FREE MILOSEVIC, SAYS PINTER
Fiachra Gibbons, arts correspondent
Thursday July 26, 2001
Front Page
The Guardian
The playwright Harold Pinter has joined a
campaign to free the former Serb leader Slobodan
Milosevic.
Pinter, who was a fierce opponent of the Nato
bombing of Serbia and once defined US policy to
the former Yugoslavia as "kiss my arse or I'll
kick your head in", said that Mr Milosevic's
extradition to face trial at the war crimes
tribunal in the Hague was illegal.
"I believe his arrest and detention by the
international criminal tribunal is
unconstitutional, and goes against Yugoslav and
international law. They have no right to try
him," he said.
His decision to lend his name to the
International Committee to Defend Slobodan
Milosevic, a loose coalition of leftwingers,
human rights activists and Serb sympathisers
formed in March, follows years of criticism of
what he sees as the west's selective morality in
the Balkans and its "persecution" of ordinary
Serbs.
Although he believes that Mr Milosevic was
"ruthless and savage", he has long argued that he
has been unfairly demonised as the "butcher of
the Balkans". He blames his former
vice-president, the ultra-nationalist Vojislav
Seselj, for much of the ethnic cleansing.
Pinter also says that if Mr Milosevic is to be
tried, former US president Bill Clinton should
join him in the dock for dropping millions of
"cluster bombs that cut children to pieces - from
those brave bombers at 15,000ft. And this is an
act which [Tony] Blair, with his moralistic
Christianity, applauds".
He also said the bombing of the Yugoslavian
television station in Belgrade by Nato was
"murder" and made him "ashamed of being British".
Although Pinter - currently working at a festival
of his work in New York - has not given any money
to the Milosevic defence fund, the committee
hopes to start raising cash soon.
---
Subject: Fw: Milosevic
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 13:09:34 -0400
From: "Christopher Black"
A letter the Toronto Star still has refused to
publish even though they pursue me for stories.
The letter was in response to a vicious
propaganda piece against Milosevic and the Serbs
they ran as an editorial.
DEFEND MACEDONIA! STOP THE NATO JACKBOOT!
Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: Christopher Black
To: lettertoed@...
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 3:32 AM
Subject: Milosevic
The Editor,
Toronto Star
Your piece on Milosevic entitled "No place To
Hide" constitutes nothing less than criminal
journalism. A series of lies from beginning to
end, it attempts to control public opinion about
the truth of events in Yuglosavia in order to
justify the criminal aggression by Canada and the
other Nato countries on the last progressive
country in eastern Europe and cover the war
crimes of Chretien and Arbour and the rest of
gangsters who pretend to control the New World
Order.
Mr. Milosevic was never "undisputed master" of
Yugoslavia. He was duly elected in popular
elections unlike President Bush in the United
States who was installed against the popular
will. He was never a notorious nationalst as you
claim and never seduced his people with dreams of
a greater Serbia. In every speech and in his
actions he did what he could to preserve a
multiethnic state against the Machiavellian
scheming of the United States and Germany which
promoted the Albanian's bloody thirst for a
Greater Albania, a blood soaked ambition fuelled
and directed by the United States and its axis
and which is today destroying Macedonia and
threatens Greece.
It was not Milosevic who delivered ethnic hatred.
It was Nato and its tightly controlled media that
sowed that hatred with every press release and
every article.
It was not Milosevic who brought war and
disintegration, sanctions and ruin. It was the
United States and Germany, Britain and Canada and
the rest of the Nato gangsters who decided to
destroy the last progressive government in the
east for the benefit of their economic elites.
It was not Milosevic who dropped bombs. It was
the cowards in the armed forces of all the Nato
countries who failed in their duty to defy
illegal and immoral orders and instead dropped
cluster bombs on innocent women and children. It
was not Milosevic who destroyed international
law. It was Chretien and the rest of Nato. It was
not Milosevic who has contempt for the rule of
law and democracy. It is every leader of every
governmnent in Nato who never consulted their own
people before attacking a small innocent country,
and who broke their own domestic laws in that
attack.
Where were you when Chretien broke the law in the
National Defence Act which forbids the use of the
Canadian Armed Forces to attack another country
unless attacked first or under UN mandate? Where
were you Chretien lied to the Canadian people
about the reality in the Balkans? Where were you
when Chretien and the rest broke the UN Charter
and threw it in the mud? Where were you when they
destroyed every principle established at
Nurmberg,in the Geneva Conventions and in dozens
of other international protocols.
