After 4 years in a polically motivated kangaroo court set up by Nato (via bullying by the US), Milsevic was found dead today in his cell. Though I would likely be a dissident from his politics if I were Serbian, as an outside observer, I followed how he was brutally demonized and made a scapegoat for all of the troubles that erupted in the former Yugoslavia.Let us begin at the beginning: the fall of communism. The Soviet Union was always weaker and less aggressive than the capitalist alliance (mainly the US, UK, and western Europe). The skillfully crafted breakup of the USSR into newly independent nations had ended the Cold War. With the main competition no longer any type of viable threat, the US govt started to move onto the nations that had been loyal to the communist bloc for so long. First target- Yugoslavia.
This was a ripe and easy target. A mishmash of different ethnicities and religions mangled into a relatively new nation (formed after WWII).
With intelligence and logistical support, independence movements suddenly began gathering steam (CIA fingerprints everywhere on this one). Slovenia was an easy one to give up, but by not cracking down (as most governments around the world do on a regular basis to squash independence movements), the Yugoslav government opened the door for the disintegration of the republic. Croation followed suite, and this is where the real problems started. There are, or I should say *were* large areas inhabited primarily by ethnic Serbs within the borders of of Croatia, and these people were completely opposed to becoming a new minority in a new country. So the guns started firing, militias formed, and a small ember began to turn into a fire. When Bosnia, the most ethnically mixed of all declared its independence, the fire turned into an inferno.
Let me restate that none of these entities would have had the organizational skill or means to achieve independence had it not been for outside help (again, the CIA). This was pure punitive action taken to destroy the remnants of the communists in Belgrade, and replace them with western puppets, moving Yugoslavia into the hegemony of the US (instead of Russia). If Belgrade had instantly capitulated, have no doubt, we would still be looking at a united Yugoslavia today.
The Pentagon had a more difficult time justifying the Kosovo campaign. The KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) was a purely criminal and terrorist organization that was given a skillful whitewash. They were actively encouraged to stir up trouble, knowing that Belgrade would have to crackdown, as Kosovo is not just part of Serbia proper, but the cradle of their entire ethnic consciousness. Again, this turned into wonderful propoganda and was a precursor to the Nato bombing campaign in all of Serbia (including civilian targets, public bridges, media stations, and the carpet bombing of an entire ethnic Albanian village in which over a hundred died).
What could justify such an aggressive policy? Again, the Pentagon propaganda machine was thinking ahead, and made Milosevic the main demon for everything. "We HAD to act because of his barbarism". With the subsequent engineered "mass uprising" that removed the former communists from power, Serbias new leaders were given a choice: hand over Milosevic to stand trial at a new court made especially for this and receive hundreds of millions of aid, or face further punishment and get a continuation of the economic blockade.
So Milosevic was virtually kidnapped and sent off to face "justice" in a court never sanctioned or recognized by the only internation organization that would have the legitimacy for such a thing: the United Nations. He was subjected to 4 years of isolation and intimidation by this court, all to justify a war for a political game. They refused to let him travel to Russia for needed medical treatment, despite a guarantee by the Russian govt. that he would be returned immediately after. And now, he's dead. Congratulations new world order, this is what has become legal precedence in our times: might makes right. I guess he was just a smaller fish than the one that ate him.
