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abolition-usa-digest       Friday, June 18 1999       Volume 01 : Number 141




----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 18:58:35 -0400
From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: Minutes of the Abolition 2000 Annual Meeting 1999.

Dear Friends,
In my amendments to the minutes, I mistakenly edited out the name of Ben
Cramer
as the co-convenor of the NATO working group.  His email is
<[e-mail]>  Regards,
Alice Slater
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE)
15 East 26th Street, Room 915
New York, NY 10010
tel:  [phone]
fax:  [phone]
email:  [e-mail]

GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000, a global network working for a treaty
to eliminate nuclear weapons.

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 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
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------------------------------

Date: Tue, 15 Jun 1999 13:24:55 -0400
From: ASlater <[e-mail]>
Subject: (abolition-usa) Alert:June 24 Congressional Actions Nt'l Campaign for Peace in Yugoslavia

Dear Friends,
Please make every effort to circulate this Alert far and wide and to join with
some friends to visit your member of Congress' office on June 24th.  Peace,
Alice Slater

Dear Friends,

         Thank God the bombing and ethnic violence are at least temporarily
over!
But in Washington and Europe there is a triumphalism about cruise
missile
humanitarianism which leaves me with an ominous foreboding. Will the US
and
NATO go on to future 23,000-bomb campaigns in the name of humanity?
Will
the international community really search for constructive alternatives?
We have a chance now to raise our voices collectively for a turn away
from
bomb and starve foreign policy.  The National Campaign for Peace in
Yugoslavia, composed of 27 peace and human rights organizations and
religious peace fellowships, is organizing a nationwide effort to get
100
visits to local offices of congresspeople on June 24th or some time
close
to that. So get together a few friends to join you and make an
appointment
to see the congressperson or their staff.  If they put you off, you
might
consider going anyway and waiting to be heard by your representative.
Here
are some talking points you might want to use:
1. The UN needs to be funded and organized to be the world peacekeeping
mechanism.  Unilateral action by the US or with a compliant regional
military alliance leads to US as world policeman with its attendant
costs
in blood, money and distortion of American democratic values.
2. The US and NATO have a moral obligation to finance the rebuilding of
Yugoslavia.  It is not acceptable to leave thousands of children to die
of
malnutrition and cholera as we have in Iraq because we oppose the
leader.
3. "Cruise Missile Humanitarianism" has caused a horrible destruction of
life, infrastructure, the environment and the relations between groups
in
Yugoslavia and beyond.  We have to develop constructive ways for the
international community to intervene to head off or constrain cases of
mass
violence.
4. We oppose shifting national budget priorities from human needs at
home
and abroad to the military.

I hope you can find others to join you in a visit to the nearest office
of
a congressperson on or around June 24th.  E-mail me if you need more
information. If you do set up an appointment, contact Fran Teplitz or
Jim
Bridgeman at Peace Action in Washington [phone] to report the
fact.
They will be having a press conference and reporting on how many visits
will occur across the country. Fran's e-mail is
[e-mail].
         Peace,
         Mike Yarrow
PS We would like to know also if you can arrange a visit.

Some pointers on visits to the local offices of a congressperson
destilled
from the Friends Committee on National Legislation Flyer.

1. A visit by a number of local constituents to a local congressional
office is often valuable.  It demonstrates to the legilator that a
number
of people from his or her home community share the concern.
2. Be as positive as possible.  You might get further by suggesting
positive measures which need to be taken now rather than dwelling on the
horrors of the war and attacking the legislator for his/her support of
it.
3. To maximize the effectiveness it needs to be carefully planned.
         A. Try to meet before hand and select a theme. In this case maybe "We
would like to talk to the congressperson about what needs to be done in
the
aftermath of the war in Yugoslavia."
         B. Select a person to make the opening remarks.
         C. If you want to explore the four issues listed above, you might
select
someone to articulate each one.
         D. Do some background reading on the issues and if you can research
the
congressperson's voting record. (For background contact AFSC Kosovo
Peace
Education Coordinator at [phone] or e-mail [e-mail]. For
voting record, call Friends Committee on National Legislation at (202)
547-6000.)
4. Write a follow-up letter to the legislator, especially if you talk to
the aid, thanking him for the opportunity to share your views and
restating
your points.

Mike Yarrow
Kosovo Peace Education Coordinator
American Friends Service Committee
1501 Cherry Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Tel:[phone]
Fax:[phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]

Alice Slater
Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE)
15 East 26th Street, Room 915
New York, NY 10010
tel:  [phone]
fax:  [phone]
email:  [e-mail]

GRACE is a member of Abolition 2000, a global network working for a treaty
to eliminate nuclear weapons.

