RHC-TARGET YUGOSLAVIA Fri Apr 23 1999 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit CUBANEWS FROM RADIO HAVANA CUBA E-mail: rhc@radiohc.org http://www.radiohc.org TARGET YUGOSLAVIA: NATO's WAR OF AGGRESSION Friday, 23 April 1999 Radio Havana Cuba presents its coverage of the ongoing U.S.-led NATO aggression against Yugoslavia. ------------------------------------------- The U.S.-led NATO bombardment of the State television station in the Yugoslav capital has sparked widespread condemnation. Late Thursday night/early Friday morning, NATO missiles targeted the Belgrade TV offices, located in a densely-populated zone of the capital, killing some ten civilians and wounding an undetermined number of workers at the facility. Nearly 100 people were in the building at the time of the attack. The International Federation of Journalists expressed anger, charging that NATO had broken its promise concerning the cancellation of missions that could cause civilian victims. Criticism was also voiced by the European Broadcasting Union, grouping 68 media outlets from 49 countries. Union President Albert Scharf stated that he could not understand how the destruction of a source of information can be of military importance. Reporters Without Borders -- which, like other organizations, believes that the Yugoslav TV station is an instrument in the hands of President Slobodan Milosevic -- said propaganda can only be beaten with words, not bombs. One BBC reporter in Belgrade reported that among the rubble and debris following the bombardment, he saw the body of a young woman who worked as a make-up artist at the TV station. --------------------------------------------- HEADLINERS / KOSOVO UPDATE / 23 April 1999 On Thursday, while Yogoslav President Slobodan Milosovic was meeting with Russian presidential envoy Victor Chernomyrdin, NATO and the US bombed the president's private residence in little more than a terrorist attack to assassinate the nation's leader. Denying that the attack was against Milosovic himself, NATO and US spokespeople said that the residence was a legitimate military target. They did not elaborate, as usual. One recalls the US bombing of the residence of Libyan President Khadaffi in which his daughter was killed. Again, it was deemed a military target for unspecified reasons. In an interview with NBC, the head of the Yugoslav Federation's UN mission, Vladisslav Jovanovic, discussed the US law banning assassinations of heads of state. It is important to note that the US is the only nation in the world that saw the necessity of putting such a law on the books. Everywhere else the de-jure legal system of the country implies that nothing can justify the assassination of a head of state. After CIA and FBI murders of prominent figures and world leaders over the years the law was obviously required. To date, there have now been 7200 attacks against the Yugoslav Federation, with NATO fielding in excess of 1000 planes in its offensive against the country. Belgrade reports 517 dead -- 13 of them children -- and 4500 wounded. Schools, hospitals, churches, offices and, on Friday, the national TV station have all been hit -- and all, no doubt, deemed military targets for the usual unspecified reasons. The US television network CBS interviewed President Milosovic for one hour in which he was asked what had caused the problems between Yugoslavia and the US. While the US president claims that Yugoslavia refused to accept the conditions and agreement offered at Rambouillet, France, Milosovic responded that there had been no negotiations and no agreement. All through their stay in Rambouillet, the Serbian and ethnic Albanian delegations never once met. He added that the ethnic Albanian delegation was in fact the separatist so-called Kosovo Liberation Army and that a delegation of the true ethnic Albanian community of Kosovo and Metohija was part of the Serbian delegation which was multi-ethnic in its make-up. What the US and the KLA faction attempted to impose on Belgrade was not autonomy for Kosovo but independence, said Milosovic. Something that everybody knew would not be acceptable given the Yugoslav Federation's concerns for the minority ethnic units within Kosovo that were not Albanian and would be at the mercy of the KLA. Referring to the claims that over half a million ethnic Albanian refugees had left Kosovo, Milosovic categorically stated that expulsion was never part of the policy followed by his country and recalled that during the war in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzogovina, Croats and Muslims were given protection in Serbia and that the current Yugoslav Federation had remained the only multi-ethnic state of the former Federation. NATO had created the refugee situation, he said, to give it an excuse to press forward with the war and the ultimate reduction or "Balkanization" of the area into small, easily-influenced and controlled states. The Yugoslav president ended that he had no intention of doing the ethnic Albanians any harm but that they must learn to live with other ethic groups in a multi-ethnic autonomous province. As troops gear up for the expected land invasion that is likely to drag Russia into the conflict, Western mass media churns out propaganda on an almost hysterical level. It is important to fully prepare the people of the US and Europe for what their military leaders know is to come and so more and more photos of Kosovar (remember, they're not called Muslims any more) refugees are pasted across TV screens decrying so-called Serbian atrocities. However, the refugees will say anything for food and medical treatment. According to reports from other refugees that are not filmed for CNN consumption, the KLA is far more responsible for atrocities committed against Albanian Kosovars. They have forced most military-age men into their ranks and have systematically shot those who hesitate or refuse. They have killed far more Albanians than Serbs, according to survivors. They were considered to be no more than brigands by the US before the CIA took an interest in funding and using them against Milosovic. So Western media whips up our feelings against the new demon Milosovic. And the armies -- in great shows of bravado -- go off to war, strewn with the flowers of well- wishers. English First World War poet Wilfred Owen drew a parallel to this with the flowers that were strewn over the coffins of those that are the first to return... -30- [c] 1999, Radio Habana Cuba All rights reserved Articles cannot be reproduced, reprinted or published in any system without the consent of RHC. This prohibition includes the distribution of this material via Usenet News, "bulletin board" services, e-mail lists, print media, radio and television. For the complete RADIO HAVANA CUBA NEWSCAST and other features, please write for our daily broadcast schedule. We welcome your comments and suggestions. For further information, contact us at: Postal Address: Radio Havana Cuba P.O.Box 6240 Havana, Cuba Telephone: (53) (7) 791053 Fax: (53) (7) 795007 E-mail: rhc@radiohc.org WWW: http://www.radiohc.org rhc-eng-21464 1999-Apr-23 20:49:17