When the Avala Tower Fell

The undeclared NATO war has grown into sheer idolatry of power and arrogance of might, striking people during the first days of the month of May in their homes, in suburbs, in workers' colonies, on railway tracks, on bridges, in buses, and destroying symbols and construction achievements which marked attempts at modernization in this country during the second half of the twentieth century

When the explosion occurred on April 30 at about 10:40 p.m., Petar Jovanovic, from Beli Potok near Mount Avala, right outside of Belgrade, was in his home.  The explosion sent him flying some ten feet across his house: "We didn't hear when the tower fell, but when finally dawn came we saw that the tower was gone."

The phrase "was gone" referred to the telecommunications tower on Mount Avala, a tower which was built in 1965, that needle in the sky which served as a compass for all those coming back from the south of Yugoslavia to "our Belgrade", a city we identified with our first loves, stormy and passionate ones, that tower by which already from Little Pozarevac or Ralje or Zuca we knew that we were close to home, while the kids in the back seat happily chortled "Alava, Alava..."

Its concrete column, engineered by Uros Bogunovic and Slobodan Janjic and whose construction was drafted by Academician Milan Krstic, simply grew into the surrounding environment and became one of those Issidora's Towers through which Belgrade aspired upward.  Avala, which can only be seen from several vantage points in Belgrade, somehow became an external mark of recognition and identification from afar.

Entire generations visited this new sign of modern prosperity which with the nearby Monument to the Unknown Soldier, constructed of black marble from Jablanica and authored by the great Yugoslav sculptor Ivan Mestrovic, made the peak of Mount Avala appear a lot higher than its actual 511 meters.  The tower was erected in the same spot where formerly a medieval castle stood.  This tower dating back to 1965 is included among the one hundred most important construction achievements in Serbia, a structure which was the pride of many engineers, framers, concrete workers, metal workers and construction hands from the civil engineering companies "Rad" and "Janko Lisjak".  Some people could recite its dimensions in the same manner that the breast size and height of some beauty queen were recited: the concrete structure of the tower was 136.65 meters high; the beacon light holder was 6.20, while the total height of the tower was 202.87 meters at the elevation point of 102.75; the base of the tower was dug into a cliff at a depth of 1.4 meters; the seven story control area had four open balconies at the top of the tower from which it was possible to see half of Sumadija.  The Mount Avala Tower was unique in the world because its foundation was an equilateral triangle.

The inclusion of this symbolic tower on Mount Avala among targets was mentioned in press agency reports along with other radio-television transmitters in Serbia which were systematically being destroyed in a campaign of destruction of Radio Television Serbia (RTS) and the telecommunications system of Serbia.  Since the beginning of the aggression on March 24 the NATO air force attempted on several occasions to destroy the tower on Mount Avala, with strong detonations being heard in the region of Avala on March 26 and 27, as well as on April 23.  Two days later the electricity distribution station in the vicinity of the Panorama Restaurant on Mount Avala was hit.  At that time RTS programming came to a stop for full 12 hours.  The tower was hit in its supporting beams with two projectiles, falling the full length of the approach to the tower, like a felled poplar tree.  The peak of the antenna fell into the garden of one of the restaurants at the top of Mount Avala, a place filled with romantic memories.

The morning after, something was dropped in Cubura.  Precise knowledge of topography which must not be mistaken in Belgrade, even at most difficult times, indicates that the area in question is the Neimar slope, in a settlement with small houses from straw-lined walls which retains the former sprit of the settlement which is now surrounded by concrete Belgrade, with tall buildings made of concrete with large windows which, taped as they are in characteristic "x" patterns as prevention against shattering in the event of bombs blasts, Belgrade kids call "Windows 99."

There, immediately below Cubura, a small restaurant called "The Golden Ram", owned by Dragan and Zorica Djordjevic, was destroyed.  The story told is that highschool and elementary school students went there for giros (and the more intrepid ones for beer), standing at the corner of Maxim Gorky and Maruliceva Streets.  Some fifty meters down the road, in 7 Vardarska Street, one of those poor-but-honest streets, characteristically steep for Belgrade where kids toboggan in the winter, the ground floor house of Svetlana Djuric was destroyed, having been rented to the couple Djordje and Dragana Djuric.  In this poverty stricken neighborhood, Sofija (age 23) was seriously wounded (operation of the appendix and the large intestine and the local circulatory system) dying in hospital on Wednesday, May 5...

