by Wayne Madsen, Strategic Culture
The appearance of a micro-nation called «Liberland» on the Croatian-Serbian border may indicate that the provocation and destabilization specialists funded by billionaire global troublemaker George Soros have discovered that the concept of micro-nations may serve as the latest tool for the further «Balkanization» of an overly-segmented Balkan peninsula. The appearance of small states championing libertarianism may also be a harbinger of greater involvement internationally by the deep-pocketed billionaire libertarian brothers, Charles and David Koch, who have done so much to corporatize government in the United States.
Czech national Vit Jedlicka has proclaimed the micro-nation of Liberland on unclaimed territory on the west bank of the Danube River between Croatia and Serbia but which is adjoined to Croatia by land. The parcel of land is not the only disputed territory arising from the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. Vukovar and Sarengrad islands in the Danube are also disputed territories, claimed by Croatia but occupied by Serbia.
Jedlicka staked his claim to Liberland citing the law of «terra nullius,» meaning land that belongs to no one. Jedlicka is a member of the Czech Free Citizens’ Party, which espouses right-wing libertarian policies and, while supporting the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), is opposed to the regulations of the European Union. The party is for LGBT rights, mass privatization of state agencies, and legalization of drugs and is against most taxes and opposed to environmentalism. While its stance on the EU and the environment run counter to those adopted by parties and NGOs in Eastern Europe that are funded by George Soros, the Free Citizens’ Party and Liberland are exactly the type of troublemaking operations that Soros and his minions like to support. Soros, and his support for color revolutions, have relied on gimmicks like themed street demonstrations and protests, symbols like the «clenched fist» and certain colors like red, orange, white, and yellow, and disruptive groups like Pussy Riot and FEMEN to sow dissension and chaos in countries they target for «regime change.» However, if Soros, as well as groups supported by the Koch Brothers, have now discovered micro-nations as a new means to disrupt the affairs of other nations, the world, particularly countries with disputed territories, could be in store for major trouble.
The Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States of 1933 stipulates the following are needed for statehood: a) a permanent population; b) a defined territory; c) government; and d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states. With the rise of Liberland on the banks of the Danube River, the forces of destabilization, as represented by Soros and his interventionist friends in the Obama administration and EU, may have discovered that micro-nations can be used to upset international norms. However flimsy its case for nationhood, Liberland possesses three of the four requirements for a state, a defined territory, a «population,» and a «government.» The fourth requirement, the capacity to enter into relations with other countries, may be satisfied by official contacts between Liberland and friendly Czech government officials. There is also the possibility that Croatia’s new president, former NATO official Kolinda Grabar Kotarovic, a person who has already made uncomfortable noise about Croatian irredentist designs on Serbian territory, may give an unofficial «wink and a nod» to Liberland in order to stir up trouble between Zagreb and Belgrade.
Most micro-nations that have been established over the last 50 years have been harmless and even humorous enterprises. The «Principality of Sealand,» which was declared in 1972 by a British national on an abandoned concrete fortification built by Britain during World War II in the North Sea in international waters, is a case in point. This «novelty» country, along with the Principality of Seborga in northwest Italy, the Hutt River Province in Australia, and the Conch Republic in the Florida Keys, have merely attracted the interests of stamp and coin collectors, tourists, and novelty passport applicants, not international troublemakers connected to Soros and the CIA. However, taking advantage of irredentist opportunities on the explosive Croatian-Serbian border and invoking the doctrine of «terra nullius» is a dangerous game being played out in a region plagued by calls for further and potentially-bloody «Balkanization.» There are movements in the former Yugoslavia aimed that splitting Serbia’s Vojvodina province away as an independent multi-ethnic state, whittling away majority Albanian regions of Macedonia and joining them to either Kosovo or a «Greater Albania,» and advocating independence for Muslims in the Serbian province of Sandjak.
The interests behind Liberland have received support from the Czech Civic Democratic Party of former Czech president Vaclav Klaus and the Czech Pirate Party. The Pirate Party, which is part of the larger European Pirate Party, does align itself with most of the goals of George Soros. The Pirate parties of Europe have also benefitted from the financial largesse of Soros’s Open Society Institute and Foundation.
Although the backers of Liberland claim they will govern their territory from their «capital» of Liberpolis like Liechtenstein and Monaco, they do not operate their «unclaimed land» in the manner of a traditional nation-state like Liechtenstein and Monaco. The Liberland promoters have adopted Bitcoin as their national currency and they have barred citizenship for «communists,» something that will endear them to both Soros and the Koch brothers.
The movers and shakers behind Liberland appear to have the same goals as PayPal co-founder and billionaire Peter Thiel who has announced plans to create a «floating nation-state» 200 miles off of San Francisco that will serve as a libertarian paradise. An initial floating platform powered by diesel engines would provide a home for some 270 residents but plans for the «Libertarian Island,» which sounds awfully like «Liberland,» intend to link up hundreds of such platforms with a target population in the millions by 2050. Libertarian Island will have no restrictions on guns, no welfare system, no taxation, and no minimum wage.
A similar micro-nation scam occurred in the Pacific Ocean in 1972, when a Las Vegas real estate millionaire and emigré from Lithuania named Michael Oliver, who ran an organization called the Phoenix Foundation, announced that he was going to build an artificial island on the normally submerged Minerva Reefs in the south Pacific. Like Liberland, the «Republic of Minerva» was to have no taxation, welfare, or government subsidies. Minerva would be a libertarian’s paradise. In 1971, barges dumped sand on the reef and provided enough land for a tower to be constructed and a flag to be raised. Minerva, like Liberland, also issued its own currency. The Kingdom of Tonga issued a claim over the reefs and it sent a small police force that tore down the Minerva flag and raised the flag of Tonga. A group of Americans tried to re-occupy Minerva in 1982 but they were later driven off by Tongan forces.
Oliver’s Phoenix Foundation was accused of having links to the Central Intelligence Agency. After the failure of the Minerva scheme, Phoenix attempted to split Abaco Island off from the Bahamas upon the British colony’s independence in 1973. The majority white residents of Abaco resented being ruled by a black government in Nassau. However, the Abaco rebellion was unsuccessful. In 1980, as Vanuatu in the Pacific was about to gain independence from Britain and France, Oliver and his cohorts launched an unsuccessful secessionist attempt on the island of Espiritu Santo by declaring the Republic of Vemerana. The revolt was short-lived but the plotters had links to other right-wing American groups that had been affiliated with other CIA destabilization efforts in the Caribbean and Africa. The CIA was wary of Vanuatu’s first Prime Minister, Father Walter Lini, because he espoused leftist beliefs and championed non-alignment for his new nation.
The appearance of Liberland along the Serbian-Croatian border, a frontier that some NATO expansionists consider a de facto «front line» between NATO and Russia, may portend the use of micro-nations and a lax interpretation of the Montevideo Convention as a new «soft power» weapon for the use of the Soros networks in eastern Europe. Soros and his U.S. intelligence sponsors must not be allowed to adopt micro-nations as their latest weapon to destabilize Eastern Europe and other regions where «terra nullius» situations exist.
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