2006: year of the dead dictator
Posted on Sunday 31 December, 2006
Filed Under Uncategorized
First Milosevic. Then – in a gratifying last-minute spurt – Pinochet, Niyazov and Saddam. I am rapidly running out of people to really, really hate.
Given the collective nature of the Saudi and Burmese dictatorships, it is difficult to imagine them being wiped out in one fell swoop. We can but hope, I suppose.
Readers, please raise your glasses to 2007. I’m sure most of you will be doing that anyway, without my prompting. The comments box is open for suggestions as to who qualifies for the title of the world’s worst remaining despot.
‘In these days of evil presidentes/
Lately one or two has fully paid their due/
For working for the clampdown.’
- Joe Strummer
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Comments
33 Responses to “2006: year of the dead dictator”
Gotta be Kim Jong Il.
Happy New Year!
The worst government must be the Sudanese.
For Iraq, Britain and America are fairly high up aswell.
Happy New Year!
Yeah, Kim Jong Il probably gets the prize. However, the Chinese Communist Party must be eligible for some sort of organisational prize considering what its members have done over the last 60 years or so.
I’d forgotten about Milosevic.
Still a couple of hours to go – will Thatcher crown 2006 for us?
Does this include former despots who are still alive? Because Suharto’s still around.
Who were The Clash referring to? Somoza perhaps? Apparently Jimmy Carter “betrayed” him. Good work for the best US president of recent decades.
“First Milosevic. Then – in a gratifying last-minute spurt – Pinochet, Niyazov and Saddam. I am rapidly running out of people to really, really hate.”
There’s always Bush.
Wow! This surely can’t be all you have to say on the subject, Dave.
You forgot to mention Sharon’s “sad” descent into a coma. He’s not dead but he’s permanently out of action.
Happy new year everyone btw.
Islam Karimov (Uzbekistan) is still around, isn’t he? So there’s one at least.
There’s no justice in the world. James Brown drops dead, and not a single one of the X Factor muppets follow his example.
almost certainly al-Bashir currently has the title at present, though Idriss Deby, who we will end up spending 207 propping up in Chad, is also pretty appalling.
Yuo can hate Milosevic all you want – but he was the scapegoat for the results of the break-up of Yugoslavia, which he tried to prevent. It seems that you’ve be taken in by the propaganda machine. Sucker.
I hated Milosevic well before the break-up of Yugoslavia, thanks all the same.
And to point out the stupidity of the headline, Milosevic wasn’t a dictator.
As for Phil, your piece
http://what-i-wrote.blogspot.com/2006/11/neither-belgrade-nor-sarajevo.html
is a complete and Serbophobic miswriting of the history of the conflict and its origins. Your downplaying of Tudjman’s Fascist tendencies was partuicularly unfortunate given the subsequent ethnic cleansing of the Krajina.
The piece is so awful, it could’ve been written by Attila Hoare himself.
“Serbophobic”? That’s a new one.
I would try to argue with resistor, but it would only be an exercise in poking monkeys with a stick through the bars of their cage.
Resistor;
You’re a Serbophobophobe.
As always vulgar abuse is much easier than trying to counter an argument with facts or reasoning. You’ve conceded without a fight.
Resistor,
“Yuo can hate Milosevic all you want – but he was the scapegoat for the results of the break-up of Yugoslavia, which he tried to prevent.”
Quite right. Milosevic was a great gentle leader who often remarked of his belief that the stars are “God’s daisy chain”.
He would certainly never have tried to prevent the break up of Yugoslavia by seizing as much of the Yugoslav state as he could in the hands of Serbia and try to carve out as large a territory as possible for a greater Serbia by expelling and massacring thousands upon thousands of non-Serb people.
Resistor;
You’re a vulgarabuseophobe.
I think it is a bit lazy to lump Milosevic in with Saddam, etc.
The break up of Jugoslavia was a much more complicated affair where there were no simply goodies and badies, and Milosevic did play a contradictory role of both defending the multi-ethnic and tolerant Serb state, while at the same time forming uneasy allance with Serbian nationalists.
