Truth in Media Global Watch Bulletins

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TiM GW Bulletin 2000/6-5

June 12, 2000

A CIA Role in Montenegro Assassination Alleged

Western Money Buying Montenegro Votes? 

Bishop Artemije Proposes Expanded UN/KFOR Roles; "First Class Refugees" Push Dope in U.S., Overstay Their Welcome in U.K.; "War of the Hooligans" Continues; Some Canadians Speak Out; British Parliamentary Committee Says Bombing Was Illegal 

FROM PHOENIX, ARIZONABALKAN AFFAIRS


HEADLINES

Podgorica               1. Western Money Buying Montenegro Votes? CIA

                                     Role Alleged in Zugic Assassination June 13, 2000

Even U.S. Officials Admit Belgrade Had No Role in Montenegro AssassinationJune 18, 2000

Phoenix                   2. One Year Ago Today... Kosovo Fell, Signaling

                                     Beginning of End of New World Order

Belgrade                 3. Bishop Artemije Proposes Expanded UN/KFOR Roles,

                                    Others in Serbia Raise Serious Objections

New Jersey             4. “First Class Refugees” Push Dope in U.S., Overstay

                                     Their Welcome in U.K.

Pristina                    5. “War of the Hooligans” Continues: Albanians vs. Albanians

Toronto                   6. Dissenting Canadians Speak Out against Ottawa’s War: David

                                     Orchard, Svend Robinson, James Bissett

London                    7. British Parliamentary Committee Says NATO Bombing Was Illegal  

Pristina                    8. Kouchner: Touchy, Touchy... Is This Pal of Thaci!June 13, 2000

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1. Western Money Buying Montenegro Votes? CIA Role Alleged in Zugic Assassination

PODGORICA, June 12 - Montenegro's pro-western leadership faced its biggest challenge on Sunday (June 11) as voters in two key cities chose between the current Milo Djukanovic government and the allies of Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.  About 134,400 registered voters, or about a third of the total electorate in this small mountain republic of 630,000 people, began casting ballots Sunday morning to choose 89 municipal officials in the capital, Podgorica, and in the coastal resort of Herceg Novi. 

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe dispatched 80 monitors to oversee the elections.  As of early Monday, both sides were claiming victory - Djukanovic 28 of the 54 municipal posts in Podgorica; Milosevic's ally, Yugoslav prime minister Momir Bulatovic, 19 of the 35 seats in Herceg Novi.

The Montenegro voting has turned into far more than a typical local election. It has become a referendum on Djukanovic and Milosevic policies. A victory by the Milosevic allies would seriously undermine the western quislings, whose policies have made Montenegro virtually independent from Belgrade since Djukanovic was elected in the 1997 presidential elections marred with vote fraud.

Meanwhile, John Simpson, BBC’s World Affairs editor, reporting from Podgorica today said he had listened (Tuesday, June 6) to a taped conversation between two U.S. officials, provided to the media by Goran Matic, the Yugoslav information minister.  The tape allegedly proves the CIA’s involvement in the May 31 assassination of a Goran Zugic, Djukanovic’s security advisor and close friend. 

And with that, “ze plot thickens,” as they say, in the Montenegro elections…

Bulatovic, the man whom Djukanovic narrowly defeated in 1997, has mounted an intense challenge to Montenegro’s quisling government. To make the stakes clear, Bulatovic's party uses the slogan ''For Yugoslavia.'' Bulatovic also accuses the United States and the European Union of flooding this small republic with money to influence the outcome and wean the republic away from Yugoslavia.

“What is happening now is really indecent we see foreign centers of financial and political power pouring money into (Montenegro) and giving false promises,” Bulatovic said, according to the AP. He accused the United States and the European Union of spending $20 million ''with the aim of buying votes.''

Furthermore, the Yugoslav Army accused Montenegro's police of setting the scene for conflict and said the republic's authorities had joined a western campaign against Yugoslavia and its armed forces, according to a June 8 Reuters report.

“The Montenegrin leadership, the authorities and police wholeheartedly joined a Western psychological propaganda and media campaign aimed at our country and the Yugoslav army,” the statement said Thursday. 

The army also said that Montenegrin police were arming and exercising a reserve in the towns of Cetinje and Herceg-Novi, while in the towns of Tivat, Bar and Ulcinj the reserve was made up mostly of ethnic Croats and Albanians.

But none of this pre-election saber-rattling rang as loudly as Belgrade’s accusations of Washington’s role in the May 31 political assassination in Montenegro.  Here’s an excerpt from BBC’s (John Simpson’s) account of the tape to which he had listened:

“It sounded genuine, as far as it went. Mr. Matic (the Yugoslav minister) identified them (the U.S. officials) as John Burns, the head of the United States consulate in Dubrovnik, just along the Adriatic coast from Montenegro, and Gabriel Escobar, an economic aid official in Podgorica:

"Got a red light tomorrow-no go."

"Yeah, I was about to call you on that."

"Oh, so you know."

"Yeah, [name indistinct] called."

"Uh-huh. Did he feed you any more information?"

"Yeah, he said it was professional, and the mission was accomplished."

"Yeah."

"And that's all he knows."

"OK."

"And it happened about 20 minutes ago."

"Yeah, OK."

Mr. Matic thanked "all those who made it possible for us to tape this"-presumably the Russians or Chinese-and assured us that it was proof that the adviser had been gunned down by the CIA.

But, as one of the independent Serbian journalists still working in Belgrade pointed out, you have accused Mr. Djukanovic of being a CIA stooge; why should the CIA kill its own people? Good question, Mr. Matic replied; the CIA has a habit of using people, then throwing them away.”

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TiM Ed.: “Presumably Russians or Chinese?”  Why?  Does Simpson assume that only nuclear powers know how to eavesdrop on phone calls?  Or is he just trying to pin a tail on a donkey that suits the British foreign policy? 

And since Simpson’s comment was 100% conjecture and speculation, how about an alternative one…  What if some local Montenegrins in the Djukanovic’s circle were fed up with his betrayal of the fellow Serbs, and with his collaboration with the CIA?  As to a possible motive for the assassination, how about trying to shut up an asset that has gone bad?  What if Zugic knew too much about the earlier political assassinations in Belgrade?

Of course, “independent Serbian journalists” (also on the CIA payroll?) such as the one whom the British reporter quotes, aren’t likely to speculate about such alternative scenarios, are they?  Lest they also want to risk suffering Zugic’s fate, and then have western media blame that hit on the Belgrade regime, too.

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June 13, 2000

Western-style "Democracy" at Work in Montenegro: Belgrade Reporters Arrested in Podgorica, Herceg Novi

BELGRADE, June 13 - We've just received the following news clip from the Media Center in Belgrade (http://www.mediacenter.org.yu):

Radio Yugoslavia reporters, who left for Montenegro to cover the local elections in Podgorica and Herceg Novi, were arrested in the night between Saturday and Sunday, and taken to police stations in the two respective towns, despite the fact that their papers were in order, the Radio Yugoslavia reported last night.

"This is indicative of the atmosphere prevailing before and during the Montenegrin local elections," the Yugoslav state-owned news service, Tanjug commented, as it also carried this story.

June 18, 2000

Even American Officials Admit Belgrade Had No Role in  Montenegro Assassination

WASHINGTON, June 18 - “It's always easy to make too much of local elections, but the message to American policy makers was clear: Mr. Milosevic has won a round in fair elections,” the New York Times’ Stephen Erlanger wrote in a Sunday, June 18 commentary about Montenegro, “Trouble with Democracy.”

"Djukanovic clearly thought he'd get a better result, and he didn't," one senior American official told the Times. "It's not a disaster, but it's a signal." 

Senior American officials insist that any effort to move against Mr. Djukanovic with force could have consequences in Belgrade, with new bombing attacks, the Times said. But few in NATO want another bombing war after Kosovo. One senior NATO official said acerbically, "Kosovo was such a resounding success that no one in the alliance wants to repeat it ever again."

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TiM Ed.: Finally, a morsel of truth escapes from a NATO mouth. Not only was Kosovo a dismal failure of the puffed up military alliance of 19 nations, but NATO now knows that the next time they contemplate bombing Serbia, it will be only over a dead Russian bear's body.  Meaning, it will be the start of WW III.  Not even the corrupt western "death merchants" are that crazy. If they start WW III, it will be by accident, not by boldness.

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"Belgrade's pressure is not just political and psychological, Western and Montenegrin officials insist, but also physical, with the skillful assassination, 10 days before the vote, of one of Mr. Djukanovic's closest bodyguards," the Times continued. "American officials say they have no evidence of Belgrade's involvement."

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TiM Ed.: Now, here's the New York Times again at its ugliest.  Spinning the news its way, the facts notwithstanding.  In two adjacent sentences, the Times managed to convey two opposite and contradictory messages. 

"Belgrade's pressure" supposedly includes a "skillful assassination," says the Times.  Yet "American officials," who themselves have never been shy about lies and denials when it comes to Serbia, say "they have no evidence of Belgrade's involvement."

As we've suggested before, the New York Times should change its front-page motto from "all the news that's fit to print" to "all the 'news' that fits our opinions."

To read the rest of the Times commentary, click here.

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2. One Year Ago Today… Kosovo Fell, Signaling Beginning of End of New World Order

PHOENIX, June 11 - On March 24 of this year, we began a series of “One Year Ago Today…” reports at our Web site.  Day by day, for 79 days (some say 78 days, due to the time zone difference between America and Europe), we reminded the world again of the NATO lies and crimes committed in 1999.  Today, we end that series with excerpts from our last wartime Bulletin, and from the TiM editor’s subsequent lectures about NATO’s war and “peace.”

