EXCELLENT website run by a 74 year old Serbian retired journalist I am pasting the May 3rd report here, IMHO it is a MUST read! Thank you to the person who suggested it in another thread.
keepfaith.com
"My name is Ivanka Besevic. I am a 74 year old retired journalist from Belgrade. My daugther in the US asked me to write to her daily about my and my sister's life and survival during the NATO bombing of Belgrade. She will publish my e-mail letters and phone calls on the Internet daily while Yugoslavia is under attack.
MAY 3rd
Silvia, San Francisco
Sunday, 11pm. I just checked the local Yugoslav Web sites for news of the latest bombings. Many sites are down. The ones that I managed to
get through to talk about the great round of bombing all around Yugoslavia that focused on power and water networks. Apparently, big parts of
Yugoslavia and Belgrade are without power and water, but gradually, some lights are coming back. The phone lines to some cities were cut off. I
want to call my mother right away, but I'm afraid to wake her up if she managed to go to sleep tonight. I'm also afraid to dial and find out that the
phone is dead. At least they are not using napalm, yet...
Ivanka
(Phone) There was no power last night. This morning, we got it back, but some parts of the city are still with no electricity nor water (some of the
higher parts require electric pumps to get water). Civilian defense said that they are working on fixing the situation, but not to use any heavy
appliances for now. At this, we are lucky. Some other parts of the Yugoslavia are still in the dark. They are playing cartoons on TV now, followed
by the news. The usual litany of bombs, deaths and destruction. Valjevo was hit the worst ever, it was reported that both the earth and the sky
burned - a bloody May 1st holiday. They hit the Botanical Gardens, homes, the hospital was damaged, there's no power. What about surgeries in
process? Life support? Babies in incubators? Two tiny villages of Vranes and Usce were bombed, and nobody can figure out why. Power plant,
food factory, pump factory and tobacco factory in Nis are bombed. There are dead and hurt tonight too. I'll have my daughter call me back in a few
minutes, so I can watch the news.
Oh, we just lost power again.The phones are still working, and my brother says that his part of town (Vozdovac) has power. Right before the TV
went out, the news reported that over 30% of Belgrade does have power. We don't for now. All the frozen food will go bad. Olga will take out the
fish and we'll have some very happy cats in the neighborhood.
I am a bit surprised that not one journalist took an interest in the exotically rich history of the Kosovo and Southern Serbia - there are enough
stories there to keep an entire country under a spell for 1001 nights. I went to Kosovo in 1945, right after the war. It seemed like a trip into the
past of the Balkans, both good and bad.
The documentary I wrote was about the blood feud between two families, similar to the "vendettas" of Southern Italians. A man from one family
killed a member of the other, and after he was released from jail, the vengeance had to be taken upon his family, by the family of the victim. By
the time I got there, the murderer's family was living in their compound for months, too afraid to leave the safety of their house (traditional Muslim
Albanian houses in Kosovo are fortresses - they have an inner court with high walls, with gun slots and turrets set into them; it's a living memento
of the 400 year war with Turkey and many other conflicts in the area). Both families agreed to talk to me. They were friendly, and very hospitable,
which is another ancient tradition, this one infinitely more positive.
Within six months after I visited them, one of the men I spoke to became a murderer, the other one the victim. Vendettas like that can continue
for generations. (Both families were Albanian, for those who care for such things.)
One of the things the West will never understand is the ever present past breathing and living in the Balkans today. Stories like the one above still
continue today, passed from one generation to the other in the tightly knit family societies. A deep suspicion of any kind of government is a
matter of everyday life in an area which saw so many governments change. Except for the large cities and the highly educated intellectuals,
Kosovo people still put the rule of blood, of patriarchal family, above and parallel to any worldly rule and current laws. (This is one of the reasons
for the anarchy NATO has to deal with in Northern Albania.) Traditional Serb families and Gypsy families are not so far behind, in the villages,
although Serbs tend to have smaller families, and their youth has more independence from (or less respect for, depending on whom you talk to)
their elders. Prodding the hatreds and enticing conflict in this area will not die down when the last Western journalist gets tired from the old news
we become.
Mr. Clinton didn't even say "Thank you" for releasing the three soldiers. He refused another peace offer, this one number 4. If he cared at all for all
the lives he pretends to be protecting, he would accept the peace - only thing in which our governments completely disagree is the make up of the
troops guarding the peace in Kosovo (he wants NATO soldiers, Yugoslavs want a more neutral force that will not be investigator, jury and
executioner in one). As long as there are no independent observers in power in Kosovo, NATO and KLA will have complete control over what they
want shown and said about what goes on in the area... Why was there not one interview with a Serb, or a Gypsy refugee from Kosovo in their
media? Why were there hardly any interviews with officials of the KLA? In both cases, they are afraid to show what would come out of their
mouths. 40 years ago, when I studied journalism, this was not what we were taught in our classes. Opinions belong to editorial pages. Journalists
should report! Otherwise, they should start keeping a journal, not a newspaper. I will not say what I think about Clinton, because I am a lady.
Still, I was very happy that the soldiers went home. We watched them as Mr. Jackson signed their release papers, and they got to call their
families right away. Everybody thought that they were so cute, lost kids reunited with their families. They are so young. Everyone there cried in
happiness, and we heard that one of the soldiers interviewed later spoke very nicely about Yugoslav people. What makes children go to a war that
is not even theirs? |
