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OLANDESI, CANADESI E BRITANNICI ARRESTATI IN JUGOSLAVIA.
L'ACCUSA E' TERRORISMO
---
<< Dutch daily NRC-Handelsblad ["NRC-Business Paper"] of Tuesday 1
August on one of the
arrested, Godfried de Rie:
"According to the Group for Anti-Fascist Research, KAFKA,
his name, with the same initials and
place of residence, is on the list of members for
1995 of the extreme Rightist [political party] CP'86. The
[Dutch] Ministry
of Defence confirms that De Rie was a conscript Army lance
corporal, of
1989/8."
The CP'86 ["Center" Party, founded in 1986] political party
was notorious for racism, violence, and
open propaganda for Nazis like Adolf Hitler and Rudolf
Hess. In the 1990s, they sent Dutch
mercenaries to Yugoslavia, to fight in extreme Right
Croat units in Croatia and Bosnia... >>
---
L'OLANDA E' MOLTO PREOCCUPATA PER LA SORTE DEI SUOI NEONAZISTI
CATTURATI IN JUGOSLAVIA
Dutch Mull Options Over Detainees In Yugoslavia
AMSTERDAM, Aug 20, 2000 -- (Reuters) The Netherlands is considering
responses if
Yugoslavia prevents four Dutch detainees held in Belgrade from receiving
a fair trial, including
cutting off diplomatic relations, local radio reported on Saturday.
Several Dutch radio stations cited a confidential report from the Dutch
Foreign Ministry saying
that cutting diplomatic ties was one way to pressure Belgrade, which has
accused the four men of
spying for the West.
The ministry declined to elaborate on the content of the report. "The
list with ideas exists but I
don't want to say anything about the content," a spokeswoman said.
"We've had some thorough
brainstorming sessions about possible steps but this is a list of
options that serve as a basis for
further talks."
Border guards captured the four men -Godfried de Rie, Bas van Schaik,
Sander Zeitsen and
Jeroen van Iersel - last month. Expected to be tried on terrorism
charges, they have already
served a 30-day sentence for entering Yugoslavia without proper visas.
The Netherlands Foreign Ministry could expel Yugoslav diplomats from the
Netherlands and
withdraw its diplomats from Yugoslavia. It could also send a diplomatic
mission to Yugoslavia or
call for European Union support.
One of the four men was seen in a video shown in Yugoslavia saying the
four had planned to
kidnap President Slobodan Milosevic and take him to The Hague if they
met him or decapitate him
and send his head to the UN Tribunal there.
Western officials have said the four men appeared to be adventurers who
fell into the hands of
Serbian police.
-
Dutch held in Belgrade have had ``difficult time''
BELGRADE, Aug 15 (Reuters) - A Dutch diplomat on Tuesday visited four
Dutchmen held in Yugoslavia for the first time since their arrest last
month
and said they had been through a ``difficult time.''
Kees Klompenhouwer, charge d'affaires of the Dutch embassy in Belgrade,
said
the men were very pleased to have been visited by someone from their own
country.
``They have been going through a difficult time. Their present situation
is
reasonably well but this will need to be followed up, in particular
their
medical condition will need close attention, and of course the
development of
the legal procedure itself will need close attention,'' he told
reporters
after almost five hours inside a Belgrade jail.
The four men were shown on television at the end of last month and
accused by
the government of being Western spies, posing as ``weekend warriors.''
08:58 08-15-00
---
LA GRAN BRETAGNA MOBILITATA PER LA SORTE DEI SUOI TERRORISTI
http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=190330
Yugoslavia Ignores UK Calls over Detained Police
LONDON, Aug 18, 2000 -- (Reuters) Yugoslavia on Friday ignored British
calls to either charge
or release two nationals arrested as suspected terrorists, saying the
matter was serious and the
courts would deal with them in their own time.
Yugoslavia's chief diplomatic representative in London, Rade Drobac,
said he expected a military
court investigating the case of the two Britons - arrested in Montenegro
on August 1 - to dismiss
claims that President Slobodan Milosevic's government was using the men
as political
scapegoats...
---
ANCHE UNA COPPIA DI SLOVENI ARRESTATA PER SPIONAGGIO
Slovenian couple charged by Yugo military court
PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, Aug 15 (Reuters) - The Yugoslav army has arrested
a
Slovenian couple in Montenegro, the latest in a list of foreigners
detained
in the past month as Belgrade steps up pressure on pro-Western republic
ahead
of September 24 polls.
Pro-government daily Vijesti said on Tuesday Milos Glisovic and his wife
Natasa Zorz were arrested on August 2, accused of ``illegal entry into
military facilities and making drafts of military buildings and combat
materiel.'' The maximum penalty would be three years in prison, Vijesti
said....
---
ANCHE IL GOVERNO CANADESE CHIEDE ATTIVAMENTE IL RILASCIO
DEI SUOI TERRORISTI CATTURATI IN JUGOSLAVIA
http://www.nationalpost.com/commentary/story.html?f=/stories/20000812/369107.html
NATIONAL POST, Monday, August 12, 2000
Canadians aren't above suspicion
Isabel Vincent
National Post
Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana noted that "Those who do
not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Although his famous
words are usually mentioned in relation to world wars and the Holocaust,
last week I found myself using the phrase to describe knee-jerk
reactions of Canadian politicians, and my fellow journalists to the case
of Shaun Going and Liam Hall, the two Canadians currently being held in
Belgrade along with the two other British men on suspicion of terrorist
activities.
When Canadians are detained abroad on terrorism charges, they tend to be
given the benefit of the doubt simply because they are Canadian...
-
http://www.canoe.com/Columnists/worthington.html
THE TORONTO SUN, Sunday, August 13, 2000 COMMENT
Axworthy's odd diplomacy
By PETER WORTHINGTON
Toronto Sun
Like him or loathe him, you've got to admit our intrepid Foreign Affairs
Minister Lloyd Axworthy has an unusual diplomatic approach.
He justifies establishing diplomatic relations with North Korea, against
whom Canada fought a war 50 years ago (and is still at war, technically,
since no peace agreement has been signed, only a ceasefire), on grounds
that recognition might make it easier for that strange, xenophobic
regime to behave decently.
And Axworthy apparently thinks the most effective way to get two
Canadians released by the Yugoslav military holding them for suspected
terrorism, is to call President Slobodan Milosevic "a thug."...
-
http://www.canoe.com/TorontoSun/editorial.html
THE TORONTO SUN, Sunday, August 13, 2000 EDITORIAL
Lloyd exits, stage left
Hard on the heels of the good news of Corrections Canada commissioner
Ole Ingstrup's resignation last week (effective next month) came the
even better news that fellow liberal-leftie Lloyd Axworthy, our Foreign
Affairs minister, is also planning to step down.
Axworthy, who was once touted for a Nobel Peace Prize for his fight to
ban land mines around the world, has reportedly told Prime Minister Jean
Chretien he plans to accept a job with a new international affairs
centre at a B.C. university. However, he will not make any formal
announcement without the PM's okay.
Perhaps this explains Axworthy's recent behaviour. Maybe his mind was on
his new job prospects. How else to explain his bizarre handling of the
case of two Canadians arrested in Kosovo by the Yugoslav military?
With a straight face, while calling Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic a "thug" (no argument there), Axworthy actually appealed to
Canadian Serbs to put pressure on Milosevic to release the two Alberta
men...
-
http://www.globeandmail.com/gam/International/20000811/UDIPSN.html
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, Friday, August 11, 2000
Serbs tell Axworthy to get lost
Community leaders denounce minister's call for help in freeing Canadians
JEFF SALLOT
Parliamentary Bureau
Ottawa -- Serbian community leaders in Canada say Ottawa has a lot of
nerve asking for their support to help free two Albertans held by
Yugoslav authorities, after Canadian warplanes bombed their homeland
during the Kosovo crisis last year.
"Nobody listens to us in Canada when we wanted the bombing stopped. Why
does [Foreign Affairs Minister] Lloyd Axworthy think we can have
influence in Belgrade now?" said Stojanka Petkovic, a settlement
counsellor at the Serbian Heritage Academy in Toronto.
"We are very sorry about the arrests, but Axworthy is just being very
arrogant and absurd" to expect help from Canadians of Serb background,
said Zana Vitrovich, president of the Association of Serbian Women of
Canada...
-
SERBIAN NATIONAL SHIELD SOCIETY OF CANADA
VOICE OF CANADIAN SERBS
1900 Sheppard Ave. East, Box 303, Willowdale, Ontario M2J 4T4
Tel: 416-496-7881 Fax: 416-493-0335
August 11, 2000
OPEN LETTER TO LLOYD AXWORTHY,
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Mr Minister:
Your televised request to Canadians of Serbian heritage to assist Shaun
Going and Liam Hall, the two Canadians arrested in Montenegro trying to
enter the territory of Yugoslavia without visas and carrying explosive
equipment, is the first time in ten years that you have openly
addressed and
acknowledged the Canadian Serbian
community.
As citizens of this country, Canadian Serbs support your concern that
these
arrested Canadians have access to Canadian embassy officials and their
families and that they be given a fair trial with independent defense.
We
also appeal to the Yugoslav Ambassador in Ottawa to ensure the fair
treatment of these Canadians in compliance
with international law and the Canadian government's request.
That, we believe, is the democratic, legal and humanitarian approach
which
facilitates a resolution to any international crisis. Sabre rattling
and
name calling do not resolve such tensions.
Humanitarianism is a universal principle; it is not selective. As an
influential politician who has promoted the "humanitarian agenda"
around the
world, Canadian Serbs also appeal to you, Mr. Axworthy, to apply the
"humanitarianism" which you promote to the tragic situation of the
Serbian
people who have been robbed of their
health, their jobs and their future by the relentless and unjust
sanctions
imposed on them ten years ago by the international community.
If the aim of those sanctions was to remove Mr. Milosevic from office,
that
tactic has failed. Sanctions have only penalized the most vulnerable of
Serbian society - the elderly, children, the ill and almost one million
forgotten Serbian refugees permanently ethnically cleansed from Bosnia,
Croatia and Kosovo, and now living in
war-torn Serbia.
The "humanitarian agenda" which you expound would be served if you
would
take the initiative to remove those devastating sanctions from the
Serbian
people.
International law does not give democracies the right to decimate an
entire
people within the boundaries of their sovereign country using
sanctions,
bombing and invasion. Regardless of international law, NATO justified
its
78-day bombing campaign using the "humanitarian' argument. The Toronto
Star
(Aug. 2) referred to that assault as "NATO's war to force Serbs out of
Kosovo". Many people would understand that as an ethnic cleansing
campaign.
Since NATO's "humanitanan" bombing and the arrival of its ground forces
in
Kosovo, the Kosovo Serbs, Roma and other non-Albanian minorities have
been
forced out of Kosovo; ancient Serbian monasteries have been bombed;
Albanian
KLA sponsored drug trafficking, rampant crime and corruption are on the
rise; Serbia's
infrastructure has been destroyed; its soil and food chain have been
poisoned by depleted uranium bombs; it receives no reconstruction aid;
and
Mr. Milosevic has consolidated his political power. That is the
"humanitarianism" NATO brought to the war- ravaged Serbian people.
Most politicians like to win political points using events to improve
their
own ratings. There is wide speculation that Mr. Milosevic may be using
the
case of the arrested Canadians to tighten his grip before the
September24
elections.
We support the press release issued yesterday by the Canadian Serb
Congress
of which our organization is a member.
As Canadians we appeal for the fair treatment of our fellow Canadians
within
the law.
At the same time, as Canadians of Serbian heritage we ask for the
following
four things: for the lifting of the sanctions imposed on the Serbian
people;
for the reconstruction of Serbia devastated by NATO; for aid to almost
one
million permanent refugees inside Serbia; and for an end to ten years
of
demonization, mistreatment and
misrepresentation of Serbs everywhere. That is the humanitarian agenda,
Mr.
Minister, you are in a position to demonstrate that the Serbian people
are
also deserving of compassion and humanitarian assistance.
Yours truly,
Bora Dragasevich,
President
Serbian National Shield Society of Canada
cc: Dr. P. Todorovic, Yugoslav Ambassador to Canada
Canadian Media
NOTE:
Isti tekst Draga je protcitala inoc na radio Sumadiji i na kraju je
dodala:
We are still waiting for your call,
Mr. Minister( ili slicno..)
Kao i uvek, Draga je zvucala perfektno! Nadam se da je neko od njihovih
spijuna to snimio!
-
The Ottawa Serbian Heritage Society
3662 Albion Rd. South, Gloucester, Ontario, K1T 1A3,
serbian.heritage@...
OPEN LETTER TO LLOYD AXWORTHY,
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Dear Sir,
It is gratifying that you , minister Axworthy, have finally deemed it
fit
to offer to
meet the representatives of Serbian Community in Canada over the arrest
of
the two Canadians ,whereas you had refused to meet us in the connection
with
the murder of hundreds of Serb civilians in which our government was a
willing participant.
As citizens of this country, Canadian Serbs support your concern that
these arrested Canadians have access to Canadian embassy officials and
their
families and that their be given a fair trail with independent defence.
We
also appeal to the Yugoslav Ambassador to Ottawa to ensure the fair
treatment of these Canadians in compliance with international law.
It is to be hoped that the rule of law be respected by the Yugoslav
Government and that two Canadians, if proven innocent, will be released
soon. Our harts and prayers are with the accused and their families.
We can not be expected to pass a judgement on this particular case
without a full disclosure of all relevant facts. Had the Canadian
authorities arrested two Serb citizens who had entered the country
illegally
on a remote road in the middle of the night and had they found explosive
fuses in the trunk of their car, they would have had every right to
instigate criminal investigation and judicial proceedings. Mr.Going
maintains very close relation with the leaders of the terrorist
"liberation
army" which has carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against all
non
Albanians in Kosovo under NATO occupation. That association by itself
with
some of the most unsavoury thugs in the Balkans is sufficient to arouse
our
profound suspicion about his motives and real objectives.
As Canadians we appeal for the fair treatment of our fellow
Canadians
within the law.
We support the press release issued yesterday by the Canadian Serb
Congress of which our organisation is a member.
It is, disbelieving, however, to hear you demanding from the
Yugoslav
Government to respect the law, when you and our Canadian Government did
not
respect neither Canadian , nor international Law when Canadian pilots
bombed Yugoslavia in 1999.
At the same time, as Canadians of Serbian heritage we ask for
the
lifting of sanctions imposed on the Serbian people; for the
reconstruction
of Serbia; and for an end of 10 years of demonization, mistreatment and
misrepresentation of Serbs everywhere.
Respectfully ,
Slobodanka Borojevic, president
The Ottawa Serbian Heritage Society
---
DUE PARLAMENTARI INGLESI SVELANO I LEGAMI TRA GLI ARRESTATI E L'UCK
http://www.the-times.co.uk (World)
The Times (London)
August 9 2000 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Kosovo business link to 'racketeers'
>From Mrs Alice Mahon, MP for Halifax (Labour), and Mr
Tam Dalyell, MP for Linlithgow (Labour)
Sir, We are concerned to read your report, "Serb jail
threat to arrested British police" (August 8), that
Shaun Going, one of the four people detained by the
Serb authorities last week on the border of Montenegro
and Kosovo in a car that contained explosive
materials, admitted paying £40,000 earlier this year
to Gani Thaci, brother of Kosovo Liberation Army
commander Hashim, to secure contracts in Kosovo
because "there was no way of doing business in the
area without coming into contact with former KLA
members".
The Thaci family and other former KLA members are
widely known to have a significant hold over Kosovo's
economy. At the end of Nato's war, the political wing
of the KLA under Hashim Thaci seized control of most
municipal authorities and took over state-controlled
enterprises.
As Members of Parliament who have visited Kosovo, we
are aware of the prevalent view - including amongst
international personnel there - that the Thaci family
and other former KLA members are behind much of the
racketeering that goes on in the province today.
The fact that the two British citizens, Adrian
Prangnell and John Yore, have been detained in the
company of someone who is linked with KLA terrorists
and has taken part in dubious activities in Kosovo,
places them in a precarious and compromising position.
We think our Government owes Parliament - and the
British public - an explanation of why British
personnel have become involved with such people.
Yours sincerely,
ALICE MAHON,
TAM DALYELL,
House of Commons.
August 8.
-
Globe And Mail (Toronto)
Two British MPs blame Albertan for arrests
Brother of construction company owner denies
man has links to Kosovo liberation movement
ALAN FREEMAN
European Bureau
Friday, August 11, 2000
London -- Two maverick Labour MPs have accused the
Alberta contractor under arrest in Yugoslavia of
compromising the fate of two British police officers
detained with him, because of the Canadian's alleged
links with a onetime leading member of the Kosovo
Liberation Army.
"I think [Shaun] Going has put them all in a
compromising position," MP Alice Mahon said in an
interview yesterday. Mr. Going and his nephew Liam
Hall, 19, were travelling with two Britons when the
four were arrested Aug. 1 in the Yugoslav republic of
Montenegro, near its border with Kosovo.
Citing an April British Broadcasting Corp. report on
corruption in Kosovo, Ms. Mahon noted that Mr. Going,
who runs a construction firm in the Kosovo capital of
Pristina, had acknowledged paying $60,000 (U.S.) to
Gani Thaci, the brother of Hashim Thaci, the former
KLA commander. Mr. Going told the BBC the money was
for "intermediary services," saying it was difficult
to do business in Kosovo, which is now under United
Nations authority, without dealing with former members
of the KLA.
"There's no doubt the former KLA people are well
positioned in business so there is no way of doing
business in this country without them or coming across
them on a day-to-day basis," Mr. Going told the BBC.
In a letter to The Times of London, Ms. Mahon and
fellow MP Tam Dalyell said it was widely known that
members of the Thaci family were "behind much of the
racketeering that goes on in the province today."
"The fact that the two British citizens, Adrian
Prangnell and John Yore, have been detained in the
company of someone who is linked with KLA terrorists
and has taken part in dubious activities in Kosovo,
places them in a precarious and compromising
position," the MPs wrote.
In Calgary yesterday, Mr. Going's brother, Michael,
said the two MPs are not well informed about his
brother's work in Eastern Europe.
"Shaun has no ties to the Kosovo liberation movement
or any other political movement. He's very
apolitical," Mr. Going said. "He's a businessman doing
business in the region. He does business with a lot of
different groups and companies and governments for
that matter."
The British government reacted angrily to the MPs'
comments and their suggestion that Britain cease
acting jointly with Canada in seeking the release of
all four men.
Keith Vaz, the junior foreign minister who has been
handling the case, said that "unhelpful and
irresponsible speculation about the detainees puts
them at risk, makes our task more difficult and plays
into the hands of those who seek to politicize this
issue."
Both MPs are considered political mavericks and broke
with their government last year to oppose the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization's bombing campaign
against Yugoslavia.
In an interview, Mr. Dalyell laid the blame on Shaun
Going for the arrest of the four men on a remote road
near the border of Kosovo, where the men were
returning after a weekend in Montenegro. "It was his
car and his explosives," he said, referring to the
materials found in the car that have been described by
Canadian officials and Mr. Going's lawyer as blasting
caps and fuses used in construction work.
Ms. Mahon believes it was "at best naive and at worse
rather reckless" for the men to travel without visas
and to be carrying such materials in a tense border
region.
"If you found someone in Canada in that sort of
situation just after a war, I think you would detain
them and ask some sort of questions," she said.
Friends of Mr. Going have described him as an
apolitical yet "pragmatic" businessman who had been in
the Balkans for almost a decade and knew that doing
business was virtually impossible without greasing
some palms.
In Ottawa, officials yesterday said Mr. Going is a
legitimate Canadian businessman. "We are not aware of
any illegal activity by Mr. Going," Foreign Affairs
spokeswoman Marie-Christine Lilkoff said.
-
NATIONAL POST: CANADIAN ARRESTED IN YUGOSLAVIA WORKED WITH THACI
MONTREAL, August 8 (Tanjug) The Canadian daily National Post
said
in a report on Monday that one of the two Canadians arrested by the
Yugoslav Army recently in northeastern Montenegro had closely
collaborated
with the terrorist organization, the Kosovo Liberation Army, and its
leader
Hashim Thaci.
Arrested Canadian citizen Chaun Going, a building contractor,
lived in Albania for 10 years, and last year gave 60,000 Canadian
dollars
(40,000 U.S. dlrs) to Thaci's elder brother, said National Post.
Going, 40, paid the sum to Gani Thaci in order to get
permission
for construction in Kosovo and Metohija, where he had moved after the
end
of the NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia (June 10, 1999), National Post
said.
Early this year, the international civilian mission UNMIK
police
in Kosovo and Metohija carried out a raid of Gani Thaci's apartment and
seized 168,000 U.S. dollars. Thaci told investigators he had got the
money
from the Meridian Resources company, which is owned by Chaun Going.
The daily quoted Going as saying that he had been compelled to
do
such services in order to do business in Kosovo and Metohija.
Going and his nephew Liam Hall, 19, and two British citizens
were
arrested in the night between Aug 12, 2000, in Yugoslav territory, in
northeastern Montenegro. The four had been armed with military
equipment,
wrecking instruments, and other things.
---
FOREIGNERS ARRESTED IN MONTENEGRO TRANSFERRED TO BELGRADE
BELGRADE, August 8 (Tanjug) The four foreigners, detained in
the Andrijevica region, territory of Montenegro, Yugoslavia,
were transferred from Podgorica to Belgrade on Tuesday, a Yugoslav
Army spokesman told Tanjug.
Colonel Svetozar Radisic explained that further
proceedings against the detainees would be taken at the Military Court
in Belgrade.
In the night between Aug 12, 2000, within their activities on
securing the state border, Yugoslav Army units arrested Britons Adrian
Michael Prangnell and John Connon Bradley, and Canadians Chaun Gerald
Going
and Liam Patrick Hall.
-
http://www.the-times.co.uk (World)
The Times (London)
August 8 2000 EUROPE
Serb jail threat to arrested British police
BY ALEX TODOROVIC IN PODGORICA AND RICHARD BEESTON,
DIPLOMATIC EDITOR
TWO British policemen and two Canadians being held by
the Yugoslav military are facing a long spell in Serb
custody after compromising evidence emerged linking
one of the four to Kosovo guerrillas.
One of the Canadians, a construction company owner
whose car was found to contain explosive equipment,
hasadmitted giving money to the brother of a Kosovo
Liberation Army leader to secure post-war building
contracts.
A military prosecutor in the Montenegrin capital,
Podgorica, must decide today whether to launch a
formal investigation or release the men, who were
detained returning to Kosovo after a trip to
Montenegro last week.
The men's best hope is a 60-day jail sentence for
entering Yugoslavia without visas. At worst they could
be tried and convicted of "terrorist actions",
punishable by a life sentence. In any event, the
prosecutor is likely to open a criminal investigation
that could take six months to complete. And the
situation could be further complicated by next month's
Serbian elections as President Milosevic could use the
arrests to whip up nationalist support.
The policemen John Yore, 31, and Adrian Prangnell, 41,
had been helping to train Kosovan police cadets when
they took a weekend off to visit Montenegro with Shaun
Going, 45, and his nephew Liam Hall, 19. As they
returned to Kosovo they were stopped twice for routine
inspections by the Montenegrin police and then again
at a Yugoslav Army checkpoint.
"When they were stopped by Yugoslav border guards, one
of the men expressed frustration at having to stop so
many times," their lawyer, Vojislav Zecevic, said.
"One of the Yugoslavs understood English and then
searched the car."
The guards found the men did not have visas to enter
Yugoslavia - as most Westerners do not - and a search
of Mr Going's car revealed explosive materials used in
mining. The Serbs say the material, believed to be
detonators, could have been used in sabotage.
Mr Going admitted earlier this year that, in an
attempt to win contracts, he had paid £40,000 to Gani
Thaci, whose younger brother Hashim is a Kosovo
Liberation Army commander. Mr Going said that there
was no way of doing business in the area without
coming into contact with former KLA members.
Britain was last night intensifying diplomatic efforts
in London and Belgrade to win the release of the
detainees and trying to make a distinction between the
Canadians and the Britons.
Keith Vaz, the Foreign Office Minister, said that he
would be calling in Raida Drobac, the head of the
Yugoslav interests section in London, to protest about
the detentions. A similar message will be delivered in
Belgrade by Igor Khalavinsky, the UN representative,
and the Brazilian Ambassador, whose embassy represents
British interests.
"We have two policemen working for civil humanitarian
causes in Kosovo who went to Montenegro for a holiday
break. The next thing they know about this is they are
on Serbian television being branded as terrorists," Mr
Vaz said. "This is new depths of Serbian paranoia."
However, Mr Drobac said that the Serb authorities were
acting within their rights, just as much as British
police would respond if "terrrorist suspects" were
detained in Sussex.
"These men were detained without visas on Yugoslav
territory in possession of compromising material," he
said. "It is only natural for the authorities to
investigate."
In the meantime the men are likely to remain at a
military base outside Podgorica, where, their lawyer
said yesterday, they were being well-treated. "They
are in good health and are satisfied given the
situation." They were not confined in a jail cell and
wear their own clothes.
Mr Zecevic said military authorities have little
evidence against the four men, but there is enough to
launch an investigation. He is optimistic that it will
not last long or lead to formal charges.
The men had told him that they had wanted to take a
different road back to Kosovo after their weekend
break at the resort town of Sveti Stefan. They drove
through the Lim River valley, a notoriously
pro-Milosevic region, then took a small village road
at Murino, up the Mount Cakor pass.
---
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http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/383
OLANDESI, CANADESI E BRITANNICI ARRESTATI IN JUGOSLAVIA.
L'ACCUSA E' TERRORISMO
---
<< Dutch daily NRC-Handelsblad ["NRC-Business Paper"] of Tuesday 1
August on one of the
arrested, Godfried de Rie:
"According to the Group for Anti-Fascist Research, KAFKA,
his name, with the same initials and
place of residence, is on the list of members for
1995 of the extreme Rightist [political party] CP'86. The
[Dutch] Ministry
of Defence confirms that De Rie was a conscript Army lance
corporal, of
1989/8."
The CP'86 ["Center" Party, founded in 1986] political party
was notorious for racism, violence, and
open propaganda for Nazis like Adolf Hitler and Rudolf
Hess. In the 1990s, they sent Dutch
mercenaries to Yugoslavia, to fight in extreme Right
Croat units in Croatia and Bosnia... >>
---
L'OLANDA E' MOLTO PREOCCUPATA PER LA SORTE DEI SUOI NEONAZISTI
CATTURATI IN JUGOSLAVIA
Dutch Mull Options Over Detainees In Yugoslavia
AMSTERDAM, Aug 20, 2000 -- (Reuters) The Netherlands is considering
responses if
Yugoslavia prevents four Dutch detainees held in Belgrade from receiving
a fair trial, including
cutting off diplomatic relations, local radio reported on Saturday.
Several Dutch radio stations cited a confidential report from the Dutch
Foreign Ministry saying
that cutting diplomatic ties was one way to pressure Belgrade, which has
accused the four men of
spying for the West.
The ministry declined to elaborate on the content of the report. "The
list with ideas exists but I
don't want to say anything about the content," a spokeswoman said.
"We've had some thorough
brainstorming sessions about possible steps but this is a list of
options that serve as a basis for
further talks."
Border guards captured the four men -Godfried de Rie, Bas van Schaik,
Sander Zeitsen and
Jeroen van Iersel - last month. Expected to be tried on terrorism
charges, they have already
served a 30-day sentence for entering Yugoslavia without proper visas.
The Netherlands Foreign Ministry could expel Yugoslav diplomats from the
Netherlands and
withdraw its diplomats from Yugoslavia. It could also send a diplomatic
mission to Yugoslavia or
call for European Union support.
One of the four men was seen in a video shown in Yugoslavia saying the
four had planned to
kidnap President Slobodan Milosevic and take him to The Hague if they
met him or decapitate him
and send his head to the UN Tribunal there.
Western officials have said the four men appeared to be adventurers who
fell into the hands of
Serbian police.
-
Dutch held in Belgrade have had ``difficult time''
BELGRADE, Aug 15 (Reuters) - A Dutch diplomat on Tuesday visited four
Dutchmen held in Yugoslavia for the first time since their arrest last
month
and said they had been through a ``difficult time.''
Kees Klompenhouwer, charge d'affaires of the Dutch embassy in Belgrade,
said
the men were very pleased to have been visited by someone from their own
country.
``They have been going through a difficult time. Their present situation
is
reasonably well but this will need to be followed up, in particular
their
medical condition will need close attention, and of course the
development of
the legal procedure itself will need close attention,'' he told
reporters
after almost five hours inside a Belgrade jail.
The four men were shown on television at the end of last month and
accused by
the government of being Western spies, posing as ``weekend warriors.''
08:58 08-15-00
---
LA GRAN BRETAGNA MOBILITATA PER LA SORTE DEI SUOI TERRORISTI
http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=190330
Yugoslavia Ignores UK Calls over Detained Police
LONDON, Aug 18, 2000 -- (Reuters) Yugoslavia on Friday ignored British
calls to either charge
or release two nationals arrested as suspected terrorists, saying the
matter was serious and the
courts would deal with them in their own time.
Yugoslavia's chief diplomatic representative in London, Rade Drobac,
said he expected a military
court investigating the case of the two Britons - arrested in Montenegro
on August 1 - to dismiss
claims that President Slobodan Milosevic's government was using the men
as political
scapegoats...
---
ANCHE UNA COPPIA DI SLOVENI ARRESTATA PER SPIONAGGIO
Slovenian couple charged by Yugo military court
PODGORICA, Yugoslavia, Aug 15 (Reuters) - The Yugoslav army has arrested
a
Slovenian couple in Montenegro, the latest in a list of foreigners
detained
in the past month as Belgrade steps up pressure on pro-Western republic
ahead
of September 24 polls.
Pro-government daily Vijesti said on Tuesday Milos Glisovic and his wife
Natasa Zorz were arrested on August 2, accused of ``illegal entry into
military facilities and making drafts of military buildings and combat
materiel.'' The maximum penalty would be three years in prison, Vijesti
said....
---
ANCHE IL GOVERNO CANADESE CHIEDE ATTIVAMENTE IL RILASCIO
DEI SUOI TERRORISTI CATTURATI IN JUGOSLAVIA
http://www.nationalpost.com/commentary/story.html?f=/stories/20000812/369107.html
NATIONAL POST, Monday, August 12, 2000
Canadians aren't above suspicion
Isabel Vincent
National Post
Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana noted that "Those who do
not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Although his famous
words are usually mentioned in relation to world wars and the Holocaust,
last week I found myself using the phrase to describe knee-jerk
reactions of Canadian politicians, and my fellow journalists to the case
of Shaun Going and Liam Hall, the two Canadians currently being held in
Belgrade along with the two other British men on suspicion of terrorist
activities.
When Canadians are detained abroad on terrorism charges, they tend to be
given the benefit of the doubt simply because they are Canadian...
-
http://www.canoe.com/Columnists/worthington.html
THE TORONTO SUN, Sunday, August 13, 2000 COMMENT
Axworthy's odd diplomacy
By PETER WORTHINGTON
Toronto Sun
Like him or loathe him, you've got to admit our intrepid Foreign Affairs
Minister Lloyd Axworthy has an unusual diplomatic approach.
He justifies establishing diplomatic relations with North Korea, against
whom Canada fought a war 50 years ago (and is still at war, technically,
since no peace agreement has been signed, only a ceasefire), on grounds
that recognition might make it easier for that strange, xenophobic
regime to behave decently.
And Axworthy apparently thinks the most effective way to get two
Canadians released by the Yugoslav military holding them for suspected
terrorism, is to call President Slobodan Milosevic "a thug."...
-
http://www.canoe.com/TorontoSun/editorial.html
THE TORONTO SUN, Sunday, August 13, 2000 EDITORIAL
Lloyd exits, stage left
Hard on the heels of the good news of Corrections Canada commissioner
Ole Ingstrup's resignation last week (effective next month) came the
even better news that fellow liberal-leftie Lloyd Axworthy, our Foreign
Affairs minister, is also planning to step down.
Axworthy, who was once touted for a Nobel Peace Prize for his fight to
ban land mines around the world, has reportedly told Prime Minister Jean
Chretien he plans to accept a job with a new international affairs
centre at a B.C. university. However, he will not make any formal
announcement without the PM's okay.
Perhaps this explains Axworthy's recent behaviour. Maybe his mind was on
his new job prospects. How else to explain his bizarre handling of the
case of two Canadians arrested in Kosovo by the Yugoslav military?
With a straight face, while calling Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic a "thug" (no argument there), Axworthy actually appealed to
Canadian Serbs to put pressure on Milosevic to release the two Alberta
men...
-
http://www.globeandmail.com/gam/International/20000811/UDIPSN.html
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, Friday, August 11, 2000
Serbs tell Axworthy to get lost
Community leaders denounce minister's call for help in freeing Canadians
JEFF SALLOT
Parliamentary Bureau
Ottawa -- Serbian community leaders in Canada say Ottawa has a lot of
nerve asking for their support to help free two Albertans held by
Yugoslav authorities, after Canadian warplanes bombed their homeland
during the Kosovo crisis last year.
"Nobody listens to us in Canada when we wanted the bombing stopped. Why
does [Foreign Affairs Minister] Lloyd Axworthy think we can have
influence in Belgrade now?" said Stojanka Petkovic, a settlement
counsellor at the Serbian Heritage Academy in Toronto.
"We are very sorry about the arrests, but Axworthy is just being very
arrogant and absurd" to expect help from Canadians of Serb background,
said Zana Vitrovich, president of the Association of Serbian Women of
Canada...
-
SERBIAN NATIONAL SHIELD SOCIETY OF CANADA
VOICE OF CANADIAN SERBS
1900 Sheppard Ave. East, Box 303, Willowdale, Ontario M2J 4T4
Tel: 416-496-7881 Fax: 416-493-0335
August 11, 2000
OPEN LETTER TO LLOYD AXWORTHY,
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Mr Minister:
Your televised request to Canadians of Serbian heritage to assist Shaun
Going and Liam Hall, the two Canadians arrested in Montenegro trying to
enter the territory of Yugoslavia without visas and carrying explosive
equipment, is the first time in ten years that you have openly
addressed and
acknowledged the Canadian Serbian
community.
As citizens of this country, Canadian Serbs support your concern that
these
arrested Canadians have access to Canadian embassy officials and their
families and that they be given a fair trial with independent defense.
We
also appeal to the Yugoslav Ambassador in Ottawa to ensure the fair
treatment of these Canadians in compliance
with international law and the Canadian government's request.
That, we believe, is the democratic, legal and humanitarian approach
which
facilitates a resolution to any international crisis. Sabre rattling
and
name calling do not resolve such tensions.
Humanitarianism is a universal principle; it is not selective. As an
influential politician who has promoted the "humanitarian agenda"
around the
world, Canadian Serbs also appeal to you, Mr. Axworthy, to apply the
"humanitarianism" which you promote to the tragic situation of the
Serbian
people who have been robbed of their
health, their jobs and their future by the relentless and unjust
sanctions
imposed on them ten years ago by the international community.
If the aim of those sanctions was to remove Mr. Milosevic from office,
that
tactic has failed. Sanctions have only penalized the most vulnerable of
Serbian society - the elderly, children, the ill and almost one million
forgotten Serbian refugees permanently ethnically cleansed from Bosnia,
Croatia and Kosovo, and now living in
war-torn Serbia.
The "humanitarian agenda" which you expound would be served if you
would
take the initiative to remove those devastating sanctions from the
Serbian
people.
International law does not give democracies the right to decimate an
entire
people within the boundaries of their sovereign country using
sanctions,
bombing and invasion. Regardless of international law, NATO justified
its
78-day bombing campaign using the "humanitarian' argument. The Toronto
Star
(Aug. 2) referred to that assault as "NATO's war to force Serbs out of
Kosovo". Many people would understand that as an ethnic cleansing
campaign.
Since NATO's "humanitanan" bombing and the arrival of its ground forces
in
Kosovo, the Kosovo Serbs, Roma and other non-Albanian minorities have
been
forced out of Kosovo; ancient Serbian monasteries have been bombed;
Albanian
KLA sponsored drug trafficking, rampant crime and corruption are on the
rise; Serbia's
infrastructure has been destroyed; its soil and food chain have been
poisoned by depleted uranium bombs; it receives no reconstruction aid;
and
Mr. Milosevic has consolidated his political power. That is the
"humanitarianism" NATO brought to the war- ravaged Serbian people.
Most politicians like to win political points using events to improve
their
own ratings. There is wide speculation that Mr. Milosevic may be using
the
case of the arrested Canadians to tighten his grip before the
September24
elections.
We support the press release issued yesterday by the Canadian Serb
Congress
of which our organization is a member.
As Canadians we appeal for the fair treatment of our fellow Canadians
within
the law.
At the same time, as Canadians of Serbian heritage we ask for the
following
four things: for the lifting of the sanctions imposed on the Serbian
people;
for the reconstruction of Serbia devastated by NATO; for aid to almost
one
million permanent refugees inside Serbia; and for an end to ten years
of
demonization, mistreatment and
misrepresentation of Serbs everywhere. That is the humanitarian agenda,
Mr.
Minister, you are in a position to demonstrate that the Serbian people
are
also deserving of compassion and humanitarian assistance.
Yours truly,
Bora Dragasevich,
President
Serbian National Shield Society of Canada
cc: Dr. P. Todorovic, Yugoslav Ambassador to Canada
Canadian Media
NOTE:
Isti tekst Draga je protcitala inoc na radio Sumadiji i na kraju je
dodala:
We are still waiting for your call,
Mr. Minister( ili slicno..)
Kao i uvek, Draga je zvucala perfektno! Nadam se da je neko od njihovih
spijuna to snimio!
-
The Ottawa Serbian Heritage Society
3662 Albion Rd. South, Gloucester, Ontario, K1T 1A3,
serbian.heritage@...
OPEN LETTER TO LLOYD AXWORTHY,
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Dear Sir,
It is gratifying that you , minister Axworthy, have finally deemed it
fit
to offer to
meet the representatives of Serbian Community in Canada over the arrest
of
the two Canadians ,whereas you had refused to meet us in the connection
with
the murder of hundreds of Serb civilians in which our government was a
willing participant.
As citizens of this country, Canadian Serbs support your concern that
these arrested Canadians have access to Canadian embassy officials and
their
families and that their be given a fair trail with independent defence.
We
also appeal to the Yugoslav Ambassador to Ottawa to ensure the fair
treatment of these Canadians in compliance with international law.
It is to be hoped that the rule of law be respected by the Yugoslav
Government and that two Canadians, if proven innocent, will be released
soon. Our harts and prayers are with the accused and their families.
We can not be expected to pass a judgement on this particular case
without a full disclosure of all relevant facts. Had the Canadian
authorities arrested two Serb citizens who had entered the country
illegally
on a remote road in the middle of the night and had they found explosive
fuses in the trunk of their car, they would have had every right to
instigate criminal investigation and judicial proceedings. Mr.Going
maintains very close relation with the leaders of the terrorist
"liberation
army" which has carried out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against all
non
Albanians in Kosovo under NATO occupation. That association by itself
with
some of the most unsavoury thugs in the Balkans is sufficient to arouse
our
profound suspicion about his motives and real objectives.
As Canadians we appeal for the fair treatment of our fellow
Canadians
within the law.
We support the press release issued yesterday by the Canadian Serb
Congress of which our organisation is a member.
It is, disbelieving, however, to hear you demanding from the
Yugoslav
Government to respect the law, when you and our Canadian Government did
not
respect neither Canadian , nor international Law when Canadian pilots
bombed Yugoslavia in 1999.
At the same time, as Canadians of Serbian heritage we ask for
the
lifting of sanctions imposed on the Serbian people; for the
reconstruction
of Serbia; and for an end of 10 years of demonization, mistreatment and
misrepresentation of Serbs everywhere.
Respectfully ,
Slobodanka Borojevic, president
The Ottawa Serbian Heritage Society
---
DUE PARLAMENTARI INGLESI SVELANO I LEGAMI TRA GLI ARRESTATI E L'UCK
http://www.the-times.co.uk (World)
The Times (London)
August 9 2000 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Kosovo business link to 'racketeers'
>From Mrs Alice Mahon, MP for Halifax (Labour), and Mr
Tam Dalyell, MP for Linlithgow (Labour)
Sir, We are concerned to read your report, "Serb jail
threat to arrested British police" (August 8), that
Shaun Going, one of the four people detained by the
Serb authorities last week on the border of Montenegro
and Kosovo in a car that contained explosive
materials, admitted paying £40,000 earlier this year
to Gani Thaci, brother of Kosovo Liberation Army
commander Hashim, to secure contracts in Kosovo
because "there was no way of doing business in the
area without coming into contact with former KLA
members".
The Thaci family and other former KLA members are
widely known to have a significant hold over Kosovo's
economy. At the end of Nato's war, the political wing
of the KLA under Hashim Thaci seized control of most
municipal authorities and took over state-controlled
enterprises.
As Members of Parliament who have visited Kosovo, we
are aware of the prevalent view - including amongst
international personnel there - that the Thaci family
and other former KLA members are behind much of the
racketeering that goes on in the province today.
The fact that the two British citizens, Adrian
Prangnell and John Yore, have been detained in the
company of someone who is linked with KLA terrorists
and has taken part in dubious activities in Kosovo,
places them in a precarious and compromising position.
We think our Government owes Parliament - and the
British public - an explanation of why British
personnel have become involved with such people.
Yours sincerely,
ALICE MAHON,
TAM DALYELL,
House of Commons.
August 8.
-
Globe And Mail (Toronto)
Two British MPs blame Albertan for arrests
Brother of construction company owner denies
man has links to Kosovo liberation movement
ALAN FREEMAN
European Bureau
Friday, August 11, 2000
London -- Two maverick Labour MPs have accused the
Alberta contractor under arrest in Yugoslavia of
compromising the fate of two British police officers
detained with him, because of the Canadian's alleged
links with a onetime leading member of the Kosovo
Liberation Army.
"I think [Shaun] Going has put them all in a
compromising position," MP Alice Mahon said in an
interview yesterday. Mr. Going and his nephew Liam
Hall, 19, were travelling with two Britons when the
four were arrested Aug. 1 in the Yugoslav republic of
Montenegro, near its border with Kosovo.
Citing an April British Broadcasting Corp. report on
corruption in Kosovo, Ms. Mahon noted that Mr. Going,
who runs a construction firm in the Kosovo capital of
Pristina, had acknowledged paying $60,000 (U.S.) to
Gani Thaci, the brother of Hashim Thaci, the former
KLA commander. Mr. Going told the BBC the money was
for "intermediary services," saying it was difficult
to do business in Kosovo, which is now under United
Nations authority, without dealing with former members
of the KLA.
"There's no doubt the former KLA people are well
positioned in business so there is no way of doing
business in this country without them or coming across
them on a day-to-day basis," Mr. Going told the BBC.
In a letter to The Times of London, Ms. Mahon and
fellow MP Tam Dalyell said it was widely known that
members of the Thaci family were "behind much of the
racketeering that goes on in the province today."
"The fact that the two British citizens, Adrian
Prangnell and John Yore, have been detained in the
company of someone who is linked with KLA terrorists
and has taken part in dubious activities in Kosovo,
places them in a precarious and compromising
position," the MPs wrote.
In Calgary yesterday, Mr. Going's brother, Michael,
said the two MPs are not well informed about his
brother's work in Eastern Europe.
"Shaun has no ties to the Kosovo liberation movement
or any other political movement. He's very
apolitical," Mr. Going said. "He's a businessman doing
business in the region. He does business with a lot of
different groups and companies and governments for
that matter."
The British government reacted angrily to the MPs'
comments and their suggestion that Britain cease
acting jointly with Canada in seeking the release of
all four men.
Keith Vaz, the junior foreign minister who has been
handling the case, said that "unhelpful and
irresponsible speculation about the detainees puts
them at risk, makes our task more difficult and plays
into the hands of those who seek to politicize this
issue."
Both MPs are considered political mavericks and broke
with their government last year to oppose the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization's bombing campaign
against Yugoslavia.
In an interview, Mr. Dalyell laid the blame on Shaun
Going for the arrest of the four men on a remote road
near the border of Kosovo, where the men were
returning after a weekend in Montenegro. "It was his
car and his explosives," he said, referring to the
materials found in the car that have been described by
Canadian officials and Mr. Going's lawyer as blasting
caps and fuses used in construction work.
Ms. Mahon believes it was "at best naive and at worse
rather reckless" for the men to travel without visas
and to be carrying such materials in a tense border
region.
"If you found someone in Canada in that sort of
situation just after a war, I think you would detain
them and ask some sort of questions," she said.
Friends of Mr. Going have described him as an
apolitical yet "pragmatic" businessman who had been in
the Balkans for almost a decade and knew that doing
business was virtually impossible without greasing
some palms.
In Ottawa, officials yesterday said Mr. Going is a
legitimate Canadian businessman. "We are not aware of
any illegal activity by Mr. Going," Foreign Affairs
spokeswoman Marie-Christine Lilkoff said.
-
NATIONAL POST: CANADIAN ARRESTED IN YUGOSLAVIA WORKED WITH THACI
MONTREAL, August 8 (Tanjug) The Canadian daily National Post
said
in a report on Monday that one of the two Canadians arrested by the
Yugoslav Army recently in northeastern Montenegro had closely
collaborated
with the terrorist organization, the Kosovo Liberation Army, and its
leader
Hashim Thaci.
Arrested Canadian citizen Chaun Going, a building contractor,
lived in Albania for 10 years, and last year gave 60,000 Canadian
dollars
(40,000 U.S. dlrs) to Thaci's elder brother, said National Post.
Going, 40, paid the sum to Gani Thaci in order to get
permission
for construction in Kosovo and Metohija, where he had moved after the
end
of the NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia (June 10, 1999), National Post
said.
Early this year, the international civilian mission UNMIK
police
in Kosovo and Metohija carried out a raid of Gani Thaci's apartment and
seized 168,000 U.S. dollars. Thaci told investigators he had got the
money
from the Meridian Resources company, which is owned by Chaun Going.
The daily quoted Going as saying that he had been compelled to
do
such services in order to do business in Kosovo and Metohija.
Going and his nephew Liam Hall, 19, and two British citizens
were
arrested in the night between Aug 12, 2000, in Yugoslav territory, in
northeastern Montenegro. The four had been armed with military
equipment,
wrecking instruments, and other things.
---
FOREIGNERS ARRESTED IN MONTENEGRO TRANSFERRED TO BELGRADE
BELGRADE, August 8 (Tanjug) The four foreigners, detained in
the Andrijevica region, territory of Montenegro, Yugoslavia,
were transferred from Podgorica to Belgrade on Tuesday, a Yugoslav
Army spokesman told Tanjug.
Colonel Svetozar Radisic explained that further
proceedings against the detainees would be taken at the Military Court
in Belgrade.
In the night between Aug 12, 2000, within their activities on
securing the state border, Yugoslav Army units arrested Britons Adrian
Michael Prangnell and John Connon Bradley, and Canadians Chaun Gerald
Going
and Liam Patrick Hall.
-
http://www.the-times.co.uk (World)
The Times (London)
August 8 2000 EUROPE
Serb jail threat to arrested British police
BY ALEX TODOROVIC IN PODGORICA AND RICHARD BEESTON,
DIPLOMATIC EDITOR
TWO British policemen and two Canadians being held by
the Yugoslav military are facing a long spell in Serb
custody after compromising evidence emerged linking
one of the four to Kosovo guerrillas.
One of the Canadians, a construction company owner
whose car was found to contain explosive equipment,
hasadmitted giving money to the brother of a Kosovo
Liberation Army leader to secure post-war building
contracts.
A military prosecutor in the Montenegrin capital,
Podgorica, must decide today whether to launch a
formal investigation or release the men, who were
detained returning to Kosovo after a trip to
Montenegro last week.
The men's best hope is a 60-day jail sentence for
entering Yugoslavia without visas. At worst they could
be tried and convicted of "terrorist actions",
punishable by a life sentence. In any event, the
prosecutor is likely to open a criminal investigation
that could take six months to complete. And the
situation could be further complicated by next month's
Serbian elections as President Milosevic could use the
arrests to whip up nationalist support.
The policemen John Yore, 31, and Adrian Prangnell, 41,
had been helping to train Kosovan police cadets when
they took a weekend off to visit Montenegro with Shaun
Going, 45, and his nephew Liam Hall, 19. As they
returned to Kosovo they were stopped twice for routine
inspections by the Montenegrin police and then again
at a Yugoslav Army checkpoint.
"When they were stopped by Yugoslav border guards, one
of the men expressed frustration at having to stop so
many times," their lawyer, Vojislav Zecevic, said.
"One of the Yugoslavs understood English and then
searched the car."
The guards found the men did not have visas to enter
Yugoslavia - as most Westerners do not - and a search
of Mr Going's car revealed explosive materials used in
mining. The Serbs say the material, believed to be
detonators, could have been used in sabotage.
Mr Going admitted earlier this year that, in an
attempt to win contracts, he had paid £40,000 to Gani
Thaci, whose younger brother Hashim is a Kosovo
Liberation Army commander. Mr Going said that there
was no way of doing business in the area without
coming into contact with former KLA members.
Britain was last night intensifying diplomatic efforts
in London and Belgrade to win the release of the
detainees and trying to make a distinction between the
Canadians and the Britons.
Keith Vaz, the Foreign Office Minister, said that he
would be calling in Raida Drobac, the head of the
Yugoslav interests section in London, to protest about
the detentions. A similar message will be delivered in
Belgrade by Igor Khalavinsky, the UN representative,
and the Brazilian Ambassador, whose embassy represents
British interests.
"We have two policemen working for civil humanitarian
causes in Kosovo who went to Montenegro for a holiday
break. The next thing they know about this is they are
on Serbian television being branded as terrorists," Mr
Vaz said. "This is new depths of Serbian paranoia."
However, Mr Drobac said that the Serb authorities were
acting within their rights, just as much as British
police would respond if "terrrorist suspects" were
detained in Sussex.
"These men were detained without visas on Yugoslav
territory in possession of compromising material," he
said. "It is only natural for the authorities to
investigate."
In the meantime the men are likely to remain at a
military base outside Podgorica, where, their lawyer
said yesterday, they were being well-treated. "They
are in good health and are satisfied given the
situation." They were not confined in a jail cell and
wear their own clothes.
Mr Zecevic said military authorities have little
evidence against the four men, but there is enough to
launch an investigation. He is optimistic that it will
not last long or lead to formal charges.
The men had told him that they had wanted to take a
different road back to Kosovo after their weekend
break at the resort town of Sveti Stefan. They drove
through the Lim River valley, a notoriously
pro-Milosevic region, then took a small village road
at Murino, up the Mount Cakor pass.
---
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STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
LA FOSSA COMUNE PIU' GRANDE DEL KOSOVO
Nella fossa comune scoperta dall'UNMIK presso Pristina ci sono 160
cadaveri di persone rapite dall'UCK. Con queste, il numero delle vittime
della violenza dell'UCK in questi mesi di occupazione coloniale della
KFOR balza a circa 1250. Trattandosi di una fossa comune "politicamente
scorretta", perche' responsabili dei crimini sono gli alleati della NATO
e della KFOR, alla notizia non viene ne' verra' dato risalto a meno che
con qualche equilibrismo retorico non si riesca ad attribuire la colpa a
Slobodan Milosevic.
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a39a0443a536f.htm
UN POLICE DISCOVER MASS GRAVE OF 160 KIDNAPPED SERBS
Foreign Affairs Breaking News News Keywords: KOSOVO KLA TERRORISM
Source: Kosovo Ham-Radio
Published: August 20, 2000 Author: Ichabod Walrus
Posted on 08/20/2000 13:48:58 PDT by Ichabod Walrus
The wife of a kidnapped Serb in Kosovo has just disclosed to ham radio
operators
(the only independent Serbian source of news now in Kosovo), that UNMIK
police
have confirmed her husband was one of 160 Serb, or mostly Serb victims,
found in
a mass grave outside Pristina. The Serbs were among more than 900
persons
similarly kidnapped in 14 months of lawlessness in the NATO occupied
province.
The woman, Vesna Mulic, said she was taken to the HQ of UNMIK polic in
Pristina,
to identify her husband's remains. There she was told that her husband,
Rame,
was
one of 160 bodies found in a mass grave near the village of Dragodan
outside
Pristina.
So careless were the Albanian killers, whom Clinton's administration is
proud to
call the US Army's allies, that they left numerous personal document and
other
forms
of identification with the dead. Vesna Mulic, said she saw numerous
pieces of
identification belonging to other victims.
It would appear that UNMIK has known of the mass grave for a long time.
Why it
has refused to reveal this shocking discovery is another unanswered
question.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Nella fossa comune scoperta dall'UNMIK presso Pristina ci sono 160
cadaveri di persone rapite dall'UCK. Con queste, il numero delle vittime
della violenza dell'UCK in questi mesi di occupazione coloniale della
KFOR balza a circa 1250. Trattandosi di una fossa comune "politicamente
scorretta", perche' responsabili dei crimini sono gli alleati della NATO
e della KFOR, alla notizia non viene ne' verra' dato risalto a meno che
con qualche equilibrismo retorico non si riesca ad attribuire la colpa a
Slobodan Milosevic.
http://www.FreeRepublic.com/forum/a39a0443a536f.htm
UN POLICE DISCOVER MASS GRAVE OF 160 KIDNAPPED SERBS
Foreign Affairs Breaking News News Keywords: KOSOVO KLA TERRORISM
Source: Kosovo Ham-Radio
Published: August 20, 2000 Author: Ichabod Walrus
Posted on 08/20/2000 13:48:58 PDT by Ichabod Walrus
The wife of a kidnapped Serb in Kosovo has just disclosed to ham radio
operators
(the only independent Serbian source of news now in Kosovo), that UNMIK
police
have confirmed her husband was one of 160 Serb, or mostly Serb victims,
found in
a mass grave outside Pristina. The Serbs were among more than 900
persons
similarly kidnapped in 14 months of lawlessness in the NATO occupied
province.
The woman, Vesna Mulic, said she was taken to the HQ of UNMIK polic in
Pristina,
to identify her husband's remains. There she was told that her husband,
Rame,
was
one of 160 bodies found in a mass grave near the village of Dragodan
outside
Pristina.
So careless were the Albanian killers, whom Clinton's administration is
proud to
call the US Army's allies, that they left numerous personal document and
other
forms
of identification with the dead. Vesna Mulic, said she saw numerous
pieces of
identification belonging to other victims.
It would appear that UNMIK has known of the mass grave for a long time.
Why it
has refused to reveal this shocking discovery is another unanswered
question.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
KRAGUJEVAC 1941: LE "FOSSE ARDEATINE" DELLA SERBIA
L'articolo che segue e' tratto da "Storia Illustrata" del gennaio 1979.
E' stato trovato per caso in una vecchia collezione della rivista.
Ricordiamo che la citta' di Kragujevac e' stata soggetta nella primavera
del 1999 a bombardamenti da parte di aerei della NATO (forse anche
tedeschi!), che hanno colpito tra l'altro gli impianti della fabbrica di
auto Zastava e decine di operai che li presidiavano, nonche' gli stessi
edifici del museo-memoriale della strage nazista di cui si racconta qui
sotto.
Ringraziamo vivamente Giorgio di Trieste per la trascrizione.
Per il grande interesse dell'argomento trattato, ne alleghiamo una
versione in formato Word per facilitarne la lettura e la diffusione a
chi usa Windows.
---
38 anni fa a Kragujevac
STERMINIO NAZISTA IN SERBIA
In un solo giorno 7300 morti nella città martire. E' l'autunno del 1941.
Pochi mesi dopo la dissoluzione del regno di Jugoslavia, la penisola
balcanica è insorta contro l'occupante nazifascista. Alla rivolta
partigiana i tedeschi rispondono facendo strage della popolazione
civile.
(di ANTONIO PITAMITZ)
Il 20 ottobre 1941, sei mesi dopo l'invasione tedesca della Jugoslavia,
nei due Ginnasi di Kragujevac (leggi Kragujevaz), la città serba posta
nel centro della regione della Šumadija, le lezioni iniziano alle 8.30,
come di consueto. Sono in programma quel giorno la sintassi della lingua
serbocroata, matematica, la poesia di Goethe, la fisica. In una classe,
un professore croato, un profugo fuggito dal regime fascista instaurato
in Croazia da Ante Pavelic, sottolinea il valore della libertà. Poco
lontano, un altro spiega l'opera di un poeta serbo del romanticismo
risorgimentale. La mente rivolta alle secolari lotte sostenute dai serbi
per la loro indipendenza e a quella presente che cresce
irresistibilmente, anch'egli parla di libertà. La voce calma e profonda
che illustra i versi del poeta: "La libertà è un nettare che inebria /
Io la bevvi perché avevo sete", ne nasconde a fatica la tensione, che
aleggia anche nell'aula, che grava su tutti, sulla cittadina, sui suoi
abitanti, e che l'eco strozzata di fucilerie lontane da alcuni giorni
alimenta.
Dal 13 ottobre 1941 Kragujevac e la sua regione sono teatro di una vasta
azione di rappresaglia, che i tedeschi stanno conducendo con spietata
decisione contemporaneamente anche nel resto della Serbia. La ferocia di
cui essi in quei giorni danno prova ha una ragione specifica
contingente. La rapida vittoria dell'Asse ha dissolto uno Stato, il
regno dei Karadjeordjevic, ma non ha prostrato i popoli della
Jugoslavia. L'illusione tedesca di una comoda permanenza in quella terra
è stata presto delusa. Sin dai primi giorni dell'occupazione, i tedeschi
hanno avuto filo da torcere. La guerra, che anche in Šumadija i
resistenti fanno, è senza quartiere. Sabotaggi sensazionali e diversioni
in grande stile si registrano sin dal mese di maggio. Linee telefoniche
e telegrafiche vengono tagliate, ponti e strade ferrate saltano. Il
movimento di resistenza cresce così rapidamente, ben presto è così ampio
che i tedeschi e le truppe collaborazioniste del quisling serbo Milan
Nedic abbandonano il presidio dei villaggi. Gli invasori si sentono
troppo esposti, isolati, preferiscono arroccarsi in città. La lotta
contro i patrioti la organizzano dai centri urbani, e la conducono
secondo il metro nazista che misura in tutti gli slavi una razza
inferiore, da sterminare. La traduzione pratica di questo principio è
all'altezza della fama che si guadagnano. A Belgrado, una moto
incendiata della Wehrmacht vale la vita di 122 serbi. Solo nella
capitale, in sette mesi fucilano 4700 ostaggi.
Incredibilmente, gli hitleriani ritengono di poter coprire con la
propaganda questo pugno di ferro che calano sul paese. Le argomentazioni
che diffondono sono quelle care alla "dottrina" nazifascista dell'Ordine
Nuovo Europeo. Ai contadini serbi dicono di averli salvati dagli ebrei e
dai capitalisti, e promettono anche di salvarli dal bolscevismo semita,
che sta per essere sicuramente sconfitto sul fronte orientale.
L'itinerario di questa vittoria, a Kragujevac può essere seguito sulla
grande carta geografica che campeggia nel centro della città. Una croce
uncinata segna la progressione delle forze dell'Asse in direzione di
Mosca. Però, come altrove, nemmeno a Kragujevac terrore, repressione,
lusinghe, denaro fatto circolare per corrompere, valgono a indebolire il
sostegno alla lotta partigiana, a ridurne il seguito. A dare contorni
netti alla situazione, le risposte alla propaganda tedesca non mancano.
La carta geografica dell'Asse viene bruciata in pieno giorno. Il fuoco
divora anche una delle fabbriche militari della città. Un treno di
quaranta vagoni viene distrutto sulla linea Kragujevac-Kraljevo,
provocando la morte di cinquanta tedeschi. Da vincitori e occupanti, i
tedeschi si trovano nella condizione di assediati.
E' Kragujevac, città da sempre ribelle, che prende il suo nome da
kraguj, dal rapace grifone che popolava i sui boschi, che alimenta la
Resistenza della zona. E' questa città di antiche tradizioni nazionali e
socialiste che guida la lotta della Šumadija, il cuore della Serbia. Gli
operai comunisti che costituiscono il nerbo delle formazioni partigiane
vengono dal suo arsenale militare. Dalle sue case dai cento nascondigli,
che hanno già ingannato turchi e austroungarici, escono le armi, le
munizioni, il materiale sanitario, i libri che donne, bambini e ragazzi
portano quotidianamente ai combattenti del bosco.
Per contenere la sua iniziativa, per fronteggiare questa lotta di bande,
che è lotta di popolo e che sconvolge gli schemi bellici dei signori
nazisti della guerra, già alla fine dell'agosto 1941 Kragujevac conta la
guarnigione tedesca più forte di tutta la Serbia centrale. Ma i due
battaglioni e i mezzi corazzati di cui i tedeschi dispongono non sono
sufficienti ad arrestare lo slancio delle tre compagnie partigiane che
operano fuori della città. Né tantomeno la Gestapo è in grado di
bloccare i gruppi clandestini che si annidano dentro. La loro azione
anzi si fa sempre più audace, punta sul risultato militare, ma ricerca
anche l'effetto psicologico. Per i partigiani, importante è non soltanto
colpire il nemico, ma aiutare anche i serbi oppressi a sperare, a
vivere. Una notte d'agosto, cento metri di ferrovia vengono fatti
saltare in città, proprio sotto il naso dei tedeschi.
E' una sfida, che ha sapore di beffa. In questa situazione, la rabbia e
il desiderio di vendetta dei tedeschi crescono quotidianamente. Quando
nel settembre 1941, la ribellione guadagna tutta la Serbia, e
conseguentemente mette radici ancora più profonde in Šumadija, il
generale Boehme, comandante delle forze tedesche nel Paese, considera
che la misura è colma. Il prestigio dei suoi soldati deve essere
risollevato, una dura lezione deve essere somministrata ai serbi. Una
spietata repressione, da condurre senza esitazione, è decisa. A rendere
più chiara la direttiva che passa ai subalterni, e che precisa la
"filosofia" del comando tedesco, Boehme ricorda che "una vita umana non
vale nulla", e che perciò per intimidire bisogna ricorrere a una
"crudeltà senza eguali". A metà settembre i tedeschi passano all'azione.
La macchina si mette in moto.
Per un mese la Serbia centrale è trasformata in un campo di sterminio. A
decine villaggi grandi e piccoli sono bruciati, spesso, come a Novo
Mesto o a Debrc, con dentro gli abitanti. I serbi muoiono a migliaia,
uccisi, massacrati. A Šabac, il 26 settembre, sono 3000 gli uomini dai
14 ai 70 anni che rimangono vittime della razzia tedesca. Cinquecento
muoiono durante una marcia fatta fare al passo di corsa per 46
chilometri. Gli altri sono fucilati. Una sorte analoga hanno, il 10
ottobre, a Valjevo, 2200 ostaggi: finiscono al muro. "Pagano" 10
tedeschi uccisi e 24 feriti. Cinque giorni dopo, il 15, è "sentenziata"
la punizione di Kraljevo, un'altra città che resiste. I plotoni di
esecuzione lavorano per cinque giorni, le vittime sono 5000. Sembra
impossibile immaginare una strage ancora più grande. Eppure,
l'allucinante escalation non ha toccato la sua punta di massimo orrore.
Lo farà a Kragujevac, e nel suo circondario. La "spedizione punitiva"
comincia il 13 ottobre. Quel giorno, nel quartiere operaio di
Kragujevac, i tedeschi prendono 30 uomini. Per 3 giorni se li trascinano
dietro nella puntata che fanno contro il paese vicino, Gornji Milanovac.
Affamati, percossi, costretti a rimuovere tronchi d'albero e a tirare
fuori dal fango carri armati, adoperati come scudo contro i partigiani,
sono testimoni della sorte del piccolo paese di pastori. Vivono
un'agonia che ha fine solo con il grande massacro, nel quale scompaiono
anche i 132 ostaggi di Gornji Milanovac. In quanto al paese, anche
questo viene bruciato. I tedeschi saldano così un vecchio conto che
avevano in sospeso. Anche per questa impresa però devono pagare uno
scotto. Trentasei uomini vengono messi fuori combattimento dai
partigiani, che attaccano senza sosta.
Di fronte a questo "smacco" la logica tedesca della ritorsione non tarda
a scattare. Sarà Kragujevac a pagare, con la vita di 100 cittadini ogni
tedesco morto, e con quella di 50 ogni tedesco ferito. Duemilatrecento
persone sono condannate a morte.
La rappresaglia punta per primo sui "nemici storici" del Reich:
comunisti e ebrei. Gli ebrei maschi, e un certo numero di comunisti, 66
persone in tutto, vengono arrestati sulla base delle liste che i
collaborazionisti forniscono. Ma questo non basta. Il giorno
successivo, il 19 ottobre, una massiccia operazione ha luogo
nell'immediata periferia della città. Tre paesi, posti nel giro di tre
chilometri, sono travolti della furia tedesca. Grošnica, Meckovac,
Maršic bruciano, 423 uomini muoiono. A Meckovac, donne e bambini sono
costretti ad assistere all'esecuzione. Lo stesso macabro rituale è
imposto a Grošnica, dove si distinguono i Volontari Anticomunisti di
Dimitrjie Ljotic. Il paese quel giorno celebra la festa del patrono. I
fascisti serbi strappano il pope dell'altare con il vangelo ancora in
mano, i fedeli vanno a morire stringendo i pani benedetti della
comunione ortodossa. Vengono falciati tutti lì vicino, con le
mitragliatrici. Così, intorno a Kragujevac si è fatto un cerchio di
morte. La prova generale è compiuta. Ora si passa al "grande massacro".
L'azione inizia la mattina del 20 ottobre. Alle prime luci dell'alba,
gli accessi a Kragujevac vengono bloccati. Mitragliatrici sono postate
nei punti nevralgici. Nessuno può più uscire dalla città, nessuno può
più entrarvi. Chi, ignorando il dispositivo, si avvicina, viene ucciso.
E' quanto accade a uno zingaro, che arriva dalla campagna, a un vecchio
che in città muove verso il mercato. Agli ordini del maggiore Koenig,
tedeschi e collaborazionisti aprono la caccia all'uomo. Nessuno sfugge,
nessuno è "dimenticato". Il gruppo di operai che lavora tranquillamente
a un torrente, i tre popi di una chiesa, che sperano di trovare la
salvezza dietro le icone. I razziatori entrano a stanare ovunque. Gli
impiegati sono portati fuori dal municipio; giudici, scrivani, pubblico,
dal tribunale. Dalle abitazioni vengono tratti anche gli ammalati. Un
barbiere è prelevato dal negozio insieme al suo cliente, che con altri
disgraziati marcia verso il suo destino, una guancia insaponata, l'altra
no.
Alle dieci i tedeschi irrompono anche nei due ginnasi. L'apparizione di
quelle uniformi verdi armate di fucili e parabellum, infrange la
normalità forzata che da tre giorni nelle due scuole vige. Il barone
Bischofhausen, il comandante tedesco della piazza, il 17 ha minacciato
presidi, professori e genitori di severe sanzioni se i ragazzi non
frequentavano la scuola. Lo ha fatto ripetere anche per le vie della
città, a suon di tamburo, dal banditore pubblico. Li vuole tutti in
aula, sempre. L'ufficiale tedesco, che da civile è insegnante, combatte
l'assenteismo degli studenti non certo perché mosso da passione
pedagogica. Chiedendo che proprio per quel giorno 20 tutti siano
presenti, egli fa apparire di voler esercitare un controllo; che però si
trasforma in una trappola. In realtà, egli non dimentica che i
ginnasiali di Kragujevac hanno manifestato sin dai primi giorni la più
violenta opposizione all'occupante. Un giovane è finito impiccato dopo
uno scontro con la polizia. Il barone sa pure che anche in quelle aule
la Resistenza attinge, per alimentare i suoi "gruppi d'azione", i suoi
propagandisti e sabotatori.
L'ispezione annunciata per quel giorno è arrivata. I registri chiesti
dal barone sono pronti. Arrivando quella mattina a scuola, i ragazzi
hanno cancellato i loro nomi dall'elenco. Precauzione inutile. Non c'è
appello. I tedeschi entrano direttamente nelle aule, e rastrellano.
Hinaus, fuori tutti quelli dai 16 anni in su. Anche il ragazzo invalido
che si trascina con la stampella, per il quale invano una professoressa
intercede. Anche la classe che il professore di tedesco tenta di
salvare. Ai soldati che si affacciano, il professore dice, per
rabbonirli, che stanno facendo lezione di tedesco. Mente. E mente una
seconda volta quando gli chiedono quanti anni hanno i suoi ragazzi.
Quindici dice. I tedeschi, convinti, fanno per andarsene. Ma in quel
momento un alunno si alza dall'ultimo banco. E' lo spilungone della
classe. I tedeschi, dalla soglia si girano, capiscono, e sbattono fuori
tutti.
I ginnasiali raggiungono le file dei razziati, i professori in testa.
Con loro, ci sono anche Mile Novakovic, insegnante di chimica, celibe, e
Djordje Stefanov, di letteratura croata, anche lui rifugiato in Serbia
con la moglie e le due figlie per sfuggire ai fascisti della Croazia.
Quel giorno i due professori non hanno lezione. Ma quando hanno visto
che in città i tedeschi rastrellavano, certi che la scuola non sarebbe
stata risparmiata, sono venuti lo stesso, per essere insieme ai loro
ragazzi. Li vogliono seguire fino in fondo. Andranno insieme a loro alla
fucilazione. Del corpo insegnante, solo le donne non sono razziate.
Dalle finestre della scuola vedono sfilare i professori e gli alunni, e
"cento berretti levarsi in segno di saluto" . I ragazzi credono ancora
che torneranno.
Pochi sono i fortunati che riescono a filtrare tra le maglie di quella
immensa rete gettata sulla città. Chi vi riesce, va a unirsi ai
partigiani. Avrà sicuramente qualcuno da vendicare. Gli altri, a
migliaia, ingrossano le colonne che tutto il giorno scorrono per
Kragujevac dirette ai luoghi di raccolta. I razziati sono quasi 10.000,
su meno di 30.000 abitanti che conta la città. I tedeschi non hanno
tralasciato nemmeno il carcere. Ultimi ad arrivare, quei detenuti sono,
con comunisti ed ebrei, i primi ad essere fucilati.
Dai luoghi dove sono concentrati in attesa di conoscere la loro sorte,
la sera di quel 20 ottobre i prigionieri sentono le prime scariche di
fucileria. E' l'avvio della grande carneficina. Contando sulla
sorpresa, e sulla iniziale "distrazione" dei fucilatori, alcuni dei
condannati riescono a salvarsi. Qualcuno fugge appena messo in riga.
Altri, come Životjin Jovanovic, alla scarica si getta a terra anche se
non è colpito, poi balza e corre. Viene ricatturato a un posto di
blocco. Tenta di nuovo la fuga, e il suo guardiano gli spara a
bruciapelo. Gli sfiora l'inguine. Poi dopo avergli dato il colpo di
grazia nella spalla invece che in testa, lo lascia a terra credendolo
morto. L'uomo striscia tutta la notte a palmo a palmo finché arriva alla
casa di un amico. E' soccorso, si crede in salvo. Arrivano i fascisti
serbi, che lo riprendono. Dopo averlo picchiato decidono che, essendo
ormai in fin di vita, tanto vale lasciarlo morire. Ma l'uomo non muore.
Altri ancora devono la vita alla fortuna, alla professione, al sangue
freddo che riescono ad avere anche in un tale frangente. A mano a mano
che inquadrano i gruppi per condurli alla fucilazione, i tedeschi fanno
la selezione. Alcuni criteri non sono molto chiari. Risparmiano, per
esempio, gli elettricisti, gli idraulici, i panettieri. Altri lo sono di
più. Ai loro collaboratori fascisti concedono di tirare fuori i loro
amici e parenti. In questo mercato i fascisti serbi sono generosi.
Arrivano a offrire dei ragazzi di 10/12 anni in cambio dei loro
protetti. Viene risparmiato anche chi è cittadino di un paese alleato
dell'Asse. O che lo faccia credere. Escono romeni, ungheresi. Un dalmata
si dichiara italiano. Forse lo è davvero, forse è solo un croato
acculturato italiano, bilingue. Ma riesce a salvarsi, e a salvare il
ragazzo che gli è accanto, affermando alla guardia, con la sua
"autorità" di "alleato", che non ha ancora 16 anni. Un serbo, invece,
mostra un certificato bulgaro qualunque, rilasciato dalle truppe di
Sofia che occupano il suo Paese di origine, e viene messo da parte.
Non fa nulla invece per salvarsi Jovan Kalafatic, professore, insegnante
di religione, che invece potrebbe. Tutti sanno che è un fascista
convinto. A scuola sospettano anche che sia un delatore, che alcuni
professori progressisti siano finiti in galera per opera sua. Basterebbe
che dica chi è. Kalafatic invece tace. Tace anche quando passano i
fascisti serbi per la "loro" selezione. Forse, nelle lunghe ore della
tragedia passate con il suo popolo, deve aver capito la vera natura
dell'Ordine Nuovo nel quale crede. Va, volontariamente, alla fucilazione
con gli altri. Vanno volontari anche due vecchi genitori che non
vogliono abbandonare i figli. Alla fucilazione vanno, divisi in due
gruppi, anche i 300 studenti ginnasiali e i loro professori. Alla testa
di un gruppo vi è il preside del ginnasio. L'altro gruppo marcia verso
la morte in fila indiana, le mani sulle spalle, come dovessero danzare
il kolo, la danza nazionale serba. Poi, cantano. Intonano "Hej
Slaveni!", l'inno antico e comune a tutti gli slavi. Cadono cantando.
Il massacro dura a lungo. Su un fronte di morte lungo oltre dieci
chilometri, fuori della città le armi crepitano fino alle 14 del giorno
21 ottobre. Settemilatrecento uomini di Kragujevac dai 16 ai 60 anni
cadono divisi in 33 gruppi. Dovevano essere 2300. I tedeschi hanno più
che triplicato il "coefficiente dichiarato" di rappresaglia. I graziati
sono circa 3000. Molti di questi sopravvissuti rientreranno a piangere
un morto. Kragujevac onora la memoria dei suoi fucilati il sabato
successivo al massacro. Il rito ortodosso per il quale il sabato è il
giorno dei morti, vuole anche che per ogni morto sia accesa una candela
gialla e per ogni candela, cui si accompagna un pane che è da benedire
con il vino santo, il pope reciti la parola dei defunti. I sacerdoti
rimasti a Kragujevac sono solo due. Altri sette sono stati fucilati. Ma
il rito deve essere compiuto. Mentre le donne piantano le candele,
presentano i pani, gridano il nome del defunto, i due preti cantano
l'antica preghiera della liturgia veteroslava. Dandosi il cambio pregano
per ventiquattro ore, dalle sette alle sette.
Inutilmente i nazisti tentano poi di nascondere la verità sulla strage,
alterando registri, imbrogliando le cifre, esumando e cremando cadaveri.
Kragujevac ha fatto il "suo" appello. E' la prova che Životjin
Jovanovic, l'uomo sopravvissuto tre volte, porta ai giudici di
Norimberga: "...Quell'ottobre del 1941 a Kragujevac furono esposte più
di settemila bandiere nere... nella chiesa vennero presentati e
benedetti in un giorno più di settemila pani... E furono accese
settemila e trecento candele...".
Antonio Pitamitz
DIDASCALIE DELLE FOTO
Pagg. 100 - 101
Il massacro della popolazione di Macva, località nei pressi di Šabac. E'
una delle stragi che precedono lo sterminio di Kragujevac.
A destra, sopra e sotto: gli uomini di Kragujevac vengono razziati e
condotti ai centri di raccolta.
Pag. 102
Kragujevac, 22 ottobre 1941: un gruppo di ostaggi prima di essere
fucilati.
A destra: alcune vittime della strage. L'uccisione di 7300 uomini si
compie su un fronte di oltre 10 chilometri. Tra le vittime ci sono anche
300 ginnasiali.
Životjin Jovanovic, l'uomo messo al muro tre volte.
Pag. 103
Cadaveri di fucilati. I tedeschi scattarono alcune foto del massacro.
Questa qui sotto, fu trovata addosso a un ufficiale SS ucciso
successivamente in uno scontro con i partigiani della regione: come le
altre era esattamente datata.
Ljubiša Jovanovic, uno degli studenti periti a Kragujevac.
Pag. 104
L'ultimo messaggio di Božidar Nikolic, una delle vittime di Kragujevac:
"Cara Borika, abbi cura di Mica e abbine molta cura e saluta mio padre
fa come dice lui. Vi bacia Božidar".
E' conservato, con altri, nel Museo Civico della città.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
L'articolo che segue e' tratto da "Storia Illustrata" del gennaio 1979.
E' stato trovato per caso in una vecchia collezione della rivista.
Ricordiamo che la citta' di Kragujevac e' stata soggetta nella primavera
del 1999 a bombardamenti da parte di aerei della NATO (forse anche
tedeschi!), che hanno colpito tra l'altro gli impianti della fabbrica di
auto Zastava e decine di operai che li presidiavano, nonche' gli stessi
edifici del museo-memoriale della strage nazista di cui si racconta qui
sotto.
Ringraziamo vivamente Giorgio di Trieste per la trascrizione.
Per il grande interesse dell'argomento trattato, ne alleghiamo una
versione in formato Word per facilitarne la lettura e la diffusione a
chi usa Windows.
---
38 anni fa a Kragujevac
STERMINIO NAZISTA IN SERBIA
In un solo giorno 7300 morti nella città martire. E' l'autunno del 1941.
Pochi mesi dopo la dissoluzione del regno di Jugoslavia, la penisola
balcanica è insorta contro l'occupante nazifascista. Alla rivolta
partigiana i tedeschi rispondono facendo strage della popolazione
civile.
(di ANTONIO PITAMITZ)
Il 20 ottobre 1941, sei mesi dopo l'invasione tedesca della Jugoslavia,
nei due Ginnasi di Kragujevac (leggi Kragujevaz), la città serba posta
nel centro della regione della Šumadija, le lezioni iniziano alle 8.30,
come di consueto. Sono in programma quel giorno la sintassi della lingua
serbocroata, matematica, la poesia di Goethe, la fisica. In una classe,
un professore croato, un profugo fuggito dal regime fascista instaurato
in Croazia da Ante Pavelic, sottolinea il valore della libertà. Poco
lontano, un altro spiega l'opera di un poeta serbo del romanticismo
risorgimentale. La mente rivolta alle secolari lotte sostenute dai serbi
per la loro indipendenza e a quella presente che cresce
irresistibilmente, anch'egli parla di libertà. La voce calma e profonda
che illustra i versi del poeta: "La libertà è un nettare che inebria /
Io la bevvi perché avevo sete", ne nasconde a fatica la tensione, che
aleggia anche nell'aula, che grava su tutti, sulla cittadina, sui suoi
abitanti, e che l'eco strozzata di fucilerie lontane da alcuni giorni
alimenta.
Dal 13 ottobre 1941 Kragujevac e la sua regione sono teatro di una vasta
azione di rappresaglia, che i tedeschi stanno conducendo con spietata
decisione contemporaneamente anche nel resto della Serbia. La ferocia di
cui essi in quei giorni danno prova ha una ragione specifica
contingente. La rapida vittoria dell'Asse ha dissolto uno Stato, il
regno dei Karadjeordjevic, ma non ha prostrato i popoli della
Jugoslavia. L'illusione tedesca di una comoda permanenza in quella terra
è stata presto delusa. Sin dai primi giorni dell'occupazione, i tedeschi
hanno avuto filo da torcere. La guerra, che anche in Šumadija i
resistenti fanno, è senza quartiere. Sabotaggi sensazionali e diversioni
in grande stile si registrano sin dal mese di maggio. Linee telefoniche
e telegrafiche vengono tagliate, ponti e strade ferrate saltano. Il
movimento di resistenza cresce così rapidamente, ben presto è così ampio
che i tedeschi e le truppe collaborazioniste del quisling serbo Milan
Nedic abbandonano il presidio dei villaggi. Gli invasori si sentono
troppo esposti, isolati, preferiscono arroccarsi in città. La lotta
contro i patrioti la organizzano dai centri urbani, e la conducono
secondo il metro nazista che misura in tutti gli slavi una razza
inferiore, da sterminare. La traduzione pratica di questo principio è
all'altezza della fama che si guadagnano. A Belgrado, una moto
incendiata della Wehrmacht vale la vita di 122 serbi. Solo nella
capitale, in sette mesi fucilano 4700 ostaggi.
Incredibilmente, gli hitleriani ritengono di poter coprire con la
propaganda questo pugno di ferro che calano sul paese. Le argomentazioni
che diffondono sono quelle care alla "dottrina" nazifascista dell'Ordine
Nuovo Europeo. Ai contadini serbi dicono di averli salvati dagli ebrei e
dai capitalisti, e promettono anche di salvarli dal bolscevismo semita,
che sta per essere sicuramente sconfitto sul fronte orientale.
L'itinerario di questa vittoria, a Kragujevac può essere seguito sulla
grande carta geografica che campeggia nel centro della città. Una croce
uncinata segna la progressione delle forze dell'Asse in direzione di
Mosca. Però, come altrove, nemmeno a Kragujevac terrore, repressione,
lusinghe, denaro fatto circolare per corrompere, valgono a indebolire il
sostegno alla lotta partigiana, a ridurne il seguito. A dare contorni
netti alla situazione, le risposte alla propaganda tedesca non mancano.
La carta geografica dell'Asse viene bruciata in pieno giorno. Il fuoco
divora anche una delle fabbriche militari della città. Un treno di
quaranta vagoni viene distrutto sulla linea Kragujevac-Kraljevo,
provocando la morte di cinquanta tedeschi. Da vincitori e occupanti, i
tedeschi si trovano nella condizione di assediati.
E' Kragujevac, città da sempre ribelle, che prende il suo nome da
kraguj, dal rapace grifone che popolava i sui boschi, che alimenta la
Resistenza della zona. E' questa città di antiche tradizioni nazionali e
socialiste che guida la lotta della Šumadija, il cuore della Serbia. Gli
operai comunisti che costituiscono il nerbo delle formazioni partigiane
vengono dal suo arsenale militare. Dalle sue case dai cento nascondigli,
che hanno già ingannato turchi e austroungarici, escono le armi, le
munizioni, il materiale sanitario, i libri che donne, bambini e ragazzi
portano quotidianamente ai combattenti del bosco.
Per contenere la sua iniziativa, per fronteggiare questa lotta di bande,
che è lotta di popolo e che sconvolge gli schemi bellici dei signori
nazisti della guerra, già alla fine dell'agosto 1941 Kragujevac conta la
guarnigione tedesca più forte di tutta la Serbia centrale. Ma i due
battaglioni e i mezzi corazzati di cui i tedeschi dispongono non sono
sufficienti ad arrestare lo slancio delle tre compagnie partigiane che
operano fuori della città. Né tantomeno la Gestapo è in grado di
bloccare i gruppi clandestini che si annidano dentro. La loro azione
anzi si fa sempre più audace, punta sul risultato militare, ma ricerca
anche l'effetto psicologico. Per i partigiani, importante è non soltanto
colpire il nemico, ma aiutare anche i serbi oppressi a sperare, a
vivere. Una notte d'agosto, cento metri di ferrovia vengono fatti
saltare in città, proprio sotto il naso dei tedeschi.
E' una sfida, che ha sapore di beffa. In questa situazione, la rabbia e
il desiderio di vendetta dei tedeschi crescono quotidianamente. Quando
nel settembre 1941, la ribellione guadagna tutta la Serbia, e
conseguentemente mette radici ancora più profonde in Šumadija, il
generale Boehme, comandante delle forze tedesche nel Paese, considera
che la misura è colma. Il prestigio dei suoi soldati deve essere
risollevato, una dura lezione deve essere somministrata ai serbi. Una
spietata repressione, da condurre senza esitazione, è decisa. A rendere
più chiara la direttiva che passa ai subalterni, e che precisa la
"filosofia" del comando tedesco, Boehme ricorda che "una vita umana non
vale nulla", e che perciò per intimidire bisogna ricorrere a una
"crudeltà senza eguali". A metà settembre i tedeschi passano all'azione.
La macchina si mette in moto.
Per un mese la Serbia centrale è trasformata in un campo di sterminio. A
decine villaggi grandi e piccoli sono bruciati, spesso, come a Novo
Mesto o a Debrc, con dentro gli abitanti. I serbi muoiono a migliaia,
uccisi, massacrati. A Šabac, il 26 settembre, sono 3000 gli uomini dai
14 ai 70 anni che rimangono vittime della razzia tedesca. Cinquecento
muoiono durante una marcia fatta fare al passo di corsa per 46
chilometri. Gli altri sono fucilati. Una sorte analoga hanno, il 10
ottobre, a Valjevo, 2200 ostaggi: finiscono al muro. "Pagano" 10
tedeschi uccisi e 24 feriti. Cinque giorni dopo, il 15, è "sentenziata"
la punizione di Kraljevo, un'altra città che resiste. I plotoni di
esecuzione lavorano per cinque giorni, le vittime sono 5000. Sembra
impossibile immaginare una strage ancora più grande. Eppure,
l'allucinante escalation non ha toccato la sua punta di massimo orrore.
Lo farà a Kragujevac, e nel suo circondario. La "spedizione punitiva"
comincia il 13 ottobre. Quel giorno, nel quartiere operaio di
Kragujevac, i tedeschi prendono 30 uomini. Per 3 giorni se li trascinano
dietro nella puntata che fanno contro il paese vicino, Gornji Milanovac.
Affamati, percossi, costretti a rimuovere tronchi d'albero e a tirare
fuori dal fango carri armati, adoperati come scudo contro i partigiani,
sono testimoni della sorte del piccolo paese di pastori. Vivono
un'agonia che ha fine solo con il grande massacro, nel quale scompaiono
anche i 132 ostaggi di Gornji Milanovac. In quanto al paese, anche
questo viene bruciato. I tedeschi saldano così un vecchio conto che
avevano in sospeso. Anche per questa impresa però devono pagare uno
scotto. Trentasei uomini vengono messi fuori combattimento dai
partigiani, che attaccano senza sosta.
Di fronte a questo "smacco" la logica tedesca della ritorsione non tarda
a scattare. Sarà Kragujevac a pagare, con la vita di 100 cittadini ogni
tedesco morto, e con quella di 50 ogni tedesco ferito. Duemilatrecento
persone sono condannate a morte.
La rappresaglia punta per primo sui "nemici storici" del Reich:
comunisti e ebrei. Gli ebrei maschi, e un certo numero di comunisti, 66
persone in tutto, vengono arrestati sulla base delle liste che i
collaborazionisti forniscono. Ma questo non basta. Il giorno
successivo, il 19 ottobre, una massiccia operazione ha luogo
nell'immediata periferia della città. Tre paesi, posti nel giro di tre
chilometri, sono travolti della furia tedesca. Grošnica, Meckovac,
Maršic bruciano, 423 uomini muoiono. A Meckovac, donne e bambini sono
costretti ad assistere all'esecuzione. Lo stesso macabro rituale è
imposto a Grošnica, dove si distinguono i Volontari Anticomunisti di
Dimitrjie Ljotic. Il paese quel giorno celebra la festa del patrono. I
fascisti serbi strappano il pope dell'altare con il vangelo ancora in
mano, i fedeli vanno a morire stringendo i pani benedetti della
comunione ortodossa. Vengono falciati tutti lì vicino, con le
mitragliatrici. Così, intorno a Kragujevac si è fatto un cerchio di
morte. La prova generale è compiuta. Ora si passa al "grande massacro".
L'azione inizia la mattina del 20 ottobre. Alle prime luci dell'alba,
gli accessi a Kragujevac vengono bloccati. Mitragliatrici sono postate
nei punti nevralgici. Nessuno può più uscire dalla città, nessuno può
più entrarvi. Chi, ignorando il dispositivo, si avvicina, viene ucciso.
E' quanto accade a uno zingaro, che arriva dalla campagna, a un vecchio
che in città muove verso il mercato. Agli ordini del maggiore Koenig,
tedeschi e collaborazionisti aprono la caccia all'uomo. Nessuno sfugge,
nessuno è "dimenticato". Il gruppo di operai che lavora tranquillamente
a un torrente, i tre popi di una chiesa, che sperano di trovare la
salvezza dietro le icone. I razziatori entrano a stanare ovunque. Gli
impiegati sono portati fuori dal municipio; giudici, scrivani, pubblico,
dal tribunale. Dalle abitazioni vengono tratti anche gli ammalati. Un
barbiere è prelevato dal negozio insieme al suo cliente, che con altri
disgraziati marcia verso il suo destino, una guancia insaponata, l'altra
no.
Alle dieci i tedeschi irrompono anche nei due ginnasi. L'apparizione di
quelle uniformi verdi armate di fucili e parabellum, infrange la
normalità forzata che da tre giorni nelle due scuole vige. Il barone
Bischofhausen, il comandante tedesco della piazza, il 17 ha minacciato
presidi, professori e genitori di severe sanzioni se i ragazzi non
frequentavano la scuola. Lo ha fatto ripetere anche per le vie della
città, a suon di tamburo, dal banditore pubblico. Li vuole tutti in
aula, sempre. L'ufficiale tedesco, che da civile è insegnante, combatte
l'assenteismo degli studenti non certo perché mosso da passione
pedagogica. Chiedendo che proprio per quel giorno 20 tutti siano
presenti, egli fa apparire di voler esercitare un controllo; che però si
trasforma in una trappola. In realtà, egli non dimentica che i
ginnasiali di Kragujevac hanno manifestato sin dai primi giorni la più
violenta opposizione all'occupante. Un giovane è finito impiccato dopo
uno scontro con la polizia. Il barone sa pure che anche in quelle aule
la Resistenza attinge, per alimentare i suoi "gruppi d'azione", i suoi
propagandisti e sabotatori.
L'ispezione annunciata per quel giorno è arrivata. I registri chiesti
dal barone sono pronti. Arrivando quella mattina a scuola, i ragazzi
hanno cancellato i loro nomi dall'elenco. Precauzione inutile. Non c'è
appello. I tedeschi entrano direttamente nelle aule, e rastrellano.
Hinaus, fuori tutti quelli dai 16 anni in su. Anche il ragazzo invalido
che si trascina con la stampella, per il quale invano una professoressa
intercede. Anche la classe che il professore di tedesco tenta di
salvare. Ai soldati che si affacciano, il professore dice, per
rabbonirli, che stanno facendo lezione di tedesco. Mente. E mente una
seconda volta quando gli chiedono quanti anni hanno i suoi ragazzi.
Quindici dice. I tedeschi, convinti, fanno per andarsene. Ma in quel
momento un alunno si alza dall'ultimo banco. E' lo spilungone della
classe. I tedeschi, dalla soglia si girano, capiscono, e sbattono fuori
tutti.
I ginnasiali raggiungono le file dei razziati, i professori in testa.
Con loro, ci sono anche Mile Novakovic, insegnante di chimica, celibe, e
Djordje Stefanov, di letteratura croata, anche lui rifugiato in Serbia
con la moglie e le due figlie per sfuggire ai fascisti della Croazia.
Quel giorno i due professori non hanno lezione. Ma quando hanno visto
che in città i tedeschi rastrellavano, certi che la scuola non sarebbe
stata risparmiata, sono venuti lo stesso, per essere insieme ai loro
ragazzi. Li vogliono seguire fino in fondo. Andranno insieme a loro alla
fucilazione. Del corpo insegnante, solo le donne non sono razziate.
Dalle finestre della scuola vedono sfilare i professori e gli alunni, e
"cento berretti levarsi in segno di saluto" . I ragazzi credono ancora
che torneranno.
Pochi sono i fortunati che riescono a filtrare tra le maglie di quella
immensa rete gettata sulla città. Chi vi riesce, va a unirsi ai
partigiani. Avrà sicuramente qualcuno da vendicare. Gli altri, a
migliaia, ingrossano le colonne che tutto il giorno scorrono per
Kragujevac dirette ai luoghi di raccolta. I razziati sono quasi 10.000,
su meno di 30.000 abitanti che conta la città. I tedeschi non hanno
tralasciato nemmeno il carcere. Ultimi ad arrivare, quei detenuti sono,
con comunisti ed ebrei, i primi ad essere fucilati.
Dai luoghi dove sono concentrati in attesa di conoscere la loro sorte,
la sera di quel 20 ottobre i prigionieri sentono le prime scariche di
fucileria. E' l'avvio della grande carneficina. Contando sulla
sorpresa, e sulla iniziale "distrazione" dei fucilatori, alcuni dei
condannati riescono a salvarsi. Qualcuno fugge appena messo in riga.
Altri, come Životjin Jovanovic, alla scarica si getta a terra anche se
non è colpito, poi balza e corre. Viene ricatturato a un posto di
blocco. Tenta di nuovo la fuga, e il suo guardiano gli spara a
bruciapelo. Gli sfiora l'inguine. Poi dopo avergli dato il colpo di
grazia nella spalla invece che in testa, lo lascia a terra credendolo
morto. L'uomo striscia tutta la notte a palmo a palmo finché arriva alla
casa di un amico. E' soccorso, si crede in salvo. Arrivano i fascisti
serbi, che lo riprendono. Dopo averlo picchiato decidono che, essendo
ormai in fin di vita, tanto vale lasciarlo morire. Ma l'uomo non muore.
Altri ancora devono la vita alla fortuna, alla professione, al sangue
freddo che riescono ad avere anche in un tale frangente. A mano a mano
che inquadrano i gruppi per condurli alla fucilazione, i tedeschi fanno
la selezione. Alcuni criteri non sono molto chiari. Risparmiano, per
esempio, gli elettricisti, gli idraulici, i panettieri. Altri lo sono di
più. Ai loro collaboratori fascisti concedono di tirare fuori i loro
amici e parenti. In questo mercato i fascisti serbi sono generosi.
Arrivano a offrire dei ragazzi di 10/12 anni in cambio dei loro
protetti. Viene risparmiato anche chi è cittadino di un paese alleato
dell'Asse. O che lo faccia credere. Escono romeni, ungheresi. Un dalmata
si dichiara italiano. Forse lo è davvero, forse è solo un croato
acculturato italiano, bilingue. Ma riesce a salvarsi, e a salvare il
ragazzo che gli è accanto, affermando alla guardia, con la sua
"autorità" di "alleato", che non ha ancora 16 anni. Un serbo, invece,
mostra un certificato bulgaro qualunque, rilasciato dalle truppe di
Sofia che occupano il suo Paese di origine, e viene messo da parte.
Non fa nulla invece per salvarsi Jovan Kalafatic, professore, insegnante
di religione, che invece potrebbe. Tutti sanno che è un fascista
convinto. A scuola sospettano anche che sia un delatore, che alcuni
professori progressisti siano finiti in galera per opera sua. Basterebbe
che dica chi è. Kalafatic invece tace. Tace anche quando passano i
fascisti serbi per la "loro" selezione. Forse, nelle lunghe ore della
tragedia passate con il suo popolo, deve aver capito la vera natura
dell'Ordine Nuovo nel quale crede. Va, volontariamente, alla fucilazione
con gli altri. Vanno volontari anche due vecchi genitori che non
vogliono abbandonare i figli. Alla fucilazione vanno, divisi in due
gruppi, anche i 300 studenti ginnasiali e i loro professori. Alla testa
di un gruppo vi è il preside del ginnasio. L'altro gruppo marcia verso
la morte in fila indiana, le mani sulle spalle, come dovessero danzare
il kolo, la danza nazionale serba. Poi, cantano. Intonano "Hej
Slaveni!", l'inno antico e comune a tutti gli slavi. Cadono cantando.
Il massacro dura a lungo. Su un fronte di morte lungo oltre dieci
chilometri, fuori della città le armi crepitano fino alle 14 del giorno
21 ottobre. Settemilatrecento uomini di Kragujevac dai 16 ai 60 anni
cadono divisi in 33 gruppi. Dovevano essere 2300. I tedeschi hanno più
che triplicato il "coefficiente dichiarato" di rappresaglia. I graziati
sono circa 3000. Molti di questi sopravvissuti rientreranno a piangere
un morto. Kragujevac onora la memoria dei suoi fucilati il sabato
successivo al massacro. Il rito ortodosso per il quale il sabato è il
giorno dei morti, vuole anche che per ogni morto sia accesa una candela
gialla e per ogni candela, cui si accompagna un pane che è da benedire
con il vino santo, il pope reciti la parola dei defunti. I sacerdoti
rimasti a Kragujevac sono solo due. Altri sette sono stati fucilati. Ma
il rito deve essere compiuto. Mentre le donne piantano le candele,
presentano i pani, gridano il nome del defunto, i due preti cantano
l'antica preghiera della liturgia veteroslava. Dandosi il cambio pregano
per ventiquattro ore, dalle sette alle sette.
Inutilmente i nazisti tentano poi di nascondere la verità sulla strage,
alterando registri, imbrogliando le cifre, esumando e cremando cadaveri.
Kragujevac ha fatto il "suo" appello. E' la prova che Životjin
Jovanovic, l'uomo sopravvissuto tre volte, porta ai giudici di
Norimberga: "...Quell'ottobre del 1941 a Kragujevac furono esposte più
di settemila bandiere nere... nella chiesa vennero presentati e
benedetti in un giorno più di settemila pani... E furono accese
settemila e trecento candele...".
Antonio Pitamitz
DIDASCALIE DELLE FOTO
Pagg. 100 - 101
Il massacro della popolazione di Macva, località nei pressi di Šabac. E'
una delle stragi che precedono lo sterminio di Kragujevac.
A destra, sopra e sotto: gli uomini di Kragujevac vengono razziati e
condotti ai centri di raccolta.
Pag. 102
Kragujevac, 22 ottobre 1941: un gruppo di ostaggi prima di essere
fucilati.
A destra: alcune vittime della strage. L'uccisione di 7300 uomini si
compie su un fronte di oltre 10 chilometri. Tra le vittime ci sono anche
300 ginnasiali.
Životjin Jovanovic, l'uomo messo al muro tre volte.
Pag. 103
Cadaveri di fucilati. I tedeschi scattarono alcune foto del massacro.
Questa qui sotto, fu trovata addosso a un ufficiale SS ucciso
successivamente in uno scontro con i partigiani della regione: come le
altre era esattamente datata.
Ljubiša Jovanovic, uno degli studenti periti a Kragujevac.
Pag. 104
L'ultimo messaggio di Božidar Nikolic, una delle vittime di Kragujevac:
"Cara Borika, abbi cura di Mica e abbine molta cura e saluta mio padre
fa come dice lui. Vi bacia Božidar".
E' conservato, con altri, nel Museo Civico della città.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
LA ALBRIGHT PREMIATA IN CROAZIA
La nuova Croazia "per bene" ha premiato uno dei suoi sponsor principali,
Madeleine Albright, con una onoreficenza. Il premio, consegnatole dal
presidente Mesic in persona - ultranazionalista co-fondatore dell'HDZ
oggi spacciato per esempio fulgido di democrazia - e' dedicato ad una
regina del decimo secolo, definita "la mamma del regno croato e delle
povere mamme vedove". Niente di piu' azzeccato per la Albright, che con
le sue iniziative diplomatiche ha reso vedove e disperate piu' mamme di
chiunque altro.
(Per il passato familiare della Albright, criminale di guerra che a sua
volta viene da una famiglia di ladri di opere d'arte, si veda anche:
http://www.marx2001.org/nuovaunita/jugo/crj/m_l/280699a.htm )
> Albright sash fantasy becomes reality with presentation of
> Croatian award
>
> WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (AFP) - A childhood fantasy of US Secretary of
> State Madeleine Albright came true Wednesday when Croatia bestowed
> upon her a prestigious award replete with a traditional diplomatic
> sash.
> Albright, whose diplomat father was a senior official in the
> Czech Foreign Ministry, said receiving the "Badge of the Order of
> Queen Jelena with Sash and Star," Croatia's second highest honor,
> fulfilled one of her youthful dreams.
> "I can honestly tell you that as the daughter of a diplomat I
> used to pretend that I could wear sashes," Albright said after being
> presented with the award by visiting Croatian President Stipe Mesic,
> who draped the red, blue and white fabric over the secretary's
> shoulder.
> "But I never dreamed that I could have a real one with stars and
> one of this magnitude," she said, after striking a defiant pose to
> laughter from US and Croat officials gathered at the State
> Department for the presentation.
> Mesic said the award, named in honor of the 10th century queen
> known as "The Mother of the Croatian Kingdom and Poor, Widowed
> Mothers," had been given to Albright for her support of Croatia and
> democracy and rule of law there and in the Balkans.
> In addition to presenting the badge with sash and star to
> Albright, Mesic also awarded junior rank badges to Leon Fuerth,
> Vice-President Al Gore's national security adviser and Capricia
> Panavic Marshall, a White House social secretary of Croatian
> descent, for their contributions to improving relations between
> Washington and Zagreb.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
La nuova Croazia "per bene" ha premiato uno dei suoi sponsor principali,
Madeleine Albright, con una onoreficenza. Il premio, consegnatole dal
presidente Mesic in persona - ultranazionalista co-fondatore dell'HDZ
oggi spacciato per esempio fulgido di democrazia - e' dedicato ad una
regina del decimo secolo, definita "la mamma del regno croato e delle
povere mamme vedove". Niente di piu' azzeccato per la Albright, che con
le sue iniziative diplomatiche ha reso vedove e disperate piu' mamme di
chiunque altro.
(Per il passato familiare della Albright, criminale di guerra che a sua
volta viene da una famiglia di ladri di opere d'arte, si veda anche:
http://www.marx2001.org/nuovaunita/jugo/crj/m_l/280699a.htm )
> Albright sash fantasy becomes reality with presentation of
> Croatian award
>
> WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (AFP) - A childhood fantasy of US Secretary of
> State Madeleine Albright came true Wednesday when Croatia bestowed
> upon her a prestigious award replete with a traditional diplomatic
> sash.
> Albright, whose diplomat father was a senior official in the
> Czech Foreign Ministry, said receiving the "Badge of the Order of
> Queen Jelena with Sash and Star," Croatia's second highest honor,
> fulfilled one of her youthful dreams.
> "I can honestly tell you that as the daughter of a diplomat I
> used to pretend that I could wear sashes," Albright said after being
> presented with the award by visiting Croatian President Stipe Mesic,
> who draped the red, blue and white fabric over the secretary's
> shoulder.
> "But I never dreamed that I could have a real one with stars and
> one of this magnitude," she said, after striking a defiant pose to
> laughter from US and Croat officials gathered at the State
> Department for the presentation.
> Mesic said the award, named in honor of the 10th century queen
> known as "The Mother of the Croatian Kingdom and Poor, Widowed
> Mothers," had been given to Albright for her support of Croatia and
> democracy and rule of law there and in the Balkans.
> In addition to presenting the badge with sash and star to
> Albright, Mesic also awarded junior rank badges to Leon Fuerth,
> Vice-President Al Gore's national security adviser and Capricia
> Panavic Marshall, a White House social secretary of Croatian
> descent, for their contributions to improving relations between
> Washington and Zagreb.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
LE INCREDIBILI AVVENTURE DEL SIGNOR KOUCHNER (6)
Il capo della missione civile dell'ONU (UNMIK) in Kosmet Bernard
Kouchner, dovendo rilasciare una dichiarazione di circostanza per
l'ennesima bomba fatta scoppiare dai suoi alleati terroristi dell'UCK,
ha detto testualmente che "una bomba e' un mezzo molto antidemocratico".
Kouchner non ha tuttavia chiarito se questa bomba, che ha colpito gli
uffici di partiti politici delle minoranze kosovare (serbi, turchi,
eccetera), possa essere o meno definita "umanitaria".
Le altre puntate su:
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/400
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/292
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/231
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/219
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/218
> Explosion rocks center of Pristina
> 4.40 a.m. ET (853 GMT) August 18, 2000
>
> PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) — An explosion rocked the
> center of Kosovo's capital on Friday, damaging the
> offices of Serb, ethnic Albanian and other political
> parties all housed in one building.
>
> NATO officials said the blast appeared to have been
> caused by a bomb. One person suffered cuts and bruises
> and several others were in shock, said Flight Lt. Tim
> Serrell-Cooke, speaking for NATO peacekeepers.
>
> "It just exploded from the middle of nowhere, and we
> didn't know what hit us,'' said Linda Spahiu, who
> worked for the party representing Kosovo's Turkish
> minority, her face cut from the blast.
>
> The explosion shattered windowpanes in the vicinity.
> U.N. police and NATO peacekeepers cordoned off the
> area.
>
> The building was run by the Organization for Security
> and Cooperation in Europe. The OSCE is in charge of
> democracy building in the province, still wracked by
> ethnic hatreds and lawlessness more than a year after
> NATO bombing forced an end to the Serb crackdown on
> ethnic Albanians.
>
> Bernard Kouchner, Kosovo's chief U.N. administrator,
> said the bomb was planted by "enemies of democracy.''
>
> "A bomb is a very undemocratic means'' of expressing
> an opinion, he told reporters at the scene.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Il capo della missione civile dell'ONU (UNMIK) in Kosmet Bernard
Kouchner, dovendo rilasciare una dichiarazione di circostanza per
l'ennesima bomba fatta scoppiare dai suoi alleati terroristi dell'UCK,
ha detto testualmente che "una bomba e' un mezzo molto antidemocratico".
Kouchner non ha tuttavia chiarito se questa bomba, che ha colpito gli
uffici di partiti politici delle minoranze kosovare (serbi, turchi,
eccetera), possa essere o meno definita "umanitaria".
Le altre puntate su:
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/400
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/292
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/231
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/219
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/218
> Explosion rocks center of Pristina
> 4.40 a.m. ET (853 GMT) August 18, 2000
>
> PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) — An explosion rocked the
> center of Kosovo's capital on Friday, damaging the
> offices of Serb, ethnic Albanian and other political
> parties all housed in one building.
>
> NATO officials said the blast appeared to have been
> caused by a bomb. One person suffered cuts and bruises
> and several others were in shock, said Flight Lt. Tim
> Serrell-Cooke, speaking for NATO peacekeepers.
>
> "It just exploded from the middle of nowhere, and we
> didn't know what hit us,'' said Linda Spahiu, who
> worked for the party representing Kosovo's Turkish
> minority, her face cut from the blast.
>
> The explosion shattered windowpanes in the vicinity.
> U.N. police and NATO peacekeepers cordoned off the
> area.
>
> The building was run by the Organization for Security
> and Cooperation in Europe. The OSCE is in charge of
> democracy building in the province, still wracked by
> ethnic hatreds and lawlessness more than a year after
> NATO bombing forced an end to the Serb crackdown on
> ethnic Albanians.
>
> Bernard Kouchner, Kosovo's chief U.N. administrator,
> said the bomb was planted by "enemies of democracy.''
>
> "A bomb is a very undemocratic means'' of expressing
> an opinion, he told reporters at the scene.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
LA GUERRA IMPERIALISTA COME
PROBLEMA DI "ORDINE PUBBLICO" OVVERO
"PRONTO SOCCORSO UMANITARIO"
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 10:35:18 +0200
> From: G.A.V.C.I. - Segreteria Nazionale <gavci@...>
> Reply-To: pck-pace@...
> Subject: [iso-8859-1] "La guerra giusta? Non esiste più"
> Resent-Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 13:07:37 +0200
> Resent-From: pck-pace@...
>
> "La guerra giusta? Non esiste più"
>
> Ho letto con curiosità e gioia, ma anche, per il vero, con qualche
> perplessità, l'informazione "La guerra giusta? Non esiste più" circa il
> convegno "Guerra e pace nel XXI secolo", organizzato dall'Ordinariato
> Militare e dal Forum di Relazioni Internazionali (Avvenire, 13.7.2000, p.
> 23), cui hanno partecipato il card. Martini e l'ammiraglio G. Venturoni.
> Ho goduto delle affermazioni del cardinale. In particolare: "Non bisogna
> arrendersi mai all'inevitabilità della guerra... Occorre ripensare l'idea
> stessa di nazione e superare il concetto della sovranità degli Stati,
> lasciandosi guidare dal concetto di <famiglia delle nazioni>".
> Mi è piaciuta anche la schiettezza dell'ammiraglio Venturoni circa le
> cosiddette <guerre umanitarie>: "Sebbene limitati negli scopi, selettivi
> nelle modalità, posti sotto uno stringente controllo politico e al giudizio
> della pubblica opinione, non illudiamoci che gli interventi possano essere
> indolori".
> La perplessità riguarda invece la riaffermata necessità dell'intervento
> armato, sottintendendo l'invio dell'esercito per scopi di pace o azioni di
> polizia internazionale. Occorre, secondo me, distinguere nettamente, tra
> esercito-guerra (<uso omicida della forza>) e polizia-azione di polizia
> (<uso non omicida della forza>). Il gen. Bruno Loi, che di tali interventi
> se ne intendeva, ha scritto e mi ha confermato a voce: "Non si possono
> mandare gli eserciti a fare azioni di polizia internazionale".
> Inoltre, condivido pienamente quanto scritto, fra l'altro, dal vescovo
> Diego Bona presidente di Pax Christi nella recente <lettera aperta ai
> politici italiani> (14.7.2000): "Gli interventi <umanitari> o <missioni di
> pace> nelle zone di conflitto debbono essere condotti rigorosamente sotto la
> responsabilità dell'ONU", una ONU evidentemente riformata, democratizzata e
> rafforzata, ciò che mi sembra auspichi anche il card. Martini.
> La prospettiva giusta è indicata nel Catechismo CEI "La verità vi farà
> liberi": "Abolire la guerra... Si dovrebbe togliere agli Stati il diritto di
> farsi giustizia da soli con la forza, come già è stato tolto ai privati
> cittadini e alle comunità intermedie... Appare urgente promuovere
> nell'opinione pubblica il ricorso a forme di difesa nonviolenta. Ugualmente
> meritano sostegno le proposte tendenti a cambiare struttura e formazione
> dell'esercito per assimilarlo a un corpo di polizia internazionale" (pp.
> 493-494).
> Occorre, come ha detto il card. Martini, "non arrendersi mai alla
> inevitabilità della guerra". Mai vuol dire mai. Quindi non c'è più posto per
> ipotesi di guerre giuste.
>
> p. Angelo Cavagna
> Lettera pubblicata su AVVENIRE il 25 luglio 2000
>
> ---
> Gruppo Autonomo di Volontariato Civile in Italia
> Sede Centrale: "Villa Tamba" - Via della Selva Pescarola, 26
> 40131 Bologna - Italy - Tel. e Fax +39.51.6344671
> e-mail: gavci@...
> web: http://www.peacelink.it/users/gavci
> Appello Urgente e Sciopero della Fame: "Fermiamo la guerra in Cecenia !!!"
> http://www.peacelink.it/users/gavci/news/news.htm
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
PROBLEMA DI "ORDINE PUBBLICO" OVVERO
"PRONTO SOCCORSO UMANITARIO"
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 10:35:18 +0200
> From: G.A.V.C.I. - Segreteria Nazionale <gavci@...>
> Reply-To: pck-pace@...
> Subject: [iso-8859-1] "La guerra giusta? Non esiste più"
> Resent-Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 13:07:37 +0200
> Resent-From: pck-pace@...
>
> "La guerra giusta? Non esiste più"
>
> Ho letto con curiosità e gioia, ma anche, per il vero, con qualche
> perplessità, l'informazione "La guerra giusta? Non esiste più" circa il
> convegno "Guerra e pace nel XXI secolo", organizzato dall'Ordinariato
> Militare e dal Forum di Relazioni Internazionali (Avvenire, 13.7.2000, p.
> 23), cui hanno partecipato il card. Martini e l'ammiraglio G. Venturoni.
> Ho goduto delle affermazioni del cardinale. In particolare: "Non bisogna
> arrendersi mai all'inevitabilità della guerra... Occorre ripensare l'idea
> stessa di nazione e superare il concetto della sovranità degli Stati,
> lasciandosi guidare dal concetto di <famiglia delle nazioni>".
> Mi è piaciuta anche la schiettezza dell'ammiraglio Venturoni circa le
> cosiddette <guerre umanitarie>: "Sebbene limitati negli scopi, selettivi
> nelle modalità, posti sotto uno stringente controllo politico e al giudizio
> della pubblica opinione, non illudiamoci che gli interventi possano essere
> indolori".
> La perplessità riguarda invece la riaffermata necessità dell'intervento
> armato, sottintendendo l'invio dell'esercito per scopi di pace o azioni di
> polizia internazionale. Occorre, secondo me, distinguere nettamente, tra
> esercito-guerra (<uso omicida della forza>) e polizia-azione di polizia
> (<uso non omicida della forza>). Il gen. Bruno Loi, che di tali interventi
> se ne intendeva, ha scritto e mi ha confermato a voce: "Non si possono
> mandare gli eserciti a fare azioni di polizia internazionale".
> Inoltre, condivido pienamente quanto scritto, fra l'altro, dal vescovo
> Diego Bona presidente di Pax Christi nella recente <lettera aperta ai
> politici italiani> (14.7.2000): "Gli interventi <umanitari> o <missioni di
> pace> nelle zone di conflitto debbono essere condotti rigorosamente sotto la
> responsabilità dell'ONU", una ONU evidentemente riformata, democratizzata e
> rafforzata, ciò che mi sembra auspichi anche il card. Martini.
> La prospettiva giusta è indicata nel Catechismo CEI "La verità vi farà
> liberi": "Abolire la guerra... Si dovrebbe togliere agli Stati il diritto di
> farsi giustizia da soli con la forza, come già è stato tolto ai privati
> cittadini e alle comunità intermedie... Appare urgente promuovere
> nell'opinione pubblica il ricorso a forme di difesa nonviolenta. Ugualmente
> meritano sostegno le proposte tendenti a cambiare struttura e formazione
> dell'esercito per assimilarlo a un corpo di polizia internazionale" (pp.
> 493-494).
> Occorre, come ha detto il card. Martini, "non arrendersi mai alla
> inevitabilità della guerra". Mai vuol dire mai. Quindi non c'è più posto per
> ipotesi di guerre giuste.
>
> p. Angelo Cavagna
> Lettera pubblicata su AVVENIRE il 25 luglio 2000
>
> ---
> Gruppo Autonomo di Volontariato Civile in Italia
> Sede Centrale: "Villa Tamba" - Via della Selva Pescarola, 26
> 40131 Bologna - Italy - Tel. e Fax +39.51.6344671
> e-mail: gavci@...
> web: http://www.peacelink.it/users/gavci
> Appello Urgente e Sciopero della Fame: "Fermiamo la guerra in Cecenia !!!"
> http://www.peacelink.it/users/gavci/news/news.htm
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Talijanski Savez "ZIVIET CE JUGOSLAVIJA" - Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
Embargo ubija, poput bombi, uranijuma, ravnodusnosti!
RAZBIJMO EMBARGO PROTIV JUGOSLAVIJE!
Namjerom da nametne svoju kolonijalnu vlast na Balkanu, besramnim
izgovorima, nazvanim "humanitarnima", SAD i NATO su napale Jugoslaviju,
suverenu drzavu, koja ne zeli prihvatiti recepte Medjunarodnog
Monetarnog Fonda.
Jugoslavija je najprije bila izlozena osmogodisnjim sankcijama a
potom je bombardirana od SAD i EZ. Unisteno su tvornice, mostovi,
elektricne centrale, skole, bolnice, kuce, dok zbog zagadnjenja zraka,
vode, poljoprivrednog zemljista, ima sve vise psihickih poremecenja
i teskih bolesti koje prije svega pogadjaju najslabije, pocev od djece.
Stanovnistvo Jugoslavije kao i Iraka, osim sto je pogodjeno efektima
novog posubnog oruzija masovnog ubijanja, jos je uvjek podvrgnuto
gnusnim embargom kojim se uskracuju najnusnija sredstva za zivot.
Taj embargo predstavlja jedinstveni ratni cin kojemu je cilj upravo
predaja jugoslavenskog naroda, primoran politickom opredeljenju po
diktatu Novog svjetskog porekta SAD - NATO.
Protiv strateske dezinformacije, kriminalnog ucesca talijanske vlade
vojnim bazama, ljudima i sredstvima rata, u agresiji prije, a zatim
u okupaciji Kosova, nasuprot dvosmislene ljevice i "pacifistickih"
pokreta, mnogi komiteti protiv rata, drustva za solidarnost s
jugoslavenskim narodom, osnovali su:
NACIONALNI SAVEZ "ZIVJET CE JUGOSLAVIJA!"
Branimo teritorijalni integritet i multinacionalnost
Federativne Republike Jugoslavije!
Dosta sa agresijama protiv zemalja koje se ne zele podrediti
novom svjetskom poretku!
ZIVJET CE JUGOSLAVIJA!
Kordinacioni nacionalni savez vas poziva da ucestvujete u slijedecim
inicijativama protiv embarga:
- pocev od septembra, na skupove gradjana protiv dezinformacija i
skupljanje materijala za Jugoslaviju (lijekova, namirnica, i ostale
robe koja je pod embargom);
- 21. i 22. oktobra, internacionalni dani protiv embarga i NATO-a;
- pocetkom novembra, polazak broda solidarnosti protiv svih embarga
iz luke Bari prema Crnoj Gori s produzenjem karavane do Beograda.
---
Coordinamento nazionale "LA JUGOSLAVIA VIVRA'" - Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
L'embargo uccide come le bombe, come l'uranio, come l'indifferenza!
Rompiamo l'embargo contro la Jugoslavia!
Con pretesti vergognosamente definiti "umanitari" gli USA e la NATO
hanno aggredito la Jugoslavia, paese sovrano non disposto ad accettare
le ricette del Fondo Monetario Internazionale, allo scopo di imporre il
proprio dominio coloniale sui Balcani.
La Jugoslavia e' stata prima sottoposta, da USA ed Unione Europea, ad
otto anni di sanzioni economiche ed infine bombardata.
Fabbriche, ponti, centrali elettriche, scuole, ospedali ed abitazioni
civili sono stati distrutti, mentre a causa dell'inquinamento di aria,
acque e terreni agricoli c'e' una crescente diffusione di turbe
psichiche e gravi malattie che colpiscono particolarmente i piu' deboli,
ad iniziare dai bambini.
La popolazione jugoslava, come quella irachena, oltre ad aver subito gli
effetti di nuove micidiali armi di distruzione di massa, sta tuttora
scontando un infame embargo che la priva di beni e strumenti
indispensabili alla propria sopravvivenza.
Questo embargo rappresenta un vero e proprio atto di guerra il cui fine
e' quello di ottenere la resa dei cittadini jugoslavi costringendoli a
scelte politiche allineate ai diktat del nuovo ordine mondiale
dell'imperialismo USA-NATO.
Di fronte alla disinformazione strategica, alla criminale partecipazione
del governo italiano all'aggressione con basi militari, uomini e mezzi
per la guerra prima e per l'occupazione del Kosovo poi, all'ambiguita'
di parte della sinistra e dei movimenti pacifisti, molti comitati contro
la guerra ed associazioni di solidarieta' con il popolo jugoslavo si
sono costituiti nel
Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia vivra'"
Difendiamo l'integrita' territoriale e la multietnicita' della
Repubblica Federale di Jugoslavia!
Basta con le aggressioni contro gli stati che non si allineano al nuovo
ordine mondiale!
LA JUGOSLAVIA VIVRA'!
Il Coordinamento Nazionale invita ad aderire alle seguenti iniziative
per rompere l'embargo:
- A partire dall'inizio del mese di settembre, presidi cittadini di
controinformazione e raccolta di materiali (medicinali, viveri, beni
sottoposti a regime di embargo) per la Jugoslavia
- 21/22 ottobre, giornate internazionali di lotta contro l'embargo e la
NATO
- inizio novembre, partenza della nave di solidarieta' contro tutti gli
embarghi dal porto di Bari verso il Montenegro e prosecuzione della
carovana fino a Belgrado
---
Italienische Koordination "JUGOSLAWIEN MUSS LEBEN!"-
Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
Das Embargo tötet genauso, wie es Bomben, Uran und Gleichgültigkeit tun
Durchbrechen wir das Embargo gegen Jugoslawien!
Unter dem durchsichtigen Vorwand der „humanitären“ Notwendigkeit hat die
USA und die NATO Jugoslawien angegriffen, einen Staat, der nicht bereit
ist die Rezepte des IWF zu akzeptieren, der mit diesen eine koloniale
Herrschaft über den Balkan durchzusetzen versucht.
Jugoslawien wurde für über acht Jahre durch die USA und EU
wirtschaftlichen Sanktionen unterworfen und schließlich bombardiert.
Fabriken, Brücken, Kraftwerke, Schulen, Spitäler und Wohnhäuser wurden
zerstört. Luft, Wasser und Agrarland sind verschmutzt und die dadurch
verursachten Erkrankungen nehmen – insbesondere bei Kindern – rapide zu.
Die jugoslawische Bevölkerung ist ähnlich wie die irakische, nachdem sie
die Auswirkungen von neuen Massenvernichtungswaffen zu erleiden hatte,
mit einem teuflischen Embargo konfrontiert, das sie der elementarsten
Materialen und Instrumente zum simplen Überleben beraubt.
Das Embargo ist ein wirklicher Kriegsakt dessen Ziel die Kapitulation
der jugoslawischen Bevölkerung ist, der ein politischer Kurs im Sinne
des
Diktats der Neuen Weltordnung der USA und NATO aufgezwungen werden soll.
Angesichts der strategischen Desinformation, der kriminellen Teilnahme
der europäischen Regierungen an der Aggression durch die
Zur-Verfügung-Stellung von Militärstützpunkten, Menschen und Material
zuerst für den Krieg und nun für die Besetzung des Kosovo, sowie der
zwiespältigen Haltung der linken und der pazifistischen Bewegung, als
italienische Koordination "Jugoslawien muss leben!" lancieren wir die
folgende Initiative:
Verteidigen wir die territoriale Integrität und den multinationalen
Charakter der Bundesrepublik Jugoslawien!
Stoppt die Aggression gegen alle jene Staaten, die sich der Neuen
Weltordnung nicht unterordnen!
Jugoslawien muss leben!
