| marko peljhan on Tue, 6 Apr 1999 03:25:36 +0200 (CEST) |
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
| <nettime> APPEAL FROM MEDIENHILFE - ACTION PLAN No.2 |
****APPEAL****** April 4, 1999 Urgent appeal to the Governments Defend democracy! The war in Kosov@ led to the expulsion of tens, even hundreds of thousands human beings and to the destruction of the whole region. Specially kosov@-albanian intellectuals, activists of human rights organisations and independent media are exposed to the rage of Serbian units without any protection. They hardly find any alternative to escape if they want to survive this war. Some successfully made their way to Albania, Macedonia or Montenegro in the meantime, but many are still missing or still stay in Pristina. But also the opposition in Serbia is put under massive pressure by the warfare. The regime of Slobodan Milosevic uses the benefit of war-hours, to start a real hunt against the opposition: independent media are being closed down, activists of human rights and peace organisations are forcefully drafted for the army. The aim is obvious: all civil, dissident-thinking shall be silenced under the carpet of Nato-bombs. Examples of this state repression we see in the persecution of Serbian police against Veran Matic, editor in chief of Belgrade Radio B92, and the replacement of Sascha Mirkovic, director of B92, by a fellow of Milosevic. The names of all people working at B92 were registered by police. Many of them do not dare anymore to spend the night at home. Also the archive of the Humanitarian Law Fund was confiscated. The director, Ms. Natascha Kandic, was questioned by the police. The Fund has courageously struggled in the last years against human rights violations in Kosov@ and prepared the needed documents for the war crimes tribunal in Den Haag. Even in Montenegro, where the democratic forces today still constitute the legally elected government, we have to fear for the future of the democratic forces. Should Milosevic succeed to overthrow the government of Mr. Milo Djukanovic, also in Montenegro the hunting for representatives of the democratic forces will start. We are strongly convinced, that the repressed democratic, dissident civic forces in Kosov@ and in Serbia are the only guarantee for freedom, security and stability in the Balkans. Only the consistent support of these movements and the complete isolation of Milosevic and other responsible war mongers can on the longer run calm down the situation and lead to a democratic solution of the conflicts. Milosevic is part of the problem, not part of the solution. This finally has to be accepted also by the representatives of international politics and diplomacy. The solution is: Consistent use of all civil means to strengthen the civil forces struggling for human rights and democracy all over the area. We request � from the government of Switzerland and other countries, to open up immediately the doors of their embassies and consulates for representatives and activists of independent media and dissident civic organisations as women- and peace-groups, human rights organisations and others. They have to be provided with diplomatic protection and if needed with a secure exit out of their country. � the same protection for all men in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia who try to escape the warfare of this regime and the forced drafts by objection and resistance. � from the Swiss government specially to offer these people from the Kosov@, from Serbia and eventually from Montenegro a permanent Round Table in Switzerland, to allow the continuos work of civil resistance movements against the Milosevic regime till the day they can go back and go on with their work in security in their own country. Roland Brunner, Medienhilfe Ex-Jugoslawien Medienhilfe Ex-Jugoslawien, PO Box, CH 8031 Zurich, Switzerland. Tel +41/ (0)1 / 272 46 37 Mobile +41/ (0)79/445 47 17 - Fax +41/ (0)1 / 272 46 82 - Mail: [email protected] // http://www.medienhilfe.ch ****************************************************** Medienhilfe Ex-Jugoslawien, Postfach - CH 8031 Z�rich Tel. +41 / (0)1 /272 46 37; Fax +41 / (0)1 /272 46 82 [email protected] /// http://www.medienhilfe.ch --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [email protected] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: [email protected]