[PEN-L:6249] UN on human rights

["Ricardo Duchesne" <RDUCHESN@xxxxxxxx>]

> Date:          Fri, 30 Apr 1999 13:42:13 -0400 (EDT)
> Reply-to:      hegel-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> From:          "Vaik Yousefi" <vaiky@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To:            Multiple recipients of list <hegel-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


> GENEVA (Associated Press, April 30)
>
> The U.N.'s human rights chief today denounced Serb forces for committing
> atrocities in Kosovo and also launched some of the harshest U.N. criticism
> to date against NATO for bombing Yugoslavia.
>
> ``What we are in effect seeing is that war-making has become the tool of
> peacemaking,'' Mary Robinson said in a speech to the closing session of the
> U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
>
> NATO needed to consider whether its use of force was excessive, Robinson
> said, citing Yugoslav figures showing that 500 Yugoslav civilians have been
> killed and more than 4,000 injured by the airstrikes.
>
> ``In the NATO bombing ... large numbers of civilians have been incontestably
> killed, civilian installations targeted on the basis that they are or could
> be of military application,'' she said.
>
> ``And NATO remains the sole judge of what is or is not acceptable to bomb,''
> she said.
>
> Robinson appealed to the U.N. Security Council - which includes Yugoslavia's
> ally, Russia - to make its own determination as to whether a prolonged
> bombing campaign would be legal under the U.N. charter.
>
> She also stressed that the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague
> was authorized to investigate actions by all participants in the conflict -
> including NATO - if serious violations of international humanitarian law
> occur.
>
> Her speech marked one of the most outspoken attacks by a top U.N. official
> against NATO and reflects growing unease at the plight of the Yugoslav
> population after more than a month of bombardments.
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