Chinese Top Paper Accuses NATO of Blaspheming Human Civilization

China's foremost newspaper, the People's Daily, has condemned the U.S.-led NATO's barbaric strikes of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade as a wanton blasphemy against human civilization.

The U.S.-led NATO outrageously attacked the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade on May 7, killing three journalists and injuring more than twenty people. The bloody atrocity created by the U.S.-led NATO was a rare case in the history of international relations, said the paper in a commentary to be carried in Thursday's issue.

The commentary, entitled "Wanton Blaspheme Against Human Civilization", said that it is widely acknowledged that civilization is characterized by certain norms in certain societies. Any acts that wantonly violate these social norms and cause serious consequences will be deemed as crimes and be condemned and punished by the societies.

It said that in the present world, the international community has adopted a series of norms governing international relations, one of which is the inviolableness of the embassy buildings. The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations adopted in 1961 has formally confirmed this principle.

The Convention on the Prevention of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons including Diplomatic Persons adopted in 1973 further stipulates that deliberate and violent attacks against the public buildings and private residences of internationally protected persons including diplomatic persons are a crime against the international law and must be punished, the commentary said.

In addition, it pointed out, the Hague Convention enacted in 1899 and 1907, the 1949 Geneva Convention and 1977 Geneva Convention have repeatedly confirmed in their appendixes a principle of the law on war which provides that military operations should not target and kill civilians.

In their barbaric bombing of Yugoslavia, however, the U.S.-led NATO has outrageously trampled these international norms and the consensus of mankind under the banner of "civilization", the commentary noted.

"When NATO's precision-guided missiles attacked the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia from multiple angles and when NATO's precision-guided bombs raided the refugees' trucks, the international passenger trains and civilian residences, how can the kind-hearted people rest at ease for a single day?" the commentary questioned.
The U.S. authorities, however, denied they were barbaric acts. The commentary asked: "If they were not barbaric acts, what are barbaric acts?"

It pointed out that "the U.S.-led NATO has stamped itself with the brand of 'barbarism'. Although some people are still humming and hawing and uttering self-contradictory prevarication which they themselves do not quite understand, their image laden with a guilty conscience will remain on historical videotapes forever."

Undoubtedly, Western culture has its brilliant side which has become a integral part of the outstanding cultural heritage of all mankind, the commentary said.

It is also undeniable that Western culture has its dark and villainous side, it said, citing the cultural genocide of Indians on the American continent, the colonial rule by the West in Asia and Africa, and the West's gunboat policies.

Some scholars with conscience in the West have criticized the evil heritage of the Western culture, which is an endeavor deserving of appreciation, the paper said.

Mankind should move ceaselessly forward toward a more advanced and higher-level of civilization. However, the U.S.-led NATO willfully bombed innocent civilians and attacked the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, increasingly demonstrating its lunatic cruelty and fierceness, the commentary said.

U.S.-led NATO has become an heir to the evil heritage of the Western culture and has added a shameful chapter to the history of human civilization. Now it has nailed itself to the cross of shame in the history of world civilizations by committing bloody atrocities, the commentary said.

The commentary also pointed out that though the U.S-led NATO is still making excuses to justify the raids, it is all in vain.