Lawyers charge NATO Leaders for War Crimes # 2

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PRESS RELEASE MAY 7, 1999

LAWYERS CHARGE NATO LEADERS BEFORE WAR CRIMES TRIBUNAL

A group of lawyers from several countries has laid a formal 
complaint with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia 
against all of the individual leaders of the NATO countries and officials of 
NATO itself. The group, lead by professors from Osgoode Hall Law School of 
York University in Toronto --where Tribunal prosecutor Louise Arbour was 
also a professor before becoming a judge -- have charged Bill Clinton, 
Madeleine Albright, Javier Solana, Jamie Shea, Jean Chretien, Art Eggleton, 
Lloyd Axworthy and 60 other heads of state and government,foreign ministers, 
defence ministers and NATO officials, with war crimes committed in NATO's 
six-week old bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. 
The list of crimes includes "wilful killing, wilfully causing great 
suffering or serious injury to body or health, extensive destruction of 
property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and 
wantonly, employment of poisonous weapons or other weapons to cause 
unnecessary suffering, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or 
devastation not justified by military necessity, attack, or bombardment, by 
whatever means, of undefended towns, villages, dwellings, or buildings, 
destruction or wilful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion, 
charity and education, the arts and sciences, historic monuments and works 
of art and science." 
The complaint also alleges "open violation" of the United Nations 
Charter, the NATO treaty itself, the Geneva Conventions and the Principles 
of International Law Recognized by the Nuremberg Tribunal (the latter of 
which makes "planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of 
aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or 
assurances" a crime). 
Under the Statute "a person who planned, instigated, ordered, 
committed or otherwise aided and abetted in the planning, preparation or 
execution of a crime shall be individually responsible for the crime" and 
"the official position of any accused person, whether as Head of State or 
Government or as a responsible Government official, shall not relieve such 
person of criminal responsibility or mitigate punishment." 
The complaint points to the bombing of civilian targets and alleges 
that NATO leaders "have admitted publicly to having agreed upon and ordered 
these actions, being fully aware of their nature and effects" and that 
"there is ample evidence in the public statements of NATO leaders that these 
attacks on civilian targets are part of a deliberate attempt to terrorize 
the population to turn it against its leadership." 
The complaint cites a recent statement of the President of the 
Tribunal, Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, urging that: "All States and 
organisations in possession of information pertaining to the alleged 
commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal should make 
such information available without delay to the Prosecutor." 
The complaint also cites a statement of United Nations High 
Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson in which she says that "large 
numbers of civilians have incontestably been killed, civilian installations 
targeted on the grounds that they are or could be of military application 
and NATO remains sole judge of what is or is not acceptable to bomb...In 
this situation, the principle of proportionality must be adhered to by those 
carrying out the bombing campaign. It surely must be right to ask those 
carrying out the bombing campaign to weigh the consequences of their 
campaign for civilians in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia." 
Under the Statute, the Prosecutor is bound to "initiate 
investigations ex-officio or on the basis of information obtained from any 
source, particularly from Governments, United Nations organs, 
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations" and to "assess the 
information received or obtained and decide whether there is sufficient 
basis to proceed. Upon a determination that a case exists, the Prosecutor is 
bound to "prepare an indictment containing a concise statement of the facts 
and the crime or crimes with which the accused is charged under the Statute 
and transmit it to a judge of the Trial Chamber." 
The complaint asks Judge Arbour to "immediately investigate and 
indict for serious crimes against international humanitarian law" the 67 
named leaders and whoever else shall be determined by the Prosecutor's 
investigations to have committed crimes in the NATO attack on Yugoslavia 
commencing March 24, 1999." 
Copies of the charges have been sent to the accused. 
Participating in the action are 15 lawyers and law professors as 
well as the American Association of Jurists, a pan American organization of 
lawyers, judges, law professors and students, with membership in all 
countries of the American Continent from Tierra del Fuego to Canada, an NGO 
with consultative status before the Social and Economic Council of the 
United Nations. 

Professor Michael Mandel, spokesman for the group of complainants, 
said in Toronto today: "The bombing of civilians is not only immoral, it is 
criminal and punishable under the laws governing the Tribunal. You cannot 
kill a woman and child in Belgrade on the theoretical possibility that it 
might save a woman and child in Pristina. Even in a legal war you cannot 
kill civilians and destroy an entire country as a military strategy. But 
this is an illegal war and the NATO leaders are acting like outlaws. So far 
they have risked nothing by sending others to do their killing and 
destroying. We believe that if they are held individually responsible, as 
the law requires, they won't feel so free to spill other peoples' blood."

For further information please contact: 
Toronto: Professor Michael Mandel --- mmandel@yorku.ca or
or
David Jacobs telephone --- david@ShellJacobs.com 

- in Geneva: Alejandro Teitelbaum, e-mail Assemjur@aol.com

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