https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/ Disaster Message Service Discussion Board en-US Fri, 01 May 2026 05:47:50 +0000 wpForo 60 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/3/#post-23356 Tue, 16 May 2000 22:58:00 +0000
This is a poisonous bloody
mess, which we have made
worse

By Jeremy Hardy
Saturday May 22, 1999

Last week, I recommended that
readers refer to John Pilger's
column in the New Statesman, in
particular, his quotation of the
Rambouillet accords. On
Tuesday, Pilger addressed the
document on this page, only to
be personally rubbished by the
paper's diplomatic editor the
following day.

Given the spleen of the attack on
the integrity of a man I
shamelessly respect, I am
reluctant to enter the debate. I
hope Monday will not see a
column the writer of which asks,
'Is Hardy merely a stupid git or a
threat to all our children?'

However, because I quoted Pilger
quoting Rambouillet, I am
implicitly attacked for repeating
'a canard now
circulating among Serb
apologists'. I am not a Serb
apologist but, since all opponents
of the war are so labelled, I
suppose it includes me.

Moreover, I mentioned the
Rambouillet clause enforcing
free-market principles, which, the
diplomatic editor insists, does
not exist. Pilger was quoting from
two sections of Rambouillet
without the use of three dots to
separate them. But, the words
indeed exist, unless an internet
wag is playing tricks on us, which
is possible given that no sane or
responsible person could have
written the accords. However,
having scrolled through it and not
stumbled upon a picture of
Madeleine Albright's head on
Pamela Anderson's body, I've
concluded it's not a prank.

Some interesting letters have
appeared defending the
document. It appears that its
provisions are standard terms of
any agreement. Check your Radio
Rentals contract and it's
probably all there. Mere
technicalities - nothing to worry
about.

What, you may ask, would be a
situation in which these
provisions would be normal or
routine? I'm serious; I'd like to
know. Is it usual for soldiers in a
foreign country to be immune
from arrest or prosecution by the
local authorities? I know the
occupation of the North of
Ireland involves the security
forces getting away with murder
but the odd squaddie gets nicked
occasionally.

Rambouillet has been compared
to the Dayton agreement, which
Milosevic signed. Would not the
fact that he signed Dayton so
readily suggest both that it was a
very bad agreement and that it
had a different purpose from
Rambouillet, which he was not
intended to sign?

Nato assisted the segregation of
ethnic groups in Bosnia and
Croatia, including the 200,000
Serbs of Krajina, forcibly ejected
by cleansers such as Agim Ceku,
now a top commander in the KLA.

Now I shall be accused of being a
Serb apologist. But I am not
taking sides. This is not a game
of heroes and villains, although
those who were 'terrorists' three
months ago are now
hugger-mugger with their former
accusers.

This is a poisonous, bloody mess,
which we have made worse. The
winner is nationalism, any
nationalism you choose to back.
All the competing nationalisms in
the region conspire to divide
people for the worst possible
reasons, and to leave the worst
possible people in power.

I read somewhere a description
of the vast ethnic distinction
between Albanians and Serbs. It
seems Serbs are small, dark and
squat (like Hitler) and Albanians,
blonde and covered with freckles
(like the Milky bar Kid). People of
mixed race, I suppose have
smaller, darker freckles and
striped hair. Yugoslavia was once
such a multicultural society that
it recognised the futility of
separatist ideologies. Look at it
now.

Kosovo is written about as
though it is a Serb colony, not
surprisingly because the
authorities and the Serb
paramilitaries have behaved as
though they were colonial
masters. I needn't point out why
we in the West recognise the
patterns of behaviour. But it is
not in fact a Serb colony, it is, like
the whole region, a former
Turkish colony.

The area was subsequently
messed about by
Austria-Hungary, Germany and
Italy. I say this not to embarrass
our Nato allies or EU partners.
After all, everyone's piling in now.
My point is that, rather than
trying to ride one ethnic horse for
our own glorification, we could
try to understand what has
happened.

P>Almost all Albanian refugees
seem to want the bombs. I
wouldn't blame them if they
wanted Serbia wiped off the map.
But I wouldn't be surprised if
Serbs who had Albanian friends
two months ago now hate them
with a passion. Racism is not a
philosophy, it is a delusional
emotional spasm, and bombing
maternity hospitals is certainly a
novel way of tackling it.

That's not to say we're not all
getting jolly emotional over here
too. Our government has
successfully ridden a wave of
semi-popular emotion. 'We can't
just stand by' - although we do
usually. 'We can't ignore what's
going on in our backyard -
although we've managed not to
peek out the front and see
Ireland for the past 30 years.

