(italiano / english)
EU ENLARGMENT? YES,
JUST LIQUIDATE THE SERBS FIRST.
1. Ode alla UE (Ivan Istrijan)
2. Strbac: European Commission has a short memory
[ La Commissione Europea ha accettato la richiesta della Croazia di
essere messa in lista per aderire alla UE.
Si tratta dell'ennesima dimostrazione di spregio, da parte della UE,
nei confronti dei diritti umani, visto che questo "stato indipendente
di Croazia" e' stato edificato dai revanscisti ustascia tramite una
guerra fratricida e la pulizia etnica ai danni della popolazione serba
autoctona nella sua totalita'. D'altronde, la stessa "Europa" che oggi
consente l'adesione della Croazia insanguinata e' quella "Europa" che
ha appoggiato e continua a sostenere (vedi Kosmet) il progetto
neofascista delle secessioni su base etnica... ]
3. Balkans and the EU: The Leviathan Cometh (by Nebojsa Malic)
[ Benche' viziato, come tutti gli scritti dello stesso autore, da
posizioni pregiudiziali anticomuniste spesso paradossali, questo
articolo di Malic traccia opportunamente un quadro dei rapporti tra
repubblichette balcaniche ed Unione Europea... ]
=== 1 ===
ODE ALLA UNIONE EUROPEA
Da "Danas", quotidiano serbo finanziato da Soros, 4 marzo.
In Irlanda, tanta allegria per l'allargamento della UE. "Benvenuti a
casa": questo il saluto ai nuovi entrati. A Dublino, scontri antiglobal
con la polizia.
Belgrado - Il presidente della Jugoslavia (pardon, Serbia-Montenegro)
Svetozar Marovic, oltre a parole di circostanza, auspica "che le
relazioni tra la Serbia-Montenegro e gli Stati, nuovi entrati a far
parte dell'UE, si svilupperanno nello spirito della comprensione e dei
processi d'integrazione in Europa".
Vuk Draskovic (ricordate quel barbone tanto coccolato dall'Occidente,
accerrimo rivale di Milosevic, organizzatore di una manifestazione
della "opposizione democratica" nella quale viene ucciso un poliziotto?
Quello per il quale la Signora Mitterand in persona si disse
"preoccupata" quando stava in galera? Ebbene costui oggi e'...) capo
della diplomazia serbomontenegrina, si felicita con i massimi esponenti
dei Paesi membri, ma poi lamenta: "Mi sento a pezzi. Tutti i paesi sono
entrati a far parte dell'UE, oppure sono sulla via di entrare, meno che
la Serbia e Montenegro".
Slovenia - Janez Drnovsek, attuale presidente della Slovenia (ex primo
ministro, ex membro della Presidenza della Repubblica Socialista
Federativa di Jugoslavia, e presidente di turno nel 1990, quando
incomincio' la tragedia): "Gli ex connazionali - quanto prima in
Europa".
Dal quotidiano "La Voce del Popolo" di Rijeka/Fiume:
Janez Jansa (leader "democratico", ex sottoufficiale di riserva
dell'Esercito jugoslavo, quello che spifferò negli ultimi anni Ottanta
segreti militari all'estero, e giustamente si fece qualche anno di
"patrie galere"... E che all'alba della secessione della Slovenia si
accanì, con i suoi "territoriali" sloveni, contro le caserme e le
giovani reclute - di ogni etnia !!! - dell'Esercito Jugoslavo... Nei
scontri questi "democratici" ammazzarono una trentina di giovani
reclute, che non potevano sparare per difendersi...): "Dipenderà
soltanto da noi, dalle nostre capacità di essere uniti, di riconoscerci
nei valori che ci uniscono (sic!) e non in quelli che ci dividono...."
(All'epoca - 1990-1991 -circolava lo slogan: "Meglio ultimi in Europa
che primi in Jugoslavia").
Berlino - Gerhard Schroeder: "L'allargamento renderà la Germania più
ricca" (Eureka! Intende dire materialmente, certo!).
Montenegro - Il ministro degli Esteri, Dragisa Burzan: "Per il
Montenegro indipendente sarà adesso più facile entrare a far parte
dell'UE".
Belgrado - Il ministro degli Esteri dell'Estonia (paese in cui vige la
discriminazione razziale contro gli slavi), Kristina Ojuland, dichiara:
"L'Estonia dividerà con piacere con la Serbia-Montenegro la sua
esperienza del processo di integrazione all'UE", sottolineando che:
"Questa federazione (non quella socialista, naturalmente, che c'e'
voluta tanta fatica per massacrarla) ha una chiara prospettiva europea".
Meno entusiasti i presidenti, quello della Repubblica Ceca e quello
della Slovacchia.