Wir rufen zu folgenden Aktionen gegen das Embargo auf:
- Von September fangen wir mit einer Mobilitation an, um die
Desinformation zu bakaempfen und Hilfsgueter (von Artzneimitteln bis
Gueter die unter Embargo stehen) zu sammeln;
- 21./22. Oktober, internationale Aktionstage gegen das Embargo und die
NATO;
- Ein Boot der Solidarität gegen alle Embargos ausgehend von Italien,
gefolgt von einem Zug der Solidarität von Montenegro nach Belgrad.
Höhepunkt und Abschluss ist eine für November anberaumte
Solidaritätskonferenz in Belgrad.
---
Italian net "YUGOSLAVIA SHALL LIVE!" - Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
The embargo kills like bombs, and uranium, and indifference kills as
well
Break the embargo against Yugoslavia!
With the shameful pretext defined as “humanitarianism” the US and the
Nato
has attacked Yugoslavia, a sovereign country which is not ready to
accept the formula of the IMF which is trying to impose its colonial
dominion over the Balkans.
Yugoslavia has been subjugated to economic sanctions by the US and the
EU now for 8 years and was finally bombed.
Factories, bridges, electrical power stations, schools, hospitals and
residential homes have been destroyed, while air, water, agricultural
lands have been polluted causing increased illnesses of those who are
the weakest, especially affected are the children.
The Yugoslav population similar to that of Iraq now after having
suffered from terrible new arms of mass destruction is faced with a
vicious embargo that has deprived it of the indispensable materials and
instruments for its survival.
This embargo represents a real act of war whose aim is the capitulation
of the Yugoslav people in order to force them to a political course in
accordance to the dictate of the New World Order of US/NATO imperialism.
In the face of the strategic disinformation, of criminal participation
of the European governments at this aggression by putting at its
disposal military bases, men and instruments initially for this war and
later on for the occupation of Kosovo, and the ambiguity of the left and
the pacifist movements, as a net of many italian groups active in
solidarity with Yugoslavia we have decided to launch the following
initiative:
Defend the territorial integrity and the multinational character of the
federal Republic of Yugoslavia!
Stop the aggression against the states which refuse to be subjugated to
the New World Order!
Yugoslavia must live!
We call for the following international actions to break the embargo:
-· 21/22 October as an international action days against the embargo and
NATO;
-· A boat of solidarity against all embargos from Italy to Yugoslavia
followed by a solidarity train from Montenegro to Begrade culminating in
an international solidarity conference (planned for the beginning of
November)
Embargo ubija, poput bombi, uranijuma, ravnodusnosti!
RAZBIJMO EMBARGO PROTIV JUGOSLAVIJE!
Namjerom da nametne svoju kolonijalnu vlast na Balkanu, besramnim
izgovorima, nazvanim "humanitarnima", SAD i NATO su napale Jugoslaviju,
suverenu drzavu, koja ne zeli prihvatiti recepte Medjunarodnog
Monetarnog Fonda.
Jugoslavija je najprije bila izlozena osmogodisnjim sankcijama a
potom je bombardirana od SAD i EZ. Unisteno su tvornice, mostovi,
elektricne centrale, skole, bolnice, kuce, dok zbog zagadnjenja zraka,
vode, poljoprivrednog zemljista, ima sve vise psihickih poremecenja
i teskih bolesti koje prije svega pogadjaju najslabije, pocev od djece.
Stanovnistvo Jugoslavije kao i Iraka, osim sto je pogodjeno efektima
novog posubnog oruzija masovnog ubijanja, jos je uvjek podvrgnuto
gnusnim embargom kojim se uskracuju najnusnija sredstva za zivot.
Taj embargo predstavlja jedinstveni ratni cin kojemu je cilj upravo
predaja jugoslavenskog naroda, primoran politickom opredeljenju po
diktatu Novog svjetskog porekta SAD - NATO.
Protiv strateske dezinformacije, kriminalnog ucesca talijanske vlade
vojnim bazama, ljudima i sredstvima rata, u agresiji prije, a zatim
u okupaciji Kosova, nasuprot dvosmislene ljevice i "pacifistickih"
pokreta, mnogi komiteti protiv rata, drustva za solidarnost s
jugoslavenskim narodom, osnovali su:
NACIONALNI SAVEZ "ZIVJET CE JUGOSLAVIJA!"
Branimo teritorijalni integritet i multinacionalnost
Federativne Republike Jugoslavije!
Dosta sa agresijama protiv zemalja koje se ne zele podrediti
novom svjetskom poretku!
ZIVJET CE JUGOSLAVIJA!
Kordinacioni nacionalni savez vas poziva da ucestvujete u slijedecim
inicijativama protiv embarga:
- pocev od septembra, na skupove gradjana protiv dezinformacija i
skupljanje materijala za Jugoslaviju (lijekova, namirnica, i ostale
robe koja je pod embargom);
- 21. i 22. oktobra, internacionalni dani protiv embarga i NATO-a;
- pocetkom novembra, polazak broda solidarnosti protiv svih embarga
iz luke Bari prema Crnoj Gori s produzenjem karavane do Beograda.
---
Coordinamento nazionale "LA JUGOSLAVIA VIVRA'" - Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
L'embargo uccide come le bombe, come l'uranio, come l'indifferenza!
Rompiamo l'embargo contro la Jugoslavia!
Con pretesti vergognosamente definiti "umanitari" gli USA e la NATO
hanno aggredito la Jugoslavia, paese sovrano non disposto ad accettare
le ricette del Fondo Monetario Internazionale, allo scopo di imporre il
proprio dominio coloniale sui Balcani.
La Jugoslavia e' stata prima sottoposta, da USA ed Unione Europea, ad
otto anni di sanzioni economiche ed infine bombardata.
Fabbriche, ponti, centrali elettriche, scuole, ospedali ed abitazioni
civili sono stati distrutti, mentre a causa dell'inquinamento di aria,
acque e terreni agricoli c'e' una crescente diffusione di turbe
psichiche e gravi malattie che colpiscono particolarmente i piu' deboli,
ad iniziare dai bambini.
La popolazione jugoslava, come quella irachena, oltre ad aver subito gli
effetti di nuove micidiali armi di distruzione di massa, sta tuttora
scontando un infame embargo che la priva di beni e strumenti
indispensabili alla propria sopravvivenza.
Questo embargo rappresenta un vero e proprio atto di guerra il cui fine
e' quello di ottenere la resa dei cittadini jugoslavi costringendoli a
scelte politiche allineate ai diktat del nuovo ordine mondiale
dell'imperialismo USA-NATO.
Di fronte alla disinformazione strategica, alla criminale partecipazione
del governo italiano all'aggressione con basi militari, uomini e mezzi
per la guerra prima e per l'occupazione del Kosovo poi, all'ambiguita'
di parte della sinistra e dei movimenti pacifisti, molti comitati contro
la guerra ed associazioni di solidarieta' con il popolo jugoslavo si
sono costituiti nel
Coordinamento Nazionale "La Jugoslavia vivra'"
Difendiamo l'integrita' territoriale e la multietnicita' della
Repubblica Federale di Jugoslavia!
Basta con le aggressioni contro gli stati che non si allineano al nuovo
ordine mondiale!
LA JUGOSLAVIA VIVRA'!
Il Coordinamento Nazionale invita ad aderire alle seguenti iniziative
per rompere l'embargo:
- A partire dall'inizio del mese di settembre, presidi cittadini di
controinformazione e raccolta di materiali (medicinali, viveri, beni
sottoposti a regime di embargo) per la Jugoslavia
- 21/22 ottobre, giornate internazionali di lotta contro l'embargo e la
NATO
- inizio novembre, partenza della nave di solidarieta' contro tutti gli
embarghi dal porto di Bari verso il Montenegro e prosecuzione della
carovana fino a Belgrado
---
Italienische Koordination "JUGOSLAWIEN MUSS LEBEN!"-
Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
Das Embargo tötet genauso, wie es Bomben, Uran und Gleichgültigkeit tun
Durchbrechen wir das Embargo gegen Jugoslawien!
Unter dem durchsichtigen Vorwand der „humanitären“ Notwendigkeit hat die
USA und die NATO Jugoslawien angegriffen, einen Staat, der nicht bereit
ist die Rezepte des IWF zu akzeptieren, der mit diesen eine koloniale
Herrschaft über den Balkan durchzusetzen versucht.
Jugoslawien wurde für über acht Jahre durch die USA und EU
wirtschaftlichen Sanktionen unterworfen und schließlich bombardiert.
Fabriken, Brücken, Kraftwerke, Schulen, Spitäler und Wohnhäuser wurden
zerstört. Luft, Wasser und Agrarland sind verschmutzt und die dadurch
verursachten Erkrankungen nehmen – insbesondere bei Kindern – rapide zu.
Die jugoslawische Bevölkerung ist ähnlich wie die irakische, nachdem sie
die Auswirkungen von neuen Massenvernichtungswaffen zu erleiden hatte,
mit einem teuflischen Embargo konfrontiert, das sie der elementarsten
Materialen und Instrumente zum simplen Überleben beraubt.
Das Embargo ist ein wirklicher Kriegsakt dessen Ziel die Kapitulation
der jugoslawischen Bevölkerung ist, der ein politischer Kurs im Sinne
des
Diktats der Neuen Weltordnung der USA und NATO aufgezwungen werden soll.
Angesichts der strategischen Desinformation, der kriminellen Teilnahme
der europäischen Regierungen an der Aggression durch die
Zur-Verfügung-Stellung von Militärstützpunkten, Menschen und Material
zuerst für den Krieg und nun für die Besetzung des Kosovo, sowie der
zwiespältigen Haltung der linken und der pazifistischen Bewegung, als
italienische Koordination "Jugoslawien muss leben!" lancieren wir die
folgende Initiative:
Verteidigen wir die territoriale Integrität und den multinationalen
Charakter der Bundesrepublik Jugoslawien!
Stoppt die Aggression gegen alle jene Staaten, die sich der Neuen
Weltordnung nicht unterordnen!
Jugoslawien muss leben!
Wir rufen zu folgenden Aktionen gegen das Embargo auf:
- Von September fangen wir mit einer Mobilitation an, um die
Desinformation zu bakaempfen und Hilfsgueter (von Artzneimitteln bis
Gueter die unter Embargo stehen) zu sammeln;
- 21./22. Oktober, internationale Aktionstage gegen das Embargo und die
NATO;
- Ein Boot der Solidarität gegen alle Embargos ausgehend von Italien,
gefolgt von einem Zug der Solidarität von Montenegro nach Belgrad.
Höhepunkt und Abschluss ist eine für November anberaumte
Solidaritätskonferenz in Belgrad.
---
Italian net "YUGOSLAVIA SHALL LIVE!" - Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
The embargo kills like bombs, and uranium, and indifference kills as
well
Break the embargo against Yugoslavia!
With the shameful pretext defined as “humanitarianism” the US and the
Nato
has attacked Yugoslavia, a sovereign country which is not ready to
accept the formula of the IMF which is trying to impose its colonial
dominion over the Balkans.
Yugoslavia has been subjugated to economic sanctions by the US and the
EU now for 8 years and was finally bombed.
Factories, bridges, electrical power stations, schools, hospitals and
residential homes have been destroyed, while air, water, agricultural
lands have been polluted causing increased illnesses of those who are
the weakest, especially affected are the children.
The Yugoslav population similar to that of Iraq now after having
suffered from terrible new arms of mass destruction is faced with a
vicious embargo that has deprived it of the indispensable materials and
instruments for its survival.
This embargo represents a real act of war whose aim is the capitulation
of the Yugoslav people in order to force them to a political course in
accordance to the dictate of the New World Order of US/NATO imperialism.
In the face of the strategic disinformation, of criminal participation
of the European governments at this aggression by putting at its
disposal military bases, men and instruments initially for this war and
later on for the occupation of Kosovo, and the ambiguity of the left and
the pacifist movements, as a net of many italian groups active in
solidarity with Yugoslavia we have decided to launch the following
initiative:
Defend the territorial integrity and the multinational character of the
federal Republic of Yugoslavia!
Stop the aggression against the states which refuse to be subjugated to
the New World Order!
Yugoslavia must live!
We call for the following international actions to break the embargo:
-· 21/22 October as an international action days against the embargo and
NATO;
-· A boat of solidarity against all embargos from Italy to Yugoslavia
followed by a solidarity train from Montenegro to Begrade culminating in
an international solidarity conference (planned for the beginning of
November)
DUE O TRE ZERI DI TROPPO?
TANTO CHI VUOI CHE SI SCANDALIZZI, DOPO...
Con insano godimento, giornalisti, politici e militari dei paesi NATO
durante i bombardamenti della primavera 1999 hanno scatenato le loro
piu' turpi fantasie criminologiche per gonfiare l'entita' dei presunti
crimini di parte jugoslava.
Ma adesso che piu' di un anno e' passato, la NATO ammette ufficialmente
che il numero delle vittime della "repressione di Milosevic" in Kosmet
non e' 100mila, come raccontato all'epoca dai funzionari statunitensi,
ne' dell'ordine delle decine di migliaia, come fatto credere dai nostri
scribacchini, bensi' "tra due e tremila", delle quali peraltro non si sa
chi sarebbe stato ucciso da chi, chi e' slavo e chi albanese, ne' come
sarebbe stato ucciso (scontri tra esercito ed UCK? Liquidazioni
sommarie? Morte naturale?).
Anziche' mostrarsi imbarazzati per l'uso sfacciato della menzogna come
arma di guerra, i portavoce della NATO sono soddisfatti e con la solita
faccia tosta esclamano: "E' anche questa una nostra vittoria, perche'
vuol dire che siamo entrati in Kosovo presto, impedendo ai sub-umani
serbi di compiere altri massacri!"
> Figures put on Serb killings too high
> Special report: Kosovo
>
> Jonathan Steele
> Friday August 18, 2000
> The Guardian
>
> Nato officials conceded last night that their wartime
> estimates of the number of Kosovo Albanian civilians
> massacred by Serb forces might have been too high.
> They were reacting to findings by forensic experts for
> the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague who
> are preparing to complete their work in Kosovo after
> exhuming about 3,000 bodies.
>
> Not all of the dead can be proved to be victims of
> murder or execution.
>
> The war crimes teams have dug up 680 corpses this year
> at 150 sites. Added to the 2,108 found last year, the
> total is well below the murder estimates, ranging from
> 10,000 to 100,000, made during the war. Paul Risley,
> the Hague tribunal's press spokesman, said yesterday:
> "The final number of bodies uncovered will be less
> than 10,000 and probably more accurately determined as
> between two and three thousand."
>
> Nato's intervention against Yugoslavia was prompted by
> massive Serb offensives against Albanian villages in
> Kosovo, which caused hundreds of thousands of
> civilians to hide in forests or flee across the
> border. There were frequent killings of unarmed
> civilians.
>
> During the Nato airstrikes, when the Serbs restricted
> access to Kosovo, there was no way to verify atrocity
> reports. But Nato officials talked of 100,000 missing
> men and said at least 10,000 had been killed. Mark
> Laity, the acting Nato spokesman, said last night:
> "Nato never said the missing were all dead. The figure
> we stood by was 10,000. If it's wrong, I'm prepared to
> put up with a little bit of egg on our face if
> thousands are alive who were thought to be killed.
>
> He added: "Nato is always going to lose. If there were
> 100,000 dead we would be criticised for entering
> Kosovo late. If it's a few thousand, we're criticised
> because people say there wasn't a crisis."
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
TANTO CHI VUOI CHE SI SCANDALIZZI, DOPO...
Con insano godimento, giornalisti, politici e militari dei paesi NATO
durante i bombardamenti della primavera 1999 hanno scatenato le loro
piu' turpi fantasie criminologiche per gonfiare l'entita' dei presunti
crimini di parte jugoslava.
Ma adesso che piu' di un anno e' passato, la NATO ammette ufficialmente
che il numero delle vittime della "repressione di Milosevic" in Kosmet
non e' 100mila, come raccontato all'epoca dai funzionari statunitensi,
ne' dell'ordine delle decine di migliaia, come fatto credere dai nostri
scribacchini, bensi' "tra due e tremila", delle quali peraltro non si sa
chi sarebbe stato ucciso da chi, chi e' slavo e chi albanese, ne' come
sarebbe stato ucciso (scontri tra esercito ed UCK? Liquidazioni
sommarie? Morte naturale?).
Anziche' mostrarsi imbarazzati per l'uso sfacciato della menzogna come
arma di guerra, i portavoce della NATO sono soddisfatti e con la solita
faccia tosta esclamano: "E' anche questa una nostra vittoria, perche'
vuol dire che siamo entrati in Kosovo presto, impedendo ai sub-umani
serbi di compiere altri massacri!"
> Figures put on Serb killings too high
> Special report: Kosovo
>
> Jonathan Steele
> Friday August 18, 2000
> The Guardian
>
> Nato officials conceded last night that their wartime
> estimates of the number of Kosovo Albanian civilians
> massacred by Serb forces might have been too high.
> They were reacting to findings by forensic experts for
> the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague who
> are preparing to complete their work in Kosovo after
> exhuming about 3,000 bodies.
>
> Not all of the dead can be proved to be victims of
> murder or execution.
>
> The war crimes teams have dug up 680 corpses this year
> at 150 sites. Added to the 2,108 found last year, the
> total is well below the murder estimates, ranging from
> 10,000 to 100,000, made during the war. Paul Risley,
> the Hague tribunal's press spokesman, said yesterday:
> "The final number of bodies uncovered will be less
> than 10,000 and probably more accurately determined as
> between two and three thousand."
>
> Nato's intervention against Yugoslavia was prompted by
> massive Serb offensives against Albanian villages in
> Kosovo, which caused hundreds of thousands of
> civilians to hide in forests or flee across the
> border. There were frequent killings of unarmed
> civilians.
>
> During the Nato airstrikes, when the Serbs restricted
> access to Kosovo, there was no way to verify atrocity
> reports. But Nato officials talked of 100,000 missing
> men and said at least 10,000 had been killed. Mark
> Laity, the acting Nato spokesman, said last night:
> "Nato never said the missing were all dead. The figure
> we stood by was 10,000. If it's wrong, I'm prepared to
> put up with a little bit of egg on our face if
> thousands are alive who were thought to be killed.
>
> He added: "Nato is always going to lose. If there were
> 100,000 dead we would be criticised for entering
> Kosovo late. If it's a few thousand, we're criticised
> because people say there wasn't a crisis."
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.ptb.be/solidaire/article.phtml?lang=1&obid=2217
EXCLUSIF:
Interview de trois prisonniers serbes, victimes de la Kfor, à Mitrovica
(Kosovo)
«En prison depuis treize mois, je n’ai pas encore vu le juge
d’instruction!»
Kosovska Mitrovica (où
l’Otan vient
de fermer une usine),
nord du
Kosovo, 26 juillet.
Nous sommes à
l’hôpital situé dans la
partie serbe de
la ville, le seul resté
ouvert à tous:
Serbes, Albanais et
autres. Le
directeur nous propose
de visiter
aussi «le bâtiment des
prisonniers».
Intrigués, nous y
découvrons deux
Serbes d’une
soixantaine d’années et
un de quarante ans,
gardés par la
Kfor (forces Otan
occupant le
Kosovo). Notre visite
va nous
révéler des souffrances
poignantes,
un arbitraire
insoupçonné et une
parodie de justice de
la part des
forces occupantes.
Bouleversés, nous
le serons encore
davantage en
apprenant, quelques
jours plus tard,
que ces trois
prisonniers ont
mystérieusement
disparu. Se
sont-ils évadés?
Ont-ils, comme
beaucoup le craignent là-bas, été livrés à l’UCK albanaise? Un document
exceptionnel.
Michel Collon et Germain Mugemangango
Kosovoska Mitrovica est la seule ville du Kosovo d’où les Serbes n’ont
pas été chassés par l’actuel nettoyage ethnique.
Nous la visitons avec une délégation de jeunes Belges participant depuis
quelques jours au Camp International d’Amitié à
Sirogojno (Yougoslavie).
Dans le couloir de l’hôpital, plusieurs policiers pakistanais de l’Unmik
(police de l’Onu), armés comme des soldats.
Etonnamment, ils veulent contrôler le directeur de l’hôpital qui nous
sert de guide. Ne le connaissent-ils pas? Non, car
leurs supérieurs les font relever toutes les quatre heures pour éviter
tout contact avec les Serbes. Présents depuis trois
mois, ils n’ont donc jamais vu le directeur. Et ils fuient nos
questions. Ambiance très lourde quand nous entrons dans la
chambre où les trois prisonniers sont allongés sur leur lit après une
grève de la faim...
Quand et pourquoi avez-vous été arrêté?
Dragan Jovanovic. Le 2 juillet 1999, il y a donc
plus d’un an, des soldats
français m’ont arrêté sans aucune explication.
J’ai été enlevé et emmené à la prison
de Lipljane, bien que la prison du district soit
située à Mitrovica même. Plus
tard, j’ai appris que c’était la volonté du juge
albanais, pour empêcher les
protestations dans la ville. En effet, les Serbes
allaient manifester sur les ponts
pour que je sois enfin remis en liberté, car on
m’avait arrêté sans raison.
A Lipljane, j’ai été gardé quatre mois par les
soldats britanniques. Nous étions
une quarantaine de prisonniers serbes et la
majorité se trouve encore en prison. On
n’a pas eu de chance. Il n’y avait pas
d’interprète serbe pour communiquer entre
l’Unmik, la Kfor et les Serbes. Tout se passait
uniquement entre l’Unmik, les
soldats de la Kfor et les Albanais.
Selon vous, quelle est la véritable raison de
votre arrestation?
Dragan Jovanovic. J’ai été arrêté parce que je
défendais le pont. Les Albanais
veulent continuer ici ce qu’ils ont fait dans tout le Kosovo. Dès le
début, ils ont tenté de rentrer dans la partie nord de
Mitrovica, peuplée en majorité de Serbes et qui a toujours été serbe.
Mais, avec quelques Serbes, nous nous sommes
rassemblés sur le pont - une limite naturelle - pour les empêcher de
passer.
Nous n’avons pas dit cela aux Albanais qui vivaient depuis toujours avec
nous. Seulement à ceux qui sont arrivés
récemment d’Albanie, de Macédoine. Cela s’est passé spontanément, sans
aucune organisation, nous voulions simplement
défendre le pont.
Pourquoi ces Albanais veulent-ils venir dans la partie nord?
Dragan Jovanovic. Je ne sais pas exactement si c’est la communauté
internationale, un autre pays ou des groupes
nationalistes qui veulent une Grande Albanie dans les Balkans. La partie
sud de notre ville était en majorité peuplée
d’Albanais, mais il y avait aussi des Serbes. A présent, il n’en reste
plus du tout. Par contre, dans la partie nord, il reste
toujours beaucoup d’Albanais, et ce n’est pas un problème pour nous.
Mais l’UCK affirme que les Albanais étaient persécutés depuis longtemps…
Dragan Jovanovic. Jusqu’il y a dix ans, 75% des policiers étaient
albanais. Ils avaient leurs magasins, leurs écoles.
Toutes les grandes institutions étaient à majorité albanaise. Pour la
présidence de la province, il y avait toujours neuf
Albanais, deux Serbes et un Monténégrin.
Avez-vous beaucoup d’amis albanais?
Dragan Jovanovic. Oui, beaucoup.
Donc, vous pensez qu’on vous a arrêté pour écarter un défenseur du pont?
Dragan Jovanovic. Oui. Une femme qui était de l’autre côté du pont m’a
montré du doigt: «Il a tué 26 personnes!» Cela
a suffi pour me maintenir treize mois en prison!
L’Unmik a-t-elle
vérifié cette
accusation?
Dragan Jovanovic.
Malheureusement, depuis
le jour de
l’arrestation, je n’ai
eu aucune
conversation avec aucun
policier,
aucun juge. Seulement
avec mes
avocats et certains
représentants
d’associations
médicales
internationales. Parce
que nous
avons fait une grève de
la faim qui a
duré quarante jours.
Dragisa, ici à côté de
moi, peut
confirmer mon histoire.
Lui aussi est
en prison depuis treize
mois. Accusé
de ‘génocide’, il n’a
eu aucune
conversation ni avec
l’Unmik, ni avec
un juge. Il n’y a pas d’acte d’accusation. Il ne sait pas quand il sera
jugé. On le garde en prison sans aucune explication.
Dragisa Peca. J’ai été kidnappé par des soldats de la Kfor. Un major
britannique était venu dire que ceux qui le désiraient
pouvaient aller visiter leur maison. Je suis parti visiter ma propriété
où j’ai dû tout abandonner.
Pourquoi?
Dragisa Peca. Pas à cause de mes voisins albanais,
mais à cause des terroristes de
l’UCK. Pendant trois ou quatre jours durant
lesquels je m’étais absenté, le voisin
avait surveillé mon bétail. Il m’a dit: «Si
demain, tu ne prends pas ton bétail,
quelqu’un le volera, je ne peux plus le garder.»
J’ai donc demandé au major de
pouvoir l’accompagner et je suis allé prendre le
bétail. Les voisins albanais sont
venus m’aider à charger le blé et le bétail.
Alors, la police de la Kfor est arrivée avec une
famille albanaise, prétendant que
j’avais commis un génocide sur le peuple albanais.
J’ai interrogé mes voisins
albanais: «Vous savez très bien si j’ai commis un
génocide ou pas.» Et les voisins
ont dit que je n’étais pas coupable. Mais
l’officier britannique leur a dit: «Shut up!»
Je ne savais pas ce que cela voulait dire. C’est
seulement dans la prison que j’ai appris
que cela voulait dire: «Ferme ta gueule!» Ils
m’ont amené à la prison de Lipljane.
Depuis le 23 juin 1999, personne ne m’a dit
pourquoi j’étais en prison, qui j’avais tué.
Ni la Kfor, ni la police de l’Unmik, personne! Et
pourtant, je suis ici.
Au pire moment des bombardements, notre voisine albanaise devait
accoucher. Elle avait perdu ses eaux trois jours plus
tôt. Son frère m’a dit: «Seuls toi et Dieu pouvez la sauver. Veux-tu
bien l’amener à l’hôpital?» J’ai répondu: «Je veux
bien, mais à condition que tu viennes aussi.» Car elle aurait pu mourir,
tant elle était gonflée. Alors, nous l’avons
emmenée à Pristina. Les bombes de l’Otan tombaient de tous les côtés.
Nous avons attendu à l’hôpital, où elle a accouché d’un petit garçon.
Après cinq jours, j’ai ramené son frère. Puis, je suis
retourné à l’hôpital, seul, et je l’ai ramenée chez elle. Aujourd’hui,
ces mêmes personnes, ces mêmes voisins avec qui je
m’entendais très bien, à qui j’amenais de la nourriture et des
médicaments, n’ont pas le droit de dire la vérité. A cause de
l’UCK.
Vous voulez dire que les Albanais sont terrorisés par l’UCK?
Dragisa Peca. Oui, extrêmement terrorisés.
Selon vous, pourquoi la Kfor est-elle au Kosovo?
Dragisa Peca. S’ils voulaient vraiment nous aider, et Kouchner en
premier lieu, ils auraient respecté la résolution 1244
de l’Onu. (Confiant à la Kfor la protection de toutes les nationalités
et le maintien du Kosovo dans le cadre de la
Yougoslavie. En réalité, la Kfor a expulsé elle-même des milliers de
travailleurs serbes de leur lieu de travail, elle a
refusé de protéger les civils serbes contre les expulsions et les
violences, et de nombreuses décisions administratives de
Kouchner préparent une sécession de fait.)
Pensez-vous qu’il sera un jour possible pour les Serbes et les Albanais
de revivre ensemble, paisiblement?
Dragisa Peca. Peut-être, mais sans la Kfor et l’Unmik.
Vous êtes également prisonnier ici. Que vous est-il arrivé?
Vlastimir Aleksic. Avec mon fils Srdjan,
nous vivions dans la partie
sud de Mitrovica. La majorité de nos
voisins étaient albanais.
Jusqu’aux bombardements de l’Otan, nous
n’avions aucun problème
dans l’immeuble, nous allions les uns
chez les autres. Puis, les
sentiments et les opinions de mes voisins
ont changé…
Le 14 août 99, mon fils se trouvait dans
l’appartement de sa
belle-mère. La gendarmerie française y a
procédé à un contrôle. Juste
avant de partir, ils ont demandé les
papiers d’identité de mon fils.
Dès qu’ils ont vu qu’il habitait la
partie sud de la ville, ils l’ont
arrêté et emmené à Vucitrn, à douze
kilomètres d’ici. L’UCK était
présente, et les interprètes étaient
albanais. Ils l’ont obligé à avouer
des choses qu’il n’avait pas faites. Ils
ont menacé de le violer, de le
battre. Ils ont demandé : «Qu’as-tu
encore comme famille?» Puis,
ils ont fouillé son appartement à la
recherche d’une arme, mais n’ont
rien trouvé.
Ils l’ont gardé quelques jours et il a
dit où se trouvait son père. J’étais
à Zubin Potok. La gendarmerie française
est venue m’interroger avec
des interprètes albanais. Ils demandaient
où se trouvait mon fils
Srdjan. J’ai répondu qu’il se trouvait au
Monténégro, parce que sa
femme était enceinte. Mais le problème,
c’est qu’il était revenu au
Kosovo entre temps. Ce que j’ignorais complètement. Alors, ils ont
perquisitionné sans mandat toute ma maison. Ils
n’ont trouvé qu’un pistolet, pour lequel j’avais un permis, avec un peu
de munitions.
Ensuite, ils m’ont emmené à Mitrovica-sud. Les gendarmes français ont
promis qu’ils allaient juste me poser quelques
questions et me ramener ensuite. Mais ce fut tout le contraire.
L’interprète albanais s’est rendu dans la rue où j’habitais.
Les voisins avec qui nous vivions ont raconté les pires choses aux
soldats français…
Y a-t-il eu enquête?
Dragisa Peca. Je suis arrêté depuis le 14 août 1999 et sans nouvelles
depuis. Après trois jours, on m’a mis en prison où
j’ai retrouvé mon fils. J’aimerais ajouter une chose concernant mes
voisins. Quand les bombardements de l’Otan ont
commencé, les Albanais ont quitté la ville. Ils ont choisi leurs
meilleurs voisins pour garder leur appartement, leur
garage ou la voiture. Les Serbes, eux, n’avaient aucun endroit où
s’enfuir, parce que toute la Serbie était bombardée. Ils
étaient donc obligés de rester. Cependant, mes voisins, dont j’ai gardé
tous les biens, ont témoigné contre moi et mon fils
parce qu’ils sont effrayés par l’UCK.
En Occident, on dit que les Serbes sont contre tous les Albanais. Mais
je vois que vous avez des amis albanais...
Dragisa Peca. Oui, nous avions et nous avons toujours de grands amis
albanais. Tous les Albanais ne sont pas des
terroristes de l’UCK. 70% étaient loyaux à l’Etat de la Serbie, à la
Yougoslavie. Malheureusement, ce n’est plus le cas
aujourd’hui. On mène à présent une toute autre politique.
Que pensez-vous de la Kfor?
Dragisa Peca. Ils ont incendié ma maison et détruit tout ce que je
possédais. S’ils ne m’avaient pas arrêté, peut-être
serais-je encore dans mon village...
Mais ce n’est pas la Kfor elle-même qui a incendié votre maison...
Dragisa Peca. Au fond si. En m’arrêtant, ils ont permis aux Albanais de
faire ce qu’ils voulaient. Ils empêchaient les
Serbes de circuler, tandis que les Albanais pouvaient aller où ils
voulaient et faire ce qu’ils désiraient.
Quel métier exercez-vous?
Dragisa Peca. Je travaille comme forestier. J’étais constamment dans la
forêt, à Janjevo, un endroit où vivent des
Croates catholiques. Si j’étais un mauvais homme, si j’avais commis un
génocide, ils auraient pu me tuer à n’importe quel
moment, tous les jours. Ils m’avaient toujours entre leurs mains.
D’ailleurs, le mieux serait de demander aux habitants
de Janjevo et dans les villages serbes des environs quel homme j’étais.
Il faudrait aussi demander aux voisins albanais.
Malheureusement, je ne peux pas vous envoyer là-bas. Ils auraient de
graves problèmes avec l’UCK.
Vlastimir Aleksic. Je voudrais encore vous dire quelque chose. Dans la
partie sud de Mitrovica, j’avais deux
appartements, où je vivais avec les Albanais. Nous avons été expulsés et
nous n’avons pu emporter qu’un sac. Nous
n’avions pas d’endroit où dormir.
Personne ne se soucie de savoir dans quel état sont mes appartements
là-bas. Ils exercent sans arrêt des pressions pour
s’emparer de ces logements qui ne leur appartiennent pas. Personne ne se
préoccupe de ce que j’ai mis trente ans de ma vie à
créer.
Vidéos, voyages, site
info &
paix...
Une vidéo de cette
interview est
disponible auprès de
l’asbl Parole
aux jeunes, qui a
organisé ce voyage
en Yougoslavie. Elle
prépare la
publication de
plusieurs autres
reportages passionnants
réalisés par
les jeunes eux-mêmes.
Et de
nouveaux projets de
voyages
d’enquêtes et de
reportages.
Intéressé? Contactez
Sébastien
Vandeputte au 02 / 513
66 26 ou
jab@.... Vous pouvez
aussi aider
à promouvoir la paix et
l’amitié,
grâce à l’information
directe et aux
réfutations des médiamensonges. Avec le site Internet: Peace and
resistance (www.lai-aib.org)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
EXCLUSIF:
Interview de trois prisonniers serbes, victimes de la Kfor, à Mitrovica
(Kosovo)
«En prison depuis treize mois, je n’ai pas encore vu le juge
d’instruction!»
Kosovska Mitrovica (où
l’Otan vient
de fermer une usine),
nord du
Kosovo, 26 juillet.
Nous sommes à
l’hôpital situé dans la
partie serbe de
la ville, le seul resté
ouvert à tous:
Serbes, Albanais et
autres. Le
directeur nous propose
de visiter
aussi «le bâtiment des
prisonniers».
Intrigués, nous y
découvrons deux
Serbes d’une
soixantaine d’années et
un de quarante ans,
gardés par la
Kfor (forces Otan
occupant le
Kosovo). Notre visite
va nous
révéler des souffrances
poignantes,
un arbitraire
insoupçonné et une
parodie de justice de
la part des
forces occupantes.
Bouleversés, nous
le serons encore
davantage en
apprenant, quelques
jours plus tard,
que ces trois
prisonniers ont
mystérieusement
disparu. Se
sont-ils évadés?
Ont-ils, comme
beaucoup le craignent là-bas, été livrés à l’UCK albanaise? Un document
exceptionnel.
Michel Collon et Germain Mugemangango
Kosovoska Mitrovica est la seule ville du Kosovo d’où les Serbes n’ont
pas été chassés par l’actuel nettoyage ethnique.
Nous la visitons avec une délégation de jeunes Belges participant depuis
quelques jours au Camp International d’Amitié à
Sirogojno (Yougoslavie).
Dans le couloir de l’hôpital, plusieurs policiers pakistanais de l’Unmik
(police de l’Onu), armés comme des soldats.
Etonnamment, ils veulent contrôler le directeur de l’hôpital qui nous
sert de guide. Ne le connaissent-ils pas? Non, car
leurs supérieurs les font relever toutes les quatre heures pour éviter
tout contact avec les Serbes. Présents depuis trois
mois, ils n’ont donc jamais vu le directeur. Et ils fuient nos
questions. Ambiance très lourde quand nous entrons dans la
chambre où les trois prisonniers sont allongés sur leur lit après une
grève de la faim...
Quand et pourquoi avez-vous été arrêté?
Dragan Jovanovic. Le 2 juillet 1999, il y a donc
plus d’un an, des soldats
français m’ont arrêté sans aucune explication.
J’ai été enlevé et emmené à la prison
de Lipljane, bien que la prison du district soit
située à Mitrovica même. Plus
tard, j’ai appris que c’était la volonté du juge
albanais, pour empêcher les
protestations dans la ville. En effet, les Serbes
allaient manifester sur les ponts
pour que je sois enfin remis en liberté, car on
m’avait arrêté sans raison.
A Lipljane, j’ai été gardé quatre mois par les
soldats britanniques. Nous étions
une quarantaine de prisonniers serbes et la
majorité se trouve encore en prison. On
n’a pas eu de chance. Il n’y avait pas
d’interprète serbe pour communiquer entre
l’Unmik, la Kfor et les Serbes. Tout se passait
uniquement entre l’Unmik, les
soldats de la Kfor et les Albanais.
Selon vous, quelle est la véritable raison de
votre arrestation?
Dragan Jovanovic. J’ai été arrêté parce que je
défendais le pont. Les Albanais
veulent continuer ici ce qu’ils ont fait dans tout le Kosovo. Dès le
début, ils ont tenté de rentrer dans la partie nord de
Mitrovica, peuplée en majorité de Serbes et qui a toujours été serbe.
Mais, avec quelques Serbes, nous nous sommes
rassemblés sur le pont - une limite naturelle - pour les empêcher de
passer.
Nous n’avons pas dit cela aux Albanais qui vivaient depuis toujours avec
nous. Seulement à ceux qui sont arrivés
récemment d’Albanie, de Macédoine. Cela s’est passé spontanément, sans
aucune organisation, nous voulions simplement
défendre le pont.
Pourquoi ces Albanais veulent-ils venir dans la partie nord?
Dragan Jovanovic. Je ne sais pas exactement si c’est la communauté
internationale, un autre pays ou des groupes
nationalistes qui veulent une Grande Albanie dans les Balkans. La partie
sud de notre ville était en majorité peuplée
d’Albanais, mais il y avait aussi des Serbes. A présent, il n’en reste
plus du tout. Par contre, dans la partie nord, il reste
toujours beaucoup d’Albanais, et ce n’est pas un problème pour nous.
Mais l’UCK affirme que les Albanais étaient persécutés depuis longtemps…
Dragan Jovanovic. Jusqu’il y a dix ans, 75% des policiers étaient
albanais. Ils avaient leurs magasins, leurs écoles.
Toutes les grandes institutions étaient à majorité albanaise. Pour la
présidence de la province, il y avait toujours neuf
Albanais, deux Serbes et un Monténégrin.
Avez-vous beaucoup d’amis albanais?
Dragan Jovanovic. Oui, beaucoup.
Donc, vous pensez qu’on vous a arrêté pour écarter un défenseur du pont?
Dragan Jovanovic. Oui. Une femme qui était de l’autre côté du pont m’a
montré du doigt: «Il a tué 26 personnes!» Cela
a suffi pour me maintenir treize mois en prison!
L’Unmik a-t-elle
vérifié cette
accusation?
Dragan Jovanovic.
Malheureusement, depuis
le jour de
l’arrestation, je n’ai
eu aucune
conversation avec aucun
policier,
aucun juge. Seulement
avec mes
avocats et certains
représentants
d’associations
médicales
internationales. Parce
que nous
avons fait une grève de
la faim qui a
duré quarante jours.
Dragisa, ici à côté de
moi, peut
confirmer mon histoire.
Lui aussi est
en prison depuis treize
mois. Accusé
de ‘génocide’, il n’a
eu aucune
conversation ni avec
l’Unmik, ni avec
un juge. Il n’y a pas d’acte d’accusation. Il ne sait pas quand il sera
jugé. On le garde en prison sans aucune explication.
Dragisa Peca. J’ai été kidnappé par des soldats de la Kfor. Un major
britannique était venu dire que ceux qui le désiraient
pouvaient aller visiter leur maison. Je suis parti visiter ma propriété
où j’ai dû tout abandonner.
Pourquoi?
Dragisa Peca. Pas à cause de mes voisins albanais,
mais à cause des terroristes de
l’UCK. Pendant trois ou quatre jours durant
lesquels je m’étais absenté, le voisin
avait surveillé mon bétail. Il m’a dit: «Si
demain, tu ne prends pas ton bétail,
quelqu’un le volera, je ne peux plus le garder.»
J’ai donc demandé au major de
pouvoir l’accompagner et je suis allé prendre le
bétail. Les voisins albanais sont
venus m’aider à charger le blé et le bétail.
Alors, la police de la Kfor est arrivée avec une
famille albanaise, prétendant que
j’avais commis un génocide sur le peuple albanais.
J’ai interrogé mes voisins
albanais: «Vous savez très bien si j’ai commis un
génocide ou pas.» Et les voisins
ont dit que je n’étais pas coupable. Mais
l’officier britannique leur a dit: «Shut up!»
Je ne savais pas ce que cela voulait dire. C’est
seulement dans la prison que j’ai appris
que cela voulait dire: «Ferme ta gueule!» Ils
m’ont amené à la prison de Lipljane.
Depuis le 23 juin 1999, personne ne m’a dit
pourquoi j’étais en prison, qui j’avais tué.
Ni la Kfor, ni la police de l’Unmik, personne! Et
pourtant, je suis ici.
