Novi Sad
http://beograd.rockbridge.net/greens_from_belgrade.htm
Beograd 31.03.1999.
Dear friends,
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This is the first time that I am not addressing you just as a member of INES, but also as an anti-nuclear movements activist and a signatory of all the significant appeals of these movements, as a co-establisher of the Greens branch of the in Nurnberg, as a president of the Cancel of New Green Party in Belgrade and the honorary president of the Ecological Party from Tirana, as a member of The Movement for Peace of the Muslims and Serbs, the participant of the "German-Serbian-Muslim-Croat Dialogue in Munich", the co-organizer of the first Caravan of Peace of the Greens in Kosovo and in the end, as a mother of a child born in a mixed marriage. I am doing this only because I want to point out the depth of my wish and need for co-operation, agreement among peoples of different nations and faiths and the mutual planning of their future.
There is no time to begin this appeal with a discussion on the causes and mechanisms of the outbreak of this crisis, about the unknowing diplomatic interventions, about the lack of will for peace both in my country and your countries, which brought about the destruction of a significant multi-ethnic country in Europe, the former Yugoslavia. I will only shortly note that the clash in Kosovo and Metohija is just a phase of this dishonouring work, in which no one wishes to begin responsible talks; only that would show transparency in the mechanism of the clashes aggravation and make the conditions for its de-aggravation and responsible dialogue.
I directly urge you to do everything to stop the NATO intervention against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, because it will not bring peace and because now it has already brought about the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo - not only aimed at Albanians, but at Serbs as well. At the end of all aggressions, there is peace. I am afraid that NATO diplomacy is making prerequisite for long-lasting hatred and lack of confidence which will disable all future discussion between the Serbs, Albanians and other national communities about the political solutions in the limits of existing European documents.
I wish to point out a special side-effect of the bombing of which little has been said: the actions of NATO Pact are so wide, that in the first phase they can already be characterised as absolute war which means the destruction preconceptions - cultural, spiritual and natural lives of millions of people of all our country.
The toxic nature of the 19 200 tons of explosives (equal to the amount used in the Nagasaki bombing) used is well known to you - we warn you that Serbia is one of the greatest sources of underground waters in Europe and that the contamination will be felt in the whole surrounding area all the way to the Black Sea. NATO Pact is bombing factories, the workers in the greater part of our great industrial complexes have decided to make a "living wall" around their working places, they are not doing this because they are only defending their country, but also because they have become so impoverished by the years of sanctions, that the destruction of factories would mean the condemnation to the unequalled poverty equal to execution. Such poverty will soon cause the long lasting crisis in this area, and will become the center of potential terrorism.
NATO chooses the targets in the vicinity of the extremely dangerous machineries. On the very first day, the municipality of Grocka has been hit - on the territory of which the nuclear reactor Vinca is situated, containing a great storage of nuclear waste; the municipality of Pancevo has been hit, on which the petrol-chemical factory and the factory for the artificial fertilizers are situated; the municipality of Baric has also been hit with the great complex for the production of chloride, which is using Bopal technology. It is not necessary for me to explain what the blowing up of one of such factories would represent. Not only Belgrade which is situated at a 10 km distance, would be endangered, but the rest of Europe too. On the second day, in the Belgrade suburb of Sremcica a factory for the chemical production and a rocket fuel storage was hit causing a milder intoxication of the surrounding area.
I am pointing out that four national parks were hit - all members of the International association of the national reservations - you have to realise that FR Yugoslavia is among 13 of the world's richest bio-diversity countries. On the third day, the Avala area was aimed at, where the psychiatric division of the neuro-psychiatric clinic of Belgrade is situated. The Yugoslav Cinematheque was also put in danger - one of the richest film archives in the world, listed among the world cultural heritage. The village of Gracanica was also shelled: there is situated one of the most important monasteries of the medieval orthodox culture and the candidate for the UNESCO heritage list. Numerous civil targets in other cities were hit - schools, hospitals, the sites considered as the cultural monuments.
Especially worrying are the latest news saying that, in the next phases of their bombing, NATO will use the airplanes B1 and A10 which are carrying missiles with depleted uranium previously used in Iraq and Bosnia Herzegovina. The use of these will bring about the vast dangerous consequences to the health not only of the soldiers, but also of the whole population, and you know that the toxins and the radioactivity know no nationality or borders.
Of course it is not necessary for me to point out the shocks that children and old people unable to hide in shelters are experiencing, the worsening of the situation in the hospitals. If the aim of this intervention was the prevention of the humanitarian catastrophe, its result will be a far greater humanitarian catastrophe with far more severe consequences to the generations of people living in this country.
I am deeply convinced that I am speaking in the name of all the citizens of Yugoslavia when I say that we have the capabilities and the political will to find a solution for the Kosovo and Metohija problem, if we are allowed to seek this solution together with the Albanians, and if we take into consideration the fact that all of us have the right to participate in this solution. All one-sidedness and media manipulation are a part of the mechanism bringing suffering, destruction and death.
Infinite Peace and Love,
paul
After the year 2000 we will not ask ourselves why we missed investing our savings in some Y2K compliant stock. In the spirit of Oscar Schindler, we will reflect and wonder why we failed to help more people and more communities. – Anonymous
paul kawika martin Phone: 202.548.0535 Email: paulm
igc.org
Board Chair, EarthCulture, Participant, The President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion (Nonprofit and Civic Preparedness Sector) and Coalition 2000 and Special Advisor on Y2K for the DC Green Party
320 Independence Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20003-1044
Coalition 2000 Page: http://www.coalition2000.org
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Hatred is never ended by hatred but by love – Buddha