Information bulletin of antimilitarist actions
No. 17 * 15 May 1999
Edited by the Antimilitarist Radical Association (ARA),
an association of the Transnational Radical Party.
Russian and English editions.
Published with support of the "Open Society Institute.
Assistance Foundation".
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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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THE THIRD MILLENNIUM WITHOUT CONSCRIPTION SLAVERY: WE START!
Two months ago the Radical Party and the ARA launched a
petition campaign "The third millennium without conscription
slavery", addressed to the next Russian Parliament. The goal of
this campaign is the abolition of the compulsory military
service in Russia and the transition to a professional army.
Current events - the beginning of the NATO military action in
Yugoslavia, the Anti-Western hysteria unleashed in our country
- made us postpone the start of our campaign for the abolition
of conscription and concentrate our efforts in other areas.
Now, two months later - by the way, in these two months several
hundreds of people have already signed our petition for the
abolition of conscription - finally we start!
Our objects are the abolition of the compulsory military
service and the transition to a completely voluntary
(professional) basis of remanning the Russian Armed Forces. Our
next goal is to launch an all-Russian campaign of collecting
signatures under the petition addressed to the next Russian
Parliament. By January 2000, when the Seventh State Duma starts
its work, we plan to collect 50.000 signatures of Russian
citizens and to pass them to the newly elected deputies of the
supreme legislative body of the country.
Recently 5.500 copies of a special issue of the ARA bulletin
Antimilitarist - with the text of the petition and some advises
on the organisation of the petition campaign - were sent by
post to all members and adherents of the Radical Party and of
the ARA in all Russian regions.
On Saturday, May 22, in Moscow, in Pushkin square (near the
monument to A.S. Pushkin) we are going to hold a meeting that
will officially launch the petition campaign "The third
millennium without conscription slavery". Please, come to
Pushkin square and take part in this radical action.
After that, we plan to present the campaign "The third
millennium without conscription slavery" in St. Petersburg,
Yaroslavl', Kaluga, Tula, Ryazan', Tver' and in other Russian
towns.
We hope to have among our allies in our campaign for the
abolition of conscription both the associations of the mothers
of soldiers all around Russia and the democratic political
parties, from Yabloko to Pravoe Delo (The Right Cause")
coalition. Two days ago the managing bodies of Club Khramov -
an Association for libertarian reforms, a national political
organisation of the Russian radicals many adherents of which
are members of the Radical Party and of the ARA - decided to
join Pravoe Delo.
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TELEX
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RADICALS PARTICIPATE IN A MANIFESTATION OF THE COALITION PRAVOE
DELO
Moscow, April 24. This manifestation, organised by Pravoe Delo
(The Right Cause) coalition in the centre of the Russian
capital, has united an unprecedented number of participants -
nearly 20.000. The militants of the Radical Party, of the ARA
and of Club Khramov also took part in this manifestation, under
the blue-yellow flag with the profile of Gandhi and the slogans
"Liberal revolution", "The third millennium without
conscription slavery", "Incriminate Milosevic now", "Lets'
defend our Serb brothers from the nationalist-Bolshevist regime
of Milosevic". During this manifestation the radicals were
collecting signatures under the petition to the Russian
Parliament for the abolition of conscription and under the
appeal to the Hague Tribunal to incriminate Milosevic for the
war crimes. Among those who have signed both documents there
was Sergei Yushenkov, Duma deputy and Vice President of
Demokraticheskii vybor Rossii (Democratic choice of Russia)
political party.
THE THIRD DAY OF THE HUNGER-STRIKE OF MORE THAN SEVENTY
RADICALS
Rome, April 26. The third day of the collective hunger-strike
of more than 70 radicals form Italy and some other European
Countries. They appeal to the heads of their States and
Governments and to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the
Western countries. The goal of the hunger-strike is to prompt
the Western governments to pass as soon as possible to the
International Tribunal for the ex-Yugoslavia in the Hague the
evidences of the war crimes and the crimes against the humanity
committed by Milosevic regime in Kosovo - the evidences
possessed by the intelligence service of the NATO countries.
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THE SECOND PAGE
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CHRONICLE OF TEN YEARS OF THE BALKAN CONFLICT
Maksim YUSIN
Izvestiya of April 12, 1999.
One cannot consider the crises in Kosovo out of its historical
context. It's not an isolated conflict, but a part of a great
Balkan war that has been tormenting the republics of the ex-
Yugoslavia for the last ten years.
The first step towards the war was made in March 1989, when the
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of Serbia Slobodan Milosevic deprived Kosovo (a well as
Vojvodina and its Hungarian minority) of its autonomous status.
The actions of protest, organised by the Albanians of Kosovo,
were suppressed with savageness.
It was an alarm signal for the republics of the Socialist
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It mean only one thing:
Belgrade authorities staked on the Serb nationalism - after the
Albanians among its victims there would be Slovenians,
Croatians, the Moslems of Bosnia. The sentence to the Yugoslav
Federation was passed. Nothing could stop the centrifugal
tendencies.
The two most industrially developed republics, Slovenia and
Croatia, were the first to declare that they dropped out of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This happened on June
25, 1991. Belgrade tried to keep them with force. The airport
of the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, was bombarded; units of
the Yugoslav People's Army advanced to the city.
However, the war in Slovenia did not last long - only one week.
The Slovenian detachments of self-defence put up such a
stubborn resistance that Yugoslavs stopped. Their Army, that
consisted of representatives of all republics, began to fall to
pieces before everybody's eyes. And in the rear of the Army
there was an inimical Croatia.