You talk about the "reformist" government" in
Belgrade when in truth it is a fascist regime
which has shut down the oppositon press, arrested
hundreds of people on political charges and fired
over 40,000 people in a population of only 11
million from jobs in factories, government,
schools, hospitals, unions who had any
progressive or patriotic beliefs.
You praise Louise Arbour whose crass political
indictment of Milosevic on May 27, 1999 occurred
under US instruction at a point at which the Nato
alliance was fracturing and domestic support for
the bombing was waning. Her action justified the
continued violation of international law and
criminal aggression against a sovereign state
whose only crime was to resist the diktats of
Madaleine Albright. You praise a woman who
refused to investigate Chretien and other Nato
leaders for war crimes as lawyers and jurists
around the world insisted, including the group of
Canadian lawyers of whom I was one lead by
Professor Michael Mandel. Far from shattering
Milosevic's credibility, the indictment against
him by Arbour shattered completely the
credibility of the Hague Tribunal viewed around
the world by esteemed jurists as a kangaroo court
partly funded by people like George Soros, who
also just happened to fund the KLA at the same
time.
Milosevic is not a broken man. I visited with
President Milosevic in the Belgrade Central
Prison on June 15 and again on July 12, in The
Hague, as a representative of the International
Committee To Defend Slobadan Milosevic. The
Committee is composed of jurists, writers,
scientists, politicians, professors and other
esteemed citizens from over 20 countries who are
convinced that the charges against Milosevic are
false and a slander against the people of
Yugoslavia and an insult to the intelligence of
the people in the Nato countries. It includes
members such as the great British playwright
Harold Pinter, and the former Attorney general of
the Untied States, Ramsay Clark.
Mr. Milosevic is in good spirits. He is not
suicidal. That is a lie put out to explain in
advance his possible murder at the hands of the
Nato Quislings presently in power in Belgrade
because they know very well that any trial before
the Hague tribunal will be an embarrassment for
Nato because there is no evidence of crimes that
never took place except in the pages of the
western press ever anxious to please the economic
powers that own them and who are linked with the
governments that want to eliminate those, like
Milosevic who have the courage to defy them.
Milosevic told me one thing he wanted the world
to know. He has a clear conscience. He stated to
me, "The only reasons I am in this prison are
because I am a socialist and because I stood up
to Nato. I am a political prisoner." The
corruption charges against him are false. The
Investigative Judge told me that there is no
evidence of any criminal wrongdoing by Mr.
Milosevic at all and that he is detained because
of strong political pressure until he can be
handed over to Carla Del Ponte. A Ministry of
Justice official told me that there is no
evidence against him but that I must understand
that "there are many members of the new regime
who would like to see all the socialists hanged
from lampposts."
The Toronto Star which prides itself on its
liberalism and support of democracy is so blinded
by its subservience to its masters that it openly
supports the decree stating that Milosevic can be
extradited despite the fact that the Yugoslavian
parliament opposed the extradition law that
Kostunica tried to pass and the Djindjic decree
was suspended by the Constituional Court.
Apparently, the Star's support of democracy only
goes so far. When the Yugoslav parliament opposes
the extradition, an unconstitutional decree,
which openly violates the will of the people and
the Yugoslav constitution, is praised as
courageous. When Nato and Chretien violated and
threw under the Nato jackboot every international
law you said nothing. Still you say nothing and
still you want Canadians to believe that
Milosevic's extradition is a shining example of
the benefits of international law. Hypocrisy we
know your name.
Christopher Black, Barrister
Head, Legal Committee
International Committee To Defend Slobodan Milosevic
Toronto, Ontario
---
Subject: U.S. CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL: A BAD OMEN
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 12:37:31 +0200
From: TARGETS <redactie@...>
To: office@...
U.S. CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL: A BAD OMEN
The trial of Slobodan Milosevic threatens U.S.
sovereignty. The fact that this trial can be
carried out, in the name of international
justice, should cause all the Americans to cast a
wary eye on the whole principal of the U.N. War
Crimes Tribunal. The prosecution of Milosevic, a
democratically elected and properly disposed
leader of a sovereign country, could not be
carried out without full U.S. military and
financial support. Since we are the only world
superpower, the U.N. court becomes our court
under our control. But it is naive to believe our
world superpower status will last forever. The
precedence now being set will one day surely come
back to haunt us.
