GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR
(Greek National Committee of the International Helsinki Federation)
& MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP - GREECE
(Greek Affiliate of Minority Rights Group International)
P.O. Box 51393, GR-14510 Kifisia, Greece Tel. 30-1-620.01.20;
Fax: 30-1-807.57.67; E-mail: office@greekhelsinki.gr
PRESS RELEASE
6/3/1998
TOPIC: GOVERNMENTAL VIOLENCE AGAINST ALBANIANS IN KOSOVO
The cooperating organizations Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority
Rights Group - Greece, on the occasion of the increase of the tension in Kosovo,
express their strong opposition to the acts of violence that have been committed by the
Serbian police and have resulted in the death of tens of Albanians and four Serbs. The use
of violence on behalf of police authorities exceeded all limits, since unarmed citizens
were shot and houses were destroyed in order to suppress a peaceful demonstration of
100,000 persons in Pristina. Atrocities culminated after the new huge operation against
Albanians led by the Serbian forces, by the air on the ground, which creates a new
nightmare of cleansing, since a new wave of refugees has already started to take place.
During this attack, some villages were literally bombed, and, according to witnesses, at
least one of them seemed to have been entirely burnt.
Our organizations believe that cruel violence, wherever it comes from,
consists a threat for the stability of the area, and asks from the government of Serbia to
withdraw its forces from Kosovo, whereas they urge the nationalist president Milosevic to
respect the human rights (civil, social and cultural) of the Albanian inhabitants by
granting again the status of autonomy that his administration arbitrarily and unilaterally
abolished for Kosovo in 1989. Finally they remind that the application of the Final Act of
Helsinki and all subsequent Accords of the OSCE consists the best guarantee for the peace
and the progress of the peoples in Balkans.