US plays both sides in Macedonia

by

Arthur Neslen

The news that 3,000 NATO troops could be sent to Macedonia to disarm fighters of the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (NLA) under a NATO-brokered peace deal must have raised as many eyebrows as glasses in the bars of Skopje. For while it has been little reported in the west, the US has been linked to arming and equipping those same rebels -- and at the same time, the Macedonian government -- during the last months of fighting.
When 400 armed NLA rebels were evacuated from Aaracinovo under a KFOR-sponsored peace deal in June, 17 US "instructors" were among them, according to German paper Hamburger Abendblatt -- and 70 per cent of the rebels' weaponry was of US origin. The instructors were from private security firm Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI), which is contracted to the Pentagon. MPRI also equips and trains the Macedonian government's military.
Michel Chossudovsky, professor of economics at the University of Toronto who, has meticulously researched US military involvement in the Balkans, said: "It is blatantly obvious that the US is supporting the insurgency. At the same time, through military and diplomatic channels, they are supporting the Macedonian armed forces, albeit in a meagre way."
The go-between in the US operation, according to Macedonia's TV A-1, is Richard Griffiths, the director of MPRI's programme in Macedonia, who is responsible for channelling US military aid to the Macedonian armed forces (ARM). Griffiths is a former US officer with personal ties to both the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and ARM's chief of staff, General Jovan Andrejevski.
Their relationship caused a major scandal in Macedonia in May, when Andrejevski was accused by TV A-1 of "relaying sensitive information to Albanian terrorists ... through the American General in charge in Skopje, Richard Griffiths". The programme alleged military setbacks and defeats as a result of information leaked to the NLA. The second highest officer in ARM, General Pande Petrovski resigned as a result.
So what is Washington doing? Chossudovsky's conclusion is that "the US objective is to establish a patchwork of protectorates in southern Europe so as to secure control over the strategic oil pipeline route linking Bulgas in the Black Sea to Vlore in the Adriatic. The US isn't interested in the kind of Greater Albania the KLA might like to see. They want a further fragmentation of the Balkans and an increasing US military presence in the guise of a bogus peace-keeping force. Such a force could be sent in under the pretext of disarming rebels -- who they had armed only weeks before -- and protect the pipeline route." MPRI, in this equation, is simply a conduit.
Based in Alexandria, Virginia, MPRI is one of the world's biggest private security companies, with a philosophy based around using "offensive tactics ... as the best means of defence". As well as working in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, the firm was contracted by the Pentagon to train officers of the Colombian military, which has routinely been accused of human rights abuses in its war against leftist guerrillas. The firm advised the Colombian government to "hit the enemy with a closed fist, not poke at him with the fingers of an open hand". The government was unimpressed, and did not renew their contract.
Lucky for them that, according to Michel Chossudovsky, "MPRI also have very close relations with Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State. They also appear to have links to Halliburton Energy, and its subsidiary Brown and Root, which is Vice-President Dick Cheney's company." Brown and Root is an "oil services company" with interests in Colombia and the Balkans. Other companies with an interest in the oil pipeline consortium include BP-Amoco-ARCO, Chevron and Texaco.
It looks like the real winners of the war to come in Macedonia will again be found far from the killing fields of the former Yugoslavia.

America will continue to fund both side of the conflict to destabilize the continent and maintain corporate control where it has it and to create corporate control by 'stabilizing' the afflicted area when it can.
Turkey, Greece, Spain, Germany, Bosnia, Hungary... Follow France's lead. Botcott America!!!!