The next day the residents of Vracar, famous for their good breeding, gathered observe the new tragedy of the neighborhood which found shape in rubble, with evidence of rags and junk holding together the shanty walls.  The rundown beams and the old bricks were laid bare, with signs of small investments which a pauper's budget permitted: a bathroom in an addition added one Spring; the next Spring an iron fence added to the yard, with the street name fixed to it with wire.  Judging by the fact that all the windows on the adjacent houses are intact, there were no detonations here.  Whatever it was that dropped on the corner of Maruliceva and Vardarska Streets, it made a crater some ten feet deep in the street, and severed the main water line which gushed water right into the morning.  In the middle of the street water was gushing from beneath the bulldozer scoop lowered over the pipeline opening, while curious onlookers, forgetting to move back, shouted warnings: "Look out, dude,!  it'll explode any minute, it'll explode..."  A thin film of mud spread over the entire Vardarska Street and into Juzni Bulevar (Southern Boulevard).  There were several people sleeping in the house on the street corner at the moment of impact.  Among them was a pregnant woman, but the neighbors acted quickly to extract everyone from the rubble.  The neighboring house was also completely destroyed, but even there no one was killed or critically injured.  The next morning two couches were placed in the middle of the street in front of these destroyed shanties with their shaken residents sitting in them, speaking to reporters.  Around them stood a fridge, a water heating unit, with some books and clothes lying in piles.

Right next to the house in a small garden which miraculously escaped damage, people were sitting in white plastic garden chairs beneath a peach tree with delicate green leaves.  In Maruliceva Street furniture from No. 1 was taken out into the middle of the street.  People were sitting on couches on the street.  One youth told a British reporter who interviewed him: "Tell Blair that God is looking after Serbs."  One foreign correspondent noticed among the stuff rescued from the rubble a pack of cards and some books   Faulkner, Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms" and a poster of the inevitable Vuk Draskovic.  A woman trying to rescue some clothes from the rubble told a reporter how she does not wish the same fate on anyone.

With obvious disgust two neighbors were asking each other what sort of mind could have decided to destroy these houses.  The taller one merely answered: "You know what!" a phrase used in Belgrade when one is at a loss for words, adding after a short pause with some anger: "Let's go for a beer!"

You are smiling, but with tears in your eyes.  Seven people were wounded, of which two are in critical condition, with two people accounted for as missing after the bombing on May 3 of civilian buildings located near the Krusik Factory in Valjevo.  The Commander of the Civilian Rescue Headquarters of Valjevo, Dragan Batinic and the President of the Community Committee for establishing war damages, Snezana Tomasevic, stated that 16 projectiles fell on the workers' colony "Milorad Pavlovic", having completely destroyed seven buildings, each containing 12 apartments.  According to her, the entire settlement located next to the Krusik Factory has 400 apartments with around 2000 residents.  All residents will have to move out because the buildings have been damaged so much that they are no longer safe to live in.

The "Milorad Pavlovic" workers colony is a typical settlement which is built in Yugoslavia near a factory, with buildings at most 2 stories high.  Residents of the colony said that on the harrowing evening, at 9:12 p.m. at least eight projectiles fell on the settlement, while the neighboring Krusik Factory was bombed with at least 16 projectiles.  Several enormous craters are visible in the settlement, about 30 feet in diameter, some ten feet away from each other, having practically plowed the entire workers' colony.  One of the buildings was directly hit by a projectile, splitting it in half.  There were only two residents living in that building, their whereabouts being known at the time of the attack, although "no one knows where they are this morning."  The neighboring building was hit by a projectile which did not explode, but broke through the building and stopped in the basement.  The Civilian Rescue Headquarters Teams are working on clearing the rubble, while the residents of the colony are taking out from their apartments remaining furniture which is still intact, along with pictures, personal belongings and documents.  Despot Novakovic (age 75), a resident in the settlement told reporters that he has been living in the workers' colony for 50 years already, but that he "never lived through such a catastrophe as this so far."  His wife, Vera, was covered with rubble after the detonations, but he said that she has not been critically injured.  Ljilja Karadarevic (age 73) said that the fact that Krusic is a military target does not mean that "NATO should bomb children and adults living next to the factory."  Nearly all the trees in the area were wrenched from their roots after the bombing of that part of Valjevo.

