Herald Tribune: "Yugoslavia survives 3000 air strikes with no sign of backing down"

Those people who point out that it is not a good thing that so many heavy and ugly words are used during a war are right.  Of course, we remain at peace for we have nothing to be ashamed of, we choose are words: there is no doubt in April of 1999 that the NATO alliance is waging a war of total destruction against Yugoslavia and its citizens.
Military buildings, highway and railway bridges, small and large, made of reinforced concrete and those made from steel, small towns, villages, villas, party seats, editorial offices of news, entertainment, sports, pornography channels, TV equipment, editing rooms, post offices, cellular phone relays, tractors, radars   both military and meteorological, one passenger train on a bridge, warehouses with agricultural equipment, smithies, passenger car assembly lines, electrical facilities, heating plants, storage tanks for crude oil, for nitrogen, for gasoline, warehouses of military equipment, tobacco and God knows what else, barracks, windows, village houses, the streets of small towns, palaces in the capital are all destroyed and damaged like the stone quarry in Rakovica, with only two explanations: "legitimate target" and "collateral damage"; with two explanations "for saving the refugees from Kosovo" and "we are not at war with the Serbian people, but with its regime", and with one sadistically reiterated question: "What does Belgrade say now, will it accept our peace keeping troupes now?"  "No, it wont.  Stop the bombing, you already destroyed..."  "But NATO said that this was a legitimate target.  Thanks for being with us..."

In an interview for the Suddeutche Zeitung, playwright Dusan Kovacevic states that NATO attacks on Yugoslavia represent above all a catastrophe for the civilization, summing up this tragic paradox in the question "why are the Magiars in Vojvodina being bombed if NATO's objective is to rescue the Albanians in Kosovo."
What they designated as legitimate targets   we only guess at; and what they are bombing   we clearly see.  According to a statement issued by the public prosecutor in Surdulica on April 27, 1999, so far there are 16 dead in the Jovana Jovanovica Zmaja Street, twelve of those are children ages five to twelve, with around three hundred houses destroyed and damaged...

Five boys were killed and two are in critical condition from a NATO air force cluster bomb which was dropped on the Village of Doganovic, 15 kilometers south of Urosevac, on Saturday, April 24, at noon, the Media Center in Pristina reported.  Edon (3), Fisnik (9), Osman (13), Burim (14) and Valjdet (15) Kodzha were killed, while the two critically injured boys were taken to the Hospital Center of Pristina, where they were operated on, the Media Center press release noted.

The six-year-old Arta Lugic was killed, with her siblings   the eight-year-old Egzon and Neron, and their seven- year-old sister Rieta   having suffered critical injuries when on April 25 a NATO projectile exploded in the Village of Velika Dobranja in the Community of Lipljan on Kosovo, Radio Belgrade reported.  The injured children were treated at the Department for Infant Surgery in the Pristina Hospital.

At dawn on April 23, at 2:05 a.m., a projectile dropped by the NATO air force hit the building of the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) in Aberdareva Street, in the very center of Belgrade.  Prior to the explosion the loud sound of airplanes could be heard, followed by a powerful detonation, with smoke and the pungent smell of fire being felt in the center of the city which was engulfed by darkness at around 2:30 a.m., after a brief power outage...  The projectile hit the very entrance to the building from Aberdareva Street (Aberdareva 1 is the first and main address of Belgrade's television station).  The explosion scattered rubble across the street along with television equipment which was left hanging on some of the trees which broke under the force of the explosion, while the walking paths of the Tasmajdan Park in the back of the building were strewn with dust, rubble and broken branches.  The projectile in fact hit the master editing equipment, the heart of the television station which is full of personnel at all hours of day and night.  The personal information on the first six station employees killed on April 23 at the RTS shed light on the human side of the catastrophe.  Those who were killed are people who did their job quietly, behind the camera, people whose faces we saw for the first time in death notices: mechanic Milovan Jankovic, born in 1940; makeup artist, Jelica Munitlak, born in 1971; technician, Dragan Tasic, born in 1968; security guard Dejan Markovic, born in 1959; video editor Slobodan Jontic, born in 1945; and security guard Milan Joksimovic, born in 1952...

