http://usinfo.state.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/latest&f=00092002.wlt&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml
20 September 2000
Text: State Department Spokesman Message on Yugoslav Elections
(Removal of sanctions will follow democratic transition, Boucher says)
(190)
U.S. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher issued the following
message September 20 on the Yugoslav elections, which are scheduled to
take place September 24:
(begin text)
U.S. Department of State
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, D.C.
September 20, 2000
STATEMENT BY RICHARD BOUCHER, SPOKESMAN
MESSAGE ON THE YUGOSLAV ELECTIONS
The United States welcomes Monday's message from the EU General
Affairs Council to the people of Yugoslavia and supports the
ministers' statement. When a democratic transition takes place, we
will take steps to remove sanctions.
The democratic opposition has chosen to contest these elections, and
there is every sign that the great majority of the people support them
in this choice, intend to vote, and to vote for change. We have joined
with our Russian and European colleagues already in looking forward to
the time when a democratic Yugoslavia is a full partner in the new
Europe.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 21, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
AS ELECTIONS LOOM: U.S. STEPS UP PLAN TO TOPPLE YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT
By Pat Chin
With elections set for Sept. 24 in the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, the United States and its junior partners in
Europe have intensified efforts to topple the government of
President Slobodan Milosevic as a first step toward turning
Yugoslavia into a colonial country.
The destabilization campaign is in full swing. It's a no-
holds-barred full court press that includes covert
operations involving assassinations; open funding for
opposition parties; economic strangulation; media
manipulation; and psychological warfare, including the
threat of another NATO war should Milosevic be returned to
office.
Milosevic enjoys popular support for standing up to NATO.
But the West's big-business media have been giving prominent
play to Democratic Opposition of Serbia presidential
candidate Vojislav Kostunica.
Other opposition leaders, like Vuk Draskovic and Zoran
Djindjic, have already discredited themselves by their close
relations with the U.S. and NATO forces. While Kostunica
hasn't yet openly embraced NATO, it's obvious he's
Washington's favorite.
The media claim that Kostunica, who represents a group of
allied opposition parties, is the clear frontrunner
according to polls. The surveys, however, are being done by
anti-Milosevic institutions inside the country.
Serbian Science Minister Branislav Ivkovic recently
denounced the polls, accusing the CIA of "direct
involvement." It's "business as usual," said Ivkovic, "so
when the surveys turn out to be false, they will say the
vote was a fraud and will call for a rebellion." (Nedeljni
Telegraf weekly)
A known anti-communist, Kostunica told a Sept. 1 rally in
Belgrade that, if elected, he will "persistently and
patiently strive to get our country back into the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and
restore its rightful membership in the United Nations and
the world's leading financial institutions." (Associated
Press)
The European Union has been scheming with the U.S. to unseat
Milosevic so that a puppet government can be installed that
would subordinate the country's economy to Western corporate
interests.
EUROPEAN UNION OFFERS BRIBE
A meeting of the EU on Sept. 4 offered to lift imperialist-
imposed economic sanctions if people vote Milosevic out of
office. The 15-member cabal announced that it had postponed
a review of the sanctions until after the elections, adding
that a "proposal" will be unveiled just before the
balloting.
"The victory of democracy would lead to a radical revision
of EU policy towards Serbia in all its aspects," said French
Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine. "The Serbs will have to
make a very important choice in the elections." (Reuters)
Of course, like most election promises made by capitalist
politicians, there's no guarantee that they'll be kept.
Vedrine's goal is to open up the Yugoslav economy to Western
corporate exploitation.
Around the same time, La Stampa, an Italian newspaper,
reported that former NATO chief Javier Solana had said,
"There are three possible outcomes of the Yugoslav election:
Milosevic wins, Milosevic cheats, Milosevic loses." The
first two outcomes are "negative," warned Solana, and will
meet hostility from NATO forces.
This blatantly manipulative and arrogant display of
interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country
has reached a fever pitch. Solana wants the message to be
that if the Yugoslavs don't unseat Milosevic, they'll not
only face economic suffocation, they might also get bombed
again.
Such an attack, however, would arouse the already growing
opposition within the NATO countries to the unjustified
pressure on Yugoslavia, and could provoke splits within
NATO. At this moment the military threats should be seen
mainly as an attempt to intimidate the Yugoslavs into voting
against Milosevic.
The U.S. recently barred Yugoslav federal government
officials from attending the United Nations' first global
gathering of parliamentary leaders and the Millennium Summit
by denying them visas. But Montenegrin President Milo
Djukanovic was allowed to attend the latter.
While there, he met with the presidents of Croatia,
Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia. These
countries, backed by Berlin and Washington, broke off from
the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia starting
in 1991.
According to the opposition Freeb92 news outlet, the leaders
"sent a message to the Yugoslavian public that their
countries will propose that the international community lift
sanctions against Yugoslavia if the Serbian Democratic
Opposition achieves victory in the forthcoming elections."
Yugoslavia now consists of the republics of Serbia and
Montenegro, whose president has become a puppet of
imperialist interests. Djukanovic has, in fact, threatened
to declare independence if Milosevic is re-elected.
On Sept. 7, after meeting with him, U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright added grist to the propaganda mill by
declaring that she feared for his life.
"There are ongoing concerns about his safety," she intoned.
When asked if upcoming joint U.S. and Croatian military
exercises off Montenegro's coast were a show of force,
Albright replied, according to Reuters, that they were
"naval exercises planned as part of the Partnership for
Peace," an organization that links NATO with former Warsaw
Pact countries.
Two days later, Kostunica visited Montenegro where he met
with government officials there opposed to Milosevic.
According to a press report, "both sides emphasized that the
future of Serbia and Montenegro depended on democratic
changes within Serbia."
Meanwhile, in embattled UN/NATO-occupied Kosovo-Metohija
(Kosmet), Serbs, Roma and progressives of other ethnic
groups plan to vote on Sept. 24. Organizers say they will
prevail. They'll conduct the polling in private homes, since
they've been barred from using public buildings by
occupation head Bernard Kouchner. NATO also recently
announced plans to increase the number of troops in Kosmet
for the election.
Murderous attacks against Serbs and others have continued
under the watchful eye of the occupying forces. But the
Serbs are fighting back. And more news is beginning to
surface exposing the lies about "defending human rights"
used to justify the imperialist aggression against
Yugoslavia, and NATO's trumped-up indictment of Milosevic as
a "war criminal" based on the myth of mass graves containing
Albanian victims of Serb genocide.
EVIDENCE OF KLA WAR CRIMES
On Aug. 17, for example, NATO officials admitted that their
estimate of Albanians allegedly killed by Yugoslav forces in
Kosmet was much higher than the actual number of exhumed
bodies. This admission, coupled with the fact that many of
the corpses showed no sign of "Yugoslav troop atrocities,"
was carried by the Aug. 18 British Guardian. But the U.S.
capitalist media deliberately ignored it.
The same is true of a Sept. 3 piece in the British Sunday
Times. Headlined, "KLA faces trials for war crimes on Serbs,
Inquiry turns on Albanians," it described five sites in
Kosmet "where war crimes were allegedly carried out by
members of the KLA" against the Serbs.
"The investigation could radically alter the international
perception of the conflict, in which Albanians were seen as
the largely innocent victims of Serbian aggression,"
concluded the article. "After a year of growing concern
about hundreds of revenge killings of Serbs by Albanians in
the province, there are signs that the public relations
pendulum may begin to swing the Serbs' way."
The London Daily Observer also reported Sept. 11 that U.S.
officials in Kosmet are obstructing a UN investigation of
former KLA commander Ramushi Haradinay, who is suspected of
assassinations, drug smuggling and war crimes. U.S. soldiers
reportedly removed evidence from a crime scene involving
Haradinay before whisking him away to their camp and later
to a U.S. military hospital in Germany.
Meanwhile, Serbs in the southern province continue to
protest the NATO take-over of the mineral-rich Trepca Mines.
And the government in Belgrade has announced that a war
crimes trial of NATO leaders involved in last year's 78-day
blitzkreig against Yugoslavia will start on Sept. 18.
