<nettime> U.S. petition against war in Kosovo

[Sid Shniad <shniad@sfu.ca> (by way of David Hudson <dwh@berlin.snafu.de>)]

     [orig to <ccpa@policyalternatives.ca>.]

Dear Friends,

Please sign the Resolution for Peace in Kosovo as
developed by the San Francisco Progressive Challenge
(see below) by sending to Wade Hudson <whudson@igc.org>
the following message:

YES KOSOVO
[YOUR NAME]
[YOUR CITY, STATE, ZIP CODE]

Also, people can sign the resolution at:
http://www.igc.org/esp/Resolution.htm

+++++++++++++

Resolution for Peace in Kosovo

Whereas

the NATO military attack on Yugoslavia and the
withdrawal of United Nation observers escalated the
violations of the human rights of the Kosovo Albanian
people by Yugoslavia, and

bombing Yugoslavia will not protect the Kosovo Albanian
people, and

the occupation of Kosovo by NATO ground troops would
magnify tensions, expose those troops to ongoing attacks
indefinitely, and likely never be viable politically,
and

the NATO attack on Yugoslavia weakens democratic
components, and strengthens undemocratic components,
within Yugoslavia and neighboring countries, and

the NATO attack on Yugoslavia encourages armed forces
within Kosovo to refuse to negotiate a peaceful solution
to the conflict, and

the NATO attack on Yugoslavia threatens to destabilize
neighboring countries by contributing to the migration
of tens of thousands of refugees into those countries,
and

since NATO can legally attack a sovereign nation only in
self-defense or with United Nations authorization, the
NATO attack on Yugoslavia violates international law,
weakens the United Nations, and sets a dangerous
precedent, and

the NATO attack on Yugoslavia will kill and injure
innocent civilians, and

the United States Congress has not declared war on
Yugoslavia or invoked the War Powers Act, and

the NATO attack on Yugoslavia is a dangerous precedent
that could encourage separatist forces in other
countries to engage in violence in hope of eliciting
military support from other countries, and

the NATO attack on Yugoslavia will damage our
relationship with Russia and increase the danger of a
major nuclear war, and

the United States should support democratic movements
without relying so heavily on military force, and

the international community has not developed a
consensus concerning the conditions that justify the
secession of one part of a country from an established
nation, and

the United States has failed to explain why military
force was necessary for humanitarian reasons in this
instance but was not necessary in other instances of
equally or more serious violations of human rights, and

this lack of consistency in the application of military
force undermines trust in the United States, and

the NATO attack on Yugoslavia promotes suspicions that
the United States wants to dominate the world for its
own interests rather than working cooperatively with
other nations,

the NATO attack on Yugoslavia contributes to the
militarization of the economy, which consumes valuable
financial resources that could be used more
productively,

be it therefore resolved that
we the undersigned urge the United States and NATO to
stop its military attack on Yugoslavia, and
invite all interested parties (not just the combatants)
to the negotiating table to reach a settlement agreeable
to all parties, perhaps including a non-NATO
peacekeeping force.

--
Wade Hudson, Coordinator
Economic Security Project
San Francisco Progressive Challenge
www.igc.org/esp

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