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YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC RECEIVES RAMSEY CLARK
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic received on Thursday International Action Centre President Ramsey Clark.
Clark, former U.S. Attorney General who recently instigated proceedings against NATO leaders for the aggression on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which is a crime against peace and humanity, informed Milosevic about the activities of his anti-war movement.
Milosevic praised the International Action Centre and Clark personally for their objective, honourable and brave position describing it as a highly moral act, which encourages all freedom-loving people in the world.
By using the most destructive weapons and by causing bloodshed through the aggression on Yugoslavia, the U.S. leaders have stepped out of their era since these means historically belong to the conquests of the Roman Empire at the start of the first millennium, rather than at the threshold of the third millennium, Milosevic set out. He added that a policy whose main argument is military power couldn't speak about democracy and freedom. By applying such a policy, the U.S. administration has also inflicted irreparable damage to its own people. Instead of using the impressive scientific and technological achievements to the good of the entire world, they have been used for killing and destruction and jeopardizing the future of mankind.
Milosevic and Clark expressed belief that the efforts of the united peace-loving forces, which aim towards a world of equality and peace, would overcome the policy of power and dictate, and that international law would prevail over the right of the more powerful.
The talks were attended by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic.
MILOSEVIC SENDS FELICITATIONS TO TUNISIA, ARGENTINE, INDONESIA PRESIDENTS
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has sent felicitations to the presidents of Tunisia, Argentina and Indonesia - Ben Ali, Fernando de la Rua and Abdurahman Vahid respectively, for their election to the office of president expressing best wishes for the successful carrying out of their duties and the prosperity of the friendly people of these countries.
SERBIAN PM - BRIDGES OF TOLERANCE, COEXISTENCE
Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic said Wednesday in Novi Pazar, southern Serbia, that the reconstruction of the Islamic school at the Altun-Alem Mosque was part of building bridges of coexistence and tolerance in Serbia and Yugoslavia.
By rebuilding this important religious, historical and cultural monument, Muslims and Serbs will face together all attempts, external or internal, at provoking a conflict between the two communities. These attempts will not succeed as the two communities have always lived together and will do so in the future too, Marjanovic said.
President of the Islamic Community Committee Mustafa Fetic thanked the Serbian government for its help in the restoration of the oldest mosque in the Balkans, underlining that this was helping to build bridges of cooperation, tolerance and understanding among nations.
SERBIA, MONTENEGRO PARTIES SUCCESSFULLY OPEN DIALOGUE-FOREIGN MINISTRY OFFICIAL
Yugoslav Foreign Ministry General Secretary Danilo Pantovic has expressed satisfaction over the successful start of talks between the representatives of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and the Yugoslav Left (JUL) with a delegation of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) of Montenegro in Belgrade on Tuesday.
In an interview to the Youth Radio B92, Pantovic said that it is very positive that a political dialogue between Serb and Montenegrin parliamentary parties had begun successfully. He added that the members of his party (JUL) had agreed with DPS to exchange media appearances in Serbia and Montenegro.
Pantovic set out that the current political situation in Serbia is stable and that there is no reason to hold early elections.
Commenting street protests organized by the opposition in Belgrade and some other cities in Serbia, he stated that all democratic countries have various forms of non-parliamentary activities, but that political demands made in the street are very unpopular in the democratic world.
According to Pantovic, the street protests, led by the Alliance for Changes (SZP), would be a complete failure because, as he said, SZP is headed by people who have betrayed their country and who serve NATO.
Commenting the situation in Kosovo and Metohija, Pantovic said that UN Security Council Resolution 1244 guarantees territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but that KFOR and the UN Civilian Mission often violate this resolution.
He stated that the Military-Technical Agreement calls for the return to Kosovo and Metohija of a certain number of Yugoslav Army and police members to continue their duties there, but could not say exactly when this would take place.
YUGOSLAVIA DEMANDS FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF RESOLUTION 1244
Head of the Yugoslav permanent mission at the UN Ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic has addressed several letters recently to the Security Council President Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov, pointing to the serious situation in Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province and to the failure of the UN mission to honour its commitments.
One of the letters points to the very difficult situation in Orahovac, where several thousand Serbs and other non-ethnic Albanians are living under siege by the terrorist KLA.
Ethnic Albanian terrorists have for several months been preventing the supply of humanitarian aid, food and water to Orahovac, where Serb and Romany children are being harassed and even prevented from attending school, the letter says.
Jovanovic also pointed to the unacceptable decision by UN civilian mission chief Bernard Kouchner to force the resumption of commercial flights to the Pristina airport, in violation of the Resolution 1244 and despite strong protests by Yugoslavia, which has sole authority on regulating flights over its territory, of which Kosovo-Metohija is a part.
Jovanovic also protested the recent visit to Kosovo-Metohija by Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo, which constituted a violation of Yugoslavia's sovereignty. Albania is the sole country which has recognized the non-existent "republic of Kosovo" and has been and continues supporting the KLA terrorists and providing them with arms, the letter says.
UN HAS NOT HONOURED COMMITMENTS - YUGOSLAV UN MISSION CHIEF JOVANOVIC
Yugoslavia has once again notified the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan of the difficult situation in Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province, where Serbs and other non-ethnic Albanians are living in constant danger.
Head of Yugoslavia's permanent mission at the UN Ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic has addressed a letter to Annan and Security Council President Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov, pointing out that the UN security and civilian mission in Kosovo-Metohija is not honouring its commitments set out in the Security Council Resolution 1244.
The situation is very serious in all areas of the province inhabited by Serbs, such as Kosovo Polje, Kosovska Mitrovica, Gnjilane, Vitina, Prizren and Dragas, where the security situation is growing worse daily, as demonstrated by KFOR's decision to impose a curfew, Jovanovic said in his letter.
Despite the curfew, ethnic Albanian terrorist gangs continue committing murders and spreading terror in the province, the letter says and points to the totally inappropriate behaviour of KFOR, which even claims that the security situation in the province is improving.
The UN mission has not honoured its commitment to deal firmly with ethnic Albanian terrorists and separatists as stipulated by the Resolution 1244, the letter says.
Yugoslavia expects Annan to use his influence and take the necessary measures to settle the situation and ensure safety for all inhabitants of the province, the letter says.
YUGOSLAV OFFICIAL PROTESTS TO UNMIK CHIEF
President of the Yugoslav government committee for cooperation with the UN Stanimir Vukicevic addressed Wednesday a protest note to UN civilian mission UNMIK chief Bernard Kouchner over the raid by international KFOR peacekeepers of a school in Plemetina, near Obilic, Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province.
The brutal assault by KFOR troops on the St. Sava school attended by 120 students of the secondary medical school and an equal number of students of a primary school violates all human rights laws. Depriving Serb children in this part of the province of their right to education just because someone wants to have a dozen ethnic Albanian children attend classes in that school rather than in another one is an act difficult to explain, Vukicevic said.
Vukicevic asked Kouchner to withdraw the KFOR troops from the school and to enable Serb children to continue attending their classes.
YUGOSLAV POLICE STOP FAKE MONEY SMUGGLERS - FEDERAL INFORMATION SECRETARY
A group trying to smuggle between 5-6 million fake dinars (Yugoslav national currency) from Hungary into Yugoslavia, within the special war waged against this country, was caught on Wednesday, Federal Information Secretary Goran Matic has said.
Matic told a press conference for foreign and domestic journalists that the eight-member group had been carrying excellent copies of dinars "which cannot be the work of amateurs due to the high-quality paper used."
The counterfeiters used special paper which is not on public sale and is used solely for printing money, shares, bonds and cheques, and whose quality is somewhat better than that officially used for the Yugoslav dinar because it has more protective devices incorporated into its texture, Matic said.
Recalling that similar actions had been carried out by German nazis during World War Two, Matic stated that this is an integral part of all aggressions, political and economic pressures and everything to which Yugoslavia has been exposed by the NATO countries.
Matic said that about 500,000 fake dinars had recently been sent into Yugoslavia from Republika Srpska (RS) and that there "is proof and indications that Prime Minister Milorad Dodik coordinated this and other such actions.
Matic set out that all these actions aim to break up Yugoslavia as a continuation of the aggression from outside and with aid from within the country reflected in rumours about the forthcoming "spiralling inflation" spread by Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, certain media, a part of the opposition supported by NATO - Alliance for Changes and the Group of 17.
All these actions represent a monetary attack on Yugoslavia and the imposition of such exchange relations which could destabilize the situation, Matic said adding that this is an act of interference into the internal affairs of a country.
Underscoring that in question is an aggression on the economic and monetary systems of Yugoslavia, Matic stated that the Serbian and Yugoslav security organs are successfully continuing activities for curbing such operations.
Asked out of which countries the undermining of Yugoslavia is being carried out, Matic said that the best response to this is the fact that Yugoslavia has not been included in the Pact on the Stability of Southeastern Europe.
Responding to a question how grave is the attempt to undermine Yugoslavia's monetary stability, in view of the money mass, Matic said that it is necessary to eradicate all such actions.
"The introduction of large quantities of counterfeit money could create problems, but not a large-scale monetary imbalance," Matic said recalling that another attempt to smuggle in bad quality fake money, this time from Bulgaria, had been halted a little over a month ago.
DECREE ON PROTECTION OF STATE INTERESTS IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS SPHERE
Federal Telecommunications Minister Ivan Markovic has told the BK television station of Belgrade that his ministry has prepared a degree on the protection of state interests in the sphere of telecommunications.
Markovic set out that this document would secure the protection of the state sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the rights of the citizens in this field. He added that this would protect all users of the rights guaranteed by contracts.
According to Markovic, this refers both to private and state users of radio, television and postal services, as well as telecom and other users.
Markovic stated that the degree would protect the property rights and property of Yugoslav radio and telecommunication companies and the right to carry out these activities and realize profits.
Markovic said that the degree is specially important in view of the activities of the UN Civilian Mission in Kosovo and Metohija (UNMIK) which is not in keeping with UN Security Council Resolution 1244 which guarantees the sovereignty of Yugoslavia.
The degree on the protection of state interests in the sphere of telecommunications includes the protection of rights and competencies of federal state organs in the telecommunications field on the entire Yugoslav territory, Markovic said.
He added that this document also protects the functioning of a single and united telecommunications and radio system in Yugoslavia, and protects the interests of Yugoslav (private and state-owned telecommunications and radio-diffuse) companies in the entire territory of Yugoslavia.
ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS CONTINUE ATTACKS ON SERBS IN VITINA
Ethnic Albanian terrorists on Tuesday tried to murder a Serb in the village of Grncar, municipality of Vitina, by firing at him from pistols and throwing a bomb at him, but he escaped unharmed.
The Serb, Mileta Kostic, was working his field in Grncar when the terrorist opened fire at him. Kostic hurled himself in a ditch, and the terrorists gave up their efforts and fled, Tanjug learned.
Ethnic Albanian terrorists continue to terrorize Serbs in the municipality of Vitina, stoning lines of vehicles in which Serbs are moving, in spite of international force KFOR escorts.
On Tuesday morning, ethnic Albanians of the village of Dobrcin, municipality of Vitina, hurled rocks and stones at an organized line of Serb refugees who were visiting their homes in Urosevac and Prizren, escorted by KFOR Polish troops.
Ethnic Albanians of Dobrcin yesterday afternoon also stoned a line of two buses, two trucks, and an automobile. Hidden in a dry riverbed, the attackers broke windows on one bus with large rocks, and a large stone landed in the second bus through ventilation opening in the roof.
