24. МАРТ 1999 – 24. МАРТ 2023.
Поштовани пријатељи,
И ове, 2023. године, као и свих претходних година, Београдски форум за свет равноправних, Клуб генерала и адмирала Србије и СУБНОР Србије, у сарадњи са другим независним удружењима и организацијама, обележавају годишњицу почетка агресије НАТО пакта на СРЈ, односно, Србију и Црну Гору. Одаћемо почаст свим жртвама агресије НАТО и изразити поштовање и захвалност легендарним херојима одбране. Част нам је да Вас позовемо да нам се придружите у следећим активностима:
ЧЕТВРТАК, 23. МАРТ 2023.
11:00 ОКРУГЛИ СТО «АГРЕСИЈА НАТО – 24 ГОДИНЕ ПОСЛЕ»
Велика сала Дома Војске Србије
Београд, ул. Браће Југовића 19
Говоре:
генерал Миломир Миладиновић, председник Клуба генерала и адмирала; Никола Шаиновић, ранији потпредседник Савезне владе СРЈ; Владислав Јовановић, ранији министар спољних послова Југославије; др Момчило Вуксановић, председник Српског националног савјета Црне Горе; Млађен Цицовић, шеф Представништа Републике Српске у Беoграду; Новак Бјелић, генерални директор «Трепче» у последњој декади XX века; Живадин Јовановић, председник Београдског форума.
ПЕТАК, 24. МАРТ 2023.
11:00 СВЕЧАНО ПОЛАГАЊЕ ЦВЕЋА И ВЕНАЦА
код споменика Деци-жртвама агресије НАТО
Парк Ташмајдан
12:00 СВЕЧАНО ПОЛАГАЊЕ ЦВЕЋА И ВЕНАЦА
код споменика жртвама агресије НАТО ,,Вечна ватра”
Парк пријатељства, Ушће - Нови Београд;
Радујемо се Вашем разумевању, подршци и одзиву, и остајемо
С поштовањем,
Живадин Јовановић,
председник Београдског форума за свет равноправних
Генерал Миломир Миладиновић,
председник Клуба генерала и адмирала Србије
Генерал Видосав Ковачевић,
председник СУБНОР Србије
Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals
March 19, 2023
NATO’s 1999 Aggression Against Yugoslavia: Turning Point
(Edited by Rick Rozoff)
This March 24th, the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals, Generals and Admirals Association of Serbia, Veterans Association SUBNOR of Serbia and some other independent associations and think tanks, will mark the 24th anniversary of NATO’s aggression against Serbia and Montenegro (the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), honoring heroes fallen in the defense of the country as well as all the victims of this illegal and criminal act.
As it is widely recognized, this aggression was undertaken in violation of the basic principles of international law, including a violation of the United Nations Charter, and without authorization of the UN Security Council (UNSC). Having determined that Yugoslavia was not a threat to any NATO member country, NATO leadership nevertheless violated even its own founding act, while NATO member countries violated their own constitutions insofar as they acted without the authorization of their respective parliaments.
At the NATO high level conference held April 2000 from April 20-30 in Bratislava, Slovakia, U.S. representatives confirmed explicitly to their allies and then-candidate allies, three important motives for the “war against Yugoslavia”: first, to take away Kosovo (and Metohija) from Serbia and make it a separate, independent state; second, to turn it into the Balkans base for US troops; and, third, to establish a precedent for military interventions all around the world without seeking a UNSC mandate.
While it was falsely presented by NATOized mass media as “humanitarian intervention,” in fact it was a war of NATO/U.S. geo-political expansion towards the East, towards Russian borders, also setting the precedent for other aggression which followed – Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria….The immediate establishment of the major U.S. military base Fort Bondsteel, near Urosevac, Kosovo and Metohija, was only the first in a long chain of the new US military bases established in in Central and Eastern Europe in the interim – Bulgaria (3), Romania (3), Poland (several and more in the offing). [There are currently U.S. and NATO air, missile defense, infantry, naval, cyber warfare, training and other bases and facilities in Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia among new NATO member and candidate nations – RR.]
