Ramsey Clark: Divide and Conquer. The Destruction of the Balkan
Federation by the United States and NATO
2 : A BRIEF EXAMINATION OF THE VIOLENT DESTRUCTION OF THE
SOCIALIST FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA BY THE UNITED STATES AND
NATO
http://www.iacenter.org/yugo/divide&conquer.htm
http://www.icdsm.org/more/rclarkUN2.htm
---
PART TWO
A BRIEF EXAMINATION OF THE VIOLENT DESTRUCTION OF THE SOCIALIST
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA BY THE UNITED STATES AND NATO
VI. With the Economic Collapse of the USSR and Eastern Bloc
Nations the US and Several Western European Nations Intervened
Internally In the Affairs of Yugoslavia And Its several Republics
Supporting Secessionist Movements: 1990-
In November 1990, the US Congress enacted legislation
sponsored by the Bush Administration requiring the termination of
all forms of US credit and loans to Yugoslavia, if within six
months each of the six republics within the federation did not
hold separate elections. The purpose was to break up Yugoslavia,
creating an early incentive for secession by Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia
and Macedonia. Under the guise of democracy, the US acted
directly in the internal affairs of the federation.
This was a technique for regime change the US had
employed before and since, most recently in 2003 in Liberia and
Venezuela where it has insisted on new elections in violation of
national constitutions despite the international certification of
the fairness of the election of incumbent presidents.
The history of US attempts and successes at regime
change is a history of tragedy for the countries involved.
Consider only Iran in 1953; Guatemala in 1954; the Democratic
Republic of the Congo in 1962; South Vietnam in 1963; Chile in
1970 and 1973; Haiti and many other Western Hemisphere countries
over the decades. US intervened in Nicaragua repeatedly in the 1980s
and 1990s, effectively stole the country from the Sandinistas by
combination of economic warfare, financing the Contras in military
insurgency and financing opposition politicians.
In Angola the US demanded elections and a drastic 1/3
reduction in the Angolan Army to prevent intimidation of voters.
After President Dos Santos, who was opposed by the US, won
re-election by an overwhelming majority, hostile UNITA forces led
by Jonas Savimbi invaded and overran most of the Angola before
being stopped. The cost in lives and property was enormous. In Rwanda
in 2003 the US supported elections in which opposition parties and
candidates were prevented from effective participation resulting
in a claimed 95% vote for Paul Kagame to create the appearance of
democracy.
At the same time the US legislation demanded separate
elections in each of the six republics of Yugoslavia, it provided
aid and assistance to Slovenia, Croatia, Muslims and Croats in
Bosnia and to Macedonia to build support for secession and to
train and provide arms to achieve it.
The US legislation addressed to Yugoslavia also
provided that each republic that held independent elections would
receive economic aid from the US, again by-passing the federal
government in Belgrade and providing a strong incentive for
separation. Economic support was specifically authorized for
"democratic" organizations within the republics for "emergency
humanitarian aid and protection of human rights."
This is a means used by the US to create internal
opposition and destabilize governments the US opposes as it does
in Cuba among many other places today. It is used against
democracies more frequently than other form of government. It is
a strategy for regime change that supports those who would take over
government, but also supports existing governments challenged by
parties, or leaders the US opposes. A US government agency, the
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) provides millions of
dollars to frustrate self-determination in countries where the US
has an interest in elections.
Such unilateral interventions are destructive of
sovereignty, independence, self-determination and peace. They
should be the subject of international criminal sanctions. US
funding specifically and openly targeting the Socialist Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia was used to support secessionist movements
in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia while the US acted in direct
opposition to the federal government of Yugoslavia.
The same legislation directed US representatives in
international financial and trade organizations, including the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to use their
influence to have those institutions adopt the same policies.
This brought the enormous economic power of international finance into
the service of US policies of political and economic subversion
and discouraged unilateral support, loans, trade and investment
for Belgrade from abroad.
The legislation was designed to bring about the
dissolution of Yugoslavia. Following the US lead, Germany, Italy,
the UK, the Netherlands and other European countries joined by
February 1991 to threaten the economic isolation of Yugoslavia
unless multi-party elections in each of the constituent republics were
held promptly.
Arms were shipped to Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia from
European countries. Private funds were raised in the US and with
public funds sent to the northern Yugoslav states for arms,
supplies and training to enforce secession. On March 5, 1991, a
federal army base at Gospic in Croatia was attacked.
The United Nations and its members seeking peace,
political and economic independence and sovereign equality should
have acted to preserve the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia.
In the 1990s, forgotten were the dismemberment of the
second Yugoslavia during World War II, the slaughter of its
peoples and its heroic resistance far exceeding that of any nation
wholly occupied by Axis forces. The re-emergence of Yugoslavia
from the devastation of World War II strong, independent, and
progressive, able to avoid domination by the East, or West during
the Cold War, a leader in the non-Aligned and forty-five years of
peace confirmed the viability of Balkan federation and its
necessity for peace in Europe, east Asia, the Middle East and the
larger region.
To the extent that reform of the Yugoslavia federation
was needed, UN efforts should have addressed those issues. Its
failure to do so enabled the US to have its way with results that
left the US unrestrained and set a precedent for US unilateralism
and the UN failure to prevent the US from attacking Iraq in 2003.
