What is happening now in Serbia reminds us of the darkest moments in human history, days of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Only a truly diabolical mind could even think about horrors those two conducted not to mention ways and means they invented to accomplish them. There are many analysis about these monsters but most of us believe that these kind of monstrosities will not repeat in the future. Unfortunately, history is repeating itself over and over. China under Mao, Cambodia during Pol Pot's reign of terror and Milosevic are just some of the well known examples. We all know that there are plenty of truly insane people out there but what we don't understand is how they manage to get all the way to the top of the government. How it is possible that a madman is able to rule. All this is possible in countries where absolutism rules, where parliament is not functioning, where independent media is banned. That's why democracy is the most important factor in preventing madmen to get to the power and then put all people at his mercy. Although Milosevic claims that there is multiparty system in Serbia and that there are many independent papers and broadcasting media, political life in Serbia is circling around one man and his name is Slobodan Milosevic.
Some of you have noticed that the title of this commentary is the same as the title of the latest episode of "Nikita" aired on USA last Sunday. This is not a coincidence and all of you who saw it know very well why. Milosevic is very similar to Nikita's boss, Operations. What we don't know is what Milosevic drinks and who is serving those drinks. Milosevic looks like drugged Operations who has lost his compass, who is seeing traitors all around him, some dead guy haunts him, he wants to kill all who disobey his orders. Unfortunately for all of us, there is no Nikita or Michael in real life to stop Milosevic and put him in a safe cell where he can't harm anyone. Our only chance is NATO and military operations against this madman.
After three weeks of airstrikes, Kosovo is completely cleansed, there are few bridges left in Serbia, oil refineries and fuel tanks are destroyed, ammunition plants blown to smithereens, Arkan is recruiting criminals from Serbian prisons, Mladic is back in business.What does all of this tell us?
There is no way to prevent genocide when dictator is in absolute control of everything and when NATO ground troops are far, far away from Serbia. Milosevic is doing exactly the same what Hitler did at the end of the WWII, he is speeding up the process of genocide. While Allies were closing to the German borders, Hitler was executing more and more prisoners every day. The only way to stop it was to defeat Hitler militarily, no one tried to rush things or to try some bravado in order to save prisoners. This is what NATO is doing and in my opinion this is good. It is better to defeat Milosevic militarily and thus prevent him from future attempts to commit genocide than to rush things and fail. What has been done it is done already and it is pointless for us to change history.
What is interesting is the NATO campaign to destroy bridges in Serbia. While NATO claims that no ground troops will be deployed for invasion of Serbia, it is hard to convince the world that eliminating bridges is just part of an air campaign only. Milosevic's forces are on Kosovo and they do not need any reinforcements from the rest of Serbia and their job is almost finished. It looks like airstrikes are just the beginning of much larger military operation that will end as "Desert Storm". Do not forget that the day one of airstrikes was March 23rd, the day spring starts. This is not a coincidence and if someone would like to wage war against Milosevic it is best to start early and while weather is fair. It is hard to imagine that Milosevic will sign piece of paper where NATO troops deployment on Kosovo are one of the conditions. Since this will be a long campaign, it is too early to discuss ground war and what will be final objectives, free Kosovo or free Serbia. Bush spared Saddam but we all see today that leaving Saddam was a big mistake. Similar that is happening in Serbia today almost happened in Romania 10 years ago when crazy dictator Nicolae Ceausescu tried to conduct genocide against 2 million Hungarians. Just when the butchery started, brave Romanian people crushed his regime and prevented what is happening in Serbia today. Reading latest AP news and testimonies of humanitarian workers who luckily escaped Kosovo unharmed. Pristina is the ghost town, population of quarter of a million people have been reduced to only 25,000 mostly Serbs. Is this the Serbia Milosevic wants?
