Belgrade
Under the Bombs
PressInfo
68
June 1, 1999
"The lack of empathy and solidarity with the 11
million citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia whose
society is being destroyed is as amazing as it is
deplorable. Remember when people of culture, science,
politics, media and humanism flocked to Sarajevo when it was
under siege? Where are they now? Journalists flock to
Macedonia and Albania - admittedly for very good reasons -
and they flock to NATO's well-staged press briefings. But
seeing for oneself what it means to be the object of the
worst military, economic and social destruction in Europe
since 1945 seems, remarkably, not to be as good a reason,"
says TFF director Jan Oberg.
Where are those who believe Yugoslavia is a dictatorship?
Supporting fellow human beings suffering under dictatorship
is a noble reason to go but those around the world who hold
this view stay away. Where are the human rights activists
when numerous human rights are being violated by NATO? Where
is the sympathy with innocent citizens who endure the
systematic destruction of a European society and capital in
the name of Western civilization?
So much for humanism, intellectualism and civil courage
at the end of the 20th century. In spite of the war, it is
perfectly possible to go there and freely meet anyone you
like. I did that," says Dr. Oberg. "It is mind-boggling that
even intellectuals seem to be able to hold only two
categories in their head at a time: if you are anti-NATO's
bombings, you must automatically be pro-Milosevic or
pro-Serb. Or, if you go there, you support the regime and is
disloyal to the West. I am afraid that those who hide behind
such banal dichotomies are responsible for a gross
civilisational injustice done to every and all citizens in
today's Yugoslavia.
I believe it is possible to be against all the violence -
Yugoslav/Serbia's, that of the Albanians and NATO's. None of
them will help solve the original problem of mistrust
between Serbs and Albanians. All of them have made the
situation worse. And I believe it should be possible to
recognise and respect the human suffering of all sides -
that of the Albanians, the Serbs and that of every other
group in all of Serbia and Montenegro.
Yugoslavia has 25 national/ethnic categories, a majority
of Serbs and Yugoslavs and 650.000 Serb refugees from
Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia and the Kosovo-province.
Evidently, in international politics and media their lives
and human rights do not count - as refugees in, say, Africa
don't count - as much as those of other peoples'. Painful to
say, this tendential racism - the view that Third World
people, Serbs and Yugoslavs are 'Untermenschen' - is a fact
of today's Western civilization. UNHCR spends about 11 cents
a day per refugee in Africa. In the Balkans, the figure is
$1.23, more than 11 times greater, as Los Angeles Times
recently reported [see: http://www.transnational.org/
features/contrasts.html].
The international so-called 'community' indicts President
Milosevic and a handful of leaders. It's doubtful that they
will ever end up in the Hague. But those who are suffering
under this leadership are being killed, punished, isolated
and humiliated by NATO. Any taxi driver in Belgrade will
tell you with sardonic humour: "We only have two problems:
12 years with Milosevic and now NATO's bombs, otherwise
everything is fine here!"
Yugoslavia's opposition, independent intellectuals and
peace movements will tell you exactly the same: 'You, the
West, is making everything so much more difficult for us now
- and a generation's time ahead. What are your real
interests? We are the ones who WANT to be part of the modern
world, who STRUGGLE for a democratic Yugoslavia and DESIRE
integration with the West. Don't you understand how
counterproductive these bombs are to us?'
Oberg continues, "I watch the heavy bombs and cruise
missiles fall at night - 'successfully' according to NATO's
spokesmen a few hours later. I hear the roaring thunder of
the explosions. I feel the shaking of the building and
ground. I note sirens at any time of the day and the night,
NATO permits no one to sleep for long. I feel the rage
inside, the utter meaninglessness, my own powerlessness and
humiliation in the face of mighty high-tech destruction and
I think, 'this is my culture, it is my political leaders who
do or support this.' I know now how true it is that one has
to be there to sense it and I experience how much stop
working when we are without electricity - water pumps,
cookers, street lights, computers, phones. There is only one
word for what I feel: I am ashamed of the culture that
does this."
"I walk around Belgrade and Novi Sad to see the surreal
landscapes of destroyed buildings, bridges, ministries,
police stations, hotels, radio- and TV stations, apartment
houses, schools and embassies. The oil refinery in Novi Sad
is still burning, three weeks after the hit. What was once
big trees are now black, charred stumps. I know it is
different, but it reminds me of images of Hiroshima.
I experience how life becomes harder by the day. People
don't sleep at home if it is close to a potential target.
They queue for cigarettes and other luxuries. They shop for
hours for certain foodstuffs and medicine and care for the
old, the sick and the handicapped in ways they didn't have
to before. So many ask me what the chances are to get their
children out - thousands already have fled abroad. Men
between 18 and 65 may be called up any day.
Below-the-minimum-of-existence-salaries and pensions are
paid, months after they should have been. Life is ruined
when big industries in small towns are destroyed. People
plan what to do to get their parents, their children, their
animals and themselves in safety, if...Life is now one big
IF.
People generally put up a brave face, quite defiant,
actually. They seem not aggressive but rather pitying
countries with so much military and so little intellectual
and moral power. Many find Western civilization barbaric and
ridiculous, its leaders conceited. Should anybody think that
this is a citizenry that will give up soon, a visit to
Yugoslavia will help cure that delusion.
I listen to courageous, independent-minded people in
academia and NGOs telling me that I must no longer expect
constructive social activism, not even anti-NATO protests on
the bridges at night. 'We are at war, it's dangerous, we may
be seen as fifth column; hardline politicians have published
lists of potential 'traitors.' They refer not only to the
last sixty-some days but to the last 10-12 years when
Yugoslavia has been demonized, under sanctions and otherwise
isolated. 'We can't travel, we no longer know what the
future will bring - land invasion, civil war, poverty? More
than one million demonstrated for change in 1997 but we got
no Western support. We are simply exhausted.'
BBC reports that, according to Serb sources - that we
have been told we can't trust - a hospital has been hit.
It's pretty easy to verify the truth when in Belgrade. I
find less propaganda here than in the West and this place is
at war, the West is not. It bombs Yugoslav media and force
Eutelsat to stop broadcasting Serbian television, so they
cannot inform citizens in the West of the consequences of
NATO's aggression. The Dutch government refused to grant
visas to anyone with a Yugoslav passport seeking to
participate in the Haag Peace Conference earlier this months
- while Kosovo-Albanian refugees correctly got theirs."
Says Jan Oberg, "I have begun to wonder whether there is
any decency, any sense of fairness, any true humanity left
when all the above causes little protest throughout the
West. Perhaps Western leaders had become too ecstatic with
their own triumphalist power after 1989 and could use a
wake-up call to reality: that there are limits to naked
power, double standards, ignorance and pop ideology. NATO's
getting stuck here may be it. After all, the Yugoslavs have
helped the West before."
© TFF 1999
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