From: lgsax@igc.apc.org (Lynn Gazis-Sax)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: MIRacles No. 10
Date: 22 Aug 92 02:24:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1475300368:000:10271
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!lgsax    Aug 21 19:24:00 1992


From: Lynn Gazis-Sax <lgsax>
Subject: MIRacles No. 10

/* Written  4:10 pm  Aug 21, 1992 by gn:jsax in cdp:gen.quaker */
/* ---------- "MIRacles No. 10" ---------- */
Cc: igc!fcnl
Subject: MIRacles No. 10

=================================================================
MIRacles No. 10                               Joel GAzis-SAx
20 Kolovoz 1992, Zagreb, Croatia              QEP
=================================================================
Copyright 1992 by Joel GAzis-SAx

Gandhi, I seem to recall, liked to remind his followers that we
own but a piece of the truth.  The way to peace was to share what
we have with others.  The course of my peacework these past few
weeks has been to take the many little pieces of experience that
I carry in my head and to share them with others.

While I was in Vojvodina, I was invited by the leaders of the
Peace Camp to speak on behalf of the group at a Hiroshima Day
celebration in Szeged, Hungary.  To be truthful, I was a second
choice for this occassion:  the Japanese representative to the
camp had not yet arrived.  Many found my participation as a
citizen of the country which had perpetrated this great outrage
against the Japanese people to be ironic.  I almost declined on
these grounds myself.

Sitting in the bus late one night at Moranica, however, I found
words coming into my head that I could not expel.  I went to the
leaders and told them that I had changed my mind.  The next day
in Szeged, I delivered the following speech:


It is nearly forty seven years since my country killed an entire
city with one bomb.  Since then it has been the hope of people
everywhere that nuclear weapons be abolished.

I share that desire.  But I have something surprising to tell
you:  I believe we should work less on abolishing nuclear weapons
and more on abolishing conventional weapons.  While I believe
that we should not stop seeking a comprehensive test ban and the
dismantling of the nuclear stockpiles everywhere, I feel that we
have wasted a lot of energy and allowed more people to die in war
than died in all of the Second World War.  We have not struggled
hard enough to end the development and trade in conventional
weapons.

The genocide today is not instaneous as it was on that August
morning.  Only a few people die at a time.  But today, as I
speak, the city of Sarajevo is being destroyed brick by brick,
man by man, woman by woman, child by child.  

Since the last nuclear bomb fell on Nagasaki, not a single
nuclear weapon has been used in war.  Most of the war deaths of
the past forty-seven years have been from bullets, bombs, high-
explosives, and, occassionally, poison gas.

The killing is everywhere.  In my own United States, men of
violence use Israeli-made Uzi guns.  In Northern Ireland, the
Kalashnikov is the weapon of choice.  Not so far away from here,
in former Yugoslavia, jets, tanks, missiles, mortars, and other
"ordinary" weapons are rippingapart the new democracies of Bosnia
and Croatia.  

There are men and women of many nations who are making a lot of
money from this.  Two hundred and fifty years ago, the American
Quaker and my coreligionist John Woolman was sickened when he ate
off of silver dishes in the homes of slave owners.  Six weeks
ago, I stood with European Quakers outside the Eurosatory arms
fair and I was sicked by the gold chains which many of the arms
dealers wore.  Those are the chains that bind us, the chains of
blind profitmaking.

As our ancestors declared that it was wrong for a man to grow
rich through the sale and forced labor of other human beings, so
we must declare that it is wrong for any human being to grow rich
through the sale of things that are used to kill other human
beings.

We cannot wait for the politicians to lead.  We must say to them,
this is what we want:  an end to the manufacture and sale of all
the artifacts of war.  And we need many leaders -- every one of
you if it is possible.  We must raise our voices for the men,
women, and children of former Yugoslavia, of Somalia, of
Palestine, of Timor, and of every place where people are dying in
war.  We must stop allowing men and women to grow rich off of
death and destruction.  In this way -- and only in this way -- 
can we best remember and honor the lives that were lost when a
city disappeared in a blinding flash of light forty-seven years
ago.
=================================================================
AN OPEN LETTER TO
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC; PRESIDENT OF SERBIA
FRANJO TUDMAN; PRESIDENT OF CROATIA
BOUTROS BOUTROS GHALI, SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE U.N.
THE UNITED NATIONS SECURITY COUNCIL
AND THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL
FROM THE MEMBERS OF THE PEACE CAMP,
SUBOTICA, VOJVODINA, YUGOSLAVIA
14 AUGUST 1992

We come from many countries and continents, despite the
sanctions, to meet the people of Yugoslavia and to seek new ways
to peace.  We write to all of you to express our desire for an
end to all the fighting and ethnic persecutions and their results
which we have witnessed.