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 with "unsubscribe abolition-usa" in the body of the message.
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------------------------------

Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 11:11:01 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: (abolition-usa) Urgent news from Bishop Atemije

In a message dated 6/16/99 5:03:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[e-mail] writes:

<< Subj:     Urgent news from Bishop Atemije
 Date:    6/16/99 5:03:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:    [e-mail] (Jim Forest)
 Sender:    [e-mail] (Jim Forest)
 To:    [e-mail]

 HITNO!!! HITNO!!! HITNO!!!
 APEL NJEGOVE PREOSVECENOSTI ARTEMIJA, EPISKOPA RASKO-PRIZRENSKOG
 Beograd 15.06.1999 22.25h

 By the help of radio-amateurs, from sources close to the Church, we
 have come to this information:

 The situation on the line Prizren - Pec is tragic. The last Serb
 inhabitants of Metohija are moving out.

 PRIZREN -  KLA has set its check points and controls the town. KLA
 groups have besieged the Bishop's Court with bishop Artemije, monks and
 priests inside. In the church yard, monuments of emperor Dushan and
 Russian consul Yastrebov are destroyed. The German contingent cannot
 guarantee safety and security neither for the Serbs, nor for the priests
 and the monks, and officers advised the Bishop, the priest and monks to
 leave Prizren tomorrow with the remaining Serbs.

 THE HOLY ARCHANGEL MONASTERY (XIV century - 2 km from Prizren)

 This morning KLA has kidnapped one monk and some Serbs from Prizren.
 Their fate is uncertain.

 THE HOLY TRINITY MONASTERY- MUSUTISTE ( XV century)

 Today the monastery church has been burnt down, few days ago the
 monastery residence was burnt down. The nuns have escaped to the
 Gracanica monastery.

 THE SAINTS KUZMA AND DAMIAN MONASTERY -ZOCISTE (XIV century)

 The monks have been evacuated to Prizren. The fate of the monastery is
 unknown.

 VELIKA HOCA and surrounding villages are deserted. Line of 400 people
 are on the way to Pristina, although no safe evacuation has been
 guaranteed.

 THE VISOKI DECANI MONASTERY (XIV century)

 During Yugoslav Army pullout, 150 Albanians from Decani has found safety
 in the monastery and spent 2 days there, together with a group of 17 Serbs
 that had escaped earlier. The Italian troops are stationed near the
 monastery,
 and their officers are cooperative, and guarantee safety and security Serbs
 and Albanians alike.

 PEC - THE PATRIARCHATE OF PEC (XIII century)

 The Italian forces are in the town, relations are good. There are no more
 than 50 Serbs left in the town. The nuns at the Partriarchate are well.
 THE DEVIC MONASTERY (XV century) There is no information. The arrival
 of the French contingent is expected tomorrow.

 THE GORIOC MONASTERY (XIV century)

 No presence of KLA is registred. The arrival of the French contingent is
 expected.

 Branislav Skrobonja
 Draze Pavlovica 13,
 Beograd
 e-mail [e-mail]

  >>

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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 17:19:28 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: (abolition-usa) NYC area / June 30 event

This arrived today, it looks kosher, not a pro-violence evening for one side
or the other, so I am happy to pass it on.

David McReynolds

<< Subj:    June 30 event
 Date:    6/17/99 10:02:47 AM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:    Sheridanpa
 To:    DavidMcR

 PRESS RELEASE
 >
 >A GATHERING, A READING, AN EVENING, A PUBLIC EVENT OF NEW YORKERS READING
 >LETTERS, JOURNALs, POEMS, EMAILS FROM THE PEOPLE OF KOSOVA AND SERBIA.
 >ORGANIZED BY MARTY POTTENGER WITH KATHLEEN CHALFANT, EVE ENSLER, HENRY
 >FONER, ARTHUR FRENCH, JOYCE KOZLOFF, ALVAN COLON LESPIER, YOSHIKO CHUMA,
 >RABBI JULIE SHONFELD, REV. DAVID DYSON AND OTHERS.

