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[RRE]more news from Yugoslavia
``` [The best thing about the Internet is that I can flat-out rant to an audience of thousands about whatever is bothering me, and still I get kind messages telling me how reasonable, sensible, and thoughtful I am. This is quite a discovery. How does it work? I'm not a rock star, so that's not it. Is it because of the technology -- i.e., could I get away with this on paper? Or is it because of an ideology that happens to surround the Internet right now? Or what? In any case, I'm glad to hear that my cri de coeur about Kosovo articulated what so many others are feeling. Let me wear my welcome just a little more by talking about the Internet's role in the latest Balkan war. The Internet's role, of course, has been entirely positive. We now take for granted that when something like this happens -- or at least when it makes the news -- dozens of organizations will fill their Web pages with useful information and opinions, and other people will quickly direct our attention to the most useful resources. We also now take for granted that the warring parties will all have Internet access, and that we can get e-mail -- and lots of it -- from people who are in a country with which our own country is at war. What is more, we have come to expect that major news organizations will put much of their reporting online, and that they will even prepare modest additional resources that are specific to the Web. Articles from the press in other countries will be available, if not on the Web then in plain-text versions that get forwarded from hand to hand under the prevailing customs and practices of fair use. All this is good. But let me share my disappointment as well. I have already mentioned my disappointment that I have seen so little action organized by the Internet community. Partly this is because nobody knows what to do. The appeals from the charities are already available, and are finally being publicized by the major media, and besides it doesn't make sense to organize an action on behalf of someone else's organization. What I'm really missing is the use of e-mail to bridge the social gap, and the political gap, between the citizens of the warring sides. I have been asking around, and I have not heard of a single church-to-church program between the English-speaking world and Serbia, much less a church-to-mosque program with the extremely civilized Albanians who are taking in the refugees. Internet availability in Albania is of course part of the problem, but that goes to show the limitations that the medium still does suffer. And how many people have been engaging in extended correspondence with people in the Balkans, so as to learn in some depth what it is like for them, and for them to learn about your own experience? If you've been doing this, maybe you could send me a note, because I know that other people would like to hear about it. My point is, we've developed the expectation that institutions will tell us about the world through the Internet, but we haven't yet developed the expectation that people will use the Internet to make real human contact across the lines of war. The Internet provides us with excellent tools and customs for making contact with the people who share our professional and personal concerns in chat rooms and discussion lists, and that's a very good thing. But does it provide us with the tools and customs for making contact with people who are different from us, in order to listen and learn and grow as people? Does it provide us with the tools and customs for being of service as human beings to others who are different from ourselves? We can do that as individuals on our own, or as part of social and religious groups, or in other ways I'm sure. I don't know how it's done, but the major excuses are gone: we don't have to travel great distances, or visit dangerous parts of town, or deal with the clumsy face-to-face part of establishing common ground. We'll learn how to do this step by step, and it will be important to share stories. It's the culture as a whole that learns the use of a new technology, not just people as individuals. That learning process concerns practical and technical matters, of course, but it also includes matters of meaning and value: our own identities and the meanings that we assign to the technology, each evolving in interaction with the other. The organizing myth of the Internet is that it facilitates an open society, and that's good. But surely we want more for our society than to be open. What are we going to do with that openness? What will we build with it? Who will we be when finally, in our fully grown post-authoritarian lives, we acquire the freedom and responsibility of choosing who we will be?]
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Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 18:52:35 +0200
From: Help B92
Press Release April 3 1999
THE FREE VOICE OF B92 BANNED: THE STRUGGLE GOES ON Latest news: http://helpb92.xs4all.nl
The last message from Yugoslavia's most prominent independent broadcaster -B92 - as government officials and the police moved in on April 2, 1999, to take over the station and silence the last vestiges of free speech in Serbia was - 'Keep The Faith!' HelpB92 was launched on March 25, 1999, to do just that. The support group uses Internet technology to enable B92 and all other banned independent media in Yugoslavia defend their right to speak freely, and the pivotal role of free media to regional stability.
The action against B92 comes at the end of a week of intense media repression against independent media in Yugoslavia. On March 24, government officials confiscated B92's transmitter, cutting off direct radio broadcasts to Belgrade. B92 responded by harnessing the power of the Internet and Real Audio, satellite, medium wave broadcasts and solidarity rebroadcasting across the world to its struggle for free speech. B92 supporters responded in record number - the B92 web site had 15 million visitors in just 7 days.
At the same time, in the past ten days, ten rebroadcasters of B92's news from the Association of Independent Electronic Media - ANEM have been closed down by the government. Other ANEM members have the either taken themselves voluntarily off the air rather than re-broadcast the propaganda of state radio and TV, which they must do by law when the country is in a state of war, or have been taken over by the government.
In Kosovo, the offices of the two most important alternative Albanian language media - Koha and Radio 21 - have also been destroyed and their staff have fled the country.
The closure of B92, on April 2, 1999, means that the only source of information left for audiences and viewers in the region is the state-controlled Radio Television Serbia.
All the journalists from these banned independent media are now in dire straits and money is urgently needed to help assist these journalists to find new means to get news out.
We therefore ask people to please express their involvement and support this cause by donating money to the special HelpB92 fund, bank account number 7676, Postbank Amsterdam, Swift address INGBNL2A, in the name of Press Now. Please specify 'Help B92'
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In the last week, HelpB92 has received an enormous amount of support from around the globe. In Spain, Germany, Italy, Japan and Australia supporting web sites have been established in their national languages. Hundreds of people and organisations have placed the HelpB92 logo and link to the web site on their home pages and signed the interactive guest book.
Future actions include benefit concerts, global rebroadcasting initiatives and Internet Real Audio actions.
For more information, please write to: helpb92@xs4all.nl
HelpB92 was founded by: B92, De Balie, De Digitale Stad, Next 5 Minutes, Press Now, Public Netbase (Austria), radioqualia (Australia), De Waag (MONM) and XS4ALL Internet.
B92 Website: http://www.b92.net or http://www.b92.org HelpB92 campaign: http://helpb92.xs4all.nl E-mail: helpb92@xs4all.nl
Date: Sat, 03 Apr 1999 17:40:50 +0100
From: Karl Waldron
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from: pop, kraljevo
Yesterday. a friend from Jagodina mentioned to me that their cops have evacuated from the police station since it is expected that police owned buildings will be be bombed. I didn't pay much attention to that. Tonight, between 22 - 23 i passed by the police station and it was interesting to see that not one police vehicle was parked outside. It was interesting to see such a big free space which is usually ocupied with various cop's cars. I went home, and watched 2-3 movies. Then the news came, police building in the center of Belgrade was bombed and destroyed. I beleive that besides anger caused by tonight's bombing there are many people who were glad to see police station burning. If we had a local paper like Class War this sight would surely be on the front page, if not printed as a bonus poster...
Besides, i have found out that at VMA (?!) 14 rooms were opened for wounded people from Kosovo - something offcials hide from public. Some doctor called and through tears reported that the situation is very hard, that KLA is hitting them very hard in cooperation with NATO.
"Behind the badge, behind the gun, the cops are naked like everyone. Don't be afraid of their icy glare, imagine them in their underwear."
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some fragments, which were relayed via Vesna Terselic, Zagreb:
Zdravko Marjanovic from Society for Peace and Tolerance from Backa Palanka: "We simply can't do anything, can't say anything. I fear that this is growing into savage nationalism. Now i know why there's no opposition in Serbia."
Jelena Santic from Grupa 484: "When all this stops we are expecting a horrible time. People play music in the squares and Kosovo is burning. There are maybe 500 000 people left in Kosovo. Everything we did in the past was destroyed. I am only happy because refugees from Croatia we have worked with, see things differently than other people."
Manda Prising from Sombor: "I knew from before that tere is a lot of nationalism. They have smashed windows on albanian owned shops and bakers. I just ask why did they destroy the bridge in Novi Sad. What sort of a military target is that. Military doesn't use it anymore to go to Kosovo. They have all allready went there..."
Natasa Kandic and Nora Ahmeti from Center for Humanitarin Rights, just came from Pristina: "She is waiting to board a train. Now I understand how was it in Croatia, Bosnia. Imagine, she is waiting to be taken away."
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from: viki, belgrade
Only now i can describe to you what has happened last night.
Sometime before 1 0'clock, while i was watching star wars on tv, something has exploded terribly loud. Everything has shaked and i saw the flash through the window, although it wasn't watching in the direction of the explosion. There were 2 explosions at first, then 2 more. They have hit, as you probably know, the buildings of Federal and Regional Police (MUP), which are 500 and 700 meters from my home. Federal MUP was hit from the side and not from the front. It didn't burn in the beggining bit the flames have spread fast, and it turned out to develop as a fucking camp fire. I saw it from my terrace quite well. Regional MUP was also on fire, but you couldn't see it because they've hit only one smaller part of it. You could also hear numerous smaller explosions, for which have brilliant militarists from my building decided that they were from the stored munition. However, since the firemen were there from the very begining i think they're from something else.
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A while later the flames were 10-20 meters high .Freaky! At the national tv they said that one bomb was dropped 20 meters from the hospital's nursery, which is ridicuolus.
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Only now i can see how intensly one can be afraid. I scared the shit out of my pants in the first couple of minutes.
