[AKI-News] AKI NEWSLETTER--URGENT UPDATE! March 15, 2002

[Alice Mead]

AKI NEWSLETTER (ADVOCATES FOR KOSOVA'S INDEPENDENCE)
MARCH 15, 2002





                          AKI STATEMENT

We deplore the recently proposed reorganization of the FRY by EU 
political leader, Javier Solana. It represents the worst kind of 
diplomatic solution to a complex, protracted problem--namely, the 
death of Yugoslavia. With US leadership clearly focused elsewhere, 
top-down solutions are being forced onto populations who are 
struggling to achieve respresentative government, to which the 
population in this region have been deprived--always! Of note--it is 
against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 for any 
organization to create a government that is not directly approved by 
the population it seeks to govern.

We support the following critique of the new proposal because we want 
to support the analysis of the people who actually live in the sad 
wreckage of this disintegrated former country, who strive against 
overwhelming odds to create constructive change. They are the experts 
on their region. Hopefully, this misbegotten plan by Solana will be 
the impetus which will finally result in a broad-based, open 
discussion of the future of the region in which all sides, including 
the Kosova citizens, will have an equal opportunity for well-reasoned 
input.

*********************************************************************
         from the Committee of Regional Cooperation:

>  The Committee holds that with respect to Montenegro the EU is acting
>contrary to its own principles. The mission of Xavier Solana is preventing
>a referendum as a legitimate means of determining one's own future. The
>implications of this attitude are manifold:
>
>·	It is preventing dialogue between the two political options 
>in Montenegro;
>·	It is deepening divisions within Montenegro that may lead to 
>tension and
>conflict;
>·	By supporting the pro-Milosevic faction in Montenegro and Serbia the EU
>is becoming a generator of crisis and additional confusion;
>·	By insisting on the preservation of the de facto non-existent state of
>the FRY, the EU is effectively backing the forces which brought about the
>disintegration of the SFRY and started the war, i.e. the forces which took
>an active part in it.
>·	This partial attitude of the EU is contrary to the goal of 
>pacifying and
>stabilizing the region. The disintegration of the FRY cannot be stopped
>because it follows the dominant logic of the disintegration of the SFRY. A
>move to halt this process by force, or to deny the right of
>self-determination (as in the case of Montenegro), may cause further
implosion of the region with irreparable damage;




>Note: this is the full text referred to by RFE/RL in the news item "
>SERBIA/MONTENEGRO - Serbian intellectuals urge EU not to block democracy"
>(RFE/RL 11/03/2002) -see
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/balkanhr/message/3655. It is obvious that the
>text is not signed just by Serbian intellectuals but by intellectuals from
>former Yugoslavia.
>
>---------------------
>
>
>Committee for New Regional Co-operation: Statement on the Status of Montenegro
>
>
>Belgrade, 10 March 2002. At this moment, the unresolved status of
>Montenegro as a state is one of the most pressing issues in the process of
>establishing security in the region. The ongoing negotiations between the
>FRY and Montenegro under the auspices of the EU, as well as the pressure to
>which Montenegro has been subjected, throw into question Montenegro's right
>of self-determination. This right, which constitutes one of the fundamental
>principles on which the Europe of today rests, has been granted to all
>other former republics of the SFRY. The criteria for recognizing the
>newly-established states on the territory of the former Yugoslavia were
>laid down by the Badinter Commission precisely on the basis of these
>fundamental principles. The Committee for New Regional Co-operation holds
>that these criteria ought to be used as a basis for completing the process
>of the dissolution of Yugoslavia. Montenegro must be allowed to decide on
>her future as a state independently and without coercion.
>
>The Committee holds that with respect to Montenegro the EU is acting
>contrary to its own principles. The mission of Xavier Solana is preventing
>a referendum as a legitimate means of determining one's own future. The
>implications of this attitude are manifold:
>
>·	It is preventing dialogue between the two political options 
>in Montenegro;
>·	It is deepening divisions within Montenegro that may lead to 
>tension and
>conflict;
>·	By supporting the pro-Milosevic faction in Montenegro and Serbia the EU
>is becoming a generator of crisis and additional confusion;
>·	By insisting on the preservation of the de facto non-existent state of
>the FRY, the EU is effectively backing the forces which brought about the
>disintegration of the SFRY and started the war, i.e. the forces which took
>an active part in it.
>·	This partial attitude of the EU is contrary to the goal of 
>pacifying and
>stabilizing the region. The disintegration of the FRY cannot be stopped
>because it follows the dominant logic of the disintegration of the SFRY. A
>move to halt this process by force, or to deny the right of
>self-determination (as in the case of Montenegro), may cause further
>implosion of the region with irreparable damage;
>·	The preservation of the FRY effectively sustains the Greater Serbia
>project. Montenegro was the only country on the side of the Allies to have
>been stripped of its independence. Restoration of this independence, taken
>away in 1918, is the only way to put an end to the Greater Serbia project.
>
>Signed
>
>Latinka Perovic, Sonja Biserko, Isuf Berisha, Olgica Popovic-Obradovic, Ivo
>Banac, Obrad Savic, Enver Hoxhaj, Milka Tadic, Peter Kuzmic, Suada Kapic,
>Ivan Lovrenovic, Milan Popovic, Rusmir Mahmutcehajic, Jakob Finci, Iso
>Rusi, Srdjan Darmanovic, Teuta Arifi, Ylber Hysa
>
>
>Balkan Human Rights List
>Subscribe: balkanhr-subscribe at egroups.com
>Unsubscribe: balkanhr-unsubscribe at egroups.com
>
>Home:
>
>Balkan Human Rights Web Pages: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
>
>The Balkan Human Rights List: 
>http://www.egroups.com/group/balkanhr/fullinfo.html
>
>The Greek Human Rights List: 
>http://www.egroups.com/group/greekhr/fullinfo.html
>
>Dikaiomatika! [monthly human rights review in Greek]: 
>http://www.egroups.com/group/dikaiomatika/fullinfo.html
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 6565 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/aki-news/attachments/20020315/47a6f85f/attachment.bin