NIN: Heroes of our times: Merciful angel (by Milivoje Glisic)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/belgradepressclips/message/605
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Propaganda and History (by Nebojsa Malic)
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/more.php?id=1098_0_1_0_M
SRNA: RS President: Tuzla events point to growing fundamentalism in Bosnian federation
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/srna062704.htm
ICG: EUFORia: Changing Bosnia's Security Arrangements
http://www.crisisweb.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=2833
Macedonian Soldiers Return From Iraq (by Valentin Nesovski)
http://www.setimes.com/default3.asp?lang=english&page=process_print&article_id=24784
NATO Summit: Press conference given by Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic (excerpts)
http://www.info-france-usa.org/printfriendly/statmnts2004/chirac_nato062804_pf.asp
NATO: Istanbul Summit Communique
http://www.epicos.com/News/NewsItem.asp?IdArticle=15511
Operation Active Endeavour
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/breaking_3.html
Editorial: Pressure on Greece
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_columns_5798578_29/06/2004_44449
Transatlantic ties (by Vaiju Naravane)
http://www.hindu.com/2004/06/30/stories/2004063000771000.htm
US, Turkey rediscover each other (by Burak Bekdil)
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_world_5798353_29/06/2004_44446
Turkish-Israeli tensions (by Omer Taspinar)
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/print.asp?page=story_29-6-2004_pg3_4
Iran warms to the NATO card (by Kaveh L Afrasiabi)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FF30Ak09.html
Sovereignty: Now the games really begin (by Ehsan Ahrari)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FF30Ak01.html
Misrepresenting China's might
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200406/30/eng20040630_148042.html
June 30, 2004
Izbor za 30.jun
June 29, 2004
Izbor za 29.jun
Kosovo's Nazi Past: The Untold Story (by Carl Savich)
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/054.shtml
Ballists Return to Macedonia
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=123&newsid=42713&ch=0&datte=2004-06-28#
---------------------------------------------------
"Reformer" wins Serbian election (by Nebojsa Malic)
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/comments.php?id=1094_0_1_0_C
OSCE Mission hosts roundtable to improve dialogue between Kosovo's communities
http://www.osce.org/news/generate.pf.php3?news_id=4192
Snap-happy tourist held in Kosovo
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040629a9.htm
DM: NATO Membership an Essential Objective for Macedonia (by Marija Lazarova)
http://www.setimes.com/default3.asp?lang=english&page=process_print&article_id=24770
The NATO Summit: Where Boris Trajkovski Lives On
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=368
Yaniz: Croatia on "Right Path" Towards NATO Integration (by Miranda Novak)
http://www.setimes.com/default3.asp?lang=english&page=process_print&article_id=24768
Issues on NATO fringe
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100001_28/06/2004_44417
What should Turkey expect from the NATO summit? (by Cuneyt Ulsever)
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/ulsever.HTM
NATO: A Troubled Transatlantic Marriage (by Ted Galen Carpenter)
http://www.cato.org/cgi-bin/scripts/printtech.cgi/dailys/06-28-04-2.html
U.S. To Urge NATO Allies to Drop Use-of-Force Restrictions (by Donna Miles)
http://www.defenselink.mil/cgi-bin/dlprint.cgi?http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2004/n06272004_2004062702.html
Bush's European visit: opposition from the people and prostration by their leaders (by Chris Marsden)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jun2004/bush-j29_prn.shtml
News Analysis: What role can NATO play in Iraq after power transfer?
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200406/29/print20040629_147898.html
US lobbying Taiwan authority to buy weapons
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200406/29/print20040629_147928.html
Drugs, the CIA and Faustian Alliances (by John Stanton)
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/STA406B.html
The eclipse of regime change (by Michael A Weinstein)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FF29Aa01.html
June 28, 2004
Izbor na Vidovdan
On St. Vitus Day (by Nebojsa Malic)
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/pf/p-m062802.html
Bolje Grob Nego Rob! Better Grave Than Slave!
St Vitus Day (by Alma A. Hromic)
http://www.swans.com/library/art8/aah029.html
----------------------------------------------
Tadic Wins, the West Continues to Feel Good About Itself
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=367
AP: Allies carry out 'invisible' war in Bosnia
http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031776282850&path=!nationworld&s=1037645509161
Ankara presses Bush on Iraq, Cyprus
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/for.htm#f11
Bush pleads Turkey's E.U. cause (by Atul Aneja)
http://www.hindu.com/2004/06/28/stories/2004062801511400.htm
Israel, six other countries, offered NATO `partnership' (by Amir OrenHaaretz)
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=444206
Russia warns NATO ahead of summit (by Vladimir Radyuhin)
http://www.hindu.com/2004/06/28/stories/2004062801531400.htm
Crossing the roads on the way to NATO (by Aysegul Sert)
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/dom.htm#d4
NATO a dupe for Washington (by Su Huimin)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-06/28/content_343229.htm
Rebelion: Capitalism versus socialism: The great debate revisited (by James Petras)
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/PET406B.html
June 27, 2004
Izbor na Dan Izbora
NATO Summit to Focus on Outreach, Transformation (by Donna Miles)
http://www.defenselink.mil/cgi-bin/dlprint.cgi?http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2004/n06262004_2004062603.html
-----------------------------------------------------
World Bank Forum Targets Growth in Southeast Europe (by Daniel Daianu)
http://www.setimes.com/default3.asp?lang=english&page=process_print&article_id=24676
Bulgaria Faces EU Entry Hurdles (by Albena Shkodrova)
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200406_504_3_eng.txt
Poland and the European elections (by Marius Heuser)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jun2004/pold-j26_prn.shtml
Barroso for Brussels? (by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey)
http://english.pravda.ru/printed.html?news_id=13199
Euro-referendum (by B. Papadimitriou)
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_columns_3203437_26/06/2004_44370
Russia to develop military cooperation with Serbia & Montnegro
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=981966&PageNum=0
Belgrade's Defence Strategy Tilts West (by Daniel Sunter)
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200406_504_5_eng.txt
EU-US summit stresses common stance, plays down difference
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200406/27/print20040627_147655.html
Who's on first? Who's on second? Who's really the terrorist? (by Kosmotar J. Katzspliff)
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/062504Katzspliff/062504katzspliff.html
June 26, 2004
Izbor za 26.jun
Pointless Elections and Possible Solutions (by Nebojsa Malic)
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=366
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
IFRC: Serbia and Montenegro Annual Appeal No. 01.74.2004 Programme Update No. 2 - Special focus on Kosovo
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/6686f45896f15dbc852567ae00530132/c5df68c94843cbcec1256ebe0048bbeb?OpenDocument
Makedonija Denes: Macedonain police intensify hunt for Albanian terrorist as bombs are planted in Kumanovo
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/md062404.htm
AP: U.S., European agencies use rewards, informants in hunt for terrorists in Bosnia (by George Jahn)
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/ap062504.htm
Mixed EUphoria (by Anes Alic)
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=70&NrSection=4&NrArticle=12297
Americans no longer need Turkish aircraft carrier
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=10429=10429&format=0
Turks welcome Bush, with reservations (Asli Gokcora)
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/for.htm#f1
Security, Communications Boosted for NATO Summit (by Vahit Bora)
http://www.setimes.com/default3.asp?lang=english&page=process_print&article_id=24744
Russia Interested In Creating Safety Belts With Nato
http://en.rian.ru/rian/index.cfm?prd_id=160&msg_id=4509043&startrow=1&date=2004-06-25&do_alert=0
Building Hope on Experience (by Paul Fritch)
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=70&NrSection=4&NrArticle=12296
A new role for NATO (by Stavros Lygeros)
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_columns_2528723_25/06/2004_44328
Russia-Belarus: still arguing (by Vasily Bubnov)
http://english.pravda.ru/printed.html?news_id=13196
What to do after becoming a big power?
