MPs and Members of the European Parliament will be participating in a conference on The Consequences of NATO's War on Yugoslavia, on Saturday 26 June, at London's Conway Hall.
News release Tuesday 22 June 1999

Speakers include:
Tony Benn MP and Alice Mahon MP.
Lothar Bisky, Chairman of the German Party of Democratic Socialism which opposed NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and recently won six seats in the European Parliament.
Emmanual Bakopoulos, Member of the European Parliament, Dmitris Tsovolas MP and Professor Emmanuel Yannakoudakis, for the Greek Social Democratic Party.
Stratis Korakas, Member of the European Parliament, Greek Communist Party.
Katy Nicolatou and Christianna Krauss, for Synaspismos of Greece, the coalition of the Left and Progress.
Miloslav Ransdorf, Member of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.
Piotr Ikonowicz, Leader of the Polish Socialist Party.
Bruce Kent.
Tariq Ali, writer and broadcaster.
Felicity Arbuthnot, writer

The conference agenda includes the following sessions:

10.30am Consequences of NATO bombing for Yugoslavia
1.30pm NATO's new strategic concept - a threat to world peace
3.30pm International alliances for peace and reconstruction in Yugoslavia and the Balkans

Alice Mahon MP said: `The conference will launch an international campaign for the NATO states which are responsible for the destruction of the civilian infrastructure of Yugoslavia to pay for the reconstruction of the hospitals, schools, electricity generators, water treatment works, factories, roads and bridges which they destroyed. NATO claimed that it had no quarrel with the civilian people of Yugoslavia.

`In addition, we will be arguing that all refugees, Albanian and Serb alike, receive urgent humanitarian aid and that all ethnic cleansing cease - which requires the immediate disarming of the KLA, not a delay of 90 days while Kosovar Serbs are driven from their homes.

`Finally, we will be considering the consequences for world peace of NATO's violations of international law by unilateral military action, and its new strategic concept adopted in April which provided for future military actions by NATO outside of any framework of international law.'

NATO is presiding over the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo
News release Thursday 17 June 1999

The Committee for Peace in the Balkans said today:

'By refusing to implement the provisions of the UN Security Council resolution providing for the demilitarisation of the KLA, NATO is ensuring that tens of thousands of innocent Serb civilians are being ethnically cleansed from their homes in Kosovo. Radio Free Europe on 16 June quoted US Army General John Craddock as stating that possible KLA disarmament is up to the "discretion" of the respective peacekeeping troops and that: "Our soldiers are not instructed to routinely disarm the KLA". German army spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Dietmar Jeserich was quoted in the same report as stating: "The KLA is walking the streets with its weapons, but the authority lies with KFOR."

'NATO has more than enough firepower to prevent armed KLA forces being deployed if it wished to do so.

'Therefore, as in Croatia, the only possible conclusion is that NATO's policy of allowing the KLA to terrorise defenceless Serb civilians is deliberate.

'In the context of NATO's refusal to disarm the KLA, and with NATO permitting KLA gunmen to set up road blocks and conduct house searches in many parts of Kosovo, General Sir Mike Jackson's well publicised appeal for Serbs to stay must be dismissed as a pure public relations exercise to deflect western public opinion. Given that the military commander of the KLA is being investigated by the War Crimes Tribunal for his role in ethnically cleansing Serbs from Croatia, the fears of civilian Serbs are obviously justified. 'In order to reverse the present wave of ethnic cleansing, an emergency session of the UN Security Council should be called to instruct the international force in Kosovo, which is supposed to be under UN control, to immediately demilitarise the KLA.'

  • Saturday 26 June 1999 International Conference: Consequences of NATO's war on Yugoslavia. Venue: Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1 (10am to 5pm). Hosted by Alice Mahon MP and Tony Benn MP. There will be a range of speakers representing the international anti-war movement.
The Committee can be contacted: Telephone/Fax: UK 0171 275 0164; Email: committee@peaceinbalkans.freeserve.co.uk ; Post:
Committee for Peace in the Balkans c/o Alice Mahon MP, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA, UK.

Consequences of NATO's war on Yugoslavia  International Conference 
Saturday 26 June 1999, 10am - 5pm 
Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1 
Hosted by Tony Benn MP and Alice Mahon MP 
With speakers from the international anti-war movement. 
Organised by the Committee for Peace in the Balkans committee@peaceinbalkans.freeserve.co.uk