> WW News Service Digest #113
>
> 1) U.S./NATO Guilty of War Crimes in Yugoslavia
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 2) Racism Rules in U.S. Courts and Prisons
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 3) Maryland Guv Commutes Death Sentence
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 4) Injustice at Home, Injustice Abroad
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 5) Domenstic Partner Victory for Gay Auto Workers
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 6) National Uproar over Texas Death Machine
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the June 22, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>U.S. /NATO GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES IN YUGOSLAVIA
>
>By John Catalinotto
>New York
>
>An international panel of judges has found that U.S. and
>NATO political and military leaders were guilty of war
>crimes against Yugoslavia during and before the March 24-
>June 10, 1999, assault on that country.
>
>Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark was the lead
>prosecutor at the International Tribunal on U.S./NATO War
>Crimes against Yugoslavia, which met here on June 10. He
>urged the 500 people attending the all-day event to carry
>out this verdict by organizing a campaign to abolish the
>NATO military pact.
>
>Ben Dupuy, a former ambassador-at-large from Haiti, the
>Rev. Kiyul Chung, representing the Korean movement for
>democracy and reunification, and auto worker Martha
>Grevatt, national secretary of Pride At Work, the AFL-CIO's
>constituency group of lesbian, gay, bi, and trans workers,
>read the three parts of the verdict.
>
>A panel of 16 judges from 11 countries heard eyewitnesses
>and researchers who had visited Yugoslavia, renowned
>political and economic analysts, historians, physicists,
>biologists, military experts, journalists and lay
>researchers.
>
>Over the past 15 months, speaking to worldwide audiences,
>many of these witnesses have presented a complete picture
>of the war NATO waged against Yugoslavia. For this
>tribunal, however, all limited themselves to a single area
>of expertise.
>
>Together, they provided comprehensive evidence against the
>political and military leaders of the United States and the
>other NATO countries.
>
>The judges decided that the individual testimonies taken
>together constructed a proof beyond a reasonable doubt that
>the accused are guilty of crimes against peace, crimes
>against humanity and war crimes.
>
>MANIPULATION OF THE MEDIA
>
>The witnesses described how NATO used the media to spread
>lies demonizing the Serbs and their leadership, and to
>prepare Western public opinion for a war. Speakers detailed
>the real economic and geopolitical motives of the
>imperialist powers of the United States and Western Europe:
>to seize economic control of the area, from the Balkans to
>the oil-rich Caspian Sea.
>
>A pattern of similar criminal behavior by the United
>States, most notably in the Korean and Vietnam wars, was
>established.
>
>Speakers demonstrated how Washington rigged the phony "Racak
>massacre" for the media and then used the so-called Rambouillet
>accord--in reality an ultimatum demanding military control of all
>Yugoslavia for NATO--to provoke the war. Taken together, this all
>proved a crime against peace.
>
>They also showed that using illegal weapons, purposely
>choosing civilian targets, and destroying the environment
>and the civilian infrastructure added up to war crimes.
>
>Expelling hundreds of thousands of people from Kosovo and
>Metohija, after the NATO bombing began, were crimes against
>humanity.
>
>The witnesses' presentations were accompanied in many
>cases by slides and videotape displayed on a large screen
>on the stage of the auditorium at Martin Luther King Jr.
>High School in Manhattan. They were visible to the judges,
>who sat on the stage, and to the hundreds in the audience.
>
>In addition, pictures and videotapes were on display in
>the hall outside the auditorium. Documentary evidence was
>offered in books and research papers.
>
>The material illustrated deliberate targeting of
>civilians: the bombing of a Belgrade television station;
>the bombing of refugees; the bombing of the Chinese
>Embassy; the bombing of hospitals, schools, railroads and
>bridges; the destruction of the industrial and civil
>infrastructure; the use of pellet bombs and depleted
>uranium; damage to the environment through bombing
>petrochemical plants; and the tactic of repeat bombingof
>the same target after 10 to 15 minutes to kill and wound
>members of emergency rescue teams.
>
>MANY TRIBUNALS CULMINATE IN NEW YORK
>
>The International Action Center, founded by Ramsey Clark
>and other activists in 1992, organized this final session
>of the tribunal. Similar tribunal hearings have taken place
>in Germany, Italy, Austria, Russia, Ukraine, Yugoslavia and
>Greece. In Athens last November, thousands declared U.S.
