Iran-Russia Military Cooperation Slipping
0059 GMT, 000414
The decade-long tenuous cooperation between Iran and Russia is now showing signs of breaking down. For reasons of national security, Russian authorities banned the studies of 17 Iranian postgraduates training in applied mechanics and automation control systems at St. Petersburg’s Baltiyskiy Technological University.

The Russian Federal Service for Currency and Export Control canceled the studies, which may be related to missile development technologies, reported ITAR-Tass April 11.

Banning the Iranians’ program of study illustrates an emerging rift in Iranian-Russian cooperation. Tehran is already looking west for foreign investment and oil markets. Without Moscow’s cooperation, it may now look elsewhere – possibly China, India or even the West – for alternate sources of defense technologies and security relationships.

After the Cold War, Russia no longer posed a threat to Iran. Due to Russia’s internal problems, its support for Iraq and the Central Asian states – which threatened Iran – dwindled. In the early 1990s, when Iran began reemerging from its isolation, it looked for help to modernize its defense capabilities. Because of the Islamic Revolution, it could not acquire the technology from the West and instead looked to Russia.

Today Iran and Russia officially maintain military cooperation agreements. But with the potential for a resumption of tensions between Iran and Iraq, as well as the security threat posed by Russia’s reemerging interest in Afghanistan, the Caucasus and Central Asia, the cooperative agreements have become largely symbolic.

Russia’s growing influence in all of Iran’s neighbors may be causing Tehran increasing anxiety. Moscow recently solidified its military presence on Iran’s northwestern border by signing a 25-year deal for a military base in Armenia. The two countries share joint military exercises, and Russia helps Armenia guard its borders against Iran and Turkey. Along Iran’s eastern border, Russian involvement remains a focal point in its foreign policy. The Central Asian states – all former Soviet republics – have security agreements with Moscow, and Russia continues to station troops there.

On its western border, Iran’s historical enemy Iraq is supported by Russia. Russian firms have signed lucrative oil deals with Baghdad in advance of an eventual lifting of U.N. sanctions. Iran would prefer Iraq to remain under sanctions and poor, thus incapable of rebuilding its military. Russia, on the other hand, has a vested interest in a wealthier Iraq. It desperately needs the $7 billion in Soviet-era debt Iraq owes to Moscow. Iran’s recent interdiction of tankers smuggling Iraqi oil is likely irritating Moscow as well.

Russian involvement in Afghanistan presents yet another problem for Iran. The civil war between the ruling Taliban and the opposition Northern Alliance has been raging for years. Now Iran and Pakistan are engaged in efforts to bring the two warring parties together for peace talks. Although both Iran and Russia historically supported the Northern Alliance, now Iran has economic reasons for establishing a relative level of stability in the region. Russia’s recent statements concerning Afghanistan could impede the negotiations.

Until now, Iran and Russia’s relations have been cooperative. Iran buys Russian military equipment, and Russia helps Tehran build nuclear reactors. Maintaining those good relations, however, just became more difficult. Moscow has said it would continue technical, military and defense cooperation with Iran, but its actions indicate such cooperation may no longer exist.

If Moscow has reversed its policy and decided to cut Iran off from its missile technologies, while at the same time Russia’s sphere of influence encircles Iran, Tehran will likely look elsewhere for its security needs. China and India, which both have missile programs, present two possibilities. Both countries have economic relations with Tehran. China has investments in Iran’s oil and gas sector, and India is currently working on a plan to build a gas pipeline from Iran via Pakistan to India. Relations between the West and Tehran have also warmed recently. Several European countries have sent ministers to Tehran in order to examine investment possibilities. The United States recently lifted sanctions on Iranian luxury goods and praised the recent win of a reformist majority for parliament.

Russia’s decision to renege on Iran may backfire. Emerging from its isolation, Iran turned to Russia in order to develop innovative technology. Now, with Russia backing off and Iran opening to foreign investment, other countries may find a closer relationship with Iran beneficial to countering growing Russian influence in the Middle East and Central Asia

Onlooker here is good news for you

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FRI APR 14 2000 03:04 P.M. G.M.T.

