Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- -----Original Message-----
From: Dragan Rakic [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: August 16, 2001 5:06 AM Subject: RE: - Ljudska prava - NATO Gave Us This Ethnic Cleansing
Those who
did not understand it are either fool or very very
naïve.
From
also destroyed Western
barbarians have no moral values, but are guided only by their own
interests. There is a
sort of the phenomenon which could be compared to “
Pavlov reflex”, in the West .
Dragan
St.Rakic -----Original
Message----- Published on
Wednesday, August 15, 2001 in the Guardian of London NATO
Gave Us This Ethnic Cleansing by
Milcho Manchevski in
Skopje The good guys of yesteryear have
become the bad guys in Macedonia. Reports from the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, US state department and UN last week all point to the
Albanian separatists fighting here as perpetrators of ethnic cleansing directed
at the Macedonian population. This comes as no surprise to
Balkan-watchers who have been following the evolving tragedy in the country.
During the 10 years of fighting in what was once Yugoslavia, Macedonia managed
to remain unscathed, without help from the international community. After tense
negotiations, the Yugoslav army left peacefully, an admirable effort credited
mainly to the first Macedonian president, Kiro Gligorov. There was tension -
Gligorov himself survived an assassination attempt - but no fighting.
The government and the people were
repeatedly applauded by the international community for their efforts in
creating and maintaining a multi-ethnic society. Parties representing ethnic
minorities sat in parliament. Albanian parties were coalition partners in all
governments. Today six out of 17 government ministers are ethnic Albanians, the
parliamentary vice-president is Albanian and so are several ambassadors. There
are primary and secondary schools and colleges teaching in Albanian; an Albanian
university is about to open. There are Albanian TV stations, theaters,
newspapers. Why then the recent ethnic violence? Albanian militants claim that they
are fighting for human rights. This is a mantra which has proved to be a winning
argument in the past. However, this time it is a front for an armed redrawing of
the borders. The occupation of territory; abduction and murder of civilians;
threats to bomb the parliament building in Skopje; cutting off water supplies to
Prilep; and the ethnic cleansing perpetrated on the majority Macedonians (a
minority in the area of the conflict) all raise the question: does one fight for
language recognition with mortar fire and snipers? The "ethnic cleansers", the NLA, are
mainly old KLA soldiers who fought in Kosovo alongside NATO. Most of their arms
and fighters come across the border from NATO.-administered Kosovo. The UN
security council last week requested that KFor and UNMIK (the UN's Interim
Administration Mission in Kosovo) patrol the porous border more vigilantly.
American, EU and NATO. diplomats
have brokered a peace agreement, which centers on a better guarantee of the
Albanians' minority rights, as a pre-requisite for disarmament. This misses the
point: the radical Albanians are fighting for territory. They are doing
precisely what many observers have been warning against for years - escalating
the violence until the average citizen is radicalized.
Even though diplomats insist they
will not negotiate with the NLA, the west is, de facto, legitimizing killing in
the name of a language dispute. Meanwhile, this fragile and impoverished country
- the same country which was the primary base for NATO's operation against
Milosevic's Yugoslavia, continues to perform that role for peacekeeping in
Kosovo (much at its own peril) and which took 350,000 Kosovan refugees - is
being ripped apart under the onslaught of gunmen armed and trained by NATO.
Macedonia is collateral damage of
NATO's involvement in the Balkans. The US and its allies consider it too risky
to try to disarm the KLA (or NLA), even though this was an explicit
responsibility of their Kosovo mandate. Last year's disarmament of the KLA was
largely symbolic. Body bags are not sexy, so NATO. chose to let the militants
keep their weapons. NATO's Kosovo escapade did much more
than arm and train the militants. It escalated the conflict. The psychological
effect of the entire world siding with the Great Cause (as Albanian extremists
see it) has given a boost to their armed secessionist struggle. Ethnic cleansing
and occupying territories is an advanced step in redrawing borders. The last 10
years in Yugoslavia have taught us what this leads to.
The international community cannot
stop the bloodshed by hypocritical appeals to "both sides". NATO., EU and the US
applied immense pressure on democratic Macedonia not to defend itself. Now, the
aggression and insurrection have got out of hand. As a result of the "peace
process," Macedonia is on its way to federalization and disintegration.
The NLA must abandon its armed
aggression and insurrection before there are more political talks. The US has a
moral obligation to stop them from turning Macedonia into another Afghanistan or
Cambodia. As we learned in Bosnia, leaving the ethnic-cleansers unchecked causes
more trouble down the line. Milcho
Manchevski wrote and directed the award-winning film, Before the Rain. His next
film, Dust, will open at the Venice film festival in September
© Guardian Newspapers
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- NATO Gave Us This Ethnic Cleansing [WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK] Miroslav Antic
- Miroslav Antic
