Return of the Reds

http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=13051

ANTIWAR (USA)

Moments of Transition
by Nebojsa Malic

June 26, 2008

Return of the Reds

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Very Old Boss

There is a proverb in the Balkans, probably as old as civilization: where
drills fail, money will do. It seems a fitting byline for the unraveling of
some six weeks of political drama, following the May 11 general elections.
At first, it seemed that President Tadic and the Democratic Party were
celebrating prematurely; their coalition, while scoring better than polls
had predicted, lacked enough votes to form a government. An alliance between
the National bloc of ex-PM Vojislav Kostunica, the Radical Party and the
resurgent Socialists (once led by Slobodan Milosevic) seemed a foregone
conclusion, and was even reported as a done deal.

What happened next seemed like a plot hatched by Chancellor Palpatine
himself. On June 24, the Socialists' steering committee voted overwhelmingly
for a deal with the Democrats - the very same party that has persecuted them
since the October 2000 coup, and blamed them for all the ills that have
befallen Serbia since 1989 (or even earlier), including the NATO bombing and
the occupation of Kosovo. Now the "Yellow and Red" coalition is being
reported as a done deal.

This is precisely the "Pro-European" government that Washington and Brussels
have lobbied for, and Tadic desired since winning a second term in February.
In return for supporting the people that overthrew them on behalf of NATO in
2000, the Socialists would become "respectable." Without the stubborn
insistence on international law by the now former PM Kostunica, the new
regime in Belgrade would not be free to "do everything it can" (to borrow
President Tadic's favorite phrase) to please its "friends" in Washington,
London and Brussels.

In Bad Faith

How did this happen? One theory is that the Socialists' leader Ivica Dacic
wanted to free himself of Milosevic's shadow, and the promises of Imperial
favor were too much to resist. It is well-known that Dacic and his junior
partners, Dragan "Palm Tree" Markovic and Jovan Krkobabic, were feted by
Serbian tycoons close to the Democratic Party and "advised" by U.S. and UK
ambassadors, Cameron Munter and Steven Wordsworth. Of course, Wordsworth and
Munter reject any insinuation that they were meddling in Serbia's internal
affairs by brokering coalition deals; it's perfectly normal for foreign
ambassadors to "advise" politicians of the host countries what to do, is it
not? And the tycoons surely had nothing to do with any of this, they were
just legitimate businessfolk relaxing over some cocktails and barbecue, and
figured they would invite their good friends over to share.

The Serbian media space is notoriously rotten; most media are owned by
foreign conglomerates or political interests. So, when the German-owned,
unabashedly pro-Democrat daily Blic spoke of an imminent coalition of
Democrats and Socialists three weeks or so ago, even as the Socialists were
closing a deal about running Belgrade with the Radicals and the National
bloc, that report sounded like deliberate misinformation and wishful
thinking. But could Blic have been right? Was it Dacic's plan to "go Yellow"
all along?

It certainly appears so. Another paper, Kurir, published a transcript of a
taped phone conversation between two Socialist officials, in which they
revealed that the Belgrade deal was a red herring, made to be broken within
months, leaving the Democrats in charge of the city.

The official excuse given by the Socialists is that they could not agree
with the legal analysis of Serbia's stillborn treaty with the EU offered by
Kostunica's legal team. However, given the Socialists' statements on record
concerning the SAA, this is obviously a smokescreen.

Absolute Power

For their part, Kostunica's National bloc and the Radicals seem to have
taken the Socialists' defection in stride. The Radicals are used to being in
opposition; they were only in power as Milosevic's very junior partners at
one point in the 1990s. Kostunica has survived a Democrat-orchestrated
ouster once before, only to return in triumph. That said, how come he
allowed himself to be blindsided again? "Fool me twice, shame on me" sounds
very appropriate here.