Our reporter from Valjevo describes the workers' colony with descriptions from war movies.  The shingles from the roof are gone, instead of windows there are gaping holes, half of the floors of a building are missing...  Residents are moving out their remaining belongings, stacking firewood into the trailers of tractors, along with plastic barrels used for sour cabbage...  Omer Karadarevic is sitting on a three-legged stool in front of what used to be his house.  The other half of the building was destroyed by a bomb.  He's sitting, looking, not uttering a word.  In the gaping holes which used to be windows in one of the buildings a woman is standing with her daughter.  They are looking out for a chest of drawers which is waiting to be moved out.  She tells that when they hit at noon, the settlement was full of people, the bombing alert had not been sounded, with half of the people losing consciousness.  We come across a ministry of defense worker: he shrugs his shoulders and says "what can you do, it's all falling on the poor."
Accompanying him are the reporter and photojournalist from the magazine "Vojska" ("The Army").  One of the residents is giving a statement, I'm noting it down: "Since it's obvious that international conventions and agreements have no meaning, but only the power of the strongest, our President should behave in accordance with the situation   that is to say, as best he can, to avoid too high a price.  It's no use to us if Serbia is completely destroyed.  Try to conform to the stronger, for you can't go through a wall with your head..."

On the other side of the settlement there is the complex of the Hospital of Valjevo, with all the windows on that building having been shattered.  Facing the colony are several high rises whose windows are also shattered, with several roofs having been damaged.  The General Director of the Hospital of Valjevo, Miroslav Sreckovic stated on May 3 that during the night and the next morning 14 people were treated at his hospital from injuries in the NATO night bombing on the city, adding that some have been kept in hospital for observation.  "Projectiles fell around our hospital which is visibly marked on all sides with signs of the Red Cross, with several bomb fragments having found their way into patients' rooms," stated Sreckovic to journalists who visited the city in a tour organized by the Yugoslav Army Press Center.  Windows in the surgery and operations rooms were also shattered.  Doors have been wrenched out of their frames, with ceiling lamps having fallen in some rooms of the hospital.  There is shattered glass everywhere inside and outside of the hospital.  At the time of the NATO attack, a woman was giving birth in the hospital when parts of the ceiling began to fall, but doctors managed to complete the birth successfully.

The next report comes from the apartment at the corner of Knez Milosa and Bircaninova Streets in Belgrade, when on April 30 at 2:30 a.m. low flying planes were heard above Belgrade.  That was the beginning of a series of attacks at the center of the capital in which the Supreme Headquarters of the Yugoslav Army and the Republican and Federal Ministries of Internal Affairs were destroyed.  The new building housing the Supreme Headquarters is considered one of the modern contributions to our architectural heritage.  It is the work of the notable architect Nikola Dobrovia, a member of the Serbian Academy of Art and Science (SANU), one of the prominent experimenters in the area of new forms whose statue stands in the entrance to the Faculty of Architecture in the University of Belgrade.  Probably according to the wishes of the commissioners of the building, it is said that its design was inspired by the Battle of Sutjeska (hence probably the cascades which mimic the cascading mountain shapes).  During the construction of the building a heated discussion arose around the initial idea of making an overpass over Nemanjina Street which would close the view to the Sava River from Slavija at the top of Nemanjina Street.  The initial project was modified and the residents of Belgrade got used to this building and accepted it as one of our symbols.  Our army explained the destruction of this building which was evacuated already at the beginning of the war as absence of military honor in the enemy and as his attempt to destroy our Army, "if only symbolically."

Antiaircraft artillery could be heard, followed by a loud hissing sound, with two detonations which shook neighboring buildings.  A thick cloud of dust spread from the Supreme Headquarters, making the building appear black in the darkness, and completely filling the front yard.

Our reporter arrived on the spot several minutes later, only to play hide and seek with incoming rockets.  Some thirty people already gathered at the corner.  Very soon some ten fire trucks and several ambulances appeared in front of the Supreme Headquarters.  One fire truck was coming from the direction of the highway overpass at the end of Knez Miloseva Street.  As it arrived, a new hissing sound was heard very loudly.  People who were arriving immediately began running for shelter, while the firefighter shifter into reverse gear with incredible speed.  When our reporter arrived near the Polish Embassy, several hundred meters away, another two explosions could be heard.
Another two projectiles were dropped on the Supreme Headquarters (on the other side of Nemanjin Street).  One of the projectiles bared the structure of several floors some 20 meters above the ground, while the other fell into the front yard area.

