Information bulletin of antimilitarist actions

No. 16 * 22 April 1999

Edited by the Antimilitarist Radical Association (ARA),

an association of the Transnational Radical Party.

Russian and English editions.

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ARA - ANTIMILITARIST RADICAL ASSOCIATION

Pechatnikov pereulok, 6, Moscow, 103045 Russia

Tel.: (095) 208-1805, 208-4902

Fax: (095) 208-1805

Mail to: ara@glasnet.ru

http://www.ara.ru

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MILOSEVIC INCRIMINATION:

AN OPEN LETTER OF THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE HUNGER-STRIKE

To the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Foreign

Affairs of my country;

To the Prime-Ministers and the Ministers of the Foreign

Affairs

of the European Countries and the countries-members of

NATO.

I decided to participate in the hunger-strike to give strength

to the words with which I appeal to You. In order to back my

will to dialogue with You and Your will and capacity to hear me

and to take a wise decision. I am grateful to the countries

that came forward with arms in order to put an end to the

continuing genocide. As Mohandas Gandhi, I am convinced that

when the method of non-violence and of a peaceful Satyagraha

does not perform well, notwithstanding all their splendid

power, it is our duty to use the force to defend the violated

right and not to be passive accomplices of violence and

aggression.

At the same time I realise that today the lack of an

alternative between a policy of complicity with the murderers,

on the one hand, and the use of the force in order to stop

these murderers, on the other, is by itself a failure.

Inaction, inertia, complicity of the other countries, mostly

the European ones, that for ten years have been allowing

Slobodan Milosevic to strengthen his power and to eliminate -

first, freedom and law, then the lives of the citizens of his

country, - it is a failure of both the governments that have

been following this policy and all the citizens, all of us. It

is our common failure. I support the armed intervention of NATO

and I am afraid of the eventual "prudence" with the lack of

wisdom. I appeal to You with a concrete proposal for, first and

foremost, I am deeply convinced: these massacres concern me

personally, my life, my conscience, my feelings. The cynicism

they are accomplished with has exceeded all the possible

bounds. Ten years of violence and several weeks of incredible

crimes against Life and Right make evident the fact that any

international policy has its consequences and that the mistakes

are to be paid for by leaders, by common citizens, by all of

us.

The citizens of the countries where there are no massacres also

have to pay a high price for the ten-year support of the

Belgrade regime, that has been carrying out massacres and

ethnic purges and that is turned, first of all, against the

Yugoslav citizens. We all have to pay a high price for action

and inaction of the authors of the international policy, for

the lack of the common policy of the European Union, also from

the point of view of economics. Everything that happens

concerns us personally - be it our conscience or our economic

interests, including the material ones. The government cannot

ignore this fact, at least, if it is a democratic government.

I realise my interests and appeal to You with concrete

initiatives. With my hunger-strike I appeal to Your wisdom and

Your conscience.

* With my hunger strike I would like to call Your government to

pass as soon as possible to the International Tribunal for the

ex-Yugoslavia all the documents and all the evidences You

possess concerning the crimes committed there. As a European

citizen, as a tax-payer of my country, I consider grounded the

activity of Your government, of the governments of the

countries-members of European Union and the governments of the

countries of the international community for collecting in the

last years the evidences and the proofs of the mass massacres

committed in the ex-Yugoslavia that clearly indicate their

authors and inspirers. No doubt, any serious secret service

whose activity is financed by tax-payers has the documents

necessary and useful for the work of the Hague Tribunal

Prosecutors Office and for the Tribunal itself. The Criminal

Codes of the countries-members provide serious penalties for

concealing the evidences of the crimes and for non-

collaborating with the investigation.

*With my hunger-strike I, as well as 200 thousand people who

have already signed this appeal, claim an official

incrimination of Slobodan Milosevic by the Hague Tribunal for

the crimes against the humanity. It is my conviction that the

incrimination of the Belgrade dictator is the only way to

affirm the force of Right and to stop the mass violence and the

ethnic purges facilitated by the legitimacy of Milosevic.

* With my hunger-strike I call You and Your government to ask

the Prosecutor's Office of the Hague Tribunal to take necessary

steps concerning Slobodan Milosevic - the main culprit of the

massacres committed in the last ten years and still going on.

