British Government's Web Site On Kosova
gar...@west.net
Your excessive cross-postings are getting to be very annoying. If you
are trying to gain sympathy for your cause, you are having the
opposite effect. You are losing credibility fast. You are not going to
convince anyone by posting hundreds of articles that are derogatory to
Serbs. If anything, your tactics are making us more sympathetic to the
Serbian cause. Anyone can pull up hundreds of anti Croatian or anti
Albanian articles just like you are doing cluttering these NG's. You
may want to try a more civilized tactic if you want to convince us.
Barry Marjanovich
> your tactics are making us more sympathetic to the
> Serbian cause.
Barry Marjanovich
Milosevic must face war crimes trial - Christopher
WASHINGTON, April 4 - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic must be tried
for war crimes for his "genocidal conduct" against ethnic Albanians in
Kosovo, former Secretary of State Warren Christopher wrote in Sunday's
Washington Post.
In an essay entitled "Whatever It Takes," Christopher argued that NATO and
the United States should use whatever force is necessary to prevail in
Kosovo.
"If there was doubt before, it is now clear that Milosevic must be tried
for war crimes," Christopher wrote. "He has created a humanitarian crisis
of shocking dimension, and he has dared -- virtually taunted -- the 19
nations of NATO to use their power to restrain him."
Christopher said the "genocidal conduct of Slobodan Milosevic and his thugs
in Kosovo" raised the question of whether the West would "permit a ruthless
dictator to terrorize a portion of Europe with impunity."
If Milosevic was not stopped, the consequences for the United States, NATO
and the West would be profound, he added.
Christopher said the West needed to ensure that the thousands of refugees
driven out of Kosovo by Serb forces could return home, noting that such an
outcome was impossible unless Milosevic was barred from participating in
Kosovo's affairs.
"We must do whatever is necessary to vindicate the authority of the
international community and to stop the genocide," Christopher wrote.
He called for sustained and intensified air raids, as well as the
positioning of strong, mobile forces in Albania and Macedonia to protect
those countries and "make it plain that no option has been foreclosed."
As a seasoned diplomat, Christopher said he took no pleasure in seeing NATO
resort to force, adding, "But it is the credible threat of force that often
makes possible a negotiated resolution of disputes."
Milosevic has defied 11 days of NATO air strikes and his troops have
continued to attack ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
Barry Marjanovich
>You are losing credibility fast.
Sunday April 4, 7:53 AM
Rights group reports alleged massacre in Kosovo
WASHINGTON, April 3 - Yugoslav forces shot and killed 40 ethnic Albanian
men in the Kosovo town of Velika Krusa on March 26, Human Rights Watch
reported on Saturday, quoting six witnesses interviewed at the Albanian
border.
The U.S.-based human rights organization said the three women and three men
had driven through the mountains on a tractor for seven days before
crossing into Albania at the Morina crossing point near Kukes, Albania.
The refugees said Yugoslav infantry raided their village, on the main road
between Dakovica and Prizren, on the afternoon of March 25, the day after
NATO began its air strikes against Yugoslavia.
One of the men, who was in the fields tending cattle, was shot and wounded
as he ran toward the village. He and the five others hid that night but
were discovered by Yugoslav security forces wearing green camouflage
uniforms the next morning.
They were rounded up along with others from the village.
"They gathered us together with the rest of the people from the village," a
64-year-old refugee identified only as X.S. told Human Rights Watch. "Then,
at about seven in the morning, they separated out 40 younger males and shot
them with machine guns."
Human Rights Watch said the five other witnesses, ranging in age from 47 to
77, told similar stories.
Reports of the alleged massacre at Velika Krusa, which Human Rights Watch
described as "consistent and credible," follow earlier eyewitness accounts
from refugees who said they had seen at least 15 ethnic Albanians killed on
the road around the town.
Human Rights Watch said a separate massacre appeared to have occurred at
the nearby village of Mala Krusa. CNN on Saturday interviewed a badly
burned refugee from the village, who said he had been placed in a pile of
112 bodies that were covered with gasoline and set on fire by Yugoslav
forces.
"It is possible that the killings were security force reprisals or "revenge
killings" for the villages' suspected support for the Kosovo Liberation
Army," the group reported.
Previous Story: Milosevic must face war crimes trial - Christopher ( )
honorius
Barry is giving us many interesting things to answer to.What surprises
me a little bit is this: from when the war started, I am passing all
my available time posting to newsgroups, but my messages are nowhere
near to the number of Barry's ones.How many persons are Barry? He is
surely well staffed.Could it be that some governmental organization is
posting messages posing as an individual?
