Opposition Rally Fizzles, as Belgrade Sizzles; Other Kosovo News (May 28, 2000)

logolittle.jpg (9114 bytes)

TiM GW Bulletin 2000/5-8

May 28, 2000

On the Eve of Moscow Trip by Serb Trio...

Opposition Rally Fizzles as Belgrade Sizzles

Yugoslavia's Second Army on Heightened State of Alert; Decani Monastery Land Confiscated by UNMIK; Kosovo "Peace Farce" Continues

BELGRADE, May 27 – As Belgrade streets sizzled in summertime heat, another pro-western opposition rally fizzled this weekend. Only “some 10,000 people showed up today for an anti-government rally, a relatively low turnout reflecting popular disappointment with the leaders of the political opposition here,” even the sympathetic New York Times reporter admitted in today’s report.

And no wonder. The TiM editor has now had a chance to listen to some of the speeches the same opposition leaders gave at the May 15 protest in Belgrade. All of them had only one thing in common - hatred for the Slobodan Milosevic’s regime, fueled in part by funding and political support of the U.S. and NATO leaders who were bombing Serbia a year ago. None of the opposition politicians had anything positive to offer the people as an alternative national program.

Vuk Draskovic, for example, leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, and a former member of the Milosevic coalition government at the time of NATO’s bombing, sounded the most militant, calling for an uprising against the Belgrade regime. “We all must rebel against the murderers… who are ruling Serbia,” he said. And just in case the crowd didn’t get the significance the first time, Draskovic repeated it a few minutes later. “We must all rebel; we must all rise up against them,” Draskovic added.

The opposition media, such as Belgrade’s Studio B that heralds Draskovic’s party’s positions, broadcast such calls for insurrection. Which is all the Milosevic regime needed as an excuse to shut them down last week. What followed was two days of street rioting, coupled with some incidents of police brutality.

And then it all died down almost as quickly as the tempers flared up. Clearly, the people are fed up with aimless and endless opposition rallies as much they are fed up with the regime. The opposition has expended most of its political capital, having failed to tap into whatever positive energy may have existed last year among the Serbs seeking a change in the country’s leadership.

And now, after the latest regime crackdown, perhaps the most militant among the opposition leaders, the fearless rebel who less than two weeks ago called for an uprising against the regime, yes - the very same Vuk Draskovic - sounded like an entirely different person yesterday. It was a meek and mild lamb, not a ferocious wolf (Vuk means wolf in Serbian), that addressed the opposition crowd on May 27. Draskovic called on his followers to show “non-violent resistance to lawlessness and terror of the government.”

Which is what any sensible and responsible opposition leader would have done in the first place. Only irresponsible vassals of the Serb enemies, such as Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright and others, would have said what Draskovic shouted on May 15 - essentially calling for a start of a civil war in Serbia.

“But Mr. Draskovic, in a wandering speech, seemed unable to articulate a clear strategy to alleviate that paralysis, other than a united push for early democratic elections,” the New York Times reported.

A student resistance movement “Otpor” speaker, named Nemanja Nikolic, from Krusevac, criticized the opposition politicians for disunity and squabbling, Times said. "For seven days, dear leaders," Nikolic railed at the opposition, "you were wasting time on useless meetings." He said “Otpor” had drawn up a plan for hunger strikes, then tried to give it to Mr. Draskovic, who kept his hands to his side. Mr. Djindjic finally took it.

And what did he do with it. Evidently nothing. Djindjic, another pro-western opposition vassal, also pulled in his horns (if he ever had any). But in doing so, he showed the Serbian nation what kind of a leader he would be - one who would lead them from the rear.

Like Draskovic, Djindjic also called on the people of Serbia to “individually defend themselves” from “the lawlessness and the terror of the government.” He then added, “(by all means), do fight with the police if you want to protect your television (stations), and only after that call us (the opposition) to help you.”

Well, with that kind of “help” from such brave leaders, the Serbian people might as well just continue to do what most of them are already doing - minding their own business, leaving the fools to follow the fools in the street riots.

“With declining numbers - a rally in mid-April drew more than 100,000 people, but one on May 15 drew only about 25,000, this rally is likely to be the last of its kind for now,” the Times concluded.

