WW News Service Digest #307
1) Imperialists behind fighting in Macedonia
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
2) Ramsey Clark charges Hague tribunal with gross violations
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
3) Zastava plant: Workers vs. privatization
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: keskiviikko 15. elokuu 2001 02:42
Subject: [WW] Imperialists behind fighting in Macedonia
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 16, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
YET ANOTHER DIRTY WAR:
IMPERIALISTS BEHIND FIGHTING IN MACEDONIA
By Heather Cottin
Several houses and other buildings belonging to Macedonian
Slavs were set afire July 28--apparently by right-wing
Albanian terrorists--in a village northeast of Tetovo,
Macedonia's second-biggest city, the Washington Post
reported July 30.
Tetevo is headquarters for a terrorist uprising aimed at
destabilizing Macedonia. Over 120,000 refugees have fled
Macedonia in recent weeks as fighting between armed elements
in the so-called National Liberation Army and the Macedonian
armed forces has intensified. The NLA is really an offshoot
of the Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA.
The war in Macedonia pits a U.S.-sponsored government
against the U.S.-sponsored NLA. As bizarre as that appears,
it is part of a project backed by the U.S. and NATO to
destabilize another Balkan republic so as to control this
strategic area connecting Europe to the Middle East.
Washington's aim in the region is to establish hegemony and
continue developing an oil pipeline that will make U.S.-
based oil companies dominant in the Balkans, the Caucasus
and Central Asia.
NATO has urged Macedonia to submit to a "peace plan" that
sounds remarkably like the Dayton Accords, which robbed
Yugoslavia of its republic of Bosnia. It is also similar to
the Rambouillet agreement that preceded the 78-day bombing
attack on Yugoslavia in 1999.
Macedonian Prime Minister Ljubko Georgievski, according to a
London Independent report, accused U.S. envoy James Pardew
of "forcing Macedonia to cave in to demands from Albanian
guerrillas." He was quoted in Pravda July 10 as saying, "We
are witnessing a monster actually created by NATO."
Georgievski called the Western-backed peace plan a "blatant
violation'' of Macedonia's affairs, accusing the West of
attempting to ''break up Macedonia.'' NATO Secretary General
Lord Robertson and Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy
chief, then called Georgievski's reaction "an undignified
response to international efforts to assist in the search
for a peaceful solution,'' the Associated Press reported
July 20.
According to the Christian Science Monitor, in June, when
NLA/KLA terrorists were threatened with a major loss, NATO
sent buses to take 500 of their troops with their weapons to
safety. The workers and farmers of Macedonia reacted with
fury to NATO's hostile intervention, protesting and breaking
windows at the U.S., German and British embassies.
The BBC readily admitted Jan. 29 that Western forces were
"training guerrillas" and opening a "new front in southern
Serbia (Presevo Valley) and Macedonia." In late July, the
German daily Berliner Zeitung reported that Macedonian
secret police had proof that a U.S. military helicopter
dropped supplies near rebel lines.
The NLA/KLA follows a familiar pattern begun by pro-NATO
forces in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s. They attack a
village. When the state defends itself, the terrorists make
wild appeals to the imperialist media, which are immediately
in sympathy with them against the horrible "repression" of
the Yugoslav, Serbian or now Macedonian government.
The terrorists demand control of the area. The NATO powers
agree.
Western media and Human Rights Watch then accuse the
sovereign government of "ethnic cleansing" and call for
military "humanitarian intervention." Then NATO creates a
phony "peace agreement" and dismembers another part of Yugo
slavia.
Meanwhile the Liberation Army of Chameria, an outgrowth of
the right-wing NLA/KLA, is planning a war against Greece for
Thrace, a region in Greece's north. Albanian fascists call
this area Chameria, claiming that 1 million ethnic Albanians
who live in this region "must enjoy their rights" and
threatening that "an armed struggle will get under way."
The Macedonian news agency, which reported this, notes that
many right-wing Albanian websites end with the phrase,
"Greece is the next country from which we will take back our
land."
The Turkish regime, NATO's most powerful regional member, is
building up its military in Cyprus. Turkey has sent military
and financial assistance to Albania. The Greek ruling class
and the Greek state have watched NATO expansionism passively
since the 1999 war.
The Greek working class has consistently protested NATO
intervention, waging the strongest demonstrations against
the war on Yugoslavia.
What is the U.S. stake in all of this? Why is the U.S.
government backing forces in Albania and Kosovo that are by
many accounts responsible for most of the drug and sex-slave
trafficking in Europe and have brought unimaginable poverty
to the Albanian people while attacking and ethnically
cleansing the Serbs, Rom, Macedonian and other
nationalities?
Why is the U.S. government secretly backing the Greater
Albanian project? Why is the Turkish dictatorship NATO's
favorite military buddy in the region?