The U.S. today may enjoy dictating policy to
Yugoslavia and elsewhere around the world, but
danger lurks ahead. The administration adamantly
and correctly opposes our membership in the
permanent International Criminal Court because it
would have authority to exercise jurisdiction
over U.S. citizens without the consent of the
U.S. government. But how can we, with a straight
face, support doing the very same thing to a
small country, in opposition to its sovereignty,
courts, and constitution. This blatant
inconsistency and illicit use of force does not
go unnoticed and will sow the seeds of future
terrorist attacks against Americans or even war.
Money, as usual, is behind the Milosevic's
extradition. Bribing Serbian Prime Minister Zoran
Djindjic, a U.S.-sponsored leader, prompted
strong opposition from Yugoslavian Prime Minister
Zoran Zizic and Yugoslavian President Vojislav
Kostunica.
A Belgrade historian, Aleksa Djilas, was quoted
in The New York Times as saying: "We sold him for
money, and we won't really get very much money
for it. The U.S. is the natural leader of the
world, but how does it lead? This justifies the
worst American instincts, reinforcing this
bullying mentality.''
Milosevic obviously is no saint but neither are
the leader of the Croats, the Albanians or the
KLA. The NATO leaders who vastly expanded the
death and destruction in Yugoslavia with 78 days
of bombing in 1999 are certainly not blameless.
The $1.28 billion promised the puppet Yugoslavian
government is to be used to rebuild the cities
devastated by U.S. bombs. First, the American
people are forced to pay to bomb, to kill
innocent people and destroy cities, and then they
are forced to pay to repair the destruction,
while orchestrating a U.N. kangaroo court to
bring the guilty to justice at the Hague.
For all this to be accepted, the press and
internationalists have had to demonize Milosevic
to distance themselves from the horrors of others
including NATO.
NATO's air strikes assisted the KLA in cleansing
Kosovo of Serbs in the name of assisting Albanian
freedom fighters. No one should be surprised when
that is interpreted to mean tacit approval for
Albanian expansionism in Macedonia. While
terrorist attacks by former members of the KLA
against Serbs are ignored, the trial of the new
millennium, the trial of Milosevic, enjoys daily
support from the NATO-U.S. propaganda machine.
In our effort to stop an independent-minded and
uncooperative with the international community
president of a sovereign country, U.S. policy was
designed to support an equally if not worse
organization, the KLA. One of the conditions for
ending the civil war in Kosovo was the disbanding
of the KLA. But the very same ruthless leaders of
the KLA, now the Liberation Army of Presevo, are
now leading the insurrection in Macedonia without
NATO lifting a finger to stop it. NATO's failed
policy that precipitated the conflict now raging
in Macedonia is ignored. The U.N. War Tribunal
in the Hague should insult the intelligence of
all Americans. This court currently can only
achieve arrest and prosecution of leaders of
poor, small, or defeated nations. There will be
no war criminals brought to the Hague from China,
Russia, Britain, or the United States no matter
what the charges. But some day this approach to
world governing will backfire. The U.S. already
has suffered the humiliation of being kicked off
the U.N. Human Rights Commission and the
Narcotics Control Commission. Our arrogant policy
and attitude of superiority will continue to
elicit a smoldering hatred toward us and out of
sheer frustration will motivate even more
terrorist attacks against us.
Realizing the weakness of the charges against
Milosevic the court has quietly dropped the
charges for committing genocide. In a real trial,
evidence that the British and the United States
actually did business with Milosevic would be
permitted. But almost always, whoever is our
current most hated enemy, has received help and
assistance from us in the past. This was
certainly the case with Noriega and Saddam
Hussein and others, and now it's Milosevic.
Milosevic will be tried not before a jury of his
peers but before a panel of politically appointed
judges, all of whom were approved by the NATO
countries, the same countries which illegally
bombed Yugoslavia for 2 1/2 months. Under both
U.N. and international law the bombing of Serbia
and Kosovo was illegal. This was why NATO pursued
it and it was not done under a U.N. resolution.
Ironically, the mess in which we've been engaged
in Yugoslavia has the international establishment
supporting the side of Kosovo independence rather
than Serbian sovereignty. The principle of
independence and secession of smaller government
entities has been enhanced by the breakdown of
the Soviet system. If there's any hope that any
good could come of the quagmire into which we've
rapidly sunk in the Balkans, it is that small
independent nations are a viable and reasonable
option to conflicts around the world. But the
tragedy today is that no government is allowed to
exist without the blessing of the One World
Government leaders. The disobedience to the one
worlders and true independence is not to be
tolerated. That's what this trial is all about.
