Petar Labovic's Spring

Several hours after NATO ministers decided to "broaden and deepen" the bombing of Yugoslavia, bombs descended on Pec, which the NATO spokesman, while announcing NATO bombing of the army on ground, described as looking like Phnom Pen - that is to say that there were no more civilians in it.  However, there were.  The spring of sixteen-year-old Petar Labovic is now unfolding at the VMA clinic in a desperate battle for life - Petar suffered from a bomb, he has heavy internal injuries, one of his injured kidneys has been removed, while his liver and pancreas have also succumbed.

According to RTS reports, in the ensuing night, between Wednesday and Thursday,  bombs fell on Dragodan and Vranovac, settlements around Pristina; around Gnjilane large explosions were visible in the shape of balls with many dots.  The Yugoslav side claims that NATO is using cluster bombs, with footage around Gracanica illustrating very clearly a green field the size of a playing field which has been very concentrically damaged with a series of small explosions.  In the nearby area, an already frequent image of the war - a cow that has been slaughtered by shrapnel, houses leveled to the ground.  Journalists are being taken to the remains of the "Sloboda" factory of Cacak where skipping over half-burnt vacuum cleaners a worker is gathering into a box scattered, round stove ranges.  Reports from our correspondents on ground illustrate the behavior of people in the war.  The owner of a store has been sentenced to six months of prison because he was selling bread at twice the regular price.  There are frequent warnings on television for citizens to gather so-called radio locators which are used in orienting planes.  One man went in search of locators holding a hunting dog on a leash, while in the other hand he held a makeshift metal detector (similar plum branch detectors are used for discovering water, with this man coming up with the idea that a metal version of the same device might be more appropriate for these locators).  Appeals for humanitarian aid are beginning to be heard.  The tobacco factory in Banja Luka has stopped its sales of cigarettes in order to send its stores across the River Drina, for they heard that there are cigarette shortages in Belgrade.  Our correspondent from Banja Luka reports that some of the refugees in refugee centers are sending to Serbia all the aid their receive.  She mentions a group of women from the refugee center near Banja Luka who received wool from a German humanitarian agency, from which they knitted sweaters that they packed in so-called Dodik's packages intended for Serbia.  The better part of the public here was shocked by the fact that the humanitarian package with a value of 1.3 million German marks was not "allowed" to cross into Serbia.  There appear to have been attempts to direct the aid through questionable channels through suspicious private arrangements behind which the political top of Serbia and Yugoslavia stands, which the Government of Republika Srpska could not accept.

At dawn, 5 a.m., on Thursday, April 1, NATO celebrated its anniversary "heroically" by sending its air force to destroy the old bridge of Varadin which connects the center of the city with the very heart of Petrovaradin, beneath the ancient fortress of Varadin.  The moment of destruction of the bridge was filmed by a fixed camera from Television Novi Sad which monitor the city from Miseluk, a hill on the left side of the Danube where this television station is located.  Residents of the buildings close to the old bridge (which until recently carried the name Marshal Tito's Bridge) say that initially they heard a barrage of antiaircraft fire, then in their windows they saw the orange shine of (probably) some bomb for lighting, which was followed by two heavy detonations and the sound of airplanes.  The bridge was hit in two places, precisely in the spots where it is longest, around the supporting column in the middle of the river.  Admittedly, there are those who claim to have seen a third projectile (supposedly of a bright red color), which was downed by antiaircraft artillery.  Some witnesses state that the fire from the ground went toward the sky, while the rockets came sideways, like fiery snakes which were slithering low above the Danube.

After the destruction of the bridge, one of the main water lines supplying the center of Novi Sad from the Petrovarazdin side was cut, with the gush of water flowing into the Danube for some time through the wreckage of the bridge...  Many windows were broken on the Mose Pijade Waterfront from the detonation, while both streets which lead to the bridge - Vojvode Putnika St. and Vojvode Misica St. - were full of glass from the broken windows at dawn.  The air strike toward the center of the city, down Mihailo Pupin Boulevard (former Marshal Tito Boulevard), broke windows at a distance as far as 400 meters.  According to first radio and television reports, shortly before the air strike the police stopped a city bus full of workers which was getting ready to cross the bridge.  According to unofficial witnesses, during its destruction the bridge was not in fact closed, with one resident of Novi Sad telling the VREME reporter that he crossed this bridge from the Petrovaradin side several second following the detonations, and when several hundreds after crossing the bridge he looked into his rear view mirror, the gate to the bridge, on the Novi Sad side, had disappeared.  Other witnesses who live nearby, state they heard the police sirens literally at the time as the anti-aircraft fire began from the Petrovaradin side, where close to the bridge the military hospital and bakery are located beneath the fortress of Varadin.