 >June 30 1999
 >St. Peter's Church
 >619 Lexington at 54 St.
 >6:00 to 8:30 PM
 (15 minute intermission)

 >Contact: Erin Dunn    212 575-7534
 >              Boneau, Bryan,Brown or
 >
 >              Marty Pottenger   212 505-8639
 >>_______________________________________________________

 >     On June 30, 1999 at St. Peter's Church 619 Lexington (54 St)  from
 >6 to 8:30PM, New Yorkers from  labor, theater, dance, religion, visual
 >arts, police, education and business will gather to read the stories of the
 >people of Kosova and Serbia - refugees, citizens and exiles - about the war
 >.  The evening's writings have been collected and assembled by Artistic
 >Director and Executive Producer Marty Pottenger  with the help of Eve
 >Ensler, Laura Flanders and Kathleen Chalfant and reflect the first-hand
 >experience of people from many different perspectives and experiences .
 >"Whiling away the hours in the cell I share with a murder suspect, I asked
 >myself what the West's aim was for "the morning after". The image of NATO
 >taking its finger off the trigger kept coming to mind." -- Veran Matic,
 >Editor-in-Chief of Belgrade's banned Radio B92. "  "So when the time came
 >and  he was forced to leave, my grandfather knew that they would burn his
 >home, so he took his poems and put them in the beehives, thinking maybe
 >they won't destroy the beehives. And perhaps they are they still there,
 >waiting amongst the bees, being covered in honey." -- Kosovar woman
 >    Winning the War  Peace  is conceived and organized by Pottenger as
 >a response to the war -- "As I asked New Yorkers what they thought about
 >the war in the Balkans I learned that one friend had quit buying the
 >NYTimes for the last several weeks, not realizing until we spoke that it
 >was because he couldn't face news of yet another war. He'd been telling
 >himself that he was just too busy. My upstairs neighbor started crying when
 >we spoke, asking  me 'How can I answer my children's' questions when I
 >can't even pronounce Milosevic's name properly or the names of the cities
 >where this is all happening?' I realized then that we need opportunities to
 >come together, to meet as New Yorkers, as citizens of the United States, as
 >people who care and are also confused, isolated and scared. As well as
 >debates and discussions, we need a place to simply listen to our neighbors
 >from Yugoslavia, both those being brutally torn from their homes, their
 >communities destroyed, and also those who our country was bombing, who were
 >being portrayed as evil monsters.  Rather than try to interpret the
 >information and determine our response separately, here is an opportunity
 >to come together and turn our minds towards war and peace and perhaps
 >become a bit wiser -- not  just for this war, but for the next, and the one
 >after that.
 >    I turned to my community here in New York and asked if they would
 >be willing to read a short excerpt from original writings by people like
 >themselves. The response was tremendous. It seemed appropriate to bring
 >together people from my own communities, to gather us together both in
 >response and in respect for the people of Yugoslavia during this time -
 >understanding that we were all not of the same opinion -  but that war is a
 >time when relationship and community  beats at the heart of how we can move
 >forward together to win the peace."
 >
 >>From Obie-winning actors to labor leaders, professors, police officers,
 >Local 3 electricians, leaders of NYC's religious institutions, lawyers and
 >leaders in the field of visual arts -- the readers represent some of the
 >diverse communities in New York City. They have diverse and dissenting
 >opinions about the war. Their participation comes from a desire to gather
 >with others to share the stories of our neighbors in Yugoslavia and to
 >understand the realities of this war more deeply. Readers: Kathleen
 >Chalfant, Robbie McCauley, Yoshiko Chuma, Henry Foner, Arthur French,
 >Katherine Acey, Jane LaTour, Caron Atlas, Simin Farkondeh, Nancy Spero,
 >Mary McLaughlin, Linda Mancini, Brad Stokes, Azi Khalili, David White, J.
 >L.Pottenger Jr., Rosalba Rolon, Alvan Colon Lespier, David Calle, Rabbi
 >Julie Shonfeld, George Drance, Carla Peterson, Ellie Covan, Cydele Berlin,
 >Evan Ruderman, Martha Baker, Rev. David Dyson, Annie Lanzalotto, Matthew
 >Maguire, Magda Sawon, Tamas Banozich, Starr Theater, Linda Earle, Rebecca
 >Nelson, Marty Fishgold, Rev. Peter Laarman, Elaine Harger, Joyce Kozloff ,
 >Diana McWilliams, Patrick O'Flaherty, Mary Beth Edelson, Freddi
 >Brown-Carter, Tamara Damon and others
 >
 >        Artistic Director and Executive Producer Marty Pottenger is
 >a writer and performance ar
 >tist whose City Water Tunnel #3 won an Obie in 1996. Writing and performing
 >since 1975, she has toured nationally and internationally with her works
 >"Construction Stories" and "City Water Tunnel #3."  A carpenter and a
 >trades activist for over 20 years, Pottenger is also a founding member of
 >Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics.  She receives
 >critical and generous support from the arts community including a Lila
 >Wallace Arts Partners Planning and Project and Rockefeller MAP. For the
 >last two years she has been working with the Center for Cultural
 >Decontamination  (an anti-Milosevic, pro democracy cultural center) in
 >Belgrade on RJEKA/REKA (River/River), a large-scale performance journey
 >throughout the entire Balkans along the Sava River.  She will be traveling
 >to Belgrade July 2nd to do research for her next play "War and Peace."
 >        "Winning the Peace" is being created with the participation
 >and support of The Suitcase Fund of Dance Theater Workshop with major
 >support from Trust for Mutual Understanding, The Working Theater, Cornell
 >University School for Industrial and Labor Relations, New York State
 >Council on the Arts and New York Foundation for the Arts .
 > >>

