Germany sued over NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
By John Catalinotto
Sometimes it is possible for a small, determined group of
people to keep an important issue alive, creating a forum that
can pave the way for a future struggle.
Attorney Ulrich Dost, working with only a small committee of
supporters in Berlin and Hamburg, Germany, and the cooperation
of the people of Varvarin in Serbia, has brought a suit against
the German government on behalf of those wounded and the
surviving family members of those killed in a NATO bombing
attack on the village on May 30, 1999. The suit is asking for
about $90,000 in damages for each person.
After over a year of painstaking work gathering evidence and
doing the necessary legal submissions, Dost has been able to
file the Varvarin victims' claim for damages.
Dost argues that whatever nation's planes carried out the
assault on Varvarin, Germany is guilty of illegally causing
damages to the population by virtue of its membership in NATO
and its go-ahead for all the bombing raids.
For the first time since the work was begun, the
establishment media in Germany and also CNN and the BBC have
begun to publicize the Varvarin case.
This publicity comes as the International Criminal Tribunal
for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) meeting in The Hague is about
to open a war-crimes trial against former Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic on Feb. 12. Stories have begun to come out
that the ICTY prosecutors fear they have insufficient evidence
to prove their charges.
Dost, on the other hand, believes more than enough evidence
exists to prove the civil case against the German regime. On
Jan. 13 Workers World asked Dost, who had just returned from an
exhausting weeklong tour of Yugoslavia, to explain the facts of
the case for a U.S. audience.
"Varvarin, with its 4,000 inhabitants," said Dost, "lies
about 125 miles south of Belgrade and another 125 miles from
the border of Kosovo. It is in a mostly agricultural region
with no significant industry, no military bases, and in 1999
military transports were never sent through the center of the
town. People there did not think of their town as a war
target.
"Even on Whitsunday, May 30, 1999, the Sunday market where
farmers sold their goods was open. At 1:25 p.m. three NATO
warplanes appeared over Var varin. One separated from the
formation, flew toward the bridge and fired its rocket, which
hit the bridge's central support column. Its collapse dumped
the bridge and all the people and vehicles on it into the small
Morava River.
"Panic broke out among the hundreds of people in the market.
Some of them ran to the bridge's wreckage and began to reach
toward the victims.
"After they fired the first round of rockets, the warplanes
turned around. The rescue work had just begun," Dost said
angrily. "One of the planes attacked from the other side,
firing two additional rockets at the already destroyed
bridge.
"There were further dead and wounded. Altogether from this
air attack 10 people lost their lives and another 16 people
were gravely wounded. The youngest fatal casualty of this
attack was a 15-year-old student, Sanja Milenkovic.
"There was no military excuse for the attack. It was
directed at civilians. This is a crime," argued Dost.
Asked why there were not more cases of such suits around
Yugoslavia, which was bombed so heavily, Dost apologized for
not having the human and material resources to handle more
cases.
"It would be easy--if attorneys and funds were available--to
bring similar cases from all different regions of Yugoslavia,
including Kosovo, and with victims of all ethnic origins. Right
now, though, I and some other volunteer workers have our hands
full with the Varvarin case.
"We have to raise another 150,000 Euros [$135,000] to pay
the legal costs of finishing this case," he said. "There is no
support from the new Yugoslav regime, which is trying to stay
on good terms with Germany."
Conditions inside Yugoslavia
WW asked Dost, who had just seen much of Yugoslavia while
traveling and speaking about Varvarin, what conditions were
like there now.
"The unemployment must be over 50 percent," he said. "In
some areas there doesn't seem to be a money economy. People are
only surviving through the help of their families. It reminds
me of what I heard about conditions in Germany just after World
War II."
Dost also brought up the time after reunification of Germany
in 1990. "As many East Germans did during reunification, many
Yugoslavs had great hopes that removing Milosevic and making
peace with the NATO powers would bring prosperity back. Now
even the pro-Western [Serbian Prime Minister Zoran] Djindjic is
complaining that none of the promised aid is coming
through.
"In Eastern Germany, too, people soon lost their jobs and
their whole way of life. The difference is that under the ample
West German social security guarantees--which have decreased in
the past years--people were able to maintain at least a minimum
livelihood. In Yugoslavia they have only their family's
support.
"There are polls that predict that in an election the
Socialist Party of Serbia [Milosevic's party] would come in
first. So the European Union people have advised Belgrade to
postpone the elections."
For more information or to give support, contact
Hkampffmeyer@aol.com.
Reprinted from the Feb. 14, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page