Here is an interview by a professor who came back from Belgrade recently that appeared in my local paper. My wife took his class back in 1989!
aa.mlive.com
I like these quotes:
"Can you imagine what's in the heads of those people who watch - right in their living rooms - planes that are
taking off and coming to kill them?"
In talking with a high school friend over the
telephone, "he explained how it looks to have two
Tomahawk missiles go over your house,"
Americans don't understand what it's like to be in a war,
Mrdalj said, and they see the bombing as a giant computer game.
They are curious," he said. "They say, 'Did you see that
stealth bomber? Isn't that cool?'"
And Mrdalj said most of the refugees are fleeing from
the bombing, not being forced out. "If there is going to
be intense fighting over your head, would you sit there
and wait for it?"
The moment war begins, there is no logic anymore."
Here is the full story:
Ann Arbor man flees
Belgrade before bombs
fall
Wednesday, March, 31, 1999
By MARIANNE RZEPKA
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
In Belgrade, people watch the 6 p.m. news, see
bombers taking off from the U.S. airbase in Aviano,
Italy, and know that in an hour and a half the planes
could be over their homes.
Or as the bombs are dropping, they can watch it live on
CNN.
For them, war is more than a bloodless television show,
said Stevan Mrdalj, who teaches computer science at
Eastern Michigan University and was in his native
Yugoslavia last week when NATO bombs began to fall.
"Can you imagine what's in the heads of those people
who watch - right in their living rooms - planes that are
taking off and coming to kill them?" he said.
For the past seven days, NATO planes have been
dropping bombs across Yugoslavia, including targets
around the capital of Belgrade. Western leaders have
said the bombing will continue until Yugoslav President
Slobdan Milosevic ends the attacks on ethnic Albanians
and accepts a NATO peacekeeping force.
Mrdalj, who immigrated to the United States in 1985
and now lives in Ann Arbor, was attending a conference
on computer information last week south of Belgrade,
but the first wave of NATO bombing stopped it cold.
"The conference was stopped hours before the
bombing," he said, "and myself and several other foreign
participants had to rush away."
A few hours later, he said, NATO planes flew over the
conference site to bomb a nearby radar installation.
Mrdalj left the country a few days later, only hours
before bombs started dropping on Belgrade. He left
behind his father, as well as his sister and her family.
"It was very emotional to leave your family and go," said
Mrdalj. But he has a wife and two children who were
anxiously waiting for his return here.
Mrdalj stays in touch with his Yugoslavian family and
friends. In talking with a high school friend over the
telephone, "he explained how it looks to have two
Tomahawk missiles go over your house," Mrdalj said.
Americans don't understand what it's like to be in a war,
Mrdalj said, and they see the bombing as a giant
computer game.
"They are curious," he said. "They say, 'Did you see that
stealth bomber? Isn't that cool?'"
It's a bloodless war for them, Mrdalj said. "But people
don't understand what is behind that bloodless war. On
the ground, it's not bloodless."
Serbs had to take action against the Kosovars, who
were arming themselves and fighting for independence,
Mrdalj said.
And when NATO allies proposed a peacekeeping
agreement, the Serbs agreed to everything except having
foreign troops in their country and letting the Kosovars
themselves - not the entire country - decide whether
they should be independent, he said.
Despite the impasse, no one believed that the bombing
would start, Mrdalj said.
"Everybody believed in a peaceful solution," he said.
"Everybody believed that the politicians would agree on
something. Nobody wanted any war."
But NATO planes started delivering bombs and
missiles. After a week of raids, there has been an
increase in reports of mass killings and forced removals
of ethnic Albanians.
NATO officials said the number of ethnic Albanians who
have fled Kosovo in the last six days has grown to
118,000.
Although the population in Kosovo was about 90
percent ethnic Albanian, Serbs lived there, too, Mrdalj
said, and they also have been fleeing - but into Serbia,
not into neighboring Albania, Montenegro or
Macedonia.
And Mrdalj said most of the refugees are fleeing from
the bombing, not being forced out. "If there is going to
be intense fighting over your head, would you sit there
and wait for it?" he asked.
As for reports of massive retribution by the Serbian
army against ethnic Albanians, Mrdalj said, "I do not
support any kind of violence, and I do not support that
kind of retaliation, but it is something that does happen."
It's hard to say what is happening and why, he said.
"The moment war begins, there is no logic anymore."
Mrdalj said he does not support Milosevic, "and I'm
deeply sorry that he was not overthrown years ago."
In fact, the majority of people in Belgrade didn't support
him, but now feel they must, Mrdalj said. "Once
somebody starts bombing you, then you start supporting
whoever can protect you," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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