LEGAL GUIDE TO THE KOSOVO CONFLICT |
E-mails from Yugoslavia
JURIST Calling Yugoslavia! Lawyers, law students, law professors and other academics - use this form to send us your comments or reports. Vase komentare i e-mail mozete nam posalti na srpskom jeziku: You may also e-mail us at JURIST@law.pitt.edu. Those wishing to electronically mask their identities should use the Anonymizer service provided by the Kosovo Privacy Project. Comments or reports from JURIST readers elsewhere in the Balkans, especially in Albania and Macedonia, are also welcome.
The following are the latest e-mail letters and messages sent to JURIST: The Law Professors' Network by lawyers, law students, law professors and other academic and special correspondents from Yugoslavia. Some of these e-mails are legal analyses, some are situation reports, and some are personal stories. The names and affiliations of a number of our correspondents have been withheld to protect their identities. While this forum is shared by Yugoslavs from different ethnic backgrounds, readers should note that most of our Yugoslavian e-mail comes from Serbia; communication with ethnic Albanian correspondents in Montenegro and Kosovar Albanian refugees now in Macedonia has only recently been (re-)established. Any opinions expressed in these e-mails are exclusively those of their authors.Do you have comments or questions for our Yugoslav correspondents? Address your responses to JURIST@law.pitt.edu - please include the words "Yugoslav E-mail Response" in the Subject line of your message, and please indicate your city and country of residence. Selected comments and questions already submitted are available for review.
- electricity, by chance... [May 31]
- interviewing Kosovar refuguees on the Milosevic indictment [May 31]
- remembering Tito [May 30]
- blasts [May 29]
- passport to nowhere? [May 28]
- visit to a refugee camp [May 27]
- examinations [May 27]
- legal consequences of damage to the environment [May 27]
- no water, no power [May 25]
- looking around [May 25]
- stationing Serb soldiers in Montenegro [May 24]
- another Sarajevo? [May 24]
- Executive Director, Humanitarian Law Center, Belgrade [May 23]
- "no nothing" [May 23]
- Albanian students in Yugoslavia [May 23]
- unplugged again [May 22]
- "will I see the end of this?" [May 21]
- safe intellectuals [May 21]
- recent events [May 21]
- hospital hit [May 20]
- night of horrors [May 20]
- the end of this war? [May 19]
- embargo [May 19]
- tired [May 19]
- hearing the other side [May 18]
- depressing dream [May 18]
- fishing for bombs [May 17]
- reflections on Rugova [May 16]
- no snail-mail [May 16]
- crime and propaganda [May 15]
- military police again [May 15]
- more e-mails from Yugoslavia...
. I suppose that the fact that people who wrote them were visiting this site and were willing to hear the other side makes it worth an effort.
- [Monday, May 31] By a pure chance we have electricity at the Faculty, so I use opportunity to send you a few words.
We had spent a few days trying to find an old-type oven operating on wood, as electricity is a luxury. We had a lack of water for three days again, but as they hit this night the last power plant near Belgrade, we had no electricity again, what means that the water is going to disappear soon. Some NATO "humanitarian" politicians promised that they are able to turn Serbs back to Middle Ages. They are on the right way - we are somewhere in between of XIX and XVIII century now. Just for a glance, when you find place with electricity, you may still use computer as I do now, but my feeling is that it will not be for long.
Last day and this night was terrible. NATO bombed in the small town of Surdulica a geriatric hospital and refugee campus (11 killed about 50 wounded), the bridge in Varvarin near Krusevac (15 killed, more than 60 wounded, as they hit the bridge for the second time some 10 minutes after the first strike, while medical personal and lot of people were helping victims, and became victims themselves), water station in Sombor, power plants in Belgrade, N. Sad and Nis, while a lot of Belgrade houses are damaged this night when they bombed heavily inhabited area of Zvezdara (including a collegue of us, who almost does not have a house anymore).
It is evident that they intensified strikes on non-military objects, while western media almost stopped to speak about civilian victims of NATO bombing almost completely (we still listen to VOA on our baterry run transistors). It is now obvious that whenever appears a possibility to approach a diplomatic solution, bombing becomes more intensive. If the things go on this way, they will continue bombing untill they destroy every single house in the country.
It is 9 ,45 AM now and the alarm is just announcing again (as yesterday, when we had three or four alarms during the day). It seems that Clark was right when he said that they will not be as gentle as before! How gentle they were up to now, families of thousands of victims know well.
Dr. Sima Avramovic
School of Law
University of Belgrade
- [Monday, May 31] If one wants to start a conversation with the refugees from Kosova, all one has to do is mention Slobodan Milosevic (being careful not to use Mister and Milosevic at the same time - that's definitely a bad combination of words for the refugees' ears). Well, since I already knew this (actually, somebody gave me a hint) I used Milosevic's name to find out what IDP's ["Internally Displaced Persons"] think about his indictment [by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, at The Hague]. All I had to do is ask the first person I met at the camp about this - and all of a sudden, I was surrounded by a huge crowd of refugees. They all started to talk at the same time. I couldn't understand anything they were saying. So, I explained to them that my tape recorder is not the 'latest thing in the market', and that I needed them to talk one at a time. This helped to calm them down....the recording started...
It took me exactly 83 minutes to go over the tape; but, I will mention just the most common answers I got from Kosovars: "He is getting what he deserves!"; "The best news I've heard lately!"; "I don't believe anything will come out of this indictment. Remember Karadzic and the others? This is just another 'political game'! "; "The sooner he gets there, the better"; "Is he going to get a free ticket to the Hague? Can't they make him walk all the way there?"; "What about others!? Those five are not the only ones who deserve 'The Hague'!!!".
Apart from these loudly spoken answers, there were silent answers as well. Just after I finished the recording, a young girl took me to the tent where she and her mom were staying. The woman was dressed in faded black (her clothes were old - probably got them at the Red Cross). She was in mourning for her two sons and her husband who were killed by the Serbian "soldiers" (it's a custom in some places of Kosova that women wear black, dark blue or dark brown when a close member of a family passes away). I didn't have to ask her anything - the 'real blackness' of her face, her silent answer/question was too obvious: "Is Hague going to bring my loved ones back?!" I had no answer...
"Artemis"
Montenegro
- [Sunday, May 30] Yesterday afternoon, I had a drink with M., a friend of mine, an actor. We went to a coffee shop called 'Broz'. The name rings a very special bell, because 'Broz' was the family name of late Yugoslav president better known as Tito. That was the guy who ruled the former Yugoslavia since the end of the second world war until his death in 1980. He was half Croat, half Slovenian, but that is not quite sure, since there are no trusty biographical data about him - the date of his birth, as well as the place of his birth, is unknown, his life and whereabouts shrouded with mystery. It may well be that, like in the case of Shakespeare's life, people feel the urge to spin fantastic stories just because so little is known.
Anyway, that funny little seemingly pro-west Communist leader remains an elusive symbol, now that a coffee shop is named after him. Today, I am inclined to believe that Tito was the first example of what Jean Baudrillard was to name 'simulacrum'. The guy really embodied 'the truth which conceals its being non-existent' - which is my paraphrase of the definition of simulacrum.
I met him when I was ten years old. I was ordered to wish him a cordial welcome into a small town where I used to live in the seventies, and hand him a bunch of flowers. I remember his wavy hair dyed auburn and the scent of a wonderful aftershave. Otherwise, he reminded me of a wax figure. A small peck is enough to see if the person in front of you is real or not.
