Conferences / debates / testimonies, Newsletter

Newsletter 30

When is the next war in the Balkans?

Dear friends, dear members,

Since the beginning of 2022, new wars in Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh, Sudan and Gaza have dominated our daily news.
To find out where the next armed conflict in Europe might break out, on behalf of our association Ad Pacem servandam – Pour la Paix et contre la guerre I invite you to attend our conference with Mr Jean-Arnault Dérens, which will take place on Saturday 24 February 2024 at LuxExpo – The Box in Kirchberg (Luxembourg City), from 2.30 to 4.00 pm in the ground floor room, as part of the Festival des Migrations and the Salon du Livre organised by CLAE.

Some regions of the Balkans may soon be seeking a military solution to their border problems and disputed territorial occupations. This is still in the wake of the collapse of the former Yugoslavia and the wars of independence in the 1990s.
To find out more about this region at the heart of Europe, we invited journalist and historian Jean-Arnault Dérens, who has been reporting on the Balkans for a quarter of a century in the online newspaper Le Courrier des Balkans, of which he is editor-in-chief and also co-founder.

His lecture on Saturday 24 February is entitled:
“The Balkans, a marginalised periphery of the European Union? Old unresolved conflicts and new actors”
After the lecture, the author will sign his books, which can be purchased on site.
Admission is free.

We look forward to seeing you at the event,
best regards,

Claude Pantaleoni
Chairman

Newsletter

Newsletter 28

Peace above all

Dear friends,

As in all wars, the war between Israel and Hamas is mainly killing innocent civilians. Once again, we are witnessing the powerlessness of the world’s leaders to stop it or impose a ceasefire.
But as long as the Israeli and Palestinian leaders do not join hands to live in peace in two neighbouring states, recognising each other, the region will remain an area of conflict.
Our association supports any initiative that stops the war and leads to lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Publication: Ad Pacem 2024 calendar

Our new Ad Pacem calendar for 2024 has been available for a few days now. To produce it, this summer we travelled between Verdun and Reims, along the Western Front of the First World War. More specifically, we visited the sites of the great battles of the Meuse, Champagne, and Marne. And we compare this front to the Russian-Ukrainian front, which has been bogged down and stagnant for months. QR codes and a leaflet inside the calendar provide additional information and photos.

Proceeds from the sale of the calendar will go to help the psychiatric hospital in Vorzel, north of Kyiv, which our Vice-President visited last July. Director Tetyana Ponomarenko explained to her how the hospital was ransacked by Russian soldiers in March-April 2022. Today, the hospital is mainly short of medicines to treat the soldiers and Ukrainian civilians traumatised by the war, who are constantly flocking there.
You can order our Ad Pacem 2024 calendar by paying €14 into our account LU28 0099 7800 0064 0276 (CCRALULL), clearly specifying your full name and postal address.

Thank you

I would like to thank all our members who responded to our appeal for donations in Newsletter 27 to organise the purchase of essential medicines for the psychiatric clinic in Vorzel. These were handed over to the Director on 14 November 2023.
=> 14 November 2023. On 30 October 2023, the Vorzel psychiatric hospital in Ukraine received the medicines purchased thanks to donations received following our appeal in Newsletter 27. The hospital obtained antidepressants, neuroleptics, anticonvulsants, hynoptics and anxiolytics.

Best wishes for peace!

Claude Pantaleoni
Chairman

Newsletter

Newsletter 27

War in Ukraine – Appeal for donations

Dear friends,

During the first months of 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, we made several appeals, via our Newsletter, to help Ukrainian refugees inside their country and those arriving here.
You were generous enough to bring us sheets, blankets, clothes, shoes, food and medicines, which we sent to Ukraine in successive consignments to our development workers, who distributed them to those in need.
Many of you have made donations by bank transfer, with which we have purchased in Ukraine throughout the year what the refugees in the various reception centres and the wounded soldiers in the hospitals in Kharkiv and Kramatorsk needed, with whom we remain in contact.

The “Russia’s war against Ukraine” section of our website brings together all our direct aid actions. You can find out where, when and by whom this aid has been received.
=> Russia’s war against Ukraine

Psychologically traumatised people –
the forgotten victims of this war

Today, we are coming back to you with this URGENT APPEAL to help a psychiatric clinic in Vorzel, north of Kyiv, which our vice-president Natalya Pantaleoni visited at the end of June – beginning of July 2023.
This hospital, which is overloaded with civilian and military trauma patients, can no longer accommodate any more, although patients continue to arrive in large numbers.
There are not enough qualified staff or adequate medicines, as the Ukrainian government is mainly supporting military offensives and the physically injured.

