NewsMine — coldwar-imperialism — kosovo — Viewing Item

NATO Warcrime { June 11 1999 } Press Conference on June 11th, 1999 Walter Rockler from Washington, D.C. is a former Nuremberg prosecutor. Michael Mandel and David Jacobs are two Canadian lawyers involved in making a legal case for the indictment of NATO's political and military leaders for war crimes committed in the illegal war of aggression against Yugoslavia It’s been called "a coward’s war," by a former judge of a UN tribunal, because even on the most charitable view, even taking their incredible explanations at face value, they displaced all the risk on the civilian population of Yugoslavia. They bombed from 15,000 feet to make sure that not one pilot risked danger of being struck by anti-aircraft missiles. Now from 15,000 feet you cannot distinguish between civilian and military targets. So, not only are they cowards, the leaders who sent other people to do their fighting, but the notion that no soldiers of NATO would be at risk and the only ones to be at risk would be the civilian population. This is prohibited by the Geneva Convention. We never explored non-military means. In fact we didn't even utilize at the outset a pretext of humanitarian violations in the Kosovo case. That was batted around at some length with respect to Bosnia, but at the outset of the Kosovo crisis when the KLA [Kosovo Liberation Army], labelled by the United States earlier as a terrorist organization, was murdering Serb policemen and Serb officials in Kosovo and let me say that I am not inherently pro-Serb or anti-Albanian but these are the facts at that time the grounds on which the United States urged action to solve this situation were not widespread human-rights violations, it was a somewhat preposterous reading of history to the effect that (and I remember a speech by President Clinton along these lines), to the effect that the Balkans were always a source of all the world wars and we had to step in to make sure that they weren't troublesome. We would determine what would happen there. The humanitarian violations, or alleged humanitarian violations, in effect followed the bombing; they were not the basis on which the bombing was undertaken. There was virtually no expulsion of Albanians; there were no murders, except essentially murders by the KLA of Serb policemen, 5 or 10 at a time in ambushes, which furnished the pretext for this military invasion. The tribunal at Nuremberg which was not a tribunal; it was a four-power court held that the ultimate crime in international law, the ultimate war crime, is launching an unprovoked attack upon another state, another country. What is "unprovoked?" "Unprovoked" means when the other country has not attacked you, when it's not a defensive war a defensive war under the Charter is permissible but obviously Yugoslavia or Serbia has not gone outside its borders to attack anybody, never did at any point in the last 10 years. So, you read the classic definition of what is a war of aggression and this in the opinion of the tribunal, as I said, was the supreme crime. In other words, that launching a war carries with it every crime that may be committed in that war. That's what war is basically. It happens to be a sanction essentially of criminal activity inherently. The UN Charter actually does not even give the Security Council the power to intervene in any state's domestic affairs. There are provisions in the Charter Article 2, Sections 4 and 7, which prohibit interference in the domestic jurisdiction of any state; which prohibit the threat of military force; which prohibit the use of military force. Now on what basis could the U.N. act? It would have to be if you had a state of affairs which truly threatened peace. That COULD arise out of a civil war but there is no provision in the UN Charter which says, 'any country may invade any other country to uphold what it represents to be human rights.' There just is no such a provision. There is no treaty which provides that. The United States was one of the authors of the UN Charter and it insisted on veto-power for the major powers in the Security Council. This was a characteristic of the Security Council which we wanted - so did the Soviets - for self-protection. In other words we could not be attacked in the Security Council over our veto. So this was the procedure set up. NATO was created, as I said, as a defensive alliance but if you look at the treaty terms, it purports to be totally under the U.N. It's a defensive alliance subject to the control and oversight of the Security Council of the U.N. Obviously in this attack, which has always been labelled NATO, and which I regard as primarily American (and I regret to say that), the Security Council was deliberately bypassed. Now, you say, that's because we might have run into a veto on bombing. Yes, we might have, and that was the conception of the U.N -- the U.N. essentially required that there be no veto with respect to military action. And we might have had that. We never explored non-military means. In fact we didn't even utilize at the outset a pretext of humanitarian violations in the Kosovo case. That was batted around at some length with respect to Bosnia, but at the outset of the Kosovo crisis when the KLA [Kosovo Liberation Army], labelled by the United States earlier as a terrorist organization, was murdering Serb policemen and Serb officials in Kosovo -- and let me say that I am not inherently pro-Serb or anti-Albanian but these are the facts -- at that time the grounds on which the United States urged action to solve this situation were not widespread human-rights violations, it was a somewhat preposterous reading of history to the effect that (and I remember a speech by President Clinton along these lines), to the effect that the Balkans were always a source of all the world wars and we had to step in to make sure that they weren't troublesome. We would determine what would happen there.

8k bosnian muslims 1995 massacred in un safe zone { July 12 2005 } Abolish yugoslavia Bosnian muslim officers go on trial for war crimes Cato us role { March 10 1999 } Court exonerates serbia on 1995 bosnia genocide Democracy now 10 10 2000 [mp3] Democracy now 10 10 2000 [wav] Drug found in milosevic blood Eights years after massacre 7000 bosnians { October 12 2003 } Five kla members arrested warcrimes Former yugoslovia [gif] Genocide trial doubt { July 26 2002 } Imf european coup in serbia { October 10 2000 } Kla opium Kosovo al Qaeda Kosovo propoganda coordination { August 28 2000 } Kosovo psy ops Kosovo uncertain { September 20 2000 } Kosovo_1999 [gif] Lives saved { March 26 2000 } Many serbs believe srebrenica massacre video is fake Massacres pretext Milosevic carried defiance till end { February 2006 } Milosevic defense { February 18 2002 } Milosevic possible murder investigated Milosevic son says father was killed { February 2006 } Milosevic tirade { February 15 2002 } Milosevic took drug that made him worse Milosevic took the wrong drugs { March 13 2006 } Milosevic war crimes { July 27 2002 } Milosevic was drugged asked for help Milosevic within law { July 26 2002 } Nato sends reinforcements quell kosovo violence 2004 Nato trial { September 19 2000 } NATO Warcrime { June 11 1999 } No bodies { October 13 1999 } No genocide no justification in kosovo No genocide No smoking gun { July 27 2002 } Non prescribed drugs found in milosevic Overview in yugoslavia { March 28 1999 } Planning behind march on belgrade { October 15 2000 } Plight of albanians greatly exaggerated Poor health of Milosevic delays trial { July 6 2004 } Ramsey slams hague Serbia blamed US for kosovo violence { January 2008 } Serbians protest kosovo independence { February 19 2008 } Slobodan milosevic found dead in cell { February 2006 } Suckers for kla { March 26 2000 } Systematically smashing to pieces modern state { May 31 1999 } Un kosovo mission examines documents crimes by kla US aided 1995 Croatian attack on serbs { March 12 2008 } US demands jeapardise trial { June 11 2002 } US helped civil war with mujahideen in yugoslovia { March 13 2006 } War crimes covered { July 24 2002 } West wants to carve serbia along ethnic lines { March 19 2008 } Yugoslavia elections { September 27 2000 } Files Listed: 57

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