WE STAND FOR PEACE

AS MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS OF MOTHERS

WITH ALL THE MOTHERS, AND ALL THE OTHERS, WHO STAND TO PROTEST FAMILIES LOST TO WAR AND OFFICIAL OPPRESSION

We Honor

AsociaciŠn Madres de la Plaza de Mayo

(The Mothers and Grandmothers of the Disappeared of Argentina)

The mothers and grandmothers of the tens of thousands who disappeared in Argentina throughout the Æ70s began to meet every Thursday at 3:30 in the Plaza de Mayo in 1976.

• http://www.madres.org/

The Mothers of the Disappeared of Turkey

Mothers of the disappeared of Turkey Õ the Saturday Mothers Õ have demonstrated every Saturday for the last 10 years in front of the Hasan Tahsin Memorial in Istanbul for years, where they have been harassed many times by the police.

• http://www.ozgurluk.org/mothers/
  
• http://www.amnesty-usa.org/turkey/women.html
  
• http://www.hr-action.org/thr/AI090498.html
  

World Algerian Action Coalition (WACC) The Mothers of the Disappeared of Algeria

Mother of the disappeared of Algeria made their first public demonstration in September 1997 for visiting foreigners to protest 3,000 people who have disappeared in police or military custody. Disbanded by the police, they got the attention of the UN Human Rights Commission, as well as opposition Parliament members who called for investigation.

• http://www.waac.org/rep99/AIUSA_briefing_mothers_of_disappeared.html

ÀMovement of Mothers from the Enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa”

Æwas established in 1998. In this government-independent Bosnian organization, headquartered in Sarajevo, more than 10,000 women are united together. They survived, severely traumatized, the collapse of the former UN Protection Zone Srebrenica in East Bosnia on July 11, 1995. Most of them lost their male relatives: 10,701 Bosnians disappeared according to the informations of the movement since the entry of Serbian troops, among them also 570 women, as well as more than 1,000 infants and children. The majority of the disappeared were, in all probability, killed in mass-executions immediately after Srebrenica³s capture from Serbian General Ratko Miladic³s task forces and are buried in mass graves. So far, the remains of about 5,300 men have been exhumed. A forensic team could identify just 53 of the dead.³

• http://www.gfbv.de/gfbv_e/structur/award/mothers.htm

The Mothers of the Disappeared of Sri Lanka

An estimated 30,000-60,000 people disappeared in Sri Lanka between 1988 and 1991.

• http://www.ahrchk.net/statement/20010219.htm

AgrupaciŠn de Familiares de los Detenidos Desaparecidos, Association of Relatives of the Detained Disappeared of Chile

The Mothers of the Disappeared in Honduras

Mothers in Honduras have held weekly demonstrations in the center of Tegucigalpa against the US-run School of the Americas, also known as the School of Assassins, holding pictures of assassinated family members.

• http://www.radio4all.org/anarchy/soa.html

Co-Madre (Mothers of the Disappeared of El Salvador)

• http://www.sojourners.com/soj9609/960941e.html

The Guatemalan Widows' Council (CONAVIGUA)

Ærepresents over 40,000 widows in this strife-torn Central American country of more than 30 years of civil war. Now peace is nearing and the Council's campaign for the end of the Civil Defence Patrols has seen success with a resident Presidential announcement formally abolishing the patrols. The Council has also had success in campaigning against forced military recruitment and for the exhumation of the many clandestine cemeteries which are the result of the war.³

• http://www.caa.org.au/horizons/h18/jane.html

MADRE

ÆSince 1983, MADRE has worked in partnership with community-based women³s organizations in conflict areas worldwide to address issues of health, education, economic development and other human rights. MADRE provides resources and training for our sister organizations and works to empower people in the US to demand changes to unjust policies. Based on the priorities of the women with whom we work, MADRE develops programs to meet immediate needs in communities hurt by US policy and supports women³s long-term struggles for social justice and human rights.³

• http://www.madre.org

MADRE has projects in Cuba, Nicaragua, Rwanda, Palestineææ.and more

Grandmothers For Peace

ÆGrandmothers for Peace, a non-profit organization, was formed in May of 1982 at the height of the Cold War. In 1981, I became aware of 150 nuclear weapons at Mather Air Force Base º just 15 minutes from my home in Sacramento, California. Those weapons, aimed at the Soviet Union, and similar weapons in the USSR aimed at the US, made me realize that if things did not change, my precious grandchildren could be part of the last generation on earth. That thought catapulted me Àout of my kitchen” to join others at the gates of Mather in protest of the nuclear arms race. My granddaughter made me a sign that read ÀGrandmother for Peace” which I held at weekly protests. That sign attracted a great deal of attention from the public and the media.³ Barbara Weidner,

• www.grandmothersforpeace.org

Among current projects: The National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund. ÆThe National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund advocates for legislation enabling conscientious objectors to war to have their federal income taxes directed to a special fund which could be used for non-military purposes only.³

The Families of those lost to police brutality in New York and the United States.

With sincere apologies to all of the above for the limited space to give due credit to their work, and to all those we have regrettably omitted to mention.

WOMEN IN BLACK

Women In Black New York stand in silent vigil to protest war, rape as a tool of war, ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses all over the world. We are silent because mere words cannot express the tragedy that wars and hatred bring. We refuse to add to the cacophony of empty statements that are spoken with the best intentions yet may be erased or go unheard under the sound of a passing ambulance or a bomb exploding nearby.

Our silence is visible. We invite women to stand with us, reflect about themselves and women who have been raped, tortured or killed in concentration camps, women who have disappeared, whose loved ones have disappeared or have been killed, whose homes have been demolished. We wear black as a symbol to mourn for all victims of war, to mourn the destruction of people, nature and the fabric of life.

Women in Black is an international peace network. Women in Black is not an organization, but a means of mobilization and a formula for action. Women in Black vigils were started in Israel in 1988 by women protesting against Israel³s Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Women in Black has developed in the Italy, Spain, United States, England, Azerbaijan and in FR Yugoslavia, where women in Belgrade have stood in weekly vigils since 1991 to protest war and the Serbian regime³s policies of nationalist aggression. Women in Black New York have been standing in solidarity with the women of Belgrade since 1993.

We stand in silent vigil in front of the New York Public Library at 5th Avenue and 41st Street the last Wednesday of every month from 5:30 Õ 6:30. Come join us.

For information, please visit our website at http://balkansnet.org/women
Tel: Indira at 212 560-0905.
E-mail: 074182@newschool.edu to get on our mailing list.
Donations may be sent to P.O. Box 20554, New York, NY 10021, and should be made payable to RACCOON, Inc., with WIB in the memo line.
See also http://wib.matriz.net.