Today, the man is dead, but the coffee shop takes up his name, as if it was a trademark. Is it maybe postmodern? I found it quite tacky, because the owner of this place even had the red star, the symbol of communism, painted on jars and glasses.
There was the power outage, so I had my Nescafe cold, served in a tall glass with a small red star on it. Hheavens! if you survive communism, the door to the stone age opens...
Still, the 'Broz' place was not half as absurd as the fact that me, M. and dozens of people there had the most casual chat on all kinds of trivial things. The girls were made up, guys clean shaven. One of numerous paradoxes of living in Yugoslavia.
Today, at five pm, we had the third all-alert siren since this morning, followed with a cluster of blasts. The whole country has been carefully bombed around the clock. I am a bit uneasy about the coming night. Postmodernism, postcommunism, and what's next? The big bang?
"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad
- [Saturday, May 29] You wouldn't believe how important a television studio can be. If NATO is willing to spend six missiles on it even after it was completely destroyed, then it must be the secret shelter of Serbian Moulder and Scully.
Some time after midnight, these terrible TV blasts woke me up. Nothing new under the sun, under the mun, under the spy star. But this was for me the first time to see how a powerful blast opens the LOCKED door and shuts it back again!
Now it is 1 pm my time, and I just have heard another terrible blast. And planes. Bye for now.
"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad
- [Friday, May 28] Another deceivingly peaceful hot summerlike day, after a semi-peaceful cool night: blasts here, there, everywhere. Nothing new on earth, nothing new in Serbia: stockpiling goes on, power outage renewed, death toll going sky high, destruction spreads like a virus.
We held the Diploma examination today. Sounds more absurd than anything. The faculty was out of power the whole morning, but it didn't affect us. Actually, it did affect me, because I had to wait for hours to get a Sloterdijk's book from the library stocks. Later I remembered I also needed Nietzsche's 'The Birth of Tragedy', but the friendly and helpful librarian advised me to come on Monday to pick the book. OK, Monday then.
Coming back home, I was overwhelmed with a strange feeling - in my hands, I carried a serbian translation of Sloterdijk's study on Nietzsche; on my feet, I had shoes bought in USA; I was wearing a pullover bought in Portugal (a present from my friend Joao) and pants bought in London; my neck was sprinkled with Dior's 'Dune', the perfume purchased at the Amsterdam airport. It seemed that the only Serbian thing about me was the translation!
Thus perhaps I am a stranger in this city? Hardly. Because in my purse I had my passport, the utmost proof of my citizenship. If I had to fill a form asking about my citizenship, I'd put 'Hopelessly Yugoslav'. My outfit - as well as the books I read, the literatures I teach, the languages I speak - does not mean a thing. My passport beats all. It shows that I can wander off only in my thoughts. The only true words stamped on it would say 'Destination Nowhere'.
"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad
- [Thursday, May 27] Yesterday...I went to the Kosova IDP's ["Internally Displaced Persons" - i.e. refugees] camp in the Long Beach. This camp is pretty close (less than 3 miles away) to the place where a NATO missle dropped one of its bombs. I just wanted to find out how do the IDP's feel about NATO strikes now that their lives could be at stake (I already told you that the army officials choose exactly those places where the majority of people are Albanians to 'settle' their armed forces). I talked to 50 people of different age-groups and different backgrounds. The amazing thing was that no single person (from this group) said that the NATO strikes should be stopped until the Serbians give them back what belongs to them. Even if that means that NATO bombs might be 'attracted' towards them.
An old gentleman of 76 (well, sure, his clothes were ragged, he didn't wear a tie and his eyes were full of pain; but, yet, I have never met such a 'gentle man' in my life) said: "My dear child ("cika jeme" = "my daughter" in Albanian), each morning when I wake up I check the sky to see whether there are any airplaines; and, each night, before I enter my tent I look up to the sky and wish those NATO pilots a safe flight." After this, he smiled a warm and sad smile...and left...I think I will remember his 'smile' for the rest of my life.
"Artemis"
Montenegro
- [Thursday, May 27] Oral examination in English Literature was for me a unique opportunity to find out that Geoffrey Chaucer wrote his poems in Latin, Italian and French, or that 'coy mistress' means 'beautiful landlady'. Students are doing their best, but so much of their energy is obviously wasted on finding ways to come to Novi Sad in the quickest and safest way. Studying for exams, as any kind of mental work, becomes next to impossible. I almost started apologizing to a student who failed when I heard that she had travelled from a town in eastern Serbia some two hundred killometers from Novi Sad. Still, a student that recently came from Pristina did excellently. Which now sounds almost as breaking rules.
Later on, I dialed a Belgrade friend, and he started explaining how a piece of a missile fell very near a restaurant we once dined in. I remember well the day we had that dinner, the things we talked about, even the cab driver who drove us there and the kind of pizza I ordered, but I could not remember what the restaurant looked like. Not a smallest clue I had! But I pretended I remembered the place, to cut the long story short.
Such a beautiful, sunny summer day, and we do that bomb talk. Wouldn't it be better to keep pretending that life is ordinary and normal? It seems that we prefer to include bombs in the vision of the normal life. We are now bombed by default anyway.
"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad
- [Thursday, May 27] Due to NATO aggression on the FR Yugoslavia and two months of unabated bombardment of civilian targets and industrial plants, environmental catastrophe has been caused and the right to safe environment severely jeopardized. As a consequence, several fundamental human rights have been violated, including the right to life and health, as well as other basic human rights (the right to development, the right to work, the right to information, etc.).
Humanitarian Law
The unprovoked and illegal NATO aggression on the FR of Yugoslavia has been conducted in violation of the provisions of humanitarian law including a number of international legal instruments as: The Hague provisions (1899) and (1907), The Hague Rules to the Fourth Convention (1907), The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Genocide (1948), The Geneva Convention (1949), with the related Protocol I (1977), etc.
The Fourth Geneva Convention forbids killing as well as provoking physical injury of people, destruction of moveable and unmovable goods. Additional Protocol I forbids application of methods and means of warfare: a) which are directed toward inflicting "large, longtime and severe damages to the environment"; b) so that from the application of these ways and means "damages to the environment could be expected to occur".
The Protocol forbids destruction, removal and deprivation of objects which are needed to the survival of the civilian population: food, agricultural regions devoted to the production of food, live cattle, the harvest, installations for water supply, etc. Attack on buildings and installations containing dangerous forces (water dams, electric power plants, even in the vicinity of military compounds: a) if that might provoke the release of dangerous forces; b) or if that might provoke great casualties among civilian population.
International Environmental Law
NATO has been continuously violating all the principles of the protection of environment contained in numerous international documents, especially those adopted on the global and regional level in the framework of the United Nations and in the EU legislation. The principles of the Rio Declaration on environment and development (1992) and the Agenda 21, have been violated likewise, especially those pertaining to: a) the interdependence and indivisibility of peace, development and protection of the environment (Principle 25); b) warfare which, due to its nature, has a destructive effect on the sustainable development, and proclaiming the obligation of States to respect the rules of international law relating to the protection of environment in time of armed conflicts (Principle 24).
