Informazione
LA CINA HA RAGIONE!
"Il governo americano dovrebbe tener d'occhio i problemi relativi ai
diritti umani all'interno degli USA, occuparsi delle sue faccende e
smetterla di interferire negli affari interni degli altri paesi
utilizzando il pretesto dei diritti umani"
(Agenzia di informazione Xinhua, Inside China Today Daily Brief
Tue, Feb. 29, 2000 - http://www.insidechina.com/ )
> Quote of the Day: "The American government needs to
> keep an eye on its own human rights problems, mind
> its own business and stop interfering in the internal
> affairs of other countries by utilizing the human
> rights question" -- Xinhua news agency, the
> government's Information Office of the State Council.
--------- 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 governo americano dovrebbe tener d'occhio i problemi relativi ai
diritti umani all'interno degli USA, occuparsi delle sue faccende e
smetterla di interferire negli affari interni degli altri paesi
utilizzando il pretesto dei diritti umani"
(Agenzia di informazione Xinhua, Inside China Today Daily Brief
Tue, Feb. 29, 2000 - http://www.insidechina.com/ )
> Quote of the Day: "The American government needs to
> keep an eye on its own human rights problems, mind
> its own business and stop interfering in the internal
> affairs of other countries by utilizing the human
> rights question" -- Xinhua news agency, the
> government's Information Office of the State Council.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
* Quanti sono i soldati delle truppe di occupazione in Kosmet (Albanian
Daily News / AFP / Notizie Est)
* Bilancio della distruzione delle chiese cristiano-ortodosse nel Kosmet
per opera dell'UCKFOR (THE MONTREAL GAZETTE)
---
I NUMERI DELLA KFOR IN KOSOVO
("Albanian Daily News", 29 febbraio 2000)
(trad. su "Notizie Est" #307, 1/3/2000)
BRUXELLES - La KFOR, la forza multinazionale di
mantenimento della pace, ha attualmente in
Kosovo 37.200 soldati, mentre altri 5.600
forniscono supporto logistico in Macedonia,
Albania e Grecia.
Secondo le ultime cifre fornite dalla NATO, in
Kosovo gli Stati Uniti hanno il numero piu' alto
di soldati dispiegati sul campo, con 5.400
effettivi, seguiti dall'Italia (4.200), dalla
Germania (3.900), dalla Francia (3.900), dalla
Russia (3.150) e dalla Gran Bretagna (3.000).
Nel totale di 36 stati che contribuiscono alla
missione, gli altri paesi che hanno fornito
contingenti sostanziosi sono stati l'Olanda
(1.400), gli Emirati Arabi Uniti (1.300), il
Canada (1.100), la Grecia (1.100), la Norvegia
(1.000) e la Spagna (900). I paesi NATO coprono
circa i quattro quinti degli effettivi totali,
con circa 30.000 uomini.
I contingenti di supporto si trovano in
Macedonia, dove ci sono 4.000 militari KFOR, in
Albania, dove ve ne sono 1.400, e in Grecia,
dove sono 100.
Il Kosovo e' stato diviso in cinque settori,
ognuno sotto il comando di una diversa forza
partecipante: i francesi nel settore nord, gli
americani in quello est, i tedeschi in quello
sud, gli italiani in quello ovest e i britanni
in quello centrale.
La KFOR attualmente e' amministrata dal
Landcent, le forze di terra NATO nell'Europa
Centrale, con sede a Heidelberg, in Germania,
sotto il comando del generale tedesco Klaus
Reinhardt. Lo stato maggiore della KFOR e'
composto da circa 1.500 uomini di tutte le
nazionalita'.
Il Landcent verra' sostituito in aprile dallo
stato maggiore dell'Eurocorps, formato da
ufficiali di Belgio, Francia, Germania e Spagna.
La KFOR sara' a partire da allora comandata dal
generale spagnolo Juan Ortuno, che e' diventato
comandante dell'Eurocorps il 26 novembre 1999.
Eternera Mailing List - http://get.to/eternera
KFOR troop numbers in Kosovo
BRUSSELS, Feb 24 (AFP) - KFOR, the multinational peacekeeping
force in Kosovo, currently has 37,200 troops deployed in the
southern Serbian province and a further 5,600 troops providing
logistical support in Macedonia, Albania and Greece.
According to the latest figures supplied by NATO, the United
States has the largest number of soldiers deployed, with 5,400
troops in Kosovo, followed by Italy (4,200), Germany (3,900), France
(3,900), Russia (3,150) and Britain (3,000).
Among a total of 36 contributing nations, substantial
contingents have been provided by the Netherlands (1,400), the
United Arab Emirates (1,300), Canada (1,100), Greece (1,100), Norway
(1,000) and Spain (900).
NATO countries account for around four-fifths of the total,
contributing some 30,000 troops.
Support teams are based in Macedonia, where there are 4,100 KFOR
troops, Albania where there are 1,400 and Greece with 100.
The province has been divided into five sectors, each under the
command of a different contributing force: French in the northern
sector, American in the east, German in the south, Italian in the
west and British in the centre.
KFOR is currently administered from Landcent, NATO's land forces
in central Europe based at Heidelberg, in Germany, under the overall
command of German General Klaus Reinhardt.
The KFOR general staff comprises around 1,500 men of all
nationalities.
The Eurocorps general staff, comprising officers from Belgium,
France, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain, is due to take over from
Landcent in April.
KFOR will then be headed by Spanish General Juan Ortuno, who
took over as commander of Eurocorps on November 26, 1999.
---
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE, Sunday, February 27, 2000
God's houses in ruins: The world keeps silent as Serb churches,
monasteries are
destroyed in
Kosovo under noses of peacekeepers
MARK ABLEY
The Gazette
The Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, in the Kosovo village Banjska, was
probably not an international treasure.
As far as we know, it was just a modest house of God in an area dotted
with the same.
But no one may ever be sure. On Jan. 30, 11 kilograms of explosives were
detonated at the altar,
leaving much of the building in ruins.
The explosion forms part of a sad and continuing pattern. Since a wary
peace took shape in Kosovo in June 1999, nearly 80 of its Orthodox
churches and monasteries are known to have suffered heavy damage or
destruction. The total may be higher, given that a lot of churches are
located in remote areas where few, if any, Serbs still live.
These attacks did not occur during the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization's
bombing campaign
last spring. They have happened since the return of Kosovo's Albanian
majority. Extremists, usually assumed to be linked to the Kosovo
Liberation Army, have carried out a systematic campaign of destruction
under the eyes of international peacekeepers.
The unanswered question is why this devastation has caused so little
outcry.
British and French
media have paid some attention to the attacks; but the North American
media have carried few reports. Dozens of non-profit groups are now
working in Kosovo; they have said next to nothing.
"The Western world is rather fed up with the Balkans," suggested Colin
Kaiser, chief of the unit for southeast Europe and the Arab states in
UNESCO's Division of Cultural Heritage. "The wars, first in Croatia,
then
in Bosnia and most recently in Kosovo, became more and more intense in
terms of damage. But the cumulative effect has been that the Western
sensibility to it all has been dulled."
True enough. But beyond that, it also seems true that after the wars of
the past decade, few Westerners dare to sympathize with anything
Serbian.
Last September, Bishop Artemije, the head of the Orthodox diocese of
Raska and
Prizren, charged
that while the first aim of the Kosovo Albanians "is to expel all Serbs,
the second is to eradicate all traces and witnesses that could serve as
evidence that the Serbs have existed at all.
"But who and what are the witnesses? Churches, monasteries and holy
places. So
they set out to
destroy the witnesses, to obliterate the traces. In 21/2 months more
than 70
monasteries and
churches were burned or demolished. Among them were the churches built
by
our illustrious and holy ancestors in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries.
The churches and monasteries, which survived 500 years of Turkish
occupation, did not endure two months in the presence of a 50,000-strong
international 'peacekeeping' force."
Peacekeeping troops from the United Arab Emirates, serving in the United
Nations' multinational
KFOR mission, had been stationed near the Church of St. Nicholas. But in
late January they withdrew, leaving the church unprotected. It was soon
blown to pieces.
The presence of the UN soldiers has slowed the rate of destruction in
recent months, but foreign troops can provide no guarantee of safety. On
Jan. 14, for instance, the Church of St. Elias, in a village called
Cernica, was partly destroyed by explosives. It stood just 70 metres
from
a checkpoint of U.S. soldiers.
Almost everyone would agree that the destruction of St. Elias's and St.
Nicholas's churches is regrettable. But what has so far escaped much
notice, particularly in North America, is that dozens of the earlier
victims were not just Serbian village churches, but buildings of great
beauty and historical significance. Among them:
- The Church of the Holy Virgin in Musutiste, built in 1315. Frescoes
painted in the following years were among the finest examples of
medieval
wall-painting in the entire region. The church was looted, burned and
mined by explosives.
- The Church of St. Nicholas in Prizren, which is said to date to 1348
or
earlier, and which contained medieval icons. Five explosives went off,
causing extensive damage.
- The Monastery of the Holy Trinity near Musutiste, built from 1465 on.
It
held a unique library of manuscripts as well as a collection of recent
icons. The monastery was first plundered, then burned and finally
leveled
with explosives.
- The Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Gornje Nerodimjle, built in
the
14th century, renewed and extended in 1700. The monastery was looted and
burned; a great pine tree, said to date from 1336, was chopped down and
burned; the cemetery was desecrated.
The stories go on and on. The pattern is undeniable - and for once, no
one
is even trying to claim that Yugoslavia's notorious president, Slobodan
Milosevic, is behind it.
So far, thanks to a 24-hour guard by foreign soldiers, the greatest of
all
treasures in the region - the monastic churches of Gracanica and Decani
-
have survived. Writers have waxed eloquent about them for generations;
Rebecca West, for one, called Gracanica "as religious a building as
Chartres Cathedral. The thought and feeling behind it were as complex.
There is in these frescoes, as in the parent works of Byzantium, the
height of accomplishment."
Some of the buildings were jewels of European civilization. Now they are
rubble.
- - -
Throughout the Balkans, politics and art, history and myth, oppression
and
religion are intertwined. The ruined Orthodox buildings of Kosovo were
not
only centres of worship and art; they were political symbols.
Since the mid-1980s, writes Michael Sells, professor of comparative
religion at
Haverford
College in Pennsylvania, "Serb nationalists have manipulated concern for
the (Kosovo) shrines to motivate, justify and implement 'ethnic
cleansing'
and annihilation of centuries of non-Serb artistic and religious
monuments.
"In exploiting Serbian monasteries and the heritage they represented to
foment hate and violence, they desecrated a great Serbian heritage that
deserves better."
It must also be said that if the KLA is behind the devastation, it's
following
a path already
trod by Serbs themselves. In Sarajevo, Banja Luka and other Bosnian
cities, the
Serbs blew up
historic mosques and Islamic shrines, as well as burning the Oriental
Institute and the National Library.
Moreover, between March and June last year, while NATO was bombing
Serbia and
hundreds of
thousands of Albanian-speaking Kosovars were seeking foreign refuge,
many
buildings in Kosovo
were subject to deliberate Serbian attack.
The main targets, however, do not seem to have been mosques. Serbian
forces
aimed most of their
destruction at Albanian houses and marketplaces.
Now the Serbs are reaping the whirlwind. Since the Kosovars poured back
into their ravaged homeland, any buildings where Serbs lived or prayed
have been vulnerable - even if they were homes built in Ottoman style
during the long centuries of Turkish rule.
Another of the recently damaged buildings is the Kosovo Battle Memorial,
built on the famous battleground of 1389. That losing fight against the
invading Turks became a cornerstone of Serbian memory and folk history.
It
also became a useful symbol for Milosevic when he wanted to stir up
nationalist fervour in the 1980s.
In recent months, the Yugoslav government has bitterly protested against
the desecration of Orthodox buildings in Kosovo. But the protests have
fallen on deaf ears.
"I don't know how many times we have said this already," complained
Ljiljana
Milojevic
Borovcanin, first counselor at the Yugoslav embassy in Ottawa. "We have
raised the issue at the United Nations and also bilaterally, with the
countries participating in KFOR."
Those countries include Canada. About 1,450 Canadian troops are now in
Kosovo, serving mostly in the central and northern areas alongside
soldiers from Britain, Finland,
Norway, Sweden and the
Czech Republic. The international community has a lot at stake in the
peacekeepers' success.
Under KFOR, Kosovo has been divided into five sectors, each run by a
NATO-led
brigade. The
peacekeeping force is made up of 42,500 soldiers from 28 countries, in
addition to a further 7,500 troops based in neighbouring countries. For
each soldier in the KFOR mission, only about two Serbs remain in Kosovo.
Borovcanin says she has spoken to Canadian officials about the
continuing
destruction of
Orthodox churches, "and the response was always diplomatic. The Canadian
government says it
regrets all the damage, but at no time will it take any action.
"Yet it's the non-implementation of the UN resolution that has enabled
this barbarism to occur."
She was alluding to Security Council Resolution 1244. Under its terms,
the
mandate of the KFOR troops involves "demilitarizing the Kosovo
Liberation
Army (KLA) and other armed Kosovo Albanian groups - establishing a
secure
environment in which refugees and displaced persons can return home in
safety - (and) ensuring public safety and order."
UNESCO has been in touch with KFOR leaders, Kaiser told The Gazette.
"We provided them with lists of heritage sites that were much longer
than what
they could
actually handle. We were told that they have many responsibilities, and
can't possibly station soldiers in front of every monastery."
Speaking from Pristina last week, KFOR spokesman Lt.-Commander Philip
Anido said that "KFOR and its soldiers have static guards on the sites
that are active. Some of the churches are guarded by moving patrols, and
it's up to the brigade commander to decide on the level of sensitivity
and
the level of risk."
About 800,000 Albanian refugees are thought to have fled Kosovo before
and
during the war last spring. Perhaps it's not surprising that Canada – a
full participant in the NATO bombing campaign - should be reluctant to
speak out publicly against the Kosovo Albanians whom it spent so much
time, effort and money in helping.
Canada even contributed $200,000 to help pay for a cultural festival in
Kosovo last September. On hand along with international stars like
Mikhail
Baryshnikov, Meryl Streep and Elton John was the Cape Breton choir Men
of
the Deeps, flown in to sing coal-mining songs.
"Canada is helping rebuild Kosovo," Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd
Axworthy
said at the time.
"That rebuilding effort must not only focus on bricks and mortar; we
must also
help rebuild the
human spirit."
But as elements of the KLA were quick to realize, the best way to crush
the spirit of Kosovo's remaining Serbs was to destroy significant chunks
of their bricks and mortar. The day after the cultural festival ended,
the
14th-century church of Saints Cosma and Damian in the village of Zociste
was razed. The church was noted for its frescoes of Old Testament
prophets.
On the same day, near the town of Vitina, the remnants of the
14th-century
monastery of the Holy
Archangel Gabriel were destroyed by explosives. The monastery had
already been
looted and
burned.
So much for the human spirit.
- - -
What is surprising, if not downright shocking, is that the destruction
of
churches and monasteries in Kosovo has aroused so little attention from
international groups that are supposedly dedicated to the preservation
of
cultural treasures.
To an outsider, it looks very much as though the ancient buildings and
artworks are somehow tainted by their association with present-day
Serbia.
When it comes to the monasteries and churches of Kosovo, silence has
become an unofficial policy.
Consider the following:
- The World Monuments Fund (a private, non-profit group based in New
York and
funded extensively
by American Express) placed no Kosovo buildings on its recent list of
the
100 most endangered sites around the world.
- The fund has given money for architectural restoration and
preservation to
165 projects in 51
countries - not including Kosovo. Its Web site includes no mention of
Kosovo, and a request for an interview with its president, Bonnie
Burnham,
was turned down.
- If you believe the Web site of the International Centre for the Study
of
the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, this awkwardly
named group is a "catalyst for action." But it has remained silent about
the dangers to cultural property in Kosovo. An E-mail asking for an
explanation went unanswered.
- At UNESCO's headquarters in Paris last July, a six-day official
meeting took
place under the
auspices of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World
Cultural and
Natural Heritage.
Member nations debated the threats to heritage sites in no fewer than 55
countries, including
Canada (a proposed open-pit mine near Jasper National Park came under
scrutiny); but Kosovo received only a brief general mention.
UNESCO did sponsor two missions of inquiry to Kosovo in July and
November. Yet
Colin Kaiser, who
led one of them, admitted that "UNESCO is not tooled to work quickly for
emergencies."
Part of the problem, he said, is that proper documentation is not
available for
Kosovo. The
agency intends to resume work there in co-operation with a Swedish group
called Cultural Heritage Without Borders.
"But we can't become involved in saying who did what," Kaiser
emphasized.
"UNESCO cannot take
sides."
- Last April, at the height of the war in Kosovo, a statement went out
from the International Committee of the Blue Shield (a joint endeavour
that unites librarians, archivists, museum curators and preservation
officials). The statement expressed a generalized "concern about all
damage to the cultural heritage of the peoples of Yugoslavia." Once the
war was over, the Blue Shield Committee had nothing more to say.
Last week, Manus Brinkman, the secretary-general of the International
Council of Museums, told The Gazette that "ICBS has not issued any new
appeals, because the first one is still as valuable as ever."
Asked about the response to the April statement, Brinkman said that
"there have
been a lot of
positive reactions and the appeal invoked much discussion. Sadly enough,
there was no reaction from the parties involved in the fighting in
Kosovo,
neither from the official Serbian or Albanian side, nor from NATO."
- Canada is one of many nations represented on ICOMOS, the International
Council on Monuments
and Sites, whose aim is "the conservation of the world's historic
monuments and
sites." The Web
site of ICOMOS Canada includes statements from 1997 onward. None
mentions
Kosovo.
The Canadian group's administrative secretary, Victoria Angel, said that
ICOMOS Greece has tried to raise awareness about the cultural monuments
in
Kosovo. But Greece was not one of the NATO members that bombed
Yugoslavia;
and anyway, a little-known non-profit group based in Athens can scarcely
be expected to kindle public attention in other countries.
"North America is still stuck with the message that there's a good guy
and
a bad guy in Kosovo," said Dinu Bumbaru, the head of Heritage Montreal
and
a vice-president of ICOMOS Canada. "And what the good guy does at the
end
of the movie is fine with us."
Bumbaru noted that while a great deal of information is available about
the Kosovo destruction, especially on the Internet, "there's no
communications campaign. Frankly I just wonder if, in the West, this is
of
interest."
In 1992, following Yugoslavian attacks on the magnificent Croatian city
Dubrovnik during a previous Balkan war, Bumbaru led a UNESCO-sponsored
mission to assess the damage. International funds were provided to help
Croatia, and Dubrovnik has largely been rebuilt.
But Croatia was widely seen as a victim, so, in the case of Dubrovnik,
it
was politically easy for other countries to do the right thing.
The Serbs, on the other hand, were widely seen as aggressors. Now
they're
outnumbered in Kosovo
nearly 20 to 1; and in Kaiser's words, "the problem is that ultimately,
the defence of anything depends upon local people.
"Ideally, both Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo will realize that the loss
of
the monasteries and churches, like the loss of the mosques and Ottoman
houses, will impoverish the whole area."
But that's a remote ideal. In the meantime, there appears to be no
political
will outside Kosovo
to stand up for an Orthodox heritage so fraught with beauty, so redolent
of pain.
- Reporter Mark Abley can be reached at (514) 987-2555 or by E-mail at
mabley@....
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Daily News / AFP / Notizie Est)
* Bilancio della distruzione delle chiese cristiano-ortodosse nel Kosmet
per opera dell'UCKFOR (THE MONTREAL GAZETTE)
---
I NUMERI DELLA KFOR IN KOSOVO
("Albanian Daily News", 29 febbraio 2000)
(trad. su "Notizie Est" #307, 1/3/2000)
BRUXELLES - La KFOR, la forza multinazionale di
mantenimento della pace, ha attualmente in
Kosovo 37.200 soldati, mentre altri 5.600
forniscono supporto logistico in Macedonia,
Albania e Grecia.
Secondo le ultime cifre fornite dalla NATO, in
Kosovo gli Stati Uniti hanno il numero piu' alto
di soldati dispiegati sul campo, con 5.400
effettivi, seguiti dall'Italia (4.200), dalla
Germania (3.900), dalla Francia (3.900), dalla
Russia (3.150) e dalla Gran Bretagna (3.000).
Nel totale di 36 stati che contribuiscono alla
missione, gli altri paesi che hanno fornito
contingenti sostanziosi sono stati l'Olanda
(1.400), gli Emirati Arabi Uniti (1.300), il
Canada (1.100), la Grecia (1.100), la Norvegia
(1.000) e la Spagna (900). I paesi NATO coprono
circa i quattro quinti degli effettivi totali,
con circa 30.000 uomini.
I contingenti di supporto si trovano in
Macedonia, dove ci sono 4.000 militari KFOR, in
Albania, dove ve ne sono 1.400, e in Grecia,
dove sono 100.
Il Kosovo e' stato diviso in cinque settori,
ognuno sotto il comando di una diversa forza
partecipante: i francesi nel settore nord, gli
americani in quello est, i tedeschi in quello
sud, gli italiani in quello ovest e i britanni
in quello centrale.
La KFOR attualmente e' amministrata dal
Landcent, le forze di terra NATO nell'Europa
Centrale, con sede a Heidelberg, in Germania,
sotto il comando del generale tedesco Klaus
Reinhardt. Lo stato maggiore della KFOR e'
composto da circa 1.500 uomini di tutte le
nazionalita'.
Il Landcent verra' sostituito in aprile dallo
stato maggiore dell'Eurocorps, formato da
ufficiali di Belgio, Francia, Germania e Spagna.
La KFOR sara' a partire da allora comandata dal
generale spagnolo Juan Ortuno, che e' diventato
comandante dell'Eurocorps il 26 novembre 1999.
Eternera Mailing List - http://get.to/eternera
KFOR troop numbers in Kosovo
BRUSSELS, Feb 24 (AFP) - KFOR, the multinational peacekeeping
force in Kosovo, currently has 37,200 troops deployed in the
southern Serbian province and a further 5,600 troops providing
logistical support in Macedonia, Albania and Greece.
According to the latest figures supplied by NATO, the United
States has the largest number of soldiers deployed, with 5,400
troops in Kosovo, followed by Italy (4,200), Germany (3,900), France
(3,900), Russia (3,150) and Britain (3,000).
Among a total of 36 contributing nations, substantial
contingents have been provided by the Netherlands (1,400), the
United Arab Emirates (1,300), Canada (1,100), Greece (1,100), Norway
(1,000) and Spain (900).
NATO countries account for around four-fifths of the total,
contributing some 30,000 troops.
Support teams are based in Macedonia, where there are 4,100 KFOR
troops, Albania where there are 1,400 and Greece with 100.
The province has been divided into five sectors, each under the
command of a different contributing force: French in the northern
sector, American in the east, German in the south, Italian in the
west and British in the centre.
KFOR is currently administered from Landcent, NATO's land forces
in central Europe based at Heidelberg, in Germany, under the overall
command of German General Klaus Reinhardt.
The KFOR general staff comprises around 1,500 men of all
nationalities.
The Eurocorps general staff, comprising officers from Belgium,
France, Germany, Luxembourg and Spain, is due to take over from
Landcent in April.
KFOR will then be headed by Spanish General Juan Ortuno, who
took over as commander of Eurocorps on November 26, 1999.
---
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE, Sunday, February 27, 2000
God's houses in ruins: The world keeps silent as Serb churches,
monasteries are
destroyed in
Kosovo under noses of peacekeepers
MARK ABLEY
The Gazette
The Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, in the Kosovo village Banjska, was
probably not an international treasure.
As far as we know, it was just a modest house of God in an area dotted
with the same.
But no one may ever be sure. On Jan. 30, 11 kilograms of explosives were
detonated at the altar,
leaving much of the building in ruins.
The explosion forms part of a sad and continuing pattern. Since a wary
peace took shape in Kosovo in June 1999, nearly 80 of its Orthodox
churches and monasteries are known to have suffered heavy damage or
destruction. The total may be higher, given that a lot of churches are
located in remote areas where few, if any, Serbs still live.
These attacks did not occur during the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization's
bombing campaign
last spring. They have happened since the return of Kosovo's Albanian
majority. Extremists, usually assumed to be linked to the Kosovo
Liberation Army, have carried out a systematic campaign of destruction
under the eyes of international peacekeepers.
The unanswered question is why this devastation has caused so little
outcry.
British and French
media have paid some attention to the attacks; but the North American
media have carried few reports. Dozens of non-profit groups are now
working in Kosovo; they have said next to nothing.
"The Western world is rather fed up with the Balkans," suggested Colin
Kaiser, chief of the unit for southeast Europe and the Arab states in
UNESCO's Division of Cultural Heritage. "The wars, first in Croatia,
then
in Bosnia and most recently in Kosovo, became more and more intense in
terms of damage. But the cumulative effect has been that the Western
sensibility to it all has been dulled."
True enough. But beyond that, it also seems true that after the wars of
the past decade, few Westerners dare to sympathize with anything
Serbian.
Last September, Bishop Artemije, the head of the Orthodox diocese of
Raska and
Prizren, charged
that while the first aim of the Kosovo Albanians "is to expel all Serbs,
the second is to eradicate all traces and witnesses that could serve as
evidence that the Serbs have existed at all.
"But who and what are the witnesses? Churches, monasteries and holy
places. So
they set out to
destroy the witnesses, to obliterate the traces. In 21/2 months more
than 70
monasteries and
churches were burned or demolished. Among them were the churches built
by
our illustrious and holy ancestors in the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries.
The churches and monasteries, which survived 500 years of Turkish
occupation, did not endure two months in the presence of a 50,000-strong
international 'peacekeeping' force."
Peacekeeping troops from the United Arab Emirates, serving in the United
Nations' multinational
KFOR mission, had been stationed near the Church of St. Nicholas. But in
late January they withdrew, leaving the church unprotected. It was soon
blown to pieces.
The presence of the UN soldiers has slowed the rate of destruction in
recent months, but foreign troops can provide no guarantee of safety. On
Jan. 14, for instance, the Church of St. Elias, in a village called
Cernica, was partly destroyed by explosives. It stood just 70 metres
from
a checkpoint of U.S. soldiers.
Almost everyone would agree that the destruction of St. Elias's and St.
Nicholas's churches is regrettable. But what has so far escaped much
notice, particularly in North America, is that dozens of the earlier
victims were not just Serbian village churches, but buildings of great
beauty and historical significance. Among them:
- The Church of the Holy Virgin in Musutiste, built in 1315. Frescoes
painted in the following years were among the finest examples of
medieval
wall-painting in the entire region. The church was looted, burned and
mined by explosives.
- The Church of St. Nicholas in Prizren, which is said to date to 1348
or
earlier, and which contained medieval icons. Five explosives went off,
causing extensive damage.
- The Monastery of the Holy Trinity near Musutiste, built from 1465 on.
It
held a unique library of manuscripts as well as a collection of recent
icons. The monastery was first plundered, then burned and finally
leveled
with explosives.
- The Monastery of the Holy Archangels in Gornje Nerodimjle, built in
the
14th century, renewed and extended in 1700. The monastery was looted and
burned; a great pine tree, said to date from 1336, was chopped down and
burned; the cemetery was desecrated.
The stories go on and on. The pattern is undeniable - and for once, no
one
is even trying to claim that Yugoslavia's notorious president, Slobodan
Milosevic, is behind it.
So far, thanks to a 24-hour guard by foreign soldiers, the greatest of
all
treasures in the region - the monastic churches of Gracanica and Decani
-
have survived. Writers have waxed eloquent about them for generations;
Rebecca West, for one, called Gracanica "as religious a building as
Chartres Cathedral. The thought and feeling behind it were as complex.
There is in these frescoes, as in the parent works of Byzantium, the
height of accomplishment."
Some of the buildings were jewels of European civilization. Now they are
rubble.
- - -
Throughout the Balkans, politics and art, history and myth, oppression
and
religion are intertwined. The ruined Orthodox buildings of Kosovo were
not
only centres of worship and art; they were political symbols.
Since the mid-1980s, writes Michael Sells, professor of comparative
religion at
Haverford
College in Pennsylvania, "Serb nationalists have manipulated concern for
the (Kosovo) shrines to motivate, justify and implement 'ethnic
cleansing'
and annihilation of centuries of non-Serb artistic and religious
monuments.
"In exploiting Serbian monasteries and the heritage they represented to
foment hate and violence, they desecrated a great Serbian heritage that
deserves better."
It must also be said that if the KLA is behind the devastation, it's
following
a path already
trod by Serbs themselves. In Sarajevo, Banja Luka and other Bosnian
cities, the
Serbs blew up
historic mosques and Islamic shrines, as well as burning the Oriental
Institute and the National Library.
Moreover, between March and June last year, while NATO was bombing
Serbia and
hundreds of
thousands of Albanian-speaking Kosovars were seeking foreign refuge,
many
buildings in Kosovo
were subject to deliberate Serbian attack.
The main targets, however, do not seem to have been mosques. Serbian
forces
aimed most of their
destruction at Albanian houses and marketplaces.
Now the Serbs are reaping the whirlwind. Since the Kosovars poured back
into their ravaged homeland, any buildings where Serbs lived or prayed
have been vulnerable - even if they were homes built in Ottoman style
during the long centuries of Turkish rule.
Another of the recently damaged buildings is the Kosovo Battle Memorial,
built on the famous battleground of 1389. That losing fight against the
invading Turks became a cornerstone of Serbian memory and folk history.
It
also became a useful symbol for Milosevic when he wanted to stir up
nationalist fervour in the 1980s.
In recent months, the Yugoslav government has bitterly protested against
the desecration of Orthodox buildings in Kosovo. But the protests have
fallen on deaf ears.
"I don't know how many times we have said this already," complained
Ljiljana
Milojevic
Borovcanin, first counselor at the Yugoslav embassy in Ottawa. "We have
raised the issue at the United Nations and also bilaterally, with the
countries participating in KFOR."
Those countries include Canada. About 1,450 Canadian troops are now in
Kosovo, serving mostly in the central and northern areas alongside
soldiers from Britain, Finland,
Norway, Sweden and the
Czech Republic. The international community has a lot at stake in the
peacekeepers' success.
Under KFOR, Kosovo has been divided into five sectors, each run by a
NATO-led
brigade. The
peacekeeping force is made up of 42,500 soldiers from 28 countries, in
addition to a further 7,500 troops based in neighbouring countries. For
each soldier in the KFOR mission, only about two Serbs remain in Kosovo.
Borovcanin says she has spoken to Canadian officials about the
continuing
destruction of
Orthodox churches, "and the response was always diplomatic. The Canadian
government says it
regrets all the damage, but at no time will it take any action.
"Yet it's the non-implementation of the UN resolution that has enabled
this barbarism to occur."
She was alluding to Security Council Resolution 1244. Under its terms,
the
mandate of the KFOR troops involves "demilitarizing the Kosovo
Liberation
Army (KLA) and other armed Kosovo Albanian groups - establishing a
secure
environment in which refugees and displaced persons can return home in
safety - (and) ensuring public safety and order."
UNESCO has been in touch with KFOR leaders, Kaiser told The Gazette.
"We provided them with lists of heritage sites that were much longer
than what
they could
actually handle. We were told that they have many responsibilities, and
can't possibly station soldiers in front of every monastery."
Speaking from Pristina last week, KFOR spokesman Lt.-Commander Philip
Anido said that "KFOR and its soldiers have static guards on the sites
that are active. Some of the churches are guarded by moving patrols, and
it's up to the brigade commander to decide on the level of sensitivity
and
the level of risk."
About 800,000 Albanian refugees are thought to have fled Kosovo before
and
during the war last spring. Perhaps it's not surprising that Canada – a
full participant in the NATO bombing campaign - should be reluctant to
speak out publicly against the Kosovo Albanians whom it spent so much
time, effort and money in helping.
Canada even contributed $200,000 to help pay for a cultural festival in
Kosovo last September. On hand along with international stars like
Mikhail
Baryshnikov, Meryl Streep and Elton John was the Cape Breton choir Men
of
the Deeps, flown in to sing coal-mining songs.
"Canada is helping rebuild Kosovo," Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd
Axworthy
said at the time.
"That rebuilding effort must not only focus on bricks and mortar; we
must also
help rebuild the
human spirit."
But as elements of the KLA were quick to realize, the best way to crush
the spirit of Kosovo's remaining Serbs was to destroy significant chunks
of their bricks and mortar. The day after the cultural festival ended,
the
14th-century church of Saints Cosma and Damian in the village of Zociste
was razed. The church was noted for its frescoes of Old Testament
prophets.
On the same day, near the town of Vitina, the remnants of the
14th-century
monastery of the Holy
Archangel Gabriel were destroyed by explosives. The monastery had
already been
looted and
burned.
So much for the human spirit.
- - -
What is surprising, if not downright shocking, is that the destruction
of
churches and monasteries in Kosovo has aroused so little attention from
international groups that are supposedly dedicated to the preservation
of
cultural treasures.
To an outsider, it looks very much as though the ancient buildings and
artworks are somehow tainted by their association with present-day
Serbia.
When it comes to the monasteries and churches of Kosovo, silence has
become an unofficial policy.
Consider the following:
- The World Monuments Fund (a private, non-profit group based in New
York and
funded extensively
by American Express) placed no Kosovo buildings on its recent list of
the
100 most endangered sites around the world.
- The fund has given money for architectural restoration and
preservation to
165 projects in 51
countries - not including Kosovo. Its Web site includes no mention of
Kosovo, and a request for an interview with its president, Bonnie
Burnham,
was turned down.
- If you believe the Web site of the International Centre for the Study
of
the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, this awkwardly
named group is a "catalyst for action." But it has remained silent about
the dangers to cultural property in Kosovo. An E-mail asking for an
explanation went unanswered.
- At UNESCO's headquarters in Paris last July, a six-day official
meeting took
place under the
auspices of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World
Cultural and
Natural Heritage.
Member nations debated the threats to heritage sites in no fewer than 55
countries, including
Canada (a proposed open-pit mine near Jasper National Park came under
scrutiny); but Kosovo received only a brief general mention.
UNESCO did sponsor two missions of inquiry to Kosovo in July and
November. Yet
Colin Kaiser, who
led one of them, admitted that "UNESCO is not tooled to work quickly for
emergencies."
Part of the problem, he said, is that proper documentation is not
available for
Kosovo. The
agency intends to resume work there in co-operation with a Swedish group
called Cultural Heritage Without Borders.
"But we can't become involved in saying who did what," Kaiser
emphasized.
"UNESCO cannot take
sides."
- Last April, at the height of the war in Kosovo, a statement went out
from the International Committee of the Blue Shield (a joint endeavour
that unites librarians, archivists, museum curators and preservation
officials). The statement expressed a generalized "concern about all
damage to the cultural heritage of the peoples of Yugoslavia." Once the
war was over, the Blue Shield Committee had nothing more to say.
Last week, Manus Brinkman, the secretary-general of the International
Council of Museums, told The Gazette that "ICBS has not issued any new
appeals, because the first one is still as valuable as ever."
Asked about the response to the April statement, Brinkman said that
"there have
been a lot of
positive reactions and the appeal invoked much discussion. Sadly enough,
there was no reaction from the parties involved in the fighting in
Kosovo,
neither from the official Serbian or Albanian side, nor from NATO."
- Canada is one of many nations represented on ICOMOS, the International
Council on Monuments
and Sites, whose aim is "the conservation of the world's historic
monuments and
sites." The Web
site of ICOMOS Canada includes statements from 1997 onward. None
mentions
Kosovo.
The Canadian group's administrative secretary, Victoria Angel, said that
ICOMOS Greece has tried to raise awareness about the cultural monuments
in
Kosovo. But Greece was not one of the NATO members that bombed
Yugoslavia;
and anyway, a little-known non-profit group based in Athens can scarcely
be expected to kindle public attention in other countries.
"North America is still stuck with the message that there's a good guy
and
a bad guy in Kosovo," said Dinu Bumbaru, the head of Heritage Montreal
and
a vice-president of ICOMOS Canada. "And what the good guy does at the
end
of the movie is fine with us."
Bumbaru noted that while a great deal of information is available about
the Kosovo destruction, especially on the Internet, "there's no
communications campaign. Frankly I just wonder if, in the West, this is
of
interest."
In 1992, following Yugoslavian attacks on the magnificent Croatian city
Dubrovnik during a previous Balkan war, Bumbaru led a UNESCO-sponsored
mission to assess the damage. International funds were provided to help
Croatia, and Dubrovnik has largely been rebuilt.
But Croatia was widely seen as a victim, so, in the case of Dubrovnik,
it
was politically easy for other countries to do the right thing.
The Serbs, on the other hand, were widely seen as aggressors. Now
they're
outnumbered in Kosovo
nearly 20 to 1; and in Kaiser's words, "the problem is that ultimately,
the defence of anything depends upon local people.
"Ideally, both Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo will realize that the loss
of
the monasteries and churches, like the loss of the mosques and Ottoman
houses, will impoverish the whole area."
But that's a remote ideal. In the meantime, there appears to be no
political
will outside Kosovo
to stand up for an Orthodox heritage so fraught with beauty, so redolent
of pain.
- Reporter Mark Abley can be reached at (514) 987-2555 or by E-mail at
mabley@....
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
B92 20/2/2000 ---------------------------------
VANDALI CONTRO IL CONSOLATO DELLA RFJ A VUKOVAR
FRY Consulate damaged in Vukovar
CROATIA, Sunday - The FRY Consulate in Vukovar was damaged yesterday
during riots which took place before and after a local league football
match. Seven policemen were injured and numerous supporters arrested
during clashes between fans and police.
AP 20/2/2000 ---------------------------
CONVERGENZE TRA RF DI JUGOSLAVIA E LIBIA
Serbia's and Libya's top officials find much in common
February 20, 2000 Web posted at: 4:54 PM EST (2154 GMT)
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Serbia's vice premier and Libya's deputy
foreign minister called Sunday for a joint Arab-Orthodox Christian front
against "American hegemonism," a government news release said.
Serbia's far-right vice premier, Vojislav Seselj, met with Abdelah
Beh-Yallah of Lybia, and both urged "closer cooperation between states
that value independence, freedom and territorial integrity," said a
statement released after the meeting.
"Orthodox and Arab countries need to join forces to create a common
strategy against American hegemonism," the statement said. "Europe must
free itself from American influence so that its peoples and states can
live in peace, harmony and religious tolerance."
Libya was an exception among Arab countries in speaking out against last
year's NATO military intervention to end the crackdown by Serb forces
against ethnic Albanians, who are Muslim.
Lybia had close ties with the former Yugoslavia which, after its 1991
breakup, continued in the form of the present-day rump Yugoslav
federation consisting of Serbia and Montenegro.
Policies pursued by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his Libyan
counterpart, Moammer Gadhafi, have led both countries into international
isolation.
"Yugoslavia and Serbia appreciate the clear stand of Lybia and its
president who openly condemned NATO aggression against Yugoslavia," the
release issued in Belgrade said.
TIMES 21/2/2000 ------------------------------------
IN DECLINO IL MORALE DELLE TRUPPE TEDESCHE IN KOSMET
The Times (London)
Monday February 21 2000
Germans sent home
THE morale of German soldiers in Kosovo is beginning to crumble (Roger
Boyes writes). At least 90 soldiers, including 4 officers, have been
sent home because of disciplinary problems, according to Welt am
Sonntag. Another 55, including 6 officers, have been sent back from the
Sfor contingent in Bosnia. The cases are said to stem from alcohol and
drug abuse, but there have also been sexual violations. In Kosovo two
drunken German soldiers yelled racist comments at Albanians. Albanian
soldiers intervened, a fight ensued and the Germans were flown out.
B92 21/2/2000 ----------------------------------
DODIK SEMPRE PIU' ISOLATO NELLA REPUBLIKA SRPSKA
Chaos in Republic of Srpska Parliament
BANJA LUKA, Monday - The Chairman of the Bosnian Serb Republic's ruling
Sloga
Coalition, Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, today demanded that the
president of
the Parliament, Petar Djokic, return the coalition's mandate. Dodik told
media that the coalition was considering options for a new parliamentary
president. Dodik said that he had received written resignations from
Socialist Party ministers but had not accepted them. He added that the
ministers had agreed to remain within the government. The Sloga
Coalition's
presidency today met without the Socialist Party representative.
YDS 21/2/2000 -------------
VANDALISMO KFOR A MITROVICA
SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
BRUTAL AND BARBARIC ACT BY KFOR
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, February 21 (Tanjug) - Jovica Jovanovic, a member of
the subcommittee for administration and legislature of the Yugoslav
committee for cooperation with the United Nations mission in Kosovo and
Metohija province, said on Sunday that the search of apartments and
institutions in northern Kosovska Mitrovica by international force KFOR
U.S. and German troops was a brutal, barbaric and uncivilized act.
Jovanovic told reporters he had been present during a search of the
Faculty of Technology. He saw troops break down with axes the doors of a
laboratory and other premises.
Jovanovic also toured the school of technology which had also been a
target of KFOR's barbaric activities.
He said it was not by accident that the barbaric action was carried out
by
U.S. and German troops. The presence of numerous foreign reporters and
TV
crew at the very time when the action took place, and their on-the-spot
reporting is proof that this was all stage-managed, Jovanovc said.
The leading players in this action - U.S. and German troops - were not
picked at random, because there are no more Serbs in the parts of Kosovo
and Metohija where these troops are deployed, he said.
Jovanovic said it was an act of ultimate cynicism when French troops
brought the principal of the School of Technology about a dozen cylinder
locks and padlocks to compensate for the incurred damage.
LA SINISTRA UNITA JUGOSLAVA (JUL) INCONTRA LE FORZE
DELLA SINISTRA LATINOAMERICANA A MANAGUA
LATIN AMERICA - LEFT - CONFERENCE
YUGOSLAV LEFT OFFICIALS ATTEND CONFERENCE OF LATIN AMERICAN LEFTIST
PARTIES
MEXICO, February 21 (Tanjug) - The ninth conference of Latin American
leftist parties called the Sao Paulo Forum has opened in Nicaragua's
capital Managua, with a delegation of the Yugoslav Left (JUL) also
attending the conference.
The three-day conference, that is to focus on the Left's role in the new
century, was opened by Secretary-General of the Sandinista National
Liberation Front Daniel Ortega.
Officials of 98 parties in 36 countries are to review issues concerning
the uniting of leftist parties in the world and ways of how to oppose
attempts to impose neo-liberalism and the new world order.
A series of proposals were put forth on the promotion of cooperation
between Latin American and European leftist parties.
The JUL delegation, headed by secretary of the party's directorate in
charge of public relations Danilo Pantovic, is attending the forum in
the
capacity of observer. Pantovic has already met with officials of a large
number of South and Central American parties.
TACI "IL SERPENTE" POTREBBE ESSERE DENUNCIATO AL TRIBUNALE DELL'AIA
HAGUE TRIBUNAL HAS DISCREDITING INFORMATION ABOUT THAQI
LONDON, February 21 (Tanjug) - The U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague
has discrediting information about leader of the ethnic Albanian
terrorist
organisation calling itself Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) Hashim Thaqi,
The
Observer weekly of London has said.
The weekly's Pristina-based reporter asked recently the U.N.
administration in the chief city of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija
province
why the court had not made any moves on the strength of that
information.
He was informed that it was not realistic to do so at this point. A U.N.
official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that it was not
in
the interests of the United Nations to instigate legal proceedings
against
Thaqi at this point.
The tribunal has launched an investigation also against Agim Ceku,
former
KLA commander and currently commander of the so-called Kosovo Protection
Corps, for his involvement in war crimes committed during hostilities in
Croatia, according to earlier reports in London. Ceku had served as a
brigadier general in the Croatian army.
Diplomatic circles in London say that the tribunal has launched a secret
investigation against Ramus Haradinaj, Ceku's deputy, who has committed
war
crimes in Kosovo and Metohija as a KLA member.
These are all people with whom top Western and NATO officials have
almost
daily contacts so that one cannot but speculate about the international
community's true intentions in Kosovo and Metohija.
ANSA 23/2/2000 -------------------------------------------
CECENIA: CAPI GUERRIGLIA VOGLIONO FUGGIRE IN KOSOVO, MOSCA
(ANSA) - MOSCA, 23 FEB - Informazioni su presunti piani di
alcuni capi della guerriglia islamica cecena di fuggire
nell'inquieta regione jugoslava a maggioranza albanese del
Kosovo sono state raccolte dai servizi segreti russi (Fsb). Lo
affermano oggi fonti dello stesso Fsb all'agenzia Interfax.
Secondo tali fonti, i miliziani ceceni avrebbero da tempo
''rapporti'' con i separatisti albanesi dell'Uck e alcuni di
loro avrebbero anche combattuto al fianco di questi ultimi nel
passato nella regione balcanica.
L'obiettivo dei capi ceceni sarebbe ora quello di trasferire
i loro familiari dalla repubblica caucasica, ormai in gran parte
riconquistata dalla truppe russe. Lo Fsb e' tornato inoltre a
ipotizzare un possibile progetto di dirottamento aereo da parte
di alcuni guerriglieri, forse proprio allo scopo di fuggire
verso il Kosovo.
Un tale progetto e' attribuito dai servizi segreti di Mosca
all'ex presidente ceceno Zelimkhan Iandarbiev - ospitato
peraltro attualmente in Pakistan - e da un secondo dirigente dei
separatisti, Movladi Udugov.
Fonti di stampa ed esponenti serbi avevano gia' parlato di
recente di un possibile trasferimento di capi ceceni e di loro
parenti nel Kosovo, dandolo in parte per gia' avvenuto.(ANSA).
LR 23-FEB-00 11:50
TANJUG 23/2/2000 -----------------------------
SOLIDARIETA' DAL GHANA PER LA RF DI JUGOSLAVIA
http://www.tanjug.co.yu/Arhiva/2000/Feb%20-%2000/23-02e03.html
Tanjug (Yu)
February 23, 2000
Ghana -- national solidarity with Yugoslavia
ACCRA -- Yugoslavia's ambassador in Accra briefed the Ghanaian
parliament on Tuesday on the consequences of NATO's March-June 1999
aggression on Yugoslavia and the latest developments in the U.N.-ruled
Serbian (Yugoslav) province of Kosovo-Metohija.
Presenting to Parliament's Foreign Relations Committee Yugoslavia's
White Book of documentary evidence on the aggression, Ambassador Milena
Lukovic Jovanovic said the aggression "was the worst crime against
humanity and peace since the Second World War."
Committee Chairman Kofi Ator emphasised Ghana's support for Yugoslavia's
sovereignty and territorial integrity and for its request that the U.N.
Security Council's Resolution 1244 on Kosovo- Metohija be consistently
implemented.
Ghana had condemned the aggression and expressed solidarity with
Yugoslavia, and would, in line with its principled policy, continue to
support Yugoslavia in the defence of its legitimate state and national
interests, he said.
The Ghanaian parliamentarians expressed indignation at and condemnation
of the NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia and admiration for the Serbian
people who bravely defended their sovereignty and territorial integrity.
REUTERS 24/2/2000 ----------------------------------
http://www.timesofindia.com/today/24worl49/htm
LA FYROM IN ALLERTA PER L'ACCRESCERSI DELLA TENSIONE
IN SERBIA MERIDIONALE
Thursday february 24, 2000
Macedonian army on alert along Serbia border
SKOPJEL: The Macedonian army said on Wednesday it had
raised its level of combat readiness along its border
with southern Serbia, after an upsurge of ethnic
violence in Kosovo.
"We are cautious because of events in the north and
for this reason the combat readiness of the Kumanovo
corps was raised to a higher level two days ago," army
spokesman Gjorgji Trendafilov told Reuters.
"Our border patrols are more frequent and our guards
are reinforced as well as the control on the border,"
he said. "From the other side of the border things can
happen which can get out of control."
Trendafilov, who did not specify which events in the
north he was referring to, stressed that the army was
not sending new troops to the border region.
On Monday, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson
said the alliance was monitoring a build-up of
Yugoslav forces in areas of southern Serbia where he
said there was "clearly rising tension".
Robertson was referring to the
Bujanovac-Presevo-Medvedja region, lying just east of
Kosovo and largely populated by ethnic Albanians. The
region lies north of Macedonia.
NATO sources said the report concerned four companies
of well-armed Interior Ministry police which had been
moved into the region, where recent local reports have
warned of mounting fear and violence.
The Yugoslav army, a completely separate institution
to the Interior Ministry troops, has denied any
build-up.
"Of course there are no additional troops of ours in
the territory of Presevo," the commander of
Yugoslavia's Third Army, Colonel-General Vladimir
Lazarevic, was quoted by Belgrade daily Vecernje
Novosti as saying on Wednesday.
"We have our border units there which very efficiently
secure the state border with Macedonia. They prevent
four to five illegal crossings daily in this border
area," he said.
There has also been fresh violence this month in the
northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica. On Monday, ethnic
Albanian protesters clashed with NATO-led peacekeepers
there.
Outbreaks of fighting in the city have left nine
people dead and more than 20 wounded in February,
including two French soldiers shot in gun battles.
The Macedonian army last raised its combat readiness
during last year's Kosovo war, when NATO bombed
Yugoslavia to halt its repression of the province's
ethnic Albanian majority. It also stepped up its
readiness during civil disturbances in neighbouring
Albania in the spring of 1997. (Reuters)
REUTERS 23/2/2000 --------------------------------------
GLI STROZZINI GLOBALI AUMENTANO LE PRESSIONI SULLA FYROM
World Bank Urges Macedonia Reforms Ahead Of Talks
SKOPJE, Feb 23, 2000 -- (Reuters) The World Bank told
Macedonia on Tuesday to step up reforms to qualify for
the agency's $40 million assistance later this year.
"Macedonia must speed up reforms in the social,
pension and labor sectors, as well as reforms in the
financial and enterprise sectors," World Bank Director
for Macedonia and Turkey Ajay Chhibber told a news
conference in Skopje.
Talks on a Financial and Enterprise Sector Adjustment
Loan (FESAL) were expected to begin by early April and
to end in May.
The pace of reforms and ability to transparently
restructure the largest loss-makers in the country
will decide the bank's future assistance, he said.
"The government ability to sell or liquidate the
deficit-ridden companies without incurring large
liabilities on the budget will determine the Bank's
ability to support Macedonia under a FESAL
arrangement," Chhibber said.
"The world Bank likes to urge the liquidation or a
sale of these enterprises in the most transparent
way," he said.
Macedonia has lagged behind a schedule to sell or
close at least seven large loss-making firms including
nickel producer Feni from Kavadarci.
TANJUG 24/2/2000 ------------------------------------------
SULLA STAMPA ISRAELIANA A QUALCUNO E' RITORNATA LA MEMORIA:
PARALLELI CON LA POLITICA NAZISTA NEI BALCANI
www.serbia-info.com/news
"Haarecu": NATO aggression similar to Hitler's crimes
February 24, 2000
NATO bombing of civilian facilities
Tel Aviv, February 24th (Tanjug) - The manner in which NATO committed
its aggression on FR Yugoslavia last year is very similar to the crimes
committed by Hitler's policy in this country, stated the historian, Anat
Peri, in the text "Let the truth be heard", published today in the
prominent Israeli "Haarecu" daily.
Simultaneously with the forming of the ustasha NDH (The Independent
State of Croatia) and the giving over of Kosmet to the fascistic
Albanian regime, Hitler requested that all Serbs opposing nazis be
expelled. Germany and the US have now, as Hitler did then, encouraged
the separation of Croatia and the expulsion of the Serbian population
from the Croatian territory, stated Peri.
The US has armed the Albanian army, encouraged it to attack FRY and take
over the control over parts of Kosmet, the southern Serbian province,
and launch attacks on Serbian soldiers. Aside from that, the US
supported the Albanian terrorists and mafia, while it accused the
Albanian intellectuals from Kosmet of collaborating with Serbs, reminded
the Israeli historian.
Peri said that today, Ibrahim Rugova, the leader of the Kosmet
Albanians, fears for his life because of the terrorists, which the US
supported and enabled to rule. These terrorists, proteges of the US, are
the murderers of, not only Serbs, but also Albanians, which are opposed
to violence. This is why there are many similarities between the
policies of NATO and Hitler, stated Peri.
It is in NATO's interest that there be violence between the small
nations in Yugoslavia in order for them to justify their policy of
enslavement, stated Peri, adding that any decent man must confess that
the only way to achieve peace in Kosmet is through extensive
negotiations between Serbs and ethnic-Albanians, as it is the only way
of achieving peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
The NATO aggression on FRY did not, as the aggressors claimed, protect
the lives of Albanians, but with it, the last Russian ally in Europe was
attacked, and from the territory of Kosmet, after the arrival of the
KFOR and UNMIK forces, the majority of the Serbian population was
expelled, the remaining Serbs are being murdered on daily basis, and the
representatives of KFOR and UNMIK are not interested in avoiding this,
said Peri.
B92 24/2/2000 -----------------------------
OPERAZIONE ANTI-PROSTITUZIONE IN MONTENEGRO
Montenegro deports foreign sex workers
PODGORICA, Thursday - Montenegrin police last night deported more than
seventy Russian, Moldavian and Ukrainian prostitutes, all of whom had
been
arrested in a raid over several days on cafes and clubs along the
Adriatic
Coast. Podgorica daily Vijesti reported that teams of police arrested
girls
in night clubs who were engaged in prostitution and striptease. Their
working
permits were annulled on the basis that they had violated the law on
foreign
residents. According to unofficial sources, the international community
had
asked Montenegro to crush the illegal white slave trade which was
working
from East to West through Montenegro.
REUTERS 25/2/2000 ---------------------------------------
NELLA FYROM SCOPERTO ARSENALE DEI NAZIONALISTI SCHIPETARI
Macedonian police find arms destined for Kosovo-TV
SKOPJE, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Macedonian police have uncovered a
cache of weapons destined for Kosovo in an Albanian-populated village
in the Balkan country, Macedonian television reported on Friday.
Privately-owned SITEL television said 120 cases with Kalashnikov
automatic rifles and Skorpion handguns and two tonnes of ammunition
had been found in a hotel in the southern village of Kravari.
The hotel owner and an Albanian citizen had been arrested, the
television said, quoting police sources. Another private television
station, A-1 TV, carried a similar report.
Police were not immediately available for comment.
Both stations said the weapons were smuggled in on mountain tracks
from Albania and were bound for Kosovo, the Yugoslav province to the
north which is now under de facto international rule.
Police had also found 40 kg (88 lbs) of marijuana, they said.
A-1 TV said the police acted after a routine check near Skopje
revealed 10 Kalashnikovs in a car driven by an Albanian man. SITEL
said police searches for more weapons were under way.