Quello della Slovacchia non ha nemmeno ufficialmente partecipato alla
manifestazione.
Il presidente ceco, Vaclav Klaus, ha detto invece: "Tutti noi sappiamo
che tra poche ore il nostro stato cesserà di esistere in quanto entità
indipendente e sovrano". Dichiarazione, in occasione dell'annessione
del suo Paese alla UE, rilasciata a "Mlada Fronta" il 22 aprile.
A cura di Ivan Istrijan,
Coordinamento Nazionale per la Jugoslavia
e radiotrasmissione "Voce jugoslava" su Radio Citta' Aperta
=== 2 ===
www.srna.co.yu
Serbian Press Agency SRNA, Republika Srpska
April 23, 2004
Strbac: European Commission has a short memory
BANJA LUKA - The head of the Veritas Center for Documentation and
Information Savo Strbac said he was surprised by the positive opinion
of the European Commission with regard to the candidature of Croatia
for ascension to the European Union, taking into account the fact that
no one is mentioning the preconditions Croatia must first fulfill
anymore,
including Serb returns, the reform of the justice system and the
extradition of Hague indictee Ante Gotovina.
"Instead of fulfillment of previous European Commission conditions, it
appears that the international community is satisfied with the
declarative promises of the Croatian authorities, which have not been
of any benefit to Serbs from Croatia in the past," emphasized Strbac at
a press conference in Banja Luka.
He emphasized that the Croatian authorities are continuing to arrest
Serb returnees, those who remained in Croatia or who are transiting
through the territory of that country with the goal of preventing Serb
returns and the restoration of their property.
"In order to effectively protect themselves from Serb returns, Croatian
officials have tried 4,600 Serbs in absentia indicted for supposedly
committing war crimes and, in Veritas' estimate, this has directly
prevented the return of more than 100,000 Serbs, primarily younger
people, to Croatia," claimed Strbac.
He said that 15 Serbs were arrested outside the territory of the former
Yugoslavia on the basis of Interpol warrants but fortunately such
arrests seem to have stopped lately because many foreign states are
aware that they are based on fabrications by the Croatian justice
system.
Strbac said that in the current year there have been 12 Serbs arrested
in Croatia while there are still 500 wanted by Interpol for war crimes
in Croatia.
In the Croatian prison of Lepoglava there are 53 persons of Serb
nationality, 40 of whom were sentenced for war crimes, while the
remainder were sentenced for other crimes.
Strbac emphasized that since January of this year, the Croatian justice
ministry has failed to respond and is obstructing requests by
appropriate Serbia-Montenegro officials and Serb prisoners in Lepoglava
to allow them to be transferred to Serbia-Montenegro to serve the
remainder of their prison sentence in accordance with European
conventions.
According to Strbac, Croatian authorities are also obstructing and
delaying the process of exhuming the bodies of approximately 1,000
Serbs killed during Operations Flash and Storm in Krajina.
He expressed the hope that concrete plans in this regard will be agreed
upon at the beginning of May at a meeting of the Croatian office for
the search for the missing and the Serbia-Montenegro commission for
humanitarian issues and missing persons.
According to official Croatian statistics, Strbac said that so far in
Zagreb 15,000 Serbs have been forced to accept Croatian nationality,
while 20,000 Serb children primarily of pre-school and elementary
school age have been forcibly converted to Roman Catholicism.
He said that according to the Croatian census of 1991, there were
formerly 582,000 Serbs or 12.2 percent of the total population with
Serb statistics indicating that the figure was actually over 600,000
Serbs or 17 percent.
"After Operations Flash and Storm, more than 400,000 Serbs were
expelled from Croatia and the former Republic of Serb Krajina, and
approximately 7,000 Serbs went missing or were killed in those
operations," said Strbac.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/decani/message/81495
=== 3 ===
[ Note: We reproduce this article here, because it contains very
interesting information, although Malic's fierce anticommunism is often
recognizable as the source of absurd paradoxes. CNJ ]
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=2433
Antiwar.com - April 29, 2004
Balkans and the EU
The Leviathan Cometh
by Nebojsa Malic
In a day or two, the European Union is set to accept 10 new member
countries, many of which were once dominated by another Union – Soviet.
One of the ten is the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia. On the
occasion, the London-based supporter of Empire (and EU, unsurprisingly)
IWPR published a series of articles analyzing the "progress" of Balkans
states towards the EU. It makes for interesting – if sordid – reading,
reiterating the misconceptions, fallacies and errors that have riddled
Western understanding of the Balkans for the previous 15 years, and
likely even longer.