The Serbian state was and is actively supported by it large Hungarian minority, and the Serbs protected the Roma minority in Kosavo.
For example, Milosevic is widely credited with having the Serb facsist Arkan assasinanted, but did not or could not prevent Arkan’s tigers serving in the war against Croatia, and commiting some of the worst atrocities.
Simon B is just writing ahistorical rubbish. The massacres of “thousands of thousands of non-Serb people” are in the context of the masscares of serbs as well, and were not conducted by the Serbian state.
Evidence presented at the Hague trial showed that Milosevic not only had no direct hand in ethnic masscares, but may have sought to prevent them.
Andy,
“Evidence presented at the Hague trial showed that Milosevic not only had no direct hand in ethnic masscares, but may have sought to prevent them.”
What evidence, presented by whom?
Where did the Bosnian Serbs, Croatian Serbs and Kosovan Serbs get their arms and supplies from?
Are you seriously suggesting that Milosevic and the Serb state bear no responsibility for the clearing of land of Bosnian, Croatian and Albanian people for a greater Serbia?
“The Serbian state was and is actively supported by it large Hungarian minority, and the Serbs protected the Roma minority in Kosavo.”
They also hideously oppressed the Albanian majority in Kosova.
Apologies for the lengthy cut and paste, but it seems some people pretend the oppression of the Kosovars by the Serb state that preceded their attempted expulsion/extermination didn’t happen or was minor or not worth bothering about.
“a) Police disbanded. 3,500 Albanian policemen were sacked.
b) Courts abolished. In seven cities, municipal courts were either closed down or abolished, while other courts were placed under ‘imposed rule’ from Serbia. 210 Albanian judges and public prosecutors were sacked.
c) Economy destroyed. Almost all enterprises (380 up to now) have been placed under ‘imposed rule’. Serbs have replaced all Albanian managers and higher personnel. Over 85,000 Albanian workers – around 70% of all Albanians employed in the social sector – have been sacked, either for participating in the one-day general strike of 3.9.1990 or because they would not sign a declaration supporting the introduction of ‘imposed rule’ (loyalty oath) and Serbian control over Kosova.
d) The closing down of schools in the Albanian language Last year the Serbian authorities ordered Albanian schools to stop working according to the existing Kosova curriculum and change over to the new Serbian one. In the latter, Albanian history and literature are replaced by anti-Albanian and chauvinistic propaganda.
e) The destruction –of Albanian- 1anguage media On July 5, 1990 a Serbian special police unit suddenly attacked and occupied the Prishtina Radio and Television Center. Outside management was imposed. 1,300 Albanian journalists and other staff were sacked. The same happened to all local radio stations in Kosova. As a result in Kosova, where Albanians form 90% of the population, there is no Albanian-language television or radio.
f) Destruction of the health institutions. All hospitals and clinics in Kosova have been placed under imposed administration. 1,500 Albanian doctors and medical staff have been sacked. The Serbian police used violence to throw out Albanian doctors, sometimes directly from the operating theatres. Sacked Albanian workers and their families (i.e. over 500,000 people) have no right to medical care. As a result, the level of health care of Kosova inhabitants, already the lowest in Yugoslavia and Europe, has fallen drastically.
g) Occupation and blockade of cultural institutions. The Kosova National Theatre, the National and University Library of Kosova, the Institute of Historical Studies of Kosova, the Kosova Archives, etc. have all been occupied by the Serbian police. The police has forcibly expelled Albanian directors and most of the staff, introducing instead an imposed outside administration.
h) Postal Services These have been placed under ‘imposed rule’ and practically all their Albanian workers sacked. In Albanian villages, local post offices have been closed down.
i) Red Cross. The Kosova Red Cross too has been placed under ‘imposed rule’. Its Albanian staff has been sacked, while funds and aid collected beforehand, including food and medicine, have been confiscated.”
http://www.alb-net.com/memo.htm
oh not again, Simon. I am so bored with this. I don’t miond debating the left. but when you just become a mouthpiece for NATO it is a bit tedious.