Kosovo has seen a recent upsurge in ethnic violence, particularly in
the northern town of Mitrovica, a major flashpoint between hostile
Serb and ethnic Albanian communities.
Earlier this week, the Macedonian army said it had raised its level
of combat readiness along its border with Serbia.
Albanians account for about one third of Macedonia's population of
roughly two million people.
AFP 25/2/2000 ----------------------------------
IVANOV: COSA CI STANNO A FARE I RUSSI IN KOSMET?
http://www.centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=138270
Russia Might Withdraw Its Troops From Kosovo, Says
Ivanov
MOSCOW, Feb 26, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Russia
might withdraw its troops from NATO's KFOR
peacekeeping force in Kosovo in protest at the way it
is operated, Russian Security Council chief Sergei
Ivanov said via the Interfax news agency.
"A thought comes to mind: should we maintain the
presence of the Russian contingent and spend valuable
public money to be spectators," Ivanov said.
"We have a number of grievances" regarding the
international peacekeeping operation in Kosovo, he
said, adding that the province was in the process of
losing its multi-national character.
Of 800 deaths in the past six months, 700 were Serbs,
Ivanov noted.
Russia said Wednesday that KFOR and the UN mission in
Kosovo were incapable of ending violence in the region
or guaranteeing even minimal security for the Serb
population.
Moscow also protested the announcement by NATO of KFOR
military exercises in March, to which Russia was not
invited.
Some 3,600 Russian soldiers are currently taking part
in KFOR operations. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)
IWPR #119, 25/2/2000 ---------------
SULLE DIVISIONI TRA I SERBO-BOSNIACI
BOSNIAN SERB DIVISIONS WIDEN
Republika Srpska was again plunged into political turmoil this week
after a
key member of the government coalition quit.
By Janez Kovac in Sarajevo
The Bosnian Serb entity is on the brink of political chaos following the
withdrawal of the Socialist Party from the ruling pro-western coalition.
The move, allegedly orchestrated by the Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic, has widened the growing rift between Bosnian Serb politicians
and
delivered a blow to the international community's efforts to promote
political stability.
Republika Srpska has already been without a head of state for almost a
year.
Hard-line president Nikola Poplasen was dismissed last March by Bosnia's
top
international mediator for obstructing the peace process.
The withdrawal of the Socialist Party of Republika Srpska (SPRS) from
the
Sloga (Unity) coalition came after Bosnian Serb Premier Milorad Dodik
sacked
two senior SPRS officials from his government. The main board of the
SPRS
blamed Dodik for its decision to quit.
The move, a consequence of the ongoing power-struggle in the Unity
coalition, left Dodik with a minority government, which can survive only
with the strong support of international organisations in Bosnia.
Ever since it was set up in 1997, the Unity coalition was anything but
politically united, often reflecting an old Serb saying, "two Serbs -
three
political parties." Its members never really shared a common political
agenda. They were nationalists and political opportunists thrown
together
with international backing to topple Radovan Karadzic's hard-line
Serbian
Democratic Party (SDS).
Sloga succeeded in ousting the SDS and the Radical Party from positions
of
power, but a "monster" had been created, which international officials
were
either unable or too incompetent to control.
Through its main agency in Bosnia, the Office of the High
Representative,
the international community gave Sloga and its frontman, Milorad Dodik,
unconditional support.
Dodik and the coalition did improve the situation in Republika Srpska
somewhat, but mainly through western donations and loans. They remained
opportunists, however, and continued fighting each other for power.
Dodik
has maintained the upper hand in the struggle thanks to western backing.
This despite Sloga being mired in corruption, never fully accepting the
vision of a united Bosnia as drafted in the Dayton Peace Accord, nor
properly implementing one of its key conditions - the return of refugees
to
the Bosnian Serb-held areas.
The international community also turned a blind eye to Dodik's personal
shortcomings, allowing him to bully and replace his opponents as long as
he
was keeping the two nationalist parties - the SDS and the Radical Party
-
outside of government.
The international community also saw Dodik and his coalition as
important
weapons against Milosevic.
Dodik and other top Sloga officials publicly criticised Milosevic on
numerous occasions and gradually severed ties between Yugoslavia and
Republika Srpska, jeopardising Milosevic's self-proclaimed position as
leader of all Balkan Serbs.
But the arrangement backfired many times, putting western agencies in
often
awkward and sometimes absurd positions.
Along the way, Dodik made few friends and many enemies. He even lost
support
from political parties in the other Bosnian entity, the Bosnian
Federation.
At the same time, Milosevic increased his efforts to undermine Dodik and
Sloga, usually acting either through the hard-line SDS and Radical
parties,
or through the SPRS. A part of the SPRS, apparently led by party
vice-president Dragutin Ilic, remained loyal to Milosevic and close to
his
Socialist Party of Serbia.
As soon as SPRS announced its decision to step out of the coalition, key
Sloga leaders, Dodik and Biljana Plavsic, accused Republika Srpska
socialists of caving into pressure from Milosevic. They implied that
some of
the SPRS officials recently visited Belgrade and were taking directions
from
the Yugoslav president.
"I had hoped that SPRS would liberate itself from Serbia's pressure,"
Plavsic said, adding that the party's withdrawal from government was
"irresponsible" because it showed it was following "petty personal
interests" rather than those of all Bosnian Serbs and Republika Srpska.
"SPRS is not Sloga, but only a part of Sloga," Dodik said. And in an
attempt
to persuade the public that Republika Srpska was not facing a crisis, he
insisted the coalition would continue working.
Yet despite his words, everybody - western organisations and Bosnian
citizens alike - are aware the entity is entering its deepest political
crisis since the pro-Karadzic hard-liners were removed from power.
International support, however, should ensure that Dodik remains in
power
without serious challenges. But only for as long as Republika Srpska has
a
vacant presidential post, as only the head of state can propose a new
premier.
Meanwhile, the Bosnian Serb parliament will remain deadlocked with
political
factions unable to muster enough votes to push through decisions.
The most important consequence of the current chaos is that it could
open
the way for the re-emergence of the SDS in Bosnia's general election
scheduled for October.
The SDS, which has undergone key personnel changes since Karadzic was
leader, is now a solid opposition party, which sometimes behaves more
democratically than Sloga.
But although the SDS now appears to be quite different from the war
mongering party of old - its reappearance in the corridors of power
would
definitively alarm international organisations in Bosnia. But even
worse, it
would immediately boost ethnic tensions sky-high throughout Bosnia.
Janez Kovac is a regular contributor to IWPR from Sarajevo.
TANJUG 26/2/2000 -----------------------
RF DI JUGOSLAVIA ED IRAN SI RIAVVICINANO
http://www.tanjug.co.yu/Arhiva/2000/Feb%20-%2000/26-02e04.html
Tanjug (Yu)
February 26, 2000
Yugoslavia, Iran form closer links
BELGRADE -- The promotion of all forms of cooperation of FR Yugoslavia
and Iran, notably in the field of information, and the creation of
conditions for the Yugoslav and Iranian people, through authentic
information and without the mediation of global, world media, to inform
themselves about the most important events -- is of interest for both
friendly countries, it was mutually assessed at the talks held Friday
between Yugoslav Information Minister Goran Matic and the Iranian
Embassy charge d'affaires in Belgrade, Javad Moradkhan.
Moradkhan said that there was a need to a strengthen cooperation in the
field of the media with a view to authentically informing the publics in
the two countries, and to open correspondency offices of the Iranian
News Agency in Belgrade and of TANJUG in Teheran.
Matic, assessing that the future of the world was in a multipolar
society and that every people has the right to chose its govermment,
said that was the foundation the Yugoslav society was based on.
Matic said that Yugoslavia will open the door for better cooperation in
the field of information with Iran, pointing that action should be taken
against the terror of global media, who attempt to pit against one
another peoples, influence processes and the election of governments in
spite of the will of the people in certain countries.
B92 26/2/2000 -----------
"AIUTI" USA AL MONTENEGRO
US to provide Montenegro with flour and wheat supplies
MONTENEGRO, Saturday - The US will provide Montenegro with 500,000 tons
of
flour, Montenegrin Minister of Agriculture Milutin Simovic told the
press
today. On his return from an official visit to America, Simovic told the
press that in April the US would also supply Montenegro with 350,000
tons of
wheat which would ensure an adequate bread supply on the Montenegrin
market
and keep the cost of bread at current levels. During his visit, Simovic
signed several contracts aimed at boosting Montenegrin agriculture.
TENDENZE CENTRIFUGHE IN VOJVODINA
Vojvodina to become one of six Serbian Federal units
NOVI SAD, Saturday - The League of Vojvodina Social Democrats at their
third
congress in Novi Sad today adopted a resolution according to which
Vojvodina
will become one of the six Serbian Federal units, the other five being
Sumadija, Belgrade, Southeastern Serbia, Sandzak and Kosovo. In his
speech at
the congress, leader of the League of Vojvodina Social Democrats, Nenad
Canak
said that their aim was not to separate Vojvodina from Serbia, but to
redefine relations between Serbia and Vojvodina. Foreign guests who had
been
invited to attend the congress failed to show having been refused visas.
TELEGRAPH 26/2/2000 ---------------------
IRREDENTISMO PAN-ALBANESE ALL'OPERA ORMAI
ANCHE FUORI DAL KOSMET
The Telegraph (UK)
ISSUE 1737Saturday 26 February 2000
Fresh violence in Yugoslavia is blamed on ethnic Albanians
By Gillian Sandford in Bujanovac and Julius Strauss
ETHNIC Albanian extremists are suspected of being behind a fresh wave of
ethnic violence that has broken out in remote settlements of southern
Yugoslavia.
Although the villages concerned are close to Kosovo, ethnic Albanians,
Serbs and gipsies have lived peacefully there alongside each other for
years.
During the Nato air strikes last year, the Serbian authorities largely
ignored the area and local Albanians say some of them were protected by
their Serbian neighbours from the nationalism sweeping the country.
But now explosions, beatings, searches and tit-for-tat killings are
threatening to tear apart fragile communities and provoke new clashes
between Serbs and ethnic Albanians that could destabilise the entire
region. At the heart of the trouble is Bujanovac, a village consisting
of 55 per cent ethnic Albanians and 45 per cent Serbs and gipsies.
Although villagers crowd the market square as they always have, distrust
is beginning to permeate the atmosphere.
It is being registered far beyond Yugoslavia's borders. The Nato
Secretary-General, Lord Robertson, said recently: "There is clearly
rising tension in the southern part of Serbia and large numbers of
additional Yugoslav troops have moved into the area."
Asked about the reports of troop deployments, Stojanca Arsic, the mayor,
said: "We have stationary troops in Bujanovac. These are regular army
and they are doing their duty on a training programme."
In the village itself, there was little sign last week of a build-up of
Yugoslav forces. The only obvious activity consisted of four coachloads
of special police travelling north, apparently away from the border.
Yet there clearly had been violence. Nato and ethnic Albanian sources in
Kosovo said most of the responsibility lay with elements of the Kosovo
Liberation Army who are fighting for a unified Albania incorporating
parts of Macedonia and the territory populated by the 80,000 ethnic
Albanians still in Serbia.
The ethnic Albanian spiritual leader, Nexhmadin Saqipi, says that both
ethnic Albanian and Serbian extremists are worsening relations between
the two communities.
Mr Saqipi said: "During the bombing we helped each other. But now I am
afraid of these incidents escalating. The Serb mayor is a good man and
so is the local police commander. These events are all the results of
clashes between the politics of Belgrade and Pristina."
The violence in Bujanovac is a textbook example of the flash-fire nature
of Balkan ethnic strife. The trouble began after a local Albanian,
Shefket, returned from Kosovo and began fomenting trouble. In December a
bomb exploded at the Serbian elementary school. Two weeks later two
bombs went off in an Albanian and gipsy area.
Then in January the director of an Albanian school in the nearby village
of Muhovac was ambushed and killed on his way to work. Mr Arsic says he
was targeted because extremist Albanians considered him a collaborator.
A little later Shefket had an exchange of fire with Serb police and two
ethnic Albanian bystanders were killed. In retaliation, ethnic Albanians
claim, they are being roughed up by Serb police at checkpoints.
The violence in Bujanovac is part of a pattern of unrest spreading
through ethnic Albanian areas in Serbia and Macedonia.
In Presevo, local Albanians have reported that "outsiders" have arrived
to stoke up trouble with the Serbian police. They have been joined by
young Presevo men, some of whom fought in Kosovo.
British military sources in Kosovo say the KLA is also behind attacks on
Serb police units in other areas on the border, including one that left
two dead.
In neighbouring Macedonia, too, violence is spreading. Last month three
policemen were killed by ethnic Albanian gangsters who opened fire on
their car.
B92 27/2/2000 -----------------------
UN ALTRO SERBO FATTO FUORI A GNJILANE
Member of the Serbian Nation Council for Kosovo murdered in Gnjilane
KOSOVO, Sunday - Member of the Serbian Nation Council for Kosovo, Doctor
Josip Vasic was killed last night in the center of Gnjilane. An unknown
assailant fired four bullets at Vasic, the Serbian Nation Council for
Kosovo
headquarters stated today, condemning this murder as part of the
systematic
cleansing of Serbs from this region.
KFOR spokesman Philip Anido confirmed the murder of Serbian Doctor Josip
Vasic at a press conference in Pristina today. Anido said that Doctor
Vasic
died after being transferred to the American military hospital last
night.
ATTACCO DEI TERRORISTI N.A.T.O. (IRREDENTISTI PAN-ALBANESI)
CAUSA UN MORTO E TRE FERITI
One police officer killed and three injured in Albanian terrorist attack
in Konculj
BELGRADE, Sunday - Senior police officer, Slavisa Dimitrijevic was
killed and
a further three policemen injured during an attack carried out by Kosovo
Albanian terrorists on the road between Gnjilane and Bujanovac near the
village of Konculj ten kilometers from the Kosovo border last night, the
Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs stated today. The three injured
policemen have been hospitalised but have been taken off the danger
list.
According to the statement issued by the police, the terrorists left the
territory of Kosovo and ambushed a Serbian police patrol using hand
grenades
and automatic weapons. The police patrol managed to return fire, killing
one
of the Albanian terrorists, Fatmir Idrisi, who according to police
sources,
is a member of the Kosovo protection Corps. All local roads in the area
have
been closed for security reasons.
KCNA 27/2/2000 --------------------------------
JOVANOVIC IN VISITA UFFICIALE IN COREA DEL NORD
Reception given for Yugoslav Foreign Minister
Pyongyang, February 27 (KCNA) -- The DPRK Foreign Ministry gave a
reception for the Foreign Minister of
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and his party on a visit to Korea at
the
Mansudae Assembly Hall yesterday.
DPRK Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun in his speech said that Korea
visit
of the Yugoslav Foreign Minister and
his party will mark a significant occasion in expanding and developing
the
excellent friendly relations between the
two peoples to a new higher stage.
Stressing that the friendly and cooperative relations between the
two
countries whose firm foundation was laid
by the great leader Kim Il Sung are now growing stronger and developing
under the particular care of the great
leader Kim Jong Il, he said:
The DPRK will, in the future, too, make every possible effort to
further consolidate and develop these
traditional relations in keeping with the demands of the present
developing
situation.
Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic in his speech said that
the
Yugoslav leadership and people highly
appreciate the DPRK leadership and people for having condemned the
interference, pressure and aggressive
maneuvers of foreign forces against Yugoslavia and supported it in the
United Nations and the non-aligned
movement.
He said that Yugoslavia expresses full support to the Korean people
in
their struggle to reunify the country
independently and peacefully, true to the ten-point programme of the
great
unity of the whole nation for national
reunification set forth by Kim Il Sung and the five-point policy of
great
national unity advanced by Kim Jong Il.
He expressed the belief that the relations between the two countries
would further expand and develop in
political, economic, cultural and other fields.
B92 28/2/2000 -------------------------------------
ALTRI 180 NOMI NELLE LISTE DI PROSCRIZIONE DELLA UE
EU adds 180 names to Yugoslav black list
BRUSSELS, Monday - The European Union foreign ministers today added
another
180 names to the list of Yugoslav residents banned from entering EU
member
countries. EU officials said that the list, which now consists of about
780
names, consisted of people who were part of, or supported, the regime of
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
The new list is remarkable for the inclusion of the names of 54 Yugoslav
judges, magistrates and prosecutors who have been prominent in the
vexatious
prosecution of the independent media and opposition politicians.
The ministers were also expected today to confirm the suspension of air
traffic sanctions against Yugoslavia. The procedure of formally lifting
the
sanctions was expected to take another two weeks.
UN AUTOBUS (PER FORTUNA VUOTO) SU DI UNA MINA
Serbian bus hits landmine in Kosovo
BELGRADE, Monday - A passenger bus was badly damaged when it hit a
landmine
in Kosovo this morning. The bus, belonging to the Raska transport firm
Jugoprevoz, was carrying no passengers at the time of the explosion. The
driver was unhurt by the blast which occurred when the rear of the bus
hit
the mine as it was leaving the northern zone of Kosovska Mitrovica. The
Commander of the French KFOR sector, General Pierre de Saqui de Sannes
described the incident as an act of blatant violence.
The Serb National Council described the attack on the bus as a terrorist
act,
claiming that the intention of the terrorists was to intimidate the Serb
population and ethnically cleanse the northern part of Kosovo. The
council
statement went on to say that it was no coincidence that the attack had
occurred on the same day that the Albanians were celebrating the
establishment of Albanian terrorist groups in Kosovo and making new
threats
against Serbs.
The London "Guardian" writes today that armed members of the
officially-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army wearing camouflage suits
were
attacking Serb police along the Kosovo-Serbia border in order to provoke
a
response from Serb security forces and consequently NATO intervention.
The
British paper quotes a US KFOR officer as saying that international
forces
would enter the territory of Serbia proper if there were atrocities. The
definition of that term was still being worked on, the US officer added.
IN DIECIMILA CELEBRANO LA LOTTA PER LA GRANDE ALBANIA
SOTTO GLI OCCHI (E LA PROTEZIONE) DELLA N.A.T.O.
Kosovo guerrillas celebrate second anniversary
PRISTINA, Monday - Members of the Kosovo Protection Corps today
celebrated
the second anniversary of the first major conflict between the Kosovo
Liberation Army and members of the Yugoslav security forces. The clash
occurred in the Drenica villages of Likosane and Ciriz. The Kosovo
Protection
Corps is largely made up of former members of the officially-disbanded
Kosovo
Liberation Army. Today's rally involved about 10,000 Albanians, none of
whom
carried arms or wore KLA uniforms. The Corps Commander Agim Ceku did not
attend the celebrations.
LA N.A.T.O. PRONTA A NUOVE MANOVRE
NATO exercises in Kosovo
BRUSSELS, Monday - About 2,000 troops will participate in NATO
manoeuvres in
Kosovo in March and April, NATO Supreme Command announced today. The
troops
are part of NATO's strategic reserve and the land command exercises
codenamed
"Dynamic Response 2000" would demonstrate NATO's resolution to maintain
a
safe environment for Kosovo and its citizens according to NATO's
statement.
The exercises will involve six countries, Argentina, Italy, Holland,
Poland,
Romania and the US.
B92 29/2/2000 -----------------------------------------
STEVAN MIRKOVIC: E' ORA CHE L'ESERCITO PRENDA IL POTERE
Former Army head calls for coup
BELGRADE, Tuesday - The Army should seize power, disband the government,
the
parliament and political parties, arrest Milo Djukanovic and eliminate
Slobodan Milosevic, former Yugoslav People's Army chief Stevan Mirkovic
said
today. Mirkovic told Belgrade daily Danas that if Milosevic had put the
army
on alert in order to expand his authority, it would be unproductive
because
the army would not dare enter a conflict with Montenegrin security
forces.
The former army chief added that he did not believe the army would step
outside its authority for the sake of one man's power but if it were
needed
to establish order and discipline in the country that would be something
else
altogether.
AFP 29/2/2000 -----------------------
GRANDE FEELING TRA TURCHIA ED ALBANIA
Turkey Promises To Help Albania Modernize Its Army
TIRANA, Feb 29, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Turkish Prime Minister
Bulent Ecevit said Monday his country plans to give Albania more than
$120 million dollars over the next four years to help modernize its
army.
Ecevit, speaking at a joint press conference with Albanian counterpart
Ilir Meta during a two-day visit to Tirana, said Turkey saw an
up-to-date Albanian military as an important element for peace and
stability in the Balkans.
Ankara has already earmarked $41 million for the Albanian defense force
and planned to double that amount between now and 2004, Ecevit said,
adding that the change would also have a positive impact on the economy
of Albania, considered the poorest country in Europe.
An uprising in Albania in 1997 resulted in army weapons depots being
pillaged and around one million arms are believed to be in circulation.
Large parts of the country remain lawless.
Turkey, as a member of NATO, took part in the NATO bombardment of
Yugoslavia which eventually forced Yugoslav troops to end their
operation against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and to pull out of the
Serbian province.
Albania shares a border with Kosovo to the north and both Albania and
Turkey have predominantly Muslim populations. ((c) 2000 Agence France
Presse)
REUTERS 29/2/2000 -------------------------------------
IL MINISTRO LAZIC DENUNCIA LO SPORCO GIOCO DEGLI U.S.A.
NELLA SERBIA MERIDIONALE
http://www.centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=138917
Serb Minister Sees US-Albanian Plot In South Serbia
BELGRADE, Feb 29, 2000 -- (Reuters) A Serbian minister
accused the United States and Kosovo Albanian
"terrorists" on Monday of planning to provoke conflict
in an Albanian-populated area of southern Serbia close
to Kosovo.
Djura Lazic, minister without portfolio, said recent
ethnic Albanian attacks in the region were part of a
plan to justify new NATO intervention and extend
Kosovo to this area of Serbia.
He said they were also designed to drive remaining
Serbs out of Kosovo, which is now under de facto
international rule.
"The aim is not only ethnic cleansing of Kosovo of
Serbs, Montenegrins, Gypsies, Gorans and other
non-Albanians but also provoking conflicts and the
fire of war in Bujanovac, Medvedja and Presevo," Lazic
told the official Tanjug news agency.
The three towns are in an area of Serbia just east of
Kosovo, still legally part of Yugoslavia.
Lazic also criticized NATO plans to hold a military
exercise in Kosovo in March, saying it would encourage
Albanian "terrorists" - the term used by Belgrade for
guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
NATO said in Brussels that it would send more than
2,000 troops to Kosovo next month for a training
exercise intended to show its resolve to keep the
peace.
Western diplomats and politicians have accused
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic of reinforcing
troops along the administrative border with Kosovo in
order to spread fear and drive out ethnic Albanians.
They have warned Belgrade the world will not tolerate
any attempt to destabilize the region further.
Belgrade says it is merely responding to "terrorism"
by Kosovo Albanians crossing the border.
On Sunday, Tanjug said a Serb policeman and an ethnic
Albanian guerrilla were killed in a shoot-out near
Bujanovac.
It said three other policemen were wounded after
"Albanian terrorists" crossed from Kosovo on Saturday
night and ambushed a police patrol with automatic
weapons and hand grenades.
Lazic said the aim of such attacks was to provoke Serb
police action and portray ethnic Albanians in the area
as being under threat, thus justifying new NATO
intervention.
Yugoslav forces withdrew from Kosovo last June after
11 weeks of NATO bombing to halt Belgrade's repression
of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.
Also on Monday, the Yugoslav army denied accusations
it was massing troops in the area east of Kosovo.
"The Third Army command denies and emphatically
rejects all criticism and accusations that it is
allegedly conducting preparatory and provocative
actions directed against international forces in
Kosovo," said a statement.
====================================================================
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 introdotte da un nostro titolo
in italiano per facilitarne la consultazione.
I brani provengono da fonti diverse:
KCNA - E' l'agenzia della Repubblica Popolare di Corea
ANSA - E' la principale agenzia di stampa italiana
YDS - e' la "Yugoslav Daily Survey" del Ministero degli Esteri della
RFJ (cfr. http://www.mfa.gov.yu/ ).
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 ***
SerbiaInfo - e' il bollettino del Ministero dell'Informazione della
Repubblica di Serbia: http://www.serbia-info.com
Tanjug - e' l'agenzia di stampa jugoslava: http://www.tanjug.co.yu
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/
------------------------------------------------------------
VANDALI CONTRO IL CONSOLATO DELLA RFJ A VUKOVAR
FRY Consulate damaged in Vukovar
CROATIA, Sunday - The FRY Consulate in Vukovar was damaged yesterday
during riots which took place before and after a local league football
match. Seven policemen were injured and numerous supporters arrested
during clashes between fans and police.
AP 20/2/2000 ---------------------------
CONVERGENZE TRA RF DI JUGOSLAVIA E LIBIA
Serbia's and Libya's top officials find much in common
February 20, 2000 Web posted at: 4:54 PM EST (2154 GMT)
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Serbia's vice premier and Libya's deputy
foreign minister called Sunday for a joint Arab-Orthodox Christian front
against "American hegemonism," a government news release said.
Serbia's far-right vice premier, Vojislav Seselj, met with Abdelah
Beh-Yallah of Lybia, and both urged "closer cooperation between states
that value independence, freedom and territorial integrity," said a
statement released after the meeting.
"Orthodox and Arab countries need to join forces to create a common
strategy against American hegemonism," the statement said. "Europe must
free itself from American influence so that its peoples and states can
live in peace, harmony and religious tolerance."
Libya was an exception among Arab countries in speaking out against last
year's NATO military intervention to end the crackdown by Serb forces
against ethnic Albanians, who are Muslim.
Lybia had close ties with the former Yugoslavia which, after its 1991
breakup, continued in the form of the present-day rump Yugoslav
federation consisting of Serbia and Montenegro.
Policies pursued by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his Libyan
counterpart, Moammer Gadhafi, have led both countries into international
isolation.
"Yugoslavia and Serbia appreciate the clear stand of Lybia and its
president who openly condemned NATO aggression against Yugoslavia," the
release issued in Belgrade said.
TIMES 21/2/2000 ------------------------------------
IN DECLINO IL MORALE DELLE TRUPPE TEDESCHE IN KOSMET
The Times (London)
Monday February 21 2000
Germans sent home
THE morale of German soldiers in Kosovo is beginning to crumble (Roger
Boyes writes). At least 90 soldiers, including 4 officers, have been
sent home because of disciplinary problems, according to Welt am
Sonntag. Another 55, including 6 officers, have been sent back from the
Sfor contingent in Bosnia. The cases are said to stem from alcohol and
drug abuse, but there have also been sexual violations. In Kosovo two
drunken German soldiers yelled racist comments at Albanians. Albanian
soldiers intervened, a fight ensued and the Germans were flown out.
B92 21/2/2000 ----------------------------------
DODIK SEMPRE PIU' ISOLATO NELLA REPUBLIKA SRPSKA
Chaos in Republic of Srpska Parliament
BANJA LUKA, Monday - The Chairman of the Bosnian Serb Republic's ruling
Sloga
Coalition, Prime Minister Milorad Dodik, today demanded that the
president of
the Parliament, Petar Djokic, return the coalition's mandate. Dodik told
media that the coalition was considering options for a new parliamentary
president. Dodik said that he had received written resignations from
Socialist Party ministers but had not accepted them. He added that the
ministers had agreed to remain within the government. The Sloga
Coalition's
presidency today met without the Socialist Party representative.
YDS 21/2/2000 -------------
VANDALISMO KFOR A MITROVICA
SERBIAN PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
BRUTAL AND BARBARIC ACT BY KFOR
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, February 21 (Tanjug) - Jovica Jovanovic, a member of
the subcommittee for administration and legislature of the Yugoslav
committee for cooperation with the United Nations mission in Kosovo and
Metohija province, said on Sunday that the search of apartments and
institutions in northern Kosovska Mitrovica by international force KFOR
U.S. and German troops was a brutal, barbaric and uncivilized act.
Jovanovic told reporters he had been present during a search of the
Faculty of Technology. He saw troops break down with axes the doors of a
laboratory and other premises.
Jovanovic also toured the school of technology which had also been a
target of KFOR's barbaric activities.
He said it was not by accident that the barbaric action was carried out
by
U.S. and German troops. The presence of numerous foreign reporters and
TV
crew at the very time when the action took place, and their on-the-spot
reporting is proof that this was all stage-managed, Jovanovc said.
The leading players in this action - U.S. and German troops - were not
picked at random, because there are no more Serbs in the parts of Kosovo
and Metohija where these troops are deployed, he said.
Jovanovic said it was an act of ultimate cynicism when French troops
brought the principal of the School of Technology about a dozen cylinder
locks and padlocks to compensate for the incurred damage.
LA SINISTRA UNITA JUGOSLAVA (JUL) INCONTRA LE FORZE
DELLA SINISTRA LATINOAMERICANA A MANAGUA
LATIN AMERICA - LEFT - CONFERENCE
YUGOSLAV LEFT OFFICIALS ATTEND CONFERENCE OF LATIN AMERICAN LEFTIST
PARTIES
MEXICO, February 21 (Tanjug) - The ninth conference of Latin American
leftist parties called the Sao Paulo Forum has opened in Nicaragua's
capital Managua, with a delegation of the Yugoslav Left (JUL) also
attending the conference.
The three-day conference, that is to focus on the Left's role in the new
century, was opened by Secretary-General of the Sandinista National
Liberation Front Daniel Ortega.
Officials of 98 parties in 36 countries are to review issues concerning
the uniting of leftist parties in the world and ways of how to oppose
attempts to impose neo-liberalism and the new world order.
A series of proposals were put forth on the promotion of cooperation
between Latin American and European leftist parties.
The JUL delegation, headed by secretary of the party's directorate in
charge of public relations Danilo Pantovic, is attending the forum in
the
capacity of observer. Pantovic has already met with officials of a large
number of South and Central American parties.
TACI "IL SERPENTE" POTREBBE ESSERE DENUNCIATO AL TRIBUNALE DELL'AIA
HAGUE TRIBUNAL HAS DISCREDITING INFORMATION ABOUT THAQI
LONDON, February 21 (Tanjug) - The U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague
has discrediting information about leader of the ethnic Albanian
terrorist
organisation calling itself Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) Hashim Thaqi,
The
Observer weekly of London has said.
The weekly's Pristina-based reporter asked recently the U.N.
administration in the chief city of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija
province
why the court had not made any moves on the strength of that
information.
He was informed that it was not realistic to do so at this point. A U.N.
official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that it was not
in
the interests of the United Nations to instigate legal proceedings
against
Thaqi at this point.
The tribunal has launched an investigation also against Agim Ceku,
former
KLA commander and currently commander of the so-called Kosovo Protection
Corps, for his involvement in war crimes committed during hostilities in
Croatia, according to earlier reports in London. Ceku had served as a
brigadier general in the Croatian army.
Diplomatic circles in London say that the tribunal has launched a secret
investigation against Ramus Haradinaj, Ceku's deputy, who has committed
war
crimes in Kosovo and Metohija as a KLA member.
These are all people with whom top Western and NATO officials have
almost
daily contacts so that one cannot but speculate about the international
community's true intentions in Kosovo and Metohija.
ANSA 23/2/2000 -------------------------------------------
CECENIA: CAPI GUERRIGLIA VOGLIONO FUGGIRE IN KOSOVO, MOSCA
(ANSA) - MOSCA, 23 FEB - Informazioni su presunti piani di
alcuni capi della guerriglia islamica cecena di fuggire
nell'inquieta regione jugoslava a maggioranza albanese del
Kosovo sono state raccolte dai servizi segreti russi (Fsb). Lo
affermano oggi fonti dello stesso Fsb all'agenzia Interfax.
Secondo tali fonti, i miliziani ceceni avrebbero da tempo
''rapporti'' con i separatisti albanesi dell'Uck e alcuni di
loro avrebbero anche combattuto al fianco di questi ultimi nel
passato nella regione balcanica.
L'obiettivo dei capi ceceni sarebbe ora quello di trasferire
i loro familiari dalla repubblica caucasica, ormai in gran parte
riconquistata dalla truppe russe. Lo Fsb e' tornato inoltre a
ipotizzare un possibile progetto di dirottamento aereo da parte
di alcuni guerriglieri, forse proprio allo scopo di fuggire
verso il Kosovo.
Un tale progetto e' attribuito dai servizi segreti di Mosca
all'ex presidente ceceno Zelimkhan Iandarbiev - ospitato
peraltro attualmente in Pakistan - e da un secondo dirigente dei
separatisti, Movladi Udugov.
Fonti di stampa ed esponenti serbi avevano gia' parlato di
recente di un possibile trasferimento di capi ceceni e di loro
parenti nel Kosovo, dandolo in parte per gia' avvenuto.(ANSA).
LR 23-FEB-00 11:50
TANJUG 23/2/2000 -----------------------------
SOLIDARIETA' DAL GHANA PER LA RF DI JUGOSLAVIA
http://www.tanjug.co.yu/Arhiva/2000/Feb%20-%2000/23-02e03.html
Tanjug (Yu)
February 23, 2000
Ghana -- national solidarity with Yugoslavia
ACCRA -- Yugoslavia's ambassador in Accra briefed the Ghanaian
parliament on Tuesday on the consequences of NATO's March-June 1999
aggression on Yugoslavia and the latest developments in the U.N.-ruled
Serbian (Yugoslav) province of Kosovo-Metohija.
Presenting to Parliament's Foreign Relations Committee Yugoslavia's
White Book of documentary evidence on the aggression, Ambassador Milena
Lukovic Jovanovic said the aggression "was the worst crime against
humanity and peace since the Second World War."
Committee Chairman Kofi Ator emphasised Ghana's support for Yugoslavia's
sovereignty and territorial integrity and for its request that the U.N.
Security Council's Resolution 1244 on Kosovo- Metohija be consistently
implemented.
Ghana had condemned the aggression and expressed solidarity with
Yugoslavia, and would, in line with its principled policy, continue to
support Yugoslavia in the defence of its legitimate state and national
interests, he said.
The Ghanaian parliamentarians expressed indignation at and condemnation
of the NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia and admiration for the Serbian
people who bravely defended their sovereignty and territorial integrity.
REUTERS 24/2/2000 ----------------------------------
http://www.timesofindia.com/today/24worl49/htm
LA FYROM IN ALLERTA PER L'ACCRESCERSI DELLA TENSIONE
IN SERBIA MERIDIONALE
Thursday february 24, 2000
Macedonian army on alert along Serbia border
SKOPJEL: The Macedonian army said on Wednesday it had
raised its level of combat readiness along its border
with southern Serbia, after an upsurge of ethnic
violence in Kosovo.
"We are cautious because of events in the north and
for this reason the combat readiness of the Kumanovo
corps was raised to a higher level two days ago," army
spokesman Gjorgji Trendafilov told Reuters.
"Our border patrols are more frequent and our guards
are reinforced as well as the control on the border,"
he said. "From the other side of the border things can
happen which can get out of control."
Trendafilov, who did not specify which events in the
north he was referring to, stressed that the army was
not sending new troops to the border region.
On Monday, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson
said the alliance was monitoring a build-up of
Yugoslav forces in areas of southern Serbia where he
said there was "clearly rising tension".
Robertson was referring to the
Bujanovac-Presevo-Medvedja region, lying just east of
Kosovo and largely populated by ethnic Albanians. The
region lies north of Macedonia.
NATO sources said the report concerned four companies
of well-armed Interior Ministry police which had been
moved into the region, where recent local reports have
warned of mounting fear and violence.
The Yugoslav army, a completely separate institution
to the Interior Ministry troops, has denied any
build-up.
"Of course there are no additional troops of ours in
the territory of Presevo," the commander of
Yugoslavia's Third Army, Colonel-General Vladimir
Lazarevic, was quoted by Belgrade daily Vecernje
Novosti as saying on Wednesday.
"We have our border units there which very efficiently
secure the state border with Macedonia. They prevent
four to five illegal crossings daily in this border
area," he said.
There has also been fresh violence this month in the
northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica. On Monday, ethnic
Albanian protesters clashed with NATO-led peacekeepers
there.
Outbreaks of fighting in the city have left nine
people dead and more than 20 wounded in February,
including two French soldiers shot in gun battles.
The Macedonian army last raised its combat readiness
during last year's Kosovo war, when NATO bombed
Yugoslavia to halt its repression of the province's
ethnic Albanian majority. It also stepped up its
readiness during civil disturbances in neighbouring
Albania in the spring of 1997. (Reuters)
REUTERS 23/2/2000 --------------------------------------
GLI STROZZINI GLOBALI AUMENTANO LE PRESSIONI SULLA FYROM
World Bank Urges Macedonia Reforms Ahead Of Talks
SKOPJE, Feb 23, 2000 -- (Reuters) The World Bank told
Macedonia on Tuesday to step up reforms to qualify for
the agency's $40 million assistance later this year.
"Macedonia must speed up reforms in the social,
pension and labor sectors, as well as reforms in the
financial and enterprise sectors," World Bank Director
for Macedonia and Turkey Ajay Chhibber told a news
conference in Skopje.
Talks on a Financial and Enterprise Sector Adjustment
Loan (FESAL) were expected to begin by early April and
to end in May.
The pace of reforms and ability to transparently
restructure the largest loss-makers in the country
will decide the bank's future assistance, he said.
"The government ability to sell or liquidate the
deficit-ridden companies without incurring large
liabilities on the budget will determine the Bank's
ability to support Macedonia under a FESAL
arrangement," Chhibber said.
"The world Bank likes to urge the liquidation or a
sale of these enterprises in the most transparent
way," he said.
Macedonia has lagged behind a schedule to sell or
close at least seven large loss-making firms including
nickel producer Feni from Kavadarci.
TANJUG 24/2/2000 ------------------------------------------
SULLA STAMPA ISRAELIANA A QUALCUNO E' RITORNATA LA MEMORIA:
PARALLELI CON LA POLITICA NAZISTA NEI BALCANI
www.serbia-info.com/news
"Haarecu": NATO aggression similar to Hitler's crimes
February 24, 2000
NATO bombing of civilian facilities
Tel Aviv, February 24th (Tanjug) - The manner in which NATO committed
its aggression on FR Yugoslavia last year is very similar to the crimes
committed by Hitler's policy in this country, stated the historian, Anat
Peri, in the text "Let the truth be heard", published today in the
prominent Israeli "Haarecu" daily.
Simultaneously with the forming of the ustasha NDH (The Independent
State of Croatia) and the giving over of Kosmet to the fascistic
Albanian regime, Hitler requested that all Serbs opposing nazis be
expelled. Germany and the US have now, as Hitler did then, encouraged
the separation of Croatia and the expulsion of the Serbian population
from the Croatian territory, stated Peri.
The US has armed the Albanian army, encouraged it to attack FRY and take
over the control over parts of Kosmet, the southern Serbian province,
and launch attacks on Serbian soldiers. Aside from that, the US
supported the Albanian terrorists and mafia, while it accused the
Albanian intellectuals from Kosmet of collaborating with Serbs, reminded
the Israeli historian.
Peri said that today, Ibrahim Rugova, the leader of the Kosmet
Albanians, fears for his life because of the terrorists, which the US
supported and enabled to rule. These terrorists, proteges of the US, are
the murderers of, not only Serbs, but also Albanians, which are opposed
to violence. This is why there are many similarities between the
policies of NATO and Hitler, stated Peri.
It is in NATO's interest that there be violence between the small
nations in Yugoslavia in order for them to justify their policy of
enslavement, stated Peri, adding that any decent man must confess that
the only way to achieve peace in Kosmet is through extensive
negotiations between Serbs and ethnic-Albanians, as it is the only way
of achieving peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis.
The NATO aggression on FRY did not, as the aggressors claimed, protect
the lives of Albanians, but with it, the last Russian ally in Europe was
attacked, and from the territory of Kosmet, after the arrival of the
KFOR and UNMIK forces, the majority of the Serbian population was
expelled, the remaining Serbs are being murdered on daily basis, and the
representatives of KFOR and UNMIK are not interested in avoiding this,
said Peri.
B92 24/2/2000 -----------------------------
OPERAZIONE ANTI-PROSTITUZIONE IN MONTENEGRO
Montenegro deports foreign sex workers
PODGORICA, Thursday - Montenegrin police last night deported more than
seventy Russian, Moldavian and Ukrainian prostitutes, all of whom had
been
arrested in a raid over several days on cafes and clubs along the
Adriatic
Coast. Podgorica daily Vijesti reported that teams of police arrested
girls
in night clubs who were engaged in prostitution and striptease. Their
working
permits were annulled on the basis that they had violated the law on
foreign
residents. According to unofficial sources, the international community
had
asked Montenegro to crush the illegal white slave trade which was
working
from East to West through Montenegro.
REUTERS 25/2/2000 ---------------------------------------
NELLA FYROM SCOPERTO ARSENALE DEI NAZIONALISTI SCHIPETARI
Macedonian police find arms destined for Kosovo-TV
SKOPJE, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Macedonian police have uncovered a
cache of weapons destined for Kosovo in an Albanian-populated village
in the Balkan country, Macedonian television reported on Friday.
Privately-owned SITEL television said 120 cases with Kalashnikov
automatic rifles and Skorpion handguns and two tonnes of ammunition
had been found in a hotel in the southern village of Kravari.
The hotel owner and an Albanian citizen had been arrested, the
television said, quoting police sources. Another private television
station, A-1 TV, carried a similar report.
Police were not immediately available for comment.
Both stations said the weapons were smuggled in on mountain tracks
from Albania and were bound for Kosovo, the Yugoslav province to the
north which is now under de facto international rule.
Police had also found 40 kg (88 lbs) of marijuana, they said.
A-1 TV said the police acted after a routine check near Skopje
revealed 10 Kalashnikovs in a car driven by an Albanian man. SITEL
said police searches for more weapons were under way.
Kosovo has seen a recent upsurge in ethnic violence, particularly in
the northern town of Mitrovica, a major flashpoint between hostile
Serb and ethnic Albanian communities.
Earlier this week, the Macedonian army said it had raised its level
of combat readiness along its border with Serbia.
Albanians account for about one third of Macedonia's population of
roughly two million people.
AFP 25/2/2000 ----------------------------------
IVANOV: COSA CI STANNO A FARE I RUSSI IN KOSMET?
http://www.centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=138270
Russia Might Withdraw Its Troops From Kosovo, Says
Ivanov
MOSCOW, Feb 26, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Russia
might withdraw its troops from NATO's KFOR
peacekeeping force in Kosovo in protest at the way it
is operated, Russian Security Council chief Sergei
Ivanov said via the Interfax news agency.
"A thought comes to mind: should we maintain the
presence of the Russian contingent and spend valuable
public money to be spectators," Ivanov said.
"We have a number of grievances" regarding the
international peacekeeping operation in Kosovo, he
said, adding that the province was in the process of
losing its multi-national character.
Of 800 deaths in the past six months, 700 were Serbs,
Ivanov noted.
Russia said Wednesday that KFOR and the UN mission in
Kosovo were incapable of ending violence in the region
or guaranteeing even minimal security for the Serb
population.
Moscow also protested the announcement by NATO of KFOR
military exercises in March, to which Russia was not
invited.
Some 3,600 Russian soldiers are currently taking part
in KFOR operations. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)
IWPR #119, 25/2/2000 ---------------
SULLE DIVISIONI TRA I SERBO-BOSNIACI
BOSNIAN SERB DIVISIONS WIDEN
Republika Srpska was again plunged into political turmoil this week
after a
key member of the government coalition quit.
By Janez Kovac in Sarajevo
The Bosnian Serb entity is on the brink of political chaos following the
withdrawal of the Socialist Party from the ruling pro-western coalition.
The move, allegedly orchestrated by the Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic, has widened the growing rift between Bosnian Serb politicians
and
delivered a blow to the international community's efforts to promote
political stability.
Republika Srpska has already been without a head of state for almost a
year.
Hard-line president Nikola Poplasen was dismissed last March by Bosnia's
top
international mediator for obstructing the peace process.
The withdrawal of the Socialist Party of Republika Srpska (SPRS) from
the
Sloga (Unity) coalition came after Bosnian Serb Premier Milorad Dodik
sacked
two senior SPRS officials from his government. The main board of the
SPRS
blamed Dodik for its decision to quit.
The move, a consequence of the ongoing power-struggle in the Unity
coalition, left Dodik with a minority government, which can survive only
with the strong support of international organisations in Bosnia.
Ever since it was set up in 1997, the Unity coalition was anything but
politically united, often reflecting an old Serb saying, "two Serbs -
three
political parties." Its members never really shared a common political
agenda. They were nationalists and political opportunists thrown
together
with international backing to topple Radovan Karadzic's hard-line
Serbian
Democratic Party (SDS).
Sloga succeeded in ousting the SDS and the Radical Party from positions
of
power, but a "monster" had been created, which international officials
were
either unable or too incompetent to control.
Through its main agency in Bosnia, the Office of the High
Representative,
the international community gave Sloga and its frontman, Milorad Dodik,
unconditional support.
Dodik and the coalition did improve the situation in Republika Srpska
somewhat, but mainly through western donations and loans. They remained
opportunists, however, and continued fighting each other for power.
Dodik
has maintained the upper hand in the struggle thanks to western backing.
This despite Sloga being mired in corruption, never fully accepting the
vision of a united Bosnia as drafted in the Dayton Peace Accord, nor
properly implementing one of its key conditions - the return of refugees
to
the Bosnian Serb-held areas.
The international community also turned a blind eye to Dodik's personal
shortcomings, allowing him to bully and replace his opponents as long as
he
was keeping the two nationalist parties - the SDS and the Radical Party
-
outside of government.
The international community also saw Dodik and his coalition as
important
weapons against Milosevic.
Dodik and other top Sloga officials publicly criticised Milosevic on
numerous occasions and gradually severed ties between Yugoslavia and
Republika Srpska, jeopardising Milosevic's self-proclaimed position as
leader of all Balkan Serbs.
But the arrangement backfired many times, putting western agencies in
often
awkward and sometimes absurd positions.
Along the way, Dodik made few friends and many enemies. He even lost
support
from political parties in the other Bosnian entity, the Bosnian
Federation.
At the same time, Milosevic increased his efforts to undermine Dodik and
Sloga, usually acting either through the hard-line SDS and Radical
parties,
or through the SPRS. A part of the SPRS, apparently led by party
vice-president Dragutin Ilic, remained loyal to Milosevic and close to
his
Socialist Party of Serbia.
As soon as SPRS announced its decision to step out of the coalition, key
Sloga leaders, Dodik and Biljana Plavsic, accused Republika Srpska
socialists of caving into pressure from Milosevic. They implied that
some of
the SPRS officials recently visited Belgrade and were taking directions
from
the Yugoslav president.
"I had hoped that SPRS would liberate itself from Serbia's pressure,"
Plavsic said, adding that the party's withdrawal from government was
"irresponsible" because it showed it was following "petty personal
interests" rather than those of all Bosnian Serbs and Republika Srpska.
"SPRS is not Sloga, but only a part of Sloga," Dodik said. And in an
attempt
to persuade the public that Republika Srpska was not facing a crisis, he
insisted the coalition would continue working.
Yet despite his words, everybody - western organisations and Bosnian
citizens alike - are aware the entity is entering its deepest political
crisis since the pro-Karadzic hard-liners were removed from power.
International support, however, should ensure that Dodik remains in
power
without serious challenges. But only for as long as Republika Srpska has
a
vacant presidential post, as only the head of state can propose a new
premier.
Meanwhile, the Bosnian Serb parliament will remain deadlocked with
political
factions unable to muster enough votes to push through decisions.
The most important consequence of the current chaos is that it could
open
the way for the re-emergence of the SDS in Bosnia's general election
scheduled for October.
The SDS, which has undergone key personnel changes since Karadzic was
leader, is now a solid opposition party, which sometimes behaves more
democratically than Sloga.
But although the SDS now appears to be quite different from the war
mongering party of old - its reappearance in the corridors of power
would
definitively alarm international organisations in Bosnia. But even
worse, it
would immediately boost ethnic tensions sky-high throughout Bosnia.
Janez Kovac is a regular contributor to IWPR from Sarajevo.
TANJUG 26/2/2000 -----------------------
RF DI JUGOSLAVIA ED IRAN SI RIAVVICINANO
http://www.tanjug.co.yu/Arhiva/2000/Feb%20-%2000/26-02e04.html
Tanjug (Yu)
February 26, 2000
Yugoslavia, Iran form closer links
BELGRADE -- The promotion of all forms of cooperation of FR Yugoslavia
and Iran, notably in the field of information, and the creation of
conditions for the Yugoslav and Iranian people, through authentic
information and without the mediation of global, world media, to inform
themselves about the most important events -- is of interest for both
friendly countries, it was mutually assessed at the talks held Friday
between Yugoslav Information Minister Goran Matic and the Iranian
Embassy charge d'affaires in Belgrade, Javad Moradkhan.
Moradkhan said that there was a need to a strengthen cooperation in the
field of the media with a view to authentically informing the publics in
the two countries, and to open correspondency offices of the Iranian
News Agency in Belgrade and of TANJUG in Teheran.
Matic, assessing that the future of the world was in a multipolar
society and that every people has the right to chose its govermment,
said that was the foundation the Yugoslav society was based on.
Matic said that Yugoslavia will open the door for better cooperation in
the field of information with Iran, pointing that action should be taken
against the terror of global media, who attempt to pit against one
another peoples, influence processes and the election of governments in
spite of the will of the people in certain countries.
B92 26/2/2000 -----------
"AIUTI" USA AL MONTENEGRO
US to provide Montenegro with flour and wheat supplies
MONTENEGRO, Saturday - The US will provide Montenegro with 500,000 tons
of
flour, Montenegrin Minister of Agriculture Milutin Simovic told the
press
today. On his return from an official visit to America, Simovic told the
press that in April the US would also supply Montenegro with 350,000
tons of
wheat which would ensure an adequate bread supply on the Montenegrin
market
and keep the cost of bread at current levels. During his visit, Simovic
signed several contracts aimed at boosting Montenegrin agriculture.
TENDENZE CENTRIFUGHE IN VOJVODINA
Vojvodina to become one of six Serbian Federal units
NOVI SAD, Saturday - The League of Vojvodina Social Democrats at their
third
congress in Novi Sad today adopted a resolution according to which
Vojvodina
will become one of the six Serbian Federal units, the other five being
Sumadija, Belgrade, Southeastern Serbia, Sandzak and Kosovo. In his
speech at
the congress, leader of the League of Vojvodina Social Democrats, Nenad
Canak
said that their aim was not to separate Vojvodina from Serbia, but to
redefine relations between Serbia and Vojvodina. Foreign guests who had
been
invited to attend the congress failed to show having been refused visas.
TELEGRAPH 26/2/2000 ---------------------
IRREDENTISMO PAN-ALBANESE ALL'OPERA ORMAI
ANCHE FUORI DAL KOSMET
The Telegraph (UK)
ISSUE 1737Saturday 26 February 2000
Fresh violence in Yugoslavia is blamed on ethnic Albanians
By Gillian Sandford in Bujanovac and Julius Strauss
ETHNIC Albanian extremists are suspected of being behind a fresh wave of
ethnic violence that has broken out in remote settlements of southern
Yugoslavia.
Although the villages concerned are close to Kosovo, ethnic Albanians,
Serbs and gipsies have lived peacefully there alongside each other for
years.
During the Nato air strikes last year, the Serbian authorities largely
ignored the area and local Albanians say some of them were protected by
their Serbian neighbours from the nationalism sweeping the country.
But now explosions, beatings, searches and tit-for-tat killings are
threatening to tear apart fragile communities and provoke new clashes
between Serbs and ethnic Albanians that could destabilise the entire
region. At the heart of the trouble is Bujanovac, a village consisting
of 55 per cent ethnic Albanians and 45 per cent Serbs and gipsies.
Although villagers crowd the market square as they always have, distrust
is beginning to permeate the atmosphere.
It is being registered far beyond Yugoslavia's borders. The Nato
Secretary-General, Lord Robertson, said recently: "There is clearly
rising tension in the southern part of Serbia and large numbers of
additional Yugoslav troops have moved into the area."
Asked about the reports of troop deployments, Stojanca Arsic, the mayor,
said: "We have stationary troops in Bujanovac. These are regular army
and they are doing their duty on a training programme."
In the village itself, there was little sign last week of a build-up of
Yugoslav forces. The only obvious activity consisted of four coachloads
of special police travelling north, apparently away from the border.
Yet there clearly had been violence. Nato and ethnic Albanian sources in
Kosovo said most of the responsibility lay with elements of the Kosovo
Liberation Army who are fighting for a unified Albania incorporating
parts of Macedonia and the territory populated by the 80,000 ethnic
Albanians still in Serbia.
The ethnic Albanian spiritual leader, Nexhmadin Saqipi, says that both
ethnic Albanian and Serbian extremists are worsening relations between
the two communities.
Mr Saqipi said: "During the bombing we helped each other. But now I am
afraid of these incidents escalating. The Serb mayor is a good man and
so is the local police commander. These events are all the results of
clashes between the politics of Belgrade and Pristina."
The violence in Bujanovac is a textbook example of the flash-fire nature
of Balkan ethnic strife. The trouble began after a local Albanian,
Shefket, returned from Kosovo and began fomenting trouble. In December a
bomb exploded at the Serbian elementary school. Two weeks later two
bombs went off in an Albanian and gipsy area.
Then in January the director of an Albanian school in the nearby village
of Muhovac was ambushed and killed on his way to work. Mr Arsic says he
was targeted because extremist Albanians considered him a collaborator.
A little later Shefket had an exchange of fire with Serb police and two
ethnic Albanian bystanders were killed. In retaliation, ethnic Albanians
claim, they are being roughed up by Serb police at checkpoints.
The violence in Bujanovac is part of a pattern of unrest spreading
through ethnic Albanian areas in Serbia and Macedonia.
In Presevo, local Albanians have reported that "outsiders" have arrived
to stoke up trouble with the Serbian police. They have been joined by
young Presevo men, some of whom fought in Kosovo.
British military sources in Kosovo say the KLA is also behind attacks on
Serb police units in other areas on the border, including one that left
two dead.
In neighbouring Macedonia, too, violence is spreading. Last month three
policemen were killed by ethnic Albanian gangsters who opened fire on
their car.
B92 27/2/2000 -----------------------
UN ALTRO SERBO FATTO FUORI A GNJILANE
Member of the Serbian Nation Council for Kosovo murdered in Gnjilane
KOSOVO, Sunday - Member of the Serbian Nation Council for Kosovo, Doctor
Josip Vasic was killed last night in the center of Gnjilane. An unknown
assailant fired four bullets at Vasic, the Serbian Nation Council for
Kosovo
headquarters stated today, condemning this murder as part of the
systematic
cleansing of Serbs from this region.