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from: mirko
Just 15 minutes ago madmen hit the buildings in the center of Belgrade close to the bridge over Sava river. We are afraid that many people are killed -- this part of city is heavily populated. I know this part of Belgrade very well. Only 200 meters away there are about 10 hospitals and clinics, full of CIVILIANS NATO's propaganda machinery number 1 -- CNN -- transmitted pictures where big flames are visible. Very big flames. I can see in my imagination how people in Montana US, Den Hag, Lyon, Birmingham, collected with their families for Easter, are sitting in front of TV and looking. Enjoying? Oh, yes, those buildings where headquarters of police. Do you have police in your country? Was the police headquarter in Bejing, China, destroyed after massacre of students on Tien An Men square? What is the difference between me and Ho Wan Kung. I have many Albanian friends from Kosovo I work for human rights. I haven't killed anyone. We were making many actions against the war. Another hits. Villages on Fruska Gora mountain, in Vojvodina. Small villages with peaceful farmers -- Slovaks, Serbs, Croats. They (madmen) announced bombing of bridges, like that one destroyed Novi Sad. People are desperate, they were making live chain with their bodies over the bridge in Belgrade. Yesterday, Russian monks with Serbian priests prayed on the bridge between Pancevo and Belgrade to protect it from "American bombs". Mysticism? Or only protection left? Will somebody find few minutes during the Easter and explain to me, stupid me, how the death of a child in Vojvodina, 600 km (400 miles) north from Kosovo will help to suffering Kosovo children? One hour ago I got information from my Hungarian friends -- there are only few hundred places more left in refugee camps in Hungary. Total capacity was 2000. Only women and small children can enter. No boys and men at all. There were in Yugoslavia thousands of political refugees from Hungary after Soviet attack 1956. There were in Yugoslavia many thousands of political refugees from Czechoslovakia after Soviet invasion 1968 There are in rump Yugoslavia (SRJ) 350 000t refugees from Croatia, came after Croatian attack on so called Krajina in 1995. Oh, yes, but this is past. We are here, at the end of 20th century. So trapped in the cave by Milosevic and NATO, wrote me just now one my good friends. How many are left? Happy Easter, the holiday of Peace
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from: G 484
Dear friends,
We are sending you the announcement, which explains the position of nongovernmental organizations of Serbia towards NATO bombing. The incredible events that have happened in Europe, more precisely in Serbia and Montenegro, will change our lives in many aspects. The decision "to use violence for humanitarian reasons" is a sign of impatience, incompetence and impotence of political elite. The bomb attacks in an undeclared war have destroyed human lives, army installations and all chances for Serbia to engage in a process of democratization in near future. Ten years of hard work of groups of courageous people in the opposition and the NGO sector, which tried to develop institutions of civil society, to promote modern European values, to teach about "non violent conflict resolution", has been erased in one night. The emerging democracy in Montenegro will be hard to maintain now. Milosevic regime will be stronger than ever, and the Kosovo problem will be unsolved. These are the long term results of bombing. It is difficult to estimate which of the following is less depressing: 1. the politicians knew the above mentioned consequences of their decisions or 2. they were incapable of foreseeing the impact of heir decisions. We hope that all involved will come to their senses and try to resolve problems by negotiations without further violence. We believe that you agree with us that violence is the worst solution and that the process of the democratization of our country will be completely stopped now. The worst thing now is that the civilians are the ones that suffer the most, especially those who are completely innocent - children. The efforts of NGO sector of Serbia to develop the institutions of the civil society had your significant support for the last few years. All our joint results are now being questioned. Even now, we hope that we can have your support by insisting, in your countries and to your government, TO STOP THE BOMBING IMMIDIATELY. We are convinced that it is never too late for the peaceful solutions and therefore we are calling to pledge together with us for them again. Belgrade, March 26, 1999 For Group 484, Jelena Santic
Situation in Yugoslavia is getting worse because of NATO bombing.Our organization (Group 484) gathers 484 refuge families, who came from Croatia in Serbia in 1995. Coordinator of our Group is Mrs.Jelena Santic, peace activist since 1991. During the biggest war destructions in Croatia, she traveled from Belgrade to Pakrac, the town in Croatia which was divided between Serbs and Croats, where she led the project of renewal of trust. During 1996 and 1997 the Group was leading a big peace project of renewal of trust in Eastern Slavonija in Croatia. The refuge years in Belgrade, we devoted to pledge for peace and nonviolent conflict solutions. As civil victims of war, we know that violent solutions breads only more violence, and that they could not stop people's suffering. We all see now that this is true. For years, nongovernmental movement in Serbia pledged for raising the civil society in Serbia, but now, all our efforts are going to be lost. Nondemocratic and nationalistic forces are homogenizing and getting stronger, and civil initiatives are under pressure. Bombing must stop immediately, because the number of victims is increasing. We feel your support and it matters a lot in the times like this.
Best regards, Vesna Golic grupa484@opennet.org
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mail: lakota@clara.co.uk ph: +44 1 225 722848 fax: +44 1 225 722826
The stone walk is paved with dark cries. Pierre-Jean Jouve
The Pinochet resource is at: http://www.lakota.clara.net ```
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