Nigel Farage - Europe is About to Impose Extreme Repression
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2012/6/22_Nigel_Farage_-_Europe_is_About_to_Impose_Extreme_Repression.html
June 22, 2012
June 26, 2012
Nigel Farage - Europe is About to Impose Extreme Repression,
June 13, 2012
Vladimir vs Bilderberg
Vladimir vs Bilderberg
11.06.2012 20:20
By Xavier Lerma
Vladimir Putin has been busier than Obama making excuses recently with trips to China and talks with leaders from Iran and Afghanistan. Self interests aside, he clearly demonstrates a desire in defending Russia and nurturing Russia's future. However, like any good farmer, he's found many weeds sown by the enemy. The new law passed recently is a sword that protects Russian citizens and attacks people like McFaul, Soros and their Bilderberg friends.
Michael McFaul
This year in January, Obama's Unites States was so kind to send a new ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul. He's no stranger to Russia. Being a generous man, he helped bring chaos and misery to Russia in the 90's. You would think his Russian would be better than it is today but he doesn't really care. As he said,
"Most Russia-watchers are diplomats, or specialists on security and arms control. Or Russian culture. I am neither. I can't recite Pushkin by heart. I am a specialist in democracy, anti-dictatorial movements, and revolutions"
In other words he is a no account trouble maker. He paid people to protest during the Russian presidential election and like a disease they passed it on. He admits meeting with protesters when an NTV reporter asked him in this video (English subtitles). He has admitted in the past that the US was involved in the color Revolutions in the Ukraine and Georgia. He gladly wrote,
"Does this kind of intervention violate international norms? Not anymore."
Revolutions
McFeisty McFaul, Gene Sharp with George Soros as his sponsor, are experts in starting color revolutions. It always seems to involve the US. Soros, who favors Romney now since he gave up on Obama, has been spreading "democracy" for years as a Bilderberger. By the late 1990s, Soros gave $400 million annually for "democracy" programs in Europe. Unfortunately, the world has lost count since he spreads his wealth everywhere. When they say "spreading democracy" it means chaos and death as was prevalent in their Arab Spring.
Well, keep spreading the joy McFaul. Almost everyone loves money. Only this time "Vlad, Your Impaler", is making a few changes. The new Russian law that was passed by the Lower Duma in May, was signed by President Putin on June 8th in this video. The law increases fines for illegal protests and protesters not willing to behave. Masks and weapons are now illegal. Leaders of the protests cannot have violated the law two or more times within a year. That leaves out a lot of McFaul's buddies. Too bad so sad. Protesters stepping over the line can get 20 to 200 hours of community service, for a maximum of four days a week. President Putin said,
"In enabling some of the public to express their opinions, including street action,
a society must also protect the rest of the public from radicalism."
As I wrote in my article about the Bilderberg meeting, "...you can be sure few Russians are there. There are hateful critics of Russia's beloved Vladimir Putin like Garry Kasparov (Chairman) of the United Civil Front." There were two others there that cannot be overlooked. Igor Ivanov,President, Russian International Affairs Council, who was succeeded by Sergey Lavrov as foreign minister in 2004, dislikes Putin. Anatoly Chubais, , CEO of OJSC RUSNANO, is one of those who gutted Russia like a fish in the 90's and hates Putin for having the gall to stop him.
Of course, little Anatoly is also a friend of McFaul who was part of that Russian fish fry that illegally stole money from Russia. We know they have received new orders from the Bilderbergers to start another revolution in Russia or cause some other kind of misery. The question is, why do they waste their time in Russia? According to Wikileaks, even McFaul gets nervous around Putin. Never send a boy to do a man's job. I'm sure Putin laughs at their pathetic attempts.
Political Chess Master
President Putin is a chess master in world affairs and in protecting Russia. Nazi Germany underestimated Russia as the Communists underestimated Christianity. Naturally, the Bilderbergers underestimate Vladimir Putin, whom they have tried to assassinate this year in a video where US backed terrorist Doku Umarov is implicated. The Bilderbergers killed Kennedy and shot Reagan but they cannot kill their old nemesis who destroys their plans of world domination. In their NWO they demonize Putin who they incorrectly claim to be a Communist even though Zyuganov is the Communist leader and most Communists hate Putin like they do. You'd think the Bilderbergers would join the Communists openly and wear hammer and sickle T-shirts like they do in Chicago. FYI for the brainwashed, President Vladimir Putin has been and still is a member of the United Russia party whose symbol is a polar bear.
Vladimir Putin was born on the feast day of St Michael. Michael means, "Who is like unto God". In response to the pompous Bilderbergers, President Putin has kindly said, "Who the Hell are you?!" and has pushed Russia's enemies back wherever they have attacked. He has a solid team ready to help him and the blessings from God to protect him in this video, as well as millions of Russians who are not afraid to defend their faith when it's attacked. I know it won't stop the Bilderbergers since God is not part of their equation, but in the end it will.
