Informazione
* CONTINUA LA GUERRA IN BOSNIA: truppe di occupazione della NATO
rapiscono leader politico della Repubblica Serba.
Sul "garantismo" del Tribunale dell'Aia: la cattura di un presunto
criminale di guerra avviene sulla base di un mandato e di accuse
"secretate", contro qualsiasi prassi giudiziaria di questo pianeta.
* Arkan fatto fuori perche' si sottraeva alla cattura?
* RICHIESTA AL CONSIGLIO DI SICUREZZA DELL'ONU PER LA ABOLIZIONE DEL
TRIBUNALE DELL'AIA PER I CRIMINI COMMESSI SUL TERRITORIO DELLA EX-RFS DI
JUGOSLAVIA
Sulla natura del Tribunale dell'Aia si veda anche:
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/148?&start=145
---
SOLDATI FRANCESI NOTTETEMPO CATTURANO MOMCILO KRAJISNIK
NELLA SUA ABITAZIONE: ANZICHE' APRIRE LA PORTA (APERTA)
LA FANNO SALTARE IN ARIA CON LA DINAMITE
> PALE, Bosnia-Hercegovina, April 3 (AFP) - NATO-led peacekeepers
>blasted their way into the home of Momcilo Krajisnik in the middle
>of the night and held family members at gunpoint, Krajisnik's sons
>told AFP Monday.
> Krajisnik, 55, was arrested on a secret indictment by the
>International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on
>charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and warcrimes.
> When the French-led SFOR troops swooped on the house in the Serb
>stronghold of Pale, Krajisnik, his parents, and his two teenage sons
>were asleep.
> Nemanja Krajisnik, the younger son, said he was awakened by "a
>loud explosion," and a few seconds later he saw "SFOR soldiers
>wearing black masks" standing by his bed.
> "One of them said good morning in English, and then they swiftly
>searched me and my room", he said.
> The other son, Milos, said: "The soldiers dragged me out of the
>bed, pushed me to the floor, face down, and tied my hands in the
>back with a plastic band."
> "They held me at the gunpoint, so that I could not see my
>father. I was afraid," he said.
> The wooden doors of the Krajisnik home were destroyed, with
>pieces of wood scattered over several meters (yards), an AFP
>correstondent on the spot said.
> Traces of muddy boots were left on the sheets in Krajisnik's
>bedroom on the first floor, and every room in the house was
>ransacked.
> SFOR gave no details of the operation.
> No one saw Krajisnik being led away as the soldiers forced the
>entire family to lie down, the sons said.
> "Everything happened very quickly. It did not last more then 10
>minutes," Milos said, adding: "I knew who they came for, but I don't
>know why they had to mistreat us."
> Visibly shaken, Krajisnik's mother Milka, 76, said she had heard
>their dog barking, and then the explosion. "I saw the flash, like
>lightning, and the hall filled with smoke," she said.
> "They held me and my husband, who is 80, at gunpoint in a
>kitchen. I wanted to see my son, but they prevented me," she said,
>adding that one of the SFOR soldiers spoke in Serbian.
> "When the SFOR left I found his (Momcilo's) clothes and slippers
>by his bed. They did not let him change. He was taken barefoot,
>wearing only his pyjamas," she said.
> Krajisnik's wife died a few years ago and daughter Milica, a
>student, was not in the house.
Krajisnik's wife was wounded in Sarajevo and she died.
---
>From RTS (Edited for readability):
PALE
One of the best known representatives of the authorities in the Republic
of
Srpska, former President of the Republika Srpska Assembly, a member of
Bosnia and Hercegovina's Presidency, and a participant at the Dayton
peace
conference, Momcilo Krajisnik, was arrested and taken to the Hague on
Monday. This was accomplished in a most brutal way by the International
forces in Bosnia and Hercegovina.
On Monday morning SFOR troops entered his house, broke down the door
with
dynamite, tied up his children, and locked his parents in the kitchen.
Krajisnik was taken in his pyjamas, barefooted, to be accused of so
called
"genocide" and "crimes against humanity".
BELGRADE
The Yugoslav Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned the perfidious arrest
of
Momcilo Krajisnik, former Republika Srpska (R.S.) parliamentary speaker
and
member of Bosnia's three-man presidency, by Bosnia's Stabilisation Force
(SFOR). In a statement issued by the Ministry it is said that this
shameless
and scandalous act by NATO-led SFOR was a direct attack on the Dayton
peace
agreements. This is the latest and most dramatic form of activity, made
on
the eve of Bosnia's elections, aimed at stifling democracy and
intimidating
and discriminating against the Serbs with a view of promoting the U.S.
administration's and NATO's puppet regime, which would seek to create a
unitary Bosnia-Herzegovina and eliminate Republika Srpska an equal
entity in
Bosnia. This act of violence clearly indicates that NATO continues its
policy of genocide against Serbs in an organised manner. By minimising
the
importance of the Dayton and Paris agreement, initial results in
restoring
confidence, security and safety in Bosnia-Herzegovina are annulled.
SFOR's
action has once again shown that force is an instrument openly used by
NATO,
which unequivocally indicates that the United Nations has been totally
outmanoeuvred. The peacekeeping mission has been taken advantage of in
political, legal and moral principles in international relations. They
have
enabled the policy of force to usurp their role of supreme arbiter in
the
world. The arrest of Krajisnik shows that the so-called Hague tribunal
operates only as an illegitimate political body with a task to ensure
the
collective punishment of all the Serbs, announced the Yugoslav Foreign
Affairs Ministry. Momcilo Krajisnik arrest has been severely condemned
by
the Socialist Party of Serbia, the Yugoslav United Left, the Serbian
Radical
Party, and numerous other political parties, organisations and
associations.
-----Original Message-----
From: MDordevic@... <MDordevic@...>
>My sister informed me some minutes ago from Beograd.
>
>SFOR brutally arrested Krajisnik and brought him
>immediately to Hague. He was put recently at
>the secret list of indicted Serbs.
>He was arrested in his parent's house at Pale. His father
>(80) mother (78) were present and are in a state of shock
>as SFOR used dynamit to break the entry door which
>was even not locked.
>
>Krajisnik never had any military function during the civil war.
>
>Carla del Ponte was two days ago in Sarajevo.
>
>After the Dayton agreement, during several years,
>Momcilo Krajisnik was a member of Presidency in
>Sarajevo together with Izetbegovic and the Croatian
>member.
>
>Who is next ... ?
>
>Miodrag Djordjevic
>
-----Original Message-----
From: info@... <info@...>
Date: Monday, April 03, 2000 4:55 PM
Subject: [sorabia] [DSS] The Hague Never Changes
>The Hague Never Changes - Statement by President of the Democratic Party of
>Serbia Vojislav Kostunica
>
>The brutal arrest of Momcilo Krajisnik, a prelude to his trial at The
Hague,
>has eliminated the last traces of doubt about the true nature of the
>International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia. It is crystal clear
>that the war crimes tribunal is neither legal nor judicial or international
>institution. The court is a mere tool in the hands of NATO, or more
>precisely, the United States, eager to establish law and order tailored to
>the immediate needs and apparently not too impressive intellect of those
>who, to the detriment of human race and the United States, have been
pulling
>strings in that large country.
>
>If the ICTY dared mentioned crimes committed in Yugoslavia during the NATO
>bombing, which reports by several international organisations, the Human
>Rights Watch in particular, have already described, the court would have to
>create at least subsequent illusion of objectivity. Since this is not the
>case, its image remains the same and it is up to the public to judge what
is
>really behind the arrest of Momcilo Krajisnik, a senior official of the
Serb
>Democratic Party, one of the participants in the Dayton peace conference
and
>one of the members of the Bosnian presidency, who made it clear that he had
>no intention of abandoning his country and his people. Is the purpose of
>this move to cover up NATO's fiasco in Kosovo and Bosnia or the traces of
>the alliance's crimes during the last year bombing of Yugoslavia, followed
>by violence committed by NATO's proteges among Albanian terrorists? Is this
>a private war waged by several people in the U.S. administration against
not
>only Serb representatives but Serbs in general, or is it a bid to influence
>yet another quasi-vote in Bosnia? It is very likely that "yes" to both
>questions would not be a wrong answer.
>
>Belgrade, April 3, 2000
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>E-mail: info@...
>http://www.dss.org.yu
>Democratic Party of Serbia, Brace Jugovica 2a, 11000 Belgrade, Yugoslavia
>Tel: (381 11) 182 535; 183 525; 638 013; 328 2886
>Fax: (381 11) 328 1793
-----Original Message-----
From: Servisch Informatie- en Cultuurcentrum <Grbic@...>
To: news@... <news@...>
Date: Monday, April 03, 2000 10:05 PM
Subject: Radovan K.aradzic, Ratko Mladic "hunted down, like Arkan"
TILBURG / HAG, 3 april 2000 /SSICC/ - Today, the spokesman of the Hague
Tribunal for War Crimes in the former SFRYu P. Wesley said that Radovan
Karadzic and Ratko Mladic would be better off personally if they
surrendered. Otherwise, they will be "hunted down, like Arkan", which
means
that anybody might kill them without being prosecuted for that. This is
the
first public revelation that Zeljko Raznatovic has been "sentenced to
death".
Jovan Grbic,
Serbian Information and Cultural Centre, Tilburg, Netherlands
--- Kalle Svensson <kmotk@...> wrote:
From: "Kalle Svensson" <kmotk@...>
To: reclaimthestreets@...
Subject: Nato War Criminals!
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 16:34:01 SAST
Reclaim the Streets NYC -
http://reclaimthestreetsnyc.tao.ca
23 MARCH 1999, JAVIER SOLANO, NATO SECRETARY
GENERAL,GAVE ORDERS TO BOMB THE
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA.
There are now a number of legal documents on the
internet relating to NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia.
They orginate from some of the finest legal minds in
the world. They are attempts to bring about the
indictment of NATO's military and political leaders at
the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia. They are extensive but extremely
interesting documents. Print them out and take time to
read them. Show them to your friends and family. Write
letters to newspapers about them...spread the
word...NATO's leaders are War Criminals.
http://www.jurist.law.pitt.edu/icty.htm
http://www.nato-warcrimes.gr
http://ban.joh.cam.ac.uk/~maicl
http://www.balkan.cc "English Text"
It is practically unknown that the attorneys and
law professors responsible for the above documents met
the War Crimes Tribunal Prosecutor on 9 June 1999 to
discuss the indictment of NATO. The following day, she
was made a judge of the Canadian Supreme Court
and resigned as the Tribunal's prosecutor!
Professor of Law, Michael Mandel, wants 64 of NATO's
leaders indicted for War Crimes as a result of NATO's
bombing. On 11 June 1999, Mandel gave a devastating
press conference in Toronto. You can read it at:
http://galeb.etf.bg.ac.yu/~vukosavic/case2.txt
A possible activity for the future are open-air
"mock trials" of NATO leaders, perhaps based on the
above documents.
Clinton, Albright, Cohen, Blair, Chirac, Schröder
are War Criminals! Make sure they know you know!
---
STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
:
Tue, 21 Mar 2000 12:58:47 +0100
From:
"Milan Tepavac" <miltep@...>
Before sending this text to the states members of the Security Council
of the UN I'd like to have
anybody's well-intentioned comments and/or suggestions. Especially about
what kind of action
would be most appropriate in order to succeed in the basic aim of this
initiative: to abolish this
perverse institution, which is a disgrace to the concept of justice. It
is now the main tool for satanisation of the Serbs and political and
psychological pressure on them and their state.
INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE PROSECUTION OF PERSONS
RESPONSIBLE FOR SERIOUS VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL
HUMANITARIAN LAW COMMITTED IN THE TERRITORY OF THE FORMER
YUGOSLAVIA SINCE 1991
REQUEST TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL
FOR ITS CANCELLATION
Indeed, the idea to exclude from criminal prosecution of
those who inspired, planned,
assisted (including weapons), ignited and conducted secessionist wars in
Slovenia, Croatia and
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and prosecute only those who while killing one
another failed to stick to the
certain stipulated rules (the rules of international humanitarian law),
could be born only in pervert and
sick minds. Who those minds are is difficult to say, but it is known
that they are coming from
Clinton's and Kohl's environment. The predominant ones are, no doubt,
Madeleine Albright, Samuel
Berger, Daniel Sheffer, James Rubin, William Cohen, Lawrence
Eagleburger, Richard Goldstone,
the Nazi Hans Dietrich Genscher and who knows who not. The oddest thing
of all is, certainly, how
the official politics of USA, Germany and many other states could accept
such an ugly idea for its
official attitude and impose it to the Security Council of the United
Nations which established a court
based on such an idea. It is well known that London Agreement of 8
August 1945 (which is, of
course, still in force) on punishment of the main Nazi criminals and its
Statute, in the first place
incriminate exactly "the crimes against peace: namely, planning,
preparation, initiation or waging of
a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties,
agreements or assurances, or
participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of
any of the foregoing.
Leaders, organisers, instigators and accomplices participating in the
formulation or execution of a
common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes are
responsible for all acts
performed by any persons in execution of such plan." (Article 6 (a) of
the Statute of the Tribunal).
Violent secession - especially the one endangering international peace
and security as were those that
broke SFR Yugoslavia into pieces - surely fit into the formulation of
the crime against peace.
From the time when someone had an idea to establish such a
tribunal until nowadays, the
Tribunal has been called in question both on the grounds of the body
which established it (The
Security Council of the United Nations) and on the grounds of its
jurisdiction ("trial of the persons
responsible for the serious violations of the international humanitarian
law in the territory of the former
Yugoslavia since 1 January 1991."! It has been contradicted not only by
all the people who are
significant for the international humanitarian law, but also by all the
people with common sense. It can
be said that the Tribunal was established by the people who had no
connection with international
law, the inventors of the concept of "The New World Order" according to
which the force and
political violence is the only "law" recognised by them. Still we should
define why the Serbian nation
was chosen for implementation of that concept. Why the mere attempt of
Serbian nation to
defend its country from the secessionist crime pronounced to be the
crime, while at the
same time that right is recognised to all other nations? Even the chief
sheriff of the New World
Order does not deny that right to the others. On 19 November 1999, on
the Summit of Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe, held in Istanbul Clinton said:
"We believe Russia has not
only the right, but the obligation to defend its territorial integrity".
Instead of recognition of the same
right to the Serbian nation, its striving to keep its state is
pronounced to be a crime and the Tribunal
is established for its punishing!!
I
1. Establishment and jurisdiction of the Tribunal
This Tribunal was, as it is well known, established by
Resolution 827 of the Security
Council of the United Nations of 25 May 1993. Invoking the Chapter VII
of the United Nations
Charter, the Resolution states that the Tribunal has been established
"solely for prosecution of the
persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian
law committed in the territory
of the former Yugoslavia between 1 January 1991 until the date which
shall be determined by the
Security Council after the peace establishment." At the end, under item
9, the Resolution states that
the Council "decides to remain actively seized of the matter".
Statute of the Tribunal, adopted by the Security Council in
the foregoing Resolution, has
determined that this "Tribunal" has jurisdiction as regards the
following crimes:
- grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions (Article 2),
- violations of the laws or customs of war (Article 3),
- genocide (Article 4) and
- crimes against humanity (Article 5).
So, the Security Council has not - as it was emphasised in
the beginning of the text -
given jurisdiction to the Tribunal regarding crimes against peace and
security of the
humanity as aggression, planning and conducting secessionist war and
alike. The reason is
obvious - in order not to prosecute those who directed and ignited
Yugoslav tragedy, that is the
leaders of Yugoslav secessionist republics and their foreign protectors,
masters and other
accomplices. In other words, the Security Council sent the message to
Yugoslavs: it is all
right to kill one another, but it is not all right to do it without
compliance with the rules
stated under the Articles 2-5 of the Statute!
And, that is not all! The Statute defined the foregoing
crimes, but in many ways
differently than they were defined by modern international law! In that
manner the Security
Council took the role of legislator to which, of course, it is not
entitled according to the
United Nations Charter!
Pursuant to the Article 24, paragraph 1 of the Statute, the
Security Council has even
abolished capital punishment for international crimes, although it was
introduced by the
Article 27 of the Statute of the Tribunal for trial of Nazis. Of course,
one may be for or
against capital punishment, but it is certainly not in the competence of
the Security Council
to decide whether it shall exist in international law or be abolished.
It should be also emphasised that the crimes as stated under
the Articles 2 and 3
(violations of Geneva Conventions and war laws and customs) may be
committed only in
the armed conflicts of international character, not in internal
conflicts. That way the Security
Council beforehand took the position that the conflict in Yugoslavia was
of an international character,
although the real answer to that question may come only from the science
of international law, and
not from the Security Council, which is a political and not an expert
body.
Apart from the fact that the jurisdiction of the Tribunal is
limited, only to ius in bello, and
not to ius ad bellum, the territorial limitation ("region of former
Yugoslavia") as well as time limit
("since 1 January 1991") give special dimension of absurdity to this
institution.
Russia and NR China voted for this Resolution as well.
2. Structure and Financing (for details see FACT SHEET on
www.un.org/icty )
Tribunal consists of the following judges:
President: Claude Jorda (France), Vice-President: Florence Ndepele
Mwachande Mumba
(Zambia).
Presiding Judges: David Anthony Hunt (Australia), Richard George May
(United Kingdom) and
Almiro Simoes Rodrigues (Portugal).
Judges: Lal Chand Vohrah (Malaysia), Fouad Abdel-Moneim Riad (Egypt),
Mohamed
Shahabuddeen (Guyana), Wang Tieya (China), Rafael Nieto-Navia
(Colombia), Mohamed
Bennouna (Morocco), Patrick Lipton Robinson (Jamaica), Patricia Wald
(United States of America)
and Fausto Pocar (Italy).
PROSECUTOR:
Chief Prosecutor: Justice Carla del Ponte (Switzerland), since 15
September 1999.
Deputy Prosecutor: Graham Blewitt (Australia), since 15 February 1994.
As we can see Russia and NR China do not have their judges
in the Tribunal.
The Tribunal has so far grown up in a monster consisting of
832 officers from 68 states,
handling budget of 95,942.600 dollars for 2000 - ten times more than the
International Court of
Justice! It is financed by mostly USA and Arab states.
3. Work of the Tribunal (for more details see FACT SHEET on
www.un.org/icty)
Up to now 93 persons were accused, most of them being Serbs.
Out of these 93
accused, seven died - two in casemates of the Tribunal under
questionable circumstances
(Dokmanovic and Kovacevic), while the two were killed by SFOR while
trying to kidnap them in
Bosnia (Drljaca and Gagovic).
In the cells of Tribunal in the Hague there are 35
prisoners, 30 of them being Bosnian Serbs
among whom there are generals of the Army of Republic of Srpska Momir
Talic (kidnapped in
Vienna, under the Tribunal's order, by Austrian police while attending
international gathering under
the auspices of the OSCE and Austrian Ministry of Defence!!!), Radislav
Krstic and Milan Simic, 4
Croats and 1 Muslim. This very fact speaks against whom this Tribunal
has been established. So far,
the Tribunal brought several verdicts. Of course, it cannot be said how
many person shall be indicted
and who are those persons, even more because its practice is to have
so-called "secret indictments".
As it is well-known, the Tribunal also indicted citizens of FR
Yugoslavia - Slobodan Milosevic,
President of FRY; Milan Milutinovic, President of Serbia; Nikola
Sainovic, Dragoljub Ojdanic,
Vlajko Stojiljkovic, Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin
Sljivancanin.
On the basis of the indictment against the president of FR
Yugoslavia and other high officials,
the United States of America has these days committed crime without
precedent in the international
relations: it offered 5 million dollar reward to anyone who helps their
kidnapping, murder and alike.
By this the current regime in USA showed and proved that it outlawed and
placed itself out of
civilisation norms, as well as introduced the "Wild West law" in the
international relations, while the
Tribunal showed to be blind instrument of that politics, not a court of
law and justice.
Not one of the persons accused by the Tribunal is
responsible for the war. The war
was imposed to them; they are its victims as the millions of Yugoslavs.
On the other hand,
Tribunal did not accuse any of the real culprits for Yugoslav tragedy:
leaders of
secessionist republics and their foreign planners, instigators and other
accomplices from
USA, EU, NATO and Vatican. This fact best indicates the true nature of
the Tribunal.
Although the author of this text addressed the Tribunal several times -
more precisely 23 May 1995,
4 September 1995, 14 October 1995, 9 May 1996, 2 July 1997 and 21 July
1998 - requesting
initiation of the criminal proceedings against all these main culprits
for Yugoslav tragedy and
endangering international peace and security, the Tribunal and its chief
prosecutor did nothing. The
Nuremberg and the Tokyo tribunals did exactly that: they tried main
criminals, while all others were
left to national courts.
Furthermore, the chief prosecutor of the Tribunal Carla Del
Ponte persistently
refuses to initiate investigation and procedure against the leaders of
the NATO member
states and officials of that aggressor alliance for aggression on FR
Yugoslavia and on that
occasion committed crimes, though she herself says that she received
numerous requests
(including mine - 12 October 1998, 21 February 1999, 29 March 1999 and
15 May 1999) and
voluminous documentation accusing them, including evidence submitted by
Russian Duma.
II
Since the first day of its existence, the Tribunal has been
challenged on all the grounds not
only by numerous international lawyers but also by many other people
with common sense. Many
arguments have been presented that it is the instrument of politics of
force of the United States of
America and its satellites (NATO and EU) for destruction of Yugoslavia
(former and current) and all
the Serbian nation and not court of law. At the same time, the people in
Yugoslavia constantly
wander how it is possible that Russia and China did nothing to oppose
the establishment of this
institution, which represents mockery of justice and equity.
In challenging this institution, first of all it is
emphasised that the Security Council of the
United Nations had no right according to the United Nations Charter to
establish international
criminal court, to limit its jurisdiction territorially and temporally,
to prescribe for which international
crimes it shall have jurisdiction and for which not by excluding its
jurisdiction with regards to the most
serious crimes against peace and security such as aggression, armed
secession, intervention in
internal affairs, international terrorism. It is also emphasised that it
was a political self-will of the
Security Council aimed against Serbian nation, that the real goal of
establishment of this Tribunal was
pointing a finger at the party which was not responsible in order to
protect the real culprits, etc.
Therefore, FR Yugoslavia did not recognise this Tribunal until it was
forced to sign, although vague,
obligation of co-operation with it in Dayton. The Americans, by
permanent pressure to satisfy all the
Tribunal's requests, constantly terrorise FR Yugoslavia and the entire
Serbian nation.
If the Security Council of the United Nations by
establishing this Tribunal (and the one for
Rwanda) overstepped its authorisations and resorted to self-will, it has
done it even in greater and
more dangerous degree by prescribing new international crimes by the
Statute of the Tribunal
for Yugoslavia, thus awarding itself with legislator's function in the
international field! In
fact, pursuant to the Articles 2 and 3 of the Statute, the Council
prescribed that the rules of
international humanitarian law, which are otherwise referring to the
international armed conflicts,
should apply to the armed conflict in Yugoslavia, although it is
non-international (internal)
armed conflict for which the legal rules referring to the internal
conflicts should be valid, i.e., first of
all the joint Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and Supplemental
Protocol II to these
Conventions adopted in 1977. Furthermore, if the Article 5 of the
Statute could be considered to be
valid for the case of war and in peace, the Security Council added to
that Article some of its own
"rules" which are not part of modern international humanitarian law,
such as "jail", "torture", "rape",
"other non-humane actions" (?!).
Because of such a state of affairs, international lawyers
more and more often demand that the
issue of judicial, i.e. legal, control of the decisions and documents of
the organisation of the United
Nations is to be solved urgently, and first of all the decision of the
Security Council, so as to prevent
its self-will.
The course of the trials so far before this Tribunal
indicate what the real role and power of
this Tribunal is, and it shall be even clearer. For example, in the
beginning of the trial of the Serbian
Dusko Tadic we heard the prosecutor and one witness of the prosecution,
a James Gau, British, as
"an expert for Yugoslav affairs". In reply to the key question who holds
responsibility for the
destruction of Yugoslavia and commencement of war, they say the same
what their paymasters
are blowing into the trumpet from the very beginning: Serbs! Since they
could not possibly deny
the fact that any normal person knows that the Serbs fought to remain in
Yugoslavia and
that the others left it by anti-constitutional violent secession, they
say: well, they had to,
because they had good reasons to be afraid of Serbian nationalism! And
so on. Some signs show
that the things will not go the way they imagined. For instance, the
President of the Trial Chamber of
the Court in Tadic case as well as the Defence asked some, for them
unpleasant questions such as:
how Yugoslav National Army could be occupier in its own country?! "Could
American Army
occupy, e.g. Texas?", asked the President of the Trial Chamber American
Gabriella Kirk
McDonald. Does the state have right to defend itself from secession? The
American surely knows
history of her country that well to be aware how the former president of
her country Lincoln dealt
with secession. Furthermore, the sentence of Tadic caused headache to
the Tribunal's inventors:
namely, the sentence stated that it was non-international armed conflict
in Bosnia, which means that it
was civil war, and not the international, on which the prosecution
insisted. That annihilates the entire
concept, the entire "philosophy" of the enemy of the Serbian nation -
that the war in Bosnia and
Croatia was in fact aggression, of course made by FR Yugoslavia.
Therefore the Tribunal's
prosecutor lodged a complaint against the judgement, and the Tribunal
was ordered to revoke this
judgement and bring another according to which the conflict in Bosnia
would be of "international
character"! Consequently, the norms of international law regulating
internal conflicts have not been
applied for the war conducted on some parts of the former Yugoslavia,
precisely the common Article
3 of the Geneva Conventions and Protocol II, but the norms covering
armed conflicts of international
character!
All the above indicates that it is high time to initiate in
the Security Council the question of
abolishment of this Tribunal, which represents monstrous monument to the
tyranny of the Untied
States of America and their satellites over a small state and small
nation which was in the First and
Second World War exposed to the horrible genocide by Croat and Muslim
Ustasha's (pro-fascist
collaborators) and Nazis. That genocide is now continued by USA and
their NATO and EU
satellites by means of sanctions, aggression and political isolation and
terror. In these crimes Tribunal
is one of the most efficient instruments. Not only that it has to be
abolished as soon as possible, but it
should not have ever been established.
Therefore, the Security Council of the Untied Nations should
bring the following decision on
the grounds of the item 9 of its Resolution 827:
1. The International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia
is abolished.
2. All the convicted or accused persons who are in the
prisons of the Tribunal are to
be delivered to their national states for the procedure before the
jurisdictional courts for
the crimes imputed to them, together with all the documentation and
evidence in their
possession. The Security Council shall control how the states are
conducting the criminal
procedures for the violation of the international humanitarian law and
shall take the
necessary measures - including sanctions anticipated by the United
Nations Charter -
against those states which would in any manner avoid objective and fair
actions.
3. All the states are called on to ratify the Rome Statute
of the International
Criminal Court as soon as possible, in order that the international
community could have a
real, permanent international criminal court like the International
Court of Justice.
Beograd, March 20,
2000
Milan Tepavac, Ph.D.
miltep@...
Member of the International Law
Yugoslav Association
Member of the International Law
World Association
Member of the Belgrade Bar
Association
Member of the Serbian Bar
Association
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
rapiscono leader politico della Repubblica Serba.
Sul "garantismo" del Tribunale dell'Aia: la cattura di un presunto
criminale di guerra avviene sulla base di un mandato e di accuse
"secretate", contro qualsiasi prassi giudiziaria di questo pianeta.
* Arkan fatto fuori perche' si sottraeva alla cattura?
* RICHIESTA AL CONSIGLIO DI SICUREZZA DELL'ONU PER LA ABOLIZIONE DEL
TRIBUNALE DELL'AIA PER I CRIMINI COMMESSI SUL TERRITORIO DELLA EX-RFS DI
JUGOSLAVIA
Sulla natura del Tribunale dell'Aia si veda anche:
http://www.egroups.com/message/crj-mailinglist/148?&start=145
---
SOLDATI FRANCESI NOTTETEMPO CATTURANO MOMCILO KRAJISNIK
NELLA SUA ABITAZIONE: ANZICHE' APRIRE LA PORTA (APERTA)
LA FANNO SALTARE IN ARIA CON LA DINAMITE
> PALE, Bosnia-Hercegovina, April 3 (AFP) - NATO-led peacekeepers
>blasted their way into the home of Momcilo Krajisnik in the middle
>of the night and held family members at gunpoint, Krajisnik's sons
>told AFP Monday.
> Krajisnik, 55, was arrested on a secret indictment by the
>International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on
>charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and warcrimes.
> When the French-led SFOR troops swooped on the house in the Serb
>stronghold of Pale, Krajisnik, his parents, and his two teenage sons
>were asleep.
> Nemanja Krajisnik, the younger son, said he was awakened by "a
>loud explosion," and a few seconds later he saw "SFOR soldiers
>wearing black masks" standing by his bed.
> "One of them said good morning in English, and then they swiftly
>searched me and my room", he said.
> The other son, Milos, said: "The soldiers dragged me out of the
>bed, pushed me to the floor, face down, and tied my hands in the
>back with a plastic band."
> "They held me at the gunpoint, so that I could not see my
>father. I was afraid," he said.
> The wooden doors of the Krajisnik home were destroyed, with
>pieces of wood scattered over several meters (yards), an AFP
>correstondent on the spot said.
> Traces of muddy boots were left on the sheets in Krajisnik's
>bedroom on the first floor, and every room in the house was
>ransacked.
> SFOR gave no details of the operation.
> No one saw Krajisnik being led away as the soldiers forced the
>entire family to lie down, the sons said.
> "Everything happened very quickly. It did not last more then 10
>minutes," Milos said, adding: "I knew who they came for, but I don't
>know why they had to mistreat us."
> Visibly shaken, Krajisnik's mother Milka, 76, said she had heard
>their dog barking, and then the explosion. "I saw the flash, like
>lightning, and the hall filled with smoke," she said.
> "They held me and my husband, who is 80, at gunpoint in a
>kitchen. I wanted to see my son, but they prevented me," she said,
>adding that one of the SFOR soldiers spoke in Serbian.
> "When the SFOR left I found his (Momcilo's) clothes and slippers
>by his bed. They did not let him change. He was taken barefoot,
>wearing only his pyjamas," she said.
> Krajisnik's wife died a few years ago and daughter Milica, a
>student, was not in the house.
Krajisnik's wife was wounded in Sarajevo and she died.
---
>From RTS (Edited for readability):
PALE
One of the best known representatives of the authorities in the Republic
of
Srpska, former President of the Republika Srpska Assembly, a member of
Bosnia and Hercegovina's Presidency, and a participant at the Dayton
peace
conference, Momcilo Krajisnik, was arrested and taken to the Hague on
Monday. This was accomplished in a most brutal way by the International
forces in Bosnia and Hercegovina.
On Monday morning SFOR troops entered his house, broke down the door
with
dynamite, tied up his children, and locked his parents in the kitchen.
Krajisnik was taken in his pyjamas, barefooted, to be accused of so
called
"genocide" and "crimes against humanity".
BELGRADE
The Yugoslav Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned the perfidious arrest
of
Momcilo Krajisnik, former Republika Srpska (R.S.) parliamentary speaker
and
member of Bosnia's three-man presidency, by Bosnia's Stabilisation Force
(SFOR). In a statement issued by the Ministry it is said that this
shameless
and scandalous act by NATO-led SFOR was a direct attack on the Dayton
peace
agreements. This is the latest and most dramatic form of activity, made
on
the eve of Bosnia's elections, aimed at stifling democracy and
intimidating
and discriminating against the Serbs with a view of promoting the U.S.
administration's and NATO's puppet regime, which would seek to create a
unitary Bosnia-Herzegovina and eliminate Republika Srpska an equal
entity in
Bosnia. This act of violence clearly indicates that NATO continues its
policy of genocide against Serbs in an organised manner. By minimising
the
importance of the Dayton and Paris agreement, initial results in
restoring
confidence, security and safety in Bosnia-Herzegovina are annulled.
SFOR's
action has once again shown that force is an instrument openly used by
NATO,
which unequivocally indicates that the United Nations has been totally
outmanoeuvred. The peacekeeping mission has been taken advantage of in
political, legal and moral principles in international relations. They
have
enabled the policy of force to usurp their role of supreme arbiter in
the
world. The arrest of Krajisnik shows that the so-called Hague tribunal
operates only as an illegitimate political body with a task to ensure
the
collective punishment of all the Serbs, announced the Yugoslav Foreign
Affairs Ministry. Momcilo Krajisnik arrest has been severely condemned
by
the Socialist Party of Serbia, the Yugoslav United Left, the Serbian
Radical
Party, and numerous other political parties, organisations and
associations.
-----Original Message-----
From: MDordevic@... <MDordevic@...>
>My sister informed me some minutes ago from Beograd.
>
>SFOR brutally arrested Krajisnik and brought him
>immediately to Hague. He was put recently at
>the secret list of indicted Serbs.
>He was arrested in his parent's house at Pale. His father
>(80) mother (78) were present and are in a state of shock
>as SFOR used dynamit to break the entry door which
>was even not locked.
>
>Krajisnik never had any military function during the civil war.
>
>Carla del Ponte was two days ago in Sarajevo.
>
>After the Dayton agreement, during several years,
>Momcilo Krajisnik was a member of Presidency in
>Sarajevo together with Izetbegovic and the Croatian
>member.
>
>Who is next ... ?
>
>Miodrag Djordjevic
>
-----Original Message-----
From: info@... <info@...>
Date: Monday, April 03, 2000 4:55 PM
Subject: [sorabia] [DSS] The Hague Never Changes
>The Hague Never Changes - Statement by President of the Democratic Party of
>Serbia Vojislav Kostunica
>
>The brutal arrest of Momcilo Krajisnik, a prelude to his trial at The
Hague,
>has eliminated the last traces of doubt about the true nature of the
>International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia. It is crystal clear
>that the war crimes tribunal is neither legal nor judicial or international
>institution. The court is a mere tool in the hands of NATO, or more
>precisely, the United States, eager to establish law and order tailored to
>the immediate needs and apparently not too impressive intellect of those
>who, to the detriment of human race and the United States, have been
pulling
>strings in that large country.
>
>If the ICTY dared mentioned crimes committed in Yugoslavia during the NATO
>bombing, which reports by several international organisations, the Human
>Rights Watch in particular, have already described, the court would have to
>create at least subsequent illusion of objectivity. Since this is not the
>case, its image remains the same and it is up to the public to judge what
is
>really behind the arrest of Momcilo Krajisnik, a senior official of the
Serb
>Democratic Party, one of the participants in the Dayton peace conference
and
>one of the members of the Bosnian presidency, who made it clear that he had
>no intention of abandoning his country and his people. Is the purpose of
>this move to cover up NATO's fiasco in Kosovo and Bosnia or the traces of
>the alliance's crimes during the last year bombing of Yugoslavia, followed
>by violence committed by NATO's proteges among Albanian terrorists? Is this
>a private war waged by several people in the U.S. administration against
not
>only Serb representatives but Serbs in general, or is it a bid to influence
>yet another quasi-vote in Bosnia? It is very likely that "yes" to both
>questions would not be a wrong answer.
>
>Belgrade, April 3, 2000
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>E-mail: info@...
>http://www.dss.org.yu
>Democratic Party of Serbia, Brace Jugovica 2a, 11000 Belgrade, Yugoslavia
>Tel: (381 11) 182 535; 183 525; 638 013; 328 2886
>Fax: (381 11) 328 1793
-----Original Message-----
From: Servisch Informatie- en Cultuurcentrum <Grbic@...>
To: news@... <news@...>
Date: Monday, April 03, 2000 10:05 PM
Subject: Radovan K.aradzic, Ratko Mladic "hunted down, like Arkan"
TILBURG / HAG, 3 april 2000 /SSICC/ - Today, the spokesman of the Hague
Tribunal for War Crimes in the former SFRYu P. Wesley said that Radovan
Karadzic and Ratko Mladic would be better off personally if they
surrendered. Otherwise, they will be "hunted down, like Arkan", which
means
that anybody might kill them without being prosecuted for that. This is
the
first public revelation that Zeljko Raznatovic has been "sentenced to
death".
Jovan Grbic,
Serbian Information and Cultural Centre, Tilburg, Netherlands
--- Kalle Svensson <kmotk@...> wrote:
From: "Kalle Svensson" <kmotk@...>
To: reclaimthestreets@...
Subject: Nato War Criminals!
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 16:34:01 SAST
Reclaim the Streets NYC -
http://reclaimthestreetsnyc.tao.ca
23 MARCH 1999, JAVIER SOLANO, NATO SECRETARY
GENERAL,GAVE ORDERS TO BOMB THE
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA.
There are now a number of legal documents on the
internet relating to NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia.
They orginate from some of the finest legal minds in
the world. They are attempts to bring about the
indictment of NATO's military and political leaders at
the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia. They are extensive but extremely
interesting documents. Print them out and take time to
read them. Show them to your friends and family. Write
letters to newspapers about them...spread the
word...NATO's leaders are War Criminals.
http://www.jurist.law.pitt.edu/icty.htm
http://www.nato-warcrimes.gr
http://ban.joh.cam.ac.uk/~maicl
http://www.balkan.cc "English Text"
It is practically unknown that the attorneys and
law professors responsible for the above documents met
the War Crimes Tribunal Prosecutor on 9 June 1999 to
discuss the indictment of NATO. The following day, she
was made a judge of the Canadian Supreme Court
and resigned as the Tribunal's prosecutor!
Professor of Law, Michael Mandel, wants 64 of NATO's
leaders indicted for War Crimes as a result of NATO's
bombing. On 11 June 1999, Mandel gave a devastating
press conference in Toronto. You can read it at:
http://galeb.etf.bg.ac.yu/~vukosavic/case2.txt
A possible activity for the future are open-air
"mock trials" of NATO leaders, perhaps based on the
above documents.
Clinton, Albright, Cohen, Blair, Chirac, Schröder
are War Criminals! Make sure they know you know!
---
STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
:
Tue, 21 Mar 2000 12:58:47 +0100
From:
"Milan Tepavac" <miltep@...>
Before sending this text to the states members of the Security Council
of the UN I'd like to have
anybody's well-intentioned comments and/or suggestions. Especially about
what kind of action
would be most appropriate in order to succeed in the basic aim of this
initiative: to abolish this
perverse institution, which is a disgrace to the concept of justice. It
is now the main tool for satanisation of the Serbs and political and
psychological pressure on them and their state.
INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE PROSECUTION OF PERSONS
RESPONSIBLE FOR SERIOUS VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL
HUMANITARIAN LAW COMMITTED IN THE TERRITORY OF THE FORMER
YUGOSLAVIA SINCE 1991
REQUEST TO THE SECURITY COUNCIL
FOR ITS CANCELLATION
Indeed, the idea to exclude from criminal prosecution of
those who inspired, planned,
assisted (including weapons), ignited and conducted secessionist wars in
Slovenia, Croatia and
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and prosecute only those who while killing one
another failed to stick to the
certain stipulated rules (the rules of international humanitarian law),
could be born only in pervert and
sick minds. Who those minds are is difficult to say, but it is known
that they are coming from
Clinton's and Kohl's environment. The predominant ones are, no doubt,
Madeleine Albright, Samuel
Berger, Daniel Sheffer, James Rubin, William Cohen, Lawrence
Eagleburger, Richard Goldstone,
the Nazi Hans Dietrich Genscher and who knows who not. The oddest thing
of all is, certainly, how
the official politics of USA, Germany and many other states could accept
such an ugly idea for its
official attitude and impose it to the Security Council of the United
Nations which established a court
based on such an idea. It is well known that London Agreement of 8
August 1945 (which is, of
course, still in force) on punishment of the main Nazi criminals and its
Statute, in the first place
incriminate exactly "the crimes against peace: namely, planning,
preparation, initiation or waging of
a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties,
agreements or assurances, or
participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of
any of the foregoing.
Leaders, organisers, instigators and accomplices participating in the
formulation or execution of a
common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes are
responsible for all acts
performed by any persons in execution of such plan." (Article 6 (a) of
the Statute of the Tribunal).
Violent secession - especially the one endangering international peace
and security as were those that
broke SFR Yugoslavia into pieces - surely fit into the formulation of
the crime against peace.
From the time when someone had an idea to establish such a
tribunal until nowadays, the
Tribunal has been called in question both on the grounds of the body
which established it (The
Security Council of the United Nations) and on the grounds of its
jurisdiction ("trial of the persons
responsible for the serious violations of the international humanitarian
law in the territory of the former
Yugoslavia since 1 January 1991."! It has been contradicted not only by
all the people who are
significant for the international humanitarian law, but also by all the
people with common sense. It can
be said that the Tribunal was established by the people who had no
connection with international
law, the inventors of the concept of "The New World Order" according to
which the force and
political violence is the only "law" recognised by them. Still we should
define why the Serbian nation
was chosen for implementation of that concept. Why the mere attempt of
Serbian nation to
defend its country from the secessionist crime pronounced to be the
crime, while at the
same time that right is recognised to all other nations? Even the chief
sheriff of the New World
Order does not deny that right to the others. On 19 November 1999, on
the Summit of Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe, held in Istanbul Clinton said:
"We believe Russia has not
only the right, but the obligation to defend its territorial integrity".
Instead of recognition of the same
right to the Serbian nation, its striving to keep its state is
pronounced to be a crime and the Tribunal
is established for its punishing!!
I
1. Establishment and jurisdiction of the Tribunal
This Tribunal was, as it is well known, established by
Resolution 827 of the Security
Council of the United Nations of 25 May 1993. Invoking the Chapter VII
of the United Nations
Charter, the Resolution states that the Tribunal has been established
"solely for prosecution of the
persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian
law committed in the territory
of the former Yugoslavia between 1 January 1991 until the date which
shall be determined by the
Security Council after the peace establishment." At the end, under item
9, the Resolution states that
the Council "decides to remain actively seized of the matter".
Statute of the Tribunal, adopted by the Security Council in
the foregoing Resolution, has
determined that this "Tribunal" has jurisdiction as regards the
following crimes:
- grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions (Article 2),
- violations of the laws or customs of war (Article 3),
- genocide (Article 4) and
- crimes against humanity (Article 5).
So, the Security Council has not - as it was emphasised in
the beginning of the text -
given jurisdiction to the Tribunal regarding crimes against peace and
security of the
humanity as aggression, planning and conducting secessionist war and
alike. The reason is
obvious - in order not to prosecute those who directed and ignited
Yugoslav tragedy, that is the
leaders of Yugoslav secessionist republics and their foreign protectors,
masters and other
accomplices. In other words, the Security Council sent the message to
Yugoslavs: it is all
right to kill one another, but it is not all right to do it without
compliance with the rules
stated under the Articles 2-5 of the Statute!
And, that is not all! The Statute defined the foregoing
crimes, but in many ways
differently than they were defined by modern international law! In that
manner the Security
Council took the role of legislator to which, of course, it is not
entitled according to the
United Nations Charter!
Pursuant to the Article 24, paragraph 1 of the Statute, the
Security Council has even
abolished capital punishment for international crimes, although it was
introduced by the
Article 27 of the Statute of the Tribunal for trial of Nazis. Of course,
one may be for or
against capital punishment, but it is certainly not in the competence of
the Security Council
to decide whether it shall exist in international law or be abolished.
It should be also emphasised that the crimes as stated under
the Articles 2 and 3
(violations of Geneva Conventions and war laws and customs) may be
committed only in
the armed conflicts of international character, not in internal
conflicts. That way the Security
Council beforehand took the position that the conflict in Yugoslavia was
of an international character,
although the real answer to that question may come only from the science
of international law, and
not from the Security Council, which is a political and not an expert
body.
Apart from the fact that the jurisdiction of the Tribunal is
limited, only to ius in bello, and
not to ius ad bellum, the territorial limitation ("region of former
Yugoslavia") as well as time limit
("since 1 January 1991") give special dimension of absurdity to this
institution.
Russia and NR China voted for this Resolution as well.
2. Structure and Financing (for details see FACT SHEET on
www.un.org/icty )
Tribunal consists of the following judges:
President: Claude Jorda (France), Vice-President: Florence Ndepele
Mwachande Mumba
(Zambia).
Presiding Judges: David Anthony Hunt (Australia), Richard George May
(United Kingdom) and
Almiro Simoes Rodrigues (Portugal).
Judges: Lal Chand Vohrah (Malaysia), Fouad Abdel-Moneim Riad (Egypt),
Mohamed
Shahabuddeen (Guyana), Wang Tieya (China), Rafael Nieto-Navia
(Colombia), Mohamed
Bennouna (Morocco), Patrick Lipton Robinson (Jamaica), Patricia Wald
(United States of America)
and Fausto Pocar (Italy).
PROSECUTOR:
Chief Prosecutor: Justice Carla del Ponte (Switzerland), since 15
September 1999.
Deputy Prosecutor: Graham Blewitt (Australia), since 15 February 1994.
As we can see Russia and NR China do not have their judges
in the Tribunal.
The Tribunal has so far grown up in a monster consisting of
832 officers from 68 states,
handling budget of 95,942.600 dollars for 2000 - ten times more than the
International Court of
Justice! It is financed by mostly USA and Arab states.
3. Work of the Tribunal (for more details see FACT SHEET on
www.un.org/icty)
Up to now 93 persons were accused, most of them being Serbs.
Out of these 93
accused, seven died - two in casemates of the Tribunal under
questionable circumstances
(Dokmanovic and Kovacevic), while the two were killed by SFOR while
trying to kidnap them in
Bosnia (Drljaca and Gagovic).
In the cells of Tribunal in the Hague there are 35
prisoners, 30 of them being Bosnian Serbs
among whom there are generals of the Army of Republic of Srpska Momir
Talic (kidnapped in
Vienna, under the Tribunal's order, by Austrian police while attending
international gathering under
the auspices of the OSCE and Austrian Ministry of Defence!!!), Radislav
Krstic and Milan Simic, 4
Croats and 1 Muslim. This very fact speaks against whom this Tribunal
has been established. So far,
the Tribunal brought several verdicts. Of course, it cannot be said how
many person shall be indicted
and who are those persons, even more because its practice is to have
so-called "secret indictments".
As it is well-known, the Tribunal also indicted citizens of FR
Yugoslavia - Slobodan Milosevic,
President of FRY; Milan Milutinovic, President of Serbia; Nikola
Sainovic, Dragoljub Ojdanic,
Vlajko Stojiljkovic, Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin
Sljivancanin.
On the basis of the indictment against the president of FR
Yugoslavia and other high officials,
the United States of America has these days committed crime without
precedent in the international
relations: it offered 5 million dollar reward to anyone who helps their
kidnapping, murder and alike.
By this the current regime in USA showed and proved that it outlawed and
placed itself out of
civilisation norms, as well as introduced the "Wild West law" in the
international relations, while the
Tribunal showed to be blind instrument of that politics, not a court of
law and justice.
Not one of the persons accused by the Tribunal is
responsible for the war. The war
was imposed to them; they are its victims as the millions of Yugoslavs.
On the other hand,
Tribunal did not accuse any of the real culprits for Yugoslav tragedy:
leaders of
secessionist republics and their foreign planners, instigators and other
accomplices from
USA, EU, NATO and Vatican. This fact best indicates the true nature of
the Tribunal.
Although the author of this text addressed the Tribunal several times -
more precisely 23 May 1995,
4 September 1995, 14 October 1995, 9 May 1996, 2 July 1997 and 21 July
1998 - requesting
initiation of the criminal proceedings against all these main culprits
for Yugoslav tragedy and
endangering international peace and security, the Tribunal and its chief
prosecutor did nothing. The
Nuremberg and the Tokyo tribunals did exactly that: they tried main
criminals, while all others were
left to national courts.
Furthermore, the chief prosecutor of the Tribunal Carla Del
Ponte persistently
refuses to initiate investigation and procedure against the leaders of
the NATO member
states and officials of that aggressor alliance for aggression on FR
Yugoslavia and on that
occasion committed crimes, though she herself says that she received
numerous requests
(including mine - 12 October 1998, 21 February 1999, 29 March 1999 and
15 May 1999) and
voluminous documentation accusing them, including evidence submitted by
Russian Duma.
II
Since the first day of its existence, the Tribunal has been
challenged on all the grounds not
only by numerous international lawyers but also by many other people
with common sense. Many
arguments have been presented that it is the instrument of politics of
force of the United States of
America and its satellites (NATO and EU) for destruction of Yugoslavia
(former and current) and all
the Serbian nation and not court of law. At the same time, the people in
Yugoslavia constantly
wander how it is possible that Russia and China did nothing to oppose
the establishment of this
institution, which represents mockery of justice and equity.
In challenging this institution, first of all it is
emphasised that the Security Council of the
United Nations had no right according to the United Nations Charter to
establish international
criminal court, to limit its jurisdiction territorially and temporally,
to prescribe for which international
crimes it shall have jurisdiction and for which not by excluding its
jurisdiction with regards to the most
serious crimes against peace and security such as aggression, armed
secession, intervention in
internal affairs, international terrorism. It is also emphasised that it
was a political self-will of the
Security Council aimed against Serbian nation, that the real goal of
establishment of this Tribunal was
pointing a finger at the party which was not responsible in order to
protect the real culprits, etc.
Therefore, FR Yugoslavia did not recognise this Tribunal until it was
forced to sign, although vague,
obligation of co-operation with it in Dayton. The Americans, by
permanent pressure to satisfy all the
Tribunal's requests, constantly terrorise FR Yugoslavia and the entire
Serbian nation.
If the Security Council of the United Nations by
establishing this Tribunal (and the one for
Rwanda) overstepped its authorisations and resorted to self-will, it has
done it even in greater and
more dangerous degree by prescribing new international crimes by the
Statute of the Tribunal
for Yugoslavia, thus awarding itself with legislator's function in the
international field! In
fact, pursuant to the Articles 2 and 3 of the Statute, the Council
prescribed that the rules of
international humanitarian law, which are otherwise referring to the
international armed conflicts,
should apply to the armed conflict in Yugoslavia, although it is
non-international (internal)
armed conflict for which the legal rules referring to the internal
conflicts should be valid, i.e., first of
all the joint Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and Supplemental
Protocol II to these
Conventions adopted in 1977. Furthermore, if the Article 5 of the
Statute could be considered to be
valid for the case of war and in peace, the Security Council added to
that Article some of its own
"rules" which are not part of modern international humanitarian law,
such as "jail", "torture", "rape",
"other non-humane actions" (?!).
Because of such a state of affairs, international lawyers
more and more often demand that the
issue of judicial, i.e. legal, control of the decisions and documents of
the organisation of the United
Nations is to be solved urgently, and first of all the decision of the
Security Council, so as to prevent
its self-will.
The course of the trials so far before this Tribunal
indicate what the real role and power of
this Tribunal is, and it shall be even clearer. For example, in the
beginning of the trial of the Serbian
Dusko Tadic we heard the prosecutor and one witness of the prosecution,
a James Gau, British, as
"an expert for Yugoslav affairs". In reply to the key question who holds
responsibility for the
destruction of Yugoslavia and commencement of war, they say the same
what their paymasters
are blowing into the trumpet from the very beginning: Serbs! Since they
could not possibly deny
the fact that any normal person knows that the Serbs fought to remain in
Yugoslavia and
that the others left it by anti-constitutional violent secession, they
say: well, they had to,
because they had good reasons to be afraid of Serbian nationalism! And
so on. Some signs show
that the things will not go the way they imagined. For instance, the
President of the Trial Chamber of
the Court in Tadic case as well as the Defence asked some, for them
unpleasant questions such as:
how Yugoslav National Army could be occupier in its own country?! "Could
American Army
occupy, e.g. Texas?", asked the President of the Trial Chamber American
Gabriella Kirk
McDonald. Does the state have right to defend itself from secession? The
American surely knows
history of her country that well to be aware how the former president of
her country Lincoln dealt
with secession. Furthermore, the sentence of Tadic caused headache to
the Tribunal's inventors:
namely, the sentence stated that it was non-international armed conflict
in Bosnia, which means that it
was civil war, and not the international, on which the prosecution
insisted. That annihilates the entire
concept, the entire "philosophy" of the enemy of the Serbian nation -
that the war in Bosnia and
Croatia was in fact aggression, of course made by FR Yugoslavia.
Therefore the Tribunal's
prosecutor lodged a complaint against the judgement, and the Tribunal
was ordered to revoke this
judgement and bring another according to which the conflict in Bosnia
would be of "international
character"! Consequently, the norms of international law regulating
internal conflicts have not been
applied for the war conducted on some parts of the former Yugoslavia,
precisely the common Article
3 of the Geneva Conventions and Protocol II, but the norms covering
armed conflicts of international
character!
All the above indicates that it is high time to initiate in
the Security Council the question of
abolishment of this Tribunal, which represents monstrous monument to the
tyranny of the Untied
States of America and their satellites over a small state and small
nation which was in the First and
Second World War exposed to the horrible genocide by Croat and Muslim
Ustasha's (pro-fascist
collaborators) and Nazis. That genocide is now continued by USA and
their NATO and EU
satellites by means of sanctions, aggression and political isolation and
terror. In these crimes Tribunal
is one of the most efficient instruments. Not only that it has to be
abolished as soon as possible, but it
should not have ever been established.
Therefore, the Security Council of the Untied Nations should
bring the following decision on
the grounds of the item 9 of its Resolution 827:
1. The International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia
is abolished.
2. All the convicted or accused persons who are in the
prisons of the Tribunal are to
be delivered to their national states for the procedure before the
jurisdictional courts for
the crimes imputed to them, together with all the documentation and
evidence in their
possession. The Security Council shall control how the states are
conducting the criminal
procedures for the violation of the international humanitarian law and
shall take the
necessary measures - including sanctions anticipated by the United
Nations Charter -
against those states which would in any manner avoid objective and fair
actions.
3. All the states are called on to ratify the Rome Statute
of the International
Criminal Court as soon as possible, in order that the international
community could have a
real, permanent international criminal court like the International
Court of Justice.
Beograd, March 20,
2000
Milan Tepavac, Ph.D.
miltep@...
Member of the International Law
Yugoslav Association
Member of the International Law
World Association
Member of the Belgrade Bar
Association
Member of the Serbian Bar
Association
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Associazione Italo-Jugoslava
J A T - Jugoslav Airlines
CONSERVATORIO DI MILANO
Via Conservatorio 12
(Sala Puccini)
Mercoledì, 05. Aprile alle 21.00
CONCERTO DI BENEFICENZA
SIMONIDA MILETIC - Soprano
PIERO LAURIA - Pianista
Programma: J. Marinkovic - M. Milojevic - M. Musorgski -
C. Debussy - F. Poulenc
Contributo minimo: Lit. 18.000
L'incasso sarà devoluto al orfanotrofio "Decije Selo"
di Sremska Kamenica - Novi Sad
---
BOLOGNA
Giovedì 13 aprile ore 21
Sala Benjamin in via del Pratello 53
"A un anno dalla guerra e dopo 9 anni di embargo
quale futuro per i Balcani"
interverrano:
Marcello Graziosi - PRC Emilia-Romagna
Fausto Concer - Comitato cittadino contro la guerra
Sergio Coronica - Un ponte per
Orsola Mazzola - Commissione esteri del PRC
Durante la serata si raccoglieranno firme contro l'embargo
e saranno in distribuzione materiali di documentazione e video
riguardanti la Jugoslavia.