So what’s then the “Plan B” of the Serbian opposition? Begging the Russian government for help. Draskovic said to the media today upon arrival at the Moscow airport that the Serbian opposition group has come to seek Russia’s support for “democratization of Serbia.” The Serb delegation will ask the Russian officials “to exert pressure upon the Yugoslav leaders to cease their policy of terror toward the Serbian opposition.”

But as we’ve already reported on May 25, no one among the senior Russian officials knew anything about the unexpected visit. And no wonder. For, we have since discovered that, what Draskovic and Djindjic had misrepresented to the Serbian public and to the western media as an invitation from the Russian government, was in fact their plea for help with the Russian government to Yabloko, a “liberal” party that is itself struggling to be heard in the “new Russia” under Vladimir Putin, according to our Russian sources.

Nevertheless, Belgrade’s Beta news agency reported yesterday (May 27), that Russia’s foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, would also receive the three Serb opposition leaders (the third being Vojislav Kostunica of the Serbian Democratic Party). And today’s Serb news media reported from Moscow that the opposition threesome, plus the editor-in-chief of the Studio B, Dragan Kojadinovic, were also planning to meet with Dmitri Rogazin, chairman of the Duma’s (Russian parliament) foreign relations committee. All that in addition to their apparent host, of course, Yabloko’s Sergei Ivanyenko.

Stand by and check our Web site for possible updates to this story, after the much-heralded Moscow meetings actually take place on Monday.

MOSCOW, May 29 - If any would-be politicians need a recipe for how to make fools of themselves, he/she should consider what happened today in Moscow with the "Three (Serb opposition) Musketeers" as a case in point. Not only did they come and leave the Russian capital empty-handed, they (and Vuk Draskovic in particular) left with large eggs on their faces. As for the muskets, these "musketeers" evidently never had any to begin with.

As late as 4PM today Moscow time, for example, the hour at which Draskovic had claimed to the media to have had an appointment set up with the Russian foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, this Serbian opposition leader still insisted that the meeting would take place. It didn't, of course. As we reported to you on May 22, no one in the "official" Russia knew anything about it:

What did take place was a meeting between the Three Musketeers and Alexander Avdeev, one of the deputies in the Russian Foreign Ministry, to whom Draskovic complained about the closing down of Studio B and a radio station in Belgrade. Avdeev did agree that these media outlets should be returned to their owners, but beyond that gave the three Serb politicians no additional comfort.

"Russia's main objective now is to completely extricate Yugoslavia from international isolation and ensure territorial integrity and sovereignty of Yugoslavia", Avdeev told them according to our Russian sources.

That, of course, is an objective that should have been lauded by any well-meaning politician who has the best long-term interests of the Serbian nation at heart. Not so in Draskovic's case. After the meeting, Draskovic reportedly railed that, if Moscow "continues to support the Belgrade regime, Russia will lose its influence in the Balkans." Draskovic added that would be "bad for us, and bad for Russia." (see http://www.smi.ru/2000/05/29/959625351.html).

True. This would be VERY bad for "us," if "us" are the Serb pro-western quislings who are only interested in gaining power, rather than offering the nation a chance for a long-term survival, and freedom from the genocidal New World Order shackles that have been gripping Serbia for eight years now (the U.N. sanctions which went into effect on May 28, 1992). But conversely, the above turn of events is great news for the rest of the Serbs.

As for the first part of Draskovic's "sour grapes" comment, that Russia would supposedly "lose its influence in the Balkans," Russia has not had a greater influence in the Balkans since the end of WW II. It's just that this may not be visible to the pro-western quislings in Serbia, nor be to their liking.

The Russian media have reported, for example, that even if Ivanov wanted to meet with the Three Serb Musketeers he couldn't do it because "all Yugoslav affairs today in Russia are being run by the General Staff of the Ministry of Defense, not by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

Which means that "Draskovic et. al." were barking up the wrong tree even by attempting to see Ivanov, or get support from a newly assertive Russia that is emerging under Vladimir Putin. Had they done some homework about "who's who" in Moscow (even by reading TiM Bulletins, if nothing else), the Three Musketeers might have saved themselves such a high-profile public embarrassment as that they suffered today in Russia. But then, if they had done such homework, they would be working for the Serbian people, not for the western imperialists who were bombing them a year ago, and who are now trying to enslave Serbia through such opposition stooges..

