HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- 3
January 2002
There should be no doubt in the mind of any reasonable thinking person that the Foreign Operations Appropriation Act, Funding for Serbia, is a recipe to further punish and humiliate the Serbian people. In order to receive funding, the Foreign Operations Appropriation Act specifies that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia will (1) cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia including access for investigators, the provision of documents, and the surrender and transfer of indictees or assistance in their apprehension; (2) take steps, that are consistent with the Dayton Accords, to end Serbian financial, political, security and other support which has served to maintain separate Republic Srpska institutions; and (3) take steps to implement policies which reflect a respect for minority rights and the rule of law, including the release of all political prisoners from Serbian jails and prisons. Although provision (1) has not changed, further restrictions, as was shown in bold, have been added to both provisions (2) and (3). The original Dayton Accord nowhere specifies that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia may not maintain separate financial, political, security and other support to Republic Srpska institutions. If enacted, this provision would literally cut off the Republic of Srpska from Yugoslavia, a gross miscarriage of justice. Provision (3) states that policies should be implemented which reflect a respect for minority rights and the rule of law, including the release of all political prisoners from Serbian jails and prisons." Nowhere does the appropriations act state what constitutes "political prisoners," and in such an event, any member of the Kosovo Liberation Army who is in prison or in jail due to murder, rape, drugs, and atrocities committed against the minority population remaining in Kosovo, could be considered a "political prisoner," and therefore, released. Consider the foreign policy differences: U.S. POLICY TOWARDS AFGHANISTAN vs SERBIA - Although we do not have custody of Osama bin Laden, we are already working closely with the Northern Alliance to help them on their road to "democracy." Does the word, "democracy" even exist in Islamic countries? The first action the U.S. took was to reinstate Afghanistan's king. Although democracy has been returned to Serbia through free elections, there will be no aid to the Serbs until everyone, to the satisfaction of Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte, is sent to The International War Crimes Tribunal. While sentences of Croatia’s war criminals, as well as Bosnia’s Muslim and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians are either being reduced or dropped altogether, Carla del Ponte is obsessed with sending every Serb who ever wore a uniform (and some who have not), to The Hague. Why not just paint the Scarlet Letter "S" for "Serb" on the forehead of every Serb and be done with it? - For rebuilding of Afghanistan? Billions of U.S. tax dollars. For Yugoslavia? Virtually nothing. Considering NATO's bombing cost the Serbs and neighboring states billions and billions of dollars in destruction, the paltry "up to" $115 million offered is intended to further humiliate and demean the Serbian people. Keep in mind, where Yugoslavia was once a developed nation, NATO pilots, primarily American, bombed Serbia back to the stone age. However, Afghanistan never left the stone age. - Afghanistan needs only to be shown the way! It needs our understanding and our compassion; whereas our Yugoslav policy consists of threats, punishment, humiliation and endless demands. - President Bush asked every American child to send $1 to help the suffering Afghan children. As we recognize that children are children everywhere, there has been no compassion shown towards the suffering of Serbian children. Even the Greek arm of Doctors Without Borders was expelled for helping Serbian children. - President Bush has repeatedly stressed to the Afghan people and to the entire Islamic world, that they are not the enemy; that this is a war against Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and against Muslim terrorism (although the word "Muslim" was immediately removed after intense pressure from the Islamic community.) In contrast, President Clinton wanted to make sure that the Serbian people understood that they were as much an enemy as their president, Slobodan Milosevic. This contempt was never more obvious than when Lieutenant General Michael Short, Allied Commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, said, "I think no power to your refrigerator, no gas to your stove, you can't get to work because the bridge is down - the bridge on which you held your rock concerts -- and you all stood with targets on your heads. That needs to disappear at 3 o'clock in the morning." - President Bush continually reminds the American people that Islam is a religion of "peace." Christians who are being crucified in the Sudan and the tens of thousands of Christians in Indonesia who are waiting for the slaughter may not agree. However, Serbia's Eastern Orthodox Christianity, a victim of other religions throughout the centuries, has been convincingly portrayed as an evil religion. - Afghanistan is considered to be a "war torn" country. When have you ever heard the media refer to Yugoslavia as "war torn?" The media and the government work in tandem to gain sympathy for the people of Afghanistan while the people of Serbia are left in rubble due to Clinton administration policies and continued by the present administration. It is not our policy to help the Afghan people nor is it the fight against terrorism to which I object. Rather, it is our refusal to admit in the hindsight of 911 that we made a terrible mistake. It was Clinton's wag-the-dog policy objective and willing media shills to demonize the Serbian people to which I objected. Unfortunately, it was also one of the few things that the Clinton administration succeeded in doing right. Even now, hatred against Serbs continues at an all time high as films such as "Behind Enemy Lines" guarantees that hatred to continue. Sympathy for them as a people is non-existent. The common wisdom is that they "deserve what they get." However, the enemy that the Serbs are fighting is the same enemy allied with the Islamic terrorist network and Osama bin Laden. The same network that attacked America are kith and kin to the terrorist groups we currently support in Kosovo, yet our guns point only in the direction of the Serbs who are fighting in their own land to preserve their culture, religion and heritage. In this precarious age of the fight against a global Islamic terrorist network, we can no longer afford the luxury of ignorance as we determine who are our real enemies. In Kosovo, we myopically sided with one part of the terrorist network. As a result, Serbian culture, society, religion and language have all but been eradicated with the help of the Christian West. The hypocrisy is how we are treating the Serbs and how we are treating the Afghans. It solidifies the depth to which we show our hatred of the Serbs, even going so far as to destroy their Christian nation. On a personal note, I sometimes wonder, what in God's name have the Serbs done that they should be hated so much when you consider that they did not harm one hair on the head of a single American? One would think by our animosity towards them that we are still at war with them. It is vital for the conscience of the nation to recognize the disparity between how we conduct ourselves in Afghanistan versus what we are doing to the people of Serbia. What is more important, however, is the need to review our current policies in that area of the world in light of 911 much as we are currently reevaluating Islamic terrorism in Chechnya against the Russians. If not, we will continue to support a part of the very terrorist network that has sworn our destruction. ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================ |
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