"Tow the line or else,'' is the message that is
being sent to the world.
NATO and U.S. leaders insist on playing with
fire, not fully understanding the significance of
the events now transpiring in the Balkans. If
policy is not quickly reversed, events could get
out of control and a major war in the region will
erupt.
We should fear and condemn any effort to escalate
the conflict with troops or money from any
outside sources. Our troops are already involved
and our money calls the shots. Extricating
ourselves will get more difficult every day we
stay. But the sooner we get out the better. We
should be listening more to candidate George
Bush's suggestion during the last campaign for
bringing our troops home from this region.
The Serbs, despite NATO's propaganda, will not
lightly accept the imprisonment of their
democratically elected (and properly disposed)
president no matter how bad he was. It is their
problem to deal with and resentment against us
will surely grow as conditions deteriorate. Mobs
have already attacked the American ambassador to
Macedonia for our inept interference in the
region. Death of American citizens are sure to
come if we persist in this failed policy.
Money and power has permitted the United States
the luxury of dictating terms for Milosevic's
prosecution, but our policy of arbitrary
interventions in the Balkans is sowing the seeds
of tomorrow's war. We cannot have it both ways.
We cannot expect to use the International
Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia when it pleases
us and oppose the permanent International
Criminal Court where the rules would apply to our
own acts of aggression. This cynical and arrogant
approach, whether it's dealing with Milosevic,
Hussein, or Kadafi, undermines peace and presents
a threat to our national security. Meanwhile,
American citizens must suffer the tax burden from
financing the dangerous meddling in European
affairs, while exposing our troops to danger.
A policy of nonintervention, friendship and
neutrality with all nations, engagement in true
free trade (unsubsidized trade with low tariffs)
is the best policy if we truly seek peace around
the world. That used to be the American way.
CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL (R-TEXAS)
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/07/25/10993.html
TARGETS - Independent monthly paper on
international affairs
Sloterkade 20
1058 HE Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Ph. ++ 31 20 615 1122
Fax: ++ 31 20 615 1120
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Fiachra Gibbons, arts correspondent
Thursday July 26, 2001
Front Page
The Guardian
The playwright Harold Pinter has joined a
campaign to free the former Serb leader Slobodan
Milosevic.
Pinter, who was a fierce opponent of the Nato
bombing of Serbia and once defined US policy to
the former Yugoslavia as "kiss my arse or I'll
kick your head in", said that Mr Milosevic's
extradition to face trial at the war crimes
tribunal in the Hague was illegal.
"I believe his arrest and detention by the
international criminal tribunal is
unconstitutional, and goes against Yugoslav and
international law. They have no right to try
him," he said.
His decision to lend his name to the
International Committee to Defend Slobodan
Milosevic, a loose coalition of leftwingers,
human rights activists and Serb sympathisers
formed in March, follows years of criticism of
what he sees as the west's selective morality in
the Balkans and its "persecution" of ordinary
Serbs.
Although he believes that Mr Milosevic was
"ruthless and savage", he has long argued that he
has been unfairly demonised as the "butcher of
the Balkans". He blames his former
vice-president, the ultra-nationalist Vojislav
Seselj, for much of the ethnic cleansing.
Pinter also says that if Mr Milosevic is to be
tried, former US president Bill Clinton should
join him in the dock for dropping millions of
"cluster bombs that cut children to pieces - from
those brave bombers at 15,000ft. And this is an
act which [Tony] Blair, with his moralistic
Christianity, applauds".
He also said the bombing of the Yugoslavian
television station in Belgrade by Nato was
"murder" and made him "ashamed of being British".
Although Pinter - currently working at a festival
of his work in New York - has not given any money
to the Milosevic defence fund, the committee
hopes to start raising cash soon.
---
Subject: Fw: Milosevic
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 13:09:34 -0400
From: "Christopher Black"
A letter the Toronto Star still has refused to
publish even though they pursue me for stories.
The letter was in response to a vicious
propaganda piece against Milosevic and the Serbs
they ran as an editorial.
DEFEND MACEDONIA! STOP THE NATO JACKBOOT!
Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: Christopher Black
To: lettertoed@...
