One would think that with all that concern in previous years about
Bosnia, that those activists against 'Milosevic imperialism' that
assured us so often that they were opposed to NATO also, would now be
out in massive demonstrations in the streets.  But all is quiet on the
Western Front as NATO opens its base in Bosnia.

Not much opposition flowing out of Britain against British troops in
Sierra Leone, neither.      Seems that there is more interest from world
Trotskyists in organizing opposition to unjust Russian labor codes, than
in defending Africa from more European or American military
interventions.

And all the Chomskyites are happy that the UN and Australia finally
moved into East Timor.      Never mind the tens of thousands dying in
the Indonesian instability that this chipoff for imperialism helped put
into motion.     We can always call for the UN to go throughout the
Pacific on humanitarian missions if things get too bloody.      I've
even read an article or two opposing something the authors called
Javanese imperial designs.

We on the Left might pause a second to see where all this Left support
for so-called 'self-determination' actually leads to.       It leads to
supporting 'humantarian' imperialist intervention.

It Bosnia, it led to NATO bases being installed.      And so many
socialists convinced themselves that they were equally opposing
Milosevic and NATO.      The truth is in their inactivity now.
................................Tony Abdo
_______________________________
NATO Chief Opens New Peacekeeping Base in Bosnia

SARAJEVO, Jul 20, 2000 -- (Reuters) NATO Secretary-General George
Robertson opened a new peacekeeping base in Bosnia on Wednesday almost
five years after the end of the war - recognition that stabilizing the
Balkans is a long-term task.

Robertson, on his third visit to Bosnia in around nine months as
Secretary-General, said he had seen progress in securing peace but that
it was not enough. Far too much money was still spent on local armed
forces, he said.

He told a news conference he had urged leaders of the two entities which
make up post-war Bosnia - the Moslem-Croat federation and the Bosnian
Serb republic - to cut troop numbers and integrate their militaries.

But he faces resistance. On the eve of his visit four leaders of the
Bosnian Serb republic rejected a request by the West's top Bosnia envoy
to start military reorganization under SFOR leadership, the Bosnian Serb
news agency Srna reported.

BASE COULD LAST TEN YEARS
Camp Butmir, which straddles the former front line near the capital
Sarajevo that was besieged by Serb forces throughout the 1992-5
conflict, was initially meant to house the headquarters of the NATO-led
Stabilization Force (SFOR) for just six months.

An SFOR soldier showing reporters the nearly-completed garrison said it
was designed to last up to 10 years.
Robertson said the camp, which houses around 1,000 troops and includes a
cinema, sports facilities, shops and restaurants, showed NATO's
commitment but that the SFOR mission would not last forever. He told the
news conference later there were no plans to cut SFOR troop numbers.

"SFOR's new facilities at camp Butmir, built at considerable cost and
effort, show that NATO remains firmly committed to its mission here,"
Robertson told reporters and headquarters personnel at an opening
ceremony.

"But this headquarters was not built to last forever. It was built to
make efficient use of SFOR resources and so that SFOR could better
perform its mission for as long as the United Nations Security Council
and NATO are willing to continue."

"SFOR guards the road and for the time being secures the peace," he
said, referring to some 20,000 peacekeeping troops remaining in Bosnia
compared with an earlier force of 64,000.

He added that the West's top envoy in Bosnia, the High Representative
who coordinates the peace process, and international organizations were
there to show the way but that it was up to Bosnians themselves to build
long-term stability.

WEST IMPATIENT
Western leaders, who have committed $5.1 billion to Bosnia, recently
expressed impatience with the time it is taking for local politicians to
move ahead with reconstruction, reintegration and market reform.

High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch said cooperation between the
international civilian and military organizations in Bosnia had become
more important than ever with attempts to return Moslems to hardline
Serb areas of Eastern Bosnia.
The head of the UN mission in Bosnia, Jacques Klein, last week appealed
for wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, indicted by a UN war
crimes tribunal, to be arrested before parliamentary polls in Bosnia in
November.

Asked to comment, Robertson said he was determined to see Karadzic,
Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic and Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic all taken for trial in the Hague, but declined to go into
details.

Robertson was on a tour of the region with NATO ambassadors that
included a visit to NATO-led peacekeeping troops in Kosovo, over which
Milosevic was indicted last year.