To the TiM editor, the only big surprise about all this was that Vojislav Kostunica, the leader of the Serbian Democratic Party, and until now the only genuinely patriotic major Serb opposition leader, allowed himself to be in the company of the pro-western quislings, such as Draskovic and Djindjic.

When asked by the TiM editor in a meeting last month at his office in Belgrade why he was doing it, Kostunica offered a vague explanation. "Sometimes there comes a time when tactics become more important than the strategy," he replied.

Well then, sometimes there comes a time when such "tactics" can bury a good politician. For, people judge the politicians not just by what they say, but also by the company they keep.

PODGORICA, May 27 - The Second Army of Yugoslavia, which covers the southwestern part of the country, including Montenegro, has been placed on heightened state of alert due to increased foreign terrorist threat, according to a May 27 report by the Podgorica “Vijesti,” a daily newspaper. Citing an order issued by the commanding Gen. Milorad Obradovic, the Vijesti headlined its report, “General Obradovic Orders Arrests of Citizens and Fight Against Separatists.”

Which, as it turns out, is not only a bombastic headline, but also a misleading one. For, after having read Gen. Obradovic’s order in full, nowhere did we see anything that would warrant such a headline. Indeed, Gen. Obradovic did say that military police should be on guard and should arrest deserters or people who agitate desertion within the YU Army troops.

But which normal army commander anywhere in the world would not have done the same thing?

Of more interest to us, however, were the sections of Gen. Obradovic’s order dealing with increased threat of foreign infiltration, particularly from the NATO-occupied Bosnia, and especially “on the territory of Montenegro and Raska” (southwesterern Serbia), which is where the next western-sponsored separatist movement is supposed to take place (see our 1996 TiM Bulletin “The End Game Is Near”).

Here is an excerpt from Gen. Obradovic’s order in our translation from Serbian:

“5. Despite a heightened state of security along the national borders with Republika Srpska (Bosnian Serb Republic), there have been incidents of infiltration of terrorist groups from the territory of Republika Srpska into Yugoslavia… (you must) take all necessary measures to prevent such terrorist infiltration…

(In addition), you must not allow access to Yugoslavia from Republika Srpska of any aircraft without prior permission (by the Second Army HQ).”

In short, while the Serb quislings, including their media, are creating a diversion by mischaracterizing Gen. Obradovic’s order as an assault on peaceful Serbian citizens, the spooks working for the western three-letter agencies seem to be pouring into Montenegro, setting the stage for the next stage of Serbia’s dismemberment - Montenegro’s secession.

But, of course, that’s not what we will be told. The western leaders and the NWO lapdog media will once again accuse the Yugoslav Army of brutality against the local civilians (as they did in the case of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo). Which will be then used as another pretext for the NATO troops to come to the “rescue” of Montenegro from the “bad Serbs.”

The only trouble with this NWO scenario, however, is that Montenegrins are also Serbs. Wonder how the NWO “lie and deny” news spinners will spin themselves out of this kind of a dichotomy?

They’ll think of something, we can be sure… And since most Westerners hardly know where Montenegro is, whatever they think of will be probably gulped down as gospel truth by the dumbed-down masses.

Except if Russia joins the Yugoslav Army in saying “nyet” to this NATO land grab. In which case even the dumbed-down western masses may quickly sit up and take notice of where Montenegro is, and why is has been foolhardy to listen to CNN’s and other NWO lies.

DECANI, May 27 - In several prior TiM articles, we were critical of Bishop Artemije, Fr. Sava Janjic of Decani, and other KFOR/UNMIK Serb collaborators on the territory of Kosovo for cavorting with the enemy while doing no good for the local population. Well, the latest developments at the Decani monastery are the case in point. They show the rewards that appeasers sow - derision and loss of respect from friend and foe alike.