ABOUT 1,500 ETHNIC ALBANIANS ATTACK CONVOY OF ORAHOVAC SERBS
A large group of ethnic-Albanian extremists attacked near Pec Wednesday a convoy of 150 Serbs from the Serbian enclave of Orahovac, Kosovo and Metohija, who were headed for Montenegro under KFOR escort.
According to eyewitness accounts, some of the Serbs were injured in the attack.
About 1,500 ethnic-Albanian extremists participated in the attack on the UNHCR-organized convoy, according to latest reports by Tanjug reporters.
According to the KFOR, No Serbs were seriously injured in the attack on the convoy, comprising mostly women, children and ill people, but local radio amateurs have reported that 15 persons were injured.
Foreign news agencies have said that at least four unidentified Serbs are missing, i.e. that they were abducted.
Seventeen of the 21 cars were seized in the attack. There were also four buses in the convoy.
A UN spokesman has said that 117 persons from the convoy were evacuated to Montenegro after the attack, and 35 put up at the headquarters of the Italian KFOR contingent in Pec, outside of which a large crowd of ethnic Albanians gathered afterwards.
The Yugoslav Committee for Cooperation with UNMIK told Tanjug in Pristina late Wednesday that the Committee was in contact with the KFOR and had insisted on more precise information about the injured and missing and about what had actually taken place, as everything happened in the presence of KFOR troops who were escorting the convoy.
According to initial reports, the convoy, which had started out from Orahovac and was headed for Montenegro, made a stop at the approach to Pec at 3 p.m. local time due to a breakdown on a car, for which it is not certain whether it was in the convoy or had appeared from somewhere in front of it.
The stop was used by a furious crowd of ethnic Albanians to attack the Serbs who were in cars.
About 3,000 Serbs live in Orahovac like in a ghetto, without enough food and medicaments, and continually harassed by ethnic Albanians who have kept the town blockaded for the past two months to prevent the deployment of Russian KFOR troops.
The Yugoslav Committee for Cooperation with UNMIK last week reached agreement with the UNHCR for a number of Orahovac Serbs, mostly ill people who needed hospitalization, to be sent to other towns in the country.
ETHNIC ALBANIAN TERRORISTS STONE BUS WITH RETURNEES TO KOSOVO
Ethnic Albanian terrorists in Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province stoned a bus with 29 temporarily displaced persons returning from the area of Vranje to their homes, assistant chief of the headquarters for receiving and taking care of displaced persons Stanojko Stojanovic told Tanjug in the southern Serbian town of Vranje on Wednesday.
The bus which on Tuesday brought returnees to Brezovica was showered with rocks and stones near the village of Dobrcane, near Gnjilane, by ethnic Albanian terrorists, while international force KFOR troops looked on disinterestedly, Stojanovic said.
About 100 temporarily displaced persons have returned to Kosovo and Metohija from the area of Vranje so far, while 313 others have been found accommodation elsewhere in Serbia.
Stojanovic said there were 435 more temporarily displaced persons living in a sports hall, in tents, and a students' dormitory in Vranje. Adequate accommodation must be found for these people since they cannot spend the winter in these lodgings, Stojanovic said.
STANDING NATO-RUSSIA COUNCIL SETS NEW KFOR PRIORITIES
The two new priorities of the international peace forces in Kosovo and Metohija (KFOR) are the control of borders and a continuous supervision of the so-called Protection Corps, as decided at a session of the Standing NATO-Russia Council in Brussels late Wednesday.
A joint statement said that one of the KFOR priorities was the control of borders and that the peacekeepers were also to maintain daily operational control of the members of the "Kosovo Protection Corps."
The next session of the NATO-Russia Council has been set for Nov. 17.
The Council discussed only the situation in the Balkans, specifically that in Kosovo and Metohija, which was a signal from the Russian side that it was still not ready to discuss the normalization of its relations with NATO, which were severed on March 24 of this year, at the outset of NATO aggression on Yugoslavia.
