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Nebojsa
Malic is on vacation for the next month. His column will return
in February.
December
26, 2002
The
12 Months of Christmas
Empire's
Gifts In a Year of Lies
The
year that is about to end has again left the Balkans a bit
worse for wear. Of course, the entire world is substantially
worse for wear since the shocking attacks of September 2001,
and the Empire's resulting
announcement of its quest
for global domination. However, the War on Terror has
had remarkably little
impact on Balkans affairs. Faced with the prospect of
embarrassing revelations that it nurtured its present mortal
enemies as valuable allies during the wars in former Yugoslavia,
the Empire has gone out of its way to demonstrate that its
Balkans agenda has not changed.
Throughout
2002, Washington and its Brussels-governed vassals have continued
insisting on discredited myths of modern Yugoslav history,
dismissing
inconvenient facts as politically-motivated inventions
while insisting on their own fabrications as unvarnished truth.
Certainly, questioning the motives of Balkans actors who tried
to challenge the current policy by bringing up the war on
terror did not stop Washington from using trumped-up
Balkans scandals to bolster support for its planned Middle
Eastern adventures. Post-modern morality at work, perhaps.
So
while in terms of Balkans events 2001 was best described as
a year of capitulations,
2002 would best deserve the unflattering title of the Year
of Lies
– and the bigger, the better.
In
the Shadow of Show Trials
Perhaps
the event of 2002 has been the the show
trial of Slobodan Milosevic at the Hague Inquisition.
From its beginning in February to its most recent frustrated
recess, it has demonstrated the lengths – and depths – to
which servants of the Empire are prepared to go in imposing
their versions
of history and reality to their conquered subjects. Week
after week, witnesses for the prosecution proved only their
incompetence, incoherence, and lack of anything remotely resembling
reliable recollection. One can hardly forget the debacle in
May, when the Inquisitors' vaunted "insider" turned
out to be an impostor of dubious repute. There was also the
disaster in late July, when another key witness said his statement
was entirely
fabricated by the prosecution. Having thus torpedoed the
Inquisition's case, Radomir Markovic was disappeared.
The
utter lack of credible evidence, coupled with useless witnesses,
led the desperate Inquisition to finally confirm exactly what
sort of judicial operation it was running. When former
Bosnian Serb Republic president Biljana Plavsic "confessed"
to conspiracy to commit and conceal war crimes, she acted
like so many brainwashed victims of Communist
purges. Plavsic's gesture of commissioned contrition likely
had the opposite of its intended
effect: rather than act as a catalyst for widespread self-abasement
and surrender, it solidified the resistance to the Inquisitors'
persecution.
Given
that they continue
to bay for blood, it is safe to assume that in 2003, the Inquisitors
will sink even lower, lie even more, and commit further mockery
of civilized judicial process. Nothing more should be expected
from an institution that, fancy dress aside, has all the legitimacy
of a lynch mob.
All-Seasons'
Greetings
As
noted last
December, the Balkans enjoys the poisonous gifts of Imperial
occupation year-round, not just at Christmas. Besides, depending
on where one is, Christmas is celebrated on December 25, January
7, or not at all, and gifts are often as not exchanged
on New Year's Eve.
A
list of everything the Empire has generously bestowed on its
wards just this year would take up too much space, and would
frankly be sickening enough to be declared a biological weapon.
For example, in March, leaders of Serbian and Montenegrin
governments signed an agreement
in Belgrade to dissolve the last Yugoslavia and create a new,
paradoxical
association called "Serbia and Montenegro."
The agreement was signed ten days before the third anniversary
of NATO's aggression
against Yugoslavia. It was sponsored by no other than Javier
Solana, EU's top diplomat, who holds that post thanks to his
services as NATO's Secretary-General during the aggression.
There
is, of course, much
more in this vein. So at the end of the Year of Lies,
let us note just the most recent gifts of the Empire, timed
to coincide with the season.
Politics
of Plunder
Last
week, a report
from Bosnia made a stunning admission: "excessive government
regulation, not violence, now stands as the greatest obstacle
to progress," wrote Guy Taylor in the Washington Times.
According to Peter Nichol, a New Zealander in charge of Bosnia's
central bank, more than 40% of Bosnia's economy consists of
enterprises that did not bribe their way into registering
with the government. What Nichol – or Taylor – neglected to
say is that those who do pay up are soon driven into bankruptcy
by the incessant government racketeering.
To
anyone who knows anything about economics, all this is self-evidently
true – and not just in Bosnia, either. But challenging the
absolute power of the government is risky business, which
is why the rest of the article does its utmost to refute its
main point, as Taylor's editors frantically fought the simple
truth with politically correct platitudes.
