GAZETTE
N E W S
SEPTEMBER 1993
Solicitor Witness for Yugoslavia
A
V
V
Noeline Blackwell receiving a wreath from the people of Bangor, North Wales,
prior to her visit to the former Yugoslavia.
Noeline Blackwell
, Solicitor, reports
on an initiative by the Irish section of
Amnesty International to prove that
the conflict in Yugoslavia is literally
i only a bus ride away from us.
! Amnesty International, the UN, and the
newspapers have all given graphic,
eloquent reports of rape of women and
children, of torture of people by their
i
neighbours, of the wiping out of towns
and villages in a country known to many
in Ireland. There are now thousands,
perhaps tens of thousands, of acts which
have happened over the last two years,
each one of which is a gross violation of
the basic human rights codes to which
almost every country has subscribed and
which all of those countries have
solemnly undertaken to uphold. Yet
when it comes down to it, the human
rights abuses continue unabated in
Yugoslavia and governments, the UN
and the EC, seem powerless to act to stop
or even effectively to condemn them.
For this reason 86 Irish people set off
from Dublin on a wet and windy Sunday
in mid-May and travelled from there to
the sunny borders of former Yugoslavia
and back to the same wind and rain nine
days later. That group did not act alone.
It carried with it 180,000 signed
postcards calling on the faction leaders in
the region to halt the abuses. The group
| also represented thousands of Irish
people because so many of the
I participants were sponsored by a larger
! body. Sponsorship for participants came
| from church and missionary societies,
: artistic groups, trade union groups,
! community groups, women's groups,
civil service and bank unions and, I am
very pleased to say, from the Law
Society and some Bar Associations. The
Law Society sponsored the fare of the
| writer and the donations received by her
from the North Cork, East Galway and
| Louth Bar Associations and some
individual lawyers were used to cover the
costs of the entire campaign, including
the costs incurred by the very new
Amnesty group in Hungary and those
j
who travelled from Russia to join us. We
i
were also joined by members of Amnesty
I from Germany, Austria and the USA.
The participation of the Law Society and
1
the Bar Associations was a symbol of
commitment on the part of Irish solicitors
to the support of human rights and was
very gratefully received for that reason.
The participation of solicitors was also
evident on the buses where
Helen
McGovern
, Solicitor, representing
Amnesty's Navan group and
John
O'Connell
, Solicitor, representing the
Carlow group also travelled.
i
The message of the campaign was "Stop
the torture, stop the rape, bring those who
are responsible to justice". In support of
this last part of our message, Amnesty's
Í report asking for the institution of a fair,
effective international war tribunal was
used. On the journey, various events were
staged. In Brussels, we met with various
Belgian Ministers, the EC, Commissioner
for Foreign Policy and the UN Represent-
ative. In Munich, we met with the Serbian
Counsellor and tried but failed to meet the
Croatian and Bosnian Counsellors. In
Vienna, we performed street theatre and
demonstrated in an square where part of
the WW2 memorial is a statue of a Jew on
his knees. On each occasion Amnesty's
concerns were reiterated.
In Hungary we held two demonstrations.
The first was in Szeged, a town opposite
the Serbian border where the river Tiza
I flows through and on in through the
former Yugoslavia. At those events,
! messages of support from Presidents
Goncz of Hungary and Havel of the
Czech Republic were read and wreaths
bearing the names of devastated towns
were placed into the river. It was there
that a spectator at our demonstration
broke down and cried. She was a refugee
from Sarajevo. Her 12 year old son was
killed in the war. She had not heard from
her partner for two years and did not
know where he was. Her story in that
town was yet again one of hundreds, but
for all that it was unique. Our second
Hungarian event took place on the banks
j
of the river Drava which divides Hungary
j
and Croatia, where we could see the
j
beautiful peaceful looking countryside on
j
the far side of the river and wonder at the
j forces that drives people to abuse each
i other and at the land that has given us the
j new phrase "ethnic cleansing". Again our
wreaths were laid, on behalf of ourselves,
and all those who had supported us to go.
Why did we bother to go? Because it was
necessary, for ourselves and many others
who could not travel, to demonstrate our
continuing outrage at the horrific human
rights abuses; because we wanted to
make it clear to our Government and
those across Europe that we still require
them to work for an end to those abuses
and for fair trials to investigate them; and
not least to demonstrate our support for
all those within the region who continue
to raise voices in defence of human
rights. Even if it was only a candle in the
dark, well that's the symbol of Amnesty's
and it has been found to work before.
Noeline Blackwell is a solicitor
practising in Drumcondra, Dublin. She is
a Vice-Chairperson of Amnesty
International, Irish Section. Amnesty
International may be contacted at 8
Shaw St., Dublin
2.
Ph. 01-6776361.
' Fax: 01-6776392.
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