Eric Draitser Interview – John Philpot
Eric Draitser of StopImperialism.com sits down with international criminal defense lawyer and Great Lakes region specialist John Philpot to discuss the latest developments in Burundi which has been experiencing ongoing political turmoil. Draitser and Philpot discuss the coup against Burundian President Pierre Nkuruziza which took place hours earlier on May 13, 2015, and the politics and geopolitics behind it. They examine the nature of the conflict including the role of regional actors such as the brutal Paul Kagame of Rwanda, civil society organizations and international NGOs, and the neocolonial establishment of the United States and Europe. Draitser and Philpot discuss the regional history and the centrality of ethnic conflict in understanding the politics of Burundi and the Great Lakes region. Additionally, they discuss the global context within which the issue should be understood.
VISIT ERIC DRAITSER’S SITE, STOP IMPERIALISM.COM, TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW
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Gas for Greece, Mayhem for Macedonia, Apr 22, 2015, Sputnik News
-Andrew Korybko
*excerpts
At the exact same time that Greece has received a guarantee for billions of cubic meters’ worth of Russian gas, Macedonia is being rocked by the threat of a renewed Albanian insurgency designed to offset Moscow’s pipeline plans.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller announced that Russia will guarantee 47 billion cubic meters of gas a year to Greece via the Turkish Stream, which would then go onwards to supply the European market. While it’s not yet specified exactly which path the pipeline will take from Greece to the EU, it’s more than likely that it’ll go through Macedonia en route to the former South Stream’s envisioned Serbian hub, and thenceforth through Hungary, Austria, and beyond, just like Russia originally anticipated last year. There’s one major obstacle to that strategy, however, and it’s that the US is attempting to transform its failed Color Revolution in Macedonia into an Unconventional War to neutralize this geostrategic route, utilizing the specter of an Albanian terrorist campaign modeled off the Syrian template to achieve its destructive goals.
From Color Revolution to Unconventional War
In the years since the War on Yugoslavia, the US has perfected and patterned a novel method of regime change that proceeds according to pre-established escalation checkpoints. Washington first issues either a direct or implicit/covert ultimatum to the targeted government, the rejection of which serves as the ‘dog whistle’ for activating the dormant Color Revolution social infrastructure present in the country. Should that plan come to fail, then some of the associated destabilizing actors are transitioned into launching an Unconventional War. The final step, should that fail and a Great Power doesn’t diplomatically intervene (as Russia did with Syria in September 2013), is to repeat the Libyan Scenario of a conventional intervention that leaves no doubt as to the success of its regime change odds.
Adapting this template for the Macedonian application, it can be seen how the country has thus far successfully repelled the Color Revolution attempt by Zoran Zaev, which in turn led to concrete Russian investment in the country’s pipeline infrastructure that set the stage for the Putin-Tsipras agreement earlier this month. Now that the Balkan Stream pipeline plans are rapidly gaining traction, the US realized that it needs to act quickly to in order to sabotage them, hence the sudden reemergence of Albanian terrorism in Macedonia. While this problem was previously so serious as to push the country near civil war in 2001, it’s generally subsided since then, with only a handful of extremists unhappy with the generous Ochrid Agreements that guaranteed the Albanian minority vast political and social rights. Nonetheless, that hasn’t stopped the country of Albania, the US’ regional Lead From Behind proxy, from threatening regional destabilization in order to create Greater Albania.
…Here’s what to monitor as the situation further develops:
* Possible expansion of terrorist raids into Serbia’s Albanian-populated Sandzak and Presevo Valley border regions;
* Albanian/Kosovar/NATO/US military reactions and official statements to the terrorist incursion (whether in Macedonia and/or Serbia);
* The loyalty of Albanian political parties to the democratically elected government of Macedonia;
* And the ‘second wind’ potential of the Macedonian Color Revolution and its possible transformation into a EuroMaidan-like meltdown.
…Finally, be on the lookout for US/EU ‘mediation’ attempts that are nothing more than ‘good cop’ diplomatic tricks to pursue their ‘bad cop’ geopolitical designs. Also, be wary of any initiative or statement that could be interpreted as a subversive invitation for US/NATO military intervention in Serbia and/or Macedonia.”