A Devouring Beast
Framing the issue are three articles: a pep talk by Javier Solana, an
analysis of obstacles by a lecturer on EU enlargement, and a call for a
"bolder" Balkans policy (without actually saying what it might be). The
less said about the first two, the better. What saves the third from
worthlessness is a quote by Heather Grabbe, deputy director of the
London-based Centre for European Reform:
"The union will suffer a lengthy digestion period after it absorbs the
first ten [countries]," said Grabbe. "It may have little appetite for
another round."
A gigantic beast, devouring entire nations and "digesting" them: quite
an apt metaphor for the EU. Of course, the inevitable result of the
digestion is not mentioned, but the digested will feel it nonetheless.
Fortunately, only one of Yugoslavia's successor states will be joining
the EU in two days' time. Croatia just received a green light to begin
the accession process, and is being aggressively sponsored by Ireland
(!), Germany, and Austria. But for others, there is still hope.
Macedonia: Bureaucracy Now
According to IWPR's correspondents, Macedonia is beset with problems
that have "arrested its development" towards the EU. By that they don't
mean the terrorist-coddling Ohrid Agreement, with its system of ethnic
quotas and corrosive political patronage. No, they blame first and
foremost the "stifling centralisation of power, which makes local
government impotent and leaves ordinary people feeling alienated from
an unresponsive bureaucracy."
Brussels, anyone?
Too much corruption, too much politics, too big of a state sector –
these are all "issues" identified by IWPR and analysts it has chosen to
interview. No one mentions how the problems, though existent before,
are now closely bound to the Ohrid agreement and the need to politicize
everything when it comes to the Albanian minority. Nor does anyone note
that bloated
bureaucracy, politicizing of everything and widespread "corruption" (in
this instance, conflict of interest) are salient characteristics of the
– EU!
Still, Macedonians see entry into the EU and NATO as the only way out
of their present economic predicament and the ongoing threat to their
national existence. It is to be expected that any government in Skopje
in the foreseeable future will be working towards compliance with EU
dictates in hope of one day being devoured by the Leviathan.
Bosnia: Unity or Bust
Not surprisingly, IWPR's Bosnia correspondent harps on a theme that it
is the forced-together country's lack of a strong centralized
government that hampers its efforts to become the kind of state the EU
would want. Just look at some of the language in the article:
"overarching institutions in the country, which are capable of speaking
for both entities, need to be strengthened […] demonstrate the country
was truly unified and able to speak with one voice […] Bosnia's current
administrative system is far too complex and cumbersome […] long way
from having an
efficient and functioning state…"
By now the point should be obvious: Bosnia really ought to become a
centralized state. But wasn't that a problem in Macedonia? Well, there
is no room for logic in these matters. And never mind that the desire
for centralization was in good part behind the bloody civil war of the
early 1990s. There is nothing a more powerful government can't fix, or
so the dogma goes.
In keeping with that, Bosnia is said to need some 45 new laws and 25
new institutions, plus:
"compliance with existing international obligations, more effective
governance, a more effective public administration, more effective
human rights provisions, judicial reform, a drive against organised
crime, more effective management of asylum and migration, customs and
tax reform, budget legislation, the production of reliable statistics,
a more consistent trade policy, the creation of an integrated energy
market, the creation of a single economic space and reforms to public
broadcasting…"
Again not surprisingly, most of these measures are aiming for the
abolition of the Bosnian Serb Republic, even though the real
"inefficiency" is engendered in the 10-canton Muslim-Croat Federation.
The Dayton system, which has enabled Bosnia's survival as a country for
the past eight years, has been continually eroded by both the locals
and the succession of
Imperial viceroys. Now it seems set for final demolition, in the name
of "joining Europe." But the only thing Bosnians will join if they
scrap their peace treaty/Constitution will be a new round of ethnic
conflict.
Serbia and Montenegro: Amputation Treatment
When it comes to Serbia and Montenegro, IWPR follows ICG's lead and
advocates their divorce. While Montenegro's current leadership is so
committed to "democracy" that it plans an independence referendum in
order to avoid an election it might lose, IWPR has no trouble with
this. Serbia, on the other hand, they say "lacks a political consensus
about its European destiny and widespread resentment about the
indictment of war criminals feeds strong anti-European sentiment."
Say, aren't "war criminals" people actually convicted of war crimes in
a real court, as opposed to people merely accused by a fake one?
Irrespective of this deliberate semantic lapse, such an assessment
would actually be wonderful, if true. But it isn't – accusations by
Imperial apologists notwithstanding. Why would a government that is
supposedly "restoring the Milosevic regime" (as the aforementioned
apologist alleges) appoint Vuk
Draskovic, an outspoken Milosevic foe, to be Serbia-Montenegro's
foreign minister? Draskovic, whose English leaves much to be desired,
wasted no time in declaring Serbia's absolute commitment to Europe, and
even full obedience to the Hague Inquisition. His coalition partner,
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, pledged devotion to Europe back in
February, even before he officially took office.
