WW News Service Digest #290
1) "Gay Cuba": Revolution Within the Revolution
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
2) Belgrade: Protests Follow Milosevic's Extradition
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
3) Supporters Demand Freedom for Angola 3
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
4) Yugoslav Leader Stands up to NATO Court
by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 12, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
"GAY CUBA": REVOLUTION WITHIN THE REVOLUTION
This is from a talk by poet Minnie Bruce Pratt
introducing the film "Gay Cuba." Pratt was a guest speaker
at a Workers World Forum in New York on June 29.
The Stonewall Rebellion in New York City over 30 years ago
marked the beginning of the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgendered (LGBT) movements in the U.S. We are
celebrating Stonewall with a showing of "Gay Cuba," a film
in which LGBT Cubans and others tell us what it has meant to
live in a country where rebellion against oppression grew
into a socialist revolution. This film will fill you with
tremendous hope about what can happen in human lives and
relationships with the overturn of capitalism.
Though "Gay Cuba" contains accounts of pride at the
accomplishments of the revolution, it also contains the
voices of LGBT people who experienced discrimination and
persecution in the earlier days of this country still young
in socialism. How can the disclosure of these painful facts
be a source of hope? Because the very existence of this
movie, a 1995 project of the Felix Varela Center of Cuba,
directed by Sonja de Vries, shows the commitment of Cuba to
"a revolution within the revolution."
This expression was originally used by Fidel Castro in
reference to the participation of women in the Cuban
Revolution. The making and release of "Gay Cuba" is one of
many signs that Cuba is also increasingly committed to a
"revolution within the revolution" for LGBT people.
This commitment is the result of an extended and profound
process, an example of another of Fidel's goals for the
revolution--that it "must be a school of unfettered
thought." For example: After internal debate and struggle,
in 1975 the Cuban Supreme Court overturned a resolution of
the Council of Culture/ Ministry of Culture that had been
used to limit employment of gay people in the arts and
education.
In 1979, the new Cuban penal code decriminalized
homosexuality--an action, we all know, that has not happened
on a national level in the U.S. Especially significant to
trans people is that an earlier Cuban ordinance prohibited
discrimination on the basis of appearance, which could
include what someone wears. This kind of legal protection
for trans people is also not available in the U.S. on a
national basis.
FIDEL: CUBAN LEADERS NOW 'WISER AND MORE
INTELLIGENT'
In 1981, a book that became a bestseller in Cuba because of
its direct treatment of human sexuality included the stance
that homosexuality "is not a sickness, but a variant of
human sexuality." In 1988, in a televised interview in
Spain, Fidel noted that certain rigidity" had previously
governed attitudes towards homosexuality. He pointed out
that the process of making a new world took time: "Our
society, our party, our government [now] have ideas that are
clearer, wiser and more intelligent about many of these
problems."
In 1992, Vilma Esp�n, president of the Federation of Cuban
Women (FMC) and a senior leader of the Communist Party,
challenged a psychologist who presented prejudiced views on
homosexuality at the Congress of the Union of Young
Communists. According to Sonja de Vries, the director of
"Gay Cuba," Esp�n stated that such prejudicial ideas, not
the sexual orientations of gays, were what needed to be
changed. De Vries saw Esp�n's statement as a "significant
representation of the changed idea of the Cuban leadership."
The film "Gay Cuba" also answers the recently released film
"Before Night Falls." This movie, which distorts, omits and
outright lies about the lives of gay men in Cuba, has been
acclaimed by Hollywood and by the mainstream media for its
vicious attacks on the Cuban Revolution. "Before Night
Falls" reinforces the misinformation that is rampant in our
LGBT communities about what it means to live as a queer
person in Cuba.
Why target the LGBT community with anti-Cuba messages? Why
assume that we are particularly interested in Cuba? Well, in
addition to early ties within the U.S. gay liberation
movement to freedom struggles worldwide and to socialism--
including ties through Workers World Party-- the fact is
that many LGBT people are poor and working people. This is
contrary to mainstream media trumpeting that the majority of
gays are affluent DINKS (dual income, no kids). It's not
surprising that we would be interested in Cuba since--as
author and WWP member Bob McCubbin has said--that country
has "freed itself from the madness of capitalism." Certainly
we would be interested in a country and a political system
that offered us the hope of freedom from economic oppression
and freedom from oppression against our sexuality.