President Milosevic struggled with all his ability to
preserve the Federal Republic. It was his Constitutional duty to
do so. His compromises with the forces for secession of Slovenia,
Croatia, Macedonia, at Dayton for Bosnia all were intended to
preserve peace at the price of equal sovereignty of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia. Approval of the April 27, 1992, Constitution
for a third Yugoslavia reduced to Serbia and Montenegeo was his
effort to preserve federation so that it might endure and grow to
its ideal limits as chosen by the people that lived there. All
his efforts to preserve the union did not alter the US
determination for Balkan debilitation and regime change in
Serbia. Preserving the Yugoslav union was also the duty of every
nation, organization and individual that wanted peace, prosperity,
and self-determination in the Balkans and for other peoples
affected by its destiny.
VII. The Second Dismemberment of Yugoslavia and The
Balkanization of the Balkans: 1992-
On June 25, 1991 Croatia and Slovenia announced their
independence. The second dismemberment of Yugoslavia had begun.
The US directly provided training and military supplies for
Slovenian, Croatian and Bosnian armies. In October 1991 formal
proclamations of independence were made by Croatia and Slovenia.
Germany quickly recognized both as new nations. The US and other
European countries followed suit in early 1992.
In September 1991 the European Community had
endeavored to negotiate a political settlement in Yugoslavia in a
conference at the Hague chaired by Lord Carrington, former British
foreign secretary under Margaret Thatcher. In November the UN
took over the peace effort appointing Cyrus Vance, former US Secretary
of State under President Carter as its Special Envoy.
The European Community reentered the negotiations,
creating a mechanism for the recognition of any Yugoslavia member
republic past, or present, informing each republic on December 16,
1991, though a panel chaired by Robert Badinter, former Justice
Minister of France under President Mitterrand, that it could apply
for international recognition. Within one week Croatia, Slovenia,
Bosnia and Macedonia had applied for recognition.
In addition to inadequate, sometimes harmful efforts
by the UN, the European Community and a host of nations acting
independently, leadership throughout Yugoslavia sought to prevent
war. In a notable effort, Bosnian, Muslim, Croat and Serb leaders
meeting in Lisbon agreed on March 19, 1992 to a unified, multi-
ethnic and peaceful Bosnia which could have been. But Alija
Izetbegovic, head of the right wing Muslim Party for Democratic
Action in Bosnia, backed by the US, proclaimed a Bosnian
government under his Presidency, excluding other political parties
and Bosnian Croat and Serb leaders. Violence broke out and
continued for 3 1/2 years in Bosnia.
The US action was consistent with its enormous support
of Muslims in their struggle to drive the USSR out of Afghanistan
and of Muslim separatists in predominantly Muslim Republics of the
USSR. Violence and conflict between Slavic peoples and Muslims
promoted by the US has eroded the power of the two greatest
barriers to US world domination since World War II. The war in
Bosnia like the war in Afghanistan brought Muslims from all over the
world to fight Slavs. In the process it fostered the belief that
Islam was under attack and Muslim militancy. The US policy has
nurtured extremism within both the Slavic and Muslim populations
each of which is enormous and strong, and contributed to
instability and violence worldwide.
Under US pressure, the UN Security Council in 1992
imposed sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
complementing the unilateral sanctions of the US, declaring it
responsible for civil war within its territory. On April 27,
1992, a new constitution for the remaining states, Serbia and
Montenegro was affirmed. A new Yugoslavia, vastly diminished and
more embattled than ever, was born. The army of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia ceased operations and withdrew to the
greatly diminished third federation of Southern Slavs.
In May 1992, the General Assembly granted UN
membership to Slovenia and Croatia. On September 22, 1992, it
suspended the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from work of UN
bodies. Macedonia seceded from Yugoslavia and achieved UN recognition
as the "former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia" in April 1993.
A consequence of secession and the ensuing conflicts
was a balkanization of the Balkans beyond anything the region had
ever known. "Ethnic cleansing" was rampant and refugees among
Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Catholics, Slovenes, Croats, Serbs,
Macedonians, Montenegrans and Romanis streamed toward the perceived
security of kindred populations.
By the end of 1995 more than 500,000 Serbs were driven
from Croatia, fully 12% of the entire population. Most left the
Krajina area of Croatia to which their forebears had fled from the
Ottomans centuries before. Refugees from all over the former
federal republic, caught up in violence, seeking safety, or re
uniting with families, created the most intensely segregated area in
the world. Altogether Serbia was supporting more than a million
refugees by 1998, adding to the enormous strain on its depressed
economy.
The UN Security Council under pressure from the US
imposed severe economic sanctions on Serbia on May 30, 1992,
blocking exports, imports and vital shipping on the Danube
injuring all the nations of the Balkans, including Greece and most
other European states. The combined effect of US and UN sanctions is
still felt and shipping on the Danube is only now slowly returning.
During 1992, the economy of all six republics
collapsed. Industrial output fell by 25% compared to 1990, which
had seen an 11% decline and an 8.5% shrinkage of gross domestic
product. Per capita income in Serbia declined from $3,000 in 1990
to $700 in 1991. Ninety percent of all trade of the federation had
been within and among the six republics before 1990 and only 10% with
other nations. Trade among the former states has been radically
curtailed since dismemberment.
A Pentagon document leaked to the NY Times and
published on March 8, 1992, forewarned the wary:
It is of fundamental importance to preserve NATO as the
primary instrument of Western defense and security as well as
the channel for US influence and participation in European
security affairs... We must seek to prevent the emergence of
European-only security arrangements which would undermine NATO.
The document proclaimed the most important basis of US policy to be
...the sense that the world order is ultimately backed by the
US.... The US should be positioned to act independently when
collective action cannot be orchestrated.
It is instructive that Dick Cheney, now Vice President, was
Secretary of Defense at the time. Paul Wolfowitz, now Deputy
Secretary of Defense, was the alleged author.