And what of Serbia? Buried in private and government debt - the poisonous
fruit of economic mismanagement by Democrats' allies G17 since 2000 - with
its military, diplomacy and security services gutted at the hands of
ministers always more at home in Brussels than in Belgrade, it is now in the
hands of people who haven't the slightest intent to oppose the illegal
separation of Kosovo. Nor is the new regime likely to oppose any further
dismantling of Serbia, should the Empire wish it.

Governments are essentially protection rackets. If a government is failing
to protect its subjects' lives and property from depredations of another
government, it is not doing its job.

Worse yet, the Democrats in Serbia now control the presidency, the cabinet,
the parliament, the media, and the economy. And as Lord Acton wrote,
"absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Back to the Future

Commentator Branko Radun made an interesting observation in the wake of the
"Yellow and Red" deal: "A growing number of people has the impression that
this was a reconciliation of the two factions from the Eighth Session."

What he is talking about is the 1987 meeting of the Serbian Communist Party
at which Slobodan Milosevic rose to power, ousting the old, hapless
apparatchiks who were passive in face of Albanian separatism. Milosevic's
most intractable enemies actually came from the ranks of the old Communist
Party, because they saw in him the bete noire of Yugoslav Communism, a "Serb
nationalist."

The irony here is that Milosevic could hardly be a "Serb nationalist" and a
Communist at the same time, since those are mutually exclusive concepts.
Communism in the Balkans has always had a Serbophobic flavor. Yugoslavia was
declared a "prison of nations" run by the "Greater Serbian bourgeois
imperialists," with only the Communists willing and able to "liberate" the
various groups. The dismemberment of Yugoslavia became an official goal of
the Communists in 1928; once they held power in the country in 1945, they
abandoned the concept - why destroy something you can rule? - but it still
lingered in the country's subdivision into "republics," which would cause
such bloodshed in the 1990s.

From that standpoint, what happened this week in Belgrade is far less
surprising than what it seemed at first glance. Today's Democrats are
dominated by the heirs of those Communists who lost out in 1987. By making a
deal with them, Dacic recanted for his predecessor's "heresy" and came back
into the fold.

Reunited after 20 years, the "transnational progressivists" are again in
absolute control of Serbia. And lo, how fortuitous, the EU and the American
Empire also see Serbian culture, faith and tradition as threats to their new
post-historical order.

It is looking like the beginning of a beautiful friendship. For all but the
Serbs, of course.
__,_._,___

”The Hunt: “Me and Military Criminals”

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9418

CENTRE FOR RESEARCH ON GLOBALIZATION (CANADA)

”The Hunt: “Me and Military Criminals”

A book on man-hunt by the Tribunal’ s prosecutor general

By Elena Guskova

Global Research, June 22, 2008
Strategic Cultural Foundation

[translated from the Russian original]

The presentation of memories of Carla del Ponte slated for April 3, 2008
just days after she had left her post of the Hague Prosecutor General for
the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The book published under the title”The
Hunt: “Me and Military Criminals” covers quite a long period of del Ponte’s
stint as the prosecutor from August 1999 to December 2007. A large part of
the book is given to exactly “the hunt” or the search and organisation of
legal prosecution of the guilty people, negotiations with the leadership of
a number of countries and international organisation with an eye to
extradition of the persons the Tribunal regards as military criminals, and
the obstacles put up by officials of different levels to prevent her from
completing her hard work. But the book became a sensation long before its
going out of print, when journalists laid their eyes on it. Its readers all
over the world and people with thinking were shaken by the facts Carla del
Ponte gave in her book that had always been concealed from public, about the
atrocities of Albanians committed against peaceful Serbs and Albanians
unwilling to become part of hostilities in Kosovo and Metohia, and the trade
in body organs extirpated from kidnapped Serbs. The leaders of the Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA) were the culprits, its militants and currently the
respected politicians Hasim Taci, Agim Ceku and Ramus Haradinai.