Willem van der Berg
>posting messages posing as an individual?
O please... paranoid or what?
Willem van der Berg
E-mail: willemv...@netscape.net (remove NEW)
Website: http://surf.to/globalhome
ICQ #: 16280083
Burak Epir
> Barry,
>
> Your excessive cross-postings are getting to be very annoying. If you
> are trying to gain sympathy for your cause, you are having the
> opposite effect. You are losing credibility fast. You are not going to
> convince anyone by posting hundreds of articles that are derogatory to
> Serbs. If anything, your tactics are making us more sympathetic to the
> Serbian cause. Anyone can pull up hundreds of anti Croatian or anti
> Albanian articles just like you are doing cluttering these NG's. You
> may want to try a more civilized tactic if you want to convince us.
>
>
>
I think you have this information age confused with some
other *stone* age! If you still need convincing and are
undecided about the happenings in Yugoslavia, read a papers
international section or watch the news. Usenet should
not be your choice for unbiased news source but apparently
neither is blood thirsty Serb reality. These people are talking
about revenge for a war 610 years ago, I'll let you calculate how
many f**ked up generations that makes.
just a reminder,
Burak REis
Nihilism/Anarchism/Hedonism to the grave!
Concerned Citizen of The World!
Barry Marjanovich
<370790...@mikka.net.au>...
> gar...@west.net wrote:
> >
> > Barry,
> >
> > Your excessive cross-postings are getting to be very annoying.
>
> If you're so blind that you aren't already convinced, I guess it will
> take Serbian tanks on your front lawn to do the job.
>
>
> --
> Steven D'Aprano
>
Iraq calls for end to NATO strikes on Yugoslavia
04:41 a.m. Mar 26, 1999 Eastern
BAGHDAD, March 26 (Reuters) - Iraq called for an end to NATO air strikes
against Yugoslavia and accused the United States and its allies of acting
according to ``the law of the jungle.''
``Iraq calls for halting the illegitimate military attack on Yugoslavia,''
Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf told the Iraqi News Agency on
Thursday night.
``And it urges world states to study the dangerous role of the United
States and its allies...a role that spreads destruction in the world and
replaces international law and the United Nations charter with the law of
the jungle,'' he added.
Sahaf expressed Baghdad's solidarity with Yugoslavia and backed its right
of self defence in the face of attack.
``Yugoslavia has for some time been the subject of serious aggressive acts
by the United States and its allies aimed at tearing apart this peaceful
country,'' he added.
NATO missiles and warplanes hit targets across Yugoslavia overnight on
Friday for a second straight night. The military campaign was launched
after Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic refused to sign an agreement
giving Kosovo province limited autonomy.
Iraq has been at odds with the United States since a U.S.- led alliance
evicted Iraqi troops from Kuwait in 1991.
The United States and Britain unleashed a four-day air campaign against
Iraq over weapons inspections last December.
Since then U.S. and British aircraft have launched more than 100 raids
against targets in the self-styled zones over northern and southern Iraq as
Baghdad stepped up its defiance of the exclusion zones.
Barry Marjanovich
<370790...@mikka.net.au>...
> gar...@west.net wrote:
> >
> > Barry,
> >
> > Your excessive cross-postings are getting to be very annoying.
>
> They're all relevent, except for soc.culture.iraq.
>
> If you're so blind that you aren't already convinced, I guess it will
> take Serbian tanks on your front lawn to do the job.
>
>
> --
> Steven D'Aprano
U.S. suspects Yugoslavia getting Iraq help
WASHINGTON (AP) - Yugoslav defense specialists, expecting a war over
Kosovo, met last month in Baghdad with Iraqi counterparts in what the
Pentagon suspects was a collaboration between two U.S. enemies to prepare
Yugoslavia to shoot down American war planes, government officials say.
U.S. intelligence agencies kept track of the Yugoslavs going to the meeting
but could not get firsthand information about what went on, the officials
said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Nevertheless, Pentagon officials said the meeting's timing and personnel, a
similarity in Iraqi and Yugoslav air defense tactics since NATO airstrikes
began and separate intelligence about possible arms deals between the two
countries all suggest Yugoslavia sought information on U.S. fighter jets
and combat tactics.