An op-ed piece in the N.Y. Times on November 29, 1992
gave further evidence of US intentions. Entitled "Operation
Balkan Storm", it stated, "A win in the Balkans would establish US
leadership in the post-Cold War world in a way Operation Desert
Storm never could." The author, retired US General Michael J.
Dugan, was the Chief of Staff of the US. Air Force in September
1990 when the US was planning operation Desert Storm and George
Kenney who was classified with the US Department of State.
General Dugan was removed from his position after an
interview in September 1990 in which he listed civilian targets in
Iraq stating "the cutting edge would be downtown Baghdad." His
continuing influence is found in the fact that this is what
happened to Baghdad in 1991, again in 2003, occasionally in
between, and to Belgrade in 1999.
With secession, violence broke out. There were brief
military clashes in Slovenia, more protracted combat and violence
in Croatia and continuing deadly clashes and ethnic violence and
"cleansing" in Bosnia over a period of more than three years,
primarily between Serbs, or Croats and Muslims.
VIII. The US With NATO Commenced Wars Of Aggression Against
Bosnian Serbs and Serbia: 1993-
The US, seeking to create the appearance of an
international action, enlisted NATO, which it dominated, and
without Security Council approval began a war of aggression
against Yugoslavia, starting with sporadic bombing in Bosnia from
1993 to 1995.
Under the distraction and protection of US bombing
attacks in August 1995 called "Operation Storm," the Croatian Army
with US military assistance and guidance from the US Ambassador
and other US leadership cleansed the Krajina area of Croatia of
more than 300,000 Serb civilians, killing thousands. NATO aerial
assaults during the operation exceeded 4,000 bombing sorties. Leading
the Croatian assault was General Agim Cheku who would later lead
the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during massive US/NATO aerial
assaults on Serbia, including Kosovo.
The US took over peace negotiations in Bosnia again in
1995, replacing UN and EU efforts, assuring further fragmentation
of the region. Convening meetings at a US Air Force Base in
Dayton, Ohio attended by President Milosevic, the US forced
recognition of a Constitution for an independent Bosnia that divided
the small, economically unviable area into two apartheid-like
portions. The agreement signed in November 1995 provided for the
occupation of Bosnia by 60,000 NATO troops.
Violence spread from Bosnia to Kosovo. The KLA with
US support conducted a growing terrorist-guerilla upheaval against
the Serbian government, Serb population and loyal citizens of all
ethnicities. Serbia reinforced police capacities in Kosovo to
provide security and prevent KLA assaults. With violence
escalating, the Serbian Army attacked the KLA to restore order. The US
and NATO began aerial assaults on Serbia on March 24, 1999 which
continued for 78 days to June 10, inflicting billions of dollars
of damage to the vital facilities of the country and taking
thousands of civilians lives.
IX. The US and NATO Committed Crimes Against Peace and War
Crimes in Their Wars of Aggression Against Bosnian Serbs and Serbia
The US, in defiance of the Charter of the United
Nations, the Nuremberg Charter, the Geneva Conventions and other
international laws, joined by NATO, initiated and led attacks
against Serbs in Bosnia and against the Republic of Serbia killing
thousands of civilians and destroying billions of dollars of vital
civilian facilities, buildings and other property.
The UN Charter, to end the scourge of war, recognizes
the "sovereign equality" of all its Members and prohibits "the
threat or use of force" by one Member against another. Article
II(2) and (4).
While the Security Council may call on Members to
contribute military forces to confront threats to, or breaches of
the peace, or acts of aggression, Members cannot commit acts of
war, or threaten, or use force without explicit authorization of
the Security Council under Chapter VII of the Charter, except "in
self defense if an armed attack occurs against" it and then only until
the Security Council has taken measures to restore peace and
security, or exercised authority as provided in Article 51.
No one attacked, or threatened, the US, or any other
NATO member and the US and NATO never sought authority from the
Security Council to attack Yugoslavia.
There is no legal basis for a claim by the US that its
attacks in Bosnia and Serbia were in self-defense, or otherwise
legal. General Wesley K. Clark, Supreme Allied Commander of NATO
and a General in the US Army wrote in his book "Waging Modern War"
It was coercive diplomacy, the use of armed forces to impose
the political will of the NATO nations on the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia, or more specifically, on Serbia. The NATO
nations voluntarily undertook this war. It was not forced on
them, nor was it strictly defensive.... It was much more like
the interventions of an earlier era... Id at p. 418.
General Clark is now a candidate for the office of the President
of the US.
The US violated its obligations to the United Nations
and became an outlaw nation when it unilaterally initiated
military aggression against Bosnian Serbs and later against
Serbia. The violations challenged the Security Council to act and
its failure to do so weakened its authority in the international
community and violated its awesome duty to end the scourge of war.
The US inducement of NATO to support its unlawful
attacks brought NATO into violation of the UN Charter and the NATO
Charter as well. It increased the challenge to UN authority by
involving an organization of the richest countries, all Caucasian,
including most of the Colonial powers of recent centuries, the
most sophisticated military technologies, the greatest arms industries
and stockpiles of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.
It set a precedent for NATO's illegal involvement in Afghanistan
which brought the youth of rich nations, white and Christian
bearing deadly, sophisticated arms to attack a poor, Muslim nation
of dark-skinned people. It wrested military support from Canada
and European nations in a military organization created to
confront the USSR and dominated by the US, challenging the broader
based European Community, which dealt with all the problems of the
Continent including security. The need for NATO has happily
expired. It should be abolished. But its use as an international
military and police force in underdeveloped countries is the worst
possible choice for a world seeking peace, for a peaceful planet.
