>research, stated that its findings "have failed to provide
>scientific proof that executions have a greater deterrent
>effect than life imprisonment. Such proofs are unlikely to
>be forthcoming. The evidence as a whole still gives no
>support to the deterrent hypothesis."
>
>The Thorsten Sellin studies of 1962, 1967 and 1980
>substantiated the view that the death penalty is void of
>any deterrent effect. (Amnesty International USA)
>
>Many irrational acts of violence are carried out under the
>influence of drugs, alcohol, physical, emotional or mental
>abuse or illness, uncontrollable rage or fear. They are not
>the acts of criminals but of victims of an inhumane,
>profit-mad system that drives them to be violent,
>especially when faced with an uncertain future.
>
>In the end, the death penalty and incarceration are not
>the answer. What's needed is a socialist system that meets
>human beings' needs for economic security and cultural
>fulfillment.
>
>[Monica Moorehead is Workers World Party's 2000 candidate
>for U.S. president.]
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <002901bfd468$a4817ca0$0a00a8c0@home>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Stopping imperialism's war crimes
>Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 08:20:48 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 15, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>EDITORIAL: STOPPING IMPERIALISM'S WAR CRIMES
>
>The focus of the independent war crimes tribunal convening
>in New York on June 10 is the war crimes committed by the
>U.S. government and NATO against the people of Yugoslavia.
>It is important that this world body, organized by the
>U.S.-based International Action Center, is convening in the
>U.S. to consider the U.S. government's conduct and its war
>against Yugoslavia.
>
>Many such independent hearings have already been held in
>cities across Europe. So it is even more important that
>hearings that challenge the U.S. government and military as
>war criminals be held within the U.S., where there has been
>incredible pressure to justify the imperialist war on the
>peoples of the Balkans. Everyone who is genuinely anti-war
>should make every attempt to be at this war crimes
>tribunal.
>
>Days before the tribunal opens, Amnesty International has
>noted in a 65-page report released on June 7 that the U.S.
>and NATO military forces deliberately attacked civilians
>during the war, resulting in mass killings in Serbia.
>Amnesty International's belated report even agrees that the
>U.S. government and NATO openly violated numerous
>international laws of war.
>
>Such a report could and should have been issued by the
>London-based Amnesty while the bloody killing was going on.
>After all, the fighting was led by the Pentagon but
>involved British imperialist forces in partnership with the
>U.S.
>
>However, even though it is shamefully late, the Amnesty
>report has been virtually censored from the U.S. media.
>This is certainly because the Amnesty report confirms many
>of the charges being brought at the independent war crimes
>hearing in New York on June 10.
>
>The Amnesty report, however, does not directly challenge
>the imperialist powers and does not challenge the charade
>called the International War Crimes Tribunal sitting in The
>Hague. The court sitting in The Hague is a classic Star
>Chamber court, the kind run by royal despots in England
>during the Middle Ages. This Star Chamber is run and
>operated by the U.S. government, with the approval of the
>European imperialist powers--Britain, Germany and France.
>
>The U.S. government and NATO committed the most horrible
>crimes against the people of the Balkans. But it is only
>the hearings organized by the International Action Center
>and other independent forces that will put the real
>criminals in the docket, even if only figuratively. The war
>criminals in Washington, London, Berlin and Paris have
>declined to turn themselves in for people's justice,
>unfortunately.
>
>This raises another question. What about other war crimes
>committed by today's imperialist powers?
>
>What about the U.S. military massacres committed against
>the people of Korea? New revelations are coming out every
>week. On June 5, CBS News reported on an Air Force document
>showing that the U.S. military ordered troops to fire on
>civilians during the Korean War. "The army has requested
>that we strafe all civilian refugee parties," Col. Turner
>Rogers of the Air Force wrote. "To date, we have complied."
>
>Or the massacre of civilians carried out by U.S. Special
>Forces in Colombia?
>
>A report by Juan Gonzalez in the June 6 New York Daily
>News connects U.S. Special Forces to "one of Colombia's
>worst atrocities--the infamous massacre of Mapiripan."
>Between July 15 and July 20, 1997, a death squad "hacked to
>death more than 60 peasants in the northern village of
>Mapiripan."
>
>U.S. Special Forces not only trained the killers, Gonzalez
>reports, but they "facilitated and backed up the efforts of
>the death squad at Mapiripan."
>
>All these crimes will continue to go unchallenged by the
>official bodies, which are dominated by the imperialist
>powers.
>
>The anti-capitalist, Marxist workers' movements set the
>precedent for putting the capitalist war-makers on trial.
>The Russian revolutionary V.I. Lenin organized the first
>independent, international anti-war conference in
>Zimmerwald in 1915 to rally the European workers against
>World War I after the capitulation of most of their leaders
>to the war hysteria. From that time, it has taken
>independent, anti-capitalist organizations like that
>organized by Lenin and the other Bolsheviks in Russia to
>expose the war crimes of the imperialists--the winners as
>well as the losers--and to challenge them.
