Robert Fisk

Friday 30 August 2013

Iran, not Syria, is the West's real target

Iran is ever more deeply involved in protecting the Syrian government. Thus a victory for Bashar is a victory for Iran. And Iranian victories cannot be tolerated by the West

Before the stupidest Western war in the history of the modern world begins – I am, of course, referring to the attack on Syria that we all yet have to swallow – it might be as well to say that the cruise missiles which we confidently expect to sweep onto one of mankind's oldest cities have absolutely nothing to do with Syria. 

They are intended to harm Iran. They are intended to strike at the Islamic republic now that it has a new and vibrant president – as opposed to the crackpot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – and when it just might be a little more stable.

Iran is Israel's enemy. Iran is therefore, naturally, America's enemy. So fire the missiles at Iran's only Arab ally.

There is nothing pleasant about the regime in Damascus. Nor do these comments let the regime off the hook when it comes to mass gassing. But I am old enough to remember that when Iraq – then America's ally – used gas against the Kurds of Hallabjah in 1988, we did not assault Baghdad. Indeed, that attack would have to wait until 2003, when Saddam no longer had any gas or any of the other weapons we had nightmares over.

And I also happen to remember that the CIA put it about in 1988 that Iran was responsible for the Hallabjah gassings, a palpable lie that focused on America's enemy whom Saddam was then fighting on our behalf. And thousands – not hundreds – died in Hallabjah. But there you go. Different days, different standards.

And I suppose it's worth noting that when Israel killed up to 17,000 men, women and children in Lebanon in 1982, in an invasion supposedly provoked by the attempted PLO murder of the Israeli ambassador in London – it was Saddam's mate Abu Nidal who arranged the killing, not the PLO, but that doesn't matter now – America merely called for both sides to exercise "restraint". And when, a few months before that invasion, Hafez al-Assad – father of Bashar – sent his brother up to Hama to wipe out thousands of Muslim Brotherhood rebels, nobody muttered a word of condemnation. "Hama Rules" is how my old mate Tom Friedman cynically styled this bloodbath.

Anyway, there's a different Brotherhood around these days – and Obama couldn't even bring himself to say "boo" when their elected president got deposed.

But hold on. Didn't Iraq – when it was "our" ally against Iran – also use gas on the Iranian army? It did. I saw the Ypres-like wounded of this foul attack by Saddam – US officers, I should add, toured the battlefield later and reported back to Washington – and we didn't care a tinker's curse about it. Thousands of Iranian soldiers in the 1980-88 war were poisoned to death by this vile weapon.

I travelled back to Tehran overnight on a train of military wounded and actually smelled the stuff, opening the windows in the corridors to release the stench of the gas. These young men had wounds upon wounds – quite literally. They had horrible sores wherein floated even more painful sores that were close to indescribable. Yet when the soldiers were sent to Western hospitals for treatment, we journos called these wounded – after evidence from the UN infinitely more convincing than what we're likely to get from outside Damascus – "alleged" gas victims.

 So what in heaven's name are we doing? After countless thousands have died in Syria's awesome tragedy, suddenly – now, after months and years of prevarication – we are getting upset about a few hundred deaths. Terrible. Unconscionable. Yes, that is true. But we should have been traumatised into action by this war in 2011. And 2012. But why now? 

I suspect I know the reason. I think that Bashar al-Assad's ruthless army might just be winning against the rebels whom we secretly arm. With the assistance of the Lebanese Hezbollah – Iran's ally in Lebanon – the Damascus regime broke the rebels in Qusayr and may be in the process of breaking them north of Homs. Iran is ever more deeply involved in protecting the Syrian government. Thus a victory for Bashar is a victory for Iran. And Iranian victories cannot be tolerated by the West.

 And while we're on the subject of war, what happened to those magnificent Palestinian-Israeli negotiations that John Kerry was boasting about? While we express our anguish at the hideous gassings in Syria, the land of Palestine continues to be gobbled up. Israel's Likudist policy – to negotiate for peace until there is no Palestine left – continues apace, which is why King Abdullah of Jordan's nightmare (a much more potent one than the "weapons of mass destruction" we dreamed up in 2003) grows larger: that "Palestine" will be in Jordan, not in Palestine.

 But if we are to believe the nonsense coming out of Washington, London, Paris and the rest of the "civilised" world, it's only a matter of time before our swift and avenging sword smiteth the Damascenes. To observe the leadership of the rest of the Arab world applauding this destruction is perhaps the most painful historical experience for the region to endure. And the most shameful. Save for the fact that we will be attacking Shia Muslims and their allies to the handclapping of Sunni Muslims. And that's what civil war is made of.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/iran-not-syria-is-the-wests-real-target-8789506.html?origin=internalSearch

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August 23, 2013

Air War in Kosovo Seen as Precedent in Possible Response to Syria Chemical Attack

By MARK LANDLER and MICHAEL R. GORDON

WASHINGTON — As President Obama weighs options for responding to a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, his national security aides are studying the NATO air war in Kosovo as a possible blueprint for acting without a mandate from the United Nations.

With Russia still likely to veto any military action in the Security Council, the president appears to be wrestling with whether to bypass the United Nations, although he warned that doing so would require a robust international coalition and legal justification.

"If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it, do we have the coalition to make it work?" Mr. Obama said on Friday to CNN, in his first public comments after the deadly attack on Wednesday.

Mr. Obama described the attack as "clearly a big event of grave concern" and acknowledged that the United States had limited time to respond. But he said United Nations investigators needed to determine whether chemical weapons had been used.

Mr. Obama was meeting on Saturday morning with his national security staff to discuss Syria, according to a White House official, having returned from a two-day bus tour of upstate New York and Pennsylvania.

"We are going to act very deliberately so that we're making decisions consistent with our national interest as well as our assessment of what can advance our objectives in Syria," the official said.

Kosovo is an obvious precedent for Mr. Obama because, as in Syria, civilians were killed and Russia had longstanding ties to the government authorities accused of the abuses. In 1999, President Bill Clinton used the endorsement of NATO and the rationale of protecting a vulnerable population to justify 78 days of airstrikes.

A senior administration official said the Kosovo precedent was one of many subjects discussed in continuing White House meetings on the crisis in Syria. Officials are also debating whether a military strike would have unintended consequences, destabilize neighbors like Lebanon, or lead to even greater flows of refugees into Jordan, Turkey and Egypt.

"It's a step too far to say we're drawing up legal justifications for an action, given that the president hasn't made a decision," said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the deliberations. "But Kosovo, of course, is a precedent of something that is perhaps similar."

In the Mediterranean, the Navy's regional commander postponed a scheduled port call in Naples, Italy, for a destroyer so that the ship would remain with a second destroyer in striking distance of Syria during the crisis. Pentagon officials said the decision did not reflect any specific orders from Washington, but both destroyers had on board Tomahawk cruise missiles, long-range weapons that probably would be among the first launched against targets in Syria should the president decide to take military action.

On Friday, the Russian government called on President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to allow United Nations investigators into the areas east of Damascus where the attack occurred. But American and foreign diplomats said Russia's move did not reflect any shift in its backing of Mr. Assad or its resistance to punitive measures in the Security Council.

In a statement, Russia's foreign ministry put the onus on Syria's opposition forces to provide secure access to the site of the "reported incident." A second statement suggested that the Russians believed the attack was actually a provocation by the rebels. It cited reports criticizing government troops that were posted on the Internet hours before the attack.

"More and more evidence emerges indicating that this criminal act had an openly provocative character," Aleksandr K. Lukashevich, a spokesman for Russia's foreign ministry, said in the statement. "The talk here is about a previously planned action."

However, Mr. Lukashevich may have been confused by YouTube's practice of time-stamping uploaded videos based on the time in its California headquarters, no matter the originating time zone. The attacks occurred early Wednesday in Syria, when it would still have been Tuesday in California for about eight more hours.

Mr. Lukashevich praised the Assad government for welcoming Carla del Ponte, a member of a United Nations commission on Syria who suggested in May that the rebels had used chemical weapons, and he accused the Syrian opposition of not cooperating with the investigation by United Nations experts.

The Syrian government did not comment on Friday.

On Friday CBS News, citing administration officials, reported that American intelligence agencies detected activity at locations known to be chemical weapons sites before Wednesday's attack. The activity, these officials believe, may have been preparations for the assault.