The violation also set a dangerous precedent, which
the US followed as it threatened to do, for its massive unilateral
"Shock and Awe" war of aggression against Iraq in March and April
2003 and its continuing unlawful military occupation. At least
30,000 Iraqi lives have been lost, including thousands of
civilians. Their deaths are rarely noticed and never counted in
the international media. No single violation of the UN Charter has
created a greater risk of wars without end. Daily violence in
Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and terrorist bombs in Casablanca,
Jakarta, and against the UN in Baghdad are warning signs of what
may come.
The Nuremberg Charter makes "Crimes Against Peace" the
first of the three offenses it defines, followed by "War Crimes"
and "Crimes Against Humanity." Principle VI, Charter of the
Nuremberg Tribunal. The first crime against peace is a war of
aggression. Principle VI(a)(i). Id. It is the most serious of
all international crimes because it unleashes the demons of war
with the uncontrollable and unforeseeable consequences that can
follow.
The US and NATO war crimes committed in their assaults
which began February 5, 1994, with attacks against Bosnian Serb
military facilities and continued through the massive 78-day
aerial assault on civilians and civilian facilities in Serbia in
1999 was a celebration of war against defenseless people. Direct
bombardment of cities including Belgrade, Pristina, Novi Sad and Nis
made civilians and civilian facilities the direct object of
attack, taking thousands of civilian lives in violation of the
Geneva Convention 1977, Protocol 1 Additional, Article 51.
Apartment houses, homes, hospitals, schools, office
buildings and other facilities essential to support civilian life
were damaged and destroyed. Bridges across the Danube at Novi Sad
and elsewhere in Serbia were destroyed. The Serb radio and
television building in the heart of Belgrade was targeted with cruise
missiles and reduced to rubble, killing 16 people and injuring
others. Many other radio and TV facilities were attacked and
destroyed. Housing for refugees was attacked in Belgrade and
elsewhere.
In Kosovo, among the many attacks on civilians, the
heart of Pristina was destroyed, the university and many other
facilities there were extensively damaged.
Elsewhere in Kosovo, remembered by persons all over
the world who watched films of the attacks on T.V., a train
crossing a bridge over the Grdelica gorge was attacked by US
aircraft on April 12, 1999, causing many deaths. On April 15 a
refugee convoy near Djakovisa was attacked by US planes, killing
scores. On May 14, the village of Korisa was attacked with 87 reported
dead.
The international media worldwide reported other fatal
NATO attacks against Serbia daily.
On April 22, 1999 the home of President Milosevic,
hundreds of feet from any other structure in a wooded residential
area of Belgrade, was destroyed. The family survived only because
they were not home when the missiles struck.
Huge amounts of depleted uranium were spread by bombs
and missiles throughout Serbia promising death from cancers,
leukemia, tumors, and future birth defects to the population and
to occupying NATO personnel in Kosovo. The reported unprecedented
incidence of cancer among Italian soldiers who had been stationed
in Kosovo created alarm in Italy and in other countries who contributed
troops as early as 2000. The long-term consequences for the
population, the members of the occupying forces, subsequent
generations and the environment are unknown.
Cluster bombs fell among apartment houses in Novi Sad,
in the major regional hospital complex in Nis, the suburbs of
Belgrade and in generous amounts elsewhere.
The central heating plant for New Belgrade was bombed
into scrap metal, leaving hundreds of thousands of people with the
prospect of a heatless winter.
The Chinese Embassy in New Belgrade was targeted and
extensively damaged, killing three persons. On May 27, 1999, one
week before the end of the bombing, US/NATO bombs damaged the
Greek Consulate in Nis, a prominent 19th Century building. Lesser
acts have caused bigger wars.
The bombing of Yugoslavia came in part from airfields
in Italy, Hungary and Turkey recalling past aggressions on
southern Slavs from those quarters and in creating new hostility
among nations that have warred against each other in the past.
Already nations are using the precedent of US
assassinations and attempts to assassinate in foreign countries
and its wars of aggression to commit the same crimes. Both
Pakistan and India have cited US conduct to justify military,
interventions in Kashmir. Israel cites US conduct to justify its
almost daily assassinations of Palestinians and on October 4, its
bombing raids in Syria.
These crimes are a small illustration of what the US
and NATO war of aggression inflicted on the defenseless people of
Yugoslavia.
X. The US and NATO Must Be Held Accountable For Their
Illegal War Of Aggression Against Bosnian Serbs And All Of Serbia,
Including Kosovo
The US and NATO caused the deaths of thousands of
people and inflicted billions of dollars in property damages
against Serbs in Bosnia, primarily in Republika Srpska, and later
throughout Serbia, including concentrated attacks in Kosovo. All
the deaths and destruction came from aerial assaults. Because the UN
failed to address their illegality, these lawless assaults, lead to
later wars of aggression by the US in Afghanistan where it was
later assisted by NATO and in Iraq. Together they threaten the
utility, credibility and very existence of the United Nations when
it is most needed. To assure the integrity of the Charter of the
United Nations, there must be accountability for these crimes and
reparations for the deaths and destruction they inflicted.
The spectacle of a superpower capable of destroying
any country on earth, unilaterally attacking a nation that is no
possible threat to it and is defenseless against its bombs and
missiles poses the greatest danger to world peace and are the
deadliest terrorist acts on the planet.
The United Nations should assume leadership in
compelling accountability by the US and NATO through payments to
families of persons killed by their illegal acts and for public
and private properties destroyed. There must not be impunity for
wars of aggression, or profits for aggressor nations through economic
exploitation of their victims, through contracts for reconstruction,
or from profits from privatization of public utilities, services
and properties.
