------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the May 29, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
HAGUE PROTEST TO DEMAND FREEDOM FOR YUGOSLAV LEADER
By John Catalinotto
European groups that have been defending former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milo sevic, along with organizations of the Yugo slav diaspora, are issuing a call for a demonstration in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 28, demanding his freedom.
It was on that date two years ago that Milosevic was kidnapped from Belgrade by NATO forces and brought to The Hague. It is also St. Vitus Day, a date commemorated in Serbia for its significance in the struggle against foreign oppressors in 1389.
The call states clearly the reasons NATO went after President Milosevic.
"Slandered from the outset," it reads, "Slobo dan Milosevic, the Socialist Party of Serbia and all patriotic forces resisted the shattering of Yugoslavia into weak, racially segregated territories, resisted domination by the IMF and World Bank, resisted penetration by the McDonald's culture and resisted NATO-dominated racist-terrorist forces cynically disguised as freedom fighters. It is because of these acts of principle that NATO has put him on 'trial' in The Hague.
"In that trial President Milosevic refuses to make a deal to save himself but continues to expose the crimes of violence and racism committed by NATO and its proxy forces against Yugoslavia.
"Slobodan Milosevic was overthrown by a 'regime change' made in the USA. Yugoslavia is now being wrecked economically, socially and culturally, under USA/German domination. President Milosevic has become the first political prisoner of the so-called 'globalization' of capitalist exploitation. By kidnapping and putting on 'trial' a popularly elected president of a sovereign state, NATO and their 'tribunal' have established the gravest precedent for the destruction of the sovereignty of states.
"After the military invasions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. government and its allies continue to blackmail many more nations into subjugation by economic sanctions, the threat of mass destruction and destabilization through 'dissident' and 'opposition' forces organized from outside."
The International Action Center, which was active in leading the anti- war struggle in the United States during the U.S./NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, has added its support to the call and will send a representative to The Hague on June 28.
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