---
OBIETTIVO TORPEDONE TOUR
PASQUA A BELGRADO
21/25 APRILE
BUS GRAN TURISMO CON ACCOMPAGNATORE
SISTEMAZIONE IN HOTEL 3 STELLE IN CAMERE DOPPIE
TRATTAMENTO DI MEZZA PENSIONE
QUOTA DI PARTECIPAZIONE LIRE 390.000
ESCURSIONI:
VISITA BELGRADO CON BUS E GUIDA (Mezza giornata)
BELGRADO + NOVI SAD CON PRANZO IN RISTORANTE
(Intera giornata)
CENA IN LOCALE TIPICO CON MUSICA DAL VIVO
FRUSKA GORA - VISITA AI MONASTERI ORTODOSSI CON PRANZO
IN RISTORANTE
ALTRE SU RICHIESTA
QUOTA DI ISCRIZIONE LIRE 35.000
(Comprensiva di assicurazione contro le penali di annullamento)
VISTO CONSOLARE LIRE 40.000
CAMERE SINGOLE E HOTEL DI CATEGORIA SUPERIORE SU RICHIESTA
POSSIBILITA? DI SVOLGERE LO STESSO PROGRAMMA CON VOLO JAT
Per informazioni e prenotazioni:
OBIETTIVO TORPEDONE TOUR
Via Leoncavallo, 37 - 20131 Milano Tel. 02/28373 Fax 02/26144108
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
J A T - Jugoslav Airlines
CONSERVATORIO DI MILANO
Via Conservatorio 12
(Sala Puccini)
Mercoledì, 05. Aprile alle 21.00
CONCERTO DI BENEFICENZA
SIMONIDA MILETIC - Soprano
PIERO LAURIA - Pianista
Programma: J. Marinkovic - M. Milojevic - M. Musorgski -
C. Debussy - F. Poulenc
Contributo minimo: Lit. 18.000
L'incasso sarà devoluto al orfanotrofio "Decije Selo"
di Sremska Kamenica - Novi Sad
---
BOLOGNA
Giovedì 13 aprile ore 21
Sala Benjamin in via del Pratello 53
"A un anno dalla guerra e dopo 9 anni di embargo
quale futuro per i Balcani"
interverrano:
Marcello Graziosi - PRC Emilia-Romagna
Fausto Concer - Comitato cittadino contro la guerra
Sergio Coronica - Un ponte per
Orsola Mazzola - Commissione esteri del PRC
Durante la serata si raccoglieranno firme contro l'embargo
e saranno in distribuzione materiali di documentazione e video
riguardanti la Jugoslavia.
---
OBIETTIVO TORPEDONE TOUR
PASQUA A BELGRADO
21/25 APRILE
BUS GRAN TURISMO CON ACCOMPAGNATORE
SISTEMAZIONE IN HOTEL 3 STELLE IN CAMERE DOPPIE
TRATTAMENTO DI MEZZA PENSIONE
QUOTA DI PARTECIPAZIONE LIRE 390.000
ESCURSIONI:
VISITA BELGRADO CON BUS E GUIDA (Mezza giornata)
BELGRADO + NOVI SAD CON PRANZO IN RISTORANTE
(Intera giornata)
CENA IN LOCALE TIPICO CON MUSICA DAL VIVO
FRUSKA GORA - VISITA AI MONASTERI ORTODOSSI CON PRANZO
IN RISTORANTE
ALTRE SU RICHIESTA
QUOTA DI ISCRIZIONE LIRE 35.000
(Comprensiva di assicurazione contro le penali di annullamento)
VISTO CONSOLARE LIRE 40.000
CAMERE SINGOLE E HOTEL DI CATEGORIA SUPERIORE SU RICHIESTA
POSSIBILITA? DI SVOLGERE LO STESSO PROGRAMMA CON VOLO JAT
Per informazioni e prenotazioni:
OBIETTIVO TORPEDONE TOUR
Via Leoncavallo, 37 - 20131 Milano Tel. 02/28373 Fax 02/26144108
--------- 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 fascismo italiano e gli ustascia", recensione del libro di P. Juso
* Intervista a Stipe Suvar del Partito Socialista Operaio - SRP
---
IL FASCISMO ITALIANO E GLI USTASCIA
di PASQUALE JUSO, GANGEMI EDITORE, 1998, ROMA
Il testo è dedicato alle relazioni che il regime fascista italiano
intrattenne con il movimento separatista croato degli ustascia. Rapporti
che si ebbero a partire del 1928 fino alla Seconda guerra mondiale (il
testo arriva fino al 1941, anno in cui venne costituito lo Stato
Indipendente Croato).
Secondo l'Autore, l'intervento italiano si svolse su tre livelli
distinti:
1) A livello diplomatico, l'Italia cercò di creare una sorta di "cordone
sanitario" attorno al Regno di Jugoslavia. Infatti, tra il 1928 e il
1934, Roma allacciò stretti rapporti diplomatici con Albania, Austria,
Ungheria e Bulgaria, allo scopo di favorire sia il separatismo
antijugoslavo, sia l'istituzione di un contrappeso alla Piccola Intesa
formata da Francia, Jugoslavia, Romania e Cecoslovacchia.
2) A livello di appoggio, in territorio italiano, del movimento
ustascia; infatti Ante Pavelich venne ospitato in Italia a partire dal
1929. Inoltre a Como venne istituito un centro di reclutamento che fu
spostato, in seguito, prima a Bologna (Oliveto), poi a Lucca e infine in
Abruzzo. Furono anche costituiti due organi istituzionali preposti alla
logistica e al controllo del movimento ustascia operante in Italia:
- l'Ufficio Croazia, nato, nei primi anni '30, dall'Ufficio Albania del
Ministero degli esteri, diretto inizialmente da Cortese, quindi in
seguito da Mazzantini e poi da Vidau.
- l'Ufficio Speciale del Ministero degli interni affidato al questore
Conti, destinato a controllare e a gestire direttamente la presenza
ustascia in Italia. Tale ufficio si occupava dell'addestramento
militare, del vettovagliamento, della logistica e perfino dei debiti
lasciati dai singoli ustascia.
3) A livello "Occulto" (come lo definisce l'Autore); si trattava
dell'intervento diretto ad appoggiare il movimento ustascia in
Jugoslavia (terrorismo, sabotaggi, ecc.). Perciò furono istituite due
basi di appoggio operativo: una a Trieste affidata a tal
Godina e un campo di addestramento militare situata a Janka Pusza in
Ungheria e diretta da un ex-ufficiale dell'esercito austroungarico:
Servatzi.
All'indomani dell'assassinio del Re di Jugoslavia, Mussolini, per timore
che si scoprissero i legami tra Italia e ustascia (e anche dalle
preoccupazioni suscitate dall'intromissione nazista nell'assassinio di
Marsiglia), fece trasferire nelle Isole Eolie e in paesi dell'entroterra
del messinese, la maggior parte dei profughi separatisti croati. A meta'
del 1937 risultavano presenti in Italia circa 550 ustascia, ma dopo
l'accordo tra Ciano e Stoijadinovich, iniziò il rimpatrio di parte di
tali profughi. Questa operazione si svolse, però, molto lentamente,
tanto che alla vigilia dell'attacco alla Jugoslavia risultavano
rimpatriati neanche la metà dei profughi. Ciò era dovuto soprattutto al
fatto di non consegnare né gli ustascia addestrati nei campi fascisti,
nè i quadri e dirigenti del movimento. Per Mussolini essi
rappresentavano un'importante carta da giocare contro la penetrazione
tedesca nei Balcani. Inoltre, molti rimpatriati (tra cui Budak, già
braccio destro di Paveliche e che Stoijadinovich aveva con tattato per
risolvere la questione croata, ma in realtà per fare pressioni su
Machek, l'altro leader del separatismo croato, allo scopo di indurlo a
un accordo di governo in cambio dell'autonomia alla Croazia nell'ambito
del regno) ripresero la lotta armata contro il regime centrale di
Belgrado.
Tre incisi:
- Godina, Servatzi e gli altri coinvolti nelle operazioni "occulte",
furono tenuti lontani dagli altri separatisti presenti in Italia, ciò
allo scopo di non rilevare il grado di coinvolgimento del regime
fascista nei tentativi di distruzione dello stato balcanico.
- Assieme agli ustascia, l'Italia aveva dato ospitalità anche a Bandera
e ad altri nazionalisti ucraini che gli ustascia volevano utilizzare per
suscitare la rivolta della minoranza ucraina presente in Jugoslavia.
Si nota quindi che nella storia dei tentativi di compiere la distruzione
della Jugoslavia, l'Italia, allora come oggi, è sempre stata in prima
fila.
- Nel periodo che va dall'assassinio di re Alessandro alla creazione
dello stato ustascia, Pavelich decise di intrattenere sempre più stretti
rapporti con il nazismo, allo scopo di giocare sulle rivalità tra Roma e
Berlino e ampliare, quindi, il proprio margine di manovra. L'Autore fa
notare, però, che questo tentativo si risolse in una sempre più
accentuata sudditanza degli ustascia ai dettami politico-strategici di
Hitler.
Il quadro storico tratteggiato dall'Autore e', però, troppo ristretto
all'ambito della storia delle istituzioni politiche italiane; infatti
manca una analisi ampliata al livello europeo del movimento ustascia.
Mentre si da un quadro dettagliato dei conflitti interni alla colonia
ustascia in Italia, manca una spiegazione approfondita del processo di
avvicinamento del movimento ustascia alla Germania nazista.
(a cura di A. Lattanzio)
---
Da "Il manifesto" del 31 Marzo 2000:
CROAZIA
Dopo l'entusiasmo, l'attesa: sotto esame il nuovo governo
Sconfitto il regime, resta uno stato in bancarotta "Ma non si risolve
privatizzando", critica la sinistra
"La legge sul lavoro resta quella di Tudjman". Intervista a Stipe Suvar,
presidente del partito socialista operaio
- GIACOMO SCOTTI - ZAGABRIA
Negli ultimi due tre mesi, improvvisamente la Croazia è diventata il
fiore
all'occhiello di molti statisti europei e d'oltre oceano. Viene da
chiedersi come mai, allora - nonostante le denunce degli organismi
dell'Onu, degli osservatori dell'Osce, della stessa Unione europea e del
Tribunale internazionale dell'Aja (al cui mandato di cattura per crimini
di
guerra Franjo Tudjman è sfuggito, morendo) - come mai, ripetiamo,
l'Occidente ha direttamente o indirettamente sostenuto e alimentato il
regime di Tudjman per dieci anni, fino alla morte del dittatore, facendo
ben poco per aiutare le forze democratiche croate nella loro difficile
lotta per abbattere col voto un regime supernazionalista, filofascista e
fondamentalmente antieuropeo.
Nella speranza che le promesse fatte nelle ultime dieci e più settimane
dallo stesso Occidente, di dare una mano al nuovo governo democratico
croato per facilitare il rientro dei profughi serbi in Croazia e il
ripristino dei diritti umani e civili, per migliorare la posizione
socio-politica delle minoranze nazionali, per la deustascizzazione delle
strutture create dal vecchio regime, eccetera, ascoltiamo una voce fuori
dal coro, una delle poche ma autorevoli voci della sinistra in Croazia.
Stipe Suvar, presidente del piccolo ma battagliero Partito socialista
operaio, fu l'ultimo massimo esponente della Croazia nella presidenza
collettiva della Repubblica socialista federativa di Jugoslavia fino
alla
vigilia della sua dissoluzione. Ed è stato il primo a criticare, da
sinistra, il nuovo governo del socialdemocratico Ivica Racan, perché "ha
proclamato una politica di radicale privatizzazione" delle industrie e
aziende di proprietà sociale o statale ereditate dal socialismo
autogestionario - che il regime tudjmaniano non era riuscito ancora a
vendere ai nuovi tycoons .
Svendita dei beni comuni
"Si va - dice Suvar - verso un'ulteriore svendita dei gioielli di
famiglia,
delle capacità produttive e di altri beni nazionali": destinati a finire
in
gran parte nelle mani di compagnie straniere, tedesche in primo luogo,
dalle telecomunicazioni alle banche, all'industria petrolchimica. Suvar
critica anche la scelta di una politica fiscale che dovrebbe stimolare
gli
investimenti, "ma tenendo conto più del capitale che del lavoro".
Suscita particolare malumore nella sinistra croata il fatto che il
governo,
nonostante le promesse elettorali, non abbia ancora affrontato la
revisione
o l'annullamento della "pretvorba", ovvero le ruberie commesse nel
processo
di trasformazione della proprietà statale in altri tipi di proprietà e
di
gestione. In molti casi il passaggio di proprietà è stato fittizio e ha
permesso a poche centinaia di speculatori, gerarchi del regime
tudjmaniano,
di impossessarsi gratuitamente o quasi di industrie e catene
commerciali,
arricchendosi a dismisura a spese dei lavoratori, gran parte dei quali
sono
stati gettati sul lastrico dai nuovi padroni, o privati dei diritti più
elementari.
Quando si comincerà a scovare i ladri e a punirli? - si chiede Suvar,
interpretando il pensiero di mezzo milione di operai mal pagati (su un
milione tra stipendiati e salariati) e di circa 400 mila disoccupati su
una
popolazione di appena 4 milioni e mezzo di abitanti. E non parliamo
della
legge sul lavoro in vigore: una legge tudjmaniana, da Suvar definita
"scandalosa" - certo la peggiore in Europa dopo quella della
Bosnia-Erzegovina - in cui è assente qualsiasi norma a tutela del lavoro
e
degli interessi dei lavoratori.
Lo stesso termine "lavoratore" è stato cancellato dal vocabolario croato
e
dalle leggi: non esistono lavoratori né operai, e invece è stato coniato
un
neologismo che, tradotto, significa "colui che riceve il lavoro". E
questo
"colui" può essere licenziato in qualsiasi momento e senza spiegazione.
"Esistono, dunque - dice Suvar - molti elementi che suscitano dubbi
sulla
qualifica di centro-sinistra data a questo governo". Secondo il nostro
interlocutore, "non è vero che la Croazia abbia svoltato a sinistra"; il
regime è stato destituito perché la gente "ha finalmente capito che la
Croazia stava andando alla rovina", che si erano dimostrate false le
promesse di Tudjman nel 1990, di "una società di benessere e felicità".
Il
paese è anzi precipitato nella miseria, e la popolazione ha reagito
abbattendo il regime dell'Hdz, portando al potere le forze politiche
rimaste per anni all'opposizione.
"Ma - insiste Suvar - non vedo un orientamento a sinistra, nelle prime
mosse, e nelle altre annunciate, del nuovo governo; e neppure nel
programma
del 'nuovo corso' indicato nella campagna elettorale dei due principali
partiti - socialdemocratico e social-liberale -che guidano l'attuale
governo esapartito".
Il leader della sinistra croata non può non ammettere che c'è stata una
"svolta democratica", e che le nuove forze al governo hanno almeno
salvato
il paese da un regime autoritario e filofascista. Teme, però, una fase
di
delusione e frustrazione delle "masse popolari che hanno votato non solo
per cambiare il regime, ma anche e soprattutto sperando che molte cose
rapidamente migliorassero". Certo, il nuovo governo ha trovato un paese
in
bancarotta, uno Stato con le casse praticamente vuote, e circa 20
miliardi
di dollari di debiti (esteri e interni), ma attenzione: "una
disillusione
provocata dall'inerzia e dall'inefficienza potrebbe portare a rivolte
sociali". Ancora, nota Suvar, seppur sono stati sostituiti ministri,
viceministri, capi-dipartimento, direttori generali dei principali enti
statali, "sono però rimasti grossi papaveri del vecchio regime".
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
* Intervista a Stipe Suvar del Partito Socialista Operaio - SRP
---
IL FASCISMO ITALIANO E GLI USTASCIA
di PASQUALE JUSO, GANGEMI EDITORE, 1998, ROMA
Il testo è dedicato alle relazioni che il regime fascista italiano
intrattenne con il movimento separatista croato degli ustascia. Rapporti
che si ebbero a partire del 1928 fino alla Seconda guerra mondiale (il
testo arriva fino al 1941, anno in cui venne costituito lo Stato
Indipendente Croato).
Secondo l'Autore, l'intervento italiano si svolse su tre livelli
distinti:
1) A livello diplomatico, l'Italia cercò di creare una sorta di "cordone
sanitario" attorno al Regno di Jugoslavia. Infatti, tra il 1928 e il
1934, Roma allacciò stretti rapporti diplomatici con Albania, Austria,
Ungheria e Bulgaria, allo scopo di favorire sia il separatismo
antijugoslavo, sia l'istituzione di un contrappeso alla Piccola Intesa
formata da Francia, Jugoslavia, Romania e Cecoslovacchia.
2) A livello di appoggio, in territorio italiano, del movimento
ustascia; infatti Ante Pavelich venne ospitato in Italia a partire dal
1929. Inoltre a Como venne istituito un centro di reclutamento che fu
spostato, in seguito, prima a Bologna (Oliveto), poi a Lucca e infine in
Abruzzo. Furono anche costituiti due organi istituzionali preposti alla
logistica e al controllo del movimento ustascia operante in Italia:
- l'Ufficio Croazia, nato, nei primi anni '30, dall'Ufficio Albania del
Ministero degli esteri, diretto inizialmente da Cortese, quindi in
seguito da Mazzantini e poi da Vidau.
- l'Ufficio Speciale del Ministero degli interni affidato al questore
Conti, destinato a controllare e a gestire direttamente la presenza
ustascia in Italia. Tale ufficio si occupava dell'addestramento
militare, del vettovagliamento, della logistica e perfino dei debiti
lasciati dai singoli ustascia.
3) A livello "Occulto" (come lo definisce l'Autore); si trattava
dell'intervento diretto ad appoggiare il movimento ustascia in
Jugoslavia (terrorismo, sabotaggi, ecc.). Perciò furono istituite due
basi di appoggio operativo: una a Trieste affidata a tal
Godina e un campo di addestramento militare situata a Janka Pusza in
Ungheria e diretta da un ex-ufficiale dell'esercito austroungarico:
Servatzi.
All'indomani dell'assassinio del Re di Jugoslavia, Mussolini, per timore
che si scoprissero i legami tra Italia e ustascia (e anche dalle
preoccupazioni suscitate dall'intromissione nazista nell'assassinio di
Marsiglia), fece trasferire nelle Isole Eolie e in paesi dell'entroterra
del messinese, la maggior parte dei profughi separatisti croati. A meta'
del 1937 risultavano presenti in Italia circa 550 ustascia, ma dopo
l'accordo tra Ciano e Stoijadinovich, iniziò il rimpatrio di parte di
tali profughi. Questa operazione si svolse, però, molto lentamente,
tanto che alla vigilia dell'attacco alla Jugoslavia risultavano
rimpatriati neanche la metà dei profughi. Ciò era dovuto soprattutto al
fatto di non consegnare né gli ustascia addestrati nei campi fascisti,
nè i quadri e dirigenti del movimento. Per Mussolini essi
rappresentavano un'importante carta da giocare contro la penetrazione
tedesca nei Balcani. Inoltre, molti rimpatriati (tra cui Budak, già
braccio destro di Paveliche e che Stoijadinovich aveva con tattato per
risolvere la questione croata, ma in realtà per fare pressioni su
Machek, l'altro leader del separatismo croato, allo scopo di indurlo a
un accordo di governo in cambio dell'autonomia alla Croazia nell'ambito
del regno) ripresero la lotta armata contro il regime centrale di
Belgrado.
Tre incisi:
- Godina, Servatzi e gli altri coinvolti nelle operazioni "occulte",
furono tenuti lontani dagli altri separatisti presenti in Italia, ciò
allo scopo di non rilevare il grado di coinvolgimento del regime
fascista nei tentativi di distruzione dello stato balcanico.
- Assieme agli ustascia, l'Italia aveva dato ospitalità anche a Bandera
e ad altri nazionalisti ucraini che gli ustascia volevano utilizzare per
suscitare la rivolta della minoranza ucraina presente in Jugoslavia.
Si nota quindi che nella storia dei tentativi di compiere la distruzione
della Jugoslavia, l'Italia, allora come oggi, è sempre stata in prima
fila.
- Nel periodo che va dall'assassinio di re Alessandro alla creazione
dello stato ustascia, Pavelich decise di intrattenere sempre più stretti
rapporti con il nazismo, allo scopo di giocare sulle rivalità tra Roma e
Berlino e ampliare, quindi, il proprio margine di manovra. L'Autore fa
notare, però, che questo tentativo si risolse in una sempre più
accentuata sudditanza degli ustascia ai dettami politico-strategici di
Hitler.
Il quadro storico tratteggiato dall'Autore e', però, troppo ristretto
all'ambito della storia delle istituzioni politiche italiane; infatti
manca una analisi ampliata al livello europeo del movimento ustascia.
Mentre si da un quadro dettagliato dei conflitti interni alla colonia
ustascia in Italia, manca una spiegazione approfondita del processo di
avvicinamento del movimento ustascia alla Germania nazista.
(a cura di A. Lattanzio)
---
Da "Il manifesto" del 31 Marzo 2000:
CROAZIA
Dopo l'entusiasmo, l'attesa: sotto esame il nuovo governo
Sconfitto il regime, resta uno stato in bancarotta "Ma non si risolve
privatizzando", critica la sinistra
"La legge sul lavoro resta quella di Tudjman". Intervista a Stipe Suvar,
presidente del partito socialista operaio
- GIACOMO SCOTTI - ZAGABRIA
Negli ultimi due tre mesi, improvvisamente la Croazia è diventata il
fiore
all'occhiello di molti statisti europei e d'oltre oceano. Viene da
chiedersi come mai, allora - nonostante le denunce degli organismi
dell'Onu, degli osservatori dell'Osce, della stessa Unione europea e del
Tribunale internazionale dell'Aja (al cui mandato di cattura per crimini
di
guerra Franjo Tudjman è sfuggito, morendo) - come mai, ripetiamo,
l'Occidente ha direttamente o indirettamente sostenuto e alimentato il
regime di Tudjman per dieci anni, fino alla morte del dittatore, facendo
ben poco per aiutare le forze democratiche croate nella loro difficile
lotta per abbattere col voto un regime supernazionalista, filofascista e
fondamentalmente antieuropeo.
Nella speranza che le promesse fatte nelle ultime dieci e più settimane
dallo stesso Occidente, di dare una mano al nuovo governo democratico
croato per facilitare il rientro dei profughi serbi in Croazia e il
ripristino dei diritti umani e civili, per migliorare la posizione
socio-politica delle minoranze nazionali, per la deustascizzazione delle
strutture create dal vecchio regime, eccetera, ascoltiamo una voce fuori
dal coro, una delle poche ma autorevoli voci della sinistra in Croazia.
Stipe Suvar, presidente del piccolo ma battagliero Partito socialista
operaio, fu l'ultimo massimo esponente della Croazia nella presidenza
collettiva della Repubblica socialista federativa di Jugoslavia fino
alla
vigilia della sua dissoluzione. Ed è stato il primo a criticare, da
sinistra, il nuovo governo del socialdemocratico Ivica Racan, perché "ha
proclamato una politica di radicale privatizzazione" delle industrie e
aziende di proprietà sociale o statale ereditate dal socialismo
autogestionario - che il regime tudjmaniano non era riuscito ancora a
vendere ai nuovi tycoons .
Svendita dei beni comuni
"Si va - dice Suvar - verso un'ulteriore svendita dei gioielli di
famiglia,
delle capacità produttive e di altri beni nazionali": destinati a finire
in
gran parte nelle mani di compagnie straniere, tedesche in primo luogo,
dalle telecomunicazioni alle banche, all'industria petrolchimica. Suvar
critica anche la scelta di una politica fiscale che dovrebbe stimolare
gli
investimenti, "ma tenendo conto più del capitale che del lavoro".
Suscita particolare malumore nella sinistra croata il fatto che il
governo,
nonostante le promesse elettorali, non abbia ancora affrontato la
revisione
o l'annullamento della "pretvorba", ovvero le ruberie commesse nel
processo
di trasformazione della proprietà statale in altri tipi di proprietà e
di
gestione. In molti casi il passaggio di proprietà è stato fittizio e ha
permesso a poche centinaia di speculatori, gerarchi del regime
tudjmaniano,
di impossessarsi gratuitamente o quasi di industrie e catene
commerciali,
arricchendosi a dismisura a spese dei lavoratori, gran parte dei quali
sono
stati gettati sul lastrico dai nuovi padroni, o privati dei diritti più
elementari.
Quando si comincerà a scovare i ladri e a punirli? - si chiede Suvar,
interpretando il pensiero di mezzo milione di operai mal pagati (su un
milione tra stipendiati e salariati) e di circa 400 mila disoccupati su
una
popolazione di appena 4 milioni e mezzo di abitanti. E non parliamo
della
legge sul lavoro in vigore: una legge tudjmaniana, da Suvar definita
"scandalosa" - certo la peggiore in Europa dopo quella della
Bosnia-Erzegovina - in cui è assente qualsiasi norma a tutela del lavoro
e
degli interessi dei lavoratori.
Lo stesso termine "lavoratore" è stato cancellato dal vocabolario croato
e
dalle leggi: non esistono lavoratori né operai, e invece è stato coniato
un
neologismo che, tradotto, significa "colui che riceve il lavoro". E
questo
"colui" può essere licenziato in qualsiasi momento e senza spiegazione.
"Esistono, dunque - dice Suvar - molti elementi che suscitano dubbi
sulla
qualifica di centro-sinistra data a questo governo". Secondo il nostro
interlocutore, "non è vero che la Croazia abbia svoltato a sinistra"; il
regime è stato destituito perché la gente "ha finalmente capito che la
Croazia stava andando alla rovina", che si erano dimostrate false le
promesse di Tudjman nel 1990, di "una società di benessere e felicità".
Il
paese è anzi precipitato nella miseria, e la popolazione ha reagito
abbattendo il regime dell'Hdz, portando al potere le forze politiche
rimaste per anni all'opposizione.
"Ma - insiste Suvar - non vedo un orientamento a sinistra, nelle prime
mosse, e nelle altre annunciate, del nuovo governo; e neppure nel
programma
del 'nuovo corso' indicato nella campagna elettorale dei due principali
partiti - socialdemocratico e social-liberale -che guidano l'attuale
governo esapartito".
Il leader della sinistra croata non può non ammettere che c'è stata una
"svolta democratica", e che le nuove forze al governo hanno almeno
salvato
il paese da un regime autoritario e filofascista. Teme, però, una fase
di
delusione e frustrazione delle "masse popolari che hanno votato non solo
per cambiare il regime, ma anche e soprattutto sperando che molte cose
rapidamente migliorassero". Certo, il nuovo governo ha trovato un paese
in
bancarotta, uno Stato con le casse praticamente vuote, e circa 20
miliardi
di dollari di debiti (esteri e interni), ma attenzione: "una
disillusione
provocata dall'inerzia e dall'inefficienza potrebbe portare a rivolte
sociali". Ancora, nota Suvar, seppur sono stati sostituiti ministri,
viceministri, capi-dipartimento, direttori generali dei principali enti
statali, "sono però rimasti grossi papaveri del vecchio regime".
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
SCONFINAMENTI
Per verificare che truppe della Armata Jugoslava non avessero
"sconfinato" portandosi troppo vicino al confine amministrativo della
provincia jugoslava del Kosmet, soldati provenienti dalla Gran Bretagna
(sita tra l'Oceano Atlantico ed il Mare del Nord), guidati dal
Brigadiere Generale Richard Shirreff, hanno sconfinato lo scorso 29
marzo al di fuori dei confini del Kosmet, nella zona-cuscinetto di tre
chilometri posta tra la provincia jugoslava ed il resto della RF di
Jugoslavia.
Poco dopo, il 3 aprile 2000 la Turchia, che e' impegnata in Kosmet con
propri soldati ed armamenti ad impedire una presunta "pulizia etnica"
attraverso l'appoggio ai gruppi dei terroristi irredentisti dell'UCK, ha
sconfinato in uno Stato vicino (l'Iraq) con circa 1000 soldati e jet
F-16 per inseguire i "terroristi irredentisti" curdi, gia' scappati dal
territorio turco a causa delle continue operazioni di pulizia etnica
dell'esercito turco.
(Per la cronaca, in passato gli aerei turchi sono arrivati fin sopra il
territorio iraniano per bombardare. Inoltre, la Turchia occupa
illegalmente una parte dell'isola di Cipro da piu' di venti anni).
(Fonti: Reuters 31/3/2000, AP 3/4/2000)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Per verificare che truppe della Armata Jugoslava non avessero
"sconfinato" portandosi troppo vicino al confine amministrativo della
provincia jugoslava del Kosmet, soldati provenienti dalla Gran Bretagna
(sita tra l'Oceano Atlantico ed il Mare del Nord), guidati dal
Brigadiere Generale Richard Shirreff, hanno sconfinato lo scorso 29
marzo al di fuori dei confini del Kosmet, nella zona-cuscinetto di tre
chilometri posta tra la provincia jugoslava ed il resto della RF di
Jugoslavia.
Poco dopo, il 3 aprile 2000 la Turchia, che e' impegnata in Kosmet con
propri soldati ed armamenti ad impedire una presunta "pulizia etnica"
attraverso l'appoggio ai gruppi dei terroristi irredentisti dell'UCK, ha
sconfinato in uno Stato vicino (l'Iraq) con circa 1000 soldati e jet
F-16 per inseguire i "terroristi irredentisti" curdi, gia' scappati dal
territorio turco a causa delle continue operazioni di pulizia etnica
dell'esercito turco.
(Per la cronaca, in passato gli aerei turchi sono arrivati fin sopra il
territorio iraniano per bombardare. Inoltre, la Turchia occupa
illegalmente una parte dell'isola di Cipro da piu' di venti anni).
(Fonti: Reuters 31/3/2000, AP 3/4/2000)
--------- 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 NATO INDAGATA ALL'AIA? MA QUANDO MAI...
- Due lettere di Michael Mandel (l'avvocato presentatore delle denunce a
Carla dal Ponte)
- l'opinione di Jesse Helms: "La `legalita' internazionale' e' stata
troppo spesso usata come giustificazione per bloccare la marcia della
liberta'... Ogni tentativo di mettere sotto accusa i comandanti della
NATO significherebbe la morte della Corte Internazionale... Nessuna
istituzione ONU - non il Consiglio di Sicurezza, non il Tribunale sulla
Jugoslavia, non una futura Corte Internazionale - e' competente a
giudicare la politica estera e le decisioni che investono la sicurezza
nazionale degli Stati Uniti..."
- Louise Arbour, criminale in attesa di giudizio: analisi della genesi e
degli appoggi di cui gode il Tribunale dell'Aia per i crimini commessi
sul territorio della ex-RFSJ
---
LETTERE DI MICHAEL MANDEL
-----Original Message-----
From: Snezana Vitorovich [mailto:zana@...]
Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2000 8:27 PM
To: sn-vesti@...
Subject: M.Mandel sends another letter to Carla Del Ponte !
Importance: High
Justice Carla Del Ponte,
Chief Prosecutor,
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia,
Churchillplein 1, 2501 EW,
The Hague,
Netherlands
SENT BY COURIER
March 15, 2000
Dear Justice Del Ponte:
Re William J. Clinton et al.
We write to you for two reasons.
First, we wish to draw your attention to the Human Rights Watch Report,
Civilian Deaths in the NATO Air Campaign (February 2000). In our
submission this is yet another clear indication of crimes committed
within
your jurisdiction. Giving every benefit of the doubt to NATO, Human
Rights
Watch has confirmed approximately 500 civilian deaths as a direct result
of
NATO bombing practices in violation of the norms of international law:
in
deliberate attacks on illegitimate targets, in the refusal to take the
necessary, often elemental, precautions to protect civilian life and in
the
use of cluster bombs. Human Rights Watch has also confirmed that leading
NATO officials lied about the nature and extent of these incidents. We
are
quite aware that Human Rights Watch has chosen to characterize these
incidents as "violations of international humanitarian law" and not as
"war
crimes." But the report does not attempt to defend making this
distinction
and it is not, in this context, defensible. As you know, Articles 1 and
16
of your governing Statute oblige you to prosecute "serious violations of
international humanitarian law" of the four types described by Articles
2
("grave breaches of the Geneva conventions of 1949), 3 ("violations of
the
laws and customs of war"), 4 ("genocide") and 5 ("crimes against
humanity").
The evidence in the Human Rights Watch Report is factual evidence (to be
added to the massive evidence already in your possession), of clear
violations of Articles 2, 3 and 5. By definition, these are "serious"
violations - if the massacre of innocent children, women and men is not
"serious" enough - and therefore "war crimes" as far as your tribunal is
concerned. No legal conclusion to the contrary of Human Rights Watch
could
relieve you of your duty to prosecute the individual NATO leaders
responsible for the crimes against civilians factually confirmed in the
report.
Secondly, we feel we must protest your recent statements and those of
your
spokesman, which, combined with your failure to act on the thousands of
complaints against NATO that have reached your office over the past
year,
are turning this investigation into more of a farce than a judicial
proceeding. We regret to say that, for all the faith that has been put
in
your Tribunal by the people of the world, it continues to conduct itself
as
if it were an organ of NATO and not of the United Nations.
In December you told the press that you would indict those responsible
if
you concluded NATO had violated the Geneva Conventions. You said "If I
am
not willing to do that, I am not in the right place: I must give up the
mission". However, following NATO and American protests, you hastily
issued
a statement on December 30, 1999 stating that "NATO is not under
investigation" and that there was "no formal inquiry."
On January 3, we wrote to you asking you to clarify the status of the
inquiry and you said you would respond in due course. But on January 19
you
went to NATO headquarters to meet in private session with NATO Secretary
General George Robertson, himself the subject of numerous war crimes
complaints to you. At that time you assured the press that you had not
even
raised the questions of crimes committed by him and other NATO leaders.
Next
(February 1), you met in London with British Foreign Secretary Robin
Cook,
also the subject of many war crimes complaints, and when asked about
them,
you said "Our work is not done but what we can say is that up until now
we
have no indications that we should open an inquiry." We wrote to you
again
on February 4 asking you to confirm this statement and explain it. Your
special assistant replied on your behalf on February 8, 2000 saying that
the
statement "meant exactly what it said. Up to this point, there is
nothing to
indicate that a full investigation is required, but the Office is
continuing
to study the material that you and others have submitted." As recently
as
March 9, your official spokesman declared to the press that NATO armies
"respect the rule of law" and that "a prosecution is very unlikely,"
while
you repeated that your "work" was continuing.
This is nothing short of a disgrace. If, despite all the evidence that
has
been provided to you since the first complaint reached your office in
April
1999, followed by thousands more from lawyers, legislators and citizens
around the world, you have still seen "nothing to indicate" that even an
investigation is required, the only possible conclusion to draw is that
you
are not serious about your duties, and perhaps never were. If you cannot
apply the law to NATO as well as to NATO's enemies, it seems that you
are
not, in your own words, "in the right place" and should, indeed, "give
up
the mission."
The fact is, as you well know, that the NATO leadership, from the
Presidents
and Prime Ministers on down, including those you have recently been
meeting
and collaborating with, have committed crimes of the utmost seriousness
that
the Statute creating your tribunal absolutely obliges you to prosecute.
In
violation of international law, the Charter of the United Nations, and
the
Geneva Conventions, these NATO leaders ordered a bombing campaign that,
in
attacking Yugoslavia with more than 25,000 bombs and missiles:
- directly killed between 500 and 1800 civilian children, women and men
of
all ethnicities and permanently injured as many others;
- indirectly caused the death of thousands more, by provoking the
retaliatory and defensive measures that are entirely predictable when a
war
of this kind and intensity is undertaken, and by giving a free hand to
extremists on both sides;
- directly and indirectly caused a refugee crisis of enormous
proportions,
with about 1 million fleeing Kosovo during the bombing;
- caused 60 to100 billion dollars worth of damage to an already
impoverished
country; and
- left in its wake a Kosovo of lawlessness and ethnic violence, under
the
direct supervision of NATO, in which hundreds have been murdered and
hundreds of thousands driven out.
Not only was this anti-humanitarian war illegal in itself, it was, as
you
well know, carried out in flagrant and direct violation of the Geneva
Conventions, norms of international law that it is your duty to enforce.
According to admissions made in public throughout the war and after it,
according to eye-witness reports and according to powerful
circumstantial
evidence displayed on the world's television screens during the bombing
campaign - evidence good enough to convict in any criminal court in the
world - these NATO leaders deliberately and illegally made targets of
places
and things with only tenuous or slight military value or no military
value
at all, such as city bridges, factories, hospitals, electricity plants,
marketplaces, downtown and residential neighbourhoods, and television
studios, all such targets being strictly prohibited by the Geneva
Conventions. The same evidence shows that, in doing this, the NATO
leaders
aimed to demoralize and break the will of the people, not to defeat the
army.
You know that one reason these civilian targets are illegal is that
civilians are very likely to be killed or injured when such targets are
hit.
And all of the NATO leaders knew that, too. They were carefully told
that by
their military planners. And they still went ahead and did it. Indeed,
there is persuasive evidence in your hands that, in some circumstances
at
least, NATO not only knowingly killed civilians, but deliberately set
out to
do so: for example on the Grdelica and Varvarin bridges (April 12 and
May
30) and the NIS marketplace (May 7).
This strategy was carried out without any risk to the NATO soldiers and
pilots, much less the leaders themselves, once again in direct violation
of
the Geneva Conventions. This was a war fought against civilians of all
ethnicities with bombing from altitudes so high that the civilians bore
all
the risks of the "inevitable collateral damage".
Far from a "humanitarian intervention" - not that this could ever excuse
the
wholesale killing of innocent civilians - this was a coldly strategic
enterprise. It exploited as well as exacerbated a tragedy for which the
NATO
countries' themselves must bear a large share of the responsibility: in
more
than a decade of beggaring Yugoslavia for motives of sheer greed, in
encouraging the KLA in its deliberate provocations, in throwing aside
every
opportunity for peace at Rambouillet and elsewhere, in undermining and
ultimately withdrawing the OSCE observer force. As you know, most of
the
world rejects NATO's humanitarian claims and we feel that we must remind
you
once again that you are a United Nations organ, not a NATO organ. In
fact,
we believe that this war must be understood as an attempt by the United
States, through NATO, to overthrow the authority of the United Nations
and
to replace it with NATO's military might, to be used wherever
strategically
advantageous and whatever the human consequences.
It is no secret that the Americans sponsored the creation of your
tribunal
to advance their own strategic ends. Despite these questionable origins
we
have given your tribunal every opportunity to vindicate itself. We have
given it every benefit of the doubt even in the face of mounting
evidence
that it did not deserve it:
- when, in January, 1999, then prosecutor Judge Louise Arbour made her
dramatic for-the-press appearance at the border of Kosovo, hastily
lending
unwarranted credibility to contested American accounts of atrocities at
Racak, a major precipitating justification of the war;
- when, only days after the bombing had commenced, she announced the
indictment of "Arkan," an indictment that had been kept secret since
1997;
- when, as the civilian casualties began to mount, Justice Arbour made
television appearances with NATO leader Robin Cook, already the subject
of
numerous complaints, so that he could make a great show of handing over
war
crimes dossiers against NATO's enemies;
- when, soon after, she met with Madeleine Albright, herself by then the
subject of well-grounded complaints before the Tribunal, and Albright
took
the opportunity to announce that the United States was the major
provider of
funds to the Tribunal;
- when, two weeks later, in the midst of the bombing, Judge Arbour
announced
the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic, on the basis of undisclosed
evidence,
for Racak and events which had occurred only six weeks earlier in the
middle
of a war zone, on what, in other words, must have been very flimsy and
suspicious evidence;
Compare this to your inability to even "open an investigation" after one
year of being provided with overwhelming evidence in the public domain
of
NATO leaders' crimes which, on the most conservative estimates, resulted
in
the deaths of far more civilians than those for which the Serb
leadership
was so quickly indicted;
- and when, at the conclusion of the bombing, Judge Arbour handed over
the
investigation of war crimes in Kosovo to the NATO countries' own police
forces. notwithstanding that they had every motive to falsify the
evidence.
These could not be regarded as the acts of an impartial prosecutor. Not
when NATO was in the midst of a controversial war in flagrant violation
of
international law.
We sincerely hoped for better things from you, coming as you did from a
country outside of the NATO alliance. But immediately upon taking up
your
post you declared that your priorities were in the prosecution of the
Serb
leadership - a de facto immunity for the NATO leaders which we tried,
evidently in vain, to persuade you was a violation of your legal and
moral
duties to all the victims, present and future, of aggressor states. And
now
these contradictory declarations, this unseemly consorting with the
people
you should be investigating, and this inexcusable failure to even open
an
investigation. It is clear to us that you suffer from the same judicial
deficit as did your predecessor.
We hope that you realize the implications of what you are doing:
that you
are irreparably discrediting the work of your tribunal - or do you
expect
anyone to put any faith in the findings of a biased judicial institution
or
to co-operate with it? - that you are dealing blows to international
law
from which it will be difficult for it ever to recover; that your
actions
and inactions have encouraged NATO in its violence against the civilian
population of Yugoslavia and in the cruel sanctions it continues to
impose
upon it; and that you, too, must therefore bear a share of the blame for
all
this suffering.
Yours very truly,
Michael Mandel
Professor,
for myself and for
David Jacobs, Shell Jacobs, Lawyers, 672 Dupont street, Suite 401,
Toronto,
Canada M6G 1Z6;
Glen Rangwala, Movement for the Advancement of International Criminal
Law,
Trinity College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1TQ, United
Kingdom;
and
André Savik, The Balkan Charter, Schoningsgt. 43, 0362 Oslo, Norway.
cc. His Excellency Mr. Anwarul Karim Chowdhury (Bangladesh), President
of
the Security Council, Room 3520, The United Nations, New York, New York,
U.S.A. 10017;
Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Room 3800, The
United Nations, New York, New York, U.S.A. 10017;
Judge Claude Jorda, President, The International Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia, Churchillplein 1, 2501 EW, The Hague, Netherlands.
Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2000 08:37:08 -0600 (CST)
From: rrozoff@... (Rick Rozoff)
Reply-To: "STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN!" <STOPNATO@...>
To: Activist_List@..., stopnato@...
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
Michael Mandel's response to W.Pfaff's article
Dear Friends,
For all those who have kindly forwarded me the Herald Tribune Article of
January 24 by William Pfaff, I just want to assure you that I did not
remain silent, but actually submitted an article in reply on January 26.
I have since called the Tribune many times trying to ascertain their
intentions about publishing it. The opinion page editor has asked me to
be patient, and I have been. I will continue to be, but in the meantime,
I see no reason why I should not send you the reply to circulate as you
see fit.
Best wishes, Michael Mandel
Our Case Against NATO.
By Michael Mandel
Starting in April of last year and continuing to the present day, dozens
of lawyers and law professors, a pan-American association representing
hundreds of jurists, some elected legislators, and thousands of private
citizens from around the world, have lodged formal complaints with the
International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague charging NATO leaders with
war crimes for their 79 day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
The particular complaint I am involved in was filed in May, 1999 and
names 68 individuals, including all the heads of government, foreign
ministers and defense ministers of the 19 NATO countries (including US
President Clinton, Secretaries Cohen and Albright, Canadian Prime
Minister Chretien, Ministers Axworthy and Eggleton and so on down the
list), and the highest ranking NATO officials, from then Secretary
General Javier Solana, through Generals Wesley Clark, Michael Short, and
official spokesman Jamie Shea.
We have been in frequent contact with the Tribunal, travelling to the
Hague twice to argue our case with Chief Prosecutors Louise Arbour and
Carla Del Ponte and their legal advisers, filing evidence, legal briefs
and arguments in support of the case.
Recently, Justice Del Ponte disclosed that she was studying an internal
document analyzing the many claims that have been made against NATO.
This has been followed by a number of claims and counter-claims in the
media that have not always been helpful to people genuinely interested
in understanding the issues.
In particular, two recent articles in the International Herald Tribune
("Professors Pursue War-Crimes Case Against NATO" by Charles Trueheart,
January 21, and "NATO Committed No War Crimes in Bombing Yugoslavia" by
William Pfaff on January 24) have sought to minimize the seriousness of
the complaints and to cast doubt on their credibility in a way that, I
believe, does a disservice to the Tribune's readership.
For instance, Mr. Trueheart writes that "most legal scholars say the
professors have a pretty weak case", but the only scholar he actually
cites is Paul Williams of the American University in Washington. Mr.
Williams claims the fact that the Tribunal would even consider our case
shows it is politically motivated. But Mr. Williams might have his own
motivations. On his web-site he lists his "specific accomplishments in
the field of international law" to include "serving as legal advisor to
the government of Kosova" and "serving as co-counsel for the Department
of State's Serbian Sanctions Task Force." Mr. Trueheart would have been
more helpful to his readers if he had mentioned this.
Perhaps if I tell Tribune readers something about the nature of our case
and what we actually know, they (legal scholars and others, partisans
and non-partisans) can judge for themselves if the case is as weak or
incredible as Mr. Williams, Mr. Trueheart and Mr. Pfaff would like them
to think.
In the first place, we know that these individual NATO leaders each
"planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted
in the planning, preparation or execution of" (to use the words of the
Statute) a bombing attack that directly caused the death of between 600
and 1800 civilian children, women and men. (The first figure has been
announced by Human Rights Watch, about to launch its own complaint to
the Criminal Tribunal; the second is the government of Yugoslavia's
figure). We also know that the attack permanently injured as many as it
killed. The NATO leaders have all admitted that they caused these deaths
and injuries knowingly – every last one of them said they regretted
it, but that such things were "inevitable" in this kind of bombing
campaign. And when the deaths and injuries ("collateral damage")
occurred, these NATO leaders continued their bombing and their killing
and their injuring.
They did all this without any lawful excuse. The war was illegal from
start to finish. That's not just my opinion. It's the opinion of the
vast majority of legal scholars and all the leading ones – even those
who had some sympathy for the war, for example, the former president and
current judge of the Hague Tribunal itself, distinguished Professor
Antonio Cassese of Italy, in an article published in the European
Journal of International Law (Volume 10, No. 1).
But most people in the world had no sympathy for this war. That may irk
Americans, but it is true. According to published opinion surveys done
inside and outside of NATO, it appears that most people did not believe
the claims that the NATO was killing and maiming for humanitarian
motives. And it's no good for Mr. Pfaff to invoke the OSCE Report,
because if you read the introduction to that Report you find that it was
paid for and drafted only by NATO members. There are many more credible
accounts of what moved NATO (we have provided several to the Tribunal),
besides the obvious fact that, as a humanitarian enterprise, the
campaign was a predictable disaster. Many people, at least, agree with
Mr. Pfaff, that "the intensified Serbian campaign of terror and
eviction" was "provoked by the bombing". Mr. Pfaff says that would
constitute "a better charge" against NATO. Better or not, it is one of
the many we have specifically made in our complaint.
So we know that a lot of innocent people were violently killed as a
direct or indirect result of these NATO leaders' intentional violation
of the most fundamental tenets of international law and the Charter of
the United Nations (which the NATO Treaty itself binds the NATO
countries to uphold).
Killing hundreds or thousands of people knowingly and without lawful
excuse makes these leaders mass murderers. The minimum estimate of their
victims vastly outnumbers the total attributed to the 98 people executed
for murder in the United States last year. It's also a lot more than the
385 victims for which the Tribunal charged the Serbian leadership with
murder in May, 1999.
Not only that, according to admissions made in public throughout the war
(for instance during NATO briefings), and according to eye-witness
reports of such distinguished journalists as Dana Priest and Michael
Dobbs in this very newspaper, and according to powerful circumstantial
evidence displayed on the world's television screens throughout the
bombing campaign -- evidence good enough to convict in any criminal
court in my country or yours – these NATO leaders deliberately and
illegally made targets of places and things with only tenuous or slight
military value or no military value at all. Places such as city bridges,
factories, hospitals, marketplaces, downtown and residential
neighbourhoods, and television studios. The same evidence shows that, in
doing this, the NATO leaders aimed to demoralize and break the will of
the people, not to defeat the army.
Mr. Pfaff concedes as much. He seems to think the Serbians deserved it
for electing Milosevic, though it's hard to see how even this bizarre
reasoning would justify the killing, maiming and terrorizing of all
those children who were ineligible to vote, not to mention the people
who voted against the current Serb leadership.
But one reason these targets are illegal is that civilians are very
likely to be killed or injured when such targets are hit. And all of the
NATO leaders knew that. They were carefully told that by their military
planners. And they still went ahead and did it.
And they did it without any risk to themselves or to their soldiers and
pilots. That's where the "cowardice" comes in. It's not a matter of
being "unfair, unchivalrous or dishonorable" as Mr. Pfaff seems to
think. The cowardice lies in fighting the civilian population and not
the military, in bombing from altitudes so high that the civilians,
Serbians, Albanians, Roma, and anybody else on the ground, bore all the
risks of the "inevitable collateral damage" (and other atrocities).
That's a crime under the Geneva Conventions, too. And it should be.
NATO dropped 6 to 10 billion dollars worth of bombs, including cluster
bombs and bombs using poisonous depleted uranium. The bombing did 60 to
100 billion dollars worth of damage, primarily to non-military targets.
Perhaps readers would find it helpful to read the words of the Hague
Tribunal Statute, drafted, voted for and signed by the United States.
Remember that these are the very crimes that have been used to indict
the Serbian leaders:
Article 2: "persons committing or ordering to be committed grave
breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely the
following acts against persons or property protected under the
provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention: wilful killing; wilfully
causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health; extensive
destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military
necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly"
Article 3: "persons violating the laws or customs of war. Such
violations shall include, but not be limited to: employment of poisonous
weapons or other weapons to cause unnecessary suffering; wanton
destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified
by military necessity; attack, or bombardment, by whatever means, of
undefended towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings; destruction or
wilful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion, charity and
education, the arts and sciences, historic monuments and works of art
and science.
Article 5: "The following crimes when committed in armed conflict,
whether international or internal in character, and directed against any
civilian population: murder … other inhumane acts."
Article 7: "The official position of any accused person, whether as Head
of State or Government or as a responsible Government official, shall
not relieve such person of criminal responsibility or mitigate
punishment. The fact that any of the acts referred to in articles 2 to 5
of the present Statute was committed by a subordinate does not relieve
his superior of criminal responsibility if he knew or had reason to know
that the subordinate was about to commit such acts or had done so and
the superior failed to take the necessary and reasonable measures to
prevent such acts or to punish the perpetrators thereof.
Evidently the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law have
become inconvenient to the armies and the leaders of the big powers. But
if the Hague Tribunal is only going to enforce the law against their
small power enemies -- if it's only going to be strong with the weak and
not with the strong -- Justice Del Ponte is right in saying that it
should pack up and go home. Because, in that case, the Tribunal is doing
far more harm than good, only legitimating NATO's violent lawlessness
against people unlucky enough to be ruled by "indicted war criminals",
as opposed to the un-indicted kind that govern the NATO countries.
Mr. Pfaff's essential error is the common one in the media of taking all
NATO's claims at face value. "Causing unintended civilian casualties in
the course of legitimate acts of war" is the way Mr. Pfaff describes it.
But do we really need to be told that there might be a difference
between NATO's claims and what actually happened? NATO's claims are, in
fact, the claims of the most notorious war criminals in history. Have we
not learned by now to distinguish between "plausible (or implausible)
deniability" and sophisticated or clumsy cover-ups on the one hand, and
the truth on the other? That's what independent criminal courts are for,
whether in The Hague or any other town.
This would not be the first time that military and political leaders
have lied to us. These military and political leaders. Forget "I did not
have sexual relations with that woman". What about the claim by Jamie
Shea that it was the Serbs who bombed the Albanian refugee convoy (until
the independent journalists found bomb fragments "made in U.S.A.")? What
about the claim by a NATO general, with video up on the screen, that the
passenger train on the Grdelicka bridge was going too fast to avoid
being hit (until somebody pointed out that the video had been speeded up
to three times its real speed)? What about the claim that the Chinese
Embassy was bombed because NATO's maps were out of date? Let alone the
claims by Mr. Clinton (and Mrs. Clinton) and Mr. Cohen that a
"Holocaust" was occurring in which perhaps 100,000 Kosovar men had been
murdered (until the bombing was over and the numbers dwindled to 2,108
– and we have yet to be told who they were or how they died).
So readers can see for themselves that there is far more than meets the
eye here and an awful lot at stake. Judge Del Ponte is making no error
in taking these complaints very seriously indeed. That's what's required
by her sworn and sacred duty to the innocent victims on all sides of
this war, and the many victims that will follow if she fails to do it.
Michael Mandel is Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School of York
University in Toronto
---
L'OPINIONE DI JESSE HELMS
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:
>> 03.04.2000 08:26
>>
>>
>> Not so much a witty one-liner, but an eye opener,
>> in my opinion, nonetheless. The following is taken
>> from an address by Senator Jesse Helms, chairman
>> of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Realtions,
>> made before the UN Security Council. He's a
>> lovable old man and I highly recommend you visit
>> his website: http://www.senate.gov/~helms/
>>
>> So, without further delay, I give you the Senator:
>>
>>
>> It is my intent to extend to you my hand of
>> friendship and convey the hope that in the days to
>> come, and in retrospect, we can join in a mutual
>> respect that will enable all of us to work
>> together in an atmosphere of friendship and hope -
>> the hope to do everything we can to achieve peace
>> in the world.
>>
>> Having said all that, I am aware that you have
>> interpreters who translate the proceedings of this
>> body into a half dozen different languages.
>>
>> They have an interesting challenge today. As some
>> of you may have detected, I don't have a Yankee
>> accent. (I hope you have a translator here who can
>> speak Southern - someone who can translate words
>> like "y'all" and "I do declare.")
>>
>> It may be that one other language barrier will
>> need to be overcome this morning. I am not a
>> diplomat, and as such, I am not fully conversant
>> with the elegant and rarefied language of the
>> diplomatic trade. I am an elected official, with
>> something of a reputation for saying what I mean
>> and meaning what I say. So I trust you will
>> forgive me if I come across as a bit more blunt
>> than those you are accustomed to hearing in this
>> chamber.
>> ...
>>
>> Most Americans do not regard the United Nations as
>> an end in and of itself - they see it as just one
>> part of America's diplomatic arsenal.
>>
>> ...
>>
>> And when the oppressed peoples of the world cry
>> out for help, the free peoples of the world have a
>> fundamental right to respond.
>>
>> As we watch the UN struggle with this question at
>> the turn of the millennium, many Americans are
>> left exceedingly puzzled. Intervening in cases of
>> widespread oppression and massive human rights
>> abuses is not a new concept for the United States.
>> The American people have a long history of coming
>> to the aid of those struggling for freedom. In the
>> United States, during the 1980s, we called this
>> policy the "Reagan Doctrine."
>>
>> In some cases, America has assisted freedom
>> fighters around the world who were seeking to
>> overthrow corrupt regimes. We have provided
>> weaponry, training, and intelligence. In other
>> cases, the United States has intervened directly.
>> In still other cases, such as in Central and
>> Eastern Europe, we supported peaceful opposition
>> movements with moral, financial and covert forms
>> of support. In each case, however, it was
>> America's clear intention to help bring down
>> Communist regimes that were oppressing their
>> peoples, - and thereby replace dictators with
>> democratic governments.
>>
>> The dramatic expansion of freedom in the last
>> decade of the 20th century is a direct result of
>> these policies.
>>
>> In none of these cases, however, did the United
>> States ask for, or receive, the approval of the
>> United Nations to "legitimize" its actions.
>>
>> It is a fanciful notion that free peoples need to
>> seek the approval of an international body (some
>> of whose members are totalitarian dictatorships)
>> to lend support to nations struggling to break the
>> chains of tyranny and claim their inalienable,
>> God-given rights.
>>
>> ...
>>
>> But, some may respond, the U.S. Senate ratified
>> the UN Charter fifty years ago. Yes, but in doing
>> so we did not cede one syllable of American
>> sovereignty to the United Nations. ... no treaty
>> or law can ever supercede the one document that
>> all Americans hold sacred: The U.S. Constitution.
>>
>> ...
>>
>> The effort to establish a United Nations
>> International Criminal Court is a case-in-point.
>> Consider: the Rome Treaty purports to hold
>> American citizens under its jurisdiction - even
>> when the United States has neither signed nor
>> ratified the treaty. In other words, it claims
>> sovereign authority over American citizens without
>> their consent. How can the nations of the world
>> imagine for one instant that Americans will stand
>> by and allow such a power-grab to take place?
