"We have the right to know the truth, to seek our children, our fathers, our husbands and our brothers. We shall look for them to the limit of our strength .. to find them dead or alive. We don't care if we are killed, because our lives have no meaning now. That is why we protest, and seek the help of all mothers and all women."

"We have lost our towns, our homes and everything we owned. We have the right to know the truth, to seek our children, our fathers, our husbands and our brothers... We shall look for them to the limit of our strength... " - a Srebrenica survivor. In July 1995, the world witnessed "the descent of Srebrenica into a horror without parallel in the history of Europe since the Second World War" (UN report, 15/11/1999).

Nearly 8000 men were murdered and the entire Muslim population deported. Three Bosnian Serb military and political leaders - Karadzic, Mladic and Krstic - have been charged by the ICTY for genocide for their role in the atrocities committed in Srebrenica. Five years have passed... and still hundreds of thousands of survivors are "displaced persons", many living in dire poverty.

The passage of time has not diminished their ardent wish to return to their homes. However, return is largely obstructed by many of the people who hold power in their regions and are obligated to ensure their safety, but may well be those involved in the atrocities. Five years have passed... and only some 70 of the dead have been identified.

Five years have passed... and, although the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has sentenced 13 people and is holding over 30 others for trial, most of the war crimes suspects, including those charged with the highest criminal responsibility, are still free.

If we accept the legacy of these gross human rights abuses in Europe, we thereby deny the most precious foundations of our civilisation. The United Nations has admitted responsibility for the fate of Srebrenica. We now call upon the UN and its member states to face the consequences of that responsibility.

To the Secretary General of the UN, the heads of government of the states concerned and other UN member states, we address an appeal for serious, urgent and effective action ... to reveal the whole truth concerning the fall of Srebrenica, to identify all those who were responsible, either actively or complicitly, for this tragedy and to identify the victims, to arrest and bring to trial all suspects indicted by the ICTY according to its mandate, thus putting an end to impunity, to enable all victims of "ethnic cleansing" to return to their homes by means of sufficient measures to ensure their safety, with reparation and support for material and emotional loss, to lay the foundations for a Bosnia-Herzegovina which respects and promotes human rights for all its citizens without distinction.

E-mail us your name, address (optional), town and occupation /association and we will add your details to the on-line petition: [email protected]

 

APPELL OM STØTTE

Den 11.juli iår er det nøyaktig fem år siden Srebrenica falt, - FNs trygge sone som det het, hvor det i løpet av to dager ble drept 10 701 mennesker, av dem 1 200 mindreårige barn og 598 kvinner.

I fem hele år har de overlevende mødrene fra Srebrenica lett etter kroppene til de drepte, slik at de kan gravlegge dem på en menneskelig og verdig måte. Til i dag er det som er igjen av 5350 mennesker gravd opp, og av dem er til nå bare 53 identifisert. Beina som er gravd opp, og som serberne har ødelagt etter å ha åpnet massegravene, ligger nå i minnesentre i Visoko og Tuzla.

Hvert besøk i disse sentrene er et nytt sjokk for kvinnene. Fordi identifiseringsprosessen er svært langsom og svært dyr, har mødrene besluttet å gravlegge alle som er funnet sammen i en fellesgrav i Potocari, stedet hvor den største massakren etter annet verdenskrig skjedde for fem år sida.

Markeringen av femårsdagen for Srebrenicas fall og denne forferdelige massakren vil begynne den 11.juli kl.12.00 hvor vi vil legge ned grunnsteinen for et minnestenter i Potocari. For å gjøre dette trenger vi godkjennelse fra serbiske myndigheter, og vi gjør det herved kjent at den har vi ikke fått.
5000 folk har hittil sagt at de vil delta i turen til Potocari, men SFOR prøver å redusere antallet til rundt 500, og det kan vi ikke godta.

For oss er det svært viktig å motta støtte fra internasjonale organisasjoner.

Til nå har vi hørt fra menneskerettighetsgrupper, kvinneorganisajoner, mange enkeltindivider og grupper fra London, Paris, Wien, Geneve, Amsterdam, München, Berlin, Frankfurt, Bryssel, og Roma. De vil støtte oss i våre forsøk på å holde en verdig markering av femårsdagen.

Kjære venner, vi håper at dere kan slutte dere til oss. Vi foreslår at dere kl. 12.00 den 11.juli organiserer en slags "minnevakt" eller en fredelig demonstrasjon med plakaten "Rettferdighet for Srebrenica".

I alle byene jeg nevnte blir det avholdt fredelige demonstrasjoner nøyaktig kl. 12.00, på det tidspunkt hvor vi legger ned grunnsteinen til fellesgraven i Potocari.

Det ville vært svært bra om vi kunne sette alle disse organisasjonene i kontakt med hverandre, slik at vi kan koordinere det som skjer. Kanskje det hadde vært en idé å foreslå TV i Norge at de viser filmen fra Srebrenica den dagen.

Alt som gjøres er svært viktig fordi det viser at vi ikke er aleine.

CONTACTS:

Srebrenica Justice Campaign, c/o 22d, Iverson Rd. London NW6 2HE, UK. Tel. Alison Snape +44 171 465 5312 (day)

Dave Lawrence +44 171 328 4197 (eve) [email protected]

Soutien aux Survivants de la Vallee de Drina - Srebrenica (SSVDS),

Sadija Ombasic (President), 6 square Villaret de Joyeuse 75017 Paris, France. Tel. +33 1 44 40 08 41 Fax. +33 1 45 74 22 84 M�res pour la Paix, 71, rue Gaston Baratte, 59650 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France. Tel./Fax +33 3 20 64 03 97

Werkgroep Nederland-Srebrenica, Schimmelpenninckkade 30, 3813 AE Amersfoort, Netherlands Tel/fax +31 33 475 30 01

Sarajevo 11th July 1999

Solidarity with the Women of Srebrenica

International Demonstration

Fourth Anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica

* For the arrest and trial of all war criminals, and all those complicit in genocide

* For the return of displaced people to their homes

* For the exhumation, identification and proper burial of the disappeared

* For the truth about Srebrenica

The Women of Srebrenica

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In July 1995 the Bosnian towns of Srebrenica and Zepa, declared UN Safe Areas and protected by UN Peacekeepers, fell to the Bosnian Serb and Yugoslav armies. Under the eyes of the UN soldiers, unarmed men and boys, aged from 17 to 70, were separated from the women and children, and loaded onto buses. They were never seen again.

In 1999, 8,000 people from Srebrenica and Zepa, are still missing. Over 1,000 bodies have been recovered from mass graves, but only a handful have been identified.

The Bosnian Serb leaders, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, have been indicted by the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, but they and their fellow war criminals remain free. > >

Slobodan Milosevic, the architect of ethnic cleansing, rules in Belgrade and slaughters in Kosova. There has never been a full investigation of the role of the UN and the International Community in Europe's worst war crime since World War II.

The women and children of Srebrenica are refugees in their own country, living in conditions of extreme hardship and isolation. The Dayton Accord guarantees their right to their homes, but the continued threat of ethnic violence prevents their return.

Since 1995 the Association, Women of Srebrenica, has campaigned for truth, justice, and the fulfillment of their right to return home. They have travelled across Europe, speaking to politicians, journalists, human rights activists, trades unionists, and to ordinary people.

On July 11th 1999, the Women of Srebrenica are planning a mass demonstration in Sarajevo to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Srebrenica. Last year attempts were made to prevent them demonstrating. This year they are asking supporters to join them in Sarajevo. Only with your help can their voices be heard.

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