April 1999

12. An increasingly authoritarian WestLook at the ‘Letters to the Editor’ section of variousinfluential Western dailies, watch debates on television,listen to new questions being asked by journalists. SurfInternet, read list servers, websites and discussion groupsand one thing is abundantly clear: ordinary citizensthroughout the West are increasingly skeptical. They see theever widening gap between NATO and State Department news andother news. Many feel that bombing innocent civilians isjust not right; common sense also tells that this is not theway to create trust between Albanians and Serbs – or forthat matter between any conflicting parties. It allmilitates against all we know about human psychology. The longer it takes, the more likely the momentum of thatpublic protest. NATO country citizens will begin to ask: ifa mistake like this could be made in this important field,are other mistakes also lurking in, say, globalization, inthe more or less forced democratization, in the zeal withwhich Western...

“NATO’s war against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) is not comparable with the Vietnam war, with bombing Iraq or throwing cruise missiles on Sudan or Afghanistan. In a more fundamental way, it threatens major Western institutions, economies and Western leadership. With that much at stake, Western governments have long forgotten what the original problem was. Perhaps this is the reason why NATO now defines itself as a player that does not negotiate and thus has only the hammer left in its toolbox. That’s the opposite of statesmanship,” says TFF director Jan Oberg. “Whether or not we support NATO’s bombing, we must be aware of the risks and potential costs to the West itself. Our politicians seem not to be aware of how big they could be. Therefore, I believe it’s time to show some civil courage and engage in solid damage-limitation both for the Balkans and for ourselves, otherwise...

12. Jacanje autoritarizma na ZapaduPogledajte rubriku Pisma uredniku bilo kojih uticajnihzapadnih dnevnih novina, pogledajte debate koje se vode nateleviziji, obratite paznju na pitanja koja postavljajunovinari. Surfajte po internetu, listajte web-sajtove,servere i grupe za diskusiju i jedna ce vam stvar postatiocigledno jasna: obicni gradjani na Zapadu postaju svesumnjicaviji. Polako uvidjaju sve siri i siri jaz izmedjunovosti koje dobijaju od NATO-a i Stejt Departmenta i onihdrugih agencija. Mnogi jednostavno osecaju da bombardovatineduzne civile nikako ne moze biti ispravno; zdrav razum namtakodje govori da se tako nece uspostaviti poverenje izmedjuAlbanaca i Srba – ili ako hocete izmedju bilo koje dvesukobljene strane. To je u suprotnosti sa svim sto uopsteznamo o psihologiji ljudi. Sto god ovo bude duze trajalo,sve veci zamah ce dobijati protesti javnosti. Gradjani NATOzemalja pocinju da se pitaju: ako se na ovako vaznom poljumogla dogoditi greska, zar se skrivene greske mozda nenalaze i u drugim vaznim problemima danasnjice;globalizaciji, demokratizaciji koje se...

Vec su moguca poredjenja NATO-ovog rata protiv SavezneRepublike Jugoslavije s Vijetnamskim ratom, s bombardovanjemIraka ili s gadjanjem krstarecim raketama Afganistana iliSudana. Na neuporedivo fundamentalniji nacin od ovih drugihratova, njime se ugrozavaju sve vitalne institucije Zapada,ekonomija i zapadno vodjstvo. Izlaganjem svega ovoga riziku,zapadne vlade izgleda kao da su vec odavno izgubile iz vidasta je tu uopste bio osnovni problem. Mozda je bas to razlogzasto NATO sad sam sebe definise kao ucesnika koji nepregovara tako da mu je od sveg alata u njegovom kompletupreostala jos samo macola. To je potpuno suprotnodrzavnickoj mudrosti kaze direktor TFF-a, Jan Oberg.Svejedno da li cemo odluciti da podrzimo NATO-vobombardovanje ili ne, moramo postati svesni rizika koje onosa sobom nosi a i mogucih troskova za sam Zapad. Izgleda danasi politacari i nisu svesni koliko bi bas ti troskovimogli da budu znacajni. Stoga verujem da je vreme dapokazemo gradjansku hrabrost i preduzmemo nesto u ciljuogranicavanja stete ne samo za...

Belgrade popular movements seek reconciliation with Albanians Belgrade, April 30, 1999  Dear friends, We are writing to you in these difficult moments of our shared suffering. Convoys of Albanians and other citizens of Kosovo, among whom many of you, were forced to leave their homes.  The killings and expulsions, homes destroyed and burnt, bridges, roads and industrial buildings demolished – paint a somber and painful picture of Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, as in indicating that life together is no longer possible. We, however, believe that it is necessary and possible.  The better future of citizens of Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, of Serbs and Albanians, as citizens of one state or closest neighbors, will not arrive by itself, or over night. But it is something we can and must work on together, as we have many times in the past, not so long ago. We know that it will now be...

By Samir Amin Al-Ahram Weekly 22 – 28 April 1999 Issue No. 426 Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 The 28 March issue of the New York Times contains an informative article on US political strategy. Its content is summed up by an eloquent image that takes up one page of the publication: a boxing glove in the colours of the American flag, accompanied by the following caption: “What the world needs now — for globalisation to work, America can’t be afraid to act like the almighty superpower that it is”. The reason for the announced punches is elucidated in these terms: “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...

