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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.

267