First, here’s an excerpt from the “War of the Hooligans: Thugs of the World Unite! Clinton and Milosevic Both Claim Victory,” written a year ago:

“PHOENIX, June 10 - The guns of war fell silent today. For now. NATO's bombs are no longer killing the Yugoslav people and the alliance's credibility. For now.

So why is the heart heavy? Why does the soul not feel like rejoicing?

Because this has been a war of the hooligans; a war on innocent civilians - Serbs, Albanians, Gypsies, even on farm and zoo animals. Which is why we say, "for now." Such wars never end unless the hooligans are gone.

Take a look around... Is Slobodan Milosevic still in power? Is Bill Clinton still in the White House? Is Tony Blair still the British prime minister? Is Wesley Kanne Clark still the supreme commander of NATO? Is Jamie Shea still the NATO mouthpiece? Is Madam Halfbright suddenly a "full Monty?"

Yes, yes, yes, yes and no. So those are five reasons the heart is heavy and the soul isn't rejoicing. But there are more...

Take a look at Northern Ireland's "peace process." It has evolved into a "piss process," as Prof. J.P. Maher rightly puts it. Since the much-celebrated Good Friday agreement last year, there have been 143 bombing incidents in Ulster, one of our Dublin sources reports…

Count on that in Kosovo's "piss process," too. Which is why we said that the killings in Serbia have stopped. For now. […]

Yet despite all this carnage which he had helped bring about before caving in and selling out Kosovo, Milosevic claimed "victory" today in his speech on Serb TV. "We demonstrated our army cannot be defeated," he said. "The territorial integrity of our country can never be questioned again."

For  now. Until the (Montenegro or) Vojvodina separatists get going, egged on and financed by the same Hegelian Dialecticians reincarnated as NWO globalists who had created the KLA out of thin air, and have manufactured the "Kosovo Crisis," claiming it to be a "humanitarian mission."

Diabolical? Yes. Perfidious? Yes. Machiavellian? Yes. Hegelian? Yes. Does it sell? Yes. But only to the dumbed-down masses which have never heard of Machiavelli or Hegel. On both sides...

Meanwhile, back in Washington, Clinton also claimed victory this evening. For now. Before some of the new "KFOR" peacekeepers become year-round body bag stuffers, just as had been the case with a number of NATO pilots and the "stealth" rescue and ground troops during the 79 days of war…

So the birds of a feather flock together. What's a few hundred good men here, a few hundred there? What's a few thousand dead civilians here, a few thousand there? Sacrificing human lives as if they were wooden pawns in a game of chess is obviously the game at which both neo-Marxist hooligans excel - Komrade Hooligan Milosevic for the East Side Gang, and Komrade Hooligan Klinton for the West Side Gang.

For, notably absent from Clinton's 13-minute speech was any concern for, or remorse over, the thousands of innocent Serb civilians whom NATO had killed. Instead, he promised them more hardships. Clinton also said there would be no reconstruction aid for Serbia as long as Milosevic is in power, just as the EU had said earlier (see S99-98, Day 72, Update 2, Item 4, June 3)...

Stay tuned. And stay active. Until we put all hooligans behind bars…”

And now, here’s an excerpt from the subsequent TiM editor’s lectures that puts the end of the NATO war in a geopolitical perspective:

“The end of the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization, also known as NATO, started as its bombing of Serbia ended.  The Serbs and the 250 Russian troops changed the course of history on June 11, 1999, when they snatched the sophisticated underground Slatina (Pristina, Kosovo) military airport right under the noses of their gleeful but klutzy NATO “Uebermenschen” (see S99-107, "Peacefarce" 1, Item 1, June 11).

From that day forward, the Russian quisling, Boris Yeltsin, became merely a model for a future wax figure in a New World Order museum.  On that day, the epitaphs for Clinton, Blair, Clark or Albright were written.

After June 11, it was just a matter of time before the official foreign policy began to reflect the new anti-western political climate in Russia.  Yeltsin’s appointment of Vladimir Putin, a total unknown in the West, to the post of the prime minister on Aug. 9, was the first step.  Yeltsin’s stepping down as Russia’s president on Dec. 31, completed his transition from a president to a wax figure. 

It was an apt New World Order anti-climax to be played out on the last day of the 20th century.  It was also a prelude to a western sunset.”  

And with that, we close our “One Year Ago…” series.

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3. Bishop Artemije Proposes Expanded UN/KFOR Roles, Others in Serbia Raise Serious ObjectionsJune 21, 2000 (photo added)

NEW YORK, June 9 - “Too little, too late... Plus, and the worst of all, addressed to a wrong party (the UN) - thus de facto recognizing the UN and KFOR jurisdiction over a sovereign Serbian territory,” was the TiM editor’s reaction to the June 9 statement submitted to the UN Security Council by the Serb Bishop Artemije. 

