Dr. Jai Maharaj wrote in message ...
>THE WAR IS ABOUT THE MINES OF KOSOVO
>
>Workers World newspaper
>July 30, 1998
>By Sara Flounders
>
> --------------------------------
> Via Workers World News Service
> Reprinted from the July 30, 1998
> issue of Workers World newspaper
> --------------------------------
>
>KOSOVO - 'THE WAR IS ABOUT THE MINES'
>
>By Sara Flounders
>
>Wars are at root about economics, and the rapidly expanding war in
>Kosovo is no different. So why have millions of dollars in high-
>tech weapons suddenly become available to the so-called Kosovo
>Liberation Army by way of the U.S. and Germany?
>
[snip]
>
>Kosovo is often portrayed in the media as an isolated mountainous
>region thatís poor and without resources. It might seem, from these
>accounts, to be an area of interest only to those who live there.
>
>The New York Times, for example, has carried dozens of such
>articles by Chris Hedges in the last six months. Only once, on July
>8, did Hedges write about the real wealth of Kosovo's Stari Trg
>mining complex. It was a tip-off that something more was at stake
>in this war.
>
>Hedge's visit to the Stari Trg mining complex is an eye opener. He
>describes the glittering veins of lead, zinc, cadmium, gold and
>silver in Stari Trg.
>
>According to Hedges, "The sprawling state-owned Trepca mining
>complex, the most valuable piece of real estate in the Balkans, is
>worth at least $5 billion."
>
>According to the mineís director, Novak Bjelic, "The war in Kosovo
>is about the mines, nothing else. This is Serbiaís Kuwaitó, the heart
>of Kosovo. ... In addition to all this, Kosovo has 17 billion tons
>of coal reserves."
>
>The whole world knows and observed first hand in the war against
>Iraq to what horrendous extent the Pentagon was willing to go in
>order to guarantee control of the oil wealth of Kuwait.
>
>But the enormous mineral wealth of Kosovo is never publicly
>discussed by U.S. United Nations Ambassador Richard Holbrooke,
>President Bill Clinton or the Pentagon generals. They speak only of
>"self-determination" of the Albanian population of Kosovo. Of
>course, they never mention what U.S.-imposed "self-determination"
>means. It means colonization under the guise of "liberation," like
>what the U.S. did to Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines a
>hundred years ago.
>
>An Internet search for reports on the mines of Kosovoó the Trepca
>mining complex or Stari Trgó turned up only the one article by
>Hedges and a small piece in the June 22 Wall Street Journal. All
>other mentions are in metallurgical journals.
>
>How could this vital fact be omitted from all discussion of what is
>at stake in Kosovo? It is comparable to describing Kuwait and the
>oil-rich Gulf states as barren deserts.
>
>The wealth of Kosovo is greater than the rich veins of ore in the
>mines. Hedges describes the mining complex: "The Stari Trg mine,
>with its warehouses, is ringed with smelting plants, 17 metal
>treatment sites, freight yards, railroad lines, a power plant and
>the country's largest battery plant."
>
>The labor power of millions of workers throughout socialist
>Yugoslavia built this mining complex into the powerhouse it is
>today. It was their wealth that was invested in developing the
>complex. It belongs not just to those who live in Kosovo, but to
>the workers of all Yugoslavia.
>
>The Yugoslav web site www.yu.gov describes Trepca as the
>"richest lead and zinc mines in Europe."
>
>Lignite deposits in the Kosovo mines are, according to experts,
>sufficient for the next 13 centuries. The capacity of the lead and
>zinc refineries ranks third in the world.
>
>Miners work round the clock, day and night, in six-hour shifts.
>
>According to the mine director, "In the last three years we have
>mined 2,538,124 tons of lead and zinc crude ore and produced
>286,502 tons of lead and zinc and 139,789 tons of pure lead, zinc,
>cadmium, silver and gold."
>
>Although the average person watching the news in the evening has
>never heard of Stari Trg, it has been a prize changing hands for
>two thousand years.
>
>The wealth of Stari Trg is legendary. Precious metals were mined
>there more than 2,000 years ago, first by the Greeks, then by the
>Romans.
>
>These mines were the grand prize in the Nazi occupation of the
>Balkans after Germany grabbed control from the British. The mines
>have great industrial and military importance. The Nazis used
>batteries produced there to power their U-boats. Today submarine
>batteries are still made there.
>
>Profits from these mines are helping to keep the Yugoslav
>Federation afloat. U.S. and UN sanctions imposed on Serbia and
>Montenegro, the two remaining republics of Yugoslavia, have taken
>an enormous toll.
>
>Without investment credits, loans for financing industry, imports
>and exports, the economy has been stifled. Inflation has weakened
>the currency. The mines, which once were the largest employer in
>the province, have also been affected.
>
>The most important words in Hedge's article are the description of
>the complex as "state owned." Throughout this decade, as the
>capitalist market has swept over the former socialist countries of
>Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, socialist Yugoslavia has
>attempted to resist privatization of its industry and natural
>resources.
>
>To break this resistance, the Western imperialist countries played
>a major role in the breakup of socialist Yugoslavia.
>
>This huge complex of mines, refining, power and transportation in
>Kosovo may well be the largest uncontested piece of wealth not yet
>in the hands of the big capitalists of the U.S. or Europe.
>
>The industry, natural resources and transportation of all the
>former Soviet republics, the socialist countries of Eastern Europe,
>and the secessionist republics of Yugoslavia are now being rapidly
>privatized. No one within the region has the wealth or connections
>to finance capital to buy controlling shares of these vast state-
>owned industries. The major Western corporations are gobbling these
>industries up.
>
>While the fate of some industries is still in negotiation, the
>lending and credit conditions of the International Monetary Fund
>and the World Bank require the breakup of all state-owned
>industries. This is true for the oil and natural gas wealth in the
>Caucasus and the Caspian Sea as well as the diamond mines of
>Siberia.
>
>The decision on who will own or have controlling interest in the 22
>mines and the many processing plants of the Trepca complex will be
>made by whoever wins the armed struggle raging in Kosovo. NATO
>domination on the ground would put U.S. corporations in the best
>ownership position. Nationalist strife advances their position.
>
>Although being forced to privatize in order to survive in today's
>global market, Yugoslavia has tried to control the process and to
>propose Balkan regional development.
>
>According to the June 22 Wall Street Journal, the Yugoslav
>Federation is in negotiations to sell shares in the Trepca mining
>complex. Forced by the economic crisis, they have been negotiating
>with a Greek investor Mytilineos Holdings SA for partial ownership.
>
>The former manager of the mines, Byrhan Kavaja, who is now allied
>with the opposition to the Yugoslav government, has written to all
>corporations dealing in soft metals to tell them not to make
>agreements with the Yugoslav government. Kavaja says that once a
>new government is in power, all past decisions on ownership will be
>invalidated. The opposition will make "new agreements." Who is
>likely to be the beneficiary of these agreements?
>
>The progressive movement in the U.S. and throughout Western Europe
>must be at the forefront in explaining that the billions of dollars
>spent on the U.S./NATO occupation of the region is not in the
>interests of any of the people of the Balkans. Nor is it in the
>interests of poor and working people in the U.S. or Europe. The war
>is destroying all that was built through collective ownership and
>collaboration in the Balkans.
>
>This war will mean higher taxes and even more cuts in social
>programs in the U.S and Europe. But the billions of dollars in
>profit will go to a few wealthy stockholders in the U.S. or in
>Western Europe.
>
> - END