Millions protest NATO'S air war

By Tim Wheeler

NATO warplanes bombed a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees near the town of Djakovica in southern Kosovo April 14, killing 64 and injuring 20. NATO officials said they are investigating the atrocity, which follows by a day NATO's bombing of a passenger train near Belgrade that killed 10 civilians.

When NATO officials gather in Washington Friday, April 23 for a 50th anniversary celebration of the Cold War alliance they'll get an angry reception from anti-war protestors.

National Peace Action called the April 23 rally in Washington at 14th Street and Constitution Avenue to protest the U.S.-led air war.

"NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia shows that it is still living in the Cold War era," Sheila Dormody, a Peace Action organizer, told the World. "We are calling on President Clinton to order an immediate halt to the bombing and get NATO out of Yugoslavia. Let the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe negotiate a settlement to the conflict."

Other groups that have endorsed the action include Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Fourth Freedom Forum.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched along the Victoria Embankment in London April 11 to protest the bombing. An estimated 100,000 marched in Greece April 3. Italians marched 100,000 strong through Rome April 10 and staged a mass "die-in" in front of the ancient Coliseum. Pope John Paul II called for an end to the bombing. There has been a virtual news blackout of these events by the jingoist media.

"It is clear that the bombing has only intensified the crisis," Dormody said. "It is clear that NATO is not going to be able to resolve this crisis."

In Youngstown, Ohio, Peace Action convened a news conference to demand a halt to the bombing. Their statement condemned ethnic cleansing by the Serbs and terrorism by the U.S.-backed Kosovo Liberation Army.

"Using war to stop war is not the answer ... The United States cannot police the world, even as NATO's agent. Therefore, Peace Action believes that the United Nations should be the forum for addressing this difficult problem."

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times April 9 headlined, "Why is Belgrade a Target."

The Ohio lawmaker denounced the bombing of civilian facilities like power plants, oil refineries, factories, water mains, roads and bridges. He warned that the Serbian people will "never accept a peace with the ethnic Albanians as long as we are dropping bombs on their heads."

U.S. warplanes destroyed a passenger train south of Belgrade, Yugoslavia April 12 killing 10 and wounding 16. The New York Times reported Tuesday that NATO dropped cluster bombs on a village in southern Yugoslavia killing an entire family. The U.S. is using depleted uranium warheads in Yugoslavia.

Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joints Chiefs now openly advocates sending ground troops into Yugoslavia. "We haven't excluded using more than one point of entry or numerous points of entry," Shelton told ABC news.

NATO's lovefest in Washington was supposed to be a celebration of U.S. military supremacy with a State Department official even proclaiming the U.S. a "European power."

It was also billed as a coming-out-party for NATO's new "Strategic Concept" in which the U.S. openly proclaims the right to intervene anywhere in the world with or without consulting the targeted country or the United Nations.

The Yugoslav people's unexpected unity in defense of their country against U.S. aggression and the growing world protest movement has spread gloom over NATO's party. The Clinton administration even stopped calling it a "celebration" and started calling it a "commemoration."

This war has already cost U.S. taxpayers $1 billion. President Clinton's budget surplus is going up in smoke without a single dollar used to safeguard Medicare, Social Security. Lethal force abroad echoes racist police brutality and police killings at home.