nettime's_indigestive_system on Fri, 14 May 1999 19:33:43 +0200 (CEST)


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<nettime> geertogram 051499 [digest]: (fwd), (fwd), (fwd), (fwd), and (fwd)


Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>
          (fwd) from listwatch
          (fwd) Balkan Action Council: Open Letter
          (fwd) Syndicate Readers online
          (fwd) Kosovo, News in spanish 
          (fwd) rumor about NATO staging event

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Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 07:47:18 +0200 (CEST)
From: Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>
Subject: (fwd) from listwatch

--- Forwarded

Kurt, I must disagree.  This is the same facile criticism  began about 30
seconds after the NATO air-campaign began.  If the same critics had a NATO
soldier to show on TV being dragged through the streets like the Americans
in the Somali operation they would LOVE IT!  I would have supported ground
troops but I also know that most of those critics would have seized upon
the first casualties to demand a betrayal of every innocent civilian in the
Balkans.  They are just frustrated now that they haven't got that scene to
play and replay.  They were salivating when the F16 went down and clearly
(on all major U.S. networks) failing to hide their disappointment when the
pilot was rescued.

Now is the age of instant gratification.  It took Milosevic and his junior
partner Tudjman 12 years to destroy the social fabric of the Balkans and
NATO is criticized for not solving a genocide in 50 days.

The issue is not whether or not NATO can stop the Belgrade regime from
killing unarmed civilians in Kosovo.   The big issue is what is going to
happen after the Milosevic killing machine crumbles (and it will crumble if
NATO holds firm).  What will be done for Kosovo.  Bosnia. Montenegro.
Serbia.  Macedonia.  Albania.  Croatia. Sloveania.  Bulgaria.

Mihailo Crnobrnja, former Yugoslav ambassador to the European Union and
author of the fine book The Yugoslav Drama, recently spoke at Haverford
College.  He opposes NATO air-strikes, and yet he believes that Serbia will
go through a civil war before it comes to terms with its own nationalism.

With each Balkan war of the past 10 years, the violence has escalated.  A
civil war in Serbia would be a blood bath, and Seselj is in the best place
to win it.   We are talking about a descent into the lowest levels of hell.
Why wait for that to happen?  It would be better for Seselj and Milosevic
and Mira Markovic to be defeated outright now.

The big question is this:  when the Milosevic-Seselj military-industrial
killing machine begins to weaken, will NATO stand firm, refuse to
negotiation with Milosevic or his regime, support the real opposition in
Serbia and negotiate with them (not Draskovic, Seselj, Bulatovic or other
mass-murderers).

And then, will it create a Marshall-plan like program for the entire Balkan
region, with a major geopolitical conference and massive de-genocidal work
(arrest of war-criminals, reform of legal procedures, destruction of
economic monopolies and economic parasites--the kind of program carried out
in Japan and Germany after World War II).

On this point, the Russian incoherence lately and the Chinese
obstructionism might be a blessing in disguise.  The same critics who
demanded instant gratification in NATO's operation are demanding a
"settlement" with Milosevic brokered by the Russians and Chinese.   Any
settlement with Milosevic or his regime is a betrayal of every innocent
human being in the Balkans.  Any treaty signed by Milosevic-Seselj is
garbage.  Any agreement with him is betrayal.

The rebuilding, restructuring, and de-genocidalization of the Balkans is
the big test for NATO powers, not whether NATO can solve these cheap-shot
critics' complaints about not achieve instant gratification or saving
Kosovars in 50 days from a campaign of extermination that has been in the
process of organization since at least 1986.   It is the rebuilding of the
Balkans destroyed by Milosevic, Tudjman, Seselj, and the lesser but still
criminal thugs of the SDS, SDA, and HDZ and those who support
them--starting first with democratic structures and economic reforms.

Of course, if NATO cuts and runs its credibility is gone.  But what matters
is not the credibility of NATO, but the credibility of the world's response
to genocide, and the test will be in the long term, not after 50 days.


Michael

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Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 07:59:40 +0200 (CEST)
From: Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>
Subject: Balkan Action Council: Open Letter

THE BALKAN ACTION COUNCIL

May 13, 1999

We commend the following open letter to President Clinton to your
attention, which was sponsored by the Balkan Action Council and
published as a quarter-page advertisement on the National News page of
the New York Times on May 13, 1999.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Only Ground Troops Will End Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo

Dear President Clinton,

Mr. President, bombing alone has not stopped Slobodan Milosevic's
campaign of murder, rape, plunder and forced deportation. Milosevic must

not be allowed to negotiate a "compromise" that rewards his campaign of
terror. NATO ground troops combined with air strikes are needed to end
the killing of Kosovars, stop the systematic destruction of their homes
and towns, prevent the deportation of more refugees, and return peace to
southeastern Europe.

Your leadership is crucial for achieving NATO victory. We believe the
following goals are essential:

* Saving the lives of the nearly one million Kosovars now facing death
from starvation and murder within Kosovo.
* Removal of all Serbian forces from Kosovo.
* Return of all refugees to their homes to begin the rebuilding process.

* Establishment of a NATO-safeguarded international protectorate for
Kosovo.
Indictment of Milosevic and all other Serbian officials responsible for
war crimes in Kosovo.

