May I introduce myself: I am a former rear admiral of the German navy. In 1990 I was dismissed after I had expressed my opposing views on NATO's nuclear strategy of first use and the irresponsible arms race between NATO and Warsaw Treaty Organization.

Since then I have been cooperating with peace and antimilitaristic organizations nationally and internationally.

After the fall of the wall I observed and criticized the continuous change of NATO from a defense alliance to the offensive military arm of an aggressive type of western capitalism. Its new strategic concept issued on April 24, 1999 stipulates these new terms of reference.

Germany's armed forces within a militarized European Union is about taking the same avenue, from territorial defense only towards intervention. This means indeed a dramatic cut into Germany's after World War II tradition of a culture of peace.

The illegal war waged last year by U.S./NATO against the sovereign state Yugoslavia was the test for the U.S./Western Europe desired new world order.

When I studied and analyzed the course of actions during this war and its effects became clear to me: NATO's heads of states and governments and the military leaders involved had deliberately pushed aside the customs and laws of war. They wanted to hit and totally destroy Yugoslav society by hitting and destroying the most important components of the civilian infrastructure and bases for life. In order to hide their violation of humanitarian law they invented new terms unknown to the text of the law. They called civilian objects "high-value targets" or "strategic targets" and defended their forbidden attacks as "legitimate." But the law does not foresee a third category--"legitimate," besides "legal" and "illegal"--when qualifying attacks during an armed conflict.

In the course of three visits to Yugoslavia I undertook as member of the preparatory committee for the European tribunal, I had the opportunity to visit target locations and talk to victims and eyewitnesses of attacks.

My statement before this court is the following:

All attacked civilian objects under scrutiny like the Radio-Television (RTS) building, the USCE office building in Belgrade, the heating plant in Novi Beograd and the chemical plants in Pancevo had no military function. They were civilian objects protected by the IVth Geneva Convention, 1949 and its additional protocol I.

The people killed or wounded during these illegal attacks were civilians also protected by the aforementioned humanitarian law.

By explicitly and systematically not only violating but even neglecting the international humanitarian law NATO reintroduced medieval cruelty, inhumanity and the law of jungle into international relationship.

If not stopped this will change the world into a very instable and dangerous place with new rounds of arms race, new and more dangerous weapons, even weapons of mass destruction, more terrorism, more hatred and mistrust.

The lesson to be learned must be:

Stop this dangerous, inhumane and stupid path of the U.S., NATO and the European Union.