It should be noted that a majority of international agreements in the field of environmental protection regulate as well issues with actual or possible transboudary effects. Consequently, due to NATO bombings relevant agreements have been directly or indirectly violated, inter alia:
- protection of atmosphere, ozone layer and climate changes
The Convention on Transboudary Pollution of Atmosphere with Protocols, the Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer, the Montreal Protocol on the Substances Damaging the Ozone Layer, the UN Convention on Climate changes, the UN Kyoto Protocol, etc.
- protection of waters from pollution
The Convention on the Cooperation in the field of the Protection and Sustainable Use of Danube River, the Convention on the High Seas, the Convention on the Prevention of Pollution from Shipping Vessels, the Convention on the Prevention of Pollution with Oil, the Convention on the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea against the Pollution with Protocols, the Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Waters and International Lakes, etc.
- protection of biodiversity
The Convention for the Protection of the World's Cultural and Natural Heritage, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat, the Convention for the Protection of Birds, the Convention on Biodiversity, the Bonn Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats, etc.
- industrial accidents
The Convention on Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents
- damping of wastes
Basel Convention on Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their disposal, etc.The FR of Yugoslavia has ratified 53 international agreements in the field of environmental protection. Relating to the protection of environment in time of warfare, Yugoslavia has ratified the following agreements: the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons, and on their Destruction; the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and under Water; the Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Sea Bed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil Thereof; the Convention on the Protection of World's Cultural and Natural Heritage.
Human Rights
Massive destruction of chemical and electrical power plants, as well as refineries, and other industrial installations by NATO, which caused environmental catastrophe with its immediate and durable effects, represents violation of the widely proclaimed fundamental human right to a safe and healthy environment. In that respect, several international legal instruments signed by all the NATO member countries have been blatantly violated: The Universal Declaration on Human Rights (1948), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966),etc.
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Belgrade
- [Tuesday, May 25] Situation in my flat was great last days. We had lack of water for more than 70 hours, due to electricity power damages. Preparation of food without water and electricity asked a high skill and a lot of imagination by my wife. To find a drinking water was not such a big problem, shaving, tooth-brushing, etc. could be also well performed with a candel and a bottle of water, one may only dream of having a shower, BUT: could you imagine the use of toilets for a few days without running water? Only this morning I noticed happy faces of my neighbours: the water came and we had finally a possibility for a proper morning preparations. Lacking electricity is something that we start to be used to. Some people almost enjoy it, as we have to go to bed much earlier than before, with no TV, raeding books, etc. Therefore more and more I am convinced that one of important consequences will be a higher birth-rate in nine months from now. But, if I put it seriously, damages that were made (not anymore by carbon-bombs but by real ones), destroyed heavily production of electricity in the country for the future. It could not be called differently than an attack on every single civilian normal life for months and months, particulary during the coming winter. It is specialy the case in Belgrade and some other cities, where town water suply is directly connected with electricity. Isn't it a new violation of international law rules? A colleague of mine has just told me that Geneva Convention 47 Additional Protocol of 1977 explicitelly forbids attacks on objects that could affect supply of civilians by food and water.
Well, I have to run now (although the air alarm is on). Hope to be in touch with you if NATO does not deprive us completely of electricity. They have found a better way than to cut us off the Internet!
Dr. Sima Avramovic
School of Law
University of Belgrade
- [Tuesday, May 25] Yesterday, in the daytime, the Novi Sad oil refinery was bombed for the first time after some fourteen days. The smoke, like a piece of black silk, was hanging in the sky, as if it did not move at all.
This morning, I walked the streets with my ears full of Portuguese music. But I did not get absorbed in my favourite album of 'Madredeus'. I was looking around, at the town without electric power that looks like a withered flower. In both cases you see what it is, and you also see that what you see is dead.
I entered the shopping mall, and it was pitch dark, save for candles that shyly flickered in the shop windows. I was looking for the batteries, not for my walkman, but for my 'Casio' watch, which suddenly went dead yesterday afternoon. I had to ask at a dozen of shops before I found what I needed. same happened with the injections I had to buy for my father - dozen misses, and the thirteenth time it's bingo. I saw a gypsy woman who washed her son's face with the blueberry juice! and an old lady stopped me to ask if I heard 'anything'. I took my earphones off and said that I heard no sirens. 'I did not mean sirens', she said. 'I heard something'. I smiled to her and said that I heard nothing. And nothing it was, presumably.
"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad
- [Monday, May 24] Ulqin/Ulcinj [Montenegro], is one of the oldest towns on the Adriatic coast. The old part of Ulqin - The Old Town, was founded in the 5th century B.C. Every single rock in this place seems as if it is able to tell you a story - a story of a 25 centuries long, famous and stormy past. Since its founding, due to its geographic position, Ulqin has been the goal of conquest. But, Ulqin/Ulcinj has also been a place where great minds found their peace and sat to give the world their best works- like Cervantes who chose Ulqin/Ulcinj to write his famous 'Duclinea'; like Sabetaj Cevi/Sabetha Sebi, one of the greatest dissidents of his time and the initiator of the reform of the Talmud (the holy book of the Jews) who in Ulcinj/Ulqin found the safe place to hide from Turks (even today, centuries after his death, there is always a fresh, burning candle at the altar where he used to pray). And exactly this place, The Old Town, has been chosen by the Serbian Army to station their soldiers!
They are deliberately stationing their cannons and soldiers in The Old Town (more than 90% of the inhabittants of the Old Town are Albanians). They deliberately chose The Old Town to attract NATO bombs. And they deliberately chose Ulqin/Ulcinj! What better place than Ulqin/Ulcinj where the majority of the population is Albanian and where over 30,000 IDP's (IDP=Internally Displaced People; as if the 'name' will change their real status of homeless, landless, hopeless people) from Kosova found refuge? And, after the bombs fall the Serbian story will be the same: "The Old City of Ulcinj Destroyed by NATO Bombs! Poor Albanians! They Really Are a Magnet for Bombs"
That man (Milosevic) doesn't care for anyone. He doesn't care how many Serbians or Montenegrins die together with Albanians, as long as his 'chair' is not taken away from him!!!
Why don't the Serbian people stop their 'leader'? Why don't they stop their soldiers from 'invading' Montenegro? After all, a dictator can't exist without the help of his people, can he? So, what are the Serbian people waiting for? New deaths? New ashes? A new 'Doesn't- exist Montenegro'?!
"Artemis"
Montenegro
- [Monday, May 24] What a beautiful day. I had a wonderful stroll: went to my Faculty, kissed a few friends in passing, had an icecream (punch, vanilla, chocolate). I am still holding on tight to my bosom friend, Marcel Proust.
The coming night will make me somber: tonight, a few minutes before eight, another sad anniversary, two months since the bombing started. A month ago, I wrote I still had power, water and Internet; now, they are coming and going randomly.
Last night people in shelter started comparing our situation to the siege of Sarajevo. I freak out at these comparisons, but I don't tell them why. I used to send packages to my friends and relatives in Sarajevo for the whole time of the war there - hiding coffee and cigarettes in bags of beans, because they were not allowed to be sent. For several months I had refugees from Sarajevo in my room, in my bed. No Sarajevan called in the two months time to ask how I was, but I know they think of me all the time. And I freak out, because the only thing I can confide in is telepathy.
This rope of sand on which I walk gets thinner...
"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad
- [Sunday, May 23] I am now in Belgrade and I plan to remain here a few days before leaving for Kosovo and Montenegro.
