Moscow, January 3, 2001

Dear Friend,

As you know, last year, 2000, we marked the fifth anniversary of the Antimilitarist Radical Association (ARA). It's high time to make a preliminary review.

During these years our efforts - the efforts of the ARA and the Radical Party in Russia - were focused mainly on the antimilitarist campaigns and initiatives.

From 1995 to 1998 our main strategic task was to achieve prompt adoption of the federal law on the alternative civilian service (ACS): "the law, the good law, the law - immediately" - that was the slogan of our campaign. We collected and passed to the Chairman of the State Duma over eight thousand and a half signatures under the appeal to the State Duma demanding to adopt propmptly the law on the ACS. One more initiative within the framework of this campaign was sending hundreds of postcards by the citizens with the demand to adopt the law on the ACS. Unfortunately we know how the Duma dealt with this law: in October 1998 the deputies rejected the draft law on the ACS at the second reading, so we are now again in the situation of 1994 when the draft law drawn out by the deputies E.Malkin and V.Savitsky was prepared for the first reading.

Simultaneously, all these years the ARA was actively working to inform the draftees about their constitutional right to conscientiously object and perform the alternative civilian service instead of the military service: since March 1998 over 57 thousand stickers have been disrtibuted, since January 1998 131 consulting seminar for the objectors has been attended by 1,679 persons.

Taking into account the situation with the draft law on the ACS in the past State Duma and its obvious unwillingness to deal with this question during remaining term of office until new parliamentary election in December 1999, the Second congress of the ARA held in January 1999 in Moscow decided to focus next year the efforts of the radicals-antimilitarists on the campaign "Third Millinium Without Conscription Slavery". We have begun to collect signatures under the petition addressed to the Federal Assembly with the appeal for the prompt abolition of the compulsory military service in peace time and the transition to a fully voluntary (professional) basis of forming the armed forces. We also have set ourselves the concrete "technical" task: to collect 50 thousand signatures of Russian citizens under this petition.

To a considerable extent owing to our efforts the question of the abolition of conscription slavery came to the foreground of Russian political stage: under this slogan the Union of the Right Forces (URF) conducted its campaign at the elections to the State Duma. But the leaders of the URF, as it became soon clear, in practice followed a totally different way: the loudly announced referendum of the right-wingers resulted to be only a collection of signatures for a poll - quite "harmful" for the militarists - on the service in the hot spots only on contract. Unfortunately it should be stated that a real forgery took place in this case: apparently most people who signed for this referendum and voted then for the URF at Duma elections had believed in the agressive public relations campaign of the URF that represented the right-wingers as fighters for the referendum on the abolition of the conscription. In reality the leaders of the URF refused even to discuss with us the possibility of the collaboration during

the collection of signatures under the petition "Third Millenium Without the Conscription Slavery".

Against our plans and expectations the petition campaign "Third Millenium Without the Conscription Slavery" didn't achieve its objective yet, despite an unprecedentedly large number of collected signatures (22,262 signatures by December 28), despite the efforts of the activists - mainly in Moscow, but also in Chelyabinsk, Saint-Petersbourgh, Tula and Pskov.

A special place in our activities has belonged to the initiatives against the Chechen war. On November 18, 1999 the radicals conducted in Russia a public action against the new Chechen war: the unsanctioned manifestation at the Red Square under the slogan: "Without us, please!". During this manifestation several our fellows were detained by the militia and tried for illegal picketing. The Radical Party and the ARA took part in the organization of the revived Committee for anti-war actions that united representatives of several anti-war and human rights organizations. Under the aegis of this Committee a series of anti-war action were organized: from pickets of several people to two anti-war rallies in the center of Moscow on February 19 and March 19, 2000, over thousand of participants attended each rally. Almost three thousand and a half people signed the petition of the Committee for anti-war actions against the Chechen war.

In April 2000 at the Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Akhyad Idigov, the chairman of the commission for international affaires of the Chechen parliament, spoke on behalf of the Transnational Radical Party; he spoke about mass human rights violations and war crimes committed by the Russian army in Chechnya, about the need to conduct peace negotiations and to stop the war. This speech gave rise to the attack that the Russian Federation began against the TRP alleging that it supported the terrorists, obtained funds from international narcomafias and even propagandized paedophilia (!), trying thus to withdraw the UN consultative status from the TRP. You know that this shameful, quite in the Soviet-KGB style attack failed - in the first hand thanks to the strong and determined position of the USA, France, Germany and other democratic countries that didn't allow to the Russian Federation, China, Cuba, Sudan and other regimes to create a dangerous precedent of expelling a non-governmental org

anization from the UN for its criticism addressed to a State-Member.

In 2000 we didn't summon the annual congress of the ARA provided by our statute. First of all because in the conditions when necessary material, organization and human preconditions were still lacking (only 32 members enrolled in the ARA for 2000 by July 1; 53 members - by the end of the year), this congress would be not more than an "alibi", a chamber meeting of several people, mostly moscovites, and not an All-Russian forum of radicals-antimilitarists able to contribute to the antimilitarist initiatives in our country.

Further development depends on us. These days the ARA and the Radical Party membership campaign 2001 has begun. A minimal RP membership fee for 2001 is twice lower than usual for all countries except Italy: in Russia it is 8 USD (240 roubles) instead of 16 USD last year. As to the ARA fee for 2001, for lack of the congress we decided not to change it. It remains the same: 5 USD (150 roubles).

We have a lot of work. First of all, new initiatives against the Chechen war where an interminable bloody nightmare is continuing, mass human rights violation, death of peaceful citizens and Russian soldiers, suffering of hundreds of thousands of refugees deprived of the most necessary things. Next weeks we'll have to think over and carry out the initiatives to support the draft law on the ACS prepared by the deputy Yuly Rybakov and introduced into the Duma, in order not to allow the adoption of the alternative draft law prepared by the Ministry for Defence which provides for the objectors an "alternative service" consisting of four years of service in construction battalion. We have also to continue our campaign "Third Millenium Without the Conscription Slavery" with more efforts and new acceleration, in order to put the question of the full abolition of any compulsory service - be that military or civilian one - in the center of social and political debates in Russia, because in the beginning of the XXI ce

ntury it is clear for everybody: any forced service or work is a slightly veiled form of slavery which is only little different from the slavery Russia said good-bye hundred and forty years ago. And finally, next days and weeks we'll have to make extraordinary efforts in order to conduct finally this spring the Third congress of the Antimilitarist Radical Association.

We hope that you'll decide remain with us this year too, by enrolling in the 2001 ARA and the Radical Party. We hope that your support will help us to continue our fight, to conduct our initiatives that we have launched already and that we are going to launch.

We also are happy to wish our best to you for 2001!

Have a good work!

Nikolay KHRAMOV, Secretary

Anna ZAYTSEVA, Treasurer

_______________________________________________

ARA - ANTIMILITARIST RADICAL ASSOCIATION

(an association of the Radical Party)

Pechatnikov per. 6

103045 Moscow, Russia

tel./fax: (095) 208-1805

E-mail: ara@ara.ru

Internet URL: http://www.ara.ru