HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------[Today is a really sad day. Under the leadership of Javier Solana, the same man who as NATO Secretary General led the illegal aggression on Yugoslavia in 1999, the European Union has just brokered a deal to wipe Yugoslavia off the world map in a top down processes that most Yugoslavs reject. The deal was brokered between Solana, Milo Djukanovic (the President of Montenegro), Zoran Djindjic (the Prime Minister of Serbia), and Vojislav Kostunica (the President of Yugoslavia). Djukanovic is the leader of the Democratic Socialist Party (DPS) in Montenegro, a far-right neoliberal creation that is a regional hub for mafia activity, cigarette smuggling and money laundering. Elections in Montenegro have been deeply flawed and the DPS as well as its junior partner the Liberal Union have used voter intimidation, particularly of state employees to stay in power. The majority of Montenegrins oppose indipendence, yet through manipulation and Western support the DPS has managed to maintain a narrow margin over its closest rivals the Socialist Peoples Party (SNP) [although the SNPs party base is still firmly pro-Yugoslav and opposed to NATO, the leadership has in recent months moved away from its grass-roots constituency as it has moved with pro-Western forces in Yugoslavia on several key legislative items]. Djindjic on the other hand is the un-elected Prime Minister of Serbia who was appointed by a DOS dominated Parliament as a key condition of Western aid to FRY. He has never held more than 5% of popular support in the country, and his neoliberal views and particular brand of collaborationist Serbian nationalism issharply at odds with the majority of the Yugoslav population. Nonetheless he has unconstitutionally arrogated to himself all the powers of the elected position of the Serbian Presidency, which is still held by the still popular Socialist Party of Serbia. In any case support for the preservation of Yugoslavia is overwhelming, and the current process is being imposed from above opening the way for the final destruction of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's territorial integrity, and thereby completing the US and German goal of destroying Yugoslavia once and for all through a maximalist anti-Yugoslav program that would serve to sharpen divisions between all southern Slavs in order to weaken the most likely focus of resistance to NATO occupation of this imensily strategic region. This move was also given the green light by the Federal President Kostunica, whose popularity is dropping daily in the polls as a result of mismanagement and impotence in the face of daily NATO pressures to alter the whole framework of Yugoslav society and impose a narrow-ethnic chauvinist and archly-capitalist social framework on the countries peoples. Most parties have been compromised on the issue of coloboration with the occupying powers and Yugoslavs will not be given a choice to choose in a referendum between this new Western created arrangement and the indigenously created FRY in a plebistice. A new "Union of Serbia and Montenegro" (USM) is to be proclaimed in accordance with US policy towards the region, which was the only country not to recognize FRY as a sovereign state since it was reconstituted in 1992, refering to it instead as "Serbia and Montenegro" (a formulation in which the provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo were considered as semi-independent states as well). The official American narrative on Yugoslavia's dissolution, regarding seccession issues, is now being imposed in order to further divide and weaken any potential resistance to NATO and to destroy the ability of anyone state or people in the region to effectively resist the new colonial regime. Thankfully this is still not a fait-accompli, but the new Western funded elites have proven adept at passing unpopular laws in the past, such as the new labour law which recently dismantled the "social ownership" which was the foundation of property relations in Yugoslavia in favor of a completely privatized system and retrenched substantial labour rights severely despite mass-protests throughout Yugoslavia (ignored in the Western press, these demos attracted 50,000+ people in Belgrade at their peak earlier this year). This process is occuring in the context of an election campaign in NATO-member Hungary were the ruling neoliberal Fidesz party is continuing with "Greater Hungarian" policies that seek to legally integrate Hungarian minorities living in neighboring countries into Hungary's governing structures, reverse the Benes Decress, some portions of the post-WWI Versaille order and the use the Hungarian state with the full-backing of the EU, the United States and NATO to implement neoliberalism abroad. Furthermore, the popular LDK in Kosovo, whose non-violent leader Ibrahim Rugova is the most popular figure in Kosovo, has, despite wining recent elections, been forced by the US to accept a "power-sharring" agreement with KLA extremists, including the appointment of Bajram Rexhepi to the position of Kosovo PM. Rexhepi represents the most extreme current of Albanian nationalism and is completely at odds with the majority of the Albanian population whose moderate views are in accord with Rugova's LDK (which, again, received the most votes in the recent elections). Thus the United States is backing all the forces throughout the still existing Federal Republic of Yugoslavia that favor fractious, narrow ethno-nationalist politics, coupled with a strong comitment to neoliberal capitalist values. As these injustices mount real Balkan patriots will have to see that their interests lie in unity with other ethnic groups and not division. All groups in the region have a proud history of anti-fascist and anti-imperialist resistence, let's do everything in our efforts to ensure that these traditions gain new wind in the coming years. The task will be difficult, but resistance to "the internationals" is already rife throughout the region. I am confident it will over time, of necessity, eventually coalesce into a progressive force that will overcome current limitations. Let's hope this day comes sooner or later, not just for the Balkans, but for the world. Remember the Balkans has been the graveyard of many Empires, burrying one more wouldn't be too much to ask now would it?]
