Pristina
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NEW YORK - March 23 - The International Action Center called for nationally coordinated demonstrations to oppose any U.S./NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. There will be demonstrations in New York, Minneapolis, Washington, DC, San Francisco and elsewhere in the event of a NATO attack. In New York City a "day after" action will be held in front of Grand Central Station at 42nd Street and Park Avenue at 5:00 p.m. the day following any bombing. "Everyone who is opposed to the U.S. bombing of Iraq and the recent bombing of the pharmaceutical plant in the Sudan, or the Pentagon's criminal role in Central America should oppose this latest bloody aggression," said Sara Flounders Co-coordinator of the International Action Center. "NATO and the U.S. have no right to bomb people in Yugoslavia or anywhere else.
"The so-called negotiations were based on the demand that Yugoslavia accept a foreign army of occupation on their soil. It's a violation of the UN Charter and international law and represents a dangerous new level of international lawlessness. The `negotiations' only offered Yugoslavia two choices, 1. Submit to a foreign occupying army or 2. Be bombed. That's not negotiations, that's an ultimatum.
"Any bombing is not to defend the Albanian population of Kosovo anymore than the war on Iraq was to defend the people of Kuwait. It's a war for domination and economic control of the entire region.
"This NATO action creates a threat of wider war in the region," said Flounders. "It shows the Pentagon's determination to build a new series of bases such as the ones that the US has in Bosnia, Hungry, Croatia, Albania, and Macedonia already. This is all about the dangerous expansion of NATO as a US commanded force."
Flounders continued, "Money can always be found for war, never for healthcare or Medicaid/Medicare or social security. We will show that there is opposition inside the U.S. to this type of illegal war."
Call the International Action Center for information and interviews at 212-633-6646.
International Action Center 39 West 14th Street, #206 New York, NY 10011
212-633-6646 fax 212-633-2889 http://www.iacenter.org iacenter
iacenter.org
This is a site on Kosovo with photographs and articles by women, about real people. The tone is so different from what we read here! Worth the visit, definitely!
NEWS Update: From Independent Women Journalists in Kosova http://www.neww.org/kosova/kosovapg2.htm
Viviane
The short item below gives us a very good insight into why the bombing action against Serbia is dangerous and unlikely to accomplish anything good.
From the International Action Center
NATO: U.S. police force for the world The movement of NATO forces against Yugoslavia is part of the new military doctrine laid out by the Clinton Administration. On Dec. 8, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presented the plan to a meeting of NATO foreign ministers. Albright laid out a blueprint for turning NATO into an aggressive global police force.
The Kosovo precedent: A report in the Dec. 5 International Herald Tribune said of the NATO authorization of military action against Yugoslavia: "Washington sees this as a precedent for a new NATO." It goes beyond the Balkans, to authorizing actions anywhere in the world. NATO is acting in the Balkans under U.S. initiative and without even a United Nations mandate.
What we aren't hearing in the U.S. media Military expansion in the Balkans is being justified by reports of an alleged massacre of Albanians in Kosovo. The reports are based on accusations made by William Walker from the U.S. State Department. Walker heads the Kosovo Verification Mission. But Walker's account has been strongly disputed by several major European newspapers, including Le Monde and Le Figaro. These papers assert that the allegations of a massacre are a fabrication.
Walker is not an independent, neutral observer. He represents the U.S. government. He has a sordid history in his years of work in Central America with U.S.-trained death squads in El Salvador. And he was responsible for setting up a so-called humanitarian operation that was used as a cover for the contra war to overthrow the government of Nicaragua.
What the Pentagon is really doing: The Pentagon's NATO expansion into the Balkans is not about helping the people of Kosovo. It's just like the U.S. war against Iraq, which had nothing to do with helping the people of Kuwait, despite all the propaganda claims. Just as in the Middle East, this is about expanding U.S. domination.
Supported by: Covert Action Quarterly, Five Towns Forum, International Action Center, Jewish-Serbian Friendship Committee, Metro Peace Action, North Jersey Independence Alliance, Project Censored, War & Peace Foundation, Women's Strike for Peace, Women for Mutual Security http://www.iacenter.org/breaking.htm
"NATO's unwise, counterproductive and non-legal bombing of sovereign Yugoslavia is justified by President Bill Clinton, EU and other Western leaders and media with reference to humanitarian concerns. Supposedly air strikes serve to stop ethnic cleansing, future massacres, refugee flows, and prevent innocent children and women from being killed. Diplomatically expressed, this comes from the marketing department. Bombings will to produce what it purports to prevent," says Dr. Jan Oberg, TFF's director, right after the bombing campaign has started.
NO VIOLENCE-PREVENTION Why did the West do absolutely nothing before this crisis became violent? There were many opportunities for a negotiated solutions. TFF, for instance, has suggested a variety of options since 1992 that could have prevented violence and the killing we've seen the last year. In no other conflict has there been so many early warnings and so little preventive diplomacy. Kosovo's catastrophe was among the most predictable of all. It is intellectual nonsense that 'everything else has been tried and NATO bombings was the only option left.'