>
>At the present time, President Bill Clinton has become the
>chief salesperson for a Pentagon buildup aimed at total
>world domination. Both Republican and Democratic party
>candidates are trying to outdo each other in their support
>for military expansion. Peace under capitalism is only an
>interval between imperialist wars.
>
>The struggle against war and war crimes, to be successful,
>must become a struggle against imperialism, engaging the
>millions of workers who pay the price of war with their
>sweat and blood.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <002f01bfd468$c5c3e420$0a00a8c0@home>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] European inquiry finds NATO guilty
>Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 08:21:44 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 15, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>YUGOSLAV CIVILIANS WERE TARGETS:
>EUROPEAN INQUIRY FINDS NATO GUILTY
>
>By Richard Becker
>Berlin
>
>Representatives from 16 countries gathered in Berlin June
>2-3 for the International Tribunal on the NATO War Against
>Yugoslavia. After two days of testimony, including dramatic
>and moving accounts from Yugoslav victims of the 78-day
>bombing war, the international jury rendered a unanimous
>guilty verdict against civilian and military leaders of
>NATO.
>
>It was particularly significant that the European-wide
>tribunal was held in Berlin, capital of the country that
>has played a role second only to that of the United States
>in a decade of imperialist aggression in the Balkans.
>Throughout the two days of the event, the hall of a large
>church in the Kreuzberg district was packed with hundreds
>of people.
>
>On the first day of the Berlin Tribunal came an
>announcement from the chief prosecutor of the
>"International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia"
>in the Hague, Carla Del Ponte, that "although some mistakes
>were made by NATO, I am very satisfied that there was no
>deliberate targeting of civilians or unlawful military
>targets by NATO during the bombing campaign."
>
>This outrageous but unsurprising announcement said a great
>deal about the ICTFY's role as a thoroughly corrupt
>instrument of U.S./NATO imperialism--and nothing at all
>about the facts of the matter.
>
>The European Tribunal, on the other hand, presented a
>mountain of irrefutable evidence convicting the NATO
>leaders of crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes
>against humanity.
>
>The meeting was opened by the head of the tribunal, Dr.
>Norman Paeche, professor of international law at the
>University of Hamburg.
>
>The indictment was read out by prominent German lawyer
>Ulrich Dost, a member of the Society for Civil Rights and
>Human Dignity, which hosted the Tribunal. It charged the 19
>NATO governments with violating international law in their
>preparations and carrying out the war.
>
>This included 37,000 aerial sorties resulting in
>widespread loss of life, and the massive and deliberate
>destruction of Yugoslavia's civilian infrastructure.
>
>Dost extended the accusation to all members of the German
>parliament who voted to authorize Germany's intervention in
>the war. He charged them with violating the section of the
>German constitution that prohibits "a war of aggression
>originating from German soil."
>
>YUGOSLAV WITNESSES SPEAK OF HORROR
>
>Several witnesses from Yugoslavia gave powerful, moving
>testimony substantiating that NATO targeted civilians and
>the civilian infrastructure. The German government had
>delayed granting visas to the Yugoslavs, which made them
>miss the first day of the tribunal. After protests, the
>government admitted them in time to speak at the second
>session.
>
>Marianna Brodar from Pristina, Kosovo, was forced to
>relocate to Montenegro by KLA attacks. She described a NATO
>bombing attack on April 30, 1999. At the very start of the
>assault, her mother, daughter and another child were blown
>to pieces while walking to the store.
>
>Brodar talked of the widespread and ongoing psychological
>injuries suffered by many children and adults who survived
>the bombardment.
>
>Milos Markovic was the news anchorperson at Radio-TV
>Serbia on April 24, 1999. At 2:05 a.m., 15 minutes after he
>completed a broadcast, the station was hit by several
>cruise missiles. This followed weeks of open threats by
>U.S. and other NATO spokespersons that they would bomb the
>RTS unless it agreed to carry six hours per day of Western
>news broadcasts.
>
>Markovic vividly described the aftermath of the bombing,
>which killed 16 media workers: "The electricity was off and
>the inside of the building was filled with dust, dirt and
>terrible smells. The 70 or so survivors went to the
>basement, fearing additional missile strikes.
>
>"But we were worried that now the fires in the building
>would spread to the basement. We couldn't get out; a heavy
>steel door blocked our way. Then a young man who worked in
>the station, although bleeding badly from his head,
>suddenly developed great strength and opened the door,
>allowing us to get out to the street."
>
>Markovic posed the question: "Why am I a victim? I had no
>serious visible injuries ... But our invalidity is of a
>special kind, for which we can find no remedy. We are
>filled with fear. Our natural optimism has been bombed. Our
>belief that we live in a normal world has been bombed ... .
