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Knut Rognes
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Former Colleagues of U.N. Prosecutor Charge NATO Leaders With War Crimes
[Toronto, May 8] A Canadian-led 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 Nüremberg 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 Statue, 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. The
Association has consultative status before the Social and Economic Council
of the United Nations.
Professor Michael Mandel, spokesman for the group of complainants, said in
Toronto: "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."
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