The new NATO Secretary-General George Robertson, who assumed office on Oct. 14, said that as close as possible relations with Moscow were a major task of the Alliance.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, for his part, suggested the adoption of a "charter on European security," as a "basis" for cooperation between Russian and the Western Alliance.
The Brussels media quoted Russian General Leonid Ivashov, the army foreign-policy chief, as saying that the KFOR had failed to fulfil its task, i.e. to protect all inhabitants of Serbia's southern province.
General Ivashov said "Western leaders have left Serbs at the mercy of Albanian terrorists."
"Over 80 percent of Serbs have left the region since the KFOR arrived, hundreds have been killed by Albanian terrorists, 450 persons have been abducted and over 5,000 Serbian apartments confiscated," General Ivashov specified.
RUSSIAN GENERAL IVASHOV SAYS KFOR A FAILURE
International KFOR peacekeepers in Serbia's Kosovo-Metohija province have failed to meet the expectations of the international community, Russian army international military cooperation department chief Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov said Wednesday.
In an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) military daily, Ivashov, said that NATO was creating conditions for Kosovo-Metohija's secession from Yugoslavia and preparing local legislative elections, and that a constitution for an independent Kosovo was being drawn up in the US.
"More than 80 percent of Serbs - 200,000 people - fled the region from the moment KFOR entered, hundreds have died at the hands of Albanian terrorists, 450 people have been kidnapped and more than 5,000 Serb apartments seized by militants," he said.
Yugoslavia's sovereignty and territorial integrity are being practically completely ignored, and the tension on the border between Kosovo-Metohija and Serbia is growing. At the same time, separatist and opposition aspirations are being openly encouraged in Serbia, Montenegro and Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina, Ivashov said.
The NATO leaders are openly negotiating with the "KLA" and creating a new military structure in the province in the form of the Kosovo Protection Corps, while closing their eyes to the existence of illegal armed groups and arms caches, Ivashov said.
MINISTER IVANOV INDIRECTLY CRITICISES U.S. AT UNESCO CONFERENCE
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov condemned "acts of international terrorism" in Russia and "attempts at imposing dictates by means of force" in the French capital Wednesday.
Despite the unprecedented achievements of the human genius in the domains of science, technology and the media, we are confronted by phenomena of brutality and violence, such as the acts of international terrorism in our country, Ivanov told the participants in the 30th session of the UNESCO General Conference.
He condemned the attempts at imposing dictates by means of force, the weakling the United Nations and the violations of international law without naming the United States specifically, but it was obvious that his criticism was aimed at Washington.
The Russian Foreign Minister urged the UNESCO member-countries to counter the threats of globalization, behind which the U.S. also stands, and set out that globalization "threatens to destroy the identity of peoples."
Opposing the domination of one culture over another, Minister Ivanov said that a "positive aspect of globalization is a growing mutual enrichment of cultures, and not the domination of one of them over another."
CONSEQUENCES OF NATO'S AGGRESSION ON YUGOSLAVIA ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Analysts of NATO member countries are still analyzing all the circumstances and consequences of the senseless adventure in Kosovo and Metohija and aggression on Yugoslavia. Although nothing is said about it publicly, analyses made so far suggest that the consequences are long-term and not only tragic for Kosovo-Metohija but detrimental to overall peace in the world.
Most of those consequences, according to latest British analyses, will bear NATO itself and they will affect the interests of countries making up that military-political alliance. NATO could end up the biggest loser.
For British analysts, on the wider, strategic plan, the most important issue is NATO's relations with Russia. Those relations are at their lowest, which is only a diplomatic expression for the fact that they are practically non-existent.
NATO's strategy for the next century, approved last spring in Washington at the celebration of half-a-century of the Alliance, says that relations with Moscow are one of the three strategic pillars. That future has not even started, and one of the three strategic pillars is already missing.
