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Indictment
from Canadian lawyer Michael Mandel and
others
The
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia:
The prosecutor of the trial against Slobodan Milosevic,
Milan Milutinovic, Nikola Sainovic, Dragoljub Ojdanic and
Vlajko Stojilkovic.
The
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia:
The prosecutor of the trial against Radovan Karadzic and
Genaral Ratko Mladic
Application
of the convention on the prevention and punishment of the
crime of genocide (Croatia vs Yugoslavia)
Application
of the convention on the prevention and punishment of the
crime of genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v
Yugoslavia)
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Ramsay
Clark
On July 31st 1999, the
prominent US anti-war activist Ramsey Clark has lodged a
complaint against Britain, the U.S. and NATO for their March
24-June 10 assault on Yugoslavia. Clark, who was US Attorney
General under President Carter, heads the biggest anti-war
movement in the United States, the International Action
Center.
Clinton:
Alleged to have committed war crimes during the
NATO assault on Yugoslavia. On April 18th 2001, it
was reported that the former U.S. president was
sent a verdict sentencing him in absentia to 20
years in prison for "crimes against civilians".
According to news reports, Clinton, and his
lawyers, also received a decision on the issuing of
a warrant for his arrest by Yugoslav
authorities.
The full text of the Complaint
follows:
COMPLAINT
Charging William J. Clinton,
The Government of The United States, NATO And Others With
International Crimes And Violations of International And
Domestic Laws Causing Death, Destruction, Injury And
Suffering.
This complaint is presented to
end the scourge of war, prevent future violations of
fundamental human rights, protect international and national
organizations, governments and institutions and to hold
those convicted of the alleged violations accountable for
their acts.
The Governments, Organizations
and Individuals Named Herein are charged:
With Crimes Against
Peace, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity And Other
Offenses In Violation of The Principles of the Nuremberg
Tribunal (Nuremberg), the Hague Regulations (Hague) and
Geneva Conventions (Geneva) and Other International and
National Laws;
With Grave Violations of
the Charter of the United Nations (UN Charter), the North
Atlantic Treaty (NAT), other international treaties,
International Law, the Federal Constitution and Domestic
Laws of the United States, the Basic Laws of Other
Nations Including the United Kingdom, the Federal
Republic of Germany, Turkey, the Netherlands, Hungary,
Italy, Spain and other Governments of NATO members and
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;
With Grave Violations of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Genocide Convention,
and Other International Covenants, Conventions, Treaties,
Declarations and Domestic Laws named herein.
A. Defendants
1. President William J.
Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Secretary of
Defense William Cohen and Commanding Generals, Admirals,
U.S. personnel directly involved in designating targets,
flight crews and deck crews of the U.S. military bomber and
assault aircraft, U.S. military personnel directly involved
in targeting, preparing and launching missiles at
Yugoslavia, the government of the United States personnel
causing, condoning or failing to prevent violence in
Yugoslavia before and during NATO occupation and Others to
be named.
2. The United Kingdom, Prime
Minister Tony Blair, the Foreign Minister, the Defense
Minister and Commanding Generals, Admirals, U.K. personnel
directly involved in designating targets, flight crews and
deck crews of the U.K. military bomber sand assault
aircraft, U.K. military personnel directly involved in
targeting, preparing and Iaunching missiles at Yugoslavia,
the government of the United States personnel causing,
condoning or failing to prevent violence in Yugoslavia
before and during NATO occupation and Others to be
named.
3. The Federal Republic of
Germany, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, the Foreign Minister,
the Defense Minister and Commanding Generals, Admirals,
German personnel directly involved in designating targets,
flight crews and deck crews of the German military bomber
and assault aircraft, German military personnel directly
involved in targeting, preparing and launching missiles at
Yugoslavia, the government of the United States personnel
causing, condoning or failing to prevent violence in
Yugoslavia before and during NATO occupation and others to
be named.
4. The Government of every NATO
country that participated directly in the assaults on
Yugoslavia with aircraft, missiles, or personnel and
Commanding Generals, Admirals, NATO personnel directly
involved in designating targets, flight crews and deck crews
of the NATO military bomber and assault aircraft, NATO
military personnel directly involved in targeting, preparing
and launching missiles at Yugoslavia, the government of the
United States personnel causing, condoning or failing to
prevent violence in Yugoslavia before and during NATO
occupation and Others to be named.
