AS THREAT OF NEW NATO BOMBING LOOMS, COMMEMORATION OF PAST WAR AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA
IAC CALLS FOR COAST-TO-COAST DEMONSTRATIONS MARCH 24
The International Action Center, a leading organization in the movement opposing the U.S./NATO war on Yugoslavia last spring, called for united actions condemning NATO's occupation of Kosovo in cities across the United States on the one-year anniversary of the start of NATOs 78-day bombing campaign.
We also want to call to attention, said Sara Flounders, a national coordinator of the IAC, the growing threat of another U.S.-NATO military assault on Yugoslavia. On Feb. 17, Gen. Wesley Clark charged the Yugoslav government with rebuilding its military forces and with planning to go back into Kosovo. Gen. Clark, we remember, was not only the strategist behind the vicious bombing campaign, he almost opened up a war with the Russian forces outside Pristina in June. These charges can only be part of preparation of further NATO aggression against Yugoslavia.
That NATO bombing, which began on March 24, 1999, started the first major war in Europe since Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces in the spring of 1945. It ended after the death of close to 3,000 Yugoslavs, mostly civilians, and the destruction of much of the industry and infrastructure of Serbia. It also ended with the occupation of Serbias Kosovo province by U.S., German, French, British, Canadian and other NATO troops and some Russian troops, an occupation that continues to this day.
Flounders said the demonstrations would be coordinated with similar demonstrations, meetings and protests in Europe called by anti-war organizations in NATO countries there. She said she knew of protests planned in Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic and Greece and expected there would be many more.
Flounders explained that the actions were meant both to remember the day and to protest aggression by the U.S. and other NATO powers against a small country unable to defend itself from an attack from the skies by the worlds great military powers. We also want to stop the sanctions against Yugoslavia that are aimed at the entire population and that hurt children and seniors the most. And we want to condemn the continued illegal occupation of Kosovo by NATO forces."
Last June 5 some 10,000 people marched on the Pentagon in response to a call by the IAC to oppose the attack on Yugoslavia.
Since the occupation of Kosovo last June 10, the IAC has launched an investigation into U.S./NATO war crimes in the form of tribunal hearings around the U.S. and around the world. IAC founder and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark prepared and delivered a 19-count indictment last July 31 against U.S. President Bill Clinton and other U.S. and NATO political and military leaders responsible for the war against Yugoslavia. He charged them with crimes against peace, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
This 19-point indictment, said Flounders, has been used as an inspiration or a model by anti-war forces in the U.S., other NATO and even non-NATO Central and East European countries to hold mass public inquiries of U.S./NATO war crimes. These hearings are still going on in Europe through this spring.
IAC TO HOLD INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL
The IAC plans on June 10 to hold a final hearing in New York, where a panel of prestigious international judges will rule on evidence presented and decide if the NATO leaders are indeed guilty of the crimes Ramsey Clark has charged them with, said Flounders.
International Action Center 39 West 14th Street, Room 206 New York, NY 10011 email: iacenter@iacenter.org http://www.iacenter.org phone: 212 633-6646 fax: 212 633-2889