The Yugoslav people can best defend their sovereignty and
livelihood by uniting to resist NATO, which is really much
weaker than it appears. There's growing opposition to
another military strike against Yugoslavia inside NATO and
worldwide, and people are organizing against the embargo. If
an independent government is dropped for the imperialists'
promise of a "better" life, all social benefits still being
enjoyed despite the harsh sanctions could be lost.
Yugoslavia could, in fact, become another Bulgaria, which
has shown the world that submitting to the imperialist West
is no guarantee of avoiding poverty for the mass of the
population.
With respect to the elections, it's important to remember:
All that glitters is not gold.
- END -
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YUGOSLAVIA PROTESTS TO SECURITY COUNCIL
NEW YORK, Sep 19 (Tanjug). The opening of the US Office for
Yugoslavia in Budapest is an open demonstration of force, pressure and
brutal interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state by the
outgoing US administration, the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry said in a
protest
to the UN Security Council.
The protest, addressed on the occasion of the opening of the
Office, headed by a US Ambassador, on August 15, was distributed on
Tuesday
at the Palace of Nations as a General Assembly and Security Council
document.
The "Office" has a personnel of 30 employees of various
profiles,
including members of the CIA, the National Security Council, the
Pentagon,
USAID and other similar US agencies. According to US officials, its main
task is to help the opposition in Serbia and Yugoslavia and to influence
the will of the voters ahead of the upcoming elections.
With this act, the US administration practically pursues its
last
year's unsuccessful aggression on Yugoslavia, using subversive and
spying
activities inadmissible in international relations. It also endorses
separatism and terrorism, fans dangerous aspirations in the region and
violates international law.
The opening of the "Office" and its proclaimed tasks constitute
a
glaring violation of the US commitment to the UN Charter, the Vienna
Conventions on diplomatic relations, the UN Declaration principles
regarding relations and cooperation among states of October 24, 1970,
and
other international documents.
The Office activities and Hungary's acceptance of the use of
its
territory for activities against a third country also constitute a
direct
violation of the GA Resolution 54/168 of December 17, 1999, on the
respect
of national sovereignty and noninterference in internal affairs of
states
as regards electoral process. It particularly violates its Para. 5,
which
stipulates that all states must refrain from financing political parties
or
groups in other states or undertaking any actions undermining their
electoral processes.
The Hungarian Government's acceptance and endorsement of the
opening of the "Office" is a precedent in international relations, and
raises the question of whether such acts are in line with the principles
of
goodneighbourly relations and of the OSCE that Hungarian government
allegedly supports. This act is reminiscent of the time when Budapest,
albeit in different circumstances and under the influence of other
powers,
also served as a center for pressures and subversive activities against
Yugoslavia.
The Yugoslav Government most strongly protests against such
illegal activities of the US administration in the territories of
Hungary
and other states, with the aim of openly interfering in Yugoslavia's
internal affairs, endangering its sovereignty and territorial integrity,
and attempting to destabilize it.
The Yugoslav Government expects the Security Council to most
strongly condemn such conduct and to urge the US administration to abide
by
the UN Charter, its international commitments and international law, the
Ministry document says.
EU STANCE IS AN INSULT TO YUGOSLAVIA AMBASSADOR
ATHENS, Sep 19 (Tanjug). The European Union's promise to lift
antiYugoslav sanctions if its citizens do not vote for incumbent
Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic is the most glaring interference in
Yugoslavia's internal affairs, Yugoslav Ambassador to Greece Dragomir
Vucicevic told Athens Radio 902.
This also constitutes one of the aspects of continuing NATO and
EU
aggression, now by different means, which is a violation of all basic
principles of international relations, Vucicevic said.
The Yugoslav Government has taken all the necessary measures to
make the upcoming federal presidential and parliamentary elections and
local elections in Serbia democratic and fair, as many foreign observers
have already witnessed, Vucicevic said.
The EU stance amounts to taking sides openly, which is
dangerous
and contrary to the basic principles of democracy, Vucicevic said. The
EU
promise of a reward to the people of they do not vote according to their
own will is an insult to the people of Yugoslavia, who have always
strived
throughout their history to preserve their dignity, freedom and national
independence, Vucicevic said.
The EU sanctions against Yugoslavia are unfounded and illegal
as
they are contrary to the fundamental principles of the EU Charter and
have
been imposed without Security Council approval, he noted. The people of
Yugoslavia consequently expect the sanctions to be lifted immediately,
without preconditions, and without being used as an instrument of
preelection pressure, Vucicevic said.
YUGOSLAVIA ELECTIONS
FEDERAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION ISSUES STATEMENT
BELGRADE, September 19 (Tanjug) The Federal Electoral
Commission
held a session on Tuesday chaired by Borivoje Vukicevic and noted that
all
preparations for the implementation of the upcoming presidential and
parliamentary elections were nearing completion according to plan, the
Parliamentary Press Service said.
The printing, packing and distribution of election materials
has
been completed. These operations were monitored by the Federal Electoral
Commission and representatives of political parties running in the
September 24 elections.
Representatives of political parties who supervised the
operations
had no objections and confirmed that all electoral materials were
correct.
However, some party leaders are spreading rumours that already
filled out ballots are being distributed, and that people are being
threatened to force them to use such ballots.
The Commission strongly protests against such lies and points
out
that such irresponsible conduct is unnecessarily misleading the voters
and
violating their right to free choice.
Condemning all manipulations with lies, the Commission urges
for
the creation of legal and constitutional conditions for enabling voters
to
freely elect the lists and candidates of their choice. The Commission
has
consequently taken measures and requested state institutions to protect
the
democratic rights of the citizens.
This year's polls will be attended by over 200 observers from
50
countries, including parliamentarians and eminent public figures, whose
presence will enable the world public opinion to witness the democratic
character of free and fair elections in Yugoslavia, the Commission said.
FALSE WEBSITES FOR YUGOSLAV ELECTIONS
BELGRADE, Sept 20 (Tanjug) Yugoslav public enterprise
RadioTelevision YugoslaviaInternet Yugoslavia has once again drawn
attention to the fact that the official website of the Yugoslav
Government
devoted to elections has an Internet (URL) site www.gov.yu/izbori.
The statement said that certain organizations financed by
Western
countries use parallel sites, with similar names, so that it is possible
that on URLsites such as www.izbori.org.yu and www.izbori.co.yu are
promoted false election results, and confusion created.
The first mentioned website is currently openly promoting
candidates of the political organization Democratic Opposition of Serbia
(DOS), which runs stories such as Arm Yourselves for September 20, when
the
election convention of DOS is due to be held, or it even calls on
citizens
to take to the streets and wait for the announcing of trumpedup election
results from their parallel election site.
The second site mentioned above is still in preparation and
will
be active on September 24.
Internet Yugoslavia points out that the official site
www.gov.yu/izbori is updated in conjunction with the Yugoslav Election
Commission, and is therefore the most accurate source of information
about
elections and about election results.
MORE THAN 210 FOREIGN OBSERVERS ARRIVE IN YUGOSLAVIA FOR ELECTIONS
BELGRADE, September 20 (Tanjug) - President of the Yugoslav Electoral
Commission Borivoje Vukicevic and Supervising Board President Ivan
Radosavljevic will organize a cocktail on Wednesday evening to welcome
foreign observers who have arrived in Belgrade to monitor the federal
presidential and parliamentary elections and local elections in the
Yugoslav Republic of Serbia.
More than 210 foreign observers, including parliament members and
officials from 52 countries have arrived so far. They are from: Albania,
Angola, Argentina, Belgium, Belarus, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Chad, Czech
Republic, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, France, Ghana, Greece, India,
Indonesia,
Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Armenia, Jordan, Canada, Kazakhstan, Kenya,
Cyprus,
Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Libya, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Germany, Nepal,
Nicaragua, Palestine, Portugal, Romania, Russia, the U.S.A., Salvador,
Slovakia, Sweden, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, United
Kingdom, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
Among the foreign observers is a joint delegation of the Parliamentary
Assembly of Russia and Belarus. The foreign observers have attended the
final rallies of various political parties, and will be present at most
electoral stations all day on Sunday, September 24.