5. The Governments of Turkey,
Hungary, Italy and others who permitted the use of airbases
on their territory to be used by U.S., or other military
aircraft and missiles for direct assault on
Yugoslavia.
6. The North American Treaty
Organization (NATO), Secretary General Javier Solana,
Supreme Commander, General Wesley K. Clark
7. For Condemnation: Each NATO
member that voted to authorize military assaults on
Yugoslavia.
B. The Charges
1. Planning and executing
the Dismemberment, Segregation and Impoverishment of
Yugoslavia. The United States, Germany, NATO and other
defendants engaged in a course of conduct beginning in, or
before 1981 intended to break the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia into many parts, segregate different ethnic,
religious and other groups among and within newly balkanized
borders, weaken the Slav, Serb, Muslim and other populations
by causing and prolonging internal violence and by direct
assaults by the United States and certain NATO members. As a
consequence Yugoslavia which had 25 million people in an
integrated society and economy is now comprised of many
small nations, the largest of which is Serbia. Defendants
intend to divide Yugoslavia until all parts of Yugoslavia
have fewer than 5 million people, each to be overwhelmingly
of a single ethnic origin and religion, to have severely
impaired economies largely dominated by foreign interests,
in which two groups, Orthodox Christian Serbs and Muslims
suffer severest casualties, most extensive property damage,
a vast reduction of productivity now down by 3/4s, or more,
and a generation of impoverishment. U.N. Charter;
Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention In The
Domestic Affairs Of States And The Protection Of Their
Independence and Sovereignty (Non Intervention Decl.), 1965
USGA Res. 2131.
2. Inflicting, Inciting and
Enhancing Violence Between Muslims and Slavs. The United
States and other defendants engaged in a course of conduct
beginning in or before 1981, to cause Muslims and Orthodox
Christian Slavs to engage in protracted fratricidal
violence, in wars of attrition, similar to conflicts in
Afghanistan and Chechnya between Muslims and Russian Slavs,
which caused death, destruction and division in Bosnia,
Kosovo and elsewhere between the groups and dangerous
frictions and enmity between two major enemies of the U.S.,
Slavic peoples and Muslims, in other regions, weakening
both. Tactics included both providing and depriving select
Muslim groups of arms to attack others, or adequately defend
themselves in Bosnia; motivating, training and supplying KLA
with arms to attack Yugoslavia police and military to seize
control of Kosovo during NATO occupation and attack Serbs
and others; preventing outside efforts to prevent and
control the violence; committing, causing and condoning
violence against persons displaced by U.S. and NATO bombing
campaigns, and by KLA and Yugoslav police and military
ground actions; causing and supporting clashes between
Yugoslavia military/police/civilian groups and KLA/Kosovar
paramilitary/civilian groups; condoning and failing to
prevent assaults on displaced persons returning to and
persons who remained in Kosovo, both before and after the
NATO/U.S. occupation of Kosovo. In 1999, the U.S. caused the
largest numbers of deaths, injuries and destruction by
aerial and missile assaults against all elements in the
population and its life support systems. U.N. Charter,
Art. 2; Non Intervention Decl.; Resolution on the Definition
of Aggression (Res. on Aggression), 1997 UNGA Res.
3314.
3. Preventing and Disrupting
Efforts to Maintain Unity, Peace and Stability in
Yugoslavia. From the beginning of its efforts to
implement its plans for dismemberment and destruction of
Yugoslavia, the U.S. acted to prevent any interference,
negotiation, or other efforts within Yugoslavia, or by other
nations, leaders, or individuals to prevent the
accomplishment of its intended purposes. Its techniques
included political, military and economic threats and
control of highly publicized peace negotiations much like
those at Dayton, Ohio, during the Bosnia struggle, at
Rambouillet, France, in 1999 which created an appearance of
earnest peace negotiations, but offered Yugoslavia only two
choices, agree to foreign military occupation, or expect a
devastating military assault. U.N. Charter; Non
Intervention Declaration; Resolution on Aggression; Pact of
Paris 1928, Art I and II.
4. Destroying the Peace
Making Role of the United Nations. The United States
acted and coerced other nations to act to block the United
Nations from performing its duties under the U.N. Charter to
prevent conflict, control violence and maintain peace in
Yugoslavia in violation of the Charter of the U.N. and
threatening its viability as an international institution
capable of maintaining peace and ending the scourge of war.
