WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL FINDS U.S. AND NATO GUILTY

Posted: 6/12/00

Final Judgement
Findings
Recommendations
Schedule and Participants
Judges
Prosecutor team

A panel of 16 judges from 11 countries at a people’s tribunal meeting in New
York June 10 before 500 people found U.S. and NATO political and military

leaders guilty of war crimes against Yugoslavia in the March 24-June 10,
1999 assault on that country.

Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, the lead prosecutor at the
International Tribunal on U.S./NATO War Crimes Against Yugoslavia, urged
those present and those they represented from the 21 countries participating
to carry out a sentence of organizing a campaign to abolish the NATO
military pact.

Ben Dupuy, former ambassador from Haiti, Rev. Kiyul Chung of Korea, and auto
worker Martha Grevatt, who heads the AFL-CIO’s organization Pride at Work,
read the three parts of the verdict (included with this release).

Participants taking the witness stand included eye-witnesses, researchers
who visited Yugoslavia, renowned political and economics analysts,
historians, physicists, biologists, military experts, journalists and lay
researchers. (A list of all the judges, and the witnesses and their topics
is included with this release.)

Many of these witnesses have in the past 15 months presented to audiences
worldwide a complete picture of the war NATO waged against Yugoslavia. For
the tribunal, however, all limited themselves to a single area of expertise
that made up a single part of the evidence against the political and
military leaders of the United States and the other NATO countries.

Taken together, the judges decided, each single part contributed to
construct a proof that beyond a reasonable doubt proved the guilt of the
accused, just as the proper placing of single tiles can build a mosaic.

The witnesses described how NATO forces used the media to spread lies to
demonize the Serbs and their leadership in order to prepare public opinion
to prepare for war. Then they showed the real economic and geopolitical
interests of the imperialist powers--the U.S. and Western Europe—in seizing
economic control of the area from the Balkans to the oil-rich Caspian Sea.

Finally they demonstrated how Washington rigged the “Racak massacre” and
then used the so-called Rambouillet accord—in reality an ultimatum demanding
NATO's military control of all of Yugoslavia--to provoke the war. Taken
together this all proved a crime against peace.

They also showed the use of illegal weapons, the purposeful choice of
civilian targets and the destruction of the environment and the civilian
infrastructure that add up to war crimes. And the expulsion of hundreds of
thousands of people from Kosovo and Metohija that prove crimes against
humanity.

The witnesses’ presentations were accompanied in many cases by slides and
videos displayed on a large screen on the stage of the auditorium at Martin
Luther King Jr. High School in Manhattan. This screen was easily visible
both to the judges, who sat on the stage, and to the hundreds in the
audience, many of whom stayed throughout the nine-hour day.

In addition, pictures and videos were on display in the hall outside the
auditorium, and documentary evidence was offered in books or in research
papers.

The International Action Center, founded by Clark in 1992, organized this
final session of the tribunal. There were also participants by those who had
organized similar tribunal hearings in Germany, Italy, Austria, Russia,
Ukraine, Yugoslavia and Greece, where thousands declared U.S. President
Clinton a war criminal last November in Athens.

In addition to the witnesses, there were also important guest presentations
from representatives of the governments Yugoslavia and Cuba. In addition,
Ismael Guadalupe from Vieques, Puerto Rico showed in a powerful speech how
the practice runs against his small island laid the basis for U.S./NATO
aggression around the world.

According to the IAC organizers, total registration, including justices,
witnesses and staff was 511. Invited speakers, witnesses and judges came
from Haiti, Spain, Turkey, Korea, Puerto Rico, India, Germany, United
States, Canada, Italy, Yugoslavia, Russia, Britain, Belgium, Iraq, Greece,
Austria, France, and Portugal. The U.S. government refused visas to four
people from Ukraine, whose message was read from the stage.

There were also representatives of the Roma people—often referred to by the
derisive term "gypsy." Shani Rifati, a Roma witness who was born in
Pristina, capital of Kosovo, told how NATO occupation has led to the
expulsion of 100,000 Romas. He pointed out that the verdict condemned the
persecution of Roma people, the first time this has happened in any
international tribunal.

Five different television crews taped the entire proceedings, including
Serbian television and a three-camera crew from Australia, as well as
alternate media sources in the U.S. like the Peoples Video Network.

