[BRC-NEWS]

Veterans for Peace statement on Kosovo

Adopted by the Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, D.C.,April 10, 1999 Veterans for Peace (VFP) is appalled by the violence, bombing, killing,and ethnic cleansing now going on in the Former Republic of Yugoslavia and in the province of Kosovo. We condemn both the NATO bombing campaign and the murderous campaign of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his military in Kosovo. We are deeply concerned over the resultant refugee crisis and dislocation of hundreds of thousands of Kosovars, the widespread suffering engendered thereby, and the potential for destabilization in Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, and beyond.

The current predictable rift in Russian-American relations and its negative impact on cooperative efforts in disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, including Russian Duma ratification of the START II agreement, is also a major concern of VFP. There could very well be a long-term chill in US-Russia relations, should this war continue.

VFP is also deeply concerned for the long-term future of European security and the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Kosovo bombing campaign initiates a new chapter in NATO`s five decades of existence for defending European security; this is NATO`s first offensive action and could portend a future, undesirable, and dangerous expansion of NATO`s role beyond European defense. It also places NATO`s newest members: Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic, and Greece and Turkey in very difficult and delicate positions. The Kosovo crisis also sets a dangerous precedent for bypassing the international authority of the United Nations Security Council. VFP does not support such backdoor, expedient, and unilateral approaches to crisis resolution.

Veterans for Peace therefore endorses the following eight points and urges their adoption by all parties to the conflict.

1. The ethnic cleansing by Yugoslav military, paramilitary, and vigilante forces in Kosovo must stop immediately. (2) The bombing by NATO forces of Yugoslavia and Kosovo must also stop immediately.

2. A ceasefire must be negotiated between the Yugoslav military and Kosovo Liberation Army, preferably under the good offices of the United Nations.

3. An immediate return of civilian observer peace monitors throughout Kosovo, likely under auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, must take place to help guarantee peaceful refugee resettlement. A non-NATO military peacekeeping force, if deemed necessary, could also be a support for this process.

4. A renewed negotiating process for political settlement in Kosovo must also be initiated immediately. This should be under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary General.

5. Assertive efforts to hold all actors accountable for international war crimes must also be a central part of the peacemaking process.

6. Concerted and coordinated efforts for refugee care and resettlement must be continued and expanded. VFP applauds the efforts to date of many non-governmental organizations for their valiant work to help helpless refugees. And,

7. Central to the peacemaking process must also be support for radio and television broadcasting to Serbia, Kosovo, and surrounding nations including Russia, of objective, international reporting of events in the Serbian and Kosovo region.

Veterans for Peace also emphasizes the longer term need for US and international education, training, and investment in preventive diplomacy. The recent, post-Cold War history of crisis intervention, most often at the end of a gun barrel or a bomb sight, throughout crisis-laden regions of Asia, Africa, the Balkans, the Americas, and the Middle East must be supplanted with early, international engagement on a diplomatic and economic level.

We know in Northern Ireland, for example, that dedicated and long-term conflict mediation can be effective and preclude eleventh-hour military intervention or continued civil war and violence. War and violence are never final solutions. Preventive engagement, not military crisis intervention, must become the national and international norm of the future if we are to be successful in saving military and civilian lives, property, and suffering, and in the longer term to truly and effectively resolve conflict.

VETERANS FOR PEACE
733 15TH STREET NW, SUITE 928
WASHINGTON DC, 20005
(202) 347-6780
Fax: (202)347-6781
e-mail: vfp@igc.org
http://www.veteransforpeace.org

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