>>
>> The Court's supporters argue that Americans should
>> be willing to sacrifice some of their sovereignty
>> for the noble cause of international justice.
>> International law did not defeat Hitler, nor did
>> it win the Cold War. What stopped the Nazi march
>> across Europe, and the Communist march across the
>> world, was the principled projection of power by
>> the world's great democracies. And that principled
>> projection of force is the only thing that will
>> ensure the peace and security of the world in the
>> future.
>>
>> More often than not, "international law" has been
>> used as a make-believe justification for hindering
>> the march of freedom. When Ronald Reagan sent
>> American servicemen into harm's way to liberate
>> Grenada from the hands of a communist
>> dictatorship, the UN General Assembly responded by
>> voting to condemn the action of the elected
>> President of the United States as a violation of
>> international law - and, I am obliged to add, they
>> did so by a larger majority than when Soviet
>> invasion of Afghanistan was condemned by the
>> same General Assembly!
>>
>> Similarly, the U.S. effort to overthrow
>> Nicaragua's Communist dictatorship (by supporting
>> Nicaragua's freedom fighters and mining
>> Nicaragua's harbors) was declared by the World
>> Court as a violation of international law.
>>
>> Most recently, we learn that the chief prosecutor
>> of the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal has compiled a
>> report on possible NATO war crimes during the
>> Kosovo campaign. At first, the prosecutor declared
>> that it is fully within the scope of her authority
>> to indict NATO pilots and commanders. When news of
>> her report leaked, she backpedaled.
>>
>> She realized, I am sure, that any attempt to
>> indict NATO commanders would be the death knell
>> for the International Criminal Court. But the very
>> fact that she explored this possibility at all
>> brings to light all that is wrong with this brave
>> new world of global justice, which proposes a
>> system in which independent prosecutors and
>> judges, answerable to no state or institution,
>> have unfettered power to sit in judgement of the
>> foreign policy decisions of Western democracies.
>>
>> No UN institution - not the Security Council, not
>> the Yugoslav tribunal, not a future ICC - is
>> competent to judge the foreign policy and national
>> security decisions of the United States. American
>> courts routinely refuse cases where they are asked
>> to sit in judgement of our government's national
>> security decisions, stating that they are not
>> competent to judge such decisions. If we do not
>> submit our national security decisions to the
>> judgement of a Court of the United States, why
>> would Americans submit them to the judgement of an
>> International Criminal Court, a continent away,
>> comprised of mostly foreign judges elected by an
>> international body made up of the membership of
>> the UN General Assembly?
>>
>>
>>
---
LOUISE ARBOUR CRIMINALE DI GUERRA
> > Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 20:55:01 -0800
> > To: peace@...
> > From: Eric Fawcett <fawcett@...> (by way of Rycroft &
> > Pringle <emerald@...>)
> > Subject: Peace/Justice Canada-- sfp-46: ICTY a kangaroo court?
> >
> > The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
> > is examined critically by Christopher Black in a companion paper that is
> > available on request and will be posted on the SfP web site as sfp-46b.
> >
> > (As Eric did not include the URL, I am guessing that it may
> > be available at
http://helios.physics.utoronto.ca/mailman/listinfo.cgi/
> > or http://helios.physics.utoronto.ca/mailman/listinfo.cgi/sfp-46b)
> >
> > Its genesis, procedures and funding are all suspect.
>-----Original Message-----
>Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2000 6:46 PM
>Subject: [] Louise Arbour: unindicted war criminal
>
>
>Louise Arbour: unindicted war criminal
>
>by Christopher Black,
>Toronto defense lawyer and writer and one of the lawyers who made the
>request to the War Crimes Tribunal to indict NATO leaders for war crimes;
>and Edward Herman, economist and media analyst
>>>his most recent book is The Myth of the Liberal Media: An Edward Hermam
>Reader
>(Peter Lang, 1999)
>
>Among the many ironies of the NATO war against Yugoslavia was the role of
>the International Criminal Tribunal and its chief prosecutor, Louise
>Arbour, elevated by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien to Canada's
>highest court in 1999. It will be argued here that that award was entirely
>justified on the grounds of political service to the NATO powers, but a
>monumental travesty if the question of the proper administration of justice
>enters the equation. In fact, it will be shown below that as Arbour and her
>Tribunal played a key role in EXPEDITING war crimes, an excellent case can
>be made that in a just world she would be in the dock rather than in
>judicial robes.
>
>Arbour To NATO's Rescue
>
>The moment of truth for Arbour and the Tribunal came in the midst of NATO's
>78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, when Arbour appeared, first, in
>an April 20 press conference with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook to
>receive from him documentation on Serb war crimes. Then on May 27, Arbour
>announced the indictment of Serb President Slobodan Milosevic and four of
>his associates for war crimes. The inappropriateness of a supposedly
>judicial body doing this in the midst of the Kosovo war, and when Germany,
>Russia and other powers were trying to find a diplomatic resolution to the
>conflict, was staggering.
>
>At the April 20 appearance with Cook, Arbour stated that "It is
>inconceivable...that we would in fact agree to be guided by the political
>will of those who may want to advance an agenda." But her appearance with
>Cook and the follow-up indictments fitted perfectly the agenda needs of the
>NATO leadership. There had been growing criticism of NATO's increasingly
>intense and civilian infrastructure-oriented bombing of Serbia, and Blair
>and Cook had been lashing out at critics in the British media for
>insufficient enthusiasm for the war. Arbour's and the Tribunal's
>intervention declaring the Serb leadership to be guilty of war crimes was a
>public relations coup that justified the NATO policies and helped permit
>the bombing to continue and escalate. This was pointed out repeatedly by
>NATO leaders and propagandists: Madeleine Albright noted that the
>indictments "make very clear to the world and the publics in our countries
>that this [NATO policy] is justified because of the crimes committed, and I
>think also will enable us to keep moving all these processes [i.e.,
>bombing] forward" (CNN, May 27). State Department spokesman James Rubin
>stated that "this unprecedented step...justifies in the clearest possible
>way what we have been doing these past months" (CNN Morning News, May 27).
>
>Although the Tribunal had been in place since May 1993, and the most
>serious atrocities in the Yugoslav wars occurred as the old Federation
>disintegrated from June 1991 through the Dayton peace talks in late 1995,
>no indictment was brought against Milosevic for any of those atrocities,
>and the May 27 indictment refers only to a reported 241 deaths in the early
>months of 1999. The indictment appears to have been hastily prepared to
>meet some urgent need. Arbour even mentioned on April 20 that she had
>"visited NATO" to "dialogue with potential information providers in order
>to generate unprecedented support that the Tribunal needs if it will
>perform its mandate in a time frame that will make it relevant to the
>resolution of conflict...of a magnitude of what is currently unfolding in
>Kosovo." But her action impeded a negotiated resolution, although it helped
>expedite a resolution by intensified bombing.
>
>Arbour herself noted that "I am mindful of the impact that this indictment
>may have on the peace process," and she said that although indicted
>individuals are "entitled to the presumption of innocence until they are
>convicted, the evidence upon which this indictment was confirmed raises
>serious questions about their suitability to be guarantors of any deal, let
>alone a peace agreement." (CNN Live Event, Special, May 27). So Arbour not
>only admitted awareness of the political significance of her indictment,
>she suggested that her possible interference with any diplomatic efforts
>was justified because the indicted individuals, though not yet found
>guilty, are not suitable to negotiate. This hugely unjudicial political
>judgement, along with the convenient timing of the indictments, points up
>Arbour's and the Tribunal's highly political role.
>
>Background of the Tribunal's Politicization
>
>Arbour's service to NATO in indicting Milosevic was the logical outcome of
>the Tribunal's de facto control and purpose. It was established by the
>Security Council in the early 1990s to serve the Balkan policy ends of its
>dominant members, especially the United States. (China and Russia went
>along as silent and powerless partners, apparently in a trade-off for
>economic concessions.) And its funding and interlocking functional
>relationship with the top NATO powers have made it NATO's instrument.
>
>Although Article 32 of its Charter declares that the Tribunal's expenses
>shall be provided in the general budget of the United Nations, this proviso
>has been regularly violated. In 1994-1995 the U.S. government provided it
>with $700,000 in cash and $2.3 million in equipment (while failing to meet
>its delinquent obligation to the UN that might have allowed the UN itself
>to fund the Tribunal). On May 12, 1999, Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald,
>president of the Tribunal, stated that "the U.S. government has very
>generously agreed to provide $500,000 [for an Outreach project] and to help
>to encourage other states to contribute." Numerous other U.S.-based
>governmental and non-governmental agencies have provided the Tribunal with
>resources.
>
>Article 16 of the Tribunal's charter states that the Prosecutor shall act
>independently and shall not seek or receive instruction from any
>government. This section also has been systematically violated. NATO
>sources have regularly made claims suggesting their authority over the
>Tribunal: "We will make a decision on whether Yugoslav actions against
>ethnic Albanians constitute genocide," states a USIA Fact Sheet, and Cook
>asserted at his April 20 press conference with Arbour that "we are going to
>focus on the war crimes being committed in Kosovo and our determination to
>bring those responsible to justice, " as if he and Arbour were a team
>jointly and co-operatively deciding on who should be charged for war
>crimes, and obviously excluding himself from those potentially chargeable.
>Earlier, on March 31, two days after Cook had promised Arbour supportive
>data for criminal charges, she announced the indictment of Arkan.
>
>Tribunal officials have even bragged about "the strong support of concerned
>governments and dedicated individuals such as Secretary Albright," further
>referred to as "mother of the Tribunal" (by Gabrielle Kirk McDonald). The
>post-Arbour chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte at a September 1999 press
>>>conference thanked the US FBI for helping the Tribunal, and expressed
>>>general thanks for "the important support the U.S. government has
provided
>>>the Tribunal." Arbour herself informed President Clinton of the
>forthcoming
>indictment of Milosevic two days before the rest of the world, and in 1996
>the prosecutor met with the Secretary-General of NATO and its supreme
>commander to "establish contacts and begin discussing modalities of
>co-operation and assistance." Numerous other meetings have occurred between
>prosecutor and NATO, which was given the function of Tribunal gendarme. In
>the collection of data also, the prosecutor has depended heavily on NATO
>and NATO governments, which again points to the symbiotic relation between
>the Tribunal and NATO.
>
>Serb-Specific Focus
>
>The NATO powers focused almost exclusively on Serb misbehavior in the
>course of their participation in the break-up of Yugoslavia, and the
>Tribunal has followed in NATO's wake. A great majority of the Tribunal's
>indictments have been of Serbs, and those against Croatians and Muslims
>often seemed to have been timed to counter claims of anti-Serb bias (e.g.,
>the first non-Serb indictment [Ivica Rajic], announced during the peace
>talks in Geneva and bombing by NATO in September 1995).
>
>Arbour herself did state (April 20) that "the real danger is whether we
>would fall into that [following somebody's political agenda] inadvertently
>by being in the hands of information- providers who might have an agenda
>that we would not be able to discern." But even an imbecile could discern
>that NATO had an agenda and that simply accepting the flood of documents
>offered by Cook and Albright entailed advertently following that agenda.
>Arbour even acknowledged her voluntary and almost exclusive
>"dependencies...on the goodwill of states" to provide information that
>"will guide our analysis of the crime base." And her April 20 reference to
>the "morality of the [NATO's] enterprise" and her remarks on Milosevic's
>possible lack of character disqualifying him from negotiations, as well as
>her rush to help NATO with an indictment, point to quite clearly understood
>political service.
>
>In a dramatic illustration of Arbour-Tribunal bias, a 150 page Tribunal
>report entitled "The Indictment Operation Storm: A Prima Facie Case,"
>describes war crimes committed by the Croatian armed forces in their
>expulsion of more than 200,000 Serbs from Krajina in August 1995, during
>which "at least 150 Serbs were summarily executed, and many hundreds
>disappeared." This report, leaked to the New York Times (to the dismay of
>Tribunal officials), found that the Croatian murders and other inhumane
>acts were "widespread and systematic," and that "sufficient material" was
>available to make three named Croatian generals accountable under
>international law. (Raymond Bonner, "War Crimes Panel Finds Croat Troops
>'Cleansed' the Serbs," NYT, March 21, 1999). But the Times article also
>reports that the United States, which supported the Croat's ethnic
>cleansing of Serbs in Krajina, not only defended the Croats in the Tribunal
>but refused to supply requested satellite photos of Krajina areas attacked
>by the Croats, as well as failing to provide other requested information.
>The result was that the Croat generals named in the report on Operation
>Storm were never indicted, and although the number of Serbs executed and
>disappeared over a mere four days was at least equal to the 241 victims of
>the Serbs named in the indictment of Milosevic, no parallel indictment of
>Croat leader Tudjman was ever brought by the Tribunal. But this was not a
>failure of data gathering--the United States opposed indictments of its
>allies, and thus the Tribunal did not produce any.
>
>Tribunal's Kangaroo Court Processes
>
>Arbour has claimed that the Tribunal was "subject to extremely stringent
>rules of evidence with respect to the admissibility and the credibility of
>the product that we will tender in court" so that she was guarded against
>"unsubstantiated, unverifiable, uncorroborated allegations" (April 20).
>This is a gross misrepresentation of what John Laughland described in the
>Times (London) as "a rogue court with rigged rules" (June 17, 1999). The
>Tribunal violates virtually every standard of due process: it fails to
>separate prosecution and judge; it does not accord the right to bail or a
>speedy trial; it has no clear definition of burden of proof required for a
>conviction; it has no independent appeal body; it violates the principle
>that a defendant may not be tried twice for the same crime (Article 25
>gives the prosecutor the right to appeal against an acquittal); suspects
>can be held for 90 days without trial; under Rule 92 confessions are
>presumed to be free and voluntary unless the contrary is established by the
>prisoner; witnesses can testify anonymously, and as John Laughland notes,
>"rules against hearsay, deeply entrenched in Common Law, are not observed
>and the Prosecutor's office has even suggested not calling witnesses to
>give evidence but only the tribunal's own 'war crimes investigators.'"
>
>As noted, Arbour presumes guilt before trial; the concept of "innocent till
>convicted" is rejected, and she can declare that people linked with Arkan
>"will be tainted by their association with an indicted war criminal" (March
>31). Arbour clearly does not believe in the basic rules of Western
>jurisprudence, and Laughland quotes her saying "The law, to me, should be
>creative and used to make things tight." And within a month of her
>elevation to the Canadian Supreme Court she was a member of a court
>majority that grafted onto Canadian law the dangerously unfair Tribunal
>practice of permitting a more liberal use of hearsay evidence in trials.
>The consequent corruption of the Canadian justice system, both by her
>appointment and her impact, mirrors that in the Canadian political system,
>whose leading members supported the NATO war without question.
>
>NATO's Crimes
>
>In bombing Yugoslavia from March 24 into June 1999, NATO was guilty of the
>serious crime of violating the UN Charter requirement that it not use force
>without UN Security Council sanction. It was also guilty of criminal
>aggression in attacking a sovereign state that was not going beyond its
>borders. In its defense, NATO claimed that "humanitarian" concerns demanded
>these actions and thus justified seemingly serious law violations. Apart
>from the fact that this reply sanctions law violations on the basis of
>self- serving judgements that contradict the rule of law, it is also called
>into question on its own grounds by counter-facts. First, the NATO bombing
>made "an internal humanitarian problem into a disaster" in the words of
>Rollie Keith, the returned Canadian OSCE human rights monitor in Kosovo.
>Second, the evidence is now clear that NATO refused to negotiate a
>settlement in Kosovo and insisted on a violent solution; that in the words
>of one State Department official, NATO deliberately "raised the bar" and
>precluded a compromise resolution because Serbia "needed to be bombed."
>These counter-facts suggest that the alleged humanitarian basis of the law
>violations was a cover for starkly political and geopolitical objectives.
>
>NATO was also guilty of more traditional war crimes, including some that
>the Tribunal had found indictable when carried out by Serbs. Thus on March
>8, 1996, the Serb leader Milan Martic was indicted for launching a rocket
>cluster-bomb attack on military targets in Zagreb in May 1995, on the
>ground that the rocket was "not designed to hit military targets but to
>terrorize the civilians of Zagreb." The Tribunal report on the Croat
>Operation Storm in Krajina also provided solid evidence that a 48 hour
>Croat assault on the city of Knin was basically "shelling civilian
>targets," with fewer than 250 of 3,000 shells striking military targets.
>But no indictments followed from this evidence or for any other raid.
>
>The same case for civilian targeting could be made for numerous NATO
>bombing raids, as in the cluster-bombing of Nis on May 7, 1999, in which a
>market and hospital far from any military target were hit in separate
>strikes--but no indictment has yet been handed down against NATO.
>
>But NATO was also guilty of the bombing of non-military targets as
>systematic policy. On March 26, 1999, General Wesley Clark said that "We
>are going to very systematically and progressively work on his military
>forces...[to see] how much pain he is willing to suffer." But this focus on
>"military forces" wasn't effective, so NATO quickly turned to "taking
>down...the economic apparatus supporting" Serb military forces (Clinton's
>words), and NATO targets were gradually extended to factories of all kinds,
>electric power stations, water and sewage processing facilities, all
>transport, public buildings, and large numbers of schools and hospitals. In
>effect, it was NATO's strategy to bring Serbia to its knees by gradually
>escalating its attacks on the civil society.
>
>But this policy was in clear violation of international law, one of whose
>fundamental elements is that civilian targets are off limits; international
>law prohibits the "wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages or
>devastation not justified by military necessity" (Sixth Principle of
>Nuremberg, formulated in 1950 by an international law commission at the
>behest of the UN). "Military necessity" clearly does not allow the
>destruction of a civil society to make it more difficult for the country to
>support its armed forces, any more than civilians can be killed directly on
>he ground that they pay taxes supporting the war machine or might some day
>become soldiers. The rendering of an entire population a hostage is a
>blatant violation of international law and acts carrying it out are war
>crimes.
>
>On September 29, 1999, in response to a question on whether the Tribunal
>would investigate crimes committed in Kosovo after June 10, or those
>committed by NATO in Yugoslavia, prosecutor Carla del Ponte stated that
>"The primary focus of the Office of the Prosecutor must be on the
>investigation and prosecution of the five leaders of the FRY and Serbia who
>have already been indicted." Why this "must" be the focus, especially in
>light of all the evidence already assembled in preparing the favored
>indictments, was unexplained. In late December, it was finally reported
>that Del Ponte was reviewing the conduct of NATO, at the urging of Russia
>and several other "interested parties" ("U.N. Court Examines NATO's
>Yugoslavia War," NYT, Dec. 29, 1999). But the news report itself indicates
>that the focus is on the conduct of NATO pilots and their commanders, not
>the NATO decision-makers who made the ultimate decisions to target the
>civilian infrastructure. It also suggests the public relations nature of
>the inquiry, which would "go far in dispelling the belief...that the
>tribunal is a tool used by Western leaders to escape accountability." The
>report also indicates the delicate matter that the tribunal "depends on the
>military alliance to arrest and hand over suspects." It also quotes Del
>Ponte saying that "It's not my priority, because I have inquiries about
>genocide, about bodies in mass graves." We may rest assured that no
>indictments will result from this inquiry.
>
>An impartial Tribunal would have gone to great pains to balance NATO's
>flood of documents by internal research and a welcoming of rival
>documentation. But although submissions have been made on NATO's crimes by
>Yugoslavia and a number of Western legal teams, the Tribunal didn't get
>around to these until this belated and surely nominal inquiry that is "not
>my priority," as the Tribunal "must" pursue the Serb villains, for reasons
>that are only too clear.
>
>Beyond Orwell
>
>NATO's leaders, frustrated in attacking the Serb military machine, quite
>openly turned to smashing the civil society of Serbia as their means of
>attaining the quick victory desired before the 50th Anniversary celebration
>of NATO's founding. Although this amounted to turning the civilian
>population of Serbia into hostages and attacking them and their means of
>sustenance--in gross violation of the laws of war--Arbour and her Tribunal
>not only failed to object to and prosecute NATO's leaders for war crimes,
>by indicting Milosevic on May 27 they gave NATO a moral cover permitting
>escalated attacks on the hostage population.
>
>Arbour and the Tribunal thus present us with the amazing spectacle of an
>institution supposedly organized to contain, prevent, and prosecute for war
>crimes actually knowingly facilitating them. Furthermore, petitions
>submitted to the Tribunal during Arbour's tenure had called for prosecution
>of the leaders of NATO, including Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien,
>for the commission of war crimes. If she had been a prosecutor in Canada,
>Britain or the United States, she would have been subject to disbarment for
>considering and then accepting a job from a person she had been asked to
>charge. But Arbour was elevated to the Supreme Court of Canada by Chretien
>with hardly a mention of this conflict of interest and immorality.>In this
>post-Orwellian New World Order we are told that we live under the
>rule of law, but as Saint Augustine once said, "There are just laws and
>there are unjust laws, and an unjust law is no law at all."
>
>
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
- Due lettere di Michael Mandel (l'avvocato presentatore delle denunce a
Carla dal Ponte)
- l'opinione di Jesse Helms: "La `legalita' internazionale' e' stata
troppo spesso usata come giustificazione per bloccare la marcia della
liberta'... Ogni tentativo di mettere sotto accusa i comandanti della
NATO significherebbe la morte della Corte Internazionale... Nessuna
istituzione ONU - non il Consiglio di Sicurezza, non il Tribunale sulla
Jugoslavia, non una futura Corte Internazionale - e' competente a
giudicare la politica estera e le decisioni che investono la sicurezza
nazionale degli Stati Uniti..."
- Louise Arbour, criminale in attesa di giudizio: analisi della genesi e
degli appoggi di cui gode il Tribunale dell'Aia per i crimini commessi
sul territorio della ex-RFSJ
---
LETTERE DI MICHAEL MANDEL
-----Original Message-----
From: Snezana Vitorovich [mailto:zana@...]
Sent: Thursday, March 16, 2000 8:27 PM
To: sn-vesti@...
Subject: M.Mandel sends another letter to Carla Del Ponte !
Importance: High
Justice Carla Del Ponte,
Chief Prosecutor,
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia,
Churchillplein 1, 2501 EW,
The Hague,
Netherlands
SENT BY COURIER
March 15, 2000
Dear Justice Del Ponte:
Re William J. Clinton et al.
We write to you for two reasons.
First, we wish to draw your attention to the Human Rights Watch Report,
Civilian Deaths in the NATO Air Campaign (February 2000). In our
submission this is yet another clear indication of crimes committed
within
your jurisdiction. Giving every benefit of the doubt to NATO, Human
Rights
Watch has confirmed approximately 500 civilian deaths as a direct result
of
NATO bombing practices in violation of the norms of international law:
in
deliberate attacks on illegitimate targets, in the refusal to take the
necessary, often elemental, precautions to protect civilian life and in
the
use of cluster bombs. Human Rights Watch has also confirmed that leading
NATO officials lied about the nature and extent of these incidents. We
are
quite aware that Human Rights Watch has chosen to characterize these
incidents as "violations of international humanitarian law" and not as
"war
crimes." But the report does not attempt to defend making this
distinction
and it is not, in this context, defensible. As you know, Articles 1 and
16
of your governing Statute oblige you to prosecute "serious violations of
international humanitarian law" of the four types described by Articles
2
("grave breaches of the Geneva conventions of 1949), 3 ("violations of
the
laws and customs of war"), 4 ("genocide") and 5 ("crimes against
humanity").
The evidence in the Human Rights Watch Report is factual evidence (to be
added to the massive evidence already in your possession), of clear
violations of Articles 2, 3 and 5. By definition, these are "serious"
violations - if the massacre of innocent children, women and men is not
"serious" enough - and therefore "war crimes" as far as your tribunal is
concerned. No legal conclusion to the contrary of Human Rights Watch
could
relieve you of your duty to prosecute the individual NATO leaders
responsible for the crimes against civilians factually confirmed in the
report.
Secondly, we feel we must protest your recent statements and those of
your
spokesman, which, combined with your failure to act on the thousands of
complaints against NATO that have reached your office over the past
year,
are turning this investigation into more of a farce than a judicial
proceeding. We regret to say that, for all the faith that has been put
in
your Tribunal by the people of the world, it continues to conduct itself
as
if it were an organ of NATO and not of the United Nations.
In December you told the press that you would indict those responsible
if
you concluded NATO had violated the Geneva Conventions. You said "If I
am
not willing to do that, I am not in the right place: I must give up the
mission". However, following NATO and American protests, you hastily
issued
a statement on December 30, 1999 stating that "NATO is not under
investigation" and that there was "no formal inquiry."
On January 3, we wrote to you asking you to clarify the status of the
inquiry and you said you would respond in due course. But on January 19
you
went to NATO headquarters to meet in private session with NATO Secretary
General George Robertson, himself the subject of numerous war crimes
complaints to you. At that time you assured the press that you had not
even
raised the questions of crimes committed by him and other NATO leaders.
Next
(February 1), you met in London with British Foreign Secretary Robin
Cook,
also the subject of many war crimes complaints, and when asked about
them,
you said "Our work is not done but what we can say is that up until now
we
have no indications that we should open an inquiry." We wrote to you
again
on February 4 asking you to confirm this statement and explain it. Your
special assistant replied on your behalf on February 8, 2000 saying that
the
statement "meant exactly what it said. Up to this point, there is
nothing to
indicate that a full investigation is required, but the Office is
continuing
to study the material that you and others have submitted." As recently
as
March 9, your official spokesman declared to the press that NATO armies
"respect the rule of law" and that "a prosecution is very unlikely,"
while
you repeated that your "work" was continuing.
This is nothing short of a disgrace. If, despite all the evidence that
has
been provided to you since the first complaint reached your office in
April
1999, followed by thousands more from lawyers, legislators and citizens
around the world, you have still seen "nothing to indicate" that even an
investigation is required, the only possible conclusion to draw is that
you
are not serious about your duties, and perhaps never were. If you cannot
apply the law to NATO as well as to NATO's enemies, it seems that you
are
not, in your own words, "in the right place" and should, indeed, "give
up
the mission."
The fact is, as you well know, that the NATO leadership, from the
Presidents
and Prime Ministers on down, including those you have recently been
meeting
and collaborating with, have committed crimes of the utmost seriousness
that
the Statute creating your tribunal absolutely obliges you to prosecute.
In
violation of international law, the Charter of the United Nations, and
the
Geneva Conventions, these NATO leaders ordered a bombing campaign that,
in
attacking Yugoslavia with more than 25,000 bombs and missiles:
- directly killed between 500 and 1800 civilian children, women and men
of
all ethnicities and permanently injured as many others;
- indirectly caused the death of thousands more, by provoking the
retaliatory and defensive measures that are entirely predictable when a
war
of this kind and intensity is undertaken, and by giving a free hand to
extremists on both sides;
- directly and indirectly caused a refugee crisis of enormous
proportions,
with about 1 million fleeing Kosovo during the bombing;
- caused 60 to100 billion dollars worth of damage to an already
impoverished
country; and
- left in its wake a Kosovo of lawlessness and ethnic violence, under
the
direct supervision of NATO, in which hundreds have been murdered and
hundreds of thousands driven out.
Not only was this anti-humanitarian war illegal in itself, it was, as
you
well know, carried out in flagrant and direct violation of the Geneva
Conventions, norms of international law that it is your duty to enforce.
According to admissions made in public throughout the war and after it,
according to eye-witness reports and according to powerful
circumstantial
evidence displayed on the world's television screens during the bombing
campaign - evidence good enough to convict in any criminal court in the
world - these NATO leaders deliberately and illegally made targets of
places
and things with only tenuous or slight military value or no military
value
at all, such as city bridges, factories, hospitals, electricity plants,
marketplaces, downtown and residential neighbourhoods, and television
studios, all such targets being strictly prohibited by the Geneva
Conventions. The same evidence shows that, in doing this, the NATO
leaders
aimed to demoralize and break the will of the people, not to defeat the
army.
You know that one reason these civilian targets are illegal is that
civilians are very likely to be killed or injured when such targets are
hit.
And all of the NATO leaders knew that, too. They were carefully told
that by
their military planners. And they still went ahead and did it. Indeed,
there is persuasive evidence in your hands that, in some circumstances
at
least, NATO not only knowingly killed civilians, but deliberately set
out to
do so: for example on the Grdelica and Varvarin bridges (April 12 and
May
30) and the NIS marketplace (May 7).
This strategy was carried out without any risk to the NATO soldiers and
pilots, much less the leaders themselves, once again in direct violation
of
the Geneva Conventions. This was a war fought against civilians of all
ethnicities with bombing from altitudes so high that the civilians bore
all
the risks of the "inevitable collateral damage".
Far from a "humanitarian intervention" - not that this could ever excuse
the
wholesale killing of innocent civilians - this was a coldly strategic
enterprise. It exploited as well as exacerbated a tragedy for which the
NATO
countries' themselves must bear a large share of the responsibility: in
more
than a decade of beggaring Yugoslavia for motives of sheer greed, in
encouraging the KLA in its deliberate provocations, in throwing aside
every
opportunity for peace at Rambouillet and elsewhere, in undermining and
ultimately withdrawing the OSCE observer force. As you know, most of
the
world rejects NATO's humanitarian claims and we feel that we must remind
you
once again that you are a United Nations organ, not a NATO organ. In
fact,
we believe that this war must be understood as an attempt by the United
States, through NATO, to overthrow the authority of the United Nations
and
to replace it with NATO's military might, to be used wherever
strategically
advantageous and whatever the human consequences.
It is no secret that the Americans sponsored the creation of your
tribunal
to advance their own strategic ends. Despite these questionable origins
we
have given your tribunal every opportunity to vindicate itself. We have
given it every benefit of the doubt even in the face of mounting
evidence
that it did not deserve it:
- when, in January, 1999, then prosecutor Judge Louise Arbour made her
dramatic for-the-press appearance at the border of Kosovo, hastily
lending
unwarranted credibility to contested American accounts of atrocities at
Racak, a major precipitating justification of the war;
- when, only days after the bombing had commenced, she announced the
indictment of "Arkan," an indictment that had been kept secret since
1997;
- when, as the civilian casualties began to mount, Justice Arbour made
television appearances with NATO leader Robin Cook, already the subject
of
numerous complaints, so that he could make a great show of handing over
war
crimes dossiers against NATO's enemies;
- when, soon after, she met with Madeleine Albright, herself by then the
subject of well-grounded complaints before the Tribunal, and Albright
took
the opportunity to announce that the United States was the major
provider of
funds to the Tribunal;
- when, two weeks later, in the midst of the bombing, Judge Arbour
announced
the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic, on the basis of undisclosed
evidence,
for Racak and events which had occurred only six weeks earlier in the
middle
of a war zone, on what, in other words, must have been very flimsy and
suspicious evidence;
Compare this to your inability to even "open an investigation" after one
year of being provided with overwhelming evidence in the public domain
of
NATO leaders' crimes which, on the most conservative estimates, resulted
in
the deaths of far more civilians than those for which the Serb
leadership
was so quickly indicted;
- and when, at the conclusion of the bombing, Judge Arbour handed over
the
investigation of war crimes in Kosovo to the NATO countries' own police
forces. notwithstanding that they had every motive to falsify the
evidence.
These could not be regarded as the acts of an impartial prosecutor. Not
when NATO was in the midst of a controversial war in flagrant violation
of
international law.
We sincerely hoped for better things from you, coming as you did from a
country outside of the NATO alliance. But immediately upon taking up
your
post you declared that your priorities were in the prosecution of the
Serb
leadership - a de facto immunity for the NATO leaders which we tried,
evidently in vain, to persuade you was a violation of your legal and
moral
duties to all the victims, present and future, of aggressor states. And
now
these contradictory declarations, this unseemly consorting with the
people
you should be investigating, and this inexcusable failure to even open
an
investigation. It is clear to us that you suffer from the same judicial
deficit as did your predecessor.
We hope that you realize the implications of what you are doing:
that you
are irreparably discrediting the work of your tribunal - or do you
expect
anyone to put any faith in the findings of a biased judicial institution
or
to co-operate with it? - that you are dealing blows to international
law
from which it will be difficult for it ever to recover; that your
actions
and inactions have encouraged NATO in its violence against the civilian
population of Yugoslavia and in the cruel sanctions it continues to
impose
upon it; and that you, too, must therefore bear a share of the blame for
all
this suffering.
Yours very truly,
Michael Mandel
Professor,
for myself and for
David Jacobs, Shell Jacobs, Lawyers, 672 Dupont street, Suite 401,
Toronto,
Canada M6G 1Z6;
Glen Rangwala, Movement for the Advancement of International Criminal
Law,
Trinity College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1TQ, United
Kingdom;
and
André Savik, The Balkan Charter, Schoningsgt. 43, 0362 Oslo, Norway.
cc. His Excellency Mr. Anwarul Karim Chowdhury (Bangladesh), President
of
the Security Council, Room 3520, The United Nations, New York, New York,
U.S.A. 10017;
Mr. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Room 3800, The
United Nations, New York, New York, U.S.A. 10017;
Judge Claude Jorda, President, The International Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia, Churchillplein 1, 2501 EW, The Hague, Netherlands.
Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2000 08:37:08 -0600 (CST)
From: rrozoff@... (Rick Rozoff)
Reply-To: "STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN!" <STOPNATO@...>
To: Activist_List@..., stopnato@...
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
Michael Mandel's response to W.Pfaff's article
Dear Friends,
For all those who have kindly forwarded me the Herald Tribune Article of
January 24 by William Pfaff, I just want to assure you that I did not
remain silent, but actually submitted an article in reply on January 26.
I have since called the Tribune many times trying to ascertain their
intentions about publishing it. The opinion page editor has asked me to
be patient, and I have been. I will continue to be, but in the meantime,
I see no reason why I should not send you the reply to circulate as you
see fit.
Best wishes, Michael Mandel
Our Case Against NATO.
By Michael Mandel
Starting in April of last year and continuing to the present day, dozens
of lawyers and law professors, a pan-American association representing
hundreds of jurists, some elected legislators, and thousands of private
citizens from around the world, have lodged formal complaints with the
International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague charging NATO leaders with
war crimes for their 79 day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
The particular complaint I am involved in was filed in May, 1999 and
names 68 individuals, including all the heads of government, foreign
ministers and defense ministers of the 19 NATO countries (including US
President Clinton, Secretaries Cohen and Albright, Canadian Prime
Minister Chretien, Ministers Axworthy and Eggleton and so on down the
list), and the highest ranking NATO officials, from then Secretary
General Javier Solana, through Generals Wesley Clark, Michael Short, and
official spokesman Jamie Shea.
We have been in frequent contact with the Tribunal, travelling to the
Hague twice to argue our case with Chief Prosecutors Louise Arbour and
Carla Del Ponte and their legal advisers, filing evidence, legal briefs
and arguments in support of the case.
Recently, Justice Del Ponte disclosed that she was studying an internal
document analyzing the many claims that have been made against NATO.
This has been followed by a number of claims and counter-claims in the
media that have not always been helpful to people genuinely interested
in understanding the issues.
In particular, two recent articles in the International Herald Tribune
("Professors Pursue War-Crimes Case Against NATO" by Charles Trueheart,
January 21, and "NATO Committed No War Crimes in Bombing Yugoslavia" by
William Pfaff on January 24) have sought to minimize the seriousness of
the complaints and to cast doubt on their credibility in a way that, I
believe, does a disservice to the Tribune's readership.
For instance, Mr. Trueheart writes that "most legal scholars say the
professors have a pretty weak case", but the only scholar he actually
cites is Paul Williams of the American University in Washington. Mr.
Williams claims the fact that the Tribunal would even consider our case
shows it is politically motivated. But Mr. Williams might have his own
motivations. On his web-site he lists his "specific accomplishments in
the field of international law" to include "serving as legal advisor to
the government of Kosova" and "serving as co-counsel for the Department
of State's Serbian Sanctions Task Force." Mr. Trueheart would have been
more helpful to his readers if he had mentioned this.
Perhaps if I tell Tribune readers something about the nature of our case
and what we actually know, they (legal scholars and others, partisans
and non-partisans) can judge for themselves if the case is as weak or
incredible as Mr. Williams, Mr. Trueheart and Mr. Pfaff would like them
to think.
In the first place, we know that these individual NATO leaders each
"planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise aided and abetted
in the planning, preparation or execution of" (to use the words of the
Statute) a bombing attack that directly caused the death of between 600
and 1800 civilian children, women and men. (The first figure has been
announced by Human Rights Watch, about to launch its own complaint to
the Criminal Tribunal; the second is the government of Yugoslavia's
figure). We also know that the attack permanently injured as many as it
killed. The NATO leaders have all admitted that they caused these deaths
and injuries knowingly – every last one of them said they regretted
it, but that such things were "inevitable" in this kind of bombing
campaign. And when the deaths and injuries ("collateral damage")
occurred, these NATO leaders continued their bombing and their killing
and their injuring.
They did all this without any lawful excuse. The war was illegal from
start to finish. That's not just my opinion. It's the opinion of the
vast majority of legal scholars and all the leading ones – even those
who had some sympathy for the war, for example, the former president and
current judge of the Hague Tribunal itself, distinguished Professor
Antonio Cassese of Italy, in an article published in the European
Journal of International Law (Volume 10, No. 1).
But most people in the world had no sympathy for this war. That may irk
Americans, but it is true. According to published opinion surveys done
inside and outside of NATO, it appears that most people did not believe
the claims that the NATO was killing and maiming for humanitarian
motives. And it's no good for Mr. Pfaff to invoke the OSCE Report,
because if you read the introduction to that Report you find that it was
paid for and drafted only by NATO members. There are many more credible
accounts of what moved NATO (we have provided several to the Tribunal),
besides the obvious fact that, as a humanitarian enterprise, the
campaign was a predictable disaster. Many people, at least, agree with
Mr. Pfaff, that "the intensified Serbian campaign of terror and
eviction" was "provoked by the bombing". Mr. Pfaff says that would
constitute "a better charge" against NATO. Better or not, it is one of
the many we have specifically made in our complaint.
So we know that a lot of innocent people were violently killed as a
direct or indirect result of these NATO leaders' intentional violation
of the most fundamental tenets of international law and the Charter of
the United Nations (which the NATO Treaty itself binds the NATO
countries to uphold).
Killing hundreds or thousands of people knowingly and without lawful
excuse makes these leaders mass murderers. The minimum estimate of their
victims vastly outnumbers the total attributed to the 98 people executed
for murder in the United States last year. It's also a lot more than the
385 victims for which the Tribunal charged the Serbian leadership with
murder in May, 1999.
Not only that, according to admissions made in public throughout the war
(for instance during NATO briefings), and according to eye-witness
reports of such distinguished journalists as Dana Priest and Michael
Dobbs in this very newspaper, and according to powerful circumstantial
evidence displayed on the world's television screens throughout the
bombing campaign -- evidence good enough to convict in any criminal
court in my country or yours – these NATO leaders deliberately and
illegally made targets of places and things with only tenuous or slight
military value or no military value at all. Places such as city bridges,
factories, hospitals, marketplaces, downtown and residential
neighbourhoods, and television studios. The same evidence shows that, in
doing this, the NATO leaders aimed to demoralize and break the will of
the people, not to defeat the army.
Mr. Pfaff concedes as much. He seems to think the Serbians deserved it
for electing Milosevic, though it's hard to see how even this bizarre
reasoning would justify the killing, maiming and terrorizing of all
those children who were ineligible to vote, not to mention the people
who voted against the current Serb leadership.
But one reason these targets are illegal is that civilians are very
likely to be killed or injured when such targets are hit. And all of the
NATO leaders knew that. They were carefully told that by their military
planners. And they still went ahead and did it.
And they did it without any risk to themselves or to their soldiers and
pilots. That's where the "cowardice" comes in. It's not a matter of
being "unfair, unchivalrous or dishonorable" as Mr. Pfaff seems to
think. The cowardice lies in fighting the civilian population and not
the military, in bombing from altitudes so high that the civilians,
Serbians, Albanians, Roma, and anybody else on the ground, bore all the
risks of the "inevitable collateral damage" (and other atrocities).
That's a crime under the Geneva Conventions, too. And it should be.
NATO dropped 6 to 10 billion dollars worth of bombs, including cluster
bombs and bombs using poisonous depleted uranium. The bombing did 60 to
100 billion dollars worth of damage, primarily to non-military targets.
Perhaps readers would find it helpful to read the words of the Hague
Tribunal Statute, drafted, voted for and signed by the United States.
Remember that these are the very crimes that have been used to indict
the Serbian leaders:
Article 2: "persons committing or ordering to be committed grave
breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely the
following acts against persons or property protected under the
provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention: wilful killing; wilfully
causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health; extensive
destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military
necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly"
Article 3: "persons violating the laws or customs of war. Such
violations shall include, but not be limited to: employment of poisonous
weapons or other weapons to cause unnecessary suffering; wanton
destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified
by military necessity; attack, or bombardment, by whatever means, of
undefended towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings; destruction or
wilful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion, charity and
education, the arts and sciences, historic monuments and works of art
and science.
Article 5: "The following crimes when committed in armed conflict,
whether international or internal in character, and directed against any
civilian population: murder … other inhumane acts."
Article 7: "The official position of any accused person, whether as Head
of State or Government or as a responsible Government official, shall
not relieve such person of criminal responsibility or mitigate
punishment. The fact that any of the acts referred to in articles 2 to 5
of the present Statute was committed by a subordinate does not relieve
his superior of criminal responsibility if he knew or had reason to know
that the subordinate was about to commit such acts or had done so and
the superior failed to take the necessary and reasonable measures to
prevent such acts or to punish the perpetrators thereof.
Evidently the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law have
become inconvenient to the armies and the leaders of the big powers. But
if the Hague Tribunal is only going to enforce the law against their
small power enemies -- if it's only going to be strong with the weak and
not with the strong -- Justice Del Ponte is right in saying that it
should pack up and go home. Because, in that case, the Tribunal is doing
far more harm than good, only legitimating NATO's violent lawlessness
against people unlucky enough to be ruled by "indicted war criminals",
as opposed to the un-indicted kind that govern the NATO countries.
Mr. Pfaff's essential error is the common one in the media of taking all
NATO's claims at face value. "Causing unintended civilian casualties in
the course of legitimate acts of war" is the way Mr. Pfaff describes it.
But do we really need to be told that there might be a difference
between NATO's claims and what actually happened? NATO's claims are, in
fact, the claims of the most notorious war criminals in history. Have we
not learned by now to distinguish between "plausible (or implausible)
deniability" and sophisticated or clumsy cover-ups on the one hand, and
the truth on the other? That's what independent criminal courts are for,
whether in The Hague or any other town.
This would not be the first time that military and political leaders
have lied to us. These military and political leaders. Forget "I did not
have sexual relations with that woman". What about the claim by Jamie
Shea that it was the Serbs who bombed the Albanian refugee convoy (until
the independent journalists found bomb fragments "made in U.S.A.")? What
about the claim by a NATO general, with video up on the screen, that the
passenger train on the Grdelicka bridge was going too fast to avoid
being hit (until somebody pointed out that the video had been speeded up
to three times its real speed)? What about the claim that the Chinese
Embassy was bombed because NATO's maps were out of date? Let alone the
claims by Mr. Clinton (and Mrs. Clinton) and Mr. Cohen that a
"Holocaust" was occurring in which perhaps 100,000 Kosovar men had been
murdered (until the bombing was over and the numbers dwindled to 2,108
– and we have yet to be told who they were or how they died).
So readers can see for themselves that there is far more than meets the
eye here and an awful lot at stake. Judge Del Ponte is making no error
in taking these complaints very seriously indeed. That's what's required
by her sworn and sacred duty to the innocent victims on all sides of
this war, and the many victims that will follow if she fails to do it.
Michael Mandel is Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School of York
University in Toronto
---
L'OPINIONE DI JESSE HELMS
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:
>> 03.04.2000 08:26
>>
>>
>> Not so much a witty one-liner, but an eye opener,
>> in my opinion, nonetheless. The following is taken
>> from an address by Senator Jesse Helms, chairman
>> of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Realtions,
>> made before the UN Security Council. He's a
>> lovable old man and I highly recommend you visit
>> his website: http://www.senate.gov/~helms/
>>
>> So, without further delay, I give you the Senator:
>>
>>
>> It is my intent to extend to you my hand of
>> friendship and convey the hope that in the days to
>> come, and in retrospect, we can join in a mutual
>> respect that will enable all of us to work
>> together in an atmosphere of friendship and hope -
>> the hope to do everything we can to achieve peace
>> in the world.
>>
>> Having said all that, I am aware that you have
>> interpreters who translate the proceedings of this
>> body into a half dozen different languages.
>>
>> They have an interesting challenge today. As some
>> of you may have detected, I don't have a Yankee
>> accent. (I hope you have a translator here who can
>> speak Southern - someone who can translate words
>> like "y'all" and "I do declare.")
>>
>> It may be that one other language barrier will
>> need to be overcome this morning. I am not a
>> diplomat, and as such, I am not fully conversant
>> with the elegant and rarefied language of the
>> diplomatic trade. I am an elected official, with
>> something of a reputation for saying what I mean
>> and meaning what I say. So I trust you will
>> forgive me if I come across as a bit more blunt
>> than those you are accustomed to hearing in this
>> chamber.
>> ...
>>
>> Most Americans do not regard the United Nations as
>> an end in and of itself - they see it as just one
>> part of America's diplomatic arsenal.
>>
>> ...
>>
>> And when the oppressed peoples of the world cry
>> out for help, the free peoples of the world have a
>> fundamental right to respond.
>>
>> As we watch the UN struggle with this question at
>> the turn of the millennium, many Americans are
>> left exceedingly puzzled. Intervening in cases of
>> widespread oppression and massive human rights
>> abuses is not a new concept for the United States.
>> The American people have a long history of coming
>> to the aid of those struggling for freedom. In the
>> United States, during the 1980s, we called this
>> policy the "Reagan Doctrine."
>>
>> In some cases, America has assisted freedom
>> fighters around the world who were seeking to
>> overthrow corrupt regimes. We have provided
>> weaponry, training, and intelligence. In other
>> cases, the United States has intervened directly.
>> In still other cases, such as in Central and
>> Eastern Europe, we supported peaceful opposition
>> movements with moral, financial and covert forms
>> of support. In each case, however, it was
>> America's clear intention to help bring down
>> Communist regimes that were oppressing their
>> peoples, - and thereby replace dictators with
>> democratic governments.
>>
>> The dramatic expansion of freedom in the last
>> decade of the 20th century is a direct result of
>> these policies.
>>
>> In none of these cases, however, did the United
>> States ask for, or receive, the approval of the
>> United Nations to "legitimize" its actions.
>>
>> It is a fanciful notion that free peoples need to
>> seek the approval of an international body (some
>> of whose members are totalitarian dictatorships)
>> to lend support to nations struggling to break the
>> chains of tyranny and claim their inalienable,
>> God-given rights.
>>
>> ...
>>
>> But, some may respond, the U.S. Senate ratified
>> the UN Charter fifty years ago. Yes, but in doing
>> so we did not cede one syllable of American
>> sovereignty to the United Nations. ... no treaty
>> or law can ever supercede the one document that
>> all Americans hold sacred: The U.S. Constitution.
>>
>> ...
>>
>> The effort to establish a United Nations
>> International Criminal Court is a case-in-point.
>> Consider: the Rome Treaty purports to hold
>> American citizens under its jurisdiction - even
>> when the United States has neither signed nor
>> ratified the treaty. In other words, it claims
>> sovereign authority over American citizens without
>> their consent. How can the nations of the world
>> imagine for one instant that Americans will stand
>> by and allow such a power-grab to take place?
>>
>> The Court's supporters argue that Americans should
>> be willing to sacrifice some of their sovereignty
>> for the noble cause of international justice.
>> International law did not defeat Hitler, nor did
>> it win the Cold War. What stopped the Nazi march
>> across Europe, and the Communist march across the
>> world, was the principled projection of power by
>> the world's great democracies. And that principled
>> projection of force is the only thing that will
>> ensure the peace and security of the world in the
>> future.
>>
>> More often than not, "international law" has been
>> used as a make-believe justification for hindering
>> the march of freedom. When Ronald Reagan sent
>> American servicemen into harm's way to liberate
>> Grenada from the hands of a communist
>> dictatorship, the UN General Assembly responded by
>> voting to condemn the action of the elected
>> President of the United States as a violation of
>> international law - and, I am obliged to add, they
>> did so by a larger majority than when Soviet
>> invasion of Afghanistan was condemned by the
>> same General Assembly!
>>
>> Similarly, the U.S. effort to overthrow
>> Nicaragua's Communist dictatorship (by supporting
>> Nicaragua's freedom fighters and mining
>> Nicaragua's harbors) was declared by the World
>> Court as a violation of international law.
>>
>> Most recently, we learn that the chief prosecutor
>> of the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal has compiled a
>> report on possible NATO war crimes during the
>> Kosovo campaign. At first, the prosecutor declared
>> that it is fully within the scope of her authority
>> to indict NATO pilots and commanders. When news of
>> her report leaked, she backpedaled.
>>
>> She realized, I am sure, that any attempt to
>> indict NATO commanders would be the death knell
>> for the International Criminal Court. But the very
>> fact that she explored this possibility at all
>> brings to light all that is wrong with this brave
>> new world of global justice, which proposes a
>> system in which independent prosecutors and
>> judges, answerable to no state or institution,
>> have unfettered power to sit in judgement of the
>> foreign policy decisions of Western democracies.
>>
>> No UN institution - not the Security Council, not
>> the Yugoslav tribunal, not a future ICC - is
>> competent to judge the foreign policy and national
>> security decisions of the United States. American
>> courts routinely refuse cases where they are asked
>> to sit in judgement of our government's national
>> security decisions, stating that they are not
>> competent to judge such decisions. If we do not
>> submit our national security decisions to the
>> judgement of a Court of the United States, why
>> would Americans submit them to the judgement of an
>> International Criminal Court, a continent away,
>> comprised of mostly foreign judges elected by an
>> international body made up of the membership of
>> the UN General Assembly?
>>
>>
>>
---
LOUISE ARBOUR CRIMINALE DI GUERRA
> > Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 20:55:01 -0800
> > To: peace@...
> > From: Eric Fawcett <fawcett@...> (by way of Rycroft &
> > Pringle <emerald@...>)
> > Subject: Peace/Justice Canada-- sfp-46: ICTY a kangaroo court?
> >
> > The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)
> > is examined critically by Christopher Black in a companion paper that is
> > available on request and will be posted on the SfP web site as sfp-46b.
> >
> > (As Eric did not include the URL, I am guessing that it may
> > be available at
http://helios.physics.utoronto.ca/mailman/listinfo.cgi/
> > or http://helios.physics.utoronto.ca/mailman/listinfo.cgi/sfp-46b)
> >
> > Its genesis, procedures and funding are all suspect.
>-----Original Message-----
>Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2000 6:46 PM
>Subject: [] Louise Arbour: unindicted war criminal
>
>
>Louise Arbour: unindicted war criminal
>
>by Christopher Black,
>Toronto defense lawyer and writer and one of the lawyers who made the
>request to the War Crimes Tribunal to indict NATO leaders for war crimes;
>and Edward Herman, economist and media analyst
>>>his most recent book is The Myth of the Liberal Media: An Edward Hermam
>Reader
>(Peter Lang, 1999)
>
>Among the many ironies of the NATO war against Yugoslavia was the role of
>the International Criminal Tribunal and its chief prosecutor, Louise
>Arbour, elevated by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien to Canada's
>highest court in 1999. It will be argued here that that award was entirely
>justified on the grounds of political service to the NATO powers, but a
>monumental travesty if the question of the proper administration of justice
>enters the equation. In fact, it will be shown below that as Arbour and her
>Tribunal played a key role in EXPEDITING war crimes, an excellent case can
>be made that in a just world she would be in the dock rather than in
>judicial robes.
>
>Arbour To NATO's Rescue
>
>The moment of truth for Arbour and the Tribunal came in the midst of NATO's
>78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, when Arbour appeared, first, in
>an April 20 press conference with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook to
>receive from him documentation on Serb war crimes. Then on May 27, Arbour
>announced the indictment of Serb President Slobodan Milosevic and four of
>his associates for war crimes. The inappropriateness of a supposedly
>judicial body doing this in the midst of the Kosovo war, and when Germany,
>Russia and other powers were trying to find a diplomatic resolution to the
>conflict, was staggering.
>
>At the April 20 appearance with Cook, Arbour stated that "It is
>inconceivable...that we would in fact agree to be guided by the political
>will of those who may want to advance an agenda." But her appearance with
>Cook and the follow-up indictments fitted perfectly the agenda needs of the
>NATO leadership. There had been growing criticism of NATO's increasingly
>intense and civilian infrastructure-oriented bombing of Serbia, and Blair
>and Cook had been lashing out at critics in the British media for
>insufficient enthusiasm for the war. Arbour's and the Tribunal's
>intervention declaring the Serb leadership to be guilty of war crimes was a
>public relations coup that justified the NATO policies and helped permit
>the bombing to continue and escalate. This was pointed out repeatedly by
>NATO leaders and propagandists: Madeleine Albright noted that the
>indictments "make very clear to the world and the publics in our countries
>that this [NATO policy] is justified because of the crimes committed, and I
>think also will enable us to keep moving all these processes [i.e.,
>bombing] forward" (CNN, May 27). State Department spokesman James Rubin
>stated that "this unprecedented step...justifies in the clearest possible
>way what we have been doing these past months" (CNN Morning News, May 27).
>
>Although the Tribunal had been in place since May 1993, and the most
>serious atrocities in the Yugoslav wars occurred as the old Federation
>disintegrated from June 1991 through the Dayton peace talks in late 1995,
>no indictment was brought against Milosevic for any of those atrocities,
>and the May 27 indictment refers only to a reported 241 deaths in the early
>months of 1999. The indictment appears to have been hastily prepared to
>meet some urgent need. Arbour even mentioned on April 20 that she had
>"visited NATO" to "dialogue with potential information providers in order
>to generate unprecedented support that the Tribunal needs if it will
>perform its mandate in a time frame that will make it relevant to the
>resolution of conflict...of a magnitude of what is currently unfolding in
>Kosovo." But her action impeded a negotiated resolution, although it helped
>expedite a resolution by intensified bombing.
>
>Arbour herself noted that "I am mindful of the impact that this indictment
>may have on the peace process," and she said that although indicted
>individuals are "entitled to the presumption of innocence until they are
>convicted, the evidence upon which this indictment was confirmed raises
>serious questions about their suitability to be guarantors of any deal, let
>alone a peace agreement." (CNN Live Event, Special, May 27). So Arbour not
>only admitted awareness of the political significance of her indictment,
>she suggested that her possible interference with any diplomatic efforts
>was justified because the indicted individuals, though not yet found
>guilty, are not suitable to negotiate. This hugely unjudicial political
>judgement, along with the convenient timing of the indictments, points up
>Arbour's and the Tribunal's highly political role.
>
>Background of the Tribunal's Politicization
>
>Arbour's service to NATO in indicting Milosevic was the logical outcome of
>the Tribunal's de facto control and purpose. It was established by the
>Security Council in the early 1990s to serve the Balkan policy ends of its
>dominant members, especially the United States. (China and Russia went
>along as silent and powerless partners, apparently in a trade-off for
>economic concessions.) And its funding and interlocking functional
>relationship with the top NATO powers have made it NATO's instrument.
>
>Although Article 32 of its Charter declares that the Tribunal's expenses
>shall be provided in the general budget of the United Nations, this proviso
>has been regularly violated. In 1994-1995 the U.S. government provided it
>with $700,000 in cash and $2.3 million in equipment (while failing to meet
>its delinquent obligation to the UN that might have allowed the UN itself
>to fund the Tribunal). On May 12, 1999, Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald,
>president of the Tribunal, stated that "the U.S. government has very
>generously agreed to provide $500,000 [for an Outreach project] and to help
>to encourage other states to contribute." Numerous other U.S.-based
>governmental and non-governmental agencies have provided the Tribunal with
>resources.
