Don't entertain him — arrest him!
Professor Michel Chossudovsky, Jared Israel (editor, Emperor's Clothes) and Nico Varkevisser (President, Global Reflexion) condemn the visit of former NATO head Javier Solana to Belgrade on February 7 as an outrage! Several thousand Yugoslavs of varying political beliefs passionately protested against Javier Solana's visit to Belgrade on February 7. This protest, loud and spirited, was held in the centre of Belgrade, on Knez Milosh Street, outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It represented a most important act of defiance, held in the face of widespread violence and intimidation following the US-backed coup in Belgrade of October 5. Javier Solana was head of NATO during and after NATO's 78-day bombing campaign. He was convicted of mass murder by a Yugoslav court and sentenced, in absentia, to 20 years hard labour. The court that made that decision still has jurisdiction under [US- installed President] Kostunica, who insists that he stands for the rule of law. Yet on February 7 Solana was in Belgrade. And the Kostunica/Djindjic regime did not arrest him. Today, all the media lies that were used as a pretext to bomb Yugoslavia — from the lies about mass graves to the lies about the phoney Racak massacre — have been refuted by NATO's own data as well as by official organisations such as the FBI, Europol, the OSCE, the UNHCR and Finnish forensic experts. And yet it is now, mocking Yugoslav justice, that the new Belgrade regime, backed by NATO and the International Monetary Fund, invited Solana to Belgrade. Not to arrest him, but to meet with him and to celebrate, while at the same time they are hunting down those who resisted NATO and indicting them for NATO's crimes. Solana is a criminal. He is guilty of: * Crimes against humanity" — Javier Solana was head of NATO when, in violation of its charter and all international law, it launched the bombing war against Yugoslavia, including the use of nuclear-sheathed [DU] weapons. It was Solana who was responsible for the destruction of the homes and lives of Kosovo residents of all nationalities. It was Solana's NATO that has put 25 million people in the Balkans at risk by bombing the area with low level nuclear [DU] weapons. Solana's NATO oversaw the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Yugoslavs from Kosovo after the bombing. * Crimes against the truth" — Solana was not only an organiser, he was a direct apologist for the war and the subsequent violent expulsions from Kosovo. For example, after NATO bombed a group of returning Albanian refugees in the town of Korisa, Solana went on TV declaring that the Serbs were at fault for the deaths although in fact the killing was done by NATO bombs. This truly insane argument was invoked recently by Carla Del Ponte of the [Hague] kangaroo-court War Crimes Tribunal, who accused [former Yugoslav President] Milosevic of being responsible for the deaths of the 16 people killed when NATO bombed Serbian television. Following Del Ponte's lead, the Belgrade Government has threatened to indict Dragoljub Milanovic, director of Serbian TV at that time, for the NATO bombing. Thus the Kostunica/Djindjic Government invites Javier Solana, a convicted war criminal, to be wined and dined in Belgrade while trying to jail Yugoslav leaders for the bombs that NATO dropped! Many Yugoslavs voted for Vojislav Kostunica because they saw in him a hope of peace with justice. But where is the justice when murderers are entertained and the innocent are accused of their crimes? Now, when the horrors of NATO's use of depleted uranium are coming out, it is incumbent on those who supported the Kostunica/Djindjic regime to join with all others in Yugoslavia and around the world to condemn the real criminals: Solana, Clinton, Blair, Schroeder, Chretien and all the other NATO heads of state and heads of government and their Yugoslav political puppets. For further reading visit the website of Emperor's Clothes: http://emperors-clothes.com Yugoslav Journalists' Fund "Emperor's Clothes" is trying to assist a few families of Yugoslav journalists. These journalists are among the many journalists who have literally been thrown out of work when thugs took over all TV and radio stations and newspapers during and after the October 5 coup. These attacks are part of the terror in "democratic" Serbia. We are providing some financial help; we need to provide more. It's really a privilege to be able to help these brave men and women who are trying to report "the other side" within Yugoslavia and, through "Emperor's Clothes" and other media, to the outside world. If you can make a contribution to help the Journalists' Fund, please do. Any amount will help. You can mail a cheque to Emperor's Clothes, PO Box 610-321, Newton, MA 02461-0321, USA. Copyright. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to post this text on non-commercial community internet sites, provided the essay remains intact and the copyright note is displayed. To publish this text in printed and/or other form, contact the authors at chossudovsky@videotron.cafax: 1-514- 4256224.