German
Greens 'Disappointed' with German Brothers
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G/GPUSA Media Group: The Coordinating Committee of The Greens/Green Party USA issued this statement today.
GPUSA REJECTS GERMAN GREENS’ COMPROMISE; The Greens/Green Party USA would like to express our support and gratitude to the German Green Party anti-war resisters and especially the 43% of the delegates who voted for an “immediate and final stop” to the NATO bombing at their party congress yesterday. However, we are extremely disappointed that the majority of the party congress adopted the compromise resolution, which called for a “unilateral pause” in the bombing to open the door to possible negotiations. The compromise is better than supporting NATO’s current policy of bombing until Yugoslavia accepts a NATO-led military occupation. But it is not enough. The bombing must stop without conditions. We can only hope that the Green Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, will pursue the temporary bombing halt with every means at his disposal. The Green/Green Party USA believes that US-led NATO bombing campaign has been a disaster in every respect: for the Kosovar Albanians it was presumedly supposed to protect, for democratic anti-nationalists in both Kosovo/a and Serbia, for progress toward demilitarization and peace in the post Cold War world, for the environment of the Balkans and beyond, and for the rule of international law which the US-led NATO bombing campaign has flagrantly violated. It is our strong view that the US and NATO are pursuing this disastrous policy of bombing primarily to establish NATO as the world’s military enforcer of the geopolitical and corporate interests of the US and its junior NATO partners, with little regard for the Albanian, Serb, and other victims of ethnic cleansing by Balkan nationalists and of so-called “collateral damage” from NATO bombing. We are outraged that Greens in the German, French, and Italian NATO governments have become party to this war policy and to NATO’s recent official expansion of its mission to include “out of area” military intervention. As Greens in the United States, we will now focus our attention on the US Congress to stop this immoral war. On April 28, the U.S. House of Representatives defeated a resolution that would have authorized the use of military force in Yugoslavia, satisfied the conditions War Powers Resolution, and enabled the Clinton Administration to wage the war without further Congressional approval. Consequently, the President must now end the use of U.S. military force in Yugoslavia by May 26, unless Congress explicitly authorizes the use of force. We intend to do all we can to insure Congress does not allow a continuation of this war. The alternative to US/NATO acting as the “rogue superpower” and destroying Yugoslavia with its bombing campaign is to pursue negotiations backed by international consensus through the United Nations. The Greens/Green Party USA calls for a United Nations mandate to demand a cease-fire by all sides, to restart negotiations, and to quickly authorize an international peace-keeping force independent of NATO. The US and NATO countries should provide aid and admittance of refugees sufficient to meet the immediate need. A U.N. mandate should support the right of Kosovo/a refugees to return home as soon as possible in security and with sufficient aid for reconstruction. The US and NATO countries should donate reparations for the infrastructural and environmental damage they have caused by the bombing. They should provide the resources needed for the post-war reconstruction of prosperity in the Balkans. Spending US resources on economic and environmental reconstruction will do far more to create the conditions for peace and multicultural democracy in the Balkans than wasting US resources on bombs, violence, and war that destroys those conditions.
Coordinating Committee of the Greens/Green Party USA:
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