Date: April 2, 2003

To: Slovene government authorities
Cc: Interested members of the public, public figures, mass media, public administration officials, the world, etc.

Open letter regarding the public expression of thanks to Slovenia by the United States Congress for Slovenia’s support of the US-led war in Iraq

On April 1 the United States Congress passed a resolution thanking selected countries who are ostensibly included in “the coalition to disarm Iraq,” which is to say in the military coalition against Iraq. Slovenia is also mentioned among the countries, specifically, in the group of ten Eastern European countries which on February 5 issued a joint declaration (the Vilnius Declaration) stating that the United States had presented compelling evidence of Iraq’s development of weapons of mass destruction, of its efforts to deceive UN inspectors, and of its connections with international terrorism.

Up until now the political leadership has been deluding itself as well as its public that the Vilnius Declaration was intended to support the resolution of the crisis within the UN framework, and should not be understood as an expression of support for a US military invasion of Iraq. Further, the government has continued to insist that Slovenia is not part of the military coalition. Contrary to the government’s assertions, it has now become crystal clear that the United States interprets the Vilnius Declaration as an expression of support for its illegal and illegitimate invasion and occupation of Iraq, and that Slovenia as a Vilnius signatory lends support to American imperial advances.

The resolution was introduced by Senator Richard Lugar, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Senator Lugar, at a hearing on NATO enlargement on Tuesday, April 1, stated, “I believe that the candidate countries—Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria—are ready to assume full membership responsibilities and contribute to European stability and security…All seven have been supportive of Coalition military efforts in Iraq. I will urge the Senate to vote in favor of bringing the seven candidate nations into NATO.”

It is clear why the political leadership has not withdrawn from the Vilnius Declaration despite the sharp criticism and demands of the public, and why it has not issued an official denial of the statements by high-ranking American and British politicians which place Slovenia in the military coalition: they are afraid that doing so would jeopardize their efforts to bring Slovenia into NATO, since this would give rise to doubts about Slovenia’s suitability as a vassal of the American empire. One of the principal conditions for Slovenia’s entry into NATO, which the Slovene political elite has long tried to conceal from Slovenia’s citizens, has come unambiguously to light: support for “crisis resolution” (in other words, the assertion of the interests of the strongest) using military means.

SLOVENIA IS THUS ENTERING NATO OVER THE CORPSES OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE, THROUGH COOPERATION IN THE BREAKDOWN OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, BY SIDING WITH MIGHT OVER RIGHT, AND IN CONTRADICTION TO ARTICLE 124 OF THE SLOVENE CONSTITUTION!

And this is just the beginning: if the political leadership of Slovenia is, even before entry into NATO, incapable of asserting its views with respect to the resolution of international problems in multilateral organizations when these differ from those of its “transatlantic allies” (that is, assuming it even has an independent viewpoint which differs in any significant way from the American position), and if it is incapable of successfully resisting the signing of statements crafted by representatives of the military-industrial complex who are behind NATO enlargement, it will be even less capable of doing so after becoming a member of the alliance. NATO membership will lead to the complete subordination of Slovenia’s foreign policy to the dictates of the American political and military-industrial elite—in other words, to Slovenia’s complicity in all future imperial wars.

The Association of …. hereby calls on all members of the Slovene political leadership, and in particular Prime Minister Anton Rop and Foreign Minister Dmitrij Rupel, to apologize to the Slovene people for lying, and to unequivocally inform the political leadership of the United States that Slovenia does not support the war against Iraq. Slovenia must publicly withdraw from the Vilnius Declaration, condemn the US attacks on Iraq, and demand the exclusion of Slovenia’s name from all lists, both public and secret, of countries which support the war. If the Slovene leadership fails to do this, we citizens of Slovenia will take this to mean that the government has in fact included our country in the military coalition despite the opposition of the vast majority of Slovenes, has thereby lost its last remaining shred of credibility and legitimacy, and only retains its power through undemocratic and repressive means.

Franci Pavlišič and Nina Fabjančič, on behalf of the Association of Peace
Organizations and Activists