1. The war against Yugoslavia increases and is transformed into a serious human tragedy. The PCP, who from the beginning firmly condemned the aggression against Yugoslavia, considers that the war operations carried out by NATO in the heart of Europe against a sovereign State with disrespect of the standards of international Law and in frontal violation of UN charter, constitutes a very serious precedent of unreckonable consequences to Peace and even to the solution of the problem of Kosovo, which they allegedly proclaim to solve.

2. The PCP draws the attention of the Portuguese public opinion to the significance of the fact, that in the year of the celebration of the 25 years of the April Revolution, Portugal, whose Constitution enacted as an aim the dissolution of political and military blocks and the defence of a policy of peace and co-operation among all the peoples, participates, by decision of the PS government and the President of the Republic, side-stepping the Assembly of the Republic and without the necessary and indispensable explanation to the country, in a military aggression against a sovereign State with whom it maintained normal relations, simply to satisfy the hegemonic aims of the United States, Germany and other great European powers.

3. The PCP considers that it is essential to explain to the Portuguese people that the war operations carried out in the Balkans and now against Yugoslavia, under the pretence of humanitarian aims, are an integrant part of the US vast offensive to change NATO into a political and military block planned to operate in any part of the world at its own free-will, to squash all those who oppose their interests.

NATO, which on April 4th. celebrated 50 years, is not, nor ever was, an organisation tending to defend democracy, freedom and humanitarian values.

NATO never troubled itself with the human dramas suffered by the peoples of Timor, Kurdistan, Palestine, peoples massacred by NATO member states or their allies.

4. The foundation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, (NATO) on April 4th. 1949, had as its supreme objective to place Western Europe under US hegemony, prevent any change of a progressive nature in the underwriting countries, deeply divide Europe and fight the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries of Eastern Europe.

From its beginning NATO was a powerful political and military block of an aggressive nature and a stronghold of the cold war, promoted a marked run on armaments and is responsible for the amassing of incredible arsenals of conventional and nuclear arms.

5. It is necessary to remember that, falsely invoking the defence of freedom and democracy, NATO harboured from its foundation the fascist dictatorship of Salazar, and later the dictatorship of the Greek colonels and the Turkish dictatorship and it was linked to the neo-fascist coups in Italy, in 1964 and 1969. It was an accomplice to the harshest dictatorships in South Africa, Iran and Latin America. NATO helped the Portuguese fascist regime in its criminal war against the peoples of Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.

During the April revolution, NATO exerted pressures and interferences of several types, having resorted to shows of force with the "Locked Gate" manoeuvres carried out in the beginning of 1975 along the Portuguese coast, in order to try to thwart the progressive course proclaimed by the MFA [Armed Forces Movement] soldiers.

6. The PCP alerts the Portuguese people to the dangers to world Peace, deriving from NATO's new aggressive strategy.

In spite of the disintegration of the USSR and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact (founded in 1954 in answer to NATO's foundation), instead of dissolving, NATO tends to be strengthened.

Countering the need for a policy of disarmament and extinction of political and military blocks, the US and their allies develop a new line of rearmament, military interventionism and expansion to new countries (Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary), surrounding Russia and militarising the continent.

NATO proclaims the abandon of the limit of the initial area of its action and assumes as an organisation professing to intervene in any corner of the world, even setting aside UN and international law. Its interventions in Yugoslavia are models of its new interventionist philosophy, once again jeopardising peace in Europe and in the world, with its retinue of horrors.

An old issue of security and co-operation in Europe is now faced with new questions. The first one is to prevent the militarization of the continent and pursue and encourage the struggle for NATO's dissolution, in the framework of a revivification of the Organisation for European Safety and Co-operation (OESC), by giving it a new and vigorous push, in order to entrust it with new attributions in détente and co-operation. Instead of the spirit of a political and military block led by the USA, it is necessary to create a spirit of true co-operation, based on the multiple interests in Europe, and in the spirit of a climate of political negotiation and respect for international law, in contrast with NATO's present interventionist spirit.

7. The PCP considers that the great issues of international life, such as security and Peace cannot be left, as until now, in the hands of a few governments. A greater participation in the discussion of these issues is necessary in order to enable the citizens and public opinions to question and intervene and prevent that decisions be taken in their name against their interests. What is really at stake at the beginning of the new Century is to follow the course of co-operation or otherwise in the path of militarization and intervention. The Portuguese women and men have an indispensable say over what they see as Portugal's role in the European construction, co-operation and security.

8. The PCP appeals for an ample debate in Portugal on the question of NATO, over the seriousness of its expansion and present strategy, which is a danger to peace and security in Europe and the world. The PCP appeals for the development of an ample movement against the war in Yugoslavia and an immediate stop to the involvement of the Portuguese Armed Forces in the aggression. It is necessary that the PS government abandon its shameful alignment with the leading circles of NATO, thereby turning the Armed Forces into mere pawns of United States' global strategy. It is necessary, in accordance with the Constitution, an independent security and foreign policies, guided towards the defence of national interests and the cause of Peace.

The PCP, honouring its heritage of struggle for freedom, democracy, co-operation and solidarity among peoples, will do everything within its power to free Portugal and Europe from the brutal weight of NATO and open a new way of equality among peoples and countries, in a climate of true peace, security and friendship.