[kan-l] Alb. Statement/Kos.Action

[Teresa Crawford]

**** Kosova Action Network Discussion List ****
                   SOS! SOS! Demilitarize Kosova at once!
               Before the 7th Annual Spring Genocide in the Balkans.

You can help! Letters and phone calls do work. Guns don't. Keep letters brief
and constructive. The very lives of the villagers depends on your caring.
Write/fax/email the State Department, The White House and your elected
representatives.

              Constructive Suggestions to Include in Your letter:

1.  At this point, the Albanians should refuse to negotiate at all under the
current coercive and unjust conditions. Instead they should demand status as a
protectorate, under both NATO and the UN, while the two sides truly
demilitarize. The Kosovars' constitutional 1974 autonomy should be returned.
These are prerequisites to negotiations. Saving lives should be the short-term
goal of all.

2. During this interim period as a protectorate, the final just and equitable
dissolution of Yugoslavia as a whole should be the focus of one level of
talks. The legitimate restructuring of power in the former Balkan "superpower"
will take time to achieve. At present, the Kosovars, the poorest level of
society both Serb and Albanian are bearing the brunt of the blame for this
disintegration.

3. Once these two processes--demilitarization and restructuring--are
established, the Albanians need time without crisis to identify their
strengths and develop a democratic team in which the KLA is part of a
democracy and not its hijacker.

4. The Serbs need time to build democratic institutions, develop economic
restructuring, and face penalties for war crimes.

Only under these common-sense conditions will the potential strengths of each
side emerge and hatred and fear subside. The more weapons, the more hatred and
death. If Kosova is not demilitarized, then what we are watching in Hill's
bizarre fourth draft of a settlement is nothing less than the beginning of a
familiar, horrifying spectacle. We will all watch helplessly as the slide into
next spring's genocide, Kosova 1999, begins to unfold.







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Submitted by: Teresa Crawford <tmcrawfo at mailbox.syr.edu>