Most
shocking of all it flagrantly violated the Helsinki Accords
which had been signed with great fanfare less than 25 years
earlier. Here are just a few of the provisions of the 1975
Helsinki Final Act that NATO threw into the wastepaper
basket:
(a)
II The participating States will refrain in their mutual
relations, as well as in their international relations in
general, from the threat or use of force against the territorial
integrity or political independence of any State…
III The participating States regard as inviolable all one
another’s frontiers as well as the frontiers of all States
in Europe and therefore they will refrain now and in the
future from assaulting these frontiers….
VI The participating States will refrain from any intervention,
direct or indirect, individual or collective, in the internal
or external affairs falling within the domestic jurisdiction
of another participating State…
NEW
IMPERIALISM
NATO’s
bombing, moreover, was directed almost exclusively at civilian
targets. Hospitals, buses, retirement homes, schools, markets,
town centers, apartment buildings, refugee convoys all went
up in smoke. Yugoslavia’s military, however, remained largely
intact. Without question this was a violation of the Additional
Protocols to the Geneva Convention I. Nineteen countries
– the greatest military force in the world – ruthlessly
bombed a nation of 9 million. The only crime this small
nation had committed was to try to prevent its further disintegration
and to hold on to its cultural and historic legacy. The
bombing was cheered on by the media and by many of the West’s
intellectuals. Here was bombing they could support –
terrorism undertaken for the noblest of purposes. US-led
NATO was arriving as a knight in shining armor to rescue
the Kosovo Albanians, the damsel in distress. The syrupy,
self-serving, fairy-tale quality of this story did not diminish
its plausibility as hack after hack repeated it adding his
own embellishments to the brew. Clinton and his twerpy sidekick,
Tony Blair, promulgated the new doctrine of humanitarian
intervention. The Western powers would intervene anywhere
at any time to save people from persecution. This, of course,
was nothing more than the latest variant on Western imperialism.
A bunch of wealthy and powerful countries self-righteously
arrogate to themselves the right to inflict terror and mayhem
on lesser peoples. We have a divine right to bomb countries
that are too weak even to shoot our planes down. They must
learn to do as they are told. Happily, we get to define
the terms. Murder and the leveling of ancient cities we
will label "humanitarianism."
THE
WRECKAGE
When
the 11-week bombing spree ended Yugoslavia was littered
with tens of thousands of depleted uranium shells. 5000
people were dead. Bridges, factories, schools and hospitals
had been destroyed. Hazardous waste had been let loose on
the country. NATO marched into Kosovo and proceeded to run
it as a colony. Yugoslav state property was seized and parceled
out among international fat cats. The tales told to justify
the attack were quickly shown to be lies. There had been
no "genocide." There were no mass graves. There
was no Serb plan to expel Kosovo’s Albanians. The Albanians
were fleeing NATO’s bombs, not marauding Serbs. But the
truth does not matter – only power does. The Serbs
were left defeated and demoralized. Ten years of sanctions,
media-orchestrated hatred and bombing had taken their toll.
Serbia’s politicians saw nothing wrong with taking bribes
from foreign powers, from the very powers that had wrought
such havoc on their country. A proud nation would soon become
a supplicant nation. The Serbs were forced to undergo one
humiliation after another to win the approval of their cruise-missile
-armed benefactors. They are on probation and have to keep
reporting to NATO, their probation officer, to demonstrate
progress.
One
indication of progress would be the extent to which they
are now ready to sign on to NATO’s lies: that the bombing
was all the fault of Slobodan Milosevic, that the Serbs
simply got their just desserts and that NATO’s bombing was
"humanitarian." Consequently the new Serb regime
must show contempt for the rule of law as flagrant as NATO’s
or Carla del Ponte’s. Belgrade is evidently making progress
fast. At NATO’s behest, on February 13, the new authorities
in Belgrade arrested
Dragoljub Milanovic, the former head of Serbian State
Television and Radio (RTS). He was accused of being responsible
for the deaths of the 16 RTS employees killed in NATO’s
attack. NATO, of course, is anxious to shift responsibility
for this war crime on to the Milosevic regime. Not that
NATO gives a damn about war crimes. But killing journalists
is bad public relations. As every single one of NATO’s lies
unravels, the cry that Milosevic must immediately be shipped
off to The Hague becomes ever shriller. The inevitable conviction
and life imprisonment of Milosevic will then serve as retrospective
justification for NATO’s aggression. It is shameful that
the Belgrade regime is playing along with this self-serving
charade.