What’s more, the clinic in Vorzel was ravaged and badly damaged by Russian soldiers who occupied it in March-April 2022. To date, it has not been possible to repair the damage due to a lack of funds.
Our vice-president’s interview with the director Tetyana Ponomarenko explains everything.
=> Interview

You can help by making a donation to our bank account
IBAN LU28 0099 7800 0064 0276 (CCRALULL)
of our association “Pour la Paix et contre la Guerre asbl”
with the mention “Help Vorzel”

or by using => Payconiq (only Benelux)

All our actions are documented and can be seen on our website.

If you have any medical equipment (crutches, walkers, medical corsets, wheelchairs, etc.) that you no longer need, we can collect it and send it to hospitals in Kharkiv and Kramatorsk.
Contact us by email at [email protected].

On behalf of the war victims and traumatised patients at Vorzel hospital,
many thanks!

Claude Pantaleoni
Chairman

Newsletter

Newsletter 26

Dear friends,

The longer the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine goes on, and the more Russia’s rulers continue to proclaim that they are waging a justified war, the more important it becomes to unmask their rhetoric and false motives. This is why the committee of “Ad Pacem servandam – For Peace and Against War” has organised several conferences in 2022 and 2023 given by specialists who are familiar with Europe and the Ukrainian, Russian and (post)Soviet worlds.

Our two guests at the Salon du Livre et des Cultures in Luxembourg-City in 2022 and 2023 were Jacques FAURE and Manfred SAPPER respectively. The former is a French diplomat who was also ambassador to Kyiv, and the latter has been the director of Osteuropa, the oldest Eastern European journal founded in Berlin in 1925, since 2002.

Their lectures can now be accessed on our website via the following links:
Jacques FAURE: What peaceful policy for Europe in the face of Russian military aggression against Ukraine?
Manfred SAPPER: Test Case Ukraine – Russia’s War, the West and the Paths to Peace
By clicking on the “The whole conference” link, you can discover the transcript of the entire conference. Clicking on “Summary” will take you to a text summarising the main points.
You can also listen to and watch the full lecture on YouTube:
Jacques FAURE : Quelle politique pacifique de l’Europe face à l’agression militaire russe contre l’Ukraine ? (YouTube)
Manfred SAPPER: Testfall Ukraine – Russlands Krieg, der Westen und die Wege zum Frieden (YouTube)

The truths you will read or hear are well-founded and will help you to understand this war, the European dimension of which increases every day.

If you have any questions about these two conferences, please contact our committee at [email protected].

Wishing for a just peace for Ukraine,

Claude Pantaleoni
Chairman

Newsletter

Newsletter 24

Dear friends, dear members of Ad Pacem,

The rediscovery of cycling symbolises the ecological and energetic alternatives that men and women must (re)discover for their own well-being and that of future generations. The cycle paths created or rehabilitated in recent years are there to help us change, at least in part, our habits of locomotion. In addition, we can (re)discover the nature of our countryside and forests and the well-being of unpolluted air.

Our Ad Pacem committee invites you to pedal together
on Saturday 20 May from 9.30 am to about 5 pm
on a looped route that we have chosen,
starting from the car park of the train station in Bettembourg.
You can discover the route by clicking on the following link: Ad Pacem Bike Tour 4.

There is the possibility to arrive by train or to leave the car on the car park during the whole day. Each participant will bring a packed lunch. A list of tips will be sent to participants two days before the event. You can notify us of your participation by e-mail at [email protected].

Cycling is good for your health, for the climate and for peace!
So don’t hesitate to join us!

Please also remember the date of Saturday 17 June for our visit to the Bastogne War Museum, where we will have a guided tour in the morning.
More information will follow in a future Newsletter.

Greetings of peace!

Claude Pantaleoni
President of the asbl
“For Peace and Against War”

Newsletter

Newsletter 23

Dear friends, dear members of Ad Pacem,

Throughout the year 2022 the activities of our association were strongly conditioned by the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Our help went to Ukrainian refugees who first came to the big cities of western Ukraine and then to families who came to our Region to find refuge. In the second half of the year, the bombardment of cities by Russian missiles and drones again accentuated these population movements. Throughout the year we have been supporting the hospitals in Kramatorsk and Kharkiv with material and medicine, as well as a team of doctors who are helping in a small field hospital behind the Ukrainian front in the Kharkiv region. We are now helping these doctors mainly with the proceeds from the sale of this year’s calendar.
As the front has now “stabilised” in the south-east and south of Ukraine, there is less movement of people, although the number of wounded and dead soldiers on the Ukrainian side (Russia does not give any information about its dead or wounded soldiers) is in the hundreds every day.

