Anklage for krigsforbrydelser

REQUEST THAT THE PROSECUTOR INVESTIGATE NAMED INDIVIDUALS FOR VIOLATIONS OF INTERNATIONAL HUMANITariaN LAW AND PREPARE INDICTMENTS AGAINST THEM PURSUANT TO ARTICLES 18.1 AND 18.4 OF THE TRIBUNAL STATUTE.

WHEREAS the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991 was established by the UN Security Council with "the power to prosecute persons responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991 in accordance with the provisions of" its Statute (Article 1);

AND WHEREAS by Article 2 of the said Statute, the Tribunal has the power "to prosecute persons committing or ordering to be committed grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention" including the following:

AND WHEREAS by Article 3 of the said Statute, "the International Tribunal shall have the power to prosecute persons violating the laws or customs of war. Such violations shall include, but not be limited to:

AND WHEREAS by Article 6 of the said Statute "the International Tribunal shall have jurisdiction over natural persons pursuant to the provisions of the present Statute;"

AND WHEREAS Article 7 of the said Statute provides for individual criminal responsibility thus:

AND WHEREAS Article 8 of the said Statute provides that the territorial and temporal jurisdiction of the Tribunal "shall extend to the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, including its land surface, airspace and territorial waters. The temporal jurisdiction of the International Tribunal shall extend to a period beginning on 1 January 1991;"

AND WHEREAS by Article 9 of the said Statute " the International Tribunal and national courts shall have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute persons for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1 January 1991" but the International Tribunal "shall have primacy over national courts;"

AND WHEREAS Article 18 of the said Statute provides inter alia that:

AND WHEREAS the President of the Tribunal, Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, in a press release of April 8, 1999, urged that:

AND WHEREAS on April 30 in Geneva the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson in a speech to the Commission cited a letter from the Prosecutor in which the Prosecutor stated:

AND WHEREAS High Commissioner Robinson also stated in her speech:

AND WHEREAS NATO has carried out between 5,000 and 10,000 bombing missions over the territories of the former Yugoslavia since March 24, 1999;

AND WHEREAS NATO leaders have openly admitted targeting civilian infrastructure as well as military targets;

AND WHEREAS the list of targets has included fuel depots, oil refineries, government offices, power stations and communications links, such as roads, tunnels, bridges and railway links, including those not inside the region of, or in the vicinity of, Kosovo;

AND WHEREAS in addition to these deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure and objects, there have been a great number of attacks which have caused direct physical harm and death to civilians;

AND WHEREAS it appears that these bombing missions have directly caused the death of approximately 1,000 civilian men, women and children and serious injury to 4,500 more;

AND WHEREAS instances of this nature include the 12 April bombing of a train travelling from Belgrade to Ristovac as it crossed the bridge spanning the Yuzhna Morava river at the Grdelica gorge, killing at least 10 passengers and wounding 16;
the 15 April bombing of a refugee convoy in four separate locations along a 12 mile stretch of the road that runs from Prizren to Djakovica, killing approximately 74 people;
the 23 April bombing of Serbian Television editorial offices, killing approximately 15 people;
the 27 April bombing of a residential district in Surdulica, killing 16 people including 12 children;
and the May 1 bombing of a bus on the Luzan bridge in Kosovo killing at least 34 people including 15 children;

AND WHEREAS , though the above-named NATO leaders have claimed that these incidents were accidents, they have also admitted that they were an inevitable result of their bombing strategy, a strategy which they appear to have continued unmodified and even to have intensified throughout these incidents;

AND WHEREAS 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;

AND WHEREAS the NATO bombing has done an estimated $100 billion dollars in property damage and completely destroyed or seriously damaged dozens of bridges, railways and railway stations, major roads, airports, including civilian airports, hospitals and health care centres, television transmitters, medieval monasteries and religious shrines, cultural-historical monuments and museums, hundreds of schools, faculties and facilities for students and children, thousands of dwellings and civilian industrial and agricultural facilities;

AND WHEREAS refineries and warehouses storing liquid raw materials and chemicals have been hit causing environmental contamination and exposing the civilian population to the emission of poisonous gases;

AND WHEREAS the NATO bombings have also made use of weapons banned by international convention, including cruise missiles utilizing depleted uranium highly toxic to human beings;

AND WHEREAS credible detailed reports of the civilian death and destruction inflicted by the NATO bombing are attached as an Annex to this Notice;

AND WHEREAS THEREFORE there is abundant evidence that many instances of serious violations of international humanitarian law within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal have been committed by NATO forces in the attack on Yugoslavia commencing March 24 and continuing to this day;

AND WHEREAS this evidence is readily available to the Prosecutor in eyewitness, videotaped, televised and publicly broadcast reports, in press reports and on the Internet, and in the evidence presented by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in its current complaint against the NATO countries before the International Court of Justice;

AND WHEREAS all of the above-named persons, Heads of State and Government of the 19 NATO countries, their Foreign Ministers and Ministers of Defence, and officials and military leaders of NATO, have admitted publicly to having agreed upon and ordered these actions, being fully aware of their nature and effects;

AND WHEREAS the above-named persons have acted in open violation of the United Nations Charter, which provides in so far as is relevant:

AND WHEREAS the International Court of Justice has stated in ruling against United States intervention in Nicaragua:

AND WHEREAS the above-named persons, Heads of State and Government of the 19 NATO countries, their Foreign Ministers and Ministers of Defence, and officials and military leaders of NATO have acted in open violation of the NATO Treaty which provides in so far as is relevant:

AND WHEREAS the above-named persons have acted in open violation of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977, which provides as follows:

AND WHEREAS the above-named persons have acted in open violation of the Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nüremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal, as adopted by the General Assembly of the united Nations (1950), which provide in so far as is relevant: