - split
in several fractions on how to deal with Milosevic and the Kosovo
Albanians' nationalism - hesitated, reacting uncertainly on a
case-by-case
basis, oscillating between supporting the KLA and letting Milosevic have
a
free hand in smashing them. Germany on the other hand knew what to do
and
how to act. The grand design of Germany's Kosovo policy had been in
effect
by March 1998. It was revealed by Germany's informal ambassador to the
Balkans, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who on March 16, 1998 said: "We
should try to tell Milosevic the plain truth through pressure and even
military interventions that he can retain control over Kosovo as a part
of
Yugoslavia only if certain fundamentals are met. And if this is not the
case, the territory there will have to be transformed into a kind of
protectorate until those fundamentals are provided for." (8)
This idea of pushing the Kosovo's Albanians towards a military
confrontation with Milosevic in order to create a Kosovo protectorate
from
now on became the central point of Germany's Kosovo policy - either by
the
Kohl/Kinkel CDU government or the Schröder/Fischer SPD-Green coalition.
One condition was that international troops be stationed on Kosovo soil.
As early as March 1998 Germany accordingly put this matter on the agenda
at the London meeting of the international Contact Group on Yugoslavia.
(9)
The other condition was that Nato would have to enter Kosovo against the
will of the Yugoslav government. Accordingly, Germany sharpened its tone
towards Belgrad. Milosevic became the main target and remained so
whatever
his policy looked like.
But France, the UK, Italy and the dominating voices within the US
government still prefered to follow a less confrontational policy. In
1998, The European for example stated that "Washington realised that
pushing the Kosovars towards a military confrontation with Milosevic, as
the Germans wanted to do, would have a boomerang effect on the Balkans.
The United States put maximum pressure on Germany to stop supporting the
KLA behind the scenes, as did the other European countries such as
Britain
and France." (10) They termed the KLA activities "terrorist" and
supported
indirectly a Serbian counteroffensive against the KLA during the summer
of
1998 and appealed to Milosevic and the moderate Albanian leader Rugova
to
begin talks. The KLA, however, succeeded in provoking the Serbian police
force and in escalating armed clashes time and again. The policy of
de-escalation turned out to be a permanent failure as long as there was
a
continuity in the supply of KLA weapons and KLA mercenaries across the
Albanian border.
It was therefore not at all surprising that in the summer of 1998 all
the
efforts of the United Nations and the majority of Nato countries
(including the US) concentrated in the goal of cutting off the arms and
soldiers supplies in favor of the KLA. The Albanian government headed by
Fatos Nano who had disassociated himself from the KLA supported this
plan.
Inside NATO the idea of sending 7000 soldiers to cut off the traffic in
weapons began to take shape.
During this crucial situation, however, Germany's covering up for the
KLA
became both public and evident: The German government vetoed the
cutting-off of the supply of weapons for the KLA! Klaus Kinkel, then
head
of the German foreign office said: "Of course you have to consider
whether
you are permitted from a moral and ethnical point of view to prevent the
Kosovo-Albanians from buying weapons for their self-defense." (11)
Volker
Rühe, then head of the ministry of defense answered to this
consideration
with an unequivocal No: "You cannot resolve the Kosovo conflict by
sending
troops to Albania to seal the border and thus be acting in favor of
Milosevic." (12) Rühe's message was quiete clear: everyone who tries to
seal the border in order to find a peaceful solution is taking sides
with
Milosevic. In order to disassociate yourself from Milosevic you have to
escalate the war between the Kosovo Albanians and the Serbs by
delivering
more and more weapons to the KLA!
This open German solidarity with the KLA has been as much an isolated
provocation as has the recognition of Tudjman's Croatia in 1991, 50
years
after the formation of the first Croatian state under the rule of the
fascist Ustashi regime.
Just like 1991 Germany again stood nearly alone against a huge majority
of
countries in Europe and the world. Just like 1991 Germany again
supported
a movement with a background rooted in the Nazi past, because the KLA is
partly led by the sons and grandsons of extreme right-wing Albanian
fighters, the heirs of those who fought during World War II in the
fascist
militias and the "Skanderbeg Volunteer SS Division" raised by the Nazis.
(13) The "National Front of Albania" (Balli Kombetar) which collaborated
with Nazi leaders in 1943/44 today boasts about its influence within the
KLA which has a program that seems to be a modified version of the 1943
Nazi utopia.
Thus the program of "ethnic cleansing" which Germany exported into the
Balkans in 1941 remained alive within the movement of the Kosovo
Albanian
nationalists during the 80s. "The nationalists have a two-point
platform"
wrote the New York Times in 1982: "First to establish what they call an
ethnically clean Albanian republic and then the merger with Albania to
form a greater Albania." (14) Whenever the KLA talks about "liberation"
or
"freeing" this has been up to now understood in the Nazi-sense of "free
of
something" i.e. "free of Jews" ("judenfrei"), "free of Gypsies" or "free
of Serbs". Noone could be really surprised when, beginning with June
1999,
the de facto rule of the KLA turned out to be a daily and a deadly trap
for thousands of non-Albanians, especially defenceless Serbs.
In the summer of 1998 Germany and the USA took not only opposite but
conflicting sides: While the USA - in the words of General Shelton, then
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - has had "concerns about the
techniques that are being used to put down, to squelch the uprising"
(15)
Germany on the other hand acted as the protective power for the KLA.
This
confrontation includes a strategic conflict within NATO: Is the Atlantic
Alliance supposed to help or to hinder the KLA? Should NATO as the KLA's
airforce contribute to the revision of state borders and the further
diminishing of Yugoslavia? Or is the alliance bound to clap down on such
a
type of militant secessionism?
It was Germany's insistence and the ignorance or thirst for adventure
within the leadership of the other NATO powers that brought the world's
biggest military alliance eventually in favor of the Albanian
nationalists. Germany has "given evidence of its prepareness to lead"
praised the influential Frankfurter Allgemeine. (16) Now Germany once
again took the lead in pressing for military intervention in Kosovo. The
New York Times reported: "German officials seem increasingly inchined
towards charting a military course to stop the violence in Kosovo." (17)
Indeed. "Mr. Kinkel threatens with a Nato intervention in Kosovo"
proclaimed the headlines of German papers on June 5, 1998. "The United
States, unlike Germany, rejects a snap decision about a military
intervention", wrote Frankfurter Allgemeine the following day. Volker
Rühe
was the first government official in Europe who as early as June 15,
1998
spoke in favor of a strike against Yugoslavia even without a UN Security
Council green light. This suggestion played havoc with not only the UN
Charter but also with the German constitution and the Treaty of Moscow
concerning German unification. This proposal was later taken up
positively
by the USA. We have to conclude, therefore, that Germany is not only
guilty of committing the crimes which are connected with the US-led
bombing of Yugoslavia, but is responsible for ardently working towards
triggering this war. The German concept for Kosovo includes the
following:
- to make a stand against the Yugoslav government
- unlimited support for the Kosovo Albanian nationalists who demand
independence and a lasting unification with Albania
- to demand for air-strikes against Yugoslavia in order to achieve a
NATO
protectorate for Kosovo which is supposed to be only an interim step
towards the independence of Kosovo.
Strategic differences between German and the US policies diminished
considerably in 1999 when the Clinton administration decided to go to
war
in favor of the ultra-secessionist KLA. They seem to gain, however, new
weight in the post-war debate about the final status of Kosovo. US
Secretary of State Madelaine Albright recently rejected the idea of
creating a greater Albania, whereas German policy seems to be pushing in
the opposite direction.
Karl Lamers, the influential CDU foreign affairs spokesman for the
opposition in the Bundestag said about the transformation of Kosovo into
a
NATO protectorate that this is "only the first step towards the
separation
of Kosovo from Yugoslavia" and that an independent Kosovo will be "only
an
interim step to merging ("Anschluss") with Albania." (18) Recently,
Lamers
mentioned with great satisfaction "that everything we are actually doing
in Kosovo, e. g. the creation of a new currency zone, is aimed at
creating
an independent Kosovo...". (19) Even Germany's red/green coalition
government does not want to recognize Kosovo as being a province of
Yugoslavia. That is the reason why in his last major statement Joschka
Fischer - Germany's vice-chancellor and secretary of state - let the
question of "the future status of the Kosovo" open claiming that it
would
be impossible to resolve this now. In an interview with a French
newspaper, however, he made clear that he had no doubts about the
Kosovo's
future status: "The international community is present in Kosovo and the
Balkans in order to show that - according to the example of resolving
the
'German question' in 1990 - the 'Albanian question' could be resolved
only
with the agreement of the neighbouring states." (20)
US government circles are quite aware of those ambitions of their rival,
Germany. Zbigniew Brzezinski called the Berlin republic a "geostrategic
main actor" and a "subversive big power inspired by an ambitious
vision".
Strobe Talbott, the deputy secretary of state, characterized Germany as
the seismic focal point of the current geopolitical earthquakes which
are
disrupting the Atlantic Alliance as well as the Balkans. He emphasized
that Germany is "the epicentre of thoses processes - enlargement and
expansion, extension and deepening." (21)
Within the context of the war against Yugoslavia the other great powers,
however, not only reacted to aggressive German moves but pursued their
own
special interests as well. The United States wanted to retain its
influence in Europe, to strengthen a worldwide role for NATO and to
weaken
Russias influence within the new world order. Great Britain und France
were eager to demonstrate their military superiority over Germany and
wanted to give a starting signal for the establishing of an independent
European intervention force (together with Germany) vis-a-vis the USA.
Each of these nations is a rival to the others and is trying to retain
or
achieve as much influence and power as possible. The war against
Yugoslavia has been the first, however, to be spurred on by Germany as
an
attempt to redesign current world order after the fall of the Berlin
Wall.
It has put the irrational elements and the destructive roots of
capitalistic societies into a new light.
(1) This contribution is a short description of a broader study:
Matthias
Küntzel, Der Weg in den Krieg. Deutschland, die Nato und das Kosovo,
Elefanten Press, Berlin 2000. The author´s e-mail address:
MatKuentzel@....
(2) This warning was published in the Yugoslavian journal Polityka; see
the minutes of the Bundestag meeting June 16, 1991, pp. 2560-1.
(3) Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Redefining the National Interest, Foreign
Affairs
Vol.78 No.4, July/August 1999 pp. 22-35.
(4) See Rupert Scholz, Das Festhalten an ungewollten Staaten schafft
keine
Stabilität, in: Die Welt, December 12, 1991; Rupert Scholz, Das
Selbstbestimmungsrecht und die deutsche Politik, in: Internationale
Politik 4/1995, S.51.
(5) "Deutschland und Albanien ... bekräftigen das Recht aller Völker,
frei
und ohne Einmischung von außen ihr Schicksal zu bestimmen und ihre
politische, wirtschaftliche, soziale und kulturelle Entwicklung nach
eigenem Wunsch zu gestalten." This declaration is published in the
Archiv
der Gegenwart, March 13, 1995, pp. 39819-20.
(6) Roger Fallgot, How Germany Backed KLA, in: The European, 21-27
September 1998. See for more details M. Küntzel, Der Weg in den Krieg
pp.
59-64.
(6) Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Redefining the National Interest, Foreign
Affairs
Vol.78 No.4, July/August 1999 pp. 22-35.
(7) See Die Zeit, May 12, 1999.
(8) Christian Schwarz-Schilling, March 16, 1999, Deutschlandradio,
quoted
in: Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung, Stichworte zur
Sicherheitspolitik, April 1998, p. 47.
(9) Russia, the USA, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany are
members of this informal but influential group.
(10) Roger Fallgot, ibid.
(11) Interview with Klaus Kinkel, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung, July 30,
1998.
(12) Mr. Rühe is quoted in the Frankfurter Allgemeine, June 9, 1998.
(13) See Chris Hedges, Kosovo's Next Masters? in: Foreign Affairs,
Vol.78,
No.3, May/June 1999, pp.24-42. "Although never much of a fighting force,
the Skanderbeg Division took part in the shameful roundup and
deportation
of the province's few hundred Jews during the Holocaust. ... The
decision
by KLA commanders to dress their police in black fatigues and order
their
fighters to salute with a cleched fist to the forehead has led many to
worry about these fascist antecedents." (ibid.)
(14) See Marvine Howe, Exodus of Serbians Stirs Province in Yugoslavia,
New York Times July 12, 1982.
(15) See New York Times, June 16, 1998.
(16) See Frankfurter Allgemeine, September 26, 1998.
(17) See New York Times, June 10, 1998.
(18) See the minutes of the Bundestag parliamentary session of April 15,
1999.
(19) See the minutes of the Bundestag parliamentary session of April 5,
2000.
(20) See Le Monde March 25, 2000, emphasis by the author.
(21) See Frankfurter Allgemeine, February 5, 1999.
Matthias Küntzel
Germany and Kosovo
How Germany's independent line paved the way to the Kosovo War
Contribution to the 2nd International Hearing of the European Tribunal
concerning Nato's war against Yugoslavia. Hamburg, April 16, 2000 (1)
In 1991, a delegation of the German Bundestag visited Kosovo for the
first
time in order to talk with Kosovo Albanian nationalist leaders. This
prompted - as early as 1991! - the warning by a senior member of the
Yugoslavian parliament that "the British and the Germans would create a
common intervention force with 70,000 soldiers in order to intervene in
Kosovo." (2) Indeed an early and accurate prophecy! So what about
Germany's role in preparing for the Kosovo war?
There were and there are strategic differences between German and the US
policies about how to retain or enhance hegemony. "As a wealthy status
quo
power, the United States has an interest in maintaining international
order", wrote Joseph S. Nye, Jr, a former US deputy secretary of
defense.
"In a world where there are some two hundred states but many thousands
of
often overlapping entities that might eventually make a claim to
nationhood, blind promotion of self-determination would have highly
problematic consequences." (3) Berlin, however, in seeking to create
conditions for an ongoing expansion of German influnce (that means:
changing the international order) does not share this priority. As
Rupert
Scholz, the former German secretary of defense, explained: "The aim of
maintaining "stability" in Europe seems to be a most dangerous one.
There
will not be any real stablity, which is able to maintain peace, if
individual nations are held prisoner in unwanted and unnatural
("unnatürliche") state organizations, which have been imposed upon
them."
Since 1990, German foreign policy has "constantly persisted in activly
advocating a universal right of self-determination." (4)
This policy has a particular bearing on Kosovo. The hidden war about
Kosovo's future started in 1995 at the latest. In February 1995 in the
presence of Roman Herzog, Germany's President at that time, Germany and
Albania signed a common declaration of principle at Tirana. This
declaration is rarely mentioned in the literature but nevertheless
decisive because it promised to find a "solution to the Kosovo question"
by advocating the right of self-determination for Kosovo's Albanians.
(5)
Advocating self-determination for Kosovo's Albanians, however, meant
advocating their right to secede from Yugoslavia. This declaration was
in
so far a kind of advance notice to continue Germany's 1991 course
(recognition of Croatia) in order to further split up Yugoslavia
following
a racist (völkisch) concept of self-determination.
In the period following, the German goverment did everything it could to
spur on the separation of Albanians within Kosovo. Germany supported and
financed those nationalists who sought to pursue the goal of full
independence by creating alternative governing institutions as well as
independent Albanian educational and medical systems in Kosovo which
systematically separated the majority of the people in Kosovo from the
other peoples of Yugoslavia. In addition, German secret diplomacy was
instrumental in helping the "Kosovo Liberation Army" (KLA), as they call
themselves, since its creation in February 1996. The daily newspaper
"The
European" stated that "German civil and military intelligence services
have been involved in training and equipping the rebels with the aim of
cementing German influence in the Balkan area." (6)
During those years, Germany unilaterally supported the secessionist
movements. In 1997 editor Johann Georg Reißmüller of the Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung (a German daily newspaper) wrote: "The US government
is
not at all happy with Germany's policy in Kosovo".
It was, however, exactly that year - 1997 - that the crisis in Kosovo
began to escalate. After the destruction of the Albanian army arsenals
the
KLA armed itself in order to start a large-scale nationalist rebellion.
This development and the following counter-attack by the Serbian police
moved Kosovo into the headlines and into the focal point of NATO's
considerations. How did Germany and the United States react?
"The Clinton administration is still uncertain about how to deal with
this
crisis", later wrote the weekly newspaper Die Zeit. A senior official
from
the German foreign office was sent to Washington to put pressure on the
deputy secretary of state, Strobe Talbott. "We urgently need U.S.
leadership now" claimed Germany's emissary. (7) This pattern: Germany
calls for the U.S. government - actually for a special wing of the U.S
government - to act against Yugoslavia were repeated between March 1998
and March 1999 over and over again. Let us now take a closer look at
that
pre-war diplomacy which paved the way to war.
The US government is responsible for most of the war crimes NATO
committed
against Yugoslavia. But even in 1998, the Clinton administration - split
in several fractions on how to deal with Milosevic and the Kosovo
Albanians' nationalism - hesitated, reacting uncertainly on a
case-by-case
basis, oscillating between supporting the KLA and letting Milosevic have
a
free hand in smashing them. Germany on the other hand knew what to do
and
how to act. The grand design of Germany's Kosovo policy had been in
effect
by March 1998. It was revealed by Germany's informal ambassador to the
Balkans, Christian Schwarz-Schilling, who on March 16, 1998 said: "We
should try to tell Milosevic the plain truth through pressure and even
military interventions that he can retain control over Kosovo as a part
of
Yugoslavia only if certain fundamentals are met. And if this is not the
case, the territory there will have to be transformed into a kind of
protectorate until those fundamentals are provided for." (8)
This idea of pushing the Kosovo's Albanians towards a military
confrontation with Milosevic in order to create a Kosovo protectorate
from
now on became the central point of Germany's Kosovo policy - either by
the
Kohl/Kinkel CDU government or the Schröder/Fischer SPD-Green coalition.
One condition was that international troops be stationed on Kosovo soil.
As early as March 1998 Germany accordingly put this matter on the agenda
at the London meeting of the international Contact Group on Yugoslavia.
(9)
The other condition was that Nato would have to enter Kosovo against the
will of the Yugoslav government. Accordingly, Germany sharpened its tone
towards Belgrad. Milosevic became the main target and remained so
whatever
his policy looked like.
But France, the UK, Italy and the dominating voices within the US
government still prefered to follow a less confrontational policy. In
1998, The European for example stated that "Washington realised that
pushing the Kosovars towards a military confrontation with Milosevic, as
the Germans wanted to do, would have a boomerang effect on the Balkans.
The United States put maximum pressure on Germany to stop supporting the
KLA behind the scenes, as did the other European countries such as
Britain
and France." (10) They termed the KLA activities "terrorist" and
supported
indirectly a Serbian counteroffensive against the KLA during the summer
of
1998 and appealed to Milosevic and the moderate Albanian leader Rugova
to
begin talks. The KLA, however, succeeded in provoking the Serbian police
force and in escalating armed clashes time and again. The policy of
de-escalation turned out to be a permanent failure as long as there was
a
continuity in the supply of KLA weapons and KLA mercenaries across the
Albanian border.
It was therefore not at all surprising that in the summer of 1998 all
the
efforts of the United Nations and the majority of Nato countries
(including the US) concentrated in the goal of cutting off the arms and
soldiers supplies in favor of the KLA. The Albanian government headed by
Fatos Nano who had disassociated himself from the KLA supported this
plan.
Inside NATO the idea of sending 7000 soldiers to cut off the traffic in
weapons began to take shape.
During this crucial situation, however, Germany's covering up for the
KLA
became both public and evident: The German government vetoed the
cutting-off of the supply of weapons for the KLA! Klaus Kinkel, then
head
of the German foreign office said: "Of course you have to consider
whether
you are permitted from a moral and ethnical point of view to prevent the
Kosovo-Albanians from buying weapons for their self-defense." (11)
Volker
Rühe, then head of the ministry of defense answered to this
consideration
with an unequivocal No: "You cannot resolve the Kosovo conflict by
sending
troops to Albania to seal the border and thus be acting in favor of
Milosevic." (12) Rühe's message was quiete clear: everyone who tries to
seal the border in order to find a peaceful solution is taking sides
with
Milosevic. In order to disassociate yourself from Milosevic you have to
escalate the war between the Kosovo Albanians and the Serbs by
delivering
more and more weapons to the KLA!
This open German solidarity with the KLA has been as much an isolated
provocation as has the recognition of Tudjman's Croatia in 1991, 50
years
after the formation of the first Croatian state under the rule of the
fascist Ustashi regime.
Just like 1991 Germany again stood nearly alone against a huge majority
of
countries in Europe and the world. Just like 1991 Germany again
supported
a movement with a background rooted in the Nazi past, because the KLA is
partly led by the sons and grandsons of extreme right-wing Albanian
fighters, the heirs of those who fought during World War II in the
fascist
militias and the "Skanderbeg Volunteer SS Division" raised by the Nazis.
(13) The "National Front of Albania" (Balli Kombetar) which collaborated
with Nazi leaders in 1943/44 today boasts about its influence within the
KLA which has a program that seems to be a modified version of the 1943
Nazi utopia.
Thus the program of "ethnic cleansing" which Germany exported into the
Balkans in 1941 remained alive within the movement of the Kosovo
Albanian
nationalists during the 80s. "The nationalists have a two-point
platform"
wrote the New York Times in 1982: "First to establish what they call an
ethnically clean Albanian republic and then the merger with Albania to
form a greater Albania." (14) Whenever the KLA talks about "liberation"
or
"freeing" this has been up to now understood in the Nazi-sense of "free
of
something" i.e. "free of Jews" ("judenfrei"), "free of Gypsies" or "free
of Serbs". Noone could be really surprised when, beginning with June
1999,
the de facto rule of the KLA turned out to be a daily and a deadly trap
for thousands of non-Albanians, especially defenceless Serbs.
In the summer of 1998 Germany and the USA took not only opposite but
conflicting sides: While the USA - in the words of General Shelton, then
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff - has had "concerns about the
techniques that are being used to put down, to squelch the uprising"
(15)
Germany on the other hand acted as the protective power for the KLA.
This
confrontation includes a strategic conflict within NATO: Is the Atlantic
Alliance supposed to help or to hinder the KLA? Should NATO as the KLA's
airforce contribute to the revision of state borders and the further
diminishing of Yugoslavia? Or is the alliance bound to clap down on such
a
type of militant secessionism?
It was Germany's insistence and the ignorance or thirst for adventure
within the leadership of the other NATO powers that brought the world's
biggest military alliance eventually in favor of the Albanian
nationalists. Germany has "given evidence of its prepareness to lead"
praised the influential Frankfurter Allgemeine. (16) Now Germany once
again took the lead in pressing for military intervention in Kosovo. The
New York Times reported: "German officials seem increasingly inchined
towards charting a military course to stop the violence in Kosovo." (17)
Indeed. "Mr. Kinkel threatens with a Nato intervention in Kosovo"
proclaimed the headlines of German papers on June 5, 1998. "The United
States, unlike Germany, rejects a snap decision about a military
intervention", wrote Frankfurter Allgemeine the following day. Volker
Rühe
was the first government official in Europe who as early as June 15,
1998
spoke in favor of a strike against Yugoslavia even without a UN Security
Council green light. This suggestion played havoc with not only the UN
Charter but also with the German constitution and the Treaty of Moscow
concerning German unification. This proposal was later taken up
positively
by the USA. We have to conclude, therefore, that Germany is not only
guilty of committing the crimes which are connected with the US-led
bombing of Yugoslavia, but is responsible for ardently working towards
triggering this war. The German concept for Kosovo includes the
following:
- to make a stand against the Yugoslav government
- unlimited support for the Kosovo Albanian nationalists who demand
independence and a lasting unification with Albania
- to demand for air-strikes against Yugoslavia in order to achieve a
NATO
protectorate for Kosovo which is supposed to be only an interim step
towards the independence of Kosovo.
Strategic differences between German and the US policies diminished
considerably in 1999 when the Clinton administration decided to go to
war
in favor of the ultra-secessionist KLA. They seem to gain, however, new
weight in the post-war debate about the final status of Kosovo. US
Secretary of State Madelaine Albright recently rejected the idea of
creating a greater Albania, whereas German policy seems to be pushing in
the opposite direction.
Karl Lamers, the influential CDU foreign affairs spokesman for the
opposition in the Bundestag said about the transformation of Kosovo into
a
NATO protectorate that this is "only the first step towards the
separation
of Kosovo from Yugoslavia" and that an independent Kosovo will be "only
an
interim step to merging ("Anschluss") with Albania." (18) Recently,
Lamers
mentioned with great satisfaction "that everything we are actually doing
in Kosovo, e. g. the creation of a new currency zone, is aimed at
creating
an independent Kosovo...". (19) Even Germany's red/green coalition
government does not want to recognize Kosovo as being a province of
Yugoslavia. That is the reason why in his last major statement Joschka
Fischer - Germany's vice-chancellor and secretary of state - let the
question of "the future status of the Kosovo" open claiming that it
would
be impossible to resolve this now. In an interview with a French
newspaper, however, he made clear that he had no doubts about the
Kosovo's
future status: "The international community is present in Kosovo and the
Balkans in order to show that - according to the example of resolving
the
'German question' in 1990 - the 'Albanian question' could be resolved
only
with the agreement of the neighbouring states." (20)
US government circles are quite aware of those ambitions of their rival,
Germany. Zbigniew Brzezinski called the Berlin republic a "geostrategic
main actor" and a "subversive big power inspired by an ambitious
vision".
Strobe Talbott, the deputy secretary of state, characterized Germany as
the seismic focal point of the current geopolitical earthquakes which
are
disrupting the Atlantic Alliance as well as the Balkans. He emphasized
that Germany is "the epicentre of thoses processes - enlargement and
expansion, extension and deepening." (21)
Within the context of the war against Yugoslavia the other great powers,
however, not only reacted to aggressive German moves but pursued their
own
special interests as well. The United States wanted to retain its
influence in Europe, to strengthen a worldwide role for NATO and to
weaken
Russias influence within the new world order. Great Britain und France
were eager to demonstrate their military superiority over Germany and
wanted to give a starting signal for the establishing of an independent
European intervention force (together with Germany) vis-a-vis the USA.
Each of these nations is a rival to the others and is trying to retain
or
achieve as much influence and power as possible. The war against
Yugoslavia has been the first, however, to be spurred on by Germany as
an
attempt to redesign current world order after the fall of the Berlin
Wall.
It has put the irrational elements and the destructive roots of
capitalistic societies into a new light.
(1) This contribution is a short description of a broader study:
Matthias
Küntzel, Der Weg in den Krieg. Deutschland, die Nato und das Kosovo,
Elefanten Press, Berlin 2000. The author´s e-mail address:
MatKuentzel@....
(2) This warning was published in the Yugoslavian journal Polityka; see
the minutes of the Bundestag meeting June 16, 1991, pp. 2560-1.