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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 17:22:22 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: (abolition-usa) news from the Serbian Orthodox Church

I know from one or two posts that there are some who will rejoice at these
trials. Too many of the Left have chosen sides, and have rationed their
compassion. Yesterday's New York Times documented how these orthodox church
folks had rescued Albanians during the worst of the troubles and given them
haven, keeping them safe.

Now the KLA has come, the tables are turned, and I know among the Albanians
there are people as compassionate as there were a handful among the Serbs.
Many are guilty on both sides, but on both sides also a few have compassion.

David McReynolds

Subj:     news from the Serbian Orthodox Church
 Date:    6/17/99 4:45:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:    [e-mail] (Jim Forest)
 Sender:    [e-mail] (Jim Forest)
 To:    [e-mail]

 a related report is attached

 * * *

 Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 14:38:49 EDT
 Subject: Statement 6-16-99 Serbian Orthodox Church, Belgrade

 Information Service
 of the Serbian Orthodox Church

 PRAVOSLAVLJE PRESS

 STATEMENT

 Belgrade, June 16, 1999

 The afflictions of the Serbian Orthodox believers, clergymen and
 monastics, as well as the damages caused to the churches and
 monasteries on Kosovo and Metohia have been aggravated to the
 extent of tragedy.

 Rt. Rev. Artemije, the Bishop of Raska and Prizren, together with
 local clergymen, monastics, and 250 Serbs who remained in Prizren,
 lived for several days in the churchyard, surounded by the Albanians,
 and exposed to the perils of Albanian terrorists.

 Today, in the afternoon, the prisoners have managed to move to the
 free territory, owing to the great efforts made by Rt. Rev. Atanasije,
 the Bishop of Zahumlje and Herzegovina, who has been on Kosovo
 and Metohia for several days already.

 Two clergymen have stayed in Prizren.

 The monastic Hariton from the monastery of the Saint Archangels,
 near Prizren, was kidnapped yesterday by the Albanians, and nothing
 has been known about him since. The rest of the monastics managed
 to find refuge in the Gracanica monastery, near Pristina.

 The monastery of the Holy Trinity, near Suva Reka (its church and
 residential part) has been burned to the ground. The nuns from the
 monastery managed to leave in time, and, temporarily, to find refuge
 in the Gracanica monastery.

 The monastery Devic, abode of nuns, has been exposed to the severe
 attacks of the Albanians for couple of days, since it has been left without

 military protection.

 The efforts of the clergymen from Pristina to free the nuns, have not
 resulted in success yet.

 There is no clergymen, and not a single Serb in Djakovica.

 The situation is very difficult for the Serbs living in Pec and in other
 places on Kosovo and Metohia as well.

 The nuns of the Patriarchate of Pec monastery, and two clergymen
 from Pec, have stayed there with the people.

 Rt. Rev. Amfilohije, the Archbishop of Crna Gora and Primorje has
 arrived this afternoon in the Patriarchate of Pec monastery.

 Tomorrow, on June 17, 1999, His Holiness Pavle, the Serbian
 Patriarch, and his auxilliary bishop, Atanasije Rakita, the Bishop of
 Hvosno, will come to the Patriarchate of Pec.

 About 35.000 of Orthodox Serbs have been driven out of Kosovo and
 Metohia. They have abandoned their hearths after signing of the
 Peace agreement.

 We hope that this tragedy will be stopped with the help of God.

 Translated by Ivana Milicic

 From the Patriarchate Web site: www.spc.org.yu

 * * *

 Thu, 17 Jun 1999

 http://www.inet.co.yu/

 04:10  Artemije, the Bishop of Raska and Prizren Diocese stated that
 local Albanian residents of Prizren are beating up and disarming Serb
 civilians ever since KLA entered the town. 5 Serbs, among them one
 monk, were abducted by KLA in Prizen yesterday.

 17:45 Serbian Patriarch Pavle met KFOR chief commander, Lt.General
 Michael Jackson, in Prishtina at 12:00pm. He stated that he would stay
 in Kosovo for a while. Also, during the afternoon, Patriarch Pavle is
 expected to arrive in mediaeval monastery of Pec Patriarchate near Pec.

 18:15 Reuters reports that about 50,000 Serbian refugees left Kosovo
 during last 7 days.

 * * *
  >>

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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 17:22:32 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: (abolition-usa) Patriarch Pavle plans to go to Kosovo

In a message dated 6/17/99 8:26:55 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[e-mail] writes:

<<
 Here is an hour-by-hour diary of events in Kosovo yesterday.

 Don't overlook the plan of Patrirach Pavle announced late last night
 to himself go to Pec, the ancient center of the Orthodox Church.
 This is his personal effort to help preserve Kosovo as a muti-ethnic,
 multi-religious community. His going there is, of course, not without
 risks. Please keep him in your prayers. (I was interviewed this morning
 by the BBC World Service about this action by Pavle. You might hear
 me for a few minutes tomorrow on the program "Focus on Faith,"
 broadcast at 12:30 London time.)

 Note that Bishop Artemije, on the advice of NATO soldiers, had to
 flee Prizren, but hopes to return. He remains in Kosovo -- in Pristina.

 Jim

 * * *
 source: <beograd.com>
 Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 23:06:36 +0200

 8:33 ITAR-TASS - Russian paratroops stationed at Pristina airport
 began construction of defense objects, primarily in the south part
 of the airport. All in all, it seems that Russians expect KLA
 attacks. It was also added that the nearest NATO units are 10 km
 from the airport and that Canadian troops have built a pillar 10
 metres high, on which modern technology has been mounted for
 monitoring Russian troops.

 17:30 USA officials announced that heavy bombers will be
 withdrawn from Europe in the next several days.

 17:15 Italy, ANSA: As a reason for prolonging the deadline for the
 total withdrawal of the YU Army from Zone 1 in Kosovo (about a
 hundred soldiers are still there), for 24 hours more, "the intense
 exodus of Serbian civilians" has been stated. At the same time, it
 is estimated that Albanians are returning to Kosovo in a pace of
 about 1,000 per hour; huge confusion in Kukes. Ivanov from
 Helsinki: "If we don't want to risk the whole peace process in
 Kosovo, KLA must be disarmed as soon as possible."

 KLA announced this morning that Russian troops will be treated
 as 'enemy troops', Moscow replied it regards this statement as a
 "declaration of war". (Meantime, Russian contigent in Pristina has
 been enlarged -- published, but without any details).

 Americans arrested 2 Serbs near Urosevac, accusing them of 'war
 crimes'.

 Last news on RAI: Pec - KLA leader appointed as mayor of Pec.

 16:30 The Ortodox monastery Holy Trinity in the village
 Musutiste near Prizren was burnt down completely by KLA. This
 monastery has been mentioned for the first time around the year
 1465. Kosovo has the biggest number of Christian monasteries
 dating from the Middle Ages.

 16:23 800 Czechs and 350 Hungarians will be included into KFOR
 forces. The first group of 110 Greek KFOR soldiers arrived to
 Urosevac today.

 16:14 Studio B reports that 30 KLA members were killed today in
 Pristina by British KFOR forces.

 14:59 A convoy of buses is leaving Pristina today for Prizren, for
 evacuation of the remaining 200-300 Serbs from that region. Bishop
 Artemije said he would leave Prizren because he's not feeling safe.
 He added that Serbs would be back when KFOR guaranteed safety.

 23:52 Bishop of Raska-Prizren region arrived to Pristina from
 Prizren 23:30 Sabri Kicmari, KLA speaker in Stuttgart, is
 answering some questions of the TV reporter regarding the burnt
 monastery and revenge against serbs, which he of course denies,
 saying that Albanians do not do such things...

 23:24 Tonight`s news of the German TV WDR -- they asked
 Rudolf Scharping how come YU Army is withdrawing so much
 armament from Kosovo when NATO claimed during the whole
 war that the YU Army in Kosovo is destroyed. The poor guy
 started to mutter and finally he could not give arguments. Germans
 suspect that Yugoslavia imported rubber tanks from Iraq before the
 war and similar things, which cost 40,000 DM a piece and provide
 an authentic image of a real tank from the sky.

 23:03 Serbian Archbishop Pavle just said on TV that he would
 personally go to Pec Archbishopry in order to do what he can to
 protect and return the Serbs from that region. Example for
 politicians.

 22:54 According to foreign media, mass disarmament of KLA is in
 process by KFOR.

 22:49 UN High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, said today
 that cca 17,500 Serbs and Montenegrins left Kosovo for Monte
 Negro during the last week.

 22:34 Refugees from Kosovo are at the entry of the town for 3-4
 days now and are receiving the basic provisions and aid from the
 Red Cross... After that, some of them stay (where?), some go on...
 My heart is crying when I see convoys of poor people on tractors...
 If you people from abroad can send some help, please do it as soon
 as possible. These people have nothing else any more but the few
 things on their tractors.

 * * *

 Wed, 16 Jun 1999 16:47:27 -0500

 source: <http://www.inet.co.yu>

 22:40 His Holiness the Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Pavle is going
 to visit Pec soon. He appealed to Serbs in Kosovo today not to
 leave their homes.

 23:25 The Bishop of Raska and Prizren Diocese has arrived in
 Pristina, fleeing from Prizren from KLA.

 23:40 According to official sources from Serbian Ortodox Church,
 more than 35,000 Serbs have fled from Kosovo so far.

 00:45 KLA terrorists have grabbed monk Hariton yesterday from
 Holy Arhangel monastery near Prizren. Other monks managed to
 escape into the Gracanica monastery near Pristina.

 01:15 According to the reports from Pristina, not a single Serb
 remained in Djakovica.

 * * *
 Orthodox Peace Fellowship
 Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands
 tel: [phone] / fax: [phone]
 e-mail: [e-mail]
 Orthodox Peace Fellowship web site: http://www.incommunion.org
 * * *



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------------------------------

Date: Thu, 17 Jun 1999 17:37:29 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: (abolition-usa) In war, truth is the first casualty

 Nato accused of "media blunders" * (BBC
 99.06.16)
 Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 17:09:52 -0400

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_370000/370911.stm

 Wednesday, June 16, 1999 Published at 17:40 GMT 18:40 UK
 BBC: World: Europe

 ================================
 Nato accused of "media blunders"
 ================================

 General David Wilby and Jamie Shea brief the media :
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/370000/images/_370911_shea300.jpg

 Nato has come under fire from a media organisation for "distorting
 the truth" and giving "false information" about the war in Yugoslavia.

 In a report called War in Yugoslavia, Nato's Media Blunders, the
 Paris-based Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) said the problems could
 have arisen from simple mistakes, or could have been deliberate
 misinformation.

 "False information, exorbitant and impossible-to-check figures and
 the use of debatable historical references have strengthened doubts
 about the goodwill of certain western political and military leaders,"
 it said in a statement.

 Reporters Sans Frontieres: "Doubts about goodwill of certain western
 leaders" :
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/370000/images/_370911_rsflogo.jpg

 The group illustrated its concern with the Nato confirmation of the
 death of ethnic Albanian leader Fehmi Agani and five others.

 At the Nato briefing in Brussels, General David Wilby said the report
 came from a reliable source and had been carefully checked.

 But RSF said that his source was in fact the Kosovo Information Centre
 in London, run by Kosovan exiles.

 Agani was killed, but some days later.

 "Making a rumour official in this wa, during the first week of bombing,
 would appear to be less the result of a mistake than of a deliberate
 decision," said the report.

 The report gave other examples including a Nato air strike on two
 convoys initially blamed on the Serbs.

 The attack on 14 April was admitted on 19 April. A recording of a
 pilot alleged to have hit the first convoy was later revealed to have
 mothing to do with the attacks.

 RSF said other features of the Nato briefings were approximate
 figures, debatable historic references and the use of demonising
 vocabulary such as "genocide".

 "Nato has not shown goodwill in its relations with the media,"
 RSF said.

 "It could still be hoped that a coalition of democracies, which claims
 to have right on its side, would behave with more integrity than the
 dictatorship it is fighting against," the report ends.

 * >>

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Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 14:18:40 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: (abolition-usa) Re: Clampdown in Southern Serbia

This is a message from a reliable (and courageous) source in Belgrade. The
Socialist Party referred to has NO relationship to the Socialist Party USA
(of which I'm a member). David McReynolds

<< Subj:     Clampdown in Southern Serbia
 Date:    6/18/99 12:24:18 PM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:    [e-mail] (grupa484)
 To:    [e-mail]

 Clampdown In Southern Serbia

 Journalists, human rights activists and opposition politicians in southern
Serbia have been jailed or mobilised during NATO's bombing campaign - and the
repression seems likely to continue.

 By an independent journalist in southern Serbia.
 (Published on June 13, 1999)

 Even before NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslavia, Leskovac and
Vranje, two towns in southern Serbia, were notorious for the way in which the
authorities stamped out dissent.

 In the wake of the bombing campaign large numbers of men were mobilised and
all potential opposition silenced--and it will take more than the end of the
war for a more open environment to prevail.