Au pire moment des bombardements, notre voisine albanaise devait
accoucher. Elle avait perdu ses eaux trois jours plus
tôt. Son frère m’a dit: «Seuls toi et Dieu pouvez la sauver. Veux-tu
bien l’amener à l’hôpital?» J’ai répondu: «Je veux
bien, mais à condition que tu viennes aussi.» Car elle aurait pu mourir,
tant elle était gonflée. Alors, nous l’avons
emmenée à Pristina. Les bombes de l’Otan tombaient de tous les côtés.
Nous avons attendu à l’hôpital, où elle a accouché d’un petit garçon.
Après cinq jours, j’ai ramené son frère. Puis, je suis
retourné à l’hôpital, seul, et je l’ai ramenée chez elle. Aujourd’hui,
ces mêmes personnes, ces mêmes voisins avec qui je
m’entendais très bien, à qui j’amenais de la nourriture et des
médicaments, n’ont pas le droit de dire la vérité. A cause de
l’UCK.
Vous voulez dire que les Albanais sont terrorisés par l’UCK?
Dragisa Peca. Oui, extrêmement terrorisés.
Selon vous, pourquoi la Kfor est-elle au Kosovo?
Dragisa Peca. S’ils voulaient vraiment nous aider, et Kouchner en
premier lieu, ils auraient respecté la résolution 1244
de l’Onu. (Confiant à la Kfor la protection de toutes les nationalités
et le maintien du Kosovo dans le cadre de la
Yougoslavie. En réalité, la Kfor a expulsé elle-même des milliers de
travailleurs serbes de leur lieu de travail, elle a
refusé de protéger les civils serbes contre les expulsions et les
violences, et de nombreuses décisions administratives de
Kouchner préparent une sécession de fait.)
Pensez-vous qu’il sera un jour possible pour les Serbes et les Albanais
de revivre ensemble, paisiblement?
Dragisa Peca. Peut-être, mais sans la Kfor et l’Unmik.
Vous êtes également prisonnier ici. Que vous est-il arrivé?
Vlastimir Aleksic. Avec mon fils Srdjan,
nous vivions dans la partie
sud de Mitrovica. La majorité de nos
voisins étaient albanais.
Jusqu’aux bombardements de l’Otan, nous
n’avions aucun problème
dans l’immeuble, nous allions les uns
chez les autres. Puis, les
sentiments et les opinions de mes voisins
ont changé…
Le 14 août 99, mon fils se trouvait dans
l’appartement de sa
belle-mère. La gendarmerie française y a
procédé à un contrôle. Juste
avant de partir, ils ont demandé les
papiers d’identité de mon fils.
Dès qu’ils ont vu qu’il habitait la
partie sud de la ville, ils l’ont
arrêté et emmené à Vucitrn, à douze
kilomètres d’ici. L’UCK était
présente, et les interprètes étaient
albanais. Ils l’ont obligé à avouer
des choses qu’il n’avait pas faites. Ils
ont menacé de le violer, de le
battre. Ils ont demandé : «Qu’as-tu
encore comme famille?» Puis,
ils ont fouillé son appartement à la
recherche d’une arme, mais n’ont
rien trouvé.
Ils l’ont gardé quelques jours et il a
dit où se trouvait son père. J’étais
à Zubin Potok. La gendarmerie française
est venue m’interroger avec
des interprètes albanais. Ils demandaient
où se trouvait mon fils
Srdjan. J’ai répondu qu’il se trouvait au
Monténégro, parce que sa
femme était enceinte. Mais le problème,
c’est qu’il était revenu au
Kosovo entre temps. Ce que j’ignorais complètement. Alors, ils ont
perquisitionné sans mandat toute ma maison. Ils
n’ont trouvé qu’un pistolet, pour lequel j’avais un permis, avec un peu
de munitions.
Ensuite, ils m’ont emmené à Mitrovica-sud. Les gendarmes français ont
promis qu’ils allaient juste me poser quelques
questions et me ramener ensuite. Mais ce fut tout le contraire.
L’interprète albanais s’est rendu dans la rue où j’habitais.
Les voisins avec qui nous vivions ont raconté les pires choses aux
soldats français…
Y a-t-il eu enquête?
Dragisa Peca. Je suis arrêté depuis le 14 août 1999 et sans nouvelles
depuis. Après trois jours, on m’a mis en prison où
j’ai retrouvé mon fils. J’aimerais ajouter une chose concernant mes
voisins. Quand les bombardements de l’Otan ont
commencé, les Albanais ont quitté la ville. Ils ont choisi leurs
meilleurs voisins pour garder leur appartement, leur
garage ou la voiture. Les Serbes, eux, n’avaient aucun endroit où
s’enfuir, parce que toute la Serbie était bombardée. Ils
étaient donc obligés de rester. Cependant, mes voisins, dont j’ai gardé
tous les biens, ont témoigné contre moi et mon fils
parce qu’ils sont effrayés par l’UCK.
En Occident, on dit que les Serbes sont contre tous les Albanais. Mais
je vois que vous avez des amis albanais...
Dragisa Peca. Oui, nous avions et nous avons toujours de grands amis
albanais. Tous les Albanais ne sont pas des
terroristes de l’UCK. 70% étaient loyaux à l’Etat de la Serbie, à la
Yougoslavie. Malheureusement, ce n’est plus le cas
aujourd’hui. On mène à présent une toute autre politique.
Que pensez-vous de la Kfor?
Dragisa Peca. Ils ont incendié ma maison et détruit tout ce que je
possédais. S’ils ne m’avaient pas arrêté, peut-être
serais-je encore dans mon village...
Mais ce n’est pas la Kfor elle-même qui a incendié votre maison...
Dragisa Peca. Au fond si. En m’arrêtant, ils ont permis aux Albanais de
faire ce qu’ils voulaient. Ils empêchaient les
Serbes de circuler, tandis que les Albanais pouvaient aller où ils
voulaient et faire ce qu’ils désiraient.
Quel métier exercez-vous?
Dragisa Peca. Je travaille comme forestier. J’étais constamment dans la
forêt, à Janjevo, un endroit où vivent des
Croates catholiques. Si j’étais un mauvais homme, si j’avais commis un
génocide, ils auraient pu me tuer à n’importe quel
moment, tous les jours. Ils m’avaient toujours entre leurs mains.
D’ailleurs, le mieux serait de demander aux habitants
de Janjevo et dans les villages serbes des environs quel homme j’étais.
Il faudrait aussi demander aux voisins albanais.
Malheureusement, je ne peux pas vous envoyer là-bas. Ils auraient de
graves problèmes avec l’UCK.
Vlastimir Aleksic. Je voudrais encore vous dire quelque chose. Dans la
partie sud de Mitrovica, j’avais deux
appartements, où je vivais avec les Albanais. Nous avons été expulsés et
nous n’avons pu emporter qu’un sac. Nous
n’avions pas d’endroit où dormir.
Personne ne se soucie de savoir dans quel état sont mes appartements
là-bas. Ils exercent sans arrêt des pressions pour
s’emparer de ces logements qui ne leur appartiennent pas. Personne ne se
préoccupe de ce que j’ai mis trente ans de ma vie à
créer.
Vidéos, voyages, site
info &
paix...
Une vidéo de cette
interview est
disponible auprès de
l’asbl Parole
aux jeunes, qui a
organisé ce voyage
en Yougoslavie. Elle
prépare la
publication de
plusieurs autres
reportages passionnants
réalisés par
les jeunes eux-mêmes.
Et de
nouveaux projets de
voyages
d’enquêtes et de
reportages.
Intéressé? Contactez
Sébastien
Vandeputte au 02 / 513
66 26 ou
jab@.... Vous pouvez
aussi aider
à promouvoir la paix et
l’amitié,
grâce à l’information
directe et aux
réfutations des médiamensonges. Avec le site Internet: Peace and
resistance (www.lai-aib.org)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
SOROS, L'INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP E LE MINIERE DI TREPCA
Sull'argomento si veda anche la illuminante analisi di Diana Johnstone:
'Globalist Thinktank Conceived Excuse for Today's NATO Assault on
Mitrovica'
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/Johnstone/howitis.htm
---
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/pf/p-j081600.html
Behind the Headlines
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
August 16, 2000
WHY KOSOVO? FOLLOW THE MONEY!
When the Kosovo war broke out, and the "Allies" took up the cause of
that Albanian
terrorist gang known as the Kosovo Liberation Army, Antiwar.com received
a lot of
email from baffled readers who wondered: "Why Kosovo?" Here was an
impoverished
and isolated country in a notoriously unstable region of the world,
without any strategic
or military value to the US, the conquest of which could only add to our
burdens.
Virtually none of my correspondents believed the official explanation –
that the
Milosevic regime was slaughtering tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians
in the
province, and was determined to "cleanse" Kosovo so that it would be
ethnically Serb.
Since the inhabitants of Kosovo were then more than 90 percent
Albanians, this would
have meant the complete depopulation of the province – a policy that
made absolutely
no economic or political sense. The supposedly "humanitarian" motives of
the
NATO-crats were a fraud from the very beginning, it was clear, and in
any case their
fraudulence was proved after the war when UN forensic experts went in
and
recovered and identified a little over 2,000 bodies (including Serbs).
But this only
deepened the mystery, and the question went unanswered: why Kosovo, of
all places,
the closest thing to a Third World country in all of Europe? Over a year
after the
"humanitarians" bombed Belgrade and reduced much of Yugoslavia to
rubble, the
answer is beginning to take shape. . . .
THE $5 BILLION DOOR PRIZE
Yesterday 900 British, Danish, and French troops moved in to take over
the Trepca
complex of mines in the northern city of Mitrovice – and were met with
determined
resistance by hundreds of mine workers. Hurling rocks, sticks, and
stones, and wielding
the tools of their trade as weapons, Serbs downed four Brits, shouting
their defiance at
this escalation of NATO's war on the last Serbs left in Kosovo. For the
Trepca mining
complex is an ancient treasure, mined by the Greeks, the Romans, the
Turks, and is the
richest source of lead and zinc in Europe. There is enough lignite
deposits in those
mines to last for the next 13 centuries. The capacity of Trepca's
refineries ranks third
worldwide. The now-deposed mine director reported that "in the last
three years we
have mined 2,538,124 tons of lead and zinc crude ore and produced
286,502 tons of
lead and zinc and 139,789 tons of pure lead, zinc, cadmium, silver and
gold." We don't
need to ask why this action was taken: we have only to note Trepca's
estimated value –
over $5 billion. What else do we need to know?
ENVIRONMENTALLY CORRECT LIES
Naturally, they couldn't just go in there, and grab Kosovo's crown
jewels, without
coming up with a politically correct rationale. Leave it to "Unmik," the
acronymic
tyranny set up by the NATO-crats to administer their conquered province,
to come up
with the most transparent lie imaginable – albeit one that, in its sheer
ludicrousness, will
appeal to such enthusiasts of the Kosovo war as the German Greens and
their even
flakier American counterparts. According to a report from MSNBC, French
spokesman Colonel Henry Aussavy solemnly declared: "We've noted a
significant
increase in the level of lead in the air, which was dangerous for the
people of Mitrovica
and for KFOR (NATO-led) troops. We had to react."
THE ARROGANCE OF POWER
Let's see if I get this straight: after a year and some months of
organized ethnic
cleansing by the Kosovar Albanians against the defeated Serbs – as NATO
not only
stood by but actively aided the KLA's campaign for a Serb-free Kosovo –
Unmik
finally decides to react: not, mind you, to the murder, rape, and
pillaging of Kosovo's
embattled Serb communities, but to the alleged threat of air pollution.
Do these people
even care if anyone believes their lies? I don't think so. Real power
means that your lies
don't even have to be convincing. It means further humiliating your
victims – in the
process of beating them to the ground and robbing them blind – by
constructing the
flimsiest of pretexts, the more absurd the better.
DUBIOUS DIAGNOSIS
While the UN bureaucrats insisted that air samples indicated levels of
pollution 200
times above World Health Organization standards, the Serbs counter that
their
measurements indicate ".12 milligrams of lead per cubic metre (permitted
level .15
mg), .019 mg of zinc (permitted level .4 mg), copper .004 mg (permitted
level .01 mg),
iron .002 mg (permitted level .2 mg), etc." As to the medical rationale
for this brazen act
of thievery, doctors from the local hospital were more than skeptical
about the veracity
of the NATO-crats' diagnosis. Dr. Radoslav Jankovic wryly observed that
"we
haven't had a patient with a toxicology problem for years. Today only
soldiers and
Unmik police officers suffer problems of lead in the blood."
THE MONEY TRAIL
Are you beginning to see the answer to "why Kosovo?" A $5 billion prize
– but who
gets to claim it? Trepca was state-owned under Yugoslav suzerainty, but
now it will be
"privatized" and sold off to Western investors. In this context, it is
important to realize
just whom we are talking about. . . .
THE SOROS CONNECTION
When George Soros invested $150 million in the region – most of it
backed up by
fail-safe US government guarantees – he declared that this was not
strictly a
humanitarian effort. While known for his philanthropy, Soros said that
in the case of his
Balkan investments he would be guided by the concept of "tough love" and
insisted that
the new enterprise must be "driven purely by profit." With $100 million
of the US
taxpayers' money in his pocket, Soros and his gang are swooping down on
the
prostrate body of the Serbian nation like vultures feeding on the liver
of Prometheus –
the Titan of Greek mythology who stole fire from the depths of the earth
and gave it to
mankind. The Titans, a subterranean race, were the first miners, who
taught their
metal-smelting techniques to mortal men and were punished for the sin of
such
extravagant gift-giving, were obliterated by the gods of Olympus. Our
own Olympians
seem determined to visit a similar fate on the Serbs – who, for their
part, seem to be
guilty only of getting between George Soros and $5 billion.
JOHNSTONE'S PREDICTION
That the NATO-crats dare to invoke such a pathetic pretext for their
plundering is
not exactly astonishing. These people are moral monsters, after all, who
would have
reduced Belgrade to a smoking ruin if they hadn't been too afraid of the
political
consequences – and they may do so yet. What is truly astonishing is that
all this was
predicted, down to the details, back in February by Diana Johnstone, in
a remarkably
prescient article on Emperors-Clothes.com, in which she foretold not
only the
expropriation of the Trepca complex, but also exposed Soros as the
source of the
scheme. Analyzing two key documents – a November 1999 International
Crisis Group
(ICG) paper on the Trepca mining complex, and a February 2000 article in
the Toronto
Star by ICG consultant Susan Blaustein – Johnstone saw it all coming,
and with such
stunning accuracy that one can hardly believe that her piece wasn't
written yesterday.
What is especially revealing is the role of the International Crisis
Group in fomenting
the takeover of Trepca – and the role of Soros as the ICG's main
sugar-daddy. In its
report, the ICG drools at the prospect of having such a rich prize fall
into its
benefactor's hands. As Johnstone relates:
"In the 'game-plan of measures' recommended by the ICG, UNMIK is advised
to
instruct a 'Zvecan environmental assessment team' to report on the
status of the
equipment and thereupon 'advise as to what measures must be taken'...
Environmental hazards are to be the pretext to shut down Zvecan and
deprive the last
Serbs in Kosovo of their livelihood. Meanwhile, 'Stari Trg, one of the
richest mines in
Europe, must be potentially profitable again and should be a priority
for donors
interested in setting Kosovo on its feet.'"
PHILANTHROPY FOR FUN – AND PROFIT
Chief among these "donors" is none other than Soros, who now expects to
be paid
back for his "philanthropy" – with interest. Trepca can be profitable
again, but the
question is: for whom. Trepca seems to have fallen into Soros's lap – or
was it pushed
there? Another interesting aspect of this whole affair is that the
seizure of the Trepca
complex by NATO forces is part of the Sorosian "business strategy"
designed to
forestall and ultimately nullify the claims of two European companies
derived from
contracts signed with the Serbs. As the ICG report puts it:
"In July 1999, shortly after the conquest of Kosovo, one Jean-Pierre
Rozan showed
up claiming that 2.8% ownership of Trepca belonged to the Paris-based
SCMM, of
which he was a director. Rozan's claim was based on an agreement with
Belgrade, in
which SCMM took over Jugobanka's subsidiary in Kosovo as a result of
Belgrade's
default.
SOROSIAN ETHNIC CLEANSING
The ICG derides the Société Commerciale de Métaux et de Minéraux (SCMM)
claim as being without foundation on the somewhat questionable grounds
that the
French government is giving it no backing. But just in case this is not
enough, they
throw another factor into their argument that Rozan's claim must be
summarily
dismissed. This being Kosovo, there is an ethnic angle in all this,
underscored by the
ICG report,
"Some Kosovar Albanians, always ready to believe in a conspiracy however
unlikely,
are prepared to perceive SCMM as part of a wider Franco-Serbian
understanding,
which incorporates French KFOR acquiescence in the partition of
Mitrovicë, French
economic interests in Trepca, and even the appointment of Dr Bernard
Kouchner
himself as head of UNMIK and Special Representative of the UN
Secretary-General.
The recent award of a GSM telecommunications concession, regardless of
the
transparency of the process, to French company Alcatel, has fueled the
suspicions of
such conspiracy-theorists."
OUR CONSPIRACY THEORIES, AND THEIRS
Soros and his hired hands have an inherent hostility to "conspiracy
theorists," quite
naturally, but that doesn't stop them from placing the blame for
everything that goes
wrong in the Balkans on Slobodan Milosevic
"To other veteran observers of the Balkans, however, the involvement of
SCMM looks
like a Miloševic-style attempt to create a diversion (including by
encouraging exactly
that Balkan and Kosovar propensity for conspiracy-identification
outlined above),
and confuse the thinking of international officials charged with working
out the
problem. By putting this and other claims to due process of arbitration,
and meanwhile
getting on with what needs to be done, the problem can be neatly
sidestepped. "
ARREST THAT MAN!
How's that for a conspiracy theory? SCMM's claims are all part of a plot
by
Milosevic to "create a diversion." How convenient for Soros & Company
that their
chief competitors turn out to be enemy agents. Now that the NATO-crats
have
definitively settled the question of the ownership of the Trepca mines
by force of arms,
the next logical step is to lock up Monsieur Rozan and be done with it.
In any case, it is
clear that the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo will be carried out in the
mines, if the ICG has
anything to say about it. The author of the ICG report notes with some
irritation that:
"The UNMIK regional office in Mitrovica meanwhile occupies the Jugobanka
building
and continues to display Jugobanka insignia in the very meeting room to
which
Kosovars are invited to discuss Trepca – some report that they feel
uneasy in such
surroundings. Rozan, as 'owner' of Jugobanka and the building, is
demanding rent,
which UNMIK has refused to pay."
OUR ORWELLIAN AGE
Who cares about property rights when those poor sensitive souls, the
Kosovars,
reportedly feel "uncomfortable" in close proximity to anything Serbian,
even a
company logo. The ICG is basically making the argument that the ethnic
cleansing of
Kosovo must be completed: not only churches and other historical
monuments must be
destroyed – and there is hardly a Serbian church left standing in Kosovo
– but everything
Serbian must go. The ICG describes itself as a "private, multinational"
organization
devoted to strengthening the capacity of the international community to
anticipate,
understand and act to contain and prevent conflict." In our Orwellian
age this means a
government-connected tool of corporate plunderers devoted to
anticipating the profits
to be made from military conflict, and acting to furthering the
interests of war profiteers.
THE GREEK CLAIM
Another company, the Greek firm of Mytineleos, has a claim through
contracts with
Yugoslav companies to market Trepca's lead and zinc, and this claim is
going to be "a
harder problem than SCMM for UNMIK" as the ICG report admits. With close
ties to
the Greek government, and a sterling international track record for
solidity and
performance, Mytineleos can make a strong case. The report also somewhat
reluctantly notes that
"UNMIK cannot simply ignore claims which may be genuine, and the UN
legal
advisers in New York have concluded that the rights of claimants like
Mytilineos must
go to adjudication. The question arises as to which court. So far that
is left in
abeyance, as is the nature of the legal proceedings themselves. If all
other decisions
are left to depend upon the resolution of this issue, it could be many
years before
Trepca starts working again."
A PROBLEM NEATLY SOLVED
The military occupation of Trepca solves Soros's two major problems by
arrogating
de facto ownership of the mines to "the international community"
embodied by Unmik –
and deftly sidelines the French and the Greeks. Never mind the legal
technicalities, and
the risks of adjudication: just go in there and grab it! This is how the
much-vaunted
"Third Way" between socialism and capitalism, touted by the Clintonians
and their
British Laborite first cousins, works in practice. First, you invade a
country; then you
strip it of its assets, and sell them off to your politically connected
friends, such as Soros
– this is called "privatization," but there is nothing "private" about
it. The source of
Soros's Balkan coup is government power: the armed fist of the State,
and not the
invisible hand of the market. As the declared enemy of laissez-faire
capitalism, which
he rails against in several unbearably pretentious books, Soros
practices what he
preaches: using NATO and the UN as his instruments, he profits from the
plundering of
a proud nation – while his bought-and-paid-for shills rationalize the
schemes of this
modern Visigoth in the name of "humanitarianism" and "multiculturalism."
It kind of makes you want to puke, doesn't it?
A QUESTION NEATLY ANSWERED
For years, Soros funded the American Committee to Save Bosnia, the
Balkan Action
Council, and a plethora of other groups devoted to persuading US policy
makers that
nothing less than American military intervention in the region could
save the Kosovar
Albanians from "genocide." Soros himself spoke out on the issue, and
chided the West
for "appeasing" the Serbs. Now comes the payoff. Trepca is his, or will
be shortly. So
we have finally come up with the answer to the question that has been
haunting us for
over a year: why Kosovo? The answer consists of two words: George Soros.
All you
would-be tycoons out there, take heed: If you want to know what
investment strategy
to follow in era of the Third Way, then Soros has certainly set the
example.
---
Letters
The Guardian (London)
UNITED KINGDOM
Wednesday August 16, 2000
The
first casualty of war.
•It's interesting that Nato seems so concerned about stopping a
Serb-run mine (one of the few enterprises in Kosovo that employs its
dwindling Serb population) from polluting the atmosphere in Kosovo
(Serbs turn on British troops, August 15), but had no problems with
poisoning the entire Balkans by bombing chemical plants and oil
refineries (releasing tons of chemical toxins such as ethylene
dichloride, cynanide, and heavy metals into the atmosphere, ground, and
the Danube river); and using depleted but still radioactive uranium
ammunition and cluster bombs. The issue for Nato isn't about air
pollution - it's about stealing the massive Trepca mining complex for
western capitalists like George Soros.
Dr Michael Pravica
Las Vegas, USA
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Sull'argomento si veda anche la illuminante analisi di Diana Johnstone:
'Globalist Thinktank Conceived Excuse for Today's NATO Assault on
Mitrovica'
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/Johnstone/howitis.htm
---
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/pf/p-j081600.html
Behind the Headlines
by Justin Raimondo
Antiwar.com
August 16, 2000
WHY KOSOVO? FOLLOW THE MONEY!
When the Kosovo war broke out, and the "Allies" took up the cause of
that Albanian
terrorist gang known as the Kosovo Liberation Army, Antiwar.com received
a lot of
email from baffled readers who wondered: "Why Kosovo?" Here was an
impoverished
and isolated country in a notoriously unstable region of the world,
without any strategic
or military value to the US, the conquest of which could only add to our
burdens.
Virtually none of my correspondents believed the official explanation –
that the
Milosevic regime was slaughtering tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians
in the
province, and was determined to "cleanse" Kosovo so that it would be
ethnically Serb.
Since the inhabitants of Kosovo were then more than 90 percent
Albanians, this would
have meant the complete depopulation of the province – a policy that
made absolutely
no economic or political sense. The supposedly "humanitarian" motives of
the
NATO-crats were a fraud from the very beginning, it was clear, and in
any case their
fraudulence was proved after the war when UN forensic experts went in
and
recovered and identified a little over 2,000 bodies (including Serbs).
But this only
deepened the mystery, and the question went unanswered: why Kosovo, of
all places,
the closest thing to a Third World country in all of Europe? Over a year
after the
"humanitarians" bombed Belgrade and reduced much of Yugoslavia to
rubble, the
answer is beginning to take shape. . . .
THE $5 BILLION DOOR PRIZE
Yesterday 900 British, Danish, and French troops moved in to take over
the Trepca
complex of mines in the northern city of Mitrovice – and were met with
determined
resistance by hundreds of mine workers. Hurling rocks, sticks, and
stones, and wielding
the tools of their trade as weapons, Serbs downed four Brits, shouting
their defiance at
this escalation of NATO's war on the last Serbs left in Kosovo. For the
Trepca mining
complex is an ancient treasure, mined by the Greeks, the Romans, the
Turks, and is the
richest source of lead and zinc in Europe. There is enough lignite
deposits in those
mines to last for the next 13 centuries. The capacity of Trepca's
refineries ranks third
worldwide. The now-deposed mine director reported that "in the last
three years we
have mined 2,538,124 tons of lead and zinc crude ore and produced
286,502 tons of
lead and zinc and 139,789 tons of pure lead, zinc, cadmium, silver and
gold." We don't
need to ask why this action was taken: we have only to note Trepca's
estimated value –
over $5 billion. What else do we need to know?
ENVIRONMENTALLY CORRECT LIES
Naturally, they couldn't just go in there, and grab Kosovo's crown
jewels, without
coming up with a politically correct rationale. Leave it to "Unmik," the
acronymic
tyranny set up by the NATO-crats to administer their conquered province,
to come up
with the most transparent lie imaginable – albeit one that, in its sheer
ludicrousness, will
appeal to such enthusiasts of the Kosovo war as the German Greens and
their even
flakier American counterparts. According to a report from MSNBC, French
spokesman Colonel Henry Aussavy solemnly declared: "We've noted a
significant
increase in the level of lead in the air, which was dangerous for the
people of Mitrovica
and for KFOR (NATO-led) troops. We had to react."
THE ARROGANCE OF POWER
Let's see if I get this straight: after a year and some months of
organized ethnic
cleansing by the Kosovar Albanians against the defeated Serbs – as NATO
not only
stood by but actively aided the KLA's campaign for a Serb-free Kosovo –
Unmik
finally decides to react: not, mind you, to the murder, rape, and
pillaging of Kosovo's
embattled Serb communities, but to the alleged threat of air pollution.
Do these people
even care if anyone believes their lies? I don't think so. Real power
means that your lies
don't even have to be convincing. It means further humiliating your
victims – in the
process of beating them to the ground and robbing them blind – by
constructing the
flimsiest of pretexts, the more absurd the better.
DUBIOUS DIAGNOSIS
While the UN bureaucrats insisted that air samples indicated levels of
pollution 200
times above World Health Organization standards, the Serbs counter that
their
measurements indicate ".12 milligrams of lead per cubic metre (permitted
level .15
mg), .019 mg of zinc (permitted level .4 mg), copper .004 mg (permitted
level .01 mg),
iron .002 mg (permitted level .2 mg), etc." As to the medical rationale
for this brazen act
of thievery, doctors from the local hospital were more than skeptical
about the veracity
of the NATO-crats' diagnosis. Dr. Radoslav Jankovic wryly observed that
"we
haven't had a patient with a toxicology problem for years. Today only
soldiers and
Unmik police officers suffer problems of lead in the blood."
THE MONEY TRAIL
Are you beginning to see the answer to "why Kosovo?" A $5 billion prize
– but who
gets to claim it? Trepca was state-owned under Yugoslav suzerainty, but
now it will be
"privatized" and sold off to Western investors. In this context, it is
important to realize
just whom we are talking about. . . .
THE SOROS CONNECTION
When George Soros invested $150 million in the region – most of it
backed up by
fail-safe US government guarantees – he declared that this was not
strictly a
humanitarian effort. While known for his philanthropy, Soros said that
in the case of his
Balkan investments he would be guided by the concept of "tough love" and
insisted that
the new enterprise must be "driven purely by profit." With $100 million
of the US
taxpayers' money in his pocket, Soros and his gang are swooping down on
the
prostrate body of the Serbian nation like vultures feeding on the liver
of Prometheus –
the Titan of Greek mythology who stole fire from the depths of the earth
and gave it to
mankind. The Titans, a subterranean race, were the first miners, who
taught their
metal-smelting techniques to mortal men and were punished for the sin of
such
extravagant gift-giving, were obliterated by the gods of Olympus. Our
own Olympians
seem determined to visit a similar fate on the Serbs – who, for their
part, seem to be
guilty only of getting between George Soros and $5 billion.
JOHNSTONE'S PREDICTION
That the NATO-crats dare to invoke such a pathetic pretext for their
plundering is
not exactly astonishing. These people are moral monsters, after all, who
would have
reduced Belgrade to a smoking ruin if they hadn't been too afraid of the
political
consequences – and they may do so yet. What is truly astonishing is that
all this was
predicted, down to the details, back in February by Diana Johnstone, in
a remarkably
prescient article on Emperors-Clothes.com, in which she foretold not
only the
expropriation of the Trepca complex, but also exposed Soros as the
source of the
scheme. Analyzing two key documents – a November 1999 International
Crisis Group
(ICG) paper on the Trepca mining complex, and a February 2000 article in
the Toronto
Star by ICG consultant Susan Blaustein – Johnstone saw it all coming,
and with such
stunning accuracy that one can hardly believe that her piece wasn't
written yesterday.
What is especially revealing is the role of the International Crisis
Group in fomenting
the takeover of Trepca – and the role of Soros as the ICG's main
sugar-daddy. In its
report, the ICG drools at the prospect of having such a rich prize fall
into its
benefactor's hands. As Johnstone relates:
"In the 'game-plan of measures' recommended by the ICG, UNMIK is advised
to
instruct a 'Zvecan environmental assessment team' to report on the
status of the
equipment and thereupon 'advise as to what measures must be taken'...
Environmental hazards are to be the pretext to shut down Zvecan and
deprive the last
Serbs in Kosovo of their livelihood. Meanwhile, 'Stari Trg, one of the
richest mines in
Europe, must be potentially profitable again and should be a priority
for donors
interested in setting Kosovo on its feet.'"
PHILANTHROPY FOR FUN – AND PROFIT
Chief among these "donors" is none other than Soros, who now expects to
be paid
back for his "philanthropy" – with interest. Trepca can be profitable
again, but the
question is: for whom. Trepca seems to have fallen into Soros's lap – or
was it pushed
there? Another interesting aspect of this whole affair is that the
seizure of the Trepca
complex by NATO forces is part of the Sorosian "business strategy"
designed to
forestall and ultimately nullify the claims of two European companies
derived from
contracts signed with the Serbs. As the ICG report puts it:
"In July 1999, shortly after the conquest of Kosovo, one Jean-Pierre
Rozan showed
up claiming that 2.8% ownership of Trepca belonged to the Paris-based
SCMM, of
which he was a director. Rozan's claim was based on an agreement with
Belgrade, in
which SCMM took over Jugobanka's subsidiary in Kosovo as a result of
Belgrade's
default.
SOROSIAN ETHNIC CLEANSING
The ICG derides the Société Commerciale de Métaux et de Minéraux (SCMM)
claim as being without foundation on the somewhat questionable grounds
that the
French government is giving it no backing. But just in case this is not
enough, they
throw another factor into their argument that Rozan's claim must be
summarily
dismissed. This being Kosovo, there is an ethnic angle in all this,
underscored by the
ICG report,
"Some Kosovar Albanians, always ready to believe in a conspiracy however
unlikely,
are prepared to perceive SCMM as part of a wider Franco-Serbian
understanding,
which incorporates French KFOR acquiescence in the partition of
Mitrovicë, French
economic interests in Trepca, and even the appointment of Dr Bernard
Kouchner
himself as head of UNMIK and Special Representative of the UN
Secretary-General.
The recent award of a GSM telecommunications concession, regardless of
the
transparency of the process, to French company Alcatel, has fueled the
suspicions of
such conspiracy-theorists."
OUR CONSPIRACY THEORIES, AND THEIRS
Soros and his hired hands have an inherent hostility to "conspiracy
theorists," quite
naturally, but that doesn't stop them from placing the blame for
everything that goes
wrong in the Balkans on Slobodan Milosevic
"To other veteran observers of the Balkans, however, the involvement of
SCMM looks
like a Miloševic-style attempt to create a diversion (including by
encouraging exactly
that Balkan and Kosovar propensity for conspiracy-identification
outlined above),
and confuse the thinking of international officials charged with working
out the
problem. By putting this and other claims to due process of arbitration,
and meanwhile
getting on with what needs to be done, the problem can be neatly
sidestepped. "
ARREST THAT MAN!
How's that for a conspiracy theory? SCMM's claims are all part of a plot
by
Milosevic to "create a diversion." How convenient for Soros & Company
that their
chief competitors turn out to be enemy agents. Now that the NATO-crats
have
definitively settled the question of the ownership of the Trepca mines
by force of arms,
the next logical step is to lock up Monsieur Rozan and be done with it.
In any case, it is
clear that the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo will be carried out in the
mines, if the ICG has
anything to say about it. The author of the ICG report notes with some
irritation that:
"The UNMIK regional office in Mitrovica meanwhile occupies the Jugobanka
building
and continues to display Jugobanka insignia in the very meeting room to
which
Kosovars are invited to discuss Trepca – some report that they feel
uneasy in such
surroundings. Rozan, as 'owner' of Jugobanka and the building, is
demanding rent,
which UNMIK has refused to pay."
OUR ORWELLIAN AGE
Who cares about property rights when those poor sensitive souls, the
Kosovars,
reportedly feel "uncomfortable" in close proximity to anything Serbian,
even a
company logo. The ICG is basically making the argument that the ethnic
cleansing of
Kosovo must be completed: not only churches and other historical
monuments must be
destroyed – and there is hardly a Serbian church left standing in Kosovo
– but everything
Serbian must go. The ICG describes itself as a "private, multinational"
organization
devoted to strengthening the capacity of the international community to
anticipate,
understand and act to contain and prevent conflict." In our Orwellian
age this means a
government-connected tool of corporate plunderers devoted to
anticipating the profits
to be made from military conflict, and acting to furthering the
interests of war profiteers.
THE GREEK CLAIM
Another company, the Greek firm of Mytineleos, has a claim through
contracts with
Yugoslav companies to market Trepca's lead and zinc, and this claim is
going to be "a
harder problem than SCMM for UNMIK" as the ICG report admits. With close
ties to
the Greek government, and a sterling international track record for
solidity and
performance, Mytineleos can make a strong case. The report also somewhat
reluctantly notes that
"UNMIK cannot simply ignore claims which may be genuine, and the UN
legal
advisers in New York have concluded that the rights of claimants like
Mytilineos must
go to adjudication. The question arises as to which court. So far that
is left in
abeyance, as is the nature of the legal proceedings themselves. If all
other decisions
are left to depend upon the resolution of this issue, it could be many
years before
Trepca starts working again."
A PROBLEM NEATLY SOLVED
The military occupation of Trepca solves Soros's two major problems by
arrogating
de facto ownership of the mines to "the international community"
embodied by Unmik –
and deftly sidelines the French and the Greeks. Never mind the legal
technicalities, and
the risks of adjudication: just go in there and grab it! This is how the
much-vaunted
"Third Way" between socialism and capitalism, touted by the Clintonians
and their
British Laborite first cousins, works in practice. First, you invade a
country; then you
strip it of its assets, and sell them off to your politically connected
friends, such as Soros
– this is called "privatization," but there is nothing "private" about
it. The source of
Soros's Balkan coup is government power: the armed fist of the State,
and not the
invisible hand of the market. As the declared enemy of laissez-faire
capitalism, which
he rails against in several unbearably pretentious books, Soros
practices what he
preaches: using NATO and the UN as his instruments, he profits from the
plundering of
a proud nation – while his bought-and-paid-for shills rationalize the
schemes of this
modern Visigoth in the name of "humanitarianism" and "multiculturalism."
It kind of makes you want to puke, doesn't it?
A QUESTION NEATLY ANSWERED
For years, Soros funded the American Committee to Save Bosnia, the
Balkan Action
Council, and a plethora of other groups devoted to persuading US policy
makers that
nothing less than American military intervention in the region could
save the Kosovar
Albanians from "genocide." Soros himself spoke out on the issue, and
chided the West
for "appeasing" the Serbs. Now comes the payoff. Trepca is his, or will
be shortly. So
we have finally come up with the answer to the question that has been
haunting us for
over a year: why Kosovo? The answer consists of two words: George Soros.
All you
would-be tycoons out there, take heed: If you want to know what
investment strategy
to follow in era of the Third Way, then Soros has certainly set the
example.
---
Letters
The Guardian (London)
UNITED KINGDOM
Wednesday August 16, 2000
The
first casualty of war.
•It's interesting that Nato seems so concerned about stopping a
Serb-run mine (one of the few enterprises in Kosovo that employs its
dwindling Serb population) from polluting the atmosphere in Kosovo
(Serbs turn on British troops, August 15), but had no problems with
poisoning the entire Balkans by bombing chemical plants and oil
refineries (releasing tons of chemical toxins such as ethylene
dichloride, cynanide, and heavy metals into the atmosphere, ground, and
the Danube river); and using depleted but still radioactive uranium
ammunition and cluster bombs. The issue for Nato isn't about air
pollution - it's about stealing the massive Trepca mining complex for
western capitalists like George Soros.
Dr Michael Pravica
Las Vegas, USA
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
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------------------------------------------------------------
DAL DOCUMENTO UFFICIALE DEL SOROSIANO "INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP"
SULLA STRATEGIA DA SEGUIRE PER SOTTRARRE ALLA JUGOSLAVIA IL COMPLESSO
METALLURGICO DI TREPCA:
Excerpts from -
"International Crisis Group's" thnk-tank instructions on How the West
Should
Take the Trepca Mine Complex In Serbia/Kosovo
International Crisis Group
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/
[See at end of excerpts identity of ICG]
"Trepca: Making Sense of the Labyrinth"
26 November 1999
------
p.2
After nearly three years of economic sanctions instituted as punishment
for
its role in the Bosnian war, Belgrade was looking for ways to acquire
large
injections of cash. Exploiting Trepca seemed a likely option. In
February
1995, new management was installed, and a 'program of revitalization'
was
undertaken. The new team claimed that by the end of 1996 all the
production
plants were back into operation, ore excavation had increased, modern
mining
equipment had been purchased from Sweden, and all the lead and zinc
mines in
Serbia and Montenegro had been brought under the management of the
Trepca
company. Again according to Serbian official sources, in 1996 Trepca had
exported $100 million of products, making it the largest exporting
company in
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.6 Belgrade even planned to bring
mineral concentrates from the Bosnian Serb controlled mine in
Srebrenica,
site of the notorious massacre by Serb forces in July 1995.
------
p.3
The problems of Trepca are many and complex. They include its alleged
liabilities, the question who really owns it and who has been profiting
from
it, the deteriorating condition of its antiquated machinery, its
anachronistically oversized workforce, the scant field of prospective
investors, the disastrous environmental impact of the Zvecan smelter,
and
internal Kosovo politics. Even so, it is critical that at least some
aspects
of the Trepca issue be addressed immediately and not await the
resolution of
the entire nexus of problems. Most urgently, because of its importance
to
Belgrade, Trepca figures centrally in the unresolved security situation
in
Mitrovicë/a and in its current status as a divided city. At least some
of the
talk of a partition of Kosovo arises from the knowledge that control of
Trepca makes a vast difference to the territory's economic prospects.
Reports
of Serbian police in and around Zvecan, of Serb looting, rumours even of
Albanian prisoners being held there - all point to a need for immediate
international action.
------
p.3
It is also urgent that the people of Kosovo begin to see signs of
progress
towards some sort of economic normality. The return to work of even a
few
hundred Kosovar miners would represent, for all Kosovars, the reclaiming
of
their patrimony.
------
p.4
The Structure of the Trepca Conglomerate From Mine to Factory
As already noted, Trepca is a conglomerate which includes not only its
three
key components - Stari Trg9 mine, Zvecan smelter and the Mitrovicë/a
industrial complex - but a total of 41 installations, including some
outside
Kosovo. Trepca encompasses four distinct processes: extraction,
flotation,
smelting, and downstream processing, as well as other production and
marketing units. The Stari Trg mine east of Mitrovicë/a was, in 1989,
responsible for 40-50% of the mining production. Other mines in Kosovo -
Hajvali/Ajvalija, Novo Bërdë/Novo Brdo, Kishnicë/Kisnica, and
Badoc/Badovac -
accounted for roughly another 30% of Trepca's production. Two more
mining
facilities, at Crnac and Belo Brdo, are in the Serb-held areas north of
Mitrovicë/a, while three other mines are outside of Kosovo - these five
mines
are estimated to account for an estimated 20% of Trepca's total mining
extraction.
The minerals taken from Stari Trg are fed into the flotation facility on
the
Stari Trg premises, whereas the minerals extracted from Kosovo's other
four
mines undergo flotation at the Badoc/Badovac plant and those taken from
Crnac
and Belo Brdo are processed in Leposaviq/c. The resulting lead
concentrates
from all these flotation facilities, in addition to that coming from the
mines outside of Kosovo, used to be smelted at Zvecan.