FINAL JUDGEMENT OF THE COMMISSION OF INQUIRY TO INVESTIGATE U.S./NATO WAR
CRIMES AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF YUGOSLAVIA

Final Judgement

The Members of the Independent Commission of Inquiry to Investigate
U.S./NATO War Crimes Against the People of Yugoslavia, meeting in New York,
having considered the Initial Charges and Complaint of the Commission dated
July 31, 1999 against President William J. Clinton, Gen. Wesley Clark,
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Chancellor
Gerhard Schroder, President Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema,
Prime Minister Jose Maria Azmar, the Governments of the United States and
the other NATO member states, former Secretary General Javier Solana and
other NATO leaders, and Others with nineteen separate Crimes Against Peace,
War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in violation of the Charter of the
United Nations, the 1949 Geneva Conventions, other international agreements
and customary international law;

Having the right and obligation as citizens of the world to sit
in judgement regarding violations of international humanitarian law;

Having heard the testimony from Commissions of Inquiry and
Tribunals held within their own countries during the past year and having
received reports from numerous other Commission hearings which recite the
evidence there gathered;

Having been provided with documentary evidence, eyewitness
statements, photos, videotapes, special reports, expert analyses and
summaries of evidence available to the Commission;

Having access to all evidence, knowledge and expert opinion in
the Commission files or available to the Commission staff;

Having been provided by the Commission, or otherwise obtained,
various books, articles and other written materials on various aspects of
events and conditions in Yugoslavia and other countries in the Balkans, and
in the military and arms establishments;

Having considered newspaper coverage, magazine and periodical
reports, special publications, TV, radio and other media coverage and public
statements by the accused, other public officials and public materials;

Having heard the presentations of the Commission of Inquiry in
public hearing on June 10, 2000, and the testimony, evidence and summaries
there presented;

And having met, considered and deliberated with each other and
with Commission staff and having considered all the evidence that is
relevant to the nineteen charges of criminal conduct alleged in the Initial
Complaint, make the following findings:

Findings

The Members of the International War Crimes Tribunal find the accused Guilty
on the basis of the evidence against them and that each of the nineteen
separate crimes alleged in the Initial Complaint has been established to
have been committed beyond a reasonable doubt. These are:

1. Planning and Executing the Dismemberment, Segregation and Impoverishment
of Yugoslavia.

2. Inflicting, Inciting and Enhancing Violence Between and Among Muslims and
Slavs.

3. Disrupting Efforts to Maintain Unity, Peace and Stability in Yugoslavia.

4. Destroying the Peace-Making Role of the United Nations.

5. Using NATO for Military Aggression Against, and Occupation of,
Non-Compliant Poor Countries.

6. Killing and Injuring a Defenseless Population throughout Yugoslavia.

7. Planning, Announcing and Executing Attacks Intended to Assassinate the
Head of Government, Other Government Leaders and Selected Civilians in
Yugoslavia.

8. Destroying and Damaging Economic, Social, Cultural, Medical, Diplomatic
-- including the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China and other
embassies -- and Religious Resources, Properties and Facilities throughout
Yugoslavia. 9 Attacking Objects Indispensable to the Survival of the
Population of Yugoslavia.

10. Attacking Facilities Containing Dangerous Substances and Forces.

11. Using Depleted Uranium, Cluster Bombs and Other Prohibited Weapons.

12. Waging War on the Environment.

13. Imposing Sanctions through the United Nations that are a Genocidal Crime
Against Humanity.

14. Creating an Illegal Ad-Hoc Criminal Tribunal to Destroy and Demonize the
Serbian Leadership. The Illegitimacy of this Tribunal is Further
Demonstrated by Its Failure to Bring Any Case Regarding the Oppression of
the Romani People, Who Have Suffered the Highest Rate of Casualties of Any
People in the Region.

15. Using Controlled International Media to Create and Maintain Support for
the U.S. Assault and to Demonize Yugoslavia, Slavs, Serbs and Muslims as
Genocidal Murderers.

16. Establishing the Long-Term Military Occupation of Strategic Parts of
Yugoslavia by NATO Forces.

17. Attempting to Destroy the Sovereignty, Right to Self-Determination,
Democracy and Culture of the Slavic, Muslim, Roma and Other People’s of
Yugoslavia.

18. Seeking to Establish U.S. Domination and Control of Yugoslavia and to
Exploit Its People and Resources.

19. Using the Means of Military Force and Economic Coercion in Order to
Achieve U.S. Domination.

The Members hold NATO, the NATO states and their leaders accountable for
their criminal acts and condemn those found guilty in the strongest possible
terms. The Members condemn the NATO bombardments, denounce the international
crimes and violations of international humanitarian law committed by the
armed attack and through other means such as economic sanctions. NATO has
acted lawlessly and has attempted to abolish international law.