Several of the floors of the building containing television equipment were completely destroyed.  A part of the main transmitter in front of the RTS building was destroyed, and a broken satellite antenna lay on the floor.  Soon after the detonation, television transmitters stopped broadcasting state television programs.  The studio from which news was being broadcast everything began flying about   cameras, reflectors...

The fact that destroyed buildings are located close to places of historic importance is no longer part of propaganda squabbles that so-called illegitimate targets have been hit.  The "official list" is sufficiently monstrously broad so that here, like in so many other small examples, it becomes immediately clear that every bomb hits   everything.
The last bridge in Novi Sad across the Danube river, "Zezelj's Bridge", was destroyed on April 26 in the early morning, around 1:30 a.m., with several projectiles.  In the previous three attacks, Zezelj's Bridge was heavily damaged so that citizens protected it by demonstrating on it.  They began calling it the "Wounded Bridge."  Highway and railway traffic went across this bridge, and with its destruction Novi Sad has been cut off from Srem.  The city on the big river which is no longer navigable has been suffering hardships for five days already because water supply has been cut down to a third.  The workers of the water utility of Novi Sad have demonstrated particular heroism by constantly inventing new ways for the Srem side to get at least technical water through water pipe installations.  When it was announced that they succeeded, airplanes completely destroyed Zezelj's Bridge and their efforts were drowned in the river.  This bridge, which was opened in 1961, was engineered by Branko Zezelj, Member of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Science, inventor of many patents in the area of stressed concrete.  Should we say it here   for they are bombing everything in this country which is worth anything, without being able to stop   that beside this bridge, Zezelj's pioneering work is the dome of Belgrade's Fair building?  Precisely when in the night between Sunday and Monday it appeared that NATO had finished its job of destruction of Novi Sad, on Wednesday, in the middle of the day, at 2:30 p.m. smoke once again appeared above the city.  The Oil Refinery was targeted for the sixth time...

On April 22, the residence of the President of FRY in 15 Uzicka Street in the Dedinje suburb of Belgrade was hit with three laser directed bombs, one of which exploded in the bedroom.  However, the FRY President Slobodan Milosevic and members of his family were not in the building at the time of the attack.

At the press conference Yugoslav minister without a portfolio, Goran Matic, pointed out that this was an assassination attempt on the President of FRY and proclaimed it to be "an organized, terrorist, criminal act by all international standards."  Matic called statements by NATO representatives that Milosevic was not targeted personally, but only the building he lives in, as "the apex of hypocrisy."  "Where else is the President of FRY supposed to live, if not in his residence?" Matic asked.  He stressed that the attack on the residence of the Yugoslav President is yet another example of the fact that NATO "is ignoring military targets and is continuing its aggression against civilians."  SPS Spokesman, Ivica Dacic, noted that the bombing of the residence of the President of FRY Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade is "an unprecedented act" which proves that NATO is "a terrorist organization."  The Spokesman of the FRY Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nebojsa Vujovic, stated that he visited the destroyed residence and that "there were no elements or indications there that this was a seat of command," as NATO claimed.  "We are targeting the military and the military infrastructure which is supporting the instruments of repression in Kosovo," stated Pentagon Spokesman Kenneth Bacon for reporters, claiming that the targeting of the presidential residence by NATO was not the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic himself, but that this was an attempt "to cut off the head" of his army.  "There were no wires or buttons there.  The furniture in the bedroom and the livingroom has been destroyed," stated Nebojsa Vujovic.  He decisively claimed: "This is not the first destruction of a building in this aggression.  The first building which was destroyed is the one of 1st River in New York, where the seat of the UN is located," stated Vujovic.  He said that the attack on the residence is a clear message to citizens that they cannot feel safe even in the bedrooms and livingrooms of their homes.  "NATO is transforming our bedrooms  and livingrooms into fields of death," noted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman.  The Beta Agency and Reuters otherwise noted that American law forbids all assassination attempts on leaders of foreign states.  "Milosevic's house is only one of a million and a half Serbian houses.  We do not make any distinctions and we condemn all destruction equally," stated Federal Information Minister Milan Komnenic.  Otherwise, the representative of the Federal Information Minister explained that the press conference was being held in the facilities of the Serbian Renewal Movement, for it was assessed that the safety of the journalists could no longer be guaranteed in the Palace of the Federation.

