Ex Jugoslavia: Il gioco si chiama PETROLIO!
di Karen Talbot (11/5/2001; fonte: Stop Nato)

dal sito della Lega Antimperialista del Belgio:
>
http://www.lai-aib.org/lai/article_lai.phtml?section%ef%bf%bdABBBACAD&object_id135



Former Yugoslavia:
The name of the
game is OIL!

Karen Talbot

The Bush administration, with its spectacular connections to oil and
energy corporations, is telling the U.S. people they need more oil, gas
and
nuclear power to meet the so-called "energy crisis." It is becoming
unmistakable that events in the Balkans, including the recent terrorist
attacks in Macedonia, have been directly related to this drive for
ever-greater sources of oil and profits.
Not only do the people of the former
Yugoslavia continue to pay an enormous human price, but U.S.
consumers and taxpayers also are
shelling out huge sums which ultimately enrich these corporations.
The intensifying "civil war" in Macedonia is a case in point.

Terrorist assaults in the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia (FYROM) by the so-called
"National Liberation Army"(NLA) have resumed and greatly
escalated in recent days with major
ambushes including against security forces near
Kumanova. The FYROM government troops have
responded with a major offensive to counter the
terrorists. (1) The ethnic Albanian terrorists have
been engaging in fierce attacks in the rugged
mountains of Macedonia, not only targeting Serbs and
Macedonians, but also Albanians who oppose them.
Their actions have been criticized by Western
powers as threatening to ignite a wider Balkan
conflict. (2) But is there a hidden agenda?

Though the U.S. administration says it opposes the
recent terrorism in this region, they have not
stopped these attacks which are initiated from the
Serbian province of Kosovo. This is despite the
overwhelming KFOR presence, including U.S. forces
based at the huge military base, Camp Bondsteel
in Kosovo, conveniently located in this vital area.

These NLA forces are openly acknowledged to be
connected with the Kovoso Liberation Army (KLA)
which has consistently been backed by the U.S.
and NATO troops occupying Kosovo. This alliance has
persisted despite the KLA's continuing widespread
attacks on Serbs and other non-Albanians in
Kosovo and its widely known criminal and drug
trafficking activities. The KLA was nominally
transformed into the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC)
which is trained by Military Professional
Resources Inc (MPRI), made up by former U.S.
military officers, based in Alexandria, Virginia. The
MPRI also had been involved in the training and
command of the Croatian military that forced over
200,000 ethnic Serbs from the Krajina region of
Croatia in 1995. (3)

It is curious, therefore, that NATO
Secretary-General George Robertson described the ethnic
Albanian NLA fighters as "a bunch of murderous
thugs whose objective is to destroy a democratic
Macedonia and who are using civilians as human
shields." Are they not thugs when engaging in similar
behavior in Kosovo? (4)

Contingents connected with the KLA also have
been stirring up intense fighting in the Presevo Valley
in southeast Serbia. This valley is a narrow
strip of land between lofty mountains bordering Kosovo
on the west and a high range bordering Bulgaria
on the east. It is a strategic route used for centuries for
commerce and to provide passage for armies
between Europe to the Middle East. Hitler's fascist
armies relied heavily on this passageway. The
current attacks in Macedonia have centered very near the
boundaries between Macedonia, Kosovo and the Presevo Valley.

Trans-Balkan oil pipeline

It is now becoming clearer than ever that one
primary reason the U.S. has been so involved in Kosovo,
Bosnia, and throughout Yugoslavia, has much to
do with the immense wealth to be gleaned from oil.

Construction of a major "trans-Balkan" pipeline is
underway from Burgas in Bulgaria on the Black
Sea, through Macedonia, to the Albanian Adriatic
port of Vlore. It is being built by U.S.- owned
Albanian-Macedonia-Bulgarian company (AMBO) and
is scheduled to be operational by 2005. (5)

The trans-Balkan pipeline passes through what
is known as corridor 8-traversing very near the
borders between Macedonia, Kosovo and the Presevo
Valley. (see map http://www.lai-aib.org/images/319.gif)
Furthermore, it is to be
connected with another series of pipelines,
some of them Soviet-era pipelines. A major one of these
will pass down the Presevo Valley-known as corridor
10- connecting with the AMBO pipeline
precisely at these same critical borders.
This system of pipelines not only is designed to transport
petroleum to sea ports for shipping abroad,
but extends into the heart of Europe. Two branches of the
AMBO line jut into Greece-one to Thessalonika,
the other to a terminal on the west coast.

All of this has to do with the enormously rich
petroleum fields of the Caspian Sea basin. In order to
get that oil to market, one of the best routes
is to pipe it to the Black Sea, ship it in tankers across the
sea, and then pipe it again across the Balkans
to the Adriatic Sea. This by-passes the treacherous
narrow Bosporous Straits near Istanbul, which Turkey
claims could not safely accommodate the heavy
tanker traffic from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.
By restricting this route, Turkey is also
limiting Russian oil transport through the straits
and boosting its own interest in the construction of
a pipeline from Baku on the Caspian Sea to the
Turkish terminal at Ceyhan, which would also by-pass
Russia. This route also has fluctuating support by the U.S.

The AMBO Trans-Balkan pipeline "will make all
countries from the Caspian Sea to the Balkans
politically and economically dependent on the U.S." (6)
The transport of oil through the Balkans is
not the only consideration for the giant oil cartels.
They are also pursuing the development of rich
petroleum fields in various parts of the Balkan region itself,
especially in Albania.

The feasibility study giving the green light to
the AMBO project was largely paid for by U.S
taxpayers. Was it mere coincidence that the terrorist
attacks in Macedonia began just after the
successful completion of the study and the
go-ahead was given for the pipeline?

