The Guardian March 31, 1999 STOP THE BOMBING! NATO's AGGRESSIVE WAR The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia is an act of open and barbarous aggression against an independent, sovereign country whose borders are recognised by every government in the world. It has been undertaken without the authority of the United Nations. It is illegal. Its aim is the dismemberment of Yugoslavia and the occupation of all Balkan countries by NATO military forces. It is the prelude to an eventual military attack on Russia, the Ukraine and Belarus. Yugoslavia has not committed any act of aggression against any of her neighbours. It does not have one soldier outside its own territory while US military and airforces are in Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia, Hungary, Greece and many other countries in Europe and other parts of the world. The world's biggest nuclear power of 272 million people, together with the snivelling European governments of NATO, are bombing a small mainly agricultural country of about 10 million people. The real crime of the Yugoslavs is that they refused to bow to US dictatorship. The real war-criminals are Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, US Defence Secretary William Cohen, British PM Tony Blair, Schroeder of Germany and the other compliant government leaders of NATO countries. During the Vietnam War, General Curtis Lemay declared that the aim of the US airforce was to bomb Vietnam "back to the Stone Age". Is this now the objective in Yugoslavia? Using the excuse of an ethnic conflict in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo (which has been deliberately stirred up by the western powers), the bombing is justified by references to "human rights" and allegations of the persecution of ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo. The western powers care nothing for the fate of ethnic Albanians any more than they care for the millions of Kurds who have been persecuted by the Turkish Government which is also a member of NATO. When 100,000 indigenous people were slaughtered in Guatemala (which has been confirmed by a recent report) there were no denunciations, no bombing of Guatemala. Why? Because the death-squads were trained, financed and armed by the CIA and other US agencies. It is worthwhile recalling that Hitler used the excuse of the alleged persecution of the Sudeten Germans living in Czechoslovakia to invade that country in the lead up to World War II. Earlier in their program of dismembering Yugoslavia, which has always been a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state, the western powers have incited separatist sentiments, first with the Croatians, then the Muslims of Bosnia, followed by the Slovenians. They were successful in setting one ethnic group against another or one religious group against another. This dirty game has been played time and again to divide nations and weaken them so that the big powers can impose their rule. But condemnation of the NATO aggression and anti-NATO demonstrations are flaring around the world (See references in the Editorial page 2). Russia has broken off relations with NATO and expelled its two representatives in Moscow. Foreign Minister Ivanov said, "We cannot now have any contact with the leaders of NATO until the aggression against Yugoslavia has stopped". A Russian resolution in the UN Security Council was predictably defeated but it is the western powers which are flagrantly violating the UN Charter. Members of the Russian Duma are calling for military assistance to Yugoslavia and for the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in neighbouring Belarus. The Ukrainian Government is also reconsidering its decision to become nuclear weapon free. The Chinese Government has strongly denounced the bombing. China's representative at the UN said: "Any military action against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia without the authorisation of the UN Security Council will be a severe violation of the UN Charter and the established principles of international law. Such action will not be accepted by the international community." "The question of Kosovo is an internal matter. The Chinese Government believes that it should be settled politically through dialogues on the basis of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia and the guarantee of the legitimate rights and interests of the ethnic groups in the region."
