------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the July 10, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
SUPPORT FOR IMPRISONED YUGOSLAV LEADERS: RALLY HELD OUTSIDE WALLS OF "CRIMINAL COURT"
Special to Workers World The Hague, Netherlands
An international crowd of about 200 people staged a protest here on June 28 against the International Criminal Tribunal on Yugoslavia, a court controlled by the U.S. and NATO.
Protesters from Germany, Holland, Bulgaria, Belgium, France, Italy, Serbia, Canada and the U.S. met in front of the tribunal to denounce the illegal kidnapping and imprisonment of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. He has been defending himself, almost single- handedly, against war crimes charges, putting NATO in the dock for its 78-day bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.
In three languages--English, German and Serbian--speakers denounced the imperialist war against Yugoslavia. Their signs called the tribunal a "kangaroo court." They then marched to the crenellated medieval-style prison where Milo sevic has been held for two years. He has been denied adequate medical care and family visits, and is incarcerated in a prison that was last used by the Nazi Gesta po as a detention center. Other leaders of the former Yugoslavia are held there, too.
Speakers asserted that Yugoslavia was the "first Iraq." During the war on Yugo slavia, many people around the world were taken in by media lies and government demonization campaigns agaisnt the Serbs and Milosevic.
They praised the International Action Center, which stood almost alone in the U.S. against the U.S./NATO "humanitarian bombing." Heather Cottin, representing the IAC and its founder, Ramsey Clark, brought their solidarity with the struggle for the freedom of President Milosevic. She characterized the colonization of Bos nia and Kosovo, and the subsequent privatization of the Balkans and the former Yugoslavia, as a first step toward the U.S. war on Iraq. The IAC speaker stressed that solidarity was the only way toward the liberation of those imprisoned by imperialism.
Demonstrators learned later that their chants, songs and speeches had been heard inside the prison walls.
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SOLIDARITY MEETING IN NYC
The International Action Center, the People's Video Network and Yugoslavs against Occupation held a meeting in New York on June 28 in solidarity with a demonstration at the tribunal in The Hague, Holland, where former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is being tried. Other solidarity meetings were held in Moscow and Belgrade.
Milos Raickovich, a composer and teacher in New York, gave a brief
description of the demonstration in The Hague before the Yugoslav film
"Wounded Country" ("Ranjena Zemlja") was shown. The film depicts the
bombardment of Yugo slavia by U.S. bombs and missiles
in 1999.After the film, Pat Chin of the IAC spoke on the political context of the 78 days of air warfare against Yugoslavia in 1999, asserting "it was a neocolonial attack to expand the U.S. empire." Nadja Tesich, a Yugoslav author and film maker, pointed out that the real reason the U.S. and NATO powers imprisoned Milosevic was that he "defended his country from enemy attacks." Barry Lituchy, a historian, explained the historical context of Euro pean and U.S. aggression in the Balkans.
Sara Flounders, who was in Yugoslavia while it was being bombed in 1999, drew parallels with the struggles in Palestine and Iraq.
-- G. Dunkel
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