Carla del Ponte writes that she got information from journalists way back in
1999 about 300 Serbs who were kidnapped in Kosovo and Metohia and then taken
to Albania. At first the prisoners were placed in the camps in Kukes and
Tropya in Albania’s north, and later surgeons hired by Albanians removed
their vitally important organs in field conditions. The Albanian village of
Burel was also mentioned, where in a “yellow house” the prisoners were
operated on after which their organs were delivered to Italy, and further
on, to major West European medical centres. According to del Ponte, “only
several months later investigators of the Tribunal and UNMIK arrived to
Albania to see the “yellow house”, which journalists described as the place
where prisoners were murdered for their bodily organs. A group of
journalists led the investigators and one Albanian prosecutor to that place.
The house is now painted white; and its host denies that it was repainted,
even though the investigators find traces of yellow along the basement. They
find pieces of sterile gauze. Lying nearby is a used syringe, two plastic
vials, one of which contained muscle relaxant that is usually used in
surgery. Application of special chemicals detects blood stains on the walls
and the floor in one of the rooms and at a cleaned floor sections measuring
1.8 by 0.6 metres." 1

Such revelations at the time when Kosovo declared its independence and when
the militants who took part in all these atrocities turned to politics
really turn the set notions the West has about developments in this unquiet
province upside down. In reality these facts are nothing new, it was just
that no one wanted to hear about them.

Carla del Ponte writes that the families of the Serbs who disappeared in
Kosovo asked her many “quite justified” questions. Why does the Tribunal not
give them any information about the disappeared relations? Why did the
Tribunal fail to find collective graves of Serbian victims? Why the POW
camps were not found? Why Albanians are not arrested after the Association
of the Families of Disappeared Kosovo Serbs tabled its list of suspects to
the Tribunal? Carla answered the questions evasively, saying the Tribunal
did not have documents about the KLA structure, being unable to come to
terms with KFOR2 and UNMIK3 about collaboration and is unable to investigate
all the crimes for reasons of difficulties in finding eyewitnesses of the
murder of Serbs, whereas those who could, are unwilling to speak4. These
answers convince no one. Even our Centre5 has documents about the KLA
structure, to say nothing of Belgrade. It has a vast repository of materials
about the atrocities committed against peaceful population in Kosovo, and
the Serbian authorities handed over to the Tribunal all the necessary
documents accusing the Albanians. Del Ponte writes that Neboisa Covic, then
the chairman of the the SRYu government’s Kosovo and Metohia Coordination
Centre gave to UNMIK information about 196 sites where atrocities against
Serbian population were committed. 6.

In 2001 the list of the kidnapped persons was handed over to del Ponte by
representatives of the Association of the Families of the Disappeared
persons. Simo Spasic, the chairman of this NGO argues that “all their
relations know the people who committed those crimes. They have evidence.
They eye witnessed many crimes. They watched horrible things – remains of
children burnt alive, the ripped stomachs of pregnant women and the embryos.
We have to live with this pang in our hearts but no one is willing to hear
us. We have photos; we know the places where the graves of the people who
were tortured and murdered are. None of the cases has been investigated. All
the facts are carefully concealed. The reason is this: had the crimes of the
Albanians been known about, no one would acknowledge Kosovo’s independence”
(underlined by me – E.G.) Besides, Spasic recalls, foreign TV companies
including the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Sky News showed footage of columns
guarded by KLA militants that moved in the direction of Albania. Those were
exactly the 300 people.”

The Belgrade media quote dozens of situations when a number of Serbian
organisations tired to make the Tribunal investigate Albanian crimes in
Kosovo, presenting to it detailed maps of burial places and concentration
camps in this province and in Albania’s north, evidence of cruel torture and
murder of peaceful residents. But it never started the trial of Albanian
leaders on charges of mass murder of people for obtaining their organs for
transplantation. Just the Association mentioned above has a list of more
than 2 000 people.

