September 6,
2001
EPIPHANIES Macedonia's Tragedy Masquerading as
Farce
Nebojsa Malic
Nine months ago, Macedonia
was known for being the only part of the former socialist Yugoslav
federation to gain independence without a war; for having a bitter dispute
with Greece over its name, and with Bulgaria over its ethnic identity; for
sheltering hundreds of thousands of Albanians who left Kosovo during
NATO's 1999 air assault, and serving as a logistical base for NATO's
occupation of southern Balkans; and for its superb food and textile
products.
Now its name stands for a tragedy
masquerading as farce.
Two days from now, Macedonia is supposed to celebrate its tenth
birthday as an independent nation. If the Sobranie, the Parliament,
succumbs to pressure and blackmail from both NATO and
the Albanian bandits, the only thing that will be celebrated this
September 8 will be its funeral.
Macedonia has been flayed alive, then accused of suicide. Its
people have been stripped of their ethnic identity, nationhood and even
their right to life and property. Albanian thugs control swathes of its
territory while pretending to disarm. German tanks rumble through its landscape
again, after sixty years, while British paratroopers stand at their side
and pretend to be gathering weapons from the bandits they helped
train.
LEAVE? WE'RE JUST GETTING STARTED!
The farcical operation "Essential Harvest" is essential in
only one regard: to convince the citizenry of the soi-disant
"international community" that their governments honestly intended to stay
in Macedonia for only 30 days and help the "peace process" there. Alas,
cruel fate has forced the brave defenders of democracy to
stay much, much longer, because peace has been so elusive. Yet what did
they expect? As daily images from Northern Ireland, Israel and now
Macedonia keep proving, peace process is the exact opposite of
peace.
Denizens of Imperial lands may be such complete morons as to
believe this claptrap, their rulers certainly know better. In a shockingly
rare display of honesty, a British Defense Ministry source told The
Scotsman on Monday, "This mission was a way of getting in. Once you're
on the ground it's much easier to justify staying." For someone who has
seen the slow creeping infiltration of NATO into Croatia, Bosnia and
Kosovo, this statement should be quite enough.
DEATH BY DESCRIPTION
However many times it has
been said before, it needs to be said again: none of this would be
possible without a powerful and committed propaganda apparatus. Slow to
react at first, it is a terrifying sight when operating in full gear. Day
after day, it churns out stories that are at best only illusions of truth,
at worst pure, unadulterated lies. Who, what, where, when and how are
usually drowned in the sea of editorial guidance,
which seeks to present a politically correct version of the
"why."
Thus Macedonia's Prime Minister, top policeman and even chairman of
the Parliament are smeared as "hard-liners," "nationalists,"
even "certified hardliners" and "ultra-hardliners," in an effort to bolster
the subservient President Boris Trajkovski at their expense. This is the
same President who invited foreign "mediators" to compose an ultimatum to
his own government, invited foreign troops to occupy his country, and sold
his people for hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, none of which
will ever materialize. No matter. All that makes him a "moderate," and all
those who see something wrong with this picture are… "certified
ultra-nationalist hardliners" perhaps?
RIPPLES ON THE SEA OF FATE
Why, then, are Georgievski
and others still going along with NATO's nefarious scheme? Why is everyone
in the Balkans so pathetically willing to do NATO's bidding, almost always
at their own expense? For answers, look just across the Macedonian border
to the northwest, and some two and a half years in the
past.
"We should not play with NATO's authority," said Georgievski in his
bitter address to the Sobranie, in
which he urged the delegates to ratify the Treaty of Ohrid despite its
treasonous implications. He knows, as everyone should, what happens to
those who defy that authority. NATO's power comes out of missile tubes and
off the bomb racks, from legions of obedient reporters, millions of
dollars in bribes, and millions of willing servants throughout the world.
This power set a haunting example when it pulverized the Serbs and turned
them into a pathetic, servile rabble.
SURRENDER, OR I'LL SUE
Another reason could be that
Macedonia's leaders might be afraid of ending up like the Serb leadership,
imprisoned in a Dutch castle at the mercy of NATO's judges and
prosecutors, whose only rule is "guilty until proven innocent – and we
dare you to try!" Where else in the world can anyone be tried multiple
times on the same charges by a self-appointed court, given
harsher sentence after appealing, accused by anonymous, protected
witnesses and already convicted in the media before the arrest, let alone
trial?
The Hague Harpy is currently roaming Belgrade, asking for more heads for
her collection, but she may well soon descend upon those "hardliners" who
just can't seem to get with the program in Macedonia. Then again,
Georgievski and others should not worry – it if so desires, the
Inquisition will come for them regardless of what they do. Even without
the examples of Croatia and Bosnia, Macedonians ought to know that
submissiveness to NATO has never been a guarantee of
protection.
THE MARCH TO MINSK
Rightfully important as they
are to their residents, who are most affected by imperial meddling and the
incessant pandering of local collaborators, Macedonia and the Balkans are
but a strand in the vast web of the Empire's policy. Just as the Empire's
experiences in Latin America, the Middle East and Afghanistan were used in
staging massacres and arming "insurgents" in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo and
now Macedonia, experiences
from the Balkans are now being applied in other corners of the
world.
The Great Belgrade Experiment, which produced the 18-headed
creature now supposedly in charge of the hemorrhaging Yugoslavia, is now
set to be replicated in Belarus. A day after Macedonia's moribund
anniversary, this nation is supposed to hold elections, in which the
Empire hopes to topple the current President, Aleksandr
Lukashenko.
Geographically speaking, Belarus is as far from the Balkans as
France. Belarus is, however, no older than Macedonia in terms of
statehood. For the past decade, it has been an exception to the rule in
Eastern Europe, surviving as an oasis of
peace and relative prosperity as other former
socialist countries slid into a social, political and economic morass.
Unlike her neighbors, Belarus did not sell off its economy to foreign
predators, nor did it pledge allegiance to NATO – quite the contrary, it
expressed a desire to rejoin Russia in a federation! Belarus did not
attack anyone; there have been no wars on its soil in the past decade, nor
has it expressed territorial ambitions or aggressive tendencies. Its only
sin is that President Lukashenko refuses to bow to the "international
community" and its notions of "democracy" and "human rights," which have
so devastated the rest of Eastern Europe.
Now Lukashenko is being targeted for removal, the same way Slobodan
Milosevic was targeted in 2000.
What happened in the Balkans is already being used as a template
for other parts of the world. Yesterday Serbia, today Macedonia, tomorrow
(it is planned) Belarus. After all, they are all "Slavs" to the Western
media. Who will be next? Fill in the blank.
AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT
As the macabre spectacle in
Macedonia continues, one is left with an exasperating question: if this is
happening despite everything that was said and written about Kosovo,
everything that was said and written about Bosnia, everything that has
been said and written about Macedonia itself… is there
hope?
The answer should, perhaps, lie in history. It is not for nothing
that the Balkans is known as "graveyard of empires." Its people have
shrugged off the Communists, defeated the Nazis, broken the teeth of the
Hohenzollerns and smashed the scepters of
the Hapsburgs – not to mention surviving five centuries of oppression
under the Ottoman Turks.
Perhaps this time, this particular empire bit off more than it can
chew.
One can only hope.
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