The Baghdad meeting was described to The Associated Press by senior Clinton
administration officials, Pentagon officials familiar with intelligence
matters and congressional officials briefed on the matter. They spoke on
condition of anonymity.
Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said Monday he could not comment on
intelligence matters but said such contacts would not be surprising.
''These are two countries both subject to attack by forces within NATO,
they both have primarily Soviet-built or purchased air defense systems, and
they are both subject to international embargoes,'' Bacon said. ''So they
might obviously look for ways to work together.''
Collaboration between Iraq and Yugoslavia predates the Kosovo crisis.
Baghdad purchased some Soviet-made air defense equipment from Yugoslavia
late in the Cold War. In addition, much of Iraq's military infrastructure
was constructed by Yugoslav companies during the 1980s, including airfields
and aircraft shelters, vast underground command centers and industrial
plants used for defense production.
But February's two-day visit of a four-member Yugoslav air defense team to
the Iraqi military headquarters in Baghdad drew the immediate attention of
U.S. intelligence. President Clinton and key congressional leaders were
quickly notified, the officials said.
Both Yugoslavia and Iraq are under international arms embargoes, and U.S.
officials said they have intelligence indicating Yugoslavia was offering to
trade military spare parts in exchange for Iraqi intelligence on U.S. air
operations. Yugoslavia may also be seeking parts from Iraq.
''Each country has supplies or parts it would like to get from the other
country,'' a senior Pentagon official said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
An official ''at a fairly high level'' in the Yugoslav military, and
accompanying officers ''stayed a couple of days and met with a whole
variety of people'' in Baghdad, including air defense specialists, the
Pentagon official said.
At the time, Belgrade was resisting a diplomatic solution to the Kosovo
crisis and bracing for threatened NATO airstrikes, and Iraq was challenging
U.S. planes patrolling deny-flight zones over Iraq and coming under
frequent retaliatory attacks.
U.S. officials said they suspect Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's desire to
help another U.S. adversary outweighed any concerns about Serb attacks in
Kosovo against ethnic Albanians, who are mostly Muslim.
Iraq has had little success defending against U.S. and British airstrikes
during the skirmishes since the end of the Gulf War. But Pentagon officials
say Baghdad is in a position to share detailed information about the
tactics, flight patterns and capabilities of U.S. warplanes, including:
•How high do U.S. warplanes fly during attack missions and what predictable
patterns do they follow? •How long does it take a U.S. fighter to react
with a radar-seeking missile after an air defense battery directs its radar
at the plane? •How can military equipment be hidden from view? •How can
radar systems be tuned to detect, even fleetingly, an F-117 stealth
fighter?
In the opening days of the NATO campaign over Yugoslavia, Serb forces
largely held off firing from their scores of surface-to-air missile
batteries, then gradually intensified their air defense fire, the same
basic tactic seen recently in Iraq.
Yugoslav fighter tactics, however, have been more aggressive. NATO shot
down five highly capable Russian-made MiG-29s in recent days. But there
have been signs the Serb warplanes are also trying to draw NATO combat
aircraft into SAM traps, much as Iraqi fighter planes tried in recent
weeks.
Pentagon officials say Yugoslavia's air defense system is more capable and
better manned than Iraq.
''The Serbs have been tutored by the Russians. Their air defense system has
been upgraded more recently than the Iraqis. They have huge numbers of
mobile missile launchers, and better terrain and weather for hiding. And we
think their people are better trained,'' one Pentagon official said.
The downing of an F-117A stealth fighter Saturday has defense officials
concerned that U.S. adversaries' knowledge of American air combat methods
is improving, the officials said.
But the concern hasn't stopped the strikes on Yugoslavia. More F-117As took
off Monday from Aviano Air Base, Italy.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven D'Aprano
They're all relevent, except for soc.culture.iraq.
> You are not going to convince anyone by posting hundreds
> of articles that are derogatory to Serbs.
Speak for yourself. Barry is posting articles from reputable newspapers
and media groups. That's pretty good evidence to me.
> Anyone can pull up hundreds of anti Croatian or anti
> Albanian articles just like you are doing cluttering these NG's.
OK then, find some of these anti-Croatian or Albanian articles. Serb
propoganda of course isn't worth the blood its written in, but I'm sure
that won't stop you.
> You may want to try a more civilized tactic if you want to
> convince us.
If you're so blind that you aren't already convinced, I guess it will
News Busters
Yes, there is coal to be had in Kosovo, but the real prize is the
zinc-lead-gold-silver mining complex at Stari Trg. The "Zinc air"
battery will probably to the next decade what oil and gasoline are now,
as the now perfected Electric Car becomes widely marketed. The West
NEEDS that Zinc mining complex, the third largest in the world.