U.N. Charter; Non Intervention Decl.; Resolution on
Aggression, Pact of Paris 1928, Art I and II.
5. Using NATO for Military
Aggression Against and Occupation of Non-Compliant Poor
Countries. The United States acted and coerced other
nations to act to cause NATO to authorize direct military
assaults on Yugoslavia in violation of the U.N. Charter and
the North Atlantic Treaty relying overwhelmingly on U.S.
weaponry and military technology and to cause NATO members
to provide and finance the majority of the military forces
to occupy Kosovo for the foreseeable future thereby
employing the wealth and power of the rich former colonial
powers of Europe against the poor and defenseless people of
Yugoslavia. United Nations Charter; North Atlantic Treaty
1949, Art. I.
6. Killing and Injuring a
Defenseless Population Throughout Yugoslavia. Beginning
on, or before March 24, 1999, the United States, without a
declaration of war by the Congress, aided and abetted by
certain NATO members, including the United Kingdom, Germany,
Turkey, Spain and the Netherlands, as well as Hungary,
Croatia, Italy and others, commenced a war of missile and
aerial bombing assaults, often indiscriminate in its
targeting, against the populations of Yugoslavia
intentionally killing and injuring many thousands of Serbs,
Kosovars, Romas, Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Roman
Catholics, foreign nationals throughout Yugoslavia with
malice aforethought. Hague, Art. 22 and 23; Geneva 1949,
Art. 19; Nuremberg, Principle VI a, b and c; U.S.
Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 8, cl. II
7. Planning, Announcing and
Executing Attacks Intended to Assassinate the Head of
Government, Other Government Leaders and Selected Civilians.
The United States planned, announced and carried out
missile and aerial bombardment attacks intended to
assassinate the Head of Government of Yugoslavia, members of
his family, other government leaders and selected civilians
to destroy existing government leadership and terrorize it
and its closest personal support into submission. U.N.
Charter, Art. 2, Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons
(Protected Persons Convention); U.S. Army Field Manual
27-10; U.S. Presidential Executive Order 12333 (Ex. Order
12333); Geneva Conventions 1977, Protocol I Additional
(Geneva 1977), Art. 48, 51
8. Destroying and Damaging
Economic, Social, Cultural, Medical, Diplomatic and
Religious Resources, Properties and Facilities throughout
Yugoslavia. Beginning on, or before March 24, 1999, the
United States, aided and abetted by certain NATO members,
including United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, Spain and the
Netherlands and others including Croatia, Hungary and Italy,
commenced a systematic missile and aerial bombing assault on
resources, properties and economic, social, cultural,
medical, diplomatic and religious facilities intentionally
destroying and damaging them throughout Yugoslavia to crush
the productive, economic, social, cultural, diplomatic and
religious viability of the whole society. Hague, Art. 22
and 23; Geneva 1949, Art. 19; Geneva 1977, Protocol I,
Additional, Art. 48, 52, 53; U.N. Charter, Art. 2; Protected
Persons Convention; U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10; Exec.
Order 12333; Geneva 1977, Art. 48, 51;
ICESCR.
9. Attacking Objects
Indispensable to the Survival of the Population of
Yugoslavia. Beginning on or before March 24, 1999, the
United States, aided and abetted by others, for the specific
purpose of depriving the population of Yugoslavia of food,
water, electric power, food production, medicines, medical
care and other essentials to their survival, engaged in the
systematic destruction and damage by missiles and aerial
bombardment of food production and storage facilities,
drinking water and irrigation works for agriculture,
fertilizer, insecticide, pharmaceutical, hospitals and
health care facilities, among other objects essential to
human survival. Hague 1907, Art. 22 and 23; Geneva 1949,
Art. 19; Nuremberg 1970, Principles VI a, b and c; Geneva
1977, Art. 48, 54.
10. Attacking Facilities
Containing Dangerous Substances and Forces. The United
States attacked chemical plants and storage facilities,
petroleum and natural gas refining, processing and storage
facilities, fertilizer plants and other facilities and
locations for the specific purpose of releasing and
scattering toxic, radioactive and other dangerous substances
and forces into the atmosphere, soil, ground water and food
chain to poison the environment and injure the population.
Nuremberg Principal VI, Hague, Art. 22 and 23, Protocol
for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating,
Poisonous or Other Gases, Geneva 1925 (Poisonous Substances
Protocol); Geneva 1977, Protocol I Additional, Art. 48, 51,
56.