What is truly devastating for Milosevic is that NATO is doing the same to him that Allies did to Hitler and that is complete and systematic destruction of all his resources to wage war. Although German Panthers and Tigers were far superior than Shermans and that the first jet plane was German ME-262, Germany lost war because tanks were out of ammunition and planes were grounded because of lack of high octane fuel. The worst part is that Milosevic's police and army are completely inferior compared to NATO. Milosevic can't expect anything but defeat. The sad attempt of Russia to deliver some supplies to Milosevic failed immediately at Hungary's border. Kremlin militants are now realizing that Hungary is NATO country and that all roads to Serbia are blocked. Many compare Serbia and Vietnam in order to prevent deployment of NATO ground troops but they all forget that North Vietnam was constantly supplied with weapons and ammunition from then wealthy USSR through communist China. That was the only reason why America failed in Vietnam. Milosevic is now completely surrounded by NATO countries, would be soon NATO countries and SFOR troops in Bosnia. There is no escape for him.
Milosevic claimed for years that he had nothing with ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Croatia. If it is true then why those who did it are doing it again, this time on Kosovo that is part of FR Yugoslavia which president is no one else but Slobodan Milosevic? What is his explanatio now for atrocities committed by Serb paramilitary forces in Bosnia and Croatia? What indicted war criminals are doing on Kosovo?
There are several important events I would like to mention. First one is assassination of Slavko Curuvija, Editor-in-chief of number one independent Serbian daily paper "Dnevni Telegraf". The story about him and "Dnevni Telegraf is very well known to all of you because "Dnevni Telegraf" was our number one source of news from Serbia. "Dnevni Telegraf" was banned in October of 1998 by Vojislav Seselj. Leader of profascist Radical Party. After court battles, DT and Slavko Curuvija moved to Montenegro. After several atempts to distribute DT in Serbia, Slavko Curuvija was found guilty under new Information Law. One of the leaders of Mira Markovic's procommunist JUL, sued Curuvija for false implications that he was behind murder of a doctor who confronted him frequently. Curuvija and the reporter who wrote incriminating article were sentenced to five months in jail. Curuvija apealed but airstrikes started and whole case was quickly forgotten. Only 5 days before his assassination, government daily paper "Ekspres Politika" acused Curuvija of treachery because he is allegedly supporting airstrikes against dictator Milosevic. Scenario of his assassination was identical to the one in which poor doctor was shot, man in black appeared from nowhere and did the job. In order to hide assassination of a doctor months ago, JUL and their men in police forced some guy to admit the whole thing. The best part is that the guy never gave any statements except the one in which he confessed everything and that he was quickly sentenced to prison without any appeal. They also discovered that he is mentally ill and he was sent to the asylum instead of prison. Government is not giving any explanation or any leads on Curuvija's assassination which indicates that they are too busy with ethnic cleansing on Kosovo and that there is no opposition currently present in Serbia that can start some investigation and prevent further executions of those who oppose dictator Milosevic. Assassination happened in broad daylight on Easter Sunday which shows that this was a cold blooded murder meant to send a message to all who oppose Milosevic and his tyranny. After this assassination and ongoing ethnic cleansing on Kosovo it is crystal clear that there is no life with Milosevic. Either you are Albanian or Serb you must serve your dictator or be killed. There is no freedom in Serbia, just reign of terror conducted by a madman.
Second important event is recent decision of Yugoslav parliament to join Russian-Belarus federation. This decision is just another desperate attempt to prolong dictatorship and terror in Serbia. The worst part of it is that recent visit of absolutist Lukashenko, who rules Belarus with an iron fist, to Belgrade left him shocked after he said that there is a long, long way for Yugoslavia to join Russian-Belarus federation. Even Lukashenko couldn't accept Milosevic. a true madman who is currently conducting the worst genocide in Europe since WWII. Who knows what Milosevic said to him. I and other Serbs are not willing to waste our future by getting married to the dictator like Lukashenko is. Days of absolutism and human right abuses are gone. It is impossible to enter into 21st century with repressive governments like those in Belarus, Serbia or Cuba. We will fight by all means and we will prevail or humanity will go back to the dark Middle Ages.
