Yugoslavia:
"Grave mistakes", says Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General has openly voiced his 
dissatisfaction with the position in which the United Nations was placed by 
NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia.

He said that the UN member states must provide more resources and 
demonstrate more goodwill for the United Nations to be successful.

Mr Annan said that the United Nations must act as a single legislative and 
decision-making body in the world and an instrument of international 
security and preventive diplomacy.

He stressed that the UN Security Council had taken full responsibility for 
the issue of Kosovo and Metohija. This contrasts with the attempts of the 
Western media to present the UN force in Kosovo as a purely NATO force.

Kofi Annan voiced hope that the international community would learn its 
lesson from the tragedies that had occurred and that hatred and suffering 
would become a matter of the past in the next century.

Kofi Annan urged that the UN role in the current world order be restored 
and admitted that he was responsible for the UN's marginalisation because 
he had made a series of grave mistakes recently.

Kofi Annan's statements are welcomed but it will require strong action by 
the UN Secretary-General and the UN Security Council, particularly the 
Russian and Chinese representatives, to undo the damage done to the UN when 
it was completely disregarded by NATO countries.

The failure of the UN to act when the aggression first took place has been 
taken by NATO as a green light to resort to military action whenever it 
pleases.

The chaotic situation already unleashed by NATO's flagrant marginalisation 
of the UN, is to be seen in the India-Pakistan conflict, the bombing of 
Beirut by Israel where civilian infrastructure has been hit as in 
Yugoslavia, in Iraq and in an increasing rush to militarisation by many 
countries.

NATO aggression continues

The official end of the bombing of Yugoslavia has not finished the NATO 
aggression as such.

The situation on the ground in Kosovo is fluid and dangerous — especially 
for the non-Albanian residents in the province. Not only are ethnic Serbs 
being hounded and made to move out of their homes — Gypsies are also being 
attacked and their homes burned by KLA looters and thugs.

The Western media prefers to talk about the continuing looting, burning and 
killing as "revenge" attacks, thereby covering up the responsibility of the 
UN KFOR forces to protect all citizens of this part of Yugoslavia as they 
claim is their intention.

The reality is that NATO has sided openly with the KLA and is, so far, 
failing to act in a determined way to stop the attacks, killings and 
looting.

The KLA will continue its rampage unless very strong action is taken to 
disarm it. This was a part of the UN resolution which ended the bombing and 
this undertaking must be carried out.

However, the Western powers are playing a double game which should not fool 
anyone — on the one hand they are saying that the KLA has to be disarmed, 
while on the other hand, President Clinton, acting like a small-town 
sheriff, has put a US$5 million bounty on the head of the elected President 
of an independent state!

Signalling their intention to continue the war by other means the USA, 
Britain and Germany, while sending aid to the devastated Kosovo region of 
Yugoslavia, flatly refuse humanitarian aid to other parts of Yugoslavia.

This also is a violation of the UN resolution and their commitment to 
recognise the sovereignty and independence of Yugoslavia of which the 
province of Kosovo is a part.

By providing aid to only one section of the country, the Western powers are 
attempting to create the economic conditions by which to further split the 
Yugoslav Federation.

The Los Angeles Times has strongly criticised Bill Clinton's 
patronage of the KLA under the heading — "America Puts Fox in Hen-House".

The article says: "It should be clear to all that the KLA is bullying, 
violent and hostile towards democracy. It is made up of criminals linked to 
drug smuggling, a radical right wing, remnants of Albanians who fought for 
the Nazis in World War II, and of Islamic fundamentalists".

Serbian trade unions have appealed to the United Nation's special envoy, 
Sergio Viera de Mello, to protect workers in Kosovo as the KLA threatens 
their lives and violently and illegally seizes the property of companies 
and public institutions in the province.

According to the trade unions, workers are being prevented from doing their 
jobs, they are being forced to leave their workplaces where they are 
legally employed.

"This is most evident in health institutions, electric power companies and 
in trade and communal companies in Kosovo and Metohija. In some cases, all 
this takes place before the eyes of your representatives", the trade union 
letter to Mr de Mello states.

The former US Attorney-General, Ramsey Clark, is preparing charges to be 
heard in a "people's court" against US President Bill Clinton, Secretary of 
State Madeleine Albright, Secretary of Defence William Cohen and a number 
of US and NATO generals.

Evidence will be gathered to show that the US-led NATO aggression was aimed 
at establishing military and political domination in the Balkans and at 
destroying Yugoslavia in the military and economic fields.

It will also focus on the Western media's warmongering campaign.