http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/news/art/2005/55652.php
No Standards before Status24.08.2005 BERLIN/BELGRADE/PRISTINA(Own report) - The international controversy about the separation of Kosovo from Serbia is intensifying. Negotiations have been arranged for this autumn under strong German pressure. Observers believe that a shift in the discussions as well as a possible "exit strategy" for the United Nations is possible. As a result, it is likely that insistence on human rights standards in Kosovo will be dropped. Whilst the German Bertelsmann Foundation is pressing for the separation of Kosovo and the creation of an EU protectorate, Belgrade is trying to win over the People's Republic of China. Beijing could safeguard the territorial integrity of Serbia by using its veto in the UN Security Council, if the German strategy for secession was advanced. These disagreements mark the last phase of the disintegration of former Yugoslavia, which had its beginnings in the early Nineties with decisive German participation. Justification in the media for the attack on Belgrade is the topic of a recently published study of the German press. This analyses the significant part played by media manipulation in the destruction of Yugoslavia. The Austrian political expert, Helmut Kramer, believes that the negotiations may well move in the direction of amputating Kosovo from Serbia. He believes it is possible that they could lead to an exit strategy for the UN, which "could lead to a situation like Afghanistan".[1] In the background of the discussions are German demands, which contradict existing UN Resolutions and aspire to the secession of Kosovo. In a strategy paper the Bertelsmann Foundation proposes that the EU should set up a "semi-sovereign" Kosovo, "if Kosovo Albanians and Serbs are not in a position to create a lasting resolution to the Kosovo conflict". Futhermore the EU should take over the command of the KFOR troops "not only to become the most important international player in Kosovo but also to lend weight to its foreign and security policy". Brussels must be prepared for a blockade in the Security Council and be ready "to recognise Kosovo unilaterally".[2] These recommendations are a re-run of the German coercion by which the diplomatic recognition of Croatia was compelled at the beginning of the Yugoslavian wars. Demonisation The German role in the territorial destruction of Yugoslavia is the topic of a media analysis, recently published by the Berlin Information Centre for Transatlantic Security (BITS).[3] The study analyses the reporting of the British Times" and the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" (FAZ) from the beginning of 1991 to the end of 1995. Whilst the Times is credited with "balance at the beginning" which ended with the militarization of the conflict, the FAZ "gave a decidedly negative image both to the recent history of Yugoslavia and to Yugoslavia in its death throes. To this end, the FAZ used images of fascist analogues and mobilised anti-communist resentments in manipulating reports of massacres, according to the study. Primitive Frames of Reference The author of the BITS study sees a further characteristic in the FAZ reporting of its attributions to ethnocentric causes. The paper not only accepted the "simplification of points of difference along ethnic lines" supported by "nationalist forces in Yugoslavia" but had set out to deepen and multiply these "primitive frames of reference". In connection with this, the paper had "inverted the norms of international law" and "used the principle of self-determination selectively for its argument". The writer noted a similar conversion to the ethnocentric cause by the Times. Orders and Decoration The author also demonstrates the deep partisan commitment of the FAZ in the conflict from the "grateful gestures of the presidents of Slovenia and Croatia", who gave state approval to the Frankfurt paper. Victor Meier, a long time South East Europe correspondent for the FAZ, received the highest decoration of the land, "The Order of Freedom", from the President of Slovenia. The FAZ cartoonist Fritz Behrend, who is known for his aggressive style, is being considered for an order and was also decorated with the title "Danica Hrvatke" (Dawns of Croatia). According to BITS, the highly partial stance of the FAZ was "not without influence on the political decision makers of Germany".[4] War Propaganda The results of the study correspond to the findings of already existing investigations into the legitimisation of the attack on Yugoslavia of 4 March 1999. Brigadier General Heinz Loquai confirmed the manipulation by the media of the "Racak Massacre" in a lecture on the background to the war. It was, he said, a definite "setting of the points toward war in Yugoslavia".[5] According to Loquai, well-known journalists ignored inconvenient results of investigation by the independent medical forensic specialist, appointed by the court.[6] The war against Belgrade was substantially legitimised by this type of reporting. It not only marked a milestone on the forced march by the Red/Green coalition to remove the taboo on the military but prepared the way for the amputation of Kosovo from Serbia, which Berlin will attempt to negotiate this autumn. A Founding Act In memory of the preparations of German foreign policy, which sees the war against Belgrade as "a founding act for a Europe of people and human rights", german-foreign-policy.com is preparing excerpts from a government statement by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The statement was received with universal applause by almost all MPs in the German parliament. [1] "Situation wie in Afghanistan"; Der Standard 22.08.2005 [2] Bertelsmann: Europa vor der Südosterweiterung - Strategiepapier zur Konferenz: "Südosteuropa auf dem Weg in die Europäische Union" der Bertelsmann Stiftung. Zagreb, 3. - 4. Juni 2005; www.cap.lmu.de/download/2005/2005_Strategie_SOE_Erweiterung.pdf [3], [4] Dr. Alexander Neu: Die Jugoslawien-Kriegsberichterstattung der Times und der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung - Ein Vergleich; www.bits.de [5] Heinz Loquai: Medien als Weichensteller zum Krieg. Vortrag auf dem Friedensratschlag 6./7. Dezember 2003 in Kassel; www.uni-kassel.de/fb5/frieden/rat/2003/loquai.html [6] "Viele Opfer waren außerdem verstümmelt: Schädel eingeschlagen, Gesichter zerschossen, Augen ausgestochen. Ein Mann war enthauptet", hieß es etwa - so Loquai - in einem Bericht des FAZ-Korrespondenten Matthias Rüb trotz gegenteiliger Aussagen von Gerichtsmedizinern. Nach Meinung Loquais sollten die "medialen Ausschmückungen der Art des Todes und der Verstümmelungen an den Toten wohl die besondere Bestialität der Mörder demonstrieren". ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/NfOolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SrpskaInformativnaMreza/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
