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December
13, 2001
Where the
Shadows Lie
9/11 Didn't Change Imperial Policy in the Balkans
"One
Land to rule them all, One Land to grind them, One Land to
bring them all, and in Democracy bind them… in the land
of Balkans, where the Shadows lie."
– (with apologies to J.R.R.
Tolkien)
In
the aftermath of September 11, many commentators said that
nothing would ever be the same. They were obviously not thinking
about the Balkans – though many desperate denizens of the
Peninsula hoped otherwise for a while – or the Empire's continuing
efforts in that particular corner of the globe. But while
the Empire's assault on Afghanistan can be watched on Fox
News and CNN, its persistent malfeasance in the Balkans happens
almost entirely in the shadows.
RICHARD
III MAKES HIS MOVE
In
Belgrade, the long-standing animosity between the power-hungry
opportunists loyal to Zoran
Djindjic and the confused conservatives who support Vojislav
Kostunica is bubbling up again. The newest confrontation seems
tame in comparison to past
showdowns, but even something as prosaic as a voting dispute
could be the last straw.
Last
week, Djindjic's party (DS) sponsored a Labor Bill in the
Serbian parliament and saw it just barely pass. Soon, however,
parliament chairman Dragan Marsicanin (from Kostunica's DSS)
claimed that one MP voted though he was officially out of
the country. Djindjic then called
for the chairman's resignation. The following day, Marsicanin
indeed resigned,
claiming Djindjic was trying to seize absolute power. He was
quickly replaced by Natasa
Micic, member of a small party loyal to Djindjic. Kostunica
demanded the return of Marsicanin, or at the very least that
the post be filled with another representative of his party,
thus honoring the power-sharing agreement inside the DOS alliance.
Enthusiasts
of political correctness cheered the fact that Ms. Micic was
the first woman chair of the Serbian Parliament. The DOS Politburo
postponed the decision on Kostunica's demands until after
the visit of French President Chirac, who was delivering
the latest Imperial instructions. Then they gave full
support to Djindjic and Micic.
WINTER
OF DISCONTENT
Djindjic
has thus seized complete control of DOS, and is just a step
away from stripping the DSS MPs of their seats (arguing that
they really belonged to DOS – i.e. him). He has also succeeded
in replacing the Parliament chair with someone loyal to him
– someone who would become
the provisional President of Serbia if the current President
is, say, "extradited" to the Hague Inquisition.
With Chief Inquisitor DelPonte braying for more heads every
day, this is just what Djindjic might have in mind. It would
also ensure that the President does not call a new election
– something Djindjic fears most of all, as he is not strong
enough to win a popular vote. He is much more comfortable
as absolute ruler of the state apparatus, completed two weeks
ago with a purge
in the elite police forces.
Every
time he violates the rules and gets away with it – be it
the Constitution, laws of the land, coalition agreements or
parliamentary procedure – Djindjic's power grows. So does
misery among the people of Serbia, for whom "democracy"
has come to mean abuse of power, high taxes and government
lies. On his side, Djindjic has the Empire, the state apparatus,
and the media. Yet if this winter, marked so far with freezing
temperatures and an abundance of snow, turns into the winter
of discontent, Djindjic's glorious summer might never come
to pass.
DRAFTS
OF DESTRUCTION
On
the contrary, Serbia might end up somewhat like its southern
neighbor, Macedonia: semi-occupied, semi-independent, and
semi-viable. Already gravely injured by the treacherous groveling
of its rulers before the imposed Treaty of Ohrid, Macedonia
is about to face a new set of humiliations.
Last
week's debate on the Devolution Bill, proposed by the Albanians
as part of the Ohrid settlement, ended with many Albanian
MPs boycotting
the legislative session. Apparently, the bill was written
in such a fashion that would enable virtual secession of Albanian
"self-government" areas, and Macedonian MPs made
amendments to that extent. As Albanians boycotted the debate,
the EU threatened to withhold aid unless the law was passed
right away (as is, perhaps?). President Trajkovski
tried to deflect the threat by inviting "experts"
from the World Bank, Council of Europe and US Agency for International
Development (USAID) to redraft
the bill, in effect surrendering Macedonian legislative
powers to foreigners.
Then
again, those same foreigners are chiefly responsible for the
Treaty of Ohrid. The peace it brought is best illustrated
by Saturday's destruction
of an Orthodox monastery by the officially nonexistent Albanian
bandits. It is worth mentioning that Skopje has also agreed
to allow the IMF to monitor its budget in the first half of
2002. Lacking recognition, control over territory, fiscal
independence, legislative powers and even defense, what sort
of government – what sort of country – is Macedonia anymore?
Recent
sanctions
against the amorphous Albanian National Army and the proposed
ICG
initiative to recognize Macedonia's name, are nothing
but empty gestures intended to placate the Macedonian people,
cheated of their birthright by their own leaders, Albanian
bandits and the Empire.