>
>Article 16 of the Tribunal's charter states that the Prosecutor shall act
>independently and shall not seek or receive instruction from any
>government. This section also has been systematically violated. NATO
>sources have regularly made claims suggesting their authority over the
>Tribunal: "We will make a decision on whether Yugoslav actions against
>ethnic Albanians constitute genocide," states a USIA Fact Sheet, and Cook
>asserted at his April 20 press conference with Arbour that "we are going to
>focus on the war crimes being committed in Kosovo and our determination to
>bring those responsible to justice, " as if he and Arbour were a team
>jointly and co-operatively deciding on who should be charged for war
>crimes, and obviously excluding himself from those potentially chargeable.
>Earlier, on March 31, two days after Cook had promised Arbour supportive
>data for criminal charges, she announced the indictment of Arkan.
>
>Tribunal officials have even bragged about "the strong support of concerned
>governments and dedicated individuals such as Secretary Albright," further
>referred to as "mother of the Tribunal" (by Gabrielle Kirk McDonald). The
>post-Arbour chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte at a September 1999 press
>>>conference thanked the US FBI for helping the Tribunal, and expressed
>>>general thanks for "the important support the U.S. government has
provided
>>>the Tribunal." Arbour herself informed President Clinton of the
>forthcoming
>indictment of Milosevic two days before the rest of the world, and in 1996
>the prosecutor met with the Secretary-General of NATO and its supreme
>commander to "establish contacts and begin discussing modalities of
>co-operation and assistance." Numerous other meetings have occurred between
>prosecutor and NATO, which was given the function of Tribunal gendarme. In
>the collection of data also, the prosecutor has depended heavily on NATO
>and NATO governments, which again points to the symbiotic relation between
>the Tribunal and NATO.
>
>Serb-Specific Focus
>
>The NATO powers focused almost exclusively on Serb misbehavior in the
>course of their participation in the break-up of Yugoslavia, and the
>Tribunal has followed in NATO's wake. A great majority of the Tribunal's
>indictments have been of Serbs, and those against Croatians and Muslims
>often seemed to have been timed to counter claims of anti-Serb bias (e.g.,
>the first non-Serb indictment [Ivica Rajic], announced during the peace
>talks in Geneva and bombing by NATO in September 1995).
>
>Arbour herself did state (April 20) that "the real danger is whether we
>would fall into that [following somebody's political agenda] inadvertently
>by being in the hands of information- providers who might have an agenda
>that we would not be able to discern." But even an imbecile could discern
>that NATO had an agenda and that simply accepting the flood of documents
>offered by Cook and Albright entailed advertently following that agenda.
>Arbour even acknowledged her voluntary and almost exclusive
>"dependencies...on the goodwill of states" to provide information that
>"will guide our analysis of the crime base." And her April 20 reference to
>the "morality of the [NATO's] enterprise" and her remarks on Milosevic's
>possible lack of character disqualifying him from negotiations, as well as
>her rush to help NATO with an indictment, point to quite clearly understood
>political service.
>
>In a dramatic illustration of Arbour-Tribunal bias, a 150 page Tribunal
>report entitled "The Indictment Operation Storm: A Prima Facie Case,"
>describes war crimes committed by the Croatian armed forces in their
>expulsion of more than 200,000 Serbs from Krajina in August 1995, during
>which "at least 150 Serbs were summarily executed, and many hundreds
>disappeared." This report, leaked to the New York Times (to the dismay of
>Tribunal officials), found that the Croatian murders and other inhumane
>acts were "widespread and systematic," and that "sufficient material" was
>available to make three named Croatian generals accountable under
>international law. (Raymond Bonner, "War Crimes Panel Finds Croat Troops
>'Cleansed' the Serbs," NYT, March 21, 1999). But the Times article also
>reports that the United States, which supported the Croat's ethnic
>cleansing of Serbs in Krajina, not only defended the Croats in the Tribunal
>but refused to supply requested satellite photos of Krajina areas attacked
>by the Croats, as well as failing to provide other requested information.
>The result was that the Croat generals named in the report on Operation
>Storm were never indicted, and although the number of Serbs executed and
>disappeared over a mere four days was at least equal to the 241 victims of
>the Serbs named in the indictment of Milosevic, no parallel indictment of
>Croat leader Tudjman was ever brought by the Tribunal. But this was not a
>failure of data gathering--the United States opposed indictments of its
>allies, and thus the Tribunal did not produce any.
>
>Tribunal's Kangaroo Court Processes
>
>Arbour has claimed that the Tribunal was "subject to extremely stringent
>rules of evidence with respect to the admissibility and the credibility of
>the product that we will tender in court" so that she was guarded against
>"unsubstantiated, unverifiable, uncorroborated allegations" (April 20).
>This is a gross misrepresentation of what John Laughland described in the
>Times (London) as "a rogue court with rigged rules" (June 17, 1999). The
>Tribunal violates virtually every standard of due process: it fails to
>separate prosecution and judge; it does not accord the right to bail or a
>speedy trial; it has no clear definition of burden of proof required for a
>conviction; it has no independent appeal body; it violates the principle
>that a defendant may not be tried twice for the same crime (Article 25
>gives the prosecutor the right to appeal against an acquittal); suspects
>can be held for 90 days without trial; under Rule 92 confessions are
>presumed to be free and voluntary unless the contrary is established by the
>prisoner; witnesses can testify anonymously, and as John Laughland notes,
>"rules against hearsay, deeply entrenched in Common Law, are not observed
>and the Prosecutor's office has even suggested not calling witnesses to
>give evidence but only the tribunal's own 'war crimes investigators.'"
>
>As noted, Arbour presumes guilt before trial; the concept of "innocent till
>convicted" is rejected, and she can declare that people linked with Arkan
>"will be tainted by their association with an indicted war criminal" (March
>31). Arbour clearly does not believe in the basic rules of Western
>jurisprudence, and Laughland quotes her saying "The law, to me, should be
>creative and used to make things tight." And within a month of her
>elevation to the Canadian Supreme Court she was a member of a court
>majority that grafted onto Canadian law the dangerously unfair Tribunal
>practice of permitting a more liberal use of hearsay evidence in trials.
>The consequent corruption of the Canadian justice system, both by her
>appointment and her impact, mirrors that in the Canadian political system,
>whose leading members supported the NATO war without question.
>
>NATO's Crimes
>
>In bombing Yugoslavia from March 24 into June 1999, NATO was guilty of the
>serious crime of violating the UN Charter requirement that it not use force
>without UN Security Council sanction. It was also guilty of criminal
>aggression in attacking a sovereign state that was not going beyond its
>borders. In its defense, NATO claimed that "humanitarian" concerns demanded
>these actions and thus justified seemingly serious law violations. Apart
>from the fact that this reply sanctions law violations on the basis of
>self- serving judgements that contradict the rule of law, it is also called
>into question on its own grounds by counter-facts. First, the NATO bombing
>made "an internal humanitarian problem into a disaster" in the words of
>Rollie Keith, the returned Canadian OSCE human rights monitor in Kosovo.
>Second, the evidence is now clear that NATO refused to negotiate a
>settlement in Kosovo and insisted on a violent solution; that in the words
>of one State Department official, NATO deliberately "raised the bar" and
>precluded a compromise resolution because Serbia "needed to be bombed."
>These counter-facts suggest that the alleged humanitarian basis of the law
>violations was a cover for starkly political and geopolitical objectives.
>
>NATO was also guilty of more traditional war crimes, including some that
>the Tribunal had found indictable when carried out by Serbs. Thus on March
>8, 1996, the Serb leader Milan Martic was indicted for launching a rocket
>cluster-bomb attack on military targets in Zagreb in May 1995, on the
>ground that the rocket was "not designed to hit military targets but to
>terrorize the civilians of Zagreb." The Tribunal report on the Croat
>Operation Storm in Krajina also provided solid evidence that a 48 hour
>Croat assault on the city of Knin was basically "shelling civilian
>targets," with fewer than 250 of 3,000 shells striking military targets.
>But no indictments followed from this evidence or for any other raid.
>
>The same case for civilian targeting could be made for numerous NATO
>bombing raids, as in the cluster-bombing of Nis on May 7, 1999, in which a
>market and hospital far from any military target were hit in separate
>strikes--but no indictment has yet been handed down against NATO.
>
>But NATO was also guilty of the bombing of non-military targets as
>systematic policy. On March 26, 1999, General Wesley Clark said that "We
>are going to very systematically and progressively work on his military
>forces...[to see] how much pain he is willing to suffer." But this focus on
>"military forces" wasn't effective, so NATO quickly turned to "taking
>down...the economic apparatus supporting" Serb military forces (Clinton's
>words), and NATO targets were gradually extended to factories of all kinds,
>electric power stations, water and sewage processing facilities, all
>transport, public buildings, and large numbers of schools and hospitals. In
>effect, it was NATO's strategy to bring Serbia to its knees by gradually
>escalating its attacks on the civil society.
>
>But this policy was in clear violation of international law, one of whose
>fundamental elements is that civilian targets are off limits; international
>law prohibits the "wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages or
>devastation not justified by military necessity" (Sixth Principle of
>Nuremberg, formulated in 1950 by an international law commission at the
>behest of the UN). "Military necessity" clearly does not allow the
>destruction of a civil society to make it more difficult for the country to
>support its armed forces, any more than civilians can be killed directly on
>he ground that they pay taxes supporting the war machine or might some day
>become soldiers. The rendering of an entire population a hostage is a
>blatant violation of international law and acts carrying it out are war
>crimes.
>
>On September 29, 1999, in response to a question on whether the Tribunal
>would investigate crimes committed in Kosovo after June 10, or those
>committed by NATO in Yugoslavia, prosecutor Carla del Ponte stated that
>"The primary focus of the Office of the Prosecutor must be on the
>investigation and prosecution of the five leaders of the FRY and Serbia who
>have already been indicted." Why this "must" be the focus, especially in
>light of all the evidence already assembled in preparing the favored
>indictments, was unexplained. In late December, it was finally reported
>that Del Ponte was reviewing the conduct of NATO, at the urging of Russia
>and several other "interested parties" ("U.N. Court Examines NATO's
>Yugoslavia War," NYT, Dec. 29, 1999). But the news report itself indicates
>that the focus is on the conduct of NATO pilots and their commanders, not
>the NATO decision-makers who made the ultimate decisions to target the
>civilian infrastructure. It also suggests the public relations nature of
>the inquiry, which would "go far in dispelling the belief...that the
>tribunal is a tool used by Western leaders to escape accountability." The
>report also indicates the delicate matter that the tribunal "depends on the
>military alliance to arrest and hand over suspects." It also quotes Del
>Ponte saying that "It's not my priority, because I have inquiries about
>genocide, about bodies in mass graves." We may rest assured that no
>indictments will result from this inquiry.
>
>An impartial Tribunal would have gone to great pains to balance NATO's
>flood of documents by internal research and a welcoming of rival
>documentation. But although submissions have been made on NATO's crimes by
>Yugoslavia and a number of Western legal teams, the Tribunal didn't get
>around to these until this belated and surely nominal inquiry that is "not
>my priority," as the Tribunal "must" pursue the Serb villains, for reasons
>that are only too clear.
>
>Beyond Orwell
>
>NATO's leaders, frustrated in attacking the Serb military machine, quite
>openly turned to smashing the civil society of Serbia as their means of
>attaining the quick victory desired before the 50th Anniversary celebration
>of NATO's founding. Although this amounted to turning the civilian
>population of Serbia into hostages and attacking them and their means of
>sustenance--in gross violation of the laws of war--Arbour and her Tribunal
>not only failed to object to and prosecute NATO's leaders for war crimes,
>by indicting Milosevic on May 27 they gave NATO a moral cover permitting
>escalated attacks on the hostage population.
>
>Arbour and the Tribunal thus present us with the amazing spectacle of an
>institution supposedly organized to contain, prevent, and prosecute for war
>crimes actually knowingly facilitating them. Furthermore, petitions
>submitted to the Tribunal during Arbour's tenure had called for prosecution
>of the leaders of NATO, including Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien,
>for the commission of war crimes. If she had been a prosecutor in Canada,
>Britain or the United States, she would have been subject to disbarment for
>considering and then accepting a job from a person she had been asked to
>charge. But Arbour was elevated to the Supreme Court of Canada by Chretien
>with hardly a mention of this conflict of interest and immorality.>In this
>post-Orwellian New World Order we are told that we live under the
>rule of law, but as Saint Augustine once said, "There are just laws and
>there are unjust laws, and an unjust law is no law at all."
>
>
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
* Anziana partigiana serba difende la sua casa (AP)
* Il mercato dei narcotici in Svizzera e' controllato dall'UCK (AP)
* Boom delle droghe leggere in Kosmet (Blic)
* Dal "Kosova" liberato si puo' finalmente esportare droga ovunque
(The Guardian)
* HEROIN HEROES (Mother Jones Magazine)
---
Una donna serba difende la sua casa
Di DANIKA KIRKA, Associated Press 23/3/2000
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Jugoslavia (AP) -- A chiunque possa pensare di
poterla costringere ad uscire dalla sua casa, Jelisaveta Raganovic manda
un messaggio: Prima dovrete passare sul mio corpo!
Potrebbe non sembrare una gran minaccia venendo da una donna di 80 anni,
l'ultima serba che si ritiene sia ormai da sola nella zona di etnia
albanese della citta' divisa di Kosovska Mitrovica.
Ma comunque, la Sig.ra Raganovic ha un piano. Ogni notte, questa
veterana della guerriglia comunista di Josip Broz Tito, durante la II
Guerra Mondiale, prende la sua posizione di sentinella fuori dalla sua
casa. Stando seduta in una poltrona vicino ad una scatola di pietre,
aspetta tutta la notte, pronta a colpire qualsiasi invasore che salga le
sue scale.
"Lo so che sto per morire", ha detto durante un'intervista mercoledi'.
"Ma moriro' da uomo. Non voglio morire da codarda".
Il problema della Raganovic mostra proprio a quanta pressione
debbano essere sottoposti i serbi che vivono in Kosovo, specialmente
in un luogo come la pietrosa citta' industriale di Kosovska Mitrovica,
dove gli scontri fra le etnie albanesi e serbe sull'altra sponda del
fiume Ibar esplodono con regolarita'.
La zona sud in effetti e' tranquilla, in parte perche' la popolazione
e' praticamente omogenea. L'agenzia ONU per i rifugiati stima che non
piu' di 19 serbi vivano qui ora. Tutti, tranne la Raganovic, vivono in
una chiesa sotto protezione NATO.
Anche alla Raganovic fu data la possibilita' di partire per andare in
posto piu' sicuro, che le avrebbe permesso una vita piu' normale. Tutta
la sua famiglia l'ha ripetutamente pregata di andare a vivere con loro
in Vojvodina, una provincia nel nord della Serbia.
Lei ha rifiutato, scegliendo invece di confidare nei soldati francesi
che facevano la guardia alla sua casa.
Per lei loro sono piu' che peacekeeper, essi sono compagni, uomini con
cui sente di poter trattare da soldato a soldato. I soldati le portano
la carne e le pentole con la marmellata. La portano a far la spesa, le
fanno compagnia.
Il Maggiore Nicolas Naubin (portavoce francese) ha detto che i
peacekeepers capiscono che la sua situazione e' precaria e pertanto
hanno fatto uno sforzo speciale per prendersi cura di lei.
Dovranno lavorare piu' duramente. Sino ad ora la Nato ha fallito nella
creazione di un ambiente sicuro in Kosovo, in particolare per i serbi
che stanno abbandonando la regione a causa degli attacchi per vendetta
degli albanesi.
Migliaia di albanesi morirono durante gli scontri tra Milosevic e le
milizie che combattevano per l'indipendenza del Kosovo. Poi vi e' la
oppressione di 10 anni sotto il regime di Milosevic per la quale molti
vogliono una sorta di risarcimento.
In un posto come Kosovska Mitrovica, 25 miglia a nord della capitale
della provincia, Pristina, i pericoli sono molti. Appena attraversato il
fiume, sulla riva nord rimane uno degli ultimi gruppi di serbi del
Kosovo, un fatto che ha reso tutta la citta' instabile.
I serbi nella zona sbagliata della suddivisione sarebbero obbiettivi
molto facili per la vendetta. Recentemente un'altro serbo dalla parte
albanese, sotto stretto controllo NATO, e' stato ucciso con una scure.
La Raganovic comprende questa situazione ed ha affrontato la sua razione
di violenza. Alcuni hanno invaso la sua casa saccheggiandola.
Hanno preso i suoi libri di storia, la sua biancheria, i suoi piatti.
La sua linea telefonica non funziona - anche se sembra che lei sia
l'unica inquilina del suo palazzo con un tale problema.
Cosi' grande e' il pericolo che deve affrontare, che le organizzazioni
che si occupano dei diritti umani conoscendola non permettono che
la si fotografi o che si fotografi la sua casa. Permettono interviste
a condizione che la posizione della sua casa non sia rivelata.
Anche cosi', la Sig.ra Raganovic non mostra di essere nervosa, saluta
chi la viene a trovare con un abbraccio ed un bacio. Offre del caffe'
generosamente ed insiste a regalare dei dolci da portar via.
E' lei a dare consigli su come stare sicuri, ricordando le parole di un
vecchio comandante dei partigiani, i guerriglieri che combatterono il
nazismo.
Dice: "Noi eravamo abituati a mantenere le posizioni nella neve.
(Il mio comandante) mi diceva: 'Se ti addormenti, sei morta'.
Io non ho mai dimenticato quella lezione."
http://www.newsday.com/ap/international/ap640.htm
> March 23, 2000
>
> Serb Woman Defends Her Home
> By DANICA KIRKA / Associated Press Writer
>
> KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- To anyone who
> might think of driving her from her home, Jelisaveta
> Roganovic has a message: You' ll have to get past me
> first.
>
> It might not seem like much of a threat coming from
> a
> woman who is 80 years old, the last Serb believed to
> be living alone on the ethnic Albanian side of the
> divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica.
>
> But then again, Roganovic has a plan.
>
> Every night, this veteran of Josip Broz Tito' s
> World
> War II communist guerrilla army takes up her
> position
> as a sentinel outside her home. Sitting in a lawn
> chair beside a box of rocks, she waits all night
> long,
> ready to pelt any intruder coming up her stairs.
>
> " I know I' m going to die, " she said during an
> interview Wednesday. " But I' m going to die like a
> man. I don' t want to die like a coward."
>
> Roganovic' s dilemma shows just how much pressure
> Serbs living in Kosovo face right now, especially in
> a
> place like the gritty industrial city of Kosovska
> Mitrovica, where riots between ethnic Albanians and
> Serbs on the other side of the Ibar River break out
> with some regularity.
>
> On the south side though, things are usually quiet
> --
> in part because the population is almost completely
> homogenous. The U.N. refugee agency estimates that
> no
> more than 19 Serbs live here now. All but Roganovic
> live together under NATO protection at a church.
>
> Roganovic was given a chance to leave, too, to go to
> a
> place that was safer and would allow her a more
> normal
> life. Her family has been begging her to come live
> with them in Vojvodina, a province in northern
> Serbia.
>
>
> She refuses, choosing instead to trust the French
> soldiers who guard her home. To her they are more
> than
> peacekeepers, they are comrades, men she feels she
> can
> deal with, soldier to soldier. They bring her tins
> of
> meat and pots of jam. They take her shopping. They
> keep her company.
>
> The peacekeepers, though, realize that her situation
> is precarious and have made a special effort to take
> care of her, said French Maj. Nicolas Naubin, a
> spokesman for French troops.
>
> They are going to have to work harder.
>
> NATO has failed so far to create an overall
> environment of security in Kosovo, particularly for
> Serbs, who have been fleeing the province because of
> revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians.
>
> Thousands of ethnic Albanians died during Yugoslav
> President Slobodan Milosevic' s 18-month crackdown
> on
> militants fighting for independence for Kosovo. Then
> there is the 10 years of oppression under the
> Milosevic regime for which many want recompense.
>
> In a place like Kosovska Mitrovica, 25 miles north
> of
> the provincial capital, Pristina, the dangers are
> intense. Just across the river on the north bank
> lies
> one of Kosovo' s only substantial remaining Serb
> population, a fact that has made the entire city
> unstable.
>
> Serbs on the wrong side of the divide would be
> particularly singled out for revenge. Another Serb
> on
> the ethnic Albanian side and under strict NATO
> protection was hacked to death recently by an
> attacker
> with an ax.
>
> Roganovic realizes this, and has faced her share of
> harassment. Intruders have ransacked her home,
> taking
> her history books, her bed linens, her dishes. Her
> telephone line doesn' t work -- even though she
> seems
> to be the only person in the building with such a
> problem.
>
> So great is the danger she faces that human rights
> workers familiar with her situation refused to
> permit
> photographs of her and her home, allowing an
> interview
> only on condition that her home' s location not be
> revealed.
>
> Even so, Roganovic doesn' t let on if she' s
> nervous,
> greeting her visitors with a hug and a kiss,
> offering
> her last bit of coffee in friendship, insisting that
> a
> few candies be carried away for later. She offers
> advice on staying safe, recounting the words of an
> old
> commander in the Partisans, the guerrilla fighters
> who
> fought the Nazis.
>
> " We used to have positions in the snow. (My
> commander) told me, ' If you fall asleep, you are
> dead, " ' she said. " I never forgot that lesson."
>
---
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/000330/2/antu.html
jeudi 30 mars 2000, 18h48
Suisse: près de 400 kilos d'héroïne et environ 290 kilos de
cocaïne saisis en 1999
BERNE (AP) -- L'an passé, ''toutes les drogues courantes étaient, comme
toujours,
disponibles à profusion et à bas prix en Suisse'', selon l'Office
fédéral de la police (OFP).
Pas moins de 397 kilos d'héroïne et 287 kilos de cocaïne ont été saisis,
le nombre des décès
dus à la drogue a une nouvelle fois régressé, passant de 210 à 181.
Quant aux trafiquants,
86% étaient des étrangers.
La diminution du nombre des décès dus à la consommation de stupéfiants
enregistrés par les polices cantonales s'est
poursuivie en 1999 avec 181 morts, contre 210 l'année précédente. Le
nombre record de 419 morts en 1992 a pu être
réduit de moitié grâce aux thérapies introduites, à la distribution de
drogue sous contrôle médical et aux diverses mesures
d'aide à la survie. Les spécialistes en matière de dépendance estiment
toutefois qu'il faudrait ajouter 200 décès
supplémentaires de toxicomanes ayant succombé à des maladies
infectieuses.
La police a saisi l'an dernier 397 kilos d'héroïne contre 403 kilos en
1998. Les saisies de cocaïne ont augmenté de 15%,
passant à 287,9 kilos.
L'héroïne consommée en Suisse arrive de Turquie, en empruntant les
différentes routes des
Balkans.
Le trafic est en grande partie contrôlé par des Albanais originaires du
Kosovo et de
l'Albanie, selon l'OFP.
Et en dépit du conflit du Kosovo, le marché n'a pas connu de problème
d'approvisionnement.
Le canton de Zurich est resté la plaque tournante du trafic: on y a
saisi 239 kilos d'héroïne, ce qui représente 60% de
l'ensemble des saisies effectuées l'an passé. Zurich est aussi demeurée
la porte d'entrée en Suisse pour la cocaïne, importée
en grande partie d'Amérique latine par voie aérienne. Près des trois
quarts de la cocaïne interceptée en Suisse ont été
découverts dans le canton de Zurich. Bien que le trafic soit toujours
aux mains de ressortissants d'Afrique noire et
d'Amérique du Sud, des Italiens et des Espagnols, ainsi que des groupes
de l'ex-Yougoslavie et de Turquie ont désormais
pris pied dans ce trafic.
La plupart des plantations de chanvre en Suisse ont servi à alimenter le
marché des stupéfiants. Selon les estimations de la
police, entre 1,5 et 10 tonnes de haschisch et de 50 à 200 tonnes de
marijuana sont ainsi produites annuellement en Suisse.
Les produits stupéfiants à base de chanvre ''made in Switzerland''
trouvent également preneur à l'étranger. La police a saisi
quelque 8,4 tonnes de produits cannabiniques en 1999, soit 6,5 tonnes de
moins que l'année précédente.
Après avoir connu un véritable boom dans les années 90, les saisies
d'ecstasy ont à nouveau diminué: 67.342 pilules ont été
confisquées contre 73.914 en 1998. Elle provenaient en majorité des
Pays-Bas.
En 1999, le nombre de violations de la loi sur les stupéfiants a diminué
de 3%, passant à 44.336. On a enregistré 3.715
plaintes pénales pour trafic de drogue, ce qui représente 8,4% du total
de plaintes. S'agissant des trafiquants, 86% étaient
des étrangers, selon l'Office fédéral de la police.
---
BLIC - Belgrade independent daily,
March 31, 2000
Kosovo narcotic dealers have five-time larger budget than the
international mission in the province
IN KOSOVO MARIHUANA IS NOT TREATED AS A NARCOTIC SINCE IT IS IN GENERAL
USE AND HAS THE PRICE AS CIGARETTES
Kosovska Mitrovica - Albanian narcotic dealers, called "fis" are
currently occupying the top of the world narcotic smugglers. More
frequently they are the cause of headache of Interlope. In relatively
short time they managed to take the leading position in the control of
world narco market. Arrival of KFOR changed nothing, so at the moment
the southern Serb province is a center for distribution of narcotics to
the Western Europe and North America.
Kosovo is full of all kinds of narcotics. Their prices are here half of
those in the European or American cities. Narcotics are being sold not
per gr. but per kilos. For example one kilo of heroine in Pristina costs
16,000 $. The price of joint is almost equal to the price of some fine
quality cigarettes.
Narcotics are arriving in Kosovo by Euro-Asian road from Iran, Pakistan,
Turkey, Bulgaria and Macedonia, or by sea around Greece and Albania.
Albanian narco-businessmen provide 5 tons of heroine from Kosovo to West
European market. Their profit is about 120 mills of $. In a year they
get more than 1 bill of $. Only for the purpose of comparison, this year
budget of the mission of international community in Kosovo is 210 mills
of $.
FBI admits it is relatively incapable of doing anything since, as FBI
claims, it is difficult to find a man that would infiltrate
"fis"
because of the language problem and lack of knowledge of Albanian
mentality.
Money earned from the dealing of narcotics is mainly used for purchase
of Serb houses and flats in Kosovo. In Kosovo Polje only, the Albanians
bought during the last four months 256 Serb houses and flats at the
price 100,000-250,000 German Marks per each.
Z.V. Vlaskalic
---
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0003/14/world/world10.html
Sydney Morning Herald (The Guardian)
Tuesday, March 14, 2000
Drugs 'pouring out of Kosovo' without check
By MAGGIE O'KANE in Belgrade
International agencies fighting the drug trade are
warning that Kosovo has become a "smugglers' paradise"
supplying up to 40 per cent of the heroin sold in
Europe and North America.
NATO-led forces, struggling to keep peace in the
province a year after the war, have no mandate to
fight drug traffickers, and - with the expulsion from
Kosovo of the Serb police, including the "4th unit"
narcotics squad - the smugglers are running the
"Balkan route" with complete freedom.
The peacekeepers of K-For "may as well be coming from
another planet when it comes to tackling these guys",
said Mr Marko Nicovic, a lawyer and vice-president of
the International Narcotics Enforcement Officers
Association, based in New York.
"It's the hardest narcotics ring to crack because it
is all run by families and they even have their own
language. Kosovo is set to become the cancer centre of
Europe, as western Europe will soon discover," he
said.
He estimates that the province's traffickers are now
handling between 4.5 and five tonnes of heroin a month
and growing fast.
This compares to the two tonnes they were shifting
before the Kosovo war of March-June last year, when
NATO bombing forced Serbia's regime to pull out of the
largely ethnic-Albanian province.
"It's coming through easier and cheaper, and there's
much more of it," Mr Nicovic said. "The price is going
down and if this goes on we are predicting a heroin
boom in western Europe as there was in the early 80s."
A trafficker in Belgrade confirmed that since the war
the Kosovo heroin dealers, most of them from four main
families, were concentrating on the western Europe and
United States markets.
A kilogram of heroin that was worth $US16,000
($26,000) in Kosovo or double that in Belgrade could
make $US64,000 on the British, Italian or Swiss
markets, said the 24-year-old heroin middleman. He
expected the Kosovo route to grow: "There's nobody to
stop them."
Only half the promised 5,000 policemen have arrived to
join the peace operation in the province, which is now
the main route for heroin flowing through some of the
world's most troubled areas - Afghanistan, northern
Iran, the southern states of the Russian Federation,
Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kosovo - into western Europe and
the US.
"It is the Colombia of Europe," said Mr Nicovic, who
was chief of the Yugoslav narcotics force until 1996.
"When Serb police were burning houses in Kosovo, they
were finding it [heroin] stuffed in the roof. As far
as I know there has not been a single report in the
last year of K-For seizing heroin. They are soldiers,
not criminal investigators."
Echoing this, an official at NATO in Brussels said:
"Generals do not want to turn their troops into cops
... They don't want their troops to get shot pursuing
black-marketeers."
There is no evidence that the ethnic Albanians' Kosovo
Liberation Army is involved directly in drug
smuggling. But according to the British-based
International Police Review, they may be dependent on
the drug families who, it says, partly funded the
KLA's operations in Kosovo last year.
When drug-squad chiefs from northern and eastern
Europe met in Sweden 10 days ago the Balkan route was
the main issue, according to the head of the Czech
narcotics agency, Mr Jiri Komorous.
"There are four paths of drug trafficking through the
Balkans to western Europe. We have to improve our
attempts to control the Kosovo Albanians."
The Kosovo mafia has been smuggling heroin since the
mid-80s, but since the Kosovo war they have come into
their own, according to Mr Nicovic. "You have an
entire country without a police force that knows what
is going on."
The Kosovo Albanian mafia is almost untouchable.
"Everything is worked out on the basis of the family
or clan structure - the Fic [brotherhood] - so it is
impossible to plant informers," said Mr Nicovic.
The Guardian
(see also:
http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/international/0,2846,146154,00.html )
---
Mother Jones Magazine
Heroin Heroes
The United States propped up the KLA in the Kosovo conflict. With
Milosevic gone, and no one in control, the former freedom fighters are
now transforming the province into a major conduit for global drug
trafficking.
by Peter Klebnikov
January/February 2000
When the bombs stopped falling over Yugoslavia last June, a flood of
humanity swept through the Balkans as thousands of Kosovar Albanians
returned home from refugee camps. But over the craggy mountains
separating Yugoslavia and Albania, a far less innocent traffic returned.
A fleet of Mercedes sedans without license plates lined the streets of
Kosovo's capital, Pristina, and young men with hooded eyes and bulky
suits checked into the top floors of showcase hotels such as the Rogner
in Tirana, the Albanian capital. It was time for criminal elements with
close ties to America's newest ally to reopen the traditional Balkan
Road -- one of the biggest conduits for global heroin trafficking. Law
enforcement officials in Europe have suspected for years that ties
existed between Kosovar rebels and Balkan drug smugglers. But in the six
months since Washington enthroned the Kosovo Liberation Army in that
Yugoslav province, KLA-associated drug traffickers have cemented their
influence and used their new status to increase heroin trafficking and
forge links with other nationalist rebel groups and drug cartels. The
benefits of the drug trade are evident around Pristina -- more so than
Western aid. "The new buildings, the better roads, and the sophisticated
weapons -- many of these have been bought by drugs," says Michel
Koutouzis, the Balkans region expert for the Global Drugs Monitor (OGD),
a Paris-based think tank. The repercussions of this drug connection are
only now emerging, and many Kosovo observers fear that the province
could be evolving into a virtual narco-state under the noses of 49,000
peacekeeping troops.
For hundreds of years, Kosovar Albanian smugglers have been among the
world's most accomplished dealers in contraband, aided by a propitious
geography of isolated ports and mountainous villages. Virtually every
stage of the Balkan heroin business, from refining to end-point
distribution, is directed by a loosely knit hierarchy known as "The 15
Families," who answer to the regional clans that run every aspect of
Albanian life.
The Kosovar Albanian traffickers are so successful, says a senior U.S.
State Department official, "because Albanians are organized in very
close-knit groups, linked by their ethnicity and extended family
connections."
The clans, in addition to their drug operations, maintained an armed
brigade that gradually evolved into the KLA. In the early 1990s, as the
Kosovar uprising in Yugoslavia grew, ethnic Albanian rebels there faced
increased financial needs. The 15 Families responded by boosting drug
trafficking and channeling money and weapons to the rebels in their
clans. As traffickers started taking bigger risks, drug seizures by
police across Europe skyrocketed from a kilo or two in the early 1980s
to multimillion-dollar hauls, culminating in the spectacular 1996 arrest
at Gradina, Yugoslavia, of two truckers running a load of more than half
a ton of heroin worth $50 million.
German Federal Police now say that Kosovar Albanians import 80 percent
of Europe's heroin. So dominant is the Kosovar presence in trafficking
that many European users refer to illicit drugs in general as "Albanka,"
or Albanian lady.
The Kosovar traffickers ship heroin exclusively from Asia's Golden
Crescent. It's an apparently inexhaustible source. At one end of the
crescent lies Afghanistan, which in 1999 surpassed Burma as the world's
largest producer of opium poppies. From there, the heroin base passes
through Iran to Turkey, where it is refined, and then into the hands of
the 15 Families, which operate out of the lawless border towns linking
Macedonia, Albania, and Serbia. Not surprisingly, the KLA has also
flourished there. According to the State Department, four to six tons of
heroin move through Turkey every month. "Not very much is stopped," says
one official. "We get just a fraction of the total." Initially, the
Kosovar traffickers used the direct Balkan route, carrying goods
overland by truck from Turkey and Yugoslavia into Europe. With the
Bosnian war, the direct route was shut down and two splinter routes
developed to bypass Yugoslavia.
The ascent of the Kosovar families to the top of the trafficking
hierarchy coincided with the sudden appearance of the KLA as a fighting
force in 1997. As Serbia unleashed its campaign of persecution against
ethnic Albanians, the diaspora mobilized. Hundreds of thousands of
expatriate Kosovars around the world funneled money to the insurrection.
Nobody sent more than the Kosovar traffickers -- some of the wealthiest
people of Kosovar extraction in Europe. According to news reports,
Kosovar Albanian traffickers launder $1.5 billion in profits from drug
and arms smuggling each year through a shadowy network of some 200
private banks and currency exchange offices. A congressional briefing
paper obtained by Mother Jones indicates: "We would be remiss to dismiss
allegations that between 30 and 50 percent of the KLA's money comes from
drugs."
As the war in Kosovo heated up, the drug traffickers began supplying the
KLA with weapons procured from Eastern European and Italian crime groups
in exchange for heroin. The 15 Families also lent their private armies
to fight alongside the KLA. Clad in new Swiss uniforms and equipped with
modern weaponry, these troops stood out among the ragtag irregulars of
the KLA. In all, this was a formidable aid package. It's therefore not
surprising, say European law enforcement officials, that the faction
that ultimately seized power in Kosovo -- the KLA under Hashim Thaci --
was the group that maintained the closest links to traffickers. "As the
biggest contributors, the drug traffickers may have gotten the most
influence in running the country," says Koutouzis. The congressional
brief explains how groups like the KLA become involved with drug barons.
"Such groups had it easier during the Cold War when they could seek out
patron states," it notes. "But today, with the decline in state
sponsorship of insurgent groups, private funding is critical to keep the
revolution alive."
The KLA's dependence on the drug lords is difficult to prove, but the
evidence is impossible to overlook:
In 1998, German Federal Police froze two bank accounts of the "United
Kosovo" organization in a DŸsseldorf bank after they discovered
deposits totaling several hundred thousand dollars from a convicted
Kosovar drug trafficker. According to at least one published report, the
accounts were controlled by Bujar Bukoshi, prime minister of the Kosovo
government in exile.
In early 1999, an Italian court in Brindisi convicted an Albanian heroin
trafficker named Amarildo Vrioni, who admitted obtaining weapons for the
KLA from the Mafia in exchange for drugs.
Last February 23, Czech police arrested Princ Dobroshi, the head of a
Kosovar drug gang. While searching his apartment, they discovered
evidence that he had placed orders for light infantry weapons and rocket
systems. No one questioned what a small-time dealer would be doing with
rockets. Only later did Czech police reveal he was shipping them to the
KLA. The Czechs extradited Dobroshi to Norway, where he had escaped from
prison in 1997 while serving a 14-year sentence for heroin trafficking.
In Kosovo, it's hard to separate a legal organizational structure from
an illegal one. "A trafficker can sell blue jeans one day and heroin the
next," says Koutouzis. "The same supply network is used. There are no
ethical distinctions. Heroin is just another way of making money." It
was the disparate structure of the KLA, Koutouzis says, that facilitated
the drug-smuggling explosion. "It permitted a democratization of drug
trafficking, where small-time people get involved, and everyone
contributes a part of his profit to his clan leader in the KLA," he
explains. "The more illegal the activity, the more money the clan gets
from the traffickers. So it's in the interest of the clan to promote
drug trafficking."
According to Marko Nicovic, the former chief of police in Belgrade, now
an investigator who works closely with Interpol, the international
police agency, 400 to 500 Kosovars move shipments in the 20-kilo range,
while about 5,000 Kosovar Albanians are small-timers, handling shipments
of less than two kilos. At one point in 1996, he says, more than 800
ethnic Albanians were in jail in Germany on narcotics charges. In many
places, Kosovar traffickers gained a foothold through raw violence.
According to a 1999 German Federal Police report, "The ethnic Albanian
gangsÉhave been involved in drugs, weapons traffickingÉblackmail,
and murder.ÉThey are increasingly prone to violence."
Tony White of the United Nations Drug Control Program agrees with this
assessment. "They are more willing to use violence than any other
group," he says. "They have confronted the established order throughout
Europe and pushed out the Lebanese, Pakistani, and Italian cartels." Few
gangs are willing to tangle with the Kosovars. Those that do often pay
the ultimate price. In January 1999, Kosovar Albanians killed nine
people in Milan, Italy, during a two-week bloodbath between rival heroin
groups.
Daut Kadriovski, the reputed boss of one of the 15 Families, embodies
the tenacity of the top Kosovar drug traffickers. A Yugoslav Interior
Ministry report identifies him as one of Europe's biggest heroin
dealers, and Nicovic calls him a "major financial resource for the KLA."
Through his family links, Nicovic says, Kadriovski smuggled more than
100 kilos of heroin into New York and Philadelphia. He lived comfortably
in Istanbul and specialized in creative trafficking solutions, once
dispatching a shipment of heroin in the hollowed-out accordion cases of
a popular traveling Albanian folk music group. German authorities
eventually arrested him in 1985 with four kilos of heroin. They
confiscated his yachts, cars, and villas, and sent him to prison.
Kadriovski's reign appeared to be over.
But Kadriovski greased his way with narco-dollars. He escaped from
prison by bribing guards, and in 1993 he headed for the United States,
where it's believed he continues to operate. According to Nicovic,
Kadriovski reportedly funneled money to the KLA from New York through a
leading Kosovar businessman and declared KLA contributor. "Kadriovski
feels more secure with his KLA friends in power," Nicovic says.
The U.S. representatives of four other heroin families are suspected by
Interpol of having sent money for the uprising, according to Nicovic.
These men typically maintain links with local distributors, he says, and
move heroin through a network of small import-export companies in New
York and Philadelphia.
Now free of the war and the repressive Yugoslav police machine, drug
traffickers have reopened the old Balkan Road. With the KLA in power --
and in the spotlight -- the top trafficking families have begun to seek
relative respectability without decreasing their heroin shipments. "The
Kosovars are trying to position themselves in higher levels of
trafficking," says the U.N.'s Tony White. "They want to get away from
the violence of the streets and attract less attention. Criminals like
to move up like any other business, and the Kosovars are becoming
business leaders. They have become equal partners with the Turks."
Italian national police discovered this new Kosovar outreach last year
when they undertook "Operation Pristina." The carabinieri uncovered a
chain of connections that originated in Kosovo and stretched through
nine European countries, extending into Central Asia, South America, and
the United States.
"People from Pristina worked all over Europe and the world," says
JŸrgen Storbeck, director of Europol, the cooperative police force of
the European Union. "They used sophisticated methods, taking advantage
of places where police work was not so successful, like Eastern Europe."
Eventually, 40 people were arrested and 170 kilos of heroin were seized
in an operation that involved seven European police departments. As
their business reaches a saturation point in Europe, Kosovar traffickers
are looking more to the West. It's a smart business move. The United
States has seen a marked shift from cocaine to heroin use. According to
recent DEA statistics, Afghan heroin accounted for almost 20 percent of
the smack seized in this country -- nearly double the percentage taken
four years earlier. Much of it is distributed by Kosovar Albanians.
The Clinton administration has launched a vigorous crackdown on
Colombian heroin. As the campaign intensifies, some White House
officials fear Kosovar heroin could replace the Colombian supply. "Even
if we were to eliminate all the heroin production in Colombia, by no
means do we think there would be no more heroin coming into the United
States," says Bob Agresti of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy. "Look at the numbers. Colombia accounts for only six
percent of the world's heroin. Southwest Asia produces 75 percent."
Perhaps most alarmingly, Kosovar drug dealers associated with the KLA
have begun to form partnerships with Colombian traffickers -- the
world's most notorious drug lords. "We have an all-new situation now,"
says Europol's Storbeck. "Colombians like to use Kosovar groups for
distribution of cocaine. The Albanians are getting stronger and
stronger, and there is a certain job sharing now. They are used by Turks
for smuggling into the European Union and by Colombians for distribution
of cocaine."
Washington clearly hopes the KLA will disentangle itself from its
drug-running friends now that it's in power, but this may not be easy.
"The KLA owes a lot of debts to the traffickers and holy warriors," says
Koutouzis. "They are being pressured to assist other insurrections."
Already, the OGD has reports of KLA weapons being routed to the newest
Muslim holy war in Chechnya.
The congressional brief addresses the KLA's future: "One of the problems
you have with organizations that engage in drug trafficking is that they
become addicted to the trade and the income it brings," the report
notes. "Later on in life, even if they want to stop trafficking in
drugs, it's not always possible."
Marko Nicovic, the former Belgrade police chief, puts it a bit more
succinctly: "If Kosovo gets full autonomy, they may well double the
production of heroin," he says. "Kosovo will become a smuggler's
paradise, its doors open to every global criminal." The U.S. Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961 prohibits aid to any entity that has colluded
with narcotics traffickers. Similarly, the Balkan peace agreement
brokered in June prohibits the KLA from engaging in criminal activity.
And so the Clinton administration tries to steer clear of questions
suggesting the KLA has joined a rogues' gallery of narco-leaders. KLA
drug-running is the last thing the administration wants to tackle with
the success of its "moral war" already open to question.
Late last spring, Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to
President Clinton requesting an assessment of KLA drug trafficking. The
president responded quickly, telling Grassley in a June 15 letter that
he had demanded an intelligence assessment from the CIA and the DEA on
Kosovar drug trafficking. "Neither agency," the president wrote, "has
any intelligence that indicates the KLA has either been engaged in other
criminal activity or has direct links to any organized crime groups."
Clinton did acknowledge that crime groups "have contributed at least
limited funds and possibly small arms to the KLA." He promised to
"monitor" narcotics distribution there in the future. "There was no
action," said a congressional source close to Grassley. "It was a
nonanswer."
White House officials deny a whitewashing of KLA activities. "We do care
about [KLA drug trafficking]," says Agresti. "It's just that we've got
our hands full trying to bring peace there." The DEA is equally reticent
to address the issue. According to Michel Koutouzis, the DEA's website
once contained a section detailing Kosovar trafficking, but a week
before the U.S.-led bombings began, the section disappeared. "The DEA
doesn't want to talk publicly [about the KLA]," says OGD director Alain
Labrousse. "It's embarrassing to them." High-ranking U.S. officials are
dismayed that the KLA was installed in power without public discussion
or a thorough check of its background. "I don't think we're doing
anything there to stem the drugs," says a senior State Department
official. "It's out of control. It should be a high priority. We've
warned about it."
Even if it tried to stop Kosovar heroin, the U.S. would be hard-pressed
to do so. "Nobody's in control in Kosovo," adds the State Department
official. "They don't even have a police force." Regardless of what it
says, there's little indication that the administration wants to do
anything with the intelligence available about its newest ally. "There
is no doubt that the KLA is a major trafficking organization," said a
congressional expert who monitors the drug trade and requested
anonymity. "But we have a relationship with the KLA, and the
administration doesn't want to damage [its] reputation. We are partners.
The attitude is: The drugs are not coming here, so let others deal with
it."
That phrase is troublingly familiar. It raises the question: Is our
embrace of the KLA the latest in an ignoble tradition of aiding drug
traffickers for political reasons? Similar recipients of U.S. largesse
have included the Nicaraguan Contras, former Panamanian strongman Manuel
Noriega, the Afghan Taliban, and Burma's Khun Sa. Early in 1999, as the
war against Serbia raged, Congress voted to fund the KLA's drive for
independence. In the days ahead, our embrace of the KLA may come to
haunt us. Elections scheduled for this spring in Kosovo have been
delayed; but no matter when they occur, observers say, their outcome is
already certain. The time-honored clans will win. And the men in
oversized suits -- the kind who sing allegiance to democracy and global
capitalism while conducting business in the back of an unlicensed
Mercedes -- will be running the show.
--------- 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 mercato dei narcotici in Svizzera e' controllato dall'UCK (AP)
* Boom delle droghe leggere in Kosmet (Blic)
* Dal "Kosova" liberato si puo' finalmente esportare droga ovunque
(The Guardian)
* HEROIN HEROES (Mother Jones Magazine)
---
Una donna serba difende la sua casa
Di DANIKA KIRKA, Associated Press 23/3/2000
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Jugoslavia (AP) -- A chiunque possa pensare di
poterla costringere ad uscire dalla sua casa, Jelisaveta Raganovic manda
un messaggio: Prima dovrete passare sul mio corpo!
Potrebbe non sembrare una gran minaccia venendo da una donna di 80 anni,
l'ultima serba che si ritiene sia ormai da sola nella zona di etnia
albanese della citta' divisa di Kosovska Mitrovica.
Ma comunque, la Sig.ra Raganovic ha un piano. Ogni notte, questa
veterana della guerriglia comunista di Josip Broz Tito, durante la II
Guerra Mondiale, prende la sua posizione di sentinella fuori dalla sua
casa. Stando seduta in una poltrona vicino ad una scatola di pietre,
aspetta tutta la notte, pronta a colpire qualsiasi invasore che salga le
sue scale.
"Lo so che sto per morire", ha detto durante un'intervista mercoledi'.
"Ma moriro' da uomo. Non voglio morire da codarda".
Il problema della Raganovic mostra proprio a quanta pressione
debbano essere sottoposti i serbi che vivono in Kosovo, specialmente
in un luogo come la pietrosa citta' industriale di Kosovska Mitrovica,
dove gli scontri fra le etnie albanesi e serbe sull'altra sponda del
fiume Ibar esplodono con regolarita'.
La zona sud in effetti e' tranquilla, in parte perche' la popolazione
e' praticamente omogenea. L'agenzia ONU per i rifugiati stima che non
piu' di 19 serbi vivano qui ora. Tutti, tranne la Raganovic, vivono in
una chiesa sotto protezione NATO.
Anche alla Raganovic fu data la possibilita' di partire per andare in
posto piu' sicuro, che le avrebbe permesso una vita piu' normale. Tutta
la sua famiglia l'ha ripetutamente pregata di andare a vivere con loro
in Vojvodina, una provincia nel nord della Serbia.
Lei ha rifiutato, scegliendo invece di confidare nei soldati francesi
che facevano la guardia alla sua casa.
Per lei loro sono piu' che peacekeeper, essi sono compagni, uomini con
cui sente di poter trattare da soldato a soldato. I soldati le portano
la carne e le pentole con la marmellata. La portano a far la spesa, le
fanno compagnia.
Il Maggiore Nicolas Naubin (portavoce francese) ha detto che i
peacekeepers capiscono che la sua situazione e' precaria e pertanto
hanno fatto uno sforzo speciale per prendersi cura di lei.
Dovranno lavorare piu' duramente. Sino ad ora la Nato ha fallito nella
creazione di un ambiente sicuro in Kosovo, in particolare per i serbi
che stanno abbandonando la regione a causa degli attacchi per vendetta
degli albanesi.
Migliaia di albanesi morirono durante gli scontri tra Milosevic e le
milizie che combattevano per l'indipendenza del Kosovo. Poi vi e' la
oppressione di 10 anni sotto il regime di Milosevic per la quale molti
vogliono una sorta di risarcimento.
In un posto come Kosovska Mitrovica, 25 miglia a nord della capitale
della provincia, Pristina, i pericoli sono molti. Appena attraversato il
fiume, sulla riva nord rimane uno degli ultimi gruppi di serbi del
Kosovo, un fatto che ha reso tutta la citta' instabile.
I serbi nella zona sbagliata della suddivisione sarebbero obbiettivi
molto facili per la vendetta. Recentemente un'altro serbo dalla parte
albanese, sotto stretto controllo NATO, e' stato ucciso con una scure.
La Raganovic comprende questa situazione ed ha affrontato la sua razione
di violenza. Alcuni hanno invaso la sua casa saccheggiandola.
Hanno preso i suoi libri di storia, la sua biancheria, i suoi piatti.
La sua linea telefonica non funziona - anche se sembra che lei sia
l'unica inquilina del suo palazzo con un tale problema.
Cosi' grande e' il pericolo che deve affrontare, che le organizzazioni
che si occupano dei diritti umani conoscendola non permettono che
la si fotografi o che si fotografi la sua casa. Permettono interviste
a condizione che la posizione della sua casa non sia rivelata.
Anche cosi', la Sig.ra Raganovic non mostra di essere nervosa, saluta
chi la viene a trovare con un abbraccio ed un bacio. Offre del caffe'
generosamente ed insiste a regalare dei dolci da portar via.
E' lei a dare consigli su come stare sicuri, ricordando le parole di un
vecchio comandante dei partigiani, i guerriglieri che combatterono il
nazismo.
Dice: "Noi eravamo abituati a mantenere le posizioni nella neve.
(Il mio comandante) mi diceva: 'Se ti addormenti, sei morta'.
Io non ho mai dimenticato quella lezione."
http://www.newsday.com/ap/international/ap640.htm
> March 23, 2000
>
> Serb Woman Defends Her Home
> By DANICA KIRKA / Associated Press Writer
>
> KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- To anyone who
> might think of driving her from her home, Jelisaveta
> Roganovic has a message: You' ll have to get past me
> first.
>
> It might not seem like much of a threat coming from
> a
> woman who is 80 years old, the last Serb believed to
> be living alone on the ethnic Albanian side of the
> divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica.
>
> But then again, Roganovic has a plan.
>
> Every night, this veteran of Josip Broz Tito' s
> World
> War II communist guerrilla army takes up her
> position
> as a sentinel outside her home. Sitting in a lawn
> chair beside a box of rocks, she waits all night
> long,
> ready to pelt any intruder coming up her stairs.
>
> " I know I' m going to die, " she said during an
> interview Wednesday. " But I' m going to die like a
> man. I don' t want to die like a coward."
>
> Roganovic' s dilemma shows just how much pressure
> Serbs living in Kosovo face right now, especially in
> a
> place like the gritty industrial city of Kosovska
> Mitrovica, where riots between ethnic Albanians and
> Serbs on the other side of the Ibar River break out
> with some regularity.
>
> On the south side though, things are usually quiet
> --
> in part because the population is almost completely
> homogenous. The U.N. refugee agency estimates that
> no
> more than 19 Serbs live here now. All but Roganovic
> live together under NATO protection at a church.
>
> Roganovic was given a chance to leave, too, to go to
> a
> place that was safer and would allow her a more
> normal
> life. Her family has been begging her to come live
> with them in Vojvodina, a province in northern
> Serbia.
>
>
> She refuses, choosing instead to trust the French
> soldiers who guard her home. To her they are more
> than
> peacekeepers, they are comrades, men she feels she
> can
> deal with, soldier to soldier. They bring her tins
> of
> meat and pots of jam. They take her shopping. They
> keep her company.
>
> The peacekeepers, though, realize that her situation
> is precarious and have made a special effort to take
> care of her, said French Maj. Nicolas Naubin, a
> spokesman for French troops.
>
> They are going to have to work harder.
>
> NATO has failed so far to create an overall
> environment of security in Kosovo, particularly for
> Serbs, who have been fleeing the province because of
> revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians.
>
> Thousands of ethnic Albanians died during Yugoslav
> President Slobodan Milosevic' s 18-month crackdown
> on
> militants fighting for independence for Kosovo. Then
> there is the 10 years of oppression under the
> Milosevic regime for which many want recompense.
>
> In a place like Kosovska Mitrovica, 25 miles north
> of
> the provincial capital, Pristina, the dangers are
> intense. Just across the river on the north bank
> lies
> one of Kosovo' s only substantial remaining Serb
> population, a fact that has made the entire city
> unstable.
>
> Serbs on the wrong side of the divide would be
> particularly singled out for revenge. Another Serb
> on
> the ethnic Albanian side and under strict NATO
> protection was hacked to death recently by an
> attacker
> with an ax.
>
> Roganovic realizes this, and has faced her share of
> harassment. Intruders have ransacked her home,
> taking
> her history books, her bed linens, her dishes. Her
> telephone line doesn' t work -- even though she
> seems
> to be the only person in the building with such a
> problem.
>
> So great is the danger she faces that human rights
> workers familiar with her situation refused to
> permit
> photographs of her and her home, allowing an
> interview
> only on condition that her home' s location not be
> revealed.
>
> Even so, Roganovic doesn' t let on if she' s
> nervous,
> greeting her visitors with a hug and a kiss,
> offering
> her last bit of coffee in friendship, insisting that
> a
> few candies be carried away for later. She offers
> advice on staying safe, recounting the words of an
> old
> commander in the Partisans, the guerrilla fighters
> who
> fought the Nazis.
>
> " We used to have positions in the snow. (My
> commander) told me, ' If you fall asleep, you are
> dead, " ' she said. " I never forgot that lesson."
>
---
http://fr.news.yahoo.com/000330/2/antu.html
jeudi 30 mars 2000, 18h48
Suisse: près de 400 kilos d'héroïne et environ 290 kilos de
cocaïne saisis en 1999
BERNE (AP) -- L'an passé, ''toutes les drogues courantes étaient, comme
toujours,
disponibles à profusion et à bas prix en Suisse'', selon l'Office
fédéral de la police (OFP).
Pas moins de 397 kilos d'héroïne et 287 kilos de cocaïne ont été saisis,
le nombre des décès
dus à la drogue a une nouvelle fois régressé, passant de 210 à 181.
Quant aux trafiquants,
86% étaient des étrangers.
La diminution du nombre des décès dus à la consommation de stupéfiants
enregistrés par les polices cantonales s'est
poursuivie en 1999 avec 181 morts, contre 210 l'année précédente. Le
nombre record de 419 morts en 1992 a pu être
réduit de moitié grâce aux thérapies introduites, à la distribution de
drogue sous contrôle médical et aux diverses mesures
d'aide à la survie. Les spécialistes en matière de dépendance estiment
toutefois qu'il faudrait ajouter 200 décès
supplémentaires de toxicomanes ayant succombé à des maladies
infectieuses.
La police a saisi l'an dernier 397 kilos d'héroïne contre 403 kilos en
1998. Les saisies de cocaïne ont augmenté de 15%,
passant à 287,9 kilos.
L'héroïne consommée en Suisse arrive de Turquie, en empruntant les
différentes routes des
Balkans.
Le trafic est en grande partie contrôlé par des Albanais originaires du
Kosovo et de
l'Albanie, selon l'OFP.
Et en dépit du conflit du Kosovo, le marché n'a pas connu de problème
d'approvisionnement.
