Tuesday, May 25th, 1999

Why can't we all act civilized?

    Q: Why can't the Yugoslav gov't sit down at the table and agree to something reasonable?....Kosovars need a home too. Why can't NATO pause for sometime and actually hit military targets?

    Obviously neither of them has people's interest (Albanians, Serbs, etc) in mind. A few bad men (and a woman here and there) are deciding on something involving a great number of innocent people.

    Yugoslav regime (evading the word "government" because it sounds democratic, which this regime definitely isn't) prolonged the crisis in Kosovo which was an excuse for NATO bombing for two reasons:

    - To distract the people from the social and economic catastrophe Serbia is going through, and, by that, prevent any rebellion. In war times "we should work twice as hard to defend our country" and criticizing the regime in such times is considered to be treason of national interests. When the bombing begins, the regime introduces the rule of martial law, closes all independent media and uses the situation to strike at its opponents, because no one is watching.

    - To make a problem, then prolong the resolution until the problem becomes too big to handle without foreign interference, then agree to the worst of all (for our country) solution, make it look like the best one in state media, and proclaim itself to be a "peacekeeper" and a "democratic regime always with people's best interest in mind" which would prolong its rule. This may sound (to be euphemistic) complicated, even impossible, but it was done before, and it is happening again. At the beginning of 1998 Milosevic could let 200 international experts lead by Felipe Gonzales in Kosovo for a couple of weeks. After the bloody summer of 1998 and bombing threats in October Milosevic agreed to 2000 monitors in Kosovo and said he saved the country from bombing. Only for six months as we all see.

    As for the NATO, and particularly the US: humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo and sufferings of Albanian refugees are clearly not the motive. Looking at Turkey (member of the very same organization) and Kurds, then Iraq, "Food for oil" program and Sadaam's strength after all these years of embargo and ongoing bombings, it becomes clear that it is not dictatorship and savagery they're fighting against. Some economical, strategically long-term interests are involved clearly too big for us to understand completely. "War is business" as one slogan states. Who exactly are the ones who profit, can't be known. Who are the ones who suffer? The little people. Posing your question to someone so hypocritical, double sided and arrogant is like trying to teach a voucher not to massacre the corps.

Socorro from cats.ucsc.edu