National Post
 Monday, May 31, 1999

 James Bissett
 former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia
 (1990-1992).

 For 69 days the democratic countries of the West have been systematically
 smashing to pieces a modern European state. The air strikes have degenerated
 into a war of annihilation against the Serbian people. Yugoslavia
 is a small country with a population of less than 10 million people
 of whom approximately 65% are of Serbian origin. Even before the
 bombing, its economy had collapsed as a result of economic
 sanctions. Its leader was unpopular, and in the last municipal
 elections in Belgrade his party received less than 20% of the vote.
 It was a country that presented no threat either to its neighbours
 or to European security.

 Despite this, our NATO leaders -- without consulting their
 parliaments or their people -- have chosen to bomb Yugoslavia
 into submission. There should be no misunderstanding about this.
 NATO is using the most dreadful weapons of modern warfare:
 cluster bombs and cruise missiles. Many of the weapons being
 used contain depleted uranium, which will spread deadly
 radioactive dust throughout the region, contaminating for
 generations water, soil and crops. It may come as a surprise to
 many Canadians to realize Canada is the major supplier of
 depleted uranium to the U.S. military complex. 

 NATO's unprovoked attack is a blatant violation of every precept
 of international law. It is a violation of the Final Act of the
 Conference On Security and Co-operation in Europe, signed in
 Helsinki in August, 1975, which reaffirmed respect for sovereign
 equality, the inviolability of frontiers, the peaceful settlement of
 disputes, non-intervention in internal affairs, and the avoidance of
 the threat or use of force. It is a violation of NATO's own treaty by
 which it undertakes "to settle any international dispute . . . by
 peaceful means . . . and to refrain from the threat or use of force
 in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United
 Nations." 

 Some apologists for NATO, including our own foreign minister,
 feebly try to justify the NATO bombing by arguing ethnic cleansing
 in Kosovo had to be stopped. Prior to March 24, the Yugoslav
 military, using classic counter-insurgency tactics, did burn and
 destroy villages in Kosovo suspected of harbouring KLA rebels,
 and many of the unfortunate inhabitants of these villages were
 killed or displaced --but there was no mass expulsion from
 Kosovo. As has been verified by OSCE monitors who were on the
 ground in Kosovo, the mass expulsion of Albanians took place
 after the bombing. 

 The Yugoslav army is forcing the Albanians out of Kosovo as a
 strategy of war. In anticipation of a NATO ground invasion, the
 Yugoslavs do not wish to fight against the world's most powerful
 military force while at the same time surrounded by a hostile
 population. In war, the friend of your enemy is your enemy. It is
 not a humane strategy, but then neither is the use of cluster
 bombs. 

 If NATO felt compelled to intervene militarily in what was a
 relatively low-grade armed rebellion in Yugoslavia, why then did it
 not follow the rules and go before the United Nations Security
 Council seeking authority to intervene? We are told NATO did not
 do so because it was assumed Russia or China might have vetoed
 such an action. But this is precisely why the founders of the UN
 stipulated that before there could be intervention in a sovereign
 state there must be agreement by all five of the great powers. It
 was considered that intervention without unanimity might involve
 armed conflict between or among the five themselves. 

 To their everlasting shame, our NATO leaders have chosen war
 over peace in Kosovo. They have abandoned diplomacy in favour
 of bloodshed. They have taken us back to the Cold War and the
 arms race. They have smashed the framework of world security.
 They have guaranteed that we will start the new century as we
 did this one, with killing and carnage. They have left us with a
 terrible legacy. With six months to go before the millennium, they
 have taken us back to barbarism.