The building of the Ministry of Defense, the one across Bircaninova Street, was hit with two projectiles that were dropped with treacherous delay.  Ratko Bulatovic, Municipal Secretary for Inspection, was wounded that morning, both of his legs having been amputated.  Also wounded was Nebojsa Starcevic, Secretary for the Industry, along with another thirty people, those who arrived on the spot after the first attack, along with those who came to rescue them, were also wounded.

All that was left from the projecting hallway of the front entrance was a pile of rubble.  On the top of this pile lay the entrance with supporting columns and the large glass covered door, all smashed to pieces.  On the other side a hole the size of several floors was made in the building.  The second hit was near the top of the building on the wing jutting out over Nemanjina Street.  All that was left from the bared floors was the supporting structure.

In a circle of some two hundred feet the streets were full of shattered glass and stone.  The tram and trolleybus lines were severed, some of them lying in the street.  After the attack, electricity went out in this part of the city.  Several feet in front of the security guard cabin in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there's a pool of blood with particles of flesh in it.

Three kiosks at the corner of Nemanjina Street are completely crushed.  Beside on of them the ice creme fridge (produced in Greece) has a large stone, 2 feet in diameter, in it.  People are gathering particles of bombs, square shaped dark gray particles of metal, some of them unevenly shaped, with sharp edges and several inches long.  Two trees wrenched from their roots in Nemanjina Street.  In Kneza Milosa Street one tree is missing all of its branches.  Windows are broken in surrounding residential buildings, on the nearby Government of Serbia building, and in the top floors of the Palace of Justice.  In the entrance to the Government building there is an evergreen plant intact in its pot.  The day after that cabinet of the Vice-President of the Serbian Government, Vojisla Seselj, was shown on TV: it was full of rubble.

Later domestic and foreign journalists visited the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs which was also damaged in the Thursday attack on Belgrade.  The cabinet of the Chief of Yugoslav Diplomacy was damaged in the attack, bearing marks from projectile fragments on the ceiling, walls and the door.  The diplomatic entrance door was wrenched out of its frame, and the door thirty feet away from that entrance was completely wrenched from it frame with only the hinges remaining.  The glass in the windows was shattered, the windows frames were broken and the drapes ripped, while the furniture was also ruined.  The leaves from plants which made the cabinet more beautiful are scattered on the floor.  The cabinet of the Deputy Minster was also damaged with all the glass in it shattered and a lot of rubble strewn about.  The glass on the wall picture of the President of the FRY is cracked.

The deranged element of this attack on the center of the city is that projectiles were dropped in series which appeared to be precisely timed to take into account the arrival of ambulances and firemen to the rescue before the dropping of the next series of projectiles.  That grim morning ended with an earthquake which disturbed the residents of Belgrade at 5:30 p.m., with its epicenter in Maljen, representing merely one in a series of tragedies.

In the attack on the bridge near Luzani, some 20 kilometers north of Pristina on the Pristina-Podujevo highway, 40 people were killed on May 1.  The attack occurred at 1:00 p.m. severing in two the Nis Express bus which was coming from Nis and happened to be on the bridge at the time when the bridge was targeted head on   part of the bus remained on the bridge while the other fell off it.  According to eyewitnesses, the bodies of the 40 killed are "massacred and scorched."  The Nis Express buss was scheduled to leave Nis heading for Pristina at 9 a.m. that morning, but was late 40 minutes in leaving Nis.  At 1:50 the NATO air force one again targeted the bridge in Luzai, destroying the ambulance vehicle which was on the spot, providing treatment to those who were left alive.  In this second attack, a medical technician who was part of the ambulance team received injuries to the head.  In the RTS report it is indicated that only 4 people survived that attack.

