U.S. Instigated Mob Attempts a Coup Against Democracy in Yugoslavia

by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky
Jared Israel (editor, Emperor\'s Clothes)
Prof. Peter Maher
Nico Varkevisser
Karen Talbot (Covert Action Quarterly)

www.tenc.net
[Emperor\'s Clothes]

Despite the statement that "Milosevich is a dictator", repeated by the Western mass media like a mantra, Yugoslavia is a parliamentary democracy. That is the plain, simple truth. The Yugoslav government is able to govern because it has a parliamentary majority. In the last election the government increased its parliamentary strength.

Today, mobs brought to Belgrade by the democratic opposition parties (DOS) attacked the Parliament building, burning part of it. They sacked and looted the Socialist Party headquarters. They destroyed the Serbian Television station, RTS, the same station that NATO bombed last year. And they attacked ordinary citizens.

The burning of parliament and the sacking of Belgrade property along with attacks and threats against citizens who don\'t support the opposition, confirm our worst fears. The violent measures we have witnessed this week, the presence of a violent mob, brought into Belgrade, coupled with copious bribes for those who switch sides to DOS - these are intended to destroy the legal framework of Yugoslavia. The goal is to install a US-controlled government in power. No wonder Secretary of State Albright is cheering. These are her kind of democrats.

DOS, and its handlers in Washington and Bonn, were never interested in electing Mr. Kostunica President. That\'s why the Western and Yugoslav "independent" media started charging that Milosevich would "surely" steal the election weeks before elections took place. In other words, for DOS and the West, the crucial thing was not to win, but to cry "Fraud!" and then stage provocations.

If DOS simply wanted to win the Presidency, why didn\'t they embrace the runoffs? After all, Kostunica had a 10% lead. One reason DOS didn\'t want to participate is that they were worried about the 40% of the electorate that abstained in round one. Most of these people are nationalists, firmly opposed to NATO. Under no circumstances would they vote for DOS which they see as connected to NATO. So Kostunica could well lose a runoff election.

But this was not the main reason DOS boycotted the runoffs. Their main concern was that the Yugoslav President has no power unless he is backed by a parliamentary majority. DOS lost the Parliamentary elections. Absent terror and massive bribery, the DOS forces in parliament are a minority. The goal of DOS, as planned in Washington and Bonn, was not to defeat Milosevich for President. It was to overthrow the democratic will of the Yugoslav people - to destroy the entire parliamentary system.

We have documented NATO\'s close ties with DOS. Indeed, NATO has demonstrated these ties in many ways, not least of all by the US government flooding Yugoslavia with millions of dollars in bribe money. Without that money DOS would be a cipher.

The U.S. government plans to apply the most severe economic shock treatment to Yugoslavia. This has been openly admitted by Mr. Dinkic, the chief economist for DOS:

"\'We are thinking of adopting... a shock therapy in some areas, and mild and gradual reforms in others,\' Dinkic told Beta." Beta news agency, Belgrade, in Serbo-Croat 1828 gmt 26 Sep 00 posted by BBX Oct. 5, 2000)

The shock therapy approach was spelled out in law HR1064, passed by the US House of Representatives a day after the elections. This law granted an additional 105 million to be shared between the pro-NATO government of Montenegro ($55 million US) and the leaders of the DOS ($50 million.) Meanwhile money is pouring into the coffers of DOS,

"sometimes in direct aid, sometimes in indirect aid like computers and broadcasting equipment, and sometimes in suitcases of cash carried across the border between Yugoslavia and Hungary or Serbia and Montenegro." (\'NY Times

HR 1064 also ordered the most draconian economic and political "reforms" for Yugoslavia. It ordered the breakup of Serbia into separate mini-states. It ordered the imposition of complete "democratization", that is, the adoption of all measures demanded by the US. It ordered Yugoslav forces to hunt down anyone NATO decides to accuse of war crimes.

The violent economic "adjustment" and political destruction mandated by HR1064 and outlined in the DOS\' own program are an attempt to crush Yugoslavia as a force capable of resisting US domination of the Balkans. Instead, Yugoslavia is to be turned into an impoverished territory, a colony.

These measures cannot be implemented unless NATO has full control of the Yugoslav government including the army and police. The other alternative, invading a Yugoslavia run by a hostile government, is politically unfeasible for NATO .

Therefore the DOS has used the charge of "election fraud," endlessly repeated but never accompanied by evidence, as an excuse to boycott the runoffs. In contrast, nothing is said about the fraud involved in the US financing of every aspect of DOS activity. The import of vast quantities of US bribe money is an attack on Yugoslav sovereignty no less than last year\'s bombing campaign. Using the veneer of protesting election fraud, the "democrats" are mobilizing all possible forces in an attempt to seize power by force. These include pro-fascist Croatians and pro-KLA Albanians who are the hard core supporters of the pro-NATO Djukanovic government in Montenegro. They include secessionists from the Serbian province of Vojvodina and southern Serbia. They include young people who have been driven into unemployment as a result of NATO economic sanctions and who are lured into a movement with the illusion that this will provide a future. They include people bribed by a taste of the vast sums of money the US has pumped into Yugoslavia especially in the past two weeks, and people who have been fooled by the massive, US funded campaign, by "independent" media, public relations firms and election pollsters, into believing that their falling living standards, caused by sanctions just as severe as those imposed on Iraq, are the "fault of one man - Milosevich" and that the US-backed opposition will bring prosperity. In fact they would bring the prosperity of the grave.

