Anti-NATO
Hundreds protest peace prize for Del Ponte
By John Catalinotto
Hundreds of people marched from the central station through
downtown Muenster, Germany, on June 8 to protest the awarding
of the Westphalien Peace Prize to Carla del Ponte, chief
prosecutor of the pro-NATO tribunal in The Hague,
Netherlands.
The court in The Hague, known as the International Criminal
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, is currently in the midst
of putting former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on
trial. Del Ponte doubles as chief prosecutor, as well as chief
propagandist for the anti-Milosevic forces in Europe.
Progressive activists in Germany see the trial as an attempt
by German, U.S. and NATO imperialism to blame its wars in the
Balkans on the Yugoslav leader, and through him on all Serbs,
or at least on all Serbs who refuse to submit to their colonial
rule.
Klaus Hartmann, president of the World Union of Free
Thinkers and spokesperson for the German section of the
International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic, pointed
out the close relations between the tribunal and NATO
representatives like former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright and NATO spokesperson Jamie Shea.
The role of the tribunal, said Hartmann, was to legitimize a
war of aggression against Yugoslavia and achieve a final
propaganda victory against the Yugoslav people.
At a meeting and discussion the night before the
demonstration, peace activist and editor of the magazine
Konkret, Juergen Elsaesser, made the point that the tribunal
was failing in this role and that this had created a problem
for Del Ponte.
Milosevic has made such a careful and fact-filled defense
that he has turned the tables on the prosecution. Nowhere could
anyone find that Milosevic had ordered actions against
civilians in Kosovo. Even in secret documents, Yugoslav leaders
ordered that civilian casualties were to be avoided on pain of
punishment to the troops and officers involved.
This and other problems in the trial made the situation so
bad for Del Ponte that she had to worry that the prosecution
would fail to convince anyone of Milosevic's guilt. Thus a
peace prize in Muenster was supposed to help her reestablish
some credibility.
But Muenster residents paid more attention to the protest
than they did to the prize ceremony for Del Ponte.
From an article in the German daily, Junge Welt, by
Cathrin Schuetz and Peter Betscher, writing from
Muenster.
Reprinted from the June 20, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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