* Riepilogo degli atti terroristici e di violenza nella provincia di
Kosovo e Metohija dall'arrivo di KFOR ed UNMIK, tra il 12 giugno 1999 ed
il 13 gennaio 2000 (Yugoslav Daily Survey / Min. Esteri RFJ)

* La morte di Dragoslav Basic (Tom Lochner, "The Times"; in italiano ed
in inglese)


---


Yugoslav Daily Survey - Special Issues

BELGRADE, 18 January 2000



O V E R V I E W
of terrorist and other acts of violence in the province of Kosovo and
Metohija
since the arrival of KFOR and UNMIK in the period from 12 June 1999 to
13
January 2000


1) Number of terrorist attacks: 3,688
Out of which 3,630 were committed against civilians, i.e. 3,433 against
Serbs and Montenegrins, 87 against Albanians and 110 against members of
other nationalities.
2) Number of abducted and missing persons: 688
Out of whom 656 were civilians, i.e. 598 were Serbs and Montenegrins, 36
Albanians and 22 members of other nationalities.
The fate of 559 abducted civilians is still unknown while 64 were
killed.
3) Number of killed persons: 793
Out of whom 772 were civilians, i.e. 684 were Serbs and Montenegrins (22
massacred, 84 mutilated and 5 burned to death), 63 were Albanians and 25
members of other nationalities in Kosovo and Metohija.
4) Number of arbitrarily arrested persons by KFOR:
Serbs accused of allegedly committing "war crimes" are detained in
prisons
in Pristina, Prizren, Sojevo near Urosevac, Kosovska Mitrovica,
Gnjilane,
Lipljan and Kolokot Banja. They have been arrested only on the ground of
information provided by the Albanians of the so-called "KLA" and a large
number of these persons are detained without any court decision.
5) Number of wounded persons: 611
6) Reported cases of physical assault, harassment and inflicted grave
bodily harm: 416
7) Registered cases of threats: 356
8) Registered number of dwellings broken into and forcibly taken
occupancy
of: 776 in Pristina, over 200 in Kosovska Mitrovica, 190 in Gnjilane,
124
in Orahovac, a large number in Kosovo Polje and Lipljan.
9) Ethnic cleansing: Many towns were ethnically cleansed of Serbs and
other
non-Albanians. According to available UNHCR data of September 1999,
about
220 000 mainly Serbs and Montenegrins were driven out of Kosovo and
Metohija.
According to the latest data over 330 000 Serbs, Montenegrins, Roma,
Muslims, Goranci, Turks and other non-Albanians were expelled, of whom
250
000 are Serbs.
10) Registered number of homes burned down: about 50 000 houses were
burned
down in Kosovo and Metohija.
11) Registered number of stolen vehicles: over 12 000 vehicles. As a
result
of open borders with Macedonia and Albania 250 000 vehicles were brought
into Kosovo and Metohija without payment of customs duties and most of
these vehicles were stolen.
12) Destruction of churches, monasteries and cultural monuments:
About 80 churches, monasteries and other religious buildings and
cultural
monuments were burned down or damaged including the following: the
Church
of Assumption of Our Lady in Dolac, monastery of St. Marco in Korisa
from
1467, monastery of Prophets Kosmo and Damien in Zatociste from 14
century,
the church in Kijev from the 14th century, the Holy Trinity monastery
from
the 14th century near Musutiste, monastery Devic built in 1440, church
of
St. Paraskeva in Drenik from the 16th century, church of St. Dimitri
near
Pec, the Orthodox church in Grmovo near Vitina, church of St. Ilija in
Cegra near Gnjilane, church of Holy Mother in Musutiste from 1315,
church
of Prophet Ilija in Bistricin, church of Apostles Peter and Paul in Suva
Reka, monastery of St. Uros in Nerodimlje, monastery of Archangel
Gabriel
from the 14th century in Binac, church of the Holy Virgin from the 16th
century in Belo Polje, church of St. John the Baptist in Pecka Banja,
churches in the villages of Naklo, Vucitrn, Petrovac, Urosevac,
Podgorce,
Djurakovac, Krusevo, Osojane, Samodreca, Dresna near Klina, Rekovac,
Petric, monastery Dinac near Vitina, Holy Trinity Cathedral in
Djakovica.
Places of worship were attacked, desecrated, demolished and burned down.
Clergy were terrorized and prosecuted. More than 150 parish residences
were
destroyed or damaged. Over 10 000 icons and other sacred objects were
stolen or destroyed.
The following cultural monuments were damaged and demolished:
- monuments in memory of giants of Serbian and Montenegrin literature
Vuk
Karadzic and Petar Petrovic Njegos in the very centre of Pristina;
- monuments in memory of King Uros in Urosevac and King Dusan in
Prizren;
- memorial to Prince Lazar in Gnjilane and the memorial to Serbian
rulers
from the Nemanjic dynasty in the village of Gornje Nerodimlje.
13) Forced and illegal taking over of public institutions:
- forcible and illegal take-overs of premises and buildings of post
offices, banks, medical institutions, water and power supply systems,
university, elementary and secondary schools, municipal and other
authorities of local administration, local communes, buildings of the
Ministry of the Interior and the Army of Yugoslavia, factories,
enterprises, cooperatives, etc. in Pristina (premises of the Clinical
centre "Pristina" and the health station, the Federal Customs
Administration, the Public Housing Company, Institute for Urban
Planning,
the public enterprise "Vodovod", thermal power plant "Kosovo B", depots
and
petrol stations of "Jugopetrol", the share-holding companies
"Kosmet-Pristina", "Kosovo-Trans", the public enterprise "Energoinvest",
the public enterprise "Auto-Pristina", "Car shock absorbers plant",
"Jugotrans", etc.) as well as in Prizren, Dragas, Podujevo, Lipljan,
Strpci, Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo Polje (with the assistance of the
members of KFOR), Djakovica (with the assistance of the members of
KFOR).
- by forced and illegal taking over of public enterprises and
institutions
over 20 000 employed Serbs, Montenegrins, Roma, Muslims, Goranci, Turks
and
other non-Albanians were sacked and replaced exclusively by Albanians,
who
are mostly unskilled.
14) Registered armed attacks on villages: Slovinj, Maticane, Orahovac,
Konjuh, Berivojce, Gornja Brnjica, the villages around Kosovska
Kamenica:
Grncar, Magila, Ajvalija, all the villages of the Istok-Klina region,
Goracdevac near Pec, Svinjare, Klokot, Novo Brdo, Zjum, Donja and Gornja
Gusterica, Susica, Badavac, Bresje, Vrbovac, Vitina, Cernice,
(municipality
of Gnjilane), Dobrusa, Veliko Ropotovo (municipality of Kosovska
Kamenica),
Partes (municipality of Gnjilane), Pasjane (municipality of Gnjilane),
Ljestar, Budriga, Dobrotin (municipality of Lipljan), Grncar, Binac,
Ranilug, Silovo, Odovce, Rajanovce, Bosce, Caglavica, Paravolo, Lebane,
Gojbulja, in the following villages in the area of the municipality of
Gora: Brodosvce, Belobrod, Kukavce - frequent attacks against the houses
of
Goranci, Muslims and Albanians who are loyal to the FR of Yugoslavia.
All this runs counter to the assertions about the disarming of the
terrorist "KLA".
15) Registered sieges of villages: Gadnje, Orahovac and Velika Hoca
(population lives in a "ghetto"), Koretin, villages around Gnjilane,
Priluzje, Gornja Srbica, Gorazdevac.
16) Armed threats against villages and terror committed on a daily basis
against non-Albanian population: Ugljari, Srpski Babus, Stimlje, Novo
Selo,
Bresje, the area around Kosovo Polje, Milosevo (against which the armed
attack was carried out), village of Zebnice (dramatic humanitarian
situation), majority of the mainly Croatian Catholic population who
lived
in the villages of Letinice, Vrnez, Vrnavo Kolo and Sasare have moved
out,
Drenovac (50 Serbs massacred), village of Cernice (series of incidents
in
which members of the US contingent of KFOR maltreated Serbs), Pozaranje,
Gotovusa, Gatnje, Zubin Potok, Veliki Alas, Vrelo and Radevo.
(17) The looted Serb villages from which the residents were forced out:
Muzicani, Slivovo, Orlovic, Dragas, the area around Kosovo Polje,
Sofalija,
Livadice, Mirovac, Siriniska zupa, Medregovac, Grace, Zociste, Sofalije,
Dragoljevac, Tomance, Koretin, Lestar, Donja Sipasnica.
(18) Serb neighbourhoods set on fire: Istok, Klina, Donja Lapastica,
Obrandza, Velika Reka, Perane, Lause, the villages around Podujevo,
Grace,
Donja Dubica, Zociste, Orahovac, Naklo, Vitomirice, Belo Polje,
Kojlovice,
Alos-Toplicane, Krajiste, Rudnik, Donji Strmac, Goles (municipality of
Lipljan), Orlovic (municipality of Pristina), Krpimej and Lausa
(municipality of Podujevo), Muzicane (all Serbian houses burned down),
Zaimovo, Denovac, Lesjane, Gornje and Donje Nerodimlje (all Serbian
houses
looted and then burned down), Sinaje (municipality of Istok), Belovac,
Mali
Talinovac, Ljubizda, Klobuka (municipality of Kosovska Kamenica).
(19) Towns and residential areas ethnically cleansed of Serbs, Roma,
Muslims, Goranci and other non-Albanians: Prizren, Djakovica, Pec,
Srbica,
Podujevo, Vucitrn, Glogovac as well as the villages in the municipality
of
Istok: Dzakovo, Osojane, Tuzepom, Kos, Zac, Belica, Krnjine, Maticane,
Kacanik, Stimlje, Kmetovaska Vrbica, surroundings of Urosevac, Slivovo,
Nedakovac, Nevoljane, Vrpica, Ljestar, Zegra (municipality of Gnjilane),
Zitnje, Pozaranje, Grmovo, Drobes, Kabas and Binac (municipality of
Vitina).
- The ethnic cleansing has been in its final stages in Pristina (all the
Serbian population has been driven out of the largest residential
quarters:
Ulpijana, Sun_ani Breg, Dardanija, Univerzitetsko Naselje), Gnjilane,
Urosevac, Kosovska Mitrovica, Lipljan, Kosovo Polje where 80 per cent of
the Serbian population has been expelled (houses burned down, looted,
property seized from the owners of shops, Albanian terrorists maltreat
and
physically abuse Serbs, who refused to sell their houses and move out of
Kosovo and Metohija, before the very eyes of the members of KFOR),
Kosovska
Kamenica, area of Vitina and Kosovsko Pomoravlje, as well as in the
villages of Toplicane, Rujice, Magure, Slovinja, Staro Gracko.
20) Registered number of illegal entries of foreign citizens into the
territory of the FR of Yugoslavia (Kosovo and Metohija) without the
necessary papers (visas and registration of stay with the competent
authorities): 677
Over 200 000 foreigners have illegally entered into the Province with
the
consent of UNMIK and KFOR. The Government of the FR of Yugoslavia has
officially requested their expulsion.
21) Registered number of criminal acts of illicit trafficking and
possession of goods without appropriate documents:137
22) Registered number of cases of violation of the land security zone by
KFOR 236
* * *
REVIEW
OF TERRORIST AND OTHER ACTS OF VIOLENCE PERPETRATED BY ALBANIAN
TERRORISTS
IN THE PROVINCE OF KOSOVO AND METOHIJA SINCE THE DEPLOYMENT OF KFOR AND
UNMIK
IN THE PERIOD FROM 12 JUNE 1999 TO 13 JANUARY 2000
Terrorism of Albanian separatists
Total number of terrorist attacks 3,688
1. Civilians 3,630
- Serbs and Montenegrins 3,433
- Albanians 87
- members of other nationalities 110
2. Officials and facilities 58
A. Killed 793
1. Civilians 772
- Serbs and Montenegrins 684
- Albanians 63
- members of other nationalities 25
2. Officials 21
B. Wounded 611
1. Civilians 604
- Serbs and Montenegrins 565
- Albanians 18
- members of other nationalities 21
2. Officials 7
C. Kidnapped and missing 688
1. Civilians
656
- Serbs and Montenegrins 598
- Albanians 36
- members of other nationalities 22
2. Officials 32
Fate of kidnapped and missing
1. Killed 69
2. Escaped 6
3. Unaccounted-for 581
4. Released 32


---


>From kfqma@... Mon Jan 24 11:33:22 2000
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 21:37:12 +0100
From: Alessandro Marescotti <kfqma@...>
Reply-To: pck-yugoslavia@...
To: pck-yugoslavia@...
Cc: pck-pcknews@...
Subject: Dragoslav Basic morto per il sogno del Kosovo
Resent-Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 23:53:47 +0100
Resent-From: pck-yugoslavia@...

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Pubblicato Mercoledi 15 Dicembre 1999
Professore dell'Universita' della California morto per il sogno del
Kosovo
Dragoslav Basic era tornato in patria per "costruire un ponte di
umanita' ": e' stato ucciso e i suoi familiari gravemente feriti.

Di Tom Lochner
L'uomo Serbo ucciso da un commando nelle strade di Pristina<
Jugoslavia, due setimane fa, era un ex-residente in Albania e
professore in visita all'Universita' della California , Berkeley, che
era tornato in patria per perseguire il suo sogno di un Kosovo in
armonia.
Amici della baia orientale dicono che Dragoslav Basic, 63 anni, era una
autorevole voce di pace. Nato a Pristina, capitale del Kosovo, Basic
era professore di ingegneria civile, specializzatosi nella costruzione
di ponti ed altri progetti per lavori pubblici in aree ad elevato
rischio sismico.
Ma quando assunse la sua cattedra all'Universita' del Kosovo nel 1990,
dopo un anno e mezzo in California, Basic progetto' un diverso tipo di
ponte.
"Mi disse 'Potrei aiutare la gente a costruire un ponte di umanita' che
nessun terremoto distrugga mai'" ha detto Nick Tomasevic, residente di
Berkley, pilota in pensione ed amico di Basic.
LA mattina del 29 Novembre Basic e' stato tirato fuori dalla sua
macchina con la moglie e la suocera e poi colpito con arma da
fuoco mentre una folla percoteva e torturava le donne tra i
festeggiamenti per la Giornata della Bandiera Albanese (commemorata dal
KLA), la festa che ricorda la nascita del moderno stato Albanese subito
dopo la I Guerra Mondiale.
L'attacco, ampiamente riportato da televisioni, stampa e radio a
livello internazionale, e' stato un segnale visibile e un richiamo alla
rabbia etnica a cui Basic cercava di porre fine.
"Non e' soo stato ucciso a colpi d'arma da fuoco- ha detto Snezana
Landau di El Cerrito, amica di famiglia - gli e' stato saparato come ad
un cane rabbioso in strada, con centinaia di persone che guardavano. E
nessuno ha voluto fare qualcosa".
Si pensa che Basic e sua moglie Dragica, 51, stessero portando la
madre di Dragica, Borka Jovanovic, 74, all'ospedale in seguito ad un
malore dell'anziana donna.
Le donne hanno riportato molteplici ferite e sono state ospedalizzate
a Nis, fuori dal Kosovo, nella Serbia orientale.
"Tomislav, il figlio della coppia, ha visto sua madre a Nis e ha detto
di non averla riconosciuta; racconta Desa Wakeman di Berkley, una
impiegata di una compagnia di leasing in pensionee sorella di
Tomasevic. I parenti di Wakeman hanno parlato con Tomislav per
telefono. " Ha detto: ' mia madre aveva dei bellissimi capelli neri, ma
non li ho potuti vedere tanto era l sangue che li copriva'".
Il martedi Dragica Basic era all'ospedale di Belgrado, quando e' stata
trasferita d'urgenza per un intervento agli occhi. Il giovedi Jovanovic
era nelo stesso ospedale in condizioni critiche.
Al momento della morte di Basic, il corpo studentesco dell'universita'
del Kosovo era diventato prevalentemente di etnia Albanese. Sebbene
insegnasse in Serbo-Croato e in Inglese, Basic aveva acquisito una
quasi completa padronanza della lingua Albanese ed aveva esortato altri
a fare lo stesso.
Una volta mi disse: "Quasi ogni albanese in Kosovo parla serbo-croato,
ogni non albanese in Kosovo dovrebbe parlare la sua bellissima lingua"
ha detto Tomasevic.
Basic era orgoglioso delle sue origini Serbe e fiducioso nel proprio
ruolo nel vecchio e nel nuovo Kosovo.
" questo e' il postoo dove la sua famiglia era vissuta per secoli"
disse Wakeman " erano persone con poca istruzione, serbi ortodossi,
portatori della tradizione serba e conoscitori della storia della zona.
Ecco perche' non hanno mai voluto spostarsi".
Basic consegui' un Master all'universita' del Mississippi alla fine
degli anni 70. Viveva nello University Village, un progetto di
costruzioni di proprieta' dell'univerista' di Berkley UC in Albania.
La figlia della coppia, Nikoleta, si e' dipomata alla scuola superiore
Albany nel 1989; Tomislav ha frequentato la scuola elementare Cornell.
I figli vivono attualmente in Serbia , dove Nikoleta insegna inglese e
Tomislav studia farmacologia.
Basic era presso l'universita' della California nel 1989 quando il
Presidente Yugoslavo Slobodan Milosevic, in piena crescita della
tensione etnica, revoco' lo status del Kosovo come provincia autonoma
all'interno della Repubblica Serba.

"(Basic) aveva un forte dilemma" ha detto Wakeman " disse: ' se tutti
scappano chi restera' la'? "
" Senti' che era suo dovere tornare, non solo come Serbo ma anche come
educatore", ha detto Wakeman " creeva che attraverso l'istruzione
superiore si potesse ottenere qualcosa di buono tra la gente del
Kosovo".

E non solo fra Serbi ed Albanesi, ma anche tra le minoranze Turche,
Greche e Rom della provincia.
In un certo senso Basic stava cercando di reclamare parte della sua
giovinezza.
" Il problema del Kosovo e della Yugoslavia gli premeva
particolarmente, non solo perche' era la sua patria ma perche' era un
esempio del fato che gli esseri umani possono coesistere se ci si mette
una maggior dose di buona volonta' ", ha detto Tomasevic.

I contrasti Cristiano-Musulmani nei Balcani risalgono al 1389, quando
un esercito Serbo fu sconfitto dai Turchi nella battaglia del Kosovo.
Basic era convinto, 600 anni dopo, che fosse tempo per rimarginare
quella ferita. Egli obiettava ai leader politici e religiosi che
perpetuavano la violenza per quello che non avevano detto quanto per
quello che avevano detto.

"BAsic fu molto critico quando Milosevic ando' in Kosovo per la
commemorazione dei 600 anni, per il fatto che non si rivolse alla
popolazione Albanese. Credeva che Milosevic avrebbe dovuto dire 'Cari
fratelli Albanesi: 600 anni fa una catastrofe si abbatte' su tutti noi
ed ora abbiamo un dovere. C'e' abbastanza spazio in Kosovo per tutti
noi".
Basic era convinto che nella Seconda Guerra Mondiale una semplice
lettera enciclica a tutte le Chiese Cattoliche Romane nel mondo, con
un'enfasi sul fatto che Cristo era Ebreo e che la Cristianita' e' una
branca del Giudaismo, avrebe potuto evitare l'Olocausto.

Dopo il suo ritorno Basic espresse disaccordo su cio' che aveva visto
come un ncoraggiamento da parte degli USA di una frammentazione della
Yugoslavia post- Tito. Wakeman e Tomasevic sono tra quelli di etnia
serba che nel 1941 furono 'ripuliti' dalla loro terra natia, la
Croazia, come dice Wakeman.

"BAsic accuso' il governo degli USA di non aver promosso l'idea del
melting pot", ha detto Tomasevic.

Basic credeva che gli USA aavrebbero dovuto dire ' Ascoltate: siete
dita di una stessa mano. Noi non tollereremo la disintegrazione del
vostro paese e vi aiuteremo a riorganizzarlo." ha detto Tomasevic.

Basic aveva una citazione preferita sulla fine della guerra, presa dal
poeta Ungherese del diaciannovesimo secolo Sandor PetÎfy, che pensava
avrebbe potuto diventare un motto per le Nazioni Unite:
" che cosa e' la gloria su un campo di battaglia rispetto al bellissimo
arcobaleno formato dai raggi di sole che filtrano attraverso una
pioggia di lacrime? " ha detto Toamsevic.

"Basic era un ingegnere civile- ha detto Tomasevic-ma oltre la sua
professione, era un grande umanista, un filosofo e un pacifista".