Recommendations

The Members urge the immediate revocation of all embargoes, sanctions and
penalties against Yugoslavia because they constitute a continuing crime
against humanity. The Members call for the immediate end to the NATO
occupation of all Yugoslav territory, the removal of all NATO and U.S. bases
and forces from the Balkans region, and the cessation of overt and covert
operations, including the “International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia” in the Hague, aimed at overthrowing the government of
Yugoslavia.

The Members further call for full reparations to be paid to the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia for death, injury, economic and environmental damage
resulting from the NATO bombing, economic sanctions and blockades. Further,
other states in the region which have suffered economic and environmental
damage due to the NATO bombing and economic sanctions on Yugoslavia must
also be awarded reparations. The Members condemn the threat or use of
military technology against life, both civilian and military, as was used by
the NATO powers against the people of Yugoslavia.

The Members urge public action and mobilization to stop new and continued
sanctions and aggressions by the U.S. and other NATO powers against Iraq,
Cuba, North Korea, the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet
Union, Puerto Rico, Asia, Sudan, Colombia and other countries. We ask for
the immediate cessation of overt/covert activities by the U.S. and NATO in
such countries.

The Members believe that the interests of peace, justice and human progress
require the abolition of NATO, which has proved itself beyond any doubt to
be an instrument of aggression for the dominant, colonizing powers,
particularly the United States. The Pentagon, the central and key element of
NATO and the greatest single threat to the people of the world, must be
disbanded.

The Members urge the Commission to provide for the permanent preservation of
the reports, evidence and materials gathered to make them available to
others, and to seek ways to provide the widest possible distribution of the
truth about the U.S./NATO war on Yugoslavia.

We urge all people of the world to act on recommendations developed by the
Commission to hold power accountable and to secure social justice on which
lasting peace must be based.

Done in New York this 10th day of June, 2000

Tribunal schedule and list of participants

10 a.m. Doors open. Registration, if possible, show videos in the cafeteria
or auditorium.

11:00 a.m. - 11:30 p.m Catrin Schuetz and Anya Mukarji-Connolly introduce
judges and prosecutors: List of judges for the International Tribunal on
U.S./NATO War Crimes against Yugoslavia--New York, June 10, 2000

LIST OF 16 JUDGES

1. Ben Dupuy--Haiti--Former Ambassador at Large for Haiti under the first
government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide and currently secretary general of the
Popular National Party (PPN) of Haiti.

2. Angeles Maestro Martin--Spain--Elected member of Spanish parliament from
Madrid and a leader in the movement to end sanctions against Iraq .

3. Cimile Cakir --Turkey; journalist for newspaper serving Kurdish community
and member of Turkish Human Rights Association. Imprisoned four years in
Turkey for human rights activity..

4. Rev. Kiyul Chung--Korea--Rev. Ki Yul Chung, chairperson of the Executive
Committee of the Congress for Korean Unification in North America.

5. John Nickels--Roma--U.S. representative of the International Romani Union
and also a judge in the Romani community in the U.S.

6. Jorge Farinacci--Puerto Rico--leader of the Socialist Front of Puerto
Rico and a long-time leader of the independence movement in Puerto Rico.

7. Ray Laforest--Haitian-American--labor unionist in the American Federation
of State, County and Municipal Employees and a leader of the Haitian
Coalition for Justice, an organization that fights police brutality in New
York.

8. Uma Kutwal -originally from India, Uma Kutwal is president of Local 375
of the Civil Service Technical Union District Council 37 of American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

9. Dr. Christa Anders--Germany--doctor of medicine and an organizer of the
German/European Tribunal.

10. Raniero La Valle--Italy--Former senator who has served 14 years in the
Italian parliament and an anti-war leader in Catholic circles and
spokesperson for the Italian War Crimes Tribunal movement.

11. Dr. Wolfgang Richter--Germany--Chairperson of the Society for the
Protection of Civil Rights and Human Dignity and a leader of the War Crimes
Tribunal movement in Germany.

12. Martha Grevatt--United States--National Secretary of the AFL-CIO for
Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans Labor Organization called Pride at Work, and active in
the United Auto Workers.

