Swiss Public Vote to Enter UN:

Suspected Anthrax Attack against Citizens' Movement on the No-Side

Until now, Switzerland as host country to the UN seat in Geneva, has had observer status, but the country also works actively in many subdivisions of the UN, espe-cially in the humanitarian sector, and already now pays SFr. 500 million annually.

During the last few weeks the Swiss government has behaved like a market crier on the Pro-side, vociferously violating rules governing the division of powers. Swiss democracy, consisting of the very special model of direct democracy, has strict rules governing the divi-sion of powers and the executive (the government) is not allowed to take part in the opinion forming process, let alone mislead the electorate in a public vote. In addition, the country's constitution and the European Human Rights Convention forbid this. In violation of this rule, the government has formed a powerful 'propaganda ministry'. SFr. 2 million in taxpayers' money has been used for PR offices in the present campaign. In addition, since 1992, 433 persons have been employed within the government in the field of public relations, specifically to bias the population towards voting along government lines: the government needs control over the influences affecting public opinion during the run-up to the vote. In this way whole organisations and segments of the population were swayed, while members of the Federal Council met with influential members of local communities and other opinion-leaders, exploiting their authority to obtain Yes-vote, and to prevent any open discussion. This situation threatens the citizen's right to objective information and the honest forming of the political will.

Among Swiss and foreign citizens who critically observed this vote there is a lot of agreement that it was only possible to achieve the Yes-vote by massive misinformation and abuse of government authorities.

The No-side consists of one party (People's Party), the same one that on the No-side in the public vote on drug legalisation. Independent of this party, there exist a number of committees on the local level with a political position not bound to any political party and with strong humanitarian arguments in favour of Switzerland remaining an independent and neutral force in the world. One of these groups, the movement www.buergergespraech.ch working on the national level for a No-vote co-ordinates many of the activities.

On Wednesday, February 20, a hoax anthrax attack was carried out against the office of this citizens' movement www.buergergespraech.ch. At 12.15 local time, a secretary opened a letter containing a bundle of the movement's own leaflets out of which then poured a white powdery substance. An emergency police task force quarantined the building and took over the management of the situation. On Friday 22 at 4 p.m. the police were able to inform the victims that the substance was not anthrax.

The attack was nevertheless a criminal act, a threat to use a weapon of mass destruction, a terrorist act, which for the perpetrator can result in a lengthy prison sentence. Anthrax is a highly infectious bacterial disease, capable of killing a person within a few days. Such an attack constitutes a threat against the lives of citizens, their right to vote freely, free speech and the forming of the political will. The movement www.buergergespraech.ch as well as the editorial team of the newspaper Current Concerns are convinced the attack is a result of the government's ruin-ously antidemocratic position and their violation of citizens' and human rights. What is called for are world-wide activities to protect the forming of the political will of peoples based on their right to self-determination.