As for eyewitnesses, the Tribunal has at its disposal a wide range of ways
to protect them, and it needs to look for them not only among Albanians who
indeed are scared by the militants7 but among Serbs as well. But the word
“Serb” appears to be the term the Tribunal uses only when it means to punish
them. Carla del Ponte admits that she knew about the mass graves in three
provinces of north Albania. Human Rights Watch (HRW) also reported having
seen the documents the Tribunal collected, that included evidence of seven
KLA militants who claimed they were eyewitnesses of the delivery if
kidnapped Serbs to Albania. HRW experts decided to check this information in
Carla del Ponte’s book on their own, even though they initially doubted it.
They got the evidence and succeeded in getting new information about that8.

Thus, the Tribunal and its Prosecutor General had information about the
crimes committed against Serbs. But why did Carla del Ponte kept silent for
such a long time – close to 10 years? Her book gives part of the answer.

According to her the available evidence was not enough to verify the exact
dates of kidnapping, transfer of victims across the Albanian border and
identify the sites of crimes. Besides, Albanian prosecutors and detectives
did not want to collaborate, saying that if Albanians did murder Serbs, they
were right to do it. Carla del Ponte had enough courage the publish the
statement of Fabio Mini, Italian general who headed the KFOR (October, 2002)
who said that “to put Albanians under arrest was difficult because the
former UNMIK and KLA leaders were close relations.” Mini was sure that if
arrests would start “we would see many local leaders going on holidays
guarded by Americans.” 9. That is why, del Ponte concludes, the
investigation came to a halt. 10

The question is why the approaches a number of international organisations,
including UN, NATO and EU used against Serbia (cutting of credits, the
boycott of the talks on its NATO and EU entry, and so forth) were not used
against Albania?

The main thing as we see it is the prosecutor’s revelations boils down to
her making it known that “prosecution of military criminals in the
present-day world is an exclusively political affair. There was a silent
prohibition on accusations of Albanians. In this case the issue of Kosovo’s
independence would not be plausible. 11 Besides, her book makes it possible
to conclude that the peace-keepers and their masters were scary of
Albanians, and “were not ready to issue any sort of a warrant to arrest
Albanians” aware that Agim Ceku and Hasim Taci “were able to ignite a series
of riots in Macedonia and southern Serbia, and in other provinces, calling
the Albanian minorities there to violence.” 12 To continue this assumption,
it can be said that it was necessary to maintain the idea of the Serbian
guilt for everything that had taken place in the Balkans in the 1990s, that
had been worked out for quite a long time, to sustain the reasoning that
NATO activities in the Balkans with an eye at protecting Albanians in Kosovo
in 1999, and prevent world public opinion from concluding that the
international organisations in the post-Yugoslav space practiced double
standards.

The revelations of the Prosecutor were sensational only for those who did
not want to hear. Serbs started shouting about crimes against them in
Kosovo. 13 Danitsa Marinkovic, a courageous former judge of the district
court in Pristina investigated many facts, including earlier kidnappings,
the fake show of the killing of allegedly peaceful people in the village of
Racak, after which the bombing of Yugoslavia started and information about
the KLA death camps. She was also in the know of no other than Hasim Taci
organised kidnappings and established links with European medical centres,
and set into action the mechanism of deliveries of human organs to his
clientele, making fabulous money.

Carla del Ponte’s book provides serious arguments to investigators,
confirming information about subjectivity of activities of international
organisations operating in the former Yugoslavia and acting on its territory
at present. It is evident that the support of Albanians in Kosovo by the
international organisations was not accidental, and it was not accidental
that the facts of the involvement of the current leadership of the province
(Hasim Taci, Agim Ceku and Ramus Haradinai) in the crimes Carla del Ponte
writes about. There is much evidence of these military crimes.

Danitsa Marinkovic told that Fatmir Limai was in charge of the camp in
Klecka, where Serbian prisoners were held. As for the current Kosovo
premier, Hasim Taci was commandant of a similar camp in Lapusnik. “While I
was a judge in Pristina, I went to Klecka, -Danitsa said. “At the time there
were about 100 Serbian women, children and old people. They had been
murdered. We saw parts of their bodies scattered all over the place.” 14
Unlike Hasuim Taci, Fatmir Limai faced the court in the Hague in 2005. And
the verdict was “Not guilty”!