TESTO ORIGINALE (tradotto da Catia Morgetta)

>From: Herman de Tollenaere <hermantl@...>
>Subject: pacifist professor died for Kosovo dream [fwd]
>
>Published Wednesday, December 15, 1999
>
>UC professor died for Kosovo dream
>Dragoslav Basic returned to his homeland to 'build a bridge of humanity'
>over ethnic gulf; he was slain, his family critically injured
>
>There will be a commemorative service for Dragoslav Basic at noon Jan. 16
>at Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church in Moraga.
>
>By Tom Lochner
>TIMES STAFF WRITER
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>----
>
>The Serbian man killed by a mob in the streets of Pristina, Yugoslavia, two
>weeks ago was a former Albany resident and visiting professor at
>UC-Berkeley who went home to pursue his dream of a harmonious Kosovo.
>
>Friends in the East Bay say Dragoslav Basic, 63, was a powerful voice for
>peace.
>
>A native of Pristina, Kosovo's capital, Basic was a professor of civil
>engineering who specialized in the construction of bridges and other public
>works projects in earthquake-prone areas.
>
>But when he took a position at the University of Kosovo in 1990 after 11/2
>years at Cal, Basic envisioned a different kind of bridge.
>
>"He told me 'I could help the people build a bridge of humanity that no
>earthquake could ever destroy,' " said Berkeley resident Nick Tomasevic, a
>retired pilot and friend.
>
>Early in the morning of Nov. 29, Basic was pulled from his car along with
>his wife and mother-in-law, then shot as a crowd beat and tortured the
>women amid revelry on Albanian Flag Day [as celebrated by the KLA], the
>holiday that commemorates the birth of the modern Albanian state in the
>aftermath of World War I.
>
>The attack, reported widely on international television, newspapers and
>radio, was a graphic reminder of the ethnic rage Basic sought to quell.
>
>"It was not like he was just shot and killed," said Snezana Landau of El
>Cerrito, a friend of the family. "He was shot like a mad dog in the street
>with hundreds of people looking on. And nobody wanted to do anything."
>
>Basic and his wife, Dragica, 51, are believed to have been taking Dragica's
>mother, Borka Jovanovic, 74, to a hospital after the older woman fell ill.
>
>The women suffered numerous injuries and were hospitalized in Nis, outside
>Kosovo in eastern Serbia.
>
>"Tomislav (the couple's son) saw his mother in Nis; he said he could not
>recognize her," said Desa Wakeman of Berkeley, a retired executive for a
>leasing company and Tomasevic's sister.
>
>Wakeman's relatives spoke to Tomislav by phone.
>
>"He said, 'My mother, you know, had beautiful black hair, but I couldn't
>see it, there was so much blood.' "
>
>On Tuesday, Dragica Basic was in a Belgrade hospital where she had been
>transferred for emergency eye surgery on Thursday. Jovanovic was in the
>same hospital in critical condition.
>
>By the time of Basic's death, the student body at the University of Kosovo
>had become overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian. Although he taught in
>Serbo-Croatian and English, Basic had become almost fluent in Albanian and
>advocated that others do the same.
>
>"He once said to me, 'Almost every Albanian in Kosovo speaks
>Serbo-Croatian; every non-Albanian in Kosovo should speak their beautiful
>language,' " Tomasevic said.
>
>Basic, a Fulbright scholar, was proud of his Serbian roots and confident of
>his place in the old, and the new, Kosovo.
>
>"This is where his family had lived for centuries," said Wakeman. "They
>were very literate, Serbian Orthodox people, carriers of the Serbian
>tradition, who knew the history of the area. That is why they did not want
>to move."
>
>Basic earned a master's degree at the University of Mississippi in the late
>1970s, friends said. Basic lived at University Village, a UC-Berkeley-owned
>housing project in Albany.
>
>The couple's daughter, Nikoleta, graduated from Albany High School in 1989;
>Tomislav attended Cornell Elementary School. The children live in Serbia
>today, where Nikoleta teaches English and Tomislav studies pharmacology.
>
>Basic was at Cal in 1989 when Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic,
>with ethnic strife on the rise, revoked Kosovo's status as an autonomous
>province within the Serbian Republic.
>
>"(Basic) had a tremendous dilemma," said Wakeman. "He said, 'If everybody
>escapes, who is going to remain there?'
>
>"He felt it was his duty to return, not just as a Serb but as an educator,"
>said Wakeman. "He believed that through higher education, something good
>could be achieved among the people of Kosovo."
>
>And not just among Serbs and Albanians, but the province's Turkish, Greek
>and Rom minorities as well.
>
>In a sense, Basic was trying to reclaim a part of his youth.
>
>"The problem of Kosovo and Yugoslavia affected him terribly, not just
>because it was his homeland but because it was an example that human beings
>could coexist if the good will was applied more often," Tomasevic said.
>
>Christian-Muslim animosity in the Balkans goes back to 1389, when a Serbian
>army fell to the Turks at the Battle of Kosovo. Basic was determined, 600
>years later, that it was time for that wound to heal. He objected to
>political and religious leaders perpetuating violence, often by what they
>failed to say as much as by what they said.
>
>"Basic was very critical when Milosevic went to Kosovo on the commemoration
>of 600 years, that he did not address the Albanian people," Tomasevic said.
>"He believed (Milosevic) should have said, 'Dear brother Albanians: 600
>years ago, a catastrophe happened to all of us, and now we have a duty.
>There is enough room in Kosovo for all of us."
>
>In World War II, Basic believed, "a simple encyclical letter to all the
>Roman Catholic churches in the world, emphasizing that Jesus Christ was
>Jewish, that Christianity is a branch of Judaism, like Islam, too," might
>have staved off the Holocaust, Tomasevic said.
>
>After Basic returned, he lamented what he saw as U.S. encouragement of
>post-Tito Yugoslavia's fragmentation, said Tomasevic. Wakeman and Tomasevic
>are ethnic Serbs who in 1941 were "cleansed" from their native Croatia, as
>Wakeman puts it.
>
>"(Basic) accused the U.S. government of not (promoting) the idea of the
>melting pot," Tomasevic said.
>
>Basic believed the U.S. should have said, "Listen, people: you are fingers
>of the same hand. We ... will not tolerate disintegration of your country.
>We will help you reorganize it," said Tomasevic.
>
>Basic had a favorite saying about the end of war, by the 19th century
>Hungarian poet Sandor PetÎfy, that he thought would make a great motto for
>the United Nations:
>
>"What is battlefield glory compared to the beautiful rainbow made by
>breaking the sun's rays through the rain of tears?," Tomasevic said.
>
>"This fellow, Basic, he was a civil engineer," said Tomasevic, "but besides
>his profession, he was a great humanist, a philosopher and a pacifist."
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>Herman de Tollenaere
>---------------------------------------------------------------------


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
------------------------------------------------------------

La seguente intervista, pubblicata sul quotidiano ``Politika'' e poi
riprodotta sul sito del Ministero dell'Informazione della Serbia
www.serbia-info.com/news/1999-12/31/16573.html
e' stata rilasciata da Slobodan Milosevic in occasione del Capodanno
2000.
Ne riportiamo i passaggi politicamente piu' rilevanti. CRJ


---

December 31, 1999

Federal President Slobodan Miloševic
agreed to an interview for "Politika"
daily. In a lengthy conversation with
the "Politika" Editor-in-Chief - Mr.
Hadži Dragan Antic, President Miloševic
replied to all the 15 questions
concerning the position, the efforts
and the development prospectives of our
nation, as well as the standpoints
related to key political issues
pertaining to the present and the
future.

The interview took place on Wednesday
December 29th, at the presidential
palace.


(...)


During the year we are about to leave
behind the pressure and the attacks our
country has been facing for the last
ten years have culminated. What is it
that the West wants?

- The West wants to seize control of
the entire world. The most developed
part of the global community, usually
called the West, is determined to force
the world around to serve its needs and
interests. Rich countries want to
become even richer. To do that, they
need other countries to become sources
of their constant and unlimited
accumulation of wealth. For the time
being, the most developed part of the
world is rather concerted. At least it
seems to be. But, along with their need
for expansion, their mutual envy will
grow stringer. Such rivalry might hurl
the world - both the developed and the
under-developed world - into a series
of major, tragic conflicts, which might
prove catastrophic for all mankind.

Let us hope that the developed
countries will realize the threat they
represent for themselves in this world
of ours. Still we should hope that the
rest of the world will find the
strength to unite and oppose the
downfall that is inevitable if we are
to wait for things to be solved
spontaneously. In life no solution
comes about by itself. At least no
major and important solution. Everyone
should contribute to the shaping of a
better and a more just world in the
coming century.

I believe that the positive trend that
marked the 20th century will override
the destructiveness that - especially
towards the end of the century - has
grown quite strong.


The Chinese embassy in Belgrade has
been bombed during the war. The
Yugoslavs have grasped the meaning of
it. So did the Chinese. What is your
evaluation of our relations with that
part of the world?

- The Chinese embassy was targeted
deliberately and after serious
planning. It was a message for China to
the effect that in world affairs it
hardly has more influence than
Yugoslavia. That it might even face the
fate of Yugoslavia should it fail to
show obedience to the new world order.
The message was addressed to China not
only because it constitutes a potential
threat to this order, but also because
it publicly and repeatedly condemned
the aggression on Yugoslavia.
Naturally, the message inherent in the
bombing of the Chinese embassy has been
understood by the Chinese, the
Yugoslavs and everyone else. The
message wasn't a complicated or an
ambiguous one. In fact, the West isn't
capable of sending messages to the East
that the East would view as mysteries
it can't understand. Only the other way
around might occur. That's why the
Chinese have not only realized the
message quickly, but gave a quick
answer as well. Not only on the
government level, but also on the level
of ordinary people. Their reply was
that they shall defend their country
fiercely, that they are determined to
develop rapidly and that in
international relations they shall
always endorse peace, equality among
nations and the right of every country
to shape its future autonomously...

With these stands, China is very close
to Yugoslavia, but probably also to all
other peoples and countries that risk
facing aggression and humiliation
tomorrow. Our relations with China are
extremely friendly, our cooperation
with China is comprehensive - economic,
scientific, cultural... We plan to
develop and enhance it in the spirit of
common interests and benefit for both
countries.


Do you think that the future of
Montenegro lies within the Federal
Republic?

- The best solution for Montenegro is
the one that suits the Montenegrin
people. If the Montenegrins believe
that their life without Yugoslavia
would be a better one, then they have
the right to make such a choice. And
vice-versa. If the people of Montenegro
believe that life within Yugoslavia is
the optimum choice, then they should
keep it.

In that case, they must honor the rules
of the game imposed by such life in
common with another nation or another
federal entity. First of all the
Constitution that they have - obviously
- adopted jointly. The Constitution
can, naturally, be changed and it is
good to make changes in it. We live in
dynamic times and it is logical that a
state is to be managed more dynamically
than in the past, keeping in step with
the rhythm of changes that take place.

Life in common is simple and easy for
those that are determined to live
together, and difficult and unpleasant
for those that live together forcibly.
When life together entails imposition,
it is not only difficult and
unpleasant, but it has no prospective.

Lessons have been learnt from the
aggression on Yugoslavia. The rich and
mighty - that a local war and not only
a global one can be a dangerous
adventure even when the enemy is
considered inferior, and the poor and
small and all other nations were faced
with the fact that they shall continue
being poor, insignificant, other,
unless they choose to change it.


At the end of a century in which two
big, tragic wars have been fought, and
practically countless little ones, the
greatest military power assaulted us,
or to be more precise, newly assaulted
us. What is your interpretation of this
occurrence in view of the future of our
country, but of the future of mankind
as well?

- The aggression on the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia was supposed to
be a lesson for all disobedient nations
in the world, to make them realize that
the order of things dictated from a
single place must be respected. With
the aggression on FR Yugoslavia
international organizations have been
suspended, first of all the United
Nations, as the most important
organization that had the task of
arbitrating international conflicts and
controversies. The aggression on
Yugoslavia also deferred international
law and initiated a process for the
abolition of the sovereignty of every
country - big or small - standing in
the way of an order it did not help
create, and that dared voice its
opinion without being asked, or even
dared to rebel. Our country took a
stand, rebelled and hence faced
retaliation.

I would like to stress in particular
the major experience Yugoslavia, and
particularly Serbia have in
international politics, and their
openness for all forms of cooperation
with the immediate environment, but
also with the most distant countries in
the world. We have always been open for
all those that wanted to be here and
had a positive attitude towards those
that wanted to be with us. It is
characteristic of our nation. It is
also our historical heritage.

But this characteristic and heritage do
not include renouncing to the right to
freedom and independence.

For its entire duration, the aggression
kept our nation unified. Everyone knows
that from the very beginning of the
aggression the unity of our heroic
people amazed the world. At least that
part of the world which has free media,
where there's no censorship and where
correspondents reporting the truth and
journalists commenting in favor of it
(the truth) do not risk loosing their
jobs. But the unity of our people faced
with threats and difficulties during
the war is not the only issue. It was a
united, proud and enthusiastic
resistance to the aggressor that was
preparing to become the occupying
power. It was a rare and magnificent
resistance they never expected. The
feeling of invincibility, superiority,
obstinacy, goodness - resulted in a
specific resistance, admired in the
countries where the media are free, and
concealed from the public in the
countries where censorship and
autocracy rule.

But in those countries they also hid
everything else concerning Yugoslavia
and themselves. First of all the truth
that Yugoslavia is by no means an
aggressor. That it was victim of
unprovoked aggression by countries
portraying as the aggressor in order to
use this alleged aggression as an
excuse for the war they started against
it. Partially to teach a lesson, and to
a greater extent to secure their
interests. To seize control of the
Balkans - strategically important both
in the military and economic sense -
and also to use this peninsula as a
beachhead for taking hold of even more
militarily and economically important
regions - in the East: Near and Far.

Lessons have been learnt from the
aggression on Yugoslavia. The rich and
mighty - that a local war and not only
a global one can be a dangerous
adventure even when the enemy is
considered inferior, and the poor and
small and all other nations were faced
with the fact that they shall continue
being poor, insignificant, other,
unless they choose to change it.


Albanian separatists and their NATO
sponsors want to seize Kosovo and
Metohija. What will become of Kosovo
and Metohija?

- Albanian separatism in Kosovo and Metohija
failed to reach its goal even after it brought in
the most powerful ally on the planet in the
shape of NATO and its war machinery.
Warranties of our sovereignty and territorial
integrity are not the result of a unilateral
position but rather conditions under which the war was stopped. These
guarantees that we have accepted are for us final and unchangeable. All
decisions contrary to the guarantees contained in the Ahtisari -
Chernomyrdin Plan and UN SC Resolution 1244 are illegal and void for
us. The presence of the security forces under the auspices of the UN is
temporary. We have to endure and display great patience. NO one can
take Kosovo away from us.


In final instance 1999 will always be remembered here as a war
year. Evil forces attacked us bringing death and destruction. Will
they answer for it and will the immense damages we have suffered
be compensated?

- The question of their responsibility is not a future issue, it is a
question
raised already throughout the world, although it is still mostly limited
to
moral condemnation. Nevertheless everyone expects them to answer for
all this. We do because we have suffered vast material destruction, we
had quite a number of casualties, all people in Serbia went through
terrible
stress, and all this without objectively provoking anyone in the world
to
inflict such evil upon us. Many are those around the world that hope the
criminals shall answer - many world public segments, entire countries,
the
majority of the population, all normal people. But those that
responsibility
falls upon, also fear it. We do not live in times of Hun invasions,
allowing
massacres against nations and crimes against people to be committed
without fear of punishment, except maybe individual.

Half way through this century Fascism had to answer before mankind. I
am confident that this neo-Fascist beast shall also face judgement in
its
time, before entire mankind and in contemporary - not some distant -
history.

As far as compensations are concerned, they go along with the
responsibility. Should the so-called international community fail to
identify
those responsible for the crime against our country, then it is to
assume the
responsibility itself, as well as the compensation of the damages that
can
be paid with money.

The decision to launch a process of rapid, intense reconstruction of
that
has been damaged by the bombing, was not based on the hope that the
reconstruction can rely on the payment of war damages. The decision was
based on the conviction that we are capable of relying on our own forces
and that we shall do everything possible to rebuild and make operational
as quickly as possible all those facilities that have vital importance
for the
country. Naturally, in this reconstruction effort, we enjoy the support
of
certain countries, various foreign companies and numerous individuals
throughout the world. Still, for the time being, the decisive source of
financing of the reconstruction is our own country.



(...) We continue to live with
moderation and self-denial, but also with great efforts; it seems
that even the countries around us, especially former socialist
countries still haven't caught up with us in spite of the fact that
they did not face sanctions and went through a series of
transitions. Do you believe that we can prosper economically even
without the World Bank and the famous IMF?

- Certainly. In the year that lies ahead of us, priority objectives,
along with
the renewal of the country involve development, increase of agricultural
and industrial production, growth of wages, living standard and
employment. The reconstruction of the country is proceeding quickly and
with success. Everything also favors the rapid and successful
realization of
our development objectives. Still, I see no reason why we should be
denied the support you have mentioned. If the International Monetary
Fund and the World Bank really are international and really belong to
the
world, then they ought to endorse the interests of all countries and all
nations. Selective support to chosen countries and only given nations
invalidates their international institution character. In that case, the
support
of such institutions shall be denied to many countries not appearing on
the
favorites' list of the financial lobby abusing the name of the
International
Fund and the World Bank for the realization of its extremely partial
interests.

This is becoming increasingly clear not only to financial experts and
skilled
politicians, but to the general public as well. Recently we had the
opportunity to see the humiliating end of the World Trade Organization
meeting in Seattle, where hundreds, thousands of people from the US,
and from all over the world protested against the abuse of this
international organization by the US and its efforts to impose its
interests -
fully, openly and quite brutally - to all, including its partners in
Europe -
the most developed West European countries. The degradation of world
institutions such as the UN, the IMF, the World Bank... or regional
structures such as OSCE, by placing them at the service of Washington's
interests, does not have a negative effect only. It activates the need
of all
free countries in the world to face the threat of hegemonism more
quickly
and more efficiently.

But to go back to the final part of your question concerning our
international economic and financial cooperation. We have no intention
of
isolating ourselves. That's exactly what our foes are hoping for. That's
why
they are upholding the sanctions. We are countering it by establishing
ties
and cooperation with numerous countries in the free world - with the
whole planet. The fact that according to the NATO dictate we are not
being financed by the IMF and the World Bank, did not prevent us from
securing a set of credit arrangements with friendly countries, totaling
more
than the support allocated to all the neighboring countries, even though
they enjoy the support - at least verbal - of the IMF, the European
Union,
the World Bank and America.



You are head of state but also
leader of the strongest political
party in the country. The
Socialist Party of Serbia will
soon hold its congress. What do
You expect from it?

- I expect that the Socialist Party of Serbia shall maintain the
patriotic
heading it has been following ever since its foundation in 1990. Ten
years
we have been defending our country and our people. Some people
realized the country was under attack only when bombs started falling.
But if we hadn't defended the country before, all those long ten years,
we
wouldn't have managed to defend it when the bombing started.

Acting in the most difficult period in this century for the Serbian
people
and Serbian citizens, the SPS has strived to find the right answers to
the
challenges presented by the times we lived in. The citizens trusted this
answer for an entire decade and voted for SPS in all the elections we
had.

This constitutes a major support for our conviction that we managed to
find the right answers for difficult, tormented, unfortunate times.
Maybe
this answer wasn't always the best possible, and maybe better ones might
have been found. It is however important that we acted with the best
intentions, that we made great efforts, and that we are ready to face
the
facts and shape our policy accordingly.
Furthermore, SPS will try to contribute to the strengthening of the
leftist
block now growing in our country and acquiring a new face. There's
nothing illogical in the fact that other leftwing parties different from
SPS
exist. After all, the Left has always been a highly diversified front
encompassing very different leftist, progressive and avant-garde stands.

Furthermore, since our country faced enormous foreign pressure
culminating this spring with the aggression on Yugoslavia, I think that
this is
no time for great and tempestuous party passions, and certainly no time
for such conflicts between the parties. I believe that in the time we
are
living in, all parties that value their country above all, that believe
the love
for one's country is the most profound feeling, that are guided by
patriotism in all their political activities, should find a common
approach in
the efforts to alleviate these dire times for their people, and to
jointly bring
about happier times for all the citizens, for the entire country.

This is why I am certain that at the congress and after it SPS will
build the
spirit of a patriotic front and true solidarity and cooperation with all
those
that wish their country well - peace, economic prosperity, modern
cultural
development, cooperation on equal footing with all the countries in the
world.


Is the unification of Russia and Belorussia a sign of the renewal
and stronger ties between the former Soviet Union countries, and
is this also an indication of broader integration processes
involving Russia, China and India creating a counterbalance for
America?

- The unification of Russia and Belorussia is an indication of a
potential
rapprochement and establishing of ties between Eur-Asian nations and
countries that might mark - should stronger and more rapid ties be
established - the beginning of the establishment of global balance which
was completely abolished at the beginning of the nineties. The
cancellation
of the Warsaw Pact and the League of East European Countries not only
undermined the world balance, but gave a free hand to the members of
the surviving block, primarily to the NATO military alliance, to redraw
the
borders of countries, regulate countries, cause wars, introduce
sanctions,
punish the recalcitrant, award the obedient and submissive and generally
organize the entire world to their liking.

This is why any form of serious, and especially major, association
anywhere in the world constitutes a chance to establish the balance
which
has been missing for a decade and a chance to protect mankind from
hegemonism and violence which accompanies it inevitably.


Our Parliament endorsed the project for the adherence of our
country to the commonwealth of Russia and Belorussia. Now that
this community has been formalized, what is the prospect of our
status being also formalized within it?

- We stand fast in this decision and hope that in the foreseeable and
not a
very distant future we shall join this alliance. I hope this will be in
the
interest of our country, but also in the interest of bringing together
Slav
and other nations having a common goal to live in peace and evolve
freely.


Big countries like China, Russia, India, as well as the Arab world,
Latin America and Africa, undoubtedly support our just struggle
for independence and territorial integrity. The European public,
also is increasingly becoming aware to which extent has
Yugoslavia first been demonized by the media, and then brutally
attacked by NATO countries. What is you view of the relations
with Europe and with the other countries and regions I
mentioned?

