The Oslo
War
Process
Norwegian diplomats are the 'advance guard' of the US-European empire. They helped destroy
Yugoslavia. They set Israel on the path to destruction. Now they will
finish destroying Sri Lanka. Next: India. And Spain.
Historical and Investigative Research, 29
Oct 2005
by Francisco Gil-White
http://www.hirhome.com/yugo/oslo5.htm
intro |
1 |
2
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3 |
4 |
5 |
6
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5. What
Knut Vollebaek betrayed
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In 1975, with the elaboration of the Helsinki Final Act, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) was born, later to be transformed into the OSCE between 1990 and 1995. In the current OSCE handbook, which explains the history of the OSCE, one sees on the first page the logo, with the date 1975.[29] This means that there is supposed to be a continuity of purpose between the CSCE -- established with the Helsinki Final Act in 1975 -- and the organization it later became: the OSCE. Any lingering doubts about the continuing centrality of the Helsinki Final Act are dispelled by the words 'Helsinki Final Act,' prominently displayed on the OSCE logo.
This Helsinki Final Act, the founding charter of the OSCE, is what Vollebaek -- while serving as the OSCE's Chairman in Office -- betrayed.
Below follows an excerpt from the Helsinki Final Act:
[Quote From Helsinki Final Act Starts Here]
"The participating States will refrain in their mutual relations, as well as in their international relations in general, from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations and with the present Declaration. No consideration may be invoked to serve to warrant resort to the threat or use of force in contravention of this principle."[30] (my emphasis)
[Quote From Helsinki Final Act Ends Here]
Notice the last clause above. The signers of the Helsinki Final Act obviously foresaw that at some time in the future a concept such as ‘humanitarian war’ might be invented by a rogue imperial power in order to use it as an excuse to say: "All of that stuff we said about not using force or threat of force against anybody is fine, but look: we have a special circumstance here: we have a ‘humanitarian catastrophe’!"
So the text of the Helsinki Final Act makes it very clear that any arguments for "the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State," such as the State of Yugoslavia, are illegitimate, and that "No consideration may be invoked to serve to warrant resort to the threat or use of force in contravention of this principle."
As we have seen, not once, but
repeatedly, Knut Vollebaek violated this terribly explicit and carefully
worded prohibition.
First, the chairman of the OSCE, Knut Vollebaek, assisted the United States, a founding member of the OSCE, in its "threat…of force against the territorial integrity [and] political independence of" Yugoslavia in order to force the Yugoslav government to accept—of all things—an OSCE delegation.
Second, the chairman of the OSCE, Knut Vollebaek, assisted the United States, a founding member of the OSCE, in its "threat…of force against the territorial integrity [and] political independence of" Yugoslavia in order to force the Yugoslav government to allow William Walker to stay as the head of the American OSCE delegation.
Finally, the chairman of the OSCE, Knut Vollebaek, assisted the United
States, a founding member of the OSCE, in its "threat…of force against the
territorial integrity [and] political independence of" Yugoslavia in an attempt to compel Slobodan Milosevic to sign the so-called Rambouillet "peace" agreement, and thereby accept a hostile NATO army of
occupation with privileges comparable to the Nazi army in WWII.
This last threat did not succeed and in consequence a frightful NATO bombing campaign in which civilians were the main target was unleashed on Yugoslavia. This crime of war, of course, will not be investigated by the tribunal at The Hague that NATO has illegally set up and paid for, because this tribunal has ruled that it will not bite the hand that feeds it.[30a]
The threats against Yugoslavia, and the ensuing use of force, would have violated the OSCE charter even if Knut Vollebaek, the willing vehicle of such threats, had really believed there was a "humanitarian catastrophe." However, there is a mountain of evidence showing (1) that there was no such humanitarian catastrophe, and (2) that Knut Vollebaek knew this perfectly well. Knut Vollebaek’s betrayal is all the worse, then, because these threats were in fact made in bad faith.
Moreover, his behavior is consistent with assisting NATO to set up an excuse for a war of aggression, not with averting the humanitarian catastrophe that he claimed to believe was taking place. The obvious purpose of his threats was entirely tactical, subordinate to the goal of destroying Yugoslavia by colluding with fascists, fundamentalists, and terrorists, and which goal had been decided upon well in advance of these threats.
That Yugoslavia was -- as its government truthfully claimed -- fighting brutal terrorists who threatened its civilian population is obvious from the fact that a hoax was necessary in order to tar the Yugoslav army with the accusation that it was murdering civilians. Knut Vollebaek’s collusion with this hoax, and his subsequent diplomacy, were designed to ensure that this unspeakable slander could succeed.
By participating in the perpetration of an international crime of war against the people of Yugoslavia, Vollebaek has brought shame to an organization which was conceived for security -- i.e. freedom from war -- and cooperation in Europe.
My final reflections, up next, concern Knut Vollebaek's role in the Sri Lankan "peace" process.
Continue to
part 6:
http://www.hirhome.com/yugo/oslo6.htm
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Footnotes and Further
Reading
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[29] http://www.osce.org/publications/handbook/handbook.pdf
[30] http://www.hri.org/docs/Helsinki75.html
[30a] The ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) - also known as The Hague Tribunal - has a name that says it all: it was set up for the specific purpose of putting Yugoslavs, and especially Serbs, on trial - but not NATO officials. This was made perfectly clear on 13 June 2000, when the Hague Tribunal announced the following:
"On the basis of the information available, the committee recommends that no investigation be commenced by the OTP in relation to the NATO bombing campaign or incidents occurring during the campaign."
The key word is "commenced." The Tribunal was not saying that it had found NATO 'not guilty' of war crimes violations; it said that "no investigation [will] be commenced." That is, the Tribunal would not ask the question.
The quote is from:
ICTY, Final Report to the Prosecutor by the Committee established to Review the NATO bombing Campaign Against the FRY, PR/P.I.S./510-E, 13 June 2000
And that document may be found in:
Krieger, H. (2001). The Kosovo conflict and international law: An analytical documentation 1974-1999, Cambridge International Documents Series, Volume II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (pp.340-352).
To get a sense for
just how tight NATO's control is over the tribunal it created, visit the
following two links:
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/ian/day.htm
http://emperors-clothes.com/docs/h-list.htm
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