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 3:32 AM
Subject: Milosevic
The Editor,
Toronto Star
Your piece on Milosevic entitled "No place To
Hide" constitutes nothing less than criminal
journalism. A series of lies from beginning to
end, it attempts to control public opinion about
the truth of events in Yuglosavia in order to
justify the criminal aggression by Canada and the
other Nato countries on the last progressive
country in eastern Europe and cover the war
crimes of Chretien and Arbour and the rest of
gangsters who pretend to control the New World
Order.
Mr. Milosevic was never "undisputed master" of
Yugoslavia. He was duly elected in popular
elections unlike President Bush in the United
States who was installed against the popular
will. He was never a notorious nationalst as you
claim and never seduced his people with dreams of
a greater Serbia. In every speech and in his
actions he did what he could to preserve a
multiethnic state against the Machiavellian
scheming of the United States and Germany which
promoted the Albanian's bloody thirst for a
Greater Albania, a blood soaked ambition fuelled
and directed by the United States and its axis
and which is today destroying Macedonia and
threatens Greece.
It was not Milosevic who delivered ethnic hatred.
It was Nato and its tightly controlled media that
sowed that hatred with every press release and
every article.
It was not Milosevic who brought war and
disintegration, sanctions and ruin. It was the
United States and Germany, Britain and Canada and
the rest of the Nato gangsters who decided to
destroy the last progressive government in the
east for the benefit of their economic elites.
It was not Milosevic who dropped bombs. It was
the cowards in the armed forces of all the Nato
countries who failed in their duty to defy
illegal and immoral orders and instead dropped
cluster bombs on innocent women and children. It
was not Milosevic who destroyed international
law. It was Chretien and the rest of Nato. It was
not Milosevic who has contempt for the rule of
law and democracy. It is every leader of every
governmnent in Nato who never consulted their own
people before attacking a small innocent country,
and who broke their own domestic laws in that
attack.
Where were you when Chretien broke the law in the
National Defence Act which forbids the use of the
Canadian Armed Forces to attack another country
unless attacked first or under UN mandate? Where
were you Chretien lied to the Canadian people
about the reality in the Balkans? Where were you
when Chretien and the rest broke the UN Charter
and threw it in the mud? Where were you when they
destroyed every principle established at
Nurmberg,in the Geneva Conventions and in dozens
of other international protocols.
You talk about the "reformist" government" in
Belgrade when in truth it is a fascist regime
which has shut down the oppositon press, arrested
hundreds of people on political charges and fired
over 40,000 people in a population of only 11
million from jobs in factories, government,
schools, hospitals, unions who had any
progressive or patriotic beliefs.
You praise Louise Arbour whose crass political
indictment of Milosevic on May 27, 1999 occurred
under US instruction at a point at which the Nato
alliance was fracturing and domestic support for
the bombing was waning. Her action justified the
continued violation of international law and
criminal aggression against a sovereign state
whose only crime was to resist the diktats of
Madaleine Albright. You praise a woman who
refused to investigate Chretien and other Nato
leaders for war crimes as lawyers and jurists
around the world insisted, including the group of
Canadian lawyers of whom I was one lead by
Professor Michael Mandel. Far from shattering
Milosevic's credibility, the indictment against
him by Arbour shattered completely the
credibility of the Hague Tribunal viewed around
the world by esteemed jurists as a kangaroo court
partly funded by people like George Soros, who
also just happened to fund the KLA at the same
time.
Milosevic is not a broken man. I visited with
President Milosevic in the Belgrade Central
Prison on June 15 and again on July 12, in The
Hague, as a representative of the International
Committee To Defend Slobadan Milosevic. The
Committee is composed of jurists, writers,
scientists, politicians, professors and other
esteemed citizens from over 20 countries who are
convinced that the charges against Milosevic are
false and a slander against the people of
Yugoslavia and an insult to the intelligence of
the people in the Nato countries. It includes
members such as the great British playwright
Harold Pinter, and the former Attorney general of
the Untied States, Ramsay Clark.
Mr. Milosevic is in good spirits. He is not
suicidal. That is a lie put out to explain in
advance his possible murder at the hands of the
Nato Quislings presently in power in Belgrade
because they know very well that any trial before
the Hague tribunal will be an embarrassment for
Nato because there is no evidence of crimes that
never took place except in the pages of the
western press ever anxious to please the economic
powers that own them and who are linked with the
governments that want to eliminate those, like
Milosevic who have the courage to defy them.