- First of all, we are not out of Europe. We are a European country. The
question can be raised how will our relations evolve with the European
Union countries, or with the countries that have taken part in the
aggression on Yugoslavia, or with the neighboring countries, etc. The
answers are quite different. Except one. We are willing to cooperate
with
the whole world and hence with all the countries on our continent.
Obviously we are most interested in cooperation with the countries from
our own continent.
But for cooperation on equal footing. For cooperation that can help the
development of our country and for cooperation that will give us a
chance
to help the development of others, of all. In all times, and especially
in our
times, everyone must rely on others, all communications are precious,
everyone can contribute to his wellbeing and that of others, at the same
time even.

With the neighboring countries we will implement cooperation -
successful
and mutual to the extent that they are prepared and available for such
collaboration. This is also the case of our cooperation with Eastern
Europe countries. These countries can learn much from Yugoslav
experience, particularly from what happened to us this spring. From
their
experience we have drawn precious lessons and our conviction that we
must confront hegemonism partially results from those lessons.
As far as the countries that took part in the aggression on Yugoslavia
are
concerned, we will have relations with them as states, with their
institutions
and organizations, commensurate to their good will to help remove the
effects of the evil they have done to us.

The West should find the courage and moral strength to face the guilt
for
the crimes committed in the aggression on Yugoslavia. Otherwise it will
loose all self-respect. The longer it hesitates, the greater shall be
its shame.
And some new Willy Brandt will have to come up and tell the truth.



We often hear that the media have greatly contributed to the
creation of the bad image of our country. Can you draw a
comparison between foreign media and domestic media?

- In Yugoslavia, and primarily in Serbia, there' s absolute freedom in
the
operation of all media. Most of the media belongs to the private sector.
In
our country there's no state control of the media. However, a
significant
percentage of television and radio stations and printed media is
financially
and politically under the full control of given western governments or
their
institutions operating as non-government organizations and they have the
task to promote the destabilization of Yugoslavia, to discredit all the
efforts of the Yugoslav authorities for the reconstruction and
development
of the country, to stir up public diffidence, suspicion and intolerance
for all
that the legally elected government is doing, to depict in the worse
possible way government officials and their families, to belittle all
the
progressive and humane achievement made in our country, to question the
very sense of freedom, independence and patriotism, to represent our
people as inferior, stupid, retrograde and conservative unlike
"sophisticated" nations that are rational, educated, smart, progressive
etc.
Such "freedom" of the media, is obviously more than freedom. The Public
Information Law, passed by the Serbian Parliament two years ago,
prepared as a compilation of corresponding laws in a number of western,
introduced certain moderate means of protecting the truth, the dignity
of
the country and its citizens, the right of the individual not to be
humiliated,
i.e. to be protected from slander, intrigue etc. This law was greatly
opposed by a segment of opposition parties and part of the media sector
that are under foreign influence. Their objections have been promptly
echoed and joined by their mentors abroad that consult no one about the
laws they adopt in their own country, but deem themselves authorized to
shape the laws of other countries. On the other hand, they rigorously
apply far more radical and stricter laws not only on public media but
other
domains as well, and never dream of engage in polemics about those laws
with foreign governments or television stations.

Our institutions and individuals have made an effort to honor this law,
but
lately its enforcement is rather feeble and in practice we are nearly
back in
the phase of media irresponsibility that we faced in the past ten years
or
so.

As far as the media abroad are concerned, in most countries, and
especially in developed western countries, the situation is quite
different.
All media there - both private and state owned, are under intense
government control. All that the government deems contrary to the
interests of its current policy can not appear in the media, or it is
published
at the risk of facing diverse forms of retribution for going against the
will of
the authorities - such consequences can be financial, political, moral,
physical...
In western democracies, all media are dependent on their owner - state,
corporate or individual. Still, in final instance the state has the
decisive role
in the responsibility of the media. This is quite logical because modern
media play an important part in conflicts of interests, in clashes of
concepts, in creating the vision of global and regional development, in
determining the fate of the community and its individual members, in
shaping the life every single person.


What would you like to wish to the people of Yugoslavia for the
coming year 2000?

- I wish our country peace. That it may develop swiftly, successfully
and
in step with the times. I wish it to cooperate with the whole world, on
grounds of parity and mutual interest. The people of Yugoslavia, the
people of Serbia in particular, should never forget the violence we have
faced this year. The memory of all that evil shall shield us and other
nations from new, future violence.

The new century shall be better and nicer than this one only if mankind
manages to triumph against violence, first of all wars, but also against
its
other forms all the way down to the family level - between sexes and
generations.

Should the 21st century bring about the victory of peace, good will,
solidarity and equality among men, humanity shall be able to say that
all
the lives sacrificed throughout the centuries for those were not
immolated
in vain. That the enormous efforts to make those ideals come true made
by noble and courageous men throughout history had a purpose and
brought about results. I believe that in the coming century our people
will
achieve the tranquility and prosperity it well deserves. Therefore I
wish all
of us unity and concord that we may deserve and reach these happier
times - President Slobodan Miloševic said at the end of his interview
for
"Politika". H. D. A.

Copyright © 1998, 1999 Ministry of Information
Email: mirs@...

WHAT'S AMERICA, DIREBBE NANDO MENICONI!...


Ultima tra le visite illustri sul nostro sito internet - a seguire di
poche settimane quelle da parte della base NATO di Vicenza e del
Ministero dell'Interno italiano - registriamo questa settimana un
collegamento da parte di un computer del Pentagono.
Cogliamo l'occasione per salutare i militari americani, cui saremo ben
lieti di fornire ogni ulteriore documentazione sulle questioni
balcaniche di cui non fossero ancora in possesso... Se ce ne fosse
bisogno, siamo anche disponibili a piazzare un grande TARGET sulla
nostra home page, casomai avessero difficolta' a prendere la mira.

US Military:
otjag-pcip-122.army.pentagon.mil
26 Jan -- 22:47:56 -- -- /crj/RELIGIO/stepinac.html
(un grazie al compagno R.R. ed al suo formidabile programmino per la
lettura degli accessi sul sito web!)


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
** NO COPYRIGHT ! **
------------------------------------------------------------

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
FEDERAL MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS


YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY


BELGRADE, 27 January 2000 No. 2861

S P E C I A L I S S U E


INTERVIEW OF FEDERAL MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
ZIVADIN JOVANOVIC TO JOURNALISTS OF
THE NEWSPAPERS "NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA"
D. GORNOSTAEV AND "VREMIA" Y. PETROVSKA
(Belgrade, 20 January 2000)

Q: Could you please give us your assessment of the current relations
between Yugoslavia and Russia as well as an assessment of the prospects
for
the further development of relations between the two States?

A: Yugoslavia and Russia, the Yugoslav and Russian peoples are bound by
their Slav origin, common history and culture, shared goals of peace and
stability in Europe and the world. We are also bound by the
strategically
important political, security, economic, cultural and many other
interests.
Therefore, it is no accident that Yugoslavia and Russia - the Serbian,
Montenegrin and Russian peoples - have at crucial periods of history
been
on the same side, the side of the principles of protection of values and
humanity. We jointly fought Nazis in World War Two and, thanks to that
alliance, we defeated that greatest evil in the history of our
civilization. That is why we attach strategic importance to the further
development and strengthening of the friendly and traditionally close
relations between Yugoslavia and the Russian Federation, i.e. between
the
Yugoslav and Russian peoples.
Today, we share common challenges and goals: to enhance our friendship
through the development of economic, cultural, scientific, technical and
all other co-operation. We both face positive challenges. We aspire to
contribute, through this co-operation and close mutual relationship,
towards all positive in Europe and the world at large.
However, we also face a specific challenge. That of efforts to combat
separatism and terrorism. Those efforts may only be successful if there
is
an inter-action, and if there is awareness that terrorism and separatism
today are directed, first and foremost, against the Slav peoples and
that
it also constitutes a universal threat to the world. The phenomena of
terrorism and separatism - with which Serbia, Yugoslavia and Russia are
dramatically faced - are not only related in terms of the times in which
they take place but also in terms of personalities. The terrorists move
from one region to another - from trans-Caucasus to Chechenya and Kosovo
and Metohija but also further afield - from Kashmere, Afghanistan,
Chechenya, Kosovo and further to the west, since terrorism is a
universal
evil.
The efforts to combat terrorism and separatism are all the more
difficult
today, considering that the proponents of a unipolar world order are
using
those factors of destruction for their strategic purposes. Separatism
and
terrorism in Chechenya and Kosovo and Metohija are no accidental
occurrences. Terrorism in these regions is encouraged and supported by,
and
it receives financial assistance, expertise and arms from the proponents
of
the concept of unipolarity, and that, in our view, is the current US
Administration. By encouraging separatism and offering support to
terrorists, they seek to fragment all those countries and peoples who
stand
in the way of hegemony, expansionism and neo-colonialism. In this
respect,
it is clear that such policy is directed against Yugoslavia, against its
integrity and sovereignty as well as against Russia as a great power and
factor resisting the unipolar concept of international relations.
In other words, in addition to positive approaches and our strategy to
ensure, through mutual co-operation between Yugoslavia and Russia,
improved
conditions for economic, social, democratic, technological and cultural
development, we also face common threats that make us turn to each other
to
co-operate and develop closer relations.
We estimate that co-operation between Yugoslavia and Russia is based on
friendship, respect, mutual confidence and on very important common
strategic interests. We have achieved positive results in this
co-operation, the results which are all the more significant because
they
have been achieved in very difficult circumstances and under stringent
restrictions.
As far as Yugoslavia is concerned, these restrictions mean sanctions,
isolation, the outer wall of sanctions. In the eight years of sanctions,
Yugoslavia has suffered losses of nearly 150 billion dollars.
Constraints
is also an enormous destruction of Yugoslavia during the NATO aggression
that has reduced our economic potential and opportunities. Losses due to
aggression are estimated at 100 billion dollars. Briefly, as a result of
the sanctions and NATO destruction, Yugoslavia has had losses of 250
billion dollars in total over the last eight years.
At the same time, we also hosted a million refugees. It is our human and
moral obligation to assist them and care for them regardless of the
sanctions, isolation and other hardship. We do not enjoy any financial
or
material support of international financial institutions and other
organizations such as the IMF or the World Bank.
New constraints on us have also been due to the imposition on our
neighbours of the will of the NATO aggressors spearheaded by the US
Administration. The American Administration, Washington ordered them to
discontinue their co-operation with Yugoslavia, to comply with the
embargo,
to suspend air links with it, not to allow deliveries of oil and other
goods to it.
Russia, on its part, has its own constraints that I would not like to
dwell on. However, it is a fact that for all the constraints on both
sides,
we have developed a successful co-operation. We very much appreciate the
credit line extended by Russia, by the Russian Government, to
Yugoslavia.
Part of this line of credit has already been drawn, while the rest will
be
put into use later on. Russia's assistance in natural gas deliveries is
also very important, especially in conditions when Western Europe and
the
United States prevent us from importing heating oil. Our trade is
successful, although very modest. In fact, we wish to develop our trade
further and, in that context, we would like to remove customs,
administrative and all other barriers to our co-operation.
Right now we are in the process of signing a Trade Liberalization
Agreement to allow free flow of goods between Yugoslavia and Russia both
ways that will substantially increase the volume of trade co-operation.
We
also maintain good cultural and scientific-technical co-operation, even
though it can be improved and upgraded in all areas. Our plan is to
establish a Cultural Centre in Moscow in order to contribute to a better
co-operation in that way too.
We have a good co-operation at the international level. In particular,
we
maintain fairly regular contacts and co-operation on the implementation
of
UN Security Council resolution 1244 (1999), concerning Kosovo and
Metohija.
Our demands are identical: to ensure a consistent and full
implementation
of the Resolution and to put a stop to the present dramatic
deterioration
of the overall situation in Kosovo and Metohija. We co-operate at the
United Nations and on other issues of common concern.
In our opinion, the period ahead of us will be a period of further
expansion and comprehensive development of our overall relations and
bilateral co-operation. We have adopted a very active attitude towards
the
ideas and initiatives encouraging the development of our relations and
co-operation in line with the historical achievements and future
interests
of our two countries and our two peoples. Such an all-round development
of
relations between Yugoslavia and Russia is in the joint interest, and
such
co-operation between Yugoslavia and Russia is of strategic importance
for
peace and stability in South Eastern Europe, as well as for peace and
stability in Europe as a whole.

Q: As regards closer ties between our peoples, the idea of Yugoslavia
joining the parliamentary alliance of Russia and Belarus, in which
Yugoslavia now has an observer status, has been put into operation. What
turn will the development of relations in this field take in the future?

A: First of all, we are pleased that Russia and Belarus have signed an
alliance agreement. In our assessment, this event is extremely important
to
Russia and Belarus, and it has a wider positive significance in Europe.
Yugoslavia is satisfied that the alliance of Russia and Belarus is open
for
co-operation. Therefore, it is happy to have participated and to
continue
to participate in observer status in the parliamentary alliance of these
two countries.
Yugoslavia has expressed its interest in joining the Russia-Belarus
alliance. We believe that after Russia and Belarus had entered into
alliance, pre-conditions have been put in place for the consideration
and
realization of this Yugoslav initiative. We consider that Yugoslavia's
participation in the alliance of Russia and Belarus is a positive
development, not only for the peoples of Russia, Belarus and Yugoslavia,
but that it is also a contribution to the positive aspirations and
positive
developments in Europe. It is primarily beneficial to defence and
consolidation of peace and stability, as well as to prosperity in
Europe.

Q: Mister Minister, could you please tell us about your specific
position
as a diplomat and Foreign Minister in conditions where your country is
exposed to pressures from Europe and the United States?

A: Of course, that position is not simple, but I must say that it is a
special challenge to my country, to its leadership and to me as Minister
for Foreign Affairs. We are deeply convinced that the sanctions,
isolation
and pressures are directed against peace, stability, humanity and
prosperity. They are instruments of destabilization and creation of
instability. Those countries, those governments and those individuals
who
advocate sanctions are opposed to closer links between countries and
peoples; they are against the betterment of this region in South Eastern
Europe. Indeed, they are all in favour of mass violations of human
rights.
As a matter of fact, there is no such massive violation of human rights
as
the sanctions and the embargo imposed on Yugoslavia.
Actually, I think that sanctions are a remnant of an old philosophy and
that some quarters in Europe and the United States play an old record
which
is not suitable to present realities. It may be that they are powerless
to
change the tune, because they know that they are responsible for the
aggression against Yugoslavia and are unable to think differently except
as
a guilty one.
Why is this old tune not in touch any more? Because they do not see that
an overwhelming majority of mankind on this planet stands by Yugoslavia,
by
the Yugoslav people, and is on our side. Here I do not only have in mind
the fact that Russia, China as the most populated country in the world
and
India as a large country are on our side. I have in mind, for instance,
that almost all Asian countries, all African countries and the entire
Latin
America have sided with Yugoslavia.
And this is not all. More importantly, the public in the aggressor
countries like the American public, the publics in France, Spain, Italy,
Germany and intellectual, scientific and other circles, have unmasked
the
lie that initiated the concept of the aggression and that the sanctions
rely on. The rationale behind the aggression, sanctions and
destabilization
is still insisted on by the innermost circles in power, the same ones
who
have been denounced by their own public opinion and who have lost or are
losing elections.
I need not, for example, remind you of the outcome of provincial
elections
in Germany or those held in some other European countries, but the mood
of
people in the countries neighbour to Yugoslavia is also indicative
enough.
Take a look at the moods of people in Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria and
finally Romania: All of them are heart and soul with Yugoslavia, aware
that
Yugoslavia's policy and positions are on the side of justice, truth,
peace
and understanding. You see, those sentiments and assessments make me, as
Minister for Foreign Affairs, persist in this foreign policy
orientation,in
the defence of freedom, independence and safeguarding of vital national
and
State interests of Yugoslavia.
Such efforts are very much rewarding for me personally. For these past
five months, for instance, I have met and discussed with about a hundred
Foreign Ministers or with other high-ranking representatives from a
hundred
world countries. No Foreign Minister of an embargoed country can pride
himself on having so many contacts and talks.
To add, Yugoslavia has 110 diplomatic and consular missions throughout
the
world. At the same time, there are some hundred foreign missions in
Belgrade, Yugoslavia, taking into account the resident offices of
international organizations. There are a few hundred foreign
correspondents
in Yugoslavia. Trade, cultural, scientific, but also Government,
delegations visit Yugoslavia every day. In short, Yugoslavia has a large
number of friends in the world and an increasing number of trading
partners.
We in the Government and in this Ministry very often receive letters
from
the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal, from all
these NATO countries. They express an admiration for the courage and
determination with which we resisted the NATO aggression. I think that
these letters are not merely polite and that they are not complementary
without reason. People who wrote those letters are not known to us, but
they expressed their true feelings about a small country summing up
courage
to resist the most powerful military machinery in the history of human
kind
and that it succeeded in defending its freedom.
Having said this, I would not like to pretend that we have no problems
at
all, or that our goals are less complex and difficult to accomplish. I
only
wish to say that we are fully aware where we are, who is with us, what
our
possibilities are, and we are very clear about what we aspire to. That
what
we aspire to is not egotism or autarky, but are actually the goals of
peace, co-operation, stability, solidarity - the goals that are for the
well-being of South Eastern Europe and Europe as a whole.
With regard to our goals or the goals of my Ministry and our diplomacy,
I
said that they were complex. Our foremost goal is to defend and protect
our
sovereignty and integrity. That is an extremely important task in view
of
the separatism and terrorism that are going on in Kosovo and Metohija,
but
also in view of the aggression being continued by other non-military
means.
The trade embargo imposed amounts actually to an economic aggression.
Besides, there is also a political aggression by looking for internal
enemies to destabilize Yugoslavia from within. The media aggression as a
third segment of the non-military means of aggression is being carried
out
- true, with less and less success - by spreading lies about Yugoslavia.
What is our response to this new aggression? We respond to the economic
aggression by mobilizing our own economic resources in the
reconstruction
and rebuilding of the country and by co-operating with those countries
and
partners who accept our co-operation. Such partners and such countries
are
more and more numerous. It goes without saying, that our strongest
partners
are Russia, China and some other countries, including EU countries. The
success of our response to the economic aggression is proved by the 40
reconstructed and rebuilt bridges and by the keys being given to all
those
people who had been rendered homeless by NATO.
You will remember the graphite bombs and the heavy destruction of our
power supply system. However, this harsh winter that is more severe than
some other in the past, we do not have any more serious problems with
electricity. NATO demolished the heating plant in Novi Beograd which
provides the heating for 500,000 people. This heating plant was restored
and is now fully operational. Also restored were the heating plants in
Kragujevac, Kru{evac and Ni{. They destroyed or damaged 340 schools.
Have
you heard about any school not being open or about any schoolchildren
not
attending classes! They knocked down hospitals, maternity wards and
other
health institutions. They have all been restored to their former glory
and
are operational.
The lies that they used to justify the destruction of bridges, the
killing
of children, students, refugees and the shelling of refugee centres are
a
disgrace to Europe, a disgrace to modern-day civilization. Take the most
recent example, the Grdelica gorge bridge. That bridge was bombed twice
in
broad daylight and as an international passenger trained passed through.
On
that occasion, NATO officials said that the pilot did not have time to
abort action, supporting it by video shots. Later on, the shots were
found
to be doctored. Very famous experts proved on 17 January 2000 that the
train movement on the video was accelerated 4.7 times.
Can you imagine, dear friends, what kind of democracy is offered to us
and
our neighbours by those lying to their own people and hiding from them
that
they had deliberately targeted an international train in order to scare
people in Yugoslavia. Or, say, another bridge, in Varvarin over the
Velika
Morava river, was bombed at noon on 30 May 1999, on the great Orthodox
Christian holiday of Holy Trinity. As many as 12 civilians, including a
fourteen-year old Sanja Milenkovi} who used to win many European and
regional competitions for young talents in mathemetics, were killed on
that
bridge. The pilots saw people on the bridge and targeted them and not
the
bridge!
The bridge was repaired thanks to the assistance of Serbs living in
Switzerland. It cost around 3 million Deutsche marks and is now twice as
wide as and safer than the old one.
This period of sanctions and the embargo speaks of our economic response
to aggression. Our GDP rose 5 to 8 per cent annually in the past five
years. We were under sanctions, feeling its consequences alongside the
influx of refugees and lack of access to the IMF and the World Bank. We
were barred from the Paris club of government creditors and the London
club
of commercial creditors. We had no access, either, to international
commercial capital markets. As much 400 million dollars worth of our
cash
funds held at American and other banks abroad were frozen. During all
that
time they considered us as a country lacking democracy.
Our neighbours such as Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and others like
Moldova, Ukraine and the entire Eastern Europe, all the while,
experienced
a GDP growth of 1.7 per cent. Concurrently with this, according to the
US
State Department, Bulgaria, Macedonia are democratic countries. They
are
members of the World Bank and the IMF, and they have access to
international capital markets. They enjoy full freedom and political
support. All this is self-evident. The only thing which is not clear is
where are the results of this socio-economic development?!
Even in conditions of an isolation and economic sanctions, i.e. in the
period of the economic aggression against Yugoslavia, we have managed to
get foreign loans and foreign humanitarian assistance, as well as
financial
assistance and to attack foreign investors. At the same time, the
"democratic countries" in our neighbourhood have had trouble feeding
their
nations, while we have enough food for the population. They are viewed
as
being successful transition countries and as having completed the
privatization of their economies. The only problem they have is that
there
is no output. In some of our neighbouring countries that prided
themselves
on the production and export of food and which exported cheese,
vegetables
and many other products even to Russia, now sell Dutch cheese and
vegetables from the European Union in their shops. Their domestic
production has been extinguished. In our country, on the other hand,
there
are both goods originating from the country and those imported.
In the framework of the political aggression, centres for
destabilization
of Yugoslavia have been established. Madam Albright and her associates
along with some satellites from Europe set up such centres in Timisoara,
Budapest, Szeged and Sofia. This is where they invite some individuals
from
Yugoslavia, from Belgrade, who follow their instructions for money. US
administration and European Commission say that they give money to their
collaborators in Belgrade. As a matter of fact, Mr Bzezinski wrote in
his
latest book that in their strategy towards Eastern Europe they rely on
the
elite that is financially dependent on America. This is no secret. Only
the
bribe-takers from Yugoslavia who take money do not like to be told that
they are taking money, but the facts speak that they do that. How much -
probably not a lot.
In those centres for destabilization they have seminars, where they are
assigned tasks and are supervised in their implementation. These days,
they
are having a trilateral meeting - whether it is trilateral,
quadrilateral
or multilateral - it is nevertheless the same old tune. We have been
listening to it for a long time and it is boring. We know it and pay
attention no more.
Political destabilization is a part of the concept of destabilization of
Yugoslavia. One of the elements is assistance to independent media in
Belgrade. What kind of independence is it if you have to do something
for
money? This looks more like an expression of hopelessness on the part of
those promoting the ideas of aggression and pressures on Yugoslavia than
something that has any perspective. This political aggression encourages
also separatism in Yugoslavia. They are looking for individuals,
separatists from national minorities to join them to the so called Serb
opposition.
What is our reply to the political aggression? It is - the unity of the
country, the unity of the people, the unity towards economic, cultural,
social progress, resistance to hegemonism and enslavement, unity towards
rebuilding and reconstruction of the country, the unity in achieving
greater productivity, bigger wages, a better life. The results achieved
so
far in these areas speak for themselves.
Yesterday (19 January), the production of the most popular Yugoslav
car,
JUGO, was resumed. Manufacturing a car in a destroyed economy is not a
simple task. It does not imply only the reconstruction of the factory
where
parts are assembled but many other factories as well, in which those
parts
are made. So, our Government and our leadership are acting in unison
along
this positive course.
As for media aggression, our reply is - truth. Our Government is
presenting the facts to the domestic and foreign public. The facts on
the
aggression, on the situation in Kosovo and Metohija, on continued
terrorism
in Kosovo and Metohija, the facts on economic development, our open
policy
of equal cooperation with other countries. Our truth is increasingly
gaining ground in the world.
Several days ago, the representatives of the Yugoslav Ministry formally
submitted a Memorial to the International Court of Justice in The Hague
against NATO aggressors and against international representatives
responsible for the crimes in Kosovo and Metohija, now committed under
their leadership. It has been welcomed in Russia, in Moscow, in Bejing,
India and many European towns.
The day before yesterday (18 January) I received a letter from a lawyer
from the Netherlands, from The Hague, who wishes to represent free of
charge the parents of Sanja Milenkovic, killed on 30 May 1999 on the
bridge
across the Velika Morava river, near Varvarin. The world over, NATO
crimes
are being more and more condemned. The international public has
uncovered
the lies spread by NATO when they embarked upon the destruction of
Yugoslavia.

