Russia Hopes that the USA may Eventually Lift Cuban Embargo

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According to Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin, Russia hopes that the Americans will follow their decision to ease their blockade of Cuba with other moves that’d fully lift the blockade. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution urging Washington to give up its trade embargo, which is now in its 51st year. Recently, the USA somewhat eased the blockade. Specifically, it’s removed the restrictions concerning visits by US citizens to their relatives in Cuba, as well as allowing cash remittances. Churkin feels that the unilateral US sanctions have proved incapable of affecting the Cuban people’s choice of the model of social development, but have only served to lower the island country’s living standards.

Once again, the UN General Assembly demanded that the USA “in the shortest possible time” lift its commercial and financial embargo against Cuba. The USA started the blockade 51 years ago, and it seriously undermined the island’s economy of the island. 186 UN member states supported the resolution; three countries voted against it (the USA, Israel, and Palau), and two abstained (Micronesia, Marshall Islands). The resolution calls on the international community to refrain in future from destructive actions such as those taken by Washington against Cuba. As the resolution emphasised, these actions are contrary to all countries’ obligations under the UN Charter, and under international law.

14 November 2012

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_11_14/Russia-hopes-US-may-eventually-lift-the-blockade-of-Cuba/

 

What is NATO/KFOR Really Doing in Kosovo?

THIS is what Bill Clinton, GWB, and Obama wanted in Kosovo… all of them, without exception. That is, the crank American policy isn’t specific to either the Republican or Democratic Parties. America has fallen a long way since the days of FDR… THIS is the proof. “You can’t fight City Hall”… true, but you don’t have to cheerlead for it, either. Pay your taxes, vote, don’t give them an  excuse to repress you… we don’t live in the America of FDR any more… more’s the pity. 

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We mustn’t forget that NATO is a military organisation; military organisations have one purpose, the legalised killing of the opponents of a given state. No matter how splendid its propaganda, NATO’s an outmoded organisation, it should’ve disappeared at the end of the Cold War; it’s become one of the most destabilising factors and causes of death and destruction in modern times. Don’t forget, NATO operates as a proxy for the USA in promoting US interests in areas of the world where the USA can’t rightfully interfere, although, in reality, that does little to stop the Americans.

For the moment, let’s put aside the destruction of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and other countries obliterated by Western “intervention” and look at Kosovo. What exactly is the USA, I mean NATO, I mean KFOR, doing in Kosovo? What’s their objective in the country? Who or what are they protecting, and what are they stationed there for? When we look at what they’ve been doing since June of 1999, in reality, it doesn’t look good. As I wanted to be fair and impartial when gathering material for this piece, one of the first places I went to was their own website. Not surprisingly, it’s full of the usual Western catch phrases and pseudo-reasoning that many in the West gobble up to justify the killing and destruction they wreak on the world. Words and phrases like multi-ethnic force, assistance to civil authorities, civil protection, and my favourite sentence, “KFOR is cooperating with and assisting the UN, the EU and other international actors, as appropriate, to support the development of a stable, democratic, multi-ethnic, and peaceful Kosovo”. It sounds good, but its poppycock. Firstly, who are these “other international actors?” The drug dealers and traffickers in human organs? The Mafia killers? The US imperial paymasters? The US-sponsored war criminals? As for a stable blah-blah multi-ethnic Kosovo, well, obviously, that means one free of Serbs, and this, my dear reader, is what it’s all about.

Let’s go back in time a bit to February 2008, the month after protestors attacked the US Embassy in Belgrade. The former Bush Administration finally admitted, after starting two wars of aggression and the subsequent occupation of sovereign nations, their extensive use of torture, the extraordinary renditions, the illegal prison at Guantánamo, and extensive black sites worldwide. They admitted that there was such a thing as international law.

The destruction, dismantling, and division of Yugoslavia into “ethnically pure” sections was the crowning achievement of Hillary’s husband, former president Bill Clinton, so, the ultimate on the destruction of former Yugoslavia, namely, the “independence” of Kosovo, was something she wholeheartedly embraced. Like Hillary’s famous quote on the death of Muammar Gaddafi, “…we came, we saw, he died”, her statement on Kosovo’s separation from Serbia also showed monumental callousness and complete disregard for human life and dignity. Pretending to be so wise as to the local language, as the US State Department did with the “Overload” button disgrace, she used the Albanian word for Kosovo, “Kosova”, she referred to Kosovo by the Albanian “Kosova” and stated; “…it’ll allow the people of Kosova to finally live in their own democratic state. It will allow Kosova and Serbia to finally put a difficult chapter in their history behind them and to move forward”. Here’s the problem, though… it ripped out the heart of the Serbian people.