Most of us oppose military intervention as the solution to the
problems here.  Though a few of us feel that there is no other
way to stop the killing, the majority feel that intervention only
means more killing.  We are not unmoved by the tragedies of this
war for we have seen Vukovar.  We do not want to see Vukovars
everywhere in former Yugoslavia and, for this reason, we call on
you to seek other ways to peace.  Moreover, we do not want the
friends we have made here to die in senseless bombings and other
attacks on civilians.

The people of Vojvodina and Vukovar have often turned to us and
asked "what can you to to stop this war."  We must reply that it
is not our problem to solve.  Peace must come from the peoples of
former Yugoslavia.  And you, as leaders of your respective
nationalities and as representatives of the international
community, must make it possible for the peoples of former
Yugoslavia to make that peace.  You must do it by allowing the
people of Croatia, Bosnia, and the new Yugoslavia to talk.

We have often met people who have spoken of their sense of having
lost many friends now living on the other side.  In this and not
in blind nationalistic stirrings we find the routes of peace.  A
great wall has fallen between the peoples of this region and you,
as leaders, must lift it so that the people may pass and make
peace with their friends.

We call upon you to seek peaceful alternatives to the war, to
help Croatia and Bosnia to rebuild, to help the refugees and
displaced people, and to help restore the friendly relations
which the people of Yugoslavia, Croatia, and Bosnia once enjoyed,
if not as one nation, then as three where truth, democracy,and
the dignity of all are respected.

The killing must stop.
=================================================================
WHERE IS VOJVODINA?  Readers of this latest series of MIRacles
may not know where Vojvodina is.  This (former?) autonomous
province is lies to the north of the Rivers Sava and Danube
(Danau) in Serbia.  Its population consists of Serbs, Hungarians,
Croats, and other peoples.
=================================================================
THE ROM:  During the war in Slavonia, the Rom or Gypsies fled
from Croatiato the safer region of Bosnia.  They have since
returned to Zagreb where the women and children can be seen in
and near Trg Jelacica (formerly Trg Republika), the main square. 
Croatian police appear to tolerate their presence.  It is likely
that the men have suffered fates similar to that of other Bosnian
male refugees:  they have been mobilized and returned to Bosnia
to fight.

I have also see Rom families in Vojvodina.  Here, whole families
were present.  The police were less tolerant, however, and, on
one occassion, I observed a Rom family being questioned, possibly
prior to their arrest, in the municipal park.

I have heard no reports of Rom being targets of "ethnic
cleansing", but given the long-standing tradition of official
indifference towards this people, incidents could occur without
much outside notice.
=================================================================
NEEDS

1.  The loan of a laptop computer for four weeks.  Please deliver
it to Lynn (415) 321-3449 before her departure on 1 September
1992.  This will enable us to post email reports while we travel
to Hungary, Serbia, Macedonia, and Greece in September!!! 
Donations also acceptable!!!

2.  Financial assistance to enable me to travel to the Quaker
European Peace Consultation in Switzerland from 25 to 27
September.  My presence has been urgently requested.  I will need
to abandon my ticket back to America and buy a new one from
Zurich to Washington on 28 September 1992 ($300 to $500).  (I
will be in Washington meeting with Quaker organizations and with
congressional aides about the situation here.)  Call me in Zagreb
38-41-422-495 if you are willing to buy this ticket!)
=================================================================
ABOUT THE TITLE

Brethren theologian Dale Brown once counted the belief in
miracles as an essential component in the psychic constituency of
the peace activist.  "Mir" is the word for "peace" in Croatian,
Serbian, and most other Slavic languages.  The title, therefore,
reflects the author's belief in the power of persistant
peacemaking.

=================================================================

This publication is circulated over the Alliance for Progressive
Communications Network, UseNet, EcuNet, Quaker-L and other
networks  by Joel GAzis-SAx.  Users are free to download MIRacles
for their personal use, but are asked to make a donation to
support the costs of publication.  Checks or money orders made
out in U.S. dollars to Palo Alto Friends Meeting and earmarked
"Peace in the Balkans Fund" may be sent to:

     Palo Alto Friends Meeting
     957 Colorado Avenue
     Palo Alto, California     94303
     U.S.A.

European Friends may send their donations to:

     FWCC
     1 Rue B. Haal
     L-1711  LUXEMBOURG

or via the FWCC postal account 

     32356-55/F. Perna/Luxembourg 

mentioning "Peace in the Balkans".

These reports may be recirculated without editorial correction or
comment via e-mail or photocopied for community use at a charge
not to exceed the price of copying.