War on the Balkans

The Work of BPT-FRY Following the Outbreak of War in Kosovo Introduction

In late March, when NATO planes began to bomb Serbian targets, and Yugoslav soldiers began forcing masses of Kosovo Albanians to flee their homes, a number of people asked whether the Balkan Peace Team project in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (BPT-FRY) would end its operations.

by Robin Blackburn (extract)

To get information about the Kosov@ conflict, apart from the website of WRI, you can check the following:

Women in Black: Documents in English and Spanish from womens point of view.

http://wib.matriz.net

Institution for War and Peace Reporting: Regular reports on the situation in Yugoslavia, many of them from people on the ground.

http://www.ipwr.net

The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research: Excelent reports from the ground, from a pacifist point of view.

http://www.transnational.org

Special section on action over Kosov@

Letter to Albanian Friends from Nongovernment Organisations

Dear friends,

Report for the Kosovo Working Group of the Committee for Conflict Transformation Support

Seizure of NATO bombing relieved us here in Belgrade about the immediacy, but left us in a specific state of vacuum and with a great uncertainty about the future. We are choked by the pictures we receive via satellite TV, dominated by horrible evidence of atrocities by Yugoslav militia and paramilitaries conducted in Kosovo, and withdrawal of YU armoured vehicles with soldiers waving flags and bottles singing (on withdrawal!?).

The Executive Committee of the War Resisters' International meeting in London, 22-24 May 1999 discussed the war in Kosovo@ and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Those of us from NATO countries discussed the situation in our own countries - for instance of the problems of anti-war groups in dealing with peace organisations who support the NATO bombings, or of so-called anti-war groups who repeat Serbian propaganda and refuse to condemn the Serbian ethnic cleansing. Our view is that the primary author of this situation is Slobodan Milosevic.

I am now in Belgrade and I plan to remain here a few days before leaving for Kosovo and Montenegro.

I received a letter from Prizren dated 4 May 1999, but it did not reach me until the 20th. It bears a Serbian PTT postal stamp and it was probably mailed by someone who left Prizren. The letter itself is printed in capital letters and unsigned, but it came from a very good friend of mine.

An atmosphere of mistrust and expulsion of adversaries is spreading throughout FR Yugoslavia.

Letter to the International Helsinki Federation of Human Rights

Dear Friends and Esteemed Colleagues,

This letter is an answer to a "request" made by our associates and friends of long standing, with whom we cooperated for a number of years on the long-term and far-reaching programme of building a civic society in the FR of Yugoslavia.

The Congress of the Center for the Dissemination of Information and Democracy (CeRID) and "Serbia Together" in joint session held on May 19 1999 in Nis, presents the following DECLARATION

I am currently in Montenegro, consulting lawyer -- refugees from Kosovo -- about ways to conduct research into events in Kosovo after 24 March.There are over 80,000 Albanian refugees in Montenegro. Approximately 60,000 of them are from Pec, Mitrovica and Istok. Interviewing refugees will help us obtain relevant material about the pattern of ethnic cleansing in the above places. This material will be useful to the ICTY's Office of the Prosecutor for their decisions on conducting investigations and bringing indictments.