WW: US/NATO guilty of WarCrimes -Yugoslavia

[carlo <pona@casaccia.enea.it>]

>Via Workers World News Service   Reprinted from the June 22, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>
>
>U.S. /NATO GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES IN YUGOSLAVIA
>          By John Catalinotto    New York
>
>An international panel of judges has found that U.S. and NATO
>political and military leaders were guilty of war crimes against
>Yugoslavia during and before the March 24- June 10, 1999, assault on
>that country.
>
>Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark was the lead prosecutor at
>the International Tribunal on U.S./NATO War Crimes against
>Yugoslavia, which met here on June 10. He urged the 500 people
>attending the all-day event to carry out this verdict by organizing a
>campaign to abolish the NATO military pact.
>
>Ben Dupuy, a former ambassador-at-large from Haiti, the Rev. Kiyul
>Chung, representing the Korean movement for democracy and
>reunification, and auto worker Martha Grevatt, national secretary of
>Pride At Work, the AFL-CIO's  constituency group of lesbian, gay, bi,
>and trans workers, read the three parts of the verdict.
>
>A panel of 16 judges from 11 countries heard eyewitnesses and
>researchers who had visited Yugoslavia, renowned political and
>economic analysts, historians, physicists, biologists, military
>experts, journalists and lay researchers.
>
>Over the past 15 months, speaking to worldwide audiences, many of
>these witnesses have presented a complete picture of the war NATO
>waged against Yugoslavia. For this tribunal, however, all limited
>themselves to a single area of expertise.
>
>Together, they provided comprehensive evidence against the political
>and military leaders of the United States and the other NATO
>countries.
>
>The judges decided that the individual testimonies taken together
>constructed a proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused are
>guilty of crimes against peace, crimes against humanity and war
>crimes.
>
>MANIPULATION OF THE MEDIA
>
>The witnesses described how NATO used the media to spread lies
>demonizing the Serbs and their leadership, and to prepare Western
>public opinion for a war. Speakers detailed the real economic and
>geopolitical motives of the imperialist powers of the United States
>and Western Europe: to seize economic control of the area, from the
>Balkans to the oil-rich Caspian Sea.
>
>A pattern of similar criminal behavior by the United States, most
>notably in the Korean and Vietnam wars, was established.
>
>Speakers demonstrated how Washington rigged the phony "Racak
>massacre" for the media and then used the so-called Rambouillet
>accord--in reality an ultimatum demanding military control of all
>Yugoslavia for NATO--to provoke the war. Taken together, this all
>proved a crime against peace.
>
>They also showed that using illegal weapons, purposely choosing
>civilian targets, and destroying the environment and the civilian
>infrastructure added up to war crimes.
>
>Expelling hundreds of thousands of people from Kosovo and Metohija,
>after the NATO bombing began, were crimes against  humanity.
>
>The witnesses' presentations were accompanied in many cases by slides
>and videotape displayed on a large screen on the stage of the
>auditorium at Martin Luther King Jr.High School in Manhattan. They
>were visible to the judges, who sat on the stage, and to the hundreds
>in the audience.
>
>In addition, pictures and videotapes were on display in the hall
>outside the auditorium. Documentary evidence was offered in books and
>research papers.
>
>The material illustrated deliberate targeting of civilians: the
>bombing of a Belgrade television station; the bombing of refugees;
>the bombing of the Chinese Embassy; the bombing of hospitals,
>schools, railroads and bridges; the destruction of the industrial and
>civil infrastructure; the use of pellet bombs and depleted uranium;
>damage to the environment through bombing petrochemical plants; and
>the tactic of repeat bombing of the same target after 10 to 15
>minutes to kill and wound members of emergency rescue teams.
>
>MANY TRIBUNALS CULMINATE IN NEW YORK
>
>The International Action Center, founded by Ramsey Clark and other
>activists in 1992, organized this final session of the tribunal.
>Similar tribunal hearings have taken place in Germany, Italy,
>Austria, Russia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia and Greece. In Athens last
>November, thousands declared U.S. President Bill Clinton a war
>criminal.
>
>Some of the witnesses in New York had also participated in these
>European tribunals.
>
>Representatives of the governments of Yugoslavia and Cuba made
>important presentations.
