http://www.antiwar.com/malic/m-col.html
ANTIWAR, Thursday, April 17, 2003
Balkan Express
by Nebojsa Malic
Antiwar.com
Empire's 'Liberation'
The Opposite of Liberty
Last week's "liberation" of Iraq bore
a striking resemblance to the
"liberation" of Kosovo four years ago,
or the continuing "freedom" Bosnia
enjoys, replete with the Imperial
occupation troops, a viceroy, general
devastation and cultural destruction.
Empire's quest for a global Balkans
grows more apparent by the day. The
polls may indicate that most Americans
are happy with the Brave New World
thrust upon them, but the wise are
already wondering if what has emerged
could be better called Communist,
Fascist or something else altogether.
In any case, not the Republic
envisioned by its Founders.
Nor are its occupied territories and
vassal domains in the Balkans anything
like the public has been led to
believe. Bosnia has been writhing in torment
for over a decade, in a Hell partly of
its own making, but now run by an
Imperial viceroy. Kosovo is a land of
darkness and despair, mired in terror
and lies. Serbia has fallen under a
reign of terror cleverly disguised as a
"war on crime." But at least they all
have democracy seeping out of every
wound, and isn't it grand?
Illusions of truth, perversions of
justice, and a demonic sort of
"democracy" are today's Balkans
reality, and the coming reality of
"liberated" Iraq.
Truth?
The "liberated" Kosovo is an example
of many things: naked aggression posing
as humanitarianism; ethnic cleansing
and cultural persecution posing as
multi-cultural tolerance; an
occupation posing as freedom. It is also a
symbol of the way the Empire decides
what is reality: whatever it says it
is. One could talk about the way NATO
fabricated pretexts and justifications
for its invasion, or how it twisted
the armistice to mean unconditional
surrender, or how it "interprets" the
fig-leaf UN mandate to do whatever it
wants.
Or one could just read the recent news
reports about a string of terrorist
attacks by an "Albanian National Army"
(AKSh), whose very existence NATO and
its flunkies hotly deny. So a northern
Kosovo railroad track blew itself up
this weekend, and the two terrorists
who died in the explosion did not
really exist. The non-existent
organization certainly doesn't have a
web site. The simultaneous bombing of two
police stations in Pristina last
month? Never happened. And the
February bombing of a court house in
Struga, Macedonia? Figment of someone's
imagination.
This deliberate denial of the obvious
is staggering. A major witness against
KLA officers charged with murder,
torture and abductions is gunned down in a
family car, yet the UN police say they
"do not know" who did it, "nor the
motive." The pinnacle of outrage
surely must be the insinuation by Empire's
propaganda vehicle, Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, which blamed Serbs
for many deaths of Albanian civilians and
KLA officers in the first year of
Kosovo's occupation. But for all the
Empire has done, and is doing, in
Kosovo, that should not come as a
surprise.
To the Indispensable Nation, truth is
a matter of convenience.
Justice?
News came from Bosnia last Friday that
Naser Oric, former commander of
Muslim forces in Srebrenica, was
seized and shipped off to the Hague
Inquisition, on charges of war crimes.
Oric was the notorious warlord who
abused Srebrenica's status as a UN "safe
haven" to launch raids on nearby Serb
villages, and is directly responsible
for hundreds of murders. He even
videotaped some, and those videos are
evidence beyond reasonable doubt that
the man ordered and committed
atrocities. All of which makes his
indictment by the Inquisition even more
insidious.
"Serbs begin believing in justice and
The Hague" read a headline in
Sarajevo's daily Oslobodjenje on
Monday, the paper unwittingly revealing
the real reason behind Oric's arrest. The
illegal and illegitimate Hague
"tribunal" is desperate to create a
perception among all Balkans peoples,
but mainly the Serbs that it is really
a legal, legitimate institution,
meritorious to decide whether war
crimes happened and who was responsible
for them. Occasional arrests and
convictions of non-Serbs are supposed
to serve this important credibility
effort. Meanwhile, the Inquisition's
actual goal to fabricate charges of a
"joint criminal enterprise" of Serbian
leadership to foment and conduct the
Balkan wars and commit atrocities
therein can proceed unchallenged.
