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>Friday, September 22, 2000
>
>1. Who Are the G-17?
>2. Russia deeply concerned with NATO's threat of sending ground troops to
> Montenegro
>
>**************************************************************************
>
>Who Are the G-17?
>
>By Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, University of , Ottawa,
>author Globalization of Poverty, Third World of "The Network, Penang, Zed
>Books, London, 1997. and Jared Israel , editor, www.tenc.net (Emperor's
>Clothes)
>
>" We want to be open colony and open society." G-17 coordinator VESELIN
>VUKOTIC interviewed on "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer", US Public
>Television, July 14, 1999
>
>Recently there's been a lot of interest in the economists in the Yugoslav
>group G-17. They wrote the Program adopted by the so- called "democratic"
>opposition and its Presidential candidate, Vojislav Kostunica.
>
>The G-17 likes to give the impression it is independent and
>Yugoslav-oriented. In fact it is funded mainly through the Washington-based
>"Center for International Private Enterprise" (CIPE). CIPE describes itself
>as "an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. " But in fact it is "a
>core institute" of the National Endowment for Democracy. The National
>Endowment for Democracy has nothing to do, as far as we can discern, with
>Democracy. Rather, the Endowment was created in 1983 to solve a problem of
>Empire.
>People knew that the CIA bribed intellectuals and leaders and set up phony
>front groups to carry out US policy:
>
>"When these covert activities surfaced (as they inevitably did), the
>fallout was devastating." ('Washington Post', Sept. 22, 1991)
>
>So Congress created the National Endowment for Democracy. Allen Weinstein,
>who planned the Endowment, said:
>
>"A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA."
>('Washington Post', Sept. 21, 1991)
>
>So the National Endowment (a sort of spinoff from the CIA) controls and
>pays for the Center for International Private Enterprise which in turn
>funds the G-17. In addition, the leading G-17 economists hold important
>positions in the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and have for
>many years.
>
>If the "democratic" opposition got in power, the G-17 economists would be
>in charge of the Yugoslav economy. This is not a matter of speculation. The
>"democratic" opposition program calls for working with the International
>Monetary Fund and the Fund does not work on a casual basis. It invariably
>insists that its men (who conveniently happen to be the G-17 economists)
>run the show. That is not open for negotiation.
>
>Let us take a look at three of the leading G-17 economists. Their record is
>most disturbing.
>
>One of the writers of this article, Prof. Chossudovsky, studies the effects
>of the economic "medicine" imposed by the International Monetary Fund and
>World Bank. The G-17 program contains the same economic measures they
>forced on Russia, the Ukraine, Bulgaria and Peru, among many others. The
>results: social and economic devastation. But because of the long-term
>US/German attack on Yugoslavia, the results in the Yugoslav case would be
>much worse.
>
>G-17 economists are fond of phrases like "free markets" and
>"privatization," but their International Monetary Fund "reforms" wreck
>countries. First, they force governments to do away with any social
>protections - subsidized food or rent, free transportation, free medical
>care. Out the window. Second, they use economic manipulation and new laws
>to force businesses - public and private - into bankruptcy. Then these
>businesses are taken over by a small clique of thieves, international
>banks, rich speculators and foreign companies. They purchase the businesses
>at rock bottom prices. This is called "Privatization through Liquidation."
>
>A case in point is Yugoslavia, 1989.
>
>The elder statesman of the G-17 is Professor Veselin Vukotic. Presently he
>is one of the brains behind Montenegrin secessionism. But in 1989 he was
>Minister of Privatization under Yugoslav Premier Ante Markovic.
>
>Yugoslavs have bitter memories of 1989-1990. But do they "put a human face"
>on the nightmare? Perhaps people think the economic disaster that befell
>Yugoslavia that year was the natural result of "market mechanisms" or the
>fault of "incompetent government." It wasn't. There was somebody pulling
>the strings.
>
>That somebody was Veselin Vukotic.
>
>In 1989-90, Professor Vukotic worked out of governmental offices in
>Belgrade alongside an army of Western lawyers and consultants to impose the
>Financial Operations Act. It was a World Bank plan.
>
>Under this law, companies were selected for bankruptcy or liquidation. They
>were forced to meet impossible conditions. In this way, Vukotic
>orchestrated the breakup of fifty percent of Yugoslav industry. 50%! World
>Bank data confirms that under his direction more than 1100 industrial firms
>were wiped out from January 1989 to September 1990 And that was only the
>beginning.
