1. The PCP considers NATO's order of military attacks against Yugoslavia, to which the Portuguese government has already given its explicit agreement, to be of the utmost seriousness for peace in the Balkans and in Europe.
2. The PCP firmly condemns such attacks, which are once more "justified" with "humanitarian" excuses, as constituting operations of aggression and war against a sovereign country, in European territory, 54 years after World War II. They are all the more serious in that they are carried out in a clear violation of international Law and in defiance of the UN and its Security Council.
3. The PCP considers that this is a particularly serious situation. The threat and the use of force can lead to a dangerous escalation and internationalisation of the conflict with serious and unexpected consequences for the Balkan countries and Europe, and cannot be justified either by the policies and measures of the Yugoslav government, nor by the dynamics of confrontation provoked by separatism. Only through a political solution which, safeguarding the legitimate rights of the populations of Kosovo, namely the Albanian population, respects Yugoslavia's sovereignty and rejects the destabilizing interference in the region, will it be possible to find a lasting solution for the complex problems forged by history in the
Balkans.
4. The PCP underlines once more that under the pretext of the situation in Kosovo, what is basically at stake are the hegemonic pretensions of the U.S.A. in Europe and its intention, with other NATO's allies, to strengthen and reinforce this organisation, to modify the " strategic security concept" in a more global and aggressive direction, to turn NATO into the armed wing of a " new order " serving the imperial interests of the U.S.A.
5. The PCP considers it particularly disturbing that, from the governments of the European Union, no voices have appeared distancing themselves clearly from the U.S. impositions and standing against the aggression to Yugoslavia. The Berlin Council, which is now meeting, has a heavy responsibility in the further development of the situation, either by contributing to a political solution of the crisis or by lining up with the military adventure lead by the U.S.A.
6. The PCP underlines once more its frontal opposition to the participation of Portugal and of the Portuguese Armed Forces in operations of hostility and aggression against sovereign countries. It vehemently condemns the position of the government that associates our Country with this aggression and it demands that the President of the Republic clarify his position on the issue.
Participation in NATO, as in any other international organisation, cannot serve to exchange independent security and foreign policies, in accordance with the interests of the people, the country and the cause of peace, with submission and the toeing of the line of the major imperialist powers. In addition, in this case not even the letter of NATO's Charter has been respected and Yugoslavia is a sovereign country with whom Portugal has traditional relations of friendship and diplomatic relations.
7. The PCP alerts to the extraordinary ongoing barrage of misinformation and manipulation of the public opinion, aiming at giving cover to the aggression against Yugoslavia and, by one way or other, to the militarist and expansionist intentions of the U.S.A., as well as of Germany and some other great powers of NATO. It underlines the blatant contrast of this situation with the cover and impunity of the infringement of UN resolutions on East-Timor, Angola, Palestine and others. It appeals to the Portuguese women and men, so that, by the means considered most appropriate in each case, they express their condemnation of the aggression and demand from the Portuguese government a position in accordance with the national interests.