A study from Rice University indicates that the Turkish
bourgeoisie is pressing for a pipeline from Baku in the
former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan to Ceyhan in Turkey.
The Turkish government seeks to collect a tariff from oil
tankers using the Bosporus, a stretch of water in Turkey
that is a gateway to the West from the Black Sea.
Washington is the puppeteer, using client state governments
from the Balkans and Turkey to guarantee huge transnational
corporations access to oil and gas fields and pipelines from
the Caspian region. This is all organized so the U.S.
capitalist class will dominate southern Europe and the
Caspian, Black, Adriatic, Aegean and Mediterranean seas.
Every major U.S. oil company is involved in AMBO, the
Albanian-Macedonian-Bulgarian oil conglomerate. Every region
where the NLA/KLA operates or plans to operate, from the
Presevo Valley in Yugoslavia through northern Greece, is
along the AMBO pipeline, due to open in 2005.
This Trans-Balkan pipeline gets money from the Export-Import
Bank and the World Bank. Its chief executive officer, E.L.
Ferguson, was vice president of Dick Cheney's old company,
Halliburton.
But the war in Macedonia and the machinations of Washington
and NATO are not just about oil. The labor of the peoples of
southeastern Europe is at issue.
NATO and NATO stooges will try to prevent unions from
winning decent wages for workers and better conditions for
the people of the region. Its "democratic" governments are
demolishing social services through privatization.
Imperialist encouragement of ethnic rivalries and the
breakup of socialist Yugoslavia has not brought "civil
society" but worsening poverty, corruption, fear and warfare
in the Balkans. Society in the former Yugoslavia is anything
but civil.
While the ruling class benefits, the vast majority of the
Croatian, Bosnian, Serb, Albanian, Rom and other
nationalities are poor, unemployed and at the mercy of NATO-
sponsored puppet governments. The conditions of all the
people of Eastern Europe have deteriorated since NATO
invaded the region.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: keskiviikko 15. elokuu 2001 02:43
Subject: [WW] Ramsey Clark charges Hague tribunal with gross violations
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 16, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
MEETS WITH MILOSEVIC:
RAMSEY CLARK CHARGES HAGUE TRIBUNAL WITH GROSS VIOLATIONS
By Heather Cottin
>From Aug. 1 to Aug. 3, attorney Ramsey Clark consulted with
imprisoned former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in
prison near The Hague, Netherlands. Milosevic is being held
pending trial by a pro-NATO court for alleged war crimes.
The tribunal, called the International Criminal Tribunal for
the Former Yugoslavia, failed to get a United Nations
mandate to function as a propaganda arm of NATO. It has
illegally restricted Milosevic's contact with lawyers and
other friendly visitors.
Milosevic intends to defend himself before the tribunal. He
refuses to recognize its authority. He has, however,
requested assistance from Clark and other lawyers, both
Yugoslav and foreign.
Clark, a former U.S. attorney general, is a human-rights and
anti-war activist, a founder of the International Action
Center. He is also co-chairperson of the International
Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic, which includes a
dozen lawyers from Europe and North America.
During the 1999 war Clark traveled twice to Yugoslavia to
show his solidarity against NATO's bombs.
"Every Court has inherent power and the duty to prevent any
violations of rights of accused persons before it," wrote
Clark in an emergency motion to the ICTY protesting
Milosevic's imprisonment. In the motion, Clark showed that
the ICTY violated Slobodan Milosevic's rights from the
moment it abducted him.
Slobodan Milosevic was leader of Yugoslavia during the 12
years Yugoslavs fought against NATO's dismemberment of their
country, including 1999 when the nation defied NATO bombers.
His party, the Socialist Party of Serbia, opposed
International Monetary Fund privatization schemes and
reactionary elements in the pay of the United States,
German, and other NATO governments.
NATO AND ICTY LIES
NATO and ICTY lied when they kidnapped Milosevic in June and
claimed a legal right to do so. "He has been seized,
confined and illegally transported from his own country,"
wrote Clark.
NATO and ICTY lied when they brought Milosevic to their
maximum-security prison. It was NATO that bombed the
infrastructure of Yugoslavia, destroying hundreds of
schools, hospitals, housing complexes, factories, bridges
and power plants, killing thousands of people. Yet they
accuse Milosevic of war crimes.
Then they caged him in The Hague prison, where they leave
the lights on in his cell day and night and keep television
cameras on him around the clock. They have made it nearly
impossible for him to see his wife, Mira Markovic. She is
forced to view him through a Plexiglas partition without
even a working phone to allow them to speak.
NATO and ICTY lied again when they informed the media that
their prisoner was suicidal. Clark said after his visit
that, despite this barbaric treatment, "Milosevic remains
strong, has an excellent spirit." This confirms Milosevic's
own statements and those of other friendly lawyers.