>
>Over 614,000 industrial workers were laid off out of 2.7 million. The areas
>hardest hit were: Serbia, including Kosovo, and Bosnia-Herzegovina and
>Macedonia. Real wages did a nose-dive. Social programs collapsed.
>Unemployment shot up.
>
>And now this same Vukotic, a key man in G-17, wants to return to power.
>
>When the IMF gets its jaws on a country it forces the government to work
>under people like Vukotic. So Vukotic could finish the job he started in
>1989 and which ironically was discontinued when economic sanctions were
>imposed in 1992. (Bulgaria would probably be better off today if it had
>been hit with sanctions instead of with the International Monetary Fund!)
>
>While hoping to get his hands on all of Yugoslavia once again, Mr. Vukotic
>is practicing on the cooperative regime in Montenegro. Montenegrin boss
>Milo Djukanovic, his former student, has appointed Vukotic Deputy Chief of
>the Privation Commission which is auctioning off state property in
>Montenegro. Recently we discovered a US Commerce Department advertisement
>on the internet. The title is: " Montenegro: Seeks Privatization Fund
>Managers." The advertisement explains that these Managers are needed in
>Montenegro, where US officials are "providing technical support" for
>so-called privatization. The managers would control "funds" that would take
>over ownership of what is now public property. The Managers could
>"restructure" these privatized companies - lay off the workers and sell the
>most valuable components. The Commerce department promises that this
>"should be quite profitable." Note how brazenly the U.S. Commerce
>Department celebrates the transformation of Montenegrin property into
>foreign profits.
>
>Vukotic is helping in other areas as well. For example, last June NATO
>marched into Kosovo, and the UCK along with them. Wherever they went, they
>drove loyal Yugoslav citizens from their homes, stole or destroyed their
>property and threatened them with death. By June 26, the expulsions were at
>a peak.
>
>Vukotic could no longer remain silent. According to the Associated Press,
>on June 26 Vukotic demanded that Kosovo have its own currency, separate
>from the dinar!
>
>Dr. Dusan Vujovic
>
>One of the most prominent G-17 people is Dr. Dusan Vujovic, a senior
>economist at the World Bank. He acts as a link between G-17 and Washington.
>He has been very active overseeing "reforms" in so-called "transition
>countries". In August 2000, Vujovic was in charge of negotiating one of the
>World Bank's most deadly economic packages, imposed on the Ukraine, already
>devastated by previous International Monetary Fund Measures.
>
>What happened to the Ukraine?
>
>The Ukraine disaster started in the fall of 1994 in Madrid, Spain. Prime
>Minister Vitali Masol signed an agreement with the International Monetary
>Fund.
>
>In exchange for accepting "economic shock treatment" Ukraine got a 360
>million dollar loan, a very small amount as these things are calculated.
>Reforms were launched in mid-October, 1994. The IMF ordered the Ukrainian
>authorities to abandon State controls over the exchange rate. This led to
>the collapse of the currency. The price of bread increased overnight -
>300%. Electricity shot up - 600%. Public transportation - 900%.
>
>"Dollarised" prices were forced on a population with earnings below ten
>dollars a month. Credit was frozen. With super high electricity prices and
>no credit, public and private industry was destroyed. The international
>speculators moved in like sharks in a frenzy.
>
>Then in November 1994, World Bank negotiators were sent in to "advise" the
>government on overhauling Ukraine's agriculture. The grain market was
>deregulated. This opened Ukraine up to the dumping of US grain surpluses.
>Ukraine went from being a grain exporter to begging for Food Aid from the
>European Union and the U.S. Thanks to the International Monetary Fund,
>Ukraine is a starving political protectorate of the US and Germany. And
>remember, Ukraine never did anything to offend the U.S., unlike Yugoslavia.
>
>Zeliko Bogetic and the Rape of Bulgaria
>
>G-17 member Dr. Zeliko Bogetic has a senior position at the International
>Monetary Fund. Bogetic has been doctor in many economic cures. The patient
>always dies.
>
>In 1994-96, he played a key role in forcing a structural adjustment program
>(SAP) on Bulgaria. All social defenses - price controls, subsidized food,
>housing and medical care, were stripped away.