>We don't know what will happen to children who have not yet
>been born. What is most difficult to believe is the reasons
>given by NATO for bombing us."
>
>Irina Dinic had had a very difficult pregnancy after four
>miscarriages. On May 12, she was hospitalized in Belgrade,
>and on May 18 gave birth to her daughter by cesarean
>section. The baby was placed in an incubator because she
>was premature.
>
>When the hospital was bombed on May 20, Dinic had not yet
>seen her baby. The bombs, which killed several patients in
>the intensive care unit, wounded Dinic, who was hit by
>flying glass.
>
>"The doctor sewed my wounds in half-darkness," Dinic
>testified. "We were evacuated to another hospital, and two
>hours after arriving there I saw my daughter, who we named
>Yelena, for the first time. But we were afraid that this
>hospital would also become a target. ...
>
>"Now one year has passed, but I'll never be able to forget
>what happened. Physical wounds heal, but the psychological
>ones remain. But I don't want to see a psychiatrist--I want
>to resist."
>
>NATO'S CLUSTER BOMBS KILL AND MAIM
>
>Another witness, Mr. Ilic, described being a refugee in
>Kosovo and then returning home on May 16. When he was
>working in his farm, his youngest child, Danilo, went to
>get him water. He was struck by a cluster bomb dropped from
>a NATO plane.
>
>"When I reached him, both of his legs were hanging by
>strands. We got him first aid, and the next day drove to
>Belgrade. It took nine hours, due to the war, to reach a
>medical institute. They saved his life."
>
>Ilic also said that on March 29-30 in his area of Kosovo,
>1,200 cluster bombs were dropped. The use of anti-personnel
>cluster weapons, especially in civilian areas, is
>unquestionably a violation of international law, as were
>the other attacks on civilians.
>
>Ralph Hartmann, who was the ambassador of the German
>Democratic Republic to Yugoslavia from 1982 to 1988,
>documented the war preparations by NATO leaders. Hartmann
>is the author of the book "Honest Brokers," detailing the
>role of German and Austrian diplomacy and intelligence
>services in the break-up of Yugoslavia. He said: "NATO,
>headed by the U.S., ignored all possibilities for a
>peaceful solution. The only conclusion we can draw is that
>they wanted war."
>
>Many speakers, especially those from the United States,
>Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, were strongly
>applauded when they called for an international campaign to
>abolish NATO.
>
>The event received extensive coverage in German and other
>European media.
>
>Those who organized the European tribunal will also send
>representatives to the International Tribunal on U.S./NATO
>War Crimes Against Yugoslavia taking place June 10 in New
>York.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>Message-ID: <003501bfd468$d5834360$0a00a8c0@home>
>From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] 'We want a verdict that leads to action'
>Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 08:22:10 -0400
>Content-Type: text/plain;
> charset="iso-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 15, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>"WE WANT A VERDICT THAT LEADS TO ACTION"
>
>[Richard Becker represented the International Action Center
>in Berlin at the June 2-3 European session of the
>International Tribunal on the NATO War Against Yugoslavia.
>The following are excerpts from his presentation.]
>
>
>
>While the bombing stopped with the cease-fire on June 10,
>1999, we knew that the war against the people of Yugoslavia
>did not end, and in fact continues to this day.
>
>We believe that it is of the highest importance to take a
>stand with those who are resisting the imperialist
>onslaught in Yugoslavia, and also with Iraq, where the
>genocidal sanctions and bombing have taken more than a
>million-and-a-half lives, with Cuba, the Democratic
>People's Republic of Korea, and all those who refuse to
>accept the dictates of Washington.
>
>We don't want to make the tribunals solely a judgment of
>the past, although the verdict is very important. The
>consciousness of future generations must not be left in the
>hands of the paid propagandists of the "Great Powers," who
>are "great," it was once noted, only in their violence.
>
>At the same time, we want to render a verdict that leads
>to action, a living verdict that provides the basis for
>common and coordinated action, a verdict that points the
>way forward. We believe that the most effective verdict our
>tribunals can render will be to use their authority to
>launch a worldwide campaign to abolish NATO.
>
>NATO, like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank,
>has become a focus for the anger and opposition of
>progressive and anti-war forces around the world. We were
>in the streets in April in Washington. The IAC organized a
>march there linking the struggle against the IMF/World Bank
>to the fight against domestic repression and militarism.
>The police arrested nearly 700 people, many of them
>carrying signs demanding freedom for U.S. death-row
>political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.
>
>When we say "abolish NATO" we in the United States also
>mean to disarm and disband the Pentagon, the most central
>element of NATO and the greatest single danger to the
>people of the world. There is no greater violator of human
>rights in the world today than the Pentagon and the U.S.
>government.
>
>We believe that international solidarity will triumph over
>militarism and exploitation.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
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