Other Western officials have been less cautious than Mr. Obama. "I know that some people in the world would like to say that this is some kind of conspiracy brought about by the opposition in Syria," said William Hague, Britain's foreign secretary, in an interview with Sky News. "I think the chances of that are vanishingly small, and so we do believe that this is a chemical attack by the Assad regime."

Mr. Hague did not speak of using force, as France has, if the government was found to have been behind the attack. But he said it was "not something that a humane or civilized world can ignore."

Such statements carry echoes of Kosovo, where the Yugoslav government of Slobodan Milosevic brutally cracked down on ethnic Albanians in 1998 and 1999, prompting the Clinton administration to decide to act militarily in concert with NATO allies.

Mr. Clinton knew there was no prospect of securing a resolution from the Security Council authorizing the use of force. Russia was a longtime supporter of the Milosevic government and was certain to wield its vote in the Security Council to block action.

So the Clinton administration justified its actions, in part, as an intervention to protect a vulnerable and embattled population. NATO carried out airstrikes before Mr. Milosevic agreed to NATO demands, which required the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces.

"The argument in 1999 in the case of Kosovo was that there was a grave humanitarian emergency and the international community had the responsibility to act and, if necessary, to do so with force," said Ivo H. Daalder, a former United States ambassador to NATO who is now the president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

In the case of Syria, Mr. Daalder said, the administration could argue that the use of chemical weapons had created a grave humanitarian emergency and that without a forceful response there would be a danger that the Assad government might use it on a large scale once again. Another basis for intervening in Syria, Mr. Daalder said, might be violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which outlaws the use in war of poison gas. Dennis B. Ross, a former adviser to Mr. Obama on the Middle East, said that if the president wanted to develop a legal justification for acting, "there are lots of ways to do it outside the U.N. context."

Reporting was contributed by Mark Mazzetti and Thom Shanker from Washington, Steven Lee Myers from Moscow and David Jolly from Paris.

 

 

http://nyti.ms/1f8j2Jm

 

Globe and Mail : Why this strategy won’t fly in Syria - by Lewis MacKenzie

 

"No-Fly Zones-not what they used to be!"

 

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/why-this-strategy-wont-fly-in-syria/article12786362/

 

LEWIS MacKENZIE

 

Why this strategy won't fly in Syria 

 

Lewis MacKenzie    Special to The Globe and Mail    Published Jun. 25 2013

 

 

So, here we go again. President Barack Obama has decided that the U.S. will supply small-arms to the rebels in Syria fighting the al-Assad regime for control of the country. Record this decision as the equivalent of a bobsled leaving the downhill start at the top of the St. Moritz run in Switzerland. We now have the West, led by the U.S. with potentially Canada sharing the sled, on a slippery slop toward what has become well known over the years as "mission creep." Anyone remember Iraq, Kosovo or Libya?

 

If recent history is a guide, the next development as the slope gets steeper will be a call for a no-fly zone over Syria. No-fly zones were originally imposed by the allies following the first Persian Gulf war in 1991. Primarily U.S. and British fighter aircraft patrolled the skies over Iraq to ensure no Iraqi aircraft could threaten groups like the minority Kurdish population in the north of the country. In the memorable words of Senator John McCain, the technique, in its simplest description, tells pilots: "Don't fly or you're going to die." As the 12-year operation of patrolling the skies over Iraq got under way, an additional caveat was inserted into the no-fly protocol. Iraqi ground-based air defence units could continue to be deployed; however, if they turned their radars on and "painted" Allied aircraft enforcing the no-fly zone they would be destroyed on the spot. The no-fly zone operation was successful and achieved its objective of grounding all Iraqi military aircraft.

 

In 1999, with NATO celebrating its 50th anniversary and no enemy in sight to justify its existence, it sought a new role and solicited a UN resolution to establish a no-fly zone over Serbia/Kosovo – the scene of a civil conflict in the latter, with involvement of the former. When it proved impossible for the UN Security Council to approve such a resolution, NATO, in a highly questionable and arguably illegal move, commenced bombing a sovereign nation, the former Yugoslavia (Serbia/Kosovo).

 

Justification, it was argued, was provided by a dated, no-longer-applicable UN resolution that provided for a no-fly zone to protect European Union monitors in Kosovo. The fact that the EU monitors were no longer deployed in Kosovo was conveniently ignored. What followed was an all-out bombing campaign against the infrastructure of the former Yugoslavia, all under the guise of enforcing a "no-fly zone." The term was beginning to get a bad reputation.

 

In March of 2011, the UN Security Council agonized over what to do about Moammar Gadhafi's heavy-handed treatment of parts of his population as he sought to put down a rebellion in the eastern coastal regions of his country. After debating what the response should be, the Security Council came up with a result that will haunt its deliberations for the foreseeable future, including how to deal with the current crisis in Syria.

UN Resolution 1973 proposed a no-fly zone over Libya, and following extensive discussions among the Permanent Five (the U.S., Britain, Russia, France and China), both Russia and China went along, having been convinced that the no-fly zone would be the version espoused by the aforementioned Mr. McCain.

 

From Day 1 of UN Resolution 1973's approval, NATO commenced all-out attacks on Libya's aircraft on the ground, airfields, command-and control centres, supply depots, military units and so on. Russia and China had been well and truly duped and it is highly doubtful they will ever allow that to happen again, given the abused interpretation of what constitutes a no-fly zone.

 

Does Russia's recent accelerated delivery of S-300 long-range surface-to-air missiles to Syria have anything to do with being embarrassed by NATO's aggressive application of the UN-approved no-fly zone in Libya and not wanting to see a repeat performance? Probably. Would it preclude the establishment of a no-fly zone over parts or all of Syria? Probably not, as a good deal of the enforcement could be imposed from outside Syria's borders by stand-off weapons, including air-to-air missiles and cruise missiles, both air- and sea-launched.

 

The complex situation in Syria's civil war becomes increasingly so by the day, as more and more outsiders get involved on both sides. Canada is wise to limit its support to helping the war's displaced persons and refugees. Signing up to another no-fly zone "solution" would not be wise.

 

Retired major-general Lewis MacKenzie was the first commander of United Nations peacekeeping forces in Sarajevo.

 

 

 

 

 

The Evisceration of Yugoslavia: Part IV: The Kosovo/Albania Golden Triangle

The Evisceration of Yugoslavia: Part IV: The Kosovo/Albania Golden Triangle

February 27, 2013 — Dean Henderson

(Part four of a five-part series excerpted from Chapter 15: Yugoslavia Bad, Greater Albania Good: Big Oil & Their Bankers…)

In 1996 the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) began training the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The Bundesnachrichtendienst had been launched in 1956 to succeed the Nazi Gehlen organization.  The idea of a Greater Albania was a vision of the Nazis during their WWII occupation of Yugoslavia.  That vision was now shared by NATO.  BND was headed by Hasjorg Geiger, who set up a huge BND regional station in Tirana, Albania in 1995.

The CIA set up a large operation in Tirana a year earlier.  President Sali Berisha had taken charge of the country of Albania earlier in the 1990's.  Darling of the IMF, he opened Albania's economy to Western multinationals and banks and was rewarded with a huge IMF loan package.

In 1994, the same year the Company landed in Tirana, a bank pyramid scheme over which Berisha presided with his new IMF kitty suddenly collapsed, obliterating the life savings of thousands of Albanians.  The scheme fit into a pattern of earlier IMF/BCCI coordinated rip-offs of Third World debtor nations.  Berisha was ousted from Tirana, but fled to northern Albania and took control of this increasingly lawless region, which became a major smuggling route for Golden Crescent heroin and arms.

With help from the Albanian secret police (SHIK), CIA and BND recruited potential KLA fighters from the ranks of these smugglers, many of whom the CIA had helped get into the smack business in Peshawar, Pakistan a decade earlier[1].  German Kommandos Spezialkrafte (KSS) wearing black uniforms trained the KLA and armed them with East German weapons.  Later in neighboring Kosovo there were many reports of men wearing black uniforms terrorizing Kosovo peasants.  While the US claimed these were Yugoslav Special Forces they were likely members of the German KSS who were leading KLA raids inside Kosovo.

