[asia-apec 1061] KMP denounces NATO bombing of Yugoslavia

[tpl at cheerful.com]

>From: KMP <kmp at info.com.ph>
>To: tpl at cheerful.com
>
>NEWS RELEASE
>29 March 1999
>
>KMP denounces US and NATO aggression vs. Belgrade
>
>The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP - Peasant Movement of the
Philippines) joined other militant organizations in picketing the United
States embassy to condemn the bombardment of Yugoslavia by forces of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization. 
>
>KMP chair Rafael Mariano said US imperialism goaded NATO to strike at 
>Belgrade and belied US president Clinton's false claims that the attack 
>is a humanitarian protection for Albanian forces against Serbs who 
>refused to sign the US-brokered "peace deal."
>
>"Yugoslavia has been split into several states as a result of policies 
>targeted against Eastern Europe that started with the Reagan 
>administration," Mariano said. "In the 1984 National Security Decision 
>directive titled "United States Policy towards Yugoslavia," market 
>reforms imposed by creditors and the International Monetary Fund wreaked 
>economic and political crises thereby exacerbating conflicts among the 
>different republics inside the Yugoslav federation."
>
>State funds, which should have bought food and services for republics 
>and autonomous provinces, were made to service Belgrade's debt with the 
>Paris and London banks. Workers' wages and rights were abolished to 
>maximize profits for Western corporations who took over strategic 
>industries, destroying 1.9 million jobs.
>
>Mariano said that IMF and the European Bank for Reconstruction and 
>Development are now dictating the economies of several republics, while 
>60,000 NATO troops are occupying several republics purportedly to 
>enforce fragile peace accords, but actually to keep the oil fields in 
>Bosnia and Croatia safe for US exploration firms such as Amoco. Germany, 
>the US and Russia have it in their interest to keep people fighting each 
>other because a weak and divided Balkan territory is good for their 
>profits and their control of territories.
>
>"The US government is hiding the real roots of the conflict behind 
>imagined or overrated ethnic reasons in much the same way Philippine 
>President Estrada and US Secretary of State Madeline Albright play up 
>the Chinese threat in the Spratlys to justify the passage of the 
>Visiting Forces Agreement," Mariano explained. "The value of NATO in the 
>Balkan crisis should make it clear that the VFA will make it easy for the 
>US to hatch mock conflicts in the Philippines to protect corporate 
>investments here." 
>
>Mariano also said the air assault on Serbia completely violates NATO's 
>own constitution, which defines NATO as a defensive force which 
>cannot attack a nation unless that nation first commits aggression 
>against one of its members. On the contrary, it is NATO which has landed 
>25,000 troops in nearby Macedonia, built up an armada of 400 planes and 
>many war ships and threatened to bomb Serbia for the past 6 months.
>
>Moreover, the bombings negate the validity of the peace deal that the US 
>is forcing on Serbia, as the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of 
>Treaties provides that applying coercive tactics on a State to sign a 
>treaty invalidates the treaty. 
>
>The KMP demanded that the US and NATO quit playing the role of world's 
>bully cops and should pull out of the Balkan region, and divert the funds 
>wasted on the bombs to rebuild the industrial capacity of the Yugoslav 
>republics and provinces. It also issued the demand for multilateral 
>agencies to stop fooling around with the economies in the region.
>
>The peasant alliance also chided the Estrada government for its failure to
stick to a non-aligned, peace-loving foreign policy and its stubborn
obedience to US dictates despite the people's protest.#
>