In the first statement for the press NATO's new secretary general, former British defense secretary and novice lord, George Robertson, stressed that his main job will be to normalize relations with Russia and to convince Moscow that NATO's plans are not against its interests.
That, in the assessment of diplomatic circles in London, will at the same time be the most difficult job and they cynically note that it is not clear how Lord Robertson will perform the job. He was, namely, one of the leading people who with a policy of aggression destroyed relations with Russia. In British analyses, the problem of relations with Moscow is viewed as Western concern about Russia's military power, which is still, despite the country's economic problems, giving rise to fear, and as the U.S. project of so-called Euro-Asia.
The consequences of the Kosovo-Metohija adventure on the two elements are already visible. Russia has changed its official military strategy, formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was based on assumptions of full cooperation with NATO and the assessment that serious armed conflicts are a thing of the past. The recently adopted new strategy affirms the independence of Russia and its military power, calling into question full cooperation with NATO, and in a way, takes a more aggressive position which in the past nine years the West has reserved for itself.
A lot more interesting is the U.S. project of Euro-Asia launched by Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser and the man who awarded a doctoral degree to the current Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. In the light of that doctorate many believe that he is also her intellectual-political mentor.
Under that project, America and the West must secure their influence in the region of the Caucasus and particularly the entire Caspian basin in order to establish control over the natural wealth of that part of the world. The ambition was shaped through the creation of some kind of "new continent" called "Euro-Asia," and the basic instrument for establishing the influence would in the first place be existing European integration, the European Union and NATO.
Control over the Caspian basin is viewed as one of the most important strategic issues in the 21st century. The technology of the U.S. project has already been seen and tested mainly in the former Yugoslavia. The crisis in Kosovo-Metohija and the aggression on Yugoslavia are only the tip of that technology, formally creating a precedent for NATO.
The first step has already been made in the realization of the project. By supporting separatism and militant Islam in Chechnya and a practical independence of that republic within the Russian Federation, the West and NATO have created basic strategic positions in the field. Thereby the West has shown that in the realization of its project it will not rule out more serious armed conflicts.
But, for the time being, all attempts have failed. Russia, in clashes with Chechen terrorists, has already occupied those strategic points on which the West was counting. Chechnya, despite practical independence, is still formally a part of the Russian Federation, but despite that and Russia's military power it is certain that without NATO's adventure in Kosovo-Metohija and in Yugoslavia, viewed from the perspective of global strategy, Russia's current military action could not have been carried out so easily.
Experts of the London International Institute for Strategic Studies are increasingly turning their attention to the consequences of the aggression on Yugoslavia which will be born directly by NATO as a military organization and by its member countries.
A regular annual military analysis of the Institute points to problems within NATO's military structure. The bombing of Yugoslavia, as the first aggressive military action of the pact, has shown that NATO militarily and technologically has grave shortcomings and problems.
NATO's fighting capability is not even close to what the media machinery in Brussels has presented to the world in the past 50 years and especially to tax-payers.
At issue are not only technical deficiencies, ranging from elementary communications to weak points of high-technology arms to internal ones in the first place military relations within NATO.
Chaos and confusion during the aggression have shown that NATO has purely military problems and that the basic military principle of obeying the orders of superior command is not functioning. NATO commanders, it has become clear in Kosovo-Metohija, listen first of all to the political leaders of their country and only after that to their superior military command. In such circumstances there can be no military efficiency.
An additional problem for NATO is the fact that now, in the wake of the aggression on Yugoslavia, those internal shortcomings are known by everyone, and on the basis of that "the other side" can build its efficiency.
The impression now is that the story about NATO's aggression on Yugoslavia, in terms of overall shifting in international relations, is only beginning.
CRIME MUST NOT GO UNPUNISHED
On Saturday, four and a half months after the NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia, the "engaged opponents of war," an ad hoc group of at least 80 experts will hold a "European hearing for an international tribunal for the NATO war against Yugoslavia," the Berlin daily Junge Welt said.