China
President Putin was in China last June 5 - 7 in this unique video. He met Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun in Beijing on Tuesday. Putin met with President Hu Jintao and attended a summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The SCO includes Russia, China, and four Central Asian nations - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan received the status of an observer in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) last Thursday in this video where President Vladimir Putin congratulated Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai. Now, that's the way you treat Afghanistan.
He's unifying the East and making a profit for Russia and those countries involved. A big business opportunity: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree abolishing visas for Russian and foreigners owning business cards and office visits from countries participating in the forum, APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) held in Vladivostok next September.
Iran
Needless to say, the western MSM ignored videos like this one, "Putin 2012 Iran", where President Putin lays down the law for Ahmadinejad. He not only wanted to expand business dealings with Iran in the Caspian Sea but also said,
"We have always supported the right of the Iranians to use the latest technology, including peaceful nuclear energy. I want to stress this - peaceful. You know where we stand on this: we faithfully adhere to non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. But we also know where you stand, where Iran's government stands. Your position is that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons. and this is what we base everything on."
Lest we forget, it was Medvedev as president who cancelled the sale of S-300 missiles to Iran after Bibi cried to Putin. So, not only does Iran not have any long range missiles they do not have enough uranium to complete a nuclear weapon. Israel, on the other hand, has 300 nuclear warheads ready to launch at any time.
Keep in mind Vladimir Putin always gets his way. Since he was a young man he knew how to be top dog, which is why he became a Judo expert. He verifies his position with Ahmadinejad as well as the rest of the world. He's willing to work with any country so long as their willing to work with him. Regarding the US/NATO missiles pointed at Russia, Putin said when he was in Paris recently,
"We are constantly being told that the missile defense system is not directed against Russia. We would like to receive military and technological guarantees fixed in legally binding documents,"
What's wrong with the US putting it on paper? Reagan did it. Then again, he was never a Bilderberger and the Bilderbergs will make damn sure a Reagan will never become president. So, was that a warning shot fired by Russia over Israel and Syria? I wouldn't be surprised.
By Xavier Lerma
Contact Xavier Lerma at xlerma@bigstring.com
His popular articles can be seen at http://xlerma.wordpress.com/
Please include the link to Pravda if you republish this article
Дмитрий Судаков
Copyright © 1999-2012, «PRAVDA.Ru». When reproducing our materials in whole or in part, hyperlink to PRAVDA.Ru should be made. The opinions and views of the authors do not always coincide with the point of view of PRAVDA.Ru's editors.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/11-06-2012/121366-Putin_Bilderberg-0/
Serbia's stern diplomatic rearguard action over Kosovo
Blogs Home » News » World » Charles Crawford
Charles Crawford retired from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2007. He was HM Ambassador in Sarajevo (1996-1998), in Belgrade (2001-2003) and most recently in Poland (2003-2007). He is a founder member of ADRg Ambassadors and his personal website is www.charlescrawford.biz
Serbia’s stern diplomatic rearguard action over Kosovo
By Charles Crawford World Last updated: June 13th, 2012
45 Comments Comment on this article
The UN General Assembly
An unusual and interesting vote has taken place at the United Nations, to decide who will be president of the UN General Assembly for 2012/2013. Serbia’s youthful Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, aged just 36, has won a tight race, beating Lithuanian UN ambassador Dalius Cekuolis by 99 – 85 votes, despite intense lobbying for Cekuolis from Washington and other Western capitals.
That largely symbolic position rotates between five UN “regional groups”. In this case it was the Eastern European Group’s turn. The EEG is an anomalous cluster of 23 more or less European countries previously under Communist rule. It includes, of course, Russia.
The position had been uncontested since 1991, the different regional groupings deciding for themselves in turn which unopposed candidate to put forward. This time it was different. Lithuania’s candidate had expected to get the group’s nomination, but Jeremic entered the running. Lithuania accused Russia of pushing Jeremic into the contest to punish Lithuania for insisting that the end of the Second World War had brought freedom to western Europe, but for Lithuania only Soviet occupation and new oppression. A wider new Russian political power-play to re-affirm influence at the UN and elsewhere? Probably.
Jeremic is an able and ambitious operator. Armed with a degree in physics from Cambridge and a Masters from the Harvard Kennedy School, he was a leader in the student opposition to Milosevic – I remember him well from those halcyon days. He quickly rose through the ranks of advisers to different Serbian ministers and was appointed Serbia’s foreign minister in 2007, where he has made a name for himself by lobbying feverishly round the planet against the recognition of Kosovo.
Jeremic’s insistence that Kosovo is not independent – even though many countries have recognised it – has met with mixed success. The number of recognitions creeps up towards half the world’s states. It now stands at 91 countries, with Brunei and Chad joining the throng in recent weeks. Jeremic pushed hard for the International Court of Justice advisory opinion on Kosovo in 2010 that was widely seen as an embarrassing defeat for Serbia’s position.
Nonetheless many of the world’s largest countries (China, India, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia) stand firmly behind Belgrade, and show no signs of shifting position. Jeremic’s votes at the UN will have come mainly from states that have enjoyed watching the broader European camp at the UN stand disunited and that for one reason or the other wanted to give the “Western” view of world affairs poke in the eye.
