ZAGreb INFormation potLATCH

Reactions to the NATO Bombings by Yugoslav Anarchists

More News from the former Yugoslavia


ZAGINFLATCH #16, 27th March 1999

newsletter published by Zagreb Anarchist Movement

ZAP / ARK
GAJEVA 55
10 000 ZAGREB
CROATIA

zap_zg@geocities.com
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/3707/

Dear friends,

info on Zaginflatch in available on request.

Basically, with this newsletter we want to inform the international community (this is you) on how antiauthoritarians in Yugoslavia and ex-Yugoslavia feel in these moments. Also, as people who have experienced air raids and general alerts, we want to support our friends in Yugoslavia who are experiencing this today. This is our act of solidarity. We don't want to prejudice any political solutions to Kosovo and other ex-yu problems, we just want to help our friends, and support them in this way. All opinions published in Zaginflatch will be just personal ones. There is no joint platform.

Zaginflatch will bring you hardly any news in the way mainstream media does it. For this kind of info we suggest you try cnn, bbc or some other services. They are available to you anyway... This is meant to come from inside... Also, if you're into alternative news sources, we suggest you try at www.b92.net ...

Zagreb Anarchist Movement (ZAP)

what follows are translated extracts from mails posted toex-yu-a-lista@zamir.net which is a mailing list for ex-yu anarchists, and from private emails...

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from: kontra@zamir.net, kraljevo

HI there,

It is hard for me to concentrate and write after few hours of sleeping, but I will try to give you some nfo. After two days of NATO airstrikes it is funny to see that people don't get tensed - they just continue with their every day lives. Even during the bombing you can see people on the streets. Last night I saw from my window (from where I was watching airsrike on military airport Ladjevci - 15-20 km's away from center of town) several guys hanging around and laughing in the streets. Also I saw some woman walking down the street as it is just another day in her life. This morning you can hear children playing on the streets. I think that this is good because that means that people are able to stay cool and situation of panics can be avoided. But, I must say that some people do panic and most of them who do so go to shelters which turns out to be place that affect peoples behavior pretty bad. For example, I know the look on face of my mother before and after she went to shelter. Before, she managed more or less to stay calmed, but when she returned with her ears full of stories of how "they are going to burn us all" and blah blah, blah, she was pretty much disturbed and with look in her eyes that clearly said that she is captured by paranoia & panics. National TV said that last night 3 NATO airplanes were downed and more than dozen of missiles. At the moment I don't have official information, but I was informed by a friend of mine from another town that several bombs hit central part of town called Leskovac in south-east part of Serbia. He said to me that there must be dead and wounded as it is civilian part of the town. But, I can tell you that during the first airstrike on Ladjevci airport NATO bombs hit 2 family houses directly and destroyed them completely. Speaking about military targets and "smart" weapons, huh? I believe that during this day we'll have more rapport's on civilian victims/targets. Fresh news say that NATO airplanes are droping radio locators (to guide missiles) on Yugoslavia. Some of them were found this morning in town where I live - Kraljevo. Two days ago national TV said that verificators of OBSCE placed a numer of radio loactors all over Kosovo. Acording to them that explains prcise shoots of nato bombers. I just heared some terrible news. Albanian stores all over Kraljevo are crushed. In Mataruska Banja - 6-8 km's away from Kraljevo, Albanian store is crushed - baker according to one source beaten badly and now laying in the hospial, and to another he and his son are slaughtered to death! I'm really frightened of this kind of revenge against peacefull citizens of Albanian (and other) nationalities. Who knows, it could expand to political oponents. In Macedonia some nato soldiers are stoned and beaten when they tried to set their unit in one village. Pesants said that they are not welcome. Hm, I believe that from the first day of NATO aggression Serbian forces are trying to wipe out KLA. There are some raports that some of NATO bombs dropped in Albanian villages in Kosovo. That could turn them agains them, or at least make them heeps for slaughter. I believe that in next few days aggressors will face the fact that with this attack they managed to achieve all thet they didn'y want to happen. Milosevic will be stronger then ever, he will be able to shut down all independent media (as he did already with Radio B92 and Radio 021), Albanians can be slaugtered during war time and who knows what else could happen to all those who oppose his politics.

(Aco Popadic, Rada Vilotijevica 1/6, 36000 Kraljevo, Yugoslavia)

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from: Stefan Buzharovski, http://zap.to/stefan, skopje

Dear friends;

I am sorry I have not been able to inform you and react promptly on the rapidly unfolding developments here. As missiles and bombs rain ruthlessly on the people and infrastructure of Yugoslavia, only 15 kilometres north from where I live in Skopje (the capital of Macedonia), shocking news are coming in by the minute.