>
>Ismael Guadalupe from Vieques, Puerto Rico, explained in a powerful
>speech that U.S. Navy bombing exercises against his small island have
>laid the basis for U.S./NATO  aggression around the world, including
>in Kosovo, Yugoslavia.
>
>The IAC registered 511 people at the event, including justices,
>witnesses and staff. Invited speakers, witnesses and judges came from
>Haiti, Spain, Turkey, Korea, Puerto Rico, India, Germany, United
>States, Canada, Italy, Yugoslavia, Russia, Britain, Belgium, Iraq,
>Greece, Austria, France and Portugal.
>
>The U.S. government refused visas to four people from Ukraine,
>including three parliamentary deputies. Their message was read from
>the stage.
>
>There were also representatives of the Roma people--often referred to
>by the derogatory term "gypsy." Shani Rifati, a Roma witness who was
>born in Pristina, capital of Kosovo, told how NATO occupation has led
>to the expulsion of 100,000 Romas. He pointed out that the verdict
>condemned the persecution of Roma people, the first time this has
>happened in any international tribunal.
>
>Five television crews taped the entire proceedings. They included
>Serbian television and a three-camera crew from Australia, as well as
>alternate media sources in the United States such as the Peoples
>Video Network.
>
>WITNESSES IN PART I: CRIMES AGAINST PEACE * LENORA FOERSTEL of Women
>for Mutual Security and editor of the recently published book "War,
>Lies * Videotape: How media monopoly stifles truth."
>
>* JARED ISRAEL, producer of the film "Judgment" showing how the
>corporate media distorted a photograph taken in Bosnia.
>
>* JEAN HATTON  Britain--anti-war activist, on how massacre stories
>were used to justify the war.
>
>* CHRISTOPHER BLACK  Canada--one of a group of Canadian attorneys who
>filed a suit charging NATO with war crimes at what is called the
>International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia at the Hague,
>on how that court was part of the preparation for war.
>
>* MONICA MOOREHEAD, of Millions for Mumia and contributing editor to
>Workers World newspaper, on the prison-industrial complex in the
>United States.
>
>* MICHEL COLLON  Belgium--author of two books on the Balkans, "Liar's
>Poker" and "Monopoly," and contributor to the weekly newspaper
>Solidaire, on the geopolitical aims of the war--to dominate the
>Caspian oil pipelines.
>
>* KADOURI AL KAYSI  Iraqi-American--on the impact of sanctions on
>Iraq.
>
>* STRATIS KOUNIAS  Greece--vice-president of the Greek Committee for
>Peace and Professor at the University of Athens, on NATO's role in
>Greece and the Greek anti-war movement.
>
>* JOHN CATALINOTTO, journalist and researcher who represented the IAC
>at tribunals in Vienna and Belgrade, on Washington's premeditated
>plan regarding NATO and the attack on Yugoslavia.
>
>* ROLAND KEITH  Canada--monitor for the Observer Mission that was
>supposed to maintain the peace in Kosovo in 1998 before the war, on
>the real role of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
>Europe.
>
>* PRESTON WOOD, who participated in hearings in Novi Sad and who
>organized opposition to the war in Los Angeles, especially in the
>lesbian/gay/bi/trans community, on the supposed massacre in Racak,
>Kosovo, used to justify the attack on Yugoslavia.
>
>* RICHARD BECKER, West Coast co-coordinator for the IAC, on the role
>of talks held in Rambouillet, France, in February and March 1999.
>
>* GREGOR KNEUSSEL  Austria--on Austria's role in delivering the NATO
>ultimatum to Yugoslavia.
>
>WITNESSES IN PART II: WAR CRIMES & CRIMES AGAINST  HUMANITY
>
>*Prosecutor GLORIA LA RIVA on how U.S./NATO bombs hit civilian
>targets, from hospitals to bridges to factories, using the video she
>produced, "NATO Targets."
>
>*SARAH SLOAN, IAC Commission of Inquiry researcher, on NATO's claim
>that it tried to minimize damage to civilian facilities in
>Yugoslavia.
