The Gazette 1993

GAZETTE

SEPTEMBER 1993

N E W S

Solicitor Witness for 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

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V Noeline Blackwell receiving a wreath from the people of Bangor, North Wales, prior to her visit to the former Yugoslavia.

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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