I know some of you like to support the narco-terrorists, human traffickers, islamist fanatics and racial supremacicts of the KLA/UCK, but perhaps you should have a look at what happened in Kosavo after your chums took over. Including the pogroms against the Roma and Ashkali minorities that were formerly protected by the Serbs. This is all well documented by Human Rights watch.
I wrote this a while ago:
http://socialistunity.blogspot.com/2006/05/shot-gun-divorce.html
I have seen no evidence of Milosevic being involved in Srebrenica, and the other massacres, except that in terms of broader policy the Serbian state backed the Bosnian Serbs (but this was partly because Serbia was opposed to a Moslem state being created – Serbia remains the only multi-ethnic state of the former Yugoslavs – which is Milosevic’s legacy.) – and that meant an alliance with some very unsavoury bastards like Arkan and Mladic, who had a different agenda entirely.
Of the major states in the former Yugoslavia Serbia was more sinned against than sinner, what about the ethnic cleansing of 200000 Serbs out of Krajina by the Croats? A policy cooked up in Berlin, and executed with Bill Clinton’s air force overhead.
and simon.
In respnse to me saying: “Evidence presented at the Hague trial showed that Milosevic not only had no direct hand in ethnic masscares, but may have sought to prevent them.”
you ask – What evidence, presented by whom?
Well evidence presnted by the defence obvioulsy. Or do you only beleive evidence offered by the prosecution?
Wouldn’t want to have you on the jury if I was on trial.
Andy, the idea that Serbia backed the Bosnian Serbs because Serbia was opposed to a Moslem state being created is just absurd. As I wrote in the paper Resistor cited:
Although President Alija Izetbegovic advocated an Islamic state twenty years ago, an Islamic state is not what he proposed in 1991 or what the government which he led attempted to set up. Izetbegovic’s Cabinet contains – or contained – representatives of the Serb and Croat communities; his government was based on a parliamentary coalition with, of all groups, the main Serb party. A parliamentary party supported by 44% of the population could hardly do more in the cause of consensus; most parties in that position elsewhere in Europe would do much less.
If you’re looking for a multi-ethnic state in the Balkans, Izetbegovic’s Bosnia-Herzegovina would be a good place to start, if only it hadn’t been destroyed (with the connivance of the West).
Phil
The fallacy of your argument is not recognising that the Serbian state stood against the (literal) balkanisation of Yugoslavia, whereas the Bosnian sessesionists were hastening its break up.
Any independent Bosnia would inevitably be less multi-ethnic than Yugoslavia was.
Given the fact that Tito’s state had accomplished the near impossible in overcoming the appalling racialised politics and mass murders of the facsist years, the unity of the Jugoslav state should not have been lightly abandoned.
Andy,
I notice that you have no response to the detailed catalogue of repression of Kosovars that I posted, only to claim I’m a mouthpiece for NATO.
On the contrary, I think NATO played a disgraceful role enforcing an arms embargo during the Bosnian war which prevented the Bosnians from defending themselves against Milosevic’s ethnic cleansers.
They then did the same in Kosova to the KLA.
That they belatedly, in a clumsy, messy, cowardly fashion stopped the anihilation of the Kosovars, which had escalated from the repression introduced by the Serb state led by Milosevic, does not excuse that.
They also forced through the Rambouillet treaty which legally denied the self-determination of the Kosovars, and condemned them to continued Serb rule.
It’s interesting that you believe that the accounts of Kosovan refugees who I have heard speak in public meetings are “NATO propaganda”, whereas the desparate legal defence of a former Stalinist turned ultra nationalist butchering dictator, on trial for war crimes, is sure to be completely on the level.
And on your reply to Phil, there is a difference between a voluntary Yugoslav federation, or even an enforced Stalinist Yugoslav federation with no one nation dominant, and a Yugoslavia which was effectively becoming a Greater Serbia, culturally, socially, politically, and then finally demographically through ethnic cleansing.
Oh, and I bet you were one of those people who were involved in the despicable “Committee for Peace in the Balkans”.
It was a lot like forming an anti-war campaign against the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia.
Simon,
The planned extermination or expulsion of the Albanian population of Kosovo was and is a lie as blatant as Iraqi WMD.