(3) Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Redefining the National Interest, Foreign
Affairs
Vol.78 No.4, July/August 1999 pp. 22-35.
(4) See Rupert Scholz, Das Festhalten an ungewollten Staaten schafft
keine
Stabilität, in: Die Welt, December 12, 1991; Rupert Scholz, Das
Selbstbestimmungsrecht und die deutsche Politik, in: Internationale
Politik 4/1995, S.51.
(5) "Deutschland und Albanien ... bekräftigen das Recht aller Völker,
frei
und ohne Einmischung von außen ihr Schicksal zu bestimmen und ihre
politische, wirtschaftliche, soziale und kulturelle Entwicklung nach
eigenem Wunsch zu gestalten." This declaration is published in the
Archiv
der Gegenwart, March 13, 1995, pp. 39819-20.
(6) Roger Fallgot, How Germany Backed KLA, in: The European, 21-27
September 1998. See for more details M. Küntzel, Der Weg in den Krieg
pp.
59-64.
(6) Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Redefining the National Interest, Foreign
Affairs
Vol.78 No.4, July/August 1999 pp. 22-35.
(7) See Die Zeit, May 12, 1999.
(8) Christian Schwarz-Schilling, March 16, 1999, Deutschlandradio,
quoted
in: Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung, Stichworte zur
Sicherheitspolitik, April 1998, p. 47.
(9) Russia, the USA, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany are
members of this informal but influential group.
(10) Roger Fallgot, ibid.
(11) Interview with Klaus Kinkel, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung, July 30,
1998.
(12) Mr. Rühe is quoted in the Frankfurter Allgemeine, June 9, 1998.
(13) See Chris Hedges, Kosovo's Next Masters? in: Foreign Affairs,
Vol.78,
No.3, May/June 1999, pp.24-42. "Although never much of a fighting force,
the Skanderbeg Division took part in the shameful roundup and
deportation
of the province's few hundred Jews during the Holocaust. ... The
decision
by KLA commanders to dress their police in black fatigues and order
their
fighters to salute with a cleched fist to the forehead has led many to
worry about these fascist antecedents." (ibid.)
(14) See Marvine Howe, Exodus of Serbians Stirs Province in Yugoslavia,
New York Times July 12, 1982.
(15) See New York Times, June 16, 1998.
(16) See Frankfurter Allgemeine, September 26, 1998.
(17) See New York Times, June 10, 1998.
(18) See the minutes of the Bundestag parliamentary session of April 15,
1999.
(19) See the minutes of the Bundestag parliamentary session of April 5,
2000.
(20) See Le Monde March 25, 2000, emphasis by the author.
(21) See Frankfurter Allgemeine, February 5, 1999.
IL DANNO E LA BEFFA
E' stato il bel tempo ad ostacolare la KFOR nel completamento delle sue
operazioni di "peacekeeping" per la valle di Presevo, nella Serbia
Meridionale: questa l'opinione del comandante italiano delle truppe di
occupazione, generale Carlo Cabigiosu, secondo il quotidiano "La
Repubblica". La KFOR avrebbe dovuto impedire gli attacchi degli
irredentisti pan-albanesi, che viceversa si sono addentrati in migliaia
al di fuori del Kosmet, nella valle di Presevo: "Speravo cadesse almeno
un metro di neve, ma e' venuta in ritardo", ha detto Cabigiosu.
Questa scorretta previsione metereologica ha creato un tale stato di
tensione nella KFOR che il 16 dicembre e' stato ordinato di sparare ad
altezza d'uomo a Leposavic contro una manifestazione di protesta dei
serbi, uccidendone due.
KFOR COMMANDER: KFOR'S HANDS TIED BECAUSE OF GOOD WEATHER
CONDITIONS
ROME, December 18 (Tanjug) The warm weather has prevented KFOR
from completing its overall peace operations in the Presevo valley in
southern Serbia, Rome daily La Republica quoted KFOR commander, Italian
general Carlo Cabigiosu as saying.
"I had hoped for at least one metre of snow, but the snowfall
has
been late," Gen. Cabigiosu set out adding that the snow would have made
it
more difficult for the terrorists to infiltrate the buffer zone in
southern
Serbia.
---
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E' stato il bel tempo ad ostacolare la KFOR nel completamento delle sue
operazioni di "peacekeeping" per la valle di Presevo, nella Serbia
Meridionale: questa l'opinione del comandante italiano delle truppe di
occupazione, generale Carlo Cabigiosu, secondo il quotidiano "La
Repubblica". La KFOR avrebbe dovuto impedire gli attacchi degli
irredentisti pan-albanesi, che viceversa si sono addentrati in migliaia
al di fuori del Kosmet, nella valle di Presevo: "Speravo cadesse almeno
un metro di neve, ma e' venuta in ritardo", ha detto Cabigiosu.
Questa scorretta previsione metereologica ha creato un tale stato di
tensione nella KFOR che il 16 dicembre e' stato ordinato di sparare ad
altezza d'uomo a Leposavic contro una manifestazione di protesta dei
serbi, uccidendone due.
KFOR COMMANDER: KFOR'S HANDS TIED BECAUSE OF GOOD WEATHER
CONDITIONS
ROME, December 18 (Tanjug) The warm weather has prevented KFOR
from completing its overall peace operations in the Presevo valley in
southern Serbia, Rome daily La Republica quoted KFOR commander, Italian
general Carlo Cabigiosu as saying.
"I had hoped for at least one metre of snow, but the snowfall
has
been late," Gen. Cabigiosu set out adding that the snow would have made
it
more difficult for the terrorists to infiltrate the buffer zone in
southern
Serbia.
---
Bollettino di controinformazione del
Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'"
Sito WEB : http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
opinioni delle realta' che compongono il Coordinamento, ma
vengono fatti circolare per il loro contenuto informativo al
solo scopo di segnalazione e commento ("for fair use only")
Archivio di JUGOINFO:
> http://www.ecircle.it/an_ecircle/articles?ecircleid%c2%91979 oppure
> http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
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Per cancellarsi: <jugoinfo-unsubscribe@...>
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> http://www.wpb.be/lalkar/lalkar11/1102.htm
Kosovo - Another Victim of Predatory Imperialism
Introduction
As our television screens are filled with pictures of horrible
atrocities
that have been committed against innocent Kosovan Albanians, just as not
so long ago they were filled with even worse atrocities committed
against
Bosnian Muslims, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the
imperialist media expect people to draw: that the Serbian leader,
Milosevic, is an inhuman monster cast in the mould of Adolf Hitler,
which
the `international community' (i.e., US imperialism, backed up by
British
imperialism) has a right – a duty even – to overthrow by any means
necessary. The means being advocated is bombing of Serbian
infrastructure
– though most of the quality newspapers are not at all sure what that
would achieve, other than to unify the Serbian people more firmly than
ever behind Milosevic.
While imperialism is appealing to our humanitarian instincts, our hatred
of human suffering, we must never lose sight of the fact that
humanitarianism is entirely alien to imperialism. As we look around and
see the suffering and thousands of deaths of the innocent occurring in
Iraq, for example, as a result of the blockade imposed by US
imperialism,
and its attempts to strangle North Korea and Cuba, to say nothing of
bombing raids on Libya, Sudan, Afghanistan, as we remember imperialism's
genocidal wars of aggression in Korea and Vietnam, we can find no basis
for US imperialism to condemn anybody as war criminals unless it first
starts with itself. Its `humanitarianism' is obviously just a propaganda
ploy to mobilise people and nations in its support.
Knowing all this, should we nevertheless support US imperialism in its
determination to interfere in Yugoslavia's affairs, regardless of what
might be its real motives, in order to bring an end to the horrible
suffering of Kosovan Albanians? Subjected to the Pax Americana, would
they
not at least be relieved of the horrors of Serbian misrule?
This article will argue quite categorically that imposition of the Pax
Americana should be fought at any cost since for the masses of people,
life under imperialist domination would be far harder than ever it was
under Serbia. The bloodshed would not stop, since US imperialism is far
more ruthless in wiping out its opponents than the Serbians could ever
be.
All that would change is that we would not see these massacres on the
television, which rarely, if ever, shows us pictures of the atrocities
committed by US allies: for instance, the atrocities committed against
the
Serbs by the Croatians and Bosnian Muslims or the Kosovo Liberation
Army.
Even to the extent that extreme Serbian nationalism has been guilty of
provoking bloodshed, the scale of the bloodletting has been made
possible
only by the intervention of outside forces, principally western
imperialism, in supplying armaments and finance to rival nationalists
from
Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. Had it not been for this outside
interference, Yugoslavia's domestic feuds would never have escalated and
spiralled out of the control of the local protagonists in the way that
they have done. The Serb leadership is certainly to blame for fanning
the
flames of nationalism, but it is western imperialism that has poured
petrol on these flames and set the whole region alight.
Background to the Balkan crisis
Let us endeavour, then, to try to understand how the present parlous
situation has arisen in Yugoslavia, blowing up seemingly out of nowhere
when only 15 short years ago "Yugoslavia could, and did, walk tall in
the
world boasting of the cultural diversity which made their country
unique"
(Bennett, C., Yugoslavia's Bloody Collapse, Hurst & Company, London,
1995,
p. 7). Moreover, far from nationalism being on the increase, and
despite
the best endeavours of nationalist politicians, "Yugoslavia's last
census,
which was carried out months before fighting broke out, registered a
jump
in the numbers of people who considered themselves Yugoslav, rather than
Croat, Serb or any other nationality" (ibid. p. 9).
There was a great deal within Yugoslavia which favoured the emergence of
a
Yugoslav national identity to take the place of `national' identities
based partly on religious difference and partly on which feudal empire
happened to have ruled the different regions inhabited by South Slavs.
The
Serb and Croat spoken languages are very close: in fact they are in
effect
the same language adulterated in different regions by a heavy input of
different neighbouring languages. Both Serbs and Croats have a history
of
struggle against foreign rule, and of mutual co-operation during those
struggles, although the oppressor in the case of the Serbs was the
Ottoman
empire while in the case of the Croats it was the Habsburg
(Austro-Hungarian) empire. In Yugoslavia Croats and Serbs had a common
territory incorporating all those areas, such as Bosnia Hercegovina,
where
neither Serb nor Croat nor anybody else constituted a majority of the
population. Muslims, incidentally, were originally Serbs who converted
to
Islam during the Ottoman empire. Their conversion took them out of the
Orthodox Christian community to which most Serbs belonged and which was
under Ottoman rule a self-governing entity. Muslim converts came under
different laws and a different system of governance, leading Muslims to
cease to identify with the Serbs. But there was no reason why in a
strictly secular society Muslims should not identify with Yugoslavia,
for
they had so much common history with Serbs that only religion really
stood
between them once the peculiar forms of Ottoman self-governance were
removed.
>From the point of view of nascent capitalism, it made much more sense to
create a home market over a geographical area of the size (and
containing
the natural resources) of an average European country at least, rather
than try to make one's mark in some Serb, Croat or Bosnian
mini-statelet.
The ousting of the Ottoman empire by the Serbs, and the break-up of the
Habsburg empire as a consequence of its defeat in the First World War,
made the realisation of Yugoslavia possible, although tensions between
Serb and Croat within the new state (which came into being in 1918) were
inevitable, if only to the extent that they had been pitted against each
other in the war by the Austro-Hungarian empire.
The marriage of Serb and Croat, however, foundered on major
incompatibilities. Serbs considered themselves superior as having fought
for, and won, their own independence from imperial rule, and having
fought
for, and won, the liberation of their territory from Austro-Hungary,
which
had invaded it in the First World War. Croats, on the other hand,
considered themselves superior because their territories were
economically
more developed, and because their proximity to the imperialist powers
enabled them to participate in the culture and sophistication that
accompanies wealth. In fact, Croatia's relative wealth was a major
sticking point as far as the unity of Yugoslavia was concerned, for the
Croatian bourgeoisie naturally thought that wealth should remain in
Croatia, while the dominant Serbian bourgeoisie thought it should be
more
evenly distributed – in their favour! As a result, the Serbs used their
dominance in the state organs to achieve this. Finding a formula in
which
Serb ambitions and Croat ambitions could be harmoniously accommodated
for
their mutual benefit proved impossible at the time, and relations
between
the two communities soured throughout the marriage. Yet nevertheless
there
was sufficient common interest for the parties to keep the marriage
going
and continue to look for ways to patch up their differences.
The Second World War
"The first Yugoslavia was not an unmitigated disaster doomed to end in
the
slaughter of the Second World War. That it did so has more to do with
foreign intervention and the exceptional circumstances of 1941 than any
innate desire of Serbs and Croats to wipe each other out." (Bennett,
p.33).
When the Second World War broke out, Yugoslavia initially came to an
accommodation with Hitler's Germany to allow German supplies (though not
troops) to pass through Yugoslavia to supply the German war effort in
Greece. This agreement, apparently designed to save Yugoslavia from
German
invasion, was unpopular amongst both Serbs and Croats and led to an
immediate coup d'etat, which overthrew the government. Axis forces
promptly invaded. Yugoslavia was carved up among Axis partners – Italy,
Bulgaria, Albania and Hungary all acquired sizeable portions, while
Germany took control of what was left through quisling governments –
that
of Ante Pavelic's Ustasi in Croatia and of Nedic in Serbia. The Ustasi
were a right-wing extreme Croat separatist organisation with little
popular support among Croats (their membership being estimated at 40,000
at most). Historically the organisation had opposed Croatia ever
becoming
part of Yugoslavia, and, by the outbreak of the Second World War, most
of
its membership was based in Bosnia Hercegovina rather than in Croatia
proper. It was the Ustasi who first introduced ethnic cleansing to
modern
Yugoslavia as they set about razing Serb villages in Croatian territory
with the express aim of `killing a third, forcing a third into exile and
converting the remaining third to Catholicism.' In the event, one in 6
Serbs living in the part of Yugoslavia handed over by Hitler to the
Ustasi
(the major part of Croatia and Bosnia Hercegovina) were slaughtered.
This murderous activity, however, did not lead to undying enmity between
Serbs and Croats, because Tito's partisans, who fought the German
occupation of Yugoslavia as well as Serb and Croat quislings alike, was
made up of both Serbs and Croats, even if, as might be expected, Serbs
predominated – for it was after all the Serbs who were suffering most
under the German occupation. Tito himself was half Croat (the other half
Slovene).
Tito's Yugoslavia
Once the war was over, Tito's partisans seized control of the whole of
Yugoslavia from the defeated Axis powers. To reconcile the communities
that had been set against each other in the war, the new government
copied
from the Soviet Union's constitution all those elements which guaranteed
the fullest national rights to each and every one of Yugoslavia's
communities. The new constitution of Yugoslavia was adopted on 31
January
1946, setting up a federation of 6 Republics (Bosnia Hercegovina,
Croatia,
Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia), with full rights of
secession, plus the autonomous province of Vojvodina and the autonomous
region of Kosovo within Serbia.
Although the constitution was copied from the Soviet Union, Tito's
`communism' was but a thin veneer for bourgeois Yugoslav nationalism.
What
was set up in Yugoslavia was not a communist system, but a system of
`workers' control' – i.e., production for profit, but profit to be
shared
among the workers at the production plants. Such a system was designed
to
enable a new Yugoslav bourgeoisie to emerge from among a meritocratic
elite - the production managers, who would of course take a
disproportionate share of the profits in question. Practice, however,
proved that (as indeed it had proved several times previously in world
history) that production for profit (i.e., capitalism) is incompatible
with the well-being of the majority of the workers. To the extent that
Yugoslavia of necessity had to provide civilised living standards for
the
workers who `controlled' production, it ceased to be sufficiently
profitable and would have collapsed but for one thing – the support of
foreign imperialism – above all, US imperialism. The latter was quick to
seize the opportunity, presented by the widespread belief that
Yugoslavia
was `communist', to use it as a propaganda weapon against communism
proper. Business Week of 12 November 1950 openly bragged that for the US
in particular and the West in general, supporting Tito had turned out to
be one of the least expensive ways of containing Russian communism. The
cost of western aid to Tito had amounted, at the time, to $51.7 million
–
far less than the billion dollars that the US had spent in Greece to
achieve the same result. And, in an interview in the Daily Telegraph of
12
December 1949, Anthony Eden foresaw that Tito's example and influence
would be able decisively to alter the course of events in central and
eastern Europe. The Truman administration decided to ensure that Tito's
experiment with `market socialism' was to appear to be successful, as a
means of supporting `market socialists' attempting to seize control in
the
USSR and eastern Europe. This was all part of the propaganda drive to
try
to prove to the proletariat of the whole world that scientific socialism
was wrong to claim that only a centralised planned economy can replace
and
do away with the dangerously outmoded capitalist system of production,
with its inevitable crises arising from the anarchy of production
inherent
in the capitalist system, and that only a centralised planned economy
can
guarantee to the working masses an ever-increasing standard of living.
Imperialism's ploy was to `disprove' this not only by economic blockade
and maintaining a state of constant threat of war which would hold back
the living standards of those living in communist societies, but also by
providing an apparent `living proof' that market socialism can be
successful.
Thus Bennett notes (p. 59): "Without western economic support Yugoslavia
would probably have crumbled in the face of a concerted economic
blockade
by the Soviet bloc [despite the fact that there was no economic blockade
by the western bloc!]. In September 1949, the Truman administration
granted Yugoslavia a $20 million aid package and by 1960 Yugoslavia had
consumed more than $2 billion worth of non-repayable western aid. Aid
became fundamental to Yugoslavia's development and allowed Yugoslavs to
live way beyond their means "
During these years of relative prosperity for all, underpinned by a
Constitution providing for strict equality and fairness between
Yugoslavia's communities, the Yugoslav `national question' became
quiescent. Everybody profited from being a Yugoslav. According to
Bennett
(p. 65):
"Great winners in Tito's Yugoslavia were the country's smaller and more
backward peoples, the Macedonians, Muslim Slavs, and to a lesser extent
Hungarians and Albanians. The security provided by the Titoist system
allowed Macedonian and Muslim Slavs to thrive culturally as never before
and to evolve a modern and confident national identity."
Imperialism withdraws support
Once market socialist revisionism had been planted in the Soviet Union
and
had irreversibly taken root under the aegis of Khrushchev and those who
followed him, US imperialism's enthusiasm for spending billions of
dollars
to prop up the Yugoslav economy rapidly vanished. As Bennett notes, "The
crunch came about the time of Tito's death [1980], when the loans dried
up
and Yugoslavia had to begin repaying the national debt [this had risen
from $3.5 billion in 1973 to $20.5 billion in 1981]. It coincided with
the
recession in western Europe stemmming from the Second Oil Shock of 1979,
while the debt burden was aggravated by high interest rates and an
exceptionally strong dollar. Between 1982 and 1989 the standard of
living
fell nearly 40% and in December 1989 inflation peaked at more than
2,000%."
As imperialist contributions to the Yugoslav coffers declined, so did
Yugoslav living standards. In these circumstances the bourgeois
leadership
of the Yugoslav `communist' party did what all bourgeois leaders do,
namely, find a diversion for the anger of the masses – a scapegoat to
take
the blame for the failures of the capitalist system. Hence the revival
of
Serb and Croat nationalism within Yugoslavia. In Croatia workers were
told
that their plunging living conditions were caused by unfair favouritism
within the Yugoslav state towards the Serbs. This led to a surge in the
Croatian nationalist movement, which was allowed to flourish and
propagate
its views openly. In Serbia workers were encouraged to blame the
parasitism of all other Yugoslav communities for the fall in Serbian
living standards. Yet all this propaganda, though it undoubtedly gave
rise
to virulent nationalist movements, did not prevent most ordinary people
from wanting to identify with Yugoslavia rather than their `nation', as
we
have seen from their responses to the census carried out shortly before
the fighting broke out. Ordinary people, having savoured the advantages
of
co-existence, have no interest in communal violence, but have to be
dragged into it by force.
Imperialism finally pulled the plug on Yugoslavia as eastern Europe
defected from the communist camp. Thus Bennett (p.11): "As communism
collapsed in the rest of Europe and the threat of Warsaw Pact invasion
disappeared [`Warsaw Pact invasion' is an imperialist euphemism for the
revolutionary effect that communist example has on the working masses in
capitalist countries], Yugoslavia lost the unique geopolitical position
it
had occupied in world politics for more than four decades. Diplomatic
activity and foreign investment shifted away from Yugoslavia towards
Eastern Europe's emerging democracies, and, without the Eastern bogey to
bind the country together and Western money to bail out the economy,
Yugoslavs found themselves for the first time entirely on their own."
It was at this point that Yugoslavia's ruling elites gave up their
attempts at co-operation. The relatively advanced Slovenes and Croat
bourgeoisies decided that their futures were better secured under the
aegis of German imperialism than within Yugoslavia's economic shambles
and
they bailed out. Only the Serbian bourgeoisie resisted the pressure to
become an imperialist stooge and sought to contine to battle for
economic
independence. This goal, however, was being sabotaged by the secession
of
republics, deserting to the enemy bearing with them much of Yugoslavia's
most precious assets. This is why Serbia went to war to try to prevent
the
secessions, while Europe and the US laboured to encourage them. The more
Serbia tried to halt the process of Yugoslav fragmentation by reversing
constitutional freedoms and increasing police and army control, the
louder
the howls of protest against Great Serbian chauvinism, suppression of
national rights, etc., etc., the more the masses were drawn into
communal
politics. Imperialism had Serbia caught in a bind, a trap that tightened
its hold with every attempt on Serbia's part to escape.
As is now known, Serbia was defeated in the civil war unleashed to
retain
Croatia within Yugoslavia, and again in the war to retain Bosnia
Hercegovina – largely as a result of massive assistance provided by
imperialism in the form of armaments and credits, and, in the case of
Bosnia, actual military intervention. The West's intervention ensured
that
what should have been a local difficulty requiring brisk suppression of
a
small band of frustrated compradors with little popular support actually
became a full scale war in which thousands perished and massive
destruction of homes and economic infrastructure took place – all grist
to
the mill of imperialist multinationals which looked forward to lucrative
reconstruction contracts when the war was over.
Kosovo
Kosovo is just the latest example of imperialist-inspired disintegration
of Yugoslavia. The majority Albanian population settled in the area
after
it became under-populated following the Serbian defeat by Turkish
warlords
at the battle of Kosovo Polje (the field of blackbirds) on 28 June 1389!
This battle, heavily mythologised, is the basis of Serbia's claim that
Kosovo is, despite its 90% Albanian majority, an integral part of
Serbia!
That claim, in turn, is bound to antagonise the overwhelming majority of
Kosovo's population, since there has been no Serb majority in the region
for over two centuries.
After Tito took power in Yugoslavia, there was originally no attempt
made
to win the hearts and minds of Kosovo's Albanians, who were far from
happy
to be part of Yugoslavia. They had been treated as a subject people in
pre-second world war Yugoslavia – Kosovo having been annexed by
Yugoslavia
from Albania, as a result of the latter being on the losing side in the
First World War and being too weak to prevent the loss of that
territory.
The inevitable result of this discrimination and oppression was that at
the time of the Second World War, Kossovars by and large sided with
Germany in that War. As a result of this they were poorly regarded by
Yugoslavs, who saw no reason to devote much in the way of resources to
this backward region. By the late 1960s, however, Kossovars began taking
to the streets to protest at their oppression. Tito accepted that their
grievances were justified and set about providing them with the same
rights as were enjoyed by other minority communities in Yugoslavia,
stopping short only at recognising that they had any right of secession.
Thus Albanian was recognised as the principal official language of the
region, a university was set up in Pristina as well as an institute for
promoting Albanian culture. With imperialist funds flowing freely into
Yugoslavia at the time, it was possible to direct some of this money
towards Kossovo, perhaps to dampen down any interest Kossovans might
otherwise have had in transferring their allegiance to socialist
Albania.
Hence "funds began to flow into Kosovo to finance a crash programme of
economic expansion. Albanians were encouraged to join the League of
Communists, the state administration and even the police force. Between
1971 and 1975, 70% of Kosovo's budget and investments were paid for out
of
federal sources." (Bennett, p. 72).
But the investment that flowed into Kosovo built large modern plants
that
yielded relatively few jobs. To the extent that living conditions
improved, this was largely aid-dependent.
It follows then that from 1980 onwards, as imperialism cut back its
funding of Yugoslavia, which then had to start repaying its massive
debts
from its own resources, Kosovo suffered badly. By March 1981 Kosovo
students were already demonstrating against poor living conditions and
job
prospects. Because living conditions were deteriorating all over
Yugoslavia and its government had no solution to this problem
whatsoever,
it had absolutely no way of coming to terms with the students' demands,
without encouraging like demands from other parts of the country. Its
only
possible response in the circumstances was to suppress the protests by
force. Troops and police moved into Pristina University campus to quell
the unrest. At least 12 people died and 150 were wounded. Heavy jail
sentences were imposed on demonstrators. The net effect of this was that
most of the goodwill created by the years of financial investment in
Kosovo was wiped out practically overnight.
The nationalist card
It was against Kosovo that the Yugoslav government first started playing
the nationalist card in earnest, in order to divert the anger of the
Yugoslav masses, particularly the Serbians, away from the bourgeoisified
`communist' elite (who were really responsible for the country's parlous
state):
"Articles written by [Serb] nationalists which would never have been
published during Tito's lifetime began to appear in the aftermath of the
unrest in Kosovo in 1981." Kosovan Albanians were accused of
perpetrating
genocide against Serbs, with a view to terrorising them into leaving the
region. Bennett considers that there was no truth in this allegation,
but
whether it be true or false, what cannot be denied is the fact that the
basis of Serb/Albanian co-existence began irretrievably to break down.
In
fact, Milosevic's rise to power was, in its final stages, effected
through
his willingness to encourage the most rabid Serb nationalism. His
popularity was based on telling the Serbs the lies that his party rivals
did not care tell them – i.e., that the explanation for their falling
living standards was their merciless exploitation by ungrateful
minorities
such as the Albanians. Once this nationalist analysis was unleashed,
however, it came to be directed at all Yugoslavia's non-Serb people,
turning the non-antagonistic contradictions between them into
antagonistic
ones and opening up a weakness in the fabric of the body politic which
laid Yugoslavia to decimation at the hands of imperialism as soon as the
moment for this was ripe.
The growth of nationalism was further encouraged by the conditions of
market socialism that of necessity pitted one region against the rest.
Each region sought to benefit at the expense of the rest, with the
result
that:
"All republics and provinces were guilty of pursuing their own
`national',
rather than Yugoslav, economic goals, often at the expense of the rest
of
the federation. Double capacity and even protectionism between republics
were features of Yugoslavia's economic landscape " and "instead of a
single economy, Yugoslavia was fragmenting into eight mini-states."
(Bennett, p. 75).
