AN OPENING
FOR SKOPJE
I think
we are coming to some understanding of the broad outlines
of the conflict, its origins and sources of support, with
the news that the European Union is now considering
sending an armed force when NATO leaves. You guys drop
the ball, the Euro-crats seem to be saying, and we'll pick
it up. This gives credence to the theory, put forward by Michael Chossudowsky
and others, that the Macedonian conflict signifies the growing
split between the US and the EU. According to this theory,
the UCK-KLA is entirely the creation of US intelligence services,
and represents an extension of American military power in
Europe. Does this mean the Euro-crats are siding with the
Macedonians? I wouldn't count on it, but the possibility is
there, and hopefully Skopje will take full advantage of it.
A GLIMMER OF
HOPE
I also do
not think it is as simple as the US versus the EU. How does
this explain the key German role in the development of the
UCK? This "war by proxy" theory also fails to explain the
apparent unity of NATO during the Kosovo war, except for a
few ineffective protests from the Greeks. It cannot account
for the key role of the British, not only in Macedonia but
throughout the Balkans, in creating and sustaining the Albanian
insurgents. While American troops escort
NLA fighters to safety, the Brits pretend to disarm them.
In any case, an appeal to European public opinion may be Macedonia's
last and only hope.
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Another
reason for the Macedonian leg of my Balkan journey is, frankly,
to help fill the tremendous void left by the complete absence
of any Macedonian public relations effort in the United States
and internationally. The cause of the Macedonian people –
their sovereign right to live, unmolested and independent
– is entirely without defenders in the West. Except for a
few journalists, whose work we feature in the pages of Antiwar.com,
the bias of the media is clearly pro-Albanian, just as it
was during the Kosovo war. The New York Times splashes
"news" of an alleged Macedonian massacre all over its front
page: once again, the victims are those blameless, peace-loving
Albanians.
POLITICS ABHORS
A VACUUM
The EU foreign
ministers will meet in Brussels at the end of September, where
the subject of the Macedonian "security vacuum" is slated
to come up. As nature abhors a vacuum, so does international
politics, and there is always some wannabee superpower ready
and willing to fill it. Francois
Leotard, the EU envoy to Macedonia, will make his pitch
for a "lightly armed" EU force of some 1,500. One curious
aspect of the Human
Rights Watch report alleging a Macedonian massacre of
civilians at Ljuboten is that it attacks the OSCE
[Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] almost
as much as it denounces the Macedonians. According to HRW,
"The
OSCE mission in Skopje has remained largely silent on the
grave human rights abuses that have been committed by the
Macedonian forces throughout the conflict. For example, the
OSCE has not issued a single statement about widespread beatings
and torture at police stations in Macedonia, even though its
monitors have certainly documented an adequate number of such
cases to speak with authority. Human Rights Watch researchers
were often told by victims that the OSCE monitors had also
interviewed them."
BEYOND IMAGINATION
Could it be that OSCE monitors were not overly
impressed with the credibility of these witnesses? The possibility
is unimaginable to HRW: Albanians are apparently inherently
incapable of lying. HRW hews strictly to this axiom throughout
their report, which repeats the testimony of Albanian "victims"
verbatim, as if it were gospel. I realize Ljuboten is an Albanian-dominated
area, but weren't any non-Albanians on the scene –
or is this yet another village entirely "cleansed" of ethnic
Macedonians by the NLA? I suppose I'll find out soon enough…
TAKING THEIR
WORD FOR IT
Furthermore, claims HRW, "the OSCE has been much more
willing to criticize similarly serious abuses by the NLA.[65]
This imbalance in its public reporting clearly has an impact
on the OSCE's credibility and effectiveness in addressing
abuses by both sides." The mentality behind this kind of critique
is revealed in the footnote, which enumerates three OSCE press
releases condemning Albanian atrocities – including the bombing
of the monastery
in Leshok – and bemoans the fact that the OSCE failed
to generate a similar number of press releases attacking the
other side "even though both NLA and government forces were
responsible for serious abuses during this period." What were
these abuses for which the Macedonian government was responsible?
