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A Truly Heroic Resistance
by Jared Israel

from: http://www.counterpunch.org/deal.html

As an American, I have not been affected in the same way Serbian and Serbian-American people have been by the horrible bombing. At the same time, as a thinking person, I find the "peace agreement," as published by the AP, most disturbing.

For 72 days the people of Serbia - from all ethnic groups -- have kept up their spirit in the face of an onslaught by what amounts to the old Colonial club of Western powers. These powers gave us the Slave trade, colonialism in all its horror, the gruesome wars of our century and now they have embarked on a World-Wide drive for power under the cover of humanitarian concerns.

The US is trying to use NATO to destabilize and economically dominate a vast region, perhaps the entire Eastern world. The Serbs are first on the list. As has happened twice before during this century, they are the outpost, defending civilization against barbarians bent on world conquest. By resisting the power of NATO they have followed the old Serbian saying: "Freedom is priceless."

Despite a torrent of lies in the Western media, the Serbian people have inspired millions -- hundreds of millions -- from China to Canada. They have reawakened the spark of decency, a new political awareness on right and left. This new grouping of people refuse to accept international injustice and lawlessness. The Serbian people's symbol, the target bullseye, has become the symbol for all of us. People from all over the world now say, proudly, "I am a Serb," just as many years ago John Paul Sartre said "I am a Jew." Except this time, thank God, the "Jews" are not going quietly to those ovens.

Whatever happens, nothing can lessen the contribution the Serbs have made to the cause of human freedom which today means resisting NATO. Nothing.

NATO IS THE NAME NATION DESTROYING IS THE GAME

The U.S. government started the bombing because Serbia would not surrender its national sovereignty, as called for in Appendix B of the Rambouillet "agreement." But what does the text of the NEW peace agreement call for?

The Agreement calls for the complete withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from the Serbian province of Kosovo. It adds the contemptuous proviso that several hundred troops might be allowed back into Kosovo to mark land mines and
guard monasteries. Indeed.

These troops, perhaps the best in the world, are dug into well-engineered defenses. From reports, their morale is superb. They have routed the KLA which has been reduced to scattered snipers. NATO would need a huge ground
force -- certainly several hundred thousand troops -- perhaps as many as a million -- to have any hope of taking Kosovo from these men and women.

Such an attack would put immense internal strains on NATO and greatly increase opposition to NATO around the world.

U.S. Government's Goal is NOT Peace

True the bombing is horrible. But what are the U.S. government's actual "peace goals" in Serbia? Every indication is the U.S. government would, given the chance, carry out the PRACTICAL program of the KLA. (The KLA has after all never been an independent force, but rather has been the terrorist arm of NATO in Kosovo.) What is the practical program of the KLA? The KLA has carried out its program for a year and a half: it is the murder of anti-racist Albanians and all Serbs and Roma people ("Gypsies"). The U.S. government knows this is KLA policy. When Clinton praises the KLA he is making it perfectly clear what will happen in Kosovo if NATO gets control.

With the Yugoslav army gone, NATO troops would suppress any significant resistance.

No Serbian police, no Yugoslav troops with armor, just NATO "under unified command," that is, with ALL troops, including Russian and Greek troops, controlled by the U.S. and Britain. This "unified command" could maintain order while the KLA does its work, slaughtering decent people, town by town.

Real Serbian-Albanian Unity

Sometimes good things come out of suffering. The devastating bombing of Kosovo has brought many Serbs and Albanians together in a fighting unity against NATO's attacks. This is expressed in mutual aid and solidarity of all kinds including the repair of damaged facilities, the arming of Albanians to fight KLA snipers, and so on. This new solidarity is crucial because it lays the basis for a new, antiracist political unity against the racist Albanians, who call themselves "nationalists," from the KLA to Rugova. And this unity has been paid for by the suffering and struggle of many people. Quite literally, with blood, sweat and tears. (See Appendix 1, # 3, a, b & c and # 5)

What NATO needs in Kosovo

The U.S. has been instigating disunity in Kosovo since 1987; disunity is the necessary prerequisite for NATO domination of Kosovo. The simplest way to break the current unified resistance is to kill the people involved, especially the Albanian loyalists. This requires a) the removal of Yugoslav Army troops from Kosovo and b) the "regrettable" reentry of KLA terrorists from Albania. Once the Yugoslav troops are gone, these butchers will stream
across the border, led by US and European special forces. The U.S.-controlled verifiers who were stationed in Kosovo starting in October, 1998, expressed "concern" that the KLA used the Yugoslav troop withdrawal to rebuild its army. In the same way, after a new Yugoslav withdrawal, NATO would be "shocked" at KLA murders. Or perhaps the news of these murders would be suppressed so that later the victims of KLA attacks could be unearthed, and the murders blamed on Yugoslav troops who, we would be told, killed Albanians as they retreated. These Serbs and Albanian brothers would get to be killed twice: first by bullets and then by lies.

