ASHDOWN, MI6 & THE HAGUE TRIBUNAL.
Lord 'Paddy' Ashdown was born in New Delhi in 1941 and came to Britain
when his family returned in 1945. He undertook Special Forces Training
before becoming a commander in the Special Boat Service (SBS), (part
of the UK Special Forces with the SAS), which saw him working in the
Far East and Belfast.
He joined the Foreign Office in 1972 and later stood as a Liberal
Party candidate in 1979 before eventually evolving into the leader of
the Liberal Democrats in 1988.
A year later he was appointed to the Privy Council. This is an
unelected body of establishment figures who are tasked with ruling the
country in times of 'crisis' when Parliament is dissolved. It is in
fact a dictatorship in waiting.
Ashdown was knighted in 2000 and made a peer of the realm in 2001 in
recognition of his 'services' to Britain's ruling elite.
With a family history steeped in experience of colonial rule,
primarily in India, it is little wonder that Lord Ashdown took to his
post of Office of the High Representative (OHR), of Bosnia and
Herzegovina (B&H) with relish. A man with such a history would never
see the irony of a non-elected person, such as himself, dismissing
democratically elected members of parliament as happened in his purges
on the Bosnian Serb Republic (Republika Srpska) in B&H last year. RS
president Dragan Cavic called the purges "an absolutely needless
exercise in brutality, interventionism, imperialism and supremacy."
Nor is it surprising that such dictatorial behaviour would be endorsed
by the United States. A US State Department press release dated 30th
June 2004 commented;
"The United States strongly supports High Representative Paddy
Ashdown's actions June 30 against officials in the Republika Srpska
and the Serbian Democratic Party. As NATO made clear in its June 28
Istanbul summit communiqué, obstructionist elements (meaning the
democratically elected officials IJ) in the Republika Srpska bear
primary responsibility for failure to cooperate fully with the ICTY
(International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia), a
fundamental requirement for Bosnia and Herzegovina to join NATO's
Partnership for Peace".
The words 'Nato' and 'peace' in the same sentence is another irony
that Lord Ashdown would fail to see. Moreover the US State
Department's emphasis on co-operation with the ICTY is an indication
of the true aims and intentions of the OHR.
THE OHR
The OHR receives the bulk of its funding from three main sources; the
European Union, the United States and the United Kingdom. As well as
providing funding through its membership of the European Union the UK
contributes a further twenty- percent of the cost, revealing the fact
that Britain is heavily involved with the operation of the OHR and in
Ashdown they have appointed a man with all the necessary
anti-democratic credentials.
When Ashdown took up his duties as High Representative in May 2002 he
immediately 'streamlined' the co-ordinating structures and established
a Board of Principals, which included himself, various European Union
bodies, the World Bank and the IMF. The make up of this body clearly
illustrates the direction the foreign powers demanded B&H take,
regardless of the wishes of its people.
At a time when industrial production in Bosnia has fallen by 40%,
unemployment is at record levels, and state industries are sold off
for a fraction of their true value, it is informative indeed to
realise that against this background there is one overriding topic
that dominates the meetings of Ashdown's 'Peace Implementation Council
Steering Body'.
Here is Ashdown speaking in 2004:
"In one crucial respect, however, progress has been completely
unsatisfactory. This is the failure of Republika Srpska (RS) to
co-operate fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia (ICTY). This failure has become a fundamental
obstacle to BiH's continuing progress towards Euro-Atlantic
structures."
And here are extracts from the minutes of his Steering Body's
subsequent meetings.
"The Steering Board reminded the BiH authorities that inadequate
cooperation with the ICTY is now the major obstacle standing in the
way of BiH's progress towards the European Union and Nato. There must
be a process of full ICTY cooperation leading to the transfer of
indictees at large, including Karadzic and Mladic. Failure to complete
the process would have, among other consequences, the effect of
blocking BiH's future in Euro-Atlantic institutions." (February 2005).
