NATO's 'humanitarian' war: it's a lie
By Kerryn Williams
As the NATO bombing of the Balkans enters its third month, NATO's "humanitarian" smokescreen is thinning rapidly. The civilian casualty figures are rising, while Slobodan Milosevic's "ethnic cleansing" in Kosova (which NATO is supposedly attempting to curtail) continues to escalate.
US-led NATO forces have committed a series of horrific "mistakes" — atrocities would be a more truthful description — in their terror campaign. Bombs and missiles have struck residential areas, passenger trains, marketplaces, hospitals and embassies. The resulting civilian deaths and injuries are brushed off by NATO's warlords as "regrettable collateral damage" and "unavoidable" by-products of a "necessary" war.
One such NATO "error" was on April 12, when missiles struck a railway bridge near the town of Grdelica. Seventeen people were killed on a train that was crossing the bridge at the time.
On April 27, a NATO bomb targeting a military barracks in Surdulica struck a nearby neighbourhood and killed at least 20 people. On May 7, a cluster bomb targeting an airfield went off course and killed at least 17 people in a marketplace and the grounds of a hospital in Nis.
NATO's "mistakes" have caused general hardship for the Serbian people. On May 24, bombs struck a power station in Obrenovac, as well as Serbian electricity authority facilities in Novi Sad, Kostolac and Nis. Many towns and cities, and parts of the capital, Belgrade, have been without power for long periods of time.
The victims of NATO's terrorism also include the people in Montenegro and on April 28, a missile went astray and struck a home in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria!
Even embassies have not escaped NATO's "humanitarian" bombs and missiles. The Swiss, Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian and Hungarian ambassadors' residences have been damaged, as has the Libyan embassy and the Israeli diplomatic mission. On May 7, NATO fighter pilots killed three people and injured 20 when they attacked the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. In the face of mass outrage in China, the NATO powers could only offer "sincere regrets".
The world is now in no doubt that Washington is asserting a unilateral right to police the world as it sees fit.
The people who have suffered most during NATO's campaign are the ethnic Albanians in Kosova, who NATO and Washington claim they are "protecting" by raining death and destruction down on former Yugoslavia.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has estimated that around 1 million Kosovars have been forced out of Kosova, with more than 80% leaving after the NATO attacks began. While the US and other NATO powers claim that they have severely undermined Milosevic's military power, a new mass exodus from Kosova's capital Pristina is occurring and there are new reports of torture and beatings of Kosovars by Serbian government soldiers.
The UN Population Fund has released a report documenting extensive rape of women in towns across Kosova. Since the NATO air strikes began, rape has dramatically increased.
NATO has not spared the Kosovars from its bombing and Kosovars have been the victims of some of the most severe of NATO's bombing "errors".
On April 14, NATO jets struck a refugee convoy near Djakovica and killed some 75 refugees. The NATO powers absolved themselves of all responsibility by blaming the Serbian military for placing the refugees in danger. NATO officials stated bluntly that civilian deaths, including Kosovars, were unavoidable would occur again.
On May 13, the Kosova village of Korisa was bombed. The death toll was reported at 87, along with more than 100 injured. This time NATO feigned innocence and accused Serbian troops of using the Kosovars as "human shields".
On May 21, NATO planes bombed a guerilla base of the Kosova Liberation Army killing seven fighters and injuring 25 others. NATO apologised for the bombing, claiming it thought the base was held by the Serbian army and was unaware it had changed hands.
Much of Serbia was plunged into darkness last week as electricity stations were hit again by NATO bombs. Hospitals are struggling to keep patients alive using generators and torches.
People have to queue for food, public transport has ground to a halt, streets are no longer lit, and hospitals and schools are in chaos as people's lives slip into misery because of NATO's "humanitarian" terror.
The numerous fatal "mistakes" are not the ugly side of a just war. From the very beginning, the US-led NATO powers have had absolutely no concern for the people of the Balkans, least of all the oppressed Kosovars, who have for been resisting brutal repression by the Milosevic regime for more than a decade.
The hypocrisy of NATO's actions is undeniable. While the US throws its weight around to secure the ongoing profitability of US investment in the Balkans, the people of Kosova are driven further and further from their goal of independence, forced out of their homes and their country, tortured, raped, bombed and denied the ability to defend themselves or determine their future.
It's time to put an end to the NATO bombing and the support it receives from governments like Australia's. NATO's "humanitarian concern" for the Kosovar people is a blatant lie, a lie which is becoming increasingly obvious.
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[Kerryn Williams is the Melbourne Resistance organiser].