STATE DUMA DEPUTIES AGAINST EU PRESSURES ON YUGOSLAVIA
MOSCOW, September 20 (Tanjug) Russian state Duma deputies
condemned the interference of the European Union in the internal affairs
of
Yugoslavia, with the intention of influencing the will of its voters,
said
a statement of the Duma Committee for helping our country overcome the
consequences of NATO's aggression last year.
State Duma members called on the EU, the statement specified,
not
to create obstacles for the free expression of will of voters, at the
upcoming presidential and legislative elections in Yugoslavia, on
September
24.
The EU attempt to influence by messages and false promises the
Serbian people to vote against Slobodan Milosevic was describes by Duma
deputies as "blatant interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign
state."
"Western countries are, in fact, the obstacle to the
development
of democracy in Yugoslavia, because they imposed years of sanctions,
political and informativepropaganda pressure," the statement said,
stressing that the reconstruction of Serbia, after NATO's barbaric
bombing
should not be an act of charity, but an obligation of the West.
OBSERVERS FROM RUSSIA AND BELARUS ARRIVE IN BELGRADE
BELGRADE, September 20 (Tanjug) A delegation of the Russian
state
Duma, made up of representatives of all party groupings, and of the
parliamentary assembly of the Union of Russia and Belarus arrived on
Wednesday at the invitation of the Yugoslav Federal Assembly, to attend
in
the capacity of international observers presidential, legislative and
local
elections in FR Yugoslavia, scheduled for September 24. In the
delegation
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Russia and Belarus are
members of all legislative committees and secretariats, while from the
Russian Duma the role of observers will be performed by representatives
of
party groupings "Homelandall Russia," "Regions of Russia," "Jabloko,"
the
Communist party, "Unity" and the LiberalDemocratic party.
The delegation was welcomed at the airport by Yugoslav
Parliament
Lower House Foreign Policy Committee President Ljubisa Ristic, who
informed
them that at the Yugoslav elections will be present over 200 observers,
of
whom more than half are members of parliament from more than 50
countries.
"We want them to have all the necessary conditions for
monitoring
the elections independently and freely and to be impartial with respect
to
all key issues," Ristic said, pointing out, also, the intention of the
hosts to make it possible to observers in FR Yugoslavia to talk with
whom
ever and where ever they want to.
"Please communicate freely with the media and with voters, and
I
believe that your impressions about the democratic character of the
elections will be confirmed also by freedom of movement and the
monitoring
of elections," he said.
Russian Duma delegation head and international affairs
committee
deputychairman Konstantin Kasachov stressed that the delegation had
arrived
in Yugoslavia with best intentions and wishes that its members convey an
objective picture about elections conditions and about everything that
they
see during the election process.
Kasachov, speaking about the tasks of the delegation, cited as
very important the consequences of foreign interference in the campaign.
Delegation head of the parliamentary assembly of the Union of
Russia and Belarus and parliament foreign policy committee chairman
Nikolai
Cherginez said he believed that the elections in Yugoslavia will be
conducted in a democratic manner and be an expression of the free will
of
the people of Yugoslavia.
OBSERVERS FROM UKRAIN, MOLDAVIA ARRIVE
BELGRADE, September 20 (Tanjug) At the invitation of the
Federal
Parliament, parliamentary delegations from Ukrain and Moldavia arrived
in
Belgrade late on Tuesday to attend the presidential, federal and local
elections in Yugoslavia on September 24 as international observers.
The MPs were welcomed at Belgrade's airport by the Yugoslav
Parliament's Chamber of Citizens Foreign Policy Committee President
Ljubisa
Ristic and Foreign Ministry Ambassador Vladimir Krsljanin.
It is expected that over 200 MPs and other prominent public
figures from 50 countries all over the world will attend the elections
in
Yugoslavia in the capacity of observer, Ristic said.
Ristic said 16 parliaments would send official delegations to
Yugoslavia.
He pointed out that the federal parliament had not invited
official delegations from the aggressor countries, since he said this
would
be unacceptable for the Yugoslav people.
Nevertheless, a number of public figures from certain countries
that took part in the 1999 NATO aggression on Yugoslavia have arrived
here,
even some MPs, but in a private capacity, and not as official
representatives of the respective parliaments, Ristic said.
ZYUGANOV ON ELECTIONS IN YUGOSLAVIA
MOSCOW, September 20 (Tanjug) Russian Federation Communist
Party (KPRF) President Gennady Zyuganov said on Tuesday during a
meeting
and talks with Yugoslav Ambassador to Russia Borislav Milosevic that the
Duma KPRF deputies would meet all their obligations as observers at the
upcoming elections in Yugoslavia.
Milosevic informed Zyuganov, on the grounds of reports
available
to the public, about the plans to destabilize the situation in
Yugoslavia
in the event of an outcome of the presidential, federal and Serbian
local
elections set for September 24 which would be unfavourable for the west,
the KPRF Press Service said.
Zyuganov resolutely condemned attempts by western countries to
interfere in the election process in Yugoslavia, describing this as
"direct
pressure on voters." "We will respect the choice of the Yugoslav people
made at the upcoming elections, and will continue contributing as much
as
we can to the development of the brotherly relations between our
states,"
Zyuganov said.
GERMAN MP BLASTS GERMANY, E.U., NATO OVER YUGOSLAVIA
BERLIN, September 20 (Tanjug) An MP of Germany's leftist Party
of
Democratic Socialism (PDS) on Wednesday accused the German Government,
the
European Union and NATO of not wanting peace in the Balkans. This,
according to Wolfgang Gehrke speaking for Berlin's Neues Deutschland
newspaper, is evident from their officious meddling in Yugoslavia's
internal affairs ahead of September 24 elections.
If the European Union and NATO are already so certain before
the
event that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic will cheat to win the
elections, then what they are doing is only adding to the tensions in
the
region, Gehrke said.
The PDS authority on foreign policy in the Bundestag said he
feared that at work here was a highly dangerous policy of the west which
might precipitate another war.
The PDS, successor to the former East German communists, is the
only political party in Germany to have consistently and constantly
condemned NATO's MarchJune 1999 aggression on Yugoslavia as an act
unprecedented in recent European history.
Gehrke again pointed out that the PDS had always insisted on
defining the status of KosovoMetohija with strict respect for U.N.
Resolution 1244 which says that this province of the Yugoslav Republic
of
Serbia must remain in Yugoslavia.
***
URL for this article is http://emperors-clothes.com/news/erlang.htm
'NY Times' Confirms Charge that U.S. Gov't Meddles in Yugoslav Internal
Affairs
Introduction by Jared Israel and Max Sinclair (9-21-2000)
The following article from the NY Times is most important. In it, the
reporter concedes that the charges many people have raised about US
meddling in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia are true. Indeed, he adds
information that we had no way of knowing. For example, that suitcases
full
of cash are sent across the borders into Yugoslavia to fund the
"democratic
opposition". Doesn't our assertion, that "democratic" means "following
the
dictates of the US State Department" appear to be a simple statement of
fact?
Note that despite the shocking evidence he presents to the contrary, Mr.
Erlanger still manages to call this self-styled "democratic" opposition
"independent":
[Start quote] "Independent journalists and broadcasters here have been
told
by American aid officials "not to worry about how much they're spending
now," that plenty more is in the pipeline, said one knowledgeable aid
worker. Others in the opposition complain that the Americans are clumsy,
sending e-mails from "state.gov" - the State Department's address -
summoning people to impolitic meetings with American officials in
Budapest,
Montenegro or Dubrovnik, Croatia."[End quote]
The article includes various attacks on the Yugoslav government in
general
and Mr. Milosevich in particular. Those readers who do not read the US
press should be aware that it is impossible for a large US newspaper to
write anything about Yugoslavia without including a number of such
attacks:
[Start quote]"When speaking of the Serbs it is considered proper to say
something negative. More than one thing is optional. But one is
obligatory."[End quote] (From 'The Obligatory Bash' at
emperors-lothes.com/analysis/obligato.htm )
Mr. Erlanger refers to documentation of US meddling, which appeared in
the
Yugoslav paper, 'Politika'. That documentation comes from an Emperor's
Clothes article, which Politika reprinted. (1) The article was also
shown
in full on Serbian Television this past Monday at 7:30.