Jeremic has played craftily on Serbia’s “Yugoslav” credentials to drum up support. During the Cold War Yugoslavia’s communist leader Tito helped build up the Non-Aligned Movement, a group of states that proclaimed themselves independent of “bloc politics” but usually sided with a Soviet approach to human rights and freedom. This policy gave Belgrade a massive international profile: Tito’s funeral in 1980 saw the then largest ever gathering of world leaders.
You’ll be surprised (or not) to hear that the NAM still lingers on, long after the world of “blocs” has given way to today’s messy “multi-polarity”. After Milosevic fell, Serbia left the group to signify that it was indeed now ‘aligned’ with mainstream Western and European democratic processes, but it has kept an active observer status. Last year Serbia spent money it can ill afford hosting a NAM party to celebrate a non-event, the 50th anniversary of the NAM’s first summit meeting in Belgrade. Jeremic has used networking events like this to press hard Serbia’s case against Kosovo.
In short, to defend its Kosovo position Serbia draws on a long tradition of nimble, cynical diplomacy in Belgrade, striking positions that are both “European” and “non-aligned” simultaneously. This idea of being non-aligned (keeping open options for unexpected unfathomable improvizacija) goes deep into the political culture in Serbia. I recall my final conversation with Serbia’s Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in March 2003 just a couple of days before he was murdered. He said that Serbia would do everything it needed to do to tick the boxes for EU membership – and only then decide whether to join!
Djindjic’s point echoed a good Balkan joke. A customs officer dies and ends up outside the Gates of Heaven. St Peter mulls the options: “You were appallingly corrupt and dishonest, but you did love your family and support some good causes – should I let you into Heaven, or send you to Hell?” The quick reply comes back: “If it’s OK with you, I’ll stay on the border.”
Meanwhile the election of the more nationalist/populist Tomislav Nikolic as Serbia’s President has given a mandate to the defiant tendency in Serbia’s political spectrum. It has not taken long for Nikolic to park himself on the existential border between ‘Europe and ‘Russia’ by making warm noises in Moscow and stirring up angry concern elsewhere in the region and in many Western capitals by ducking and weaving on whether the Srebrenica massacre was genocide.
This sets things up nicely for 2015 when Serbia chairs the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for the first time. Serbia was acceptable for that significant leadership position only because it ran on a joint ticket with Switzerland (OSCE Chair in 2014) and so in effect agreed not to use its 2015 position to make things even more difficult for Europe on the Kosovo question.
As far as Kosovo is concerned, Serbia faces the reality that most EU states have recognised Kosovo and that without some sort of political settlement it will not achieve EU membership. But Serbia also knows (as does Kosovo) that Kosovo is going nowhere important without full international recognition. Deep in the undergrowth of diplomacy fierce battles rumble on to decide whether Kosovo makes it eg into the Eurovision Song Contest and European and global sporting bodies. Determined opposition led by Russia usually swings things Belgrade’s way. Serbia is a 100 per cent internationally recognised state with levers to pull. Kosovo isn’t
Underpinning all this is the hard fact that Russia (with China) can block any move by the UN Security Council to propose Kosovo as a full UN member, and without that top-level acknowledgement of statehood many sporting and other international organisations prefer to avoid the problem.
With Vuk Jeremic presiding over the UN General Assembly in 2013 and then Serbia’s OSCE Chairmanship to follow, Kosovo can see its sluggish progress towards full recognition going even slower for a good while to come. Time to heave a sigh and cut a messy deal with Belgrade?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/charlescrawford/100164810/serbias-stern-diplomatic-rearguard-action-over-kosovo/
June 12, 2012
Serbia: Italian businesses in media spat
Serbia: Italian businesses in media spat
last update: June 07, 12:41
Belgrade, 7 June (AKI) - Two Italian business giants on Thursday found themselves in the midst of a political media war between newly elected Serbian president Tomislav Nikolic and his predecessor Boris Tadic.
Nikolic, former ultranationalist, turned pro-European, defeated Tadic in May presidential election and his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) beat Tadic’s pro-European Democratic Party (DS) in parliamentary race.
But Tadic was on the verge of forming new government with the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and most likely with pro-European Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the only parliamentary group which openly advocates independence of Kosovo declared by majority Albanians in 2008.
After consultations with Nikolic on new government on Wednesday, Tadic ignited bitter polemics by telling journalists that Italian steel giant “Danieli” and precision mechanics company “Baldieri” postponed their investments in Serbia because of Nikolic’s election victory.
“Danieli” signed a “memorandum of understanding” with Tadic’s government on 30 March, in the heat of the election campaign, to build a steel factory in western city of Sabac, worth 500 million euros.
Tadic, who based his campaign on attracting foreign investments and the creation of new jobs, said at the time the project would create over 1,000 jobs and generate annual exports exceeding one billion euros.
But “Danieli” this week bought Sisak steel plant in Croatia for 30 million euros, instead, Tadic said. “For Serbia it isn’t good that ‘Danieli’ two days ago bought Sisak steel works in Croatia and, of course, this has happened after the election”, he added.
