'We accuse U.S./NATO'
The war crimes charges
By Gary
Wilson
The Independent Commission of Inquiry into U.S. and NATO War
Crimes Against the People of Yugoslavia released its initial
findings July 30.
A 70-plus-page digest of the findings was made available at
the opening session of the Commission of Inquiry in New York
the next day.
The digest details a wide range of war crimes, though the
report is not yet complete. Most of the key investigators
believe that a great many more crimes have been committed.
Their work in uncovering these crimes has been greatly
hindered by the refusal of the U.S. government and NATO
officials to release all relevant documents and
information.
Instead, all of the research results are dependent on the
slower but probably more accurate process of getting
information from the people affected by the war. This includes
civilians and soldiers in Yugoslavia as well as U.S. and NATO
military personnel who are not officers.
The military officers and civilian political leaders of the
imperialist powers are the ones who have the most to cover up.
They are the least reliable sources of information about what
happened during the war.
Research is also continuing through other independent
sources.
U.S. war propaganda was so pervasive that many in the United
States are unaware that much of what U.S. and NATO military
forces did during the war constitutes war crimes. There are
specific laws and conventions that are defined for war that are
meant to limit warfare to military objectives and to minimize
civilian damage.
For example, bombing any civilian target such as an oil
refinery or a passenger train for any reason, intentional or
unintentional, is a criminal act. Not only did the U.S.
generals order the bombing of civilian targets--many times they
purposely chose to bomb at times that would maximize civilian
deaths.
The selected initial findings released July 30 were included
in a document that had 15 chapters. Following are summaries of
those chapters:
1. NATO occupation of Kosovo
With U.S. and NATO forces now occupying Kosovo, a reign of
terror and murder is being directed against the minority Serb
and Roma populations as well as pro-Yugoslav ethnic Albanians,
who are being killed as "collaborators" with the Yugoslav
government.
Those being targeted by the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army
acting under U.S. and NATO military protection are the same
constellation of forces that constituted the anti-fascist
Partisan movement that defeated Hitler's massive invasion of
the Balkans 50 years ago.
In fact, the Yugoslav government has been subjected to
almost a decade of sanctions as well as war directed by the
United States government because the current government was
born from that Partisan struggle. Yugoslavia is the last of the
socialist governments that emerged in Eastern Europe after
World War II.
2. NATO's sponsorship of Kosovo Liberation
Army
The so-called Kosovo Liberation Army is really a mercenary
army that acted as agents for NATO both in provoking incidents
that were used to justify the U.S./NATO invasion and as a NATO
ground force during the war.
The KLA is completely dependent on foreign funding and
materiel for its existence. Most of the funds were funneled
through drug trafficking, much like the CIA funding of the
contras in the war against Nicaragua in the 1980s.
Like other similar fascist forces, the KLA is brazenly
racist. Its only publicly stated goal is to purge Kosovo of all
minorities, particularly the Serbian and Roma peoples.
3. U.S. conspiracy to overthrow Yugoslav
government
The U.S. government has been engaged in a concerted campaign
to overthrow the legally elected government of Yugoslavia.
Reports indicate that President Bill Clinton has authorized the
CIA to take any action needed to topple the government of
Slobodan Milosevic.
The U.S. government is actively engaging in operations
designed to promote instability in the former Yugoslavia for
the apparent purpose of taking over the region.
4. Damage to civilian infrastructure
During the 78-day bombing campaign, U.S. military and NATO
forces specifically targeted schools, hospitals, farms,
bridges, roads, railways, water lines, communications
facilities, factories, industries and other objects necessary
for the basic functioning of society.
The outright destruction of numerous economic facilities has
deprived hundreds of thousands of workers of their jobs, with
over 2 million more left completely without income or other
means of support.
Civilian damage was increased dramatically by the use of
exceptionally destructive ammunition, including ones banned by
international conventions.
The civilian infrastructure was intentionally targeted by
U.S. and NATO military commanders. This is shown in the
following quote from NATO Lt. Gen. Michael Short: "I think no
power to your refrigerator, no gas to your stove, you can't get
to work because the bridge is down--the bridge on which you
hold your rock concerts and you all stood with targets on your
heads. That needs to disappear at 3:00 in the morning."
(International Herald Tribune, May 14)
5. Destruction to the environment
Among the targets NATO hit were oil refineries,
petrochemical plants, chemical fertilizer factories, fuel
storage tanks and power plants. The bombing strikes against
these industries caused a severe environmental crisis in
Yugoslavia.
The quantity of explosives dropped on Yugoslavia during the
war equaled the yield of several Hiroshima-type A-bombs. Among
the weapons used by the U.S. military and NATO forces were
several types of internationally outlawed explosives: cluster
bombs, gravity bombs and graphite bombs.