>
>The program led to mass poverty. By 1997, old age pensions (according to
>World Bank sources) had collapsed to two dollars a month. The World Bank
>admits that 90 percent of Bulgarians now live below the extreme poverty
>level but, they say, much economic progress is being made. Apparently
>perfection will be achieved when there are no Bulgarians left alive.
>
>What would Mr. Bogetic do if he and his G-17 colleagues came to power under
>a "democratic" opposition government?
>
>Bogetic was dispatched by the International Monetary Fund to Podgorica,
>Montenegro to advise the pro-secessionist government of President Milo
>Djukanovic. Bogetic was to set up a currency board modeled on that of
>Bosnia under the Dayton Accord. Bogetic's advice was to stop using the
>Dinar, the Yugoslav currency. He said that under no circumstances should
>Montenegro establish a Central Bank. Now remember, the Djukanovic
>government in Montenegro says it wants "independence" from Yugoslavia - but
>a Central Bank is a requirement for real independence. No, said Bogetic,
>that is the "worst possible solution". Meaning: independence in the
>colonial sense.
>
>Bogetic would be the likely candidate for Yugoslav Central Bank Governor if
>the "democratic" opposition were to win.
>
>What would he do?
>
>The same thing he's been doing in Montenegro - establish a colonial style
>currency board linked to the Deutschmark. Then monetary policy would be
>controlled by the country's creditors. This would be an excellent state of
>affairs for the creditors, but very bad for the common people. It would
>make it impossible to finance economic reconstruction through the
>mobilization of Yugoslavia's own domestic resources. The country would be
>in a straightjacket.
>
>What would International Monetary Fund-Type Reforms mean for Yugoslavia? If
>the "democratic opposition" came to power they would enforce International
>Monetary Fund economic medicine. That's what they say in their Program.
>
>But would this be the same medicine that the Fund (including some of the
>people who lead the G-17) have prescribed for Russia, Bulgaria and Ukraine?
>
>Russia, Bulgaria and Ukraine cooperated fully with Washington. As nations,
>they never resisted being turned into colonies. Was the West merciful?
>
>Consider Russia. During the first year that the reforms were applied, 1992,
>wages collapsed by 86 percent. And in many of the countries of the Balkans
>and Eastern Europe, economic activity has been cut in half, even if it was
>low before.
>
>And these are cooperative countries. As everyone knows, the U.S. is very
>annoyed with Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia has not been a good slave. It has not
>kissed the hand of the bombers.
>
>History shows that if the Monetary Fund gets hold of a country that has
>been rebellious the treatment is vicious. And we are not talking about
>major rebels, like Yugoslavia. We are talking about very moderate rebels,
>like Peru.
>
>In Peru, the government of President Alan Garcia (1985-1990) refused to do
>some of what the International Monetary Fund ordered it to do. In 1985, it
>decided to pay international debts at a reduced rate. It instituted an
>economic program that would help (instead of destroying) the economy.
>
>The country was immediately put on a black list by the International
>Monetary Fund. This disrupted Peru's foreign trade.
>
>Enter Professor Alberto Fujimori. It was the 1990 elections. With help from
>Washington, Peru was having economic problems, so many people wanted a
>change. Fujimori was an unknown. People felt he was "honest" and
>"promising". He led a tiny party that had never held power. He seemed to be
>squeaky clean.
>With Washington's help, he was the top runner-up in the 1990 elections. The
>electorate chose him over the other candidates "because we did not know who
>he was" and "we thought he was honest" and "maybe if we put in someone
>Washington likes they will go easy on us." They did not understand.
>Washington has no mercy.
>
>Fujimori of course caved in to the International Monetary Fund's demands.
>What followed was the most deadly economic "reform" in Latin American
>history. From one day to the next, the price of fuel increased by 31 times
>(2,968 per cent) and the price of bread increased more than twelve times
>(1,150 per cent).
>
>People could no longer afford to boil water. A cholera epidemic broke out.
>
>The social consequences were devastating. An agricultural worker in August
>1990 was paid $7.50 a month (US). That was enough to buy two hamburgers and
>a drink at McDonalds. Consumer prices in Lima were higher than New York.
>
>Real earnings dropped by 60 per cent. By mid-1991 the standard of living
>had declined by 85 per cent.
>
>And this was the just beginning of ten years of deadly reforms under
>Fujimori.
