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""One of the
greatest problems is the cynical idea
that the world cannot be changed.
But with Amnesty it's simple; you can
write a postcard and make a gigantic
difference to the life of someone who is
in jail or suffering human rights
abuses." Bono,
together with Edge and Adam Clayton stood
for a campaign held in Dublin byAmnesty
International under the slogan 'One
billion signatures, one powerful
message'. They hopes one million
signatures will be collected in Ireland
and 60 millions globally to be
presented to the United Nations in
December, 1998, on the 50th anniversary
of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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"I asked him to
tell the mothers of people who have
disappeared under his rule
where the bones of their sons and
daughters were so that they can say
good-bye.
I also told him that God would be his
judge, not us, but I said the least he
could
do was to do something for the families.
They have a memorial, but there are no
graves. It's important that they find out
what happened."Bono
confessed how relieved he was to learn of
the weekend arrest of General Pinochet,
the former Chilean dictator, after
extradition proceeding from Spain.
Pinochet was a regular target of
international protests staged by Amnesty
after
human rights violations including the
torturing of
thousands of political opponents in his
country.
When U2 played in Chile, he
addressed the message to Pinochet on the
stage and it went out live on TV. Later
the gig has boosted and inspired morale
and the current wave of unrest there.
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follow them through
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U2 UNITES
BOSNIANS IN SONGS |
Fulfilling
a
promise made at the end of Bosnia’s
3½-year war,
the rock band U2 went to Sarajevo to
unite
Muslims, Croats and Serbs in song.
For two hours, 45,000 people from all
over bitterly divided
Bosnia, the former Yugoslavia, and troops
serving in the
NATO peace force joined for a rock
concert Tuesday, September 24,1997, that
drowned out any talk of war.
At one point, when the band sang its hit
“In the Name of
Love,” the audience joined in so
forcefully that it overpowered
even the loudspeakers.
“Sing in Sarajevo,” lead singer
Bono told the crowd in
Serbo-Croatian. “It’s a present
from you to us.”
Profits Returned to Bosnians
Weeks after the war ended in
1995, Bono visited Sarajevo and
pledged to give a concert. All revenues
from Tuesday’s
show—with tickets costing an average
of $18—were to
benefit Sarajevo hospitals.
From a bullet-pocked stadium built for
Sarajevo’s last
magical moment—the 1984 Winter
Olympics—the sound of
rock music echoed through a valley that
had known only the
terrifying explosions of shells and the
snarl of snipers’ bullets
during war.
On tour in 1993-94, Bono established a
direct video link
with Sarajevo, broadcasting one of the
group’s concerts and
bringing it a glimpse of the outside
world amid its time of
greatest isolation —a gesture
Bosnians never forgot.
“I felt excluded from the world for
so long,” said Azra
Smailkadic, 18, a student who came from
Travnik in central
Bosnia. “It’s not only about
U2. It’s the feeling of being part
of
the world.”
At least 500 of the fans braved the trip
in buses from the
Bosnian Serb republic to the Muslim-Croat
Federation, where
the concert was held.
Trains Run Again
That federation has been
dysfunctional since it was formed
under U.S. auspices in 1994, but not so
Tuesday. Foreign
donors repaired the war-shattered railway
network within the
Federation last year. Since then, trains
have not moved
because Muslims and Croats couldn’t
agree on who was going
to run the network.
But the crush of fans from outside
Sarajevo—30,000
residents of Sarajevo bought tickets for
the concert—was so
great that trains ran from the north and
south to bring people
in. Today, they were to move again, this
time to take the fans
home.
A U.S. soldier, Brian Chilton of Tinker,
Okla., summed up
an event that for all was momentous.
“It is history,” he said.
“I
wanted to be part of it. Every Bosnian is
here tonight. ... not to
fight, but to party.”
Also watching the show were dozens of
British troops from
their base in Split, Croatia. Portuguese
soldiers mingled. Chilton
said that American soldiers gathered at
his base in the northern
city of Tuzla and drew lots to decide who
would come.
Asked whether they weren’t worried
that fighting would
erupt while soldiers of the NATO-led
peace force enjoyed
themselves, a group of British soldiers
roared back, “This is the
safest place in Bosnia tonight.”-Aida
Cerkez / AP.VIDEO.
U2
PERFORMING IN SARAJEVO
FROM ABCNEWS.
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| NEWS AND PHOTOGRAPHY
COURTESY OF TIME
INTERNATIONAL, CNN, ABCNEWS, AND IRISH TIMES. |
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| (c) Visionerexindo,2001. |
| Please send all
correspondences to thememorabillion@yahoo.com |
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