The lead, zinc, silver, gold, cadmium and bismuth then go to such
downstream
facilities as the battery factories in Mitrovicë/a and Pejë/Pec, the
FAMIPA
factory in Prizren, and a hunting munitions factory in
Skënderaj/Srbica.
Hydrogen sulphide from Zvecan is processed in Mitrovicë/a's industrial
chemical plant, and the zinc and cadmium, after being processed in
Mitrovicë/a, are then sent to Gjilan/Gnjiljane for further industrial
processing.
The Environmental Concerns at Zvecan
The Trepca conglomerate has had a long history of environmental
problems.
During the 1980s a Trepca plant that produced agricultural chemicals was
blamed for producing fertilizers with such high super phosphate strength
that
livestock died after grazing on treated land. The worst pollution comes
from
the smelter in Zvecan, just a few kilometres northwest of Mitrovicë/a.
The
river Ibar runs past the smelter, before flowing through the city of
Mitrovicë/a and then into the Gazivoda Lake and so into Serbia proper.
Sulphur dioxide as a by-product of the metallurgical process is released
into
the air. With little or no investment in the plant over the last ten
years
the equipment has not been updated to meet increasingly stringent modern
standards.11 Some Kosovar experts also fear that current smelting
practices
as run by the Serbs are environmentally worse than those of ten years
ago.
They suspect that ore concentrates coming from as far away as Colombia
contain far higher levels of mercury and arsenic than is allowed by
international standards.12 Both Kosovar and international officials
stress
the importance of an in-depth and technically competent environmental
assessment of this outdated and run-down plant.
------
p. 13
Serbia
More serious repercussions could occur in Serbia. None of the opposition
leaders in Serbia has ever tolerated the idea of an independent Kosovo.
On
the contrary Serbian politicians compete to be 'most Serb' over Kosovo.
A key
issue over the next few months will be not only the developments in the
relationship between Montenegro and Serbia but the possibility of
elections
in Serbia itself. The question arises as to what effect firm UNMIK
action on
Trepca would do to the chances of the opposition to weaken or topple the
Milosevic regime. Making no bold moves leaves the festering wound of
Mitrovicë/a to be exploited by Milosevic in claiming his ability to
maintain
a key economic foothold in Kosovo. Should UNMIK assume the
administration of
Trepca and take the Zvecan smelter out of Belgrade's hands all Serb
politicians would have to react. Milosevic would continue to foster the
notion of the great US-EU conspiracy against the Serbs. Vojislav Seselj
would
likely take a stronger line and issue violent threats as he has done on
many
occasions. Opposition leaders like Djindjic and Draskovic would also
likely
deplore the international community's action. However they could exploit
the
argument that the 'loss' was due to the pariah status of
Milosevic himself, so that once again Serbia has lost assets due to his
presence in office. So provided action were taken before any elections
in
Serbia it need not upset, and might contribute to, any strategy for
unseating
Milosevic.
------
p.14
An initial assessment of Stari Trg has already been made: the priority
now
must be to produce a game-plan of measures whether easy and quick or
depending on major investment of money and time, and vigorous attempts
made
to interest donors - Trepca featured as a separate issue neither in the
World
Bank's twin recent reports on Kosovo reconstruction 43 nor at the 17
November
donors' conference in Brussels. Yet Stari Trg, one of the richest mines
in
Europe, must be potentially profitable again and should be a priority
for
donors interested in setting Kosovo on its feet.
------
p.15
Simply handing Trepca over to the Kosovars is ruled out by the shortage
of
modern skills available locally, the need for internationally-verifiable
standards to avoid corruption, and the sheer scale of damage and
degradation
at the various installations. But the people of Kosovo must be included
in
the process. An energetic approach should be taken during the assessment
and
start-up period in attempting to define a consensus amongst the Kosovars
-
meaning the Albanian parties and the Serb professional workforce, since
the
Albanians will not treat with the Belgrade-appointed management of the
combine.
------
p.15
The social impact of the reduced workforce would need to be balanced
against
the need for competitively based private investment
------
p.15
The workforce and management of all Trepca facilities should be selected
on a
merit basis only. Kosovars - living in Kosovo, regardless of ethnicity -
should have preference to work at any Trepca facility.44 But no one with
ties
to the Belgrade regime should be considered.
Finally, looking beyond Kosovo's boundaries, it would be better to have
accomplished the first key steps of this approach before a Serbian
election
campaign in order that the perception of 'who lost Kosovo' falls on the
rightful culprit, Slobodan Milosevic, and to avoid the perception that
a
new, with luck more progressive government, can be accused of 'losing
Trepca'.
------
p.16
Recommendations
UNMIK should as a priority build up the staff capacity to assert total
control over Trepca in accordance with the terms of its stewardship of
Kosovo, take over the installations and announce a modest programme of
action
for a 'pre-donor phase' of rehabilitation.
------
p.16
A court of adjudication should be nominated for claims, in the knowledge
that
this court will probably act very slowly, so that the situation on the
ground
will either have to stagnate, or else develop independently of it. The
above
programme should begin before elections in Serbia.
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/
The International Crisis Group (ICG) is a private, multinational
organisation
committed to strengthening the capacity of the international community
to
understand and respond to impending crises.
ICG's approach is grounded in field research. Teams of political
analysts
based on the ground in countries at risk of crisis, gather information
from a
wide range of sources, assess local conditions and produce regular
analytical reports containing practical recommendations targeted at key
international decision-takers.
The next step is advocacy.
ICG reports are distributed widely to officials in foreign ministries
and
international organisations and made available to the general public via
the
organisation's internet site, located at www.crisisweb.org. The
organisation
works closely with governments and the press to highlight key issues
identified in the field and to stimulate discussion of potential policy
responses. The ICG Board - which includes prominent figures from the
fields
of politics, diplomacy, business and the media - is also involved in
helping
to bring ICG reports and recommendations to the attention of senior
policy-makers around the world.
The ICG Board is chaired by former US Senate Majority Leader George
Mitchell,
who recently brokered the "Good Friday" Peace Agreement in Northern
Ireland.
ICG is headquartered in Brussels with a U.S. branch in Washington DC.
The organisation currently operates field projects in seven countries
world
wide: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia, the Federal Republic
of
Yugoslavia, Algeria, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
ICG raises funds from the European Union, governments, charitable
foundations, companies and individual donors. The following governments
currently have funding agreements with ICG: Austria, Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway,
the
Republic of China (Taiwan), Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.
Private sector donors include the Blaustein Foundation, the Fares
Foundation,
the Hewlett Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Open
Society
Institute, the Smith Richardson Foundation and the U.S. Institute of
Peace.
November 1999
Board of Trustees November 1999
George Soros Chairman, Open Society Institute
Senator George J. Mitchell, Chairman Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Morton Abramowitz Former US Assistant Secretary of State
Hon Gareth Evans QC, ICG President Former Foreign Minister of Australia
Gianfranco Dell'Alba Member of the European Parliament
Oscar Arias Sanchez Former President of Costa Rica; Nobel Peace Prize,
1987
Ersin Arioglu Chairman, Yapi Merkezi, Turkey
Christoph Bertram Director, Science and Policy Foundation
Alan Blinken Former US Ambassador to Belgium
Maria Livanos Cattaui Secretary-General, International Chamber of
Commerce
Mong Joon Chung Member of the Korean National Assembly
Alain Destexhe ICG President Emeritus, Member of the Belgian Senate.
Mou-Shih Ding Senior Advisor to the President, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Mark Eyskens Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Issam M Fares Chairman, Wedge International
Malcolm Fraser Former Prime Minister of Australia
HRH El-Hassan bin Talal Prince of Jordan Website:
http://www.princehassan.gov.jo
Marianne Heiberg Special Advisor to Director-General of UNESCO
Max Jakobson Former Ambassador of Finland to the UN
Elliott F. Kulick Chairman, Pegasus International
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman Novelist and journalist
Allan J MacEachen Former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
Graça Machel Vice Chair, ICG Former Minister of Education, Mozambique
Nobuo Matsunaga President, Japan Institute for International Affairs
Barbara McDougall Former Secretary of State for External Affairs, Canada
Matthew McHugh Counsellor to the President, The World Bank
Miklós Németh Vice President, European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development; Former Prime Minister of Hungary
Olara Otunnu President, International Peace Academy; Former Foreign
Minister
of Uganda
Wayne Owens President, Center for Middle East Peace and Economic
Cooperation
Shimon Peres Former Prime Minister, Israel; Nobel Prize, 1994
David de Pury Chairman, de Pury Pictet Turettini & Co. Ltd.; Former
Swiss
Trade Ambassador
Cyril Ramaphosa Deputy Executive Chairman, New Africa Investments Ltd.,
South Africa
Michel Rocard Former Prime Minister of France
Christian Schwarz-Schilling Member of Bundestag; Former Minister of Post
and
Telecommunications, Germany
William Shawcross Journalist and author
Michael Sohlman Executive Director, Nobel Foundation, Sweden
Stephen Solarz Vice Chair, ICG Former US Congressman
Pär Stenbäck President, Finnish Red Cross; Former Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Finland
Thorvald Stoltenberg Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway
William O Taylor Chairman, Globe Newspapers Co.,USA
Leo Tindemans Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Ed Turner Former Executive Vice President, Turner Broadcasting Inc., USA
Eduard van Thijn Former Minister of the Interior, The Netherlands;
Former
Mayor of Amsterdam
Simone Veil Former President of the European Parliament; Former Minister
for
Health, France
Shirley Williams Member of the House of Lords; Former Secretary of State
for
Education and Science, United Kingdom
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
SULLA STRATEGIA DA SEGUIRE PER SOTTRARRE ALLA JUGOSLAVIA IL COMPLESSO
METALLURGICO DI TREPCA:
Excerpts from -
"International Crisis Group's" thnk-tank instructions on How the West
Should
Take the Trepca Mine Complex In Serbia/Kosovo
International Crisis Group
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/
[See at end of excerpts identity of ICG]
"Trepca: Making Sense of the Labyrinth"
26 November 1999
------
p.2
After nearly three years of economic sanctions instituted as punishment
for
its role in the Bosnian war, Belgrade was looking for ways to acquire
large
injections of cash. Exploiting Trepca seemed a likely option. In
February
1995, new management was installed, and a 'program of revitalization'
was
undertaken. The new team claimed that by the end of 1996 all the
production
plants were back into operation, ore excavation had increased, modern
mining
equipment had been purchased from Sweden, and all the lead and zinc
mines in
Serbia and Montenegro had been brought under the management of the
Trepca
company. Again according to Serbian official sources, in 1996 Trepca had
exported $100 million of products, making it the largest exporting
company in
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.6 Belgrade even planned to bring
mineral concentrates from the Bosnian Serb controlled mine in
Srebrenica,
site of the notorious massacre by Serb forces in July 1995.
------
p.3
The problems of Trepca are many and complex. They include its alleged
liabilities, the question who really owns it and who has been profiting
from
it, the deteriorating condition of its antiquated machinery, its
anachronistically oversized workforce, the scant field of prospective
investors, the disastrous environmental impact of the Zvecan smelter,
and
internal Kosovo politics. Even so, it is critical that at least some
aspects
of the Trepca issue be addressed immediately and not await the
resolution of
the entire nexus of problems. Most urgently, because of its importance
to
Belgrade, Trepca figures centrally in the unresolved security situation
in
Mitrovicë/a and in its current status as a divided city. At least some
of the
talk of a partition of Kosovo arises from the knowledge that control of
Trepca makes a vast difference to the territory's economic prospects.
Reports
of Serbian police in and around Zvecan, of Serb looting, rumours even of
Albanian prisoners being held there - all point to a need for immediate
international action.
------
p.3
It is also urgent that the people of Kosovo begin to see signs of
progress
towards some sort of economic normality. The return to work of even a
few
hundred Kosovar miners would represent, for all Kosovars, the reclaiming
of
their patrimony.
------
p.4
The Structure of the Trepca Conglomerate From Mine to Factory
As already noted, Trepca is a conglomerate which includes not only its
three
key components - Stari Trg9 mine, Zvecan smelter and the Mitrovicë/a
industrial complex - but a total of 41 installations, including some
outside
Kosovo. Trepca encompasses four distinct processes: extraction,
flotation,
smelting, and downstream processing, as well as other production and
marketing units. The Stari Trg mine east of Mitrovicë/a was, in 1989,
responsible for 40-50% of the mining production. Other mines in Kosovo -
Hajvali/Ajvalija, Novo Bërdë/Novo Brdo, Kishnicë/Kisnica, and
Badoc/Badovac -
accounted for roughly another 30% of Trepca's production. Two more
mining
facilities, at Crnac and Belo Brdo, are in the Serb-held areas north of
Mitrovicë/a, while three other mines are outside of Kosovo - these five
mines
are estimated to account for an estimated 20% of Trepca's total mining
extraction.
The minerals taken from Stari Trg are fed into the flotation facility on
the
Stari Trg premises, whereas the minerals extracted from Kosovo's other
four
mines undergo flotation at the Badoc/Badovac plant and those taken from
Crnac
and Belo Brdo are processed in Leposaviq/c. The resulting lead
concentrates
from all these flotation facilities, in addition to that coming from the
mines outside of Kosovo, used to be smelted at Zvecan.
The lead, zinc, silver, gold, cadmium and bismuth then go to such
downstream
facilities as the battery factories in Mitrovicë/a and Pejë/Pec, the
FAMIPA
factory in Prizren, and a hunting munitions factory in
Skënderaj/Srbica.
Hydrogen sulphide from Zvecan is processed in Mitrovicë/a's industrial
chemical plant, and the zinc and cadmium, after being processed in
Mitrovicë/a, are then sent to Gjilan/Gnjiljane for further industrial
processing.
The Environmental Concerns at Zvecan
The Trepca conglomerate has had a long history of environmental
problems.
During the 1980s a Trepca plant that produced agricultural chemicals was
blamed for producing fertilizers with such high super phosphate strength
that
livestock died after grazing on treated land. The worst pollution comes
from
the smelter in Zvecan, just a few kilometres northwest of Mitrovicë/a.
The
river Ibar runs past the smelter, before flowing through the city of
Mitrovicë/a and then into the Gazivoda Lake and so into Serbia proper.
Sulphur dioxide as a by-product of the metallurgical process is released
into
the air. With little or no investment in the plant over the last ten
years
the equipment has not been updated to meet increasingly stringent modern
standards.11 Some Kosovar experts also fear that current smelting
practices
as run by the Serbs are environmentally worse than those of ten years
ago.
They suspect that ore concentrates coming from as far away as Colombia
contain far higher levels of mercury and arsenic than is allowed by
international standards.12 Both Kosovar and international officials
stress
the importance of an in-depth and technically competent environmental
assessment of this outdated and run-down plant.
------
p. 13
Serbia
More serious repercussions could occur in Serbia. None of the opposition
leaders in Serbia has ever tolerated the idea of an independent Kosovo.
On
the contrary Serbian politicians compete to be 'most Serb' over Kosovo.
A key
issue over the next few months will be not only the developments in the
relationship between Montenegro and Serbia but the possibility of
elections
in Serbia itself. The question arises as to what effect firm UNMIK
action on
Trepca would do to the chances of the opposition to weaken or topple the
Milosevic regime. Making no bold moves leaves the festering wound of
Mitrovicë/a to be exploited by Milosevic in claiming his ability to
maintain
a key economic foothold in Kosovo. Should UNMIK assume the
administration of
Trepca and take the Zvecan smelter out of Belgrade's hands all Serb
politicians would have to react. Milosevic would continue to foster the
notion of the great US-EU conspiracy against the Serbs. Vojislav Seselj
would
likely take a stronger line and issue violent threats as he has done on
many
occasions. Opposition leaders like Djindjic and Draskovic would also
likely
deplore the international community's action. However they could exploit
the
argument that the 'loss' was due to the pariah status of
Milosevic himself, so that once again Serbia has lost assets due to his
presence in office. So provided action were taken before any elections
in
Serbia it need not upset, and might contribute to, any strategy for
unseating
Milosevic.
------
p.14
An initial assessment of Stari Trg has already been made: the priority
now
must be to produce a game-plan of measures whether easy and quick or
depending on major investment of money and time, and vigorous attempts
made
to interest donors - Trepca featured as a separate issue neither in the
World
Bank's twin recent reports on Kosovo reconstruction 43 nor at the 17
November
donors' conference in Brussels. Yet Stari Trg, one of the richest mines
in
Europe, must be potentially profitable again and should be a priority
for
donors interested in setting Kosovo on its feet.
------
p.15
Simply handing Trepca over to the Kosovars is ruled out by the shortage
of
modern skills available locally, the need for internationally-verifiable
standards to avoid corruption, and the sheer scale of damage and
degradation
at the various installations. But the people of Kosovo must be included
in
the process. An energetic approach should be taken during the assessment
and
start-up period in attempting to define a consensus amongst the Kosovars
-
meaning the Albanian parties and the Serb professional workforce, since
the
Albanians will not treat with the Belgrade-appointed management of the
combine.
------
p.15
The social impact of the reduced workforce would need to be balanced
against
the need for competitively based private investment
------
p.15
The workforce and management of all Trepca facilities should be selected
on a
merit basis only. Kosovars - living in Kosovo, regardless of ethnicity -
should have preference to work at any Trepca facility.44 But no one with
ties
to the Belgrade regime should be considered.
Finally, looking beyond Kosovo's boundaries, it would be better to have
accomplished the first key steps of this approach before a Serbian
election
campaign in order that the perception of 'who lost Kosovo' falls on the
rightful culprit, Slobodan Milosevic, and to avoid the perception that
a
new, with luck more progressive government, can be accused of 'losing
Trepca'.
------
p.16
Recommendations
UNMIK should as a priority build up the staff capacity to assert total
control over Trepca in accordance with the terms of its stewardship of
Kosovo, take over the installations and announce a modest programme of
action
for a 'pre-donor phase' of rehabilitation.
------
p.16
A court of adjudication should be nominated for claims, in the knowledge
that
this court will probably act very slowly, so that the situation on the
ground
will either have to stagnate, or else develop independently of it. The
above
programme should begin before elections in Serbia.
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/
The International Crisis Group (ICG) is a private, multinational
organisation
committed to strengthening the capacity of the international community
to
understand and respond to impending crises.
ICG's approach is grounded in field research. Teams of political
analysts
based on the ground in countries at risk of crisis, gather information
from a
wide range of sources, assess local conditions and produce regular
analytical reports containing practical recommendations targeted at key
international decision-takers.
The next step is advocacy.
ICG reports are distributed widely to officials in foreign ministries
and
international organisations and made available to the general public via
the
organisation's internet site, located at www.crisisweb.org. The
organisation
works closely with governments and the press to highlight key issues
identified in the field and to stimulate discussion of potential policy
responses. The ICG Board - which includes prominent figures from the
fields
of politics, diplomacy, business and the media - is also involved in
helping
to bring ICG reports and recommendations to the attention of senior
policy-makers around the world.
The ICG Board is chaired by former US Senate Majority Leader George
Mitchell,
who recently brokered the "Good Friday" Peace Agreement in Northern
Ireland.
ICG is headquartered in Brussels with a U.S. branch in Washington DC.
The organisation currently operates field projects in seven countries
world
wide: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia, the Federal Republic
of
Yugoslavia, Algeria, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
ICG raises funds from the European Union, governments, charitable
foundations, companies and individual donors. The following governments
currently have funding agreements with ICG: Austria, Belgium, Canada,
Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway,
the
Republic of China (Taiwan), Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.
Private sector donors include the Blaustein Foundation, the Fares
Foundation,
the Hewlett Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Open
Society
Institute, the Smith Richardson Foundation and the U.S. Institute of
Peace.
November 1999
Board of Trustees November 1999
George Soros Chairman, Open Society Institute
Senator George J. Mitchell, Chairman Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Morton Abramowitz Former US Assistant Secretary of State
Hon Gareth Evans QC, ICG President Former Foreign Minister of Australia
Gianfranco Dell'Alba Member of the European Parliament
Oscar Arias Sanchez Former President of Costa Rica; Nobel Peace Prize,
1987
Ersin Arioglu Chairman, Yapi Merkezi, Turkey
Christoph Bertram Director, Science and Policy Foundation
Alan Blinken Former US Ambassador to Belgium
Maria Livanos Cattaui Secretary-General, International Chamber of
Commerce
Mong Joon Chung Member of the Korean National Assembly
Alain Destexhe ICG President Emeritus, Member of the Belgian Senate.
Mou-Shih Ding Senior Advisor to the President, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Mark Eyskens Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Issam M Fares Chairman, Wedge International
Malcolm Fraser Former Prime Minister of Australia
HRH El-Hassan bin Talal Prince of Jordan Website:
http://www.princehassan.gov.jo
Marianne Heiberg Special Advisor to Director-General of UNESCO
Max Jakobson Former Ambassador of Finland to the UN
Elliott F. Kulick Chairman, Pegasus International
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman Novelist and journalist
Allan J MacEachen Former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada
Graça Machel Vice Chair, ICG Former Minister of Education, Mozambique
Nobuo Matsunaga President, Japan Institute for International Affairs
Barbara McDougall Former Secretary of State for External Affairs, Canada
Matthew McHugh Counsellor to the President, The World Bank
Miklós Németh Vice President, European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development; Former Prime Minister of Hungary
Olara Otunnu President, International Peace Academy; Former Foreign
Minister
of Uganda
Wayne Owens President, Center for Middle East Peace and Economic
Cooperation
Shimon Peres Former Prime Minister, Israel; Nobel Prize, 1994
David de Pury Chairman, de Pury Pictet Turettini & Co. Ltd.; Former
Swiss
Trade Ambassador
Cyril Ramaphosa Deputy Executive Chairman, New Africa Investments Ltd.,
South Africa
Michel Rocard Former Prime Minister of France
Christian Schwarz-Schilling Member of Bundestag; Former Minister of Post
and
Telecommunications, Germany
William Shawcross Journalist and author
Michael Sohlman Executive Director, Nobel Foundation, Sweden
Stephen Solarz Vice Chair, ICG Former US Congressman
Pär Stenbäck President, Finnish Red Cross; Former Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Finland
Thorvald Stoltenberg Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway
William O Taylor Chairman, Globe Newspapers Co.,USA
Leo Tindemans Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Ed Turner Former Executive Vice President, Turner Broadcasting Inc., USA
Eduard van Thijn Former Minister of the Interior, The Netherlands;
Former
Mayor of Amsterdam
Simone Veil Former President of the European Parliament; Former Minister
for
Health, France
Shirley Williams Member of the House of Lords; Former Secretary of State
for
Education and Science, United Kingdom
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
ANCORA SULLA OCCUPAZIONE DEL COMPLESSO DI TREPCA
E GLI ENORMI INTERESSI CHE CI SONO DIETRO
La NATO, nota organizzazione di soccorso umanitario, dopo avere
devastato
il petrolchimico di Pancevo e cosparso di DU mezzi Balcani, ha ora
deciso
di impegnarsi per la salubrita' dell'aria: con questa scusa ridicola ha
infatti chiuso e preso possesso del complesso metallurgico di Trepca,
comprese le preziose miniere, occupando anche tutta l'area nord di
Kosovska Mitrovica, l'unica della zona ancora non ripulita etnicamente
dai
terroristi dell'UCK (alleati della NATO).
Tutte cose previste e dette gia' dall'inizio del conflitto per il
Kosovo,
conflitto che niente ha mai avuto a che vedere con presunti diritti
delle
minoranze. Attraverso la albanizzazione totale dell'area la NATO mira a
ricostruire lo status quo del nazifascismo (Grande Albania)
appoggiandosi
sul nazionalismo locale, come ha gia' fatto con tutte le altre
secessioni
e come si appresta a fare con il Montenegro; e contestualmente
mira a stabilirsi permanentemente al centro del Balcani prendendo pieno
possesso delle ricchezze jugoslave dell'area.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 24, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
Kosovo
NATO TROOPS SEIZE MINING COMPLEX
By Sara Flounders
Claiming they were concerned about controlling air
pollution, some 3,000 NATO soldiers stormed a lead smelting
plant in Zvecan at 4:30 in the morning of Aug. 14. The plant
was the only functioning industry in the vast Trepca mining
complex in northern Kosovo, a few miles from the city of
Mitrovica.
At 6:30 a.m., in a further attack that had nothing to do
with air pollution, NATO soldiers closed down and
confiscated the equipment of Zvecan's Radio S--the only
station that dared to report information critical of NATO.
The northern part of Mitrovica is the only remaining multi-
ethnic part of Kosovo. Thousands of Serbs, Romani people,
Slavic Muslims, other nationalities and peoples of mixed
backgrounds have been driven out of other areas by Kosovo
Liberation Army thugs and vigilante groups. Many have fled
to the north side of the Iber river.
There, with the local Serbian population, they have resisted
more than a year of KLA attacks in an economically
devastated region.
The surprise attack by NATO shut down the only radio station
and the main source of employment for the local population.
The mines, with their smelting, refining and power centers,
once constituted one of Yugoslavia's leading export
industries and a main source of hard currency. It was the
major source of jobs in the region.
Defending the pre-dawn attack, Bernard Kouchner, the head of
the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said, "As a
doctor and chief administrator of Kosovo I would be derelict
if I allowed a threat to the health of children and pregnant
women to continue for one more day." UNMIK is the police
force set up by NATO to administer Kosovo.
Kouchner has never had a word of criticism for the
environmental havoc NATO created throughout the entire
region with the use of depleted uranium weapons, the bombing
of chemical plants and the use of cluster bombs.
If you find it hard to accept that NATO is suddenly
concerned with pollution, it's worth looking for what is
really at stake.
'MOST VALUABLE PIECE OF REAL ESTATE'
On July 8, 1998, New York Times reporter Chrisopher Hedges
wrote, "The sprawling state-owned Trepca mining complex is
the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans."
Hedges described glittering veins of lead, cadmium, zinc,
gold and silver.
The Stari Trg mine is ringed with smelting plants, 17 metal
treatment sites, warehouses, freight yards, railroad lines,
a power plant and the country's largest battery plant. It is
the richest lead and zinc mine in Europe. There are also 17
billion tons of coal.
It was George Soros, the multi-billionaire financier, who
wrote Kouchner's script.
Paris-based journalist Diana Johnstone, in a Feb. 28 report,
described a policy paper by the International Crisis Group.
This is a think tank set up by Soros to provide guidance in
the NATO-led reshaping of the Balkans.
The think tank publicly called on Kouch ner to take over the
management of Trepca and to use the pretext of environmental
hazards to shut the Zvecan smelter down.
The Soros group stressed that the takeover should happen
before new elections in Yugoslavia so that the opposition
could blame Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for the
loss of Trepca. The elections are now six weeks away.
At the time this proposal was made there was no pollution--
the lead smelter was not even in operation. It was closed
for several months after the NATO bombing.
Production in this state-owned industry started again only
two months ago, at great sacrifice and expense. The hard
currency it could have earned was desperately needed to
rebuild Yugoslavia's ravaged economy.
SKIMMING THE PROFITS
With the seizure of the smelting plant in Zvenca, NATO will
control the entire Trepca complex.
Proving once again that NATO is the military arm to insure
primarily U.S. corporate control, the first move after
seizing the complex was to turn it over to a consortium of
private mining companies. This consortium--ITT Kosovo Ltd.--
is a joint venture of U.S., French and Swedish companies.
The most interesting partner in this deal to control Trepca
is the U.S. company Morrison Knudsen International. On July
7 Morrison Knudsen merged with Raytheon Engineers and
Constructors, a major military contractor that makes Patriot
missiles and radar equipment for the Pentagon.
This is an enormously lucrative deal. ITT Kosovo Ltd. will
administer Trepca, appoint executives and a board of
directors, develop the investment strategy and skim the
greatest profits from every possible deal.
Those in the Albanian population who hold illusions that
control by these corporations will mean the return of the
thousands of well-paid, secure jobs with benefits that
existed before the war should read the plans multi-
billionaire Soros has in store.
Once NATO has control of the whole industrial complex,
according to the International Crisis Group, foreign
investors will develop a very modern, highly profitable
facility with a small workforce.
In this outright theft of an industry that was built by the
efforts of all the peoples of Yugoslavia, Soros's think tank
recommends that the management and administration be made up
of foreign executives "in order to prevent corruption"!
- END -
(Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
ww@.... For subscription info send message to:
info@.... Web: http://www.workers.org)
---
Sempre di Sarah Flounders, gia' nel 1998 un articolo spiegava tutta la
problematica delle miniere:
"Kosovo: la guerra e' per le miniere"
KOSOVO: "THE WAR IS ABOUT THE MINES"
http://www.marx2001.org/crj/DOCS/flou_mines.html
---
TREPCA - PHONE NUMBERS
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
On August 14th NATO forces swooped down into the Zvecan smelter in
Kosovo
and seized the last remaining bit of Yugoslav government owned property
- the
Trepca mining complex. This action directly violates UN Security
Council
Resolution 1244 which concluded the war and reafirmed Yugoslav
sovereignty
over the province. Workers were greeted with a shower of tear-gas and
rubber
bullets as they went to work on Monday. Since then Kosovska Mitrovica's
workers have been holding daily protests in front the plant, while a
dozen
members of the plants management are still refusing to leave the offices
of
the smelter. It now appears that the US-backed administrator of Kosovo,
Bernard Kouchner (who rules by decree) has decided to hand over these
Yugoslav state properties to a Western mining consortium ITT Kosovo
consisting of:
- the Washington Group (a big US DOD and DOE contractor, created through
the
merger of Morisson Knudsen International and Raytheon Engineering and
Construction Corp.),
- Boliden Ltd. (a Canadian firm that's been involved in some major
environmental disasters and whose Swedish subsidiary Boliden-Contech is
directly involved in the project), and
- TEC-Ingenierie (a French mining firm).
This is your chance to prevent the militaristic takeover of a
critical
lifeline for Kosovo's embattled ethnic-communities like the Serbs, Roma,
Muslim Slavs, Montenegrins, Turks, Goranies, Egyptians, and non-KLA
supporting Albanians, who have suffered greatly since the NATO
occupation of
the province a year ago. With 300,000 already ethnically cleansed from
Kosovo, and the remainder of the provinces minorities living in
ethnic-ghettoes ringed with barbed wire and subjected to almost daily
terrorist attacks, the NATO occupation has rendered the alliances claims
of
"humanitarian intervention" ring hollow. It is now evident that what
was
really at stake was NATO's survival, as well as Kosovo's mineral wealth
and
strategic importance. The largest concentration of minerals in Europe
not in
the hands of Western multinationals was in Kosovo! This is changed with
NATO's commando raid on the Zvecan smelter...Please contact the
following
firms to voice your outrage at this undemocratic, militaristic, and
imperialistic act:
WASHINGTON GROUP
Corporate Headquarters
Tel: (208) 386-5000
BOLIDEN LTD.
Toronto Headquarters
Tel: (416) 216-2272
Boliden-Contech (Swedish subsidiary directly involved in the project)
Tel: (011) 46 8 610 1500 [ask for Stefan Kekel]
TEC INGENIERIE
Tel: (011) 33 1 30 66 27 50
---
Url for this article is www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/inthewee.htm
Trepca Takeover:By the Script
by Jared Israel (8-17-00)
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
In the wee hours of the morning, Monday, August 14, KFOR (that is NATO
forces
in Kosovo) swept into Northern Mitrovica and seized the lead smelting
plant,
part of the fabulously valuable Trepca mining complex.
The excuse given: pollution.
Oh pollution, how hast we suffered in thy good name. Or words to that
effect.
Here's what the 'AP' said, as reported by Richard Hugus in a sharp news
analysis last night:
"Hundreds of NATO-led peacekeeping troops wearing surgical masks against
toxic smoke swept into a Serb-run metal smelting complex." ('Boston
Globe'
August 15, 2000) (1)
Denouncing the takeover as theft, the Yugoslav government quoted the
mine's
managers saying that the "dark satanic mills" stuff was hypocritical
fiction.
The Yugoslav news agency, 'Tanjug', reported:
"According to these [recent test] results, there was .12 milligrams of
lead
per cubic metre (permitted level .15 mg), .019 mg of zinc (permitted
level .4
mg), copper .004 mg (permitted level .01 mg), iron .002 mg (permitted
level
.2 mg), etc.
'"If UNMIK experts are concerned for the children and pregnant women in
Kosovska Mitrovica, they should take care of the waste gases from their
own
heavy-duty vehicles that throng our roads at all hours and poison the
people', the statement said." (2)
What is truly amazing is, in a report posted on Emperor's Clothes Feb.
28,
1999, Diana Johnstone noted that the ICG, an international think tank
that
does some of the thinking for NATO, proposed that the Internationals
seize
the smelter using an environmental excuse - proposed this all months
ago.
'''UNMIK [said the ICG report] and KFOR should implement a rapid and
categorical takeover of the Trepca complex, including the immediate
total
shutdown of the environmentally hazardous facilities at Zvecan'.
''In the 'game-plan of measures' recommended by the ICG, UNMIK is
advised to
instruct a 'Zvecan environmental assessment team' to report on the
status of
the equipment and thereupon 'advise as to what measures must be
taken'...
Environmental hazards are to be the pretext to shut down Zvecan and
deprive
the last Serbs in Kosovo of their livelihood.'' (3)
We have posted the actual ICG report as well at the end of Diana's
analysis
so you can see how the plan for using environmental arguments as a cover
for
theft was originally formulated.
It's unusual for an analyst to discover a document like the ICG report
and
based on this document make a prediction and have it come so completely
true.
Unusual and in this case more than a little horrifying.
But in fact Diana Johnstone didn't just hit one home run here, she hit
two.
She cited a second piece of advice in the ICG report. Some advice about
the
Yugoslav elections. Here's what she wrote:
'''The ICG urges UNMIK to hurry up with the game plan for taking over
the
valuable mining complex before Serbian elections so that a new
government
more to the West's liking cannot be accused of 'losing Trepca'. All
Serbian
leaders, including opposition leaders, the ICG observes, will have to
protest
when UNMIK takes over Trepca and the Zvecan smelter. 'However they could
exploit the argument that the `loss' was due to the pariah status of
Milosevic himself, so that once again Serbia has lost assets due to his
presence in office. So provided action were taken before any elections
in
Serbia it need not upset, and might contribute to, any strategy for
unseating
Milosevic.'''
And low and behold, this prediction of Diana Johnstone's has come true
as
well. Because there are indeed elections scheduled soon in Yugoslavia.
In
those elections, the pro-US 'democratic' opposition (most notably Zoran
Djindjic) has more or less lined up behind a politician little known
outside
Yugoslavia, Vojislav Kostunica of the Democratic Party of Serbia. The
'democratic' opposition is notable for having been promised $100,000,00
by
the US Senate last July, a lot of which has been delivered. (Working for
the
US is the best job in Yugoslavia.) (4)
In a chilling echo of the ICG report, Kostunica has, sure enough, issued
a
statement accusing Milosevich of losing (indeed, of 'trading away'!) the
Trepca mines. Here's the statement. I have restrained myself and only
made a
couple of comments.
KOSTUNICA WRITES: "The game over the "Trepca" complex, whose lead
smelter in
Zvecan has been taken over by the international administration in
Kosovo-Metohija, continues. Instead of the promised 50 German marks,
Unmik
representatives are offering the employees 1,250 dinars as an advance,
in
brand new, unused banknotes. Unmik also possesses lists of all the
employees".
KOSTUNICA CONTINUES: "Therefore, one can rightly ask how Unmik managed
to
come by dinars, and also brand new ones? [Emperors-clothes note: NATO is
the
military arm of the richest Empire in history. Now how could it POSSIBLY
get
hold of a few thousand dinars? Like Du-uh.] How did it obtain the lists
of
employees? [Emperors-clothes note: ditto with the list of employees.
That one
wouldn't even cost Kouchner money.] How is it that Unmik, whose head
Bernard
Kouchner last year introduced the German mark as the only legal tender,
is
now paying in dinars? [One more Emperor's Clothes note: didn't the
Yugo's
grab some guys last year smuggling brand new counterfeit dinars from the
Bosnian Serb 'entity' into Serbia? Weren't they supposed to be agents of
Dodik, a collaborator NATO installed in the Bosnian Serb 'entity'?]
KOSTUNICA ASKS: "Could it be that the Milosevic regime has once again
concluded a secret deal and sold 'Trepca'"?
I ASK: Could it just be that the ICG is stranger than fiction?
"Cut! It's a take! Print it!"
Further reading...
(1) 'Hollywood Invades Kosovo: The NATO Trepca Takeover'
by Richard Hugus at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/hugus/surgical.htm
(2) 'Management Denounced UN Pollution Claims Prior to Seizure of Trepca
Smelter' at www.emperors-clothes.com/news/yugoslav.htm
(3) 'Pro-NATO Thinktank Thought-up Excuse for Grabbing Trepca Smelter
Plant'
at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/Johnstone/howitis.htm
(4) The July 29th Senate hearings on how to help bring 'democracy' to
Serbia
are amazing. They reveal first and foremost the disease which has
possessed
the USA: Empire. The assumption that the US has the right to meddle
infuses
every paragraph of the transcript of testimony and the casual intimacy
with
which these US officials discuss their domination of the leaders of the
Yugoslav 'democratic' opposition is a marvel. 'July 29th Senate Hearings
on
Bringing 'democracy' to Serbia' at
www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/hearin.htm
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
---
MEDIA CENTRE
August 16, 2000
DIVISON OF SPOILS
The takeover of Trepca, Thermal electric power plant "Kosovo B", the
mine,
telephone system..., all create the impression that in Kosovo and
Metohija
the division of spoils, estimated at over ten billion dollars, is
taking
place The true reasons for the 79-day bombing are becoming
increasingly
clear after the signing and enforcement of the "Early House
Declaration",
says Milenko Radic commenting on the KFOR takeover of "Trepca" mining
and
smelter complex.
Organized by the Washington Institute for Peace, a meeting of crucial
importance for the Kosovo Serbs took place in Early House Virginia from
July
21 to 23, 2000. The meeting was attended by 26 representatives of the
Albanian community (including Hashim Taci, Ibrahim Rugova, Redzep Cosja,
Edita Tahiri, Mahmut Bakali, Kacusa Jasari, Ljuljeta Pulja, ...) and 16
"representatives of the Serbian community in Kosovo and Metohija "
(bishop
Artemije, father Sava Janjic, Rada Trajkovic, Randjel Nojkic...). At the
end
of the meeting they, "in the name of the Serbian community in Kosovo and
Metohija" signed a DECLARATION, which actually supplements and amends
the UN
SC Resolution 1244.
Regardless of the fact that the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija believe
that
not even the minimum conditions have been fulfilled for their
participation
in the coming elections, this Declaration, singed in their name by the
"representatives of the Serbs" obliges them to respect the legality of
the
elections and their results. At the same time, it authorizes Bernard
Kouchner to use his own discretion in selecting the Serbs to be
appointed
members of municipal councils. Having been given this agreement,
Kouchner
has already scheduled "democratic elections" for October 28, 2000 which
are
already legal for the "representatives of the Serbs", especially since
those
among them Kouchner intends to appoint to future municipal councils in
Kosovo are already known.
With a view to preventing the influence of (imported) radio and TV
programs,
"representatives of the Serbs" authorized Kouchner to undertake the
measures
to prevent that. A few days after the signing, on august 13, Kouchner
closed the single Serbian language radio station in Zvecan which
re-broadcast Radio Belgrade programs.
With this Declaration the "Serbian representatives" asked the KFOR and
UNMIK to close the border towards Serbia, i.e. demanded "more efficient
control of entry" into Kosovo and Metohija.
With this Declaration "the representatives of the Serbs" insist on
urgent
disbanding of all parallel structures of power and security. In addition
they demand from the KFOR and UNMIK to engage in coordinated action to
affirm the authorities in all parts of Kosovo and Metohija, implying the
opposition to the influence of Yugoslavia. If what bishop Artemije says
is
true, namely that he went to the U.S.A. with the patriarchs blessing and
that he did report to him upon his return, it remains unclear why the
fifth
church's instruction has not abolished, requesting "prayer for those in
power". Starting from the Declaration whereby the above-mentioned
"representatives of the Serbs" amended the UN SC Resolution, Bernard
Kouchner, on August 13, assisted by a few hundred armed soldiers,
occupied
Trepca, invoking "health protection from over-pollution". This actually
marks the start of taking the northern parts of Kosovo and Metohija away
from Serbs.
This Declaration, in addition to other requests, instructs the KFOR and
UNMIK to disband all unauthorized security forces operating in Kosovo,
but
are not from Kosovo. Judging by numerous statements of the "Serbian
representatives" one gets the impression that the unauthorized operators
in
this sense are the Serbian security units.
The takeover of Trepca, Thermal electric power plant "Kosovo B", the
mine,
telephone system..., all create the impression that in Kosovo and
Metohija
the division of spoils, estimated at over ten billion dollars, is
taking
place The true reasons for the 79-day bombing are becoming
increasingly
clear after the signing and enforcement of the "Early House
Declaration".