Apparently,
it is the very pinnacle of evil that those uppity Bosnians
are daring to do business without first paying off their rulers,
foreign and domestic. This is why both Viceroy Ashdown and
the local satraps are eager to force everyone to pay the existing
exorbitant taxes, and even introduce some new ones. This,
most of all, should debunk any foolish notion that either
the Imperial authorities or the local governments have any
real interest in protecting the lives, liberty or property
of their subjects.
Believers
in benevolent government were presented with another challenge
last week, as the IMF released
a $16 million portion of a $91 million loan to Bosnia. This
money will go to pork-barrel projects, bribes, welfare and
vote-buying schemes. Even if it were all spent on infrastructure
projects that could help the economy – and it won't be – the
loan's benefits would be highly dubious. It will have to be
repaid through heavy taxation of future earnings, if there
are any. In essence, the country's current rulers have mortgaged
the lives of their people's grandchildren for the sake of
personal power. Who is the real criminal here, these folks
or the ones who try to keep their hard-earned money from being
stolen through taxes?
The
answer is obvious.
Terrorists
Among Us
Three
weeks ago, a bomb destroyed
the honorary consulate of Macedonia in Karachi, Pakistan.
Three Pakistanis were killed. One was a security guard at
the consulate, the other two remain unknown. They were all
bound and gagged first, and two had their throats slit, before
the explosive was activated.
Some
speculated that this attack was revenge for a Macedonian police
raid this March, when seven armed Pakistanis suspected of
plotting terrorist acts were killed. The modus operandi,
however, is eerily reminiscent of KLA terror attacks in Kosovo
and Macedonia itself. Connections between the KLA (UCK/NLA/ANA)
and the Islamic terrorist networks are well-known, despite
vehement US denials, so the question is: did the KLA learn
this terror technique from the Pakistanis, or was it the other
way around?
This
question should be especially pertinent now that the leader
of the Macedonian KLA, Ali Ahmeti, has taken
his seat in the Macedonian parliament, the Sobranye.
The
Undead Madhouse
Proving
once again that it's capable of doing just as badly as its
bigger cousin, Montenegro failed
to elect a president in the exact same fashion last weekend.
This time, however, the opposition boycotted the vote and
ensured the turnout would be below 50%, as the government
candidate was poised to win. In Serbia, if
you recall, it was the government that boycotted the vote
to deprive its ostensible ally of a victory.
Faced
with such open ridicule of the holy
rituals of democracy, Imperial legates have already called
for a repeal of electoral census, but the odds of that
happening are long. Both Prime Ministers, Djindjic in Belgrade
and Djukanovic in Podgorica, have a vested interest in controlling
the reins of power without being directly responsible to voters,
and ruling through puppet presidents is just what they've
been hoping for. Given their loathing of fellow citizens and
the eagerness with which they've accepted the "undead
union" in March, one is tempted to wonder if Djindjic
or Djukanovic would explode into a cloud of dust if they were
staked in the heart.
Even
so, some psychologists in Serbia are calling on the government
to do more about the public's mental health, according to
the Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti. Obviously, their
knowledge of psychology can't be all that good. Serbia and
Montenegro may be gripped by a psychological disorder of mass
proportions, but it is clearly originating from their demented
rulers.
Christmas
Under Siege
As
Kosovo prepares for a
third Christmas under NATO occupation, there are fewer
and fewer of those who actually observe the holiday. Thousands
have been killed, hundreds of thousands expelled, and 112
churches and monasteries destroyed by the rampaging KLA, while
NATO and the UN authorities did nothing – or worse, focused
on destroying
the remaining Serb communities completely.
Still
the occupiers and their journalist concubines insist on derisive
qualifications of this disaster. Serbs "say they can't
move freely," a euphemism for being herded into ghettos
surrounded by barbed wire and NATO troops. They "blame"
Albanians for attacks, as if it wasn't clear enough who the
culprits were. And even when it is, all attacks are dismissed
as "revenge" for "oppression under Milosevic."
Kosovo's
true holiday is not Christmas, but Easter; the Serb province
has been crucified,
and NATO occupiers are the modern-day Pontius Pilate. All
else
is just window-dressing.
Freedom
by Next Christmas!
These,
then, are the blessings of Imperial occupation, "aid"
and nation-building, as evidenced by a year marked most of
all by lies and fabrications. Inhabitants of the former Yugoslavia
and the Balkans in general have managed somehow to survive
yet again, but if this goes on, their long-term chances aren't
very good. One can only hope that sooner or later – preferably
sooner – they will wake up and realize the truth that is staring
them in the face: their governments' depravity, the Empire's
sinister agenda, and liberty as the best cure for their ills.
One can only hope against hope that this will occur before
the next Christmas.
This
year definitely deserves to be concluded with an old Balkan
blessing:
As
this was, may it never be again!
–
Nebojsa Malic
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