>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: "International"<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 14:22:00 -0500 > >UKRAINE WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL CONDEMNS >WASHINGTON, NATO > >KIEV, Ukraine--President Clinton and other NATO leaders were >found guilty of crimes against peace by an International Peoples >Tribunal on NATO War Crimes Against Yugoslavia (English >translation) that met Jan. 23 in the parliament building of this beautiful >ancient capital. The hearing was held in defiance of the U.S.-backed >regime of President Leonid Kuchma, who wants to bring Ukraine into >NATO. > >Delegates from Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Yugoslavia, the Czech >Republic, Poland, Germany and the United States took part in the >hearing. The U.S. was represented by Larissa Kritskaya and Bill >Doares of the International Action Center. Kritskaya and Doares >were shown on the front page of the major daily Kievsky Vedomosty >under the headline "Americans Who Dream of Destroying NATO." > >The Kiev tribunal was the second in a series of hearings organized by >the International Peoples Tribunal, which was initiated in Russia by All- >Slavic Assembly. The first was held in the Russian city of Yaroslavl >Dec. 14. Others are planned for Belgrade (March 27), Warsaw and >Minsk. The Kiev tribunal focused on charges of crimes against peace- >conspiracy to cause a war. IPT organizers plan to coordinate their >efforts with the Commission of Inquiry on U.S./NATO War Crimes >Against Yugoslavia organized by the International Action Center and >former U.S. attorney general Ramsey Clark. > >The Ukraine hearing, which was chaired by Prof. Mikhail Kuznetsov >of Moscow, got considerable support from the Socialist, Communist >and other Ukrainian opposition parties. Socialist Party deputy Vil >Nikolayich Romashenko was vice president of the tribunal. > >The judges and participants heard eyewitness testimony from >Yugoslav delegates who told of the death and destruction inflicted by >NATO bombs and missiles, which took 2,000 civilian lives. They also >heard several parliamentarians who had visited Yugoslavia during the >war. > >Deputy Sergei Kaszian of the Belarus parliament told of his meetings >with ethnic Albanian Kosovar leaders who condemned the NATO >bombing and held the U.S. responsible for the destruction of their >country. Kaszian said that NATO forces used had brutalized Kosovar >refugees, separating children from mothers and sending them to >different countries. He also testified to the large number of children >killed or wounded by NATO bombs and missiles. > >Ukrainian Communist deputy Vladimir Moiseenko represents the >Donbass coal-mining region and chairs the Ukraine Association to >Restore the Soviet Union. He pointed out that NATO was from its >inception an aggressive alliance aimed against East Europe and the >Soviet Union and compared the U.S.-NATO strategy used to break >up Yugoslavia with its current strategy toward Ukraine. He quoted >U.S. strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski's description of Ukraine as a >"military platform" for NATO's expansion to the east. A NATO >Ukraine would become a base to invade Belarus and later Russia, >Moiseenko said. He condemned Ukraine's U.S.-backed president >Leonid Kuchma for facilitating NATO's expansion but said, "The >Ukrainian people are waking up to resist Ukraine's colonization." He >also called on the rest of the world to apply economic sanctions >against the U.S. and other NATO states if NATO is not dissolved. >"But the world is not insane yet and has the strength to stop NATO >and its 'spiritual leader' the United States." > >Retired Soviet admiral Anatoli Yurkovsky, now a member of >Ukrainian parliament, testified that NATO was also aimed at the >Albanian people. He told of the 1996 mass uprising in southern >Albania against the U.S.-backed Berisha regime. The insurgents >"formed committees of national salvation that were like the workers' >councils in Russia in 1917. But they were smothered by the massive >intervention of NATO troops." > >Larissa Kritskaya, a member of the International Action Center, said >that "corporate America has dominated Ukraine long enough to >deliver the country to the point of total destruction. But there is >another America inside the land of giant corporations, and that is >conscious people in the U.S. We are happy to be here today >representing these people as your friends and supporters in your >struggle against the coming colonization planned by U.S.-led NATO." > >IAC spokesperson Bill Doares condemned the war against >Yugoslavia "as a cynical maneuver carried out to enrich giant U.S. >corporations that profit off death and destruction." He said that >"bombs and missiles are not the only agency of destruction. When the >International Monetary Fund orders Ukraine to close down its coal >mines and steel plants, reducing workers to starvation, is that not an >act of war?" He denounced NATO as "the strike force of the >International Monetary Fund." > >Yugoslav ambassador to Ukraine Goiko Dapcevic said, "the fact that >the war crimes tribunal took place here in Ukraine and the fact that >there were many representatives of your country willing to testify in the >name of truth about the horrible crimes committed during this unlawful >war that brought a human tragedy to Yugoslavia speaks to our unity. >Yet the war in Yugoslavia is still far from its end," he continued. >"Though there are no missiles and bombs falling from the sky right >now, there is also no peace for us at this time. And the most difficult >thing now is our incapacity to break the blockade on information. >Therefore an event like the war crimes tribunal has special value in our >struggle to tell the world the truth about this war and the present >condition of my country." > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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