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Dear friends :
Please pass around to as many lists as possible. If you would like Part One of "NATO is a Criminal Organization" - please write me for it. I will try to have the entire version posted to Abolish NATO as soon as I am able. It could be a day, or so.
Please - for fair use only!
NATO is a Racist Organization - Part II
Understanding the Violence of the Saints
By ES LaPorte - Tallahassee, Florida, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Introduction to part two -
In part one, I demonstrated that the notion of “race” is of social construction. That is, a society constructs and defines the notions of “race.” I also demonstrated that along with that, “racism,” too, is of a social construction. Third, I demonstrated that “racist - like” relationships can develop between two groups of humans who had the same physical characteristics: The European Jews and the German Nazis is a good example. I used the work of William Wright (1998) to demonstrate that the creation of fanciful myths, such as “Serbian ethnic cleansing” and “Serbian repression” and “automaton Serbs moving thousands of bodies in the middle of the night,” create the fanciful myth that Serbs are not humans like the rest of humanity, and thus, are not humans deserving of the same treatment as full human beings.
Here in part two, I demonstrate the racist-like relationship between the NATO Alliance and “the Serbs” can be looked at back through recent Balkans’ history and established. This includes the Alliance’s support for people, governments and “courts” that persecute and kill Serbs. The NATO Alliance’s history in the Balkans has been of taking action ONLY against Serbian peoples, and hence, the NATO Alliance’s racist relationship to Serbian peoples is established.
Lastly, I demonstrate George Robertson’s indifference to the suffering of Kosovo Serbs. Robertson even justifies the brutality against Kosovo Serbs by his canonized, saintly “Kosovar” Albanians on the grounds of what Milosevic, far off in Belgrade, may have done to the Kosovo’s Albanian majority.
NATO’s rewards for persecuting Serbs.
The Alliance has lent support and rewarded those individuals and governments who have killed, ethnically cleansed, committed war crimes against and otherwise violated the human rights of Serbian peoples.
The Alliance not only is acting “helpless” and “dumb” about stopping the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo, but gave active air support to the Croatian Military in its offensive against the Krajina Serbs in that region (Elich, 1999). On August 1st, the then Secretary General Willy Claes gave a press statement that the North Atlantic Council had approved a UN request to use NATO air power to “defend” Croatia should it be “attacked”(1).
NATO was therefore responsible for leading the Croatian invasion of Krajina, which forced the entire population to flee and lead to the deaths of 14,000 Serbian civilians, with some 1,700 missing. NATO aircraft jammed [Serb] military communications and destroyed anti-air craft and radar instillations. According to Krajina foreign affairs official Slobodan Jarcevic, the NATO Alliance “completely led and coordinated the entire Croat offensive by first destroying radar and anti-air craft batteries. What NATO did most for the Croatian Army was to jam communications between [Serb} military commands. . .. “ (qtd. in Elich, p. 1). This action allowed Croatian aircraft to effectively bomb towns and refugee columns. Serbian refugees who were fleeing in their cars were pelted with rocks, some pulled from cars and severally beaten. The Croatian police units, operating under the Croatian Government, plundered the empty Serb villages of things of value and set the homes ablaze. Pro-Nazi graffiti was left of some of the buildings owned by Serbs (Elich, 1999; Daskalovic, 1995).
United Nations personal would find corpses of massacred Serb civilians for weeks to come with many decapitated, burned alive in their homes and murdered in gruesome ways that one could not tell if the person was male or female. Great many of the victims were the elderly (Daskalovic, 1995; Elich, 1999).
The reaction of Willy Claes at a National Press Club meeting on October 4th to the Alliance air strikes was that it “was a success, a permanent achievement,” and that “NATO troops will not be asked to fight on one side or the other” (2). Oh yes, Mr. Claes, this would not the last time that your anti-Serb, NATO Alliance would take an action that results in the killing of Serbs, the destruction of their culture, and the removal of them from their homes! In the mind of Willy Claes, like Javier Solana recently, and George Robertson currently, “success” is defined by how much Serbs suffer under NATO Alliance air power.