US Secretary of State rejects war crimes tribunal for Chechnya
WASHINGTON, April 14 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has rejected the idea of creating a war crimes tribunal to prosecute alleged atrocities committed by Russia in Chechnya, saying that war differed in key ways from Serbia's ethnic cleansing in Kosovo last year.

"These are not exactly similar situations," Albright said in testimony before a US Senate panel Thursday, noting that "it is not a determined government policy (of Russia) to cleanse ethnic Chechens."

"This doesn't excuse what is going on in Chechnya," she went on to say. "It is a terrible humanitarian catastrophe ... What the Russians are doing is unacceptable."

The secretary of state said she supported a plan by UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson to create a Russian commission to investigate war crimes allegations in Chechnya.

"We are working with our European friends in Geneva and the Human Rights Commission on making clear what needs to happen in Chechnya," she said.

SOME RANTING AND RAVING FROM PRO CHECHEN SITE

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Checchenia
by:Amad Yousef 11-06-1999 / 07:07 AM
Muslims individuals/orgoniisations should do the following:
1- Establish understanding about the cause among Muslim communities
2- Mobolize the community to help with the following
- Financial/Logistic Support
- Politicatl Support
- Media awareness of the Russian terrirosm ainst
civilian
3- Muslim communities must develoop a system were they could respond fast when Muslim countrry/group is under oppression
4- Muslim community leadres and orgonisations in the united states must develoop a system to communicate and integrate efforts with muslim communities in Europe, Africa, Asia. ...etc. and try to work with productive agendas.
5- Muslim groups in the "so called free worl" must have Muslim represintive who work on pressuring Muslim government to help reliefing oppressed muslim (or non-muslim since quran tell us to stand against oppresion in general). Also Muslim government must be pressured to take action (Economic, Political, Militery ...etc) against agresssor.

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MUST BE REALATIVE OF ABFOOLAH http://www.iviews.com/scripts/Emazeforums/program/MsgList/JumpToMessage.cfm?confID=1&forumID=10&msgID=000126-000000-000000-000000&MyStartPage=3

"Not disparity: Miscalculation by the mujahedeen. The militants didn't expect Russsia to send so many troops and to fight so sharply and awaited a second 94-96 war downturn again insteed.That's why they die, that's why they lose every fight, that's why they are poor and miserable. Because God doesn't support war and warrior (mujahedeen) are sinners. They are going to lose even the last thing they get, theyr faith in God as soon as they will discover that the Jihad is crooked."

"Miscalculations" by the Russians I'd say. The Russians envisaged the mujahideen to be "vulnerable" this time after the deadening 94-96 War. "Revenge" was on their minds. The political figures were scrambling to get there troops in Chechnya. FSB had something in mind. A "plan" was in work to digress the minds of the Russian people from the internal corruption that was dampening the economy and causing civil disorder. It was to provoke panic and deception in the public by instigating the bomb blasts, which they credulously blamed on the Chechens. It was a dirty game of politics. The plan paid off and Putin and his cronies got the green light to send their troops to Chechnya. Special OMON elite troops were sent as part of a "geared up" mission. The Russian generals promised a "quick and crushing" end to the so-called "bandit formations." They predicted the so-called "anti-terrorist" campaign to be over by the end of 1999.

At first things went smoothly. There was no sign of resistance from the mujahideen. A "walk over" in the northern plains resulted in premature celebrations. Awards were distributed to "courageous" soldiers. Putin's favorable "ratings" sky-rocketed.

The "success" was short-lived however. A wave of counterattacks left the Ruskies confused and demoralized. A "subdued" force was rising from the ashes. The mujahideen were not to be reckoned with. Eight months into the war, we're witnessing a miracle in Chechnya: A ferocious yet determined resistance by the outnumbered and outgunned Mujahideen resulting in serious Russian setbacks.

It was a "miscalculation" on the part of Russians and an underestimation of the strength, capability, and determination of the Mujahideen.

