This gem post I found is from an American citizen living in Novi Sad, Yugoslavian married to a Serb....I believe EVERYONE must read it and see the view from the "other" side...
Although I am an American citizen, born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, I
have lived, studied and worked in Yugoslavia (Serbia) for almost thirteen
years now. I initially came to help a friend build his house in a village
near Novi Sad. Subsequently I fell in love, got married and established my
family here. I have been working at the College of Arts and Sciences at the
University of Novi Sad as a language instructor for about nine years.
In my time here, I have come to love the people of this nation, and I am
very proud of my new home here. I have friends among many of the
nationalities who live here in Vojvodina and have an enormous range of
friends, from farmers to university professors. Life here has always been a
challenge, dealing with the languages, with the economic crises, with the
nearby wars. However, it has been overwhelmingly rewarding. My life was
peaceful and full of love and companionship, until Wednesday, March 24,
1999. That evening, NATO bombs began to fall on my second homeland, and on
the town I call home. How could anyone decide to stay here in the midst of
NATO airstrikes, among a people the western press claims is committing
"ethnic cleansing"?
There are two reasons for my being here. My daughter Sara was born on at
2:30 a.m. on Monday, March 22, 1999 in the local hospital. My wife and
daughter came home on the very day the bombing started. They are doing well,
but they are obviously in no condition to travel. Moreover, in a state of
war, it is very hard to find a means of transportation which is adequate to
their needs. The wisdom of sitting in a metal container with a heat
signature at this time and place is also questionable. There are also the
technical problems of registering my daughter when I dare not step out of
the house. You cannot cross borders with an unregistered baby. On the other
hand, I am not sure I would leave even if those conditions were met. My
life, my apartment, my work, my family, many of my friends-they are all
here. I am a loyal resident of this country. I teach, I translate, I do
whatever I can to make my community a better place to live in, just as I
would if I were living somewhere in the USA. I have been met with open arms
and embraced by the people of this land. Leaving them in this hour of need
does not seem right. In the end of all things, my son Luka and my daughter
are half-Serb.
As the bombs and rockets rip the land each day, I find myself reflecting
about why this is happening. Knowing that I have freedom of expression in my
homeland, I have decided to share my reflections. I find my thoughts
following two lines of analysis. I would like to express them both in this
editorial.
First Line - Citizens of Serbia
From the standpoint of the people who live here, shock was generally the
first feeling experienced when the attacks began. Now, we are all appalled
at what is taking place. The long term friendship between Serbia and the USA
was destroyed when the first bomb fell. It is true that the Serbs have a
traditional friendship with the Russians, but that is not to overshadow
their remarkable ties to the US throughout this century. The media have a
way of sidelining that fact, but the history books bear it out. People here
feel betrayed by a traditional ally - the US.
Yet, the Serbs have a history of fighting against greater powers. The
Ottomans, the Austro-Hungarians, and the Germans. Now the Germans are being
allowed to take part in a new campaign against the Serbs. The Hungarians
have allowed NATO to use their airspace, as have the Croatians. The raids
are being launched from NATO airbases in Italy. Seen in terms of the Second
World War, none of that comes as a great surprise. It also comes as no
surprise that, now that NATO has invaded a sovereign state for the first
time in its fifty year history (the cynics here say it was only a matter of
time), people here are not in a panic. They have faced the "big guy on the
block" before, have taken some beatings, won some victories, and survived.
They feel they will survive this as well.