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200406/26/print20040626_147622.html
Managing the Great Asian Transformation (by Richard H. Solomon)
http://www.usip.org/events/2004/0624_transsolomon.html
June 25, 2004
Izbor za 25.jun
The Lie of a "Good War" (by Diane Johnstone)
http://www.counterpunch.org/johnstone06242004.html
----------------------------------------------------
Erasing History: Cultural Destruction in Kosovo
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/decani/message/82485
Decentralization Continues to Bedevil Macedonia
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=365
US President's message to Congress continuing Balkans national emergency
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/06/print/20040624-10.html
Euro Busybodies Extend Their Balkans Meddling
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/more.php?id=1085_0_1_0_M
EU's negotiations with Turkey will be unique (by Mehmet Ali Birand)
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/birand.htm
Russian press unlawfully banned (by Vasily Bubnov)
http://english.pravda.ru/printed.html?news_id=13183
Russian forces to strengthen up in the Caucasus region
http://newsfromrussia.com/main/2004/06/25/54543_.html
Washington renews war crimes immunity in "sovereign" Iraq (by Bill Van Auken)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jun2004/iraq-j25_prn.shtml
Abandon the Battlefied! (by Michel Chossudovsky)
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO406D.html
Perils of a US-dominated world (by H. Niu & S. Ni)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FF25Ad05.html
A Global Power Shift in the Making (by James F. Hoge, Jr.)
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040701facomment83401/james-f-hoge-jr/a-global-power-shift-in-the-making.html?mode=print
June 24, 2004
Izbor za 24.jun
Srebrenica Revisited (by Nebojsa Malic)
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/
------------------------------
Recent ethnic violence 'devastating blow' to repatriation
http://www.kosovo.net/node/view/279
Speakers stress civil society's important, expansive role in building peace in countries following conflict, during UN SC debate
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/6686f45896f15dbc852567ae00530132/aa1956b2113cb42e85256ebc0005e4fd?OpenDocument
Expressing the sense of the Senate on the development of self-government in Kosovo
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c108:1:./temp/~c108fDZZIj::
Vreme: Macedonian Intelligence Prevents Nano's Assassination?
http://www.realitymacedonia.org.mk/web/news_page.asp?nid=3376
Viceroy's vendetta hurt anti-terror efforts? (by Nebojsa Malic)
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/index.php?id=P1080
NATO makes the impossible possible (by Nejat Basar)
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/for.htm#f4
As I talked with the German prime minister... (by Mehmet Ali Birand)
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/birand.htm
Recent bomb attack in Cologne's Turkish district-" no political background?"
(by A. Kunstmann & D. Henning)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jun2004/colo-j24_prn.shtml
Saddam Suddenly Looks Innocent (by Jude Wanniski)
http://wanniski.com/PrintPage.asp?TextID=3643
June 23, 2004
Izbor za 23.jun
"Selective Silence"
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/library/lm53/LM53.html
--------------------------------------------------
'China believed CIA behind bombing of Belgrade embassy'
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/jun2004-daily/23-06-2004/world/w3.htm
Serbian woman ends year of refuge in Halifax church
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1087899946670&call_pageid=968332188774&col=968350116467
OSCE Mission calls for reform of domestic war crime procedures in Croatia
http://www.oneworld.net/article/view/88631/1/?PrintableVersion=enabled
Belgrade and Zagreb Build Military Ties (by Davor Konjikusic)
http://www.balkantimes.com/html2/english/040622-DAVOR-001.htm
NATO to Macedonia: Don't Get Your Hopes Up
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=364
IPS: UN plans to boost NGOs come under scrutiny (by Thalif Deen)
http://www.dawn.com/2004/06/23/int13.htm
Gloom over Turkey's EU bid (by Burak Bekdil)
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_world_561429_22/06/2004_44190
The EU awaits a Turkish quake (by Mehmet Ali Birand)
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/birand.htm
June 22, 2004
Izbor za 22.jun
Selective silence of something else?
http://www.apisgroup.org/article.html?id=1921
------------------------------------------------
Paddy Ashdown forced Bosnian Serbs to fraudulently confess to the Srebrenica massacre
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/dfad062104.htm
Halifax Herald: Tensions in Kosovo (by Scott Taylor)
http://www.espritdecorps.ca/new_page_196.htm
UN SG appoints Søren Jessen-Petersen of Denmark as Special Representative in Kosovo
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/6686f45896f15dbc852567ae00530132/d2865c7930cf3ebf85256ebb0005f544?OpenDocument
The forgotten land (by Misha Glenny)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4953224-103674,00.html
Reading the Kurds correctly (by Gunduz Aktan)
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/gunduz.HTM
AP: Russian Tankers Bottle Up Bosporus
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2004/06/22/047-print.html
NATO's Istanbul Summit: new mission, new means
http://www.epicos.com/News/NewsItem.asp?IdArticle=15164
Interview: Scott Taylor: The Secrets of Occupation (by Christopher Deliso)
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=363
Oil Exports Via Baltic Flood North Europe
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2004/06/22/046-print.html
The imbalanced world
http://english1.peopledaily.com.cn/200406/22/eng20040622_147121.html
June 21, 2004
Izbor za pocetak Leta
In Defense of Slobodan Milosevic
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/Yugoslavia/views/defending-Milosevic.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Who said 'never again'? (By Petar Makara)
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/Yugoslavia/views/saving-Nazis.html
Serbia and Montenegro's struggles being ignored, visiting princess says (by Tim Martin)
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/108772383821010.xml
Update on Serbia's Presidential Race
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=362
The return of the Bulgarians (by Velina Nacheva)
http://www.sofiaecho.com/art.php?id=9578&catid=30
Editorial: Bravo Europe
http://www.hindu.com/2004/06/21/stories/2004062102521000.htm
Duga: Partnership for racket (by Dragos Kalajic)
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/Yugoslavia/views/NATO-racket.html
National Lawyers Guild Calls for Prosecution of President Bush for Role in Torture
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/NLG406A.html
June 20, 2004
Izbor za 20.jun
Human rights as a rule and as an exception (by Akis Gavriilidis)
http://www.zmag.org/balkanwatch/gaviriadis_humanrights.htm
----------------------------------------------------------
Tadic Victory Far From Assured (by Zeljko Cvijanovic)
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200406_503_1_eng.txt
Kai Eide meets with Bishop Artemije
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/decani/message/82403
No Place Like Home (by Sasa Markovic)
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=69&NrSection=3&NrArticle=12272
Turks pressed on Cyprus
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_7343309_19/06/2004_44121
Ocalan-Kirkuk-northern Iraq bargains (by Mete Belovacikli)
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/mete.htm
Blood of Victory (by Chris Floyd)
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/06/18/120.html
June 19, 2004
Izbor za 19.jun
Globalizing, Terrorist-Linked Mafia Thrives in the Balkans
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=361
Clinton proud of Kosovo (by Nebojsa Malic)
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/more.php?id=1056_0_1_0_M
Stability Pact MARRI Chairman Soeren Jessen-Petersen new SRSG in Kosovo
http://www.stabilitypact.org/pages/press/detail.asp?y=2004&p=22
Move to Break Decentralisation Impasse (by Nevena Angelovska)
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/bcr3/bcr3_200406_503_5_eng.txt
Cyprus 2004: Curtains for the Annan Plan
http://www.bhhrg.org/Print.asp?ReportID=215&CountryID=29
Turkish maneuvers (by Stavros Lygeros)
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_columns_6508655_18/06/2004_44069
EU Leaders Agree on Constitution
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/jun2004-daily/19-06-2004/world/w9.htm
US commission's report a distortion of reality
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200406/19/print20040619_146884.html
Shanghai group aims to keep US in check (by Sergei Blagov)
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/FF19Ag01.html
Land of the what? (by Joe Sobran)
http://www.sobran.com/columns/2004/040603.htm
"Why America Can Do No Wrong" (by Michel Chossudovsky)
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CRG406A.html
June 18, 2004
Can The Truth Be Killed in The Hague ?
