Announcement about Our Participation in a Peaceful Protest in Tuzla
As they do on every eleventh of the month, The Women of Srebrenica Civic Association of Tuzla, is organizing a peaceful protest as in remembrance of the tragedy in Srebrenica and to demand truth and justice on May 11th. This time, they will be joined in their peaceful protest by Women in Black Network - Serbia activists from different parts of Serbia, including Belgrade, Novi Sad, Zajecar, Leskovac, Vlasotince, Velika Plana, and Dimitrovgrad.
As we have since the beginning of the aggression against Bosnia-Herzegovina, and especially since the largest crime committed in our name - the genocide in Srebrenica - we will express our support, respect, solidarity, and compassion with the families of the victims. We admire the women of Srebrenica, who have transformed their pain, suffering, and desperation into actions for a just peace in the Balkans. We wish to express thanks because our friends, women from Srebrenica, always welcome us with warmth, understanding, and the wish to we build a just peace in the Balkans together, despite where we come from, despite the suffering which was inflicted on them by the regime of the state we come from.
Since the beginning of the genocide in Srebrenica, we have protested in the streets of Belgrade and Serbia. Every year, we have gone to the commemoration in Potočare. Approximately 100 Women in Black activists attended the trial of members of the Scorpions paramilitary unit in the Special Court in Belgrade (from December 2005 to April 2007), offering emotional and moral support to families who were also attending the trial.
On the occasion of our participation in the vigil in Tuzla, we repeat
• The Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic directly participated in planning, organizing, and perpetrating the genocide in Srebrenica.
• After the fall of the Milošević regime, there was no break from criminal politics. The Serbian government has continued to deny, relativize, and minimize its responsibility for war crimes. Such policies lead to the clear fascization of Serbia.
• The Scorpions’ verdict is not only a miscarriage of justice but insults the dignity of the victims, their families, and the entire democratic public in Serbia. Unfortunately, it shows that The Special Court participates in covering up evidence about the direct responsibility and involvement of the Republic of Serbia in the genocide in Srebrenica.
• The verdict of the International Court of Justice did not satisfy justice, but that did not lessen the guilt and responsibility of the Serbian regime. Therefore, we will continue to pressure the authorized institutions of the Republic of Serbia towards complying with its obligations under the ICJ.
Women in Black
May 10, 2007. Belgrade