One gets the impression that it's not Serbia that fears and hates
Europe, but the other way around. Serbia is the largest of Yugoslavia's
successor states. Supposedly, it is also the least easily controlled,
at least in the minds of Western policymakers whose views are expressed
by ICG, IWPR and other outlets. Their preferred method of controlling
Serbia is through
amputations – first of Kosovo and Montenegro, then Vojvodina, Raska
("Sandzak") and maybe other areas as well. Only thus crippled will
Serbia be "safe" enough to re-educate in the virtues of self-denial and
multi-cultural diversity, Europe's ideology of choice.
The Folly That Is Europe
To see EU accession as a panacea for all the political and economic
ills afflicting the Balkans today is sheer folly. If anything, these
problems will become exacerbated as a result of increased statism even
trying to join the EU brings. This view also reveals a major character
flaw, most likely occasioned by a century of violence and decades of
Communism: only people
with a massive inferiority complex see prosperity as only possible
through attaching themselves to someone wealthier and more powerful.
The EU stands for welfare state, one that is increasingly determined to
stamp out individual liberty and establish omnipresent governmental
control – all in the name of "human rights," of course. So why would
anyone embrace it, least of all so eagerly? Well, a lot of EU hopefuls
in the former Eastern Europe may be seeking a replacement for their
broken Communist dreams, and see the European (as opposed to Soviet)
Union as a vision of what Marxism failed to deliver.
One indicator of this is the constant talk of massive economic
subsidies joining the EU would bring. Few are aware that they would be
funding those subsidies themselves. The EU is not an economic
powerhouse, except in state statistics. Its population is aging and
shrinking, its economy is stagnant and over-regulated, and its workers
are straining under an enormous tax burden necessary to support the
massive welfare state. Hordes of third-world immigrants imported to
lower the price of labor and fill menial jobs (as well as destroy
cultural particularities and promote dependency on government) find it
hard to fit into host societies, creating friction and conflict. One is
definitely tempted to see the eastward expansion as a drive to acquire
more productive economies in order to prop up the failing welfare
system. But as the newcomers find themselves mired in the same morass
of tyrannical regulations, saddled with a huge bureaucracy and forced
to enact the same bizarre and wasteful policies that have proven such a
drag on older EU members, their economies become welfare-oriented as
well, and their productivity drops.
Philosophy of Destruction
Europe's economic and social policies are not the only thing that is
bankrupt. Its underlying philosophy is corrupt as well. Symptomatic in
this regard are the rants of Bernard Henry-Levy, a Frenchman whom the
BBC called "one of the foremost living philosophers in the Western
world." He thinks that Bosnia, with its ethnic mix, is "something to
which all Europe should aspire." This delusion about Bosnia's
multi-cultism does not even remotely correspond to the violent and
divided reality of that forcibly maintained "nation." Following Levy's
prescription would lead Europe in short order into a spectacularly
violent orgy of self-destruction, one that would make the Bosnian War
seem romantic in comparison.
Henry-Levy's madness does not end here. He regards the EU primarily as
a tool for destruction of national particularities, believing that "All
that allows us to bypass nationalism is good." Also evident in his BBC
interview is Levy's fundamental commitment to multi-cultist policies of
guilt. In addition, he champions social engineering and humanitarian
intervention (he was an outspoken partisan of the Izetbegovic regime in
Bosnia).
Yet Europe's greatest strength has always been its heterogeneity, the
fragmentation of its political and cultural landscape that drove
competition and innovation as well as conflict, and enabled the
European (now called "Western") civilization to make such an imprint on
the rest of the world, for good or ill. Such a divided Europe advanced
both the philosophies of free market and socialism, individual liberty
and omnipotent government, universalism and nationalism. Levy's vision
is but one extreme of European civilization, composed of legacies that
are morally dubious and empirically
violent.
He wants to make Europe resemble Bosnia, and the BBC – along with many
others – praises him for it. What more proof does one need that the
West has truly fallen?
One More Thing To Lose
That the Balkans countries see their future in the EU is the best
indicator of how dire their current predicament is. While it may seem
that they have everything to gain and nothing to lose by joining the
EU, this perception is fundamentally wrong. They do have one more thing
to lose, the most precious of all: freedom to create a future of their
own, for good or ill. If that, too, is gone the way everything else has
disappeared over the past decade, the triumph of despair will indeed be
complete.
Is that the future any of these people really want? Surely not.