The bright read Nis Express bus was traveling on its regular Nis-Pristina route and full of passengers it found itself on the middle of the bridge at the time of the attack.  The explosion severed the bus in half.  One half remained on the bridge while the other half fell off it.  The half on the bridge was completely burned with three to four charred corpses remaining in it.  In the other half of the bus, the one that fell off the bridge, seven to eight mangled bodies are visible.  Beside the bus there are several bodies without heads, with the hand of a small child located some 20 meters away from the bus.  A whole human brain is lying on the roadside, with the smell of burnt human bodies hovering above the entire area.  The part of the bas remaining on the bridge is completely burnt and the only thing that stands out is the red color of internal human organs.  The bridge itself is lightly damaged, with the remains of the bus still burning at the time when reporters arrived on the scene.  Immediately after the explosion residents tried to help the people in the bus, but, as one policeman put it, "it's awful to look at people burning and screaming without being able to help them."  This policemen said that thus far he had bad experiences with reporters and said that his daughter in law and her child were wounded a little while back in the village of Merdari, and that reporters who interviewed them said that they were Albanians.  One of the residents of Luzani, Rajko Maksic, who was tending his garden at the time of the attack, some 300 feet away from the tragedy, said that he saw and airplane descending and unloading a bomb, after which a horrible explosion was heard with the sound of the bus falling off the bridge.  Maksic said that he rushed to help, but that he could only help one man who fell out of the bus and whom he put in his care and drove to the hospital in Pristina.  The passenger who was rescued by Maksic has third degree burns and a deep cut on the head.  Some half hour after the attack five ambulance teams drove five survivors to Pristina, with one of the ambulances having been hit on another bridge ten kilometers distant from the scene of the tragedy, near Prugovac, the doctor in it having suffered injuries.  Among the five people driven to Pristina there is one child which is in critical condition.  The Investigating Judge in the Regional Court of Prokuplje, Mijat Bajevic, stated that in his 30 years of service he never saw something so horrible.  He stated that among the killed are also two children which he saw with his own eyes, but he stressed that there are more bodies underneath the bus and that fears that the number of dead is higher.  Bajevic stated that the Nis Express was alone on the bridge without any other vehicles nearby, pointing out that the technical team in charge of the investigation also found parts of the projectiles, which unequivocally indicates that what is at issue is another NATO air force attack.  While the investigating team was doing its work, the NATO planes were flying low overhead, with another loud detonation being heard in the area.  Policemen warned journalists that KLA snipers are constantly firing from neighboring hills.  While the journalists were in the are some 15 detonations coming from the direction of Pristina could be heard.  Some foreign agencies reported in typical NATO fashion of avoiding responsibility, calling upon KLA sources, that "uniformed corpses" could be seen in the bus.

However, NATO still admitted responsibility for the attack on the Nis Express bus, but suggested that the bus was "mistakenly targeted," and that the target was the bridge which is considered key in the north-south supply line for the Yugoslav Army and Special Police which are active between Pristina and Podujevo in Kosovo.  Their claim is that the tragedy occurred despite "maximum NATO efforts to avoid targeting civilians who happen to be in the midst of the Kosovo conflict."
The series of slaughters speaks loudly for the nature of such "maximum efforts."

Five people were injured on May 2 when NATO bombed the village of Marici around 11:35 p.m., a village close to Vitanovac, near Kraljevo.  The critically wounded were traveling in the Kraljevo Autotransport bus which was near the place where the projectiles were dropped.

The young girl Miroslava Knezevic, age 13, is the fifth casualty of the bombing of the little town of Murino, a place with some 1000 residents between Andrijevica and Plava, in the north of Montenegro.  According to Montenegrin media reports, the body of the little girl was discovered in the rubble of a grocery store.

On the road Pec-Kula-Rozaje, near Savine Vode, on May 3 another bus was targeted at around noon.  The Media Center of Pristina reported that the bus was hit with one rocket, adding that NATO airplanes continue to bomb the area so that rescue teams cannot arrive at the scene of the tragedy.  According to the information received by the Media Center of Pristina from the local government in Pec, the targeted bus was full of passengers, with many women and children among them.  Later it was announced that at least 17 people were killed, while 40 were wounded in that NATO attack.  Referring to Radio Montenegro reports, it was later announced that 20 people were killed, with at least 10 critically injured.  The attack near Savine Vode occurred at 12:00 p.m., and as the Beta Agency learned in the Media Center of Pristina, three civilian cars were on the road near the "Djakovica prevoz" bus at the time of that attack, also having suffered damage.  Among the injured there are also those who tried to help the wounded, the Media Center reports.  The NATO air force kept dropping cluster bombs on that area for full two hours, the Media Center of Pristina reports.  The same source indicates that a large number of unexploded cluster bombs remains near the location of the attack, preventing rescue teams to evacuate the wounded.  43 people were received in the Pec Hospital, Belgrade media report.  At least 17 people were killed in this attack.  The majority of the wounded were injured by bomb fragments, the doctor on call at the hospital reported.  He added that the majority of the wounded are Serbs, but that there are also some Albanians and Gypsies.  Initially NATO representatives "could not comment on the report" (May 3), and then stated that they are not in a position to confirm responsibility for the attack on the bus (May 4): "We are not in a position to confirm this.  We are not ruling it out, we are continuing to work on it," stated the alliance spokesman.

