Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: HUMAN RIGHTS: 'Ethnic cleansing' --
Date: 16 Aug 92  12:19:44 EST




/* Written 12:08 am  Aug 15, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: HUMAN RIGHTS: 'Ethnic cleansing' -- prevention better than cure


an inter press service feature

by candy gourlay

london, aug 12 (ips) -- soldiers and police, backed by fire-
engines, a tank and military trucks recently surrounded 15 houses
in the middle of the night in a village in north-west macedonia.

according to survivors of the ordeal, the group attacked the
houses, forced the occupants into the street at gun-point and then
beat them up.

one house was razed to the ground, books and furniture were burnt
in a great bonfire, and the people warned that it was only the
beginning of a bigger campaign to rid macedonia of its ethnic
albanian population.

this story, told by survivors in a croatian refugee camp, shocked
human rights activists who, while informed of such atrocities
taking place in war-torn bosnia-herzegovina, had no idea that
similar events were being played out in neighbouring macedonia.

''we just didn't believe it was so bizarre, so outrageous,''
says ian smedley of the british section of the international
society for human rights (ishr), a group based in germany. ''but
we've now heard it from so many people.''

the tale smacks of earlier reports from bosnia, when ''ethnic
cleansing'' -- the serbian euphemism for purging the state of
other races -- was but a whisper in the international media.

''we are seeing all the things that we saw in bosnia a few months
ago,'' says smedley. ''people are being driven from their homes,
people are being beaten up. what has happened in bosnia must be
prevented in other areas.''

macedonia, another breakaway yugoslav republic, is yet to gain
official international recognition largely because of its name.
greece, which has a northern province bearing the same name, is
opposing the recognition on the grounds that the skopje government
may lay claim to the greek province.

the ishr has compiled a report calling on the united nations to
take preventive action so that neighbouring states do not too fall
victim to a vicious ethnic war that first ravaged croatia and now
is destroying bosnia.

''trying to alleviate the problem once it has started is no
substitute for preventing it in the first place,'' smedley says,
adding that the ishr is calling for a substantial u.n. contingent
of observers to be fielded in areas at risk of encroaching
''ethnic cleansing''.(more/ips)

human rights: 'ethnic cleansing' -- prevention better than cure(2-e)

human rights: 'ethnic cleansing' (2)

human rights workers also believe that together with preventive
measures, the other step to take to put an end to the human rights
violations is to put the events under the glare of international
spotlights.

''if we can get international workers into bosnia, if we can get
international media into bosnia, i think we can stop (the spread
of ethnic cleansing),'' said a spokesperson of the united nations
human rights commission in geneva.

in kosovo, a former autonomous yugoslav province forcibly annexed
by serbia, serbian repression of the ethnic albanian majority is
also increasing, according to the democratic league of kosovo
(dlk), an albanian political party.

albanians make up 90 percent of the two million people of kosovo,
the former seat of the medieval serbian empire.

human rights workers fear that ''ethnic cleansing'' has also
begun in kosovo and are urging the united nations to send
observers into the area.

parviz dolat-abadi, leader of a muslim human rights group, likens
the process to israeli policies in palestine in the early 1940s.

''the israelis used (similar incidents) to create such fear in
the hearts of palestinians that they fled their villages, leaving
them to the israelis to occupy,'' says dolat-abadi. ''the serbs
seem to be following the israeli lead, for they too plunder
villages, murder the inhabitants, then they bring serbs and settle
them there.''

the dlk claims ethnic albanians are being systematically sacked
from their jobs, including thousands of lecturers, professors and
schoolteachers.

one magazine has also reported that ethnic albanians are
effectively establishing their own ''separate society'' because
they do not trust serbian services. doctors work in makeshift
clinics, not wanting to associate with serbian replacements at the
hospitals, and teachers hold classes in private homes.

across the border in macedonia, ethnic tolerance appears to be
the norm. but reports of discrimination are prompting fears that
racism may yet cross borders, resulting in another violent ethnic
eruption.(end/ips/hr/cg/cpg/92)


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