Aznar

Reflections by the Commander in Chief                     Read Spanish Version

During
a Round Table program aired on Cuban television on April 25, 2003, I
pointed out that the then Spanish President José María
Aznar, an ally of the world’s leader in genocides and massacres, had
met with President William Clinton on April 13, 1999, at an uncertain
juncture of the war in Yugoslavia, and had told him, verbatim:

"If
we’re at war, let’s make it an all-out war, in order to win, to
achieve more than a partial victory. Even if the war must last a
month, three months, let’s wage it. I don’t understand why we have
not yet bombed Serbian radio and television".

Aznar
and US government spokespeople have kept silence about this. The text
that follows has never before been published. I will use other
materials, both public and confidential, in reflections to come.

[…]
"AZNAR:
I will speak frankly. As I’ve already told President Clinton, the one
thing that cannot happen is for NATO to be defeated now. Not only
NATO’s credibility, but its very existence as well, is now at stake.
Had this conflict taken place 30 years ago, we would not have
intervened. Europe has always been plagued by ethnic cleansings,
confrontations between minorities and majorities, religious
conflicts. Today, this is no longer tolerable. From the political
point of view, we will never be in favor of Kosovo’s independence,
because of what we said before".

Referring
to Chirac, the French president, he said: "I will speak with him
tomorrow in Brussels. When I want to have a good time with Chirac, I
start by saying to him that ‘these Americans are truly horrible’. I
had dinner with him at the Elysium three weeks ago. I don’t know
what had happened between you, but he was saying terrible things
about you. I told him that was all fine and good, but that I wasn’t
there to discuss that.

"My
idea is that, in order to win the war, the lines of communication
between the Belgrade government and the people must be cut off. All
of Serbia’s lines of communication, its radio, television and phones,
must be put out.

“In
addition to this, we must restructure our information policy. NATO’s
information policy is disastrous. We’re giving people the impression
we’ve set out on an adventure, not that we’re waging a war. There are
real communication gaps. We have to go as far as we can on this,
patiently cut off all supplies and lines of communication.

“We
have to be careful with Italy and Greece. Air traffic and tourism in
Italy are being severely affected. D’Alema is doing a good job, given
the circumstances. We must not let him arrive at facile solutions.

"We
must step up humanitarian aid efforts. Our citizens must see the
efficacy of our humanitarian work as the other side of the bombings.

"It
would be senseless to change positions now. I spoke with Annan
yesterday. I saw that he had a firm stance on the matter. I stressed
this to Annan. We can be flexible, but we cannot give people the
impression that NATO is withdrawing.

"We
can be flexible with respect to whether NATO would lead this force or
not, but we cannot content ourselves with having OSCE (Organization
for Security and Co-operation in Europe) observers return. In
addition to transparency, we must have a guarantee.

"We
must continue to pursue this strategy, to see if it possible for him
to be overthrown internally" (He is referring to Serbian
President Slobodan Milosevic).

"If
a number of his generals fear that they can be accused before the
Hague Tribunal, they may cooperate. Milosevic will likely try and
come to an agreement. We must attempt to have that agreement reduce
and not increase his power.

"We
need not even touch on the matter of the land operation.

"Everyone
understands that plans are in the making, anything else would be
illogical. If our current strategy isn’t working, we have to explore
other options. It must be put on the table for consideration. If
everything we’re doing leads us nowhere, we’ll have to intervene in
the coming months. But our actions could not be limited to Kosovo.
Rather, they would include other areas of the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, going through Bosnia and Hungary, even. The Hungarian
president is a young and intelligent leader, he told me that we will
never be successful unless the following happens: Milosevic out of
office, Kosovo split into two and a reformulation of the policy
towards Bosnia-Herzegovina, to be divided as follows: a united
Serbian Republic for Serbia, the Croatian part for Croatia and an
independent Muslim part. I don’t agree with this idea, but I believe
it is gaining ground in countries in the region. It will be very hard
for Serbs and Albanians to go back to living together again. We must
continue to do what we’ve been doing, but we’ve been in Bosnia for
many years now and we don’t know when we will be able to get out of
there. The Albanians may accept the idea of a confederation, but this
will not be possible if Milosevic remains in power. 

"If
they have no guarantee of a Serbian presence in the regions that
symbolize the birth of their civilization for them, they won’t accept
it. The feeling that native soil has been lost, that this soil must
be "liberated", will arise.

"Our
priority is to win the war; we’ll see what happens afterwards".

[…]
I ask Mr. Aznar to tell us whether it is true or not that, on April
13, 1999, he advised President Clinton to bomb Serbian radio and
television.

Fidel
Castro Ruz

September
29, 2007