EU ENLARGMENT? YES,
JUST LIQUIDATE THE SERBS FIRST.
1. Ode alla UE (Ivan Istrijan)
2. Strbac: European Commission has a short memory
[ La Commissione Europea ha accettato la richiesta della Croazia di
essere messa in lista per aderire alla UE.
Si tratta dell'ennesima dimostrazione di spregio, da parte della UE,
nei confronti dei diritti umani, visto che questo "stato indipendente
di Croazia" e' stato edificato dai revanscisti ustascia tramite una
guerra fratricida e la pulizia etnica ai danni della popolazione serba
autoctona nella sua totalita'. D'altronde, la stessa "Europa" che oggi
consente l'adesione della Croazia insanguinata e' quella "Europa" che
ha appoggiato e continua a sostenere (vedi Kosmet) il progetto
neofascista delle secessioni su base etnica... ]
3. Balkans and the EU: The Leviathan Cometh (by Nebojsa Malic)
[ Benche' viziato, come tutti gli scritti dello stesso autore, da
posizioni pregiudiziali anticomuniste spesso paradossali, questo
articolo di Malic traccia opportunamente un quadro dei rapporti tra
repubblichette balcaniche ed Unione Europea... ]
=== 1 ===
ODE ALLA UNIONE EUROPEA
Da "Danas", quotidiano serbo finanziato da Soros, 4 marzo.
In Irlanda, tanta allegria per l'allargamento della UE. "Benvenuti a
casa": questo il saluto ai nuovi entrati. A Dublino, scontri antiglobal
con la polizia.
Belgrado - Il presidente della Jugoslavia (pardon, Serbia-Montenegro)
Svetozar Marovic, oltre a parole di circostanza, auspica "che le
relazioni tra la Serbia-Montenegro e gli Stati, nuovi entrati a far
parte dell'UE, si svilupperanno nello spirito della comprensione e dei
processi d'integrazione in Europa".
Vuk Draskovic (ricordate quel barbone tanto coccolato dall'Occidente,
accerrimo rivale di Milosevic, organizzatore di una manifestazione
della "opposizione democratica" nella quale viene ucciso un poliziotto?
Quello per il quale la Signora Mitterand in persona si disse
"preoccupata" quando stava in galera? Ebbene costui oggi e'...) capo
della diplomazia serbomontenegrina, si felicita con i massimi esponenti
dei Paesi membri, ma poi lamenta: "Mi sento a pezzi. Tutti i paesi sono
entrati a far parte dell'UE, oppure sono sulla via di entrare, meno che
la Serbia e Montenegro".
Slovenia - Janez Drnovsek, attuale presidente della Slovenia (ex primo
ministro, ex membro della Presidenza della Repubblica Socialista
Federativa di Jugoslavia, e presidente di turno nel 1990, quando
incomincio' la tragedia): "Gli ex connazionali - quanto prima in
Europa".
Dal quotidiano "La Voce del Popolo" di Rijeka/Fiume:
Janez Jansa (leader "democratico", ex sottoufficiale di riserva
dell'Esercito jugoslavo, quello che spifferò negli ultimi anni Ottanta
segreti militari all'estero, e giustamente si fece qualche anno di
"patrie galere"... E che all'alba della secessione della Slovenia si
accanì, con i suoi "territoriali" sloveni, contro le caserme e le
giovani reclute - di ogni etnia !!! - dell'Esercito Jugoslavo... Nei
scontri questi "democratici" ammazzarono una trentina di giovani
reclute, che non potevano sparare per difendersi...): "Dipenderà
soltanto da noi, dalle nostre capacità di essere uniti, di riconoscerci
nei valori che ci uniscono (sic!) e non in quelli che ci dividono...."
(All'epoca - 1990-1991 -circolava lo slogan: "Meglio ultimi in Europa
che primi in Jugoslavia").
Berlino - Gerhard Schroeder: "L'allargamento renderà la Germania più
ricca" (Eureka! Intende dire materialmente, certo!).
Montenegro - Il ministro degli Esteri, Dragisa Burzan: "Per il
Montenegro indipendente sarà adesso più facile entrare a far parte
dell'UE".
Belgrado - Il ministro degli Esteri dell'Estonia (paese in cui vige la
discriminazione razziale contro gli slavi), Kristina Ojuland, dichiara:
"L'Estonia dividerà con piacere con la Serbia-Montenegro la sua
esperienza del processo di integrazione all'UE", sottolineando che:
"Questa federazione (non quella socialista, naturalmente, che c'e'
voluta tanta fatica per massacrarla) ha una chiara prospettiva europea".
Meno entusiasti i presidenti, quello della Repubblica Ceca e quello
della Slovacchia.
