Rage against NATO -- DEFIANCE The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, April 7th, 1999. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.peg.apc.org/~guardian Subscription rates on request. ****************************** "Dictator Bill Clinton", "NATO fascists", "Nazi American Terrorists" ran the shouted slogans and placards as protest actions around the world continued against the US-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in all capital cities of Australia. In defiance hundreds of thousands have taken action in Moscow, Sebastopol, Nicosia, Prague, The Hague, Vienna, Copenhagen, Athens, Frankfurt and Berlin and the cities of the US, France and many other countries. They erupted in the Bosnian cities of Trebinje and Bijeljina, and in the Yugoslavian republic of Montenegro. In Belgrade under siege the people sang patriotic songs of defiance. "Sorry, We are Singing" ran one of their placards. Communist Parties, peace and religious organisations from all parts of the globe have condemned the NATO aggression. In a strongly worded statement the Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition (AABCC) called on the Australian Government to "dissociate our country from the illegal bombing of a sovereign country which is being conducted without United Nations sanction and is contrary to international law." Denis Doherty, spokesperson for the AABCC said that the government should "order the immediate return home of the Australian troops involved in the NATO actions in Yugoslavia. "The Australian Government will stand condemned unless it uses its good offices with the US to persuade it to desist from this illegal and immoral blood letting", Mr Doherty said. "NATO's one accomplishment has been to cause a major humanitarian catastrophe. The peace movement declares that Australian Government support for this military outrage, which has more to do with American and European political interests than genuine humanitarian concerns, is not carried out in our name", Denis Doherty concluded. Global hegemony The Communist Party of India (Marxist) in strongly condemning the aggression said that "This unprovoked attack is nothing but a naked expression of US imperialist aggression to impose its global hegemony. "It is unprecedented in international law that a country is militarily attacked in order to force it to accept an `agreement' that goes against that country's national interests and sovereignty." "The CPI(M) calls on the Indian people to protest against growing imperialist aggressiveness." "Widening conflict" The Japanese Communist Party says the bombing brings with it the danger of a widening conflict. "As regards the Kosovo question, which is given as the reason for the air strikes, peace talks have been under way since last October under the mediation of six countries. "There is no reason at all for launching such major air strikes just because one party in the talks doesn't agree with the program for peace. "The use of force by NATO not only makes the process of settling the conflict more complicated, but will escalate the conflict and carries the danger of developing into a full scale war in which many innocent civilians will be injured and killed." "Utterly monstrous" "The US and its imperialist allies are utterly monstrous in seeking to impose foreign occupation forces on Yugoslavia for the purpose of further dismembering that country and after the Yugoslav refusal to accept such occupation forces", says a statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines. In Rome tens of thousands of protesters took part in a demonstration organised by political parties, trade unions and peace groups. Italy is a NATO member. In Greece where huge anti-NATO demonstrations have taken place, the Communist Party of Greece has called on the people of Greece to stand by the side of the people of Yugoslavia and for the Greek Government not to participate in the war, but to "coordinate their position with the governments resisting it, Russia, China and others ...". A protest rally in Prague's Wenceslas Square was attended by several thousand opponents of the NATO aggression. Other well- supported rallies have been held in Brno and other cities and towns of the Czech Republic which only recently became a member of NATO. Several mass demonstrations against NATO bombing have taken place in Paris convened by over 20 associations, political parties and unions. They called for immediate negotiations. On April 4, in Strasbourg, the French peace group Mouvement de la Paix and German peace groups called for a Euro-rally for peace, disarmament and solidarity. Participants will come from Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Greece, Germany, Portugal, Rumania, UK. As "The Guardian" goes to press, NATO bombing continues and is being increasingly directed against the infrastructure of Yugoslavia -- bridges, water, electricity and sewerage plants. In condemning the bombing, CPA General Secretary Peter Symon said that cities and villages are being hit throughout Yugoslavia including the towns and villages of Kosovo. "As in Iraq, NATO's objective is to terrorise the people into accepting NATO's dictatorship or to see their economic achievements devastated. "It is Clinton, Blair, Schroeder and Jospin who should be arraigned as war criminals. It is they who launched this aggressive war, completely ignoring the United Nations. "War creates refugees and the bombing of Kosovo is no exception. The exodus from Kosovo of both ethnic Albanians and Serbs is an inevitable consequence of the bombing. The refugee situation has been deliberately created and is cynically used to justify the NATO aggression. "War also created even larger refugee crises among Kurds, Rwandans, Angolans, Sudanese, Congolese, Palestinians and others but the western powers showed little or no concern. "The suffering of refugees is a human calamity but in most cases it is a direct consequence of wars or ethnic and religious conflicts deliberately stirred up by imperialism to justify military intervention and its economic and political control. "NATO aggression must be stopped now. Yugoslavia is in the front line of the struggle to prevent a third world war. If successful now, NATO will continue to push eastwards, reaching out for its total world domination", said Mr Symon. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