That must be from "Mohamed's Tales For Little Mohamedan Kids" Saladin. All lot of leaders are dead and others are captured and your winning?Stop smoking that weapon grade hashish.

Stock market analysis and predictions of recession

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http://www.stratfor.com/services/giu2000/021400.asp

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/justincol.html

PRESS RELEASE

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A conspicuously provoking march by the Waffen-SS veterans that took place on March 16 in Riga and the general trend of the situation in Latvia force us to draw the attention of the European and world public to a dangerous phenomenon of fascism resurgence in this allegedly civilized European country.

All that happened in Riga confirms the fact that the efforts by the international community to change the course of the Latvian leadership aimed at creation of an ethnocratic state remain fruitless. Latvia's policy results in discrimination of the Russian speaking minority in the area of human rights, language and education, splitting the Latvian society by nationality. Aggressive nationalism of certain political circles of the Latvian establishment has entered the phase of explicit apology of Nazism.

An unprecedented campaign of persecution of the antifascist resistance fighters is underway in Latvia – a campaign, which for the first time in the international legal practice has resulted in a 6 year term of imprisonment for a 77-year old antifascist veteran V.Kononov. This was followed once again, this time in the 21st century, by former legionaries of the SS division marching the streets of Riga. What is the most alarming is the fact that all this is happening with a clear connivance on the part of the government officials.

Russia is highly sensitive of the situation in the neighboring Latvia, which declares its willingness to "return to the womb of the European civilization" and join NATO and the EU. And at the same time Latvian servicemen have taken part in the march of the former SS members and have not been disallowed to do so. On the contrary, a request for permission to hold an antifascist manifestation that day was not even considered.

Our position of principle is well known: people who had fought against fascism on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition should enjoy real protection of all and every country while Nazi criminals and their accomplices should be punished. In any event, a healthy civic attitude should leave no room for public actions in support of fascism. This is precisely the case in the overwhelming majority of European countries, which, as the recent developments in Austria show, are highly apprehensive of the slightest threat of the Nazi revanche. Unfortunately, in today’s Latvia they have taken a different course while Europe’s attitude seems to be different as well. We view as highly dangerous and unacceptable any attempts at revising the verdicts of the Nuremberg tribunal, the outcome of the World War II and the entire modern system of international relations based on them.

It was not just the unfinished remnants of the SS who marched the streets of Riga on March 16. They were joined by Latvian xenophobes and chauvinists who openly marched with them through a European city i.e. those who impudently propagate the ideas of National Socialism. European history has already witnessed something similar, however the lessons of the past have not been learned by some.

I. Ivanov

Moscow, March 18, 2000

KIM A do you have opinion on last post?Watch you do not put your foot in your mouth!

Igor

Have most of your neighbors in the economically deprived area where you live comitted suicide yet?

You really are the most boring excuse for a beast that ever existed

IGOR, KISSIE, NEMESIS & YARD APE,

CNN ARTICLE AT

http://cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/04/14/warcrimes.srebrenica.ap/index.html

Srebrenica survivor describes group suicides amid massacre
April 14, 2000
Web posted at: 8:35 PM EDT (0035 GMT)


THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- A Muslim witness told a U.N. war crimes tribunal Friday how two brothers hugged -- then shot -- one another, rather than be killed by Serb executioners in the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The man, identified as "Witness P," lived through the massacre by pretending to be dead in a field of corpses. His testimony came in the genocide trial of Bosnian Serb Gen. Radislav Krstic, which began last month.

The witness was expected to be the last in a series of survivors who have described mass executions at the U.N.-declared "safe area" of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia toward the end of the 1992-1995 war.

Krstic sat silently, his chin resting in his hands, as the witness detailed the horrors. He has pleaded innocent.

Witness P was part of a column of up to 15,000 people trying to escape Srebrenica as it was overrun by the Bosnian Serb army. He described harrowing scenes of Muslim men committing suicide rather than surrender to the attacking Serbs, including the two brothers.

"They knew they would be killed," he said.

Five more people lay wounded in the brush, screaming after setting off explosives in a failed attempt to take their own lives, he added.