Q: This is not The Hague Tribunal?

A: No. It is the International Court of Justice in The Hague, an organ
of
the United Nations, established in 1945 by the Charter of the United
Nations. As opposed, the so called Hague Tribunal is not an instrument
for
the administration of justice but a NATO instrument. It has been
established so that the aggressors may punish the victims of aggression.
Have you ever heard that a Vietnam Tribunal has been established? Have
there been no crimes there? Or a Somalia Tribunal? The Hague Tribunal is
an
extended arm of NATO pact, fearing its own responsibility for the crimes
against peace and humanity, for the crimes of genocide in Yugoslavia,
which
is trying to defend itself by making a victim look like a culprit. This
of
course does not work, it cannot possibly work.
No aggression, no pressure or interference into internal affairs can
derail Yugoslavia from its path to freedom. Should anyone think this to
be
an exaggeration he should read history books and see what side the Serb
and
Montenegrin peoples were on in the past. Have they ever been aggressors,
have they ever been on the wrong side?
So, we and the Russians have always had the same attitude towards
history,
towards our roots, culture - and those who should understand and realize
that - it simply is not in their interest to understand that. They would
rather hold on to their aggressive position which is, in the case of
aggression and overall attitude towards Yugoslavia, also a racist
attitude.
That racism is reflected also in the current efforts of certain circles
seking to teach the Serb people democracy. Can you imagine the state of
mind of those US and European Ministers who send messages to the Serb
people - what is their mental capacity if they think that the Serb
people
is under-educated and that it needs to be taught democracy from the
outside? Who will give lessons - those who only yesterday rained death?
There are many analyses on personal responsibility for the aggression
against Yugoslavia. You have probably heard of some theories that there
was
some kind of a private aggression against Yugoslavia. Just think of
those
people who sent bombers on Serb children, Serb workers, Serb peasants
-now
they talk from the pedestal to the Serb people - we love you, it is just
that you do not understand that and that is why we came to explain it to
you in person.
That lady and those Ministers who talk to the Serb people start from a
sick premise that people are divided on the gifted and handicapped, and
that the task of the gifted is to teach the handicapped. The Serb people
has no time to listen to those lessons and sick advice. The Serb people
has
always been against patrionasing attitudes, against racism and any kind
of
discrimination. The Serb people has faith in itself in the first place
and
in its proven historical friends. It cannot trust liars, those who lie
to
their own people.
The Serb people will not trust those who are not trusted, for example,
by
the Americans or British or the people in Germany. You know for yourself
who lied and about what, in political and in private life, remember all
those indecretions. One just does not have enough time to deal with
numerous examples of corruption, aberrations and deviations of all those
alleged teachers of democracy.

Q: There is an ongoing discussion in Russia on how much Russia
contributed,
how much Yeltsin did, Igor Ivanov or the Russian Embassy, to stop NATO
aggression, i.e. whether they did all they could and later on, to
protect
the interests of Serbia. What is your view on the role of Ivanov,
Yeltsin,
and Victor Chernomyrdin in these events?
A: In the period before the NATO aggression and during the aggression
itself we had a continuous dialogue with Russian representatives. This
dialogue was useful. In the talks with the Russian representatives we
underlined in particular the fact that the aggression against Yugoslavia
was only an experiment which would later be applied to Russia.
Yugoslavia
is an important country. Throughout their history Serbian and
Montenegrin
peoples are well known for their steadfastness and courage, for their
contribution to culture, civilization and defence of the interests of
Europe.
We are quite aware that such qualities of a country and a people are not
favoured by the proponents of hegemony and occupation. It is evident
that
we have been and that we remain to be an obstacle standing in the way of
hegemony, neocolonialism, exploitation, occupation. We have always
repeated
to Russia that Yugoslavia is not the final target. The final target is
Russia, China, Europe - the big powers, while the aggression against
Yugoslavia should have been only an experiment, to feel the pulse not
only
of Russia and China, but of other countries as well.
Along these line we sought a concrete support and assistance of Russia.
We have shared identical views in respect to many issues and global
assessments. We have also agreed that the American goal was the Caspian
basin, and that the Caucasus is the so-called "south belly" of Russia.
But, differences emerged when those general assessments about all global
dangers were transferred to the field of concrete positions and
relations
in the preparatory stage of the aggression as well as during the
aggression
of NATO Alliance against Yugoslavia. We believed that it was necessary
to
achieve a higher level of agreement on concrete issues. In the
negotiations
concerning the ending of the aggression which we had with Mr.
Chernomyrdin
special attention was attached to elimination of Chapter VII of the
Charter
of the United Nations from the text of the then future Security Council
resolution 1244 (1999). However, in spite of the promise that Russia
would
not allow Chapter VII to be invoked in the resolution, that Chapter was
still mentioned in a certain form in resolution 1244.

Q: Chernomyrdin promised that to you personally?

A: Yes, he promised that Russia would not accept that. But we must turn
ourselves to the present and future. We have to turn to the things which
constitute bulwark of the protection of vital national and State
interests.
In concrete terms, we rely on the guarantees concerning the sovereignty
and
territorial integrity given in the Ahtisaari-Chernomyrdin document which
were reaffirmed later in Security Council resolution 1244. This is a
positive element of strategic importance that has been achieved.
The other element of strategic importance is a guarantee that the
situation in Kosovo and Metohija will be solved by political means
through
dialogue and with respect of sovereignty and integrity of Serbia and
Yugoslavia, providing an autonomy within Serbia and Yugoslavia.
The third extremely important element is the fact that the principles of
the Charter of the United Nations must be observed in the process of
finding a solution for the situation in Kosovo and Metohija, i.e. that
this
problem is to be resolved through the Security Council, and not through
the
NATO Alliance. Those are crucial elements and we insist on a full
respect
for the principles from the Ahtissaari-Chernomyrdin document and
Security
Council resolution 1244.
Having in mind those three elements Yugoslavia approved the deployment
of
international civilian and security missions in Kosovo and Metohija
under
the auspices of the United Nations. The responsibility for the respect
of
these fundamental principles lies with the United Nations, i.e. the
Security Council as a body that is most responsible for peace and
security.
Within this framework, we count on and expect the support and active
involvement of Russia as a Security Council permanent member and a
factor
which directly participated in the conclusion of a peace agreement, and
understandably as a friendly country and Yugoslav ally.
The support of China as a Security Council permanent member is also very
important and we expect from other Security Council members to manifest
a
greater realism. As far as non-permanent members of the Security Council
are concerned, we have noticed that they expressed significant
understanding for our positions and interests. Positive changes in
respect
to Yugoslavia are particularly visible in the General Assembly itself,
where the majority of its 188 members share the positions and
principles
advocated by Yugoslavia.
The European Union bears great responsibility for the consistent
implementation of resolution 1244 and the Ahtisaari-Chernomyrdin
document
which served as a basis for the Security Council resolution, because Mr.
Ahtisaari participated in those negotiations in the capacity of the
Chairman of the Union. We think that Europe is not still aware of the
importance and significance of its responsibility for the consistent
implementation of Security Council resolution 1244. Europe has a twofold
responsibility - because it participated in the negotiations through
Ahtisaari and because Yugoslavia is an integral part of Europe.
There are certain signs of a greater realism in Europe but also of being
held hostage to the passive approach and to the pressures of the US
Administration. There is a growing concern for the continuous
deterioration
of security and the overall situation in Kosovo and Metohija. It is
clear
that European and American interests in Yugoslavia, i.e. in Kosovo and
Metohija, cannot be and are not identical. In our opinion, this
evolution
towards a greater realism and better understanding of one's own
strategic
interests in South Eastern Europe and the Balkans is highly disputable.
Europe is still seriously suffering from extensive American syndrome of
giving in to the great control and pressures of the US Administration.
This has become evident on the example of the lifting of the sanctions
against Yugoslavia. It is positive that 13 out of 15 members of the
European Union have voted for the lifting of the flights ban and the oil
embargo. It is interesting to note, however, that Britain is persistent
in
advocating American interests in the European Union and opposing the
reaching of a consensus. We are, understandably, optimistic in respect
to
the future developments because we believe that the process of
identification of Europe with its own interests is irreversible,
irrespective of its slow pace.
Kosovo and Metohija is far from a solution to the situation.
Representatives of the international civil and security presence, and
ultimately the Security Council, are accountable for the lack of a just
and
principled solution, the solution in accordance with the Security
Council
resolution.
We hope that it is still not late for the Security Council to undertake
appropriate and concrete measures to ensure the implementation of its
own
decisions:
- to stop terrorism;
- to disband and disarm the terrorist organization "KLA";
- to stop and suspend all decisions in contradiction with the
sovereignty
and territorial integrity of Serbia and Yugoslavia;
- to halt the ethnic cleansing of Serbs, Roma, Muslims, Goranci, Turks;
- to ensure conditions for a free and safe return of 350 000 expelled
Serbs and other non-Albanian population;
- to expel over 200 000 foreign citizens, mainly the citizens of Albania
who illegally entered into the Yugoslav territory with the consent of
the
international presence;
- to ensure the implementation of the provision concerning the return of
the Yugoslav army and police to Kosovo and Metohija and to Yugoslav
borders;
- to eliminate other violations of the resolution and sovereignty of
Serbia and Yugoslavia such as opening of foreign missions in Kosovo and
Metohija, banning of flights between Belgrade and Pristina;
- to restore the property rights concerning the private, public and
State
property.
We hope that it is not late for the Security Council to really undertake
an effort to have its decisions implemented, rather than to delegate
this
to NATO, which committed an aggression against Yugoslavia. We are for a
peaceful, political solution, for the full respect of the Security
Council
resolution and the Ahtisaari-Chernomyrdin document, irrespective of the
fact that most of their provisions are not in acordance with the Serbian
and Yugoslav principled interests and rights.
In view of the above, we shall never recognize a single decision or
state
of affairs which is contrary to the Security Council resolution, which
represents the violation of those documents, and in particular any
solution
which constitutes a violation of sovereignty and integrity of Serbia and
Yugoslavia. Neither NATO nor Clinton will stay in Kosovo for ever.
Kosovo
was under provisional occupations several times throughout its history.
Those who are counting on supporting separatism and terrorism, who are
counting on a lasting occupation of Kosovo and Metohija, are advised to
look back what happened to the former occupier of this part of Serbia
throughout the history, either in the Middle ages or in the twentieth
century. Serbia has its roots and its place in European civilization,
it
has its self-confidence and dignity. And all of this is related to
Kosovo
and Metohija. It is an illusion to make plans with criminals and
terrorists. Any solution, except the solution within Serbia, is not
realistic.



--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
------------------------------------------------------------

B92 29/01/2000 ------------------------------------------

PERISIC CHIUSE UN OCCHIO SUL SOSTEGNO DELLA NATO ALL'UCK?
Matic accuses Perisic of turning a blind eye to the arming of Kosovo
separatists

KRUSEVAC, Saturday - The public will soon be informed about where the
Kosovo
separatists obtained their arms and who in Yugoslavia turned a blind eye
to
such activities, the Federal Minister of Information Goran Matic said in
an
interview for Krusevac TV Plus today. Matic told TV Krusevac that a
meeting
between American and French Secret Service experts had taken place in
Sarajevo in 1997 where they had decided to arm Kosovo separatists from
SFOR
bases. Matic said that the names of those whose job it was to prevent
this
taking place, above all Army Chief of Staff General Momcilo Perisic
(currently leader of the Movement for a democratic Serbia) would soon be
made
public.

VERSO LA SVENDITA DELLE TELECOMUNICAZIONI DEL MONTENEGRO
Montenegro to put Montenegrin Telecom and Electricity Company up for
sale

MONTENEGRO, Saturday - The Montenegrin Tender Commission announced today
that
they are planning to put Montenegrin Telecom and the Montenegrin
Electricity
Company up for sale. The Commission stated that they would sell off more
than
51% of the companies since foreign investors would not be interested in
anything less than a controlling share. The sale will take place under
consultation with Deloitt & Touche.

Former Montenegrin government official and member of G17, Nebojsa
Medojevic
told B2 92 of his reservations regarding this decision. Medojevic said
that
he felt this was not the right time to make such a move since due to the
current uncertain political situation in Yugoslavia, the companies would
be
sold for far less than their real market value.

CONTINUI SEGNALI DI IRREQUIETEZZA DA DJUKANOVIC
Djukanovic: clarification of relations within the Federation imminent

MONTENEGRO, Saturday - Clarification of the relations within the
Yugoslav
Federation will take place this year, Montenegrin President Milo
Djukanovic
told press in Bar today. Djukanovic said that a way out of the current
crisis
could be achieved if the Federal bodies and Serbia showed a constructive
approach towards the proposals put forward by Montenegro regarding the
redefinition of relations within the Federation and that this would
result in
a stabilisation of the situation within the Federation. Djukanovic added
that
should such an approach fail to materialise, Montenegro would finally
and
definitively go its own way.

B92 28/01/2000 ------------------------------------

ANALISTA MILITARE BRITANNICO SULLA IPOTESI DI NUOVA
AGGRESSIONE NATO IN APPOGGIO ALLA SECESSIONE MONTENEGRINA
British concern over Montenegrin crisis

BANJA LUKA, Friday - NATO would react if federal Yugoslav forces clashed
with
Montenegrin troops in Yugoslavia's southern republic, British military
analyst Paul Beaver said today. Beaver told media in Banja Luka that
another
bombing of Serbian military targets was possible, but that it would
depend on
how seriously NATO understood Belgrade's threats against the Montenegrin
government. He also expressed concern that the US could try to remove
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic from power and that the Americans
could
see a Montenegrin conflict as an opportunity to implement such a plan.

ROBERTSON: PER LA SITUAZIONE ATTUALE IN KOSOVO
E' TUTTA COLPA DI MILOSEVIC
NATO "resolute" over Kosovo

BRUSSELS, Friday - NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said today
that
the level of violence and bloodshed in Kosovo was still too high but
that the
Alliance was determined to change that. Robertson added that the Balkans
would have looked considerably different today had Belgrade opted for
serious
political and economic reforms ten years ago.

YDS 28/01/2000 ---------------------------------------------------

AVVIATA LA RICOSTRUZIONE DI ALTRI 21 PONTI BUTTATI GIU' DALLA NATO

REPUBLIC OF SERBIA - RECONSTRUCTION
AGREEMENT SIGNED ON CONSTRUCTION OF 21 BRIDGES
BELGRADE, January 27 (Tanjug) - Director of the Directorate for the
Reconstruction of the Country Milutin Mrkonjic signed on Friday
contracts
for the construction of 21 road and railway bridges that were destroyed
in
NATO's aggression last year.
Construction works within the second phase of reconstruction are due to
be
completed by July 7 this year, and they will be realized by seven
domestic
firms - Kraljevo factory of carriages, MIN of Nis, Gosa of Smederevo,
Mostrogradnja of Belgrade, 14 oktobar of Krusevac, Novi auto put of
Belgrade and Graditelj of Leskovac.
Recalling that in NATO's aggression were destroyed and damaged 64
bridges,
Mrkonjic specified that in the first phase of reconstruction were
completed
and opened for traffic 32 bridges, and that construction works were
underway on seven other facilities.
The construction of the 21 bridges, with the exception of three bridges
in
Novi Sad, will complete the road infrastructure in Serbia, Mrkonjic
said.

NUOVO GOVERNO IN MONTENEGRO DOPO LE DIMISSIONI DEL MINISTRO
DEGLI ESTERI ACCUSATO DI LEGAMI CON LA CAMORRA

REPUBLIC OF MONTENEGRO - GOVERNMENT
VUJANOVIC PROPOSES NEW MINISTERS
PODGORICA, January 27 (Tanjug) - A special session of the Montenegrin
Parliament, convened to review a Government reshuffle, started with
great
delay on Friday afternoon due to the need for further consultations.
Premier Filip Vujanovic nominated as the new Foreign Minister Branko
Lukovac, current representative of Montenegro in Slovenia. The former
Minister Branko Perovic resigned recently after accusations of being
linked
to illegal trade in Italy.
Instead of Predrag Goranovic, as Deputy Premier has been proposed
Ljubisa
Krgovic, who now occupies the office of member of the Monetary Council
of
Montenegro.
Rade Gregovic, current Mayor of Budva, is to replace Radovan Bakic as
Minister of urban planning and Budimir Dubak, current Minister of
Culture
is to take over the Ministry of Religion from Slobodan Tomovic.
Dubak, according to the proposal of the Premier, is to be replaced by
Radojica Luburic, current Director of the Montenegrin Institute for
Scientific-Technical and Cultural Cooperation.
Vujanovic thanked the outgoing Deputy Premier and Ministers Predrag
Goranovic, Branko Perovic, Radovan Bakic and Slobodan Tomovic.

LA LIBIA CONTESTA L'ATTIVITA' DI "MEDICI SENZA FRONTIERE"
E DI KOUCHNER IN KOSOVO E METOHIJA

JAMAHIRIYA - KOUCHNER VIOLATES EVERY DAY U.N. CHARTER
TRIPOLI, January 28 (Tanjug) - The Libyan daily Al Jamahiriya strongly
criticized the activities of the French organization Medecins Sans
Frontieres in Kosovo and Metohija and the awarding of the Nobel Peace
prize
for 1999 to that organization.
Medecins Sans Frontieres have political goals and operate under a
suspicious umbrella, the Libya daily said this week, and the activities
of
the U.N. representative in Kosovo-Metohija Bernard Kouchner support that
assessment.
"In spite of the fact that the man is a doctor, he is playing an inhuman
NATO role in dealing with the problems of the Province of Kosovo and
Metohija," Al Jamihiriya said.
"The organization Medecins Sans Frontieres has, contrary to Security
Council Resolution 1244, took part in the covering up of numerous
criminal
acts in Kosovo, such as the massacre of 14 women and children in the
village Staro Gacko near the town of Lipljan.
"The U.N. Mission conducted the forensic examination of the bodies
without
the participation of Yugoslav doctors. That means the distancing of
Yugoslav forensic experts from the investigation with a view to covering
up
the case and removing the most important traces, and in turn the
encouraging of crimes and criminals whose conduct suits the
international
forces (NATO) that make up KFOR," Al Jamahiriya said. The Libyan daily
further said that the "misfortune of ethnic cleansing was repeated also
in
the cities of Prizren, Djakovica, Istok, Klina and others, as well as
the
destruction of monuments as a monastery from 1315 in the vicinity of the
capital city of Pristina".
"In return," Al Jamahiriya said, "the organization Medecins Sans
Frontieres received all the prize and eulogies, and even the Nobel Peace
Prize."
"The conduct of the French Doctor Without Borders, Kouchner, in Kosovo,
sets an example for the daily flagrant violations of human rights and of
the U.N. Charter," Al Jamahiriya said, recalling that that was not the
first Nobel Peace Prize whose awarding has given rise to doubts.