Morris Abram
Morton Abramowitz
Hyman Bookbinder
Saul Bellow
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Frank Carlucci
Hodding Carter
Chester A. Crocker
Patricia Derian
Paula Dobriansky
Geraldine Ferraro
Bianca Jagger
Robert Kagan
Max M. Kampelman
Robert W. Kasten
William Kristol
Rabbi Michael Lerner
Mel Levine
Frank McCloskey
Lt. Gen. William Odom
John O'Sullivan
Wayne Owens
Norman Podhoretz
David Rieff
Peter W. Rodman
Lionel Rosenblatt
Rabbi David Saperstein
Henry Siegman
Stephen Solarz
Helmut Sonnenfeldt
Susan Sontag
William H. Taft IV
Leon Wieseltier
R. James Woolsey

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BALKAN ACTION COUNCIL

P.O. Box 27392
Washington, DC 20038-7392
Tel.: (202) 737-7720
Fax: (202) 737-7721
bac@balkanaction.org
www.balkanaction.org

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Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 08:27:55 +0200 (CEST)
From: Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>
Subject: (fwd) Syndicate Readers online

From: Inke Arns <inke@berlin.snafu.de>
To: syndicate@aec.at
Subject: Syndicate: Syndicate Readers *online*!!

Dear friends,

now, for those who've been longing to finally get copies of the much sought
after SYNDICATE readers (0,1,2), here we go: Arthur Bueno has created
online versions of the 1996 (Documentation and Archives), 1997 (Deep
Europe) and the 1998 (Junction Skopje) Syndicate readers -- great work,
Arthur!

Reader of the V2_East / Syndicate Meeting on Documentation and Archives of
Media Art in Eastern, Central and South-Eastern Europe (Rotterdam:
V2_Organisatie / DEAF96, 1996)
Online version available at <http://colossus.v2.nl/syndicate/synr0.html>  

Deep Europe: The 1996 - 97 edition. Selected texts from the V2_East /
Syndicate mailing list (143 S.), Berlin, Oktober 1997
Online version available at <http://colossus.v2.nl/syndicate/synr1.html> 

Junction Skopje, selected texts from the V2_East/Syndicate mailing list
1997 - 98, Syndicate Publication Series 002, Skopje, October 1998, 197 pp.
[ISBN 9989-745-23-4]
Online version available at <http://colossus.v2.nl/syndicate/synr2.html>  

Best wishes,
Inke

i n k e . a r n s __________________________ b e r l i n ___
49.(0)30.3136678 | inke@berlin.snafu.de | http://www.v2.nl/~arns/
mikro: http://www.mikro.org | Syndicate Network: http://www.v2.nl/east/

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Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 08:29:32 +0200 (CEST)
From: Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>
Subject: (fwd) Kosovo, News in spanish 

In this address, you can find news about Kosovo in spanish.
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Den/4638/spravy.html
In this one, there is some informations about B92:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Den/4638/Kosova/0513.html

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Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 13:00:56 +0200 (CEST)
From: Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>
Subject: (fwd) rumor about NATO staging event

From: Vladan

Subject: URGENT: Please send to media, your members of
Congress,Senate...!!!

This is a warning. There is a possibility that NATO is preparing a
staged massacre of Albanian refugees to get the excuse to attack
Yugoslavia from all sides and in that way defy the decisions made by
the US Congress. We could witness new Markale.

There are indications that NATO is preparing the ground offensive on
Yugoslavia as a whole and not only on Kosovo. According to the
information received from Macedonia and Albania all the Albanian
refugees are evacuating from the border areas and are being replaced
with NATO troops.  Romania, Croatia, Hungary, Bulgaria Bosnia,
Macedonia and Albania were all forced to sign the documents allowing
the NATO troops to launch the ground attack from their
territories. CNN has sent three full crews to Albania equipped with
satellite broadcasting equipment.  Knowing their reputation they
always get sent to the crisis area "before" anything starts so that
they can prepare for the coverage of the "unexpected" event.  There
are also indications that NATO is preparing to arrange a false
"massacre of the innocent Albanian refugees" that will be used as a
excuse for the attack.  Our sources say that it will be probably done
as a bombing of a refugee camp in Albania or Macedonia.

****************

"For last two weeks we have been hearing about the scenario similar to
the Sarajevo Marketpalce called Markala... ...Today I found out (note:
this is a female writer) that a group of American and German pilots
have been training for days in Galeb and Jastreb type Croatian
airplanes which are supposed to be painted into the Yugo Airforce
colors and used for bombing the refugees in Albania..."  . 1.... NATO
is moving the refugees further south into Albania 2.... they stopped
showing on TV the airplanes landing in Albania and Macedonia (from a
business partner in Macedonia (note: this is FYROM) I heard that a
large number of transport airplanes had been landing in Skopje)
3.... info on CNN cameras and C. Amanpour waiting in Albania, etc
... All elements are in place.  Please announce this over your
web. This can not be allowed. Civilized world needs to know about this
before the catastrophy occurs."

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Date: Fri, 14 May 1999 08:33:30 +0200 (CEST)
From: Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl>
Subject: (fwd) Wired on AG and his War Diary

From: Natasa Manojlovic <naftalija@hotmail.com>
To: syndicate@aec.at

Wired News has a piece on AG and his War Diary.
One Man's Belgrade Diary
by Michael Stroud   12.May.99.PDT
http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/19634.html

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