On 22 March 2023 we held our 6th General Assembly. You can read the minutes by clicking on the following link: Minutes of our 6th General Assembly 2023

In the coming months we will resume activities that we started in 2018 and 2019, and that we had to drop during the pandemic years.
On Saturday 29 April from 9.15 a.m. until about 5 p.m. we will organise a “Bike for future – bike for peace” day on the cycle paths in the south of Luxembourg. On the link Ad Pacem Bike Tour you can discover the route. This day is open to all our members and interested friends. You can communicate your participation at [email protected].

Finally, we are organising an outing to learn about the history of the wars through a visit to the Bastogne War Museum where we will be able to relive some of the highlights of the Battle of the Bulge. This will be on Saturday 17 June, from 8.30 a.m. (departure in Esch/Alzette) until the return around 4 p.m. Those who are interested can already save this date. You will have more information and the possibility to register in a future Newsletter.

I bid you a good reception of this Newsletter 23,
with my best wishes for more peace,

Claude Pantaleoni
President of the asbl
“For Peace and Against War”

Conferences / debates / testimonies, Newsletter

Newsletter n. 21

Ad Pacem is pleased to announce that Mr Manfred Sapper, editor-in-chief of Osteuropa, the oldest monthly magazine on Eastern Europe published in Berlin, will give a lecture at the Book and Culture Fair organised by CLAE, on Saturday 25 February 2023.

The title of the conference is:
Testfall Ukraine – Russlands Krieg, der Westen und die Wege zum Frieden
(Test Case Ukraine – Russia’s War, the West and the Paths to Peace)

After studying Eastern European history and political science, Mr Sapper (1962) has been editor-in-chief of the interdisciplinary monthly journal Osteuropa since 2002. The journal was founded in 1925, banned in 1939 and relaunched in 1951.

Mr Sapper and the journal have received several awards for their work, such as the “Dialog-Preis” of the German-Polish Society and the “Fricke-Preis” of the Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung.

The journal is the publisher of, among others, the volumes:
Widerstand. Ukrainische Kultur in Zeiten des Krieges (Resistance. Ukrainian culture in times of war) (2022),
Russlands Krieg gegen die Ukraine, Propaganda, Verbrechen, Widerstand (Russia’s war on Ukraine, propaganda, crime, resistance) (2022),
Der Geist der Zeit. Kriegsreden aus Russland (The spirit of the times. War speeches from Russia) (2021),
Babyn Jar. Der Ort, die Tat und die Erinnerung (Babyn Yar. The place, the deed and the memory) (2021),
Schlachtfeld Ukraine. Studien zur Soziologie des Krieges (Battlefield Ukraine. Studies on the sociology of war) (2019),
Vernichtung durch Hunger. Der Holodomor in der Ukraine (Extermination through Hunger. The Holodomor in Ukraine) (2004).

The conference will be held at the Kirchberg in Luxembourg-City, on the LuxExpo site, from 2.30 to 4 pm in room 1 on the ground floor.

In view of the war in Ukraine, it is important for me to invite you to this conference, which is about possible ways to peace and security on our continent.

With best regards for peace!

Claude Pantaleoni
President

Newsletter

Newsletter 20

We thank all those who have supported us in our peace and anti-war activities during 2022. Many thanks for the many donations and contributions to help the refugees both in our country and in Ukraine.

If you visit our website, the section Russia’s war against Ukraine informs you about our aid and interventions for peace and against war since the Russian military aggression against Ukraine.

The new section Bosnia and Herzegovina – our support specifies to whom the profit from the sale of the 2022 calendar was destined.

Membership fees are our only resource to finance our activities. You can continue to support us in 2023 thanks to your contribution of 15€ per year (5€ for students).
=> IBAN: LU28 0099 7800 0064 0276 (CCRALULL)

Finally, we would like to inform you that you still have the possibility to buy our calendar “Ad Pacem 2023”, the profit of which will go this time to support a team of young doctors from the Kharkiv hospital operating in field hospitals near the war front.
You can buy our calendar at the Diderich bookshop in Esch-sur-Alzette, at the Weltbuttek Esch and the Weltbuttek Luxembourg.
Alternatively, to order, just send us an email ([email protected]) with your contact details.