KFOR spokesman Philip Anido confirmed the murder of Serbian Doctor Josip
Vasic at a press conference in Pristina today. Anido said that Doctor
Vasic
died after being transferred to the American military hospital last
night.
ATTACCO DEI TERRORISTI N.A.T.O. (IRREDENTISTI PAN-ALBANESI)
CAUSA UN MORTO E TRE FERITI
One police officer killed and three injured in Albanian terrorist attack
in Konculj
BELGRADE, Sunday - Senior police officer, Slavisa Dimitrijevic was
killed and
a further three policemen injured during an attack carried out by Kosovo
Albanian terrorists on the road between Gnjilane and Bujanovac near the
village of Konculj ten kilometers from the Kosovo border last night, the
Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs stated today. The three injured
policemen have been hospitalised but have been taken off the danger
list.
According to the statement issued by the police, the terrorists left the
territory of Kosovo and ambushed a Serbian police patrol using hand
grenades
and automatic weapons. The police patrol managed to return fire, killing
one
of the Albanian terrorists, Fatmir Idrisi, who according to police
sources,
is a member of the Kosovo protection Corps. All local roads in the area
have
been closed for security reasons.
KCNA 27/2/2000 --------------------------------
JOVANOVIC IN VISITA UFFICIALE IN COREA DEL NORD
Reception given for Yugoslav Foreign Minister
Pyongyang, February 27 (KCNA) -- The DPRK Foreign Ministry gave a
reception for the Foreign Minister of
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and his party on a visit to Korea at
the
Mansudae Assembly Hall yesterday.
DPRK Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun in his speech said that Korea
visit
of the Yugoslav Foreign Minister and
his party will mark a significant occasion in expanding and developing
the
excellent friendly relations between the
two peoples to a new higher stage.
Stressing that the friendly and cooperative relations between the
two
countries whose firm foundation was laid
by the great leader Kim Il Sung are now growing stronger and developing
under the particular care of the great
leader Kim Jong Il, he said:
The DPRK will, in the future, too, make every possible effort to
further consolidate and develop these
traditional relations in keeping with the demands of the present
developing
situation.
Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic in his speech said that
the
Yugoslav leadership and people highly
appreciate the DPRK leadership and people for having condemned the
interference, pressure and aggressive
maneuvers of foreign forces against Yugoslavia and supported it in the
United Nations and the non-aligned
movement.
He said that Yugoslavia expresses full support to the Korean people
in
their struggle to reunify the country
independently and peacefully, true to the ten-point programme of the
great
unity of the whole nation for national
reunification set forth by Kim Il Sung and the five-point policy of
great
national unity advanced by Kim Jong Il.
He expressed the belief that the relations between the two countries
would further expand and develop in
political, economic, cultural and other fields.
B92 28/2/2000 -------------------------------------
ALTRI 180 NOMI NELLE LISTE DI PROSCRIZIONE DELLA UE
EU adds 180 names to Yugoslav black list
BRUSSELS, Monday - The European Union foreign ministers today added
another
180 names to the list of Yugoslav residents banned from entering EU
member
countries. EU officials said that the list, which now consists of about
780
names, consisted of people who were part of, or supported, the regime of
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
The new list is remarkable for the inclusion of the names of 54 Yugoslav
judges, magistrates and prosecutors who have been prominent in the
vexatious
prosecution of the independent media and opposition politicians.
The ministers were also expected today to confirm the suspension of air
traffic sanctions against Yugoslavia. The procedure of formally lifting
the
sanctions was expected to take another two weeks.
UN AUTOBUS (PER FORTUNA VUOTO) SU DI UNA MINA
Serbian bus hits landmine in Kosovo
BELGRADE, Monday - A passenger bus was badly damaged when it hit a
landmine
in Kosovo this morning. The bus, belonging to the Raska transport firm
Jugoprevoz, was carrying no passengers at the time of the explosion. The
driver was unhurt by the blast which occurred when the rear of the bus
hit
the mine as it was leaving the northern zone of Kosovska Mitrovica. The
Commander of the French KFOR sector, General Pierre de Saqui de Sannes
described the incident as an act of blatant violence.
The Serb National Council described the attack on the bus as a terrorist
act,
claiming that the intention of the terrorists was to intimidate the Serb
population and ethnically cleanse the northern part of Kosovo. The
council
statement went on to say that it was no coincidence that the attack had
occurred on the same day that the Albanians were celebrating the
establishment of Albanian terrorist groups in Kosovo and making new
threats
against Serbs.
The London "Guardian" writes today that armed members of the
officially-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army wearing camouflage suits
were
attacking Serb police along the Kosovo-Serbia border in order to provoke
a
response from Serb security forces and consequently NATO intervention.
The
British paper quotes a US KFOR officer as saying that international
forces
would enter the territory of Serbia proper if there were atrocities. The
definition of that term was still being worked on, the US officer added.
IN DIECIMILA CELEBRANO LA LOTTA PER LA GRANDE ALBANIA
SOTTO GLI OCCHI (E LA PROTEZIONE) DELLA N.A.T.O.
Kosovo guerrillas celebrate second anniversary
PRISTINA, Monday - Members of the Kosovo Protection Corps today
celebrated
the second anniversary of the first major conflict between the Kosovo
Liberation Army and members of the Yugoslav security forces. The clash
occurred in the Drenica villages of Likosane and Ciriz. The Kosovo
Protection
Corps is largely made up of former members of the officially-disbanded
Kosovo
Liberation Army. Today's rally involved about 10,000 Albanians, none of
whom
carried arms or wore KLA uniforms. The Corps Commander Agim Ceku did not
attend the celebrations.
LA N.A.T.O. PRONTA A NUOVE MANOVRE
NATO exercises in Kosovo
BRUSSELS, Monday - About 2,000 troops will participate in NATO
manoeuvres in
Kosovo in March and April, NATO Supreme Command announced today. The
troops
are part of NATO's strategic reserve and the land command exercises
codenamed
"Dynamic Response 2000" would demonstrate NATO's resolution to maintain
a
safe environment for Kosovo and its citizens according to NATO's
statement.
The exercises will involve six countries, Argentina, Italy, Holland,
Poland,
Romania and the US.
B92 29/2/2000 -----------------------------------------
STEVAN MIRKOVIC: E' ORA CHE L'ESERCITO PRENDA IL POTERE
Former Army head calls for coup
BELGRADE, Tuesday - The Army should seize power, disband the government,
the
parliament and political parties, arrest Milo Djukanovic and eliminate
Slobodan Milosevic, former Yugoslav People's Army chief Stevan Mirkovic
said
today. Mirkovic told Belgrade daily Danas that if Milosevic had put the
army
on alert in order to expand his authority, it would be unproductive
because
the army would not dare enter a conflict with Montenegrin security
forces.
The former army chief added that he did not believe the army would step
outside its authority for the sake of one man's power but if it were
needed
to establish order and discipline in the country that would be something
else
altogether.
AFP 29/2/2000 -----------------------
GRANDE FEELING TRA TURCHIA ED ALBANIA
Turkey Promises To Help Albania Modernize Its Army
TIRANA, Feb 29, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Turkish Prime Minister
Bulent Ecevit said Monday his country plans to give Albania more than
$120 million dollars over the next four years to help modernize its
army.
Ecevit, speaking at a joint press conference with Albanian counterpart
Ilir Meta during a two-day visit to Tirana, said Turkey saw an
up-to-date Albanian military as an important element for peace and
stability in the Balkans.
Ankara has already earmarked $41 million for the Albanian defense force
and planned to double that amount between now and 2004, Ecevit said,
adding that the change would also have a positive impact on the economy
of Albania, considered the poorest country in Europe.
An uprising in Albania in 1997 resulted in army weapons depots being
pillaged and around one million arms are believed to be in circulation.
Large parts of the country remain lawless.
Turkey, as a member of NATO, took part in the NATO bombardment of
Yugoslavia which eventually forced Yugoslav troops to end their
operation against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and to pull out of the
Serbian province.
Albania shares a border with Kosovo to the north and both Albania and
Turkey have predominantly Muslim populations. ((c) 2000 Agence France
Presse)
REUTERS 29/2/2000 -------------------------------------
IL MINISTRO LAZIC DENUNCIA LO SPORCO GIOCO DEGLI U.S.A.
NELLA SERBIA MERIDIONALE
http://www.centraleurope.com/news.php3?id=138917
Serb Minister Sees US-Albanian Plot In South Serbia
BELGRADE, Feb 29, 2000 -- (Reuters) A Serbian minister
accused the United States and Kosovo Albanian
"terrorists" on Monday of planning to provoke conflict
in an Albanian-populated area of southern Serbia close
to Kosovo.
Djura Lazic, minister without portfolio, said recent
ethnic Albanian attacks in the region were part of a
plan to justify new NATO intervention and extend
Kosovo to this area of Serbia.
He said they were also designed to drive remaining
Serbs out of Kosovo, which is now under de facto
international rule.
"The aim is not only ethnic cleansing of Kosovo of
Serbs, Montenegrins, Gypsies, Gorans and other
non-Albanians but also provoking conflicts and the
fire of war in Bujanovac, Medvedja and Presevo," Lazic
told the official Tanjug news agency.
The three towns are in an area of Serbia just east of
Kosovo, still legally part of Yugoslavia.
Lazic also criticized NATO plans to hold a military
exercise in Kosovo in March, saying it would encourage
Albanian "terrorists" - the term used by Belgrade for
guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
NATO said in Brussels that it would send more than
2,000 troops to Kosovo next month for a training
exercise intended to show its resolve to keep the
peace.
Western diplomats and politicians have accused
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic of reinforcing
troops along the administrative border with Kosovo in
order to spread fear and drive out ethnic Albanians.
They have warned Belgrade the world will not tolerate
any attempt to destabilize the region further.
Belgrade says it is merely responding to "terrorism"
by Kosovo Albanians crossing the border.
On Sunday, Tanjug said a Serb policeman and an ethnic
Albanian guerrilla were killed in a shoot-out near
Bujanovac.
It said three other policemen were wounded after
"Albanian terrorists" crossed from Kosovo on Saturday
night and ambushed a police patrol with automatic
weapons and hand grenades.
Lazic said the aim of such attacks was to provoke Serb
police action and portray ethnic Albanians in the area
as being under threat, thus justifying new NATO
intervention.
Yugoslav forces withdrew from Kosovo last June after
11 weeks of NATO bombing to halt Belgrade's repression
of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.
Also on Monday, the Yugoslav army denied accusations
it was massing troops in the area east of Kosovo.
"The Third Army command denies and emphatically
rejects all criticism and accusations that it is
allegedly conducting preparatory and provocative
actions directed against international forces in
Kosovo," said a statement.
====================================================================
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 introdotte da un nostro titolo
in italiano per facilitarne la consultazione.
I brani provengono da fonti diverse:
KCNA - E' l'agenzia della Repubblica Popolare di Corea
ANSA - E' la principale agenzia di stampa italiana
YDS - e' la "Yugoslav Daily Survey" del Ministero degli Esteri della
RFJ (cfr. http://www.mfa.gov.yu/ ).
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 ***
SerbiaInfo - e' il bollettino del Ministero dell'Informazione della
Repubblica di Serbia: http://www.serbia-info.com
Tanjug - e' l'agenzia di stampa jugoslava: http://www.tanjug.co.yu
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/
------------------------------------------------------------
USA - AUSTRIA - THE NEDERLANDS -
iacenter@... wrote:
>
> AS THREAT OF NEW NATO BOMBING LOOMS,
> COMMEMORATION OF PAST WAR AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA
>
> IAC CALLS FOR COAST-TO-COAST DEMONSTRATIONS
> MARCH 24
>
> The International Action Center, a leading organization in the
> movement opposing the U.S./NATO war on Yugoslavia last spring,
> called for united actions condemning NATO's occupation of Kosovo in
> cities across the United States on the one-year anniversary of the start
> of NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign.
>
> “We also want to call to attention,” said Sara Flounders, a national
> coordinator of the IAC, “the growing threat of another U.S.-NATO
> military assault on Yugoslavia. On Feb. 17, Gen. Wesley Clark
> charged the Yugoslav government with rebuilding its military forces and
> with planning to go back into Kosovo. Gen. Clark, we remember, was
> not only the strategist behind the vicious bombing campaign, he
> almost opened up a war with the Russian forces outside Pristina in
> June. These charges can only be part of preparation of further NATO
> aggression against Yugoslavia.”
>
> That NATO bombing, which began on March 24, 1999, started the first major
> war in Europe since Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces in the spring
> of 1945. It ended after the death of close to 3,000 Yugoslavs, mostly civilians,
> and the destruction of much of the industry and infrastructure of Serbia. It
> also ended with the occupation of Serbia’s Kosovo province by U.S.,
> German, French, British, Canadian and other NATO troops and some Russian
> troops, an occupation that continues to this day.
>
> Flounders said the demonstrations would be coordinated with similar
> demonstrations, meetings and protests in Europe called by anti-war
> organizations in NATO countries there. She said she knew of protests
> planned in Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic and Greece and
> expected there would be many more.
>
> Flounders explained that the actions were meant “both to remember the day
> and to protest aggression by the U.S. and other NATO powers against a
> small country unable to defend itself from an attack from the skies by the
> world’s great military powers. We also want to stop the sanctions against
> Yugoslavia that are aimed at the entire population and that hurt children and
> seniors the most. And we want to condemn the continued illegal occupation
> of Kosovo by NATO forces."
>
> Last June 5 some 10,000 people marched on the Pentagon in response to a
> call by the IAC to oppose the attack on Yugoslavia.
>
> Since the occupation of Kosovo last June 10, the IAC has launched an
> investigation into “U.S./NATO war crimes” in the form of tribunal hearings
> around the U.S. and around the world. IAC founder and former U.S. Attorney
> General Ramsey Clark prepared and delivered a 19-count indictment last July
> 31 against U.S. President Bill Clinton and other U.S. and NATO political and
> military leaders responsible for the war against Yugoslavia. He charged them
> with crimes against peace, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
>
> “This 19-point indictment,” said Flounders, “has been used as an inspiration
> or a model by anti-war forces in the U.S., other NATO and even non-NATO
> Central and East European countries to hold mass public inquiries of
> U.S./NATO war crimes. These hearings are still going on in Europe through
> this spring.
>
> IAC TO HOLD INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL
>
> “The IAC plans on June 10 to hold a final hearing in New York, where a panel
> of prestigious international judges will rule on evidence presented and
> decide if the NATO leaders are indeed guilty of the crimes Ramsey Clark has
> charged them with,” said Flounders.
On the Anniversary of the
U.S./NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
THE WAR IS NOT OVER
U.S./NATO out of KOSOVO !!!
Hands off the Balkans and Eastern Europe!
Friday, March 24
Assembly and Rally
at 5 P.M.
Times Square, 43rd Street & Broadway,
in front of the Armed Forces Recruiting Station
followed by the March
on The New York Times
Called by the International Action Center, (212) 633-6646
(www.iacenter.org)
Memorial Service for the victims of
war and NATO occupation will be held after the march at the
St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral,
25th Street & Broadway - New York
---
Zum Jahrestag des Nato-Aggressionskrieges gegen Jugoslawien:
Nein zur Beistandspflicht, NATO und WEU!
*******************
24. März
18 h 30 Parlament
20 h Stephansplatz
*******************
Vor einem Jahr hat die NATO Jugoslawien unter dem Vorwand der
Menschenrechte
„humanitär“ angegriffen. Heute kann jeder sehen, dass die Aggression der
NATO viel mehr Opfer gefordert hat als der vom Westen angestachelte
Bürgerkrieg davor. Im nun von der NATO besetzten Kosovo werden alle
Minderheiten „ethnisch gesäubert“ – es passiert also genau das, was es
angeblich zu verhindern galt. Der Rassismus, der Jugoslawien vorgeworfen
wurde, wurde und wird nicht nur massiv von den NATO-Verbündeten in
Kroatien,
Bosnien um im Kosovo, sondern ist in Europa allgegenwärtig und durch
Schengen institutionalisiert. Abgesehen davon, dass die NATO und EU
anderswo, wie beispielsweise gegenüber den Kurden in der Türkei die
Menschenrechte systematisch mit Füßen treten, kann es ihnen daher auch
in
Jugoslawien kaum um Demokratie gegangen sein. Vielmehr wurde der Krieg
schicht und einfach um die Ausdehnung ihres Herrschaftsbereichs geführt
–
auch um den Preis eines mörderischen Krieges und einer
Wirtschaftsblockade,
die die jugoslawischen Völker ins Elend gestürzt haben.
Die damalige Regierung der Großen Koalition hat die Kriegsverbrechen der
NATO politisch und stillschweigend auch militärisch unterstützt. Sie war
gerade dabei, die österreichische Neutralität durch eine europäische
Beistandspflicht abzuschaffen.
Die neue Regierung aus ÖVP und FPÖ ist noch radikaler für die NATO und
will
dieser über ein „europäisches Sicherheitssystem“ bzw. die WEU, dem
europäischen Arm der NATO, beitreten, in der Hoffnung so das Volk
täuschen
zu können.
Um so paradoxer scheint es, dass sie von den „humanitären“
Kriegstreibern
der NATO nun selbst unter Beschuss kommt. Doch geht es der NATO in aller
erster Linie darum, das Prinzip der Intervention, der Einmischung in die
inneren Angelegenheiten anderer Länder mit politischen, wirtschaftlichen
und
militärischen Mitteln durchzusetzen. Ihre Weltherrschaft im Dienst der
Bereicherung einiger weniger internationaler Konzerne und Banken soll
als
demokratisch und antifaschistisch erscheinen. Der USA und EU ist es
vorerst
scheinbar wichtiger diese Maske aufrecht zu erhalten als Österreich
schnell
in die NATO aufzunehmen.
Wir haben gesehen, wohin die „humanitären“ Kriege im Irak und in
Jugoslawien
geführt haben – zum schleichenden Völkermord! Die neoliberale
Globalisierung
und ihre auf weltweite militärische Gewalt aufgebauten Neuen
Weltordnung,
deren Wachhund die NATO ist, zeichnet für die Verarmung nicht nur großer
Teile der Weltbevölkerung, sondern auch für den Sozialabbau und die
zunehmende soziale Ungerechtigkeit in Österreich verantwortlich.
Gleichzeitig dreht sich die Milliarden und Abermilliarden verschlingende
Rüstungsspirale immer schneller (Abfangjäger für Österreich und für die
USA
eine Raketenabwehr, die ihnen den atomaren Erstschlag ermöglichen soll).
Wenn wir die NATO nicht stoppen, so wird sie uns in einen neuen
furchtbaren
Weltkrieg führen!
Für den Erhalt der Neutralität – Volksabstimmung jetzt sofort!
Nein zur neoliberalen Globalisierung und zum Interventionismus –
die Völker sollen über sich selbst bestimmen!
****************************
Jugoslawisch-Österreichische Solidaritätsbewegung (JÖSB)
PF 217, A-1040 Wien, Österreich
joesb@...
---
-----Original Message-----
From: Herman de Tollenaere <hermantl@...>
To: office@... <office@...>
Date: Monday, February 28, 2000 2:35 PM
Subject: DEMO The Hague 24 March: one year NATO war against Yugoslavia
>There will be a big demonstration in The Hague, The Netherlands, on Friday
>24 March, by the Balkan Peace Coalition. It is to mark the start, one year
>ago, of NATO's war against Yugoslavia. This is part of a world wide
>movement to remember the victims, help stop continuing violence in Kosovo,
>and prevent more war.
>
>The demonstration starts at 12.30, at the Malieveld near The Hague's
>Central railway station.
>
>More information: Balkan Vredescoalitie, Sloterkade 20, 1058 HE Amsterdam.
>Phone: +20-6151122
>Internet: http://www.geocities.com/vrede_nl
>e-mail: office@...
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
iacenter@... wrote:
>
> AS THREAT OF NEW NATO BOMBING LOOMS,
> COMMEMORATION OF PAST WAR AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA
>
> IAC CALLS FOR COAST-TO-COAST DEMONSTRATIONS
> MARCH 24
>
> The International Action Center, a leading organization in the
> movement opposing the U.S./NATO war on Yugoslavia last spring,
> called for united actions condemning NATO's occupation of Kosovo in
> cities across the United States on the one-year anniversary of the start
> of NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign.
>
> “We also want to call to attention,” said Sara Flounders, a national
> coordinator of the IAC, “the growing threat of another U.S.-NATO
> military assault on Yugoslavia. On Feb. 17, Gen. Wesley Clark
> charged the Yugoslav government with rebuilding its military forces and
> with planning to go back into Kosovo. Gen. Clark, we remember, was
> not only the strategist behind the vicious bombing campaign, he
> almost opened up a war with the Russian forces outside Pristina in
> June. These charges can only be part of preparation of further NATO
> aggression against Yugoslavia.”
>
> That NATO bombing, which began on March 24, 1999, started the first major
> war in Europe since Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces in the spring
> of 1945. It ended after the death of close to 3,000 Yugoslavs, mostly civilians,
> and the destruction of much of the industry and infrastructure of Serbia. It
> also ended with the occupation of Serbia’s Kosovo province by U.S.,
> German, French, British, Canadian and other NATO troops and some Russian
> troops, an occupation that continues to this day.
>
> Flounders said the demonstrations would be coordinated with similar
> demonstrations, meetings and protests in Europe called by anti-war
> organizations in NATO countries there. She said she knew of protests
> planned in Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic and Greece and
> expected there would be many more.
>
> Flounders explained that the actions were meant “both to remember the day
> and to protest aggression by the U.S. and other NATO powers against a
> small country unable to defend itself from an attack from the skies by the
> world’s great military powers. We also want to stop the sanctions against
> Yugoslavia that are aimed at the entire population and that hurt children and
> seniors the most. And we want to condemn the continued illegal occupation
> of Kosovo by NATO forces."
>
> Last June 5 some 10,000 people marched on the Pentagon in response to a
> call by the IAC to oppose the attack on Yugoslavia.
>
> Since the occupation of Kosovo last June 10, the IAC has launched an
> investigation into “U.S./NATO war crimes” in the form of tribunal hearings
> around the U.S. and around the world. IAC founder and former U.S. Attorney
> General Ramsey Clark prepared and delivered a 19-count indictment last July
> 31 against U.S. President Bill Clinton and other U.S. and NATO political and
> military leaders responsible for the war against Yugoslavia. He charged them
> with crimes against peace, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
>
> “This 19-point indictment,” said Flounders, “has been used as an inspiration
> or a model by anti-war forces in the U.S., other NATO and even non-NATO
> Central and East European countries to hold mass public inquiries of
> U.S./NATO war crimes. These hearings are still going on in Europe through
> this spring.
>
> IAC TO HOLD INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL
>
> “The IAC plans on June 10 to hold a final hearing in New York, where a panel
> of prestigious international judges will rule on evidence presented and
> decide if the NATO leaders are indeed guilty of the crimes Ramsey Clark has
> charged them with,” said Flounders.
On the Anniversary of the
U.S./NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
THE WAR IS NOT OVER
U.S./NATO out of KOSOVO !!!
Hands off the Balkans and Eastern Europe!
Friday, March 24
Assembly and Rally
at 5 P.M.
Times Square, 43rd Street & Broadway,
in front of the Armed Forces Recruiting Station
followed by the March
on The New York Times
Called by the International Action Center, (212) 633-6646
(www.iacenter.org)
Memorial Service for the victims of
war and NATO occupation will be held after the march at the
St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral,
25th Street & Broadway - New York
---
Zum Jahrestag des Nato-Aggressionskrieges gegen Jugoslawien:
Nein zur Beistandspflicht, NATO und WEU!
*******************
24. März
18 h 30 Parlament
20 h Stephansplatz
*******************
Vor einem Jahr hat die NATO Jugoslawien unter dem Vorwand der
Menschenrechte
„humanitär“ angegriffen. Heute kann jeder sehen, dass die Aggression der
NATO viel mehr Opfer gefordert hat als der vom Westen angestachelte
Bürgerkrieg davor. Im nun von der NATO besetzten Kosovo werden alle
Minderheiten „ethnisch gesäubert“ – es passiert also genau das, was es
angeblich zu verhindern galt. Der Rassismus, der Jugoslawien vorgeworfen
wurde, wurde und wird nicht nur massiv von den NATO-Verbündeten in
Kroatien,
Bosnien um im Kosovo, sondern ist in Europa allgegenwärtig und durch
Schengen institutionalisiert. Abgesehen davon, dass die NATO und EU
anderswo, wie beispielsweise gegenüber den Kurden in der Türkei die
Menschenrechte systematisch mit Füßen treten, kann es ihnen daher auch
in
Jugoslawien kaum um Demokratie gegangen sein. Vielmehr wurde der Krieg
schicht und einfach um die Ausdehnung ihres Herrschaftsbereichs geführt
–
auch um den Preis eines mörderischen Krieges und einer
Wirtschaftsblockade,
die die jugoslawischen Völker ins Elend gestürzt haben.
Die damalige Regierung der Großen Koalition hat die Kriegsverbrechen der
NATO politisch und stillschweigend auch militärisch unterstützt. Sie war
gerade dabei, die österreichische Neutralität durch eine europäische
Beistandspflicht abzuschaffen.
Die neue Regierung aus ÖVP und FPÖ ist noch radikaler für die NATO und
will
dieser über ein „europäisches Sicherheitssystem“ bzw. die WEU, dem
europäischen Arm der NATO, beitreten, in der Hoffnung so das Volk
täuschen
zu können.
Um so paradoxer scheint es, dass sie von den „humanitären“
Kriegstreibern
der NATO nun selbst unter Beschuss kommt. Doch geht es der NATO in aller
erster Linie darum, das Prinzip der Intervention, der Einmischung in die
inneren Angelegenheiten anderer Länder mit politischen, wirtschaftlichen
und
militärischen Mitteln durchzusetzen. Ihre Weltherrschaft im Dienst der
Bereicherung einiger weniger internationaler Konzerne und Banken soll
als
demokratisch und antifaschistisch erscheinen. Der USA und EU ist es
vorerst
scheinbar wichtiger diese Maske aufrecht zu erhalten als Österreich
schnell
in die NATO aufzunehmen.
Wir haben gesehen, wohin die „humanitären“ Kriege im Irak und in
Jugoslawien
geführt haben – zum schleichenden Völkermord! Die neoliberale
Globalisierung
und ihre auf weltweite militärische Gewalt aufgebauten Neuen
Weltordnung,
deren Wachhund die NATO ist, zeichnet für die Verarmung nicht nur großer
Teile der Weltbevölkerung, sondern auch für den Sozialabbau und die
zunehmende soziale Ungerechtigkeit in Österreich verantwortlich.
Gleichzeitig dreht sich die Milliarden und Abermilliarden verschlingende
Rüstungsspirale immer schneller (Abfangjäger für Österreich und für die
USA
eine Raketenabwehr, die ihnen den atomaren Erstschlag ermöglichen soll).
Wenn wir die NATO nicht stoppen, so wird sie uns in einen neuen
furchtbaren
Weltkrieg führen!
Für den Erhalt der Neutralität – Volksabstimmung jetzt sofort!
Nein zur neoliberalen Globalisierung und zum Interventionismus –
die Völker sollen über sich selbst bestimmen!
****************************
Jugoslawisch-Österreichische Solidaritätsbewegung (JÖSB)
PF 217, A-1040 Wien, Österreich
joesb@...
---
-----Original Message-----
From: Herman de Tollenaere <hermantl@...>
To: office@... <office@...>
Date: Monday, February 28, 2000 2:35 PM
Subject: DEMO The Hague 24 March: one year NATO war against Yugoslavia
>There will be a big demonstration in The Hague, The Netherlands, on Friday
>24 March, by the Balkan Peace Coalition. It is to mark the start, one year
>ago, of NATO's war against Yugoslavia. This is part of a world wide
>movement to remember the victims, help stop continuing violence in Kosovo,
>and prevent more war.
>
>The demonstration starts at 12.30, at the Malieveld near The Hague's
>Central railway station.
>
>More information: Balkan Vredescoalitie, Sloterkade 20, 1058 HE Amsterdam.
>Phone: +20-6151122
>Internet: http://www.geocities.com/vrede_nl
>e-mail: office@...
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
L'AUTORE:
Knut Krusewitz, della Technische Universitaet di Berlino, docente di
Pianificazione ambientale e autore di una delle relazioni più rigorose e
intelligenti sul tema dei bombardamenti nei Balcani (industrie chimiche
e uranio), pubblicata da 'Il Manifesto' del 4.1.2000 p. 10.
(http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Chateau/9161/comitato/krusewitz.html)
10 novembre 1999
traduzione: 20 novembre 1999
Versione integrale
*** N.A.T.O.: condotta di guerra e conseguenze ambientali ***
1. Proposizione del problema.
La domanda che deve porsi dal punto di vista delle scienze ambientali e'
quali metodi bellici e quali mezzi la NATO abbia utilizzato durante la
sua
Operation Allied Force e quali danni essa abbia causato all'ambiente
naturale e sociale. La domanda deve essere posta in quanto sussiste il
fondato sospetto che l'alleanza bellica contro la Jugoslavia abbia
urtato i
principi e le norme del Trattato sul divieto di guerra ecologica e
contro il
divieto di danneggiamento ambientale prescritto dal diritto
internazionale
umanitario.
Le relative prescrizioni del diritto internazionale bellico includono in
primo luogo l'intenzionale danneggiamento dell'ambiente nell'ambito
della
condotta bellica.
Inoltre esse si applicano anche ai danni collaterali, se questi
conducono a
conseguenze dannose gravi, estese e durature, e percio' portano con se'
un
perturbamento significativo della vita umana, delle risorse naturali ed
economiche.
In questo caso sarebbe rilevante non solo dal punto di vista ambientale,
ma
anche di quello del diritto internazionale poter provare che l'Alleanza
abbia fatto uso nell'ambito della sua condotta bellica di metodi e mezzi
che
dal punto di vista ambientale erano mirati o da cui ci si doveva
aspettare
che essi causassero danni ambientali persistenti di simile entita'. Si
tratterebbe allora di gravi violazioni delle leggi e consuetudini
belliche,
che potrebbero essere punite come crimini di guerra.
Su questo sfondo e' divenuta un argomento di dibattito internazionale la
questione se il bilancio ambientale della guerra consenta la conclusione
che
la NATO abbia effettivamente condotto una guerra ecologica contro la
Jugoslavia. Con il mio contributo io cerco di dare un apporto al
chiarimento
di questa controversia. A questo fine e' necessario innanzitutto
trattare dei
danni ambientali nel teatro di guerra; infine cerchero' di ordinare e
valutare questi danni secondo il diritto internazionale.
2. Come si comunicano e valutano i danni ambientali di guerra?
2.1. Per la critica del concetto dell'UNEP.
Gia' durante la guerra, ancor prima che vi fosse il primo bilancio
empirico
dei danni ambientali, il direttore esecutivo del Programma Ambientale
delle
Nazioni Unite (ingl.: United Nations Environmental Programme: UNEP),
l'ex
ministro dell'ambiente Klaus Toepfer (cristiano-democratico), riferi'
che la
guerra non aveva causato alcuna catastrofe ecologica.
L'11 maggio 1999 costui rese nota la costituzione di una Balkan Task
Force
(BTF), un gruppo di lavoro speciale per l'ambiente nell'area di guerra.
Esso
avrebbe dovuto "raccogliere e confrontare informazioni credibili sulle
conseguenze ambientali della crisi del Kossovo" (Haavisto, 1999), al
fine di
togliere fondamento a "speculazioni su una catastrofe ecologica dovuta
alla
guerra del Kossovo" (Sueddeutsche Zeitung, (a), 1999, p. 7). Infatti a
Toepfer
non interessavano speculazioni, ma cose concrete. La sua BTF doveva
raccogliere per tempo determinate informazioni ambientali, con cui la
NATO
potesse eventualmente provare di aver condotto una guerra conforme a
diritto
internazionale. Mentre Toepfer strumentalizzava l'UNEP e la BTF, rendeva
ogni
dichiarazione sul significato ecologico della guerra un argomento
ambientale
e di politica militare, ma soprattutto di diritto internazionale dalla
forza
dirompente.
Dall'UNEP-BTF si pretese una prestazione apologetica, che strutturo' il
rapporto interno tra incarico di indagare, metodo d'indagine e risultato
dell'indagine. A causa della preponderante funzione discolpatoria del
rapporto finale dell'UNEP e' giocoforza contrapporvi una critica sui
metodi.
2.2.1. Incarico di indagine:
Toepfer conferi' al BTF solo un incarico di indagine tecnicamente
ristretto,
che non doveva mettere in luce ne' gli aspetti militari, ne' di
giusinternazionalistici, ne' sociali del problema ambientale. L'incarico
di
indagine non riguardava quindi la questione, evidente dal punto di vista
ecologico e sollevabile dal punto di vista del diritto internazionale,
della
concatenazione tra metodi di condotta della guerra NATO e i danni
ambientali
che ne sono derivati nella regione dei Balcani.
Pekka Haavisto, direttore di questa technical mission, formulo' poi
questo
equivoco concetto di indagine in un programma di valutazione
apparentemente
obiettivo: "L'incarico viene suddiviso tra cinque gruppi tematici: 1.
Stima
dei danni ambientali derivanti dagli impianti industriali distrutti; 2.
Danubio; 3. Conseguenze della guerra sulle risorse naturali; 4. Effetti
a
lungo termine della guerra sulla salute degli uomini e sull'ambiente; 5.
Insediamenti umani." (Haavisto, ibid.).
Al contrario di quanto annunciato la BTF non si occupo' in loco degli
"effetti a lungo termine della crisi sulla salute umana e
sull'ambiente".
Cio' potrebbe essere effettuato da uno studio di lungo periodo ordinato
di
recente dalla Commissione Europea. Il suo titolo: "Valutazione accurata
degli influssi sull'ambiente della guerra in Jugoslavia" (Commissione
Europea, 1999). Il suo rapporto finale verra' in essere tuttavia solo
nell'
autunno del 2000. Il Gruppo di lavoro UNEP ha tentato nonostante cio' di
valutare la contaminazione dell'ambiente dovuta al munizionamento
all'uranio
impoverito (depleted uranium: DU). Esso fu costretto a convocare un
Depleted
Uranium Desk Asessment Group (che si riuniva a Ginevra), giacche' la
NATO si
era rifiutata di fornire indicazioni sulla quantita' di armi DU
impiegate e
sui loro bersagli.
2.2.2. Metodo di indagine:
La direttiva politica del direttore UNEP propizio' presso la BTF una
percezione specifica delle conseguenze ecologiche della guerra, che
rimase
quindi allineata non a riflessioni di natura obiettiva, quanto piuttosto
di
natura opportunistica. Dal momento in cui la BTF accetto' acriticamente
la
direttiva extrascientifica del suo committente politico, ando' perfino
ad
oscurare quegli ambiti di realta' scientificamente considerevoli, che un
resoconto obiettivo avrebbe sicuramente resi parte costitutiva di
un'analisi
e valutazione imparziale.
La BTF concepi' il suo programma d'indagine in modo tale da relegare in
un
novero di dati extrascientifico la connessione tematica tra condotta
bellica
NATO, scelta dei mezzi bellici e danni ambientali da esse provocati.
Solo in
questo modo essa poteva considerare i gravi danni della guerra
all'ambiente
naturale e sociale come meri danni collaterali, a guisa di "incidenti
sul
lavoro" di guerra.
2.2.3. Risultati dell'indagine.
Non pare aver minimamente disturbato la BTF il dover presentare un
rapporto
il cui riusultato era gia' stabilito prima che si esaminasse la prima
misurazione dei danni in loco, premessa irrinunciabile della valutazione
tecnica dei danni ambientali di guerra.
Nonostante -od a causa- dell'immunizzazione politicamente stabilita
della
realta' e della connessa minimizzazione del problema la BTF trovo' prove
sul
fatto che la Nato aveva ripetutamente causato consistenti danni
ambientali
in quattro localita', cioe' Pancevo, Kragujevac, Novi Sad e Bor.
I risultati delle loro indagini furono banali, giacche' essi
confermarono
soltanto cio' che esperti ed esperte di disastri sapevano gia' in
precedenza:
chi distrugge militarmente complessi industriali - installazioni
petrolchimiche, raffinerie, depositi di carburante, centrali elettriche,
fabbriche di munizioni, di fertilizzanti, ed impianti chimici - libera
con
cio' sostanze nocive all'ambiente ed alla salute, che naturalmente si
depositano anche nelle vicinanze degli impianti bombardati. Ma certo non
solo li', giacche' esse si diffondono a grande distanza con le termiche,
i
venti, il ciclo delle acque.
La BTF trascuro' deliberatamente questo importante dato di fatto
ecologico,
nonostante allora le fossero noti i risultati delle misurazioni al
riguardo
eseguite dal Dipartimento di Tecniche Ambientali dell'Universita'
Demokritos
di Xanthi (Tracia) (Rapsomanikis, 1999 pag. 1-4; Sueddeutsche Zeitung,
(b)
1999, pag. 5).
Ergo: il concetto metodico dell'UNEP-BTF non era minimamente idoneo all'
elaborazione di un bilancio dei danni ambientali che sarebbe bastato
alla
loro stessa pretesa di presentare "un rapporto completo che sia
neutrale,
obiettivo e scientificamente credibile" (Haavisto, ibid.). Percio' la
parte
empirica del rapporto UNEP contribuiva ben poco al chiarimento del
quesito
qui trattato, se la NATO abbia o meno condotto una guerra ecologica.
2.3. Problematica della pianificazione ambientale.
Le guerre mondiali e le successive forme della "moderna" condotta di
guerra
hanno causato danni non soltanto all'ambiente naturale, ma anche a
quello
sociale (Krusewitz, 1985; idem, 1999, pag. 5-7). Compito di una scienza
ambientale illuministica e' percio' rilevare e valutare non solo i
"danni
collaterali ecologici", effetti primari della guerra, alla qual cosa si
e'
limitata essenzialmente la UNEP-BTF, ma anche i suoi effetti secondari e
terziari. Se la guerra contro la Jugoslavia abbia in effetti causato
soltanto danni collaterali all'ambiente naturale, o se non abbia
prodotto
piuttosto pregiudizi macroscopici, duraturi e gravi all'ambiente
naturale e
sociale, puo' giudicarsi solo se si esaminano i suoi effetti primari,
secondari e terziari. A questo fine utilizzo un metodo di ricerca che ho
sviluppato nell'analisi delle guerre moderne.
2.3.1. Effetti primari.
Quali metodi e mezzi di condotta bellica ha scelto la NATO? Quali armi
vi ha
impiegato? Quali sostanze tossiche/cancerogene/radioattive sono finite
nell'
ambiente, da quali sorgenti provenivano, in quali quantita' cio' e'
accaduto e
come si sono diffuse nello spazio? Quali danni si possono documentare
nella
biosfera (nel bilancio naturale regionale), nei paesaggi culturali, nei
territori protetti, nei territori di ricreazione, come pure nelle
regioni-modello internazionali (riserve della biosfera dell'UNESCO)?
Con riguardo agli effetti primari della guerra si conosce qualche cosa
rispetto ai danni ambientali di limitata estensione, ma poco riguardo a
quelli di ampio raggio. Dati primari sono stati rilevati soprattutto
presso
i siti industriali bombardati.
Sono stati aggrediti e distrutti da attacchi con bombe o missili oltre
20
impianti che contenevano sostanze e/o energie pericolose come:
- Raffinerie di petrolio, oleodotti, depositi di carburante, stazioni di
carico;
- Impianti industriali chimici e farmaceutici;
- Fabbriche di ammoniaca, fertilizzanti e fitofarmaci.
Con cio' sono state liberate in un'area considerevole sostanze
cancerogene,
tossiche ed ecotossiche. Finora tali inquinanti sono stati misurati e
segnalati nelle seguenti localita' (Stephan/Strobel/Klass, 1999; FOCUS,
1999;
Tehnokratia, 1999; UNEP/UNCHS, 1999):
Pancevo: 1,2 dicloroetano (ECD), cloruro di vinile monomero (VCM),
diossina,
furani, fosgene, benzo(a')pirene, ammoniaca, bifenili policlorati
(PCBs),
mercurio, anidride solforosa, ossido d'azoto, fuliggine, fumo;
Kragujevac: PCBs, diossina, furani, benzolo, toluolo, tetracloroetilene,
tricloroetano, rame, zinco, cobalto;
Novi Sad: PCBs, c-esano, idrocarburi liquidi, anidride solforosa,
piombo,
mercurio, fuliggine, fumo;
Bor: PCBs, rame, arsenico, cadmio, piombo, zinco;
Kraljevo: idrocarburi liquidi, gasolio, toluolo, benzolo;
Nis: idrocarburi liquidi, PCBs, diossina;
Novi Beograd: idrocarburi liquidi, benzina;
Smederova: fuliggine, fumo, PCK, idrocarburi liquidi;
Cacak: metalli pesanti.
Questi gli effetti primari della guerra. E' incontestabile che la
Operation
Allied Force ha danneggiato notevolmente l'ambiente naturale nei
dintorni
dei complessi industriali distrutti, e con cio' ha compromesso la salute
della popolazione. E' tuttavia controverso se i danni all'ambiente siano
solo
notevoli o non piuttosto gravi, estese e durature. Su cio' ritornero'
nella
sezione dedicata alla valutazione della condotta di guerra secondo il
diritto internazionale.
2.3.2. Effetti secondari.
Come agiscono tali inquinanti e tali danni ambientali su uomini, salute,
agricoltura, forestazione, risorse acquee, aree protette,
regioni-modello,
approvigionamento idrico, infrastrutture del traffico, ed insediamenti?
Quali tendenze seguono nel corso del tempo le concentrazioni degli
inquinanti e quali ne sono i motivi? Si devono adottare misure di
emergenza
in aree ad alto rischio (per es. presso le fabbriche chimiche
distrutte)?
Quali procedure tecniche devono essere messe in atto per la diminuzione
o l'
eliminazione dei danni? Le discariche militari sono riconoscibili e da
risanare? Puo' essere ripristinato lo status quo ante ecologico?
In questo momento nella Repubblica Jugoslava sono stati rilevati solo
pochi
dati riguardanti gli effetti secondari. Cio' per motivi di politica
interna,
per le sanzioni, per motivi strutturali, ma anche per motivi legati alle
tecniche di misurazione ambientale, di cui non ci si occupa piu'
dettagliatamente.
Tuttavia, nel caso dei complessi industriali bombardati a Pancevo, si
puo'
esporre in modo esemplare il nesso causale tra effetti sull'ambiente
della
condotta bellica NATO primari e secondari. La NATO attacca piu' volte
con
missili (Cruise Missiles) la localita' industriale Pancevo - un
complesso di
stabilimenti petrolchimici, raffinerie di idrocarburi, fabbriche di
fertilizzanti, impianti di cloruro di vinile monomero ed etilene - e lo
distrugge insieme con i suoi grandi depositi.
Le sostanze tossiche da cio' sprigionate formavano ad ogni attacco nubi
tossiche, che contenevano di volta in volta miscugli corrosivi di ECD,
cloruro di vinile monomero (VCM), diossine, fosgene, anidride solforosa,
ossidi di azoto, benzo(a')pirene ed ammoniaca.
In alcune notti di bombardamento le concentrazioni di veleni erano
altrettanto alte che dopo un grande attacco con armi chimiche. La
popolazione e' stata ripetutamente esposta, in quasi tutti i casi
indifesa, a
queste sostanze tossiche.
Percio' i danni alla salute "si mostreranno in parte soltanto fra molti
anni"
(Stephan, 1999, pag. 42).
2.3.3. Effetti terziari.
Quali costi per l'economia nazionale sorgeranno dai programmi di
ricostruzione e risanamento? Chi li finanziera'? Come agiranno le
conseguenze
della guerra sul mercato e sulle condizioni del lavoro? Come i costi
naturali e sociali della guerra cambieranno lo standard di vita, le
condizioni culturali ed educative della societa'? Le opzioni di sviluppo
economiche, politiche ed internazionale delle parti in conflitto sono
ragguardevolmente limitate? I danni economici sono percio' significativi
dal
punto di vista della pianificazione ambientale, poiche' le loro
dimensioni
decidono se, e, se si', sotto quali condizioni, si potranno sostenere i
costi
ambientali naturali e sociali della guerra.
I tre settori-chiave dell'industria jugoslava, chimico, energetico,
metallurgico sono stati gravemente danneggiati. La petrolchimica, il
ramo
industriale piu' redditizio del paese, e' quasi completamente distrutto,
con
nefaste ed incalcolabili conseguenze ecologiche, il moderno impianto
chimico
Petrohemija di Pancevo e' stato raso al suolo.
Altrettanto distrutte sono entrambe le fabbriche di fertilizzanti di
Novi
Sad e Pancevo. Cio' significa "un'ipoteca particolarmente pesante per il
futuro. La Jugoslavia e' un paese agricolo, ed e' sopravvissuta agli
anni dell
'isolamento solo della propria produzione alimentare. Negli anni scorsi
la
quota dell'agricoltura nel prodotto interno lordo e' salita dal 35 a
quasi il
50%" (Israel, 1999, pag. 8).
A Pancevo si trovavano anche le maggiori raffinerie della Jugoslavia,
che
ora sono ridotte in macerie. L'economia energetica e' il secondo settore
economico fondamentale che e' stato duramente danneggiato dalla guerra.
"Nel
settore-chiave della metallurgia gli stabilimenti del gruppo Zastava,
soprattutto a Kragujevac, sono stati largamente distrutti. 120 imprese
fornitrici dipendono da questo complesso industriale automobilistico"
(Spiegel, 1999, pag. 153).
Un primo bilancio degli effetti terziari nell'economia nazionale
presenta,
secondo l'inventario di un economista jugoslavo, il seguente quadro: "A
causa della guerra e delle sue conseguenze la produzione industriale
nella
Repubblica Federale Jugoslava, confrontata coll'anno precedente, calera'
del
44,4% [...]. Il prodotto interno lordo dovrebbe affondare del 40,7%, l'
impotr-export di oltre il 50%, la disoccupazione dovrebbe salire al
32,6%"
(Sueddeutsche Zeitung, 1999, pag. 25).
3. Valutazione dei danni ambientali secondo il diritto internazionale
bellico.
Alla spiegazione della questione, se la NATO abbia condotto una guerra
ecologica contro la Jugoslavia contribuisce il diritto internazionale
bellico. Le norme ed i principi relativi si trovano:
-nell'accordo sul divieto dell'uso militare o comunque ostile di
tecniche
che alterino l'ambiente, unitamente all'appendice e intesa del 18 maggio
1977 - accordo sul divieto di guerra ecologica, ingl.: Environmental
Mpodification Convention, citato come ENMOD-Convention (Fahl, 1980,
pagg.
136-143), e
- nel 39o protocollo aggiuntivo dell'8 giugno 1977 alla Convenzione di
Ginevra del 12 agosto 1949 sulla protezione delle vittime dei conflitti
armati -citato come PA I- (Randelzhofer, 1999, pagg. 569-617).
In base all'esperienza della condotta bellica USA in Vietnam l'ONU varo'
nel
1977 la ENMOD-Convention; la Repubblica Federale Tedesca la ratifico'
nel
1983.
Secondo l'art. I dell'accordo e' vietato l'uso "di tecniche che alterino
l'
ambiente che producano effetti gravi, estesi e duraturi" come mezzo di
condotta bellica. "Il bersaglio e' dunque l'uso delle cosiddette
environmental modification techniques come strumenti militari, cioe' il
mirato abuso dell'ambiente come arma" (Oeter, 1994, pag. 98). Ogni
"manipolazione" militare "dei processi naturali" (art. II) e' pertanto
interdetta.
Le Intese (Understandings) sugli articoli I e II stabiliscono che si
intende
"esteso" un ambito di varie centinaia di chilometri quadrati; per
"duraturi"
s'intendono danni militari che si prolungano per vari mesi (circa una
stagione), e "grave" e' un effetto che porta con se' disturbi seri e
significativi alla vita umana, alle risorse economiche e naturali e ad
altri
beni.
Se viene violato uno di questi limiti, entra in gioco il divieto
dell'ENMOD.
Con l'art. 35, sez. 3, PA I e le norme complementari dell'art. 55 nello
stesso Protocollo Aggiuntivo e' stato "introdotto un assoluto divieto di
danni ambientali persistenti nel diritto internazionale umanitario"
(Oeter,
ibid.).
Se e' chiaro o presumibile che si pervenga a danni ambientali gravi,
estesi e
duraturi, anche l'impiego di tali mezzi e metodi dannosi per l'ambiente
non
e' piu' ammissibile, nemmeno se asseritamente necessario dal punto di
vista
militare.
Arrecare consapevolmente od accettare semplicemente il rischio di creare
danni gravi e persistenti all'ambiente sono coomportamenti con cio'
pienamente considerati nell'ambito della condotta bellica.
Le norme del protocollo aggiuntivo I superano in p'rincipio il divieto
della
ENMOD. Non vi sono solo compresi l'intenzionale danneggiamento
dell'ambiente
nell'ambito della condotta bellica (come nel caso della convenzione sul
divieto di guerra ecologica), ... ... ... ... danni collaterali" (Oeter,
ibid.).
Poiche' ogni condotta bellica causa notevoli danni collaterali
all'ambiente,
la questione sulle disposizioni limitative della guerra nel Protocollo
Aggiuntivo I non e' soltanto di prevalente interesse militare, ma anche
di
interesse per la pace.
"La Conferenza Diplomatica ha percio' utilizzato i concetti-soglia
esteso,
duraturo e grave impiegati analogamente alla ENMOD, non ugualmente in
modo
alternativo (come per la ENMOD) ma in modo cumulativo. Solo i danni
collaterali coinvolgenti grandi superfici, che contemporaneamente
persistono
per lunghi lassi di tempo e che inoltre comportano gravi pregiudizi per
l'
ambiente, sono compresi dai divieti dell'art. 35, 3o co., e 55 del PA I
(Oeter, loc. cit. pag. 99).
4. Applicazione dei criteri di valutazione giusinternazionalistici alla
condotta bellica della N.A.T.O.
Si ammette qui che una complessiva, sistematica analisi dei dati
rilevanti
dal punto di vista ambientale, se fosse in effetti possibile, non e'
stata
fino a questo momento (ottobre 2999) ancora fornita.
Tuttavia le informazioni introdotte nei dati sono sufficienti ad
ottenere
istruttivi risultati sul nesso causale tra condotta bellica e
conseguenze
ambientali; conformemente a cio' determinati effetti primari, secondari
e
terziari sono duraturi, si presentano in modo esteso, ed indicano danni
gravi all'ambiente naturale, dai quali la salute della popolazione e'
considerevolmente minacciata.
4.1. Danni ambientali duraturi.
Violazioni delle disposizioni delle intese relative all'art. I, II della
ENMOD-Convention in relazione con l'art. 35, sez. 3, art. 55, sez. 1, PA
I.
Al contrario dell'impressione comunicata dal Gruppo di lavoro dell'UNEP,
raccolta dei dati e valutazione della pericolosita' dei danni ambientali
si
mostrano complicate, poiche' con la distruzione dei complessi
industriali si
sono formate contaminazioni miste di varie sostanze. "L'effetto dell'
interazione di tali miscugli di inquinanti nel sottosuolo e' assai
difficilmente valutabile ed ancora poco studiato". (UBA, 1999, pag. 9).
"Sicuramente dal cio' che resta dalla distruzione di discariche
industriali
derivera' nelle regioni colpite una minaccia per gli esseri umani che
agira'
ben oltre la fine della guerra.
Questo giudizio prognostico e' stato confermato dall'Ufficio per le
sostanze
pericolose (Halle) e dall'Oko-Control (Dessau) nel caso di Opovo: "Near
Opovo, forest damage which suggests contamination by fumes was clearly
perceptible. [...] Crop losses (probably over a period of several years)
should be taken in account, as well as a detrimental impact upon the
natural
fauna and flora" (Stephan/Strobel/Klass, loc. cit., pag. 54).
4.2. Danni ambientali estesi.
Violazioni delle disposizioni delle intese sugli artt. I e II della
ENMOD-Convention in relazione con l'art. 35, sez. 3, ed art. 55, sez. I,
PA
I.
Inoltre la minaccia si estende largamente oltre le regioni colpite. Due
prove empiriche al riguardo:
-"The results from Pancevo (including Opovo) and Novi Sad show that the
chemical consequences of the war are not limited to local effects but
are of
at least regional impact, and since they also effect the Danube they
could
have also trans-border impacts" (Stephan/Strobel/Klass, loc. cit., pag.
54).
-"Between March 24 and June 10, 1999 a large number of chemicals were
ejected in the atmosphere because of air strikes in chemical industries
and
oil storage facilities in former Yugoslavia. Chemicals released in the
atmosphere under suitable meteorological conditions can be transported
across borders to large distances. The releases contain not only
conventionel air pollutants but also semi-volatile organic compounds
(SVOs)
which include dioxins, furans, PCBs, PAHs and organic phthalates, all
known
to be hazardous to health" (FOCUS, 1999).
Resta da chiarire come mai soltanto istituti ecologici greci abbiano
misurato la diffusione di inquinanti su spazi estesi in Europa.
4.3. Danni ambientali gravi.
Violazioni delle disposizioni nelle intese relative agli artt. I, II
della
ENMOD-Convention in relazione agli artt. 35, sez. 3; 54, sez. 2, 55 sez.
1,
PA I.
L'Ufficio Federale dell'Ambiente (Umweltbundesamt: UBA) gia' il 5 maggio
1999
avvisava che per le conseguenze ambientali della guerra un "uso civile
di
larga parte di queste regioni non sara' possibile per la minaccia alla
salute
derivante dalla contaminazione del suolo e delle acque profonde e
superficiali" (UBA, 1999, pag. 10). Questa previsione e' stata finora
confermata in due gravi casi. Si tratta del significativo danneggiamento
delle risorse naturali ed economiche, come anche della vita umana, in un
caso per lo sprigionamento di policlordibenzodiossine (PCDDs: diossina
di
Seveso) e di policlordibenzofurani (PCDFs); ed altrettanto nell'altro
caso,
relativo allo sprigionamento di prodotti radiotossici e chemiotossici
della
disintegrazione di munizioni di uranio (munizioni DU).