It is significant that we are viewing "Gay Cuba" near the
anniversary of Elian Gonzalez's return home. When I came out
as a lesbian, I lost custody of my two young sons, who were
just about Elian's age when this happened. My children were
taken away from me because I asserted that I was a lesbian,
that I alone was to determine the consequences of my
sexuality. With this assertion I challenged a system that
assumes that the bodies of women and children are to be
controlled within a system of profit.
What I would have given 25 years ago--what I would give now!-
-to live as a lesbian with my children in a land where
neither women nor children were considered property. Such a
land is the one that Elian was returned to.
Cuba has given us the honest and hopeful film we are about
to see now, another example of the continuing "revolution
within the revolution."
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 5. hein�kuu 2001 08:40
Subject: [WW] Belgrade: Protests Follow Milosevic's Extradition
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 12, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
AS U.S "GLOBALIZES" BALKANS: NATO COURT CALLS
RESISITANCE A CRIME
Yugoslav Socialists Stand up for Milosevic
By Gloria La Riva
Belgrade, Yugoslavia
In a stunning blow to Yugoslavia's sovereignty, Serbian
Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic on June 28 secretly
surrendered former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
into the hands of the NATO powers that brutally bombed
Yugoslavia in 1999.
Djindjic is seen as the number one U.S. agent in Yugoslavia.
This blow aroused widespread anger in Yugoslavia and
solidarity with the kidnapped former president from
progressive world leaders and anti-war activists. Among them
was internationally known human rights attorney Ramsey
Clark, who spoke at a protest rally in Belgrade the
following night. Clark and this writer, Gloria La Riva,
constituted a delegation from the International Action
Center, which had played a leading role in organizing
protests in the United States against NATO's war on
Yugoslavia in 1999.
Milosevic had been taken by military helicopter to the NATO
base in Tuzla, Bosnia, at 6 p.m. on the previous day and
then transported to The Hague in the Netherlands. Djindjic
announced the former president's extradition at 6:30 p.m.
By 8 p.m., thousands of people had taken to the streets in
protest.
Only hours before the forced removal of Milosevic, the
Yugoslav Constitutional Court had issued a temporary decree
banning the extradition until it was able to give the matter
further study and make a permanent ruling.
The court's decree was in response to maneuvers by Djindjic
and current Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica to push
legislation and rulings through the government that
wouldmake the surrender of Milosevic to NATO legal and
constitutional in Yugoslavia.
By ordering Milosevic's kidnapping, Djindjic not only
violated the country's constitution, he also overrode the
federal jurisdiction of Yugoslavia. The Republic of Serbia
is one of the two republics left in Yugoslavia, the other
being Montenegro. As a leader of Serbia, Djindjic had no
legal authority over a federal matter: extradition to a
foreign country.
The Yugoslav Constitution prohibits extradition of the
country's citizens.
U.S. PRESSURE, THREATS
Milosevic's illegal transfer followed weeks of U.S.
government threats, extortion and, finally, outright bribery
directed at the new pro-capitalist, pro-Western government
leaders.
The current Yugoslav regime took power in a coup on Oct. 5,
2000, following national elections in which the Dem o cratic
Opposition of Serbia and its pre sid ential candidate
Kostunica came in first but with less than 50 percent of the
vote. The DOS is a pro-Western, anti-socialist, 18-party
coalition that came together under U.S. pressure. Kostunica
had a reputation at the time of being a patriotic Serb, but
during his time in office has only facilitated Western
penetration of his country.
To assure a defeat for Milosevic, the U.S. and the European
Union had pumped more than $100 million into the DOS
election campaign, a vast amount for a relatively poor
country of 10 million people.
The new Serbian government was elected on Dec. 23, 2000, and
Djindjic, widely considered first a German and then a U.S.
puppet, became prime minister.
The U.S.-led NATO members--most of them imperialist
countries that were the old colonial powers of the 19th
Century and dominated Eastern Europe until World War II--
want to try Milosevic and other former top leaders of the
Yugoslav government. They are using the special tribunal in
The Hague, called the ICTY, to draw up trumped-up charges of
war crimes these leaders allegedly committed before and
during the 1999 NATO war against Yugoslavia.
