American Jewish Committee Delegation To Depart For Macedonia Tonight For High-Level Talks And Relief Effort

American Jewish Committee
Monday, 19 April 1999

An American Jewish Committee delegation is leaving tonight for Macedonia to visit ethnic Albanian refugee sites, to meet with Macedonian government officials and with international relief workers.

"We cannot sit silently while a human tragedy unfolds in Kosovo," said AJC President Bruce M. Ramer, who is leading the nine-member delegation. "History has taught us the painful lesson of what happens when good people sit by and do nothing when madmen rise up to terrorize civilian populations."

The delegation will arrive in Skopje on Tuesday, April 20, and will leave on Friday, April 23. The AJC group can be reached in Skopje at the HOTEL CONTINENTAL, at 389-91-116-599 or 389-91-133-333.

They plan also to meet with U.S. Embassy officials, Israeli relief workers and leaders of the tiny Jewish community in Macedonia. The delegation will deliver donations of pharmaceutical supplies collected by AJC chapters.

The visit to Macedonia comes amid a flurry of AJC activity on behalf of the huge numbers of ethnic Albanian refugees fleeing Yugoslav violence in Kosovo.

AJC's Kosovo Relief Fund already has received about $500,000. These funds will be allotted in full to appropriate aid agencies operating on the ground in Macedonia and Albania. An initial donation of $25,000 was made to the International Rescue Committee.

"Financial support during these horrendous times is critically important and we're pleased to be able to do our part," said Mr. Ramer. "But equally important is human solidarity; making sure that the innocent victims of this carnage know they are not alone in their suffering, know that the world sees what is happening to them, and is ready to stand up for their human rights and human dignity. That is why we are going on this mission."

An AJC ad supporting NATO's action against Yugoslav forces and for humanitarian relief efforts appeared in yesterday's New York Times Week in Review section. The ad also has appeared in the International Herald Tribune, and will be published later this week in the Washington Post and The New Republic.

The AJC has already begun to plan for education programs on the tragedy of Kosovo as a follow-up to the delegation's visit this week to Macedonia.

On Thursday, April 29, at AJC Headquarters, the New York Chapter will host an evening event featuring the Albanian and Macedonian ambassadors to the United Nations and a member of the AJC delegation.

An earlier plan to visit Albania was canceled, for security reasons, after consultation with the U.S. State Department.

In addition to Mr. Ramer, the other members of the AJC delegation include David A. Harris, AJC executive director; Martin Bresler, chair of AJC's Belfer Center for American Pluralism; Cookie Shapiro and Lois Frank, members of AJC's Board of Governors; Kenneth Bandler, AJC's director of communications; Eugene DuBow, director of AJC's Berlin office; Madeline Peerce, a television executive from Los Angeles; and Roy Bahat, a Rhodes Scholar from Oxford.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org