Thus NATO did not only wage the first war on European soil [since World War II] but at the same time gave extraordinary impetus to the process of intensive militarization of the Old Continent, the entire European continent. All member countries are obliged to spend at least 2% of their GDP on military spending, to adapt civilian infrastructure to the new military requirements, to limit the sale of major companies to prospective investors only from EU and NATO member states (“for security reasons”), not to import new technologies from “unreliable suppliers” (e.g., 5G), not to buy gas and oil from those who use them “to undermine security of Europe.”
Missiles, including those with depleted uranium, and cluster bombs fell on Serbia and Montenegro, killing their citizens and destroying their economies. Serbia is still attempting to recover from immense economic and social losses. Belgrade and other major cities, even in their very centers, still continue to live with ruins and debris of government and other buildings bombed by NATO. And at the same time, NATO 1999’s aggression against Serbia and Montenegro (FRY) had destroyed the whole security and cooperation architecture of Europe and the world, annulling Teheran, Yalta, Potsdam, Helsinki and other agreements and pillars of the post-Second World War order, thus ushering in disorder, insecurity, even chaos.
The NATO aggression ended with UNSC Resolution 1244 (1999), guaranteeing the sovereignty and territorial integrity of FRY (Serbia) and substantial autonomy for the province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia. The aggression, however, has continued ever since by other means. The objective to take away the autonomous province of Kosovo from Serbia is now being conducted within a new framework. While the province had been under UN mandate and Kosovo Force (KFOR) occupation, mostly composed of NATO troops empowered to guarantee equal security for all, about 250,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians were purged, their homes burnt and lands and properties confiscated and usurped. In 2008, the former leadership of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) proclaimed unilateral secession. NATO and European Union countries, with the exception of Spain, Romania, Slovakia, Greece and Cyprus, were among the first to recognize the secession, fully aware that it was contrary to international law, to UNSC Resolution 1244 and Serbia`s constitution.
Lately, Serbia is under unprecedented pressure from the U.S./NATO/EU not to oppose Kosovo`s membership in international organizations, including the UN, to establish good-neighborly relations based on equality and mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, to mutually recognize state and national symbols and to establish quasi-diplomatic relations. Under the guise of “normalization of relations,” the West, led by the U.S., seeks in fact to oblige Serbia to de facto recognize a new state of Kosovo resulting from the NATO aggression of 1999. Promises of membership in the EU as well as promises of investments and donations are being exploited to lure Serbia into recognizing the secession of a part of its own state territory, thus renouncing all rights based on international law, the UN Charter and UNSC guaranties as well as our own constitution. All these demands are contained in the so-called “Agreement on the path of normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia” presented to Serbia on February 27th, 2023 and confirmed on March 18, 2023, in Ohrid, Northern Macedonia, in the form of an, more or less, open ultimatum. Interestingly, this ultimatum, accompanied with the threats of economic, financial and other measures and restrictions in the case of non-compliance, will be confirmed by the European Council on March 24th, 2023, the date when exactly twenty-four years ago NATO started bombing Belgrade, Pristina and other cities all over Serbia.
What are real reasons for all this? To make Kosovo eligible to join NATO and even unite with Albania; to establish complete NATOization of the Balkans, encompassing Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina; to eliminate Russian and Chinese influence in the Balkans; to remove the objection of five EU member states (four of them also NATO members, all but Cyprus) to the recognition of the unilateral secession of Kosovo, thus reestablishing unity within those alliances.
The NATO aggression against Serbia and Montenegro (FRY) in 1999, was the turning point in the transformation of the North Atlantic Alliance from a defensive to an aggressive one, of Europe partially autonomous to one in complete submission to the U.S. in pursuit of the globalization of interventionism and global confrontation with Russia and China. As it did appear at the time the summit of unipolar arrogance and U.S./NATO hegemony, it was a wake-up call to everybody who believes in a new democratic world order.
