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“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...

“NATO’s unwise, counterproductive and non-legalbombing of sovereign Yugoslavia is justified by PresidentBill Clinton, EU and other Western leaders and media withreference to humanitarian concerns. Supposedly air strikesserve to stop ethnic cleansing, future massacres, refugeeflows, and prevent innocent children and women from beingkilled. Diplomatically expressed, this comes from themarketing department. Bombings will to produce what itpurports to prevent,” says Dr. Jan Oberg, TFF’s director,right after the bombing campaign has started. According toOberg, this argument lacks credibility for the followingreasons: NO VIOLENCE-PREVENTIONWhy did the West do absolutely nothing before this crisisbecame violent? There were many opportunities for anegotiated solutions. TFF, for instance, has suggested avariety of options since 1992 that could have preventedviolence and the killing we’ve seen the last year. In noother conflict has there been so many early warnings and solittle preventive diplomacy. Kosovo’s catastrophe was amongthe most predictable of all. It is intellectual nonsensethat ‘everything else has been tried...

“Bez pameti, kontraproduktivno i nezakonito NATO-ovobombardovanje suverene Jugoslavije predsednik Bil Klinton,Evropska zajednica i drugi zapadni lideri i medijiopravdavaju izgovarajuci se razlozima humanitarne prirode.Navodno – vazdusni udari sluze da sprece etnicko ciscenje,reke izbeglica, da sprece ubistva nevinih zena i dece.Diplomatskim recnikom receno ovi izgovori stizu izmarketinskog odelenja. Bombardovanje ce proizvesti upravosuprotno od onog sto navodno pokusava da spreci” kaze dr.Jan Oberg, direktor TFF-a, neposredno posle pocetkabombardovanja. Prema Obergu, ovim argumentima nedostajeuverljivost upravo iz sledecih razloga: NIJE BILO POKUSAJA DA SE NASILJE SPRECIZbog cega Zapad nije uradio apsolutno nista u prethodnomperiodu pre no sto je ova kriza prerasla u nasilnu? Bilo jepuno prilika za sporazumno razresenje. Npr. TFF je predlagaocitav niz razlicitih mogucnosti pocev od 1992. kojima senasilje moglo spreciti, a tako i ubistva kojima smo bilisvedoci prosle godine. Ni u jednom drugom sukobu nije bilotoliko prepoznatljivih, ranih znakova upozorenja, a da sepritom upotrebilo tako malo preventivne diplomatije.Kosovska katastrofa je bila medju...

“The military provisions in the Kosovo Agreement onthe table in Paris has nothing to do with peacekeeping.Neither the civilian nor the military provisions will helpbring about peace among Serbs and Albanians. It will furtherantagonize the 10 million citizens of Yugoslavia and theinternational community. There is simply nothing in it forthe Yugoslavs and that’s why I am deeply afraid that we arelikely to see something very bad happen very soon. Thiswhole affair has nothing to do with violence prevention, theappropriate term would be: peace-prevention. Leading media, commentators, scholars and diplomatsjoin in condemning the Yugoslav side in the Paris talks onKosovo and thus legitimate subsequent NATO bombing and defacto NATO control over the territory. Who can be soungrateful, stubborn or scoundrelly to refuse an offer ofpeace? However, no one asks: what does the Kosovo Agreementin Paris, the “peace” plan, actually contain? I don’t think this is necessarily deliberate,” saysDr. Jan Oberg, head...

“Odredbe Vojnog dela Kosovskog sporazuma stavljenog nasto u Parizu nemaju bas niceg zajednickog sa mirovnommisijom (ocuvanje mira – peace keeping). Kao ni civilni,tako ni vojni deo ovog sporazuma nece dovesti do mira medjuSrbima i Albanacima. On ce samo dodatno antagoniziratimedjunarodnu zajednicu i 10 miliona gradjana Jugoslavije. Unjemu Jugosloveni nece naci nista dobrog za sebe i stoga seplasim da cemo svi uskoro biti svedoci neceg vrlo ruznog stose sprema. Citava ova prica nema niceg zajednickog sasprecavanjem nasilja, ustvari – odgovarajuci naziv za ovobio bi: sprecavanje mira (peace-prevention). Vodeci mediji, komentatori, akademici i diplomateujedinjeni su u osudama jugoslovenske delegacije napregovorima u Parizu cime daju legitimnost buducem NATObombardovanju i de-facto NATO-ovoj kontroli nad tomteritorijom. Ko bi se usudio da bude toliko nezahvalan,bandoglav i siledzija pa da odbije ponudjeni mu mir?Medjutim, nema nikoga da se zapita: sta to Kosovskisporazum, tzv. “mirovni” plan, u sustini sadrzi?” “Mislim kako ne mora biti da se sve to...

“NATO’s build-up in Macedonia is incredible, and goesvirtually unnoticed – except in that country. The MacedonianParliament has not even discussed the deployment of morethan 12.000 heavily armed troops and NATO bars journalistsfrom investigating what is going on. NATO is now strongerthan the country’s own defence. It took the internationalcommunity, read OSCE, 5 months to get 1500 civilian monitorsinto Kosovo, but it took only a few weeks to get themilitary build-up underway in Macedonia. When does some oneinvestigate how this happened or who pays for this and theNATO build-up around Yugoslavia? Or ask what MacedonianPrime Minister Ljupco Geogievski was promised by U.S.Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, when the hadbreakfast recently in Washington?” – says Jan Oberg, TFF’sdirector and co-founder who has just visited the country. “Here is another reasonably relevant question: SinceChristopher Hill, the main author of the Kosovo Agreement onthe table in Paris and the diplomat who prepared the groundfor...