The KLA took to wearing Bundeshehr combat jackets with German insignia.  Germany was the first country to recognize Croatia in 1990, even before Croatian separatists had begun their revolt against Belgrade.  The Germans spearheaded the campaign that encouraged Croatia to secede from Yugoslavia.  When the new government was established in Zagreb, it adopted the flag and national anthem of Hitler's puppet Utashe.  In 1998 the KLA had been a small terrorist cell with only 300 members.  After a year of steady arms shipments and training from the US, Britain and Germany; the KLA became a major guerrilla army with 30,000 members.  Osama bin Laden senior lieutenant Mohammed al-Zawahiri served as a KLA commander.

KLA provocations served as the pretext for NATO aggression against Yugoslavia and for the partition of mineral and oil-rich Kosovo.  Yugoslav security forces battled KLA terrorism while also clamping down on incidents of excessive Serb retaliation, arresting more than 500 Serbs for crimes against Albanian civilians. [2]  President Milosevic had always advocated ethnic equality and harmony.  His delegation to the Rambouillet peace talks in France consisted of people from every ethnic group in Yugoslavia, including Albanians.  Serbs were actually a minority in the delegation.

A 1992 speech was typical of Milosevic's thinking on ethnic tensions in Kosovo, which Western intelligence agencies had historically exploited.  He stated, "We know that there are many Albanians in Kosovo who do not approve of the separatist policy of their nationalist leaders.  They are under pressure, intimidated and blackmailed.  But we shall not respond with the like.  We must respond by offering our hand, living with them in equality and not permitting that a single Albanian child, woman or man be discriminated against in Kosovo in any way.  We must…insist on a policy of brotherhood, unity and ethnic equality in Kosovo.  We shall persevere on this policy."[3]

By the end of its Yugoslav bombing campaign NATO had moved into Kosovo as an occupation force under the auspices of KFOR.  NATO continued to turn a blind eye to renegade KLA bands who attacked Serb civilians under KFOR watch, while aiding and abetting NLA rebels now attempting to lop off a piece of Macedonia for the international banker cause.  The US built its biggest military base since Vietnam in Kosovo. [4]

Meanwhile Albania was being turned into a CIA terrorist training camp, heroin production center and arms supermarket.  A March 6, 1995 report from the Greek Athens News Agency quoted Greek Public Order Minister Sifis Valyrakis as saying that he believed the government of Albania was involved in the production and trafficking of narcotics from Skopje, Macedonia, where US and NATO troops massed during the war in Kosovo.

Valyrakis said opium was being grown in the Chimarra area of southern Albania where heroin labs had sprung up in a triangle area formed by the cities of Gevgeli, Prilep and Pristina in the countries of Albania, Macedonia and breakaway Kosovo.  He cited involvement in the heroin traffic of the US-allied Macedonian military and the Turkish Gray Wolves mafia, long a CIA ally.  He noted a flourishing arms trade developing in Macedonia and Kosovo and said Albanian separatists in Yugoslavia were at the center of both heroin and arms rings, which were being based out of Pristina, home to the NATO KFOR "peacekeeping" effort in Kosovo.

According to historian Alfred McCoy, "Albanian exiles used drug profits to ship Czech and Swiss arms back to Kosovo for the separatist guerrillas of the KLA.  In 1997-1998, these Kosovar drug syndicates armed the KLA for a revolt against Belgrade's army… Even after the 1999 Kumanovo agreement settled the Kosovo conflict, the UN administration of the province… allowed thriving heroin traffic… Commanders of the KLA… continued to dominate the transit traffic through the Balkans."[5]

A report filed with Reuters on June 16, 1995 by Benet Koleka from Tirana charged the Albanian government with secretly dumping tons of weaponry into Rwanda prior to the genocide which occurred in that central African country.  Albania's largest daily Koha Jone reported that several Antonov 122 cargo planes left Gjadri Airbase in Albania loaded with arms bound for Rwanda.  Amnesty International interviewed four of the pilots who flew the Antonovs. All claimed they were working for a British company.

They said they flew the weapons to the Democratic Republic of Congo and unloaded them at Goma airport near the Rwandan border.  They said they also flew loads of weapons to Goma from Israel and that there were Israeli Mossad agents working at Gjadri Airbase who supervised the Albanian operation.  That same year a spooky US defense contractor known as RONCO was in Rwanda under the pretext of de-mining.  Ronco was actually importing military hardware for the Pentagon and passing it out to Rwandan forces just before the Rwandan depopulation began. [6]

The Washington Times reported in 1999, "The Kosovo Liberation Army, which the Clinton Administration has embraced and some members of Congress want to arm as part of a NATO bombing campaign, is a terrorist organization that has financed much of its war effort with profits from the sale of heroin". [7]

In 1999 a Times of London expose found that the KLA was the world's main supplier of heroin, inheriting that claim from the last CIA surrogates – the mujahadeen.  Europol joined the governments of Sweden, Switzerland and Germany in investigating KLA ties to the heroin trade.  Walter Kege, head of the drug enforcement unit of Swedish police intelligence stated, "We have intelligence leading us to believe that there is a connection between drug money and the Kosovo Liberation Army."  Germany's Berliner Zeitung quoted a Western intelligence report which stated that 900 million Deutsch marks had flowed into Kosovo since the KLA began attacking the Yugoslav government in 1997.  Half was derived from drug proceeds.

German police noted a parallel between the rise of the KLA and an increase in ethnic Albanian heroin trafficking in Germany, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries.  Police in Czechoslovakia tracked down an Albanian who escaped a Norwegian prison where he was serving 12 years for heroin trafficking.  In his apartment they found documents linking him to several arms purchases made on behalf of the KLA. [8]  Germany's Federal Criminal Agency concluded, "Ethnic Albanians are now the most prominent group in the distribution of heroin in Western consumer countries."  Europol is preparing a detailed report on KLA/Albanian heroin trafficking for the World Court in The Hague.  Many KLA fighters had been trained at the same heroin-infested camps in Pakistan from which the Afghan Taliban emerged.

In 1997 Chechen warlords trained at those same camps began buying large chunks of real estate in Kosovo.  Saudi-born Chechen rebel leader Emir al-Khattab set up camps in Chechnya to train KLA troops.  Both endeavors were financed through heroin sales, prostitution rings, arms dealing and counterfeiting. [9]  After the KLA was unable to take Kosovo from what remained of Yugoslavia on their own, the US propaganda machine once again ratcheted up the pressure, accusing the Serb majority of conducting another ethnic cleansing campaign, this time against the Kosovo Albanian heroin mafia.  Again the media parroted the CIA campaign to demonize the Serbs.

On March 24, 1999 US bombs rained down on Belgrade.  Milosevic was stalked by Armenian contract killers hired by CIA.  Schools, factories, hospitals, power plants, buses, trains and hay carts loaded with civilians were bombed.  The economic infrastructure of Yugoslavia was decimated- Pink Plan-style.  In a moment of historical irony NATO bombed the same Novi Sad Bridge over the Danube River where thousands of Serbs had died fighting during the Nazi invasion of 1941.  The city of Novi Sad lost two other bridges and an oil refinery.  Resident Jasminka Bajic told of how she lost her husband Milan, as he stood in the doorway of their Novi Sad house, "It was 12:20 AM on June 8, 1999.  No one expected the bombs to hit that close to the houses.  I had to sell all my cattle to buy the gravestone."[10]

The city of Pancevo near Belgrade was leveled along with numerous fertilizer and petrochemical plants and an oil refinery.  Noxious gases filled the air. Ammonia, mercury and crude oil polluted the Danube.  Pancevo mayor Borislava Kruska called the NATO bombing, "An environmental disaster…a crime against humanity.  The international community is primarily concerned about Novi Sad bridges not because of our suffering but because they want their navigational route opened."[11]  On May 7, 1999 a NATO bomb destroyed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, provoking sharp rebukes from the Chinese government and its people.  That same day NATO bombs destroyed a hospital and market in Nis killing fifteen people.  Protestors in Belgrade took to calling NATO the Nazi American Terrorist Organization.