To the NATO leaders, Milosevic's real crime is having
resisted the dismemberment of his country. The Yugoslav
people held out heroically against 78 days of merciless,
genocidal bombing. These NATO heads never expected
Yugoslavia to hold out for more than a week.
THOUSANDS PROTEST TREACHERY
Following the Belgrade regime's treacherous act, thousands
protested June 28. The next day, over 20,000 people filled
Belgrade's Freedom Square at a mass rally organized by
Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia and other progressive
and nationalist forces.
The working-class demonstrators expressed their rage at what
they consider Djindjic's blow to Yugoslavia's sovereignty.
They roared approval as speakers denounced Djindjic and
Kostunica.
Along with speakers representing many Yugoslav groups and
showing a broad unity, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey
Clark expressed solidarity with Milosevic and called for his
release. Clark had arrived just three hours earlier with
Gloria La Riva, a videographer and IAC organizer.
Clark had attempted to reach Belgrade two days earlier to
help fight Milosevic's extradition, but the Yugoslav Embassy
in Washington, D.C., denied him a visa. This was the first
time Clark had been denied a Yugoslav visa.
The IAC two-person delegation flew to Belgrade without
visas. Though the delegation was detained at the airport in
Belgrade, progressive supporters intervened and eventually
the two were admitted into the country.
Many Yugoslavs--from former government officials to the
general population--remember Clark for his opposition to the
war and his solidarity in 1999 when he paid two visits to
Yugoslavia under the bombs. The 20,000 people in the crowd
cheered his comments throughout his talk.
"United," he said, "the people of Yugoslavia can show the
way to the rest of the world. We need you desperately. But
we've got work to do.
"We have to return President Slobodan Milosevic to his
native soil and we've got to do it now. ... We have to see
that the government officials responsible for the criminal
act of his surrender are prosecuted and removed from office.
"And we have one great task. That is to abolish the criminal
tribunal. We must never again allow a target court that
persecutes a single people, as against Yugoslavia and
Rwanda."
Clark and La Riva met with Zivadin Jovanovic, former foreign
minister of Yugoslavia and acting president of the Socialist
Party of Serbia. Jovanovic denounced the $1.28 billion bribe
promised in exchange for Milosevic's handover by the Donors'
Conference on Yugoslavia held June 29 in Brussels.
Jovanovic read from a headline in the now pro-capitalist
press in Belgrade. It said, "The world has supported
Yugoslavia with $1.28 billion." Jovanovic said, "This is to
cover up a shameful, criminal handing over of Milosevic to
The Hague.
"This bribe is like throwing dust into the eyes of the
people, to hope they'll receive funding they'll really never
see. The International Monetary Fund, World Bank and
European Investment Bank are offering a bribe to extinguish
fires and deflate anger in the population."
Jovanovic added, "They don't mention the $100 billion in war
damages that was done to our country."
La Riva told Jovanovic that "on behalf of the International
Action Center, I'd like to convey our fullest solidarity to
defend Milosevic and that we will continue to organize the
defense of the Yugoslav people and expose the truth about
the Balkans."
BEHIND THE ATTACK ON YUGOSLAVIA
The abduction of Milosevic is the culmination of the anti-
socialist counter-revolution that began in 1989 in Eastern
Europe and the Soviet Union. Emboldened by their successes,
Germany, the U.S. and other NATO allies targeted Yugoslavia
starting in 1990-1991. They used a combination of military
and political support for secessionist groupings in Croatia,
Slovenia, Bosnia, Kosovo and elsewhere, economic sanctions
and diplomatic isolation.
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was torn apart,
four of the six republics broken off and subordinated to the
NATO powers. NATO bombed Bosnia in 1995 and carried out a
full-scale attack on the rest of Yugoslavia in 1999. Then,
to complete the political counter-revolution, they financed
the ousting of the Socialist Party of Serbia in the fall of
2000.
Djindjic and Kostunica are presiding over the complete
privatization of the Yugo slav economy and the restoration
of capitalism, preparing to surrender the country's economy
to foreign imperialism. To clear the way, U.S./NATO and
their agents inside Yugoslavia are working furiously to
smash the socialist and nationalist forces that have
resisted imperialist designs since 1990.