According to Nebojša Malić at Global Research.ca, there can be no doubt that the March 1999 attack on Yugoslavia was illegal; he listed the following citations:

1. Article 2, Section 4 of the UN Charter: “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state…”
2. Article 53 (Chapter VIII) of the UN Charter: “…no enforcement action shall be taken under regional arrangements or by regional agencies without the authorisation of the Security Council”.
3. North Atlantic Treaty of 1949, Article 1: “The Parties undertake… to settle any international dispute… by peaceful means…”
4. North Atlantic Treaty of 1949, Article 7: “This Treaty… shall not be interpreted as affecting… the rights and obligations under the Charter of the Parties which are members of the United Nations, or the primary responsibility of the Security Council for the maintenance of international peace and security”.
5. Helsinki Final Act of 1975, against violating the territorial integrity of a signatory state
6. 1980 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, against using coercion to compel a state to sign a treaty, i.e., the Rambouillet ultimatum

Finally, Yugoslavia didn’t attack any NATO member, nor was it a security threat to any country in the region. What NATO did on 24 March 1999 was a war of aggression and a crime against humanity. Therefore, if the invasion was illegal, then, obviously, the ensuing occupation was as well, and everything KFOR/NATO/USA is doing there is also illegal. Ergo, what does KFOR do in Kosovo? With an almost total and complete media blackout, and I’ve seen witnessed this myself, we receive little news from the area. However, the reports that we do get tell us of constant and methodical limitation to the freedom of movement and supplies to the Serbian population, in particular, in Northern Kosovo, and of the continued practise of limiting Serbs to certain areas or ghettos, making them refugees in their own country. This serves to ethnically cleanse and divide the country along ethnic and racial lines, a situation like that in most American cities, a comparison that I can’t help but make. KFOR also protects, enables, and provides support for the belligerent side they’ve chosen to support in this conflict. There are many reasons for this state of affairs, but one of the main ones is money, much money, which has filled KFOR coffers for years on end, and, according to countless media reports going back for years, from countless illicit sources (that’s a topic for a later discussion).

On Friday, there was another incident; KFOR opened fire, this time with rubber bullets, on peaceful Serbs as the KFOR units blocked an important road. KFOR attempted to make Serbs accept Kosovo licence plates for their cars, an obvious transparent attempt to make them recognise Kosovo as an independent entity. A press release from the SPC Diocese of Raška-Prizren stated that they’re concerned about KFOR’s latest actions in northern Kosovo, it stated, “Attempts to force the Serbs in the north to accept Kosovo licence plates by using combat vehicles and blocking roads that are the main channel for supplies and medicines, creates a serious humanitarian crisis that could have immense consequences”. The Diocese also strongly urged all sides to work constructively to find solutions that contribute to the survival of the Serbian population, wherever they might be, throughout Kosovo and Metohija. The Serbian people are fighting for their very existence, but KFOR and the “West” see Kosovo as just another pawn in a filthy game of geopolitical influence and power. As soon as they use it up, or they no longer need it, they’ll throw it away, as well.

17 June 2012

John Robles

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_06_17/78430201/

Editor’s Note:

Orthodox people should take note. Some OCA factions support the US occupation of Kosovo and the immoral Dayton Accords (brokered by the infamous and soulless Richard Holbrooke), not their Serbian co-religionists. Nikon Liolin hobnobbed with one of the UÇK junta, and oca.org used the Albanian misnaming of Kosovo. That’s unforgivable. The Centre stands 100 percent behind Serbia and the rights of the Orthodox population. Yet, elements in the OCA don’t, and Jonas Paffhausen gives aid and comfort to people like the American Enterprise Institute, who support the Bosnian and Kosovo bandits. That’s a symptom, kids, of a deadly illness. Is there hope on the way? God willing, yes…

By the way, John Robles was shafted by the Bushies. They refused to issue him a new passport in 2007, claiming that he owed back child support in California, which wasn’t true. The Russian government granted Mr Robles asylum. That’s how LOW we’ve fallen, kids. That wouldn’t have happened in FDR’s time… or in Ike‘s, or even in Richard Nixon‘s time… ponder that.

BMD