Belgrade wasn't ready to fight on two fronts and left Slovenia
in peace. Especially as this republic was not very important
for the Serb "national interests". In fact, by 1991 the
ideology of Milosevic regime came to the slogan "All Serbs must
live in one State". There were few Serbs in Slovenia. The game
was not worth the candle.
Croatia was different. In this republic the whole regions were
traditionally considered as Serb. The orthodox Slavs lived
there since the time of the Austrian Empire and protected the
frontier from the Turkish raids. By the time of the collapse of
the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, there were about
600.000 Serbs in Croatia, and a half of them lived concentrated
in the so-called "krajny" along the frontier with Vojvodina and
Bosnia.
The goal of Milosevic was to tear away these lands of Croatia.
The offensive of the Yugoslav Army started in August 1991. The
most violent fighting were for the city of Vukovar in the
Eastern Slovenia, called "Croatian Stalingrad". The siege of
Vukovar went on for two months. On October 18, the city fell,
turned to ruins. The number of victims of both sides was more
than 20.000.
By the beginning of the winter, the active military operations
stopped. Croatian population (in some regions it constituted up
to 80%) was expatriated. The self-proclaimed republic "Serb
Krajna", with its capital in the city of Knin, declared that it
separated from Croatia.
In April 1992, the most terrible act of the Balkan drama begins
- the war envelopes Bosnia and Herzegovina. Units of the
Yugoslav Army, stationed in the republic, fought on the side of
the local Serbs (Serbs constituted a little more than 30% of
the population) against Moslems (42%) and Croatians (17%).
The forces were too unequal. Serbs occupied nearly three
fourths of the Bosnian territory. They didn't stand upon
ceremony with the local population - just at that time the term
"ethnic purges" emerged. The Moslem cities (Srebrenica, Zepa,
Gorazde) turned into enclaves, rounded up from all sides by the
Serb troops. The capital of the republic, Sarajevo, suffered
the same fate.
The siege of Sarajevo that went on for three years and took
away the lives of dozens of thousands of its inhabitants,
really shocked the world public opinion. The "blue helmets" of
the UN were sent in Bosnia to defend the civilian population.
International sanctions were imposed against Yugoslavia,
accused of intervention in the internal affairs of the
neighbour country and of supporting the Serbs of Bosnia. At the
UN Security Council Russia voted for them too. Till now
communists and "patriots" cannot forgive it to the Head of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that time Andrei Kozyrev.
However, one didn't manage to stop the bloodshed. In 1994 the
Serbs of Bosnia committed one of their most terrible crimes -
6.000 people were shot during the capture of the Moslem enclave
Srebrenica. The West lost all patience. Leader of the
unrecognised "Serb Republic" Radovan Karadzic was declared a
war criminal. American, French and British aeroplanes began
bombing raids against the Serb positions, their military
objectives and armoured machinery.
At the same time the Western allies and the Islamic States
started arming the troops of the Moslems. By the beginning of
1995 its fighting efficiency improved a lot, while the Bosnian
Armed Forces were always superior in number than the troops of
Karadzic. The Armed conflicts of Serbs and Moslems were no
longer a "game with one goal-mouth".
Serious events were about to happen in Croatia too. The
President Franjo Tudzman used the three-year respite to
strengthen the Armed Forces - he bought military equipment
abroad and adapted the economy to the military needs. People's
volunteer corps were replaced with a modern, well-trained and
disciplined army. The Croatians craved for a revenge.
On the night of August 4, 1995 the time was ripe. Attacking in
five directions, the Croatian troops delivered a blow at the
capital of Krajna. The next day Knin fell. By August 8, all was
over. The republic of the Croatian Serbs did not exist any
more. Slobodan Milosevic was afraid of the Western reaction and
did not venture to set out on the side of his compatriots. The
Serb radicals could not forgive him for a long time the
"betrayal of Krajna".
After the fall of Knin the Croatian and the Bosnian wars
virtually merged. The Army of Franjo Tudzman crossed the
frontier with Bosnia, united with Moslems and attacked the
troops of Radovan Karadzic. The Serb front literally went to
pieces. Serbs lost dozens of towns. The sword of Damocles was
hanging over Banja Luka, an important centre of the Bonsnian
Serbs. By the moment when the peace negotiations started in
Dayton, Croatians and Moslems already controlled more than a
half of the republic territory.
The Bosnian war was over in late autumn 1995. Till now one
doesn't know exactly how many lives it has taken, but surely
the victims were hundreds of thousands. According to the peace
treaty, the country was divided into two nearly equal parts - a
Serb republic and a Moslem-Croatian Federation. Nominally they
are considered as one state, but in fact each formation lives
according to its own laws. The peace in Bosnia is kept only
thanks to the presence of the international peace-keeping
forces, including Russians.
While the battles were being fought in Croatia and Bosnia, the
situation in Kosovo remained placid. Although as early as in
1992 the local radicals tried to convince the leader of
Albanians Ibrahim Rugova to a rising in arms - to open in this
way the "third front" against Serbs - Rugova was true to the
tactics of a "passive resistance".
This continued till last year, when a new personage - the
Kosovo Liberation Army - appeared on the scene. Its leaders
recognise only the armed struggle. The "passive resistance"
turned into in a partisan warfare.
On March 24, 1991 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization joined
the battle against Slobodan Milosevic on the side of Albanians.
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