Belgrade, April 25, 1998.
Dear Sir or Madam,
I would like to inform you about an action initiated by a group of
activists from various organizations (student unions, European Youth
Association in Serbia, Belgrade PostPessimists, the XXL Group, AEGEE,
GLIB, Student Federation, etc.), the Anti-war Campaign.
The idea to start the action came as a reaction to the conditions that
we are experiencing. Besides the socially and politically critical
situation , in which we find ourselves, a new threat of the potencial
war conflict and suffering appears in Kosovo. Furthermore, neither the
political factors, nor the public in Serbia show neither interest or
ability to cope with this crisis.
All activities of the Anti-war Campaign`s initiators and activists have by
now been targeted to provide for an alternative to dominant authoritarian
concepts -- mainly through striving for the mutual understanding,
tolerance, solidarity, open-mindedness, and non-violence. With full
awareness of the fact that all our future work toward those aims strongly
depends on the reaction to the current developements, we have decided
to consolidate our potentials and treat this action as a priority.
We see as primary goals of the Anti-war Campaign the following:
1. Activating and connecting of numerous individuals and organizations
of different profiles from the whole teritory of Serbia and giving them
an opportunity to express their anti-war atitude;
2. Driving public attention to the danger of new suffering and
devastation;
3. Promotion of a responsible view of patriotism, as a process aimed at
the country`s progress, instead of destructive adventures in the name
of mystified values and for the benefit of the ruling elites;
4. An attempt to raise the issue of ways for solving the crisis in
general, and the Kosovo crisis in particular;
5. Motivating and encouraging people gathered around the Anti-war Campaign
to get involved, network, and initiate on their own similar actions in
the future.
Action Description:
This action should last for fourteen days and consist of distribution of
one million A5 leaflets in the whole of Serbia. The text on the leaflet
will be a warning of the dangers that any war carries (i.e., it would
affirm peace and non-violent conflict resolutions), neutral in any ethnic
or religious sense, readable, clear and simple, non-ambiguos, etc. It
would only be signed with the Anti-war Campaign in order to avoid possible
dislike or hostlity to any of the organizations involved. The idea is to
distribute the leaflets in all Central Serbian towns with minimum 5 to 10
thousands inhabitants, as well as in Vojvodina, especially in towns where
the Serbian Radical Party won many votes in the last elections. When
Kosovo is concerned, we believe that the initiation of similar action
among the Albanian population is necessary. That is why we are already
puting efforts to find among our Albanian friends those willing to
participate -- of course with all the help that we could provide.
The accomplishment of this action`s goals does not depend just on the
distribution of leaflets, but also on drawing public attention to the
issues at stake. Thus, we believe that the independent media should
also have their role in coverage of this action.
The activists gathered by now have managed to form working groups, with
tasks concerning the begining of the action (spreading the information
on the Campaign, getting new activists, contacting the media, propaganda
design, raising logistic and material support, etc.).
I hope that you are interested to participate in the Anti-war
Campaign. All the assistance that you would be willing to supply for
the realization of this action is more then welcome.
With respect,
for the Anti-War Campaign,
Miroslav Hristodulo,
Student Unions, Belgrade
address: Svetog Save 32a, 11000 Beograd, Yugoslavia
phone: +381-11-433-088
e-mail: miroslav@opennet.org
--ANTIRATNA KAMPANJA
25.04.1998, Beograd
Postovani,
Obavestavam Vas da je pokrenuta akcija pod nazivom Antiratna kampanja, koju je inicirala grupa aktivista razlicitih organizacija medu kojima su Studentske unije, Evropsko udruzenje mladih u Srbiji, Post pesimisti Beograda, Grupa XXL, AEGEE, GLIB, Studentska federacija i mnogi drugi.
Ideja o pokretanju akcije pod ovim nazivom javila se kao prirodna posledica okolnosti u kojima zivimo. Pored i ovako kriticne socijalne i politicke situacije, na Kosovu se javlja novo potencijalno zariste ratnih sukoba i stradanja, a akteri na politickoj sceni i gotovo celokupna javnost ne pokazuju interesovanje ni sposobnost za drugacije vidove resavanja kriza.