"The Steering Board welcomed the transfer by the RS authorities of
seven ICTY indictees. What has occurred in recent weeks is the start
of a process that must be completed if BiH is to move decisively along
the road to Euro-Atlantic integration. The Steering Board therefore
calls on the authorities – especially the RS authorities –
energetically to continue this process until all remaining indictees,
including Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, are transferred to The
Hague." (April 2005).
"The Steering Board stressed the determination of the International
Community that the perpetrators of war crimes will face justice. It
is, and will remain, a firm condition for BiH's integration in
Euro-Atlantic structures. The Steering Board made clear that Radovan
Karadzic and Ratko Mladic must be apprehended." (June 2005).
The obsession with integrating B&H into 'Euro-Atlantic institutions'
seems to overlook the fact that until the Western powers destroyed it,
B&H was indeed integrated into a larger federation, it was called
Yugoslavia!
Moreover the fetish for sending the leaders who defied Nato to the
ICTY would seem to confirm that the Western intention is to destroy
completely a leaderless Republika Srpska.
The Office of the High Representative of Bosnia and Herzegovina was
created ostensiously to oversee the Dayton Peace Accords of 1995 which
were meant to 'stabilise' that part of the former Yugoslavia by
co-ordinating the implementation of the civilian aspects of the peace
agreement. Yet the influential Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily –
(Volume XXII, No. 168 - Wednesday, October 20, 2004) commented:
"Ashdown has seen it as a mission not to implement the 1995 Dayton
Accords — for which his post was created by the international
community — but rather to transform Bosnia & Herzegovina into a
unitary state, ending the Dayton-stipulated format of two substates
within a federation. Essentially, Ashdown, according to the sources,
intends to see Republika Srpska "disappear".
Significantly, Republica Srpska is the only part of Bosnia-Herzegovina
where the rule of law applies, and where there is productivity, ethnic
and religious tolerance."
Ashdown is renowned for his anti-Serb bias as the following
illustration demonstrates:
"Sources within the "Office of the High Representative" — the
internationally-imposed leadership of Bosnia-Herzegovina — in Sarajevo
told GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs that they expected "High
Representative" Paddy Ashdown to use the Serbian historic day of June
28, 2004, which commemorates the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, as a
symbolic day to impose "more punishment" on the Bosnian Serb
community.
The principal instrument which Ashdown has used to constrain the
Bosnian Serbs has been his Srebrenica Commission, which has been used
to override all international assessments of the 1995 (and earlier)
fighting in and around the town of Srebrenica.
On April 20, 2004, Ashdown summarily dismissed the Republika Srpska
official, Dejan Miletic, who had been in charge of investigating war
crimes, and then ordered the Bosnian Serb leadership to make a
statement — totally dictated by Ashdown's Office of the High
Representative — accepting the Ashdown and Islamist version of what
happened in the Srebrenica fighting, despite the fact that Ashdown's
repeated statements consistently flew in the face of independent
forensic investigation of the affair. Indeed, as GIS has noted in the
past, Ashdown had refused even to speak with the forensic scientists
who had, independently, developed the intelligence of what really
happened in Srebrenica.
One Western European member of the OHR staff said: "Ashdown isn't
going to let the facts get in the way of his story. It's all about
him, not about building the stable, multi-confessional state which the
Dayton Accords specified." ('Ashdown Expected to Escalate Attacks on
Bosnian Serbs' Defense & Foreign Affairs Daily, June 28 2004 )
ASHDOWN TESTIFIES AT THE ICTY.
In March 2002 Paddy Ashdown appeared as an eager prosecution witness
in the 'trial' against Slobodan Milosevic. At the ICTY Ashdown spoke
of his four day visit to Kosovo in 1998 and claimed, as a neutral
observer, to have been a personal witness to atrocities allegedly
carried out by the Yugoslav Army, which he claimed, he witnessed from
his vantage point above the village of Gegaj in Albania overlooking
Kosovo.
Furthermore, Ashdown testified about his visit to Studencani where he
met villagers who talked to him and verified Ashdown's further claims
regarding the actions of the Serbian police in that village.
As we shall see below, any truly legitimate court of law would have
thrown Ashdown in prison on charges of perjury for such misleading
testimony.
