Sunday, April 11th

5% refugees... in 45 days...

    Friends,

    A short time ago, I listened to a portion of a White House briefing and a Pentagon briefing on CNN. Milosevic's offer of a ceasefire has been summarily dismissed. The bombings will continue until the US/NATO gets its way. It will take 45(!!) days to get the 20,000 refugees the US has agreed to take in to Guantanamo Bay (of all places - how incredibly rude of us not to take them into our own country, since it is our fault they have been displaced at this time), and this is less than 5% of the total people affected. I have seen CNN footage of a Macedonian border patrol beating (with a nightstick) a regufee driving a tractor. The man in the tractor was doing nothing but sitting there, had not raised a fist and did not attempt to protect himself, nor did his passengers. I have seen a sea of people pressing against Macedonian police who are preventing them from entering Macedonia. These people are being pushed from behind as more and more refugees enter the limbo area between the borders. If it takes this long to airlift only 20,000 people of more than 400,000, Macedonia will explode - it has been placed in an untenable position. I have seen thousands of people forced to drag their sick through paths that are nothing better than open sewers.

    NATO has created a catastrophe. What was horrible has gone to hellish and in the meantime - to paraphrase Bruce Cockburn - the rag in the bottle of gasoline longs to ignite; to take a civil war to a regional war and perhaps beyond. I call upon the UN to take control of this situation, as it rightfully and legally should, according to international law. Arrest Milosevic for crimes against humanity and war crimes, dismantle the KLA and reprimand NATO and the US for taking international law into their own hands. Place UN (non-Nato) troops in Kosovo, allow the people of the area back into their homes (if they have any) and return to the FRY its sovereignty in exchange for its promise to allow its people to determine the course of their country, while protecting their human rights.

    I call upon the United States of America to recognize and make restitution for human rights violations perpetrated and/or sanctioned by its government - both within and without its borders. Then, and only then, does the US have a true and defensible foundation for denouncing human rights violations elsewhere. I ask my country to match its might with its intelligence and compassion; to use its strength and power to lead the world down the path of peace rather than continuing the old, unworkable stock phrase, "Might makes right". As we have seen repeatedly throughout history, war, at best, only brings about a temporary solution and at a heavy, heavy cost. If the US is not prepared to take peaceful, internationally legal action in concert with the UN, in ALL cases of human rights abuses around the globe, it should not set itself up as the protector of such.

    We need to raise our voices for peace, we need to meditate to bring that amazing power of collective spirit to bear on those who are making the decisions in this mess, to bring them the enlightenment that no one is absolutely right and no one country has the right to tell the world how it must be. I call upon all peace-loving people of the world to come together Thursday, April 8, 1999 at 9pm PDT to pray/meditate for peace, followed by e-mail letters to circulate around the world to your friends, governments, peace and humanitarian organizations, regional and global alliances (such as the EU and UN). If you have the means, get a group physically together for this purpose or for a PEACEFUL protest against war and violence. If you have ever been at a gathering of a large group of people, you know how effective the group mentality is.

    As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. so rightly stated, only love ends violence... Collective compassion and passive resistance have great power - even if they are not as quick as bombs at reaching their objectives - they are the only tools of real and permanent change and there is less destruction and fewer human lives are lost in the long run. If you wish to live in a better world, spread the right to self-determination to more and more nations and secure a better existence for your children and grandchildren, please join your spirit to this effort and let your voice be heard. If you wish to spare the lives of your husbands, wives, sons, daughters, sisters, brothers who might otherwise risk death in this conflict, join us.

Sherri Sarantakis,
San Francisco, CA USA

    (This letter is also being sent to all the heads of state, peace organizations, UN ambassadors, religious groups I can find on the Net, as well as most of the people in my address book. However, I hope you will forward this to your friends and any groups you can think of. It only takes a tiny spark to start a bonfire...)