All told 2,000 Yugoslav civilians were killed by the NATO bombings and 10,000 more injured.  Thousands more lost their homes and apartments, which were deliberately targeted by NATO bombs in an attempt to convince the Yugoslav people to cry "uncle". [12]  At Stari Trg mine Director Novak Bjelic, who worked for the Yugoslav state-owned Trepca, said when the US bombing began, "The war in Kosovo is all about the mines, nothing else.  In addition, Kosovo has seventeen billion tons of coal reserves".

One of the most publicized "massacres" purportedly carried out by the Yugoslav Army against Kosovo Albanians occurred at Racak.  A group called Kosovo International Monitors spearheaded the hype.  Its leader was William Walker, who earlier helped Oliver North's Enterprise arm the contras.  While Walker spewed his version of the events at Racak to an eager US media, many European media outlets including the BBC, the German Die Welt, Radio France International and the French Le Figaro, began to question Walker's account, which of course blamed the Serbs.

A French TV crew in Racak when the alleged massacre occurred said the "massacre" had actually been a firefight between the Yugoslav Army and KLA ambushers.  Later men in black uniforms came to the scene and redressed the KLA dead in civilian clothing.  Yugoslav forensics experts agreed that the Racak Massacre was a hoax.  It bore striking similarities to the Breadline Massacre in Bosnia, where it was later found that Muslim fighters had stage-managed a massacre for the Western media. [13]  The incident led to UN sanctions against Yugoslavia.  The French newspaper Le Monde reported from Pristina on January 21, 1999 that two AP journalists had contradicted Walker's account of the events at Racak.  They said there were few empty rifle cartridges at the site and hardly any blood near the bodies.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe sent in a team of Finnish pathologists at the request of the Yugoslav government, which also invited a second team from Belarus.  Both teams confirmed Yugoslav suspicions that the victims had died from long-range gunshots, with short-range bullet holes and knife wounds inflicted on the already dead bodies.  They also found that bullet holes didn't match up with tears in the clothing on the bodies, indicating that the clothes had been changed by those black uniformed men- probably the same KSS German Special Forces who trained the KLA.  Neither report was ever published in the US media. The incident was reminiscent of a maneuver that Adolf Hitler used in 1939 to justify his march into Poland.  Hitler dressed dead prisoners in Polish Army uniforms and left them near a border radio station, which Hitler then claimed was attacked by the Polish Army. [14]  Within a week 1.5 million Nazi troops marched into Poland.

BBC News reported in December 2004 that a $1.2 billion oil pipeline, south of that massive US Army base in Kosovo, was approved by the governments of Albania, Bulgaria and Macedonia. [15]

[1] "KLA a Creation of Western Intelligence". Anthony Wayne. http://www.lawgiver.org 4-11-99

[2] "Milosevic Defiantly Defends His Role in Kosovo Conflict". Fox News. 8-24-01

[3] "Milosevic Addresses Kosovo Polje Rally". Radio Belgrade. 12-17-92

[4] Escobar

[5] The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia. Alfred W. McCoy. Lawrence Hill Books/Chicago Review Press. Chicago. 2001. p.517

[6] Silverstein

[7] Washington Times. 5-3-99

[8] "The KLA: Drug Money Linked to Kosovo Rebels". The Times of London. 3-24-99

[9] Chossudovsky

[10] "The Danube: Europe's River of Harmony and Discord". Cliff Tarpy. National Geographic. March 2002

[11] Ibid

[12] "War Criminals, Real and Imagined". Gregory Elich. Covert Action Quarterly. Winter 2001. p.22

[13] "Statement on Kosovo in Tandem with the Rockford Institute". Chronicles. 3-25-99

[14] Marrs. p.171

[15] "al-Qaeda, US Oil Companies and Central Asia". Peter Dale Scott. Nexus. May-June 2006. p.11-15

Dean Henderson is the author of four books: Big Oil & Their Bankers in the Persian Gulf: Four Horsemen, Eight Families & Their Global Intelligence, Narcotics & Terror Network, The Grateful Unrich: Revolution in 50 Countries, Das Kartell der Federal Reserve & Stickin' it to the Matrix. You can subscribe free to his weekly Left Hook column @ www.deanhenderson.wordpress.com

 

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Judge at War Crimes Tribunal Faults Acquittals of Serb and Croat Commanders

Judge at War Crimes Tribunal Faults Acquittals of Serb and Croat Commanders

By MARLISE SIMONS

Published: June 14, 2013

PARIS — A judge at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague has exposed a deep rift at the highest levels of the court in a blistering letter suggesting that the court's president, an American, pressured other judges into approving the recent acquittals of top Serb and Croat commanders.

 

The letter from the judge, Frederik Harhoff of Denmark, raised serious questions about the credibility of the court, which was created in 1993 to address the atrocities committed in the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

Even before Judge Harhoff's letter was made public Thursday, in the Danish newspaper Berlingske, the recent acquittals had provoked a storm of complaints from international lawyers, human rights groups and other judges at the court, who claimed in private that the rulings had abruptly rewritten legal standards that had been applied in earlier cases.

Experts say they see a shift in the court toward protecting the interests of the military. "A decade ago, there was a very strong humanitarian message coming out of the tribunal, very concerned with the protection of civilians," said William Schabas, who teaches law at Middlesex University in London. "It was not concerned with the prerogatives of the military and the police. This message has now been weakened, there is less protection for civilians and human rights."

Other lawyers agreed that the tribunal, which has pioneered new laws, is sending a new message to other armies: they do not need to be as frightened of international justice as they might have been four or five years ago.

But until now, no judge at the tribunal had openly attributed the apparent change to the court's current president, Theodor Meron, 83, a longtime legal scholar and judge.

Judge Harhoff's letter, dated June 6, was e-mailed to 56 lawyers, friends and associates; the newspaper did not say how it obtained a copy.

In his letter, Judge Harhoff, 64, who has been on the tribunal since 2007, said that in two cases Judge Meron, a United States citizen who was formerly an Israeli diplomat, applied "tenacious pressure" on his fellow judges in such a way that it "makes you think he was determined to achieve an acquittal."

"Have any American or Israeli officials ever exerted pressure on the American presiding judge (the presiding judge for the court that is) to ensure a change of direction?" Judge Harhoff asked. "We will probably never know."

A spokesman at the court declined to comment on the letter. Other judges and lawyers were willing to speak, provided that their names were not used.

By their accounts, a mini-rebellion has been brewing against Judge Meron, prompting some of the 18 judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to group around an alternative candidate for the election for tribunal president this fall.

"I'd say about half the judges are feeling very uncomfortable and prefer to turn to a different candidate," said a senior court official. The official said he did not believe that American officials had pressured Judge Meron to rule a certain way in any case, "But I believe he wants to cooperate with his government," the official said. "He's putting on a lot of pressure and imposing internal deadlines that do not exist."

The legal dispute that is the focus of Judge Harhoff's letter and that has led to sharp language in dissents is the degree of responsibility that senior military leaders should bear for war crimes committed by their subordinates.

In earlier cases before the tribunal, a number of military or police officers and politicians were convicted of massacres and other war crimes committed by followers or subordinates on the principle that they had been members of a "joint criminal enterprise."

In contrast, three Serbian leaders and two Croatian generals who played crucial roles during the war were acquitted because judges argued that they had not specifically ordered or approved war crimes committed by subordinates.

Judge Meron has led a push for raising the bar for conviction in such cases, prosecutors say, to the point where a conviction has become nearly impossible. Critics say he misjudged the roles played by the high-level accused and has set legal precedents that will protect military commanders in the future.

The United Nations Security Council created the tribunal, a costly endeavor, and has been pressing it for years to speed up work and wind down, with the United States and Russia at the forefront of those efforts.

By early this year, 68 suspects had been sentenced and 18 acquitted. But some of the highest-ranking wartime leaders have been judged at a time when the tribunal is short-staffed and under pressure to close down.

Several senior court officials, while declining to discuss individual cases, said judges had been perturbed by pressures from Judge Meron to deliver judgments before they were ready.

After the only session to deliberate the acquittal that Judge Meron had drafted in the case of the two Croatian generals, one official said, the judge abruptly declined a request by two dissenting judges for further debate.

In his letter, Judge Harhoff also said Judge Michele Picard of France was recently given only four days to write her dissent against the majority decision to acquit two Serbian police chiefs, Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic.

"She was very taken aback by the acquittal and deeply upset about the fast way it had to be handled," said an official close to the case.

