Special web page on Kosovo

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 1998 17:49:31 +0200 (EET)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: Special web page on Kosovo

From: MINELRES moderator  <[email protected]>

Original sender: Panayote Elias Dimitras <[email protected]>

Special web page on Kosovo


GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR
(Greek National Committee of the International Helsinki Federation)

& MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP - GREECE
(Greek Affiliate of Minority Rights Group International)

P.O. Box 51393, GR-14510 Kifisia, Greece Tel. 30-1-620.01.20;
Fax: 30-1-807.57.67; E-mail: [email protected]
____________________________________________________

We have set up a special web page, continuously updatable, with Greek and
International NGO reactions to the Kosovo events. Please check it now, but
also return to it for updates:

http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/english/pressrelease/kosovo.html

Below is our position on the issue. Naturally, we also subscribe to
the positions of the other NGOs whose statements are made
available in our web page.

PRESS RELEASE

6/3/1998

TOPIC: GOVERNMENTAL VIOLENCE AGAINST ALBANIANS IN KOSOVO

The cooperating organizations Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority
Rights Group - Greece, on the occasion of the increase of the
tension in Kosovo, express their strong opposition to the acts of
violence that have been committed by the Serbian police and have
resulted in the death of tens of Albanians and four Serbs. The use of
violence on behalf of police authorities exceeded all limits, since
unarmed citizens were shot and houses were destroyed in order to
suppress a peaceful demonstration of 100,000 persons in Pristina.
Atrocities culminated after the new huge operation against Albanians
led by the Serbian forces, by the air on the ground, which creates a
new nightmare of cleansing, since a new wave of refugees has
already started to take place. During this attack, some villages were
literally bombed, and, according to witnesses, at least one of them
seemed to have been entirely burnt.

Our organizations believe that cruel violence, wherever it comes from,
consists a threat for the stability of the area, and asks from the
government of Serbia to withdraw its forces from Kosovo, whereas
they urge the nationalist president Milosevic to respect the human
rights (civil, social and cultural) of the Albanian inhabitants by
granting again the status of autonomy that his administration
arbitrarily and unilaterally abolished for Kosovo in 1989. Finally they
remind that the application of the Final Act of Helsinki and all
subsequent Accords of the OSCE consists the best guarantee for
the peace and the progress of the peoples in Balkans.

______________________________________

Greek Helsinki Monitor &
Minority Rights Group - Greece
P.O. Box 51393
GR-145190 Kifisia
Greece
Tel. +30-1-620.01.20
Fax +30-1-807.57.67
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
________________________________________

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