* With my hunger-strike I affirm that the most effective weapon

capable to guarantee long-term results is the weapon of Law on

condition that it is strictly observed. That is why with my

hunger-strike I call Your country to sign and to ratify as soon

as possible the Institution Treaty of the Permanent

International Criminal Court, already supported by the vast

majority of the countries last July at the Rome Conference.

With my non-violent initiative I also appeal to the Parliament

of my country. You represent me too, as a citizen of my

country. I failed too for I share the responsibility with the

government of my country. Now I want to overcome this failure

with wisdom and will, with policy representing the interests of

an individual.

* With my hunger-strike I first and foremost defend my

interests. I want the political institutes of my country to

represent actually my interests for that is what they exist

for.

* With my hunger-strike I defend the rights of the citizens of

Serbia and Montenegro - the principal victims of the Belgrade

regime that oppresses and kills its citizens with the passive

complicity of the other European countries.

*With my hunger-strike I press so that the political institutes

representing my interests should stop carrying out the policy

that leads to our common failure. I ask them to carry out the

policy capable to strengthen democracy, legality, the right to

life and the life of Right.

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SECOND NAME....................................................

FIRST NAME.....................................................

ADDRESS........................................................

TELEPHONE......................................................

E-MAIL.........................................................

I GO ON HUNGER-STRIKE SINCE........ TILL......

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SATURDAY, APRIL 24: MANIFESTATION OF "PRAVOE DELO"

The militants of the Radical Party, of the Antimilitarist

Radical Association (ARA) and of Club Khramov - association for

the libertarian reforms are going to participate in the

manifestation against the national-communist revenge and

militarism held in Moscow, on April 24, Saturday, in

Triumfal'naya square by the block "Pravoe delo" ("The Right

thing").

We will go to this manifestation with the slogans "Liberal

revolution", "The third millennium without conscription

slavery", "Let's defend our Serb brothers from the national-

communist regime of Milosevic", "Milosevic is to be

prosecuted". We will also collect signatures under the appeal

for the immediate incrimination of Slobodan Milosevic by the

Hague Tribunal for the war crimes and the crimes against the

humanity and under the petition to the Russian Parliament for

the abolition of conscription and the transition to the

professional Army.

Please, inform us about Your intention to participate in this

manifestation. Send Your message to our pager (095) 230-4141,

subscriber 24712.

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TELEX

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DEAR NATO, COULD YOU ALSO BOMB ORT?

Moscow, April 8. In connection with the information about the

plans of NATO to begin the systematic destruction of the Serb

television transmitters, Nikolai Khramov welcomed this decision

and declared: "In view of these news, I have a "little" wish.

Dear NATO, could you, please, also bomb ORT, RTR, Radio Rossii

and other goebbels-like mass-media in our country (except for

NTV and radio Ekho Moskvy) that fight as successfully as their

venal colleagues in Belgrade an information war against their

citizens, disseminating a real epidemic of misinformation,

xenophobia and primitive anti-Americanism?"

SERB BROTHERS! DEFEND YOUR FREEDOM FROM YOUR DICTATOR!

Moscow, April 9. Several Russian politicians - Konstantin

Borovoi, Arkadii Yankovskii, Valeriya Novodvorskaya, Nikolai

Khramov, Petr Kaznacheev and Arkadii Murashev - addressed this

appeal to the Serb citizens. The appeal says: "Today you are

not free, deceived and slandered. It was the military criminal

Milosevic to drive you into this trap. He wants you to hate the

whole world and to get nothing but ashes. In this way he plans

to strengthen and to perpetuate his power like Stalin, Hitler,

Tito, Enver Hoxha. Shame on you, refuse to protect your

dictator! Give Milosevic to the Hague Tribunal, let them judge

him there for your sufferings and for the pangs of Albanians".

Later this appeal, translated into Serbo-Croatian, was

distributed from the NATO aeroplanes over Yugoslav cities.

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THE SECOND PAGE

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THE LAST REFUGE

Andrei Kolesnikov

Izvestiya of April 10, 1999.

In a famous film of Woody Allen the sister of the

protagonist reproaches him: "All your life is cynicism,

nihilism, sarcasm and orgasm". - "You know, -Harry answers, -

with these slogans one can win elections in France". Sure, in

Russia one cannot win elections with these slogans. The

conscience of our electorate reacts to other impulses, letter

and word combinations.

The Yugoslav hysteria clearly demonstrates that the

national myths easily turn into the slogans profitable form the

point of view of elections; what arises in the emptiness and

what people erroneously call "national self-consciousness" may

drive out of the Russian brains the remains of the common sense

and become dangerous for the health of the nation, of the

political system and economics.

