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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (17066)	9/18/2000 10:39:37 PM
From: George Papadopoulos	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Belgrade opens show trial of Nato leaders By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade independent.co.uk 18 September 2000 A show trial against Nato leaders opens in Belgrade today, with Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, the United States President, heading the list of 14 people accused of war crimes in the 11 weeks of Nato's campaign against Serbia last year. The 14 are charged with "war crimes against civilians, aggressive warfare, use of internationally banned weapons, an attempt against the life of the President of Yugoslavia and violation of territorial sovereignty of Yugoslavia". The Yugoslav government claims that the accused were presented with the 250-page indictment "through normal diplomatic channels" although Yugoslavia cut full diplomatic ties with Britain, the United States, France and Germany when Nato started the air campaign in March 1999. Observers view this trial as an attempt by President Slobodan Milosevic to win votes ahead of Sunday's presidential elections, the first he could lose in 10 years. The court has appointed lawyers to represent the absent accused. Mr Milosevic and his aides want to turn the elections into a referendum "for or against Nato", in the hope of winning over people who were deeply shocked by the bombing. For the regime, Serbs are divided into "patriots", who refuse to bow to the "dictates of the West", or "traitors", opposition leaders "always ready to compromise" with Nato countries. No other trials will be held this week in the district court, which was hastily redecorated recently for the occasion. The trial is expected to end on Friday, two days before the elections.

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (17066)	9/19/2000 9:51:13 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

An interesting article indeed.... Keep in mind though that, at the time, we were deep in the thick of the Cold War and Europe per se didn't mean anything --you were either dealing with Western Europe or Eastern Europe. Furthermore, in the aftermath of WWII, Communist parties were very popular throughout Western Europe --hence the so-called strategy of tension implemented by the CIA and its European liege outfits. I think that the building of a unified European community was viewed as a valuable ideological challenger to the Communist Utopia. Americans, together with Europe's clerico-fascists and other right-wing lobbies (e.g. Gladio) devised the European thrust as a grandiose raison d'être held out to the peoples of Europe. Up to 1989, such a common endeavour worked all right: the EEC thrived and expanded on an anti-Soviet/Communist basis, as the junior partner of that great Western Alliance.... So, subservient issues such as libertarian economics, America's cultural hegemon (Hollywood, etc.), multiracialism, corporate governance à la Yankee, unfettered immigration and other sensitive topics had to be left on the "back burner" because on each of the aforenamed issues there was a deep mismatch between the US worldview and (Western) Europe's. Hence, the best strategy for the western mouthpieces was to make Europe ape Uncle Sam so as to take a united stand against Uncle Joe (ie USSR). And accordingly, Europe's been showed off as a paragon of democracy, a liberal, equal-opportunity society, a meritocratic labor market, and an altogether early-adopter-minded business activity. And the snag is, Europe is none of that --hence the current backlash.... Gus.