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Date:         Wed, 29 Jul 1992 04:12:00 EST
From:         CATHYF@EARLHAM.BITNET
Subject:      MIRacles No. 5 from Croatia
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/* Written  3:58 pm  Jul 28, 1992 by gn:jsax in cdp:gen.quaker */
/* ---------- "MIRacles No. 5" ---------- */
===================================================================
MIRacles  No.  5           Joel GAzis-SAx      !0
Zagreb, 19 Srpanj 1992
 Copyright 1992
===================================================================
"Today, I sat at a table with a Dutch peace activist who supported
intervention,"  I wrote to Friend Carol Newgate of Northumberland.  "He
seemed to reserve for himself the right to kill when convenient and I
told him flat out that he was no pacifist.  These words sound strong,
but George Fox, I think, would not have reserved them.  In any case,
Joel Gazis-Sax did not and he as no shame for it."

Many peace activists coming through and back in the United States have
convinced themselves that, at last, here we have a war in which
intervention is justified.  Even the best among us have had our doubts
because the Serbs seem to be some inhuman things who kill without
thought or remorse.


Not too long ago, I cited in an argument against this perennial myth the
fact that the Serbian Orthodox Church has issued a statement condemning
the war.  An American activist scoffed at my evidence, saying "They only
did that for political and strategic reasons."  I could only say "There
is that of God in Serbs, too."

I am not an absolute cultural relativist.  I accept that God is manifest
in all people and in most faiths.  I do not proceed from this, however,
to hold that a destructive practice should be ignored simply "because
that is what people do down here."  The atrocities committed by
nationalist elements of the Serbian army and irregulars should receive a
strong witness.  As people of faith and love, we should also witness
against intervention.  The Croats want intervention so that they can
kill more Serbs.  I am disturbed that the some of the same activists who
complain to me about America's use of the death penalty (where many
justify it as an act of revenge) cannot see that they are supporting a
larger version of the death penalty here. Just as the death penalty in
America fails to deter crime, so intervention  will not end ethnic
conflict in the Balkans unless there is utter genocide.Wam Kat, another
Dutch peace activist working here, argues against intervention on the
grounds that it will be as impossible to root out all the irregulars as
it was to seek and destroy the Viet Cong.  You will kill more people
than you will liberate.

While I hear the pragmatism in his words, I also hear military
pragmatism in them, a surrender to the thinking that we must use
military analysis when we make our decision to intervene or not to
intervene.  And, I think, too, I hear a certain vain hopefulness.  I
remember how many of us gathered before the Gulf War, prophesying how
Hussein would be a major nuisance for the American forces, that this
would be no easy victory for America, etc.  I confess to finding myself
gloating with others over the number of Americans who might die with our
pathetic conventional forces and weapons.


These same forces and weapons pulverized Iraq.  Civilians died in
numbers that are still mostly secret.  The Gulf War resulted in my
conversion to real pacifism and this conflict refines and strengthens my
vision.  I do not oppose intervention for its impossibilities, now, but
for its possibilities, which are death and destruction.

I am saddened by the way in which we are willing to spend billions to
maintain our war machines while mere millions to feed the hungry, clothe
the naked, and shelter the homeless go unspent.  Fifteen percent of the
world's refugees stream around me and, yet, the UN gave Slovenia only
US$40,000 to feed its 300,000 Bosnians!  The UN has shifted from an
agency for peace to one that uses war as its main tool for conflict
resolution.  By not helping the new nations of the Balkans care for
these people, we sow the seeds of the next war by fueling resentment
against the displaced, the new homeless.

Croatia now refuses to take any more refugees.  Italy and Hungary may
close their borders.  Do we send these people back into Bosnia where
more civilians are dying than soldiers and irregulars?  I believe that
Croatia will change its policy if the rest of us help them cope with the
flood.  A photo in one of the Croatian newspapers showed hundreds of
Bosnian refugees sitting in the streets of Rjeka.  I find it interesting
that the Croatian word for refugee, "izbjeglica" comes from the same
root as the word for avoidance, "izbjegavatis."  The refugees, who come
to Croatia and Slovenia to avoid death, are people who the whole world
are avoiding and this is simply not right.

