PUPPETS ON THE ROAD FROM PONTIUS TO PILATE

The Fate of Ex-Yu Deserters

London, AIM, December 22

In front of the very entrance of the famous Selfridge's, the department store of the well-off in which absolutely everything can be biouhgt if one has the money, Mirko B. a refugee from Vares found a spot for himself. Namely, right there he sells his happy looking puppets. Rare is the passer-by who does not smile at seeing the cheerful marionettes, but just as rarely does anyone decide to buy one. The reason is simple enough - this part of the most well known shopping area is the world, Oxford Street, particularly lavishly decorated for Christmas, is mostly visited by buyers who have set aside much more for Christmas presents for their dear ones that the price of Mirko's puppets.Prestige is prestige. The self-made doll-maker from Bosnia is a completely different story.

In which story do Mirko B. and his brothers in refugee fate, who have found retreat in Great Britain live? Ever since the war began, first in Slovenia and then in the well known sequence, columns of desparate and grieved people from the space of former Yugoslavia ran towards Western Europe. It is estimated that there are more than half a million of them, about twenty thousand only on the British Isles. Mirko B. is not only a refugee, he is a deserter as well, or as they prefer saying here - someone who has refused to take a rifle in his hands and kill other people. The number of such individuals is still unknown. Mirko B, is completely indifferent how he is called and where he is classified in the records of the British administration. What he is concerned about is what is to become of him, what he is to do with his twenty five years and an brutally interrupted life.The one thing he is certain of isthat no one will go back while the war is still raging in Bosnia. And after that? Or better, until that time? Although the British are particularly generous during the Christnmas holidays, as is manifested everywhere at this time of the year, among other things on the streets in which members of various humanitarian organizations gather aid for numerous vulnerable groups, to televised church services in which Bosnia, Rwanda or Somalia are still the main topics. Nevertheless, Mirko B. has numerous reasons to be concerned. One of them is the fact that he lodged an application for political asylum as afar back as the end of 1992, and that on the eve of the New Year,1995, his status is still unchanged. According to Danny Thomson from the British National Peace Council, no one from former Yugoslavia has been granted political asylum in this country. On the other hand, only in the course of this year nearly two thousand young people from the war inflicted Balkans has applied for that status. While waiting for their applications to be solved, these people have the right to free accomodation, health care and some pocket money. They are not allowed to work. Due to that (and not only that) Mirko B. has to hide his identity.

Most of those who have applied for political asylum have some kind of work, the majority doing odd jobs in the trades. The fact that they are unable to engage in their profession is a specific aspect of these young people's lives. It all boils down to adding insult to injury. A professor of composition from one of the universities in former Yugoslavia delivers sandwiches, a tv journalists sell souvenirs, and a doctor of sciences (awarded at one of the local universities) gives language lessons to eccentric young Englishmen who wish to learn the language of the country in which a war is being waged.

(DIS)SATISFIED WITH THE ACHIEVED

Although the British have traditionally aspired to differ in every way from continental European, unfortunately when deserters are at stake, they are no different than the other European states. To be more precise, in this particular domain, the situation in Europe is almost the same everyywhere. If we take take a look from country by country - or still better six countries, since according to Peter Leuprecht, the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, more than 90% of ex-Yu refugees presently live in only six countries - these people have the same problems everywhere. As far deserters are concerned - they are equally neglected and marginalized.

Aware of that fact - i.e., the complete disregard of the deserter's problem, and even faced with the situation that the authorities in some European countries are sending them back home (?), members of the European Civil Forum from France have initiatied a campaign in October 1993 aimed at helping deserters from former Yugoslavia, regardless of religious or national affiliation. This small organization, established in December 1989, immediately after tahe pulling down of the Berlin wall, and with the priority task of promoting cultural, economic and even political ties between the East and the West, in one year of work on the deserter project has achieved what it could: it proposed two resolutions, one in October 1993 to the European Parliament and the other to the Council of Europe in June 1994 - both of which have been adopted. The substance of these two resolutions is similar and could be summarized as an attempt to assist deserters from former Yugoslavia, before all, by discouraging their unvoluntary return to the states from which they fled until the situation in them becomes safe for them.