This steel frame bridge, which was erected shortly after World War II, and was built by German prisoners and engineers under the supervision of Russian experts, was considered as a temporary railway, road and pedestrian crossing (supposedly it was built for a period of 10 years).  It was otherwise erected on the columns of an older bridge which was destroyed by American bombs at the end of that World War.  One hundred meters upstream the columns of a bridge which was destroyed by the Yugoslav Royal Army during its withdrawal in 1941.  Since 35 years ago, somewhat to the south a new railway-road bridge was built from reinforced concrete, and since ten years ago a new, two lane road bridge was opened somewhat to the north, the old Varadin bridge lost all strategic value for transportation and was exclusively used for city traffic and as a pedestrian crossing between Novi Sad and Petrovaradin.

This old bridge presented constant problems for river traffic because it was built low above the river, and that is why it constituted an exception to the norms of the Danube Convention on Water Traffic.  Many decision were adopted in Novi Sad for its complete renovation and considerable raising, but so far none of the completed projects have been initiated because the problem lies in that the entrance to the bridge would have to be raised above the windows of adjoining streets.

On Thursday, in the early morning hours, columns of residents of Novi Sad headed to the waterfront on a beautiful, sunny day to see the tragedy of the old bridge across which generations of residents of Novi Sad went to "Varadin to their famous pubs."  Beside anger and sad, sentimental memories, the majority of citizens are seized by a sense of wonder at the fact that this bridge was singled out for destruction, a bridge without any vital importance for traffic.  In this regard statements by British Minister of Foreign Affairs, Robin Cook and other representatives of the NATO alliance that what is at issue is one of the vital traffic thoroughfares appears superficial, silly and tragicomic.  Quite the contrary, the question elicits the fact that a bridge without any importance has been destroyed, a bridge which from a technical point of view should have been destroyed a long time ago, and a new one built on top of it.  That is why the residents of Novi Sad believe that it is precisely their city which has been chosen for marking the new phase in the famous NATO phases for bombing Yugoslavia.  For it should be remembered, Novi Sad was one of the key targets for the NATO air force on the evening of March 24.  Since that time, according to unofficial counts by our correspondent, the city and its neighborhood had 10 heavy projectiles dropped on it.  However, one resident of Belgrade disagrees with all such theories: "Forget it, the dumb Americans mixed up the Regions of Serbia, and instead of intervening in the southern one, they are intervening in the northern one."

Something went wrong with the computers of the planers of this war: it is as if in the matrix of their maps they put historical places and around them they are shooting down the Varadin Bridge of Novi Sad which is part of the image of the city, a place of tragic events, wars, armies that marched by and of everyday life.  It seems that over there in the Pentagon they placed historical postcards into the guiding systems of their warheads.  On the previous day, tens of thousands of people attended a special lecture held in Sumarica, near Kragujevac.  The way to this place passes by the museum to the victims of October 1941 and by the ruins of a warehouse destroyed by NATO's "intelligent bombs" last week.  The resident of Kragujevac call this place "Topovske supe" ("Canon Soup"), where the Germans used to hold hostages prior to their execution.  Reports from Pristina once again indicate that new bombs fell in the vicinity of Milutin's Gracanica whose old and brittle stone is vulnerable.  Many symbolic messages and individual acts are focused on Gracanica, the Serbian "no" is focused on this spot.  These days our famous actress, Ruzica Sokic is reciting these days the poem by Desanka Maksimovic: "Gracanica, were you not of stone..." or something along those lines.  On Wednesday one man from Smederevo headed toward Gracanica on foot.  In Blegrade, during the threat of bombing the concerts called "Singing Keeps Us Going" are being held every day.  On Wednesday, March 31, at noon on the Square of the Republic (during anti-regime demonstrations we used to call it the Square of Freedom, and that name becomes it more and more), tens of thousands of people are taking up the refrain of the song "For Belgrade": "Dear Mother, I wish this was all but a dream..."  That is the song which concludes the movie which ends with the first German bomb being dropped on Belgrade in 1941.  Similar scenes can be seen in many cities: in Novi Sad, in Valjevo, in Velika Plana, in Leskovac...

