The following letter was forwarded to a professor at Tufts by Professor Ursula Doleschal of the University of Vienna, Austria. There were two other contributors to the letter: Professor Martin Haspelmath from the University of Leipzig, Germany and Professor Davide Ricca from the University of Torino, Italy.
Dear colleagues,
We are extremely concerned by what has been going on in Yugoslavia during the last few weeks. The world is witnessing a horrible escalation of the war in Yugoslavia which each of us, as citizens of democratic countries belonging to or sympathizing with NATO, is responsible for.
The media and leading politicians are almost unanimous in their support for the military escalation. We think the NATO bombings should be stopped immediately, for the following reasons:
First, the plight of the ethnic Albanians deteriorated dramatically after the NATO bombings began. That Milosevic would use the strategy of ethnic cleansing after the NATO attacks was predictable from the beginning, because all Albanian civilians are now seen as enemies by the majority of Serbians.
Second, since help cannot be sent into Kosovo quickly, there is the imminent danger that all ethnic Albanians will be deported from Kosovo in the coming weeks.
Third, as the bombings continue, the refugees cannot be helped effectively either, because the security of the helpers is not guaranteed, and neighboring countries are unable or unwilling to help sufficiently. If the main intention is to avoid a further deterioration of the humanitarian catastrophe, the bombings must be stopped.
Fourth, the NATO war has helped Milosevic gain the support of the vast majority of Serbians, even those who regularly participated in demonstrations against his regime until recently. Only by stopping the war can we help the Serbians who oppose Milosevic's criminal regime.
Fifth, the Rambouillet Treaty was not fair to Yugoslavia: It required the Yugoslav government to allow NATO not only into Kosovo, but also to allow NATO free access to all military structures in Yugoslavia. The ethnic-Albanian representatives signed the Rambouillet Treaty only after being assured that Belgrade would not sign it.
Sixth, Milosevic cannot be compared to Hitler or Saddam: Until the NATO war, Serbia was a civilian society with an opposition media. It was a semi-democracy much like pro-Western countries such as Croatia, Egypt and Colombia. The NATO war is a war not just against the Milosevic regime, but against the whole Serbian people.
Seventh, about 200,000 Serbians were driven out of their traditional settlement areas in the Krajina region of Croatia by the Tudjman regime in the early 1990s. The West seems to have forgotten their plight entirely, and Western governments have not put pressure on Croatia to allow the refugees back. It is not surprising that the Serbians feel they are being treated unfairly by NATO.
Eighth, we applaud the principle of putting human rights above the sovereign rights of independent states. But military interventions should treat all countries equally. If NATO bombs Yugoslavia, but condones the brutal oppression of ethnic minorities in countries like Sudan, Rwanda, Turkey, Indonesia, Russia and China, then one suspects that NATO has other goals besides the defense of the human rights of ethnic Albanians.
Ninth, human rights can be defended all over the world only if there are powerful institutions like the United Nations that are universally accepted. The unilateral NATO bombings in Yugoslavia are doing enormous damage to international law and to the prestige of the United Nations and other truly worldwide institutions. We deplore the fact that the most powerful NATO country, the United States, has repeatedly refused to accept international decisions (such as the banning of land mines), even when they are backed by European NATO countries.
If you agree with our position, please communicate this message on to other people in NATO countries and other Western countries. If you don't agree, please take our arguments into account.
