war crimes
"WE ACCUSE U.S./NATO": THE WAR CRIMES CHARGES
8/4/99
By Gary Wilson
The Independent Commission of Inquiry into U.S. and NATO War Crimes Against the People of Yugoslavia released its initial findings July 30.
A 70-plus-page digest of the findings was made available at the opening session of the Commission of Inquiry in New York the next day.
The digest details a wide range of war crimes, though the report is not yet complete. Most of the key investigators believe that a great many more crimes have been committed.
Their work in uncovering these crimes has been greatly hindered by the refusal of the U.S. government and NATO officials to release all relevant documents and information.
Instead, all of the research results are dependent on the slower but probably more accurate process of getting information from the people affected by the war. This includes civilians and soldiers in Yugoslavia as well as U.S. and NATO military personnel who are not officers.
The military officers and civilian political leaders of the imperialist powers are the ones who have the most to cover up. They are the least reliable sources of information about what happened during the war.
Research is also continuing through other independent sources.
U.S. war propaganda was so pervasive that many in the United States are unaware that much of what U.S. and NATO military forces did during the war constitutes war crimes. There are specific laws and conventions that are defined for war that are meant to limit warfare to military objectives and to minimize civilian damage.
For example, bombing any civilian target such as an oil refinery or a passenger train for any reason, intentional or unintentional, is a criminal act. Not only did the U.S. generals order the bombing of civilian targets—many times they purposely chose to bomb at times that would maximize civilian deaths.
The selected initial findings released July 30 were included in a document that had 15 chapters. Following are summaries of those chapters:
1. NATO OCCUPATION OF KOSOVO
With U.S. and NATO forces now occupying Kosovo, a reign of terror and murder is being directed against the minority Serb and Roma populations as well as pro-Yugoslav ethnic Albanians, who are being killed as "collaborators" with the Yugoslav government.
Those being targeted by the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army acting under U.S. and NATO military protection are the same constellation of forces that constituted the anti-fascist Partisan movement that defeated Hitler’s massive invasion of the Balkans 50 years ago.
In fact, the Yugoslav government has been subjected to almost a decade of sanctions as well as war directed by the United States government because the current government was born from that Partisan struggle. Yugoslavia is the last of the socialist governments that emerged in Eastern Europe after World War II.
2. NATO’S SPONSORSHIP OF KOSOVO LIBERATION ARMY
The so-called Kosovo Liberation Army is really a mercenary army that acted as agents for NATO both in provoking incidents that were used to justify the U.S./NATO invasion and as a NATO ground force during the war.
The KLA is completely dependent on foreign funding and materiel for its existence. Most of the funds were funneled through drug trafficking, much like the CIA funding of the contras in the war against Nicaragua in the 1980s.
Like other similar fascist forces, the KLA is brazenly racist. Its only publicly stated goal is to purge Kosovo of all minorities, particularly the Serbian and Roma peoples.
3. U.S. CONSPIRACY TO OVERTHROW YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT
The U.S. government has been engaged in a concerted campaign to overthrow the legally elected government of Yugoslavia. Reports indicate that President Bill Clinton has authorized the CIA to take any action needed to topple the government of Slobodan Milosevic.
The U.S. government is actively engaging in operations designed to promote instability in the former Yugoslavia for the apparent purpose of taking over the region.
4. DAMAGE TO CIVILIAN INFRASTRUCTURE
During the 78-day bombing campaign, U.S. military and NATO forces specifically targeted schools, hospitals, farms, bridges, roads, railways, water lines, communications facilities, factories, industries and other objects necessary for the basic functioning of society.
The outright destruction of numerous economic facilities has deprived hundreds of thousands of workers of their jobs, with over 2 million more left completely without income or other means of support.
Civilian damage was increased dramatically by the use of exceptionally destructive ammunition, including ones banned by international conventions.
The civilian infrastructure was intentionally targeted by U.S. and NATO military commanders. This is shown in the following quote from NATO Lt. Gen. Michael Short: "I think no power to your refrigerator, no gas to your stove, you can’t get to work because the bridge is down—the bridge on which you hold your rock concerts and you all stood with targets on your heads. That needs to disappear at 3:00 in the morning." (International Herald Tribune, May 14)
5. DESTRUCTION TO THE ENVIRONMENT
Among the targets NATO hit were oil refineries, petrochemical plants, chemical fertilizer factories, fuel storage tanks and power plants. The bombing strikes against these industries caused a severe environmental crisis in Yugoslavia.
The quantity of explosives dropped on Yugoslavia during the war equaled the yield of several Hiroshima-type A-bombs. Among the weapons used by the U.S. military and NATO forces were several types of internationally outlawed explosives: cluster bombs, gravity bombs and graphite bombs.
