Shameless Yesterday

Last week Serb activists Jovica Vlahovic and Father Filaret of Zemun staged rallies inspired by that event: all those children died in one day because the worldwide strongmen denied them oxygen, they said. The statement is pure propaganda that has been on TV screens and in some papers for two years. It is aimed at discrediting the United Nations, ``the new world order,'' and other Serbhaters. Competely aware of how unpopular raising real (and not mythological) events may be I will nevertheless present the sequence of developments.

The sanctions were imposed on May 31, 1992. The news that ``in Banja Luka eleven babies died in incubators due to the lack of oxygen and three kidney patients due to the lack of dialisis fluid'' was released on June 18. Banja Luka sources said these deaths took place ``between May 19 and June 18.'' At the beginning of June Radio Belgrade launched a campaign aimed at finding oxygen and other necessary medical supplies for Banja Luka. The campaign was successful and the oxygen and the medical supplies reached Banja Luka on June 5. No one had mentioned ``dead babies'' up to that point.

Later, someone happened to need a few deaths and tragedies: Borisav Jovic, the then President of the Yugoslav Presidency, was the first to claim that ``eleven newlyborn babies died yesterday in the Banja Luka hospital because of the lack of oxygen.'' A whole month was packed into a shameless yesterday. The doctors from the Banja Luka hospital said later that the time period when the deaths took place was slightly longer and that the average death rate of newlyborns had not gone up significantly (the hospital provides medical care for a very large number of citizens). Airforce officers also spoke out saying that two factories were producing pure oxygen at military airports Mahovljani and Bihac (jets cannot fly without pure oxygen) at the time. During the critical time period Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic flew by Mi8 helicopter (which also uses pure oxygen) over the whole of Bosnia, to Belgrade, Banja Luka and other places without hesitation. The story was used to settle accounts with the students who were on strike at the time and with those who dared hold a different view. It is used for the same purpose today.