ILLEGAL NATO INTERVENTION
ALLEGED WAR CRIMES BY YUGOSLAV FORCES
ALLEGED NATO WAR CRIMES
SANCTIONS AGAINST FR YUGOSLAVIA

ILLEGAL NATO INTERVENTION

• Violated UN Charter, as specified by Article 2 (Sections 4 and 7) and Article 53 which prohibit the use of force against a sovereign state unless acting in self-defense or if authorized by a Security Council Resolution (neither was the case).

[UN Charter is further legally supported in this respect by the General Assembly Resolution 2131, "Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention."]
 
• Violated NATO Charter which requires force to be used when a member of NATO is attacked (not the case)

 
• Violated 1980 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties forbidding the use of coercion and force to compel any state to sign a treaty or agreement. 

 
• Violated Helsinki Accords Final Act of 1975 which guarantees the territorial inviolability of European states 

 
• Circumvented American domestic law -- War Powers Act of 1973 -- demanding that the President submits a report to the Congress within 48 hours of US military involvement abroad, and that the President terminates such involvement within 60 days upon the submission of the report unless (a) the Congress declares war or enacts specific authorization for such use of US Armed Forces, (b) extends by law such sixty-day period, or (c) is physically unable to meet as a result of an armed attack upon the United States. 

 
• The intervention is not legally justifiable by NATO’s purporting to be stopping genocide, because no existence of genocide could be proven (consult the following section on Alleged War Crimes by Yugoslav Forces, as well as articles in the Propaganda section that discuss the body count issue).

Might is Not Right, By Ingvar Carlson and Shridath Ramphal
© The Guardian 04/02/1999
[Mr. Carlson is a former prime minister of Sweden and Mr. Ramphal a former secretary-general of the Commonwealth.] 
"NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia [...are...] acts of aggression against a sovereign nation. They strike at the heart of the rule of international law and the authority of the United Nations. Because they are acts undertaken by the world's most militarily powerful countries, the damage is incalculable."
http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3847631,00.html

Legality of NATO Attack Discussed, By John Diamond, © AP, 03/25/1999
"Legal justification for the U.S.-led NATO air offensive against Yugoslavia is written in no diplomatic charter, international law or U.N. Security Council resolution. At best, scholars say, the Clinton administration can rely on an unwritten principle that allows intervention to protect people besieged by their own government."
See the article.

ALLEGED WAR CRIMES BY YUGOSLAV FORCES

The German government alleged that genocide in Kosovo precipitated NATO action, despite possessing full proof that this was not the case. Official German government reports asserted that no extensive persecution of Albanians in Kosovo was taking place prior to NATO bombing. These reports were revealed to the public by an international legal organization. (See translated excerpts from Junge Welt article).

ALLEGED NATO WAR CRIMES

War Crimes Law Applies to U.S. Too, by Walter J. Rockler
[Washington lawyer, former prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial.] © The Chicago Tribune, 05/23/1999
"As a primary source of international law, the judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal in the 1945-1946 case of the major Nazi war criminals is plain and clear. Our leaders often invoke and praise that judgment, but obviously have not read it. 

In addition to shredding the UN Charter and perverting the purpose of NATO, Clinton also has violated at least two provisions of the United States Constitution.

The notion that humanitarian violations can be redressed with random destruction and killing by advanced technological means is inherently suspect."
http://www.eroj.org/urbiorbi/Yugoslavia/walter.htm

Kosovo Inquiry Confirms U.S. Fears of War Crimes Court, 
By Steven Lee Myers, © New York Times, 01/03/00
"Now, as a result of NATO's air war against the Serbs last spring, members of the American military have already undergone the scrutiny of just such a court: the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Experts on international law say that may create political and legal precedents for requiring Americans to submit to international judicial review."
Search the New York Times archives: http://archives.nytimes.com/archives/

U.N. Tribunal Investigating NATO's War in Yugoslavia, By AP
© New York Times, 12/29/99
"The chief war crimes prosecutor for the United Nations is reviewing the conduct of NATO pilots and their commanders during last spring's 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.
Search the New York Times archives: http://archives.nytimes.com/archives/

Robinson attacks Nato campaign
© BBC News, 05/09/1999, Published at 23:29 GMT 00:29 UK
"The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, has sharply criticised Nato over its air campaign against Yugoslavia. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_339000/339562.stm

Law the Loser, © Times of India, Editorial, 06/05/1999 
"The International Court of Justice did not grant Yugoslavia’s plea for a halt to the bombing on a technicality but it did hint that the military alliance’s use of force was illegal. If the US is able to get away with such blatant misuse of military power, no nation or region can regard itself as safe."
See the article.

If Slobo, Why Not Bill?, By Alexander Cockburn, © The Nation, 06/21/1999 
"Arbour [Chief Justice of the International War Crimes Tribunal when the article was written] could impart some temporary credibility for the tribunal by indicting the cleansers of the Krajina. She’d do even better by sending up indictments of the NATO gang for war crimes committed during the bombing campaign. Thus far, three formal "complaints and requests for investigation and indictment" aimed at this gang have been lodged with Arbour. One has been filed by a Greek lawyer, with supporting signatures of a thousand Greek citizens. Another, specifically aimed at British Prime Minister Tony Blair, along with his foreign and defense secretaries, Robin Cook and George Robertson, has been filed by a Cambridge lawyer. The third has been prepared by a Canadian team of lawyers, charging sixty-seven persons with war crimes, said persons ranging from Bill Clinton to chief propagandist Jamie Shea. One of the Canadians, Michael Melman of York University, tells me, "It will be a good test to see whether the law actually applies to powerful people." His team's charges? Willful causing of great suffering and serious injuries; extensive damage to property unjustified by military necessity; employment of weapons causing unnecessary suffering; wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages; damage to, or destruction of, religious, charitable and educational institutions; destruction of historic monuments.
http://www.thenation.com/issue/990621/0621cockburn.shtml
 

