German Foreign Minister Calls for Permanent Troop Occupation of Yugoslavia

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, addressing Parliament on Wednesday, expressed his opinion that Germany should not only provide material help to Yugoslavia but that the Bundeswehr [the German Army] and non-military organizations should establish a permanent presence there. He declared that this was a unique chance to create a democracy in the context of further European unification.

Reunited Germany has a special responsibility for stabilizing democracy in Serbia. Democracy, said Mr. Fischer, is the basis for a lasting peace in the Balkans. But the priority is for the moment that the democratic changes be carried out peacefully and that justice prevail. The Western Balkans is a part of the European comprehensive responsibility.

It was truly correct at the time to stop Slobodan Milosevich's policy of Greater Serbia and to engage oneself on the side of the democratic opposition, says Joschka Fischer. Now the bloody murdering in the Balkans can be stopped. The Stability Pact has to be used, among other things, for the clearing of the Danube. Also democratic culture has to be built up [in Serbia] to make possible the normalization of relations between Germany and Serbia. The first steps have been taken through the lifting of the oil and the flight embargoes by the European Union. Now Serbia can be accompanied on its route toward Europe. In the words of Fischer, all those who have made themselves guilty of grave crimes have to be brought to justice.

[Note: Original German text will be posted as soon as possible at http://emperors-clothes.com/german/bundeswehr.htm ]

Yugoslavia Slated for German Domination

Interview with Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa. Prof. Chossudovsky studies and writes about the effects of International Monetary Fund/NATO penetration of countries in transition.

Interview conducted by Max Sinclair

Sinclair: Some supporters of Kostunica are arguing, or hoping, that somehow he can maneuver around the United States because he has ties to Europe. That Europe is getting away from US domination and wants to be independent.

Chossudovsky: I think they're very naïve in that belief. Berlin and Washington are working hand in hand in this situation. They coordinate their respective foreign policy initiatives. Germany's secret service, the Bundes Nachrichtendienst (BND) collaborated closely with the CIA in the various stages of the 78 day bombing of Yugoslavia, and also after the bombing.

Everything indicates that what they want is to transform Yugoslavia into a German protectorate with German troops (and the Deutschmark) stationed on Yugoslav soil, within Germany's "Lebensraum". This has been the fate of the other former republics of Yugoslavia including Macedonia and Croatia.

In Montenegro and Kosovo the Deutschmark has been established as legal tender. In Kosovo Germany's Commerzbank controls the entire commercial banking system. At the same time it is the Washington Group, which is a US Transnational linked up with the US defence industry, which controls the Trepca mines in northern Kosovo.

The Americans and their British allies have their eyes on Central Asia; that is the deal. The Caspian Sea basin and Central Asia are American territory. BP-AMOCO and ARCO, the world's largest Anglo-American oil consortium, is the major player in the Caspian oil fields. NATO's role, through GUUAM, the NATO-sponsored military alliance in this area, is to protect the pipeline routes from the Caucasus through the Balkans.

Germany is not an important player in the oil business. In return for the US and Britain getting the Caspian Sea Basin and Central Asia, Germany gets the Balkans and parts of Eastern Europe. The US and Germany seem to have agreed on this division of territory and their respective spheres of influence.

Sinclair: So they are fully united?

Chossudovsky: United in some regards, divided in others. There is a major split between Germany and the US in the defence industry. We see two competing defence conglomerates. The powerful Deutsche Aerospace which is part of Daimler is now allied with France's Aerospatiale Matra. In turn, British Aerospace is integrated into the US military industrial complex. It is in close relationship with major US defence contractors.

In other words the Western defence industry is split in two; the Anglo-American axis and the Franco-German axis. Incidentally in the oil business the Anglo-Americans are also competing with the French-Belgian-Italian consortium, El-Aquitaine-Petrofina-ENI, which also has links to the Iranian and Russian Oil companies.

Dinkic Attempts to Control Central Bank for the IMF

Chossudovsky: With regard to Yugoslavia, what they want is to impose the Deutschmark, which means Germany would dominate the monetary system. This requires controlling the Central Bank.

I think the biggest stake in Yugoslavia right now is over who controls the Central Bank.