Aktivnosti inicijatora i ucesnika Antiratne kampanje i do sada su bile usmerene na pruzanje alternative dominantnim autoritarnim obrascima kroz zalaganje za medusobno razumevanje, toleranciju, solidarnost, otvorenost za razlicite koncepte, a pre svega nenasilje. Svesni da od reakcije na aktuelni razvoj dogadaja zavisi buducnost nasih nastojanja u navedenim pravcima, odlucili smo da konsolidujemo svoje redove i ovoj akciji damo prioritet.
Kao prevashodne ciljeve Antiratne kampanje vidimo:
1. aktiviranje i povezivanje sto veceg broja pojedinaca i organizacija razlicitih profila sa teritorije cele Srbije, koji bi kroz ovu akciju mogli da artikulisu svoj antiratni stav;
2. skretanje paznje javnosti na opasnost od novih stradanja i razaranja;
3. promovisanje odgovornog shvatanja patriotizma kao zalaganja za razvoj zemlje, nasuprot destrukciji u ime mistifikovanih vrednosti kojom profitira vladajuca elita;
4. pokusaj otvaranja pitanja o nacinima resavanja kriza uopste, kao i resavanja konkretne kosovske krize;
5. motivisanje i ohrabrivanje ljudi okupljenih oko Antiratne kampanje da se ubuduce angazuju, povezuju i sami iniciraju slicne akcije.
Opis akcije:
Akcija bi trajala 14 dana i sastojala bi se u deljenju 1.000.000 (milion) letaka A5 formata na teritoriji Srbije (pre svega po manjim mestima u unutrasnjosti zemlje). Sadrzaj letka bi upozoravao na opasnost od rata (odnosno afirmisao mir i mirna resenja), bio bi nacionalno i etnicki potpuno neutralan (u smislu da bi iskljucivo imao ulogu da ukazuje na besmislenost i nesvrsishodnost ratnog resavanja problema), citljiv, jasan, jednostavan, nepatetican, neopterecen sa vise poruka, originalan, nedvosmislen (mozda i nekoliko razlicitih sadrzaja sa istom porukom) i marketinski obraden. Bio bi potpisan imenom akcije kako bi se izbegla a priori odbojnost ljudi zbog neke od organizacija koje akciju pokrecu i koje bi je podrzale. Predlog je da se letak distribuira u svim mestima u centralnoj Srbiji koja imaju najmanje 5 do 10.000 stanovnika i u Vojvodini pre svega u mestima u kojima je Srpska radikalna stranka dobila veliki broj glasova. Što se samog Kosova tice smatramo neophodnim da se i medu Albancima pokrene slicna akcija, zbog cega vec radimo na tome da medu prijateljima i poznanicima pronademo one koji su spremni i smeli da u tome ucestvuju - naravno, uz svu pomoc koju mozemo da im pruzimo.
Realizacija ciljeva ove akcije ne zavisi samo od distribucije letaka, vec takode i od privlacenja pozornosti javnog mnjenja. Zato mislimo da je neophodno da u njoj ucestvuju i nezavisni mediji.
Do sada okupljeni aktivisti uspeli su da formiraju radne grupe koje imaju zadatak da obavljaju pripreme za sam pocetak akcije (sire informacije o pokretanju Kampanje, okupljaju nove aktiviste, kontaktiraju medije, osmisljavaju propagandu, traze logisticku i materijalnu podrsku...).
Nadam se da ste zainteresovani da uzmete ucesca u Antiratnoj kampanji. Svaka pomoc koju ste spremni pruzite realizaciji je vise nego dobrodosla.
S postovanjem,
Miroslav Hristodulo, Studentske unije, Beograd
adresa: Svetog Save 32a, 11000 Beograd telefon: (011)433088 e-mail: miroslav@opennet.org
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