To all of you, we wish a Happy New Year 2023 with less war and more Peace!

Claude Pantaleoni
President

General meetings

Report of our 5th General Assembly 2022

Contents:

  • Welcome and war in Europe
  • The first “Bike for climate – bike for peace”
  • Operation Igor
  • Peace march in Bosnia-Herzegovina
  • The second “Bike for climate – bike for peace”
  • Invitation Ihor Kozlovsky
  • Ad Pacem 2022 calendar sale
  • Financial report 2021
  • Our support for Ukrainian scholarship holders and patients in 2021
  • Conference with Mrs Galina Ackerman on 7 May 2022
  • Updated charter of projects and objectives of the association

On Saturday 26 March 2022 the board of the association “Ad Pacem servandam – For Peace and Against War” held its fifth general assembly online. Four of the board members were present, Mr. Anselmo Malvetti excused himself for professional reasons. Several members were also excused.

Opening of the meeting

After giving a general overview of the items on the agenda, President Claude Pantaleoni explained why since 24 February Europe has entered a new area of conflict. The period of peace that had preserved our continent since 1945 was over. Therefore, in recent weeks, all the activities of the association have been focused on organising humanitarian aid sent to Ukraine and receiving Ukrainian refugee families in our Greater Region. He spoke about the many difficulties in finding people willing to take in mothers with their children, especially when these people have space. He then went on to give an overview of the activities carried out during the year 2021.

Continue reading “Report of our 5th General Assembly 2022”
Newsletter, Support actions for Ukraine

Newsletter no. 16 – Call for help

In recent days, the war situation in Ukraine has deteriorated dramatically. Millions of Ukrainians are on the run and many more are preparing to flee Russian bombing raids on populated centres and civilians.

You can help in the following two ways:

  1. Many refugees come to us with their whole family, sometimes with a cat or dog.
    We are looking for families or individuals who are willing to host in their homes or in one of their spare houses/apartments, families consisting of:
    – a mother with two or three children,
    – a couple with their two or three children, or
    – a family with an elderly person.
    Please write to us at [email protected] if you are willing and able to host such a family.
  2. We are also currently organising help in Ukraine with a Greek Catholic priest and his parish. He himself receives a list of medicines from doctors working in the hospitals, which are essential for treating the sick and injured.
    We send him the necessary money via WesternUnion so that he can buy these medicines in pharmacies. Part of the money will be used to buy food for internal refugees.

Our account: IBAN LU28 0099 7800 0064 0276
at the Caisse Rurale Raiffeisen (CCRALULL) in Luxembourg

Thank you for helping the refugees and wounded of the war in Ukraine.

Claude Pantaleoni
President

Newsletter, Support actions for Ukraine

Ad Pacem NEWSLETTER n. 15 – War in Ukraine

We from “Ad Pacem” are currently organising humanitarian aid for Ukrainians (refugees) in the west of the country.
You can help in the following two ways:

  1. Because of the war, there is a shortage of basic materials and medicines. If you have any of the materials and/or medicines, dressings, and instruments on the attached list, you can drop them off this Thursday or Friday from 4pm to 7.30pm at these three addresses:
    • 16 route d’Errouville, 54680 Crusnes (France)
    • 76 rue Henri Bessemer, 4516 Differdange (Luxembourg)
    • 21 rue Henri Luck, 3737 Rumelange (Luxembourg)
  2. You can make a donation on our account with the mention “food and medicine donation”. The money will be sent to our partners on the spot to buy food and medicine in the markets and shops in Western Ukraine. Some medicines that would not be available there will be purchased here.
    These medicines and food supplies are for refugees arriving from major cities exposed to intense Russian shelling.
    IBAN: LU28 0099 7800 0064 0276
    BIC: CCRALULL (Banque Raiffeisen Luxembourg)

We thank you in advance for your help and generosity!
Please share this newsletter with your friends!

Claude Pantaleoni
President

Support actions for Ukraine

Success of the “Igor” operation

In Newsletter No. 10 we made an appeal to support the urgent operation of Igor, a civilian victim who was seriously injured in February 2021 during clashes between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists.

Since then, Igor has been waiting at home for the possibility of an operation. But the family could not raise the money needed to pay for the operation. In the meantime Igor’s condition was getting worse.

At the end of April, we heard about his case from someone we knew. We decided to pay the costs of the operation and all the necessary treatments.

In May the operation, which had been postponed several times, could be performed. It was an operation that lasted from morning to night and where all the pieces of projectiles that Igor had received in the abdomen were removed. And his organs were put back in their place. Igor was in hospital for a month and went through a very tough post-operative period.