This was hardly the type of capitalism that was likely to thrive in a
world where to an ever larger extent it is monopolies which rule the
roost. This fragmentation went in the opposite direction of what
Yugoslavia needed to thrive, if it was ever going to thrive at all, as a
capitalist economy.
It is in this context that Milosevic resorted to the concept of Greater
Serbia to build an economic base of viable size. If minority communities
could not be maintained within Yugoslavia willingly, then they must be
retained forcibly, using as the instruments for their retention the Serb
communities scattered throughout most of the country. The English,
French
and Spanish nations were created this way, and, had there been no
outside
interference, no doubt the Yugoslav nation might have been created this
way as well. Nowadays, however, as the example of Yugoslavia shows, it
is
not possible to open up such antagonisms without powerful imperialist
predators taking advantage of the situation in order to enslave
oppressor
and oppressed alike.
Imperialism's interest in Yugoslavia
Imperialism's interests in Yugoslavia are manifold. Both European and US
imperialism want to exploit it, and disputes have arisen between them as
to the sharing of the booty. As we have seen, it was European
intervention
in recognising seceding states in the first place that lit the flames of
war. This fact is recognised even by the imperialist media. In fact the
International Herald Tribune of 20 September 1995 commented that the
whole
situation had been inflamed by imperialism, stating that western Europe,
led by Germany, had recognised Bosnia's Muslim government, knowing full
well that the Serbs would fight to overthrow it, and that from the start
the West had thrown its weight against the Bosnian Serbs. The wars were
then very greatly prolonged by US imperialism intervening just as peace
terms had been accepted on European terms to enable it to snatch victory
from European jaws and secure a good part of the booty for itself. Colin
Powell, the former US general, considered that the war in Yugoslavia was
perfectly avoidable and had taken place largely because of the
involvement
of the United States on the side of the Bosnian Muslims, whose
preponderance in Bosnian government the Bosnian Serbs could hardly be
expected to tolerate (see the New York Times of 19 September 1995).
Europe
is nevertheless forced to put up with US imperialism foraging in its
`back
yard', for, as Martin Walker of the Guardian reminded us on 9 October,
1998, (`The Kosovo Crisis: This is not the time to back down'), the US
Congress bears a great deal of the cost of rich Europe's security. Were
European imperialism to confront the US, there would be a real danger
that
"an increasingly isolationist US Congress" might no longer be prepared
to
do so. In other words, Europe is largely dependent on the United States
to
use its war machine to protect European imperialist interests all over
the
world. So long as US imperialism only demands a `fair share' and does
not
snaffle the whole of the loot, it is probable that Europeans will
continue
to put up with the situation, albeit not with any great enthusiasm.
Imperialist interests in Yugoslavia are based on a number of
considerations. First, it is another useful base from which to launch
military strikes against the oil-producing countries to the south,
should
they take it into their heads to challenge imperialism's right to drain
their oil wells at prices largely dictated by imperialism. It serves
equally well as a useful military base to launch military strikes
against
Russia to the north, should either its bourgeoisie stop co-operating
with
Western imperialism or should the proletariat rise up to make revolution
once again.
Second, Yugoslavia – and in particular Serbia – stands on the most
favoured route for an oil pipeline to convey Caucasian oil to the west.
It
is therefore crucial that Serbia be governed by a government responsive
to
Western imperialist demands.
Third, imperialism is interested in exploiting local resources and
markets. Control of the government means control of government
contracts.
For this reason also, every imperialist wants its own men installed in
each of the ex-Yugoslav states.
As far as Kosovo itself is concerned, Christopher Hedges in the New York
Times positively drooled over the wealth of the Stari Trg mining
complex,
containing glittering veins of lead, zinc, cadmium, gold and silver.
"The
Stari Trg mine, with its warehouses, is ringed with smelting plants, 17
metal treatment sights, freight yards, railroad lines, a power plant and
the country's largest battery plant", says Hedges. Lignite deposits in
the
Kosovo mines are sufficient for the next 13 centuries and the capacity
of
the lead and zinc refineries rank third in the world. The Trepce mining
complex, also in Kosovo, is "the most valuable piece of real estate in
the
Balkans worth at least $5 billion." Kosovo also has 17 billion tons of
coal reserves. These mines alone are sufficient to explain the interest
of
imperialism in prising Kosovo out of the Serbian grasp and the equal
determination of the Serbians never to let go of the `cradle of the
Serbian nation'.
In order to get their hands on Kosovo, European and US imperialism have
both been playing games in the region and, as with Bosnia, it seems that
once again US imperialism may be stepping in to secure a larger share of
the spoils than European imperialism considers is justified by US
imperialism's previous commitment to the cause. Nevertheless, joint US
and
Europeah efforts had been directed through the so-called Kosovo
Liberation
Army (KLA), trained and financed by US imperialism: the US Public
Broadcasting Service of 15 July reported that US Vietnam war veterans
were
training the KLA at bases in Albania and Kosovo. And at the scene of a
KLA
atrocity (the abduction, murder and incineration of 10 Serb civilians),
reported by the Guardian of 5 September 1998, a freshly-abandoned KLA
camp, there were left behind "several hundred yellow humanitarian aid
packages with an American flag on the label." along with a massive
arsenal
of expensive weaponry. There seems little doubt that the KLA massacres
were designed to inflame Serb nationalism and invite reprisals. In fact,
even Mark Almond in the Independent on Sunday of 4 October 1998 – as
great
an opponent of Serbia as can be found anywhere - writes: "There can be
little doubt that the KLA has pursued a policy designed to provoke
reprisals from the Serbs ..." (`Never again' again).
Much to the disgust of imperialism, the KLA collapsed in just seven
weeks
when faced with Serbian troops, thus giving lie to its alleged popular
support. Despite the millions of $US poured into it, the KLA proved
unequal to the task of capturing Kosovo for US imperialism.
As a result US imperialism determined on the course of forcing Milosevic
to open up Kosovo to imperialist exploitation by threatening to bomb
Serbian infrastructure to smithereens should he fail to surrender, in
the
same way as Iraqi infrastructure was smashed at a huge cost in human
suffering to the Iraqi people simply because Iraq would not bow to US
imperialist demands.
America's European allies, apart from Tony Blair who does not have a
scruple to his name, have been highly critical of the US intention to
use
NATO to effect the bombing raids, in blatant disregard of international
law to which the Europeans are in the habit of at least paying lip
service. Even the Daily Mail's Stephen Glover, in an article entitled
`British bombers must NOT go in' felt constrained to point out that
"legally speaking Kosovo is as much part of Serbia as Northern Ireland
is
part of the United Kingdom.
"I can't think of another example of British troops attacking a regime
for
mistreating its own citizens within its own borders.
"Do we think there is a sufficiently good justification for throwing
away
the rule book that has governed relations between states? My own test
would be one of proportion. I can imagine supporting action against a
regime that was committing mass genocide against its own people. But the
example scarcely holds good here. Most estimates suggest that the Serbs
have been responsible for some 1,000 deaths in Kosovo ...
"Moreover, Milosevic's main enemy, the Maoist-inclined KLA, is hardly a
bunch of angels. Its followers have used terrorist methods against
Serbian
targets"
This article draws attention to some very important factors: the sheer
illegality of NATO's proposed interference in the internal affairs of
sovereign states; the relatively small scale of atrocities committed by
Serbia in the course of putting down an armed rebellion. The allegation
that the KLA is `Maoist-inclined', however, should be taken with a pinch
of salt, for US imperialism, which certainly supported the KLA, does not
support `Maoists'. Such `Maoism' as the KLA may profess could at best be
purely cosmetic.
In face of the collapse of the KLA, imperialism would appear to have
abandoned for the time being the aim of setting up an independent
Kosovan
entity, or of joining Kosovo to Albania, in favour of simply
pressurising
Milosevic to do their bidding in return for letting Kosovo remain within
Yugoslavia. Ian Bruce in the Herald of 8 October (`When the talking
stops') claims that this is because "No Western country wanted a rogue,
uncontrollable Islamic state gaining independence on its southern flank,
a
potential haven for militants and terrorists. There still exists the
risk
of a wider ethnic war uniting people of Albanian descent against Greeks,
Macedonians and Bulgarians. The shock waves from that might easily push
Turkey and Russia into a conflagration that could shatter NATO itself."
David Buchan of the Financial Times (5 October 1998) advances a
different
reason for not favouring the secession of Kosovo: "The West," he says,
"does not want to see any re-drawing of international boundaries in the
Balkans. It does not want to endorse independence for Kosovo for fear
that, once it happened, the ethnic Albanian minority in Macedonia might
want to join up with the Kosovar Albanians and both might want to merge
with Albania proper".
If Kosovo were allowed independence, then there would be absolutely no
basis, he argues, for refusing the Bosnian Serbs the right to secede and
join Greater Serbia, an outcome he considers unthinkable.
It is probable, however, that the one and only reason why imperialism is
no longer pressing for Kosovo's independence is that the KLA has
collapsed, no `credible' and reliable potential puppet government can
therefore be identified, and imperialism has decided it can in any event
achieve its aims by putting pressure on Milosevic, at least for the time
being. No doubt it will take advantage of the next few months to regroup
a
force of loyal quislings in the province, and if successful, worries
about
upsetting the regional balance of forces should Kosovo secede will
disappear.
Our view is that of the two enemies facing the people of Kosovo,
imperialism is infinitely more dangerous and brutal than Serb
nationalism.
All imperialist intervention in Kosovo and elsewhere in Yugoslavia must
be
vigorously opposed, and the people of Yugoslavia and former Yugoslavia
must be left to settle their differences by themselves. Now, as in 1913,
the people of Yugoslavia can expect nothing from the bourgeoisie for, as
Lenin explained in The Balkan War and Bourgeois Chauvinism written in
March of that year:
"What was the real historical reason for settling urgent Balkan problems
by means of a war, a war guided by bougeois and dynastic interests? The
chief cause was the weakness of the proletariat in the Balkans, and also
the reactionary influence and pressure of the powerful European
bourgeoisie. They are afraid of real freedom both in their own countries
and in the Balkans; their only aim is profit at other people's expense;
they stir up chauvinism and national enmity to faciliate their policy of
plunder and to impede the free development of the oppressed classes of
the
Balkans..."
Kosovo - Another Victim of Predatory Imperialism
Introduction
As our television screens are filled with pictures of horrible
atrocities
that have been committed against innocent Kosovan Albanians, just as not
so long ago they were filled with even worse atrocities committed
against
Bosnian Muslims, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the
imperialist media expect people to draw: that the Serbian leader,
Milosevic, is an inhuman monster cast in the mould of Adolf Hitler,
which
the `international community' (i.e., US imperialism, backed up by
British
imperialism) has a right – a duty even – to overthrow by any means
necessary. The means being advocated is bombing of Serbian
infrastructure
– though most of the quality newspapers are not at all sure what that
would achieve, other than to unify the Serbian people more firmly than
ever behind Milosevic.
While imperialism is appealing to our humanitarian instincts, our hatred
of human suffering, we must never lose sight of the fact that
humanitarianism is entirely alien to imperialism. As we look around and
see the suffering and thousands of deaths of the innocent occurring in
Iraq, for example, as a result of the blockade imposed by US
imperialism,
and its attempts to strangle North Korea and Cuba, to say nothing of
bombing raids on Libya, Sudan, Afghanistan, as we remember imperialism's
genocidal wars of aggression in Korea and Vietnam, we can find no basis
for US imperialism to condemn anybody as war criminals unless it first
starts with itself. Its `humanitarianism' is obviously just a propaganda
ploy to mobilise people and nations in its support.
Knowing all this, should we nevertheless support US imperialism in its
determination to interfere in Yugoslavia's affairs, regardless of what
might be its real motives, in order to bring an end to the horrible
suffering of Kosovan Albanians? Subjected to the Pax Americana, would
they
not at least be relieved of the horrors of Serbian misrule?
This article will argue quite categorically that imposition of the Pax
Americana should be fought at any cost since for the masses of people,
life under imperialist domination would be far harder than ever it was
under Serbia. The bloodshed would not stop, since US imperialism is far
more ruthless in wiping out its opponents than the Serbians could ever
be.
All that would change is that we would not see these massacres on the
television, which rarely, if ever, shows us pictures of the atrocities
committed by US allies: for instance, the atrocities committed against
the
Serbs by the Croatians and Bosnian Muslims or the Kosovo Liberation
Army.
Even to the extent that extreme Serbian nationalism has been guilty of
provoking bloodshed, the scale of the bloodletting has been made
possible
only by the intervention of outside forces, principally western
imperialism, in supplying armaments and finance to rival nationalists
from
Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia. Had it not been for this outside
interference, Yugoslavia's domestic feuds would never have escalated and
spiralled out of the control of the local protagonists in the way that
they have done. The Serb leadership is certainly to blame for fanning
the
flames of nationalism, but it is western imperialism that has poured
petrol on these flames and set the whole region alight.
Background to the Balkan crisis
Let us endeavour, then, to try to understand how the present parlous
situation has arisen in Yugoslavia, blowing up seemingly out of nowhere
when only 15 short years ago "Yugoslavia could, and did, walk tall in
the
world boasting of the cultural diversity which made their country
unique"
(Bennett, C., Yugoslavia's Bloody Collapse, Hurst & Company, London,
1995,
p. 7). Moreover, far from nationalism being on the increase, and
despite
the best endeavours of nationalist politicians, "Yugoslavia's last
census,
which was carried out months before fighting broke out, registered a
jump
in the numbers of people who considered themselves Yugoslav, rather than
Croat, Serb or any other nationality" (ibid. p. 9).
There was a great deal within Yugoslavia which favoured the emergence of
a
Yugoslav national identity to take the place of `national' identities
based partly on religious difference and partly on which feudal empire
happened to have ruled the different regions inhabited by South Slavs.
The
Serb and Croat spoken languages are very close: in fact they are in
effect
the same language adulterated in different regions by a heavy input of
different neighbouring languages. Both Serbs and Croats have a history
of
struggle against foreign rule, and of mutual co-operation during those
struggles, although the oppressor in the case of the Serbs was the
Ottoman
empire while in the case of the Croats it was the Habsburg
(Austro-Hungarian) empire. In Yugoslavia Croats and Serbs had a common
territory incorporating all those areas, such as Bosnia Hercegovina,
where
neither Serb nor Croat nor anybody else constituted a majority of the
population. Muslims, incidentally, were originally Serbs who converted
to
Islam during the Ottoman empire. Their conversion took them out of the
Orthodox Christian community to which most Serbs belonged and which was
under Ottoman rule a self-governing entity. Muslim converts came under
different laws and a different system of governance, leading Muslims to
cease to identify with the Serbs. But there was no reason why in a
strictly secular society Muslims should not identify with Yugoslavia,
for
they had so much common history with Serbs that only religion really
stood
between them once the peculiar forms of Ottoman self-governance were
removed.
>From the point of view of nascent capitalism, it made much more sense to
create a home market over a geographical area of the size (and
containing
the natural resources) of an average European country at least, rather
than try to make one's mark in some Serb, Croat or Bosnian
mini-statelet.
The ousting of the Ottoman empire by the Serbs, and the break-up of the
Habsburg empire as a consequence of its defeat in the First World War,
made the realisation of Yugoslavia possible, although tensions between
Serb and Croat within the new state (which came into being in 1918) were
inevitable, if only to the extent that they had been pitted against each
other in the war by the Austro-Hungarian empire.
The marriage of Serb and Croat, however, foundered on major
incompatibilities. Serbs considered themselves superior as having fought
for, and won, their own independence from imperial rule, and having
fought
for, and won, the liberation of their territory from Austro-Hungary,
which
had invaded it in the First World War. Croats, on the other hand,
considered themselves superior because their territories were
economically
more developed, and because their proximity to the imperialist powers
enabled them to participate in the culture and sophistication that
accompanies wealth. In fact, Croatia's relative wealth was a major
sticking point as far as the unity of Yugoslavia was concerned, for the
Croatian bourgeoisie naturally thought that wealth should remain in
Croatia, while the dominant Serbian bourgeoisie thought it should be
more
evenly distributed – in their favour! As a result, the Serbs used their
dominance in the state organs to achieve this. Finding a formula in
which
Serb ambitions and Croat ambitions could be harmoniously accommodated
for
their mutual benefit proved impossible at the time, and relations
between
the two communities soured throughout the marriage. Yet nevertheless
there
was sufficient common interest for the parties to keep the marriage
going
and continue to look for ways to patch up their differences.
The Second World War
"The first Yugoslavia was not an unmitigated disaster doomed to end in
the
slaughter of the Second World War. That it did so has more to do with
foreign intervention and the exceptional circumstances of 1941 than any
innate desire of Serbs and Croats to wipe each other out." (Bennett,
p.33).
When the Second World War broke out, Yugoslavia initially came to an
accommodation with Hitler's Germany to allow German supplies (though not
troops) to pass through Yugoslavia to supply the German war effort in
Greece. This agreement, apparently designed to save Yugoslavia from
German
invasion, was unpopular amongst both Serbs and Croats and led to an
immediate coup d'etat, which overthrew the government. Axis forces
promptly invaded. Yugoslavia was carved up among Axis partners – Italy,
Bulgaria, Albania and Hungary all acquired sizeable portions, while
Germany took control of what was left through quisling governments –
that
of Ante Pavelic's Ustasi in Croatia and of Nedic in Serbia. The Ustasi
were a right-wing extreme Croat separatist organisation with little
popular support among Croats (their membership being estimated at 40,000
at most). Historically the organisation had opposed Croatia ever
becoming
part of Yugoslavia, and, by the outbreak of the Second World War, most
of
its membership was based in Bosnia Hercegovina rather than in Croatia
proper. It was the Ustasi who first introduced ethnic cleansing to
modern
Yugoslavia as they set about razing Serb villages in Croatian territory
with the express aim of `killing a third, forcing a third into exile and
converting the remaining third to Catholicism.' In the event, one in 6
Serbs living in the part of Yugoslavia handed over by Hitler to the
Ustasi
(the major part of Croatia and Bosnia Hercegovina) were slaughtered.
This murderous activity, however, did not lead to undying enmity between
Serbs and Croats, because Tito's partisans, who fought the German
occupation of Yugoslavia as well as Serb and Croat quislings alike, was
made up of both Serbs and Croats, even if, as might be expected, Serbs
predominated – for it was after all the Serbs who were suffering most
under the German occupation. Tito himself was half Croat (the other half
Slovene).
Tito's Yugoslavia
Once the war was over, Tito's partisans seized control of the whole of
Yugoslavia from the defeated Axis powers. To reconcile the communities
that had been set against each other in the war, the new government
copied
from the Soviet Union's constitution all those elements which guaranteed
the fullest national rights to each and every one of Yugoslavia's
communities. The new constitution of Yugoslavia was adopted on 31
January
1946, setting up a federation of 6 Republics (Bosnia Hercegovina,
Croatia,
Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia), with full rights of
secession, plus the autonomous province of Vojvodina and the autonomous
region of Kosovo within Serbia.
Although the constitution was copied from the Soviet Union, Tito's
`communism' was but a thin veneer for bourgeois Yugoslav nationalism.
What
was set up in Yugoslavia was not a communist system, but a system of
`workers' control' – i.e., production for profit, but profit to be
shared
among the workers at the production plants. Such a system was designed
to
enable a new Yugoslav bourgeoisie to emerge from among a meritocratic
elite - the production managers, who would of course take a
disproportionate share of the profits in question. Practice, however,
proved that (as indeed it had proved several times previously in world
history) that production for profit (i.e., capitalism) is incompatible
with the well-being of the majority of the workers. To the extent that
Yugoslavia of necessity had to provide civilised living standards for
the
workers who `controlled' production, it ceased to be sufficiently
profitable and would have collapsed but for one thing – the support of
foreign imperialism – above all, US imperialism. The latter was quick to
seize the opportunity, presented by the widespread belief that
Yugoslavia
was `communist', to use it as a propaganda weapon against communism
proper. Business Week of 12 November 1950 openly bragged that for the US
in particular and the West in general, supporting Tito had turned out to
be one of the least expensive ways of containing Russian communism. The
cost of western aid to Tito had amounted, at the time, to $51.7 million
–
far less than the billion dollars that the US had spent in Greece to
achieve the same result. And, in an interview in the Daily Telegraph of
12
December 1949, Anthony Eden foresaw that Tito's example and influence
would be able decisively to alter the course of events in central and
eastern Europe. The Truman administration decided to ensure that Tito's
experiment with `market socialism' was to appear to be successful, as a
means of supporting `market socialists' attempting to seize control in
the
USSR and eastern Europe. This was all part of the propaganda drive to
try
to prove to the proletariat of the whole world that scientific socialism
was wrong to claim that only a centralised planned economy can replace
and
do away with the dangerously outmoded capitalist system of production,
with its inevitable crises arising from the anarchy of production
inherent
in the capitalist system, and that only a centralised planned economy
can
guarantee to the working masses an ever-increasing standard of living.
Imperialism's ploy was to `disprove' this not only by economic blockade
and maintaining a state of constant threat of war which would hold back
the living standards of those living in communist societies, but also by
providing an apparent `living proof' that market socialism can be
successful.
Thus Bennett notes (p. 59): "Without western economic support Yugoslavia
would probably have crumbled in the face of a concerted economic
blockade
by the Soviet bloc [despite the fact that there was no economic blockade
by the western bloc!]. In September 1949, the Truman administration
granted Yugoslavia a $20 million aid package and by 1960 Yugoslavia had
consumed more than $2 billion worth of non-repayable western aid. Aid
became fundamental to Yugoslavia's development and allowed Yugoslavs to
live way beyond their means "
During these years of relative prosperity for all, underpinned by a
Constitution providing for strict equality and fairness between
Yugoslavia's communities, the Yugoslav `national question' became
quiescent. Everybody profited from being a Yugoslav. According to
Bennett
(p. 65):
"Great winners in Tito's Yugoslavia were the country's smaller and more
backward peoples, the Macedonians, Muslim Slavs, and to a lesser extent
Hungarians and Albanians. The security provided by the Titoist system
allowed Macedonian and Muslim Slavs to thrive culturally as never before
and to evolve a modern and confident national identity."
Imperialism withdraws support
Once market socialist revisionism had been planted in the Soviet Union
and
had irreversibly taken root under the aegis of Khrushchev and those who
followed him, US imperialism's enthusiasm for spending billions of
dollars
to prop up the Yugoslav economy rapidly vanished. As Bennett notes, "The
crunch came about the time of Tito's death [1980], when the loans dried
up
and Yugoslavia had to begin repaying the national debt [this had risen
from $3.5 billion in 1973 to $20.5 billion in 1981]. It coincided with
the
recession in western Europe stemmming from the Second Oil Shock of 1979,
while the debt burden was aggravated by high interest rates and an
exceptionally strong dollar. Between 1982 and 1989 the standard of
living
fell nearly 40% and in December 1989 inflation peaked at more than
2,000%."
As imperialist contributions to the Yugoslav coffers declined, so did
Yugoslav living standards. In these circumstances the bourgeois
leadership
of the Yugoslav `communist' party did what all bourgeois leaders do,
namely, find a diversion for the anger of the masses – a scapegoat to
take
the blame for the failures of the capitalist system. Hence the revival
of
Serb and Croat nationalism within Yugoslavia. In Croatia workers were
told
that their plunging living conditions were caused by unfair favouritism
within the Yugoslav state towards the Serbs. This led to a surge in the
Croatian nationalist movement, which was allowed to flourish and
propagate
its views openly. In Serbia workers were encouraged to blame the
parasitism of all other Yugoslav communities for the fall in Serbian
living standards. Yet all this propaganda, though it undoubtedly gave
rise
to virulent nationalist movements, did not prevent most ordinary people
from wanting to identify with Yugoslavia rather than their `nation', as
we
have seen from their responses to the census carried out shortly before
the fighting broke out. Ordinary people, having savoured the advantages
of
co-existence, have no interest in communal violence, but have to be
dragged into it by force.
Imperialism finally pulled the plug on Yugoslavia as eastern Europe
defected from the communist camp. Thus Bennett (p.11): "As communism
collapsed in the rest of Europe and the threat of Warsaw Pact invasion
disappeared [`Warsaw Pact invasion' is an imperialist euphemism for the
revolutionary effect that communist example has on the working masses in
capitalist countries], Yugoslavia lost the unique geopolitical position
it
had occupied in world politics for more than four decades. Diplomatic
activity and foreign investment shifted away from Yugoslavia towards
Eastern Europe's emerging democracies, and, without the Eastern bogey to
bind the country together and Western money to bail out the economy,
Yugoslavs found themselves for the first time entirely on their own."
It was at this point that Yugoslavia's ruling elites gave up their
attempts at co-operation. The relatively advanced Slovenes and Croat
bourgeoisies decided that their futures were better secured under the
aegis of German imperialism than within Yugoslavia's economic shambles
and
they bailed out. Only the Serbian bourgeoisie resisted the pressure to
become an imperialist stooge and sought to contine to battle for
economic
independence. This goal, however, was being sabotaged by the secession
of
republics, deserting to the enemy bearing with them much of Yugoslavia's
most precious assets. This is why Serbia went to war to try to prevent
the
secessions, while Europe and the US laboured to encourage them. The more
Serbia tried to halt the process of Yugoslav fragmentation by reversing
constitutional freedoms and increasing police and army control, the
louder
the howls of protest against Great Serbian chauvinism, suppression of
national rights, etc., etc., the more the masses were drawn into
communal
politics. Imperialism had Serbia caught in a bind, a trap that tightened
its hold with every attempt on Serbia's part to escape.
As is now known, Serbia was defeated in the civil war unleashed to
retain
Croatia within Yugoslavia, and again in the war to retain Bosnia
Hercegovina – largely as a result of massive assistance provided by
imperialism in the form of armaments and credits, and, in the case of
Bosnia, actual military intervention. The West's intervention ensured
that
what should have been a local difficulty requiring brisk suppression of
a
small band of frustrated compradors with little popular support actually
became a full scale war in which thousands perished and massive
destruction of homes and economic infrastructure took place – all grist
to
the mill of imperialist multinationals which looked forward to lucrative
reconstruction contracts when the war was over.
Kosovo
Kosovo is just the latest example of imperialist-inspired disintegration
of Yugoslavia. The majority Albanian population settled in the area
after
it became under-populated following the Serbian defeat by Turkish
warlords
at the battle of Kosovo Polje (the field of blackbirds) on 28 June 1389!
This battle, heavily mythologised, is the basis of Serbia's claim that
Kosovo is, despite its 90% Albanian majority, an integral part of
Serbia!
That claim, in turn, is bound to antagonise the overwhelming majority of
Kosovo's population, since there has been no Serb majority in the region
for over two centuries.
After Tito took power in Yugoslavia, there was originally no attempt
made
to win the hearts and minds of Kosovo's Albanians, who were far from
happy
to be part of Yugoslavia. They had been treated as a subject people in
pre-second world war Yugoslavia – Kosovo having been annexed by
Yugoslavia
from Albania, as a result of the latter being on the losing side in the
First World War and being too weak to prevent the loss of that
territory.