Then NATO announced that it has "no evidence" that alliance airplanes attacked the bus.  At the press conference, Jamie Shea, like some medieval judge and jury stated: "We can find no evidence, no evidence of any NATO involvement in this incident," but still admitting that several planes were active in the area.)  Then one of the alliance officials, who requested anonymity, stated that the zone in which the attack was carried out is "a battle zone", so that "perhaps the bus might have entered an ambush area," given that in recent days fighting between KLA and Serbian Forces were noted in the area, but NATO still does not have any evidence that the bus entered an ambush area, although such an explanation appears to them plausible.

"The Independent" which notes that the British Prime Minister "can speak well, but all too often in this war he uses words not to clarify intentions but coverup differences between reality and feelings on the questions of refugees, costs and the likelihood of a ground assault," also notes that NATO military investigative officials attempted to determine on May 3 whether the alliance should admit the bombing of another civilian bus in just three days.  "This incident further supports the opinion that NATO planes which are purposely flying at great heights in order to avoid Yugoslav Antiaircraft Defenses are causing many civilian casualties in their attacks.  Military sources admit that from the heights from which the majority of attacks are carried out it is impossible to avoid mistakes in identifying targets," the newspaper points out.

Mistakes in identifying targets or mistakes due to the "disappearance of targets" assume tragicomic proportions as in the instance where the rocket missed the entire sovereign state, and "guided" as it was, arrived to the outskirts of Sofia, Bulgaria, where it probably hit some old burning television.

It is an understatement to say that after Pristina, Novi Sad, in the northern part of Yugoslavia, is the most bombed city   the city and its suburbs have been hit no less than 36 times.

All three of its bridges have been destroyed, while the bridge on the Dunav-Temerin-Duanv Canal has suffered serious injuries.  An entire list of buildings on the slopes of Fruska Gora, including transmitters on Crvena Cota and Venac, have been destroyed.

The city is on the brink of an environmental catastrophe, among other things because after ten closely followed attacks the stores of special foam for putting out fires from burning gasoline tanks were depleted.  Gasoline leaks into the ground also occurred, potentially posing danger to ground water sources and wells.

After the night attacks on the Oil Refinery of Novi Sad, its Deputy Director, Vladimir Dopudja, indicates that "NATO heavy aircraft dropped some 40 projectiles on the complex," setting fire to "some 30 tanks of gasoline and crude oil."  The heavy smoke, full of soot, carbon monoxide and dioxide could be seen above Novi Sad, and probably from the entire southern region of Vojvodina.  "The smoke rose into the sky as far as 600 feet, as one tank was hit after another," stated Dopudja.  According to him, there were no wounded in the attack, although several firemen were wounded on duty.

The thick, black smoke from the Refinery of Novi Sad rising above the city for a third day in a row.  In the streets only an occasional pedestrian could be seen carrying a handkerchief over the mouth.  In front of bakeries which operated on power generators, long cues of people could be seen waiting.  Considerable cues were being formed in the city for battery radios, batteries and candles.  The residents of Novi Sad are also buying great quantities of mineral water.  The water supply was stabilized somehow after the damage to the city water supply with the destruction of the last bridge across the Danube.  Then because of the lack of electricity, Novi Sad was left once again without water, and as the hydro service announced, parts of the city where power was restored, workers are working round the clock to restore water.

Then, on May 3, from the Srem side of Novi Sad fire could be seen.  NATO air craft targeted the building housing Novi Sad Television.  Two projectiles were dropped on it.  The city was enveloped in darkness and smoke   only lit by the conflagration.  Still good spirit has not left the main city of Vojvodina.  The residents of Novi Sad christened their city with a new name: "Soot City".  Enelore Lamhe, the longstanding friend of this city who came to see first hand the situation in this city and to carry true information to all citizens of Dortmund, brought humanitarian help to the children in the Institute for Abandoned Children and Children Suffering from Disabilities in Veternik.

