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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stormweaver who wrote (3809)	4/14/1999 11:58:00 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17770

From a BBC reporter in Belgrade: Just over two years ago, a young Serb woman and her friends joined other student demonstrators to protest on the streets of Belgrade. There was a hope then of democratic reform. Now such protests would be unacceptable. Opposition to the government does exist, but it is voiced quietly. She says that Milosevic is now like God: "Serbs are all together, with the Yugoslav army and of course with President Mr Milosevic. So now you're not able to find anyone to tell you he is a bad guy." One Serb man had some hopes for a life from the west, but that has changed: "I am Serb and they are bombing my country and my people. I cannot believe in all the things the western media say about the Serbian army because I know some of the people that are in the army and in the police and I know them as normal people, not insane murderers who do such things." "I don't see any way out" says another Serb man, "because two weeks ago we reached the point of no return. Now it only has to be total destruction or obedience and a pullback from Kosovo, which will never happen. People are getting more and more fed up by the day." They are liberal, well-educated cosmopolitans. But the pressure waves from Nato's bombs are felt by them in a way that perhaps the Alliance had not expected, forcing them to turn away from the western European and American lifestyles they craved, to discover now a Serbian identity. Young people were once thought to be the foundations of some future Yugoslavia, a modern democratic country which would value their opinions. Their views may not be popular in the Nato countries, but they are genuinely and widely held: "My country, right or wrong." news.bbc.co.uk The irony is that while before the bombing there was a reform movement in Serbia and a genuine possibility that the Serbs themselves would replace Milosovic, now he is a firmly entrenched fixture. The NATO bombs have destroyed the opposition to him and united Yugoslavians to rally behind him. At times, we Americans are among the most arrogantly stupid people on earth.