Rewriting history
WORKERS, APR 2006 ISSUE
The death of Slobodan Milosevic has occasioned a massive rewriting of history. Suppression of the truth is the rule.
Forgotten is the destruction by the United States and the European Union of a country that asserted its independence. Unlike the other countries of Eastern Europe, Yugoslavia refused to join NATO and the European Community. So the United States ended aid and credits, and its creature the International Monetary Fund imposed privatisation and debt collection, cutting wages, gross national product and jobs.
Forgotten is the destabilisation, again by the United States and the European Community of Yugoslavia. The European Community declared it "illegal" for the Yugoslav government to use its army to hold the country together, as was its legal right and duty. The EC then rushed to illegally recognise Croatia and Slovenia as "independent" states.
Forgotten is NATO's demand that Yugoslavia accept occupation by NATO forces. As a US official said, "We intentionally set the bar too high for the Serbs to comply. They need some bombing, and that's what they are going to get."
Forgotten is NATO's illegal assault on Yugoslavia, which killed thousands of people, destroying factories, hospitals and schools. The aggressor states created a 'court' which at the height of this assault issued its indictment against Milosevic.
Ignored is the fact that the War Trials Tribunal breached its own rules: in 2004, it imposed defence counsel on Milosevic, despite the rule that defendants have the right to defend themselves. Ignored is the fact that in the four years of the trial, not one witness testified that Milosevic ordered war crimes.
Forgotten is the German Foreign Ministry's denial of any genocide by Yugoslav forces: "Explicit political persecution based on Albanian ethnicity cannot be established in Kosovo," the German ministry acknowledged. "The operations of the security forces were not directed against the Kosovo Albanians as an ethnic group, but instead against military opponents and their real or presumed supporters."
Ignored is the fact that less than three weeks before his death, the court rejected Milosevic's request to be transferred to a heart clinic.