I received a letter from Prizren dated 4 May 1999, but it did not reach me until the 20th. It bears a Serbian PTT postal stamp and it was probably mailed by someone who left Prizren. The letter itself is printed in capital letters and unsigned, but it came from a very good friend of mine.
B. says that large refugee columns are moving towards the Vrbnice border crossing every day. There are three check-points before the Albanian border. He learned that many refugees had their identification papers torn up and that license plates from their cars were taken away. The remaining Albanians do not dare leave their homes. After mass expulsions of Albanians from the surrounding villages, the targets have now shifted to doctors, professors, lawyers, political activists and Albanians who worked for the OSCE or rented their houses to OSCE personnel. They are questioned by police and then expelled to Albania by force. B. says that some of the expelled sent signals that they were safe by contacting the Albanian media, but that others disappeared leaving no trace behind. About 650 Albanian families do not know what happened to their sons who were forcibly mobilized in the Yugoslav Army. Local authorities told them that they are digging trenches somewhere on the border with Albania. Everybody fears paramilitary groups, unmarked cars, police questioning, possible expulsion and, as of late, hunger. Sick people do not dare go to the doctor and resort to traditional cures instead. People in bread queues say that remaining Albanians will have to pledge loyalty to the state or leave Kosovo. B. says that these rumors are killing them. They do not know what to do. If they go, this will mean leaving behind their homes, property and the town they love. If they stay, all they can expect is humiliation. If only there were some international organization in the area, they say, they would feel more secure and this would give them strength to persevere and stay there. Fear has taken such proportions that they do not dare tell anyone when they decide to leave.
There are not only bad news but also some good news today. In the case of Kosovo, good news is when I hear that "police came, but all went fine, nobody was killed". On 21 May 1999, police searched about 200 Albanian flats in the Suncani breg section of Pristina. The tenants were asked to produce their identification papers and to report weapons and refugees, if any. My friends told me "they were not beaten or harassed". A group of about 60 young people, including girls, were searched separately. Except for a few secondary school students, they were all university students. After a thorough search, most of them were released, but 18 were taken to the local police station, where they underwent questioning for several hours. Fourteen were then released, but two boys and two girls remained in custody. The four were taken away from a flat in which police found a uniform of the former Yugoslav Peoples Army. People in Suncani breg say that one of their Serb neighbors will try to find out what has happened to them.
Intensive diplomatic efforts for resolving the Kosovo crisis prompted me to send a few stories about Kosovo to the Belgrade daily Danas. The editor told me that the texts were fantastic and revealing, but that he did not dare publish them.
On my way to work today I passed by some of the facilities destroyed by NATO. When I asked military authorities to grant us access to civilian facilities destroyed in the attacks and civilian witnesses of these attacks, my request was rudely turned down. We are therefore left only with newspaper reports. When I travel through Serbia, now more and more by side roads, I talk to people in villages and I see that they have no problem understanding what is going on. They are fully aware that the most vital issue for Serbia at present is to call to account those who are responsible for everything that has happened. The general feeling, however, is that this is not possible at the moment.
More than 50,000 people have left Belgrade since 24 March 1999. It is not easy to describe life here. My friends abroad find it very hard to believe when I tell them that there are people in the streets just like before, that local cafes are busy even when the sirens go off, that taxies circle the city at night when the streets are completely dark and that I dont know anyone who goes to air raid shelters. Electricity and water supply cuts mean that beside queuing for bread people now have to find ways to fetch drinking water too. Common sense has it that candles should be bought in the church because they are much cheaper there and because they last much longer than the decorative candles sold in household supply stores.
Until 24 March 1999, there were about 100 Albanian students in Belgrade. Now only a few have remained. On 13 May 1999 police raided and searched a flat at No. 5, Klara Cetkin Street in New Belgrade. Four students (Edon Hajrullaga, Bekim Blakj, Safet Blakj and Luigj Ndue) were taken away. Luigj, who has been living on the same address for the past six years, was just about to defend a masters thesis at the Faculty of Special Education in Belgrade. When the bombing started, he invited the other three students who lived in the Students Hostel to come to his flat. One neighbor said she saw police taking the boys away, but added that a girl with short hair was also taken with them. A check in Belgrade court registers shows that there is nothing on them and, for the time being, police refuse to give any information.
People in Serbia by and large support the G-8 proposal for ending the war. This is evident from statements by high-ranking officials of the ruling party and other government officials. More and more reports speak about Albanian refugees who were forced to leave their homes because of NATO air raids. One can hear this not only from politicians but also from law experts. When the Belgrade Law School was asked by JURIST... whether Yugoslav armed forces had responded to NATO attacks "by deportation and forcible transfer of Albanian population", the reply was that Albanians were fleeing Kosovo because of NATO bombs. The same School [i.e. Belgrade] said that that trains reaching Belgrade everyday bring Albanians, Serbs, Turks and others who have fled Kosovo. For the sake of facts, I would like to quote here what one Albanian from Pec said about expulsions of Albanians from that town (I have interviewed 98 Albanians expelled from Pec and they have all corroborated his story):
"Friday, 26 March. We were sitting at the table when a group of about 20 people in uniforms and red berets accompanied by three civilians raided our home. None of them wore masks. Their uniforms looked like army uniforms. I recognized some of them as people from the Brzhenik I section of the town. They shouted at us You have one minute to leave. My daughter in law put her baby in the cradle and then one of the uniformed men kicked it so hard that the baby fell out of the cradle and started to scream. We all started to leave the house except my old father who cannot walk. One of them ordered my son Blerim to stay behind. My son remained silent but my wife and I started to cry and plead with them to let us stay too. My son then cried that he would stay behind and that we should go. My wife and I would not budge, but they started shoving us and pushing us out by our shoulders. When I saw a rifle pointed at Blerims temple, I tried to go back and help him, but then I heard a shot and saw Blerim taken up in the air before he crumpled down in a heap at my fathers feet. They got hold of me too, but then my wife rushed and took me out of the room. When we left the room we heard three more shots. I heard them shouting that we should go to Clinton. Blerims body was left behind. We tried to go to our cousins house but streets were crammed with people and police ordered us to join one of the columns. They also told us that the road to Montenegro is safe."
Natasa Kandic
Executive Director
Humanitarian Law Center
Belgrade
- [Sunday, May 23] Sorry I could not write these days. NATO have been trying for the second time in two days to destroy our electroenergetic system. So, we didn't have electricity supply, no water, no bread, no nothing. We had to throw out all our food from the refrigerator. Just few minutes ago we got electricity in my part of the city, but not in the other where our Eunet works. So we don't have any connection with the world. I am writing in deferred delivery.