FARCE
IN BELGRADE
It
is outrageous enough that the victim of a bombing attack
should be blamed for the bombing attack. Even worse is the
Belgrade Government’s contempt for the most basic rights
of citizens. Milanovic was denied bail and has now been
in prison for more than 5 weeks without as yet having been
charged with anything. It was only after his arrest that
the prosecution began its "investigation." Having
taken testimony from 52 witnesses who all denied that Milanovic
knew of the bombing in advance, the Court decided to extend
his detention so that it could hear from Carla del Ponte
herself. Del Ponte claims she has evidence that Milanovic
knew of the bombing attack in advance. So far she has come
up with nothing. But then evidence has never been the Hague
Tribunal’s forte. Del Ponte shrieks and stamps her feet,
demanding that Slobodan Milosevic be surrendered to The
Hague. Yet the evidence that the former Yugoslav leader
committed "war crimes" is laughable. For instance,
the indictment lists, among many other crimes, the so-called
"massacre" at Racak. Every investigation into
Racak, including the recent
Finnish one, has found that there was no "massacre,"
merely a firefight between Yugoslav forces and the KLA.
Yet this makes no difference to del Ponte. Incidentally,
the Milosevic indictment asserts that he is responsible
for something like 300 Albanian deaths. Even if that were
true, this would still be fewer than the deaths on NATO’s
hands.
In
any case, the Court ruled that Dragoljub Milanovic had to
be detained so as to prevent him from "influencing"
witnesses. Quite how he would "influence" Carla
del Ponte the Court however never spelled out. But he is
to remain in prison while Carla del Ponte takes her sweet
time to uncover the "evidence." In other words,
there is virtually no prospect of release since del Ponte
has no "evidence." The most basic protections
against arbitrary arrest were tossed aside as easily NATO
tossed aside international law.
CNN’S
WAR CRIMES
That
Milanovic knew in advance the exact date NATO would strike
the RTS headquarters defies common sense. Consider the following:
It was reported at the time that two days before the bombing,
CNN had been tipped off about the impending attack. CNN
was advised to remove its facilities from the building immediately,
which it did. The day before the attack, the Serbian Information
Minister Alexander Vucic received a faxed invitation from
the "Larry King Live" show to appear on CNN. The
producers wanted him in the studio at 2:30 am. They suggested
he arrive half an hour early for make-up. Vucic accepted
the invitation but was delayed and arrived late. NATO’s
bombs struck the building at six minutes past two. One of
the missiles exploded in the make-up room where a young
Serb assistant was burned to death. Leave aside for the
moment CNN’s sinister role in the commission of a war crime
– an issue no one has bothered to investigate at all.
What is significant is that the Minister accepted the invitation
and was on his way there. Moreover, the CEO of RTS was working
late that night and left less than an hour before the bombs
struck. These are the actions of people who, unlike CNN,
are clearly unaware of impending attack. If you know a building
is to be bombed you stay away and not try to fine-tune your
arrival or departure time.
Since
the case against Milanovic is patently absurd, the authorities
have now launched an investigation into his "abuse"
of office. They have yet to specify what exactly "abuse"
means. Doubtless, they will think of something while the
open-ended investigation continues. And Carla del Ponte
is sure to offer some suggestions.
NATO’S
ALBANIA
NATO’s
onslaught was a continuation of the relentless anti-Serb
and pro-Albanian policy the US Government set in motion
as early as 1992. The United States sought systematically
to weaken, and perhaps dismantle, Serbia while backing the
Moslems of Bosnia and Albania. Serb nationalism was to be
crushed; Albanian or Moslem nationalism was to be encouraged.