The result of this slaughter would be even worse then the loss of human life; for this heroic multi-ethnic group is the basis for reconstructing Kosovo, for the first time, on an anti-racist basis.

Give NATO an arm and it will go for your leg

Once in possession of Kosovo, would NATO respect the spirit of peace and cease aggression against the rest of Serbia? If you answered "yes" I'm afraid you don't know NATO. Or anyway, you don't know Clinton and company. Kosovo is the first stop in a long train ride, with many bumps. Everything has been prepared to make Vojvodina, the breadbasket of Serbia, which borders Hungary, the next Kosovo. It has been physically isolated through the bombing of bridges over the Danube. In Hungary proper, flunky leaders have voiced the appropriate concerns about ethnic abuses and they have been echoed by NATO statements to the effect that Milosevich is "expected" to target ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina next. How convenient of these Serbs to abuse precisely the ethnic group that NATO needs abused, and to do it at just the required moment.

The minute Kosovo is secure, or perhaps before it is fully secure, atrocities against Hungarians will be "discovered." There will be satellite photos and eye-witness accounts of horrors in Vojvodina. Some neo-fascistgroup of Hungarian secessionists will pop up like a balloon charged with NATO hot air and voila -- a whole new Kosovo. It is all predictable because, like every criminal organization, NATO has a modus operandi. I don't say that because I am paranoid and I don't know that because I am clairvoyant; I simply read. For instance, in the Feb. 15, 1999 Washington Post, former State Department planner Robert A. Manning described U.S. policy as: "...turning the former Yugoslavia into a series of protectorates, one province at a time."

One province at a time, until Serbia is a group of Banana Republics. Each time a new province is taken by NATO (to prevent some humanitarian catastrophe which NATO has created) the neo-fascist group of choice will slaughter "pro-Serbian nationalists" and "non-Serbian collaborationists" (such as the Albanians who oppose NATO and the KLA, but this applies just as easily to ethnic Hungarians, Turks, Jews or Roma.) NATO spokesmen will terribly regret this violence, tsk tsk tsk, or lie about it (blame the victims) or the media will bemoan a history of interethnic strife going back hundreds of years. Or Jamie Shea will just say what he said when a bridge was bombed, killing and wounding many: "Tough luck," said Mr. Shea.

They Would Give us Afghanistan and Call It Peace

A true peace is of course better than war. And all things beingequal, it's worse to be bombed than not.

But this "peace" agreement, as presented by the Associated Press, lays the basis for continuing the war without NATO having to take the losses which war usually requires, i.e., without having to launch a land invasion. Land invasion is preferable to uncontested occupation, which would have a demoralizing affect on the population, and make the job of resistance -- which would nevertheless occur -- more difficult.

Moreover, if the citizens of Serbia were to allow the uncontested occupationof Kosovo, this would encourage the U.S. government to pursue adventures of a similar kind further East. The US is openly and covertly encouraging conflict between Moslems and Orthodox Christians in the Caspian Sea area, rich in oil. As Zbigniew Brzezinski, the high-placed U.S. government "thinker" has said, Russia is far too big. The U.S. government has used the IMF to enforce policies which have cut the Russian economy in half and similarly devastated other parts of the former Soviet Union preparatory to breaking up this vast area into mini-states, too small to defeat economic domination and exploitation. Much like Central America.

In essence, the United States elite is trying to carve up the world, the way colonial powers used to do in the late 19th century. But this isn't the late 19th century. This is the nuclear age and there are tens of thousands of nuclear warheads all over the former USSR - and elsewhere. So this plan for world conquest makes nuclear war quite possible, perhaps probable. As you read this, Russian nuclear warheads have been re-aimed so they once again
target the U.S. The ancient Greeks said, "Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad."

Are our leaders mad? Perhaps they are. But mad or not, this is their plan.

As usual, Serbia is the dress rehearsal for those attempting world domination. As usual, the Serbs are the "kraj," which means the end in Serbian. The end, the outpost, the outpost of civilization against barbarism. What the Serbs do about this "peace agreement" will affect the whole course of world history.

Shakespeare said:

"There is a tide in the affairs of men Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries." (Julius Caesar, Act 4, Scene 2)

The stakes are great indeed.

APPENDIX 1

1. Evidence that reporters KNEW the U.S. government had deliberately written the Rambouillet "peace" agreement to be so extreme that the Serbs couldn't sign it. That is, it was a setup to achieve bombing. But this was never reported. See: http://www.fair.org/press-releases/kosovo-talks.html

2. Documents, not intended for publication, from the German Courts and German Foreign Ministry According to these official German documents, there was no Serbian persecution of Albanians during the year before the
bombing started.

http://www.counterpunch.org/germanmemo.html

3. Three reports from Paul Watson, Pulitzer Prize winning reporter on the ground in Kosovo since bombing started.

a) "Missing " Albanian men are doing fine, and fraternizing with Yugoslav troops
http://www.beograd.com/nato/texts/english/l/LATimes/lat_kosovo990517.htm

b) Despite Western reports, Mr. Watson sees NO evidence of massacres or organized government persecution of Albanians in Pristina, capital of Kosovo
http://www.counterpunch.org/watson.html

c) Albanians and Serbs work side by side in Kosovo to undo damage caused by NATO's bombs
http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/REPORTS/YUGO/DISPATCH/t000048733.html