In the unusually dirty campaign, Tadic has questioned the sincerity of Nikolic’s pro-European stands and said his election would be detrimental to foreign investments.
But Nikolic’s party quickly retorted that “memorandum of understanding” with “Danieli” was just an election trick and that the Italian giant never truly committed itself to the agreement.
“It is obvious that investors are by-passing Serbia because of the corruption level in our country,” SNS said in a statement, blaming Tadic’s democrats for the situation.
DS vice-president Jelena Trivan told media Nikolic has managed to “spoil relations with neighbors and the whole world”, since taking office last week. “It’s extremely unthinkable to think that such people could be a guarantee for investors,” she said.
Nikolic has been criticized by the international community and European Union officials for saying last weekend that a massacre of over 7,000 Muslims in Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995 was a “horrible crime”, but not genocide, as ruled by the International Court of Justice in 2008.
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June 07, 2012
Voice of Russia: KFOR mission in Kosovo: Serbs out? Tanjug: Security situation in Zvecan deteriorates
Voice of Russia: KFOR mission in Kosovo: Serbs out? Tanjug: Security situation in Zvecan deterioratesADate: Thursday, June 7, 2012, 7:04 AM ... Well, yes, the mission of KFOR in Kosovo, the mission of international organizations in Kosovo was to establish a peaceful environment. Unfortunately, the whole Kosovo has been ethnically cleansed from Serbs. And today – that's a paradox – nobody poses the question: why Kosovo has been almost totally cleansed from Serbs? In every city in Kosovo you will find handful of Serbs only living in some enclaves. They're all in ghettos, you say? Most of the Serbs from Kosovo have gone to the rest of Serbia. There are some enclaves in Kosovo, some Serbian villages where still Serbs live. The Serbs are some 130 to 150 thousand. For example, I'm one of the people living in the enclaves here with the people in the village called Brezovica. ... ... Serbian Orthodox Church has a very old history and very rich spirituality. This is exactly the reason why we have to fight and offer everything, including our lives. [ In the interview, the above stands out. But, is anyone comprehending what he's saying? Sounds like a distress call, but is anyone listening to the distress calls ? ] KFOR mission in Kosovo: Serbs out?John Robles Jun 6, 2012
Interview with priest-monk Father Ksenofont from the Orthodox eparchy of Raska-Prizren in exile in Kosovo.Regarding the events of last Friday and over the weekend in Northern Kosovo, what has the church done to help the victims of violence? Well, I can talk as a priest-monk of the diocese of Raska-Prizren, not from the standpoint of the whole church. Unfortunately, the events that we've seen last couple of days are not surprising because it's just continuation of the politics of the so-called National Community led by NATO in Kosovo fighting for enabling functionality of independent Kosovo. Although the mandate from the very beginning established substantial autonomy of Kosovo, Serbia, from the very beginning we did a big job of helping national minority in Kosovo, separating Kosovo from the rest of Serbia. The small part of Northern Kosovo still combat in accordance to the resolution from 44 not allowing the Albanian to engulf them and to ethnically cleanse even these last parts of Kosovo. You shouldn't forget that in Northern Kosovo there is a number of Albanians, Serbs and other ethnic minorities. And KFOR puts itself in the role of helping Albanians in doing that. In this regard you said that they're more or less involved in ethnic cleansing in Kosovo? Well, yes, the mission of KFOR in Kosovo, the mission of international organizations in Kosovo was to establish a peaceful environment. Unfortunately, the whole Kosovo has been ethnically cleansed from Serbs. And today – that's a paradox – nobody poses the question: why Kosovo has been almost totally cleansed from Serbs? In every city in Kosovo you will find handful of Serbs only living in some enclaves. They're all in ghettos, you say? Most of the Serbs from Kosovo have gone to the rest of Serbia. There are some enclaves in Kosovo, some Serbian villages where still Serbs live. The Serbs are some 130 to 150 thousand. For example, I'm one of the people living in the enclaves here with the people in the village called Brezovica. Can you give is a little bit of the history of the Orthodox Church in exile of Raska-Prizren? I don't know how much your listeners are in course of the history of Kosovo itself, the history of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo, especially in the last decade or two. But many of them certainly have heard the name of bishop Artemije who was the diocesan bishop in Raska-Prizren. He was a remarkable man who in the last two decades managed to make real Renaissance revival of the monastic and spiritual life in Kosovo. There were more monks and nuns in his dioceses few years ago than in the rest Serbian Orthodox Church. On the other hand, bishop Artemije was a very principal man concerning the teaching of the Orthodox Church which somehow in the last years was very much compromised by the influence of the communism. Bishop fought against that. On the other hand he was a defender of the protection of international law in Kosovo. Unfortunately, the developments in Serbia last years that we have been witnessing, that regime in Serbia led by Democratic Party and the President was very much inclined to accept many of the blackmails coming from the Western countries. Bishop Artemije was critic of that politics. In 2010 unfortunately some parts of the Serbian Orthodox Church accepted the fact that bishop Artemije represents a very big obstacle to the ideas of finally realizing Kosovo independence. They removed bishop Artemije from Kosovo and financial problems within the dioceses were found. I must emphasize that today these financial accusations haven't been proven although they have been in the court for the last