>President Bill Clinton a war criminal.
>
>Some of the witnesses in New York had also participated in
>these European tribunals.
>
>Representatives of the governments of Yugoslavia and Cuba
>made important presentations.
>
>Ismael Guadalupe from Vieques, Puerto Rico, explained in a
>powerful speech that U.S. Navy bombing exercises against
>his small island have laid the basis for U.S./NATO
>aggression around the world, including in Kosovo,
>Yugoslavia.
>
>The IAC registered 511 people at the event, including
>justices, witnesses and staff. Invited speakers, witnesses
>and judges came from Haiti, Spain, Turkey, Korea, Puerto
>Rico, India, Germany, United States, Canada, Italy,
>Yugoslavia, Russia, Britain, Belgium, Iraq, Greece,
>Austria, France and Portugal.
>
>The U.S. government refused visas to four people from
>Ukraine, including three parliamentary deputies. Their
>message was read from the stage.
>
>There were also representatives of the Roma people--often
>referred to by the derogatory term "gypsy." Shani Rifati, a
>Roma witness who was born in Pristina, capital of Kosovo,
>told how NATO occupation has led to the expulsion of
>100,000 Romas. He pointed out that the verdict condemned
>the persecution of Roma people, the first time this has
>happened in any international tribunal.
>
>Five television crews taped the entire proceedings. They
>included Serbian television and a three-camera crew from
>Australia, as well as alternate media sources in the United
>States such as the Peoples Video Network.
>
>WITNESSES IN PART I: CRIMES AGAINST PEACE
>* LENORA FOERSTEL of Women for Mutual Security and editor
>of the recently published book "War, Lies * Videotape:
>How media monopoly stifles truth."
>
>* JARED ISRAEL, producer of the film "Judgment" showing
>how the corporate media distorted a photograph taken in
>Bosnia.
>
>* JEAN HATTON Britain--anti-war activist, on how
>massacre stories were used to justify the war.
>
>* CHRISTOPHER BLACK Canada--one of a group of Canadian
>attorneys who filed a suit charging NATO with war crimes
>at what is called the International Criminal Court for
>the Former Yugoslavia at the Hague, on how that court was
>part of the preparation for war.
>
>* MONICA MOOREHEAD, of Millions for Mumia and
>contributing editor to Workers World newspaper, on the
>prison-industrial complex in the United States.
>
>* MICHEL COLLON Belgium--author of two books on the
>Balkans, "Liar's Poker" and "Monopoly," and contributor
>to the weekly newspaper Solidaire, on the geopolitical
>aims of the war--to dominate the Caspian oil pipelines.
>
>* KADOURI AL KAYSI Iraqi-American--on the impact of
>sanctions on Iraq.
>
>* STRATIS KOUNIAS Greece--vice-president of the Greek
>Committee for Peace and Professor at the University of
>Athens, on NATO's role in Greece and the Greek anti-war
>movement.
>
>* JOHN CATALINOTTO, journalist and researcher who
>represented the IAC at tribunals in Vienna and Belgrade,
>on Washington's premeditated plan regarding NATO and the
>attack on Yugoslavia.
>
>* ROLAND KEITH Canada--monitor for the Observer Mission
>that was supposed to maintain the peace in Kosovo in 1998
>before the war, on the real role of the Organization for
>Security and Cooperation in Europe.
>
>* PRESTON WOOD, who participated in hearings in Novi Sad
>and who organized opposition to the war in Los Angeles,
>especially in the lesbian/gay/bi/trans community, on the
>supposed massacre in Racak, Kosovo, used to justify the
>attack on Yugoslavia.
>
>* RICHARD BECKER, West Coast co-coordinator for the IAC,
>on the role of talks held in Rambouillet, France, in
>February and March 1999.
>
>* GREGOR KNEUSSEL Austria--on Austria's role in
>delivering the NATO ultimatum to Yugoslavia.
>
>WITNESSES IN PART II: WAR CRIMES & CRIMES AGAINST
>HUMANITY
>
>*Prosecutor GLORIA LA RIVA on how U.S./NATO bombs hit
>civilian targets, from hospitals to bridges to factories,
>using the video she produced, "NATO Targets."