Notice also that Mr. Kostunica now appears to concede that our charges
are
true. Or, rather, he is quoted first saying they represent the ravings
of
"the regime" (one must refer to the elected government of Yugoslavia as
a
'Regime') and then saying that the so-called "nongovernmental"
organizations who take this money "are even unconsciously working for
American imperial goals." I am not sure what it means to "unwittingly"
take
millions of US dollars. But that aside, it is good that Mr. Kostunica
says
this, but I wonder if he sees the implications. Are these people, who
take
the US money, not the G-17, who wrote the so-called "Democratic"
Opposition
Program, which he endorsed? Aren't they the members of the "democratic"
opposition coalition, for which he is the candidate? Aren't they groups
like Otpor, who according to the US press put up his posters and hand
out
his fliers?
Let us make no mistake. The fault for corrupting the Yugoslav political
process lies in one place: Washington, with its "democratic" this and
"independent" that, and all the time they are trying to buy people,
especially young people, with the lure of a traitor's gold.
When, and it will happen, the American people learn what crimes are
being
committed in their name, God help the State Department.
***.
The New York Times September 20, 2000
Milosevic, Trailing in Polls, Rails Against NATO
By STEVEN ERLANGER
BELGRADE, Serbia, Sept. 19 - In his race for re-election, President
Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia is running against NATO and the United
States, not against his democratic opposition.
He is not entirely mistaken to do so. The United States and its European
allies have made it clear that they want Mr. Milosevic ousted, and they
have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to get it done.
Portraying himself as the defender of Yugoslavia's sovereignty against a
hostile, hegemonic West led by Washington, Mr. Milosevic and his
government
argue that opposition leaders are merely the paid, traitorous tools of
enemies who are continuing their war against him by other means. In
March
1999, NATO began a 78-day bombing campaign to drive Serbian forces out
of
Kosovo.
The Yugoslav elections are on Sunday, but there has hardly been a day
since
the bombing began that state television news has not railed against
"NATO
aggressors."
With the campaign at its height, the government has spread its attacks
to
include all opposition political parties, independent newspapers,
magazines
and electronic media, the student organization known as Otpor - or
Resistance - and any nongovernmental organization working to promote
democracy, human rights or even economic reforms.
While Mr. Milosevic is trailing the main opposition leader, Vojislav
Kostunica, in opinion polls, the anti- Western campaign is having an
impact. The money from the West is going to most of the institutions
that
the government attacks for receiving it - sometimes in direct aid,
sometimes in indirect aid like computers and broadcasting equipment, and
sometimes in suitcases of cash carried across the border between
Yugoslavia
and Hungary or Serbia and Montenegro. Most of those organizations and
news
media could not exist without foreign aid in this society, which is poor
and repressive and whose market is distorted by foreign economic
sanctions.
Even with foreign aid, government restrictions on newsprint supplies and
high and repeated fines after suspiciously quick court cases make it
hard
for the independent news media to reach their natural market.
As for the opinion polls that show Mr. Kostunica in the lead, the
information minister, Goran Matic, charges that the polls are
orchestrated
and manipulated by the Americans and the Central Intelligence Agency,
who
help pay for them. According to Mr. Matic, Mr. Milosevic is actually far
ahead of Mr. Kostunica, and the polls simply serve as a vehicle for the
opposition to claim that the government stole the election once Mr.
Milosevic wins.
Mr. Matic asserts that the Atlantic alliance has come up with various
scenarios, such as infiltrating soldiers wearing Yugoslav Army and
police
uniforms, to make it possible for the opposition to start civil unrest
in
the streets after the election while claiming that the police and the
army
are actually on their side.
Mr. Matic has attacked various nongovernmental organizations, including
the
Center for Free Elections and Democracy, which is trying to monitor the
fairness of the election, as paid instruments of American and alliance
policy. Many such organizations have been raided by the police, who
confiscate computer files and also appear to be gathering evidence about
foreign payments.
"President Milosevic will win this election," said Ljubisa Ristic, the
president of the Yugolav United Left party, founded by Mr. Milosevic's
wife, Mirjana Markovic. "This is not Hollywood." Washington and the
West,
she said, "are like little kids, wanting something to happen so much
they're fooling themselves."
Mr. Ristic said the alliance's war produced a new solidarity among
Yugoslavs and "killed many illusions people had about the West and about
their own opposition leaders, who went to the countries that were
bombing
us to seek their support."
The issues, Mr. Ristic said, are clear now. "It's a decisive time," he
said. "This is not an election so much as a referendum, a decision on
being
an independent country or a colony. People see what's happened in
Kosovo,
what happens when NATO troops enter the country, and they are not going
to
allow the alliance's hand- picked candidates to win."
Even before the Kosovo war, the United States was spending up to $10
million a year to back opposition parties, independent news media and
other
institutions opposed to Mr. Milosevic. The war itself cost billions of
dollars. This fiscal year, through September, the administration is
spending $25 million to support Serbian "democratization," with an
unknown
amount of money spent covertly to help the failed rallies of last year,
which did not bring down Mr. Milosevic, or to influence the current
election. For next year, the administration is requesting $41.5 million
in
open aid to Serbian democratization, though Congress is likely to cut
that
request.
Independent journalists and broadcasters here have been told by American
aid officials "not to worry about how much they're spending now," that
plenty more is in the pipeline, said one knowledgable aid worker. Others
in
the opposition complain that the Americans are clumsy, sending e-mails
from
"state.gov" - the State Department's address - summoning people to
impolitic meetings with American officials in Budapest, Montenegro or
Dubrovnik, Croatia.
But there is little effort to disguise the fact that Western money pays
for
much of the polling, advertising, printing and other costs of the
opposition political campaign - one way, to be sure, to give opposition
leaders a better chance to get their message across in a
quasi-authoritarian system where television in particular is in the firm
hands of the government.
While that spending allows the opposition to be heard more broadly,
deepening the opposition to Mr. Milosevic, it also allows the government
here to argue that it has real enemies, and that the Serbian opposition
is
in league with them.
Just today, in the state-run newspaper Politika, a long article used
public
information from the United States - including Congressional testimony
and
Web site material - to show that the United States is financing the
opposition.
" `Independent,' `nongovernmental' and `democratic' are the standard
phrases the C.I.A. uses to describe organizations established all over
the
world to destroy the governments and the societies that the U.S.
government
wants to colonize and control," the paper wrote.
The Congressional testimony, from July 29, 1999, cited American
officials
then involved with Yugoslav policy, like Robert Gelbard and James
Pardew,
telling Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware about their projects. They
describe the creation of a "ring around Serbia" of radio stations
broadcasting into Serbia from Bosnia and Montenegro, the spending of
$16.5
million in the previous two years to support "democratization in
Serbia,"
and another $20 million to support Montenegro's president, Milo
Djukanovic,
who broke away from Mr. Milosevic in 1998.
The testimony listed some of the recipients of American aid here,
including
various newspapers, magazines, news agencies and broadcasters opposed to
Mr. Milosevic, as well as various nongovernmental organizations engaged
in
legal defense and human rights and projects to bring promising Yugoslav
journalists to the United States for professional training.
All such projects are portrayed by Politika and state television as a
way
to undermine the legal government, and the recipients are labeled
traitors
to their country.
Opposition leaders like Mr. Kostunica regard such tactics by the
government
as crass propaganda, but even he is skeptical of American intentions in
paying for nongovernmental organizations, some of whom, he believes, are
even unconsciously working for American imperial goals and not
necessarily
Serbian values.
Other democratic leaders, like Zoran Djindjic and Zarko Korac, regard
such
attacks as an indication of Mr. Milosevic's desperation and anxiety on
the
eve of the first election he is likely to lose in his entire political
career. Given the stakes for Mr. Milosevic, they believe that he will do
all he can, including the wholesale stealing of votes, to ensure a
victory
in the first round of voting.
"The stakes are fundamental for Milosevic," Mr. Korac said. "These
elections are crucial, not necessarily for the immediate handover of
power,
but because for the first time Mr. Milosevic will be delegitimized in
the
eyes of his own people. He was an elected dictator, with popular and
legal
legitimacy. But from now on he's a true dictator, and he will only be
able
to rule by force - that's a big step for Serbia."