13. Michael Ratner--United States--Civil Rights Attorney on the National
Board of the Center for Constitutional Rights and he took the U.S.
government to court for violating the War Powers Act in its undeclared war
against Yugoslavia.

14. Yole Stanesic--Yugoslavia, Russia--Montenegrin poet and writer living in
Russia, member of the tribunals in Yaroslav, Kiev and Belgrade.

15. John Black--United States--retired President of the Health and Hospital
Workers Union in Pennsylvania, responsible for bringing many thousands of
hospital workers into the union. As a teenager in Germany he was active in
the anti-Nazi underground resistance.

16. Dr. Berta Joubert--Puerto Rico--psychiatrist working in public health
and organizer of Puerto Rican and African American anti-racist activities in
Philadelphia.

The Prosecutor team:

Ramsey Clark, former U.S. attorney general and founder of the International
Action Center.

Pat Chin--originally from Jamaica, International Action Center spokesperson
for solidarity with Haiti and Yugoslavia and other issues.

Sara Flounders, International Action Center national co-director,
participant in numerous tribunal hearings.

Gloria La Riva, a leader of the Peace for Cuba Committee, producer of video
NATO Targets.

All were in Yugoslavia either during the war or participating in seminars or
meetings after the war.   Short opening remarks by Ramsey
Clark, who will be lead prosecutor.  Opening greetings from Mikhail
Kuznetsov of the International Peoples Tribunal organized from Russia and
Ukraine and other former Soviet countries.

Part I: Crimes against peace. (11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.)

Our first witness is Lenora Foerstel (Maryland) of Women for Mutual
Security. She has recently edited a book, War, Lies and Videotape, about the
control of the media.

Jared Israel (Massachusetts). Jared Israel produced a film called Judgement
showing how the corporate media distorted a picture to produce a Big Lie.

Jean Hatton (Great Britain), from the anti-war movement in Britain. Spoke of
how massacre stories were used to justify the war.

Christopher Black (Canada), one of a group of Canadian attorney’s who filed
a suit charging NATO with war crimes at what is called the International
Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia at the Hague. Speaks on ICFTY, how
the Hague Tribunal was a part of the preparation for war.

Monica Moorehead (U.S.) of Millions for Mumia and contributing editor to
Workers World newspaper, an expert on the prison-industrial complex in the
United States.

Michel Collon, (Belgium) author of two books on the Balkans, Liar’s Poker,
and Monopoly; and contributor to the weekly newspaper, Solidaire, on the
geo-political aims of the war, the Caspian pipelines.

Kadouri Al Kaysi an Iraqi American who has organized to expose the impact of
sanctions on Iraq.

Stratis Kounias, vice-president of the Greek Committee for Peace and
Professor at the University of Athens on NATO’s role in Greece and the Greek
anti-war movement.

John Catalinotto (New York), journalist and researcher who has represented
the International Action Center at tribunals in Vienna and Belgrade, on
Washington’s premeditated plan regarding NATO and the attack on Yugoslavia.

Roland Keith (Canada), a monitor for the Observer Mission that was supposed
to maintain the peace in Kosovo in 1998, before the war, on the real role of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Observer mission
in Kosovo and Metohija.

Preston Wood (California), who participated in hearings in Novi Sad and who
organized opposition to the war in Los Angeles, especially in the
Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans community to present to the tribunal the truth about
the supposed massacre in Racak, Kosovo, used to justify the attack on
Yugoslavia.

Richard Becker (California), who has written and spoken extensively on the
role of the talks held in Rambouillet, France in February and March 1999.
Rambouillet ultimatum as provocation.

Gregor Kneussel (Austria), from the Austrian tribunal about the role of
Constitutionally neutral Austria regarding Yugoslavia and in delivering this
NATO ultimatum.

Part II. War Crimes & Crimes Against Humanity

Gloria La Riva, Prosecutor (California), used the video she produced, NATO
Targets, to show how the U.S./NATO bombs hit civilian targets, from
hospitals to bridges to factories.

Sarah Sloan (New York), IAC Commission of Inquiry researcher on NATO claim
it tried to minimize damage to civilian facilities in Yugoslavia. She used a
March 15, 2000 Newsweek article that exposed that NATO hit very few military
targets.

Ellen Catalinotto (New York) is a midwife who has delivered over 1,200
babies to mostly poor women in the New York City. She also cares for HIV
infected women and is involved in research on ways to prevent the
transmission of HIV from pregnant women to their babies. She reported on
NATO’s bombing of 33 hospitals including damage to the maternity ward at
Dragisa Micovic hospital in Belgrade.