TATEMENT BY Professor VELKO VALKANOV,
FOUNDER AND COCHAIRMAN OF THE
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE TO DEFEND
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC (ICDSM)
***************************************
CAN T H E T R U T H B E K I L L E D ?
***************************************
To the Organization of the United Nations To the International Public
Yesterday the judges of the so-called International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia demonstrated in the clearest way that for them their political tasks and goals are much more important than truth, justice and law.
In the Pre-Defense Conference for Slobodan Milosevic's defense case, which is expected to start in July this year, they were stubbornly refusing to prolong the unjustly short three month period for the preparation of the defense case, in spite of the fact that physicians had forbid President Milosevic to work more than half that time. They have refused once again without discussion the request for President Milosevic's provisional release for medical treatment, recovery and appropriate preparations for the rest of the process. For presentation of the defense case, they have allocated 150 working days in spite of the fact that for its case the Prosecution had twice as much time. The judges kept the right for themselves to refuse any defense witness as irrelevant, even during his/her testimony. They have refused to discuss the demands of President Milosevic for issuing subpoenas for the leaders of the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia and for issuing orders to the intelligence services of the leading NATO countries as well as to the state of Serbia and Montenegro to disclose the relevant documents, justifying their refusals with unacceptable procedural reasons. Ignoring totally the fact that Slobodan Milosevic with his seriously damaged health conducts his own defense while being in illegal detention and deprived of any adequate material, financial or time resources, the judges have imposed or tried to impose a whole series of proc edural restrictions and obstacles relating to the order of the defense witnesses and to the information that has to be submitted on the witnesses and on the content of their testimony. Particularly irritating was the way yesterday's proceedings were conducted by the presiding judge Patrick Robinson, who has been, in the same manner as his predecessor Richard May, switching off the microphone to President Milosevic and attempting to turn the debate on the presentation of the defense case into discussion between the judges, prosecution and friends of the court, without listening to the opinions of Slobodan Milosevic about the issues of his primary concern.
Only a day earlier, the newly elected member of the Trial Chamber, judge Ian Bonomy from Britain ruled with his vote to the detriment of Slobodan Milosevic in a situation where the opinions of the other two judges were in conflict on the issue of the acquittal for the charges of genocide.
By this act Ian Bonomy confirmed that in only two months he managed to become acquainted with a million pages of relevant material - an unbelievably disgraceful example of legal malfeasance.
The Hague tribunal is attempting to kill the truth.
Nobody in the World needs such a false court, except those in NATO who are responsible for the most serious crimes against peace, against Yugoslavia and against the Serbian people.
In this moment when the whole world is rising up against aggression and terror, but also against the associated manipulations of the law, and when the people of Serbia with more and more courage enter the battle for truth led by Slobodan Milosevic, the crime against truth, law and elementary human rights being perpetrated at The Hague, must be stopped now.
ICDSM and its national sections, today, in their statements and public actions, will intensify the struggle against the Hague crimes.
Fighters for truth and freedom for Slobodan Milosevic grow in number. Recently, the Parliaments of the Russian Federation and of the Republic of Belarus appeared with powerful declarations. The same was done by the World Peace Council. On the initiative of Canadian poet Robert Dickson, the most renown international artists - Harold Pinter, Peter Handke, Alexander Zinoviev, Rolf Becker, Valentin Rasputin, Dimitri Analis, Nikolai Petev and many others are signing the petition demanding that this crime, the last, desperate phase of the NATO war against Yugoslavia be stopped, in the interest of humanity and in the interest of peace.
The truth cannot be killed.
Freedom for Slobodan Milosevic!
Freedom for Serbia!
Sofia, 18 June 2004
***************************************************************
***************************************************************
IMPORTANT NOTICE:
=================
ICDSM calls upon all its members and friends to react NOW in simmilar, other appropriate or more effective way!
***************************************************************
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******************************************************************
TRUTH
OR SLAVERY, HUMILIATION AND DESTRUCTION OF SERBIAN NATION
http://www.icdsm.org/battle.htm
THE DECISIVE BATTLE FOR TRUTH NEEDS YOUR HELP NOW!
******************************************************************
SLOBODA urgently needs your donation.
Please find the detailed instructions at:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/pomoc.htm
To join or help this struggle, visit:
http://www.sloboda.org.yu/ (Sloboda/Freedom association) http://www.icdsm.org/ (the international committee to defend Slobodan
Milosevic)
http://www.free-slobo.de/ (German section of ICDSM) http://www.icdsm-us.org/ (US section of ICDSM) http://www.icdsmireland.org/ (ICDSM Ireland) http://www.wpc-in.org/ (world peace council) http://www.geocities.com/b_antinato/ (Balkan antiNATO center)
NATO Head Says Alliance Credibility on Brink
| (Page 1 of 2) |  |
LONDON (Reuters) - NATO's international credibility is at stake as its members make grand political declarations but then fail to produce the troops needed to fulfil them, the alliance's head said Friday.