Western agencies are mentioning these "concerts of protest" in the spirit of wonder, as if Belgrade is supporting Milosevic because it is not aware of what he is doing in Kosovo.  Those unhappy souls have not understood anything.  Before the aggression against Serbia and Yugoslavia, from the very same place those same people directed the gravest insults at Slobodan Milosevic in the unfair political battle for democracy in Serbia.  And they will do so again, God willing.  The planners of this aggression arrogantly overlooked one "detail" - they attacked Serbia; they say "the regime and its army," except that they overlook the fact that that army is not made up of paid soldiers who come from God-knows-where, but people like Milos S., father of a male child who finished medical school by selling the pacifist VREME on Belgrade's streets during the confused time of war rhetoric and all sorts of events during the Yugoslav wars; that army is made up of children and brothers of people who sing out of protest, and that which is being burnt and destroyed is the sweat and blood of their fathers.  The best definition of this series of protests was summed up by two picket signs: "Sorry we're singing!" and "We're singing, we're not marry, we're just brave!"

War, singing and funerals.  At the cemetery in Lesce (without much ceremony, funerals under war conditions are carried out according to shortened procedure) the public was confronted with the first military victims in this war.  Pilot Major Zoran Radosavljevic and Sergeant Major Vladimir Vujevic...

Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Yevgeny Primakov stated on March 31 upon leaving Moscow that in the March 30 negotiations, the Yugoslav side gave a signal which, if there was a will for it, could be interpreted as a signal for stopping military attacks by NATO on FRY.  "When we arrived in Bon, we became convinced that there is a line of unanimity in NATO which is directed toward continuing the military activities against the FRY," stated Primakov.  German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joshka Fisher (the green faction is beginning to distance itself from him) announced at a press conference on that day of the Catholic Passion Week that NATO attacks will continue through Easter holidays which begin on Friday, and that NATO is working on finding a political solution to Kosovo.  That day TV broadcasts of various briefings were characterized by rage, and the world "decisiveness" was used with clear frustration.  English Minister of Defense, as if hailing from Mars, spoke at a briefing on Wednesday, March 31, that the Serbian side is spreading lies about them and that with the goal of offering objective information to the Serbian public a new Internet site has been created (which we will log into as soon as we get back from the funeral, go down to the bomb shelter, open up our laptop, for we don't see what is happening to us).  One hour later, at a NATO briefing in Bruxelles, once again a story about Internet sites - supposedly, hackers from Belgrade flooded the computer with messages, one guy from Belgrade is sending 2,000 messages daily, we are fighting against viruses, etc., etc.  We were able to see some of those messages - well designed video jingles tell: "Do you want another Vietnam?", "Mission Impossible," and it is said that hundreds of pagers got the following message: "Have you killed your Serb today?"

The Beta Agency reports that in Luc Rosenzweig's analysis the French daily newspaper "Le Monde" made comparisons between information about the aggression against the FRY which is being offered in the past week from the seat of NATO in Bruxelles and the media in Yugoslavia, and concluded that NATO "lost the war of words and images."  Pointing to the media's reporting of the war in Vietnam and then the Gulf war from which a TV spectacle was created, the author of the article in "Le Monde" observed that the participants in the operation by the "Allied Forces" (various sources are cited for different names applied to the bombing of the FRY - "moral imperative", "decisive action" - with the representatives of the Yugoslav army pointing out that the aggressor is calling his action "noble angel") did not learn the lesson from their previous experiences.  At the seat of NATO in Bruxelles which "through the wish of NATO General Secretary Xavier Solana has become the only place from where information is distributed about daily developments of the situation in the war conducted from the Air against Serbia, this aspect (of the media) appears to be completely improvised," writs this paper.  For instance, one of the examples cited is that NATO administrators needed three days to install appropriate screens in order that hundreds of journalists in Bruxelles could get insight into the maps and satellite images of air strikes.