>
>* ELLEN CATALINOTTO, a midwife who has delivered over 1,200 babies to
>mostly poor women in New York City, on the NATO bombing of 33
>hospitals including damage to the maternity ward at Dragisa Micovic
>hospital in Belgrade.
>
>* PROF. IVAN YATSENKO  Russia--former Soviet officer and foreign
>representative who now teaches law in Moscow, on damage to Yugoslav
>industrial infrastructure and how it cost half a million jobs.
>
>*ELMAR SCHMAEHLING  Germany--former West German admiral and leading
>spokesperson for the German tribunal movement, on the aggressive
>posture of NATO since the collapse of the USSR and its illegal attack
>on Yugoslavia.
>
>*JUDI CHENG, IAC researcher, on the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in
>Belgrade.
>
>*DR. JANET EATON  Canada--biologist and environment expert, on
>destruction of the environment in Yugo slavia, especially the damage
>from attacks on the petrochemical plant at Pancevo and other
>industrial targets.
>
>*DR. CARLO PONA  Italy--physicist who participated in a conference in
>Belgrade about depleted uranium, on why DU is  dangerous to humans
>and how it was used in Yugoslavia.
>
>* FULVIO GRIMALDI  Italy--videographer and journalist who recently
>completed editing a film on Iraq and Yugoslavia, on the combined
>impact of bombing and sanctions on the population of Yugoslavia.
>
>* DEIRDRE GRISWOLD, editor of Workers World newspaper who recently
>visited sites of U.S. war crimes in south Korea, on the pattern of
>criminal conduct of the U.S. military in Korea and Vietnam.
>
>* SHANI RIFATI, originally from the Romani community in Kosovo and
>publisher of an English-language newsletter about Romani affairs, on
>the horrors faced by the Roma people in Kosovo under K-FOR and KLA
>occupation.
>
>* MILOS RAICKOVICH  Serb-American--composer and anti-war activist, on
>the destruction of churches and cultural sites in occupied Kosovo and
>Metohija.
>
>* PROF. MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY  Canada--historian and economist, on the
>role of the KLA and its ties to U.S. and German intelligence
>services, NATO and UN Rep. Bernard Kouchner.
>
>* SCOTT TAYLOR  Canada--former Canadian soldier and publisher of
>magazine Esprit de Corps, on the expulsion of the Serb population
>from the Krajina in Croatia by an army led by KLA General Ceku.
>
>* PROF. BARRY LITUCHY, recently returned from Yugoslavia, on how K-
>FOR participated in expelling people from Kosovo.
>
>*PROF. GREGORY ELICH, recently returned from the Balkans, on the
>anti-humanitarian nature of NATO's occupation of  Kosovo.
>
>* GILLES TROUDE  France--member of the editorial board of Balkans-
>Info, on France's role in the war and in suppressing dissent at home.
>
>* PROFESSOR JORGE CADIMA  Portugal--a regular contributor to Avante,
>the weekly newspaper of the Portuguese Communist Party, on the role
>of NATO in Portugal since 1949 and on popular resistance to the war.
>
>MESSAGES OF SOLIDARITY AND STRUGGLE
>
>* ISMAEL GUADALUPE Puerto Rico, Committee for the Rescue and
>Development of Vieques, on how the U.S. used Vieques for target
>practice to prepare for the war against Yugoslavia.
>
>* SORAYA ALVAREZ Cuba, First Secretary of the Cuban Mission to the
>United Nations, on Cuba's suit against the  U.S. for the costs of the
>embargo.
>
>* VLADISLAV JOVANOVIC, Yugoslav Ambassador to the UN, on his own
>government's charges against the U.S. and NATO for war crimes.
>
>
>JUDGES & PROSECUTORS
>
>1. BEN DUPUY  Haiti--former Ambassador at Large for Haiti under the
>first government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and currently secretary
>general of the Popular National Party (PPN) of Haiti.
>
>2. ANGELES MAESTRO MARTIN  Spain--elected member of Spanish
>parliament from Madrid and a leader in the movement to end sanctions
>against Iraq.
>
>3. CIMILE CAKIR  Turkey--journalist for newspaper serving Kurdish
>community and member of Turkish Human Rights  Association. Imprisoned
>four years in Turkey for human rights activity.