We can only get so upset in this
life, so we may as well let others
set the agenda about what
should upset us. Then we can
cheer on what we hope will be
the prosecution of evil. That will
make us feel better, which is the
most important thing, isn't it?]]> Kosovo War daniela https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/3/#post-23356 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/3/#post-23355 Tue, 16 May 2000 22:50:00 +0000 1,500 civilians were killed as a
consequence of the bombing."

http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Kosovo/Story/0,2763,197391,00.html]]> Kosovo War daniela https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/3/#post-23355 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/3/#post-23354 Tue, 16 May 2000 22:38:00 +0000 http://www.brittrade.com/kosovo/

Kim, this site is not for you, I don't think you'll have a capacity to understand it]]> Kosovo War daniela https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/3/#post-23354 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/3/#post-23353 Tue, 16 May 2000 22:35:00 +0000
Up to 38 aircraft have been
shot down or crashed. This
is suppressed, of course

By John Pilger
Tuesday May 18, 1999

The room is filled with the bodies
of children killed by Nato in
Surdulica in Serbia. Several are
recognisable only by their
sneakers. A dead infant is
cradled in the arms of his father.
These pictures and many others
have not been shown in Britain; it
will be said they are too horrific.
But minimising the culpability of
the British state when it is
engaged in criminal action is
normal; censorship is by omission
and misuse of language. The
media impression of a series of
Nato 'blunders' is false. Anyone
scrutinising the unpublished list
of targets hit by Nato is left in
little doubt that a deliberate
terror campaign is being waged
against the civilian population of
Yugoslavia.

Eighteen hospitals and clinics
and at least 200 nurseries,
schools, colleges and students'
dormitories have been destroyed
or damaged, together with
housing estates, hotels, libraries,
youth centres, theatres,
museums, churches and
14th-century monasteries on the
World Heritage list. Farms have
been bombed, their crops set on
fire. As Friday's bombing of the
Kosovo town of Korisa shows,
there is no discrimination
between Serbs and those being
'saved'. Every day, three times
more civilians are killed by Nato
than the daily estimate of deaths
of Kosovans in the months prior
to the bombing.

The British people are not being
told about a policy designed
largely by their government to
cause such criminal carnage. The
dissembling of politicians and the
lies of 'spokesmen' set much of
the news agenda. There is no
sense of the revulsion felt
throughout most of the world for
this wholly illegal action, for the
punishment of Milosevic's crime
with a greater crime and for the
bellicose antics of Blair, Cook
and Robertson, who have made
themselves into international
caricatures.

'There was no need of censorship
of our dispatches. We were our
own censors,' wrote Philip Gibbs,
the Times correspondent in
1914-18. The silence is different
now; there is the illusion of
saturation coverage, but the
reality is a sameness and
repetition and, above all, political
safety for the perpetrators.

A few days before the killing of
make-up ladies and camera
operators in the Yugoslav
television building, Jamie Shea,
Nato's man, wrote to the
International Federation of
Journalists: 'There is no policy to
attack television and radio
transmitters.' Where were the
cries of disgust from among the
famous names at the BBC, John
Simpson apart? Who interrupted
the mutual back-slapping at last
week's Royal Television Society
awards? Silence. The news from
Shepherd's Bush is that BBC
presenters are to wear pinks,
lavender and blues which 'will
allow us to be a bit more
conversational in the way we
discuss stories'.

Here is some of the news they
leave out. The appendix pages of
the Rambouillet 'accords', which
have not been published in
Britain, show Nato's agenda was
to occupy not just Kosovo, but all
of Yugoslavia. This was rejected,
not just by Milosevic, but by the
elected Yugoslav parliament,
which proposed a UN force to
monitor a peace settlement: a
genuine alternative to bombing.
Clinton and Blair ignored it.

Britain is attacking
simultaneously two countries
which offer no threat. Every day
Iraq is bombed and almost none
of it is news. Last week, 20
civilians were killed in Mosul, and
a shepherd and his family were
bombed. The sheep were
bombed. In the last 18 months,
the Blair government has
dropped more bombs than the
Tories dropped in 18 years.

Nato is suffering significant
losses. Reliable alternative
sources in Washington have
counted up to 38 aircraft crashed
or shot down, and an undisclosed
number of American and British
special forces killed. This is
suppressed, of course.

Anti-bombing protests
reverberate around the world:
100,000 people in the streets of
Rome (including 182 members of
the Italian parliament),
thousands in Greece and
Germany, protests taking place
every night in colleges and town
halls across Britain. Almost none
of it is reported. Is it not
extraordinary that no national
opinion poll on the war has been
published since April 30?

