Emergency campaign to grant visa to Ramsey Clark to vist Yugoslavia INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER Bay Area: 2489 Mission St., Rm. 28, San Francisco, CA 94110 m (415) 821-6545 m Fax: (415) 821-5782 National: 39 W. 14th St., Ste. 206, New York, N.Y. 10011 m (212) 633- 6646 m Fax: (212) 633-2889 Web page: www.iacenter.org m Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ramsey Clark, Chairperson June 27, 2001 Yugoslav Ambassador to U.S. Denies Visa to Ramsey Clark, International Human Rights Attorney Seeking to Visit Belgrade, as U.S. Pressure to Deport Milosevic Intensifies International Action Center Calls for Emergency Campaign to Grant Visas In a blow to human rights and due process, the Yugoslav Ambassador to the United States, Milan Protic, today refused to issue a visa to former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark to enter Yugoslavia. Mr. Clark, who is a renowned international human rights attorney and is a co-chair of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic, says he will continue to attempt to enter Belgrade to confer with others working on that committee. "We are at a critical moment, with the United States government attempting to push through the illegal deportation of Mr. Milosevic by this Friday," said Mr. Clark. Clark called the visa denial "another consequence of the intense U.S.- led campaign to force the Yugoslav government to deport Mr. Milosevic. The real aim of this campaign, along with ten years of war, blockade and demonization directed against Yugoslavia, is to reduce all of the former Yugoslavia to the status of a U.S./NATO colony." According to Vladimir Krsljanin, international secretary of the Socialist Party of Serbia, of which Mr. Milosevic is chairman, Propic was not acting with the full the authority of the Yugoslav government. Krsljanin said that the chief of the cabinet of the Yugoslav government sent a cable at 7:34 p.m. Belgrade time1:34 p.m. in Washington ordering that Mr. Clark receive his visa. The embassy also refused a visa to the Gloria La Riva, a videographer and the West Coast coordinator of the International Action Center, who is accompanying Mr. Clark. La Riva, who was in Belgrade with Mr. Clark twice during the bombing as a member of Mr. Clark's delegation, produced the world-renowned film, "NATO Targets," about NATO's war against Yugoslavia. Clark is the founder of the IAC. Mr. Clark condemned the U.S.-led campaign to label Mr. Milosevic a war criminal "when the murder perpetrated by NATO political and military leaders during 78 days of bombing of civilian targets in Yugoslavia is still fresh in the memory of the world." "The undemocratic steps taken to refuse the defendant and his supporters the right to a consultation on legal and political questions is evidence that those in charge in Yugoslavia are capable of denying the most basic legal rights. We have to be alert to the possibility that they will deny Mr. Milosevic the due process of his appeal of the extradition order and simply kidnap him to the International tribunal in The Hague," said Clark. Clark pledged that "we will attempt to find a way into Belgrade." IAC Calls for Emergency Campaign -- Calls and Emails Needed Immediately! IAC co-coordinator Sara Flounders, who applied for the visas from the Yugoslav Embassy in Washington, said that she was forced to wait over four hours before being refused for something the clerk said usually takes five minutes to approve. "The ambassador and the embassy staff refused to discuss the question with me. It is absolutely clear that the ambassador takes his orders from Washington rather than his own foreign ministry." "The IAC," Flounders added, "is asking all its friends and friends of justice and peace worldwide, to protest this decision to bar Mr. Clark and Ms La Riva from Yugoslavia, by flooding the Yugoslav embassy with calls and emails. Time is of the essence." Ambassador Milan Protic can be reached by phone at 202-332-0333 and by email at mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]. People can also direct protests to the Yugoslav government in Belgrade. STOP NOVOM SVETSKOM PORETKU ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bUrBE8.bVKZIq Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
