Monday, May 24th, 1999

Publishing a web site is a fantastic start, but that will not be enough. What are you going to do for your country?

    Q: I'm a white South African with a Croatian wife, so I know the history of the former Yugoslavia to a certain extent, and I have grown up in a white apartheid South Africa (another ethnic group if you like). I am now enjoying the effects of reverse racism here in SA because I never joined the struggle for freedom of the black majority. Reading your answers in the forum, I wonder where you really stand. I never believed in oppressing the blacks, but fence sitters get blamed along with the bad guys too.
It's all very well saying that NATO are bombing Serbia and Kosovo out of hand, and that innocent people are dying, hell, innocent women and children died in the bomb blasts we had here in South Africa during the 80's "For the cause", but those bomb blasts eventually, after 30 years, lead to a referendum which in turn lead to a DEMOCRATIC election. It to easy to look at the present suffering of the Serbian people and say "This is not fair on us!". The only reason why this is happening is simply because the voice of the Serbian people is and never has been as loud as Milosevic's.
Publishing a web site is a fantastic start, but that will not be enough. You and your fellow students need to show the world that you REALLY cannot accept a genocide in Kosovo (or in Belgrade for that matter). The international press is watching and waiting. If the people of Serbia remain silent (like many whites did here in SA), you have to accept the inevitable painfully consequences and the continued blame and resentment against you that follows long after the war is over. My question is "What are you going to do for your country?".

    I see that you understand our position very well. People in Serbia are being treated the same as police and army who committed crimes against Kosovo Albanians. I would also agree that current crisis is mostly a result of Milosevic being in a hot spot, and not opposition and other democratic movements.

    But, reason for this is that opposition or student movements never received a fair chance to speak outside Yugoslavia. As you may know, in winter 1996/97, two millions of people protested against Milosevic on the streets of Serbia every day, for entire three months. Milosevic used special police forces and secret police to crush those protests. Somehow, this never received much of a media attention, or even worse - no action of international community.

    Right now, we receive same treatment. Media attention is focused to atrocities in Kosovo, neglecting voices against it in Serbia. We are loud as it is possible for us, but because of martial law in Yugoslavia, we can not do much more than just publishing a web site. We have been trying to get attention from international press, but without much success. Even many major news web sites simply ignored us, although we appealed to them many times. It seems that no one is very interested in democracy, anti-war and anti-Milosevic movements, only for tragedies that happen on Kosovo. After two months, many people in Serbia became angry at Milosevic, but picture about our country that can be seen in media around the world is still like we're just a bunch of ethnical cleansers. We are not silent at all, but it seems that there are not many people out there who are willing to listen to us.

Neil, gemcom.co.za