HUMANITARIAN WORK MADE IMPOSSIBLE BY NATO THREATS The immediate consequence of the threats of NATO air strikes is that OSCE's Verification mission had to be withdrawn and that almost all humanitarian organizations withdrew to protect their staff. More refugees are now running over the border to Macedonia. With fewer ears and eyes on the ground, its free for all sides - NATO included - to step up the killing.
THIS WILL MAKE SERBS AND ALBANIANS HATE EACH OTHER (MORE) NATO bombings will be perceived as a punishment of Serbs and a clear support to Albanian hardliners. Serbs will feel that it was the Albanian side that called this hell upon them. Thus, the little hope we may have had about Serbs and Albanians living peaceful together or as trustful neighbours in the foreseeable future, is now gone. Producing hate is the opposite of a humanitarian effort.
MANY MORE DIE IN OTHER CONFLICTS, WITHOUT HUMANITARIAN CONCERNS The Kosovo war has caused the death of about 2.000 people during the last year. This is serious, every human life is sacred. However, the international community has chosen NOT to intervene in the following when: 80.000 have been killed in Algeria; perhaps 10.000 in the Ethiopian-Eritrean war the last couple of weeks; 820,000 in Rwanda the last five years; 1.500,000 in Sudan the last 15 years; more than 1 million people have died because of the Western sanctions against the Iraqi people; perhaps as many as 500,000 have died in Burma since 1948.
THE WORLD'S REAL HUMANITARIAN PROBLEMS ARE NOT ADDRESSED An estimated 100.000 people's die PER DAY, around the world - not in wars but because they lack the most basic such as water, clothes, shelter, food, medicine. 100 mill people have no home; there are already some 40 million refugees; 70 Third World countries have lower standards of living today than 30 years ago; at least 800 million people go hungry to bed. In money terms, a fraction of the world's military expenditures could alleviate most of that suffering.
THERE IS ALWAYS MONEY FOR WEAPONS BUT NOT FOR HUMAN BEINGS The world's military expenditures - NATO making up most of it - equals the combined income of the 50% poorest of the world's population. Pentagon alone spends 20 times more than the entire budget of the United Nations. And the UN - the world's most important humanitarian organization - is completely ignored in the Kosovo conflict and, these very days, forced out of Macedonia. When will the media begin to ask what this type of 'peace'-making costs - and what we could do in terms of real relief and peace for a similar sum?
THERE HAVE LONG BEEN LARGER HUMANITARIAN PROBLEMS IN YUGOSLAVIA 250.000 citizens are now displaced inside Kosovo or refugees in Macedonia - about 10% of the Kosovo-Serbs and 10% of the Kosovo-Albanians. They certainly need help. But so do the 650.000 mostly Serb refugees (according to UNHCR) who have fled from Croatia, Bosnia and elsewhere during the dissolution of ex-Yugoslavia, about half of them ethnically cleansed from Croatia in 1995. from Croatia. It's Europe's largest refugee problem - largely going unnoticed.
SANCTIONS CREATE HUMANITARIAN PROBLEMS Why has the West upheld various types of sanctions against the people of Yugoslavia since 1991? The majority of citizens suffer one way or the other from that, not the least the sick and the pensioners. They and everybody else will stand behind President Milosevic in this crisis.
IS THIS RHETORIC AIMED TO CONVINCED WOMEN? All the 'soft' humanitarian coating of this type of militarist policies is probably an attempt to convince women, soldiers' and pilots' wives and mothers and the general do-good sentiment in the American public. But will they still believe this when the casualty figures rise?
Says Dr. Oberg: "Our thoughts go to all friends and colleagues of the foundation, Serbs, Albanians, Macedonians and others in all of the region, innocent good-hearted people who are again to pay the price for 'politics' and power game by their own leaders and the international community's leaders. Citizens in NATO countries were not heard either. Thus, I draw the following conclusion about this type of B-52 humanitarianism," says Dr. Oberg:
© TFF 1999 You are welcome to reprint, copy, archive, quote from or re-post this item, but please retain the source.
Dr. Jan Oberg Director, head of the TFF Conflict-Mitigation team to the Balkans and Georgia
T F F - Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research Vegagatan 25, S - 224 57 Lund, Sweden Phone +46-46-145909 (0900-1100) Fax +46-46-144512 Email tfftransnational.org http://www.transnational.org
Considering the events in Yugoslavia, we appeal to the government of the United States and its allies in NATO to cease further hostilities and disassociate rapidly from military attacks on Yugoslavia.
The unsanctioned violence has brought before the nations of the world an example of a dangerous transgression of the rule of law._*/ It leaves to the United States scars of the loss of its legal and moral prestige and authority which will continue to be seen long after the last explosions of missiles hit a nation, once known to the world as an unhesitant U.S. and Russian ally which defended victims of Nazism in WW2.