two years. Bishop Artemije removed from his post, many of us decided to follow bishop in his spiritual exile opposing ourselves to this injustice and raising our voice. Many of the Serbs in Serbia – and day by day even more – just course of bishop Artemije. What percentage of the population in Serbia and in Kosovo are followers of the Orthodox Church? I would say some 80%. Kosovo itself represents part of Serbia with a number of medieval monasteries and churches. In Medieval Times Kosovo was the center of Serbian state and we have to mention that since the arrival of international so-called Peace Forces to Kosovo we had more than 150 churches destroyed. One third of these churches and monasteries are medieval monuments, some of them even jewels of medieval Serbian Orthodox architecture. The Serbian Orthodox Church is the second Orthodox Church in the world and holds many Christian relics including, I believe, the right hand of John the Baptist. Yes, the hand of John the Baptist is kept in the diocese of Montenegro and there are many others of course. Serbian Orthodox Church has a very old history and very rich spirituality. This is exactly the reason why we have to fight and offer everything, including our lives. =================================================================================== ... Members of the municipal council strongly condemned "the brutal attack of US and German KFOR on locals and their property" during a barricade removal operation in Rudare, adding that the incident left one person severely wounded by live ammunition and several Serbs beaten up, while their property was destroyed. ... [ But, basically all we read in the West's main media is that the nasty Serbs want a return of a Greater Serbia, that Serbs are guilty of ethnic cleansing of Croats and Muslims, even genocide, and mostly that Serbs are ultra-nationalists. And, that is believed by almost everyone who is fed the drivel. ] Security situation in Zvecan deterioratesSource: Tanjug 06 June 2012 The security situation in Zvecan municipality (northern Kosovo) has deteriorated and special units of the Kosovo police ROSU and other armed persons have been seen as patrolling the area after the removal of roadblocks in Rudare, it was said at Tuesday's extraordinary session of the Zvecan municipal council. The roadblocks were removed by KFOR last Friday. The council also stated that the situation in sensitive areas should be constantly monitored and the citizens were told to be on alert and ready to effectively block the intrusion or any movement of unknown persons, including the possibility to erect new barricades. |
June 06, 2012
The Yugoslav wars of disintegration: Graveyard Humor in Belgrade
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понедељак, 04. јун 2012. |
Global Research, May 23, 2012 Since graveyard humor is a Serbian specialty, it seems appropriate that Serbs just played a little joke on everybody by electing a former undertaker as President. In the May 20 runoff, affable former funeral home manager Tomislav Nikolic won slightly over 50% of valid votes cast against the incumbent, Boris Tadic, who had spent his eight years in office doing everything possible to please the Western powers that have in return done all they could to keep Serbia alone and humiliated. Constantly compared to Nazi Germany, Serbs have been subjected to a sleazy imitation of the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, but no Marshall Plan billions to revive the economy. Conditions are increasingly desperate. More than half the electorate, perhaps considering the election itself a joke, did not bother to vote. Nikolic promised change, but there is no sign that he has either a plan or the means to bring it about. Earlier in the month, parliamentary elections were tainted by evidence of massive ballot rigging in favor of the ruling coalition. Even before the presidential runoff, the Socialist Party leader made a deal to form a coalition with Tadic's Democratic Party – the coalition favored by Western embassies. So Nikolic may find himself only a figurehead, with the government run by a prime minister from the same old Tadic majority. Still, voters at least get a chance from time to time to say "no", and saying "no" to Tadic brought a fleeting illusion of freedom. For Western media and politicians, Serbia serves only one purpose: to be the bad example of "nationalism" that enhances the virtuous anti-nationalism of the EU and NATO. In an era when in EU countries a mere disparaging remark against any ethnic or religious group may lead to lawsuits for "incitement to racial hatred", the Serbs are there to allow cartoonists, editorialists and film-makers to stigmatize the pariah group to their heart's content. Serbia's most prized export to Europe is its "genocidal war criminals", sent to The Hague to feed Europe's pride in its humanitarian values. So the best thing Serbia could do for Western media was to elect "an extreme nationalist" – well, not exactly – only a "former extreme nationalist", or "a former ultranationalist", or "a former strident nationalist". In The Guardian, Ian Traynor fretted that "Serbia's hopes of fast-track integration into Europe suffered a severe setback" with the defeat of the endlessly accommodating Tadic. This "fast track" is another sour joke. After eight years of giving in to EU pressure, all Tadic got this spring was grudging permission for Serbia to become an "official candidate" to join the EU. To join when? Only when Serbia makes some more "reforms" and above all, when Belgrade accepts the "independence" of Kosovo, stolen from Serbia by NATO bombing in 1999 and handed over to Albanian gangsters with friends in Washington. That is something no Serbian government dares to do. At least not openly. Like Tadic, Nikolic has promised to pursue two mutually exclusive policy aims: EU membership, and refusal to recognize that the historic Serb province of Kosovo is now an "independent State". The election of Nikolic probably shows that enthusiasm for joining the EU is waning, which would make sense considering the current crisis of the euro zone. But even a sinking ship may look like