[ Yet another view... .John Korber]
Statement of War Resisters’ International on Kosovo
The War Resisters' International, an international network of more than
70 pacifist groups in more than 30 countries, including the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia and Croatia, condemns the NATO bombing and the hypocrisy of
NATO governments in mounting this war.
The original rationale for threatening military action was to make
Milosevic sign a peace agreement. This fatally misreads Milosevic and the
mood of the Serbian people after years of nationalist propaganda. Far
from undermining Milosevic, this allows him to tap into the Serbian and
Yugoslav traditions of heroic military defence.
Now, the current rationale is that the bombing is to prevent a
humanitarian catastrophe. Already at the time of writing, it is clearly
precipitating an even greater disaster - and with the evacuation of the OSCE
verification mission and foreign relief workers and expulsion of foreign
journalists, there are now even fewer ways to respond.
NATO has been using the conflicts in the former-Yugoslavia to redefine
its role, pretending to be the world's police force. To this end, it pursues
its own institutional interests - against those of non-military
intergovernmental bodies, such as the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe and the United Nations - and it decides on military
action according to its own organisational logic. It is selective about
which 'crimes' it seeks to redress and what counts as a 'humanitarian
catastrophe'.
Far from weakening the Milosevic regime, and protecting Kosovo Albanians,
the NATO bombings are already having disastrous - and predictable -
consequences. In Kosovo itself, it is now 'open season' for Serbs - be
they police, military, paramilitary or armed civilians - against the entire
Albanian population and its institutions. In Serbia proper, the Belgrade
regime has already moved against anti-war voices, such as Radio B92.
The governments that make up NATO displayed very little active interest
in supporting nonviolent efforts by Kosovo Albanians throughout the nine
years in which they refused to take up arms in response to Serbian repression
and violence. Indeed, they consented to the exclusion of Kosovo from the
Dayton accords. On those occasions when foreign governments did acknowledge
that the wholesale violation of 90 per cent of the population of Kosovo was
anything other than an 'internal affair' of Serbia, it was to offer assurances
that they did not even try to live up to. For eight years the Albanians of
Kosovo persisted in their strategy of refraining from violence and
concentrating on maintaining their social cohesion and institutions such as
parallel schools. Their nonviolent struggle using strikes, boycotts, peaceful
demonstrations and alternative institutions was largely
ignored by the world.
Instead of a world order based on NATO breaking international law to
pursue military action, War Resisters' International works to strengthen
nonviolent methods of dealing with conflict. We have worked against the
militarism of the Milosevic regime; we have worked through the Balkan
Peace Team to promote dialogue between Serbs and Albanians; and we have worked
to increase awareness of the variety of nonviolent methods of social
struggle that can be deployed in such situations. A more understanding
response to the Kosovo Albanian population on the part of the governments now
prepared to bomb Serbia, Kosovo, Vojvodina and Montenegro could have made a
decisive difference. Unfortunately, this was not forthcoming. Their
decision-making is dominated by short term considerations of power-politics
and 'military reality'. The 'criminal' they now want to bomb to the
negotiating table
is the man they erected into the 'guarantor of the Dayton peace'.
The mission of the OSCE 'verifiers' was too little, too late. Hastily
improvised, poorly prepared, and with a mandate that was inadequately
articulated, the OSCE verifiers succeed in de-fusing some flashpoints,
they were beginning to build some cooperation with civil society groups, but
they could not stem the rising tide of violence. Rather they increasingly
were verifying that an atrocity had been committed. Nevertheless, their
deployment was infinitely preferable to the NATO's bombings.
NATO does not exist to protect populations condemned to live under
criminal regimes. How can it when its own members include countries like
Turkey, whose methods against the Kurds are equally horrific? NATO's military
strategy in Kosovo is not designed in the interests of the population,
but rather to minimise the risks to NATO's own soldiers - whatever the
consequences for those who are now hostage to Serbian vengeance. NATO’s
new strategy seems to be a test for new weapons systems in a large scale
attack against a Central European country, first use of US Air Force B-2
Bombers, first active battle participation of German Air Force since Second
World War, military integration of new NATO-members into the military command
to European NATO headquarters. NATO’s attack on Yugoslavia is a first
precedent of the new NATO strategy, which will be passed in April. In this
strategy NATO explicitly stresses its ‘right’ to intervene everywhere in
the world on its own right, without the need of being mandated by the UN
or other intergovernmental bodies.
In the immediate circumstances, WRI calls for a halt of the NATO air
strikes and calls on its members to organise vigils and other demonstrations
against NATO at appropriate embassies or War Ministries or at air bases. We
call on the soldiers of all countries taking part in this attack to refuse to
participate in this war.
In the medium term, we will try to work alongside our friends in the
anti-war groups in Serbia and with people in Kosovo trying to create a
just peace.
In the longer term, WRI redoubles its commitment to promote civilian
responses to conflict - in particular the development of nonviolence as a
means of waging social struggles and the use of methods of nonviolent
conflict resolution and dialogue.
wri ([log in to unmask])
War Resisters International
5 Caledonian Road
London N1 9DX
UK
tel. 00 44 +171 278 4040
fax 00 44 +171 278 0444
http://www.gn.apc.org/warresisters
**********
War Resisters League
339 Lafayette St.
New York, NY 10012
212-228-0450
212-228-6193 (fax)
1-800-975-9688 (YouthPeace and A Day Without the Pentagon)
[log in to unmask]
web address: http://www.nonviolence.org/wrl
________________________________________________________________
|
