what follows are translated extracts from mails posted to ex-yu-a-lista at zamir.net which is a mailing list for ex-yu anarchists, and from private emails..
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from: kontra at 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: Man in the Shadow, music band from Slovenia; miran.rusjan at 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 at 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... --- (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 <dnvvejn at EUnet.yu>
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 <abozovic at EUnet.yu>, 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 psihological weapon. So, don't go to shelters, Stay reasonable.