salvation to a drowning man. Ever since the 1999 NATO war, Serbia has been a semi-occupied country, surrounded by NATO. Its politicians must seek approval of Western embassies and pro-Western media. Many have been groomed in the United States. Nikolic is an exception, but to compensate, he has turned to former U.S. Ambassador William Montgomery for advice on how to improve his image in the West. As a "former extreme nationalist", Nikolic may be called upon by EU gatekeepers to do even more (if such is possible) to prove his conversion to "Western values". He started off with the rather astonishing statement that he was eager to meet Angela Merkel, his "best ally in Europe" – astonishing since everyone knows that Germany and Austria, as Serbia's historic enemies (Sarajevo 1914) were first to sponsor Croatian and Slovenian secession from Yugoslavia and have vigorously pursued their century-old vendetta against Serbs ever since. Nikolic has modified his former vow to pursue closer relations with Russia into a suggestion that Serbia must "have friends all over the world". The "former extreme nationalist", who left the Serbian Radical Party to form his own Progressive Party, does not appear to be the man to defy Serbia's Western tormentors. "Take Him to The Hague!" Since only "former extreme nationalists" are left in Serbia, whatever happened to the real thing? Whatever happened to Vojislav Seselj? Nikolic's political mentor, the lawyer and Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj, has been in prison in the Netherlands for over nine years, as his trial for belonging to an alleged "joint criminal enterprise" gets nowhere. On February 24, 2003, learning that the Prosecutor's office of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) had issued a secret indictment against him, Seselj booked his own regular flight to the Netherlands to give himself up before the indictment could be issued. He announced boldly that he was "convinced that I'm capable of winning against The Hague tribunal and refuting these Western allegations against the Serbian people." A farewell rally was held in Belgrade. He has been in the ICTY prison in the Netherlands ever since. The ICTY chief Prosecutor at that time, Ms. Carla Del Ponte, wrote in her memoirs "The Hunt" that the indictment was issued at the request of the authorities in Belgrade. At a meeting on February 17, 2003, Zoran Djindjic, who owed his position as Serbian Prime Minister to support from NATO powers, and was assassinated shortly thereafter, allegedly told her: "As far as Vojislav Seselj is concerned, we have only one request –take him away, never to bring him back again!" The reason for getting Seselj out of Serbia was obvious. He was a popular politician who had lost elections to Milosevic, but with Milosevic out of the way, he might be a formidable opponent for the pro-Western politicians sponsored by the NATO powers. Or so they might worry. The Seselj case illustrates an original purpose of the Hague tribunal, as described by one of its designers, Michael Scharf, a State Department adviser who took part in the creation of the ICTY. In an August 2004 Washington Post column, Scharf recalled: "In creating the Yugoslavia tribunal statute, the U.N. Security Council set three objectives: first, to educate the Serbian people, who were long misled by Milosevic's propaganda, about the acts of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by his regime; second, to facilitate national reconciliation by pinning prime responsibility on Milosevic and other top leaders and disclosing the ways in which the Milosevic regime had induced ordinary Serbs to commit atrocities; and third, to promote political catharsis while enabling Serbia's newly elected leaders to distance themselves from the repressive policies of the past." To put it in slightly different terms, the purpose of the Tribunal was to oblige the Serbian people to accept the NATO version of events in their country. Already in 1992, U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger called for a war crimes tribunal as an instrument to force the Serbian people to see things our way: While "waiting for the people of Serbia, if not their leaders, to come to their senses, we must make them understand that their country will remain alone, friendless, and condemned to economic ruin and exclusion from the family of civilized nations for as long as they pursue the suicidal dream of a Greater Serbia. They need, especially, to understand that a second Nuremberg awaits the practitioners of ethnic cleansing, and that the judgment, and opprobrium, of history awaits the people in whose name their crimes were committed." In reality, the Tribunal, precisely because it intervened in a complex civil war against the Serb side, has never been credible among most Serbs, but instead has served to strengthen the NATO countries' own view of the conflict as caused solely by Serbian nationalism. The enemies of the Serbs, nationalist leaders of the Albanians, Bosnian Muslims or Croats, use the Western anti-Serb bias for their own purposes, first of all to portray themselves as pure innocent victims with no responsibility for the mayhem that tore Yugoslavia apart. That version is far too simplistic to convince Serbs who are aware of the complexities, even when they admit that crimes were indeed committed by Serbs during the bloody conflicts. Far from fostering reconciliation, the Tribunal has cemented divisions and made eventual reconciliation all but impossible. Seselj, however, is a special case. There is no evidence that he ever took part in combat, much less in war crimes, or that he exercised any command responsibility. He joined a national unity government briefly during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, but for the rest of the time was an often bitter and vehement political opponent of President Slobodan Milosevic. As a witness at the Milosevic trial in The Hague, Seselj surprised the prosecution by insisting that he, Seselj, was the real champion of "Greater Serbia", while Milosevic was always opposed to the concept and instead wanted to preserve multi-ethnic