Le canton de Zurich est resté la plaque tournante du trafic: on y a
saisi 239 kilos d'héroïne, ce qui représente 60% de
l'ensemble des saisies effectuées l'an passé. Zurich est aussi demeurée
la porte d'entrée en Suisse pour la cocaïne, importée
en grande partie d'Amérique latine par voie aérienne. Près des trois
quarts de la cocaïne interceptée en Suisse ont été
découverts dans le canton de Zurich. Bien que le trafic soit toujours
aux mains de ressortissants d'Afrique noire et
d'Amérique du Sud, des Italiens et des Espagnols, ainsi que des groupes
de l'ex-Yougoslavie et de Turquie ont désormais
pris pied dans ce trafic.
La plupart des plantations de chanvre en Suisse ont servi à alimenter le
marché des stupéfiants. Selon les estimations de la
police, entre 1,5 et 10 tonnes de haschisch et de 50 à 200 tonnes de
marijuana sont ainsi produites annuellement en Suisse.
Les produits stupéfiants à base de chanvre ''made in Switzerland''
trouvent également preneur à l'étranger. La police a saisi
quelque 8,4 tonnes de produits cannabiniques en 1999, soit 6,5 tonnes de
moins que l'année précédente.
Après avoir connu un véritable boom dans les années 90, les saisies
d'ecstasy ont à nouveau diminué: 67.342 pilules ont été
confisquées contre 73.914 en 1998. Elle provenaient en majorité des
Pays-Bas.
En 1999, le nombre de violations de la loi sur les stupéfiants a diminué
de 3%, passant à 44.336. On a enregistré 3.715
plaintes pénales pour trafic de drogue, ce qui représente 8,4% du total
de plaintes. S'agissant des trafiquants, 86% étaient
des étrangers, selon l'Office fédéral de la police.
---
BLIC - Belgrade independent daily,
March 31, 2000
Kosovo narcotic dealers have five-time larger budget than the
international mission in the province
IN KOSOVO MARIHUANA IS NOT TREATED AS A NARCOTIC SINCE IT IS IN GENERAL
USE AND HAS THE PRICE AS CIGARETTES
Kosovska Mitrovica - Albanian narcotic dealers, called "fis" are
currently occupying the top of the world narcotic smugglers. More
frequently they are the cause of headache of Interlope. In relatively
short time they managed to take the leading position in the control of
world narco market. Arrival of KFOR changed nothing, so at the moment
the southern Serb province is a center for distribution of narcotics to
the Western Europe and North America.
Kosovo is full of all kinds of narcotics. Their prices are here half of
those in the European or American cities. Narcotics are being sold not
per gr. but per kilos. For example one kilo of heroine in Pristina costs
16,000 $. The price of joint is almost equal to the price of some fine
quality cigarettes.
Narcotics are arriving in Kosovo by Euro-Asian road from Iran, Pakistan,
Turkey, Bulgaria and Macedonia, or by sea around Greece and Albania.
Albanian narco-businessmen provide 5 tons of heroine from Kosovo to West
European market. Their profit is about 120 mills of $. In a year they
get more than 1 bill of $. Only for the purpose of comparison, this year
budget of the mission of international community in Kosovo is 210 mills
of $.
FBI admits it is relatively incapable of doing anything since, as FBI
claims, it is difficult to find a man that would infiltrate
"fis"
because of the language problem and lack of knowledge of Albanian
mentality.
Money earned from the dealing of narcotics is mainly used for purchase
of Serb houses and flats in Kosovo. In Kosovo Polje only, the Albanians
bought during the last four months 256 Serb houses and flats at the
price 100,000-250,000 German Marks per each.
Z.V. Vlaskalic
---
http://www.smh.com.au/news/0003/14/world/world10.html
Sydney Morning Herald (The Guardian)
Tuesday, March 14, 2000
Drugs 'pouring out of Kosovo' without check
By MAGGIE O'KANE in Belgrade
International agencies fighting the drug trade are
warning that Kosovo has become a "smugglers' paradise"
supplying up to 40 per cent of the heroin sold in
Europe and North America.
NATO-led forces, struggling to keep peace in the
province a year after the war, have no mandate to
fight drug traffickers, and - with the expulsion from
Kosovo of the Serb police, including the "4th unit"
narcotics squad - the smugglers are running the
"Balkan route" with complete freedom.
The peacekeepers of K-For "may as well be coming from
another planet when it comes to tackling these guys",
said Mr Marko Nicovic, a lawyer and vice-president of
the International Narcotics Enforcement Officers
Association, based in New York.
"It's the hardest narcotics ring to crack because it
is all run by families and they even have their own
language. Kosovo is set to become the cancer centre of
Europe, as western Europe will soon discover," he
said.
He estimates that the province's traffickers are now
handling between 4.5 and five tonnes of heroin a month
and growing fast.
This compares to the two tonnes they were shifting
before the Kosovo war of March-June last year, when
NATO bombing forced Serbia's regime to pull out of the
largely ethnic-Albanian province.
"It's coming through easier and cheaper, and there's
much more of it," Mr Nicovic said. "The price is going
down and if this goes on we are predicting a heroin
boom in western Europe as there was in the early 80s."
A trafficker in Belgrade confirmed that since the war
the Kosovo heroin dealers, most of them from four main
families, were concentrating on the western Europe and
United States markets.
A kilogram of heroin that was worth $US16,000
($26,000) in Kosovo or double that in Belgrade could
make $US64,000 on the British, Italian or Swiss
markets, said the 24-year-old heroin middleman. He
expected the Kosovo route to grow: "There's nobody to
stop them."
Only half the promised 5,000 policemen have arrived to
join the peace operation in the province, which is now
the main route for heroin flowing through some of the
world's most troubled areas - Afghanistan, northern
Iran, the southern states of the Russian Federation,
Azerbaijan, Turkey, Kosovo - into western Europe and
the US.
"It is the Colombia of Europe," said Mr Nicovic, who
was chief of the Yugoslav narcotics force until 1996.
"When Serb police were burning houses in Kosovo, they
were finding it [heroin] stuffed in the roof. As far
as I know there has not been a single report in the
last year of K-For seizing heroin. They are soldiers,
not criminal investigators."
Echoing this, an official at NATO in Brussels said:
"Generals do not want to turn their troops into cops
... They don't want their troops to get shot pursuing
black-marketeers."
There is no evidence that the ethnic Albanians' Kosovo
Liberation Army is involved directly in drug
smuggling. But according to the British-based
International Police Review, they may be dependent on
the drug families who, it says, partly funded the
KLA's operations in Kosovo last year.
When drug-squad chiefs from northern and eastern
Europe met in Sweden 10 days ago the Balkan route was
the main issue, according to the head of the Czech
narcotics agency, Mr Jiri Komorous.
"There are four paths of drug trafficking through the
Balkans to western Europe. We have to improve our
attempts to control the Kosovo Albanians."
The Kosovo mafia has been smuggling heroin since the
mid-80s, but since the Kosovo war they have come into
their own, according to Mr Nicovic. "You have an
entire country without a police force that knows what
is going on."
The Kosovo Albanian mafia is almost untouchable.
"Everything is worked out on the basis of the family
or clan structure - the Fic [brotherhood] - so it is
impossible to plant informers," said Mr Nicovic.
The Guardian
(see also:
http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/international/0,2846,146154,00.html )
---
Mother Jones Magazine
Heroin Heroes
The United States propped up the KLA in the Kosovo conflict. With
Milosevic gone, and no one in control, the former freedom fighters are
now transforming the province into a major conduit for global drug
trafficking.
by Peter Klebnikov
January/February 2000
When the bombs stopped falling over Yugoslavia last June, a flood of
humanity swept through the Balkans as thousands of Kosovar Albanians
returned home from refugee camps. But over the craggy mountains
separating Yugoslavia and Albania, a far less innocent traffic returned.
A fleet of Mercedes sedans without license plates lined the streets of
Kosovo's capital, Pristina, and young men with hooded eyes and bulky
suits checked into the top floors of showcase hotels such as the Rogner
in Tirana, the Albanian capital. It was time for criminal elements with
close ties to America's newest ally to reopen the traditional Balkan
Road -- one of the biggest conduits for global heroin trafficking. Law
enforcement officials in Europe have suspected for years that ties
existed between Kosovar rebels and Balkan drug smugglers. But in the six
months since Washington enthroned the Kosovo Liberation Army in that
Yugoslav province, KLA-associated drug traffickers have cemented their
influence and used their new status to increase heroin trafficking and
forge links with other nationalist rebel groups and drug cartels. The
benefits of the drug trade are evident around Pristina -- more so than
Western aid. "The new buildings, the better roads, and the sophisticated
weapons -- many of these have been bought by drugs," says Michel
Koutouzis, the Balkans region expert for the Global Drugs Monitor (OGD),
a Paris-based think tank. The repercussions of this drug connection are
only now emerging, and many Kosovo observers fear that the province
could be evolving into a virtual narco-state under the noses of 49,000
peacekeeping troops.
For hundreds of years, Kosovar Albanian smugglers have been among the
world's most accomplished dealers in contraband, aided by a propitious
geography of isolated ports and mountainous villages. Virtually every
stage of the Balkan heroin business, from refining to end-point
distribution, is directed by a loosely knit hierarchy known as "The 15
Families," who answer to the regional clans that run every aspect of
Albanian life.
The Kosovar Albanian traffickers are so successful, says a senior U.S.
State Department official, "because Albanians are organized in very
close-knit groups, linked by their ethnicity and extended family
connections."
The clans, in addition to their drug operations, maintained an armed
brigade that gradually evolved into the KLA. In the early 1990s, as the
Kosovar uprising in Yugoslavia grew, ethnic Albanian rebels there faced
increased financial needs. The 15 Families responded by boosting drug
trafficking and channeling money and weapons to the rebels in their
clans. As traffickers started taking bigger risks, drug seizures by
police across Europe skyrocketed from a kilo or two in the early 1980s
to multimillion-dollar hauls, culminating in the spectacular 1996 arrest
at Gradina, Yugoslavia, of two truckers running a load of more than half
a ton of heroin worth $50 million.
German Federal Police now say that Kosovar Albanians import 80 percent
of Europe's heroin. So dominant is the Kosovar presence in trafficking
that many European users refer to illicit drugs in general as "Albanka,"
or Albanian lady.
The Kosovar traffickers ship heroin exclusively from Asia's Golden
Crescent. It's an apparently inexhaustible source. At one end of the
crescent lies Afghanistan, which in 1999 surpassed Burma as the world's
largest producer of opium poppies. From there, the heroin base passes
through Iran to Turkey, where it is refined, and then into the hands of
the 15 Families, which operate out of the lawless border towns linking
Macedonia, Albania, and Serbia. Not surprisingly, the KLA has also
flourished there. According to the State Department, four to six tons of
heroin move through Turkey every month. "Not very much is stopped," says
one official. "We get just a fraction of the total." Initially, the
Kosovar traffickers used the direct Balkan route, carrying goods
overland by truck from Turkey and Yugoslavia into Europe. With the
Bosnian war, the direct route was shut down and two splinter routes
developed to bypass Yugoslavia.
The ascent of the Kosovar families to the top of the trafficking
hierarchy coincided with the sudden appearance of the KLA as a fighting
force in 1997. As Serbia unleashed its campaign of persecution against
ethnic Albanians, the diaspora mobilized. Hundreds of thousands of
expatriate Kosovars around the world funneled money to the insurrection.
Nobody sent more than the Kosovar traffickers -- some of the wealthiest
people of Kosovar extraction in Europe. According to news reports,
Kosovar Albanian traffickers launder $1.5 billion in profits from drug
and arms smuggling each year through a shadowy network of some 200
private banks and currency exchange offices. A congressional briefing
paper obtained by Mother Jones indicates: "We would be remiss to dismiss
allegations that between 30 and 50 percent of the KLA's money comes from
drugs."
As the war in Kosovo heated up, the drug traffickers began supplying the
KLA with weapons procured from Eastern European and Italian crime groups
in exchange for heroin. The 15 Families also lent their private armies
to fight alongside the KLA. Clad in new Swiss uniforms and equipped with
modern weaponry, these troops stood out among the ragtag irregulars of
the KLA. In all, this was a formidable aid package. It's therefore not
surprising, say European law enforcement officials, that the faction
that ultimately seized power in Kosovo -- the KLA under Hashim Thaci --
was the group that maintained the closest links to traffickers. "As the
biggest contributors, the drug traffickers may have gotten the most
influence in running the country," says Koutouzis. The congressional
brief explains how groups like the KLA become involved with drug barons.
"Such groups had it easier during the Cold War when they could seek out
patron states," it notes. "But today, with the decline in state
sponsorship of insurgent groups, private funding is critical to keep the
revolution alive."
The KLA's dependence on the drug lords is difficult to prove, but the
evidence is impossible to overlook:
In 1998, German Federal Police froze two bank accounts of the "United
Kosovo" organization in a DŸsseldorf bank after they discovered
deposits totaling several hundred thousand dollars from a convicted
Kosovar drug trafficker. According to at least one published report, the
accounts were controlled by Bujar Bukoshi, prime minister of the Kosovo
government in exile.
In early 1999, an Italian court in Brindisi convicted an Albanian heroin
trafficker named Amarildo Vrioni, who admitted obtaining weapons for the
KLA from the Mafia in exchange for drugs.
Last February 23, Czech police arrested Princ Dobroshi, the head of a
Kosovar drug gang. While searching his apartment, they discovered
evidence that he had placed orders for light infantry weapons and rocket
systems. No one questioned what a small-time dealer would be doing with
rockets. Only later did Czech police reveal he was shipping them to the
KLA. The Czechs extradited Dobroshi to Norway, where he had escaped from
prison in 1997 while serving a 14-year sentence for heroin trafficking.
In Kosovo, it's hard to separate a legal organizational structure from
an illegal one. "A trafficker can sell blue jeans one day and heroin the
next," says Koutouzis. "The same supply network is used. There are no
ethical distinctions. Heroin is just another way of making money." It
was the disparate structure of the KLA, Koutouzis says, that facilitated
the drug-smuggling explosion. "It permitted a democratization of drug
trafficking, where small-time people get involved, and everyone
contributes a part of his profit to his clan leader in the KLA," he
explains. "The more illegal the activity, the more money the clan gets
from the traffickers. So it's in the interest of the clan to promote
drug trafficking."
According to Marko Nicovic, the former chief of police in Belgrade, now
an investigator who works closely with Interpol, the international
police agency, 400 to 500 Kosovars move shipments in the 20-kilo range,
while about 5,000 Kosovar Albanians are small-timers, handling shipments
of less than two kilos. At one point in 1996, he says, more than 800
ethnic Albanians were in jail in Germany on narcotics charges. In many
places, Kosovar traffickers gained a foothold through raw violence.
According to a 1999 German Federal Police report, "The ethnic Albanian
gangsÉhave been involved in drugs, weapons traffickingÉblackmail,
and murder.ÉThey are increasingly prone to violence."
Tony White of the United Nations Drug Control Program agrees with this
assessment. "They are more willing to use violence than any other
group," he says. "They have confronted the established order throughout
Europe and pushed out the Lebanese, Pakistani, and Italian cartels." Few
gangs are willing to tangle with the Kosovars. Those that do often pay
the ultimate price. In January 1999, Kosovar Albanians killed nine
people in Milan, Italy, during a two-week bloodbath between rival heroin
groups.
Daut Kadriovski, the reputed boss of one of the 15 Families, embodies
the tenacity of the top Kosovar drug traffickers. A Yugoslav Interior
Ministry report identifies him as one of Europe's biggest heroin
dealers, and Nicovic calls him a "major financial resource for the KLA."
Through his family links, Nicovic says, Kadriovski smuggled more than
100 kilos of heroin into New York and Philadelphia. He lived comfortably
in Istanbul and specialized in creative trafficking solutions, once
dispatching a shipment of heroin in the hollowed-out accordion cases of
a popular traveling Albanian folk music group. German authorities
eventually arrested him in 1985 with four kilos of heroin. They
confiscated his yachts, cars, and villas, and sent him to prison.
Kadriovski's reign appeared to be over.
But Kadriovski greased his way with narco-dollars. He escaped from
prison by bribing guards, and in 1993 he headed for the United States,
where it's believed he continues to operate. According to Nicovic,
Kadriovski reportedly funneled money to the KLA from New York through a
leading Kosovar businessman and declared KLA contributor. "Kadriovski
feels more secure with his KLA friends in power," Nicovic says.
The U.S. representatives of four other heroin families are suspected by
Interpol of having sent money for the uprising, according to Nicovic.
These men typically maintain links with local distributors, he says, and
move heroin through a network of small import-export companies in New
York and Philadelphia.
Now free of the war and the repressive Yugoslav police machine, drug
traffickers have reopened the old Balkan Road. With the KLA in power --
and in the spotlight -- the top trafficking families have begun to seek
relative respectability without decreasing their heroin shipments. "The
Kosovars are trying to position themselves in higher levels of
trafficking," says the U.N.'s Tony White. "They want to get away from
the violence of the streets and attract less attention. Criminals like
to move up like any other business, and the Kosovars are becoming
business leaders. They have become equal partners with the Turks."
Italian national police discovered this new Kosovar outreach last year
when they undertook "Operation Pristina." The carabinieri uncovered a
chain of connections that originated in Kosovo and stretched through
nine European countries, extending into Central Asia, South America, and
the United States.
"People from Pristina worked all over Europe and the world," says
JŸrgen Storbeck, director of Europol, the cooperative police force of
the European Union. "They used sophisticated methods, taking advantage
of places where police work was not so successful, like Eastern Europe."
Eventually, 40 people were arrested and 170 kilos of heroin were seized
in an operation that involved seven European police departments. As
their business reaches a saturation point in Europe, Kosovar traffickers
are looking more to the West. It's a smart business move. The United
States has seen a marked shift from cocaine to heroin use. According to
recent DEA statistics, Afghan heroin accounted for almost 20 percent of
the smack seized in this country -- nearly double the percentage taken
four years earlier. Much of it is distributed by Kosovar Albanians.
The Clinton administration has launched a vigorous crackdown on
Colombian heroin. As the campaign intensifies, some White House
officials fear Kosovar heroin could replace the Colombian supply. "Even
if we were to eliminate all the heroin production in Colombia, by no
means do we think there would be no more heroin coming into the United
States," says Bob Agresti of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy. "Look at the numbers. Colombia accounts for only six
percent of the world's heroin. Southwest Asia produces 75 percent."
Perhaps most alarmingly, Kosovar drug dealers associated with the KLA
have begun to form partnerships with Colombian traffickers -- the
world's most notorious drug lords. "We have an all-new situation now,"
says Europol's Storbeck. "Colombians like to use Kosovar groups for
distribution of cocaine. The Albanians are getting stronger and
stronger, and there is a certain job sharing now. They are used by Turks
for smuggling into the European Union and by Colombians for distribution
of cocaine."
Washington clearly hopes the KLA will disentangle itself from its
drug-running friends now that it's in power, but this may not be easy.
"The KLA owes a lot of debts to the traffickers and holy warriors," says
Koutouzis. "They are being pressured to assist other insurrections."
Already, the OGD has reports of KLA weapons being routed to the newest
Muslim holy war in Chechnya.
The congressional brief addresses the KLA's future: "One of the problems
you have with organizations that engage in drug trafficking is that they
become addicted to the trade and the income it brings," the report
notes. "Later on in life, even if they want to stop trafficking in
drugs, it's not always possible."
Marko Nicovic, the former Belgrade police chief, puts it a bit more
succinctly: "If Kosovo gets full autonomy, they may well double the
production of heroin," he says. "Kosovo will become a smuggler's
paradise, its doors open to every global criminal." The U.S. Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961 prohibits aid to any entity that has colluded
with narcotics traffickers. Similarly, the Balkan peace agreement
brokered in June prohibits the KLA from engaging in criminal activity.
And so the Clinton administration tries to steer clear of questions
suggesting the KLA has joined a rogues' gallery of narco-leaders. KLA
drug-running is the last thing the administration wants to tackle with
the success of its "moral war" already open to question.
Late last spring, Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to
President Clinton requesting an assessment of KLA drug trafficking. The
president responded quickly, telling Grassley in a June 15 letter that
he had demanded an intelligence assessment from the CIA and the DEA on
Kosovar drug trafficking. "Neither agency," the president wrote, "has
any intelligence that indicates the KLA has either been engaged in other
criminal activity or has direct links to any organized crime groups."
Clinton did acknowledge that crime groups "have contributed at least
limited funds and possibly small arms to the KLA." He promised to
"monitor" narcotics distribution there in the future. "There was no
action," said a congressional source close to Grassley. "It was a
nonanswer."
White House officials deny a whitewashing of KLA activities. "We do care
about [KLA drug trafficking]," says Agresti. "It's just that we've got
our hands full trying to bring peace there." The DEA is equally reticent
to address the issue. According to Michel Koutouzis, the DEA's website
once contained a section detailing Kosovar trafficking, but a week
before the U.S.-led bombings began, the section disappeared. "The DEA
doesn't want to talk publicly [about the KLA]," says OGD director Alain
Labrousse. "It's embarrassing to them." High-ranking U.S. officials are
dismayed that the KLA was installed in power without public discussion
or a thorough check of its background. "I don't think we're doing
anything there to stem the drugs," says a senior State Department
official. "It's out of control. It should be a high priority. We've
warned about it."
Even if it tried to stop Kosovar heroin, the U.S. would be hard-pressed
to do so. "Nobody's in control in Kosovo," adds the State Department
official. "They don't even have a police force." Regardless of what it
says, there's little indication that the administration wants to do
anything with the intelligence available about its newest ally. "There
is no doubt that the KLA is a major trafficking organization," said a
congressional expert who monitors the drug trade and requested
anonymity. "But we have a relationship with the KLA, and the
administration doesn't want to damage [its] reputation. We are partners.
The attitude is: The drugs are not coming here, so let others deal with
it."
That phrase is troublingly familiar. It raises the question: Is our
embrace of the KLA the latest in an ignoble tradition of aiding drug
traffickers for political reasons? Similar recipients of U.S. largesse
have included the Nicaraguan Contras, former Panamanian strongman Manuel
Noriega, the Afghan Taliban, and Burma's Khun Sa. Early in 1999, as the
war against Serbia raged, Congress voted to fund the KLA's drive for
independence. In the days ahead, our embrace of the KLA may come to
haunt us. Elections scheduled for this spring in Kosovo have been
delayed; but no matter when they occur, observers say, their outcome is
already certain. The time-honored clans will win. And the men in
oversized suits -- the kind who sing allegiance to democracy and global
capitalism while conducting business in the back of an unlicensed
Mercedes -- will be running the show.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
"DOPO IL NERO FASCISTA, IL NERO PRETE"
Risalii quest'estate ad Opicina.
Era con me un ragazzo comunista.
Tito sui muri s'iscriveva, in vista,
sotto, della mia bianca cittadina.
Nell'ora dei ricordi vespertina
sedemmo all'osteria, che ancora m'attrista,
oggi, se penso quella camerista
che ci servi' con volto d'assassina.
Due vecchie ebree, testarde villeggianti,
io, quel ragazzo, parlavamo ancora
lassu' italiano, tra i sassi e l'abete.
"Dopo il nero fascista il nero prete;
questa e' l'Italia, e lo sai. Perche' allora -
diceva il mio compagno - aver rimpianti?"
(Umberto Saba, "Opicina 1947".
Dalla raccolta "Epigrafe")
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Risalii quest'estate ad Opicina.
Era con me un ragazzo comunista.
Tito sui muri s'iscriveva, in vista,
sotto, della mia bianca cittadina.
Nell'ora dei ricordi vespertina
sedemmo all'osteria, che ancora m'attrista,
oggi, se penso quella camerista
che ci servi' con volto d'assassina.
Due vecchie ebree, testarde villeggianti,
io, quel ragazzo, parlavamo ancora
lassu' italiano, tra i sassi e l'abete.
"Dopo il nero fascista il nero prete;
questa e' l'Italia, e lo sai. Perche' allora -
diceva il mio compagno - aver rimpianti?"
(Umberto Saba, "Opicina 1947".
Dalla raccolta "Epigrafe")
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
* ZASTO SE SUDI NATO-U / PERCHE' LA NATO E' SOTTO ACCUSA
* ASSIJUG: INIZIATIVA A PERUGIA IL 15 APRILE
* A-B-C SOLIDARIETA' E PACE: UN AIUTO PER PANCEVO
----
ZASTO SE SUDI NATO-u
Zoran Kraljevski wrote:
> (...) Ovom prilikom zelim da Vas informisem da 04.04.2000 u Skoplju
> ide promocija moje knjige "Zasto se sudi Nato-u". Na promociji ce biti
> prikazan i dokumentarni film "Sramna godina sile" ciji sam autor ja, a
> na promociji knjige govorice eminentni intelektualci iz
> Makedonije. Knjiga ovde izaziva interesantne i zasad povoljne
> reakcije.
Dalla Repubblica ex-Jugoslava di Macedonia ci scrivono comunicandoci che
il giorno 4 aprile 2000 sara' ufficialmente presentato a Skoplje il
libro "Perche' la NATO e' sotto accusa", di Zoran Kraljevski. Con
l'occasione si terra' un dibattito e sara' proiettato il video "Un
vergognoso anno di violenza". Per informazioni: <nadj@...>
---
Sabato 15 Aprile ore 19.00
CENA SOCIALE E MUSICA BALCANICA IN
SOLIDARIETA' CON LA IUGOSLAVIA
A tutti gli iscritti e simpatizzanti dell'Associazione Italia-Iugoslavia
(ASSIJUG)
A tutti i sinceri democratici e antimperialisti
Sarà l'occasione per ritrovarci di nuovo tutti assieme, in un clima di
cordialità, simpatia e
amicizia. Approfitteremo dell'occasione
(1) per ascoltare gli amici e compagni appena tornati da Belgrado,
(2) l'esperto Marco Saba, che ci relazionerà sull'uso dell'uranio
impoverito da parte della
NATO e le le devastazioni ambientali subite dalla Iugoslavia
(3) discutere assieme anche dei progetti che di recente abbiamo
intrapreso e che sono già a
buon punto:
(a) il gemellaggio che si sta realizzando tra il Comune abruzzese di
Pizzo Ferrato e la
cittadina iugoslava di Bogatic; cosa importante, alla cena saranno
presenti anche il Sindaco
ed alcuni rappresentanti della Giunta comunale di Pizzo Ferrato che ci
parleranno dei motivi
di questa scelta così significativa e coraggiosa;
(b) la prevista rassegna cinematografica sul cinema iugoslavo che
abbiamo intenzione di
concludere entro il mese di Maggio invitando il famoso regista iugoslavo
Kosturica;
(c) la campagna di raccolta di fondi per la Iugoslavia: "Un Fiore per la
Ricostruzione" che
avvieremo nel prossimo Giugno.
Di altre iniziative previste parleremo nel corso della serata. La cena
sarà inoltre
l'occasione per lanciare il tesseramento all'Associazione per l'anno
2000, invitando chi non
l'ha ancora fatto a tesserarsi e gli altri a rinnovare la propria
adesione. L'appuntamento è
dunque per il giorno:
Sabato 15 Aprile ore 19.00
c/o la Casa del popolo di Casa del Diavolo
Strada Tiberina Nord
Casa del Diavolo -PG-
(superstrada E45, uscita Ponte Pattoli)
Partecipa e fai partecipare tutti, diffondi questo invito ad amici,
parenti, compagni di lavoro,
conoscenti!
Con amicizia.
l'Associazione Italia-Iugoslavia (ASSIJUG)
Per informazioni puoi rivolgerti: Associazione Italia-Iugoslavia
(Assijug) Via Duranti,5
06100 Perugia.
Tel/Fax 075-42686. E mail: assijug@.... o direttamente in sede
dalle 17.00 alle
19.30.
---
UN AIUTO A PANCEVO PER LE ANALISI DI ARIA E DI ACQUA
AVVELENATE DALLA NATO
per chi sia interessato il sito web dell'Associazione è il seguente:
http://www.freeweb.org/volontariato/abcsolidarieta/index1.htm
Gentili amici,
volevamo richiamare la vostra attenzione sull'iniziativa di aiuto a
Pancevo
per le analisi di aria e acqua avvelenate dalla Nato, avviata dal
quotidiano
“il manifesto” e “A, B, C, solidarietà e pace”. Molti di voi aiutano già
generosamente i bambini serbi, altri i bambini brasiliani o quelli della
Guinea Bissau, ma riteniamo doveroso, da parte nostra, informarvi
comunque
su questo nuovo progetto:
si tratta di aiutare i bambini e le loro famiglie a sopravvivere in
un'area
geografica contaminata dai bombardamenti della Nato reperendo o
acquistando
alcune apparecchiature di cui ha urgente bisogno l’Istituto di igiene e
tutela ambientale del Banato del sud (dott.ssa Mica Saric Tanaskovic).
Ovviamente renderemo conto a tutti del lavoro svolto.
Grazie e cordiali saluti.
p. A, B, C, solidarietà e pace
Franco Della Marra
Questo e' l'elenco del materiale di cui ha bisogno urgente l'Istituto
di igiene e tutela ambientale del Banato del sud (dottoressa Mica
Saric Tanaskovic - Pancevo):
STRUMENTI PER L'ANALISI DELL'ACQUA:
- Attrezzature (portatili) per il rilevamento della contaminazione
batteriologica e chimica
- Strumenti da campo
- Tester (Ph, EC, T, ORP) dell'acqua
- Colorimetro, torbidimetro
- Strumenti per laboratorio
- Attrezzature per la purificazione dell'acqua in grado di rendere
potabile acqua a basso livello ionico, organico, con presenze
liquidi infiammabili e batteri
- Spettrofotometro (di basso costo)
- Dosatori (0,2-1, 1-5; 5-3° ml)
- Unita' di flusso laminare dell'aria
- Unita' di analisi microbiologica
- Veicoli 4x4 per il monitoraggio e la raccolta di campioni sul campo
MONITORAGGIO DELL'ARIA:
- Strumenti da campo
- Analizzatori PID portatili e GC (PID, FID, FPD, ECD) portatili
- Strumenti trasportabili per il monitoraggio dell'aria
- Rack encolsure da 19 piedi
- Bagno con termostato
- Attrezzi per la campionatura degli alimenti e dell'acqua
- Spettrofotometro UV-VIS
Chi disponesse di qualcuno degli strumenti suelencati, o potesse
procurarli, e' pregato di contattare l'Associazione "ABC solidarieta'
e pace" (tel-fax: 06/4067358; 06/4063334; e-mail:
abcsolidarieta@...), che ne sta curando la raccolta in
collaborazione col quotidiano "Il manifesto".
Altrimenti, chi volesse comunque contribuire al lor acquisto puo'
servirsi del conto corrente postale n. 75377002 intestato
"ABC SOLIDARIETA' E PACE - VIA UMBERTO CALOSSO 50 - 00155 ROMA",
causale PANCEVO, ovvero del conto bancario n. 410197871 (01020-03219)
Banco di Sicilia Ag. 16 di Roma.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
* ASSIJUG: INIZIATIVA A PERUGIA IL 15 APRILE
* A-B-C SOLIDARIETA' E PACE: UN AIUTO PER PANCEVO
----
ZASTO SE SUDI NATO-u
Zoran Kraljevski wrote:
> (...) Ovom prilikom zelim da Vas informisem da 04.04.2000 u Skoplju
> ide promocija moje knjige "Zasto se sudi Nato-u". Na promociji ce biti
> prikazan i dokumentarni film "Sramna godina sile" ciji sam autor ja, a
> na promociji knjige govorice eminentni intelektualci iz
> Makedonije. Knjiga ovde izaziva interesantne i zasad povoljne
> reakcije.
Dalla Repubblica ex-Jugoslava di Macedonia ci scrivono comunicandoci che
il giorno 4 aprile 2000 sara' ufficialmente presentato a Skoplje il
libro "Perche' la NATO e' sotto accusa", di Zoran Kraljevski. Con
l'occasione si terra' un dibattito e sara' proiettato il video "Un
vergognoso anno di violenza". Per informazioni: <nadj@...>
---
Sabato 15 Aprile ore 19.00
CENA SOCIALE E MUSICA BALCANICA IN
SOLIDARIETA' CON LA IUGOSLAVIA
A tutti gli iscritti e simpatizzanti dell'Associazione Italia-Iugoslavia
(ASSIJUG)
A tutti i sinceri democratici e antimperialisti
Sarà l'occasione per ritrovarci di nuovo tutti assieme, in un clima di
cordialità, simpatia e
amicizia. Approfitteremo dell'occasione
(1) per ascoltare gli amici e compagni appena tornati da Belgrado,
(2) l'esperto Marco Saba, che ci relazionerà sull'uso dell'uranio
impoverito da parte della
NATO e le le devastazioni ambientali subite dalla Iugoslavia
(3) discutere assieme anche dei progetti che di recente abbiamo
intrapreso e che sono già a
buon punto:
(a) il gemellaggio che si sta realizzando tra il Comune abruzzese di
Pizzo Ferrato e la
cittadina iugoslava di Bogatic; cosa importante, alla cena saranno
presenti anche il Sindaco
ed alcuni rappresentanti della Giunta comunale di Pizzo Ferrato che ci
parleranno dei motivi
di questa scelta così significativa e coraggiosa;
(b) la prevista rassegna cinematografica sul cinema iugoslavo che
abbiamo intenzione di
concludere entro il mese di Maggio invitando il famoso regista iugoslavo
Kosturica;
(c) la campagna di raccolta di fondi per la Iugoslavia: "Un Fiore per la
Ricostruzione" che
avvieremo nel prossimo Giugno.
Di altre iniziative previste parleremo nel corso della serata. La cena
sarà inoltre
l'occasione per lanciare il tesseramento all'Associazione per l'anno
2000, invitando chi non
l'ha ancora fatto a tesserarsi e gli altri a rinnovare la propria
adesione. L'appuntamento è
dunque per il giorno:
Sabato 15 Aprile ore 19.00
c/o la Casa del popolo di Casa del Diavolo
Strada Tiberina Nord
Casa del Diavolo -PG-
(superstrada E45, uscita Ponte Pattoli)
Partecipa e fai partecipare tutti, diffondi questo invito ad amici,
parenti, compagni di lavoro,
conoscenti!
Con amicizia.
l'Associazione Italia-Iugoslavia (ASSIJUG)
Per informazioni puoi rivolgerti: Associazione Italia-Iugoslavia
(Assijug) Via Duranti,5
06100 Perugia.
Tel/Fax 075-42686. E mail: assijug@.... o direttamente in sede
dalle 17.00 alle
19.30.
---
UN AIUTO A PANCEVO PER LE ANALISI DI ARIA E DI ACQUA
AVVELENATE DALLA NATO
per chi sia interessato il sito web dell'Associazione è il seguente:
http://www.freeweb.org/volontariato/abcsolidarieta/index1.htm
Gentili amici,
volevamo richiamare la vostra attenzione sull'iniziativa di aiuto a
Pancevo
per le analisi di aria e acqua avvelenate dalla Nato, avviata dal
quotidiano
“il manifesto” e “A, B, C, solidarietà e pace”. Molti di voi aiutano già
generosamente i bambini serbi, altri i bambini brasiliani o quelli della
Guinea Bissau, ma riteniamo doveroso, da parte nostra, informarvi
comunque
su questo nuovo progetto:
si tratta di aiutare i bambini e le loro famiglie a sopravvivere in
un'area
geografica contaminata dai bombardamenti della Nato reperendo o
acquistando
alcune apparecchiature di cui ha urgente bisogno l’Istituto di igiene e
tutela ambientale del Banato del sud (dott.ssa Mica Saric Tanaskovic).
Ovviamente renderemo conto a tutti del lavoro svolto.
Grazie e cordiali saluti.
p. A, B, C, solidarietà e pace
Franco Della Marra
Questo e' l'elenco del materiale di cui ha bisogno urgente l'Istituto
di igiene e tutela ambientale del Banato del sud (dottoressa Mica
Saric Tanaskovic - Pancevo):
STRUMENTI PER L'ANALISI DELL'ACQUA:
- Attrezzature (portatili) per il rilevamento della contaminazione
batteriologica e chimica
- Strumenti da campo
- Tester (Ph, EC, T, ORP) dell'acqua
- Colorimetro, torbidimetro
- Strumenti per laboratorio
- Attrezzature per la purificazione dell'acqua in grado di rendere
potabile acqua a basso livello ionico, organico, con presenze
liquidi infiammabili e batteri
- Spettrofotometro (di basso costo)
- Dosatori (0,2-1, 1-5; 5-3° ml)
- Unita' di flusso laminare dell'aria
- Unita' di analisi microbiologica
- Veicoli 4x4 per il monitoraggio e la raccolta di campioni sul campo
MONITORAGGIO DELL'ARIA:
- Strumenti da campo
- Analizzatori PID portatili e GC (PID, FID, FPD, ECD) portatili
- Strumenti trasportabili per il monitoraggio dell'aria
- Rack encolsure da 19 piedi
- Bagno con termostato
- Attrezzi per la campionatura degli alimenti e dell'acqua
- Spettrofotometro UV-VIS
Chi disponesse di qualcuno degli strumenti suelencati, o potesse
procurarli, e' pregato di contattare l'Associazione "ABC solidarieta'
e pace" (tel-fax: 06/4067358; 06/4063334; e-mail:
abcsolidarieta@...), che ne sta curando la raccolta in
collaborazione col quotidiano "Il manifesto".
Altrimenti, chi volesse comunque contribuire al lor acquisto puo'
servirsi del conto corrente postale n. 75377002 intestato
"ABC SOLIDARIETA' E PACE - VIA UMBERTO CALOSSO 50 - 00155 ROMA",
causale PANCEVO, ovvero del conto bancario n. 410197871 (01020-03219)
Banco di Sicilia Ag. 16 di Roma.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
PERICOLOSO CERCARE DI CONTRASTARE LA DISINFORMAZIONE IN OCCIDENTE:
IL CASO DI "LIVING MARXISM" E DEL COLOSSO MEDIATICO ITN
Alcuni anni fa il giornalista tedesco Thomas Deichmann in un articolo
aveva svelato la truffa mediatica del campo di concentramento di
Trnopolje, presso Prijedor, nel quale i serbi avrebbero arbitrariamente
rinchiuso civili musulmani, tenendoli in condizioni di indigenza e
maltrattandoli. Nel suo articolo Deichmann sosteneva che i giornalisti
della ITN autori del principale reportage ad effetto su Trnopolje
avevano in realta' costruito un caso "a tavolino", tra l'altro chiedendo
ad un detenuto malato di sistemarsi dietro al filo spinato della
recinzione di una centralina elettrica per ottenere una foto che
destasse indignazione (sul caso si vedano:
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/lm-f97/lm-f97.html
http://www.informinc.co.uk/ITN-vs-LM/story/LM97_Bosnia.html ).
L'articolo di Deichmann apparve originariamente su "Living Marxism"
(LM), e poi sulla stampa in Germania e sul libro, curato dall'IAC, "NATO
in the Balkans" (in italiano "La NATO nei Balcani", Editori Riuniti
1999). La vicenda viene anche egregiamente spiegata in un filmato
recentemente prodotto da Emperor's Clothes negli USA (si veda piu' sotto
per le modalita' di spedizione della videocassetta).
Evidentemente colta in fallo, la ITN dopo alcuni tentennamenti ha
provveduto a fare causa a LM. La causa e' stata vinta pochi giorni fa
NON perche' LM abbia scritto il falso, ma perche' non e' riuscita a
dimostrare "oltre ogni ragionevole dubbio" di aver detto il vero, e
cioe' che i giornalisti della ITN Penny Marshall e Ian Williams sono dei
bugiardi privi di ogni scrupolo, oltreche' privi di deontologia.
Cosicche' adesso LM rischia di chiudere. Deve infatti risarcire la ITN
con la bellezza di 375mila sterline... Un chiaro monito per chiunque
voglia mettere i bastoni fra le ruote ai signori della guerra a mezzo
stampa.
SOLIDARIETA' CON "LIVING MARXISM"!
CONTRIBUIAMO ALLA SOPRAVVIVENZA DELLA RIVISTA!
CRJ, 31/3/2000
---
>
> STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
>
> THE END OF LM MAGAZINE
> Statement by Mick Hume, editor
>
> On Tuesday 14 March, the High Court ordered the connections of LM
> magazine to pay ITN and two of its journalists a total of #375 000 in
> libel damages. The next day, we received a letter from ITN's lawyers,
> Biddle, demanding the money. Within a week they had sent another demand,
> with court order attached.
>
> As a consequence of this, Informinc (LM) Ltd, the company which
> publishes the magazine, is now having to go into liquidation, cease
> trading and make its employees redundant. Myself as editor, and Helene
> Guldberg as co-publisher, also face the threat of personal bankruptcy.
>
> The current April 2000 edition of LM will be the last monthly issue. We
> are trying to raise the finance to publish a final, bumper issue of LM
> in the summer, and go out with all guns blazing.
>
> The LM-initiated Institute of Ideas, a series of events planned to take
> place from June to July, will go ahead in partnership with major
> institutions in London, including the British Library, the Royal
> Institution, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Society of Arts,
> Tate Modern, and the Union Chapel Project. A new company, the Academy of
> Ideas, has been set up by Claire Fox to coordinate these events.
>
> We would like to thank all of our subscribers and Friends of LM for
> their support. They will be contacted directly about the implications of
> the magazine's closure.
>
> Anybody who can help to finance the final issue of LM should get in
> touch with Helene Guldberg on (020) 7269 9228.
>
> The LM Online website will continue to operate for the time being. As
> for the post-LM future of magazine publishing, watch this space.
>
---
From www.emperors-clothes.com - "JUDGEMENT" (Please forward!)
--- At last we have visual proof that the media lied about Yugoslavia
We have just finished production work on the English version of a
stunning
new film - "JUDGMENT." It exposes the tricks used to concoct phony
pictures
of a nonexistent Serbian 'death camp' in 1992. These doctored images --
especially the famous emaciated man behind barbed wire -- were broadcast
worldwide to dehumanize the Serbs. They led to the deaths of thousands
and
great suffering for millions of human beings.
"JUDGMENT" PROVES THOSE PICTURES WERE CYNICAL FABRICATIONS.
We urge you: Buy this film today Give a copy to a friend who doesn't
want to
believe the mass media would fabricate phony atrocity pictures. Show
this
film on TV stations, show it to local organizations, get it reviewed in
local
papers. It will change people's minds. It will change your mind.
TELLING THE TRUTH, AND OTHER CRIMES
Last week the British alternative magazine, LM, was fined over $500,000
US
for libel. LM had printed a story that that charged British news
station ITN
and reporters Penny Marshall and Ian Williams with fraud. LM said ITN
had
faked the "death camp" pictures to demonize the Serbs.
The Judge in the libel case admitted that ITN might have made some
mistakes.
But he argued: the LM people weren't in Bosnia that day. So how could
LM be
sure what was really happening there?
IN FACT another film crew was present the entire time. They filmed the
footage used in "JUDGMENT".
"JUDGMENT", proves LM was simply telling the truth. "JUDGMENT" proves
Penny
Marshall lied. "JUDGMENT" shows how Marshall produced the picture that
fooled the world and justified a war.
The ITN crew visited a POW center and a refugee camp. By sheer luck
they
were accompanied by a crew from Serbian television (RTS). The RTS crew
filmed the ITN crew at work. Using this RTS footage, a small Yugoslav
film
studio has recreated the events of that day. Emperors-Clothes edited
the
Yugoslav movie to produce the English language film, "JUDGMENT".
RTS is the TV station that NATO bombed in April, 1999, killing 20
people.
The film is dedicated to those dead, whose murders began with the ITN
pictures. We say this because the images that Penny Marshall fabricated
in
1992 began the dehumanization of the Serbian people. ITN and Penny
Marshall
laid the political basis for the bombing of the Bosnian loyalist
government
and of Serbia itself a year ago.
WHAT THIS FILM PROVES
1) The Loyalist ("Serbian") Authorities were humane.
>From the pictures that ITN produced one would think that Marshall and her
crew had sneaked into a death camp and shot their film when nobody was
watching. Not so. The ITN crew visited two surprisingly casual and
humane
locations. They were protected but not controlled by the loyalist
authorities whom they later compared to Nazi's.
2) Marshall KNEW the loyalists were humane.
She and the crew from RTS interviewed POWs', their wives, non-POW
refugees, a
doctor, at least one red cross worker, the commander of the POW Center.
The
film shows these interviews. Marshall simply suppressed this evidence
of
humane treatment. Instead she staged some pictures. These were then
doctored to produce Nazi-like images for mass consumption. The height
of
cynicism and dishonesty.
3) The refugees SAID they were treated decently.
Marshall is shown arguing with one refugee. She tries to coerce the man
to
say something anti-Yugoslav. He refuses. "No, no," he protests
vehemently.
"Not a prison. No, no. REFUGEE center. They treat us very kind. No,
no,
very kind." Undeterred, Marshall used this very location to stage her
phony
death camp shots.
4) Marshall staged the death camp sequence seen around the world.
She went out of her way to film from inside an awkward storage area.
Why?
Because one side had what she wanted: a fence, mainly chicken wire but
with a
few strands of barbed wire at the top. Shooting through the barbed
wire,
Marshall talked to refugees OUTSIDE the fence. She then doctored the
raw
footage to produce false images of prisoners behind barbed wire.
5) Marshall and Ian Williams were filmed in the act of lying.
The amazing thing is -- the RTS people were filming a few feet away.
They
caught the same shots from a slightly different angle. They got
pictures of
Marshall, Ian Williams, a cameraman, a man holding a mike. You will
see,
step by step, just how Marshall doctored her pictures to produce the
look of
a Nazi death camp. That is, the film takes footage shot by RTS and then
proceeds to alter it, as you watch, producing the phony ITN photos of
Nazi-like atrocities.
This film will change people's minds.
It documents that Marshall and ITN have committed the worst crime
against
humanity: they lied to millions of people in order to justify a war.
Order the film now for $19.95 plus shipping and handling. Show it to
everyone you can.
VHS TAPES NOW AVAILABLE (Prices on PAL and SECAM tapes as soon as
possible)
Base price, $19.95 plus $1 tax ONLY in Massachusetts
Cost including shipping and handling:
2-3 days within US - $25.00
1 day in Massachusetts - $26.00
Next day outside Massachusetts but within US add $11.00
Europe (5 days) $26.50
New Zealand, Australia and Japan (about 6 days) Total $30.00
Canada 2-3 days - $26.00
Rest of Asia, Africa, former Soviet Union, etc. - $22.00
(Special shipping available on request)
ORDER BY MAIL, BY SECURE SERVER OR BY PHONE
BY MAIL - send check and instructions to EMPERORS CLOTHES, PO Box
610-321,
Newton, MA 02461-0321 Please state how you heard about the film.
BY PHONE - call 617-916-1705 from 8:30 am to 4:30 PM Eastern Standard
Time
BY SECURE SERVER - go to http://emperors-clothes.com/howyour.html#donate
Pay the appropriate amount AS A DONATION. Then PLEASE email us stating
the
amount donated and the number of films desired. Send the email to
emperors1000@... This must be done so we'll know your donation is to
pay
for the film! Please also state how you heard about the film.
WE PRESENTLY HAVE FILMS IN STOCK. WE CAN REPLENISH STOCK WITHIN TWO
DAYS.
VIEW it. SHOW it to friends. MAIL IT to friends and relatives. SHOW
it to
organizations, churches, unions, at schools. GET it on TV.
NOTE TO WEBSITES, MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS AND TV STATIONS: IF YOU
ADVERTISE
THIS FILM YOUR ORGANIZATION CAN RECEIVE A COMMISSION FOR EVERY FILM YOU
HELP
TO SELL. Drop us an email for details. Emperors1000@.... So far
the
film is being distributed by emperors-clothes.com and antiwar.com. Care
to
join us?
---
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 23:42:57 +0000
From: Philip Hammond <hammonpb@...>
Reply-To: "STOP NATO: NO PASARAN!" <STOPNATO@...>
Organization: South Bank University
To: "STOP NATO: NO PASARAN!" <STOPNATO@...>
STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
I imagine many people will have already seen the Thomas Deichmann
article; what you may not know is that Deichmann was in court today
(Friday) because of it, as was Mick Hume, the editor of the magazine
(LM, formerly Living Marxism) which originally published the story.
The libel suit brought by ITN is going through the High Court in London
at the moment, and will reach a conclusion soon. The judge is expected
to begin summing up early next week. If it is successful, ITN will
bankrupt the magazine, its publishers and editor.
For details of the case and some transcripts of court proceedings visit:
http://www.informinc.co.uk/itn-vs-lm/court/index.html
Interestingly, ITN appears to have lost a crucial videotape of the uncut
rushes from which the report was edited together -- an accident, of
course...
---
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 22:42:08 +0000
From: Philip Hammond <hammonpb@...>
Reply-To: "STOP NATO: NO PASARAN!" <STOPNATO@...>
Organization: South Bank University
To: "STOP NATO: NO PASARAN!" <STOPNATO@...>
STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
Peter Bein wrote:
>
> Can you notify us of the court ruling, Philip? Or will it be on the site you
> link to?
-----------------
The verdict was today: ITN won, & was awarded damages amounting to
375,000 pounds. LM editor Mick Hume said:
'The only thing this court case has proved 'beyond reasonable
doubt' is
that English libel law is a disgrace to democracy and a menace to a free
press.
'As libel defendants, we were assumed to be guilty unless we
could
prove our innocence. The court threw out all of our expert witnesses,
including John Simpson of the BBC and a leading QC. The judge's summing
up was so one-sided that it made ITN's overpaid barrister redundant. And
even though the central fact in our article concerning the position of
the barbed-wire fence in relation to the journalists has never been
seriously challenged, we could not win because the law demanded that we
prove the unprovable.
'We apologise for nothing. But we will not be appealing. Life
is too
short, and other issues too important, to waste any more time in the
bizarre world of the libel courts.
'As I told the judge and jury, I believe in the right of people
to
judge the truth for themselves in the court of public opinion. What we
are allowed to read or hear should not be dictated by ITN, their
lawyers, or even the High Court.
'The future of LM magazine is now uncertain. But we are not
going away,
and we will not keep quiet about the concerns that led us to publish
Thomas Deichmann's article and, reluctantly, to fight this case: freedom
of speech, journalistic standards, and the exploitation of the
Holocaust.
'We would like to thank all those who have supported our stand
for free
speech over the past three years, and our legal team led by Gavin
Millar, who won everything except the verdict.
'In the meantime, if anybody needs a hard-working editor or has
some
cash to invest in an exciting magazine project....'
In due course, further details may become available at
http://www.informinc.co.uk/itn-vs-lm/court/index.html, but the site has
closed down for the moment.
Needless to say, the verdict is a blow for the truth about Bosnia, as
well as free speech. ITN has always admitted Trnopolje was not a
Nazi-style concentration camp: but when its pictures were broadcast
around the world as evidence that it was, ITN did not contradict this
impression. ITN has also not contested Deichmann's revelation that the
'camp' was not surrounded by barbed wire, as it seemed to be in the
reports. That's British justice for you...
---
------------------------------------
SUPPORT LM Magazine!
------------------------------------
(please forward this message as much as you can!)
There is a little book written by Mr. Michael Hume, the editor of LM,
called "Whose war is it anyway? The dangers of the Journalism of
Attachment." If you have not read it, you can get it via LM web page
(it's
about $7 -£5 and you would be supporting them against the libel with
ITN). I
will quote some paragraphs:
"Srebrenica became one of the world media's favourite symbols of Serb
aggression and Muslim suffering after the town was besieged by Bosnian
Serbs in 1993. Since Srebrenica fell in 1995 horror stories of massacres
and alleged mass graves have filled the news. Yet who can recall seeing
reports of the events which led up to the Serb assault on Srebrenica?
Between April 1992, when the war in Bosnia began, and January 1993,
muslim forces drove almost every Serb out of Srebrenica town, while 50
nearby Serbian villages were burned down and many of their inhabitants
killed. By March 1993, 1200 Serbs are estimated to have been killed and
about 3000 wounded, in this small corner of eastern Bosnia. (These
events
were the subject of Clive Gordon's award-winning documentary, "The
Unforgiving", Channel 4 UK, August 1993)
"Yet it was only when the ragtag local Serb army started to mobilise to
push the Muslim back to Srebrenica and away from nearby Bratunac that
the conflict hit the headlines. Suddenly journalists were flocking to
get to
the besieged Muslim enclave, having largely ignored the previous attack
on
Serbs. The Muslims of Srebrenica and the Serbs of Bratunac both
suffered.
But while many in the West have heard of Srebrenica, who has heard of
Bratunac?..."
Regards,
Francisco Javier Bernal
PS: The Merchandise page of LM's site can be found at
http://www.informinc.co.uk/LM/transact/bookstore/index.html
---
The Times (London), 17 March 2000
After ITN's libel victory this week over LM magazine Mick Hume, its
Editor, says the law is a menace to a free press
[PHOTOGRAPH]
Victory: ITN reporters Penny Marshall and Ian Williams
(Photograph: MICHAEL WALTER/PA)
Spare any change guv?
On Tuesday the High Court ordered the connections of LM magazine to pay
ITN and two of its journalists a total of #375,000 in libel damages. On
Wednesday we received a letter from ITN's lawyers, Biddle, demanding to
know when we are going to send them the money. Umm, can I owe you until
I get paid at the end of the month?
Forget about the big bill for legal costs, those damages are more than
enough to bankrupt the cash-strapped defendants: myself as Editor, LM's
co-publisher Helene Guldberg, and the publishing company. As I said on
the steps of the court, what this case has proved "beyond reasonable
doubt" is that English libel law is a disgrace to democracy and a menace
to a free press. The use of that law by a large news organisation
against a magazine with a circulation of 10,000 could have far-reaching
implications for independent and investigative journalism.
Under the libel law, we were assumed to be guilty unless we could prove
our innocence - the reverse of natural justice. Little wonder that only
one in ten libel defendants wins in court.
At the pre-trial review, Mr Justice Morland ruled that none of our
expert witnesses - including John Simpson of the BBC, the writer Phillip
Knightley and a leading QC - could give evidence. So when the case came
to trial, there were 18 ITN witnesses versus me and Thomas Deichmann,
the German author of the article in question, published in LM three
years ago. Presumably that is what the law means by "a level playing
field". Even when our barrister, Gavin Millar, scored heavily in
cross-examination, it did not seem to make any difference to the court.
As the BBC's Nick Higham reported on the evening of the verdict:
"Summing up, Mr Justice Morland told the jury that LM's facts might have
been right, but he asked, did that matter?"
That summing up was so one-sided that it made ITN's barrister redundant.
It reached its nadir when, having quoted extensively from ITN witnesses,
the judge told the jury that he was not going to mention anything that I
or Mr Deichmann had said, because we were not at Trnopolje camp in
northern Bosnia on August 5, 1992. But if eyewitness accounts cannot be
challenged after the event, where does that leave critical journalism?
Advising the jury on damages, the judge said that somebody who lost both
arms in an accident might receive compensation of #100,000, so awarding
the ITN journalists more than #150,000 each for their hurt feelings
would be "excessive". He also said that damages would be aggravated if
the defence had strenuously cross-examined the claimants. The more
robustly we defended ourselves, the higher price we would have to pay.
As a champion of the jury system, I do not blame the jurors who voted
against us after four hours of deliberation. We could not win because
the law demanded that we prove the unprovable - what was going on in the
ITN journalists' minds eight years ago. We have apologised for nothing
but we are not going to appeal. Life is too short to waste any more
time in the bizarre world of the libel courts. The dust-and-wood-polish
atmosphere of Court 14 is no place for journalists to debate important
issues. As I said in the witness box, I believe that people should have
the right to judge the truth for themselves in the court of public
opinion.
The future of our magazine is on the line. Those who know LM will
appreciate that we do not intend to go quietly into the night. Whatever
happens, the attempt to set a new agenda for discussion will carry on.
The LM-initiated events planned for the summer - the month-long
Institute of Ideas and the debates at the Edinburgh festivals - will go
ahead. There is life after a libel trial.