4.3.1. Azione dei PCDDs e PCDFs:
"It can be claimed that considerable amounts of PCDDs/PCDFs must have
been
distributed by gas clouds. [It] would therefore be necessary [to]
examine
the contamination of agricultural and horticultural lands over which the
gas
clouds passed, the substances carried by the clouds would have been
partly
distributed by precipitation. The values obtained [...] reach limits for
agricultural and horticultural land use and suggest the need for
inspection
and remidial action of restricted use" (Stephan/Strobel/Klass, loc.
cit.,
pag. 52).
Cio' sarebbe "non una catastrofe ambientale, ma chiaramente una
perturbazione
dell'ambiente", sentenzia il direttore della Divisione Chimica
Ambientale
dell'Universita' di Ulm, Karlheinz Ballschmiter. I cancerogeni furani e
diossine sarebbero immagazzinati prevalentemente nei prodotti agricoli
ed
"al 95 per cento introdotti nella catena alimentare". Cosi' le vacche
avranno
prossimamente anche dalle nostre parti un carico piu' elevato. "Gli
esseri
umani sono colpiti attraverso i prodotti lattiero-caseari". Tuttavia il
"carico a Belgrado e dintorni" sarebbe "molto piu' elevato". "Se in quei
luoghi tra due anni si analizzasse il latte materno, il risultato si
rispecchierebbe negli inquinanti in esso contenuti" (Sueddeutsche
Zeitung,
(a), loc. cit., pag. 5).
4.3.2. Effetti delle munizioni DU:
Nell'aprile 1999 diversi media tedeschi annunciavano che la NATO aveva
"confermato, che la forza d'attacco USA impiega in Jugoslavia
munizionamento
radioattivo. Allo stesso tempo l'alleanza smentiva pero' voci sulla
pericolosita' per i civili estranei (Fuldaer Zeitung, 1999, pag. 3).
Questa
affermazione della NATO era falsa. Vero e' al contrario che l'impiego di
queste munizioni rappresenta un notevole pericolo per uomo e natura.Allo
stato naturale il metallo pesante uranio e' un miscuglio degli isotopi
U235 e
U238. L'isotopo U235 e' presente in questo metallo pesante soltanto in
misura
limitata. Per l'utilizzzo dell'uranio nelle armi nucleari e' necessario
elevare la quota di U235 con dei procedimenti di arricchimento. Con cio'
avanza U238 in grandi quantita'. Questo U238 viene anche qualificato
come
depleted uranium (DU).L'interesse militare per il DU fu svegliato
poiche'
esso possiede una densita' molto piu' elevata di altri materiali
imopiegati
nella produzione di munizioni. Cosi' il DU e' quasi tre volte piu'
pesante
dell'acciaio, cosa che ad una granata riempita di DU consente di avere
una
forza di penetrazione molto maggiore nei confronti delle corazze dei
veicoli
militari. Poiche' il DU e' piu' tenero dell'acciaio, esso si polverizza
nel
penetrare le corazze. Se un tale proiettile colpisce la superficie del
bersaglio, una gran parte dell'energia cinetica si converte in calore.
Allora il proiettile si accende ed agisce all'interno del carro armato
come
un proiettile incendiario. (Rodejohann, 1977, pagg. 39 e segg.) Dopo l'
esplosione l'U238 si comporta da radiotossico, in quanto emette raggi
alfa,
e da chemiotossico in quanto metallo pesante.
"Secondo ricerche intraprese nel frattempo la produzione di
radioattivita'
alla superficie del proiettile da me [cioe' il prof. Siegwart-Horst
Guenther]
rinvenuto nel 1991 ammontava ad 11 microSievert al minuto. La dose
ammessa
in Germania viene definita in 300 microSievert all'anno. Avendo a che
fare
con un proiettile di uranio, pertanto, la dose annua si raggiunge
abbondantemente in un giorno" (Guenther, 1999, pag. 184). Nell'aria le
particelle di uranio si legano ad areosol. Essi possono essere inalati
attraverso le vie respiratorie od ingeriti attraverso la catena
alimentare.
Possibili conseguenze: "anemia, leucemia, tumore osseo, danni
all'embrione"
(Wolff, 1998, volantino).
Sebbene la NATO finora si rifiuti di dare indicazioni sulle aree e
quantita'
di impiego del munizionamento DU, e' sicuro che essa ha adoperato
quest'arma
nella regione di Prizren. "In aprile, durante il conflitto del Kossovo,
scienziati dell'Istituto Nazionale per la Difesa della Salute in
Macedonia
hanno misurato nell'aria valori otto volte piu' elevati di quegli
emettitori
di raggi alfa derivanti dai proiettili di uranio" (Peterson, 1999, pag.
11).
Anche il Ministero dell'Ambiente serbo ha misurato "in Kossovo una
maggiore
emisssione radioattiva nella misura di 3,4 Mega Becquerel. Essa sarebbe
stata causata da U238 non fissile, contenuto nei proiettili sparati
dagli
aerei americani modello A-10" (IPPNW, 1999, pag. 23). L'Autorita'
Britannica
per la Protezione dalle Radiazioni avvertiva in luglio, che i maggiori
rischi in Kossovo erano da ricercare ove erano state sparate munizioni
di
uranio. Percio' le truppe britanniche ivi stanziate erano state
avvertite di
indossare tute protettive, "se il contatto con obiettivi colpiti da
munizioni di uranio e' inevitabile" (Peterson, ibid.).
Per un'efficace protezione della popolazione civile dai persistenti
pericoli
per la salute di questi componenti per la salute, nessuno si e' in ogni
caso
finora dichiarato competente.
4.4. I danni ambientali persistenti erano prevedibili (art. 35 sez. 3,
55
sez. 1, PA I)
Le prove qui esposte del fatto che la NATO con la sua condotta bellica
abbia
causato danni estesi, duraturi e gravi all'ambiente naturale e sociale,
volgono l'interesse sull'interrogativo, se essa abbia agito in modo
premeditato od inconsapevole.
Il Governo Federale ha preso la seguente posizione al riguardo. "La
pianificazione degli obiettivi, cioe' l'individuazione dei bersagli e la
scelta della procedura d'attacco era studiata in modo tale da evitare
possibili danni collaterali, soprattutto ai civili, ma anche
all'ambiente.
Percio' la NATO ha impiegato una complessa procedura, in cui giocavano
un
ruolo tutte le informazioni disponibili sul bersaglio stesso, su
possibili
bersagli collaterali, cosi' come sull'azione dei vari tipi di armamento
in
questione nel combattimento. In parte sono state usate simulazioni
computerizzate, per testare l'arma col piu' ridotto rischio di danni
collaterali. Dei giuristi hanno valutato ogni bersaglio dal punto di
vista
della liceita' del combattimento secondo il diritto internazionale"
(Parlamento Tedesco -Bundestag, Drs. 14/1788, pag. 4).
Questa argomentazione non convince affatto, perche' non chiarisce i
danni
ambientali duraturi della guerra. Ancor piu' notevole e' il riferimento
al
diritto internazionale, e cio' per due motivi.
In primo luogo poiche' all'interno degli Stati belligeranti v'erano
concezioni notevolmente diuverse su cio' che nell'ambito della Operation
Allied Force era o no0n era conforme a diritto internazionale.
Contrariamente agli altri Stati della NATO, gli Stati Uniti da oltre
vent'
anni non hanno ratificato i relativi trattati di diritto internazionale
bellico.
In secondo luogo, in quanto esso suscita la questione su che tipo di
giuristi internazionalisti debbano essere quelli che ritengono conformi
a
diritto internazionale dei metodi di condotta bellica secondo i quali e'
lecito utilizzare impianti chimici come armi ecologiche secondarie, al
fine
di condurre una guerra chimica contro natura ed uomo senza armi
chimiche.
E se i pianificatori di obiettivi abbiano effettivamente impiegato allo
scopo simulazioni computerizzate, non si potra' indagare fintanto che i
ministeri della guerra della NATO non renderanno pubblici le analisi,
segretate, degli effetti delle armi (BDA: Battle Damage Assessment)
(Bundestag tedesco, loc. cit., pag. 3). In conclusione con tali
simulazioni
i militari avrebbero potuto scegliere anche l'arma piu' pericolosa.
Nel caso di Pancevo vi sono indizi che convalidano questa ipotesi.
Dopo i bombardamenti dell'impianto di VCM della fabbrica chimica HIP
AZOTARA
con missili Cruise si sprigiono' tra l'altro del fosgene, una sostanza
una
volta e mezzo piu' velenosa dell'acido cianidrico (o prussico).
"After the bombing on April 15 and 18, and thus after the distruction of
the
VCM plant by fire, test results showed the following pollution levels:
[...]phosgene: concentration detected: 10 ppm; concentration causing
irritation: 1-3 ppm; lethal concentration: 10 ppm"
(Stephan/Strobel/Klass,
loc. cit., pagg. 21 e segg.). 1 ppm (parte per milione) e'
l'abbreviazione
riferita al peso (1 mg/kg).
Con tali attacchi la NATO ha messo in pericolo consapevolmente vita,
salute
e sicurezza della popolazione civile, come anche la biosfera nell'area
urbana di Belgrado. Consapevolmente, giacche' essa poteva prevederne le
conseguenze devastanti. L'alleanza militare aveva sviluppato gia' due
decenni
fa un marcato interesse proprio per gli scenari di ricaduta del fosgene.
Uno degli studiosi di ricadute dell'epoca, nel frattempo divenuto membro
della direzione della Shell tedesca s.p.a., il chimicon Fritz
Vahrenholt,
riferiva nel 1979 in un simposio NATO a Roma i risultati delle relative
simulazioni al computer:
"Quanto al fosgene, che fu impiegato nella guerra mondiale come arma
chimica
contro i Francesi e che oggi e' utilizzato in una serie di processi
chimici,
nel 1978 e' stato calcolato dal TUV (ente di supervisione tecnica) della
Renania quali effetti potrebbe avere una ricaduta in condizioni
estremamente
sfavorevoli: in regioni densamente popolarte come la zona di Colonia
oltre
2.000 morti e quasi 20.000 feriti gravi (Vahrenholt, 1982, pag. 193).
Nel
1979 la ricerca fu ripetuta, su incarico della NATO, dal meteorologo
berlinese Bernd Gutsche, con un modello di diffusione
matematico-meteorologico. Risultato: "A seconda delle condizioni
meteorologiche una nube di fosgene si puo' estendere fino a sei, ma
anche
oltre 100 chilometri, nel qual caso nella zona interna morirebbe un
abitante
su due. Nel caso peggiore potrebbe essere investita un area di circa
1200
chilometri quadrati" (Gutsche, 1980, pag. 217). La quantita' critica di
questi prodotti chimici esplosivi in grado che potrebbe causare una tale
dinamica catastrofica, consiste di 2 tonnellate. Quanti morti o feriti
si
aspettava la NATO nell'aprile del999 dal suo attacco alcomplesso
chimico?
Evidentemente dobbiamo riconsiderare il nostro concetto di guerra
chimica.
Guerre chimiche moderne non vengono piu' condotte con armi chimiche
primarie,
bensi' secondarie, cioe' attraverso il bombardamento, secondo le
condizioni
ecologiche e metereologiche, di impianti contenenti sostanze e/o energie
pericolose.
Dal momento che i pianificatori di guerra della NATO conoscevano la
quantita'
critica di questi prodotti chimici, che agiscono in modo simile alle
armi
chimiche se liberate durante un attacco, io rinfaccio loro che proprio
l'
incontrollabilita' delle ricadute chimiche di natura militare e' insita
nell'
elemento tattico essenziale della condotta di guerra.
Questa ipotesi e' suffragata dall' ufficio federale per l'ambiente
attraverso
la seguente congettura sulla prognosi di ricaduta:
"generalmente si presuppone che attraverso la liberazione, incendio,
esplosione di sostanze pericolose :
-in impianti di raffinerie petrolifere sono coinvolti tutti i derivati
compreso l'idrocarburo policiclico;
-in fabbriche di concimi sono coinvolti in particolare ammoniaca, acido
nitrico, fosfati; in caso di incendi bisogna mettere in conto grandi
quantita' di gas nitroso;
-inoltre nel caso di serbatoi di carburante e di magazzini di gas
liquido
bisogna tenere conto eventualmente di notevoli danni a causa di
esplosioni
con ricaduta di detriti, inoltre gli idrocarburi liquidi liberati
provocano
inquinamento del terreno e dell'acqua;[...]
-in impianti chimici puo' sussistere un evidente pericolo a causa delle
qualita' specifiche dei materiali coinvolti." (UBA,a.a. O, S 4).
I materiali pericolosi possono essere immessi nell'atmosfera, nel
terreno, e
percio' sia nelle acque sotterranee che in quelle di superficie.
"Incendi di
grandi dimensioni causano, sulla base della termica connessa, un ampio ,
sconfinato spargimento di materiale dannoso." (UBA, ebda. S.5).
Il caso Pancevo spiega infine il perche' la NATO riteneva di poter
raggiungere il proprio fine strategico solo coi metodi e mezzi della
condotta bellica ecologica. Essa causo' premeditatamente dei danni
collaterali che coinvolsero vaste aree; tali danni parimenti permangono
piu'
a lungo e percio' mettono seriamente in pericolo la salute della
popolazione:
e questo con l'intenzione di far insorgere la popolazione contro il
governo
da essa scelto. "La campagna aerea della NATO [sic!] ha contribuito
militarmente al cedimento finale di Slobodan Milosevic. Il presidente
jugoslavo si e' accorto infine che la popolazione non era pronta a
sopportare
piu' a lungo le privazioni della vita quotidiana causate dagli attacchi
ad
obiettivi di rilievo militare. (Deutscher Bundestag, Drs. 14/1788, p 4).
Solo dalla prospettiva di una condotta di guerra totale devono sembrare
rilevanti dal punto di vista militare tutti gli obiettivi naturali e
sociali. Ma solo in questa prospettiva. Per gli uomini colpiti dalla
guerra,
invece, l'affermazione del nostro governo federale secondo cui gli
attacchi
aerei NATO "non sono stati rivolti ne' contro la popolazione ne' contro
l'
economia jugoslava" (Deutscher Bundestag, Drs.14/1788, p.4) suona come
una
presa in giro delle loro sofferenze per la guerra .
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Knut Krusewitz, della Technische Universitaet di Berlino, docente di
Pianificazione ambientale e autore di una delle relazioni più rigorose e
intelligenti sul tema dei bombardamenti nei Balcani (industrie chimiche
e uranio), pubblicata da 'Il Manifesto' del 4.1.2000 p. 10.
(http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Chateau/9161/comitato/krusewitz.html)
10 novembre 1999
traduzione: 20 novembre 1999
Versione integrale
*** N.A.T.O.: condotta di guerra e conseguenze ambientali ***
1. Proposizione del problema.
La domanda che deve porsi dal punto di vista delle scienze ambientali e'
quali metodi bellici e quali mezzi la NATO abbia utilizzato durante la
sua
Operation Allied Force e quali danni essa abbia causato all'ambiente
naturale e sociale. La domanda deve essere posta in quanto sussiste il
fondato sospetto che l'alleanza bellica contro la Jugoslavia abbia
urtato i
principi e le norme del Trattato sul divieto di guerra ecologica e
contro il
divieto di danneggiamento ambientale prescritto dal diritto
internazionale
umanitario.
Le relative prescrizioni del diritto internazionale bellico includono in
primo luogo l'intenzionale danneggiamento dell'ambiente nell'ambito
della
condotta bellica.
Inoltre esse si applicano anche ai danni collaterali, se questi
conducono a
conseguenze dannose gravi, estese e durature, e percio' portano con se'
un
perturbamento significativo della vita umana, delle risorse naturali ed
economiche.
In questo caso sarebbe rilevante non solo dal punto di vista ambientale,
ma
anche di quello del diritto internazionale poter provare che l'Alleanza
abbia fatto uso nell'ambito della sua condotta bellica di metodi e mezzi
che
dal punto di vista ambientale erano mirati o da cui ci si doveva
aspettare
che essi causassero danni ambientali persistenti di simile entita'. Si
tratterebbe allora di gravi violazioni delle leggi e consuetudini
belliche,
che potrebbero essere punite come crimini di guerra.
Su questo sfondo e' divenuta un argomento di dibattito internazionale la
questione se il bilancio ambientale della guerra consenta la conclusione
che
la NATO abbia effettivamente condotto una guerra ecologica contro la
Jugoslavia. Con il mio contributo io cerco di dare un apporto al
chiarimento
di questa controversia. A questo fine e' necessario innanzitutto
trattare dei
danni ambientali nel teatro di guerra; infine cerchero' di ordinare e
valutare questi danni secondo il diritto internazionale.
2. Come si comunicano e valutano i danni ambientali di guerra?
2.1. Per la critica del concetto dell'UNEP.
Gia' durante la guerra, ancor prima che vi fosse il primo bilancio
empirico
dei danni ambientali, il direttore esecutivo del Programma Ambientale
delle
Nazioni Unite (ingl.: United Nations Environmental Programme: UNEP),
l'ex
ministro dell'ambiente Klaus Toepfer (cristiano-democratico), riferi'
che la
guerra non aveva causato alcuna catastrofe ecologica.
L'11 maggio 1999 costui rese nota la costituzione di una Balkan Task
Force
(BTF), un gruppo di lavoro speciale per l'ambiente nell'area di guerra.
Esso
avrebbe dovuto "raccogliere e confrontare informazioni credibili sulle
conseguenze ambientali della crisi del Kossovo" (Haavisto, 1999), al
fine di
togliere fondamento a "speculazioni su una catastrofe ecologica dovuta
alla
guerra del Kossovo" (Sueddeutsche Zeitung, (a), 1999, p. 7). Infatti a
Toepfer
non interessavano speculazioni, ma cose concrete. La sua BTF doveva
raccogliere per tempo determinate informazioni ambientali, con cui la
NATO
potesse eventualmente provare di aver condotto una guerra conforme a
diritto
internazionale. Mentre Toepfer strumentalizzava l'UNEP e la BTF, rendeva
ogni
dichiarazione sul significato ecologico della guerra un argomento
ambientale
e di politica militare, ma soprattutto di diritto internazionale dalla
forza
dirompente.
Dall'UNEP-BTF si pretese una prestazione apologetica, che strutturo' il
rapporto interno tra incarico di indagare, metodo d'indagine e risultato
dell'indagine. A causa della preponderante funzione discolpatoria del
rapporto finale dell'UNEP e' giocoforza contrapporvi una critica sui
metodi.
2.2.1. Incarico di indagine:
Toepfer conferi' al BTF solo un incarico di indagine tecnicamente
ristretto,
che non doveva mettere in luce ne' gli aspetti militari, ne' di
giusinternazionalistici, ne' sociali del problema ambientale. L'incarico
di
indagine non riguardava quindi la questione, evidente dal punto di vista
ecologico e sollevabile dal punto di vista del diritto internazionale,
della
concatenazione tra metodi di condotta della guerra NATO e i danni
ambientali
che ne sono derivati nella regione dei Balcani.
Pekka Haavisto, direttore di questa technical mission, formulo' poi
questo
equivoco concetto di indagine in un programma di valutazione
apparentemente
obiettivo: "L'incarico viene suddiviso tra cinque gruppi tematici: 1.
Stima
dei danni ambientali derivanti dagli impianti industriali distrutti; 2.
Danubio; 3. Conseguenze della guerra sulle risorse naturali; 4. Effetti
a
lungo termine della guerra sulla salute degli uomini e sull'ambiente; 5.
Insediamenti umani." (Haavisto, ibid.).
Al contrario di quanto annunciato la BTF non si occupo' in loco degli
"effetti a lungo termine della crisi sulla salute umana e
sull'ambiente".
Cio' potrebbe essere effettuato da uno studio di lungo periodo ordinato
di
recente dalla Commissione Europea. Il suo titolo: "Valutazione accurata
degli influssi sull'ambiente della guerra in Jugoslavia" (Commissione
Europea, 1999). Il suo rapporto finale verra' in essere tuttavia solo
nell'
autunno del 2000. Il Gruppo di lavoro UNEP ha tentato nonostante cio' di
valutare la contaminazione dell'ambiente dovuta al munizionamento
all'uranio
impoverito (depleted uranium: DU). Esso fu costretto a convocare un
Depleted
Uranium Desk Asessment Group (che si riuniva a Ginevra), giacche' la
NATO si
era rifiutata di fornire indicazioni sulla quantita' di armi DU
impiegate e
sui loro bersagli.
2.2.2. Metodo di indagine:
La direttiva politica del direttore UNEP propizio' presso la BTF una
percezione specifica delle conseguenze ecologiche della guerra, che
rimase
quindi allineata non a riflessioni di natura obiettiva, quanto piuttosto
di
natura opportunistica. Dal momento in cui la BTF accetto' acriticamente
la
direttiva extrascientifica del suo committente politico, ando' perfino
ad
oscurare quegli ambiti di realta' scientificamente considerevoli, che un
resoconto obiettivo avrebbe sicuramente resi parte costitutiva di
un'analisi
e valutazione imparziale.
La BTF concepi' il suo programma d'indagine in modo tale da relegare in
un
novero di dati extrascientifico la connessione tematica tra condotta
bellica
NATO, scelta dei mezzi bellici e danni ambientali da esse provocati.
Solo in
questo modo essa poteva considerare i gravi danni della guerra
all'ambiente
naturale e sociale come meri danni collaterali, a guisa di "incidenti
sul
lavoro" di guerra.
2.2.3. Risultati dell'indagine.
Non pare aver minimamente disturbato la BTF il dover presentare un
rapporto
il cui riusultato era gia' stabilito prima che si esaminasse la prima
misurazione dei danni in loco, premessa irrinunciabile della valutazione
tecnica dei danni ambientali di guerra.
Nonostante -od a causa- dell'immunizzazione politicamente stabilita
della
realta' e della connessa minimizzazione del problema la BTF trovo' prove
sul
fatto che la Nato aveva ripetutamente causato consistenti danni
ambientali
in quattro localita', cioe' Pancevo, Kragujevac, Novi Sad e Bor.
I risultati delle loro indagini furono banali, giacche' essi
confermarono
soltanto cio' che esperti ed esperte di disastri sapevano gia' in
precedenza:
chi distrugge militarmente complessi industriali - installazioni
petrolchimiche, raffinerie, depositi di carburante, centrali elettriche,
fabbriche di munizioni, di fertilizzanti, ed impianti chimici - libera
con
cio' sostanze nocive all'ambiente ed alla salute, che naturalmente si
depositano anche nelle vicinanze degli impianti bombardati. Ma certo non
solo li', giacche' esse si diffondono a grande distanza con le termiche,
i
venti, il ciclo delle acque.
La BTF trascuro' deliberatamente questo importante dato di fatto
ecologico,
nonostante allora le fossero noti i risultati delle misurazioni al
riguardo
eseguite dal Dipartimento di Tecniche Ambientali dell'Universita'
Demokritos
di Xanthi (Tracia) (Rapsomanikis, 1999 pag. 1-4; Sueddeutsche Zeitung,
(b)
1999, pag. 5).
Ergo: il concetto metodico dell'UNEP-BTF non era minimamente idoneo all'
elaborazione di un bilancio dei danni ambientali che sarebbe bastato
alla
loro stessa pretesa di presentare "un rapporto completo che sia
neutrale,
obiettivo e scientificamente credibile" (Haavisto, ibid.). Percio' la
parte
empirica del rapporto UNEP contribuiva ben poco al chiarimento del
quesito
qui trattato, se la NATO abbia o meno condotto una guerra ecologica.
2.3. Problematica della pianificazione ambientale.
Le guerre mondiali e le successive forme della "moderna" condotta di
guerra
hanno causato danni non soltanto all'ambiente naturale, ma anche a
quello
sociale (Krusewitz, 1985; idem, 1999, pag. 5-7). Compito di una scienza
ambientale illuministica e' percio' rilevare e valutare non solo i
"danni
collaterali ecologici", effetti primari della guerra, alla qual cosa si
e'
limitata essenzialmente la UNEP-BTF, ma anche i suoi effetti secondari e
terziari. Se la guerra contro la Jugoslavia abbia in effetti causato
soltanto danni collaterali all'ambiente naturale, o se non abbia
prodotto
piuttosto pregiudizi macroscopici, duraturi e gravi all'ambiente
naturale e
sociale, puo' giudicarsi solo se si esaminano i suoi effetti primari,
secondari e terziari. A questo fine utilizzo un metodo di ricerca che ho
sviluppato nell'analisi delle guerre moderne.
2.3.1. Effetti primari.
Quali metodi e mezzi di condotta bellica ha scelto la NATO? Quali armi
vi ha
impiegato? Quali sostanze tossiche/cancerogene/radioattive sono finite
nell'
ambiente, da quali sorgenti provenivano, in quali quantita' cio' e'
accaduto e
come si sono diffuse nello spazio? Quali danni si possono documentare
nella
biosfera (nel bilancio naturale regionale), nei paesaggi culturali, nei
territori protetti, nei territori di ricreazione, come pure nelle
regioni-modello internazionali (riserve della biosfera dell'UNESCO)?
Con riguardo agli effetti primari della guerra si conosce qualche cosa
rispetto ai danni ambientali di limitata estensione, ma poco riguardo a
quelli di ampio raggio. Dati primari sono stati rilevati soprattutto
presso
i siti industriali bombardati.
Sono stati aggrediti e distrutti da attacchi con bombe o missili oltre
20
impianti che contenevano sostanze e/o energie pericolose come:
- Raffinerie di petrolio, oleodotti, depositi di carburante, stazioni di
carico;
- Impianti industriali chimici e farmaceutici;
- Fabbriche di ammoniaca, fertilizzanti e fitofarmaci.
Con cio' sono state liberate in un'area considerevole sostanze
cancerogene,
tossiche ed ecotossiche. Finora tali inquinanti sono stati misurati e
segnalati nelle seguenti localita' (Stephan/Strobel/Klass, 1999; FOCUS,
1999;
Tehnokratia, 1999; UNEP/UNCHS, 1999):
Pancevo: 1,2 dicloroetano (ECD), cloruro di vinile monomero (VCM),
diossina,
furani, fosgene, benzo(a')pirene, ammoniaca, bifenili policlorati
(PCBs),
mercurio, anidride solforosa, ossido d'azoto, fuliggine, fumo;
Kragujevac: PCBs, diossina, furani, benzolo, toluolo, tetracloroetilene,
tricloroetano, rame, zinco, cobalto;
Novi Sad: PCBs, c-esano, idrocarburi liquidi, anidride solforosa,
piombo,
mercurio, fuliggine, fumo;
Bor: PCBs, rame, arsenico, cadmio, piombo, zinco;
Kraljevo: idrocarburi liquidi, gasolio, toluolo, benzolo;
Nis: idrocarburi liquidi, PCBs, diossina;
Novi Beograd: idrocarburi liquidi, benzina;
Smederova: fuliggine, fumo, PCK, idrocarburi liquidi;
Cacak: metalli pesanti.
Questi gli effetti primari della guerra. E' incontestabile che la
Operation
Allied Force ha danneggiato notevolmente l'ambiente naturale nei
dintorni
dei complessi industriali distrutti, e con cio' ha compromesso la salute
della popolazione. E' tuttavia controverso se i danni all'ambiente siano
solo
notevoli o non piuttosto gravi, estese e durature. Su cio' ritornero'
nella
sezione dedicata alla valutazione della condotta di guerra secondo il
diritto internazionale.
2.3.2. Effetti secondari.
Come agiscono tali inquinanti e tali danni ambientali su uomini, salute,
agricoltura, forestazione, risorse acquee, aree protette,
regioni-modello,
approvigionamento idrico, infrastrutture del traffico, ed insediamenti?
Quali tendenze seguono nel corso del tempo le concentrazioni degli
inquinanti e quali ne sono i motivi? Si devono adottare misure di
emergenza
in aree ad alto rischio (per es. presso le fabbriche chimiche
distrutte)?
Quali procedure tecniche devono essere messe in atto per la diminuzione
o l'
eliminazione dei danni? Le discariche militari sono riconoscibili e da
risanare? Puo' essere ripristinato lo status quo ante ecologico?
In questo momento nella Repubblica Jugoslava sono stati rilevati solo
pochi
dati riguardanti gli effetti secondari. Cio' per motivi di politica
interna,
per le sanzioni, per motivi strutturali, ma anche per motivi legati alle
tecniche di misurazione ambientale, di cui non ci si occupa piu'
dettagliatamente.
Tuttavia, nel caso dei complessi industriali bombardati a Pancevo, si
puo'
esporre in modo esemplare il nesso causale tra effetti sull'ambiente
della
condotta bellica NATO primari e secondari. La NATO attacca piu' volte
con
missili (Cruise Missiles) la localita' industriale Pancevo - un
complesso di
stabilimenti petrolchimici, raffinerie di idrocarburi, fabbriche di
fertilizzanti, impianti di cloruro di vinile monomero ed etilene - e lo
distrugge insieme con i suoi grandi depositi.
Le sostanze tossiche da cio' sprigionate formavano ad ogni attacco nubi
tossiche, che contenevano di volta in volta miscugli corrosivi di ECD,
cloruro di vinile monomero (VCM), diossine, fosgene, anidride solforosa,
ossidi di azoto, benzo(a')pirene ed ammoniaca.
In alcune notti di bombardamento le concentrazioni di veleni erano
altrettanto alte che dopo un grande attacco con armi chimiche. La
popolazione e' stata ripetutamente esposta, in quasi tutti i casi
indifesa, a
queste sostanze tossiche.
Percio' i danni alla salute "si mostreranno in parte soltanto fra molti
anni"
(Stephan, 1999, pag. 42).
2.3.3. Effetti terziari.
Quali costi per l'economia nazionale sorgeranno dai programmi di
ricostruzione e risanamento? Chi li finanziera'? Come agiranno le
conseguenze
della guerra sul mercato e sulle condizioni del lavoro? Come i costi
naturali e sociali della guerra cambieranno lo standard di vita, le
condizioni culturali ed educative della societa'? Le opzioni di sviluppo
economiche, politiche ed internazionale delle parti in conflitto sono
ragguardevolmente limitate? I danni economici sono percio' significativi
dal
punto di vista della pianificazione ambientale, poiche' le loro
dimensioni
decidono se, e, se si', sotto quali condizioni, si potranno sostenere i
costi
ambientali naturali e sociali della guerra.
I tre settori-chiave dell'industria jugoslava, chimico, energetico,
metallurgico sono stati gravemente danneggiati. La petrolchimica, il
ramo
industriale piu' redditizio del paese, e' quasi completamente distrutto,
con
nefaste ed incalcolabili conseguenze ecologiche, il moderno impianto
chimico
Petrohemija di Pancevo e' stato raso al suolo.
Altrettanto distrutte sono entrambe le fabbriche di fertilizzanti di
Novi
Sad e Pancevo. Cio' significa "un'ipoteca particolarmente pesante per il
futuro. La Jugoslavia e' un paese agricolo, ed e' sopravvissuta agli
anni dell
'isolamento solo della propria produzione alimentare. Negli anni scorsi
la
quota dell'agricoltura nel prodotto interno lordo e' salita dal 35 a
quasi il
50%" (Israel, 1999, pag. 8).
A Pancevo si trovavano anche le maggiori raffinerie della Jugoslavia,
che
ora sono ridotte in macerie. L'economia energetica e' il secondo settore
economico fondamentale che e' stato duramente danneggiato dalla guerra.
"Nel
settore-chiave della metallurgia gli stabilimenti del gruppo Zastava,
soprattutto a Kragujevac, sono stati largamente distrutti. 120 imprese
fornitrici dipendono da questo complesso industriale automobilistico"
(Spiegel, 1999, pag. 153).
Un primo bilancio degli effetti terziari nell'economia nazionale
presenta,
secondo l'inventario di un economista jugoslavo, il seguente quadro: "A
causa della guerra e delle sue conseguenze la produzione industriale
nella
Repubblica Federale Jugoslava, confrontata coll'anno precedente, calera'
del
44,4% [...]. Il prodotto interno lordo dovrebbe affondare del 40,7%, l'
impotr-export di oltre il 50%, la disoccupazione dovrebbe salire al
32,6%"
(Sueddeutsche Zeitung, 1999, pag. 25).
3. Valutazione dei danni ambientali secondo il diritto internazionale
bellico.
Alla spiegazione della questione, se la NATO abbia condotto una guerra
ecologica contro la Jugoslavia contribuisce il diritto internazionale
bellico. Le norme ed i principi relativi si trovano:
-nell'accordo sul divieto dell'uso militare o comunque ostile di
tecniche
che alterino l'ambiente, unitamente all'appendice e intesa del 18 maggio
1977 - accordo sul divieto di guerra ecologica, ingl.: Environmental
Mpodification Convention, citato come ENMOD-Convention (Fahl, 1980,
pagg.
136-143), e
- nel 39o protocollo aggiuntivo dell'8 giugno 1977 alla Convenzione di
Ginevra del 12 agosto 1949 sulla protezione delle vittime dei conflitti
armati -citato come PA I- (Randelzhofer, 1999, pagg. 569-617).
In base all'esperienza della condotta bellica USA in Vietnam l'ONU varo'
nel
1977 la ENMOD-Convention; la Repubblica Federale Tedesca la ratifico'
nel
1983.
Secondo l'art. I dell'accordo e' vietato l'uso "di tecniche che alterino
l'
ambiente che producano effetti gravi, estesi e duraturi" come mezzo di
condotta bellica. "Il bersaglio e' dunque l'uso delle cosiddette
environmental modification techniques come strumenti militari, cioe' il
mirato abuso dell'ambiente come arma" (Oeter, 1994, pag. 98). Ogni
"manipolazione" militare "dei processi naturali" (art. II) e' pertanto
interdetta.
Le Intese (Understandings) sugli articoli I e II stabiliscono che si
intende
"esteso" un ambito di varie centinaia di chilometri quadrati; per
"duraturi"
s'intendono danni militari che si prolungano per vari mesi (circa una
stagione), e "grave" e' un effetto che porta con se' disturbi seri e
significativi alla vita umana, alle risorse economiche e naturali e ad
altri
beni.
Se viene violato uno di questi limiti, entra in gioco il divieto
dell'ENMOD.
Con l'art. 35, sez. 3, PA I e le norme complementari dell'art. 55 nello
stesso Protocollo Aggiuntivo e' stato "introdotto un assoluto divieto di
danni ambientali persistenti nel diritto internazionale umanitario"
(Oeter,
ibid.).
Se e' chiaro o presumibile che si pervenga a danni ambientali gravi,
estesi e
duraturi, anche l'impiego di tali mezzi e metodi dannosi per l'ambiente
non
e' piu' ammissibile, nemmeno se asseritamente necessario dal punto di
vista
militare.
Arrecare consapevolmente od accettare semplicemente il rischio di creare
danni gravi e persistenti all'ambiente sono coomportamenti con cio'
pienamente considerati nell'ambito della condotta bellica.
Le norme del protocollo aggiuntivo I superano in p'rincipio il divieto
della
ENMOD. Non vi sono solo compresi l'intenzionale danneggiamento
dell'ambiente
nell'ambito della condotta bellica (come nel caso della convenzione sul
divieto di guerra ecologica), ... ... ... ... danni collaterali" (Oeter,
ibid.).
Poiche' ogni condotta bellica causa notevoli danni collaterali
all'ambiente,
la questione sulle disposizioni limitative della guerra nel Protocollo
Aggiuntivo I non e' soltanto di prevalente interesse militare, ma anche
di
interesse per la pace.
"La Conferenza Diplomatica ha percio' utilizzato i concetti-soglia
esteso,
duraturo e grave impiegati analogamente alla ENMOD, non ugualmente in
modo
alternativo (come per la ENMOD) ma in modo cumulativo. Solo i danni
collaterali coinvolgenti grandi superfici, che contemporaneamente
persistono
per lunghi lassi di tempo e che inoltre comportano gravi pregiudizi per
l'
ambiente, sono compresi dai divieti dell'art. 35, 3o co., e 55 del PA I
(Oeter, loc. cit. pag. 99).
4. Applicazione dei criteri di valutazione giusinternazionalistici alla
condotta bellica della N.A.T.O.
Si ammette qui che una complessiva, sistematica analisi dei dati
rilevanti
dal punto di vista ambientale, se fosse in effetti possibile, non e'
stata
fino a questo momento (ottobre 2999) ancora fornita.
Tuttavia le informazioni introdotte nei dati sono sufficienti ad
ottenere
istruttivi risultati sul nesso causale tra condotta bellica e
conseguenze
ambientali; conformemente a cio' determinati effetti primari, secondari
e
terziari sono duraturi, si presentano in modo esteso, ed indicano danni
gravi all'ambiente naturale, dai quali la salute della popolazione e'
considerevolmente minacciata.
4.1. Danni ambientali duraturi.
Violazioni delle disposizioni delle intese relative all'art. I, II della
ENMOD-Convention in relazione con l'art. 35, sez. 3, art. 55, sez. 1, PA
I.
Al contrario dell'impressione comunicata dal Gruppo di lavoro dell'UNEP,
raccolta dei dati e valutazione della pericolosita' dei danni ambientali
si
mostrano complicate, poiche' con la distruzione dei complessi
industriali si
sono formate contaminazioni miste di varie sostanze. "L'effetto dell'
interazione di tali miscugli di inquinanti nel sottosuolo e' assai
difficilmente valutabile ed ancora poco studiato". (UBA, 1999, pag. 9).
"Sicuramente dal cio' che resta dalla distruzione di discariche
industriali
derivera' nelle regioni colpite una minaccia per gli esseri umani che
agira'
ben oltre la fine della guerra.
Questo giudizio prognostico e' stato confermato dall'Ufficio per le
sostanze
pericolose (Halle) e dall'Oko-Control (Dessau) nel caso di Opovo: "Near
Opovo, forest damage which suggests contamination by fumes was clearly
perceptible. [...] Crop losses (probably over a period of several years)
should be taken in account, as well as a detrimental impact upon the
natural
fauna and flora" (Stephan/Strobel/Klass, loc. cit., pag. 54).
4.2. Danni ambientali estesi.
Violazioni delle disposizioni delle intese sugli artt. I e II della
ENMOD-Convention in relazione con l'art. 35, sez. 3, ed art. 55, sez. I,
PA
I.
Inoltre la minaccia si estende largamente oltre le regioni colpite. Due
prove empiriche al riguardo:
-"The results from Pancevo (including Opovo) and Novi Sad show that the
chemical consequences of the war are not limited to local effects but
are of
at least regional impact, and since they also effect the Danube they
could
have also trans-border impacts" (Stephan/Strobel/Klass, loc. cit., pag.
54).
-"Between March 24 and June 10, 1999 a large number of chemicals were
ejected in the atmosphere because of air strikes in chemical industries
and
oil storage facilities in former Yugoslavia. Chemicals released in the
atmosphere under suitable meteorological conditions can be transported
across borders to large distances. The releases contain not only
conventionel air pollutants but also semi-volatile organic compounds
(SVOs)
which include dioxins, furans, PCBs, PAHs and organic phthalates, all
known
to be hazardous to health" (FOCUS, 1999).
Resta da chiarire come mai soltanto istituti ecologici greci abbiano
misurato la diffusione di inquinanti su spazi estesi in Europa.
4.3. Danni ambientali gravi.
Violazioni delle disposizioni nelle intese relative agli artt. I, II
della
ENMOD-Convention in relazione agli artt. 35, sez. 3; 54, sez. 2, 55 sez.
1,
PA I.
L'Ufficio Federale dell'Ambiente (Umweltbundesamt: UBA) gia' il 5 maggio
1999
avvisava che per le conseguenze ambientali della guerra un "uso civile
di
larga parte di queste regioni non sara' possibile per la minaccia alla
salute
derivante dalla contaminazione del suolo e delle acque profonde e
superficiali" (UBA, 1999, pag. 10). Questa previsione e' stata finora
confermata in due gravi casi. Si tratta del significativo danneggiamento
delle risorse naturali ed economiche, come anche della vita umana, in un
caso per lo sprigionamento di policlordibenzodiossine (PCDDs: diossina
di
Seveso) e di policlordibenzofurani (PCDFs); ed altrettanto nell'altro
caso,
relativo allo sprigionamento di prodotti radiotossici e chemiotossici
della
disintegrazione di munizioni di uranio (munizioni DU).
4.3.1. Azione dei PCDDs e PCDFs:
"It can be claimed that considerable amounts of PCDDs/PCDFs must have
been
distributed by gas clouds. [It] would therefore be necessary [to]
examine
the contamination of agricultural and horticultural lands over which the
gas
clouds passed, the substances carried by the clouds would have been
partly
distributed by precipitation. The values obtained [...] reach limits for
agricultural and horticultural land use and suggest the need for
inspection
and remidial action of restricted use" (Stephan/Strobel/Klass, loc.
cit.,
pag. 52).
Cio' sarebbe "non una catastrofe ambientale, ma chiaramente una
perturbazione
dell'ambiente", sentenzia il direttore della Divisione Chimica
Ambientale
dell'Universita' di Ulm, Karlheinz Ballschmiter. I cancerogeni furani e
diossine sarebbero immagazzinati prevalentemente nei prodotti agricoli
ed
"al 95 per cento introdotti nella catena alimentare". Cosi' le vacche
avranno
prossimamente anche dalle nostre parti un carico piu' elevato. "Gli
esseri
umani sono colpiti attraverso i prodotti lattiero-caseari". Tuttavia il
"carico a Belgrado e dintorni" sarebbe "molto piu' elevato". "Se in quei
luoghi tra due anni si analizzasse il latte materno, il risultato si
rispecchierebbe negli inquinanti in esso contenuti" (Sueddeutsche
Zeitung,
(a), loc. cit., pag. 5).
4.3.2. Effetti delle munizioni DU:
Nell'aprile 1999 diversi media tedeschi annunciavano che la NATO aveva
"confermato, che la forza d'attacco USA impiega in Jugoslavia
munizionamento
radioattivo. Allo stesso tempo l'alleanza smentiva pero' voci sulla
pericolosita' per i civili estranei (Fuldaer Zeitung, 1999, pag. 3).
Questa
affermazione della NATO era falsa. Vero e' al contrario che l'impiego di
queste munizioni rappresenta un notevole pericolo per uomo e natura.Allo
stato naturale il metallo pesante uranio e' un miscuglio degli isotopi
U235 e
U238. L'isotopo U235 e' presente in questo metallo pesante soltanto in
misura
limitata. Per l'utilizzzo dell'uranio nelle armi nucleari e' necessario
elevare la quota di U235 con dei procedimenti di arricchimento. Con cio'
avanza U238 in grandi quantita'. Questo U238 viene anche qualificato
come
depleted uranium (DU).L'interesse militare per il DU fu svegliato
poiche'
esso possiede una densita' molto piu' elevata di altri materiali
imopiegati
nella produzione di munizioni. Cosi' il DU e' quasi tre volte piu'
pesante
dell'acciaio, cosa che ad una granata riempita di DU consente di avere
una
forza di penetrazione molto maggiore nei confronti delle corazze dei
veicoli
militari. Poiche' il DU e' piu' tenero dell'acciaio, esso si polverizza
nel
penetrare le corazze. Se un tale proiettile colpisce la superficie del
bersaglio, una gran parte dell'energia cinetica si converte in calore.
Allora il proiettile si accende ed agisce all'interno del carro armato
come
un proiettile incendiario. (Rodejohann, 1977, pagg. 39 e segg.) Dopo l'
esplosione l'U238 si comporta da radiotossico, in quanto emette raggi
alfa,
e da chemiotossico in quanto metallo pesante.
"Secondo ricerche intraprese nel frattempo la produzione di
radioattivita'
alla superficie del proiettile da me [cioe' il prof. Siegwart-Horst
Guenther]
rinvenuto nel 1991 ammontava ad 11 microSievert al minuto. La dose
ammessa
in Germania viene definita in 300 microSievert all'anno. Avendo a che
fare
con un proiettile di uranio, pertanto, la dose annua si raggiunge
abbondantemente in un giorno" (Guenther, 1999, pag. 184). Nell'aria le
particelle di uranio si legano ad areosol. Essi possono essere inalati
attraverso le vie respiratorie od ingeriti attraverso la catena
alimentare.
Possibili conseguenze: "anemia, leucemia, tumore osseo, danni
all'embrione"
(Wolff, 1998, volantino).
Sebbene la NATO finora si rifiuti di dare indicazioni sulle aree e
quantita'
di impiego del munizionamento DU, e' sicuro che essa ha adoperato
quest'arma
nella regione di Prizren. "In aprile, durante il conflitto del Kossovo,
scienziati dell'Istituto Nazionale per la Difesa della Salute in
Macedonia
hanno misurato nell'aria valori otto volte piu' elevati di quegli
emettitori
di raggi alfa derivanti dai proiettili di uranio" (Peterson, 1999, pag.
11).
Anche il Ministero dell'Ambiente serbo ha misurato "in Kossovo una
maggiore
emisssione radioattiva nella misura di 3,4 Mega Becquerel. Essa sarebbe
stata causata da U238 non fissile, contenuto nei proiettili sparati
dagli
aerei americani modello A-10" (IPPNW, 1999, pag. 23). L'Autorita'
Britannica
per la Protezione dalle Radiazioni avvertiva in luglio, che i maggiori
rischi in Kossovo erano da ricercare ove erano state sparate munizioni
di
uranio. Percio' le truppe britanniche ivi stanziate erano state
avvertite di
indossare tute protettive, "se il contatto con obiettivi colpiti da
munizioni di uranio e' inevitabile" (Peterson, ibid.).
Per un'efficace protezione della popolazione civile dai persistenti
pericoli
per la salute di questi componenti per la salute, nessuno si e' in ogni
caso
finora dichiarato competente.
4.4. I danni ambientali persistenti erano prevedibili (art. 35 sez. 3,
55
sez. 1, PA I)
Le prove qui esposte del fatto che la NATO con la sua condotta bellica
abbia
causato danni estesi, duraturi e gravi all'ambiente naturale e sociale,
volgono l'interesse sull'interrogativo, se essa abbia agito in modo
premeditato od inconsapevole.
Il Governo Federale ha preso la seguente posizione al riguardo. "La
pianificazione degli obiettivi, cioe' l'individuazione dei bersagli e la
scelta della procedura d'attacco era studiata in modo tale da evitare
possibili danni collaterali, soprattutto ai civili, ma anche
all'ambiente.
Percio' la NATO ha impiegato una complessa procedura, in cui giocavano
un
ruolo tutte le informazioni disponibili sul bersaglio stesso, su
possibili
bersagli collaterali, cosi' come sull'azione dei vari tipi di armamento
in
questione nel combattimento. In parte sono state usate simulazioni
computerizzate, per testare l'arma col piu' ridotto rischio di danni
collaterali. Dei giuristi hanno valutato ogni bersaglio dal punto di
vista
della liceita' del combattimento secondo il diritto internazionale"
(Parlamento Tedesco -Bundestag, Drs. 14/1788, pag. 4).
Questa argomentazione non convince affatto, perche' non chiarisce i
danni
ambientali duraturi della guerra. Ancor piu' notevole e' il riferimento
al
diritto internazionale, e cio' per due motivi.
In primo luogo poiche' all'interno degli Stati belligeranti v'erano
concezioni notevolmente diuverse su cio' che nell'ambito della Operation
Allied Force era o no0n era conforme a diritto internazionale.
Contrariamente agli altri Stati della NATO, gli Stati Uniti da oltre
vent'
anni non hanno ratificato i relativi trattati di diritto internazionale
bellico.
In secondo luogo, in quanto esso suscita la questione su che tipo di
giuristi internazionalisti debbano essere quelli che ritengono conformi
a
diritto internazionale dei metodi di condotta bellica secondo i quali e'
lecito utilizzare impianti chimici come armi ecologiche secondarie, al
fine
di condurre una guerra chimica contro natura ed uomo senza armi
chimiche.
E se i pianificatori di obiettivi abbiano effettivamente impiegato allo
scopo simulazioni computerizzate, non si potra' indagare fintanto che i
ministeri della guerra della NATO non renderanno pubblici le analisi,
segretate, degli effetti delle armi (BDA: Battle Damage Assessment)
(Bundestag tedesco, loc. cit., pag. 3). In conclusione con tali
simulazioni
i militari avrebbero potuto scegliere anche l'arma piu' pericolosa.
Nel caso di Pancevo vi sono indizi che convalidano questa ipotesi.
Dopo i bombardamenti dell'impianto di VCM della fabbrica chimica HIP
AZOTARA
con missili Cruise si sprigiono' tra l'altro del fosgene, una sostanza
una
volta e mezzo piu' velenosa dell'acido cianidrico (o prussico).
"After the bombing on April 15 and 18, and thus after the distruction of
the
VCM plant by fire, test results showed the following pollution levels:
[...]phosgene: concentration detected: 10 ppm; concentration causing
irritation: 1-3 ppm; lethal concentration: 10 ppm"
(Stephan/Strobel/Klass,
loc. cit., pagg. 21 e segg.). 1 ppm (parte per milione) e'
l'abbreviazione
riferita al peso (1 mg/kg).
Con tali attacchi la NATO ha messo in pericolo consapevolmente vita,
salute
e sicurezza della popolazione civile, come anche la biosfera nell'area
urbana di Belgrado. Consapevolmente, giacche' essa poteva prevederne le
conseguenze devastanti. L'alleanza militare aveva sviluppato gia' due
decenni
fa un marcato interesse proprio per gli scenari di ricaduta del fosgene.
Uno degli studiosi di ricadute dell'epoca, nel frattempo divenuto membro
della direzione della Shell tedesca s.p.a., il chimicon Fritz
Vahrenholt,
riferiva nel 1979 in un simposio NATO a Roma i risultati delle relative
simulazioni al computer:
"Quanto al fosgene, che fu impiegato nella guerra mondiale come arma
chimica
contro i Francesi e che oggi e' utilizzato in una serie di processi
chimici,
nel 1978 e' stato calcolato dal TUV (ente di supervisione tecnica) della
Renania quali effetti potrebbe avere una ricaduta in condizioni
estremamente
sfavorevoli: in regioni densamente popolarte come la zona di Colonia
oltre
2.000 morti e quasi 20.000 feriti gravi (Vahrenholt, 1982, pag. 193).
Nel
1979 la ricerca fu ripetuta, su incarico della NATO, dal meteorologo
berlinese Bernd Gutsche, con un modello di diffusione
matematico-meteorologico. Risultato: "A seconda delle condizioni
meteorologiche una nube di fosgene si puo' estendere fino a sei, ma
anche
oltre 100 chilometri, nel qual caso nella zona interna morirebbe un
abitante
su due. Nel caso peggiore potrebbe essere investita un area di circa
1200
chilometri quadrati" (Gutsche, 1980, pag. 217). La quantita' critica di
questi prodotti chimici esplosivi in grado che potrebbe causare una tale
dinamica catastrofica, consiste di 2 tonnellate. Quanti morti o feriti
si
aspettava la NATO nell'aprile del999 dal suo attacco alcomplesso
chimico?
Evidentemente dobbiamo riconsiderare il nostro concetto di guerra
chimica.
Guerre chimiche moderne non vengono piu' condotte con armi chimiche
primarie,
bensi' secondarie, cioe' attraverso il bombardamento, secondo le
condizioni
ecologiche e metereologiche, di impianti contenenti sostanze e/o energie
pericolose.
Dal momento che i pianificatori di guerra della NATO conoscevano la
quantita'
critica di questi prodotti chimici, che agiscono in modo simile alle
armi
chimiche se liberate durante un attacco, io rinfaccio loro che proprio
l'
incontrollabilita' delle ricadute chimiche di natura militare e' insita
nell'
elemento tattico essenziale della condotta di guerra.
Questa ipotesi e' suffragata dall' ufficio federale per l'ambiente
attraverso
la seguente congettura sulla prognosi di ricaduta:
"generalmente si presuppone che attraverso la liberazione, incendio,
esplosione di sostanze pericolose :
-in impianti di raffinerie petrolifere sono coinvolti tutti i derivati
compreso l'idrocarburo policiclico;
-in fabbriche di concimi sono coinvolti in particolare ammoniaca, acido
nitrico, fosfati; in caso di incendi bisogna mettere in conto grandi
quantita' di gas nitroso;
-inoltre nel caso di serbatoi di carburante e di magazzini di gas
liquido
bisogna tenere conto eventualmente di notevoli danni a causa di
esplosioni
con ricaduta di detriti, inoltre gli idrocarburi liquidi liberati
provocano
inquinamento del terreno e dell'acqua;[...]
-in impianti chimici puo' sussistere un evidente pericolo a causa delle
qualita' specifiche dei materiali coinvolti." (UBA,a.a. O, S 4).
I materiali pericolosi possono essere immessi nell'atmosfera, nel
terreno, e
percio' sia nelle acque sotterranee che in quelle di superficie.
"Incendi di
grandi dimensioni causano, sulla base della termica connessa, un ampio ,
sconfinato spargimento di materiale dannoso." (UBA, ebda. S.5).
Il caso Pancevo spiega infine il perche' la NATO riteneva di poter
raggiungere il proprio fine strategico solo coi metodi e mezzi della
condotta bellica ecologica. Essa causo' premeditatamente dei danni
collaterali che coinvolsero vaste aree; tali danni parimenti permangono
piu'
a lungo e percio' mettono seriamente in pericolo la salute della
popolazione:
e questo con l'intenzione di far insorgere la popolazione contro il
governo
da essa scelto. "La campagna aerea della NATO [sic!] ha contribuito
militarmente al cedimento finale di Slobodan Milosevic. Il presidente
jugoslavo si e' accorto infine che la popolazione non era pronta a
sopportare
piu' a lungo le privazioni della vita quotidiana causate dagli attacchi
ad
obiettivi di rilievo militare. (Deutscher Bundestag, Drs. 14/1788, p 4).
Solo dalla prospettiva di una condotta di guerra totale devono sembrare
rilevanti dal punto di vista militare tutti gli obiettivi naturali e
sociali. Ma solo in questa prospettiva. Per gli uomini colpiti dalla
guerra,
invece, l'affermazione del nostro governo federale secondo cui gli
attacchi
aerei NATO "non sono stati rivolti ne' contro la popolazione ne' contro
l'
economia jugoslava" (Deutscher Bundestag, Drs.14/1788, p.4) suona come
una
presa in giro delle loro sofferenze per la guerra .
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Most za Beograd - Un ponte per Belgrado in terra di Bari
>
> Associazione culturale di solidarietà con la popolazione jugoslava
>
> c/o RdB, via M. Cristina di Savoia 40, BARI - tel/fax 0805562663
>
> e-mail: ponte@... sito Web: www.isf.it/ponte - CF:93242490725
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> L?associazione opera per la diffusione di una cultura critica della
> guerra e il riavvicinamento tra i popoli con culture, etnie, religioni
> ed usanze diverse al fine di una equa e pacifica convivenza. Si
> impegna per la diffusione di un forte senso di solidarietà nei
> confronti della popolazione jugoslava e degli altri popoli vittime
> della guerra. Ripudia la guerra come mezzo di risoluzione delle
> controversie internazionali.