>
>*SARAH SLOAN, IAC Commission of Inquiry researcher, on
>NATO's claim that it tried to minimize damage to civilian
>facilities in Yugoslavia.
>
>* ELLEN CATALINOTTO, a midwife who has delivered over 1,200
>babies to mostly poor women in New York City, on the NATO
>bombing of 33 hospitals including damage to the maternity
>ward at Dragisa Micovic hospital in Belgrade.
>
>* PROF. IVAN YATSENKO Russia--former Soviet officer and
>foreign representative who now teaches law in Moscow, on
>damage to Yugoslav industrial infrastructure and how it
>cost half a million jobs.
>
>*ELMAR SCHMAEHLING Germany--former West German admiral
>and leading spokesperson for the German tribunal movement, on
>the aggressive posture of NATO since the collapse of the
>USSR and its illegal attack on Yugoslavia.
>
>*JUDI CHENG, IAC researcher, on the bombing of the Chinese
>Embassy in Belgrade.
>
>*DR. JANET EATON Canada--biologist and environment expert,
>on destruction of the environment in Yugo slavia,
>especially the damage from attacks on the petrochemical
>plant at Pancevo and other industrial targets.
>
>*DR. CARLO PONA Italy--physicist who participated in a
>conference in Belgrade about depleted uranium, on why DU is
>dangerous to humans and how it was used in Yugoslavia.
>
>* FULVIO GRIMALDI Italy--videographer and journalist who
>recently completed editing a film on Iraq and Yugoslavia,
>on the combined impact of bombing and sanctions on the
>population of Yugoslavia.
>
>* DEIRDRE GRISWOLD, editor of Workers World newspaper who
>recently visited sites of U.S. war crimes in south Korea,
>on the pattern of criminal conduct of the U.S. military in
>Korea and Vietnam.
>
>* SHANI RIFATI, originally from the Romani community in
>Kosovo and publisher of an English-language newsletter
>about Romani affairs, on the horrors faced by the Roma
>people in Kosovo under K-FOR and KLA occupation.
>
>* MILOS RAICKOVICH Serb-American--composer and anti-war
>activist, on the destruction of churches and cultural sites
>in occupied Kosovo and Metohija.
>
>* PROF. MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY Canada--historian and
>economist, on the role of the KLA and its ties to U.S. and
>German intelligence services, NATO and UN Rep. Bernard
>Kouchner.
>
>* SCOTT TAYLOR Canada--former Canadian soldier and
>publisher of magazine Esprit de Corps, on the expulsion of
>the Serb population from the Krajina in Croatia by an army
>led by KLA General Ceku.
>
>* PROF. BARRY LITUCHY, recently returned from Yugoslavia,
>on how K-FOR participated in expelling people from Kosovo.
>
>*PROF. GREGORY ELICH, recently returned from the Balkans,
>on the anti-humanitarian nature of NATO's occupation of
>Kosovo.
>
>* GILLES TROUDE France--member of the editorial board of
>Balkans-Info, on France's role in the war and in
>suppressing dissent at home.
>
>* PROFESSOR JORGE CADIMA Portugal--a regular contributor to
>Avante, the weekly newspaper of the Portu guese Communist
>Party, on the role of NATO in Portu gal since 1949 and on
>popular resistance to the war.
>
>MESSAGES OF SOLIDARITY AND STRUGGLE
>
>* ISMAEL GUADALUPE Puerto Rico, Committee for the Rescue
>and Development of Vieques, on how the U.S. used Vieques
>for target practice to prepare for the war against
>Yugoslavia.
>
>* SORAYA ALVAREZ Cuba, First Secretary of the Cuban
>Mission to the United Nations, on Cuba's suit against the
>U.S. for the costs of the embargo.
>
>* VLADISLAV JOVANOVIC, Yugoslav Ambassador to the UN, on
>his
>own government's charges against the U.S. and NATO for
>war crimes.
>
>
>
>JUDGES & PROSECUTORS
>
>1. BEN DUPUY Haiti--former Ambassador at Large for Haiti
>under the first government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and
>currently secretary general of the Popular National Party
>(PPN) of Haiti.
>
>2. ANGELES MAESTRO MARTIN Spain--elected member of
>Spanish
>parliament from Madrid and a leader in the movement to end
>sanctions against Iraq.