Like most witnesses, he agreed to testify only if his identity was protected, since he still lives in the area. He spoke from behind a screen that kept him from view of the public gallery.

Serb forces broke through U.N. defenses on July 11 and in the following week slaughtered at least 7,500 Muslim men and boys, prosecutors say. Krstic is accused of leading the army's Drina Corps, which allegedly carried out the bloodshed.

After surrendering to the Serbs, the witness spent several days packed on buses and trucks with hundreds of other Muslim refugees who were later taken to various execution sites. Men between the ages of 14 and 70 were starved, dehydrated, tortured and beaten before being gunned down by the thousands, witnesses have testified. Some drank their own urine to survive.

Witness P was driven to a killing field near a dam in the village of Potkovci just north of Srebrenica where row after row of men were lined up and killed with submachine guns, he said.

"I saw a very big field of men lying there dead. I fell over the bodies of those who had been executed before me," he told the three judges on the bench.

The witness testified he played dead for almost a day in the soccer field filled with corpses and escaped with a 17-year-old boy who was seriously injured. The witness said he bandaged the boy's gunshot wounds with his undershirt as Serb soldiers sang in the distance.

Krstic has been charged with genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. He will face life in prison if found guilty of any of the charges.

After Witness P finished, the trial was recessed until May 22, when the prosecution is expected to call military experts. The trial could last up to a year.

The tribunal was established seven years ago by the U.N. Security Council to prosecute those responsible for atrocities in the Balkans following the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1991. It has handed down prison sentences of up to 45 years to 14 Serb, Muslim and Croat defendants.

I think the rat infested barbarian Krstic should be put up on a podium, and with his kids in attendance be executed by a single grenade prominently place in his A S S !

Lets stand and applaud the work and efforts of NATO for stopping one of the worst genocide in History. And in their continuing efforts of ensuring that Justice prevails.

Without you the world would be a much darker place.

"The great masses of people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one."
Adolf Hitler, 1939.
The media continues to promote the propaganda that, "as many as 7,000 Bosnian Moslems were taken as Serb prisoners in Srebrenica, lined up, shot, their bodies placed in mass graves." Most intelligence reports put the number of Moslem troops inside Srebrenica, an alleged demilitarized "safe-haven," at 10,000. Missing from these reports however, is any reference to the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) memo, dated 9/13/95, which states: "5,000 Srebrenica Moslems left the enclave prior to its fall and were reassigned to other military duty. Their departure was kept a military secret, even from their families." John Pomfret of the Washington Post (7/18/95) wrote that he personally saw "4,000 Srebrenica men in Medjedja." Michael Evans, the Times [London] 8/2/95, wrote, "Missing Enclave Troops Found" ... "2,000 Bosnian government troops were in an area north of Tuzla." These two news articles account for 6,000 of the alleged 7,000 killed or missing in Srebrenica, without considering the ICRC memo. David Rohde of the Christian Science Monitor received a Pulitzer prize for his alleged discovery of the "Srebrenica mass grave." Rohde described finding a leg sticking out of the ground and spent shells. One leg sticking out of the ground hardly constitutes a mass grave. Did Serbs kill some of the Srebrenica men? Of course, no war is without atrocities, but most were killed in "ambush and fire fights" according to testimony of Moslem survivors. But what about those Moslems who killed each other in clashes between Bosnian government troops and civilians who wanted to surrender to the Serbs? Charles Lane, a prominent supporter of Bosnian Moslems, said in the New Republic in August, 1995 that "there were at least two such clashes." Other journalists reported to have seen "bodies of soldiers and civilians lying in the streets as Serbs entered Srebrenica." Madeleine Albright made international headlines by revealing an image taken by a super-"secret" spy satellite of what was alleged to be "the mass grave in Srebrenica." That photo turned out to be a ruse - no mass grave was found. Furthermore, some 25 journalists, including CBS's Mike Wallace, went to Srebrenica to find evidence of the "alleged," "thought-to-be," and "possible" mass grave. Those journalists neglected to inform the American public that they all came back empty-handed.