Franjo Tudjman toured the Croatian and Krajina areas by train and announced, “. . .so as if they never lived here. . . There can be no return to the past when Serbs were spreading their cancer in the heart of Croatia, a cancer that was destroying the Croatian national being” (qtd. in Elich, p. 2-3). Tudjman promised that “there will never be 12% of Serbs” in Croatia and his generals characterized their Serbs victims as “troglodytes and destroyers of anything the culture of man has created” (3).
In recent days the NATO Alliance has admitted Croatia to the Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. The Alliance has done this despite, or because of, Croatia’s questionable record on the human rights and conditions of Croatian Serbs (Malhon, 1999). British MP Alice Mahon, who was part of visit by a human rights organization, remarked on the conditions of Serbs living in the area:
Croatian occupied or owned houses benefited from full reconstruction finance, whilst the Serbs were left with little or no help. Even an outsider like myself can see there is an official policy of ethnically cleansing the whole area of non-Croats. Serbs may be given papers which allow them to return, but when they do so they are discouraged from staying in every conceivable way (p.1, 1999).
After emerging from the May 10th, 2000 meeting of the North Atlantic Counsel, NATO SG Robertson announced:
“ . . .Croatia has now become an example for its neighbors and an inspiration .. . .throughout the region. By promoting peace and stability in the Balkans, Croatia has demonstrated that the future of the region can be bright. By sharing our values, Croatia has won its place in the Euro-Atlantic family” (4).
Actions speak louder than words! If the open, anti-Serb, racist policies of the Government of Croatia are “our values,” the “values” embraced by the NATO Alliance are indeed racist. Racism is not supposed to is a “value” embraced by supposedly multiethnic, democratic societies.
The General who “commanded” this NATO-led mass murder and ethnic cleansing of Serbs from the Krajina, Agim Ceku, went on to become a “Chief of Staff” in the Kosovo “Liberation Army” and is now a “leader” in the Kosovo Albanian community (Chossudovsky, 1999). Well, this guy should have been sent to The Hague a long time ago (if it was actually an impartial tribunal). The NATO Alliance is giving Agim Ceku, like the Government of Croatia that he gave “service” to in the Krajina, his reward for killing and ethnically cleansing Serbian peoples! KFOR’s general, Lieutenant General Sir Mike Jackson, perhaps knowing Agim Ceku’s bestial past, commended Ceku for “his efforts” to slowly disarm the KLA. With an extension of a deadline to turn in the KLA’s weapons, KFOR’s General Jackson calmly stated: “I do not regret this noncompliance, but rather as an indication of the seriousness with which General Ceku is taking this important issue” (qtd. in Chossudovsky pp. 6-7).
This is lax treatment bestowed to a should-be-indicted war criminal by NATO’s commander in Kosovo, contrasted to reports of brutal treatment imposed upon Serbs in weapon searches. One such report describes how an elderly Serb with a heart condition was dragged out of his bed and sat upon and treated like an animal by American KFOR troops during a brutal search for weapons in the town of Cernica near Gnjilane (5).
Along side the NATO Alliance’s open racism and favoritism for Kosovo Albanians and a war criminal from the Krajina, is the open show of support and the bestowing rewards upon those governments and individuals who persecute the Serbs, the Alliance is also actively involved in the UN creature - creation, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). This ad hoc “court” in the Hague, Netherlands, has a glaringly obvious, anti-Serb bias. In aiding this ethnically biased “court,” NATO’s SFOR troops occasionally go on “Serb hunts” to “arrest” and brutalize the families of Bosnian Serb “inductees” (Kent, 1999; Black 1999, Cavoski, 1997).
SFOR has, along with the anti-Serb biased ICTY, yet to pursue alleged crimes on Serbs with the same level of vigor as those crimes alleged to have been committed by Serbs. Agim Ceku, the unindicted war criminal from the Krajina bestial invasion and slaughter, is the most glairing example. NATO supports this biased “court” and seems to have no problem with the racial bias. (Kent 1999, Black 1999, Cavoski, 1997). A “court,” such as the ICTY, and “law enforcement,” such as SFOR’s, with this kind of ethnic bias, would never be tolerated in a true multicultural, democratic society.
“Understanding the Saints’ Need for Revenge.”