In addition, the United States and Britain continued to use
bullets, missiles and bombs tipped with deplete uranium, or DU.
These weapons were first introduced in the U.S. war on
Iraq.
These weapons use radioactive waste products and are
extremely toxic to humans.
NATO-created environmental damage is not limited to
Yugoslavia. Many of the chemical plants and oil refineries
bombed by NATO were on the banks of the Danube River or its
tributaries. The damage is expected to spread to all the
countries downstream--Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine.
More than 10 million people depend on the Danube for their
drinking water.
6. Damage to agriculture
In testimony published in the Spanish weekly Articulo 20, a
pilot described what the NATO bombers were doing. Capt. Adolfo
Luis Martin de la Hoz, who returned to Spain at the end of May
after having participated in the bombings since the beginning,
said: times our colonel protested to NATO chiefs about why they
select targets that are not military targets.
"Once there was a coded order from the North American
military that we should drop anti-personnel bombs over the
cities of Pristina and Nis. All of the missions that we flew,
each and every one, were planned in detail, including attacking
planes, targets and type of ammunition, by high-ranking U.S.
military authorities.
"They are destroying the country, bombing it with new
weapons, toxic nerve gases, surface mines dropped by parachute,
bombs containing uranium, napalm, sterilization chemicals,
poison sprays on crops, and using weapons that we still do not
know about."
With the destruction of crops, fertilizer plants, forests
and other agriculture-related facilities and resources, the
food-making capacity of Yugoslavia has been cut by at least 25
percent.
7. Destruction of educational facilities
More than 400 schools and facilities for students and
children were destroyed or damaged. Most of the educational
institutions that were bombed were elementary schools. Over 300
elementary schools were hit. The second most frequent target
was pre-school facilities.
The schools for 100,000 children were destroyed beyond
repair.
8. Damage to civilian health
At least a dozen hospitals and health-care institutions were
partially damaged or totally destroyed by NATO bombs. In
addition, the extensive damage to the economic infrastructure
and the environment has created a public-health crisis.
In the coming winter months, the people of Yugoslavia are
faced with the problems of safe drinking water, shelter,
heating and food. They face a possible outbreak of dysentery
from contaminated drinking water and eating contaminated food.
Lack of shelter and heat can lead to an epidemic of acute
respiratory infections.
9. Destruction of cultural and historical
sites
U.S. and NATO officials engaged in the willful destruction
of institutions dedicated to religion, charity, works of art
and sciences as well as historical monuments.
Churches, monasteries, mosques, forts, fortresses,
monuments, cemeteries, memorials, archeological sites, museums
and various historic or cultural sites and their contents were
damaged and even destroyed by NATO bombs.
In addition to the structural damage, priceless and
irreplaceable ancient frescos, literature, art, artifacts and
relics in many churches and monasteries were damaged or placed
in a condition that prevents their safe preservation.
These cultural and historic sites had survived the Nazi
bombing campaign during World War II, but not the widespread
NATO bombing campaign.
10. Destruction of the Yugoslav media
On the orders of the U.S. general command, NATO forces
destroyed the Serbian state television headquarters in downtown
Belgrade on April 23. Twenty civilian employees were killed;
many more were wounded.
U.S./NATO bombs destroyed at least 10 private radio and
television stations, and 36 TV transmitters.
NATO officials said that the Serbian media centers were hit
because they refused to drop their regular programming and
replace it with NATO war propaganda. The Serbian state
television was hit because it had become the primary source for
news that exposed the death and suffering caused by NATO's
bombing campaign.
Only days before the bombing, NATO Air Commander David Wilby
announced that unless the Yugoslav media stopped showing such
reports and replaced it with six hours of U.S.-created
programming, the media infrastructure would be destroyed.
11. Use of illegal weapons
The use of cluster bombs is a prohibited act of war under
the Hague Conventions, the Geneva Conventions and the Nuremberg
Charter. International law also prohibits the used of depleted
uranium weapons. Both were used by U.S. military forces in the
NATO aggression against Yugoslavia.
The indiscriminate nature of cluster bombs and depleted
uranium weapons make their use impossible to limit strictly to
military personnel and objects.
Aerosolized DU particles not only endanger soldiers in the
combat zones where DU weapons are used, but they also endanger
civilians in outlying communities. DU particles may also
contaminate farm animals, planting soil and water supplies,
making areas within at least a 25-mile radius a toxic wasteland
for generations to come.
Unexploded cluster bombs act as antipersonnel landmines. It
is usually children, who mistake the bright yellow canisters
and parachutes for toys, and unsuspecting civilians who fall
victim to unexploded cluster bombs. Unexploded cluster bombs
are a threat to civilians long after the war is officially
declared to be over.