>
>And remember, Peru didn't really do anything. Just resisted a few
>International Monetary Fund Measures. But Yugoslavia? Yugoslavia has been
>driving the German Establishment (and now the Americans) crazy for 100
>years or more. Washington and Berlin would like nothing more than to make
>Yugoslavia an example of total enslavement, to show people what would
>happen to them if they were to resist.
>
>Haven't the U.S. and Germany made this perfectly clear in Kosovo? A
>gangster-fascist regime has been installed. And Western leaders are fully
>aware of the horror they have wrought in Kosovo. UN Secretary General Kofi
>Annan received a special report about this. The report was discussed by the
>British newspaper, the 'Observer':
>
>"Murder, torture and extortion: these are the extraordinary charges made
>against the UN's own Kosovo Protection Corps in a confidential United
>Nations report written for Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
>
>"The KPC stands accused in the document, drawn up on 29 February, of
>'criminal activities - killings, ill-treatment/torture, illegal policing,
>abuse of authority, intimidation, breaches of political neutrality and
>hate-speech'. " (quoted in "How Will You Plead at your Trial, Mr. Annan?"
>at http://emperors-clothes.com/news/howwill.htm )
>
>What would Washington do if it's G-17 employees got hold of Yugoslavia?
>They would institute the most extreme economic "reforms" to devastate the
>country.
>Prices would go sky high; farmers would lose their land; businesses would
>be bought up and closed down. In Hungary they privatized the only light
>bulb factory and shut it down so that now everybody has to buy bulbs from
>the US company, General Electric. In Yugoslavia they would take away the
>lamps. People would be reduced to starvation.
>
>This kind of suffering produces ethnic tension. Washington would whip this
>up by sending in their UCK (KLA) fascist terrorists. Why does Washington
>keep the UCK in power in Kosovo? Because they want to use them again. For
>what? They are incapable of fighting a real army. But they are capable of
>terrorizing civilians.
>
>A Washington-controlled government would bring in NATO troops to "help keep
>order." The troops would never leave. The hunt for imaginary war criminals
>would go on, a thousand times worse than it is in the Bosnian Serb
>Republic. Croatians, Bosnian Muslims and ethnic Albanians who fled to
>Serbia to escape fascist persecution would be put on the list of phony war
>criminals. All loyal Yugoslavs would have to pay for their (imaginary)
>crimes so that "healing can begin."
>
>Every effort would be made to humiliate the people, to break their spirit,
>and to eliminate potential leaders of resistance.
>
>Do you know what the United States did a few years ago to Vietnam? When the
>Vietnam War ended, the US government ordered an embargo which did Vietnam a
>lot of harm, economically. A few years ago, Washington agreed to lift the
>embargo. In exchange, Vietnam had to agree to pay the debts of the former
>South Vietnamese government, a puppet government controlled by Washington.
>Most of its debt came from borrowing money (from the US) to buy weapons
>(from the US) to kill its own people. And now Vietnam is being forced to
>pay this "debt" to Washington, after Washington had invaded Vietnam and was
>driven
>out, leaving two million Vietnamese dead.
>
>The "democratic" opposition says that if they can just get into power
>everything will be normal. Washington would treat the Yugoslavs right. Sure
>they would. Just the way they treated the American Indians.
>
>www.tenc.net
>[Emperor's Clothes]
>
>***********************************************************
>
>http://www.russiatoday.com/news.php3?id=199518
>
>Russia Surprised With NATO Planned Military Action in Montenegro
>
>MOSCOW, Sep 15, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) Russia was deeply concerned
>with NATO's threat of sending ground troops to Montenegro in the case of
>Belgrade using force in Podgorica, the Russian foreign ministry said in a
>statement Thursday.
>
>"Recent comments made by U.S. Air Force Commander in Europe, General
>Gregory Martin, about NATO having already conceived several variants of
>military action against Montenegro, including the use of ground troops, are
>shocking," said the ministry.
>
>"By his statement, the general has confirmed that the North Atlantic
>alliance is constantly planning military operations against a sovereign
>state without consulting Russia, which is in breach of the cooperation
>agreement between NATO and Russia," the statement read.
>
>"It is amazing that the general could make that statement, especially
>during such a critical time in the Balkan region," the ministry said.
>
>Local and presidential elections are due to be held in the former
>Yugoslavia on September 24.
>
>The Russian State Duma lower house of parliament plans to send observers to
>monitor the forthcoming elections. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)
>
>*************************************************************
>
>Global Reflexion - Amsterdam - The Netherlands
>
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