Branka Jovanovic
Franca Rozmana 18,
11000 Belgrade,
tel. 444- 9494
E-mail: branka_j@ yutarget.com
branka_j@ yahoo.com

Belgrade 1999-04-02

Dear Larisa,
Thank you for your prompt reply. I will say a couple of principal things which are of great importance for us.1. NATO officials claim that they act in the name of the highest values of civilization and that they are protecting human rights and lives of Albanian civilians. At the same time they overlook the fact that the rights and lives of all civilians are endangered precisely with their action which has caused humanitarian disaster of wide proportions which includes the humanitarian crises of Albanian refugees.

2. The humanitarian crisis of Albanian refugees has more than one aspect
a) a great number of people flee from the areas of mass bombing of NATO pact
b) one part of the refugees are moving away under pressure of UCK (KLA) so that the NATO intervention can be justified by the river of refugees
c) the other part is certainly frightened by the action of Yugoslav Army
d) while some people are victims of para-military intimidation
On the other hand the refugees fleeing towards Serbia ( Serbs, Albanians, Gypsies, Muslims)are victims of NATO mass bombing and action of Albanian KLA the biggest para-military unit in YU which has committed atrocious crimes
3. We insist on condemnation of crimes and bringing out all perpetrators before a corresponding court. This principle is based on our demand that investigations of the committed crimes and trial of eventual perpetrators must be
a) impartial
b)non-politicized
c) transparent to the public opinion4. I have cooperated with The Hague Tribunal for four years in clarifying of the war crimes on the territory of former Yugoslavia. My cooperation rested on faith of an institution such as UN and its peacemaking and anti-war character. I still believe that the
Tribunal could be an instrument of peace should it be impartial, non-politicized and transparent for public opinion

The Tribunal as well as the power centers, media and international public contribute to the mechanism of ethnical cleansing by not condemning the previous ones and thus legalizing them. The first large ethnical cleansing on the territory of former YU of 30 000 Serbian civilians from the Western
Slavonia (Croatia). Babies , women, old men and women drove on tractors in the middle of winter in the same images of horror you are now seeing as destiny of Albanian people. Nobody has ever reported or condemned at least the immoral if not the criminal side of this. Even at that time we warned t
hat a more gruesome cases of ethnical cleansing will happen if this one is not condemned. Indeed that has happened. Very soon mutual extermination of Serbs, Croats and Muslims occurred. Serbs exterminated Muslims in East and Northern Bosnia, Muslims exterminated Serbs at the same time in Central Bosn

You all remember the images of dramatic expulsion of 30 000 Muslims from Srebrenica which happened at the same time when 300 000 Serbs were banished from Croatia in the military action of Croat forces named "Storm". This action was planned with a group of American generals and was approved by the American administration. The Hague Tribunal completed the investigation of the crimes committed by Croatian Army. Our group has helped these investigations. The indictment has not been raised to this very day, although the long lines of Serbs were shelled, children and old people died of thirst and stress. From the original number of 650 000 of Serbs , around 50 000 Serbs live in Croatia today. From the original number of 600 000 Serbs there live in Bosnia today not even 50 000.
All of the people who fled these parts ran hungry, naked and barefoot, babies and the old people were carried regardless of their nationality. We have always warned the withholding the facts of suffering of Serbian civilians a crime in itself, but by far greater crime is the legalization of their ethnical cleansing which will cause a new one only on a different location

5. That's why we demand
a) The Hague Tribunal should investigate and accuse all ethnical cleansing in Yugoslavia from 1991 until today
b) UN, International governmental and non-governmental organization should protect the human rights of all citizens of former YU
c) World media should cease partial reporting because it is the key element of the war mechanism which brings an increasing number of victims.
The Greens of the world must press harder the relevant instances in media, return to the facts and develop a more productive interpretations of YU crisis thus making an impact on de-escalation of the problem and not its expansion

Branka Jovanovic
(The president of the New Green Party Council)