Attack on the Forum for Ethnic Relations in Belgrade
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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 18:09:14 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Attack on the Forum for Ethnic Relations in Belgrade
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Alex Grigor'ev <[email protected]>
Attack on the Forum for Ethnic Relations in Belgrade
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PER President expresses concern over the attack on the Forum for
Ethnic Relations in Belgrade
June 9, 2000
Princeton, NJ, USA
Contact at PER Princeton:
Alex N. Grigor'ev, Program Officer
Tel: 609-683-5666
Fax: 609-683-5888
The Belgrade-based Forum for Ethnic Relations, headed by the noted
scholar Dr. Dusan Janjic, announced that its offices were invaded,
searched, and sealed by special police forces on Tuesday, June 6 on
the pretext of searching for financial records. Neither Dr. Janjic
nor his staff were on the premises at the time, and did not give
permission for the police to enter. Nor did the police present
documents authorizing their entry.
The Forum is a sister organization of the Project on Ethnic Relations
(PER), an influential American and European non-governmental
organization based in Princeton, New Jersey. The President of PER,
Dr. Allen H. Kassof, has expressed his deep concern over this event.
Dr. Kassof said that the Forum for Ethnic Relations has been PER's
main partner in Yugoslavia for over a decade, since the establishment
of the Forum. The Forum's efforts to promote interethnic dialogue and
harmony in Yugoslavia are vital to the future of that country. Dr.
Janjic has carried on his work in a spirit of even-handedness and
political neutrality, seeking democratic and peaceful solutions to
interethnic conflicts in Yugoslavia and elsewhere in the Balkans. Dr.
Janjic was one of the few opinion leaders in Yugoslavia who tried
until the end to prevent the tragic war in Kosovo. Other FER projects
support the maintenance of peaceful and friendly cooperation between
Serbs and Hungarians of Vojvodina, Muslims of Sandzak, and other
minorities in Serbia.
The attack on Dr. Janjic and his organization is malicious and
short-sighted, said Dr. Kassof, and is yet another blow to Belgrade's
standing in the community of enlightened nations, and retards the
return to Yugoslavia's good tradition of interethnic tolerance.
Project on Ethnic Relations
Princeton, New Jersey USA
Alex N. Grigor'ev
Program Officer
Project on Ethnic Relations
15 Chambers Street
Princeton, NJ 08542, USA
Tel. 609-683-5666
Fax. 609-683-5888
http://www.netcom.com/~ethnic/per.html
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