Initially, we had thought that Artemije was naive or ignorant (see the excerpts below).  But now, it seems evident that he is a western vassal.  In his statement to the UN, for example, he is calling for…

“6. The formation of special anti-terrorist units... in cooperation with KFOR...

7. Establishing... a special commission made up of Serbian experts and UNMIK...”

In other words, the bishop is asking for a deeper involvement of the Serb enemies under whose noses and “watchful eyes” more than 1,000 Serbs were murdered, and over 250,000 “ethnically cleansed” from their ancestral homes in Kosovo. 

If Bishop Artemije really wanted to help his fellow-Serbs, he would demand the return of the Yugoslav Army and protection from the Serbian government, not from the foreign occupiers who have already trampled on just about every provision of the “peace” agreement they signed a year ago.  As it turns out, the bishop’s hatred of Milosevic is obviously greater than his love of his own flock.

No surprise there.  Consider the following excerpts from the past TiM Bulletins that show how consistently Bishop Artemije has been serving the foreign interests in Kosovo:

Special TiM Bulletin S99-110, "Peacefarce" 4, June 16, 1999:

“We've told you the Kosovo "peace process" would turn into a "piss process," and it has. And worse... It is now turning into a combination of Serb "ethnic cleansing" and a shooting gallery with live Serbs being used as targets....

...Today (June 16, 1999), Bishop Artemije told Reuters he was leaving Prizren because it was no longer safe for him to stay. German officers advised the Bishop, the priests and the monks to leave Prizren tomorrow with the remaining Serbs, because they could no longer guarantee their safety. The Bishop said he would leave for the Kosovo capital Pristina later in the day under German military escort with nine priests and more than 200 Serbs who took refuge at his seminary after armed KLA rebels began patrolling the streets Tuesday...”

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Special TiM Bulletin S99-122, "Peacefarce" 16, July 11, 1999:

"...And now, during NATO's Kosovo "piss process," Bishop Artemije is distinguishing himself by a combination of unceasing courage and unceasing naiveté.  Courage, because he remained in Kosovo despite the threats he and the other Serb clergy from Prizren had received (see S99-110, "Peacefarce" 4, Item 1, June 16). Naiveté, because he keeps talking and trusting the enemy...

An excerpt from Artemije's July 4 letter to UN/KFOR:

"...Despite of these latest incidents we must say that we appreciate the efforts which KFOR has made in the course of the last week.  Actions in which KFOR soldiers confiscated weapons, arrested various criminals, and in several cases prevented major crimes show true commitment of the KFOR and UNMIK to work on creation of better security conditions for all communities in Kosovo and Metohija and fully implement the UN Security Council Resolution 1224, for which we remain grateful."

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TiM Ed.: See what we mean? Bishop Artemije is a good man; a brave priest; a devout Christian, but is unceasingly naïve when it comes to trusting the NATO war criminals. And their protégés, such an ordinary Albanian thug, KLA's Hashim Thaci (see "Thugs of the World Unite," Item 1, July 1).”

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Special TiM Bulletin S99-148, KFOR "Peacefarce" 42, Sept. 28, 1999

"TiM Ed.: Here we go again. Even our "brave but naïve" Kosovo Bishop is now putting the term "peace" in quotes, as TiM as been doing since day of the Kosovo "peace farce."

After three months of the "peace," the results are catastrophic for the Serbs in the province...

About 200,000 Serbs have been expelled, he said, more than 350 killed, 450 abducted, thousands of burned and looted Serb houses as well as 70 destroyed churches and monasteries in the presence of almost 50.000 international peace forces. The Serbs have been ethnically cleansed from all multiethnic areas and forced into reservations and ghettoes. They are denied basic human rights and freedom of movement, education, work and medical protection. Nothing is done to enable the expelled Serbs to go back to their homes while the remaining Serbs and other non-Albanians are still being persecuted, killed, raped and beaten.

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TiM Ed.: Surprise, surprise… In the good old days of the Serb insurrections against the Ottoman Empire occupiers, the Serb priests used to throw off their cloth and pick up the rifles and swords in defense of their flock. Nowadays, the former NWO appeasers, such as the two mentioned above, issue press releases, trying to distance themselves from the people with whom they've been drinking tea and coffee and posing for photos all these years, such as Madeleine Albright, for example, and her anti-Serbian cohorts on the Council of Foreign Relations."

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TiM Ed.: That was back then, last September, when it seemed that Bishop Artemije was trying to distance himself from the Serb enemies.  Since that time, he has again cavorted with Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright and other Serb enemies (see “Artemije, His Disgrace,” and “A Naïve Lamb or a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?”).  And now, he is echoing the words of another Serb nemesis, the top foreign civilian official in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, who told the UN Security Council that KFOR and UNMIK would have to stay in Kosovo “for years.”

