TARGET YUGOSLAVIA: NATO's WAR OF AGGRESSION / Tuesday, 18 May 1999 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit CUBANEWS FROM RADIO HAVANA CUBA E-mail: rhc@radiohc.org http://www.radiohc.org TARGET YUGOSLAVIA: NATO's WAR OF AGGRESSION Tuesday, 18 May 1999 Radio Havana Cuba presents its coverage of the ongoing U.S.- led NATO aggression against Yugoslavia. --------------------------------------------------------- RADIO HAVANA CUBA'S KOSOVO UPDATE / 18 MAY 1999 In the continuing undeclared and brutal war against what is left of the Yugoslav Federation, US-led NATO forces are systematically using weapons that have been banned by the international community. During the relentless US and NATO onslaught against Serbia and Kosovo, the use of cluster bombs, depleted uranium warheads and missiles containing graphite-electromagnetic material has been carefully documented with dates, exact times and type of payload by the Institute of Nuclear Studies at Vinca in Belgrade. Their use has also been indirectly confirmed by NATO spokespeople on more than one occasion, although they would rather remain silent on the subject -- and for good cause. The cluster bombs are the most deadly -- especially against their prime targets: civilians or "soft targets" as their manufacturer prefers to say in the degenerate war-speak of our times. They are dropped in containers that explode in mid-air, casting 240 bomblets over a wide area. Slowed down by little parachutes, these bomblets also detonate in mid-air, firing some 300 pieces of jagged-steel shrapnel in all directions. To quote BBC correspondent John Simpson, who is monitoring the war in Belgrade, "Used against human beings, cluster bombs are some of the most savage weapons of modern warfare." Many of the bombs in the payload do not detonate and are later discovered by children who frequently cause them to explode, killing and maiming all those nearby. Because of their deadly impact on civilian populations, their small size which attract children and the fact that they have a high non-detonation rate, cluster bombs have been internationally designated as banned weapons. In Laos, the most heavily-bombed nation in history, a version of cluster bomblets from the Vietnam War are still killing and maiming some 200 people a month -- mostly children. Kids are attracted by the bright colors of the bomblets. Some hideous mind thought of painting them that way to deliberately attract attention. The use of these cluster bombs has important psychological importance for the attacker. They are designed to severely injure rather than kill and thus overburden the medical services of an already overburdened country under bombardment. The injuries they cause are horrendous, as they principally damage the bodies of children. They are very useful for terrorizing the targeted population. Similarly, missiles and shells with depleted uranium- strengthened warheads that are designed to pierce armor like butter, are internationally prohibited because of their effects on the health of civilians from their highly toxic, long-lasting impact on the food chain and water table. Yugoslavia is registering increased levels of uranium pollution in the air as a result of the use of these missiles by NATO warplanes. The use of graphite-electromagnetic materials in missiles cause power outages that disrupt communications and add general confusion to the already-bombed neighborhoods in Yugoslavia, thus further adding to the psychological war that the US and NATO are clearly waging against the civilian population of the Yugoslav Federation. And it IS a war against the people of the Yugoslav Federation. Of this, there can be little doubt -- in spite of words to the contrary by the spin doctors at NATO's daily briefings in Brussels and the US Pentagon updates in Virginia. They have become very skilled at displaying great consternation for the "unavoidable" tragedies their bombs and missiles are causing. NATO and the US are waging a very cruel war against the civilian population of Yugoslavia, hoping to incite a popular uprising that will bring down the Federation's president, the new Evil Empire leader, Slobodan Milosovic. The bombings are occurring on a 24-hour basis, giving people little time to sleep. They are targeting hospitals, schools, churches and markets -- where the maximum numbers of civilian "soft targets" can be mutilated and where they strike at the core of people's identity. This is the reality of the war that is being cleanly, efficiently, surgically reported by the Western world's mass media. This is the clean, efficient, surgical humanitarian action that NATO and the US claim is necessary for the preservation of liberty, democracy and humanity. The revolutionary, Madame Roland, ascending the steps toward the guillotine in Paris in 1794 and seeing the Statue of Liberty that stood beside the scaffold, cried out the words that reverberate down to us through the centuries: "Ah, Liberty! What crimes are committed in your name!" -30- [c] 1999, Radio Habana Cuba All rights reserved Articles cannot be reproduced, reprinted or published in any system without the consent of RHC. This prohibition includes the distribution of this material via Usenet News, "bulletin board" services, e-mail lists, print media, radio and television. For the complete RADIO HAVANA CUBA NEWSCAST and other features, please write for our daily broadcast schedule. We welcome your comments and suggestions. For further information, contact us at: Postal Address: Radio Havana Cuba P.O.Box 6240 Havana, Cuba Telephone: (53) (7) 791053 Fax: (53) (7) 795007 E-mail: rhc@radiohc.org WWW: http://www.radiohc.org rhc-eng-9684 1999-May-18 21:12:05