In the meantime, if anybody needs a hard-working editor or has some
money to invest in a magazine that stands up for free speech ...
Mick Hume is the Editor of LM magazine and a Times columnist.
---
Observer, Sunday March 19, 2000
Richard Ingrams' week
Grub St winds around the Inns of Court
Miss Penny Marshall, the ITN journalist who won #150,000 in a libel
action last week against the obscure left-wing magazine, Living Marxism,
or LM as it now calls itself, must have led a very sheltered life. In
the course of her evidence she said that the libel had upset her 'more
than anything that ever happened to me'.
Such evidence of extreme sensitivity on the part of a journalist comes
as no surprise to me, because it is a sad fact that a large number of
those who bring libel actions and then talk in this way in the witness
box are members of my own so-called profession.
Over the years I have had to listen to scores of journalists bearing
their sensitive souls before the jury. I remember, in particular, the
late Nora Beloff, once the political correspondent of this paper,
describing her deep shock and horror when Auberon Waugh wrote in Private
Eye that she had been to bed with every member of Harold Wilson's
Cabinet, though he added: 'No impropriety occurred.'
More shocking perhaps is the apparent belief of hacks that a victory in
the libel courts represents a complete vindication of their motives or
that the truth of any matter is best decided ultimately by a judge and
jury. You have only to call to mind the various rogues and scoundrels
who have won huge damages in recent years to realise that truth is the
very last thing to come out of a libel action.
As to the ITN report from Bosnia that caused all the trouble, I find the
picture of two smiling journalists on the Law Court steps, richer now
between them by #300,000, rather more shocking than the picture of
emaciated Muslims in a Serb detention camp.
[...]
---
Guardian, Saturday March 18, 2000
Lies and libel
As the Irving and ITN cases show, the court is no place to establish the
truth
Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Whatever the verdicts, neither action should have been brought. Whatever
the rights and wrongs in either case, the two libel actions which ended
in London this week show yet again how harsh and obscurantist our libel
laws are.
In the suit brought by Penny Marshall and Ian Williams of ITN, the jury
awarded the plaintiffs heavy damages against the magazine LM. The even
weirder action brought by David Irving against Deborah Lipstadt and her
publisher was heard by a judge without a jury. Judgment is reserved and
will be given later.
Both cases ostensibly concerned history and truth. The ITN reporters
claimed that LM had accused them of fabricating a story about the Serb
concentration camp at Trnopolje in Bosnia. Irving says Lipstadt had
accused him of being a "Holocaust denier". While we await the Irving
result, Marshall and Williams claim they have now been vindicated. But
have they?
Whether or not they should have been, neither case could have been
brought in the United States, not since an historic judgment a
quarter-century ago. A broad public-interest defence was extended so
that it is very difficult for a public figure - which plainly includes
the ITN reporters and Irving - to sue for libel.
So far from any such protection for the media, our own libel laws are
heavily stacked against the defendant. A plaintiff doesn't have to prove
any material loss, only that feelings have been hurt and reputation
damaged, something easy to assert but impossible either to quantify or
refute in court. Uniquely in law, the burden of proof is on the
defendant, who has to prove the truth of what was written.
Admirers of the law, like the late Lord Goodman, speciously say that
truth is an absolute defence. But exact truth is likewise very difficult
to demonstrate in court, and an attempt to do so may well be held to
aggravate the libel. As a result, the mere threat of libel is too often
used to silence a newspaper which understandably prefers the discretion
of an apology to the valour of a defended action. If a brazen or frankly
perjurious plaintiff has strong enough nerves, he can push all the way.
Neil Hamilton might have got away with it, Jonathan Aitken nearly got
away with it, and Jeffrey Archer actually did get away with it.
Not that this is a party-political question. One of the most shameful
of all such cases was the "Venetian blind", as it was jocosely known in
the Labour party. In 1957, an article in the Spectator skittishly
suggested that three Labour politicians had been drinking a good deal at
a Socialist conference in Venice. The three, Aneurin Bevan, Richard
Crossman and Morgan Phillips, sued, testified on oath to their sobriety,
and won large damages. Fifteen years later, Crossman boasted (in my
presence) that they had indeed all been toping heavily, and that at
least one of them had been blind drunk.
Apart from questions of truth and falsehood, the latest cases illustrate
the sheer oppressiveness of a law which can be used to punish or even
ruin a foe. Whatever the outcome, it is outrageous that Deborah
Lipstadt should have to give up years of her life to this case, and
spend many weeks in court, with nothing to gain.
While Irving has conducted his own case, the defendants retained the
usual array of solicitors, silk and junior. It has been obvious from the
start that Irving couldn't pay his opponents' costs if he lost. He can
only declare himself bankrupt and leave Lipstadt and Penguin with a bill
more likely in seven figures than six. What is the legal concept of the
vexatious litigant for if not to prevent such an abuse?
If anything, the other case was almost worse, and not just because of
the sight of a huge, rich news organisation using the law to crush a
tiny magazine, however cranky or even obnoxious. It's not often that
Noam Chomsky, Roy Greenslade and Auberon Waugh can be found on the same
side, but their round-robin letter saying that freedom of speech and
media criticism have been curtailed by the ITN case is surely correct.
According to Richard Tait, the editor-in-chief of ITN, the case was
necessary to defend the integrity of the two reporters, and according to
Ed Vulliamy "the law now records that Penny Marshall and Ian Williams
(and myself for that matter) did not lie but told the truth". These
claims are frankly absurd.
Personally (though I don't have to add a rhetorical "Am I alone ...?",
since I know I am not), my view of Bosnia, ITN and LM has been in no way
whatever affected by the case. If anything, I think the less of the
plaintiffs than before, not to say of David Irving. If there are
historical disputes about Auschwitz or Trnopolje, a law court is the
worst possible place to conduct them.
Does Vulliamy seriously believe that our libel courts always establish
the truth? And are Marshall and Williams really happy to find
themselves alongside Lord Archer, of whom the law also once recorded
that he did not lie but told the truth?
The best outcome of these wretched proceedings would a reform of the
law. It is too much to hope that the burden of proving the falsehood of
a statement should be placed on the plaintiff. But there should be a
much broader public-interest defence, and the law of libel - written
defamation - should be assimilated to the law of slander, spoken or
fleeting defamation, in which the plaintiff has to prove actual damage
or material loss.
The trouble is that a reform would have to be introduced in parliament.
And, as the names of Aitken and Archer, not to say Bevan and Crossman,
remind us, politicians have all too much partiality to the existing law.
So we will be stuck with a law which grossly infringes free speech while
producing no real winners. Apart from the lawyers, that is, who have
enjoyed the real victories these past weeks.
As Ogden Nash so well put it: "Professional people have no cares -
Whatever happens, they get theirs."
---
Question and be damned
The case of ITN vs LM only goes to show that it doesn't pay to challenge
a journalist
By Helene Guldberg, LM's Publisher
The Independent, 21 March 2000
In an article headlined "ITN sued journalists to strike a blow for free
speech", published in the Daily Telegraph on 17 March, Richard Tait, the
editor-in-chief of ITN, argues that "attempts to ruin the reputations of
honest journalists are a far greater threat to freedom of speech than
the use of the law to protect those who have been libelled".
In summing up, ITN's silk Tom Shields argued that the recognition in
law of the importance of reputation indicates the democratic nature of
our society. So, in this case, has English libel law struck the correct
balance between the right to a reputation and the right to free speech?
First, let's get some things straight. It has been suggested that there
was a campaign orchestrated by LM magazine against ITN and its two
journalists, Penny Marshall and Ian Williams, and that this is why ITN
felt compelled to sue LM. There was no such campaign. There was an
article - "The picture that fooled the world" - published in February
1997 and there was a press release. Both were critical of the two
journalists concerned, and many of Ms Marshall's colleagues subsequently
phoned her enquiring about the allegations. These phone calls were cited
in the witness box as evidence of the distress she suffered. But all
that has happened is that the journalists' actions in relation to a
particular news broadcast have been criticised. As Thomas Deichmann, the
author of the article, said outside the High Court: "The job of
journalists is to investigate and criticise. If they cannot stand the
heat without running to the High Court, they should get out of the
kitchen."
Journalists, more than most, have means to rebut allegations they feel
are unjust. Ian Williams and Richard Tait have had articles published
since their libel victory. Could they not have done so in 1997 rather
than taking legal action? The use of libel law as a last resort may be
understandable, when all other avenues have failed. As a first resort,
it is inexcusable.
If LM magazine went running to the High Court whenever libelled, we
would be multimillionaires by now (as would many other journalists).
Were we foolhardy to risk our future by taking the principled stance of
refusing to back down and apologise? ITN has since suggested that it
offered us a way out back in September 1997. But the truth is that ITN
gave us no other option. Before even having read the article, ITN
instructed its solicitors to demand we apologise, destroy all copies of
the magazine and pay costs and damages. ITN dragged us to court. It was
prepared to waive damages; but it still demanded that we apologise in
Open Court and in our magazine, as well as footing ITN's legal bill,
which we could have hardly afforded then. In the end, the journalists
were awarded "aggravated damages" for the additional "hurt" of being
subjected to strenuous cross-examination - amounting to a total of
#375,000.
Within 24 hours of the verdict a letter arrived from ITN's solicitors
stating any delay in payment would entitle them to interest. But setting
damages and interest aside, ITN's legal bill alone could bankrupt the
magazine's publishing company, Mick Hume and myself. As many
commentators pointed out last week, the High Court is not the best place
to establish the truth of allegations. The odds are overwhelmingly in
favour of those who sue - therefore having a chilling effect on free
speech. It is presumed that the defamatory statement is false - and the
burden falls on the defendant to prove its truth - a reverse burden of
proof that is almost unique to English libel law. The defendant not only
has to defend the literal meaning - but also possible interpretations or
unintended meanings. It is no wonder defendants only have a one in 10
chance of success!
In Court 14 last week the jury was asked: "Have the defendants
established that Penny Marshall and Ian Williams had compiled television
footage which deliberately misrepresented an emaciated Bosnian Muslim,
Fikret Alic, as being caged behind a barbed-wire fence at the
Serbian-run Trnopolje camp on 5 August 1992 by the selective use of
videotape shots of him?" And the word "deliberately" was emphasised by
the judge. The answer from the jury was "no". In other words, we were
unable to prove what went on in the journalist's heads. In his summing
up, the judge said: "Clearly Ian Williams and Penny Marshall and their
television teams were mistaken in thinking they were not enclosed by the
old barbed-wire fence, but does it matter?"
The implications of this trial for journalism are far-reaching. If
journalists' reputations and feelings are more important than a free
press then the message is not to question the word according to
reporters. If libel is the guarantor of free speech and democracy, then
journalism is the tame creature of bland inoffensiveness.
--------- 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 CASO DI "LIVING MARXISM" E DEL COLOSSO MEDIATICO ITN
Alcuni anni fa il giornalista tedesco Thomas Deichmann in un articolo
aveva svelato la truffa mediatica del campo di concentramento di
Trnopolje, presso Prijedor, nel quale i serbi avrebbero arbitrariamente
rinchiuso civili musulmani, tenendoli in condizioni di indigenza e
maltrattandoli. Nel suo articolo Deichmann sosteneva che i giornalisti
della ITN autori del principale reportage ad effetto su Trnopolje
avevano in realta' costruito un caso "a tavolino", tra l'altro chiedendo
ad un detenuto malato di sistemarsi dietro al filo spinato della
recinzione di una centralina elettrica per ottenere una foto che
destasse indignazione (sul caso si vedano:
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/lm-f97/lm-f97.html
http://www.informinc.co.uk/ITN-vs-LM/story/LM97_Bosnia.html ).
L'articolo di Deichmann apparve originariamente su "Living Marxism"
(LM), e poi sulla stampa in Germania e sul libro, curato dall'IAC, "NATO
in the Balkans" (in italiano "La NATO nei Balcani", Editori Riuniti
1999). La vicenda viene anche egregiamente spiegata in un filmato
recentemente prodotto da Emperor's Clothes negli USA (si veda piu' sotto
per le modalita' di spedizione della videocassetta).
Evidentemente colta in fallo, la ITN dopo alcuni tentennamenti ha
provveduto a fare causa a LM. La causa e' stata vinta pochi giorni fa
NON perche' LM abbia scritto il falso, ma perche' non e' riuscita a
dimostrare "oltre ogni ragionevole dubbio" di aver detto il vero, e
cioe' che i giornalisti della ITN Penny Marshall e Ian Williams sono dei
bugiardi privi di ogni scrupolo, oltreche' privi di deontologia.
Cosicche' adesso LM rischia di chiudere. Deve infatti risarcire la ITN
con la bellezza di 375mila sterline... Un chiaro monito per chiunque
voglia mettere i bastoni fra le ruote ai signori della guerra a mezzo
stampa.
SOLIDARIETA' CON "LIVING MARXISM"!
CONTRIBUIAMO ALLA SOPRAVVIVENZA DELLA RIVISTA!
CRJ, 31/3/2000
---
>
> STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
>
> THE END OF LM MAGAZINE
> Statement by Mick Hume, editor
>
> On Tuesday 14 March, the High Court ordered the connections of LM
> magazine to pay ITN and two of its journalists a total of #375 000 in
> libel damages. The next day, we received a letter from ITN's lawyers,
> Biddle, demanding the money. Within a week they had sent another demand,
> with court order attached.
>
> As a consequence of this, Informinc (LM) Ltd, the company which
> publishes the magazine, is now having to go into liquidation, cease
> trading and make its employees redundant. Myself as editor, and Helene
> Guldberg as co-publisher, also face the threat of personal bankruptcy.
>
> The current April 2000 edition of LM will be the last monthly issue. We
> are trying to raise the finance to publish a final, bumper issue of LM
> in the summer, and go out with all guns blazing.
>
> The LM-initiated Institute of Ideas, a series of events planned to take
> place from June to July, will go ahead in partnership with major
> institutions in London, including the British Library, the Royal
> Institution, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Society of Arts,
> Tate Modern, and the Union Chapel Project. A new company, the Academy of
> Ideas, has been set up by Claire Fox to coordinate these events.
>
> We would like to thank all of our subscribers and Friends of LM for
> their support. They will be contacted directly about the implications of
> the magazine's closure.
>
> Anybody who can help to finance the final issue of LM should get in
> touch with Helene Guldberg on (020) 7269 9228.
>
> The LM Online website will continue to operate for the time being. As
> for the post-LM future of magazine publishing, watch this space.
>
---
From www.emperors-clothes.com - "JUDGEMENT" (Please forward!)
--- At last we have visual proof that the media lied about Yugoslavia
We have just finished production work on the English version of a
stunning
new film - "JUDGMENT." It exposes the tricks used to concoct phony
pictures
of a nonexistent Serbian 'death camp' in 1992. These doctored images --
especially the famous emaciated man behind barbed wire -- were broadcast
worldwide to dehumanize the Serbs. They led to the deaths of thousands
and
great suffering for millions of human beings.
"JUDGMENT" PROVES THOSE PICTURES WERE CYNICAL FABRICATIONS.
We urge you: Buy this film today Give a copy to a friend who doesn't
want to
believe the mass media would fabricate phony atrocity pictures. Show
this
film on TV stations, show it to local organizations, get it reviewed in
local
papers. It will change people's minds. It will change your mind.
TELLING THE TRUTH, AND OTHER CRIMES
Last week the British alternative magazine, LM, was fined over $500,000
US
for libel. LM had printed a story that that charged British news
station ITN
and reporters Penny Marshall and Ian Williams with fraud. LM said ITN
had
faked the "death camp" pictures to demonize the Serbs.
The Judge in the libel case admitted that ITN might have made some
mistakes.
But he argued: the LM people weren't in Bosnia that day. So how could
LM be
sure what was really happening there?
IN FACT another film crew was present the entire time. They filmed the
footage used in "JUDGMENT".
"JUDGMENT", proves LM was simply telling the truth. "JUDGMENT" proves
Penny
Marshall lied. "JUDGMENT" shows how Marshall produced the picture that
fooled the world and justified a war.
The ITN crew visited a POW center and a refugee camp. By sheer luck
they
were accompanied by a crew from Serbian television (RTS). The RTS crew
filmed the ITN crew at work. Using this RTS footage, a small Yugoslav
film
studio has recreated the events of that day. Emperors-Clothes edited
the
Yugoslav movie to produce the English language film, "JUDGMENT".
RTS is the TV station that NATO bombed in April, 1999, killing 20
people.
The film is dedicated to those dead, whose murders began with the ITN
pictures. We say this because the images that Penny Marshall fabricated
in
1992 began the dehumanization of the Serbian people. ITN and Penny
Marshall
laid the political basis for the bombing of the Bosnian loyalist
government
and of Serbia itself a year ago.
WHAT THIS FILM PROVES
1) The Loyalist ("Serbian") Authorities were humane.
>From the pictures that ITN produced one would think that Marshall and her
crew had sneaked into a death camp and shot their film when nobody was
watching. Not so. The ITN crew visited two surprisingly casual and
humane
locations. They were protected but not controlled by the loyalist
authorities whom they later compared to Nazi's.
2) Marshall KNEW the loyalists were humane.
She and the crew from RTS interviewed POWs', their wives, non-POW
refugees, a
doctor, at least one red cross worker, the commander of the POW Center.
The
film shows these interviews. Marshall simply suppressed this evidence
of
humane treatment. Instead she staged some pictures. These were then
doctored to produce Nazi-like images for mass consumption. The height
of
cynicism and dishonesty.
3) The refugees SAID they were treated decently.
Marshall is shown arguing with one refugee. She tries to coerce the man
to
say something anti-Yugoslav. He refuses. "No, no," he protests
vehemently.
"Not a prison. No, no. REFUGEE center. They treat us very kind. No,
no,
very kind." Undeterred, Marshall used this very location to stage her
phony
death camp shots.
4) Marshall staged the death camp sequence seen around the world.
She went out of her way to film from inside an awkward storage area.
Why?
Because one side had what she wanted: a fence, mainly chicken wire but
with a
few strands of barbed wire at the top. Shooting through the barbed
wire,
Marshall talked to refugees OUTSIDE the fence. She then doctored the
raw
footage to produce false images of prisoners behind barbed wire.
5) Marshall and Ian Williams were filmed in the act of lying.
The amazing thing is -- the RTS people were filming a few feet away.
They
caught the same shots from a slightly different angle. They got
pictures of
Marshall, Ian Williams, a cameraman, a man holding a mike. You will
see,
step by step, just how Marshall doctored her pictures to produce the
look of
a Nazi death camp. That is, the film takes footage shot by RTS and then
proceeds to alter it, as you watch, producing the phony ITN photos of
Nazi-like atrocities.
This film will change people's minds.
It documents that Marshall and ITN have committed the worst crime
against
humanity: they lied to millions of people in order to justify a war.
Order the film now for $19.95 plus shipping and handling. Show it to
everyone you can.
VHS TAPES NOW AVAILABLE (Prices on PAL and SECAM tapes as soon as
possible)
Base price, $19.95 plus $1 tax ONLY in Massachusetts
Cost including shipping and handling:
2-3 days within US - $25.00
1 day in Massachusetts - $26.00
Next day outside Massachusetts but within US add $11.00
Europe (5 days) $26.50
New Zealand, Australia and Japan (about 6 days) Total $30.00
Canada 2-3 days - $26.00
Rest of Asia, Africa, former Soviet Union, etc. - $22.00
(Special shipping available on request)
ORDER BY MAIL, BY SECURE SERVER OR BY PHONE
BY MAIL - send check and instructions to EMPERORS CLOTHES, PO Box
610-321,
Newton, MA 02461-0321 Please state how you heard about the film.
BY PHONE - call 617-916-1705 from 8:30 am to 4:30 PM Eastern Standard
Time
BY SECURE SERVER - go to http://emperors-clothes.com/howyour.html#donate
Pay the appropriate amount AS A DONATION. Then PLEASE email us stating
the
amount donated and the number of films desired. Send the email to
emperors1000@... This must be done so we'll know your donation is to
pay
for the film! Please also state how you heard about the film.
WE PRESENTLY HAVE FILMS IN STOCK. WE CAN REPLENISH STOCK WITHIN TWO
DAYS.
VIEW it. SHOW it to friends. MAIL IT to friends and relatives. SHOW
it to
organizations, churches, unions, at schools. GET it on TV.
NOTE TO WEBSITES, MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS AND TV STATIONS: IF YOU
ADVERTISE
THIS FILM YOUR ORGANIZATION CAN RECEIVE A COMMISSION FOR EVERY FILM YOU
HELP
TO SELL. Drop us an email for details. Emperors1000@.... So far
the
film is being distributed by emperors-clothes.com and antiwar.com. Care
to
join us?
---
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 23:42:57 +0000
From: Philip Hammond <hammonpb@...>
Reply-To: "STOP NATO: NO PASARAN!" <STOPNATO@...>
Organization: South Bank University
To: "STOP NATO: NO PASARAN!" <STOPNATO@...>
STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
I imagine many people will have already seen the Thomas Deichmann
article; what you may not know is that Deichmann was in court today
(Friday) because of it, as was Mick Hume, the editor of the magazine
(LM, formerly Living Marxism) which originally published the story.
The libel suit brought by ITN is going through the High Court in London
at the moment, and will reach a conclusion soon. The judge is expected
to begin summing up early next week. If it is successful, ITN will
bankrupt the magazine, its publishers and editor.
For details of the case and some transcripts of court proceedings visit:
http://www.informinc.co.uk/itn-vs-lm/court/index.html
Interestingly, ITN appears to have lost a crucial videotape of the uncut
rushes from which the report was edited together -- an accident, of
course...
---
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 22:42:08 +0000
From: Philip Hammond <hammonpb@...>
Reply-To: "STOP NATO: NO PASARAN!" <STOPNATO@...>
Organization: South Bank University
To: "STOP NATO: NO PASARAN!" <STOPNATO@...>
STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
Peter Bein wrote:
>
> Can you notify us of the court ruling, Philip? Or will it be on the site you
> link to?
-----------------
The verdict was today: ITN won, & was awarded damages amounting to
375,000 pounds. LM editor Mick Hume said:
'The only thing this court case has proved 'beyond reasonable
doubt' is
that English libel law is a disgrace to democracy and a menace to a free
press.
'As libel defendants, we were assumed to be guilty unless we
could
prove our innocence. The court threw out all of our expert witnesses,
including John Simpson of the BBC and a leading QC. The judge's summing
up was so one-sided that it made ITN's overpaid barrister redundant. And
even though the central fact in our article concerning the position of
the barbed-wire fence in relation to the journalists has never been
seriously challenged, we could not win because the law demanded that we
prove the unprovable.
'We apologise for nothing. But we will not be appealing. Life
is too
short, and other issues too important, to waste any more time in the
bizarre world of the libel courts.
'As I told the judge and jury, I believe in the right of people
to
judge the truth for themselves in the court of public opinion. What we
are allowed to read or hear should not be dictated by ITN, their
lawyers, or even the High Court.
'The future of LM magazine is now uncertain. But we are not
going away,
and we will not keep quiet about the concerns that led us to publish
Thomas Deichmann's article and, reluctantly, to fight this case: freedom
of speech, journalistic standards, and the exploitation of the
Holocaust.
'We would like to thank all those who have supported our stand
for free
speech over the past three years, and our legal team led by Gavin
Millar, who won everything except the verdict.
'In the meantime, if anybody needs a hard-working editor or has
some
cash to invest in an exciting magazine project....'
In due course, further details may become available at
http://www.informinc.co.uk/itn-vs-lm/court/index.html, but the site has
closed down for the moment.
Needless to say, the verdict is a blow for the truth about Bosnia, as
well as free speech. ITN has always admitted Trnopolje was not a
Nazi-style concentration camp: but when its pictures were broadcast
around the world as evidence that it was, ITN did not contradict this
impression. ITN has also not contested Deichmann's revelation that the
'camp' was not surrounded by barbed wire, as it seemed to be in the
reports. That's British justice for you...
---
------------------------------------
SUPPORT LM Magazine!
------------------------------------
(please forward this message as much as you can!)
There is a little book written by Mr. Michael Hume, the editor of LM,
called "Whose war is it anyway? The dangers of the Journalism of
Attachment." If you have not read it, you can get it via LM web page
(it's
about $7 -£5 and you would be supporting them against the libel with
ITN). I
will quote some paragraphs:
"Srebrenica became one of the world media's favourite symbols of Serb
aggression and Muslim suffering after the town was besieged by Bosnian
Serbs in 1993. Since Srebrenica fell in 1995 horror stories of massacres
and alleged mass graves have filled the news. Yet who can recall seeing
reports of the events which led up to the Serb assault on Srebrenica?
Between April 1992, when the war in Bosnia began, and January 1993,
muslim forces drove almost every Serb out of Srebrenica town, while 50
nearby Serbian villages were burned down and many of their inhabitants
killed. By March 1993, 1200 Serbs are estimated to have been killed and
about 3000 wounded, in this small corner of eastern Bosnia. (These
events
were the subject of Clive Gordon's award-winning documentary, "The
Unforgiving", Channel 4 UK, August 1993)
"Yet it was only when the ragtag local Serb army started to mobilise to
push the Muslim back to Srebrenica and away from nearby Bratunac that
the conflict hit the headlines. Suddenly journalists were flocking to
get to
the besieged Muslim enclave, having largely ignored the previous attack
on
Serbs. The Muslims of Srebrenica and the Serbs of Bratunac both
suffered.
But while many in the West have heard of Srebrenica, who has heard of
Bratunac?..."
Regards,
Francisco Javier Bernal
PS: The Merchandise page of LM's site can be found at
http://www.informinc.co.uk/LM/transact/bookstore/index.html
---
The Times (London), 17 March 2000
After ITN's libel victory this week over LM magazine Mick Hume, its
Editor, says the law is a menace to a free press
[PHOTOGRAPH]
Victory: ITN reporters Penny Marshall and Ian Williams
(Photograph: MICHAEL WALTER/PA)
Spare any change guv?
On Tuesday the High Court ordered the connections of LM magazine to pay
ITN and two of its journalists a total of #375,000 in libel damages. On
Wednesday we received a letter from ITN's lawyers, Biddle, demanding to
know when we are going to send them the money. Umm, can I owe you until
I get paid at the end of the month?
Forget about the big bill for legal costs, those damages are more than
enough to bankrupt the cash-strapped defendants: myself as Editor, LM's
co-publisher Helene Guldberg, and the publishing company. As I said on
the steps of the court, what this case has proved "beyond reasonable
doubt" is that English libel law is a disgrace to democracy and a menace
to a free press. The use of that law by a large news organisation
against a magazine with a circulation of 10,000 could have far-reaching
implications for independent and investigative journalism.
Under the libel law, we were assumed to be guilty unless we could prove
our innocence - the reverse of natural justice. Little wonder that only
one in ten libel defendants wins in court.
At the pre-trial review, Mr Justice Morland ruled that none of our
expert witnesses - including John Simpson of the BBC, the writer Phillip
Knightley and a leading QC - could give evidence. So when the case came
to trial, there were 18 ITN witnesses versus me and Thomas Deichmann,
the German author of the article in question, published in LM three
years ago. Presumably that is what the law means by "a level playing
field". Even when our barrister, Gavin Millar, scored heavily in
cross-examination, it did not seem to make any difference to the court.
As the BBC's Nick Higham reported on the evening of the verdict:
"Summing up, Mr Justice Morland told the jury that LM's facts might have
been right, but he asked, did that matter?"
That summing up was so one-sided that it made ITN's barrister redundant.
It reached its nadir when, having quoted extensively from ITN witnesses,
the judge told the jury that he was not going to mention anything that I
or Mr Deichmann had said, because we were not at Trnopolje camp in
northern Bosnia on August 5, 1992. But if eyewitness accounts cannot be
challenged after the event, where does that leave critical journalism?
Advising the jury on damages, the judge said that somebody who lost both
arms in an accident might receive compensation of #100,000, so awarding
the ITN journalists more than #150,000 each for their hurt feelings
would be "excessive". He also said that damages would be aggravated if
the defence had strenuously cross-examined the claimants. The more
robustly we defended ourselves, the higher price we would have to pay.
As a champion of the jury system, I do not blame the jurors who voted
against us after four hours of deliberation. We could not win because
the law demanded that we prove the unprovable - what was going on in the
ITN journalists' minds eight years ago. We have apologised for nothing
but we are not going to appeal. Life is too short to waste any more
time in the bizarre world of the libel courts. The dust-and-wood-polish
atmosphere of Court 14 is no place for journalists to debate important
issues. As I said in the witness box, I believe that people should have
the right to judge the truth for themselves in the court of public
opinion.
The future of our magazine is on the line. Those who know LM will
appreciate that we do not intend to go quietly into the night. Whatever
happens, the attempt to set a new agenda for discussion will carry on.
The LM-initiated events planned for the summer - the month-long
Institute of Ideas and the debates at the Edinburgh festivals - will go
ahead. There is life after a libel trial.
In the meantime, if anybody needs a hard-working editor or has some
money to invest in a magazine that stands up for free speech ...
Mick Hume is the Editor of LM magazine and a Times columnist.
---
Observer, Sunday March 19, 2000
Richard Ingrams' week
Grub St winds around the Inns of Court
Miss Penny Marshall, the ITN journalist who won #150,000 in a libel
action last week against the obscure left-wing magazine, Living Marxism,
or LM as it now calls itself, must have led a very sheltered life. In
the course of her evidence she said that the libel had upset her 'more
than anything that ever happened to me'.
Such evidence of extreme sensitivity on the part of a journalist comes
as no surprise to me, because it is a sad fact that a large number of
those who bring libel actions and then talk in this way in the witness
box are members of my own so-called profession.
Over the years I have had to listen to scores of journalists bearing
their sensitive souls before the jury. I remember, in particular, the
late Nora Beloff, once the political correspondent of this paper,
describing her deep shock and horror when Auberon Waugh wrote in Private
Eye that she had been to bed with every member of Harold Wilson's
Cabinet, though he added: 'No impropriety occurred.'
More shocking perhaps is the apparent belief of hacks that a victory in
the libel courts represents a complete vindication of their motives or
that the truth of any matter is best decided ultimately by a judge and
jury. You have only to call to mind the various rogues and scoundrels
who have won huge damages in recent years to realise that truth is the
very last thing to come out of a libel action.
As to the ITN report from Bosnia that caused all the trouble, I find the
picture of two smiling journalists on the Law Court steps, richer now
between them by #300,000, rather more shocking than the picture of
emaciated Muslims in a Serb detention camp.
[...]
---
Guardian, Saturday March 18, 2000
Lies and libel
As the Irving and ITN cases show, the court is no place to establish the
truth
Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Whatever the verdicts, neither action should have been brought. Whatever
the rights and wrongs in either case, the two libel actions which ended
in London this week show yet again how harsh and obscurantist our libel
laws are.
In the suit brought by Penny Marshall and Ian Williams of ITN, the jury
awarded the plaintiffs heavy damages against the magazine LM. The even
weirder action brought by David Irving against Deborah Lipstadt and her
publisher was heard by a judge without a jury. Judgment is reserved and
will be given later.
Both cases ostensibly concerned history and truth. The ITN reporters
claimed that LM had accused them of fabricating a story about the Serb
concentration camp at Trnopolje in Bosnia. Irving says Lipstadt had
accused him of being a "Holocaust denier". While we await the Irving
result, Marshall and Williams claim they have now been vindicated. But
have they?
Whether or not they should have been, neither case could have been
brought in the United States, not since an historic judgment a
quarter-century ago. A broad public-interest defence was extended so
that it is very difficult for a public figure - which plainly includes
the ITN reporters and Irving - to sue for libel.
So far from any such protection for the media, our own libel laws are
heavily stacked against the defendant. A plaintiff doesn't have to prove
any material loss, only that feelings have been hurt and reputation
damaged, something easy to assert but impossible either to quantify or
refute in court. Uniquely in law, the burden of proof is on the
defendant, who has to prove the truth of what was written.
Admirers of the law, like the late Lord Goodman, speciously say that
truth is an absolute defence. But exact truth is likewise very difficult
to demonstrate in court, and an attempt to do so may well be held to
aggravate the libel. As a result, the mere threat of libel is too often
used to silence a newspaper which understandably prefers the discretion
of an apology to the valour of a defended action. If a brazen or frankly
perjurious plaintiff has strong enough nerves, he can push all the way.
Neil Hamilton might have got away with it, Jonathan Aitken nearly got
away with it, and Jeffrey Archer actually did get away with it.
Not that this is a party-political question. One of the most shameful
of all such cases was the "Venetian blind", as it was jocosely known in
the Labour party. In 1957, an article in the Spectator skittishly
suggested that three Labour politicians had been drinking a good deal at
a Socialist conference in Venice. The three, Aneurin Bevan, Richard
Crossman and Morgan Phillips, sued, testified on oath to their sobriety,
and won large damages. Fifteen years later, Crossman boasted (in my
presence) that they had indeed all been toping heavily, and that at
least one of them had been blind drunk.
Apart from questions of truth and falsehood, the latest cases illustrate
the sheer oppressiveness of a law which can be used to punish or even
ruin a foe. Whatever the outcome, it is outrageous that Deborah
Lipstadt should have to give up years of her life to this case, and
spend many weeks in court, with nothing to gain.
While Irving has conducted his own case, the defendants retained the
usual array of solicitors, silk and junior. It has been obvious from the
start that Irving couldn't pay his opponents' costs if he lost. He can
only declare himself bankrupt and leave Lipstadt and Penguin with a bill
more likely in seven figures than six. What is the legal concept of the
vexatious litigant for if not to prevent such an abuse?
If anything, the other case was almost worse, and not just because of
the sight of a huge, rich news organisation using the law to crush a
tiny magazine, however cranky or even obnoxious. It's not often that
Noam Chomsky, Roy Greenslade and Auberon Waugh can be found on the same
side, but their round-robin letter saying that freedom of speech and
media criticism have been curtailed by the ITN case is surely correct.
According to Richard Tait, the editor-in-chief of ITN, the case was
necessary to defend the integrity of the two reporters, and according to
Ed Vulliamy "the law now records that Penny Marshall and Ian Williams
(and myself for that matter) did not lie but told the truth". These
claims are frankly absurd.
Personally (though I don't have to add a rhetorical "Am I alone ...?",
since I know I am not), my view of Bosnia, ITN and LM has been in no way
whatever affected by the case. If anything, I think the less of the
plaintiffs than before, not to say of David Irving. If there are
historical disputes about Auschwitz or Trnopolje, a law court is the
worst possible place to conduct them.
Does Vulliamy seriously believe that our libel courts always establish
the truth? And are Marshall and Williams really happy to find
themselves alongside Lord Archer, of whom the law also once recorded
that he did not lie but told the truth?
The best outcome of these wretched proceedings would a reform of the
law. It is too much to hope that the burden of proving the falsehood of
a statement should be placed on the plaintiff. But there should be a
much broader public-interest defence, and the law of libel - written
defamation - should be assimilated to the law of slander, spoken or
fleeting defamation, in which the plaintiff has to prove actual damage
or material loss.
The trouble is that a reform would have to be introduced in parliament.
And, as the names of Aitken and Archer, not to say Bevan and Crossman,
remind us, politicians have all too much partiality to the existing law.
So we will be stuck with a law which grossly infringes free speech while
producing no real winners. Apart from the lawyers, that is, who have
enjoyed the real victories these past weeks.
As Ogden Nash so well put it: "Professional people have no cares -
Whatever happens, they get theirs."
---
Question and be damned
The case of ITN vs LM only goes to show that it doesn't pay to challenge
a journalist
By Helene Guldberg, LM's Publisher
The Independent, 21 March 2000
In an article headlined "ITN sued journalists to strike a blow for free
speech", published in the Daily Telegraph on 17 March, Richard Tait, the
editor-in-chief of ITN, argues that "attempts to ruin the reputations of
honest journalists are a far greater threat to freedom of speech than
the use of the law to protect those who have been libelled".
In summing up, ITN's silk Tom Shields argued that the recognition in
law of the importance of reputation indicates the democratic nature of
our society. So, in this case, has English libel law struck the correct
balance between the right to a reputation and the right to free speech?
First, let's get some things straight. It has been suggested that there
was a campaign orchestrated by LM magazine against ITN and its two
journalists, Penny Marshall and Ian Williams, and that this is why ITN
felt compelled to sue LM. There was no such campaign. There was an
article - "The picture that fooled the world" - published in February
1997 and there was a press release. Both were critical of the two
journalists concerned, and many of Ms Marshall's colleagues subsequently
phoned her enquiring about the allegations. These phone calls were cited
in the witness box as evidence of the distress she suffered. But all
that has happened is that the journalists' actions in relation to a
particular news broadcast have been criticised. As Thomas Deichmann, the
author of the article, said outside the High Court: "The job of
journalists is to investigate and criticise. If they cannot stand the
heat without running to the High Court, they should get out of the
kitchen."
Journalists, more than most, have means to rebut allegations they feel
are unjust. Ian Williams and Richard Tait have had articles published
since their libel victory. Could they not have done so in 1997 rather
than taking legal action? The use of libel law as a last resort may be
understandable, when all other avenues have failed. As a first resort,
it is inexcusable.
If LM magazine went running to the High Court whenever libelled, we
would be multimillionaires by now (as would many other journalists).
Were we foolhardy to risk our future by taking the principled stance of
refusing to back down and apologise? ITN has since suggested that it
offered us a way out back in September 1997. But the truth is that ITN
gave us no other option. Before even having read the article, ITN
instructed its solicitors to demand we apologise, destroy all copies of
the magazine and pay costs and damages. ITN dragged us to court. It was
prepared to waive damages; but it still demanded that we apologise in
Open Court and in our magazine, as well as footing ITN's legal bill,
which we could have hardly afforded then. In the end, the journalists
were awarded "aggravated damages" for the additional "hurt" of being
subjected to strenuous cross-examination - amounting to a total of
#375,000.
Within 24 hours of the verdict a letter arrived from ITN's solicitors
stating any delay in payment would entitle them to interest. But setting
damages and interest aside, ITN's legal bill alone could bankrupt the
magazine's publishing company, Mick Hume and myself. As many
commentators pointed out last week, the High Court is not the best place
to establish the truth of allegations. The odds are overwhelmingly in
favour of those who sue - therefore having a chilling effect on free
speech. It is presumed that the defamatory statement is false - and the
burden falls on the defendant to prove its truth - a reverse burden of
proof that is almost unique to English libel law. The defendant not only
has to defend the literal meaning - but also possible interpretations or
unintended meanings. It is no wonder defendants only have a one in 10
chance of success!
In Court 14 last week the jury was asked: "Have the defendants
established that Penny Marshall and Ian Williams had compiled television
footage which deliberately misrepresented an emaciated Bosnian Muslim,
Fikret Alic, as being caged behind a barbed-wire fence at the
Serbian-run Trnopolje camp on 5 August 1992 by the selective use of
videotape shots of him?" And the word "deliberately" was emphasised by
the judge. The answer from the jury was "no". In other words, we were
unable to prove what went on in the journalist's heads. In his summing
up, the judge said: "Clearly Ian Williams and Penny Marshall and their
television teams were mistaken in thinking they were not enclosed by the
old barbed-wire fence, but does it matter?"
The implications of this trial for journalism are far-reaching. If
journalists' reputations and feelings are more important than a free
press then the message is not to question the word according to
reporters. If libel is the guarantor of free speech and democracy, then
journalism is the tame creature of bland inoffensiveness.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
ALBA 30/3/2000 -----------------------------------
LA MARINA GRECA HA SPARATO SUI SOLDATI ALBANESI?
Albanian Daily News March 30, 2000
Greek Navy Shoots Against Albanian Ground Soldiers
TIRANA- Greek military forces opened Tuesday a
ten-minute fire against Albanian soldiers, serving
their compulsory military term in the south of
country, press reports said.
The Albanian Ministry of Order said in a press release
that "on March 28, 2000, a Greek navy boat has fired
several automatic bursts at our territory over a
period of about 10 minutes from its position in the
middle of the channel between Saranda and Corfu, about
two miles off our coast."
Under these circumstances the border police responded
by firing back, a spokesman of the Public Order
Ministry said in a first moment. That information was
later denied by the ministry.
The reasons for the incident are still unclear, and
additional information is not released by Greek
authorities, nor by Albanian ones.
Furthermore, the case remains unclear, while Albanian
border guards have reported that similar incidents
have been repeatedly rendered by Greek soldiers. The
gravest incident was registered five years ago, when
Greek extremists stormed an Albanian army barracks
near the Albanian-Greek border killing an officer and
two soldiers.
Press reports echoed the spiral of Greek-Albanian
military "friendship", taking into account that a
couple of hundreds Greek soldiers are serving their
duties in the heart of Albania to offer assistance and
training to the Albanian police and army.
The opposition has repeatedly opposed the presence of
Greek troops in Albania, and has demanded that the
mission's deadline be fixed.
The ministry of foreign affairs is currently trying to
clarify the latest incident, at the request of the
ministry of public order.
Greek diplomats have repeatedly stated that, despite
certain incidents committed by some soldiers, the
"relations between Greece and Albania are at their
best."
B92 29/3/2000 --------------------------------------
NON E' L'ARMATA JUGOSLAVA A CERCARE LA GUERRA CIVILE
IN MONTENEGRO
Army will never attack Montenegro: Bulatovic
BELGRADE, Wednesday - The Yugoslav Army would not move against the
legally
elected Montenegrin government for any reason, even the case of the
republic's secession from the federation, Federal Prime Minister Momir
Bulatovic said today. Bulatovic, the Belgrade aparatchik who was ousted
as
president of Montenegro in 1998, told media in Italy that Montenegro had
the
right to independence if its people chose that in a free and democratic
referendum.
TERRORISMO IN SERBIA MERIDIONALE
Bomb in southern Serbia
KRALJEVO, Wednesday - A security officer was injured when a bomb
exploded on
the premises of the state-owned company Progres in the southern Serbian
town
of Raska last night. The guard, Dragan Lukovic, suffered minor injuries
in
the explosion and was admitted to hospital in Kraljevo. The incident was
the
second bomb attack in the town in the past week. On March 22 a bomb was
thrown at the local office of the Democratic Party.
UNA DELEGAZIONE ONU PER "MONITORARE" IL FALLIMENTO DELL'ONU
UN monitoring delegation for Kosovo
NEW YORK, Wednesday - The UN Security Council has resolved to appoint a
delegation to monitor the work of the UN civilian administration in
Kosovo,
Council Chairman Anwarul Chowdhury said today. The delegation is to
observe
the implementation of Security Resolution 1244 in the province, assess
the
difficulties facing the UN's civilian mission and deliver a stern
message to
all parties to cease hostilities and commit themselves to establishing a
civilian society in Kosovo.
20 MILIONI DI EURO DAL "PATTO PER LA STABILITA'", CIOE' DALLA
TRILATERAL, DRITTI NELLE TASCHE DEL SECESSIONISMO MONTENEGRINO
Pact for Stability donors snub Serbia, give 20 million Euros to
Montenegro
BRUSSELS, Wednesday - A Montenegrin delegation to the Pact for Stability
in
Southeast Europe's donors conference today signed an agreement for
assistance
of twenty million Euros. Opening the two-day conference, European
Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten reiterated the West's
message
that assistance would not be available to Serbia under the Pact's
programs
while Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic remained in power.
Representatives of the Serbian opposition attended the conference today
as
observers, discussing the democratisation of Serbia and the independence
of
Kosovo with European and US representatives in the Trilateral
Commission.
AIM 29/3/2000 --------------------------------------------------
ANCORA VELENI NEL DANUBIO DALLA ROMANIA
ROMANIAN GOLD MINING COMPANY POLLUTES RIVERS AGAIN
BUCHAREST, Romania, March 29, 2000 (RFE/RL)
Some 10,000 tons of lead residue has spilled into the Rivers
Vaser and Viseu, tributaries of the Tisa River. The incident was
caused by the Aurul company in Baia Borsa that was responsible for
the cyanide spill in early February. The company failed to notify the
authorities of the spill, which occurred on 27 March during heavy
rainfalls that resulted in the breaking of a five-meter stretch of a
dam, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau and Reuters reported.
Samples of water from the Tisa show lead is 2.7 times over
permitted levels. Environment Minster Romica Tomescu visited the area
on 28 March, together with World Bank director for Romania Andrew
Vorkink, who is currently in Romania to see how the bank can help
that country cope with ecological problems as well as improve health
care and wildlife conservation.
BOMBA DISINNESCATA A PRISTINA
UNMIK SABOTAGED
PRISTINA, March 29, 2000 (SRNA)
United Nations' and KFOR police officers deactivated a bomb
today in Pristina, near the UN civil mission building. No one was
injured in the incident and the bomb was placed in a box which was
spotted on time. The traffic in that part of the city was blocked
temporarily until there was no more danger.
An explosive device went off on Tuesday in downtown Pristina,
the device was located in a container. No material damage was caused
by the explosion which happened at 13:20, near the sport center 'Boro
i Ramiz'.
DIENSTBIER (ONU) CRITICO SULLA SITUAZIONE IN KOSMET
UN EXPERT: NATO SHOULD ACCEPT ITS BOMBING OF YUGOSLAVIA FAILED
GENEVA, Switzerland, March 29, 2000 (The Associated Press)
NATO should admit that its bombing of Yugoslavia failed and
send in ground forces to battle extremist Albanians and restore the
ethnic balance in Kosovo, a U.N. expert said Wednesday.
"The bombing hasn't solved any problems. It only multiplied the
existing problems and created new ones," Jiri Dienstbier said after
presenting his report to the 53-nation U.N. Commission on Human
Rights.
Dienstbier, a former foreign minister of Czechoslovakia, listed
the results of NATO's 78-day air campaign to stop Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic's repression of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians. "The
Yugoslav economy was destroyed. Kosovo is destroyed. There are
hundreds of thousands of people unemployed now," he said. "There is
a very general pessimism."
Peacekeepers in the province have only one option now _ to be
prepared to fight on the ground against extremist Kosovo Albanians
so that the ethnic balance with Serbs and others in the province can
be restored, he said.
He said he found United States officials in the region generally
share his pessimistic view.
POLEMICHE TRA MESIC (EX-HDZ) ED I SOCIALDEMOCRATICI
SUL RUOLO DEL PRESIDENTE IN CROAZIA
MESIC THREATENS REFERENDUM ON PRESIDENCY
ZAGREB, Croatia, March 29, 2000 (RFE/RL)
Croatian President Stipe Mesic said on 28 March that he will
call a referendum on whether to limit or "abolish" the powers of the
president if unnamed members of the government persist with what he
called moves to "abolish" his powers.
Mesic charged that the initiatives to limit his authority come
from members of the larger two-party coalition, who are unhappy that
a member of the smaller four-party coalition won the presidency.
Earlier this year, before the presidential vote, all political
parties agreed on the need to reduce the powers enjoyed by the late
President Franjo Tudjman. Since his election, Mesic has stressed that
he will use the presidency as a check on the government.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I RUSSI SEMPRE PIU' INSODDISFATTI DELLA SITUAZIONE IN KOSMET
WEDNESDAY MARCH 29 2000
Russians plan Kosovo intervention, warns general
Yugoslav army to launch ground offensive against NATO?
By I. J. Toby Westerman
2000 WorldNetDaily.com
A high-ranking Russian general has warned that Russia is preparing plans
for military intervention in Kosovo, and that the Yugoslav army could
launch a ground offensive against NATO troops in the war-ravaged
province, according to an official Russian news report.
Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov's comments were broadcast on the "Voice
of Russia" World Service Short Wave Radio Broadcast, the official
broadcasting service of the Russian government.
Ivashov condemned the growing violence in Kosovo and warned the turmoil
there could spread into the Balkans and into Europe. Ivashov called for
emergency measures to end the violence in the region, and to suppress
what he referred to as "Albanian terrorists." He also demanded that NATO
follow U.N. resolution 1244, which calls for a settlement of the
conflict that includes continued Yugoslav rule in Kosovo.
Well acquainted with the politics of the region, in June 1999 Ivashov
conducted Russia's negotiations with the U.S. Department of Defense
regarding Russia's role in the peacekeeping operations following NATO's
air war against Yugoslavia.
In the midst of these negotiations, Russian paratroopers seized the
airport in Kosovo's capital city of Pristina.
Until the Russian paratroopers came into Pristina, NATO had avoided
giving Russia any kind of "zone of responsibility."
The Voice of Russia added its own warning to that of Ivashov, stating,
"Clearly these words are a signal of approaching disaster, and Moscow is
not exaggerating."
In order to avoid war in Kosovo, the Voice of Russia demands that NATO
end sanctions against Yugoslavia and that the alliance holds direct
talks with the Belgrade government.
At present, the leader of the Belgrade government, Slobodan Milosevic,
is an indicted war criminal.
"Delay is fraught with danger," the Russian broadcasting service stated
gravely. In addition to the people of Yugoslavia, the threat of war
hangs over "nationals of other countries" who believe they are
unaffected by the region's events.
Ivashov's remarks follow by less than two weeks similar statements made
by the Russian Defense Minister, Igor Sergeyev. In an address to a
special session of the lower house of the Russian legislature, the State
Duma, Sergeyev stated that Yugoslav troops could confront NATO, and that
Russian forces could find themselves in a standoff with the Western
alliance.
Since the end of the air war against Yugoslavia, Moscow has consistently
decried the treatment of the Kosovo Serbs at the hands of NATO. Moscow
cites the large number of refugees, most of whom are Serbs, fleeing
Kosovo, and the ill treatment of the remaining Serb population at the
hands of the ethnic Albanians.
The situation in Kosovo has become so disordered that NATO leaders find
themselves in a precarious position.
Moscow's support of Yugoslavia is deeply rooted in history and remains
intense. Yugoslavia has been granted permanent observer status at the
parliament sessions of the union state of Russia and Belarus, and there
has even been discussion in some political circles in Moscow and Minsk
of admitting Yugoslavia into the Russian/Belarussian union.
One year after NATO's victory over Yugoslavia, any real resolution to
Kosovo appears as remote as ever.
I. J. Toby Westerman is a contributing editor to WorldNetDaily.com and
WorldNet magazine.
LA REPUBBLICA 28/3/2000 ----------------------------------
"IL TIMES" URLA AL COMPLOTTO SERBO PER UCCIDERE I CAPI NATO,
"LA REPUBBLICA" RILANCIA, LA NATO STESSA SMENTISCE
L'elicottero su cui viaggiavano il segretario
e il generale Clark rischiava di essere abbattuto da missili
Complotto di Belgrado per eliminare i vertici Nato
Sarebbe stata la Cia a sventare l'attentato
Ma l'Alleanza non conferma: "Rinvio per motivi operativi"
LONDRA - Non sarebbero state "ragioni di ordine pratico" a far saltare
venerdì scorso la visita a Mitrovica del segretario generale della Nato
Lord George Robertson e del generale Wesley Clark, ma un complotto.
Organizzato dai serbi e sventato in extremis dalla Cia, per abbattere,
nell'anniversario dello scoppio della guerra dei Balcani, l'elicottero
che trasportava i vertici della Nato in Kosovo. La notizia, che non è
stata cenfermata dall'Alleanza atlantica, è uscita oggi sulle pagine
della versione online del Times di Londra. Una rivelazione che farebbe
rientrare tutte le critiche che la mancata missione aveva suscitato:
non era stata la tensione, ancora alta nella cittadina, a sconsigliare
la visita dei due diplomatici, ma un complotto di Belgrado.
L'episodio non trova però riscontri sul fronte Nato. "Non abbiamo
alcuna informazione in questo senso", ha detto oggi un portavoce della
Nato. "L'itinerario è stato cambiato per motivi operativi in quanto
c'era stato un forte ritardo in partenza dal Belgio".
Secondo il Times, invece, i missili erano pronti per abbattere
l'elicottero sui cieli balcanici. Una tragedia evitata all'ultimo
minuto con un cambiamento di programma organizzato in tutta fretta.
Robertson e Clark avrebbero dovuto partire dal Belgio per raggiungere
Skopje, in Macedonia e quindi arrivare a bordo di un velivolo militare
a Pristina, dove erano attesi alle 9 del mattino. Sono invece atterrati
in Kosovo con cinque ore di ritardo alle 2.30 del pomeriggio,
percorrendo un itinerario completamente diverso e assolutamente top
secret. Tagliato anche il programma: le nove ore di visita previste
sono quattro.
E a Pristina ci sono arrivati partendo da una base aerea statunitense,
quella di Ramstein, in Germania. Da lì, a bordo di un Hercules C130
sono arrivati nei Balcani. Evitata la tragedia, l'allarme rimane.
Sebbene i servizi segreti statunitensi, sottolinea il Times, non
abbiano reso noto tutti i dettagli del fallito attentato "ci sono
ragioni sufficienti per mantenere l'allerta", anche perché gli alti
ranghi occidentali che si recano a Pristina percorrono di solito la
stessa rotta.
AP 28/3/2000 --------------------------------------------
PROTESTE IN GRECIA CONTRO LE MANOVRE DELLA NATO
http://www.newsday.com/ap/topnews/ap463.htm
Greek Protesters Delay NATO Convoy
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) -- Left-wing demonstrators
stopped a convoy of NATO military trucks early Tuesday
as they tried to head to Kosovo, spray painting
slogans on the vehicles and smashing one window,
authorities said.
A group of about 80 protesters rushed the British,
French and Italian vehicles as they were leaving this
northern Greek city's main port and heading to Kosovo
to resupply the NATO-led peacekeeping force there.
The incident, which delayed the convoy for about 2{
hours, reflected deep opposition in Greece to the NATO
air campaign against Yugoslavia.
The demonstrators clambered over the 65-vehicle
convoy, which mainly carried supply containers, and
smashed the windshield of an Italian vehicle with a
rock. No injuries were reported.
A first group of 25 vehicles, all French, managed to
leave the port before the protesters gathered, said
Maj. Stamatis Lazarou, a Greek army spokesman.
The vast majority of Greeks vehemently opposed NATO's
78-day airstrikes against fellow Christian Orthodox
Serbs last year, and held almost daily protest
rallies, some of which turned violent.
Communist-led protesters have frequently disrupted
military convoys in Thessaloniki, a major resupply
point on the route to peacekeepers in Kosovo.
Demonstrators often block the exits to the port from
where the troops and vehicles depart, and have also
blocked rail lines and roads and attacked vehicles.
B92 28/3/2000 ------------------------------------------
DJUKANOVIC ATTRIBUISCE AD ALTRI LE SUE STESSE INTENZIONI
Milosevic seeking Montenegro secession: Djukanovic
PODGORICA, Tuesday - Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic today accused
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic of seeking to create an
independent
Serbia in order to retain the position of president. The Yugoslav
president
had two options for retaining power, said Djukanovic, either to replace
the
legitimate authorities in Montenegro with a puppet government which
would
enable him to change the federal constitution and secure a new mandate,
or to
return to the position of president of a new, independent Serbia.
Djukanovic
told media today that Milosevic knew he could not succeed in the first
option
and so was nervously preparing the ground for the break-up of the
federation.
The New York Times today quotes Djukanovic as accusing Milosevic of
recruiting a special battalion for the Yugoslav Army whose task would be
the
ousting of the Montenegrin government.
BOMBA A PRISTINA IN UN CASSONETTO
Bomb in central Pristina
PRISTINA, Tuesday - Central Pristina was in panic today after a bomb
planted
in a rubbish container exploded. United Nations civilian police took
over
control of the central city area, searching the UN headquarters on the
suspicion that another device had been set in the building. There were
no
casualties in the explosion.
MENO MALE, IL KOSOVO NON E' RADIOATTIVO, E' SOLO TOSSICO...
Kosovo toxic but not radioactive
PRISTINA, Tuesday - UNHCR spokesman Chris Janowski said today that there
was
no danger from radioactive material at Kosovo sites where depleted
uranium
bombs had been used by NATO. However, he added, there was a danger to
health
from toxic materials at the same sites. Janowski said that UNHCR staff
in
Kosovo were not taking any personal protective measures but that it was
necessary that local bodies and health institutions faced the problem of
a
long-term danger to human health.