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Brussels’s Next Balkans Ersatz State: Vojvodina, Mar 7, 2015, VoltaireNet
-Wayne Madsen
*excerpts
“If the Brussels-based European Union and NATO have their way, the Serbian province of Vojvodina will join Kosovo, previously carved by the European Union and NATO from Serbia as an ethnic Albanian state run by the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), as the next ersatz independent state in the Balkans.
After witnessing Kosovo province carved out of it by NATO troops as a result of European Union machinations, Serbia now stands to lose the fertile Danube basin province of Vojvodina to the border changers in Brussels. If recent comments by former NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy and incoming Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic are any indication, Croatia will soon serve as a bulwark in NATO’s plans to wrest control of Vojvodina from Serbia and declare it a multi-ethnic and multi-lingual independent «homeland» for Hungarians, Roma, Slovaks, Croatians, Romanians, as well as newly-arrived Albanian refugees being bussed into the region by the EU from the southern parts of what was once Yugoslavia.
Already, Vojvodina is being referred to by Soros-financed media and NGOs as the «Hungarian Kosovo,» even though 66 percent of the population of the province is Serbian. With 25 ethnic groups, Vojvodina is one of the most ethnically-diverse regions in Europe. For the NATO war planners and Soros demographic engineers, Vojvodina represents a fertile ground for ethnic conflict and further «Balkanization» of the Balkans.
…After defeating incumbent Croatian president Ivo Josipovic in a dubious razor-thin – some would say a George Soros-style 50-49 percent «engineered» – margin of victory, Grabar-Kitarovic wasted no time in laying down the gauntlet to Serbia in her victory speech. She said that she would fight for the autonomy of Croats in Vojvodina, «code» for supporting the secession of the region from Serbia.
…And in yet another example of the close ties between neo-Nazism and Zionism, Grabar-Kitarovic’s presidential political adviser and the head of her transition team is documentary film maker Jadranka Juresko Kero, yet another American implant in Eastern European governance structures and an individual who avidly supports Israel and the Zionist cause.
…Grabar-Kitarovic and her neo-con allies are pushing the meme now heard more often in Vojvodina that the region was never historically Serbian but was part of the pre-World War I Austro-Hungarian Empire. And in a repeat of what occurred in eastern Ukraine after the joint neo-Nazi/Zionist putsch against the democratically-elected government of President Viktor Yanukovych, the Serbian language and the Cyrillic alphabet in Vojvodina are being eclipsed by a desire by non-Serbs to re-brand Vojvodina as a Hungarian-Germanic nation that uses the Roman alphabet. In this, the Vojvodina separatists have the overt support of Hungarian nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the new ethnic German president of Romania, Klaus Iohannis.
The signs that Vojvodina is the next target for the neo-conservative-George Soros alliance is clear. The European Union is relocating Albanians from Kosovo, Macedonia, and Montenegro to Vojvodina. Once they arrive at Novi Sad, the major city of Vojvodina, EU interlocutors give the Albanians 35 euros for taxi fare in order that they fan out across the province and stake a claim for permanent residency. The last census for Vojvodina showed 3,360 Muslims in Vojvodina. However, the transplant of Muslim Albanians from other parts of the former Yugoslavia by the EU is clearly aimed at providing the fuel to spark a Kosovo-like rebellion for independence.
All the various Soros and neo-con constructs are hyper-active in Vojvodina. These include the National Endowment for Democracy and Soros’s Open Society Institute. Bojan Pajtić, the president of the Vojvodina provincial government, is a fluent Hungarian and English-speaker who finds himself at home with the Soros and Central Intelligence Agency-financed NGO operatives in the province who work closely with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland, the person who helped shepherd Grabar-Kitarovic to victory in Croatia and who stands ready to launch a Vojvodina war for independence among recently-arrived professional provocateurs from Romania, Hungary, Albania, and Roma camps in the Balkans.
If Ukraine is any example, what Nuland and her neocons have in store for Vojvodina will cleanse the province of its Serbs and provide a friendly country for Western oil and natural gas companies to exploit known reserves of the hydrocarbons in eastern Vojvodina, an area known as Banat.