Do the research and you will see.
Here is one article:
Exactly. How the US has used "Humanitarian issues" as an exuse is
deplorable.
Dr. Jai Maharaj wrote in message ...
>THE WAR IS ABOUT THE MINES OF KOSOVO
>
>Workers World newspaper
>July 30, 1998
>By Sara Flounders
>
> --------------------------------
> Via Workers World News Service
> Reprinted from the July 30, 1998
> issue of Workers World newspaper
> --------------------------------
>
>KOSOVO - 'THE WAR IS ABOUT THE MINES'
>
>By Sara Flounders
>
>Wars are at root about economics, and the rapidly expanding war in
>Kosovo is no different. So why have millions of dollars in high-
>tech weapons suddenly become available to the so-called Kosovo
>Liberation Army by way of the U.S. and Germany?
>
[snip]
>
>Kosovo is often portrayed in the media as an isolated mountainous
>region thatís poor and without resources. It might seem, from these
>accounts, to be an area of interest only to those who live there.
>
>The New York Times, for example, has carried dozens of such
>articles by Chris Hedges in the last six months. Only once, on July
>8, did Hedges write about the real wealth of Kosovo's Stari Trg
>mining complex. It was a tip-off that something more was at stake
>in this war.
>
>Hedge's visit to the Stari Trg mining complex is an eye opener. He
>describes the glittering veins of lead, zinc, cadmium, gold and
>silver in Stari Trg.
>
>According to Hedges, "The sprawling state-owned Trepca mining
>complex, the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans, is
>worth at least $5 billion."
>
>According to the mineís director, Novak Bjelic, "The war in Kosovo
>is about the mines, nothing else. This is Serbiaís Kuwaitó, the heart
>of Kosovo. ... In addition to all this, Kosovo has 17 billion tons
>of coal reserves."
>
>The whole world knows and observed first hand in the war against
>Iraq to what horrendous extent the Pentagon was willing to go in
>order to guarantee control of the oil wealth of Kuwait.
>
>But the enormous mineral wealth of Kosovo is never publicly
>discussed by U.S. United Nations Ambassador Richard Holbrooke,
>President Bill Clinton or the Pentagon generals. They speak only of
>"self-determination" of the Albanian population of Kosovo. Of
>course, they never mention what U.S.-imposed "self-determination"
>means. It means colonization under the guise of "liberation," like
>what the U.S. did to Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines a
>hundred years ago.
>
>An Internet search for reports on the mines of Kosovoó the Trepca
>mining complex or Stari Trgó turned up only the one article by
>Hedges and a small piece in the June 22 Wall Street Journal. All
>other mentions are in metallurgical journals.
>
>How could this vital fact be omitted from all discussion of what is
>at stake in Kosovo? It is comparable to describing Kuwait and the
>oil-rich Gulf states as barren deserts.
>
>The wealth of Kosovo is greater than the rich veins of ore in the
>mines. Hedges describes the mining complex: "The Stari Trg mine,
>with its warehouses, is ringed with smelting plants, 17 metal
>treatment sites, freight yards, railroad lines, a power plant and
>the country's largest battery plant."
>
>The labor power of millions of workers throughout socialist
>Yugoslavia built this mining complex into the powerhouse it is
>today. It was their wealth that was invested in developing the
>complex. It belongs not just to those who live in Kosovo, but to
>the workers of all Yugoslavia.
>
>The Yugoslav web site www.yugoslavia.com describes Trepca as the
>"richest lead and zinc mines in Europe."
>
>Lignite deposits in the Kosovo mines are, according to experts,
>sufficient for the next 13 centuries. The capacity of the lead and
>zinc refineries ranks third in the world.
>
>Miners work round the clock, day and night, in six-hour shifts.
>
>According to the mine director, "In the last three years we have
>mined 2,538,124 tons of lead and zinc crude ore and produced
>286,502 tons of lead and zinc and 139,789 tons of pure lead, zinc,
>cadmium, silver and gold."
>
>Although the average person watching the news in the evening has
>never heard of Stari Trg, it has been a prize changing hands for
>two thousand years.
>
>The wealth of Stari Trg is legendary. Precious metals were mined
>there more than 2,000 years ago, first by the Greeks, then by the
>Romans.
