Wetenschappers over Balkan-oorlog

[Marc-Alexander Fluks]

Onderstaande mail kreeg ik uit Griekenland. Kennelijk worden wereldwijd
wetenschappers aangeschreven door onze Griekse collegae om tegen de
Balkan-oorlog te demonstreren.

Ik forward de zaak maar naar deze lijst omdat het wel aardig illustreert
dat in elk geval dat gespeel met dat iedereen het met elkaar eens zou
zijn, groteske nonsens zij.

En, laten we eerlijk zijn: de domoortjes zijn voor (ze weten nu eenmaal
niet beter, daarom zijn we op dit moment verwikkeld in dit volkomen
achtelijke conflict), de wat slimmeren van deze wereld trappen domweg niet
in de NATO propaganda.

Enfin, lees maar.


Marc Fluks.

------------------------------------------------------doorgestuurde mail
>From: Christos Efthymiopoulos <cefthim at cc.uoa.gr>
>To:   fluks at astro.uva.nl
>Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 23:01:13 +0200 (GMT-2:00)
>Subject: Kosovo


gcontop at cc.uoa.gr
Prof. G. Contopoulos
Department of Astronomy
University of Athens
GR 157 84 Athens, Greece

April 29, 1999

Some facts about the war in Yugoslavia

When NATO started bombing Yugoslavia, President Clinton claimed that
this action was necessary in order to protect the rights of the ethnic
Albanians in Kossovo.

In view of this statement, the fact that there are presently half a million
ethnic Albanian refugees means that NATO has been unsuccessful in
meeting this goal.

We do not justify the ethnic cleansing by the Milosevic regime in
Kossovo.  But it is very difficult to explain this number of refugees by the
sole action of the Yugoslavian paramilitary. There is no doubt that the
bombings have increased dramatically the number of refugees. In fact,
before the bombings, there were almost no refugees from Kossovo.

On the other hand, the bombs do not discriminate between Albanians and
Serbs. For example, in the hospital of Pristina the majority of the victims
are Albanians. Another example is the bombardment of a convoy of
Albanian refugees returning home on April 14, which resulted in 75
deaths.

The western media continuously present the drama of the Albanian
refugees. But they fail to show adequately the drama produced by the
bombings: the loss of human life, including hundreds of civilians, the
thousands of wounded and mutilated, the destruction of bridges, power
stations and factories that result in hundreds of thousands of unemployed,
the destruction of trains, schools and hospitals "by mistake". They also
failed to present the shocking events related to the bombardment of the
main television center in Belgrade on April 23, that had dozens of
victims, mainly journalists.

In view of the above facts we are justified in expressing the opinion that
the world is grossly misinformed about the basic facts concerning
Yugoslavia and Kossovo.

We sympathize with the Albanian refugees, and Greece was the first
country to provide substantial humanitarian aid to them. But we
sympathize also with the killed, the wounded, the mutilated Serbs and
Albanians, that are the victims of the most modern war machinery in the
world.

Furthermore, the western world does not know that even worse situations
than in Kossovo take place in other nearby geographical regions. They
ignore that more than half a million of Serbs have been expelled from
Kraina and parts of Croatia and Bosnia. Ethnic cleansing has been applied
also by the Turkish regime in Cyprus, and brutal repression is a daily
phenomenon against the Kurds in Eastern Turkey. The Kurdish people are
called terrorists, but the UCK groups in Kossovo are called freedom
fighters and have the military support of NATO (although some months
ago they also were called terrorists in the West).

Finally, the NATO action lacks any justification according to the
International Law. It lacks the support by the United Nations which is the
only organisation that has the authority to act in international conflicts.
According to its constitution, NATO was supposed to be a defensive
organisation to protect its member states. What right does it have to select
particular international problems for action outside its frontiers?

There is a growing anxiety that the war may expand and involve countries
that are beyond the control of NATO, with unforeseen consequences.

Their is also a growing anxiety due to the ecological catastrophe that
affects not only Yugoslavia, but the neighbouring countries as well.

We believe that the war is a much worse alternative than any difficult
negotiations. After all if the tens of billions of dollars spent up to now by
NATO for destruction were used in Kossovo they would make all its
citizens rich.

As a conclusion we ask you:
1) to DEMAND from the media, and all other agencies involved, to
provide adequate and objective information, coming from all sides
involved in the Kossovo crisis, before passing judgement about the war in
Yugoslavia, and
2) to URGE the NATO governments to stop the war in Yugoslavia and
start again negotiations for a just and permanent solution in Kossovo.

On behalf of the following Greek non-governmental organisations:

Hellenic Astronomical Society (President: Prof. J. Seiradakis)
Hellenic Physical Society (President: Prof. C. Spyridis)
Hellenic Society for the Study of High Energy Physics (President: Prof.
M. Dris)
Hellenic Nuclear Physics Society (President: Prof. G. Anagnostatos)
Hellenic Mathematical Society (President: Prof. N. Alexandris)
Association of Greek Chemists (President: Prof. N. Katsaros)
Panhellenic Union of Biologists (President: Dr. C. Yapidzakis)