YDS 27/01/2000 -----------------------------------------

STANZIATI 900 MILIONI DI DINARI PER I PROFUGHI IN SERBIA

900 MILLION DINARS FOR DISPLACED FROM KOSOVO AND METOHIJA - YUGOSLAV
MINISTER
KRUSEVAC, SERBIA, January 26 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Minister for Refugees,
Displaced and Exiled Persons Bratislava Morina said on Wednesday in the
city of Krusevac, central Serbia, that the Yugoslav and Serbian
Governments
have earmarked 900 million dinars as aid for refugees and temporarily
displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija.
Morina, who is also Serbian Minister for Refugees, presented the
corresponding organs in Krusevac with ten tonnes of relief aid for the
internally displaced persons who found refuge in this region.
She pointed out that the corresponding state organs are currently
registering all displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija and that this
data will be verified by the representatives of neutral Switzerland.
"This
will be yet another in the series of proof about the activities of the
ethnic Albanian terrorists who are being helped by a part of the
international community and who forced the Serbs and other non-Albanians
to
leave their homes," Morina said.
Underscoring that under U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244 Kosovo and
Metohija is an integral and unalienable part of the Republic of Serbia
and
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Morina stated that she expects the
annulment of all decisions by UNMIK head Bernard Kouchner which are not
in
keeping with this resolution.

ANTICOSTITUZIONALE L'USO DEL MARCO TEDESCO IN MONTENEGRO

USE OF GERMAN MARK IN MONTENEGRO NOT IN KEEPING WITH FEDERAL
CONSTITUTION
BELGRADE, January 26 (Tanjug) - The Yugoslav Constitutional Court ruled
on
Wednesday that the decision on the use of the German mark in Montenegro
parallel with the national currency dinar, is not in keeping with the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Law on the
National
Bank of Yugoslavia and the Law on Foreign Currency Transactions.
The Court said that the decision of the Montenegrin Government on taking
over certain competencies of the National Bank of Yugoslavia "with the
aim
of protecting the economic interests of Montenegro" is also not in
keeping
with the Federal Constitution and the Law on the National Bank of
Yugoslavia.
In November 1999, the Court set a deadline for the Montenegrin
Government
to come up with explanations regarding the initiative of the National
Bank
of Yugoslavia to begin proceedings for the assassement of the
constitutionality and legality of the controversial Montenegrin
decisions.
Montenegro, however, failed to respond.
Quoting constitutional and legal provisions, the Court set out that
under
the constitution the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is
a
single economic and market area and that only the National Bank of
Yugoslavia, as an independent institution and the only bank of issue
within
the Yugoslav monetary system, is responsible for monetary policy, the
stability of the currency and for financial discipline.
The Court also instigated proceedings to investigate the
constitutionality
of the Montenegrin Law on Amnesty which released from responsibility all
military conscripts who failed to respond to the mobilization during the
NATO aggression from March 24 - June 10, 1999.
The Court has set a two-week deadline to the Montenegrin Parliament to
take a position on this law.
According to the Court, no republican organ is authorized to release
anyone from the responsibility for the offence of draft dodging since
this
is regulated only by federal laws.
The Court said it was stopping the realization of all individual acts
adopted on the basis of the disputed law.

SI VA NORMALIZZANDO IL TRAFFICO AEREO SULLA JUGOSLAVIA?

AIR TRAFFIC OVER YUGOSLAVIA NORMALISING
BELGRADE, January 27 (Tanjug) - Air traffic over Yugoslavia has begun
returning to normal as of dawn on Thursday, according to the National
Flight Control chief.
Flight Control Administration Director Branko Bilbija told TANJUG that,
as
of 1 minute past midnight last night, the Yugoslav Flight Control was
guiding 55 percent of all flights over Bosnia- Herzegovina at altitudes
between 9,000 metres and 13,000 m.
Also, radars were guiding planes over Yugoslavia flying from central
Europe to Greece and the Middle East, and there were plans to open
corridors to Croatia and Italy.
"For the past four or five months, talks have been going on in Paris,
Brussels and Rome about normalising air traffic in Yugoslav air space,
and
the accords reached have only just begun to be implemented today," said
Bilbija.
He added that flights in Yugoslav air space had been banned since the
start of NATO's aggression on Yugoslavia on March 24, 1999.
When the air strikes ended on June 10, Yugoslav flight controllers took
over about 20 percent of flights, viz. those to Macedonia. As of today,
they were slowly resuming the guiding of planes for all foreign air
carriers.

GENERALE JUGOSLAVO PROMETTE IL RITORNO DELL'ARMATA IN KOSMET

YUGOSLAV GENERAL SAYS PRISTINA CORPS WILL RETURN TO KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
LESKOVAC, January 26 (Tanjug) - An annual analysis of the readiness for
action of the Yugoslav Army Pristina Corps was made at the Corps'
command
on Wednesday. A statement issued by the Corps press section quoted Corps
Commander Maj. Gen. Radojko Stefanovic, who supervised the proceedings,
as
saying that the Corps had been the backbone of the Yugoslav Army's and
the
Third Army's defence in Kosovo and Metohija.
Maj. Gen. Stefanovic said that Corps troops had put up a brilliant
resistance to the far superior enemy, saying that, by uniting all
defence
forces in the Yugoslav Republic of Serbia's southern province, the Corps
had managed to preserve its potential, troops and materiel sustaining
minimum losses.
The statement also said that, thanks to the state and economic
structures'
maximum engagement and assistance offered, the Corps had managed to
provide
new facilities made of brick for its entire personnel following NATO's
March 24-June 10 1999 aggression and to create favourable conditions for
the life and work of Corps commands and units.
Third Army commander Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic voiced confidence that the
Corps would soon return to Kosovo and Metohija "where it will raise the
flag of freedom under which all citizens - Serbs, Montenegrins and
members
of other ethnic groups - will coexist in peace with ethnic Albanians as
before."

B92 27/01/2000 ------------------------------------

LA GERMANIA FA LA CAMPAGNA ELETTORALE IN JUGOSLAVIA
German support for Serbian opposition

BERLIN, Thursday - The German government has demanded a thorough
re-examination of sanctions against Serbia, calling for more severe
measures
directly aimed at Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his
associates.
German Foreign Minister Joscha Fischer, submitting the report on the
Pact for
Stability in the Bundestag today, gave credit to the Serbian opposition
for
its efforts in uniting and seeking replacement of the regime. Fischer
also
said that Germany supported the opposition in its demands for
parliamentary
elections by the end of April.

The political director of the British Foreign Office, Charles Crawford,
told
Radio B2 92 this afternoon that it was important to understand that
Europe
had taken a unanimous decision not to lift sanctions. Crawford denied
that
Britain and Holland had blocked an initiative to reduce the sanctions.
Asked
whether the US had pressured Britain and Holland over the issue Crawford
denied knowledge of such a move, adding however that the Americans were
very
good at applying pressure to anyone when it suited them.

Meanwhile, the director of Washington's Balkans Action Council, James
Hooper,
said today that he believed Milosevic would do anything in order to
divide
the opposition and the West, believing that the US and the EU would
finally
turn back to him. Hooper described the EU as being so exhausted that it
was
again considering backing Milosevic, adding that it was obvious that
Serbian
Renewal Movement leader Vuk Draskovic was being used to undermine
opposition
efforts. The worst thing, said Hooper, was that Democratic Party
President
Zoran Djindjic had fallen into a well-laid trap.

Replying to Hooper's statement, Djindjic told the BBC World Service that
Hooper had demonstrated his basic lack of understanding of the internal
political situation in Serbia.

NUOVO GOVERNO IN MONTENEGRO
Montenegrin government reshuffle

PODGORICA, Thursday - The governing Democratic Party of Socialist in
Montenegro last night agreed on substantial changes to the cabinet of
Prime
Minister Filip Vujanovic. The final outcome was expected to be announced
after a scheduled meeting of parliament, which began late because of
party
consultations on the cabinet changes. Fonet reports that the new foreign
minister is expected to Branko Lukovac and that Ljubisa Krgovic would
become
deputy prime minister.

REUTERS 26/01/2000 ---------------------------------

ASPRO CONTRASTO TRA BULGARIA E RUSSIA PER IL MANCATO
INVITO DELLA RF DI JUGOSLAVIA AL SUMMIT DI SOFIA

Bulgaria rejects Russian anger over Balkan summit 09:26 a.m. Jan 26,
2000 Eastern
SOFIA, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Bulgaria, facing angry complaints from Russia,
on Wednesday defended its decision not to invite Yugoslavia to a Balkan
summit last weekend.
``The aim of the meeting, which was fulfilled, had been to find a common
approach to solving regional problems,´´ said Bulgarian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Radko Vlaikov.
``At a time when cooperation with Yugoslavia is difficult, its
participation in the event would have blocked positive results of the
meeting,´´ he told a news conference.
Russia's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday issued a statement denouncing the
informal meeting of prime ministers of seven countries bordering
Yugoslavia which was hosted by Bulgaria.
Representatives of Belgrade, which enjoys relatively good ties with
Moscow, had not been invited to the meeting, also attended by European
Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
``We are surprised by the absence of Yugoslavia, whose internal
situation was discussed at the meeting,´´ said Russia´s statement.
``The isolationist format of the event...could hardly be constructive,
not to mention ethical.´´
The Russian document said that a decision by the summit to continue such
consultations ``looked very similar to an attempt to create a closed
anti-Yugoslav pact with Euro-Atlantic orientation.´´
The summit was unanimous in pressing the West to do more to get off the
ground the Balkan Stability Pact, formally launched by Big Powers last
year but still lacking economic substance.
But they were divided on whether to ease international sanctions imposed
on Yugoslavia, which are hurting the economies of its neighbours.
Bulgaria said they should be revised, while Albania said any relaxation
would play into the hands of Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
Vlaikov said the meeting was a success as it had created a spirit of
better cooperation and made possible an honest dialogue on the problems
of the troubled Balkan region.

B92 26/01/2000 ----------------------

ANCORA UN PAIO DI CITTA' INSERITE NEL
PROGRAMMA UE "PETROLIO PER LA DEMOCRAZIA"?
Energy for Democracy extended

BELGRADE, Wednesday - The European Commission was expected today to
formalise
the extension of the Energy for Democracy program. Under the program,
the
southern Serbian cities of Pirot and Nis have been supplied with heating
oil.
The coordinator of the G17 independent economic think tank, Mladjan
Dinkic,
told B2 92 today that the project would now include the cities of
Kraguejevac, Novi Sad, Subotica, Sombor and Kraljevo.

ALTRI DUE RICERCATI PER L'OMICIDIO DI ARKAN
Police seek two more gunmen in Arkan case

BELGRADE, Wednesday - Belgrade police have appealed to the public for
assistance in locating two more men suspected of being involved in the
murder
of underworld boss Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic. A police statement names
the
two men as Dragan Nikolic of New Belgrade and Milan Djuricic of Mali
Zvornik.
Four suspects are already under arrest on charges relating to the murder
in
Belgrade's Hotel Intercontinental ten days ago.

ANCORA UN SERBO-BOSNIACO ARRESTATO
Bosnian Serb arrested

VISEGRAD, Wednesday - Bosnian Serb Mitar Vasilijevic was arrested in
Visegrad
yesterday on charges of war crimes in Bosnia, the Republic of Srpska
government confirmed today. The British press writes today that
Vasilijevic
was a member of the White Eagles paramilitary unit which was allegedly
involved in the first mass murders in Bosnia. According to the reports,
Vasilijevic was involved in the murder of Muslims on the Drina bridge in
Visegrad in May 1992 and had taken part in setting fire to two buildings
housing 135 Muslims, including women and children.

B92 22/01/2000 ---------------

ARRESTATO L'ASSASSINO DI ARKAN
Police arrest Arkan's murderer

BELGRADE, Saturday - Former police officer Dobrosav Gavric has been
arrested
for the murder of underworld boss Arkan which took place at the Hotel
Intercontinental in Belgrade last Saturday, Belgrade police stated
today. At
a press conference in Belgrade today, senior police official Milenko
Ercic
said that Gavric who was injured in the incident and was currently in
hospital, was a former police officer on sick leave from June 1999 known
to
be working in the protection of well known Belgrade gangsters. The
police
have also arrested two of his accomplices one of whom was also formerly
a
police officer dismissed for his "mob" connections. Ercic said that all
three
men had confessed to their part in the triple murder and would shortly
be
brought before the Belgrade Municipal court.

I SOCIALDEMOCRATICI DEL MONTENEGRO SI SENTONO GIA'
AL DI FUORI DELLA JUGOSLAVIA
No federal elections in Montenegro this year

MONTENEGRO, Saturday - The Montenegrin Social Democrats will not take
part in
federal general elections in October, their party president Zarko
Rakcevic
said today in response to Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic's
announcement yesterday regarding such elections. Rakcevic said that
Montenegro considered Yugoslavia to be part of their past and would
therefore
not take part in any federal elections. Rakcevic also emphasisied the
need
for an improvement in the relations between Serbia and Montenegro, but
said
that such an improvement could only be reached after the formal
recognition
of Montenegro by the international community.

B92 20/01/2000 ------------------------------------

PROBLEMI NELLA COALIZIONE GOVERNATIVA IN MONTENEGRO
Trouble in Montenegrin Government coalition

PODGORICA, Thursday - The central committee of the Social Democratic
Party of
Montenegro last night gave its government coalition partners an
ultimatum to
call a referendum on secession by the end of March. The party described
the
decision on the referendum as a prerequisite for the survival of the
government coalition.

Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic said today that the referendum on
secession was a real possibility and announced that the leaders of
coalition
parties would meet soon to discuss all controversial issues. Djukanovic
told
media that he was not familiar with the decision of the Social
Democratic
Party.

YDS 18/01/2000 ------------------------------------

COMITATO BULGARO CONDANNA LA AGGRESSIONE DELLA NATO

BULGARIAN COMMITTEE FOR BALKAN COOPERATION CONDEMNS NATO AGGRESSION
SOFIA, January 18 (Tanjug) - The Bulgarian Committee for Balkan
Understanding and Cooperation on Tuesday condemned last year's brutal
U.S.-led NATO aggression on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Speaking at a special session marking the 40th anniversary of the
Committee's founding, its chairman Victor Pshelarov called on the big
powers not to interfere in the affairs of the Balkan states and demanded
that the people of that region decide about their fate by themselves.
The NATO aggression on Yugoslavia has affected both the people of that
country and all the Balkan states, the vice president of the Alliance of
Balkan Women Emilia Maslovarova said.
Speaking on behalf of the 600,000 professional members of the Federation
of Bulgarian Journalists, its secretary Snezana Todorova recalled that
the
Bulgarian journalists strongly condemned the barbaric NATO bombing of
the
media centre in Serbia and Montenegro, as well as the air raids on
hospitals, maternity wards, civilian homes, etc.
Yugoslav diplomat Darinka Acimovic expressed gratitude to the members of
the Bulgarian Committee for Balkan Understanding and Cooperation for
their
support during the brutal NATO aggression. The co-chairman of the
Bulgarian-Yugoslav Friendship Society, Dimitrije Ostojic, a sculptor,
called on the Balkan nations not to allow any more wars in this always
troubled region.

PREOCCUPAZIONE IN MACEDONIA PER I CONFINI INSICURI

MACEDONIA CONCERNED OVER INSECURE BORDER WITH KOSOVO AND METOHIJA
SKOPJE, January 18 (Tanjug) - Macedonian Defence Minister Nikola Kljusev
has demanded from NATO and KFOR to help Macedonia secure its border with
Yugoslavia in the section with Kosovo and Metohija.
Kljusev conveyed this demand to NATO's Ambassador in Skopje, Hans
Juergen
Eife, and KFOR logistics commander in Macedonia, General Bob Ruth, it
was
said on Tuesday.
After the arrival of KFOR in Kosovo and Metohija, Macedonia was faced
with
great problems since part of its border with Yugoslavia remained
practically unsecured which, Skopje said, has an unfavourable effect on
this country's security.
The Macedonian border with Albania is also unsecured because the
Albanian
troops have long since been withdrawn from this region.

B92 18/01/2000 ------------------------------------------

IN PERICOLO ANCHE LA FAUNA PER I BOMBARDAMENTI DELLA NATO
Serbian fauna endangered by NATO bombing

BONN, Tuesday - Last year's bombing of Yugoslavia had catastrophic
consequences for the region's fauna, a German paper writes today,
quoting a
report from an associate of Belgrade's Museum of Natural History. Milan
Paunovic told a European Union ecology conference in Thessaloniki that
many
subspecies in Serbia and Kosovo were now endangered, following the
destruction of their habitats. Paunovic quoted reports that a large
number of
wolves had fled from Serbia to northern Greece.

B92 16/01/2000 ------------------------------------------

ARKAN ASSASSINATO NELL'HOTEL INTERCONTINENTAL DI BELGRADO
Arkan murdered in Belgrade's Intercontinental hotel

BELGRADE, Sunday -- Zelko Raznjatovic, better known as Arkan, commander
of
the paramilitary Serbian Volunteer Guard active during the wars in
Bosnia and
Croatia, was shot in the lobby of Belgrade's Hotel Intercontinental
sometime
around five o' clock yesterday afternoon. Arkan, who was shot in the
head,
was rushed to hospital where doctors confirmed him dead. One of his body
guards, identified as Momcilo Mandic, was also killed at the scene,
while
Dragan Garic whose involvement in the incident is not clear, was also
rushed
to hospital where he later died. The group had been sitting in a
sectioned-off part of the lobby and were on their way to the hotel exit
when
they were hit by at least one round from a Heckler and Koch submachine
gun
that apparently hit Arkan in the eye. The Serbian police have released
no
details regarding the incident.

All local media in Belgrade have today reported Arkan's death with
contradictory versions of the events leading to his death. There has
been
considerable speculation as to how many assailants there were, whether
they
were hiding inside the hotel, whether they were masked as well as to the
motives for such a murder.

The Hague Tribunal indicted 47-year-old Arkan in 1997 for war crimes
carried
out by his paramilitaries in Bosnia and Croatia, but the indictment was
kept
under wraps until 31st of March last year when the tribunal made his
indictment public. Arkan and his paramilitary forces have also been
accused
by the western media of involvement in apparent atrocities in Kosovo
during
the NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia, but Arkan denied any involvement in
war
crimes. In 1992 Arkan was an MP in the Serbian Parliament as independent
candidate. The following year he founded the Party of Serbian Unity
which did
not manage to win a single seat in the 1993 elections. For the past
several
years his name has been connected with the football club Obilic which
progressed from being a second division club to Yugoslav champion
straight
after Arkan purchased it.

All opposition parties in Serbia stated that this murder symbolised the
current state of affairs in the country. The Serbian Renewal Movement
linked
this murder to living with state terrorism. President of the Democratic
Party
Zoran Djindjic said that Belgrade had become a dangerous city in which
to
live, while Goran Svilanovic of the Civic Alliance party said that Arkan
was
someone who knew too much and was too deeply involved.

There has so far been no public reaction to Arkan's murder from the
regime.

ALBRIGHT E COOK DISPIACIUTI PER LA MORTE DI ARKAN
Albright and Cook: no satisfaction from Arkan's murder

US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright and British Foreign Minister
Robin
Cook reacted to Arkan's death by stating that they took no satisfaction
from
his murder. Albright said that the US would have preferred him to stand
trial
in The Hague War Crimes Tribunal. Cook agreed with such sentiments
saying he
would have preferred to see Arkan taking responsibility for his crimes.

ARKAN STAVA COLLABORANDO CON IL TRIBUNALE DELL'AIA?
The Sunday Times: Arkan cooperating with the Hague Tribunal

LONDON, Sunday - A source close to Arkan has revealed that he was
supplying
the Hague Tribunal with material which could be crucial to the eventual
trial
of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, London's Sunday Times writes
today.
The same source said that Arkan had believed that if he cooperated with
the
tribunal, the case against him would be dropped.

PRESTO PUBBLICI I DETTAGLI SUL PROCEDIMENTO CONTRO ARKAN
(MA DOPO DUE SETTIMANE ANCORA NON SE NE SA NIENTE...)
Details of Arkan's indictment soon to be made public

THE HAGUE, Sunday - The details of the indictment against Arkan
regarding his
involvement in war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia could soon be made
public,
Hague Tribunal spokesman Paul Risley told Reuters today.

==================================================================

NOTA DEL CRJ: Le notizie in lingua straniera sono introdotte da un
nostro titolo in italiano per facilitarne la consultazione.
La nostra selezione di notizie contiene brani da fonti diverse:

YDS - e' la "Yugoslav Daily Survey" del Ministero degli Esteri della
RFJ (cfr. http://www.mfa.gov.yu/ ).