“Read the so-called Kosovo Peace Agreement beingdiscussed these very hours in Paris and you are in for a fewsurprises,” says TFF director Dr. Jan Oberg. “I do notthink that any recognised, sovereign state would accept allthe CIVILIAN provisions and the MILITARY implementationon its territory of a plan like this. No state likes toreceive “sign or be bombed” ultimatums – particularly notwhen the said plan implies the de facto end of its status asa sovereign state with territorial integrity. The standard story with CNN, BBC, and leading papersconveys the impression that the Serbs are just stubborn andstall the peace negotiations, whereas the Albanian side isco-operative, as evidenced by a letter from their delegationleader of March 15. Yugoslavia deserves punishment whileAlbanians are praised for their “courage to compromise forpeace.” That’s virtual reality and virtual truth. Realreality is way more complicated,” says Oberg. “You must have noticed that no one has raised the simplequestion: Could there...

“Procitajte tzv. Sporazum o Kosovu, isti onaj o kom seupravo ovih sati raspravlja u Parizu i budite sigurni da cevas puno toga sto on sadrzi zaista iznenaditi”, kaze Dr. JanOberg, direktor TFF-a. ” Mislim da ni jedna suverena drzavane bi prihvatila sve CIVILNE odredbe a tako ni VOJNUimplementaciju predvidenu ovakvim planom. Nijedna drzavanije odusevljena kad joj prete ultimatumom tipa “potpisi ilicemo te bombardovati” a pogotovo ne kada takav navodni planu sebi de-facto sadrzi i kraj nje same kao suverene drzavesa vlastitim teritorijalnim integritetom. Uobicajeni izvestaji CNN-a, BBC-a i vodecih listovaprenose svetskoj javnosti utisak kako su bas Srbi ti kojitvrdoglavo odugovlace pregovore o miru, dok je Albanskastrana kooperativna, sto se vidi i iz pisma sefa njihovedelegacije od 15. marta. Jugoslaviju treba kazniti dokAlbance treba pohvaliti zbog njihove “hrabrosti da napraveustupke kako bi se doslo do mira.” No to je samo laznaslika, opsena i obmana. Prava slika je kudikamokomplikovanija od ovoga” kaze...

“The Plan being discussed at Rambouillet is aformalistic, legal document. Its provisions may be needed,but it doesn’t contain any ideas on how to make peace amongthe citizens who are to live with it when implemented. Theirvoice is not heard, their needs are not dealt with in thePlan. Most of the delegates in Rambouillet are notrepresentative of the citizens. The “mediators” have noprofessional education as mediators. The idea that Kosovo’sproblems can be solved in two weeks is absurd. Rambouilletmilitates against all we know about human psychology andtrust-building. So, once again politics fool media and media foolworld public opinion. And people in Kosovo will have to waitfor peace as long as the vagabonds in Beckett’s drama waitfor Godot…” says Dr. Jan Oberg upon returning from TFF’s34th mission to ex-Yugoslavia, this time to Skopje, Belgradeand the troubled Kosovo province. 1. The preparation When wars are fought thousands of trained soldiers aremobilised, highly trained...

“What happens now in Rambouillet has little to do withcreating peace for the suffering citizens in the Yugoslavprovince of Kosovo/a. Disguised as “negotiations” about a“peace” plan, the international so-called community promotesless noble values and long-term goals in the region and usethe Serbs and Albanians as supernumeraries in its drama.It’s time we ask what the self-proclaimed “conflictmanagers” are actually up to. If peace in Kosovo or thewider Balkans had been the real aim, we would have witnesseda completely different approach leading up to Rambouillet.We come closer to the truth about Rambouillet if we usewords such as globalisation, strategic expansion, Caspianoil, Greater NATO, containment policy and imperialismdisguised as conflict-management and peace-making,” says Dr.Jan Oberg upon returning from the 34th TFF mission to theregion since 1992, this time to Skopje, Belgrade and Kosovo. “If PEACE was their profession, the governments of theinternational community would – around 1992 – have putenough diplomatic and other...

In a large interview with the leading Kosovo-Albanianweekly “ZËRI” on December 22, TFF director Jan Obergchallenges the international community’s whole approach toconflict-resolution and peace. He also believes that thepolicy of positioning and the focus on formal status pursuedby the parties is counterproductive. It’s time, he maintains, to listen to the needs ofcitizens, to address real issues of daily life and tointroduce some new ideas and actors. Governments have failed on all sides. Their diplomatsmay be great lawyers but they lack professional knowledgeand training in conflict analysis, conflict psychology,social issues and mediation techniques. This is simply notthe way to proceed if you want to help people to live inpeace.” Read theinterview in its entirety Here follow excerpts: “Modern history is full of conflicts at least as bad asthat in Kosovo that have been overcome by nonviolence.” “What I have said here applies also to the internationalcommunity’s “conflict managers”. Neither the US...