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No wonder that such servitude toward the enemy is rejected not only by the remaining Kosovo Serbs, but also by some of the Serb opposition parties in Belgrade.  Here’s an excerpt from a statement by the Democratic Party of Serbia issued on June 11:

“That the UN Security Council session would serve only as yet another opportunity for hypocritical phrase-mongering about democracy, multi-ethnic and multi-confessional relations and tolerance could long since have been predicted. It could also have been predicted that KFOR and UNMIK would stay in Kosovo for yet a long time to come, practically as long as Washington desires...

That he (Milosevic) practically serves as an excuse for all of the international community's irresponsible and for the Serbs detrimental moves in Kosovo was also shown by the New York speech of UNMIK head Bernard Kouchner.

It is not, however, clear, what the delegation of the Gracanica Serb National Council was doing at the Security Council. The story about the expected annex to the resolution is too naive to be taken seriously. The problem is only the fact that the departure for the UN, just like the observer status in the Provisional Administration Council of Kosovo, albeit frozen, can also be interpreted as a tacit consent to everything that is happening to the Serbs.”

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4. “First Class Refugees” Push Dope in U.S., Overstay Their Welcome in U.K.

NEW JERSEY, June 7 - We’ve already reported about how some Kosovo Albanian refugees abused the hospitality of their hosts in Australia and Canada, for example.  Now we bring you a couple of stories from the U.S. and Great Britain that show the same pattern - Albanians biting the hands that feed them. 

We received the following letter from Ms. Jill Star of West Milford, New Jersey:

“1) Last time I wrote, my friend from S. was visiting me in December 1999. We were driving home from the local store when I noticed that the car in front of us had on its rear bumper, a KLA bumper sticker! It pulled into a local Garden Apartment building that had earlier rejected me for not being ‘elite enough’ --they said they don't like to accept students on section-8 housing, they wanted executives. This was along Route 23 in Butler NJ.

2) Everywhere I go in Butler and Wayne, the Albanians for whom Clinton bought a first class airline ticket, and who landed at Ft. DIX Airforce base in Southern NJ, seem to be doing quite well. Many of them hang out all over the streets in Butler, NJ, shouting obscenities at me as I go to the local health food store for fasting foods and soy milk (they drink beer on the sidewalks and pick up women in the local bar).

3) On Route 23 in Butler, NJ, the KLA has started a large dope dealing business at JIGGS CORNER BAR! Gee, I guess this is one reason for which we will need more taxes in American next year to pay for more criminals and more jails! Amazing ignorance on the part of Clinton's creepy administration!

P.S. The Albanians are getting more benefits than I do as a US citizen!”

Meanwhile, in Great Britain, some 2,500 Kosovo Albanians have gone “missing.”  How can a country “lose” 2,500 people?  Well, to start with, by having the likes of Tony Blair or Bill Clinton as heads of state.  No wonder their officials can’t tell the heads from tails when it comes to policy.

In an embarrassment to Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, officials admitted to the London Telegraph last night (see the June 11 issue) that they were powerless to take enforcement action against the refugees because they had no idea of their whereabouts. Last night senior Tories said that Mr. Straw had broken his promise that all Kosovo Albanians would be returned home once their 12-month leave to stay in Britain had expired.

Unlike asylum seekers from other countries, the 4,454 "Kosovars" granted exceptional leave - almost all of whom arrived before the end of April last year - were not required to inform the authorities of where they were living, but were expected to come forward once their 12-month permits to remain in Britain expired.

According to the ministry, however, up to 2,518 have failed to leave of their own accord or to apply for the right to remain. Many are believed to have disappeared into the black economy in order to stay on illegally.

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TiM Ed.: Well, Britain is now merely reaping the “benefits” of what Blair has sowed.  Which includes paying for thousands of British troops in Kosovo.  Meanwhile, Kosovo Albanians “refugees” are having a “jolly good time” in Britain at the expense of the British taxpayers, the folks who are being soaked twice for Blair’s Kosovo “humanitarian intervention.”

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5. “War of the Hooligans” Continues: Albanians vs. Albanians

PRISTINA, June 12 - What we dubbed a year ago the “War of the Hooligans” continues unabated in Kosovo a year after the NATO occupation commenced.  It’s just that now that the Albanian “mafias” have driven out of Kosovo most of the Serbian population, they are turning their attention and their guns on each other. 

Internal score-settling, business disputes and political rivalry have seen 23 high-ranking former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) members killed in the past year, the London Telegraph reports in its June 12 issue.  Here’s an excerpt:

“Last September the KLA (once 30,000-strong) was officially disbanded.  But the KLA commanders have retained key political and economic positions, as well as their ex-fighters' absolute loyalty and guns.  The former KLA supreme commander, Hacim Thaci, one of four members of Kosovo's ruling Interim Administrative Council, has lost control over many local chieftains who have left his Party of Democracy (PDK) and now lead rival clan-based factions.