B92 - sono le notizie che provengono dalla mailing list di RadioB2-92,
di orientamento antigovernativo e filo-occidentale:
> freeb92-e is an open mailing list for distribution of news by Radio
> B2-92. News bulletins are updated at 19.00 CET Monday to Friday and
> at 23.00 CET on Saturday and Sunday.
> For more information on FreeB92 and Radio B2-92, visit:
> http://www.freeb92.net/

REUTERS - sono i dispacci della omonima agenzia di informazione:
>Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and
>redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the
>prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any
>errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
>thereon.

--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
------------------------------------------------------------

*** GUERRA, BUGIE E VIDEOTAPE: un nuovo video dell'International Action
Center
*** Una trasmissione televisiva ed un video tra le iniziative del
Partito del Lavoro del Belgio: http://www.ptb.be/

* Gli "umanitaristi" europei estendono le sanzioni mentre i vicini serbi
muoiono di freddo (Diana Johnstone, L. Campetti, J. Israel)

* La televisione britannica mostra un documentario sulle menzogne di
guerra - naturalmente a notte fonda (F. Weston, "In defence of Marxism")

* Anche il Washington Post e' un'arma della NATO ? (FAIR)

* Un narcostato in Kosovo, tra le conseguenze del "Blair-ismo" (J.
Pilger)

===

International Action Center
39 West 14th St., #206
New York, NY 10011
212-633-6646 fax: 212-633-2889
Email: iacenter@...
Web Page: www.iacenter.org

1/28/2000

EXCITING, NEW, INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER BOOK THAT
RIPS THE MASS MEDIA. “War, Lies & Videotape: How
media monopoly stifles truth” exposes the true
character of the media today. Order a copy now with
your credit card on www.leftbooks.com.

Have you ever wondered whether the news you hear is
true? Who makes the news and how? How do mega-
mergers and the consolidation of media outlets
affect what you see on the evening news?

The International Action Center’s new book, “War,
Lies & Videotape: How media monopoly stifles truth”
is a superb new work by some of your favorite
fighters for justice and media critics. Read new
works by Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney
General; Michael Parenti, author; Nawal El Saadawi,
Novelist & Journalist; Ben Bagdikian, former editor
of the “Washington Post”; Sara Flounders & Brian
Becker, Co-Directors of the IAC; Diana Johnstone,
former European Editor of “In These Times”; Jean-
Bertrand Aristide, former President of Haiti; Scott
Armstrong, Co-Author of “The Brethren”; and others
on the very nature of the news we see and read.

RAMSEY CLARK ON MEDIA MANIPULATION OF FOREIGN
POLICY: “The means of communication are controlled
by a handful of interests. Ninety percent of all
television fare comes from six or seven companies.
A General Electric or Rupert Murdoch can
marginalize a Socrates. A cup of hemlock might seem
to so the same, but the fact of Socrates’ existence
and authenticity abides.

“This is not an easy time to be a thinker. When the
media marginalizes a Socrates of our time, if there
will be one, where will the memory of his word
abide?

“Our (the U.S. Government’s) ability to manipulate
and admit without alarming the public is
overwhelming. There was a review in the New York
Times last week of the new book called ‘To Win a
War’ by Richard Holbrooke. It’s written in the
first person, telling how he did it. He didn’t
title his narrative ‘To Establish a Peace.’ And in
his tale he reveals the horrors of ethnic cleansing.
But pride overcomes discretion, and he writes,
boastfully according to a review, of how, even as
Washington was condemning the Croatian purge of more
than a quarter million Serbs from the Krajina, he
was in Zagreb making sure that the Croatians did
exactly that, identifying the cities to be purged,
the deaths and the massive forced emigration.

“The power of the Media to demonize is perhaps its
most dangerous and vicious power.”

MICHAEL PARENTI ON MEDIA EVASION: “We often think of
the news media as sensationalist and intrusive. In
fact, the press’s basic modus operandi is evasive
rather than invasive. More important that
sensationalist hype is the artful avoidance…

“The news media’s daily performance is not a failure
but a skillfully evasive success. Their job is not
to inform but to disinform, not to advance
democratic discourse but to mute it. The media
gives every appearance of being vigorously
concerned about events of the day, saying so much,
meaning so little, offering so many calories and so
few nutrients. When we understand this, we move
from a liberal complaint about the press’s sloppy
performance to a radical analysis of how the media
serve the ruling circles with much craft and
craftiness.”

NAWAL EL SAADAWI ON NEO-COLONIALISM AND MEDIA’S DARK
AGE: “Two phrases in an African-Jamaican song
summarize the media’s dark age in which we live:

Raise the chains off the body.
Put the chains on the mind.

“…This is one of the functions of the media. To give
you the illusion that you are free to choose what
you like from the free market, that you are free to
elect your representative in Congress or
Parliament. But in media’s dark age how can anyone
be free?

“Never before in history has there been such
domination of people’s minds by the mass media.
Never before in history has thee been such a
concentration and centralization of media, capital,
and of military power in the hands of so few
people. All the countries that form the group of
seven (in the North) control almost all the
technological, economic, media, information and
military power.”

SARA FLOUNDERS ON THE ACHILLES HEEL OF MEDIA POWER:
LOSS OF CREDIBILITY: “The more absolutely
controlled and homogenized news and information
becomes the more it lacks credibility--and the more
vulnerable it is to the truth. A generation ago in
the U.S. the average person accepted or believed
what governmental officials said and what they
heard on the news.

“Now the distrust of the media goes even deeper than
the alienation from government. Today the average
person knows that the politicians lie. They lie
about their personal lives and sexual affairs, of
course. They lie about taxes and finances and they
lie about reasons for going to war. This distrust
is reflected first in apathy and alienation…

“Consider the response on issues of U.S. military
action. Historically, war is one issue where every
strata and class in society is aroused, apprehensive
and has an opinion… Wild claims of self-defense or
demonizing an opponent are hardly new tactics in the
annals of war. Great wars of conquest and plunder
have always been masked by noble appeals…

“During the 40 days of bombings when more than
110,000 aerial sorties were flown against Iraq,
under a 24-hour- a-day media barrage calling on the
public to ‘support our troops,’ approval ratings of
President Bush and the war reached 80%. But the
support was shallow and short- lived. Six months
later this approval rating for President Bush had
plummeted to 30%. It takes greater hype and in
heavier doses to achieve even temporary support.”

“War, Lies & Videotape: How media monopoly stifles
truth” is 280 pages, fully indexed, for $15.95. You
can either order it now, on-line, with your credit
card at www.leftbooks.com for 15% off or you can
send a check to the International Action Center for
$15.95 plus $4 shipping. This book is now in stock.
Buy it for a friend; use it in a discussion group,
or as a textbook. Help circulate the truth about
the corporate control of the media. And help to
support the International Action Center as it
continues uncompromising leadership against U.S.
interventions and militarism.

===

´L?écran-témoin'

Guerre 40-45, Irak, Kosovo: secrets et mensonges. Débat avec Eric
Laurent, (écrivain), Francis Balace (historien) et
Michel Collon (journaliste à Solidaire). RTBF, lundi 31 janvier, 20h10.

Une vidéo comme contrepoison
de la propagande Otan

´Sous les bombes de l?Otan.' Ce documentaire de Michel Collon et Regards
Croisés montre la face cachée de la guerre en
Yougoslavie. Les images ont été prises lors d?un voyage effectué par le
journaliste et quatorze autres Belges en mai 1999.
La vidéo dévoile aussi la stratégie de l?Otan, les intérêts stratégiques
du Caucase et la manière dont l?organisation
atlantique entend contrôler les réserves de pétrole.

t Vidéo de 45 minutes, 400 F. A verser au compte 001-3178376-53 de Fonds
de soutien tiers monde, communication
?vidéo Yougo?. Ou à la LAI, tél. 02/513.53.86, fax 02/51398.31.

http://www.ptb.be/forms/yougoform.htm

===

Succumbing to Albright -
EURO HUMANITARIANS EXTEND SANCTIONS WHILE SERBIAN NEIGHBORS FREEZE
by Diana Johnstone www.emperors-clothes.com

"BELGRADE - (Reuters) Snow-bound Serbia introduced on Tuesday sporadic
power
cuts and urged the nation to cut energy consumption to avoid a collapse
of
its strained grid as outside temperatures sank to -20 degrees Celsius.
The
freezing spell came only two days after blizzards swept across the
country
blocking roads and cutting off many villages." (Reuters 1/25/00)

On January 25, in the first month of this new humanitarian millenium,
the
inhabitants of Serbia were snowbound and freezing after blizzards swept
the
country and temperatures plunged to minus 20 degrees Celsius. Serbia's
power
grid, one third destroyed or damaged by NATO's bombing campaign, was
unable
to meet the demand for domestic heating. Repeated two-hour power cuts
were
introduced to prevent breakdown. The situation was reportedly critical
in the
central Serbian towns of Kraljevo and Kragujevac, once the site of
Yugoslavia's proud modern automobile industry, wiped out by NATO bombs,
leaving the population jobless and destitute. "There are no fuel
reserves. We
can only pray the skies have mercy on us", a senior Serbian oil company
executive told Reuters news agency. Meanwhile, nearby, on earth, mercy
was
not on the agenda. On the very same day that temperatures were plunging
to
record lows in Serbia, European Union foreign ministers met in Brussels
to
decide whether to agree to a partial lifting of the sanctions, as
requested
by Italy, Germany, France and Greece. This could have allowed export to
Serbia of such necessities as heating oil, medicines and items needed to
repair vital civilian infrastructure. Most of the Europeans also wanted
to
end the ban on airline flights to Belgrade. But not all the Europeans
let
sentimental humanitarian considerations interfere with the humanitarian
necessity of keeping up the torture of the Yugoslav people. Having still
failed to practice democracy as dictated by Washington and London, the
Serbs
clearly require more lessons. The United States' most faithful European
followers, Britain and the Netherlands, kept a stiff upper lip and
vetoed the
soft-hearted proposal of their EU partners to ease sanctions. "The
sanctions
will continue", the Foreign Office declared. "We believe that there will
be
no peace in the region so long as Milosevic is still President." As for
"peace in the region", in recent days there have been mounting reports
of
armed ethnic Albanian incursions across the border from Kosovo into
Southern
Serbia. On January 18, the Muslim principal of the Muhovac village
elementary
school, near the city of Vranje in Southeastern Serbia, was assassinated
in a
hail of machinegun fire. The educator, Chemalj Mustafi, was vice
president of
the local branch of the Socialist Party of Serbia (Milosevic' party).
There
were other reports of mortars fired at police posts. The Kosovo
Liberation
Army, like other Albanian nationalists, demand the inclusion of more
parts of
Southern Serbia as well as Kosovo into a future Greater Albania.

######################################################

The independent Italian left daily newspaper "Il Manifesto" published
the
following comment on January 27, 2000:

TO DIE OF EMBARGO by Loris Campetti (Excerpts)

After the first undeclared war against the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia,
NATO with the support of the European Union and thus of Italy has
initiated a
second war, this time declared. The old peple and the children who are
dying
of cold and sickness only a short distance from our homes are not
victims of
the harshest of Balkan winters -- it is we in the West who are killing
them
with the embargo. Try to imagine what it means for a citizen of Belgrade
to
spend the night at 14 degrees below zero without heating because the
sanctions prevent deliveries of fuel oil, without light because the
electric
power plants were bombed and are still closed for lack of fuel, without
medicine because Serbia is the evil empire and its inhabitants are
demons,
their sin is deadly and deadly must be the punishment...

Serbia's roads are covered with three feet of snow, the means of
transport
are stuck in depots, stations, airports. The schools are closed. In your
opinion, how do they feel, those hundreds of thousands of Serbs and Roma
driven out of Kosovo for being Serbs or Roma, who have disappeared into
freezing refugee camps in Serbia, huddled under plastic tents or in
bombed-out factories. [...] Italy is not happy with this, but perfidious
Albion pounded its shoe on the table and then what are you to do?
patience,
and wait till the next time. The Italians are so sensitive that they
would
have liked to come to the aid of some Serbs, at least those who live in
cities administrated by the opposition (they others can be patient), but
the
English didn't want to. What can you do? patience, wait till next time.
Let's
put ourselves in the place of those old people and those children
abandoned
at 15 or 20 degrees below zero for whom there will not be a next time.
What
we are saying is that patience is at an end, and ours as well. We want
to say
to the knights of humanitarian intervention...humanitarian intervention,
today, means saving the Serbian people and the Roma people. And what
about
you, Mr. Dini?

[ Note: Lamberto Dini is Italian foreign minister. ]

***

For other articles by Diana Johnstone, please click on Articles by
Author or
go to http://emperors-clothes.com/artbyauth.html then click on "J".

To browse articles at emperors-clothes, go to www.tenc.net

For a report on how NATO forces under the command of the Dutch
government,
with which the U.S. is closely allied, treat people in occupied Kosovo,
http://emperors-clothes.com/misc/savethe.htm

NOTE: Russia has been sending fuel through Hungary. Under U.S. pressure,
the
Hungarian government has demanded Yugoslavia pay millions of dollars in
fees,
money it does not have due to the effect of the sanctions, or Hungary
will
stop transmitting Russian fuel at the end of this month.

Does the U.S. government want the world for its Empire? If not, what is
the
crime the Yugoslavs have committed, to be bombed, driven from Kosovo,
deprived of heat during winter? Is the crime of this small, brave
country,
that it refuses to crumble, to be defeated? Perhaps by not accepting
American
diktat, Yugoslavia is setting an example for all who value human
freedom, an
example that has already inspired others to resist Imperial domination.
-
Jared Israel.

===

STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG

In Defense of Marxism
January 25, 2000
British TV documentary exposes NATO lies about Kosovo
During the NATO bombings in Serbia and Kosovo the propaganda machine of
the media in the West, with a few noble exceptions, obediently put
forward the line that it was necessary to concentrate the armed might of
the nineteen most powerful nations of the world, in order to stop the
"ethnic cleansing" of the Kosovar Albanians. All the news was aimed at
justifying everything NATO was doing.
At the time we published a series of articles explaining the real
reasons for the bombing: to impose the strategic interests of Western
imperialism on the Balkans. When we wrote these articles we were "going
against the stream", especially in countries like Britain where the
barrage of propaganda was enormous. Many honest workers and youth may
have been taken in by this propaganda and may even object to us calling
it "propaganda", but propaganda it was, nevertheless.
On 16th January ITV (a British TV channel) broadcast a documentary by
Jonathan Dimbleby which confirms everything we said throughout the
bombing campaign. It is a pity it was shown late on a Sunday evening, so
we think it worthwhile to highlight the most significant parts of the
programme and to quote at length from Dimbleby himself.
His mission was to "find out if there really was a victory in Kosovo,
whether good did triumph over evil." Dimbleby shows how, in reality, the
bombing destroyed the basic infrastructures that make for a civilised
existence, both for the Albanians and the Serbs.
He describes K-for (the UN troops) as the "military wing of a colonial
governor, better known as the Security Council of the United Nations,"
and shows how it is only the presence of 50,000 NATO and UN troops from
23 different countries that is preventing a new explosion of violence.
NATO lies exposed
The most interesting parts of the documentary are those where Dimbleby
exposes the lies of NATO. We all remember how we were led to believe
that possibly hundreds of thousands of Kosovar Albanians had been
massacred by the Serb forces. In one scene we see corpses of those
killed being dug out, and Dimbleby's comment is, "In the early days of
the war, as if to justify the bombing of Belgrade, NATO fuelled
speculation that the massacres in Kosovo had been apocalyptic in scale.
But the evidence so far, with just over 2000 bodies recovered, suggests
that the final toll will be far lower than some of the wilder claims
fostered by war time propaganda."
Of course even the killing of one innocent civilian is unjustified, but
as he points out, "by comparison with atrocities committed elsewhere in
the world, the Kosovo killings, though dreadful, were clearly on a
modest scale, and, for me at least, a dubious pretext for turning most
of this region into rubble." As he points out the message that had to be
got across was: "Something must be done. Do it now!"
The Rambouillet provocation
He explains how the so-called Rambouillet Accords were worded in such a
way that no country could have accepted them. He says that at
Rambouillet, NATO delivered a "take it or leave it ultimatum" which
involved autonomy for Kosovo and a referendum three years later on
self-determination, a chance for the Albanians of Kosovo to achieve
outright independence.
But, he adds, "Any lingering chance of a deal finally collapsed when the
allies inserted a last minute clause into the Rambouillet Accords giving
NATO freedom of movement not only in Kosovo but throughout Serbia, and
complete immunity from all Yugoslav law. Serbia rejected NATO's
ultimatum as a gross violation of national sovereignty, well aware that
this would mean war."
And what about the argument, pushed so vehemently by NATO spokespersons
at the time, that it was all necessary to save lives? Dimbleby explains
that, "NATO had no mandate from the UN, a violation of international
law, which the allies justified by claiming that the purpose of the
campaign was to avert a humanitarian disaster. But so far from being
averted, the disaster was compounded. As NATO intensified its onslaught
against Serbia, Milosevic accelerated the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
This was the very opposite of what the bombing was supposed to
achieve... NATO had expected Milosevic to crumble under the aerial
onslaught. He didn't."
Dimbleby admits what we pointed out at the time. It was only thanks to
the Russian intervention that a deal was brokered. He also shows that
the withdrawal of Serb troops "was very far from that rabble which NATO
spin doctors had predicted." He also explains that Milosevic withdrew
his troops only after having "extracted two remarkable concessions":
NATO no longer insisted on the right to enter Serbia "at will", but it
also revoked the promise of a referendum on independence and confirmed
that Kosovo would remain a "constituent part of the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia".
Couldn't all this have been averted?
It is on this question that Dimbleby makes the most significant
statement of his documentary: "It was a remarkable outcome, and it
surely isn't unreasonable to ask what might have happened if the same
terms had been on offer before the war as after it. If NATO had not
insisted on freedom of movement throughout Serbia, and if Milosevic had
been told that an autonomous Kosovo would remain within the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia, might we have avoided all that misery, bloodshed
and destruction?"
And what about a "democratic" and "multiethnic Kosovo"? He asks the
question if Kosovo is "free" and his answer is that it clearly is not.
He visits Pristina and finds that ethnic cleansing of the Serb minority
has taken place and continues to take place on a massive scale. He
visits a hospital and finds that not only are the staff totally
Albanian, but there are also no Serb patients to be found anywhere! The
Serb population is too frightened of going to the hospital. They are
terrified of KLA intimidation. In fact those among the staff who would
be prepared to treat Serbs would be risking their lives at the hands of
the KLA.
Now the Serbs are being "ethnically cleansed"
Dimbleby goes on to explain that, "Since the end of the war there has
been ethnic cleansing in Kosovo on a monstrous scale, an outrage which
K-for failed to arrest, that the leaders of NATO's moral crusade have
ignored, and from which the Western media, for the most part, has
averted its gaze." He points out that 150,000 Serbs, 75% of the original
population, have been "cleansed". The rest live in enclaves, in theory
"protected" by K-for troops. As he says, K-for is, in reality, paralysed
and cannot stop the rape, murder and pillage. One Serb woman is shown
preparing to leave the house she had lived in for forty years, and she
expresses her anger at the West: "The world doesn't care about us!"
The aim of the UN had been to create a local police force, made up of
both Albanians and Serbs, but that is impossible in the given
conditions. At the same time, as a British Army officer explains, the
risk is that the Albanians begin to see NATO as the enemy! The Albanians
want independence, but NATO is not going to let them have it, (as we
explained in several articles at the time).
A colonial dictatorship
So what is the real role of NATO in Kosovo? Dimbleby confirms what we
always maintained, when he says that, "Instead of a government, there's
K-for and the UN. In effect, a colonial dictatorship, an administration
which is benevolent, but also invested with absolute power..." On the
"benevolence" of a force that killed some 2,000 civilians we would have
some doubts! But in the essentials what he says is absolutely true: what
we have in Kosovo is a dictatorship, a NATO protectorate, whose aim is
to defend the strategic interests of western imperialism. It is not
there to defend the interests of the ordinary people, the Serb and
Albanian workers and peasants.
The KLA have not disarmed. Only a tiny fraction of their arms have been
handed in and NATO is powerless to find all the remaining armoury. The
nationalists on both sides have committed terrible crimes against the
peoples of Kosovo. This has created mutual hatred on both sides.
At the end of the documentary Dimbleby seems to have no hope for Kosovo.
He says, "For me there has been no victory of good over evil here, and
so far there is very little to celebrate... Anyone who thinks that this
venture represents the triumph of an ethical foreign policy, or is the
blueprint for a new world order should, I believe, think again. As it
is, we, that is the Western allies, are here for a very long time to
come."
Dimbleby has all the shortcomings of a liberal bourgeois news reporter.
He cannot see the underlying causes of the conflict. But he at least
exposes a lot of the spin we had to endure during the bombing campaign.
He points to the truth. Of course all this is shown late on a Sunday
evening months after the events. When it really counted, the evening
news bombarded us with propaganda, but at least we can use this
documentary to show that the Marxists had the courage to tell the truth
in the heat of the bombing campaign, when it really counted.
We must also go beyond simply denouncing the lies of NATO. We must offer
an alternative to the peoples of the Balkans. That can only be achieved
on the basis of a struggle to unite the workers of different
nationalities in a common struggle against the real enemies, the
capitalists, the Mafia and the ex-Stalinist bureaucrats, who are all
responsible, who have all played the nationalist card to divide the
workers along ethnic lines, in order to more easily remain in power. But
for this we suggest you read, or re-read the material we published
during the bombing campaign itself.
by Fred Weston,
London, 25th January 2000

===
FAIR-L
Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and news reports

ACTION ALERT:
Washington Post a "Useful Tool" for NATO?
Paper's coverage distorts facts about Kosovo war crimes

Jan. 28, 2000

When a group of prominent international legal scholars filed a war
crimes
complaint against NATO for its actions in Yugoslavia, the Washington
Post's
coverage (1/20/00) was dismissive--demonstrating a poor grasp of
international law and the war in Yugoslavia, and relying on an "expert"
with
a blatant and unmentioned conflict of interest.