11. Using Depleted Uranium,
Cluster Bombs and Other Prohibited Weapons. The United
States used prohibited weapons capable of mass destruction
and inflicting indiscriminate death and suffering against
the population of all Yugoslavia. Despite knowledge of its
deadly long term effect on life and warnings of the U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. attacked Yugoslavia
with depleted uranium missiles, bombs and bullets spreading
radioactive matter into the atmosphere, soil, ground water,
food chain and solid objects hit by depleted uranium
missiles, bombs and bullets placing the Yugoslav population
at risk of death, genetic damage, cancers, tumors, leukemia
and other injuries for generations. Cluster bombs were used
extensively spraying deadly razor sharp metal shards over
wide areas against hospitals, churches, mosques, schools,
apartment developments and other heavily populated places
inflicting death, injury and property damage. The use of
other illegal weapons is under continuing investigation.
Hague, Art. 22 and 23, Geneva 1977, Art. 48, 51, 54, 55,
POONA Indictment for the Subversion of Science and
technology 1978 (POONA Indictment).
12. Waging War on the
Environment. The United States aerial and missile
assault intentionally created a widespread, long term and
severe environmental disaster in Yugoslavia. Air pollution
from overflights alone multiplied normal impurities in the
atmosphere. Thousands of tons of explosives unleashed
enormous quantities of chemicals into the air, raised clouds
of dust and debris from places hit and started fires that
often raged for days. Chemical, petrochemical, oil and gas
refinery, storage and transmission facilities purposely
targeted in the vicinity of Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis and
other major cities exposed huge populations to dangerous and
noxious pollution. Depleted uranium scattered across Kosovo
and the remainder of Serbia will threaten life for
generations. Hague, Art. 22 and 23; Geneva 1977, Art. 48,
51, 54, 55; Stockholm Declaration of the United Nations
Conference on the Human Environment 1972; Principles I, II,
(U.N. Conf. on Human Environment), et al.
13. Imposing Sanctions
through the UN That Are A Genocidal Crime Against Humanity
to Achieve Impoverishment and Debilitation of the People of
Yugoslavia. The United States began an economic attack
on Yugoslavia designed to break it up politically and tear
it down economically before 1989. It caused the
International Monetary Fund IMF) to use its strongest shock
therapy to attack Yugoslav productivity, add to its foreign
debt burden and expose national wealth to foreign capital by
forcing removal of trade barriers and privatizing vital
public industry, commerce, utilities and facilities. In May
1991 U.S. Secretary of State Baker stopped all U.S. aid
programs to all six Yugoslav Republics and vetoed future IMF
credits, creating an enormous economic incentive and
powerful political argument for political opposition to
Belgrade to separate other Republics from Serbia. The U.S.
forced U.N. sanctions against Yugoslavia, but relieved
Republics, which seceded from Yugoslavia of sanctions. Such
sanctions devastated the entire economy of Yugoslavia to the
degree that a normal growth rate free of U.S. coercion would
require 30 years to return Yugoslavia to its 1989 levels of
productivity. Per capita production value for all six
Republics of Yugoslavia in 1989 was $6220.
Today for Serbia and
Montenegro, the remaining Republics of Yugoslavia, it is
$1510. Ninety percent of all trade was among the six
republics before the break-up. All former republics have
suffered economically, but Yugoslavia now, with barely 40%
of its 1990 population, including Kosovo, has had a far
greater decline economically than the favored northern
Republics of Slovenia and Croatia which are today more
overwhelmingly Roman Catholic than before their secession.
The sanctions against Yugoslavia continue and Serbia,
excluding Kosovo, is barred from receiving any planned
reparations and aid to rebuild from bomb damage and economic
attrition. The sanctions have had a far more damaging effect
on life, health, the economy and the quality of life in
Yugoslavia than the military assault, increasing death
rates, lowering life expectation, reducing nutrition and
health care and driving production down. As in Iraq, and
elsewhere, the sanctions are an economic crime, a crime
against humanity and genocide. Nuremberg, Principle VI c,
Crimes Against Humanity; Genocide Convention; Geneva 1977,
Art. 48, 54, 55.