'Normalisation,' wrote the
American essayist Edward
Herman, depends on 'a division of
labour in doing and rationalising
the unthinkable, with the direct
brutalising and killing done by
one set of individuals...
others working on improved
technology (a better crematory
gas, a longer burning and more
adhesive Napalm). It is the
function of experts and the
mainstream media to normalise
the unthinkable for the general
public.'

This week, the unthinkable will
again be normalised when Nato
triples the bombing raids to 700 a
day. This includes blanket
bombing by B-52s. Blair and
Clinton and the opaque-eyed
General Clark, apologist for the
My Lai massacre in Vietnam, are
killing and maiming hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of innocent
people in the Balkans. No
contortion of intellect and
morality, nor silence, will diminish
the truth that these are acts of
murder. And until there is a revolt
by journalists and broadcasters,
they will continue to get away
with it. That is the news.


http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Kosovo/Story/0,2763,207255,00.html]]> Kosovo War daniela https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/3/#post-23353 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/3/#post-23352 Tue, 16 May 2000 17:45:00 +0000 VII. For consideration by the Summit

362. The purposes and principles of the United Nations are set out clearly in the
Charter, and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Their relevance and
capacity to inspire have in no way diminished. If anything they have increased, as
peoples have become interconnected in new ways, and the need for collective
responsibility at the global level has come to be more widely felt. The following
values, which reflect the spirit of the Charter, are - I believe - shared by all
nations, and are of particular importance for the age we are now entering:

Freedom. Men and women have the right to live their lives and raise their
children in dignity, free from hunger and squalor and from the fear of
violence or oppression. These rights are best assured by representative
government, based on the will of the people.
Equity and solidarity. No individual and no nation must be denied the
opportunity to benefit from globalization. Global risks must be managed in a
way that shares the costs and burdens fairly. Those who suffer, or who
benefit least, are entitled to help from those who benefit most.
Tolerance. Human beings must respect each other, in all their diversity of
faith, culture and language. Differences within and between societies should
be neither feared nor repressed, but cherished.
Non-violence. Disputes between and within nations should be resolved by
peaceful means, except where use of force is authorized by the Charter.
Respect for nature. Prudence should be shown in handling all living species
and natural resources. Only so can the immeasurable riches we inherit from
nature be preserved and passed on to our descendants.
Shared responsibility. States must act together to maintain international
peace and security, in accordance with the Charter. The management of risks
and threats that affect all the world?s peoples should be considered
multilaterally.

Kofi Annan "We the Peoples" April 2000
http://www.un.org/millennium/sg/report/full.htm]]> Kosovo War ka https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/3/#post-23352 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/2/#post-23351 Tue, 16 May 2000 11:13:00 +0000
Sorry those links didn't come up right:
http://www.ficsa.org/

Surely you've learned to Skim read after how long at DMS????:0)
Will limit length in future(Until you're on your fifth cup.)

Kim]]> Kosovo War kimarx https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/2/#post-23351 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/2/#post-23350 Tue, 16 May 2000 10:30:00 +0000
egads, so much to read....
i'll need more coffee.

well, i'll need the coffee _anyway_, but...]]> Kosovo War L'menexe https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/2/#post-23350 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/2/#post-23349 Tue, 16 May 2000 09:28:00 +0000 (cont'd)


First and foremost it is an issue of principles, rights and values. Reform should be synonymous with
improvement and progress, not with regression. Yet how is the illegitimate new Code of Conduct that
is being imposed on UN staff in the framework of reform to be understood, if not as a sign of
returning to a long-lost past when the most fundamental rights were flouted? Can this repressive Code
of Conduct, which violates freedom of expression and association and the right to privacy, be called
progress? The proposed new Code of Conduct is even more incomprehensible at a time when measures
are being proposed to assure the respect of human rights. Staff find it quite inconceivable that the
Community of Nations could adopt a Code of Conduct violating the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (whose 50th anniversary will be celebrated next year) that reflects the values on which our
civilization is founded.

Another major issue concerns human resources in the UN system. To achieve its objectives, the UN
system has always relied on highly qualified, efficient and devoted staff. Unfortunately, for several
years now, the system has progressively lost its capacity to recruit, and retain, highly qualified staff,
owing to the lack of competitivity determining the conditions of service. At the same time, lack of job
security within the system (suppression of posts, a greater number of temporary appointments and
similar developments) has considerably increased. In the medium term, this trend will contribute to
diminishing the institutional capabilities of the UN system in areas in which it has made some
remarkable achievements. Skills and capabilities have permitted humanity to make fundamental
progress in many areas: combating poverty and disease, promoting peace and human rights, furthering
culture and education, industry, telecommunications, agriculture and science. Only the adoption of
measures aimed at ensuring jobs and the competitivity of conditions of service for UN system staff,
and not the opposite, will permit the system to preserve and strengthen its major assets.