On May 3 in attacks on the electrical system of Serbia NATO used so-called "soft bombs" which explode above the target, spreading out graphite dust which conducts electricity and causes short circuits, but does not result in extensive material damages.

There was no electricity in Belgrade, Nis, Kragujevac, Novi Sad, Kikinda, Smederevo, Kucevo, Pozarevac, Velika Plana, Loznica, Lazarevac, Krusevac, Sabac, Valjevo, Kostolac...

The system broke down.  Even radio stations went out, except for several ones that had power generators, although on FM frequencies we could listen to some Bulgarian radio stations.  Surprisingly the night was full of moonlight, with people huddled sometime in front of buildings.

Following the temporary breakdown in the electrical system, life in Belgrade is gradually normalizing with occasional long lines for bread and other necessities.  Thanks to the incredible efficiency of workers from the Belgrade Municipal Waterworks, water supplies somehow normalized by the end of the day.  The purification facilities of the Waterworks were left without power, but necessary quantities of water were remaining in reservoirs so that certain parts of the city had water all the time, with other parts of Belgrade being connected to the water system from the early morning.

NATO spokesman Jamie Shea announced in Bruxelles that NATO aircraft bombed the electrical system in Serbia because it is a "legitimate military target" which is "used by the military and police forces for their communications, operations of headquarters, computer systems, with the objective being to paralyze the Yugoslav Army and Police, especially in Kosovo..."  Without blinking an eye he stated that "efforts were made to spare civilian buildings, especially hospitals."
On the same day NATO announced that it "will continue systematically" with the use of "special bombs which are being used for the first time," while the military spokesman, German general Walter Jerc stated that he cannot disclose any details, except that "the bomb in question has not been used so far."  At the question of journalists what is the point of the operation if electricity can be restored within several hours, General Jerc responded that destruction is not desired but only the disabling of the electrical system in such a way that "civilians are not threatened."

NATO civilian spokesman, Jamie Shea, stated that 70 percent of the territory of Serbia was permanently in the dark, ecstatic at the fact that now "NATO has its hands on the power switch in Serbia which it can turn on and off at will."

The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) issued a statement on May 3 that "the premeditated creation chaos in the electrical system is Serbia is merely the latest type of crime NATO is committing over Serbia, FR Yugoslavia and Republika Srpska."  "The aggressor evidently set as his objective to psychologically exhaust the civilian population to such a degree that if he can't kill them all, at least to bring them to a state of hopeless panic, and to make it impossible for people to function normally," the DSS observed.  This Party stressed the additional protocol of the Fourth Geneva Convetion from 1949 which explicitly forbids acts whose specific purpose is to terrorize civilian populations.  As the press release indicates, this internationally adopted regulation strictly stipulates protection of facilities necessary for the survival of civilian populations.  "No volunteer, quasi-legal interpretations by the cynics can justify this crime.  In any case, their entire action against the FRY has already sometime ago trampled on all legal and human norms.  The only thing they acknowledge and accept is brute force," the DSS statement indicates.

On May 4, FRY President Slobodan Milosevic listened to the report by the Commander of the Third Army, Lieutenant General Nebojsa Pavkovic and the Headquarters Commander of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP), Lieutenant Major Sreten Lukic.  In the press statement it is indicated that "the main objective in the coming period still continues to be persistent defense from outside aggression and at the same time protection of security, legality and protection of peace and order and the freedom of movement across the entire territory of Kosovo and Metohija..."  At the meeting it was concluded that "complete destruction has been achieved of the units, headquarters and the infrastructure of the terrorist organization which calls itself the Kosovo Liberation Army, and that civilian authority and all state offices are operating on the entire territory of Kosovo and Metohija."  It was observed that "healthcare, food and medicines are being provided to people who left their homes because of the bombing and actions by the terrorists."  It was observed that "objectives have been realized under very complicated conditions, given that from the first day of the aggression, the leadership of the terrorist organization KLA was called to a general assault upon all government officials and facilities, with the open backing of the highest officials from the aggressor countries," that "their objective was to create an impression of a supposed general uprising in Kosovo and Metohija," that "under the conditions of bombing battles occurred in cities, villages, and roadways across the entire territory of Kosovo and Metohija," that "especially difficult were conflicts between security forces and terrorists in cities," and that "at the same time as performing these complicated tasks, security officials managed to eliminate numerous manifestations of violence, theft and other criminal acts, at the same time arresting several hundred perpetrators whose criminal activities presented great danger to the civilian population," that "such acts were prevented" and that "military courts, in accordance with procedures stipulated for conditions of war, already passed many sentences lasting from five years to 20 years of prison for given criminal acts."
This news perhaps indicates a certain "maturing of the war," perhaps even indicating that its end is near.

