Heating Oil for Yugoslavia

[Andrew.Bacelis@directory.Reed.EDU (Andrew Bacelis)]

The Portland "Coalition Against the War in Yugoslavia" fundamentally opposes
depriving civilians of supplies vital to their survival to pressure foreign
governments into compliance with US dictates.

We demand that the people of Yugoslavia be treated according to their rights
under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Conventions:

Article 54.-Protection of objects indispensable to the survival of the
civilian population

1. Starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited.

2. It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects
indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as
foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops,
livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works,
for the specific purpose of denying them for their sustenance value to the
civilian population or to the adverse Party, whatever the
motive, whether in order to starve out civilians, to cause them to move
away, or for any other motive.

3. The prohibitions in paragraph 2 shall not apply to such of the objects
covered by it as are used by an adverse Party:

(a) As sustenance solely for the members of its armed forces; or

(b) If not as sustenance, then in direct support of military action,
provided, however, that in no event shall actions against these objects be
taken which may be expected to leave the civilian population with such
inadequate food or water as to cause its starvation or force its movement.


In the case of Yugoslavia, where extensive US/NATO bombing has destroyed
public water, sewage, medical, and heating oil, [and embargoes prevent
rebuilding], we demand that such supplies be provided to ensure civilian
survival through the bitter Balkan winter. 
	In an all too familiar fashion, reminding the Coalition of the US embargo
on food and medicine to Iraqi civilians, the Clinton Administration now
wants to prevent heating oil from reaching the people of Yugoslavia. We find
Adminstration's blockage of a European Union proposal to provide civil
heating oil to be inhuman, regardless of the policy objectives served.
Finally, the European Union proposal needs to be expanded to provide
necessary heating oil to all persons, without discrimination on the basis of
the political party the city officials belong to: innocent people in both
opposition and pro-government cities face death this winter. 
	Like in Iraq for the past ten years, deprivation affects ordinary people
far more than governments. "Milosevic and his people are the only ones that
are not in danger of freezing this winter. They can manage. The others have
no chance to survive," says a nongovernmental source in Belgrade. She also
pointed out that, while they are only the majority in two major cities, not
a single city parliament in Yugoslavia does not contain opposition groups.
Even these opposition groups demand "not fuel for their members only, but
for all towns without difference."



Andrew Bacelis
for the 
Coalition Against the War in Yugoslavia

Portland, Oregon, USA