You might have heard in the headlines that the biggest and most violent protests against NATO involvement in Yugoslavia so far, took place in Skopje about 5 hours ago. An outraged mass of demonstrators, mostly young, carrying Macedonian and Yugoslav flags (along with some very witty transparents and symbols:) stormed the US Embassy and set several private cars and adjoining objects in the courtyard on fire. Afterwards they ransacked some vehicles parked by the nearby hotel where a lot of foreign journalists and representatives are based. During this occasion, the reporter of CNN, Matthew Chance, who by the way has been constantly incorrectly informing about the events here, had to run for his life in panic right in the middle of a live broadcast. Afterwards the demonstrators stormed the German and British Consulates, but were attacked by the special police, who up to that moment were only observing the situation. Consecutively, 60 of them have been arrested.

On almost all the major world newscasts this evening, a transparent with the words 'Enough, Pinocchio!' portraying Clinton with a long nose and a swastika on his forehead (in reaction to the blatant lies he used to justify the criminal attack) was shown. I am proud to inform you that this transparent was created and carried by three activists of the Ecologists' Movement of Macedonia - Youth (DEM-Youth) - Daniela Stojanova, Emil Krstanovski and myself (btw, I assume full responsibility for the poor art on the slogan and the swastika ;-)). Unfortunately I was not present during most of the demonstrations, but I have just heard that Daniela, the co-ordinator of DEM-Youth, was in the front lines facing the special police, while Emil, among other heroic involvements, has been known to have made a precise hit on an US Embassy Representative with an egg.

We are shocked and deeply distressed to see that green movements across Europe are silent to this criminal act, the complete end and destruction of international law and peace. The arguments used to justify it are false and immoral: instead of averting a 'humanitarian catastrophe,' the intervention will and is already creating one: as innocent people throughout the Yugoslav cities are suffering casualties and unimaginable psychological stress, refugees from Kosovo continue to storm Macedonia in fear of retaliation from the Yugoslav Army. We have come to a situation where world leaders speak straight-faced in front of their nations, with statements implying that bombs and missiles are delivered to innocent civilians as humanitarian aid. The situation here in Macedonia is also very tense and psychotic, as we are very close to the border and our country is also ethnically mixed. In addition to NATO heavy machinery on city streets, rapidly increasing demand for certain products in stores and gas lines, now we can hear the whipping sound of invisible warplanes flying right above us. I am on the phone non-stop with concerned friends/relatives, I cannot sleep for nights trying to tap all the media reports I can get .... but still it is hard to imagine the horrifying situation in which the citizens of Yugoslavia have been placed without their will.

I stand firmly in their support, in the name of justice and peace. During the next day I will be drafting a declaration against the strikes that I will propose to the Federation of the Young European Greens for adoption. It's high time that we took some action on this. Please send emails of support to me personally, to DEM (bimadem@lotus.mpt.com.mk) or to MARS (mars@rsc.com.mk) if you agree with such an idea. I will then regularly inform you about the progress made.

Together with my colleagues we have been thinking of initiating an email campaign as well. More on this tomorrow. Please inform us of any mailing lists on the issue that you might know of on the issue.

Stefan Buzharovski,
Vice Chairperson of the Federation of Young European Greens

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from: Man in the Shadow, music band from Slovenia;miran.rusjan@kiss.uni-lj.si
description: leaflet to be spread on their concert, on 27th March.

I woke because military jets flew over my head. Even though i didn't see them i have felt them. Not through tv which'd broadcast the essence of the events. The war is close. The whole world is at war. Peace for everybody or for nobody. Why bombing of Serbia can't be a justified war? Can such violence, organized by the most powerfull machine in the world, save masses? There are more questions than answers.

The bombings were meant to force Yugoslavia to accept a peace agreement which'd bring international peacekeeping forces to Kosovo. Yugoslav government won't allow that as that'd mean the breaking of their territorial soveregnity. The experiences from Iraq teach us that such bombings only give more power to the present regime. Democratic opposition in Serbia will be practically destroyed after bombing. Independant media is allready practically disabled. The only thing which'll stay is regime media, and their task is to keep up the fighting morale. People can chooze between kvasi democracy inforced with bombs and fascist rule which protects them from the same bombs. Even those who fought against Milosevic will now have to support him. Can we blame them? Serbian nationalism will come out stronger and will be able fight against antinationalist elements with even more power. USA desperately needs enemies, so they can justify their role of the global policeman. Human rights of Albanians in Kosovo were constantly violeted for the past 10 years, but nobody was particularly disturbed with that. Just like nobody is disturbed with the destiny of Kurdish population oppressed by the Turkey. Turkey is even a member of NATO. They buy arms from other NATO members. Isn't that a good proof of the real nature of this pact? Tey can be a peace keeping force only in an eye of a child. Milosevic's sin is not his oppression of Albanians in Kosovo, but his failure to become an Americal strategic ally. Serbia is traditionaly linked with Russia, and USA wants to go against them so they can then decide about the whole world's destiny. So they do that. The attack on Yugoslavia was launched without UN Security Council's approval, which is a dangerous presedan. This means that thay may act like this in future as well. We can forget about the principle of national soveregnity of states. There is not one reason to cry after states, prisons of freedom, but there is a reason to fear from the total rule of capitalism, whose strongest tower is the USA. There are milions of exploited people in the world every day, and nobody even notices them. Now they want to persuade us that this is a humanitarian action. First class cynicism! The fight in Kosovo is fought for the world domination. The victory'd mean free market for capital.