Quello della Slovacchia non ha nemmeno ufficialmente partecipato alla
manifestazione.
Il presidente ceco, Vaclav Klaus, ha detto invece: "Tutti noi sappiamo
che tra poche ore il nostro stato cesserà di esistere in quanto entità
indipendente e sovrano". Dichiarazione, in occasione dell'annessione
del suo Paese alla UE, rilasciata a "Mlada Fronta" il 22 aprile.
A cura di Ivan Istrijan,
Coordinamento Nazionale per la Jugoslavia
e radiotrasmissione "Voce jugoslava" su Radio Citta' Aperta
=== 2 ===
www.srna.co.yu
Serbian Press Agency SRNA, Republika Srpska
April 23, 2004
Strbac: European Commission has a short memory
BANJA LUKA - The head of the Veritas Center for Documentation and
Information Savo Strbac said he was surprised by the positive opinion
of the European Commission with regard to the candidature of Croatia
for ascension to the European Union, taking into account the fact that
no one is mentioning the preconditions Croatia must first fulfill
anymore,
including Serb returns, the reform of the justice system and the
extradition of Hague indictee Ante Gotovina.
"Instead of fulfillment of previous European Commission conditions, it
appears that the international community is satisfied with the
declarative promises of the Croatian authorities, which have not been
of any benefit to Serbs from Croatia in the past," emphasized Strbac at
a press conference in Banja Luka.
He emphasized that the Croatian authorities are continuing to arrest
Serb returnees, those who remained in Croatia or who are transiting
through the territory of that country with the goal of preventing Serb
returns and the restoration of their property.
"In order to effectively protect themselves from Serb returns, Croatian
officials have tried 4,600 Serbs in absentia indicted for supposedly
committing war crimes and, in Veritas' estimate, this has directly
prevented the return of more than 100,000 Serbs, primarily younger
people, to Croatia," claimed Strbac.
He said that 15 Serbs were arrested outside the territory of the former
Yugoslavia on the basis of Interpol warrants but fortunately such
arrests seem to have stopped lately because many foreign states are
aware that they are based on fabrications by the Croatian justice
system.
Strbac said that in the current year there have been 12 Serbs arrested
in Croatia while there are still 500 wanted by Interpol for war crimes
in Croatia.
In the Croatian prison of Lepoglava there are 53 persons of Serb
nationality, 40 of whom were sentenced for war crimes, while the
remainder were sentenced for other crimes.
Strbac emphasized that since January of this year, the Croatian justice
ministry has failed to respond and is obstructing requests by
appropriate Serbia-Montenegro officials and Serb prisoners in Lepoglava
to allow them to be transferred to Serbia-Montenegro to serve the
remainder of their prison sentence in accordance with European
conventions.
According to Strbac, Croatian authorities are also obstructing and
delaying the process of exhuming the bodies of approximately 1,000
Serbs killed during Operations Flash and Storm in Krajina.
He expressed the hope that concrete plans in this regard will be agreed
upon at the beginning of May at a meeting of the Croatian office for
the search for the missing and the Serbia-Montenegro commission for
humanitarian issues and missing persons.
According to official Croatian statistics, Strbac said that so far in
Zagreb 15,000 Serbs have been forced to accept Croatian nationality,
while 20,000 Serb children primarily of pre-school and elementary
school age have been forcibly converted to Roman Catholicism.
He said that according to the Croatian census of 1991, there were
formerly 582,000 Serbs or 12.2 percent of the total population with
Serb statistics indicating that the figure was actually over 600,000
Serbs or 17 percent.
"After Operations Flash and Storm, more than 400,000 Serbs were
expelled from Croatia and the former Republic of Serb Krajina, and
approximately 7,000 Serbs went missing or were killed in those
operations," said Strbac.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/decani/message/81495
=== 3 ===
[ Note: We reproduce this article here, because it contains very
interesting information, although Malic's fierce anticommunism is often
recognizable as the source of absurd paradoxes. CNJ ]
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=2433
Antiwar.com - April 29, 2004
Balkans and the EU
The Leviathan Cometh
by Nebojsa Malic
In a day or two, the European Union is set to accept 10 new member
countries, many of which were once dominated by another Union – Soviet.
One of the ten is the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia. On the
occasion, the London-based supporter of Empire (and EU, unsurprisingly)
IWPR published a series of articles analyzing the "progress" of Balkans
states towards the EU. It makes for interesting – if sordid – reading,
reiterating the misconceptions, fallacies and errors that have riddled
Western understanding of the Balkans for the previous 15 years, and
likely even longer.