Federation by the United States and NATO
2 : A BRIEF EXAMINATION OF THE VIOLENT DESTRUCTION OF THE
SOCIALIST FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA BY THE UNITED STATES AND
NATO
http://www.iacenter.org/yugo/divide&conquer.htm
http://www.icdsm.org/more/rclarkUN2.htm
---
PART TWO
A BRIEF EXAMINATION OF THE VIOLENT DESTRUCTION OF THE SOCIALIST
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA BY THE UNITED STATES AND NATO
VI. With the Economic Collapse of the USSR and Eastern Bloc
Nations the US and Several Western European Nations Intervened
Internally In the Affairs of Yugoslavia And Its several Republics
Supporting Secessionist Movements: 1990-
In November 1990, the US Congress enacted legislation
sponsored by the Bush Administration requiring the termination of
all forms of US credit and loans to Yugoslavia, if within six
months each of the six republics within the federation did not
hold separate elections. The purpose was to break up Yugoslavia,
creating an early incentive for secession by Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia
and Macedonia. Under the guise of democracy, the US acted
directly in the internal affairs of the federation.
This was a technique for regime change the US had
employed before and since, most recently in 2003 in Liberia and
Venezuela where it has insisted on new elections in violation of
national constitutions despite the international certification of
the fairness of the election of incumbent presidents.
The history of US attempts and successes at regime
change is a history of tragedy for the countries involved.
Consider only Iran in 1953; Guatemala in 1954; the Democratic
Republic of the Congo in 1962; South Vietnam in 1963; Chile in
1970 and 1973; Haiti and many other Western Hemisphere countries
over the decades. US intervened in Nicaragua repeatedly in the 1980s
and 1990s, effectively stole the country from the Sandinistas by
combination of economic warfare, financing the Contras in military
insurgency and financing opposition politicians.
In Angola the US demanded elections and a drastic 1/3
reduction in the Angolan Army to prevent intimidation of voters.
After President Dos Santos, who was opposed by the US, won
re-election by an overwhelming majority, hostile UNITA forces led
by Jonas Savimbi invaded and overran most of the Angola before
being stopped. The cost in lives and property was enormous. In Rwanda
in 2003 the US supported elections in which opposition parties and
candidates were prevented from effective participation resulting
in a claimed 95% vote for Paul Kagame to create the appearance of
democracy.
At the same time the US legislation demanded separate
elections in each of the six republics of Yugoslavia, it provided
aid and assistance to Slovenia, Croatia, Muslims and Croats in
Bosnia and to Macedonia to build support for secession and to
train and provide arms to achieve it.
The US legislation addressed to Yugoslavia also
provided that each republic that held independent elections would
receive economic aid from the US, again by-passing the federal
government in Belgrade and providing a strong incentive for
separation. Economic support was specifically authorized for
"democratic" organizations within the republics for "emergency
humanitarian aid and protection of human rights."
This is a means used by the US to create internal
opposition and destabilize governments the US opposes as it does
in Cuba among many other places today. It is used against
democracies more frequently than other form of government. It is
a strategy for regime change that supports those who would take over
government, but also supports existing governments challenged by
parties, or leaders the US opposes. A US government agency, the
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) provides millions of
dollars to frustrate self-determination in countries where the US
has an interest in elections.
Such unilateral interventions are destructive of
sovereignty, independence, self-determination and peace. They
should be the subject of international criminal sanctions. US
funding specifically and openly targeting the Socialist Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia was used to support secessionist movements
in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia while the US acted in direct
opposition to the federal government of Yugoslavia.
The same legislation directed US representatives in
international financial and trade organizations, including the
World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, to use their
influence to have those institutions adopt the same policies.
This brought the enormous economic power of international finance into
the service of US policies of political and economic subversion
and discouraged unilateral support, loans, trade and investment
for Belgrade from abroad.
The legislation was designed to bring about the
dissolution of Yugoslavia. Following the US lead, Germany, Italy,
the UK, the Netherlands and other European countries joined by
February 1991 to threaten the economic isolation of Yugoslavia
unless multi-party elections in each of the constituent republics were
held promptly.
Arms were shipped to Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia from
European countries. Private funds were raised in the US and with
public funds sent to the northern Yugoslav states for arms,
supplies and training to enforce secession. On March 5, 1991, a
federal army base at Gospic in Croatia was attacked.
The United Nations and its members seeking peace,
political and economic independence and sovereign equality should
have acted to preserve the Socialist Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia.
In the 1990s, forgotten were the dismemberment of the
second Yugoslavia during World War II, the slaughter of its
peoples and its heroic resistance far exceeding that of any nation
wholly occupied by Axis forces. The re-emergence of Yugoslavia
from the devastation of World War II strong, independent, and
progressive, able to avoid domination by the East, or West during
the Cold War, a leader in the non-Aligned and forty-five years of
peace confirmed the viability of Balkan federation and its
necessity for peace in Europe, east Asia, the Middle East and the
larger region.
To the extent that reform of the Yugoslavia federation
was needed, UN efforts should have addressed those issues. Its
failure to do so enabled the US to have its way with results that
left the US unrestrained and set a precedent for US unilateralism
and the UN failure to prevent the US from attacking Iraq in 2003.
