ZAP / ARK
GAJEVA 55
10 000 ZAGREB
CROATIA
zap_zg@geocities.com
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/3707/
***************************************
How you can help:
- forward this message to people who might be interested
- we need translators. especially if you speak soutslavic language(s).
- if you can, print this out and send to people who don't have access to email
- if you can, help us send Zaginflatch to people who usually receive paper
version. We presently can't afford to mail them out via snail mail, and we
have an international mailing list of people who regularly receive this
newsletter since it was founded. Write to us and ask if we have a contact in
your country. It'd be great if you could send this newsletter for us...
***************************************
what follows are translated extracts from mails posted to ex-yu-a-lista@zamir.net which is a mailing list for ex-yu anarchists, and from private emails.
***************************************
from: Viktor, Belgrade, olorin@Eunet.yu
I apologize for the absence of emails, but something was wrong with Eunet's outgoing mail server. I can confirm the story about the bombing of police buildings in Belgrade. I have also watched it from the terrace. Today I took a walk to the bulidings and saw the damage with own eyes. Federal police buildingstation is nothing more than a bunch of trash (this modern metal-glass architecture once again proved itself as shit), while from the Regional police building, only the fasade is holding on (the rest was burned). It is interesting that surrounding buildings are less damaged than some embassyes I passed by. You won't beleive this but they managed to take off those marble stones from the Canadian embassy, even to break metal bars which served as protection from braking in. German embassy looks just a bit better, mainly thanks to a graffiti written on it's wall "Mirko end Slavko a re not dead!" (misspeled by purpose, Mirko and Slavko are created characters of children partisan fighters, created for the purpose of children story books and cartoons about the IIWW... translator). By the way this is the only grafiti which doesn't mention reproductive organs in some sort of action. American and Croatian embassy are surprisingly in good shape, while Polish was unexpectedly trashed.
This lunacy is too much, even for me. I must admit that I don't see any logic in what's happening. It looks like the whole situation went from a state in which one crazy idea existed and determined things to a state in which there is no ideas at all, and where nobody knows where it'll lead us or how will it end. The only thing which comforts me in these heroic days (don't misunderstand me, uder heroic I consider times in which sipmly different game rules apply) is that one can more easily deal with the situation as he/she is concentrated no it. When I try to imagine how will everything look like when the bombings stop, I get sick. I am afraid that we are all on the good path to, through our psychological fight against lunacy, become it's prisoners and that we won't be able to return to normality, however it may look like.
***************************************
from: Bojan, Belgrade
The bomb just fell around the corner - I live in 45th block in New Belgrade. They've hit the heating systems one kilometer from my home. I was behind my computer again, and the door to the balcony was opened since I've just listened to hear where does the anti-aircraft artilery shoot from. The sound of a crusing missile over my neighbourhood has literarly hit my stomach. I have heard it before as well, but it was never this close. Just after that I saw first a white flash and then a red one. The bang has thrown down all my books from the shelf. The sight was incredible, it looked like a mushroom on fire and at the touch of my hand - we have really big windows all over the wall, and my room is turned directly towards the late heating system. Secondary explosions have started a couple of seconds later, my room was covered with red lights coming from the flames, the sound was also present, and the building was shaking like a dog when he comes out of the water - unbelievable sense of disempoverment in front of the force which is beeing releived in front of your eyes. Apocaliptim moment was fullfiled with panical sounds of car alarm, screams from the neighbouring building and the sound produced by my dog when he hit the glass door - she was totally scared and lost, she even peed from fear in the hallway...