The inevitable result of this discrimination and oppression was that at
the time of the Second World War, Kossovars by and large sided with
Germany in that War. As a result of this they were poorly regarded by
Yugoslavs, who saw no reason to devote much in the way of resources to
this backward region. By the late 1960s, however, Kossovars began taking
to the streets to protest at their oppression. Tito accepted that their
grievances were justified and set about providing them with the same
rights as were enjoyed by other minority communities in Yugoslavia,
stopping short only at recognising that they had any right of secession.
Thus Albanian was recognised as the principal official language of the
region, a university was set up in Pristina as well as an institute for
promoting Albanian culture. With imperialist funds flowing freely into
Yugoslavia at the time, it was possible to direct some of this money
towards Kossovo, perhaps to dampen down any interest Kossovans might
otherwise have had in transferring their allegiance to socialist
Albania.
Hence "funds began to flow into Kosovo to finance a crash programme of
economic expansion. Albanians were encouraged to join the League of
Communists, the state administration and even the police force. Between
1971 and 1975, 70% of Kosovo's budget and investments were paid for out
of
federal sources." (Bennett, p. 72).
But the investment that flowed into Kosovo built large modern plants
that
yielded relatively few jobs. To the extent that living conditions
improved, this was largely aid-dependent.
It follows then that from 1980 onwards, as imperialism cut back its
funding of Yugoslavia, which then had to start repaying its massive
debts
from its own resources, Kosovo suffered badly. By March 1981 Kosovo
students were already demonstrating against poor living conditions and
job
prospects. Because living conditions were deteriorating all over
Yugoslavia and its government had no solution to this problem
whatsoever,
it had absolutely no way of coming to terms with the students' demands,
without encouraging like demands from other parts of the country. Its
only
possible response in the circumstances was to suppress the protests by
force. Troops and police moved into Pristina University campus to quell
the unrest. At least 12 people died and 150 were wounded. Heavy jail
sentences were imposed on demonstrators. The net effect of this was that
most of the goodwill created by the years of financial investment in
Kosovo was wiped out practically overnight.
The nationalist card
It was against Kosovo that the Yugoslav government first started playing
the nationalist card in earnest, in order to divert the anger of the
Yugoslav masses, particularly the Serbians, away from the bourgeoisified
`communist' elite (who were really responsible for the country's parlous
state):
"Articles written by [Serb] nationalists which would never have been
published during Tito's lifetime began to appear in the aftermath of the
unrest in Kosovo in 1981." Kosovan Albanians were accused of
perpetrating
genocide against Serbs, with a view to terrorising them into leaving the
region. Bennett considers that there was no truth in this allegation,
but
whether it be true or false, what cannot be denied is the fact that the
basis of Serb/Albanian co-existence began irretrievably to break down.
In
fact, Milosevic's rise to power was, in its final stages, effected
through
his willingness to encourage the most rabid Serb nationalism. His
popularity was based on telling the Serbs the lies that his party rivals
did not care tell them – i.e., that the explanation for their falling
living standards was their merciless exploitation by ungrateful
minorities
such as the Albanians. Once this nationalist analysis was unleashed,
however, it came to be directed at all Yugoslavia's non-Serb people,
turning the non-antagonistic contradictions between them into
antagonistic
ones and opening up a weakness in the fabric of the body politic which
laid Yugoslavia to decimation at the hands of imperialism as soon as the
moment for this was ripe.
The growth of nationalism was further encouraged by the conditions of
market socialism that of necessity pitted one region against the rest.
Each region sought to benefit at the expense of the rest, with the
result
that:
"All republics and provinces were guilty of pursuing their own
`national',
rather than Yugoslav, economic goals, often at the expense of the rest
of
the federation. Double capacity and even protectionism between republics
were features of Yugoslavia's economic landscape " and "instead of a
single economy, Yugoslavia was fragmenting into eight mini-states."
(Bennett, p. 75).
This was hardly the type of capitalism that was likely to thrive in a
world where to an ever larger extent it is monopolies which rule the
roost. This fragmentation went in the opposite direction of what
Yugoslavia needed to thrive, if it was ever going to thrive at all, as a
capitalist economy.
It is in this context that Milosevic resorted to the concept of Greater
Serbia to build an economic base of viable size. If minority communities
could not be maintained within Yugoslavia willingly, then they must be
retained forcibly, using as the instruments for their retention the Serb
communities scattered throughout most of the country. The English,
French
and Spanish nations were created this way, and, had there been no
outside
interference, no doubt the Yugoslav nation might have been created this
way as well. Nowadays, however, as the example of Yugoslavia shows, it
is
not possible to open up such antagonisms without powerful imperialist
predators taking advantage of the situation in order to enslave
oppressor
and oppressed alike.
Imperialism's interest in Yugoslavia
Imperialism's interests in Yugoslavia are manifold. Both European and US
imperialism want to exploit it, and disputes have arisen between them as
to the sharing of the booty. As we have seen, it was European
intervention
in recognising seceding states in the first place that lit the flames of
war. This fact is recognised even by the imperialist media. In fact the
International Herald Tribune of 20 September 1995 commented that the
whole
situation had been inflamed by imperialism, stating that western Europe,
led by Germany, had recognised Bosnia's Muslim government, knowing full
well that the Serbs would fight to overthrow it, and that from the start
the West had thrown its weight against the Bosnian Serbs. The wars were
then very greatly prolonged by US imperialism intervening just as peace
terms had been accepted on European terms to enable it to snatch victory
from European jaws and secure a good part of the booty for itself. Colin
Powell, the former US general, considered that the war in Yugoslavia was
perfectly avoidable and had taken place largely because of the
involvement
of the United States on the side of the Bosnian Muslims, whose
preponderance in Bosnian government the Bosnian Serbs could hardly be
expected to tolerate (see the New York Times of 19 September 1995).
Europe
is nevertheless forced to put up with US imperialism foraging in its
`back
yard', for, as Martin Walker of the Guardian reminded us on 9 October,
1998, (`The Kosovo Crisis: This is not the time to back down'), the US
Congress bears a great deal of the cost of rich Europe's security. Were
European imperialism to confront the US, there would be a real danger
that
"an increasingly isolationist US Congress" might no longer be prepared
to
do so. In other words, Europe is largely dependent on the United States
to
use its war machine to protect European imperialist interests all over
the
world. So long as US imperialism only demands a `fair share' and does
not
snaffle the whole of the loot, it is probable that Europeans will
continue
to put up with the situation, albeit not with any great enthusiasm.
Imperialist interests in Yugoslavia are based on a number of
considerations. First, it is another useful base from which to launch
military strikes against the oil-producing countries to the south,
should
they take it into their heads to challenge imperialism's right to drain
their oil wells at prices largely dictated by imperialism. It serves
equally well as a useful military base to launch military strikes
against
Russia to the north, should either its bourgeoisie stop co-operating
with
Western imperialism or should the proletariat rise up to make revolution
once again.
Second, Yugoslavia – and in particular Serbia – stands on the most
favoured route for an oil pipeline to convey Caucasian oil to the west.
It
is therefore crucial that Serbia be governed by a government responsive
to
Western imperialist demands.
Third, imperialism is interested in exploiting local resources and
markets. Control of the government means control of government
contracts.
For this reason also, every imperialist wants its own men installed in
each of the ex-Yugoslav states.
As far as Kosovo itself is concerned, Christopher Hedges in the New York
Times positively drooled over the wealth of the Stari Trg mining
complex,
containing glittering veins of lead, zinc, cadmium, gold and silver.
"The
Stari Trg mine, with its warehouses, is ringed with smelting plants, 17
metal treatment sights, freight yards, railroad lines, a power plant and
the country's largest battery plant", says Hedges. Lignite deposits in
the
Kosovo mines are sufficient for the next 13 centuries and the capacity
of
the lead and zinc refineries rank third in the world. The Trepce mining
complex, also in Kosovo, is "the most valuable piece of real estate in
the
Balkans worth at least $5 billion." Kosovo also has 17 billion tons of
coal reserves. These mines alone are sufficient to explain the interest
of
imperialism in prising Kosovo out of the Serbian grasp and the equal
determination of the Serbians never to let go of the `cradle of the
Serbian nation'.
In order to get their hands on Kosovo, European and US imperialism have
both been playing games in the region and, as with Bosnia, it seems that
once again US imperialism may be stepping in to secure a larger share of
the spoils than European imperialism considers is justified by US
imperialism's previous commitment to the cause. Nevertheless, joint US
and
Europeah efforts had been directed through the so-called Kosovo
Liberation
Army (KLA), trained and financed by US imperialism: the US Public
Broadcasting Service of 15 July reported that US Vietnam war veterans
were
training the KLA at bases in Albania and Kosovo. And at the scene of a
KLA
atrocity (the abduction, murder and incineration of 10 Serb civilians),
reported by the Guardian of 5 September 1998, a freshly-abandoned KLA
camp, there were left behind "several hundred yellow humanitarian aid
packages with an American flag on the label." along with a massive
arsenal
of expensive weaponry. There seems little doubt that the KLA massacres
were designed to inflame Serb nationalism and invite reprisals. In fact,
even Mark Almond in the Independent on Sunday of 4 October 1998 – as
great
an opponent of Serbia as can be found anywhere - writes: "There can be
little doubt that the KLA has pursued a policy designed to provoke
reprisals from the Serbs ..." (`Never again' again).
Much to the disgust of imperialism, the KLA collapsed in just seven
weeks
when faced with Serbian troops, thus giving lie to its alleged popular
support. Despite the millions of $US poured into it, the KLA proved
unequal to the task of capturing Kosovo for US imperialism.
As a result US imperialism determined on the course of forcing Milosevic
to open up Kosovo to imperialist exploitation by threatening to bomb
Serbian infrastructure to smithereens should he fail to surrender, in
the
same way as Iraqi infrastructure was smashed at a huge cost in human
suffering to the Iraqi people simply because Iraq would not bow to US
imperialist demands.
America's European allies, apart from Tony Blair who does not have a
scruple to his name, have been highly critical of the US intention to
use
NATO to effect the bombing raids, in blatant disregard of international
law to which the Europeans are in the habit of at least paying lip
service. Even the Daily Mail's Stephen Glover, in an article entitled
`British bombers must NOT go in' felt constrained to point out that
"legally speaking Kosovo is as much part of Serbia as Northern Ireland
is
part of the United Kingdom.
"I can't think of another example of British troops attacking a regime
for
mistreating its own citizens within its own borders.
"Do we think there is a sufficiently good justification for throwing
away
the rule book that has governed relations between states? My own test
would be one of proportion. I can imagine supporting action against a
regime that was committing mass genocide against its own people. But the
example scarcely holds good here. Most estimates suggest that the Serbs
have been responsible for some 1,000 deaths in Kosovo ...
"Moreover, Milosevic's main enemy, the Maoist-inclined KLA, is hardly a
bunch of angels. Its followers have used terrorist methods against
Serbian
targets"
This article draws attention to some very important factors: the sheer
illegality of NATO's proposed interference in the internal affairs of
sovereign states; the relatively small scale of atrocities committed by
Serbia in the course of putting down an armed rebellion. The allegation
that the KLA is `Maoist-inclined', however, should be taken with a pinch
of salt, for US imperialism, which certainly supported the KLA, does not
support `Maoists'. Such `Maoism' as the KLA may profess could at best be
purely cosmetic.
In face of the collapse of the KLA, imperialism would appear to have
abandoned for the time being the aim of setting up an independent
Kosovan
entity, or of joining Kosovo to Albania, in favour of simply
pressurising
Milosevic to do their bidding in return for letting Kosovo remain within
Yugoslavia. Ian Bruce in the Herald of 8 October (`When the talking
stops') claims that this is because "No Western country wanted a rogue,
uncontrollable Islamic state gaining independence on its southern flank,
a
potential haven for militants and terrorists. There still exists the
risk
of a wider ethnic war uniting people of Albanian descent against Greeks,
Macedonians and Bulgarians. The shock waves from that might easily push
Turkey and Russia into a conflagration that could shatter NATO itself."
David Buchan of the Financial Times (5 October 1998) advances a
different
reason for not favouring the secession of Kosovo: "The West," he says,
"does not want to see any re-drawing of international boundaries in the
Balkans. It does not want to endorse independence for Kosovo for fear
that, once it happened, the ethnic Albanian minority in Macedonia might
want to join up with the Kosovar Albanians and both might want to merge
with Albania proper".
If Kosovo were allowed independence, then there would be absolutely no
basis, he argues, for refusing the Bosnian Serbs the right to secede and
join Greater Serbia, an outcome he considers unthinkable.
It is probable, however, that the one and only reason why imperialism is
no longer pressing for Kosovo's independence is that the KLA has
collapsed, no `credible' and reliable potential puppet government can
therefore be identified, and imperialism has decided it can in any event
achieve its aims by putting pressure on Milosevic, at least for the time
being. No doubt it will take advantage of the next few months to regroup
a
force of loyal quislings in the province, and if successful, worries
about
upsetting the regional balance of forces should Kosovo secede will
disappear.
Our view is that of the two enemies facing the people of Kosovo,
imperialism is infinitely more dangerous and brutal than Serb
nationalism.
All imperialist intervention in Kosovo and elsewhere in Yugoslavia must
be
vigorously opposed, and the people of Yugoslavia and former Yugoslavia
must be left to settle their differences by themselves. Now, as in 1913,
the people of Yugoslavia can expect nothing from the bourgeoisie for, as
Lenin explained in The Balkan War and Bourgeois Chauvinism written in
March of that year:
"What was the real historical reason for settling urgent Balkan problems
by means of a war, a war guided by bougeois and dynastic interests? The
chief cause was the weakness of the proletariat in the Balkans, and also
the reactionary influence and pressure of the powerful European
bourgeoisie. They are afraid of real freedom both in their own countries
and in the Balkans; their only aim is profit at other people's expense;
they stir up chauvinism and national enmity to faciliate their policy of
plunder and to impede the free development of the oppressed classes of
the
Balkans..."
Bernard Kouchner's Legacy of Failure
T.V. Weber
&
Alida Weber
We have long been complaining about the U.S. news media and its failure
to inform the public about the Clinton Administration's "legacy" of
anarchy and mayhem in Kosovo. The news media in the U.S. has been almost
completely silent about the ongoing genocide against Serbs, who are
being victimized by terrorists associated with the "disbanded" KLA and
its sympathizers in the U.N./KFOR occupation.
Over the past few months, though, the level of bloodshed has increased
enough that news of it is beginning to trickle through the blockade in
the mainstream U.S. news media.
In a Newsweek interview on May 15, 2000, Bernard Kouchner, the U.N.
official in charge of the occupation of Kosovo, even admitted,
"Apparently a Serb has a 20 times greater chance of being a victim of a
crime than an Albanian does." (See
http://www.listbot.com/cgi-bin/subscriber?Act=view_message&list_id=STOPNATO&
msg_num=9003&start_num=9008.) But the tone of the Newsweek interview
made it clear that neither Kouchner nor the magazine's interviewer were
unduly concerned about this fact.
An article by Associated Press writer Danica Kirka, "Three Killed in
Shooting in Kosovo," appeared in the Washington Post on May 29, 2000.
(See
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/specials/europe/balkans/A26941-2000May29.html.)
The article describes an act of senseless slaughter, in which an
unidentified attacker, "thought to be an Albanian terrorist" and "armed
with an automatic weapon, opened fire on a group of Serbs gathered in a
store in Cernica." Killed in the attack were three Serbs, 4-year-old
Milos Petrovic, Petrovic's grandfather, Vojin Vasic, 60, and Tihomir
Simjanovic, 45.
Bernard Kouchner was ready with his crocodile tears, saying "What can
possibly be gained by killing a child?" But according to the article,
Kouchner insisted that "only the regime of Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic stands to gain by unrest in this southern Serb province."
By making such a statement, Kouchner is attempting to shift the blame
for this innocent child's death to Mr. Milosevic. But that's ridiculous.
Milosevic, for nearly a year, has had no control, nor even any
influence, over events in Kosovo. Kouchner himself is the man in charge.
This incident is particularly revealing of Kouchner's true nature, but
the murder of yet another Serb in Kosovo is, sadly, no isolated event.
Too many other such crimes have been committed in recent months to
repeat all of them here, but an abundance of reports are available in
news archives on the Internet, for those who can stand to read such a
catalogue of tragedy and horror. Most revealing of all is the recent
action by Doctors Without Borders (a/k/a Médecins Sans Frontières or
MSF), an organization that Kouchner himself helped to found. It should
tell us something when even MSF can't keep up the charade any longer. On
August 7, 2000, MSF announced in a news release that their organization
is withdrawing from Kosovo. In their words, "Médecins Sans Frontières
has decided to reduce its teams and to stop its present operations in
the Kosovar enclaves. The humanitarian organisation refuses to continue
its operations on behalf of the ethnic minorities in a context where
basic protection for these populations is not being guaranteed by the
military and civilian administration of Kosovo." (See
http://www.msf.org/projects/europe/kosovo/reports/2000/08/pr-enclaves/
and http://www.egroups.com/message/decani/33582.). MSF's news release
was picked up by Associated Press and appeared in Nando Times, but did
not receive wide coverage in the U.S. (See
http://www.nandotimes.com/no_frames/global/story/0,4382,500236922-500346724-502000175-0,00.html). Like
so many other self-styled "do-gooders" who have made their careers in
corrupt government bureaucracies and equally corrupt NGOs, Kouchner is a
trafficker in human misery. He won't willingly do anything to put
himself and his fellow vultures out of business. After all, the longer
he can keep the misery going, the longer he, and others like him, keep
their jobs. But this works only so long as he can continue blaming the
misery on someone other than himself. And it's getting harder and harder
for him to get away with that. As Kouchner's term as administrator of
occupied Kosovo draws to a close, it is clear that the reign of
corruption, lawlessness, and terror in Kosovo represents Kouchner's
personal failure. The rest of the world knows it, even if Kouchner does
not.
7/11/2000 Mailing address:P.O. Box 388164Chicago, Illinois 60638 Phone
773-767-5690
T.V. Weber
&
Alida Weber
We have long been complaining about the U.S. news media and its failure
to inform the public about the Clinton Administration's "legacy" of
anarchy and mayhem in Kosovo. The news media in the U.S. has been almost
completely silent about the ongoing genocide against Serbs, who are
being victimized by terrorists associated with the "disbanded" KLA and
its sympathizers in the U.N./KFOR occupation.
Over the past few months, though, the level of bloodshed has increased
enough that news of it is beginning to trickle through the blockade in
the mainstream U.S. news media.
In a Newsweek interview on May 15, 2000, Bernard Kouchner, the U.N.
official in charge of the occupation of Kosovo, even admitted,
"Apparently a Serb has a 20 times greater chance of being a victim of a
crime than an Albanian does." (See
http://www.listbot.com/cgi-bin/subscriber?Act=view_message&list_id=STOPNATO&
msg_num=9003&start_num=9008.) But the tone of the Newsweek interview
made it clear that neither Kouchner nor the magazine's interviewer were
unduly concerned about this fact.
An article by Associated Press writer Danica Kirka, "Three Killed in
Shooting in Kosovo," appeared in the Washington Post on May 29, 2000.
(See
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/world/specials/europe/balkans/A26941-2000May29.html.)
The article describes an act of senseless slaughter, in which an
unidentified attacker, "thought to be an Albanian terrorist" and "armed
with an automatic weapon, opened fire on a group of Serbs gathered in a
store in Cernica." Killed in the attack were three Serbs, 4-year-old
Milos Petrovic, Petrovic's grandfather, Vojin Vasic, 60, and Tihomir
Simjanovic, 45.
Bernard Kouchner was ready with his crocodile tears, saying "What can
possibly be gained by killing a child?" But according to the article,
Kouchner insisted that "only the regime of Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic stands to gain by unrest in this southern Serb province."
By making such a statement, Kouchner is attempting to shift the blame
for this innocent child's death to Mr. Milosevic. But that's ridiculous.
Milosevic, for nearly a year, has had no control, nor even any
influence, over events in Kosovo. Kouchner himself is the man in charge.
This incident is particularly revealing of Kouchner's true nature, but
the murder of yet another Serb in Kosovo is, sadly, no isolated event.
Too many other such crimes have been committed in recent months to
repeat all of them here, but an abundance of reports are available in
news archives on the Internet, for those who can stand to read such a
catalogue of tragedy and horror. Most revealing of all is the recent
action by Doctors Without Borders (a/k/a Médecins Sans Frontières or
MSF), an organization that Kouchner himself helped to found. It should
tell us something when even MSF can't keep up the charade any longer. On
August 7, 2000, MSF announced in a news release that their organization
is withdrawing from Kosovo. In their words, "Médecins Sans Frontières
has decided to reduce its teams and to stop its present operations in
the Kosovar enclaves. The humanitarian organisation refuses to continue
its operations on behalf of the ethnic minorities in a context where
basic protection for these populations is not being guaranteed by the
military and civilian administration of Kosovo." (See
http://www.msf.org/projects/europe/kosovo/reports/2000/08/pr-enclaves/
and http://www.egroups.com/message/decani/33582.). MSF's news release
was picked up by Associated Press and appeared in Nando Times, but did
not receive wide coverage in the U.S. (See
http://www.nandotimes.com/no_frames/global/story/0,4382,500236922-500346724-502000175-0,00.html). Like
so many other self-styled "do-gooders" who have made their careers in
corrupt government bureaucracies and equally corrupt NGOs, Kouchner is a
trafficker in human misery. He won't willingly do anything to put
himself and his fellow vultures out of business. After all, the longer
he can keep the misery going, the longer he, and others like him, keep
their jobs. But this works only so long as he can continue blaming the
misery on someone other than himself. And it's getting harder and harder
for him to get away with that. As Kouchner's term as administrator of
occupied Kosovo draws to a close, it is clear that the reign of
corruption, lawlessness, and terror in Kosovo represents Kouchner's
personal failure. The rest of the world knows it, even if Kouchner does
not.
7/11/2000 Mailing address:P.O. Box 388164Chicago, Illinois 60638 Phone
773-767-5690
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: Dr. Peter Strutynski <strutype@...-kassel.de>
Datum: Donnerstag, 23. November 2000 11:42
Betreff: Friedensratschlag: Interview mit Heinz Loquai
>Kassel, den 24. November 2000
>
>Pressemitteilung
>Brigadegeneral a.D. Heinz Loquai bei Kongress der Friedensbewegung
>Sperrfrist: 24. November
>
>Dr. Heinz Loquai wird auf dem bundesweiten und internationalen
>"Friedenspolitischen Ratschlag", der am 2./3. Dezember 2000 in Kassel
>stattfindet, über das Thema "Kriege vermeiden - Friedenschancen
>nutzen -
>Friedensbedingungen Verbessern" sprechen.
>Heinz Loquai war bis Juni 2000 Mitglied der Deutschen OSZE-Delegation
>in
>Wien. In dieser Eigenschaft hatte er an den Verhandlungen über
>Rüstungskontrolle im Rahmen des Dayton-Abkommens teilgenommen und war
>unmittelbar mit dem Kosovo-Konflikt befasst. In seiner Studie ("Der
>Kosovo-Konflikt - Wege in einen vermeidbaren Krieg", erschienen im
>NOMOS-Verlag) hat er die Zeit von Ende November 1997 bis März 1999
>genau
>untersucht und dabei die Vorgeschichte des NATO-Angriffs auf
>Jugoslawien
>analysiert. Der Bundesregierung wirft er vor, den Krieg gegen
>Jugoslawien mit groben Manipulationen vorbereitet und gegenüber der
>Öffentlichkeit gerechtfertigt zu haben.
>Mit Dr. Heinz Loquai sprachen wir im Vorfeld des Friedensratschlags.
>Das
>dabei entstandene Interview stellen wir Ihnen gern zur
>Veröffentlichung
>zur Verfügung.
>
>Frage: In Ihrer Studie zeigen Sie auf, dass der Jugoslawien-Krieg die
>Folge einer Eskalation war, bei der die NATO und insbesondere die USA
>bewusst auf eine militärische Konfliktlösung zugesteuert sind. Eine
>alternative, zivile Konfliktlösung wäre durchaus möglich gewesen.
>
>Heinz Loquai: Der Kosovo-Konflikt hat sich lange Zeit im Schatten der
>anderen Konflikte im ehemaligen Jugoslawien entwickelt. Trotz
>unterschiedlicher Appelle hat er nur gelegentlich die internationale
>Aufmerksamkeit auf sich gezogen. Geäußert hat sich der Konflikt durch
>eine seit 1989 ausgeübte Repressionspolitik der Bundesrepublik
>Jugoslawien und Serbiens gegen die Kosovo-Albaner und deren Versuch,
>diese Unterdrückung durch eine zunächst gewaltlose Strategie zu
>unterlaufen und faktisch immer mehr staatliche Selbständigkeit zu
>etablieren. Der politische Konflikt bestand darin, dass das Ziel der
>Albaner, die staatliche Unabhängigkeit durchzusetzen, mit dem Ziel
>der
>Bundesrepublik Jugoslawien, das Kosovo als serbische Provinz im
>jugoslawischen Staatsgebiet zu halten, unvereinbar war. Die
>gewaltsame
>Austragung des Konflikts, der von ethnischen, sozialen, religiösen
>und
>wirtschaftlichen Konflikten umlagert wurde, war ein Bürgerkrieg.
>Allerdings wurde er nicht von allen als Bürgerkrieg begriffen und
>beurteilt. So sah z. B. die Belgrader Führung das Problem im Kosovo
>nur
>in der Bekämpfung einer kleinen Gruppe von Terroristen und reagierte
>dementsprechend. Dabei versäumte es die serbische Staatsautorität,
>eine
>Perspektive und praktische, konkrete Ziele für eine friedliche Lösung
>des Konflikts zu entwickeln.
>
>Frage: Auf der anderen Seite die UCK, die die Unabhängigkeit durch
>einen
>bewaffneten Kampf erreichen wollte.
>
>Heinz Loquai: Bei der UCK lassen Strategie und Taktik deutlich
>erkennen,
>dass sich deren Führung konsequent an die Prinzipien eines
>Bürgerkriegs
>gehalten hat. Nachdem sich die NATO in den Konflikt eingeschaltet,
>deutlich Partei gegen die Serben ergriffen und ein militärisches
>Drohpotential, das nur gegen die Serben gerichtet war, aufgebaut
>hatte,
>eröffnete sich für die UCK zum ersten Mal eine ganz konkrete
>Perspektive
>für einen raschen Sieg im Bürgerkrieg. Die UCK hatte damit die
>stärkste
>Militärallianz der Welt als Verbündeten; als Luftwaffe der UCK gewann
>schließlich die NATO den Bürgerkrieg für die UCK.