Prof. Ivan Yatsenko (Russia), former Soviet officer and foreign
representative, now teaches law in Moscow. He described damage to Yugoslav
industrial infrastructure and how it cost a half-million jobs.

Admiral Elmar Schmaehling (Germany), former admiral and leading spokesperson
for the German tribunal movement. He spoke on the aggressive posture of NATO
since the collapse of the USSR and its illegal attack on Yugoslavia.

Judi Cheng (New Jersey), IAC researcher. She showed how unreasonable it was
to believe that the bombing of Chinese embassy in Belgrade was an accident.

Dr. Janet Eaton (Canada), biologist and environment expert Dr. Janet Eaton
to the stand, on destruction of the environment in Yugoslavia, especially
the damage from attacks on the petrochemical plant at Pancevo and other
industrial targets.

Dr. Carlo Pona (Italy) A physicist who attended a conference in Belgrade
about depleted uranium and has written about this subject, Pona explained
why DU is dangerous to humans and how it was used in Yugoslavia.

Fulvio Grimaldi (Italy), video maker and journalist. Grimaldi, who has just
completed edited a film on sanctions in Iraq and Yugoslavia, described the
combined impact of impact of bombing and sanctions on the population of
Yugoslavia.

Deirdre Griswold (New York) has recently visited sites of U.S. war crimes in
south Korea, is editor in chief of Workers World newspaper. She spoke about
the pattern of criminal conduct of the U.S. military and how the 1950 war
crimes led to a continuing 50-year occupation of Korea.

Shani Rifati (Roma), originally from the Romani community in Kosovo,
publishes an English-language newsletter about Romani affairs named Voice of
Roma. He spoke of the horrors the Roma people faced in Kosovo under K-FOR
and KLA occupation.

Milos Raickovich Serb-American composer and anti-war activist, spoke on the
destruction of churches and cultural sites in occupied Kosovo and Metohija.

Professor Michel Chossudovsky (Canada), an expert historian and economist,
showed the role of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army and its ties to U.S.
and German intelligence services, ties to NATO and the United Nations Rep.
Bernard Kouchner.

Scott Taylor (Canada), former soldier, who now publishes the Ottawa-based
magazine, Espirit de Corps, celebrated for its unflinching scrutiny of the
Canadian military. He also appears regularly in the Canadian media as a
military analyst. He witnessed the expulsion of the Serb population from the
Krajina in Croatia by an army led by KLA General Ceku.

Professor Barry Lituchy (New York), who has recently returned from a trip to
Yugoslavia, described how the NATO occupying forces known as K-FOR have
participated in expelling parts of the population from Kosovo.

Professor Greg Elich (United States), has recently visited the Balkans. He
spoke on the un-humanitarian nature of . NATO’s occupation of Kosovo.

Gilles Troude (France), on the editorial board of Balkans-Info, a
pro-Yugoslavia, anti-NATO monthly published in Paris, France since 1996. He
described France’s role in the war and in suppressing dissent at home.

Professor Jorge Cadima (Portugal), a regular contributor on NATO-related
subjects to to Avante, the weekly newspaper of the Portuguese Communist
Party, spoke on the role of NATO in Portugal since 1949 and on popular
resistance to the war.

5:30-6:15 Messages of solidarity and struggle

Ismael Guadalupe (Puerto Rico) The Committee for the Rescue and Development
of Vieques on the relationship of Vieques to Yugoslavia. He showed how the
U.S. used Vieques for target practice to prepare for the war against
Yugoslavia, and they do so for all foreign aggression.

Representative of Cuban Interest Section, spoke on Cuba’s suit against U.S.
for the costs of the embargo.

UN Ambassador Jovanovic of Yugoslavia, gave evidence of his own government’s
charges against the U.S. and NATO for war crimes. His talk was in fact a
summary of much of the day’s proceedings. Brian Becker, co-director of the
IAC, spoke on the need to form a worldwide movement to abolish NATO.

Ramsey Clark reiterated some of the main points developed during the day and
stressed the need to come to a unified conclusion that would find NATO
guilty over a broad spectrum of charges—the 19 charges included in the
original indictment—and lead to a struggle to abolish NATO.

Part III -- Closing Section

6:15-6:30 International Campaign against NATO--Brian Becker, IAC codirector.

6:30-6:50--Summation of prosecution’s case to the judges -- Ramsey Clark

7:00-7:45 Judges render their decision.