>
>These mines were the grand prize in the Nazi occupation of the
>Balkans after Germany grabbed control from the British. The mines
>have great industrial and military importance. The Nazis used
>batteries produced there to power their U-boats. Today submarine
>batteries are still made there.
>
>Profits from these mines are helping to keep the Yugoslav
>Federation afloat. U.S. and UN sanctions imposed on Serbia and
>Montenegro, the two remaining republics of Yugoslavia, have taken
>an enormous toll.
>
>Without investment credits, loans for financing industry, imports
>and exports, the economy has been stifled. Inflation has weakened
>the currency. The mines, which once were the largest employer in
>the province, have also been affected.
>
>The most important words in Hedge's article are the description of
>the complex as "state owned." Throughout this decade, as the
>capitalist market has swept over the former socialist countries of
>Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, socialist Yugoslavia has
>attempted to resist privatization of its industry and natural
>resources.
>
>To break this resistance, the Western imperialist countries played
>a major role in the breakup of socialist Yugoslavia.
>
>This huge complex of mines, refining, power and transportation in
>Kosovo may well be the largest uncontested piece of wealth not yet
>in the hands of the big capitalists of the U.S. or Europe.
>
>The industry, natural resources and transportation of all the
>former Soviet republics, the socialist countries of Eastern Europe,
>and the secessionist republics of Yugoslavia are now being rapidly
>privatized. No one within the region has the wealth or connections
>to finance capital to buy controlling shares of these vast state-
>owned industries. The major Western corporations are gobbling these
>industries up.
>
>While the fate of some industries is still in negotiation, the
>lending and credit conditions of the International Monetary Fund
>and the World Bank require the breakup of all state-owned
>industries. This is true for the oil and natural gas wealth in the
>Caucasus and the Caspian Sea as well as the diamond mines of
>Siberia.
>
>The decision on who will own or have controlling interest in the 22
>mines and the many processing plants of the Trepca complex will be
>made by whoever wins the armed struggle raging in Kosovo. NATO
>domination on the ground would put U.S. corporations in the best
>ownership position. Nationalist strife advances their position.
>
>Although being forced to privatize in order to survive in today's
>global market, Yugoslavia has tried to control the process and to
>propose Balkan regional development.
>
>According to the June 22 Wall Street Journal, the Yugoslav
>Federation is in negotiations to sell shares in the Trepca mining
>complex. Forced by the economic crisis, they have been negotiating
>with a Greek investor Mytilineos Holdings SA for partial ownership.
>
>The former manager of the mines, Byrhan Kavaja, who is now allied
>with the opposition to the Yugoslav government, has written to all
>corporations dealing in soft metals to tell them not to make
>agreements with the Yugoslav government. Kavaja says that once a
>new government is in power, all past decisions on ownership will be
>invalidated. The opposition will make "new agreements." Who is
>likely to be the beneficiary of these agreements?
>
>The progressive movement in the U.S. and throughout Western Europe
>must be at the forefront in explaining that the billions of dollars
>spent on the U.S./NATO occupation of the region is not in the
>interests of any of the people of the Balkans. Nor is it in the
>interests of poor and working people in the U.S. or Europe. The war
>is destroying all that was built through collective ownership and
>collaboration in the Balkans.
>
>This war will mean higher taxes and even more cuts in social
>programs in the U.S and Europe. But the billions of dollars in
>profit will go to a few wealthy stockholders in the U.S. or in
>Western Europe.
>
> - END -
>
>Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
>if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World,
>55 W. 17 St., NY,NY 10011; via e-mail: w...@workers.org. For
>subscription info send message to: in...@workers.org. Web:
>http://www.workers.org
>
>Not for commercial use. Solely to be fairly used for the
>educational purposes of research and open discussion.
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
>Thought this might be informative.
>
>Are the Riady's involved in the extensive coal reserves ?
>
>Posted by: Raycpa 3/30/99 13:57:46 PST
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
>Source of the above and more news and discussion:
>http://www.freerepublic.com/
>
>Jai Maharaj
>Latest world news at:
>http://www.flex.com/~jai/topnews.html
>Om Shanti
Barry Marjanovich wrote in message
<01be7e6e$138c59a0$73c594d1@cald9zglkc>...
>Visit http://www.mod.uk/news/kosovo
News Busters
The Special "Kosovo Crisis" Truth in Media Global Watch Bulletins, such as
the one enclosed below, can also be accessed at our Web site:
www.truthinmedia.org which is being updated throughout the day.