>
>Frage: Welche weitergehenden Optionen hat die NATO dabei verfolgt?
>
>Heinz Loquai: Für die NATO selbst wurde das Kosovo immer mehr zu
>einer
>Arena, in der die Politik der NATO exemplarisch angewandt und auch
>getestet wurde. ... Die NATO war ja dabei, eine neue Strategie
>einzuführen, Einsätze außerhalb des Artikel 5 des NATO-Vertrages
>sollten
>in Zukunft ohne UN-Mandat möglich sein. Im Krieg gegen Jugoslawien
>setzte die NATO vorab ihre Strategie um. Bezeichnend hierzu ist, dass
>der amerikanische Präsident am 24. März 1999 in seiner Rede an das
>amerikanische Volk nicht die humanitäre Katastrophe, sondern die
>Glaubwürdigkeit des NATO-Bündnisses an die erste Stelle gestellt hat.
>Um
>jeden Preis sollte verhindert werden, dass die NATO - wie vorher die
>UN
>- als Papiertiger erschien.
>
>Frage: Die NATO hat Stellung zugunsten einer Partei bezogen. Hat sie
>sich damit nicht als Vermittler bei Konflikten eindeutig
>disqualifiziert
>?
>
>Heinz Loquai: Die NATO hat in diesem Konflikt einseitig Partei
>ergriffen
>und damit eine politische Lösung verhindert. Wer jedoch in einem
>Konflikt vermitteln will, muss das Vertrauen der Konfliktparteien
>haben
>und hier ist Voraussetzung, dass der Vermittler das Verhalten der
>Parteien mit gleichen Maßstäben bewertet und eventuelle Drohungen und
>Sanktionen gegen alle Vertragsbrüche und Gewalttäter auferlegt. Dies
>war
>im Kosovo nicht der Fall, hierzu ein Beispiel: In der Resolution 1203
>des UN-Sicherheitsrats vom 24.10.1998 wird von beiden Parteien das
>Ende
>der Gewalttaten und die Befolgung früherer Resolutionen verlangt. Die
>Jugoslawen kamen dieser Aufforderung nach, dennoch erhielt die NATO
>ihre
>Kriegsdrohung gegen sie aufrecht. Die UCK hielt sich nicht daran. Die
>internationale Gemeinschaft tat kaum etwas, um sie dazu zu zwingen
>...
>
>Frage: Zur Begründung für ein militärisches Eingreifen verweist die
>Bundesregierung immer wieder auf die Ereignisse von Racak.
>
>Heinz Loquai: Das sogenannte Massaker von Racak hat den Fortgang des
>Kosovo-Konflikts erheblich beeinflusst und den Weg zum Krieg gegen
>die
>Bundesrepublik Jugoslawien geebnet. Unstrittig ist wohl - dies gibt
>auch
>die serbische Führung zu -, dass die Toten in Racak auf das Konto der
>serbischen Sicherheitskräfte gingen. Unklar ist nach wie vor der
>Ablauf
>des Geschehens. Eine entscheidende Rolle spielte dabei der
>amerikanische
>Leiter der Kosovo-Verifikationsmission, Botschafter William Walker.
>Bei
>einer objektiven Betrachtung kommt man nicht umhin sein Verhalten als
>unangemessen und außerhalb aller normalen Regeln für eine Person mit
>diplomatischem Status zu bewerten. In Racak, am Ort des Geschehens,
>schien es ihm vor allem darum zu gehen, den von ihm mitgebrachten
>Journalisten freies Schalten und Walten zu ermöglichen. Walker machte
>keine Anstalten notwendigen Maßnahmen für eine kriminaltechnische
>Untersuchung einzuleiten, so z. B. das Gebiet abzusperren und den
>unerlaubten Zugang zu verhindern. Er beschuldigte aufgrund des
>Augenscheins und der Aussagen der Dorfbewohner die jugoslawischen
>Sicherheitskräfte und machte darüber hinaus falsche Angaben zu den
>Toten. Mit seinen vorschnellen Aussagen und Urteilen prägte er das
>Urteil anderer Organisationen und Regierungen, die ihrerseits seine
>"Feststellungen" mit fahrlässiger Leichtgläubigkeit ungeprüft
>übernahmen
>und zu einer Grundlage ihrer Politik machten. Mit seiner unbewiesenen
>Version von Racak zündete Walker die Lunte zum Krieg gegen
>Jugoslawien.
>
>Frage: Eine andere Inszenierung war wohl der sogenannte Hufeisenplan,
>den der Bundesverteidigungsminister Rudolf Scharping präsentierte.
>
>Heinz Loquai: Scharping behauptete zweierlei. Er sagte, er habe
>Beweise
>für einen militärischen Operationsplan der serbisch-jugoslawischen
>Führung, der die Vertreibung aller Albaner aus dem Kosovo zum Ziel
>habe.
>Hierzu ist zu sagen: Das, was der Minister als Beweise bisher
>vorgelegt
>hat, ist in sich äußerst widersprüchlich und fragwürdig und daher
>auch
>nicht beweiskräftig. Die Offenlegung der Dokumente verweigert der
>Minister mit fadenscheinigen Argumenten. Außerdem behauptet
>Scharping,
>dass dieser Plan bereits seit Ende 1998 ausgeführt wurde. Hierzu ist
>festzustellen: Sogar die Analysen der Nachrichtenexperten des
>Verteidigungsministeriums widersprechen praktisch dieser Behauptung
>des
>Ministers. Nach allem, was bisher in der Öffentlichkeit bekannt
>geworden
>ist, kann man schließen, dass der Hufeisenplan ein geschickt
>inszenierter Propagandacoup war, mit dem die aufkommende Kritik am
>Krieg
>gegen Jugoslawien erstickt wurde.
>
>Frage: Nach der Sprachregelung der Regierung wurde mit den
>Verhandlungen
>von Rambouillet ein letzter Versuch unternommen zu einer friedlichen
>Lösung zu gelangen.
>
>Heinz Loquai: Mit dem Beginn der Verhandlungen über ein
>Interimsabkommen
>im Februar 1999 auf Schloss Rambouillet waren die Kosovo-Albaner
>endlich
>dort, wohin sie politisch schon immer strebten, der Kosovo-Konflikt
>war
>nun wirklich internationalisiert. Damit war für sie ein wichtiger
>Zwischenschritt auf dem Weg zur Unabhängigkeit erreicht. Die
>Belgrader
>Führung hingegen musste eine wichtige Position aufgeben, der
>Kosovo-Konflikt war spätestens ab diesem Zeitpunkt keine innere
>Angelegenheit Serbiens mehr. Bei einer genaueren Analyse der
>Verhandlungen und vor allem bei der Betrachtung der
>Verhandlungsoptionen
>der einzelnen Parteien wird deutlich, dass die Verhandlungen im
>Prinzip
>als eine Fortsetzung des Bürgerkrieges mit anderen Mitteln und auf
>einem
>anderen Terrain verstanden werden können. Durch die Kontaktgruppe
>wurden
>bereits vor den Verhandlungen Prinzipien aufgestellt, die als nicht
>verhandelbar galten. ... Das Implementierungspapier sollte so wie es
>war, von den Parteien akzeptiert werden. Dies entsprach genau dem
>Verhandlungskonzept der Kontaktgruppe, wonach es eigentlich nur wenig
>zu
>verhandeln gab, verhandelbar war lediglich die technische
>Ausgestaltung
>der Prinzipien.
>
>Frage: Wer waren die Gewinner und wer die Verlierer dieser
>Verhandlungen?
>
>Heinz Loquai: Die großen Gewinner waren die Kosovo-Albaner,
>insbesondere
>die UCK. Sie wurde zur bestimmenden Kraft im Kosovo und auch am
>Verhandlungstisch. Durch eine ungemein geschickte
>Verhandlungsstrategie,
>durch flexible Taktiken und den Beistand und die Unterstützung vor
>allem
>der USA, war die UCK erfolgreich. Die UCK hat durch die Verhandlungen
>einen mächtigen Bündnispartner gewonnen, der durch seine
>Kriegsbeteiligung die militärischen Kräfteverhältnisse radikal zu
>ihren
>Gunsten verändert hat. Die Bundesrepublik Jugoslawien war objektiv
>gesehen der eigentliche Verlierer von Rambouillet. Letztendlich
>musste
>die serbische Führung zwischen Krieg und freiwilliger Kapitulation
>entscheiden.
>
>Frage: Sie haben unter anderem die Debatten des Deutschen Bundestages
>zum Thema Kosovo analysiert. Dabei fällt auf, dass in fast allen
>Reden
>das Wort "Krieg" vermieden wurde.
>
>Heinz Loquai: Vom Verteidigungsministerium wurde die argumentative
>Marschroute ausgegeben, dass es sich bei den Luftschlägen der NATO
>nicht
>um Kriegshandlungen handeln würde, schließlich habe es ja keine
>Kriegserklärung gegeben. Wenn man dieses Argument gelten lässt, dann
>waren Hitlers Überfälle auf Polen und auf die Sowjetunion auch keine
>Kriege. Daran zeigt sich die ganze Fragwürdigkeit dieses Arguments.
>Wenn
>jedoch allgemeine und militärwissenschaftliche Literatur herangezogen
>wird und die dortigen Definitionen betrachtet werden, so kann
>überhaupt
>nicht bestritten werden, dass die NATO als internationale
>Organisation
>und einzelne NATO-Staaten gegen die Bundesrepublik Jugoslawien einen
>Krieg geplant, begonnen und geführt haben.
>
>Frage: In ihren Äußerungen weisen Sie immer wieder auf Defizite in
>der
>Informationspolitik hin und wie im Bundestag damit umgegangen wurde.
>
>Heinz Loquai: ... Die Information der Parlamentarier war unpräzise,
>lückenhaft, ja sogar objektiv falsch. Insbesondere Scharping hat das
>Parlament über die tatsächliche Lage im Kosovo falsch informiert. Im
>Grunde genommen konnte das Parlament gar nicht wirklich beurteilen,
>ob
>sich eine humanitäre Katastrophe anbahnte, die es abzuwenden galt.
>Für
>eine sachgerechte Entscheidung über Krieg und Frieden fehlten ebenso
>zutreffende Informationen wie für die Ausübung einer
>Kontrollfunktion.
>Genauso wie der Großteil der Medien hat das Parlament
>regierungsamtliche
>Positionen völlig unkritisch übernommen. Wenn man sich darüber hinaus
>den Umgang mit Kritikern anschaut, dann muss der Regierung
>undemokratisches Verhalten attestiert werden. Demokratie zeigt sich
>im
>Umgang mit Andersdenkenden, mit den Kritikern, mit der Opposition.
>Und
>hier haben Regierungsvertreter versagt.
>
>Frage: Sie selbst sind schließlich durch Ihre Kritik zu einem "Opfer"
>geworden. Ihre Karriere bei der OSZE wurde durch das
>Bundesverteidigungsministerium beendet.
>
>Heinz Loquai: Als "Opfer" möchte ich mich nicht bezeichnen lassen.
>Man
>hat gegen mich einen kleinkarierten Racheakt verübt. Doch zu den
>Fakten.
>Scharping hatte ja diejenigen, die seine Version des Hufeisenplans
>anzweifelten, als naiv, ahnungslos, dumm und böswillig bezeichnet.
>Auch
>ich fühlte mich von diesen Anwürfen betroffen. Deshalb legte ich in
>einem Fernseh-Interview dar, was mir in einem offiziellen Gespräch
>die
>Experten des Ministers über den angeblichen Hufeisenplan gesagt
>hatten.
>Dies stand in krassem Gegensatz zu dem, was Scharping vor der
>Öffentlichkeit und im Parlament behauptet hatte. Die Reaktion hierauf
>war bezeichnend. In Berlin, Bonn und Wien wurde eine üble Posse gegen
>mich inszeniert, und ich musste meine Tätigkeit bei der OSZE auf
>Betreiben des Verteidigungsministeriums aufgeben, obwohl das
>Auswärtige
>Amt und die OSZE mich dort behalten wollten. Es war schon ein
>absurdes
>Theater: Weil ich die Wahrheit gesagt hatte, wurde ich abgestraft.
>__________________________________________________________
>Das vollständige Interview erscheint in der Ausgabe 3/2000
>(November/Dezember) der "Friedenspolitischen Korrespondenz", die vom
>Bundesausschuss Friedensratschlag herausgegeben wird. Es ist auch im
>Internet zu haben: www.friedensratschlag.de (unter der Rubrik "Themen" -
>"NATO-Krieg").
>
>Bei Rückfragen zum "Friedensratschlag" am 2./3. Dezember 2000:
>Peter Strutynski Tel. 0561/804-2314, FAX 0561/804-3738;
>e-mail: strutype@...-kassel.de
Von: Dr. Peter Strutynski <strutype@...-kassel.de>
Datum: Donnerstag, 23. November 2000 11:42
Betreff: Friedensratschlag: Interview mit Heinz Loquai
>Kassel, den 24. November 2000
>
>Pressemitteilung
>Brigadegeneral a.D. Heinz Loquai bei Kongress der Friedensbewegung
>Sperrfrist: 24. November
>
>Dr. Heinz Loquai wird auf dem bundesweiten und internationalen
>"Friedenspolitischen Ratschlag", der am 2./3. Dezember 2000 in Kassel
>stattfindet, über das Thema "Kriege vermeiden - Friedenschancen
>nutzen -
>Friedensbedingungen Verbessern" sprechen.
>Heinz Loquai war bis Juni 2000 Mitglied der Deutschen OSZE-Delegation
>in
>Wien. In dieser Eigenschaft hatte er an den Verhandlungen über
>Rüstungskontrolle im Rahmen des Dayton-Abkommens teilgenommen und war
>unmittelbar mit dem Kosovo-Konflikt befasst. In seiner Studie ("Der
>Kosovo-Konflikt - Wege in einen vermeidbaren Krieg", erschienen im
>NOMOS-Verlag) hat er die Zeit von Ende November 1997 bis März 1999
>genau
>untersucht und dabei die Vorgeschichte des NATO-Angriffs auf
>Jugoslawien
>analysiert. Der Bundesregierung wirft er vor, den Krieg gegen
>Jugoslawien mit groben Manipulationen vorbereitet und gegenüber der
>Öffentlichkeit gerechtfertigt zu haben.
>Mit Dr. Heinz Loquai sprachen wir im Vorfeld des Friedensratschlags.
>Das
>dabei entstandene Interview stellen wir Ihnen gern zur
>Veröffentlichung
>zur Verfügung.
>
>Frage: In Ihrer Studie zeigen Sie auf, dass der Jugoslawien-Krieg die
>Folge einer Eskalation war, bei der die NATO und insbesondere die USA
>bewusst auf eine militärische Konfliktlösung zugesteuert sind. Eine
>alternative, zivile Konfliktlösung wäre durchaus möglich gewesen.
>
>Heinz Loquai: Der Kosovo-Konflikt hat sich lange Zeit im Schatten der
>anderen Konflikte im ehemaligen Jugoslawien entwickelt. Trotz
>unterschiedlicher Appelle hat er nur gelegentlich die internationale
>Aufmerksamkeit auf sich gezogen. Geäußert hat sich der Konflikt durch
>eine seit 1989 ausgeübte Repressionspolitik der Bundesrepublik
>Jugoslawien und Serbiens gegen die Kosovo-Albaner und deren Versuch,
>diese Unterdrückung durch eine zunächst gewaltlose Strategie zu
>unterlaufen und faktisch immer mehr staatliche Selbständigkeit zu
>etablieren. Der politische Konflikt bestand darin, dass das Ziel der
>Albaner, die staatliche Unabhängigkeit durchzusetzen, mit dem Ziel
>der
>Bundesrepublik Jugoslawien, das Kosovo als serbische Provinz im
>jugoslawischen Staatsgebiet zu halten, unvereinbar war. Die
>gewaltsame
>Austragung des Konflikts, der von ethnischen, sozialen, religiösen
>und
>wirtschaftlichen Konflikten umlagert wurde, war ein Bürgerkrieg.
>Allerdings wurde er nicht von allen als Bürgerkrieg begriffen und
>beurteilt. So sah z. B. die Belgrader Führung das Problem im Kosovo
>nur
>in der Bekämpfung einer kleinen Gruppe von Terroristen und reagierte
>dementsprechend. Dabei versäumte es die serbische Staatsautorität,
>eine
>Perspektive und praktische, konkrete Ziele für eine friedliche Lösung
>des Konflikts zu entwickeln.
>
>Frage: Auf der anderen Seite die UCK, die die Unabhängigkeit durch
>einen
>bewaffneten Kampf erreichen wollte.
>
>Heinz Loquai: Bei der UCK lassen Strategie und Taktik deutlich
>erkennen,
>dass sich deren Führung konsequent an die Prinzipien eines
>Bürgerkriegs
>gehalten hat. Nachdem sich die NATO in den Konflikt eingeschaltet,
>deutlich Partei gegen die Serben ergriffen und ein militärisches
>Drohpotential, das nur gegen die Serben gerichtet war, aufgebaut
>hatte,
>eröffnete sich für die UCK zum ersten Mal eine ganz konkrete
>Perspektive
>für einen raschen Sieg im Bürgerkrieg. Die UCK hatte damit die
>stärkste
>Militärallianz der Welt als Verbündeten; als Luftwaffe der UCK gewann
>schließlich die NATO den Bürgerkrieg für die UCK.
>
>Frage: Welche weitergehenden Optionen hat die NATO dabei verfolgt?
>
>Heinz Loquai: Für die NATO selbst wurde das Kosovo immer mehr zu
>einer
>Arena, in der die Politik der NATO exemplarisch angewandt und auch
>getestet wurde. ... Die NATO war ja dabei, eine neue Strategie
>einzuführen, Einsätze außerhalb des Artikel 5 des NATO-Vertrages
>sollten
>in Zukunft ohne UN-Mandat möglich sein. Im Krieg gegen Jugoslawien
>setzte die NATO vorab ihre Strategie um. Bezeichnend hierzu ist, dass
>der amerikanische Präsident am 24. März 1999 in seiner Rede an das
>amerikanische Volk nicht die humanitäre Katastrophe, sondern die
>Glaubwürdigkeit des NATO-Bündnisses an die erste Stelle gestellt hat.
>Um
>jeden Preis sollte verhindert werden, dass die NATO - wie vorher die
>UN
>- als Papiertiger erschien.
>
>Frage: Die NATO hat Stellung zugunsten einer Partei bezogen. Hat sie
>sich damit nicht als Vermittler bei Konflikten eindeutig
>disqualifiziert
>?
>
>Heinz Loquai: Die NATO hat in diesem Konflikt einseitig Partei
>ergriffen
>und damit eine politische Lösung verhindert. Wer jedoch in einem
>Konflikt vermitteln will, muss das Vertrauen der Konfliktparteien
>haben
>und hier ist Voraussetzung, dass der Vermittler das Verhalten der
>Parteien mit gleichen Maßstäben bewertet und eventuelle Drohungen und
>Sanktionen gegen alle Vertragsbrüche und Gewalttäter auferlegt. Dies
>war
>im Kosovo nicht der Fall, hierzu ein Beispiel: In der Resolution 1203
>des UN-Sicherheitsrats vom 24.10.1998 wird von beiden Parteien das
>Ende
>der Gewalttaten und die Befolgung früherer Resolutionen verlangt. Die
>Jugoslawen kamen dieser Aufforderung nach, dennoch erhielt die NATO
>ihre
>Kriegsdrohung gegen sie aufrecht. Die UCK hielt sich nicht daran. Die
>internationale Gemeinschaft tat kaum etwas, um sie dazu zu zwingen
>...
>
>Frage: Zur Begründung für ein militärisches Eingreifen verweist die
>Bundesregierung immer wieder auf die Ereignisse von Racak.
>
>Heinz Loquai: Das sogenannte Massaker von Racak hat den Fortgang des
>Kosovo-Konflikts erheblich beeinflusst und den Weg zum Krieg gegen
>die
>Bundesrepublik Jugoslawien geebnet. Unstrittig ist wohl - dies gibt
>auch
>die serbische Führung zu -, dass die Toten in Racak auf das Konto der
>serbischen Sicherheitskräfte gingen. Unklar ist nach wie vor der
>Ablauf
>des Geschehens. Eine entscheidende Rolle spielte dabei der
>amerikanische
>Leiter der Kosovo-Verifikationsmission, Botschafter William Walker.
>Bei
>einer objektiven Betrachtung kommt man nicht umhin sein Verhalten als
>unangemessen und außerhalb aller normalen Regeln für eine Person mit
>diplomatischem Status zu bewerten. In Racak, am Ort des Geschehens,
>schien es ihm vor allem darum zu gehen, den von ihm mitgebrachten
>Journalisten freies Schalten und Walten zu ermöglichen. Walker machte
>keine Anstalten notwendigen Maßnahmen für eine kriminaltechnische
>Untersuchung einzuleiten, so z. B. das Gebiet abzusperren und den
>unerlaubten Zugang zu verhindern. Er beschuldigte aufgrund des
>Augenscheins und der Aussagen der Dorfbewohner die jugoslawischen
>Sicherheitskräfte und machte darüber hinaus falsche Angaben zu den
>Toten. Mit seinen vorschnellen Aussagen und Urteilen prägte er das
>Urteil anderer Organisationen und Regierungen, die ihrerseits seine
>"Feststellungen" mit fahrlässiger Leichtgläubigkeit ungeprüft
>übernahmen
>und zu einer Grundlage ihrer Politik machten. Mit seiner unbewiesenen
>Version von Racak zündete Walker die Lunte zum Krieg gegen
>Jugoslawien.
>
>Frage: Eine andere Inszenierung war wohl der sogenannte Hufeisenplan,
>den der Bundesverteidigungsminister Rudolf Scharping präsentierte.
>
>Heinz Loquai: Scharping behauptete zweierlei. Er sagte, er habe
>Beweise
>für einen militärischen Operationsplan der serbisch-jugoslawischen
>Führung, der die Vertreibung aller Albaner aus dem Kosovo zum Ziel
>habe.
>Hierzu ist zu sagen: Das, was der Minister als Beweise bisher
>vorgelegt
>hat, ist in sich äußerst widersprüchlich und fragwürdig und daher
>auch
>nicht beweiskräftig. Die Offenlegung der Dokumente verweigert der
>Minister mit fadenscheinigen Argumenten. Außerdem behauptet
>Scharping,
>dass dieser Plan bereits seit Ende 1998 ausgeführt wurde. Hierzu ist
>festzustellen: Sogar die Analysen der Nachrichtenexperten des
>Verteidigungsministeriums widersprechen praktisch dieser Behauptung
>des
>Ministers. Nach allem, was bisher in der Öffentlichkeit bekannt
>geworden
>ist, kann man schließen, dass der Hufeisenplan ein geschickt
>inszenierter Propagandacoup war, mit dem die aufkommende Kritik am
>Krieg
>gegen Jugoslawien erstickt wurde.
>
>Frage: Nach der Sprachregelung der Regierung wurde mit den
>Verhandlungen
>von Rambouillet ein letzter Versuch unternommen zu einer friedlichen
>Lösung zu gelangen.
>
>Heinz Loquai: Mit dem Beginn der Verhandlungen über ein
>Interimsabkommen
>im Februar 1999 auf Schloss Rambouillet waren die Kosovo-Albaner
>endlich
>dort, wohin sie politisch schon immer strebten, der Kosovo-Konflikt
>war
>nun wirklich internationalisiert. Damit war für sie ein wichtiger
>Zwischenschritt auf dem Weg zur Unabhängigkeit erreicht. Die
>Belgrader
>Führung hingegen musste eine wichtige Position aufgeben, der
>Kosovo-Konflikt war spätestens ab diesem Zeitpunkt keine innere
>Angelegenheit Serbiens mehr. Bei einer genaueren Analyse der
>Verhandlungen und vor allem bei der Betrachtung der
>Verhandlungsoptionen
>der einzelnen Parteien wird deutlich, dass die Verhandlungen im
>Prinzip
>als eine Fortsetzung des Bürgerkrieges mit anderen Mitteln und auf
>einem
>anderen Terrain verstanden werden können. Durch die Kontaktgruppe
>wurden
>bereits vor den Verhandlungen Prinzipien aufgestellt, die als nicht
>verhandelbar galten. ... Das Implementierungspapier sollte so wie es
>war, von den Parteien akzeptiert werden. Dies entsprach genau dem
>Verhandlungskonzept der Kontaktgruppe, wonach es eigentlich nur wenig
>zu
>verhandeln gab, verhandelbar war lediglich die technische
>Ausgestaltung
>der Prinzipien.
>
>Frage: Wer waren die Gewinner und wer die Verlierer dieser
>Verhandlungen?
>
>Heinz Loquai: Die großen Gewinner waren die Kosovo-Albaner,
>insbesondere
>die UCK. Sie wurde zur bestimmenden Kraft im Kosovo und auch am
>Verhandlungstisch. Durch eine ungemein geschickte
>Verhandlungsstrategie,
>durch flexible Taktiken und den Beistand und die Unterstützung vor
>allem
>der USA, war die UCK erfolgreich. Die UCK hat durch die Verhandlungen
>einen mächtigen Bündnispartner gewonnen, der durch seine
>Kriegsbeteiligung die militärischen Kräfteverhältnisse radikal zu
>ihren
>Gunsten verändert hat. Die Bundesrepublik Jugoslawien war objektiv
>gesehen der eigentliche Verlierer von Rambouillet. Letztendlich
>musste
>die serbische Führung zwischen Krieg und freiwilliger Kapitulation
>entscheiden.
>
>Frage: Sie haben unter anderem die Debatten des Deutschen Bundestages
>zum Thema Kosovo analysiert. Dabei fällt auf, dass in fast allen
>Reden
>das Wort "Krieg" vermieden wurde.
>
>Heinz Loquai: Vom Verteidigungsministerium wurde die argumentative
>Marschroute ausgegeben, dass es sich bei den Luftschlägen der NATO
>nicht
>um Kriegshandlungen handeln würde, schließlich habe es ja keine
>Kriegserklärung gegeben. Wenn man dieses Argument gelten lässt, dann
>waren Hitlers Überfälle auf Polen und auf die Sowjetunion auch keine
>Kriege. Daran zeigt sich die ganze Fragwürdigkeit dieses Arguments.
>Wenn
>jedoch allgemeine und militärwissenschaftliche Literatur herangezogen
>wird und die dortigen Definitionen betrachtet werden, so kann
>überhaupt
>nicht bestritten werden, dass die NATO als internationale
>Organisation
>und einzelne NATO-Staaten gegen die Bundesrepublik Jugoslawien einen
>Krieg geplant, begonnen und geführt haben.
>
>Frage: In ihren Äußerungen weisen Sie immer wieder auf Defizite in
>der
>Informationspolitik hin und wie im Bundestag damit umgegangen wurde.