The Paris daily also adds that the Spokesman of the NATO Chief for Europe, Wesley Clark, German Lieutenant General Freytag was removed from daily briefings at the seat of the Alliance and was replaced by the British General David Wilby, because "it would not be adequate for the military aspects of the operation to be explained by a representative of a nation which already bombed Belgrade half a century ago."

Given that Solana's spokesman is an Englishman - Jamie Shea - this British participation in "communication about the war" can certainly "satisfy" Anglo-Saxon media, above all CNN, the "actual news" of the Pentagon, but this merely looks like the will of the Americans in "controlling" reporting about the war, writes "Le Monde".

This is also supported by the fact that very little information is made available to reporters about actual operations, adds the author of the analysis.  The daily also writes that reporters in Bruxelles are mostly getting unclear and imprecise information, and as one of the examples of the type of answer received from NATO officials, he cites Wilby's answer to the question of what the total cost of the operation is thus far: "Certainly higher than by annual salary."  The confusion in normal reporting is also created by "messages which officials leak" in the hallways of NATO's seat in Bruxelles, writes "Le Monde".  On the other hand, the Yugoslav side was more successful on that score in the past week.  The most shocking picture of the war was the one of the downed F-117 which was extensively exploited by Belgrade's media, and which "Le Monde" writes that "despite the fact that this loss was of fairly small tactical importance for NATO, the message is clear - NATO, the superpower of military technology is far from invincible."  This also contributed to the "disturbance of western public opinion which was being persuaded that it was being protected by superb, expensive military technology," adds "Le Monde".  The second victory by Belgrade, writes the analyst of "Le Monde", are the gatherings on the Square of the Republic which serve as "a model of war communication."  Without getting into various assessments of whether spontaneous or organized gatherings are at issue, the analyst of "Le Monde" notes that the image of one of the messages from Belgrade's concerts - "Sorry, we didn't know it was invisible" - has been circulated around the world, serving as an insult to NATO's generals.

After the "stealth" ("Stealth is good for your health" is one of the picket messages appearing on Belgrade's Square of the Republic) America was sent another, as they like to put it when they are grabbing someone by the balls, "powerful message".  On April 1, Radio Television Serbia (RTS) showed footage of three American soldiers who were captured on the territory of FR Yugoslavia.  In the statement issued by the Command of the Pristina Corps of the Yugoslav Army, carried by RTS, it is said that yesterday two American officers, James Sone and Andrew Ramirez, and a soldier, Stephen Gonzales were captured.  "All three belong to the reconnaissance unit of the American division which is permanently based in Germany," it is stated with the comment that they offered resistence while being captured.  The American Pentagon announced that the three American soldiers, who were shot at while driving an army vehicle through the territory of the Macedonian community of Kumanovo, had disappeared.  Solana stated that this event represents a "very serious act" and that Robin Cook and other politicians had initiated the story about UN soldiers having been taken captive.  Things degenerated to the point that Arkan, in his interview for the BBC, was correcting the journalist interviewer, reminding him that according to the Security Council resolution, UN troupes no longer exist.  Can we see in this incident a new excuse for continuing the war?

Washington removed all doubt as to whose side it is fighting on and who is its ally.  President Clinton persisted in his interventionist rage and announced that if the humanitarian catastrophe continues, that will be the end to "Serbian claims to Kosovo" and that America will dictate that which the Serbs have suspected for some time - the independence of Kosovo.  The Spokesman of the State Department once again announced that America "is not changing its policy," but such a statement can no longer be take seriously.  The Serbian side observed that the American President has shown all his cards.

The message sent from Dedinje is that first the bombing must stop, and then several steps must follow toward peace and the promise about the return of refugees.  A unanimous "no" was heard from western capitals.  "Milosevic must accept 'Rambouillet' and 'troupes' - the number of planes is being increased."  According to the Army's calculations, thus far the amount of explosives dropped in the first five days is equivalent to one atomic bomb; somewhere we came across the fact that they wasted half of the stock of a 1000 cruise missiles probably intended for Serbia.