I guess we are supposed to take their word for it: after all,
this is Human Rights Watch talking.
SHILLS FOR
NATO
The brazen quality of HRW's willingness to
act as NATO's enabler is evident in the following horrifying
quote, which treats opposition to or even suspicion of NATO
as evidence of "extremism" and "ultra-nationalism":
"Many
Macedonian leaders, in particular ultranationalist members
of the government such as Prime Minister Georgievski and Minister
of the Interior Boskovski, have been openly hostile to international
actors in Macedonia, such as the western media, NATO, the
OSCE, and international NGOs. They have accused all of these
actors of having a pro-Albanian bias and often whipped up
public hostility against them, resulting in several anti-Western
riots in the capital Skopje."
THE GREATEST
SIN
It is the natural reaction of patriots to
bridle and rebel at the prospect of foreign occupation, but
the New World Order forbids patriotism as the greatest sin.
There are no more patriots: there are only "ultra-nationalists."
And, after all, why should the Macedonians complain
about being demonized in the Western media? Whereas before
they were a relatively obscure people, today their international
profile is considerably higher. At least they can claim they
are no longer being ignored. But this, as the Macedonians
have discovered, is not a good thing. They long for the kind
of obscurity that will give them peace, but, unfortunately,
their country is getting more famous by the minute, for all
the wrong reasons.
TO THE HAGUE
WITH THEM!
If HRW is to be believed, along with the Western
(and particularly the British) media, those ornery Macedonians
are Balkan porcupines fairly bristling with hostility. Not
only have they failed to roll out the red carpet for NATO's
faithful scribes, but their elected government failed to bend
the knee to their masters. Here NATO has offered them control
over at least part of their country, and prevented
the NLA from swallowing up what is left, yet "ultra-nationalists"
like Georgievski
and Boskovski
have the nerve to complain. What ingratitude! Off to The Hague
with them!
ONE-DIMENSIONAL
MAN
The one-dimensional
imagination of a committed ideologue is on full display in
the HRW report, and the author's blinders, his infuriating
thick-headedness, is never more in evidence than when, as
evidence of the Macedonians' incorrigible extremism, he cites
Antonio Milosovski, the government's chief spokesman, as saying:
that "NATO is not our enemy, but it is a great friend of our
enemies who are attacking the future of this country." This
is hardly extremism, but is, instead, a fairly moderate position,
and a subtle one at that. It takes into account the American-European
rivalry, and accurately describes the NLA as NATO's chief
ally in the region. I would say that Milosovki does not go
far enough: NATO is indeed the enemy: it is both father and
mother to the enemy. For the NLA is nothing more than NATO's
spawn, an army of real ultra-nationalists, armed, trained,
and unleashed by the West.
A WAY OUT?
The developing
tension between what the French call the American "hyperpower"
and the rising European superpower could provide a way for
Macedonia to preserve its territorial integrity and its independence
from both blocs. By appealing to the Europeans to save them
from a guerrilla insurgency that has "made in America" written
all over it, Skopje can raise the banner of "Europe for the
Europeans," one that will have resonance of continental proportions.
But the Europeans alone cannot and will not save them. What
the Macedonians need is more understanding of their own case
in America and Britain. An appeal must be made over the heads
of the elites in government and the media, directly to the
public.
GETTING BEHIND
THE HEADLINES
This, of
course, has always been our strategy here at Antiwar.com:
to bypass the media elite, so often beholden to (and,
often, married to) government officials. In the
past, we have simply gone around them, by linking to alternative,
non-Western, or lesser-known news sites, and featuring the
work of those few mainstream journalists who refuse to be
inducted into NATO's media harem. Now we are trying a different
strategy: we have the technology and we have the people to
go directly to the scene and report the news ourselves. That,
really, is the whole point of my Balkan odyssey: to get behind
the headlines and record some semblance of the truth.
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