[asia-apec 1064] Bayan-Philippines on the US-led NATO bombings of Kosovo

[ppc at philonline.com]

PRESS STATEMENT 
29 March 1999 
 
 
Stop the US-led NATO bombings!

Bayan (New Patriotic Alliance) strongly condemns this latest brutal act of 
United States aggression on the sovereign state and peoples of Yugoslavia. 
 
On March 24, the world witnessed once more brazen US aggression when it led 
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in launching massive bomb 
strikes on Yugoslavia. On the pretext of intervening to prevent a “humanitarian 
catastrophe” the US began another massive bombing spree.  US President Clinton
called the interventionist act a “moral imperative.” 
 
The US government must end this deadly hypocrisy now. It has no moral 
authority to proclaim itself champion of human rights while it is
responsible for a string of human rights violations the world over. What it
did to the 
Philippines a century ago when it launched its bloody war of colonization, 
and several decades later, its dirty wars in Vietnam, Latin America and
Africa -- exemplifies the US government's true "commitment” to human rights.

The US has also been highly selective in citing the human rights violations 
only of sovereign governments it considers "unfriendly" while ignoring 
the atrocities of its client regimes led by universally condemned dictators 
such as Marcos, Somoza, Mobutu, Pinochet, Batista and Suharto to name a few. 
 
The bombings in Yugoslavia have little to do with upholding human rights and 
attaining peace in the Balkans. It conforms more to US hegemonic designs 
in Eastern Europe and trying to shape the latter's economic and political 
configurations to suit these interests. 
 
We see it as a concretization of US plans to expand the role of NATO and use 
the latter to legitimize interventionism -- primarily in Europe but also in 
other parts of the world. As NATO’s first out-of-area mission 
and its first extensive combat operations in fifty years, the war in Kosovo
sets a dangerous precedent of this new role being assumed by NATO under 
US leadership. Yugoslavia is the guinea pig for US experiments as 
sole superpower in the post-Cold War era. 
 
The crisis in Kosovo and in Yugoslavia is not simply driven by deep-seated 
racial hatred and extreme nationalism between Serbs and Albanians and other 
ethnic groups. After the collapse of the USSR, Eastern Europe was up 
for grabs. A new market was opened wide for transnational 
corporations. State firms were being privatized and the region offered a
vast potential for investments and big profits. 

The policies of the US and the advanced capitalist countries of Western 
Europe towards Yugoslavia have been geared towards carving their own 
spheres of influence in this former Soviet satellite country. Invariably
these have played a major part in fanning the flames of nationalism and in
leading 
to where Yugoslavia is today.  Indeed, there is telltale evidence of US tacit
support to reactionary nationalist groups in Kosovo as well as open political 
support to other factions in Yugoslavia more willing to bow to US dictates. 
 
US sincerity in attaining peace in the Balkans is thereby highly 
questionable. The US has bungled peace efforts in Yugoslavia many times. 
In 1992, it sabotaged an acceptable settlement brokered by the European
Community between Croats and Serbs in Bosnia by expressing support to the
regime of Alija Izbetgovic. In 1994, it violated a UN Security Council arms
embargo on Bosnia. Each US move is driven by a strong desire to secure its
foothold in a very strategic region. 
 
What the US really intends in Kosovo and for the whole Yugoslavia is 
apparent in what it did to Bosnia through the Dayton Peace Accord. In effect 
the US established a virtual colonial administration: the IMF now practically 
runs the Bosnian Central Bank. The International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development for its part dictates where capital funds should go. At the head
of the
Central Bank sits a High Representative of these multilateral agencies with full
executive powers. 
 
The war in Kosovo sends a powerful message to those who continue to resist
US global supremacy. The world's people are treated to an obscene display of 
American firepower with more than 260 aircraft -- stealth bombers, F-15s,
F16s, A10s -- surrounding the area. Meanwhile the Western press glorifies these
death machines even as it provides moral and political justification to the
US-led genocidal war. 
 
While the US-led NATO claims that there is little damage to the civilian 
population and infrastructure, other independent news sources say otherwise. 
There are now half a million refugees in Kosovo and adjoining countries, 
representing 25% of the Kosovar population. 

Ironically the death rampage of the US-led NATO focres is now 
being used to justify moving on to the second phase of military attacks.
This despite growing protests from the international community on the
carnage and 
increasing unease on whether the bombings will indeed lead to their avowed 
objective of attaining "peace". 
 
We strongly condemn this thoroughly wanton act of US aggression. No 
self-respecting sovereign state and people can tolerate such a shameless 
display of superpower arrogance in the guise of being today's global police
force. 
 
Bayan has stated time and again that one compelling reason why the 
Philippine Senate must not ratify the RP-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) 
is to avoid getting the Philippines entagled in  US wars of aggression and 
intervention. Our peace-loving people should not allow Philippine territory 
to be used as a launching pad for American global bullying. ###