>
>Heinz Loquai: ... Die Information der Parlamentarier war unpräzise,
>lückenhaft, ja sogar objektiv falsch. Insbesondere Scharping hat das
>Parlament über die tatsächliche Lage im Kosovo falsch informiert. Im
>Grunde genommen konnte das Parlament gar nicht wirklich beurteilen,
>ob
>sich eine humanitäre Katastrophe anbahnte, die es abzuwenden galt.
>Für
>eine sachgerechte Entscheidung über Krieg und Frieden fehlten ebenso
>zutreffende Informationen wie für die Ausübung einer
>Kontrollfunktion.
>Genauso wie der Großteil der Medien hat das Parlament
>regierungsamtliche
>Positionen völlig unkritisch übernommen. Wenn man sich darüber hinaus
>den Umgang mit Kritikern anschaut, dann muss der Regierung
>undemokratisches Verhalten attestiert werden. Demokratie zeigt sich
>im
>Umgang mit Andersdenkenden, mit den Kritikern, mit der Opposition.
>Und
>hier haben Regierungsvertreter versagt.
>
>Frage: Sie selbst sind schließlich durch Ihre Kritik zu einem "Opfer"
>geworden. Ihre Karriere bei der OSZE wurde durch das
>Bundesverteidigungsministerium beendet.
>
>Heinz Loquai: Als "Opfer" möchte ich mich nicht bezeichnen lassen.
>Man
>hat gegen mich einen kleinkarierten Racheakt verübt. Doch zu den
>Fakten.
>Scharping hatte ja diejenigen, die seine Version des Hufeisenplans
>anzweifelten, als naiv, ahnungslos, dumm und böswillig bezeichnet.
>Auch
>ich fühlte mich von diesen Anwürfen betroffen. Deshalb legte ich in
>einem Fernseh-Interview dar, was mir in einem offiziellen Gespräch
>die
>Experten des Ministers über den angeblichen Hufeisenplan gesagt
>hatten.
>Dies stand in krassem Gegensatz zu dem, was Scharping vor der
>Öffentlichkeit und im Parlament behauptet hatte. Die Reaktion hierauf
>war bezeichnend. In Berlin, Bonn und Wien wurde eine üble Posse gegen
>mich inszeniert, und ich musste meine Tätigkeit bei der OSZE auf
>Betreiben des Verteidigungsministeriums aufgeben, obwohl das
>Auswärtige
>Amt und die OSZE mich dort behalten wollten. Es war schon ein
>absurdes
>Theater: Weil ich die Wahrheit gesagt hatte, wurde ich abgestraft.
>__________________________________________________________
>Das vollständige Interview erscheint in der Ausgabe 3/2000
>(November/Dezember) der "Friedenspolitischen Korrespondenz", die vom
>Bundesausschuss Friedensratschlag herausgegeben wird. Es ist auch im
>Internet zu haben: www.friedensratschlag.de (unter der Rubrik "Themen" -
>"NATO-Krieg").
>
>Bei Rückfragen zum "Friedensratschlag" am 2./3. Dezember 2000:
>Peter Strutynski Tel. 0561/804-2314, FAX 0561/804-3738;
>e-mail: strutype@...-kassel.de
KOSOVO: Deja vue!
>Is history going to repeat itself? This is how it started in Kosovo,
>with KLA attacks against Serbian Security police forces. When Serbs responded
>to the provocations, they were condemned by the West, yet the US government
>wouldn't tolerate police being attacked in this country.
>
>Why should the Serbs?
>
>As the KLA see "independence" slipping through their fingers, it's not
>just the Serbs who are going to be the targets. Where once they thought of
>KFOR as their liberators, they will look upon them as their oppressors.
>
>Stella
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>AP International
>
> New Yugoslav Leadership Tested
>
> by ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC
> Associated Press Writer
>
> LUCANE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Lying on
> his belly in the brush, the Serbian police
> officer gazed through his binoculars and
> pointed at the ethnic Albanian militant on
> the opposite hill. He knew the position
> well -- it used to be his.
>
> Just days after ethnic Albanians seized
> Serb police positions in the border region
> on the edge of Kosovo, the combatants
> have dug in to wait for the situation to be
> resolved. Yugoslavia's new leadership
> gave NATO peacekeepers a 72-hour
> deadline Friday to end an ethnic Albanian
> offensive in the buffer zone between the
> province and the rest of Serbia.
>
> If NATO doesn't act, the Serbs say they
> will move in on their own.
>
> ''Look at them! Look at them!'' said the
> officer who would only give his first
> name, Milan, as he watched the insurgents
> facing him. ''Now they are around the
> outpost. They are walking freely.''
>
> So close that they can watch each other's
> every move, this fragile front line offers a
> test to new President Vojislav Kostunica
> and to NATO peacekeepers on the other
> side of the boundary line.
>
> Under pressure at home to act against the
> insurgents, Kostunica is unlikely to
> simply stand by while they seize any
> ground in Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant
> republic.
>
> If he acts too aggressively, however, he'll
> risk being compared to ousted President
> Slobodan Milosevic, whose belligerent
> policies forced Yugoslavia into wars and
> a pariah status it has only in recent weeks
> begun to shed.
>
> A Serb interior minister, Bozo Prelevic,
> said that in case NATO fails to prevent
> the ethnic Albanian incursions and force
> the militants back into Kosovo, Serb
> police ''will return to the territory of the
> republic of Serbia (in the buffer zone)
> with the means that are available.''
>
> Prelevic said the countdown starts Friday
> at 7.00 p.m. local time, meaning the
> deadline would expire Monday.
>
> ''We will not fool around,'' Prelevic said.
> ''They (NATO) are either incapable or
> they will show us the contrary.''
>
> The ethnic Albanians, however, have
> apparently decided that the moment to act
> is now in their goal to win independence
> from Serbia. They want to unite the
> predominantly ethnic Albanian Presevo
> Valley with Kosovo.
>
> Still, many Kosovo Albanians have mixed
> feelings about the events occurring just
> outside their administrative boundaries.
>
> Though their political parties sympathize
> with the demands by ethnic Albanians
> there for greater freedoms, they have been
> very careful of the issue of unification.
> The political leaders are fearful they
> might jeopardize their own dreams of
> independence.
>
> Even so, the Albanian community has
> long discussed the idea of uniting all the
> lands where Albanians live, and the
> spilling of blood may re-ignite the
> nationalistic sentiments.
>
> In the middle of all the tensions are tiny
> villages like Lucane, 220 miles from
> Belgrade.
>
> An ethnic Albanian village of about 1,000
> people tucked into a little valley,
> everyone in Lucane but the elderly have
> fled to neighboring villages. Fearing
> sniper fire, the elderly are holed up in
> their houses, which already bear the
> marks of gunfire.
>
> ''I remained here to guard the house,'' said
> Xavit Bislimi, 77, a local resident. ''The
> police didn't harm me or my livestock, but
> I am afraid of those armed people on the
> hills because they are shooting on the
> village every night, during last few days.''
>
> Evidence of gunfire is apparent near the
> police checkpoints. In the cellar of a
> house near the road being used by the
> officers, spent casings littered the ground.
> The police said that was from that the last
> day alone, stemming from attacks
> Thursday night and before dawn Friday.
>
> No one was injured Friday, but four
> police officers have died in the last week
> in attacks that gave the rebels control of a
> police checkpoint and the main road
> leading to Kosovo.
>
> Sporadic sniper fire continues, but for the
> moment the police have orders not to
> respond unless directly attacked.
>
> ''We are waiting for political approval
> from our state leadership and the
> international community,'' said Milan, the
> police officer, ''to take care of insurgents
> within Serbian territory.''
>
26/11/2000
>Is history going to repeat itself? This is how it started in Kosovo,
>with KLA attacks against Serbian Security police forces. When Serbs responded
>to the provocations, they were condemned by the West, yet the US government
>wouldn't tolerate police being attacked in this country.
>
>Why should the Serbs?
>
>As the KLA see "independence" slipping through their fingers, it's not
>just the Serbs who are going to be the targets. Where once they thought of
>KFOR as their liberators, they will look upon them as their oppressors.
>
>Stella
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>AP International
>
> New Yugoslav Leadership Tested
>
> by ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC
> Associated Press Writer
>
> LUCANE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Lying on
> his belly in the brush, the Serbian police
> officer gazed through his binoculars and
> pointed at the ethnic Albanian militant on
> the opposite hill. He knew the position
> well -- it used to be his.
>
> Just days after ethnic Albanians seized
> Serb police positions in the border region
> on the edge of Kosovo, the combatants
> have dug in to wait for the situation to be
> resolved. Yugoslavia's new leadership
> gave NATO peacekeepers a 72-hour
> deadline Friday to end an ethnic Albanian
> offensive in the buffer zone between the
> province and the rest of Serbia.
>
> If NATO doesn't act, the Serbs say they
> will move in on their own.
>
> ''Look at them! Look at them!'' said the
> officer who would only give his first
> name, Milan, as he watched the insurgents
> facing him. ''Now they are around the
> outpost. They are walking freely.''
>
> So close that they can watch each other's
> every move, this fragile front line offers a
> test to new President Vojislav Kostunica
> and to NATO peacekeepers on the other
> side of the boundary line.
>
> Under pressure at home to act against the
> insurgents, Kostunica is unlikely to
> simply stand by while they seize any
> ground in Serbia, Yugoslavia's dominant
> republic.
>
> If he acts too aggressively, however, he'll
> risk being compared to ousted President
> Slobodan Milosevic, whose belligerent
> policies forced Yugoslavia into wars and
> a pariah status it has only in recent weeks
> begun to shed.
>
> A Serb interior minister, Bozo Prelevic,
> said that in case NATO fails to prevent
> the ethnic Albanian incursions and force
> the militants back into Kosovo, Serb
> police ''will return to the territory of the
> republic of Serbia (in the buffer zone)
> with the means that are available.''
>
> Prelevic said the countdown starts Friday
> at 7.00 p.m. local time, meaning the
> deadline would expire Monday.
>
> ''We will not fool around,'' Prelevic said.
> ''They (NATO) are either incapable or
> they will show us the contrary.''
>
> The ethnic Albanians, however, have
> apparently decided that the moment to act
> is now in their goal to win independence
> from Serbia. They want to unite the
> predominantly ethnic Albanian Presevo
> Valley with Kosovo.
>
> Still, many Kosovo Albanians have mixed
> feelings about the events occurring just
> outside their administrative boundaries.
>
> Though their political parties sympathize
> with the demands by ethnic Albanians
> there for greater freedoms, they have been
> very careful of the issue of unification.
> The political leaders are fearful they
> might jeopardize their own dreams of
> independence.
>
> Even so, the Albanian community has
> long discussed the idea of uniting all the
> lands where Albanians live, and the
> spilling of blood may re-ignite the
> nationalistic sentiments.
>
> In the middle of all the tensions are tiny
> villages like Lucane, 220 miles from
> Belgrade.
>
> An ethnic Albanian village of about 1,000
> people tucked into a little valley,
> everyone in Lucane but the elderly have
> fled to neighboring villages. Fearing
> sniper fire, the elderly are holed up in
> their houses, which already bear the
> marks of gunfire.
>
> ''I remained here to guard the house,'' said
> Xavit Bislimi, 77, a local resident. ''The
> police didn't harm me or my livestock, but
> I am afraid of those armed people on the
> hills because they are shooting on the
> village every night, during last few days.''
>
> Evidence of gunfire is apparent near the
> police checkpoints. In the cellar of a
> house near the road being used by the
> officers, spent casings littered the ground.
> The police said that was from that the last
> day alone, stemming from attacks
> Thursday night and before dawn Friday.
>
> No one was injured Friday, but four
> police officers have died in the last week
> in attacks that gave the rebels control of a
> police checkpoint and the main road
> leading to Kosovo.
>
> Sporadic sniper fire continues, but for the
> moment the police have orders not to
> respond unless directly attacked.
>
> ''We are waiting for political approval
> from our state leadership and the
> international community,'' said Milan, the
> police officer, ''to take care of insurgents
> within Serbian territory.''
>
26/11/2000
Balkan Express
by Nebojsa Malic
Antiwar.com
December 14, 2000
Déja Vu
Two leaders face off in a hotly contested election race, one which will
determine the fate of their nation. One is a leftist
liberal, entrenched in power, relying on a police apparatus and
propaganda; the other a conservative, enjoying an advantage
in funding and promising to restore dignity to office of the president.
There is a vote. But the results are contested, ballots
are miscounted, and the Supreme Court intervenes to resolve the
election. United States, December 2000? Try Yugoslavia,
this September.
Slobodan Milosevic’s government claimed the election was too close to
call. The opposition protested, claiming outright
victory. While Vojislav Kostunica was offering a recount ("Goodwill
gesture" from Yugoslav opposition could end
impasse, AFP, 29. September 2000), Milosevic was insisting on holding a
runoff election. When Zoran Djindjic and his
cohorts running Kostunica’s campaign refused to consider such an option,
the Yugoslav constitutional court (US Supreme
Court’s counterpart) annulled the election results (see NY Times,
"Belgrade Court Annuls Vote That Was Milosevic
Setback" by Steven Erlanger, 10/5/2000). This provoked a demonstration
in front of the parliament that led to the
overthrow of Milosevic and the inauguration of Kostunica as Yugoslav
president.
On the face of it, the similarities are eerie. Knowing that the United
States was deeply involved in this chain of events, they
become downright sinister.
MANIPULATORS
A week before the elections in Yugoslavia, a NATO naval expeditionary
force was moored off the Yugoslav coast; the
US-funded Montenegrin regime boycotted the election; and Madeleine
Albright asserted that the vote would be "stolen"
weeks before any ballots were actually cast. Then the Washington Post
ran a front-page story detailing the "$77 million
U.S. effort to do with ballots what NATO bombs could not – get rid of
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic" [US
Funds Help Milosevic’s Foes in Election Fight, John Lancaster,
9/19/2000, A01] .
Kostunica promptly denounced the US for meddling, but his convincing
lead quickly melted away. As Milosevic thundered
against "traitors and foreign mercenaries," the Post just about admitted
his allegations were true!
Four days later, Jane Perlez wrote in the New York Times: "Even if, as
almost everyone expects, Mr. Milosevic simply
declares himself the victor, Washington is hoping that angry voters will
take to the streets in a way that eventually drives him
from office, much as Ferdinand E. Marcos was ousted in the Philippines
in 1986." (US Anti-Milosevic Plan Faces Major
Test at Polls, September 23). When the masses did exactly that on
October 5, everyone seemed surprised. Soon
thereafter, Kostunica’s coalition partners began boasting how they had
planned a violent overthrow of Milosevic. Was it
just them?
No, according to the Washington Post. This Monday, amidst the US
electoral controversy, the Post published another
report, detailing how the United States planned, funded and ran the
campaign against Milosevic this past fall.
CONSPIRACY REVEALED
Michael Dobbs, author of the article, claims that Americans and US-paid
consultants crafted the strategy to vote Milosevic
out of office; that retired military officers taught Otpor activists how
to organize demonstrations; that US taxpayers funded
5,000 cans of spray paint used to scrawl opposition graffiti across
Serbia; that President Clinton’s own pollsters – Penn,
Schoen & Berland Associates, Inc. – were involved in crafting
pro-opposition polls before the election.
It is startling and sickening to read how the US operatives exploited
Milosevic’s greatest weakness – his soft spot for the
democratic process. Says the Post,
"Had Yugoslavia been a totalitarian state like Iraq or North Korea,
the strategy would have stood little
chance. But while Milosevic ran a repressive police state, he was
never a dictator in the style of Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein. His authority depended on a veil of popular
legitimacy. It was this constitutional facade that
gave Serbian opposition leaders, and their Western backers, an
all-important opening."
Milosevic’s greatest weakness was that he was not ruthless enough? Such
a supreme irony, indeed, especially when coming
from the same media house that has denounced Milosevic as another Hitler
and gleefully published editorials advocating the
complete destruction of Serbia during the 1999 war.
A NEW KIND OF COVERT OP
The September 19 article described US meddling in Yugoslav elections as
"similar to previous campaigns in pre-democratic
Chile, South Africa and Eastern Europe." But Dobbs dwells on
"extraordinary US effort to unseat a foreign head of state,
not through covert action of the kind the CIA once employed in such
places as Iran and Guatemala, but by modern election
campaign techniques."
None of the countries and regions described above have profited from US
involvement. Quite to the contrary, it had
profoundly negative consequences. Guatemala plunged into a 20-year,
bloody civil war. In Iran, oppression of the people
by the American-dominated regime spawned the Islamic revolution. South
Africa and Eastern Europe have seen their state
institutions disintegrate, and have plunged into abject poverty. In
Chile, US-backed dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet was
responsible for numerous crimes against its citizens.
Based on this record, extensive American involvement in Yugoslav and
Serbian elections ought to cause every
freedom-loving human being to cringe with disgust. By definition, it
flies in the face of everything that has ever been said
about democracy, responsibility, freedom of choice and international law
– to mention just a few major points.
The US government may argue that its meddling helped the Serbs. The jury
is still out on whether Kostunica’s presidency
has made things better, though. International recognition is hardly a
compensation for famine, economic collapse and fuel
shortages that have descended on Serbia after Milosevic’s fall.
Kostunica’s election may yet prove to be a beneficial
development for the Serbs, plagued as they have been by ill fortune
throughout the 20th century. But that would come in
spite of Washington’s plots, not because of them.
TIMED FALLOUT
Those who consider Kostunica a US puppet have a hard time proving their
case. Though not exactly hostile, he is certainly
no big friend of Washington. His government has hardly been a pushover,
though it has been very flexible on many issues
Milosevic refused to yield ground over the years – such as the UN
membership, Yugoslav succession and, to an extent, war
crimes.
If he really were a US puppet, how would one explain the persistent
secessionism of Djukanovic’s regime in Podgorica, or
the ambivalence of NATO in face of the Albanian invasion of southern
Serbia? Kostunica’s party has supported the
Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) in Bosnia, which the US is endeavoring to
ban even though it won the elections there fair
and square. Kostunica has also insisted on territorial integrity of
Serbia and Yugoslavia, while the US has supported
separatist demands of its clients in Kosovo and Montenegro, even while
publicly claiming otherwise.
There are, however, leaders in Kostunica’s motley coalition that are
more inclined to serve foreign interests. Every nation
has its share of traitors and sellouts, and it is their direction one
needs to look when following the US money trail and the
conspicuous interference in Yugoslav and Serbian affairs.
Conspicuous is the key word here. The timing of this article’s
publication cannot be an accident. Even in its imperious
arrogance, the mainstream American press would never dare publicly
announce its government’s machinations in
Yugoslavia if doing so would hurt the efforts of Washington oligarchs.
It certainly marched in lockstep with the government
during American-led terror bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.
The Washington Post’s September 19 article gave credence to Milosevic’s
claims of foreign interference and hurt
Kostunica’s coalition just a week before the federal elections. Soon
after Kostunica took over on October 5, as he was
trying to establish legitimacy and convince the people he was not a
stooge of NATO, US papers and politicians started
claiming credit for his success, praising the policies of bombing,
sanctions and separatism – along with propaganda and
"democratization" projects such as those detailed in the Post – as being
the real reason for Milosevic’s fall.
The newest article detailing the intricacies of the American conspiracy
– for how else would one call such a degree of
tampering in another country’s elections? – again comes at the worst
possible time for Kostunica. Albanian bandits have
invaded southern Serbia, Yugoslavia’s economy is tanking fast, and Zoran
Djindjic seems poised to sweep the December
elections and pull the rug out from under Kostunica’s feet.
TAKING SIDES
Indeed, though the December elections are described as the clash of
Kostunica’s DOS and the remnants of Milosevic’s
Socialists, the real power struggle will be between factions within DOS
– Kostunica and Djindjic.
The Post then dumps a cauldron of investigative pitch on the heads of
all involved, eroding Kostunica’s legitimacy and
deriding the efforts of the opposition (now government) in changing the
politics of Serbia. One is tempted to wonder if
Washington wants Kostunica to fail, or at least to be sufficiently
weakened to submit to US demands.
A WRENCH IN THE WORKS
Kostunica may be too American for the Empire’s comfort. He actually
believes in the constitution, rights and liberties,
limited government, patriotism and sovereignty – all issues the current
regime in Washington has undermined or sidelined
over the past eight years.
If the December 11 article was truthful – which seems likely – then it
represents an irrefutable proof that there really was a
US plan to overthrow Milosevic and install a friendlier regime,
dominated by pro-American politicians. Kostunica might
have fit into the plan as a figurehead, intended to be replaced by
Djindjic or someone else when the time was ripe.
Apparently no one told him that, since Kostunica went on to become a
true statesman and garner tremendous support
among the people. His strength now surpasses that of Djindjic’s party,
so much that Djindjic needs Kostunica’s support to
become Serbia’s Prime Minister after the elections in late December.
Hence comes the need to take Kostunica down a peg
an attack his honesty, integrity and independence, effectively propping
up Djindjic’s power grab. So the Post says:
"To many opposition activists, Kostunica’s denials ring a little
hollow. While it is true that his own party, the
Democratic Party of Serbia, rejected anything that smacked of US
aid, his presidential campaign benefited
enormously from the advice and financial support the opposition
coalition received from abroad, and
particularly from the United States."
SECRETS, BARGAINS AND LIES
Though the full fallout from the Post’s article will only be known in
the coming days, one of its unintended consequences
was to expose the extent of America’s illegal imperial adventures. Now
that it is known the US was so deeply involved in
Milosevic’s overthrow, maybe other secrets will also emerge – such as
its exact role in the events of October 5, and the
extent to which Kostunica’s peaceful takeover and Milosevic’s concession
were or were not a part of that plan. Perhaps
some day soon, the American public – and the Serbian public as well –
will find out what the puppet masters had in mind,
and which actors were (or were not) their puppets.
BOOMERANG
The penultimate irony, of course, is that the US found itself mired in a
similar situation just two months later. Could the ballot
manipulation in Florida be the consequence of similar practices abroad?
The temptation to use the ways and means of
empire-building at home are great, especially when the prize is the
Empire itself.
But let us be realistic. It is hard to envision masses of angry
Americans charging Capitol Hill of the White House and
inaugurating the candidate they consider the victor, or the US Supreme
Court annulling the election. Alas, neither of the US
candidates has the integrity of Vojislav Kostunica or the ruthless
political savvy and charm of Slobodan Milosevic. There
won’t be any bulldozers on the streets of Washington any time soon, and
more’s the pity.
---
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by Nebojsa Malic
Antiwar.com
December 14, 2000
Déja Vu
Two leaders face off in a hotly contested election race, one which will
determine the fate of their nation. One is a leftist
liberal, entrenched in power, relying on a police apparatus and
propaganda; the other a conservative, enjoying an advantage
in funding and promising to restore dignity to office of the president.
There is a vote. But the results are contested, ballots
are miscounted, and the Supreme Court intervenes to resolve the
election. United States, December 2000? Try Yugoslavia,
this September.
Slobodan Milosevic’s government claimed the election was too close to
call. The opposition protested, claiming outright
victory. While Vojislav Kostunica was offering a recount ("Goodwill
gesture" from Yugoslav opposition could end
impasse, AFP, 29. September 2000), Milosevic was insisting on holding a
runoff election. When Zoran Djindjic and his
cohorts running Kostunica’s campaign refused to consider such an option,
the Yugoslav constitutional court (US Supreme
Court’s counterpart) annulled the election results (see NY Times,
"Belgrade Court Annuls Vote That Was Milosevic
Setback" by Steven Erlanger, 10/5/2000). This provoked a demonstration
in front of the parliament that led to the
overthrow of Milosevic and the inauguration of Kostunica as Yugoslav
president.
On the face of it, the similarities are eerie. Knowing that the United
States was deeply involved in this chain of events, they
become downright sinister.
MANIPULATORS
A week before the elections in Yugoslavia, a NATO naval expeditionary
force was moored off the Yugoslav coast; the
US-funded Montenegrin regime boycotted the election; and Madeleine
Albright asserted that the vote would be "stolen"
weeks before any ballots were actually cast. Then the Washington Post
ran a front-page story detailing the "$77 million
U.S. effort to do with ballots what NATO bombs could not – get rid of
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic" [US
Funds Help Milosevic’s Foes in Election Fight, John Lancaster,
9/19/2000, A01] .
Kostunica promptly denounced the US for meddling, but his convincing
lead quickly melted away. As Milosevic thundered
against "traitors and foreign mercenaries," the Post just about admitted
his allegations were true!
Four days later, Jane Perlez wrote in the New York Times: "Even if, as
almost everyone expects, Mr. Milosevic simply
declares himself the victor, Washington is hoping that angry voters will
take to the streets in a way that eventually drives him
from office, much as Ferdinand E. Marcos was ousted in the Philippines
in 1986." (US Anti-Milosevic Plan Faces Major
Test at Polls, September 23). When the masses did exactly that on
October 5, everyone seemed surprised. Soon
thereafter, Kostunica’s coalition partners began boasting how they had
planned a violent overthrow of Milosevic. Was it
just them?
No, according to the Washington Post. This Monday, amidst the US
electoral controversy, the Post published another
report, detailing how the United States planned, funded and ran the
campaign against Milosevic this past fall.
CONSPIRACY REVEALED
Michael Dobbs, author of the article, claims that Americans and US-paid
consultants crafted the strategy to vote Milosevic
out of office; that retired military officers taught Otpor activists how
to organize demonstrations; that US taxpayers funded
5,000 cans of spray paint used to scrawl opposition graffiti across
Serbia; that President Clinton’s own pollsters – Penn,
Schoen & Berland Associates, Inc. – were involved in crafting
pro-opposition polls before the election.
It is startling and sickening to read how the US operatives exploited
Milosevic’s greatest weakness – his soft spot for the
democratic process. Says the Post,
"Had Yugoslavia been a totalitarian state like Iraq or North Korea,
the strategy would have stood little
chance. But while Milosevic ran a repressive police state, he was
never a dictator in the style of Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein. His authority depended on a veil of popular
legitimacy. It was this constitutional facade that
gave Serbian opposition leaders, and their Western backers, an
all-important opening."
Milosevic’s greatest weakness was that he was not ruthless enough? Such
a supreme irony, indeed, especially when coming
from the same media house that has denounced Milosevic as another Hitler
and gleefully published editorials advocating the
complete destruction of Serbia during the 1999 war.
A NEW KIND OF COVERT OP
The September 19 article described US meddling in Yugoslav elections as
"similar to previous campaigns in pre-democratic
Chile, South Africa and Eastern Europe." But Dobbs dwells on
"extraordinary US effort to unseat a foreign head of state,
not through covert action of the kind the CIA once employed in such
places as Iran and Guatemala, but by modern election
campaign techniques."