>
>4. REV. KIYUL CHUNG  Korea--chairperson of the Executive Committee of
>the Congress for Korean Unification in North America.
>
>5. JOHN NICKELS  Roma--U.S. representative of the International
>Romani Union and also a judge in the Romani community in the U.S.
>
>6. JORGE FARINACCI  Puerto Rico--leader of the Socialist Front of
>Puerto Rico and a long-time leader of the independence movement in
>Puerto Rico.
>
>7. RAY LAFOREST  Haitian-American--labor unionist in the American
>Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and a leader of
>the Haitian Coalition for Justice, an organization that fights police
>brutality in  New York.
>
>8. UMA KUTWAL  United States, originally from India-- president of
>Local 375 of the Civil Service Technical Union District Council 37 of
>American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
>
>9. DR. CHRISTA ANDERS  Germany--doctor of medicine and an organizer
>of the German/European Tribunal.
>
>10. RANIERO LA VALLE  Italy--former senator who has served 14 years
>in the Italian parliament, an anti-war leader in Catholic circles and
>spokesperson for the Italian War Crimes Tribunal movement.
>
>11. DR. WOLFGANG RICHTER  Germany--Chairperson of the Society for the
>Protection of Civil Rights and Human Dignity and a leader of the War
>Crimes Tribunal movement in Germany.
>
>12. MARTHA GREVATT  United States--National Secretary of Pride at
>Work, the AFL-CIO organization for lesbian/gay/bi/trans workers'
>rights, and active in the United Auto Workers.
>
>13. MICHAEL RATNER  United States--civil rights attorney on the
>National Board of the Center for Constitutional Rights who took the
>U.S. government to court for violating the War Powers Act in its
>undeclared war against Yugoslavia.
>
>14. YOLE STANESIC  Yugoslavia & Russia--Montenegrin poet and writer
>living in Russia, member of the tribunals in Yaroslav, Kiev and
>Belgrade.
>
>15. JOHN BLACK  United States--retired President of the Health and
>Hospital Workers Union in Pennsylvania, responsible for bringing many
>thousands of hospital workers into the union. As a teenager in
>Germany he was active in the anti-Nazi underground resistance.
>
>16. DR. BERTA JOUBERT-CECI Puerto Rico & U.S.--psychiatrist working
>in public health and organizer of Puerto Rican and African American
>anti-racist activities in Philadelphia.
>
>THE PROSECUTOR TEAM
>
>* RAMSEY CLARK, former U.S. attorney general and founder of the
>International Action Center.
>
>* PAT CHIN, Jamaican-American, International Action Center
>spokesperson for solidarity with Haiti and Yugoslavia and other
>issues.
>
>* SARA FLOUNDERS, International Action Center national co-director,
>participant in numerous tribunal hearings.
>
>* GLORIA LA RIVA, a leader of International Peace for Cuba Appeal,
>producer of video "NATO Targets."
>
>All were in Yugoslavia, either during the war or as participants in
>seminars or meetings after the war.
>
>FINDINGS
>
>The Members of the Independent Commission of Inquiry to Investigate
>U.S./NATO War Crimes Against the People of  Yugoslavia, meeting in
>New York, having considered the  Initial Charges and Complaint of the
>Commission dated July  31, 1999, against President William J.
>Clinton, Gen. Wesley  Clark, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright,
>Prime  Minister Tony Blair, Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, President
>Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema, Prime Minister Jose
>Maria Azmar, the Governments of the United States and the other NATO
>member states, former Secretary General Javier Solana and other NATO
>leaders, and others with 19 separate Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes
>and Crimes Against Humanity in violation of the Charter of the United
>Nations, the 1949 Geneva Conventions, other international agreements
>and customary international law, find the accused Guilty on the basis
>of the evidence  against them and that each of the 19 separate crimes
>alleged in the Initial Complaint has been established to have been
>committed beyond a reasonable doubt. These are:
>
>1. Planning and executing the dismemberment, segregation and
>impoverishment of Yugoslavia.
>
>2. Inflicting, inciting and enhancing violence between and among
>Muslims and Slavs.
>
>3. Disrupting efforts to maintain unity, peace and stability in
>Yugoslavia.
>
>4. Destroying the peace-making role of the United Nations.
