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May
23, 2002
Charlatans
In Charge
The
unprecedented farce that unfolded at the Hague Inquisition's
"courtroom" last week transcended shocking, pushed the limits
of even this kangaroo court's credibility, and perfectly exemplified
the past decade in the former Yugoslavia.
What
it has shown, and what most people don't seem to understand,
is that Imperial military, political, and economic interventions
were just one big con. Displaying a stunning degree of idiocy,
leaders of Balkans fiefdoms bought into it, and made their
people do so as well. Now the Empire has near-total control
of the peninsula, logic and laws are turned on their head,
and charlatans seem to have the run of the region.
Swindler's
List
Having
seen scores of their witnesses shatter to pieces as Slobodan
Milosevic's questioning unmasked their fragile lies, the prosecutors
decided to call their star witness, an anonymous "insider"
who claimed intimate knowledge of Milosevic's policies. In
exchange for money and a new life in the West, "K-3"
told of being privy to Milosevic's master plan to murder and
expel thousands of Albanians. Reuters called his account the
"clearest
testimony to date." K-3's damning admissions
sounded as if they were read straight from the Inquisition's
indictment, or the voluminous collection of anti-Milosevic
diatribes written over the past 10 years. He even claimed
that Milosevic desired the
bombing, in order to cleanse the Albanians and crack
down on domestic opposition.
Too
good to be true? It was.
"K-3"
was soon revealed to be no other than one Ratomir Tanic, a
Serbian swindler
known for massive gambling debts and a penchant for inventing
personal exploits. In other words, a professional con artist.
The Serbian press regaled its readers with stories of Tanic's
life of deceit. He never worked for Yugoslav intelligence.
He did not know the location of any of the meeting rooms he
described, and the meetings he claimed to have taken part
in never took place. Most of this was revealed in the course
of Milosevic's cross-examination, but true to form, reports
ignored
it.
Even
Tanic's alleged party comrades – members of New Democracy,
led by the current DOS Police Minister, Dusan Mihajlovic –
denied he was ever a member, much less a policy advisor or
high-ranking official. Mihajlovic dismissed
Tanic as a nobody and called his testimony "rubbish."
In
a normal court, this sort of charlatan witness advertised
as prosecution's key asset should have cast doubt on the veracity
of other witnesses – already eroded by Milosevic's questioning.
Then again, the Inquisition is not
exactly a normal court, and the outcome of the "trial"
has been fixed a long time ago.
Morons
On The March
On
Tuesday, agencies announced that the Empire certified
Serbian submission to the Inquisition, and thus in His Elevated
Majesty's infinite mercy deemed it worthy of several more
high-interest loans from the IMF and the World Bank. The Djindjic
regime would also get a small reward ($40 million), courtesy
of U.S. taxpayers.
It
just so happened that the announcement was made while Djindjic
was visiting Washington yet again. (For a head of an impoverished
state in dire need of money, he sure travels a lot!) Foreign
Minister Goran Svilanovic, Djindjic's designated groveler
for this trip, proudly proclaimed that the certification was
"an acknowledgment
for what we did in the last year and a half," and that such
policy would continue.
That
is truly wonderful. Just a week before, both Djindjic and
the Serbian public were appalled at the recent statements
made by Senator Joseph
Biden at an Albanian lobby fundraiser. Threatening to cut
off Imperial "aid" again, Biden demanded that Belgrade give
up all influence and involvement in Kosovo and the Bosnian
Serb Republic, fully prostrate itself before the Hague Inquisition,
and that both Djindjic and President Kostunica publicly apologize
for a "campaign of genocide" in the wars of the 1990s.
Belgrade's shock was difficult to fathom. After all, Biden
has long been a friend of the Albanian lobby, and a noted
Serbophobe. More to the point, they have already accepted
most of his demands, as exemplified by the policy Svilanovic
was so proud of.
Exercises
In Capitulation
Belgrade
has essentially abandoned Kosovo to the capricious power of
Imperial gauleiter Michael Steiner, whose chilling visions
of "multi-ethnicity" and "integration"
spell further woes for the nearly-extinct Serbs. Even the
Kosovo Serb leaders who condemn
Belgrade's policy tend to believe in the occupiers' good
intentions, proving either their extreme naiveté or simple
thick-headedness.
The
appalling "Hague Cooperation Act" passed a month ago has divested
Serbia and Yugoslavia from any sovereignty in respect to the
Inquisition. With that act, and the "extradition"
of Milosevic last June, the DOS regime effectively recognized
the existence of a genocidal campaign – or as the Inquisition's
indictments call it, a "joint criminal enterprise."