"NATO's political clout is directly related to its military competence," Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a conference, lamenting how he continually had to beg countries to honor their pledges.
"I don't mind taking out my begging bowl once in a while. But as a standard operating procedure, this is simply intolerable," he said.
De Hoop Scheffer cited the alliance's role in Afghanistan as a case in point.
Currently NATO has some 6,400 troops in the country, of which all but a handful are confined to Kabul.
NATO leaders have pledged to beef up the mission so it can operate more widely, but have since been dragging their heels on actually coming up with the necessary troops.
"Missions such as Afghanistan present wholly new challenges in terms of generating forces. We have never done anything quite like this before and it should be no surprise that there are challenges," de Hoop Scheffer said.
"Whenever we enter into a political commitment to undertake an operation, we must have a clear idea beforehand as to what forces we have available to honor this commitment," he added.
He said he hoped the NATO summit in Istanbul on June 28 and 29 would not only resolve the Afghan troop problem but also push forward necessary internal reforms to the alliance.
In his most hard-hitting speech to date, de Hoop Scheffer told the Royal United Services Institute think-tank in London that NATO's role was in the throes of revolution.
No longer could it simply defend its borders, it had to look far further afield to spot emerging threats to peace and security and nip them in the bud.
The demand for NATO is likely to increase, not diminish, in the future," he said. "NATO will be called upon by the international community to be peacemaker, peacekeeper, and the provider of security and stability.
"If we are serious about the need to project stability in today's volatile security environment, we must continue to make sure that our means match our ambitions," he added.
The former Dutch foreign minister said NATO's force structure also had to be reformed to meet the challenges of the new era of global insecurity.
"We need more wide-bodied aircraft and fewer tanks. We need forces that are slimmer, tougher and faster; forces that reach further and can stay in the field longer but still punch hard."
He also advocated a review of the traditional way of funding in which countries finance their own troop contingents.
This meant that those with greater means were called on disproportionately more often than their less well equipped counterparts.
"So can we deliver? The simple answer to this question is that we must deliver," he said. "We must make sure that our means match our ambitions. There simply is no other choice."
New UN governor warns against neglecting Kosovo
SKOPJE, June 17 (Reuters) - Kosovo's newly appointed United Nations governor warned on Thursday that major powers must not neglect the province, which was the cause of NATO's first major military intervention five years ago. "There is a lot of attention these days on other priorities, like Iraq and Afghanistan, but turning our back on Kosovo at this stage would be a serious mistake," Soren Jessen-Petersen told a news conference in the Macedonian capital, Skopje. NATO allies bombed Serbia in 1999 to force its army out of Kosovo and end repression of its Albanian majority. In Albanian eyes, NATO intervention legitimised demands for independence. But the big powers have shied away from deciding to back it. The Danish diplomat and European Union envoy to Macedonia was named by the United Nations in New York on Wednesday as Kosovo's fifth U.N. governor, replacing Finnish diplomat Harri Holkeri who resigned last month citing ill health. Jessen-Petersen, who aims to take up the post in early August, is expected to play a key role in guiding the international community's decision on whether Kosovo becomes independent or formally remains part of Serbia and Montenegro. Kosovo's "final status" is tied to a series of benchmarks of democracy and human rights set by the U.N., with a view to assessing progress in 2005. But impatience is growing among Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians and their political leaders. Unhappy with high unemployment and lack of economic growth, they say it is time for the U.N. to reduce its presence and start handing real power to local institutions. "The mission can be successful only if it starts transferring authority," Mimoza Kusari, spokeswoman for the Kosovo government, told Reuters in response to the appointment. Discontent with the lack of progress towards independence erupted in mid-March with fierce anti-Serb riots in which 19 people died and hundreds of homes were set ablaze. The U.N. has slowly been ceding responsibility for municipal and social affairs to Kosovo's interim authorities but it retains a veto over legislation adopted in parliament. Related...
[All Headline News - Yugoslavia News and Headlines]
Milosevic: I want Clinton, Blair and Schroeder at war crimes tribunal
Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic wants to force former US president Bill Clinton, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to testify in his war crimes trial.
The three were among nearly 1,400 witnesses the former Serbian leader said that he wanted to call in his defence case, to start on July 5.
United Nations judges at the Yugoslav tribunal at The Hague, in the Netherlands, did not immediately rule on the request, but asked for justification for the subpoenas.
“In effect, you are asking us to subpoena those persons. You will have to produce, in writing, reasons for the issuance by the chamber of that subpoena,” presiding judge Patrick Robinson said.
Milosevic said he would call the Western leaders to testify about the “war waged against Yugoslavia” and pressed for a quick decision. The three headed their governments during the period of Milosevic’s indictment in the 1990s.
“Clinton has to appear here. Schroeder, Blair, others, too,” Milosevic said at a procedural hearing yesterday, appearing energetic and characteristically defiant despite his frail health.
“The reasons for which Mr Clinton should appear here are quite clear. He decided upon many matters which had to do with Yugoslavia. He uttered a series of lies as a pretext to the bombing of Yugoslavia. He gave the orders,” Milosevic said.
Clinton was president during a 78-day Nato bombing campaign of Yugoslavia in 1999 that forced Serbia to end its crackdown on the ethnic Albanian population of the southern Serbian province of Kosovo.
The court set a four-hour limit for Milosevic’s opening defence statement and reaffirmed he would have 150 trial days to present his case. The judges said they would not limit the number of witnesses Milosevic called, as long as he remained within that time limit.
The court will consider his request that the court seek intelligence service documents from Britain, Germany and the United States.
Milosevic said he has 1,631 witnesses in mind and has presented the names of nearly 1,400 of them to the court. Among other names submitted to the court were long-time West German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Wesley Clark, the former Nato commander.
“The most terrible accusations have been uttered here,” Milosevic told the court. “The most flagrant lies have been spoken here as well, and the only means to fight that is to present the truth.”
Wearing a black pinstripe suit and a bright red tie, Milosevic showed no sign of the ailments that have delayed the trial by months. The 61-year-old defendant has a weak heart and high blood pressure, and has repeatedly complained of fatigue and stress.
Milosevic is representing himself against 66 charges of war crimes filed by prosecutors, including genocide, during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
He has had nearly three months to prepare his defence since prosecutors completed their case in February. He is assisted by several Belgrade lawyers.
During the prosecution case which began in February 2002, nearly 300 witnesses were called and thousands of documents were presented into evidence.
The judges rejected Milosevic’s request for an extra month to interview witnesses.
On Wednesday, the three-judge tribunal dismissed a mid-trial motion filed by three independent lawyers to drop the genocide charges. The judges dismissed the argument by the lawyers, appointed by the court to ensure fairness, that the prosecution had failed to provide sufficient evidence to support the charges.
Gibson tops celebrity power list
Actor Mel Gibson has been named as the world's most powerful celebrity by US business magazine Forbes.
Mel Gibson is one of Hollywood's biggest earnersThe Passion of the Christ director earned $210m (£120m) in 2003 to take top spot in The Forbes Celebrity 100.
