Freedom of movement for Serbia and Montenegro and visa restrictions for Bosnia and Herzegovina

Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker (GfbV) / Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has responded with outrage to the announcement by Javier Solana, the European Union's Foreign Policy High Representative, that the visa requirement for travel to countries within the Schengen Area are to be abolished for citizens of Serbia and Montenegro from 2010 onwards. GfbV/STP President Tilman Zülch commented:

"For four years the governments of Europe stood by and did nothing as genocide was perpetrated against the Bosnian Muslims, passive observers of the siege and bombardment of five Bosnian towns and cities, the murder of thousands of prisoners in concentration camps, the daily torture of thousands of women for months on end in rape camps, the mass slaughter of 8376 men and boys at Srebrenica and the destruction of 1188 mosques.

Marek Edelman, last surviving commander of the Warsaw Ghetto resistance fighters, described this failure as a "posthumous triumph for Hitler". Simon Wiesenthal was reminded of aspects of the Holocaust, while Alfred Grosser described non-intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina as hypocrisy after the extermination of the Jewish people. We do not forget the committed support for the besieged Bosnian Muslims shown by so many other prominent Jewish individuals - as well as Simon Wiesenthal, Elie Wiesel and Marek Edelman, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Alain Finkielkraut, Hajo Funke, Andre Glucksmann, Alfred Grosser, Roy Gutman, David Kamhi, Bernard-Henri Lévy, David Rohde, Shimon Samuels, Sharon Silber, Susan Sontag, Gregory Stanton, Milan Stern and Marcel Ophüls, to name just a few.

Addressing ourselves to the four major political groupings represented in the German Parliament during the war in Bosnia who refused to contemplate intervention to raise the siege of Sarajevo and open the gates of the concentration and rape camps, as a result prolonging Bosnia's suffering and maximising the number of those who died, we urge the CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP and Bündnis 90/Die Grünen to bear in mind their past failure and show respect for the exemplary commitment shown by those prominent Jews. We call on these four parties and the German government to do their utmost to ensure that the visa restrictions imposed on Bosnia and Herzegovina are lifted at the same time as visa requirements for Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia are abolished. In addition Serbia must first be required to ensure that Ratko Mladic, the Serb leader sought by the International Criminal Tribunal whose hiding place has been known to them for years, is delivered over to the Tribunal."

Tilman Zülch can be contacted at (tel.) 0151 153 09 888.

List of co-signatory victims' associations on whose behalf this appeal

is issued:

1. Mothers of Srebrenica (Srebrenica), 2. Movement of Mothers from the Enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa - (Sarajevo), 3. Women of Srebrenica (Tuzla), 4. Srebrenica Citizens' Forum (Srebrenica / Tuzla), 5. Srebrenica 99 (Tuzla), 6. Srebrenica Intellectuals' Club (Srebrenica), 7. Society for the Prevention of Genocide (Srebrenica), 8. Students' Association (Srebrenica), 9. Bosfam Women's Union (Srebrenica / Tuzla), 10. Association of Former BiH Concentration Camp Detainees (Sarajevo), 11. Women's Section of the Association of Former Camp Detainees (Canton of Sarajevo), 12. Women - Victims of War (Sarajevo), 13. Izvor - Union in Search of the Missing of Prijedor, 14. With the Heart Towards Peace (Kozarac, Prijedor), 15. Return - Union of Returnees to Bijeljina, 16. Mostovi - Union of Families of the Missing (Bosanska Krupa), 17. Union in Search of the Missing (Brcko), 18. Union of Camp Inmates (Brcko), 19. Union of Families of Prisoners and Missing Persons from the Prozor Area (Prozor), 20. Union of Families of Victims and the Missing (Hadzici), 21. Union of Families of Victims and the Missing (Kladanj), 22. Union of Families of Victims and the Missing (Kljuc), 23. Union of Families of Prisoners and Missing Persons from Neretva Canton, Herzegovina (Mostar), 24. Union for the Missing (Mostar), 25. Mostovi Prijateljstva Union for the Missing (Prijedor), 26. Zepa Union of Returnees (Zepa), 27. Vrbanja Union of Families of the Missing (Kotor Varos, Travnik), 28. Union of Families of the Missing from Zvornik (Tuzla), 29. Kotorsko Union of Returnees (Kotorsko – Doboj), 30. BiH Roma Union (Sarajevo/Lukavac), 31. Sae Roma Roma Union (Tuzla), 32. Zenica Roma Union (Zenica), 33. Roma Union (Kalesija), 34. The Future Roma Union (Sarajevo), 35. Roma Women's Union (Tuzla), 36. Association of Drina Valley Unions, 37. Women of the Drina Valley (Bratunac), 38. Women of the Drina Valley (Vlasenica), 39. Women of the Drina Valley (Sarajevo), 40. Vrbanja Union of Returnees (Banja Luka), 41. Coalition for Return (Banja Luka), 42. Visegrad 92 Union of Families of the Missing from Visegrad (Sarajevo), 43. Women's Strength Women's Union (Tuzla), 44. Council of the Congress of Bosniak Intellectuals (Sarajevo), 45. Institute for the Recording of War Crimes (Sarajevo), 46. Serb Citizens' Council (Sarajevo), 47. Serb Citizens' Council (Tuzla), 48. Serb Citizens' Council (Zenica), 49. Serb Citizens' Council (Mostar), 50. Croat People's Council (Sarajevo), 51. Justice for Bosnia and Herzergovina Foundation (Sarajevo), 52. Obrazovanje gradi BiH [Education Builds BiH] Citizens' Union (Sarajevo), 53. Jewish Community (Sarajevo), 54. Jewish Community (Mostar), 55. Democratic Council of Bosniaks (Bijeljina), 56. Terra Citizens' Union (Sarajevo), 57. Mak-Bosanka Women's Union (Sarajevo), 58. Merhamet Humanitarian Union (Sarajevo), 59. Visegrad 92 Citizens' Union (Sarajevo), 60. Children of Sarajevo Union of Parents of Murdered Children (Sarajevo), 61. FOKUS-BiH Association of Women's Organisatsions from Bosnien and Herzegovina, 62. Medica (Zenica / Visoko), 63. Eho Union (Ljubuski), 64. Women of BiH Women's Union (Mostar), 65. Youth Forum Citizens' Union (Stolac), 66. Return and the Right of Residence Returnees' Union (Bijeljina), 67. Astra Women's Union (Bijeljina), 68. Republika Srpska Helsinki Committee (Bijeljina), 69. Woman's Future Women's Union (Kalesija), 70. For The Missing Union of Families of the Missing (Hadzici), 71. Trebinje Returnees' Union (Trebinje), 72. Deblokada Citizens' Union (Sarajevo), 73. Foundation for Return and Reconstruction in Prijedor (Prijedor), 74. Youth Initiative for Human Rights (Sarajevo).