>
> In particolare l?associazione:
>
> - promuove, attraverso raccolte di fondi e donazioni iniziative di
> solidarietà nei confronti delle vittime della guerra nel campo
> sanitario, scolastico, alimentare e in ogni altro campo.
>
> - promuove iniziative di sostegno a distanza di bambini jugoslavi
>
> - promuove iniziative di gemellaggio tra enti locali italiani e
> jugoslavi, tra scuole italiane e jugoslave
>
> - promuove iniziative volte a far cessare immediatamente ogni forma di
> embargo nei confronti della Repubblica federale jugoslava e della
> repubblica serba.
>
> - promuove scambi culturali e di amicizia verso il popolo jugoslavo
>
> - promuove iniziative di conoscenza della storia e della cultura
> jugoslave
>
>
>
>
>
> L?associazione si riunisce abitualmente ogni mercoledì dalle ore 18.00
> alle 20.30
>
>
>
>
> INIZIATIVE DI SOLIDARIETA? CON I LAVORATORI DELLA ZASTAVA DI
> KRAGUJEVAC BOMBARDATA DALLA NATO
>
>
>
> Per tre settimane, dal 7 al 26 febbraio, tre delegati del sindacato
> dei lavoratori della Zastava, Milan Doncic (segretario del sindacato
> dei lavoratori della Zastava Iveco), Rajka Veljovic (responsabile
> dell?organizzazione delle ?adozioni a distanza?) e Sreten Milicevic
> (presidente del sindacato dei lavoratori della Zastava automobili)
> sono stati in Italia per un lungo giro di incontri-dibattito promosso
> dalla nostra associazione, Most za Beograd ? Un ponte per Belgrado in
> terra di Bari, in collaborazione con il coordinamento nazionale RSU,
> la FIOM di Lecco e di Brescia, associazioni e comitati locali..
>
> Con grande dignità e fermezza hanno portato in tante città ? Bari,
> Bisceglie, Putignano, Conversano, Taranto, Napoli, Roma, Firenze,
> Bologna, Reggio Emilia, Milano, Lecco, Brescia, Torino, Val di Susa,
> Savona, Mestre, Verona, Bolzano - la voce dei lavoratori di quella
> che, prima della distruzione della NATO, era la più grande fabbrica di
> automobili dei Balcani, hanno parlato delle enormi difficoltà di
> sopravvivenza di una popolazione operaia costretta, per la
> disoccupazione, a vivere con un sussidio della fabbrica equivalente a
> 15 marchi al mese, ed un sussidio statale ? in denaro o generi di
> prima necessità ? di altri 20. E dell?aumento delle malattie e della
> mortalità - i funerali cominciano all?alba e non sono ancora finiti al
> tramonto, ci raccontava Sreten - soprattutto tra i bambini e gli
> anziani a causa del freddo e dell?inquinamento provocato dalle bombe
> all?uranio impoverito e dalla terribile miscela di sostanze chimiche
> sprigionatasi con la distruzione della fabbrica. L?embargo, decretato
> dall?Unione Europea, priva la Jugoslavia, le cui industrie
> chimico-farmaceutiche sono state distrutte dai bombardamenti della
> NATO, anche della possibilità di acquistare i medicinali più comuni,
> dagli antibiotici al siero antitetanico.
>
> Contro l?embargo nei confronti della RFJ, voluto dai governi della UE
> e della NATO per imporre in Jugoslavia un governo ad essi gradito, si
> sono pronunciate le assemblee e sono stati sottoscritti appelli.
>
> Ma i tre delegati hanno testimoniato anche della straordinaria volontà
> dei lavoratori di resistere e ricostruire. Durante tutta l?estate,
> nonostante le alluvioni che hanno trasformato la fabbrica in un
> ammasso di fango e rottami, tutti gli operai, con turni ininterrotti,
> hanno sgomberato le macerie e ripulito i capannoni, salvando il
> salvabile di impianti e macchinari. E? stato così possibile riprendere
> la produzione di autovetture, anche se sinora solo in misura pressoché
> simbolica: rispetto alle 20.000 auto al mese che si producevano nel
> 1990, prima degli embargo contro la repubblica jugoslava, se ne sono
> prodotte a gennaio circa 500. In questa produzione diretta sono
> impegnati circa il 20% dei lavoratori; un altro 10% è impegnato nel
> lavoro di ricostruzione; il loro salario equivale a circa 70-80 marchi
> al mese. Il restante 70% - tra le cui famiglie sono selezionati i
> bambini più bisognosi per la ?adozione a distanza? - deve cercare di
> sopravvivere con il sussidio di disoccupazione.
>
> Gli incontri si sono svolti in sale pubbliche, sedi sindacali, scuole
> e fabbriche. In diverse occasioni è stato proiettato un video prodotto
> dai lavoratori della Zastava e il video di Fulvio Grimaldi ?Serbi da
> morire?, denuncia impietosa dei disastri provocati sulla vita degli
> uomini e sull?ambiente dall?aggressione della NATO. Nel complesso, gli
> incontri, hanno avuto, al tempo stesso, il carattere della
> testimonianza diretta e viva, della denuncia della ?guerra
> umanitaria?? grazie alla quale sono stati espulsi dal Kosovo 350.000
> persone, tra serbi, rom e altre minoranze etniche ? e della promozione
> di iniziative di solidarietà.
>
> A questo proposito vi sono stati incontri anche con rappresentanti
> istituzionali degli enti locali (sindaci, assessori, consiglieri) e
> con dirigenti sindacali. I delegati della Zastava hanno ribadito con
> fermezza, sulla base del principio di autodeterminazione, che le
> iniziative di solidarietà non possono essere volte a condizionare la
> situazione politica del loro paese: devono essere i lavoratori e i
> cittadini jugoslavi a decidere in piena autonomia, senza pressioni e
> ricatti economici dei governi dei paesi aderenti alla NATO, chi e come
> governerà il loro paese. Va respinta nettamente la pretesa di stampo
> neocoloniale di imporre dall?esterno governo e governanti. Al
> vergognoso ricatto dell?embargo si oppongono la resistenza e la
> dignità di un popolo che non intende piegarsi ai diktat della NATO.
>
>
>
> Sulla base dei dati forniti dai delegati della Zastava (salari per chi
> è in produzione di 70-80 marchi, sussidi di disoccupazione di 15
> marchi) si comprende bene quanto sia significativo il nostro
> contributo di solidarietà di 50 DM al mese per le famiglie dei
> lavoratori della Zastava (?adozione a distanza?) e come sia importante
> estendere e sviluppare queste iniziative di solidarietà.
>
> Questo invito è già stato accolto da alcuni sostenitori di Bolzano,
> che si sono fatti essi stessi promotori in prima persona di una
> campagna di ?adozioni a distanza? e da diversi altri che, oltre la
> loro adesione, hanno portato quella dei loro compagni di lavoro, dei
> loro amici, dei loro conoscenti. Sta crescendo anche il numero delle
> ?adozioni? collettive di classi scolastiche, circoli aziendali,
> circoli e associazioni schieratisi contro la guerra. Grazie a questo
> impegno di singoli e di gruppi, la nostra associazione ha già
> realizzato 130 ?adozioni? e dovrebbe giungere entro marzo ? quando
> saranno consegnati ai lavoratori della Zastava altri contributi di
> solidarietà ? a realizzarne 160.
>
> Anche il libro di ?poeti dilettanti? (Gli assassini della tenerezza ?
> poesie contro la guerra alla Jugoslavia, con presentazione di Fulvio
> Grimaldi, ed. La Città del Sole, Napoli, 1999, L. 15.000), sta
> contribuendo, oltre che alla critica nei confronti della guerra alla
> Jugoslavia, alla campagna di solidarietà. Un ringraziamento
> particolare va all?editore Sergio Manes, che si è accollato tutte le
> spese editoriali e di stampa, facendo sì che l?intero ricavato delle
> vendite possa essere devoluto ai lavoratori della Zastava (il prezzo
> di copertina del libro corrisponde ad un sussidio mensile di
> disoccupazione...). Finora tra Bari (regione Puglia), Napoli, Roma,
> Lecco, Brescia, Bolzano sono state vendute 800 copie. Almeno
> altrettante sono in circolazione (in parte anche attraverso
> l?ordinaria distribuzione editoriale, che sottrarrà purtroppo una
> consistente percentuale).
>
> Altre somme per i lavoratori della Zastava e le ?adozioni a distanza?
> sono state raccolte con contributi individuali o iniziative locali (da
> quelle estive, con la mostra itinerante nelle piazze di Puglia Hanno
> fatto un deserto e lo chiamano pace, alla serata di solidarietà
> organizzata dagli studenti del Liceo ?Scacchi? di Bari, a quella
> organizzata dal Servizio Civile Internazionale ai ?Giardini di
> Atrebil? di Bari, a quella di ?Otium? di Bari o del circolo del PRC di
> Gravina). In tutto, dall?inizio della nostra attività (luglio ?99)
> abbiamo raccolto e consegnato ai lavoratori della Zastava 48.500.000
> lire. La raccolta di contributi è cresciuta notevolmente negli ultimi
> due mesi, frutto del lavoro di sensibilizzazione svolto
> dall?associazione attraverso conferenze, incontri, proiezione di
> video, mostre fotografiche. Al momento della loro partenza da Bari
> abbiamo consegnato ai delegati della Zastava 31.900.000 lire (è solo
> la somma raccolta dall?associazione di Bari: altri contributi essi
> hanno ricevuto da Napoli, Bolzano, ecc.): una somma irrilevante se
> confrontata al costo di uno solo delle migliaia di missili NATO che
> hanno seminato terrore e morte in Jugoslavia; eppure una cifra
> significativa, che testimonia la condanna della guerra e i sentimenti
> di solidarietà di tanti cittadini italiani (e del mondo: ci sono
> pervenuti contributi anche dalla Germania). Oltre questo contributo in
> denaro, sono stati raccolti e consegnati, sia in precedenza che
> ultimamente, medicinali (raccolti a Bari e in gran parte dal comitato
> di solidarietà di Napoli).
>
--
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
> Most za Beograd - Un ponte per Belgrado in terra di Bari
>
> Associazione culturale di solidarietà con la popolazione jugoslava
>
> c/o RdB, via M. Cristina di Savoia 40, BARI - tel/fax 0805562663
>
> e-mail: ponte@... sito Web: www.isf.it/ponte - CF:93242490725
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> L?associazione opera per la diffusione di una cultura critica della
> guerra e il riavvicinamento tra i popoli con culture, etnie, religioni
> ed usanze diverse al fine di una equa e pacifica convivenza. Si
> impegna per la diffusione di un forte senso di solidarietà nei
> confronti della popolazione jugoslava e degli altri popoli vittime
> della guerra. Ripudia la guerra come mezzo di risoluzione delle
> controversie internazionali.
>
> In particolare l?associazione:
>
> - promuove, attraverso raccolte di fondi e donazioni iniziative di
> solidarietà nei confronti delle vittime della guerra nel campo
> sanitario, scolastico, alimentare e in ogni altro campo.
>
> - promuove iniziative di sostegno a distanza di bambini jugoslavi
>
> - promuove iniziative di gemellaggio tra enti locali italiani e
> jugoslavi, tra scuole italiane e jugoslave
>
> - promuove iniziative volte a far cessare immediatamente ogni forma di
> embargo nei confronti della Repubblica federale jugoslava e della
> repubblica serba.
>
> - promuove scambi culturali e di amicizia verso il popolo jugoslavo
>
> - promuove iniziative di conoscenza della storia e della cultura
> jugoslave
>
>
>
>
>
> L?associazione si riunisce abitualmente ogni mercoledì dalle ore 18.00
> alle 20.30
>
>
>
>
> INIZIATIVE DI SOLIDARIETA? CON I LAVORATORI DELLA ZASTAVA DI
> KRAGUJEVAC BOMBARDATA DALLA NATO
>
>
>
> Per tre settimane, dal 7 al 26 febbraio, tre delegati del sindacato
> dei lavoratori della Zastava, Milan Doncic (segretario del sindacato
> dei lavoratori della Zastava Iveco), Rajka Veljovic (responsabile
> dell?organizzazione delle ?adozioni a distanza?) e Sreten Milicevic
> (presidente del sindacato dei lavoratori della Zastava automobili)
> sono stati in Italia per un lungo giro di incontri-dibattito promosso
> dalla nostra associazione, Most za Beograd ? Un ponte per Belgrado in
> terra di Bari, in collaborazione con il coordinamento nazionale RSU,
> la FIOM di Lecco e di Brescia, associazioni e comitati locali..
>
> Con grande dignità e fermezza hanno portato in tante città ? Bari,
> Bisceglie, Putignano, Conversano, Taranto, Napoli, Roma, Firenze,
> Bologna, Reggio Emilia, Milano, Lecco, Brescia, Torino, Val di Susa,
> Savona, Mestre, Verona, Bolzano - la voce dei lavoratori di quella
> che, prima della distruzione della NATO, era la più grande fabbrica di
> automobili dei Balcani, hanno parlato delle enormi difficoltà di
> sopravvivenza di una popolazione operaia costretta, per la
> disoccupazione, a vivere con un sussidio della fabbrica equivalente a
> 15 marchi al mese, ed un sussidio statale ? in denaro o generi di
> prima necessità ? di altri 20. E dell?aumento delle malattie e della
> mortalità - i funerali cominciano all?alba e non sono ancora finiti al
> tramonto, ci raccontava Sreten - soprattutto tra i bambini e gli
> anziani a causa del freddo e dell?inquinamento provocato dalle bombe
> all?uranio impoverito e dalla terribile miscela di sostanze chimiche
> sprigionatasi con la distruzione della fabbrica. L?embargo, decretato
> dall?Unione Europea, priva la Jugoslavia, le cui industrie
> chimico-farmaceutiche sono state distrutte dai bombardamenti della
> NATO, anche della possibilità di acquistare i medicinali più comuni,
> dagli antibiotici al siero antitetanico.
>
> Contro l?embargo nei confronti della RFJ, voluto dai governi della UE
> e della NATO per imporre in Jugoslavia un governo ad essi gradito, si
> sono pronunciate le assemblee e sono stati sottoscritti appelli.
>
> Ma i tre delegati hanno testimoniato anche della straordinaria volontà
> dei lavoratori di resistere e ricostruire. Durante tutta l?estate,
> nonostante le alluvioni che hanno trasformato la fabbrica in un
> ammasso di fango e rottami, tutti gli operai, con turni ininterrotti,
> hanno sgomberato le macerie e ripulito i capannoni, salvando il
> salvabile di impianti e macchinari. E? stato così possibile riprendere
> la produzione di autovetture, anche se sinora solo in misura pressoché
> simbolica: rispetto alle 20.000 auto al mese che si producevano nel
> 1990, prima degli embargo contro la repubblica jugoslava, se ne sono
> prodotte a gennaio circa 500. In questa produzione diretta sono
> impegnati circa il 20% dei lavoratori; un altro 10% è impegnato nel
> lavoro di ricostruzione; il loro salario equivale a circa 70-80 marchi
> al mese. Il restante 70% - tra le cui famiglie sono selezionati i
> bambini più bisognosi per la ?adozione a distanza? - deve cercare di
> sopravvivere con il sussidio di disoccupazione.
>
> Gli incontri si sono svolti in sale pubbliche, sedi sindacali, scuole
> e fabbriche. In diverse occasioni è stato proiettato un video prodotto
> dai lavoratori della Zastava e il video di Fulvio Grimaldi ?Serbi da
> morire?, denuncia impietosa dei disastri provocati sulla vita degli
> uomini e sull?ambiente dall?aggressione della NATO. Nel complesso, gli
> incontri, hanno avuto, al tempo stesso, il carattere della
> testimonianza diretta e viva, della denuncia della ?guerra
> umanitaria?? grazie alla quale sono stati espulsi dal Kosovo 350.000
> persone, tra serbi, rom e altre minoranze etniche ? e della promozione
> di iniziative di solidarietà.
>
> A questo proposito vi sono stati incontri anche con rappresentanti
> istituzionali degli enti locali (sindaci, assessori, consiglieri) e
> con dirigenti sindacali. I delegati della Zastava hanno ribadito con
> fermezza, sulla base del principio di autodeterminazione, che le
> iniziative di solidarietà non possono essere volte a condizionare la
> situazione politica del loro paese: devono essere i lavoratori e i
> cittadini jugoslavi a decidere in piena autonomia, senza pressioni e
> ricatti economici dei governi dei paesi aderenti alla NATO, chi e come
> governerà il loro paese. Va respinta nettamente la pretesa di stampo
> neocoloniale di imporre dall?esterno governo e governanti. Al
> vergognoso ricatto dell?embargo si oppongono la resistenza e la
> dignità di un popolo che non intende piegarsi ai diktat della NATO.
>
>
>
> Sulla base dei dati forniti dai delegati della Zastava (salari per chi
> è in produzione di 70-80 marchi, sussidi di disoccupazione di 15
> marchi) si comprende bene quanto sia significativo il nostro
> contributo di solidarietà di 50 DM al mese per le famiglie dei
> lavoratori della Zastava (?adozione a distanza?) e come sia importante
> estendere e sviluppare queste iniziative di solidarietà.
>
> Questo invito è già stato accolto da alcuni sostenitori di Bolzano,
> che si sono fatti essi stessi promotori in prima persona di una
> campagna di ?adozioni a distanza? e da diversi altri che, oltre la
> loro adesione, hanno portato quella dei loro compagni di lavoro, dei
> loro amici, dei loro conoscenti. Sta crescendo anche il numero delle
> ?adozioni? collettive di classi scolastiche, circoli aziendali,
> circoli e associazioni schieratisi contro la guerra. Grazie a questo
> impegno di singoli e di gruppi, la nostra associazione ha già
> realizzato 130 ?adozioni? e dovrebbe giungere entro marzo ? quando
> saranno consegnati ai lavoratori della Zastava altri contributi di
> solidarietà ? a realizzarne 160.
>
> Anche il libro di ?poeti dilettanti? (Gli assassini della tenerezza ?
> poesie contro la guerra alla Jugoslavia, con presentazione di Fulvio
> Grimaldi, ed. La Città del Sole, Napoli, 1999, L. 15.000), sta
> contribuendo, oltre che alla critica nei confronti della guerra alla
> Jugoslavia, alla campagna di solidarietà. Un ringraziamento
> particolare va all?editore Sergio Manes, che si è accollato tutte le
> spese editoriali e di stampa, facendo sì che l?intero ricavato delle
> vendite possa essere devoluto ai lavoratori della Zastava (il prezzo
> di copertina del libro corrisponde ad un sussidio mensile di
> disoccupazione...). Finora tra Bari (regione Puglia), Napoli, Roma,
> Lecco, Brescia, Bolzano sono state vendute 800 copie. Almeno
> altrettante sono in circolazione (in parte anche attraverso
> l?ordinaria distribuzione editoriale, che sottrarrà purtroppo una
> consistente percentuale).
>
> Altre somme per i lavoratori della Zastava e le ?adozioni a distanza?
> sono state raccolte con contributi individuali o iniziative locali (da
> quelle estive, con la mostra itinerante nelle piazze di Puglia Hanno
> fatto un deserto e lo chiamano pace, alla serata di solidarietà
> organizzata dagli studenti del Liceo ?Scacchi? di Bari, a quella
> organizzata dal Servizio Civile Internazionale ai ?Giardini di
> Atrebil? di Bari, a quella di ?Otium? di Bari o del circolo del PRC di
> Gravina). In tutto, dall?inizio della nostra attività (luglio ?99)
> abbiamo raccolto e consegnato ai lavoratori della Zastava 48.500.000
> lire. La raccolta di contributi è cresciuta notevolmente negli ultimi
> due mesi, frutto del lavoro di sensibilizzazione svolto
> dall?associazione attraverso conferenze, incontri, proiezione di
> video, mostre fotografiche. Al momento della loro partenza da Bari
> abbiamo consegnato ai delegati della Zastava 31.900.000 lire (è solo
> la somma raccolta dall?associazione di Bari: altri contributi essi
> hanno ricevuto da Napoli, Bolzano, ecc.): una somma irrilevante se
> confrontata al costo di uno solo delle migliaia di missili NATO che
> hanno seminato terrore e morte in Jugoslavia; eppure una cifra
> significativa, che testimonia la condanna della guerra e i sentimenti
> di solidarietà di tanti cittadini italiani (e del mondo: ci sono
> pervenuti contributi anche dalla Germania). Oltre questo contributo in
> denaro, sono stati raccolti e consegnati, sia in precedenza che
> ultimamente, medicinali (raccolti a Bari e in gran parte dal comitato
> di solidarietà di Napoli).
>
--
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
REPUBBLICA CECA
* Lanci di uova contro Madeleine Albright in visita a Brno
* In vista blocchi stradali da parte degli agricoltori
* Praga, conferenza "UN ANNO DOPO: cause, coerenza e conseguenze della
crisi del Kosovo". La relazione di uno dei partecipanti (in italiano) ed
il dispaccio della Tanjug
UCRAINA
Come riportato in un messaggio precedente
( http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/43.html? ) il Parlamento
ucraino, che ha una maggioranza di sinistra, all'inizio di febbraio e'
stato messo nella impossibilita' di svolgere il proprio ruolo
istituzionale da parte delle forze di polizia fedeli al presidente
filo-occidentale Kuchma (vittorioso, grazie a brogli, nelle recenti
elezioni), ed ai parlamentari della minoranza di destra che hanno
occupato l'aula.
Ecco le ragioni, ed i risultati, di questo colpo di stato:
* Visita a Kiev degli alti ufficiali NATO; comunicato congiunto
* E' partita la contro-riforma agraria
* E' partita la colossale svendita delle imprese pubbliche
* L'analisi della Stratfor Intelligence sul processo di inglobamento
dell'Ucraina nella NATO in funzione antirussa
NOTA: la gran parte dei contributi sono stati diffusi dalla mailing list
STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
---
LANCI DI UOVA
Protesters Throw Eggs at Albright
By Nadia Rybarova
Associated Press Writer
Monday, March 6, 2000; 8:01 a.m. EST
BRNO, Czech Republic –– Shouting "death to American imperialism,"
two men hurled eggs at Secretary of State Madeleine Albright today after
she told a university audience that defense of common values sometimes
requires countries to pay a financial price.
After finishing a speech to an enthusiastic audience at Tomas Masaryk
University in this industrial city 125 miles southeast of Prague,
Albright was milling about in the crowded entrance hall as bystanders
cheered.
Suddenly, two men shouted "death to American imperialism" and began
hurling eggs. Albright was spattered slightly with bits of egg but most
of them were intercepted by her bodyguards, said a U.S. official who
asked that his name not be published.
She was rushed upstairs quickly before leaving for another appearance.
Police Capt. Zdenek Lubas said several people were detained for
questioning but declined to give further details.
The incident marred an otherwise warm reception here on the second day
of Albright's four-day visit to the land of her birth.
Before the speech, she met privately with about a dozen students from
the Gypsy minority to discuss affirmative action and other ideas for
improving their conditions. She also received a gold medal Wednesday
from the university named after a Czech president who was born near here
100 years ago.
During her speech, Albright referred to a pledge by Czech President
Vaclav Havel to cancel a $30 million sale of cooling duct parts by a
Czech company to Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Although Iran insist the plant is for peaceful production of
electricity, the United States fears the Iranians are trying to develop
a nuclear weapons program.
Noting that this former Soviet Bloc state joined NATO last year,
Albright said preventing the spread of nuclear weapons was a high
priority of the Western alliance.
As with any goal worth achieving, it is not without cost," Albright
said, speaking in English. "To keep the best technology from falling
into the wrong hands, American firms are required to forgo many
potentially profitable contracts. But a similar responsibility rests
upon the shoulders of all who pledged to defend the best interests of
the Euro-Atlantic community."
Albright said Washington has urged all its allies to "meet that
responsibility so that our common security is protected and the future
safer for our children and theirs."
Iran denies any nuclear weapons program and insists that the power plant
at Bushehr is simply for the peaceful generation of electricity.
"We consider the campaign around Bushehr conducted by the Czech
government and the local media a gift to the American minister Madeleine
Albright linked to her visit," Sharif Khodai, the acting Iranian
ambassador to Prague, told the newspaper Pravo.
Later, Albright was to join Havel for a visit to the nearby town of
Hodonin, where Masaryk was born. Masaryk led Czechoslovakia from 1918
until 1935 and was also a close friend of President Woodrow Wilson.
Albright has urged Czechs to follow the example of Masaryk, a towering
figure in Eastern European democratic history. She has said they should
pursue his goals here and throughout the region, including Yugoslavia.
Using that theme, U.S. officials said Albright has urged the Czechs to
undertake judicial reform and encourage tolerance for the country's
Gypsy, or Roma, minority.
"Masaryk's dream was to have Europe whole and free," Albright said
Sunday at a joint news conference with Havel in Prague Castle. She
quoted Masaryk as saying democracy was not an act but a "pursuit" that
must be continually developed.
She has also encouraged the Czech Republic to become more involved in
Western moves to bring democracy to Yugoslavia's main republic, Serbia,
and to help promote ethnic stability in Kosovo, a province of Serbia.
After visiting Masaryk's shrine, Albright was to return today to Prague,
where she was scheduled to hold a roundtable discussion with Eastern
European non-governmental organizations to discuss ways of promoting
democratization in Serbia.
Albright said Sunday that the people of Serbia "do not deserve" an
autocratic leader like President Slobodan Milosevic.
In an interview with Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, she said the
United States had been urging the Serbian opposition movement to end its
divisions and prove to Serbs that "they represent an alternate choice."
Albright also said democratically minded leaders from former Soviet Bloc
countries could offer advice to opposition figures in Serbia on how to
unite in the face of authoritarian rule.
Albright's father, Josef Korbel, a Czech diplomat, fled with his wife
and children to London as Germany took control of Czechoslovakia at the
onset of World War II. When the communists took over Czechoslovakia in
1948, the family then migrated to the United States.
After the fall of communism here, the Czech and Slovak republics split
into two countries in 1993.
---
BLOCCHI STRADALI
(The Czech Republic is held up as a showcase and
prototype for the new EU-style privatized Eastern
European economy. How well's it's working - for the
populace, anyway - is indicated below...."Agricultural
production last year was 14 pct. higher than in 1998,
but at the same time revenue of farmers fell by Kc15bn
[$1=36.9 Koruna/Kc]....[T]he main reasons for the
strike are the non-payment of wages to employees,
growing unemployment...and fear [concerning] social
and pension reforms.")
* Farmers to strike by blocking Prague motorways
PRAGUE, Mar 7, 2000 -- (CTK - Czech News Agency) The
Association of Independent Trade Unions (ASO) has
declared a warning strike for Wednesday, 12:00 noon,
in protest against the pertinent authorities' failure
to solve social problems, ASO chairman Bohumir Dufek
said at a press conference today.
Farmers will block some Prague motorways for half an
hour. Dufek did not specify what motorways. "We will
block a certain Prague motorway. Farmers have no other
option how to call attention to their problems," said
Dufek, adding that the unions have enough people to do
this. He would not give any details because, as he
said, he wanted to protect personal safety of
participants in the protest.
Agricultural production last year was 14 pct higher
than in 1998 but at the same time revenues of farmers
fell by Kc15bn, the Agricultural Chamber president
Vaclav Hlavacek said at the beginning of March. Dufek
said that the main reasons for the strike are the non-
payment of wages to employees, growing unemployment
due to the non-existence of a plan to help the Czech
Republic out of the current economic crisis and fear
from the prepared social and pension reforms.
The Trade Union Association of Railway Employees will
allegedly join the strike, halting railway passenger
transport for a quarter of an hour at 12:00 noon. ASO
groups together eight trade union associations with
around 230,000 employees. ((c) 2000 CTK - Czech News
Agency)
---
PRAGA: CONFERENZA
REMARK: this message contains an outline of the Conference which was
held in Prague, 26-28/2/2000. It is sent for information to the whole
italian "Committee of Scientists against the War" mailing list, to the
responsibles of the Italian Section of the "Clark" Tribunal for NATO
crimes, and to the participants' addresses gathered by the author at the
Conference itself.
AUTORE: Andrea Martocchia (Comitato Scienziate/i contro la guerra,
sezione italiana Tribunale contro i crimini della NATO, Coordinamento
Romano per la Jugoslavia) <martok@...>
TITOLO: "Un anno dopo: cause, coerenza e conseguenze della crisi del
Kosovo"
ORGANIZZATORI: "Res Publica" e' il gruppo promotore, di area
socialdemocratica (cfr. http://www.publica.cz/infoservis.htm )
INVITATI E PRESENTI: di circa 1000 realta', ceche e straniere, invitate
erano presenti solo 35 persone. Hanno "brillato" per la loro assenza ad
esempio gli italiani (solo due presenti, nonostante che l'invito avesse
girato in tutto l'arcipelago pacifista grazie alle mailing list di
Peacelink), sia tutti i paesi balcanici, ad eccezione ovviamente della
RF
di Jugoslavia.
NOTE PRELIMINARI: Ho partecipato solamente alla sessione della domenica
27/2, insieme a R. Gabriele (in rappresentanza della Fondazione Nino
Pasti
per la pace e l'indipendenza dei popoli e dello stesso Tribunale
"Clark").
Inoltre purtroppo non possedevo un registratore, ed ho pertanto preso
solo
appunti a mano di quello che mi sembrava piu' rilevante. Gli
organizzatori
pero' si sono ripromessi di mettere sul loro sito internet i contributi
che hanno raccolto.
RELAZIONI
La prima relazione che ho sentito era un contributo di carattere
tecnico sull'inquinamento causato dai bombardamenti, tenuto da un
professore di Chimica dell'Universita' di Brno il quale ha praticamente
riassunto quello che a riguardo e' contenuto nel libro "Imbrogli di
guerra" - pur senza conoscere il libro...
Un giovane di Pancevo ha poi letto un testo sulla situazione nella sua
citta' dopo i bombardamenti; tra le cose che mi sono rimaste impresse la
sua sottolineatura di come la NATO sia riuscita a far deteriorare i
rapporti interetnici in quella zona ed in tutta la multinazionale RF di
Jugoslavia.
Io stesso ho poi preso la parola per presentare il nostro Comitato, il
libro e dare la mia valutazione dello stato del movimento contro la
guerra. Ho parlato del lavoro della sezione italiana del Tribunale
"Clark"
e di come la attuale classe dirigente italiana abbia stracciato i valori
fondanti della Repubblica, nonche' quelli che la dovrebbero
caratterizzare
e differenziare rispetto alla opposizione di destra.
Un rappresentante dell'ambasciata della RFJ, dopo aver lamentato
l'assenza
dei rappresentanti degli altri paesi balcanici (che avrebbero potuto
raccontare le conseguenze per le loro societa' e per le loro economie
della politica "umanitaria" della NATO, ad es. i rumeni con il Danubio
bloccato), ha presentato una serie di documenti di fonte ufficiale
jugoslava contenenti
- gli effetti dei bombardamenti NATO ("White Book", cfr.
http://www.mfa.gov.yu/ oppure http://www1.mfa.gov.yu/ )
- l'elencazione degli atti terroristici e di violenza avvenuti a partire
dalla occupazione del territorio da parte delle truppe KFOR (circa 3500
azioni, di cui 110 contro i rom e circa 80 contro albanesi-kosovari
"traditori" come quelli iscritti al "nazicomunista" Partito Socialista
Serbo) che hanno causato in tutto 793 morti invisibili sui nostri
mass-media
- la distruzione di circa 80 chiese serbo-ortodosse, alcune delle quali
sotto tutela UNESCO.
Egli ha inoltre raccontato in che modo siano stati stravolti gli
equilibri
demografici della regione a partire dagli anni 70 (per non risalire
indietro al periodo dell'occupazione nazifascista), ha stigmatizzato la
maniera coercitiva in cui la NATO sta inglobando tutti gli stati
dell'area
ovvero sta costringendo paesi come la Grecia a partecipare ad operazioni
che rifiuterebbero, ed ha indicato esplicitamente la lobby della grande
industria transnazionale come "burattinai" della NATO, lobby che e' a
sua
volta diretta "da chi detiene i capitali" attraverso organizzazioni come
la Trilateral ed il gruppo Bilderberg (cfr. www.bilderberg.org).
Poi ha parlato un biochimico ceco, poi una dottoressa inglese della
organizzazione IPPNW (Intern. Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear
War, premio Nobel 1995) sulla strategia occidentale, sulla frustazione
russa e sulla corsa al riarmo.
Un socialdemocratico ceco, che si e' detto "tradito dal comportamento
dei
leaders della Internazionale Socialista", ha poi espresso, con toni di
estrema amarezza, la delusione per il modo in cui le speranze
"democratiche" della svolta del '90 siano state umiliate. Lo stesso
presidente Havel sta mostrando di essere in prima fila nello
schieramento
guerrafondaio internazionale, con dichiarazioni di stampo pannelliano
che
lasciano quantomeno perplessi quelli che un tempo lo stimavano; pertanto
e' stato indicato anche lui come un "criminale di guerra" alla stregua
dei
D'Alema, Blair, Clinton, eccetera. Allo stesso modo e' stata
sottolineata
l'assenza di quegli intellettuali che tanto avevano lavorato per
abbattere
il vecchio sistema e "democratizzare" la societa'. Questi sono stati
indicati come "prostitute", mentre il clima culturale e' stato definito
"disperato". Quale democrazia, quando la NATO interviene contro il suo
stesso statuto?
Il professore e saggista Rajko Dolecek (autore dell'importante
"J'accuse",
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/ddj/Kosovo/articles/Dolecek.html ) a questo
proposito ha ricordato come la NATO abbia aggredito la Jugoslavia pochi
giorni dopo l'entrata della Rep. Ceca nell'organizzazione lasciando di
stucco (per usare un eufemismo...) tanti che pure non erano a priori
contrari all'entrata nella NATO. Dal punto di vista dei diritti umani,
ha detto Dolecek, la NATO e' come "una prostituta che predica la
verginita'".
Un attivista polacco di Cracovia, che ha raccontato di conoscere
personalmente alcuni familiari del Pontefice, ha poi contestato, con
libri
e citazioni alla mano, il ruolo della Chiesa cattolica e del papa. Ha
detto delle cose estremamente interessanti, sulle quali pero' non mi
dilungo: basti citare la frase del Cardinale Glemp (ricordate?...) che
all'inizio dei bombardamenti li ha paragonati ad "una frusta di Dio che
si
abbatte su quel paese". Gli ha fatto eco una militante ceca della
Christian Peace Conference la quale ha raccontato del "sentimento di
essere manipolate/i", dell'arroganza dell'Occidente e del fatto che la
chiesa cristiana ha "due gambe, quella occidentale (cattolica) e quella
orientale (ortodossa)" le quali hanno pari dignita' anche se i loro
leaders non ne vogliono sentir parlare.
C'e' poi stato uno scambio di vedute sull'apparente contrasto tra
sovranita' degli Stati e diritti umani, che e' stato giudicato "una
assurdita'" se a parlarne sono quelli che violano la prima dicendo di
voler proteggere i secondi, previo poi violarli molto piu'
pesantemente...
Si e' fatto riferimento ad una conferenza della Association of
Lawyers against Nuclear Weapons, tenutasi all'Aia durante i
bombardamenti,
nella quale i circa 7000 partecipanti avrebbero approvato a maggioranza
una risoluzione che dichiarava illegale l'aggressione della NATO. Questa
risoluzione e' stata soggetta ad un embargo (censura) informativo
completo
sui media di tutti i paesi. Infine, sempre Dolecek ha presentato un suo
ragionamento sul carattere, a suo dire, non imparziale ne' legale del
Tribunale dell'Aia per i crimini commessi sul territorio della RFSJ.
Infine, i rappresentanti tedeschi del Tribunale Clark (si veda
http://www.nato-tribunal.de/ ) hanno parlato della loro intenzione di
coordinare tutte le attivita' a livello europeo, facendole sfociare in
una
grande sessione europea a Berlino il 2 e 3 giugno prossimi, che
precedera'
di una ventina di giorni la seduta internazionale finale, che si terra'
a
New York, patrocinata dallo stesso Clark e dall'IAC.
Clark comunque sara' a Praga il 23 marzo prossimo, sulla via per
Belgrado
dove celebrera' il primo anniversario della aggressione; e proprio per
il
23 a Praga la Fondazione Pasti ha proposto che si tenga una iniziativa
europea di coordinamento di tutte le sezioni europee del Tribunale.
A latere della giornata ho ancora da registrare i colloqui avuti
separatamente con vari partecipanti, colloqui resi particolarmente
piacevoli dai boccali di birra Pilsen che avevamo dinanzi. In
particolare
i cechi mi hanno detto che, secondo loro, non e' affatto vero che con il
"cambiamento del regime" le persone si sentano adesso molto piu' libere
di
esprimersi, visto che ad esempio sulle questioni della guerra della NATO
c'e' molta paura a dire in pubblico la propria opinione. Questo benche'
la
stragrande maggioranza dlla popolazione ceca sia stata certamente
contraria alle bombe, anche se i mass-media locali (ormai completamente
in
mano a corporation straniere, in particolare tedesche, come tedeschi
sono
i proprietari della Skoda...) hanno dato una immagine falsificata di
questo sentimento collettivo a forza di bordate propagandistiche.
Insomma,
sotto questo profilo la situazione e' identica a quella italiana.
Da me interrogato su di una questione diversa, e cioe' se sapesse
qualcosa
del colpo di Stato che c'e' stato in Ucraina un mese fa nel silenzio
completo della stampa occidentale, uno slovacco ha detto che anche nel
suo
paese c'e' stata censura completa sulle informazioni (li' e' soprattutto
la Fondazione Soros che ha in mano i media) e questo e' assurdo visto
che
l'Ucraina e' un paese immenso, con circa 50 milioni di abitanti... Ma
lui
aveva avuto occasione di parlare direttamente con alcuni lavoratori
ucraini immigrati, che gli hanno raccontato di essere tornati ai loro
paesi d'origine per votare alle presidenziali (vinte di stretta misura
dal
filo-occidentale Kuchma, autore del golpe di cui sopra) e che al seggio
elettorale hanno trovato le schede gia' firmate ed il voto gia'
espresso,
nonche' una serie di loschi figuri a "controllare" che non succedessero
incidenti... Dietro a tutta questa "democrazia" (?) c'e' da una parte
l'inglobamento dell'Ucraina nella NATO attraverso la Partnership for
Peace, cui si erano opposti anche la maggioranza dei parlamentari, e
dall'altra la privatizzazione di centinaia di imprese e dei latifondi,
sulla quale era in atto un forte scontro politico. Meno chiaro quale sia
adesso la situazione, dopo che un mese fa il parlamento e' stato
occupato
dai partiti di destra e molti deputati di sinistra sono entrati in
sciopero della fame.
(...) Andrea Martocchia
www.serbia-info.com/news
Call for lifting embargo against FR Yugoslavia
February 29, 2000
Embargo on FRY has to be suspended
Prague, February 28th - Participants in the international conference
"One year after: the causes, links and consequences of the Kosovo
crisis," that ends today in Prague, have called on the international
community to lift the sanctions against Yugoslavia.
Representatives of ten European states at a three-day meeting, organized
by the non-governmental organization European Network for Peace and
Co-operation warned that the embargo, in general, in all countries where
it was applied, besides its inhumanity has proved to be completely
inefficient and politically shortsighted and that it affected most of
the population.
In today's closing discussions, it was concluded that NATO member
countries that have bombed for almost 80 days FR Yugoslavia, should pay
for the damages and rebuild everything they had destroyed in the
country.
Participants in the conferences stressed that without the inclusion of
FR Yugoslavia in all regional plans for the reconstruction of the
Balkans, of which that country is an inseparable and almost the most
important part, there will be no progress.
In the final document of the conference, which will be sent to the
Yugoslav Government and all other important international organizations,
institutions and governments of many countries, was included the protest
sent to UNESCO because of the destruction of Serbian Orthodox Churches
and monasteries in Kosovo and Metohija, as well as of facilities during
the bombing of all of Yugoslavia.
All the reports of the conference participants, among which were also
representatives of peace movements, and experts in different fields -
legal experts, historians, ecologists, biochemists, experts in atomic
energy - from Ireland, Great Britain, Yugoslavia, Poland, Italy,
Germany, Finland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, will be presented on
the Internet.
---------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------
UFFICIALI NATO
(Yet another step closer to Moscow, by the exact route used by Napoleon
and Hitler. But first NATO's 'expertise' will be employed to crush
internal opposition - a majority in both houses of parliament oppose
both Kuchma and NATO memebership, and were recently forcibly ousted from
a protest in the parliament building.
Reminiscent of Boris Yeltsin ringing the Russian parliament buiding with
tanks - remember that? - and firing on the legally elected speaker and
assistant speaker, killing perhaps hundreds of protesters holed up
there. Bill Clinton's and England's John Major's response to this -
truly unprecedented - destruction of a nation's parliament by the
military? They both applauded Boris Yeltsin as the "saviour of Russian
democracy," just as Clinton later commented on Yeltsin's first Chechnya
campaign by calling him "the Abraham Lincoln of his country."
But, quick, wipe all the above from your memory; we're not supposed to
remember any of those things.)
Tuesday February 29 8:42 AM ET
Ukraine Hosts Top NATO Officials, Eyes Closer Ties
By Dmitry Solovyov
KIEV, Ukraine (Reuters) - NATO leaders arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday for
a meeting that Kiev hopes will be a major step toward closer links
between the Western alliance and the former Soviet state seeking
integration into European structures.
``For the first time, 19 NATO ambassadors, the Secretary General and the
chief of the military committee come to Kiev together for this historic
meeting,´´ said Natalya Melnichuk, head of the NATO Information and
Documentation Center in Kiev.
Wednesday's meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, to be chaired by
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, will be the 16th since Ukraine
signed a partnership charter with the alliance in 1997 but the first to
be held in Kiev.
Joining NATO is not on the agenda for Ukraine and Wednesday's meeting is
unlikely to take any key decisions. But Robertson, who previously
visited Kiev in late January, will stay on for an extra day for a
program of unofficial visits.
NATO and Ukrainian officials say the very composition of the gathering
will clearly demonstrate Western support for Ukraine's aspirations to
integrate into European structures.
Ukraine Seeks Place In Europe Via Ties With Nato
``I think Ukraine wanted to have a meeting in Kiev because it gives us a
chance to move the relationship forward, it raises (Ukraine´s)
profile,´´ a NATO official said.
``Ukraine has this policy of seeking greater integration into European
structures, and NATO sees this as completely in line with its own view
of NATO-Ukraine relations.´´
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma won re-election last November on
pledges to boost market reforms, build good relations with Russia and
integrate into Europe.
Experts say that after his landslide victory the timing is good for
Kuchma to demonstrate Ukraine's European vocation and cordial relations
with NATO, despite a strong leftist opposition in the country of 50
million.
``During the election voters supported Ukraine´s European
choice,´´ said presidential spokesman Olexander Martynenko.
``Ukraine sees its relations with NATO as ties with the most influential
European structure which is an important element of stability and
security in the region.´´
MOSCOW CLOSELY WATCHES UKRAINE-NATO RELATIONS Wednesday's meeting in
Kiev is likely to be closely watched by Ukraine's former imperial master
Moscow which froze its ties with NATO during the alliance's air strikes
on Yugoslavia last year. It agreed to revive relations only earlier this
month.
Ukrainian officials, under the pressure of public opinion in the
country, did not support the air strikes but at the same time condemned
Serbia for ethnic cleansing of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and never
suspended its ties with NATO.
``Now the military operation in Kosovo is over, Ukraine is taking part
in the KFOR operation there and what´s more, the president who got
re-elected can go ahead and pursue a strong policy with NATO,´´ the
NATO official said.
Ukraine has been an active participant in NATO military exercises within
the alliance's Partnership for Peace program with non-member states.
Unlike Russia, Ukraine did not oppose the accession of its neighbors
Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to the alliance.
NATO-Ukraine Commission Statement
2 March 2000
Statement
Today the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine ratified the
Partnership
for Peace Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), following its submission by
the President of Ukraine. The NATO-Ukraine Commission salutes this
decision which will further enhance the opportunities for carrying out
joint NATO-Ukraine activities as well as Partnership for Peace
exercises. As already demonstrated in other Partner countries, the
ratification of the SOFA will allow Ukraine to enjoy full military and
economic benefits of the Partnership for Peace programme. NATO and
Ukraine, together with individual Allies and Partners, look forward to
taking advantage of the new possibilities which have been opened by this
important decision of the Verkhovna Rada, including the use of the
Yavoriv
Training Centre.
The NATO-Ukraine Commission also welcomes the ratification of the Open
Skies Treaty by the Verkhovna Rada, which is another important
contribution
to transparency and arms control.
These two ratifications coincide propitiously with the first ever
meeting
of the Ukraine Commission in Ukraine. This took place yesterday in Kyiv
and enabled a full and fruitful exchange of views which bodes well for
the
future of the cooperation between Ukraine and NATO.
---
CONTRORIFORMA AGRARIA
(The near-orgasmic level of ecstasy and abandon in
this report's spin - on the brink, about to take off,
we see light, excited and so on - is not unjustified.
IMF/World Bank "suggestions" [We expect...] on
privatization of some of the largest tracts of grain
arable land in the world will trigger perhaps the
largest foreign-private land grab since the grand days
of European colonialism.)
"Ukraine, which faces foreign debt payments of $3.1
billion this year, has to prove its will to reform the
depressed economy for the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank to resume loans frozen at the end of
last year...."
"Land is number one issue."
Ukraine Farm Reform About To Take Off
KIEV, Mar 2, 2000 -- (Reuters) Ukraine is on the brink
of real farm reforms which could turn around the
Soviet-style sector but needs to take concrete steps
starting with land ownership to flesh out early moves,
World Bank officials said on Thursday.
"We are excited with what is happening at the moment,"
Gregory Jedrzejczak, head of the World Bank mission in
Ukraine, told Reuters. "We were in a dark tunnel, but
we see light now."
President Leonid Kuchma has issued a decree ordering
Soviet-era collective farms to disband and change to
private farms by April 1, but has not provided a
mechanism.
Ukraine, which faces foreign debt payments of $3.1
billion this year, has to prove its will to reform the
depressed economy for the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank to resume loans frozen at the end of
last year due to slow reforms.
Now Kuchma's farm decree has sent a strong positive
signal to international creditors and investors even
though it stopped short of introducing real private
land ownership.
NO REAL REFORM WITHOUT PRIVATE LAND OWNERSHIP
Analysts say Ukraine, which last year harvested its
lowest grain crop since 1945, may not revive its
agricultural sector until it enshrines into law rights
to buy, sell and use private land as collateral.
"If (Kuchma's) decree remains alone, it is not going
to resolve problems. We would like to see a more
comprehensive settlement," Csaba Csaki, the World Bank
agriculture policy adviser for Europe and Central
Asia, said, in English.
"Land is number one issue."
Parliament, which had been accused by Kuchma of
blocking reforms, now comprises a center-right
pro-market majority, and Csaki said the time was right
for passing laws on private land ownership and
property registration, key to enforcing rights.
Jedrzejczak said he felt the political elite in the
country of 50 million was largely supportive of
private land ownership.
"We have seen quite a dramatic change of attitude," he
said. "Six months ago, when you would talk to the
parliament or politicians, private land ownership was
a complete taboo."
He said fast land reform might allow Ukraine to
leverage its fertile black soil and regain its
historical role as a global agricultural producer.
Farms could lead the economy to growth.
EXPORTS MUST BE FREED TOO
Apart from land reform, the IMF and World Bank insist
Ukraine scrap a 23-percent tax on sunflower seed
exports and end excessive export tariffs on skins and
hides.
Officials say the taxes and tariffs aim to support the
budget and provide local processing firms with raw
materials but traders and creditors say they
contradict free market rules.
Jedrzejczak and Csaki said they expected parliament to
adopt laws liberalizing foreign trade after a promise
by the new government of reformist Prime Minister
Viktor Yushchenko to adhere to a free economy.
"We see the commitment (of the government). Now we
want legislation to translate into action,"
Jedrzejczak said.
He also expected deputies to ratify the bank's
Pre-Export Guarantee Facility which would help attract
private investors to Ukraine's cash-starved
agriculture and help provide farmers with machinery,
fuel and fertilizers.
Ratification of the $120 million facility, approved by
the World Bank in 1997, had been blocked by leftist
factions.
---
ORGIA DI PRIVATIZZAZIONI
Friday, February 25, 2000
Ukraine Accelerates Privatization
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KIEV -- Ukraine's parliament passed a new
privatization program for 2000 that deputies from the
center-right majority said will relieve the state of
loss-making companies and boost the budget.
The parliament, or Verkhovna Rada, passed the project
Tuesday 236-17, the Rada's press service said.
The previously leftist-dominated parliament had
opposed adopting the bill, although analysts point out
that the state has been saddled with hundreds of
failing enterprises.
The new privatization program includes the sale of
more than 800 nonstrategic enterprises in the
transport, machinery, chemical, agricultural and food
industries.
The State Property Fund also renewed the privatization
process of Ukraine's nine energy companies, halted in
December, officials from the fund said.
Last week, the State Property Fund announced it was
preparing to tender a 92.53-percent stake in the huge
Oriana chemical complex, which produces
petroleum-based products and fertilizers.
-
(Ukraine, which has raised 1.507 million hryvnias
[national currency, roughly six to a dollar]from cash
sell-offs since 1992, plans to boost privatization
revenues to 2.5 billion hryvnias this year to help pay
crushing foreign debt obligations....Privatization is
a key part of a $2.6 billion International Monetary
Fund loan frozen in September 1999....)
BUSINESS NEWS
Ukraine 2000 State Sell-Offs Raise $27 Mln To Date
KIEV, Mar 1, 2000 -- (Reuters) Ukraine, which has set
ambitious privatization targets for this year, has
raised 150 million hryvnias ($27.29 million) from cash
sell-offs so far this year, the State Property Fund
said on Tuesday.
Olexander Bondar, who heads the fund, told a meeting
with regional media the government would raise another
91 million hryvnias from privatizing a stake in
leading steel mill Zaporizhstal in the next few days.
"We are lagging behind our schedule but we shall do
everything to meet the target," Bondar said, adding
that the planned figure for the first quarter was 500
million hryvnias.
Ukraine, which has raised 1.507 billion hryvnias from
cash sell-offs since 1992, plans to boost
privatization revenues to 2.5 billion hryvnias this
year to help pay crushing foreign debt obligations of
$3.1 billion due this year.
Privatization is a key part of a $2.6 billion
International Monetary Fund loan program frozen in
September 1999 over stalled reforms and ahead of a
presidential election.
Bondar said the fund hoped that privatization in key
energy, metallurgical, chemical and telecom sectors
would help meet the target. The fund plans to sell
stakes in some 3,000 large companies this year.
($=5.4975 hryvnias)
---
STRATFOR.COM's Global Intelligence Update - 2 March 2000
By The Internet's Most Intelligent Source of International News &
Analysis http://www.stratfor.com/
__________________________________________
Know the every move of your competitors -- even before they do.
Stratfor Intelligence Services http://www.stratfor.com/services/
__________________________________________
WHAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR WORLD
Scharping Trying to Dampen Russian-NATO Rift
http://www.stratfor.com/world/Commentaries/0003020245.htm
Wahid Wavers Between Western Oil Alliances and Asian Unity
http://www.stratfor.com/asia/commentary/0003020122.htm
Libya: Gadhafi Axes Government Ministries
http://www.stratfor.com/MEAF/commentary/0003020207.htm
__________________________________________
STRATFOR.COM Global Intelligence Update
2 March 2000
Finally, NATO Tests A Resurgent Russia - in Kiev
Summary
NATO's decision-making body - the North Atlantic Council - is
meeting in Kiev, Ukraine. This gathering in the most geopolitically
significant area of Russia's backyard is a direct challenge to the
Putin government's assertive new foreign policy. The alliance is
calling what it believes - indeed, hopes - to be Moscow's
nationalist bluff, painting a picture of the consequences the West
could present if it continues down its current path. The move,
however, is unlikely to dissuade the government in Moscow and will
likely only entrench Russian nationalists. Regardless, the
alliance's diplomatic thrust indicates a shift change in NATO-
Russian relations, likely for the worse.
Analysis
NATO's North Atlantic Council (NAC), in its simultaneous capacity
as the NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC), is meeting March 1-2.
Composed of ambassadorial-level representatives of the alliance's
19 member states, the NAC is the alliance's principal decision-
making body. The NUC, in turn, was formed in 1997 to bring the
alliance closer to Ukraine. With mixed success, NATO and Ukraine
have attempted to foster a closer relationship. What is significant
now is the location of the meeting. The alliance's decision-makers
are meeting in Kiev, not Brussels, the headquarters.
As striking as the location - in the most strategically important
nation on the periphery of Russia - is the timing. The meeting
appears to have been called in Kiev on relatively short notice. And
it is taking place as Russia's acting President Vladimir Putin
consolidates both his power and his foreign policy; the March
presidential elections are approaching, and until now, the West has
appeared bewildered by his actions both abroad and in the war in
Chechnya. With this gathering, it appears that the alliance is
sending two sharp messages: one of support to Kiev and one of
warning to Moscow.
NATO's relationship with Russia has changed dramatically and has
not truly recovered from the trough of last year's conflict over
Kosovo. Russia under former President Boris Yeltsin opened to the
West and is now afflicted with a criminalized economy, a
demoralizing loss of status and a dangerously ragged strategic
situation along its borders. Russia under Putin is not only
increasingly nationalist at home - as in the war in Chechnya - but
is pursuing a vastly different foreign policy abroad, one that is
forceful and decidedly independent of the West.
Indeed, it appears that after standing by idly the last several
months, Western governments are beginning to catch on and react -
albeit cautiously, even timidly. Western institutions are launching
initiatives around the Russian periphery. The European Union is
accelerating its expansion, earmarking $1 billion for Poland's
accession efforts last week - a quadrupling of previous outlays.
European Commission President Romano Prodi has alluded to tighter
links between the EU and NATO. NATO holds its first major military
exercise in a non-member's territory, in Sweden June 3-19. The
alliance is cooperating with neutral nations to arm the Baltic
states as well. And at the other end of Europe, Turkey is engaging
in intensive military exercise on its eastern border.