President Milosevic struggled with all his ability to
preserve the Federal Republic. It was his Constitutional duty to
do so. His compromises with the forces for secession of Slovenia,
Croatia, Macedonia, at Dayton for Bosnia all were intended to
preserve peace at the price of equal sovereignty of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia. Approval of the April 27, 1992, Constitution
for a third Yugoslavia reduced to Serbia and Montenegeo was his
effort to preserve federation so that it might endure and grow to
its ideal limits as chosen by the people that lived there. All
his efforts to preserve the union did not alter the US
determination for Balkan debilitation and regime change in
Serbia. Preserving the Yugoslav union was also the duty of every
nation, organization and individual that wanted peace, prosperity,
and self-determination in the Balkans and for other peoples
affected by its destiny.
VII. The Second Dismemberment of Yugoslavia and The
Balkanization of the Balkans: 1992-
On June 25, 1991 Croatia and Slovenia announced their
independence. The second dismemberment of Yugoslavia had begun.
The US directly provided training and military supplies for
Slovenian, Croatian and Bosnian armies. In October 1991 formal
proclamations of independence were made by Croatia and Slovenia.
Germany quickly recognized both as new nations. The US and other
European countries followed suit in early 1992.
In September 1991 the European Community had
endeavored to negotiate a political settlement in Yugoslavia in a
conference at the Hague chaired by Lord Carrington, former British
foreign secretary under Margaret Thatcher. In November the UN
took over the peace effort appointing Cyrus Vance, former US Secretary
of State under President Carter as its Special Envoy.
The European Community reentered the negotiations,
creating a mechanism for the recognition of any Yugoslavia member
republic past, or present, informing each republic on December 16,
1991, though a panel chaired by Robert Badinter, former Justice
Minister of France under President Mitterrand, that it could apply
for international recognition. Within one week Croatia, Slovenia,
Bosnia and Macedonia had applied for recognition.
In addition to inadequate, sometimes harmful efforts
by the UN, the European Community and a host of nations acting
independently, leadership throughout Yugoslavia sought to prevent
war. In a notable effort, Bosnian, Muslim, Croat and Serb leaders
meeting in Lisbon agreed on March 19, 1992 to a unified, multi-
ethnic and peaceful Bosnia which could have been. But Alija
Izetbegovic, head of the right wing Muslim Party for Democratic
Action in Bosnia, backed by the US, proclaimed a Bosnian
government under his Presidency, excluding other political parties
and Bosnian Croat and Serb leaders. Violence broke out and
continued for 3 1/2 years in Bosnia.
The US action was consistent with its enormous support
of Muslims in their struggle to drive the USSR out of Afghanistan
and of Muslim separatists in predominantly Muslim Republics of the
USSR. Violence and conflict between Slavic peoples and Muslims
promoted by the US has eroded the power of the two greatest
barriers to US world domination since World War II. The war in
Bosnia like the war in Afghanistan brought Muslims from all over the
world to fight Slavs. In the process it fostered the belief that
Islam was under attack and Muslim militancy. The US policy has
nurtured extremism within both the Slavic and Muslim populations
each of which is enormous and strong, and contributed to
instability and violence worldwide.
Under US pressure, the UN Security Council in 1992
imposed sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
complementing the unilateral sanctions of the US, declaring it
responsible for civil war within its territory. On April 27,
1992, a new constitution for the remaining states, Serbia and
Montenegro was affirmed. A new Yugoslavia, vastly diminished and
more embattled than ever, was born. The army of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia ceased operations and withdrew to the
greatly diminished third federation of Southern Slavs.
In May 1992, the General Assembly granted UN
membership to Slovenia and Croatia. On September 22, 1992, it
suspended the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from work of UN
bodies. Macedonia seceded from Yugoslavia and achieved UN recognition
as the "former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia" in April 1993.
A consequence of secession and the ensuing conflicts
was a balkanization of the Balkans beyond anything the region had
ever known. "Ethnic cleansing" was rampant and refugees among
Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Catholics, Slovenes, Croats, Serbs,
Macedonians, Montenegrans and Romanis streamed toward the perceived
security of kindred populations.
By the end of 1995 more than 500,000 Serbs were driven
from Croatia, fully 12% of the entire population. Most left the
Krajina area of Croatia to which their forebears had fled from the
Ottomans centuries before. Refugees from all over the former
federal republic, caught up in violence, seeking safety, or re
uniting with families, created the most intensely segregated area in
the world. Altogether Serbia was supporting more than a million
refugees by 1998, adding to the enormous strain on its depressed
economy.
The UN Security Council under pressure from the US
imposed severe economic sanctions on Serbia on May 30, 1992,
blocking exports, imports and vital shipping on the Danube
injuring all the nations of the Balkans, including Greece and most
other European states. The combined effect of US and UN sanctions is
still felt and shipping on the Danube is only now slowly returning.
During 1992, the economy of all six republics
collapsed. Industrial output fell by 25% compared to 1990, which
had seen an 11% decline and an 8.5% shrinkage of gross domestic
product. Per capita income in Serbia declined from $3,000 in 1990
to $700 in 1991. Ninety percent of all trade of the federation had
been within and among the six republics before 1990 and only 10% with
other nations. Trade among the former states has been radically
curtailed since dismemberment.
A Pentagon document leaked to the NY Times and
published on March 8, 1992, forewarned the wary:
It is of fundamental importance to preserve NATO as the
primary instrument of Western defense and security as well as
the channel for US influence and participation in European
security affairs... We must seek to prevent the emergence of
European-only security arrangements which would undermine NATO.
The document proclaimed the most important basis of US policy to be
...the sense that the world order is ultimately backed by the
US.... The US should be positioned to act independently when
collective action cannot be orchestrated.
It is instructive that Dick Cheney, now Vice President, was
Secretary of Defense at the time. Paul Wolfowitz, now Deputy
Secretary of Defense, was the alleged author.
