<nettime> To the Academic Community (fwd)

["Slobodan Markovic" <twiddle@EUnet.yu>]

The Society of Professors and Researchers
University of Belgrade

To the Academic Community

The crisis in south-eastern Europe which has been lasting for almost ten
years, as well as the violent break-up of Yugoslavia, continue to take their
bloody toll.  Attempts in finding the solution of the extremely complex
Serbian-Albanian question and the status of Kosovo and Metohija, started
during the peace conferences in Rambouillet and Paris, were interrupted by
mindless partiality and blackmail on the part of some international
mediators.  The mere thought that a problem which goes back at least several
decades can be solved with bombs is irrational, while the assertion that the
NATO intervention is aimed at preventing or ending the humanitarian
catastrophe is deeply cynical.  The initiation of that action, taken outside
the bounds of the international law, is in total contradiction to the
moralising rhetoric used for justifying it.  The peace of a wide area of
south-eastern Europe has been put in jeopardy, while possible consequences
may affect the entire world.

A systematic destruction all over Yugoslavia makes every sensible solution
more difficult to achieve: quite contrary to the claim that only military
targets have been hit, a great number of civilian targets have been affected
too: apartment buildings, non-military factories and bridges, with a serious
threat of further damage to medical establishments, historical and artistic
monuments and schools.  Above all, violence which has been unleashed on all
sides, brings more suffering to an ever-growing number of human victims,
including the Kosovo refugees who are pouring into neighbouring countries as
well as into northern Serbia.  In such circumstances, favourable conditions
for a peaceful settlement are rapidly diminishing.

That is why we are making this appeal to all members of the Academic
Community, in Yugoslavia and abroad, to use all means available to them in
bringing about an immediate cessation of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, an
end of all military actions in Kosovo and an urgent re-start of political
discussions.

Members of The Society of Professors and Researchers
University of Belgrade

Belgrade, April 3, 1999.

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