None of the countries and regions described above have profited from US
involvement. Quite to the contrary, it had
profoundly negative consequences. Guatemala plunged into a 20-year,
bloody civil war. In Iran, oppression of the people
by the American-dominated regime spawned the Islamic revolution. South
Africa and Eastern Europe have seen their state
institutions disintegrate, and have plunged into abject poverty. In
Chile, US-backed dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet was
responsible for numerous crimes against its citizens.
Based on this record, extensive American involvement in Yugoslav and
Serbian elections ought to cause every
freedom-loving human being to cringe with disgust. By definition, it
flies in the face of everything that has ever been said
about democracy, responsibility, freedom of choice and international law
– to mention just a few major points.
The US government may argue that its meddling helped the Serbs. The jury
is still out on whether Kostunica’s presidency
has made things better, though. International recognition is hardly a
compensation for famine, economic collapse and fuel
shortages that have descended on Serbia after Milosevic’s fall.
Kostunica’s election may yet prove to be a beneficial
development for the Serbs, plagued as they have been by ill fortune
throughout the 20th century. But that would come in
spite of Washington’s plots, not because of them.
TIMED FALLOUT
Those who consider Kostunica a US puppet have a hard time proving their
case. Though not exactly hostile, he is certainly
no big friend of Washington. His government has hardly been a pushover,
though it has been very flexible on many issues
Milosevic refused to yield ground over the years – such as the UN
membership, Yugoslav succession and, to an extent, war
crimes.
If he really were a US puppet, how would one explain the persistent
secessionism of Djukanovic’s regime in Podgorica, or
the ambivalence of NATO in face of the Albanian invasion of southern
Serbia? Kostunica’s party has supported the
Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) in Bosnia, which the US is endeavoring to
ban even though it won the elections there fair
and square. Kostunica has also insisted on territorial integrity of
Serbia and Yugoslavia, while the US has supported
separatist demands of its clients in Kosovo and Montenegro, even while
publicly claiming otherwise.
There are, however, leaders in Kostunica’s motley coalition that are
more inclined to serve foreign interests. Every nation
has its share of traitors and sellouts, and it is their direction one
needs to look when following the US money trail and the
conspicuous interference in Yugoslav and Serbian affairs.
Conspicuous is the key word here. The timing of this article’s
publication cannot be an accident. Even in its imperious
arrogance, the mainstream American press would never dare publicly
announce its government’s machinations in
Yugoslavia if doing so would hurt the efforts of Washington oligarchs.
It certainly marched in lockstep with the government
during American-led terror bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.
The Washington Post’s September 19 article gave credence to Milosevic’s
claims of foreign interference and hurt
Kostunica’s coalition just a week before the federal elections. Soon
after Kostunica took over on October 5, as he was
trying to establish legitimacy and convince the people he was not a
stooge of NATO, US papers and politicians started
claiming credit for his success, praising the policies of bombing,
sanctions and separatism – along with propaganda and
"democratization" projects such as those detailed in the Post – as being
the real reason for Milosevic’s fall.
The newest article detailing the intricacies of the American conspiracy
– for how else would one call such a degree of
tampering in another country’s elections? – again comes at the worst
possible time for Kostunica. Albanian bandits have
invaded southern Serbia, Yugoslavia’s economy is tanking fast, and Zoran
Djindjic seems poised to sweep the December
elections and pull the rug out from under Kostunica’s feet.
TAKING SIDES
Indeed, though the December elections are described as the clash of
Kostunica’s DOS and the remnants of Milosevic’s
Socialists, the real power struggle will be between factions within DOS
– Kostunica and Djindjic.
The Post then dumps a cauldron of investigative pitch on the heads of
all involved, eroding Kostunica’s legitimacy and
deriding the efforts of the opposition (now government) in changing the
politics of Serbia. One is tempted to wonder if
Washington wants Kostunica to fail, or at least to be sufficiently
weakened to submit to US demands.
A WRENCH IN THE WORKS
Kostunica may be too American for the Empire’s comfort. He actually
believes in the constitution, rights and liberties,
limited government, patriotism and sovereignty – all issues the current
regime in Washington has undermined or sidelined
over the past eight years.
If the December 11 article was truthful – which seems likely – then it
represents an irrefutable proof that there really was a
US plan to overthrow Milosevic and install a friendlier regime,
dominated by pro-American politicians. Kostunica might
have fit into the plan as a figurehead, intended to be replaced by
Djindjic or someone else when the time was ripe.
Apparently no one told him that, since Kostunica went on to become a
true statesman and garner tremendous support
among the people. His strength now surpasses that of Djindjic’s party,
so much that Djindjic needs Kostunica’s support to
become Serbia’s Prime Minister after the elections in late December.
Hence comes the need to take Kostunica down a peg
an attack his honesty, integrity and independence, effectively propping
up Djindjic’s power grab. So the Post says:
"To many opposition activists, Kostunica’s denials ring a little
hollow. While it is true that his own party, the
Democratic Party of Serbia, rejected anything that smacked of US
aid, his presidential campaign benefited
enormously from the advice and financial support the opposition
coalition received from abroad, and
particularly from the United States."
SECRETS, BARGAINS AND LIES
Though the full fallout from the Post’s article will only be known in
the coming days, one of its unintended consequences
was to expose the extent of America’s illegal imperial adventures. Now
that it is known the US was so deeply involved in
Milosevic’s overthrow, maybe other secrets will also emerge – such as
its exact role in the events of October 5, and the
extent to which Kostunica’s peaceful takeover and Milosevic’s concession
were or were not a part of that plan. Perhaps
some day soon, the American public – and the Serbian public as well –
will find out what the puppet masters had in mind,
and which actors were (or were not) their puppets.
BOOMERANG
The penultimate irony, of course, is that the US found itself mired in a
similar situation just two months later. Could the ballot
manipulation in Florida be the consequence of similar practices abroad?
The temptation to use the ways and means of
empire-building at home are great, especially when the prize is the
Empire itself.
But let us be realistic. It is hard to envision masses of angry
Americans charging Capitol Hill of the White House and
inaugurating the candidate they consider the victor, or the US Supreme
Court annulling the election. Alas, neither of the US
candidates has the integrity of Vojislav Kostunica or the ruthless
political savvy and charm of Slobodan Milosevic. There
won’t be any bulldozers on the streets of Washington any time soon, and
more’s the pity.
---
Bollettino di controinformazione del
Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia Vivra'"
Sito WEB : http://digilander.iol.it/lajugoslaviavivra
I documenti distribuiti non rispecchiano necessariamente le
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The URL for this article is
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/tika/dogs2.htm
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
Pentagon Dogs
by Tika Jankovic (11-29-2000)
Part 1 - Preshevo Valley: A Strategic Prize
I landed in the San Francisco Airport a few hours ago, back from my trip
to Serbia and its turbulent
southern Preshevo Valley, bordering on Macedonia to the south, the
Serbian Province of Kosovo and
Metohija to the west, and reaching the border with Bulgaria, on the
east.
This is a stretch of land of the utmost geostrategic importance for
NATO's expansion to the east. It's a
bridge from Serbia to Macedonia, on the Belgrade-Skopje-Thesalonici
highway, the land
communication artery between Central Europe and the Aegean Sea. And it
is a piece of territory which
the NATO countries' oil pipeline is planned to transverse, connecting
oil terminals on the Black Sea, in
Bulgaria, and on the Adriatic Sea, in Albania. In addition, this region
has several mineral-rich mines and
is a center for textile, tobacco, furniture and other industrial
complexes, in addition to having world
acclaimed hot and cold water spas and several facilities which bottle
the sizzling mineral waters.
The rich soil in the Morava River Valley lends itself to corn, wheat,
vegtable and cattle farming,
providing a living for about half a million people. By seizing control
of this pocket, the US/NATO
would:
1. Cut Serbia off from Macedonia and Greece and deprive Serbia of a
considerable income and a
strategic territory;
2. Gain control of the North-South passageway, stretching from Central
Europe to the Aegean Sea;
3. Gain control of the route planned for the future oil pipeline to the
Adriatic;
4. Connect occupied Serbian Kosovo and Metohija with occupied Bulgaria
on the East and with
quisling-controlled Montenegro on the West, thus securing full control
of the Balkans' southern flank,
between the Adriatic and the Black Sea.
5. Get hold of this rich valley, the better to plunder its natural and
industrial resources, another colonial
acquisition of Yugoslav land. Another anguish for the people.
KLA Attack Dogs Assault PreshevoValley
On Nov. 22 I arrived in Bujanovac, a small city in the Preshevo Valley,
about 10 miles south from the
city of Vranje in Southern Serbia. That day, the KLA bands intensified
their attacks on Serbian police
forces. [The KLA is the terrorist secessionist group, the Kosovo
Liberation Army]
This latest attack had begun the day before I arrived, but one should
remember that KLA raids on this
valley actually started exactly on the day US troops arrived and took
control of the Eastern Sector of
Kosovo and Metohija, bordering the Preshevo Valley.
The battle raged about two miles from Bujanovac, in the hills, where
Serb police forces, armed only
with rifles, repulsed attacks by KLA battalions, heavily armed and
supported by mortar and artillery
fire.
In the afternoon of the previous day, the KLA raiders were also backed
by heavy artillery, apparently
coming from US troop positions to the west. Residents could see a canopy
of US helicopter gunships
hovering in the sky, protecting the KLA raiders from the use of
appropriate weapons by the Serbian
defenders. NATO Secretary Robertson had warned the Serbs that if they
used heavy guns in their
defense against these secessionist storm troopers NATO troops would
retaliate!. These gunships also
provided intelligence to the KLA attackers, guiding them in action.
One American military officer was recently reported killed, "in East
Kosovo, in the line of daily duty",
or so said the NATO official dispatch. East Kosovo is a euphemism, of
course, since the only area in
which there is combat is the Preshevo Valley.
The 13 wounded Serb police officers suffered mortar and artillery shell
injuries, as did the four who
were killed. Three missing Serbian officers were returned in body bags
by the US military. Their bodies
had been tortured and badly disfigured - the handiwork of the US junior
war buddies, the KLA.
The torture of these men was not mentioned in the Yugoslav press, which
is now entirely controlled by
the DOS government; hints of truth leak out because of feuds between the
various DOS factions. I
learned of the Serbian officers' tragic fate from medical personnel who
had viewed the bodies. The
DOS papers also forgot to mention the obvious fact that the U.S. is
spearheading the attacks in
Preshevo Valley. The KLA, is, as usual, providing window dressing,
sadism and cannon fodder for
their Pentagon groomers.
These KLA raids on Serbian territory, five miles beyond the militarized
zone of three miles along the
Kosovo and Metohija border with Serbia proper, and the evident US
military involvement in these
actions, speak volumes concerning the US/NATO true agenda in the region,
as I mentioned above. The
current Serb authorities gave the fascist-terrorists 72 hours to
retreat; the U.S. objected, and the
authorities immediately extended the time period. Why? Why do these
terrorists need extra time?
Clearly in order for the U.S.-led gangs to fortify the positions they
have seized and to bring in
reinforcements.
I interviewed several people from the region. The following account
comes from a Serbian man, a
person of the highest integrity, who witnessed the events described. I
spoke with him in Belgrade.
Part 2: Women and Shepherds Rout Marines
A few days before the raid by the US/KLA on the Preshevo Valley, the US
Marines raided three Serb
villages in the Brezovica area. This region is known for its ski resort
in the Sara-Mountain, in southern
Kosovo, bordering on Macedonia. The marines were allegedly searching for
weapons. You see, while
the KLA employs heavy weapons in its attacks on Serbs in Kosovo and in
the Preshevo Valley, and is
supported by U.S. helicopters and heavy guns, the Serbs must practice
strict nonviolence. It is their
moral duty.
They Marines broke down doors on the houses and went on a wild rampage,
smashing the furniture,
yelling at and kicking the peasants. But used to rough treatment by
various oppressors and attackers
through history, the villagers soon recovered. The women took to the
streets. Armed with heavy
wooden sticks, similar to the famous American 2 by 4's, they stormed the
Marines, who, surprised by
this resolute defense retreated towards their personnel carriers and
called "Bondsteel", the most heavily
fortified military installation in human history, for reinforcements.
This time, Real Attack Dogs
The rescue team came in the form of a pack of blood thirsty military
dogs, quickly airlifted to the
mountain villages, and unleashed on the women.
The women fought these vicious dogs with their sticks until their own
shepherd dogs, the world famous
"Sar-Planinac" 150-pounders came to rescue. With unexpected ferocity
these Serbian dogs, who easily
tackle packs of wolves and can handle any bear, stormed the American
counterparts, and in a brief
encounter the entire Pentagon barking brigade was finished off. No
survivors.
The Marines, stunned, did not have the chance to pull the triggers on
their weapons but fled the
battlefield, now strewn with the remains of the Pentagon elite. The Serb
village dogs sprinted back to
their sheep, returning to the duty of their ancestors. The Marines took
off and have not been seen since.
The moral of this real story is simple: let us handle these wolves in a
businesslike fashion and get them
off our backs - for good.
-- Tika Jankovic
***
Further Reading on the attack on Preshevo Valley
1) ''Boggling the Mind Department - Report from a UN Website'' by
Konstantin Kilibardi at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/kilibarda/boggling.htm
2) "Terrorism in Southern 'Serbia Proper'" by Jared Israel at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/fighting.htm
***
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www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
Pentagon Dogs
by Tika Jankovic (11-29-2000)
Part 1 - Preshevo Valley: A Strategic Prize
I landed in the San Francisco Airport a few hours ago, back from my trip
to Serbia and its turbulent
southern Preshevo Valley, bordering on Macedonia to the south, the
Serbian Province of Kosovo and
Metohija to the west, and reaching the border with Bulgaria, on the
east.
This is a stretch of land of the utmost geostrategic importance for
NATO's expansion to the east. It's a
bridge from Serbia to Macedonia, on the Belgrade-Skopje-Thesalonici
highway, the land
communication artery between Central Europe and the Aegean Sea. And it
is a piece of territory which
the NATO countries' oil pipeline is planned to transverse, connecting
oil terminals on the Black Sea, in
Bulgaria, and on the Adriatic Sea, in Albania. In addition, this region
has several mineral-rich mines and
is a center for textile, tobacco, furniture and other industrial
complexes, in addition to having world
acclaimed hot and cold water spas and several facilities which bottle
the sizzling mineral waters.
The rich soil in the Morava River Valley lends itself to corn, wheat,
vegtable and cattle farming,
providing a living for about half a million people. By seizing control
of this pocket, the US/NATO
would:
1. Cut Serbia off from Macedonia and Greece and deprive Serbia of a
considerable income and a
strategic territory;
2. Gain control of the North-South passageway, stretching from Central
Europe to the Aegean Sea;
3. Gain control of the route planned for the future oil pipeline to the
Adriatic;
4. Connect occupied Serbian Kosovo and Metohija with occupied Bulgaria
on the East and with
quisling-controlled Montenegro on the West, thus securing full control
of the Balkans' southern flank,
between the Adriatic and the Black Sea.
5. Get hold of this rich valley, the better to plunder its natural and
industrial resources, another colonial
acquisition of Yugoslav land. Another anguish for the people.
KLA Attack Dogs Assault PreshevoValley
On Nov. 22 I arrived in Bujanovac, a small city in the Preshevo Valley,
about 10 miles south from the
city of Vranje in Southern Serbia. That day, the KLA bands intensified
their attacks on Serbian police
forces. [The KLA is the terrorist secessionist group, the Kosovo
Liberation Army]
This latest attack had begun the day before I arrived, but one should
remember that KLA raids on this
valley actually started exactly on the day US troops arrived and took
control of the Eastern Sector of
Kosovo and Metohija, bordering the Preshevo Valley.
The battle raged about two miles from Bujanovac, in the hills, where
Serb police forces, armed only
with rifles, repulsed attacks by KLA battalions, heavily armed and
supported by mortar and artillery
fire.
In the afternoon of the previous day, the KLA raiders were also backed
by heavy artillery, apparently
coming from US troop positions to the west. Residents could see a canopy
of US helicopter gunships
hovering in the sky, protecting the KLA raiders from the use of
appropriate weapons by the Serbian
defenders. NATO Secretary Robertson had warned the Serbs that if they
used heavy guns in their
defense against these secessionist storm troopers NATO troops would
retaliate!. These gunships also
provided intelligence to the KLA attackers, guiding them in action.
One American military officer was recently reported killed, "in East
Kosovo, in the line of daily duty",
or so said the NATO official dispatch. East Kosovo is a euphemism, of
course, since the only area in
which there is combat is the Preshevo Valley.
The 13 wounded Serb police officers suffered mortar and artillery shell
injuries, as did the four who
were killed. Three missing Serbian officers were returned in body bags
by the US military. Their bodies
had been tortured and badly disfigured - the handiwork of the US junior
war buddies, the KLA.
The torture of these men was not mentioned in the Yugoslav press, which
is now entirely controlled by
the DOS government; hints of truth leak out because of feuds between the
various DOS factions. I
learned of the Serbian officers' tragic fate from medical personnel who
had viewed the bodies. The
DOS papers also forgot to mention the obvious fact that the U.S. is
spearheading the attacks in
Preshevo Valley. The KLA, is, as usual, providing window dressing,
sadism and cannon fodder for
their Pentagon groomers.
These KLA raids on Serbian territory, five miles beyond the militarized
zone of three miles along the
Kosovo and Metohija border with Serbia proper, and the evident US
military involvement in these
actions, speak volumes concerning the US/NATO true agenda in the region,
as I mentioned above. The
current Serb authorities gave the fascist-terrorists 72 hours to
retreat; the U.S. objected, and the
authorities immediately extended the time period. Why? Why do these
terrorists need extra time?
Clearly in order for the U.S.-led gangs to fortify the positions they
have seized and to bring in
reinforcements.
I interviewed several people from the region. The following account
comes from a Serbian man, a
person of the highest integrity, who witnessed the events described. I
spoke with him in Belgrade.
Part 2: Women and Shepherds Rout Marines
A few days before the raid by the US/KLA on the Preshevo Valley, the US
Marines raided three Serb
villages in the Brezovica area. This region is known for its ski resort
in the Sara-Mountain, in southern
Kosovo, bordering on Macedonia. The marines were allegedly searching for
weapons. You see, while
the KLA employs heavy weapons in its attacks on Serbs in Kosovo and in
the Preshevo Valley, and is
supported by U.S. helicopters and heavy guns, the Serbs must practice
strict nonviolence. It is their
moral duty.
They Marines broke down doors on the houses and went on a wild rampage,
smashing the furniture,
yelling at and kicking the peasants. But used to rough treatment by
various oppressors and attackers
through history, the villagers soon recovered. The women took to the
streets. Armed with heavy
wooden sticks, similar to the famous American 2 by 4's, they stormed the
Marines, who, surprised by
this resolute defense retreated towards their personnel carriers and
called "Bondsteel", the most heavily
fortified military installation in human history, for reinforcements.
This time, Real Attack Dogs
The rescue team came in the form of a pack of blood thirsty military
dogs, quickly airlifted to the
mountain villages, and unleashed on the women.
The women fought these vicious dogs with their sticks until their own
shepherd dogs, the world famous
"Sar-Planinac" 150-pounders came to rescue. With unexpected ferocity
these Serbian dogs, who easily
tackle packs of wolves and can handle any bear, stormed the American
counterparts, and in a brief
encounter the entire Pentagon barking brigade was finished off. No
survivors.
The Marines, stunned, did not have the chance to pull the triggers on
their weapons but fled the
battlefield, now strewn with the remains of the Pentagon elite. The Serb
village dogs sprinted back to
their sheep, returning to the duty of their ancestors. The Marines took
off and have not been seen since.
The moral of this real story is simple: let us handle these wolves in a
businesslike fashion and get them
off our backs - for good.
-- Tika Jankovic
***
Further Reading on the attack on Preshevo Valley
1) ''Boggling the Mind Department - Report from a UN Website'' by
Konstantin Kilibardi at
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/kilibarda/boggling.htm
2) "Terrorism in Southern 'Serbia Proper'" by Jared Israel at
http://emperors-clothes.com/news/fighting.htm
***
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The Centre for Peace in the Balkans
BALKAN - ALBANIA - KOSOVO - HEROIN - JIHAD
The Centre for Peace in the Balkans
www.balkanpeace.org
scontact@...
Research Analysis
May 2000
The biggest paradox in the international war on drugs is connected to
the Balkans and the explosion of terrorist activities in that troubled
area.
However, it relates less to drugs and arms and more to the major
participants in this deadly game.
Terrorist organizations at the top of America’s most wanted list are
receiving tacit support in the Balkans from the Clinton administration.
The "most wanted" terrorist in the world today, Osama bin Laden, who
declared a "fatwa" against the US, is being abetted by the Clinton
doctrine. In the Balkans, we are witnessing a true paradox where
several mortal enemies - Iranian revolutionary guards, Osama bin Laden
and the CIA - are standing shoulder to shoulder while pursuing
diametrically opposite goals.
Drugs Finance Terrorism
Earlier reporting has confirmed that terrorism in the Balkans has been
primarily financed through narcotics trafficking. Heroin - worth 12
times
its weight in gold - is by far the most profitable commodity on the
markets. A kilogram of heroin, worth $1,000 in Thailand, wholesales for
$110,000 in Canada with a street value of $800,000.
In fact, heroin trafficking has become so beneficial to the cause of
Albanian separatism that the predominantly Albanian-inhabited towns of
Veliki Trnovac and Blastica in Serbia, Vratnica and Gostivar in FYR
Macedonia, and Shkoder and Durres in Albania have become known as
the "new Medellins" of the Balkans. Via the Balkan Route, heroin travels
through Turkey, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania en route to
western European markets. The value of the heroin shipped is
$400-billion (US) a year. As early as 1996, the US Drug Enforcement
Agency (DEA) detailed the Balkan Route in its annual report. In 1998,
the DEA stated that Kosovo Albanians had become the second most
important traffickers on the Balkan Route.
These predominantly Albanian drug barons from Kosovo ship heroin
exclusively from Asia's Golden Crescent, an apparently inexhaustible
source. At one end of the crescent lies Afghanistan, which in 1999
surpassed Burma as the world's largest producer of opium poppies.
>From there, the heroin base passes through Iran to Turkey, where it is
refined, and then placed into the hands of the Albanians who operate
out of the lawless towns bordering FYR Macedonia, Albania, and
Serbia. According to the US State Department, four to six tons of heroin
move through Turkey every month.
"Not very much is stopped", says one official. "We get just a fraction
of
the total". Not surprisingly, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has
flourished along the route. Its dependence on the drug lords is
difficult to
prove, but the evidence is impossible to overlook.
In 1998, German Federal Police froze two bank accounts belonging to
the "United Kosova" organization at a Dusseldorf bank after it was
discovered that several hundred thousand dollars had been deposited
into those accounts by a convicted Kosovo Albanian drug trafficker.
According to at least one published report, Bujar Bukoshi, Prime
Minister of the "Kosova" Government in Exile, also allegedly controlled
the accounts.
In early 1999 an Italian court in Brindisi convicted an Albanian heroin
trafficker named Amarildo Vrioni, who admitted obtaining weapons for
the KLA from the Mafia in exchange for drugs.
Last February 23, Czech police arrested Princ Dobroshi, the head of an
Albanian Kosovo drug gang. While searching his apartment, they
discovered evidence that he had placed orders for light infantry weapons
and rocket systems. No one had questioned what a small-time dealer
would be doing with rockets. Only later did Czech police reveal he was
shipping them to the KLA. The Czechs extradited Dobroshi to Norway
where he had escaped from prison in 1997 while serving a 14-year
sentence for heroin trafficking.
It's therefore not surprising, say European law enforcement officials,
that
the faction that ultimately seized power in Kosovo -- the KLA under
Hashim Thaci -- was the group that maintained the closest links to
traffickers.
In its report about the KLA and heroin smuggling, the Montreal Gazette
wrote: "...Michael Levine, a 25-year veteran of the DEA (US Drug
Enforcement Agency) who left in 1990, said he believes there is no
question that US intelligence knew about the KLA's drug ties. "They
(the CIA) protected them (the KLA) in every way they could. As long as
the CIA is protecting the KLA, you've got major drug pipelines protected
from any police investigation", said Levine, who teaches undercover
tactics and informer handling to US and Canadian police forces,
including the RCMP. "The evidence is irrefutable," he said, explaining
that his information comes from "sources inside the DEA".
The Albanian Medellin connection is particularly strong in Italy where
it
is operating in conjunction with the "Sacra Corona Unita," or the fourth
mafia. The group controls the drug trade in the regions of Brindisi,
Lecce
and Taranto.
The tentacles of the Albanian mafia stretch across Europe. According to
Interpol, Albanian-speaking drug dealers accounted for 14% of those
arrested for heroin smuggling in 1997. While the average trafficker was
apprehended with two grams of heroin, the Albanians had an average of
120 grams in their possession. Scandinavian countries claim that
Albanians control 80% of the heroin market there. Switzerland says
90% of the drug trafficking in that country is connected to Albanians.
German law enforcement agencies claim that Albanians form the largest
group involved in heroin trafficking.
German Federal Police now say that Kosovo Albanians import 80
percent of Europe's heroin. So dominant is the Kosovo Albanian
presence in trafficking that many European users refer to illicit drugs
in
general as "Albanka", or Albanian lady.
Terrorism, Spies and Albanians
Osama bin Laden’s activities in Albania are well known and
documented. The presence of his network in that country is so powerful
that US Defence Secretary William Cohen cancelled a scheduled visit
last July out of fear of being assassinated.
The Albanian national security organization SHIK confirmed that plans
exist to target US objects in Albania. SHIK is the offspring of the
notorious communist security apparatus the "Sigurimi." The former head
of the Sigurimi, Irakli Kocollari, is advisor to the current head of
SHIK,
Fatos Klosi. In 1997 the CIA sent a team of experts to modernize and
reorganize SHIK. The other major patron of SHIK is the German
intelligence agency Bundensnachrichtendienst (BND) which opened one
of its largest stations in Tirana. A review of BND personnel is
revealing.
While the terrorist Albanian organization Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosove -
UCK (KLA) was being formed, the BND was headed by Hansjorg Geiger
whose deputy was Rainer Kesselring, the son of the Luftwaffe general
who bombed Belgrade during the Second World War.
Mr. Kesselring was given the job of training KLA terrorists at a Turkish
base near Izmir where he was head of the BND station in 1978. French
sources confirmed that members of the German commando unit,
Kommando Spezialkrafte (KSK), participated in the KLA training
program. Gen. Klaus Neumann, the outgoing head of NATO’s
occupational forces in Kosovo and Metohija, formed the German
commando unit.