An op-ed piece in the N.Y. Times on November 29, 1992
gave further evidence of US intentions. Entitled "Operation
Balkan Storm", it stated, "A win in the Balkans would establish US
leadership in the post-Cold War world in a way Operation Desert
Storm never could." The author, retired US General Michael J.
Dugan, was the Chief of Staff of the US. Air Force in September
1990 when the US was planning operation Desert Storm and George
Kenney who was classified with the US Department of State.
General Dugan was removed from his position after an
interview in September 1990 in which he listed civilian targets in
Iraq stating "the cutting edge would be downtown Baghdad." His
continuing influence is found in the fact that this is what
happened to Baghdad in 1991, again in 2003, occasionally in
between, and to Belgrade in 1999.
With secession, violence broke out. There were brief
military clashes in Slovenia, more protracted combat and violence
in Croatia and continuing deadly clashes and ethnic violence and
"cleansing" in Bosnia over a period of more than three years,
primarily between Serbs, or Croats and Muslims.
VIII. The US With NATO Commenced Wars Of Aggression Against
Bosnian Serbs and Serbia: 1993-
The US, seeking to create the appearance of an
international action, enlisted NATO, which it dominated, and
without Security Council approval began a war of aggression
against Yugoslavia, starting with sporadic bombing in Bosnia from
1993 to 1995.
Under the distraction and protection of US bombing
attacks in August 1995 called "Operation Storm," the Croatian Army
with US military assistance and guidance from the US Ambassador
and other US leadership cleansed the Krajina area of Croatia of
more than 300,000 Serb civilians, killing thousands. NATO aerial
assaults during the operation exceeded 4,000 bombing sorties. Leading
the Croatian assault was General Agim Cheku who would later lead
the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during massive US/NATO aerial
assaults on Serbia, including Kosovo.
The US took over peace negotiations in Bosnia again in
1995, replacing UN and EU efforts, assuring further fragmentation
of the region. Convening meetings at a US Air Force Base in
Dayton, Ohio attended by President Milosevic, the US forced
recognition of a Constitution for an independent Bosnia that divided
the small, economically unviable area into two apartheid-like
portions. The agreement signed in November 1995 provided for the
occupation of Bosnia by 60,000 NATO troops.
Violence spread from Bosnia to Kosovo. The KLA with
US support conducted a growing terrorist-guerilla upheaval against
the Serbian government, Serb population and loyal citizens of all
ethnicities. Serbia reinforced police capacities in Kosovo to
provide security and prevent KLA assaults. With violence
escalating, the Serbian Army attacked the KLA to restore order. The US
and NATO began aerial assaults on Serbia on March 24, 1999 which
continued for 78 days to June 10, inflicting billions of dollars
of damage to the vital facilities of the country and taking
thousands of civilians lives.
IX. The US and NATO Committed Crimes Against Peace and War
Crimes in Their Wars of Aggression Against Bosnian Serbs and Serbia
The US, in defiance of the Charter of the United
Nations, the Nuremberg Charter, the Geneva Conventions and other
international laws, joined by NATO, initiated and led attacks
against Serbs in Bosnia and against the Republic of Serbia killing
thousands of civilians and destroying billions of dollars of vital
civilian facilities, buildings and other property.
The UN Charter, to end the scourge of war, recognizes
the "sovereign equality" of all its Members and prohibits "the
threat or use of force" by one Member against another. Article
II(2) and (4).
While the Security Council may call on Members to
contribute military forces to confront threats to, or breaches of
the peace, or acts of aggression, Members cannot commit acts of
war, or threaten, or use force without explicit authorization of
the Security Council under Chapter VII of the Charter, except "in
self defense if an armed attack occurs against" it and then only until
the Security Council has taken measures to restore peace and
security, or exercised authority as provided in Article 51.
No one attacked, or threatened, the US, or any other
NATO member and the US and NATO never sought authority from the
Security Council to attack Yugoslavia.
There is no legal basis for a claim by the US that its
attacks in Bosnia and Serbia were in self-defense, or otherwise
legal. General Wesley K. Clark, Supreme Allied Commander of NATO
and a General in the US Army wrote in his book "Waging Modern War"
It was coercive diplomacy, the use of armed forces to impose
the political will of the NATO nations on the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia, or more specifically, on Serbia. The NATO
nations voluntarily undertook this war. It was not forced on
them, nor was it strictly defensive.... It was much more like
the interventions of an earlier era... Id at p. 418.
General Clark is now a candidate for the office of the President
of the US.
The US violated its obligations to the United Nations
and became an outlaw nation when it unilaterally initiated
military aggression against Bosnian Serbs and later against
Serbia. The violations challenged the Security Council to act and
its failure to do so weakened its authority in the international
community and violated its awesome duty to end the scourge of war.
The US inducement of NATO to support its unlawful
attacks brought NATO into violation of the UN Charter and the NATO
Charter as well. It increased the challenge to UN authority by
involving an organization of the richest countries, all Caucasian,
including most of the Colonial powers of recent centuries, the
most sophisticated military technologies, the greatest arms industries
and stockpiles of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction.
It set a precedent for NATO's illegal involvement in Afghanistan
which brought the youth of rich nations, white and Christian
bearing deadly, sophisticated arms to attack a poor, Muslim nation
of dark-skinned people. It wrested military support from Canada
and European nations in a military organization created to
confront the USSR and dominated by the US, challenging the broader
based European Community, which dealt with all the problems of the
Continent including security. The need for NATO has happily
expired. It should be abolished. But its use as an international
military and police force in underdeveloped countries is the worst
possible choice for a world seeking peace, for a peaceful planet.