If it existed, why would anyone claiming to believe in "human
rights" and "democratic reform" not
apologize for it? If Bill Clinton could apologize for slavery...
Perverted
logic thus produces the appropriately perverted conclusions.
Sovereignty either is, or isn't. The Inquisition is either
legitimate – and hence its charges would be legitimate, too
– or it's a kangaroo court, railroading people who never had
a chance to get a fair trial. As the old sayings go, one can't
be "a little bit pregnant" or "almost a virgin."
Anyone
could have told the collective circus in charge of Serbia
(well, not
exactly) that their actions would have predictably dire
consequences. It is unlikely they would have listened, though.
Delusions
Of Goodness
The
rule of Djindjic and DOS is increasingly scrutinized by the
Serbian media. No one has yet come to the logical conclusion
that this motley crew couldn't find its way out of a paper
bag, much less the conundrum of epic proportions Serbia has
been thrown into at the fin de siecle, but it might
only be a matter of time. Or it might not, given the extent
to which so many in Serbia – and elsewhere, to be fair – still
believe in Empire's ultimate goodness, and the promises of
its Big Lie.
Take
for example General Nebojsa Pavkovic, who commanded the troops
facing the KLA and NATO in Kosovo back in 1999, and managed
to defeat the former and hold off the latter with minimal
casualties. He then became head of Yugoslav Army's General
Staff. Over the past three years, the Empire and its most
zealous servants have repeatedly called for his head. Now
he tells
the state news agency that he considers "the international
community's support to … include our country into the Partnership
for Peace … an expression of its endeavors to erase forever
the traces of the Balkans' past as a trouble spot and to turn
it into a zone of peace and cooperation." Translated
from doubleplusgood
duckspeak, this means he believes the Empire's good intentions
in the Balkans, and wishes the Yugoslav Army to become a NATO
satellite as soon as possible.
What
Lies May Come…
When
exactly did the Empire change its stripes?
Did it recant the criminal act of aggression that the 1999
NATO bombing clearly was? Did it stop the Albanian massacres
and expulsions of Serbs from Kosovo, after June 1999? Did
it perhaps catch the terrorists who blew up a busload of elderly
Serbs in February 2001, as they were trying to visit the cemeteries
in their occupied Kosovo hometowns? How come no one sent out
a memo?
In
fact, the NATO aggression is still presented as defense of
unarmed, innocent Albanians from Slobodan Milosevic's evil
"crackdown, resulting in 800,000 expelled and thousands killed…"
Just check any agency report, and that line will be in there
somewhere. Not only did no one stop the Albanian terror since
June 1999, it has been excused as "revenge attacks," ignored,
and even helped by the occupying NATO armies.
As
for the 11 Serbs killed on the bus in February last year…
a lengthy
report in the London Times last week revealed how
the investigation was sabotaged, stonewalled and deep-sixed
by the Empire. Now the London Times dutifully parroted
the party line during the 1999 attack, and even now used the
"revenge attack" rationalization, so this was obviously not
some unexpected pro-Serb bias. It sounded more like a small,
still voice of whatever's left of humanity amongst Empire's
paid apologists.
The
Balkans Theater of the Absurd really knows no boundaries.
True to the misguided, malicious fixation with creating a
state in Bosnia, the Empire is currently undertaking an expensive
bureaucratic experiment in reforming the occupied quasi-state's
judicial system – based on recommendations from the ICG.
The effort is led by the 58-year-old Rakel
Surlien, a prominent Norwegian judge, who decided to do
foreign-aid work because she was "bored." That really
says it all.
The
Healing Power of Ridicule
Faced
with this much hypocrisy, malice, mendacity and sheer madness,
all one can do is laugh. Evil craves to be worshipped, praised,
respected, and feared. It cannot stand to be mocked.
So
perhaps Slobodan Milosevic was on to something, when he took
a moment in the midst of a fight for his life to be the best
man at a fellow prisoner's wedding this past weekend.
The wedding itself was a powerful message to those whose efforts
to manufacture "justice" depend on delusional liars, and not
even the BBC's snide
commentary could fully deflect its impact.
Empire's
legitimacy is based on nothing but lies and fear. Ridicule
is the best weapon against both. The sooner the people of
the Balkans – and other places afflicted with Empire's penchant
for conquest – start laughing at their masters and stop following
their orders, the sooner a lot of them might be free, and
truly better off. Or they could continue to obey the charlatans
running their lives, and accept the inevitable consequences.
Consider this a memo to that effect.
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