Yugoslavia Comes in From the Cold
On Thursday, October 26, a brief ceremony took place in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It symbolized the opening of the final chapter of the Balkan saga which began with the deliberate destabilization of this region by Germany, in concert with the Vatican, ten years ago.
“This is a historic day. I formally invite the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to become a participant in the stability pact.” With these words, Bodo Hombach, the Balkan Stability Pact’s coordinator, handed a ceremonial key to Goran Svilanovic, the special envoy of the newly elected Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, to symbolize Yugoslavia’s entry into the European family. Hombach declared that “the stability pact…is Yugoslavia’s key to Europe.”
A German initiative, drafted by Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer even while nato bombs were raining down on Belgrade during the Kosovo war, the Balkan Stability Pact is designed to accelerate the eastward hegemony of the German-dominated European Union by investing controlling capital in southeastern European infrastructure. With Yugoslavia now drawn into the pact, the EU will spend 200 million euros (us$166.3 million) over the next nine months financing major construction projects in Serbia. Clearing war-damaged infrastructure and reconstructing vital road, rail and canal routes, which make this crucial crossroads of Europe so essential to the EU’s plan for eastward hegemony, figure highly on the EU’s priority list for the revitalization of Serbia.
It is most significant that it was the European Union’s institution for reconstructing the Balkans, the Balkan Stability Pact, which was the very first international body that Yugoslavia joined since the downfall of ex-president Milosevic. Why? Because it demonstrates with clarity that there has been a specific agenda behind the whole of the Balkan situation since its initial destabilization, following the unification of Germany in 1990 and the subsequent collapse of the whole Soviet Russian system.
Hidden Agenda
Given the history of Germany, it ought to be a terrifying thought to contemplate that the very first policy initiative of that nation, following unification, was to spark the incredibly destructive division of the Balkans. As geopolitical analyst Joseph de Courcy recently opined to some of our staff, “There’s something about the German character that’s proven to be problematic to their neighbors.” Problematic indeed! Consider the history.
For 40 years under the balance of power imposed by the cold war between the U.S. and their allies and the USSR, Germany seemingly presented no problem to Europe. Then what happened as soon as Germany united? The Balkan powder keg blew—sparked by Germany’s very first foreign-policy action as a united nation! It was the deliberate action of Germany, endorsed by the Vatican, recognizing Croatia and Slovenia as separate nation-states (despite major opposition from most other countries) that lit the fuse which triggered the explosion that split the Balkan nations apart.
To understand the reasons why Germany under Vatican approval created such a destructive initiative, one has to go back to the Allied victory over Germany in World War i and the resultant Treaty of Versailles. Germany simply never accepted the conditions of that treaty and their concomitant loss of territory. Then, following World War ii, the Allies imposed much more stringent territorial reductions on Germany, even dividing the country between East and West under separate Soviet and Allied administrations. But even as they divided Germany geopolitically, the Allies, via the U.S. Marshall Plan, immediately set about reviving the very corporate empires that had built Germany’s war effort! To the world it appeared the humanitarian thing to do—quell the nation’s aggression by dividing and conquering geographically and politically, then refinance their economy with an understanding that the enemy would rebuild itself based upon democratic institutions. Fifty years later, Germany appeared to the world as a very model of Western democracy—until it was geopolitically reunited. Now, just ten years later, the Balkans have exploded!
Through the twin processes of blackmailing their Eastern European nations into supporting the initiative and exploiting an inept, naïve U.S. administration to do their dirty work, largely at U.S. expense, Germany succeeded in gaining the backing of nato and the UN to enforce its will on the dividing of the Balkan Peninsula—witness Croatia, witness Bosnia-Herzegovina, witness Kosovo.
The blackmailing of neighboring Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic into backing the German-inspired putsch in each of the Balkan countries took the form of simply directing them to fall in line or have their access to the Euromarket cut off. The reward for acquiescing to the forceful division of the Balkans has been massive influxes of investment capital from Germany to buy up real estate, local corporations and whole industries in central and Eastern Europe. This surely gives a boost to the economies of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania et al. But the downside is that, increasingly, control of these national economies is going to a German-led European Union. The United States has simply been an unwitting partner in Germany’s push for eastward hegemony.
Much has been said about the prospect of the eastwards expansion of the European Union. It has been claimed that the EU may ultimately comprise up to 30 member nations. The president of the Commission of European Communities, Romano Prodi, has stated that six nations will be ready for accession to EU membership in 2003. The six that appear most readily qualified for and favored for early membership are Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus. Now Yugoslavia appears to be thrust into the fast lane for early membership despite an economy and political structure seemingly in tatters. Why? It’s simple. The gnomes of Brussels who oversee the agenda for EU expansion know that there can be no effective eastward expansion of the Union unless and until the Balkan Peninsula is secured.