A PARIGI SI DECIDE SE IN KOSOVO SI FARANNO LE ELEZIONI
Contact Group meets
PARIS, Monday - The political directors of the Contact Group member
countries
met in Paris today to discuss preparations for local government
elections in
Kosovo. French Foreign Ministry representative Anne Gazeau-Secret told
media
that election planning was complicated by the issue of voter
registration for
Serbs who fled Kosovo last year.
I-NET 28/3/2000 ---------------------------------------------
IL COMITATO HELSINKI DELLA CROAZIA HA TENUTO NASCOSTE
PER DUE ANNI LE INFORMAZIONI SULLA "OPERAZIONE TEMPESTA"
STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
00:05 Hrvatski helsinski odbor (HHO) za ljudska prava krio je, pune dve
godine, podatke o
zlocinima pocinjenim nad civilnim srpskim
stanovnistvom nakon hrvatske vojne
akcije "Oluja" u
Kninskoj krajini, pise u najnovijem broju
splitski nedeljnik "Feral tribjun". Ovu
tvrdnju izrekao je
sadasnji predsednik HHO, Vjekoslav Vidovic,
prenosi Srna.
Croatian Helsinki Committee (HHO)
for the Human Rights, was hiding, the
informations about the crimes over Serbian
civils, made
after the Croatian military action "Storm", in
Kninska krajina, for two years, reports
Split's weekly
"Feral tribjun". This allegation stated the
current HHO president, Vjekoslav
Vidovic, reports Srna.
(Source: Inet news)
AFP 27/3/2000 --------------------------------------------------
TENSIONE PER IL TRASFERIMENTO DI UN TERRORISTA
DAL KOSMET IN MACEDONIA
http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=146120
Kosovo Albanians Protest Transfer of Murder Suspect to
Macedonia
PRISTINA, Mar 27, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse)
Several hundred Kosovo Albanians blocked the main
highway between Pristina and the Macedonian border
late Sunday in protest at the planned hand-over of a
man wanted for murder in Macedonia, a KFOR official
said.
Some 400 people blocked the intersection leading to
the southeastern US base of Camp Bondsteel where
Xhavit Hasani had been detained by KFOR peacekeepers,
while 200 more turned out with 50 vehicles at the
border crossing of Djeneral Jankovic, spokesman Ian
Fitzgerald said.
An unspecified number of people also cut the road in
the southern town of Kacanik near the border.
The protests started around 6:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) and
several people were detained although the
demonstrations were mostly peaceful, the US first
sergeant said.
U.S., Polish and Greek peacekeepers were controlling
the crowds, which were still on the road late Sunday,
Fitzgerald added.
Hasani, arrested on charges of murder and illegal
weapons possession on January 9 in the southeastern
town of Vitina, was also known as a hero of the former
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a western diplomatic
source said.
He was held under the custody of UN police in Kosovo
at Camp Bondsteel's detention facility and was due to
be handed over Sunday to Macedonian police, Fitzgerald
said.
One diplomatic source told AFP Hasani was wanted in
Macedonia on multiple charges of killing police.
Kosovo Albanians protested in Vitina at the time of
Hasani's arrest, Fitzgerald said. ((c) 2000 Agence
France Presse)
B92 27/3/2000 --------------------------------------
ATTACCHI DEI NAZIONALISTI PANALBANESI A BUJANOVAC
Attacks in Bujanovac
VRANJE, Monday - Albanian extremists struck twice in the south Serbian
municipality of Bujanovac today, according to Vranje District Court
investigating judge, Slavoljub Mihajlovic. Court representatives have
completed a preliminary investigation of an incident on Veliki
Trnovac-Brezovica road in which a freight vehicle was shot at from a
rocket
launcher. One unfired Chinese-made rocket was discovered. The second
attack
took place at a checkpoint near the village of Koncuj and came from
territory
under KFOR control.
ARMI CONFISCATE A MITROVICA NORD
French troops confiscate weapons
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Monday - French KFOR troops this morning confiscated
a
number of weapons in the Bosnjacka mahala settlement in northern
Kosovska
Mitrovica. A representative of French Command in Mitrovica told media
that
three rocket launchers, one Russian rifle, one automatic rifle and one
Kalashnikov had been confiscated. KFOR also said that gunfire had been
heard
early this morning south of the central bridge in Kosovska Mitrovica but
its
source had not yet been determined.
CINQUECENTO FINORA GLI ALBANESI RILASCIATI IN SERBIA
Kosovo Albanians released from prison
PRISTINA, Monday - Fifteen Kosovo Albanians were released from Serbian
prisons during the weekend, the International Red Cross announced in
Pristina
today. The Red Cross told media that it had collected the prisoners in
Serbia
proper and transported them to Kosovo. Quoting incomplete data the
International Red Cross said that five hundred Albanian prisoners had so
far
been released from Serbian prisons while about another 1,500 remained in
detention.
Serbian President Milan Milutinovic has granted presidential pardons to
a
number of convicted criminals, according to a statement issued by his
office
today. No further details were given.
INIZIATA LA NUOVA PROVA DI FORZA DELLA NATO
NATO manoeuvres enter operational phase
PRISTINA, Monday - The NATO military exercise Dynamic Response 2000
which
began on March 19 entered its operational phase this morning according
to
KFOR spokesman Hoening Philip. Philip told media in Pristina that troops
and
vehicles from the strategic reserve forces under the tactical control of
KFOR
would be included in the exercise in several areas of Kosovo, adding
that
real ammunition would not be used during the exercise.
DJUKANOVIC MINACCIA LA GUERRA IN MONTENEGRO
Djukanovic warns of new war
PODGORICA, Monday - Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic warned today
of the
danger of a new war in Yugoslavia. Djukanovic told Sarajevo daily Dnevni
avaz
that Yugoslavia's neighbours and key figures in the international
community
were concerned about possible conflict in Montenegro. The Montenegrin
president added that the danger was certainly present because the
Belgrade
regime was the same which had begun four wars in the former Yugoslavia
and
had kept itself in power by constantly producing new crises.
OPPOSIZIONE FILO-OCCIDENTALE IN TOURNEE A BRUXELLES
Opposition delegates to Pact for Stability conference
BELGRADE, Monday - The Serbian opposition will send observers to the
Pact for
Stability in South-eastern Europe's donors conference which begins in
Brussels next Wednesday. Alliance for Change Coordinator Vladan Batic
told
media that representatives of the Alliance for Change, the Alliance of
Democratic Parties, the DAN Coalition and the Serbian Renewal Movement
would
attend the conference. The conference, which includes the European
Commission, the World Bank, and Assistant US Secretary of State Strobe
Talbot
is expected to discuss projects proposed by the Pact. According to Batic
the
Serbian opposition representatives will present projects for assistance
to
Serbs in Kosovo and refugees from Croatia as well as a repatriation
project
for Kosovo Serbs and a project to assist media in Serbia.
THE TIMES 25/3/2000 ---------------------------------------
PROBLEMI NEL CONTINGENTE FRANCESE IN KOSOVO
http://www.the-times.co.uk (World)
March 25 2000 EUROPE
French feud boils over
FROM CHARLES BREMNER IN PARIS
BAD blood between the French military and Bernard
Kouchner, the French United Nations administrator of
Kosovo, has emerged to embarrass the Government here
after a bizarre street brawl in Paris between a
gendarmerie colonel and officers of the military
security.
The Monday night fist-fight, involving Colonel
Jean-Michel Méchain and some of the eight-strong
surveillance team, exposed a feud between the
gendarmerie and France's army contingent in the Kfor
Kosovo UN force. The gendarmerie, a military
organisation and France's provincial police force, is
supervising civilian security and criminal
investigation in the French zone of Kfor.
Colonel Méchain, 46, was being followed by the Defence
Ministry's security force because he was suspected,
with a 27-year-old French-Albanian translator, of
leaking military documents critical of M Kouchner. In
one published memorandum to General Louis Le Mière,
the French contingent commander, army officers
complained that the UN chief displayed an anti-Serbian
bias. The French military have long been held to have
pro-Serbian sympathies.
The colonel, acting as legal adviser to the Kfor
command, had made no secret of his anger against the
military after superior officers refused a request by
M Kouchner in February to second him to his staff as
special adviser for the fight against organised crime.
He was brought back to Paris that month. Like other
gendarmerie members, Colonel Méchain had been critical
of the legally questionable methods used by the
military when arresting suspected KosovoAlbanian
criminals.
The fight broke out in the 20th arrondissement of
Paris after the colonel accompanied the woman
translator to her home and challenged the surveillance
team, which had been on his tail all day. Police
arrested two military agents.
Alain Richard, the Defence Minister, said that the
case was being investigated but the military had had
good reasons to refuse Colonel Méchain's posting. "He
showed a certain agitation against his own service,"
he said. Colonel Méchain said yesterday that he was
seeking permission to publicise his version of the
affair.
DETTAGLIATI PIANI BRITANNICI PER L'ATTACCO DI TERRA
http://www.the-times.co.uk (World)
March 25 2000 EUROPE
Britain had detailed plan for ground war
BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR
Nato's five options
1. NORTHERN OPTION
The most politically sensitive and least realistic
plan was to advance from Hungary into Serbia, with
maximum air support, manoeuvring round Belgrade to
reach Kosovo. But this would have meant taking on the
whole Yugoslav National Army (JNA) and would have
required up to 600,000 troops.
2. AIRBORNE OPTION
High on the list of priorities was to get thousands of
airborne troops into the heart of Kosovo by helicopter
and transport aircraft, many of them possibly by
parachute, landing well beyond the ambush territory of
the Kacanik Pass. Their role would have been to
harrass the Serb forces, backed by Apache attack
helicopters, and hold ground until the main armour
arrived.
3. ALBANIAN OPTION
Using the main Albanian ports to offload troops and
equipment, the Americans planned to build a highway
into Kosovo, beside the existing minor roads, in a
huge engineering project; then advance directly into
the province.
4. KACANIK PASS OPTION
Despite the formidable challenge of advancing through
the mountain pass, often through narrow tunnels, much
of the armour would have had to take this direct route
from Macedonia into Kosovo. But the advance would have
been preceded by extensive special forces operations
to secure the tunnels and bridges.
5. PRESEVO VALLEY OPTION
Copying the strategy used in the 1991 Gulf War
campaign, the intention was to advance into Serbia to
the east from Macedonia and then carry out a left hook
into Kosovo. The Serbs were aware of this possibility
and began deploying troops east of Kosovo.
BRITAIN'S planning for a ground war against President
Milosevic's forces in Kosovo was so far advanced that
the Ministry of Defence had even worked out how many
artillery shells would be required, according to
military sources.
Underlining the pressures the British military were
under to find resources for the potential battle, it
was estimated that the division earmarked for battle
in Kosovo needed to take the entire war reserve of
155mm artillery shells. The precise number of shells
is classified, but it is clear that the planning of
the Kosovo ground campaign forced the MoD to revise
its strategy on ammunition stocks. War reserves were
reduced under the previous Government's defence cuts.
One of the most alarming lessons for Nato from the
Kosovo campaign, which began a year ago yesterday, was
that most alliance members were not prepared or able
to contemplate a high-intensity war with Yugoslavia.
Senior MoD sources said yesterday that towards the end
of Nato's 78-day bombing campaign, some alliance
members were beginning "to come round" to the idea
that a ground war might be necessary. But the Kosovo
terrain and the prospect of high casualties remained
key obstacles in the way of any consensus. British
planners knew that a ground war against an army of
about 30,000 Serb troops in defensive positions would
lead to significant casualties.
Cabinet Office papers circulated to ministers
reflected the fears of a high casualty toll, but Tony
Blair supported the British military view that
planning for a land campaign had to begin. One senior
Army officer said that the ground war would have
presented a greater challenge than 100,000 Russian
troops faced in ejecting less than 10,000 rebels from
Chechnya. The operation, he said, could have led to
much higher casualties than the Russians had suffered.
One British source said the French had estimated that
there could be 2,000 Nato casualties a day. Operation
B Minus, as the campaign plan was codenamed, would
have involved up to 175,000 troops, mostly American
and British.
Britain told Washington that its maximum contribution
was 54,000 troops and about 100 tanks. That would have
required calling up the regular reserves and the
Territorial Army. The Pentagon was confident that the
US Corps of Engineers would be able to build new roads
into Kosovo from Albania and the necessary
infrastructure in the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia to bear the weight of armoured vehicles.
The US also planned to improve port facilities in
Albania. "Whenever we expressed doubts about the scale
of the improvements needed, the Americans told us not
to make mountains out of molehills," one British
military source said.
A small team of mostly American officers, under the
overall command of General Wesley Clark, the Supreme
Allied Commander, came up with five options:
Airborne: sending thousands of troops by helicopter
and transport aircraft over the border mountains into
the heart of Kosovo.
Presevo Valley: advancing from Macedonia into Serbia
to the east of Kosovo and then swinging in a "left
hook" to attack the Serb troops.
Kacanik Pass: driving armour through the mountain pass
from Macedonia.
Albanian: advancing from Albania into Kosovo along a
route constructed by American engineers.
Northern: assembling an army in Hungary and advancing
into Serbia from the north.
The aim would have been to get all the troops into
theatre within 90 days and to defeat the Serbs by the
end of October, using a combination of the listed
options.
REUTERS 23/3/2000 ---------------------------------
LA RUSSIA SI RIFIUTA DI INVIARE ALTRI UOMINI
PER L'UNMIK IN KOSMET
http://www.foxnews.com/world/0323/i_rt_0323_8.sml
Russia Refuses to Send Police to Kosovo
6.15 a.m. ET (1125 GMT) March 23, 2000
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russia Thursday accused the U.N.
mission in Kosovo of failing to establish law and
order in the province and said it was withdrawing its
agreement to join an international police force to be
sent there.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Moscow
had more than once expressed worries over tensions in
Kosovo between the majority ethnic Albanian and
minority Serb population.
It said it did not understand the position of the U.N.
secretariat and the Kosovo U.N. civil administration,
known as UNMIK, on deploying police officers.
"On the one hand, attention is continually drawn to
the fact that there is a critical lack of policemen
and on the other, under various pretexts, the
reception of Russian Interior Ministry workers for
service in the UNMIK special police has been delayed
for several months,'' it said.
"Under these circumstances, we are forced to cancel
our agreement to the U.N.'s request to send a Russian
detachment of special police,'' it said.
The U.N. administration is responsible for running the
province and policing it. But tensions remain high and
the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force has struggled to
contain them.
"The whole responsibility for the unsatisfactory
situation with the guaranteeing of security in the
province, preventing inter-ethnic clashes and the
growth of crime wholly and fully rests with the
current leadership of the U.N. Mission in Kosovo,''
the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Russia fiercely opposed NATO's 11-week campaign of air
raids against Yugoslavia but joined the KFOR force. It
has continuously complained that the West was ignoring
acts of violence by ethnic Albanians against the local
Serbs.
Russian news agencies quoted Leonid Ivashov, the head
of the Defense Ministry's international relations
department, as saying the situation in Kosovo was
getting worse and a new conflict might flare up.
AIM 22/3/2000 ------------------------------------------
CINQUE SOLDATI USA SOTTO INCHIESTA PER MALTRATTAMENTI IN KOSMET
FIVE U.S. SOLDIERS DISCIPLINED FOR ABUSE IN KOSOVO
FORT BRAGG, N.C., March 22, 2000 (Reuters)
Five U.S. soldiers in the same battalion as a soldier charged
with raping and murdering an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl have
been disciplined for using excessive force against civilians in
Kosovo during a peacekeeping mission in January, a military spokesman
said on Tuesday.
The five paratroopers were ordered to take a reduction in rank,
forfeiture of pay, perform extra duty and have their activities
restricted in the decision handed down earlier this month for
incidents that took place in January, said Maj. James Marshall, a
spokesman for the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina.
Civilians in Vitina, Kosovo, complained that the soldiers had
assaulted and threatened them during interrogations and crowd-control
duties on Jan. 9 and 10. Some women also charged that the soldiers
had touched them inappropriately.
The U.S. military is still investigating two battalion officers
with Task Force Falcon in Kosovo who were on duty during the
incidents in question, Marshall said.
LENTA GRADUALE RIPRESA DEL TRAFFICO AEREO SULLA JUGOSLAVIA
YUGOSLAVIA'S JAT EYES EU SLOTS AFTER AIR BAN GOES
BELGRADE, March 22, 2000 (Reuters)
Yugoslavian flag carrier Jugoslovenski Aerotransport (JAT) said
on Tuesday its first flights in the European Union would be to
Germany after the 15-nation bloc suspended an air ban.
"A day after the EU decision on suspending the flight ban is
published in their Official Journal, JAT will resume flights to
Duesseldorf," the head of JAT, Zika Petrovic, told reporters.
The Yugoslav airline will also soon start flights to France,
Italy and the Netherlands, Petrovic said. Initially, JAT will fly
three times a week to Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London
and twice a week to Berlin, Duesseldorf, Milan, Copenhagen,
Stockholm-Goeteborg and Athens-Thessaloniki.
The first foreign carrier due to land in Belgrade on Wednesday
at 1045 GMT is the Greek carrier Olympic Airways. It will be followed
by Swissair, scheduled to arrive at 1310 GMT, the head of Belgrade's
international airport, Ljubomir Acimovic, said.
British Airways and Alitalia are expected to resume services to
Belgrade in early April, he added.
EU foreign ministers decided on Monday to lift a ban on air
links with Yugoslavia but the bloc also agreed to tighten financial
sanctions to increase pressure on President Slobodan Milosevic.
JAT's Petrovic said the airline had suffered losses of $300
million due to the flight ban imposed in September 1998 and after the
NATO defense alliance's air campaign last year grounded flights for
several months.
SWISSAIR RENEWS FLIGHTS TO BELGRADE
BELGRADE, March 22, 2000 (BETA)
'Swissair' is the first air transporter to renew flights to FRY
after the last year's bombing. Flights to Belgrade will be renewed on
Wednesday, after a one-year long pause.
The decision of European Union to lift the air-traffic ban on
Serbia will last till August 18th, since the agreement on the matter
was achieved on February 28th.
-------------------------------------------------------------
LA NATO CONFERMA ALL'ONU DI AVER USATO ARMI NUCLEARI
(URANIO IMPOVERITO) CONTRO LA JUGOSLAVIA
UNEP/UNCHS News Release. For information only. Not an official
record.
Jointly issued by UNEP/UNCHS
NATO CONFIRMS TO THE UNITED NATIONS, USE OF
DEPLETED URANIUM DURING THE KOSOVO CONFLICT
GENEVA, 21 March 2000 - The North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) has confirmed to the
United Nations that depleted uranium (DU) was
used during the Kosovo conflict. But, according
to the Joint UNEP/UNCHS Balkans Task Force (BTF)
the information provided is not of sufficient
detail to facilitate an accurate field
assessment of the environmental and human health
consequences of its us
at the present time.
The new information on DU was sent to the United
Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan from NATO
Secretary-General, Lord Robertson and states:
"DU rounds were used whenever the A-10 engaged
armour during Operation Allied Force.
Therefore, it was used throughout Kosovo during
approximately 100 missions... A total of
approximately 31,000 rounds of DU ammunition
were used in operation Allied Force. The major
focus of these operations was in an area west of
the Pec-Dakovica-Prizren highway; in the area
surrounding Klina; in the area around Prizren;
and in an area to the north of a line joining
Suva Reka and Urosevac. However many missions
using DU also took place outside these areas."
This information was reviewed yesterday by
scientists from the BTF's Desk Assessment Group
on Depleted Uranium - an interagency group that
was established last year as part of the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)-led
assessment of the environmental consequences of
the Kosovo conflict. Whilst welcoming the
positive cooperation of NATO, the group, which
includes experts from the World Health
Organization (WHO), the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Department for
Disarmament Affairs (DDA), and the Swedish
Radiation Protection Institute, concluded that
despite the additional information there was
still
insufficient data available on the exact
location of the DU ordnance to comprehensively
carry out an objective and scientifically based
environmental and
human health impact assessment in Kosovo.
The Group emphasized that the new information on
DU should not be a cause of widespread alarm.
However, it also concluded that because of
NATO's confirmation that DU was used, the
recommendations made in their October 1999
report should be followed. The Group's report,
which was based on the then best
available information, a hypothetical scenario
and unverified assumptions, recommends that at
places where contamination has been confirmed,
measures
should be taken to prevent access. Local
authorities and people concerned should be
informed of the possible risks and appropriate
precautionary measures.
The conclusions of the BTF expert group have
been forwarded to the UN Secretary-General and
the heads of other concerned UN agencies, as
well as UNMIK in
Kosovo.
In the report, "The Kosovo Conflict -
Consequences for the Environment and Human
Settlements", the BTF raised the issue of the
consequences to human health and the environment
by the possible use of depleted uranium. The
report recommended that a thorough review of the
health effects of exposure to DU should be
undertaken.
At yesterday's meeting in Geneva, the Desk
Assessment Group was advised that WHO is
preparing a more general, "generic" report on
the health effects of DU. That report should be
available by the middle of May, 2000 and is not
specific to Kosovo. The Royal Society (UK) is
also preparing an independent report on the
DU topic.
The issue of depleted uranium was only one part
of last year's assessment and the BTF's overall
report concluded that the Kosovo conflict did
not cause an environmental catastrophe affecting
the Balkans region as a whole, but that
pollution detected at four environmental "hot
spots" (Pancevo, Kragujevac, Novi Sad and Bor),
is serious and poses a threat to human health.
As part of the second phase of its work, the BTF
is currently preparing detailed environmental
clean-up feasibility studies (for submission to
donors) at the four mentioned sites in Serbia.
The BTF was set-up by Klaus Toepfer, Executive
Director of the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) and UN Centre for Human
Settlements, UNCHS
(Habitat), in May 1999, to assess the
environmental and human settlement consequences
of the Balkans conflict. Under the leadership of
the former Finnish
Environment and Development Cooperation
Minister, Pekka Haavisto, the BTF acted on the
recommendation of an earlier UN mission to the
region that a detailed
assessment of the full extent of the
environmental impact of the conflict be urgently
carried out. The BTF report is available on
the Web at http://www.grid.unep.ch/btf.
For more information, please contact: Tore J.
Brevik, UNEP Spokesman/Director of
Communications and Public Information, P.O. Box
30552, Nairobi, Kenya; tel: (254 2) 623292;
fax: 62-3692; Email: cpiinfo@... or
Robert Bisset, Office of the UNEP Spokesman and
BTF Press Officer in Geneva on: +41-22-917-8598,
Nairobi +254-2-623084, email:
robert.bisset@....
UNEP News Release 00/33
B92 21/3/2000 ----------------------------------------------
IL CRIMINALE DI GUERRA NALETILIC DOPO ANNI ESTRADATO ALL'AIA
Croatia extradites Tuta to The Hague
ZAGREB, Tuesday - Croatia today handed over Bosnian Croat Mladen "Tuta"
Naletilic to the Hague Tribunal. Naletilic has been indicted on charges
of
ethnic cleansing of Muslims in central Bosnia in 1993. Justice Minister
Stepan Ivanisevic handed Naletilic over to a Hague medical team at
Zagreb
airport. The indicted war crimes suspect has twice undergone heart and
lung
surgery in the past few months but the Hague medical team deemed him fit
to
travel and to stand trial. Croatian Foreign Minster Tonino Picula
demanded
that the international court provide special conditions for the
53-year-old
Naletilic.
---------------------------------------------------------------
LA ROMANIA PRESENTA IL CONTO PER I DANNI ECONOMICI SUBITI
LA ROUMANIE A PERDU 100 MILLIONS DE DOLLARS PAR L'OBSTRUCTION DU DANUBE
BUCAREST, Roumanie, le 20 mars 2000 (Globe Boston)
La Roumanie a perdu $100 millions de revenus et est forcée de licencier
la
plupart des employés de la navigation à cause de l'obstruction soutenue
du
fleuve le DANUBE, selon les dires du premier ministre pour qui '' le
nettoyage du Danube est un problème d'importance extrême pour la
Roumanie''.
Les dires de Mugur Isarescu ont été cités par l'agence d'informations
privée
Mediafax. Le fleuve est bloqué depuis que l'OTAN a détruit des ponts
dans
Novi Sad pendant son 78e jour de bombardement de la Yougoslavie teminé
en
juin 1999.
Isarescu a été cité à Bruxelles où il est venu présenter la stratégie
économique de son pays à l'Union Européenne. La Roumanie veut être un
membre
de l'UE. Il est possible qu'Isarescu demandera une aide financière pour
nettoyer les effets des deux fuites chimiques récentes provenant des
mines
roumaines et qui ont pollué les rivières majeures gauches du fleuve en
Europe de l'Est. Isarescu a dit que les agences maritimes ont perdu
$100
millions et que les quatre-cinquièmes des employés dans le transport
industriel ont été lienciés en raison de l'obstruction. Il a aussi dit
que
la crise de la rivière mettait en danger "les chances" de la Roumanie de
privatiser sa flotte.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
KOSOVO- RUSSO SPENA (PRC): "VIAGGIO FASSINO PER FAVORIRE INDIPENDENZA DI
PRISTINA DA BELGRADO?"
Il sen.Giovanni Russo Spena del Partito della Rifondazione Comunista ha
presentato una interrogazione urgente al Presidente del Consiglio per
sapere i veri scopi della imminente missione diplomatica del Ministro
del Commercio estero Fassino in Kosovo. Nell'interrogazione si chiede:
" Se corrisponde a verità che scopo di questa missione sia l'apertura di
un ufficio dell'ICE (Istituto per il commercio estero) nella città
kossovara di Pristina. In caso di risposta affermativa si chiede di
sapere se tale ufficio è da considerarsi una succursale della sede
centrale presente in Jugoslavia a Belgrado o se si tratta invece di un
ufficio autonomo. Non sfuggendo infatti la gravità politica di questa
seconda ipotesi , che vedrebbe l'Italia contribuire attivamente alla
secessione del Kosovo ed alla sua indipendenza, si chiede un immediato
chiarimento da parte del governo sulla imminente missione del Ministro
Fassino"
Roma 20 Marzo 2000
--------------------------------------------------------------------
LE TRUPPE SPECIALI BRITANNICHE SONO GIA' IN MONTENEGRO
PER PREPARARE IL CONFLITTO
Sunday Telegraph March 19 2000 EUROPE
SAS is ordered to guard Britons in Montenegro
SAS troops have moved into Montenegro as western fears
grow about the possible disintegration of what remains of
Yugoslavia, writes Tom Walker.
The elite unit is preparing contingency plans for the removal
of British nationals, and is learning the lie of the land in case
there is a confrontation between forces loyal to pro-western
President Milo Djukanovic and Slobodan Milosevic, his
adversary in Belgrade.
Civil war in Montenegro, Serbia's tiny sister state in the
Yugoslav federation, would almost certainly involve the West.
Djukanovic has been told not to provoke the Yugoslav
president. However, Madeleine Albright, the American
secretary of state, has warned Belgrade that Nato would
back Djukanovic in any showdown.
As Britain and America prepare the largest naval exercise
since Nato's air strikes against the former Yugoslavia last
year, Milosevic has tightened the economic blockade around
Montenegro. The action is apparently intended to discourage
Djukanovic from going for independence.
Military sources said it was "entirely natural" in such
circumstances that the SAS would be relaying intelligence
back to Britain. They added that four SAS officers entered
Montenegro two weeks ago.
One diplomat said the sabre-rattling in the Mediterranean and
the Adriatic, along with the SAS presence in Montenegro,
showed that western governments favoured pre-emptive
action to avoid another conflict in the Balkans.
REUTERS 18/3/2000 ---------------------------------------------
SCONFINAMENTO DI SETTE SOLDATI CECHI DAL KOSMET
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20000319/t Sunday, March 19, 2000
7 Peacekeepers Held for Hours by Serb Police From Reuters
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia--Serbian police detained seven Czech
peacekeeping soldiers for more than eight hours Saturday when they
crossed from the Kosovo border, the NATO-led KFOR peace force said.
The Czechs, in an armored vehicle, were stopped about 10
a.m. and were released after nightfall, a KFOR spokesman said.
Another KFOR spokesman initially said four Czech soldiers
had been arrested.
News of the arrests was given by Lt. Col. Henning
Philipp, who said the patrol had lost its way and inadvertently crossed
the demarcation line. Kosovo is a province of Serbia, the dominant
Yugoslav republic.
The patrol members were detained near the village of
Merdare, close to the main road north from Pristina, the provincial
capital, Serbian sources in the area said. "The KFOR
patrol was patrolling along the boundary to Serbia proper on the
northeastern part of Kosovo, lost its way, inadvertently crossed the
boundary and was stopped by local police," Philipp said.
He said the mountainous terrain made it easy to get lost.
Peacekeepers patrol the demarcation line between Kosovo
and the rest of Serbia to prevent the return of Serbian forces who
withdrew last June after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 78-day
air war.
AP 18/3/2000, REUTERS 17/3/2000 -------------------------------
PROTESTE ANTI-NATO IN GRECIA
Anti-NATO Protest in Greece
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 18, 2000; 6:12 p.m. EST
THESSALONIKI, Greece –– About 300 people chanting "Clinton Killer"
rallied Saturday against NATO plans to land 2,000 troops in this
northern port city on their way to Kosovo for a military exercise.
The protests, backed by Greece's small but defiant Communist Party, were
expected to swell Sunday, when 1,100 U.S. troops and about 900 from
Argentina, The Netherlands, Poland and Romania were scheduled to arrive.
The soldiers are to travel overland to neighboring Macedonia and into
Kosovo to take part in the exercise, nicknamed Dynamic Response 2000.
"This invasion by American ... marines is a provocation for the Greek
people," Communist Party leader Aleka Papariga said.
The Communists led rowdy rallies across Greece last year, during NATO's
78-day bombing of Yugoslavia. They also held protests during President
Clinton's visit to Athens in November.
Although Greece is a NATO member, many Greeks condemned the bombing,
appearing suspicious of the motives of the U.S.-led intervention and
sympathizing with the fellow Orthodox Serbs.
More anti-NATO protests were planned in Athens and other cities for next
week to mark the anniversary of the start of the bombing. The
demonstrations could place renewed pressure on Greece's Socialist
government ahead of general elections April 9.
http://www.centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=143451
Greek Communists Call For Anti-NATO Demonstrations
ATHENS, Mar 17, 2000 -- (Reuters) Greece's Communist
Party (KKE) leader on Thursday called on left-wing
groups to demonstrate against NATO forces passing
through northern Greece this weekend ahead of a
military exercise in Kosovo.
Speaking at a rally ahead of general elections on
April 9, KKE General-Secretary Aleka Papariga also
called for Greek troops serving in Kosovo as part of
NATO's peacekeeping force to be recalled.
She said the Greek troops had become "occupying forces
engaged in ethnic cleansing against the Serbs".
Papariga called for demonstrations against U.S.
Marines when they pass through the northern Greek port
city of Thessaloniki en route to the military exercise
in the Yugoslav province.
A Greek defense ministry official told Reuters the
NATO military exercise, between March 19 and April 10,
was planned more than a year ago. It was likely to
involve about 1,600 troops from a number of NATO
countries, including an estimated 1,200 Americans.
---------------------------------------------------------------
ANCORA INDISCREZIONI SUL PROGETTO DI ATTENTATO A MILOSEVIC
Crown forces hone skills "with a bomb... " perfected in Ireland
How the SAS was going to assassinate Milosevic
By Paul Lashmar
17 March 2000
British security agents plotted to assassinate Yugoslavia's President,
Slobodan Milosevic, in the early Nineties using an SAS hit squad, the
intelligence historian Stephen Dorrill claims.
Mr Dorrill says that a secret MI6 file explored three options in which
the Serbian leader could be killed during the Bosnian war. His book
quotes
claims by a former MI6 officer, who worked in the Balkans in the early
Nineties, that an ambitious colleague who was responsible for developing
and
targeting operations in the Balkans had produced the file.
"It was approximately two pages long, and had a yellow card attached to
it which signified that it was an accountable document rather than a
draft
proposal," the unnamed source claims. "It was entitled 'The need to
assassinate President Milosevic of Serbia', and was distributed to
senior MI6 officers, including the head of Balkan operations, the
controller of
East European operations, the security officer responsible for eastern
European operations and the service's SAS liaison officer.
"The targeting officer justified the assassinating of Milosevic on the
grounds that the 'Butcher of Belgrade' was supplying weapons to
[Radovan] Karadzic, who was wanted for war crimes, including genocide,"
says the
source.
Mr Dorrill claims in his book that United States and French intelligence
agencies were considering assassinating Karadzic. Three scenarios were
suggested by MI6. The first was to train a Serbian paramilitary
opposition group to carry out the attack. This, the targeting officer
argued, had
the advantage of deniability but the disadvantage that control of the
operation would be difficult and the chance of success low.
The second plan was to use the small cell of SAS/SBS personnel which
conducts operations exclusively for MI6 and MI5. This team would kill Mr
Milosevic with a bomb or sniper's bullet. The targeting officer thought
that this
would be the most reliable option, but would be impossible to deny if it
went
wrong.
The third plot was to kill Mr Milosevic in a staged road accident. In
the end, no action was taken by MI6.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Europe/2000-03/sas170300.shtml
IWPR --------------------------------------------------------
NONOSTANTE TUTTE LE PRESSIONI OCCIDENTALI I MUSULMANI
DEL SANGIACCATO RESTANO FAUTORI DELL'UNITA' JUGOSLAVA
THE SANDZAK DILEMMA
Sandzak's future looks grim whatever the outcome of the escalating
conflict
between Serbia and Montenegro.
By Miroslav Filipovic in Novi Pazar
[...]
Rasim Ljajic, the second most powerful Muslim politician in the region,
says
war would be disastrous for Sandzak, " It will lead to the
disintegration of
Yugoslavia and the partition of Sandzak. The war will be waged here and
the
experiences of civil and religious conflict in former Yugoslavia have
been
terrible so far."
For the time being, though, Muslim leaders are urging their
250,000-strong
community to stay. Sulejman Ugljanin, a prominent Sandzak political
figure,
says relations between local Montenegrins, Albanians, Serbs and Muslims
remain calm despite attempts by leaders in Belgrade and Podgorica to
stoke
tensions. [as you will see later the only people trying to stoke
tensions
are Djukanovic's men!]
"The residents of Sandzak should stay together with their families,
neighbours and fellow citizens to demonstrate their solidarity and
allegiance to Sandzak, " he said
Sandzak's geographic location could hardly be more precarious.
Internally
divided, it also borders Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia - and has been
affected
by all the recent Yugoslav wars. [it is also the missing link that would
connect all the US puppets in the region!] [...]
The latest wave of refugees are fleeing new conflict brewing in southern
Sandzak. It is widely believed that Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic
may send his paramilitary units to the region. His Montenegrin
counterpart
and rival, Milo Djukanovic, meanwhile, is creating his own security
forces, made up mainly of Muslims from the area
[!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!].
[...] Tensions are greatest here. The Yugoslav Army and the Montenegrin
police occupy two neighbouring hotels in the town. An uneasy stand-off
exists.
"Once incident could spark a war in Montenegro, " said one Rozaje
resident.
Local leader Harum Hadzic said residents " are expecting war, but hoping
for peace."
But Muslims in the region fear Sandzak will be partitioned whether the
two Yugoslav republics part company by force or by peaceful means.
For this reason they are anxious to preserve the Yugoslav federation. So
much so that despite their identification with Bosnia, they disapprove
of
Sarajevo's backing for Montenegrin independence.
One of Sandjak's main spiritual leaders, Mufti Muamer Effendi Zukorilic,
insists no patriotic Muslims could support the secession of Montenegro.
"It's unacceptable for us," he said. [...]
Being ruled by two quarrelsome states leads to severe practical
problems.
Recently, for instance, Montenegrin police prevented Muslim clerics from
attending a meeting in Novi Pazar, in the Serbian part of Sandzak.
Faced with the real prospect of being caught up in a new war between the
Serbia and Montenegro, some Sandzak Muslims are frantically trying to
defuse
the tensions in the hope of not only averting a war but preventing the
further disintegration of Yugoslavia. Others though have lost hope.
The immediate impact is clear. The bus operator in Novi Pazar says
tickets
for the buses bound for international destinations have been sold out in
advance for the next three weeks [seeing as most of Yugoslavia is
jittery
about war this isn't such a big thing...].
Miroslav Filipovic is a correspondent for Danas in Kraljevo.
(from stopnato@... )
LA REPUBBLICA 18/3/2000 -----------------------------------
KOUCHNER BECCHINO DELLA MULTIETNICITA' DEL KOSOVO
Kosovo: Kouchner (Onu): "Oggi riconciliazione impossibile"
PARIGI - L'amministratore dell'Onu in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, ritiene
che
"l'opzione multietnica sia impossibile" in Kosovo. "Oggi - ammette
Kouchner
in un'intervista pubblicata dal giornale comunista L'Humanité" - la
riconciliazione è assolutamente impossibile". "La questione - dice
Kouchner
- è sapere se bisogna separare la popolazione per proteggerla o se
bisogna
metterla insieme senza poterla proteggere. E' una domanda, questa che
pongo, politicamente non corretta". "La risoluzione 1244 dell'Onu -
aggiunge - non contiene la parola multietnia. Si tratta di un'opzione
impossibile in Kosovo". Bisogna arrivare a quella che lo stesso Kouchner
definisce "coesistenza pacifica", una condizione che necessita la
"garanzia
di sicurezza delle popolazioni". Secondo l'amministratore dell'Onu, "i
serbi devono sapere che la Kfor (la forza internazionale) e la Minuk
(Missione delle Nazioni unite) non li cacceranno dalla parte nord del
Kosovo". E "quanto agli albanesi, bisogna dire loro ciò che
diventeranno.
Lo statuto del Kosovo deve essere più chiaro". Il Kosovo "è un problema
politico - afferma Kouchner - non un problema di ricostruzione". "Chi è
così folle - conclude - da aver pensato che in otto mesi si sarebbe
potuto
realizzare ciò che in Irlanda non sono riusciti a fare in 30 anni?".
====================================================================
NOTA DEL CRJ:
Le nostre selezioni di notizie non pretendono di informare
esaurientemente su tutti gli aspetti della problematica
jugoslava e balcanica, che e' vastissima, ma solamente di gettare
luce su alcune sfaccettature che non vengono trattate adeguatamente,
ne' potrebbero esserlo, dalla pubblicistica guerrafondaia attiva nel
nostro paese come in tutto l'Occidente.
Le notizie in lingua straniera sono sempre introdotte da un nostro
titolo in italiano per facilitarne la consultazione.
I brani provengono da fonti diverse:
ALBA - Albanian Daily News: http://www.albaniannews.com
AIM - e' il bollettino della Rete Accademica di Informazione:
> For more information visit our Academic Information Network site at
> http://www.aim.ac.yu/
> Please send us Your comments to news@... or comment@...
B92 - sono le notizie che provengono dalla mailing list di RadioB2-92,
di orientamento antigovernativo e filo-occidentale:
> freeb92-e is an open mailing list for distribution of news by Radio
> B2-92. News bulletins are updated at 19.00 CET Monday to Friday and
> at 23.00 CET on Saturday and Sunday.
> For more information on FreeB92 and Radio B2-92, visit:
> http://www.freeb92.net/
REUTERS - sono i dispacci della omonima agenzia di informazione
AFP - e' l'agenzia di stampa francese France Presse.
AP - e' l'agenzia statunitense Associated Press.
IWPR - e' il bollettino dell'Institute for War & Peace Reporting
<info@...>
> Balkan Crisis Report is supported by the Department for International
> Development, European Commission, Swedish International Development and
> Cooperation Agency, MacArthur Foundation, Press Now and the Carnegie
> Corporation. IWPR also acknowledges general support from the Ford
Foundation.
> *** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net ***
TUTTE LE FONTI SONO CITATE
Distribution of copyright-protected materials is for general
information and discussion purposes only.
--------- 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 MARINA GRECA HA SPARATO SUI SOLDATI ALBANESI?
Albanian Daily News March 30, 2000
Greek Navy Shoots Against Albanian Ground Soldiers
TIRANA- Greek military forces opened Tuesday a
ten-minute fire against Albanian soldiers, serving
their compulsory military term in the south of
country, press reports said.
The Albanian Ministry of Order said in a press release
that "on March 28, 2000, a Greek navy boat has fired
several automatic bursts at our territory over a
period of about 10 minutes from its position in the
middle of the channel between Saranda and Corfu, about
two miles off our coast."
Under these circumstances the border police responded
by firing back, a spokesman of the Public Order
Ministry said in a first moment. That information was
later denied by the ministry.
The reasons for the incident are still unclear, and
additional information is not released by Greek
authorities, nor by Albanian ones.
Furthermore, the case remains unclear, while Albanian
border guards have reported that similar incidents
have been repeatedly rendered by Greek soldiers. The
gravest incident was registered five years ago, when
Greek extremists stormed an Albanian army barracks
near the Albanian-Greek border killing an officer and
two soldiers.
Press reports echoed the spiral of Greek-Albanian
military "friendship", taking into account that a
couple of hundreds Greek soldiers are serving their
duties in the heart of Albania to offer assistance and
training to the Albanian police and army.
The opposition has repeatedly opposed the presence of
Greek troops in Albania, and has demanded that the
mission's deadline be fixed.
The ministry of foreign affairs is currently trying to
clarify the latest incident, at the request of the
ministry of public order.
Greek diplomats have repeatedly stated that, despite
certain incidents committed by some soldiers, the
"relations between Greece and Albania are at their
best."
B92 29/3/2000 --------------------------------------
NON E' L'ARMATA JUGOSLAVA A CERCARE LA GUERRA CIVILE
IN MONTENEGRO
Army will never attack Montenegro: Bulatovic
BELGRADE, Wednesday - The Yugoslav Army would not move against the
legally
elected Montenegrin government for any reason, even the case of the
republic's secession from the federation, Federal Prime Minister Momir
Bulatovic said today. Bulatovic, the Belgrade aparatchik who was ousted
as
president of Montenegro in 1998, told media in Italy that Montenegro had
the
right to independence if its people chose that in a free and democratic
referendum.
TERRORISMO IN SERBIA MERIDIONALE
Bomb in southern Serbia
KRALJEVO, Wednesday - A security officer was injured when a bomb
exploded on
the premises of the state-owned company Progres in the southern Serbian
town
of Raska last night. The guard, Dragan Lukovic, suffered minor injuries
in
the explosion and was admitted to hospital in Kraljevo. The incident was
the
second bomb attack in the town in the past week. On March 22 a bomb was
thrown at the local office of the Democratic Party.
UNA DELEGAZIONE ONU PER "MONITORARE" IL FALLIMENTO DELL'ONU
UN monitoring delegation for Kosovo
NEW YORK, Wednesday - The UN Security Council has resolved to appoint a
delegation to monitor the work of the UN civilian administration in
Kosovo,
Council Chairman Anwarul Chowdhury said today. The delegation is to
observe
the implementation of Security Resolution 1244 in the province, assess
the
difficulties facing the UN's civilian mission and deliver a stern
message to
all parties to cease hostilities and commit themselves to establishing a
civilian society in Kosovo.
20 MILIONI DI EURO DAL "PATTO PER LA STABILITA'", CIOE' DALLA
TRILATERAL, DRITTI NELLE TASCHE DEL SECESSIONISMO MONTENEGRINO
Pact for Stability donors snub Serbia, give 20 million Euros to
Montenegro
BRUSSELS, Wednesday - A Montenegrin delegation to the Pact for Stability
in
Southeast Europe's donors conference today signed an agreement for
assistance
of twenty million Euros. Opening the two-day conference, European
Commissioner for External Affairs Chris Patten reiterated the West's
message
that assistance would not be available to Serbia under the Pact's
programs
while Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic remained in power.
Representatives of the Serbian opposition attended the conference today
as
observers, discussing the democratisation of Serbia and the independence
of
Kosovo with European and US representatives in the Trilateral
Commission.
AIM 29/3/2000 --------------------------------------------------
ANCORA VELENI NEL DANUBIO DALLA ROMANIA
ROMANIAN GOLD MINING COMPANY POLLUTES RIVERS AGAIN
BUCHAREST, Romania, March 29, 2000 (RFE/RL)
Some 10,000 tons of lead residue has spilled into the Rivers
Vaser and Viseu, tributaries of the Tisa River. The incident was
caused by the Aurul company in Baia Borsa that was responsible for
the cyanide spill in early February. The company failed to notify the
authorities of the spill, which occurred on 27 March during heavy
rainfalls that resulted in the breaking of a five-meter stretch of a
dam, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau and Reuters reported.
Samples of water from the Tisa show lead is 2.7 times over
permitted levels. Environment Minster Romica Tomescu visited the area
on 28 March, together with World Bank director for Romania Andrew
Vorkink, who is currently in Romania to see how the bank can help
that country cope with ecological problems as well as improve health
care and wildlife conservation.
BOMBA DISINNESCATA A PRISTINA
UNMIK SABOTAGED
PRISTINA, March 29, 2000 (SRNA)
United Nations' and KFOR police officers deactivated a bomb
today in Pristina, near the UN civil mission building. No one was
injured in the incident and the bomb was placed in a box which was
spotted on time. The traffic in that part of the city was blocked
temporarily until there was no more danger.
An explosive device went off on Tuesday in downtown Pristina,
the device was located in a container. No material damage was caused
by the explosion which happened at 13:20, near the sport center 'Boro
i Ramiz'.
DIENSTBIER (ONU) CRITICO SULLA SITUAZIONE IN KOSMET
UN EXPERT: NATO SHOULD ACCEPT ITS BOMBING OF YUGOSLAVIA FAILED
GENEVA, Switzerland, March 29, 2000 (The Associated Press)
NATO should admit that its bombing of Yugoslavia failed and
send in ground forces to battle extremist Albanians and restore the
ethnic balance in Kosovo, a U.N. expert said Wednesday.
"The bombing hasn't solved any problems. It only multiplied the
existing problems and created new ones," Jiri Dienstbier said after
presenting his report to the 53-nation U.N. Commission on Human
Rights.
Dienstbier, a former foreign minister of Czechoslovakia, listed
the results of NATO's 78-day air campaign to stop Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic's repression of Kosovo's ethnic Albanians. "The
Yugoslav economy was destroyed. Kosovo is destroyed. There are
hundreds of thousands of people unemployed now," he said. "There is
a very general pessimism."
Peacekeepers in the province have only one option now _ to be
prepared to fight on the ground against extremist Kosovo Albanians
so that the ethnic balance with Serbs and others in the province can
be restored, he said.
He said he found United States officials in the region generally
share his pessimistic view.
POLEMICHE TRA MESIC (EX-HDZ) ED I SOCIALDEMOCRATICI
SUL RUOLO DEL PRESIDENTE IN CROAZIA
MESIC THREATENS REFERENDUM ON PRESIDENCY
ZAGREB, Croatia, March 29, 2000 (RFE/RL)
Croatian President Stipe Mesic said on 28 March that he will
call a referendum on whether to limit or "abolish" the powers of the
president if unnamed members of the government persist with what he
called moves to "abolish" his powers.
Mesic charged that the initiatives to limit his authority come
from members of the larger two-party coalition, who are unhappy that
a member of the smaller four-party coalition won the presidency.
Earlier this year, before the presidential vote, all political
parties agreed on the need to reduce the powers enjoyed by the late
President Franjo Tudjman. Since his election, Mesic has stressed that
he will use the presidency as a check on the government.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I RUSSI SEMPRE PIU' INSODDISFATTI DELLA SITUAZIONE IN KOSMET
WEDNESDAY MARCH 29 2000
Russians plan Kosovo intervention, warns general
Yugoslav army to launch ground offensive against NATO?
By I. J. Toby Westerman
2000 WorldNetDaily.com
A high-ranking Russian general has warned that Russia is preparing plans
for military intervention in Kosovo, and that the Yugoslav army could
launch a ground offensive against NATO troops in the war-ravaged
province, according to an official Russian news report.
Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov's comments were broadcast on the "Voice
of Russia" World Service Short Wave Radio Broadcast, the official
broadcasting service of the Russian government.
Ivashov condemned the growing violence in Kosovo and warned the turmoil
there could spread into the Balkans and into Europe. Ivashov called for
emergency measures to end the violence in the region, and to suppress
what he referred to as "Albanian terrorists." He also demanded that NATO
follow U.N. resolution 1244, which calls for a settlement of the
conflict that includes continued Yugoslav rule in Kosovo.
Well acquainted with the politics of the region, in June 1999 Ivashov
conducted Russia's negotiations with the U.S. Department of Defense
regarding Russia's role in the peacekeeping operations following NATO's
air war against Yugoslavia.
In the midst of these negotiations, Russian paratroopers seized the
airport in Kosovo's capital city of Pristina.
Until the Russian paratroopers came into Pristina, NATO had avoided
giving Russia any kind of "zone of responsibility."
The Voice of Russia added its own warning to that of Ivashov, stating,
"Clearly these words are a signal of approaching disaster, and Moscow is
not exaggerating."
In order to avoid war in Kosovo, the Voice of Russia demands that NATO
end sanctions against Yugoslavia and that the alliance holds direct
talks with the Belgrade government.
At present, the leader of the Belgrade government, Slobodan Milosevic,
is an indicted war criminal.
"Delay is fraught with danger," the Russian broadcasting service stated
gravely. In addition to the people of Yugoslavia, the threat of war
hangs over "nationals of other countries" who believe they are
unaffected by the region's events.
Ivashov's remarks follow by less than two weeks similar statements made
by the Russian Defense Minister, Igor Sergeyev. In an address to a
special session of the lower house of the Russian legislature, the State
Duma, Sergeyev stated that Yugoslav troops could confront NATO, and that
Russian forces could find themselves in a standoff with the Western
alliance.
Since the end of the air war against Yugoslavia, Moscow has consistently
decried the treatment of the Kosovo Serbs at the hands of NATO. Moscow
cites the large number of refugees, most of whom are Serbs, fleeing
Kosovo, and the ill treatment of the remaining Serb population at the
hands of the ethnic Albanians.
The situation in Kosovo has become so disordered that NATO leaders find
themselves in a precarious position.
Moscow's support of Yugoslavia is deeply rooted in history and remains
intense. Yugoslavia has been granted permanent observer status at the
parliament sessions of the union state of Russia and Belarus, and there
has even been discussion in some political circles in Moscow and Minsk
of admitting Yugoslavia into the Russian/Belarussian union.
One year after NATO's victory over Yugoslavia, any real resolution to
Kosovo appears as remote as ever.
I. J. Toby Westerman is a contributing editor to WorldNetDaily.com and
WorldNet magazine.
LA REPUBBLICA 28/3/2000 ----------------------------------
"IL TIMES" URLA AL COMPLOTTO SERBO PER UCCIDERE I CAPI NATO,
"LA REPUBBLICA" RILANCIA, LA NATO STESSA SMENTISCE
L'elicottero su cui viaggiavano il segretario
e il generale Clark rischiava di essere abbattuto da missili
Complotto di Belgrado per eliminare i vertici Nato
Sarebbe stata la Cia a sventare l'attentato
Ma l'Alleanza non conferma: "Rinvio per motivi operativi"
LONDRA - Non sarebbero state "ragioni di ordine pratico" a far saltare
venerdì scorso la visita a Mitrovica del segretario generale della Nato
Lord George Robertson e del generale Wesley Clark, ma un complotto.
Organizzato dai serbi e sventato in extremis dalla Cia, per abbattere,
nell'anniversario dello scoppio della guerra dei Balcani, l'elicottero
che trasportava i vertici della Nato in Kosovo. La notizia, che non è
stata cenfermata dall'Alleanza atlantica, è uscita oggi sulle pagine
della versione online del Times di Londra. Una rivelazione che farebbe
rientrare tutte le critiche che la mancata missione aveva suscitato:
non era stata la tensione, ancora alta nella cittadina, a sconsigliare
la visita dei due diplomatici, ma un complotto di Belgrado.
L'episodio non trova però riscontri sul fronte Nato. "Non abbiamo
alcuna informazione in questo senso", ha detto oggi un portavoce della
Nato. "L'itinerario è stato cambiato per motivi operativi in quanto
c'era stato un forte ritardo in partenza dal Belgio".
Secondo il Times, invece, i missili erano pronti per abbattere
l'elicottero sui cieli balcanici. Una tragedia evitata all'ultimo
minuto con un cambiamento di programma organizzato in tutta fretta.
Robertson e Clark avrebbero dovuto partire dal Belgio per raggiungere
Skopje, in Macedonia e quindi arrivare a bordo di un velivolo militare
a Pristina, dove erano attesi alle 9 del mattino. Sono invece atterrati
in Kosovo con cinque ore di ritardo alle 2.30 del pomeriggio,
percorrendo un itinerario completamente diverso e assolutamente top
secret. Tagliato anche il programma: le nove ore di visita previste
sono quattro.
E a Pristina ci sono arrivati partendo da una base aerea statunitense,
quella di Ramstein, in Germania. Da lì, a bordo di un Hercules C130
sono arrivati nei Balcani. Evitata la tragedia, l'allarme rimane.
Sebbene i servizi segreti statunitensi, sottolinea il Times, non
abbiano reso noto tutti i dettagli del fallito attentato "ci sono
ragioni sufficienti per mantenere l'allerta", anche perché gli alti
ranghi occidentali che si recano a Pristina percorrono di solito la
stessa rotta.
AP 28/3/2000 --------------------------------------------
PROTESTE IN GRECIA CONTRO LE MANOVRE DELLA NATO
http://www.newsday.com/ap/topnews/ap463.htm
Greek Protesters Delay NATO Convoy
THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) -- Left-wing demonstrators
stopped a convoy of NATO military trucks early Tuesday
as they tried to head to Kosovo, spray painting
slogans on the vehicles and smashing one window,
authorities said.
A group of about 80 protesters rushed the British,
French and Italian vehicles as they were leaving this
northern Greek city's main port and heading to Kosovo
to resupply the NATO-led peacekeeping force there.
The incident, which delayed the convoy for about 2{
hours, reflected deep opposition in Greece to the NATO
air campaign against Yugoslavia.
The demonstrators clambered over the 65-vehicle
convoy, which mainly carried supply containers, and
smashed the windshield of an Italian vehicle with a
rock. No injuries were reported.
A first group of 25 vehicles, all French, managed to
leave the port before the protesters gathered, said
Maj. Stamatis Lazarou, a Greek army spokesman.
The vast majority of Greeks vehemently opposed NATO's
78-day airstrikes against fellow Christian Orthodox
Serbs last year, and held almost daily protest
rallies, some of which turned violent.
Communist-led protesters have frequently disrupted
military convoys in Thessaloniki, a major resupply
point on the route to peacekeepers in Kosovo.
Demonstrators often block the exits to the port from
where the troops and vehicles depart, and have also
blocked rail lines and roads and attacked vehicles.
B92 28/3/2000 ------------------------------------------
DJUKANOVIC ATTRIBUISCE AD ALTRI LE SUE STESSE INTENZIONI
Milosevic seeking Montenegro secession: Djukanovic
PODGORICA, Tuesday - Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic today accused
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic of seeking to create an
independent
Serbia in order to retain the position of president. The Yugoslav
president
had two options for retaining power, said Djukanovic, either to replace
the
legitimate authorities in Montenegro with a puppet government which
would
enable him to change the federal constitution and secure a new mandate,
or to
return to the position of president of a new, independent Serbia.
Djukanovic
told media today that Milosevic knew he could not succeed in the first
option
and so was nervously preparing the ground for the break-up of the
federation.
The New York Times today quotes Djukanovic as accusing Milosevic of
recruiting a special battalion for the Yugoslav Army whose task would be
the
ousting of the Montenegrin government.
BOMBA A PRISTINA IN UN CASSONETTO
Bomb in central Pristina
PRISTINA, Tuesday - Central Pristina was in panic today after a bomb
planted
in a rubbish container exploded. United Nations civilian police took
over
control of the central city area, searching the UN headquarters on the
suspicion that another device had been set in the building. There were
no
casualties in the explosion.
