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MAY
13, 1999 11:52 AM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Human
Rights Watch
Kenneth
Roth (NY) 1-212-216-1201
Dinah PoKempner (NY): 1-212-216-1210
Lotte Leicht (Brussels): 322-732-2009
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| Growing
Concern About NATO Violating the Laws of War |
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NEW
YORK - May 13 - -- Human Rights Watch today sent a letter to Secretary General
Javier Solana expressing concern at the mounting civilian casualties in NATO's
air war against Yugoslavia.
In particular, Human Rights Watch raised serious concerns about whether NATO is
targeting civilian objects or objects that, if attacked, would cause disproportionate
harm to civilians. It also questioned whether, even in attacking legitimate military
targets, NATO is taking all feasible precautions to avoid harm to civilians.
"NATO says it is fighting a war on behalf of human rights," said Kenneth Roth,
executive director of Human Rights Watch. "If so, then it's absolutely essential
for NATO to scrupulously respect human rights in its conduct of this war. NATO
must do everything feasible to avoid hitting civilians."
Among recent incidents giving rise to these concerns are: the destruction of factories
and other property belonging to political supporters of Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic; attacks on Yugoslavia's electrical transformers; the destruction of
several of Yugoslavia's television and radio stations; several bombings of civilian
objects such as the May 7 bombing of the civilian hospital in Nis and the Chinese
Embassy in Belgrade, and the bombing of civilian vehicles because they were mistaken
for military vehicles or were crossing bridges or near other installations at
the time they were attacked.
Human Rights Watch called on NATO to investigate each incident in which a civilian
target was attacked or civilian loss of life occurred to determine the exact circumstances
of the attack and urged that the findings of such investigations be made public
and corrective steps taken immediately to ensure NATO's strict compliance with
humanitarian law.
The letter and a select chronology of NATO attacks are on our Kosovo: Focus on
Human Rights web pages.
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