Archive 1986 – 2017

There cannot be security and stability in the world without Russia New York Times 20 April 1999  By Jack F. Matlock NATO intensifies its bombing of Serbia to the cheers of a fair portion of the Western political and intellectual elite. The bombing has rallied Serbs behind their dictator, Slobodan Milosevic, who is using the air strikes as a cover and pretext for mass expulsions, massacres and hostage taking. As NATO bombing continues, outrages against the Kosovars seem certain to continue. The weapons used against the Kosovars are not easily countered from the air. The air war is clearly making things worse on the ground – much worse, infact, so pressures build to use ground troops. If they had been available for intervention from the start of the bombing, they might well have served both as a deterrent to Mr. Milosevic and as real protection for the Kosovars if that...

San Francisco Chronicle By ARTHUR HOPPE OUR ALL-OUT humanitarian bombing campaign to bring peace to Yugoslaviais in desperate straits: We’re running out of targets. After all, Serbia is a poor country, and it has only so many bridges, ministries, military headquarters, barracks and police stations tobomb. And once we’ve blown a target to bits that’s the end of it. Muchas the Kosovar refugees need our help, we certainly can’t be expectedto waste our humanitarian bombs on heaps of smoking rubble. Nor can we bomb churches, hospitals, schools and the like. We couldn’t bear to kill innocent civilians. Of course, we did boast the other day that our four weeks of bombing was creating food shortages in Serbia.With luck, this could lead to mass starvation. But we don’t want to kill innocent civilians with bombs – at least not intentionally. Some dewy-eyed optimists will say that it’s just as well that...

According to the Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs,around 300 civilians have been killed between March 24 whenNATO’s bombing campaign started and April 13. These civiliancasualties are related to places such as Aleksinac,Pristina, Kursumlija and Grdelica Gorge. Two days ago arefugee convoy was hit, killing some 60 Albanians. Thus, dueto NATO’s mistakes about 350 civilians have been killed in24 days. That is an average of 15 per day. The war between various Yugoslav/Serb forces on theone hand and the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK or KLA) brokeout in February 1998. Thus there were 13 months of warfarein Kosovo, or 395 days. The international communityestimates that 2.000 – soldiers and civilians – were killed.That is an average of 5 per day.  About 250.000 people were estimated to have fled theirhomes during the 13 months of war, but remainedpredominantly within Kosovo and Montenegro. That is anaverage of 632 per day. Since NATO began bombing,...

Prema jugoslovenskom Ministarstvu inostranih poslova izmedju 24. marta kada je pocelo NATO-ova kampanja bombardovanja i 13. aprila poginulo je oko 300 civila. Te civilne zrtve su pale u mestima kao Aleksinac, Pristina, Kursumlija i Grdelicka Klisura. Pre dva dana pogodjena je kolona izbeglica, usmrceno je oko 60 Albanaca. Na taj nacin je zahvaljujuci NATO-ovim greskama izginulo oko 350 civila u svega 24 dana. To cini prosek od oko 15 ljudi dnevno. Rat izmedju raznih srpskih – jugoslovenskih jedinica na jednoj i Oslobodilacke vojske Kosova (OVK, UCK ili KLA) na drugoj, izbio je februara 1998. Dakle trajao je 13 meseci, ili 395 dana. Medjunarodna zajednica je procenila da je u tom periodu poginulo 2.000 ljudi, vojnika i civila. To daje prosek od 5 ljudi na dan. Procenjeno je da je oko 250.000 ljudi pobeglo od svojih kuca za vreme ovih 13 meseci ratovanja ali oni su se uglavnom zadrzali unutar Kosova...

A Statement by Concerned Serbian Citizens As long time proponents of and activists for a democratic and anti-nationalist Serbia, who have chosen to remain in Yugoslavia during this moment of crisis and who want to see our country reintegrated into the community of world nations, we state the following:  1. We strongly condemn the NATO bombings which have hugely exacerbated violence in Kosovo and have caused the displacement of people outside and throughout Yugoslavia. We strongly condemn the ethnic cleansing of the Albanian population perpetrated by any Yugoslav forces. We strongly condemn the Kosovo Liberation Army’s (KLA) violence targeted against the Serbs, moderate Albanians and other ethnic communities in Kosovo. The humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo – death, grief and extreme suffering for hundreds of thousands of Albanians, Serbs and members of other ethnic communities – has to be ended now. All refugees from Yugoslavia must immediately and unconditionally be allowed...

By Mark Lynas Editor OneWorld Like many others involved in international news reporting, I’ve spent several hours each day over the last three weeks covering the crisis in Kosovo. And despite the relentless outpourings of the NATO PR machine, I’ve found the explanations reported in the mainstream media steadily less convincing. How is it, for example, that one of scores of simmering local disputes across the world has mushroomed into possibly the most dramatic crisisfacing Europe since World War II? And why is there such a broad consensus amongst both decision-makers and media commentators that bombing an apparently sovereign country is the only way forward? When I first set about compiling OneWorld’s Kosovo Special Report, I was broadly in agreement with the dominant viewpoint that Milosevic must bestopped. Cases of severe human rights abuse, committed with impunity and official encouragement by Yugoslav military forces and special police, have been well...