First, Ashdown omitted to mention that his frequent, expenses paid,
trips to the Balkans were courtesy of George Soros's Open Society
Institute, the very same institute that provides funding and staff for
the ICTY itself. The Open Society is a pro-free market institute
operating throughout Eastern Europe with the intention of opening up
new markets for western exploitation and privatisation.
Second, Ashdown's visit to Studencani was not to meet the villagers
but to meet the terrorist organisation, the KLA. Milosevic
subsequently provided the ICTY with a video of Ashdown's meeting in
which Ashdown is heard assuring the KLA that he will 'do his best' to
get assistance for them. This from a supposedly neutral observer?
(Interestingly, a year before Ashdown's testimony Michael Levine,
former U.S. counter-narcotic agent and one of its most decorated
officers, stated the following:
"(T)he KLA, ..is tied in with every known Middle and Far Eastern drug
cartel. Interpol, Europol, and nearly every European intelligence and
counter-narcotics agency has files open on drug syndicates that lead
right to the KLA, and right to Albanian gangs in this country. My
contacts within the DEA are, quite frankly, terrified, but there's not
much they can say without risking their job. The Albanian mob is a
scary operation. In fact, the Mafia relied on Albanian hit-men to
carry out a lot of their contracts.... And now, according to my
sources in drug enforcement, they are politically protected."
This then is the nature of the organisation that Ashdown pledged to 'assist'.)
Third. After it was proved in court that Ashdown could not possibly
have seen anything from the position he had previously claimed, above
the Albanian village of Gegaj, he promptly supplied the court with
grid co-ordinates different from his original testimony, and these new
co-ordinates put him inside Kosovo and not in Albania which
contradicted his March 2002 testimony. Morever, on the map the
prosecution supplied to try and verify Ashdown's testimony the village
of Gegaj had been moved!
When challenged on this point the prosecution reluctantly admitted it
may be a faulty map!
Is it any surprise then that this 'trial of the century' receives such
little coverage in the western media, so shameful has it all become.
And what does Ashdown's discredited testimony say about the kind of
character he really is?
Writer Paul Mitchell wrote, " Ashdown speaks at The Hague as an
advocate of imperialist militarism in the Balkans and elsewhere. In
2000 he published an article in the Independent newspaper calling for
a European rapid-reaction force. Ashdown argued: ' Yet today Europe
undoubtedly is a power, even a superpower. It has the world's second
most powerful currency and arguably the world's biggest single market.
And so it has an economic space to protect and interests to pursue.'
These statements show Ashdown is well aware that self-interest and
spheres of influence are the raison d'être of Western policy makers
and that claims to a humanitarian impulse for Britain, the US and
Europe in their conflict with Milosevic is rank nonsense." (wsws.org)
MI6
Given the above it came as no surprise when an article in the
Birmingham Post in September this year, revealed that Ashdown had
worked for M16, part of the British Intelligence Service.
Moreover it was revealing to study the recently published list of M16
agents, which appeared on the cryptome website, who were active in the
Balkans during the 1990s and in some instances then moved on to work
in The Hague. This would obviously suggest that there is a link
between M16 and the ICTY, an association that many people have long
suspected, and a link, it appears, that covers all levels of ICTY
employees.
In his book 'Web of Deceit' author Mark Curtis exposed the unsavoury
history that MI6 have in regard to the 'assassination' of Slobodan
Milosevic. Assassination options put forward by MI6 included; an SAS
bomb or sniper ambush, a road crash using strobe lighting, and in
1999, the use of Nato aircraft to target him during the bombing
campaign. (Interestingly Curtis also exposes the links between MI6 and
'Osama bin Laden's supporters').
As to the question of what control, if any, do British intelligence
have over the ICTY, it is worthwhile to consider the following: The
ICTY is supposedly an international court that was established by the
United Nations Security Council, however since this body has no legal
authority to establish such a court it is in fact illegal. Moreover
there are 191 Member States represented at the United Nations, yet the
key personnel at the ICTY are exclusively British. The leading judge
is British, the lead prosecution is British, the defence counsel
imposed on Mr Milosevic against his will is British and the bulk of
the 1300 staff working at the 'tribunal' are either British or
American. Furthermore, when judge Richard May passed away, unlamented,
he was replaced by yet another British judge, Bonomy, who we presume
is trying desperately to avoid the same fate as his predecessor. Are
we to assume therefore that there is no competent judiciary in the
remaining 190 countries, or is it more the case of the necessity for
political control of this 'tribunal'?