Considering that the resolutions are not binding for the member states of the mentioned institutions, the European Civil Forum simultaneously launched a petition that could be signed by all the citizens of Europe who consider that conditions are still not ripe on the soil of former Yugoslavia for the return of the deserters. Nearly 200,000 signatures have been collected, among which names such as Umberto Ecco, Yehudi Menuhin, Gunter Grass. By signing the petition numerous associations and organizations engaged in the protection of human rights, churches and communes offered their support and assistance to the deserters. Unfortunately, according to the words of Johannes Vogel, the President of the Forum, spoken recently in Strasbourgh at the official end of the petition signing campaign, " all the reasons are there for us to be content, but at the same time, all the reasons for our discontent."

"This is perhaps the first time that, on the one hand, such an alliance has been established between two European assemblies, and on the other, between citizens from 16 European countires," Mr. Vogel pointed out. "At the same time and in spite of that, European countries are continuing to return deserters, ignoring their right to asylum, and by not previously considering each and every case, flagrantly violating the Geneva Convention."

Accoring to Mr. Vogel, deserters are being returned regardless of the fact that in their states of origin amnesty has not asd yet been proclaimed for cases such as theirs, and in which they are still treated as " traitors of their people" and are subjected to various forms of discrimination. In addition, the threats of para-military and ultra-nationalist forces in the environments to which they are being returned are as valid as they were at the time they left country. "Under no circumstances can it be confirmed that "conditions have been created for their completely safe return", as stipulated in the Resolution of the European Council," Mr. Vogel pointed out.

On the same occasion, Peter Leuprecth stated that he considered shoking the practice of returning to the former Yugoslav republics those individuals who had the "civil courage to say no to violence, war and ethnic cleasing." Having in mind the Council of Europe, Mr. Leuprecth also said: " I consider it to be absolutely irresponsible and contrary to the principles promulgated in this Institution."

However, as Nicholas Bell, one of the most active members of the Forum said, both resolutions remained dead letters. "By inventing the status `temporary protection', these people were offered no guarantees that they would not be banished. They are thus sentenced to a life of constant uncertainty. In addition, the European countries are only waiting for the slightest sign of the easing of tensions in the Yugoslav conflict to expel the 'temporarily protected" on a mass-scale.

Administrative obstacles, such as visas or insurance are still unsurmountable for those seeking asylum. This particilarly refers to the East European neighbouring countries. It is more than evident that European Governments do not wish to pass any law which would be conducive at least in case of conscientious objectors, although it concerns a war that has been condemned throughout the world. The few tens of deserters who have obtained regular status have done so owing to the exceptional efforts of specific solidarity associations," Mr. Bell pointed out.

EXCEPTIONS THAT CONFIRM THE RULE

The European Civil Forum devoted its entire December issue of its journal Archipel to deserters from former Yugoslavia. The reports from certain European countries on the current situation regarding the young men who refused to participate in the slaughtering that is taking place in the South of Europe have been precisely quoted. In the case of Germany for example, this year a group of young men from Croatia has been returned to the country because it was assessed that the situation was stable there. The situation was different with those from Serbia, simply because the sanctions were still in effect.

However, ever since the sanctions have been somewhat alleviated in October, it is only a question of days when deportations for Serbia will begin. Some regions and cities are exceptions in that regard, such as Schleswig-Holstein or Hambourg where the pacifists opposed the Government's stand regarding the expulsion of desertrs from former Yugoslavia. The mayor of Muchen personally requested the Department for Foreigners not to deal with expulsions. The situation in Austria is similar to the one in Germany.The immediate cause wwhich stirred up feelings was the banishment of an Albanian from Kosovo, who came to Austria because he did not want to do his military service in the "Serbian Army."

As far as Italy is concerned, one could say that everything was just fine, since all citizens of former Yugoslavia may enter the country without visas. That is only in theory. In practice, not even 15,000 of them were granted a residence permit out of humanitarian reasons. On the border, regulations are evidently interpreted in a diffirent way. Parma is the exception, since there the so called Anti-War Committee is very persistent in requring compliance with the law.

The situation is somewhat different in Sweden, where the authorities granted 30,000 residence permits this year, on the basis of humanitarian reasons. Actually, Sweden strictly complies with the decisions brought at the meetings of the European ministers on immigration issues, bringing into line this Scandinavian country with the other European ones.

All in all, 100,000 peace-loving young men from former Yugoslavia are scattered throughout Western European, left at the mercy of their own fate and high-level policy of those who swear to human rights. With due respect small non-governmental organizations, such as the European Civil Forum, are only a few drops in the ocean. The saddest thing is that their very own countries disclaimed these young men.For that reason perhaps, Mirko B. says that his puppet is a spitting image of him.

Milica Pesic AIM London