The 48-year-old eclipsed last year's winner Jennifer Aniston, who dropped to 17th position.
Harry Potter creator JK Rowling was ranked the sixth most powerful celebrity - rocketing up from 15th position last year.
The author has sold more than 250 million copies of her five Harry Potter books.
Forbes ranks people by combining earning power and public exposure - including magazine and newspaper articles, TV and radio appearances and web hits.
Other top-ranking Brits include The Rolling Stones whose mammoth tour and DVD sales boosted them by five places to number five.
England captain David Beckham's star status has propelled him from 56th place to 22nd, despite allegations of an affair and the relatively small US interest in soccer.
Editor-in-chief Steve Forbes said Beckham's move to Real Madrid had made him a bigger international star.
"Beckham has been getting more and more coverage in America and it shows that more sports stars and athletes are becoming global phenomenons."
Welsh-born actress Catherine Zeta Jones is at number 56, while her husband Michael Douglas does not even make the list.
But reality show stars the Osbourne family are also absent, despite peaking at number 12 last year.
Other high-profile stars who have fallen out of the top 100 include Jennifer Lopez and her former fiance Ben Affleck.
Mr Forbes said: "The list changes enormously each year.
"Mel Gibson wasn't even on it last year. But The Passion of the Christ has had a huge intake of money and will probably be a record by the time the residuals come in.
"Gibson has also received huge coverage, some of it controversial, from his film."
He said of Rowling's placing: "We've seen the latest Potter movie get off to a good start in the US. Everybody expects that her name will have legs on this list."
[BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]
Putin says Iraq planned US attack
Putin says Iraq planned US attackRussian President Vladimir Putin says that after the 9/11 attacks Moscow warned Washington that Saddam Hussein was planning attacks on the US.He said Russia's secret service had information on more than one occasion that Iraq was preparing acts of terror in the US and its facilities worldwide.
Mr Putin said he had no information the Iraqi ex-leader was behind any attacks.
It came a day after US President George W Bush insisted there had been links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
He disputed the preliminary findings of a US commission investigating the 9/11 attacks on Washington and New York that found no "credible evidence" of a relationship between the two.
Surprise remarks
Speaking on a visit to Kazakhstan, Mr Putin said Russia had warned the US on several occasions that Iraq was planning "terrorist attacks" on its soil.
"After the events of 11 September 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, Russian special services several times received such information and passed it on to their American colleagues," he told reporters.
He said the information received by Russian intelligence suggested Iraq was planning attacks in the United States, "and beyond its borders on American military and civilian targets".
But he said it did not change Russia's opposition to the war in Iraq.
"Despite that information... Russia's position on Iraq remains unchanged," he said.
He added: "It is one thing to have information that (Saddam) Hussein's regime was preparing acts of terrorism - we did have this information and we handed it over.
"But we did not have information that they were involved in any terrorist acts whatsoever and, after all, these are two different things."
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says Mr Putin's remarks are a surprise - considering his vocal opposition to the US-led war in Iraq.
But they will come as a relief to President Bush, following the bi-partisan commission's report saying it had found no credible evidence of a collaboration between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.
[BBC News | Europe | World Edition]
Izbor za 18.jun
Milosevic "Trial" pre-defence conference summary (by Andy Wilcoxson)
http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/smorg061704.htm
Annan slams war crime exemption
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3817279.stm
-----------------------------------------------
Yawn - Serbia goes to the polls yet again
http://www.bhhrg.org/LatestNews.asp?ArticleID=40
European elections confirm polarisation between the classes (by R. Sarti & F. Weston)
http://www.marxist.com/Europe/euroelections_2004.html
Joint Statement on the Situation of Internally Displaced and Refugee Minorities from Kosovo
http://news.serbianunity.net/bydate/2004/June_17/10.html?w=p
Cypriot 'semiotics' observed
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_5503620_17/06/2004_44031
Turkey's deep state (by Costas Iordanidis)
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_columns_5503367_17/06/2004_44026
EU: You kept your word, now it's our turn (by Mehmet Ali Birand)
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/birand.htm
ICG: Moldova: Regional Tensions over Transdniestria
http://www.crisisweb.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=2811
What Is a Nation? What Is a State? (by Richard Falk)
http://www.transnational.org/forum/meet/2004/Falk_Nation_MinorityRights.html
June 17, 2004
Balkan ghosts
Balkan ghosts
So much has happened in theworldsincethe Balkan wars of the 1990s that the international community seems to have lost sight of the fact that the wheels of justice are still turning to bring Serbian and Croatian war criminals to justice. Even as we have debated the worth of the International Criminal Court, actual prosecutions of real crimes against humanity in the former Yugoslavia have slipped from public view.
This week, Judge Theodor Meron, president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, was in Washington for consultations and in New York to argue at the U.N. Security Council for continued full funding for bringing criminals to justice.
"What worries me is that the international community becomes blase to the idea of the court. People get tired and they don't pay up their dues," he says. Judge Meron, a mild-mannered man, speaks with evident passion. As a Holocaust survivor from Poland, erstwhile resident of Israel and a U.S. citizen, his deep commitment to see the tribunal to its rightful and just conclusion is highly understandable.
"After half a century of doing nothing, we have shown that credible trials are possible. We have created a body of war crimes jurisprudence as well as a body of procedural international law. This is an important legacy for the future."
As we have witnessed many other horrors in the intervening years, a reminder may be in order.
For three years in the early 1990s, the war that raged between Bosnians desiring independence and Serbs refusing to allow them to part from the former federation of Yugoslavia resulted in horrendous war crimes committed by all sides. Detention camps sprung up, civilians were shelled, millions of people were driven from their homes, more than 20,000 women were systematically raped, 200,000 people were killed, and men of military age were murdered and buried in mass graves.
In Croatia, which had declared independence in 1991, Serbs attempted to keep control of the Vukovar region, bombarding the town for three months solid in 1992. Later Croatian troops swept through the Serb-controlled region of Krajina, forcing tens of thousands of Croatian Serbs to flee from their homes toward Serbia proper.
In Kosovo, in 1999, then-President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia attempted yet another ethnic cleansing campaign against the Albanian population there, burning houses and murdering residents to drive the population out and replace it with Serbs. After NATO finally intervened and bombed Serbia to stop this action, Albanian refugees came back and their leaders in turn drove 100,000 Kosovar Serbs from the province. Europe had not seen crimes against humanity like these since World War II.
With strong support from the United States, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was set up in 1993 by the U.N. Security Council. An ad hoc institution, it was later given jurisdiction over the prosecutions of the Rwandan genocide as well, an even more horrific event that took place approximately at the same time, costing more than 1 million people their lives.
The Yugoslav and Rwandan tribunal is designed to go out of business when its work is done, which the United Nations has decided will be 2008. There is already a freeze on the hiring of law clerks, which according to Judge Meron is premature.