The Hague Tribunal acquitted two more Kosovo criminals, Ramus Haradinai and
Idriz Baliai, the former chief of the KLA squad “Black Eaglkes”. Both
committed atrocious crimes and no one doubted their guilt. One more field
commander, Lahi Brahimai was acknowledged guilty of torture, and sentenced
to six years of imprisonment.

The trial of Ramus Haradinai (then prime minister of Kosovo) and the
above-mentioned militants started in the Hague in April, 2007. Haradinai who
in 1998 was one of the KLA commanders, was charged on 37 articles, 17 of
which were crimes against humanity, and 20 - military crimes. Besides, all
of them were accused of harassment of Kosovo Serbs, Gypsies and Albanians
that were loyal to Serbs, involvement in murders, rape, illegal arrests and
destruction of property. But the judges did not find evidence of the guilt
of Ramus Haradinai and Idriz Baliai. It may be admitted that 7 million Euros
that were raised for their defence played its part. According to the German
“Berliner Zeitung”, the German intelligence regards Haradinai “the godfather
of a mafia clan engaged in speculation of cigarettes, drugs, arms and trade
in people.”

Haradinai has always been an “exclusive” defendant. Del Pobnte writes that
he was taken to the Hague on a German aeroplane, and once landed in Germany
where the leader of Albanian separatists accused of many crimes was greeted
by the guard of honour. Haradinai’s family maintains close ties with the UN
mission on Kosovo. Del Ponte writes about a visit by Larry Rosin (currently
the deputy head of the UN mission in Kosovo) to attend the matrimonial
ceremony of Haradinai’s close relation. No other but Rosin on behalf of the
UN mission in Kosovo gave his personal guarantees to the Hague tribunal that
Haradinai’s condict was proof of “his being able to defend himself in court
not being in custody.” On the other hand, Sorren Essen-Petersen, the former
head of the UN mission in Kosovo contacted the Hague tribunal asking to set
Haradinai free, because “his presence in Kosovo is a guarantee of peace and
stability.” Seeing Haradinai off to the Hague the head of the UN mission in
Kosovo said to Haradinai in public: “My friend! Let us see you returning
soon!” 15

And the triumphant return did happen. The prosecutors failed to present to
the Tribubnal even 10 eyewitnesses, who had been murdered one after another
before the trial. Kutim Berisa, whose ear Baliai personally cut off, was
killed in a car crash in February of 2008 in Montenegro a day after a
meeting with a representative of the Tribunal to discuss the coming court
session. Ilir Selmai was stabbed to death in a provoked fight. Bekim Mustafa
and Auni Elezai were shot dead. Kosovo police officers Sabaheta Tava and
Isuk Hakliai, who agreed to present evidence of Haradinai’s crimes, were
murdered, and the car with their bodies was burned. Three other
eyewitnesses – Jeidin Musta, Sadrik Murici and Vesel Murici were “the
protected eyewitnesses”, but they all were murdered by contract killers.
Tahir Zemai, one of the KLA leaders, who agreed to cooperate with the
tribunal, was shot dead together with his son. Ramir Murici survived a wound
but refused to provide evidence. About 40 potential eyewitnesses of KLA
atrocities in Kosovo and Metohia were murdered. 16 That is why former KLA
militants have no fear of court prosecution. They keep on going about their
criminal activities, confident of their protectors and the might of their
money and arms.

