------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Oct. 12, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- MILOSEVIC WARNS YUGOSLAVS: "NATO POWERS ARE BEHIND OPPOSITION" [Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic spoke to the nation on Oct. 2 over radio and television. Below are excerpts from that talk, which has been distorted in Western media reports.] As you know, efforts have been underway for a whole decade to place the entire Balkan peninsula under the control of some western powers. A big part of that job was done by establishing puppet governments in some countries, by transforming them into countries with limited sovereignty or even deprived of any sovereignty at all. Due to our resistance to such a fate for our country, we were subjected to all forms of pressure to which people in the contemporary world can be subjected. The number and intensity of the pressures multiplied as time went by. All experience the big powers gained in the second half of the 20th century in overthrowing governments, causing unrest, instigating civil wars, disparaging or liquidating national freedom fighters, bringing states and nations to the brink of poverty--all this was applied to our country and our people. A grouping has for a long time now been present in our midst that, under the guise of opposition political parties of democratic orientation, represents the interests of governments which are the protagonists of pressures against Yugoslavia, and especially against Serbia. That grouping appeared in these elections under the name Democratic Oppo sition of Serbia. Its true head is not its presidential candidate. Its head for many years has been the president of the Democratic Party and collaborator of the military alliance that waged a war against our country. He could not even conceal his collaboration with that alliance. In fact, our entire public knows of his appeal to NATO to bomb Serbia for as many weeks as necessary to break its resistance. FALSE PROMISES OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY The grouping organized in this manner for these elections therefore represents the armies and governments that recently waged war against Yugoslavia. In representing their interests, the grouping launched messages to our public that, with them at the head, Yugoslavia would be out of any danger of war or violence, that economic prosperity would come, the standard of living would improve visibly and rapidly, that Yugoslavia would allegedly reintegrate in international institutions, and so forth. Distinguished citizens, it is my duty to warn you publicly and in time that such promises are false and that the situation is quite different. It is precisely our policy that guarantees peace and theirs only lasting conflicts and violence. With the establishment of an administration supported or installed by a community of countries gathered within NATO, Yugoslavia would inevitably become a country whose territory would quickly be dismembered. These are not only NATO's intentions. These are the pre- election promises of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia. Within this policy of dismembering Yugoslavia, Kosovo would be the first victim. Its present status would be proclaimed legal and final. The remaining territory that would bear the name Serbia would be occupied by international, U.S. or some third military forces, which would treat this territory as their military training ground and as their property to be controlled in line with the interests of the power whose army is present there. We have been looking at cases of such control and consequences thereof for decades, and especially in this decade in many countries around the world, unfortunately lately even in Europe, for instance in Kosovo, Republika Srpska and Mace donia, in our immediate neighborhood. They do not want peace or prosperity in the Balkans. They want this to be a zone of permanent conflicts and wars that would provide them with an alibi for their lasting presence. DIVISION INTO RICH AND POOR A great division into a poor majority and a rich minority-- this has been the picture of eastern Europe for some years now that we can all see. That picture would also include us. We, too, would under the command and control of the owners of our country quickly have a tremendous majority of the very poor, whose prospects of coming out of their poverty would be very, very uncertain and far away. The rich minority would be constituted by the black marketeering elite, which would be allowed to be rich only on condition that it be fully loyal to the command which decides the fate of their country. Public and social property would quickly be transformed into private property, but its owners, as demonstrated by the experience of our neighbors, would as a rule be foreigners. Among few exceptions would be only those who would purchase their right to ownership by their loyalty and submission, which would lead to the elimination of elementary national and human dignity. The greatest national assets in such circumstances become the property of foreigners, and the people who used to manage them would continue to do so in these changed circumstances but as employees of foreign companies in their own country. National humiliation, state fragmentation and social poverty would necessarily lead to many forms of social pathology, of which crime would be the first. This is not just an assumption, this is the experience of all countries which have taken the path that we are trying to avoid at any cost. The centers of European crime are no longer in the west, they were moved to eastern Europe a decade ago. Our people already find it hard to bear the present crime incidence, as we lived for a long time--from World War II to the 1990s--in a society that hardly knew any crime at all. One of the essential tasks of a puppet government in any country, including ours were we to have such a government, is loss of identity. Countries under foreign command relatively quickly part with their history, their past, their tradition, their national symbols, their way of living, often their own literary language. Invisible at first, but very efficient and merciless selection of national identity would reduce it to a few local dishes, a few songs and folk dances, the names of national heroes used as brand names for food products or cosmetics. I would like to stress particularly because of young people, intellectuals, scientists, that countries deprived of sovereignty are as a rule deprived of the right to creative work, and especially creative work in the field of science. Large centers and large powers finance scientific work, control its attainments and decide about the application of its results. Dependent states, if they have scientific laboratories and scientific institutes, are not independent ones but operate as branches controlled by one center. Their attainments must remain within bounds that will not introduce in occupied countries and occupied peoples the seed of rebellion and emancipation. At this moment ahead of the run-off elections, because the Democratic Opposition of Serbia doubts it can achieve the result it needs, leaders of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia with money introduced into the country are bribing, blackmailing and harassing citizens and organizing strikes, unrest and violence in order to stop production, all work and every activity. I considered it my duty to warn the citizens of our country about the consequences of the activities financed and supported by the governments of NATO countries. - END - (Copyleft 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) ------------------ This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. 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