A Devouring Beast
Framing the issue are three articles: a pep talk by Javier Solana, an
analysis of obstacles by a lecturer on EU enlargement, and a call for a
"bolder" Balkans policy (without actually saying what it might be). The
less said about the first two, the better. What saves the third from
worthlessness is a quote by Heather Grabbe, deputy director of the
London-based Centre for European Reform:
"The union will suffer a lengthy digestion period after it absorbs the
first ten [countries]," said Grabbe. "It may have little appetite for
another round."
A gigantic beast, devouring entire nations and "digesting" them: quite
an apt metaphor for the EU. Of course, the inevitable result of the
digestion is not mentioned, but the digested will feel it nonetheless.
Fortunately, only one of Yugoslavia's successor states will be joining
the EU in two days' time. Croatia just received a green light to begin
the accession process, and is being aggressively sponsored by Ireland
(!), Germany, and Austria. But for others, there is still hope.
Macedonia: Bureaucracy Now
According to IWPR's correspondents, Macedonia is beset with problems
that have "arrested its development" towards the EU. By that they don't
mean the terrorist-coddling Ohrid Agreement, with its system of ethnic
quotas and corrosive political patronage. No, they blame first and
foremost the "stifling centralisation of power, which makes local
government impotent and leaves ordinary people feeling alienated from
an unresponsive bureaucracy."
Brussels, anyone?
Too much corruption, too much politics, too big of a state sector –
these are all "issues" identified by IWPR and analysts it has chosen to
interview. No one mentions how the problems, though existent before,
are now closely bound to the Ohrid agreement and the need to politicize
everything when it comes to the Albanian minority. Nor does anyone note
that bloated
bureaucracy, politicizing of everything and widespread "corruption" (in
this instance, conflict of interest) are salient characteristics of the
– EU!
Still, Macedonians see entry into the EU and NATO as the only way out
of their present economic predicament and the ongoing threat to their
national existence. It is to be expected that any government in Skopje
in the foreseeable future will be working towards compliance with EU
dictates in hope of one day being devoured by the Leviathan.
Bosnia: Unity or Bust
Not surprisingly, IWPR's Bosnia correspondent harps on a theme that it
is the forced-together country's lack of a strong centralized
government that hampers its efforts to become the kind of state the EU
would want. Just look at some of the language in the article:
"overarching institutions in the country, which are capable of speaking
for both entities, need to be strengthened […] demonstrate the country
was truly unified and able to speak with one voice […] Bosnia's current
administrative system is far too complex and cumbersome […] long way
from having an
efficient and functioning state…"
By now the point should be obvious: Bosnia really ought to become a
centralized state. But wasn't that a problem in Macedonia? Well, there
is no room for logic in these matters. And never mind that the desire
for centralization was in good part behind the bloody civil war of the
early 1990s. There is nothing a more powerful government can't fix, or
so the dogma goes.
In keeping with that, Bosnia is said to need some 45 new laws and 25
new institutions, plus:
"compliance with existing international obligations, more effective
governance, a more effective public administration, more effective
human rights provisions, judicial reform, a drive against organised
crime, more effective management of asylum and migration, customs and
tax reform, budget legislation, the production of reliable statistics,
a more consistent trade policy, the creation of an integrated energy
market, the creation of a single economic space and reforms to public
broadcasting…"
Again not surprisingly, most of these measures are aiming for the
abolition of the Bosnian Serb Republic, even though the real
"inefficiency" is engendered in the 10-canton Muslim-Croat Federation.
The Dayton system, which has enabled Bosnia's survival as a country for
the past eight years, has been continually eroded by both the locals
and the succession of
Imperial viceroys. Now it seems set for final demolition, in the name
of "joining Europe." But the only thing Bosnians will join if they
scrap their peace treaty/Constitution will be a new round of ethnic
conflict.
Serbia and Montenegro: Amputation Treatment
When it comes to Serbia and Montenegro, IWPR follows ICG's lead and
advocates their divorce. While Montenegro's current leadership is so
committed to "democracy" that it plans an independence referendum in
order to avoid an election it might lose, IWPR has no trouble with
this. Serbia, on the other hand, they say "lacks a political consensus
about its European destiny and widespread resentment about the
indictment of war criminals feeds strong anti-European sentiment."
Say, aren't "war criminals" people actually convicted of war crimes in
a real court, as opposed to people merely accused by a fake one?
Irrespective of this deliberate semantic lapse, such an assessment
would actually be wonderful, if true. But it isn't – accusations by
Imperial apologists notwithstanding. Why would a government that is
supposedly "restoring the Milosevic regime" (as the aforementioned
apologist alleges) appoint Vuk
Draskovic, an outspoken Milosevic foe, to be Serbia-Montenegro's
foreign minister? Draskovic, whose English leaves much to be desired,
wasted no time in declaring Serbia's absolute commitment to Europe, and
even full obedience to the Hague Inquisition. His coalition partner,
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, pledged devotion to Europe back in
February, even before he officially took office.