The Hague tribunal has long been known for its lack of objectivity and
prejudication. It has demonstrated its biased prejudgements, spending years
trying to prove the faults of Serbs. No other than Serbs make up two-thirds
of the convicts in Scheveningen. Only Serbian leaders have faced the court
or are on the “wanted” lists, the leaders of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina
are at large. Activities of Serbs, Croats and Muslims get different
qualification at the tribunal: Serbs are accused of genocide for the lack of
human treatments of their prisoners, Croats are guilty of crimes against
humanity, and Muslims are blamed for serious violations of the Geneva
conventions. Only Serbs are accused of ethnic cleansings. That is exactly
the accusation they are faced with for the departure of Albanians from
Kosovo in 1998, whereas the activities of Croats in 1995 when the military
operations “The Shine “and “The Storm” that caused more than 250 000 Serbs
to leave their homes are not qualified this way. The crimes committed by
Serbs are regarded the result of systematic carefully planned policies. In
the case of Croats and Muslims, these are viewed as side effects of
hostilities created by a few undisciplined servicemen.” 17 By its selective
methods of trial the Tribunal violates the very idea of an international
criminal court. Carla del Ponte’s book is a graphic illustration of the
fact.

I happened to follow the Tribunal’s proceedings as an insider, when I acted
as a legal expert in the defence of Serbian general Stanislav Galic, accused
of blockading Saraevo, sharp-shooting and other crimes. It was exactly then
that I got proof of the fact that the official position of the Tribunal was
inherently subjective and sketchy. Principally, the Tribunal comes from the
assumption that in all the hostilities in the Balkans in the last several
years Serbs were aggressors or in their majority they committed military
crimes, whereas other parties waged wars in line with the norms of
international law, defending themselves against the aggressor. The trite
image of Serbian guilt was invented in 1991. Unfortunately, it is very hard
to break it today, as both the parties to the conflict and a number of
international organisations worked hard and persevered at its shaping. Owing
to the activities of the Tribunal, the stamp of a criminal will rest on the
entire Serbian nation for many years, and the international organisations
and NATO would get one more proof that to punish Serbia with sanctions,
blockade and bombings was right.

There never was a presentation of the book of the Tribunal’s principal
counsel for the prosecution never happened. The Swiss Foreign Ministry
prohibited it. Carla del Ponte was urgently dispatched to Buenos Aires,
where she had acted as Switzerland’s Ambassador to Argentina since January
of 2008. Europeans and the world at large seemed to disregard her book.
Quite naturally, Serbians were disgusted demanding the facts she published
in her book be investigated. Kosovars (Kosovo residents), too, were
indignant over the image she portrayed in her memories of the principal
accuser. Kosovo’s Parliamentary Assembly is preparing to sue her at an
international court for causing intentional harm to the image of Kosovo that
only recently declared itself independent.18 Russia’s reaction to the book
was very serious. Our Foreign Ministry tabled an inquiry at the Tribunal,
demanding that ex-Prosecutor General’s statements be verified and
information about steps taken to investigate the issue be given. «The facts
of atrocities committed by KLA militants against Kosovo’s Serbian peaceful
residents under the slogans of fighting for independence that have now
became known to broad public,” – the official statement reads, - “are
shocking. Small wonder that the revelations of Carla del Pont do not fit the
scenario of carving an image of Kosovo Albanians as martyrs, defended by a
number of states that wish to use this image as a basis for legitimising
Kosovo’s “independence”, the statement of Russia’s Foreign Ministry
underlines. By dozing off freedom of speech where crimes against peaceful
population are concerned. Apparently aims at dumping the response of
international political circles and society in general over the facts that
disclose the criminal pre-history of the illegal sovereignty of Kosovo. The
Russian delegation at the session of the EU parliamentary Assembly on April
4-18, 2008 announced its initiative to make the EU responsible for starting
investigation of Carla del Ponte’s information.

When in 1990s we spoke about the absence of objectiveness in activities of a
number of international organisations, the other side would either distrust
us, or pretended to be distrustful. Now Carla del Ponte’s book gives weighty
arguments to investigators and legal experts, even if partly removing the
cover over the backroom games some states are playing to defend their
stance. Many people think that the book arrived too late, so the process
launched by the ITFY is hard to be reversed. But the book’s significance is
its casting doubt on the activities of international organisation in the
former Yugoslavia and the efficiency of the ITFY itself, also casting a
shadow on the KFOR staff and the UN peace-keepers. It also makes sit
possible to sue Carla del Ponte for intentionally concealing from justice
the facts of atrocious military crimes, making her an accomplice of their
perpetuators.