We are completely confused (and it seems to me it is just the same with NATO commanders) for no body knows any more what are the "legitimate military targets" and what are "collateral damages". In the last few days NATO deliberately bombed: Clinical Center "Dragisa Misovic" in Beograd - 4 patients were killed and three hospitals destroyed; a prison in Istok in Kosovo - at least 100 prisoners were killed and 200 (why prisoners?!); on big and several small petrol stations (two in Beograd) were destroyed; twenty embassies or ambassador' residences were damaged, among other Swedish, Norwegian, Indian, Swiss, Libyan, Hungarian, Spanish... A week ago Chinese embassy was destroyed; a beautiful British Embassy was damaged too the other day. It is quite interesting that US Embassy, which is very closed to some of the buildings destroyed in Kneza Milosa street, stays there intact. For the forth time NATO severally damaged electroenergetic system by graphite bombs; last time (this morning) a part of a big power station near Beograd was damage by rackets. And that is only the results of the last few days; the list of civilian targets from the previous period is very, very long, as you know. I should conclude that the main targets of NATO are non-military objects. Yes, by the way, they destroyed several military targets by "mistake"(?); comparing with all other targets, it seems that they are "collateral damages". (We have not read any apology from NATO officials for these damages!) I just have heard that NATO, being "confidentially" informed by one of the UCK fraction, destroyed yesterday the center of another UCK fraction on the border to Albania (seven terrorists were killed)! NATO official expresses their deep regrets for that mistake!!! What a mish-mash strategy (and tactic) of well-trained military officers, and what precise results of the sophisticated military high technology! They are bombing and bombing day and night what ever they like without any logical order. And then all these special envoys endlessly talk and talk about "peaceful solution of the problem", doing every possible effort not to find any solution. Could you understand who is doing what to whom for what reason? I must say that I can't. It seems to me that the only way to see what is going on, is to try to think rationally, and then expect something that is completely opposite to that rational thinking. We have a proverb for this kind of mish-mash, which I cannot say being respectable professor.
Professor Brana Markovic
Faculyt of Political Science
University of Belgrade
- [Sunday, May 23] It's almost the end of the school year. And I can't help wondering where will my students go from here... It was very easy some years ago (9 years ago, to be more precise). Our kids had their own University in Kosova, but where can they go now? The Serbian Government took their future away from them by 'closing' all Albanian schools in Kosova (well, they are doing much more lately, but I will not talk about 'those deeds' this time).
Probably, most of your readers are not aware of the fact that the first 'cleansing' started exactly in the Albanian schools and institutions. The first 'institutions' that were taken by the Serbian government were Albanian faculties -- the University of Kosova itself. The first persons who were being forced to leave their 'homes' (read: schools and faculty buildings), were the Albanian intellectuals. The first people who experienced Serbian 'fists' were the intellectuals who were passing their knowledge to future generations (my own father being one of those Albanians who was bitten to unconsciousness by the Serbian police). The reason? Because the Serbian government knew too well how difficult it is to control an educated person. They knew too well that education was giving Albanians the power of thinking. They tried to take that 'power' away from my people; but, they couldn't take 'the intellect' away. I hope my students will be able to realize that the power of knowledge can be reached in different ways: sometimes, with lots of difficulties, sometimes from 'far distances', but it cannot be stopped once it has started... And I hope that my students will concentrate on their books, ignoring the present situation.
"Artemis"
Montenegro
- [Saturday, May 22] Due to the last night SWW (Serbian Wide web), we are unplugged again. This time, it was not just these hypercool graphitti bombs developing into the ultrastrange and supersticky cobweb - a major powerplant was also bombed and severely damaged, maybe beyond repairing. so, we had another innovation in the NATO powercut strategy, the BBR approach - bomb beyond repair.
What also happened to be a new strategy is bombing prisons. Maybe a part of this SCHW (so called humanitarian war) includes the extermination of convicts? If so, the strategy should be seriously considered by all developed countries in the world. The KC strategy - kill convicts!
I didn't get much sleep last night because of the PR phase - planes roar(ed). I felt as if in the middle of an air craft promenade! Most unpleasant, as a brit would put it, and most frightening, as HSI (hyperscared "Insomnia") would put it.
When the morning came, seeing that I am wrapped in the SWW and that I am BBRed, and therefore denied access to my ardently beloved mailbox and much despised TV set, I sank deep into the RMP phase - reading Marcel Proust. Call it escapism, but my DNA feels refreshed!
So, if I am to drown in the sea of war despair, let it be with the help of twelve volumes of marcel proust instead of a bag of rocks.
The other day, I heard a BBC World reporter saying that serbs were WW (war weary). Do not believe it. We are just WD (war devastated), WK (war killed), WI (war impoverished), WD (war destroyed), but definitely not WW. NEP - no euphemisms, please!
"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad
- [Friday, May 21] Last two nights were very hard for the Belgrade, they were bombing and bombing, they didn't care about anything. Hospital was hit and three people died, and they are saying again SORRY. I dont understand any more, they are always saying SORRY but in the some time they know that sorry will not bring anyone back. They are PLAYING whit us as we are toys, until when, I dont know.
These two nights I could here the planes and the explosions and it was so.........I dont have words to explain to you what I felt in that moment. Planes were around Belgrade all night, to me the planes look like devils who are about to kill some people just because that is there mission. I would like to know how the pilot feels when he is in the air and he know that he will kill someone whit his bombs?
Here every thing is the some, people are truing to see the end to see the peace. But peace is still few weeks away. Will I see the end of this I ask myself to many times. I dont know anymore. NATO doesn't care any more about civilians he is becoming killing maschin.
Today I have heard that you government has gave more money for the bombing of Yugoslavia. I dont know what to say. To me that looks something like this, when you give money to a professional murder to kill some innocent pearson. The story is the some whit NATO.
[name withheld]
law student
Belgrade
- [Friday, May 21] I just noticed an e-mail from Albanian intellectuals and academicians to JURIST.
I am disgusted. Those are exactly people that I have just mentioned in my letter (and they exist on all sides, not only among Albanian). "Deported Albanian intellectuals", being safe and quite comfortable in Macedonia, definitely more safe than we are in Belgrade or their compatriots in Kosovo, are urging the continuation of war until "Serbian military machine" will be broken. No matter how many more lives of Albanian and Serbian civilians will it cost! No matter that Kosovo and Metohia area will be devasted place, an ecological desert where people will have to live still.
But our distinguished colleagues will travel around the world and spend most of their precious time abroad, speaking about their political programs and rearanging borders of states. Ordinary people - Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Gypsies, etc. will have to raise their children in depleted uranium environment of Balkans.
"Imminent defeat of the Serbian military forces will make possible the return of the deported people"! No, dear colleagues. One should wait a long time untill this moment. A lot of deaths should it take until then, but not yours. Instead of war-trumpets, intelectuals and academicians should better think of their own compatriots who were not lucky enough to "be deported", but suffer bombs all together with their Serbian neighbours and expect the end of war impatiently. This is not a propaganda, this is a real life, which some intelectuals do not pay attention at.
Dr. Sima Avramovic
School of Law
University of Belgrade
- [Friday, May 21] A few words about events in last days. Firstly, I was absolutely out of mind when I saw some photos ... about Korisa bombing of Albanians by NATO - one simply can not believe what kind of massacre was that. Seeing all this one can so clearly see that poor Albanian population are the main losers - not intellectuals and politicians, not the KLA, not Albanians living in Europe and USA sending money for independence. But, this is an old, well known story which could be applied to every nation.
Secondly, we had in Belgrade a few exciting nights - the first one started immediately after the departure of Chernomyrdin. Now it is clear - a night after visits of Russian officials, Belgrade regularly experiences a heavy bombing. It was so when Primakov was in Belgrade some time ago, it was the same after Patriarch Alexei was here, it happened after both visits of Chernomyrdin. Coincidence or not, but people started to make jokes that we have to beg Russians not to help anymore.
