-Caveat Lector- -------- Original Message -------- Subject: War crimes by NATO ?? - Menu Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2000 10:25:17 -0600 (CST) From: MichaelP <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Organization: ? To: undisclosed-recipients:; Agence France Presse Friday, December 31 12:06 PM SGT UN Prosecutor Denies Formal War Crimes Probe Of NATO The United Nations War Crimes Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte has admitted that her staff was looking into complaints about NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, but denied that it was a formal investigation. Her statement is seen as an attempt to play down earlier comments by her spokesman confirming the existence of such an investigation. The White House denounced earlier the idea of a UN inquiry into possible war crimes by NATO pilots and commanders during the bombing campaign against Yugoslavia as "completely unjustified". The United Nations War Crimes tribunal has completed an internal study of NATO actions during the 78-day campaign. The UN Chief prosecutor has now to decide whether charges should be pursued. The UN Security Council established the war crimes tribunal in 1993 to deal with war crimes in the Balkan wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia. Although the tribunal cannot indict international organizations or governments, it may press charges against individuals. However, no western leader or military figure has ever been brought before such a tribunal. (Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document) http://www.un.org/icty/pressreal/p459-e.htm The Hague, 30 December 1999 STATEMENT BY MADAME CARLA DEL PONTE, PROSECUTOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA. NATO is not under investigation by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. There is no formal inquiry into the actions of NATO during the conflict in Kosovo. During the past six months, the Prosecutor has met with and received information from a variety of individuals and groups urging an investigation of NATO's actions during the Kosovo conflict, including members of the Russian Duma and several international legal experts. As with any other information provided to the Prosecutor, this information is reviewed by her staff. From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "International"<[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: IAC statement on UN War Crimes Tribunal's report on NATO Reply-to: "International"<[EMAIL PROTECTED] Priority: normal X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12b) Status: IAC statement on UN War Crimes Tribunal's report on NATO report on NATO air strikes It is only the growing international pressure to indict Bill Clinton and other NATO leaders for war crimes against the people of Yugoslavia that forced the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to announce the review of possible NATO war crimes. But don't expect any indictments of NATO leaders. The announcement to review NATO conduct is intended as a cynical white wash by a court that was established at the behest of and financed by NATO members. On Dec. 28, the chief prosecutor for the special War Crimes Tribunal based at the Hague, Carla Del Ponte, announced she would review a report on the conduct of NATO pilots and their commanders during last spring's 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. The United Nations Security Council set up the tribunal in 1993 at the instigation of Madeline Albright. It has depended on financial support from NATO countries to operate since then, and looks to NATO to enforce its decisions and arrest those indicted. This court has no connection to the World Court and it has no precedent in international law or in the UN Charter. The International Action Center never considered this tribunal to be an unbiased or independent court. It was created to do the bidding of the Western powers and specifically to discredit the political leadership in Yugoslavia and prepare public opinion for war. It was another instrument in the aggressive war against Yugoslavia. Most of the charges have been brought against Serbs. The indictment of President Slobodan Milosevic and other Yugoslav leaders took place while NATO bombs were raining on Pristina and other cities and towns in Kosovo, in Belgrade, Novi Sad and throughout Yugoslavia. The NATO aggressors indicted their victims for war crimes. This has some historical precedent. In the early 1940's, Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany held a sham war crimes trial for French socialist leader Leon Blum. Blum and the socialists were blamed for "starting World War II." He and millions of others were then deported to concentration camps. While none of the media accounts of Del Ponte's announcement expected that she would press charges against any individual associated with NATO as a result of the report, even to raise such a possibility is a profound development. As one report said, "Never has a Western leader or military figure been hauled before an international tribunal." The International Action Center on July 31 initiated an Independent Commission of Inquiry to Investigate U.S./NATO War Crimes Against the People of Yugoslavia before 700 people in New York. At that meeting, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark charged U.S.-NATO political and military leaders with 19 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace. Since July there have been dozens of similar hearings held in 10 U.S. cities and in Rome, Berlin, Oslo, Paris, Vienna, Novi Sad, Sydney and Tokyo, with the most dramatic a "People's Tribunal" on Nov. 8 in Athens, Greece before 10,000 people. Others, members of the Russian Duma and respected attorneys from Canada, Greece and Britain for example, have participated in the "tribunal movement" by attempting to bring evidence before the International Criminal Tribunal established by the Security Council at the Hague. They have documented NATO's war crimes and demanded that they also be investigated. Other attorneys and magistrates in at least Italy and Germany have brought charges against their own governments for violating constitutional provisions against waging an aggressive war. In addition, the mainstream media has finally published several truthful accounts of events surrounding the war that expose the NATO powers for the worst of the war crimes. These news stories confirm that it was a war of aggression and that NATO targeted civilians. These include (1) U.S. and other NATO forces provoked the war by setting terms at Rambouillet in March 1999 for NATO occupation of all of Yugoslavia that the Yugoslav Government could never accept. (Article by Robert Fisk in the British daily, The Independent, Nov. 26). (2) U.S. generals directing NATO bombing purposely struck civilian economic targets in Serbia to bring pressure on the Belgrade government to capitulate (Dana Priest in the Washington Post, Sept 19, 20, 21). (3) The cries of "genocide" NATO politicians used to justify the intervention had no basis in fact. U.S. officials said first that 500,000 Kosovo Albanians had been killed, then 100,000, then 40,000. Yet forensic teams from 17 nations digging in Kosovo 6 months to investigate so-called "mass graves" found 2,108 bodies - and these were of all nationalities and had died from all causes. (Toronto Star Nov. 4, New York Times, Nov. 10). In all, the mounting evidence against U.S.-NATO forces and growing pressure to investigate NATO for war crimes has forced the Tribunal established by the Security Council to try to at least look less like a blatant anti-Yugoslav star chamber. While we in the International Action Center have no confidence that the International Criminal Tribunal on former Yugoslavia based at The Hague will bring the U.S.-NATO war criminals to trial, we take encouragement from this additional sign of growing hostility to NATO's aggressive war. And we will proceed with our independent tribunal to try the U.S.-NATO criminals before a court of world public opinion this coming June 2000. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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