It is a fact that Albanians' basic rights in Kosovo were violated for decades. This resulted in a strong, nonviolent resistance movement. The West wasn't moved. Then it was an internal affair of the state. The failiure of nonviolent resistance empovered more extreeme Albanian nationalists, so they have organized Kosova Liberation Army.

The role of Slovenia in this war.The policy of Slovenia is the policy of it' s economic and political elite, and not pf it's citizens. Forreign policy follows US foreign policy wothout any objections. Internal affairs are created on the requests of European Union. In that sense, Slovenia allowed NATO to use it's sky to attack Yugoslavia. Just like in the case of Iraq, all responsibility for the war is put on Serbs. Slovenian politics is pragmatic. They want foreign capital and investments more than anything. They present us NATO as a peace keeping force, through the media, and it influences the public opinion. 52% of Slovenians are supporting attacks on Yugoslavia. Ten years ago, most of Slovenian population was in favor of comlete demilitarization of the country. But, 10 years of brainwash has done it's job.

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from: Viktor Todorovic, olorin@Eunet.yu, belgrade
ICQ: 30654211

---
i just saw 5-6 huge explosions from the direction of general headquarters and beogradjanka building. My building shaked, there weren't any sirens, the windows are shaking. I don't know where did they hit, the flames over the institute for statistics were very high. I assume this was close....
---
i apologize fot the disinformation about the headquarters. unfortunately (of fortunately) i don't have any war experience so my judments of distances were wrong. i went to see the headquarters building, ministry, some main streets. nothing is damaged.
---
Some bad news. Chemical factory with toxic material was hit. People, get yourselves some masks. They hit Grmec.
---
no matter which information is correct it is evident that NATO had some casualties. what worries me is that before this action i thought that after they looze 2-3 plains they will stop attacking because of the public opinion. but, since CNN and SKY and others are just like our television, and since NATO contiues to attack no matter how high are their loses,i fear that itcould be much worse that it is now. maybe even infantry attacks....

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from: Misa, belgrade

It's 23.15.More than 20 detonations in Belgrade during last half an hour. Mostly military targets but
ICN GRMEC, FACTORY OF CHEMICALS WAS ATTACKED. TOXICAL MATERIALS ARE SPREADING OVER COUPLE INHABITED SUBURBIAS. ATTACKS ARE STILL LASTING AT THE MOMENT...

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(taken from a reply from Misa (Serbian in Belgrade) to Nica (Albanian in Kosovo), mb)

Dear Nita
thank you for your wondefull words but i must say that they don't give a good picture about you. I understand you, but i have to say that if you expect to talk only to the Serbs which perceive Albanians as pure little angels suffering from Serbian repression, you won't find many of those. My nation is fucked up because we have a dictator directly supported by the USA and our greatest misery is that this person grabbed all the power in the country and leads us to a disaster. But this is only an aditional fact in the general problem called war and hate between your and mine nation. Unfortunately this will last untill these two nations manage to somehow distance from each other, or (which is less likely to happen, especially now) learn how to live together.

The problem is that USA and Milosevic play a fucking strategical game in which us here, and you on Kosovo are just small figures. This is how i see it.

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from: dule, sombor

there was no bombing tonight. just like yesterday. ehat i called nato bombs yesterday was in fact a hand granate somebody threw into an albanian owned bakery near my house. as far as i know, the albanian owner fled to Kosovo, local radical nationalists found that out, so they threw this granate. don't you just love sombor?

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From: Aleksandar Bozovic , belgrade

I went to the shelter tonight. It seems that shelters are the only true NATO weapon. Because in the shelters you can find only old people and parrents with children. The atmosphere is unbeleavably tense, they all speak how tonight it will be their end. They have all heard how some vilages in Kosovo and some cities in Serbia were burned to the ground, but nobody had any real arguments to justify that sentence. I realized very quickly that i can't stand that atmosphere much longer, as it was driving me crazy. So I went out. I was a flash in the distance, probbalby the explosion. You could see jets' marks on the sky. Can you imagine my dissapointment when I realized that a classical bar fight just broke out near me? Some people can't control their ego even in situations like this. Deeply dissapointed I moved on. The city was empty. People were hiding in shelters, as I have heard that they were well capatisized. I haven't met anyone in the street. Just some people with dogs, in the park. For the first time in my life I saw Knez Mihajlova street completely empty.

Rasha Pesimista.

P.S. I just spoke to my grandfather and he said that this is the well known fact even from the WWII. Shelters are the strongest psychological weapon. So, don't go to shelters, Stay reasonable.



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