Members of my household have awakened really quickly and they were surprisingly calm. I was closing down all active programs with intention to shut down the computer, and while I tried to look calm in order not to upset my sister, I noticed that my fingers were uncotrolably shaking: I was thinking about possible targets of the bombing - heating system was one of my first thought since the bridge wouldn't burn like that. However heating system seemed not to be that important as a target so I thought that the missile has missed it's target and fallen in one of the surrounding blocks. The fire was coming from the direction of block 70. I couldn't resist it, i grabbed my jacket and binoculars and ran out. I wanted to take the dog with me but I couldn't find her in all the rush. By the time I got to the river Sava, a huge black cloud of smoke has formed, and it was moving slovly towards me. There were around ten people by the river, they were discusing possible targets, and through the black smoke you could only see bits of flames which would seem stronger whenever a secondary explosion occured. However it was now evident that the heating system was on fire. I didn't spend to much time outside, as I didn't want to upset members of my household. On studio B (local tv), they've announced that a large group of airplanes was coming our way. Also, there was nothing interesting for me to see. When I came home, the phone was on heat from frequent usage - just like everybody forgot that it was only before dawn... The war came to block 45.
***************************************
from: markos@zamir.net, marko strpic, zagreb
BALKAN AND IT'S WAR(S)
Huh, i've been away from all the informations and e-mail for a while and that's really good... When you start following what's going on all the time, then start checking all informations, comparing what you have heard or saw, trying to predict what will happen, read e-mail, write in english a lot, etc., you get overloaded with informations and too confused to do anything that you can be satisfied with. I think that that's somehowe general situation with most of the people involved in this information network... So, i'm back after few days, and there's lots of things to write about, lots of news got here and lots of things have happened since i did my last text for Zaginflatch. It sounds like it was really long time ago and not just few days ago... But, that's how situation develops, too many events for one day - it seems to me like bombings have started months ago and not just nine days ago... It's strange to write about war that is so similar to one we saw in Croatia or one that have happened in Bosnia - and maybe it's the hardest to avoid getting into the "taking sides system", because of the media "bombings" that you have to survive every day. And most of the information I get from media are from newspapers and national tv. So far i was saying how HTV (Croatian national tv) was more or less objective... it still is in a way, although in a lack of informations about new bombings or lack of things to show on a tv, they broadcast things that are so similar to what you can see / hear on CNN. And what CNN does is more or less propaganda (just like all other tv stations) explaining reasons for bombings... When they say how they will continue bombings casue of the humanitarian disaster, they don't really mention real possibilities of helping those people who had to leave their homes... Of course, NATO claims how all people will return after conflict stop, but after knowing what have happened in rest of the former Yugoslavia, everyone knows that that's not possible - there's no return for most of the people. General atmosphere in media is generalisation of the problem, with which they create even more polarisation betwen sides in the conflict - if it's possible to create more polarisation than there'snow. Refugees from Kosovo are used as an object for explaining to the international public why attacks are still on (that's what NATO does), and at the other side, you have Yugoslav media who claim how all that is going > on at Kosovo started cause of NATO strikes... Closed circle in which civil population is just an object of manipulation from all sides and the biggest vicitm of all. It's like watching a new "episode" of Balcan wars that ended up just few years ago... So, what i want to say is - after watching news yesterday on HTV, i felt terrible - seeing all the people on the Macedonian border, and listening comments by Croatian journalist who was there... Macedonia is thinking about closing their borders, NATO will continue with attacks until Serbian side doesn't stop their actions, Serbian side will stop when NATO stop, OVK declared mobilisation for all the men from Kosovo betwen 18 and 50 years, and who knows what's next? There are few options - if NATO decide to send their troops in, they have to do it through Monte Negro, and political situation in that Yugolsav republic is more or less open for that option... That would be their chance to declare independance and do it with support and protection from NATO, although, that wouldn't go that easy - so it would mean antoher conflict in the area... I'm not sure how it would turn out at the end, but that's what i hear when i listen different sources of informations - especially cause that's the only option from NATO if they want to send their troops in... Maybe i'm wrong about the situation in Monte Negro, so please, correct me if i am.