Ph.D. Ian Oberg, Director of the TFT Team for Resolving the Conflict in the Balkans and in Georgia, even before the intervention sent letters to various e-mail addresses in which he expressed himself very critically against the agreement in Rambouillet.  The standard story on CNN and BBC and in leading magazines perpetuates the impression that the Serbs are simply stubborn and that they are hampering the peace process, while the Albanian side is cooperative, which is clearly seen from the letter sent by its delegation from March 15, and that Yugoslavia needs to be punished, while Albanians need to be awarded for their "brave compromise for peace."  Ph.D. Oberg states that this is "virtual reality."  Actual reality is far more complicated.  You must observe that perhaps there are reasons why the Serbs said "no", and why the Albanians said "yes".  Ask yourself why the media and diplomats are discussing the game and the blame, and not the substance.

Professor Oberg goes on to say that according to this agreement self-rule in Kosovo includes Albanian influence on the FRY, while FRY is forbidden from influencing internal issues of Kosovo; that the Serbian Constitution cannot be changed, that the agreement is superceded by FRY laws, and that FRY is prevented from investigating criminal acts in relation to resistance on Kosovo; that there is talk of a sponsors' conference for renewal, but that there is no mention of sanctions and the 650,000 refugees who are presently in the FRY, etc.

Just as when some time ago "three kings fell" in the Balkans, so it is now with the game of many factors which will be considered long after the war.  Serbia is left with the task of footing the bill for the dilemma whether NATO is suspending the UN, and whether it is taking matters into its own hands, and what form will the new practice of "limited sovereignty" have.  Political scientist, Predrag Simic states that in '99 Belgrade appears in one regard like Prague in '68 - Prageu represented the moral darkness of the Warsaw Pact, while Belgrade represents the moral fiasco of NATO.

As the aggression against Yugoslavia revealed its senselessness, so the results "on ground" proved completely contrary to that which was declared as the objective of the war, with the focus of the western public beening shifted to the lines of refugees who are arriving on foot or on tractors to Macedonia, Montenegro and the Albanian city of Kuks.
The wave of refugees from Pec and Decani is swamping Montenegro in which every day, between NATO attacks,  demonstrations are being held in which citizens are now avoiding their earlier political conflicts.  Our correspondent mentions around 40,000 refugees, with another 50,000 refugees having been registered there earlier, that this is more than 12 percent of the population of this republic, but that Montenegro will not close down its borders.  While the majority of refugees is spending its nights on different plateaus and roads, swift international intervention by humanitarian agencies is being announced.

Macedonian authorities are carrying out a slow procedure of accepting refugees, evidently fearing that the KLA might be smuggled through its longs lines of refugees.  On the Albanian side KLA activities have been observed with frequent stoppages of lines of refugees to "recruit" youths as young as 15 years old.  Refugees stories on the other side of the border are identical: they took our documents and told us to flee.  On this side of the border, before the cameras of state media, refugees tell that they are fleeing from the bombing and that they wish to save their children.  NATO political spokesmen, caught in their own trap (they bombed in order to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe, and now they are really facing a humanitarian catastrophe), keep repeating that in their opinion those refugees are not fleeing the bombing, but the Serbian Army, Police and paramilitary groups, and how they are asking that NATO continue with its bombing!

Perhaps the Americans are exploiting the most the problem of the refugees in order the strengthen the spirit of intervention.  The greatest compromising of experts for resolving conflicts (very complicated technology) using military machinery in fact can be seen there.  David Phillips, an expert for resolving conflicts from Columbia University, supposedly also an advisor to Richard Holbrooke for Balkan issues, launched the idea of save havens.  Sep Lomen, an official with the Refugee International, states that he supports a kind of "drastic action."  Troupes on ground are being discussed, perhaps with the view to applying pressure on Yugoslavia.  One of our readers writes to us using electronic mail: "The Administration has no clear 'policy', and that is the most dangerous thing with Americans... Please take care of yourselves..."  We can see that for ourselves, and as far as the rest is concerned, the residents of Belgrade say finally even God himself took pity on us, and brought a blanket of clouds.  On several occasions NATO seriously justified the clearly confused intervention by "bad weather conditions in that region also."