“Most people around the world probably think that warand media are separate. When there is a war, the media tellus about it as objectively as they can under the oftendifficult circumstances. But in today’s information society,every war is two wars: that on the ground and that in themedia. Weapons communicate and communication is a weapon. Wemust ask what interests determine what we are told and whatwe are not told? The history of warfare makes one thingabundantly clear,” says TFF director Jan Oberg, “namely thatwe can safely assume that we are not told the truth, thewhole truth and nothing but the truth. In NATO’s war withYugoslavia, there is reason to paraphrase Hamlet – ‘there issomething rotten in the state of the media.’ This is what you can read about the use by the UnitedStates of information in times of war: “Psychological operations (PSYOP) are operations plannedto convey selected information and indicators...

Ogromna vecina ljudi sirom sveta misli kako su rat imediji razdvojeni. Kad se vodi rat mediji nas o njemuizvestavaju sto mogu objektivnije i to pod cesto veomateskim okolnostima. Medjutim u ovom danasnjem, informatickomdrustvu svaki se rat ustvari sastoji od dva rata: onog kojise vodi na zemlji i onog u medijima. Oruzjem se komunicira ikomunikacija sluzi kao oruzje. Morate da se zapitate kojimse to interesima rukovode oni koji odlucuju sta hoce a stanece da nam saopste? Istorija ratovanja jednu stvar cinivise nego ociglednom,” kaze Jan Oberg, direktor TFF-a, ” ato je da s pravom mozemo pretpostaviti da nam nece reciistinu, celu istinu i nista osim istine. U ratu koji NATOvodi protiv Jugoslavije postoje razlozi da citiramo Hamleta– “ima nesto trulo u drzanju medija.” Evo sta se moze procitati o tome kako SAD koristeinforcije za vreme rata: “Psiholoske operacije (PSYOP) suoperacije koje se planiraju s namerom da prenose probraneinformacije, nagovestaje i indikacije...

“Western leaders are busy re-writing history tojustify their Balkan bombing blunder. The change ininformation, rhetoric and explanations since the bombingsstarted on March 24 is literally mind-boggling. Most likelythey fear they have opened a very dark chapter in historyand may be losing the plot. One way to make failure looklike success is to construct a powerful media reality andde-construct real reality. That’s the essence of mediawarfare and that’s what happens now,” says TFF director JanOberg. “For instance, you must have noticed that the The KosovoLiberation Army, KLA or UCK, which existed some weeks agoand allegedly participated in Rambouillet now suddenly neverexisted. The 13-months war in Kosovo/a also conveniently hasbeen expurgated. The last few days President Clinton, prime ministerBlair, NATO General Wesley Clark, foreign secretary Cook,foreign minister Fischer, secretary Albright, defenceminister Robertson and other Western leaders have explainedto the world why NATO bombs Yugoslavia. They made NO MENTIONof KLA or the war....

Zapadni lideri uzurbano prepravljaju istoriju da bimogli da opravdaju svoju balkansku bombardersku brljotinu.Retorika, objasnjenja i informacije koje nam daju od 24.marta kad je potpocelo bombardovanje, toliko su se promenilida to jednostavno zbunjuje. Najverovatnije su se vecuplasili da su ovim otvorili mracno poglavlje nove istorijei da im zaplet lagano izmice iz ruku. Jedan od nacina kakoda svoj promasaj prikazu kao uspeh bio bi da izgrade do temere ubedljivu medijsku realnost kojom bi se onda razgradilii zamenili pravu realnost. Bas to i jeste sustina medijskograta i upravo to se sada dogadja” kaze Jan Oberg, direktorTFF-a. “Jedan primer – mora da ste primetili kako OVK, ili akohocete KLA ili UCK, koja je do pre nekoliko nedeljapostojala i cak navodno ucestvovala u Rambujeu sada odjednomkao da nikad nije postojala. I 13-to mesecni rat koji sevodio na Kosovu je isto tako, kao da nikad nije bio, zgodnoizbrisan. Predsednik Klinton, premijer Bler, NATO general VesliKlark, ministar...

LONDON- If Turkey were China there would have been over the years a massive and continuous uproar in the U.S. Congress. With a human rights record that far outranks in the sadistic impulses league anything that goes on in China and with its continuing, unrelenting, uncompromising, suppression of its Kurdish minority, not even allowing instruction in the Kurdish language in schools, it far exceeds the way Beijing treats Tibet. Yet Turkey continues as a member of Nato, a favourite of American military largesse. Turkey now has the largest fleet of F-16 fighter jets outside the U.S., most of them provided either free or on highly subsidised terms. Neither the Clinton administration nor the Republican opposition raises its voice a decibel to criticize Turkey. That seems to be left to the Europeans, but that has its own problems. Led by Helmut Kohl when he was chancellor of Germany, it was a no-holds...

Federal Republic of YugoslaviaMinistry of Foreign Affairs, Belgrade “YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY”  12 April 1999 Over 300 civilians, including many women, children and the elderly have lost their lives during over 1000 air strikes of the brutal and totally unprovoked NATO aggression on the FR of Yugoslavia which began on 24 March 1999. More than 3000 citizens suffered serious injuries, while several thousands of enterprises and tens of thousands of houses have been destroyed. In the area of Leskovac alone over 3 300 dwellings and industrial facilities have been damaged during the bombing thus far. According to the estimates coming from foreign sources, the material damage made in the FR of Yugoslavia has already exceeded 100 billion US dollars. The NATO aggressors have made the most of its attacks in the area of the Municipality of Pristina (54), Belgrade (43), Novi Sad (27), Kraljevo (21), Cacak (18) and Nis (17). Their...