The highly publicized trial of Mr. Milosevic is only now entering the defense stage, which the accused insists on conducting himself. After 35 prosecutions and 17 guilty pleas, there are still 33 prosecutions pending, and 20 wanted war criminals are still at large — mainly suspected of hiding in Serbia — including two of the most famous, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. And it's not just the suspects that are missing. According to Judge Meron, Belgrade continues to drag its feet on delivering documents and opening archives. This contrasts with the Bosnians and the Croats, who are largely cooperating with the tribunal.
Judge Meron has an idea for speeding things up. "I am going to propose in my monthly report to the Security Council that the future of prosecutions is in national courts ... I want to establish a special war crimes chamber at the court in Sarajevo to try people who had committed crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina." He would like to do the same for Croatia.
However, he says, "Belgrade has shown such a lack of cooperation that we cannot send accused Serbian war criminals back." The fact that the leader of the winning party in last weekend's Serbian elections, Vojislav Seselj, is one of the prisoners awaiting trial in the Hague does not bode particularly well for public sentiment among Serbs.
If we want to close the chapter on the Balkan wars properly, the tribunal's work must go on.
Helle Dale is director of Foreign Policy and Defense Studies at the Heritage Foundation. E-mail: helle.dale@heritage.org.
http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20040615-090332-2837r.htm
Serbs search for old US bomb at Chinese embassy
| Serbs search for old US bomb at Chinese embassy 17 Jun 2004 17:09:42 GMT |
The experts said it would take about a month to deactivate the 2,000 lb (900 kg) bomb -- one of four that U.S. planes fired at the embassy in Belgrade on May 7, 1999 -- when it was found.
The other three bombs exploded, killing three Chinese journalists, wrecking part of the building and sparking furious protests in Beijing.
NATO called it a tragic mistake due to poor intelligence and said the U.S. military believed it had been directing the aircraft to bomb a Serbian military supply centre.
But the military had used out-of-date maps that failed to show the embassy, although it was clearly marked on ordinary tourist maps of the Yugoslav capital.
The embassy, which had a distinctive Chinese-style roof in green tiles, looks reasonably intact from the front but is shattered on the inside.
Empty since 1999, the building is still guarded and flies the red Chinese flag.
NATO bombed targets in Serbia and Montenegro for 78 days in 1999 to force then President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his troops and police from Kosovo and end persecution of the province's ethnic Albanian majority.
The Belgrade attack was carried out with state-of-the-art JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) bombs guided by global positioning satellite systems.
The experts said there was no danger to the public from the bomb.
"The public has no reason to worry," said Martin Martinovic, a member of the bomb disposal team.
AlertNet Jun 17 2004 6:04PM GMT
[Moreover - Balkans news]
Serbs search for old US bomb at Chinese embassy
| Serbs search for old US bomb at Chinese embassy 17 Jun 2004 17:09:42 GMT |
The experts said it would take about a month to deactivate the 2,000 lb (900 kg) bomb -- one of four that U.S. planes fired at the embassy in Belgrade on May 7, 1999 -- when it was found.
The other three bombs exploded, killing three Chinese journalists, wrecking part of the building and sparking furious protests in Beijing.
NATO called it a tragic mistake due to poor intelligence and said the U.S. military believed it had been directing the aircraft to bomb a Serbian military supply centre.
But the military had used out-of-date maps that failed to show the embassy, although it was clearly marked on ordinary tourist maps of the Yugoslav capital.
The embassy, which had a distinctive Chinese-style roof in green tiles, looks reasonably intact from the front but is shattered on the inside.
Empty since 1999, the building is still guarded and flies the red Chinese flag.
NATO bombed targets in Serbia and Montenegro for 78 days in 1999 to force then President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his troops and police from Kosovo and end persecution of the province's ethnic Albanian majority.
The Belgrade attack was carried out with state-of-the-art JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) bombs guided by global positioning satellite systems.
The experts said there was no danger to the public from the bomb.
"The public has no reason to worry," said Martin Martinovic, a member of the bomb disposal team.
AlertNet Jun 17 2004 6:04PM GMT
[Moreover - Balkans news]
Prosecutors charge four over Kosovo rioting
(Releads with charges, previous SKOPJE) By Matthew Robinson PRISTINA, June 17 (Reuters) - International prosecutors have charged three Kosovo Albanians and one Serb with serious crimes during a wave of violence in the volatile province in mid-March, a United Nations police spokesman said on Thursday. The charges were the first "of a more serious nature" stemming from 48 hours of rioting in which 19 people died and more than 800 Serb homes were set on fire, Neeraj Singh told Reuters. Around 270 people have been arrested since the ethnic violence, the worst since the United Nations took control of the province in 1999 after NATO bombing drove out Serb troops. Serbia has complained frequently that the U.N. fails to enforce the law, especially where Albanian extremists are concerned. Singh said the Serb was charged with a grenade attack on NATO-led peacekeepers in the divided town of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo. The three Albanians were charged with arson, inciting riots and attacking police officers in a series of orchestrated attacks. News of the charges emerged as Kosovo's newly appointed U.N. governor said that major powers must not neglect the province, where NATO carried out its first major military intervention five years ago. FINAL STATUS DECISION LOOMS "There is a lot of attention these days on other priorities, like Iraq and Afghanistan, but turning our back on Kosovo at this stage would be a serious mistake," Soren Jessen-Petersen told a news conference in the Macedonian capital, Skopje. NATO allies bombed Serbia in 1999 to force its army out of Kosovo and end repression of the Albanian majority. In Albanian eyes, the NATO intervention legitimised their demands for independence. But big powers have shied away from a decision. Jessen-Petersen, a Danish diplomat and European Union envoy to Macedonia, was named by the United Nations in New York on Wednesday as Kosovo's fifth U.N. governor, replacing Finnish diplomat Harri Holkeri who resigned last month citing ill health. The Dane, who aims to take up the post in early August, is expected to play a key role in guiding the decision on whether Kosovo becomes independent, possibly some time in 2005, or formally remains part of Serbia and Montenegro. Kosovo's "final status" is tied to a series of democracy and human rights benchmarks set by the United Nations, with a view to assessing progress in 2005. But Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians are increasingly impatient, saying it is time for the U.N. to start handing real power to local institutions so the stagnant economy can grow and produce jobs for the thousands of unemployed young people. "The mission can be successful only if it starts transferring authority," Mimoza Kusari, spokeswoman for the Kosovo government, told Reuters of the appointment. The United Nations can veto legislation adopted by Kosovo's parliament.
[Moreover - Balkans news]
A graveyard for our dreams: why I�m not voting Conservative
A graveyard for our dreams: why I’m not voting Conservative
By David Orchard
The “new Conservative party” under Stephen Harper declares itself a moderate alternative to the Liberals, ready to govern Canada.
In reality, the party has never had a convention or meeting of its members. It has no constitution. Policies are set with no control by, direction from, or accountability to a membership -- whoever those members may be. (The party is mailing out unsolicited membership cards informing surprised recipients they are party members. Mine arrived last week.)