However, even the claim that only the building in 15 Uzicka Street was bombed, and not the man inside, is hardly convincing, especially since a building with fairly recent historical memory was destroyed.  The building with elements of Serbian Romanticism in 15 Uzicka St. (formerly called 15 Rumunska St.) was built in 1933-34 by the engineer Aleksandar Acovic, an industrialist, owner of mines and the construction company "Labor."  Certain reminiscences point out that the shelter in the building was the scene of the session of Simovic's Government on April 6, 1941, mostly because Simovic was intending to attend the wedding of his daughter on that day at the Church of Topcider.  During the war the Germans moved out the family Acovic and the building was occupied for a certain time by the German General Lehr, the man who bombed Belgrade, and later by Neuhausen who is said to have taken to Germany all the furniture from the villa during the withdrawal by the Wermacht from the Balkans.  Upon the arrival of the liberators to Belgrade in 1945, the neighboring house, 13 Uzicka street, was occupied by the headquarters of the First Army Group.  Since 1948 the building was registered under state ownership, becoming part of the residential complex for Josip Broz Tito and his wife Jovanka.  It appears that the historic "no" to Stalin was prepared in this residence.
The building was renovated on several occasions.  The last important renovation is attributed to the painter, urban planner and architect Bratislav Stojanovic.  This building complex is associated with many Romanesque incidents from the time of Tito's lengthy rule, including the one associated with the so-called wiretap affair and the 1965 Brion Plenum, and even the one that tells how the aged Tito, supposedly at odds with his wife, and maybe even separated from her by some shady dealings, temporarily deserted the villa, and when residing in Belgrade, he lived in the flower house in the garden, where he was ultimately buried, the place having received the name "House of Flowers."  Jovanka abandoned the house after Tito's death, without volunteering to do so, according to some testimonies.  Ackovic's villa was part of the "Josip Broz Tito" Memorial Complex, and was the place of pilgrimage some time after Tito's death   people used pass by the ceremonial guard in bleu uniforms, beside Tito's grave in the flower house, by the shaded grove where fauns sauntered, and on certain occasions through the salons and cabinets in which Tito used to work, where pictures, china and expensive old weapons, presents of King Salesie and the Shah of Iran Reza Pahlavi, were on exhibit.  For fifteen years the building was vacant, and in 1995 it became the official residence of the President of Serbia, and later the President of FRY.

Let us descend from Dedinje to Obrenovac, a workers' suburb where Captain Zoran Milosavljvic handed over a flag to the father of the killed soldier Nikola Nikolic from Obrenovac, while his relatives, the Gipsies of Obrenovac bewail his passage...

On April 22, the Federal Information Minister, Milan Komnenic announced that in NATO attacks on the FRY, so far 517 civilians lost their lives, of which thirteen are children (in the ensuing days this figure mounted); that there are also casualties in the Yugoslav Army ranks, and that around 4,500 citizens were seriously wounded since the beginning of the aggression against Yugoslavia.  "In the 7,200 air strikes several hundred civilian buildings have been destroyed, with around 100,000 people being left without water, while nearly a half a million people have been left without jobs," stressed Komnenic.  According to him, until this date 13 bridges were destroyed in the FRY, 12 railway stations and railway lines, around 200 schools and 40 industrial complexes.  Predrag Simic, Advisor to the Vice-President of Federal Government Vuk Draskovic, pointed out at the same press conference that since the beginning of the aggression, around a million people fled from the biggest cities in Serbia.  "Belgrade alone has been abandoned by around 400,000 people.  Some of them went abroad, and some of them fled to the interior of the country," stated Simic.

Komnenic stated on that occasion that in the interest of a peaceful solution "Yugoslavia is ready to accept everything that any NATO member nation would accept in the resolution of a similar problem."