Today he has returned home and continues daily rehabilitation treatment in hospital. For weeks he will have to keep a strict diet but will remain disabled for the rest of his life. In a recent phone call, he thanked our association and all the donors who spontaneously made a donation to save his life.

Newsletter, Support actions for Ukraine

Igor, civilian victim of the war in Eastern Ukraine

The war in Eastern Ukraine, which has almost disappeared from our media, continues to claim victims every day. Here is an urgent case that our association “Ad Pacem” has decided to support these days, if it is possible with your help.

It is an urgent operation for young Igor, a civilian victim wounded by stray bullets on the front line. His family does not have the money to pay for the operation and his stay in hospital.

Urgent surgery

In recent weeks, shooting has increased on the frontline where the Ukrainian army and Russian-armed separatists face each other. Many families continue to live there because they cannot flee elsewhere, having any friends or family to take them in.

This is the case of 22-year-old Igor, who lives with his father (who earns his living from temporary jobs) in a village near the front line.

At the end of February, he was in his garden when he was seriously wounded by stray bullets to the abdomen and hand. A first operation was carried out to urgently and temporarily treat his abdominal wound and remove two fingers. The second and more important operation was postponed several times because of the Covid health crisis in the region. We know that his father’s financial situation does not allow him to pay for this second operation, which should take place next Wednesday, 19th of May. But it will only be done if he pays the hospital in advance and brings the medicines he has bought in advance. The surgeon advised him not to buy Russian medicines, which are cheaper but also of much lower quality and ineffective for this operation.

It was through a good acquaintance whom we have been helping for years that we were put in touch by phone with Igor’s desperate father. The operation is necessary to save the life of his son, who will have to stay in hospital for at least twenty days with special treatments. And it is also up to the father to buy all the medicines for after the operation.

According to the information we have at the moment, the expenses for Igor’s operation amount to €800, the purchase of medicines to €400, the hospitalization with special medicines to €400. It is important to know that an average worker earns at best 150 € per month in the territories occupied by the pro-Russian separatists, which is not the case for Igor’s father who has no paid job.

We appeal to your generosity to help Igor. Every donation, no matter how small, will make a difference.

You can make your donation to our bank account IBAN LU28 0099 7800 0064 0276 (BIC: CCRALULL) with the mention “Operation Igor”.

Thank you all very much! We will keep you informed about the follow-up of this urgent help in the coming weeks.

General meetings

The fourth General Assembly 2021

On Saturday, March 6, the committee of the association Ad Pacem servandam (For Peace and Against War) held its fourth general assembly online. All the members of the board were present, 18 members of the association followed the meeting online, and 22 people apologized.

After giving a general overview of the different items on the agenda, President Claude Pantaleoni reviewed all the activities and operations for the year 2020.

The vice-president, Mrs. Natalya Pantaleoni, presented the aid to the victims of the war in Eastern Ukraine as well as the three new scholarship holders from this region that Ad Pacem has been supporting for a few months.

An important point of the 2020 activities was the elaboration of the Ad Pacem 2021 calendar. It was based on photos taken by four members of the association during the Peace March that runs along the front line of the Great War between 1915 and 1918 between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was sold in parishes, high schools, and among members and friends.

Mr. Christian Welter, the treasurer, presented a detailed financial report for the year 2020 which was validated by the auditor Mr. Patrice Picart.

The committee is pleased to announce the acceptance of a new member, Mr. Laurent Tran Van Mang. The last items on the agenda concerned the next Peace March that the association plans to make in Bosnia-Herzegovina on the traces of the Balkan wars of the 1990-s. It also plans some outings with young people (bike trips, museum visits, etc.) and plans meetings with war victims.

Support actions for Ukraine

PEACE MARCH ON THE WAR FRONT 1915-18

For one week, from Monday 7 September to Friday 11 September 2020, some of our members walked a stretch of the 650 km “Sentiero della Pace” (Path of Peace), which runs along the Italian or”Alpine front”of the First World War. It was here that the Italian and Austro-Hungarian armies faced each other between 1915 and 1918. The chosen route is located in the Pre-Alps of Vicenza, near the town of Rovereto and Lake Garda.

The aim was to discover, in places of the “Great War”, as the Italians call the First World War, the very harsh reality of a mountain war – little known in Europe – although it claimed about one million victims in the military corps of both countries.

Continue reading “PEACE MARCH ON THE WAR FRONT 1915-18”