ANTIWAR
Thursday, September 9,
2004
BALKAN EXPRESS
by Nebojsa
Malic
http://www.antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=3538
Fear and Terror, Year
Three
It may not have been obvious in the beginning, when the
smoldering ruins of
the Towers in New York and the burning ring of the
Pentagon loomed large in
people's minds, but the war that followed Black
Tuesday three years ago was
doomed from the start. For a brief moment, there
was a historic opportunity
to disavow the fundamentally anti-American project
of global hegemony,
including the support for terrorists who attacked
potential rivals. Instead,
the Imperial project cloaked itself in the guise
of "War on Terrorism" and
gained a new lease on life. Needless to say, such a
war was subverted in its
purpose from the very beginning: while Afghanistan
and Iraq were devastated
in the name of fighting Islamic terrorists, such
terrorists enjoyed American
support in places such as Bosnia, Kosovo,
Macedonia and Chechnya.
As the third year of the unwinnable war draws to a close, the
tragedy in
Beslan testifies that the world is far from being safer; it has
instead
become a darker and more dangerous place.
Rumblings in Kosovo
One genie had been left out of
the bottle in 1999, when the U.S.-led NATO
attacked and occupied the Serbian
province of Kosovo, after an illegal
78-day bombing campaign ostensibly aimed
at protecting the "human rights" of
ethnic Albanians. KLA, an Albanian
terrorist organization whose claims NATO
supported, moved in with NATO troops
and proceeded to ethnically cleanse the
province. Some 200,000 non-Albanians
were expelled while "peacekeepers"
looked on, while the evidence for an
alleged "genocide" failed to
materialize.
Five years later, 50,000 Albanians rampaged throughout Kosovo
while
frightened NATO troops and UN bureaucrats looked on again. After two
days of
terror, 5,000 more Serbs were displaced, and the number of Orthodox
churches
and monasteries destroyed since the occupation climbed to
150.
A recent report by special UN investigators revealed that the
pogrom
"overwhelmed the United Nations' mission [UNMIK] and NATO
peacekeepers
[KFOR] to the point of near-collapse" and that "the
18,000-strong NATO force
cannot currently maintain safety and security in
Kosovo."
"The [UNMIK] line staff reflected a sense of futility,
compounded by a sense
of deep frustration over what they experience as an
operation adrift, with
an organizational culture that inhibits communication,
frowns on candor and
stymies initiative," says the report, describing the
state of mind of
Kosovo's occupiers.
Even as the report came out, the outgoing German commander of
KFOR tried to
minimize the March pogrom, which German forces singularly
failed to stop.
Last week, the command of the occupation force passed to a
French general.
On that occasion, the French defense minister said: "We're
entering a period
of maximum risk. . The situation is calm but extremely
fragile."
If anything, that is an understatement. Albanians are already
sensing blood
in the water and speaking out for UNMIK's removal. Needless to
say, they
envision an independent, Albanian "Kosova" in the aftermath, rather
than a
return of the occupied province to Serbia, where it belongs
under
international law. Oblivious to this self-evident desire, the EU
is
demanding the remaining Kosovo Serbs to legitimize the occupation by
taking
part in local elections. NATO troops, on the other hand, believe
that
putting up billboards will enhance security. It seems the UN report was
but
a brief flash of sanity in a place where the Imperial agenda
demands
persistent delusions.
Volatile Macedonia
Another clear-cut case of Empire
supporting terrorism against its official
policy is Macedonia, where in 2001
the U.S. and the EU forced an isolated
government to surrender to demands of
a KLA branch. Under the "agreement"
signed in the resort of Ohrid, Macedonia
was supposed to be "decentralized"
in order to give more power to Albanian
ethnic parties on both the local and
national level. The recent proposed
redistricting of Macedonia, designed to
favor Albanians, provoked protests
and even riots, ultimately leading to a
referendum.