It appears that Mr. Mladjan Dinkic of the G17 group of economists has assumed control of the Bank. He has done this on behalf of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

If Yugoslavia is to retain national sovereignty, it is absolutely essential that it regain sovereignty over its bank and therefore its monetary policy. If Kostunica and Dinkic and the G-17 can hand over the Central Bank to the IMF, then the German banks will come in as they did in Kosovo and Bosnia . The IMF then acquires de facto control and then we have a colonial situation regardless of what might happen in the arena of party politics. In other words, if the IMF, through the G-17 economists, has control of the Central Bank in the person of Mr. Dinkic, then they control part of the key power in the country. If they also get the position of Finance Minister they have it all.

Mr. Dinkic appears to have assumed the functions of a Central Bank governor without the legally required parliamentary assent. There is evidence, publicly available, that the IMF has already begun wrecking the monetary system. For Yugoslavia to retain sovereignty, its monetary policy must be controlled by those answerable to parliament, not to the IMF. This means removing the Central Bank from Dinkic and his associates.

With regard to Yugoslavia the US, Germany and France collaborate.

Sinclair: The other day I read an article which suggested that Kostunica has the backing of France and so he can therefore play an independent role.

Chossudovsky: France and Germany go together. As I mentioned, their defense industries are fully integrated now. There's very close collaboration between the two. That is the new axis. France, Germany and Italy, on one side, and Britain and America on the other.

Sinclair: So does this mean there is hope that the Serbs will be protected from the U.S. by France and Germany?

Chossudovsky: They won't; no no, they won't. Of course, there are many disagreements and conflicts between Germany and the US. In Albania, the Germans supported the Democrats and the US supported the Socialists. The Germans lost out. Germany's giant mining consortium Preussag, lost out to an Anglo-American mining company when the Socialists came in. Albania is one of the world's largest producers of chrome, you see.

But with regard to Yugoslavia the US and German sides fully collaborate.

And mind you, the International Monetary Fund is run by a German now. Let's be clear: in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, the IMF is just as much an instrument of German domination as it is of American domination.

And then of course there are the historical implications of Germany once more occupying Yugoslavia. This of course has been an established goal of the German Empire, including during W.W.II.

Sinclair: Before we conclude could you talk a bit more about United States and Central Asia?

Chossudovsky: Well the United States has extended into the Caucasus and the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union; it also has its eyes on China. Since the Asian crisis and the IMF bailout in 1997, South Korea is becoming a full fledged colony of the US. The powerful Korean business conglomerates (Hyundai, Samsung, Daewoo, Kia) are being taken over by U.S. financial interests. The Germans, including Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, are also present in Korea, picking up the pieces. The US has 38,000 troops in Korea. The Korean economy is being ransacked.

'U.S. Arrogance and Yugoslav Elections' at http://emperors-clothes.com/engl.htm

'The International Monetary Fund And The Yugoslav Elections' at http://emperors-clothes.com/analysis/1.htm

'Yugoslav Coup Unravels' at http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/szamuely/unravels.htm

Two interviews relate first hand experience with the DOS terror:

* These Dindjic people are brown shirts' at http://emperors-clothes.com/interviews/djindjic.htm
An interview conducted after the Oct. 5 coup

* 'On the list, they had me marked as a nationalist' at http://emperors-clothes.com/interviews/onthelist.htm
Interview conducted before the Oct. 5 coup

The Case of the Reluctant News Report

As far as we know, the 'AP' dispatch posted above was distributed only in German. A reader spotted it at Yahoo.com's German language Website, translated part of it and emailed it to Emperor's Clothes. Following his instructions we went to an address for Yahoo in German, http://de.news.yahoo.com/4/ . Scrolling down a bit, we found the phrase "Nachrichten suchen" which means "news search" , typed "Fischer will Jugoslawien mit Bundeswehr helfen" [Fischer wants Army to help Yugoslavia], clicked the usual button and were taken to the web address "http://de.news.yahoo.com/001011/12/14aun.html" The url had the right title, about Fischer wanting the German Army to "help" Yugoslavia, but when we clicked on it we got the message "Seite nicht gefunden" or "Website not found". The other links on the page worked fine.

We contacted a friend in Germany whose employer subscribes to 'Associated Press'. He got an actual printout of the news dispatch, sent us the text in German and translated it into English. We will post the original German soon.

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