----------------------------------------------------------

NOTES
1 Carla del Ponte. Working for many years the best we can//Politika-
Belgrade,May 3,2008 p.19

2 Kosovo Security Force

3 United Nations Mission in Kosovo

4 Carla del Ponte Working for many years the best we can //
Politika –Belgrade, May 3,2008 ,p.19

5 The Centre for the Studies of the Modern Balkans Crisis of the Institute
for Slav Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences.

6 Carla del Ponte. Неправда је семе будућих ратова //Politika, Belgrade, May
1-2, 2008, p.33.

7 Fokina k.Nacharov S. The Chairman of the Association of SSerbs Disappeared
in Kosovo Simo Spasic: We are Suing Carla del Ponte. She Knew about
Concentration camps for Serbs//Izvestia. –M.2008, April 4

8 Fokina K., Nacarov S.. The Chairman of the Association of the Disappeared
Kosovo Serbs Simo Spasic: We will sue Carla del Ponte. She knew about
concentration camps for Serbs.//Izvestia. – M. 2008. April 4

9 HRW:istraga o trgovinin organima//BBC Serbian. Com – 2008, May 6.

10 Carla del Ponte: Working for many years the best we can...

11 Ditto

12 Ditto

13 Carla del Ponte Кажем Hинhиhу//Politika, Belgrade. 2008, April 23, p.29

14 See 7

15Quote: http://www.koreni.net/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1054;
Bavyrin D.The Albanian Solidarity // Vzglyad. –M.2008 –March 22.
http://www,vz.ru/politics/2008/3/22/154104.html

16 What has the Hague Tribunal Forgive the Albanian Terrorist and Promising
Kosovo politician Ramus Haradianai?//REGNUM.. - 2008. - April 6.

17 Tribunal vise razloga da postoji//Blic.- Belgrade, 2008. – April 4.

18 Klimenko Z.V. Basic Parametres of the Activities of the International
Tribunal for Investigation of Military Crimes in the Former Yugoslavia.
Presentation at the international conference “Present-day problems of the
post-Yugoslav space and Russia’s stance”. Moscow, November 13,2002. HRW:
istraga o trgovini organima // BBC SERBIAN.com. – 2008. 6 maj.

Whoever betrays Kosovo is betraying Serbia!

www.glas-javnosti.co.yu

Glas Javnosti daily, Belgrade
June 20, 2008

Whoever betrays Kosovo is betraying Serbia!
by Dr. Kosta Cavoski

At this time when there are so many sycophants and lickspittles on our
political scene circling around their foreign masters, it is very difficult
to
talk about (Serbian) democracy. Because there actually is no real democracy
(in Serbia), and what we have today is a political particracy: rule by
oligarchic party leaderships that do not care for election results, the will
of the people or the country, let alone for the fate of the nation to which
they belong. Such a particracy is also an outcome of our electoral system.

You probably remember that the Dayton Agreement was signed in Dayton, and
that the foreigners were especially insistent on implementing an electoral
system using proportional representation in Republika Srpska and in all of
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Because proportional representation fragments parties,
and makes it possible for a large number of parties to take part in
elections. The key goal for the foreigners at that time was to reduce the
influence of Karadzic's Serbian Democratic Party, to make it impossible for
it to (keep getting) an absolute majority. By the second elections, they
succeeded.

(In Serbia) proportional representation giving detrimental results is used
because it is supposedly more just, enabling parties that represent minority
interests to also appear in parliament. The majority system where, as a
rule, two, sometimes three and occasionally, exceptionally, a fourth party
manage to get into parliament is a guillotine for small parties.

