German government sued over NATO bombing of Yugoslavia

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>To: portside at yahoogroups.com
>From: portsideMod at netscape.net
>Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 20:10:52 -0400
>Subject: German government sued over NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
>
>Berlin Faces Court Action Over NATO Bombing of
>Yugoslavia
>
>June 20, 2001
>Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
>
>Karsruhe -- The tremors from 1999 NATO bombing of
>Yugoslavia continue to reverberate across the German
>political landscape with Germany's reformed communist
>party launching a constitutional court action against
>the U.S. backed security alliance's raids.
>
>The Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) believes that
>the German government's agreement for the NATO's bombing
>raids was unconstitutional because the nation's
>parliament, the Bundestag, was not consulted.
>
>In the light of Germany's wartime past, military action
>involving German troops remains a deeply sensitive issue
>in the nation with the PDS having fiercely opposed the
>NATO raids which followed Belgrade's aggressive moves in
>the Yugoslavian province of Kosovo.
>
>As argument in the constitutional court commenced on
>Tuesday, a PDS leader, Gregor Gysi claimed that NATO's
>role had been extended by the bombing raids and as a
>result the central part of the agreement with NATO had
>been changed.
>
>Gysi insisted that bypassing the parliament not only
>raised democratic issues but also questions about the
>legal protection of the nation's soldiers.
>
>At the heart of the case is the German Federal
>Government's endorsement in April 1999 of a so-called a
>new strategic concept for NATO intervention.
>
>This was also agreed to by other members of the trans-
>atlantic alliance and stressed that the transatlantic
>security group faced new complex risks.
>
>Defending the German Government's action before the
>constitutional court on Tuesday, the nation's Foreign
>Minister, Joschka Fischer said that parliamentary
>agreement for the concept was not necessary as it was
>not a binding contract but a political document.
>
>But Fischer said that Berlin believed the case before
>the constitutional court had "enormous political
>significance."
>
>"It concerns the negotiating abilities of the government
>in following its international responsibilities," he
>said.
>
>As a measure of the tensions unleashed in Germany by the
>NATO action, Fischer had paint thrown over him during a
>rowdy meeting of his Green Party at the height of the
>bombing raids.
>
>Also defending the government's support for the bombing
>before the constitutional court on Tuesday was the
>nation's Minister for Defense Rudolf Scharping who said
>that the purpose of the alliance had changed as well as
>the political circumstances.
>
>Representing the Parliament before the court, the
>Christian Democrat parliamentarian Rupert Scholz said
>that not every new concept was a new contract.
>
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