HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK
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CP of Bohemia and Moravia, Anti-NATO Counter-Summit
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From: Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, Mon, 30 Sep 2002
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] , http://www.kscm.cz
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Prague, September 30, 2002
Dear comrades,
The international counter-summit organized by the CPBM, which will take
place on November 19th � before the NATO summit is held � will deal with
topical questions about the architecture of European security and launch
a campaign intended to activate the peace movement on the continent of
Europe.
We are convinced that ongoing attention should be devoted to European
security. We are therefore proposing that in order to activate the peace
movement and to design the architecture of European security the
international conference in November should have a permanent status. Its
work between conferences would be coordinated by a European coordinating
committee. Regardless of the various views held by those involved,
through this campaign Europe can send a signal against war to the whole
world.
We ask you to collect signatures in support of the appeal we are sending
you, and we are confident that you will use all the opportunities
available to you in your conditions to activate and coordinate a
Europe-wide peace movement.
We also invite you to send ideas, suggestions and comments on the
appeal, by 1st November, so that they can be included in its final
version at the international conference in November in Prague.
Doc. Ing. H. Charfo, DrSc.
Head of the Department of International Relations
CC, Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
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Draft of International Appeal or Prague Appeal
NATO ESCALATES SECURITY RISKS AND THREATENS PEACE
NATO�s existence was always defended by its founders on the grounds that
it was a "defensive alliance" against "the Soviet threat". Logically the
demise of the Soviet Union and the disbanding of the Warsaw Pact should
have led to NATO�s dissolution. The opposite has happened. NATO is being
strengthened, not disbanded. Contrary to its founding Washington Treaty,
NATO has officially assumed the right to intervene militarily against
anyone in any part of the world whenever it sees fit. This not only
violates its own statutes, it openly challenges international law and
NATO has usurped the authority of the international community � the
United Nations Organisation and its Security Council.
The war against Yugoslavia in 1999, waged without a mandate from the UN
Security Council in breach of the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions,
is convincing proof of a new aggressive and interventionist strategy
which for the first time since 1945 has brought aggressive war to
Europe. Another major example is the Anglo-US attack on Afghanistan as
part of the so-called "war against terrorism", led and supported by
certain NATO states. The attack did not respect fundamental humanitarian
principles or spare the civilian population, infrastructure and lives
and the rights of prisoners of war. Nor did the change of the ruling
elite that was imposed solve the Afghan people�s basic problems.
Decisively influenced by the USA, NATO is ever more clearly seen to be a
military-political pact which is concerned with more than defence. It
is becoming an instrument for expansion and consolidation of the
influence of its biggest member states. It is a major instrument for
pursuing US plans throughout the world and its influence and interests
on the European continent. US hegemony in the pact�s military
composition is based on the privileged status and authority of the US
leaders and US control of the armed forces, the military and security
apparatus, the "defence" industry and the technology of member states
linked to it. NATO�s integrated military structures are beyond the
control and at critical moments not subject to the consideration of
national state bodies, especially in the European member states.
Nuclear weapons, whose use is contrary to the constitutions of
individual countries and in practice subject to the decision-making and
control of US military-political authorities, have been deployed at US
and NATO military bases. This means that there is an increased danger of
individual countries being dragged into military scenarios which are not
subject to the consideration and control of legitimate national
authorities. Under pressure from the US, there is thus a growing danger
today that Europe and the world will be dragged into a new round of the
arms race.
Human civilisation is threatened by the militarisation of international
relations and militarisation of space in the same way as by the growing
military interventionism which increasingly dominates US policy. As an
instrument of the policy of US hegemony, NATO gives priority to the
escalation of tension and the use of force instead of the peaceful
solution of international disputes and civilised methods of overcoming
the economic and social problems which are intensifying disputes
throughout the contemporary world. NATO is not equal to the task of
solving these problems politically.
To secure peace on its continent and the establishment of peaceful
relations with other nations of the world, Europe does not need an
aggressive alliance which undermines and in practice challenges the UN�s
role. NATO is unacceptable in its present form and the demand for its
abolition is highly relevant today. We see suspension by European
states of their membership of NATO�s military structures as a realistic
way of achieving this. It is vitally important for Europe and its states
and nations to maintain an appropriate degree of sovereignty when taking
decisions and to prevent them from being drawn into new military
adventures. Europe needs a different security system from the one
represented by NATO, defensive and non-aggressive, which on the basis of
equal status and dignity includes all of the continent�s states, from
Portugal to the Urals, from Scandinavia to the Balkans. A system which
would be based on the necessity not only of the existence but also the
reform of the United Nations Organisation.
A system which fully respects the UN Charter and the spirit of the
Helsinki process can stand up to pressure from the USA and the interests
of other powers acting contrary to international law. It should be based
on cooperation and the sovereignty of all nations and respect for
peaceful relations and cooperation. We propose that this concept is
implemented by using the experience of the OSCE, in the spirit of Paris
Charter for a New Europe signed at the end of the meeting of leaders of
states and governments of countries taking part in the Conference on
Security and Cooperation in Europe in Paris on 21 November 1990.
Europe has always been one of the parts of the world most threatened by
the arms race policy and the development of nuclear, chemical,
biological and cosmic weapons of mass destruction. It bears its share of
responsibility for gradual and balanced disarmament until these weapons
are completely eliminated, beginning with the big powers, which will
allow the huge resources wasted on military spending to be used to solve
the great social, economic and environmental problems which beset the
globe.
The aggressive NATO pact is incapable of becoming the foundation of
Europewide security. The future lies in developing the process of
economic and political integration of all the continent�s countries on
the basis of the equality and sovereignty of all and opposing any kind
of rationale whereby wealthier countries or social groups dominate the
others, and therefore on wholly different foundations from those of
antisocial liberalism and Atlantic subordination.
On the occasion of the NATO summit meeting in Prague, at which it is
expected that the Alliance will be enlarged to the east by the
acceptance of new countries, the signatories of this appeal, who belong
to various ideological trends but are united by their common desire for
peace, call on all the nations of Europe and UN member states to unite
and mobilise against the policy of war and armaments and for practical
steps towards a peaceful and just Europe.
*End*
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