[ot] [!nt] \n2+0\

[integer at www.god-emil.dk]

AS THREAT OF NEW NATO BOMBING LOOMS,
COMMEMORATION OF PAST WAR AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA

IAC CALLS FOR COAST-TO-COAST DEMONSTRATIONS 
MARCH 24

The International Action Center, a leading organization in the 
movement opposing the U.S./NATO war on Yugoslavia last spring, 
called for united actions condemning NATO's occupation of Kosovo in 
cities across the United States on the one-year anniversary of the start 
of NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign.

“We also want to call to attention,” said Sara Flounders, a national 
coordinator of the IAC, “the growing threat of another U.S.-NATO 
military assault on Yugoslavia. On Feb. 17, Gen. Wesley Clark 
charged the Yugoslav government with rebuilding its military forces and 
with planning to go back into Kosovo. Gen. Clark, we remember, was 
not only the strategist behind the vicious bombing campaign, he 
almost opened up a war with the Russian forces outside Pristina in 
June. These charges can only be part of preparation of further NATO 
aggression against Yugoslavia.”

That NATO bombing, which began on March 24, 1999, started the first major 
war in Europe since Germany surrendered to the Allied Forces in the spring 
of 1945. It ended after the death of close to 3,000 Yugoslavs, mostly civilians, 
and the destruction of much of the industry and infrastructure of Serbia. It 
also ended with the occupation of Serbia’s Kosovo province by U.S., 
German, French, British, Canadian and other NATO troops and some Russian 
troops, an occupation that continues to this day.

Flounders said the demonstrations would be coordinated with similar 
demonstrations, meetings and protests in Europe called by anti-war 
organizations in NATO countries there. She said she knew of protests 
planned in Italy, Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic and Greece and 
expected there would be many more.

Flounders explained that the actions were meant “both to remember the day 
and to protest aggression by the U.S. and other NATO powers against a 
small country unable to defend itself from an attack from the skies by the 
world’s great military powers. We also want to stop the sanctions against 
Yugoslavia that are aimed at the entire population and that hurt children and 
seniors the most. And we want to condemn the continued illegal occupation 
of Kosovo by NATO forces."

Last June 5 some 10,000 people marched on the Pentagon in response to a 
call by the IAC to oppose the attack on Yugoslavia.

Since the occupation of Kosovo last June 10, the IAC has launched an 
investigation into “U.S./NATO war crimes” in the form of tribunal hearings 
around the U.S. and around the world. IAC founder and former U.S. Attorney 
General Ramsey Clark prepared and delivered a 19-count indictment last July 
31 against U.S. President Bill Clinton and other U.S. and NATO political and 
military leaders responsible for the war against Yugoslavia. He charged them 
with crimes against peace, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

“This 19-point indictment,” said Flounders, “has been used as an inspiration 
or a model by anti-war forces in the U.S., other NATO and even non-NATO 
Central and East European countries to hold mass public inquiries of 
U.S./NATO war crimes. These hearings are still going on in Europe through 
this spring. 

IAC TO HOLD INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL

“The IAC plans on June 10 to hold a final hearing in New York, where a panel 
of prestigious international judges will rule on evidence presented and 
decide if the NATO leaders are indeed guilty of the crimes Ramsey Clark has 
charged them with,” said Flounders.

International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: iacenter at iacenter.org
http://www.iacenter.org
phone: 212 633-6646
fax:   212 633-2889