Apart from the fact that Britain was one of the main aggressor nations
against Yugoslavia and therefore has a vested interest in the outcome
of the 'trial', the overwhelming exclusion of other nationalities from
these positions can do nothing but confirm the allegations that this
is a tightly controlled and illegitimate tribunal, and a politically
motivated court that cannot risk the presence of even one objective
voice.
When he appeared at The Hague in March 2002, Ashdown made the claim
that the British Army would never engage in actions which targeted the
civilian population, yet if we examine the kind of activities engaged
in by the UKs Special Forces, the SAS and the SBS of which Ashdown was
a commander, we come across a world of assassinations, provocation,
double agents, murder and bombings. (See for instance
globalresearch.ca and the investigative articles by Michael Keefer and
the book 'Web of Deceit' by Mark Curtis).
Countering Ashdown's assertion Mr Milosevic, in an attempt to expose
Ashdown, highlighted the 'extraordinary level of activity' that
Ashdown, a leader of a small opposition party in Britain, was engaged
in. He further tried to raise the question about the events in
Northern Ireland and particularly Bloody Sunday but was cut off by the
judges and told he could not follow that line of questioning because
it was 'too political'.
BOSNIA
Bosnia is an ideal place for someone of Ashdown's background as the
Independent newspaper explained;
"In his current role Lord Ashdown's power is absolute. He can pick up
one of the telephones on his desk and sack any official in the
country. He can freeze the bank accounts of anyone he deems
objectionable. He can overturn the decisions of courts."
He can also change the constitution yet he is not even accountable to
the people he governs.
In John Laughland's May 2005 article 'Bosnia Today' he quotes lawyer
Josip Muselimovic:
"Fundamental human rights and freedoms have been completely violated
in Bosnia – by the High Representative. In no legal system in the
world can there be power without legal checks. Yet there are no legal
checks on the High Representative"
Yet Ashdown expresses a complete indifference to the reality of Bosnia
today. In an interview with the International Herald Tribune in
November 2005 he ludicrously commented:
"I don't know a country in the entire world that has made faster
progress from war, let alone such a terrible war, to peace," Ashdown
said. With over a million refugees having returned to their homes, and
most towns substantially rebuilt, he added, Bosnia has made a speedier
recovery than any country in Europe after World War II.
This is spin worthy of Tony Blair and his entourage. The fact is, as
pointed out in 'Bosnia Today';
"Unlike Germany which achieved full effective sovereignty four years
after the end of World War Two, many think that little Bosnia is still
not fit for self-government ten years after the end of its civil war."
Ashdown's term in office is scheduled to end shortly and his much
vaunted 'exit strategy' is dealt with most effectively by Laughland in
his article.
" Ashdown's so-called 'exit strategy' is in fact simply an entry
strategy – into the European Union. The dictatorial powers of the High
Representative will be abolished only when Bosnia has signed an
Association Agreement with Brussels. Power will simply be transferred
from one undemocratic structure to another, and self-government will
be returned to Bosnia only when it is no longer self-governing. When I
put it to Lord Ashdown that the citizens of Bosnia had never formally
expressed their desire to join the EU, he replied, 'Referenda are very
dangerous in this country – that is how the war started.'"
Ashdown's legacy of his time in B&H can be summed up by quoting the
following from Train of Abuses by Nebojsa Malic:
"Ashdown has always exhibited a petty tyrannical streak; the
near-absolute power he enjoys now could be producing delusions of
grandeur rivalling only those of the current Emperor. That he is
driving Bosnia toward a new conflict, and destroying what little the
Dayton peace accomplished, doesn't seem to bother him at all. But more
disturbingly, it doesn't seem to concern his Imperial patrons,
either."
Ian Johnson
November 2005.
Serbian News Network - SNN
news@antic.org
http://www.antic.org/