Zivadin Jovanovic,
Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals,
March 19th, 2023
—
БЕОГРАДСКИ ФОРУМ ЗА СВЕТ РАВНОПРАВНИХ
http://www.beoforum.rs
This week marks the anniversaries of three wars of aggressions waged in violation of international law by Western powers against foreign countries, claiming countless victims – including through war crimes – that still remain unpunished.
WASHINGTON/BERLIN (Own report) – This week marks the first bombing waves of the wars of aggression in violation of international law, which have had no consequences for the perpetrators. Today, twenty years ago, US troops launched the invasion of Iraq with the participation of British, Australian and Polish troops. This invasion was legitimized with blatant lies and was to serve strategic power interests, like the assault on Libya, launched by French fighter jets twelve years ago yesterday – invoking initially a resolution of the UN Security Council, which was immediately violated and illegally used to overthrow the Libyan government. On Friday, 24 years ago, NATO troops, including German troops, launched their aggression against Yugoslavia in violation of international law to split off its southern province, Kosovo. Loudly applauded in the media, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock proclaimed that wars of aggression should “not go unpunished,” but, of course, she – like the leading media organs – do not want this to apply to Western wars. The same holds true in regards to the most serious war crimes committed by Western soldiers. Only whistleblowers, who helped expose them to the public, are being punished.
War Objective: Overthrow Domino
The US-led assault on Iraq was launched with initial airstrikes exactly 20 years ago, on the night of March 19-20, 2003, immediately followed by an invasion of ground troops. In addition to US armed forces, units from Great Britain, Australia and Poland were involved. This invasion was carried out without UN Security Council approval and was therefore in violation of international law. The official reason – that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction – was a complete fabrication. In reality, the objective was to replace a government that was no longer favorable to the West with one that is pro-Western. Some in President George W. Bush’s administration also spoke in terms of a “democratic domino” effect, hoping that the toppling of Iraq's government would be followed by the fall of other governments across the Middle East, particularly in Syria and Iran. A “first Arab democracy” in Iraq would “cast a very large shadow across the whole Arab world,” declared Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Defense Secretary, at the time.[1] Commodity interests also played a major role. As Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, Polish Foreign Minister, at the time, confirmed in early July 2003, Warsaw “has never hidden our desire for Polish oil companies to finally have access to sources of commodities,” it “is our ultimate objective.”[2]
Hundreds of Thousands of Civilian Casualties
Scientists from the “Costs of War Project” at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs in Providence (Rhode Island) have repeatedly assessed the human costs of the war in Iraq. Brown University is one of the eight famous Ivy League universities in the United States. The Costs of War Project has presented its most recent research just prior to today's anniversary of the US invasion. According to its findings, at least 7,043 civilians were killed from March 19 to April 19 2003, one third of them through the US-led war coalition's airstrikes.[3] However, the fighting never really ended and ultimately merged into the West's war against ISIS, the terrorist militia that emerged from the crumbling structures of war-torn Iraq. The Costs of War Project estimates the number of deaths in Iraq and temporarily ISIS controlled regions in Syria, until March 2023, at a total of 549,587 – 584,006, including 348,985 civilians. The report points out that these refer only to verified direct deaths. The toll of indirect deaths – due to the consequences of war, such as disease and malnutrition – may be as many as three or four times that amount.
War Objective: Expand Influence
The Wests assault on Libya began 12 years ago yesterday, initiated by attacks by the French Air Force and soon expanded into a NATO war. Later, renowned experts told a British parliamentary committee that the official reason for the war – to prevent a massacre of civilians by the Libya’s military – had been an extremely unlikely scenario. In fact, French intelligence officers told the committee that the French government’s real objective had been “to strengthen France’s influence over North Africa,” to have greater access to Libyan oil production, as well as to demonstrate France’s military effectiveness. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[4]) A UN mandate for the protection of the civilian population was abused to effect regime change, i.e., it was violated. The number of civilian killed in that war was estimated for 2011, alone, by the British organization Airwars to have been, at least, 1,142, and possibly up to 3,400.[5] The war had not only largely destroyed Libya materially, but socially as well. Fighting, repeatedly flaring up between rival militias, has escalated into civil war. Twelve years after NATO’s aggression, that country is still in ruins.