In his speeches from the past year, the Lord George Robertson, the NATO Alliance’s Secretary General, has openly favored Kosovo Albanians, canonizing them, like the Muslims in Bosnia, and justifying the violence against their Serb neighbors as “understandable.” Kosovo Albanians are “leaders” that Robertson states that he “has talked to about the violence” against Serbs and other non-Albanians. Kosovo Albanians, in Robertson’s mind, “need understanding and we need to reason their anger,” Kosovo Albanian leaders are not “sinister paramilitaries and troublemakers,” but “responsible leaders” (6).
In the aftermath of the bombing of Yugoslavia, as during it, the NATO Alliance has chosen to side with Kosovo Albanians exclusively sides in the chaotic society of Kosovo. Robertson and his NATO Alliance have canonized the Kosovo Albanians to sainthood.
Robertson, in his speeches and interviews in the Western press, wants us to “understand” the violence against the Kosovo Serbs and justifies the murders, disappearances and ethnic cleansing of Serbs, both young and old, from Kosovo as an “understandable response to years of repression by the Milosevic regime.” In the mind of Robertson, “Serb=Milosevic” (Hammond 2000). What “the Serbs” have done in the past to Kosovo’s “majority Albanian population,” it is now OK for the canonized Kosovo Albanians to do back “with understanding” to their Serb neighbors.
See how Lord Robertson answers the questions put to him by ITV’s Jonathan Dimbleby, in his June 11th, 2000 interview regarding the violence and repression of the Kosovo Serbs by the NATO-canonized Albanians in a most unbalanced manner (7). This is a clear demonstration of how Robertson rationalizes away the racism and hates crimes against the Kosovo Serbs:
Dimblely: . . .if I may put this to you, from the reports of the OSCE . . ..they describe a situation in which 70% of the Serbian population has either fled or has been displaced. The vast majority living in ghettos, surrounded by barb wire, protected by NATO troops on a 24 hour basis, where children can’t go to school because they’re not accepted by the state schools, where if they travel they have to have 24 hour KFOR protection to protect them from death - now, you’re saying that the situation is something which is just criminal activity?
Robertson: Well - I’m saying to you that it’s unacceptable, I use that word and I used it with the Albanian leadership.
Dimbleby: Why didn’t you go out of your way? Why don’t we hear you publicly, repeating all you are saying “this outrage must stop,” rather than talking behind closed doors generally or making speeches, which say we have to solve this crime problem?
Robertson: For 10 years from when Milosevic came to power the majority population was denied several rights, ordinary rights, the right to educate their children in their own language, in their own schools. Systematic discrimination . . . then face 18 months of the most horrifying violence . . ..putting babies on bayonets in order to terrorize the civil population. That is what is going on . . .now that does not excuse any individual murders that are going on.
Dimbleby: But you said . . .you said it does excuse it?!
Robertson’s obvious justification of violence against the Kosovo Serbs, that the Albanians “have a reason” to kill “them,” is indication that Robertson does not have the same level of regard for Serbian life as compared to Albanian life. Could Robertson be signing off on the maltreatment of Kosovo Serbs from afar in Brussels, being that “the Serbs,” in Robertson’s mind, are a “lower form of life?” Wright (1998) racists see the world as a duelist of the “us” and the “them.” Is the Lord George Robertson an anti-Serb bigot? You bet he is!
George Robertson, over the past year, demonstrated that he and his NATO Alliance favor Kosovo Albanians in an religious, divine-mission sense. The “saving of the Kosovar Albanians,” their welfare, safety, rebuilding their communities, and the ‘bringing to justice those who have committed crimes against Kosovar Albanians” have become a divine-like mission for even Robertson himself. Robertson mentions “that there are problems with crime,” but without mentioning hate crimes that may have been perpetrated by Kosovo Albanians and even eludes that “we must understand” the violence the “canonized Albanians” commit. As demonstrated in the interview above, Robertson occasionally justifies the Kosovo Albanian violence against Serbs, including against children and the elderly, as “caused by Milosevic’s 10 years of oppressing the Albanian majority.” This is racist hogwash (!) and a clear indication of elevated value placed by the godly NATO Alliance of Kosovo Albanians compared to Serbs. In a reaction statement to the release of Amnesty International’s “Collateral Damage” (2000) report, Robertson took to justifying the war crimes the report accuses the NATO Alliance of committing with the sainthood of the Kosovo Albanians:
“But such incidents must be weighed against the atrocities that NATO’s actions stopped. . . Serbian military and police forces engaged in deliberate . .. .violence against Kosovo Albanian civilians in gross violation of international law and civilized norms of behavior. The clear priority now is to bring to justice the war criminals that perpetrated this violence against the people of Kosovo” (8).
