This is an immediate question for the people of Kosovo. Some may think that indepndence is the best solution. Others prefer the integration of Kosovo with Albania. Others favour a return to Kosovo's pre-1989 autonomy within Yugoslavia (whatWestern banks destro The money kee Michel Chossudovsky Drowned in the barrage of images and self-serving analyses are the economic and social causes of the conflict. The deep-seated economic crisis which preceded the civil war has long been forgotten.
In the eyes of the global media, Western powers bear no responsibility for the impoverishment of Yugoslavia's 24 million people and the division of that country by war.
In fact, through their domination of the global financial system, the Western powers, from the beginning of the 1980s, brought the Yugoslav economy to its knees, contributing to stirring simmering ethnic and social conflicts.
Far from "helping Yugoslavia's war-ravaged successor states" creditors and international financial institutions are busy at work collecting former Yugoslavia's external debt, and transforming the Balkans into a safe-haven for free enterprise [...]
The economic reforms now being imposed on the "successor states"
ever that means in a Yugoslavia reduced to Serbia and Montenegro, and dominated by Milosevic).
Given the current balance of forces, one could also understand why many Kosovars might prefer to avoid a prolonged war with no guarantee of victory, and accept some transitional solution, delaying the decision on their future status until some later date.
But we must reaffirm, without the slightest ambiguity or hesitation, that this is a choice for the Kosovars to take. No-one has the right to impose a solution upon them, or to decide in their place. No international institution or foreign-sponsored conference has the right to ignore or avoid the centrality of this question.
That is why we reject the Rambouillet negotiations, where the Western Powers tried to bully the Kosovars into acceptance of their own "solution."
We urge our readers to oppose all NATO adventures in ex-Yugoslavia. Serbian police and troops should leave Kosovo immediately. NATO should be dissolved. The west should open its borders to refugees. Let the Kosovars decide their own fate. * yed Yugoslavia ps rolling in... are a natural extension and continuation of those previously implemented in federal Yugoslavia. In the tragic aftermath of a brutal and destructive War, the prospects for rebuilding the newly independent republics appear bleak.
Despite a virtual press blackout on the subject, debt rescheduling is an integral part of the peace process. The former Yugoslavia has been carved up under the close scrutiny of its external creditors, its foreign debt has been carefully divided and allocated to the republics.
The privatisation programmes implemented under the supervision of the donors, have contributed to a further stage of economic dislocation and impoverishment of the population. Accross ex-Yugoslavia, GDP declined by 50% in just four years (1990-93).
The decline into ethnic conflict was a tragic response to the regime's dead-end. Much of the blood is on the hands of the Western bankers who profited from the destruction of Yugoslavia. * Source: extract from "Dismantling former Yugoslavia, recolonising Bosnia, " 1996 contents
Kosovo
Editorial
2
The money keeps rolling in
• Michel Chossudovsky
4
Breakdown of negotiations
• Catherine Samary
NATO's nuclear shells
5
Letter from Belgrade (1)
7
Open letter of French intellectuals
The rules of the game
8
• Noam Chomsky
11
Letter from Yugoslavia (2)
Problems of the US peace
12 movement • Socialist Action
13
The problem is social!
• Catherine Samary
14 Rebels for NATO?
• Tariq Ali
Why the left says "No!"
15
• Tariq Ali
16 Russian "resistance"
• Renfrey Clarke europe
10 Finland: More of the same
• Juhani Lohikoski
17 Norway: Youth leads regroupment • Bertil Videt americas
18 Zapatista referendum
• Peter Gellert
19
USA: Free Mumia Abu-
Jamal!
asia
20
Pakistan: Left unity conference • Eva Chang
21
Obsession, repression
• Arif Azad
India: The tyranny of
22 economic globalism
• Ajit Muricken debate
28 Women and sport
• Catherine Louveau and
Isabelle Forest reviews
"The Marxism of Ernest
32
Mandel"
35
Obituary: Bret Smiley
36
Internet: Kosovo, Palestine history
13
The disintegration of Yugoslavia • Catherine Samary
International Viewpoint #310 April 1999 3
* Kosovo
Inside the Rambouillet talks