Serbia, Montenegro Sign Accord
By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC
.c The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - Serbia and Montenegro signed a historic accord Thursday to radically restructure their federation, dropping the name Yugoslavia and granting greater autonomy to prevent the country's final breakup.
The agreement, reached under mediation by the European Union, was signed by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and other Serbian and Montenegrin officials.
The new country, consisting of two semi-independent states, will be renamed Serbia and Montenegro, Kostunica said after the signing ceremony. Both republics will share a defense and foreign policy, but will maintain separate economies, currencies and customs services for the time being.
``This document sets the shape of completely new relations between the states of Serbia and Montenegro,'' Kostunica said. ``This step means a break with the previous regime'' of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
``Amid the threat of disintegration in the Balkans, we are moving toward integration and peace and stability in the region,'' he said.
Yugoslavia first was formed in 1918 as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, and Montenegro gave up its statehood to join. The country was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II, then tightly controlled under the communist regime of Marshal Tito for four decades after the war.
Yugoslavia began to unravel along ethnic lines during Milosevic's reign. Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina all declared their independence by 1992.
Serbia and Montenegro stayed together when the other republics started leaving Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. But their alliance began to crumble in 1997 when Djukanovic distanced himself from Milosevic and began advocating independence for Montenegro.
Kostunica said the political accord calls for new federal elections in the autumn, and that the parliaments of both republics as well as the federal Yugoslav parliament would set to work on constitutional changes. The country's new name will not take effect until lawmakers in all three chambers ratify the accord.
Solana praised the agreement, saying Montenegro and Serbia ``should have no doubt'' about the EU's support.
``This is an important day and a step toward the stability in the region and in Europe,'' Solana said. ``This is not the end of anything, but a beginning of a new chapter that will bring you closer to the European Union.''
Djukanovic, who is likely to face an avalanche of criticism in Montenegro for giving up a planned independence referendum for the small republic this spring, said he expected Serbs and Montenegrins to ``have a positive approach toward this agreement'' and predicted it would win parliamentary approval.
The tiny Adriatic republic continued its independence drive even after Milosevic's ouster in 2000. Milosevic is now on trial before the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, for atrocities his forces committed in the Balkans in the 1990s.
Branko Ruzic, the spokesman for Milosevic's Socialist Party, called the event ``the most shameful date in the history of the Serbs.''
``We went to bed in one state, and we woke up in another,'' Ruzic said, adding that the Socialists are for ``preserving the current Yugoslavia.''
Montenegro's 650,000 people remain bitterly divided on whether to remain in a federation with Serbia, whose approximately 10 million people effectively determine Yugoslav affairs.
A draft of the agreement, obtained by The Associated Press, said that after three years, ``the member states will be entitled to institute proceedings for a change of the state status, that is, withdrawal from the state union.''
The pro-Serbian faction in Montenegro praised the agreement.
``The dangerous divisions in Montenegro were averted. Djukanovic stopped on the brink, and we approve of this,'' said Dragan Soc, the leader of the Montenegrin Peoples' Party.
Kostunica said his office as federal president would remain and that the new country would have one seat in the United Nations, just as Yugoslavia does now, although Montenegrin and Serbian officials would rotate as envoys to U.N. headquarters in New York.
The accord was a major policy victory for the West, which has opposed Montenegrin secession, fearing the breakup could encourage other independence-minded groups in the region - in particular, ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and Macedonia.
Arguing that secession also would hurt Montenegro's economy and slow down the process of integrating it into mainstream Europe, the EU has been pushing for a new Yugoslav constitution that would preserve a joint state while granting the two republics greater self-governance.
AP-NY-03-14-02 1011EST
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