Reuters reported as fact another NATO lie on July 31, saying
that Milosevic "remains in solitary confinement at his own
request."
"This is a lie," said Yugoslav lawyer Dragoslav Ognjanovic
after meeting with Milosevic. Ognjanovic denied that his
client had asked to be separated from other prisoners at the
tribunal.
Clark said that Milosevic's solitary confinement, going into
its second month, violates even "the tribunal's own rules
and procedures."
Clark was quoted in the German pro-establishment weekly
magazine Der Spiegel as saying: "I have seen this in many
countries. The authorities try to disorient and weaken a
political prisoner, especially in the first stages" by
withholding visits or imposing onerous conditions.
In early July, the ICTY refused Clark's request to see
Milosevic. By that time it was clear that the former
Yugoslav president faced a total revocation of both the
rights of the accused and the presumption of innocence.
The ICTY also lied about Milosevic's due process rights.
Clark says that ICTY officials initially monitored
conversations between Milosevic and his lawyers, abrogating
the "requirement of confidentiality." Clark says the ICTY
registry office had denied him permission to visit President
Milosevic in early July, when the Yugoslav leader had first
requested the right to consult with him.
When Milosevic announced his decision to represent himself,
tribunal judge Richard May said that Milosevic would then
have limited rights to seek assistance from lawyers. Another
lie.
May claimed there was "no precedence for a defendant to
defend himself." But at Milosevic's July 3 arraignment
hearing, May had said, "You will have full opportunity in
due course to defend yourself and to make your defense
before the tribunal."
Clark noted, "Article 5 of the ICTY's own charter says, 'a
suspect, an accused and any person detained on the authority
of the tribunal shall have the right to be assisted by
counsel.'"
Cutting through these obvious and vicious lies, Slobodan
Milosevic, with the support of a strong team of lawyers,
plans to take on his own defense and to put NATO and the
ICTY on trial. According to Clark, Milosevic said: "OK. I
didn't choose to be here, but I am here. It is my destiny to
use this prison as a platform to help our people."
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: keskiviikko 15. elokuu 2001 02:43
Subject: [WW] Zastava plant: Workers vs. privatization
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Aug. 16, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
ZASTAVA PLANT: WORKERS VS. PRIVATIZATION
Thousands of workers at the Zastava plant in Kragujevac,
Yugoslavia, brought traffic to a halt July 19 when they
rallied to protest plans to privatize their factory, the
biggest in Yugoslavia. Tens of thousands face losing their
jobs.
Sometimes all the currents of globalism converge on one
factory, one town, one country. In 1999, when NATO bombed
Yugoslavia for refusing to give up socialism and knuckle
under to imperialism's military domination, the huge Zastava
factory was one NATO target. The auto plant produced the
Yugo automobile, weapons, and airplanes for the national
airline, JAT.
When NATO attacked Zastava, the workers in the city of
Kragujevac went to their factory and protected it with their
bodies. Many were injured in the NATO bombing.
They considered it their factory--not just a place of work
but their property.
Under the Socialist Party-led Milosevic government, by law
workers were allocated 60 percent of the shares in the
factory. The state controlled the other 40 percent.
When the new government of Vojislav Kostunica and Zoran
Djinjic took power after the October 2000 coup, the first
thing it did was privatize state property. Seventy percent
of the Zastava shares were to be sold to private investors.
Of course, the U.S. government and its representatives knew
Yugoslavs would resent the privatization schemes because
they would cost jobs. The AFL-CIO and the National Endowment
for Democracy helped create Nezavisnost, a labor union
friendly to an International Monetary Fund "restructuring
plan."
More than one labor union represents the Zastava workers.
But most of the workers were in the left and socialist Trade
Union Confederation of Serbia.
"After the DOS-NATO coup, Djindjic promised that no worker
would be fired; DOS cheated workers and workers now feel
abused," said Darko Nadic, writing from Yugoslavia. DOS
refers to Democratic Opposition of Serbia, the public
relations name created for the right wing.
Downsizing the Zastava factory will hit the left union
members hardest. The DOS/NATO government is selling off "the
country's most valuable state-owned assets," according to
Privatization Minister Alexsandar Vlahovic.
With the cash from these sales, the government will
compensate the "pre-1945" owners of these properties--which
would include Nazi collaborators. OPAH, a pro-privatization
Yugoslav investment consultant firm, acknowledges that 27
percent of the Yugoslav work force is unemployed because of
the bombing of Yugoslavia's industry and the privatization
program.
For Zastava, globalization means NATO bombs, the IMF,
privatization, downsizing, unemployment, cheap labor, union
busting and anti-worker governments. Despite attempts by
company unions to sell out the workers, Zastava now displays
one more hallmark of globalization: resistance.
--H.C.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
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