SHORT NOTE ON A POLITICAL SITUATION IN CROATIA
I don't know if readers of Zaginflatch know a lot about situation in Croatia, but here are few of my notes that are conected with situation in Yugoslavia and how they put a shadow on current problems in Croatia. Economic situation in Croatia is terrible and it's getting even worst, even cause of the NATO strikes (i wrote about that in previous issues of Zaginflatch), workers strike almost every day, big companies are closing down, etc. So, all that was a main thing in all news, tension betwen workers and government was growing, and then NATO attacked Yugoslavia... All the media turned to that subject right away, economic situation in the country became "less important news"... Just what government needed... Another war to put blame on for bad living standard and economic situation. It's interesting how focus on that problem changed so quickly... And at the other hand, isn't that something what they needed and hoped for?
***************************************
Bombing the Baby with the Bathwater
by Veran Matic
Belgrade, March 30, 1999
The air strikes against Yugoslavia were supposed to stop the Milosevic war machine. The ultimate goal is ostensibly to support the people of Kosovo, as well as those of Serbia, who are equally victims of the Milosevic regime. In fact the bombing has jeopardised the lives of 10.5 million people and unleashed an attack on the fledgling forces of democracy in Kosovo and Serbia. It has undermined the work of reformists in Montenegro and the Serbian entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina and their efforts to promote peace. The bombing of Yugoslavia demonstrates the political impotence of US President Bill Clinton and the Western alliance in averting a human catastrophe in Kosovo. The protection of a population under threat is a noble duty, but it requires a clear strategy and a coherent end game. As the situation unfolds on the ground and in the air day by day, it is becoming more apparent that there is no such strategy. Instead, NATO is fulfilling the prophecy of its own doomsaying: each missile that hits the ground exacerbates the humanitarian disaster that NATO is supposed to be preventing. It's not easy to stop the war machine once its power has been unleashed. But I urge the members of NATO to pause for a moment and consider the consequences of what they are doing. Analysts are already asking whether the air strikes are still really about saving Kosovo Albanians. Just how far are NATO members prepared to go? What comes next after the "military" targets? What happens if the war spreads? All of these terrifying questions must be answered, although I suspect that few will want to live with the historical burden of having answered them. The same questions crowded my mind as I sat in a Belgrade prison on the first day of the NATO attack on my country. Whiling away the hours in the cell I shared with a murder suspect, I asked myself what the West's aim was for "the morning after". The image of NATO taking its finger off the trigger kept coming to mind. I've seen no indication so far that there is a clear plan to follow up the Western military resolve.My friends in the West keep asking me why there is no rebellion. Where are the people who poured onto the streets every day for three months in 1996 to demand democracy and human rights? Zoran Zivkovic, the opposition mayor of the city of Nis answered that last week: "Twenty minutes ago my city was bombed. The people who live here are the same people who voted for democracy in 1996, the same people who protested for a hundred days after the authorities tried to deny them their victory in the elections. They voted for the same democracy that exists in Europe and the US. Today my city was bombed by the democratic states of the USA, Britain, France, Germany and Canada! Is there any sense in this?" Most of these people feel betrayed by the countries which were their models. Only today a missile landed in the yard of our correspondent in Sombor. It didn't explode, fortunately, but many others have in many other people's yards. These people are now compelled to take up arms and join their sons who are already serving in the army. With the bombs falling all around them nobody can persuade them - though some have tried - that this is only an attack on their government and not their country.
It may seem cynical that I am writing this from the security of my office in Belgrade - secure, that is, compared to Pristina, Djakovica, Podujevo and other places in Kosovo. But I can't help asking one question: How can F16s stop people in the street killing one another? Only days before the NATO aggression began, Secretary-General Solana suggested establishing a "Partnership for Democracy" in Serbia and the other countries of the former Yugoslavia to promote stability throughout the region. Then, in a rapid U-turn, he gave the order to attack Yugoslavia. With these attacks, it seems to me, the West has washed its hands of the people, Albanians, Serbs and others, living in the region. Thus the sins of the government have been visited on the people. Is this just? There are many more factors in the choice of a nation's government than merely the will of the voters on election day. If a stable, democratic rule is to be established, and the rise of populists, demagogues and other impostors avoided, the public must first of all be enlightened. In other words there must be free media. NATO's bombs have blasted the germinating seeds of democracy out of the soil of Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro and ensured that they will not sprout again for a very long time. The pro-democratic forces in Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb entity, have been jeopardised and with them the Dayton Peace Accords.