Milosevic told me one thing he wanted the world
to know. He has a clear conscience. He stated to
me, "The only reasons I am in this prison are
because I am a socialist and because I stood up
to Nato. I am a political prisoner." The
corruption charges against him are false. The
Investigative Judge told me that there is no
evidence of any criminal wrongdoing by Mr.
Milosevic at all and that he is detained because
of strong political pressure until he can be
handed over to Carla Del Ponte. A Ministry of
Justice official told me that there is no
evidence against him but that I must understand
that "there are many members of the new regime
who would like to see all the socialists hanged
from lampposts."
The Toronto Star which prides itself on its
liberalism and support of democracy is so blinded
by its subservience to its masters that it openly
supports the decree stating that Milosevic can be
extradited despite the fact that the Yugoslavian
parliament opposed the extradition law that
Kostunica tried to pass and the Djindjic decree
was suspended by the Constituional Court.
Apparently, the Star's support of democracy only
goes so far. When the Yugoslav parliament opposes
the extradition, an unconstitutional decree,
which openly violates the will of the people and
the Yugoslav constitution, is praised as
courageous. When Nato and Chretien violated and
threw under the Nato jackboot every international
law you said nothing. Still you say nothing and
still you want Canadians to believe that
Milosevic's extradition is a shining example of
the benefits of international law. Hypocrisy we
know your name.
Christopher Black, Barrister
Head, Legal Committee
International Committee To Defend Slobodan Milosevic
Toronto, Ontario
---
Subject: U.S. CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL: A BAD OMEN
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 12:37:31 +0200
From: TARGETS <redactie@...>
To: office@...
U.S. CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL: A BAD OMEN
The trial of Slobodan Milosevic threatens U.S.
sovereignty. The fact that this trial can be
carried out, in the name of international
justice, should cause all the Americans to cast a
wary eye on the whole principal of the U.N. War
Crimes Tribunal. The prosecution of Milosevic, a
democratically elected and properly disposed
leader of a sovereign country, could not be
carried out without full U.S. military and
financial support. Since we are the only world
superpower, the U.N. court becomes our court
under our control. But it is naive to believe our
world superpower status will last forever. The
precedence now being set will one day surely come
back to haunt us.
The U.S. today may enjoy dictating policy to
Yugoslavia and elsewhere around the world, but
danger lurks ahead. The administration adamantly
and correctly opposes our membership in the
permanent International Criminal Court because it
would have authority to exercise jurisdiction
over U.S. citizens without the consent of the
U.S. government. But how can we, with a straight
face, support doing the very same thing to a
small country, in opposition to its sovereignty,
courts, and constitution. This blatant
inconsistency and illicit use of force does not
go unnoticed and will sow the seeds of future
terrorist attacks against Americans or even war.
Money, as usual, is behind the Milosevic's
extradition. Bribing Serbian Prime Minister Zoran
Djindjic, a U.S.-sponsored leader, prompted
strong opposition from Yugoslavian Prime Minister
Zoran Zizic and Yugoslavian President Vojislav
Kostunica.
A Belgrade historian, Aleksa Djilas, was quoted
in The New York Times as saying: "We sold him for
money, and we won't really get very much money
for it. The U.S. is the natural leader of the
world, but how does it lead? This justifies the
worst American instincts, reinforcing this
bullying mentality.''
Milosevic obviously is no saint but neither are
the leader of the Croats, the Albanians or the
KLA. The NATO leaders who vastly expanded the
death and destruction in Yugoslavia with 78 days
of bombing in 1999 are certainly not blameless.
The $1.28 billion promised the puppet Yugoslavian
government is to be used to rebuild the cities
devastated by U.S. bombs. First, the American
people are forced to pay to bomb, to kill
innocent people and destroy cities, and then they
are forced to pay to repair the destruction,
while orchestrating a U.N. kangaroo court to
bring the guilty to justice at the Hague.
For all this to be accepted, the press and
internationalists have had to demonize Milosevic
to distance themselves from the horrors of others
including NATO.
NATO's air strikes assisted the KLA in cleansing
Kosovo of Serbs in the name of assisting Albanian
freedom fighters. No one should be surprised when
that is interpreted to mean tacit approval for
Albanian expansionism in Macedonia. While
terrorist attacks by former members of the KLA
against Serbs are ignored, the trial of the new
millennium, the trial of Milosevic, enjoys daily
support from the NATO-U.S. propaganda machine.