Footnote:
(1) 'How the U.S. has Created a Corrupt Opposition in Serbia'
http://emperors-clothes.com/engl.htm
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
20 September 2000
Text: State Department Spokesman Message on Yugoslav Elections
(Removal of sanctions will follow democratic transition, Boucher says)
(190)
U.S. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher issued the following
message September 20 on the Yugoslav elections, which are scheduled to
take place September 24:
(begin text)
U.S. Department of State
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, D.C.
September 20, 2000
STATEMENT BY RICHARD BOUCHER, SPOKESMAN
MESSAGE ON THE YUGOSLAV ELECTIONS
The United States welcomes Monday's message from the EU General
Affairs Council to the people of Yugoslavia and supports the
ministers' statement. When a democratic transition takes place, we
will take steps to remove sanctions.
The democratic opposition has chosen to contest these elections, and
there is every sign that the great majority of the people support them
in this choice, intend to vote, and to vote for change. We have joined
with our Russian and European colleagues already in looking forward to
the time when a democratic Yugoslavia is a full partner in the new
Europe.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Sept. 21, 2000
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
AS ELECTIONS LOOM: U.S. STEPS UP PLAN TO TOPPLE YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT
By Pat Chin
With elections set for Sept. 24 in the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, the United States and its junior partners in
Europe have intensified efforts to topple the government of
President Slobodan Milosevic as a first step toward turning
Yugoslavia into a colonial country.
The destabilization campaign is in full swing. It's a no-
holds-barred full court press that includes covert
operations involving assassinations; open funding for
opposition parties; economic strangulation; media
manipulation; and psychological warfare, including the
threat of another NATO war should Milosevic be returned to
office.
Milosevic enjoys popular support for standing up to NATO.
But the West's big-business media have been giving prominent
play to Democratic Opposition of Serbia presidential
candidate Vojislav Kostunica.
Other opposition leaders, like Vuk Draskovic and Zoran
Djindjic, have already discredited themselves by their close
relations with the U.S. and NATO forces. While Kostunica
hasn't yet openly embraced NATO, it's obvious he's
Washington's favorite.
The media claim that Kostunica, who represents a group of
allied opposition parties, is the clear frontrunner
according to polls. The surveys, however, are being done by
anti-Milosevic institutions inside the country.
Serbian Science Minister Branislav Ivkovic recently
denounced the polls, accusing the CIA of "direct
involvement." It's "business as usual," said Ivkovic, "so
when the surveys turn out to be false, they will say the
vote was a fraud and will call for a rebellion." (Nedeljni
Telegraf weekly)
A known anti-communist, Kostunica told a Sept. 1 rally in
Belgrade that, if elected, he will "persistently and
patiently strive to get our country back into the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and
restore its rightful membership in the United Nations and
the world's leading financial institutions." (Associated
Press)
The European Union has been scheming with the U.S. to unseat
Milosevic so that a puppet government can be installed that
would subordinate the country's economy to Western corporate
interests.
EUROPEAN UNION OFFERS BRIBE
A meeting of the EU on Sept. 4 offered to lift imperialist-
imposed economic sanctions if people vote Milosevic out of
office. The 15-member cabal announced that it had postponed
a review of the sanctions until after the elections, adding
that a "proposal" will be unveiled just before the
balloting.
"The victory of democracy would lead to a radical revision
of EU policy towards Serbia in all its aspects," said French
Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine. "The Serbs will have to
make a very important choice in the elections." (Reuters)
Of course, like most election promises made by capitalist
politicians, there's no guarantee that they'll be kept.
Vedrine's goal is to open up the Yugoslav economy to Western
corporate exploitation.
Around the same time, La Stampa, an Italian newspaper,
reported that former NATO chief Javier Solana had said,
"There are three possible outcomes of the Yugoslav election:
Milosevic wins, Milosevic cheats, Milosevic loses." The
first two outcomes are "negative," warned Solana, and will
meet hostility from NATO forces.
This blatantly manipulative and arrogant display of
interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign country
has reached a fever pitch. Solana wants the message to be
that if the Yugoslavs don't unseat Milosevic, they'll not
only face economic suffocation, they might also get bombed
again.
Such an attack, however, would arouse the already growing
opposition within the NATO countries to the unjustified
pressure on Yugoslavia, and could provoke splits within
NATO. At this moment the military threats should be seen
mainly as an attempt to intimidate the Yugoslavs into voting
against Milosevic.
The U.S. recently barred Yugoslav federal government
officials from attending the United Nations' first global
gathering of parliamentary leaders and the Millennium Summit
by denying them visas. But Montenegrin President Milo
Djukanovic was allowed to attend the latter.
While there, he met with the presidents of Croatia,
Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia. These
countries, backed by Berlin and Washington, broke off from
the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia starting
in 1991.
According to the opposition Freeb92 news outlet, the leaders
"sent a message to the Yugoslavian public that their
countries will propose that the international community lift
sanctions against Yugoslavia if the Serbian Democratic
Opposition achieves victory in the forthcoming elections."
Yugoslavia now consists of the republics of Serbia and
Montenegro, whose president has become a puppet of
imperialist interests. Djukanovic has, in fact, threatened
to declare independence if Milosevic is re-elected.
On Sept. 7, after meeting with him, U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright added grist to the propaganda mill by
declaring that she feared for his life.
"There are ongoing concerns about his safety," she intoned.
When asked if upcoming joint U.S. and Croatian military
exercises off Montenegro's coast were a show of force,
Albright replied, according to Reuters, that they were
"naval exercises planned as part of the Partnership for
Peace," an organization that links NATO with former Warsaw
Pact countries.
Two days later, Kostunica visited Montenegro where he met
with government officials there opposed to Milosevic.
According to a press report, "both sides emphasized that the
future of Serbia and Montenegro depended on democratic
changes within Serbia."
Meanwhile, in embattled UN/NATO-occupied Kosovo-Metohija
(Kosmet), Serbs, Roma and progressives of other ethnic
groups plan to vote on Sept. 24. Organizers say they will
prevail. They'll conduct the polling in private homes, since
they've been barred from using public buildings by
occupation head Bernard Kouchner. NATO also recently
announced plans to increase the number of troops in Kosmet
for the election.
Murderous attacks against Serbs and others have continued
under the watchful eye of the occupying forces. But the
Serbs are fighting back. And more news is beginning to
surface exposing the lies about "defending human rights"
used to justify the imperialist aggression against
Yugoslavia, and NATO's trumped-up indictment of Milosevic as
a "war criminal" based on the myth of mass graves containing
Albanian victims of Serb genocide.
EVIDENCE OF KLA WAR CRIMES
On Aug. 17, for example, NATO officials admitted that their
estimate of Albanians allegedly killed by Yugoslav forces in
Kosmet was much higher than the actual number of exhumed
bodies. This admission, coupled with the fact that many of
the corpses showed no sign of "Yugoslav troop atrocities,"
was carried by the Aug. 18 British Guardian. But the U.S.
capitalist media deliberately ignored it.
The same is true of a Sept. 3 piece in the British Sunday
Times. Headlined, "KLA faces trials for war crimes on Serbs,
Inquiry turns on Albanians," it described five sites in
Kosmet "where war crimes were allegedly carried out by
members of the KLA" against the Serbs.
"The investigation could radically alter the international
perception of the conflict, in which Albanians were seen as
the largely innocent victims of Serbian aggression,"
concluded the article. "After a year of growing concern
about hundreds of revenge killings of Serbs by Albanians in
the province, there are signs that the public relations
pendulum may begin to swing the Serbs' way."
The London Daily Observer also reported Sept. 11 that U.S.
officials in Kosmet are obstructing a UN investigation of
former KLA commander Ramushi Haradinay, who is suspected of
assassinations, drug smuggling and war crimes. U.S. soldiers
reportedly removed evidence from a crime scene involving
Haradinay before whisking him away to their camp and later
to a U.S. military hospital in Germany.
Meanwhile, Serbs in the southern province continue to
protest the NATO take-over of the mineral-rich Trepca Mines.
And the government in Belgrade has announced that a war
crimes trial of NATO leaders involved in last year's 78-day
blitzkreig against Yugoslavia will start on Sept. 18.