But the most striking aspect of the relationship between the
alliance, in particular, and Russia revolves around Ukraine.
Ukraine is the most strategically important piece of real estate
between Europe and Russia; neither can be secure without Ukraine.
And throughout the post-Cold War period, Ukraine has been
contested. It is economically dependent on Russia but has insisted
on ever closer ties with the West.
Much to Russia's dismay, NATO and Ukrainian forces have held joint
military exercises on the Black Sea and at a number of locations
ashore. NATO and Ukraine have also been busy building relationships
between their respective officer corps. The Ukrainiain military has
never made a secret of its desires to work with the West, recently
and pointedly declining a role in exercises with the Russian navy,
according to Deutsch Presse-Agentur. Ukrainian forces, however,
will participate in NATO's Cooperative Partner 2000 naval
exercises, June 19-30, in the Ukrainian sector of the Black Sea.
The NATO-Ukraine Commission has been the other important vehicle
for security cooperation. Indeed, one of the commission's first
actions, after being formed three years ago, was to establish the
Yavoriv military facility in western Ukraine as a training center
for the Partnership for Peace program - the first such facility in
the former Soviet Union. Ever since, Yavoriv has served as a base
of operations for NATO-sponsored exercises. Now, NATO's civilian
leadership arrives not only to meet but to tour a variety of
facilities.
It appears that this unusual meeting was called on comparatively
short notice; the first word appears to have come in late 1999,
according to spokesmen in Brussels, Washington and various
embassies. This suggests that the meeting is an outgrowth of the
events of late last year: when Russia's war in Chechnya was getting
underway and senior U.S. officials toured alarmed, neighboring
nations. The decision to meet in Kiev indicates a desire on the
part of NATO to send a message of support to Ukraine as well as a
warning to Moscow.
It is likely that this warning will be counterproductive. Russia's
First Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov visited Kiev on Feb.
22, in an apparent attempt to deepen Russia's influence over the
Ukrainian economy. After all, Putin, the acting Russian president,
draws support from the swells of Russian nationalism. An overly
bold Western gesture in Ukraine - perceived as vital by Russians -
will only strengthen nationalists. Further, a strategy of
confrontation will likely cause stress fractures within the
alliance. Also, the West has yet to offer the carrot as well as the
stick; Putin will refuse to back down if the only option is
resorting to a Yeltsin foreign policy.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma seems to be scrabbling to stay
out of this brewing confrontation. Last week he left Kiev for a
two-week vacation in western Ukraine, according to a spokeswoman,
directing his foreign minister to deliver a speech to the NATO
gathering on his behalf. Neither in one camp nor the other, Ukraine
has been forced to gingerly tow a line between Moscow and Brussels.
With both now openly competing for Ukraine, Kuchma will find it
increasingly difficult - if not impossible - to maintain a balanced
policy.
Curiously, Moscow has not officially responded to the NAC meeting.
After meeting with Russian officials, German Defense Minister
Rudolf Scharping is currently en route from Moscow to Washington;
he is likely to carry at least a partial Russian response. Russia
seems to be waiting for the right time and place to voice its full
retort.
Like NATO, Russia has many cards to play. Ukraine's Russian
minority composes more than a quarter of the Ukrainian population.
Russian security services undoubtedly retain a strong presence. In
case of a conflict, no one in Kiev truly knows who would rally
behind the flag. Russian influence over Ukraine's economy is
deepening. Most importantly, despite the sheer size of Ukraine's
territory and population, it still shares a long and nearly
indefensible border with the Soviet Union's most powerful successor
state: Russia.
A showdown is quietly brewing. NATO is trying to expand its ability
to operate jointly with the forces of neutral nations and many
former Soviet states. But it would be a high-profile NATO push into
Ukraine that would ultimately tip the scale. Putin has decided that
Russia will no longer play second fiddle to the West; the Western
response is that if Russia wants a confrontation, one can most
certainly be provided. Such a message will only further fuel
Russia's nationalist fires.
(c) 2000, Stratfor, Inc. http://www.stratfor.com/
__________________________________________________
SUBSCRIBE to FREE, DAILY GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE UPDATES by clicking on
http://www.stratfor.com/services/giu/subscribe.asp
UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THE GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE UPDATES (GIU)
http://www.stratfor.com/services/giu/subscribe.asp
or send your name, title, organization, address, phone number, and
e-mail to alert@...
___________________________________________________
STRATFOR.COM 504 Lavaca, Suite 1100 Austin, TX 78701
Phone: 512-583-5000 Fax: 512-583-5025
Internet: http://www.stratfor.com/
Email: info@...
___________________________________________________
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
* Lanci di uova contro Madeleine Albright in visita a Brno
* In vista blocchi stradali da parte degli agricoltori
* Praga, conferenza "UN ANNO DOPO: cause, coerenza e conseguenze della
crisi del Kosovo". La relazione di uno dei partecipanti (in italiano) ed
il dispaccio della Tanjug
UCRAINA
Come riportato in un messaggio precedente
( http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/43.html? ) il Parlamento
ucraino, che ha una maggioranza di sinistra, all'inizio di febbraio e'
stato messo nella impossibilita' di svolgere il proprio ruolo
istituzionale da parte delle forze di polizia fedeli al presidente
filo-occidentale Kuchma (vittorioso, grazie a brogli, nelle recenti
elezioni), ed ai parlamentari della minoranza di destra che hanno
occupato l'aula.
Ecco le ragioni, ed i risultati, di questo colpo di stato:
* Visita a Kiev degli alti ufficiali NATO; comunicato congiunto
* E' partita la contro-riforma agraria
* E' partita la colossale svendita delle imprese pubbliche
* L'analisi della Stratfor Intelligence sul processo di inglobamento
dell'Ucraina nella NATO in funzione antirussa
NOTA: la gran parte dei contributi sono stati diffusi dalla mailing list
STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
---
LANCI DI UOVA
Protesters Throw Eggs at Albright
By Nadia Rybarova
Associated Press Writer
Monday, March 6, 2000; 8:01 a.m. EST
BRNO, Czech Republic –– Shouting "death to American imperialism,"
two men hurled eggs at Secretary of State Madeleine Albright today after
she told a university audience that defense of common values sometimes
requires countries to pay a financial price.
After finishing a speech to an enthusiastic audience at Tomas Masaryk
University in this industrial city 125 miles southeast of Prague,
Albright was milling about in the crowded entrance hall as bystanders
cheered.
Suddenly, two men shouted "death to American imperialism" and began
hurling eggs. Albright was spattered slightly with bits of egg but most
of them were intercepted by her bodyguards, said a U.S. official who
asked that his name not be published.
She was rushed upstairs quickly before leaving for another appearance.
Police Capt. Zdenek Lubas said several people were detained for
questioning but declined to give further details.
The incident marred an otherwise warm reception here on the second day
of Albright's four-day visit to the land of her birth.
Before the speech, she met privately with about a dozen students from
the Gypsy minority to discuss affirmative action and other ideas for
improving their conditions. She also received a gold medal Wednesday
from the university named after a Czech president who was born near here
100 years ago.
During her speech, Albright referred to a pledge by Czech President
Vaclav Havel to cancel a $30 million sale of cooling duct parts by a
Czech company to Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant.
Although Iran insist the plant is for peaceful production of
electricity, the United States fears the Iranians are trying to develop
a nuclear weapons program.
Noting that this former Soviet Bloc state joined NATO last year,
Albright said preventing the spread of nuclear weapons was a high
priority of the Western alliance.
As with any goal worth achieving, it is not without cost," Albright
said, speaking in English. "To keep the best technology from falling
into the wrong hands, American firms are required to forgo many
potentially profitable contracts. But a similar responsibility rests
upon the shoulders of all who pledged to defend the best interests of
the Euro-Atlantic community."
Albright said Washington has urged all its allies to "meet that
responsibility so that our common security is protected and the future
safer for our children and theirs."
Iran denies any nuclear weapons program and insists that the power plant
at Bushehr is simply for the peaceful generation of electricity.
"We consider the campaign around Bushehr conducted by the Czech
government and the local media a gift to the American minister Madeleine
Albright linked to her visit," Sharif Khodai, the acting Iranian
ambassador to Prague, told the newspaper Pravo.
Later, Albright was to join Havel for a visit to the nearby town of
Hodonin, where Masaryk was born. Masaryk led Czechoslovakia from 1918
until 1935 and was also a close friend of President Woodrow Wilson.
Albright has urged Czechs to follow the example of Masaryk, a towering
figure in Eastern European democratic history. She has said they should
pursue his goals here and throughout the region, including Yugoslavia.
Using that theme, U.S. officials said Albright has urged the Czechs to
undertake judicial reform and encourage tolerance for the country's
Gypsy, or Roma, minority.
"Masaryk's dream was to have Europe whole and free," Albright said
Sunday at a joint news conference with Havel in Prague Castle. She
quoted Masaryk as saying democracy was not an act but a "pursuit" that
must be continually developed.
She has also encouraged the Czech Republic to become more involved in
Western moves to bring democracy to Yugoslavia's main republic, Serbia,
and to help promote ethnic stability in Kosovo, a province of Serbia.
After visiting Masaryk's shrine, Albright was to return today to Prague,
where she was scheduled to hold a roundtable discussion with Eastern
European non-governmental organizations to discuss ways of promoting
democratization in Serbia.
Albright said Sunday that the people of Serbia "do not deserve" an
autocratic leader like President Slobodan Milosevic.
In an interview with Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, she said the
United States had been urging the Serbian opposition movement to end its
divisions and prove to Serbs that "they represent an alternate choice."
Albright also said democratically minded leaders from former Soviet Bloc
countries could offer advice to opposition figures in Serbia on how to
unite in the face of authoritarian rule.
Albright's father, Josef Korbel, a Czech diplomat, fled with his wife
and children to London as Germany took control of Czechoslovakia at the
onset of World War II. When the communists took over Czechoslovakia in
1948, the family then migrated to the United States.
After the fall of communism here, the Czech and Slovak republics split
into two countries in 1993.
---
BLOCCHI STRADALI
(The Czech Republic is held up as a showcase and
prototype for the new EU-style privatized Eastern
European economy. How well's it's working - for the
populace, anyway - is indicated below...."Agricultural
production last year was 14 pct. higher than in 1998,
but at the same time revenue of farmers fell by Kc15bn
[$1=36.9 Koruna/Kc]....[T]he main reasons for the
strike are the non-payment of wages to employees,
growing unemployment...and fear [concerning] social
and pension reforms.")
* Farmers to strike by blocking Prague motorways
PRAGUE, Mar 7, 2000 -- (CTK - Czech News Agency) The
Association of Independent Trade Unions (ASO) has
declared a warning strike for Wednesday, 12:00 noon,
in protest against the pertinent authorities' failure
to solve social problems, ASO chairman Bohumir Dufek
said at a press conference today.
Farmers will block some Prague motorways for half an
hour. Dufek did not specify what motorways. "We will
block a certain Prague motorway. Farmers have no other
option how to call attention to their problems," said
Dufek, adding that the unions have enough people to do
this. He would not give any details because, as he
said, he wanted to protect personal safety of
participants in the protest.
Agricultural production last year was 14 pct higher
than in 1998 but at the same time revenues of farmers
fell by Kc15bn, the Agricultural Chamber president
Vaclav Hlavacek said at the beginning of March. Dufek
said that the main reasons for the strike are the non-
payment of wages to employees, growing unemployment
due to the non-existence of a plan to help the Czech
Republic out of the current economic crisis and fear
from the prepared social and pension reforms.
The Trade Union Association of Railway Employees will
allegedly join the strike, halting railway passenger
transport for a quarter of an hour at 12:00 noon. ASO
groups together eight trade union associations with
around 230,000 employees. ((c) 2000 CTK - Czech News
Agency)
---
PRAGA: CONFERENZA
REMARK: this message contains an outline of the Conference which was
held in Prague, 26-28/2/2000. It is sent for information to the whole
italian "Committee of Scientists against the War" mailing list, to the
responsibles of the Italian Section of the "Clark" Tribunal for NATO
crimes, and to the participants' addresses gathered by the author at the
Conference itself.
AUTORE: Andrea Martocchia (Comitato Scienziate/i contro la guerra,
sezione italiana Tribunale contro i crimini della NATO, Coordinamento
Romano per la Jugoslavia) <martok@...>
TITOLO: "Un anno dopo: cause, coerenza e conseguenze della crisi del
Kosovo"
ORGANIZZATORI: "Res Publica" e' il gruppo promotore, di area
socialdemocratica (cfr. http://www.publica.cz/infoservis.htm )
INVITATI E PRESENTI: di circa 1000 realta', ceche e straniere, invitate
erano presenti solo 35 persone. Hanno "brillato" per la loro assenza ad
esempio gli italiani (solo due presenti, nonostante che l'invito avesse
girato in tutto l'arcipelago pacifista grazie alle mailing list di
Peacelink), sia tutti i paesi balcanici, ad eccezione ovviamente della
RF
di Jugoslavia.
NOTE PRELIMINARI: Ho partecipato solamente alla sessione della domenica
27/2, insieme a R. Gabriele (in rappresentanza della Fondazione Nino
Pasti
per la pace e l'indipendenza dei popoli e dello stesso Tribunale
"Clark").
Inoltre purtroppo non possedevo un registratore, ed ho pertanto preso
solo
appunti a mano di quello che mi sembrava piu' rilevante. Gli
organizzatori
pero' si sono ripromessi di mettere sul loro sito internet i contributi
che hanno raccolto.
RELAZIONI
La prima relazione che ho sentito era un contributo di carattere
tecnico sull'inquinamento causato dai bombardamenti, tenuto da un
professore di Chimica dell'Universita' di Brno il quale ha praticamente
riassunto quello che a riguardo e' contenuto nel libro "Imbrogli di
guerra" - pur senza conoscere il libro...
Un giovane di Pancevo ha poi letto un testo sulla situazione nella sua
citta' dopo i bombardamenti; tra le cose che mi sono rimaste impresse la
sua sottolineatura di come la NATO sia riuscita a far deteriorare i
rapporti interetnici in quella zona ed in tutta la multinazionale RF di
Jugoslavia.
Io stesso ho poi preso la parola per presentare il nostro Comitato, il
libro e dare la mia valutazione dello stato del movimento contro la
guerra. Ho parlato del lavoro della sezione italiana del Tribunale
"Clark"
e di come la attuale classe dirigente italiana abbia stracciato i valori
fondanti della Repubblica, nonche' quelli che la dovrebbero
caratterizzare
e differenziare rispetto alla opposizione di destra.
Un rappresentante dell'ambasciata della RFJ, dopo aver lamentato
l'assenza
dei rappresentanti degli altri paesi balcanici (che avrebbero potuto
raccontare le conseguenze per le loro societa' e per le loro economie
della politica "umanitaria" della NATO, ad es. i rumeni con il Danubio
bloccato), ha presentato una serie di documenti di fonte ufficiale
jugoslava contenenti
- gli effetti dei bombardamenti NATO ("White Book", cfr.
http://www.mfa.gov.yu/ oppure http://www1.mfa.gov.yu/ )
- l'elencazione degli atti terroristici e di violenza avvenuti a partire
dalla occupazione del territorio da parte delle truppe KFOR (circa 3500
azioni, di cui 110 contro i rom e circa 80 contro albanesi-kosovari
"traditori" come quelli iscritti al "nazicomunista" Partito Socialista
Serbo) che hanno causato in tutto 793 morti invisibili sui nostri
mass-media
- la distruzione di circa 80 chiese serbo-ortodosse, alcune delle quali
sotto tutela UNESCO.
Egli ha inoltre raccontato in che modo siano stati stravolti gli
equilibri
demografici della regione a partire dagli anni 70 (per non risalire
indietro al periodo dell'occupazione nazifascista), ha stigmatizzato la
maniera coercitiva in cui la NATO sta inglobando tutti gli stati
dell'area
ovvero sta costringendo paesi come la Grecia a partecipare ad operazioni
che rifiuterebbero, ed ha indicato esplicitamente la lobby della grande
industria transnazionale come "burattinai" della NATO, lobby che e' a
sua
volta diretta "da chi detiene i capitali" attraverso organizzazioni come
la Trilateral ed il gruppo Bilderberg (cfr. www.bilderberg.org).
Poi ha parlato un biochimico ceco, poi una dottoressa inglese della
organizzazione IPPNW (Intern. Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear
War, premio Nobel 1995) sulla strategia occidentale, sulla frustazione
russa e sulla corsa al riarmo.
Un socialdemocratico ceco, che si e' detto "tradito dal comportamento
dei
leaders della Internazionale Socialista", ha poi espresso, con toni di
estrema amarezza, la delusione per il modo in cui le speranze
"democratiche" della svolta del '90 siano state umiliate. Lo stesso
presidente Havel sta mostrando di essere in prima fila nello
schieramento
guerrafondaio internazionale, con dichiarazioni di stampo pannelliano
che
lasciano quantomeno perplessi quelli che un tempo lo stimavano; pertanto
e' stato indicato anche lui come un "criminale di guerra" alla stregua
dei
D'Alema, Blair, Clinton, eccetera. Allo stesso modo e' stata
sottolineata
l'assenza di quegli intellettuali che tanto avevano lavorato per
abbattere
il vecchio sistema e "democratizzare" la societa'. Questi sono stati
indicati come "prostitute", mentre il clima culturale e' stato definito
"disperato". Quale democrazia, quando la NATO interviene contro il suo
stesso statuto?
Il professore e saggista Rajko Dolecek (autore dell'importante
"J'accuse",
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/ddj/Kosovo/articles/Dolecek.html ) a questo
proposito ha ricordato come la NATO abbia aggredito la Jugoslavia pochi
giorni dopo l'entrata della Rep. Ceca nell'organizzazione lasciando di
stucco (per usare un eufemismo...) tanti che pure non erano a priori
contrari all'entrata nella NATO. Dal punto di vista dei diritti umani,
ha detto Dolecek, la NATO e' come "una prostituta che predica la
verginita'".
Un attivista polacco di Cracovia, che ha raccontato di conoscere
personalmente alcuni familiari del Pontefice, ha poi contestato, con
libri
e citazioni alla mano, il ruolo della Chiesa cattolica e del papa. Ha
detto delle cose estremamente interessanti, sulle quali pero' non mi
dilungo: basti citare la frase del Cardinale Glemp (ricordate?...) che
all'inizio dei bombardamenti li ha paragonati ad "una frusta di Dio che
si
abbatte su quel paese". Gli ha fatto eco una militante ceca della
Christian Peace Conference la quale ha raccontato del "sentimento di
essere manipolate/i", dell'arroganza dell'Occidente e del fatto che la
chiesa cristiana ha "due gambe, quella occidentale (cattolica) e quella
orientale (ortodossa)" le quali hanno pari dignita' anche se i loro
leaders non ne vogliono sentir parlare.
C'e' poi stato uno scambio di vedute sull'apparente contrasto tra
sovranita' degli Stati e diritti umani, che e' stato giudicato "una
assurdita'" se a parlarne sono quelli che violano la prima dicendo di
voler proteggere i secondi, previo poi violarli molto piu'
pesantemente...
Si e' fatto riferimento ad una conferenza della Association of
Lawyers against Nuclear Weapons, tenutasi all'Aia durante i
bombardamenti,
nella quale i circa 7000 partecipanti avrebbero approvato a maggioranza
una risoluzione che dichiarava illegale l'aggressione della NATO. Questa
risoluzione e' stata soggetta ad un embargo (censura) informativo
completo
sui media di tutti i paesi. Infine, sempre Dolecek ha presentato un suo
ragionamento sul carattere, a suo dire, non imparziale ne' legale del
Tribunale dell'Aia per i crimini commessi sul territorio della RFSJ.
Infine, i rappresentanti tedeschi del Tribunale Clark (si veda
http://www.nato-tribunal.de/ ) hanno parlato della loro intenzione di
coordinare tutte le attivita' a livello europeo, facendole sfociare in
una
grande sessione europea a Berlino il 2 e 3 giugno prossimi, che
precedera'
di una ventina di giorni la seduta internazionale finale, che si terra'
a
New York, patrocinata dallo stesso Clark e dall'IAC.
Clark comunque sara' a Praga il 23 marzo prossimo, sulla via per
Belgrado
dove celebrera' il primo anniversario della aggressione; e proprio per
il
23 a Praga la Fondazione Pasti ha proposto che si tenga una iniziativa
europea di coordinamento di tutte le sezioni europee del Tribunale.
A latere della giornata ho ancora da registrare i colloqui avuti
separatamente con vari partecipanti, colloqui resi particolarmente
piacevoli dai boccali di birra Pilsen che avevamo dinanzi. In
particolare
i cechi mi hanno detto che, secondo loro, non e' affatto vero che con il
"cambiamento del regime" le persone si sentano adesso molto piu' libere
di
esprimersi, visto che ad esempio sulle questioni della guerra della NATO
c'e' molta paura a dire in pubblico la propria opinione. Questo benche'
la
stragrande maggioranza dlla popolazione ceca sia stata certamente
contraria alle bombe, anche se i mass-media locali (ormai completamente
in
mano a corporation straniere, in particolare tedesche, come tedeschi
sono
i proprietari della Skoda...) hanno dato una immagine falsificata di
questo sentimento collettivo a forza di bordate propagandistiche.
Insomma,
sotto questo profilo la situazione e' identica a quella italiana.
Da me interrogato su di una questione diversa, e cioe' se sapesse
qualcosa
del colpo di Stato che c'e' stato in Ucraina un mese fa nel silenzio
completo della stampa occidentale, uno slovacco ha detto che anche nel
suo
paese c'e' stata censura completa sulle informazioni (li' e' soprattutto
la Fondazione Soros che ha in mano i media) e questo e' assurdo visto
che
l'Ucraina e' un paese immenso, con circa 50 milioni di abitanti... Ma
lui
aveva avuto occasione di parlare direttamente con alcuni lavoratori
ucraini immigrati, che gli hanno raccontato di essere tornati ai loro
paesi d'origine per votare alle presidenziali (vinte di stretta misura
dal
filo-occidentale Kuchma, autore del golpe di cui sopra) e che al seggio
elettorale hanno trovato le schede gia' firmate ed il voto gia'
espresso,
nonche' una serie di loschi figuri a "controllare" che non succedessero
incidenti... Dietro a tutta questa "democrazia" (?) c'e' da una parte
l'inglobamento dell'Ucraina nella NATO attraverso la Partnership for
Peace, cui si erano opposti anche la maggioranza dei parlamentari, e
dall'altra la privatizzazione di centinaia di imprese e dei latifondi,
sulla quale era in atto un forte scontro politico. Meno chiaro quale sia
adesso la situazione, dopo che un mese fa il parlamento e' stato
occupato
dai partiti di destra e molti deputati di sinistra sono entrati in
sciopero della fame.
(...) Andrea Martocchia
www.serbia-info.com/news
Call for lifting embargo against FR Yugoslavia
February 29, 2000
Embargo on FRY has to be suspended
Prague, February 28th - Participants in the international conference
"One year after: the causes, links and consequences of the Kosovo
crisis," that ends today in Prague, have called on the international
community to lift the sanctions against Yugoslavia.
Representatives of ten European states at a three-day meeting, organized
by the non-governmental organization European Network for Peace and
Co-operation warned that the embargo, in general, in all countries where
it was applied, besides its inhumanity has proved to be completely
inefficient and politically shortsighted and that it affected most of
the population.
In today's closing discussions, it was concluded that NATO member
countries that have bombed for almost 80 days FR Yugoslavia, should pay
for the damages and rebuild everything they had destroyed in the
country.
Participants in the conferences stressed that without the inclusion of
FR Yugoslavia in all regional plans for the reconstruction of the
Balkans, of which that country is an inseparable and almost the most
important part, there will be no progress.
In the final document of the conference, which will be sent to the
Yugoslav Government and all other important international organizations,
institutions and governments of many countries, was included the protest
sent to UNESCO because of the destruction of Serbian Orthodox Churches
and monasteries in Kosovo and Metohija, as well as of facilities during
the bombing of all of Yugoslavia.
All the reports of the conference participants, among which were also
representatives of peace movements, and experts in different fields -
legal experts, historians, ecologists, biochemists, experts in atomic
energy - from Ireland, Great Britain, Yugoslavia, Poland, Italy,
Germany, Finland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, will be presented on
the Internet.
---------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------
UFFICIALI NATO
(Yet another step closer to Moscow, by the exact route used by Napoleon
and Hitler. But first NATO's 'expertise' will be employed to crush
internal opposition - a majority in both houses of parliament oppose
both Kuchma and NATO memebership, and were recently forcibly ousted from
a protest in the parliament building.
Reminiscent of Boris Yeltsin ringing the Russian parliament buiding with
tanks - remember that? - and firing on the legally elected speaker and
assistant speaker, killing perhaps hundreds of protesters holed up
there. Bill Clinton's and England's John Major's response to this -
truly unprecedented - destruction of a nation's parliament by the
military? They both applauded Boris Yeltsin as the "saviour of Russian
democracy," just as Clinton later commented on Yeltsin's first Chechnya
campaign by calling him "the Abraham Lincoln of his country."
But, quick, wipe all the above from your memory; we're not supposed to
remember any of those things.)
Tuesday February 29 8:42 AM ET
Ukraine Hosts Top NATO Officials, Eyes Closer Ties
By Dmitry Solovyov
KIEV, Ukraine (Reuters) - NATO leaders arrived in Ukraine on Tuesday for
a meeting that Kiev hopes will be a major step toward closer links
between the Western alliance and the former Soviet state seeking
integration into European structures.
``For the first time, 19 NATO ambassadors, the Secretary General and the
chief of the military committee come to Kiev together for this historic
meeting,´´ said Natalya Melnichuk, head of the NATO Information and
Documentation Center in Kiev.
Wednesday's meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, to be chaired by
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, will be the 16th since Ukraine
signed a partnership charter with the alliance in 1997 but the first to
be held in Kiev.
Joining NATO is not on the agenda for Ukraine and Wednesday's meeting is
unlikely to take any key decisions. But Robertson, who previously
visited Kiev in late January, will stay on for an extra day for a
program of unofficial visits.
NATO and Ukrainian officials say the very composition of the gathering
will clearly demonstrate Western support for Ukraine's aspirations to
integrate into European structures.
Ukraine Seeks Place In Europe Via Ties With Nato
``I think Ukraine wanted to have a meeting in Kiev because it gives us a
chance to move the relationship forward, it raises (Ukraine´s)
profile,´´ a NATO official said.
``Ukraine has this policy of seeking greater integration into European
structures, and NATO sees this as completely in line with its own view
of NATO-Ukraine relations.´´
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma won re-election last November on
pledges to boost market reforms, build good relations with Russia and
integrate into Europe.
Experts say that after his landslide victory the timing is good for
Kuchma to demonstrate Ukraine's European vocation and cordial relations
with NATO, despite a strong leftist opposition in the country of 50
million.
``During the election voters supported Ukraine´s European
choice,´´ said presidential spokesman Olexander Martynenko.
``Ukraine sees its relations with NATO as ties with the most influential
European structure which is an important element of stability and
security in the region.´´
MOSCOW CLOSELY WATCHES UKRAINE-NATO RELATIONS Wednesday's meeting in
Kiev is likely to be closely watched by Ukraine's former imperial master
Moscow which froze its ties with NATO during the alliance's air strikes
on Yugoslavia last year. It agreed to revive relations only earlier this
month.
Ukrainian officials, under the pressure of public opinion in the
country, did not support the air strikes but at the same time condemned
Serbia for ethnic cleansing of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and never
suspended its ties with NATO.
``Now the military operation in Kosovo is over, Ukraine is taking part
in the KFOR operation there and what´s more, the president who got
re-elected can go ahead and pursue a strong policy with NATO,´´ the
NATO official said.
Ukraine has been an active participant in NATO military exercises within
the alliance's Partnership for Peace program with non-member states.
Unlike Russia, Ukraine did not oppose the accession of its neighbors
Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to the alliance.
NATO-Ukraine Commission Statement
2 March 2000
Statement
Today the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine ratified the
Partnership
for Peace Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), following its submission by
the President of Ukraine. The NATO-Ukraine Commission salutes this
decision which will further enhance the opportunities for carrying out
joint NATO-Ukraine activities as well as Partnership for Peace
exercises. As already demonstrated in other Partner countries, the
ratification of the SOFA will allow Ukraine to enjoy full military and
economic benefits of the Partnership for Peace programme. NATO and
Ukraine, together with individual Allies and Partners, look forward to
taking advantage of the new possibilities which have been opened by this
important decision of the Verkhovna Rada, including the use of the
Yavoriv
Training Centre.
The NATO-Ukraine Commission also welcomes the ratification of the Open
Skies Treaty by the Verkhovna Rada, which is another important
contribution
to transparency and arms control.
These two ratifications coincide propitiously with the first ever
meeting
of the Ukraine Commission in Ukraine. This took place yesterday in Kyiv
and enabled a full and fruitful exchange of views which bodes well for
the
future of the cooperation between Ukraine and NATO.
---
CONTRORIFORMA AGRARIA
(The near-orgasmic level of ecstasy and abandon in
this report's spin - on the brink, about to take off,
we see light, excited and so on - is not unjustified.
IMF/World Bank "suggestions" [We expect...] on
privatization of some of the largest tracts of grain
arable land in the world will trigger perhaps the
largest foreign-private land grab since the grand days
of European colonialism.)
"Ukraine, which faces foreign debt payments of $3.1
billion this year, has to prove its will to reform the
depressed economy for the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank to resume loans frozen at the end of
last year...."
"Land is number one issue."
Ukraine Farm Reform About To Take Off
KIEV, Mar 2, 2000 -- (Reuters) Ukraine is on the brink
of real farm reforms which could turn around the
Soviet-style sector but needs to take concrete steps
starting with land ownership to flesh out early moves,
World Bank officials said on Thursday.
"We are excited with what is happening at the moment,"
Gregory Jedrzejczak, head of the World Bank mission in
Ukraine, told Reuters. "We were in a dark tunnel, but
we see light now."
President Leonid Kuchma has issued a decree ordering
Soviet-era collective farms to disband and change to
private farms by April 1, but has not provided a
mechanism.
Ukraine, which faces foreign debt payments of $3.1
billion this year, has to prove its will to reform the
depressed economy for the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank to resume loans frozen at the end of
last year due to slow reforms.
Now Kuchma's farm decree has sent a strong positive
signal to international creditors and investors even
though it stopped short of introducing real private
land ownership.
NO REAL REFORM WITHOUT PRIVATE LAND OWNERSHIP
Analysts say Ukraine, which last year harvested its
lowest grain crop since 1945, may not revive its
agricultural sector until it enshrines into law rights
to buy, sell and use private land as collateral.
"If (Kuchma's) decree remains alone, it is not going
to resolve problems. We would like to see a more
comprehensive settlement," Csaba Csaki, the World Bank
agriculture policy adviser for Europe and Central
Asia, said, in English.
"Land is number one issue."
Parliament, which had been accused by Kuchma of
blocking reforms, now comprises a center-right
pro-market majority, and Csaki said the time was right
for passing laws on private land ownership and
property registration, key to enforcing rights.
Jedrzejczak said he felt the political elite in the
country of 50 million was largely supportive of
private land ownership.
"We have seen quite a dramatic change of attitude," he
said. "Six months ago, when you would talk to the
parliament or politicians, private land ownership was
a complete taboo."
He said fast land reform might allow Ukraine to
leverage its fertile black soil and regain its
historical role as a global agricultural producer.
Farms could lead the economy to growth.
EXPORTS MUST BE FREED TOO
Apart from land reform, the IMF and World Bank insist
Ukraine scrap a 23-percent tax on sunflower seed
exports and end excessive export tariffs on skins and
hides.
Officials say the taxes and tariffs aim to support the
budget and provide local processing firms with raw
materials but traders and creditors say they
contradict free market rules.
Jedrzejczak and Csaki said they expected parliament to
adopt laws liberalizing foreign trade after a promise
by the new government of reformist Prime Minister
Viktor Yushchenko to adhere to a free economy.
"We see the commitment (of the government). Now we
want legislation to translate into action,"
Jedrzejczak said.
He also expected deputies to ratify the bank's
Pre-Export Guarantee Facility which would help attract
private investors to Ukraine's cash-starved
agriculture and help provide farmers with machinery,
fuel and fertilizers.
Ratification of the $120 million facility, approved by
the World Bank in 1997, had been blocked by leftist
factions.
---
ORGIA DI PRIVATIZZAZIONI
Friday, February 25, 2000
Ukraine Accelerates Privatization
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KIEV -- Ukraine's parliament passed a new
privatization program for 2000 that deputies from the
center-right majority said will relieve the state of
loss-making companies and boost the budget.
The parliament, or Verkhovna Rada, passed the project
Tuesday 236-17, the Rada's press service said.
The previously leftist-dominated parliament had
opposed adopting the bill, although analysts point out
that the state has been saddled with hundreds of
failing enterprises.
The new privatization program includes the sale of
more than 800 nonstrategic enterprises in the
transport, machinery, chemical, agricultural and food
industries.
The State Property Fund also renewed the privatization
process of Ukraine's nine energy companies, halted in
December, officials from the fund said.
Last week, the State Property Fund announced it was
preparing to tender a 92.53-percent stake in the huge
Oriana chemical complex, which produces
petroleum-based products and fertilizers.
-
(Ukraine, which has raised 1.507 million hryvnias
[national currency, roughly six to a dollar]from cash
sell-offs since 1992, plans to boost privatization
revenues to 2.5 billion hryvnias this year to help pay
crushing foreign debt obligations....Privatization is
a key part of a $2.6 billion International Monetary
Fund loan frozen in September 1999....)
BUSINESS NEWS
Ukraine 2000 State Sell-Offs Raise $27 Mln To Date
KIEV, Mar 1, 2000 -- (Reuters) Ukraine, which has set
ambitious privatization targets for this year, has
raised 150 million hryvnias ($27.29 million) from cash
sell-offs so far this year, the State Property Fund
said on Tuesday.
Olexander Bondar, who heads the fund, told a meeting
with regional media the government would raise another
91 million hryvnias from privatizing a stake in
leading steel mill Zaporizhstal in the next few days.
"We are lagging behind our schedule but we shall do
everything to meet the target," Bondar said, adding
that the planned figure for the first quarter was 500
million hryvnias.
Ukraine, which has raised 1.507 billion hryvnias from
cash sell-offs since 1992, plans to boost
privatization revenues to 2.5 billion hryvnias this
year to help pay crushing foreign debt obligations of
$3.1 billion due this year.
Privatization is a key part of a $2.6 billion
International Monetary Fund loan program frozen in
September 1999 over stalled reforms and ahead of a
presidential election.
Bondar said the fund hoped that privatization in key
energy, metallurgical, chemical and telecom sectors
would help meet the target. The fund plans to sell
stakes in some 3,000 large companies this year.
($=5.4975 hryvnias)
---
STRATFOR.COM's Global Intelligence Update - 2 March 2000
By The Internet's Most Intelligent Source of International News &
Analysis http://www.stratfor.com/
__________________________________________
Know the every move of your competitors -- even before they do.
Stratfor Intelligence Services http://www.stratfor.com/services/
__________________________________________
WHAT'S GOING ON IN YOUR WORLD
Scharping Trying to Dampen Russian-NATO Rift
http://www.stratfor.com/world/Commentaries/0003020245.htm
Wahid Wavers Between Western Oil Alliances and Asian Unity
http://www.stratfor.com/asia/commentary/0003020122.htm
Libya: Gadhafi Axes Government Ministries
http://www.stratfor.com/MEAF/commentary/0003020207.htm
__________________________________________
STRATFOR.COM Global Intelligence Update
2 March 2000
Finally, NATO Tests A Resurgent Russia - in Kiev
Summary
NATO's decision-making body - the North Atlantic Council - is
meeting in Kiev, Ukraine. This gathering in the most geopolitically
significant area of Russia's backyard is a direct challenge to the
Putin government's assertive new foreign policy. The alliance is
calling what it believes - indeed, hopes - to be Moscow's
nationalist bluff, painting a picture of the consequences the West
could present if it continues down its current path. The move,
however, is unlikely to dissuade the government in Moscow and will
likely only entrench Russian nationalists. Regardless, the
alliance's diplomatic thrust indicates a shift change in NATO-
Russian relations, likely for the worse.
Analysis
NATO's North Atlantic Council (NAC), in its simultaneous capacity
as the NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC), is meeting March 1-2.
Composed of ambassadorial-level representatives of the alliance's
19 member states, the NAC is the alliance's principal decision-
making body. The NUC, in turn, was formed in 1997 to bring the
alliance closer to Ukraine. With mixed success, NATO and Ukraine
have attempted to foster a closer relationship. What is significant
now is the location of the meeting. The alliance's decision-makers
are meeting in Kiev, not Brussels, the headquarters.
As striking as the location - in the most strategically important
nation on the periphery of Russia - is the timing. The meeting
appears to have been called in Kiev on relatively short notice. And
it is taking place as Russia's acting President Vladimir Putin
consolidates both his power and his foreign policy; the March
presidential elections are approaching, and until now, the West has
appeared bewildered by his actions both abroad and in the war in
Chechnya. With this gathering, it appears that the alliance is
sending two sharp messages: one of support to Kiev and one of
warning to Moscow.
NATO's relationship with Russia has changed dramatically and has
not truly recovered from the trough of last year's conflict over
Kosovo. Russia under former President Boris Yeltsin opened to the
West and is now afflicted with a criminalized economy, a
demoralizing loss of status and a dangerously ragged strategic
situation along its borders. Russia under Putin is not only
increasingly nationalist at home - as in the war in Chechnya - but
is pursuing a vastly different foreign policy abroad, one that is
forceful and decidedly independent of the West.
Indeed, it appears that after standing by idly the last several
months, Western governments are beginning to catch on and react -
albeit cautiously, even timidly. Western institutions are launching
initiatives around the Russian periphery. The European Union is
accelerating its expansion, earmarking $1 billion for Poland's
accession efforts last week - a quadrupling of previous outlays.
European Commission President Romano Prodi has alluded to tighter
links between the EU and NATO. NATO holds its first major military
exercise in a non-member's territory, in Sweden June 3-19. The
alliance is cooperating with neutral nations to arm the Baltic
states as well. And at the other end of Europe, Turkey is engaging
in intensive military exercise on its eastern border.
But the most striking aspect of the relationship between the
alliance, in particular, and Russia revolves around Ukraine.
Ukraine is the most strategically important piece of real estate
between Europe and Russia; neither can be secure without Ukraine.
And throughout the post-Cold War period, Ukraine has been
contested. It is economically dependent on Russia but has insisted
on ever closer ties with the West.
Much to Russia's dismay, NATO and Ukrainian forces have held joint
military exercises on the Black Sea and at a number of locations
ashore. NATO and Ukraine have also been busy building relationships
between their respective officer corps. The Ukrainiain military has
never made a secret of its desires to work with the West, recently
and pointedly declining a role in exercises with the Russian navy,
according to Deutsch Presse-Agentur. Ukrainian forces, however,
will participate in NATO's Cooperative Partner 2000 naval
exercises, June 19-30, in the Ukrainian sector of the Black Sea.
The NATO-Ukraine Commission has been the other important vehicle
for security cooperation. Indeed, one of the commission's first
actions, after being formed three years ago, was to establish the
Yavoriv military facility in western Ukraine as a training center
for the Partnership for Peace program - the first such facility in
the former Soviet Union. Ever since, Yavoriv has served as a base
of operations for NATO-sponsored exercises. Now, NATO's civilian
leadership arrives not only to meet but to tour a variety of
facilities.
It appears that this unusual meeting was called on comparatively
short notice; the first word appears to have come in late 1999,
according to spokesmen in Brussels, Washington and various
embassies. This suggests that the meeting is an outgrowth of the
events of late last year: when Russia's war in Chechnya was getting
underway and senior U.S. officials toured alarmed, neighboring
nations. The decision to meet in Kiev indicates a desire on the
part of NATO to send a message of support to Ukraine as well as a
warning to Moscow.
It is likely that this warning will be counterproductive. Russia's
First Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov visited Kiev on Feb.
22, in an apparent attempt to deepen Russia's influence over the
Ukrainian economy. After all, Putin, the acting Russian president,
draws support from the swells of Russian nationalism. An overly
bold Western gesture in Ukraine - perceived as vital by Russians -
will only strengthen nationalists. Further, a strategy of
confrontation will likely cause stress fractures within the
alliance. Also, the West has yet to offer the carrot as well as the
stick; Putin will refuse to back down if the only option is
resorting to a Yeltsin foreign policy.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma seems to be scrabbling to stay
out of this brewing confrontation. Last week he left Kiev for a
two-week vacation in western Ukraine, according to a spokeswoman,
directing his foreign minister to deliver a speech to the NATO
gathering on his behalf. Neither in one camp nor the other, Ukraine
has been forced to gingerly tow a line between Moscow and Brussels.
With both now openly competing for Ukraine, Kuchma will find it
increasingly difficult - if not impossible - to maintain a balanced
policy.
Curiously, Moscow has not officially responded to the NAC meeting.
After meeting with Russian officials, German Defense Minister
Rudolf Scharping is currently en route from Moscow to Washington;
he is likely to carry at least a partial Russian response. Russia
seems to be waiting for the right time and place to voice its full
retort.
Like NATO, Russia has many cards to play. Ukraine's Russian
minority composes more than a quarter of the Ukrainian population.
Russian security services undoubtedly retain a strong presence. In
case of a conflict, no one in Kiev truly knows who would rally
behind the flag. Russian influence over Ukraine's economy is
deepening. Most importantly, despite the sheer size of Ukraine's
territory and population, it still shares a long and nearly
indefensible border with the Soviet Union's most powerful successor
state: Russia.
A showdown is quietly brewing. NATO is trying to expand its ability
to operate jointly with the forces of neutral nations and many
former Soviet states. But it would be a high-profile NATO push into
Ukraine that would ultimately tip the scale. Putin has decided that
Russia will no longer play second fiddle to the West; the Western
response is that if Russia wants a confrontation, one can most
certainly be provided. Such a message will only further fuel
Russia's nationalist fires.
(c) 2000, Stratfor, Inc. http://www.stratfor.com/
__________________________________________________
SUBSCRIBE to FREE, DAILY GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE UPDATES by clicking on
http://www.stratfor.com/services/giu/subscribe.asp
UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THE GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE UPDATES (GIU)
http://www.stratfor.com/services/giu/subscribe.asp
or send your name, title, organization, address, phone number, and
e-mail to alert@...
___________________________________________________
STRATFOR.COM 504 Lavaca, Suite 1100 Austin, TX 78701
Phone: 512-583-5000 Fax: 512-583-5025
Internet: http://www.stratfor.com/
Email: info@...
___________________________________________________
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
MIRACOLI
I giornali di tutto il mondo hanno riportato, il 4/3/2000, della
prodigiosa guarigione del criminale cileno Augusto Pinochet, liberato
senza condizioni in nome dei diritti umani dal governo britannico.
Viste le sue gravi condizioni di salute, su iniziativa dell'ex-primo
Ministro Thatcher Pinochet moribondo era stato anche gratificato con un
preziosissimo piatto d'argento, l'"armada plate", ispirato alla
sconfitta della flotta spagnola da parte di Sir Francis Drake nel
Cinquecento, a sottolineare la recente sconfitta della richiesta
spagnola di estradizione. Imbarcato a Londra in fretta e furia su di un
aereo speciale, Pinochet in poche ore ha raggiunto il Cile, e subito
all'aereoporto si e' alzato dalla sedia a rotelle ed ha cominciato a
deambulare come non gli succedeva da mesi, salutando con il bastone
levato in segno di vittoria.
Questo episodio ha evocato a qualcuno la vicenda del Managing Director
della birra Guinness il quale anni fa, condannato per una truffa per
milioni di sterline, si sottrasse al carcere a causa del suo grave stato
di salute, dovuto al morbo di Alzheimer, e pote' cosi' immediatamente
aprire una nuova fabbrica di birra...
(Fonti: "The Times" 5/3/2000, tutti i quotidiani italiani del 4/3/2000,
mailing list stopnato@... )
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
I giornali di tutto il mondo hanno riportato, il 4/3/2000, della
prodigiosa guarigione del criminale cileno Augusto Pinochet, liberato
senza condizioni in nome dei diritti umani dal governo britannico.
Viste le sue gravi condizioni di salute, su iniziativa dell'ex-primo
Ministro Thatcher Pinochet moribondo era stato anche gratificato con un
preziosissimo piatto d'argento, l'"armada plate", ispirato alla
sconfitta della flotta spagnola da parte di Sir Francis Drake nel
Cinquecento, a sottolineare la recente sconfitta della richiesta
spagnola di estradizione. Imbarcato a Londra in fretta e furia su di un
aereo speciale, Pinochet in poche ore ha raggiunto il Cile, e subito
all'aereoporto si e' alzato dalla sedia a rotelle ed ha cominciato a
deambulare come non gli succedeva da mesi, salutando con il bastone
levato in segno di vittoria.
Questo episodio ha evocato a qualcuno la vicenda del Managing Director
della birra Guinness il quale anni fa, condannato per una truffa per
milioni di sterline, si sottrasse al carcere a causa del suo grave stato
di salute, dovuto al morbo di Alzheimer, e pote' cosi' immediatamente
aprire una nuova fabbrica di birra...
(Fonti: "The Times" 5/3/2000, tutti i quotidiani italiani del 4/3/2000,
mailing list stopnato@... )
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
IPSE DIXIT
"La liberta' di espressione non e' la liberta' di mentire"
William COHEN, Ministro della Difesa USA,
conferenza stampa a Sofia, 3 ottobre 1997
http://www.panweb.sicap.it/alex/Yugo/index.html
--------- 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 liberta' di espressione non e' la liberta' di mentire"
William COHEN, Ministro della Difesa USA,
conferenza stampa a Sofia, 3 ottobre 1997
http://www.panweb.sicap.it/alex/Yugo/index.html
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Comit. Intern.sta Arco Iris <ale.ramon@...>
> To: <Recipient list suppressed>
> Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2000 4:06 PM
> Subject: FESTIVAL MONDIALE DELLA GIOVENTU' IN ALGERIA (2001)
>
> Riceviamo e Diffondiamo:
>
> Federazione Mondiale della Gioventù Democratica,
> E-mail:"wfdy@..."
>
> Stimati/e Compagni/e ed Amici/che,
>
> Riceviate un affettuoso saluto da parte della vicepresidenza della
> Federazione Mondiale della Gioventù Democratica.
>
> Dall'ultima assemblea generale realizzatasi a Cipro nel gennaio del 1999,
> la nostra amata Federazione ha avuto un anno pieno di attività in tutto il
> mondo. Siamo stati presenti o le nostre organizzazioni hanno rappresentato
> la Federazione in diversi avvenimenti importanti.
>
> Bisogna sottolineare che quest'anno abbiamo organizzato la riunione del
> Consiglio Generale della FMGD, in Vietnam, dove abbiamo approvato che la
> sede del prossimo FESTIVAL MONDIALE DELLA GIOVENTU' E DEGLI STUDENTI sarà,
> nel 2001, ad Algeri (Algeria). Nell'ambito dello stesso, la Federazione
> Mondiale della Gioventù Democratica e tutte le organizzazioni progressiste
> del mondo intero organizzeranno un Festival Antiimperialista, per la
> Autodeterminazione dei Popoli e per la Pace.
>
> L'anno che viene trasformeremo la città di Algeri in una bella
> dimostrazione che i nostri sogni sono più vivi che mai e, al tempo stesso,
> riceveremo la calorosa accoglienza del popolo algerino che ci attenderà.
>
> Vi inviamo informazioni sulle ultime attività alle quali ha preso parte la
> Federazione, come la visita in Palestina, dove abbiamo avuto la possibilità
> di incontrare Yasser Arafat, o come la visita al combattente popolo
> jugoslavo che ha resistito ai bombardamenti della NATO e vi sottolineiamo
> l'accoglienza ricevuta da parte della Gioventù del Partito Socialista Serbo
> (SPS), che ha ricevuto due delle nostre delegazioni della FMGD.
>
> Aggressione contro la Jugoslavia
>
> Durante la guerra contro la Jugoslavia la FMGD ha giocato un ruolo
> importante, dal momento che ha organizzato due visite di solidarietà al
> popolo ed alla gioventù jugoslava.
>
> Abbiamo ricevuto un grande appoggio da parte della Gioventù del Partito
> Socialista Serbo, che ci ha accompagnato in questa visita, dandoci la
> dovuta attenzione. Abbiamo avuto la possibilità di visitare Belgrado e
> altre città della Jugoslavia. In queste abbiamo visto fabbriche, ponti,
> stazioni di radio e televisioni, strade e centinaia di edifici pubblici,
> distrutti dai bombardamenti assassini della NATO.
>
> Abbiamo avuto l'opportunità di vedere anche la resistenza della coraggiosa
> e combattente gioventù jugoslava, che in ogni momento ha resistito ed ha
> denunciato i bombardamenti giornalieri contro il suo territorio.
>
> Con il pretesto di difendere gli jugoslavi del Kosovo, gli Stati Uniti ed i
> loro alleati hanno ucciso migliaia di donne, bambini ed anziani e - con le
> loro bombe giornaliere contro ospedali, scuole, fabbriche di Pristina e di
> altre città del Kosovo Jugoslavo - hanno causato l'evacuazione di tutta la
> regione. A Belgrado abbiamo partecipato a manifestazioni di solidarietà,
> così abbiamo visitato l'ultimo ponte di Belgrado che si è mantenuto in
> piedi grazie alla vigilanza giornaliera del popolo jugoslavo, che voleva
> evitare che il ponte fosse bombardato. In America Latina le nostre
> organizzazioni hanno portato avanti manifestazioni in luoghi pubblici e di
> fronte alle ambasciate dall'Uruguay a Cuba, dal Brasile all'Ecuador.
> Inoltre, il giorno 17 febbraio, la FMGD è stata presente al Congresso del
> Partito Socialista Serbo (SPS) come invitata speciale ed ha partecipato ad
> un seminario in Solidarietà con il Popolo Jugoslavo, organizzato dalla
> Gioventù del Partito Socialista Serbo. Al Congresso hanno partecipato più
> di cento delegazioni internazionali.
>
> Visita in Palestina
>
> Allo stesso modo abbiamo visitato la Palestina. Siamo stati invitati dalla
> Unione Generale degli Studenti Palestinesi (GUPS) e dalla Autorità
> Nazionale Palestinese. E' stata una visita importante dato che abbiamo
> avuto la possibilità di visitare università, scuole e di riunirci con tutti
> i leaders studenteschi e di portare loro il nostro supporto per la
> creazione dello Stato Palestinese. A partire da questo, abbiamo avuto una
> riunione con il Presidente Yasser Arafat che ha dichiarato che continua la
> propria lotta in favore dello Stato Palestinese, manifestando una grande
> riconoscenza per la nostra visita. La FMGD si è impegnata a proseguire il
> suo appoggio alla lotta e alla creazione dello Stato Palestinese,
> organizzando anche attività di appoggio, insieme alle organizzazioni
> aderenti, nei loro rispettivi paesi. Quest'anno si terrà un Seminario
> Internazionale di Appoggio alla creazione dello Stato Palestinese che avrà
> luogo in Palestina ed al quale saremo presenti.
>
> Congressi e Seminari
>
> La FMGD ha anche assistito ad alcuni Congressi organizzati dalle nostre
> organizzazioni, così come al Congresso della Gioventù Comunista del Cile
> (Cile), al Seminario Internazionale di Solidarietà con la Colombia
> (Colombia), al Congresso della Gioventù Comunista Colombiana, la JUCO
> (Colombia), al Congresso della Gioventù Popolare Socialista (Messico), al
> Seminario dell'Anniversario della Organizzazione della Gioventù del Partito
> Nazionale Popolare (Giamaica), al Seminario Internazionale sul
> Neoliberismo, realizzatosi a La Habana (Cuba). Ci sono stati, poi, molti
> altri eventi ai quali, sfortunatamente, non abbiamo potuto assistere, però
> ai quali hanno partecipato le organizzazioni federate alla FMGD.
>
> Riunione del Consiglio Generale della FMGD,
> organizzata nel gennaio del 2000, ad Hanoi
>
> La riunione del Consiglio Generale è stata molto importante dal momento che
> si sono discussi diversi punti come quello del finanziamento, delle
> affiliazioni, il Piano d'Azione e del prossimo Festival Mondiale della
> Gioventù Democratica.
>
> Nuove affiliazioni:
>
> Europa: Lega della Gioventù Comunista della Jugoslavia, Unione della
> Gioventù Comunista della Federazione Russa, Unione Socialista della
> Gioventù Popolare della Slovacchia, Lega della Gioventù Comunista
> dell'Armenia.
>
> Medio Oriente: Unione Nazionale degli Studenti Algerini.
>
> Asia: Lega Generale degli Studenti di Burma.
>
> Dall'America Latina non ci sono state affiliazioni o richieste, però
> bisogna sottolineare che nell'Assemblea Generale si è approvata
> l'affiliazione di varie organizzazioni latinoamericane, come la Gioventù
> del Movimento 26 Marzo (J26M, Uruguay), la Casa della Gioventù del Paraguay
> (CJP, Paraguay), la Gioventù Socialista Brasiliana (JSB, Brasil), la
> Gioventù del Partito del Movimento Democratico Brasiliano (JPMDB Brasil).
>
> Finanziamenti:
>
> Sfortunatamente poche organizzazioni pagano le quote annuali e solo due le
> pagano con regolarità, la Gioventù Rivoluzionaria 8 Ottobre e la Unione dei
> Giovani Comunisti di Cuba (UJC).
>
> Piano d'azione per il 2000
>
> - Campagne Nazionali e Regionali per il 55° Anniversario della FMGD
>
> - Campagna Internazionale per l'estinzione della NATO
>
> - Campagna Internazionale contro il ruolo distruttore del FMI e della Banca
> Mondiale e per la cancellazione dei debiti esteri dei paesi in via di
> sviluppo
>
> - Campagna Internazionale per la fine delle armi nucleari
>
> - Realizzazione di un evento di commemorazione del 55° anniversario dei
> bombardamenti contro Hiroshima e Nagasaki
>
> - Evento Internazionale sui Diritti delle Donne a Nuova Delhi, India
> (ottobre)
>
> - Conferenza Internazionale di Solidarietà con il Popolo del Sahara
> Occidentale e per la sua indipendenza (ottobre)
>
> - Campagna Internazionale di Solidarietà con il Popolo e la Gioventù
> Palestinese e per la creazione del suo Stato
>
> - Il 10 novembre - realizzazione di manifestazioni internazionali per la
> fine della disoccupazione
>
> - Settembre: Manifestazione a Praga contro la riunione del Fondo Monetario
> Internazionale
>
> - Riunione Internazionale Preparatoria per il 15° Festival Mondiale della
> Gioventù a La Habana
>
> - Partecipazione al Congresso della Unione Internazionale degli Studenti in
> Libia
>
> - Partecipazione al Congresso della OCLAE a La Habana
>
> Congresso della OCLAE
>
> La FMGD parteciperà al congresso della OCLAE attraverso il suo presidente e
> le organizzazioni della vicepresidenza per l'America Latina, la Gioventù
> Rivoluzionaria 8 Ottobre (JR8, Brasile) e la UJC (Cuba). Il congresso della
> OCLAE è la principale attività del Continente Latinoamericano quest'anno
> per questo invitiamo tutte le organizzazioni federate ed amiche a
> presenziare questo importante evento.