The most successful is the charismatic former commander Ramush Haradinaj, who allegedly fell out with Mr Thaci over the control of certain petrol stations…

The power struggles between former brothers in arms have turned bloody. Last month the former KLA-commander Ekrem Rexha was gunned down outside his house. His assailants escaped. The moderate Rexha, a former Yugoslav army general who spoke seven languages, was known as a Thaci opponent and a close friend of Mr Haradinaj.

Ordinary Kosovo Albanians are increasingly disgusted by their liberators' brutal infighting, corruption and mafia-style activities. In January, the UN police raided the flat of Thaci's brother Gani and found 500,000 German marks in cash under a mattress. Part of the money had been paid by a Canadian construction company working in Kosovo for "intermediary services", as its embarrassed director explained.

Equally tainted with crime is the KLA's civilian successor organization, the Kosovo Protection Corps (TMK) whose 5,000 members immodestly translate their initials as Tomorrow's Masters of Kosovo.”

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6. Dissenting Canadians Speak Out against Ottawa’s War: David Orchard, Svend Robinson, James Bissett

TORONTO, June 9 - As you have seen from the recent TiM Bulletins, there is a growing number of prominent Canadians who are growing embarrassed by Ottawa’s continued kow-towing to the whims and wishes of the Big Brother south of the border.  And by the shameless role that the Canadian government has played in NATO’s attack on Serbia. 

Several such Canadians have recently publicly offered their dissenting views.  In this issue, we bring you comments from three of them - David Orchard, Svend Robinson and James Bissett.

David Orchard

David Orchard was the runner-up in the Progressive Conservative leadership contest two years ago. He is a farmer from Saskatchewan who believes in upholding a distinct Canadian identity in the face of globalization and Americanization.  He was also a leading Canadian opponent of NAFTA, and is the author of "The Fight for Canada" (1999).  He also chairs the Citizens Concerned About Free Trade. 

Here are some excerpts from a talk David Orchard delivered at a recent conference in Toronto, jointly organized by The Lord Byron Foundation and the Center for Peace in the Balkans:

“In March 1999, the most powerful military force in history attacked tiny Yugoslavia, a country one-fifth the size of my home province of Saskatchewan. For seventy-nine days the Canadian Air Force, without a declaration of war, without a parliamentary resolution and outside the bounds of legality, participated in a massive around-the-clock air bombardment in support of a shadowy, armed Kosovo secessionist movement seeking to break up what remained of Yugoslavia.

Admitting its intention was to break Yugoslavia’s spirit, NATO targeted civilian structures, dropping over 23,000 bombs (500 by Canada) and cruise missiles in a campaign of terror bombing, described recently by Alexander Solzhenitsyn as follows:

“I don’t see any difference in the behavior of NATO and of Hitler. NATO wants to erect its own order in the world and it needs Yugoslavia simply as an example: We’ll punish Yugoslavia and the whole rest of the planet will tremble.” […]

The Canadian government maintained it was bombing to prevent a humanitarian crisis, “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing.” Yet Roland Keith, Canadian field office director of the Kosovo Verification Mission in the weeks just prior to the bombing, reported that “the clear majority” of the violence he saw in Kosovo was instigated by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). In his words “there was no ethnic cleansing going on that I witnessed, and certainly no genocide.” […]

Following World War II the Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal ruled that to initiate a war of aggression... is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime. Yet this is precisely what Canada and its NATO allies have done in Yugoslavia. In the words of Walter J. Rockler, former prosecutor at Nuremberg, the attack on Yugoslavia constitutes the most brazen international aggression since the Nazis attacked Poland to prevent ‘Polish atrocities’ against Germans.

For Canada to drop bombs in favor of the breakup of another multi-ethnic state defies comprehension. A founding member of both the UN and the Non-Aligned Movement, Yugoslavia was Canada’s staunch ally in World War I and again in World War II when it stood at the forefront of the fight against both Hitler’s Nazis and Mussolini’s Fascists.

Attempting to defend the bombing prominent U.S. spokespersons, followed almost immediately by External Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy, went so far as to say that the principle of non-interference in the affairs of sovereign nations is obsolete because of globalization and the “new world” we now live in. […]

NATO acted in a self-appointed role. It did not have - nor could it have - any competence to become involved in the matter of Kosovo. It first dictated an insolent ultimatum disputing the very sovereignty of Yugoslavia, and upon its rejection launched an aggressive war accompanied by the revival of dark propaganda that sought to exploit the misery of the refugees to draw attention away from the violation of international law.

Unable to defend their actions on legal grounds NATO politicians and the media in their countries made an all out effort to convince public opinion that Yugoslavia deserved the onslaught, churning out endless accusations of Serb atrocities, many of which were accepted and repeated by prominent writers and cultural figures.

Latin American writer Eduardo Galeano, expressing shock at western intellectuals’ support for the attack on Yugoslavia, said: “If things go on as they are in the next few years, the Pentagon and NATO will be selecting their enemies by lottery...”