 Vranje and Leskovac are two of the poorest towns in Serbia--the average
salary before the war was a meagre 50 German Marks ($27) a month--and state
television has always been the principal, if not the only, medium. The
circulation of independent newspapers, when available, has been minimal.

 In such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Slobodan Milosevic's
ruling Socialist Party has won every election since 1990. Moreover, anybody
daring to oppose the local authorities has risked interrogation by the secret
police, dismissal from employment and even incarceration.

 In silencing opposition, the authorities have made the most of the
peace-time law on public information as well as extraordinary war-time
decrees of the Serbian government.

 The most prominent victims of the clamp-down have been Dobrosav Nesic,
chairman of the Committee for Human Rights in Leskovac, and Vojkan Ristic, a
long-time journalist of the former independent weekly Nasa Borba, and after
it was closed, Vranje correspondent of the Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti.

 Dobrosav Nesic was released from Leskovac prison on June 7 after serving a
one-month sentence that was imposed on him on January 21 in accordance with
the law on public information. The editor of an independent monthly magazine
called The Rights of Man, Nesic had published a text under the headline "To
Write Like All Other Normal People" in which he was critical of the way in
which the local media in Leskovac operated. In addition to Nesic's 30-day
sentence, the Committee for Human Rights, the magazine's publisher, was fined
17,000 German Marks ($9,140).

 On his release, Nesic said: "Even in the prison, I continued to speak out
against the regime of Slobodan Milosevic who is destroying the future of the
entire people. They put me into solitary confinement and forced me to do the
most difficult jobs.

 "Once they beat me up. I received blows to the stomach and head, and spat
blood. I told them that they had taken away my freedom, but not my dignity. I
won over to my views many inmates who live in cruel conditions and who are
treated in a bestial manner."

 Independent observers view the Committee for Human Rights' fine and Nesic's
prison term as punishment for their attempts to organise an Albanian-Serbian
dialogue on Kosovo. The authorities interpreted such a dialogue as a
"betrayal of national interests".

 In the wake of the fine and the imprisonment, The Rights of Man has ceased
publication. Nevertheless, Nesic says that he is now preparing a new issue
"in order to inform the citizens in the south of Serbia about what the
authorities are doing in their name and the tragic consequences that this
entails."

 The independent press in Vranje disappeared with the first NATO bombs. All
male members in the newsroom of the weekly Novine Vranjske were immediately
drafted and, despite the peace agreement, are yet to be demobilised. As a
result, the paper has not been published for the past three months.

 The Vranje journalist, Vojkan Ristic, spent the month to May 27 in Vranje
prison. His offence, which merited a custodial sentence, was failing to
change the place of residence to correspond with the new one in his identity
card--for six days. In sentencing Ristic, the municipal magistrate said that,
in addition to the police report and war-time legislation, he had taken into
consideration "the interests of the security of the country".

 Independent observers suspect that the real reason for Ristic's imprisonment
is his year-long investigation into and reporting of the corrupt practices of
the local branch of the ruling Socialist Party, headed by Serbian Deputy
Prime Minister Dragomir Tomic.

 The most avid readers of his articles, it seems, were the secret policemen
who interrogated him in February for 15 hours and "gently" advised him to
"stop writing about Tomic". The prison term was presumably punishment for not
heeding the advice. Upon his release, Vojkan Ristic refused to talk about his
treatment in prison, but vowed to continue his investigative reporting as
soon as the war-time legislation curtailing media freedom was lifted.

 Independent media in southern Serbia have not been the only casualties of
the NATO bombing campaign. In addition to hassling and drafting journalists,
the authorities have systematically mobilised leading members of opposition
parties, threatening them that they would be sent to the front.

 Members of the Democratic Party have had most difficulties, especially after
the regime media accused their leader Zoran Djindjic of being "a traitor and
a foreign mercenary". A senior member of the party's executive committee in
Leskovac, who wished to remain anonymous, said that he has had been receiving
threatening phone calls and had been insulted by Socialist Party activists in
the street.

 "When the war started, the regime decided to move against us. The director
of the institution where I work, who is in the top leadership of the
Socialist Party, gave me my notice and left me without any means to make a
living. "Similar things have happened to other opposition activists and to
members of our families. We are living in fear from yet more reprisals," he
said..

 At the end of May on a few occasions several dozen protestors gathered to
demonstrate against the numbers of mobilised men of all ages from Leskovac
and the surrounding area. The police broke up the demonstrations using batons
and detained several of the protestors to try to find out who the organisers
were.

 The demonstrators believe that the leading Socialist Party politician from
this region, Zivojin Stefanovic, had ordered mobilisation of as many as
50,000 people from Leskovac and the surrounding area in the hope that he
would be rewarded with the post of Yugoslav ambassador to Bulgaria.