Judge Harhoff's letter seems likely to add a bruise to the tribunal's reputation.

"The latest judgments here have brought before me a deep professional and moral dilemma not previously faced," he wrote in conclusion. "The worst is the suspicion that some of my colleagues have been behind a shortsighted political pressure that completely changes the premises of my work in my service to wisdom and the law."

 

www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/world/europe/judge-at-war-crimes-tribunal-faults-acquittals-of-serb-and-croat-commanders.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

Serbia is fully committed to resolving the Kosovo issue, it deserves more from Brussels

224 words - May 21, 2013 | © DiploNews, all rights reserved.

While welcoming German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to Serbia, Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said that Serbia will meet its part of the obligations undertaken by signing the Brussels agreement with Pristina. "Serbia cannot wait any longer as any postponement of a decision on a date for the beginning of negotiations with the EU could have disastrous consequences for the country's future," a statement issued by Mr. Dacic's office said.

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic expressed similar views and affirmed that Serbia is fully committed to resolving the Kosovo issue and making further progress towards the EU. However Serbia will not make impossible promises and needs additional and positive steps from Brussels, that is a date for the start of accession talks with the European Union (EU), explained Mr. Nikolic.

On the Kosovo's side, there is optimism too that an agreement can be reached. According to President Atifete Jahjaga, the agreement will plan that local elections in the four municipalities in the north of Kosovo are held this year, and that at the same time it will "abolish all illegal and parallel structures held by Serbia at this part of the territory of Kosovo,"

It is unsure that using the word "illegal" will facilitate any positive outcome of the negotiations, DiploNews thought.

© DiploNews.com

http://www.diplonews.com/alerts/2013/20130521_SerbiaKosovoBrusselsAgreement.php

Sueddeutsche Zeitung: “Kidneys as special offer”

Sueddeutsche Zeitung: "Kidneys as special offer"

 

"Süddeutsche Zeitung" wrote about the verdict to the "Medicus" clinic owner, his son and associates responsible for the illegal organ trade, noting that the political background of the case remained unsolved, reports RTS.

"Kidneys as special offer" is the title of the article in this magazine, which states that clinic "Medicus" has been in the centre of the attention of the law enforcements since 2008.

"Jilman Altun, 23-year-old Turk, was caught at the airport in Pristina. Several hours before that he was visiting the clinic. His kidney was intended for 74-year-old Israeli man. Huge number of poor people from countries like Russia, Moldavia and Kazakhstan were brought to Pristina, where their kidney was removed for the appropriate sum of money. Usually the promise was EUR 15,000, but at the end they would get significantly less, reports Deutsche Welle.

German political weekly magazine Der Spiegel has, in the midst of the organ transplant scandal in Germany, written about the "Medicus" clinic in which rich German manufacturer Walter and poor Russian emigrant Vera, were operated. Vera sold her left kidney for EUR 8,100, and the German paid for the same kidney EUR 81,892, wrote Der Spiegel in August 2012.

Journalists of the magazine have investigated the illegal human organ trade for long time, and they have discovered information about the involvement of the Kosovo government, but also about how much were Germans involved in the business of huge profit and rapidly growing business of the criminal gangs.

In the analytical report and in the best style of the journalism world, magazine Der Spiegel wrote about donors and recipients of the organs, about the harsh reality of the poverty and possibilities of the wealth, about the "cover" of the Kosovo government, about German doctor Manfred Ernst Beer, who "hosted" the Dervisi family at the time of the Kosovo conflict , and they have then, by the explanation of the "Medicus" lawyer, proposed him to open clinic in Kosovo.

Vera was not the only one in the "Medicus" clinic. In november 2008. on the customs of the airport in Pristina Jilman Altun got ill.

The patient has been taken to the airport doctor, who found that the man had just a kidney removed, and according to the Turk's words, it was in "Medicus" clinic, wrote The Spiegel, adding that at the time the police raided the villa and found Israeli man there as the organ recipient.

Looking at the sad fate of those who ended up in the "Medicus" clinic, the question "What happened to Vera?" raises.

She has, according to The Spiegel, with the money she got from selling her kidney, managed to take her daughter from Russia to Tel Aviv. The daughter knows about the mother's sacrifice and wants to become a doctor, so she could help her mother.

 

Author

M. Stoiljkovic | E-Mail: m.stoiljkovic@inserbia.info | http://inserbia.info

Published On: Tue, Apr 30th, 2013

 

http://inserbia.info/news/2013/04/sueddeutsche-zeitung-kidneys-as-special-offer/

 

KOSOVO: UN whistleblower asks US to withhold UN payments

UN whistleblower asks US to withhold UN payments

The Associated Press

Saturday, April 13, 2013 | midnight

A United Nations whistleblower who won his case alleging corruption in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Kosovo but received only 2 percent of the $2.2 million he sought in damages and costs asked the U.S. government Monday to withhold 15 percent of its payments to the global organization.

James Wasserstrom, an American citizen, alleged corruption involving senior officials in the U.N. peacekeeping operation in Kosovo in 2007 and was awarded $65,000 by the U.N.'s Dispute Tribunal last month. He is now a senior anti-corruption adviser at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

Wasserstrom told a news conference Monday that he was sending a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and key Senate and House lawmakers asking that they implement the 2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act requiring a 15 percent withholding of U.S. funding if an organization does not take steps to implement "best practices" to prevent retaliation against whistleblowers.

"The evidence is overwhelming that the U.N. has failed to take such steps," Wasserstrom said.

U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said the U.N. is considering appealing the Dispute Tribunal's award of $50,000 in damages and $15,000 in costs to Wasserstrom and therefore could not comment.

Wasserstrom said he is also considering an appeal.

In the letter to Kerry, Wasserstrom said he was the lead anti-corruption officer at the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Kosovo in 2007 when he received reports of misconduct and corruption involving three top U.N. officials as well as officials in the Kosovo government.

"The corruption allegations involved a 10 percent kickback scheme to a Kosovo minister, to be shared with a senior (U.N. peacekeeping) official, for awarding a contract to a favored bidder," he said. "The amount of the payoff was $500 million."

Wasserstrom said he collaborated on an investigation with the U.N.'s Office for Internal Oversight Services or OIOS, the agency assigned to combat internal corruption.

When senior U.N. colleagues found out about his whistleblowing, he said, "they took drastic retaliatory action" _ closing his office, abolishing his post, searching his home without a warrant, seizing his property and putting up "Wanted" style posters at the gates of all U.N. buildings to restrict his entry. He said false charges were also made against him, leading to a Kosovo criminal investigation which ended quickly with no charges and a U.N. administrative investigation which cleared him of wrongdoing.

Wasserstrom told Kerry the U.N. peacekeeping mission also leaked news of the investigations to the local and international media "defaming me and doing serious damage to my professional and personal reputation."

In June 2007, Wasserstrom said he sought whistleblower protection from the U.N. Ethics Office, which commissioned a full investigation by OIOS. The agency called the actions against him "extreme" and "disproportionate" but found no evidence of retaliation. As a result, he said, his whistleblower protection ended in April 2008, and seven months later he was terminated, ending a 28-year U.N. career two years before retirement.

Wasserstrom then went to the U.N.'s Dispute Tribunal saying the Ethics Office and OIOS failed in their responsibilities.

In June 2012, Judge Goolam Meeran upheld his complaint, ruling that he was subjected to "wholly unacceptable treatment" and "appalling" acts in violation of the rule of law and human rights. The judge ordered a hearing on damages.

Wasserstrom asked for $2.2 million for losses in wages, benefits and pension as well as mental distress, defamation, damage to his professional reputation and violations of his rights.

In a March 15 decision, Meeran said "the tribunal finds it difficult to envisage a worse case of insensitive, highhanded and arbitrary treatment in breach of the fundamental principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." He also said that "as an institution charges with the responsibility of uncovering acts of retaliation the effectiveness of the Ethics Office leaves much to be desired."

Wasserstrom was awarded $65,000.

"This is not justice," Wasserstrom told reporters Monday. "It is a travesty, and what a strong message it sends to whistleblowers: Even if you win, you lose. You will be worse off than if you had not come forward at all. And for retaliators, don't worry. There are no consequences for you."