The relationship between the CIA and SHIK is one of master and
servant. At the CIA’s "request" last year, Albania expelled three
"humanitarian" workers, two Syrians and an Iranian. Acting on another
request, SHIK arrested an Albanian national, Maksim Ciciku, for spying
on the US embassy. Ciciku was educated in Saudi Arabia. In Albania
he worked for a private security company which provided bodyguards for
visiting Arabs. He was accused of following embassy employees on
behalf of Osama bin Laden. Albania also expelled four Egyptians who
were suspected of ties to bin Laden. Two others were arrested and
handed over to US agents, along with a van full of documents and
computer equipment, all of which belonged to Osama bin Laden’s
organization.
At about the same time, Iran, through its embassy in Rome and it’s
operative Mahmut Nuranija, began to organize an intelligence-gathering
sector in Albania. Their involvement in Albania was based on two levels:
economic-financial through the Albanian Arab Islamic Bank, and
humanitarian through organizations which have become standard covers
for subversive activities. At the beginning of 1998 Iran began the
serious
consolidation of its most important European strongholds, Sarajevo and
Tirana. According to Yossef Bodansky, terrorism and unconventional
warfare analyst, Iran aided the KLA by providing military plans drawn up
by Zaim Bersa, a former colonel in the Yugoslav National Army (JNA),
and another Kosovo Albanian, Ejup Dragaj.
One of the leaders of an elite KLA unit was Muhammed al-Zawahiri, the
brother of Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, a leader in an Egyptian Jihad
organization and a military commander of Osama bin Laden. Once
again Kosovo becomes a paradox where several mortal enemies -
Iranian revolutionary guards, Osama bin Laden and the CIA - are
standing shoulder to shoulder training the KLA.
It is believed that bin Laden solidified his organization in Albania in
1994
with the help of then premier Sali Berisha. Albania’s ties to Islamic
terrorist blossomed during Berisha's rule when the main KLA training
base was on Berisha's property in northern Albania. During the
"honeymoon" period between the CIA and Jihad holy warriors, Fatos
Klosi, the head of SHIK, said he had reliable information that four
groups
of Jihad warriors from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algiers, Tunisia and Sudan
were in northern Albania and fighting with the KLA. Klosi recently
stated
that there is an attempt to destabilize the country, alluding primarily
to
former premier Sali Berisha.
Jihad and Serbia
In 1994 in Lebanon, a radical Sunni Muslim group, Takfir wal Hijra,
attempted to blow up a convoy of Serbian priests who were on their way
Koura. The priests avoided death when the suicide bomber detonated
the explosive device prematurely.
This attempt on the lives of Serbian priests preceded a more ambitious
plan. At the 18th Islamic conference, Al-Jama’ah al-Islaiyyah, held in
Pakistan (October 23-25, 1998), Albanian separatism in Kosovo and
Metohija was characterized as a Jihad. The same definition was given to
Muslim battles in India (Kashmir), Israel (Palestine) and Eritrea. By
defining armed battles as a "holy war" or Jihad, an obligation is placed
on the Muslim world to do everything in its power - economically,
politically and diplomatically - to aid the fight for freedom in
occupied
Muslim territories". This gave legitimacy to terrorist acts carried out
by
Allah’s holy warriors. Referring to a Jihad, the terrorist organization
of
Osama bin Laden announced terrorist attacks against "infidel nations",
namely Great Britain, United States, France, Israel, Russia, India and
Serbia.
The Bosnian Jihad Connection
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the influence of the ruling Islamic party, Party
of
Democratic Action (SDA), has brought out the recently born again "true
believers". Recognized by their long beards and short-legged pants,
large numbers of them participated in KLA terrorist activities in Kosovo
and Metohija. The transport of these Jihad warriors was conducted
under the patronage of the SDA which provided them with passports.
Visas were issued for a "haj," or pilgrimage, to Mecca. Dr. Nauman
Balic, head of the Kosovo SDA and now a minister in Hashim Thaci’s
government", was responsible for their transit to Albania. The Bosnian
Muslims were provided with journalists' credentials and 2,000 DM for
travel costs. It is not known how many returned from Kosovo, but a
number of these Jihad warriors lost their lives in Chechnya.
The Sarajevo authorities were active in the training of terrorists. In
1993
Saudi Arabia provided $1 million to build a refugee camp for Bosnian
Muslims in Albania. One of the main political leaders of the Muslim
authorities in Sarajevo admitted to Misha Glenny that the base was
used to train saboteurs sent to Kosovo because their Serbian was
flawless.
Kosovo under NATO - A Virtual Narco-State (1)
The benefits of the drug trade are evident around Pristina -- more so
than the benefits of Western aid. "The new buildings, the better roads,
and the sophisticated weapons -- many of these have been bought with
drugs," says Michel Koutouzis, the Balkans region expert for the Global
Drugs Monitor (OGD), a Paris-based think tank. The repercussions of
this drug connection are only now emerging, and many Kosovo
observers fear that the province could be evolving into a virtual
narco-state under the noses of 49,000 peacekeeping troops.
It was the disparate structure of the KLA, Koutouzis says, that
Facilitated the drug-smuggling explosion. "It permitted a
democratization of drug trafficking where ordinary people get involved,
and everyone contributes a part of his profit to his clan leader in the
KLA," he explains. "The more illegal the activity, the more money the
clan gets from the traffickers. So it's in the interest of the clan to
promote drug trafficking".
According to Marko Nicovic, the former chief of police in Belgrade, now
an investigator who works closely with Interpol, the international
police
agency, 400 to 500 Kosovo Albanians move shipments in the 20-kilo
range, while about 5,000 Kosovo Albanians are small-timers, handling
shipments of less than two kilos. At one point in 1996, he says, more
than 800 ethnic Albanians were in jail in Germany on narcotics charges.
In many places, Kosovo Albanians traffickers gained a foothold in the
Illicit drug trade through raw violence. According to a 1999 German
Federal Police report, "The ethnic Albanian gangs have been involved in
drugs, weapons trafficking blackmail, and murder. They are increasingly
prone to violence".
Tony White of the United Nations Drug Control Program agrees with this
assessment. "They are more willing to use violence than any other
group," he says. "They have confronted the established order throughout
Europe and pushed out the Lebanese, Pakistani, and Italian cartels".
Few gangs are willing to tangle with the Kosovo Albanians. Those that
do often pay the ultimate price. In January 1999, Kosovo Albanians
killed Nine people in Milan, Italy during a two-week bloodbath between
rival heroin groups.
Now free of the war and the Yugoslav police, drug traffickers have
Reopened the old Balkan Road. With the KLA in power -- and in the
spotlight - the top trafficking families have begun to seek relative
respectability without decreasing their heroin shipments. "The Kosovo
Albanians are trying to position themselves in the higher levels of
trafficking", says the U.N.'s Tony White. "They want to get away from
the violence of the streets and attract less attention. Criminals like
to
move up like any other business, and the Kosovo Albanians are
becoming business leaders. They have become equal partners with the
Turks".
Italian national police discovered this new Kosovo Albanian outreach
last year when they undertook "Operation Pristina". The carabinieri
(Italian Police) uncovered a chain of connections that originated in
Kosovo and stretched through nine European countries, extending into
Central Asia, South America and the United States.
White House officials deny a whitewashing of KLA activities. "We do
care about (KLA drug trafficking)", says Agresti. "It's just that we've
got
our hands full trying to bring peace there".
The DEA is equally reticent to address the issue. According to Michel
Koutouzis, the DEA's website once contained a section detailing
Kosovo Albanians trafficking, but a week before the US-led bombings
began, the section disappeared. "The DEA doesn't want to talk publicly
(about the KLA)", says OGD director Alain Labrousse. "It's
embarrassing to them".
High-ranking US officials are dismayed that the KLA was installed in
power without public discussion or a thorough check of its background.
"I don't think we're doing anything there to stem the drugs", says a
senior State Department official. "It's out of control. It should be a
high
priority. We've warned about it".
Even if it tried to stop the Kosovo Albanian heroin trade, the US would
be hard-pressed to do so. "Nobody's in control in Kosovo", adds the
State Department official. "They don't even have a police force".
Regardless of what it says, there's little indication that the
administration wants to do anything with the intelligence available
about
its newest ally. "There is no doubt that the KLA is a major trafficking
organization", said a congressional expert who monitors the drug trade
and requested anonymity. "But we have a relationship with the KLA,
and the administration doesn't want to damage (its) reputation. We are
partners.
The attitude is: The drugs are not coming here, so let others deal with
it".
Conclusion
Indeed the biggest paradox in the world war on drugs is connected to
the Balkans and the outburst of terrorist activities in that troubled
area.
What is the reason for this unusual co-relation between US policy in
Balkans, the most wanted terrorist in the world today, Osama bin y en,
and this enormous KLA drug trafficking.
As Michael Levine, a 25-year veteran of the DEA (US Drug Enforcement
Agency) stated: "They (the CIA) protected them the KLA) in every way
they could". McCoy, author of The Politics of Heroin, said the Afghan
Mujahideen rebels were one of the first US-backed rebel groups to get
into the heroin trade in a big way. The anti-Communist Mujahideen were
backed by the US in their opposition to the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan in 1979. They started exporting massive amounts of opium
to raise money, with the knowledge and protection of the CIA and
Pakistani intelligence, according to McCoy. "That produced a massive
traffic in the '80s to Europe and the U.S.," he said.
Other recipients of US support were Nicaraguan Contras, Panama’s
General Noriega, Afghan Taliban, Indonesia (remember massacres by
their special units in Timor), and Burma’s Khun Sa. Another US-backed
rebel army, the Nicaraguan contras, raised money for their war against
the leftist Sandinista government in the 1980s by flooding U.S. cities
with crack - all with the knowledge and assistance of the CIA and the
DEA, according to the book Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras and
the Crack Cocaine Explosion, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary
Webb.
Webb's allegations were initially denied by the CIA, but a CIA
inspector-general's report in October 1998 revealed that 58 contras were
linked to drug allegations.
Early in 1999, as the war against Serbia raged, Congress voted to fund
the KLA's drive for independence. One tear later the US embrace of the
KLA may come as an embarrassment, but not a precedent.
Quo Vadis America?
1 - Material from "Mother Jones" Heroin Heroes, January/February 2000
used without permission, for academic and research purposes only.
The Centre for Peace in the Balkans
www.balkanpeace.org
BALKAN - ALBANIA - KOSOVO - HEROIN - JIHAD
The Centre for Peace in the Balkans
www.balkanpeace.org
scontact@...
Research Analysis
May 2000
The biggest paradox in the international war on drugs is connected to
the Balkans and the explosion of terrorist activities in that troubled
area.
However, it relates less to drugs and arms and more to the major
participants in this deadly game.
Terrorist organizations at the top of America’s most wanted list are
receiving tacit support in the Balkans from the Clinton administration.
The "most wanted" terrorist in the world today, Osama bin Laden, who
declared a "fatwa" against the US, is being abetted by the Clinton
doctrine. In the Balkans, we are witnessing a true paradox where
several mortal enemies - Iranian revolutionary guards, Osama bin Laden
and the CIA - are standing shoulder to shoulder while pursuing
diametrically opposite goals.
Drugs Finance Terrorism
Earlier reporting has confirmed that terrorism in the Balkans has been
primarily financed through narcotics trafficking. Heroin - worth 12
times
its weight in gold - is by far the most profitable commodity on the
markets. A kilogram of heroin, worth $1,000 in Thailand, wholesales for
$110,000 in Canada with a street value of $800,000.
In fact, heroin trafficking has become so beneficial to the cause of
Albanian separatism that the predominantly Albanian-inhabited towns of
Veliki Trnovac and Blastica in Serbia, Vratnica and Gostivar in FYR
Macedonia, and Shkoder and Durres in Albania have become known as
the "new Medellins" of the Balkans. Via the Balkan Route, heroin travels
through Turkey, FYR Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania en route to
western European markets. The value of the heroin shipped is
$400-billion (US) a year. As early as 1996, the US Drug Enforcement
Agency (DEA) detailed the Balkan Route in its annual report. In 1998,
the DEA stated that Kosovo Albanians had become the second most
important traffickers on the Balkan Route.
These predominantly Albanian drug barons from Kosovo ship heroin
exclusively from Asia's Golden Crescent, an apparently inexhaustible
source. At one end of the crescent lies Afghanistan, which in 1999
surpassed Burma as the world's largest producer of opium poppies.
>From there, the heroin base passes through Iran to Turkey, where it is
refined, and then placed into the hands of the Albanians who operate
out of the lawless towns bordering FYR Macedonia, Albania, and
Serbia. According to the US State Department, four to six tons of heroin
move through Turkey every month.
"Not very much is stopped", says one official. "We get just a fraction
of
the total". Not surprisingly, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) has
flourished along the route. Its dependence on the drug lords is
difficult to
prove, but the evidence is impossible to overlook.
In 1998, German Federal Police froze two bank accounts belonging to
the "United Kosova" organization at a Dusseldorf bank after it was
discovered that several hundred thousand dollars had been deposited
into those accounts by a convicted Kosovo Albanian drug trafficker.
According to at least one published report, Bujar Bukoshi, Prime
Minister of the "Kosova" Government in Exile, also allegedly controlled
the accounts.
In early 1999 an Italian court in Brindisi convicted an Albanian heroin
trafficker named Amarildo Vrioni, who admitted obtaining weapons for
the KLA from the Mafia in exchange for drugs.
Last February 23, Czech police arrested Princ Dobroshi, the head of an
Albanian Kosovo drug gang. While searching his apartment, they
discovered evidence that he had placed orders for light infantry weapons
and rocket systems. No one had questioned what a small-time dealer
would be doing with rockets. Only later did Czech police reveal he was
shipping them to the KLA. The Czechs extradited Dobroshi to Norway
where he had escaped from prison in 1997 while serving a 14-year
sentence for heroin trafficking.
It's therefore not surprising, say European law enforcement officials,
that
the faction that ultimately seized power in Kosovo -- the KLA under
Hashim Thaci -- was the group that maintained the closest links to
traffickers.
In its report about the KLA and heroin smuggling, the Montreal Gazette
wrote: "...Michael Levine, a 25-year veteran of the DEA (US Drug
Enforcement Agency) who left in 1990, said he believes there is no
question that US intelligence knew about the KLA's drug ties. "They
(the CIA) protected them (the KLA) in every way they could. As long as
the CIA is protecting the KLA, you've got major drug pipelines protected
from any police investigation", said Levine, who teaches undercover
tactics and informer handling to US and Canadian police forces,
including the RCMP. "The evidence is irrefutable," he said, explaining
that his information comes from "sources inside the DEA".
The Albanian Medellin connection is particularly strong in Italy where
it
is operating in conjunction with the "Sacra Corona Unita," or the fourth
mafia. The group controls the drug trade in the regions of Brindisi,
Lecce
and Taranto.
The tentacles of the Albanian mafia stretch across Europe. According to
Interpol, Albanian-speaking drug dealers accounted for 14% of those
arrested for heroin smuggling in 1997. While the average trafficker was
apprehended with two grams of heroin, the Albanians had an average of
120 grams in their possession. Scandinavian countries claim that
Albanians control 80% of the heroin market there. Switzerland says
90% of the drug trafficking in that country is connected to Albanians.
German law enforcement agencies claim that Albanians form the largest
group involved in heroin trafficking.
German Federal Police now say that Kosovo Albanians import 80
percent of Europe's heroin. So dominant is the Kosovo Albanian
presence in trafficking that many European users refer to illicit drugs
in
general as "Albanka", or Albanian lady.
Terrorism, Spies and Albanians
Osama bin Laden’s activities in Albania are well known and
documented. The presence of his network in that country is so powerful
that US Defence Secretary William Cohen cancelled a scheduled visit
last July out of fear of being assassinated.
The Albanian national security organization SHIK confirmed that plans
exist to target US objects in Albania. SHIK is the offspring of the
notorious communist security apparatus the "Sigurimi." The former head
of the Sigurimi, Irakli Kocollari, is advisor to the current head of
SHIK,
Fatos Klosi. In 1997 the CIA sent a team of experts to modernize and
reorganize SHIK. The other major patron of SHIK is the German
intelligence agency Bundensnachrichtendienst (BND) which opened one
of its largest stations in Tirana. A review of BND personnel is
revealing.
While the terrorist Albanian organization Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosove -
UCK (KLA) was being formed, the BND was headed by Hansjorg Geiger
whose deputy was Rainer Kesselring, the son of the Luftwaffe general
who bombed Belgrade during the Second World War.
Mr. Kesselring was given the job of training KLA terrorists at a Turkish
base near Izmir where he was head of the BND station in 1978. French
sources confirmed that members of the German commando unit,
Kommando Spezialkrafte (KSK), participated in the KLA training
program. Gen. Klaus Neumann, the outgoing head of NATO’s
occupational forces in Kosovo and Metohija, formed the German
commando unit.
The relationship between the CIA and SHIK is one of master and
servant. At the CIA’s "request" last year, Albania expelled three
"humanitarian" workers, two Syrians and an Iranian. Acting on another
request, SHIK arrested an Albanian national, Maksim Ciciku, for spying
on the US embassy. Ciciku was educated in Saudi Arabia. In Albania
he worked for a private security company which provided bodyguards for
visiting Arabs. He was accused of following embassy employees on
behalf of Osama bin Laden. Albania also expelled four Egyptians who
were suspected of ties to bin Laden. Two others were arrested and
handed over to US agents, along with a van full of documents and
computer equipment, all of which belonged to Osama bin Laden’s
organization.
At about the same time, Iran, through its embassy in Rome and it’s
operative Mahmut Nuranija, began to organize an intelligence-gathering
sector in Albania. Their involvement in Albania was based on two levels:
economic-financial through the Albanian Arab Islamic Bank, and
humanitarian through organizations which have become standard covers
for subversive activities. At the beginning of 1998 Iran began the
serious
consolidation of its most important European strongholds, Sarajevo and
Tirana. According to Yossef Bodansky, terrorism and unconventional
warfare analyst, Iran aided the KLA by providing military plans drawn up
by Zaim Bersa, a former colonel in the Yugoslav National Army (JNA),
and another Kosovo Albanian, Ejup Dragaj.
One of the leaders of an elite KLA unit was Muhammed al-Zawahiri, the
brother of Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, a leader in an Egyptian Jihad
organization and a military commander of Osama bin Laden. Once
again Kosovo becomes a paradox where several mortal enemies -
Iranian revolutionary guards, Osama bin Laden and the CIA - are
standing shoulder to shoulder training the KLA.
It is believed that bin Laden solidified his organization in Albania in
1994
with the help of then premier Sali Berisha. Albania’s ties to Islamic
terrorist blossomed during Berisha's rule when the main KLA training
base was on Berisha's property in northern Albania. During the
"honeymoon" period between the CIA and Jihad holy warriors, Fatos
Klosi, the head of SHIK, said he had reliable information that four
groups
of Jihad warriors from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algiers, Tunisia and Sudan
were in northern Albania and fighting with the KLA. Klosi recently
stated
that there is an attempt to destabilize the country, alluding primarily
to
former premier Sali Berisha.
Jihad and Serbia
In 1994 in Lebanon, a radical Sunni Muslim group, Takfir wal Hijra,
attempted to blow up a convoy of Serbian priests who were on their way
Koura. The priests avoided death when the suicide bomber detonated
the explosive device prematurely.
This attempt on the lives of Serbian priests preceded a more ambitious
plan. At the 18th Islamic conference, Al-Jama’ah al-Islaiyyah, held in
Pakistan (October 23-25, 1998), Albanian separatism in Kosovo and
Metohija was characterized as a Jihad. The same definition was given to
Muslim battles in India (Kashmir), Israel (Palestine) and Eritrea. By
defining armed battles as a "holy war" or Jihad, an obligation is placed
on the Muslim world to do everything in its power - economically,
politically and diplomatically - to aid the fight for freedom in
occupied
Muslim territories". This gave legitimacy to terrorist acts carried out
by
Allah’s holy warriors. Referring to a Jihad, the terrorist organization
of
Osama bin Laden announced terrorist attacks against "infidel nations",
namely Great Britain, United States, France, Israel, Russia, India and
Serbia.
The Bosnian Jihad Connection
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the influence of the ruling Islamic party, Party
of
Democratic Action (SDA), has brought out the recently born again "true
believers". Recognized by their long beards and short-legged pants,
large numbers of them participated in KLA terrorist activities in Kosovo
and Metohija. The transport of these Jihad warriors was conducted
under the patronage of the SDA which provided them with passports.
Visas were issued for a "haj," or pilgrimage, to Mecca. Dr. Nauman
Balic, head of the Kosovo SDA and now a minister in Hashim Thaci’s
government", was responsible for their transit to Albania. The Bosnian
Muslims were provided with journalists' credentials and 2,000 DM for
travel costs. It is not known how many returned from Kosovo, but a
number of these Jihad warriors lost their lives in Chechnya.
The Sarajevo authorities were active in the training of terrorists. In
1993
Saudi Arabia provided $1 million to build a refugee camp for Bosnian
Muslims in Albania. One of the main political leaders of the Muslim
authorities in Sarajevo admitted to Misha Glenny that the base was
used to train saboteurs sent to Kosovo because their Serbian was
flawless.
Kosovo under NATO - A Virtual Narco-State (1)
The benefits of the drug trade are evident around Pristina -- more so
than the benefits of Western aid. "The new buildings, the better roads,
and the sophisticated weapons -- many of these have been bought with
drugs," says Michel Koutouzis, the Balkans region expert for the Global
Drugs Monitor (OGD), a Paris-based think tank. The repercussions of
this drug connection are only now emerging, and many Kosovo
observers fear that the province could be evolving into a virtual
narco-state under the noses of 49,000 peacekeeping troops.
It was the disparate structure of the KLA, Koutouzis says, that
Facilitated the drug-smuggling explosion. "It permitted a
democratization of drug trafficking where ordinary people get involved,
and everyone contributes a part of his profit to his clan leader in the
KLA," he explains. "The more illegal the activity, the more money the
clan gets from the traffickers. So it's in the interest of the clan to
promote drug trafficking".
According to Marko Nicovic, the former chief of police in Belgrade, now
an investigator who works closely with Interpol, the international
police
agency, 400 to 500 Kosovo Albanians move shipments in the 20-kilo
range, while about 5,000 Kosovo Albanians are small-timers, handling
shipments of less than two kilos. At one point in 1996, he says, more
than 800 ethnic Albanians were in jail in Germany on narcotics charges.
In many places, Kosovo Albanians traffickers gained a foothold in the
Illicit drug trade through raw violence. According to a 1999 German
Federal Police report, "The ethnic Albanian gangs have been involved in
drugs, weapons trafficking blackmail, and murder. They are increasingly
prone to violence".
Tony White of the United Nations Drug Control Program agrees with this
assessment. "They are more willing to use violence than any other
group," he says. "They have confronted the established order throughout
Europe and pushed out the Lebanese, Pakistani, and Italian cartels".
Few gangs are willing to tangle with the Kosovo Albanians. Those that
do often pay the ultimate price. In January 1999, Kosovo Albanians
killed Nine people in Milan, Italy during a two-week bloodbath between
rival heroin groups.
Now free of the war and the Yugoslav police, drug traffickers have
Reopened the old Balkan Road. With the KLA in power -- and in the
spotlight - the top trafficking families have begun to seek relative
respectability without decreasing their heroin shipments. "The Kosovo
Albanians are trying to position themselves in the higher levels of
trafficking", says the U.N.'s Tony White. "They want to get away from
the violence of the streets and attract less attention. Criminals like
to
move up like any other business, and the Kosovo Albanians are
becoming business leaders. They have become equal partners with the
Turks".
Italian national police discovered this new Kosovo Albanian outreach
last year when they undertook "Operation Pristina". The carabinieri
(Italian Police) uncovered a chain of connections that originated in
Kosovo and stretched through nine European countries, extending into
Central Asia, South America and the United States.
White House officials deny a whitewashing of KLA activities. "We do
care about (KLA drug trafficking)", says Agresti. "It's just that we've
got
our hands full trying to bring peace there".
The DEA is equally reticent to address the issue. According to Michel
Koutouzis, the DEA's website once contained a section detailing
Kosovo Albanians trafficking, but a week before the US-led bombings
began, the section disappeared. "The DEA doesn't want to talk publicly
(about the KLA)", says OGD director Alain Labrousse. "It's
embarrassing to them".
High-ranking US officials are dismayed that the KLA was installed in
power without public discussion or a thorough check of its background.
"I don't think we're doing anything there to stem the drugs", says a
senior State Department official. "It's out of control. It should be a
high
priority. We've warned about it".
Even if it tried to stop the Kosovo Albanian heroin trade, the US would
be hard-pressed to do so. "Nobody's in control in Kosovo", adds the
State Department official. "They don't even have a police force".
Regardless of what it says, there's little indication that the
administration wants to do anything with the intelligence available
about
its newest ally. "There is no doubt that the KLA is a major trafficking
organization", said a congressional expert who monitors the drug trade
and requested anonymity. "But we have a relationship with the KLA,
and the administration doesn't want to damage (its) reputation. We are
partners.
The attitude is: The drugs are not coming here, so let others deal with
it".
Conclusion
Indeed the biggest paradox in the world war on drugs is connected to
the Balkans and the outburst of terrorist activities in that troubled
area.
What is the reason for this unusual co-relation between US policy in
Balkans, the most wanted terrorist in the world today, Osama bin y en,
and this enormous KLA drug trafficking.
As Michael Levine, a 25-year veteran of the DEA (US Drug Enforcement
Agency) stated: "They (the CIA) protected them the KLA) in every way
they could". McCoy, author of The Politics of Heroin, said the Afghan
Mujahideen rebels were one of the first US-backed rebel groups to get
into the heroin trade in a big way. The anti-Communist Mujahideen were
backed by the US in their opposition to the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan in 1979. They started exporting massive amounts of opium
to raise money, with the knowledge and protection of the CIA and
Pakistani intelligence, according to McCoy. "That produced a massive
traffic in the '80s to Europe and the U.S.," he said.
Other recipients of US support were Nicaraguan Contras, Panama’s
General Noriega, Afghan Taliban, Indonesia (remember massacres by
their special units in Timor), and Burma’s Khun Sa. Another US-backed
rebel army, the Nicaraguan contras, raised money for their war against
the leftist Sandinista government in the 1980s by flooding U.S. cities
with crack - all with the knowledge and assistance of the CIA and the
DEA, according to the book Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras and
the Crack Cocaine Explosion, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary
Webb.
Webb's allegations were initially denied by the CIA, but a CIA
inspector-general's report in October 1998 revealed that 58 contras were
linked to drug allegations.
Early in 1999, as the war against Serbia raged, Congress voted to fund
the KLA's drive for independence. One tear later the US embrace of the
KLA may come as an embarrassment, but not a precedent.
Quo Vadis America?
1 - Material from "Mother Jones" Heroin Heroes, January/February 2000
used without permission, for academic and research purposes only.
The Centre for Peace in the Balkans
www.balkanpeace.org
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