Just as Kosovo was carved from Serbia to facilitate a trans-Balkan pipeline and provide the United State a permanent Balkans military base at Camp Bondsteel, an independent Vojvodina is designed to provide NATO with a ready supply of oil and natural gas from Banat and a fertile Danube valley for the production of genetically-modified foods. Like Ukraine, Vojvodina is being targeted by the Western military-commercial complex for hydrocarbon fracking and Monsanto agri-exploitation.
What is taking place in Vojvodina is nothing less than demographic engineering. There is an attempt to marginalize Vojvodina’s Serbian population much in the way that Serbs living in enclaves of Zubin Potok, Zvečan, Kosovska Mitrovica, and Leposavić in northern Kosovo were all-but-forgotten in the EU’s rush to declare Kosovo an independent Albanian state.
Today, NATO and other Western provocateurs have put the Ukrainian cities of Lugansk, Donetsk, and Mariupol on the front pages of the world’s newspapers as killing zones. If neocon she-devils like Grabar-Kitarovic, Juresko Kero, and Nuland have their way, tomorrow’s blood bath stories will be datelined Novi Sad, Sremska Mitrovica, Kanjiza, and Subotica, cities that sit astride ethnic fault lines in Vojvodina.”
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Andrew Korybko:
“COUNTER-COLOR REVOLUTION IDEAS:
The externally driven destabilization against Macedonia is reaching a more intense phase, seeing as how the EU, US, and OSCE now want to directly get involved. As we remember, the last time the EU ‘mediated’ a conflict, Yanukovich was overthrown just one night later. It’s time for Macedonians to peacefully mobilize in order to turn back the tide and save their country. Thus, the following are my proposals for what patriotic civil society can do as soon as possible:
*Go Viral:
Macedonians need to express to the world that they are undergoing an illegal regime change attempt by Zaev, with the full support of certain foreign intelligence elements. One of the ways to best spread a message is to go viral, and it is suggested that a viral video be filmed immediately. It should be modeled off of the “I am a Ukrainian” format used by EuroMaidan, but in stead of advocating regime change, it needs to talk about national stability and the need for all Macedonians (Slavic, Albanian, government supporters, and ‘opposition’) to come together at this dire time.
*Slogan:
The pro-Macedonian movement needs to utilize simply slogans both in Macedonian and in English (in order to attract more international attention) during its campaign. Some ideas are “What about the NSA?”, “We’ll demonstrate if you mediate!”, “Our country, our choice”, “No Maidan in Macedonia!”.
*Social Network Groups:
One of the most important things that must be done is the creation of friendly Facebook groups to organize patriotic activists. It’s also critical that some individuals create a Twitter account to upload pictures of their patriotic manifestations so that foreign press can link to it in their coverage. This will help the movement in going viral and in showing Macedonian unity.
*Make Family-Friendly Patriotic Demonstrations/Rallies:
The idea here is to copy the peaceful Color Revolution template previously deployed in other targeted states and make it one’s own for the movement. Some proposals include music, food, balloons, and short speeches once an hour by people of different age groups who support a stable Macedonia and are against outside interference in their country’s affairs. One place where this could happen, with the proper permission, could be Macedonia Square in central Skopje. The idea is to ‘take’ the ‘Color Revolution space’ in advance before hostile elements seize it for their nefarious purposes. By making the demonstrations/rallies family-friendly and fun, the image can be positively projected that Macedonians are peacefully organizing to tell the world that they love their country and will not tolerate this coup attempt.
*Be Respectful And Inclusive:
Any violent or hateful elements must be immediately removed. Also, demonstrations/rallies are not limited to Macedonia alone. ALL Macedonians abroad are encouraged to do the same thing in their local parks or city squares wherever they live, and to take pictures of the event and share it on the Facebook groups. This will show more solidarity and help the pro-Macedonia movement go viral.
*Attract Foreign Media:
One of the most important results we are aiming for is to have supportive foreign media report on the counter-Color Revolution and pro-patriotic movement. I’ll try my hardest to have Sputnik cover the events as best as I can, but I encourage all of you to reach out to Russian media on social networks and via email asking them to report more on these events. Hopefully we can show them how important it is for Russian media to support Macedonia during this challenging time.
I suggest that everyone post any pictures/media related to their counter-Color Revolution events on the Balkan Defense News Network page to inform others of your active resistance to the US destabilization.
Together we can defeat the Color Revolution and restore stability to Macedonia!”
Filed under: anti-imperialism