He urged the State Department to report to Congress that it should withhold 15 percent of U.N. funds for the regular budget and the separate peacekeeping budget. According to the U.S. Mission, the U.S. assessments for 2013 are $618.9 million for the regular U.N. budget and $997.9 million for the peacekeeping budget. Under the 2012 act, the withheld funds should remain available until Sept. 30.

Wasserstrom said the U.S. should encourage the U.N. before then "to take steps to implement best practices in whistleblower protection before that time."

He suggested several steps including removing caps on compensation awards, ordering an independent external review of retaliation cases the U.N. Ethics Office failed to substantiate, disciplining retaliators, revising U.N. policy to give whistleblower protection to U.N. peacekeepers, police and victims who currently aren't covered, and issuing an apology to him and other whistleblowers.

Asked what the chances were that Congress will agree to withhold the U.N. funds, Wasserstrom said, "I'm optimistic because I think the evidence is indisputable."

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2013/apr/13/us-us-un-whistleblower/

News 11 Apr 13

Serbia Slams Hague Tribunal at UN Debate

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic described the Hague war crimes court as a biased "inquisition" during a UN General Assembly debate that was boycotted by the US as inflammatory.

Marija Ristic

BIRN

Belgrade

At the UN debate on Wednesday about the role of international war crimes courts, organised by the current Serbian president of the assembly, Vuk Jeremic, the Belgrade leadership took the opportunity to attack the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, which it believes is biased against Serbs.

Nikolic said that the ICTY was unfair because of its "systematic atmosphere of lynch-mobbing of everything that is Serbian", which made reconciliation in the Balkans even harder.

"ICTY trials will never reach the real truth, that is why the reconciliation will not be real and honest," he said.

Belgrade was angered by last year's war crimes acquittal of two Croatian generals, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac.

Nikolic also cited war crimes trial defendant Vojislav Seselj, the former leader of the Serbian Radical Party, of which Nikolic was once a member, as an example of unfair treatment.

"Vojislav Seselj has been in The Hague for 11 years, which is a precedent in legal history," Nikolic said.

But Ranko Vilovic, Croatia's representative at the UN, said the ICTY deserved support.

"Croatia, as a victim of aggression, has strongly supported the work of the ICTY... Maybe we didn't always agree with some decisions made, but we always supported the work," said Vilovic.

The US boycotted the debate, alongside Canada and Jordan, describing it as "unbalanced" and "inflammatory".

Erin Pelton, spokesperson for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said international courts had been "critical to ending impunity and helping these countries chart a new, more positive future".

"We regret in particular that the way today's thematic debate and the related panel discussion are structured fail to provide the victims of these atrocities an appropriate voice," she said.

The debate started with opening remarks from Jeremic, who said that "it is finally time to tell the truth about international tribunals".

"I deeply believe that there should not be taboo topics among UN states," Jeremic said.

But UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, who spoke right after Jeremic, defended the idea of international war crimes courts.

"We cannot expect human rights to be respected if we don't support the international justice system," he said.

The Serb member of the tripartite Bosnian presidency however expressed concerns about the ICTY's recent acquittals of the two Croatian generals, three Kosovo Liberation Army commanders and a former Yugoslav Army general.

"Dissatisfaction with [the court's] verdicts exists within all three nations in Bosnia and Herzegovina and this has been increased following the recent three ICTY verdicts in particular," said Nebojsa Radmanovic.

The debate was briefly interrupted when a representative of an organisation representing wartime victims from the Bosnian towns of Srebrenica and Zepa, Munira Subasic, was ejected for attempting to show a banner describing Bosnia's Serb-run entity Republika Srpska as genocidal, according to media reports.

The controversial debate provoked the Croat member of the Bosnian presidency, Zeljko Komsic, to cancel a planned visit to Belgrade, saying that the Serbian president had offended wartime victims.

Nikolic was also criticised in Belgrade by the Serbian Liberal Democratic Party, which argued that his speech was "insincere and harmful toward Serbian national interests".

Belgrade's Centre for Euro-Atlantic Studies, CEAS, called on other top Serbian officials to make a stand for reconciliation in the Balkans.

"The CEAS believes that the western Balkans would be a much more unstable and undemocratic place to live if those convicted at the Hague Tribunal and by domestic courts were still at large and even in the ranks of the security services in the countries of the region," the think-tank said in a statement.

Despite the criticism however, Jeremic was convinced that the debate was a success.

"This is the biggest debate in history of the UN. Eighty-two countries had their representatives present, we had 42 speakers... We had very interesting opinions, many of them critical," Jeremic said.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/un-debate-turns-as-criticism-of-the-icty

Emil Vlajki: Dodik's testimony "exceptionally courageous"

 

http://www.oslobodjenje.ba/daily-news/vlajki-dodiks-testimony-exceptionally-courageous DAILY NEWS 10.04.2013. | PIŠE: Oslobođenje PORTAL Vlajki: Dodik's testimony "exceptionally courageous" RS President Milorad Dodik demonstrated "exceptional courage and honesty" as a witness for the defense of Radovan Karadzic, RS Vice President Emil Vlajki says.     In a statement from Vlajki's office, it is said that Dodik "exposed the militarization and politicization of religion, the demonization of the Serb people, and the politicking of the Hague Tribunal." "In this way he opposed the new world order, its crimes, servants, and lies. Because of his foreign policy, Milorad Dodik before the international public pushed back to some extent against the lies that damage the dignity of the Serb people and in a real way once again affirmed RS on international terms. So he will certainly go down in the history of the Serb people as a positive personality, and with his exceptional performances before the Hague Tribunal he has won the affection of millions of Serbs and all truth-loving people, both at home and in the diaspora," Vlajki said. http://www.oslobodjenje.ba/daily-news/dodiks-testimony-in-the-hague-the-reason-why-civil-coalition-march-first-was-created DAILY NEWS 10.04.2013. | PIŠE: Oslobođenje PORTAL Dodik's testimony in The Hague the reason why civil coalition "March First" was created Yesterday's "performance" of RS President Milorad Dodik, as a defense witness in the trial of the second president of the entity Radovan Karadzic, was not a witness but a threat to all non-Serb returnees who have returned to their pre-war homes.   Now it is clear that institutional discrimination and massive violations of human rights of returnees to the entity are actually the result of the policies implemented by the order of Milorad Dodik himself, and that his regime is just a continuation of what Karadzic started. His testimony yesterday was the reason why the civil coalition "March First" was created and will continue to exist, and why now, more than ever, the unity of those who don't deny the crimes and want to preserve the state is needed.   "March First" calls on the leadership of all political parties who know Milorad Dodik lied yesterday to show they wouldn't allow part of Bosnia and Herzegovina to become one of the "two Serbian states in the Balkans."   "March First" once again calls on the leadership of all political parties considered state-building to enter the joint list and to ensure not only institutional representation, but also a chance for physical survival for returnees in RS.   A joint list does not imply any abandonment of political principles and ideological divisions, but is simply an acknowledgment that the parties gathered have one common item that others do not have: the fight for the preservation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.   Today, when it is obvious there will be at least three powerful blocs in RS at the next elections, mathematically and logically it is impossible to expect that some of the parties we have invited to a joint list would be elected to a place in the BiH Parliament from constituencies in RS.   Let's show that our forces have the responsibility for when the time comes, where protection of returnees remains a key commitment, political survival in RS as a condition for canceling the results of genocide, and ultimately the only measurable and unambiguous confirmation that in the entity there is still the state of BiH and those who believe in it. On 13 April we will know who is on our side, the side of survival.   http://www.oslobodjenje.ba/daily-news/izetbegovic-im-not-surprised-by-dodiks-testimony-in-the-hague DAILY NEWS 10.04.2013. | PIŠE: Oslobođenje PORTAL Izetbegovic: I'm not surprised by Dodik's testimony in The Hague Member of the BiH Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic said that he was not surprised by Milorad Dodik's testimony yesterday in The Hague, who, as a defense witness of ICTY indictee for war crimes Radovan Karadzic, defended the behavior and activities of RS leadership during the war developments in BiH, and for the war blamed the first President of BiH Presidency Alija Izetbegovic and his Party of Democratic Action. "Nothing new from Mr. Dodik and those which he inherited. So, in the way of political struggle, it is the reliance on cheap and transparent lies. No Islamic Declaration was mentioned at the time of beginning of the aggression on BiH nor is it the basis for what was happening there," Izetbegovic said. Testifying before the ICTY, Dodik said that the RS army and police during the war were "legitimate structures which performed their legitimate role during war in BiH." He rated charges against Karadzic as "fictions and manipulations."   Izetbegovic today in Sarajevo reminded that the "work plan was made in Belgrade," and that "on the basis of that plan in BiH they proclaimed Serbian autonomous regions which cover almost 90 percent of the territory of BiH" and that "Mr. Karadzic formed an Assembly of the Serbian People with Momcilo Krajisnik."   "Karadzic got the dock in The Hague, and Milorad Dodik has inherited his presidential seat in RS," the member of the BiH Presidency said.   Asked whether it is possible Dodik does not remember what he was talking about regarding the SDS ten years ago, Izetbegovic said: "How seriously did he respond to accusations in relation to SDS and Karadzic ten years ago. It's Milorad Dodik, you do not know who you're dealing with."  Izetbegovic signs book of condolences   Presidency member Bakir Izetbegovic signed today in the book of condolences on the death of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.   "I do not see that she was controversial, she was a principled, courageous, determined woman which we will remember by just on those lines. The world will remember her as one of the global leaders who helped to free the world of dictatorial regimes, who helped to stabilize the situation in her country. Just in a time of weakness, cowardice, lack of principles, lack of understanding in relation in BiH she proved to have principles, courage, and friendship, and Bosnians have every reason to remember her as a friend, as a brave and determined woman," Izetbegovic says.

