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From: kajosevi@newschool.edu
Subject: Women in Black's Fourth Anniversary of Protest -Forwarded
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From: INDIRA KAJOSEVIC 
Subject:  Women in Black's Fourth Anniversary of Protest -Forwarded

Dear all,

Please read a message from Belgrade.
indira
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From: CENTRIC_BG@ZAMIR-BG.ztn.apc.org (S.O.S. and Centre for Girls)
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Subject: Women in Black's Fourth Anniversary of Protest
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 1995 17:06:00 +0200
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## Nachricht vom 07.10.95 weitergeleitet
## Ursprung : /ZAMIR/WOMEN
## Ersteller: CENTRIC_BG@ZAMIR-BG.ztn.apc.org




      ANNOUNCEMENT:  FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF OUR PROTEST AGAINST THE WAR


The acknowledgment of the date of our anniversary cannot have a ceremonial  
or celebrational character.  We have neither put an end to the war nor had  
such an illusion.  However, we have not abandoned ourselves to  
desperation, nor are we in the trap of helplessness, nor have we lost our  
hope.  Despite the deep conflicts which war provokes in us we do not have  
doubts about continuing our actions.  Despite insults, underestimations  
and condemnations that are addressed to the pacifist movement here, and  
not only here, we are still convinced that non-violent strategies are the  
only alternatives to war.  Great energy and means are expended in war and  
armed violence, bringing only death, destruction and hatred.  In non- 
violent strategies, almost no means are used and still their existence and  
dissemination encourage us, yet also disturb those who support, produce  
and lead the war.  They would like to see us helpless, apathetic and  
passively accepting our fate; to see us in the condition in which they  
have already put most of the inhabitants...

For four years, since October 9, 1991, every Wednesday we have made  
visible our non-violent protests against war and the Serbian regime, which  
we hold responsible for war; we instigate civil disobedience against all  
forms of imposed indentification:  nation, national state, all armies and  
flags.

We are transforming our anger over war and militarism into positive  
actions:

- We value (respect) voices of women against war and have recorded them in  
alternative women's history, the proof of this being in our large  
publishing activities (books, magazines, brochures etc.) in different  
languages.

- We organize international meetings of our women's solidarity network  
against war.  The last such meeting (our fourth annual) was held in August  
1995 in Tresnjevac.  Our friends came from all countries of the former  
Yugoslavia and from 14 other countries.  The Serbian police regime  
constantly presents us with numerous obstacles to this form of  
communication:  this past August, for 30 hours, they blocked the passage  
of a bus of Italian pacifists, not allowing them to enter the country to  
attend our meeting.  They refuse to give visas to Spanish and other  
pacifists and feminists and put activists from our group, our friends from  
Croatia and other countries under police interrogation etc.
What is it that the Serbian regime fears when it has in its hands such a  
police and military force?  This proves that even our modest acts of non- 
violent resistance are a "threat" to the totalitarian regime which wants  
to control everything by instilling fear and through force.

- We condition, spread and strengthen the network of international  
alternative relationships to overcome the limits which are placed on us  
and to confront obstacles by confirming local and global connections.

- We stimulate and develop relationships of support and exchange with  
refugees; instead of charity and victimization we want to assist them to  
regain their lost self-respect and dignity.  In our work in refugee  
centers we are facing obstacles placed by the institutions and above all  
the Serbian Commission for Refugees - who are refusing, with no  
explanation, to grant us permission to go to the refugee centers.  We  
continue, despite the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia, who, in  
accordance with the aforementioned commission, has forbade us to go to the  
refugee centers.  They are also putting those refugees who cooperate with  
us under police interrogation; one more proof that this regime wants to  
strangle every form of self-organizing and autonomous thought.

- We support men who refuse to go to war, who refuse forced mobilization  
and war deserters.  We plead for conscientious objection of military  
service to become a basic human right here also.

In short, we are convinced that only a network of civil society and non- 
violent resistance can change the logic of war and stop war machinery.  It  
is a long-term strategy that requires patience, persistence and whose  
results happen gradually.  We lean on each other for support, in  
solidarity of common troubles and for projects within the autonomous  
women's and pacifist movements worlwide.

We will continue to be on the streets of Belgrade to publicly protest  
against the war and all forms of militarism.

LET US BANISH WAR FROM HISTORY AND FROM OUR LIVES!

WE INVITE ALL CITIZENS OF BELGRADE TO JOIN OUR NON-VIOLENT PROTEST ON  
OCTOBER 8, 1995 AT 18h IN REPUBLIC SQUARE and every Wednesday from 15h30- 
16h30 also in Republic Square.

WOMEN IN BLACK AGAINST WAR
BELGRADE, October 5, 1995

--
** Beispiel-Signatur f#r #ffentliche Nachrichten **
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