This was one of the interpretations which indicated that perhaps some progress was made in the Milosevic- Chernomirdin meeting in Belgrade.
On April 28, Vuk Draskovic was stripped of his duties as Vice-President of the Federal Government, something which was announced by some actors on the political scene in Serbia three days earlier, on April 25, when in an interview with Studio B Television, Vuk Draskovic, at that time Vice-President of the Yugoslav Government and leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, called on all state leaders "to stop lying to the Serbian people and to finally tell them the truth."  Draskovic said that the people should be told that NATO is not about to break up, that Russia will not help the FRY militarily, that world public opinion is against us, and that citizens should know that our enemy is announcing an escalation in the destruction of infrastructures, and that he might not spare even some large civilian systems.  He stated that "so-called patriots are lying to the people that in several days we will win over NATO and that NATO is about to break up, as well as that Russia is close to entering a third world war."  Draskovic supported the bringing in of international forces into Kosovo and Metohija under UN supervision.  Draskovic also condemned the expressions used by FRY state propaganda ("criminal aggression" and "criminal airplanes", "bitch", "faggot", "nature's mistake"...), and in the federal government he demanded that all those who use such language should become familiar with the vocabulary used by Serbian officers in communicating during World War I.

It seems that this appearance by Draskovic was interpreted in the West as a sign of insecurity and giving in on the Yugoslav side.  The West is officially holding to the statement given by General Wesley Clark: "He is losing; we are winning, and he knows it..."  State Department Spokesman, James Rubin, stated that this was merely the recognition of reality.

Draskovic was immediately asked whether he is becoming the opposition to Milosevic's present policy, which he refuted more than once, stating that he is not in opposition with his country, that he believes that Mr. Milosevic is investing efforts in finding a peaceful solution, just like in Dayton, that he, Draskovic, is surprised by the fact that his statements were a source of surprise, and pointed out that the Federal Government issued a call for all refugees to return to their homes, that it expressed its readiness to accept a mission which would be headed by the Security Council, etc.

In other words, Draskovic got back to his top political form, and he especially shines when he insists that pride must find support in glory.

On April 26, in an interview for the satellite television station BBC World, Spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nebojsa Vujovic, stated that "I just spoke about Draskovic's statements with your radio (BBC).  I told them that the very fact that such statements can be given publicly is proof of the freedom of the media."

The short-term defeat Yugoslavia perhaps suffered because this polemic caused enemy spokesmen to think that finally what they desire has happened   inner break and demoralization   could still become a great advantage, with only a little tact: it can be proved that the degree of fundamental agreement is such that even in a state of war, political life remains intact, that bombs in fact did not destroy political institutions to the degree to which it appeared initially, and that the old saying "when the country is at war, the opposition is in the mud" does not hold true.  Finally, the maintaining of political responsibility makes unconvincing all those who compromise themselves these days when they write that "the bombing of Milosevic is in fact good for the Serbian people," that it actually leads to "de-nazification of Serbia", along with all those who stated that Serbs are singing on bridges because they know that NATO bombs are accurate, unlike the bombs dropped on Sarajevo by drunken Serbian generals, etc..

There is a sentence in the writings of Isidora Sekulic "Notes on My People" regarding the exposure to danger as a constant character trait which encourages with conclusions in this regard: "Belgrade is an exposed city, and it will be more and more exposed for as long as it keeps standing up and extending into belfries, towers and arrows.  It is also exposed because it cannot be protected in any way.  Such cities are like large birds which live on cliffs and which suffer every iniquity without protection.  Everything in Belgrade, including the residents of Belgrade, have something of the tendency to venture forth without protection, of coming out onto the battle field..."

This diagnosis should not be confused with the rhetorical froth of political demagogy, nor with elliptical humor in street graffiti like the one on the construction site of the Yugoslav Drama Theater in the Srpskih Vladara Street: "Serbia to the cosmos!"  (The inspiration for this is the redefinition of the notion of a "heavenly Serbia", perhaps as an expression of general glee at the downing of the F- 117.)  In this mentality there is also an element of the tragic behavior, which does need curbing, reflected by the news from Sutomore, in Montenegro, telling how two people were killed while attempting to weld an anti-tank mine to a fence, as a trophy (they thought it was a blank).  There is also the black humor joking with tragedy, mixed in with already domestic themes, as for instance when Cack was bombed, someone put up a sign "Uzice is also in Serbia...", and when Uzice was finally bombed, a graffiti which soon showed up there was: "Death to Fascism   'Sloboda' Cacak..."