The Yugoslav people can best defend their sovereignty and
livelihood by uniting to resist NATO, which is really much
weaker than it appears. There's growing opposition to
another military strike against Yugoslavia inside NATO and
worldwide, and people are organizing against the embargo. If
an independent government is dropped for the imperialists'
promise of a "better" life, all social benefits still being
enjoyed despite the harsh sanctions could be lost.
Yugoslavia could, in fact, become another Bulgaria, which
has shown the world that submitting to the imperialist West
is no guarantee of avoiding poverty for the mass of the
population.
With respect to the elections, it's important to remember:
All that glitters is not gold.
- END -
(Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
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Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
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YUGOSLAVIA PROTESTS TO SECURITY COUNCIL
NEW YORK, Sep 19 (Tanjug). The opening of the US Office for
Yugoslavia in Budapest is an open demonstration of force, pressure and
brutal interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state by the
outgoing US administration, the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry said in a
protest
to the UN Security Council.
The protest, addressed on the occasion of the opening of the
Office, headed by a US Ambassador, on August 15, was distributed on
Tuesday
at the Palace of Nations as a General Assembly and Security Council
document.
The "Office" has a personnel of 30 employees of various
profiles,
including members of the CIA, the National Security Council, the
Pentagon,
USAID and other similar US agencies. According to US officials, its main
task is to help the opposition in Serbia and Yugoslavia and to influence
the will of the voters ahead of the upcoming elections.
With this act, the US administration practically pursues its
last
year's unsuccessful aggression on Yugoslavia, using subversive and
spying
activities inadmissible in international relations. It also endorses
separatism and terrorism, fans dangerous aspirations in the region and
violates international law.
The opening of the "Office" and its proclaimed tasks constitute
a
glaring violation of the US commitment to the UN Charter, the Vienna
Conventions on diplomatic relations, the UN Declaration principles
regarding relations and cooperation among states of October 24, 1970,
and
other international documents.
The Office activities and Hungary's acceptance of the use of
its
territory for activities against a third country also constitute a
direct
violation of the GA Resolution 54/168 of December 17, 1999, on the
respect
of national sovereignty and noninterference in internal affairs of
states
as regards electoral process. It particularly violates its Para. 5,
which
stipulates that all states must refrain from financing political parties
or
groups in other states or undertaking any actions undermining their
electoral processes.
The Hungarian Government's acceptance and endorsement of the
opening of the "Office" is a precedent in international relations, and
raises the question of whether such acts are in line with the principles
of
goodneighbourly relations and of the OSCE that Hungarian government
allegedly supports. This act is reminiscent of the time when Budapest,
albeit in different circumstances and under the influence of other
powers,
also served as a center for pressures and subversive activities against
Yugoslavia.
The Yugoslav Government most strongly protests against such
illegal activities of the US administration in the territories of
Hungary
and other states, with the aim of openly interfering in Yugoslavia's
internal affairs, endangering its sovereignty and territorial integrity,
and attempting to destabilize it.
The Yugoslav Government expects the Security Council to most
strongly condemn such conduct and to urge the US administration to abide
by
the UN Charter, its international commitments and international law, the
Ministry document says.
EU STANCE IS AN INSULT TO YUGOSLAVIA AMBASSADOR
ATHENS, Sep 19 (Tanjug). The European Union's promise to lift
antiYugoslav sanctions if its citizens do not vote for incumbent
Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic is the most glaring interference in
Yugoslavia's internal affairs, Yugoslav Ambassador to Greece Dragomir
Vucicevic told Athens Radio 902.
This also constitutes one of the aspects of continuing NATO and
EU
aggression, now by different means, which is a violation of all basic
principles of international relations, Vucicevic said.
The Yugoslav Government has taken all the necessary measures to
make the upcoming federal presidential and parliamentary elections and
local elections in Serbia democratic and fair, as many foreign observers
have already witnessed, Vucicevic said.
The EU stance amounts to taking sides openly, which is
dangerous
and contrary to the basic principles of democracy, Vucicevic said. The
EU
promise of a reward to the people of they do not vote according to their
own will is an insult to the people of Yugoslavia, who have always
strived
throughout their history to preserve their dignity, freedom and national
independence, Vucicevic said.
The EU sanctions against Yugoslavia are unfounded and illegal
as
they are contrary to the fundamental principles of the EU Charter and
have
been imposed without Security Council approval, he noted. The people of
Yugoslavia consequently expect the sanctions to be lifted immediately,
without preconditions, and without being used as an instrument of
preelection pressure, Vucicevic said.
YUGOSLAVIA ELECTIONS
FEDERAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION ISSUES STATEMENT
BELGRADE, September 19 (Tanjug) The Federal Electoral
Commission
held a session on Tuesday chaired by Borivoje Vukicevic and noted that
all
preparations for the implementation of the upcoming presidential and
parliamentary elections were nearing completion according to plan, the
Parliamentary Press Service said.
The printing, packing and distribution of election materials
has
been completed. These operations were monitored by the Federal Electoral
Commission and representatives of political parties running in the
September 24 elections.
Representatives of political parties who supervised the
operations
had no objections and confirmed that all electoral materials were
correct.
However, some party leaders are spreading rumours that already
filled out ballots are being distributed, and that people are being
threatened to force them to use such ballots.
The Commission strongly protests against such lies and points
out
that such irresponsible conduct is unnecessarily misleading the voters
and
violating their right to free choice.
Condemning all manipulations with lies, the Commission urges
for
the creation of legal and constitutional conditions for enabling voters
to
freely elect the lists and candidates of their choice. The Commission
has
consequently taken measures and requested state institutions to protect
the
democratic rights of the citizens.
This year's polls will be attended by over 200 observers from
50
countries, including parliamentarians and eminent public figures, whose
presence will enable the world public opinion to witness the democratic
character of free and fair elections in Yugoslavia, the Commission said.
FALSE WEBSITES FOR YUGOSLAV ELECTIONS
BELGRADE, Sept 20 (Tanjug) Yugoslav public enterprise
RadioTelevision YugoslaviaInternet Yugoslavia has once again drawn
attention to the fact that the official website of the Yugoslav
Government
devoted to elections has an Internet (URL) site www.gov.yu/izbori.
The statement said that certain organizations financed by
Western
countries use parallel sites, with similar names, so that it is possible
that on URLsites such as www.izbori.org.yu and www.izbori.co.yu are
promoted false election results, and confusion created.
The first mentioned website is currently openly promoting
candidates of the political organization Democratic Opposition of Serbia
(DOS), which runs stories such as Arm Yourselves for September 20, when
the
election convention of DOS is due to be held, or it even calls on
citizens
to take to the streets and wait for the announcing of trumpedup election
results from their parallel election site.
The second site mentioned above is still in preparation and
will
be active on September 24.
Internet Yugoslavia points out that the official site
www.gov.yu/izbori is updated in conjunction with the Yugoslav Election
Commission, and is therefore the most accurate source of information
about
elections and about election results.
MORE THAN 210 FOREIGN OBSERVERS ARRIVE IN YUGOSLAVIA FOR ELECTIONS
BELGRADE, September 20 (Tanjug) - President of the Yugoslav Electoral
Commission Borivoje Vukicevic and Supervising Board President Ivan
Radosavljevic will organize a cocktail on Wednesday evening to welcome
foreign observers who have arrived in Belgrade to monitor the federal
presidential and parliamentary elections and local elections in the
Yugoslav Republic of Serbia.
More than 210 foreign observers, including parliament members and
officials from 52 countries have arrived so far. They are from: Albania,
Angola, Argentina, Belgium, Belarus, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Chad, Czech
Republic, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, France, Ghana, Greece, India,
Indonesia,
Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Armenia, Jordan, Canada, Kazakhstan, Kenya,
Cyprus,
Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Libya, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Germany, Nepal,
Nicaragua, Palestine, Portugal, Romania, Russia, the U.S.A., Salvador,
Slovakia, Sweden, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkey, Ukraine, United
Kingdom, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
Among the foreign observers is a joint delegation of the Parliamentary
Assembly of Russia and Belarus. The foreign observers have attended the
final rallies of various political parties, and will be present at most
electoral stations all day on Sunday, September 24.
STATE DUMA DEPUTIES AGAINST EU PRESSURES ON YUGOSLAVIA
MOSCOW, September 20 (Tanjug) Russian state Duma deputies
condemned the interference of the European Union in the internal affairs
of
Yugoslavia, with the intention of influencing the will of its voters,
said
a statement of the Duma Committee for helping our country overcome the
consequences of NATO's aggression last year.