In addition, the United States and Britain continued to use bullets, missiles and bombs tipped with deplete uranium, or DU. These weapons were first introduced in the U.S. war on Iraq.
These weapons use radioactive waste products and are extremely toxic to humans.
NATO-created environmental damage is not limited to Yugoslavia. Many of the chemical plants and oil refineries bombed by NATO were on the banks of the Danube River or its tributaries. The damage is expected to spread to all the countries downstream—Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine. More than 10 million people depend on the Danube for their drinking water.
6. DAMAGE TO AGRICULTURE
In testimony published in the Spanish weekly Articulo 20, a pilot described what the NATO bombers were doing. Capt. Adolfo Luis Martin de la Hoz, who returned to Spain at the end of May after having participated in the bombings since the beginning, said: times our colonel protested to NATO chiefs about why they select targets that are not military targets.
"Once there was a coded order from the North American military that we should drop anti-personnel bombs over the cities of Pristina and Nis. All of the missions that we flew, each and every one, were planned in detail, including attacking planes, targets and type of ammunition, by high-ranking U.S. military authorities.
"They are destroying the country, bombing it with new weapons, toxic nerve gases, surface mines dropped by parachute, bombs containing uranium, napalm, sterilization chemicals, poison sprays on crops, and using weapons that we still do not know about."
With the destruction of crops, fertilizer plants, forests and other agriculture-related facilities and resources, the food-making capacity of Yugoslavia has been cut by at least 25 percent.
7. DESTRUCTION OF EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES
More than 400 schools and facilities for students and children were destroyed or damaged. Most of the educational institutions that were bombed were elementary schools. Over 300 elementary schools were hit. The second most frequent target was pre-school facilities.
The schools for 100,000 children were destroyed beyond repair.
8. DAMAGE TO CIVILIAN HEALTH
At least a dozen hospitals and health-care institutions were partially damaged or totally destroyed by NATO bombs. In addition, the extensive damage to the economic infrastructure and the environment has created a public-health crisis.
In the coming winter months, the people of Yugoslavia are faced with the problems of safe drinking water, shelter, heating and food. They face a possible outbreak of dysentery from contaminated drinking water and eating contaminated food. Lack of shelter and heat can lead to an epidemic of acute respiratory infections.
9. DESTRUCTION OF CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL SITES
U.S. and NATO officials engaged in the willful destruction of institutions dedicated to religion, charity, works of art and sciences as well as historical monuments.
Churches, monasteries, mosques, forts, fortresses, monuments, cemeteries, memorials, archeological sites, museums and various historic or cultural sites and their contents were damaged and even destroyed by NATO bombs.
In addition to the structural damage, priceless and irreplaceable ancient frescos, literature, art, artifacts and relics in many churches and monasteries were damaged or placed in a condition that prevents their safe preservation.
These cultural and historic sites had survived the Nazi bombing campaign during World War II, but not the widespread NATO bombing campaign.
10. DESTRUCTION OF THE YUGOSLAV MEDIA
On the orders of the U.S. general command, NATO forces destroyed the Serbian state television headquarters in downtown Belgrade on April 23. Twenty civilian employees were killed; many more were wounded.
U.S./NATO bombs destroyed at least 10 private radio and television stations, and 36 TV transmitters.
NATO officials said that the Serbian media centers were hit because they refused to drop their regular programming and replace it with NATO war propaganda. The Serbian state television was hit because it had become the primary source for news that exposed the death and suffering caused by NATO’s bombing campaign.
Only days before the bombing, NATO Air Commander David Wilby announced that unless the Yugoslav media stopped showing such reports and replaced it with six hours of U.S.-created programming, the media infrastructure would be destroyed.
11. USE OF ILLEGAL WEAPONS
The use of cluster bombs is a prohibited act of war under the Hague Conventions, the Geneva Conventions and the Nuremberg Charter. International law also prohibits the used of depleted uranium weapons. Both were used by U.S. military forces in the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia.
The indiscriminate nature of cluster bombs and depleted uranium weapons make their use impossible to limit strictly to military personnel and objects.
Aerosolized DU particles not only endanger soldiers in the combat zones where DU weapons are used, but they also endanger civilians in outlying communities. DU particles may also contaminate farm animals, planting soil and water supplies, making areas within at least a 25-mile radius a toxic wasteland for generations to come.
Unexploded cluster bombs act as antipersonnel landmines. It is usually children, who mistake the bright yellow canisters and parachutes for toys, and unsuspecting civilians who fall victim to unexploded cluster bombs. Unexploded cluster bombs are a threat to civilians long after the war is officially declared to be over.
