Big Power rivalry in the Balkans
Washington censors Bosnian press, TV
By Gary Wilson
The U.S. government recently took two steps to
further its aim of breaking up Yugoslavia to establish
Washington's hegemony over its rivals in the Balkans.
First, according to an April 24 New York Times article,
Washington is pre paring a secret tribunal to monitor all press
reports in Bosnia. It will have the power to shut newspapers
and radio and television stations. The U.S. will be its main
supplier of funds.
All Bosnian media will be required to meet U.S.-dictated
"standards." Since only the Bosnian Serb media has been
critical of the U.S., the tribunal is seen as a censorship
board against the Serbs.
U.S. officials contend this is not really censorship. They
say the offending media are publishing "propaganda that
masquerades as news coverage," the Times reports. Apparently,
only the U.S. State Department's official line is not
"propaganda masquerading as news."
Military threat to Kosovo
Second, on April 16 Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Henry Shelton
held a news conference in Skopje, capital city of the former
Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, bordering on Kosovo. A U.S.
base there has 350 U.S. troops.
Shelton said the U.S. was considering sending a military
occupation force into Kosovo.
This threat must be examined in light of the newly emerged
rivalry between the U.S. and other imperialist powers,
especially Germany.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of
the Cold War, U.S. President George Bush declared a "New World
Order."
A Pentagon White Paper published in the March 8, 1992, New
York Times asserted that the U.S. was the world's only
super-power and the U.S. military would allow no challenger to
arise to this order-including a challenge from Germany, France,
Japan or Britain. Some have said the Pentagon document reads
like a declaration of a Fourth Reich.
The Balkans have become a major testing ground for this
strategy. The Cold War allies-the U.S. and Germany
especially-today are engaged in a fierce competition to
dominate the new capitalist markets in the collapsed socialist
states.
This rivalry is still hidden from the public. Both powers
still need the old alliance should the brutal reality of
capitalist exploitation provoke a working-class rebellion in
the formerly socialist countries.
U.S.-German rivalry in Kosovo
The Yugoslav province of Kosovo has been a playing field for
U.S.-German imperialist rivalry, with both powers pushing to
break up socialist Yugoslavia.
In the 1980s, the U.S. calculated that Kosovo was the
weakest link in socialist Yugoslavia. Kosovo did not become an
autonomous region until 1974 and many Kosovo Albanians wanted
the region to become a separate republic in Yugoslavia.
Back in 1944, as the communist partisans were leading the
Balkans to a victory over fascism, the League of Communists had
declared its support for full national rights for all the
nationalities in the Balkans, including the Albanians of
Kosovo.
But in 1945, with the Nazi Army in retreat, a pro-fascist
uprising erupted in Kosovo. The communist Partisans were forced
to commit 30,000 troops, many of them pro-communist Albanians,
to Kosovo when they were desperately needed to fight the Nazis.
Faced with this military problem, Kosovo was kept as part of
Serbia, which it had historically been. The revolutionary
government in Albania agreed with this. The issue of Kosovo's
right to autonomy was put off for many years.
In the 1940s, the Yugoslav League of Communists made great
strides in uniting the many nationalities of the Balkans. But
when Kosovo was finally made an autonomous region in 1974, the
bonds of socialist solidarity that had built revolutionary
Yugoslavia had already been severely weakened by years of
"market reforms."
Even with these drawbacks Kosovo's Albanians had greater
national rights in socialist Yugoslavia than any similar
minority population in capitalist Europe.
The U.S. tried to exploit any existing discontent in its
Cold War against the socialist countries, including Yugo
slavia. U.S. military strategists targeted the Kosovo
Albanians.
None other than Bob Dole, then the U.S. Senate leader,
became the champion of an "independent Kosovo" in the 1980s,
introducing many Senate resolutions promoting Kosovo
independence.
Today, there are two centers for the anti-Yugoslav attacks
in Kosovo. Neither is in Kosovo.
One, the so-called "Government of Kosovo," is in
Switzerland. It has been linked to the CIA and has an office in
Washington.
Bob Dole is a consultant to this self-declared "Government
of Kosovo." However, no government in the world recognizes
it.
The other center is in Germany. Estimates are that up to a
million of Koso vo's approximately 2 million Albanians are
migrant workers in Germany.
The Yugoslav government charged April 15 that Germany is
financing Kosovo's break-away movement. The Yugoslav news
agency Tanjug reported, "It is obvious that [German Foreign
Minister Klaus] Kinkel, and those behind his policy, wish to
break up Yugoslavia into pieces. That is the reason for the
blatant, ruthless and unprecedented interference in the
internal affairs of Serbia and Yugoslavia."
Gen. Shelton's threat is part of Washington's moves to
prevent Kosovo from coming under German tutelage. Such blatant
U.S. intervention would serve to further break up Yugoslavia,
while at the same time edging Germany out.
It's a vicious imperialist game with no progressive
content.
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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