Third important event is recent butchery of Milosevic's air force on Kosovo. Instead of sending plains to fight NATO aviation he decided to bomb refugees in order to destroy credibility of NATO and shift world opinion to himself. Ever since the days of Spanish civil war, Stalinists like to use pictures of death and destruction to get compassion from the world. Alleged bombing of small city of Guernica in Spain became known as breaking point in the war labeling Franco as a butcher supported by Hitler while Stalinist backed by Joseph Stalin were portrayed as innocent women and children fighting for their freedom. Did anyone told Milosevic that Franco won the civil war and that Stalinists were defeated? I guess not. Montenegro news agency Montena Fax reported several times that Yugoslav aviation is bombing Montenegro in order to blame NATO. Yugoslav air defence is also frequently provoking NATO planes by shooting senselessly, the way of Saddam Husein.
One more thing. Did you know that CNN's reporter from Belgrade Brent Sadler was in Bucharest during Ceausescu's last days? This is very interesting, don't you think?
I'll close this commentary with some thoughts about future developments in Serbia. It looks like this will be a long campaign and that final objective may be Milosevic himself. Government news agency TANJUG reported that Croatia is now eligible to buy any weapons in US which, if it is true, may indicate that Croatia will also participate in invasion but not of Kosovo but Serbia, probably Vojvodina. This is still very questionable but we all remember how Croatian army destroyed Mladic'a army in Croatia and Bosnia. Milosevic's propaganda is the only real weapon that he is currently using but recent attempts are truly disappointing like the one with Aussie "spy" who confessed spying for CIA in half of the world for the past fifty years. The guy was almost laughing while confessing, he couldn't believe that 1984 exists in Milosevic's Serbia. I assume that the next on Milosevic's confession list will be Walt Disney and Warner Bros cartoons admitting that they are created to spread imperialism and hegemonism around the world and to brainwash kids. It's very dark, several thousands of meters below the surface. There are no lights where Titanic lies on the bottom of the ocean, reminding us of human arrogance and ignorance.
FS Net Editor
Footnotes:
After an embassy bombing, Operations is convinced that the person responsible is a terrorist killed by Section years ago. Operations' orders become more and more bizarre and irrational, and he threatens to kill anyone that refuses to obey him. Nikita, Walter and Birkoff consider leading a mutiny, but Michael wrests control of Section One away from Operations before this can happen. However, Madeline is concerned that Michael has devious plans of his own.
The ultimate intelligence bureaucrat. The leader of Section One, he designs the missions, liaisons with the few people in government who know of the Section's existence and makes "personnel" decisions - including who should live and who should die. Nikita learns not to get on the wrong side of him; his human side has been known to appear, but rarely.
USA Network
Absolutism - political system in which total power is vested in a single individual or a group of rulers. Today the term is usually associated with the government of a dictator. It is considered the opposite of constitutional government such as that found in the United States. Absolutism is distinguished from democracy by the unlimited power claimed for absolute rulers as contrasted with the constitutional limitations placed on heads of state in democratic governments.
It was during this campaign that Franco faced one of the great controversies of his career. On April 26, 1937, German aircraft under Franco's command bombed the small Basque market town of Guernica. The international press widely reported the town's destruction and the death of much of its civilian population. Franco's government was immediately blamed for the tragedy. In response, Franco's press corps vehemently denied Nationalist involvement in the incident, insisting instead that what they called Republican "red revolutionaries" were responsible. Nevertheless, Franco's culpability in the event continued to haunt him.
The tragedy has been memorialized by Pablo Picasso in a monumental oil painting, Guernica (1937, Reina Sofia Art Center, Madrid). Population (1989 estimate) 16,400.
Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 99. © 1993-1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Sadler joined ITN in 1981 and became its best-known war correspondent, covering wars in Chad, Libya, Uganda, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Iraqi Kurdistan and the Falklands. He covered the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and was in Prague for the fall of the communist regime, reaching Bucharest at the height of the Christmas Revolution.
He was part of an ITN team to win a joint British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best News Award in 1983 for the quality of coverage from Lebanon. In 1987 Sadler collected the Royal Television Society's International News Award for a special report from inside a besieged Palestinian refugee camp in West Beirut.
Sadler was educated at the Royal Masonic School, Bushey, England.
CNN
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