People pressed by disaster and tragedy which is increasing are looking for a way to calm themselves.  The only visible cues are those for cigarettes.  The Kragujevac newspaper "Nezavisan Svetlost" conducted a poll around local watering holes.  To the question whether people are drinking more now than before the war, one veteran answered directly: "People are drinking more!" "How do you know?"  "I look at myself."  The children of Belgrade have dubbed the sound of sirens which announce the bombing alert "insanity", and the monotone which announces the end of the danger   "iniquity".

According to logic war imposes censure and nurtures fear, but for a people which is defending itself it is more necessary to have all channels of expression open   artistic, social and political.

Elements of what Draskovic said can be found scattered throughout many statements issued by ministries, parties, the army, etc.  The constant among all those statements is the expression of the hope that Chernomirdin's mission will bring results which will not seriously threaten the Yugoslav objective in this war, and that this initiative should be approached with seriousness.

On April 24 the Spokesman of the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, stated that the FRY "greatly values" Russia's role in resolving the Yugoslav crisis, adding that Russia is still expected "to force the aggressor to stop with the aggression."  He assessed that the common statement by the FRY President Slobodan Milosevic and the Envoy to the Russian President Viktor Chernomirdin "did not contribute to any changes in the policy of the FRY"; that for Yugoslavia "the only possible solution is a civilian mission under headed by the UN, with the participation of Russia, and without the participation of any aggressor countries"; that "Yugoslavia has not capitulated   on the contrary, the aggressor has not managed to achieve a single one of his objectives, nor has managed to beat us militarily."

At that moment he stated that "today is not the time for party politics", so that SPS will still continue to support the idea of a Government of National Unity which has proven itself as "the best idea in the defense of the country."  Dacic added that in the FRY there is virtually no "fifth estate", for "the people are so united in the defense of the country that there are virtually no exceptions."  Regarding Draskovic's statement, SPS did not give any opinions up to the point when this article was being finished.  RTS did not note Draskovic's appearances, nor payed any attention to it.  It also did not allow others to speak about them, excepted a censored sentence from the statement issued by the Presidential Collegium of the Serbian Radical Party in which those who are trying to be NATO's sycophants are being attacked.  At the session of the Federal Government it was clear that Draskovic was nowhere to be seen in the television footage.

On April 22 the Leader of the Serbian Radical Party and Vice-President of the Government of Serbia, Vojislav Seselj, stated that NATO has "admitted defeat" in its attack on Yugoslavia "by trying to compensate its lack of success on the battlefield by bombing civilian targets."  Then on April 25, the Serbian Radical Party expressed its conviction that Serbia and the Serbian People have "dealt a decisive blow" to NATO, "letting it know that force and weapons cannot beat the unbeatable spirit and unity of all citizens."
On April 26 the President of the Yugoslav Society for International Law, Ranko Petkovic, stated that "the tendency of world powers, including NATO leaders and Russia also, is apparent with regard to the fundamental solution of the Kosovo question being transferred to the UN Security Council."  He stressed that this should mean that "Yugoslavia must be politically and diplomatically ready for this new challenge."  Petkovic stated that Draskovic "certainly had to pay attention to how his attitudes would be reflected on the office of vice-president of federal government and in general how they would be received by the political leadership of Yugoslavia."  He stated that "two situations are possible: one, that his statement be accepted as a unique polling of public opinion in the FRY, as well as of the available ground for renewing the political process; while the second is that his statement oversteps the rules of the game Draskovic accepted by including the SPO into the federal government."  "In this case (overstepping the rules of the game) certain political repercussions should be expected not only from Draskovic's direct opponents, the Radical Party, but also from the ranks of the Socialist Party of Serbia as well as from the Yugoslav Left," stated Petkovic.  On Wednesday Draskovic faced the political repercussions.

While there were many speculations in the center of Belgrade as to what Draskovic's statement would result in   whether a conflict with Seselj or something else   one opposition leader stated that he does not know with certainty, but that he is sure of one thing, who the most disgruntled man in Belgrade is that day   Zoran Djindjic, Leader of the Democratic Party (DS).  In fact, that day DS President Zoran Djindjic stated for one of the foreign television stations that it is easier for Draskovic to speak than other opposition leaders, for he is part of the Government and has a place where to speak his mind.