Well, one statement by NATO spokesmen on Wednesday indicates that despite everything, Albanian leaders are demanding for the continuation of the bombing...  This "leaders" could only have referred to Taci, called the Snake, who valiantly sought refuge in Albania before everything began.  State television claimed that pamphlets have been retrieved (a red pamphlet with a black eagle and Rugova's signature was shown, calling on Albanians to flee to Albania and Macedonia so that NATO can bomb the Serbs).  One day following this, new came that Ibrahim Rugova met with FRY President Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade.

Yugoslav representatives (the most frequent ones are Vuk Draskovic, Vladislav Jovanovic and Milan Komnenic) keep repeating that the Yugoslav side does not wish to drive Albanians from Kosovo, that they are citizens of this country, that they are hard hit by a catastrophe just like the remaining ten million citizens (26 nationalities) of Yugoslavia, that the bombing must stop and that after that everyone will be able to go back to their homes in peace.  Admittedly, Vladislav Jovanovic did specify that he does not wish any illegal immigrants from Albania who, as he put it, no country really want.  On Wednesday evening the Government of Yugoslavia issued an announcement for all citizens of Kosovo, with a special call on Albanians: "The Government of FRY is especially calling on the Albanians of Kosmet not to postpone, but to let us stay together even at a time of tragedy and to help in stopping the aggression as soon as possible.  Only terrorists and murderers have no place in the Republic of Yugoslavia."

One day before that, pressure exerted on Yugoslavia officially came from the Hague.  First of all, on Wednesday it was announced that a warrant has been issued against Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan for crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that events in Kosovo are being investigated, and than on CNN's "Larry King Live", a Yugoslav minister accused NATO of having "perpetrated crimes against peace and humanity" with its air strikes against the FRY.  A statement by the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Igor Ivanov, also pursued that line of reasoning, with arguments to the fact that someone will have to answer for the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia.  Then a call by the President of the Hague Tribunal to the FRY President Slobodan Milosevic followed in which she asked him to use his position to prevent the committing of crimes in Kosovo and to punish culprits.

On the previous evening the Chief of Headquarters of the Third Yugoslav Army stated for the RTS that the separatist forces are dispersed and close to complete disintegration, but he did not give precise information as to what is happening where on ground.  The Third Army has a complicated mission: it has the task of surviving NATO attacks from above, attacks from ambush on ground, and to maneuver so as to avoid numerous casualties and to maintain its infrastructure.  By pursuing it, the aggressor is beginning to bomb heavily settled areas.  During the first days, the last bigger Serbian enclave was being targeted, the ring of villages around Pristina, and than news began arriving that bombs are also falling into Albanian villages.  NATO officials are attempting to justify their actions in this enormous civilian catastrophe, but their arguments approach nonsense.  Of course, we don't know, but we can only imagine what sort of anger was created by the war conflagrations in Kosovo and who is experiencing what during the long nights spent under bombing alerts.  Igor Ivanov, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated with surprising precision that representatives of Walker's Verification Mission left behind "communication officers" among KLA ranks, so that they could coordinate activities with NATO.

What is shedding serious doubts under given strategic and tactical conditions on the orchestrated claim that ethnic cleansing, and genocide of enormous proportions is taking place is the basic premise that the Yugoslav forces simply do not have any interest now in squandering the bigger part of their potentials on organizing massive evacuations of people, for they simply have no interest in blocking roads and throughways with enormous columns of people, women and children, tractors and machines and everything which can travel and carry something, now that they are forced to maneuver before an enemy who is many times more powerful.  And most importantly - it is simply not in the Yugoslav strategic interest to compromise the defense of the country from an enemy who is many times stronger by committing atrocities on ground.  The state of war has been declared, military courts have been formed and it is a matter of waiting to see what they will report about their activities.