State Duma members called on the EU, the statement specified,
not
to create obstacles for the free expression of will of voters, at the
upcoming presidential and legislative elections in Yugoslavia, on
September
24.
The EU attempt to influence by messages and false promises the
Serbian people to vote against Slobodan Milosevic was describes by Duma
deputies as "blatant interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign
state."
"Western countries are, in fact, the obstacle to the
development
of democracy in Yugoslavia, because they imposed years of sanctions,
political and informativepropaganda pressure," the statement said,
stressing that the reconstruction of Serbia, after NATO's barbaric
bombing
should not be an act of charity, but an obligation of the West.
OBSERVERS FROM RUSSIA AND BELARUS ARRIVE IN BELGRADE
BELGRADE, September 20 (Tanjug) A delegation of the Russian
state
Duma, made up of representatives of all party groupings, and of the
parliamentary assembly of the Union of Russia and Belarus arrived on
Wednesday at the invitation of the Yugoslav Federal Assembly, to attend
in
the capacity of international observers presidential, legislative and
local
elections in FR Yugoslavia, scheduled for September 24. In the
delegation
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Russia and Belarus are
members of all legislative committees and secretariats, while from the
Russian Duma the role of observers will be performed by representatives
of
party groupings "Homelandall Russia," "Regions of Russia," "Jabloko,"
the
Communist party, "Unity" and the LiberalDemocratic party.
The delegation was welcomed at the airport by Yugoslav
Parliament
Lower House Foreign Policy Committee President Ljubisa Ristic, who
informed
them that at the Yugoslav elections will be present over 200 observers,
of
whom more than half are members of parliament from more than 50
countries.
"We want them to have all the necessary conditions for
monitoring
the elections independently and freely and to be impartial with respect
to
all key issues," Ristic said, pointing out, also, the intention of the
hosts to make it possible to observers in FR Yugoslavia to talk with
whom
ever and where ever they want to.
"Please communicate freely with the media and with voters, and
I
believe that your impressions about the democratic character of the
elections will be confirmed also by freedom of movement and the
monitoring
of elections," he said.
Russian Duma delegation head and international affairs
committee
deputychairman Konstantin Kasachov stressed that the delegation had
arrived
in Yugoslavia with best intentions and wishes that its members convey an
objective picture about elections conditions and about everything that
they
see during the election process.
Kasachov, speaking about the tasks of the delegation, cited as
very important the consequences of foreign interference in the campaign.
Delegation head of the parliamentary assembly of the Union of
Russia and Belarus and parliament foreign policy committee chairman
Nikolai
Cherginez said he believed that the elections in Yugoslavia will be
conducted in a democratic manner and be an expression of the free will
of
the people of Yugoslavia.
OBSERVERS FROM UKRAIN, MOLDAVIA ARRIVE
BELGRADE, September 20 (Tanjug) At the invitation of the
Federal
Parliament, parliamentary delegations from Ukrain and Moldavia arrived
in
Belgrade late on Tuesday to attend the presidential, federal and local
elections in Yugoslavia on September 24 as international observers.
The MPs were welcomed at Belgrade's airport by the Yugoslav
Parliament's Chamber of Citizens Foreign Policy Committee President
Ljubisa
Ristic and Foreign Ministry Ambassador Vladimir Krsljanin.
It is expected that over 200 MPs and other prominent public
figures from 50 countries all over the world will attend the elections
in
Yugoslavia in the capacity of observer, Ristic said.
Ristic said 16 parliaments would send official delegations to
Yugoslavia.
He pointed out that the federal parliament had not invited
official delegations from the aggressor countries, since he said this
would
be unacceptable for the Yugoslav people.
Nevertheless, a number of public figures from certain countries
that took part in the 1999 NATO aggression on Yugoslavia have arrived
here,
even some MPs, but in a private capacity, and not as official
representatives of the respective parliaments, Ristic said.
ZYUGANOV ON ELECTIONS IN YUGOSLAVIA
MOSCOW, September 20 (Tanjug) Russian Federation Communist
Party (KPRF) President Gennady Zyuganov said on Tuesday during a
meeting
and talks with Yugoslav Ambassador to Russia Borislav Milosevic that the
Duma KPRF deputies would meet all their obligations as observers at the
upcoming elections in Yugoslavia.
Milosevic informed Zyuganov, on the grounds of reports
available
to the public, about the plans to destabilize the situation in
Yugoslavia
in the event of an outcome of the presidential, federal and Serbian
local
elections set for September 24 which would be unfavourable for the west,
the KPRF Press Service said.
Zyuganov resolutely condemned attempts by western countries to
interfere in the election process in Yugoslavia, describing this as
"direct
pressure on voters." "We will respect the choice of the Yugoslav people
made at the upcoming elections, and will continue contributing as much
as
we can to the development of the brotherly relations between our
states,"
Zyuganov said.
GERMAN MP BLASTS GERMANY, E.U., NATO OVER YUGOSLAVIA
BERLIN, September 20 (Tanjug) An MP of Germany's leftist Party
of
Democratic Socialism (PDS) on Wednesday accused the German Government,
the
European Union and NATO of not wanting peace in the Balkans. This,
according to Wolfgang Gehrke speaking for Berlin's Neues Deutschland
newspaper, is evident from their officious meddling in Yugoslavia's
internal affairs ahead of September 24 elections.
If the European Union and NATO are already so certain before
the
event that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic will cheat to win the
elections, then what they are doing is only adding to the tensions in
the
region, Gehrke said.
The PDS authority on foreign policy in the Bundestag said he
feared that at work here was a highly dangerous policy of the west which
might precipitate another war.
The PDS, successor to the former East German communists, is the
only political party in Germany to have consistently and constantly
condemned NATO's MarchJune 1999 aggression on Yugoslavia as an act
unprecedented in recent European history.
Gehrke again pointed out that the PDS had always insisted on
defining the status of KosovoMetohija with strict respect for U.N.
Resolution 1244 which says that this province of the Yugoslav Republic
of
Serbia must remain in Yugoslavia.
***
URL for this article is http://emperors-clothes.com/news/erlang.htm
'NY Times' Confirms Charge that U.S. Gov't Meddles in Yugoslav Internal
Affairs
Introduction by Jared Israel and Max Sinclair (9-21-2000)
The following article from the NY Times is most important. In it, the
reporter concedes that the charges many people have raised about US
meddling in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia are true. Indeed, he adds
information that we had no way of knowing. For example, that suitcases
full
of cash are sent across the borders into Yugoslavia to fund the
"democratic
opposition". Doesn't our assertion, that "democratic" means "following
the
dictates of the US State Department" appear to be a simple statement of
fact?
Note that despite the shocking evidence he presents to the contrary, Mr.
Erlanger still manages to call this self-styled "democratic" opposition
"independent":
[Start quote] "Independent journalists and broadcasters here have been
told
by American aid officials "not to worry about how much they're spending
now," that plenty more is in the pipeline, said one knowledgeable aid
worker. Others in the opposition complain that the Americans are clumsy,
sending e-mails from "state.gov" - the State Department's address -
summoning people to impolitic meetings with American officials in
Budapest,
Montenegro or Dubrovnik, Croatia."[End quote]
The article includes various attacks on the Yugoslav government in
general
and Mr. Milosevich in particular. Those readers who do not read the US
press should be aware that it is impossible for a large US newspaper to
write anything about Yugoslavia without including a number of such
attacks:
[Start quote]"When speaking of the Serbs it is considered proper to say
something negative. More than one thing is optional. But one is
obligatory."[End quote] (From 'The Obligatory Bash' at
emperors-lothes.com/analysis/obligato.htm )
Mr. Erlanger refers to documentation of US meddling, which appeared in
the
Yugoslav paper, 'Politika'. That documentation comes from an Emperor's
Clothes article, which Politika reprinted. (1) The article was also
shown
in full on Serbian Television this past Monday at 7:30.