CAVORTING
THROUGH KOSOVO
If
the Empire cared so much about threats to peace and potential
terrorists, why did it allow three blacklisted Kosovo Albanian
leaders to become MPs in the new Kosovo Assembly? Emrush Xhemaili,
Gafurr Elshani and Sabit Gashi were all blacklisted
in June by the Executive Order of Bush the Younger, for their
role in Macedonia and as potential threats to US troops.
 This
is further borne out by the news that the US "diplomatic
office" in Pristina (led by a full Ambassador!) attempted
to broker
an alliance between the three major Albanian parties.
Former KLA warlord Hashim Taqi felt he was not offered enough,
so his delegation walked out of the meeting – and out
of the Assembly session on Monday. Knowing the Empire
needs the Albanians united, Taqi throws tantrums in order
to get what he wants: more scraps from the table. He is not
the first pawn of the Empire to do so, nor will he be the
last. The US troops occupying Kosovo are apparently not alarmed.
After all, they've just been visited
by Mariah Carey, who cavorted with residents of Camp Bondsteel
in a zip-down, bra-revealing
jumpsuit, and even sang a bit.
GENOCIDE
GAMES, PART 1
The
Empire is hard at work in the west of the beleaguered peninsula
as well. Just last week, the collection of artifacts from
Croatia's most notorious death camp, Jasenovac, was "returned"
to the Croatian government by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The museum, established by the Clinton regime and funded entirely
by taxpayer funds, took the artifacts from the Bosnian Serbs
last year. Then-PM Milorad Dodik, faithfully obedient to the
Empire, either did not know or did not care that the Museum
already had a contract with the Croatian government to deliver
the artifacts. Almost immediately, the Croats started spinning
their own version of Jasenovac horrors, alleging – as
their late dictator Franjo Tudjman claimed – that few Serbs
died in Jasenovac, mostly of disease and not murder.
Despite
reports by Nazis themselves attesting to Jasenovac's brutality
compared to their own death factories, the recent publicity
blitz has all but erased the fact that Jasenovac remains a
symbol of a brutal genocide,
perpetrated by the Nazi Croatia against the Serbs, Jews and
Gypsies. Not only is the number of dead at issue, but the
very essence of the claim that the "Independent State
of Croatia" was both a willing Nazi ally and an independent
perpetrator of genocide against a specific ethnic group. Yet
the fittingness of modern Croatia to safeguard the evidence
of its Nazi past is perhaps best assessed by Canadian soldiers
who witnessed Croat crimes in the 1991-95 war, and its
own rulers who plotted the new "final solution."
GENOCIDE
GAMES, PART 2
As
it works to minimize a genocide that was, the Empire also
strives to play up the one that wasn't. The Washington-based
Holocaust Museum's bookstore prominently features literature
about the "genocide" in Bosnia, during the 1992-95
war. The most
recent indictment of the Hague Inquisition accused Slobodan
Milosevic of masterminding a "joint criminal enterprise"
to commit genocide against the non-Serbs in Bosnia.
Enthusiastic
Serbophobes actually dubbed it the "mother of all indictments,"
perhaps rightfully so: it contains every
single category of crime in the Inquisition's book. If
Milosevic is convicted – and he has to be, for his acquittal
would destroy the very purpose and essence of the Inquisition
– then the Bosnian war will be criminalized and branded as
genocidal Serbian aggression. Whoever believes this would
not have dire consequences for Serbia, the Bosnian Serbs and
the future of Bosnia in general is at best sadly mistaken,
at worst an idiot.
IRONIES
AND BLOVIATIONS
The
story of "genocide" in Bosnia is so out of sync
with reality that it needs to be reaffirmed by bits of propagandistic
pap from Hollywood. It also plays right into the hands
of former Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic and his henchmen.
While in power, they gave Osama bin Laden's organization men,
refuge and money-laundering
opportunities, and the Empire knows it all too well.
Izetbegovic
has plenty of his own victims buried in the hillside somewhere,
which is perhaps why the records of Bosnia's wartime presidency
(a committee Izetbegovic used to fake legitimacy) have recently
been reported missing. Unconfirmed reports also have Izetbegovic
permanently staying in Dubai, where he went last week to receive
a "Muslim of the Year" award.
ONE
LAND
Having
used the Yugoslav conflagration of the 1990s to further its
agenda of power, the Empire now has different targets in its
sights. Nonetheless, the self-appointed
heirs of Rome, continue to manipulate and meddle in Balkans
affairs. Both its Eye and its Hand are ceaselessly at work
– twisting, forcing, lying and bribing its way across the
Balkans mountains in the quest for absolute power. Facing
virtually no meaningful resistance, it is determined to be
the One Land to rule them all.
And
there is no one with courage or vision to stop it.
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