Yugoslav civilians were targets
European inquiry finds NATO guilty
By Richard Becker
Berlin
Representatives from 16 countries gathered in Berlin June
2-3 for the International Tribunal on the NATO War Against
Yugoslavia. After two days of testimony, including dramatic
and moving accounts from Yugoslav victims of the 78-day
bombing war, the international jury rendered a unanimous
guilty verdict against civilian and military leaders of
NATO.
It was particularly significant that the European-wide
tribunal was held in Berlin, capital of the country that has
played a role second only to that of the United States in a
decade of imperialist aggression in the Balkans. Throughout
the two days of the event, the hall of a large church in the
Kreuzberg district was packed with hundreds of people.
On the first day of the Berlin Tribunal came an
announcement from the chief prosecutor of the "International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia" in the Hague,
Carla Del Ponte, that "although some mistakes were made by
NATO, I am very satisfied that there was no deliberate
targeting of civilians or unlawful military targets by NATO
during the bombing campaign."
This outrageous but unsurprising announcement said a great
deal about the ICTFY's role as a thoroughly corrupt
instrument of U.S./NATO imperialism--and nothing at all about
the facts of the matter.
The European Tribunal, on the other hand, presented a
mountain of irrefutable evidence convicting the NATO leaders
of crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against
humanity.
The meeting was opened by the head of the tribunal, Dr.
Norman Paeche, professor of international law at the
University of Hamburg.
The indictment was read out by prominent German lawyer
Ulrich Dost, a member of the Society for Civil Rights and
Human Dignity, which hosted the Tribunal. It charged the 19
NATO governments with violating international law in their
preparations and carrying out the war.
This included 37,000 aerial sorties resulting in
widespread loss of life, and the massive and deliberate
destruction of Yugoslavia's civilian infrastructure.
Dost extended the accusation to all members of the German
parliament who voted to authorize Germany's intervention in
the war. He charged them with violating the section of the
German constitution that prohibits "a war of aggression
originating from German soil."
Yugoslav witnesses
speak of horror
Several witnesses from Yugoslavia gave powerful, moving
testimony substantiating that NATO targeted civilians and the
civilian infrastructure. The German government had delayed
granting visas to the Yugoslavs, which made them miss the
first day of the tribunal. After protests, the government
admitted them in time to speak at the second session.
Marianna Brodar from Pristina, Kosovo, was forced to
relocate to Montenegro by KLA attacks. She described a NATO
bombing attack on April 30, 1999. At the very start of the
assault, her mother, daughter and another child were blown to
pieces while walking to the store.
Brodar talked of the widespread and ongoing psychological
injuries suffered by many children and adults who survived
the bombardment.
Milos Markovic was the news anchorperson at Radio-TV
Serbia on April 24, 1999. At 2:05 a.m., 15 minutes after he
completed a broadcast, the station was hit by several cruise
missiles. This followed weeks of open threats by U.S. and
other NATO spokespersons that they would bomb the RTS unless
it agreed to carry six hours per day of Western news
broadcasts.
Markovic vividly described the aftermath of the bombing,
which killed 16 media workers: "The electricity was off and
the inside of the building was filled with dust, dirt and
terrible smells. The 70 or so survivors went to the basement,
fearing additional missile strikes.
"But we were worried that now the fires in the building
would spread to the basement. We couldn't get out; a heavy
steel door blocked our way. Then a young man who worked in
the station, although bleeding badly from his head, suddenly
developed great strength and opened the door, allowing us to
get out to the street."
Markovic posed the question: "Why am I a victim? I had no
serious visible injuries ... But our invalidity is of a
special kind, for which we can find no remedy. We are filled
with fear. Our natural optimism has been bombed. Our belief
that we live in a normal world has been bombed ... . We don't
know what will happen to children who have not yet been born.
What is most difficult to believe is the reasons given by
NATO for bombing us."
Irina Dinic had had a very difficult pregnancy after four
miscarriages. On May 12, she was hospitalized in Belgrade,
and on May 18 gave birth to her daughter by cesarean section.
The baby was placed in an incubator because she was
premature.
When the hospital was bombed on May 20, Dinic had not yet
seen her baby. The bombs, which killed several patients in
the intensive care unit, wounded Dinic, who was hit by flying
glass.
"The doctor sewed my wounds in half-darkness," Dinic
testified. "We were evacuated to another hospital, and two
hours after arriving there I saw my daughter, who we named
Yelena, for the first time. But we were afraid that this
hospital would also become a target. ...
"Now one year has passed, but I'll never be able to forget
what happened. Physical wounds heal, but the psychological
ones remain. But I don't want to see a psychiatrist--I want
to resist."
NATO's cluster bombs
kill and maim
Another witness, Mr. Ilic, described being a refugee in
Kosovo and then returning home on May 16. When he was working
in his farm, his youngest child, Danilo, went to get him
water. He was struck by a cluster bomb dropped from a NATO
plane.
"When I reached him, both of his legs were hanging by
strands. We got him first aid, and the next day drove to
Belgrade. It took nine hours, due to the war, to reach a
medical institute. They saved his life."
Ilic also said that on March 29-30 in his area of Kosovo,
1,200 cluster bombs were dropped. The use of anti-personnel
cluster weapons, especially in civilian areas, is
unquestionably a violation of international law, as were the
other attacks on civilians.
Ralph Hartmann, who was the ambassador of the German
Democratic Republic to Yugoslavia from 1982 to 1988,
documented the war preparations by NATO leaders. Hartmann is
the author of the book "Honest Brokers," detailing the role
of German and Austrian diplomacy and intelligence services in
the break-up of Yugoslavia. He said: "NATO, headed by the
U.S., ignored all possibilities for a peaceful solution. The
only conclusion we can draw is that they wanted war."
Many speakers, especially those from the United States,
Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, were strongly
applauded when they called for an international campaign to
abolish NATO.
The event received extensive coverage in German and other
European media.
Those who organized the European tribunal will also send
representatives to the International Tribunal on U.S./NATO
War Crimes Against Yugoslavia taking place June 10 in New
York.
This article is copyright under a Creative
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