The violation also set a dangerous precedent, which
the US followed as it threatened to do, for its massive unilateral
"Shock and Awe" war of aggression against Iraq in March and April
2003 and its continuing unlawful military occupation. At least
30,000 Iraqi lives have been lost, including thousands of
civilians. Their deaths are rarely noticed and never counted in
the international media. No single violation of the UN Charter has
created a greater risk of wars without end. Daily violence in
Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, and terrorist bombs in Casablanca,
Jakarta, and against the UN in Baghdad are warning signs of what
may come.
The Nuremberg Charter makes "Crimes Against Peace" the
first of the three offenses it defines, followed by "War Crimes"
and "Crimes Against Humanity." Principle VI, Charter of the
Nuremberg Tribunal. The first crime against peace is a war of
aggression. Principle VI(a)(i). Id. It is the most serious of
all international crimes because it unleashes the demons of war
with the uncontrollable and unforeseeable consequences that can
follow.
The US and NATO war crimes committed in their assaults
which began February 5, 1994, with attacks against Bosnian Serb
military facilities and continued through the massive 78-day
aerial assault on civilians and civilian facilities in Serbia in
1999 was a celebration of war against defenseless people. Direct
bombardment of cities including Belgrade, Pristina, Novi Sad and Nis
made civilians and civilian facilities the direct object of
attack, taking thousands of civilian lives in violation of the
Geneva Convention 1977, Protocol 1 Additional, Article 51.
Apartment houses, homes, hospitals, schools, office
buildings and other facilities essential to support civilian life
were damaged and destroyed. Bridges across the Danube at Novi Sad
and elsewhere in Serbia were destroyed. The Serb radio and
television building in the heart of Belgrade was targeted with cruise
missiles and reduced to rubble, killing 16 people and injuring
others. Many other radio and TV facilities were attacked and
destroyed. Housing for refugees was attacked in Belgrade and
elsewhere.
In Kosovo, among the many attacks on civilians, the
heart of Pristina was destroyed, the university and many other
facilities there were extensively damaged.
Elsewhere in Kosovo, remembered by persons all over
the world who watched films of the attacks on T.V., a train
crossing a bridge over the Grdelica gorge was attacked by US
aircraft on April 12, 1999, causing many deaths. On April 15 a
refugee convoy near Djakovisa was attacked by US planes, killing
scores. On May 14, the village of Korisa was attacked with 87 reported
dead.
The international media worldwide reported other fatal
NATO attacks against Serbia daily.
On April 22, 1999 the home of President Milosevic,
hundreds of feet from any other structure in a wooded residential
area of Belgrade, was destroyed. The family survived only because
they were not home when the missiles struck.
Huge amounts of depleted uranium were spread by bombs
and missiles throughout Serbia promising death from cancers,
leukemia, tumors, and future birth defects to the population and
to occupying NATO personnel in Kosovo. The reported unprecedented
incidence of cancer among Italian soldiers who had been stationed
in Kosovo created alarm in Italy and in other countries who contributed
troops as early as 2000. The long-term consequences for the
population, the members of the occupying forces, subsequent
generations and the environment are unknown.
Cluster bombs fell among apartment houses in Novi Sad,
in the major regional hospital complex in Nis, the suburbs of
Belgrade and in generous amounts elsewhere.
The central heating plant for New Belgrade was bombed
into scrap metal, leaving hundreds of thousands of people with the
prospect of a heatless winter.
The Chinese Embassy in New Belgrade was targeted and
extensively damaged, killing three persons. On May 27, 1999, one
week before the end of the bombing, US/NATO bombs damaged the
Greek Consulate in Nis, a prominent 19th Century building. Lesser
acts have caused bigger wars.
The bombing of Yugoslavia came in part from airfields
in Italy, Hungary and Turkey recalling past aggressions on
southern Slavs from those quarters and in creating new hostility
among nations that have warred against each other in the past.
Already nations are using the precedent of US
assassinations and attempts to assassinate in foreign countries
and its wars of aggression to commit the same crimes. Both
Pakistan and India have cited US conduct to justify military,
interventions in Kashmir. Israel cites US conduct to justify its
almost daily assassinations of Palestinians and on October 4, its
bombing raids in Syria.
These crimes are a small illustration of what the US
and NATO war of aggression inflicted on the defenseless people of
Yugoslavia.
X. The US and NATO Must Be Held Accountable For Their
Illegal War Of Aggression Against Bosnian Serbs And All Of Serbia,
Including Kosovo
The US and NATO caused the deaths of thousands of
people and inflicted billions of dollars in property damages
against Serbs in Bosnia, primarily in Republika Srpska, and later
throughout Serbia, including concentrated attacks in Kosovo. All
the deaths and destruction came from aerial assaults. Because the UN
failed to address their illegality, these lawless assaults, lead to
later wars of aggression by the US in Afghanistan where it was
later assisted by NATO and in Iraq. Together they threaten the
utility, credibility and very existence of the United Nations when
it is most needed. To assure the integrity of the Charter of the
United Nations, there must be accountability for these crimes and
reparations for the deaths and destruction they inflicted.
The spectacle of a superpower capable of destroying
any country on earth, unilaterally attacking a nation that is no
possible threat to it and is defenseless against its bombs and
missiles poses the greatest danger to world peace and are the
deadliest terrorist acts on the planet.
The United Nations should assume leadership in
compelling accountability by the US and NATO through payments to
families of persons killed by their illegal acts and for public
and private properties destroyed. There must not be impunity for
wars of aggression, or profits for aggressor nations through economic
exploitation of their victims, through contracts for reconstruction,
or from profits from privatization of public utilities, services
and properties.