While the United States was fighting tooth and nail to maintain
in being the fictional state of Bosnia and to thwart the
will of the Serb half of it to leave and join up with Serbia
proper, it was promising the Kosovo Albanians a referendum
on independence. Territorial integrity was to be respected
only if it was at the expense of the Serbs. Albania came
to be seen as the lynchpin of US expansionist policy into
Central Asia. Albania would be NATO’s new Eastern Mediterranean
flank, a more reliably pro-American satellite than Greece.
The Albanian port of Vlore would also be the final destination
of oil from the Caspian before being shipped to Western
markets.
As
the recent
article by Mirko Dakovic and Boro Miseljic points out,
by June 1992 Albania had already been admitted to the North
Atlantic Cooperation Council. "The growing military
ties between the two countries," they write, "would
eventually be grounded into a military agreement in 1993,
which became known as the Memorandum of Understanding on
Defense Cooperation. The agreement enabled the United States
to use the Albanian military base Perlat, 35 miles southwest
of Tirana, which became the first military facility to be
used by the United States in a post Communist country. Consequently,
at the end of the Cold War, Albania would become the first
Central and Eastern European State to request membership
in NATO." There was also growing defense cooperation
between Albania and Turkey, clearly encouraged by the United
States. Throughout the past decade Albania has given NATO
free use of its air, sea, and land facilities during for
military operations in the Balkans. Albania has also participated
in innumerable military exercises with NATO.
SUPPORTING
TERROR
As
soon as the United States arrived in Kosovo it began to
sponsor Albanian terrorists in Macedonia and Serbia. They
were armed and trained by the CIA, and their offshoot, the
British SAS. This has been reported in the European media,
but not in the United States. Ostensibly the United States
was doing it to undermine the rule of Milosevic. This is
what a recent
story in the Observer claims: "The United
States secretly supported the ethnic Albanian extremists
now behind insurgencies in Macedonia and southern Serbia.
The CIA encouraged former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters
to launch a rebellion in southern Serbia in an effort to
undermine the then Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic."
But this is absurd. Overthrow of Milosevic was not the primary
US motivation. If it were, why encourage an insurgency in
Macedonia, which had been nothing if not a faithful satellite
of the United States?
The
National Liberation Army terrorists cross the border into
Macedonia from Kosovo several times a day every day without
the slightest interference from US forces. It is clear evidence
of continuing US collusion with the KLA. Here is a story
from the Times: "Despite assurances from
NATO officers in KFOR that the NLA will find no haven in
Kosovo, the guerrillas’ cross-border supply routes appear
brazenly obvious. In the US sector, mule columns of supplies
have been climbing almost nightly in the past weeks through
beech forests up the mountains to reach NLA groups in ethnic
Albanian villages such as Brest and Malino in western Macedonia."
The idea that Americans are afraid to get into hand-to-hand
combat with the Albanians on account of the so-called "body-bag
syndrome" is risible. Americans do not need to get
into hand-to-hand combat. They have so much powerful and
sophisticated weaponry they could obliterate the KLA without
so much as a cut finger. As the United States demonstrated
during the bombing two years ago, there is very little suffering
that we are not prepared to inflict on others. How about
using helicopter gunships on the KLA? Tanks? Mortars? Heavy
artillery? The sadistic American has suddenly been replaced
by the timid American. The Macedonians are not buying it.
Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski lost control
the other day and tore into his supposed NATO protectors.
The West was helping to create "a new Taliban in Europe."
NATO powers, he went on, were refusing to recognize that
the terrorists were coming from Kosovo. The United States
and Germany knew the identities of guerrilla leaders and
could stop them if they wanted to.
Instead,
while NATO leaders flap their arms helplessly and explain
apologetically that they have no mandate to get involved
in the fighting in Macedonia, they urge the Skopje government
to make more and more concessions to the Albanians as if
the war were a civil rights struggle rather than the drive
to create the Greater Albania. Meanwhile, NATO is already
putting out the story that the Macedonian government has
no hope of winning this war, thereby creating the conditions
for the NATO takeover of Northern Macedonia prior to its
being handed over to Kosovo. It is the next stage in America’s
reorganization of the Balkans – a project uncannily
similar to that of Hitler. Wait for the coming offensive
against the Bosnian Serb Republic.
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