Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No.150, August/September 1999
From 24 March to 9 June the 19 countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) attempted to smash Yugoslavia back to a pre-Industrial condition. NATO claims to have achieved a great success. it has sowed ruin and calls it peace. The tensions that gave rise to the war remain unresolved. Future wars are being planned. Unless the war-mongers are challenged and defeated the planet is in peril. TREVOR RAYNE reports on the aftermath of the latest Balkan war.
‘When people ask us how much damage we did, my answer to that is “enough”. We did enough.‘ British Defence Secretary George Robertson
- Yugoslavia was subjected to approximately 35,000 air sorties, thousands of cruise missiles (NATO gives no figure) and over 35,000 cluster, graphite., depleted uranium etc, bombs. About 2,000 civilians were killed and 6,000 injured by the bombardment. 400-600 Yugoslav soldiers were killed.
- Over 850,000 Kosovan Albanians and 150,000 Serbs were made refugees.
- Damage to Yugoslavia is put at $100-150 billion. The Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts Serbian gross domestic product will fall 40% this year. Macedonia’s 15% and the regional output by 3.8%.
- 400 Yugoslav schools were hit and a similar number of medical units and hospitals.
- Estimates of the number of bridges destroyed vary from 50 to 150.
- The United Nations High Commission for Refugees calculates between 10%-20% of homes in Kosovo have been damaged.
This is the reality of the ‘humanitarian war’, so carefully sanitised for our viewing and approval. Targeting quickly shifted from the Yugoslav military to civilians and civilian infrastructure: factories, water and power plants, social facilities, Damage to the Yugoslav power grid is over $160 million. Disputes within NATO were about the rate of destruction, not the targets themselves.
As we have seen from the war on Iraq, (which the USA and Britain bombed every day of the Balkan war) casualties of NATO’s Balkan war will continue to rise. Toxic chemicals from destroyed factories and power plants are seeping into the food chain. The Danube River east Novi Sad is dead. Depleted Uranium bombs spread radioactive poison causing cancers, birth defects, fatal nerve and liver diseases. Radioactive air pollution is detected in Yugoslavia by a team working for the European Commission. Hospitals that once treated the sick are unable to function and patients are dying.
Before the disintegration of Albania, when the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) seized weapons in 1996, the number of people killed in ethnic conflict in Kosovo averaged ten a year. In 1997, 15 people were killed in ethnic strife. In the year before NATO’s assault United Nation’s (UN) figures showed the number of Kosovan Albanian and Serb deaths to be roughly equal, around 2,000. During the 78-day attack 10,000 Kosovan Albanians are believed to have been killed by Yugoslav forces and Serb irregulars. On 25 June in Pristina, under NATO occupation, but hardly protection, 15 people (Serbs) were killed in a single day.
The Independent reported British troops eating pizzas with KLA forces in a KLA torture chamber. No doubt this is how the victors celebrate. What kind of a victory is it?
‘Serbs out, NATO in, refugees in.’ -British Defence Secretary George Robertson.
The stated objectives were ‘humanitarian and peacekeeping’. ‘Saving Kosovan Albanians’? Certainly not: 10,000 were ‘entirely predictably’ killed. ‘Restoring peace to Kosovo’? No: K-For troops entered Kosovo on 12 June; within three days the KLA had killed or kidnapped 30 people. Within four days the Red Cross estimated 30,000 Serbs, Montenegrins and Gypsies had fled Kosovo, including the only Orthodox Church bishop in the province. The withdrawal of Yugoslav soldiers saw the exodus increase.
Local K-For commanders have the power to detain anyone for consecutive 48-hour periods. Immediately upon entering Kosovo US troops began seizing people as suspected war criminals. George Robertson issued his triumphalist sound bite, ‘Serbs out. NATO in refugees in’, the exodus turned into a stampede.
British paratroopers, whose last assignment was in Belize (keeping it safe for the Conservative Party treasurer), played their customary role, one perfected on the Irish nationalist people. One day into Kosovo they shot a Serb civilian. The exercise was repeated with other victims on 29 June, 3 July, and so on, always to the accompaniment of excuses and apologies from their commanders, with the obligatory appeal from K-For head, General Sir Michael Jackson, for Serbs to stay in Kosovo. Approximately 150,000 have left, out of an original population of 200,000. In other words, NATO his presided over precisely the ethnic cleansing it claimed to oppose, just as it did in Bosnia in 1996. NATO and British troops do not bring pence — they bring violence and repression.
The ‘Peace Deal’
Yugoslav President Milosevic, European Union envoy Finnish President Martti Ahtisarri and the Russian envoy and former Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin agreed a deal on 3 June. It gave the UN Security Council control over the operation in Kosovo. From Yugoslavia’s point of view this means that the UN mandate can, theoretically, be revoked by Russia and China.
There is to be no referendum on independence in Kosovo after three years, which the March 1999 Rambouillet Accord (Diktat is a better name) proposed. Kosovo is to remain, formally, part of Yugoslavia and Serbia.
NATO is to be confined to Kosovo, unlike the Rambouillet Diktat that envisaged its right to operate without hindrance across all Yugoslavia. The KLA is to be ‘demilitarised’ within 90 days; again unlike the Rambouillet Diktat which envisaged its permanent presence as an armed force.
Significantly, Russian troops are part of the K-For deployment. This was undoubtedly contrary to the original intentions of the USA and Britain, who before and during the air war tried to belittle Russia and minimise its involvement.
Objectives partially achieved, contradictions intensifying
‘War is the continuation of politics by other means,’ said Clauswitz, a principle underlined by Lenin. FRFI’s analysis of the war began by examining the politics and relations of the contenders. The restraints put on capitalism by the existence of the Soviet Union and socialist bloc were removed with the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. There followed not just a scramble for resources, markets and profits by the major capitalist powers, but also a change in relations between these powers. US global leadership was in question as Germany and Japan felt more free to assert their own imperial interests. The role of British imperialism had to be defined and demonstrated in changing global circumstances, particularly in relation to the USA and Germany. British capitalism had to assert a role in Europe that would serve the defence of its overseas assets (second only to those of the USA) and the status of the City of London as a leading world financial centre.
War is also an attempt to resolve contradictions or conflicts by violent means. To what extent has it done this? The war expressed different, not always complementary interests. The USA sought to enforce military and political hegemony in Europe and the world. Russia was to be isolated and subordinated. British imperialism wanted to elevate its status in Europe and Germany to expand its influence. China was given a warning and imperialism demonstrated the fate awaiting any who defy it.
Contradictions between the different powers and class forces have not been resolved but are intensifying, bringing with them the threat of wars to come.
Russia and China were unable to prevent NATO aggression. NATO acted beyond the control of the UN Security Council and so a check on US power was swept aside. This is a threat to Russia and China and countries that look to them for protection.
In NATO’s first joint military operation out of its territory, conduct of the war was subject to political control and disagreements. French President Chirac `personally approved targeting decisions’ and vetoed plans to hit Belgrade targets earlier. Britain’s military leadership and the Labour government expressed frustration at restraint on targeting and the pace of the assault.
Nevertheless, NATO held together and Kosovo is now a de facto colonial protectorate, divided into US, German, French, Italian and British zones. German capitalism was less intent on excluding Russia than the USA and Britain. German diplomacy with Russia helped secure the deal. German capitalism views Russia as useful in helping it resist complete US domination of eastern and south eastern Europe., the better to achieve Germany’s own ambitions.
Russia manoeuvres
Russia showed it would not be ejected from the world stage at the will of the USA and Britain. It retained the means to act in those areas where it has geo-strategic influence to protect.
At the onset of the war Prime Minister Primakov turned his plane back to Russia in mid-Atlantic on the way to the USA. At the close of the air war Russian troops raced to Pristina airport to be the first of K-For into Kosovo; two acts demonstrating Russian antagonism towards NATO expansionism.
Russia’s military refuses to serve under NATO command. During a dispute over the deployment of Russian troops, NATO told Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine not to allow Russian forces to over-fly their territories. Russian pressure forced the Ukraine to reject the request.
The USA and NATO have established a new forward base in Kosovo to join their positions in Bosnia and Macedonia. This threatens eastern Europe and Russia’s south western flank round to the Caucasus and the Caspian Basin energy reserves. Russia has said it will redeploy nuclear weapons to its western borders and recently launched nuclear military manoeuvres off the coast of Iceland in a show of force to NATO. In July Russian and Iranian ministers met to denounce foreign interference in the Caspian region. A Russian Mig-29 fighter group has been deployed in Armenia as a counter to NATO influence in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova.
China’s response
China intended to use its UN veto against the deal, but abstained on grounds of Yugoslavia’s acceptance. China has not accepted US apologies for bombing its embassy, has not signed the World Trade Organisation agreement on membership and has suggested that in the face of a declining trade surplus it may devalue its currency. This could trigger another Asian financial meltdown.
On 6 June China condemned a USA-Japan ‘security pact’ as ‘a serious threat to China and the Asia-Pacific region’. Shortly afterwards South Korea’s navy sank a North Korean boat. In July Taiwan rejected the ‘One China’ policy. China then announced it had neutron bomb-making capacity: these are bombs intended to threaten Taiwan. Next, China announced ‘wartime mobilisation drills’ in the seas that divide China from Taiwan. Britain and France began shipment of nuclear waste to Japan; material that can he used in nuclear weapons.
General Blair
following up the British government’s bellicosity during the war, Britain now provides the biggest NATO contingent in K-For. Intended to be 13,000, it is being reduced as military high command complains that British forces ore over-stretched. Regardless, on 25 June, Blair announced that British troops and police were on standby as a UN rapid reaction ‘peace-keeping’ force. The double-breasted general is getting carried away with his ‘new doctrine of international community’.
Eager to get the lion’s share of new defence contracts for British firms, the Labour government has proposed European Union ‘convergence criteria’ for defence spending. This means bigger EU arms budgets.
In the ruins
NATO’s advance will provoke greater instability in the Balkans. Montenegro’s political leadership is encouraged by the USA to break from Serbia and hence Yugoslavia. Despite the “peace’ agreement, the KLA remain armed and intent on creating a greater Albania with serious consequences for Macedonia and its large Albanian population and for Greece likewise. Demonstrations are mounted against Milosevic in Serbia, but there is no indication that they are anti-imperialist.
The immediate cost of rebuilding Kosovo is put at £3 billion. The European Union has scheduled £320 million. Britain has contributed $800,000 to the UN High Commission on Refugees for Kosovo, less than the cost of one Cruise missile. However, some 250 British firms have picked up Kosovo-linked information, but few have announced any intention of investing there. The notable exceptions being Securicor and Group 4 which want to run Pristina’s prison.
Britain and the USA are intent on fishing in troubled waters and insist that Serbia receive no reconstruction aid until Milosevic is removed. Such an approach is calculated to stir up conflict in Serbia and allow imperialism to remove any remaining obstacles posed by the Yugoslav state to its rule.