Excited Gennadii Seleznev arrived to the Duma from the

President with the joyful news that sounded in the wild

original wording: Russia registers officially its union with

Belorussia and Yugoslavia.

This was difficult to understand even for the most dismal

imperial consciousness in the most obscure stagnation times.

Now for the sake of the unification of the nation and for the

abolition of impeachment the authorities are prepared to do

everything. All of a sudden this "everything" began to

correspond to the dominant public mood - we will not give our

Serb-bothers to the bastards-NATO-Americans-Clinton!

The best public opinion poll was the meeting in Moscow

held by "Otechestvo" (Fatherland) movement of Luzhkov. The

population actively supported the mysterious "Slovaks". Young

people explained that the Serbs were "ours" because they had

come to the shores of Adriatic from Russia. Some suspicious and

literally badly-smelling individuals were sawing the air.

Representatives of the late soviet technical intelligentsia and

of the modern exemplary students put on pieces of paper with

the words "Target" - "tsel'".

A bacchanalia of gibberish and ignorance. A rare unity of

authorities and people, of the inhabitants of studies with rest

rooms and homeless people, of embittered old men and aggressive

young students, retired employees of research institutes and

brainless students of the vocational training schools. This is

not like "People and party are indivisible, but go to different

shops". This is a national idea.

An elderly parent of mine found himself in a hospital.

Despite the urgency of a stationary medical treatment he ran

away: his neighbours of the same age were nostalgic of the

soviet power and scolded the Jews. All the rational arguments

"against" have no sense at all - we have to do with something

that cannot be explained in a rational way. What is going on

belongs to the field of myths that one can never shake. The

myths that were sleeping for the time being, but as soon as the

thin stratum of civilisation had been destroyed, they came out

in the most ugly appearance. First the image of the enemy was

born - these were "the Jews".

Now the Lord has sent to the nation the image of a friend

(brother) - these are the Serbs and comrades Saddham Hussayn

and Muammar Gheddafi who joined them.

This strangely interpreted patriotism has become the last

refuge for the nation and its political elite. The gap between

the generations is overcome: steadfast Stalinist-pensioners,

the main Russian electorate, united in a single burst with

those who have just retired and those who have just got the

constitutional right to elect. The ignorance of the young

people is really shocking. Their brains are like tabula rasa.

The Serb "campaign" is just a chance to behave like unpunished

hooligans. In a crowd it is easier to feel protected. The

psychology of a crowd stimulates direct actions - join the

volunteers, throw an egg at the American Embassy, drink a glass

of vodka, give somebody a slap in the face...

Our leaders that have let the jinnee out of the bottle -

the last refuge of the national myths - have they ever though

of it? They have imposed to the country the competition of the

craziest ideas. In this the authorities compete with the most

evil forces that for the time being have been sleeping in our

society. Now the underground fire has burst out.

For the communists the situation is extremely

advantageous. Those who posses the "copyright" of the brand

images of friend and enemy do not need to look for another

foundation of their election campaign.

The electorate of the communist party and its leaders can

only grow (although and not occasionally Fatherland takes an

active part in the anti-NATO hysteria: they do not want to

cease the votes of the furious friends of Yugoslavia to their

leftist colleagues). Particularly because of the young people,

the new "zero generation", that has grown up after the

communist regime and does not know why the communists are so

dangerous. Among the compulsory vaccinations they have skipped

those against communism, totalitarianism, fascism and anti-

Semitism.

The Slavonic brotherhood is an absolute chimera. Nobody

in the Russian Empire has ever manifested brotherly feelings to

Polish people that endured several divisions of their country.

The capture of Warsaw inspired Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin to

write courage-infusing verses.

There was no Slavonic brotherhood when the soviet tanks

entered Prague in 1968. Now our crazy citizens defend the

abstract "Slovaks" while in 1968 the solidarity with

Czechoslovakia manifested in the Red Square, not far from

Vassil'evskii spusk where the present-day demonstrators have

been fighting for the freedoms of Serbs, cost to a few

dissidents a long-term imprisonment.

Now, all of a sudden, the "representatives of

intelligentsia" raised their voices for the Serbs.

The Slavonic myth has put the whole country in its "last

refuge". It's so easy to get in there. So difficult to get out.

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