One gets the impression that it's not Serbia that fears and hates
Europe, but the other way around. Serbia is the largest of Yugoslavia's
successor states. Supposedly, it is also the least easily controlled,
at least in the minds of Western policymakers whose views are expressed
by ICG, IWPR and other outlets. Their preferred method of controlling
Serbia is through
amputations – first of Kosovo and Montenegro, then Vojvodina, Raska
("Sandzak") and maybe other areas as well. Only thus crippled will
Serbia be "safe" enough to re-educate in the virtues of self-denial and
multi-cultural diversity, Europe's ideology of choice.
The Folly That Is Europe
To see EU accession as a panacea for all the political and economic
ills afflicting the Balkans today is sheer folly. If anything, these
problems will become exacerbated as a result of increased statism even
trying to join the EU brings. This view also reveals a major character
flaw, most likely occasioned by a century of violence and decades of
Communism: only people
with a massive inferiority complex see prosperity as only possible
through attaching themselves to someone wealthier and more powerful.
The EU stands for welfare state, one that is increasingly determined to
stamp out individual liberty and establish omnipresent governmental
control – all in the name of "human rights," of course. So why would
anyone embrace it, least of all so eagerly? Well, a lot of EU hopefuls
in the former Eastern Europe may be seeking a replacement for their
broken Communist dreams, and see the European (as opposed to Soviet)
Union as a vision of what Marxism failed to deliver.
One indicator of this is the constant talk of massive economic
subsidies joining the EU would bring. Few are aware that they would be
funding those subsidies themselves. The EU is not an economic
powerhouse, except in state statistics. Its population is aging and
shrinking, its economy is stagnant and over-regulated, and its workers
are straining under an enormous tax burden necessary to support the
massive welfare state. Hordes of third-world immigrants imported to
lower the price of labor and fill menial jobs (as well as destroy
cultural particularities and promote dependency on government) find it
hard to fit into host societies, creating friction and conflict. One is
definitely tempted to see the eastward expansion as a drive to acquire
more productive economies in order to prop up the failing welfare
system. But as the newcomers find themselves mired in the same morass
of tyrannical regulations, saddled with a huge bureaucracy and forced
to enact the same bizarre and wasteful policies that have proven such a
drag on older EU members, their economies become welfare-oriented as
well, and their productivity drops.
Philosophy of Destruction
Europe's economic and social policies are not the only thing that is
bankrupt. Its underlying philosophy is corrupt as well. Symptomatic in
this regard are the rants of Bernard Henry-Levy, a Frenchman whom the
BBC called "one of the foremost living philosophers in the Western
world." He thinks that Bosnia, with its ethnic mix, is "something to
which all Europe should aspire." This delusion about Bosnia's
multi-cultism does not even remotely correspond to the violent and
divided reality of that forcibly maintained "nation." Following Levy's
prescription would lead Europe in short order into a spectacularly
violent orgy of self-destruction, one that would make the Bosnian War
seem romantic in comparison.
Henry-Levy's madness does not end here. He regards the EU primarily as
a tool for destruction of national particularities, believing that "All
that allows us to bypass nationalism is good." Also evident in his BBC
interview is Levy's fundamental commitment to multi-cultist policies of
guilt. In addition, he champions social engineering and humanitarian
intervention (he was an outspoken partisan of the Izetbegovic regime in
Bosnia).
Yet Europe's greatest strength has always been its heterogeneity, the
fragmentation of its political and cultural landscape that drove
competition and innovation as well as conflict, and enabled the
European (now called "Western") civilization to make such an imprint on
the rest of the world, for good or ill. Such a divided Europe advanced
both the philosophies of free market and socialism, individual liberty
and omnipotent government, universalism and nationalism. Levy's vision
is but one extreme of European civilization, composed of legacies that
are morally dubious and empirically
violent.
He wants to make Europe resemble Bosnia, and the BBC – along with many
others – praises him for it. What more proof does one need that the
West has truly fallen?
One More Thing To Lose
That the Balkans countries see their future in the EU is the best
indicator of how dire their current predicament is. While it may seem
that they have everything to gain and nothing to lose by joining the
EU, this perception is fundamentally wrong. They do have one more thing
to lose, the most precious of all: freedom to create a future of their
own, for good or ill. If that, too, is gone the way everything else has
disappeared over the past decade, the triumph of despair will indeed be
complete.
Is that the future any of these people really want? Surely not.