Letters to the Editor

Human rights group charges NATO bombing is war crime; Calls for indictment of British government officials
By Chris Marsden, 05/29/1999
"The human rights group, the Movement for the Advancement of International Criminal Law, has sent a submission to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, requesting the indictment of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and Defence Secretary George Robertson for war crimes.
A first draft of the submission drawn up by Glen Rangwala, a lawyer based at Cambridge University, was sent to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal on May 4."
See http://ban.joh.cam.ac.uk/~maicl/pr5.htm

"A group lawyers from several countries has laid a formal complaint with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia against all of the individual leaders of the NATO countries and officials of NATO itself. The complaint was initiated by professors from Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in Toronto -- where Tribunal prosecutor Louise Arbour was also a professor before becoming a judge."
Read the entire complaint at http://www.counterpunch.org/complaint.html

Yugoslavia sues leading NATO countries in the Hague
BBC NEWS, 05/10/1999, Published at 18:11 GMT 19:11 UK 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_339000/339655.stm

International Action Center organizes a search for evidence to help Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark write an indictment
See http://www.iacenter.org/warcrime/index.htm for the most recent news regarding this action!

SANCTIONS AGAINST FR YUGOSLAVIA

Associated Bill - H.R.2606
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c106:6:./temp/~c106W81In7::
Excerpts from the bill – sections 591 and 599 – are reproduced below:

IMMUNITY OF FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

SEC. 591. (a) Subject to subsection (b), the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia shall be deemed to be a state sponsor of terrorism for the purposes of 28 U.S.C. 1605(a)(7).

(b) This section shall not apply to Montenegro or Kosova.

(c) This section shall become null and void when the President certifies in writing to the Congress that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (other than Montenegro and Kosova) has completed a democratic reform process that results in a newly elected government that respects the rights of ethnic minorities, is committed to the rule of law and respects the sovereignty of its neighbor states.

(d) The certification provided for in subsection (c) shall not affect the continuation of litigation commenced against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia prior to its fulfillment of the conditions in subsection (c).

[…]

SANCTIONS AGAINST SERBIA

SEC. 599. 
(a) CONTINUATION OF EXECUTIVE BRANCH SANCTIONS
The sanctions listed in subsection (b) shall remain in effect for fiscal year 2000, unless the President submits to the Committees on Appropriations and Foreign Relations of the Senate and the Committees on Appropriations and International Relations of the House of Representatives a certification described in subsection (c).

(b) APPLICABLE SANCTIONS

(1) The Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States executive directors of the international financial institutions to work in opposition to, and vote against, any extension by such institutions of any financial or technical assistance or grants of any kind to the Government of Serbia.

(2) The Secretary of State should instruct the United States Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to block any consensus to allow the participation of Serbia in the OSCE or any organization affiliated with the OSCE.

(3) The Secretary of State should instruct the United States Representative to the United Nations to vote against any resolution in the United Nations Security Council to admit Serbia to the United Nations or any organization affiliated with the United Nations, to veto any resolution to allow Serbia to assume the United Nations' membership of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and to take action to prevent Serbia from assuming the seat formerly occupied by the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

(4) The Secretary of State should instruct the United States Permanent Representative on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to oppose the extension of the Partnership for Peace program or any other organization affiliated with NATO to Serbia.

(5) The Secretary of State should instruct the United States Representatives to the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI) to oppose and to work to prevent the extension of SECI membership to Serbia.

(c) CERTIFICATION
A certification described in this subsection is a certification that--

(1) the representatives of the successor states to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have successfully negotiated the division of assets and liabilities and all other succession issues following the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;

(2) the Government of Serbia is fully complying with its obligations as a signatory to the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina;

(3) the Government of Serbia is fully cooperating with and providing unrestricted access to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, including surrendering persons indicted for war crimes who are within the jurisdiction of the territory of Serbia, and with the investigations concerning the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosova;

(4) the Government of Serbia is implementing internal democratic reforms; and

(5) Serbian federal governmental officials, and representatives of the ethnic Albanian community in Kosova have agreed on, signed, and begun implementation of a negotiated settlement on the future status of Kosova.

(d) STATEMENT OF POLICY- It is the sense of the Congress that the United States should not restore full diplomatic relations with Serbia until the President submits to the Committees on Appropriations and Foreign Relations of the Senate and the Committees on Appropriations and International Relations of the House of Representatives the certification described in subsection (c).

(e) EXEMPTION OF MONTENEGRO AND KOSOVA- The sanctions described in subsection (b) shall not apply to Montenegro or Kosova.

(f) DEFINITION- The term ‘international financial institution’ includes the International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Development Association, the International Finance Corporation, the Multilateral Investment Guaranty Agency, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
[…]
 

White House, Hill GOP Agree on Foreign Aid Agreement Funds Wye River Accord, Adds to Kosovo, Ex-Im Bank, Debt Relief
By Eric Pianinand Juliet Eilperin, © Washington Post
Friday, November 5, 1999; Page A13 

Congressional Republicans and the White House reached agreement last night on foreign aid spending, according to GOP aides, even as Republican leaders sought to capitalize on public resentment toward overseas assistance.

After what some Democrats described as a disastrous bargaining session late Wednesday, aides said the two sides exchanged offers that produced a deal including the full $1.8 billion the administration sought to implement the Wye River Middle East peace accord and $799 million more for Kosovo, international debt relief, the Export-Import Bank and a handful of other overseas priorities.

[ENDS EXCERPT]
 
 
 
 
 
 

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