 

ICTY President Criticizes Serbian - Organized UN Debate

[ Mislim da vise nema dileme da smo uradili ispravnu stvar... ]

ICTY President Criticizes Serbian-Organized UN Debate

Judge Theodor Meron, the president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

 

TEXT SIZE

By RFE/RL

April 04, 2013

The president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has criticized a scheduled Serbian-organized UN debate on the tribunal, saying it "poses questions in terms of fundamental respect for the rule of law."

Judge Theodor Meron said, "It is not a [debate] in which my participation would make any significant contribution to the norms which I hold dear."

Vuk Jeremic, the Serbian president of the UN General Assembly, scheduled the April 10 debate about the performance of the tribunal after two controversial ICTY acquittals.

The tribunal in November 2012 freed on appeal Croatian Generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, who had been sentenced to jail for their roles in a 1995 offensive to drive Serbian rebels out of the Krajina region.

Meron, who was speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said, "Acquittals, just as convictions, show the health of the system."

 

 

http://www.rferl.org/content/icty-meron-criticises-serbian-organized-un-debate/24948303.html

SERBIA – GUILTY FOR BEING ALIVE

SERBIA – GUILTY FOR BEING ALIVE

Pecat in English | Уредништво | februar 26, 2013 13:50

---

Slobodan Jankovich

At the eve of the hundred year anniversary of the beginning of The First World War, the western public opinion shows an overwhelming increase in, nowadays well established, rewriting of history. These theories statethat the blame for atrocities, and even Nazism, partly or exclusively lies with the Serbs.

One of our greatest historians DragoljubZivanović, in his book "Involuntary warriors: The Great Powers and The Macedonian Front", wrote, based on the rich historical documentation, thoroughly on topic of weather western countries and Serbia were reallyallies during the World War I. He even succeeded in proving that the Great Britain was the enemy of Serbia, even though not openly as Germany, Austro Hungarian Empire and Bulgaria.

A book about how politics influences writingof the history, but with the main thematic on wars during nineties, history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbian –Albanian relations, our historians Mile Bjelajalac and GordanaKrivokapić-Jović, published a book in 2011. They also disclose a notorious fact that Richard Holbrookewas personallyhanding out the pamphlet- book   "Short history of Kosovo" by Noel Malcolm, and the fact that the book of the German historian Holm Zundhauzen about 19^th and 20^th  century Serbia was the project sponsored by the state of  Germany.

As the hundredth anniversary of the First World War approaches,considerable number of authors from countries that were once allies, eagerly works on redefining the role of Serbia during The Great War. The most drastic example of this is the one from the pamphlet monograph by Philip J. Cohen, from the „A&M"University, Texas and the book by Tim Judd.  By the order of the Republic of Croatia Cohen printed "Serbia's Secret war: propaganda and the manipulation of history" 1996. This scientificforgery fortunately wasn't accepted in the scientific circles, as well as in general, because of its obvious exaggeration and incompetence(stomatologyst) of the author.Cohen was trying to prove that the Croats were anti fascists while the Serbs created some kind of autochthone fascism even before Italians did. The similar are the contributions to the history made by professor of hydraulics Andrew L. Simon(of Hungarian descend), who was the redactor and have published a series of works in English flowing in irrational animosity towards the orthodox nations, and specially to Serbs, blamed for the destruction and fall of Austro Hungarian Empire. These authors, as well as very similar Noel Malcolm and Holm Zundhauzen, distort the historical picture of the Balkan nations,especially Serbia by selective quotation and putting the facts or material out of their context.

It was nice of American historian Pol Kennedy that in his most famous and undeservingly praised work, "The rise and fall off Great powers", has to say great many good things about the Serbian involvement in breaking of the World War II. He says: "There was a lot of truth within the old cliché that theArchduke's death was just the sparkle that ignited the fire". He says that the Austro Hungarian Empire declined the peace offering from Serbia. This book was published 1987, but is still considered as a very important piece of literature at America's universities and also at Yale, where Kennedy still works as a lecturer.

THE BRITISH SCHOOL

One of the rising starsin the science of historyis Kennedy's colleague at Yale University, the professor of history Timothy Snyder, so called transatlantic leftist, with a Ph.D. degree at the Oxford University. Very passionately opinionated, Snyder is interested in Central and Eastern Europe, the holocaust and suffering of the people from Germany to Russia. Snyder is a typical example of the trend of relativisation and according to it the Russia and Serbia are to blame for the all kinds of evil and unimaginable destruction unknown to civilized nations. In that perspective, Snyder in his article "Hitler's logical holocaust", published December the 20th in magazine The New York Review of Books, managed to master Goebbels's doctrine that states that a hundred times spoken lie becomes the truth.

He states, ignoring the actual facts that the decolonization started at Balkan (as if he didn't know how to make out the distinction between the colonies from the conquered territories), in the way that the Balkan states got free from the Osman Empire, and then from their "British, German and Russian patrons", all that inclusive and half true and without any basis in facts. He mentions wars (plural) betweenBalkan states, and there was but one short lasting war between Bulgaria and Serbia in the year 1885. After these fictional wars "Balkan countries turned against the Osman Empire". So actually there was no liberation of the territories under the Turk occupation rather the liberated states attacked the OsmanRaska, Kosovo and Metohija,Albania,Thessaly, Epirus,Trakia. Finally Snyder gives a revisionist vision of the beginning of the World War I: "Conflict that we know as the World War I can be perceived as the third Balkan war (the thesis commonly present among other western historians) because certain elements within the Serbian government tried to seize and appropriate part of the Austrian territory as they did with the Osman Empire". According to this, Serbia in fact grabbed from the poor Osman their Raška, Crimea and Macedonia, and then laid their paws on the Austrian lands (presumably those are the German motherland in the Bosnianvalley or historicalyAustrian cities Novi Sad and Dubrovnik)

This is not the end of it. Obviously, these claims should be reason enough not to have Snyder on a position of a professor, especiallyata prestigiousAmerican University, where for instance William Clinton and George Bush Jrgot their degrees. And he goes even further in his recklessness operating with obvious fabrications. When the World War I broke out, the Balkan model of establishing of the national states spreads to Turkey(including mass murder of more than a million of Armenians), and later to the Central Europe.

HITLER COPIED FROM BALKAN?!

According to Snyder, nation state is a Balkan invention. After the French bourgeois revolution all through the Europe emerged the multitude of new initiatives and movementsstruggling for establishingof the nation state, but he is not aware of this fact, as he is not aware that the Serbians were fighting against the Turkish occupation for centuries. Nevertheless, here theTurkey is the victim of Balkan states because they spreaded the virus of nationalism,therefore they were the reason for the murder of more thana million of Armenians. And of course, not a single word on the crimes committed against the Serbs and Greeks.