DAY 13, UPDATE 1
-------------------------
Apr. 5, 1999; 0:10AM EST
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"I don't fear our government anymore because I already know what they are
all about."
Darren G. Sarvis, an American citizen who is wide awake
(the TiM reader who offered us his comments about Henry Kissinger -see Day
12, Update 2, Item 6 - as Mr. Sarvis said he didn't mind being quoted by
his full name).
---------------
HEADLINES
New York 1. An NWO Murder Triangle: Two Goliaths Turn on
David;
CIA Refused to Back an Anti-Milosevic
Coup
Milwaukee: 2. U.S./NATO Violating a Slew of International Laws
London: 3. RAF to Use Cluster Bombs against the Serbs
London: 4. A War Too Far (By Julie Burchill)
----------------------
1. An NWO Murder Triangle: Two Goliaths Turn on David; CIA Refused to Back
an Anti-Milosevic Coup
NEW YORK, Apr. 4 - Picture a little David battling the Goliath (A) -
bringing him almost to his knees at least three times in the last eight
years. Each time, another bigger Goliath (B) to whom David turned for
help to finish off their mutual enemy, refused it. And so the Goliath (A)
kept surviving, and David kept getting more and more depressed. And then
one day, the Goliath (B) decided to taken on the Goliath (A) - by beating
up on the little David and killing his offspring!
By now you've probably figured out who the characters in this murder
triangle are. The Goliath (A) is Slobodan Milosevic; the Goliath (B) is
Bill Clinton; and the little David, of course, are the Serbian people.
You've heard us say many times that the NWO needs the "bad guys," like
Milosevic or Saddam Hussein. For, how else could they justify going to
war? (see "An ugly double standard in Kosovo conflict," this writer's
Washington Times column, Oct. 25, 1998 - available at our Web site).
Well, now a source within CIA has confirmed what we have been saying all
along. That the U.S. government has been secretly propping up Milosevic
while demonizing him publicly at the same time. And now, the Goliath (B)
is bombing Serbia and killing innocent Davids while supposedly fighting the
Goliath (A).
Things don't get more stupid than that.
"Several Serbian officials plotted to oust Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic in the early 1990s, but abandoned the plan after failing to win
support from the United States," Reuters reported today, crediting the
Newsweek magazine as the source.
The magazine reported that the CIA penetrated Milosevic's government. One
agency veteran was quoted as saying that prior to the 1995 Dayton peace
accord, "we were doing all kinds of dicey things, covertly."
The Newsweek said the CIA was contacted by a Milosevic insider who said he
had the backing of key Yugoslav military leaders to overthrow the
president. The plotters sought U.S. financing and a pledge from Washington
to lift economic sanctions if the plot succeeded, but the CIA declined to
approve the plan. The source said the U.S. administration considered
Milosevic indispensable to negotiations aimed at ending the fighting in
Bosnia.
Just as they did when they turned their backs on hundreds of thousands of
Serb pro-democracy demonstrators in the winter of 1996-1997.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal's Friday (Apr. 2) editorial noted that,
"the political establishment in Washington is beginning to criticize
President Clinton severely for ignoring the advice of the military and CIA
that ground troops would be necessary, that air power alone would not deter
Milosevic and the Serbs. There is now talk of a military disaster."
The Journal then offered a "remedy:" Get rid of Milosevic!
"Having made this mess, the only thing that can redeem it is the removal
from power of Milosevic. The crucial step is to declare removal as a goal.
Currently we are slipping toward exactly the wrong way to try to compel
this outcome, using escalating air power to attack civilian targets such as
power grids.
After all, just over two years ago, these Serbian civilians took to
Belgrade's streets to demonstrate against Milosevic. Before that, in 1991,
some 200,000 of them demonstrated against Milosevic's war policies, which
have been utterly devastating for the Serbs themselves. Indeed, once the
goal of removal is in place, the U.S. could announce a pause in the bombing
to see whether there are in fact dissidents in the Serbian military who
might move against him."
Once again, things don't get more stupid than that. Except that this time,
it is the Clinton "conservative" opposition that's proposing a pipe dream.
Apart from a few "trivial" logistical problems, such as how to get to
Milosevic in the middle of a war, the Journal's idea is stupid because it
betrays an utter lack of understanding of the Serb psyche. Whatever
divisions among the various Serb factions had existed prior to Mar. 24, and
indeed there were many, after the first NATO bombs fell, 10 million hearts
started to beat like one.