>
>3. CIMILE CAKIR Turkey--journalist for newspaper serving
>Kurdish community and member of Turkish Human Rights
>Association. Imprisoned four years in Turkey for human
>rights activity.
>
>4. REV. KIYUL CHUNG Korea--chairperson of the Executive
>Committee of the Congress for Korean Unification in North
>America.
>
>5. JOHN NICKELS Roma--U.S. representative of the
>International Romani Union and also a judge in the Romani
>community in the U.S.
>
>6. JORGE FARINACCI Puerto Rico--leader of the Socialist
>Front of Puerto Rico and a long-time leader of the
>independence movement in Puerto Rico.
>
>7. RAY LAFOREST Haitian-American--labor unionist in the
>American Federation of State, County and Municipal
>Employees and a leader of the Haitian Coalition for
>Justice, an organization that fights police brutality in
>New York.
>
>8. UMA KUTWAL United States, originally from India--
>president of Local 375 of the Civil Service Technical
>Union District Council 37 of American Federation of State,
>County and Municipal Employees.
>
>9. DR. CHRISTA ANDERS Germany--doctor of medicine and an
>organizer of the German/European Tribunal.
>
>10. RANIERO LA VALLE Italy--former senator who has served
>14 years in the Italian parliament, an anti-war leader in
>Catholic circles and spokesperson for the Italian War
>Crimes Tribunal movement.
>
>11. DR. WOLFGANG RICHTER Germany--Chairperson of the
>Society for the Protection of Civil Rights and Human
>Dignity and a leader of the War Crimes Tribunal movement
>in Germany.
>
>12. MARTHA GREVATT United States--National Secretary of
>Pride at Work, the AFL-CIO organization for
>lesbian/gay/bi/trans workers' rights, and active in the
>United Auto Workers.
>
>13. MICHAEL RATNER United States--civil rights attorney on
>the National Board of the Center for Constitutional Rights
>who took the U.S. government to court for violating the
>War Powers Act in its undeclared war against Yugoslavia.
>
>14. YOLE STANESIC Yugoslavia & Russia--Montenegrin poet
>and writer living in Russia, member of the tribunals in
>Yaroslav, Kiev and Belgrade.
>
>15. JOHN BLACK United States--retired President of the
>Health and Hospital Workers Union in Pennsylvania,
>responsible for bringing many thousands of hospital
>workers into the union. As a teenager in Germany he was
>active in the anti-Nazi underground resistance.
>
>16. DR. BERTA JOUBERT-CECI Puerto Rico & U.S.--psychiatrist
>working in public health and organizer of Puerto Rican and
>African American anti-racist activities in Philadelphia.
>
>THE PROSECUTOR TEAM
>
>* RAMSEY CLARK, former U.S. attorney general and founder of
>the International Action Center.
>
>* PAT CHIN, Jamaican-American, International Action Center
>spokesperson for solidarity with Haiti and Yugoslavia and
>other issues.
>
>* SARA FLOUNDERS, International Action Center national co-
>director, participant in numerous tribunal hearings.
>
>* GLORIA LA RIVA, a leader of International Peace for Cuba
>Appeal, producer of video "NATO Targets."
>
>All were in Yugoslavia, either during the war or as
>participants in seminars or meetings after the war.
>
>FINDINGS
>
>The Members of the Independent Commission of Inquiry to
>Investigate U.S./NATO War Crimes Against the People of
>Yugoslavia, meeting in New York, having considered the
>Initial Charges and Complaint of the Commission dated July
>31, 1999, against President William J. Clinton, Gen. Wesley
>Clark, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Prime
>Minister Tony Blair, Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, President
>Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema, Prime
>Minister Jose Maria Azmar, the Governments of the United
>States and the other NATO member states, former Secretary
>General Javier Solana and other NATO leaders, and others
>with 19 separate Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes and
>Crimes Against Humanity in violation of the Charter of the
>United Nations, the 1949 Geneva Conventions, other
>international agreements and customary international law .
>find the accused Guilty on the basis of the evidence
>against them and that each of the 19 separate crimes
>alleged in the Initial Complaint has been established to
>have been committed beyond a reasonable doubt. These are:
>
>1. Planning and executing the dismemberment, segregation
>and impoverishment of Yugoslavia.
>
>2. Inflicting, inciting and enhancing violence between and
>among Muslims and Slavs.
>
>3. Disrupting efforts to maintain unity, peace and
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