A Lost Battle

A small French radio ship slipped into the Adriatic recently among all those air craft carriers and destroyers. For a short while it became the center of attention of those in the know and in charge of maintaining the level of ignorance and misinformation in this country. Apart from some long established short wave radio programs broadcast from London, Paris, Washington and Cologne in the Serbian (and Croatian) languages, someone perceived the appearance of the radio ship as an invasion from the sea. A dangerous thing, because as a national writer claims, we are a "country of landlubbers". They can't do anything to us on land, but if they strike from the sea, then who knows?

This has something to do with the war against the new world order in which the situation is currently a draw - 2:2, at least according to an old typology. Serbian forces hold the earth and fire, while the world's powers of darkness have the air and water. But if we take a closer look, the difference becomes obvious, since borders are carved with fire and on the earth. The planes of the new world order have started dropping into the sea and on the ground, which leads to the conclusion that their two elements are falling out.

I believe that many of the readers of secret portents, telepathic individuals, experts on fate and the future, now have sufficient material. Parapsychologists, parascientists, parahistorians, parajournalists can explain everything beautifully from the future and the past to this parapeople, who only wish to hear them. Money is all. But it all started out innocently, with paramilitary formations.

What is this French ship doing here, with its Carthusian logic and domestic crew dedicated to a mission of spreading reliable information and the promotion of commonsense and good will? A loud NO, has been said to all that, with the explanation that such things serve no purpose, and are just a hinderance in the making of a state. With regard to this, the ship has come too late, and is as dated as a steamship. A time when many here wondered what was really happening, who started it all and who is guilty, has long passed. Now they are only interested in what the stars and their horoscopes have to say.

Some time ago I believed that the international community should have launched a television operation in parts of the former Yugoslavia which were choking in lies which had resulted in the deaths of very many people. It seemed important that all here should see the scope of the crimes, to learn who was responsible for the massacre in a neighboring village, whose house had been torched, so that we might all learn something about ourselves, something the whole planet already knows. If we had had pictures exposing the lies of those destroying Sarajevo, perhaps then nobody here would have believed their stories about self-defence, and then perhaps much could have been prevented and saved.

But things have gone too far. The domestic version of the truth has spread, and is infinitely far from the world's truth. Their truth has become too unbearable for us, and therefore harmless. Belgrade Television's Channel One could now safely carry all that foreign journalists report from the spot, and even add words to the effect "that is how far anti-Serbian propaganda has gone." As far as the domestic public is concerned, the media war has finally been won. The average Serb's consciousness belongs irrevocably to RTV Serbia Director Milorad Vucelic, and there is no longer any need to respond to accusations from abroad.

Everybody knows for a fact that Radovan Karadzic has made all sorts of concessions, and that he observes the ceasefire. When shells hit Srebrenica general Ratko Mladic does not have to prove that this is not true, that the dead and wounded have been invented, or that the Moslems bombed themselves, or that they are Serbs disguised as Moslems for the needs of world television. The very fact that the world media are up in arms, is proof that all these things are lies.

The people here haven't become morally blunted, they haven't lost compassion for the suffering of others, nor are they indifferent to the terrible fate of children in Srebrenica. They just don't believe in it, and in exchange have been given the suffering of Serbian children. The pictures are not as convincing, but they are our children, they are real, and this means the pictures have not been tampered with.

It is a notorious truth that all foreign journalists are biased and corrupt, while Belgrade television is unbiased and interested only in justice and the truth. The opposition does not find much to criticize with this picture of the war in Bosnia, with the exception of Vuk Draskovic and especially wife, Danica Draskovic. This paraopposition thinks that the only problem lies in the fact that the Socialist-Radical coalition has preferential treatment on television, and that there is no place for their parties.

Everything is fine with the war, and they support proud Karadzic and tame Mladic. They do not think that opposition parties should be thinking of something other than themselves. All agree that the world is mistaken, and that a great injustice is being inflicted on Serbia, and that this is why the hunger must be endured. They support a policy aimed at twisting the people's consciousness. The people will now have to wait for the whole world to go mad, in order to become inconspicuous. Even if they believed Karadzic's version of the truth, they should say that the world's stand must be taken into account, even though it is wrong. This is done by all the countries in the world except Iraq, Libya and Syria. Has nobody noticed how long Europe and the world showed consideration for the Greek stand over Macedonia, even though none agreed with it?

I have met many foreign journalists since all this started. They are biased, but biased in the way a man must be if he is sitting in Srebrenica and being shelled, and cannot hear Mladic's explanation why it is all necessary. If they were to hear this, the people would understand how complicated the whole issue is, and the dangers posed to Serbia by Srebrenica, and to what degree it is responsible for being shelled. It would be that kind of bias.

I have read texts which do not differentiate between Serbs and the regime, Serbs and Milosevic, i.e. Karadzic. Let us put to one side comparisons with some domestic media and their well-known delicacy in such matters. It is interesting that those who are working on identifying the people and the regime, should be the ones to stand up against this. Why are they surprised if a foreigner sometimes says what they are claiming all the time?

And now this radio ship has entered the scene with ambitions to improve the situation. I don't know how this was received in Croatia, but it would seem that Tudjman and his followers have more reason for fear and suspicion than the authorities here. First, because the information blackout there is much darker than it is here, and second, because the programs will be heard very clearly in Dalmatia. Of course, it remains an open question if there are still many there who are prepared to hear something relatively neutral about themselves.

The ship is French, and everybody knows that the French and the Serbs have vowed eternal loyalty and friendship. (An allusion to French ships which saved Serbian soldiers in World War One, ed. note.) In Belgrade, those who have remained and have managed to escape Vucelic's sword and still wish to know something, still have an outlet. They can listen to Radio B 92. This program cannot be heard outside Belgrade, but that doesn't matter. The ship's program can't be heard even in Belgrade.