People like Oric, or the Celebici
torturers, or Stela and Tuta, are but
sacrifices. Whether they committed
atrocities or not is irrelevant to
the Big Picture, which demands their
conviction for the sake of "bagging"
the Serbs. In fact, the Inquisition is
really not interested in establishing
whether its Serb detainees actually
committed the atrocities they stand
accused of. Their very indictment is
proof enough, and the conviction merely
a preordained matter of procedure.
There has been word of possible US
military tribunals trying Iraqi officers
and officials for "crimes" committed
under the rule of Saddam Hussein,
as a "sovereign right" of the conqueror.
Between The Hague Inquisition and
this, it is obvious that any pretense of
justice has been perverted and corrupted
to serve the interests of power.
Democracy Incarnate
Purges initiated by the Serbian
government after the assassination of
Prime Minister Djindjic last month continue
unabated, targeting the regime's
political rivals even as the new Prime
Minister denied such a thing was
happening.
Following the lead of His Most
Democratic Majesty, Zivkovic offered
no argument beyond his assertions.
"Because I say so" seems to be the popular
argument these days. Unsurprisingly,
the supine media took his word for
it, and ran headlines proclaiming "No
repression in Serbia" or some such.
Ah, freedom at work! At the same time,
Zivkovic indicated that "it may happen"
that top opposition politicians would
be found guilty of crime connections.
Well, how convenient.
The Serbian parliament - a mockery of
that institution if there ever was one
- recently passed new laws allowing
the police to detain people up to 60
days without charges, legal counsel or
visitation, all in the name of
"fighting crime," of course. A
comparison with the intent, if not extent, of
the USA Patriot Act would be tempting,
except that the term "patriot" has
been banned in Serbian public
discourse, and will likely be replaced
by "democrat." Furthermore, there is
nothing patriotic about the amendments
to the extradition law, passed purely to
appease the Empire.
But none of it matters, because the
people overwhelmingly support the
government - or so the government
says. DOS' approval rates match those of
His Imperial Majesty so much that they
might have been cribbed from American
pollsters. But any media examination
of these claims is, of course, banned
under the State of Emergency Act.
Culture Cleansing
Another disturbing trend in Serbian
purges is the emerging Kulturkampf
component. The arrest of folk singer
Ceca Raznatovic for weapons possession
and alleged links to the Djindjic
assassination prompted a condemnation
of the "symbiosis" between Serbian
popular culture, crime, and the
[former/evil - as opposed to current/good]
Government.
Proponents of "cultural cleansing" who
fashion themselves Serbia's "civil
society" don't have a problem with
government manipulating the popular
culture, as long as it is the culture
they approve of. Their sentiments
go beyond the dislike of some
contemporary trends of truly questionable
quality, but actually represent a
fiery hatred of all Serbian folk culture
as lowly, unworthy, primitive and
"retrograde."
The next step is, logically, the
elimination of Serbian folk culture in
favor of a more "progressive" set of
values, imposed by the all-benevolent
State for everyone's benefit, under
the pretext of "de-Nazification" and
"lustration." After surviving almost
60 years of social engineering, the
Serbian society would be finished off
by the modern managerial State and
its faithful flunkies.
The Real Liberation
One libertarian columnist recently
remarked that the young countries can
prosper only in the climate of
"culture-driven self-government, absent
outside military interference and
manipulation from great powers and
entangling alliances. It's kind of
like what the founding fathers envisioned
for this country. A variation of
national socialism, administered by
outsiders or their handpicked minions,
will stifle and annoy any country,
but especially one that has been
promised 'liberation'."
Empire's "liberation" is the actual
polar opposite of liberty.
Based on just the examples cited
above, the truth of this proposition
has already been decisively demonstrated
in the Balkans. It will be demonstrated
again in Iraq. The Empire has denied
it, and will continue to deny it,
because this truth is inconvenient,
but it is truth nonetheless. So long
as we refuse to accept it, we will
continue to be in thrall to Empire's
lies - as well as our own.
