April 2, 2007
GREETING OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE GERMAN WORLD ALLIANCE
The First European Conference of Expellees in Europe comes at a time in human history when ethnic cleansing is still the order of the day in many parts of the world. It marks a good beginning, a needed beginning in the search for a solution to the problem of ethnic cleansing.
Every day, as those assembled here read about the horrors occurring in Darfur and elsewhere in the world to refugee populations, to populations that have been ethnically cleansed, we cannot help but to think back to the experiences of our own people when they were removed from their homelands.
Four words beginning with “R” should be in the minds of those here present.
Respect: for all victims of expulsion; Recognition: for the hurt and horror, the trauma that the expulsion meant to them; Restitution: for the harm done to them; and Return: for those who want to go back home.
All the groups represented here in Trieste, I am sure, agree that the injustice that expulsion represents must be ended. It must stop now, at long last. One way to help put a stop to current ethnic cleansing is to keep those four “R”s in mind. To remember the past and to make the ethnic cleansers of the past and their successors admit their crimes and pay a price for them. For as long as ethnic cleansing is profitable, it will continue.
But before compensation can be paid, respect for the victims of ethnic cleansing must become universal. There cannot be some politically correct victims who are entitled to respect and compensation, and other victims who are valued less and not entitled to it. Anyone who has been a victim of ethnic cleansing, no matter what his or her religion or ethnicity, has a right to respect and restitution and compensation, and a right to return to their former homeland and possessions if they so wish to.
The German World Alliance and its supporters and members around the world believe in such a universalist approach to the issue of compensation and return for victims of ethnic cleansing. We support this conference . We extend our hand, the hand of friendship and cooperation, to every organization gathered here today in the hope that we will all of us work together for a just solution for those who have been ethnically cleansed.
Dr. Kearn Schemm
Pres. German World Alliance