[ALBSA-Info] Fwd:Nonviolent overthrow of Milosevic

[Mimoza Meholli]

>From: David Hartsough [mailto:peaceworkers at igc.org]
>Sent: Friday, October 27, 2000 1:44 PM
>To: Peaceworkers.around.the.World at mindspring.com
>Subject: Nonviolent overthrow of Milosevic
>
>
>     Dear Friends,
>The world has just witnessed another nonviolent revolution. The power of
>the people proved more powerful than all NATO's firepower and armed troops.
>We thought you would like to see the following two articles on the
>Nonviolent revolution in Serbia.   The People around the world are learning
>the Power of the People! Hopefully democratic governments will learn the
>Power of the People as well and respect it. Thanks for your part in helping
>build nonviolent people power movements
>Peace,
>David Hartsough
>
>CREDIT THE SERBIAN PEOPLE, NOT NATO
>
>        --Stephen Zunes
>
>   The people of Yugoslavia did what NATO bombs could not.  As in 1989, it
>was
>not the
>military prowess of the Western Alliance which brought freedom to an 
>Eastern
>European country,
>but the power of nonviolent action by the subjugated peoples themselves.
>   Virtually everyone in the Serbian pro-democracy movement recognizes that
>last year's
>U.S.-led bombing campaign set back their campaign to oust strongman 
>Slobodon
>Milosevic.  A
>populace tends to close ranks while being bombed.  Indeed, one of the
>ironies of the NATO air
>campaign was that it primarily targeted the cities, which were the center 
>of
>the opposition.  This
>played right into the hands of Milosevic, who could then portray himself as
>the savior of the
>people against foreign aggression.  The targeting of bridges, civilian
>industry, media centers and
>other parts on the country's non-military infrastructure - which took the
>lives of over 500
>civilians - artificially extended the life of Milosevic's corrupt and
>autocratic regime.
>   Last week's protests was the third large-scale civil uprising against
>Milosevic in the past
>decade.  The previous two failed in large part due to the refusal of the
>United States and other
>western powers to support the democratic forces.  Indeed, during the 1996
>uprising, U.S. special
>envoy and now U.N. ambassador Richard Holbrooke successfully argued that 
>the
>Clinton
>Administration should back Milosevic in recognition of his role in the
>successful peace deal in
>Bosnia and not risk the instability which might result from a victory by
>Serb democrats.
>   Through both appeasement and war, the U.S. allowed Milosevic to remain 
>in
>power far
>longer than he would have otherwise.  That the Clinton Administration would
>now attempt to
>claim credit for his ouster is ludicrous.  As the new Yugoslav president
>Vojislav Kostunica put it,
>"The Americans assisted Milosevic not only when they supported him, but 
>also
>when they
>attacked him.  In a way, Milosevic is an American creation."
>   The Clinton Administration does deserve credit, along with some European
>countries,  for
>its support in recent months of pro-democracy groups within Yugoslavia.  
>The
>$36 million which
>funded election monitors and other non-governmental organizations had a far
>greater impact than
>the billions of dollars spent during the previous year to bomb the country.
>Yet even the more
>recent U.S. assistance would have had virtually no impact were it not for
>the tenacity,
>organization and bravery of the democratic forces, the real heroes of this
>revolution.
>   It is unfortunate that such assistance had not come earlier, which could
>have led to the
>ouster of Milosevic prior to the last year's tragic events in Kosovo.  It 
>is
>similarly unfortunate that
>no such assistance came to the Kosovar Albanians during their eight-year
>nonviolent struggle
>against Serbian rule.  The U.S. took interest in their plight only after 
>the
>Kosovars took up arms
>in 1998, with the "assistance" coming through a high-altitude bombing
>campaign in March 1999,
>to which the Serbs responded by dramatically escalating their repression
>against the Kosovar
>Albanians through large-scale ethnic cleansing.  After eleven weeks of air
>strikes, the war ended
>on terms much closer to what the Serbs had proposed that February than what
>the allies had
>insisted upon at their meetings in Rambouillet, France.
>   Last week's  mostly nonviolent mass action against the attempt by
>Milosevic
>to steal the
>election follows similar people power movements which toppled dictatorships
>in East Germany,
>Czechoslovakia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Madagascar, Bolivia
>and scores of other
>countries in recent decades.  To try to credit NATO air power for this
>nonviolent victory on the
>ground is nothing more than a desperate attempt to rationalize for the
>alliance's existence in the
>post-Cold War era and to justify the dramatic increases in U.S. military
>spending advocated by
>both Democrats and Republicans.
>   In many respects, Bill Clinton and Western democratic leaders are as out
>of
>touch with
>reality as are the tyrants of Eastern Europe and the Third World:  they
>underestimate the power of
>ordinary people -- unarmed but determined -- to make history.  Until 
>foreign
>policy makers are
>able to recognize this, U.S. will squander its potential to truly be a 
>world
>leader in the cause of
>democracy and human rights.
>
>_________________
>   Stephen Zunes is an associate professor of Politics at the University of
>San Francisco and
>author of Nonviolent Social Movements: The Geography of Nonviolence,
>published by Blackwell
>
>
>Please forward this to someone you think would like to receive the TFF
>PressInfos;
>to subscribe send a request to <TFF at transnational.org>
>T F F   P r e s s I n f o     # 9 9
>****************************
>
>
>T H E   Y U G O S L A V
>
>N O N V I O L E N T   R E V O L U T I O N
>
>
>
>"Milosevic certainly did not even think the thought. The opposition had
>hoped for it but hardly foreseen it would happened just like that. Western
>leaders and commentators had predicted about everything else but this: that
>nonviolence by the many would sweep away the authoritarian power presided
>over and solidified by Slobodan Milosevic over 13 years.
>
>It was a miracle unfolding, minute by minute, in front of our eyes. Unarmed
>citizens were stronger, finally, than Milosevic' force. They also achieved
>in about 24 hours what NATO violence could not achieve in 78 days. It's yet
>another remarkable victory for non-violence. But do we see and understand
>it like that?"
>
>This PressInfo - the first in a small series  where we try to understand
>the implications of the recent changes - has the following headings.
>
>* The power of nonviolence
>* Two types of power and Gandhi: why all rulers are dependent
>* The sources of power
>* Why do people obey?
>* Many reasons it happened now
>* Rulers isolate themselves and lose the grip on reality
>
>Read the analysis in full here: http://www.transnational.org
>
>Soon to come:
>
>PressInfo # 100 will deal with why nobody would really like Milosevic to
>turn up in the Hague. It's just another "Balkan" game played by the West.
>
>PressInfo # 101 will analyze the changed conflict formation in the Balkans.
>The West made Milosevic the main factor. With him gone, its policies are
>likely to become even more counterproductive.
>
>© TFF 2000
>
>
>Please reprint, copy, archive, quote or re-post this item, but please
>retain the source.
>
>
>
>
>*************************************
>Things undreamt of are daily being seen, the impossible is ever becoming
>possible.   We are constantly being astonished these days at the amazing
>discoveries in the field of violence.  But I maintain that far more
>undreamt of and seemingly impossible discoveries will be made in the field
>of nonviolence.
>				-- M.K. Gandhi
>**************************************
>
>PEACEWORKERS
>721 Shrader St.
>San Francisco, CA 94117 USA
>Phone and fax 415-751-0302
>email PEACEWORKERS at igc.apc.org
>see our website:  www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org
>

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