In the past, the attackers were always neighbors. The current airstrikes
prove that the world has become indeed a Global Village, in the most
pessimistic sense of that phrase. President Clinton says that we have vital
interests in the Balkans, and he is striking Yugoslavia as easily as if it
were a next door neighbor. The difference this time is that there are
relatively few (are there ever too few?) civilian casualties. The advanced
technology of the NATO pact is allowing precision strikes on military and
not-so-military targets. (Blowing up an old soap factory and a defunct cable
factory seem to be the questionable targets in Novi Sad itself). A famous
Serb author, Svetislav Basara, has written that such advanced technology was
not created for humane purposes. He claims that human casualties are to be
avoided because a dead enemy is a dead consumer for the global market. You
cannot sell fancy western products to corpses. While cynical, there is a
ring of truth to this. Thus, the Yugoslavs feel they are being attacked
because they refused to sign an agreement that was being sold to them by
America, one which would ensure a "global" way of life, but one which would
put NATO forces on their sovereign territory. These forces would necessarily
include American troops, by the way, no matter what the White House is
currently claiming about its unwillingness to include ground forces in this
particular package. When one reads the document signed by the Kosovar
Albanians in Paris, this becomes apparent. It contains Annex B which states
that NATO would have the right to move freely throughout Yugoslavia. In
earlier times, signing such a document would be called a "capitulation", and
from a territorial stance "annexation".
Opinions about what should be done with Kosovo were divided as long as I
have lived here. Some said the Albanians were welcome here. Some said they
should behave more like normal citizens. (There are some 100,000 Albanians
living in Belgrade. On Sunday, some of them staged a protest against the
bombings. This was warmly greeted by the Serbs.) Some said that Kosovo
should be partitioned off and given to Albania. Others claimed that Kosovo
should be swept clean of Albanians and resettled by Serbs. There was no
consensus. When that first Tomahawk crashed into Serbia on Wednesday night,
all divisions ceased. Kosovo will now be dealt with the way the government
here feels it should with the whole-hearted backing of the general populace.
NATO has rushed in where even fools do not dare. By declaring war on the
Serbs, NATO has set the current humanitarian problem in motion. There were
always problems in Kosovo, but the NATO strikes are clearly at fault for the
fact that tens of thousands of people are on the road out of the country
tonight. Whatever people here thought of Milosevic's regime before (and
there are always varying opinions about politicians), they now back him as
their commander-in-chief. Just as people would in any other country.
There is also a sense of frustration here about the fact that Russia, China,
India, and Greece are being ignored so blatantly. The news broadcasts from
the UK and US keep showing government and NATO leaders talking about how
they have the support of the "International Community". Clearly, they have
redefined the term "International Community". For NATO leaders that means
anyone who agrees with them. Anyone who dissents is marginalized. One can
presuppose that the tens of thousands of people protesting in the streets
all over the world are also not a part of the International Community.
Turning a deaf ear to opposition is not one of the hallmarks of democracy,
and is certainly incongruous with what we Americans consider to be the
"American Way".
The stance of international justice also seems to have gotten muddled for
those of us who reside here. In the first place, the Serbs have been hit by
NATO twice before. Once in Croatia and once in Bosnia. This newest wave of
bombing proves that NATO has something personal against the Serbs. No one
can answer the logical question of why the Serbs are always the ones to be
Satanized by NATO and the western media. An analogy will help to clarify the
situation: when the Serbs attacked Vukovar and it was left in ruins, they
were labeled "war criminals". On the other hand, pictures are now coming out
of Prishtina (the capital of Kosovo). The NATO bombers have inflicted
irreparable damage to the town, leaving it looking very much like Vukovar.
How will the NATO leaders be labeled for that? The devil in me doubts that
they will be labeled little other than "heroes".
The enormous spirit and tremendous sense of humor among the Yugoslavs is
overwhelming. True, many are frightened, in hiding from the explosions which
seem to come from nowhere. But overall, the spirit of these people is far
from broken. They understand that NATO could have destroyed 600 targets in
two days, but that the demands of psychological warfare dictate that it be
drawn out over a longer period. The unease of knowing when and where the
bombs will come is supposed to generate feelings of uncertainty and
discontent. Such tactics are failing miserably here, and the majority of the
people have decided to ignore that particular element of the game. Each day
there are concerts in Belgrade's main square, people move about their lives
and jobs with additional care, but life has very much gone on here, as if to
spite what they see as the childish tactics of the war technicians in
Brussels. One of the most startling things I have heard these days was the
comment of a young friend of mine. "They can take my life," she said, "but
they cannot take away my dignity." Her dignity is more important to her than
her fear of cruise missiles. |