>
> Festival Mondiale della Gioventù e degli Studenti: ALGERIA 2001
>
> La discussione sulla organizzazione del prossimo Festival Mondiale della
> Gioventù e degli Studenti è stata la più importante durante la Riunione del
> Consiglio Generale. Prima della riunione c'erano tre paesi candidati senza
> menzionare le decine di altri paesi che anche avevano manifestato la loro
> intenzione di dar luogo al Festival.
>
> Dopo un lungo dibattito è stata scelta l'Algeria come sede del 15° Festival
> che si realizzerà nel 2001. Abbiamo approvato che il prossimo Festival deve
> continuare ad essere una manifestazione Antiimperialista, per la Pace e la
> Sovranità dei Popoli e dei Giovani di tutto il mondo.
>
> Abbiamo scelto l'Algeria perché ha mostrato le condizioni necessarie per
> organizzare il Festival nel 2001. L'anno prossimo porteremo il nostro
> appoggio totale al popolo algerino così come il nostro omaggio per la sua
> lotta di Liberazione Nazionale e per l'importante contributo all'Umanità.
> La UNGA - Unione Nazionale della Gioventù Algerina- già stà portando avanti
> i preparativi per l'organizzazione e per la ricezione di tutti i delegati
> partecipanti. Per questo convochiamo tutte le organizzazioni federate ed
> affiliate alla FMGD a partecipare al prossimo Festival Mondiale della
> Gioventù e degli Studenti.
>
> A breve inviaremo le informazioni relative al FESTIVAL. La prima Riunione
> Internazionale preparatoria per il prossimo Festival sarà a La Habana nel
> giugno di quest'anno, pero ancora stiamo fissando la migliore data per tale
> riunione con l'idea di facilitare la presenza delle diverse organizzazioni.
>
> Stimati/e Amici/che e Compagni/e,
> queste sono le principali informazioni che vi invio da Budapest, Ungheria.
> Avremo molte attività per questo chiedo a tutte le organizzazioni di
> informarci sulle loro attività di quest'anno perché possiamo divulgarle a
> tutte le nostre organizzazioni, della FMGD. Avremo il Congresso della OCLAE
> a cui dovremo partecipare per prepararci al prossimo Festival Mondiale
> della Gioventù e degli Studenti, in Algeria nel 2001.
>
> Vi chiediamo di inviare i vostri numeri di telefono, e-mail, indirizzi per
> l'attualizzazione del nostro registro.
>
> Stiamo traducendo i documenti della riunione del Consiglio Generale della
> FMGD in spagnolo e, a breve, li staremo inviando attraverso la posta
> elettronica.
>
> Attentamente,
> Cristiano Aristimunha Pinto
> Vicepresidente FMGD
> (Rappresentante della Gioventù Rivoluzionaria 8 Ottobre- Brasile)
>
> Indirizzi e contatti in Ungheria:
> Telefono/fax: (00361) 350 22 02 (FMGD)
> Telefono/fax: (00361) 209 15 25 (Abitazione)
> E-mail: chris_fmjd@... (personale)
> jr8@... (JR8)
> wfdy@... (FMGD)
>
> -----------------------------
> Federazione Mondiale della Gioventù Democratica
> 1389 Budapest - pob 147 - Ungheria
> Tel/fax: +361 350 22 02 / 350 12 04
> E-Mail: <wfdy@...>
> -----------------------------
> La Federazione Mondiale della Gioventù Democratica è una organizzazione non
> governativa con status consultivo presso l'ONU e relazione operativa presso
> l'UNESCO. Riconosciuta con merito per la pace dal Segretario Generale delle
> Nazioni Unite nel 1987.
> -----------------------------
>
> =============================
> Comitato Internazionalista Arco Iris
> Via don Minzoni 33 - 25082 Botticino Sera (BS)
> Tel/Fax: 030 - 2190006
> E-mail:"ale.ramon@..."
> http://www.presos.org/italia
--
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Comit. Intern.sta Arco Iris <ale.ramon@...>
> To: <Recipient list suppressed>
> Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2000 4:06 PM
> Subject: FESTIVAL MONDIALE DELLA GIOVENTU' IN ALGERIA (2001)
>
> Riceviamo e Diffondiamo:
>
> Federazione Mondiale della Gioventù Democratica,
> E-mail:"wfdy@..."
>
> Stimati/e Compagni/e ed Amici/che,
>
> Riceviate un affettuoso saluto da parte della vicepresidenza della
> Federazione Mondiale della Gioventù Democratica.
>
> Dall'ultima assemblea generale realizzatasi a Cipro nel gennaio del 1999,
> la nostra amata Federazione ha avuto un anno pieno di attività in tutto il
> mondo. Siamo stati presenti o le nostre organizzazioni hanno rappresentato
> la Federazione in diversi avvenimenti importanti.
>
> Bisogna sottolineare che quest'anno abbiamo organizzato la riunione del
> Consiglio Generale della FMGD, in Vietnam, dove abbiamo approvato che la
> sede del prossimo FESTIVAL MONDIALE DELLA GIOVENTU' E DEGLI STUDENTI sarà,
> nel 2001, ad Algeri (Algeria). Nell'ambito dello stesso, la Federazione
> Mondiale della Gioventù Democratica e tutte le organizzazioni progressiste
> del mondo intero organizzeranno un Festival Antiimperialista, per la
> Autodeterminazione dei Popoli e per la Pace.
>
> L'anno che viene trasformeremo la città di Algeri in una bella
> dimostrazione che i nostri sogni sono più vivi che mai e, al tempo stesso,
> riceveremo la calorosa accoglienza del popolo algerino che ci attenderà.
>
> Vi inviamo informazioni sulle ultime attività alle quali ha preso parte la
> Federazione, come la visita in Palestina, dove abbiamo avuto la possibilità
> di incontrare Yasser Arafat, o come la visita al combattente popolo
> jugoslavo che ha resistito ai bombardamenti della NATO e vi sottolineiamo
> l'accoglienza ricevuta da parte della Gioventù del Partito Socialista Serbo
> (SPS), che ha ricevuto due delle nostre delegazioni della FMGD.
>
> Aggressione contro la Jugoslavia
>
> Durante la guerra contro la Jugoslavia la FMGD ha giocato un ruolo
> importante, dal momento che ha organizzato due visite di solidarietà al
> popolo ed alla gioventù jugoslava.
>
> Abbiamo ricevuto un grande appoggio da parte della Gioventù del Partito
> Socialista Serbo, che ci ha accompagnato in questa visita, dandoci la
> dovuta attenzione. Abbiamo avuto la possibilità di visitare Belgrado e
> altre città della Jugoslavia. In queste abbiamo visto fabbriche, ponti,
> stazioni di radio e televisioni, strade e centinaia di edifici pubblici,
> distrutti dai bombardamenti assassini della NATO.
>
> Abbiamo avuto l'opportunità di vedere anche la resistenza della coraggiosa
> e combattente gioventù jugoslava, che in ogni momento ha resistito ed ha
> denunciato i bombardamenti giornalieri contro il suo territorio.
>
> Con il pretesto di difendere gli jugoslavi del Kosovo, gli Stati Uniti ed i
> loro alleati hanno ucciso migliaia di donne, bambini ed anziani e - con le
> loro bombe giornaliere contro ospedali, scuole, fabbriche di Pristina e di
> altre città del Kosovo Jugoslavo - hanno causato l'evacuazione di tutta la
> regione. A Belgrado abbiamo partecipato a manifestazioni di solidarietà,
> così abbiamo visitato l'ultimo ponte di Belgrado che si è mantenuto in
> piedi grazie alla vigilanza giornaliera del popolo jugoslavo, che voleva
> evitare che il ponte fosse bombardato. In America Latina le nostre
> organizzazioni hanno portato avanti manifestazioni in luoghi pubblici e di
> fronte alle ambasciate dall'Uruguay a Cuba, dal Brasile all'Ecuador.
> Inoltre, il giorno 17 febbraio, la FMGD è stata presente al Congresso del
> Partito Socialista Serbo (SPS) come invitata speciale ed ha partecipato ad
> un seminario in Solidarietà con il Popolo Jugoslavo, organizzato dalla
> Gioventù del Partito Socialista Serbo. Al Congresso hanno partecipato più
> di cento delegazioni internazionali.
>
> Visita in Palestina
>
> Allo stesso modo abbiamo visitato la Palestina. Siamo stati invitati dalla
> Unione Generale degli Studenti Palestinesi (GUPS) e dalla Autorità
> Nazionale Palestinese. E' stata una visita importante dato che abbiamo
> avuto la possibilità di visitare università, scuole e di riunirci con tutti
> i leaders studenteschi e di portare loro il nostro supporto per la
> creazione dello Stato Palestinese. A partire da questo, abbiamo avuto una
> riunione con il Presidente Yasser Arafat che ha dichiarato che continua la
> propria lotta in favore dello Stato Palestinese, manifestando una grande
> riconoscenza per la nostra visita. La FMGD si è impegnata a proseguire il
> suo appoggio alla lotta e alla creazione dello Stato Palestinese,
> organizzando anche attività di appoggio, insieme alle organizzazioni
> aderenti, nei loro rispettivi paesi. Quest'anno si terrà un Seminario
> Internazionale di Appoggio alla creazione dello Stato Palestinese che avrà
> luogo in Palestina ed al quale saremo presenti.
>
> Congressi e Seminari
>
> La FMGD ha anche assistito ad alcuni Congressi organizzati dalle nostre
> organizzazioni, così come al Congresso della Gioventù Comunista del Cile
> (Cile), al Seminario Internazionale di Solidarietà con la Colombia
> (Colombia), al Congresso della Gioventù Comunista Colombiana, la JUCO
> (Colombia), al Congresso della Gioventù Popolare Socialista (Messico), al
> Seminario dell'Anniversario della Organizzazione della Gioventù del Partito
> Nazionale Popolare (Giamaica), al Seminario Internazionale sul
> Neoliberismo, realizzatosi a La Habana (Cuba). Ci sono stati, poi, molti
> altri eventi ai quali, sfortunatamente, non abbiamo potuto assistere, però
> ai quali hanno partecipato le organizzazioni federate alla FMGD.
>
> Riunione del Consiglio Generale della FMGD,
> organizzata nel gennaio del 2000, ad Hanoi
>
> La riunione del Consiglio Generale è stata molto importante dal momento che
> si sono discussi diversi punti come quello del finanziamento, delle
> affiliazioni, il Piano d'Azione e del prossimo Festival Mondiale della
> Gioventù Democratica.
>
> Nuove affiliazioni:
>
> Europa: Lega della Gioventù Comunista della Jugoslavia, Unione della
> Gioventù Comunista della Federazione Russa, Unione Socialista della
> Gioventù Popolare della Slovacchia, Lega della Gioventù Comunista
> dell'Armenia.
>
> Medio Oriente: Unione Nazionale degli Studenti Algerini.
>
> Asia: Lega Generale degli Studenti di Burma.
>
> Dall'America Latina non ci sono state affiliazioni o richieste, però
> bisogna sottolineare che nell'Assemblea Generale si è approvata
> l'affiliazione di varie organizzazioni latinoamericane, come la Gioventù
> del Movimento 26 Marzo (J26M, Uruguay), la Casa della Gioventù del Paraguay
> (CJP, Paraguay), la Gioventù Socialista Brasiliana (JSB, Brasil), la
> Gioventù del Partito del Movimento Democratico Brasiliano (JPMDB Brasil).
>
> Finanziamenti:
>
> Sfortunatamente poche organizzazioni pagano le quote annuali e solo due le
> pagano con regolarità, la Gioventù Rivoluzionaria 8 Ottobre e la Unione dei
> Giovani Comunisti di Cuba (UJC).
>
> Piano d'azione per il 2000
>
> - Campagne Nazionali e Regionali per il 55° Anniversario della FMGD
>
> - Campagna Internazionale per l'estinzione della NATO
>
> - Campagna Internazionale contro il ruolo distruttore del FMI e della Banca
> Mondiale e per la cancellazione dei debiti esteri dei paesi in via di
> sviluppo
>
> - Campagna Internazionale per la fine delle armi nucleari
>
> - Realizzazione di un evento di commemorazione del 55° anniversario dei
> bombardamenti contro Hiroshima e Nagasaki
>
> - Evento Internazionale sui Diritti delle Donne a Nuova Delhi, India
> (ottobre)
>
> - Conferenza Internazionale di Solidarietà con il Popolo del Sahara
> Occidentale e per la sua indipendenza (ottobre)
>
> - Campagna Internazionale di Solidarietà con il Popolo e la Gioventù
> Palestinese e per la creazione del suo Stato
>
> - Il 10 novembre - realizzazione di manifestazioni internazionali per la
> fine della disoccupazione
>
> - Settembre: Manifestazione a Praga contro la riunione del Fondo Monetario
> Internazionale
>
> - Riunione Internazionale Preparatoria per il 15° Festival Mondiale della
> Gioventù a La Habana
>
> - Partecipazione al Congresso della Unione Internazionale degli Studenti in
> Libia
>
> - Partecipazione al Congresso della OCLAE a La Habana
>
> Congresso della OCLAE
>
> La FMGD parteciperà al congresso della OCLAE attraverso il suo presidente e
> le organizzazioni della vicepresidenza per l'America Latina, la Gioventù
> Rivoluzionaria 8 Ottobre (JR8, Brasile) e la UJC (Cuba). Il congresso della
> OCLAE è la principale attività del Continente Latinoamericano quest'anno
> per questo invitiamo tutte le organizzazioni federate ed amiche a
> presenziare questo importante evento.
>
> Festival Mondiale della Gioventù e degli Studenti: ALGERIA 2001
>
> La discussione sulla organizzazione del prossimo Festival Mondiale della
> Gioventù e degli Studenti è stata la più importante durante la Riunione del
> Consiglio Generale. Prima della riunione c'erano tre paesi candidati senza
> menzionare le decine di altri paesi che anche avevano manifestato la loro
> intenzione di dar luogo al Festival.
>
> Dopo un lungo dibattito è stata scelta l'Algeria come sede del 15° Festival
> che si realizzerà nel 2001. Abbiamo approvato che il prossimo Festival deve
> continuare ad essere una manifestazione Antiimperialista, per la Pace e la
> Sovranità dei Popoli e dei Giovani di tutto il mondo.
>
> Abbiamo scelto l'Algeria perché ha mostrato le condizioni necessarie per
> organizzare il Festival nel 2001. L'anno prossimo porteremo il nostro
> appoggio totale al popolo algerino così come il nostro omaggio per la sua
> lotta di Liberazione Nazionale e per l'importante contributo all'Umanità.
> La UNGA - Unione Nazionale della Gioventù Algerina- già stà portando avanti
> i preparativi per l'organizzazione e per la ricezione di tutti i delegati
> partecipanti. Per questo convochiamo tutte le organizzazioni federate ed
> affiliate alla FMGD a partecipare al prossimo Festival Mondiale della
> Gioventù e degli Studenti.
>
> A breve inviaremo le informazioni relative al FESTIVAL. La prima Riunione
> Internazionale preparatoria per il prossimo Festival sarà a La Habana nel
> giugno di quest'anno, pero ancora stiamo fissando la migliore data per tale
> riunione con l'idea di facilitare la presenza delle diverse organizzazioni.
>
> Stimati/e Amici/che e Compagni/e,
> queste sono le principali informazioni che vi invio da Budapest, Ungheria.
> Avremo molte attività per questo chiedo a tutte le organizzazioni di
> informarci sulle loro attività di quest'anno perché possiamo divulgarle a
> tutte le nostre organizzazioni, della FMGD. Avremo il Congresso della OCLAE
> a cui dovremo partecipare per prepararci al prossimo Festival Mondiale
> della Gioventù e degli Studenti, in Algeria nel 2001.
>
> Vi chiediamo di inviare i vostri numeri di telefono, e-mail, indirizzi per
> l'attualizzazione del nostro registro.
>
> Stiamo traducendo i documenti della riunione del Consiglio Generale della
> FMGD in spagnolo e, a breve, li staremo inviando attraverso la posta
> elettronica.
>
> Attentamente,
> Cristiano Aristimunha Pinto
> Vicepresidente FMGD
> (Rappresentante della Gioventù Rivoluzionaria 8 Ottobre- Brasile)
>
> Indirizzi e contatti in Ungheria:
> Telefono/fax: (00361) 350 22 02 (FMGD)
> Telefono/fax: (00361) 209 15 25 (Abitazione)
> E-mail: chris_fmjd@... (personale)
> jr8@... (JR8)
> wfdy@... (FMGD)
>
> -----------------------------
> Federazione Mondiale della Gioventù Democratica
> 1389 Budapest - pob 147 - Ungheria
> Tel/fax: +361 350 22 02 / 350 12 04
> E-Mail: <wfdy@...>
> -----------------------------
> La Federazione Mondiale della Gioventù Democratica è una organizzazione non
> governativa con status consultivo presso l'ONU e relazione operativa presso
> l'UNESCO. Riconosciuta con merito per la pace dal Segretario Generale delle
> Nazioni Unite nel 1987.
> -----------------------------
>
> =============================
> Comitato Internazionalista Arco Iris
> Via don Minzoni 33 - 25082 Botticino Sera (BS)
> Tel/Fax: 030 - 2190006
> E-mail:"ale.ramon@..."
> http://www.presos.org/italia
--
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
AUDIZIONI ALLA COMMISSIONE ESTERI DEL PARLAMENTO CANADESE -
SECONDA PARTE
In un precedente messaggio
( http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/79.html? )
abbiamo riportato alcune delle audizioni tenute ad Ottawa, alla Camera
dei Comuni, dinanzi allo Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and
International Trade da parte di varie personalita' ritenute a vario
titolo "informate sui fatti" riguardo alla aggressione della NATO contro
la Repubblica Federale di Jugoslavia.
Continuiamo ora con la seconda parte del contributo di SERGE TRIFKOVIC,
professore di storia, responsabile per gli esteri di "Chronicles -
Magazine of American Culture", e con il contributo di MICHAEL MANDEL,
professore di diritto alla Osgoode Hall Law School, York University,
Toronto, che insieme ad altri avvocati ha presentato denuncia contro la
NATO al Tribunale dell'Aia per i crimini commessi sul territorio della
ex-RFSJ. La denuncia giace, tuttora "insabbiata", in qualche cassetto di
Carla dal Ponte.
Tutti i documenti sono stati diffusi dalla lista stopnat-@...
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 16:00:58 -0500
From: "minja m." <minja@...>
Send reply to: minja@...
To: KPAJ 3A HATO <kpaj-3a-hato@...>
Subject: Srdja Trifkovic in Ottawa House of Commons - Pt.
2
Trifkovic in Ottawa House of Commons - Pt. 2
HOUSE OF COMMONS - CHAMBRE DES COMMUNES
STANDING COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL
TRADE -
COMITE PERMANENT DES AFFAIRES ETRANGERES ET DU
COMMERCE INTERNATIONAL
UNEDITED COPY - COPIE NON EDITEE
• 0927 EVIDENCE
[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]
Ottawa, Thursday, February 17, 2000
[English]
The Chairman (Mr. Bill Graham (Toronto Centre-Rosedale, Lib.)):
Colleagues, I'm going to call this meeting to order. So I'll ask the
people at the back of the room if they're going to have conversations to
go outside. I'm going to ask Ms. Swann from the Ottawa Serbian Heritage
Society if She could go first. Then we'll put Mr. Trifkovic. Mr. Dyer
hasn't arrived yet. I just want to warn everybody it may be a bit
chaotic
this morning. I'm not saying it isn't always chaotic but it may be more
chaotic than usual because we may be called for votes and this happened
the last time. So I apologize to the witnesses first if we're called out
of the room for votes. It just seems to be a bit- The House seems dans
un
peu de perturbation comme on dirait peut-être dans la langue française,
n'est-ce pas, and so we'll just have to deal with that if it occurs.
Otherwise we'll go on. But I'd ask the witnesses if you keep yourself To
10 minutes each and then we'll move to questions. [...] Mr. Trifkovic...
Mr. Serge Trifkovic (Individual Presentation): [... Text of presentation
as previously distributed... Transcript of ensuing Q&A follows herewith]
The Chairman: Thank you, sir. [... A member asked if it was preferable
to
have a world court to deal with human rights violations, or ad-hoc
tribunals for individual crisis areas...]
Ms. Serge Trifkovic: I was somewhat puzzled by the clear-cut choice
between the WCC [World Criminal Court] and ad hoc tribunals as the only
alternatives we are facing. To me it sounds a bit like the choice
between
cancer and leukemia. I do not believe that bureaucratically structured
and
politically motivated international quasi-judicial bodies are either
desirable or feasible. In any proper sense a "tribunal" is an impartial
forum for administration of justice. If the kangaroo court that goes by
the name of The Hague Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia is any indicator, I
think the lesson of that particular body is that its model of justice is
Moscow 1938, and not Nuremberg in 1946. It was formed on a purely
political agenda by the Security Council, on the basis of Chapter 7. The
way it has acted, in terms of its procedures, its rule of evidence and
finally the selection of people to be indicted and prosecuted - and also
its refusal to indict and prosecute people who at prima facie should be,
such as the leaders of the 19 NATO countries -only indicates that it is
a
political body par excellence. There is no reason at all why a WCC would
be any different because, obviously, if you have the likes of Clinton
and
Blair deciding what is "necessary" and "feasible" in terms of
intervention, ultimately they would be deciding what is "necessary" and
"feasible" in terms of prosecution. The kind of political discipline in
the world that this would impose is eerily reminiscent of the Brave New
World of Huxley or "1984." I suspect that bodies such as the ones that
you
are mentioning will only take us a step further in the direction of
global totalitarianism in which the local and national traditions of law
and justice and jurisprudence- which are meaningful because they have
evolved within the context of a genuine, authentic national culture-
will
be replaced by something that is global, something that is allegedly
universal and, therefore, of necessity, ideological.
The Chair: Okay. I'm sorry, we're going to have to move on. It's a very
fascinating discussion. • 1025 [English] I've got to leave with with the
thought that you've always got to answer alternatives so I'll come to
you
and ask "What's your alternative". My alternative is that there's going
to
be United States imperial courts applying their jurisdiction around the
world to enforce it, so that may be worse for you. Anyway, that's just-
Mr. Serge Trifkovic: My alternative is to rediscover the beauty of a
society of nations in which enlightened national interests, based upon
the
Golden Rule of "I will not deny to anyone what I am asking for myself",
will be the basis of law and the basis of international relations. I am
not claiming that it was a long-lost golden age in Europe between
1815-1914, that we ought to yearn for in terms of reactionary nostalgia.
I'm simply saying that what we are offered as a replacement in the
Blairites' and Clintonistas' brave new world is infinitely worse and
infinitely more frightening.
Mr. Chuck Strahl: Well, you asked.
The Chair: I asked, and that may be.We're going to go to Ms. Augustine
and
then we're going back to Mr. Strahl and Mr. Robinson.
Ms. Jean Augustine (Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Lib.): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[...]
I am grappling with what is the future of Kosovo, is it going to be an
international protectorate? Is it going to be an entity no longer linked
[to Serbia-Yugoslavia]? [...]
Mr. Serge Trifkovic: I would like to make a few comments about the
future because we keep forgetting the broad picture, what will happen in
the long term. The Kosovo crisis is primarily the result of the U.S.
involvement In the Kosovo situation. Until the moment Dick Holbrooke
decided that this was something they would tackle in a big way, it was -
I
insist - a low-level, unremarkable conflict, the likes of which we see
all
over the world, all of the time. At the moment there is a whole series
of
geopolitical reasons why the Washington administration wants to be
involved in the Balkans. I'm afraid we have no time to go into those in
any detail. But the important thing for the members of this Committee to
remember is that you shouldn't take the "humanitarian" and other alibis
as
face value. You should always assume that there is an agenda behind it.
One of them is to have a U.S. foothold in the European mainland that
will
not be subject to the ups-and-downs of the trans-Atlantic relationship,
so
that if and when the Germans, the French and others decide to create a
European Defence structure that will gradually detach West Europeans
from
NATO, which will ultimately lead to the closure of U.S. bases in Naples
and in Frankfurt and in Munich, there will be the assets in Skopje, and
in
Pristina, and in Tuzla, that will provide both the physical and the
political and military U.S. presence that will not be affected by such a
change in the relationship. When I say there are geopolitical reasons
which have a logic of their own, I am not claiming that in this
particular
case we can establish a definite sequence of events. • 1105 [English]
I'm
simply saying that humanitarian and moralistic claims by themselves are
neither a sufficient nor necessary explanation. In order to look at
Kosovo
in the longer term we have to ask the question: what will happen if and
when the United States administration after Clinton, or even after
whoever
comes after Clinton, loses interest in the Balkans? At the moment
they're
creating the demand for their involvement by creating a whole series of
small, fragmented and unviable units that, by themselves, have neither
the
political, nor cultural, nor historic meaning - such as Dayton-Bosnia,
such as Kosovo, such as, tomorrow maybe, Sanjak or Montenegro, Vojvodina
or whatever. If and when the presence of the underwriters in the Balkans
are removed, we will have another bout of Hobbesian free-for-all. And
that
is the tragedy of it all, because what is being done right now is not
the
foundation for a solid, just and durable peace, but just an
improvization
on an ad-hoc basis. It bears no relation to history, no relation to the
continuity of the political and cultural development in that part of
the
world, but satisfies the needs of the moment. I'm saying this not as
someone born in Serbia, but someone who is trying to look at the
political
essence of the problem - that so far the U.S. administration has
followed
the principle that all of the ethnic groups in the area can be satisfied
at the expense of the Serbs. The result is a sort of Carthaginian peace
imposed upon the Serbian nation that will create a constant source of
revanchist resentment among the Serbs, and determination to turn the
tables once Uncle Sam loses interest. I feel that there will be a war
again: the Serbs will fight to return Kosovo to their own rule, because
they feel Kosovo to have been unjustly detached. And so, whatever
scenario
the people in Brussels, London, Washington, Ottawa, or Bonn decide for
Kosovo today, it will not be worth the paper it's written on if it
doesn't
bear any relation to the geopolitical realities in the long term, and
those realities are fairly simple. You will not be able to impose
something called "multicultural" Kosovo, "multi-ethnic" Kosovo if people
on the ground - and I have primarily the Albanians in mind - are
determined to have a mono-ethnic Kosovo. By including 25% Serbian
members
in any quasi-representative bodies you introduce, you will not re-invent
a
"multi-ethnic Kosovo" in which grannies are able to return to their
apartments. At the moment the only way people in Kosovo will feel safe
and
secure living in their communities is if you have a de facto petition.
Whether it is accompanied by a constitutional and political model that
will sanctify that partition is neither here nor there. But in the long
term you have to realize that an imposed "peace" on the Serb nation that
does not take into account the legitimate interests of the Serbs, that
does not take into account the sort of give and take in which each party
will feel that it has lost something as well as gained something, will
be
unviable, will be unjust, and will be - in the long term - the source of
another conflict.
The Chairman: Okay. [...]
Mr. Chuck Strahl: I'm going to pass to Mr. Robinson, but before I do, I
understand, Prof Trifkovic, you must leave shortly to catch a plane to
Europe- Mr. Serge Trifkovic: Actually, to Chicago- Mr. Chuck Strahl: To
Chicago. Mr. Serge Trifkovic: -and change to the plane for Amsterdam.
Mr.
Chuck Strahl: Right. Mr. Serge Trifkovic: I can stay for another 10
minutes. Mr. Chuck Strahl: Okay. When you're comfortable to leave just
leave. I want to say, then if you just do get up and go- Mr. Serge
Trifkovic: There will be no tears shed. Mr. Chuck Strahl: No. There will
be tears. They may be crocodile. They may be joy, who knows? But
certainly
I just want to say we appreciate very much you taking the time to come.
There's no doubt about it being a very interesting intervention. Please,
when you have to go, just feel free to get up and go and don't think us
rude if we don't properly acknowledge your very important contribution.
Thank you, sir. Mr. Robinson. Mr. Svend Robinson: I'm afraid I'll have
to
leave around the same time. I'm not sure if the tears will be quite as
intense, but- The Chair: If the tears are shed- Some hon. members: Ha,
ha.
The Chair: Mr. Robinson, the tears are shed when you arrive, not when
you
leave.
Mr. Svend Robinson: I just had two questions, I guess for Mr. Trifkovic
and Ms. Swann, in particular. First, I wonder if you could just perhaps
elaborate a bit on some of the concerns around the current situation in
Pancevo and what your knowledge is of the situation in Pancevo. I had
the
opportunity to visit there and
The situation had the potential of being an environmental disaster. I'm
just wondering what the current analysis is of the outcome of the
bombing
in that area and what sort of testing has been done, for example, of the
environment, the water, the air and so on. Because there were serious
concerns about that. My second question, again to both of you. I wonder
if
you could talk a little bit about • 1120 [English] about the
responsibility of Serbs in Kosovo for wrongdoing. The United Nations
High
Commission on Refugees documented quite powerfully a major exodus of
Kosovar Albanians before March 24. I'm sure you're familiar with those
reports. You've seen those reports. Figures as many as 90,000 who had
left
their homes, left their villages. After the bombing started, did the
bombing exacerbate the flow of people. I have no doubt that it did.
Certainly a number of people who I spoke with pointed out how in some
cases Serbs on the ground were pointing up into the sky and saying you
were responsible for NATO. They felt that they were under siege from the
KLA, the NATO bombs and obviously when people are defenceless on the
ground they're totally vulnerable. It was a coward's war in many
respects,
but nevertheless people were driven out in huge numbers. Hundreds of
thousands of people left and were driven out. I was on a road from
Pristina down to the border with Macedonia, went through village after
village which were like ghost towns, houses had been burned to the
ground
in many cases and there's culpability for that and I want to hear from
you, both of you, some acknowledgement that yes we have to deal with
this
as well as part of the reckoning that must come out of this tragic
series
of events.
Mr. Serge Trifkovic: I'll deal with the second one and then I'll have to
go. I think the important thing to bear in mind in the Balkans is there
are no white hats and black hats and that's the fundamental problem that
we have faced with the coverage of the war in the media, and with
quasi-academic analysis, and with political decision-making. Very early
on
in this conflict an overall perception of the culpability of the Serbs
for
the Krajina, Bosnia and Kosovo was created even though very often the
reasons the Serbs reacted in the Krajina are very similar to the reasons
the Albanians reacted in Kosovo and vice versa. In some cases, the Serbs
were de facto separatists, wanting to secede from the separating entity.
In other times, they were the unitarists. In both cases they were deemed
wrong. But if you try to quantify the evil on all sides, it's impossible
to say that the Serbs proved qualitatively, fundamentally worse than
other
groups. Right now the Serbs constitute the largest refugee population
outside sub-Saharan Africa. To say that the Serbs have done evil things
is
almost a truism because in the Balkan imbroglio all sides have done very
evil things. If you want the Serbs to beat their chests and shout mea
culpa, well indeed, maybe they should because the Patriarch warned them
against
adopting some of the techniques and some of the feelings of their
enemies as they experienced them in 1941 to 1945 in the so-called
independent state of Croatia. [...] If this was the war to return the
Albanians, or in the memorable words of the then-British defence
minister
"Serbs out, Albanians back, NATO in", nobody is talking about "Serbs
back"
in Kosovo these days... a quarter of a million displaced Serbs and other
non-Albanians under NATO, in the aftermath of NATO's victory. So I will
be
the first to admit that the Serbs have done bad things just as everybody
else has done bad things; but it doesn't mean we are now going to ask
the
question how deserving are the Croats of being bombed • 1125 [English]
because they contributed "collectively" to the exodus of a quarter of a
million Serbs from the Krajina? How deserving are the Muslims of
castigation and bombing because right now, the whole of Sarajevo-until
1991, the second largest Serbian town after Belgrade - is Serbenfrei?.
If
we are to re-establish a modicum of reality in this debate, we have to
bear in mind that human fallibility and human culpability is not the
exclusive prerogative of anyone single ethnic group. Thank you.
Mr. Svend J. Robinson: Mr. Dyer, were you wanting to comment?
Mr. Gwynn Dyer: I was particularly struck by the use of the word
"Serbenfrei" to describe the Serbian authorities' removal of the Serbian
population of Sarajevo after the Dayton Accords. There were Serbians in
that city who were driven from their homes by the Serbian police. I was
there; I saw it. The idea that the Albanian Muslims and the Bosnian
Muslims and the Croats bear equal responsibility-all of them have done
bad
things. Of course bad things happen in war but neither the total of
refugees nor the total of dead nor the evidence of massacre suggests in
any way that there is shared responsibility equally indistinguishably
among the ethnic groups of the Balkans. Now this may be to some extent
because the Serbs inherited the heavy weapons of the Yugoslav army and
had
the ability to do more damage; I recognize that. The Bosnian Muslims
didn't have heavy artillery to shell Serbian villages as the Serbs did
to
shell Sarajevo. But I do find the line of argument which suggests that
there can be no distinguished distinction between Vukovar and Srebrenica
on the one hand, and the Krajina on the other hand. The Krajina Mark Two
-
when it was the Serbs who lost their homes - rather Mark One, when it
was
the Croatian inhabitants who were driven. I think is a travesty.
Mr. Serge Trifkovic: To claim that the Krajina is less of a crime than
"Srebrenica," even though the Krajina resulted in between 9 thousand and
12 thousand Serbian deaths, is a very curious argument, both morally and
intellectually. But in particular, I find it reprehensible that Kosovo
is
still referred to as a "massacre" because "the Kosovo massacre" is one
of
the biggest lies, media-mediated political lies of the decade, if not
the
century. In perspective, when a few decades pass, it will belong to the
same category as the bayonetted Belgian babies by the Kaiser's army in
1914. [...]
----
House of Commons-Canada
Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Tuesday February 22, 2000
Testimony of Professor Michael Mandel
Personal Note
Allow me to tell you a little bit about myself and how I became involved
in this. I am a professor of law at Osgoode Hall Law School where I have
taught for 25 years. I specialize in criminal law and comparative
constitutional law with an emphasis on domestic and foreign tribunals,
including United Nations tribunals such as the International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. I have no personal interest in the
conflict in Yugoslavia – I have no Serbs or Albanians in my family and I
am not being paid by anyone. I became involved in this as a Canadian
lawyer who witnessed a flagrant violation of the law by my government
with unspeakably tragic results for innocent people of all the Yugoslav
ethnicities. I became involved as a Jew appalled by the grotesque and
deliberate misuse of the Holocaust to justify the killing and maiming of
innocent people for what I am convinced were purely self-interested
motives, the farthest thing from humanitarianism, in a cynical attempt
to manipulate the desire of Canadians to help their fellows on the other
side of the world.
Illegality of the War
The first thing to note about NATO's war against Yugoslavia is that it
was flatly illegal both in the fact that it was ever undertaken and in
the way it was carried out. It was a gross and deliberate violation of
international law and the Charter of the United Nations. The Charter
authorizes the use of force in only two situations: self-defence or when
authorized by the Security Council.
The United Nations Charter provides in so far as is relevant:
Article 2
3. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful
means in such a manner that international peace and security, and
justice, are not endangered.
4. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the
threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political
independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the
Purposes of the United Nations.
Article 33
The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to
endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall,
first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation,
conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional
agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.
Article 37
1. Should the parties to a dispute of the nature referred to in Article
33 fail to settle it by the means indicated in that Article, they shall
refer it to the Security Council.
2. If the Security Council deems that the continuance of the dispute is
in fact likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and
security, it shall decide whether to take action under Article 36 or to
recommend such terms of settlement as it may consider appropriate.
Article 39
The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the
peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make
recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance
with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and
security.
Article 41
The Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of
armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it
may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures.
These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations
and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of
communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.
Article 42
Should the Security Council consider that measures provided for in
Article 41 would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may
take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to
maintain or restore international peace and security. Such action may
include demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or
land forces of Members of the United Nations.
Article51
Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of
individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against
a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken
measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.
Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence
shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in
any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council
under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems
necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and
security;
The jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice is also clear.
For instance, it stated in its ruling against United States intervention
in Nicaragua:
In any event, while the United States might form its own appraisal of
the situation as to respect for human rights in Nicaragua, the use of
force could not be the appropriate method to monitor or ensure such
respect. With regard to the steps actually taken, the protection of
human rights, a strictly humanitarian objective, cannot be compatible
with the mining of ports, the destruction of oil installations, or again
with the training, arming and equipping of the contras.
[CASE CONCERNING THE MILITARY AND PARAMILITARY ACTIVITIES IN AND AGAINST
NICARAGUA (NICARAGUA v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA) (MERITS) Judgment of
27 June 1986, I.C.J. Reports, 1986, p.134-135, paragraphs 267 and 268]
It should also be noted that the preliminary decision of the World Court
last year in Yugoslavia's case against 10 NATO countries, including
Canada, does not in the slightest contradict this. As Mr. Matas has
pointed out to you in his statement, this decision was taken on purely
jurisdictional grounds, first the United States' shameful refusal to
recognize the World Court's jurisdiction in general, and second Canada's
objection to jurisdiction in this specific case. But it is worth quoting
some paragraphs from the decision of the Court:
15. Whereas the Court is deeply concerned with the human tragedy, the
loss of life, and the enormous suffering in Kosovo which form the
background of the present dispute, and with the continuing loss of life
and human suffering in all parts of Yugoslavia;
16. Whereas the Court is profoundly concerned with the use of force in
Yugoslavia; whereas under the present circumstances such use raises very
serious issues of international law;
17. Whereas the Court is mindful of the purposes and principles of the
United Nations Charter and of its own responsibilities in the
maintenance of peace and security under the Charter and the Statue of
the court;
18. Whereas the Court deems it necessary to emphasize that all parties
appearing before it must act in conformity with their obligations under
the United Nations Charter and other rules of international law,
including humanitarian law.
[CASE CONCERNING LEGALITY OF USE OF FORCE (YUGOSLAVIA V. CANADA)
International Court of Justice, 2 June 1999]
To sum up, in the case of NATO's war on Yugoslavia, neither of the two
exclusive bases for the use of force (Security Council authorization or
self-defence) was even claimed by NATO.
As a violation of the United Nations Charter, the attack on Yugoslavia
was also a violation of the NATO Treaty itself and Canada's own domestic
law.
The NATO Treaty (1949), so far as is relevant, reads as follows:
[Preamble]: The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the
purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their
desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments.
Article 1: The Parties undertake, as set forth in the Charter of the
United Nations, to settle any international dispute in which they may be
involved by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and
security and justice are not endangered, and to refrain in their
international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner
inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.
Article 7: This treaty does not affect, and shall not be interpreted as
affecting in any way the rights and obligations under the Charter of the
Parties which are members of the United Nations, or the primary
responsibility of the Security Council for the maintenance of
international peace and security.
The Canada Defence Act, in so far as relevant reads as follows:
31. (1) The Governor in Council may place the Canadian forces or any
component, unit or other element thereof or any officer or
non-commissioned member thereof on active service anywhere in or beyond
Canada at any time when it appears advisable to do so
(a) by reason of an emergency, for the defence of Canada; or
(b) in consequence of any action undertaken by Canada under the United
Nations Charter, the North Atlantic treaty or any other similar
instrument for collective defence that may be entered into by Canada.
The war's illegality is not disputed by any legal scholar of repute,
even those who had some sympathy for the war, for instance Mr. Mendes in
his presentation to this Committee. Of course, Mr. Mendes calls this a
"fatal flaw" in the UN Charter. I don't believe it is a flaw at all, for
reasons I'll elaborate. But I don't think the seriousness of this can be
glossed over one bit: the flagrant violation of the law by our
government is no small thing. Democracy is quite simply meaningless if
governments feel they can violate the law with impunity.
Humanitarian Justification
We all know that the leaders of the NATO countries sought to justify
this war as a humanitarian intervention in defence of a vulnerable
population, the Kosovar Albanians, threatened with mass atrocities.
A lot turns on this claim, but not the illegality of the war. In fact,
the reason why there is such unanimity among scholars on the illegality
of this war is that there is no "humanitarian exception" under
international law or the United Nations Charter. That does not mean that
there are no means for the international community to intervene to
prevent or stop humanitarian disasters, even to use force where
necessary. It just means that the use of force for humanitarian purposes
has been totally absorbed in the UN Charter. A state must be able to
demonstrate the humanity of its proposed intervention to the Security
Council, including, of course, the five permanent members possessing a
veto. Nor has the Security Council shown itself to be incapable of
acting in these situations. It issued numerous resolutions authorizing
action in this conflict (Resolutions 1160, 1199, and 1203 of 1998 and
Resolutions 1239 and 1244 of 1999, the last of which brought an end to
the bombing). The Security Council has also shown itself capable of
authorizing the use of force, for example its authorization of "all
necessary means" to restore the sovereignty of Kuwait in Resolution 678
of November 29, 1990, which gave Iraq until January 15, 1991 to
withdraw. Bombing by the Americans commenced on January 16.
But NATO did not even move a Resolution before the Security Council over
Kosovo. Nor did it use the alternative means of demonstrating to the
international community the necessity for its use of force in the
General Assembly's Uniting for Peace Resolution (1950), which allows the
General Assembly recommend action to the Security Council if 2/3 of
those present and voting agree:
[The General Assembly] Resolves that if the Security Council, because of
lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its
primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and
security in any case where there appears to be a threat to the peace,
breach of the peace or act of aggression, the General Assembly shall
consider the matter immediately with a view to making appropriate
recommendations to Members for collective measures, including in the
case of a breach of the peace or act of aggression the use of armed
force when necessary, to maintain or restore international peace and
security."
There are two basic reasons why these procedures were not utilized by
NATO in this case. In the first place, the most plausible explanation of
this whole war was that it was, at its foundation, nothing less than an
attempt by the United States, through NATO, to overthrow the authority
of the United Nations. In the second place, NATO could never have
demonstrated a humanitarian justification for what it was doing, because
it had none.
In law, as in morals, it is not enough for a humanitarian justification
to be claimed, it must also be demonstrated. To use an odious example,
but one which makes the point clearly enough, Hitler himself used a
humanitarian justification for invading Poland and unleashing World War
II: he claimed he was doing it to protect the German minority from
oppression by the Poles.
In the case of NATO, what had to be justified as a humanitarian
intervention was a bombing campaign that, in dropping 25,000 bombs on
Yugoslavia, directly killed between 500 and 1800 civilian children,
women and men of all ethnicities and permanently injured as many others;
a bombing campaign that caused 60 to100 billion dollars worth of damage
to an already impoverished country; a bombing campaign that directly and
indirectly caused a refugee crisis of enormous proportions, with about 1
million fleeing Kosovo during the bombing; a bombing campaign that
indirectly caused the death of thousands more, by provoking the brutal
retaliatory and defensive measures that are inevitable when a war of
this kind and intensity is undertaken, and by giving a free hand to
extremists on both sides to vent their hatred. What also has to be
justified is the ethnic cleansing that has occurred in Kosovo since the
entry of the triumphant KLA, fully backed by NATO's might, which has
seen hundreds of thousands of Serb (and Roma and Jewish) Kosovars driven
out and hundreds murdered, a murder rate that is about 10 times the
Canadian rate per capita.
These results were to be expected and they were predicted by NATO's
military and political advisers in their very careful planning of the
war which went back more than a year before the bombing commenced.
A humanitarian justification would have to show that this disaster was
outweighed by a greater disaster that was about to happen and would have
happened but for this intervention. The evidence for this, which must be
carefully scrutinized by this Committee, is meagre to say the least.
Nobody could seriously maintain that the conditions for a repeat of the
Bosnian bloodbath were there: this was not an all out civil war with
well-armed parties of roughly equal strength on each side and huge
ethnic enclaves fighting for their existence. These conditions simply
did not exist in Kosovo.
Nor did the facts indicate a humanitarian disaster would have occurred
but for NATO's bombing. A total of 2,000 people had been killed on both
sides in the prior two years of fighting between the KLA and the Serbs,
and violence was declining with the presence of UN observers. The
alleged massacre of 45 ethnic Albanians at Racak must be regarded with
the greatest suspicion, not only because of the circumstances, but also
because of involvement of the American emissary Mr. William Walker, with
his history of covert and illegal activities on behalf of the Americans
in Latin America.
Nor is the Report recently released by the OSCE of much value in
assessing the situation, since it was written and paid for by the NATO
countries themselves.
Even more importantly, the evidence is overwhelming that NATO did not
make serious efforts at averting a disaster and was not at all serious
about peace.
If we look at the Rambouillet negotiations, a number of perplexing
questions are raised: Why was the irredentist and insurrectionary KLA
preferred as the NATO interlocutor to the only popularly elected leader,
the moderate Ibrahim Rugova? Why, for that matter was Rugova ignored
during the war? Why did the US insist on a secret annex to the
Rambouillet Accord (Annex B) that would have allowed it to occupy all of
Serbia? Why did the final peace agreement look so much like what the
Serbs had agreed to before the bombing? Do we really think that NATO
could not have put the 10 billion dollars of bombs it dropped to working
out and under-writing a peace agreement that would have accommodated and
protected all sides if it were interested in humanity and not war? Why
are NATO countries so unwilling to spend money on reconstruction of
Kosovo, claiming that they have run out of money with less than one
billion dollars spent?
And where, to resolve these enormous doubts about whether NATO acted out
of humanitarian motives this time, is the evidence that these people
have ever acted from humanitarian motives before? With such huge holes
in its argument, we are entitled to cross-examine the leopard on his
spots. What about the failure to intervene with force in Rwanda? What
about the United States' own bankrolling of the repressive Suharto
regime in Indonesia? What about Turkey's violent repression of the
Kurds, a humanitarian disaster that has claimed 30,000 lives, not 2,000?
What about the United States itself? The richest country in the world
which creates social conditions so violent and racist that its normal
murder rate is in the realm of 20,000 per year, almost as high, per
capita as Kosovo right now - a country that puts 2 or 3 of its own
people to death by lethal injection every week. NATO has no humanitarian
lessons to teach the world.
Finally and very importantly, we must ask some serious questions about
the way in which this supposed humanitarian intervention was handled.
With the Kosovars supposedly in the hands of genocidal maniacs, NATO
gave 5 days warning between the withdrawal of the observers and the
launch of the attack. This was followed by seven days of bombing that
mostly ignored Kosovo itself. In other words, an invitation to genocide
that was not accepted, but one that was guaranteed to produce a refugee
flow to legitimate a massive bombing campaign.
As Ambassador Bissett told this committee last week, that NATO leaders
have no respect for the truth should startle no one. What of 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 of the claim by a NATO general, with video up on the
screen, that the passenger train on the Grdelica 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 of 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).
In fact most people in the world simply did not believe NATO's claim of
humanitarianism. A poll taken in mid-April and published by The
Economist shows that this was a very unpopular war, opposed by perhaps
most of the world's population both outside and inside the NATO
alliance.( "Oh what a lovely war!", The Economist, April 24, 1999
showing more than a third opposed in Canada, Poland, Germany, France and
Finland, almost an even split in Hungary, an even split in Italy and a
majority opposed in the Czech Republic, Russia and Taiwan) A poll taken
in Greece between April 29th and May 5th showed 99.5% against the war,
85% believing NATO's motives to be strategic and not humanitarian, and,
most importantly, 69% in favour of charging Bill Clinton with war
crimes, 35.2% for charging Tony Blair and only 14% for charging Slobodan
Milosevic, not far from the 13% in favour of charging NATO General
Wesley Clark and the 9.6% for charging NATO Secretary General Javier
Solana.( "Majority in Greece wants Clinton tried for war crimes", The
Irish Times, May 27, 1999).
Much more plausible than the humanitarian thesis is the one that the
United States deliberately provoked this war, that it deliberately
exploited and exacerbated another country's tragedy - a tragedy partly
of its own creation (we should not forget that the West's aggressive and
purely selfish economic policies that have beggared Yugoslavia over the
last ten years). NATO exists to make war, not peace. The arms industry
exists to make profits from dropping bombs. And the United States, by
virtue of its military might dominates NATO the way it does not dominate
the United Nations. The most plausible explanation then is that this
attack was not about the Balkans at all. It was an attempt to overthrow
the authority of the United Nations and make NATO, and therefore the
United States, the world's supreme authority, to establish the
"precedent" that NATO politicians have been talking about since the
bombing stopped. To give the United States the free hand that the United
Nations does not, in its conflicts with the Third World and its
rivalries with Russia, China and even Europe.
In other words, this was not a case of the United Nations being an
obstacle to humanitarianism. It was a case of using a flimsy pretext of
humanitarianism to overthrow the United Nations.
Not only was this an illegal war that had no humanitarian justification.
It was a war pursued by illegal means. According to admissions made in
public throughout the war (for instance during NATO briefings),
according to eye-witness reports 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 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. 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 its army.
The American group Human Rights Watch has just issued a lengthy report
documenting a systematic and massive violation of international
humanitarian law by NATO in Yugoslavia. They estimate the civilian
victims to be about 500. This figure should be taken as a minimum
because it is a number Human Rights watch says it can independently
confirm and that can be attributed directly to the bombing. It excludes
persons known to be killed as an indirect result of the bombing. Every
benefit of the doubt is given to NATO, a fact exemplified by the
Report's puzzling and actually undefended distinction between these
grave "violations of humanitarian law" and "war crimes". Human rights
Watch has also documented the use of anti-personnel cluster bombs in
attacks on civilian targets.
The 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. 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 why this war was called a "coward's war". The cowardice
lay 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".
War Crimes Charges before the International Tribunal
But the fact that this war was illegal and unjustified has further very
serious implications. Mr. Chretien, Mr. Axworthy and Mr. Eggleton, along
with all the other NATO leaders, planned and executed a bombing campaign
that they knew was illegal and that they knew would cause the death and
permanent injury of thousands of civilian children women and men. Hard
as it is for us to accept, or even to say, killing hundreds or thousands
of civilians knowingly and without lawful excuse is nothing less than
mass murder. Milosevic was indicted in The Hague for 385 victims. The
total victims of the 98 people executed for murder in the United States
in 1999 was 129. Our leaders killed between 500 and 1800.
That is why, 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.
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.
The charges against them include the following:
Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, contrary to
article 2 of the Statue of the Tribunal, namely the following acts
against persons or property protected under the provisions of the
relevant Geneva Convention: (a) wilful killing; (c) wilfully causing
great suffering or serious injury to body or health; (d) extensive
destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military
necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.
Violations of the laws or customs of war, contrary to Article 3 namely:
(a) employment of poisonous weapons or other weapons to cause
unnecessary suffering; (b) wanton destruction of cities, towns or
villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity; (c)
attack, or bombardment, by whatever means, of undefended towns,
villages, dwellings, or buildings;(d) seizure of, destruction or willful
damage done to institutions dedicated to religion, charity and
education, the arts and sciences, historic monuments and works of art
and science.
Crimes against humanity contrary to Article 5, namely: (a) murder; (i)
other inhumane acts.
Article 7 of the Statute provides for "individual criminal
responsibility" thus:
1. A person who planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise
aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution of a crime
referred to in articles 2 to 5 of the present Statute, shall be
individually responsible for the crime.
2. 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.
3. 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.
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. I am filing with this Committee a
book of the evidence we have filed with the tribunal. I understand that
you already have the two volumes prepared by the government of
Yugoslavia. I would point out that these volumes have been confirmed as
"largely credible" by the Human Rights Watch Report.
Recently, Justice Del Ponte disclosed that she was studying an internal
document analyzing the many claims that have been made against NATO. My
latest word from her (February 8) is that she is still studying the
case.
Justice Del Ponte has said that if she is not prepared to prosecute NATO
she should pack up and go home, and I have to agree with her, because,
in that case, the Tribunal would be 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.
This was the very purpose for which the United States sponsored this
tribunal in the first place, at least according to Michael Scharf,
Attorney-Advisor with the U.S. State Department, who, under Madeleine
Albright's instructions, actually drafted the Security Council
resolution establishing the Tribunal.
"the tribunal was widely perceived within the government as little more
than a public relations device and as a potentially useful policy
tool...Indictments also would serve to isolate offending leaders
diplomatically, strengthen the hand of their domestic rivals and fortify
the international political will to employ economic sanctions or use
force" (The Washington Post, October 3, 1999)
I must confess to you that my colleagues and I and the thousands of
others who have complained to the Tribunal have grave doubts about its
impartiality. We have given it the benefit of every doubt even in the
face of mounting evidence that it didn't deserve it: when, in January,
1999, then prosecutor Judge Louise Arbour made a rather dramatic
appearance at the border of Kosovo, lending credibility to contested
American accounts of atrocities at Racak, a precipitating justification
of the war itself; when, only days after the bombing had commenced, she
made an announcement of the Arkan indictment that had been secret from
1997; when she made television appearances with NATO leader Robin Cook,
already the subject of numerous complaints during the war to receive war
crimes dossiers; when 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 bombing, Judge Arbour announced the indictment of 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; and
when, at the conclusion of the bombing Judge Arbour handed over the
investigation of war crimes in Kosovo to NATO countries' police forces
themselves - notwithstanding that they had every motive to falsify the
evidence.
I am sad to say, because the former prosecutor is now a judge of the
Supreme Court of Canada and an old colleague and friend of mine, of whom
we all want to be proud, that these could not be regarded as the acts of
an impartial prosecutor. Not when NATO was in the midst of a disastrous
war in flagrant violation of international law.
We sincerely hoped for better things from Judge Del Ponte coming as she
did from a country outside of the NATO alliance. But our expectations
have been progressively lowered. First, when she declared, immediately
upon taking the job, that her priorities were the prosecution of
Milosevic, something which clearly suited the NATO countries but which,
as we told her in November, could in no way be compatible with her sworn
duties. A prosecutor cannot declare that she is going to concentrate
only on some crimes and grant effective immunity to other criminals.