At the same time, UN system staff should benefit from equitable conditions of employment and
should have the right to negotiate those conditions directly, similar to the rights enjoyed in nearly
every country of the world. As incomprehensible as it may seem, UN staff have always been refused
this right, despite the fact that it is recognized in international labour conventions. Does this mean that
United Nations' workers should not have the same rights as other workers throughout the world? That
human and labour rights shall not apply to them? Isn't it strange to adhere to practices in the UN
system that have long been eliminated in almost all Member States? Reform should also provide an
opportunity for the system to rid itself of obsolete concepts and methods that no longer reflect
contemporary thinking. Recognition of the right to negotiate their conditions of service is more than a
moral imperative for international civil servants.

At present, the conditions of service of UN system staff are determined by the International Civil
Service Commission (ICSC). The Commission is increasingly questioned within the system, by staff
and administrations alike, because it violates systematically the most elementary rules of consultation,
not hesitating to misrepresent reality and manipulate information. As a result, decisions based on
political, not technical, considerations are taken much to the detriment of the effectiveness of the
system. In his report on reform, the United Nations Secretary-General recalls the importance of
Article 101 (3) of the Charter of the United Nations and stresses that it is "essential that the staff of
the United Nations be fairly compensated and that their conditions be determined in an objective
manner". To this end, he has recommended a "re-examination of the composition, mandate and
functioning of the Commission to contribute to the success of reform measures being undertaken by
the organizations of the common system".

It is clear that the improvement of the effectiveness of the United Nations system requires an in-depth
reform of ICSC. The establishment of a mechanism that is more transparent, democratic, equitable
and responsible is called for. Above all else, it must represent and take fully into consideration the
interests of all parties - Member States, organizations and staff. Moreover, this will put the United
Nations on the side of the law: laws which it itself has adopted on labour and collective bargaining.

Reform should also provide an opportunity to fill in the gaps: one of the most shocking being the
system's failure to evacuate local staff in the event of a major conflict.

In the field, UN system staff, whose remarkable accomplishments benefit the Member States'
populations, are increasingly exposed to the risks arising from conflict and insecure situations.
Unfortunately, during serious conflicts that affect an entire country, the system refuses to evacuate
local staff, often under the pretext that evacuation on that scale would use up important financial
resources. This attitude has already cost the lives of many staff members and their families, notably in
Rwanda. It is unacceptable that the system applies two sets of rules when the lives of its staff are
endangered.

It is incumbent upon us to honour the memory of and pay tribute to staff who have lost their lives in
the service of the United Nations. However many thousand times more preferable would it be if the
organization did not have to render this kind of tribute. The solution lies in adopting measures and
equipping the system with the necessary means to ensure the security of all staff in the field, including
local staff. It is time that the United Nations stopped giving the impression in the field of an
organization on two tracks with double standards. It must agree to evacuate local staff when the
situation calls for it.

Staff are also concerned by the strengthening of ties between the UN system and the private sector,
which generally has neither the same vocation nor the same goals as the UN. The participation of the
private sector is doubtless important. It is also desirable provided it is transparent and defined within a
clearly established conceptual framework, otherwise it risks creating serious problems. In the era of
globalization, the large multinational corporations, whose only goal is profit are extending their
empire in every sector of the global economy. Giving them free rein in the UN system, whose major
objective should be aid to development more than ever before, could prove counterproductive not only
for the system but also, and especially, for the populations of the poorest countries.

In other respects, strengthening cooperation with the Bretton Woods institutions, while being highly
desirable, should be predicated on their initiating in-depth reform. All too often their procedures and
programmes which are directly linked to the economic and social difficulties encountered by
developing countries, create a tarnished image for the United Nations.

In the era of globalization, the United Nations system is the only body capable of facing the growing
challenges confronting humankind, of defending the weakest from those who do not subscribe to
humanitarian, ethical or moral ideals for whom only the bottom line counts. This is why the staff of
the UN system fully support Member States' efforts to reform the system. The concerns expressed
above should be seen as a constructive contribution to the ongoing reflection, so that the opinions of
all concerned can be considered, thus strengthening the reform efforts.

Staff are proud to serve in a system that has brought so much to humankind. They urge most sincerely
the success of reform in a visionary perspective, so that further down the road, it will not be necessary
to reverse decisions taken today. The Community of Nations cannot allow itself the luxury of making
the wrong choices at such a pivotal moment in the history of humankind.