ANTIWAR, Thursday, April 17, 2003
Balkan Express
by Nebojsa Malic
Antiwar.com
Empire's 'Liberation'
The Opposite of Liberty
Last week's "liberation" of Iraq bore
a striking resemblance to the
"liberation" of Kosovo four years ago,
or the continuing "freedom" Bosnia
enjoys, replete with the Imperial
occupation troops, a viceroy, general
devastation and cultural destruction.
Empire's quest for a global Balkans
grows more apparent by the day. The
polls may indicate that most Americans
are happy with the Brave New World
thrust upon them, but the wise are
already wondering if what has emerged
could be better called Communist,
Fascist or something else altogether.
In any case, not the Republic
envisioned by its Founders.
Nor are its occupied territories and
vassal domains in the Balkans anything
like the public has been led to
believe. Bosnia has been writhing in torment
for over a decade, in a Hell partly of
its own making, but now run by an
Imperial viceroy. Kosovo is a land of
darkness and despair, mired in terror
and lies. Serbia has fallen under a
reign of terror cleverly disguised as a
"war on crime." But at least they all
have democracy seeping out of every
wound, and isn't it grand?
Illusions of truth, perversions of
justice, and a demonic sort of
"democracy" are today's Balkans
reality, and the coming reality of
"liberated" Iraq.
Truth?
The "liberated" Kosovo is an example
of many things: naked aggression posing
as humanitarianism; ethnic cleansing
and cultural persecution posing as
multi-cultural tolerance; an
occupation posing as freedom. It is also a
symbol of the way the Empire decides
what is reality: whatever it says it
is. One could talk about the way NATO
fabricated pretexts and justifications
for its invasion, or how it twisted
the armistice to mean unconditional
surrender, or how it "interprets" the
fig-leaf UN mandate to do whatever it
wants.
Or one could just read the recent news
reports about a string of terrorist
attacks by an "Albanian National Army"
(AKSh), whose very existence NATO and
its flunkies hotly deny. So a northern
Kosovo railroad track blew itself up
this weekend, and the two terrorists
who died in the explosion did not
really exist. The non-existent
organization certainly doesn't have a
web site. The simultaneous bombing of two
police stations in Pristina last
month? Never happened. And the
February bombing of a court house in
Struga, Macedonia? Figment of someone's
imagination.
This deliberate denial of the obvious
is staggering. A major witness against
KLA officers charged with murder,
torture and abductions is gunned down in a
family car, yet the UN police say they
"do not know" who did it, "nor the
motive." The pinnacle of outrage
surely must be the insinuation by Empire's
propaganda vehicle, Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty, which blamed Serbs
for many deaths of Albanian civilians and
KLA officers in the first year of
Kosovo's occupation. But for all the
Empire has done, and is doing, in
Kosovo, that should not come as a
surprise.
To the Indispensable Nation, truth is
a matter of convenience.
Justice?
News came from Bosnia last Friday that
Naser Oric, former commander of
Muslim forces in Srebrenica, was
seized and shipped off to the Hague
Inquisition, on charges of war crimes.
Oric was the notorious warlord who
abused Srebrenica's status as a UN "safe
haven" to launch raids on nearby Serb
villages, and is directly responsible
for hundreds of murders. He even
videotaped some, and those videos are
evidence beyond reasonable doubt that
the man ordered and committed
atrocities. All of which makes his
indictment by the Inquisition even more
insidious.
"Serbs begin believing in justice and
The Hague" read a headline in
Sarajevo's daily Oslobodjenje on
Monday, the paper unwittingly revealing
the real reason behind Oric's arrest. The
illegal and illegitimate Hague
"tribunal" is desperate to create a
perception among all Balkans peoples,
but mainly the Serbs that it is really
a legal, legitimate institution,
meritorious to decide whether war
crimes happened and who was responsible
for them. Occasional arrests and
convictions of non-Serbs are supposed
to serve this important credibility
effort. Meanwhile, the Inquisition's
actual goal to fabricate charges of a
"joint criminal enterprise" of Serbian
leadership to foment and conduct the
Balkan wars and commit atrocities
therein can proceed unchallenged.