Here’s an English translation by S. Lazovic of a report published by Glas Javnosti in Belgrade on May 27 about the confiscation of church property authorized by UNMIK (the acronym for United Nations civilian administration in Kosovo):

“The local administrator of UN for Decani, Helina Cacarinen, has advised the monks of the Monastery of Decani that the local administrator of UNMIK for the Pec district, headed by Alan Leroux (sp?), has decided to forbid the use of the land which was returned to the Monastery by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, we have learned from Father Sava Janjic, a monk at the Monastery of Decani and a member of the Serbian National Council of Kosovo and Metohija.

Namely, on one parcel of monastery land which was, together with another 805 hectares, confiscated by the post-World War II Communist government in Decani, in the mid-1970's a bee-keeping cooperative was established with a modern plant for the packaging of honey.

As this was the most fertile parcel of monastery land, the brotherhood of the monastery determinedly sought to have this parcel returned to it for its use and this finally occurred in 1997.

However, after the war in Kosovo and Metohija and the arrival of the UN mission, the local Albanians, who forcibly expelled all Serbs not only from the Decani municipality but from the entire Pec district, resolved to take away the land and take over the cooperative. The brotherhood of the monastery proposed that the machines and the entire processing plant be given to the Albanians so that they could transfer it elsewhere, and that the land and the building remain in the ownership of the monastery.

However, the Albanians rejected this constructive proposal, applying great pressure on the UN mission to take away the land from the monastery because "it is contested".

"By this decision which forbids the use of already sown monastery land, great harm has been inflicted on the monastery and the brotherhood which is slowly being forced behind the very walls of this shrine. The Diocese of Raska and Prizren considers this unjust decision to be a clear sign of the weakness of the UN mission which is making concessions to the Albanians who obviously want to ethnically cleanse one of the last remaining oases in the region of Metohija. The Serbian Orthodox Church and the Serbian National Council of Kosmet firmly demand that the UN mission withdraw this decision and that it does not allow the usurpation of monastery land which is essential to the survival of this monastic community," emphasizes Father Sava.

TiM Ed.: Well, as a member of the National Council of Kosovo (a decision that we have also criticized) why doesn’t Fr. Sava exercise his “power” and “democratic” rights to overturn this unjust decision? Or better still, how come we’re not hearing him scream bloody murder about this travesty, and demand that UNMIK, KFOR etc. leave Kosovo immediately, as he and Bishop Artemije have often demanded publicly and loudly of the legally elected Serbian government?

Guess we should not hold our breath for that. Not if the two clerics have opted to appease the enemy before, during and after its “ethnic cleansing” of more than 200,000 Serbs from Kosovo, and the murders of more than 1,000 other Serbs.

Meanwhile, the Kosovo “peace farce” continues, as can be seen from the next news report.

KOSOVO, May 27 - Meanwhile, with the arrival of warmer weather, the Kosovo “peace farce” continues under the watchful eyes of KFOR and UNMIK. Here’s a selection of the latest reports by the Serb media from Kosovo:

NOVO BRDO, May 27(Tanjug) - Continuing to burn Serbian houses and other property in Novo Brdo district, Albanian terrorists burnt down three days the house of Zivko Jovanovic, radio amateurs from Kosmet (Kosovo and Metohija) areas of crisis reported today. Ten days days before that, their targets were four houses of Rade Arsic in the same village.

Ethnic Albanians, as radio amateurs report, first robbed all Arsic`s houses, and then burnt two of them and took tiles and carpentry from the third one. When they started demolishing the fourth house, KFOR soldiers prevented them from it, but small number of Serbian population which remained in that village have no doubts that the same fate is awaiting for that one, too.

OBILIC, May 27 (Tanjug) - Albanian terrorists attacked a Serbian house with bombs this evening. The report, received through radio amateurs, said that at 9:05 PM, two hand grenades were thrown on the house of Natasa Todorovic, the first of which exploded by the main entrance, and the other was thrown in through the window.

The Serbs who witnessed the terrorist attack, said to the UNMIK police that the attackers were two Albanians, Gazmed and Kadrija Suleimani, neighbors of Natasa Todorovic.

KOSOVO POLJE, May 26th - In the center of the village Bresje near Kosovo Polje, tonight around 8p.m., near the house of the president of the Serbian National Assembly for Kosovo Polje, Svetislav Grujic, ethnic Albanian terrorists threw a grenade at a café bar seriously injuring five Serbs.