A peaceful tone is used in the decree issued by the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces (Slobodan Milosevic) on the release of prisoners: "We do not see enemies in them, but also victims of war and militarism."

The story with the captured American soldiers reveals something which several of our politicians, Vuk Draskovic most frequently, points to as honor and a humane gesture under such conditions which could be of inestimable value.  One of our guards gave the Yankees cigarettes and was generally very correct with them.  One of the soldiers, the tallest one, wrote a message in English and at the end added in Serbian "May God help you" and "Thank you very much, you are very kind."  He signed himself as Chris Stone "Slobodan" (free).

Asked whether the three soldiers are suffering from the so-called "Stockholm syndrome" which is manifested with psychological identification of the captured with those who captured them, the American General Major David Grange stated that this will be looked into.  Writing about how the concern for civilian lives is very expensive, how ever Tomahawk cruise missile costs one million dollars, while the cruise missiles fired from the B-52 bombers are twice as expensive, the New York Times also reports the statements issued by the NATO supreme commander for Europe, Wesley Clark, who in reaction to comments that it is not very cheap to bomb 10,000 targets such as bridges over rivulets or solitary military trucks with projectiles costing one million dollars or more, pointed out that "NATO is not waging war with a fixed budget, we are fighting in order to be efficient."

This military self-serving attitude of a Vietnam veteran in fact definitely sheds light on the character of this aggression.  One American pilot, stationed at the air base in Aviano, Italy, stated that "the greatest danger in the actions on the Balkans is posed by the threat of colliding with allied airplanes."  "Here it's a bit like on the streets of New York," the pilot of the F-16 fighter plane joked.  It's busy, but its not all that funny.  On Wednesday at 1:35 p.m. the first NATO collateral damage against itself was recorded: the local media reported that a NATO plane targeted a visibly marked Greek convoy of humanitarian aid   three tractor trailers with one jeep.  Luckily there were no casualties.  The Greek Embassy filed a protest   in Bruxelles "what happened is not known."

The Army is beginning to document with pictures all its claims, releasing a picture of the downed F-16 plane over Macva, near Sabac.  The North Atlantic Alliance announced that one AV8B Harrier airplane, part of the American air force, fell into the Adriatic Sea.  Near Pristina the picture of a motor from a destroyed plane was released, who knows what its name is...

The Washington Post published an analysis by Thomas Hudson who served 8 years in Yugosvlaia, B&H and Croatia as an official with the American Department of Foreign Affairs, who claimed that military actions in the Balkans cannot produce significant political changes in Belgrade, nor can they solve the Kosovo problem.  He points to the character trate which Serbs are proud of   spite, and which one Canadian diplomat euphemistically called "absence of pragmatism."  "This deficiency was noted by the Wesley Clark.  Given Clark's brilliant abilities and his intimate contacts with the Serbian leader thus far, it is hard for me to believe that he thinks that bombing can cause the Serbs to give in," Hudson stated.  He pointed out that it is very difficult for him to believe that Madeleine Albright ("Madeleine, sorry but no" is a graffiti on the American Council in Belgrade), as a person with origins in a Slavic country, could make such a poor assessment of the destruction of the FRY President Slobodan Milosevic. "I am even more worried by the fact that my country, whose Constitution give the Congress the right to decide about war, could lead NATO into war, if for no other reason but to salvage the credibility of Albright," noted the Washington Post analyst.

Some are describing this war as sheer idolatry of power and arrogance of might, as for instance the Senator from Ohio, George Voinovic who does not see the need for erecting a Kosovo memorial in Washington like those honoring soldiers who died in Korea and Vietnam.

Our journalist reported that on May 4 the 19th anniversary of Tito's death was celebrated in Cetinje, Montengro.  But the sirens continue to sound alerts...

Team of VREME Reporters