[asia-apec 1118] NATO Leaders Charged in International Criminal Tribunal

[BAYAN]

FYI from BAYAN and GABRIELA

>Date: Fri, 07 May 1999 21:27:31 -0400
>From: Michel Chossudovsky <chossudovsky at sprint.ca>
>
>PRESS RELEASE MAY 7, 1999
>
>LAWYERS CHARGE NATO LEADERS BEFORE WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL
>
>A group of lawyers from several countries has laid a formal 
>complaint with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia 
>against all of the individual leaders of the NATO countries and officials of 
>NATO itself. The group, lead by professors from Osgoode Hall Law School of 
>York University in Toronto --where Tribunal prosecutor Louise Arbour was 
>also a professor before becoming a judge -- have charged Bill Clinton, 
>Madeleine Albright, Javier Solana, Jamie Shea, Jean Chretien, Art Eggleton, 
>Lloyd Axworthy and 60 other heads of state and government, foreign
ministers, 
>defence ministers and NATO officials, with war crimes committed in NATO's 
>six-week old bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. 

>The list of crimes includes "wilful killing, wilfully causing great 
>suffering or serious injury to body or health, extensive destruction of 
>property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and 
>wantonly, employment of poisonous weapons or other weapons to cause 
>unnecessary suffering, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or 
>devastation not justified by military necessity, attack, or bombardment, by 
>whatever means, of undefended towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings, 
>destruction or wilful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion, 
>charity and education, the arts and sciences, historic monuments and works 
>of art and science." 

>The complaint also alleges "open violation" of the United Nations 
>Charter, the NATO treaty itself, the Geneva Conventions and the Principles 
>of International Law Recognized by the Nuremberg Tribunal (the latter of 
>which makes "planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of 
>aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or 
>assurances" a crime). 

>Under the Statute "a person who planned, instigated, ordered, 
>committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or 
>execution of a crime shall be individually responsible for the crime" and 
>"the official position of any accused person, whether as Head of State or 
>Government or as a responsible Government official, shall not relieve such 
>person of criminal responsibility or mitigate punishment." 
>The complaint points to the bombing of civilian targets and alleges 
>that NATO leaders "have admitted publicly to having agreed upon and ordered 
>these actions, being fully aware of their nature and effects" and that 
>"there is ample evidence in the public statements of NATO leaders that these 
>attacks on civilian targets are part of a deliberate attempt to terrorize 
>the population to turn it against its leadership." 

>The complaint cites a recent statement of the President of the 
>Tribunal, Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, urging that: "All States and 
>organisations in possession of information pertaining to the alleged 
>commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal should make 
>such information available without delay to the Prosecutor." 
>The complaint also cites a statement of United Nations High 
>Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson in which she says that "large 
>numbers of civilians have incontestably been killed, civilian installations 
>targeted on the grounds that they are or could be of military application 
>and NATO remains sole judge of what is or is not acceptable to bomb...In 
>this situation, the principle of proportionality must be adhered to by those 
>carrying out the bombing campaign. It surely must be right to ask those 
>carrying out the bombing campaign to weigh the consequences of their 
>campaign for civilians in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia." 

>Under the Statute, the Prosecutor is bound to "initiate 
>investigations ex-officio or on the basis of information obtained from any 
>source, particularly from Governments, United Nations organs, 
>intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations" and to "assess the 
>information received or obtained and decide whether there is sufficient 
>basis to proceed. Upon a determination that a case exists, the Prosecutor is 
>bound to "prepare an indictment containing a concise statement of the facts 
>and the crime or crimes with which the accused is charged under the Statute 
>and transmit it to a judge of the Trial Chamber." 

>The complaint asks Judge Arbour to "immediately investigate and 
>indict for serious crimes against international humanitarian law" the 67 
>named leaders and whoever else shall be determined by the Prosecutor's 
>investigations to have committed crimes in the NATO attack on Yugoslavia 
>commencing March 24, 1999." 

>Copies of the charges have been sent to the accused. 

>Participating in the action are 15 lawyers and law professors as 
>well as the American Association of Jurists, a pan American organization of 
>lawyers, judges, law professors and students, with membership in all 
>countries of the American Continent from Tierra del Fuego to Canada, an NGO 
>with consultative status before the Social and Economic Council of the 
>United Nations. 

>Professor Michael Mandel, spokesperson for the group of complainants, 
>said in Toronto today: "The bombing of civilians is not only immoral, it is 
>criminal and punishable under the laws governing the Tribunal. You cannot 
>kill a woman and child in Belgrade on the theoretical possibility that it 
>might save a woman and child in Pristina. Even in a legal war you cannot 
>kill civilians and destroy an entire country as a military strategy. But 
>this is an illegal war and the NATO leaders are acting like outlaws. So far 
>they have risked nothing by sending others to do their killing and 
>destroying. We believe that if they are held individually responsible, as 
>the law requires, they won't feel so free to spill other peoples' blood."

>For further information please contact:
 
>Toronto: Professor Michael Mandel ( telephone 416-736-5039 e-mail 
>mmandel at yorku.ca or David Jacobs telephone 416-539---e-mail 
>david at ShellJacobs.com 
>Geneva: Alejandro Teitelbaum, e-mail Assemjur at aol.com
>
>**********
>
>Michel Chossudovsky 
>Professor of Economics,  University  of Ottawa
>Member of the Ad Hoc Committee to Stop Canada's  
>Participation  in the War in Yugoslavia 
>
>Voice 613-5625800, Ext. 1415 
>email chossudovsky at sprint.ca
>
>On Kosovo:  http://www.transnational.org/features/crimefinansed.html
>On the break-up of Yugoslavia:
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/62/022.html