Subject: Hidden genocide nobody wants to talk about
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HUMAN MOVEMENT AGAINST THE FOREIGN POLITICAL AGGRESSION
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Demand No. 1
THE ELIMINATION OF THE EMBARGO CLAUSE AND ITS INTERDICTION
UNDER THE U.N. CHARTER
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY, Serbia and Montenegro,) are under
an embargo which punishes the entire nation of ten million people in an
unacceptable manner. The economic and social disorder is paralyzing, making
it impossible to satisfy the elementary needs of the population. More than
50% of the work force is unemployed, and the national economic
infrastructure is gravely damaged.
Children, as well as adults, die from infectious opportunistic diseases in
the absence of medicines and hospital services. Lack of products for the
basic personal hygiene led to the reappearance of diseases long ago
exterminated in these regions. The mortality of patients suffering from
chronic diseases is on the sharp rise, due to the lack of
chemotherapeutical and other drugs. And the situation is especially
threatening to the children and the elderly.
More than half of the urban population suffers from under nourishment,
since the food supply is inadequate, and heating in apartments, schools,
and hospitals is at a bare minimum. The consequences are especially
detrimental to the health of children and the elderly.
More than 600,000 refugees, of which more than half are children, share the
same destiny, since most of them live with families already under dramatic
pressure of everyday fight for survival. Deprived of means for the bare
existence, and in fear of the future, many elderly and retired persons have
committed suicides. Theft, black market, and crime which are blossoming in
these inhuman conditions, are a daily threat to the life, security, and
possessions of the majority of population.
Despite exception of the humanitarian assistance from sanctions against
FRY, as declared by U.N. conventions, there is a huge shortage of food,
medicines, and fuel necessary for heating, transport, and preparation of
food. The extent of shortages is such that satisfying the elementary needs
of the population is endangered. Shipments of the humanitarian assistance,
collected by individuals or humanitarian organizations and churches, are
often stopped at the border, or their entrance to the country is
forbidden. Many neighbouring European countries are overzealous in their
customs control, often under unacceptable pretexts, in order to block or
prevent humanitarian shipments.
Under a thinly disguised pretext, the U.N. attitude toward the population
of Yugoslavia is equivalent to an economic, psychological, sanitary, and
medical aggression, followed by constant threats of military intervention.
The grave consequences of the imposed, and arbitrarily prolonged embargo,
will remain for years to come.
What authorizes foreign powers to continue such a brutal aggression toward
the population of Serbia and Montenegro? Children and all the ordinary
people will tell you that it not only harms their legitimate interests, but
that it threatens their biological existence. They forward their demand
that their lives be respected in the same way one respects the lives of the
loved ones, no matter how complex and artificial is the labyrinth of the U.
N. clauses, often adjusted to conform to interests of certain
countries.
>From the beginning of the war in Bosnia and former Yugoslavia, the
selective reporting and distortions of truth, cover-ups and open lies, were
all used to confront the Serbs with the world, and generate a vulgar, anti-
Serbian racism. The opportunism of the media made it possible to create an
atmosphere where the public opinion was cheated into acceptance of the
sanctions against Yugoslavia, although many in U.N. were aware that
imposition of sanctions was based on lies. Now media follow with the
distorted picture of the consequences of sanctions, and fail to address the
brutal reality in the country.
It is of no less importance that consequences of the embargo are spilling
over the borders of Yugoslavia to the entire region. According to the
estimates of the Austrian government institute for Eastern Europe, the
embargo has caused great damage to economies of neighbouring countries: $3.
8 billion in Bulgaria, $1.1 billion in Hungary, $2.0 billion in Macedonia,
$7.0 billion in Rumania. It is also predicted that by the end of the year
the total losses for Balkan countries and Eastern Europe countries will
reach $35 billion.
Contrary to the widespread public opinion, sanctions against Yugoslavia are
also a smoke screen for vengeful politics of certain countries, making the
process of democratization in the social and economic spheres impossible.
Disastrous effects of sanctions on the population well-being, and
especially that of children, whose consequences are impossible to predict
in the long or short term, make sanctions equal to a biological warfare.
It is becoming increasingly clear that sanctions are a crime against
humanity. Taking into account the inhumanity, brutality, and medieval-type
arbitrariness of this instrument of the U.N., an embargo should strictly
refer to import and export of arms, or products which can be used in
military industry.
In the era of recession and insecurity world-wide, we demand from the U.N.
to urgently take steps in stopping the physical and biological destruction
of the peoples of Yugoslavia, followed by a change in the U.N. charter
which would banish present forms of the embargo, a brutal instrument of
arbitrariness, abuse, and destruction of entire populations and states,
something essentially counter to the letter and spirit of the U.N. charter.