The scholars, led by Professor Michael Mandel of York University in
Toronto,
sent a detailed legal brief to the U.N.-sponsored International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), arguing that NATO leaders
committed serious violations of international law during the 78-day
bombing
campaign against Yugoslavia last year.

The Post article, by Paris correspondent Charles Trueheart, curtly
dismissed
the legal case against NATO: "Most legal scholars say the professors
have a
pretty weak case, noting that accidental civilian deaths caused by NATO
bombs fail to meet the commonly accepted standard for war crimes. Even
so,
the legal campaign against the Western alliance has taken on a life of
its
own." The piece goes on to claim that "even the Tribunal's most ardent
champions in the human rights community and elsewhere are worried that
the
case may have damaged its reputation through an exercise in dangerous
relativism."

Yet only one such "legal scholar" or member of the "human rights
community"
is quoted by Trueheart: Professor Paul Williams of American University,
who
is identified simply as a "war crimes expert." Nowhere in the article is
it
disclosed that Williams, a former State Department lawyer, is currently
a
paid lobbyist for the "provisional government of Kosovo" in Washington.

There's no evidence in Trueheart's article that he made a genuine effort
to
determine whether, in fact, other jurists or human rights experts
support
Mandel's view that NATO violated international law during its Kosovo
campaign. Trueheart could have examined Human Rights Watch's recent
announcement that that it will send detailed reports to the Tribunal
arguing
that NATO's target selections were "disproportionate and should be found
violations of international humanitarian law." (London Guardian, 1/7/00)

Trueheart might also have noted that no less a "champion" of the
Tribunal
than its former President and presiding judge, Antonio Cassese, has
expressed the view (European Journal of International Law, #1/99) that
NATO
violated the United Nations Charter by attacking Yugoslavia without a
mandate from the U.N. Security Council: "The breach of the United
Nations
Charter occurring in this instance cannot be termed minor. The action of
NATO countries radically departs from the Charter system for collective
security." (Cassese did add that in his view a moral case could be made
for
NATO's intervention.)

In fact, judging by Trueheart's assertions--"accidental civilian deaths
caused by NATO bombs fail to meet the commonly accepted standard for war
crimes"--he appears to be ignorant of either the nature of NATO's
attacks on
Yugoslavia or of the Geneva Convention statutes which make up the
"commonly
accepted standard for war crimes." This unfamiliarity is disturbing,
since
Trueheart regularly covers the ICTY for the Post.

The Geneva Conventions would not hold a bomber pilot criminally liable
if a
missile aimed at a military installation--say, an anti-aircraft gun or a
munitions storage facility--drifted off-course and accidentally struck a
village populated by civilians. Such accidents are not war crimes. In
their
complaint, Mandel and his colleagues do not cite such accidents as
violations of the Geneva statutes. They point to other strikes that were
deliberate attacks on civilian targets.

Ironically, some of the clearest evidence that some NATO strikes
seriously
breached the Geneva Conventions can be found in the Washington Post's
own
reporting. For example, a front-page article last year by military
reporter
Dana Priest ("Bombing by Committee: France Balked at NATO Targets,"
9/20/99)
recounted the decision-making processes behind several NATO targeting
decisions. According to Priest, at one point, British "Foreign Secretary
Robin Cook questioned strikes on power lines affecting a large hospital
in
Belgrade. But the group brought him around."

In another episode, shortly before a planned missile strike on the
headquarters of Milosevic's ruling Socialist Party--which was located in
a
residential neighborhood of Belgrade--an internal memo assessing the
likely
civilian destruction was distributed among NATO leaders:

"Next to a photograph of the party headquarters, the document said:
'Collateral damage: Tier 3 -- High. Casualty Estimate: 50-100
Government/Party employees. Unintended Civ Casualty Est: 250 -- Apts in
expected blast radius.'

"In short, NATO anticipated that the attack could, in the worst case,
kill
up to 350 people, including 250 civilians living in nearby apartment
buildings.

"Washington and London approved the target, but the French were
reluctant,
noting that the party headquarters also housed Yugoslav television and
radio
studios. 'In some societies, the idea of killing journalists--well, we
were
very nervous about that,' said a French diplomat."

Ultimately, Paris went along. But in going ahead with the attack, NATO
appears to have directly breached Article 51 of the Geneva Convention
(Protocol I), which prohibits any
"attack which may be expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life,
injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination
thereof,
which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military
advantage anticipated."

The Socialist Party building was itself a civilian facility located
hundreds
of miles from the site of any military conflict. Asked by a reporter at
the
next day's press briefing what military rationale lay behind the party
headquarters strike, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea could not name any
specific
military function. Instead, he declared that NATO considered "any aspect
of
the power structure" in Yugoslavia to be a legitimate target, adding
that
the party headquarters building "contains the propaganda machinery...of
the
ruling Socialist Party."

The reluctance expressed by British and French diplomats over these
strikes
apparently stemmed from their concern that the raids in question might
represent violations of the Geneva Conventions--or at least that they
would
be perceived as such. In fact, NATO leaders repeatedly admitted that
their
strategy in attacking civilian targets was to terrorize the population
in
the hope that the Serbian public would turn against its government and
pressure Milosevic to capitulate. In a May 24 interview with the
Washington
Post, U.S. Air Force Lt.-Gen. Michael Short explained the strategy:

"If you wake up in the morning and you have no power to your house and
no
gas to your stove and the bridge you take to work is down and will be
lying
in the Danube for the next 20 years, I think you begin to ask, 'Hey,
Slobo,
what's this all about? How much more of this do we have to withstand?'
And
at some point, you make the transition from applauding Serb machismo
against
the world to thinking what your country is going to look like if this
continues."

Short's rather bowlderized list of examples of civilian destruction in
Serbia does not fully explain the strategy: As the memorandum published
by
the Post showed, NATO expected its attack on Socialist Party
headquarters to
kill up to 250 neighboring residents as they slept.

In an another instance, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea declared : "If
President
Milosevic really wants all of his population to have water and
electricity,
all he has to do is accept NATO's five conditions and we will stop this
campaign." Statements like these have led Human Rights Watch executive
director Kenneth Roth to declare (Letters, London Guardian, 1/12/00) his
group's concern that

"NATO bombed the civilian infrastructure not because it was making a
significant contribution to the Yugoslav military effort but because its
destruction would squeeze Serb civilians to put pressure on Milosevic to
withdraw from Kosovo. Using military force in this fashion against
civilians
would violate the 'principle of distinction' -- a fundamental principle
of
international humanitarian law -- which requires military force to be
used
only against military targets, not against civilians or civilian
objects."

But if Trueheart and the Post appear uninterested in examining whether
NATO
violated international law during its Kosovo campaign, that does not
mean
they are uninterested in the subject of war crimes. In fact, the Post
considers the Tribunal's activities to be major news when they are
directed
against NATO's enemies.

When the Tribunal handed down its indictment of Slobodan Milosevic last
May,
Trueheart's article ran on the front page. Since then, the Post has used
the
phrase "indicted war criminal" to describe Milosevic an average of about
once a month. Yet the Post has made no serious attempt to evaluate
whether
our own government violated the laws of war in its air campaign last
year.

When the Tribunal was first established, American policymakers hoped
that
just such a double standard would prevail in media coverage. As Michael
Scharf, the State Department envoy who dealt with the Tribunal when it
was
created, wrote in the Washington Post (10/3/99) :

"America's chief Balkans negotiator at the time, Richard Holbrooke, has
acknowledged that the tribunal was widely perceived within the
government as
little more than a public relations device and as a potentially useful
policy tool.... Indictments also would serve to isolate offending
leaders
diplomatically, strengthen the hand of their domestic rivals and fortify
the
international political will to employ economic sanctions or use
force....
Indeed [the Milosevic indictment] became a useful tool in their [U.S.
and
Britain's] efforts to demonize the Serbian leader and maintain public
support for NATO's bombing campaign."

It's bad enough that the international war crimes tribunal--much of
whose
funding comes directly from the U.S., in violation of the tribunal's own
statutes (New York Press, 1/26/00)--can be described as a "useful tool"
of
Washington's foreign policy. The Washington Post should not serve the
same
function.

ACTION: Please encourage the Washington Post to fully and fairly cover
allegations of NATO war crimes.

Contact:
Robert McCartney, Foreign Editor
mailto:foreign@...

[This alert is posted on the FAIR website:
http://www.fair.org/reports/post-war-crimes.html%5d



----------


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===

STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG

Kosovo, close to being a Mafia state, is littered with unexploded bombs.
That`s the result of ethical Blairism
New Statesman (UK)
John Pilger
24th January 2000
The Blair government`s resumption of arms sales to Indonesia ends an
unreported hoax. The four- month "ban" supposedly in re-sponse to the
renewed repression in East Timor, was hardly a ban at all. Licences were
merely extended, so that no future business would be lost, and
parliament and the public were not told. Now, with 170,000 East Timorese
held hostage by the Indonesian military in camps in West Timor and
British-supplied Saladin armoured cars used in attacks on civilians
elsewhere in Indonesia, the military dictatorship that still runs the
country (regardless of its democratic trappings) will be encouraged in
its campaign against the popular resistance.
At the same time, the ethical Blairites are eager to resume arms sales
to the Pakistani military dictatorship, which three months ago crushed
an elected government.
Pakistan`s appalling human-right record makes a grim joke of the
European code of conduct on arms sales, adopted when Britain held the EU
presidency. This is unsurprising; British arms exports have long gone to
regimes with appalling human-rights records.
The ethical Blairites, however, add another dimension. Consider the
legacy of their "new moral crusade" in Kosovo last spring. Clare Short,
an avid crusader, said then "Nato is not killing civilians. The very
carefulness of our operations is to ensure that there is minimum damage
to civilians". This was manifestly false. Several thousand civilians
were killed and thousand more maimed many by cluster bombs which are, in
effect, air-dropped time-activated landmines. Those that did not explode
immediately now lie in wait for unsuspecting civilians, often children,
who pick them up; on detonation, they release dozens of "bomblets" that
cause horrific injuries.
I saw something of the human carnage they caused in Indochina following
the American bombing; 30 years later, they are still killing and
injuring. Not long ago, in tiny Laos, the British Mines Advisory Group
found 700 unexploded bomblets in one school playground. According to the
Asia correspondent of the Wall Street Journal, cluster bombs have given
Laos "an annual nationwide casualty rate of 20.000 more than half of
them deaths".
For Laos, now read Kosovo. Last April, Paul Watson of the Los Angeles
Times, who distiguished himself by remaining in Kosovo during the NATO
bombing, reported that cluster bombs had turned "parts of the province
into no-man`s land" which was "littered" with unexploded bomblets. At
Pristina Hospital, he witnessed the "horrific wounds" of Albanian
children, caused by delayed-action clusters. (It was Watson who
memorably wrote: Even in Kosovo, I couldn`t escape the sound of (Nato
spokesman Jamie) Shea`s voice… it haunted me at the strangest times,
denying things that I knew to be true, insisting on others that I had
seen were false").
With Robert Fisk`s reporting, Watson`s witness to the carnage caused by
Nato was rare. This was not so much a reporters` war as one dominated by
drum-beating lifestyle columnists who never acknowledged that British
pilots were using terror weapons against civilians, sowing Kosovo with
harvest of death and suffering that was in explicit violation of the
Ottowa Convention, which prohibits the production and use of
anti-personnel mines. Subsequent scrutiny of ministry of Defence
statistics reveals that, contrary to Clare Short`s fiction of
"carefulness" more than 75 per cent of bombs dropped by the RAF were
free-fall, including the 78,057 cluster bomblets released.
"It would be wrong to assume" said Blair last April, "that bombs and
missiles that miss their target necessarily cause collateral damage."
Read again that statement and you get a sense of the craven sophistry
with which respectable regimes cover their crimes. Blair is afraid of
the truth getting out and his ministers blocked disclosure of the
percentage of British bombs and missiles that "went astray" in Kosovo.
They justify this recourse to the Code of Practice on Access to
Government Information, a decree of state secrecy that no Soviet-era
apparatchik could better.
The ethical Blairites claim they did not use depleted uranium in Kosovo,
as John Major did in Iraq. Can se believe that? Their co-crusaders, the
Americans, used it. The physicist and chemist Professor Hari Sharma, a
world authority on depleted uranium, says: "The danger is equal to that
of a long-term weapon of mass destruction. The inhalation of even the
smallest dust particle may cause irreparable cell damage in unprotected
people, resulting in a cancer epidemic that over time could kill
thousands of the exposed" - in other words, the very people Blair
claimed to be liberating.
Also unreported is the installation in Kosovo of paramilitary regime
with links to organised crime. Indeed, Kosovo may become the world`s
first Mafia state. As they oversee the ethnic cleansing of 240,000 Serb
and Roma civilians Nato and its United Nations partners have established
a "working relationship" with the Kosovo Liberation Army, which Robin
Cook and Madeleine Albright once dismissed as a terrorist group. Much of
the KLA is criminalised, with war criminals. common murderers and drug
traders forming an "interim administration" that will implement the
"free-market reforms" required by the US and Europe. Their supervisors
are the World Bank and the European Development Bank, whose aim is to
ensure that western mining, petroleum and construction companies share
the booty of Kosovo`s extensive natural resources: a fitting finale to
the new moral crusade. Watch for others.


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
------------------------------------------------------------

"Il manifesto" del 21 Gennaio 2000:

GUERRA DELLA NATO
TROVATE IN ADRIATICO ALTRE CLUSTER BOMB

Negli ultimi giorni altri ordigni sganciati dai bombardieri Nato durante
la
guerra contro la Jugoslavia sono incappati nelle reti di due pescherecci
di
Caorle. A seguito di questo ritrovamento il ministro per l'Agricoltura
Paolo De Castro ha convocato per il 27 gennaio l'apposita Unità di
crisi,
istituita presso la Presidenza del consiglio. Sette mesi sono passati
dalla
fine della guerra, ma continuano a mancare le condizioni di sicurezza
per
la piena ripresa della pesca in Adriatico. E proprio in assenza di tali
garanzie, dallo scorso 21 novembre è stata decretata l'istituzione al
largo
delle coste romagnole di due nuove zone di "tutela biologica",
off-limits
per la pesca.

---

"Il manifesto" del 25 Gennaio 2000:

DOPOGUERRA
Cluster bomb, ancora allarme in Adriatico

- FRANCESCA LONGO - TRIESTE

S ia Lega Pesca che i comuni dell'alto Adriatico, e in particolare
quello
di Caorle, s'attendono molto dalla convocazione, giovedì prossimo,
dell'apposita Unità di crisi interministeriale istituita presso la
presidenza del Consiglio e voluta dal ministro per le politiche agricole
e
forestali, Paolo De Castro. Il ritrovamento, lo scorso giovedì, di un
ordigno della seconda guerra mondiale e di cluster bomb (neanche poche,
se
si pensa che il peschereccio "Vento dell'est" ne avrebbe ripescate
parecchie decine) ha messo in chiaro che l'allarme bombe seguito
all'aggressione Nato alla Jugoslavia è ancora tragicamente d'attualità.

Spiega il sindaco di Caorle, Luigino Moro: "Non ho motivo di mettere in
dubbio le assicurazioni che con il sindaco di Chioggia abbiamo avuto a
suo
tempo dal ministro della difesa e dal presidente del consiglio, sulla
bonifica delle aree di rilascio segnalate dagli Stati Uniti. Ma
evidentemente, le mappe fornite dalla Nato devono essere state
incomplete".
"Di fatto - prosegue - la bonifica la stanno facendo i pescatori".

Il sito in cui due pescherecci hanno rinvenuto gli ordigni, non pare
essere
compreso tra quelli indicati. Né le bombe possono esser state spostate
dalle maree. "Nei giorni precedenti al ritrovamento, si pescava in una
zona
molto vicina e nessuno ha rinvenuto bomblet. Data la conformazione dei
fondali e il movimento delle correnti, quelle bombe si possono
"spostare"
solo con la pesca a strascico. Deduco quindi che la mappatura dei luoghi
di
rilascio sia incompleta". Moro non è allarmista, tutt'altro: "Oggi i
pescatori sono in allerta, conoscono bene il decalogo divulgato dalle
capitanerie di porto e applicano alla lettera le disposizioni -
aggiunge.
Ma non è pensabile che assolvano a un ruolo che non spetta loro, compito
che, finché c'è attenzione e tensione, limita i pericoli. Se la
situazione
dovesse essere dimenticata, senza una bonifica accurata di tutte le
aree,
allora sì che la faccenda si aggraverebbe". Nessun problema per il
turismo
("A riva le bombe non arrivano"), caso mai viva preoccupazione per
l'ambiente marino. "Mi auguro non si provveda a far brillare gli ordigni
in
mare - conclude il sindaco - perché i fondali ne risenterebbero". E
sottolinea che le speranze di tutti sono concentrate nell'incontro di
giovedì, a cui ha chiesto di poter partecipare.

"La decisione di convocare l'Unità di crisi - fa eco Ettore Ianì,
presidente della Lega pesca - risponde alle preoccupazioni e alle
istanze
più volte espresse dalla nostra organizzazione in merito al ripristino
di
adeguate garanzie e condizioni di sicurezza per il lavoro di bordo alla
ripresa delle attività di pesca, dopo la conclusione del periodo di
fermo
bellico. Non dimentichiamo che proprio in assenza di tali garanzie,
dallo
scorso 21 ottobre, su sollecitazione della stessa Unità di crisi, è
stata
decretata l'istituzione - a largo delle coste emiliano-marchigiane - di
due
nuove zone, cosiddette "di tutela biologica", ad oggi ancora off-limits
per
la pesca". "Ci auguriamo - conclude Ianì - che la riunione del 27
gennaio
possa costituire l'occasione per fornire alle legittime richieste della
categoria le dovute certezze in merito alla sicurezza del lavoro in
mare,
alla durata del regime di interdizione nelle due zone di tutela, nonché
all'attuale stato di avanzamento delle operazioni di bonifica dei
fondali
in Adriatico".

---

"Il manifesto" del 29 Gennaio 2000:

CLUSTER BOMB
Quanto durerà la bonifica in Adriatico?

- FRANCESCA LONGO - TRIESTE

Ci sono ancora bombe, ma c'è anche un preciso impegno del ministro delle
politiche agricole e forestali, Paolo De Castro, a chiudere al più
presto
le operazioni di bonifica al fine di limitare il rischio per la pesca in
Adriatico. Il ministero, al termine della riunione dell'unità di crisi
del
27 gennaio, fa sapere che "a partire dall'ottobre '99, a seguito di
ulteriori rinvenimenti di ordigni da parte di pescherecci nell'alto e
medio
Adriatico, la Marina militare ha iniziato attività di ricerca anche al
di
fuori delle aree di sgancio, già oggetto di precedenti attività di
bonifica".

Tale attività ha permesso di individuare otto ordigni, di cui cinque
risalenti alla II guerra mondiale. Ciò non stupisca più di tanto: per
bonificare l'Italia dalle bombe di due conflitti mondiali si prevedono
ancora dieci anni di lavori, tra artificieri dell'esercito e una
speciale,
quanto sconosciuta, organizzazione di volontariato di civili - circa 70
persone che effettuano una media di più di duemila interventi all'anno.

"Le attività di ricerca, iniziate il 13 maggio '99 - sottolinea il
comunicato del ministero - proseguono con cinque unità cacciamine della
Marina militare permanentemente dislocate in Adriatico (...).
Relativamente
all'attività di pesca a strascico e sulla base degli elementi
disponibili
si ha motivo di ritenere che il livello di rischio sia analogo a quello
precedente la guerra in Kosovo, ma non si esclude la possibilità di
ulteriori rinvenimenti di ordigni nelle reti dei motopesca". Insomma, si
ammette implicitamente l'ipotesi che le indicazioni fornite dalla Nato
sui
luoghi di sgancio non siano state troppo precise e quindi si continuano
le
operazioni di ricerca e bonifica. E soprattutto si riaggiorna l'incontro
a
metà febbraio, per una progressiva valutazione della situazione.

"L'impegno che l'Unità di crisi dimostra nella gestione di questa nuova
emergenza - commenta Ettore Ianì, presidente di Lega Pesca - è
rassicurante. Ma è innegabile anche il perdurare di uno stato
d'incertezza,
che nessuno può sottovalutare".

"Ciò ci stimola a non abbassare la guardia - prosegue - per una piena
tutela e sicurezza dei nostri associati. E chiediamo con forza qual è la
reale situazione delle due zone di interdizione della pesca a strascico,
istituite ad ottobre e ancora vigenti a largo delle coste
marchigiano-romagnole e su cui la riunione non ha fornito significativi
elementi di novità".

Dopo aver sottolineato il senso di responsabilità che il movimento
cooperativo per la pesca ha manifestato durante la guerra e manifesta
ora
nel corso della bonifica, Ianì chiede di sapere "per quanto tempo ancora
sarà negato il diritto al lavoro, proprio in un momento, come quello
attuale, in cui le imprese si trovano schiacciate dalle pesanti
ripercussioni dei rincari del prezzo del gasolio per i motopescherecci".