There is more hopeful news coming from the intellectual spheres than from western pools of public opinion.  The group of German intellectuals called "Willi Brant" demanded that NATO stop its air strikes on Yugoslavia for 48 hours.  Intellectuals who are close to German social democrats, gathered in Hamburg, demanded that at the same time the military operations of both the Yugoslav forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) be stopped.  "Both sides would thus get time to think and an opportunity to avoid an escalation which could result in a war on ground."  The statement issued by the group of intellectuals called after the former social democratic leader Willi Brant was signed by, among others, Egon Bahr, one of the creators of the German policy toward the east in Brant's time, Friedrich Scholmer, former civilian rights activist in East Germany, as well as writers Krista Wolf and Gunter Grass.  It should not be forgotten that at the beginning of the NATO intervention in Yugoslavia, Grass supported the bombing of Yugoslavia, believing this to be a way for preventing a "humanitarian catastrophe."

Pope John Paul II, who met with seven recipients of the Nobel Prize for Peace, once again sent an appeal on April 22 for peace in the Balkans.  "The question of peace represents the foundation of political life, and this meeting is taking place at a moment that is tragic for Europe," stated the Pope.  "We can only repeat an energetic appeal for the ethnic conflict in the Balkans to be stopped, as well as the brandishing of weapons, with the objective of returning to dialogue and to respecting everyone as well as the whole community, in the name of fundamental human rights," added John Paul II.  The meeting was attended by Mikhali Gorbachev, Frederick de Klerk, Jozef Rothblat, Shimon Perez, Betty Williams, Rigoberta Manshu and David Trimble.  Gorbachev accused NATO of "having showed its insanity and lack of responsibility in the Kosovo crisis before the whole world."

Austrian writer Peter Handke stated on April 27 in Kragujevac that the bombing of Serbia is the greatest crime after World War II.

There are on indications that would lead to the conclusion that the small polemic in Belgrade resulted in a political crisis.  On the contrary, a statement by the Spokesman of the Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nebojsa Vujovic, issued on April 28, announces progress made in the most unexpected place   he stated that "in the very near future" the signing of a very important agreement between the governments of Yugoslavia and Serbia and the President of the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova, could occur.  According to Radio Tirana reports the KLA sentenced Rugova to death.

On the other side, American Defense Secretary, William Cohen, ordered on April 24 that tanks be sent to Albania, along with armored vehicles and new artillery weapons, including 2000 new soldiers, which will increase the number of American soldiers to 5350.  The new soldiers arriving from bases in Germany and the US will be put in place next week.  It is planned that 24 Apache helicopters, equipped with anti-tank rockets, will be included in the actions against Yugoslav security forces in Kosovo.  According to the Times, NATO Commander for Europe, General Wesley Clark asked for an additional 400 planes at the summit in Washington for air strikes against Yugoslavia.  This figure will bring the total number of planes taking part in the bombing to around 1400.

While the military machine is growing and picking up in speed, while negotiations between the Russians and the Americans are continuing ("there is no doubt that the US and Russia are working together on a solution to the problem"), while the western alliance is preparing an oil embargo which Russia is protesting, Russian Prime Minster Yevgeni Primakov is resorting to Pythian warnings that Russia could take certain "asymmetric actions."

On April 25, Russian Prime Minister Yegveni Primakov stated that "absolutely nothing changed in Russia's attitude toward the situation in Yugoslavia."  As far as future steps are concerned, "Russia has plans and ideas..."  The Beta Agency reported from Moscow on April 22, referring to well informed sources in the Russian Army Supreme Headquarters that the NATO forces "practically began the ground assault" against Yugoslavia, and that "NATO commandoes are penetrating the territory of the FRY with reconnaissance-diversionary missions."  In the west, Tony Blair, the most outspoken supporter of the ground intervention, is being dubbed "the barking mouse" by some magazines.

The American daily newspaper the Herald Tribune sums up: "After a month of an air campaign in the Balkans, Yugoslavia endured nearly 3000 air strikes without showing any signs of backing down."

Team of VREME Journalists