Washington's stooge
Djindjic assassination exposes U.S. role in Serbia
By Heather Cottin
Zoran Djindjic is dead, shot down by snipers' bullets on
March 12. Djindjic had the distinction of being one of the only
nationally known politicians in Serbia to support the U.S./NATO
78-day bombing campaign of Yugoslavia that began exactly four
years ago on March 24, 1999.
The authors of the assassination are still unknown. Many
speculate that infighting in organized crime was behind it.
Though he was unpopular, even hated by the masses, no one
expects his death to improve the political climate in favor of
the left.
Based on Djindjic's sellout of Yugo slavia, a commentary by
author Neil Clark that appeared in the Guardian newspaper of
Britain on March 14 described him as "the Quisling of
Belgrade," referring to the Nor wegian politician who turned
that nation over to the Nazis during World War II.
Djindjic, wrote Clark, was the point man when the U.S. and
other Western governments engineered "the removal of a
government that did not suit their strategic interests." The
West called it "humanitarian intervention." In reality it was
"regime change," as is now planned on an even larger scale in
Iraq.
That earlier regime change was based on destroying
Yugoslavia's economic infrastructure, targeting civilians and
then threatening a new war while freely supplying cash to the
so-called Demo cratic Opposition of Serbia.
The figure many Serbs called "the German" was brought to
power in 2000 when the Western-backed DOS overthrew the
Socialist Party-led government of Slobodan Milosevic. Breaking
Yugoslav and international law, in June 2001 Djindjic delivered
Milosevic into the hands of the Hague Tribunal, the court NATO
created and ran.
Djindjic presided over the privatization of the factories,
mines and social services of Yugoslavia, facilitating the
breakup of more Yugoslav republics after the coup that brought
him to power in 2000. Under Djindjic, Yugoslavia's social
services were privatized or dismantled and sold cheap to U.S.-
and Germany-based monopolies, while crime, drug trafficking and
poverty flourished. He even agreed to abolish the name
"Yugoslavia," which had united the various peoples of the
Balkans for more than half a century.
Under Djindjic's program of privatization, utility prices
soared, unemployment rose to 30 percent and real wages fell by
20 percent. Now over two-thirds of Serbs live below the poverty
line. He became premier not by being elected to office, but
through an agreement among the anti-Milosevic
forces--especially with the more popular Vojislav
Kostunica--that recognized Djindjic's connections to German and
U.S. imperialism.
The Serbian government is using Djindjic's assassination as
an excuse to institute political repression, directing their
attacks on the remaining supporters of Slobodan Milosevic. The
police have been militarized, the news media is under
restriction, and the Serbian government has declared a state of
emergency.
Zoran Djindjic was the corrupt beneficiary of U.S. regime
change and instituted the economic reforms that destroyed
Yugoslavian society as surely as the NATO bombs destroyed its
infrastructure.
Many in the U.S., even in the progressive movement, were
deceived and their anti-war sentiments neutralized by the
media's demonization of Milosevic and the Serbian people. Now
they see similar techniques used against Iraq to justify
another brutal intervention that has nothing to do with the
stated motives.
Reprinted from the March 27, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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