Walter P. Scherzer, FICSA President

Alvaro Durao, FICSA General Secretary

compuserve.com/homepages/FICSA_Secretariat_Geneva/]]> Kosovo War kimarx https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/2/#post-23349 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/2/#post-23348 Tue, 16 May 2000 09:26:00 +0000

An Open Letter to the United Nations General Assembly


Dear Member States,

As you have indicated, the process of reform of the United Nations is a unique opportunity to prepare
the organization for the task of confronting current and future challenges more effectively. It offers an
opportunity to reflect upon and determine the type of United Nations that humankind will need
tomorrow. The choices that you are asked to make in this context will have an important impact on the
way in which the new instruments adopted within the framework of reform will be applied. They will
have an equally significant impact on those who will be responsible for putting those instruments into
effect: the civil servants of the UN system. It is thus indispensable that they too be able to participate
in that ongoing reflection and make their contribution. The success of reform will depend equally on
the degree of involvement by staff. This is the source of staff's concerns and it has led to the
suggestions that follow.

Until recently, reform was primarily presented as a means of securing economies and achieving
reductions of many different kinds (budgets, posts, etc.). While reform is an opportunity for the
international community to equip itself with the instruments it needs to deal with current and future
challenges, it also offers a unique opportunity to conduct a fundamental review of mechanisms that
were originally geared towards achieving other objectives, to introduce concepts better suited to our
times and to improve efficiency and effectiveness. It is clear that the reform of the system cannot lead
to its weakening; that would lead to drastic cuts in development programmes and in turn to an increase
in tension and conflict throughout the world. If it is to carry out its role fully and effectively at the
global level, the United Nations needs to be reinforced. This means strengthening human resources and
endowing the organization with a sufficient number of staff who are highly qualified and motivated,
capable of bringing the support required to those in need.

What are the stakes at the end of this century and the beginning of the next millennium? The Human
Development Report (1997) is explicit in this regard:

"... a quarter of the world's people remain in severe poverty. In a global economy of $25 trillion,
this is a scandal - reflecting shameful inequalities and inexcusable failures of national and
international policy.
(...) Reducing poverty and inequality would help avert many conflicts."

Eradication of absolute poverty and the economic, social, cultural, industrial and other forms of
development across vast regions of the planet are undoubtedly the main challenges. For humankind
will find itself in great peril if it is not capable of re-establishing the essential equilibrium in terms of
food, the environment and human development, of making a united response to the problems inherent
in globalization, and of fighting to the extent possible against structural imbalances and unacceptable
inequalities, all of which are factors that threaten world peace.

The United Nations system, whose most valuable trump cards are its neutrality, its moral authority
and uncontested legitimacy, constitutes an irreplaceable instrument for making these responses. It
cannot be permitted to ignore this occasion to affirm its vocation to aid development. Yes, the task is
enormous but it is equal to the measure of the planet we want to bequeath to future generations. For
nothing imposes fatalism - whether the idea that the poor, or the victims of conflict, are necessary, or
the conviction that progress is inevitable - because we discover new approaches to new problems only
with a realistic, visionary and responsible attitude, the same attitude that must be used to reform the
UN system.

Seen in that context certain reform proposals are aimed in the right direction. Others, however, are
cause of great concern to staff who are deeply convinced of the need to reform the system but to make
it of even greater service to humankind - not to a particular Member State or private interests.

compuserve.com/homepages/FICSA_Secretariat_Geneva/]]> Kosovo War ka https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/2/#post-23348 https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/2/#post-23347 Tue, 16 May 2000 09:24:00 +0000

Contrary to popular belief, all international civil servants working in UN organizations pay a
tax on their income which is called staff assessment. It simply goes under another name and is
deducted at source. Since the levy is directly comparable to a national income tax, FICSA proposes that
it be renamed 'UN income tax'.

The tale, however, does have another twist. Despite the fact that the United Nations General Assembly's
decision that international civil servants should not pay tax to any national government, some countries
still tax the salaries of their nationals working in the UN common system. As a countermeasure, staff
assessment is paid into a special fund that is used to reimburse staff members who pay national income
tax; the balance remaining is credited to Member States in proportion to their contribution to the budget
of the UN organizations. Staff assessment ensures that the net salary of staff members liable to pay
national tax is the same as the net salary of those not liable.

For the biennium 1996-1997, it is estimated that some $800 million in staff assessment funds was
credited to Member States.

compuserve.com/homepages/FICSA_Secretariat_Geneva/]]> Kosovo War ka https://www.viexpo.com/kosovo-war/archive-through-may-16-2000/paged/2/#post-23347