UK professor: NATO attack on Serbia was an international crime of highest order
NATO's 1999 attack on Serbia over Kosovo was an international crime of highest order, says Costas Douzinas, Costas Douzinas, Professor of Law and Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities of the University of London.
(Costas Douzinas, Politika) Monday, January 25, 2010
Excerpts from an interview to the Belgrade daily "Politika:
"NATO forces did not give a single valid, convincing, legal argument for the war against Serbia, which is an even greater violation of law than in the case of Iraq. The Nuremberg tribunal has proclaimed an aggressive war as "the highest international crime, which contains in itself the accumulated evil". The attack on Serbia was, thus, an international crime of highest order. Several international jurists have used the war against Serbia to justify the war against Iraq. However, this view has not been accepted. In the middle of this month, the Dutch committee enquiry has concluded that the war in Iraq was illegal. The same view has appeared during the Chilcot commission enquiry in Iraq, which is currently working in London. Serbia should call for a similar investigation in order to enquire on the legality and the legitimacy of the war in Kosovo.
(...) By attacking Serbia, the NATO bombers flew extremely high in order to avoid the anti-aircraft fire and end their campaign without losses. The result was an enormous civilian "collateral damage". In that regard, Kosovo was not a war, it was some kind of a hunt: one side was completely protected, while the other did not have a chance to efficiently defend itself. A war in which the life of one soldier is worth more than the lives of many civilians cannot be either moral nor human".