14. Creating An Illegal
Ad-Hoc Criminal Tribunal To Destroy And Demonize Serb
Leadership. The United States acting through defendant
Madeleine Albright coerced the U.N. Security Council to
create ad hoc criminal tribunals for Yugoslavia and Rwanda
in violation of the U.N. Charter to destroy and demonize
enemy leaders in those two countries and threaten leaders
elsewhere. The U.N. Charter does not authorize creation of
criminal tribunals. The U.S. strongly opposes the
International Criminal Tribunal treaty approved by 120
nations at Rome in July 1998 and in the process of
ratification by nations now, because it does not intend to
subject its leaders, or military forces to the jurisdiction
of an independent international Court and the rule of
international law. By targeting individual enemies in ad hoc
courts and charging them with genocide, it achieves their
isolation internationally, pressures their own countries to
remove them from power, corrupts and politicizes justice and
uses the appearance of neutral international law to
adjudicate and punish enemies as war criminals and establish
itself as an innocent champion of justice. U.N. Charter,
Statute of the International Court of Justice (Statute ICJ);
UDHR; ICCPR.
15. Using Controlled
International Media to Create Support for U.S. Assaults
Anywhere and To Demonize Yugoslavia, Slavs, Serbs and
Muslims as Genocidal Murderers. The United States
defendants have systematically controlled, directed,
manipulated, misinformed and restricted press and media
coverage concerning Yugoslavia and the U.S. assaults on it
to gain public support for the massive bombardment of a
defenseless Yugoslavia, including Kosovo, as had been done
in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Sudan and elsewhere. The
international media has supported and celebrated U.S.
political goals of further fragmentation of Yugoslavia and
other areas, segregating each region; demonizing selected
government officials, other leaders, generals, military
officers and soldiers as genocidal murderers; controlling
other nations by the threat of popularly supported missile
and air assaults and crippling economic sanctions and
stimulating acceptance and support from the U.S. public for
future operations against other nations and to increase
military budgets to support an expanding global role for
U.S. military presence and control.
16. Establishing the Long
term Military Occupation of Strategic Parts of Yugoslavia by
NATO Forces. The United States has coerced defendant
NATO members and others to provide and support military
occupation forces for the occupation of Kosovo, as it did in
Bosnia, in order to physically control key parts of
Yugoslavia to enforce permanent separation and segregation
of States and peoples, to further injure the populations, to
create barriers to immigration from Asia Minor, Arab states
in the Middle East, North Africa, and former southern
republics of the USSR, and elsewhere; to provide a buffer
between Europe and the regions described by controlling the
territory of divided, segregated and impoverished Slavs,
Serbs, Orthodox Christians, Kosovars, and others; to exploit
the resources of the region; and to prepare and condition
NATO members for future participation against other nations.
U.N. Charter; NAT. Art. I; Non Intervention Decl.
17. Attempting to Destroy
the Sovereignty, Right to Self Determination, Democracy and
Culture of the Slavic, Muslim, Christian and Other Peoples
of Yugoslavia. The United States has attempted to
destroy the Sovereignty of Yugoslavia, the rights of its
people to self determination, the democratic institutions it
has developed and its culture which defines the heritage,
values and traditions of its people. The United States
overthrew the democratically elected Mossadegh
administration in Iran in 1953 which it replaced with the
Shah of Iran who ruled absolutely for 25 years; the
democratically elected Arbeny government of Guatemala which
was followed by forty years of brutal governments; the
democratically elected Lumumba government of the Congo in
1962, which was followed by violent dictators to this day;
the democratically elected Allende government of Chile which
promised health, education, social and economic justice
which was replaced by a reign of terror and military
dictatorship under General Pinochet now sought by Spain and
other nations for human rights violations; popularly elected
leaders in Vietnam, Pakistan, the Philippines, Panama, Haiti
and elsewhere were replaced by U.S. surrogates. The U.S. has
opposed, assaulted and blockaded Cuba and its entire people
for forty years.
The U.N. General Assembly voted
155 to 2 to condemn the U.S. for its blockade of Cuba in
December 1998. The U.S. has maintained repressive
governments on five continents in too many countries to
name; all seeking to destroy the cultures that define the
people, their history, character, values, arts, literature,
music, with commercially exploitive products having no
substantive worth and one overriding purpose - profits from
the poor. A goal of U.S. policy is to entrench the belief
that only one system works, capitalism, that only one
culture has value, that of the U.S. and western European,
and that history will end with the globalization of U.S.
culture. UDHR; ICCPR; ICESCR.