One would think that Brussels and Washington, posing as
paragons of
democracy, would support a referendum on such a radical
redefinition of a
country. But then, one would have also thought countries
that oppose
terrorism with words and bombs would not help terrorists - yet
they did.
Hence, the EU is pressuring Macedonia to drop the referendum, even
as
agitators for Greater Albania - the driving force of Albanian terrorism
-
work freely, and with the support of pro-Imperial organizations.
Macedonia
is in a truly explosive situation, while the Empire is merrily
tossing
matches around.
Muzzling Justice
Aggression and occupation in Kosovo,
and the support for terrorism in
Macedonia aren't the only Imperial
contributions to the ongoing unraveling
of civilization. The so-called
"international war crimes tribunal" in The
Hague does its best to maim any
notion of international justice through its
show trials of Balkans war crimes
suspects. Its theory that a "joint
criminal conspiracy" of Serbian leadership
was supposedly behind all the
Balkans wars of the 1990s is the pinnacle of
absurdity. But its parallel
attacks on Serbs and justice in general continue
unabated.
Just last week, as former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic
was beginning
his defense, the Inquisition imposed on him two defense
counsels, Steven Kay
and Gillian Higgins. "These . are not my lawyers,"
Milosevic shot back,
"They are your lawyers. . I have no intention of
exercising any rights as
Mr. Kay's assistant." Then his microphone was cut
off.
Michael Scharf, a U.S. jurist who helped create the ICTY in
1993, advocated
the muzzling of Milosevic in a Washington Post editorial on
Aug. 29. Four
days later, the ICTY did exactly what Scharf "suggested," and
with the same
exact justification. This is but one sliver of evidence that
the Inquisition
is a political tool, controlled by the Empire.
From Bosnia to Beslan
Claims of "genocide" during the
(admittedly bloody) civil war in Bosnia,
which the Inquisition promotes with
its whimsical verdicts, served as
justification for thousands of Islamic
mujahideen to descend upon the
separatist republic from all over the world.
Many were "Afghans" -
terrorists with previous experience in Afghanistan,
where their jihadi
against the Soviets was organized and funded by the U.S.
government. Their
jihad in Bosnia also had U.S. support. Given access to the
world through
American-backed "wars of [Muslim] liberation" in Bosnia and
later Kosovo,
these militants then launched a jihad against their misguided
handler: the
United States - first in Kenya and Tanzania, then in Yemen, then
in New York
and Washington.
Whenever another alleged al-Qaeda operative or Islamic militant
is seized,
his biography almost inevitably contains fighting experience in
Bosnia, and
sometimes Chechnya. Some, like Australian David Hicks, even
fought in
Kosovo. Even Muslims native to Bosnia have been known to join the
jihad in
Chechnya.
One might be forgiven for having the impression that the
Empire's "war on
terror" is aimed at defeating these Islamic militants. But
behind the
rhetoric of Imperial courtiers lies a harsh truth: this is simply
not the
case. In Washington's book, a "terrorist" is anyone who opposes the
American
Empire; those who serve it, such as the KLA and the Bosnian
mujahideen, or
some of the Chechens, never merit the name.
The jihad is real, though some critics of the Empire wish it
weren't. It is
smaller in scope and power than hysterical pronouncements from
Washington
make it seem (remember Niger yellowcake?), but it would be a
mistake to
dismiss its existence. It is religious fanaticism that motivates
terrorists
to murder innocents, whether their deity is Allah or the State.
Fear and Terror Unleashed
In the aftermath of Sept.
11, 2001, America cried havoc, and let slip the
dogs of war. Given the damage
they had done in the Balkans (to bring up just
one instance) while still
somewhat leashed, it was almost inevitable that
the world would soon feel the
full force of their depredations. That this
happened under the guise of a
"war on terrorism" is cruelly ironic. The pet
beasts of the ancient Greek war
god Ares, the dogs Shakespeare mentioned in
that memorable phrase from Julius
Caesar, were Phobos and Deimos: Fear
and
Terror.