Extending Eastward
Pope John Paul ii once declared that “Europe needs both her eastern and western lungs to breathe!” The Vatican and the EU have long been involved in an effort to revive history—the history of the Holy Roman Empire, which once saw both German geopolitical and Vatican spiritual dominance of the European continent yield them unprecedented power. Believe it or not, that is what’s behind the agenda of both as they join in an effort to extend their reach ever eastward, if the pope has his way, up to the very foothills of the Urals, the mountain range which divides western Russia from the great frozen wastes of Siberia.
Unless and until the Balkan Peninsula was under EU control, the Union remained frustrated in its efforts for eastwards expansion. The EU simply needed access to the Adriatic coastline’s warm-water ports, which open the gate to the Mediterranean and thence to the resource-rich continent of Africa and the strategically crucial Middle East. The key to that control was seen by both the Vatican and Germany, the prime spiritual and economic-political influences within the EU, to be a fracturing of the Yugoslav republic as it existed at the end of the cold war, to soften it up for EU economic, political and military dominance. Without a secure and stable Balkan Peninsula, the eastern leg of the EU would swing on an unstable hinge.
Make no bones about it. Germany and the Vatican are up to their necks in this whole Balkan intrigue. What we are telling you is common knowledge at the highest levels of the international intelligence networks and is known to the most astute foreign affairs analysts. We are now seeing the end-game pan out in the Balkans. Securing Serbia within the Balkan Stability Pact is crucial to the continuing strategy of that end game.
New Strategy
Germany tried twice in the 20th century to become the dominant power in this world. It failed. It failed militarily, beaten by the victorious Allies under British and American leadership. Germany has learned its lesson. Its strategy for gaining and imposing power changed in the waning years of World War ii. At the primary level, this involved salting away multiple billions in cash, bullion and works of art to finance an underground effort for Germany’s comeback to power as a global force to be reckoned with. It also involved spiriting many thousands of Nazis and fascisti away from Europe to New World countries, the Middle East and Spain. Thus domiciled away from the immediate search for war criminals, thus financed, they penetrated, became part of, or even launched themselves as kingpins in, a global spy network, ultimately having its centers in Berlin, Vienna and Spain. In the meantime, exhibiting the most cooperative side of their mutable characters, the German industrialists got to work reviving their corporate empires, largely at U.S. taxpayers’ expense via the Marshall Plan. This all continued with great success until 1989.
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and Germany’s subsequent unification the following year, Germany’s strategy for the resurrection of its empire moved into its secondary phase—the Balkan initiative. Ten years later, with the dust settling in Belgrade and in Kosovo, Germany is finally able to say, “For us, World War i has ended.” The “injustices” of Versailles have been vindicated, and the West, via a German-led enterprise, the EU Balkan Stability Pact, is set to yield to the German-led EU total control of the Balkans, thus paving the way for further eastwards expansion of the European empire.
Ultimately, this Euroempire will stand on both eastern and western “legs” (Dan. 2:33, 40). But its western leg could not be joined to the east without first gaining possession of the Balkan nexus.
The German-inspired strategy for the eastward expansion of the European Union is now well advanced in its tertiary stage. This involves the takeover of the industrial, financial, political and media sectors of the nations which are drawn in under the umbrella of the EU’s Balkan Stability Pact. It is done initially by economic means. First offer financial aid to the country recovering from 50 years of Soviet dominance. Then offer inward capital
investment to the nation’s ailing industries and corporate enterprises. Better still, buy up a controlling interest in them. Then tempt the nation by offers to buy up, redevelop and manage its major infrastructure—its power grid, gas distribution systems, water distribution systems, port and other transport facilities. Offer the media a buyout package they can’t refuse and take over the print and broadcasting enterprises. Then, lo and behold, what was once a sovereign nation finds itself at the feet of its economic deliverer wondering at the speed of economic blitzkrieg!
As we have been reporting during the past year, the German economic blitzkrieg is at an advanced stage. The war for the takeover of national industries and corporations in Eastern Europe is well advanced. Now comes the pièce de résistance—the reconstruction of Serbia, driven by German enterprise and funded by deutschmarks. This wins the humanitarian and economic vote of the West, and will succeed in the EU winning Yugoslavia from U.S. and Russian influence. This scenario is very real and very current! Yes, it is very, very real. Take a look at the facts.
In the Fast Lane
In a meeting of the Balkan Stability Pact at Tirana, the capital of Montenegro, on October 26, President Kostunica declared that Yugoslavia now acknowledges the UN charter, the principles of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (osce) and the Helsinki final declaration on human rights. On October 30, at the summit of Balkan nations held in Macedonia, the Balkan nations called for an end to a decade of war among the republics and peoples of Yugoslavia. The dangling carrot for this sudden desire for peace is the $4.5 billion that the EU has promised the Balkan nations for reconstruction, providing they behave.
