U.S., NATO Tighten Control over Bosnia id CAA31059; Thu, 9 Oct 1997 02:29:17 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the October 16, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- U.S., NATO TIGHTEN CONTROL OVER BOSNIA By Gary Wilson There's been hardly a peep of opposition in Congress as it has become clear that U.S. troops may be occupying Bosnia well past the June 1998 deadline previously announced by the Clinton administration. On Sept. 23, President Bill Clinton's National Security Adviser Samuel Berger, made a speech at Georgetown University. He said the U.S. occupation of Bosnia could go on "for a good while to come." Statements by Secretary of Defense William Cohen and outgoing military chief Gen. John Shalikashvili seem to confirm this. The fact is, Congress is pretty much agreed that the U.S. military operation in the Balkans is not only good. Most seem to think the operation is absolutely necessary in order to insure U.S. domination in Europe, particularly in the former socialist countries. That's why there has been no strong opposition voiced in Congress. An editorial in the Oct. 5 New York Times laid it out fairly clearly: The occupation of Bosnia is a necessary part of NATO's expansion. "NATO's plan to expand eastward may well rise or fall on developments in Bosnia over the next nine months," the Times editorialized. The editorial concluded, "Bosnia and NATO expansion are pieces of the same puzzle." Although the Times claims that it is just an accidental development, this was clearly the intent of U.S. policy from the beginning. The evidence can be found in the pages of the Times itself. On Nov. 9, 1992, a plan for a U.S.-NATO occupation of the Balkans was first revealed in an opinion piece. Writing in the style of a Pentagon briefing, George Kenney of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Michael J. Dugan, a retired Air Force general and former Air Force chief of staff, outlined a blueprint for what they called "Operation Balkan Storm." The goal of the plan? Kenney and Dugan concluded, "A win in the Balkans would establish U.S. leadership in the post- Cold War world in a way that Operation Desert Storm [the war against Iraq] never could." Three years later, on June 23, 1995, the New York Times carried another opinion piece that said NATO's expansion was precisely the reason the U.S. military was in Bosnia. Warren Zimmerman--the U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia during the Reagan and Bush administrations and a consultant with the Pentagon's Rand Corp.--wrote that a U.S.-commanded NATO domination of Bosnia is essential. At stake, he wrote, is NATO's capability of "expanding" into Eastern Europe. If a NATO occupation of Bosnia fails, Zimmerman wrote, "not only will NATO's expansion look ludicrous, but serious roles for NATO anywhere else will be hard to imagine." In Bosnia itself, the U.S. military occupation is becoming more severe. NATO ordered local elections to choose new city governments. And all signs of opposition are being severely repressed. On Oct. 1, NATO forces seized four television transmitters in the Bosnian Serb Republic (Republika Srpska). The Serb- run television broadcasts were shut down for violating U.S.- imposed censorship rules. Television workers have gone on strike to protest the censorship. The broadcasts to which NATO objected said the "international war crimes tribunal" has an anti-Serb bias. This view has been widely expressed in media outside Bosnia. But it is strictly verboten inside the country. Free speech has been completely eliminated. The control of the media is being tightened. And the U.S. military has sent in three Air Force planes capable of overriding local TV channels with U.S.-originated broadcasts. A sample U.S.-imposed broadcast was of NATO's Carlos Westendorp, the highest civilian authority over the occupation of Bosnia. Westendorp was broadcast saying: "We are your friends, and not your enemies. We are not an occupying force. ... "I have the responsibility of restricting or suspending those programs which are contrary to the truth, impartiality and peace." NATO MUST RATIFY WINNERS Results of the Sept. 13 and 14 local elections in Bosnia are trickling out from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which supervised the elections. Little explanation is given for the delay. In Tuzla, the second-biggest city of the Croat-Moslem Federation, a non-nationalist, multi-ethnic slate won. It was a defeat for the U.S.-backed Party for Democratic Action (SDA), which is led by Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic. The French news agency AFP quoted an SDA official in Tuzla as saying he was "astounded" by the "surprise result." Tuzla is an industrial city that has been a stronghold of multinational solidarity against nationalist divisions. Other results released so far did not offer any surprises. But the results are not what will count in the end. Under the rules imposed by the United States in the Dayton accord, the OSCE will not ratify the results until Dec. 31. This is not because it will take that long to count the estimated 2.5 million votes or deal with irregularities or violations of voting rights. It's because ratification now depends on how the elected officials behave. If the winners don't implement U.S.- and NATO-dictated policies, candidates who got fewer votes will be ratified as the victors. Economic sanctions will also be imposed on cities that elect candidates who are not NATO-approved. The cost of the U.S.-NATO military operation remains obscured. The Oct. 5 New York Times reported that it is now expected to "cost the Pentagon at least $6.5 billion." Experts in military expenditures say the actual figure is at least two to three times higher. This is so costly that if the whole operation were eliminated it would free up enough money to completely restore the disastrous cuts made in welfare in the United States--and still have money left over. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://workers.org) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nyteeu-10.09.97-02:29:18-26632