MENO MALE, IL KOSOVO NON E' RADIOATTIVO, E' SOLO TOSSICO...
Kosovo toxic but not radioactive
PRISTINA, Tuesday - UNHCR spokesman Chris Janowski said today that there
was
no danger from radioactive material at Kosovo sites where depleted
uranium
bombs had been used by NATO. However, he added, there was a danger to
health
from toxic materials at the same sites. Janowski said that UNHCR staff
in
Kosovo were not taking any personal protective measures but that it was
necessary that local bodies and health institutions faced the problem of
a
long-term danger to human health.
A PARIGI SI DECIDE SE IN KOSOVO SI FARANNO LE ELEZIONI
Contact Group meets
PARIS, Monday - The political directors of the Contact Group member
countries
met in Paris today to discuss preparations for local government
elections in
Kosovo. French Foreign Ministry representative Anne Gazeau-Secret told
media
that election planning was complicated by the issue of voter
registration for
Serbs who fled Kosovo last year.
I-NET 28/3/2000 ---------------------------------------------
IL COMITATO HELSINKI DELLA CROAZIA HA TENUTO NASCOSTE
PER DUE ANNI LE INFORMAZIONI SULLA "OPERAZIONE TEMPESTA"
STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
00:05 Hrvatski helsinski odbor (HHO) za ljudska prava krio je, pune dve
godine, podatke o
zlocinima pocinjenim nad civilnim srpskim
stanovnistvom nakon hrvatske vojne
akcije "Oluja" u
Kninskoj krajini, pise u najnovijem broju
splitski nedeljnik "Feral tribjun". Ovu
tvrdnju izrekao je
sadasnji predsednik HHO, Vjekoslav Vidovic,
prenosi Srna.
Croatian Helsinki Committee (HHO)
for the Human Rights, was hiding, the
informations about the crimes over Serbian
civils, made
after the Croatian military action "Storm", in
Kninska krajina, for two years, reports
Split's weekly
"Feral tribjun". This allegation stated the
current HHO president, Vjekoslav
Vidovic, reports Srna.
(Source: Inet news)
AFP 27/3/2000 --------------------------------------------------
TENSIONE PER IL TRASFERIMENTO DI UN TERRORISTA
DAL KOSMET IN MACEDONIA
http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=146120
Kosovo Albanians Protest Transfer of Murder Suspect to
Macedonia
PRISTINA, Mar 27, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse)
Several hundred Kosovo Albanians blocked the main
highway between Pristina and the Macedonian border
late Sunday in protest at the planned hand-over of a
man wanted for murder in Macedonia, a KFOR official
said.
Some 400 people blocked the intersection leading to
the southeastern US base of Camp Bondsteel where
Xhavit Hasani had been detained by KFOR peacekeepers,
while 200 more turned out with 50 vehicles at the
border crossing of Djeneral Jankovic, spokesman Ian
Fitzgerald said.
An unspecified number of people also cut the road in
the southern town of Kacanik near the border.
The protests started around 6:30 p.m. (1630 GMT) and
several people were detained although the
demonstrations were mostly peaceful, the US first
sergeant said.
U.S., Polish and Greek peacekeepers were controlling
the crowds, which were still on the road late Sunday,
Fitzgerald added.
Hasani, arrested on charges of murder and illegal
weapons possession on January 9 in the southeastern
town of Vitina, was also known as a hero of the former
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a western diplomatic
source said.
He was held under the custody of UN police in Kosovo
at Camp Bondsteel's detention facility and was due to
be handed over Sunday to Macedonian police, Fitzgerald
said.
One diplomatic source told AFP Hasani was wanted in
Macedonia on multiple charges of killing police.
Kosovo Albanians protested in Vitina at the time of
Hasani's arrest, Fitzgerald said. ((c) 2000 Agence
France Presse)
B92 27/3/2000 --------------------------------------
ATTACCHI DEI NAZIONALISTI PANALBANESI A BUJANOVAC
Attacks in Bujanovac
VRANJE, Monday - Albanian extremists struck twice in the south Serbian
municipality of Bujanovac today, according to Vranje District Court
investigating judge, Slavoljub Mihajlovic. Court representatives have
completed a preliminary investigation of an incident on Veliki
Trnovac-Brezovica road in which a freight vehicle was shot at from a
rocket
launcher. One unfired Chinese-made rocket was discovered. The second
attack
took place at a checkpoint near the village of Koncuj and came from
territory
under KFOR control.
ARMI CONFISCATE A MITROVICA NORD
French troops confiscate weapons
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Monday - French KFOR troops this morning confiscated
a
number of weapons in the Bosnjacka mahala settlement in northern
Kosovska
Mitrovica. A representative of French Command in Mitrovica told media
that
three rocket launchers, one Russian rifle, one automatic rifle and one
Kalashnikov had been confiscated. KFOR also said that gunfire had been
heard
early this morning south of the central bridge in Kosovska Mitrovica but
its
source had not yet been determined.
CINQUECENTO FINORA GLI ALBANESI RILASCIATI IN SERBIA
Kosovo Albanians released from prison
PRISTINA, Monday - Fifteen Kosovo Albanians were released from Serbian
prisons during the weekend, the International Red Cross announced in
Pristina
today. The Red Cross told media that it had collected the prisoners in
Serbia
proper and transported them to Kosovo. Quoting incomplete data the
International Red Cross said that five hundred Albanian prisoners had so
far
been released from Serbian prisons while about another 1,500 remained in
detention.
Serbian President Milan Milutinovic has granted presidential pardons to
a
number of convicted criminals, according to a statement issued by his
office
today. No further details were given.
INIZIATA LA NUOVA PROVA DI FORZA DELLA NATO
NATO manoeuvres enter operational phase
PRISTINA, Monday - The NATO military exercise Dynamic Response 2000
which
began on March 19 entered its operational phase this morning according
to
KFOR spokesman Hoening Philip. Philip told media in Pristina that troops
and
vehicles from the strategic reserve forces under the tactical control of
KFOR
would be included in the exercise in several areas of Kosovo, adding
that
real ammunition would not be used during the exercise.
DJUKANOVIC MINACCIA LA GUERRA IN MONTENEGRO
Djukanovic warns of new war
PODGORICA, Monday - Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic warned today
of the
danger of a new war in Yugoslavia. Djukanovic told Sarajevo daily Dnevni
avaz
that Yugoslavia's neighbours and key figures in the international
community
were concerned about possible conflict in Montenegro. The Montenegrin
president added that the danger was certainly present because the
Belgrade
regime was the same which had begun four wars in the former Yugoslavia
and
had kept itself in power by constantly producing new crises.
OPPOSIZIONE FILO-OCCIDENTALE IN TOURNEE A BRUXELLES
Opposition delegates to Pact for Stability conference
BELGRADE, Monday - The Serbian opposition will send observers to the
Pact for
Stability in South-eastern Europe's donors conference which begins in
Brussels next Wednesday. Alliance for Change Coordinator Vladan Batic
told
media that representatives of the Alliance for Change, the Alliance of
Democratic Parties, the DAN Coalition and the Serbian Renewal Movement
would
attend the conference. The conference, which includes the European
Commission, the World Bank, and Assistant US Secretary of State Strobe
Talbot
is expected to discuss projects proposed by the Pact. According to Batic
the
Serbian opposition representatives will present projects for assistance
to
Serbs in Kosovo and refugees from Croatia as well as a repatriation
project
for Kosovo Serbs and a project to assist media in Serbia.
THE TIMES 25/3/2000 ---------------------------------------
PROBLEMI NEL CONTINGENTE FRANCESE IN KOSOVO
http://www.the-times.co.uk (World)
March 25 2000 EUROPE
French feud boils over
FROM CHARLES BREMNER IN PARIS
BAD blood between the French military and Bernard
Kouchner, the French United Nations administrator of
Kosovo, has emerged to embarrass the Government here
after a bizarre street brawl in Paris between a
gendarmerie colonel and officers of the military
security.
The Monday night fist-fight, involving Colonel
Jean-Michel Méchain and some of the eight-strong
surveillance team, exposed a feud between the
gendarmerie and France's army contingent in the Kfor
Kosovo UN force. The gendarmerie, a military
organisation and France's provincial police force, is
supervising civilian security and criminal
investigation in the French zone of Kfor.
Colonel Méchain, 46, was being followed by the Defence
Ministry's security force because he was suspected,
with a 27-year-old French-Albanian translator, of
leaking military documents critical of M Kouchner. In
one published memorandum to General Louis Le Mière,
the French contingent commander, army officers
complained that the UN chief displayed an anti-Serbian
bias. The French military have long been held to have
pro-Serbian sympathies.
The colonel, acting as legal adviser to the Kfor
command, had made no secret of his anger against the
military after superior officers refused a request by
M Kouchner in February to second him to his staff as
special adviser for the fight against organised crime.
He was brought back to Paris that month. Like other
gendarmerie members, Colonel Méchain had been critical
of the legally questionable methods used by the
military when arresting suspected KosovoAlbanian
criminals.
The fight broke out in the 20th arrondissement of
Paris after the colonel accompanied the woman
translator to her home and challenged the surveillance
team, which had been on his tail all day. Police
arrested two military agents.
Alain Richard, the Defence Minister, said that the
case was being investigated but the military had had
good reasons to refuse Colonel Méchain's posting. "He
showed a certain agitation against his own service,"
he said. Colonel Méchain said yesterday that he was
seeking permission to publicise his version of the
affair.
DETTAGLIATI PIANI BRITANNICI PER L'ATTACCO DI TERRA
http://www.the-times.co.uk (World)
March 25 2000 EUROPE
Britain had detailed plan for ground war
BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR
Nato's five options
1. NORTHERN OPTION
The most politically sensitive and least realistic
plan was to advance from Hungary into Serbia, with
maximum air support, manoeuvring round Belgrade to
reach Kosovo. But this would have meant taking on the
whole Yugoslav National Army (JNA) and would have
required up to 600,000 troops.
2. AIRBORNE OPTION
High on the list of priorities was to get thousands of
airborne troops into the heart of Kosovo by helicopter
and transport aircraft, many of them possibly by
parachute, landing well beyond the ambush territory of
the Kacanik Pass. Their role would have been to
harrass the Serb forces, backed by Apache attack
helicopters, and hold ground until the main armour
arrived.
3. ALBANIAN OPTION
Using the main Albanian ports to offload troops and
equipment, the Americans planned to build a highway
into Kosovo, beside the existing minor roads, in a
huge engineering project; then advance directly into
the province.
4. KACANIK PASS OPTION
Despite the formidable challenge of advancing through
the mountain pass, often through narrow tunnels, much
of the armour would have had to take this direct route
from Macedonia into Kosovo. But the advance would have
been preceded by extensive special forces operations
to secure the tunnels and bridges.
5. PRESEVO VALLEY OPTION
Copying the strategy used in the 1991 Gulf War
campaign, the intention was to advance into Serbia to
the east from Macedonia and then carry out a left hook
into Kosovo. The Serbs were aware of this possibility
and began deploying troops east of Kosovo.
BRITAIN'S planning for a ground war against President
Milosevic's forces in Kosovo was so far advanced that
the Ministry of Defence had even worked out how many
artillery shells would be required, according to
military sources.
Underlining the pressures the British military were
under to find resources for the potential battle, it
was estimated that the division earmarked for battle
in Kosovo needed to take the entire war reserve of
155mm artillery shells. The precise number of shells
is classified, but it is clear that the planning of
the Kosovo ground campaign forced the MoD to revise
its strategy on ammunition stocks. War reserves were
reduced under the previous Government's defence cuts.
One of the most alarming lessons for Nato from the
Kosovo campaign, which began a year ago yesterday, was
that most alliance members were not prepared or able
to contemplate a high-intensity war with Yugoslavia.
Senior MoD sources said yesterday that towards the end
of Nato's 78-day bombing campaign, some alliance
members were beginning "to come round" to the idea
that a ground war might be necessary. But the Kosovo
terrain and the prospect of high casualties remained
key obstacles in the way of any consensus. British
planners knew that a ground war against an army of
about 30,000 Serb troops in defensive positions would
lead to significant casualties.
Cabinet Office papers circulated to ministers
reflected the fears of a high casualty toll, but Tony
Blair supported the British military view that
planning for a land campaign had to begin. One senior
Army officer said that the ground war would have
presented a greater challenge than 100,000 Russian
troops faced in ejecting less than 10,000 rebels from
Chechnya. The operation, he said, could have led to
much higher casualties than the Russians had suffered.
One British source said the French had estimated that
there could be 2,000 Nato casualties a day. Operation
B Minus, as the campaign plan was codenamed, would
have involved up to 175,000 troops, mostly American
and British.
Britain told Washington that its maximum contribution
was 54,000 troops and about 100 tanks. That would have
required calling up the regular reserves and the
Territorial Army. The Pentagon was confident that the
US Corps of Engineers would be able to build new roads
into Kosovo from Albania and the necessary
infrastructure in the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia to bear the weight of armoured vehicles.
The US also planned to improve port facilities in
Albania. "Whenever we expressed doubts about the scale
of the improvements needed, the Americans told us not
to make mountains out of molehills," one British
military source said.
A small team of mostly American officers, under the
overall command of General Wesley Clark, the Supreme
Allied Commander, came up with five options:
Airborne: sending thousands of troops by helicopter
and transport aircraft over the border mountains into
the heart of Kosovo.
Presevo Valley: advancing from Macedonia into Serbia
to the east of Kosovo and then swinging in a "left
hook" to attack the Serb troops.
Kacanik Pass: driving armour through the mountain pass
from Macedonia.
Albanian: advancing from Albania into Kosovo along a
route constructed by American engineers.
Northern: assembling an army in Hungary and advancing
into Serbia from the north.
The aim would have been to get all the troops into
theatre within 90 days and to defeat the Serbs by the
end of October, using a combination of the listed
options.
REUTERS 23/3/2000 ---------------------------------
LA RUSSIA SI RIFIUTA DI INVIARE ALTRI UOMINI
PER L'UNMIK IN KOSMET
http://www.foxnews.com/world/0323/i_rt_0323_8.sml
Russia Refuses to Send Police to Kosovo
6.15 a.m. ET (1125 GMT) March 23, 2000
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russia Thursday accused the U.N.
mission in Kosovo of failing to establish law and
order in the province and said it was withdrawing its
agreement to join an international police force to be
sent there.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Moscow
had more than once expressed worries over tensions in
Kosovo between the majority ethnic Albanian and
minority Serb population.
It said it did not understand the position of the U.N.
secretariat and the Kosovo U.N. civil administration,
known as UNMIK, on deploying police officers.
"On the one hand, attention is continually drawn to
the fact that there is a critical lack of policemen
and on the other, under various pretexts, the
reception of Russian Interior Ministry workers for
service in the UNMIK special police has been delayed
for several months,'' it said.
"Under these circumstances, we are forced to cancel
our agreement to the U.N.'s request to send a Russian
detachment of special police,'' it said.
The U.N. administration is responsible for running the
province and policing it. But tensions remain high and
the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force has struggled to
contain them.
"The whole responsibility for the unsatisfactory
situation with the guaranteeing of security in the
province, preventing inter-ethnic clashes and the
growth of crime wholly and fully rests with the
current leadership of the U.N. Mission in Kosovo,''
the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Russia fiercely opposed NATO's 11-week campaign of air
raids against Yugoslavia but joined the KFOR force. It
has continuously complained that the West was ignoring
acts of violence by ethnic Albanians against the local
Serbs.
Russian news agencies quoted Leonid Ivashov, the head
of the Defense Ministry's international relations
department, as saying the situation in Kosovo was
getting worse and a new conflict might flare up.
AIM 22/3/2000 ------------------------------------------
CINQUE SOLDATI USA SOTTO INCHIESTA PER MALTRATTAMENTI IN KOSMET
FIVE U.S. SOLDIERS DISCIPLINED FOR ABUSE IN KOSOVO
FORT BRAGG, N.C., March 22, 2000 (Reuters)
Five U.S. soldiers in the same battalion as a soldier charged
with raping and murdering an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian girl have
been disciplined for using excessive force against civilians in
Kosovo during a peacekeeping mission in January, a military spokesman
said on Tuesday.
The five paratroopers were ordered to take a reduction in rank,
forfeiture of pay, perform extra duty and have their activities
restricted in the decision handed down earlier this month for
incidents that took place in January, said Maj. James Marshall, a
spokesman for the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina.
Civilians in Vitina, Kosovo, complained that the soldiers had
assaulted and threatened them during interrogations and crowd-control
duties on Jan. 9 and 10. Some women also charged that the soldiers
had touched them inappropriately.
The U.S. military is still investigating two battalion officers
with Task Force Falcon in Kosovo who were on duty during the
incidents in question, Marshall said.
LENTA GRADUALE RIPRESA DEL TRAFFICO AEREO SULLA JUGOSLAVIA
YUGOSLAVIA'S JAT EYES EU SLOTS AFTER AIR BAN GOES
BELGRADE, March 22, 2000 (Reuters)
Yugoslavian flag carrier Jugoslovenski Aerotransport (JAT) said
on Tuesday its first flights in the European Union would be to
Germany after the 15-nation bloc suspended an air ban.
"A day after the EU decision on suspending the flight ban is
published in their Official Journal, JAT will resume flights to
Duesseldorf," the head of JAT, Zika Petrovic, told reporters.
The Yugoslav airline will also soon start flights to France,
Italy and the Netherlands, Petrovic said. Initially, JAT will fly
three times a week to Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and London
and twice a week to Berlin, Duesseldorf, Milan, Copenhagen,
Stockholm-Goeteborg and Athens-Thessaloniki.
The first foreign carrier due to land in Belgrade on Wednesday
at 1045 GMT is the Greek carrier Olympic Airways. It will be followed
by Swissair, scheduled to arrive at 1310 GMT, the head of Belgrade's
international airport, Ljubomir Acimovic, said.
British Airways and Alitalia are expected to resume services to
Belgrade in early April, he added.
EU foreign ministers decided on Monday to lift a ban on air
links with Yugoslavia but the bloc also agreed to tighten financial
sanctions to increase pressure on President Slobodan Milosevic.
JAT's Petrovic said the airline had suffered losses of $300
million due to the flight ban imposed in September 1998 and after the
NATO defense alliance's air campaign last year grounded flights for
several months.
SWISSAIR RENEWS FLIGHTS TO BELGRADE
BELGRADE, March 22, 2000 (BETA)
'Swissair' is the first air transporter to renew flights to FRY
after the last year's bombing. Flights to Belgrade will be renewed on
Wednesday, after a one-year long pause.
The decision of European Union to lift the air-traffic ban on
Serbia will last till August 18th, since the agreement on the matter
was achieved on February 28th.
-------------------------------------------------------------
LA NATO CONFERMA ALL'ONU DI AVER USATO ARMI NUCLEARI
(URANIO IMPOVERITO) CONTRO LA JUGOSLAVIA
UNEP/UNCHS News Release. For information only. Not an official
record.
Jointly issued by UNEP/UNCHS
NATO CONFIRMS TO THE UNITED NATIONS, USE OF
DEPLETED URANIUM DURING THE KOSOVO CONFLICT
GENEVA, 21 March 2000 - The North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) has confirmed to the
United Nations that depleted uranium (DU) was
used during the Kosovo conflict. But, according
to the Joint UNEP/UNCHS Balkans Task Force (BTF)
the information provided is not of sufficient
detail to facilitate an accurate field
assessment of the environmental and human health
consequences of its us
at the present time.
The new information on DU was sent to the United
Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan from NATO
Secretary-General, Lord Robertson and states:
"DU rounds were used whenever the A-10 engaged
armour during Operation Allied Force.
Therefore, it was used throughout Kosovo during
approximately 100 missions... A total of
approximately 31,000 rounds of DU ammunition
were used in operation Allied Force. The major
focus of these operations was in an area west of
the Pec-Dakovica-Prizren highway; in the area
surrounding Klina; in the area around Prizren;
and in an area to the north of a line joining
Suva Reka and Urosevac. However many missions
using DU also took place outside these areas."
This information was reviewed yesterday by
scientists from the BTF's Desk Assessment Group
on Depleted Uranium - an interagency group that
was established last year as part of the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)-led
assessment of the environmental consequences of
the Kosovo conflict. Whilst welcoming the
positive cooperation of NATO, the group, which
includes experts from the World Health
Organization (WHO), the International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Department for
Disarmament Affairs (DDA), and the Swedish
Radiation Protection Institute, concluded that
despite the additional information there was
still
insufficient data available on the exact
location of the DU ordnance to comprehensively
carry out an objective and scientifically based
environmental and
human health impact assessment in Kosovo.
The Group emphasized that the new information on
DU should not be a cause of widespread alarm.
However, it also concluded that because of
NATO's confirmation that DU was used, the
recommendations made in their October 1999
report should be followed. The Group's report,
which was based on the then best
available information, a hypothetical scenario
and unverified assumptions, recommends that at
places where contamination has been confirmed,
measures
should be taken to prevent access. Local
authorities and people concerned should be
informed of the possible risks and appropriate
precautionary measures.
The conclusions of the BTF expert group have
been forwarded to the UN Secretary-General and
the heads of other concerned UN agencies, as
well as UNMIK in
Kosovo.
In the report, "The Kosovo Conflict -
Consequences for the Environment and Human
Settlements", the BTF raised the issue of the
consequences to human health and the environment
by the possible use of depleted uranium. The
report recommended that a thorough review of the
health effects of exposure to DU should be
undertaken.
At yesterday's meeting in Geneva, the Desk
Assessment Group was advised that WHO is
preparing a more general, "generic" report on
the health effects of DU. That report should be
available by the middle of May, 2000 and is not
specific to Kosovo. The Royal Society (UK) is
also preparing an independent report on the
DU topic.
The issue of depleted uranium was only one part
of last year's assessment and the BTF's overall
report concluded that the Kosovo conflict did
not cause an environmental catastrophe affecting
the Balkans region as a whole, but that
pollution detected at four environmental "hot
spots" (Pancevo, Kragujevac, Novi Sad and Bor),
is serious and poses a threat to human health.
As part of the second phase of its work, the BTF
is currently preparing detailed environmental
clean-up feasibility studies (for submission to
donors) at the four mentioned sites in Serbia.
The BTF was set-up by Klaus Toepfer, Executive
Director of the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP) and UN Centre for Human
Settlements, UNCHS
(Habitat), in May 1999, to assess the
environmental and human settlement consequences
of the Balkans conflict. Under the leadership of
the former Finnish
Environment and Development Cooperation
Minister, Pekka Haavisto, the BTF acted on the
recommendation of an earlier UN mission to the
region that a detailed
assessment of the full extent of the
environmental impact of the conflict be urgently
carried out. The BTF report is available on
the Web at http://www.grid.unep.ch/btf.
For more information, please contact: Tore J.
Brevik, UNEP Spokesman/Director of
Communications and Public Information, P.O. Box
30552, Nairobi, Kenya; tel: (254 2) 623292;
fax: 62-3692; Email: cpiinfo@... or
Robert Bisset, Office of the UNEP Spokesman and
BTF Press Officer in Geneva on: +41-22-917-8598,
Nairobi +254-2-623084, email:
robert.bisset@....
UNEP News Release 00/33
B92 21/3/2000 ----------------------------------------------
IL CRIMINALE DI GUERRA NALETILIC DOPO ANNI ESTRADATO ALL'AIA
Croatia extradites Tuta to The Hague
ZAGREB, Tuesday - Croatia today handed over Bosnian Croat Mladen "Tuta"
Naletilic to the Hague Tribunal. Naletilic has been indicted on charges
of
ethnic cleansing of Muslims in central Bosnia in 1993. Justice Minister
Stepan Ivanisevic handed Naletilic over to a Hague medical team at
Zagreb
airport. The indicted war crimes suspect has twice undergone heart and
lung
surgery in the past few months but the Hague medical team deemed him fit
to
travel and to stand trial. Croatian Foreign Minster Tonino Picula
demanded
that the international court provide special conditions for the
53-year-old
Naletilic.
---------------------------------------------------------------
LA ROMANIA PRESENTA IL CONTO PER I DANNI ECONOMICI SUBITI
LA ROUMANIE A PERDU 100 MILLIONS DE DOLLARS PAR L'OBSTRUCTION DU DANUBE
BUCAREST, Roumanie, le 20 mars 2000 (Globe Boston)
La Roumanie a perdu $100 millions de revenus et est forcée de licencier
la
plupart des employés de la navigation à cause de l'obstruction soutenue
du
fleuve le DANUBE, selon les dires du premier ministre pour qui '' le
nettoyage du Danube est un problème d'importance extrême pour la
Roumanie''.
Les dires de Mugur Isarescu ont été cités par l'agence d'informations
privée
Mediafax. Le fleuve est bloqué depuis que l'OTAN a détruit des ponts
dans
Novi Sad pendant son 78e jour de bombardement de la Yougoslavie teminé
en
juin 1999.
Isarescu a été cité à Bruxelles où il est venu présenter la stratégie
économique de son pays à l'Union Européenne. La Roumanie veut être un
membre
de l'UE. Il est possible qu'Isarescu demandera une aide financière pour
nettoyer les effets des deux fuites chimiques récentes provenant des
mines
roumaines et qui ont pollué les rivières majeures gauches du fleuve en
Europe de l'Est. Isarescu a dit que les agences maritimes ont perdu
$100
millions et que les quatre-cinquièmes des employés dans le transport
industriel ont été lienciés en raison de l'obstruction. Il a aussi dit
que
la crise de la rivière mettait en danger "les chances" de la Roumanie de
privatiser sa flotte.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
KOSOVO- RUSSO SPENA (PRC): "VIAGGIO FASSINO PER FAVORIRE INDIPENDENZA DI
PRISTINA DA BELGRADO?"
Il sen.Giovanni Russo Spena del Partito della Rifondazione Comunista ha
presentato una interrogazione urgente al Presidente del Consiglio per
sapere i veri scopi della imminente missione diplomatica del Ministro
del Commercio estero Fassino in Kosovo. Nell'interrogazione si chiede:
" Se corrisponde a verità che scopo di questa missione sia l'apertura di
un ufficio dell'ICE (Istituto per il commercio estero) nella città
kossovara di Pristina. In caso di risposta affermativa si chiede di
sapere se tale ufficio è da considerarsi una succursale della sede
centrale presente in Jugoslavia a Belgrado o se si tratta invece di un
ufficio autonomo. Non sfuggendo infatti la gravità politica di questa
seconda ipotesi , che vedrebbe l'Italia contribuire attivamente alla
secessione del Kosovo ed alla sua indipendenza, si chiede un immediato
chiarimento da parte del governo sulla imminente missione del Ministro
Fassino"
Roma 20 Marzo 2000
--------------------------------------------------------------------
LE TRUPPE SPECIALI BRITANNICHE SONO GIA' IN MONTENEGRO
PER PREPARARE IL CONFLITTO
Sunday Telegraph March 19 2000 EUROPE
SAS is ordered to guard Britons in Montenegro
SAS troops have moved into Montenegro as western fears
grow about the possible disintegration of what remains of
Yugoslavia, writes Tom Walker.
The elite unit is preparing contingency plans for the removal
of British nationals, and is learning the lie of the land in case
there is a confrontation between forces loyal to pro-western
President Milo Djukanovic and Slobodan Milosevic, his
adversary in Belgrade.
Civil war in Montenegro, Serbia's tiny sister state in the
Yugoslav federation, would almost certainly involve the West.
Djukanovic has been told not to provoke the Yugoslav
president. However, Madeleine Albright, the American
secretary of state, has warned Belgrade that Nato would
back Djukanovic in any showdown.
As Britain and America prepare the largest naval exercise
since Nato's air strikes against the former Yugoslavia last
year, Milosevic has tightened the economic blockade around
Montenegro. The action is apparently intended to discourage
Djukanovic from going for independence.
Military sources said it was "entirely natural" in such
circumstances that the SAS would be relaying intelligence
back to Britain. They added that four SAS officers entered
Montenegro two weeks ago.
One diplomat said the sabre-rattling in the Mediterranean and
the Adriatic, along with the SAS presence in Montenegro,
showed that western governments favoured pre-emptive
action to avoid another conflict in the Balkans.
REUTERS 18/3/2000 ---------------------------------------------
SCONFINAMENTO DI SETTE SOLDATI CECHI DAL KOSMET
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/20000319/t Sunday, March 19, 2000
7 Peacekeepers Held for Hours by Serb Police From Reuters
PRISTINA, Yugoslavia--Serbian police detained seven Czech
peacekeeping soldiers for more than eight hours Saturday when they
crossed from the Kosovo border, the NATO-led KFOR peace force said.
The Czechs, in an armored vehicle, were stopped about 10
a.m. and were released after nightfall, a KFOR spokesman said.
Another KFOR spokesman initially said four Czech soldiers
had been arrested.
News of the arrests was given by Lt. Col. Henning
Philipp, who said the patrol had lost its way and inadvertently crossed
the demarcation line. Kosovo is a province of Serbia, the dominant
Yugoslav republic.
The patrol members were detained near the village of
Merdare, close to the main road north from Pristina, the provincial
capital, Serbian sources in the area said. "The KFOR
patrol was patrolling along the boundary to Serbia proper on the
northeastern part of Kosovo, lost its way, inadvertently crossed the
boundary and was stopped by local police," Philipp said.
He said the mountainous terrain made it easy to get lost.
Peacekeepers patrol the demarcation line between Kosovo
and the rest of Serbia to prevent the return of Serbian forces who
withdrew last June after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 78-day
air war.
AP 18/3/2000, REUTERS 17/3/2000 -------------------------------
PROTESTE ANTI-NATO IN GRECIA
Anti-NATO Protest in Greece
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 18, 2000; 6:12 p.m. EST
THESSALONIKI, Greece –– About 300 people chanting "Clinton Killer"
rallied Saturday against NATO plans to land 2,000 troops in this
northern port city on their way to Kosovo for a military exercise.
The protests, backed by Greece's small but defiant Communist Party, were
expected to swell Sunday, when 1,100 U.S. troops and about 900 from
Argentina, The Netherlands, Poland and Romania were scheduled to arrive.
The soldiers are to travel overland to neighboring Macedonia and into
Kosovo to take part in the exercise, nicknamed Dynamic Response 2000.
"This invasion by American ... marines is a provocation for the Greek
people," Communist Party leader Aleka Papariga said.
The Communists led rowdy rallies across Greece last year, during NATO's
78-day bombing of Yugoslavia. They also held protests during President
Clinton's visit to Athens in November.
Although Greece is a NATO member, many Greeks condemned the bombing,
appearing suspicious of the motives of the U.S.-led intervention and
sympathizing with the fellow Orthodox Serbs.
More anti-NATO protests were planned in Athens and other cities for next
week to mark the anniversary of the start of the bombing. The
demonstrations could place renewed pressure on Greece's Socialist
government ahead of general elections April 9.
http://www.centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=143451
Greek Communists Call For Anti-NATO Demonstrations
ATHENS, Mar 17, 2000 -- (Reuters) Greece's Communist
Party (KKE) leader on Thursday called on left-wing
groups to demonstrate against NATO forces passing
through northern Greece this weekend ahead of a
military exercise in Kosovo.
Speaking at a rally ahead of general elections on
April 9, KKE General-Secretary Aleka Papariga also
called for Greek troops serving in Kosovo as part of
NATO's peacekeeping force to be recalled.
She said the Greek troops had become "occupying forces
engaged in ethnic cleansing against the Serbs".
Papariga called for demonstrations against U.S.
Marines when they pass through the northern Greek port
city of Thessaloniki en route to the military exercise
in the Yugoslav province.
A Greek defense ministry official told Reuters the
NATO military exercise, between March 19 and April 10,
was planned more than a year ago. It was likely to
involve about 1,600 troops from a number of NATO
countries, including an estimated 1,200 Americans.
---------------------------------------------------------------
ANCORA INDISCREZIONI SUL PROGETTO DI ATTENTATO A MILOSEVIC
Crown forces hone skills "with a bomb... " perfected in Ireland
How the SAS was going to assassinate Milosevic
By Paul Lashmar
17 March 2000
British security agents plotted to assassinate Yugoslavia's President,
Slobodan Milosevic, in the early Nineties using an SAS hit squad, the
intelligence historian Stephen Dorrill claims.
Mr Dorrill says that a secret MI6 file explored three options in which
the Serbian leader could be killed during the Bosnian war. His book
quotes
claims by a former MI6 officer, who worked in the Balkans in the early
Nineties, that an ambitious colleague who was responsible for developing
and
targeting operations in the Balkans had produced the file.
"It was approximately two pages long, and had a yellow card attached to
it which signified that it was an accountable document rather than a
draft
proposal," the unnamed source claims. "It was entitled 'The need to
assassinate President Milosevic of Serbia', and was distributed to
senior MI6 officers, including the head of Balkan operations, the
controller of
East European operations, the security officer responsible for eastern
European operations and the service's SAS liaison officer.
"The targeting officer justified the assassinating of Milosevic on the
grounds that the 'Butcher of Belgrade' was supplying weapons to
[Radovan] Karadzic, who was wanted for war crimes, including genocide,"
says the
source.
Mr Dorrill claims in his book that United States and French intelligence
agencies were considering assassinating Karadzic. Three scenarios were
suggested by MI6. The first was to train a Serbian paramilitary
opposition group to carry out the attack. This, the targeting officer
argued, had
the advantage of deniability but the disadvantage that control of the
operation would be difficult and the chance of success low.
The second plan was to use the small cell of SAS/SBS personnel which
conducts operations exclusively for MI6 and MI5. This team would kill Mr
Milosevic with a bomb or sniper's bullet. The targeting officer thought
that this
would be the most reliable option, but would be impossible to deny if it
went
wrong.
The third plot was to kill Mr Milosevic in a staged road accident. In
the end, no action was taken by MI6.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Europe/2000-03/sas170300.shtml
IWPR --------------------------------------------------------
NONOSTANTE TUTTE LE PRESSIONI OCCIDENTALI I MUSULMANI
DEL SANGIACCATO RESTANO FAUTORI DELL'UNITA' JUGOSLAVA
THE SANDZAK DILEMMA
Sandzak's future looks grim whatever the outcome of the escalating
conflict
between Serbia and Montenegro.
By Miroslav Filipovic in Novi Pazar
[...]
Rasim Ljajic, the second most powerful Muslim politician in the region,
says
war would be disastrous for Sandzak, " It will lead to the
disintegration of
Yugoslavia and the partition of Sandzak. The war will be waged here and
the
experiences of civil and religious conflict in former Yugoslavia have
been
terrible so far."
For the time being, though, Muslim leaders are urging their
250,000-strong
community to stay. Sulejman Ugljanin, a prominent Sandzak political
figure,
says relations between local Montenegrins, Albanians, Serbs and Muslims
remain calm despite attempts by leaders in Belgrade and Podgorica to
stoke
tensions. [as you will see later the only people trying to stoke
tensions
are Djukanovic's men!]
"The residents of Sandzak should stay together with their families,
neighbours and fellow citizens to demonstrate their solidarity and
allegiance to Sandzak, " he said
Sandzak's geographic location could hardly be more precarious.
Internally
divided, it also borders Kosovo, Albania and Bosnia - and has been
affected
by all the recent Yugoslav wars. [it is also the missing link that would
connect all the US puppets in the region!] [...]
The latest wave of refugees are fleeing new conflict brewing in southern
Sandzak. It is widely believed that Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic
may send his paramilitary units to the region. His Montenegrin
counterpart
and rival, Milo Djukanovic, meanwhile, is creating his own security
forces, made up mainly of Muslims from the area
[!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!].
[...] Tensions are greatest here. The Yugoslav Army and the Montenegrin
police occupy two neighbouring hotels in the town. An uneasy stand-off
exists.
"Once incident could spark a war in Montenegro, " said one Rozaje
resident.
Local leader Harum Hadzic said residents " are expecting war, but hoping
for peace."
But Muslims in the region fear Sandzak will be partitioned whether the
two Yugoslav republics part company by force or by peaceful means.
For this reason they are anxious to preserve the Yugoslav federation. So
much so that despite their identification with Bosnia, they disapprove
of
Sarajevo's backing for Montenegrin independence.
One of Sandjak's main spiritual leaders, Mufti Muamer Effendi Zukorilic,
insists no patriotic Muslims could support the secession of Montenegro.
"It's unacceptable for us," he said. [...]
Being ruled by two quarrelsome states leads to severe practical
problems.
Recently, for instance, Montenegrin police prevented Muslim clerics from
attending a meeting in Novi Pazar, in the Serbian part of Sandzak.
Faced with the real prospect of being caught up in a new war between the
Serbia and Montenegro, some Sandzak Muslims are frantically trying to
defuse
the tensions in the hope of not only averting a war but preventing the
further disintegration of Yugoslavia. Others though have lost hope.
The immediate impact is clear. The bus operator in Novi Pazar says
tickets
for the buses bound for international destinations have been sold out in
advance for the next three weeks [seeing as most of Yugoslavia is
jittery
about war this isn't such a big thing...].
Miroslav Filipovic is a correspondent for Danas in Kraljevo.
(from stopnato@... )
LA REPUBBLICA 18/3/2000 -----------------------------------
KOUCHNER BECCHINO DELLA MULTIETNICITA' DEL KOSOVO
Kosovo: Kouchner (Onu): "Oggi riconciliazione impossibile"
PARIGI - L'amministratore dell'Onu in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, ritiene
che
"l'opzione multietnica sia impossibile" in Kosovo. "Oggi - ammette
Kouchner
in un'intervista pubblicata dal giornale comunista L'Humanité" - la
riconciliazione è assolutamente impossibile". "La questione - dice
Kouchner
- è sapere se bisogna separare la popolazione per proteggerla o se
bisogna
metterla insieme senza poterla proteggere. E' una domanda, questa che
pongo, politicamente non corretta". "La risoluzione 1244 dell'Onu -
aggiunge - non contiene la parola multietnia. Si tratta di un'opzione
impossibile in Kosovo". Bisogna arrivare a quella che lo stesso Kouchner
definisce "coesistenza pacifica", una condizione che necessita la
"garanzia
di sicurezza delle popolazioni". Secondo l'amministratore dell'Onu, "i
serbi devono sapere che la Kfor (la forza internazionale) e la Minuk
(Missione delle Nazioni unite) non li cacceranno dalla parte nord del
Kosovo". E "quanto agli albanesi, bisogna dire loro ciò che
diventeranno.
Lo statuto del Kosovo deve essere più chiaro". Il Kosovo "è un problema
politico - afferma Kouchner - non un problema di ricostruzione". "Chi è
così folle - conclude - da aver pensato che in otto mesi si sarebbe
potuto
realizzare ciò che in Irlanda non sono riusciti a fare in 30 anni?".
====================================================================
NOTA DEL CRJ:
Le nostre selezioni di notizie non pretendono di informare
esaurientemente su tutti gli aspetti della problematica
jugoslava e balcanica, che e' vastissima, ma solamente di gettare
luce su alcune sfaccettature che non vengono trattate adeguatamente,
ne' potrebbero esserlo, dalla pubblicistica guerrafondaia attiva nel
nostro paese come in tutto l'Occidente.
Le notizie in lingua straniera sono sempre introdotte da un nostro
titolo in italiano per facilitarne la consultazione.
I brani provengono da fonti diverse:
ALBA - Albanian Daily News: http://www.albaniannews.com
AIM - e' il bollettino della Rete Accademica di Informazione:
> For more information visit our Academic Information Network site at
> http://www.aim.ac.yu/
> Please send us Your comments to news@... or comment@...
B92 - sono le notizie che provengono dalla mailing list di RadioB2-92,
di orientamento antigovernativo e filo-occidentale:
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> B2-92. News bulletins are updated at 19.00 CET Monday to Friday and
> at 23.00 CET on Saturday and Sunday.
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> http://www.freeb92.net/
REUTERS - sono i dispacci della omonima agenzia di informazione
AFP - e' l'agenzia di stampa francese France Presse.
AP - e' l'agenzia statunitense Associated Press.
IWPR - e' il bollettino dell'Institute for War & Peace Reporting
<info@...>
> Balkan Crisis Report is supported by the Department for International
> Development, European Commission, Swedish International Development and
> Cooperation Agency, MacArthur Foundation, Press Now and the Carnegie
> Corporation. IWPR also acknowledges general support from the Ford
Foundation.
> *** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net ***
TUTTE LE FONTI SONO CITATE
Distribution of copyright-protected materials is for general
information and discussion purposes only.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
COME SE NON LO SAPESSE
Una cartella piena zeppa di documentazione sui crimini commessi nella
provincia jugoslava di Kosovo e Metohija dal giorno della entrata delle
truppe KFOR e' stata consegnata al Pontefice Giovanni Paolo II da
Massimo Todisco, direttore dell'Osservatorio di Milano, all'inizio di
questo mese. Tra la documentazione il Pontefice puo' trovare anche
materiali relativi alla demolizione sistematica delle chiese cristiane,
alcune delle quali di epoca tardomedioevale, su quel territorio, e sulle
violenze commesse contro i religiosi e le religiose nei giorni della
ritirata dell'Armata Jugoslava e dell'ingresso congiunto di truppe NATO
ed UCK.
Dopo quasi un mese, ancora si attende una qualche reazione da parte
dell'interessato.
(Fonte: Tanjug 10/3/2000)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Una cartella piena zeppa di documentazione sui crimini commessi nella
provincia jugoslava di Kosovo e Metohija dal giorno della entrata delle
truppe KFOR e' stata consegnata al Pontefice Giovanni Paolo II da
Massimo Todisco, direttore dell'Osservatorio di Milano, all'inizio di
questo mese. Tra la documentazione il Pontefice puo' trovare anche
materiali relativi alla demolizione sistematica delle chiese cristiane,
alcune delle quali di epoca tardomedioevale, su quel territorio, e sulle
violenze commesse contro i religiosi e le religiose nei giorni della
ritirata dell'Armata Jugoslava e dell'ingresso congiunto di truppe NATO
ed UCK.
Dopo quasi un mese, ancora si attende una qualche reazione da parte
dell'interessato.
(Fonte: Tanjug 10/3/2000)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
* Iniziative Tribunale Italiano per i crimini della NATO
* Valsusa Film Festival 6/4/2000
* Raccolta fondi per una Biblioteca di Belgrado
---
TRIBUNALE ITALIANO CONTRO I CRIMINI DELLA NATO IN YUGOSLAVIA
065181048- FAX 068174010
E-MAIL: s.deangelis@... ponac@...
Sempre maggior interesse per le iniziative del "Tribunale"
Aumentano le iniziative che hanno come argomento o alle quali e'
invitata la
nostra struttura.
Oltre alle cinque sedute centrali programmate a Roma, due da svolgersi
ancora il 7 ed il 21 aprile, si sono effettuate iniziative a Pisa presso
il
circolo Agora', a Perugia presso l'AssiYug, a Cesena presso il
Coordinamento Romagnolo contro la Guerra, a Torino presso il
Coordinamento
per la Yugoslavia, a Bologna presso il Comitato contro la guerra di
Bologna,
a Napoli presso la facolta' di lettere dell'Universita', di nuovo a Pisa
il
30 marzo organizzato dai Collettivi Universitari di Pisa, a Siena il 31
marzo dal comitato 100 idee per la pace, a Teramo il 30 marzo presso la
locale Universita', a Bolsena il 2 aprile, l'8 aprile di nuovo a
Perugia,
sono invece in programmazione iniziative a Ravenna il 29 Aprile , a
Cagliari
il 12 maggio, a Udine il 27 maggio.
Questo crescente interesse per la nostra iniziativa, che avra' nella
seduta
del 3 giugno a Roma il momento piu' alto in Italia, e che dovrebbe
riscuotere il massimo delle attenzioni da tutte quelle strutture che in
Italia si stanno continuamente mobilitando contro i crimini della Nato e
del
nostro governo, ma soprattutto contro i nuovi tangibili pericoli di
guerra,
va di pari passo con l'evidenza sempre piu' dimostrabile delle accuse
che
noi muoviamo agli aggressori della Jugoslavia, accuse che
quotidianamente
vengono dimostrate dai valle varie dichiarazioni che escono sui
giornali.
A questo punto sempre piu' riteniamo importante che il nostro lavoro
diventi
puntuale e documentato, percio' diventano indispensabili nuove
collaborazioni e partecipazioni attive alle nostre attivita'.
chiunque quindi volesse offrire il proprio contributo alle nostre
iniziative
puo' contattarci ai nostri recapiti.
Stefano de Angelis, Carlo Pona
VENERDI' 7 APRILE
ORE 17.00 LIBRERIA DE IL MANIFESTO
TERZA SEDUTA
LA SITUAZIONE ATTUALE NELLA REPUBBLICA FEDERALE JUGOSLAVA E NEL KOSMET,
L'EMBARGO LA PRESENZA DELLA KFOR E DELLE UCK .
PARTECIPATE
TRIBUNALE ITALIANO CONTRO I CRIMINI DELLA NATO IN YUGOSLAVIA
065181048- FAX 068174010
E-MAIL: s.deangelis@... ponac@...
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> --- MESSAGGIO SPEDITO DA Rino Lamonaca <lamonaca@...>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> VALSUSA FILMFEST
>
> JUGOSLAVIA: un anno dopo
>
> Proiezione dei video:
> Serbi da morire
> di
> Fulvio Grimaldi
> e
> Bersagli sempre
> di
> Tamara Bellone - Fabrizio Galatea - Piera Tacchino
>
> Intervengono:
> Ugo Berga Comandante partigiano
> Claudio Cancelli Politecnico di Torino
> Angelo D'Orsi Università degli Studi di Torino
> Costanzo Preve Filosofo
> Roberto Preve Commissione Internazionale di Rifondazione Comunista
> Marija Zivkovic Coordinamento torinese per la Jugoslavia
> Massimo Zucchetti Politecnico di Torino
> Un rappresentante di ASKATASUNA
>
> Cinema Comunale
> Piazza Martiri della Libertà, 14
> Condove
> 6 aprile ore 21
---
Dalla lista del Comitato Scienziate/i contro la guerra:
Carissimi,
a quasi un anno dal vile attacco NATO contro la Jugoslavia, mi
rivolgo a
voi, che di persona avete contribuito ad opporvi all'aggressione, per
chiedere un contributo, anche minimo, ad una iniziativa che era stata
portata avanti da due docenti del Comitato Atenei Romani contro la
guerra,
Marcella Delle Donne ed il sottoscritto. Alla fine di agosto, in
occasione
del "viaggio ambientalista" organizzato dall'ONG "Un ponte per...",
prendemmo contatti con l'Università di Belgrado nella persona del
Rettore
e di alcuni componenti del corpo accademico. L'Università di Belgrado,
direttamente colpita dai bombardamenti, è tuttora impegnata nella
ricerca
sulle conseguenze ambientali, sociali e sanitarie del conflitto e sulle
strategie di prevenzione dei danni e dei rischi connessi.
Lo scorso ottobre il Vice-Rettore di quella Università curò la
trasmissione di un elenco di volumi e riviste (in tutto diciannove), che
invierò per fax o in attach dietro esplicita richiesta (in quanto
essendo
la lettera scannerizzata occuperebbe troppo spazio).
Il responsabile dell'Uff. Relazioni Internazionali de "La
Sapienza" in un
primo tempo si era impegnato ad accogliere la richiesta nel quadro
dell'iniziativa di un forum che avrebbe dovuto coinvolgere tutte le
Università dei Balcani e quelle del Lazio. E' passato del tempo e,
nonostante le nostre sollecitazioni, la richiesta non è stata evasa.
Abbiamo deciso quindi nell'ultima riunione del mese scorso di contare
sulle
nostre forze e di fare una colletta presso le realtà di studio e di
lotta
in cui siamo inseriti.
Grazie al suggerimento di alcuni e grazie alla disponibilità di
"Radio
Città Aperta" (<apeape@...>) di Roma abbiamo ora un conto
corrente postale su cui versare il nostro contributo (tanto per darvi
un'idea il costo delle sole tre pubblicazioni di medicina ammonta a Lit.
3.500.000).
IL n° DI CONTO CORRENTE POSTALE SU CUI EFFETTUARE IL VERSAMENTO E' IL
SEGUENTE:
50591007 (RIPETO: CINQUEZEROCINQUENOVEUNOZEROZEROSETTE)
INTESTATO A:
"RADIO CITTA' APERTA" - Via di Casal Bruciato 27, 00159 ROMA
SPECIFICANDO NELLA CAUSALE (IMPORTANTE!):
"FONDO LIBRI UNIVERSITA' BELGRADO"
Notifico che oltre me, a Roma si incaricano della raccolta di
fondi anche
Luciano Vasapollo, Francesco De Blasi e Giulia Barone (non inseriti in
S&P).
Ringrazio tutti per l'attenzione e per la partecipazione,
Mauro Cristaldi
prof. Mauro Cristaldi
Dip. Biologia Animale e dell'Uomo
Università "La Sapienza"
Via A. Borelli 50
00161 ROMA
Tel.: 06.49918015
Fax: 06.4457516
E-mail: <cristaldi@...>
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
* Valsusa Film Festival 6/4/2000
* Raccolta fondi per una Biblioteca di Belgrado
---
TRIBUNALE ITALIANO CONTRO I CRIMINI DELLA NATO IN YUGOSLAVIA
065181048- FAX 068174010
E-MAIL: s.deangelis@... ponac@...
Sempre maggior interesse per le iniziative del "Tribunale"
Aumentano le iniziative che hanno come argomento o alle quali e'
invitata la
nostra struttura.
Oltre alle cinque sedute centrali programmate a Roma, due da svolgersi
ancora il 7 ed il 21 aprile, si sono effettuate iniziative a Pisa presso
il
circolo Agora', a Perugia presso l'AssiYug, a Cesena presso il
Coordinamento Romagnolo contro la Guerra, a Torino presso il
Coordinamento
per la Yugoslavia, a Bologna presso il Comitato contro la guerra di
Bologna,
a Napoli presso la facolta' di lettere dell'Universita', di nuovo a Pisa
il
30 marzo organizzato dai Collettivi Universitari di Pisa, a Siena il 31
marzo dal comitato 100 idee per la pace, a Teramo il 30 marzo presso la
locale Universita', a Bolsena il 2 aprile, l'8 aprile di nuovo a
Perugia,
sono invece in programmazione iniziative a Ravenna il 29 Aprile , a
Cagliari
il 12 maggio, a Udine il 27 maggio.
Questo crescente interesse per la nostra iniziativa, che avra' nella
seduta
del 3 giugno a Roma il momento piu' alto in Italia, e che dovrebbe
riscuotere il massimo delle attenzioni da tutte quelle strutture che in
Italia si stanno continuamente mobilitando contro i crimini della Nato e
del
nostro governo, ma soprattutto contro i nuovi tangibili pericoli di
guerra,
va di pari passo con l'evidenza sempre piu' dimostrabile delle accuse
che
noi muoviamo agli aggressori della Jugoslavia, accuse che
quotidianamente
vengono dimostrate dai valle varie dichiarazioni che escono sui
giornali.
A questo punto sempre piu' riteniamo importante che il nostro lavoro
diventi
puntuale e documentato, percio' diventano indispensabili nuove
collaborazioni e partecipazioni attive alle nostre attivita'.
chiunque quindi volesse offrire il proprio contributo alle nostre
iniziative
puo' contattarci ai nostri recapiti.
Stefano de Angelis, Carlo Pona
VENERDI' 7 APRILE
ORE 17.00 LIBRERIA DE IL MANIFESTO
TERZA SEDUTA
LA SITUAZIONE ATTUALE NELLA REPUBBLICA FEDERALE JUGOSLAVA E NEL KOSMET,
L'EMBARGO LA PRESENZA DELLA KFOR E DELLE UCK .
PARTECIPATE
TRIBUNALE ITALIANO CONTRO I CRIMINI DELLA NATO IN YUGOSLAVIA
065181048- FAX 068174010
E-MAIL: s.deangelis@... ponac@...
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> --- MESSAGGIO SPEDITO DA Rino Lamonaca <lamonaca@...>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> VALSUSA FILMFEST
>
> JUGOSLAVIA: un anno dopo
>
> Proiezione dei video:
> Serbi da morire
> di
> Fulvio Grimaldi
> e
> Bersagli sempre
> di
> Tamara Bellone - Fabrizio Galatea - Piera Tacchino
>
> Intervengono:
> Ugo Berga Comandante partigiano
> Claudio Cancelli Politecnico di Torino
> Angelo D'Orsi Università degli Studi di Torino
> Costanzo Preve Filosofo
> Roberto Preve Commissione Internazionale di Rifondazione Comunista
> Marija Zivkovic Coordinamento torinese per la Jugoslavia
> Massimo Zucchetti Politecnico di Torino
> Un rappresentante di ASKATASUNA
>
> Cinema Comunale
> Piazza Martiri della Libertà, 14
> Condove
> 6 aprile ore 21
---
Dalla lista del Comitato Scienziate/i contro la guerra:
Carissimi,
a quasi un anno dal vile attacco NATO contro la Jugoslavia, mi
rivolgo a
voi, che di persona avete contribuito ad opporvi all'aggressione, per
chiedere un contributo, anche minimo, ad una iniziativa che era stata
portata avanti da due docenti del Comitato Atenei Romani contro la
guerra,
Marcella Delle Donne ed il sottoscritto. Alla fine di agosto, in
occasione
del "viaggio ambientalista" organizzato dall'ONG "Un ponte per...",
prendemmo contatti con l'Università di Belgrado nella persona del
Rettore
e di alcuni componenti del corpo accademico. L'Università di Belgrado,
direttamente colpita dai bombardamenti, è tuttora impegnata nella
ricerca
sulle conseguenze ambientali, sociali e sanitarie del conflitto e sulle
strategie di prevenzione dei danni e dei rischi connessi.
Lo scorso ottobre il Vice-Rettore di quella Università curò la
trasmissione di un elenco di volumi e riviste (in tutto diciannove), che
invierò per fax o in attach dietro esplicita richiesta (in quanto
essendo
la lettera scannerizzata occuperebbe troppo spazio).
Il responsabile dell'Uff. Relazioni Internazionali de "La
Sapienza" in un
primo tempo si era impegnato ad accogliere la richiesta nel quadro
dell'iniziativa di un forum che avrebbe dovuto coinvolgere tutte le
Università dei Balcani e quelle del Lazio. E' passato del tempo e,
nonostante le nostre sollecitazioni, la richiesta non è stata evasa.
Abbiamo deciso quindi nell'ultima riunione del mese scorso di contare
sulle
nostre forze e di fare una colletta presso le realtà di studio e di
lotta
in cui siamo inseriti.
Grazie al suggerimento di alcuni e grazie alla disponibilità di
"Radio
Città Aperta" (<apeape@...>) di Roma abbiamo ora un conto
corrente postale su cui versare il nostro contributo (tanto per darvi
un'idea il costo delle sole tre pubblicazioni di medicina ammonta a Lit.
3.500.000).
IL n° DI CONTO CORRENTE POSTALE SU CUI EFFETTUARE IL VERSAMENTO E' IL
SEGUENTE:
50591007 (RIPETO: CINQUEZEROCINQUENOVEUNOZEROZEROSETTE)
INTESTATO A:
"RADIO CITTA' APERTA" - Via di Casal Bruciato 27, 00159 ROMA
SPECIFICANDO NELLA CAUSALE (IMPORTANTE!):
"FONDO LIBRI UNIVERSITA' BELGRADO"
Notifico che oltre me, a Roma si incaricano della raccolta di
fondi anche
Luciano Vasapollo, Francesco De Blasi e Giulia Barone (non inseriti in
S&P).
Ringrazio tutti per l'attenzione e per la partecipazione,
Mauro Cristaldi
prof. Mauro Cristaldi
Dip. Biologia Animale e dell'Uomo
Università "La Sapienza"
Via A. Borelli 50
00161 ROMA
Tel.: 06.49918015
Fax: 06.4457516
E-mail: <cristaldi@...>
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
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