Less than two weeks after Kostunica’s recognition of the osce, the federal republic was admitted to membership at a special meeting called in Vienna on November 10. On the same day, Yugoslavia applied for a membership of the 41-nation European Council. This is normally a long, drawn-out process. However, after a special two-day meeting of the European Council’s political committee held in Strasbourg, it decided to place Yugoslavia in the fast lane and grant membership by June next year!
What is worth noting is that European Council membership, as the bbc related at the time, “is the touchstone to EU membership.” The bbc report further noted, “Yugoslavia may gain special guest status with unprecedented quickness; probably by the end of the year.”
Watch for Yugoslavia to be pushed now, by events controlled from Brussels, into the fast lane to EU membership.
Yugoslavia is hardly in a prime bargaining position to resist EU aggression. Both Yugoslavia and the EU know this. The total debt owed to the world’s financial bodies by Yugoslavia is $10 billion, and the nation is 65 percent in arrears on repayment of this debt to the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and European Investment Bank. Put simply, Yugoslavia needs the EU to bail it out and will dance to the tune of the EU piper.
The problem of internecine turmoil seethes below the surface in the Balkans. Albanians want an independent Kosovo. Many of the Serbs still would prefer a dismembered Bosnia. Many in the Balkans want Milosevic indicted as a war criminal in The Hague. Kostunica refuses to hand him over. But to dampen the enthusiasm of any of the Balkan nations for conflict against each other, their new masters will soon have their own military force at their disposal to settle Balkan feuds—the new European Rapid Reaction Force.
It just so happens that this 230,000-man force is due to be brought into play in 2003, the same year slated for the first wave of applicant nations to join the Union from the east and southeast.
It has taken decades to build the European Union from its inception as the European Steel and Coal Community in 1949 to its present powerhouse economic and political status. Its collective economy is now second only to that of the U.S. and in fact stands on the brink of overtaking the U.S. in size, extent and scope, on present trends, within months.
Yet the progress of this economic and political giant to its present position as a global power has seemingly been at times painful, cumbersome and slow. This is not surprising, given its ethnic mix and the tendency for its individual member nations to always be seeking the best deal for themselves as they proceed towards federation under a single constitution.
Considering this, what is most startling is the speed with which two EU initiatives are now moving into high gear, each of which had its genesis in the Kosovo conflict that erupted in April 1999: the new EU defense force and the Balkan Stability Pact. Javier Solana, EU foreign-policy guru, describes the development of the EU Rapid Reaction Force as “moving with the speed of light.” That’s unprecedented in EU history, considering that most of its efforts have seemingly moved at a snail’s pace by comparison—at least up to 1990! With respect to the Balkan Stability Pact, its drive to cement Yugoslavia into the institutions that will lead it towards EU membership is without precedent. Ordinarily, to qualify for EU membership, applicant nations are supposed to meet stringent economic standards which require a fundamental reconstitution of the nation’s economy and its basic systems of government and administration over a period of years. In the rush to absorb Yugoslavia into the EU, this process is being largely swept aside.
German Political Will
The Germans are an energetic and enterprising folk. Well-organized, with an eye for detail, they have a rich heritage of the arts and are certainly a culturally advanced nation given to great friendliness. Yet the Germans have a dark side to their character which has shown itself at its worst during the past century. Unlike Anglo-Saxons, the Germans are a people easily led. Give them a strong leader and they will readily fall in line and follow. That is not the way of the British and American peoples. They simply find it hard to submit to government. Yet there is good and bad leadership. Sadly, Germany has demonstrated in the past an inability to discern between leadership that is constructive and that which is destructive to the most extreme extent.
That it is German political will that is driving the eastward push of the European Union is patently obvious to all. What happens if this German political will ends up dominating the new Rapid Reaction Force in the same aggressive way that it is currently leading Europe economically and politically? What if German political will becomes German military might yet once again? Could it happen? Will it happen—again?
Well, believe it or not, your Bible says it will. It’s time you started to watch the world scene. America and Britain are generally not watching, not watching out for the repetition of history. A nation not watching is a nation unguarded. You need to be on guard.
Keep reading the Philadelphia Trumpet. We tell it like it is—and we tell you before it happens; that’s the best way to be prepared when events actually happen. Keep watching Europe—watch Yugoslavia—watch Germany—watch, especially, the European Union, and read our reports next month on the outcome of the crucial EU summit meeting in Nice, France, being held this month. Decisions made at that meeting will soon affect you economically, politically and militarily. “Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (i Thes. 5:6).