Milosevic's trial at The Hague, at a court that refused to
even consider the criminality of NATO's war, is part of this
U.S./ NATO offensive.
Milosevic's demonization is being used to justify a new wave
of U.S.-directed repression inside Yugoslavia. Workers and
progressive people around the world have the duty to stand
in solidarity with those in Yugoslavia who are resisting the
empire.
[La Riva was in Yugoslavia twice in the spring of 1999, and
produced a video, "NATO Targets."]
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 5. hein�kuu 2001 08:40
Subject: [WW] Supporters Demand Freedom for Angola 3
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 12, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
SUPPORTERS DEMAND FREEDOM FOR WOODFOX, WALLACE
By Anne Pruden
Baton Rouge, La.
On June 28, less than a week after the news that the
Louisiana State Supreme Court had turned down Angola 3
prisoner Albert Woodfox's appeal, a hundred "A-3" supporters
traveled from far and near to continue demands for justice.
Gathering at East Baton Rouge Parish Commissioner Rachel
Morgan's court, the multinational crowd held signs
protesting the 29 years Woodfox has spent in solitary
confinement. They also protested against racism and the
incarceration of Herman Wallace, another member of the
Angola 3 who they believe is innocent.
Wallace and Woodfox founded a chapter of the Black Panther
Party in Louisiana's infamous Angola prison plantation in
1971. Joined by Robert "King" Wilkerson in 1972, they fought
the rampant brutality and discrimination as well as the
inhuman conditions for Black and white prisoners.
Angola officials, in retaliation for their political views,
charged Wallace and Woodfox with a guard's murder. Later,
they charged Wilkerson with a prisoner's murder. Prison
authorities placed the Angola 3 in solitary confinement.
Wallace and Woodfox still suffer this cruel and unusual
punishment.
Wallace told Workers World that "the state has a mountain of
evidence--none of which points to Woodfox or me." This
includes "several bloody fingerprints that were found in the
dorm where the murdered guard was found."
On Feb. 8 of this year, Robert "King" Wilkerson was finally
released after proving the charges against him were false.
He promised to fight for Wallace and Woodfox, saying, "We're
still the Angola 3."
In Baton Rouge June 28 the press sought Wilkerson's views on
the hearing. Answering the Louisiana State's Attorney
contention that Herman Wallace's three-year time limit for
new evidence had passed, Wilkerson said, "Herman Wallace is
innocent. Innocence has no time limit."
Wallace can prove that the prison authorities provided
cigarettes and an early release to the prisoner who
testified against him.
But Wallace was denied the right to be at his own hearing in
Baton Rouge. Angola authorities claimed that it was an
expensive security risk for him to be in Baton Rouge. Had he
insisted on being present at the hearing, they would have
scheduled it inside the 18,000-acre farm plantation known as
the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, where no
supporters were allowed inside.
Wallace chose to have his comrades and supporters pack the
Baton Rouge courtroom, where all the seats were filled. As
Wallace later told this reporter, "I believe in the power of
the people."
Represented by progressive attorneys Scott Fleming and Robin
Shulberg, Herman Wallace now must wait for the
commissioner's recommendation on whether new evidence
exposing the frame-up will be allowed.
Pennsylvania death-row inmate and political prisoner Mumia
Abu-Jamal has written this about Wallace and Woodfox, who
face life in solitary without parole: "It is past time for
people to organize for their life in freedom. They are
political prisoners of the highest caliber who deserve your
support."
Meanwhile Albert Woodfox plans an appeal. Supporters are
asked to join/contact the National Coalition to Free the
Angola 3, PO Box 15644, New Orleans, LA 70175 or email
[EMAIL PROTECTED], or look up the web site at
www.prisonactivist.org/angola. In New York people can call
(917) 549-4838.
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: torstai 5. hein�kuu 2001 08:40
Subject: [WW] Yugoslav Leader Stands up to NATO Court
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the July 12, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
YUGOSLAV LEADER STANDS UP TO NATO COURT/ WORLD
ANTI-WAR FORCES RESPOND TO MILOSEVIC KIDNAPPING
By Heather Cottin
Deriding the international court at The Hague as a
"political circus," Serbian Socialist Party Chairperson and
former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic defiantly told
tribunal officials who read him his rights, "You are
kidnapping me and you will answer for your crimes."
