Kosovo and Yugoslavia: New HR NGOs' statements
Reply-To: [email protected]
Sender: [email protected]
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1998 10:47:46 +0300 (EET DST)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: Kosovo and Yugoslavia: New HR NGOs' statements
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Greek Helsinki Monitor <[email protected]>
Kosovo and Yugoslavia: New HR NGOs' statements
A NEW REPORT:
Society for Threatened Peoples:
Tilman Zulch, Inse Geismar
"Kosovo : War, Expulsion, Massacres"
To read or download it (it is 183K) follow the instructions.
If you do not have Adobe Reader 3.0, please first click below:
http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
Then, download the free software Adobe Reader 3.0, and then click on
the report's title.
If you have Adobe Reader 3.0, click directly below:
http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/pdf/repeng.pdf
------------------------------------------------------
A NEW HELSINKI STATEMENT
TIME IS RUNNING OUT
Budva, Montenegro, 30 August 1998: The International Helsinki
Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the Helsinki Committees in
Kosovo, Serbia, and Montenegro are calling for an immediate halt of
the continued Serbian offensive in Kosovo and a cease fire in the
ongoing armed conflict between Serbian Police-Military forces and the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), to avert what threatens to become a
major humanitarian catastrophe if over 300,000 internally displaced
persons (IDPs) and refugees cannot return to their homes before
winter.
Serbian authorities and the Albanian leadership in Kosovo, including
the KLA, must engage in responsible, constructive, and efficient
negotiations to promote a cease-fire, or thousands of ethnic Albanians
could be victimized and succumb to exposure, disease, and starvation
beginning in about six weeks, with the onset of winter.
� We call upon Serbian authorities to ensure immediate and fully
unrestricted access by humanitarian relief agencies to victims in
Kosovo and their access to victims now in Montenegro and elsewhere in
FRY.
� We express our deep concern with the potentially very adverse
effects of the situation in Kosovo on the future territorial integrity
of Bosnia-Herzegovina and of the region as a whole.
� We call for increased large-scale monitoring by international
agencies, which will reduce the possibility of intense conflict in
observing compliance with a cease-fire and access to humanitarian aid.
Any allegations of war crimes by either side, including alleged
mass-graves in Klecka, must be investigated by the ICTY in its
responsibility for this internal armed conflict.
� The IHF calls the Serbian authorities to allow on-site investigation
by international forensic experts of alleged war crimes, mass graves
such as the one in Orahovac, and abduction and killing of civilians.
Within this framework, the IHF condemns in the strongest terms the
recent killings of eleven Albanian civilians, including eight
children, by a tank grenade that hit a tractor loaded with IDPs, as
well as the killing of three Albanian representatives of the Mother
Teresa humanitarian organization.
� We call for a renewal of Yugoslav-Albanian negotiations to find a
political solution in Kosovo. We reiterate our call for an
internationally mediated Dayton-like process.
� We call for a responsible and constructive attitude of relevant
factors in Belgrade and Kosovo in support of the negotiation process,
to decrease the likelihood of a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo.
� We call for the initiation of confidence building measures to help
heal the massive damage to relations among ethnic groups.
In view of this, the IHF calls upon Serbian authorities to follow
through with the implementation of the Education Agreement in schools
and other educational premises that were not damaged during the
on-going warfare, and to move further forward, allowing Albanian
students in Kosovo to regain rights to education that have been
removed.
Other confidence-building measures, such as the normalization of
healthcare, media, and judiciary, are also required, and would greatly
enhance chances for a negotiated settlement of the political status of
Kosovo. In addition, it would indicate that the current
confrontational and militaristic approach to the issue of Kosovo would
be abandoned and a rational negotiating track would be pursued.
-------------------------------------------------------
SOLIDARITY AWARD TO RADIO B92
Belgrade--August 31, 1998
Radio B92 was awarded this year's Solidarity Award by AMARC -- The
World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters in Milan on Friday.
AMARC, which gathers upward of 1,000 members, dedicated its Seventh
Conference to the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Universal
Declaration on Human Rights and the promotion of human rights through
local radio stations throughout the world in particular. Radio B92's
General Manager Sasa Mirkovic, who received the award during the
conference, was also elected AMARC Europe's Vice President.
AMARC said that the award was an acknowledgement for Radio B92's
operation in extremely difficult circumstances and its years-long
struggle for the freedom of expression. Mirkovic received the award
from last year's winner, the National Radio Forum of South Africa, in
an open event that took place near the Milan cathedral and was
broadcast live on one of the biggest radio stations in Milan-Radio
populare.
Of ten nominations, three put B92 forward--a sign of B92's noteworthy
engagement on the international level. The accepted nomination said
that Radio B92's own principled exercise of freedom of speech and
information had opened up space for other radio and television
stations in Yugoslavia and encouraged them to report professionally
and objectively while joining in with the Association of Independent
Electronic Media in Yugoslavia (ANEM). It also said that Radio B92
invested huge effort to defend ANEM members from the constant state
repression; Radio B92's solidarity was manifest and active in cases of
restriction of the freedom of speech and information throughout the
world; Radio B92's special contribution was the application of new
technologies, primarily the Internet, in overcoming repression and all
attempts to close up and isolate societies.
--
Veran Matic, Editor in Chief tel: +381-11-322-9109
Radio B92, Belgrade, Yugoslavia fax: +381-11-322-4378
______________________________________
Greek Helsinki Monitor & Minority Rights Group - Greece
P.O. Box 51393
GR-14510 Kifisia
Greece
Tel. +30-1-620.01.20
Fax +30-1-807.57.67
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
________________________________________
--
==============================================================
MINELRES - a forum for discussion on minorities in Central&Eastern
Europe
Submissions: [email protected]
Subscription/inquiries: [email protected]
List archive: http://www.riga.lv/minelres/archive.htm
==============================================================