The U.S. military commanders do not deny that they used these weapons in their attacks on Yugoslavia. They claim the right to defy international law and use these weapons in the interest of ultimate victory.
12. ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS AND OTHER ATTACKS ON YUGOSLAV
LEADERS
Throughout the 79-day NATO bombing campaign, NATO leaders intentionally attempted to assassinate Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and numerous other high-level Yugoslav government officials. NATO commanders made several attempts to murder Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his family by demolishing his residence. Ronald Hatchett, a former Pentagon official speaking on MSNBC April 23, said, "There is no question about the fact that [the assassination of Milosevic] was what we were trying to do in striking that house."
CNN conspired with NATO to murder a high-level Serb official. In the British newspaper the Independent, Robert Fisk reported on July 2: "Two days before NATO bombed the Serb television headquarters in Belgrade, CNN received a tip from its Atlanta headquarters that the [Serbian TV] building was to be destroyed. They were told to remove their facilities from the premises at once, which they did.
"A day later, Serbian Information Minister Aleksander Vucic received a faxed invitation from the Larry King Live show in the U.S. to appear on CNN. They wanted him on air at 2:30 in the morning of 23 April and asked him to arrive at Serb television half an hour early for make-up.
"Vucic was late—which was just as well for him since NATO missiles slammed into the building at six minutes past two. The first one exploded in the make-up room where the young Serb assistant was burned to death."
13. U.S. MILITARY SPENDING
According to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, the 78 days of air strikes against Yugoslavia cost the U.S. people from $2.3 billion to $4 billion. These funds were diverted from essential domestic social programs.
Immediately after the end of the air war, Congress and the White House agreed to cut U.S. domestic programs by 11 percent, focusing on cuts in education, job training, housing, health and human services, environmental protection, and medical and technological research.
The U.S. government has the largest military in the world, larger than the next 16 countries combined. The United States has bases in over 100 countries around the world.
While military spending saw no limits during the war, the cuts in social programs have been unprecedented, with $53 billion in cuts to domestic spending since 1994. More than half the U.S. domestic budget is spent on the military, with additional funds directly diverted from social programs to pay for the war on Yugoslavia.
Aside from the direct profits made by the military-industrial complex in selling the weapons of war, the demonstration of the latest military technology in the air war against Yugoslavia, such as satellite-guided bombs, will mean increased sales of U.S. military equipment worldwide.
14. VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC LAWS AND
CONVENTIONS
NATO violated a number of international and domestic laws and conventions by its declared aims, by starting the war on Yugoslavia, and by the actions it took during its aggression against Yugoslavia.
Specifically NATO’s aggression is a violation of Article 2 of the United Nations Charter, as well as Articles 33, 37, 39, 41, 42, 51, and 79.
It is also a violation of Articles 1 and 7 of NATO’s own charter.
The so-called Rambouillet "Agreement" written by the U.S. State Department is a violation of Articles 51 and 52 of the 1980 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which forbids coercion and force to compel any state to sign a treaty or agreement. The "Agreement" is also a violation of the Helsinki Accords Final Act of 1975.
NATO violated the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in time of War. It also violated the 1977 Geneva Convention and the 1899 and 1907 Hague conventions, which provide that military operations should not target and kill civilians.
NATO violated the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines. The U.S. military violated the UN resolution from 1996 against using depleted uranium weapons.
The list summarizing the international laws and conventions that were violated fills four pages of this report.
15. ECONOMIC MOTIVATION FOR THE U.S./NATO WAR AGAINST
YUGOSLAVIA
The U.S. military-industrial complex plays an active role in formulating U.S. military and foreign policy. Yugoslavia was the last country in Europe to retain characteristics of a socialist economy, including political and economic rights for the working class. Now that the bombing is over and the destruction of parts of Yugoslavia almost total, the profiteers are drooling over the new markets that have been opened. There is a close connection between military aggression and economic expansion.
This is the concluding chapter of the digest. In addition to the 15 chapters there are three supplemental appendixes that are independent in-depth reports: "NATO’s War of Aggression Against Yugoslavia: An Overview" by Michel Chossudovsky; "Bringing Democracy to Bosnia-Herzegovina" by Gregory Elich; and "The Dismemberment of Yugoslavia before 1999" by Tony Murphy.
The commission’s reports will be available on the Web page of the International Action Center at www.iacenter.org. Readers can also find out how to purchase a copy of the selected findings and other materials on the Web site by calling (212) 633-6646, readers . The mail address is Commission of Inquiry, c/o International Action Center, 39 W. 14 Street, No. 206, New York, NY 10011.