He opted July 3 not to have counsel represent him at his
arraignment before the court in The Hague, known as the
ICTY. Milosevic said there, "I consider this tribunal a
false tribunal and its indictments false indictments. It is
illegal, being not appointed by the UN General Assembly. So
I have no need to appoint counsel to this illegal organ."
Though tribunal Judge Richard May did his best to prevent
the former Balkans leader from making political statements,
even cutting off his microphone, Milosevic managed to get
out his main point: "This trial's aim is to produce false
justification for the war crimes of NATO committed in
Yugoslavia."
This point found an echo in the anti-war and anti-
imperialist circles--whether from government leaders or
movement activists--that had stood in solidarity with the
Yugoslav people against NATO aggression.
Of course, politicians in NATO countries who had led the war
on Yugoslavia--from U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright to Germany's Foreign Minister Joseph Fischer to
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair--praised it as a "great
step for democracy," although it obviously flouted the
Yugoslav Constitution.
But other leaders from around the world and representatives
of the movements in solidarity with Yugoslavia against NATO
have reacted strongly to this act of NATO terrorism.
In Havana, Cuba, Fidel Castro said, after addressing a crowd
of 40,000 people protesting the recent conviction of five
Cubans in Miami, "The sending of Milosevic over there is
illegal, it does not correspond with international laws."
Castro, who was one of the strongest opponents of the NATO-
led bombing of Yugoslavia two years ago, added that it was
"madness" for the Yugoslav authorities "to concede the right
of extra-territorial action for their penal laws and
judicial authorities to NATO and the powerful nations.''
This "extradition under cover of the night," as Russia State
Duma Chair Gennady Seleznyov called it, was "undemocratic."
Seleznyov called instead for the Hague Tribunal to judge
NATO's supporters and allies, which had bombed that country
for 78 days, not the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's
president.
Cambodia also faces a threat from courts controlled by the
same imperialists that waged war against it. Warning against
any similar attempt on Cambodian sovereignty, National
Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh said Saturday he
would oppose any attempt to haul former Cambodian leaders to
an international court for trial in exchange for foreign
aid.
President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus also denounced the
seizure of Milosevic.
The Yugoslav government agreed to turn Milosevic over to the
court in "return" for $1.28 billion in foreign aid that is
slated to go directly into payment of International Monetary
Fund/World Bank service on Yugoslavia's $12.2 billion debt.
The Guardian of Britain noted, "It is no coincidence that
Slobodan Milosevic's first full day in a Hague prison cell
will be the same day that international donors convene to
pledge up to $1.3 billion."
MASS PROTESTS
The largest mass protests were in Belgrade itself, where
tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest
against the new pro-Western government's sellout of
Yugoslavia's self-determination.
Hundreds of Greek demonstrators marched through Athens on
Friday shouting "Out with NATO and the Americans.'' The
Greek Center of Research and Action on Peace issued a
statement condemning the Hague tribunal's unlawful action,
saying, "Those who perpetrated the war have become the
prosecutors of the victims of the war. The aim is to impose
collective guilt on the Serbian people for everything that
happened. It is an attempt to present NATO with clean
hands."
Greek Communist Member of Parliament Stratis Korakas told
reporters at the protest that he was one of the last people
to see Milosevic before he was deported. "He said to me he
wouldn't change his position in jail for a position in a
government that bowed to the foreign interests that were
controlling the people and the country,'' Korakas said.
The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) issued a strong
statement condemning the illegal action of the Hague
Tribunal. "This handover/extradition is the result of a
long, sophisticated and violent process of imperialist
meddling and blackmail on Yugoslavia, following NATOillegal
and criminal aggression on this sovereign country, and which
continues under different forms," it said.
The PCP characterized as cynical and shameful "The fact that
the handover took place under a U.S. ultimatum, on the eve
of the 'Donor Conference' with the blackmail of 'economic
aid.'" The PCP called for an "end to the presence of the
Portuguese troops in the Balkans and Portugal's involvement
in NATO's aggressive policy and the process of
militarization of the European Union."