The “new” party is the old Reform-Alliance which took over the Progressive Conservative party, its colours and half its name. The word “progressive” was purged (along with its progressive wing). As Stephen Harper explained last June: “We may not have some of the old conservatives, red Tories like the David Orchards or the Joe Clarks. This is not all bad. A more coherent coalition can take strong positions it wouldn’t otherwise be able to take -- as the Alliance alone was able to do during the Iraq war.”
To accomplish the takeover, the Progressive Conservative constitution was trampled. Roughly 20,000 Alliance members were allowed to join, in Trojan horse fashion, increasing the PC membership by 50%. These Alliance members then voted twice -- in both the PC and Alliance ratification votes -- producing the farcical figure of over 90% support for the takeover/merger. Senator Lowell Murray described the takeover of the PC party as a “coup, similar to what we have seen in some countries where the constitution is suspended and a new order ratified in a quick plebiscite.”
Now Mr. Harper’s party has set up a Truth Squad to challenge Liberal lies, headed by none other than Peter MacKay, the man who infamously broke his word -- including that given in writing to win the leadership of his party -- not to merge with the Alliance, and who now refuses to reveal the source of the large donation he subsequently received to erase his campaign debts.
This is the party that attacks the Liberals for lacking ethics and accountability! A vote for it will legitimize the actions of the clique, accountable to no one except their unseen backers (the most visible being Brian Mulroney) which destroyed the party that created Canada and which now openly spurns the most basic elements of democracy. As Mr. Harper has charmingly admitted, policy for the new Conservatives will be essentially what he says it is.
For years Mr. Harper headed the National Citizens Coalition (NCC) -- whose motto is “More freedom through less government.” Speaking to the NCC in 1994 as a Reform MP, Harper boasted: "What has happened in the past five years? Let me start with the positive side. Universality has been severely reduced: it is virtually dead as a concept in most areas of public policy. The family allowance programme has been eliminated and unemployment insurance has been seriously cut back...These achievements are due in part to the Reform Party of Canada and… the National Citizens' Coalition."
As Alliance leader in Parliament, Stephen Harper set out his views on health care: “Several provinces are involved in pushing for alternative private delivery, even on a profit basis. This is a natural development. In a properly functioning system, profit is the reward that businesses obtain for making substantial, long-term capital investments…The federal government must support this initiative.”
The Canadian Wheat Board, established in 1935 by Conservative prime minister R.B. Bennett, has in spite of fierce U.S. opposition become Canada’s largest net earner of foreign currency. It has played a crucial role in keeping the grain industry in Canadian hands and provides one of the few defences left for western farmers. Harper and his colleagues, cooperating fully with the U.S. grain industry, call repeatedly for its destruction.
Mr. Harper has promised to scrap Canada’s commitment to Kyoto, joining the U.S. in its opposition to the only international agreement to reduce harmful carbon dioxide emissions. He plans to privatize major parts of the CBC and gut the nation’s broadcast regulator, the CRTC, opening the broadcast industry to foreign takeover.
And there is more: since coming from the U.S. Tom Flanagan, a key founder of the Reform Party and now Mr. Harper’s chief advisor and the party’s campaign manager, has made his career attacking Aboriginal people. The Alliance platform called explicitly for the privatization of the reserve system and the deliberate assimilation of Native people. In his book First Nations? Second Thoughts Flanagan writes: “European civilization was several thousand years more advanced than the aboriginal cultures of North America.” He sneeringly dismisses Aboriginal treaty rights: “Sovereignty is an attribute of statehood, and aboriginal peoples in Canada had not arrived at the state level of political organization prior to contact with Europeans.” With Flanagan’s man in power Aboriginals are offered one choice: to cease to be a distinct people with fundamental rights.
On June 29 a minority Conservative government can expect Bloc support -- for a price. Both parties agree on dismantling the central government and national institutions in favour of greater provincial powers. As constitutional affairs critic for the Reform Party in the lead up to the 1995 Quebec referendum, Mr. Harper stated: “Whether Canada ends up with one national government, or some other kind of arrangement is, quite frankly, secondary in my opinion.” His essay in 2001 defending Alliance MP Jim Pankiw’s private member’s bill to emasculate the Official Languages Act, “Bilingualism -- the God that failed,” is equally revealing.
Bloc MP Yves Rocheleau prefers a Conservative victory, he said, because it would “demonstrate what René Levesque called ‘the impossible Canada.’ Canada is a madhouse. It’s a country that cannot be administered.”
A unilingual French speaking Quebec, a unilingual English speaking rest of Canada and no need for the twain to meet; this is the meeting ground for the Bloc and the Conservatives and a graveyard for the dreams of all who have fought for a tolerant bilingual nation stronger for our efforts to learn from, and be protective of, the other’s culture and language.
During the U.S. war on Iraq Stephen Harper and Stockwell Day repeatedly and vociferously advocated Canadian participation, including attacking the Canadian government in the Wall Street Journal:
“Today the world is at war. A coalition of countries under the leadership of the U.K. and the U.S. is leading a military intervention to disarm Saddam Hussein. Yet, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has left Canada outside this multilateral coalition of nations.
This is a serious mistake…. The Canadian Alliance -- the official opposition in Parliament -- supports the American and British position…
Make no mistake… the Canadian Alliance won’t be neutral. In our hearts and minds we will be with our allies and friends….
But we will not be with the Canadian government.”
(March 28, 2003)
Only in Quebec with its “pacifist tradition,” Mr. Harper alleged, were most people opposed to the war. Peter MacKay, now Harper’s deputy leader, excoriated Mr. Chrétien for being weak and vacillating, even cowardly, in refusing to join that illegal invasion. Today, apparently hoping Canadians and the media have lost their memories, Harper and Day try to deny their words.
For those who want to protect Canada’s culture, its environment, its institutions and its sovereignty, Mr. Harper and his inner circle have nothing but words of contempt as they work to dismantle our nation. They march to a different drummer, to the beat of Mr. Mulroney and Mr. Bush, pledging allegiance to a foreign flag.