(The author is president of the Fund for the Development of Democracy.)
---
UN to start lengthy repairs of Kosovo mine complex
By Sean Maguire
MITROVICA, Yugoslavia, Aug 14 (Reuters) - The United Nations said on
Monday
it would take one to three years of repairs before Kosovo's dilapidated
Trepca mine complex could produce commercially viable quantities of
metals.
NATO-led peacekeepers seized control of Serb-held parts of the Trepca
group
on Monday for the U.N., which runs Kosovo as a de facto protectorate, to
enable it to shut down the Zvecan smelter which it said was polluting
the air
with lead fumes.
But the seizure of Zvecan, part of the Trepca group, has also finally
given
the U.N. control of the entire complex and allowed it to hire a
consortium of
mining companies to begin a revamp of the mining and metallurgy industry
in
northern Kosovo.
"Now we can get to work to bring Trepca back to life, and back to the
people
of Kosovo," said the head of the Kosovo U.N. mission, Bernard Kouchner.
Some $16 million of aid money from the EU, United States, France, Italy,
Holland and Sweden will pay for the work of ITT Kosovo Consortium Ltd, a
joint venture of TEC-Ingenierie of France, Sweden's Boliden
Contech<BOL.ST>
and Morrison Knudsen International<MK.N> of the United States.
Trepca comprises 14 mines yielding lead, zinc, gold and silver, plus
nine
flotation plants, two metallurgy plants and 14 factories. All facilities
are
in very poor repair, with many of them almost derelict.
An earlier U.N.-commissioned study judged that parts of the mining
complex
could be made safe and economically viable with sufficient investment
and
Italian engineers have already done emergency work to prevent one of the
larger mines from flooding.
The ITT Kosovo consortium will assess what facilities can be rescued and
what
needs to be done to restart production. But Bernard Salome, Kouchner's
chief
economic adviser, warned it might be as much as three years before
significant output appeared.
OUTPUT FORECASTS EXAGGERATED
Trepca's once prodigious output of lead, as much as 90,000 tonnes
annually
before the break-up of Yugoslavia, has dwindled to almost nothing over
the
last decade, with production halting when NATO's 78-day bombing campaign
starting in March 1999.
Serbs fled most of Kosovo when NATO troops entered and they became
victims of
revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians but clung on in the northern
Mitrovica
area around Zvecan.
With Belgrade eager for the hard currency to be made from selling lead
in
Europe, Serb managers restarted production in June. But local mining
experts
said the Zvecan plant had been running at below 10 percent capacity.
"The average capacity utilisation in lead metallurgy and refinery has
been
below 10 percent, more precisely it stood at around 6.0 percent since
the
beginning of the year," Desimir Petkovic, a former Trepca manager, told
Reuters.
In February, the head of the Trepca mining and smelting complex, Novak
Bijelic, was quoted by official Yugoslav news agency as saying Trepca
would
produce 46,500 tonnes of lead, 25,000 tonnes of silver and 100 kilograms
of
gold this year.
But international traders, who spoke under condition of anonymity due to
various international financial sanctions, said there was no way the
smelter
could have achieved that goal.
"It's wishful thinking. They would need between 70,000 and 100,000
tonnes of
concentrate depending on the quality of the ore. There is no chance they
could have obtained it without us knowing it," one trader told Reuters.
In 1998, the year before Belgrade let slip its grip on its rebellious
ethnic
Albanian-dominated Kosovo province, Trepca produced some 40,000 tonnes
of
lead.
(with additional reporting by Gordana Filipovic in Belgrade)
11:18 08-14-00
---
FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
YUGOSLAVIA PROTESTS WITH U.N. OVER KFOR'S STORMING OF TREPCA
NEW YORK, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Yugoslavia's U.N. ambassador has
lodged
a strongly worded protests with the U.N. Security Council over Monday's
storming of the Trepca mining complex in Serbian (Yugoslav)
KosovoMetohija
by the international force KFor.
Ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic wrote to Council President Agam
Hasmy demanding an urgent session of the body over the outrage, and
asked
that the letter be circulated as an official document.
The letter says (official translation):
"I have been instructed by my Government to lodge the strongest
protest on its behalf and to request an urgent meeting of the Security
Council at the armed attack on, and the usurpation of, the RMHK "Trepca"
Shareholding Corporation by the Kosovo Force (KFOR).
"In the night between 13 and 14 August 2000, massive KFOR
forces
carried out an unprovoked brutal attack on "Trepca" near Kosovska
Mitrovica
and occupied it. In doing so, they violated the KFOR mandate and
Security
Council resolution 1244 (1999) of 10 June 1999 in the most flagrant way
so
far.
"KFOR used armed force against peaceful employees and
management
of "Trepca" and the official state representatives, as well as the
peaceful
Serbian population in that part of the Province. Even though the basic
task
of UNMIK and KFOR under Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) is to
guarantee physical and property security of residents, and to provide a
secure environment in the Province, by this attack they have openly
aligned
themselves before the eyes of the entire world public with ethnic
Albanian
separatists and terrorists.
"The attack on, and the occupation of, "Trepca" by KFOR
constitutes the most drastic violation of their mandate and the
provisions
of the Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) so far. This is a unique
case of forces acting under a mandate of the United Nations being
massively
engaged against a peaceful population for the protection of which they
have
been dispatched by the Security Council and accepted by the Government
of
my country. The goals of the demonstration of the armed force of KFOR
are
very clear indeed: the intimidation and expulsion of the Serbian
population, continuation of the ethnic cleansing of Serbs and other
nonAlbanians and an illegal usurpation of "Trepca" and of national,
economic and natural resources.
"The alleged concern of Bernard Kouchner for the protection of
the
environment is yet another cynical and transparent attempt to hoodwink
the
world public opinion and the Security Council, which confirms that the
KFOR
action is completely unfounded and represents the most flagrant and
brazen
violation of the decisions of the Security Council and the norms of the
international law in general. Behind the deception are those who are
responsible for the aggression on my country last year, for the loss of
thousands of human lives, for the humanitarian, economic and
environmental
catastrophe, as well as for the escalation of terrorism and separatism
in
South East Europe and in other parts of the world. They are those who
sowed
over 30,000 bombs with depleted uranium all over Kosovo and Metohija
during
the 3month aerial bombardment the consequences of which are
unforeseeable.
"The action of KFOR and UNMIK is without a precedent and
constitutes an attempt to abuse and manipulate the Security Council.
This
is a blow to the inviolability of property rights and attempt to occupy
natural and economic assets of a sovereign country illegally and by
force.
"Bearing in mind the gravity of the situation and the
consequences
that may arise from such acts, the Government of the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia demands energetically that the Security Council condemn the
takeover of "Trepca" and to bring a decision to return the situation
into
the status quo ante so as to enable "Trepca" and its employees to
continue
normal work. The Government of the FR of Yugoslavia wishes to point out
that it will not recognize the consequences of this violent act nor the
situations that have arisen on the basis of the acts of KFOR and UNMIK.
"Alongside the armed action against "Trepca", KFOR has carried
out
vandal raids against the only remaining organs in the Serbian language
in
Kosovo and Metohija, Radio "S" at Zvecan and the newspaper "Jedinstvo"
in
Pristina. Their offices and equipment have been smashed and destroyed
while
brute force has been used against journalists and other personnel. The
vandal suppression of the Serbianlangauge media with the use of armed
military force continues an unprecedented act and is part of the
extended
collaboration of KFOR and UNMIK with ethnic Albanian separatists and
terrorists on the realization of the concept of ethnic cleansing.
"The aforementioned is a clear confirmation that the overall
activity of UNMIK and KFOR serves the goals that are in full contrast to
Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) and that they are conducive to
the
further exacerbation of the situation with the unforeseeable
consequences.
The Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia expects therefore
from
the Security Council to take, without further delay, concrete and
energetic
measures to finally put under control the activities of its
representatives
and to end their policy of fait accompli that threatens peace and
stability
in the region. It is only in this way that it will be possible to stop a
further erosion of the authority of the United Nations and pave the way
to
a peaceful political solution as provided for by Security Council
resolution 1244 (1999).
"I should be grateful if you would have the present letter
circulated as a document of the Security Council."
YUGOSLAVIA ASKS U.N. AGENCIES TO CONDEMN KFOR'S TREPCA SEIZURE
GENEVA, Aug 16 (Tanjug) Yugoslavia will not recognise any
action
by the U.N. force KFor or the U.N. mission UNMIK in Kosovo Metohija that
runs counter to U.N. Resolution 1244, according to Yugoslavia's U.N.
mission chief in Geneva on Wednesday.
Ambassador Branko Brankovic wrote to this effect to the heads
of
U.N. agencies based in the Swiss capital, in connection with KFor's
storming on Monday of the Trepca lead smelter in the U.N.run
KosovoMetohija
province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.
Letters were sent to Under Secretary General Vladimir
Petrovsky,
High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, High Commissioner for Human
Rights Mary Robinson, and Balkan human rights rapporteur Jiri
Dienstbier,
asking that they resolutely condemn the outrage.
Brankovic said that UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner and KFor
surpass
themselves with their practically daily flagrant violations of
Resolution
1244.
According to Brankovic, the storming of the lead smelter at
Zvecan
is one of the most dangerous moves taken by Kouchner so far, which might
have farreaching consequences for the entire situation and the
normalisation process in the province.
It was clear that the chief reason for KFor's violent storming
of
the Zvecan plant was plunder, ethnic cleansing and an attempt to prevent
KosovoMetohija voting in upcoming Yugoslav federal and Serbian local
elections, Brankovic said.
He added that this kind of behaviour by Kouchner was in
flagrant
violation of the fundamental principles of the U.N. Charter and of the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia.
This behaviour was the height of hypocrisy on the part of
Bernard
Kouchner, designed to justify last year's NATO aggression on Yugoslavia,
Brankovic said.
NATO SUCKS PROFIT OUT OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA, SERBIAN MINISTER AVERS
KRAGUJEVAC, Yugoslavia, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Monday's storming of
the
Trepca smelter at Zvecan, KosovoMetohija, by the U.N. mission (UNMIK) is
NATO's way of encouraging ethnic Albanian extremists and intimidating
Serbs, according to a Serbian minister on Tuesday.
The operation gas clearly exposed a plan for ethnically
cleansing
this U.N.administered Serbian (Yugoslav) province of its Serbs and
Montenegrins for economic reasons, among others, Minister of Energy and
Mining Slobodan Tomovic told TANJUG.
What they are really after is KosovoMetohija's mineral
resources,
Tomovic said.
The "peacekeepers" of UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner have
demonstrated arrogance and force, as well as their intention to conquer
KosovoMetohija, completely flouting agreements and documents they have
themselves signed, he added.
"The West preaches democracy and inviolability of private
property, and all the while its troops seize at arms facilities such as
Trepca, the Obilic thermoelectric power plant, Telecom, and the Pristina
factory of shock absorbers", he said.
TREPCA EXECUTIVES STRONGLY CONDEMN KFOR'S STORMING OF MINING
COMPLEX
BELGRADE, Aug 15 (Tanjug) The shareholdersowners of the Trepca
industrial complex on Tuesday strongly condemned Monday's seizure of the
Zvecan lead smelter by the international force KFor and the U.N.
civilian
mission UNMIK.
A statement released from Trepca's Board of Governors in
Belgrade
condemned also the seizure of the office building in Zvecan, mines in
the
Leposavic area and other facilities.
At its session chaired by Board President Milos Milosavljevic,
the
Board of Governors said it would immediately take all legal and other
steps
to protect the property rights and all other rights of the shareholders.
The body dismissed allegations that Trepca had been sold away
by
the state and the management, and instructed the executives to seek
legal
redress for slander injurious to the reputation of Trepca.
Neither the Trepca general manager nor the Board president have
ever discussed the matter of ownership with KFor or UNMIK, since the
shareholders' property rights in Trepca are indisputable, the statement
said.
Environmental hazards pleaded in justification of the takeover
are
nothing but an excuse to mask the real motives behind the outrage, as
evident from the simultaneous seizure of four Trepca mines at Leposavic,
which pose no threat to the environment.
The Board of Governors instructed Trepca General Manager Novak
Bijelic to work out a production plan which should provide employment
and a
source of income for the employees in the present circumstances.
KOSOVOMETOHIJA OFFICIAL AVERS KFOR WAGES SERB INTIMIDATION
CAMPAIGN
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Serbia, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Monday's storming
of
the Trepca lead smelter at Zvecan, KosovoMetohija, by the international
force KFor was designed to intimidate the local Serbs, according to a
local
government official on Tuesday.
Zdravko Trajkovic, chief administrator of the Kosovska
Mitrovica
District, said the operation demonstrated KFor's bias in favour of
ethnic
Albanian terrorists and was part of an effort to drive Serbs out of this
U.N.run Serbian (Yugoslav) province.
"The brutality and cruelty demonstrated by KFor and UNMIK
members
in dealing with Trepca's workers and the population of Zvecan serve the
purpose of intimidating the people and expelling Serbs from north
KosovoMetohija.
"This falls in with the plans of ethnic Albanian terrorist
leader
Hashim Thaqi", Trajkovic told TANJUG.
The Serbian people are embittered and indignant also at ethnic
Albanians' vandalising of headstones at the Serbian cemetery in the
south,
ethnic Albanianhelp part of ethnically divided Kosovska Mitrovica, he
went
on to say.
What gives special rise to concern at this time, according to
him,
is "the violent arrogance demonstrated by KFor troops," who showed they
do
not shy from the darkest methods in dealing with Serbs and Montenegrins
in
KosovoMetohija.
The people in the Kosovska Mitrovica District, primarily in the
towns of Kosovska Mitrovica and Zvecan, remain determined to defend and
protect these lands, he said, adding that the latest outrage has only
given
them new strength to endure.
RUSSIA BLASTS KFOR'S STORMING OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA'S TREPCA
SMELTER
MOSCOW, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Russia on Tuesday voiced deep concern
over Monday's storming of the Trepca smelter at Zvecan, Kosovo Metohija,
by
the international force KFor and the U.N. civilian mission UNMIK, which
it
saw as a property seizure bid.
The foreign ministry issued a statement to say that U.N.
mission
officials' justification of the takeover by allegations of air pollution
from the lead smelting plant's fumes could not stand up under
criticisism.
Even if there were an environmental threat, which Trepca's
laboratory findings refute, it would still not justify KFor's use of
force,
which was nothing short of an effort to seize assets that do not belong
to
it, the statement said.
UNMIK and its chief, the U.N. secretary general's special envoy
Bernard Kouchner, have again proven their impotence to solve problems,
where they exist, through political dialogue, it added.
The document further said that the U.N. mission's arrogant
seizure
of Trepca was obviously politically motivated and undertaken without the
consent of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia as the owner of the company
in
the eyes of the law.
The ministry called for refraining from any new steps that
might
additionally aggravate the volatile and dangerous situation in that
U.N.administered Serbian province.
YUGOSLAV COMMITTEE - KFOR SEIZES TREPCA AND CARRIES ON AGGRESSION
BELGRADE, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Monday's predawn storming by KFor of
the Trepca lead smelter in Zvecan, KosovoMetohija, is nothing but
continued
aggression by new and dangerous methods, according to Yugoslav and
KosovoMetohija government bodies on Monday.
The Yugoslav committee liaising with the U.N. mission (UNMIK)
and
the KosovoMetohija Provisional Executive Council issued a statement to
say
the latest outrage continued a practice of seizing industrial facilities
in
that U.N.run Serbian (Yugoslav) province, begun with the coming of the
international force KFor and UNMIK in June 1999.
"Sacking of Serbs from their jobs and scenarios such as
poisonings
that attack only one ethnic community have been used several times
before
by the forces that have been given the mandate to secure law and order
in
KosovoMetohija.
"It was precisely this kind of behaviour that has created the
present chaos in the electric power industry, postal services,
Jugopetrol
oil company and others, and the result has been ethnic cleansing and a
genocide.
"Circulating of untrue reports about environmental pollution
only
screen an intention to seize this economic giant, in whose vicinity
miners,
engineers, smelters and their families have lived for a generation, and
they certainly care more about their own health and environment than
KFor
and UNMIK ever could.
"But what we have here is pressure and intimidation, designed
to
ethnically cleanse the area, as has been done with the rest of
KosovoMetohija, which they have been practising for 13 months in plain
view
of the international community and the United Nations.
"Instead of securing equality for all, KFor and UNMIK keep
tensions permanently alive and sow uncertainty among the Serbs and other
nonAlbanians, preventing the people from living normal lives.
"Operation of the international mission from positions of force
has no foundation in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244.
"The Yugoslav Committee and the KosovoMetohija Provisional
Executive Council therefore demand that equal conditions be created for
all
people, that they be given safety, economic security, the right to work,
to
education, health protection, culture and information.
"Since they have not created conditions, in line with their
mandate and Resolution 1244, for the workers of Trepca, Serbian language
Radio S and other institutions to work unhampered, without fear of
violence, the presence of Kfor and UNMIK has lost all meaning and their
departure from KosovoMetohija is inevitable", the statement said.
SERB SERIOUSLY INJURED IN KFOR'S STORMING OF ZVECAN SMELTER
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) A Serb was gravely injured
when international force KFor troops stormed the Trepca smelter in
Zvecan
in U.N.run KosovoMetohija before dawn on Monday.
Five other civilians and four Kfor troops were also injured in
clashes which broke out between the people in Zvecan near the Serbian
(Yugoslav) province's chief city of Pristina and the Kfor troops.
The seriously injured Serb, Igor Stefanovic, aged 27, a worker
at
the plant which worked as part of the Trepca industrial complex, had to
be
hospitalized in nearby Kosovska Mitrovica with a rubber bullet wound to
the
head.
Tanjug learns that some 30 workers, technicians and engineers
who
had barricaded themselves in the office building at the time of the
helicoptersupported KFor operation, left the building in the afternoon.
KFOR ARRESTS AND ORDERS TREPCA MANAGER OUT OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA
RASKA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) The Trepca general manager vowed on
Monday
that, despite the international force KFor's pre dawn storming of
Trepca's
Zvecan lead smelter, Trepca would never give up on its plants in Zvecan
or
anywhere else in KosovoMetohija.
Novak Bijelic, who was late on Sunday arrested by KFor police
without an explanation and then ordered out of KosovoMetohija, was
speaking
for TANJUG in the Serbian town of Raska, outside that U.N.run province
of
the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.
"Fascist occupiers did the same thing in 1941", said Bijelic,
who
was arrested at 8 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) and held for hours before
being thrown out of KosovoMetohija without an explanation.
"The UNMIK (U.N. mission) police chief told me the notorious
criminal Bernard Kouchner had ordered that I must leave the territory of
KosovoMetohija at once and must not even try to come back", Bijelic
said.
Bijelic was born in KosovoMetohija and has lived most of his
adult
life there.
"Fascists expelled me and my parents from Metohija in 1941,
when I
was just a toddler", he added.
According to Bijelic, Trepca's 16 industrial plants in
KosovoMetohija have been destroyed on Kouchner's orders.
As a case in point, he quoted the torching of the zinc
processing
plant in the south, ethnic Albanianpopulated part of ethnically divided
Kosovska Mitrovica.
The flooding of coal mines which had operated as part of the
Serbian electric power company in KosovoMetohija has deprived of their
jobs
many ethnic Albanians too.
"In November 1999, Trepca officially requested UNMIK to pay
indemnity for the damage done to the company's facilities in
KosovoMetohija
in the amount of 192 million dollars", Bijelic said.
This amount has now been greatly augmented and is still
pending,
he added.
He stressed the workers are refusing all invitations to go back
to
work, because this morning's fascist seizure was designed to destroy the
facility and expel Serbs from their ancestral homes in Kosovska
Mitrovica
and Zvecan.
"This is indisputably the aim of Bernard Kouchner", Bijelic
said.
U.N. ENVOY KOUCHNER CARES MORE FOR FACTORY THAN FOR SICK
CHILDREN
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) U.N. mission (UNMIK) chief
Bernard Kouchner's justification of Monday's storming of the Trepca lead
smelter in KosovoMetohija's Zvecan town with environmental reasons has
stunned the people in nearby Kosovska Mitrovica.
The indignant people see the explanation, offered in writing on
Monday, as the height of shamelessness and hypocrisy on the part of the
strutting French doctor who boasts of his socalled humanism.
In the statement, Kouchner alleged that air in Zvecan was
polluted
with lead and that as a doctor and KosovoMetohija's chief administrator
he
would be a criminal if he allowed the threat to the health of the
children
and pregnant women to persist.
After Monday's predawn Zvecan storming operation by the
international force KFor, in which the smelting plant was seized, it is
clear that the allegation was a handy story circulated to justify the
plunder of property and natural resources of the province.
Kouchner never raised his voice when NATO bombs murdered
children
throughout Yugoslavia in last year's aggression more than 80 children
were
killed in the air strikes.
He supported the use of bombs with depleted uranium charges
against KosovoMetohija, which are now causing grave health problems to
KFor
troops.
He never stirred when NATO dropped on KosovoMetohija cluster
bombs
which have killed or maimed 110 children between June 1999 and April
2000.
The good doctor Kouchner was silent also when NATO bombs
demolished hospitals and denied medical assistance to 120,000 pregnant
women and at least as many newborn babies.
And now, he feels morally justified to claim that the seizure
of a
factory at arms was legitimate!
U.N. ENVOYS KOUCHNER AND ORTUNO JUSTIFY TREPCA SEIZURE
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Top officials of the
international force Kfor and the U.N. mission UNMIK in Serbian
(Yugoslav)
KosovoMetohija on Monday pleaded environmental reasons for the predawn
storming of the lead smelting plant in Zvecan.
KFor Commander Juan Ortuno of Spain and UNMIK chief Bernard
Kouchner were speaking at a news conference in ethnically divided
Kosovska
Mitrovica, in its south, ethnic Albanian part.
Ortuno said the Zvecan lead smelter, located not far from that
U.N.run province's chief city of Pristina, and the adjacent Trepca
facilities had been seized by KFor troops, commanded by French General
JeanLouis Soublet, commander of Kfor Sector North.
The operation involved troops from France, Great Britain,
Belgium,
Denmark, Ireland and Pakistan and UNMIK police.
According to Ortuno, Kfor only helped UNMIK police take over
the
smelter, and the number of troops in Zvecan and at Trepca would soon be
reduced to the lowest possible level.
The reasons alleged for the smelter takeover were high levels
of
lead and sulphur dioxide in the air, although Trepca's figures published
last week and information from the Kosovska Mitrovica city hospital
denied
the claim.
Kouchner, for his part, tried with empty rhetoric about care
for
the health of the local population and KFor troops to hide the true aim
of
the operation, which was to plunder private property and natural
resources
of the province.
Kouchner's statement that the smelting plant's management would
be
placed in the hands of a 30member team of engineers and administrators
already well versed in Trepca's affairs shows that the operation was a
deliberate and premeditated plunder campaign.
Kouchner said an agreement would be signed with an
international
consortium which would help administer the Trepca mining complex,
appoint
executives and a Board of Directors from all local communities, but did
not
elaborate.
As for Sunday's arrest and expulsion from the province of
Trepca
Director Novak Bijelic, Kouchner claimed he had taken the decision on
the
strength of U.N. Resolution 1244, Article 2, explaining that Bijelic
would
not be allowed back for three months.
GERMAN MEDIA REPORT ON KFOR'S STORMING OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA'S ZVECAN
BERLIN, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Germany's state news agency DPA and
television reported early on Monday that the international force KFor
stormed and shut down the Zvecan smelter in the Serbian (Yugoslav)
KosovoMetohija province.
Although the report is bare of any comment, the motives behind
the
operation by the U.N. mission UNMIK and Kfor can be clearly discerned.
The German media quote as the reason for the closure lead
pollution and environmental hazards, while saying also that Western
companies will take over the management of the plant.
DPA quoted UNMIK as saying that a contract has been signed with
a
consortium of international mining companies, comprising a German and a
French company, to administer the complex in future.
The report said nothing, however, about the Zvecan smelter
being
the last Serboperated facility of the Trepca complex, and that plans for
the takeover had been in the making long since.
BRITISH PAPER - KFOR'S ZVECAN SMELTER SEIZURE IS PART OF WIDER PLAN
LONDON, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Monday's predawn storming by
international force Kfor troops of the Trepca lead smelter in Zvecan,
KosovoMetohija, was part of a wider plan, according to reports in London
on
Monday.
Reports indicate that the takeover was part of a strategy of
the
U.N. administration of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's KosovoMetohija
province to seize control of the province's predominantly Serbpopulated
north.
The takeover was prepared two weeks ago and was even announced
by
London's Guardian newspaper in its Monday edition.
The newspaper says ethnic Albanians in KosovoMetohija have long
been asking that Kfor and the U.N. administration occupy the north,
Serbpopulated part of ethnically divided Kosovska Mitrovica, and the
international forces are now apparently acting on the demands.
Radio BBC says that the takeover of the plant was only an
excuse
for concentrating Kfor troops in north Kosovska Mitrovica, preparatory
to
taking control of north KosovoMetohija. The recent ban of
Serbianlanguage
Radio S was part of this plan.
British media report that tensions are running high in north
Kosovska Mitrovica, and it is uncertain how the situation will develop.
>SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA KFOR'S TREPCA SEIZURE VIOLATES
>U.N. RESOLUTION - YUGOSLAV MINISTER BELGRADE, Aug 14 (Tanjug) - Monday's
>storming of the Trepca lead smelting plant in Zvecan, Kosovo-Metohija, by the
>international force KFor was in flagrant violation of U.N. Resolution 1244,
>according to Yugoslavia's information minister on Monday. "The resolution does
>not authorise KFor or UNMIK (U.N. civilian mission) to carry out acts of
>occupation," Information Minister Goran Matic told TANJUG. Kfor's attack,
>carried out on UNMIK's orders, "was the same kind of act of occupation as that
>carried out by German Nazis during the Second World War, when they wrested
>Trepca away from the French", Matic added. This was further evidence of
>non-implementation of U.N. Resolution 1244 or any other standards or norms of
>international law, and of the flouting of the country's economic system, he
>stressed. The operation, involving some 3,000 armed KFor troops with
>helicopter support and launched against 250 Trepca employees has no precedent
>in history and hardly does credit to the troops, for the most part from Great
>Britain, France, Italy and Pakistan, he said. "This is another proof of the
>system of occupation emplaced by KFor in (the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's
>U.N.-administered province of) Kosovo-Metohija", he added. He went on to
>refute as groundless the allegation circulated by some media that the reason
>for the seizure was environmental protection, because the Trepca lead smelting
>plant in Zvecan was polluting the environment. He said the operation was
>nothing short of text-book plunder and highway robbery. "Tens of thousands of
>kilos of depleted uranium dropped on Kosovo-Metohija by NATO in its aggression
>last year do not seem to bother either KFor or UNMIK", he said. The armed
>storming of Trepca must not be tolerated by the United Nations, which has the
>duty to exercise its mechanisms to make KFor and UNMIK and their
>administrators conform to their mandate and to the U.N. standards and respect
>Resolution 1244, Matic said. He went on to comment on the storming, smashing
>up and seizure of Serbian-language Radio S broadcasting out of Zvecan. The
>Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), he said, which
>"cares" so much about the freedom of the media and free speech in Yugoslavia,
>has shut down the only radio station in Kosovo-Metohija broadcasting in
>Serbian, alleging licence problems. "We shall return there and Trepca will
>work and produce again, because it belongs to the people of this country and
>to the workers who have helped build it and have worked in it", he vowed,
>saying that factories cannot be taken at arms. He went on to say this was the
>first time in history that anybody has stormed with helicopter support a
>factory with unarmed workers in it, and used the operation to promote their
>doctrine. He hoped that diplomats of Yugoslavia and other countries that have
>had a principled approach to these matters would act in the United Nations to
>find an answer to the question of KFor's storming of Trepca.
>
>KFOR TROOPS SEIZE KOSOVO-METOHIJA'S ZVECAN LEAD SMELTER Zvecan, Serbia, Aug 14
>(tanjug) - Around 3,000 international force kfor troops with helicopter
>support at dawn on monday seized the lead smelter in zvecan near divided
>Kosovska Mitrovica in the serbian U.N.-Run Kosovo-Metohija province. Some 250
>serb workers at the plant, which is part of the trepca industrial complex,
>offered spunky though unsuccessful resistance to the storm-troops. The strong
>Kfor detail, comprising french, italian, british and pakistani troops, used
>force against the workers, some of whom they tied and took away. One of the
>workers was seriously injured, according to tanjug's sources. Trepca general
>manager Novak Bijelic, who was away from Kosovo-Metohija at the time of the
>seizure of zvecan, was prevented by the international forces from re-entering
>the province early monday. Also early on monday, at 6.30 A.M. Local time (0430
>gmt), pakistani kfor troops seized serbian-language radio s, broadcasting out
>of zvecan, and took away some of the equipment. Kfor tanks and armoured
>vehicles blocked the Zvecan-Kosovska Mitrovica arterial road.
>
>KFOR TROOPS STORM KOSOVO-METOHIJA'S ZVECAN, BEAT SERBS Zvecan, aug 14 (tanjug)
>- International force Kfor troops' storming of the zvecan lead smelting plant
>in kosovo- metohija early monday morning was followed by a violent clash
>between local residents and british Kfor troops. The baton-wielding british
>troops, who patrol this serb-populated town in serbian U.N.-Run
>Kosovo-Metohija demonstrating brute force, injured several citizens of zvecan,
>a small industrial town not far from the province's chief city of pristina. At
>dawn on monday, the french kfor battalion, supported by british, belgian,
>danish, pakistani and italian troops, stormed the Zvecan plant which works as
>part of the Trepca mining, chemical and metallurgical complex, and where the
>third shift was on duty. As part of the planned seizure operation, about 150
>british troops stormed trepca's hotel in zvecan, breaking down the main door,
>tied up the employees they found on duty and placed the hotel under UNMIK
>police guard. The Kosovska Mitrovca-Zvecan road is blocked to traffic.
>
>KFOR STORMS KOSOVO-METOHIJA ZVECAN TOWN, SMASHES UP SERB RADIO ZVECAN, Serbia,
>Aug 14 (Tanjug) - Radio S, the only radio broadcasting in the Serbian language
>out of Zvecan in U.N.-run Kosovo-Metohija province, has been practically
>smashed up and put out of commission, according to its editor-in-chief on
>Monday. Before dawn on Monday, the international force KFor stormed the town
>of Zvecan, not far from the Serbian (Yugoslav) province's chief city of
>Pristina, and seized the Trepca lead smelting plant, smashing up the radio
>station in the process. "The way the operation was carried out was far worse
>and arrogant than the behaviour of the Nazis when they seized Trepca in 1941,"
>Radio S Editor-in-Chief Radovan Gligovic told TANJUG. Gligovic said Radio S
>was broken into by more than 50 Jordanian KFor special troops at 6:35 a.m.
>(0435 GMT) local time. "In the face of their loaded and cocked rifles, we had
>to evacuate the premises, because our lives were in dire jeopardy", he said.
>According to him, the Jordanian troops thoroughly smashed the station, putting
>both the high-voltage and the low-voltage equipment out of commission, and
>taking away a vital part of the transmitter. He added that other
>privately-owned radio stations in the Kosovska Mitrovica area, broadcasting
>music for the most part, were spared. Most radio stations in Kosovo-Metohija
>are controlled by the U.N. civilian mission (UNMIK) and solely re-broadcast
>programmes that promote NATO, such as Deutsche Welle, the Voice of America and
>Radio Free Europe. Radio S has been destroyed because it broadcast its own
>news programmes and was the only media house in the area that carried news
>from Yugoslavia and its republic of Serbia.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
E GLI ENORMI INTERESSI CHE CI SONO DIETRO
La NATO, nota organizzazione di soccorso umanitario, dopo avere
devastato
il petrolchimico di Pancevo e cosparso di DU mezzi Balcani, ha ora
deciso
di impegnarsi per la salubrita' dell'aria: con questa scusa ridicola ha
infatti chiuso e preso possesso del complesso metallurgico di Trepca,
comprese le preziose miniere, occupando anche tutta l'area nord di
Kosovska Mitrovica, l'unica della zona ancora non ripulita etnicamente
dai
terroristi dell'UCK (alleati della NATO).
Tutte cose previste e dette gia' dall'inizio del conflitto per il
Kosovo,
conflitto che niente ha mai avuto a che vedere con presunti diritti
delle
minoranze. Attraverso la albanizzazione totale dell'area la NATO mira a
ricostruire lo status quo del nazifascismo (Grande Albania)
appoggiandosi
sul nazionalismo locale, come ha gia' fatto con tutte le altre
secessioni
e come si appresta a fare con il Montenegro; e contestualmente
mira a stabilirsi permanentemente al centro del Balcani prendendo pieno
possesso delle ricchezze jugoslave dell'area.
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 24, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
Kosovo
NATO TROOPS SEIZE MINING COMPLEX
By Sara Flounders
Claiming they were concerned about controlling air
pollution, some 3,000 NATO soldiers stormed a lead smelting
plant in Zvecan at 4:30 in the morning of Aug. 14. The plant
was the only functioning industry in the vast Trepca mining
complex in northern Kosovo, a few miles from the city of
Mitrovica.
At 6:30 a.m., in a further attack that had nothing to do
with air pollution, NATO soldiers closed down and
confiscated the equipment of Zvecan's Radio S--the only
station that dared to report information critical of NATO.
The northern part of Mitrovica is the only remaining multi-
ethnic part of Kosovo. Thousands of Serbs, Romani people,
Slavic Muslims, other nationalities and peoples of mixed
backgrounds have been driven out of other areas by Kosovo
Liberation Army thugs and vigilante groups. Many have fled
to the north side of the Iber river.
There, with the local Serbian population, they have resisted
more than a year of KLA attacks in an economically
devastated region.
The surprise attack by NATO shut down the only radio station
and the main source of employment for the local population.
The mines, with their smelting, refining and power centers,
once constituted one of Yugoslavia's leading export
industries and a main source of hard currency. It was the
major source of jobs in the region.
Defending the pre-dawn attack, Bernard Kouchner, the head of
the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said, "As a
doctor and chief administrator of Kosovo I would be derelict
if I allowed a threat to the health of children and pregnant
women to continue for one more day." UNMIK is the police
force set up by NATO to administer Kosovo.
Kouchner has never had a word of criticism for the
environmental havoc NATO created throughout the entire
region with the use of depleted uranium weapons, the bombing
of chemical plants and the use of cluster bombs.
If you find it hard to accept that NATO is suddenly
concerned with pollution, it's worth looking for what is
really at stake.
'MOST VALUABLE PIECE OF REAL ESTATE'
On July 8, 1998, New York Times reporter Chrisopher Hedges
wrote, "The sprawling state-owned Trepca mining complex is
the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans."
Hedges described glittering veins of lead, cadmium, zinc,
gold and silver.
The Stari Trg mine is ringed with smelting plants, 17 metal
treatment sites, warehouses, freight yards, railroad lines,
a power plant and the country's largest battery plant. It is
the richest lead and zinc mine in Europe. There are also 17
billion tons of coal.
It was George Soros, the multi-billionaire financier, who
wrote Kouchner's script.
Paris-based journalist Diana Johnstone, in a Feb. 28 report,
described a policy paper by the International Crisis Group.
This is a think tank set up by Soros to provide guidance in
the NATO-led reshaping of the Balkans.
The think tank publicly called on Kouch ner to take over the
management of Trepca and to use the pretext of environmental
hazards to shut the Zvecan smelter down.
The Soros group stressed that the takeover should happen
before new elections in Yugoslavia so that the opposition
could blame Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for the
loss of Trepca. The elections are now six weeks away.
At the time this proposal was made there was no pollution--
the lead smelter was not even in operation. It was closed
for several months after the NATO bombing.
Production in this state-owned industry started again only
two months ago, at great sacrifice and expense. The hard
currency it could have earned was desperately needed to
rebuild Yugoslavia's ravaged economy.
SKIMMING THE PROFITS
With the seizure of the smelting plant in Zvenca, NATO will
control the entire Trepca complex.
Proving once again that NATO is the military arm to insure
primarily U.S. corporate control, the first move after
seizing the complex was to turn it over to a consortium of
private mining companies. This consortium--ITT Kosovo Ltd.--
is a joint venture of U.S., French and Swedish companies.
The most interesting partner in this deal to control Trepca
is the U.S. company Morrison Knudsen International. On July
7 Morrison Knudsen merged with Raytheon Engineers and
Constructors, a major military contractor that makes Patriot
missiles and radar equipment for the Pentagon.
This is an enormously lucrative deal. ITT Kosovo Ltd. will
administer Trepca, appoint executives and a board of
directors, develop the investment strategy and skim the
greatest profits from every possible deal.
Those in the Albanian population who hold illusions that
control by these corporations will mean the return of the
thousands of well-paid, secure jobs with benefits that
existed before the war should read the plans multi-
billionaire Soros has in store.
Once NATO has control of the whole industrial complex,
according to the International Crisis Group, foreign
investors will develop a very modern, highly profitable
facility with a small workforce.
In this outright theft of an industry that was built by the
efforts of all the peoples of Yugoslavia, Soros's think tank
recommends that the management and administration be made up
of foreign executives "in order to prevent corruption"!
- END -
(Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
ww@.... For subscription info send message to:
info@.... Web: http://www.workers.org)
---
Sempre di Sarah Flounders, gia' nel 1998 un articolo spiegava tutta la
problematica delle miniere:
"Kosovo: la guerra e' per le miniere"
KOSOVO: "THE WAR IS ABOUT THE MINES"
http://www.marx2001.org/crj/DOCS/flou_mines.html
---
TREPCA - PHONE NUMBERS
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM
On August 14th NATO forces swooped down into the Zvecan smelter in
Kosovo
and seized the last remaining bit of Yugoslav government owned property
- the
Trepca mining complex. This action directly violates UN Security
Council
Resolution 1244 which concluded the war and reafirmed Yugoslav
sovereignty
over the province. Workers were greeted with a shower of tear-gas and
rubber
bullets as they went to work on Monday. Since then Kosovska Mitrovica's
workers have been holding daily protests in front the plant, while a
dozen
members of the plants management are still refusing to leave the offices
of
the smelter. It now appears that the US-backed administrator of Kosovo,
Bernard Kouchner (who rules by decree) has decided to hand over these
Yugoslav state properties to a Western mining consortium ITT Kosovo
consisting of:
- the Washington Group (a big US DOD and DOE contractor, created through
the
merger of Morisson Knudsen International and Raytheon Engineering and
Construction Corp.),
- Boliden Ltd. (a Canadian firm that's been involved in some major
environmental disasters and whose Swedish subsidiary Boliden-Contech is
directly involved in the project), and
- TEC-Ingenierie (a French mining firm).
This is your chance to prevent the militaristic takeover of a
critical
lifeline for Kosovo's embattled ethnic-communities like the Serbs, Roma,
Muslim Slavs, Montenegrins, Turks, Goranies, Egyptians, and non-KLA
supporting Albanians, who have suffered greatly since the NATO
occupation of
the province a year ago. With 300,000 already ethnically cleansed from
Kosovo, and the remainder of the provinces minorities living in
ethnic-ghettoes ringed with barbed wire and subjected to almost daily
terrorist attacks, the NATO occupation has rendered the alliances claims
of
"humanitarian intervention" ring hollow. It is now evident that what
was
really at stake was NATO's survival, as well as Kosovo's mineral wealth
and
strategic importance. The largest concentration of minerals in Europe
not in
the hands of Western multinationals was in Kosovo! This is changed with
NATO's commando raid on the Zvecan smelter...Please contact the
following
firms to voice your outrage at this undemocratic, militaristic, and
imperialistic act:
WASHINGTON GROUP
Corporate Headquarters
Tel: (208) 386-5000
BOLIDEN LTD.
Toronto Headquarters
Tel: (416) 216-2272
Boliden-Contech (Swedish subsidiary directly involved in the project)
Tel: (011) 46 8 610 1500 [ask for Stefan Kekel]
TEC INGENIERIE
Tel: (011) 33 1 30 66 27 50
---
Url for this article is www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/inthewee.htm
Trepca Takeover:By the Script
by Jared Israel (8-17-00)
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
In the wee hours of the morning, Monday, August 14, KFOR (that is NATO
forces
in Kosovo) swept into Northern Mitrovica and seized the lead smelting
plant,
part of the fabulously valuable Trepca mining complex.
The excuse given: pollution.
Oh pollution, how hast we suffered in thy good name. Or words to that
effect.
Here's what the 'AP' said, as reported by Richard Hugus in a sharp news
analysis last night:
"Hundreds of NATO-led peacekeeping troops wearing surgical masks against
toxic smoke swept into a Serb-run metal smelting complex." ('Boston
Globe'
August 15, 2000) (1)
Denouncing the takeover as theft, the Yugoslav government quoted the
mine's
managers saying that the "dark satanic mills" stuff was hypocritical
fiction.