The U.S. military commanders do not deny that they used
these weapons in their attacks on Yugoslavia. They claim the
right to defy international law and use these weapons in the
interest of ultimate victory.
12. Assassination attempts and other attacks on Yugoslav
leaders
Throughout the 79-day NATO bombing campaign, NATO leaders
intentionally attempted to assassinate Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic and numerous other high-level Yugoslav
government officials. NATO commanders made several attempts to
murder Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his family by
demolishing his residence. Ronald Hatchett, a former Pentagon
official speaking on MSNBC April 23, said, "There is no
question about the fact that [the assassination of Milosevic]
was what we were trying to do in striking that house."
CNN conspired with NATO to murder a high-level Serb
official. In the British newspaper the Independent, Robert Fisk
reported on July 2: "Two days before NATO bombed the Serb
television headquarters in Belgrade, CNN received a tip from
its Atlanta headquarters that the [Serbian TV] building was to
be destroyed. They were told to remove their facilities from
the premises at once, which they did.
"A day later, Serbian Information Minister Aleksander Vucic
received a faxed invitation from the Larry King Live show in
the U.S. to appear on CNN. They wanted him on air at 2:30 in
the morning of 23 April and asked him to arrive at Serb
television half an hour early for make-up.
"Vucic was late--which was just as well for him since NATO
missiles slammed into the building at six minutes past two. The
first one exploded in the make-up room where the young Serb
assistant was burned to death."
13. U.S. military spending
According to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary
Assessments, the 78 days of air strikes against Yugoslavia cost
the U.S. people from $2.3 billion to $4 billion. These funds
were diverted from essential domestic social programs.
Immediately after the end of the air war, Congress and the
White House agreed to cut U.S. domestic programs by 11 percent,
focusing on cuts in education, job training, housing, health
and human services, environmental protection, and medical and
technological research.
The U.S. government has the largest military in the world,
larger than the next 16 countries combined. The United States
has bases in over 100 countries around the world.
While military spending saw no limits during the war, the
cuts in social programs have been unprecedented, with $53
billion in cuts to domestic spending since 1994. More than half
the U.S. domestic budget is spent on the military, with
additional funds directly diverted from social programs to pay
for the war on Yugoslavia.
Aside from the direct profits made by the
military-industrial complex in selling the weapons of war, the
demonstration of the latest military technology in the air war
against Yugoslavia, such as satellite-guided bombs, will mean
increased sales of U.S. military equipment worldwide.
14. Violation of international and domestic
laws and conventions
NATO violated a number of international and domestic laws
and conventions by its declared aims, by starting the war on
Yugoslavia, and by the actions it took during its aggression
against Yugoslavia.
Specifically NATO's aggression is a violation of Article 2
of the United Nations Charter, as well as Articles 33, 37, 39,
41, 42, 51, and 79.
It is also a violation of Articles 1 and 7 of NATO's own
charter.
The so-called Rambouillet "Agreement" written by the U.S.
State Department is a violation of Articles 51 and 52 of the
1980 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which forbids
coercion and force to compel any state to sign a treaty or
agreement. The "Agreement" is also a violation of the Helsinki
Accords Final Act of 1975.
NATO violated the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in time of War. It also violated
the 1977 Geneva Convention and the 1899 and 1907 Hague
conventions, which provide that military operations should not
target and kill civilians.
NATO violated the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use,
Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines.
The U.S. military violated the UN resolution from 1996 against
using depleted uranium weapons.
The list summarizing the international laws and conventions
that were violated fills four pages of this report.
15. Economic motivation for the U.S./NATO war against
Yugoslavia
The U.S. military-industrial complex plays an active role in
formulating U.S. military and foreign policy. Yugoslavia was
the last country in Europe to retain characteristics of a
socialist economy, including political and economic rights for
the working class. Now that the bombing is over and the
destruction of parts of Yugoslavia almost total, the profiteers
are drooling over the new markets that have been opened. There
is a close connection between military aggression and economic
expansion.
This is the concluding chapter of the digest. In addition to
the 15 chapters there are three supplemental appendixes that
are independent in-depth reports: "NATO's War of Aggression
Against Yugoslavia: An Overview" by Michel Chossudovsky;
"Bringing Democracy to Bosnia-Herzegovina" by Gregory Elich;
and "The Dismemberment of Yugoslavia before 1999" by Tony
Murphy.
The commission's reports will be available on the Web page
of the International Action Center at www.iacenter.org. Readers
can also find out how to purchase a copy of the selected
findings and other materials on the Web site by calling (212)
633-6646, readers . The mail address is Commission of Inquiry,
c/o International Action Center, 39 W. 14 Street, No. 206, New
York, NY 10011.
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