As I reached this point two hours ago, Edin Tuzlak came with a tall
woman wearing a blue scarf over her head.  Semra Turkovic has just come
from Sarajevo via Kiseljak.  Despite her Australian passport, UNPROFOR
did nothing to help her because they had no mandate from the UN do to
so. She came with her two younger brothers on her own.  She took off her
hijab and let her hair down so that the guards at the Serbian
checkpoints would not know that she was a Bosnian Muslim.  The journey
from Sarajevo to Kiseljak normally takes four hours.  She and her
brothers spent twenty four hours driving over stones, grass, and fields
to reach this place of safety.  Once, a Serbian guard thought he
recognized her, but she managed to convince him that she was really the
person whom her forged papers claimed she was.  The Croatian military
issued her a special pass to enter the country on account of her
Australian citizenship.  Had she held a Bosnian passport, she could not
have escaped.

A few weeks ago, during a particularly bad shelling, she found herself
underground praying that she would be killed rather than lose her legs.
Nonetheless, she spoke of her faith becoming stronger under the strain.
She reminded me of one of my neighbors back at home, a Palestinian
woman, who lost everything she owned in East Jerusalem.  The bombings
and shellings have become part of daily life.  "You know when to run.
You know when to duck.  You know when to hide.  It is normal for us."

Another thing that has become normal is the lack of food, water, and
electricity.  When Semra's younger brother saw a potato, he became very
excited.  Semra hates tomatoes, but when she could find them in
Sarajevo, she ate them.  The UN is making no effort, it seems, to
distribute food to the people.  When the UNPROFOR vehicles pass, the
people of Sarajevo call out "Chetnik taxi!"  Only the press and the
severely injured or ill get transport out of Sarajevo.

Semra, who has been in the thick of the fighting, understands better
than most that I cannot accept intervention as a solution.  When she
asked if I would wear a bullet-proof vest, I said "yes".  When she asked
if I could handle a gun, I said "I do not carry guns or use them."  I
could see, however, that she understood that I cared for the people of
Bosnia, that I wanted to do all that I could to see that they received
the food and aid that they so desparately needed.

Christian and Jewish readers of this message should remember that Allah,
the God of the Koran, is Yahweh, the God of the Old and New Testaments.
Our Muslim brothers and sisters love the same God as we do:  in the name
of that God, should we not do all that we can to feed the Bosnians
instead of doing that which will ensure that many more Bosnians, Croats,
and Serbs die?  We should not reserve the right to kill while neglecting
the basic duties of our faith.  Our witness to the whole world is peace.
Let us do all that we can to create it in Bosnia and in the whole world.

* * *
Wam Kat is trying to find a Vietnam veteran who knows how to fly a
helicopter.  In this time when the military strategists of the world
will not even attempt an airlift of food and medical supplies to
Visegrad and other besieged Bosnian cities, perhaps there is a brave man
of peace who will.
* * *
Once more I urge Friends and their organizations to urge their elected
representatives and formulators of foreign policy to seek nonmilitary
solutions to the conflict.  The creation of an effective framework for
dialogue (one which includes representatives from the government, the
irregulars, and the peace movements) and an increase in aid to Croatia,
Slovenia, Bosnia, and Serbia to care for the refugees is essential to
the peace process at this time.  Also a mandate which would allow
UNPROFOR to move the people of Sarajevo and other beleaguered cities to
places of safety is another thing that is needed right away.  Other
people of peace should do the same.

ABOUT THE TITLE:  Brethren theogian Dale Brown once counted the ability
to believe in miracles as an essential component in the psychic
constituency of the peace activists.  "Mir" is the word for "peace" in
Croatian, Serbian, and most other Slavic languages.  The title,
therefore, reflects the writer's personal belief in persistant
peacemaking.

* * *
This publication is circulated over the Association for Progressive
Communications Networks by Joel GAzis-Sax.  Users may download this
article for their own use, but are asked to make a donation to help
support Joel's work in the Balkans.  Checks should be made in U.S.
dollars and made out to Palo Alto Friends Meeting and earmarked "Balkans
Peace Fund".  The address is:


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