18. The Purpose of the U.S.
Being To Dominate, Control and Exploit Yugoslavia, Its
People and Its resources. The long term purpose of all
the acts complained of is to dominate, control and exploit
the poor nations of the world and the poor people of the
U.S. and other rich countries to further enrich and empower
concentrations of wealth and neutralize the whole population
of poor, overwhelmingly darker skinned people with fear,
powerlessness, poverty, bread and circus.
19. The Means of the U.S.
Being Military Power and Economic Coercion. The United
States with a near monopoly on nuclear weapons, military
aircraft, missiles, advanced armored vehicles, firepower,
equipment, and highly sophisticated technology continuously
expands its physical power to destroy, expending more on its
military power than the rest of the UN Security Council
combined. This year U.S. military expenditures will be near
300 billion dollars. The demonized Peoples Republic of China
will spend 34 billion dollars, acquiring far less in
destructive power for each dollar. The U.S. sells more
destructive arms to other governments and groups seeking to
overthrow governments than the rest of the arms selling
countries combined. Often the intention is that they "kill
each other," a preferred means of achieving domination. The
U.S. does not sell arms it cannot destroy without incurring
significant casualties. The U.S. uses its enormous economic
power to coerce foreign governments to comply with its
wishes, without regard to the interests of the people of
those foreign countries. The threat of economic sanctions
alone coerces countries to meet U.S. demands contrary to
their sovereignty and self-interest.
C. Relief Sought
1. Freedom for all Balkan
peoples to form a federation of their choice to provide
political, civil, social, economic and cultural independence
and viability for all the peoples of the region.
2. Comprehensive efforts to
create mutual respect, common interests and bonds of
friendship among and between Muslims, Slavs and all
national, ethnic and religious groups in the
Balkans.
3. Strict prohibition on all
forms of foreign interference with or disruption of efforts
to establish unity, peace and stability in the
Balkans.
4. Restoration of peace making
functions of the U.N. and reform of the U.N. to make it
effective.
5. The abolition of
NATO.
6. Full accountability by
individuals and governments for criminal and other wrongful
military assaults and economic injustice, including
sanctions inflicted on all the people of Yugoslavia, their
lives, resources, properties and environment to include
criminal prosecutions and reparations sufficient to place
all the population in the condition it would be in had it
not suffered the wrongs inflicted on it, together with
resources with which to build a better future of the
peoples' choice.
7. Abolition of the illegal ad
hoc international criminal tribunal for Yugoslavia and
reliance on a legal international tribunal of worldwide
non-discriminatory jurisdiction capable of equal justice
under the law.
8. Providing adequate media
access to inform the world of the human destructiveness of
the use of high technology weapons by the U.S. against poor
and defenseless people and the practice of genocide by
sanctions.
9. Removing all foreign troops
from the Balkans at the earliest feasible moment and U.S.
troops from NATO countries and elsewhere
immediately.
A broader range of relief and
reform may be found in Chapter 12 of The Fire This
Time. It is drawn from the experiences and
recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry and the
International War Crimes Tribunal which heard evidence in 20
countries concerning the assault on Iraq in 1991, the
continuing assaults on Iraq thereafter and the genocidal
sanctions which continue to this day.
Scope of the Inquiry
The Commission of Inquiry will
focus on U.S. criminal conduct, aided and abetted by NATO,
because of the dominant U.S. role in the military and other
wrongful acts against Yugoslavia, without its incurring a
single casualty while causing thousands of deaths in
Yugoslavia, the peril of continuing U.S. conduct to all the
people of Yugoslavia and the risk of aerial and missile
strikes against other nations in view of the well-known
record of the U.S. The Commission of Inquiry will seek and
accept evidence of criminal acts by any person or
government, related to the conflict, because it believes
international law must be applied uniformly. It believes
that "victors' justice" is not law, but the extension of war
by force of the prevailing party. U.S. propaganda and
international media coverage has demonized Yugoslavia, its
leadership, Serbs and Muslims to fit its purposes, but
rarely noticed the criminal destruction of Yugoslavia by
U.S. acts as set forth in this complaint. Comprehensive
efforts to gather and evaluate evidence, objectively judge
all the conduct that constitutes crimes against peace, war
crimes and crimes against humanity and to present these
facts for judgment to the court of world opinion requires
that any serious fair effort focus on the United States. The
Commission of Inquiry believes its focus on U.S. criminal
acts is important, proper, and the only way to bring the
whole truth, a balanced perspective and impartiality in
application of legal process to this great human
tragedy.
Ramsey
Clark, July 30, 1999
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