NATO's intervention has also given the green light for a local war against Montenegro's pro-democracy president, Milo Djukanovic. The free media in Serbia has for years opposed nationalism, hatred and war. As a representative of those media, and as a man who has more than once faced the consequences of my political beliefs, I call on President Bill Clinton to put a stop to NATO's attack on my country.
I call on him to begin negotiations which aim at securing the right to a peaceful life and democracy for all the people in Yugoslavia, regardless of their ethnic background. As a representative of the free media I know too well the need for people on all sides of the conflict to have information. Those inside the country need to be aware of international debate as well as what is happening throughout this country. The international public needs the truth about what is happening here. But in place of an unfettered flow of accurate information, all of us hear only war propaganda - Western rhetoric included. Of course truth is always the first casualty in wartime. Here and now, journalists are also being murdered.
***************************************
from: Ana, Skopje
I am trying to live as normal life as possible. I learned that from the people of Sarajevo as an individual way to resist the war, but in my case, there is one more reason to it. I have given up. I do not believe in the power of the NGOs and all good-minded people. I made my peace with the war that I still, very strongly believe is coming to Macedonia. Because I gave up, I do not worry that much. I try to enjoy spring and the smell of the trees and flowers in my garden, do the things I like and ride my bike around. [Still, I will check with the Red Cross on Tuesday if I could volunteer with them for few days to help with the refugees]
No, I didn't go crazy. I do not know if you could understand me. From Amsterdam, all the Bosnia, Indonesia etc. support groups, all that made so much sense and I was thinking "wow, they are doing a great job". But here, in the war zones, all that just does not make sense i.e. does not change the situation here. The refugees keep on coming, the bombs keep on falling, nothing changes. Thus, all these, however well-intended efforts, viewed from here seem ridiculous. And this is EXACTLY how my friend Nedzhma from Sarajevo felt when I was telling her about the NGO initiatives. When she told me this, long time ago, I thought "How can she think this? It is not fair, after all the work we are doing...". Today, I completely understand her feelings. Today, I share them.
Everything I was doing, all the articles I was writing, trying to promote peace and tollerance, all that seems naive and useless now. Moreover, one of my best friends told me she was considering to work for NATO in Macedonia. NATO pays with blooded money, a bit of harassment and a company of a bunch of stupid jerks wearing uniforms, but who cares, it is good money. And she considers that. Oh, I am so furious and so disappointed, I cannot tell you. Am I loosing another friend? I say another because just 10 days ago, I visited my friend in Panchevo (near Belgrade) whose father meanwhile became the president of the Miloshevicc's party for Panchevo and the whole family, including my friend, is as brainwashed as it can be. The 2nd night of my visit was the first night NATO attacked Yugoslavia, so we spent the whole night in a shelter, so I was not able to discuss politics then. But I know I have lost that friend. The principles that we disagree on are so basic that there is hardly any basis for friendship left.
It is so hard to be here. I find it so hard to visit people as everybody talks only about the war and the refugees. My parents watch news 10 times a day and everybody has lost the smile on their faces. It makes me feel unconfortable walking with a smiling face around the town (the spring gives me so much energy that I cannot stop shining when I am outside. In the same time, I am trying to ignore the noise of the military planes raping our skies). Meanwhile, my father and me are clearing the ground floor of our house to accept my friends from Yugoslavia if they decide to flee. We are also clearing the basement because we may need it as a shelter.
Tomorrow I go in Bitola (a town in SW Macedonia) to visit one women- and one
environmental organisation and enjoy the town I absolutely love. On Monday,
I will go on a TV to talk about the feminism. Should I say "the life goes
on" ?
The war in Yugoslavia gets more severe each day and NATO went completely
insane.
***************************************
Dear friends,
Info about Zaginflatch is 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. 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)
| Back to index | Back to the OGB page |
|
|
|