The majority system is good because it makes it possible for a single party
to form a government, and for a country to have an accountable government.
In such an electoral system, there is the government on one side and the
opposition on the other, and as the English saying goes, 'The opposition
need do nothing except oppose, never propose.' That is, to catch the
government's mistakes, to criticize it publicly and, of course, to possibly
win in the next elections.

The proportional system practiced (in Serbia) has enormous deficiencies. No
party, not even the Radicals, who had a respectable relative majority, had
more than 30 percent or was able to form a government. Therefore,
governments had to be built on coalitions. We have had coalitions that have
been unprincipled and based on interests, marriages of convenience. Hence,
the government could hardly conduct consistent policies.

When the second government of Vojislav Kostunica came with the external
support of the Socialists, the Socialists' condition was that Hague
indictees not be arrested. As a result that government, if you remember,
managed to convince some to turn themselves in; and when General Lukic was
arrested in hospital and sent to The Hague against his will, the Socialists
simply - stayed silent.

Now Zupljanin has been arrested. Because of Slobodan Milosevic, the
Socialists do not recognize the Hague Tribunal. That is why they should have
said something, communicated that they will form no coalition or government
with those arresting indictees and sending them to The Hague. But look: they
are ready to enter a coalition including the Democratic Party, which is
nothing but the extended arm of the foreign occupiers in this country. We
must ask ourselves how the Socialists - who have endured such blows as
having the head of their party arrested, sent to The Hague and subjected to
juridical murder - can even think about cooperating with those who sent
Milosevic to The Hague!

Corruption is the other face of coalitions such as these. Corruption will
never be completely eradicated. As long everyone respects people who are
rich more than people who are knowledgeable, everyone will aspire to be be
rich. Especially those close to the government or in power themselves. But
when the system is a two-party one, the opposition is constantly catching
the government's mistakes. And when a coalition is in power, then there is a
silent agreement among the coalition associates to overlook things in
matters of corruption. This is why everyone is stealing but no one is
accusing anyone of stealing; it is simply ignored.

Today those in power are trying to funnel enough money to permit them to
live to the end of their lives. Unlike today's socialists, the ones of the
past believed that the system would last and ensure their security. So they
did not take too much, figuring they would be taken care of in their old
age. Today this has changed radically and it is none other than coalitions
that are making corruption possible.

During the election campaign we heard the parties telling us how there are
two camps (in Serbia), how some are in favor of keeping Kosovo and Metohija
as a part of Serbia and against joining the EU if that meant Serbia without
Kosovo and Metohija, while others claimed that we must join the European
Union at any price because that is the only way we can get new money and new
jobs. As if the past eight years had not been enough to do this, and we
needed the next eight.

Therefore, the camps were sharply divided. Now we have a small, three-member
coalition with Palma consisting of only three deputy seats that is claiming
we can join Europe and preserve Kosovo and Metohija, too. And how is it
possible to do all these things? How, when 20 members of the EU - out of a
total of 27 - have already recognized Kosovo and Metohija as an independent
state? Because they will keep it in mind during ratification. In other
words, God forbid that a new government of Socialists and "yellows" is
formed, we can expect Brussels to tell us, 'Until you establish good
relations with your neighbors - meaning diplomatic relations with Pristina -
we will not be able to continue talks on entering the EU.'

They are not saying anything about this for now in order to form their
coalition, but when it is formed, it will be said publicly. And our people,
being like they are, will say: what can we do, the hornless are no match for
the horned (a Serbian proverb). However, those of us who know all this well
and see it happening have a duty to warn that a great deception is taking
place. Our people are being tricked. Worst of all, a betrayal of our
national interests is in progress.

All those who reject the possible coalition of the Serbian Radical Party,
the Democratic Party of Serbia, New Serbia and the Socialists are, in fact,
accepting the truncation of Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia, the
independence of Kosovo and Metohija, and entry into the EU without that
central part of our country and our national survival. They are, dear
friends, traitors and we must not allow this to happen. This must not pass!

(Translated on June 21, 2008 by sib)