{"id":89193,"date":"2019-05-21T16:01:27","date_gmt":"2019-05-21T23:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=89193"},"modified":"2019-05-21T16:01:27","modified_gmt":"2019-05-21T23:01:27","slug":"in-1999-it-was-yugoslavia-in-the-crosshairs-of-the-imperialists-now-its-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/21\/in-1999-it-was-yugoslavia-in-the-crosshairs-of-the-imperialists-now-its-venezuela\/","title":{"rendered":"In 1999, it was Yugoslavia in the crosshairs of the imperialists, now it\u2019s Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Neil Clark Information Clearing House<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

April 02, 2019 “Information Clearing House<\/a>” – To mark the 20th anniversary of the start of\nNATO\u2019s illegal\n78-day bombardment of Yugoslavia,\nover 200 distinguished guests from all over the world gathered for a conference\nof the Belgrade Forum of the World of Equals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gathering titled Never\nto Forget: Peace and Progress instead of Wars and Poverty<\/em>\u201d promoted genuine\ninternationalism. Participants came from Israel AND Palestine. From Iran and\nJapan. From Britain, Germany, Italy, France and other NATO countries which had\ntaken part in the bombing. From Venezuela, Cuba, Bulgaria, Greece, Brazil,\nCroatia, Canada and South Africa. India and Nepal, Austria and Switzerland,\nIreland, Portugal, Turkey and Lebanon. From the US AND Russia. This was the\nreal \u2018international community\u2019 on display.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaker after speaker\ndenounced NATO\u2019s unlawful aggression, and stressed the wider significance of\nthe military action of 20 years ago, which not only lacked a mandate from the United\nNations Security Council, but was also in breach of NATO\u2019s own charter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eva-Maria\nFollmer-Mueller, president of the Mut zur Ethik Association in Switzerland,\ndescribed it as a historic turning point<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Momir Bulatovic, the prime minister of Yugoslavia in March 1999, called the bombing a crime which only grows in significance<\/em>\u201d. He pointed out that it was the first step in a still ongoing war against other countries. He and subsequent speakers, (myself included), noted that since 1999 we\u2019ve had US-led attacks on a series of independently-minded, strategically important and resource-rich sovereign states, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, while others, such as Iran and Venezuela have been subject to intense economic warfare. Each time we\u2019re encouraged to see these conflicts as \u2018stand-alones\u2019 with the leader of the target state demonized, usually as the \u2018New Hitler,\u2019 and someone who \u2018must be stopped\u2019, but actually they are all part of the same war. A war for empire and the global hegemony of the US and rapacious international finance capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Brazil, Socorro\nGomes, the president of the World Peace Council, reminded delegates that\nYugoslavia was a peaceful country that had not invaded anyone. To get round this, Kosovo was referred to in the\nUS and depicted on maps on the television as if it was a separate country, not\nas a part of Yugoslavia.\nThe media war on Yugoslavia began long before the bombing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to HRW,\naround 500 civilians<\/a> were killed in the NATO air strikes. The\nRussian Foreign Ministry puts<\/a> the toll much higher, at around 2,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Belgrade\u2019s\nTasmajdan Park, there\u2019s a very poignant memorial to the 89 children killed in the bombing, entitled \u2018We were just children.\u2019 Among the\nvictims was a brilliant 15-year-old maths prodigy called Sanja Milenkovic, who\ndied along with eight others, when the bridge in Varvarin was bombed at Pentecost. Marina Colic read out a very moving\ntribute to Sanja from the German politician Willy Wimmer. Sanja\u2019s last words\nwere Don\u2019t be crazy Mum, who\u2019s going to drop bombs on a small town<\/em>\u201d.\nAnswer: NATO. That\u2019s who.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An exhibition outside the main hall in the Serbian Army House graphically illustrated the horrors of the bombing. Anyone seeing the pictures of dismembered, blood-spattered people being pulled out from debris following a NATO air-raid would ask the same question that I did: How on earth could any of this be justified as a \u2018humanitarian\u2019 action? The line that there was no alternative<\/em>\u201d is simply not true. Had Western powers been genuinely concerned over resolving differences between Pristina and Belgrade they could have brokered a deal between Rugova, the Kosovo Albanian leader, and Milosevic, the leader of Yugoslavia,\nwhich would have allowed international peacekeepers (but not NATO forces) into\nKosovo to protect ALL of its citizens, and at the same time disarm the KLA. But they deliberately chose to bomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speakers recalled that\nat the Rambouillet Conference Milosevic was presented with an ultimatum to\nwhich he could not possibly consent. This is backed up by the testimony of the late Lord Gilbert, a British Minister of State\nfor Defence Procurement, who, in 2000, admitted<\/a>, I think certain people were spoiling for a\nfight in NATO at that time. I think the terms put to Milosevic at Rambouillet\nwere absolutely intolerable: how could he possibly accept them? It was quite\ndeliberate.