Why then did NATO attack Yugoslavia?  Most wars have historically been over trade. When the U.S. invaded Canada in 1812, Andrew Jackson declared, “We are going to... vindicate our right to a free trade, and open markets... and to carry the Republican standard to the Heights of Abraham.”

In 1839, Britain demanded China accept its opium and attacked when China said no, forcing that country to both accept opium and give up Hong Kong. When Thailand refused British trading demands in 1849, Britain “found its presumption unbounded” and decided a better disposed King [be] placed on the throne... and through him, we might, beyond doubt, gain all we desire.

A century and half later NATO said it was attacking Yugoslavia to force it to sign the Rambouillet “peace agreement,” even though the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, to which Canada and most NATO countries are signatory, states that any treaty obtained by force or the threat of force is void. Significantly, although rarely publicized, the economic section of Rambouillet stipulated:

“The economy of Kosovo shall function in accordance with free market principles,” and “there shall be no impediments to the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital to and from Kosovo.”

During the war Bill Clinton elaborated: “If we’re going to have a strong economic relationship that includes our ability to sell around the world, Europe has got to be the key; that’s what this Kosovo thing is all about... It’s globalism versus tribalism.”

Tribalism was the word used by 19th century free trade liberals to describe nationalism. And this war was all about threatening any nation that might have ideas of independence or sovereignty. Alone in Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia refused to allow U.S. military bases on its soil. According to the speaker of the Russian Duma, Yugoslavia annoys NATO because it conducts an independent policy, does not want to join NATO and has an attractive geographic position.

The Canadian government, citing urgent deficit conditions, has cut Medicare, agricultural research, social housing and even shelters for battered women, yet it spent tens of millions to bomb Yugoslavia, millions more to bring Albanian refugees to Canada and maintain them here and is spending further millions to occupy Kosovo. All the while Canada is abandoning its own sovereignty and economy to U.S. demands, whether it be magazines, fish, wheat, lumber or transportation.

The implications for democracy of the attack on Yugoslavia are far reaching. Who exactly ordered Canada into war? Do un-elected generals at NATO now determine Canada’s foreign policy, including decisions of war and peace? It is clear our Parliament does not. Canadian war planes were in the air before Parliament discussed the issue, and no vote was ever taken on the matter. In a crowning abdication of responsibility, Prime Minister Chrétien declared that whatever the NATO “team” decided about a ground war, Canada would go along. In the U.S. the elected representatives voted both against a declaration of war and against supporting the air war, yet it went on anyhow.

Globalization undermines both democracy and national sovereignty, the main guarantors of human rights. In a remarkably frank March 28, 1999, New York Times article, that paper’s chief diplomatic correspondent Thomas Friedman wrote: For globalization to work, America can’t be afraid to act like the almighty superpower that it is... The hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist - McDonald’s cannot flourish without McDonnell Douglas, the designer of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps the world safe for Silicon Valley’s technologies is called the US Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.”

As NATO troops entered Kosovo it was announced that the province’s new currency would be the German mark. After months of being told that Slobodan Milosevic was the key problem we heard Washington’s Balkans expert, Daniel Serwer, explain: “It’s not a single person that’s at issue, there’s a regime in place in Belgrade that is incompatible with the kind of economy that the World Bank... has to insist on.”

The assault on Yugoslavia represents a turning point in world history with profound implications for both democracy and the rule of law. Yet the silence following the end of the bombing is deafening. The situation cries out for a parliamentary inquiry to examine how Canada got involved in an illegal attack, using internationally outlawed weapons, on a former ally.

At the same time it is more urgent than ever that Canada regain its sovereignty so that it can stand for justice, play an independent role in world affairs, and never again participate in an unprovoked assault on another nation contrary to both law and morality.”

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TiM Ed.:  That’s a nice future “mission statement.”  But first, Canada and others who participated in NATO’s savage attack on humanity must be brought to justice.  

Svend Robinson

OTTAWA, June 8 - A decorated United States general is not only unworthy of Canadian honors, but should be tried for war crimes for his role in conducting NATO's air campaign against the former Yugoslavia, says a New Democrat Member of Canada's Parliament.  Svend Robinson issued a release Thursday (June 8) denouncing a plan to award U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, supreme commander of NATO forces in Kosovo, with the Meritorious Service Cross (also see a recentTiM article on that topic).

"Canada should be urging the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia, Carla del Ponte, to reverse her decision not to try top NATO officials for their alleged crimes," said Robinson.

The dates for presentation of Clark's Canadian decoration and his honorary British knighthood have yet to be announced.  Clark is also to receive an honorary knighthood from the Queen for his role in leading the 11-week NATO bombing campaign.

James Bissett

TORONTO, June 10 - James Bissett is a former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia.  He originally contributed this comment to the National Post, a Canadian daily:

“At the beginning of the Kosovo campaign, Svend Robinson supported the NATO intervention. He, like many Canadians, believed our NATO political leaders when they claimed that mass murder and genocide was taking place in Kosovo.