David Orchard is the author of The Fight for Canada - Four Centuries of Resistance to American Expansionism, and ran for the leadership of the federal Progressive Conservative Party in 1998 and 2003. He farms at Borden, SK and can be reached at tel (306) 652-7095, e-mail: davidorchard@sasktel.net www.davidorchard.com
Where's Radovan?
| Where's Radovan? A Bosnian Serb leader indicted on genocide charges remains at large -- and few seem to care |  | |
| | ||
 Celebici is a remote gnat of a place. A few dozen houses and a church, a couple of hours way up a rough road from the ragged Bosnian hills, surrounded by forested peaks. But it was as big as the headlines it generated when NATO-led forces staged Operation Daybreak there in February 2002, ostensibly hoping to net Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader who had been indicted by The Hague's war crimes tribunal for helping to lead a genocide in 1992-1995 that killed up to 200,000 people, mostly Bosnian Muslims. Helicopters disgorged black-masked troops who kicked in doors and blew open locks as they conducted a door-to-door search. They left empty-handed. Operation Daybreak remains the only serious action the West is known to have conducted to pick up Karadzic. Like Osama bin Laden, Karadzic is well known and physically distinctive. A tall man with a big belly, a dimpled chin and a dramatic gray bouffant, he ought to be difficult to hide. Like Saddam Hussein, he is considered a genocidal murderer whose most horrible crimes were committed a decade ago. And, as in the case of bin Laden, the fact that he remains at large is a cause of great instability throughout a strategically crucial region. Eight years after the Dayton peace accords -- following a process that was supposed to lead to reunification, and despite the efforts of hundreds of foreign aid workers and the expenditure of more than $5 billion -- Bosnia remains fractious and fractured. Efforts to create unity and long-term peace have been frustrated by the continued dominance in the ethnic Serbian state-within-a-state (known as Republika Srpska) of a corrupt clique said to be controlled by Karadzic. And, of course, the fate of the entire area holds lessons for other Western efforts at democracy- and nation-building, such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan. Karadzic's continued freedom leaves the huge numbers of ethnic Muslims and Croats who fled Bosnia during the war, and who have been slowly returning to their prewar homes, with a sense that all has not yet been put right. At the same time, his aura of invincibility has grown among the 700,000 Bosnian Serbs. The NATO military command has increasingly issued tough statements and conducted a number of high-profile "raids" that failed to capture Karadzic. Serious observers consider these nothing but publicity efforts and perhaps attempts to send messages to the Bosnian Serb leadership. For example, troops twice conducted search operations in Pale, Karadzic's wartime capital and the home of his wife and daughter -- surely not the most likely place for Karadzic to hide. There are many obstacles to finding the man, ranging from the ruggedness of the terrain to the fierce loyalty of many locals toward Karadzic. But perhaps the largest obstacle is that the United States and its allies have not dedicated real resources to chasing him down. Many of the NATO soldiers -- 13,000 troops from 35 countries, down from 60,000 after the war -- share no common language, and those few who can speak to soldiers from other countries aren't necessarily inclined to do so. Each contingent has gotten a reputation. American troops -- now just 1, 500, all National Guardsmen, dentists from Ohio and laborers from New York -- are not exactly Special Forces quality and tend to stay pretty close to base. Italian and French troops like to live it up and have perhaps gotten too cozy with some locals. The Brits are the most enthusiastic about actually doing something. And, given their experience among a hostile, armed population in Northern Ireland, they're the best prepared -- and show it through deft use of intelligence and of lightning-fast raids. So far, they have apprehended most of the war criminals -- half of the 24 arrests reported by the NATO force to date have been in their zone. But the areas where Bosnians suspect Karadzic is hiding are controlled by Italian, French, and German troops, none of whom seem eager to fire their guns. The Germans I met in Celebici made clear that it would absolutely not be desirable, for obvious historical reasons, to have Germany in the forefront of a bloody international military incident that involved capturing someone accused of murdering large numbers of innocent people. The French, technically in charge of the area, have been historically close with the Serbs and opposed the creation of the Hague tribunal. On the morning of the Celebici raid, according to military sources, a French officer took a call from a Republika Srpska police officer inquiring about the unusually large NATO presence that day. In the conversation, which was monitored by peacekeeping forces, the Frenchman obliquely referred to the area as being of interest "today in particular." Capturing Karadzic is especially challenging because ordinary people revere him and because some extraordinarily ruthless and powerful people are joined with him at the hip. Everywhere one travels on both sides of the border between Bosnia and Serbia, and in neighboring Montenegro, where Karadzic was born and raised, he is a kind of folk hero, celebrated for defending orthodoxy against Muslim aggression and thereby playing a righteous role in what amounts to a 500-year- old quarrel. The Hague's evidence of his war crimes is dismissed as exaggerated, biased or trumped up. His calls for a single country uniting all ethnic Serbs, coupled with his credentials as a psychiatrist and author of poems, folk songs and children's books, have been used to polish his image as a hero. Calendars of Karadzic hang at bus stations, and on Christmas Day 2002, thousands of Bosnian Serbs received a text-message holiday greeting from Karadzic on their mobile phones. And last year, pro-Karadzic posters mysteriously appeared all over the ethnic Serb capital of Banja Luka, although authorities, undoubtedly worried about the reaction of Western forces, had them removed within hours. Yet many of the Serbs who defend Karadzic may be motivated less by nationalist fervor than by self-interest. Karadzic sat -- and presumably continues to sit -- at the center of an intricate web of political, legal, military and police and financial power. The network gained considerable wealth through wartime profiteering and won favorable treatment from the Karadzic and post-Karadzic regimes in Republika Srpska. Many government officials, including Cabinet ministers, are deeply involved in the underground economy and would potentially face charges and long prison sentences if the semi-independent republic were ever cleaned up. In the past year or so, Western forces in Bosnia have moved to crack down on the most corrupt among the army's top brass, but the army remains loyal to Karadzic. Republika Srpska is the only part of the former Yugoslavia that has yet to arrest a single war-crimes suspect -- despite being required to do so under the Dayton accords that ended the war. Karadzic's cronies spend about $200,000 a month protecting him, according to foreign diplomats. A sort of medieval tithing system, enforced by tough guys, includes a "tax" collected by civilians carrying police identification and skimmed profits from foreign electricity sales. U.S. intelligence services have tracked gasoline from Saddam Hussein's Iraq to merchants and distributors with close links to Karadzic. Republika Srpska also makes donations to the Orthodox Church for the ostensible purpose of rebuilding religious structures destroyed in the war -- donations that, by law, cannot be monitored or even audited. Officials in Banja Luka and foreign diplomats believe that some of this money finds its way to Karadzic. Hague prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said monitored telephone communications had revealed that Karadzic was hiding at a mountaintop Orthodox monastery in Ostrog, northwest of the capital. Church officials denied sheltering Karadzic but praised him nonetheless. And the Orthodox archbishop of Sarajevo, welcoming new NATO troops from Greece (another Orthodox country), is said to have extended to them Karadzic's warm regards. Last month, the United States suspended millions of dollars in assistance to Serbia for lack of cooperation, including failure to hand over Karadzic's military chief and fellow war crimes indictee, Ratko Mladic. When officials learned the same month that Karadzic might be in the village of Zaovine, troops raided Pale instead. Not surprisingly, they came up empty-handed. It all seems like a strange way to treat an accused mass murderer. If capturing Saddam Hussein was as important a milestone for Iraq's future as the White House says it is, then what does it say about the future of the strategically important Balkans that an indicted war criminal of Karadzic's reputed brutality is allowed to roam free? Few doubt Karadzic can be apprehended, but, as the years pass, many wonder about the will of those with the power to do so. The eye of the powerful has turned away from this fragile land, and increasingly one hears the refrain, "Radovan who?" Russ Baker is a New York-based investigative reporter who has spent much of the past two years in the Balkan region. | ||
