----- Original Message ----- From: Rick Rozoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, June 12, 2000 4:11 PM Subject: [STOPNATO] Chinese Leader, In Belgrade, Blasts NATO STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM WIRE:06/12/2000 08:04:00 ET China's Li Peng, in Belgrade, Slams NATO's Air War BELGRADE (Reuters) - Li Peng, head of the Chinese parliament, blasted NATO's 1999 air war on Yugoslavia in an address to Belgrade's parliament Monday, saying the U.S.-led alliance had violated the U.N. charter. "This war has not only devastated Yugoslavia, but also brought enormous suffering to people of all ethnic groups in Kosovo and beyond," Li, the most senior foreign official to visit isolated Belgrade since the bombing campaign, said in a speech. He said the Kosovo issue remained unresolved a year after the bombing ended, referring to the ethnic violence that has continued to plague the province despite the arrival of NATO-led peacekeeping troops on June 12 last year. "The ethnic conflicts there are far from being eased, refugee problems are acute and the Balkan region is still deprived of peace and stability," Li said. "This proves that peace is not made out of bombing." Li, number two in China's communist hierarchy, lauded the Balkan nation, calling its people "heroic" and "unconquerable." He was addressing an extraordinary joint session of the two houses of the federal Yugoslav parliament on the day when the United Nations marked its first year in charge of Kosovo, still legally part of Yugoslavia. CHINA BACKS BELGRADE His visit was widely seen as a sign of support to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who has been ostracized by the West and faces growing opposition at home in the run-up to local and federal elections due later this year. NATO bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days to force Belgrade's military and police into stopping a harsh crackdown on ethnic Albanians seeking self-rule in Kosovo. China, along with Russia, strongly opposed the NATO air war, during which bombs hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese. Li denounced the embassy bombing as "a case of grave international wrong doing seldom seen in the history of diplomacy and a gross violation of China's sovereignty." He said NATO had interfered in the internal affairs of sovereign Yugoslavia and that no regional body should be allowed to bypass the United Nations and act willfully. "This constitutes a violation of the purposes of the U.N. Charter and the universally recognized norms governing international relations and poses a serious threat to stability in Europe and peace in the world." Frozen out by much of the world as punishment for its role in a series of Balkan wars in the 1990s, Belgrade has turned to China, Russia and other non-Western countries for support and help in rebuilding its shattered economy. Li arrived Sunday and was expected to meet the Yugoslav president during the visit which ends Wednesday. In 1997, Milosevic and his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin signed an agreement on friendship and cooperation. In December, China was reported to have extended a $300 million credit to finance reconstruction of the economy of Serbia, Yugoslavia's main republic. Yugoslavia was also close to signing several commodity credits with China. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______________________________________________________________________ Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com