There is an excellent demolition of this NATO spin, in Herman and peterson’s article:
http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/articles/hermanmay2000.htm
A good summary of the arguments is in John Pilger’s article: http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2004-12/09pilger.cfm
Note: “the International War Crimes Tribunal, a body effectively set up by Nato, announced that the final count of bodies found in Kosovo’s “mass graves” was 2,788. This included combatants on both sides and Serbs and Roma murdered by the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army. ”
Note also that the usually pro-US NGO, Human Rights watch, documents human rights abuses by your chums in the KLA in the lead up to war that are symetrical to those commited by Yugoslav forces:
http://www.hrw.org/reports98/kosovo/
The KLA were a murderous band of criminals who destabilised the region, and who have turned Kosavo into a wild west of drugs, prostitution, and who have ethnically cleansed some 200000 non-Albanians. Only months before the war they were regarded as a terrorist organisation linked to Al Qaeda by the US state department.
Simon,
The planned extermination or expulsion of the Albanian population of Kosovo was and is a lie as blatant as Iraqi WMD.
There is an excellent demolition of this NATO spin, in Herman and peterson’s article:
http://www.zmag.org/ZMag/articles/hermanmay2000.htm
A good summary of the arguments is in John Pilger’s article: http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2004-12/09pilger.cfm
Note: “the International War Crimes Tribunal, a body effectively set up by Nato, announced that the final count of bodies found in Kosovo’s “mass graves” was 2,788. This included combatants on both sides and Serbs and Roma murdered by the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army. ”
Note also that the usually pro-US NGO, Human Rights watch, documents human rights abuses by your chums in the KLA in the lead up to war that are symmetrical to those committed by Yugoslav forces:
http://www.hrw.org/reports98/kosovo/
The KLA were a murderous band of criminals who destabilised the region, and who have turned Kosovo into a wild west of drugs, prostitution, and who have ethnically cleansed some 200000 non-Albanians. Only months before the war they were regarded as a terrorist organisation linked to Al Qaeda by the US state department.
Simon B has made the rather silly mistake of relying on a notorious KLA website http://www.alb-net.com. They used to have a map of Greater Albania (it includes not only Kosovo, but most of Macedonia and swathes of Greece and Montenegro) on their homepage before they realised it was sending out the wron message.
You can see the map here
http://www.realitymacedonia.org.mk/web/news_page.asp?nid=1817
Sorry Simon, but your list of ‘facts’ are not even half-truths. For just one example, Albanians who didn’t join the indefinite (not one day) general strike were not sacked but risked assassination by the KLA. e.g. google “Fazil Hasani” and you’ll see a different story. Albanians who worked for the state as forestry workers were mysteriously not sacked, however they made easy targets for the KLA fascists.
The truth is that Albanian nationalists set up a parallel society that prefigured the apartheid, mono-ethnic mono-lingual state we see today in Kosovo. this contrasts withe the rest of Serbia which is the most multi-ethnic an polglot society in Europe.
Simon B has made the rather silly mistake of relying on a notorious KLA website http://www.alb-net.com. They used to have a map of Greater Albania (it includes not only Kosovo, but most of Macedonia and swathes of Greece and Montenegro) on their homepage before they realised it was sending out the wron message.
You can see the map here
http://www.realitymacedonia.org.mk/web/news_page.asp?nid=1817
Sorry Simon, but your list of ‘facts’ are not even half-truths. For just one example, Albanians who didn’t join the indefinite (not one day) general strike were not sacked but risked assassination by the KLA. e.g. google “Fazil Hasani” and you’ll see a different story. Albanians who worked for the state as forestry workers were mysteriously not sacked, however they made easy targets for the KLA fascists.
The truth is that Albanian nationalists set up a parallel society that prefigured the apartheid, mono-ethnic mono-lingual state we see today in Kosovo. this contrasts withe the rest of Serbia which is the most multi-ethnic an polglot society in Europe.
more on this from me at the SU Blog:
http://socialistunity.blogspot.com/2007/01/truth-about-kosovo.html