4. Here's a brilliant deconstruction of a NATO mass grave hoax
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/Mass_Graves_Hoax/

5. Eve-Ann Prentice, London Times reporter targeted (!) by NATO planes over Kosovo, describes Serbian/Albania kindness towards her after the attack. Gives a whole different impression of what these folks are like from what we're getting on TV.
(http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/06/01/timkoskos02002.html?1124027)

6. What is the KLA, the Kosovo Albanian group for which NATO is now providing an air force? Prof. Chossudovsky's answers and it isn't good.
http://www.transnational.org/features/crimefinansed.html

7. Report of U.S. Congressional Mission to Serbia refutes NATO assertions about atrocities and ethnic cleansing.
(http://www.srpska-mreza.com/library/facts/findings1.html)

8. A group of articles from the NY Times and other papers in the 1980s show the Serbs were victims of a racist movement in Kosovo.
http://members.tripod.com/~sarant_2/ksm.html

9. When NATO planes bomb Albania, everyone within miles flees – illustrating the Serbian government's point that bombing is what crated the refugee crisis.
(http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/06/02/timkoskos01002.html?1124027)

10. Albanians take up arms against the secessionist KLA.
http://www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/REPORTS/YUGO/DISPATCH/t000048921.html

11. Sean Gervasi has written some of the best analysis of U.S. and German plans for carving up the world. For instance, see:
http://www.srpska-mreza.com/library/facts/Gervasi.html

12. NATO has been demonizing the Serbs for 9 years. Here one of the most successful slanders, the concentration camp hoax, is debunked by Thomas Deichmann.

http://www.informinc.co.uk/ITN-vs-LM/story/LM97_Bosnia.html

The "Peace" Agreement
The text was in Serbian and translated by AP:

"In order to move forward toward solving the Kosovo crisis, an agreement should be reached on the following principles:

``1: Imminent and verifiable end to violence and repression of Kosovo.

``2. Verifiable withdrawal from Kosovo of military, police and paramilitary forces according to a quick timetable.

``3. Deployment in Kosovo, under U.N. auspicies, of efficient international civilian and security presences which would act as can be decided according to Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter and be capable of guaranteeing fulfillment of joint goals.

``4. International security presence, with an essential NATO participation, must be deployed under a unified control and command and authorized to secure safe environment for all the residents in Kosovo and enable the safe return of the displaced persons and refugees to their homes.

``5. Establishment of an interim administration for Kosovo ...which the U.N. Security Council will decide and under which the people of Kosovo will enjoy substantial autonomy within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . The interim administration (will) secure transitional authority during the time (for the) interim democratic and self-governing institutions, (establish) conditions for peaceful and normal life of all citizens of Kosovo.

``6. After the withdrawal, an agreed number of Serb personnel will be allowed to return to perform the following duties: liaison with the international civilian mission and international security presence, marking mine fields, maintaining a presence at places of Serb heritage, maintaininga presence at key border crossings.

``7. Safe and free return of all refugees and the displaced under the supervision of UNHCR and undisturbed access for humanitarian organizations to Kosovo.

``8. Political process directed at reaching interim political agreement which would secure essential autonomy for Kosovo, with full taking into consideration of the Rambouillet agreement, the principles of sovereigntyand territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and other states in the region as well as demilitarization of the Kosovo Liberation Army. The talks between the sides about the solution should not delay or disrupt establishment of the democratic self-governning institutions.

``9. General approach to the economic development of the crisis region. That would include carrying out a pact of stability for southeastern Europe, wide international participation in order to advance democracy and economic prosperity, and stability and regional cooperation.

``10. The end of military activities will depend on acceptance of the listed principles and simultaneous agreement with other previously identified elements which are identified in the footnote below. Then a military-technical agreement will be agreed which will among other things specify additional modalities, including the role and function of the Yugoslav, i.e. Serb, personnel in Kosovo.

``11. The process of withdrawal includes a phased, detailed timetable and the marking of a buffer zone in Serbia behind which the troops will withdraw.

``12. The returning personnel: The equipment of the returning personnel, the range of their functional responsibilities, the timetable for their return, determination of the geographic zones of their activity, the rules guiding their relations with the international security presence and the international civilian mission.

``Footnote. Other required elements: Fast and precise timetable for the withdrawal which means for instance: seven days to end the withdrawal; pulling out of weapons of air defense from the zone of the mutual security of 25 kilometers within 48 hours; return of the personnel to fullfill the four duties will be carried out under the supervision of the international security presence and will be limited to a small agreed number -- hundreds,not thousands.

``Suspension of military actions will happen after the beginning of the withdrawal which can be verified. Discussion about the military-technicalagreement and its reaching will not prolong the agreed period for the withdrawal.''

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