--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
------------------------------------------------------------

GUINNESS DEI PRIMATI / 1.


Nel breve articolo "Il mare sotto Berlino", apparso su "Il Manifesto"
del 25/1 scorso, il professor ex-Predrag ex-Matvejevic riesce a
collezionare la bellezza di otto (8) autocitazioni:
1: "...ne ho parlato tanto nelle mie 'confessioni'..."
2: "Dovevo ribadire tante volte..."
3: "Ripetevo spesso..."
4: "L'ho gia' tentato ne 'Il Mondo ex', invano..."
5: "...tante domande particolari, di cui ho riempito tutto un
'Epistolario dell'Altra Europa'"
6: "L'avevo chiesto qualche anno fa in una lettera indirizzata a
Gorbaciov..."
7: "...ho coniato questa parola..."
8: "L'autore del 'Breviario Mediterraneo' osserva con tristezza..."
(riferendosi a se stesso in terza persona)


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
** NO COPYRIGHT ! **
------------------------------------------------------------

POLONIA: finalmente democrazia! Tagliati i fondi al giornale
indipendente "Rivista ecologista delle Brigate Verdi" per aver scritto
la verita' sulla guerra d'aggressione della NATO in Jugoslavia. Una
petizione da firmare.

UCRAINA: reportage speciale dell'International Action Center - con un
"colpo di Stato morbido" il presidente Kuchma, sostenuto dagli USA,
cerca di sbarazzarsi del Parlamento. Segue le orme di Eltsin?


> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 08:39:24 -0800
> From: Peter Bein <pbein@...>
> Reply-To: "STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN!" <STOPNATO@...>
> To: STOPNATO@..., Eternera@...
> Subject: Help Polish Green Brigades
>
> STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
>
> Friends, please sign the petition at
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/gbnfos.htm
>
> Background below. Thank you.
>
> Piotr Bein
> piotr.bein@...
>
> =================================================
> February 1, 2000
> Vancouver/Canada and Cracow/Poland
>
> Polish "Green Brigades" need help
> Grassroot publications denied government funding
>
> Withdrawing public funds from a country's leading independent magazine does
> not contribute to freedom of information. For publishing alternative
> information on NATO war in Yugoslavia, depleted uranium weapons, and the
> hypocrisy of some European Greens re human rights in Kosovo, the "Green
> Brigades Ecologist Magazine", a Polish environmental bi-weekly, received a
> death sentence from the government-run fund for the protection of the
> environment. Well-read "Dzikie Zycie", "Kropla" and many other small,
> independent publications shared a similar fate.
>
> Andrzej Zwawa, the chief editor of the Green Brigades Publishing House is
> trying to rescue the magazine, despite government decision. He issued a
> petition to the government in Polish and English, which supporters can sign
> on the Internet at http://www.most.org.pl/zb/gbnfos.htm.
>
> The punishment was dealt under the pretext of withdrawing funds from small
> publications. With a circulation of only 1,000 copies every 2 weeks, Polish
> "Green Brigades" serves as an information exchange forum for the country's
> environment and community movement, as well as the general public. The
> bi-weekly appears on the Internet, where it enjoys far greater readership.
> The staff, facilities and equipment are basic. Often 3-5 people work on
> less than adequate computers in a cramped space, equivalent to half the
> area of a plushy office in the government or its fund.
>
> All texts in "Green Brigades" come from volunteer authors, who are
> proponents and opponents of diverse religions, political and military
> alliances, organizations, ideas and worldviews. Although an unfair 1998
> article in respectable "Polityka" weekly unfairly labeled it "sectarian",
> the environmental bi-weekly remains one of Poland's few non-bigoted
> publications. Access to the records of the granting decision was denied,
> but well-informed sources maintain that the commission refused the funding
> because texts of "...anarchists, leftists, opponents of bombing of
> Yugoslavia by NATO..." have appeared in the condemned publications.
>
> The grassroots activists wonder how much influence sectarian hysteria
> exerts on the funding decisions. A recent book by two Catholic clergy,
> professors Slipko and Zwolinski, titled "Rozdroza ekologii" (cross-roads of
> ecology) manipulates original statements of environmentalists to make them
> look sectarian and dangerous to society. According to the professors in
> cassocks, vegetarianism is a religion, and Greenpeace "...have no idea what
> is really harmful and hazardous for the environment… while promoting
> technologies that are lethal for the environment." Using the book as court
> evidence, the mayor of Bielsko, the seat of "Dzikie Zycie", refused city
> funding for this publication.
>
> Zwawa's bi-weekly featured numerous authors from Western Europe and North
> America on topics ranging from deep ecology, through deforestation, organic
> farming, agrotourism and global climate change, to the use of depleted
> uranium weapons in Yugoslavia. "Green Brigades" held an interview with Niaz
> Dorry of Greenpeace USA, the 1998 "Time" magazine 'Hero of the Planet'. It
> also presented: the North American solar aquatic method of treating sewage;
> a community sustainability project downtown Vancouver, British Columbia;
> the controversy over Makah whale hunt off the coast of Washington state;
> the clear-cutting of old-growth rainforests in Canada; the risks from
> marine aquaculture and overfishing worldwide; the struggle of American
> Indians to retain their lands; the warming up of Alaska; and many other
> topics.
>
> The articles presented to the Polish reader international organizations,
> such as Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Norwegian
> Environmental Protection Agency, Sierra Club, Western Canada Wilderness
> Committee, Friends of Clayoquot Sound, Raincoast Conservation Society,
> Forest Action Network, People's Action for Threatened Habitat, Raging
> Grannies, Eco-Cafe, American Association for the Advancement of Science,
> Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Global Climate Coalition, US
> National Fisheries Service, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric
> Administration, Georgia Strait Alliance, Makah Tribal Council, Worldwatch
> Institute, International Whaling Commission, World Council of Whalers,
> Fisheries and Oceans Canada, American Ocean Campaign, Canadian Museum of
> Nature, Ocean Voice International, Harvard Medical School - Health and
> Global Environment Centre, Ecological Action Centre in Halifax, Hatfield
> Marine Sciences Centre, and many other.
>
> Sample articles (in Polish) can be viewed on the web at:
>
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/131/morze1.htm (marine life)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/131/morze2.htm (interview with Niaz Dorry)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/131/wieloryb.htm (whale hunts)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/133/nato.htm (NATO, militarism)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/133/prezenta.htm (European Union politics)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/133/nowoczes.htm (eco-philosophy)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/135 (eco-philosophy)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/139/military.htm (militarism)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/140/klimat.htm (climate change)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/141/euroscep.htm (European Union politics)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/141/dzikie.htm (deforestation)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/142/dzikie.htm (deforestation)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/143/military.htm (depleted uranium weapons)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/143/nato.htm (NATO controversy)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/144/nato.htm (European Greens and NATO)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/145/zwierze.htm#schronisko (animal rights)
>
>
> Contact information:
>
> Andrzej Zwawa, chief editor of "Zielone Brygady"
> Wydawnictwo "Zielone Brygady" (Green Brigades Publishing House)
> Slawkowska 12/24, PL 31-014 Kraków, Poland
> telephone: +4812 422 2147, or 422 2264, or 429 5332 extension 30
> fax: +4812 429 5332 extension 26 or 22
> SMS: 48603363721@...
> e-mail: zb@...
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb
>
> Piotr Bein, contributing author
> Vancouver, Canada
> telephone and fax: +604 228 9437
> e-mail: piotr.bein@...
>
> ______________________________________________________________________


INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER SPECIAL REPORT

IS US BEHIND 'QUIET COUP' IN UKRAINE?

Ramsey Clark, IAC Protest Move to Set Up Presidential Dictatorship

KIEV, Ukraine--US officials and Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma
are collaborating in an effort to break up Ukraine's parliament and
concentrate power in the president's hands, Ukrainian opposition
leaders told International Action Center representatives last week.
IAC members Larissa Kritskaya and Bill Doares were in Kiev to
attend a hearing of the International Peoples Tribunal on NATO War
Crimes in Yugoslavia (English translation; see accompanying
dispatch). It appears that Washington's goal is to bring Ukraine into
NATO and to smash parliamentary resistance to the privatization of
land and other measures demanded by the International Monetary
Fund.

This former Soviet republic now has two rival parliaments in the wake
of an attempt by Kuchma to illegally oust parliament speaker
Oleksandr Tkachenko and deputy speaker Adam Martynyuk. The
two have accused Kuchma of falsifying the results of last November's
presidential election. Their charges were borne out by European
Union electoral observers.

GORE AND KUCHMA--PARTNERS IN CRIME The regime's
action came on the heels of a private meeting in Washington between
Kuchma and US vice president Al Gore. Kuchma was first elected in
1996 with considerable support from the CIA-linked Soros
Foundation.

To engineer Tkachenko and Martynyuk's removal, rightwing
Verkhovnye Rada (parliament) deputies and their allies held an
extralegal gathering in a nongovernment building Jan. 21 at the same
time as an official Rada session was in progress. The unconstitutional
gathering voted to oust Tkachenko and Martynyuk and replace them
with Kuchma allies and to abolish the basic democratic right of
parliamentary immunity. It also named a new head of the central bank.
Tkachenko and Martynyuk were not invited to the session or told of
the charges against them. The only record of the vote and attendance
at the rightwing gathering is the claims of its organizers. Previous
attempts to remove Tkachenko and Martynyuk by constitutional
means had failed.

As of this writing, Tkachenko is refusing to leave his office. His phone
and fax have been disconnected and state television is refusing to air
his statements. His official security has been removed and he is being
guarded by Communist, Socialist and Peasant Party deputies.
Tkachenko is a member of the Peasant Party and Martynyuk is in the
Communist Party. The confrontation may come to a head Feb. 1
when the Rada is scheduled to reconvene after winter recess.

"There has been considerable pressure to forcibly Westernize
Ukraine," speaker Tkachenko told the IAC. "The presidential election
was determined by force and now the president wants to use force
against parliament. He is trying to create an artificial majority in
order
to concentrate power in his hands. Our constitution has been violated
at every step."

Kuchma's ultimate aim is to abolish the existing single-chamber Rada
where many "reforms" demanded by US bankers and Kuchma's
wealthy allies have been blocked. He wants to replace it with a a
smaller, two-chamber body with an upper chamber comprising
regional governors appointed by himself. To achieve this, he has
ordered a "popular referendum" that will presumably be as controlled
as last year's presidential election.

WALL STREET RULES With nearly 50 million people, Ukraine is
the second-largest former Soviet republic. It was one of the USSR's
most productive agricultural and industrial regions. Today, like other
former Soviet republics, it has been devastated by "economic
restructuring" dictated by the International Monetary Fund. Since the
fall of the USSR, Ukraine's industrial production has dropped 70
percent. Its population has fallen by 2 million in just the past two
years. The old-age pension is $13 a month and millions of workers
are not being paid. While hunger stalks many regions, one-third of the
state budget goes in interest payments to Western banks. The
country's debt has risen 30 times since Kuchma took office in 1996.

The Kuchma regime has tried to create a fascist-like atmosphere by
exploiting divisions similar to those used to break up Yugoslavia. It
has whipped up Ukrainian nationalism on an anti-Russian basis (one-
quarter of the population is Russian). Soviet-era books have been
burned in public squares and opposition activists attacked by fascist
gangs. The regime's alleged nationalism does not stop Wall Street
from dictating its economic policy. It has agreed to raise food and fuel
prices, rents and gas and electricity rates on a schedule dictated by
the
International Monetary Fund.

"It is obvious that the United States has designed the Ukraine's
political landscape," Oleg Grachev, Kiev regional secretary of the
Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU), told Kritskaya and Doares.
"You cannot speak about injustice and electoral falsification in this
country without speaking of the domination of the International
Monetary Fund."

MARKED BALLOTS AND HAND GREANDES KPU general
secretary Petro Simonenko, who calls for Ukraine to withdraw from
the IMF, was the runner-up in November's presidential election. He
got an official 38 percent of the vote. The KPU brought evidence of
marked ballots, ballot-box stuffing and vote-buying to Ukraine's
criminal court but was told such matters were outside the court's
jurisdiction. In the first round of the presidential election,
Progressive
Socialist Party candidate Natalia Vitorienko, who also condemns the
IMF, was injured by a hand grenade tossed into a rally she was
addressing.

"Kuchma is trying to make a coup to gain absolute power," said
Ukraine Socialist Party leader Pavel Moroz. "He is acting on behalf of
powerful private groups that support him. Since Kuchma came to
office, Ukraine has gotten poorer but his friends have gotten rich.
They now want to get even richer by selling shares in land and
grabbing control of basic industries like steel, petrochemicals and even
oil and gas, which is now forbidden to be privatized."

On Jan. 29, workers across Ukraine marched to protest the IMF-
Kuchma program and to demand unpaid back wages. Jan. 29 is the
anniversary of the 1918 uprising by Kiev's Arsenal workers that was
drowned in blood by the Western-backed regime that then ruled
Ukraine. The opposition has called for mass demonstrations outside
parliament on Feb. 1 in support of Tkachenko and Martynyuk.

Former US attorney general and IAC founder Ramsey Clark sent
letters of protest to president Kuchma and the Rada.

An IAC statement said, "Like the war against Yugoslavia, the
attempted presidential coup in Ukraine is part of the NATO-Pentagon
drive to the east, which carries great danger for all humanity. The US
corporate media, which so obediently repeated Pentagon-State
Department lies about Kosovo, appears to have imposed an
information blockade on the events in Ukraine and US involvement
there. We must break that blockade. The democratic forces in
Ukraine deserve the support of antiwar and justice-loving people in
this country and around the world."

Letters of support can be faxed to Deputy V.N. Romashenko at 011
380 44 293 2792 or 011 380 44 229 7228.

---

February 1, 2000 UPDATE on

INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER SPECIAL REPORT:
IS US BEHIND 'QUIET COUP' IN UKRAINE?

February 1, 2000--As of this writing, Tkachenko is refusing to leave
his office. His phone and fax have been disconnected and state
television is refusing to air his statements. His official security has
been
removed and he is being guarded by Communist, Socialist and
Peasant Party deputies.

Tkachenko is a member of the Peasant Party and Martynyuk is in the
Communist Party. The rightwing pro-U.S. bloc is continuing to
boycott Rada meetings in an attempt to give Kuchma an excuse to
dissolve the body. On Feb. 1, thousands of pro-Tkachenko
demonstrators gathered outside the Rada building to show their
support for the sitting parliament. A reported 600 rightists gathered
outside Ukraine House, where the pro-IMF, pro-NATO bloc was
meeting.

INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER SPECIAL REPORT:
IS US BEHIND 'QUIET COUP' IN UKRAINE?
Ramsey Clark, IAC Protest Move to Set Up Presidential Dictatorship

January 30, 2000--KIEV, Ukraine--US officials and Ukrainian
president Leonid Kuchma are collaborating in an effort to break up
Ukraine's parliament and concentrate power in the president's hands,
Ukrainian opposition leaders told International Action Center
representatives last week. IAC members Larissa Kritskaya and Bill
Doares were in Kiev to attend a hearing of the International Peoples
Tribunal on NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia (English translation; see
accompanying dispatch). It appears that Washington's goal is to bring
Ukraine into NATO and to smash parliamentary resistance to the
privatization of land and other measures demanded by the
International Monetary Fund.

This former Soviet republic now has two rival parliaments in the wake
of an attempt by Kuchma to illegally oust parliament speaker
Oleksandr Tkachenko and deputy speaker Adam Martynyuk. The
two have accused Kuchma of falsifying the results of last November's
presidential election. Their charges were borne out by European
Union electoral observers.

GORE AND KUCHMA--PARTNERS IN CRIME The regime's
action came on the heels of a private meeting in Washington between
Kuchma and US vice president Al Gore. Kuchma was first elected in
1996 with considerable support from the CIA-linked Soros
Foundation.

To engineer Tkachenko and Martynyuk's removal, rightwing
Verkhovnye Rada (parliament) deputies and their allies held an
extralegal gathering in a nongovernment building Jan. 21 at the same
time as an official Rada session was in progress. The unconstitutional
gathering voted to oust Tkachenko and Martynyuk and replace them
with Kuchma allies and to abolish the basic democratic right of
parliamentary immunity. It also named a new head of the central bank.
Tkachenko and Martynyuk were not invited to the session or told of
the charges against them. The only record of the vote and attendance
at the rightwing gathering is the claims of its organizers. Previous
attempts to remove Tkachenko and Martynyuk by constitutional
means had failed.

As of this writing, Tkachenko is refusing to leave his office. His phone
and fax have been disconnected and state television is refusing to air
his statements. His official security has been removed and he is being
guarded by Communist, Socialist and Peasant Party deputies.
Tkachenko is a member of the Peasant Party and Martynyuk is in the
Communist Party. The confrontation may come to a head Feb. 1
when the Rada is scheduled to reconvene after winter recess.

"There has been considerable pressure to forcibly Westernize
Ukraine," speaker Tkachenko told the IAC. "The presidential election
was determined by force and now the president wants to use force
against parliament. He is trying to create an artificial majority in
order
to concentrate power in his hands. Our constitution has been violated
at every step."

Kuchma's ultimate aim is to abolish the existing single-chamber Rada
where many "reforms" demanded by US bankers and Kuchma's
wealthy allies have been blocked. He wants to replace it with a a
smaller, two-chamber body with an upper chamber comprising
regional governors appointed by himself. To achieve this, he has
ordered a "popular referendum" that will presumably be as controlled
as last year's presidential election.

WALL STREET RULES With nearly 50 million people, Ukraine is
the second-largest former Soviet republic. It was one of the USSR's
most productive agricultural and industrial regions. Today, like other
former Soviet republics, it has been devastated by "economic
restructuring" dictated by the International Monetary Fund. Since the
fall of the USSR, Ukraine's industrial production has dropped 70
percent. Its population has fallen by 2 million in just the past two
years. The old-age pension is $13 a month and millions of workers
are not being paid. While hunger stalks many regions, one-third of the
state budget goes in interest payments to Western banks. The
country's debt has risen 30 times since Kuchma took office in 1996.

The Kuchma regime has tried to create a fascist-like atmosphere by
exploiting divisions similar to those used to break up Yugoslavia. It
has whipped up Ukrainian nationalism on an anti-Russian basis (one-
quarter of the population is Russian). Soviet-era books have been
burned in public squares and opposition activists attacked by fascist
gangs. The regime's alleged nationalism does not stop Wall Street
from dictating its economic policy. It has agreed to raise food and fuel
prices, rents and gas and electricity rates on a schedule dictated by
the
International Monetary Fund.

"It is obvious that the United States has designed the Ukraine's
political landscape," Oleg Grachev, Kiev regional secretary of the
Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU), told Kritskaya and Doares.
"You cannot speak about injustice and electoral falsification in this
country without speaking of the domination of the International
Monetary Fund."

MARKED BALLOTS AND HAND GREANDES KPU general
secretary Petro Simonenko, who calls for Ukraine to withdraw from
the IMF, was the runner-up in November's presidential election. He
got an official 38 percent of the vote. The KPU brought evidence of
marked ballots, ballot-box stuffing and vote-buying to Ukraine's
criminal court but was told such matters were outside the court's
jurisdiction. In the first round of the presidential election,
Progressive
Socialist Party candidate Natalia Vitorienko, who also condemns the
IMF, was injured by a hand grenade tossed into a rally she was
addressing.

"Kuchma is trying to make a coup to gain absolute power," said
Ukraine Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz. "He is acting on
behalf of powerful private groups that support him. Since Kuchma
came to office, Ukraine has gotten poorer but his friends have gotten
rich. They now want to get even richer by selling shares in land and
grabbing control of basic industries like steel, petrochemicals and even
oil and gas, which is now forbidden to be privatized."

On Jan. 29, workers across Ukraine marched to protest the IMF-
Kuchma program and to demand unpaid back wages. Jan. 29 is the
anniversary of the 1918 uprising by Kiev's Arsenal workers that was
drowned in blood by the Western-backed regime that then ruled
Ukraine.

Former US attorney general and IAC founder Ramsey Clark sent
letters of protest to president Kuchma and the Rada.

An IAC statement said, "Like the war against Yugoslavia, the attempted
presidential coup in Ukraine is part of the NATO-Pentagon drive to the
east,
which carries great danger for all humanity. The US corporate media,
which so obediently repeated Pentagon-State Department lies about
Kosovo, appears to have imposed an information blockade on the
events in Ukraine and US involvement there. We must break that
blockade. The democratic forces in Ukraine deserve the support of
antiwar and justice-loving people in this country and around the
world."

Letters of support can be faxed to Deputy V.N. Romashenko at 011
380 44 293 2792 or 011 380 44 229 7228.



--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
** NO COPYRIGHT ! **
------------------------------------------------------------

LULU' MARLENE


Il Corriere della Sera, 17/1/2000:
"D'Alema corre a casa per la sua Lulu' - Il premier va e viene da Roma
per il Labrador che ha perso uno dei cuccioli.
(...) Anche Massimo D'Alema ha dovuto lasciare in tutta fretta il
Lingotto [dove si svolgeva il congresso DS] per volare a Roma... Ma
niente motivi politici dietro questa 'fuga'. Solo l'apprensione del
presidente del Consiglio per il suo Labrador Lulu' e la sfortunata
cucciolata... D'altra parte e' noto il suo accanimento per questo
Labrador, che porta con se' in tutte le vacanze... 'Lulu' e' un flusso
d'amore indipendentemente da come ci si comporta con lui'."


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
** NO COPYRIGHT ! **
------------------------------------------------------------