arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Dear Mr Krsljanin

This is by way of thanking you very sincerely for addressing to us such vital information related to the disgraceful and totally unjust and illogical scapegoating of Mr Milosevic and the peoples of Serbia for doing nothing more nor less than defending their country against foreign invaders.

As Franz Kafka said "In our time not the murderer but the victim will be considered guilty".

We recently held a public meeting here in Mullingar in the midlands region of the Republic of Ireland highlighting the plight of the people of Iraq enduring on the long term the remorseless and cruel campaign against them by the West resulting in such great deprivation and loss of life and illness of every disposition amongst the most vulnerable members of the community.

Speakers at the meeting were Richard Becker the Western Region Co Director of the International Action Centre in San Francisco. Richard has been actively involved in the anti-war and anti-sanctions movements in the USA for over 25 years. In 2000 he was co-producer of the video "Blockade:The Silent War Against Iraq" documenting the catastrophic effects of th UN sanctions on Iraq. Richard co-authored "The Children Are Dying", a book published by the IAC in 1996 documenting the effects of sanctions on the Iraqi people, and was also a contributing author of the book "Challenge To Genocide: Let Iraq Live (1999) documenting the movement against US war and sanctions in Iraq. Becker was co-producer of the award-winning video "Genocide by Sanctions" (1998).

Richard Becker is also co-author of the IAC book "NATO in The Balkans" (1998) and was a founder of the Emergency Mobilization to Stop the War (1999). Richard spoke at many teach-ins, forums and other events on the 1999 US/NATO war in Yugoslavia. Richard Becker visited Yugoslavia twice during the NATO bombing and is a co-producer of the video, NATO Targets.

Richard Becker is now lead organiser of the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition in the United States which was formed to oppose the bombing of Afghanistan.

Tom Nagy, Professor of Expert Systems at George Washington University in Washington DC. Professor Nagy is an anti-sanctions activist in the USA.
Over the last two years, Prof Nagy discovered documents of the United States Defense Intelligence Agency proving beyond a doubt that, contrary to the Geneva Convention, the U.S. government intentionally used sanctions against Iraq to degrade the country's water supply after the Gulf War.

Felicity Arbuthnot is a journalist who has worked tirelessly for the past 11 years to highlight the plight of the Iraqi people with respect to the indiscriminate use of depleted uranium during the Gulf War and the devastating effects this type of warfare is having on the Iraqi population.
Felicity has visited Iraq 23 times. She has worked extensively with journalist, John Pilger and recently on his documentary on Iraq, "Squeezed to Death".

The guest speakers also addressed meetings at Trinity College Dublin and at University College Cork. The meetings were organised by the Campaign To End Iraq Sanctions - Ireland. It was a great privilege to have the opportunity to learn so much from the speakers and we are most grateful to them for travelling to Ireland to share their knowledge with people here.

The singular hypocrisy to the West bringing charges of genocide against Mr. Slobodan Milosevic whilst maintaining death dealing sanctions against the people of Iraq is indicative of an abandonment of logic and international law in this era of unprecedented imperialist endeavour by the combined forces of the West.

Again we thank you for the invaluable information and be assured that we use it to best advantage.

Sorry we have been so tardy in giving response to your communications. We do not have an Internet/home computer facility of our own or any of the more of less now everyday technological facilities having to rely on the expert and friendly services of staff of our local cyber cafe.

Our warmest best wishes for the season and the New Year which we hope to be, against all the odds you might say, a peaceful one characterised for a change by some degree of rationality.

June and John Kelly

We thank sincerely also other people who send us information on the Hague so-called Tribunal - We will be writing to them individually in the New Year.

I do not agree at all with your statement!

You say that Milosovic is a scapegoat? Why? Certainly the West uses different measures to judge different dictators, and certainly Milosovic was judged to be the devil incarnate, but I sincerely feel that he deserves not to be judged a victim!

Milosovic is no holy man. After Tito, he used nationalist ideas to manipulate his people and get the power. He completely destroyed democratic tendencies. He is directly responsible for genocide, most noteworthy the Srebrenica massacre. How can anyone call this man a victim? How can anybody ask for the destruction of The Hague Tribunal?

The Hague may not work as efficiently as we might like, and certainly they too are under the influence of NATO-ideology. Just as is the UN. But the UN is, in my opinion, our most direct alternative for the current way the world turns. A reform may turn this organisation into the moral government it deserves to be.

I was in Kosovo two years ago. Milosovic's war turned this country into a hate-infested cesspool of nationalities, even more than before. Serbians from Kosovo were all unemployed and were not allowed to find a job in Serbia itself. They are still locked up behind barbed wire fences and protected by KFOR troops. Otherwise they would be ripped to pieces by the Albanians. The Roma (gypsies) are discriminated and forced out of the country. And the Albanians have a rough time rebuilding.

These people are the victims. All three nationalities, plus Kroatians and Bosnians. The Balkan powderkeg exploded because of this 'victim' Milosovic. The results will be felt for generations to come. Hatred dies slowly. But at the same time, Milosovic is in The Hague, pretending to be a hero and a victim.

Even when the West may not be the moral leader it pretends to be, please do not give this credit to Milosovic instead. Neither deserves to be a martyr or a hero. Milosovic is a murderer many times over, and should be judged accordingly. Just as NATO should for bombing refugees.