The financial motivation behind the Albanian aggression against Kosovo.
(This posting by freeus bares repeating.)
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Kosovo: 'The war is about the mines'
By Sara Flounders
Wars are at root about economics, and the rapidly expanding war in
Kosovo is no different. So why have millions of dollars in high-tech
weapons suddenly become available to the so-called Kosovo Liberation
Army by way of the U.S. and Germany?
A July 11 report by New York Times Balkans bureau chief Chris Hedges
describes the KLA's new arsenal_the latest anti-tank
rocket-propelled grenades and anti-aircraft weapons. These weapons
are shifting the balance of power toward the KLA, which is funded
fully by outside sources, mostly from the U.S. and Germany.
The KLA is "fed by recruits, money and arms from outside Serbia,"
Hedges confirms.
It has an "inexhaustible supply line," he reports.
"Rebel soldiers, in full uniform with the red and black patch of the
Kosovo Liberation Army, pull thick wads of German marks from their
pockets. There are also signs that the arrival of dozens of former
professional soldiers as well as some mercenaries are turning the
ragtag band into a viable military force of several thousand fighters."
In fact, the KLA is primarily a mercenary army funded by the kind of
shadowy sources that have long been associated with U.S. and German
intelligence services. It is a contra army.
Kosovo is often portrayed in the media as an isolated mountainous
region that's poor and without resources. It might seem, from these
accounts, to be an area of interest only to those who live there.
The New York Times, for example, has carried dozens of such articles
by Chris Hedges in the last six months. Only once, on July 8, did
Hedges write about the real wealth of Kosovo_the Stari Trg mining
complex. It was a tip-off that something more was at stake in this war.
Hedges' visit to the Stari Trg mining complex is an eye opener. He
describes the glittering veins of lead, zinc, cadmium, gold and
silver in Stari Trg.
According to Hedges, "The sprawling state-owned Trepca mining
complex, the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans, is
worth at least $5 billion."
According to the mine's director, Novak Bjelic, "The war in Kosovo
is about the mines, nothing else. This is Serbia's Kuwait_the heart
of Kosovo. ... In addition to all this, Kosovo has 17 billion tons
of coal reserves."
The whole world knows and observed firsthand in the war against Iraq
to what horrendous extent the Pentagon was willing to go in order to
guarantee control of the oil wealth of Kuwait.
But the enormous mineral wealth of Kosovo is never publicly
discussed by U.S. United Nations Ambassador Richard Holbrooke,
President Bill Clinton or the Pentagon generals. They speak only of
"self-determination" of the Albanian population of Kosovo. Of
course, they never mention what U.S.-imposed "self-determination"
means. It means colonization under the guise of "liberation," like
what the U.S. did to Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines a hundred
years ago.
An Internet search for reports on the mines of Kosovo_the Trepca
mining complex or Stari Trg_turned up only the one article by Hedges
and a small piece in the June 22 Wall Street Journal. All other
mentions are in metallurgical journals.
How could this vital fact be omitted from all discussion of what is
at stake in Kosovo? It is comparable to describing Kuwait and the
oil-rich Gulf states as barren deserts.
The wealth of Kosovo is greater than the rich veins of ore in the
mines. Hedges describes the mining complex: "The Stari Trg mine,
with its warehouses, is ringed with smelting plants, 17 metal
treatment sites, freight yards, railroad lines, a power plant and
the country's largest battery plant."
The labor power of millions of workers throughout socialist
Yugoslavia built this mining complex into the powerhouse it is
today. It was their wealth that was invested in developing the
complex. It belongs not just to those who live in Kosovo, but to the
workers of all Yugoslavia.
The Yugoslav web site www.yugo slavia.com describes Trepca as the
"richest lead and zinc mines in Europe."
Lignite deposits in the Kosovo mines are, according to experts,
sufficient for the next 13 centuries. The capacity of the lead and
zinc refineries ranks third in the world.
Miners work round the clock, day and night, in six-hour shifts.
According to the mine director, "In the last three years we have
mined 2,538,124 tons of lead and zinc crude ore and produced 286,502
tons of lead and zinc and 139,789 tons of pure lead, zinc, cadmium,
silver and gold."
Although the average person watching the news in the evening has
never heard of Stari Trg, it has been a prize changing hands for two
thousand years.
The wealth of Stari Trg is legendary. Precious metals were mined
there more than 2,000 years ago, first by the Greeks, then by the Romans.
These mines were the grand prize in the Nazi occupation of the
Balkans after Germany grabbed control from the British. The mines
have great industrial and military importance. The Nazis used
batteries produced there to power their U-boats. Today submarine
batteries are still made there.
Profits from these mines are helping to keep the Yugoslav Federation
afloat. U.S. and UN sanctions imposed on Serbia and Montenegro, the
two remaining republics of Yugoslavia, have taken an enormous toll.
Without investment credits, loans for financing industry, imports
and exports, the economy has been stifled. Inflation has weakened
the currency. The mines, which once were the largest employer in the
province, have also been affected.
The most important words in Hedges' article are the description of
the complex as "state owned." Throughout this decade, as the
capitalist market has swept over the former socialist countries of
Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, socialist Yugoslavia has
attempted to resist privatization of its industry and natural
resources.
To break this resistance, the Western imperialist countries played a
major role in the breakup of socialist Yugoslavia.
This huge complex of mines, refining, power and transportation in
Kosovo may well be the largest uncontested piece of wealth not yet
in the hands of the big capitalists of the U.S. or Europe.
The industry, natural resources and transportation of all the former
Soviet republics, the socialist countries of Eastern Europe, and the
secessionist republics of Yugoslavia are now being rapidly
privatized. No one within the region has the wealth or connections
to finance capital to buy controlling shares of these vast
state-owned industries. The major Western corporations are gobbling
these industries up.
While the fate of some industries is still in negotiation, the
lending and credit conditions of the International Monetary Fund and
the World Bank require the breakup of all state-owned industries.
This is true for the oil and natural gas wealth in the Caucasus and
the Caspian Sea as well as the diamond mines of Siberia.
The decision on who will own or have controlling interest in the 22
mines and the many processing plants of the Trepca complex will be
made by whoever wins the armed struggle raging in Kosovo. NATO
domination on the ground would put U.S. corporations in the best
ownership position. Nationalist strife advances their position.
Although being forced to privatize in order to survive in today's
global market, Yugoslavia has tried to control the process and to
propose Balkan regional development.
According to the June 22 Wall Street Journal, the Yugoslav
Federation is in negotiations to sell shares in the Trepca mining
complex. Forced by the economic crisis, they have been negotiating
with a Greek investor_Mytilineos Holdings SA_for partial ownership.
The former manager of the mines, Byrhan Kavaja_who is now allied
with the opposition to the Yugoslav government_has written to all
corporations dealing in soft metals to tell them not to make
agreements with the Yugoslav government. Kavaja says that once a new
government is in power, all past decisions on ownership will be
invalidated. The opposition will make "new agreements." Who is
likely to be the beneficiary of these agreements?
The progressive movement in the U.S. and throughout Western Europe
must be at the forefront in explaining that the billions of dollars
spent on the U.S./NATO occupation of the region is not in the
interests of any of the people of the Balkans. Nor is it in the
interests of poor and working people in the U.S. or Europe. The war
is destroying all that was built through collective ownership and
collaboration in the Balkans.
This war will mean higher taxes and even more cuts in social
programs in the U.S and Europe. But the billions of dollars in
profit will go to a few wealthy stockholders in the U.S. or in
Western Europe.
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