“Pro-Kremlin Disinformation Narrative”
Twenty-four years ago, this coming Friday, NATO attacked Yugoslavia, also without a UN Security Council mandate, therefore in violation of international law. The allegation that Kosovo was under threat of so-called ethnic cleansing was the justification for this war of aggression. Internal reports, refute this. For example, on March 19, 1999 an OSCE document, described the situation: “throughout the region” as “tense but calm,” and, on March 22, experts in Germany’s Ministry of Defense in Bonn were saying that trends toward “ethnic cleansing” were “still not apparent.”[6] The aggression against Yugoslavia is particularly significant, because it is the first war of aggression in violation of international law since the upheavals taking place from 1989 – 1991 and, therefore, set a precedent for later wars of aggression, such as those against Iraq and Libya. The number of civilians killed has been estimated at around 2,000 by the ‘Wilson Center.[7] Today, an EU body (“EuvsDisinfo”) is accusing this prominent institution in Washington of disseminating a “pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative.”[8] The Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia as well as the main building of the state-owned television broadcaster, RTS were among the targets bombed by NATO, at the time.
Who May Wage Wars of Aggression
The heads of states and governments, who have given the commands for wars of aggression in violation of international law, have never been called to account. This applies to the US President George W. Bush, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair and the Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski (Iraq war, 2003), along with French President Nicolas Sarkozy (War on Libya, 2011), as well as US President Bill Clinton, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Vice Chancellor Joseph Fischer (war on Yugoslavian, 1999). “In the 21st century, no one is allowed to get away with waging a war of aggression,” proclaimed German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in mid-January.[9] Baerbock was not referring to those responsible for wars by western states, solely to the Russian government, with which the West is engaged in a power struggle.
Who will be Punished and Who Not
The war crimes committed by western military personnel – including during the war in Afghanistan – are hardly ever punished. This pertains to a massacre of more than 100 civilians in Kunduz, ordered by a German officer,[10] as well as for the initiation ritual carried out by a notorious Australian special forces unit, which consisted of murdering at least one Afghan civilian,[11] or the British soldiers’ murder of dozens of defenseless prisoners at the Hindu Kush.[12] However, journalists and whistleblowers exposing these war crimes are the ones persecuted. This is the case of the Australian military lawyer, David McBride, now standing trial for aiding the exposure of Australian war crimes,[13] or the journalist incarcerated in London’s Belmarsh maximum security prison awaiting extradition to the USA for having documented US war crimes in Iraq – Julian Assange.
[1] Paul Reynolds: The ‘democratic domino‘ theory. news.bbc.co.uk 10.04.2003.
[2] Poland seeks Iraqi oil stake. news.bbc.co.uk 03.07.2003.
[3] Neta C. Crawford: Blood and Treasure: United States Budgetary Costs and Human Costs of 20 Years of War in Iraq and Syria, 2003-2023. Providence, 15 March 2023.
[4] House of Commons, Foreign Affairs Committee: Libya: Examination of intervention and collapse and the UK's future policy options. Third Report of Session 2016-17. London, September 2016. See also Deutschlands Kriegsbilanz (III).
[5] Oliver Imhof: Ten years after the Libyan revolution, victims wait for justice. airwars.org 18.03.2021.
[6] Zitiert nach: Heinz Loquai: Krieg - ein wahnsinniges Verbrechen. In: Forum FriedensEthik in der Evangelischen Landeskirche in Baden. Rundbrief 2/2010. April 2010. S. 4-11. See also Dammbrüche.
[7] Aleksa Djilas: Bombing to Bring Peace. wilsoncenter.org.
[8] Disinfo: About two thousand civilians were killed in NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia. euvsdisinfo.eu.
[9] Hans Monath: „Niemand darf Krieg führen und straflos bleiben”. tagesspiegel.de 16.01.2023.
[10] See also Die Bomben von Kunduz.
[11] See also The Era of Impunity.
[12] See also Der Club der Kriegsverbrecher.
[13] Christopher Knaus: David McBride will face prosecution after blowing whistle on alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. theguardian.com 27.10.2022.