 Stefanovic now regularly surrounds himself with bodyguards from the
debt-collection agency that belongs to the notorious war crimes suspect and
gangster Zeljko ("Arkan") Raznatovic. Even if the war is over, the structures
of power within Serbia remain in place.

 The author is an independent journalist from southern Serbia whose identity
has been withheld.



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------------------------------

Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 15:33:32 EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: (abolition-usa) Decani: a monastery safegaurded by Albanians

In the midst of unreason and revenge and war comes this post which reminds us
of good folks on "both sides of the line". Of such can a new society be
built. David McReynolds

<<
 June 17, 1999 / Filed at 4:34 p.m. EDT

 Serb Monastery Protects All Peoples

 By The Associated Press

 DECANE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- When withdrawing Serb forces pillaged
 this southwest Kosovo town, the abbot of the Serbian Orthodox
 monastery sheltered scores of ethnic Albanian villagers within the
 14th-century building's stone walls.

 On Thursday, it was still sheltering frightened people. But this time
 they were Serb monks and townspeople, fearful of violence at the
 hands of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army.

 Local Albanians remembered the monastery's courage and kindness
 and vowed to protect those inside.

 "If they are going to kill them, they must kill us first," an ethnic
 Albanian villager, Shaban Bruqi, said of the monks. "They saved us."

 From Saturday to Monday, when Serb soldiers went on a final
 rampage of burning, looting and raping in western Kosovo, the
 monastery's abbot made its green grounds an oasis of peace for
 Serb and ethnic Albanian residents alike.

 It was a rare act in Kosovo. Faith and nation are almost one and the
 same in Serbia, for both predominantly Serbian Orthodox Serbs and
 predominantly Muslim ethnic Albanians.

 "They were honest people of all faiths and nations," the abbot
 Theodosia said Thursday as black-robed monks around him hacked
 at weeds and pushed wheelbarrows.

 "It was the Christian thing to do," he said, serenely. "It was the human
 thing to do."

 The town outside the monastery held about 6,000 ethnic Albanians and
 700 Serbs before the war. Fighting that started months before the
 NATO bombing campaign chased out all but 350 of the ethnic
 Albanians and reduced their mosque to ruins.

 On June 11, with the peace accord signed, armed Serbs broke into the
 homes of the remaining ethnic Albanian villagers, robbing them,
 beating both women and men, and threatening women at gunpoint with
 rape.

 "I told the soldier, 'Here, you can have my five dinars (a few cents),
 just don't kill me and my father,"' 8-year-old Duresa Malaj said, sitting
 on her father's lap in one of the buildings still standing in Decane. "He
 took my money."

 The abbot had helped the ethnic Albanians throughout the fighting,
 giving them food, going to their homes and stopping them on the
 streets to check on their well-being.

 Saturday, after the rampage of the previous night, he sent for the
 threatened families, dispatching cars to fetch 150 ethnic Albanians and
 bring them to shelter inside the monastery's walls.

 In the town, monks took up positions outside the gated courtyards of
 those ethnic Albanian families who stayed in their homes. When Serb
 attackers came looking for ethnic Albanians, the monks told them there
 were none, the villagers said.

 Families cowered inside the monastery and their homes for three days,
 while a Serb woman from the town guided Serb fighters looking for
 homes to burn.

 Serb fighters appeared at the arched gate of the monastery one day --
 only to tell the monks blocking their way that they were there to pray
 for forgiveness for what they had done, according to the townspeople.

 "They risked their lives for us," Bruqi said of the monks.

 "We are happy because we could help them," the abbot said.

 With the withdrawal of Serb forces from western Kosovo, Serb
 civilians have left as well. Only about 20 remained in Decane on
 Thursday, all of them old, all of them hiding in the monastery, the
 monks said.

 A NATO tank blocked the winding road to the monastery. Another
 blocked the gates.

 Further to the east in the heart of Kosovo rebel territory, CNN reported

 Thursday that Kosovo Liberation Army rebels ransacked and terrorized
 the monastery of Devic, showing images of shattered icons and
 reporting a nun's account of being beaten and stripped naked.

 But the abbot in Decane said he wasn't worried about the rebels; only
 about acts of individuals. The monastery and the 660-year-old church
 at its center were the best-preserved in all of Kosovo, he said, and had
 to be protected.

 "Churches and mosques are holy places. They are houses of God. I
 don't know who has the heart to touch them," Bruqi said. "The abbot,
 he has no reason to doubt us."

 * * *



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------------------------------

End of abolition-usa-digest V1 #141
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