STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Guardian (Australia) Wednesday, July 4th, 2001. Yugoslavia: Treason, blackmail, gangsterism Treason, blackmail, kidnapping and gangsterism are the only fitting words to describe the actions of the Federal Government of Yugoslavia in the kidnapping of Milosevic which involved a British military plane and bribery by the European Union and the US. The operation was marked by the disregard of a ruling by the High Court of Yugoslavia that suspended the Governmentís decree authorising the extradition of Milosevic and others. The Government in effect tore up the Yugoslav Constitution which specifically rules out the extradition of Yugoslav citizens to other countries. It then, together with British and American authorities, organised the spiriting away of Slobodan Milosevic from his Belgrade prison in a bread delivery van. He was delivered to an American base from where he was flown to The Hague in a British military plane. All this was associated with the billion dollar bribe of the Yugoslav Government by the European Union and the US. Milosevic is now to be arraigned before NATOís kangaroo court in The Hague. Belgrade is in turmoil following the illegal extradition of Milosevic. Even before Mr. Milosevic was secretly taken from his prison, huge Belgrade crowds reacted angrily to the news that the Yugoslav Government cabinet had issued a decree "authorising" the extradition of Milosevic and other Yugoslav citizens to NATO's so-called War Crimes Tribunal. Between 100,000 to 200,000 people rallied and marched in Republic Square in Belgrade. Speakers were saying this is treason to the Serbian nation. The Constitution is the highest legal obligation of any state and by breaking the Constitution one betrays the nation. They are saying that all Serbian people and others loyal to Yugoslavia must unite and take back their government and throw out those who have betrayed the nation to Washington, which dangles false bribes to humiliate the Serbian people, says an urgent message from Jared Israel (journalist of Emperor's Clothes) who was on the phone to Belgrade as the rally went on. At the rally people were speaking with one voice. They said: Abolish the decree! Serbian and Yugoslav governments should resign! Nobody should be extradited to The Hague! Those who adopted this illegal decree should be criminally charged! There must be general elections on all levels because the government has committed treason and lied and therefore nobody any longer supports them. The President of Yugoslavia, Vojislav Kostunica claimed that he had found out about the transportation of Mr Milosevic from the media [sic] and that his deportation was illegal. International reaction: International reaction to the events in Belgrade was swift and furious. Despite attempts of western media outlets to present the case as a just and well-deserved outcome, alternative voices hit the Internet to express their views. Demonstrations were organised and petitions and protests sent to Yugoslav authorities. Momir Bulatovic, President of the Socialist People's Party (SNP) of Montenegro, a major party in the ruling coalition, announced that the Prime Minister and six Ministers would quit the federal government in protest. The SNP Vice President, Mr Jovanovic, told the media that the Serbian Government's decision to hand over Milosevic in defiance of the Federal Constitutional Courtís ruling amounted to a coup. "What happened is that Djindjic suspended the constitutional system of Yugoslavia. Djindjic introduced dictatorship, and the responsibility for that lies on him and all others who did nothing to prevent this." As another official of the Yugoslav Socialist Party said at the Belgrade rally: "The masks have fallen from the Serbian traitors, especially [Serbian Prime Minister] Djindjic". Fidel Castro declared that "the sending of Milosevic over there (to The Hague) is illegal, it does not correspond with international laws". He said that it was "madness to concede the right of extra-territorial action for their penal laws and judicial authorities to NATO and the powerful nations." Eighty Greek parliamentary deputies from all political parties signed a protest to be delivered to the embassy of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Athens expressing their opposition to the extradition. The Portuguese Communist Party points out in their protest that "such an action, which on all counts is illegal and illegitimate, can only contribute to worsen the situation in Yugoslavia and dangerously destabilise the whole Balkan region. The offensive of the KLA bands in Macedonia, under the cover and support of US and KFOR forces, can lead to a tragedy of huge proportions." Christians Against NATO Aggression, a UK ecumenical group comprising Orthodox, Pentecostals, Evangelicals, Unitarians, Quakers, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Brethren, Anglicans, etc, sharing a common view on the responsibility of NATO leaders for war crimes, is planning to visit the British Ministry of Defence to ask for the names of the pilots and air crew of the aircraft involved in transporting Mr. Milosevic so that their names can be included in an indictment which will be lodged at the Crown Court on the charge of kidnapping. Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russia's International Affairs Committee of the Duma said: "Transferring Milosevic to The Hague in fact means that NATO has at last received a cover for its aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999. They got what they wanted. The blackmail worked in full. This will inevitably lead to a crisis in Yugoslavia." Sara Flounders, National Co-Director of the US International Action Center condemned the US-forced deportation as ìillegal. The objective of this step is not just, or even primarily, Milosevic himself. The deportation of Milosevic is another element aimed at terminating Yugoslaviaís sovereignty once and for all. For more than a decade the US and NATO used war, blockades, sanctions and other means to re-balkanize the Balkans. Today, as a result, US military bases dominate the region - in Croatia, Bosnia, Albania, Hungary, Macedonia, Kosovo (Serbia) - where there were none 10 years ago. Yugoslavia's real crime was that it resisted this re-colonisation process. The deportation was an enormous tragedy for Yugoslavia and the rule of law, said former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark. The Cambridge Campaign for Peace (CamPeace) stated in their letter to President Kostunica: We are not supporters of Milosevic, but we are supporters of a better world in which the law will be adhered to,instead of a world dominated by international gangsters. CPA [Communist Party of Australia] protest A message sent by CPA General Secretary Peter Symon to the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Canberra before the kidnapping of Slobadan Milosevic said: "It is outrageous that the same people who directed the bombing of your country and brought so much suffering and destruction are now trying to buy your government with the promise of loans if you obey their orders. "No sovereign country ever tried to sell their former leaders in such a servile way ... It is a course that will bring disgust and condemnation for decades into the future, just as the names of Judas and Quisling, having passed into the language, represent the ultimate in servility and betrayal." Dissolve Hague Court: The newspaper of the German Communist Party, Neue Einheit, calls for the abolition of the so-called, War Crimes Tribunal. The paper says that "by its whole practice it covers NATO's war against Yugoslavia, a war by several large nations against a small nation, using massive force of arms and bombings ...This tribunal does not prosecute all the war criminals of the Bosnian war, but very purposefully, only certain persons are picked out to fit into the political concept of justifying NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia. The NATO tribunal of The Hague which is actually a fraud, must be dissolved." __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! 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