After a media campaign in which leading world media carried only the official positions adopted in Brussels, Washington and Bonn, in order to justify the war against Yugoslavia as a prevention of an alleged humanitarian catastrophe and ethnic cleansing, the "hearing" will be an attempt to show that what had taken place was not any "humanitarian intervention" but "aggression on a Balkan country," whose perpetrators must be held accountable for their crimes.
The Berlin daily underscored that the "peace movements in the NATO member-countries remained on the sidelines throughout aggression on Yugoslavia" and it was now time for the opponents of war to bring to trial "those whose bombardments of Yugoslavia retrograded the country's development by 20-25 years" and "destroyed the architecture of peace in Europe, painstakingly built over the period since World War II."
"NATO aggression on Yugoslavia and the new NATO strategy have greatly increased the threat of war both for Europe and the world as a whole," President of the Society for the Protection of Civil Rights and Defense of Human Dignity Wolfgang Richter told the Berlin daily.
Richter, one of the chief organizers of the Berlin "hearing", set out that the "new NATO strategy has not only endangered peace in Europe and the world but also marginalized the OSCE and the UN"
While the individuals responsible for aggression on and the devastating bombing and destruction of Yugoslavia write memoirs and try to justify their criminal actions in numerous TV appearances and interviews, it is daily becoming increasingly obvious that the reasons for which NATO had allegedly launched the aggression did no exist at all in the form in which they were presented, the daily said.
Another organizer of the Berlin "hearing" told the daily that data had been collected so that the politicians responsible for aggression on and the war against Yugoslavia would be tried by an international tribunal next year.
The collected data will be forwarded to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Professor dr. Erich Buchholz, who will make the opening statement Saturday on the "international criminal-law aspect of the war" against Yugoslavia, set out.
Buchholtz, one of the most distinguished international law experts in Germany, told Junge Welt that the German government bore a special responsibility for international law violations, and said that, from the beginning of Germany's participation in the aggression, government members had talked only about the political aspect of the war, trying to reduce the war to a strictly political level, disregarding its international-law and criminal-law aspects.
Not only the politicians who are guilty of aggression will find themselves on the defendants bench, but also the entire NATO leadership, Peter Gerlinghoff said. He stressed that the war conducted by NATO forces against Yugoslavia had been prepared through the defamation and demonization of the enemy, and the imposition of such a picture of the enemy on the public to secure its approval and support for the war.
Admiral Elmar Schmeling will report Saturday on "violations of international law of war in the war against Yugoslavia," and head of the International Law Section in the Russian State Duma Pavel Laptev will talk about the "international-law aspects of the NATO war against Yugoslavia."
The second day of the "hearing" will be devoted to the role of the media and the cultural damages inflicted in the NATO war. One of the participants will be head of the Belgrade City Library Simeon Babic.
In addition to leading German and other European jurists, the participants in the "hearing" will include a delegation of an U.S. tribunal organized by Ramsey Clark, and also a group of Russian experts.
CLEARING OF DANUBE SHOULD BE TREATED AS ONE WHOLE
Yugoslav Ambassador in Budapest Balsa Spadijer said Thursday that Yugoslavia was very interested in making the Danube waterway navigable, and that he still considers that the clearing of the riverbed and the building of new bridges must be treated as a single, indivisible whole.
The destroyed bridges on the Yugoslav part of the Danube, especially those in Novi Sad, are causing negative economic and social consequences, the ambassador said in an interview for Hungarian television, Duna.
Spadijer said that Belgrade was open for all solutions, but rightfully expects that all problems be solved in a package and not separately, as some Western countries would want.
"The clearing of the Danube and the building of bridges destroyed in NATO's aggression on Yugoslavia would mean the reopening not only of fluvial but also of railway traffic," Ambassador Spadijer said.