Because the truth is that countries like Bulgaria and Russia which have swallowed the "democratic " bait are far poorer than Yugoslavia - even though they are not suffering from sanctions. and were not yet bombed

The scenario is much like what occurred in Chile in 1973.. There was the same sort of disruption of transportation and essential services including electricity. There was the same effort to create the appearance of a majority movement against Chilean Pres. Allende.. Events were staged which a captive media misdescribed as popular protest, giving ordinary people the impression that Allende was about to fall. At the same time, the CIA-directed plan deprived the people of basic necessities, causing real unrest. In Yugoslavia, the disruption of the supply of essential commodities started before the election with a US-instigated rise in the price of bread

Under cover of disruption and "popular protest" the CIA overthrew President Salvador Allende and installed a pro-US military junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet.

The strikes which crippled transport and food distribution in Chile were funded by the CIA. The same is being attempted right now in Yugoslavia. Vast sums of US tax payers money has been poured into opposition coffers in Serbia. We know of $182 million. But this is only what is officially admitted. What about CIA money, which the New York Times says is going into Serbia "in suitcases full of cash"? What about money from the Soros Foundation and other CIA-connected "charities"? This money is being used to finance the miners\' strike and to lure young people into the Western-created group Otpor by giving them money and trinkets, like cellular phones. .

Of course, many Yugoslav people are disgruntled. One striking miner told the \'NY Times\': "I used to make $1500 a month. Now I make $80." Why wouldn\'t he be disgruntled? But who is to blame? The \'independent\' media in Yugoslavia, funded by the US government, blame the government that is resisting US control.

This is nonsense.

The problem started in 1989. At that time a World Bank plan was put into effect in Yugoslavia. It was overseen by Veselin Vukotic, presently a leading member of G-17, a DOS group. This plan liquidated over a thousand Yugoslav business, devastating the economy. Further harm was done by the wars of secession and economic sanctions, imposed on Yugoslavia by the U.S. and German governments.

The Yugoslav government is routinely accused of being dictatorial. But it has tolerated the organization and funding by the West of a web of Fifth Column organizations and media in Yugoslavia. Millions of dollars have gone into these "civil society" organizations. Funding is channeled through the National Endowment for Democracy, Freedom House, the USIA, the CIA and the Soros Foundation, among others. Thousands of Yugoslavs are on their payrolls. An entire "alternate" media has been set up with the latest equipment and high salaries. These organizations and mass media take advantage of the very problems created by US and German policies to sow resentment towards those who have resisted US and German policies.

The US effort to destroy Yugoslavia dates back at least as far as 1984. At that time a U.S. National Security Decision Directive NSDD133 was issued. Entitled "United States Policy Toward Yugoslavia," it was labeled "SECRET - SENSITIVE". Recently it was declassified. It is a prescription for destroying Yugoslavia as an economic and political entity.

Since the elections on 24 September, the Democratic opposition has met with NATO officials in Sofia, Bulgaria. NATO Assistant Secretary General Paul Klaiber was in Sofia and Bucharest for high level discussions on security issues resulting from the elections. Barely reported in the media, an IMF donors\' conference was held behind closed doors, Two leading "democratic" representatives presented their so-called "Letter of Intent", a plan for imposing harsh economic measure on Yugoslavia, to their IMF and World Bank leaders. And on the 4th of October, the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe was meeting under its so-called "Title III" which pertains to "security issues." The elections and "transition" in Yugoslavia were on the agenda. The press reports do not confirm that the two "democratic: representatives stayed for these meetings. We suspect they did..

The ploy being employed now is to create chaos while dangling promises of prosperity and an end to strife - if the DOS comes to power.

In order to create chaos, a variety of groups have been mobilized. Some of the people who\'ve gotten involved in the disturbances are ordinary people, tired of the constant attacks on Yugoslavia, seduced into the false belief that DOS will solve Yugoslavia\'s problems. We say \'seduced\' and \'false belief\' because Yugoslavia is not the problem. It is the U.S. and Germany and their need to crush the Yugoslav loyalists as a political force. One cannot solve the problem of persecution by giving in to the persecutor.

As we said, some of the people involve in the disturbances have been seduced, but not all. Others are secessionists from various parts of Yugoslavia, or fascists. These people have an agenda that requires the break-up of Yugoslavia. Some are former Communist Party functionaries who hope that under a NATO regime they may return to the life of leisure they enjoyed before 1989. Some are under orders from their superiors or powerful political bosses to participate in demonstrations. And some are infiltrators from the NATO armed forces, especially from Montenegro.

Chaos creation is intended to terrorize Yugoslav loyalists while creating the impression of popular revolt. We have received reports that early this week DOS activists went around Belgrade, threatening to kill anyone who voted in the Sunday runoff elections. And of course today we have witnessed the worst violence so far, which has created a state of terror in Belgrade.

Meanwhile NATO war ships are in the Adriatic. British SAS special forces are training paramilitary police in Montenegro to assassinate Yugoslav army officers. Western money pays for both the training and the paramilitaries.

What we are witnessing is nothing less than an attempt to install a fascist-like government in Yugoslavia, to remake Yugoslavia in the image of Kosovo. Yugoslavia has stood up to the biggest bully in history, the US government. Now it is time for all who oppose the creation of a US/German dominated world empire to stand up for Yugoslavia.