Journalist Richard Norton-Taylor, writing in the
[London] Guardian, put it this way: "While the
U.S. and NATO-and now the EU-hold out the prospect
of untold wealth for the Caucasian states of
the former Soviet Union, the West will also have
an important economic stake in Albania and
Macedonia...The implications for Kosovo, a Serbian
province with an overwhelming ethnic Albanian
population, and for Macedonia, with armed groups
from Kosovo stirring up trouble among the ethnic
Albanian population, are potentially immense." (7)

General Michael Jackson, who eventually took over
command of KFOR in Kosovo, when speaking of
Macedonia, said: "[W]e will certainly remain here a
long time so that we can also guarantee the
security of the energy corridors which traverse this
country." (8)

Bush administration ties

Somehow it comes as no surprise that the pipeline
being built by AMBO is headed by CEO, E.L. "Ted"
Ferguson, former Director of Oil & Gas Development
for Europe for Brown and Root, part of
Halliburton, - Vice President Dick Cheney's
old company! The oil giants already moving into place to
operate under the umbrella of AMBO are Texaco,
Chevron, Exxon, Mobil, BP, Amoco, Agip and
TotalElFina. (9) Interestingly, the gargantuan
Camp Bondsteel was also built by Halliburton. It is
the largest U.S. military base constructed
since Vietnam. Furthermore, the troops stationed in the
Balkans are being serviced by Halliburton and the
feasibility study for the AMBO pipeline was
conducted by Brown and Root Ltd. of London.(10)

There is tremendous pot of "Black Gold" at the
end of this pipeline rainbow. Such a massive project as
the trans-Balkan pipeline requires enormous
amounts of U.S. government money in the form of
investment guarantees from the Export-Import Bank,
loans from the World Bank, and other backing.
It needs the sword to march along with the
dollar, even if that sword is wielded by surrogate forces.
It needs NATO troops and the massive U.S. "Fort"
Bondsteel in the "frontier" outpost of Kosovo, to
protect the investments. Who better to guarantee
all of these things than the Bush Administration
team with its connections to corporations like
Halliburton, and big oil? They are dripping in oil and
energy profits."

Europe-U.S. rivalry

The European Union, with Germany leading the way,
since the early 1990s has been projecting several
corridors not only as energy corridors, but to
provide a vast complex of communications- highways,
railroads, airports, maritime ports and
rivers-critical to the economy and corporate profits in Europe.
These plans have created one of a number of
substantial rivalries between the U.S. and the E.U. with
the U.S. balking at several of the pipeline and
corridor plans that would carry oil from the Caspian and
Russia, (including through Ukraine) into Europe.
Another pipeline competing with the AMBO
corridor is projected to carry crude from Russia
to Greece via Bulgaria. (11) Hundreds of billions of
Euro dollars are at stake. (12)This competition
has been reflected in recent years in differences over
Kosovo, Bosnia, and Macedonia, among other disputes.
However, it appears that the AMBO pipeline,
with its connection to the corridor 10 pipeline,
will give the U.S. control over a considerable amount
of the oil coming into Europe from the Caspian basin.

Greater Albania

The goal of the ongoing terrorism led by the
KLA has been, and now is openly proclaimed to be, the
establishment a "Greater Albania." The only
time such an entity ever existed was under the fascist rule
during World War II. This objective again is
being espoused by the neo-fascists of today. Is the
success of the AMBO pipeline project dependent
on going along with this aim? The map of "Greater
Albania," includes parts of Greece. Is it mere
happenstance that the AMBO line includes branches into
Greece and that the Presevo Valley is the only
possible route for a pipeline between Europe and the
Greek port of Thessalonika? (see map)

The agony of the people of Yugoslavia who were
steadily bombed by the U.S. and NATO for 78 days,
and hard hit by the severest economic sanctions
for years, coupled with the fragmenting of the former
Yugoslavia, requires viewing against the backdrop
of corporate profits, particular oil profits. Upon
close examination, one discovers that the giant
oil companies continue to be deeply involved in most of
the conflicts in the world including in efforts
to destroy national sovereignty, breakup nations,
Balkanize, and create tiny "emirates" and "banana
republics." More often than not, U.S. government
and military policies back them up. In the case
of the southern Balkans, the intent may well be to
establish a "Greater Albania" to advance the
interests of the oil conglomerates.


This article is an update to several articles
by Karen Talbot including "Backing up Globalization with
Military Might," CovertAction Quarterly, fall/winter, 1999;
"Chechnya: More Blood for Oil,"
CovertAction Quarterly, Spring/Summer,2000.

The map is from
http://www.scarabee.com/EDITO2/070699.html

Notes (1) "Macedonians Fear Impending Civil War," Danica
Kirka, Associated Press, May 3, 2001
(2) "Macedonian Conflict Reignites World Worries,"
Reuters, May 4, 2001.
(3) "The U.N. Appoints an Alleged War Criminal," Michel
Chossudovsky, Mar. 17, 2000,
www.tenc.net [emperors-clothes]
(4) "Rebels push Macedonia to 'the brink,'" Juliette
Terzieff, San Francisco Chronicle, May 8, 2001.
(5) "AMBO Pipeline to Start Raising Funds in July,"
Reuters, June 15, 2000.
(6) "Trans-Balkan Pipeline Complicates U.S.-Turkey
Relations," Global Intelligence Update, Jan.
14, 2000.
(7) "The New Great Game," Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian
(London), Mar. 5, 2001.
(8) Sole 24 Ore, Apr.13, 1999.
(9) Op. cit. no. 4.
(10) see MILSNEWS, Skopje, Jan. 23, 1997.
(11) Op. cit. no. 4.
(12)"Caspian Sea's Oil Reserves," Michel Collon,
http://www.iacenter.org/warcrime/mcollon.htm

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