By the way - there is another new joke going around. Q: What will be the outcome of peace negotiations between Chernomyrdin and Bill Clinton? A: Chernobill.
Two nights ago the next "error" occurred: one of prestigious Belgrade medical centers (the one where I was born so many years ago) was bombed in its very core: neurology, intensive care, children's ward, and gynecological departments are almost destroyed. Three patients were killed immediately, numbers of them are wounded, including two women during the delivery. Hospitals seem to become "collateral target" too often: remember that two weeks ago NATO hit the vicinity of hospital in Nis with cluster bombs, so that 15 people were killed and 60 injured. And, our beloved J.Shae (J.Shame) with his artificial smile always speaks the old, same story - firstly he denies and then he accepts responsibility, often with hypocritical comments and with no sign of guilty conscience. At least because of his lies, that he simply does not mention or excuse for. Even if those were all really "terrible mistakes", NATO should have a more proper person to explain them to the world.
I do not know if you have heard that during the bombing of the hospital, residences of Sweden, Spanish and Libyan ambassadors were damaged quite seriously. The story was continued last night: while they bombed petrol-tanks near by one of the main Belgrade streets, they heavily damaged Swiss ambasador's residence, just in time when the reception was on (Swedish ambassador was also present there, so that many diplomats concluded that it is quite dangerous to have him near). Most of windows were broken, but nobody was seriously injured by fortune. (A new joke-association: Most of windows on Belgrade houses and flats are stick across by tapes, in order to prevent a glass fall in case of bombarding. Therefore, the new name for Belgrade windows is: "Windows 99")....
Let us hope that, anyway, the NATO exit strategy will start working finally, nevertheless what the outcome might be. I feel and I hope that peace seems to be right now convenient for all political players from various reasons, and this is exactly what ordinary people wanted from the very beginning. Political games could be well continued even without a war.
Dr. Sima Avramovic
School of Law
University of Belgrade
- [Thursday, May 20] I just have heard that this night NATO bombed Clininal Centre "Dragisa Misovic" in Beograd, killing three patients and destroying three hospitals [sic: wards?]. That is terrible. It could not be "mistake". There is not a single military target around. The killing must stop! It was done just after Cerdomidin left Beograd. Why just now? Why the hospital again?!
Professor Brana Markovic
Faculty of Political Science
University of Belgrade
- [Thursday, May 20] The night sky was perfectly clear; every star was in its place and clearly visible, even the biggest of them, even the shiny one which appears, disappears and reappears, shifts and moves throughout the night sky. my mother calls it a 'spy star'. I am absolutely hopeless about weapons and military equipment; I am also hopeless about spy movies - one summer week a few years ago, which my brother spent in watching all James Bond movies I was unable to concentrate on any of them and regularly fell asleep whenever the real action in the movie began; I like conspiracy theories only in Pynchon's novels - but I cannot resist thinking that the spy star really must be a-spying.
The clear night sky usually equals all night roar & blasts. Last night was not an exception. I slept only in short intervals because the roar of the planes, the sound of detonations and the shaking of the ground were awfully unsettling. I got up unscathed but exhausted, only to hear that a night of horrors was behind us: many small villages, civilian targets and infrastructure buildings hit, as usual. This time Kosovo was not scheduled - it was the other province's turn, the turn of Vojvodina, as well as of Belgrade and its outskirts. Abhorring details pile up. I resist to remembering them. Still, some persist: hospital 'Dragisa Misovic' in Belgrade was hit by three missiles. Most damaged was its maternity ward, in which two women were having cesarean cut at the time of the air attack. Three patients in neurology ward were reported dead, whereas women in labor were severely cut on their faces by the shattered glass. What a monstrous irony - while having a Cesarean, your face gets cut instead.
And the spy star keeps watching us. An evil, killing, cutting eye.
"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad
- [Wednesday, May 19] Is it the end of this war? I have read this morning our newspapers and some foreign on Internet. They are full of information about various diplomatic initiatives and meetings of the UN, NATO, Russian, Finish and other presidents, ministers, special envoys eager to do something to stop all these troubles. Even Robin Cook said something "encouraging"!? Is it possible that we could expect some good news soon, or is it just another lost hope? And if they stop the war against us, who will be the next victim, and what kind of future we shall have with these hazardous poker players?
Professor Brana Markovic
Faculty of Political Science
University of Belgrade
- [Wednesday, May 19] I found out today, quite by chance, that the embargo imposed by EC, which includes prohibition of selling 'services and technologies' to yugoslavia, also forbids any kind of services and technologies that would help yugoslavia in mending the war damage! In short, thus EC countries companies are forbidden to build new bridges in Yugoslavia, to mend its highways and railroads, to build new homes for people who are left homeless, to repair the damaged fuel stores, to repair school buildings. Isn't it outrageous?
* * *
One Novi Sad musician said: "if I knew that Novi Sad bridges were to blame for death of at least one Albanian kid from Kosovo, I would pull them down myself". I agree with these words completely. I cannot approve of atrocities done to anyone - the criminals of all nations and kinds should be sued. I cannot approve of making distinctions between 'nations of thugs' and 'nations of angels' either - there is nothing like collective virtue or collective guilt, only individuals can be virtuous or guilty. I cannot approve of one-sided care and concern - I cannot trust a politician who visits refugee camps in Albania and Macedonia if he closes his eyes to the rubbles of Nish, Surdulica, Aleksinac, Belgrade, Novi Sad.
"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad
- [Wednesday, May 19] [in memory of an 8-year old Kosovar girl who died yesterday in Montenegro...] I am tired (I am talking in the name of the majority of My Albanians; I am talking in the name of those 'silent' mass graves; I am talking in the name of My burned-alive babies; I am talking in the name of the Albanians whose bodies are being used to protect Serbian tanks; I am talking in the name of those women who are being kept as 'sexual objects' for the Serbian forces - poor guys! They need their 'physical' fullfillments; I am talking in the name of those 250,000 missing Albanians; I am talking in the name of those 1,250,000 Albanians - maybe more - who are scattered in the neighbouring countries. I am talking in the name of an ordinary Albanian; not in the name of those who are trying to keep their 'comfortable chairs')!!!
' I ' am tired of being taken for granted! ' I ' am tired of being pushed aside as soon as the Serbian people start to show some kind of "humanity". ' I ' am tired of being ignored as soon as they start using 'sweet and kind' words. ' I ' am tired from signing different, useless 'papers'! I am just tired...
' I ' apologize to the ordinary Serbian; ' I ' apologize for not being able to trust and believe his/her words: but, centuries of experience have taught me how bitter those words taste as soon as I 'swallow' them. ' I ' apologize for not being able to understand his/her 'sympathy'; his/her pain... My soul is drained. Nothing 'human' is left in me. Those centuries have turned me to an 'unemotional' being...
God, please, let 'my girl' rest in peace; and, let your Angels guide her exhausted soul...
Diana Rexha - "Artemis"
Ulcinj, Montenegro
- [Tuesday, May 18] This is the first time that I will try to write a direct reply to recent reader comments on JURIST's e-mails from Yugoslavia
I am an ordinary citizen from Belgrade, I never supported Milosevic policy, never voted for him, never tried to find the excuse for any atrocities done as the consequence of his policy, never missed any protest against him... I always was, and I am still convinced that generalization in talking about people is the source of so many evils done through the history. And I'm sorry to realize that I have to explain that there is a big difference between "people" and people's authorities. People, as a simple quantity, are easy to manipulate, easy to be led to the conclusions their authorities wants them to lead. I don`t think that Serbian people are, in that matter, much different from any other.
