Call For Support For Helsinki Committee in Kosovo
 

International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights 25 Aug 1999

 
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
Rummelhardtg. 2/18, A-1090 Vienna, AUSTRIA
Tel. +43-1-402 73 87, 408 88 22
Fax +43-1-408 74 44
E-mail: office@ihf-hr.org
Internet: http://www.ihf-hr.org/

Call For Support For Helsinki Committee in Kosovo
 
Vienna, August 1999

I am writing to ask if you would consider contributing to a fund being raised by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) in order to help the Kosovo Helsinki Committee replace its office equipment, all of which was stolen by Serbian police or military units during the armed conflict concerning Kosovo.
     The Kosovo Helsinki Committee is an independent, nonpolitical group of professors, intellectuals, and activists devoted to promoting compliance with international human rights standards; it has been a member of the IHF since 1992. This small organization, which has operated almost completely on the basis of voluntary work, supplies the IHF and the international community with a great deal of information and helps other Kosovo human rights organizations distribute information about human rights violations.
     As the crisis in Kosovo intensified, the Committee worked closely with the Helsinki Committees in Serbia and Montenegro and with the other groups in the IHF to call attention to the dangers to international security posed by the worsening human rights situation. The work of the Kosovo Helsinki Committee has thus been an essential part of our effort to de-politicize and de-ethnicize reporting on human rights problems in Kosovo and the region, and to supply accurate reports to the international and human rights community.
     Since the beginning of the KFOR mission the Kosovo Helsinki Committee has called for the establishment of security, law and order for all citizens of Kosovo and particularly for the protection of Serbs and other minorities who have faced violence. The IHF foresees a number of future human rights projects in Kosovo in cooperation with our colleagues in the Committee.
     But even rudimentary cooperation with the international political and human rights community is now hampered because every bit of the Committee’s office equipment including several computers, modems, printers, and telephones, as well as all tables, chairs, files and file cabinets, etc, was looted during the conflict.
     Replacement of these items, which had been gradually acquired by this NGO over the years, will cost approximately $20,000. We would be deeply grateful for your help. Donations for this purpose should be transmitted by check or into to the bank account of

International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
Bank: CA-BV, Vienna, Austria
Account: 0221-00283/00,
Bank Routing number 11 000

Please mark donation with "Kosovo"

Thank you for your consideration.
 
Sincerely,

Aaron Rhodes

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