Exclusive: Public Opinion Poll

NATO, made up of 19 of the most powerful countries in the world, along with BBC, CNN and until recently Gunter Grass, have all bared down upon a nation which is around 150 times smaller in territory than the total territory of NATO member nations, a nation which is at least 500 times less powerful economically than NATO, all under the curious pretext of waging a just war in order to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe and the massive braking of human rights in one part of that country.  There was much said on the number of refugees before the beginning and during the aggression, and if arithmetic is taught at West Point and Saint Sir, it will be quite easy for NATO officers two put two and two together and to realize their personal responsibility for the tragedy of the Albanians from Kosovo.  Certainly Serbia cannot deny its responsibility in this, even from the highest echelons of power, explicitly articulated in the expression "We know we are not angels."  But what about the responsibility for what has been done to the citizens of Serbia?  As enough has been said about destroyed bridges and factories, here we wish to devote some space to the braking of human rights in other parts of Yugoslavia which NATO, and leading world media, supposedly preoccupied by the tragedy in Kosovo, have turned a blind eye to.  In short, do human rights and humanitarian concerns apply for that part of the earth's globe?

First several facts.

According to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights adopted by the United Nations, every human being is guaranteed the basic right of "freedom of speech and freedom against fear and poverty."

The latest public opinion poll conducted at the beginning of May by the Institute for Political Studies indicates that the level of denial of human rights in Serbia has reached, to use a western expression, dramatic proportions.  The poll includes 750 randomly chosen individuals who represent adult citizens of Serbia, not including Kosovo.  The research was conducted at the end of April and the beginning of May.

One of the questions posed is: "Below are listed some of the consequences and damages which many citizens of FR Yugoslavia suffer from NATO air strikes. 

We ask you FOR EACH ONE individually to state whether you are affected by it."  The answers are nothing short of shocking.

• "Psychological suffering, i.e. fear for one's life and the life of close ones" is felt by 91 percent of the citizens of Serbia.
• 96 percent feel "concerned for the future of their family and their country."
• 64 percent is occasionally forced "to leave their home/apartment in search of bomb shelters."
• 42 percent adults are forced "to leave their home/apartment for longer periods of time and to go to a safer area of the city, or to a different town which is less exposed to bombing"!  Let us point out that private property is one of the sacred cows of the western civilization, and that in this instance people are literally forced to vacate their property.
• More than half of those employed are not working at the present, or have been left without a job on a permanent basis.
• 72 percent are suffering consequences "of restricted movement as a result of destroyed bridges, roads and railroads."
• 71 percent are suffering the shortages of certain staple foods.

The fundamental moral question which the public in western countries must answer when faced with such facts is why this aspect of the war is being persistently ignored.  The suffering of Serbian civilians, if it is ever mentioned in western state media, is always done in terms of dry figures or "no comment" images.  Some even maliciously include that suffering among "air strike successes."  On the other hand, the suffering of the Albanians, which is certainly worthy of pity, is always presented in terms of moving journalistic "human stories" (the Albanians, like all who are being defended by "someone stronger", are without a doubt the biggest victims of such defense, and we certainly do not wish to represent this subjectivity on the part of the western media as favoritism for Albanians).  And whenever there is the smallest occasion for media stories which cover the suffering of citizens of western countries who happen to be involved in the conflict, however that suffering might appear banal by comparison with the suffering of the Albanians and the Serbs, that the subject of such reports inevitably acquires Hollywood-like proportions, both in form and in mindless content.

Thus the western media related the moving story of the captured soldier Andrew Ramirez who suffered enormously during his capture in Yugoslavia because he lacked   hamburgers and coke!  Unfortunately, no one peered into the eyes of the millions of children who wake up in the dead of night with the explosions of bombs, the shaking of windows and the shriek of sirens.  Such suffering probably does not compare to a lack of irresistible "fast food."  Here we are inevitably faced with the question: are the human rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration really universal?  The resultant disjunction is inevitable: either human rights are universal or politics accept racism as a guiding principle.

When Blair and Solana claim that they are fighting for human rights in Yugoslavia, perhaps someone in their countries actually believes such a joke.  However, for two months already we are no longer in a mood for such jokes.  But the liberal public in the west will have to devote a little room to this issue, and it is increasingly doing so.  Professor Hayden from the University of Pittsburgh deals very effectively with arguments used to defend the two- month long destruction of our country.  He is especially clear in commenting on the phrase "protecting our values."  He asks: "Which values?"  "Isn't international law one of our values?  Do our values include the terrorizing of innocent residents of Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, Nis and other Serbian cities?"

We hope that it is clear to intellectuals in the west how easily the breaking of human rights can become a habit.  It should not be surprising if such classic human rights from the heroic period of the European civilization begin to be gradually broken in domestic policies of those countries, as they are now being broken with unbearable ambivalence in international relations.  Perhaps introductory remarks in their constitutions dealing with freedom from fear, right to life, freedom of expression will be replaced with the universal right to hamburgers and coke.  This would merely represent formal legislation of the bizarre symmetry between an empty head and a full stomach, a symmetry which is well known by all usurpers of human rights, a symmetry about which they usually dream.

Srbobran Brankovic

Below are listed some of the consequences and damages which many citizens of FR Yugoslavia suffer from NATO air strikes.  We ask you FOR EACH ONE individually to state whether you are affected by it.