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Appeal on the War of NATO against the people of Yugoslavia

Statement of international meeting of labor, Athens, 23 May 1999

We the participants in the International Meeting of 21-23 of May 1999 in Athens on: "Crisis of Capitalism, 'Globalisation' and the response of the Labour movement", agreed on the following appeal:

• We condemn the ongoing criminal bombing of NATO and US against the people of the F.R. of Yugoslavia.
• We stress the fact that, by this unjust and aggressive intervention, the principles of the UN - Charter and of the International Law are being brutally violated.
• We stress that this intervention does not in any way take place in defense of any human right whatsoever. Many innocent civilians, both Serbs and Ethnic Albanians have already been killed.
• We consider the war waged by NATO against a country and its people that has chosen to defend at any cost its national independence, its sovereign rights and territorial integrity, is a most crude way of expressing the new orientations of this aggressive organization. By its new doctrine, ratified officially during the summit meeting of April 1999 in Washington, NATO appears with the possibility of intervening arbitrarily, and whenever it considers its interests at stake.
• We express our deep concern on the extensive ecological impact of NATO weapons in the Yugoslav territory and the whole Balkan area.
• We demand the immediate stop of the NATO criminal bombing and the prevention by any means of any escalation of the war through the use of ground forces.
• We call for a solution in the UN framework should guarantee the respect of the FRY territorial integrity and the inviolability of its borders, as well as the autonomy for the Kosovo area and full rights for all minorities living there, providing the return of all refugees to their homes as well as the rehabilitation of the huge material losses .
• We call upon all peoples to intensify their mobilisation against the war on Yugoslavia and for peace throughout Balkans, for the increase of the solidarity and peaceful coexistence of all peoples.

The above Appeal has been signed by the representatives of the following Parties"