“We are told there the West knew already last autumnthat President Milosevic had a plan to ethnically cleanseall Albanians from the Kosovo province. However, while it istrue that Yugoslav forces have exploited NATO’s bombingcampaign to drive out Albanians in a way and to an extentthat must be morally condemned, the unproved allegation thatthere existed a plan tells more about NATO than aboutPresident Milosevic – and what it tells is not to theadvantage of the former,” says TFF director JanOberg.  “The disgusting expulsion of Albanians from Kosovo can’tbe defended. The Yugoslav authorities who carries it out orlets individuals do it, can not defend such human rightsviolations with reference to NATO’ bombing. Sure, Serbs willsee NATO’s destruction of Yugoslavia as work commissioned byKosovo-Albanians/UCK, but it is anyhow up to Yugoslavia tofight NATO, not to take revenge against those who areinnocent civilians.  Having said that, NATO and the West can not be trustedwhen...

Documents show that NATO ignored risks Delivered-To: d58155-tff@transnational.org From: “stevan babic” <batabab@ntscan.com> Subject: Translation to Serbian of PI # 634 Date: Sun, 2 May 1999 18:25:43 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.71.1712.3 X-MDaemon-Deliver-To: tff@transnational.org X-Return-Path: batabab@ntscan.com Dear Jan,    with a small delay, please find bellow the translation to Serbian of your PI # 64.   Best regards   Stevan   ******************************************************************   Ukoliko postoji plan o etnickom ciscenju onda je Zapad u moralnoj krizi, – a pogotovo ako ne postoji    Dokumenti pokazuju da se NATO nije obazirao na upozorenja   TFF Press Info # 64   “Rekli su nam kako je predsednik Milosevic jos prosle jeseni imao razradjen plan da etnicki ocisti pokrajinu Kosovo od Albanaca. Medjutim dok je neosporna cinjenica da su jugoslovenske snage zloupotrebile NATO-ovu kampanju bombardovanja za proterivanje Albanaca na takav nacin i u tako velikom broju da...

Collected by International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, IALANA 1. Opinion of the Upper Administrative Court at Mnster, March 11, 1999 (Az: 13A 3894/94.A):“Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo have neither been nor are now exposed to regional or countrywide group persecution in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.” 2. Opinion of the Bavarian Administrative Court, October 29, 1998 (Az: 22 BA 94.34252):“The Foreign Office’s status reports of May 6, June 8 and July 13, 1998, given to the plaintiffs in the summons to a verbal deliberation, do not allow the conclusion that there is group persecution of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. Not even regional group persecution, applied to all ethnic Albanians from a specific part of Kosovo, can be observed with sufficient certainty. The violent actions of the Yugoslav military and police since February 1998 were aimed at separatist activities and are no proof of a persecution of the whole Albanian...

Bidrag istedet til at hjælpe NATO, EU og Balkan væk fra afgrunden I sidste uge fortalte statsminister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen den danske befolkning at vi må vænne hinanden til at NATO måske vil indsætte landtropper i Kosovo/a. De vil sige storkrig. Hans partifælle Jacob Buksti mener ikke at landtropper skal kæmpe sig ind, “men det er ikke sådan, at man nødvendigvis skal have en egentlig fredsaftale eller våbenhvileaftale, skrevet under af Milosevic.” Statsministeren ville ikke afvise, at indsættelse af landtropper kan komme til at koste danske soldater livet. “Det kan ingen spå om. Vi må tale så nøgternt om det som muligt, og vi kan ikke udelukke, at den dag vil komme, hvor der vil være et antal mennesker, som har dansk medborgerskab, som kommer hjem fra Kosovo/a i ikke-levende tilstand.” Krig er for alvorligt til sådan ulden tale. Statsministerens udtalelse blev da også afsporet. Flere politikere mente at det...

New York Times April 21, 1999 By ROBERT S. MCNAMARA WASHINGTON — Will the war in Kosovo become another Vietnam? After barely a month of bombing Yugoslavia, it is far too soon to make such analogies. Nevertheless, there is a widespread fear that the two sides will be caught in a cycle of escalation, as occurred in Vietnam. As awful as Kosovo is now, the odds of a long-term tragedy will be far greater if we don’t apply the lessons the Vietnam conflict taught us.  In fact, my great concern is that we and our adversaries may have already made mistakes that might have been avoided had we learned from experience. Studying the lessons of Vietnam may allow us to end this war earlier; ignoring them may result in catastrophe.  Over the past four years, a number of us from the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, and some of America’s top scholars,...

LONDON- As the twentieth century closes it appears more than ever to merit the French sociologist Raymond Aron’s description, “the century of total war”. Just before he died last year the great British philosopher Isaiah Berlin said, “it was the worst century that Europe ever had. Worse, I suspect, even than the days of the Huns”. And why? Because “in our modern age nationalism is not resurgent; it never died. Neither did racism. They are the most powerful movements in the world today cutting across many social systems”. He ended: “I am glad to be as old as I am”. In his book “Pandaemonium”, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, probably the U.S. Senate’s most illustrious intellectual, observes that today “there are just eight states on earth which both existed in 1914 and have not had their form of government changed by violence since then”. These are the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada, South Africa,...