Miguel Figueroa, leader of the Communist Party of Canada,
strongly condemned the unlawful extradition of Milosevic:
"This act, taken under immense and unprecedented economic
and political pressure from the U.S. government, constitutes
a shameful denial of elementary democratic rights and due
process. It also reveals the true character of the
International War Crimes Tribunal as an instrument of
political vengeance and the imposition of a winners'
'justice,'" said Figueroa.
WORKERS WORLD PARTY CONDEMNS U.S. POLICIES
In a statement from its Secretariat, Workers World Party of
the United States said:
"The so-called trial of Slobodan Milosevic is a monstrous
example of 'adding insult to injury.' It is the NATO war
criminals who must be put in the dock, not the leader of a
small country ripped apart by decades of imperialist
intervention--from economic sanctions to political
subterfuge, and culminating in a completely one-sided and
devastating military attack on its people and vital
infrastructure.
"Chief of the NATO criminals is the United States
government. It is the height of gall that these servants of
the multi-billionaire corporations pretend to occupy the
moral high ground in international relations. They have gone
completely unpunished for their horrendous crimes over the
last half-century, including the invasion, devastation and
division of Korea, the war against Vietnam, Laos and
Cambodia, the 1961 invasion of Cuba, the trampling on little
Grenada, the blitzkrieg against Iraq, and the scores of not-
so-hidden interventions that have brought misery to Congo,
Angola, Indonesia, Chile, Palestine, Iran, Russia and other
countries looted and pillaged by U.S. profiteers."
German opponents of NATO aggression joined the international
opposition to the illegal detention and extradition of
Milosevic. In Berlin, Laura von Wimmersperg of the Berlin
Peace Coordination and one of the conveners of the German
and European "people's tribunals" that found NATO leaders
guilty of war crimes, decried this travesty of justice.
"NATO will find 'proof,' exactly as they did with the lies
they used to usher in the barbaric air attacks. This show
trial is supposed to whitewash NATO and legitimize its war
of aggression."
Heinz Stehr, chairperson of the German Communist Party
(DKP), said, "The DKP condemns the decree of the Yugoslavian
regime and the extradition of the former Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic to the UN tribunal as an anti-human-
rights act of piracy."
Michel Collon, of the Belgian Workers Party and a well-known
NATO opponent, asked how those who made war on Korea, the
Suez, Algeria, Vietnam and Iraq could manipulate world
opinion to support Milosevic's extradition to the Hague
Tribunal.
Collon asked, "How could those who put Mobutu, Sharon and
Pinochet in power, and supported most of the military
dictators of the world for the last 50 years pretend to
judge those heads of state who displease them?"
Collon is recovering from surgery for cancer of the kidney.
He has evidence that the cancer was caused by exposure to
radioactive particles in his body. He was exposed to
depleted uranium weapon residues while reporting from Kosovo
in the past few years.
Collon noted that the Hague Tribunal was financed by the CIA-
connected Soros Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and Time
Warner, Inc.
INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER
In New York, the International Action Center condemned the
"illegal, U.S.-forced deportation of former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic to a NATO-sponsored court."
Returned from Yugoslavia, where he had gone to show
solidarity with Milosevic and his country, IAC founder
Ramsey Clark called the kidnapping "an enormous tragedy for
Yugoslavia and the rule of law."
"Serbian Prime Minister Djindjic and other officials should
be investigated for high crimes against the people, and if
found guilty should be sentenced in accordance with the
law," Clark said.
"Today's U.S.-engineered deportation of former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic is a gross violation of both
legality and Yugoslavia's national sovereignty," said IAC
West Coast Coordinator Richard Becker. "The ICTY's role as
an instrument of the United States and other NATO powers was
made apparent during the 1999 NATO war against Yugoslavia.
"Despite the fact that the massive bombing of Yugoslavia
constituted grave violations of international law--including
crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity-
-the ICTY refused to even consider indicting the NATO
powers," Becker continued.
"Today, as a result, U.S. military bases dominate the region-
in Croatia, Bosnia, Albania, Hungary, Macedonia and Kosovo
(Serbia)--where there were none 10 years ago. Yugoslavia's
real crime was that it resisted this re-colonization
process."
Sara Flounders, co-director of the IAC in New York, noted,
"The IAC stands with those in Yugoslavia today who are
resisting the U.S./NATO takeover of their country."
