Criminale di guerra numero tre:
NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION
Esattamente tre anni fa, in seguito al clamore suscitato da una strage al mercato di Sarajevo che non era stata commessa dai serbi, la "comunita' internazionale", cui apparentemente stanno a cuore solo i diritti umani, la pace e la fratellanza tra i popoli, organizzava e realizzava un bombardamento prolungato contro obbiettivi, militari e non, sul territorio controllato dai serbi di Bosnia.In quella occasione nessuna voce di dissenso si alzo', ne' a destra ne' a sinistra, ne' in Italia ne' altrove. Solo due anni dopo alcuni organi di stampa (tra cui la rivista italiana "Guerre&Pace", vedi sotto) svelavano alcuni retroscena di quell'azione: in particolare si parlo' dell'uso di ordigni all'uranio impoverito che avrebbero causato una contaminazione del territorio che ancora persiste.
Pace all'uranio, di Gordon Poole (da Guerre&Pace n. 41, luglio 1997)
NATO
MIGHT FACES HAGUE TRIBUNAL CHARGES FOR USE OF RADIOLOGICAL AMMUNITION
IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA
Tanjug, 1998-08-07
Dr. Jamedzija told a press conference that all available scientific and
medical documents had been prepared and that they would be sent, together
with the charges, to the Tribunal which deals with crimes committed in t
he former Yugoslavia since 1991.
"In the second half of September 1995, NATO planes used special ammuniti
on whose cores contained U-238 in the bombing of military, but also civil
ian targets, which resulted in high radioactivity in the territory of Rep
ublika Srpska, and consequently the occurrence of a series of grave disea
ses in humans, and also contaminated the environment," Dr. Jamedzija said
2E
Medical experts recorded a higher incidence of miscarriages, fetal death
s, premature births, and still-born children among the population of Mili
c, Vlasenica, Han Pijesak, Sokoc, Pale, Vogosca, Rogatica, and other plac
es throughout Republika Srpska. Experts also recorded more frequent death
s of cattle in these areas, he said.
Moreover, herbs picked on Mt. Romanija showed a radioactivity of 1,100 b
ecquerels per kilo, while the maximum permitted level is 600 Bq/kg.
Dr. Jamedzija said the association's team of experts had data that the e
ntire Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina showed a 400 percent increase in c
ervical cancer following 1995.
The responsibility of the principals and executors of crimes against the
civilian population of Bosnia-Herzegovina is based on articles 86 and 87
of the Protocol of the first Geneva conventions, and article 91 establis
hes responsibility for caused damages. The Association therefore maintain
s that NATO members, or the member-states whose troops had been the parti
cipating parties, cannot be beyond the reach of justice.
The Yugoslavia-based Association of Serbs from Bosnia-Herzegovina will
file charges with the Hague International Tribunal against those who ordered
and executed bombing using radiological ammunition of the territory of
Republika Srpska in 1995, which is a violation of international humanita
rian laws and conventions which ban the use of biological warfare, associ
ation President Bogdan Jamedzija said.
U.N. DOES NOT TAKE STAND ON USE OF RADIOACTIVE AMMUNITION
IN BOSNIA 1995.
Tanjug, 1998-06-03
Speaking at a news conference, he said that such a
request should be off icially submitted to the United
Nations.
Spokesman for the Belgrade Office of the U.N. High
Commissioner for Refu gees Mons Nyberg spoke about the
organisation's activities aimed at helpi ng the
jeopardised in Kosovo and Metohija.
Carter said that the U.N. Secretary-General had decided
to send a team o f experts to Albania in early June to
work with Albanian authorities on c ollecting civilians'
weapons and controlling the taking of arms from the
country.
Speaking about the return of refugees to Croatia, Nyberg
and Carter quot ed Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic
as saying that about 30,000 requ ests for the individual
return had been submitted in keeping with the exi sting
procedure and that Croatia would present a comprehensive
plan for t he return of Serb refugees by June 20.
Nyberg said that neither the UNHCR nor the international
community were satisfied with the Croatian Government's
document referring only to indiv idual return and that
they would insist on making possibilities for the r eturn
of Serb refugees and expelled persons in groups.
U.N. Liaison Office Spokesman Jay Carter said here
Belgrade on Wednesday that the United Nations had not
taken a stand on whether the Hague-based Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia should launch an
investigation into NATO's use of radioactive ammunition
in the Republika Srpska.
ILLEGAL USE OF RADIOACTIVE AMMUNITION
Tanjug,
1998-05-27
This means that, apart from the citizens of the former
Yugoslavia, the citizens of other countries can not avoid
criminal responsibility, including members of NATO, IFOR,
SFOR and other international forces and organizations if
they violated the norms of International Law. "We believe
that the violation of these international declarations,
also signed by NATO members whose aircraft bombed RS
without approval by the U.N. Security Council, represents
a solid legal basis for the Belgrade Association of Serbs
from Bosnia and Herzegovina to rise charges with the
Hague Tribunal against responsible persons from 16 NATO
countries," the Yugoslav experts said.
They set out that one of the major international
documents "violated" by most of the then signatories, now
NATO members, who participated in operation 'Resolute
Response', is the 1868 Petersburg Declaration on the
Prohibition of the Use of Certain Missiles in War.
Combined with the basic use of this cannon ammunition for
the destruction of armoured vehicles and fortified
points, its radioactive effect is not to be ignored and
has been recorded by measuring the scattered parts of
missiles found in the field after the air raid. The legal
experts said that radioactivity does not "differentiate"
between civilians and soldiers, nor between friends or
enemies and that this violated the basic postulates of
International Law. "Another major document violated by
those who took part in the bombing of RS, are the 1992
Hague Regulations whose Article 24. says that "air
bombardment is legal only if it is directed against
military facilities whose partial or entire destruction
brings military advantage to the warring side," the
experts said. They said that the document precisely named
military facilities and that these do not include
facilities targeted in RS by NATO planes, such as houses,
roads, pharmacies, pig farms, bridges or dams. "The
regulations also stipulate that if military facilities
are located in such a manner that their bombardment could
not be carried out without harming the civilian
population, the aircraft must refrain from bombing," the
legal experts said pointing out that the bombardment of
the Technical-Repairing Institute in Hadzici, which is
surrounded by civilian facilities, is an example of the
violation of these regulations signed by the United
States whose A-10 bombers carried out the attack. Despite
recent claims by SFOR spokesman Peter Clark that
ammunition made out of impoverished uranium, which was
used in RS, is not "atomic ammunition' but just like all
other types of ammunition "with a minimum health risk,"
the facts speak differently. In the bombed regions in RS,
there is an increased number of people suffering or dead
from malignant diseases, and there were cases of the mass
death of livestock or the birth of freaks. Also, changes
on plants have been recorded.
The bombing of civilian facilities and the use of
ammunition containing impoverished uranium in NATO air
raids on Republika Srpska (RS) during operation 'Resolute
Response', from late August to September 1995, is
contrary to numerous international conventions and
declarations on war law and conduct in war, is the joint
assessment of a number of Yugoslav experts. The experts
said that "those who gave orders, the direct and indirect
participants of the bombing in RS, have violated many
norms of International Law and should answer for this
individually." The law experts set out that the
participants of these events should be aware and "should
bear in mind that there is a no statute of limitation for
war crimes." The experts told Tanjug that according to
the Statute of the Hague Tribunal, all persons committing
criminal acts in the territory of the former Yugoslavia
since 1991, should be held responsible regardless of
their nationality.
Back to the Yugoslav News...
Ritorna in Bosnia ed Erzegovina...