Yugoslavia. Milosevic died in his cell before the end of his trial. In short, Seselj is spending years on trial for what he said, not for what he did. The Crime of the "Rusty Spoons" Some twenty years ago, Seselj became notorious in Western media for having allegedly boasted of "tearing out the eyes of Croats with rusty spoons". This was one of the main horror stories that built the reputation of Serbs as genocidal maniacs. Vojislav Seselj was never one to be concerned with political correctness. He gained a certain prominence in the early 1980s as one of Yugoslavia's best-known political prisoners. Internationally known intellectuals of the Praxis group rallied to his defense on grounds of free speech, even though they disagreed with him on just about all major questions, as they tended to be reformist Marxists and Seselj was strongly anti-communist. But even his adversaries acknowledged his courage and intelligence. Under Milosevic, political prisoners were released, and in the early 1990s Seselj became leader of the Serbian Radical Party, a revival of Serbia's main historic political party from Serbia's democratic heyday in the early 1900s, before World War I and the creation of Yugoslavia at the Versailles conference. As Yugoslavia began to break up under the pressure of Croatian and Slovenian secessionism, Seselj became the leading champion of Serb nationalism, meaning roughly the idea that if Yugoslavia were to break up into its component nations, Serbia should revert to the nation it could have been as a victor in World War I before the creation of Yugoslavia, World War II, and the Communist division of Yugoslav territory – in short, "Greater Serbia". Milosevic never endorsed this idea. In 1991, conflict was brewing between ethnic Serbs and nationalist Croats in regions of Croatia with a large Serb population. Some Serbs fled to Serbia, fearful of a return of the Nazi-backed Ustasha movement that massacred Serbs after Nazi Germany invaded and broke up Yugoslavia in 1941. While the conflict aroused Serb fears of Ustasha, it also aroused Croat fears of Chetniks – the name for Serb guerrillas in wars against the Ottoman Empire or against the Nazi occupation. That year, Seselj was guest on a satirical television show called Minimaxovision that made fun of the accusations against Serbs. "So you Chetniks are slaughtering people again?" Seselj was asked. He replied deadpan: "of course, only we have changed our methodology. Now, instead of knives we use shoe horns. And rusty ones at that, so that it cannot be established whether the victim died because of butchering or from tetanus." The talk show participants laughed at the absurdity of using shoe horns. This was graveyard humor in a tradition understood perhaps in Belgrade, but not everywhere. Urged on by their Croat friends, Western reporters took the whole thing seriously. The tasteless joke became a testimony to the fact that Seselj had boasted that his men slaughtered Croats with rusty spoons (the word kasika means both spoon and shoe horn in Serbian). Since then, Seselj has explained repeatedly that he was joking. But the story lives on. The May 22 report on Nikolic's election in the International Herald Tribune included a background reference to Vojislav Seselj who "said he would like to gouge out the eyes of Croats with a rusty spoon. He is now in The Hague for war crimes." An unmentioned aspect of this story is that in a paradoxical way it echoes the Italian author Curzio Malaparte, who wrote in "Kaputt", his autobiographical account of Italy's role in World War II, that when he visited the Leader of the fascist Independent State of Croatia, Ustasha chief Ante Pavelic, he was shown a basket of what looked like oysters and was told they were "human eyes… gouged from Serbs". Personally, I have never been able to take Malaparte's story literally, and tend to think that it, too, is an illustration of a certain Balkan humor. The simplistic belief that the Yugoslav wars of disintegration were caused solely by evil Serbs, imitating Hitler, is necessary to justify NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in order to "save the Kosovars". This myth must be upheld as precedent for further "humanitarian intervention" whenever the United States and NATO decide to overthrow another recalcitrant government somewhere. Until NATO goes broke, or Western citizens wake up and oppose endless war, the Serbs have no chance of achieving truth or justice. They can only console themselves with graveyard humor. |
June 02, 2012
Pentagon Consolidates Control Over Balkans - US Military Presence in the former Yugoslavia
Pentagon Consolidates Control Over Balkans: US Military Presence in the former Yugoslavia By Rick Rozoff | |
Global Research, May 30, 2012 | |
URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=31128 | |
Ahead of, during and after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 25th summit in Chicago on May 20-21, the Pentagon has continued expanding its permanent military presence in the former Yugoslavia and the rest of the Balkan region. The military bloc's two-day conclave in Chicago formalized, among several other initiatives including the initial activation of its U.S.-dominated interceptor missile system and Global Hawk-equipped Alliance Ground Surveillance operations, a new category of what NATO calls aspirant countries next in line for full Alliance membership. Three of them are former Yugoslav federal republics - Bosnia, Macedonia and Montenegro - and the fourth is Georgia, conflicts involving which could be the most immediate cause of a confrontation between the world's two major nuclear powers. This year new NATO partnership formats have sprung up like poisonous toadstools after a summer rain: Aspirants countries, the Partnership Cooperation Menu, the Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme, the Connected Forces Initiative and partners across the globe among them. The military bloc's inauguration as an active, aggressive military force in Bosnia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the 1990s laid the groundwork for the U.S.'s already unmatched military to move troops, hardware and