The defining of the Serbs as “subhuman and nonhumans” by the NATO Alliance and its pulpit, the Western press and the ICTY, and are but “collateral damage” has been extensively written about (Thomas 1995, Kent 1999, Hammond 2000).
Crimes committed by Serbs are defined as “crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide,” while those who commit crimes ON Serbs are never defined as such (Thomas, 1995). This is because the Serbs are nonhumans and committing “crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes” ON the nonhuman Serbs are not “crimes.” How can the NATO Alliance have committed war crimes in “Operation Allied Force?” The Serbs are nonhumans committing actions against our fellow humans, the Kosovo Albanians?! So, what is all the fuss?!
It is obvious from reading Robertson’s speeches that he has real trouble giving equal consideration to Serbs as members of the human race as compared to Kosovo Albanians. Kosovo Albanians, in the mind of Robertson, are FULL human beings and “leaders,” where as the Serbs are non-humans, and actions on nonhumans are not defined as crimes. This is why international laws, norms and conventions DO NOT apply to the NATO Alliance’s relations to nonhuman Serbs.
Once again - from part one - that all - to - pointed passage from Wright’s Racism Matters (1998):
“When people are perceived to be nonhumans or subhumans, this takes things beyond simple prejudice, or bigotry, or discrimination. Where people are perceived this way, they are perceived to be outside a human status, outside humanity, and outside human morality, and therefore, outside human rights, then there is no way they are entitled to have political or civil rights. And since being nonhuman or subhuman is forever, then such people would always be denied political and civil rights, and even simple human dignity, decency, and courtesy -- if the racists had their way.
“Racist put actual human beings, including themselves outside the boundaries of morality, so that they can relate to actual people, their victims, in a nonmoral manner; where they can relate to these people any way they wish, violently, abusive, discriminatorily, and without any pangs of conscience or guilt. No matter what they did to their victims, they would be guiltless, innocent, and nonresponsiable. These kinds of responses or feelings pertain to human beings and interacting with human beings. They did not pertain to nonhumans or subhumans” (Wright, 1998: 330).
Conclusion
The NATO Alliance has a relationship that can be viewed as anti-Serb in nature, lending aid, support and rewards to those people, governments and a “criminal court” that adopts policies and is involved in actions that are to kill and persecute Serbian peoples. The Alliance, to this date, indicates that it has NO anti-Serb agenda, but is simply not the case, given the established anti-Serb actions of the Alliance in the Balkans.
This author cannot give a definite answer as to why the NATO Alliance has such an ethnic biased toward defining the Serbian peoples in East Europe as a “problem people” in need of “democratizing and our holy values.” Like the white settlers in the American West, not only does the land need “civilizing,” but “the savages” in it as well, while at the same time giving aid and rewards to people and governments that likewise kill “the uncivilized savages.” This author suspects that the Alliance’s anti-Serb racism is part of its and its Secretary General George Robertson‘s attempts to define a “security threat to the Euro-Atlantic area” to justify its “new role” in the post Cold War era and as a servant to the United Nations (9). The NATO Alliance is working very hard to recreate itself in various ways, and the Serbs are the scapegoats for this justification.
So as long as the Lord George Robertson of Port Ellen, an man who obviously places more value on one canonized ethnic group, the Kosovo Albanians, over another, the Serbs, and uses “the sins of Milosevic” to justify both his indifference and the violence, then Balkans Serbs are not safe from the wrath of the Robertson’s racist NATO Alliance. If the Alliance states it would like Serbs to live in prosperous, democratic Serbia be able to fully take part in the European Union, and have a future for Serbian children --- do not believe a word of it! Given the established anti-Serb history of the NATO Alliance in the Balkans, the future the NATO Alliance wants for Serbian children is exile, imprisonment or death!
Notes:
1. Press statement from Secretary General Claes on the North Atlantic Council’s go ahead to use force to “defend” areas in Croatia. August 1st, 1995.