Yet, more, in 1999 the world is aware that U.S.-led reforms in Russia have taken the two nations in a nuclear sledge on its way to disintegrate at a world precipice. Such a global situation awaits remedy by the two nations and we jointly and severally appeal for an end to a panic coalesced in a few offices, a decision that creates carnage and destruction in Yugoslavia.
We are confident that (a) the true causes of the insurgency in Kosovo and (b) the mediation of a peaceful solution can be brought out by UN inspection if no manipulation of multi-lateral neutrality is seen by the world.
Therefore - We appeal to the President of the United States to stop all military operations against Yugoslavia.
We appeal to members of the U.S. Congress to urge the President to put an end to the American participation in this war.
We appeal to American citizens to write to their legislators to protest an unsanctioned act of violence using powerful explosives.
Send organizational support & solidarity: Russ McGinnis
The violence supports the spread of anarchist sentiments such as those of decorated U.S. soldier Timothy McViegh who told Court when sentenced for the Oklahoma City bombing: "Government is the great teacher."
Serbian Radio in Belgrade on September 22 broadcast a scathing commentary, charging Germany with "warmongering" and warning Europe against the alleged rebirth of German fascism. The commentary noted that German Defense Minister Volker Ruehe continues to threaten Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) that no UN Security Council approval is needed for military intervention in Kosovo. It cited German Interior Minster Manfred Kanther's comment that "The Serbian leadership only understands the language of force. No less." It also charged that, when the FRY Foreign Ministry protested comments made by Ruehe and German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, Kinkel's office wrote the protest off as "unfounded."
More pointedly, Serbian Radio cited Germany's record in the two World Wars, and charged that Germany harbors "open ambition to become the master of Europe." Questioning Europe's silence on Germany's behavior, commentator Milika Sundic said, "It is difficult to comprehend and accept that Europe has become Germany's slave." Sundic went on to claim that "Germany contributed the most to the breakdown of the former Yugoslavia," and that "Serbia has known for some time that Germany was behind the terrorism in Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija]."
In a rousing rhetorical crescendo, Sundic warned, "Fascism was defeated in Europe 53 years ago. Today, we are witnessing its rebirth, once again in Germany. If Europe does not put an end to this evil, it will be an accomplice to fresh bloodshed and, we are certain, become a victim of German militarism."
The fact is that Germany is one of the leading voices pushing for NATO intervention in Kosovo. In a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Portugal on September 24, which resulted in a virtual ultimatum to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to cease the fighting in Kosovo or face NATO air strikes, only Germany's Ruehe called for a firm deadline to be set for intervention. Ruehe said, "We must move quickly to an ultimatum in the next ten days or less... We must do something for the people on the ground and not just issue one more resolution after another." In addition, thus far only Germany, the Netherlands, and Portugal have committed combat aircraft to any future air campaign against Serbia.
Ruehe has argued against awaiting a UN mandate on the use of force against Serbia. Said Ruehe, "Pictures of people [in Kosovo] camping out in the open... are in themselves an ultimatum." Moreover, and more to the point, Ruehe said, "We must avoid to be dependent on a Russian veto." He claimed that the current relationship between NATO and Russia presumes that "Russia has no veto whenever NATO needs to act."
German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel has taken a more cautious tone, stating that the draft resolution of the six-nation "Contact Group" did not constitute legal grounds for intervention. He also challenged Ruehe's assertion that military action was imminent within the next three to five weeks. However he did charge that "Most of the responsibility for this drama lies with Belgrade, with President Milosevic. He must realize the international community will move with military force if necessary. NATO is prepared to provide the backing for a political solution."
Germany is leading the campaign for a quick and, if necessary, military solution to the conflict in Kosovo. However, this is not because the stormtroopers are polishing up their jackboots. Germany has serious concerns, not only with the seemingly unending brushfire war in the Balkans, but also with the political survival and ascendency of Milosevic and the Serbs. Germany understands the new strategic situation developing in Europe, particularly the return of a more aggressive Russia. An unchecked Serbia not only provides a foothold for Russia in southern Europe, but also sets a disturbing precedent. Lack of Western resolve to counter an acknowledged petty tyrant, even after the soul searching following the Bosnian civil war, shows Russia that, by sponsoring such regimes, it can creep westward virtually unopposed. The next clear proxy is the new hard-line Serbian leadership in Bosnia, eventually threatening Germany's Balkan ally Croatia, and Meciar in Slovakia can't be far behind.
Germany is also extremely concerned about U.S. vacillation in its military commitment to European stability, particularly to the use of NATO as a policing tool. That U.S. vacillation has led to the utter disdain in which Serbia holds NATO. Germany is looking ahead to the day when it must take a leading role in the defense of Western Europe, and it does not want to take on that role with a dull knife. Germany wants to build credibility for NATO as a policing tool, both to maintain its credibility as a tool of collective defense, and to postpone the need for collective defense as long as possible.