Notice also that Mr. Kostunica now appears to concede that our charges
are
true. Or, rather, he is quoted first saying they represent the ravings
of
"the regime" (one must refer to the elected government of Yugoslavia as
a
'Regime') and then saying that the so-called "nongovernmental"
organizations who take this money "are even unconsciously working for
American imperial goals." I am not sure what it means to "unwittingly"
take
millions of US dollars. But that aside, it is good that Mr. Kostunica
says
this, but I wonder if he sees the implications. Are these people, who
take
the US money, not the G-17, who wrote the so-called "Democratic"
Opposition
Program, which he endorsed? Aren't they the members of the "democratic"
opposition coalition, for which he is the candidate? Aren't they groups
like Otpor, who according to the US press put up his posters and hand
out
his fliers?
Let us make no mistake. The fault for corrupting the Yugoslav political
process lies in one place: Washington, with its "democratic" this and
"independent" that, and all the time they are trying to buy people,
especially young people, with the lure of a traitor's gold.
When, and it will happen, the American people learn what crimes are
being
committed in their name, God help the State Department.
***.
The New York Times September 20, 2000
Milosevic, Trailing in Polls, Rails Against NATO
By STEVEN ERLANGER
BELGRADE, Serbia, Sept. 19 - In his race for re-election, President
Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia is running against NATO and the United
States, not against his democratic opposition.
He is not entirely mistaken to do so. The United States and its European
allies have made it clear that they want Mr. Milosevic ousted, and they
have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to get it done.
Portraying himself as the defender of Yugoslavia's sovereignty against a
hostile, hegemonic West led by Washington, Mr. Milosevic and his
government
argue that opposition leaders are merely the paid, traitorous tools of
enemies who are continuing their war against him by other means. In
March
1999, NATO began a 78-day bombing campaign to drive Serbian forces out
of
Kosovo.
The Yugoslav elections are on Sunday, but there has hardly been a day
since
the bombing began that state television news has not railed against
"NATO
aggressors."
With the campaign at its height, the government has spread its attacks
to
include all opposition political parties, independent newspapers,
magazines
and electronic media, the student organization known as Otpor - or
Resistance - and any nongovernmental organization working to promote
democracy, human rights or even economic reforms.
While Mr. Milosevic is trailing the main opposition leader, Vojislav
Kostunica, in opinion polls, the anti- Western campaign is having an
impact. The money from the West is going to most of the institutions
that
the government attacks for receiving it - sometimes in direct aid,
sometimes in indirect aid like computers and broadcasting equipment, and
sometimes in suitcases of cash carried across the border between
Yugoslavia
and Hungary or Serbia and Montenegro. Most of those organizations and
news
media could not exist without foreign aid in this society, which is poor
and repressive and whose market is distorted by foreign economic
sanctions.
Even with foreign aid, government restrictions on newsprint supplies and
high and repeated fines after suspiciously quick court cases make it
hard
for the independent news media to reach their natural market.
As for the opinion polls that show Mr. Kostunica in the lead, the
information minister, Goran Matic, charges that the polls are
orchestrated
and manipulated by the Americans and the Central Intelligence Agency,
who
help pay for them. According to Mr. Matic, Mr. Milosevic is actually far
ahead of Mr. Kostunica, and the polls simply serve as a vehicle for the
opposition to claim that the government stole the election once Mr.
Milosevic wins.
Mr. Matic asserts that the Atlantic alliance has come up with various
scenarios, such as infiltrating soldiers wearing Yugoslav Army and
police
uniforms, to make it possible for the opposition to start civil unrest
in
the streets after the election while claiming that the police and the
army
are actually on their side.
Mr. Matic has attacked various nongovernmental organizations, including
the
Center for Free Elections and Democracy, which is trying to monitor the
fairness of the election, as paid instruments of American and alliance
policy. Many such organizations have been raided by the police, who
confiscate computer files and also appear to be gathering evidence about
foreign payments.
"President Milosevic will win this election," said Ljubisa Ristic, the
president of the Yugolav United Left party, founded by Mr. Milosevic's
wife, Mirjana Markovic. "This is not Hollywood." Washington and the
West,
she said, "are like little kids, wanting something to happen so much
they're fooling themselves."
Mr. Ristic said the alliance's war produced a new solidarity among
Yugoslavs and "killed many illusions people had about the West and about
their own opposition leaders, who went to the countries that were
bombing
us to seek their support."
The issues, Mr. Ristic said, are clear now. "It's a decisive time," he
said. "This is not an election so much as a referendum, a decision on
being
an independent country or a colony. People see what's happened in
Kosovo,
what happens when NATO troops enter the country, and they are not going
to
allow the alliance's hand- picked candidates to win."
Even before the Kosovo war, the United States was spending up to $10
million a year to back opposition parties, independent news media and
other
institutions opposed to Mr. Milosevic. The war itself cost billions of
dollars. This fiscal year, through September, the administration is
spending $25 million to support Serbian "democratization," with an
unknown
amount of money spent covertly to help the failed rallies of last year,
which did not bring down Mr. Milosevic, or to influence the current
election. For next year, the administration is requesting $41.5 million
in
open aid to Serbian democratization, though Congress is likely to cut
that
request.
Independent journalists and broadcasters here have been told by American
aid officials "not to worry about how much they're spending now," that
plenty more is in the pipeline, said one knowledgable aid worker. Others
in
the opposition complain that the Americans are clumsy, sending e-mails
from
"state.gov" - the State Department's address - summoning people to
impolitic meetings with American officials in Budapest, Montenegro or
Dubrovnik, Croatia.
But there is little effort to disguise the fact that Western money pays
for
much of the polling, advertising, printing and other costs of the
opposition political campaign - one way, to be sure, to give opposition
leaders a better chance to get their message across in a
quasi-authoritarian system where television in particular is in the firm
hands of the government.
While that spending allows the opposition to be heard more broadly,
deepening the opposition to Mr. Milosevic, it also allows the government
here to argue that it has real enemies, and that the Serbian opposition
is
in league with them.
Just today, in the state-run newspaper Politika, a long article used
public
information from the United States - including Congressional testimony
and
Web site material - to show that the United States is financing the
opposition.
" `Independent,' `nongovernmental' and `democratic' are the standard
phrases the C.I.A. uses to describe organizations established all over
the
world to destroy the governments and the societies that the U.S.
government
wants to colonize and control," the paper wrote.
The Congressional testimony, from July 29, 1999, cited American
officials
then involved with Yugoslav policy, like Robert Gelbard and James
Pardew,
telling Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware about their projects. They
describe the creation of a "ring around Serbia" of radio stations
broadcasting into Serbia from Bosnia and Montenegro, the spending of
$16.5
million in the previous two years to support "democratization in
Serbia,"
and another $20 million to support Montenegro's president, Milo
Djukanovic,
who broke away from Mr. Milosevic in 1998.
The testimony listed some of the recipients of American aid here,
including
various newspapers, magazines, news agencies and broadcasters opposed to
Mr. Milosevic, as well as various nongovernmental organizations engaged
in
legal defense and human rights and projects to bring promising Yugoslav
journalists to the United States for professional training.
All such projects are portrayed by Politika and state television as a
way
to undermine the legal government, and the recipients are labeled
traitors
to their country.
Opposition leaders like Mr. Kostunica regard such tactics by the
government
as crass propaganda, but even he is skeptical of American intentions in
paying for nongovernmental organizations, some of whom, he believes, are
even unconsciously working for American imperial goals and not
necessarily
Serbian values.
Other democratic leaders, like Zoran Djindjic and Zarko Korac, regard
such
attacks as an indication of Mr. Milosevic's desperation and anxiety on
the
eve of the first election he is likely to lose in his entire political
career. Given the stakes for Mr. Milosevic, they believe that he will do
all he can, including the wholesale stealing of votes, to ensure a
victory
in the first round of voting.
"The stakes are fundamental for Milosevic," Mr. Korac said. "These
elections are crucial, not necessarily for the immediate handover of
power,
but because for the first time Mr. Milosevic will be delegitimized in
the
eyes of his own people. He was an elected dictator, with popular and
legal
legitimacy. But from now on he's a true dictator, and he will only be
able
to rule by force - that's a big step for Serbia."
Footnote:
(1) 'How the U.S. has Created a Corrupt Opposition in Serbia'
http://emperors-clothes.com/engl.htm
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