April 14th, 1999

"Off with their Heads!" Shouted the Queen
or
the Turning of Yugoslavia into a Beggar Country

A Letter From Yugoslavia

    I have that fortune or misfortune to live in Belgrade, Yugoslavia and to watch the results of the NATO humanitarian air strikes. I am deeply aware that the greatest misfortune at this moment is to be a Kosovar Albanian (as it was in last years) and to enjoy in the benefits of being the NATO countries protege.

    From the start of Rambouillet negotiations I could not explain to myself why the main concern of the western mediators was to keep the Kosovar Albanian and Yugoslav teams far apart. Since they were expected to reach and sign agreement, as well as to carry it out, one would think that the mediators should have taken every care to establish better, even friendly relations among them.

    Then came the Paris meeting when Mrs. Albright publicly stated that the Kosovars have to be pressured into signing in order that the NATO could bomb Serbs. Since I am not Mr.Milosevic's follower and admirer at first I had reservations when Yugoslav delegation stated that the proposed agreement gravely encroached the sovereignty of Yugoslavia and did not provide a sound solution of whole problem. Later on I had the chance to read the text and concluded that this time the Yugoslav delegation was right.

    When Mr. Hashim Taqi signed I asked myself how the bombs will distinguish between Kosovar Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Romanies and others.

    Today after three weeks of air strikes I see that the humanitarian disaster was exacerbated and that Mr. Milosevic is stronger then ever. The Kosovo region is undergoing continuous and heaviest bombings. Kosovar Serbs, Turks, Romanies are fleeing into the interior of Serbia, while the Albanians, suffering from the unspeakable horrors, are being driven around Kosovo or out of country.

    In the same time NATO is destroying indiscriminately the factories, houses, schools, small villages, bridges, medieval monasteries and churches, municipal heating facilities. The economy in this country was already in shambles due to the sanctions and incompetent management. The NATO strikes are now turning our beautiful country into a beggar country. Next winter when the pictures of freezing and dying elderly people and children innundate western media everyone will be talking of the huma-nitarian disaster. Yesterday in Brussels the well fed and exquisitely groomed western politicians (including the UN Secretary General) met and discussed the problem. I note that they are very complacent and that for all their humanitarian concern they are not thinking of us, ordinary mortals, or of our present and future. Their main concern is for the credibility of NATO.

    As it has been wonderfully worded in "Alice in Wonderland" : "Sentence first- verdict afterwards". Only, we were not even given the opportunity to utter "Oh my dear paws and my dear fur!" Any hope for democracy in Yugoslavia has been squashed. If I manage to survive I may well yet see Mr. Milosevic signing agreement with those well groomed gentlement from Brussels.

Gordana,
Belgrade, Yugoslavia