<\/em>\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NATO got its war and\nthe direct material damage to Yugoslavia resulting from it has been put<\/a> at $100 billion. The country\u2019s infrastructure was targeted for destruction and you can still see the ruins from some attacks,\nsuch as the one on RTS (Serbian television), which killed 16 people, in\nBelgrade today. One of the most shocking aspects of the NATO \u2018humanitarianism\u2019\nwas its widespread use of\ndepleted uranium. Slobodan Petkovic, a\nmember of the Serbian government\u2019s commission for determining the consequences\nof the use of D.U., stressed there was no military need for NATO to use it. So\nwhy did they?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a really powerful oration, Liz Payne of the British Peace Council, said the bombing of Yugoslavia was a \u2018deadly experiment\u2019 and a blueprint for further aggressions across the world. We recall with horror the orchestrated terror and devastation inflicted purposefully and mercilessly on the people of Serbia by the US and its allies, including by the right-wing Labour government of Britain and the neoliberal Establishment in whose interests it acted<\/em>\u201d. She finished with the words While imperialism continues there can be no world of equals<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linking the events of 1999 with today, Professor Zahari Zahariev from Bulgaria said that the whole continent of Europe is ready for a new Helsinki process, a reference to the 1975 accords which were the high-water mark of\npost-war detente between East and West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a thought-provoking\naddress, he distinguished between globalization, which is a technical process,\nand globalism, which he called the ideology of imperialism<\/em>\u201dand it was\nthis ideology which was behind the attack on Yugoslavia and the other wars.\nWhile many speakers lambasted the EU, Zahariev said the idea of European unity\nis not imperialistic per se and that what we really need is to emancipate the\nEU from neoliberal capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question is: is\nthis really feasible given the strong links the EU has to corporate power and\nfinance capital?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the loudest\napplause at the entire conference came after Dia Nader de El-Andari, the Charge\nd\u2019Affaires of the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Serbia,\ndeclared No pasaran<\/em>!\u201d after a stirring address. In 1999, it was Yugoslavia in the crosshairs of the\nimperialists, now it\u2019s Venezuela,\nwith the US having the temerity to warn Russia, Venezuela\u2019s ally, to get out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cross-continent\nsolidarity was also expressed by Chris Matlhako, of the South African Communist\nParty. He called for the dismantling of US military bases, NATO and their\nallies in Africa and elsewhere on the globe, and detailed the disastrous impact of the NATO assault on Libya,\nwhich has been a big\nboon to terrorist groups. We must work hard to block the US and its allies\nunilateralism in the world today,<\/em>\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President of the Serbian Generals and Admirals Club, Milomir Miladinovic, reminded delegates that despite the 78-days of bombing, Yugoslavia was not defeated militarily in 1999. We fought a glorious victory against the aggressor, these were heroic days in the face of the much bigger enemy<\/em>\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Miladinovic, the JNA (Yugoslav National Army), lost just 17 tanks and 30 artillery pieces and withdrew from Kosovo practically intact. And the aggression from NATO didn\u2019t come cost-free with the Yugoslav forces and their obsolete<\/em>\u201d equipment successfully taking\ndown a US F-117 Nighthawk stealth bomber, appropriately enough called\n\u2018Something Wicked\u2019. That was a great moment for those who always support David\nagainst Goliath and love it when the underdog lands a blow. In a nice\npostscript, the retired army officer whose unit shot down the plane is now friends<\/a> with the US pilot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conference ended\nwith me reading out the Belgrade Declaration. The history will note the\nfact that in 1999, blindly following alien geopolitical interests, Europe\nfought itself.<\/em>\u201d Never forget the great crime NATO committed twenty years\nago, and what it led to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neil Clark is a journalist, writer, broadcaster and blogger. He has written for many newspapers and magazines in the UK and other countries including The Guardian, Morning Star, Daily and Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, The Spectator, The Week, and The American Conservative. He is a regular pundit on RT and has also appeared on BBC TV and radio, Sky News, Press TV and the Voice of Russia. He is the co-founder of the Campaign For Public Ownership @PublicOwnership. His award winning blog can be found at <\/em>www.neilclark66.blogspot.com<\/em><\/strong>. He tweets on politics and world affairs @NeilClark66 <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was originally\npublished by “<\/em>RT<\/em><\/a>”\n–<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Neil Clark Information Clearing House April 02, 2019 “Information Clearing House” – To mark the 20th anniversary of the start of NATO\u2019s illegal 78-day bombardment of Yugoslavia, over 200 distinguished guests from all over the world gathered for a conference of the Belgrade Forum of the World of Equals. The gathering titled Never to Forget: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}