As the bombing of Yugoslavia went on and more and more civilian targets were being hit Mr. Robinson began to question the legitimacy of the war. With the end of the war and the revelation by NATO military leaders themselves that their inability to hit Serb military targets forced them to switch to the destruction of the civilian infrastructure, it became obvious that NATO had violated provisions of the Geneva Convention.

It was then that Mr. Robinson had the courage to change his mind about the war, and to question the propriety of awarding our Meritorious Service Cross to United States General, Wesley Clark, NATO’s Supreme Commander.

Mr. Robinson is not the only one who believes NATO violated the rules of war when its aircraft dropped thousands of cluster bombs on Yugoslavia, targeted Television Stations, blew out bridges across the Danube, smashed Belgrade’s power grid and heating stations, rocketed refugee columns and passenger trains and in so doing killed hundreds of innocent women, men and children.

The National Post’s editorial board may choose to agree, as does Jamie Shea, that the opinion of Carla Del Ponte of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, "carries more weight" than Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch. The real question is does her opinion carry more weight than the Geneva Convention?

It is fair game for the Post to disagree with Svend Robinson’s opinion that Wesley Clark’s Meritorious Service Cross should be taken from him, but it is a cheap shot to accuse him of, "doing Belgrade’s work." Does the Post make the same charge against the British Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee which has now concluded that NATO had no authority to bomb Yugoslavia and that the war was illegal?”

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7. British Parliamentary Committee Says NATO Bombing Was Illegal

LONDON, June 8 - Speaking of which… The British House of Commons foreign affairs select committee has ruled that the NATO’s war on Serbia was illegal under international law, but was justified on moral grounds, the London Guardian reported on June 8, in an article titled “NATO’s Shame.” 

“Even in the age of the new imperialism, this is a pretty breathtaking conclusion, the Guardian’s Isabel Hilton says. We are being asked to accept that it is morally fine to break international law, as long as we do so with good intentions. This is because we are the good guys - so although we do things that may look wrong, they are not wrong really. If Slobodan Milosevic breaks international humanitarian law, which we could certainly argue that he did, we are entitled to break international law to teach him what's what.

It is the sort of argument that, were it to be put by anyone not quite as nice or pure in heart as we are, might make me a touch uneasy. But it gets worse.

NATO's actions were illegal under NATO's own treaty, which does not permit it to undertake aggressive military action without a UN mandate. The foreign affairs committee's solution to this is to propose that NATO rewrite its charter. It's a brilliant solution, as long as the only part that bothers you is NATO’s breach of its own rules.

If, like me - and a stream of expert witnesses who testified to the committee - you are also bothered by the fact that international law does not permit the alliance to bomb Kosovo on its own recognizance, however worthy the intention, then changing NATO’s rules will not reassure you.

The inconvenience, of course, is that a UN mandate requires us to sign up the awkward squad - the Russians and the Chinese - or at least, to persuade them not to veto any action we might wish to take. Certainly this is difficult, but it hardly supports NATO’s claim to be on the side of democracy, justice and the rule of law if it ditches the rules when they do not suit…

Of course it is irksome to have to persuade one's fellow states, many of whom act out of ignoble motives. But the alternative is to sacrifice the principle of international law while claiming (as scoundrels might) to be acting in defense of humanitarian principle.”

For the full Guardian article, check out http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4028331,00.html .  

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8. Kouchner: Touchy, Touchy... Is This Pal of Thaci!June 13, 2000

PRISTINA, Kosovo, June 12 - Touchy, touchy... is this pal of (Hashim) Thaci! The top United Nations envoy in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, snapped today at another senior United Nations official today for criticizing his running of the Serbian province by telling him to "shut up," according to a June 12 Reuters report.

At a news conference marking the first anniversary of United Nations administration of Kosovo, a questioner had asked Mr. Kouchner to comment on charged by Jiri Dienstbier, the United Nations human rights investigator for former Yugoslavia, that he had allowed extremists to operate with impunity in Kosovo and interfered with teams investigating human rights violations.  

Clearly furious, Kouchner said he had interfered with an investigation only once, in a particular circumstance, and concluded: "Please, Mr. Dienstbier, shut up!"

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Also, check out... Djurdjevic's WASHINGTON TIMES columns:  "Christianity Under Siege," "Silence Over Persecuted Christians", "Chinese Dragon Wagging Macedonian Tail,"  "An Ugly Double Standard in Kosovo Conflict?", "NATO's Bullyboys", "Kosovo: Why Are We Involved?", and "Ginning Up Another Crisis"

Or Djurdjevic's NEW DAWN magazine columns: "Blood for Oil, Drugs for Arms", "Washington's Crisis Factory,"  and "New Iron Curtain Over Europe"