War on the Balkans

The massive air strikes against Yugoslavia do not only destroy army installations. They also take human lives and ruin the economic infrastructure of our impoverished country. In the long run, however, the biggest collateral damage will be the shattered possibilities for democracy in Serbia. We fear that the only durable result of the undeclared war will be a permanent state of emergency, legal and spiritual, this time with the support of the bewildered majority, which has always sided with the government in times of extreme adversity and danger.

Milosevic warned ominously last night that there will be "no mercy for deserters" from the Serbian army. Already, deserters and draft evaders from this conscript army face up to 20 years imprisonment (art. 214, 217 and 226, Chapter 20, Federal Criminal Code, Offences against the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), as well as the inevitable persecution and intimidation.

WRI has been working on the question of Kosovo (or Kosova as Albanians prefer to say) since its loss of autonomy in 1989-90. In 1990 we discussed forming an international contingent to join in some of the events being organised by the new nonviolent movement among the Albanian population there, and in 1992 we planned to hold a seminar in Kosovo with the Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms in Prishtina on "nonviolent action for human rights". Unfortunately this was aborted as the Council felt it would be too dangerous to proceed.

by autonomous Women’s Groups in Belgrade, Serbia

Women’s autonomous groups in Belgrade are communicating publicly in order to condemn the Serbian regime’s violence in Kosova. The war in Kosova has begun. The violence of the Serbian regime is the continuation of the apartheid policy which the regime has applied for the past ten years. And the present situation shows that territory is sacred, not human life.

Representatives of some of the main anti-war groups in former-Yugoslavia met in St Johan, Salzburg, Austria this April. One of the documents they produced was an Open Letter to Peace Movements, written in a private capacity, rather than in the name of their groups.

The Balkans Peace Team is a project coordinated by the Bund für Soziale Verteidigung, War Resisters' International, the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, Peace Brigades International, and a coalition of French nonviolent groups. Its principle is that the citizens of each country have to develop their own way to peace and democracy.

Open Eyes in Croatia

Otvorene Oči — "Open Eyes", the Balkan Peace Team in Croatia — is setting up base in Split as well as Zagreb.

War Resisters' International, the international pacifist organisation, will NOT be calling for demonstrations against the threat to bomb the hills around Sarajevo. In the choice between an international commitment to Bosnia-Hercegovina and disengagement, WRI favours international commitment. For us, however, the main goal of an international commitment should be to restore social life in the region: a long-term commitment not just to end the war but to build a peace.

Open letter from War Resisters' International and the International Fellowship of Reconciliation to all those friends in the anti-war movement of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia, who see no alternative to military intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Since the war spread to Bosnia-Herzegovina, there have been widespread calls for military intervention, even in letters from the anti-war movement in Sarajevo.

Intellectuals from the warring republics of Yugoslavia have signed a joint Proposal to Stop the War. They see no possibility for the peace negotiations in the Hague to succeed until the question of reaching a ceasefire is separated from negotiations about a peace treaty and the ultimate borders in Yugoslavia. The urgent need is to stop the fighting and to create conditions of stability where a longer term agreement could be discussed. They propose six elements on which a ceasefire could be based. These include

The only telephone number I know by heart outside Yugoslavia is the War Resisters’ International office in London. This is for a very simple reason: there is always somebody there to receive and spread information, to listen and to understand, to help by giving information we need, and to talk as friends.

Our analysis, reports, warnings about the situation, and questions are always first sent to WRI. Again for a simple reason: the efficiency and the high level of ability to understand.