STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Berlin Faces Court Action Over NATO Bombing of Yugoslavia Karsruhe, Jun 20, 2001 -- (dpa) The tremors from 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia continue to reverberate across the German political landscape with Germany's reformed communist party launching a constitutional court action against the U.S. backed security alliance's raids. The Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) believes that the German government's agreement for the NATO's bombing raids was unconstitutional because the nation's parliament, the Bundestag, was not consulted. In the light of Germany's wartime past, military action involving German troops remains a deeply sensitive issue in the nation with the PDS having fiercely opposed the NATO raids which followed Belgrade's aggressive moves in the Yugoslavian province of Kosovo. As argument in the constitutional court commenced on Tuesday, a PDS leader, Gregor Gysi claimed that NATO's role had been extended by the bombing raids and as a result the central part of the agreement with NATO had been changed. Gysi insisted that bypassing the parliament not only raised democratic issues but also questions about the legal protection of the nation's soldiers. At the heart of the case is the German Federal Government's endorsement in April 1999 of a so-called a new strategic concept for NATO intervention. This was also agreed to by other members of the trans-atlantic alliance and stressed that the transatlantic security group faced new complex risks. Defending the German Government's action before the constitutional court on Tuesday, the nation's Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer said that parliamentary agreement for the concept was not necessary as it was not a binding contract but a political document. But Fischer said that Berlin believed the case before the constitutional court had "enormous political significance." "It concerns the negotiating abilities of the government in following its international responsibilities," he said. As a measure of the tensions unleashed in Germany by the NATO action, Fischer had paint thrown over him during a rowdy meeting of his Green Party at the height of the bombing raids. Also defending the government's support for the bombing before the constitutional court on Tuesday was the nation's Minister for Defense Rudolf Scharping who said that the purpose of the alliance had changed as well as the political circumstances. Representing the Parliament before the court, the Christian Democrat parliamentarian Rupert Scholz said that not every new concept was a new contract. (C)2001. dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
