Focus of anti-imperialist resistance
War crimes hearings in Europe hit U.S. and NATO
By John
Catalinotto
Speaking before 650 anti-war activists from 11 countries in
Berlin's Holy Cross Church Oct. 30, former U.S. Attorney
General Ramsey Clark said there was no alternative except to
"abolish NATO."
The Berlin meeting was the eighth of nine hearings and
discussions held in late October in the United States and
Europe to condemn U.S. and other NATO country officials and
military leaders for war crimes in their aggressive war against
Yugoslavia last spring.
Many of the meetings, while organized locally, were inspired
by the July 31 hearing in New York of the Independent
Commission of Inquiry to Investigate U.S./
NATO War Crimes Against the People of Yugoslavia. It had been
initiated by the International Action Center (IAC), to which
Clark is affiliated.
At that hearing Ramsey Clark had charged Bill Clinton,
British Primer Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder and other NATO political and military leaders with 19
counts of war crimes and crimes against peace and against
humanity.
In Europe, social-democratic forces led the war drive
against Yugoslavia. This included Schroeder's
Social-Democratic/
Greens government in Germany, the Socialist Party-led
government of Premier Lionel Jospin in France, Priemier Massimo
D'Alema's "Olive" government in Italy led by the Party of the
Democratic Left, and Blair's Labor Party in Britain.
That those claiming some degree of "leftism" led the
aggression made it harder for anti-imperialists to mobilize the
movement and clearly target the U.S.-NATO war criminals.
The goal of the IAC, as well as of many other organizing
centers, has been to clarify the truly aggressive role of NATO.
The IAC aims to mobilize the anti-war movement to prevent
future U.S./NATO-led wars, to stop all sanctions against the
people of Yugoslavia, to obtain reparations for damages from
their attackers, and to condemn publicly those responsible for
the war.
The meetings also target the big-business media who issued
shameless war propaganda against Serbia.
East meets West in Berlin hearing
IAC Co-Coordinator Sara Flounders told the large gathering
in Berlin, "This meeting is proof that not only the victors of
this war will write its history." Flounders' talk, which
emphasized the need for further struggle, was frequently
interrupted with applause.
Among the German participants in the Berlin hearing were
Ret. Admiral Elmar Schmaehling, former director of the military
counter-intelligence service of the Federal Republic of
Germany, and Dr. Ralph Hartmann, former Ambassador to
Yugoslavia for the German Democratic Republic. The audience,
like the speakers, represented both West and East German
anti-war forces, and was filled with people wearing buttons for
U.S. political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Gennadi I. Raikov, president of the Parliamentary Commission
of Inquiry into NATO's Crimes Against Yugoslavia and an
official delegate of the Russian Duma, reported on the military
targeting of civilian installations. Activists from Bulgaria,
Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland,
Switzerland, Spain and Yugoslavia also participated.
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Richter, coordinator of the Association
for the Protection of Civil Rights and Human Dignity (GBM), and
Laura von Wimmersperg, coordinator of the Peace Coordination of
Berlin (FriKo), co-chaired the Berlin hearing. Interviewed in
the Nov. 1 Junge Welt, Von Wimmersperg said the organizers will
publish a book about the hearing before the winter holiday
season. She added that they were working on detailed accounts
from committees that reported NATO's crimes in specific areas
and hoped to publish that next year.
Readers wanting more information on the German tribunal can
contact the GBM by e-mail at gbmev@t-online.de.
Italian tribunal launched
Some 200 anti-war activists from around Italy gathered at
the Casa della Cultura in Rome Nov. 1 for a meeting that wound
up establishing what amounts to an Italian section of the
Commission of Inquiry for a War Crimes Tribunal. Over 30
anti-war organizations backed the hearing. Anti-imperialist
groups, representatives of the Refoundation Communist Party,
including Luisa Morgantini of the European Parliament,
left-Catholic intellectuals and others took the floor in
support.
Paolo Pioppi of the Nino Pasti Foundation, which hosted the
gathering, introduced the meeting by "calling the Italian
government to account for the crimes committed in Yugoslavia
and for the crimes it is still committing against the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia and against international law and
against peace." Pioppi urged that Italian anti-imperialists do
their part in the international effort begun by Clark and the
IAC.
Supporting the tribunal were Lucio Manisco, a member of the
European Parliament from the Party of Italian Communists--one
of the few members of the party who, during the bombing,
advocated withdrawing support for the D'Alema government, which
could force it to resign--and former Senator Raniero La Valle,
founder of the Committees for International Democracy.
Media-expert Lenora Foerstel also spoke for the IAC, along
with Clark and Flounders. Flounders exposed a nine-year-old
U.S. strategy to destabilize Yugoslavia. Flounder's motion that
the hearing call for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal was
approved by acclamation. When Clark called for abolishing NATO,
the audience gave him a standing ovation.
Organizers report cooperation among all groups present and a
serious commitment to continue the work. For more information
on the Italian tribunal, e-mail to pasti@mclink.it.
Paris: `a devastating case against NATO'
In Paris on Oct. 25, a dozen speakers from seven countries
presented a devastating case against NATO's illegal war against
Yugoslavia at an international conference on "Justice and War."
The speakers included jurists, experts and activists who have
closely studied the background of the Yugoslav conflict and
NATO intervention.
Speakers included Jan Oberg, Director of the Transnational
Foundation for Future and Peace Research based in Lund, Sweden,
and Paris-based U.S. journalist Diana Johnstone, who co-chaired
the conference. Johnstone accused the Clinton administration of
aggravating and exploiting the Kosovo problem in order to
inaugurate NATO's new mission of "humanitarian
intervention."
University of Paris historian Annie Lacroix-Riz drew from
her vast knowledge of diplomatic archives to describe the
extraordinary degree of continuity between present and past
Great Power intervention in the Balkans.
Organizers reported that Co-Coordinator of the IAC Brian
Becker represented an activist approach to the war strikingly
absent in today's France. Becker's description of IAC plans to
hold hearings in various cities on the indictment Ramsey Clark
has drafted against NATO leaders aroused considerable
enthusiasm among the audience, and many offered support.
In addition to supporting the Clark initiative, the
conference strongly condemned economic sanctions as an
unjustifiable continuation of war against the people of
Yugoslavia. Workers World readers who want papers and
proceedings can contact the Paris-based review "Dialogue" by
e-mail at dialogos@club-internet.fr.
Other hearings were held in Oslo and Amsterdam on Oct. 23
and in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, on Oct. 15-16. The Amsterdam
meeting exposed the repressive role of Dutch troops occupying
Kosovo. Clark and the IAC plan to participate in a Vienna
hearing on Dec. 4 and at the Kassel Peace Council in Kassel,
Germany, on Dec. 5.
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