>Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Status: > >[Svend Robinson is Canadian federal New Democrat [a party similar to Labour >in Britain] spokesperson on International Affairs and Human Rights] >----------- >Worldviews Summer 2000 / Le Globe �t� 2000 > > > >IN THIS ISSUE: >Sanctions on Iraq >NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia >"Star Wars II" > Human Rights situation in Colombia > ><snip> > >SVEND JOINS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL IN CALLING FOR WAR CRIMES TRIALS OF NATO >IN YUGOSLAVIA > >In mid-June Amnesty International issued a report on the NATO bombing >campaign in Kosovo and Serbia, Yugoslavia, during Operation Allied Force in >the spring of 1999. AI found that NATO violated international rules of war, >violations which led to the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of innocent >civilians, and which in at least one instance constituted a war crime. This >was the same conclusion I came to in my minority report issued in June, >dissenting from the conclusions of the majority of members of the Foreign >Affairs Committee following hearings on Operation Allied Force. In that >report, I called for the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague to >reverse its decision refusing to investigate alleged war crimes committed by >NATO during the Kosovo campaign. As well, I urged the Liberal government >to abandon plans to honour the chief architect of this policy, US General >Wesley Clark, with Canada's highest award of military merit. The situation >in Kosovo today is terrible. UN Resolution 1244 is effectively a dead >letter. The UN Special Representative on human rights in the former >Yugoslavia, Jiri Dienstbier, former Czech foreign minister, reported in >November 1999 that "the spring ethnic cleansing of ethnic Albanians >accompanied by murders, torture, looting and burning of houses has been >replaced by the fall ethnic cleansing of Serbs, Romas, Bosnians and other >non-Albanians accompanied by the same atrocities." Over 200,000 of the >300,000 ethnic Serbs have fled from Kosovo, with the remainder ghettoized in >enclaves, too often beaten, intimidated, and driven from their homes. >Unexploded mines and cluster bombs have already taken many lives and >threaten many more, including those of children playing in the fields. The >long term effects of depleted uranium could be devastating, both on >civilians and possibly on military personnel exposed to it. Canada should >take a leading role at the United Nations in seeking reform and >democratization of the Security Council, and clarification of the >circumstances in which humanitarian intervention may be required (drawing on >the lessons of Rwanda, East Timor and Kosovo, among others). This should be >based on consistent standards. Never again should NATO be allowed to >arrogate unto itself the power to make this determination. And never again >should the government be permitted to commit our troops to such a mission >without full debate and a vote in the House of Commons.If you would like a >copy of my minority report on Kosovo, you may find it on the web at >http://www.parl.gc.ca/InfoComDoc/36/2/FAIT/Studies/Reports/faitrp08/09-dis-e >.html or by contacting my Ottawa office. >------------------------- __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
