Statement: We Demand Immediate Halt to the Bombing on Yugoslavia
April 28, 1999
National Executive Board
Japan Council against Atomic and Hydorogen Bombs
(Japan GENSUIKYO)
The bombing of the NATO forces on Yugoslavia for already more than one month is still intensifying and escalating, with frequent attacks on trains, broadcasting stations and other civilian facilities even using depleted uranium shells, thus causing many casualties among general citizens. The number of ethnic Albanian refugees in Kosovo has enormously increased, and their suffering, including the diseases among the elderly and children, is rapidly deteriorating. We of the Japan GENSUIKYO, whose work is based on the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, strongly demand the immediate halt to the air-attack, which is aggravating the war damage, as well as a resolution of the problem by peaceful means. The NATO's military operation is neither for self-defense against any aggression made on its member state, nor based on any resolution by the UN Security Council, but an act of aggression that violates the UN Charter and international law. Originally, the Kosovo question should be resolved by peaceful means through negociations between the parties concerned, based on the respect for the right to autonomy of the ethnic Albanian people. Unilateral military actions taken by third parties cannot be justified by any law.
It is also serious that the current bombing is being conducted in linking with NATO's newly adopted "Strategic Concept" which turned itself from a previously claimed alliance for "collective defense" provided for by the UN Charter, to one for worldwide military intervention that operates anywhere in and around Europe and the Atlantic region. In fact, U.S. President Clinton claimed that the current military action was a model case to test NATO's new Strategic Concept. Moreover, the recent NATO summit conference declared anew the US nuclear capability as the "supreme security guarantee", thus maintaining even now the first-use strategy of nuclear weapons. As a Japanese peace movement based on the experience of actual suffering from nuclear bombs, we are deeply concerned that the NATO, now an ever more dangerous military alliance, is thus clinging to nuclear weapons. With this policy, the NATO is apparently turning its back on the world opinion for the abolition of nuclear weapons, which is now growing with the turn of the 21st century close at hand.
We, Japan GENSUIKYO, call on all the members of the UN Security Council to take necessary steps for the halt to the NATO bombing and the resolution of Kosovo problem by peaceful means. We strongly denounce the Japanese Government for its support for the US-led military operations, and demand that it should immediately stop its move to railroad the Japan-US Defense Cooperation-related war legislation, which, similar to the NATO's new strategy, will turn Japan to a means to serve a US-led war of aggression.
Note: This statement was sent to the UN Security Council as well as the Governments of the UN Security Council member states.
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