So Clinton has only boosted Milosevic with his bombing campaign. With
enemies like that, Milosevic must be smiling ear-to-ear. It's not hard to
guess which Goliath is worse.
As for little Davids, they keep paying the price. Again, and again. First
beaten by Milosevic's police; now killed and maimed by Clinton's bombs.
Things don't get more tragic than that.
-------------
2. U.S./NATO Violating a Slew of International Laws
MILWAUKEE, Apr. 4 - The US and NATO are violating a number of international
laws in attacking Serbia over Kosovo which is part of a sovereign
independent state, writes Dr. Raju G. C. Thomas, professor of political
sciences at the Marquette University in Milwaukee. Here are some examples:
"(1) It is a violation of Article 2 of the UN Charter that prohibits the
use of force against a sovereign state where it has not committed
aggression on other states. Serbia did not attack any neighboring states
outside its sovereign borders. The Security Council did not sanction the
use of force here. If the issue had been submitted to the Security Council,
it would certainly have been vetoed by Russia and China. NATO knows it and
therefore bypassed it. Efforts to justify these actions through earlier
resolutions or Chapter 7 of the Charter are acts of distortion and
convenience.
(2) It is a violation of NATO's own charter which claims it is a defensive
organizations and is only committed to force if one of its members is
attacked. No member of NATO was attacked.
(3) The so-called Rambouillet "Agreement" (not signed by Serbia ) is a
violation of Articles 51 and 52 of the 1980 Vienna Convention on the Law of
Treaties which forbids coercion and force to compel any state to sign a
treaty or agreement. Serbia is being asked to sign this "Agreement" through
NATO bombs and missiles.
(4) It is a violation of the Helsinki Accords Final Act of 1975 which
guarantees the territorial frontiers of the states of Europe. What this
so-called peace plan offers is (a) the severance of Kosovo through NATO
bombing with immediate effect; or (b) the severance of Kosovo through NATO
occupation three years later. The Serbs chose (a).
(5) If the sequel to the bombing is recognition of Kosovo as an independent
state, this will violate international law that prohibits recognition of
provinces that unilaterally declare independence against the wishes of the
federal authorities.
Contradicting my claim that NATO had violated at least five accepted norms
of international law, several respondents argued that the NATO's attack on
Serbia was justified under the 1948 Genocide Convention and/or other
general humanitarian principles.
(1) NATO cannot unilaterally invoke the Genocide Convention and authorize
such attacks. Only the Security Council can do so which was deliberately
bypassed by NATO because it knew that Russia and China would veto such an
attack.
(2) There was no genocide going on in Kosovo when the attack was launched.
Cries of Serbian aggression and genocide within its own province were being
made in the US Congress in April 1998 when only 80 people had died and less
than 100,000 internally displaced. At the time of the attack, 2,000 had
died on all sides and 250,000 Albanians had been displaced. It was the
threat of NATO attack and the subsequent terror bombing that parallels the
fire bombing of Tokyo and Yokohama during the Second World War, that
triggered the Serbian retaliation and humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo.
(3) There was no humanitarian intervention by the US and the West when the
Nigerian authorities crushed the Biafra separatist movement between 1967
and 1970, causing the deaths of one million Ibos; when Pakistani forces
killed one million and drove out 10 million Bengalis during the East
Pakistani secessionist struggle in 1971; when the Pol Pot regime killed one
million Cambodians, to name just a few cases. In the latter two cases, the
US condemned India and Vietnam for their interventions, and threatened
military action against them.
(4) Ethnic cleansing is not genocide. If it were, the Allied powers were
guilty of genocide for the expulsion of some 12 million Germans from
Poland, Czechoslavkia and elsewhere at the end of the Second World War.
And surely European Jews committed genocide when they drove out nearly a
million Palestinians to carve out the state of Israel in 1948.
(5) There is now an ethnically pure Greater Croatia. There are almost
900,000 Serbian refugees ethnically cleansed from Croatia and the (Bosnian)
federation - 300,000 in Republika Srpska, and 600,000 in Serbia. This is
more than any other ethnic group. Croatia conducted the largest single
ethnic cleansing of the war with American military support.
For the record, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
determined that about 35-50,000 people died on all sides during the Bosnian
civil war, not 250,000. The investigative team for the Hague Tribunal
interviewed only 223 Bosnian women claiming to be raped, and collected
another 575 affidavits. Allegations of 20-60,000 rapes were guesses.