Then, when she made the observation that she was indeed investigating
complaints against NATO, and NATO reacted in its typically outrageous
fashion by attacking the Tribunal, Judge Del Ponte quickly issued
unseemly appeasing statements and went on a conciliatory mission to
Brussels.
I am saying all this to put the Committee on guard against delegating
its own judgment to this Tribunal which was set up as an instrument of
United States foreign policy and has given us so many grounds to suspect
that it sees itself the same way. Whatever this Tribunal decides to do
or not to do, it is incumbent on this Committee to scrutinize its
reasons and the evidence with the utmost care.
Let me end by citing to you the words of Justice Robert Jackson from his
opening statement to the Nurnberg Tribunal on November 21, 1945:
"But the ultimate step in avoiding periodic wars, which are inevitable
in
a system of international lawlessness, is to make statesmen responsible
to law. And let me make clear that while this law is first applied
against German aggressors, the law includes, and if it is to serve a
useful purpose it must condemn aggression by any other nations,
including those which sit here now in judgment. We are able to do away
with domestic tyranny and violence and aggression by those in power
against the rights of their own people only when we make all men
answerable to the law." (The Nurnberg Case As Presented by Robert H.
Jackson, Chief Counsel for the United States (New York: Cooper Square
Publishers Inc, 1971) at page 93)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
SECONDA PARTE
In un precedente messaggio
( http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/79.html? )
abbiamo riportato alcune delle audizioni tenute ad Ottawa, alla Camera
dei Comuni, dinanzi allo Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and
International Trade da parte di varie personalita' ritenute a vario
titolo "informate sui fatti" riguardo alla aggressione della NATO contro
la Repubblica Federale di Jugoslavia.
Continuiamo ora con la seconda parte del contributo di SERGE TRIFKOVIC,
professore di storia, responsabile per gli esteri di "Chronicles -
Magazine of American Culture", e con il contributo di MICHAEL MANDEL,
professore di diritto alla Osgoode Hall Law School, York University,
Toronto, che insieme ad altri avvocati ha presentato denuncia contro la
NATO al Tribunale dell'Aia per i crimini commessi sul territorio della
ex-RFSJ. La denuncia giace, tuttora "insabbiata", in qualche cassetto di
Carla dal Ponte.
Tutti i documenti sono stati diffusi dalla lista stopnat-@...
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 24 Feb 2000 16:00:58 -0500
From: "minja m." <minja@...>
Send reply to: minja@...
To: KPAJ 3A HATO <kpaj-3a-hato@...>
Subject: Srdja Trifkovic in Ottawa House of Commons - Pt.
2
Trifkovic in Ottawa House of Commons - Pt. 2
HOUSE OF COMMONS - CHAMBRE DES COMMUNES
STANDING COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL
TRADE -
COMITE PERMANENT DES AFFAIRES ETRANGERES ET DU
COMMERCE INTERNATIONAL
UNEDITED COPY - COPIE NON EDITEE
• 0927 EVIDENCE
[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]
Ottawa, Thursday, February 17, 2000
[English]
The Chairman (Mr. Bill Graham (Toronto Centre-Rosedale, Lib.)):
Colleagues, I'm going to call this meeting to order. So I'll ask the
people at the back of the room if they're going to have conversations to
go outside. I'm going to ask Ms. Swann from the Ottawa Serbian Heritage
Society if She could go first. Then we'll put Mr. Trifkovic. Mr. Dyer
hasn't arrived yet. I just want to warn everybody it may be a bit
chaotic
this morning. I'm not saying it isn't always chaotic but it may be more
chaotic than usual because we may be called for votes and this happened
the last time. So I apologize to the witnesses first if we're called out
of the room for votes. It just seems to be a bit- The House seems dans
un
peu de perturbation comme on dirait peut-être dans la langue française,
n'est-ce pas, and so we'll just have to deal with that if it occurs.
Otherwise we'll go on. But I'd ask the witnesses if you keep yourself To
10 minutes each and then we'll move to questions. [...] Mr. Trifkovic...
Mr. Serge Trifkovic (Individual Presentation): [... Text of presentation
as previously distributed... Transcript of ensuing Q&A follows herewith]
The Chairman: Thank you, sir. [... A member asked if it was preferable
to
have a world court to deal with human rights violations, or ad-hoc
tribunals for individual crisis areas...]
Ms. Serge Trifkovic: I was somewhat puzzled by the clear-cut choice
between the WCC [World Criminal Court] and ad hoc tribunals as the only
alternatives we are facing. To me it sounds a bit like the choice
between
cancer and leukemia. I do not believe that bureaucratically structured
and
politically motivated international quasi-judicial bodies are either
desirable or feasible. In any proper sense a "tribunal" is an impartial
forum for administration of justice. If the kangaroo court that goes by
the name of The Hague Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia is any indicator, I
think the lesson of that particular body is that its model of justice is
Moscow 1938, and not Nuremberg in 1946. It was formed on a purely
political agenda by the Security Council, on the basis of Chapter 7. The
way it has acted, in terms of its procedures, its rule of evidence and
finally the selection of people to be indicted and prosecuted - and also
its refusal to indict and prosecute people who at prima facie should be,
such as the leaders of the 19 NATO countries -only indicates that it is
a
political body par excellence. There is no reason at all why a WCC would
be any different because, obviously, if you have the likes of Clinton
and
Blair deciding what is "necessary" and "feasible" in terms of
intervention, ultimately they would be deciding what is "necessary" and
"feasible" in terms of prosecution. The kind of political discipline in
the world that this would impose is eerily reminiscent of the Brave New
World of Huxley or "1984." I suspect that bodies such as the ones that
you
are mentioning will only take us a step further in the direction of
global totalitarianism in which the local and national traditions of law
and justice and jurisprudence- which are meaningful because they have
evolved within the context of a genuine, authentic national culture-
will
be replaced by something that is global, something that is allegedly
universal and, therefore, of necessity, ideological.
The Chair: Okay. I'm sorry, we're going to have to move on. It's a very
fascinating discussion. • 1025 [English] I've got to leave with with the
thought that you've always got to answer alternatives so I'll come to
you
and ask "What's your alternative". My alternative is that there's going
to
be United States imperial courts applying their jurisdiction around the
world to enforce it, so that may be worse for you. Anyway, that's just-
Mr. Serge Trifkovic: My alternative is to rediscover the beauty of a
society of nations in which enlightened national interests, based upon
the
Golden Rule of "I will not deny to anyone what I am asking for myself",
will be the basis of law and the basis of international relations. I am
not claiming that it was a long-lost golden age in Europe between
1815-1914, that we ought to yearn for in terms of reactionary nostalgia.
I'm simply saying that what we are offered as a replacement in the
Blairites' and Clintonistas' brave new world is infinitely worse and
infinitely more frightening.
Mr. Chuck Strahl: Well, you asked.
The Chair: I asked, and that may be.We're going to go to Ms. Augustine
and
then we're going back to Mr. Strahl and Mr. Robinson.
Ms. Jean Augustine (Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Lib.): Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[...]
I am grappling with what is the future of Kosovo, is it going to be an
international protectorate? Is it going to be an entity no longer linked
[to Serbia-Yugoslavia]? [...]
Mr. Serge Trifkovic: I would like to make a few comments about the
future because we keep forgetting the broad picture, what will happen in
the long term. The Kosovo crisis is primarily the result of the U.S.
involvement In the Kosovo situation. Until the moment Dick Holbrooke
decided that this was something they would tackle in a big way, it was -
I
insist - a low-level, unremarkable conflict, the likes of which we see
all
over the world, all of the time. At the moment there is a whole series
of
geopolitical reasons why the Washington administration wants to be
involved in the Balkans. I'm afraid we have no time to go into those in
any detail. But the important thing for the members of this Committee to
remember is that you shouldn't take the "humanitarian" and other alibis
as
face value. You should always assume that there is an agenda behind it.
One of them is to have a U.S. foothold in the European mainland that
will
not be subject to the ups-and-downs of the trans-Atlantic relationship,
so
that if and when the Germans, the French and others decide to create a
European Defence structure that will gradually detach West Europeans
from
NATO, which will ultimately lead to the closure of U.S. bases in Naples
and in Frankfurt and in Munich, there will be the assets in Skopje, and
in
Pristina, and in Tuzla, that will provide both the physical and the
political and military U.S. presence that will not be affected by such a
change in the relationship. When I say there are geopolitical reasons
which have a logic of their own, I am not claiming that in this
particular
case we can establish a definite sequence of events. • 1105 [English]
I'm
simply saying that humanitarian and moralistic claims by themselves are
neither a sufficient nor necessary explanation. In order to look at
Kosovo
in the longer term we have to ask the question: what will happen if and
when the United States administration after Clinton, or even after
whoever
comes after Clinton, loses interest in the Balkans? At the moment
they're
creating the demand for their involvement by creating a whole series of
small, fragmented and unviable units that, by themselves, have neither
the
political, nor cultural, nor historic meaning - such as Dayton-Bosnia,
such as Kosovo, such as, tomorrow maybe, Sanjak or Montenegro, Vojvodina
or whatever. If and when the presence of the underwriters in the Balkans
are removed, we will have another bout of Hobbesian free-for-all. And
that
is the tragedy of it all, because what is being done right now is not
the
foundation for a solid, just and durable peace, but just an
improvization
on an ad-hoc basis. It bears no relation to history, no relation to the
continuity of the political and cultural development in that part of
the
world, but satisfies the needs of the moment. I'm saying this not as
someone born in Serbia, but someone who is trying to look at the
political
essence of the problem - that so far the U.S. administration has
followed
the principle that all of the ethnic groups in the area can be satisfied
at the expense of the Serbs. The result is a sort of Carthaginian peace
imposed upon the Serbian nation that will create a constant source of
revanchist resentment among the Serbs, and determination to turn the
tables once Uncle Sam loses interest. I feel that there will be a war
again: the Serbs will fight to return Kosovo to their own rule, because
they feel Kosovo to have been unjustly detached. And so, whatever
scenario
the people in Brussels, London, Washington, Ottawa, or Bonn decide for
Kosovo today, it will not be worth the paper it's written on if it
doesn't
bear any relation to the geopolitical realities in the long term, and
those realities are fairly simple. You will not be able to impose
something called "multicultural" Kosovo, "multi-ethnic" Kosovo if people
on the ground - and I have primarily the Albanians in mind - are
determined to have a mono-ethnic Kosovo. By including 25% Serbian
members
in any quasi-representative bodies you introduce, you will not re-invent
a
"multi-ethnic Kosovo" in which grannies are able to return to their
apartments. At the moment the only way people in Kosovo will feel safe
and
secure living in their communities is if you have a de facto petition.
Whether it is accompanied by a constitutional and political model that
will sanctify that partition is neither here nor there. But in the long
term you have to realize that an imposed "peace" on the Serb nation that
does not take into account the legitimate interests of the Serbs, that
does not take into account the sort of give and take in which each party
will feel that it has lost something as well as gained something, will
be
unviable, will be unjust, and will be - in the long term - the source of
another conflict.
The Chairman: Okay. [...]
Mr. Chuck Strahl: I'm going to pass to Mr. Robinson, but before I do, I
understand, Prof Trifkovic, you must leave shortly to catch a plane to
Europe- Mr. Serge Trifkovic: Actually, to Chicago- Mr. Chuck Strahl: To
Chicago. Mr. Serge Trifkovic: -and change to the plane for Amsterdam.
Mr.
Chuck Strahl: Right. Mr. Serge Trifkovic: I can stay for another 10
minutes. Mr. Chuck Strahl: Okay. When you're comfortable to leave just
leave. I want to say, then if you just do get up and go- Mr. Serge
Trifkovic: There will be no tears shed. Mr. Chuck Strahl: No. There will
be tears. They may be crocodile. They may be joy, who knows? But
certainly
I just want to say we appreciate very much you taking the time to come.
There's no doubt about it being a very interesting intervention. Please,
when you have to go, just feel free to get up and go and don't think us
rude if we don't properly acknowledge your very important contribution.
Thank you, sir. Mr. Robinson. Mr. Svend Robinson: I'm afraid I'll have
to
leave around the same time. I'm not sure if the tears will be quite as
intense, but- The Chair: If the tears are shed- Some hon. members: Ha,
ha.
The Chair: Mr. Robinson, the tears are shed when you arrive, not when
you
leave.
Mr. Svend Robinson: I just had two questions, I guess for Mr. Trifkovic
and Ms. Swann, in particular. First, I wonder if you could just perhaps
elaborate a bit on some of the concerns around the current situation in
Pancevo and what your knowledge is of the situation in Pancevo. I had
the
opportunity to visit there and
The situation had the potential of being an environmental disaster. I'm
just wondering what the current analysis is of the outcome of the
bombing
in that area and what sort of testing has been done, for example, of the
environment, the water, the air and so on. Because there were serious
concerns about that. My second question, again to both of you. I wonder
if
you could talk a little bit about • 1120 [English] about the
responsibility of Serbs in Kosovo for wrongdoing. The United Nations
High
Commission on Refugees documented quite powerfully a major exodus of
Kosovar Albanians before March 24. I'm sure you're familiar with those
reports. You've seen those reports. Figures as many as 90,000 who had
left
their homes, left their villages. After the bombing started, did the
bombing exacerbate the flow of people. I have no doubt that it did.
Certainly a number of people who I spoke with pointed out how in some
cases Serbs on the ground were pointing up into the sky and saying you
were responsible for NATO. They felt that they were under siege from the
KLA, the NATO bombs and obviously when people are defenceless on the
ground they're totally vulnerable. It was a coward's war in many
respects,
but nevertheless people were driven out in huge numbers. Hundreds of
thousands of people left and were driven out. I was on a road from
Pristina down to the border with Macedonia, went through village after
village which were like ghost towns, houses had been burned to the
ground
in many cases and there's culpability for that and I want to hear from
you, both of you, some acknowledgement that yes we have to deal with
this
as well as part of the reckoning that must come out of this tragic
series
of events.
Mr. Serge Trifkovic: I'll deal with the second one and then I'll have to
go. I think the important thing to bear in mind in the Balkans is there
are no white hats and black hats and that's the fundamental problem that
we have faced with the coverage of the war in the media, and with
quasi-academic analysis, and with political decision-making. Very early
on
in this conflict an overall perception of the culpability of the Serbs
for
the Krajina, Bosnia and Kosovo was created even though very often the
reasons the Serbs reacted in the Krajina are very similar to the reasons
the Albanians reacted in Kosovo and vice versa. In some cases, the Serbs
were de facto separatists, wanting to secede from the separating entity.
In other times, they were the unitarists. In both cases they were deemed
wrong. But if you try to quantify the evil on all sides, it's impossible
to say that the Serbs proved qualitatively, fundamentally worse than
other
groups. Right now the Serbs constitute the largest refugee population
outside sub-Saharan Africa. To say that the Serbs have done evil things
is
almost a truism because in the Balkan imbroglio all sides have done very
evil things. If you want the Serbs to beat their chests and shout mea
culpa, well indeed, maybe they should because the Patriarch warned them
against
adopting some of the techniques and some of the feelings of their
enemies as they experienced them in 1941 to 1945 in the so-called
independent state of Croatia. [...] If this was the war to return the
Albanians, or in the memorable words of the then-British defence
minister
"Serbs out, Albanians back, NATO in", nobody is talking about "Serbs
back"
in Kosovo these days... a quarter of a million displaced Serbs and other
non-Albanians under NATO, in the aftermath of NATO's victory. So I will
be
the first to admit that the Serbs have done bad things just as everybody
else has done bad things; but it doesn't mean we are now going to ask
the
question how deserving are the Croats of being bombed • 1125 [English]
because they contributed "collectively" to the exodus of a quarter of a
million Serbs from the Krajina? How deserving are the Muslims of
castigation and bombing because right now, the whole of Sarajevo-until
1991, the second largest Serbian town after Belgrade - is Serbenfrei?.
If
we are to re-establish a modicum of reality in this debate, we have to
bear in mind that human fallibility and human culpability is not the
exclusive prerogative of anyone single ethnic group. Thank you.
Mr. Svend J. Robinson: Mr. Dyer, were you wanting to comment?
Mr. Gwynn Dyer: I was particularly struck by the use of the word
"Serbenfrei" to describe the Serbian authorities' removal of the Serbian
population of Sarajevo after the Dayton Accords. There were Serbians in
that city who were driven from their homes by the Serbian police. I was
there; I saw it. The idea that the Albanian Muslims and the Bosnian
Muslims and the Croats bear equal responsibility-all of them have done
bad
things. Of course bad things happen in war but neither the total of
refugees nor the total of dead nor the evidence of massacre suggests in
any way that there is shared responsibility equally indistinguishably
among the ethnic groups of the Balkans. Now this may be to some extent
because the Serbs inherited the heavy weapons of the Yugoslav army and
had
the ability to do more damage; I recognize that. The Bosnian Muslims
didn't have heavy artillery to shell Serbian villages as the Serbs did
to
shell Sarajevo. But I do find the line of argument which suggests that
there can be no distinguished distinction between Vukovar and Srebrenica
on the one hand, and the Krajina on the other hand. The Krajina Mark Two
-
when it was the Serbs who lost their homes - rather Mark One, when it
was
the Croatian inhabitants who were driven. I think is a travesty.
Mr. Serge Trifkovic: To claim that the Krajina is less of a crime than
"Srebrenica," even though the Krajina resulted in between 9 thousand and
12 thousand Serbian deaths, is a very curious argument, both morally and
intellectually. But in particular, I find it reprehensible that Kosovo
is
still referred to as a "massacre" because "the Kosovo massacre" is one
of
the biggest lies, media-mediated political lies of the decade, if not
the
century. In perspective, when a few decades pass, it will belong to the
same category as the bayonetted Belgian babies by the Kaiser's army in
1914. [...]
----
House of Commons-Canada
Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Tuesday February 22, 2000
Testimony of Professor Michael Mandel
Personal Note
Allow me to tell you a little bit about myself and how I became involved
in this. I am a professor of law at Osgoode Hall Law School where I have
taught for 25 years. I specialize in criminal law and comparative
constitutional law with an emphasis on domestic and foreign tribunals,
including United Nations tribunals such as the International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. I have no personal interest in the
conflict in Yugoslavia – I have no Serbs or Albanians in my family and I
am not being paid by anyone. I became involved in this as a Canadian
lawyer who witnessed a flagrant violation of the law by my government
with unspeakably tragic results for innocent people of all the Yugoslav
ethnicities. I became involved as a Jew appalled by the grotesque and
deliberate misuse of the Holocaust to justify the killing and maiming of
innocent people for what I am convinced were purely self-interested
motives, the farthest thing from humanitarianism, in a cynical attempt
to manipulate the desire of Canadians to help their fellows on the other
side of the world.
Illegality of the War
The first thing to note about NATO's war against Yugoslavia is that it
was flatly illegal both in the fact that it was ever undertaken and in
the way it was carried out. It was a gross and deliberate violation of
international law and the Charter of the United Nations. The Charter
authorizes the use of force in only two situations: self-defence or when
authorized by the Security Council.
The United Nations Charter provides in so far as is relevant:
Article 2
3. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful
means in such a manner that international peace and security, and
justice, are not endangered.
4. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the
threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political
independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the
Purposes of the United Nations.
Article 33
The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to
endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall,
first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation,
conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional
agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.
Article 37
1. Should the parties to a dispute of the nature referred to in Article
33 fail to settle it by the means indicated in that Article, they shall
refer it to the Security Council.
2. If the Security Council deems that the continuance of the dispute is
in fact likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and
security, it shall decide whether to take action under Article 36 or to
recommend such terms of settlement as it may consider appropriate.
Article 39
The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the
peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make
recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance
with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and
security.
Article 41
The Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of
armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it
may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures.
These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations
and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of
communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.
Article 42
Should the Security Council consider that measures provided for in
Article 41 would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may
take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to
maintain or restore international peace and security. Such action may
include demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or
land forces of Members of the United Nations.
Article51
Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of
individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against
a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken
measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.
Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence
shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in
any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council
under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems
necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and
security;
The jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice is also clear.
For instance, it stated in its ruling against United States intervention
in Nicaragua:
In any event, while the United States might form its own appraisal of
the situation as to respect for human rights in Nicaragua, the use of
force could not be the appropriate method to monitor or ensure such
respect. With regard to the steps actually taken, the protection of
human rights, a strictly humanitarian objective, cannot be compatible
with the mining of ports, the destruction of oil installations, or again
with the training, arming and equipping of the contras.
[CASE CONCERNING THE MILITARY AND PARAMILITARY ACTIVITIES IN AND AGAINST
NICARAGUA (NICARAGUA v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA) (MERITS) Judgment of
27 June 1986, I.C.J. Reports, 1986, p.134-135, paragraphs 267 and 268]
It should also be noted that the preliminary decision of the World Court
last year in Yugoslavia's case against 10 NATO countries, including
Canada, does not in the slightest contradict this. As Mr. Matas has
pointed out to you in his statement, this decision was taken on purely
jurisdictional grounds, first the United States' shameful refusal to
recognize the World Court's jurisdiction in general, and second Canada's
objection to jurisdiction in this specific case. But it is worth quoting
some paragraphs from the decision of the Court:
15. Whereas the Court is deeply concerned with the human tragedy, the
loss of life, and the enormous suffering in Kosovo which form the
background of the present dispute, and with the continuing loss of life
and human suffering in all parts of Yugoslavia;
16. Whereas the Court is profoundly concerned with the use of force in
Yugoslavia; whereas under the present circumstances such use raises very
serious issues of international law;
17. Whereas the Court is mindful of the purposes and principles of the
United Nations Charter and of its own responsibilities in the
maintenance of peace and security under the Charter and the Statue of
the court;
18. Whereas the Court deems it necessary to emphasize that all parties
appearing before it must act in conformity with their obligations under
the United Nations Charter and other rules of international law,
including humanitarian law.
[CASE CONCERNING LEGALITY OF USE OF FORCE (YUGOSLAVIA V. CANADA)
International Court of Justice, 2 June 1999]
To sum up, in the case of NATO's war on Yugoslavia, neither of the two
exclusive bases for the use of force (Security Council authorization or
self-defence) was even claimed by NATO.
As a violation of the United Nations Charter, the attack on Yugoslavia
was also a violation of the NATO Treaty itself and Canada's own domestic
law.
The NATO Treaty (1949), so far as is relevant, reads as follows:
[Preamble]: The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the
purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their
desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments.
Article 1: The Parties undertake, as set forth in the Charter of the
United Nations, to settle any international dispute in which they may be
involved by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and
security and justice are not endangered, and to refrain in their
international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner
inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.
Article 7: This treaty does not affect, and shall not be interpreted as
affecting in any way the rights and obligations under the Charter of the
Parties which are members of the United Nations, or the primary
responsibility of the Security Council for the maintenance of
international peace and security.
The Canada Defence Act, in so far as relevant reads as follows:
31. (1) The Governor in Council may place the Canadian forces or any
component, unit or other element thereof or any officer or
non-commissioned member thereof on active service anywhere in or beyond
Canada at any time when it appears advisable to do so
(a) by reason of an emergency, for the defence of Canada; or
(b) in consequence of any action undertaken by Canada under the United
Nations Charter, the North Atlantic treaty or any other similar
instrument for collective defence that may be entered into by Canada.
The war's illegality is not disputed by any legal scholar of repute,
even those who had some sympathy for the war, for instance Mr. Mendes in
his presentation to this Committee. Of course, Mr. Mendes calls this a
"fatal flaw" in the UN Charter. I don't believe it is a flaw at all, for
reasons I'll elaborate. But I don't think the seriousness of this can be
glossed over one bit: the flagrant violation of the law by our
government is no small thing. Democracy is quite simply meaningless if
governments feel they can violate the law with impunity.
Humanitarian Justification
We all know that the leaders of the NATO countries sought to justify
this war as a humanitarian intervention in defence of a vulnerable
population, the Kosovar Albanians, threatened with mass atrocities.
A lot turns on this claim, but not the illegality of the war. In fact,
the reason why there is such unanimity among scholars on the illegality
of this war is that there is no "humanitarian exception" under
international law or the United Nations Charter. That does not mean that
there are no means for the international community to intervene to
prevent or stop humanitarian disasters, even to use force where
necessary. It just means that the use of force for humanitarian purposes
has been totally absorbed in the UN Charter. A state must be able to
demonstrate the humanity of its proposed intervention to the Security
Council, including, of course, the five permanent members possessing a
veto. Nor has the Security Council shown itself to be incapable of
acting in these situations. It issued numerous resolutions authorizing
action in this conflict (Resolutions 1160, 1199, and 1203 of 1998 and
Resolutions 1239 and 1244 of 1999, the last of which brought an end to
the bombing). The Security Council has also shown itself capable of
authorizing the use of force, for example its authorization of "all
necessary means" to restore the sovereignty of Kuwait in Resolution 678
of November 29, 1990, which gave Iraq until January 15, 1991 to
withdraw. Bombing by the Americans commenced on January 16.
But NATO did not even move a Resolution before the Security Council over
Kosovo. Nor did it use the alternative means of demonstrating to the
international community the necessity for its use of force in the
General Assembly's Uniting for Peace Resolution (1950), which allows the
General Assembly recommend action to the Security Council if 2/3 of
those present and voting agree:
[The General Assembly] Resolves that if the Security Council, because of
lack of unanimity of the permanent members, fails to exercise its
primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and
security in any case where there appears to be a threat to the peace,
breach of the peace or act of aggression, the General Assembly shall
consider the matter immediately with a view to making appropriate
recommendations to Members for collective measures, including in the
case of a breach of the peace or act of aggression the use of armed
force when necessary, to maintain or restore international peace and
security."
There are two basic reasons why these procedures were not utilized by
NATO in this case. In the first place, the most plausible explanation of
this whole war was that it was, at its foundation, nothing less than an
attempt by the United States, through NATO, to overthrow the authority
of the United Nations. In the second place, NATO could never have
demonstrated a humanitarian justification for what it was doing, because
it had none.
In law, as in morals, it is not enough for a humanitarian justification
to be claimed, it must also be demonstrated. To use an odious example,
but one which makes the point clearly enough, Hitler himself used a
humanitarian justification for invading Poland and unleashing World War
II: he claimed he was doing it to protect the German minority from
oppression by the Poles.
In the case of NATO, what had to be justified as a humanitarian
intervention was a bombing campaign that, in dropping 25,000 bombs on
Yugoslavia, directly killed between 500 and 1800 civilian children,
women and men of all ethnicities and permanently injured as many others;
a bombing campaign that caused 60 to100 billion dollars worth of damage
to an already impoverished country; a bombing campaign that directly and
indirectly caused a refugee crisis of enormous proportions, with about 1
million fleeing Kosovo during the bombing; a bombing campaign that
indirectly caused the death of thousands more, by provoking the brutal
retaliatory and defensive measures that are inevitable when a war of
this kind and intensity is undertaken, and by giving a free hand to
extremists on both sides to vent their hatred. What also has to be
justified is the ethnic cleansing that has occurred in Kosovo since the
entry of the triumphant KLA, fully backed by NATO's might, which has
seen hundreds of thousands of Serb (and Roma and Jewish) Kosovars driven
out and hundreds murdered, a murder rate that is about 10 times the
Canadian rate per capita.
These results were to be expected and they were predicted by NATO's
military and political advisers in their very careful planning of the
war which went back more than a year before the bombing commenced.
A humanitarian justification would have to show that this disaster was
outweighed by a greater disaster that was about to happen and would have
happened but for this intervention. The evidence for this, which must be
carefully scrutinized by this Committee, is meagre to say the least.
Nobody could seriously maintain that the conditions for a repeat of the
Bosnian bloodbath were there: this was not an all out civil war with
well-armed parties of roughly equal strength on each side and huge
ethnic enclaves fighting for their existence. These conditions simply
did not exist in Kosovo.
Nor did the facts indicate a humanitarian disaster would have occurred
but for NATO's bombing. A total of 2,000 people had been killed on both
sides in the prior two years of fighting between the KLA and the Serbs,
and violence was declining with the presence of UN observers. The
alleged massacre of 45 ethnic Albanians at Racak must be regarded with
the greatest suspicion, not only because of the circumstances, but also
because of involvement of the American emissary Mr. William Walker, with
his history of covert and illegal activities on behalf of the Americans
in Latin America.
Nor is the Report recently released by the OSCE of much value in
assessing the situation, since it was written and paid for by the NATO
countries themselves.
Even more importantly, the evidence is overwhelming that NATO did not
make serious efforts at averting a disaster and was not at all serious
about peace.
If we look at the Rambouillet negotiations, a number of perplexing
questions are raised: Why was the irredentist and insurrectionary KLA
preferred as the NATO interlocutor to the only popularly elected leader,
the moderate Ibrahim Rugova? Why, for that matter was Rugova ignored
during the war? Why did the US insist on a secret annex to the
Rambouillet Accord (Annex B) that would have allowed it to occupy all of
Serbia? Why did the final peace agreement look so much like what the
Serbs had agreed to before the bombing? Do we really think that NATO
could not have put the 10 billion dollars of bombs it dropped to working
out and under-writing a peace agreement that would have accommodated and
protected all sides if it were interested in humanity and not war? Why
are NATO countries so unwilling to spend money on reconstruction of
Kosovo, claiming that they have run out of money with less than one
billion dollars spent?
And where, to resolve these enormous doubts about whether NATO acted out
of humanitarian motives this time, is the evidence that these people
have ever acted from humanitarian motives before? With such huge holes
in its argument, we are entitled to cross-examine the leopard on his
spots. What about the failure to intervene with force in Rwanda? What
about the United States' own bankrolling of the repressive Suharto
regime in Indonesia? What about Turkey's violent repression of the
Kurds, a humanitarian disaster that has claimed 30,000 lives, not 2,000?
What about the United States itself? The richest country in the world
which creates social conditions so violent and racist that its normal
murder rate is in the realm of 20,000 per year, almost as high, per
capita as Kosovo right now - a country that puts 2 or 3 of its own
people to death by lethal injection every week. NATO has no humanitarian
lessons to teach the world.
Finally and very importantly, we must ask some serious questions about
the way in which this supposed humanitarian intervention was handled.
With the Kosovars supposedly in the hands of genocidal maniacs, NATO
gave 5 days warning between the withdrawal of the observers and the
launch of the attack. This was followed by seven days of bombing that
mostly ignored Kosovo itself. In other words, an invitation to genocide
that was not accepted, but one that was guaranteed to produce a refugee
flow to legitimate a massive bombing campaign.
As Ambassador Bissett told this committee last week, that NATO leaders
have no respect for the truth should startle no one. What of 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 of the claim by a NATO general, with video up on the
screen, that the passenger train on the Grdelica 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 of 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).
In fact most people in the world simply did not believe NATO's claim of
humanitarianism. A poll taken in mid-April and published by The
Economist shows that this was a very unpopular war, opposed by perhaps
most of the world's population both outside and inside the NATO
alliance.( "Oh what a lovely war!", The Economist, April 24, 1999
showing more than a third opposed in Canada, Poland, Germany, France and
Finland, almost an even split in Hungary, an even split in Italy and a
majority opposed in the Czech Republic, Russia and Taiwan) A poll taken
in Greece between April 29th and May 5th showed 99.5% against the war,
85% believing NATO's motives to be strategic and not humanitarian, and,
most importantly, 69% in favour of charging Bill Clinton with war
crimes, 35.2% for charging Tony Blair and only 14% for charging Slobodan
Milosevic, not far from the 13% in favour of charging NATO General
Wesley Clark and the 9.6% for charging NATO Secretary General Javier
Solana.( "Majority in Greece wants Clinton tried for war crimes", The
Irish Times, May 27, 1999).
Much more plausible than the humanitarian thesis is the one that the
United States deliberately provoked this war, that it deliberately
exploited and exacerbated another country's tragedy - a tragedy partly
of its own creation (we should not forget that the West's aggressive and
purely selfish economic policies that have beggared Yugoslavia over the
last ten years). NATO exists to make war, not peace. The arms industry
exists to make profits from dropping bombs. And the United States, by
virtue of its military might dominates NATO the way it does not dominate
the United Nations. The most plausible explanation then is that this
attack was not about the Balkans at all. It was an attempt to overthrow
the authority of the United Nations and make NATO, and therefore the
United States, the world's supreme authority, to establish the
"precedent" that NATO politicians have been talking about since the
bombing stopped. To give the United States the free hand that the United
Nations does not, in its conflicts with the Third World and its
rivalries with Russia, China and even Europe.
In other words, this was not a case of the United Nations being an
obstacle to humanitarianism. It was a case of using a flimsy pretext of
humanitarianism to overthrow the United Nations.
Not only was this an illegal war that had no humanitarian justification.
It was a war pursued by illegal means. According to admissions made in
public throughout the war (for instance during NATO briefings),
according to eye-witness reports 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 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. 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 its army.
The American group Human Rights Watch has just issued a lengthy report
documenting a systematic and massive violation of international
humanitarian law by NATO in Yugoslavia. They estimate the civilian
victims to be about 500. This figure should be taken as a minimum
because it is a number Human Rights watch says it can independently
confirm and that can be attributed directly to the bombing. It excludes
persons known to be killed as an indirect result of the bombing. Every
benefit of the doubt is given to NATO, a fact exemplified by the
Report's puzzling and actually undefended distinction between these
grave "violations of humanitarian law" and "war crimes". Human rights
Watch has also documented the use of anti-personnel cluster bombs in
attacks on civilian targets.
The 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. 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 why this war was called a "coward's war". The cowardice
lay 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".
War Crimes Charges before the International Tribunal
But the fact that this war was illegal and unjustified has further very
serious implications. Mr. Chretien, Mr. Axworthy and Mr. Eggleton, along
with all the other NATO leaders, planned and executed a bombing campaign
that they knew was illegal and that they knew would cause the death and
permanent injury of thousands of civilian children women and men. Hard
as it is for us to accept, or even to say, killing hundreds or thousands
of civilians knowingly and without lawful excuse is nothing less than
mass murder. Milosevic was indicted in The Hague for 385 victims. The
total victims of the 98 people executed for murder in the United States
in 1999 was 129. Our leaders killed between 500 and 1800.
That is why, 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.
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.
The charges against them include the following:
Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, contrary to
article 2 of the Statue of the Tribunal, namely the following acts
against persons or property protected under the provisions of the
relevant Geneva Convention: (a) wilful killing; (c) wilfully causing
great suffering or serious injury to body or health; (d) extensive
destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military
necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.
Violations of the laws or customs of war, contrary to Article 3 namely:
(a) employment of poisonous weapons or other weapons to cause
unnecessary suffering; (b) wanton destruction of cities, towns or
villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity; (c)
attack, or bombardment, by whatever means, of undefended towns,
villages, dwellings, or buildings;(d) seizure of, destruction or willful
damage done to institutions dedicated to religion, charity and
education, the arts and sciences, historic monuments and works of art
and science.
Crimes against humanity contrary to Article 5, namely: (a) murder; (i)
other inhumane acts.
Article 7 of the Statute provides for "individual criminal
responsibility" thus:
1. A person who planned, instigated, ordered, committed or otherwise
aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or execution of a crime
referred to in articles 2 to 5 of the present Statute, shall be
individually responsible for the crime.
2. 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.
3. 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.
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. I am filing with this Committee a
book of the evidence we have filed with the tribunal. I understand that
you already have the two volumes prepared by the government of
Yugoslavia. I would point out that these volumes have been confirmed as
"largely credible" by the Human Rights Watch Report.
Recently, Justice Del Ponte disclosed that she was studying an internal
document analyzing the many claims that have been made against NATO. My
latest word from her (February 8) is that she is still studying the
case.
Justice Del Ponte has said that if she is not prepared to prosecute NATO
she should pack up and go home, and I have to agree with her, because,
in that case, the Tribunal would be 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.
This was the very purpose for which the United States sponsored this
tribunal in the first place, at least according to Michael Scharf,
Attorney-Advisor with the U.S. State Department, who, under Madeleine
Albright's instructions, actually drafted the Security Council
resolution establishing the Tribunal.
"the tribunal was widely perceived within the government as little more
than a public relations device and as a potentially useful policy
tool...Indictments also would serve to isolate offending leaders
diplomatically, strengthen the hand of their domestic rivals and fortify
the international political will to employ economic sanctions or use
force" (The Washington Post, October 3, 1999)
I must confess to you that my colleagues and I and the thousands of
others who have complained to the Tribunal have grave doubts about its
impartiality. We have given it the benefit of every doubt even in the
face of mounting evidence that it didn't deserve it: when, in January,
1999, then prosecutor Judge Louise Arbour made a rather dramatic
appearance at the border of Kosovo, lending credibility to contested
American accounts of atrocities at Racak, a precipitating justification
of the war itself; when, only days after the bombing had commenced, she
made an announcement of the Arkan indictment that had been secret from
1997; when she made television appearances with NATO leader Robin Cook,
already the subject of numerous complaints during the war to receive war
crimes dossiers; when 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 bombing, Judge Arbour announced the indictment of 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; and
when, at the conclusion of the bombing Judge Arbour handed over the
investigation of war crimes in Kosovo to NATO countries' police forces
themselves - notwithstanding that they had every motive to falsify the
evidence.
I am sad to say, because the former prosecutor is now a judge of the
Supreme Court of Canada and an old colleague and friend of mine, of whom
we all want to be proud, that these could not be regarded as the acts of
an impartial prosecutor. Not when NATO was in the midst of a disastrous
war in flagrant violation of international law.
We sincerely hoped for better things from Judge Del Ponte coming as she
did from a country outside of the NATO alliance. But our expectations
have been progressively lowered. First, when she declared, immediately
upon taking the job, that her priorities were the prosecution of
Milosevic, something which clearly suited the NATO countries but which,
as we told her in November, could in no way be compatible with her sworn
duties. A prosecutor cannot declare that she is going to concentrate
only on some crimes and grant effective immunity to other criminals.
Then, when she made the observation that she was indeed investigating
complaints against NATO, and NATO reacted in its typically outrageous
fashion by attacking the Tribunal, Judge Del Ponte quickly issued
unseemly appeasing statements and went on a conciliatory mission to
Brussels.
I am saying all this to put the Committee on guard against delegating
its own judgment to this Tribunal which was set up as an instrument of
United States foreign policy and has given us so many grounds to suspect
that it sees itself the same way. Whatever this Tribunal decides to do
or not to do, it is incumbent on this Committee to scrutinize its
reasons and the evidence with the utmost care.
Let me end by citing to you the words of Justice Robert Jackson from his
opening statement to the Nurnberg Tribunal on November 21, 1945:
"But the ultimate step in avoiding periodic wars, which are inevitable
in
a system of international lawlessness, is to make statesmen responsible
to law. And let me make clear that while this law is first applied
against German aggressors, the law includes, and if it is to serve a
useful purpose it must condemn aggression by any other nations,
including those which sit here now in judgment. We are able to do away
with domestic tyranny and violence and aggression by those in power
against the rights of their own people only when we make all men
answerable to the law." (The Nurnberg Case As Presented by Robert H.
Jackson, Chief Counsel for the United States (New York: Cooper Square
Publishers Inc, 1971) at page 93)
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Da "Il manifesto" del 18 Febbraio 2000:
VATICANO
A SAN PIETRO L'ORO DI PAVELIC
Duemila sopravvissuti al genocidio del regime ustascia fanno causa allo
Ior: rivendicano il tesoro depositato, o donato per grazia ricevuta, da
Pavelic al Vaticano
- MARCO AURELIO RIVELLI -
U na bomba che esplode scuotendo il Vaticano: George Zivkovich, classe
1937, serbo di religione ortodossa, residente in California, si è
recentemente rivolto ai tribunali americani citando in giudizio la Santa
Sede, e più precisamente l'Istituto per le opere di religione, lo Ior, cioè
la banca vaticana già protagonista di numerosi scandali negli ultimi
decenni. Zivkovich, che, ragazzo, era scampato al genocidio serbo
perpetrato dagli ustascia croati negli anni 1941-1945, rivendica il tesoro
che l'ex dittatore Ante Pavelic aveva lasciato in custodia, o donato per
grazia ricevuta, al Vaticano nel '45. Lo affiancano nell'azione giudiziaria
circa 2.000 compatrioti.
Il regime ustascia, portato al governo in Croazia in quegli anni, grazie
all'invasione delle forze dell'Asse, fu il più feroce espresso dai
nazifascisti. Più feroce ancora di quello hitleriano, ed è tutto dire: in
quello stato che contava poco più di sei milioni di abitanti, un terzo dei
quali serbi di religione ortodossa, gli ustascia massacrarono un milione di
questi unitamente a 50 mila ebrei e 30 mila zingari, cioè il 20 per cento
della popolazione. All'eccidio parteciparono numerosi sacerdoti e frati
cattolici con la complicità di vescovi, con la connivenza del Primate,
arcivescovo Stepinac, recentemente beatificato, il tutto con l'implicito
beneplacito di Pio XII.
Crollato il suo regno, Pavelic scappò insieme ai suoi gerarchi e a 500
religiosi cattolici fra i più compromessi nell'eccidio, trovando rifugio a
Roma dove visse per tre anni nascosto nel Collegio di San Girolamo degli
Illirici, in Via Tomacelli, edificio protetto dalla extraterritorialità
vaticana. Non giunse a mani vuote, ma, come tutti gli ospiti che si
rispettino, portò un dono: l'oro, i gioielli e i titoli rapinati alle
vittime. Anche a Stepinac aveva lasciato un presente, trentasei casse
d'oro, che l'arcivescovo si fece incautamente scoprire un anno dopo dal
governo di Tito. Il Vaticano ricambiò il munifico omaggio facendo fuggire
questo criminale in Argentina nel 1949, vestito in abiti talari e munito di
adeguato passaporto. Con le stesse modalità la Santa Sede aiutò a fuggire
duecento ustascia e cinquemila delinquenti nazisti, l'aristocrazia del
crimine, fra i quali il Dottor Mengele, Walter Rauff, Adolf Eichmann, Erick
Priebke, Franz Stangl. A capo dell'Organizzazione di soccorso vaticana, che
attivò quella che gli alleati denominarono rat line, la via dei topi, vi
erano Draganovic, monsignore ed ex colonnello ustascia, e il vescovo Alois
Hudal, titolare in Roma della chiesa di Santa Maria dell'Anima, uomo di
fiducia di papa Pacelli. Le memorie di Hudal pubblicate in tedesco dopo la
sua morte, rappresentano la più dettagliata documentazione della via dei
topi: "compito svolto per incarico del Vaticano", come egli afferma.
Dell'oro croato nascosto in Vaticano correvano voci fin dall'immediato
dopoguerra nell'ambiente dei servizi segreti. Gli ustascia emigrati in
Argentina si confidarono con le autorità di quel paese, attivando la stessa
Evita Peron, subito partita per l'Italia allo scopo di convincere Pio XII a
rispettare gli impegni presi con Pavelic di restituirgli una parte del
bottino. Evita tornò a Buenos Aires a mani vuote perché l'oro non era stato
restituito, ma affidato in gestione al vescovo Alberto di Jorio, presidente
dello Ior, e al suo alter ego Bernardino Nogara.
La regia vaticana nella via dei topi viene documentata per la prima volta
da un rapporto - top secret - inviato il 15 maggio 1947 dall'addetto
militare Usa a Roma Vincent LaVista, al Segretario di Stato americano
George Marshall, che dettaglia le responsabilità vaticane e la
partecipazione di numerosi sacerdoti all'attività illegale e clandestina.
LaVista informa che grossi quantitativi di oro, trafugato alle vittime,
sarebbero stati occultati nei Palazzi Apostolici. Questo documento segue di
poco quello dell'agente speciale del Tesoro Usa Emerson Bigelow, che
documenta come nelle casse vaticane sia finito un quantitativo d'oro per un
valore di 200 milioni di franchi svizzeri, depredato dagli ustascia.
Analoga affermazione viene dalle memorie di James V. Milano, comandante del
430 distaccamento del controspionaggio dell'Us Army's Counter Intelligence
Corps, il quale aggiunge altri particolari a quelli già noti.
Il 22 luglio 1997 il quotidiano francese Nice Matin, pubblica un articolo
intitolato "Oro croato al Vaticano?" L'amministrazione americana indaga su
un trasferimento di ottocento milioni di franchi francesi", nel quale è
scritto: "Bill Clinton ha annunciato ieri che il Dipartimento del Tesoro
sta studiando il documento d'archivio che rivela che la Santa Sede ha
conservato dell'oro dell'antico regime fascista di Croazia. Secondo il
documento, diffuso da una rete televisiva americana, una parte rilevante
delle riserve d'oro del regime fascista croato, del valore di circa
ottocento milioni di franchi, sotto forma di lingotti d'oro, sarebbe stato
immagazzinato presso il Vaticano, verso la fine della Seconda guerra
mondiale, per evitare che venisse sequestrato dagli alleati... Secondo voci
insistenti queste riserve, essenzialmente costituite da lingotti d'oro, in
seguito sarebbero state dirottate, a cura del Vaticano, verso la Spagna e
l'Argentina. L'estensore del documento afferma comunque di ritenere che
queste voci siano state diffuse dal Vaticano per nascondere la verità:
secondo lui quese riserve non hanno mai lasciato la cttà pontificia". La
Santa Sede, attraverso il portavoce del ppa, Joaquin Navarro Valls,
smentisce tutto, definendo le notizie riportate dal quotidiano francese
"informazioni senza alcun fondamento".
La certezza che il tesoro ustascia si trovi ancora in Vaticano riceve il
crisma dell'ufficialità il 2 giugno 1998 dal Rapporto Usa stilato dal
sttosegretario di Stato Usa Stuart Eizenstat, che afferma, fra l'altro, che
gli archivi ustascia furono portati in Vaticano, così come oro e gioielli.
Aggiunge che "anche se non ci sono prove dell'implicazione diretta del papa
e dei suoi consiglieri, sembra inverosimile che essi abbiano del tutto
ignorato ciò che stava accadendo. Le autorità vaticane hanno affermato di
non avere trovato alcun documento suscettibile di fare luce sulla questione
dell'oro ustascia". La reazione ufficiale di parte vaticana, espressa dal
portavoce pontificio Joaquin Navarro Valls è: "il segretario dell'Istituto
San Girolamo, che era all'epoca Krunoslav Draganovic, ha forse utilizzato
quest'oro unicamente a proprio titolo, senza l'autorizzazione dell'Istituto
e senza che il Vaticano lo sapesse".
L'avvocata americana Keelyn Friesen, che coordina l'azione giudiziaria
contro lo Ior e gli altri accusati di complicità nell'imboscamento del
tesoro ustascia promossa da Zivkovic e dai suoi compagni, promette
battaglia dura ed esige giustizia. Una giustizia, che se deve suonare
condanna per l'indegno agire di uomini della Chiesa, chiama anche in causa
tutti i successori di Pio XII.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
VATICANO
A SAN PIETRO L'ORO DI PAVELIC
Duemila sopravvissuti al genocidio del regime ustascia fanno causa allo
Ior: rivendicano il tesoro depositato, o donato per grazia ricevuta, da
Pavelic al Vaticano
- MARCO AURELIO RIVELLI -
U na bomba che esplode scuotendo il Vaticano: George Zivkovich, classe
1937, serbo di religione ortodossa, residente in California, si è
recentemente rivolto ai tribunali americani citando in giudizio la Santa
Sede, e più precisamente l'Istituto per le opere di religione, lo Ior, cioè
la banca vaticana già protagonista di numerosi scandali negli ultimi
decenni. Zivkovich, che, ragazzo, era scampato al genocidio serbo
perpetrato dagli ustascia croati negli anni 1941-1945, rivendica il tesoro
che l'ex dittatore Ante Pavelic aveva lasciato in custodia, o donato per
grazia ricevuta, al Vaticano nel '45. Lo affiancano nell'azione giudiziaria
circa 2.000 compatrioti.
Il regime ustascia, portato al governo in Croazia in quegli anni, grazie
all'invasione delle forze dell'Asse, fu il più feroce espresso dai
nazifascisti. Più feroce ancora di quello hitleriano, ed è tutto dire: in
quello stato che contava poco più di sei milioni di abitanti, un terzo dei
quali serbi di religione ortodossa, gli ustascia massacrarono un milione di
questi unitamente a 50 mila ebrei e 30 mila zingari, cioè il 20 per cento
della popolazione. All'eccidio parteciparono numerosi sacerdoti e frati
cattolici con la complicità di vescovi, con la connivenza del Primate,
arcivescovo Stepinac, recentemente beatificato, il tutto con l'implicito
beneplacito di Pio XII.
Crollato il suo regno, Pavelic scappò insieme ai suoi gerarchi e a 500
religiosi cattolici fra i più compromessi nell'eccidio, trovando rifugio a
Roma dove visse per tre anni nascosto nel Collegio di San Girolamo degli
Illirici, in Via Tomacelli, edificio protetto dalla extraterritorialità
vaticana. Non giunse a mani vuote, ma, come tutti gli ospiti che si
rispettino, portò un dono: l'oro, i gioielli e i titoli rapinati alle
vittime. Anche a Stepinac aveva lasciato un presente, trentasei casse
d'oro, che l'arcivescovo si fece incautamente scoprire un anno dopo dal
governo di Tito. Il Vaticano ricambiò il munifico omaggio facendo fuggire
questo criminale in Argentina nel 1949, vestito in abiti talari e munito di
adeguato passaporto. Con le stesse modalità la Santa Sede aiutò a fuggire
duecento ustascia e cinquemila delinquenti nazisti, l'aristocrazia del
crimine, fra i quali il Dottor Mengele, Walter Rauff, Adolf Eichmann, Erick
Priebke, Franz Stangl. A capo dell'Organizzazione di soccorso vaticana, che
attivò quella che gli alleati denominarono rat line, la via dei topi, vi
erano Draganovic, monsignore ed ex colonnello ustascia, e il vescovo Alois
Hudal, titolare in Roma della chiesa di Santa Maria dell'Anima, uomo di
fiducia di papa Pacelli. Le memorie di Hudal pubblicate in tedesco dopo la
sua morte, rappresentano la più dettagliata documentazione della via dei
topi: "compito svolto per incarico del Vaticano", come egli afferma.
Dell'oro croato nascosto in Vaticano correvano voci fin dall'immediato
dopoguerra nell'ambiente dei servizi segreti. Gli ustascia emigrati in
Argentina si confidarono con le autorità di quel paese, attivando la stessa
Evita Peron, subito partita per l'Italia allo scopo di convincere Pio XII a
rispettare gli impegni presi con Pavelic di restituirgli una parte del
bottino. Evita tornò a Buenos Aires a mani vuote perché l'oro non era stato
restituito, ma affidato in gestione al vescovo Alberto di Jorio, presidente
dello Ior, e al suo alter ego Bernardino Nogara.
La regia vaticana nella via dei topi viene documentata per la prima volta
da un rapporto - top secret - inviato il 15 maggio 1947 dall'addetto
militare Usa a Roma Vincent LaVista, al Segretario di Stato americano
George Marshall, che dettaglia le responsabilità vaticane e la
partecipazione di numerosi sacerdoti all'attività illegale e clandestina.
LaVista informa che grossi quantitativi di oro, trafugato alle vittime,
sarebbero stati occultati nei Palazzi Apostolici. Questo documento segue di
poco quello dell'agente speciale del Tesoro Usa Emerson Bigelow, che
documenta come nelle casse vaticane sia finito un quantitativo d'oro per un
valore di 200 milioni di franchi svizzeri, depredato dagli ustascia.
Analoga affermazione viene dalle memorie di James V. Milano, comandante del
430 distaccamento del controspionaggio dell'Us Army's Counter Intelligence
Corps, il quale aggiunge altri particolari a quelli già noti.
Il 22 luglio 1997 il quotidiano francese Nice Matin, pubblica un articolo
intitolato "Oro croato al Vaticano?" L'amministrazione americana indaga su
un trasferimento di ottocento milioni di franchi francesi", nel quale è
scritto: "Bill Clinton ha annunciato ieri che il Dipartimento del Tesoro
sta studiando il documento d'archivio che rivela che la Santa Sede ha
conservato dell'oro dell'antico regime fascista di Croazia. Secondo il
documento, diffuso da una rete televisiva americana, una parte rilevante
delle riserve d'oro del regime fascista croato, del valore di circa
ottocento milioni di franchi, sotto forma di lingotti d'oro, sarebbe stato
immagazzinato presso il Vaticano, verso la fine della Seconda guerra
mondiale, per evitare che venisse sequestrato dagli alleati... Secondo voci
insistenti queste riserve, essenzialmente costituite da lingotti d'oro, in
seguito sarebbero state dirottate, a cura del Vaticano, verso la Spagna e
l'Argentina. L'estensore del documento afferma comunque di ritenere che
queste voci siano state diffuse dal Vaticano per nascondere la verità:
secondo lui quese riserve non hanno mai lasciato la cttà pontificia". La
Santa Sede, attraverso il portavoce del ppa, Joaquin Navarro Valls,
smentisce tutto, definendo le notizie riportate dal quotidiano francese
"informazioni senza alcun fondamento".
La certezza che il tesoro ustascia si trovi ancora in Vaticano riceve il
crisma dell'ufficialità il 2 giugno 1998 dal Rapporto Usa stilato dal
sttosegretario di Stato Usa Stuart Eizenstat, che afferma, fra l'altro, che
gli archivi ustascia furono portati in Vaticano, così come oro e gioielli.
Aggiunge che "anche se non ci sono prove dell'implicazione diretta del papa
e dei suoi consiglieri, sembra inverosimile che essi abbiano del tutto
ignorato ciò che stava accadendo. Le autorità vaticane hanno affermato di
non avere trovato alcun documento suscettibile di fare luce sulla questione
dell'oro ustascia". La reazione ufficiale di parte vaticana, espressa dal
portavoce pontificio Joaquin Navarro Valls è: "il segretario dell'Istituto
San Girolamo, che era all'epoca Krunoslav Draganovic, ha forse utilizzato
quest'oro unicamente a proprio titolo, senza l'autorizzazione dell'Istituto
e senza che il Vaticano lo sapesse".
L'avvocata americana Keelyn Friesen, che coordina l'azione giudiziaria
contro lo Ior e gli altri accusati di complicità nell'imboscamento del
tesoro ustascia promossa da Zivkovic e dai suoi compagni, promette
battaglia dura ed esige giustizia. Una giustizia, che se deve suonare
condanna per l'indegno agire di uomini della Chiesa, chiama anche in causa
tutti i successori di Pio XII.
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
Jugocoord su Telegram
Jugocoord su Facebook