If I understood well, the main justification for NATO attacks is that Serbian people didn't get rid of Milosevic, so they are responsible for all that is or was happening during last two months, or 10 years. I would like to ask a question - how can unarmed and unsupported people "get rid" of any autocratic power? When did it ever happen? Especially when that power was, actually supported from the same people that are now throwing their bombs. Even now, he`s the only one considered to be able to negotiate "Milosevic has our phone numbers, if he wants to talk..."(Holbrooke) The citizens of Yugoslavia don`t have those phone numbers. But they are the ones who are, and will be, punished.
The second often wrote statement is that the world can`t just stand and watch, but has a duty to act. Fine with me. But are you certain that the only way left for the world to act is increasing the violence, and promoting the right of a greater force as the only existing right? (one more closure point with any autocratic power in the world) What kind of humanitarian action is the action done literately over death bodies of civilians? And what kind of help for any Albanian is provided by killings of Serbian citizens? It`s so obvious that NATO strikes didn't lead to ANY progress, but contrary, they made so MANY tragic events. Violence was the worst answer that world could create.
Third - the Serbian people are responsible for supporting Milosevic policy. I already wrote about "people". But I will add that yes, on some level they are. Like the American people for Vietnam and Cambodia; the Croatian people for Mostar and Slavonia and their extremely Nazi Government during the World War Two; British people for Ireland; Ireland people for IRA; Albanian people for KLA; German people for two world wars... That kind of collective responsibility is not the excuse for killing (is there any?) - there is almost no nation that is without that kind of responsibility in recent or distinct past.
Forth - comparing Milosevic and Hitler is an extremely insulting thing for Hitler`s victims. Hitler was attacking the whole world. He was systematicly killing (not "cleansing") Jews. He didn't have any territorial conflict with them, he wanted to kill the whole nation. As for the Albanians still living in Yugoslavia, apart from Kosovo, there are no any stories about anyone being deported, imprisoned or violated. The list of differences could be much longer, so I will leave the subject.
Fifth - the suffering of the Albanian people. I deeply regret any of it, and I can't find any excuse for the ethnic cleansing or any other crimes. I can only hope that the evidence will be found and that people who committed crimes will be punished. And that's one more thing that can't be done while the strikes last.
I am grateful to the Albanian teacher from Yugoslavia, Montenegro, for being able to empathize with Serbian civilians, but I have to comment on her statement that "it is too late for diplomacy". Isn't that kind of thinking the main reason for all those Balkan evil events? The death of three years old Milica Rakic didn't help any Albanian baby to survive. So maybe the only answer is stop killing our babies, and make an effort instead to save them, by creating any kind of agreement that will bring our lives back to us.
[name withheld]
lawyer
Belgrade
[Tuesday, May 18] At three-twenty, the first one; at four, the second one; at half past five, the third one. These were the blasts I heard this morning. Far away, but strong enough to wake you up. It seems we are all turning into funny seismographs, or just becoming jumpy. I got up after the second blast, checked my mail, had the first morning coffee with my mother. Then I went back to bed and had three hours of sound sleep. I wish I hadn't, because I had a dream that made me most depressed, sad and gloomy.
I dreamed of a map showing Yugoslavia - it was a peninsula surrounded by Adriatic sea from west, south and east. However, the coast line was painted in a different colour, which meant it belonged to Albania. Adriatic was the first sea I have ever seen, on its coasts I spent most of my summer vacations. I have been at other seas and lakes, but nothing matched the Adriatic. And if you analyze my dream with knowledge of that fact, you can see Albania as a kind of an impediment, as an obstacle preventing the meeting of the land and the sea.
Apart from the apparent excess, always present in our dreams, this Albanian 'interference' is not far from the actual situation. Somehow, when we dig deep, it turns out that greedy appetites of Albania has started all this dismal Balkans situation - Albania and the Kosovo leaders, hungry for power and ready to make sheepish people lie, kill, rape and smuggle for the deceptive dream of 'the great Albania'.
When somebody asks me again 'why don't you write about Kosovo refugees?', I will answer with a few questions: 'why not write about suffering of 11 million people of 26 ethnic groups within the borders of Yugoslavia? About people daily bombed and internally displaced who preserve their dignity and fight hard to cope with their new reality; about people who know there is more to life than just bread and water, drug dealing and unlimited procreation; about people who do not leave their homes so easily - partly because they do not have a camp to stay and Hillary to kiss, partly because when having your proper home, the home you built with your own hands, you sometimes prefer to die on the doorstep than take up the adventure of becoming a terrorist or a refugee fed by humanitarian activists and interviewed by reporters who spy and smuggle weapons in their free time; why not write of millions of prisoners, trapped in a land without bridges which is carpeted with cluster bombs, paved with deplete uranium, and surrounded with a cloud of poisonous gasses?'
Call me selfish, full of self-pity, politically incorrect, whatever. But I will never forgive killing my country and my sea . NATO is to be blamed, for sure; but all those sheepish Kosovo Albanians who agreed to act in NATO's bloody performance, who agreed to support a totally unjustified war operation with fabricated lies, who were tricked into staging a refugee tragedy in order to annihilate the country they lived in, the same way as Milton's Satan rebelled against God, the very divine force who created him, they deserve my utmost disdain. Call me whatever you want - but those Albanians whom all consider poor, hungry and molested by Serb army took my sea away from me, as well as my homeland, my future, my life. And they took all that from themselves, which is as absurd as Satan's rebelion against his creator. My dream was not a lie.
"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad
[Monday, May 17] BBC World showed last night the nets of Italian fishermen full of NATO bombs. The nets were thrown in the Adriatic somewhere near Venice. One of the caught bombs exploded, and some fishermen got injured. The fact that Venice now floats on the sea full of unexploded bombs simply cannot get into my head. It was almost easier to accept that the town of Nish lives on the cluster bomb carpet. Is it that monstrous getting used to the misfortune? While you are getting used to the war in your country, the war elsewhere, or its consequences, become more abhorring. After the first shock, you learn to live with the cluster bombs all around your country, but you are appalled when unexploded bombs are dropped into the Adriatic sea near Venice! I mean - Venice! It is one and only, a priceless pearl among cities. Maybe president Clinton does not value it as much as I do, but he should know that Venice, Oregon (no matter how cute it looks) would be a poor substitute for Venice, Venice.
Today, a postcard from Nish arrived at my Faculty. It was sent by the staff from the English Department in Nish. We all looked at it in amazement as if it came from a faraway exotic place. The definition of the word 'exotic' changes for us - exotic, a synonym for both 'foreign' and 'fascinating', becomes the synonym of the unreachable. Nish is so many destroyed bridges and damaged roads away. Paved with cluster bombs and human blood, it becomes the monument of human suffering, same as Venice is a monument of art. Both cities promoted into time-bombs, thanks to his NATOness.