The Yugoslav news agency, 'Tanjug', reported:
"According to these [recent test] results, there was .12 milligrams of
lead
per cubic metre (permitted level .15 mg), .019 mg of zinc (permitted
level .4
mg), copper .004 mg (permitted level .01 mg), iron .002 mg (permitted
level
.2 mg), etc.
'"If UNMIK experts are concerned for the children and pregnant women in
Kosovska Mitrovica, they should take care of the waste gases from their
own
heavy-duty vehicles that throng our roads at all hours and poison the
people', the statement said." (2)
What is truly amazing is, in a report posted on Emperor's Clothes Feb.
28,
1999, Diana Johnstone noted that the ICG, an international think tank
that
does some of the thinking for NATO, proposed that the Internationals
seize
the smelter using an environmental excuse - proposed this all months
ago.
'''UNMIK [said the ICG report] and KFOR should implement a rapid and
categorical takeover of the Trepca complex, including the immediate
total
shutdown of the environmentally hazardous facilities at Zvecan'.
''In the 'game-plan of measures' recommended by the ICG, UNMIK is
advised to
instruct a 'Zvecan environmental assessment team' to report on the
status of
the equipment and thereupon 'advise as to what measures must be
taken'...
Environmental hazards are to be the pretext to shut down Zvecan and
deprive
the last Serbs in Kosovo of their livelihood.'' (3)
We have posted the actual ICG report as well at the end of Diana's
analysis
so you can see how the plan for using environmental arguments as a cover
for
theft was originally formulated.
It's unusual for an analyst to discover a document like the ICG report
and
based on this document make a prediction and have it come so completely
true.
Unusual and in this case more than a little horrifying.
But in fact Diana Johnstone didn't just hit one home run here, she hit
two.
She cited a second piece of advice in the ICG report. Some advice about
the
Yugoslav elections. Here's what she wrote:
'''The ICG urges UNMIK to hurry up with the game plan for taking over
the
valuable mining complex before Serbian elections so that a new
government
more to the West's liking cannot be accused of 'losing Trepca'. All
Serbian
leaders, including opposition leaders, the ICG observes, will have to
protest
when UNMIK takes over Trepca and the Zvecan smelter. 'However they could
exploit the argument that the `loss' was due to the pariah status of
Milosevic himself, so that once again Serbia has lost assets due to his
presence in office. So provided action were taken before any elections
in
Serbia it need not upset, and might contribute to, any strategy for
unseating
Milosevic.'''
And low and behold, this prediction of Diana Johnstone's has come true
as
well. Because there are indeed elections scheduled soon in Yugoslavia.
In
those elections, the pro-US 'democratic' opposition (most notably Zoran
Djindjic) has more or less lined up behind a politician little known
outside
Yugoslavia, Vojislav Kostunica of the Democratic Party of Serbia. The
'democratic' opposition is notable for having been promised $100,000,00
by
the US Senate last July, a lot of which has been delivered. (Working for
the
US is the best job in Yugoslavia.) (4)
In a chilling echo of the ICG report, Kostunica has, sure enough, issued
a
statement accusing Milosevich of losing (indeed, of 'trading away'!) the
Trepca mines. Here's the statement. I have restrained myself and only
made a
couple of comments.
KOSTUNICA WRITES: "The game over the "Trepca" complex, whose lead
smelter in
Zvecan has been taken over by the international administration in
Kosovo-Metohija, continues. Instead of the promised 50 German marks,
Unmik
representatives are offering the employees 1,250 dinars as an advance,
in
brand new, unused banknotes. Unmik also possesses lists of all the
employees".
KOSTUNICA CONTINUES: "Therefore, one can rightly ask how Unmik managed
to
come by dinars, and also brand new ones? [Emperors-clothes note: NATO is
the
military arm of the richest Empire in history. Now how could it POSSIBLY
get
hold of a few thousand dinars? Like Du-uh.] How did it obtain the lists
of
employees? [Emperors-clothes note: ditto with the list of employees.
That one
wouldn't even cost Kouchner money.] How is it that Unmik, whose head
Bernard
Kouchner last year introduced the German mark as the only legal tender,
is
now paying in dinars? [One more Emperor's Clothes note: didn't the
Yugo's
grab some guys last year smuggling brand new counterfeit dinars from the
Bosnian Serb 'entity' into Serbia? Weren't they supposed to be agents of
Dodik, a collaborator NATO installed in the Bosnian Serb 'entity'?]
KOSTUNICA ASKS: "Could it be that the Milosevic regime has once again
concluded a secret deal and sold 'Trepca'"?
I ASK: Could it just be that the ICG is stranger than fiction?
"Cut! It's a take! Print it!"
Further reading...
(1) 'Hollywood Invades Kosovo: The NATO Trepca Takeover'
by Richard Hugus at
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/hugus/surgical.htm
(2) 'Management Denounced UN Pollution Claims Prior to Seizure of Trepca
Smelter' at www.emperors-clothes.com/news/yugoslav.htm
(3) 'Pro-NATO Thinktank Thought-up Excuse for Grabbing Trepca Smelter
Plant'
at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/Johnstone/howitis.htm
(4) The July 29th Senate hearings on how to help bring 'democracy' to
Serbia
are amazing. They reveal first and foremost the disease which has
possessed
the USA: Empire. The assumption that the US has the right to meddle
infuses
every paragraph of the transcript of testimony and the casual intimacy
with
which these US officials discuss their domination of the leaders of the
Yugoslav 'democratic' opposition is a marvel. 'July 29th Senate Hearings
on
Bringing 'democracy' to Serbia' at
www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/hearin.htm
www.tenc.net
[Emperor's Clothes]
---
MEDIA CENTRE
August 16, 2000
DIVISON OF SPOILS
The takeover of Trepca, Thermal electric power plant "Kosovo B", the
mine,
telephone system..., all create the impression that in Kosovo and
Metohija
the division of spoils, estimated at over ten billion dollars, is
taking
place The true reasons for the 79-day bombing are becoming
increasingly
clear after the signing and enforcement of the "Early House
Declaration",
says Milenko Radic commenting on the KFOR takeover of "Trepca" mining
and
smelter complex.
Organized by the Washington Institute for Peace, a meeting of crucial
importance for the Kosovo Serbs took place in Early House Virginia from
July
21 to 23, 2000. The meeting was attended by 26 representatives of the
Albanian community (including Hashim Taci, Ibrahim Rugova, Redzep Cosja,
Edita Tahiri, Mahmut Bakali, Kacusa Jasari, Ljuljeta Pulja, ...) and 16
"representatives of the Serbian community in Kosovo and Metohija "
(bishop
Artemije, father Sava Janjic, Rada Trajkovic, Randjel Nojkic...). At the
end
of the meeting they, "in the name of the Serbian community in Kosovo and
Metohija" signed a DECLARATION, which actually supplements and amends
the UN
SC Resolution 1244.
Regardless of the fact that the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija believe
that
not even the minimum conditions have been fulfilled for their
participation
in the coming elections, this Declaration, singed in their name by the
"representatives of the Serbs" obliges them to respect the legality of
the
elections and their results. At the same time, it authorizes Bernard
Kouchner to use his own discretion in selecting the Serbs to be
appointed
members of municipal councils. Having been given this agreement,
Kouchner
has already scheduled "democratic elections" for October 28, 2000 which
are
already legal for the "representatives of the Serbs", especially since
those
among them Kouchner intends to appoint to future municipal councils in
Kosovo are already known.
With a view to preventing the influence of (imported) radio and TV
programs,
"representatives of the Serbs" authorized Kouchner to undertake the
measures
to prevent that. A few days after the signing, on august 13, Kouchner
closed the single Serbian language radio station in Zvecan which
re-broadcast Radio Belgrade programs.
With this Declaration the "Serbian representatives" asked the KFOR and
UNMIK to close the border towards Serbia, i.e. demanded "more efficient
control of entry" into Kosovo and Metohija.
With this Declaration "the representatives of the Serbs" insist on
urgent
disbanding of all parallel structures of power and security. In addition
they demand from the KFOR and UNMIK to engage in coordinated action to
affirm the authorities in all parts of Kosovo and Metohija, implying the
opposition to the influence of Yugoslavia. If what bishop Artemije says
is
true, namely that he went to the U.S.A. with the patriarchs blessing and
that he did report to him upon his return, it remains unclear why the
fifth
church's instruction has not abolished, requesting "prayer for those in
power". Starting from the Declaration whereby the above-mentioned
"representatives of the Serbs" amended the UN SC Resolution, Bernard
Kouchner, on August 13, assisted by a few hundred armed soldiers,
occupied
Trepca, invoking "health protection from over-pollution". This actually
marks the start of taking the northern parts of Kosovo and Metohija away
from Serbs.
This Declaration, in addition to other requests, instructs the KFOR and
UNMIK to disband all unauthorized security forces operating in Kosovo,
but
are not from Kosovo. Judging by numerous statements of the "Serbian
representatives" one gets the impression that the unauthorized operators
in
this sense are the Serbian security units.
The takeover of Trepca, Thermal electric power plant "Kosovo B", the
mine,
telephone system..., all create the impression that in Kosovo and
Metohija
the division of spoils, estimated at over ten billion dollars, is
taking
place The true reasons for the 79-day bombing are becoming
increasingly
clear after the signing and enforcement of the "Early House
Declaration".
(The author is president of the Fund for the Development of Democracy.)
---
UN to start lengthy repairs of Kosovo mine complex
By Sean Maguire
MITROVICA, Yugoslavia, Aug 14 (Reuters) - The United Nations said on
Monday
it would take one to three years of repairs before Kosovo's dilapidated
Trepca mine complex could produce commercially viable quantities of
metals.
NATO-led peacekeepers seized control of Serb-held parts of the Trepca
group
on Monday for the U.N., which runs Kosovo as a de facto protectorate, to
enable it to shut down the Zvecan smelter which it said was polluting
the air
with lead fumes.
But the seizure of Zvecan, part of the Trepca group, has also finally
given
the U.N. control of the entire complex and allowed it to hire a
consortium of
mining companies to begin a revamp of the mining and metallurgy industry
in
northern Kosovo.
"Now we can get to work to bring Trepca back to life, and back to the
people
of Kosovo," said the head of the Kosovo U.N. mission, Bernard Kouchner.
Some $16 million of aid money from the EU, United States, France, Italy,
Holland and Sweden will pay for the work of ITT Kosovo Consortium Ltd, a
joint venture of TEC-Ingenierie of France, Sweden's Boliden
Contech<BOL.ST>
and Morrison Knudsen International<MK.N> of the United States.
Trepca comprises 14 mines yielding lead, zinc, gold and silver, plus
nine
flotation plants, two metallurgy plants and 14 factories. All facilities
are
in very poor repair, with many of them almost derelict.
An earlier U.N.-commissioned study judged that parts of the mining
complex
could be made safe and economically viable with sufficient investment
and
Italian engineers have already done emergency work to prevent one of the
larger mines from flooding.
The ITT Kosovo consortium will assess what facilities can be rescued and
what
needs to be done to restart production. But Bernard Salome, Kouchner's
chief
economic adviser, warned it might be as much as three years before
significant output appeared.
OUTPUT FORECASTS EXAGGERATED
Trepca's once prodigious output of lead, as much as 90,000 tonnes
annually
before the break-up of Yugoslavia, has dwindled to almost nothing over
the
last decade, with production halting when NATO's 78-day bombing campaign
starting in March 1999.
Serbs fled most of Kosovo when NATO troops entered and they became
victims of
revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians but clung on in the northern
Mitrovica
area around Zvecan.
With Belgrade eager for the hard currency to be made from selling lead
in
Europe, Serb managers restarted production in June. But local mining
experts
said the Zvecan plant had been running at below 10 percent capacity.
"The average capacity utilisation in lead metallurgy and refinery has
been
below 10 percent, more precisely it stood at around 6.0 percent since
the
beginning of the year," Desimir Petkovic, a former Trepca manager, told
Reuters.
In February, the head of the Trepca mining and smelting complex, Novak
Bijelic, was quoted by official Yugoslav news agency as saying Trepca
would
produce 46,500 tonnes of lead, 25,000 tonnes of silver and 100 kilograms
of
gold this year.
But international traders, who spoke under condition of anonymity due to
various international financial sanctions, said there was no way the
smelter
could have achieved that goal.
"It's wishful thinking. They would need between 70,000 and 100,000
tonnes of
concentrate depending on the quality of the ore. There is no chance they
could have obtained it without us knowing it," one trader told Reuters.
In 1998, the year before Belgrade let slip its grip on its rebellious
ethnic
Albanian-dominated Kosovo province, Trepca produced some 40,000 tonnes
of
lead.
(with additional reporting by Gordana Filipovic in Belgrade)
11:18 08-14-00
---
FROM THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
YUGOSLAVIA PROTESTS WITH U.N. OVER KFOR'S STORMING OF TREPCA
NEW YORK, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Yugoslavia's U.N. ambassador has
lodged
a strongly worded protests with the U.N. Security Council over Monday's
storming of the Trepca mining complex in Serbian (Yugoslav)
KosovoMetohija
by the international force KFor.
Ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic wrote to Council President Agam
Hasmy demanding an urgent session of the body over the outrage, and
asked
that the letter be circulated as an official document.
The letter says (official translation):
"I have been instructed by my Government to lodge the strongest
protest on its behalf and to request an urgent meeting of the Security
Council at the armed attack on, and the usurpation of, the RMHK "Trepca"
Shareholding Corporation by the Kosovo Force (KFOR).
"In the night between 13 and 14 August 2000, massive KFOR
forces
carried out an unprovoked brutal attack on "Trepca" near Kosovska
Mitrovica
and occupied it. In doing so, they violated the KFOR mandate and
Security
Council resolution 1244 (1999) of 10 June 1999 in the most flagrant way
so
far.
"KFOR used armed force against peaceful employees and
management
of "Trepca" and the official state representatives, as well as the
peaceful
Serbian population in that part of the Province. Even though the basic
task
of UNMIK and KFOR under Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) is to
guarantee physical and property security of residents, and to provide a
secure environment in the Province, by this attack they have openly
aligned
themselves before the eyes of the entire world public with ethnic
Albanian
separatists and terrorists.
"The attack on, and the occupation of, "Trepca" by KFOR
constitutes the most drastic violation of their mandate and the
provisions
of the Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) so far. This is a unique
case of forces acting under a mandate of the United Nations being
massively
engaged against a peaceful population for the protection of which they
have
been dispatched by the Security Council and accepted by the Government
of
my country. The goals of the demonstration of the armed force of KFOR
are
very clear indeed: the intimidation and expulsion of the Serbian
population, continuation of the ethnic cleansing of Serbs and other
nonAlbanians and an illegal usurpation of "Trepca" and of national,
economic and natural resources.
"The alleged concern of Bernard Kouchner for the protection of
the
environment is yet another cynical and transparent attempt to hoodwink
the
world public opinion and the Security Council, which confirms that the
KFOR
action is completely unfounded and represents the most flagrant and
brazen
violation of the decisions of the Security Council and the norms of the
international law in general. Behind the deception are those who are
responsible for the aggression on my country last year, for the loss of
thousands of human lives, for the humanitarian, economic and
environmental
catastrophe, as well as for the escalation of terrorism and separatism
in
South East Europe and in other parts of the world. They are those who
sowed
over 30,000 bombs with depleted uranium all over Kosovo and Metohija
during
the 3month aerial bombardment the consequences of which are
unforeseeable.
"The action of KFOR and UNMIK is without a precedent and
constitutes an attempt to abuse and manipulate the Security Council.
This
is a blow to the inviolability of property rights and attempt to occupy
natural and economic assets of a sovereign country illegally and by
force.
"Bearing in mind the gravity of the situation and the
consequences
that may arise from such acts, the Government of the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia demands energetically that the Security Council condemn the
takeover of "Trepca" and to bring a decision to return the situation
into
the status quo ante so as to enable "Trepca" and its employees to
continue
normal work. The Government of the FR of Yugoslavia wishes to point out
that it will not recognize the consequences of this violent act nor the
situations that have arisen on the basis of the acts of KFOR and UNMIK.
"Alongside the armed action against "Trepca", KFOR has carried
out
vandal raids against the only remaining organs in the Serbian language
in
Kosovo and Metohija, Radio "S" at Zvecan and the newspaper "Jedinstvo"
in
Pristina. Their offices and equipment have been smashed and destroyed
while
brute force has been used against journalists and other personnel. The
vandal suppression of the Serbianlangauge media with the use of armed
military force continues an unprecedented act and is part of the
extended
collaboration of KFOR and UNMIK with ethnic Albanian separatists and
terrorists on the realization of the concept of ethnic cleansing.
"The aforementioned is a clear confirmation that the overall
activity of UNMIK and KFOR serves the goals that are in full contrast to
Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) and that they are conducive to
the
further exacerbation of the situation with the unforeseeable
consequences.
The Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia expects therefore
from
the Security Council to take, without further delay, concrete and
energetic
measures to finally put under control the activities of its
representatives
and to end their policy of fait accompli that threatens peace and
stability
in the region. It is only in this way that it will be possible to stop a
further erosion of the authority of the United Nations and pave the way
to
a peaceful political solution as provided for by Security Council
resolution 1244 (1999).
"I should be grateful if you would have the present letter
circulated as a document of the Security Council."
YUGOSLAVIA ASKS U.N. AGENCIES TO CONDEMN KFOR'S TREPCA SEIZURE
GENEVA, Aug 16 (Tanjug) Yugoslavia will not recognise any
action
by the U.N. force KFor or the U.N. mission UNMIK in Kosovo Metohija that
runs counter to U.N. Resolution 1244, according to Yugoslavia's U.N.
mission chief in Geneva on Wednesday.
Ambassador Branko Brankovic wrote to this effect to the heads
of
U.N. agencies based in the Swiss capital, in connection with KFor's
storming on Monday of the Trepca lead smelter in the U.N.run
KosovoMetohija
province of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.
Letters were sent to Under Secretary General Vladimir
Petrovsky,
High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, High Commissioner for Human
Rights Mary Robinson, and Balkan human rights rapporteur Jiri
Dienstbier,
asking that they resolutely condemn the outrage.
Brankovic said that UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner and KFor
surpass
themselves with their practically daily flagrant violations of
Resolution
1244.
According to Brankovic, the storming of the lead smelter at
Zvecan
is one of the most dangerous moves taken by Kouchner so far, which might
have farreaching consequences for the entire situation and the
normalisation process in the province.
It was clear that the chief reason for KFor's violent storming
of
the Zvecan plant was plunder, ethnic cleansing and an attempt to prevent
KosovoMetohija voting in upcoming Yugoslav federal and Serbian local
elections, Brankovic said.
He added that this kind of behaviour by Kouchner was in
flagrant
violation of the fundamental principles of the U.N. Charter and of the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia.
This behaviour was the height of hypocrisy on the part of
Bernard
Kouchner, designed to justify last year's NATO aggression on Yugoslavia,
Brankovic said.
NATO SUCKS PROFIT OUT OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA, SERBIAN MINISTER AVERS
KRAGUJEVAC, Yugoslavia, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Monday's storming of
the
Trepca smelter at Zvecan, KosovoMetohija, by the U.N. mission (UNMIK) is
NATO's way of encouraging ethnic Albanian extremists and intimidating
Serbs, according to a Serbian minister on Tuesday.
The operation gas clearly exposed a plan for ethnically
cleansing
this U.N.administered Serbian (Yugoslav) province of its Serbs and
Montenegrins for economic reasons, among others, Minister of Energy and
Mining Slobodan Tomovic told TANJUG.
What they are really after is KosovoMetohija's mineral
resources,
Tomovic said.
The "peacekeepers" of UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner have
demonstrated arrogance and force, as well as their intention to conquer
KosovoMetohija, completely flouting agreements and documents they have
themselves signed, he added.
"The West preaches democracy and inviolability of private
property, and all the while its troops seize at arms facilities such as
Trepca, the Obilic thermoelectric power plant, Telecom, and the Pristina
factory of shock absorbers", he said.
TREPCA EXECUTIVES STRONGLY CONDEMN KFOR'S STORMING OF MINING
COMPLEX
BELGRADE, Aug 15 (Tanjug) The shareholdersowners of the Trepca
industrial complex on Tuesday strongly condemned Monday's seizure of the
Zvecan lead smelter by the international force KFor and the U.N.
civilian
mission UNMIK.
A statement released from Trepca's Board of Governors in
Belgrade
condemned also the seizure of the office building in Zvecan, mines in
the
Leposavic area and other facilities.
At its session chaired by Board President Milos Milosavljevic,
the
Board of Governors said it would immediately take all legal and other
steps
to protect the property rights and all other rights of the shareholders.
The body dismissed allegations that Trepca had been sold away
by
the state and the management, and instructed the executives to seek
legal
redress for slander injurious to the reputation of Trepca.
Neither the Trepca general manager nor the Board president have
ever discussed the matter of ownership with KFor or UNMIK, since the
shareholders' property rights in Trepca are indisputable, the statement
said.
Environmental hazards pleaded in justification of the takeover
are
nothing but an excuse to mask the real motives behind the outrage, as
evident from the simultaneous seizure of four Trepca mines at Leposavic,
which pose no threat to the environment.
The Board of Governors instructed Trepca General Manager Novak
Bijelic to work out a production plan which should provide employment
and a
source of income for the employees in the present circumstances.
KOSOVOMETOHIJA OFFICIAL AVERS KFOR WAGES SERB INTIMIDATION
CAMPAIGN
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Serbia, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Monday's storming
of
the Trepca lead smelter at Zvecan, KosovoMetohija, by the international
force KFor was designed to intimidate the local Serbs, according to a
local
government official on Tuesday.
Zdravko Trajkovic, chief administrator of the Kosovska
Mitrovica
District, said the operation demonstrated KFor's bias in favour of
ethnic
Albanian terrorists and was part of an effort to drive Serbs out of this
U.N.run Serbian (Yugoslav) province.
"The brutality and cruelty demonstrated by KFor and UNMIK
members
in dealing with Trepca's workers and the population of Zvecan serve the
purpose of intimidating the people and expelling Serbs from north
KosovoMetohija.
"This falls in with the plans of ethnic Albanian terrorist
leader
Hashim Thaqi", Trajkovic told TANJUG.
The Serbian people are embittered and indignant also at ethnic
Albanians' vandalising of headstones at the Serbian cemetery in the
south,
ethnic Albanianhelp part of ethnically divided Kosovska Mitrovica, he
went
on to say.
What gives special rise to concern at this time, according to
him,
is "the violent arrogance demonstrated by KFor troops," who showed they
do
not shy from the darkest methods in dealing with Serbs and Montenegrins
in
KosovoMetohija.
The people in the Kosovska Mitrovica District, primarily in the
towns of Kosovska Mitrovica and Zvecan, remain determined to defend and
protect these lands, he said, adding that the latest outrage has only
given
them new strength to endure.
RUSSIA BLASTS KFOR'S STORMING OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA'S TREPCA
SMELTER
MOSCOW, Aug 15 (Tanjug) Russia on Tuesday voiced deep concern
over Monday's storming of the Trepca smelter at Zvecan, Kosovo Metohija,
by
the international force KFor and the U.N. civilian mission UNMIK, which
it
saw as a property seizure bid.
The foreign ministry issued a statement to say that U.N.
mission
officials' justification of the takeover by allegations of air pollution
from the lead smelting plant's fumes could not stand up under
criticisism.
Even if there were an environmental threat, which Trepca's
laboratory findings refute, it would still not justify KFor's use of
force,
which was nothing short of an effort to seize assets that do not belong
to
it, the statement said.
UNMIK and its chief, the U.N. secretary general's special envoy
Bernard Kouchner, have again proven their impotence to solve problems,
where they exist, through political dialogue, it added.
The document further said that the U.N. mission's arrogant
seizure
of Trepca was obviously politically motivated and undertaken without the
consent of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia as the owner of the company
in
the eyes of the law.
The ministry called for refraining from any new steps that
might
additionally aggravate the volatile and dangerous situation in that
U.N.administered Serbian province.
YUGOSLAV COMMITTEE - KFOR SEIZES TREPCA AND CARRIES ON AGGRESSION
BELGRADE, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Monday's predawn storming by KFor of
the Trepca lead smelter in Zvecan, KosovoMetohija, is nothing but
continued
aggression by new and dangerous methods, according to Yugoslav and
KosovoMetohija government bodies on Monday.
The Yugoslav committee liaising with the U.N. mission (UNMIK)
and
the KosovoMetohija Provisional Executive Council issued a statement to
say
the latest outrage continued a practice of seizing industrial facilities
in
that U.N.run Serbian (Yugoslav) province, begun with the coming of the
international force KFor and UNMIK in June 1999.
"Sacking of Serbs from their jobs and scenarios such as
poisonings
that attack only one ethnic community have been used several times
before
by the forces that have been given the mandate to secure law and order
in
KosovoMetohija.
"It was precisely this kind of behaviour that has created the
present chaos in the electric power industry, postal services,
Jugopetrol
oil company and others, and the result has been ethnic cleansing and a
genocide.
"Circulating of untrue reports about environmental pollution
only
screen an intention to seize this economic giant, in whose vicinity
miners,
engineers, smelters and their families have lived for a generation, and
they certainly care more about their own health and environment than
KFor
and UNMIK ever could.
"But what we have here is pressure and intimidation, designed
to
ethnically cleanse the area, as has been done with the rest of
KosovoMetohija, which they have been practising for 13 months in plain
view
of the international community and the United Nations.
"Instead of securing equality for all, KFor and UNMIK keep
tensions permanently alive and sow uncertainty among the Serbs and other
nonAlbanians, preventing the people from living normal lives.
"Operation of the international mission from positions of force
has no foundation in U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244.
"The Yugoslav Committee and the KosovoMetohija Provisional
Executive Council therefore demand that equal conditions be created for
all
people, that they be given safety, economic security, the right to work,
to
education, health protection, culture and information.
"Since they have not created conditions, in line with their
mandate and Resolution 1244, for the workers of Trepca, Serbian language
Radio S and other institutions to work unhampered, without fear of
violence, the presence of Kfor and UNMIK has lost all meaning and their
departure from KosovoMetohija is inevitable", the statement said.
SERB SERIOUSLY INJURED IN KFOR'S STORMING OF ZVECAN SMELTER
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) A Serb was gravely injured
when international force KFor troops stormed the Trepca smelter in
Zvecan
in U.N.run KosovoMetohija before dawn on Monday.
Five other civilians and four Kfor troops were also injured in
clashes which broke out between the people in Zvecan near the Serbian
(Yugoslav) province's chief city of Pristina and the Kfor troops.
The seriously injured Serb, Igor Stefanovic, aged 27, a worker
at
the plant which worked as part of the Trepca industrial complex, had to
be
hospitalized in nearby Kosovska Mitrovica with a rubber bullet wound to
the
head.
Tanjug learns that some 30 workers, technicians and engineers
who
had barricaded themselves in the office building at the time of the
helicoptersupported KFor operation, left the building in the afternoon.
KFOR ARRESTS AND ORDERS TREPCA MANAGER OUT OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA
RASKA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) The Trepca general manager vowed on
Monday
that, despite the international force KFor's pre dawn storming of
Trepca's
Zvecan lead smelter, Trepca would never give up on its plants in Zvecan
or
anywhere else in KosovoMetohija.
Novak Bijelic, who was late on Sunday arrested by KFor police
without an explanation and then ordered out of KosovoMetohija, was
speaking
for TANJUG in the Serbian town of Raska, outside that U.N.run province
of
the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.
"Fascist occupiers did the same thing in 1941", said Bijelic,
who
was arrested at 8 p.m. local time (1800 GMT) and held for hours before
being thrown out of KosovoMetohija without an explanation.
"The UNMIK (U.N. mission) police chief told me the notorious
criminal Bernard Kouchner had ordered that I must leave the territory of
KosovoMetohija at once and must not even try to come back", Bijelic
said.
Bijelic was born in KosovoMetohija and has lived most of his
adult
life there.
"Fascists expelled me and my parents from Metohija in 1941,
when I
was just a toddler", he added.
According to Bijelic, Trepca's 16 industrial plants in
KosovoMetohija have been destroyed on Kouchner's orders.
As a case in point, he quoted the torching of the zinc
processing
plant in the south, ethnic Albanianpopulated part of ethnically divided
Kosovska Mitrovica.
The flooding of coal mines which had operated as part of the
Serbian electric power company in KosovoMetohija has deprived of their
jobs
many ethnic Albanians too.
"In November 1999, Trepca officially requested UNMIK to pay
indemnity for the damage done to the company's facilities in
KosovoMetohija
in the amount of 192 million dollars", Bijelic said.
This amount has now been greatly augmented and is still
pending,
he added.
He stressed the workers are refusing all invitations to go back
to
work, because this morning's fascist seizure was designed to destroy the
facility and expel Serbs from their ancestral homes in Kosovska
Mitrovica
and Zvecan.
"This is indisputably the aim of Bernard Kouchner", Bijelic
said.
U.N. ENVOY KOUCHNER CARES MORE FOR FACTORY THAN FOR SICK
CHILDREN
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) U.N. mission (UNMIK) chief
Bernard Kouchner's justification of Monday's storming of the Trepca lead
smelter in KosovoMetohija's Zvecan town with environmental reasons has
stunned the people in nearby Kosovska Mitrovica.
The indignant people see the explanation, offered in writing on
Monday, as the height of shamelessness and hypocrisy on the part of the
strutting French doctor who boasts of his socalled humanism.
In the statement, Kouchner alleged that air in Zvecan was
polluted
with lead and that as a doctor and KosovoMetohija's chief administrator
he
would be a criminal if he allowed the threat to the health of the
children
and pregnant women to persist.
After Monday's predawn Zvecan storming operation by the
international force KFor, in which the smelting plant was seized, it is
clear that the allegation was a handy story circulated to justify the
plunder of property and natural resources of the province.
Kouchner never raised his voice when NATO bombs murdered
children
throughout Yugoslavia in last year's aggression more than 80 children
were
killed in the air strikes.
He supported the use of bombs with depleted uranium charges
against KosovoMetohija, which are now causing grave health problems to
KFor
troops.
He never stirred when NATO dropped on KosovoMetohija cluster
bombs
which have killed or maimed 110 children between June 1999 and April
2000.
The good doctor Kouchner was silent also when NATO bombs
demolished hospitals and denied medical assistance to 120,000 pregnant
women and at least as many newborn babies.
And now, he feels morally justified to claim that the seizure
of a
factory at arms was legitimate!
U.N. ENVOYS KOUCHNER AND ORTUNO JUSTIFY TREPCA SEIZURE
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Top officials of the
international force Kfor and the U.N. mission UNMIK in Serbian
(Yugoslav)
KosovoMetohija on Monday pleaded environmental reasons for the predawn
storming of the lead smelting plant in Zvecan.
KFor Commander Juan Ortuno of Spain and UNMIK chief Bernard
Kouchner were speaking at a news conference in ethnically divided
Kosovska
Mitrovica, in its south, ethnic Albanian part.
Ortuno said the Zvecan lead smelter, located not far from that
U.N.run province's chief city of Pristina, and the adjacent Trepca
facilities had been seized by KFor troops, commanded by French General
JeanLouis Soublet, commander of Kfor Sector North.
The operation involved troops from France, Great Britain,
Belgium,
Denmark, Ireland and Pakistan and UNMIK police.
According to Ortuno, Kfor only helped UNMIK police take over
the
smelter, and the number of troops in Zvecan and at Trepca would soon be
reduced to the lowest possible level.
The reasons alleged for the smelter takeover were high levels
of
lead and sulphur dioxide in the air, although Trepca's figures published
last week and information from the Kosovska Mitrovica city hospital
denied
the claim.
Kouchner, for his part, tried with empty rhetoric about care
for
the health of the local population and KFor troops to hide the true aim
of
the operation, which was to plunder private property and natural
resources
of the province.
Kouchner's statement that the smelting plant's management would
be
placed in the hands of a 30member team of engineers and administrators
already well versed in Trepca's affairs shows that the operation was a
deliberate and premeditated plunder campaign.
Kouchner said an agreement would be signed with an
international
consortium which would help administer the Trepca mining complex,
appoint
executives and a Board of Directors from all local communities, but did
not
elaborate.
As for Sunday's arrest and expulsion from the province of
Trepca
Director Novak Bijelic, Kouchner claimed he had taken the decision on
the
strength of U.N. Resolution 1244, Article 2, explaining that Bijelic
would
not be allowed back for three months.
GERMAN MEDIA REPORT ON KFOR'S STORMING OF KOSOVOMETOHIJA'S ZVECAN
BERLIN, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Germany's state news agency DPA and
television reported early on Monday that the international force KFor
stormed and shut down the Zvecan smelter in the Serbian (Yugoslav)
KosovoMetohija province.
Although the report is bare of any comment, the motives behind
the
operation by the U.N. mission UNMIK and Kfor can be clearly discerned.
The German media quote as the reason for the closure lead
pollution and environmental hazards, while saying also that Western
companies will take over the management of the plant.
DPA quoted UNMIK as saying that a contract has been signed with
a
consortium of international mining companies, comprising a German and a
French company, to administer the complex in future.
The report said nothing, however, about the Zvecan smelter
being
the last Serboperated facility of the Trepca complex, and that plans for
the takeover had been in the making long since.
BRITISH PAPER - KFOR'S ZVECAN SMELTER SEIZURE IS PART OF WIDER PLAN
LONDON, Aug 14 (Tanjug) Monday's predawn storming by
international force Kfor troops of the Trepca lead smelter in Zvecan,
KosovoMetohija, was part of a wider plan, according to reports in London
on
Monday.
Reports indicate that the takeover was part of a strategy of
the
U.N. administration of the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's KosovoMetohija
province to seize control of the province's predominantly Serbpopulated
north.
The takeover was prepared two weeks ago and was even announced
by
London's Guardian newspaper in its Monday edition.
The newspaper says ethnic Albanians in KosovoMetohija have long
been asking that Kfor and the U.N. administration occupy the north,
Serbpopulated part of ethnically divided Kosovska Mitrovica, and the
international forces are now apparently acting on the demands.
Radio BBC says that the takeover of the plant was only an
excuse
for concentrating Kfor troops in north Kosovska Mitrovica, preparatory
to
taking control of north KosovoMetohija. The recent ban of
Serbianlanguage
Radio S was part of this plan.
British media report that tensions are running high in north
Kosovska Mitrovica, and it is uncertain how the situation will develop.
>SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA KFOR'S TREPCA SEIZURE VIOLATES
>U.N. RESOLUTION - YUGOSLAV MINISTER BELGRADE, Aug 14 (Tanjug) - Monday's
>storming of the Trepca lead smelting plant in Zvecan, Kosovo-Metohija, by the
>international force KFor was in flagrant violation of U.N. Resolution 1244,
>according to Yugoslavia's information minister on Monday. "The resolution does
>not authorise KFor or UNMIK (U.N. civilian mission) to carry out acts of
>occupation," Information Minister Goran Matic told TANJUG. Kfor's attack,
>carried out on UNMIK's orders, "was the same kind of act of occupation as that
>carried out by German Nazis during the Second World War, when they wrested
>Trepca away from the French", Matic added. This was further evidence of
>non-implementation of U.N. Resolution 1244 or any other standards or norms of
>international law, and of the flouting of the country's economic system, he
>stressed. The operation, involving some 3,000 armed KFor troops with
>helicopter support and launched against 250 Trepca employees has no precedent
>in history and hardly does credit to the troops, for the most part from Great
>Britain, France, Italy and Pakistan, he said. "This is another proof of the
>system of occupation emplaced by KFor in (the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's
>U.N.-administered province of) Kosovo-Metohija", he added. He went on to
>refute as groundless the allegation circulated by some media that the reason
>for the seizure was environmental protection, because the Trepca lead smelting
>plant in Zvecan was polluting the environment. He said the operation was
>nothing short of text-book plunder and highway robbery. "Tens of thousands of
>kilos of depleted uranium dropped on Kosovo-Metohija by NATO in its aggression
>last year do not seem to bother either KFor or UNMIK", he said. The armed
>storming of Trepca must not be tolerated by the United Nations, which has the
>duty to exercise its mechanisms to make KFor and UNMIK and their
>administrators conform to their mandate and to the U.N. standards and respect
>Resolution 1244, Matic said. He went on to comment on the storming, smashing
>up and seizure of Serbian-language Radio S broadcasting out of Zvecan. The
>Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), he said, which
>"cares" so much about the freedom of the media and free speech in Yugoslavia,
>has shut down the only radio station in Kosovo-Metohija broadcasting in
>Serbian, alleging licence problems. "We shall return there and Trepca will
>work and produce again, because it belongs to the people of this country and
>to the workers who have helped build it and have worked in it", he vowed,
>saying that factories cannot be taken at arms. He went on to say this was the
>first time in history that anybody has stormed with helicopter support a
>factory with unarmed workers in it, and used the operation to promote their
>doctrine. He hoped that diplomats of Yugoslavia and other countries that have
>had a principled approach to these matters would act in the United Nations to
>find an answer to the question of KFor's storming of Trepca.
>
>KFOR TROOPS SEIZE KOSOVO-METOHIJA'S ZVECAN LEAD SMELTER Zvecan, Serbia, Aug 14
>(tanjug) - Around 3,000 international force kfor troops with helicopter
>support at dawn on monday seized the lead smelter in zvecan near divided
>Kosovska Mitrovica in the serbian U.N.-Run Kosovo-Metohija province. Some 250
>serb workers at the plant, which is part of the trepca industrial complex,
>offered spunky though unsuccessful resistance to the storm-troops. The strong
>Kfor detail, comprising french, italian, british and pakistani troops, used
>force against the workers, some of whom they tied and took away. One of the
>workers was seriously injured, according to tanjug's sources. Trepca general
>manager Novak Bijelic, who was away from Kosovo-Metohija at the time of the
>seizure of zvecan, was prevented by the international forces from re-entering
>the province early monday. Also early on monday, at 6.30 A.M. Local time (0430
>gmt), pakistani kfor troops seized serbian-language radio s, broadcasting out
>of zvecan, and took away some of the equipment. Kfor tanks and armoured
>vehicles blocked the Zvecan-Kosovska Mitrovica arterial road.
>
>KFOR TROOPS STORM KOSOVO-METOHIJA'S ZVECAN, BEAT SERBS Zvecan, aug 14 (tanjug)
>- International force Kfor troops' storming of the zvecan lead smelting plant
>in kosovo- metohija early monday morning was followed by a violent clash
>between local residents and british Kfor troops. The baton-wielding british
>troops, who patrol this serb-populated town in serbian U.N.-Run
>Kosovo-Metohija demonstrating brute force, injured several citizens of zvecan,
>a small industrial town not far from the province's chief city of pristina. At
>dawn on monday, the french kfor battalion, supported by british, belgian,
>danish, pakistani and italian troops, stormed the Zvecan plant which works as
>part of the Trepca mining, chemical and metallurgical complex, and where the
>third shift was on duty. As part of the planned seizure operation, about 150
>british troops stormed trepca's hotel in zvecan, breaking down the main door,
>tied up the employees they found on duty and placed the hotel under UNMIK
>police guard. The Kosovska Mitrovca-Zvecan road is blocked to traffic.
>
>KFOR STORMS KOSOVO-METOHIJA ZVECAN TOWN, SMASHES UP SERB RADIO ZVECAN, Serbia,
>Aug 14 (Tanjug) - Radio S, the only radio broadcasting in the Serbian language
>out of Zvecan in U.N.-run Kosovo-Metohija province, has been practically
>smashed up and put out of commission, according to its editor-in-chief on
>Monday. Before dawn on Monday, the international force KFor stormed the town
>of Zvecan, not far from the Serbian (Yugoslav) province's chief city of
>Pristina, and seized the Trepca lead smelting plant, smashing up the radio
>station in the process. "The way the operation was carried out was far worse
>and arrogant than the behaviour of the Nazis when they seized Trepca in 1941,"
>Radio S Editor-in-Chief Radovan Gligovic told TANJUG. Gligovic said Radio S
>was broken into by more than 50 Jordanian KFor special troops at 6:35 a.m.
>(0435 GMT) local time. "In the face of their loaded and cocked rifles, we had
>to evacuate the premises, because our lives were in dire jeopardy", he said.
>According to him, the Jordanian troops thoroughly smashed the station, putting
>both the high-voltage and the low-voltage equipment out of commission, and
>taking away a vital part of the transmitter. He added that other
>privately-owned radio stations in the Kosovska Mitrovica area, broadcasting
>music for the most part, were spared. Most radio stations in Kosovo-Metohija
>are controlled by the U.N. civilian mission (UNMIK) and solely re-broadcast
>programmes that promote NATO, such as Deutsche Welle, the Voice of America and
>Radio Free Europe. Radio S has been destroyed because it broadcast its own
>news programmes and was the only media house in the area that carried news
>from Yugoslavia and its republic of Serbia.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
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