BY MAURICE WILLIAMS
Despite severe winter weather that closed runways for several days, 150 U.S. combat troops, including 60 paratroopers, landed in Tuzla, northeastern Bosnia, December 18 in preparation for war in the Balkans. Two days later, the NATO force took command of the "peacekeeping" mission from the United Nations.
In a ceremony filled with symbolism at Sarejevo airport, French Gen. Bernard Janvier handed over military authority to U.S. Adm. Leighton Smith, the NATO commander in southern Europe.
NATO's war drive - the largest military operation in Europe since World War II - is aimed at overturning the workers state in Yugoslavia and reestablishing capitalism there.
Washington is sending 32,000 troops to the region as part of the NATO occupation force of more than 60,000 to impose the "peace" accord signed in Paris December 14. The agreement, brokered by the White House on a military base in Dayton, Ohio, in November, partitions Bosnia between pro- Belgrade Serbs and a fragile Muslim-Croat federation.
Some 1,000 U.S. soldiers, including 800 men from the 3rd Battalion, 325th Infantry Airborne Combat Team, will take over the Tuzla Air Base. A train carrying 130 soldiers arrived in the Croatian town of Kopvrinica December 17, loaded with four M1 Abrams tanks, 13 Bradley fighting vehicles with 30 mm cannons, and armored ambulances.
U.S. president Bill Clinton and other spokespeople for imperialist powers continue to profess their war moves are intended to bring peace in the Balkans. Reports in the big- business press, however, have begun to point to the real goals.
An article in the December 13 Financial Times outlined some measures Belgrade must implement on the road to restoring capitalism, which was abolished in Yugoslavia through a popular revolution by workers and peasants in the 1940's. "To restart the economy and join the western economic community, Serbia will have to break the state's hold over the economy and close white elephant factories," the article said. Other proposals pushed by the Times include opening the door further to foreign investments, privatizations, and payment on Yugoslavia's $8 billion foreign debt.
The Times writers began licking their chops at "Serbia's most promising economic sectors." They said the Yugoslav republic's "agriculture, food-processing, copper mining, textiles, tourism, and machinery - all need fresh capital."
The Dayton agreement gives U.S. and British troops the right to go anywhere in Bosnia, drive past military checkpoints, and the option to use force against anyone who tries to stop them. Washington's commanders have demanded absolute authority over the Bosnia "peacekeeping operation," which includes soldiers from France, Britain, Germany, and elsewhere.
London is deploying six navy warships along with 13,000 troops - which represents 12 percent of the British army's 109,000 men. British air force planes that are currently part of the NATO overflights are stationed in Italy.
Ottawa has agreed to send 1,000 Canadian soldiers by February. Another 3,000 Canadian troops have been trained for the mission and could be rapidly deployed as well. In addition, 250 Canadian marines are already patrolling the Adriatic Sea.
The Canadian government sought to give the appearance of acting independently of Washington. Ottawa claims the operation will be for "one year and one year only." Bob Mills of the right-wing Reform Party said, however, "I don't think the one year commitment is at all realistic." At the same time, Preston Manning, another Reform Party leader, warned that Ottawa should be prepared to send the Canadian army into Quebec should it unilaterally declare independence.
`Arc of containment'
The Washington Post reported that Washington has built
up a military network in every country that borders
Yugoslavia to build an "arc of containment" aimed at
Belgrade. "We've got to make the Balkans safe from Serbia,"
said a Clinton administration official, who stressed that
Belgrade must begin to meet Washington's demands by making
"deep cuts" to its military arsenal. U.S. officials
emphasize that the remaining regimes in the area, including
those in Croatia and Albania, could "bear the brunt" of U.S.
military might if they buck Washington's dictates.
The governments of Hungary, Romania, Macedonia, and Albania have all signed military agreements with Washington and are participants in NATO's Partnership for Peace program. The government of Hungary signed a deal to allow the U.S. army to use two large logistics depots on its soil, which were former missile sites, for deployment from Germany.
According to the Washington Post, the regime in Albania "has run headlong into the embrace of the U.S. Defense Department since 1991." The U.S. military uses its airfields, beaches, and mountains for training, while CIA agents and army personnel launch spy planes from its air bases. "They act like an ally," a U.S. officer told the Post, pointing out that the Albania government was not paid for hosting the spy plane operation, "only better."
The Romanian government initialed a contract with Bell Helicopter Textron to produce AH-1F Cobra attack helicopters for its armed forces between 1999 and 2005. Washington hopes to strengthen its influence in Romania, the largest country in the region. Meanwhile, some 650 U.S. troops have been stationed in the republic of Macedonia since 1993.
Explosive conflicts with imperialist forces appear inevitable. "The arc of containment around us and this arms control pressure are not friendly acts," said Radovan Radinovic, a retired general in the Yugoslav army. In addition, the International War Crimes Tribunal released a most-wanted list of alleged war criminals, composed mainly of Serb officers, guards, and civilians. Washington is contemplating whether to use its occupying army to pursue the alleged outlaws.
Another powder keg involves the Posavina corridor and the industrial city of Brcko in northeastern Bosnia, linking Serbia with areas in Bosnia controlled by pro-Belgrade troops, who seized the area in 1992 and insist on retaining control. No agreement on the issue was reached at Dayton. Munib Jusufovic, mayor of the 65 percent of Brcko controlled by Sarajevo, declared, "We'll take Brcko," if an international arbitration panel does not turn it over to the Bosnian republic.
Conflicts between Washington and Paris also continue to widen. "The Dayton agreement leads straight to a dead end," declared Gen. Jean-René Bachelet, the former UN commander in Sarajevo who was recalled to Paris after criticizing the pact. "For the Serbs living in these neighborhoods the choice will be between the suitcase and the coffin."
A British army officer told the December 17 Guardian Weekly, "The French are going about wrecking the Dayton agreement's equilibrium.... By supporting and encouraging the Serbs, the French are encouraging them to resist. One mustn't moan afterwards if violent clashes break out between the Ilizda Serbs and the international forces."