It doesn't stop there, because the new history by Snyder claims that the Balkan nationalistic states are to blame partialy, for the rise of Nazism, because Hitler, had this specific model in mind while writingMein Kampf. In what way and how, he doesn't state. In conclusion, if there were us primitive Balkan people Nazism would never haveexisted. To the very same conclusion came also Robert Kaplan, American journalist of Jewishdescent. Kaplan was a lecturer at the police and army academies all over USA, part time consultant for the Department for defense and Department foreign affairs in America, and nowadays for Stratfor and the newspapers. In the book "Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History" from 1994, he says thatNazism, for instance….originates from the Balkans. In the poorhouses of Vienna,fertile ground for ethnic hatred similar to the one in the south slave world, learnt to hate so addictively"

Snyder belongs to the new school of historians that writes so called transnational history.  Covering himself by this phrase he claims that without Soviet Union there wouldn't be anyholocaust, as he did in the controversial book "Bloodlands". This book ignited a series of serious debates and succeeded in indicating that the real victims are primarily in the Eastern Europe.Snyder is trying very hard not to mention Russians. By his words, the victims were Jews, Polish, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs and unidentified soviet citizens, as if the most of them were not already the citizens of USSR. When he mentionstheRussians he says that they are not included in the 14 millionvictimsof the mass crime committed by Hitler and Stalin in Eastern Europe. So, the number of Russian victims is minimized or not even mentioned, (of course they are mentioned here and there, but in a by the by manner) on the other hand the atrocities happenedon the Balkan are completelyswept under the rug. The conclusion from this is that there were no atrocities in Balkan.

Much like American professor Timothy Snyder, great number of cadets from Oxford and even more so Cambridge has the same negative attitude when writing aboutSerbians.  Perhaps, the most famous and well known here isNoel Malcolm. There's also historian John Ottywhose commentary about Serbian nationalism and the causes that led to theFirst World War, has been published in 2009. Shallow and overburdened by the quotations of Tim Judd and MishaGlenny that deals with the "Serbian myth about Kosovo", the Serbiandepicts as the "swine merchants" that lusted for Great Serbia. Serbia and Austro Hungarians,according to his words,are the guilty parties for the war and ofcourse Russia becauseit tried to help Serbia. His perception of Serbia's role was disclosed on AmericanPublic Broadcasting Service and British magazine„History Today".

PESKY SERBIAN CASUALTIES

Australian Christopher Clarke, got his Ph.D. at Cambridge, and he is a professor of history at the same University. His book about the causes of the World War I was published September 27th 2012in England. ("The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914"). It is actually the continuance of the British politics of revisionism, with intention to show that either there was no guilty party for the World War I or that guilt would be that of Serbia or Russia. Christopher Clarke is partial to this second approach. "The World War wasThe Third Balkan War, before the World War I begun", says Clarke. He states that Serbian government officials were linked to "terrorist organizations" that were "dreaming of Great Serbia". This book have already had two bad reviews.

However, Mathew Price, a Cambridge man, BBC correspondent, at one time a correspondent from Belgrade, commended on the book in Emirate's newspapers. He says:"Clarke is right, in the claim that the justice was on the side of Austro Hungarians". And then it continues with the claim that because of the proportionally greatest number of casualties in the war it is "maybeeasy to overlook the Serbianarrogantand insensitive answer to assassination".

That everything is not so gloomy, shows the contribution of the publishing house "Yaka book" from Miilan,which in 1999, published the  of works written by two Italians, and number of Serbian historians and famousintellectuals, with the editor in chief, member of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences, late  NikšaStipčević. Many good things were written about us by the famous professor David Fromkin from Bostonthat also participated.

Among the new achievements would be "A Companion to World War I", not yet translated in Serbian language.  It is acompilation of works byBritish, American, Irish, French,German and also Australian, Canadian and Italian historians on the topic ofThe Great war. It is important because it is conceived as an unavoidable reading material for the universities of these countries. It includes also indications about politics influencing the writing of history. The director of the BritishInstitute for European studies from Safford-John Keiger points out to this important issue, and  in spiteof the casualcynicism, made probably the best descriptionof the role of Serbia, with the all the victories, suffering, retreat through Albania and the Macedonian front.

Usually in Italian university study books there is no mentioning of the Macedonian front. But, the role of Serbia in everything that led to war as fairly objectively showed.

In what way if any are the institutions of Serbia preparing, and are they preparing, for the impending full frontal assault with all the weapons of the propaganda machine from all the weapons?

THE CONTRIBUTION OF SERBIA

The shot fired at a fromGavriloPrincip's gun was a shot at the tyrant that came to occupiedBosnia and Herzegovina on Vidovdan , to provoke Serbian population, and that is the truth that many want to conceal and distort. On our side, apart from MileBjelajac and the team of historians who are, inspite of Serbian neo historians, struggling to the spread an sustain the truth about Serbia's role in World War I, now TheNational Library announced its contribution.

European union started two projects in 2009, EUROPEANA 1914-1918 and EuropeanaCollections 1914 – 1918:Memories of the First World War". Our National Library is taking part in this second one, as one of 12 institutions from eight countries. The goal is to create a digital collection ofdocuments with about    500.000 units, that will point out the importance of World War I for the common European identity of and reflect the experiences of people from different ethical, linguistic, political, social and religious communities from all the sides involved in that conflict, includingone the opposed to war.

For this reason, we approachedNemanjaKalezić, the coordinator of the project for TheNational Library of Serbia. Kalezićsays that The National Library of Serbia participatesfrom the middle of 2011 in the project Europeana Collections 1914 – 1918: Memories of the First World War – the digital collection of of valuable selectionsfrom national libraries".  The The National Library of Serbia has the obligation to digitalize and make accessible 1.405 digital objects. Top priority will be all the publishing production of the Kingdom of Serbia from the period Jun 1914- October1915, as well as all the printed publication made duringexile(Corfu, Bizerte, Genève, Solun…)

At the question posed to him about the specific military and war material that would bear witness to the military contribution of Serbia Kalezić answers: "At this moment we are unable to specificallyindicateto what degree the publicationwould be covering the military involvement of Serbia in the war, because the material from the relatedinstitutions (Archives of Serbia, Military museum, the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences…) is still is still being analyzed and the selection is far from over. At the moment, "War diary" the journal of the High Command, and the official bulletin of the War press bureau, is being scanned. A number of diaries and memorabilia belonging to the participants of the war, the correspondence of Duke ŽivojinMišić with the allied generals from the Macedonian front, the war maps, lists of soldiers killed in the battle ….This participation of The National Library of Serbia in thisproject is financed by European committee and The Ministry of culture and information participatingwith 50% each".

NO MORE OBIDIANCE!

This is not all. NLS will be involved inyet two more international projects with the topic of First World War: Project CENDARIhas the aim of providing to the explorers complete access to the historical materials by means of modern technology. Project "The World Remembers"aims to gather the names of the soldiers killed during the war,as many as possible,and provide their public display on the Internet and in public space. This year NLS should publish a monograph "Balkan peninsula and the South Slavcountries by Jovan Cvijić in Serbian and French language, and as a part of project EuropeanaNLS will organize an exhibition by the half of 2014. NLS also plans to build the portal "The GreatWar", February the 28^th, andbesides already mentioned material, it will contain numerous other publications from the period after1918with the topic of World War I. Besides scanned materials, at the portal, virtual exhibitions, interactive maps of the battles involving Serbian army will be available" explainsKalezić.

In the effort to pleaseand to get on the good sideof the West, numerous sacrifices at the expense of the state and people were made. After many years of this vassal behavior, the witch-hunt haven't stopped, on the contrary. Having this experience of shy festivity, almost an uneasy ritual, celebratingthe liberation of Kosovo and Metohija, Raška and Macedonia, and also knowing that we are always criticized for it, Serbia, must give its best to useall its availableknowledgeand resources to at least try to resist the continuance of the propaganda picture of bloodthirstySerbians.It's important to bear in mind, during the period where we were the "disruptivefactor", we managed to not only keep but to expand our state; today as servants, we are losing the battle, equally  the one with media, the cultural and the territorial.

http://www.pecat.co.rs/2013/02/serbia-guilty-for-being-alive/