People like Oric, or the Celebici
torturers, or Stela and Tuta, are but
sacrifices. Whether they committed
atrocities or not is irrelevant to
the Big Picture, which demands their
conviction for the sake of "bagging"
the Serbs. In fact, the Inquisition is
really not interested in establishing
whether its Serb detainees actually
committed the atrocities they stand
accused of. Their very indictment is
proof enough, and the conviction merely
a preordained matter of procedure.
There has been word of possible US
military tribunals trying Iraqi officers
and officials for "crimes" committed
under the rule of Saddam Hussein,
as a "sovereign right" of the conqueror.
Between The Hague Inquisition and
this, it is obvious that any pretense of
justice has been perverted and corrupted
to serve the interests of power.
Democracy Incarnate
Purges initiated by the Serbian
government after the assassination of
Prime Minister Djindjic last month continue
unabated, targeting the regime's
political rivals even as the new Prime
Minister denied such a thing was
happening.
Following the lead of His Most
Democratic Majesty, Zivkovic offered
no argument beyond his assertions.
"Because I say so" seems to be the popular
argument these days. Unsurprisingly,
the supine media took his word for
it, and ran headlines proclaiming "No
repression in Serbia" or some such.
Ah, freedom at work! At the same time,
Zivkovic indicated that "it may happen"
that top opposition politicians would
be found guilty of crime connections.
Well, how convenient.
The Serbian parliament - a mockery of
that institution if there ever was one
- recently passed new laws allowing
the police to detain people up to 60
days without charges, legal counsel or
visitation, all in the name of
"fighting crime," of course. A
comparison with the intent, if not extent, of
the USA Patriot Act would be tempting,
except that the term "patriot" has
been banned in Serbian public
discourse, and will likely be replaced
by "democrat." Furthermore, there is
nothing patriotic about the amendments
to the extradition law, passed purely to
appease the Empire.
But none of it matters, because the
people overwhelmingly support the
government - or so the government
says. DOS' approval rates match those of
His Imperial Majesty so much that they
might have been cribbed from American
pollsters. But any media examination
of these claims is, of course, banned
under the State of Emergency Act.
Culture Cleansing
Another disturbing trend in Serbian
purges is the emerging Kulturkampf
component. The arrest of folk singer
Ceca Raznatovic for weapons possession
and alleged links to the Djindjic
assassination prompted a condemnation
of the "symbiosis" between Serbian
popular culture, crime, and the
[former/evil - as opposed to current/good]
Government.
Proponents of "cultural cleansing" who
fashion themselves Serbia's "civil
society" don't have a problem with
government manipulating the popular
culture, as long as it is the culture
they approve of. Their sentiments
go beyond the dislike of some
contemporary trends of truly questionable
quality, but actually represent a
fiery hatred of all Serbian folk culture
as lowly, unworthy, primitive and
"retrograde."
The next step is, logically, the
elimination of Serbian folk culture in
favor of a more "progressive" set of
values, imposed by the all-benevolent
State for everyone's benefit, under
the pretext of "de-Nazification" and
"lustration." After surviving almost
60 years of social engineering, the
Serbian society would be finished off
by the modern managerial State and
its faithful flunkies.
The Real Liberation
One libertarian columnist recently
remarked that the young countries can
prosper only in the climate of
"culture-driven self-government, absent
outside military interference and
manipulation from great powers and
entangling alliances. It's kind of
like what the founding fathers envisioned
for this country. A variation of
national socialism, administered by
outsiders or their handpicked minions,
will stifle and annoy any country,
but especially one that has been
promised 'liberation'."
Empire's "liberation" is the actual
polar opposite of liberty.
Based on just the examples cited
above, the truth of this proposition
has already been decisively demonstrated
in the Balkans. It will be demonstrated
again in Iraq. The Empire has denied
it, and will continue to deny it,
because this truth is inconvenient,
but it is truth nonetheless. So long
as we refuse to accept it, we will
continue to be in thrall to Empire's
lies - as well as our own.