In our effort to stop an independent-minded and
uncooperative with the international community
president of a sovereign country, U.S. policy was
designed to support an equally if not worse
organization, the KLA. One of the conditions for
ending the civil war in Kosovo was the disbanding
of the KLA. But the very same ruthless leaders of
the KLA, now the Liberation Army of Presevo, are
now leading the insurrection in Macedonia without
NATO lifting a finger to stop it. NATO's failed
policy that precipitated the conflict now raging
in Macedonia is ignored. The U.N. War Tribunal
in the Hague should insult the intelligence of
all Americans. This court currently can only
achieve arrest and prosecution of leaders of
poor, small, or defeated nations. There will be
no war criminals brought to the Hague from China,
Russia, Britain, or the United States no matter
what the charges. But some day this approach to
world governing will backfire. The U.S. already
has suffered the humiliation of being kicked off
the U.N. Human Rights Commission and the
Narcotics Control Commission. Our arrogant policy
and attitude of superiority will continue to
elicit a smoldering hatred toward us and out of
sheer frustration will motivate even more
terrorist attacks against us.
Realizing the weakness of the charges against
Milosevic the court has quietly dropped the
charges for committing genocide. In a real trial,
evidence that the British and the United States
actually did business with Milosevic would be
permitted. But almost always, whoever is our
current most hated enemy, has received help and
assistance from us in the past. This was
certainly the case with Noriega and Saddam
Hussein and others, and now it's Milosevic.
Milosevic will be tried not before a jury of his
peers but before a panel of politically appointed
judges, all of whom were approved by the NATO
countries, the same countries which illegally
bombed Yugoslavia for 2 1/2 months. Under both
U.N. and international law the bombing of Serbia
and Kosovo was illegal. This was why NATO pursued
it and it was not done under a U.N. resolution.
Ironically, the mess in which we've been engaged
in Yugoslavia has the international establishment
supporting the side of Kosovo independence rather
than Serbian sovereignty. The principle of
independence and secession of smaller government
entities has been enhanced by the breakdown of
the Soviet system. If there's any hope that any
good could come of the quagmire into which we've
rapidly sunk in the Balkans, it is that small
independent nations are a viable and reasonable
option to conflicts around the world. But the
tragedy today is that no government is allowed to
exist without the blessing of the One World
Government leaders. The disobedience to the one
worlders and true independence is not to be
tolerated. That's what this trial is all about.
"Tow the line or else,'' is the message that is
being sent to the world.
NATO and U.S. leaders insist on playing with
fire, not fully understanding the significance of
the events now transpiring in the Balkans. If
policy is not quickly reversed, events could get
out of control and a major war in the region will
erupt.
We should fear and condemn any effort to escalate
the conflict with troops or money from any
outside sources. Our troops are already involved
and our money calls the shots. Extricating
ourselves will get more difficult every day we
stay. But the sooner we get out the better. We
should be listening more to candidate George
Bush's suggestion during the last campaign for
bringing our troops home from this region.
The Serbs, despite NATO's propaganda, will not
lightly accept the imprisonment of their
democratically elected (and properly disposed)
president no matter how bad he was. It is their
problem to deal with and resentment against us
will surely grow as conditions deteriorate. Mobs
have already attacked the American ambassador to
Macedonia for our inept interference in the
region. Death of American citizens are sure to
come if we persist in this failed policy.
Money and power has permitted the United States
the luxury of dictating terms for Milosevic's
prosecution, but our policy of arbitrary
interventions in the Balkans is sowing the seeds
of tomorrow's war. We cannot have it both ways.
We cannot expect to use the International
Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia when it pleases
us and oppose the permanent International
Criminal Court where the rules would apply to our
own acts of aggression. This cynical and arrogant
approach, whether it's dealing with Milosevic,
Hussein, or Kadafi, undermines peace and presents
a threat to our national security. Meanwhile,
American citizens must suffer the tax burden from
financing the dangerous meddling in European
affairs, while exposing our troops to danger.
A policy of nonintervention, friendship and
neutrality with all nations, engagement in true
free trade (unsubsidized trade with low tariffs)
is the best policy if we truly seek peace around
the world. That used to be the American way.
CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL (R-TEXAS)
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/07/25/10993.html
TARGETS - Independent monthly paper on
international affairs
Sloterkade 20
1058 HE Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Ph. ++ 31 20 615 1122
Fax: ++ 31 20 615 1120
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