Still, it seems that this saddening river of people is the result of several tragic circumstances: it is possible that under such conditions a search for potential collaborators, spies, reconnaissance men or those who are "perceived" as potential instigators of insurgence, etc. might begin.  It is also possible that under such conditions the psychosis of suspicion might be growing exponentially, just like bitter, unbridled desire for revenge, and it is certain that the KLA is intermixed in certain regions with the masses of fleeing refugees.  This mass of fleeing allies is evidently frustrating NATO, at whose press conference on Wednesday morning it was suggested that a big mass of people, made up of refugees and members of the KLA are blocked in the valley of Praguse in Drenica, and that grenades are being directed at them.  As usual, events in that area are being presented as attacks against civilians.  The reconnaissance footage shows something which has been interpreted for journalists as a besieged mass of people.
One day before that, in an article appearing in the Washington Post, on Wednesday, March 31, we read in a passing quote from the Los Angeles Times that the KLA, which has been mostly fighting in the hills for over a year now, appears to be fighting now in cities, perhaps provoking Serbian security forces, and perhaps confirming the report which came form Washington officials that the KLA has survived the Serbian offensive: "We're getting reports from guys in basements with cell phones that they're hanging in there," on U.S. official said.

In this context, unconfirmed reports from ground about a kind of "night of long swords" in which political leaders of Kosovo's Albanians have been executed, with those murdered including Baton Hadzi, Fehmi Agani, that the house of Ibrahim Rugova has been occupied and that he is in hiding, and that men, separated from women, have been closed in a stadium - have all been taken as fact for five to six days, and appear to have represented a basis for escalating the aggression.  The Yugoslav side kept silent for several days, and then began to shatter this fabrication with denials.  First of all footage of Ibrahim Rugova's house indicated that his house is intact, and then footage of the stadium in Pristina showed that the grass had not even been trodden, and then a group of journalists were permitted to hear Ibrahim Rugova's statement in which he tells that he is alive and well, and in which he advises NATO to stop the suffering of Albanians and everyone else, and to begin negotiations in which he once again mentioned Richard Holbrooke and the Russian Premier Primakov.

In confusing reports in which a clearly visible catastrophe is being used for perpetuating the conflict, it can be foreseen that a part of this euphoria perhaps comes from the fact that maybe the KLA is really approaching its end, and is nervously calling upon its allies, while these are using this as a pretext for further destruction of Serbia, but while they are protecting their ass, they are still refusing to get mixed up on ground, even though they might be thinking about it.

The fact that such a version holds water can be deduced from a statement issued by the Russian Minister of Defense, Sergeyev who in his speech to the Duma announced that NATO is preparing a ground offensive, that it intends to bomb government institutions in Belgrade, as well as bridges.  Unfortunately, on Thursday, April 1, the old bridge in Novi Sad proved that Sergeyev has reliable information.  The news about the possibility of bombing in the center of Belgrade appeared among several agencies and in an article in the Washington Post, and relatively quickly spread through Belgrade.  Our reporter met two young men on Slavia (center of Belgrade) who excitedly discussed which are the possible targets in Belgrade.  One of them said: "The Army Headquarters!"  Under bombing alerts, Belgrade is attending concerts on a daily basis.  In the Kneza Milosa St. the majority of pedestrians are walking on the side of the street that is across the Army Headquarters.  Our reporter does not resist from crossing the street to empty side, heading toward a guard in full military gear who is shifting his weight from one leg to another.  He is a youth, like all our children, some twenty years old, a round, red face looking like a peach beneath the helmet.  He is not angry at the fact that the reporter is approaching him, and gives him a friendly hug.  While he, a veritable live target in front of the Army Headquarters, is smiling indecisively, on the other side of the street two young women are walking, sporting on their hats a sign with black concentric circles and the letters "Targe!", and in Belgrade accents they smile and chatter, saying "Bombardan!" (variation on "Dobar dan" - Serbian for hello).  Our reporter withdraws quickly so that the youth would not notice how an eruption of sobs is rising to his head.  Slightly up the street, an old woman is entering the Vaznesenjska Church (in whose courtyard, in 1941, tens of civilians were killed by a German bomb - what can be done, everywhere signs of a tragic history), on her way to light one candle for the dead, and one for the living.
A new, abridged version of Crnjanski: Embahada, Attack.... and the Prayer.

Team of VREME Reporters