Nish is so far away, whereas yesterday Italy seemed to me so close. I watched reports from the Perugia-Assisi protest peace march, and I was overwhelmed with happiness when I recognized the very spot from where the march started! It started from the arch on the Piazza Fortebraccio, near Universita per Stranieri, in Perugia. I spent my summer there, some twelve years ago. I also visited Assisi then. I remember travelling there by train with a Spanish friend (her name was Isla, spanish for 'island'). When we arrived at Assisi, a wonderful town on the hill, we bought a city map. It was huge, and we thought that the city must be big. But it turned out that the distances seeming so long on the map were small in reality. We spent a wonderful afternoon there, eating cakes and visiting churches. I remember how seeing the body of Santa Chiara in a glass case made me wonder if she was a wax figure or a mummy. I do not know even today.
The ages and distances - such intricate issues. When distance and time become insurmountable, the bridges of memory bring them closer.
"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad
[Sunday, May 16] [Your] question about Ibrahim Rugova is a pretty difficult one. There are Albanians who support his 'actions', and those who don't sympathize with him at all. My personal opinion (which is quite different from my husband's for example): Seeing Rugova shake hands with Milosevic and smile while he did that wasn't a very pleasant picture. He was smiling while thousands of Albanians, with undescribed pain in their faces, were walking towards the neighbouring countries! I did not care what the Serbians had given him. I did not care what kind of a drug or pressure was used to make him 'shake hands'. I did not care if the only reason he went to Belgrade was because he was threatened with his family's life. He was/is the President [Rugova was previously elected President of the "Republic of Kosova" in Albanian-organized elections]. Kosova was/is his family. All those 'walking Kosovars' were/are his family; and, he was smiling! However, his past work for the well-being of Albanians can't be ignored. So, maybe he knew that you can't make a deal with Milosevic. Maybe he knew that thousands would get killed...maybe...I don't know. 'Time' will give us the truth. Right now, he talks from the safety of 'Europe', while Albanians from all over the world join the KLA and fight this war almost with bare hands.
"Artemis"
Montenegro
[Sunday, May 16] Last night, we had air RAIN sirens - it was raining heavily, of which we were reminded around ten, when the sirens started howling. No attacks on Novi Sad last night, just a few faraway blasts around four this morning. NATO attacks focused on Kosovo. So what if another eighty nine civilians from a convoy near the village Korisa are collaterally sent to heaven - NATO persists, while the reason for its remote-uncontrolled bloodshed becomes more and more obscure. I cannot think of reasons anymore, I am just aware that closing my country into a sealed nutshell is taking place. For albanians and nonalbanians alike - we are all becoming prisoners in the wasteland.
Prisoners in the wasteland is not just another bizzare Insomnia-coined phrase. It is just a feeble reflexion of the unimaginable condition were in.
Yesterday, my London friend emailed me to say that she received my letter sent to her a week ago. (a glimpse of joy - so I CAN send a letter to the world! It CAN reach the recipient!) However, the letter she had posted to me about the same time returned, accompanied with a letter from Royal Mail, saying:
Dear Customer,Please find enclosed an item of mail that you recently posted to an address in Yugoslavia.
As a consequence of the war taking place in the Balkans we have not been able to obtain transport for mail destined to the countries which currently make up Yugoslavia. Under the circumstances we have had to suspend services to addresses in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo until further notice.
I very much regret that it has been necessary to return your item, please accept my apologies on behalf of Royal Mail for any disappointment and inconvenience this has caused., etc.
So, the postal service suspension, rumoured about from the very beginning, was not a hoax, at least in UK. Do not think I expected it to be a hoax: it is just the immense shock of getting a proof that the suspension actually works. Nothing is so strong as the shuddering when the cold steel bars of the prison window are felt under your fingers.
"Insomnia"
Assistant Professor of English and American Literature
University of Novi Sad
[Saturday, May 15] A small village Korisha in Kosovo should be remembered as a symbol of most merciless dreadful crime ever committed in war history. For the second time in two weeks NATO aircraft killed, this time, probably more than 100 Albanians trying to come back home. Most of them were children, women, old men. Korisha should be remembered like Hiroshima for the generations to come. The "responsible officers" who deliberately ordered that massacre must be marked as symbol of bestiality and monstrosity never to repeat. NATO officials admitted they committed the crime - another in series of collateral victims of the undeclared war against us. Their explanation was that Korisha was "a legitimate military target" and they "deeply regret these civilian victims." I am beginning to believe the thesis that for some reasons Americans want to kill or chase away all Albanian population from Kosovo, for there is no explanation why do they bombarding so severely Kosovo and particularly those parts where most of Albanians used to live before the war?! I read this thesis in one of so many letters I got these days, but that time I thought the writer of the thesis was crazy!... I am astonish by the fact that propaganda of the western "democratic" countries' media could still have the same effects as at the beginning of the (media) war. Yesterday my daughter got a nice letter from one of her young English friends - nice in a part dealing with worries, good wishes, expressing feelings, darlinging. I am shocked by her explanation of "why we are bombing your country." "Your mad president", she said, ordered not only ethnic cleansing, but "raping, murdering and doing anything he wants to them just because they (Albanians) are different." She repeats the famous Clinton-Allbright-Blair's ingenious phrase that "we have nothing against you, your family, or your people, just the mad man in charge of your country." That is why "we have to bombard you." And the killings and destroying everything (except "mad president's"...) have been going on and on.
The stupidities of NATO media propaganda can be seen by their TV "programme" we have the opportunity and honor to watch at the special TV channel produced from their aircraft (!?). It is so stupid that if I can advise our political bosses I would recommend to help them (NATO) doing that. It is an excellent anti NATO and pro Milosevic propaganda ever invented in the history of the so called "special war". They even could not find anybody else but some people reading news in a terribly broken-Serbian language. If the content of these programme is not tragic it could be an excellent amusing soap series.
This morning I went to a shop and bought everything we wanted - even two bottles of oil, a washing powder and ten boxes of cigarettes!!! As in the time when we used to enjoy peace and happiness. I stopped for a while in a wonderful wood that we have in between the two buildings and remembered the old time when I used to walk there with my, then, little daughter, twenty years ago. What happy days it was!
Professor Brana Markovic
Faculty of Political Science
University of Belgrade
[Saturday, May 15] I am sorry I didn't write to you earlier. I had some 'visitors' today - the military police. [The children] and I were sitting in the front yard. They were drawing (better to say: making a mess), when 'they' came. As the front door was closed (I keep it closed since my husband recieved that 'court invitation'-- in case the 'unwanted visitors' do visit us. At least they will have to wait till I open the door; or, if they can't wait, they will have to go to the trouble of breaking it), they started to yell and push the door at the same time. My kids stopped their 'artistic' work, and looked at me. I guess they were trying to understand what was going on. But, strangely, I was so calm that I couldn't believe myself. I even smiled a warm smile to them--that made them feel easier, I suppose, since they smiled back and continued their 'work'. I walked slowly towards the door and I opened it. Oh, I had a smile on my face then as well; but this smile was a very different one...The military police started to ask questions about my husband and then they entered the house. They looked on both floors. Even the attic...and, I was still 'smiling'....They left. The kids asked me who they were. I told them that it was the 'International Day of Cleaning', and that some' special' people go from one house to the other and they check whether there is any dust in them. The cleanest house of the town would get a medal. My kids were happy I had just finished cleaning the house before these 'special people' visited us.....Unfortunately for them, the 'dust' they were looking for wasn't home. It was very easy to lie to my kids because they don't know anything about the 'war'. I try to keep them 'safe' from such terrible stories.
"Artemis"
Montenegro
more e-mails from Yugoslavia...
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