Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 23:15:
Dear Olga Cechurova,
Thanks for sending your Appeal ("We must overthrow the regime of Belgrade")
in French and English. Could you tell me approximately how many signatures
you have now, and what are your future plans for this Appeal?
The Kosovo Committee and some other French associations are also
circulating an appeal for the indictement of Milosevic (below). Our aim is
to get well-known people to sign it.
We were wondering if there's some way that our organizations could work
together. Perhaps we could submit both petitions to the Tribunal at the
Hague ... or organize a "trial" of Milosevic?
I'm looking forward eagerly to any suggestions you might have.
Regards,
Julie Wornan
(member of Comité Kosovo, Paris)
----------
INDICT MILOSEVIC, PRINCIPAL INSTIGATOR OF CRIMES AGAINST PEACE AND CRIMES
AGAINST HUMANITY COMMITTED IN YUGOSLAVIA SINCE 1991
The history of Europe, in this last decade of our century, has been
profoundly marked by the conflict in the former Yugoslavia (1991-1995), in
which crimes perpetrated against non-Serb civilian populations living in
areas marked for "purification" were defined by the UN Human Rights
Commission as genocide (May 1994). The wholesale destruction of cities,
villages and monuments belonging to humanity's common heritage, mass
expulsions, legislation institutionalising ethnic discrimination,
concentration camps, massacres, the systematic use of rape and extreme
cruelty against civilians, all reappeared in the annals of European
history.
The guns have been silent in Bosnia since the Dayton Accords of December
1995. However, an armed aggression against Kosovo was launched in March
1998. Villages were levelled, civilian populations massacred. The UNHCR
estimates that 80 000 people have been forced to flee their homes (as of
June 1998). Since 1989, Kosovo's ethnic Albanian population has been living
under a regime of legalized discrimination and fierce repression. Their
prospects are dismal. The Serbian authorities have publicly announced their
intention to "cleanse" Kosovo, in whole or in part, of its Albanian
population, who make up nine tenths of its inhabitants.
Experience shows us how difficult it is for the international community to
act. The interplay of alliances and the actions of our leaders at the
highest levels always seem to block any effective move to halt the
massacres.
With the creation of the International Criminal Tribunal at the Hague,
international law took a great stride forward. But neither the fact of the
Tribunal's existence, nor its remarkable accomplishments, prevented 'ethnic
cleansing' from occurring in Kosovo just as it did in Bosnia. One day, the
Tribunal itself may be judged by history, and will have to explain why it
has spared the major militia leaders in Belgrade and the political leaders
of the Serbian régime. The implicit protection from which they have
benefited is at least partially responsible for the suffering and dying in
Kosovo today.
We, therefore, ask the Tribunal to investigate Milosevic's crimes against
peace, to officially indict him, and by so doing make him a political
pariah, an outlaw shunned by the community of nations.
Milosevic is not Serbia. His hold on power, which future historians will no
doubt describe as stemming from a series of disguised, subtle coup d'états,
is both illegitimate and based on the support of a minority. His party was
defeated in successive elections and denounced in mammoth demonstrations in
Belgrade in the autumn of 1996. It lost to the Montenegran opposition in
1997-1998. The Sandjak region, to a less obvious extent the province of
Voivodine, and most of all, the martyred region of Kosovo, all long to
break free of Milosevic's control. Throughout the new Yugoslavia, a desire
for independence results from the absence of democracy and the growing
economic, social and cultural catastrophe, which will remain Milosevic's
sole legacy to his countrymen.
If Milosevic is still hanging on to power, he owes it to the survival of
the old system's bureaucratic apparatus, an over-equipped police force, a
militia composed of murderers and mafiosi, and his stranglehold on the mass
media. His political survival also depends on the legitimacy accorded him
by international authorities when they choose to consider him as the
"strongman of Serbia".
His can lose that legitimacy without a single shot being fired. Accusing
him of crimes against humanity would help the democratic opposition
movements, save lives in Kosovo and render justice to all those who have
died and suffered through his fault. Placing the blame for the Balkan wars
squarely on his shoulders in the eyes of the world would also help fight
against a historical lie which does no honor to Serbia's tragic history.
For all of these reasons, we call upon the international authorities and
the International Criminal Tribunal to denounce, both legally and
politically, one of the worst political assassins that Europe has known
since Hitler and Stalin.
June 1998.
Committee Kosovo, Paris
Convergences-Citoyens pour la Bosnie, France
Coordination Paloise pour la Bosnie
Comité Sarajevo Citoyens-Citoyennes, Toulouse
Association Sarajevo, Paris
Name Address or City /Proffession or Title Signature
Contact:
Convergences, Place Louisendorf, 26150 Die.
Fax: 01 42 33 45 93 ou 04 75 22 27 80
email : julie@prointegra.fr