Russia, China and India, representing half the human race, got it right
about the Kosovo crisis. NATO, the only alliance left in this galaxy,
committed aggression on Serbia. This is all about saving NATO's face at a
very heavy price for the Serbs. If NATO is above international law, then so
is every other state and organization. It has set a terrible precedent."
Raju G. C. Thomas, Prof., Marquette University
-------------
3. RAF to Use Cluster Bombs against the Serbs
LONDON, Apr. 4 - The London Sunday Times reported today that, frustrated by
their lack of success against the Serb defenses, the RAF Harrier pilots
based in southern Italy are preparing to drop cluster bombs on Serbian
targets. Pilots will face greatly increased dangers from anti-aircraft fire
because the new munitions are delivered from a height of about 100 feet.
Similar bombs were used early in the Gulf war when, in the first week,
British pilots flew 4% of the missions but suffered a quarter of the
casualties. At one stage during the Gulf war, there was a furious dispute
between senior commanders in the field and the Ministry of Defense over
whether low-level bombing was worth the cost in aircrews, the Times says.
A consignment of the 600-pound bombs - which contain 147 "bomblets"
designed to scatter over an area as large as a football field - was flown
in last week to the Gioia del Colle base near Bari, in southern Italy,
where 12 British GR7 Harriers from 1(F) Squadron are deployed. The BL755
bombs have specially shaped charges which can penetrate the armor of
military vehicles.
Their broad use against troop and tank formations will also heighten the
risk of civilian casualties, the Times said.
---
TiM Ed.: Here we go again... No matter how you slice it, civilians seem to
get it on the chin.
--------------
4. A War Too Far (By Julie Burchill)
LONDON, Apr. 3 - "A War Too Far," was the headline of a column by Julie
Burchill published by the London Guardian on Apr. 3. Here are some
excerpts:
"Well, hand me down that white feather, baby, and call me 'Conshie' - I've
finally found a British military engagement I'm violently opposed to. When
it came to the conflicts against Iraq (invading peaceful little Kuwait), or
Argentina (invading peaceful little penguins), I practically had to be
restrained from handing out white feathers to all apparently healthy men
over 16 whom I saw walking down the street. This time, I feel like I'm
behind enemy lines.
[...]
What is wrong with Tony Blair? Is he in love with Bill Clinton? Is there
literally no mess he would not willingly follow him into? I can't help but
think that if Blair was sitting in the bath, and Clinton asked him if he
could just try this thing out - with this electric fire, dropping it into
the bath and seeing, uh, what happened - Blair would beam and say, 'Be my
guest!'
[...]
Yugoslavia; we're bombing Yugoslavia. Gorgeous, integrated, independent
Yugoslavia, where the rich kids at school always used to go on holiday
while the rest of us sizzled on the Costa del Sol. And which the West
always congratulated on Standing Up To Stalin and staying out of the Warsaw
Pact. It was a country that fought off the Nazis, held off the Soviets, and
bent the knee to no one: it was the Cuba of the Balkans - a holiday in the
sun that didn't leave a bitter taste in the mouth because it was neither a
puppet of the USA or the USSR. Maybe that's what we can't stand; a country
that shows us you can do it alone, without sucking off a superpower for
survival.
[...]
What are the Serbs supposed to be doing to the Kosovars? Are they putting
electrodes on their genitals? Dropping them out of helicopters? Torturing
children in front of their parents? Like all those Latin American regimes,
the US has been installing and maintaining since the Year Dot? Ah, but that
was US's backyard; that was different. They have a right to feel secure.
Funny, isn't it, how the US gets to have a whole continent as its backyard,
but Serbia's not even allowed to have a province as its?"
[...]
For the full text of the Guardian's article, check out:
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3847968,00.html
---------------
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----
Bob Djurdjevic
TRUTH IN MEDIA
Phoenix, Arizona
e-mail: bo...@djurdjevic.com
Visit the Truth in Media Web site http://www.truthinmedia.org/ for more
articles on geopolitical affairs.
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Barry Marjanovich wrote in message
<01be7e75$4c9c07c0$73c594d1@cald9zglkc>...
>Sunday April 4, 7:53 AM
>
>Milosevic must face war crimes trial - Christopher
>
nada_v...@altavista.net
"Barry Marjanovich" <bmarja...@sprint.ca> wrote:
> Visit http://www.mod.uk/news/kosovo
>
what 'bout 'british' 'er 'government' re Kosovo, you mindless prick?
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