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The website of the Westmorland General Meeting 'Preparing for Peace' initiative

WAYS TO PREVENT WAR- Otpor (Serb for Resistance)

Card 5

General instruction on each card

 You are a Serb living in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999.

Your President is Slobodon Milosevic.  He has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, but he is still running the country.

You have heard that he has organised the killing of thousands of  Kosovan Albanians.

Your country has been bombed by NATO in a war over Kosovo.  44% of industrial production has been destroyed leaving your country the poorest in Europe.

Professors in universities have been instructed to sign a loyalty oath or lose their jobs.

He controls most of the media.

People who stand up to him are sometimes murdered.

People are not sure who they can trust.

No one agrees about what can be done.

Your older brother is a trade union official.  He blames the government for taking the country into war and for the bombing of all the factories which have left members of his union without jobs. He has confided in you that he has been invited by the East West Institute and the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs to attend a conference in Bratislava, Slovakia, entitled “The future of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the context of post war reconstruction”.  The conference will bring together the pro-democracy parties and groups for the first time, with representatives from the international community as well.  It would be an opportunity to start working together to bring about a new government.  He is trying to decide what to do.

 Please write him a note giving him your thoughts and feelings and saying what you think he should do. 

WAYS TO PREVENT WAR- Otpor (Serb for Resistance)- Activity Notes