Milorad Filipovic (69), Zvonko Grujic (40), Momcilo Lazic (54), Stanoje Milosevic (59) and Mita Grujic (64), all from Bresje, were injured. According to the doctor on duty in Kosovo Polje, where the injured were surgically treated with the assistance of Russian doctors, their lives are not in danger although they have multiple injuries from bomb fragments.

According to the words of eyewitnesses, the dark colored VW "Golf" with two terrorists went and returned two times through Bresje in the direction of Ugljari. Terrorists threw a grenade on Serbs out of the moving vehicle and then ran away in the unknown direction.

DOBROTIN, May 27th - Ethnic Albanians racing in three cars through village Dobrotin ran into a crowd of Serbs, injuring three who did not manage to get out of the way, radio amateurs reported today. KFOR troops allowed the speeding cars race through the village.

Serbs were gathered in the village of Dobrotin protesting because a gang of ethnic Albanians had brutally beaten up a villager, Milorad Gudjic (64).

The cars, two Opels and a Mercedes, driven according to the reports of radio amateurs, by members of the so-called terrorist KLA from the neighbouring village of Slovinje, streaked through the village and out again, unchecked by Finnish KFOR troops.

Predrag Preric (35), who was displaced from Slovinje, broke legs, Jorda Curcic (65), from Dobrotin, broke both arms and Vladica Trajkovic (20) injured his legs.

This act and behavior of Finnish troops who refused to allow the injured Serbs to be taken to the Russian KFOR field hospital, just increased tension among the Serbs, giving rise to an altercation and then to blows between the unarmed Serbs and the heavily armed Finnish KFOR troops.

The KFOR troops used batons and baseball bats against the assembled Serbs, severely beating them up and then arresting one, Zivorad Curcic (40), whom they released only on the locals' insistence and after their threats they would no longer consider KFOR a peace force.

This was the ninth attack and conflict provoked by ethnic Albanians in Dobrotin, and KFOR troops have not yet found a single perpetrator. Last night, KFOR cut the bell rope in the belfry of the local Serbian church, probably fearing the Serbs might ring it to summon compatriots from adjacent villages, amateur radio operators said.

BELGRADE, May 26th - Ethnic Albanian extremists attacked and beat up a shepherd Milorad Gudjic (64) while he was watching over his cattle in a place called Zavrcence at the outskirts of Dobrotin, radio amateurs from Kosmet report today.

A group of Albanians, who were returning from their field on a tractor, saw Gudjic watching over his cattle alone, jumped from the tractor and caused severe injuries of his head and body beating him up with long sticks. Gudjic was transferred to health center, where he received first aid and he will probably have to be transferred to Russian field hospital because his injuries are severe.

Albanian extremists fled towards the neighboring village Slovinje, and KFOR troops blocked the road through Dobrotin because of the possible escalation of the Serb - Albanian conflict, radio amateurs report.

TiM Ed.: And so on, and so forth… And not a word about any of that in the western media, especially the likes of the New York Times, whose front page motto is “all the news that’s fit to print.” Make that, “all the news that fits our opinions,” as we’ve said many times before.

WASHINGTON, May 19 - American military endeavors in the Balkans cost the U.S. taxpayers more than $21 billion in the 1990s, the General Accounting Office said on May 18. Spending for maintaining the U.S. forces - currently numbering 12,400 in Bosnia and Kosovo, has totaled $21.176 billion, with $10 billion spent in the past two years, according to a Gannett News report, carried by the Seattle Times.

The GAO report concludes that the forces on station in five Balkan states or provinces - Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania - are ensuring "the absence of war" but not much else. "The vast majority of local political leaders and people of their respective ethnic groups have failed to embrace the political and social reconciliation considered necessary to build multiethnic, democratic societies, and institutions," the report says.

TiM Ed.: That was never the point of these neo-colonial invasions by the New World Order anyway. Except for the naïve. The point was “perpetual commerce through perpetual war.” Which means that while the $21 billion may be upsetting the U.S. taxpayers, its music to the ears of America’s “death merchants” and their partners in crimes against humanity committed in the Balkans.