IAC MEETING OPPOSES U.S.-NATO TRIBUNAL
By Heather Cottin
New York
July 11, 2001--Outraged by the new Yugoslav regime's extradition of Slobodan Milosevic that violated both the Yugoslav constitution and its sovereignty, an overflow crowd packed the New York offices of the International Action Center on the evening of July 5.
Attendees of the IAC event, which included anti-imperialists from the Korean Truth Commission, Al-Awda Palestinian Right of Return Coalition, Vieques Support Campaign and members of the IAC Committee to Stop U.S. War in Colombia, joined meeting co-chair Pat Chin in shouting "Jivila Jugoslavia!-- Yugoslavia lives!" and demanding freedom for Milosevic.
They also joined the call for "U.S.-NATO out of the Balkans," as part of the growing mobilization to confront Pres. Bush September 29 in Washington during anti- globalization protests.
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, founder of the International Action Center, urged the audience and the anti- war movement to take up the cause of Yugoslav sovereignty once again.
Recently returned from Belgrade, where he spoke to tens of thousands of demonstrators protesting the predawn kidnapping of former President Milosevic to the so-called International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, Clark denounced U.S. aggression, which he held responsible for the break-up of Yugoslavia.
Dr. Milan Bulajic, international law expert and former legal counsel to the Yugoslav mission to the United States explained the absolute illegality of the extradition of Milosevic.
Both Clark and Bulajic pointed out that the UN Charter strictly prohibited the creation of such a tribunal, which effectively has the power to single out and punish an individual nation.
Admiral Elmar Schmaehling and Wolfgang Richter, two German founders of the European Peace Forum and participants in the recent Korean Truth Commission held here June 23 appeared. The two helped organize the European popular tribunal that on June 3, 2000 in Berlin found NATO guilty of war crimes against Yugoslavia.
Schmaehling pointed to the importance to the peace movement of fighting on the Milosevic case to prevent NATO from shif ting the blame for the war from itself to the Yugoslav leader. His group is planning an international symposium at The Hague for those who oppose NATO's war against Yugoslavia and both NATO and European Union military expansion.
IAC PLANS BOOK TO COUNTER BIG LIE
Co-director Sara Flounders said that the government and corporate media has "billions of dollars to spread their lies but Milosevic, the Yugoslavs and the people who know the truth only have the anti-war and anti-NATO fighters worldwide to counter these lies."
Flounders noted the importance of "NATO and the Balkans," an IAC book that has been very useful in explaining the significance of Yugoslavia and NATO expansion.
IAC activist John Catalinotto held up a computer disk containing chapters for a new IAC book to explain U.S.-NATO war crimes against Yugoslavia both during the 1999 war and afterward, plus the illegal intervention in that country's internal affairs.
Since the Bush Administration has called for the expansion of NATO as one of its two foreign policy priorities, a new book that examines the legal, economic, and military implications of U.S. strategy in Eastern Europe is necessary at this time, Flounders said.
Many responded to the IAC call for support for the publication of this book, and some volunteered to translate it into Russian, Bulgarian, and Greek.
It is clear that this attempt to put the former Yugoslav leader on trial in The Hague is the latest in the long campaign of U.S. and West European imperialism aimed at completing the anti-socialist counter-revolution in Eastern Europe that began in 1989.
Besides threatening a new war and continued sanctions, the U.S. and Western Europe poured over $100 million into Yugoslavia in the summer of 2000 to arrange for Milosevic's election loss and the subsequent Oct. 5, 2000, coup. Then they threatened to withhold $1.3 billion in loans from a June 29 "Donor's Conference" to the current Yugoslav leaders to force the extradition.
After the IAC meeting ended, the organizers showed a few rough cuts of a videotape of large protest rallies in Belgrade filmed and now being edited by West coast IAC organizer Gloria La Riva. Two years ago the videographer produced the widely used "NATO Targets," which she filmed while Yugoslavia was under NATO bombs.
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