>
>5. Using NATO for military aggression against, and occupation of,
>non-compliant poor countries.
>
>6. Killing and injuring a defenseless population throughout
> Yugoslavia.
>
>7. Planning, announcing and executing attacks intended to assassinate
>the head of government, other government leaders and selected
>civilians in Yugoslavia.
>
>8. Destroying and damaging economic, social, cultural, medical,
>diplomatic--including the embassy of the People's Republic of China
>and other embassies--and religious resources, properties and
>facilities throughout Yugoslavia.
>
>9. Attacking objects indispensable to the survival of the population
>of Yugoslavia.
>
>10. Attacking facilities containing dangerous substances and forces.
>
>11. Using depleted uranium, cluster bombs and other prohibited
>weapons.
>
>12. Waging war on the environment.
>
>13. Imposing sanctions through the United Nations that are a
>genocidal crime against humanity.
>
>14. Creating an illegal ad-hoc criminal tribunal to destroy and
>demonize the Serbian leadership. The illegitimacy of this tribunal is
>further demonstrated by its failure to bring any case regarding the
>oppression of the Romani people, who have suffered the highest rate
>of casualties of any people in the region.
>
>15. Using controlled international media to create and maintain
>support for the U.S. assault and to demonize Yugoslavia, Slavs, Serbs
>and Muslims as genocidal murderers.
>
>16. Establishing the long-term military occupation of strategic parts
>of Yugoslavia by NATO forces.
>
>17. Attempting to destroy the sovereignty, right to self-
>determination, democracy and culture of the Slavic, Muslim, Roma and
>other peoples of Yugoslavia.
>
>18. Seeking to establish U.S. domination and control of Yugoslavia
>and to exploit its people and resources.
>
>19. Using the means of military force and economic coercion in order
>to achieve U.S. domination.
>
>The Members hold NATO, the NATO states and their leaders accountable
>for their criminal acts and condemn those found guilty in the
>strongest possible terms. The Members condemn the NATO bombardments,
>denounce the international crimes and violations of international
>humanitarian law committed by the armed attack and through other
>means such as  economic sanctions. NATO has acted lawlessly and has
>attempted to abolish international law.
>
> RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION The Members urge the immediate revocation
>of all embargoes, sanctions and penalties against Yugoslavia because
>they constitute a continuing crime against humanity. The Members call
>for the immediate end to the NATO occupation of all Yugoslav
>territory, the removal of all NATO and U.S. bases and forces from the
>Balkans region, and the cessation of overt and covert operations,
>including the "International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
>Yugoslavia" in The Hague, aimed at overthrowing the government of
>Yugoslavia.
>
>The Members further call for full reparations to be paid to the
>Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for death, injury, economic and
>environmental damage resulting from the NATO bombing, economic
>sanctions and blockades. Further, other states in the region which
>have suffered economic and environmental damage due to the NATO
>bombing and economic sanctions on Yugoslavia must also be awarded
>reparations. The Members condemn the threat or use of military
>technology against life, both civilian and military, as was used by
>the NATO powers against the people of Yugoslavia.
>
>The Members urge public action and mobilization to stop new and
>continued sanctions and aggressions by the U.S. and other NATO powers
>against Iraq, Cuba, north Korea, the countries of Eastern Europe and
>the former Soviet Union, Puerto Rico, Asia, Sudan, Colombia and other
>countries. We ask for the immediate cessation of overt/covert
>activities by the U.S. and NATO in such countries.
>
>The Members believe that the interests of peace, justice and human
>progress require the abolition of NATO, which has proved itself
>beyond any doubt to be an instrument of aggression for the dominant,
>colonizing powers, particularly the United States. The Pentagon, the
>central and key element of NATO and the greatest single threat to the
>people of the world, must be disbanded.
>
>The Members urge the Commission to provide for the permanent
>preservation of the reports, evidence and materials gathered to make
>them available to others, and to seek ways to provide the widest
>possible distribution of the truth about the U.S./NATO war on
>Yugoslavia.
>
>We urge all people of the world to act on recommendations developed
>by the Commission to hold power accountable and to secure social
>justice on which lasting peace must be based.
>
>Done in New York this 10th day of June, 2000.
>
>                         - END -
>
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