bases into Southeast Europe for actions there and to points east and south: The Middle East, the Caucasus, North Africa and Central and South Asia. Since 2004 several nations in the east and west Balkans - Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia and Albania - have been incorporated into the alliance as full members and the remainder - Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and the generally unrecognized Republic of Kosovo - have in the first four instances joined NATO's Partnership for Peace program and in the last had its nascent armed forces, the Kosovo Security Force, built from scratch by the leading alliance powers. Macedonia, which would have become a full member in 2009 except for the lingering name dispute with Greece, and Montenegro have been granted the Membership Action Plan, the final stage before full accession, and Bosnia will be accorded the same once the quasi-autonomous Republika Srpska is deemed properly stripped of the last vestige of self-governance. NATO and the wars waged under its command, not only in the Balkans but in Afghanistan and all but officially in Iraq, have provided the Pentagon the mammoth Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo and three major air bases in Bulgaria and Romania as well as headquarters for new military task forces and jumping-off points for "downrange" operations outside Europe. The U.S. Department of Defense has also acquired subservient legionaries for wars in Asia and Africa and training grounds for American and multinational expeditionary units employed in 21st century neo-colonial wars far beyond the Euro-Atlantic area. Romania will host 24 U.S. Standard Missile-3 interceptors starting in three years. NATO's Cooperative Longbow and Cooperative Lancer 2012 command and field exercises started in Macedonia on the second day of the Chicago NATO summit, May 21, and ended on May 29. The largest of four such exercises held within the framework of the Partnership for Peace program - "to train, exercise, and promote the interoperability of Partnership for Peace forces using NATO standards" - to date, this year's Longbow/Lancer drills included 2,200 troops from several NATO and a dozen Partnership for Peace nations, a total of 25 countries including the U.S. On May 26 U.S. Army Europe and U.S. Air Forces in Europe launched the Immediate Response 2012 exercise in Croatia with military personnel from the host country, Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro and Slovenia. Macedonia and Serbia sent observers. A report on the opening of the exercise posted on the website of U.S. European Command appended this paragraph: "U.S. Army Europe is uniquely positioned to advance American strategic interests across Eurasia, building teams, assuring allies and deterring enemies. The relationships we build during more than 1,000 theater security cooperation events in more than 40 countries each year lead directly to support for U.S. actions such as in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya." Balkan states Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania and Slovenia deployed troops to Iraq after 2003 and all those nations as well as Montenegro (which became independent in 2006) have troops under NATO command in Afghanistan currently. NATO's Allied Joint Force Command Naples has military missions in Bosnia, Macedonia and Serbia. On May 28 the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff began a two-week disaster management and crisis response exercise, Shared Resilience 2012, in Bosnia. In addition to the U.S. and Bosnia, participating nations include Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia and Slovenia. Immediately before the NATO summit, the U.S. Marines Corps' Black Sea Rotational Force 2012 held multinational exercises near Constanta, Romania from May 7-18. The Black Sea Rotational Force was established in 2010 and last year doubled the duration of its training exercises in the Balkans, the Black Sea region and the South Caucasus from three to six months annually. Now spending half the year in the geopolitically vital area, the Black Sea Rotational Force recently announced its mission of building "enduring partnerships with 19 nations throughout Eastern Europe.” The U.S. Marines are being hosted by Romania from April 2 to September 1. Prior to that Black Sea Rotational Force 2012 participated in the Agile Spirit 2012 exercise in Georgia in March. U.S. Army Europe's Task Force East, employing Stryker combat vehicles, also operates out of Romania as well as Bulgaria: The Mihal Kogălniceanu Airfield and the Babadag Training Area in the first country and the Novo Selo Training Area in the second. In 2009 Task Force East spent three months training in Romania and Bulgaria, primarily preparing troops from the U.S. and the two host nations for operations in Afghanistan. This year NATO officially identified Afghanistan and Iraq as military partners, in the category of partners across the globe. Since the end of NATO operations against Libya last October, the bloc's secretary general and its American ambassador, Anders Fogh Rasmussen and Ivo Daalder, have mentioned Libya joining NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue military partnership with the other nations of North Africa. Each NATO military operation over the past 17 years, in Bosnia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya, has provided the alliance with bases, centers, troops and logistics for later and for future wars. Air bases in Bulgaria and Romania were employed for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and, as noted above, every Balkan nation but Serbia has supplied troops for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pentagon and NATO military personnel, aircraft, ships and radar in Southeast Europe can be used in attacks on Syria and Iran and in any new armed conflict in the South Caucasus, such as the five-day war between Georgia and Russia four years ago. The U.S. and its NATO allies are expanding their military presence and infrastructure ever closer to new theaters of war. | |
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