2.Remarks of the then Secretary General Willy Claes at the National Press Club, October 4th, 1995. Claes never gives press releases with regard to the concern for suffering Serbs in the Krajina.
3. Greg Elich (1999) The Invasion of Serbian Krajina. On-line publication, Emperor's Clothes www.emperors-clothes.com . Tudjman was an anti-Serb racist of the first magnitude and Elich quoted many of Tudjman’s anti-Serb, racist rantings, and those of his generals.
4. The May 10th, 2000 statement from Secretary General Lord Robertson on the invitation extended to Croatia to enter the “Partnership for Peace” program. This action set off that preverbal light bulb in this author’s head that NATO has some sort of policy that is grossly anti-Serb. This act of inviting an openly, racist country like Croatia to be a “partner for peace” prompted this author to begin looking into NATO’s anti-Serb policies and racism in the first place.
5. Maltreatment of Serbs: KFOR Rode Serbs in Cernica. June 7th, 2000. Tanjug News.
6. See ANYTHING Robertson has to say about Kosovo and NATO’s actions in Kosovo. See the speech Robertson gave on the 24th of March, 2000 - Conference to Mark the First Anniversary of the Kosovo Air Campaign - the one-year mark of the start of the bombing. This author will, in the near future, be writing more about George Robertson’s ethnically biased speeches regarding the REAL situation in Kosovo, his indifference and excusing Kosovo Albanian violence as “understandable because of the sins of Milosevic.”
7. From a British Television interview given by Lord George Robertson of Port Ellen, the current Secretary General of NATO to ITV’s Jonathan Dimbleby on the 11th of June 2000. This interview reveals of the depth of the favoritism Robertson gives to Kosovo Albanians and the indifference toward Serbs and the justification of violence directed at Serbs.
8. June 7th, 2000. Statement by the George Robertson in reaction to Amnesty International’s “Collateral Damage” Report, which cites that the Alliance’s pilots did, indeed, violate international law in “Operation Allied Force.” Robertson, once again, uses the “sins of Milosevic” to excuse the Alliance’s violent violationa of international law.
9. NATO, the UN and the Use of Force: Legal Aspects. June 3ed, 2000. European Journal of International Law. On-line publication, www.ejil.org/journal/Vol10/No1/ab1-2.html .
Other:
Amnesty International. (2000) NATO/Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: “Collateral Damage” or Unlawful Killings. Violations of the Laws of War During “Operation Allied Force.”
Cavoski, Kosta (1997) The Hague Against Justice: The Witch Hunt. On-line publication. www.srpska-mreza.com
Chossudovsky, Michel (1999) NATO has instilled a Reign of Terror in Kosovo. U. of Ottawa. Ottawa, Canada.
Black, Christopher (1999) An Impartial Tribunal? Really? On-line publication, www.emperors-clothes.com/analysis/Impartial.htm
Daskalovic, Zoran, (1995) Verbal Crimes in Krajina On-line publication, www.cdsp.neu.edu/info/students/marko/feral/feral9.htm Feral Tribune. Split, Croatia.
Elich, Greg (1999) The Invasion of Serbian Krajina. On-line publication, Emperors’s Clothes www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/elich/krajina.html
European Journal of International Law. NATO, the UN and the Use of Force: Legal Aspects. On-line publication, www.ejil.org/journal/Vol10/No1/ab1-2.html . June 3rd, 2000. Vol 10, No. 1.
Hammond, Philip (2000) Reporting ‘Humanitarian’ Warfare: Propaganda, Moralism and NATO's Kosovo War Moralism and NATO’s Kosovo War.
Kent, Raymond K. (1999) Contextualizing Hate: The Hague Tribunal, the Clinton Administration and the Serbs. On-line publication www.diaspora-net.org/food4thought/kent.htm
Mahon, Alice (1999) Report on the Conditions of Serbs in Croatia. On-line publication www.emperors-clothes.com/articles/mahon/croatia.htm
Thomas, Raju G. C. (1995) Dehumanizing a Nation: The Balkan Conflict and International Reaction. Marquette University. On-line publication, www.srpska-mreza.com/library/facts/dehumanizing.html
Wright, William D. (1998) Racism Matters Praege Publishers: Westport,CT.
