Workers World June 1, 2000: June 10 war crimes tribunal building movement to abolish NATO

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------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 1, 2000 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------

WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL JUNE 10

The best sentence: a movement to abolish NATO

By John Catalinotto

New York

People are coming to New York from around the world to put U.S. and NATO leaders on trial for last year's aggression against Yugoslavia and the ongoing occupation of Kosovo.
On June 10 people from at least 16 countries who have led the movement against NATO's war will gather to hear evidence and render a verdict regarding charges of crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The tribunal will hear evidence on 19 charges prepared in July 1999 by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.
But, organizers say, the International Tribunal on U.S./NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia is not simply reviewing the past. "The Pentagon and NATO," International Action Center co-coordinator Brian Becker told Workers World, "are clearly guilty of the most extreme war crimes against the people of Yugoslavia." The IAC initiated the tribunal last July.
"These crimes have a method and an objective," said Becker. "Their goal is to impose Washington and Wall Street domination over all of Eastern Europe and into the former republics of what was the USSR. The war against Yugoslavia was a prelude to new aggression in the region. It also holds dangers for all of North Africa and the Middle East, and possibly for sub-Saharan Africa and South America.
"In light of this," Becker continued, "the most effective sentence the tribunal can render will be to use its authority to launch a world-wide movement of the people to abolish NATO. This is not merely a slogan, but will become a crusade for all those who oppose war and colonialism."
The tribunal's
authority
"The tribunal's authority comes from the prestige and the record of its participants," said Becker. They come mostly from NATO countries and from those subject to potential attack from the Pentagon and NATO, like Korea, Iraq, Cuba, and Haiti, for example.
The following have accepted invitations to participate:
* Charles Pascal Tolno of Guinea (Conakry), president of the Association of African Writers.
* Angeles Maestro Martin, member of the Spanish Parliament and a leader in the movement to stop the sanctions on Iraq.
* Ben Dupuy, former Haitian ambassador to the United Nations.
* Olga Mejia, former president of the Panamanian Human Rights Organization.
* Retired admiral Elmar Schmaeh ling, who has become a leading spokesperson in the anti-war movement in Germany. He will be accompanied by at least five others who have organized tribunals in Germany, including a June 2-3 Europe-wide tribunal coming up in Berlin.
* Monica Moorehead, a leader of the Millions for Mumia organization in the U.S., will speak on the links between racism and war. Also participating will be representatives of those who fought the IMF/World Bank in Washington in April.
* Rom activist Shani Rifati will report on the plight of his people in NATO-occupied Kosovo.
* Michel Collon, an author and activist from Belgium who has confronted NATO spokesperson Jamie Shea at public meetings with exposures of Shea's lies. Collon will bring his new book "Monopoly," and his video "Fifteen Belgians Under the Bombs."
* Ismael Guadalupe, a leading spokesperson of the movement fighting the U.S. Navy's use of Vieques, Puerto Rico, for target practice.
* Jorge Farinacci of the Puerto Rican Socialist Front.
* Raniero La Valle, Italian religious leader.
* Fulvio Grimaldi, filmmaker, and three others from the Italian tribunal movement. They are holding their national meeting on June 3.
* Gilles Troude, a member of the editorial board of the French monthly anti-NATO magazine Balkans-Info.
* Margarita Papandreou, former first lady of Greece, a center of militant anti-war actions in Europe. Others involved in the Greek anti-NATO movement are expected.
* Canadian author and lecturer Michel Chossudovsky.
* Roland Keith, a Canadian who served on the observer mission in Kosovo at the end of 1998 and the beginning of 1999.
* Depleted uranium expert Rosalie Bertell from Canada.
* Environmental expert Janet Eaton from Canada.
* Scott Taylor, a Canadian expert on the expulsion of the Serb people from the Krajina in Croatia.
* Leading members of the "Slav Tribunal" organized out of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other former USSR republics.
* Representatives from the tribunal in Austria, which found Austrian politician Wolfgang Petritch guilty for his role in delivering the Rambouillet ultimatum to the Yugoslav leaders, thereby provoking the war.
* California professor George Wright, an expert on Angola.
* Malcolm Cummings, who helped organize a tribunal hearing in Sydney, Australia.
* Chicana activist Gloria La Riva, who produced the video "NATO Targets."
* IAC co-coordinator Sara Flounders.
* IAC organizers Pat Chin and Richard Becker. The Boston IAC, which is holding a hearing on June 4 in collaboration with Serbian organizations, will also bring a delegation.
* Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general and founder of the IAC, will preside over the tribunal.
"On May 21, another child was killed by a leftover NATO cluster bomb and two were badly wounded," said Brian Becker. "All were Kosovar Albanians from Pristina. More countries in Eastern Europe, from the Baltic states to the Balkans and even the Caucasus, are pleading to join NATO as they submit to a new colonialism.
"This shows all the more that the tribunal must not only look back over the criminal war but look forward to building a movement to abolish NATO."
The tribunal will be held at the Martin Luther King High School Auditorium at 65th Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Manhattan. Doors open at 10 a.m. The program runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information, call the IAC at (212) 633-6646.

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